~Okay, I am reading the fifth book now, and there are a couple teeny
mistakes in my previous chapters. First, I didn't mention Luna Lovegood at
all. Don't worry, she'll come up later. Second, Ron and Hermione have been
made prefects. I also didn't mention anything Harry, Ron, Hermione, and
everyone else did over the summer. But this story is following Marie a lot
more than the others. Of course, the Order will come up. Marie will
(eventually) be clued in to what is happening. From now on, I'll be
following the book. Thanks, y'all!~
Ron and Hermione were bickering again when they sat down for lunch. Cho
Chang had made an attempt to talk to Harry, until Ron sent a barrage of questions about
her Quidditch team at her. Harry finally got sick of it, stood up, and hollered at them to
shut up and stop fighting. He proceeded to stomp off and leave Ron and Hermione to sit
with their mouths hanging open at Harry's sudden outburst.
"I'll be back," Marie said quickly, going after Harry.
"Yeesh," she said, catching up to Harry, who threw himself down beneath a tree
near the lake. "Don't those two ever stop fighting?"
Harry shook his head, looking either furious or astonished. Marie wasn't sure,
but she finally decided that he must be astonished, judging from the way his eyes were
bugging out.
"You can still talk to Cho, you know," Marie informed him, leaning on the tree
and inspecting her fingernails.
"Yeah? How?" He asked miserably.
"Sheesh! You'd think girls were complete idiots or something! I have
connections," Marie grouched. 'Bad moods sure can spread,' she thought to herself.
"Connections? I thought you hated everybody."
"I do."
"Then how can you have connections?"
"Well, okay so not exactly connections. But Cho obviously wants to talk to you.
If she sees me hanging around with you, she'll probably want to talk to me."
"But why you? I thought she wanted to talk to me."
"I can talk to her and arrange some time for you to talk to her in private!" Marie
screeched, aggravated. "Sheesh!"
Harry muttered a quick, "Thanks, I guess," and silence followed. It was broken by
Marie clearing her throat.
"Harry?" she asked nervously. He didn't say anything. She went on. "Can I ask
you a question?"
"Go on," he muttered. She bit her lip for a second, and then asked, "Is it true,
what all the papers are saying about you? That you said Lord Voldemort had returned?"
Harry whipped around and glared at her. "I thought you hadn't been here long."
"Two weeks before the train left for Hogwarts. Yeesh! I was only asking a
question! Besides, you're not big news only in England. There's wizard newspapers in
America, too. And you can't possibly think that Voldemort terrorized just England. Heck,
my best friend's parents back home are Aurors, they helped catch a boatload of Death
Eaters!"
"You said Voldemort's name!"
"Yeah, so?"
"I just thought, you know-"
"No. I'm not a sissy who can't even say his name. Anyway, are you gonna answer
my question or not?"
Harry took a deep breath, thought for a split second, then told her everything.
The Triwizard Tournament, Cedric's death, Volemort's return, the Order of the Phoenix,
and every small detail about the summer. When he finished, Marie's face was white.
"So…..he's really back, isn't he?"
"Yes, he is."
"And Sirius Black, he's really not guilty of those murders? He's really your
godfather?"
"Yes."
"Fred and George really invented Extendable Ears and Skiving Snackboxes?"
"What does that have to do with Voldemort?!"
"Yeesh! I was just wondering!"
The bell rang, and Harry and Marie gathered up their stuff and headed toward
their Divination class.
"Beware of Professor Trelawny," Harry muttered before plopping down in a far
corner so as not to be seen by Ron, who had just entered. He was spotted anyway.
Marie's thoughts wandered while Harry and Ron talked, interrupted when
Professor Trelawney began to speak to the class, finishing by telling them what to read in
the new book, The Dream Oracle, and then to split into pairs to begin interpreting
dreams. Marie finished reading in no time, and ended up partnering with Lavender
Brown. This turned out to be a mistake.
"Hanging around with Potter, I see?" Lavender hissed so that Professor
Trelawney couldn't hear her.
