Harry slowly made his way to the hospital wing. He was nervous. What was he going to say to this person who he'd known as his sister for less than an hour. 'Thanks for saving my life' seemed a silly thing to say though he really did need to say it. He slowly pushed the door open. Lucy was awake, propped up by several pillows, clad in a dark blue terry cloth robe. Wood sat by her side talking softly. He looked up as Harry came in. Lucy turned her head and saw him. She gave him an uncertain smile. He tried to smile back. Wood stood up and kissed her forehead.
"I'll leave you two alone," he said. Harry stayed still until Wood had left.
"Would you like to sit down?" she asked. Harry practically collapsed in the chair.
"I have so much I want to ask you," Harry said his voice shaking. "I don't know where to begin"
"Well," Lucy said. "First let me ask you, is Voldemort really dead"
"Yes," he said. "He is dead." Lucy leaned her head back and sighed.
"It's over," she said.
"Are you all right?" he asked her. He had to remember that Voldemort was Lucy's father. He didn't regret killing him but he couldn't imagine what Lucy was feeling right now.
"Yes," she said. "I'm fine." They sat in silence for a long time.
"How long have you known that I was your brother?" Harry finally asked.
"Since I came to Hogwarts to teach," she said.
"All this time I thought you hated me"
"I did hate you for the longest time," Lucy said sadly.
"I don't understand," Harry said.
"I know," Lucy sighed. "I guess I better start at the beginning. No doubt Dumbledore told you I lived in an orphanage as a child. It was a big place, with very high fences and more kids than the nuns who ran it could handle most of the time. No one wanted to play with me because they thought I was ugly and wierd"
"Sounds familiar," Harry said.
"I was constantly getting picked on. The other girls used to pull my hair and scratch me, and the boys used to kick me and spit at me. The nuns tried to keep control but like I said there were so many kids. Then when I was seven these boys were picking on me and I was just staring at them so hard and all of a sudden their hair caught on fire. I didn't know how I did it but I knew that I had made it happen. The whole orphanage was talking about it. That night I snuck out of the dormitory and down to the Reverend Mother's room. I overheard her talking to the other sisters. "I knew that Evans girl was going to be trouble. From the moment that man brought her here. He was so strange, with the beard, and the robes. Parents probably drug addicts." "I thought her parents were deceased," another of them said. "Oh no," replied the Reverend Mother. If her mother had died giving birth there would have been a death certificate." I was so shocked, they'd lied to me about my mother. After the nuns went to bed I snuck into the office, and found my file. The details of how I'd been brought to the orphanage, a birth certificate with my mother's name, Lily Evans, and a place called Hogwarts which was in England. I stole my file and left the orphanage that night"
"You were only seven years old," Harry said in wonderment.
"It didn't matter. My mother was alive and I was going to find her no matter what. I realized very quickly that these powers I had could not only make boys hair catch fire. I could make food disappear from venders carts and reappear in my bag, and if someone ever tried to hurt me I could turn them into grasshoppers. Eventually I managed to get to a harbor where there were boats traveling all over the world. I listened around and found out which one was going to England and used my gift, I called it my gift at the time, to sneak aboard. I made my way to London and began to search for my mother. Everywhere I went I asked people about Hogwarts. No one knew what I was talking about. After about a year of searching I met a man name Henry Dashall. He recognized me as a witch immediatly. I told him my mother's name and he took me to the Ministry of Magic. Well, as my birth had been kept from them they figured the information I had was wrong. After all, Lily Evans Potter, the famous Auror have an illigitimate child, preposterous. Well Henry told me all this. He then told me about Hogwarts and that I was a witch. Because there was no record of my birth my chances of getting into Hogwarts were slim to none. So Dashall decided to teach me himself. He was a great wizard, but he had very little respect for Hogswarts. He was expelled during his fifth year for putting a sticking spell on one of his professors chairs. He change my appearance in case anyone was looking for me, and gave me the name of his mother. He didn't have a wand because it was snapped in two, but he had an amazing gift for potions"
"That's why you don't have a wand," Harry exclaimed.
"Yes," she said. "Because I never went to Hogwarts I was never given a wand. Dashall taught me everything he knew about potions. Some were his own invention. I picked up the skill quite quickly and even came up with some of my own. I suspected he knew more about my mother than he ever let on but he never told me anything about her. Dashall taught me until I was sixteen and then he died. After his death I set out to make my own name in the wizarding world. I became rather famous. Then when I was asked to come to teach at Hogwarts, it was as though all my dreams were coming true. Finally I would be able to find out about my mother. You may recall I wasn't at the feast. I had chosen that time to go to the library, I knew that it would be the only time when no one would be in there. That's where I found out everything about Lily Evans. Muggle born witch, the most gifted in the school, prefect, Head Girl, Chaser for Ravenclaw. Then her marraige to James Potter, her career as an auror...the birth of her son Harry Potter. Her death. Her heroic sacrifice for her son." Lucy paused and sucked in a sharp breath. "After that it was all "The boy who lived", the "Famous Harry Potter" who brought He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named to ruin. I was angry. My mother loved her son so much that she gave her life for him but she gave me away. I resented you so much for that. For being the only child she claimed, the only child she loved"
"But that's not true," Harry said.
"I know that now," she said. "I didn't know about Voldemort or how I came to be until Professor Snape gave me this." She reached over to the table and handed him a battered brown book. It was the same book he had seen her with when he'd bumped into her outside the library. His eyes widened as he stared at his mother's name written on the front cover.
"Our mother's diary," Lucy said. Harry looked up at her. It was the first time she had said "Our" mother.
"Where did you get this?" he asked her.
