I found another theory about why Snape hates Harry and thought I should
share!
Severus Snape could be Harry's uncle!
Check this out: Severus Snape is and absolutely PERFECT anagram (ya know, rearrange the letters) of Perseus Snape! So the theory goes that the Evans were horrified when Perseus/Severus got his letter and sent him away, and then felt guilty about it, and when Lily turned out to be a witch, so went with a "try it and see" policy and decided that magic wasn't evil after all. And Snape hated James for dating his sis so he hates Harry! Very smart person wrote that, just a very unlikely theory.
Lost in Darkness
Chapter Ten: Quite Rude Awakenings
Jay was sitting on the Knight Bus with Neville on the bed next to hers. He was snoring loudly. They were on their way to Neville's grandmother's house. It was six a.m. on Christmas morning.
Jay glanced out the window and was immediately enchanted. The sun was rising. Rays of light in pink and orange and blue spilled across the blanket of white covering everything. First just a glimmer of yellow was seen, and then a piece of a circle, then suddenly the whole sun just shot up in the sky.
Neville snorted in his sleep. The bus suddenly stopped with a bang. Jay reached over and gently shook him awake.
"Neville, we're here."
He rolled out of bed and helped Jay up. They grabbed their bags and descended the steps towards Neville's fairly spacious middle-class home. Jay kept a good hold on Neville's arm. She was hungry, but didn't feel much like eating.
"She's going to love you," Neville assured her.
"She probably won't," Jay said. "Consider my family line and what happened to your grandmother's son and daughter-in-law."
Neville flinched. They never brought up the topic of Neville's parents and rarely brought up Jay's family.
"Grandma doesn't make prejudgments," Neville told her firmly.
He knocked on the door. After a few seconds, a slightly elderly witch with a stuffed vulture hat on her head opened it. She leaned heavily on a cane and was quite obviously sick.
"Neville!" she said in a wheezy voice. "I'm so glad you could make it home!"
Neville hugged his grandmother. Mrs. Longbottom noticed Jay.
"And who is this young lady?" she asked.
"This is who I told you about in my letters," Neville said with a big smile on his face.
"My name's Jessica," Jay said.
She shook Mrs. Longbottom's hand.
"Pleased to meet you," she said.
"The pleasure is all mine, Mrs. Longbottom," Jay said with a warm smile.
"Come in, both of you!"
Jay leaned towards Neville and whispered in his ear.
"Did you tell her about my family?"
Neville shook his head.
"You've come just in time for breakfast," Mrs. Longbottom said.
They followed her into a small dining room. Three plates of steaming toast were set out. Jay sat next to Neville, who was next to Mrs. Longbottom.
"So, Jessica," Mrs. Longbottom said. "What house are you in?"
"Gryffindor," Jay said proudly.
"An excellent house. I myself was a Hufflepuff, but my son was a Gryffindor and so was my husband. What house were your parents in?"
Jay looked at her plate and began picking apart her toast, thinking about what to say. She settled on the truth.
"Slytherin," she said quietly.
"Well, that doesn't really matter," Mrs. Longbottom said. Jay could tell that she was lying. "What matters is your house. So what is your surname anyways?"
Jay gulped. It was hard. She forced a piece of toast down her throat and struggled to keep it in her stomach. It didn't work. She knew it wouldn't stay down long.
"Rawson," she said quietly.
Mrs. Longbottom was silent for a few moments. Then she grabbed Neville by the ear and hauled him into the hallway. Jay ran to find a bathroom.
*~*~*
"Your girlfriend is a Death Eater?" she asked incredulously. "Don't you remember what they've done to us? What they've done to you?"
"Jay's not like that."
"She's a Death Eater! They're all the same. They torture and kill and steal, all for pleasure! For pleasure, Neville!"
Neville met his grandmother's eyes. He tried to hide how deeply her words had hurt him.
"Jay's not like that," he whispered. "She hates her blood line. She hates her family and what they stand for."
"So do I!" Mrs. Longbottom yelled.
She stormed off in a self-righteous rage. Neville sighed and went to find Jay.
*~*~*
Jay leaned against the door of the bathroom, her hands shaking and tears rolling down her face. She had heard the entire conversation. Her stomach ached, and she leaned over the toilet and threw up again. At least her hair was tied back. She heard a knock at the door and undid the locking charms. Neville came in and saw her on the floor.
"Oh, Jay," he sighed.
