"Can I borrow your invisibility cloak?" Elizabeth asked, a couple days after the Hogsmeade trip. It was late at night, and everyone was supposed to be sleeping.
"Why?" replied Harry.
"Because I left something somewhere and I need to get it back."
"I'm not going to let you borrow it if you're going to give me generalities."
Elizabeth took a deep breath to control her anger. "You know that letter from my parents about the locket?"
Harry nodded, waiting for the rest of the explanation.
"Well…I sort of…lost it…in…the Shrieking Shack," she trailed, looking to the ground like a little child that had been caught doing something bad.
"You what? How'd you get there in the first place?" Ron asked.
"I…took the cloak while you were sleeping. I only borrowed it without permission, and put it back in its proper place when I was done…"
"Wait a minute. When did you lose the letter?" questioned Harry.
"Right before the attack." Elizabeth's eyes were apologetic.
"You idiot! And they wonder why dementors attacked the school!" Harry exclaimed suddenly.
"What are you talking about?"
"Elizabeth, the dementors attacked the school to find your locket and our flowers. How'd they know they were here? That letter you lost in the Shrieking Shack. Absolutely brilliant," he finished sarcastically.
"Hey! They would have found me here anyway! Look, maybe by just showing them to come here, maybe that saved the rest of my family from the Kiss, you know? And I am not an idiot, I just made one mistake," she said.
"One mistake that cost lives! Never become an Auror."
"Let me have the chance to get it back before someone else chooses to attack Hogwarts, not knowing whether or not the dementors have what they came for," she requested.
Harry thought about it for a minute. "Alright, but I'm going with you."
"Me, too," added Ron.
"No. We're not going to get caught up in some crazy adventure this time. Just in, and out, and we'll be back in no time. I'm going simply because no one would know if something happened to her, if she were alone."
"What shall I tell the professors if you're caught out of your beds?" asked Ron.
"Just tell them we left and didn't tell you where we were going," Elizabeth answered.
"That's going to be embarrassing for the both of you." He laughed at the blush that played on both their cheeks.
Harry and Elizabeth left the castle silently. When they were in close proximity to the Whomping Willow, Elizabeth transformed and pressed the knot. As they stepped into the Shrieking Shack ten minutes later, they dropped the cloak.
"It was right here…" Elizabeth muttered to herself. "Got it." She held up the paper before folding it and putting it in her pocket.
"Let's go. This place brings back too many memories."
They went back through the tunnel. "I'll go out first to see if anyone's out there. They probably aren't, but you never know when Hagrid wants to take a midnight stroll," explained Harry.
"Right."
He put the cloak on and stepped outside. He looked around for a moment, and then discovered that he couldn't move.
(A/N: Should I end it here? It would make a rather nice cliffy…ah but whatever…I'll keep going…)
A wall of black surrounded Harry.
"Ennervate," said the strangely high-pitched voice Harry knew so well.
Harry looked around again, and was surprised to find a few things that weren't there before he was stunned. There were wooden posts that had ledges on them that seemed to be for tying people up on them. How did he know this?
For one, a werewolf that Harry instantly recognized as Remus Lupin was tied to one of said posts. There were two more right next to him.
Before Harry knew what he was doing, he had sent red sparks into the sky. And cursed to himself when Voldemort laughed at him.
"There is no escape this time, Harry. There is a barrier around Hogwarts Castle that will keep all humans inside, or outside." Voldemort paused and scanned his followers. "Wormtail, tie Harry to that post by the werewolf."
As Harry was being attached, he noticed four cauldrons. One held what Snape classified as the Stomach Stopper. The next one had an unknown substance. It looked like liquid smoke. Another one was a pleasant green color. The last one was empty and over a fire. In the sky, Harry happened to see a glimmer of silver. Hope arose in his chest. "Who's there?" he asked in Parseltongue. Then he almost smacked himself in the head. Of course he knew who it was.
"Jusssst little ol' me," a voice answered. Harry had known it was Elizabeth.
"Go get help!" Harry warned, still in Parseltongue.
He had no idea whether or not Voldemort knew about Elizabeth's new form.
