A/N- this is CHAPTER 4 of Erika, which I know needs a new title. If you have any suggestions, I will gladly take them. Erika and Megan got sorted in the last chap, now for the feast, first night, and possibly the first few days. OK, is anyone still confused with the whole Ruth-Megan thing? Huh? Well, if you are, just tell me in your review, and I'll try to better explain it without giving away the entire plot. Well, I'm done now. REVIEW!

Disclaimer- I own nothing at all. Nada. It belongs to the great Harry Potter people.



Erika



I slipped the hat off my head and sighed in relief. The Gryffindors burst into clapping, and I slid into the seat beside Megan. Another one of the first year girls turned to look at me.

"Potter?" she asked, "Are you, like, related to THE Harry Potter?"

I noticed she emphasized "the."

"I'm his sister," I answered.

She laughed, "Very funny, he doesn't have a sister."

Another girl slid into the seat across from us.

"Who are you talking to, Avery?" she asked.

"This girl's claiming to be Harry Potter's sister," the girl- Avery- answered, motioning to me.

"Oh, come off it, you don't think we're stupid do you? Harry Potter doesn't have a sister. He's an only child, everyone knows that," the other girl said.

I rolled my eyes, and turned to Megan to watch the rest of the sorting.

At the end of the sorting, Professor Dumbledore, who Harry had pointed out to me on a card he had, stood up.

"Now, on with the feast. A few words, dibble, noch, skeel!"

We looked down at the plates before us, which suddenly filled with foods of all kinds. We let out a delighted cry, and started to eat.

I flatly ignored the two girls who had spoken to me before, who were now joined by another girl.

I realized that just down the table from us was seated a tall man, who looked, rather, er. transparent.

"Is that a ghost?" I asked Megan, poking her.

She looked, and nodded, "That's a ghost, alright. But most ghosts are friendly, don't worry about it."

At the end, Dumbledore stood up again.

"Now, before you go off to bed, let me give out a few announcements. I would like to inform that Mr. Filch would like to, once again, remind you that you are to respect the castle and the things in it. Also, I would like to remind our returning students, as well as inform our new ones, that the forrest on the grounds is forbidden to everyone unless by special cirumstance and written permission from me. Lastly, I would like to ask you all that while you are attending this school, to put all thoughts of what is happening in the outside world out of your head and concentrate on the task before you, become well educated witches and wizards," Dumbledore announced. "Now, house prefects, please lead your houses to bed."

There was commotion in the Great Hall as everyone started towards the doors.

"Gryffindors! Gryffindors, this way!" Harry yelled.

"Come along!" Hermione shouted.

They led us up some stairs, through hallways, doors, hidden doors, more stairs, and through so many passageways I was sure I'd lose my way in an instant. Finally, we reached a portrait, and all commotion seemed to stop.

"This is the enterance to the Gryffindor tower. The password is 'hubble', which is very important. You must remember the password, or you will not be able to enter the tower," Hermione shouted over the talking of the Gryffindors.

The portrait swung open, and we climbed in.

We were now standing in a huge, warm, room. There were chairs, tables, couches, and armchairs spread out throughout the room, with a huge fire burning in the fireplace. It was mostly red and gold.

"Alright, boys are up those stairs and girls up those," Harry said.

Everyone started filing up the stairs.

I waved to Harry, and followed Megan and the other girls up.

"Wow, look at these rooms," one of them cried, "They're so pretty!"

I soon knew all their names. One of them was Avery Hide, another was Jewel Morgan, and another was Lucy Presett. Lucy was the one who had been talking to Avery at dinner, and Jewel had been sitting with them as well.

"Megan Dere?" Lucy asked, "I've never heard of a Dere in Hogwarts. Are you muggle-born."

"No," Megan answered, "My parents are full-blood."

She looked pale and quiet.

"Well," I said, throwing myself on the bed to get Megan out of the spotlight, "I'm tired."

"Oh, stop being a show-off, Erika," Avery said, and Lucy left Megan to go talk to Avery and Jewel.

