"Hey why did you guys leave? We had a blast," said Sirius as all the other Gryiffindors entered the Common Room with wet robes, red noses and tired expressions.
They all went straight to their dormitories; I got up to stretch my legs and took a quick stroll around the tower. When I returned I saw James and Sirius sitting staring at the fire, both of them lost in their own thoughts. I couldn't take the silence anymore.
" Hello? What is up with you two? Are you going to tell me what is going on or not?" I said exasperatedly.
"I guess its time you know, but, not a word about this to anyone," James cautioned.
"Ok, not a word to anyone, but what is going on? Is everything Ok?" I asked worriedly dreading the answer.
"Lily as you know, my parents are Aurors, there have been many rumors of an evil creature who destroys everything that stands for good, especially muggles and muggle-born," James explained as I gasped wondering if this meant what I thought it meant. Sirius went on to explain.
"James just got an owl from his father saying that this creature's latest victim were Liv's parents-"I gasped as I thought about Liv, the tears in my eyes threatened to overflow as James put a protective arm around me.
"And Liv?" I managed to choke out before I broke out into fresh tears.
"Liv thankfully was visiting her friend's house while..this happened," Sirius said in a choked up voice. I could see both James and Sirius were close to tears. We all just sat there huddled together sharing our tears and company.
When I awoke I found myself in my bed, all too quickly I remembered last night's revelation, my eyes got all cloudy I knew I was on the verge of tears and I blinked them back. We had a long day ahead of us; today the students were due back before classes started on Monday. I was to meet the boys in the common room, when I got down there, both of them were lost in their thoughts with very somber expressions on their faces, together we walked down to the Great Hall. But before we got there Professor Dumbledore beckoned us away from the Great Hall. We followed him down a corridor where he stopped in front of a stone gargoyle.
"Chocolate Frog," he said absentmindedly as the gargoyle sprang to life and the wall behind it split in two revealing a cylindrical escalator, we stepped on and it rose upwards. Dumbledore lead us through huge oak doors and we entered a spacious office, which looked more like a living room. Next to Dumbledore's desk was a perch and perched on it was a beautiful red and gold bird with long tail feathers and his proud eyes examining each of us. Dumbledore must have caught me looking at the bird so curiously.
"This is Fawkes, a phoenix, the most faithful pet you will ever have," he said introducing this magnificent creature. Then he motioned us to sit down.
"I'm afraid I have some bad news for all of you, it is about your friend Olivia Parker," Dumbledore explained.
"Sir, we know, Mr. Potter told James," Sirius replied in a low voice.
"Oh, that's right, now that you know, I am sure you also now how this happened," he said and we just nodded.
"Well then I just wanted to inform you all first about this unfortunate incident and also ask you to please not to spread word about how this happened. I believe in telling the truth and soon everyone will know but until then please keep this to yourselves," Dumbledore said.
Right then I thought how are we going to keep this secret from Remus and the others. Dumbledore probably read my mind because then he said "Of course, Olivia needs all the comfort she can get right now so your group of close friends may know about this as well, but remember it's a secret. We nodded and headed out of Dumbledore's office and towards the Great Hall. Just as we were about to go in we saw a carriage pulling up to the Hogwarts entrance, a girl got off the carriage and headed towards us. As she came closer I saw that she had brilliant black hair that hadn't been washed nor combed for days, her head was low as she walked up to the entrance. She lifted up her head as if she sensed our presence and I saw that angelic face that I knew for so long but yet couldn't recognize it.
I could not believe it, this girl was Liv. I ran up to her and gave her hug, which soon turned into a group hug as James and Sirius joined us. Liv didn't even respond she was just there like as if in a trance, we led her up to our common room and to our dormitory. I felt so helpless as I saw Liv just staring off into space, probably thinking that this was somehow her fault. I wiped the tears that were threatening to roll down my cheeks, I was her friend and right now she needed my help and I was not gonna let her down now. With the help of the boys we got Liv to her bed and propped her up, I put a cold clothe on her forehead and let he close her eyes. Soon the exhaustion took over her and she was asleep. We then went down to the common room where, Remus, Peter, Jenny, and Nimi were sitting in front of the fire looking very worried.