I am sorry for taking so long to update but I had horrible writer's block
and then I accidentally deleted half the chapter and had to completely
rewrite it.
Lost in Darkness
Chapter 6: Summoned
Parvati woke the next morning (a Saturday) to loud squeals from the common room below. She groaned and rolled out of bed to see what was so cute. She pulled on her shopping clothes as it was a Hogsmeade weekend and stumbled down the stairs. She nearly tripped over something on the way down.
"James Arthur Potter!" she playfully scolded the small black-haired boy. "Tripping people isn't very nice."
He smiled at her and giggled. Lily laughed from where she was sitting in the middle of a circle of girls near the couches.
"Who brought the twins up here?" she asked.
"Rose asked us to baby-sit," Lavender said. "She said there was something she needed to do down at the Prefect House."
Parvati rolled her eyes.
"I feel sorry for our poor prefects."
*~*~*
Rose snuck into the Prefect House and crept into her brother's room. He was still asleep, as it was only eight. That could be cured.
She suddenly jumped onto his four-poster and yelled, "Wake up, Harry!"
He sat up quickly, smacking his forehead on the headboard.
"Rose!" he yelled. "What was that for?!"
She shushed him and motioned for him to follow. They woke up the rest of the Gryffindor prefects in this way, gaining a little more noise each time. Hermione they did last.
"WAKE UP, MIONE!" they all yelled at once. "YOU'RE LATE FOR POTIONS!"
She reached up and somehow found her wand without even sticking her head out of the covers and hexed them all. Once she had realized who it was she quickly performed the countercurses and apologized.
"Come on, Mione, it's Hogsmeade day!" Ginny told her. "We'll meet you in the Phoenix."
The Golden Phoenix was the Weasly twins' restaurant in Hogsmeade especially for Hogwarts students. There was a place where you could buy their personally formulated prank supplies. Everyone went there.
Rose rescued the twins from the cooing Gryffindor girls and walked them down to the Phoenix. There were plenty of students already there, but no one was at the Golds' special reserved extra-large booth. Rose slid in and put the twins in their high chair at the end.
She didn't have to wait long. The Patils with Dean and Seamus appeared in about ten minutes, followed by the prefects, Neville and Jay, and the Bernard sisters.
"Where are Bill and Fred and George?" Hermione asked.
"Making pranks. They say they've made 'something special' for us," Rose said.
"Don't accept any food they give you," Ron advised.
"Oh, but why would we ever poison our little Ronnykins?" Fred asked from where he had appeared by the twins.
"Frederick Jonathon Weasly, if you put any prank on my babies you will pay," Rose told him.
"Oh, but why would we do that?" George said innocently.
"The same for you, George Andrew Weasly."
"What about me?"
"Bill, you have permission. But I have no doubt that when Lily's eleven she'll be embarrassed by it."
"Thinking a little too far into the future."
Fred changed the subject.
"I hear someone made history yesterday," he said, glancing at Jay. "A certain young Slytherin wanted to be re-Sorted and ended up a Gryffindor."
"If you were meant to be a Gryffindor, why did you go into Slytherin at first?" Bill asked curiously.
Jay hesitated before pulling up her sleeve. The residents up the table gasped at the hideous black tattoo.
"Forced entry," she explained. "I come from a generational Death Eater family."
"Which?"
"Rawson."
"Yow. I cannot see how you ended up a Gryffindor with a Slytherin family going that far back."
"Doesn't that make you related to the Malfoys somewhere?"
"Unfortunately, yes."
"Where?"
"I'd rather not go into that," she said delicately, taking a sip of her butterbeer.
Rose noticed Padma doing something with her power, mind control. Jay seemed to go sort of weak.
"Lucius Malfoy and my mother are sister and brother," she said in a flat tone.
"Ugh, so that means you're Malfoy's cousin?"
"Unfortunately, yes."
"I feel so sorry for you."
"Tell me about it."
"And he still picks on you?"
"Even more, in fact."
"Sick bastard."
Jay seemed to snap out of her trance.
"Sorry," she said. "Mione, what are you going to wear for the Winter Ball?"
They were having another Winter Ball this year due to its popularity in previous years.
"We're all going to match," she said, indicating the other girls at the table.
"It's a much more casual theme this year," Ginny added.
"What do you have planned?"
"You'll see. Want to match all of us?"
"Sure! Thanks!"
"Let's go shop!"
Harry looked at his friends bemusedly.
"It's the middle of November!"
"Not even Thanksgiving yet," Ally said. "Best time to buy Christmas stuff: when they've just put it out. There's lots left."
