CHAPTER THREE
"Lotus Aurillia." A prefect called over the crowd conjugating around the portrait. The fat lady opened the door and the students filed in.
"The password." Hermione whispered to Lara, who nodded in understanding.
The students went up to their dorms almost immediately, a few casting curious glances at Lara before heading up the stairs. It was only about half an hour before the common room was completely empty except for Harry, Ron and Hermione.
"They're listening too." Harry said firmly, obviously not taking any opposition on the matter.
"Yes, they need to know this too anyways." Lara replied before dumping herself on the couch. Hermione sat herself down next to the girl and the boys each took adjacent arm chairs.
"Start talking." Harry said, as soon as they were comfortable. Lara gave him a short glare before commencing her story.
"You've been told your whole life that you were the only one to survive Voldemort's killing curse." Harry nodded at this. "That's a lie. What you got was only a fraction of the true curse. The real curse, hit me. I had been staying the night at your house because dad had some errands to run for the ministry. That's when Voldemort came. He hadn't come for you or your family. It was me he wanted. He knew the power I had, and he didn't want me to stand in his way once I grew up. So he decided to kill me. He just didn't realize the extent of my power. When he threw the curse, it hit me."
"Where?" Hermione asked.
Lara stood, pulled her shirt up to her stomach and pointed to a thin lightning shaped scar next to her belly button.
"Exactly like yours mate." Ron said, squinting at it.
"I know. The curse refracted off me however, and that's when it hit Harry. It was pretty weak by now, but his mother's love, as Harry already knows, saved him from harm."
"So what happened to you?"
"Dad came to get me. He took me to Dumbledore and asked him to care for me while he sorted a few things out. That's when he killed Peter. That's when he landed himself in jail."
"But what about your mum?" Ron asked. Lara paled slightly at the mention of her mother, but slowed the sadness in her heart and replied.
"Died, same night as Harry's parents. Voldemort went home first, but I wasn't there, mum had just arrived from work. He...t...tortured my whereabouts out of her." Lara stuttered slightly at the thought, a single tear welling up in her eyes but refusing to fall. The trio remained silent for a while.
"But what about all this secret keeper stuff?" Harry asked after a while, still confused as to the identity of this girl.
"Wormtail was the Blacks' secret keeper, not the Potters." Lara said simply.
"So where have you been all these years?"
"Being trained by elite wizards all over the world, kept secret by Dumbledore. He knows I can be used as a weapon against Voldemort, and the less people know about me the better."
"But now?"
"A year ago Voldemort found out my whereabouts and identity. He knew I was coming to Harry's aid the night of his uprising, so he enlisted the help of demons to stop me."
"Did it?"
"No, of course not. But it did prevent me from getting to Harry on time. When I arrived the grave yard was deserted."
"How did you know I would end up there?"
"I had discovered Barty's plan that night, I found some rough plans in his study."
"Okay, so that explains quite a bit. Why did Sirius never mention you?"
"He couldn't, he was sworn to secrecy."
"But I'm his godson, he should've told..."
"I'm his daughter, and my safety was worth not telling you."
"You haven't even been there for him! I have!" Harry yelled, eyes flashing dangerously.
"Haven't been there for him?" Lara echoed as if she couldn't believe her ears. "Haven't been there for him? Excuse me! I've visited him almost every day of my life for the last fourteen years. I've spent the year trying to gather a case to prove his innocence, but not succeeding. I miss him more than anything, and I'm killing myself over the fact that he's suffering and I can't do anything about it!" Lara ranted back, completely out of breath by the end. Harry, tactfully, didn't reply.
"Okay, so we get that. But these powers of yours, what exactly does that involve?" Hermione said, trying to calm Lara down.
"I'm not sure. The conditions of my birth resulted in me having some extraordinary powers. I can perform wandless magic, without incantations, do complicated spells without hesitation, stuff like that."
"And the darks arts?"
