Chapter 28: Beginning of the End

I flung a well aimed curse at Moresby. He reflected it and it bounced harmlessly off the wall. Darn, he was pretty good. I waited until my dad had shot a curse at him and directly afterwards shot my own at him, a full body-binding cruse. He stiffened up and fell over line a board, this was WAY too easy.

"Hmm, you should have hit him with the disarming jinx first, Riley," My dad commented.

"Yeah, I didn't think of that." I replied as Moresby clambered to his feet.

"Nice try, Potter. Too bad it wasn't good enough. Poor baby may want to think a LITTLE faster to beat me." Moresby was up on his feet and casting spells left and right.

I retaliated with expellarimus. He managed to catch his wand before it flew from his hands. I muttered imprecations to my self. I know, not very well thought out in front of my dad; but he was over there muttering swear words too.

"MORESBY, stop attacking my father; go for Riley." A familiar voice echoed throughout the Chamber, LILY'S!

"Lily, get your big fat butt down here!" I called to the huge, nearly empty Chamber of Secrets. My dad winced at this remark about my sister. "Well she deserved it," I commented.

"Why, my lovely sister? Do you think I'm stupid? I know that you're mad about your boyfriend but he's moved on to the more beautiful and better ME!"

"Ah. Aha. I thought I smelled you sour stench in everything Lily. Hmm, you've sunk to an all time low. I never thought that you'd sink so low as to not face me yourself. Oh, well, yet Moresby do your dirty work, don't bask in the glory of killing your sister after she lies dead at your feet." I was pleased to see that Lily took the bait.

"Moresby, leave Riley to me!" Lily cried and she emerged out of the shadows, "This is between me and my sister."

"So how did you get Spencer to fall for you?" I asked Lily, she was only too happy to oblige me by spilling her little scheme.

"It was quite simple really. I made a love potion and he stupidly took it. He's been 'in love' with me this whole time eager to do my bidding. You made it all so much easier falling for him and being so worried about Dad, those feelings of resentment that Spencer had for you had to come from somewhere. The potion can't make that kind of dislike appear out of no where. Those were all REAL feelings."

So that's how she did it, I thought to my self, dodging the curse she had flung at me, a love potion, huh? I have to admit that she had worked this one out better than I had expected.

Flinging several spells at Lily, I managed to avoid getting hit my self as I feinted to the left before shooting a stunning spell straight at her. It hit her straight on. Lily fell, disabled, to the ground.

That was TOO quick and TOO easy, I thought suspiciously, Not that I'm upset about that or anything. It just seems fishy.

I turned to help my dad but he already had Moresby on the ground and tied up.

"Must you have stunned her?" My dad asked tiredly. "I would prefer not to have to carry her out of here. Besides, she would have come to her senses as soon as Moresby was knocked out. She HAD to have been under his influence."

"Yeah, whatever you say dad," I waved my wand and Lily sat up groaning.

"What happened?" Lily asked quietly, she was a great actress, could have made millions. Lily knew full well what had happened.

I didn't answer her; instead I turned and opened the door with a command. Celeste and Lauran instantly fell into the Chamber with a resounding THUNK.

"Ouch, okay note to self door opens inwards." Celeste muttered brushing off what mud would fall off of her robes.

"Yeah, I'm leaving," I was still in a bad mood and didn't feel much like talking to anyone.

"What happened?" Lauran asked, surveying the scene quietly.

"Absolutely nothing, Moresby and I had an absolutely spiffing play date is all. I never nearly killed my own sister and my dad certainly didn't attack an armed crazy man. And for the record my boyfriend didn't dump me under the influence of my twin sister's love potion. In fact it's all a figment of your imagination." I replied rather nastily, seeing as how I was covered in mud and happened to be bleeding from numerous cuts.

"Well, it's nice to see you still have your sense of humor." Lauran muttered sarcastically.

"I'm going up to bed. I played Quidditch, got dumped, and dueled people today. Let's just hope no ninja warriors or mad axe men show up on the way to the dormitory." And with that I stalked off out of the Chamber of Secrets. I had gotten to the entrance hall before I heard signs that anyone had been following me.

"Riley, stay where you are," Lily's voice rang out harsh and cold.

"Go away!"