"Thank you," Megan mouthed, and sat down on the bed next to me, in the corner, that she had claimed for her own.

"I'm going to go to bed now, I'm stuffed," I said.

Megan nodded in agreement.

"You know, Megan, I think we're going to become really good friends," I told her.



* * *

"Master, I bring you news," asked a figure, walking into a dimly lit room.

"What is it?" Voldemort sneered, "Wormtail, you never bring much news. This had better be good."

The girl beside Voldemort glared at Wormtail.

"It's about the Sorting at Hogwarts, Master," Wormtail answered.

"Oh, do tell," Voldemort hissed.

The girl fixed her attention on Wormtail, eager to hear about what had happened at the Sorting, but not showing her emotion.

Emotion was dangerous in her grandfather's house.

"The girl you were informed of early, who was with Harry Potter at Diagon Alley, her name is Erika Potter," Wormtail offered.

Voldemort sat back in his chair once more, "So the stories are true then. This girl, this Erika Potter, she is Harry Potter's sister."

Wormtail stood fixed on his Master, but he wavered. Harry Potter has a sister? Even the girl beside Voldemort wavered a bit in her stance. But she regained it quickly.

"What other news do you bring?" Voldemort asked.

Wormtail hesitated, but said, "Sources in Hogwarts tell me that Megan Riddle is going as Megan Dere."

"Her mother's name," the girl beside Voldemort hissed.

"Also, she was sorted into Gryffindor," Wormtail said, and cringed.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the girl exploded, "GRYFFINDOR! Oh, that swine! That good for nothing swine!"

"Contain yourself," Voldemort hissed at her, his eyes glaring at her.

She cringed, but nodded, "Yes, Master."

"Since you are full of hate for Megan, it will be your duty to do away with her," Voldemort said, "As well as Harry Potter and Erika Potter. I want them dead by the end of the year, all three of them."

The girl nodded, "I will do as you wish, Master."

"Good. Now, leave me, both of you," Voldemort yelled.

Wormtail and the girl left. As Wormtail went to leave, Megan pushed him against the wall.

"Wormtail, what sources told you that Megan was sorted into Gryffindor?" the girl shouted.

Wormtail shook beneath the girl's death grip.

"WHO YOU WORTHLESS PIG? TELL ME NOW!" she yelled.

Wormtail spit out the name. The girl glared at him.

"She is a disgrace," the girl yelled.

She spit at Wormtail, and said, "I never did like you, Wormtail. Neither did my father. I don't know what my master sees in you."

With that, she pushed him up against the wall one more time, let go, and walked away.

Wormtail watched her retreating back.

A good heir she would make. She was exactly like her grandfather, her master, Voldemort, cold, cruel, and heartless. As a younger child, it seemed her only cares in the world were being favored, and Megan. Megan had been her pet as a young child. Wormtail had seen little of them as children. They rarely ever were allowed to appear to others, and were kept locked away in the far chambers of the castle. Lately, she had been appearing more and more. And, frankly, Wormtai was scared of her.



* * * That night As told by Megan Alhide Dere Riddle



I woke late at night. Everyone else was asleep, and it was pitch black. I almost cried out, and wondered if I had screamed in my sleep. No one stirred, though. If I had, they had slept through it. I wiped my face. I was sweating, and warm. I sighed, and tried to breathe easier. But I couldn't. I kept hearing Ruth's voice in my head.

"My pet. my favored. you could have been. great. powerful. feared. Megan, don't you want to be all those things?"

She had been known to whisper that to me many times. I could remember all my answers.

As a young child I would say, "Yes, Ruth."

"My good little pet." Ruth would respond.

But after my change in heart, I would always tell her no. It would only cause her to get mad at me, throw things at me, hit me, curse me, or sometimes, all of those things. Ruth had no patience, and her temper was enough to make the world quake. Many times I had been afraid to fall asleep at night, fearful that Ruth would kill me as I slept. Ruth was one to be feared. She wanted power more than anything. As a younger child, she had struggled to be noticed. No one was spoiled in our house. We were allowed no fire, and lived in the cold, with only our robes for heat. However, Grandfather noticed her. Grandfather named Ruth as his heir. He chose her. She was now allowed more pleasures, better food, more drink, small things.