"Yes I am," Marie snarled back. "What are you gonna do about it?"
"Potter's a liar."
"Insult my friend again and it'll be your last."
"He says he saw Cedric Diggory killed."
"Shut up."
"He says You-Know-Who is back."
"Shut up!"
"He even says he dueled with You-Know-Who."
"SHUT UP!"
"Make me!"
Without warning, Marie yanked out her wand and shouted, "Expelliarmus!"
Lavender landed on the other side of the room, and the entire class turned to stare
at Marie. Of course, Professor Trelawney sprang up from her chair, and rushed to help
Lavender. She was shrieking about attacking another student, and something about
reporting it to Dumbledore.
"Yes, that's an excellent idea," Marie told her. The whole class, who had been
whispering to each other for the past few minutes, fell entirely silent.
"What is everyone staring at?" Marie demanded. "She has the right to report me! I
broke the rules! I deserve any punishment I get! I shouldn't have lost my temper. But
then, Lavender also deserved what she got. Still, what I did was wrong. I'll tell you what,
Professor. Why don't I just report myself to Professor McGonagall."
Without waiting for a reply, Marie marched out the trapdoor and disappeared. The
class, seemingly stunned into silence, just sat staring at each other for nearly a full minute
before Marie's head suddenly popped back into the room, cried, "By the way, I believe
every word Harry says about Voldemort's return!" and left again.
Marie did indeed report herself to McGonagall. Going down to Defense Against
The Dark Arts, Harry and Ron could hear shouting from McGonagall's office.
"-USING MAGIC AGAINST A FELLOW STUDENT, I NEVER-"
Marie's response was calm, as if she was not fazed by McGonagall's shouting in
the least. "Professor, she was calling Harry a liar. I don't tolerate people insulting my
friends."
"YOU COULD HAVE KILLED HER!"
"It was only a disarming spell. Besides, the rules say that magic isn't supposed to
be used between classes. They don't say anything about using magic against another
student in class."
"We don't expect students to disarm each other in class!"
"But I haven't broken any rules."
"No, that's true. You haven't, so there's not much I can do………but I don't care
if it's in class or not, if this happens again, you shall be severely punished!"
"Yes, Professor. I understand."
Professor McGonagall must have been incredibly shocked, because not a word
was spoken as Marie walked out the door. Harry and Ron glanced at each other
nervously, suddenly aware that they had been listening in.
"Hey guys!" Marie said cheerfully upon seeing them.
"You have got to be the weirdest kid in the world," Ron told her, shaking his
head. "There is no hope for you."
Marie looked positively flattered.
"Yep, ya really blew it, Harry," Marie informed him later. They were back in the
common room, doing their homework. Actually, Hermione was doing her homework.
Harry, Ron, and Marie were copying off of her.
Harry frowned in Marie's direction, and she held her hands up. "I'm not blaming
you! I would've done the same thing in your position! But maybe ya went just a touch
too far."
"She called me a liar in front of the whole class! And besides, she's a terrible old
hag!"
"Yeah, but yelling at a teacher! That's just too much! You should've quit, before
you yelled at her."
"And let her get away with calling me a liar?!"
"She got away with it anyway, didn't she? I knew something like this would
happen. I tried to tell you!"
Harry just shook his head and started to pick up his stuff. A week of detention
with Professor Umbridge, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, wasn't what
he had in mind when he walked into the classroom. But then, Marie was probably right.
What else could he expect when he started screaming at her about Voldemort's return?
"I'll be back later," he mumbled, leaving for his detention.
Marie was lost in thought for a minute, then automatically reached into her
backpack and pulled out an old, framed, black and white photo of a woman probably in
her thirties. Hermione suspected that it was habit, because Marie didn't seem to notice
when she held the photo. She continued to stare at her homework, puzzling over a
question.
"Who's that?" Ron demanded, seeing the picture in Marie's hands. Marie looked
at the picture, startled to find herself holding it.
"It's my great-grandma Marie," she told him. "I'm named after her."
