Author's Note: Certain portions of this chapter contain adult language and ideas. If you can't handle them, I apologize. If you think I crossed the line, feel free to take it up with me personally at fryingpans@phoenixsong.net. I'd be more than happy to discuss it with you.

Chapter Twelve: Delia and Jessica

Delia found that she didn't want to open her eyes. She was sure that if she opened them, there would be light -- demanding, harsh, unforgiving light. Light that she didn't want to face.

She couldn't remember what happened. She did, however, remember that something had gone wrong. The urge to discover whether her friends were okay or not drove her to finally open her eyes.

"Ah, so you've decided to come around," a soft male voice with a Scottish accent whispered to her. "There's a good lass."

The voice made her feel warm and comfortable. Safe. She smiled as her eyes tried to bring the world back into focus. "Who are you?" she asked weakly, once she could work her mouth again.

"My name is Ian. You're in the hospital wing here at Hogwarts."

Delia nodded slowly. "Are you…?"

"I'm a third year," Ian said, a slow grin covering his face. "Madam Pomfrey is training me, in place of Divination or Care of Magical Creatures."

"My friends!" Delia suddenly tried to sit up, as she had just remembered why she'd woken up in the first place. "Where is Gareth?"

"Relax, lass, it's quite late, you know. They had to leave for supper."

"What about Gus?" She felt a bit relieved.

Ian looked blank. "Gus? There was only the two Potter boys, their sister, and your brother when they brought you."

"Oh, okay," she murmured. "Listen, I'm just going to lie here for a while."

Ian chuckled. "I understand. Madam Pomfrey will be here when you awake."

"Thank you, Ian."

"You're welcome, lass."

It seemed that she had just returned to the land of winkin', blinkin' and nod when there was a quiet thump from the opposite end of the hospital wing. Delia woke instantly.

"Who's there?"

"It's just me," a saucy voice answered her. "Don't worry about a thing."

"Why can't I see you?"

Jessica threw off the Invisibility Cloak with a flourish and stood before Delia with mischief shining in her green eyes. "I borrowed an old… artifact from my father's school days. My real father." 

Delia nodded. "I knew who you meant."

"The boys don't know I've come to see you."

Delia giggled. "Oh, what fun! I think Madam Pomfrey wants me to stay here until morning."

"Of course she does! You scared me to death, you know. Girls are a precious enough commodity in our little group of friends." Jessica winked one eye at Delia. "Now, tell me about that absolutely adorable aide that was attending to you earlier."

"Jessica," Delia protested weakly.

"Well, he was cute," Jessica said defensively. "And he did spend a good deal of time talking to you."

Delia closed her eyes. "It wasn't anything. What happened to Gus?"

Jessica grinned so wide her face nearly split.

"What happened?" Delia tried to rise up, eager to see what amused her friend so.

"Lie back down or I won't tell you a single thing. I swear it."

Delia puffed her fringe out of her eyes with a single stream of breath. "All right. Now, tell me what happened."

Jessica leaned forward on her elbows, which she placed on Delia's bedside, and began to chuckle. "Oh, it was too funny.

"James, Mick, and Gareth all decided it would be too conspicuous to have a house-elf following us around everywhere we go, so before we brought you up here, we had to figure out what to do with him until we can get this thing all sorted out.

"James told us to go on ahead up here with you. He knew just where to hide our good Mr. Gruthersford."

Delia once again tried to sit up, but Jessica pushed her back firmly. "Stay right where you are."

"Yes, Mum," Delia muttered.

"Do you know the story about Moaning Myrtle?" Jessica asked Delia, quite seriously.

"Mick told me a bit the other day," Delia admitted. "What's that got to do with Gus… oh, no! He didn't!"

Jessica tried to hold back her laughter so they wouldn't be caught, so her eyes started to overflow with tears as she nodded. "Mr. Gruthersford will spending some time getting to know Myrtle. At least until we can get you down there and work out what's what."

Delia smiled. "That will certainly test his loyalty."

Jessica nodded, and they began to giggle together, and then the sound of a door creaking open interrupted them. They both paused immediately, not making any motions.

"I've got to get out of here," Jessica whispered to Delia.

"Go quickly," Delia whispered back. "I don't want you to get caught."

Delia watched anxiously as Jessica slipped on the Invisibility Cloak and crept out the door.

**

Jessica checked the map carefully before she stepped out in the corridor. There wasn't anyone to be seen, but she looked both ways, just to be sure. She had a feeling one of the adults in her life might have modified the map so it would be on their side, rather than the children's.

She really wasn't tired, and the next day she didn't have class… there really wasn't any reason why she should go back to her bed right away. With a chuckle, Jessica folded the map and put in her pocket, and set about exploring.

Jessica had been wandering for some time when she heard quiet voices just behind her. It only took a moment for her to recognize them.

"Professor Snape. How nice to see you."  The first voice was young, quiet, and somehow well bred.

"Lupin," the second voice practically sneered, oily in its rhythm. "A bit late for you to be out, don't you think?"

"No, I'm afraid not," Orion replied, amusement on the fringes of his voice.

"I'm sorry, I quite forgot, you're a professor now. Here I was, preparing to give you a detention."

"I rather think it's a bit late for that, don't you, Severus?"

Jessica could hear the strangled sound that Snape made in the back of his throat at Orion's usage of his first name, and she stuffed her fist in her mouth. She couldn't move now. Firstly, this was too entertaining, and secondly, to move would mean sure detection. Listening to the rest of the conversation was her only option.