"What's Thanksgiving?" all the Brits but Rose said.
"American holiday," Rose explained. "You know about the Pilgrims? It celebrates the day they had a really big feast with the Indians. Basically it's a whole day when people eat a lot of turkey, cranberries, dressing, and pies."
"And plenty of other things we can mention," Alex said.
"Sounds good to me," Ron said.
"Typical," Ginny muttered. "Come on, girls, let's go shop!"
The girls cheered and ran to Madame Malkin's.
*~*~*
"Ooh, I like this one," Ginny said, holding up an off-the-shoulders peasant blouse and skirt.
"Nah," Hermione said. "This is better."
She was holding a low-cut tank top with shorts.
"The first was good, the second was better, but the third is best," Jay announced, holding up a shirt and skirt.
"Definitely," the other girls agreed.
Jay was holding a low-cut strapless shimmering tank top and a knee-length glittering tight denim skirt with a fashionably frayed end. There was a whole rack of tank tops in different colors.
The girls dove for the tops. In the end, Jay got red, Mione got orange, Ginny got yellow, Parvati got green, and Padma got blue. At the last minute the Bernards swung in and said that they had gotten permission to go with the Weasly twins. Ally got a dark blue and Alex got purple.
"We match perfectly," Alex said.
"Now for nail polish and accessories!" Ally cheered.
The Bernard sisters were excellent girls in general. They could shop, pick clothes, do hair, nails, and discuss boys- at the same time. They were also excellent Beaters. All this made them very fun to be around.
"Look at these little flowers," Ally said.
She was holding up a small, permanently fresh flower that looked like a tiny lily, but you could charm it different colors.
"They're perfect!"
"I found a hairstyle book!" Alex called from across the shop.
"Ooh!"
Hermione made a rush for it.
"Nail polish!" Ginny called.
They got nail polish that matched their tops perfectly. They bought everything and left the shop, bags swinging and pockets considerably lighter.
They were interrupted from their happy chatter by a yelp from Jay. They jumped and stared at her. Her eyes were wide and she was clutching her arm.
"Very, very, very bad!" she whispered anxiously. "I've been summoned!"
At about the same time, the Golds felt a noticeable tingle in their arms. They were also being summoned.
"Go Disapparate over there," Hermione said, discreetly nodding at a dark alley.
Jay scampered over and disappeared.
"Let's go!" Alex whispered.
They ran back to the Phoenix to meet Rose and the boys. They dropped the twins off with the Gryffindor girls and left a group of seventh year Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws in charge. Rose drew the circle in the dirt required for group Apparition and they disappeared.
They appeared in the Order of the Phoenix's Hall with the High Order. The American Seeker, Emily Grumman, was in her normal chair in her usual lounging position. Minerva McGonagall and her younger sister Gretchen were sitting straight up in their chairs. Severus Snape looked even more surly than usual. The founders of the Order were there, too, which was rather rare. Well, all the founders which were still alive.
That meant Dumbledore, Sirius, Lupin, Mad-Eye Moody, Mundungus Fletcher, and Arabella Figg. There were two of these that were High, Snape and Minerva McGonagall. The other two founders were none other than James and Lily Potter.
"We have heard of your relationship with the Rawson girl," the mysterious man at the head of the table said.
The Golds had never seen his face, or the face of the woman next to him. All the Golds could tell about them was that they were very, very, old.
"What about it?" Rose said defiantly.
"She is a Death Eater," the woman said. "She is quite a powerful one, in fact."
"Stay away from her," the man advised.
Rose's eyes began to show a hint of violet.
"She was forced into it," she said stubbornly.
"Even so, the Dark Lord may put her under the Imperius curse and use her to get rid of all of you."
"The next order of business," the woman continued, "is Ailani Sanyu Robertson. We know she is a witch and we know about the child she speaks of. His last name is Malfoy-Riddle."
"Nice combination," Rose said sarcastically. "Lucius Malfoy and Lucretia Diabolique?"
"Yes. The Dark Lord knows that with that combination and young Rawson, he can throw away Malfoy and O'Connell as heirs. He will have a combination of Riddle and Malfoy and a combination of Rawson and Malfoy. Things can't get much more powerful."
"Jay would never side with him," Ginny said firmly.
"Not willingly. But he might force her to. You have three jobs. One. Protect Ailani Robertson. Two. Protect Jessica Rawson. She is being forced into the inner circle right now, as we speak. Three. Find the child, Reagan Malfoy-Riddle. When you do, bring him to us."