"Yes, I can, but only when necessary."
"That's dangerous." Harry cut in.
"I can handle myself." Lara snapped back.
"And so can I, I don't need your help!"
"Wait till you're facing Voldemort next Potter, just you wait. Your mothers little love spell won't save you then, and nor will that scar."
"Leave my mum outta this!" Harry roared, rising out of his seat.
"Then admit you need help!" Lara cried back, rising with him.
"Never!"
"Then go ahead and commit suicide Harry! One less prick in the world for me to deal with!" Lara snapped back. Before she could register what happened, she felt a smarting pain on her cheek and the taste of blood filled her mouth. When she came to her senses, she realized what had happened.
"You hit me! You bastard!" Lara yelled. Before Harry could even reply Lara punched him back in the stomach. Harry bent double, winded by her ferocious punch. He recovered quickly and threw another at Lara. Soon, the two of them were in an all out brawl, beating the absolute hell out of each other.
"Guys! Stop!" Hermione cried hysterically. The two Gryffindors looked up at the bushy haired girl and had the dignity to look ashamed. "What has gotten into you?" She asked both of them. They both simultaneously pointed at each other.
"He started it." Lara snapped.
"I did not!" Harry said indignantly, touching his eye tenderly where a bruise was sure to form the next day and wiping the blood from a cut lip. Lara bore similar injuries.
"Jerk." Lara muttered.
"Seems like those wonderful powers of yours don't extent to wandless fights." Harry snapped back, provoking her. Lara opened her mouth to retaliate, but was silenced by Hermione's glare.
"I'm going to bed." Lara said, instead of the original insult she had intented to voice.
"No, there's still one thing you need to tell us."
"What?"
"The prophecy."
"Oh, that." Lara sighed, hauling herself back onto the couch. "Which one. There's one about Harry, and two about me."
"Say all."
"The one about Harry basically says that he has to kill Voldemort, or Voldemort will kill him. One of them has to happen."
"Simple enough, and expected." Hermione said. "And the others."
"Mine are a bit more complicated. One says that 'the child touched by the darkness,' that's me, 'will fall in love but once in her lifetime, but this love will be greater than all the loves that ever was.'"
"That's interesting."
"It's gay, there's no such things a love."
"That's a very cynical view of life."
"It's just a lot of hormones and chemical reactions."
"You sad, sad child." Harry said, shaking his head slowly.
"Like you'd know Scarhead." The trio went silent at this. "What? Never heard that insult before? I'm surprised cause..."
"No, we have. Draco Malfoy calls him that all the time." Hermione said slowly.
"That death eaters son? So what, it's just an insult."
"True, but it's ironic, because you remind me of him in a lot of ways."
"Gee thanks..."
"Not entirely in a bad way. You're arrogant like him, you think you're Gods gift to the opposite sex, you walk and talk like him..."
"She's a slimy git like him..." Harry added. Lara narrowed her eyes, about to retaliate but was silenced once again by Hermione.
"And the other prophecy?" She said quickly.
"This one's a lot more confusing."
"And the last one wasn't." Ron moaned. He hadn't said much so far in this conversation, as he was more interested in listening than talking.
"Wait till you hear this. 'This child of good and evil shall stand between the angel of light and the angel of dark, and she will lead them unto victory against evil.'"
"So you're the child of good and evil."
"Yes, because I'm the heir to both Slytherin and Gryffindor."
"What?" Hermione cried. "How does that work, Voldemort's supposed to be the last..."
"I know, and he's a liar. There was a union of a Slytherin Man and Gryffindor woman a long time ago that few knew about. I'm the product of that happy couple."
"Sirius?"
"Yes, he is descended from that line."
"So the good and evil both lie in you."
"Yes. I have the heart of goodness but a personality of evil."
"I can second that." Harry muttered.
"Lucky for you it's not the other way around, or you'd have found yourself a very dangerous enemy Potter." Lara said, narrowing her eyes.