He helped her up. To her surprise, she found that she couldn't stand. She leaned on him heavily as he led her into a guest room decorated in an ocean theme with little shells on the dresser and around the mirror.
"Jay, something's really wrong," Neville said. "You're skin and bones. Almost literally. You can't even support your own weight."
"I'm scared!" she suddenly cried. "Everywhere I turn I feel like Mother and Father are going to burst out, grab me, and force me even deeper into the inner circle, if that's even possible! I don't feel safe, anywhere!"
"Shh," Neville said reassuringly. "You're safe here. I promise you. You're safe at Hogwarts."
He wrapped his arms around Jay's waist. She put her hands on top of his and kissed him briefly on the lips.
"I was lying," she said softly. "I feel safe with you."
She kissed him again, longer this time. They were interrupted by a yell from Mrs. Longbottom.
"Neville Alexander Longbottom!" she shouted in her croaky old voice. "Get in here!"
"For a sick old woman, she sure doesn't act weak, does she?" Jay commented dryly.
Neville simply rolled his eyes and stood up. Jay continued leaning on him as they slowly walked in the direction of Mrs. Longbottom's shout.
"I want to talk to you, Miss Rawson," she said.
Jay winced at the mention of her last name. Neville helped her into a chair and hid just outside the door to listen.
"What did you want to speak to me about, Mrs. Longbottom?" Jay asked.
"Don't try your polite manners on me, you filthy little Death Eater," Mrs. Longbottom snarled. "You stay away from my grandson, you hear? Stay away from Neville."
A single tear slipped down Jay's pale cheek.
"But I love him," she whispered.
"If you love him you'll stay away from him."
But Jay was no longer listening. The tears were pouring now.
"Do you know what I've done to help your son?" she cried. "I've spent hours helping him pass his tests. I've worked so hard to keep him from people who want to hurt him." She met Mrs. Longbottom's eyes. "I would die to save him," she whispered.
She stood up and calmly walked from the room, although heavily leaning on any furniture she could reach. Neville caught her as she passed the door.
"Is that true?" he asked quietly.
"Yes," she said truthfully. "I would never lie about something like that."
She kissed him on the cheek. He hugged her to his chest and they stood there like that for a long time.
*~*~*
"Dead?"
Rose couldn't believe her ears. Em Grumman, dead? How was it possible?
"She was shot down by one of Lord Voldemort's supporters," Minerva McGonagall explained.
"Is that all?" Rose asked, a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
"No," the man said. "We need a replacement for her."
Rose's eyes widened at who he was implying.
"Who?" she asked, although she knew what was coming.
"You," the woman said.
Rose thought for a moment before answering.
"If this was eight years ago, I would agree," she said. "But I have a family. I have to discuss this with them first."
They looked disappointed, but sent Gretchen and her back. The Weasleys had left. Only Harry, Hermione, Ron, Bill, Sirius, and the twins waited for them.
"So?" Harry asked impatiently.
"I've got good news and bad news."
"Good news first," Ron said.
"They've offered me a seat."
"That's great!" Hermione shrieked.
They all jumped on Rose and hugged her.
"And the bad news?" Harry asked after they had sat down.
Rose took a deep breath.
"Em's dead," she said quietly.
"Dead?!" everyone said at once.
They then descended into a state of complete shock, in which none of them said a word. The first person to speak was Harry. His voice sounded hoarse and cracked every other syllable, something that hadn't happened since he was about fourteen.
"How?"
"A Death Eater," Gretchen explained. "Who else?"
Ron shook his head.
"This damned Order of the Phoenix is ruining our lives."
He stomped off in the direction of the castle. Harry and Hermione looked helplessly at Rose and ran after him. Gretchen and Rose collapsed on the couch and almost immediately fell asleep.
*~*~*
Lord Voldemort and Lady Lucretia waited for their favorite Death Eaters to show. Sure enough, they came right on time. Lady Jessica Rawson, Lord Robert Rawson and Lady Kerry Rawson Apparated in front of him, accompanied by Erin O'Connell and Draco Malfoy.
"Well?" Lucretia said impatiently. "Do you have any information?"
"The Longbottom woman has rejected Jessica," Lady Jessica said.
"Good," Lord Voldemort said. "We have several things to schedule in the.,quite near future. I believe a double wedding is in order."
He glanced at O'Connell and Malfoy.
"Must we do this?" Lord Robert complained.
"I see," Voldemort breathed. "You are protective of her."