"What does the boy look like?" Fred asked briskly.
"Black hair, green eyes with occasional hints of red. If you find someone and suspect it's him, make him angry. If it's not him, he just throws a tantrum like every typical four-year-old. If it is him, his eyes turn red and you will slam against the nearest wall."
"Charming," Hermione said with a grimace.
"Is that all?" Rose asked with just a small hint of sarcasm.
"Yes. You may return now."
And they were back in the Hogwarts commons and Hogsmeade.
*~*~*
As soon as she was back in her room, Padma immediately went to find Jay. First she grabbed a goblet and drank it down. Her hour was almost up. Then she grabbed a tiny box of brown hair and dropped a lock of it into a cup hidden by a spare robe. The cup hissed and steamed, but Padma drank it all. Nasty stuff, that Polyjuice Potion.
She snuck out of the Gryffindor dorms as Jay and darted into the prefects' house. There were two portraits, one of Godric Gryffindor and Helga Hufflepuff, the other of Salazar Slytherin and Rowena Ravenclaw. She ran to the portrait of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff.
"Bion!" she gasped.
Gryffindor smiled and the portrait swung aside. Two more portraits showed, one of Gryffindor, the other of Hufflepuff.
"Courage of the heart is rare," she said.
The portrait swung aside, revealing the Slytherin commons. Luckily, they were empty. She ran through the portrait and watched it disappear back into part of the stone wall.
Padma ran up the staircase into what was labeled as the Slytherin seventh year girls' dorms. She stuck her head through the door just a little.
Jay was sitting on her bed doing homework. Padma hissed at her from the door.
"Psst! Come on! She whispered. "We need to get back to the prefect house."
"Who is it?" she whispered back. "I gave hair to the other girls, too."
"It's Padma. Come on, the others need to talk to you. Catch."
Padma cast an invisibility spell over Jay. She disappeared. Padma sensed her following back down the stairs. Once they were back through the two portraits, Padma suddenly whirled and pinned Jay against the wall.
"Hey! Padma, what are you-"
"I'm not Padma," she hissed.
*~*~*
Jay watched the girl she had thought was her friend with terror. She watched her face shift from a mirror of her own back to Padma's face. But it didn't stop. From that the face became longer, her nose changed, her eyes.
Jay gasped. She knew that face.
"Mother?"
Lost in Darkness
Chapter 6: Summoned
Parvati woke the next morning (a Saturday) to loud squeals from the common room below. She groaned and rolled out of bed to see what was so cute. She pulled on her shopping clothes as it was a Hogsmeade weekend and stumbled down the stairs. She nearly tripped over something on the way down.
"James Arthur Potter!" she playfully scolded the small black-haired boy. "Tripping people isn't very nice."
He smiled at her and giggled. Lily laughed from where she was sitting in the middle of a circle of girls near the couches.
"Who brought the twins up here?" she asked.
"Rose asked us to baby-sit," Lavender said. "She said there was something she needed to do down at the Prefect House."
Parvati rolled her eyes.
"I feel sorry for our poor prefects."
*~*~*
Rose snuck into the Prefect House and crept into her brother's room. He was still asleep, as it was only eight. That could be cured.
She suddenly jumped onto his four-poster and yelled, "Wake up, Harry!"
He sat up quickly, smacking his forehead on the headboard.
"Rose!" he yelled. "What was that for?!"
She shushed him and motioned for him to follow. They woke up the rest of the Gryffindor prefects in this way, gaining a little more noise each time. Hermione they did last.
"WAKE UP, MIONE!" they all yelled at once. "YOU'RE LATE FOR POTIONS!"
She reached up and somehow found her wand without even sticking her head out of the covers and hexed them all. Once she had realized who it was she quickly performed the countercurses and apologized.
"Come on, Mione, it's Hogsmeade day!" Ginny told her. "We'll meet you in the Phoenix."
The Golden Phoenix was the Weasly twins' restaurant in Hogsmeade especially for Hogwarts students. There was a place where you could buy their personally formulated prank supplies. Everyone went there.
Rose rescued the twins from the cooing Gryffindor girls and walked them down to the Phoenix. There were plenty of students already there, but no one was at the Golds' special reserved extra-large booth. Rose slid in and put the twins in their high chair at the end.
She didn't have to wait long. The Patils with Dean and Seamus appeared in about ten minutes, followed by the prefects, Neville and Jay, and the Bernard sisters.
"Where are Bill and Fred and George?" Hermione asked.
"Making pranks. They say they've made 'something special' for us," Rose said.