"Turn and face me. If you move I'll curse you!"

"You just told me to turn around and now you're saying not to move. Make up your mind will you? I can't not move and turn around at the same time!"

"Turn around and then FREEZE. Smart aleck," she muttered.

I turned around VERY slowly so as to not 'frighten' her. Really this just meant I wanted to annoy her. "What do you want?" I demanded.

"I want YOU dead, but we both know that I can't kill you, you're too VALUABLE to me. Besides, they'd expel me for it and we certainly don't want that."

"No, why would anyone want you expelled?" She didn't seem to pick up on the sarcasm.

"Of course, everyone loves Lily. It's inevitable. Anyways I don't want to KILL you, just hurt you so bad you won't be able to return to Hogwarts next year. And if it looked like an accident I wouldn't have any trouble with expulsion."

"Do I get a say in this?" I asked softly, pretending to be scared.

"Absolutely big sis, but your vote doesn't matter. Are you scared? You're SUCH a big baby."

"Oh, well it must run in the family then because you're an even bigger baby."

Lily had gotten tired of the trash talk flying back and forth; frankly I had been tired of it before we started. Lily flung a disarming spell at me and my wand flew to the ends of my finger tips but I managed to hold onto it. I just blocked everything rather than waste my energy.

"Lily, this is SOOO boring. Is this all you've got?"

Lily's answer was an unintelligible grunt which I took to mean 'no' since she started flinging spells left and right.

"Tsk tsk tsk, you're going to wear yourself out doing that little sister. You'd best calm down a little bit."

Lily looked stark raving mad. I decided to go on the offensive. Flinging a spell at Lily I broke my shield and advanced on her, driving her back into the Grand Staircase. She remembered at the last second that to step. Her gigantic black bird soared out of a side hall and hovered just above her shoulder. I continued driving her back up the stairs. She was approaching the landing.

Back, back, back. Just a little more, I thought, C'mon just a little farther.

Just when I thought that she wouldn't trip since there was only one stair left, Lily fell to the ground in a heap. Her wand flew out of her hand and tumbled down the stairs behind me. She flinched as I stuck my wand in her face. I tweaked her nose with the tip of my wand. She shrieked.

"Ah. Aha. I seem to have beaten you. Take that as a lesson. I'm not going to kill you; now, get up and stop sniveling." I grabbed her rather forcefully by the hand and yanked her to her feet. "Where's dad?"

"Well you see…." Lily explained that she had stunned Dad, Celeste and Lauran and would need her wand to un-stun them.

"I think not. I'll carry your wand and I'll un-stun them. You get to walk in front of me. Isn't that fun?"

"You are SOOO kind, your worshipfulness." I picked up on the sarcasm but said nothing. Instead I stabbed her in the small of her back with my wand.

"Walk." I ordered. And Lily crept slowly down the passage. "Faster or I'll make you sprint." This got her walking at a brisk pace. "That's much better."

"What are they going to do with her?" It was later that night and Celeste, Lauran, and I were sitting in the Common Room talking.

"Well after Mum came the three of them went home. I think they're taking her to some psychoanalyst to test her and make sure that she is really fine and that it was all Moresby's control. One thing's for sure, I'm not going home anytime soon. Mum afraid that her precious baby will have a relapse or something if she sees me. I know it was all Lily and had nothing to do with Moresby but who's going to listen to me?"

"I don't know Riley. I'm not straight on all the facts so my opinion is just that, an opinion." Celeste replied.

"I heard that they've got Spencer in the Hospital Wing recovering. Want to go see him?" Lauran asked hopefully.

"Not so much. I'm tired and I'm going to bed. Good night." I wasn't even close to being tired but I went up to bed anyways. Tomorrow was going to be a LONG day.

A love potion can't make up the feelings of one person towards another except for the love between the maker and the drinker. These other feelings are only enhanced by the drinker by the potion.

Sighing I slammed the book shut. Lily was right about the potion and I was just sore and mad. I threw the book onto my trunk and rolled over to go to sleep. When I finally did fall asleep I was haunted by dreams of the day's events.

Chapter 29: The Whispers

"Look there she is."

"I heard that she killed her sister and the teachers are too afraid of her to do anything about it."