She often enticed me with them. She said that I could have all those things. I was her only full sister, I could be her favorite. If only I would turn back to her side, the darker side. She would threaten me, anything to make me change. Then, that one day, that beautiful, wonderful day, Ruth had gotten mad at me again.

We were in her room. A small fire was burning in the fireplace (another one of Ruth's pleasures). Ruth got so mad at me, she threw a vase at me, used "Crucio" more than once. At my luck, the vase had held some precious Floo Powder (Grandfather had connections at the Ministry, so we were connected to the Floo Network, but no one knew). I grabbed some. When Ruth pushed me into the fire, I threw the Floo Powder in behind me, and whispered, "Digaon Alley." And I was off.

When I had reached Diagon Alley, I had wandered around until I had found help. That first night was the scariest night of my life. I was sure they'd come for me. They never did.

"It's only a matter of time, dear sister. Then, we will have you once again," I heard Ruth's voice in my head again.

I shuttered.

I vowed not to fall asleep again that night, for fear the dreams and nightmares that awaited me there. Cursed sleep!

But just before dawn, I fell asleep again, dreaming of them capturing me on a broom. Ruth's face looming in front of me, threatening me, then turning the next second and saying I was her favorite.



* * * That morning As told by Erika Potter

"Megan! Megan, wake up! It's morning!" I shouted, pulling Megan's curtains open.

Megan was still asleep (how, I have no idea, Avery had woke just about everyone else up when she fell out of the bed), her hands gripping the blanket in a death grip.

"Megan!" I shouted, shaking her.

Megan screamed, causing the attention of everyone in the room to turn to her. She lept out of bed and ran to the window.

"Megan?" I asked, "Are you alright?"

She looked frantically out the window, and let out a sigh. She turned around, and smiled weakly.

"I'm fine," she whispered.

I nodded, and smiled, "First day of classes. Are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Megan answered.

I grinned.

"Come on, get dressed, we're going to be late for breakfast," I said, and went to see if I could wrestle Avery, Jewel, and Lucy away from the mirror for a split second.

They handed out our schedules at breakfast.

"We have Defense Against the Dark Arts first," I said, "With only Gryffindors."

"Who's the teacher?" Harry asked from behind me.

I turned around to see Harry, Ron, and Hermione standing behind me.

"Late, are we?" I asked.

"Oh, come off it, Erika. Who's the teacher?" Harry repeated.

I looked down at the schedule, and read, "All it says is 'A. Jones'. Were they here last year."

"Nope," Harry said.

"That must be her, up there," Hermione said, pointing to a teacher, "Next to Flitwick."

I didn't know who Flitwick was, but I followed Hermione's finger to a teacher with short black hair, wearing dark purple robes.

"We don't have her until tommorrow," Ron said.

"Tell us what's she's like," Harry instructed, and they went to leave.

"Uh. Mr. Harry Potter?"

We all turned to see Lucy standing up, obviously by the order of Avery and Jewel.

"Yeah?" Harry asked.

Lucy turned red, and said, "Er. Erika's been telling us that you're her brother."

"So?" Harry asked.

"Well, she's lying, right?" Lucy asked, "She is lying isn't she?"

"No," Harry answered, "I'm her older brother."

Lucy was speechless. Avery and Jewel's jaws dropped. Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked away.

"Don't trust me, eh?" I asked, grinning at them.

Silence.

I laughed.

Megan and I left breakfast early to see if we could find the classroom. It took us a while, but we figured it out. We were five minutes early.

Professor Jones was already there, sitting at a desk in the room, just looking around. When we entered, she looked up.

"Aren't you early?" she asked with a smile on her face.

I felt strange, like I had seen her somewhere before.

"We wanted to make sure we could find the class," I answered, and put a smile on my face.