Voldemort looked at Harry. "Who is this strange creature you're talking to? A helping hand? Or just a passing garter snake?" he asked menacingly. "Who are you?" he questioned in Parseltongue.
"Don't tell him!" screamed Harry.
"Tell me, or Harry Potter dies." It was that tone of voice that scared Elizabeth. It was soft, deadly, and frighteningly sincere.
She turned human and made her way into the circle, despite Harry's alarm. Glaring up at Voldemort, she replied quietly, "I am Elizabeth Pentillo." She stood there, waiting for him to say, "Kill her," or to just kill her himself, but no such thing happened.
"Wormtail, this is what the other post was for. Tie her to it!" he commanded quickly. Excitement was in his voice. When she was on it, Voldemort said, "Lethargus," and Elizabeth fell into a trance.
"What have you done to her?" Harry asked angrily. Her arm was held into an agonizing position with the outside of her left wrist pointing to the sky.
"Oh, she'll be fine until the process is complete."
Harry had to squint to block out some of the moon's light, as it was glaringly bright. He watched as Wormtail poured the Stomach Stopper into Elizabeth's mouth. He waited a few minutes, and then made her drink the liquid smoke. Harry watched in disgust as Elizabeth subconsciously chewed and swallowed the second potion.
Lupin was stirring and growling in contempt at Voldemort. Harry guessed that he had taken his Wolfsbane potion that night.
"A few more minutes and it will have begun. I guess I should explain why you're here, Mr. Lupin." The werewolf snarled in agreement. "A long time ago, an ancient tribe, most famous for its cynical views on the world, created a potion called the Annullius Perosus, or the Hate Destroyer, to make the world a better place. They knew there would be a time when love would no longer exist in the world and the potion they created was designed to rid the world of evil. It took a lot, and all of it had to take place under a full moon. Of course, the maker of the potion chose who to save and who not to.
"The starting potion has to be so well mixed that only a human stomach can make it that blended. That's why they outlawed the Stomach Stopper. They thought that if they did that, that would stop the potion from being brewed. Well, as you can see, laws seem to simply bounce off me.
"The Annullius Perosus needed werewolf's hair, and the werewolf had to be my enemy. In the aborigines' days, finding a werewolf who was an enemy was no problem, as the aborigines were generally good people, and werewolves are considered evil. So, I had to find a good werewolf. Lupin, you really are a sap. I could've given you anything! But he hates me because of his friends. One betrayed him, the other two are dead. Tragic, isn't it? How one little girl's grandmother and a fraud of a seer could destroy so many innocent lives." Apprehension dawned on Harry. 'Of course!' he thought, 'Latronis must have been his greatest follower. So when he died, Voldemort went on a rampage. He put two and two together and came after me and my parents first, killing two birds with one stone.'
"Once the Annullius Perosus has been properly mixed, the potion calls for one of my enemies with a curse scar that that enemy got from either me or one of my followers. Harry Potter was my first choice, before I found an error. Watch," he said. The moon hit the exact place, and a narrow beam of light shot to Elizabeth's left wrist. Elizabeth's eyes opened subconsciously to let the light out (that was one of the side effects of the potion to make it harder to create). Elizabeth's brown eyes became silver, but no light escaped.
"You see, if I had used Harry Potter, the light would have escaped through his irises, which don't have enough pigment to keep the light inside," Voldemort explained. "I had to use someone with dark eyes." After a few moments, Voldemort said, "Eructo," and that made Elizabeth retch into the empty cauldron. The potion was now a dark purple. Voldemort put the cauldron on the fire and told Wormtail to tend it.
When Elizabeth regained consciousness she suddenly felt a ripping sting in her left hand. She tried twisting it to make it feel better, but only succeeding in producing a snap from her wrist. She also awoke to a man inches in front of her face.
(A/N: There, now I'll end it…The next one might be quick in coming, I wanna get it out!!!!
Amber: Hope you made it this far. What's your exact pen name? I want to read your story, but did you know there are 159 pen names with Amber in them? I only checked six, and you weren't any of them. Oh well…Hope you enjoy the rest of the fic!)