Chapter three
Harry and Hermione were alone in the common room when Ron and Ginny returned.
"So what was so urgent? What did Professor McGonagall need you guys for?" Hermione asked.
"Well…" Ginny began
"It's a bit strange." Ron said.
"Well just tell us already!" Harry exclaimed
"Ok, well you know that girl, Verity?" Ginny asked.
"We're not likely to forget her, are we?" Harry said, rolling his eyes humorously.
"Right, well, she's sort of our cousin." Ginny replied.
Harry and Hermione stared for a bit, until, finally, Ron began to explain.
"Wow." Was all Harry could think to say when Ron was finally through.
"Very strange." Hermione added. "It sounds as if she was transferred here by a port key. Do you think her grandmother..?"
The room was still dark, but Verity could move easily now. With relief, she walked to the two lights, her footsteps echoing strangely. As she drew closer to the flames, she noticed that they were coming from two long, white tapers resting in ornate gold candleholders. The candleholders sat on a polished mahogany table. Verity sat on one of the chairs to wait and stared, mesmerized, at the twin flames.
The door to the hospital wing swung silently inward. The intruder paused, making certain that no one had observed the entrance. There was no light coming from Madame Pomfrey's door. The room was empty, save for his target. With assurance, the intruder stalked to the last bed and pointed a wand at the sleeping figure.
A dark figure was now walking towards her. Verity observed it calmly, knowing that this was what she was waiting for.
"Expelliarmus." The figure said.
Of all the things she had been expecting, this was not it, but still she did not speak, she simply waited for an explanation.
"Verity," another, strangely familiar voice said, "It's time to wake up…"
Verity's eyes snapped open. Someone was in here-there at the foot of her bed! Malevolence was radiating from the intruder, who was pointing something at her. She opened her mouth to scream, but what come out surprised her.
"Expelliarmus!"
To her surprise, the thing (A wand? Verity wondered) that was pointing at her flew from her would-be attackers hand.
A light appeared under Madame Pomfrey's door. Verity tried to make out the features of the person standing before her, but whoever it was had turned and was out of the room in a flash.
"What's wrong, dear?" Madame Pomfrey's voice came from the doorway of her office.
"Um, nothing." Verity replied, before she had a chance to think, and then, without knowing why, she added "I had a nightmare."
Madame Pomfrey smiled and shook her head, "Well, that's easy enough to fix." She removed a bottle from one of the cabinets that lined the walls, "Drink this up, and you'll be asleep again in no time."
But Verity didn't drink. She stayed awake the rest of the night, puzzling at the strange dream, and praying that the intruder would not come back.
The next morning dawned gray and forbidding, the kind of day that normally made Verity long to do nothing more than curl up in bed with a good book. Today, however that was not an option.
Molly and Arthur Weasly stopped by again the morning for breakfast. They spoke of her options for the future. It was her decision, they said, whether to stay at Hogwarts or not. She could go back to the muggle world and forget about everything that had happened, or stay and learn how to control her magic.
"But how do you know that I even have any magic?" Verity asked.
"Dumbledore can see it in you, and you were accepted to this school when you were eleven. You just didn't know about it." Molly replied
It wasn't really a hard decision to make. The thought of going back to her old life without her grandmother or any other family left her cold. She didn't have any real friends at school either, as she could be painfully shy. This could be a new start for her, a chance to make friends, maybe go on a date or two, and learn more about herself and this new world around her.