"Don't start." Hermione snapped. "Okay, and the evil you will be defeating is Voldemort."
"Yes. Which leads me to believe that one of the angels is Potter, because he has to deliver the final blow to Voldemort to kill him. Goodness knows why they're referring to him as an angel, he's further from..."
"Don't finish that sentence." Harry interrupted warningly.
"Who's going to stop me?"
"Okay!" Hermione said, stopping the fight before it grew out of proportion, again. "Harry's probably the angel of light, cause he's good. But who on earth could the child of dark be?"
"I don't know." Lara said, leaning back in the armchair. Hermione pondered the thought for a bit.
"I'll think about it. Anyways, I think it's time we went to bed, are you coming up Lara?"
"Yeah, coming."
"C'ya, nice meeting you by the way, Larissa isn't it?" Ron asked Lara as she rose from her seat.
"Yeah, but just call me Lara. And you're Ronald Weasley. I could spot a Weasley from a mile away." Ron flushed lightly as Lara chuckled. "Don't worry, I think red hair is quite becoming on you." Lara added, before following Hermione up the stairs.
"Thanks for that." Hermione said once the two girls were back in their dorms.
"For what?" Lara asked as she placed her timetable in a thick black book, which Hermione suspected was a diary, and started to change.
"For telling us, about all that. I know it must be hard." Lara shrugged it off.
"Don't mention it." Hermione smiled as she started to change as well.
"Your little boyfriend was pretty quiet though." Hermione flushed lightly.
"He's quite nervous around girls."
"Poor naïve guy. And Potter too. We have to change that." Lara said, grinning.
"How?"
"Don't worry, I'll think of something." Lara said, looking over at her friend and smiling at Hermione in a way the girl recognized, but couldn't place. Where had she seen that smile before?
Only when she was on the brink of sleep did it finally hit her. The smile of Lara's, it wasn't a smile. It was a smirk. Just like Malfoy's.
"Lotus Aurillia." A prefect called over the crowd conjugating around the portrait. The fat lady opened the door and the students filed in.
"The password." Hermione whispered to Lara, who nodded in understanding.
The students went up to their dorms almost immediately, a few casting curious glances at Lara before heading up the stairs. It was only about half an hour before the common room was completely empty except for Harry, Ron and Hermione.
"They're listening too." Harry said firmly, obviously not taking any opposition on the matter.
"Yes, they need to know this too anyways." Lara replied before dumping herself on the couch. Hermione sat herself down next to the girl and the boys each took adjacent arm chairs.
"Start talking." Harry said, as soon as they were comfortable. Lara gave him a short glare before commencing her story.
"You've been told your whole life that you were the only one to survive Voldemort's killing curse." Harry nodded at this. "That's a lie. What you got was only a fraction of the true curse. The real curse, hit me. I had been staying the night at your house because dad had some errands to run for the ministry. That's when Voldemort came. He hadn't come for you or your family. It was me he wanted. He knew the power I had, and he didn't want me to stand in his way once I grew up. So he decided to kill me. He just didn't realize the extent of my power. When he threw the curse, it hit me."
"Where?" Hermione asked.
Lara stood, pulled her shirt up to her stomach and pointed to a thin lightning shaped scar next to her belly button.
"Exactly like yours mate." Ron said, squinting at it.
"I know. The curse refracted off me however, and that's when it hit Harry. It was pretty weak by now, but his mother's love, as Harry already knows, saved him from harm."
"So what happened to you?"
"Dad came to get me. He took me to Dumbledore and asked him to care for me while he sorted a few things out. That's when he killed Peter. That's when he landed himself in jail."
"But what about your mum?" Ron asked. Lara paled slightly at the mention of her mother, but slowed the sadness in her heart and replied.