"That is not what I-"
"Milord," Kerry said smoothly. "My father simply wishes to learn why my half-sister must marry the son of Frank Longbottom."
"Because it is part of the plan," Lucretia said with happiness. "She will marry Neville Longbottom. Then we will kill Neville Longbottom. She will become delightfully cruel and learn how we work."
Kerry smiled.
"But who will have the pleasure of killing the boy?" she asked.
"That shall be a job for a little friend of ours," Lucretia said. "All we have to do is find him."
*~*~*
Rose woke up when Gretchen shook her shoulder.
"Yes?"
"Reagan Malfoy-Riddle's in The Golden Phoenix."
"Now?!"
"Yes, now! Come on!"
The two women stood up and swung cloaks over their shoulders. Bill and Sirius caught them at the Phoenix.
"He's inside. George is talking to him. He fits the description. Black hair, green eyes, unnaturally pale, and too smart for a kid."
Rose pulled the hood of her cloak up. It was a deep red velvet cloak, so she looked quite mysterious in it. A single gold tassel hung down from the point of the hood.
"Nice look," Gretchen commented.
"I look like Little Red Riding Hood."
"No, you don't."
"Yes, I do."
"Shh!"
They took a table next to the one George and Reagan were at. They listened to the conversation between the two.
"Where are your parents?" George was asking.
"Out," Reagan said vaguely. "They left me here to entertain myself."
"You want something to drink?"
"No."
"Hungry?"
"No."
*Okay, I can't stand this,* Rose whispered. *I'm going over there."
She stood up and casually walked to the booth. She slid into the seat next to George.
"Hi, George," she said in a friendly voice. "Long time, no see."
"Wha- oh," he said. "Hi, Rosie."
Rose winced.
"Please don't call me that."
"Sure. Rose, this is Reagan."
Reagan looked Rose in the eyes. And although her face was hidden with the cloak, she knew the boy could recognize her. And then he spoke to her.
*Greetings, Rosemary Weasley-Potter. I have waited a long time for this.*
Feeling the child in her head was like torture. It felt like trying to shove a hairbrush up your nose. His mind contained too much information for her mind to take. She grabbed her head.
*Get out of my mind!* she screamed.
*I won't. We're joined. I can't and I wouldn't if I could. This causes you pain. Oh, and by the way, I think I see some friends of my parents coming in now.*
Rose snapped off the connection, which was almost as painful as maintaining it. She helplessly watched as Draco Malfoy grabbed Reagan and Disapparated along with his younger half-brother.
*~*~*
Jay and Neville wandered the deserted streets of Diagon Alley, looking for a place to spend the night. Neville's grandmother had fully rejected Jay, and finally she and Neville had left.
"Jay, you need to sleep," Neville said insistently. "You're sick."
"I'm not," she protested weakly. "I'm not.,"
"Look, see there? There's an inn that the low budgets of two students can handle. It's not shabby, either. Come on, just a little farther."
But she couldn't make it any farther. She went limp and couldn't get any farther. Neville picked her up and carried her into the inn. The man at the desk didn't ask questions. He gave them a room near the little restaurant. Neville laid Jay on the only bed in the room.
"I'll sleep on the floor," he said.
Jay was too tired to protest. She immediately began slipping off to sleep, but woke up suddenly at an excruciating pain in her arm. She screamed, waking up Neville from his already sound sleep.
"What's wrong?"
"I'm being summoned."
Neville took a deep breath.
"I'm coming."
"No, you are not."
"Yes I am."
Jay Disapparated. Unfortunately, as she was doing so, Neville grabbed her around the waist.
"Surprise."
She appeared in a heavily wooded forest. She recognized everyone but one person. O'Connell, Malfoy, Lord Voldemort, Lady Lucretia.,and her family. The only one she did not recognize was a boy with pale skin, black hair, and red eyes.
"We are going to have some fun today," Lucretia said.
"Uh oh," Neville muttered.
"Your friend will play quite a part," Kerry Rawson said.
"Very bad. Very bad. Very bad."
"Jessica, how would you like to be Mrs. Neville Longbottom?" Kerry asked.
Jay started swearing in French.
"Condamner chienne-"
"Jessica," Kerry said playfully. "That's no way to speak."
"It is to you," Jay growled.