Her smile faltered, but she smiled back, "Well, you can sit wherever you like."

She got out of her seat, and went up front. Megan sat down where she had been sitting, and I sat down next to her.

A few minutes later, more students started to filter in, and took their seats, waiting for the class to begin.



* * * Same time As told by Anya Jones

I didn't think I could do it. I turned around to face the blackboard, and let out a deep breath.

She was sitting in her seat. Erika, the daughter of my best friend, was sitting in my best friend's seat, her mother's seat.

I could still remember when we were at Hogwarts, in this very classroom, talking, waiting for class to start. The boys throwing things around the room, us giggling at them. Now. they were gone, almost all of them. Lily, James, Andrea, Netta. only Remus I still talked to. Sirius, curse the name, was gone. Peter, too, was missing, said to be dead at Sirius' wand. It had recently been announced that Peter was alive, but they said nothing about Sirius. Curse him.



* * * Same time As told by Erika Potter

The chimes rang, and Professor Jones spun around on her heel, and smiled at us.

She did look relatively young, compared to most of the other teachers I'd seen so far (mostly in the Great Hall). She smiled at us.

"Alright, before we begin, I'm sure you all know that I'm your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Jones. You lot must be the First Year Gryffindors," she said.

We all looked at her.

She sighed, and smiled again, "I was in Gryffindor, too, not long ago. But, besides that, in this classroom, I will teach you everything you need to know about defending yourself against dark curses, just in case you will ever need to."

Everyone exchanged glances.

"Alright, I hope everyone has at least looked through the books you were to buy for school," Professor Jones said, "Just to see where we are, I'm going to ask a few questions. Okay, who can tell me what a. limbergran is?"

I searched my mind for any memory of limbergran in some of the books I'd started reading (either while sitting in Harry's closet, or otherwise).

Limbergran. a potion. for. repeling?

"Anyone?" Professor Jones asked, sitting down on her desk.

I raised my hands.

"Miss Potter?" Professor Jones called on me, not missing a beat.

"It's a potion, for repeling," I said, not quite sure if I was right.

Professor Jones nodded, "That's right."

I sighed, and exchanged a relaxed look with Megan. We looked forward again, as Professor Jones asked more questions.

We spent the rest of the class answering more questions and starting our first unit.

"That was fun," I said, as we walked out of DADA, "What do we have next?"

"Charms," Megan answered.

Charms turned out to be pretty funny, since Avery, Jewel, and Lucy couldn't get over the fact that our teacher was half our size and had to stand on a stack of books to talk to us.



"So, what's Professor Jones like?" Harry asked when Megan and I walked into the common room after dinner that evening.

"She's cool," I answered, "And really nice."

Megan nodded in response.

"I hope so. Knight to E5," Ron said from where he was sitting on the floor, playing chess with Hermione.

I watched as Ron's knight went over and knocked one of Hermione's pawns off the board.

"Whoa," I whispered.

"What?" Megan asked, then saw where I was looking, "Oh, wizard's chess."

"It's not at all like normal chess," I said.

Megan grinned, "No, it's not. I used to play, I haven't played in a long time, though."

Hermione turned to look at us, "You can play against him, if you want. I've just about been beat."

"She's a sore loser," Ron whispered.

"I'll try," Megan offered, "I used to be really good at it."

"Good luck, then. You'll need it. Ron's beaten just about everyone in the tower at this game," Hermione said, and stood up.



It was getting late, and Ron and Megan were still playing chess. Neither had won yet.

"How long will this take, Megan? I've done all my homework, and I'm starting to fall asleep," I compained from the armchair, "Nearly everyone's gone off to bed."

"Not long, I've nearly got him," Megan answered, raptured in the game.

"No, you don't," Ron protested, taking one of Megan's knights, "Ha. Now I have your knight. Completely missed that one, didn't you?"

Megan grinned slyly, "Not at all. I knew you wouldn't be able to pass up the chance to steal my rook, which leaves your queen competely protectionless for my bishop to steal away."

With that, she took his Queen.