"Yes, yes it is, Mr. Lupin. It's quite obvious that nobody on the board of directors cares for my opinion, either, otherwise you wouldn't be here at all."

"Perhaps, Severus, if you weren't so prejudiced against everything having to do with James Potter, the board of directors would be more likely to believe that you only had the school's best interest in mind. Besides, I'm the only Seer around. You don't want another pretender teaching the school Divination, do you?"

"Watch your mouth, boy."

"I've spent a great deal of my life doing just that, sir. However, when it comes to the Potter children, I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to do so."

"Are you suggesting something, Lupin?"

"I'm not suggesting anything, Severus, I'm not even implying. I'm telling you, straight to your face, that those Potter children have been through enough in their life. I would suggest you be as fair to them as possible."

"I've never been anything but fair to any of my students."

Orion's tone was gentle. "You would see it that way, wouldn't you, Severus?"

"You're not making any sense, Lupin."

"James Potter is dead. Harry is older than James was when James died. Don't you think it's about bloody time you stopped punishing him?"

"You have no right to speak to me that way!"

"You have no right to look down on me because my father hung out with James, or because my mother wouldn't date you."

Jessica peered around the corner and watched Severus's face lose all its color.

"You don't know anything about that."

"Of course not, Severus. Then again, it's hard to tell what I might really know, isn't it? When you've got a living Pensive walking around, you never know if your memories are safe, do you?"

Severus took a step back. "You've got too many morals to looking into scenes from the past you've no business looking into."

Orion chuckled harshly. "My morals have nothing to do with, Severus. I suddenly see what you've failed to understand. I don't have a bloody choice. I never have, and I can't stop myself from Seeing what I don't want to See."

"Can't you just stop it?" Severus was sounding a little desperate.

"The second you can figure it out, you let me know," Orion leaned back against the wall, and looked directly at Jessica. If she hadn't been wearing the Invisibility Cloak, she would have sworn he saw her.

Snape suddenly drew himself up. "It doesn't matter, Lupin. You can't prove a thing, and I've never treated any of the Potter children any differently than I would anyone else."

"Good. You can leave Jessica alone, too."

Snape turned quickly towards him. "Watch yourself, Lupin. You don't want to step over the line."

"I don't think there's much danger in me doing that, Severus."

"Besides, Jessica's not really a Potter. She's the daughter of that excuse for a Slytherin, Draco Malfoy, and a Muggle, for heaven's sake."

"Nobody knows for sure what Cassandra was, Severus, and besides, she's a Potter at heart."

" 'Potter at heart.' Bah. Bloodlines count, whether you Gryffindors want to accept it or not."

"That's a rather antiquated point of view, don't you think?" Orion shot back at him.

"Muggle scientists have recently taken to discussing these things called 'genes', Professor Lupin--something we wizards and witches have known about for a long time. These genes shape all our characteristics, including our personalities. You get your genes from your parents, Professor Lupin. Not the ones that raised you, the ones that gave you life."

"That's exactly the sort of philosophy that got Salazar Slytherin removed from Hogwarts, Professor Snape."

"Is it now?"

"It is."

"Yet, you don't deny that she was indeed Draco Malfoy's bastard, a man that those who love you despised, the child of a monster."

"You see, Severus, that is where you and I disagree." Orion's cultured, even voice cut through Snape's almost desperate one. "It's quite one thing to be a child of a monster. It's another entirely to be a monster. I bid you good night."

The two men separated, and where words had once filled the air of the corridor, silence replaced it, and the oxygen thickened around Jessica.

The child of a monster.

Draco Malfoy's bastard.

You Gryffindors.

A monster's bastard.

Suddenly, Jessica couldn't stand the voices any longer. Without any regard for who or what could be in the corridor with her, she took off running.

The tears in her eyes made colors blend together, but she wasn't paying attention to what she could see. There was only the feeling of her feet hitting the corridor floor and the rhythm of her breathing falling somewhere in between each step.

Soon, the pounding in her ears drowned out all outside sound. She could only hear her heart beat, pushing blood to all the systems of her body.

A monster's bastard.

Maybe Snape was right. Maybe she wasn't really a Potter. Perhaps she didn't deserve to even have the name Potter. She would turn out to be a monster like her father.

Nobody knows what Cassandra was…

Nobody knew what her mother was… perhaps there was some redeemable quality there. Her mind quickly ruled that out. Nobody ever spoke of this Cassandra woman in flattering terms. How could they?

A monster's bastard.

She was vaguely aware of passing the Gryffindor common room as she flew down the corridor at a speed she was certain not even the Roman gods had achieved.

Some part of her thought that she could run these, these, genes out of her body, these things that made her wrong, if she could only go faster, faster, and faster.

She was panting, desperately trying to fill her lungs with air when she realized a presence behind her.

Suddenly, there was a soothing hand on her back. Jessica felt as though she were on fire, with no sign of water in sight. Her stomach threatened to rebel against the unusual exercise.

"Breathe. Don't worry about anything else just now. Take a calming breath," a vaguely familiar voice instructed her.

"I… I can't get air," Jessica gasped.

"That's because you're trying to hard. Breathe in through your nose, now. Come on, there's a good girl. No, don't try to talk. Just breathe."

Drawing a shaky breath, Jessica finally rose to her full height again. "A…Aunt Hermione?"

**

A/N: Did anyone catch the J.D. Robb reference?

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