Kerry smiled and waved her hand forward. Six Death Eaters swarmed up. Two gripped Jay and Neville by the backs of their necks. Two twisted up their arms, and the last two poked wands into their backs. Kerry shoved a quill into the hands of both Neville and Jay. Lord Voldemort pointed his wand at her. Lady Lucretia's wand was trained on Neville.
"Imperio," the twins said in unison.
Immediately Jay began to try to fight it off. It was a basic instinct inside her system, there since she was five years old. But Lord Voldemort was more powerful than her father. A Death Eater held out a piece of paper. A marriage license. Neville's shaking hand extended towards the paper. Shook. Good, he was fighting. Pretty hard, too. Good. He was fighting it. Jay watched hopefully, but his hand hit the paper. He signed.
Her next. She fought. She gritted her teeth but did not scream. She was a Rawson. Rawsons did not scream. But it was no use. The quill lowered to the paper. Her hand moved, up and down, signing.
Signing.
The curse was lifted. Neville and Jay dropped to the ground. But it wasn't the ground anymore. It was the floor. They were back in their hotel room.
"Well," Jay said.
"Well," Neville said.
"I'm Mrs. Longbottom now."
"Jay?"
"Yes?"
"Let's not tell anyone."
"We should tell the professors."
"Dumbledore. But no one else, okay?"
Jay smiled nervously.
"So no wedding night festivities, huh?"
Neville looked shocked.
"Were you expecting some?"
"No, no," she said hastily. "I thought you might be, though."
"No. Not until we've graduated."
Jay took a deep breath. Time to spill. All her secrets were coming out, right now. She was not going to have any secrets in this family if she could help it.
"Okay. Sit down."
"Why?"
"I'm about to tell you a very dramatic story. It's called my life."
Neville sat down on the bed. Jay sat next to him.
"I was born on September the eleventh, nineteen eighty-one. Just a little over a month before the Dark Lord fell. If only it had been a little longer, I might not even have this." She touched her tattoo. "As soon as I was born, the blood barely washed off my skin, the Dark Mark was burned onto my flesh."
"I thought it wasn't until you turned eleven."
"I was an exception. The famous Rawsons, second in power only to the Dark Lord himself. And with Malfoy blood! Just below us in dark power ranking. My mother is a Malfoy. Yes, Draco Malfoy is my cousin. Pure torture."
"What happened when You-Know-Who was defeated?"
"My family pulled a Malfoy and said that they had been acting under the Imperius Curse. The minister was stupid and believed them. But the darkness remained. My sister was actually helping my parents perform the curses. She had her first kill the day of Voldemort's fall. After that, I was trained in how to behave. They were sure that he would come back. It started when I was three.
"Bedtime stories would be grisly accounts of killings and torture. If I did anything my family didn't approve of, I would be punished. If they were in a good mood, I would be locked in the dungeon of the manor and they would only use knives. If they were in a bad mood, they used Imperius or Cruciatus. I was trained to resist the curses. It is possible, if you have enough control, to turn the violent twisting from the Cruciatus Curse into defensive movement. I couldn't fight them, though, or they'd just hold the curse out longer. They showed me how to do the Unforgivable Curses when I was six. I was taught manners for when we hosted dinner parties for the Death Eaters and such. But it reached a climax when he came back.
"I felt my tattoo burn, but I couldn't leave. I was inside Hogwarts, you see. I used an Aging Potion to accompany the other Durmstrang students to the Triwizard Tournament. I didn't enter, but I watched. I saw everything my parents saw that night. They were there. They had used Polyjuice Potion and went by their aliases. That's why I was so afraid of Harry. What he did there.it was amazing. He's very powerful, Neville, very powerful. If he was against me, I was doomed."
Neville laid his hand on top of hers.
"I never knew things were that bad," he said softly.
"I didn't want you to know."
"And what was that about dinner parties?"
"Oh, yes. You're polite, so you won't really need to know manners. I wasn't that polite, so I needed lessons. They'll tell us when we need to host a dinner."
"But we don't have a house."
"Yes, unfortunately, we do. Mine. We have two wings of the house on either side. What we do is every generation, my family has two children. Those two children, when they marry, each get a wing of the house. Then, when their parents die, the child considered most important moves into the main wing, and the other child gets their wing, and their children get the far wing."
"Huh?"
"Well, we have the west wing. Kerry, when she marries, will have the right one. I'll explain the rest when my parents die."
She smiled, and her eyelids drooped. Neville laid her on the bed and she fell asleep. Leaning over her, Neville planted a quick kiss on her forehead, then curled up next to her and dropped off.