"You look just like her!" Ron cried. Despite the difference in age, the
resemblance between Marie and her great-grandmother was quite obvious. Marie smiled
and stated, "Everyone says that."
"But it's true!"
"I know." She sounded a bit exasperated, like someone speaking to a small child
that just wouldn't sit still. But then she smiled again and explained, "This is the only
picture of her I have. My dad hid all the other ones. I found it in a drawer when I was
really little. My dad doesn't know I have it."
"Why did you steal it?" Ron wanted to know. Marie shrugged.
"At the time, it wasn't stealing. I knew my dad didn't want it, otherwise he
wouldn't have hidden it. I didn't know who she was. But she looked so much like me that
I knew she had to be related. It wasn't until I was eight or nine that I found out who she
actually was."
"How did you find out who she was?" Ron's eyes were wide as he took in
everything Marie said.
"My dad told me a story about his grandma once, and right then I knew that's
who the lady in the picture was."
"Well, why did you keep it?"
"If you think Great-Grandma Marie looks like me, you should see how much she
looks like Angel. I kept it for a couple of reasons. First of all, before Angel was born I
just got attached to the picture. I always had it with me, hidden so my dad didn't see it.
Second, once Angel was born, I kept the picture to remind me of Angel when she wasn't
there."
"Did you ever meet her? Your great-grandmother?"
"Ron!" Hermione hissed. "What do you think?!"
"In a sense, yes," Marie went on, as if Hermione hadn't spoken. "She died seven
years before I was born. She's buried in a cemetery a few blocks from our old house. My
dad never said anything about it. Talking about her was too painful for him. He was
really attached to her. I found her grave myself. I go and see her and bring her flowers
every now and then. And her twin daughers, Alice and Leigh."
Ron's eyes opened even wider. "She has twin daughters?"
"No."
"But you said-"
"They died at birth."
"Oh."
"If I hadn't been wandering around one day, I wouldn't even have know they
were there. Their gravestone is small and was covered with weeds. And all it says is 'The
twin daughters of Marie Siller.'"
"So how do you know their names are Alice and Leigh if the gravestone doesn't
say their names?"
Marie stopped, seeming astonished by the question. She scratched her head and
thought, and finally said, "I really don't know. I just know things, I don't know how, but I
do."
"What sort of things do you just know?" Ron asked, looking not sure whether he
believed her or not.
"For instance," Marie said, "Harry is about to enter the common room."
A few seconds later, the portrait swung open and Harry walked in, looking furious
and exhausted at the same time.
"You are going to ace Divination," Ron told Marie with certainty. Marie ignored
Ron and tossed a band-aid at Harry, who was obviously in a terrible mood.
"Your hand is bleeding," she told him, and went back to work on her homework.
That evening as Marie lay in bed, she thought about her great- grandmother and
what she had told Ron and Hermione. Actually, she hadn't given them the whole story.
She had been four years old when she found the photo, and nine when she found her
great-grandmother's grave. Of course, when she first found the picture, she had no idea
who the woman was. Like she had said, even though she was young she could see the
resemblance. Until she found out that the lady was actually her great- grandmother, Marie
enjoyed the belief that possibly the woman was her mother. She was pretty, and young in
the photo. She looked so kind. Often Marie would make-believe that the woman would
just leap out of the picture frame and become the mother that she really needed. Even
after she discovered who the lady was, she still somewhat clung to the idea, maybe just to
reassure herself. She had not been lying, Angel also looked very much like her
great-grandma. Marie had grown up believing in miracles, and she looked upon Angel as
a miracle created especially for her. And she had to admit, Angel had got her through
some tough times. Some really tough times. Just the smile on her little face when she saw
her hero, her idol, her older sister…….that was enough to make you forget anything bad,
and you couldn't help but smile back.
Marie felt a bit guilty at the thought of her sister. She hadn't been writing as
frequently as she had promised. She'd had a lot of homework, especially since this was
O.W.L. year. The big tests weren't until the end of the year, but the teachers were already
handing out mountains of homework.
