Okay, chapter nineteen, guys! By the way, you might get a bit of a shock here, but Rose turns kinda punk style… He he he… Just, read on, okay?

Title: The Future is Waiting

Chapter 19: Claire

Harry was not sure when he exactly fell asleep. He was not even sure if Rose really meant she wanted Harry to sleep. His head on Hermione's shoulder, he tried to let go of all his thoughts.

Things like "I can't sleep," or "Am I doing the right thing?" drifted across, but the stuff that got his attention was the recent information he had just heard.

Rose was Malfoy's fiancee. Perhaps Rose was right. Harry gets mad when she forgets to tell him things. Who wouldn't get angry if they were in Harry's position? Ron and Hermione kept saying Harry was obvious so undoubtedly, Rose would notice. Harry openly liked her (even Snape knew). How come she didn't tell Harry that she was to marry Malfoy? Was this the reason why Malfoy was so paranoid about any other guy who was close to Rose?

But Rose lost her memory, so she can't tell you about it, said the tiny voice in Harry's mind. She could've told me before that. We've known each other quite long, said Harry stubbornly. I'll ask her everything when we meet again – when she wakes up, Harry concluded.

"Harry… Harry, can you hear me?" said Sirius' voice. Harry opened his eyes. He was lying on a bed. Looking around, he saw he was again in Sirius' house, in the familiar bedroom. He was dreaming. But this time, it felt real. He was lying in bed.

"Sirius?" Sirius' face was peering over him, matted hair and all.

"Harry… Are you all right?"

"Y – yes… Wh – why am I here?"

"How do you feel?"

"Fine, I guess… What's happening?" said Harry, getting up.

"You're in my house – "

"How'd I get here?" Harry rubbed his eyes.

"You're not here physically, just your soul – "

"My soul?" said Harry, horrified. "How come my soul's here? I'm dead?"

"You're not dead, Harry – "

"But – why? My body's back at Hogwarts? I can't be like this! Why's this hap – "

"Harry! Listen to me for a minute, all right?" Sirius raised his voice. Harry was immediately silenced. "Harry, you will be al right. You'll be fine. This is temporary. You'll get back into your body when you've finished what you need to do."

"What do I need to do?"

"That is for – her to explain," said Sirius. Then, he stood back and Harry got a full view of the room.

Opposite his bed, the red-haired woman he saw in his dream was bent low over the other bed. The woman stood back, revealing –

"Claire?" said Harry, confused. The girl on the bed looked at him with sad, ocean blue eyes. "Claire, I thought you were gone? I – I thought… You said goodbye – "

"Harry, I'm sorry to have dragged you into this," said the girl.

"What d'you mean?" Harry got up and approached the bed. The girl, too, got up and stood in front of Harry.

"I'm so sorry… I didn't know this would happen!" said the girl. She hugged Harry, head bowed, and sobbed.

"Claire…" said Harry. He was trying to comfort her, at the same time ask what it was all about. He wished he knew what was happening.

"Claire, darling… This is not your fault," said the red-haired woman. Tears began to stream down her cheek too. Sirius approached her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Regina…" said Sirius in a quiet voice. Regina. Something stirred in Harry's memory. It sounded familiar. But Harry could not recall. "You shouldn't blame yourself either. It's no one's fault. It's destiny – "

"You remember what I always used to say?" said the woman.

"Destiny sucks," said Sirius, his lips almost smiling. "Sure it does. It always does. That's why we met, remember?"

"You punk," said the woman.

"You two better get back," said Sirius, more seriously, this time.

"What – " Harry started.

"Mr. Potter, please take care of my daughter," said the woman, turning to Harry.

"Your – daughter?" said Harry, clueless.

"I'm sorry," said the girl who was still sobbing into Harry. She turned and faced the woman. "Mom, I'm sorry I didn't – "

"Shhh…" said the woman. She got up and walked to Harry and the girl. She hugged the girl. "Harry, please take care of Claire," she said. She then hugged Harry. "I'm so happy I had the chance to meet you." Harry was not able to reply.

"Harry, you can't marry her, okay?" said Sirius jokingly, then Harry realized what Sirius must have meant. "But take care of her…"

"What – Claire…? Rose?" said Harry. The girl turned. Tears still in her eyes, she smiled a sad smile.

"Sorry I had to do this, Harry… I had no other choice… But – "

"You mean, you're Claire? I mean, you're Rose? Y – you're the same person?"

"What! You didn't get that? How slow are you, Harry?" said Sirius. "I'm starting to regret I became the godfather of a slow one!"

"Sirius!" said the red-haired woman; Rose's mother.

Suddenly, blinding white light flashed all around. Harry stirred awake. Hermione was looking at him more confused than ever. He was back. He looked around. Malfoy and Rose weren't there.

Apparate.

A voice from somewhere said. Harry looked around. He was now thinking he was going mad.

Apparate. You know how to.

Harry looked at Hermione.

"Did you hear that?" he hissed.

"Hear what?"

Get to her.

"That! Didn't you – "

"I'm not hearing anything, Harry…"

Harry realized. The voice sounded like it came from Sirius. Harry decided to talk to it, or more like think of his answer.

I don't know how to Apparate.

You know how to.

I don't!

Just close your eyes and will yourself to do so.

You want me to Apparate to – Rose?

You are slow, aren't you?

Where is she?

In her dormitory.

I don't know where that is!

You'll find her. Just will yourself to be with her. You'll find her.

Harry shut his eyes and simply willed himself to Apparate, more like for his body to be lifted from the chair he was sitting on without moving his lower limb muscles. One moment he felt like he wasn't making any progress and the next he was sitting on a soft, cushiony something. He opened his eyes and found himself in a dark room.