"Don't accept any food they give you," Ron advised.
"Oh, but why would we ever poison our little Ronnykins?" Fred asked from where he had appeared by the twins.
"Frederick Jonathon Weasly, if you put any prank on my babies you will pay," Rose told him.
"Oh, but why would we do that?" George said innocently.
"The same for you, George Andrew Weasly."
"What about me?"
"Bill, you have permission. But I have no doubt that when Lily's eleven she'll be embarrassed by it."
"Thinking a little too far into the future."
Fred changed the subject.
"I hear someone made history yesterday," he said, glancing at Jay. "A certain young Slytherin wanted to be re-Sorted and ended up a Gryffindor."
"If you were meant to be a Gryffindor, why did you go into Slytherin at first?" Bill asked curiously.
Jay hesitated before pulling up her sleeve. The residents up the table gasped at the hideous black tattoo.
"Forced entry," she explained. "I come from a generational Death Eater family."
"Which?"
"Rawson."
"Yow. I cannot see how you ended up a Gryffindor with a Slytherin family going that far back."
"Doesn't that make you related to the Malfoys somewhere?"
"Unfortunately, yes."
"Where?"
"I'd rather not go into that," she said delicately, taking a sip of her butterbeer.
Rose noticed Padma doing something with her power, mind control. Jay seemed to go sort of weak.
"Lucius Malfoy and my mother are sister and brother," she said in a flat tone.
"Ugh, so that means you're Malfoy's cousin?"
"Unfortunately, yes."
"I feel so sorry for you."
"Tell me about it."
"And he still picks on you?"
"Even more, in fact."
"Sick bastard."
Jay seemed to snap out of her trance.
"Sorry," she said. "Mione, what are you going to wear for the Winter Ball?"
They were having another Winter Ball this year due to its popularity in previous years.
"We're all going to match," she said, indicating the other girls at the table.
"It's a much more casual theme this year," Ginny added.
"What do you have planned?"
"You'll see. Want to match all of us?"
"Sure! Thanks!"
"Let's go shop!"
Harry looked at his friends bemusedly.
"It's the middle of November!"
"Not even Thanksgiving yet," Ally said. "Best time to buy Christmas stuff: when they've just put it out. There's lots left."
"What's Thanksgiving?" all the Brits but Rose said.
"American holiday," Rose explained. "You know about the Pilgrims? It celebrates the day they had a really big feast with the Indians. Basically it's a whole day when people eat a lot of turkey, cranberries, dressing, and pies."
"And plenty of other things we can mention," Alex said.
"Sounds good to me," Ron said.
"Typical," Ginny muttered. "Come on, girls, let's go shop!"
The girls cheered and ran to Madame Malkin's.
*~*~*
"Ooh, I like this one," Ginny said, holding up an off-the-shoulders peasant blouse and skirt.
"Nah," Hermione said. "This is better."
She was holding a low-cut tank top with shorts.
"The first was good, the second was better, but the third is best," Jay announced, holding up a shirt and skirt.
"Definitely," the other girls agreed.
Jay was holding a low-cut strapless shimmering tank top and a knee-length glittering tight denim skirt with a fashionably frayed end. There was a whole rack of tank tops in different colors.
The girls dove for the tops. In the end, Jay got red, Mione got orange, Ginny got yellow, Parvati got green, and Padma got blue. At the last minute the Bernards swung in and said that they had gotten permission to go with the Weasly twins. Ally got a dark blue and Alex got purple.
"We match perfectly," Alex said.
"Now for nail polish and accessories!" Ally cheered.
The Bernard sisters were excellent girls in general. They could shop, pick clothes, do hair, nails, and discuss boys- at the same time. They were also excellent Beaters. All this made them very fun to be around.
"Look at these little flowers," Ally said.
She was holding up a small, permanently fresh flower that looked like a tiny lily, but you could charm it different colors.
"They're perfect!"
"I found a hairstyle book!" Alex called from across the shop.
"Ooh!"
Hermione made a rush for it.
"Nail polish!" Ginny called.
They got nail polish that matched their tops perfectly. They bought everything and left the shop, bags swinging and pockets considerably lighter.
They were interrupted from their happy chatter by a yelp from Jay. They jumped and stared at her. Her eyes were wide and she was clutching her arm.
"Very, very, very bad!" she whispered anxiously. "I've been summoned!"
At about the same time, the Golds felt a noticeable tingle in their arms. They were also being summoned.
"Go Disapparate over there," Hermione said, discreetly nodding at a dark alley.