Well, she told herself, she'd buy something extra-special for Angel when she
went to Hogsmeade, to try and make up for it. She took out the picture of her
great-grandmother, and another one of Angel and her. She fell asleep holding them.
Ron and Hermione were bickering again when they sat down for lunch. Cho
Chang had made an attempt to talk to Harry, until Ron sent a barrage of questions about
her Quidditch team at her. Harry finally got sick of it, stood up, and hollered at them to
shut up and stop fighting. He proceeded to stomp off and leave Ron and Hermione to sit
with their mouths hanging open at Harry's sudden outburst.
"I'll be back," Marie said quickly, going after Harry.
"Yeesh," she said, catching up to Harry, who threw himself down beneath a tree
near the lake. "Don't those two ever stop fighting?"
Harry shook his head, looking either furious or astonished. Marie wasn't sure,
but she finally decided that he must be astonished, judging from the way his eyes were
bugging out.
"You can still talk to Cho, you know," Marie informed him, leaning on the tree
and inspecting her fingernails.
"Yeah? How?" He asked miserably.
"Sheesh! You'd think girls were complete idiots or something! I have
connections," Marie grouched. 'Bad moods sure can spread,' she thought to herself.
"Connections? I thought you hated everybody."
"I do."
"Then how can you have connections?"
"Well, okay so not exactly connections. But Cho obviously wants to talk to you.
If she sees me hanging around with you, she'll probably want to talk to me."
"But why you? I thought she wanted to talk to me."
"I can talk to her and arrange some time for you to talk to her in private!" Marie
screeched, aggravated. "Sheesh!"
Harry muttered a quick, "Thanks, I guess," and silence followed. It was broken by
Marie clearing her throat.
"Harry?" she asked nervously. He didn't say anything. She went on. "Can I ask
you a question?"
"Go on," he muttered. She bit her lip for a second, and then asked, "Is it true,
what all the papers are saying about you? That you said Lord Voldemort had returned?"
Harry whipped around and glared at her. "I thought you hadn't been here long."
"Two weeks before the train left for Hogwarts. Yeesh! I was only asking a
question! Besides, you're not big news only in England. There's wizard newspapers in
America, too. And you can't possibly think that Voldemort terrorized just England. Heck,
my best friend's parents back home are Aurors, they helped catch a boatload of Death
Eaters!"
"You said Voldemort's name!"
"Yeah, so?"
"I just thought, you know-"
"No. I'm not a sissy who can't even say his name. Anyway, are you gonna answer
my question or not?"
Harry took a deep breath, thought for a split second, then told her everything.
The Triwizard Tournament, Cedric's death, Volemort's return, the Order of the Phoenix,
and every small detail about the summer. When he finished, Marie's face was white.
"So…..he's really back, isn't he?"
"Yes, he is."
"And Sirius Black, he's really not guilty of those murders? He's really your
godfather?"
"Yes."
"Fred and George really invented Extendable Ears and Skiving Snackboxes?"
"What does that have to do with Voldemort?!"
"Yeesh! I was just wondering!"
The bell rang, and Harry and Marie gathered up their stuff and headed toward
their Divination class.
"Beware of Professor Trelawny," Harry muttered before plopping down in a far
corner so as not to be seen by Ron, who had just entered. He was spotted anyway.
Marie's thoughts wandered while Harry and Ron talked, interrupted when
Professor Trelawney began to speak to the class, finishing by telling them what to read in
the new book, The Dream Oracle, and then to split into pairs to begin interpreting
dreams. Marie finished reading in no time, and ended up partnering with Lavender
Brown. This turned out to be a mistake.
"Hanging around with Potter, I see?" Lavender hissed so that Professor
Trelawney couldn't hear her.
"Yes I am," Marie snarled back. "What are you gonna do about it?"
"Potter's a liar."
"Insult my friend again and it'll be your last."
"He says he saw Cedric Diggory killed."
"Shut up."
"He says You-Know-Who is back."