"The day Hermione was attacked, Professor Snape confronted me about my pendant. Apparently, the rivalry between Snape and your father was about more than just Quidditch. Snape had a huge crush on our mother"
"Snape!" Harry squeaked.
"Yes," Lucy said. "Even though mother never liked him that way she was kind to him. He gave her a pendant for Christmas one year. Your father and his friends teased him about it but our mother wore it around her neck every day. It disappeared though after she was attacked"
"Mother gave it to you," Harry said in realization pulling the pendant from his pocket. She took it from him and stared at it fondly.
"She placed it around my neck the day Dumbledore took me to the orphanage. The nuns told me that it was my mother's. When Snape saw it he immediatly recognized it"
"How could he be sure it was the same pendant"
"You see right here," Lucy said. "There's a stone missing. Snape came from a poor family. Another reason he disliked your father. He couldn't afford to buy mother fancy gifts like James could. So he scraped together his few sickles and got her this pendant at a secondhand shop. Anyway, he confronted me about it. Wanted to know where I stole it. I was very angry and I told him in no uncertain terms that it was my mother's. He didn't believe me so he produced this diary. Apparently it had been found in the wreckage after...well you know. He threw it at me and told me to open it. He was so surprised when I did"
"Why?" Harry asked. "Why would opening a diary convince him of who you were"
"This is no ordinary diary, Harry. Our mother placed a charm on it, so that only she would be able to open it. When someone has a child that child is a part of them, so they would be able to open it as well. Snape was speechless. He kept muttering...I couldn't understand what I was saying. But he told me to keep the diary, that it belonged in my hands. He also promised not to tell anyone who I really was. Well I started reading it, desperate to know my mother, and why she gave me away. That night we ran into each other outside the library, I had just read about the rape and the prophecy and how she became pregnant with me. It was so sad"
"That's why you were crying," Harry said.
"Yes," Lucy said. "I knew about Voldemort of course. Can you imagine Harry, knowing about the evil a wizard is guilty of and then finding out that he is your father. I realized then that my mother didn't give me up because she wanted to, but because she had to. To protect me. I knew that the attacks were a warning, I knew that something bad was going to happen. I gave the girls the potion but you were the one who I knew was in danger. Of course I couldn't tell Dumbledore becasue that would mean revealing who I was. So I watched you"
"You followed me out to the lake that day the dementors attacked"
"Yes," Lucy said. "I was useless. I had Ginny's wand in my hand but I couldn't summon the patronus"
"You didn't have a happy memory to think about"
"I tried so hard. I thought about my times with Dashall, the day I was asked to teach at Hogwarts, but none of my memories were powerful enough. If Wood hadn't come to my aid, held them at bay until Dumbledore arrived, I shudder to think"
"Wood knows about you," Harry said. He didn't want to tell her about the eavesdropping.
"Yes," Lucy said. "Oliver and I had been spending alot of time together. I've been trying to help him with his sight. We became good friends, and then well," she blushed.
"We fell in love. I didn't want to tell him the truth about me, I was so afraid that he would reject me, and tell the other teachers. Then one day he caught me reading mother's diary and he figured everything out. And he didn't reject me. He told me it didn't matter to him, that I was not my father. Anyway, today when you turned in your potion I saw that you were in pain. I figured your scar was hurting. I knew that something was going to happen tonight so I followed you. I would have gotten to you sooner but Hermione intercepted me with questions about how she did on the final. I had just finished telling her I hadn't gotten to grading them yet when..." she paused. "I can't explain it but I could hear you screaming in my head and I just knew that you were in trouble. I told Hermione to get Dumbledore immediately and went to the roof to help you. I must say I was quite astonished that you were still able to put up a fight against the dementors while under the Crutacius Curse. Not many could"
"Your Patronus," Harry said. "It was in the shape of a dove"
"The same as our mother's," Lucy said thoughtfully.
"May I ask what happy memory you were thinking of?" Lucy smiled and took the book from him. She opened it to a page and handed it back. The crease in the book told him that she had read this page many times before. He stared at the words written by his mother.
"September 14th, 1977
I told James about Lucy today. I could not go one more day keeping her a secret from him. He was so understanding, he held me for nearly two hours while I cried. I miss my little girl so much. I only got to hold her for a minute before Dumbledore took her away. I know that she is safer where she is but I want her back so much. James told me that if I asked he would go to that orphanage and bring Lucy back, and that he would raise her and love her like she was his own. How I wanted to tell him to do it. But I could not. As much as I want to hold my little girl in my arms the thought of her father finding her keeps me from hopping on my broomstick and going to get her back. As hard as it is I love my baby too much to risk her safety"
"I've read that entry so many times," Lucy said tears falling from her eyes. "When I held your wand to summon the Patronus those words were in my head. My mother loved me. She loved me so much that she was willing to give me up to keep me safe." Harry felt tears coming to his own eyes. He could understand what it was like to feel unloved, unwanted. Until Hagrid had come to get him and bring him to Hogwarts that first time, he thought he was doomed to live with people who didn't love him. But he had been in his circumstances because his parents had died, how much worse would it be to be in those circumstances because you thought your parents didn't want you?
"I think we've both been lonely for a long time," Harry said. "Even when I was away from the Dursley's and staying with Ron's family, it didn't feel like I was with family. I've always wanted a family, Lucy"
"So have I Harry"
"I barely know you," Harry said.
"It's all right. We have time now. I would like to get to know you Harry. I'd like you to get to know me." Harry took her hand.
"I would like that. But I should let you sleep now." He turned to go but she clung to his hand.
"Wait," she said. "Take this." She put the diary in his hand.
"You have as much right to read it as I," she said.
"Thank you," he said.
Like it? Hate it? We're not through yet.