Jay scampered over and disappeared.
"Let's go!" Alex whispered.
They ran back to the Phoenix to meet Rose and the boys. They dropped the twins off with the Gryffindor girls and left a group of seventh year Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws in charge. Rose drew the circle in the dirt required for group Apparition and they disappeared.
They appeared in the Order of the Phoenix's Hall with the High Order. The American Seeker, Emily Grumman, was in her normal chair in her usual lounging position. Minerva McGonagall and her younger sister Gretchen were sitting straight up in their chairs. Severus Snape looked even more surly than usual. The founders of the Order were there, too, which was rather rare. Well, all the founders which were still alive.
That meant Dumbledore, Sirius, Lupin, Mad-Eye Moody, Mundungus Fletcher, and Arabella Figg. There were two of these that were High, Snape and Minerva McGonagall. The other two founders were none other than James and Lily Potter.
"We have heard of your relationship with the Rawson girl," the mysterious man at the head of the table said.
The Golds had never seen his face, or the face of the woman next to him. All the Golds could tell about them was that they were very, very, old.
"What about it?" Rose said defiantly.
"She is a Death Eater," the woman said. "She is quite a powerful one, in fact."
"Stay away from her," the man advised.
Rose's eyes began to show a hint of violet.
"She was forced into it," she said stubbornly.
"Even so, the Dark Lord may put her under the Imperius curse and use her to get rid of all of you."
"The next order of business," the woman continued, "is Ailani Sanyu Robertson. We know she is a witch and we know about the child she speaks of. His last name is Malfoy-Riddle."
"Nice combination," Rose said sarcastically. "Lucius Malfoy and Lucretia Diabolique?"
"Yes. The Dark Lord knows that with that combination and young Rawson, he can throw away Malfoy and O'Connell as heirs. He will have a combination of Riddle and Malfoy and a combination of Rawson and Malfoy. Things can't get much more powerful."
"Jay would never side with him," Ginny said firmly.
"Not willingly. But he might force her to. You have three jobs. One. Protect Ailani Robertson. Two. Protect Jessica Rawson. She is being forced into the inner circle right now, as we speak. Three. Find the child, Reagan Malfoy-Riddle. When you do, bring him to us."
"What does the boy look like?" Fred asked briskly.
"Black hair, green eyes with occasional hints of red. If you find someone and suspect it's him, make him angry. If it's not him, he just throws a tantrum like every typical four-year-old. If it is him, his eyes turn red and you will slam against the nearest wall."
"Charming," Hermione said with a grimace.
"Is that all?" Rose asked with just a small hint of sarcasm.
"Yes. You may return now."
And they were back in the Hogwarts commons and Hogsmeade.
*~*~*
As soon as she was back in her room, Padma immediately went to find Jay. First she grabbed a goblet and drank it down. Her hour was almost up. Then she grabbed a tiny box of brown hair and dropped a lock of it into a cup hidden by a spare robe. The cup hissed and steamed, but Padma drank it all. Nasty stuff, that Polyjuice Potion.
She snuck out of the Gryffindor dorms as Jay and darted into the prefects' house. There were two portraits, one of Godric Gryffindor and Helga Hufflepuff, the other of Salazar Slytherin and Rowena Ravenclaw. She ran to the portrait of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff.
"Bion!" she gasped.
Gryffindor smiled and the portrait swung aside. Two more portraits showed, one of Gryffindor, the other of Hufflepuff.
"Courage of the heart is rare," she said.
The portrait swung aside, revealing the Slytherin commons. Luckily, they were empty. She ran through the portrait and watched it disappear back into part of the stone wall.
Padma ran up the staircase into what was labeled as the Slytherin seventh year girls' dorms. She stuck her head through the door just a little.
Jay was sitting on her bed doing homework. Padma hissed at her from the door.
"Psst! Come on! She whispered. "We need to get back to the prefect house."
"Who is it?" she whispered back. "I gave hair to the other girls, too."
"It's Padma. Come on, the others need to talk to you. Catch."
Padma cast an invisibility spell over Jay. She disappeared. Padma sensed her following back down the stairs. Once they were back through the two portraits, Padma suddenly whirled and pinned Jay against the wall.
"Hey! Padma, what are you-"
"I'm not Padma," she hissed.
*~*~*
Jay watched the girl she had thought was her friend with terror. She watched her face shift from a mirror of her own back to Padma's face. But it didn't stop. From that the face became longer, her nose changed, her eyes.
Jay gasped. She knew that face.
"Mother?"