"Shut up!"
"He even says he dueled with You-Know-Who."
"SHUT UP!"
"Make me!"
Without warning, Marie yanked out her wand and shouted, "Expelliarmus!"
Lavender landed on the other side of the room, and the entire class turned to stare
at Marie. Of course, Professor Trelawney sprang up from her chair, and rushed to help
Lavender. She was shrieking about attacking another student, and something about
reporting it to Dumbledore.
"Yes, that's an excellent idea," Marie told her. The whole class, who had been
whispering to each other for the past few minutes, fell entirely silent.
"What is everyone staring at?" Marie demanded. "She has the right to report me! I
broke the rules! I deserve any punishment I get! I shouldn't have lost my temper. But
then, Lavender also deserved what she got. Still, what I did was wrong. I'll tell you what,
Professor. Why don't I just report myself to Professor McGonagall."
Without waiting for a reply, Marie marched out the trapdoor and disappeared. The
class, seemingly stunned into silence, just sat staring at each other for nearly a full minute
before Marie's head suddenly popped back into the room, cried, "By the way, I believe
every word Harry says about Voldemort's return!" and left again.
Marie did indeed report herself to McGonagall. Going down to Defense Against
The Dark Arts, Harry and Ron could hear shouting from McGonagall's office.
"-USING MAGIC AGAINST A FELLOW STUDENT, I NEVER-"
Marie's response was calm, as if she was not fazed by McGonagall's shouting in
the least. "Professor, she was calling Harry a liar. I don't tolerate people insulting my
friends."
"YOU COULD HAVE KILLED HER!"
"It was only a disarming spell. Besides, the rules say that magic isn't supposed to
be used between classes. They don't say anything about using magic against another
student in class."
"We don't expect students to disarm each other in class!"
"But I haven't broken any rules."
"No, that's true. You haven't, so there's not much I can do………but I don't care
if it's in class or not, if this happens again, you shall be severely punished!"
"Yes, Professor. I understand."
Professor McGonagall must have been incredibly shocked, because not a word
was spoken as Marie walked out the door. Harry and Ron glanced at each other
nervously, suddenly aware that they had been listening in.
"Hey guys!" Marie said cheerfully upon seeing them.
"You have got to be the weirdest kid in the world," Ron told her, shaking his
head. "There is no hope for you."
Marie looked positively flattered.
"Yep, ya really blew it, Harry," Marie informed him later. They were back in the
common room, doing their homework. Actually, Hermione was doing her homework.
Harry, Ron, and Marie were copying off of her.
Harry frowned in Marie's direction, and she held her hands up. "I'm not blaming
you! I would've done the same thing in your position! But maybe ya went just a touch
too far."
"She called me a liar in front of the whole class! And besides, she's a terrible old
hag!"
"Yeah, but yelling at a teacher! That's just too much! You should've quit, before
you yelled at her."
"And let her get away with calling me a liar?!"
"She got away with it anyway, didn't she? I knew something like this would
happen. I tried to tell you!"
Harry just shook his head and started to pick up his stuff. A week of detention
with Professor Umbridge, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, wasn't what
he had in mind when he walked into the classroom. But then, Marie was probably right.
What else could he expect when he started screaming at her about Voldemort's return?
"I'll be back later," he mumbled, leaving for his detention.
Marie was lost in thought for a minute, then automatically reached into her
backpack and pulled out an old, framed, black and white photo of a woman probably in
her thirties. Hermione suspected that it was habit, because Marie didn't seem to notice
when she held the photo. She continued to stare at her homework, puzzling over a
question.
"Who's that?" Ron demanded, seeing the picture in Marie's hands. Marie looked
at the picture, startled to find herself holding it.
"It's my great-grandma Marie," she told him. "I'm named after her."
"You look just like her!" Ron cried. Despite the difference in age, the
resemblance between Marie and her great-grandmother was quite obvious. Marie smiled
and stated, "Everyone says that."
"But it's true!"