Severus Snape could be Harry's uncle!
Check this out: Severus Snape is and absolutely PERFECT anagram (ya know, rearrange the letters) of Perseus Snape! So the theory goes that the Evans were horrified when Perseus/Severus got his letter and sent him away, and then felt guilty about it, and when Lily turned out to be a witch, so went with a "try it and see" policy and decided that magic wasn't evil after all. And Snape hated James for dating his sis so he hates Harry! Very smart person wrote that, just a very unlikely theory.
Lost in Darkness
Chapter Ten: Quite Rude Awakenings
Jay was sitting on the Knight Bus with Neville on the bed next to hers. He was snoring loudly. They were on their way to Neville's grandmother's house. It was six a.m. on Christmas morning.
Jay glanced out the window and was immediately enchanted. The sun was rising. Rays of light in pink and orange and blue spilled across the blanket of white covering everything. First just a glimmer of yellow was seen, and then a piece of a circle, then suddenly the whole sun just shot up in the sky.
Neville snorted in his sleep. The bus suddenly stopped with a bang. Jay reached over and gently shook him awake.
"Neville, we're here."
He rolled out of bed and helped Jay up. They grabbed their bags and descended the steps towards Neville's fairly spacious middle-class home. Jay kept a good hold on Neville's arm. She was hungry, but didn't feel much like eating.
"She's going to love you," Neville assured her.
"She probably won't," Jay said. "Consider my family line and what happened to your grandmother's son and daughter-in-law."
Neville flinched. They never brought up the topic of Neville's parents and rarely brought up Jay's family.
"Grandma doesn't make prejudgments," Neville told her firmly.
He knocked on the door. After a few seconds, a slightly elderly witch with a stuffed vulture hat on her head opened it. She leaned heavily on a cane and was quite obviously sick.
"Neville!" she said in a wheezy voice. "I'm so glad you could make it home!"
Neville hugged his grandmother. Mrs. Longbottom noticed Jay.
"And who is this young lady?" she asked.
"This is who I told you about in my letters," Neville said with a big smile on his face.
"My name's Jessica," Jay said.
She shook Mrs. Longbottom's hand.
"Pleased to meet you," she said.
"The pleasure is all mine, Mrs. Longbottom," Jay said with a warm smile.
"Come in, both of you!"
Jay leaned towards Neville and whispered in his ear.
"Did you tell her about my family?"
Neville shook his head.
"You've come just in time for breakfast," Mrs. Longbottom said.
They followed her into a small dining room. Three plates of steaming toast were set out. Jay sat next to Neville, who was next to Mrs. Longbottom.
"So, Jessica," Mrs. Longbottom said. "What house are you in?"
"Gryffindor," Jay said proudly.
"An excellent house. I myself was a Hufflepuff, but my son was a Gryffindor and so was my husband. What house were your parents in?"
Jay looked at her plate and began picking apart her toast, thinking about what to say. She settled on the truth.
"Slytherin," she said quietly.
"Well, that doesn't really matter," Mrs. Longbottom said. Jay could tell that she was lying. "What matters is your house. So what is your surname anyways?"
Jay gulped. It was hard. She forced a piece of toast down her throat and struggled to keep it in her stomach. It didn't work. She knew it wouldn't stay down long.
"Rawson," she said quietly.
Mrs. Longbottom was silent for a few moments. Then she grabbed Neville by the ear and hauled him into the hallway. Jay ran to find a bathroom.
*~*~*
"Your girlfriend is a Death Eater?" she asked incredulously. "Don't you remember what they've done to us? What they've done to you?"
"Jay's not like that."
"She's a Death Eater! They're all the same. They torture and kill and steal, all for pleasure! For pleasure, Neville!"
Neville met his grandmother's eyes. He tried to hide how deeply her words had hurt him.
"Jay's not like that," he whispered. "She hates her blood line. She hates her family and what they stand for."
"So do I!" Mrs. Longbottom yelled.
She stormed off in a self-righteous rage. Neville sighed and went to find Jay.
*~*~*
Jay leaned against the door of the bathroom, her hands shaking and tears rolling down her face. She had heard the entire conversation. Her stomach ached, and she leaned over the toilet and threw up again. At least her hair was tied back. She heard a knock at the door and undid the locking charms. Neville came in and saw her on the floor.
"Oh, Jay," he sighed.