"Potter? How did you get here?" said the voice of Draco Malfoy from a dark corner of the room. Harry saw some movement, and a light flicked on from another corner; Rose had lit a lamp.

"Wh – I – Is this your dormitory?" said Harry to Rose.

"It's her room, Potter," said Malfoy. "She has her own room."

"Harry, are you all right?" said Rose, kneeling before Harry like a servant to her king. She placed her hands on Harry, as though trying to feel any unnaturalness.

"I – I'm fine," said Harry. He did a side-glance at Malfoy and saw him eyeing Rose's hands angrily. Harry suddenly remembered why he was there. "Rose – how come you never told me – why – "

"I'm sorry, Harry… I didn't want to fool you – I was all – " Rose started explaining, but an urgent knock on the door cut her.

"They're looking for you, Potter! Rose, put out the lamp. I'm going to tell them you're resting – not to be disturbed – " Malfoy got up from his chair. Rose did as she was told. She and Harry sat still on the bed while Malfoy talked to the person at the door.

"Potter's gone – He just disappeared – We didn't know he knew how to Apparate!"

"Go find him!" said Malfoy, faking his anger. "You can't let him escape! Go! Don't knock here until you've found him! You're disturbing us!"

The door slammed shut.

"Some acting, huh?" said Malfoy, smirking as he walked back to Harry and Rose.

"Yeah, you're about to win your trophy," said Harry. Rose remained silent.

"You have nothing to apologize about, Rose," said Malfoy.

"Yes, but I have something to make up for," Rose replied, getting up. "Draco, Harry and I will get out through the rooftop. Tell them when they come that I'm still resting. Cover up for us. We'll do the work."

"Yeah, okay – "

"Rose, why – "

"I'll explain everything when we get out, Harry. Let's go," Rose took Harry's hand and they got out of the room, creeping up the stairs.

They reached the top of the stairs and Harry saw a trapdoor in the ceiling, which was low enough. Rose pushed the trapdoor open, and pushed herself up. Harry followed.

Harry found himself on a vast plain marble floor; the rooftop.

"Rose, why – " Harry began. He turned to Rose and saw her close to tears once more.

"Harry, I'm sorry," she whispered.

"You've nothing to be sorry about. We've talked about that in the dream – "

"I – I made you believe things… I simply lied to you…"

"I understand why… That woman… with Sirius, is she your mother?" Rose gave a small nod. "But why – is Sirius your – father?"

"No…"

"Then, why – "

"My mother had an arranged marriage… With my father…" Rose explained quietly. She sat down, and Harry followed. "When she was stil at Hogwarts, she had liked your godfather very much, and he liked her too… But after school, mother was forced to marry father… She continued seeing Sirius, so the Ashworths' doubt about her was not unbased. Sirius was arrested and placed in Azkaban, so Severus became my godfather instead…"

"Why Snape?"

"One of the many reasons why Severus hated Sirius was because they liked the same girl back at school…."

"Your mother…" said Harry, now understanding bits and pieces of what was going on.

"I had to lie to you about those draems on Professor Dumbledore's command – "

"Hang on… You've got your memory back?" said Harry, remembering suddenly.

"I – didn't lose my memory," said Rose. "I had to lie about that too…"

A faint anger stirred inside Harry. How many more lies did Rose make? But he had no time for anger in such conditions. His brain was overloading with information; information he didn't quite understand.

"Severus doesn't know this, so don't get mad at him either," said Rose, guessing what Harry was thinking.

"How come Snape doesn't know?"

"He intended to partially erase my memory… to make me forget everything about you and Draco… If I must say… he knew something was going on between the three of us…" Harry saw Rose blush slightly. "He made me take a potion, but I managed to kill its effects right before I drank it… But from then on, I had to act like a different person – "

"Why did you have to flirt?" said Harry, sounding rather offensive.

"Don't tell me you didn't like it," Rose smirked.

"Well, yeah… But… I didn't!" defensed Harry.

"You didn't like it?"

"That is not the point here!" Harry cut Rose.

"Oh, by the way," said Rose. "I haven't found out why we kept seeing mother and Sirius in our dreams and why we kept meeting there anyway."

"Yeah… We can figure that out after this… What're we supposed to do anyway?" said Harry, remembering his "mission."

"Fight evil… Destroy darkness… Protect the good people…" said Rose randomly, staring at the floor.

"Are you serious?"

"Shut up, Potter," she replied, getting up.

"What?" said Harry. He then got up too.

Rose stared at the moon (which was shining brightly over them as it was full moon, by the way) as though waiting for some signal. Harry had to admire the way she looked, a warrior poised to go into honorable battle. Harry shook his head; He had to get serious. He had a battle ahead of him. Only, with whom, he really did not know.

Suddenly, a familiar echoing bell sounded from somewhere below them.

"Wasn't that – "

"Voldemort," said Rose, now looking all around.

"That was the sound we heard when you got trapped down the Potions corridor before," said Harry, recalling.

Just as what had happened during the night Harry was recalling, red sparks were flying everywhere once more, but none came close to the place where Harry and Rose were standing.

"Listen, go back to Draco and plan how you're going to get the others out of the common room," said Rose.

"And you?" said Harry, suspecting what the answer was going to be.

"I have to know what's going on. It could be Voldemort, or maybe just his servants out there – "

"You can't go alone!"

"Skip the saving thing, okay? You've got a whole lot more people to save back there. And besides, it's not like I'm going to charge them headlong. I've still got brains, great Harry Potter."

"What are you exactly planning to do?"

"I'm planning to save your ass," said Rose unexpectedly. Harry stared, and as he did so, the sound of the bell grew louder and louder. "Listen, you don't know me, okay? Skip the surprised reaction! Get used to it! Now, go!"