"I know." She sounded a bit exasperated, like someone speaking to a small child
that just wouldn't sit still. But then she smiled again and explained, "This is the only
picture of her I have. My dad hid all the other ones. I found it in a drawer when I was
really little. My dad doesn't know I have it."
"Why did you steal it?" Ron wanted to know. Marie shrugged.
"At the time, it wasn't stealing. I knew my dad didn't want it, otherwise he
wouldn't have hidden it. I didn't know who she was. But she looked so much like me that
I knew she had to be related. It wasn't until I was eight or nine that I found out who she
actually was."
"How did you find out who she was?" Ron's eyes were wide as he took in
everything Marie said.
"My dad told me a story about his grandma once, and right then I knew that's
who the lady in the picture was."
"Well, why did you keep it?"
"If you think Great-Grandma Marie looks like me, you should see how much she
looks like Angel. I kept it for a couple of reasons. First of all, before Angel was born I
just got attached to the picture. I always had it with me, hidden so my dad didn't see it.
Second, once Angel was born, I kept the picture to remind me of Angel when she wasn't
there."
"Did you ever meet her? Your great-grandmother?"
"Ron!" Hermione hissed. "What do you think?!"
"In a sense, yes," Marie went on, as if Hermione hadn't spoken. "She died seven
years before I was born. She's buried in a cemetery a few blocks from our old house. My
dad never said anything about it. Talking about her was too painful for him. He was
really attached to her. I found her grave myself. I go and see her and bring her flowers
every now and then. And her twin daughers, Alice and Leigh."
Ron's eyes opened even wider. "She has twin daughters?"
"No."
"But you said-"
"They died at birth."
"Oh."
"If I hadn't been wandering around one day, I wouldn't even have know they
were there. Their gravestone is small and was covered with weeds. And all it says is 'The
twin daughters of Marie Siller.'"
"So how do you know their names are Alice and Leigh if the gravestone doesn't
say their names?"
Marie stopped, seeming astonished by the question. She scratched her head and
thought, and finally said, "I really don't know. I just know things, I don't know how, but I
do."
"What sort of things do you just know?" Ron asked, looking not sure whether he
believed her or not.
"For instance," Marie said, "Harry is about to enter the common room."
A few seconds later, the portrait swung open and Harry walked in, looking furious
and exhausted at the same time.
"You are going to ace Divination," Ron told Marie with certainty. Marie ignored
Ron and tossed a band-aid at Harry, who was obviously in a terrible mood.
"Your hand is bleeding," she told him, and went back to work on her homework.
That evening as Marie lay in bed, she thought about her great- grandmother and
what she had told Ron and Hermione. Actually, she hadn't given them the whole story.
She had been four years old when she found the photo, and nine when she found her
great-grandmother's grave. Of course, when she first found the picture, she had no idea
who the woman was. Like she had said, even though she was young she could see the
resemblance. Until she found out that the lady was actually her great- grandmother, Marie
enjoyed the belief that possibly the woman was her mother. She was pretty, and young in
the photo. She looked so kind. Often Marie would make-believe that the woman would
just leap out of the picture frame and become the mother that she really needed. Even
after she discovered who the lady was, she still somewhat clung to the idea, maybe just to
reassure herself. She had not been lying, Angel also looked very much like her
great-grandma. Marie had grown up believing in miracles, and she looked upon Angel as
a miracle created especially for her. And she had to admit, Angel had got her through
some tough times. Some really tough times. Just the smile on her little face when she saw
her hero, her idol, her older sister…….that was enough to make you forget anything bad,
and you couldn't help but smile back.
Marie felt a bit guilty at the thought of her sister. She hadn't been writing as
frequently as she had promised. She'd had a lot of homework, especially since this was
O.W.L. year. The big tests weren't until the end of the year, but the teachers were already
handing out mountains of homework.
Well, she told herself, she'd buy something extra-special for Angel when she
went to Hogsmeade, to try and make up for it. She took out the picture of her
great-grandmother, and another one of Angel and her. She fell asleep holding them.