He helped her up. To her surprise, she found that she couldn't stand. She leaned on him heavily as he led her into a guest room decorated in an ocean theme with little shells on the dresser and around the mirror.
"Jay, something's really wrong," Neville said. "You're skin and bones. Almost literally. You can't even support your own weight."
"I'm scared!" she suddenly cried. "Everywhere I turn I feel like Mother and Father are going to burst out, grab me, and force me even deeper into the inner circle, if that's even possible! I don't feel safe, anywhere!"
"Shh," Neville said reassuringly. "You're safe here. I promise you. You're safe at Hogwarts."
He wrapped his arms around Jay's waist. She put her hands on top of his and kissed him briefly on the lips.
"I was lying," she said softly. "I feel safe with you."
She kissed him again, longer this time. They were interrupted by a yell from Mrs. Longbottom.
"Neville Alexander Longbottom!" she shouted in her croaky old voice. "Get in here!"
"For a sick old woman, she sure doesn't act weak, does she?" Jay commented dryly.
Neville simply rolled his eyes and stood up. Jay continued leaning on him as they slowly walked in the direction of Mrs. Longbottom's shout.
"I want to talk to you, Miss Rawson," she said.
Jay winced at the mention of her last name. Neville helped her into a chair and hid just outside the door to listen.
"What did you want to speak to me about, Mrs. Longbottom?" Jay asked.
"Don't try your polite manners on me, you filthy little Death Eater," Mrs. Longbottom snarled. "You stay away from my grandson, you hear? Stay away from Neville."
A single tear slipped down Jay's pale cheek.
"But I love him," she whispered.
"If you love him you'll stay away from him."
But Jay was no longer listening. The tears were pouring now.
"Do you know what I've done to help your son?" she cried. "I've spent hours helping him pass his tests. I've worked so hard to keep him from people who want to hurt him." She met Mrs. Longbottom's eyes. "I would die to save him," she whispered.
She stood up and calmly walked from the room, although heavily leaning on any furniture she could reach. Neville caught her as she passed the door.
"Is that true?" he asked quietly.
"Yes," she said truthfully. "I would never lie about something like that."
She kissed him on the cheek. He hugged her to his chest and they stood there like that for a long time.
*~*~*
"Dead?"
Rose couldn't believe her ears. Em Grumman, dead? How was it possible?
"She was shot down by one of Lord Voldemort's supporters," Minerva McGonagall explained.
"Is that all?" Rose asked, a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
"No," the man said. "We need a replacement for her."
Rose's eyes widened at who he was implying.
"Who?" she asked, although she knew what was coming.
"You," the woman said.
Rose thought for a moment before answering.
"If this was eight years ago, I would agree," she said. "But I have a family. I have to discuss this with them first."
They looked disappointed, but sent Gretchen and her back. The Weasleys had left. Only Harry, Hermione, Ron, Bill, Sirius, and the twins waited for them.
"So?" Harry asked impatiently.
"I've got good news and bad news."
"Good news first," Ron said.
"They've offered me a seat."
"That's great!" Hermione shrieked.
They all jumped on Rose and hugged her.
"And the bad news?" Harry asked after they had sat down.
Rose took a deep breath.
"Em's dead," she said quietly.
"Dead?!" everyone said at once.
They then descended into a state of complete shock, in which none of them said a word. The first person to speak was Harry. His voice sounded hoarse and cracked every other syllable, something that hadn't happened since he was about fourteen.
"How?"
"A Death Eater," Gretchen explained. "Who else?"
Ron shook his head.
"This damned Order of the Phoenix is ruining our lives."
He stomped off in the direction of the castle. Harry and Hermione looked helplessly at Rose and ran after him. Gretchen and Rose collapsed on the couch and almost immediately fell asleep.
*~*~*
Lord Voldemort and Lady Lucretia waited for their favorite Death Eaters to show. Sure enough, they came right on time. Lady Jessica Rawson, Lord Robert Rawson and Lady Kerry Rawson Apparated in front of him, accompanied by Erin O'Connell and Draco Malfoy.
"Well?" Lucretia said impatiently. "Do you have any information?"
"The Longbottom woman has rejected Jessica," Lady Jessica said.
"Good," Lord Voldemort said. "We have several things to schedule in the.,quite near future. I believe a double wedding is in order."
He glanced at O'Connell and Malfoy.
"Must we do this?" Lord Robert complained.
"I see," Voldemort breathed. "You are protective of her."