"Died, same night as Harry's parents. Voldemort went home first, but I wasn't there, mum had just arrived from work. He...t...tortured my whereabouts out of her." Lara stuttered slightly at the thought, a single tear welling up in her eyes but refusing to fall. The trio remained silent for a while.
"But what about all this secret keeper stuff?" Harry asked after a while, still confused as to the identity of this girl.
"Wormtail was the Blacks' secret keeper, not the Potters." Lara said simply.
"So where have you been all these years?"
"Being trained by elite wizards all over the world, kept secret by Dumbledore. He knows I can be used as a weapon against Voldemort, and the less people know about me the better."
"But now?"
"A year ago Voldemort found out my whereabouts and identity. He knew I was coming to Harry's aid the night of his uprising, so he enlisted the help of demons to stop me."
"Did it?"
"No, of course not. But it did prevent me from getting to Harry on time. When I arrived the grave yard was deserted."
"How did you know I would end up there?"
"I had discovered Barty's plan that night, I found some rough plans in his study."
"Okay, so that explains quite a bit. Why did Sirius never mention you?"
"He couldn't, he was sworn to secrecy."
"But I'm his godson, he should've told..."
"I'm his daughter, and my safety was worth not telling you."
"You haven't even been there for him! I have!" Harry yelled, eyes flashing dangerously.
"Haven't been there for him?" Lara echoed as if she couldn't believe her ears. "Haven't been there for him? Excuse me! I've visited him almost every day of my life for the last fourteen years. I've spent the year trying to gather a case to prove his innocence, but not succeeding. I miss him more than anything, and I'm killing myself over the fact that he's suffering and I can't do anything about it!" Lara ranted back, completely out of breath by the end. Harry, tactfully, didn't reply.
"Okay, so we get that. But these powers of yours, what exactly does that involve?" Hermione said, trying to calm Lara down.
"I'm not sure. The conditions of my birth resulted in me having some extraordinary powers. I can perform wandless magic, without incantations, do complicated spells without hesitation, stuff like that."
"And the darks arts?"
"Yes, I can, but only when necessary."
"That's dangerous." Harry cut in.
"I can handle myself." Lara snapped back.
"And so can I, I don't need your help!"
"Wait till you're facing Voldemort next Potter, just you wait. Your mothers little love spell won't save you then, and nor will that scar."
"Leave my mum outta this!" Harry roared, rising out of his seat.
"Then admit you need help!" Lara cried back, rising with him.
"Never!"
"Then go ahead and commit suicide Harry! One less prick in the world for me to deal with!" Lara snapped back. Before she could register what happened, she felt a smarting pain on her cheek and the taste of blood filled her mouth. When she came to her senses, she realized what had happened.
"You hit me! You bastard!" Lara yelled. Before Harry could even reply Lara punched him back in the stomach. Harry bent double, winded by her ferocious punch. He recovered quickly and threw another at Lara. Soon, the two of them were in an all out brawl, beating the absolute hell out of each other.
"Guys! Stop!" Hermione cried hysterically. The two Gryffindors looked up at the bushy haired girl and had the dignity to look ashamed. "What has gotten into you?" She asked both of them. They both simultaneously pointed at each other.
"He started it." Lara snapped.
"I did not!" Harry said indignantly, touching his eye tenderly where a bruise was sure to form the next day and wiping the blood from a cut lip. Lara bore similar injuries.
"Jerk." Lara muttered.
"Seems like those wonderful powers of yours don't extent to wandless fights." Harry snapped back, provoking her. Lara opened her mouth to retaliate, but was silenced by Hermione's glare.
"I'm going to bed." Lara said, instead of the original insult she had intented to voice.
"No, there's still one thing you need to tell us."
"What?"
"The prophecy."
"Oh, that." Lara sighed, hauling herself back onto the couch. "Which one. There's one about Harry, and two about me."
"Say all."
"The one about Harry basically says that he has to kill Voldemort, or Voldemort will kill him. One of them has to happen."