"Oh, come off it, you both," Hermione said, "I'm going up to bed."

"Me too," I told them, "Before I fall asleep. And Megan, please don't wake me up when you come in."

Megan nodded, and returned the game.

I went upstairs and crawled into bed (Avery, Jewel, and Lucy were already asleep).

I waited a few minutes for Megan, but she didn't come up.



"How late were you up until?" I asked the next morning at breakfast, "I didn't hear you come in."

"Oh, I was quiet, so I wouldn't wake you," Megan answered, and yawned, "But I beat him."

"Really? How long did it take?" I asked.

Megan thought for a second, "Until about three thirty."

"Three thirty? Are you bloody mad?" I cried.

"Not at all," Megan answered, "Just tired."

"You'd better wake up. We have Potions first, with Professor Snape. From what Harry's told me, he's not the best choice to fall asleep in his class," I said.

"Snape?" Megan looked up from her plate, "Did you say 'Snape?'"

I sighed, "Yes, I did. Now, wake up!"

Megan nodded.

We got to the Potion's room (which was in the dungeon, and COLD) before the chimes, which was good. From what Harry told me, I decided to sit in the back. Megan gladly joined me (she looked just about ready to fall asleep).

The door opened and a tall man strode into the room. The first thing I noticed was that he was dressed entirely in black, and his hair was greasy ("ugh!").

He started calling role.

"Dere, Megan!" he yelled.

I looked over to Megan, who was staring out the window, her eyes wide.

"DERE, MEGAN!" he shouted again.

He walked up the isle, until he was standing in front of our table.

"Well," he hissed, "The first lesson and the Potters and their friends are already getting in trouble."

The Slytherins snickered.

I poked Megan, who turned and looked forward at Snape.

Suddenly, Snape looked like he'd been slapped. He looked at Megan, and his face got this strange look. He went pale, and let out a hissed breath.

"Oh, sorry, professor," Meg said.

He didn't respond. His eyes were wide, but he turned around and walked up to the front of the room.

He left us alone. He didn't talk in much more than an undertone the entire time, and didn't criticize Gryffindors at all, no one lost points, no detentions, not even a reprimand.



"He did what?" Harry asked when we told everyone at lunch.

"He left us alone. It was so weird," I answered.

Ron snorted, "Weird? Snape, not taking away at least ten points from Gryffindor is weird enough, but not criticizing anyone? That's even weirder."

"He's not with the rest of the teachers," Hermione pointed out, "Look."

We looked up at the head table. Sure enough, Snape's seat was empty.

"Wonder where he is," Ron said.

I sighed, and thought aloud, "Something about Meg really set him off."



* * * Same time- The teacher's lounge As told by Severus Snape

Her face was burning in my mind. I was filled with an unspeakable anger, that was set down by an even more unspeakable sorrow.

"It wasn't her," I whispered, "It couldn't have been. It wasn't her."

As if by an echo, another voice said the same words right after me. I looked up to see Anya Jones, that stupid girl who called herself a witch, standing in the doorway.

"What?" I barked.

"She's not who you think she is, Snape," Jones replied.

"How could you know?" I asked, glaring at my old enemy.

Anya sighed, "Be logical, Snape, not that you ever were. She's not who you think she is. She's competely innocent. She never did anything wrong, not to you, not to any of us."

I turned my back. How could a stupid Gryffindor know anyway?



A/N- confusing, I know. Don't worry, you all will get it eventually. But if you have questions tell me in a review, and I'll see if I can clear it up without giving away the story (which will be treading a thin line, so BEWARE!). If you don't like stories that don't exactly run straight with the book (mainly the whole thing with Harry having a sister), I'm asking you to still give this a try. But if this is too much for you, don't worry about it. But I hope you all liked this chapter. I sure liked it! Well, this was long enough. REVIEW!!!

P.S.- I had a title suggestion for Lily and James' Legacy. If you like it, tell me in your review, and it may become the new title!

Email me at StarlightEve111@aol.com if you have any questions, or just review!!!