"That is not what I-"
"Milord," Kerry said smoothly. "My father simply wishes to learn why my half-sister must marry the son of Frank Longbottom."
"Because it is part of the plan," Lucretia said with happiness. "She will marry Neville Longbottom. Then we will kill Neville Longbottom. She will become delightfully cruel and learn how we work."
Kerry smiled.
"But who will have the pleasure of killing the boy?" she asked.
"That shall be a job for a little friend of ours," Lucretia said. "All we have to do is find him."
*~*~*
Rose woke up when Gretchen shook her shoulder.
"Yes?"
"Reagan Malfoy-Riddle's in The Golden Phoenix."
"Now?!"
"Yes, now! Come on!"
The two women stood up and swung cloaks over their shoulders. Bill and Sirius caught them at the Phoenix.
"He's inside. George is talking to him. He fits the description. Black hair, green eyes, unnaturally pale, and too smart for a kid."
Rose pulled the hood of her cloak up. It was a deep red velvet cloak, so she looked quite mysterious in it. A single gold tassel hung down from the point of the hood.
"Nice look," Gretchen commented.
"I look like Little Red Riding Hood."
"No, you don't."
"Yes, I do."
"Shh!"
They took a table next to the one George and Reagan were at. They listened to the conversation between the two.
"Where are your parents?" George was asking.
"Out," Reagan said vaguely. "They left me here to entertain myself."
"You want something to drink?"
"No."
"Hungry?"
"No."
*Okay, I can't stand this,* Rose whispered. *I'm going over there."
She stood up and casually walked to the booth. She slid into the seat next to George.
"Hi, George," she said in a friendly voice. "Long time, no see."
"Wha- oh," he said. "Hi, Rosie."
Rose winced.
"Please don't call me that."
"Sure. Rose, this is Reagan."
Reagan looked Rose in the eyes. And although her face was hidden with the cloak, she knew the boy could recognize her. And then he spoke to her.
*Greetings, Rosemary Weasley-Potter. I have waited a long time for this.*
Feeling the child in her head was like torture. It felt like trying to shove a hairbrush up your nose. His mind contained too much information for her mind to take. She grabbed her head.
*Get out of my mind!* she screamed.
*I won't. We're joined. I can't and I wouldn't if I could. This causes you pain. Oh, and by the way, I think I see some friends of my parents coming in now.*
Rose snapped off the connection, which was almost as painful as maintaining it. She helplessly watched as Draco Malfoy grabbed Reagan and Disapparated along with his younger half-brother.
*~*~*
Jay and Neville wandered the deserted streets of Diagon Alley, looking for a place to spend the night. Neville's grandmother had fully rejected Jay, and finally she and Neville had left.
"Jay, you need to sleep," Neville said insistently. "You're sick."
"I'm not," she protested weakly. "I'm not.,"
"Look, see there? There's an inn that the low budgets of two students can handle. It's not shabby, either. Come on, just a little farther."
But she couldn't make it any farther. She went limp and couldn't get any farther. Neville picked her up and carried her into the inn. The man at the desk didn't ask questions. He gave them a room near the little restaurant. Neville laid Jay on the only bed in the room.
"I'll sleep on the floor," he said.
Jay was too tired to protest. She immediately began slipping off to sleep, but woke up suddenly at an excruciating pain in her arm. She screamed, waking up Neville from his already sound sleep.
"What's wrong?"
"I'm being summoned."
Neville took a deep breath.
"I'm coming."
"No, you are not."
"Yes I am."
Jay Disapparated. Unfortunately, as she was doing so, Neville grabbed her around the waist.
"Surprise."
She appeared in a heavily wooded forest. She recognized everyone but one person. O'Connell, Malfoy, Lord Voldemort, Lady Lucretia.,and her family. The only one she did not recognize was a boy with pale skin, black hair, and red eyes.
"We are going to have some fun today," Lucretia said.
"Uh oh," Neville muttered.
"Your friend will play quite a part," Kerry Rawson said.
"Very bad. Very bad. Very bad."
"Jessica, how would you like to be Mrs. Neville Longbottom?" Kerry asked.
Jay started swearing in French.
"Condamner chienne-"
"Jessica," Kerry said playfully. "That's no way to speak."
"It is to you," Jay growled.
Kerry smiled and waved her hand forward. Six Death Eaters swarmed up. Two gripped Jay and Neville by the backs of their necks. Two twisted up their arms, and the last two poked wands into their backs. Kerry shoved a quill into the hands of both Neville and Jay. Lord Voldemort pointed his wand at her. Lady Lucretia's wand was trained on Neville.