"Simple enough, and expected." Hermione said. "And the others."
"Mine are a bit more complicated. One says that 'the child touched by the darkness,' that's me, 'will fall in love but once in her lifetime, but this love will be greater than all the loves that ever was.'"
"That's interesting."
"It's gay, there's no such things a love."
"That's a very cynical view of life."
"It's just a lot of hormones and chemical reactions."
"You sad, sad child." Harry said, shaking his head slowly.
"Like you'd know Scarhead." The trio went silent at this. "What? Never heard that insult before? I'm surprised cause..."
"No, we have. Draco Malfoy calls him that all the time." Hermione said slowly.
"That death eaters son? So what, it's just an insult."
"True, but it's ironic, because you remind me of him in a lot of ways."
"Gee thanks..."
"Not entirely in a bad way. You're arrogant like him, you think you're Gods gift to the opposite sex, you walk and talk like him..."
"She's a slimy git like him..." Harry added. Lara narrowed her eyes, about to retaliate but was silenced once again by Hermione.
"And the other prophecy?" She said quickly.
"This one's a lot more confusing."
"And the last one wasn't." Ron moaned. He hadn't said much so far in this conversation, as he was more interested in listening than talking.
"Wait till you hear this. 'This child of good and evil shall stand between the angel of light and the angel of dark, and she will lead them unto victory against evil.'"
"So you're the child of good and evil."
"Yes, because I'm the heir to both Slytherin and Gryffindor."
"What?" Hermione cried. "How does that work, Voldemort's supposed to be the last..."
"I know, and he's a liar. There was a union of a Slytherin Man and Gryffindor woman a long time ago that few knew about. I'm the product of that happy couple."
"Sirius?"
"Yes, he is descended from that line."
"So the good and evil both lie in you."
"Yes. I have the heart of goodness but a personality of evil."
"I can second that." Harry muttered.
"Lucky for you it's not the other way around, or you'd have found yourself a very dangerous enemy Potter." Lara said, narrowing her eyes.
"Don't start." Hermione snapped. "Okay, and the evil you will be defeating is Voldemort."
"Yes. Which leads me to believe that one of the angels is Potter, because he has to deliver the final blow to Voldemort to kill him. Goodness knows why they're referring to him as an angel, he's further from..."
"Don't finish that sentence." Harry interrupted warningly.
"Who's going to stop me?"
"Okay!" Hermione said, stopping the fight before it grew out of proportion, again. "Harry's probably the angel of light, cause he's good. But who on earth could the child of dark be?"
"I don't know." Lara said, leaning back in the armchair. Hermione pondered the thought for a bit.
"I'll think about it. Anyways, I think it's time we went to bed, are you coming up Lara?"
"Yeah, coming."
"C'ya, nice meeting you by the way, Larissa isn't it?" Ron asked Lara as she rose from her seat.
"Yeah, but just call me Lara. And you're Ronald Weasley. I could spot a Weasley from a mile away." Ron flushed lightly as Lara chuckled. "Don't worry, I think red hair is quite becoming on you." Lara added, before following Hermione up the stairs.
"Thanks for that." Hermione said once the two girls were back in their dorms.
"For what?" Lara asked as she placed her timetable in a thick black book, which Hermione suspected was a diary, and started to change.
"For telling us, about all that. I know it must be hard." Lara shrugged it off.
"Don't mention it." Hermione smiled as she started to change as well.
"Your little boyfriend was pretty quiet though." Hermione flushed lightly.
"He's quite nervous around girls."
"Poor naïve guy. And Potter too. We have to change that." Lara said, grinning.
"How?"
"Don't worry, I'll think of something." Lara said, looking over at her friend and smiling at Hermione in a way the girl recognized, but couldn't place. Where had she seen that smile before?
Only when she was on the brink of sleep did it finally hit her. The smile of Lara's, it wasn't a smile. It was a smirk. Just like Malfoy's.