"Imperio," the twins said in unison.
Immediately Jay began to try to fight it off. It was a basic instinct inside her system, there since she was five years old. But Lord Voldemort was more powerful than her father. A Death Eater held out a piece of paper. A marriage license. Neville's shaking hand extended towards the paper. Shook. Good, he was fighting. Pretty hard, too. Good. He was fighting it. Jay watched hopefully, but his hand hit the paper. He signed.
Her next. She fought. She gritted her teeth but did not scream. She was a Rawson. Rawsons did not scream. But it was no use. The quill lowered to the paper. Her hand moved, up and down, signing.
Signing.
The curse was lifted. Neville and Jay dropped to the ground. But it wasn't the ground anymore. It was the floor. They were back in their hotel room.
"Well," Jay said.
"Well," Neville said.
"I'm Mrs. Longbottom now."
"Jay?"
"Yes?"
"Let's not tell anyone."
"We should tell the professors."
"Dumbledore. But no one else, okay?"
Jay smiled nervously.
"So no wedding night festivities, huh?"
Neville looked shocked.
"Were you expecting some?"
"No, no," she said hastily. "I thought you might be, though."
"No. Not until we've graduated."
Jay took a deep breath. Time to spill. All her secrets were coming out, right now. She was not going to have any secrets in this family if she could help it.
"Okay. Sit down."
"Why?"
"I'm about to tell you a very dramatic story. It's called my life."
Neville sat down on the bed. Jay sat next to him.
"I was born on September the eleventh, nineteen eighty-one. Just a little over a month before the Dark Lord fell. If only it had been a little longer, I might not even have this." She touched her tattoo. "As soon as I was born, the blood barely washed off my skin, the Dark Mark was burned onto my flesh."
"I thought it wasn't until you turned eleven."
"I was an exception. The famous Rawsons, second in power only to the Dark Lord himself. And with Malfoy blood! Just below us in dark power ranking. My mother is a Malfoy. Yes, Draco Malfoy is my cousin. Pure torture."
"What happened when You-Know-Who was defeated?"
"My family pulled a Malfoy and said that they had been acting under the Imperius Curse. The minister was stupid and believed them. But the darkness remained. My sister was actually helping my parents perform the curses. She had her first kill the day of Voldemort's fall. After that, I was trained in how to behave. They were sure that he would come back. It started when I was three.
"Bedtime stories would be grisly accounts of killings and torture. If I did anything my family didn't approve of, I would be punished. If they were in a good mood, I would be locked in the dungeon of the manor and they would only use knives. If they were in a bad mood, they used Imperius or Cruciatus. I was trained to resist the curses. It is possible, if you have enough control, to turn the violent twisting from the Cruciatus Curse into defensive movement. I couldn't fight them, though, or they'd just hold the curse out longer. They showed me how to do the Unforgivable Curses when I was six. I was taught manners for when we hosted dinner parties for the Death Eaters and such. But it reached a climax when he came back.
"I felt my tattoo burn, but I couldn't leave. I was inside Hogwarts, you see. I used an Aging Potion to accompany the other Durmstrang students to the Triwizard Tournament. I didn't enter, but I watched. I saw everything my parents saw that night. They were there. They had used Polyjuice Potion and went by their aliases. That's why I was so afraid of Harry. What he did there.it was amazing. He's very powerful, Neville, very powerful. If he was against me, I was doomed."
Neville laid his hand on top of hers.
"I never knew things were that bad," he said softly.
"I didn't want you to know."
"And what was that about dinner parties?"
"Oh, yes. You're polite, so you won't really need to know manners. I wasn't that polite, so I needed lessons. They'll tell us when we need to host a dinner."
"But we don't have a house."
"Yes, unfortunately, we do. Mine. We have two wings of the house on either side. What we do is every generation, my family has two children. Those two children, when they marry, each get a wing of the house. Then, when their parents die, the child considered most important moves into the main wing, and the other child gets their wing, and their children get the far wing."
"Huh?"
"Well, we have the west wing. Kerry, when she marries, will have the right one. I'll explain the rest when my parents die."
She smiled, and her eyelids drooped. Neville laid her on the bed and she fell asleep. Leaning over her, Neville planted a quick kiss on her forehead, then curled up next to her and dropped off.