"That's not what I heard. I heard that her boyfriend broke up with her and she put him in the Hospital Wing."

"That flying she did yesterday was unnatural."

Whispers greeted me the next morning in the Great Hall. I knew rumors would show their ugly faces today, I just didn't realize how STUPID some of them would be. I did my best to ignore them.

"So, are you going to go see Spencer today?" Lauran prompted as I sat down. "He was under a love potion. I bet he didn't want to break up with you."

"No," was all that I said in reply.

"C'mon, I'll go too."

"No."

"Why won't you go?"

"I'm not hungry. See you guys in class." I stood up and left. The whispers followed me wherever I went.

"What's wrong with her?" Lauran asked Celeste.

"Well, look in your potions book and you tell me." Celeste knew what was bothering me.

"Hey, this came for you at breakfast." Colby stuffed a letter into my hands. "So, is Wood all that's bothering you?"

"No, he's just what everyone thinks is bothering me. Actually it has absolutely nothing to do with him." I replied. Why was I being honest with Colby of all people?

"If you want to tell me…" Colby trailed off.

"I don't know why I should but I'm going to anyway. Do you remember at the start of year feast how the Sorting Hat was talking about some prophesy?"

"Yeah, it's kind of hard to forget."

"Well the Prophesy is real. Celeste and Lauran don't even know about it. But I'm okay with the Prophesy. What's bothering me is more what it said about people suffering. If I'm the 'Protector' then Lily has to be the 'Great Evil'. And we all know that Lily's kind of psychotic. She can do an awful lot of damage if she puts her mind to it."

"How do you know that the Prophesy is about you and Lily?" Colby asked skeptically.

"I know because of two things, this," I held up my wand, "and this." I showed him my lightening bolt shaped scar.

"A wand and a scar, yep that's solid evidence," he said this quite sarcastically.

"Look at the wand. Does it look familiar?" I asked him not waiting for an answer. "It was Lord Voldemort's. I own Voldemort's wand. It was the only wand out of the whole store that worked for me. 'The wand chooses the wizard.' Now what do you think?"

"I don't know what to think. But if Lily's going to make people suffer then why didn't you kill her?"

"Ah. Aha. That's what's bothering me. I had two perfectly good chances to do away with her and I refused to do it. I have the lives of too many people on my hands if Lily's going to be worse than Voldemort and yet… I couldn't kill her. It's not Lily who killed those people, it's my fault they're going to die. All because a stupid 11 year old couldn't kill her twin sister no matter how much she hates her. I'm worse than Lily."

"No," Colby said quietly, "the fact that you couldn't kill her shows just how different you are from Lily. You value life too much to take it from someone, even if they may grow up to be a horrendous monster. You are exactly the opposite of Lily in every way. Now open that letter. It looks important."

"Yeah it's from my dad. It probably says where the heck I'm supposed to go this summer." I scanned the letter. Then I went back and read it again. "Yep, I'm living with George and Alicia." I said quietly. "There's more but I'm not allowed to say anything about it. Looks like I'm going to be as good as an orphan though."

"What? Why?" Colby asked but one look at my face and he stopped bothering me with questions. The bell rang to signal that class was about to start. "You'd better get to class. It's the last one of the day."

"Yeah, I'm going." I walked through the door of Transfiguration and sat in the back corner of the room, where I always sit. It was a boring last lesson; we weren't having classes tomorrow since it was the last day of the term. The end of year feast was tomorrow. I liked the feasts but wasn't looking forward to this one very much. This may seem shocking, but usually when one is followed by whispers wherever one ventures, one is not in the mood for large feasts with large numbers of people.

Chapter 30: Homeward Bound

"That was a good feast last night." Celeste commented happily as the Hogwarts Express pulled out of Hogsmeade Station. "So you're going to live with us for now Riley?"

"Yeah that's right. Greg should enjoy having three sisters this year." I answered. We all laughed.

"He doesn't mind you at all Riley. You're around all the time anyways. How long are you staying with us?" Lauran asked.

"I'm not sure. My guess is that it'll be a fairly long time." I looked out the window.

"Hey, look who the wind blew in. Spencer you're not exactly the most popular person in this compartment right now." Celeste said none too kindly.

"I need to talk to Riley." He said shrugging.

"What do you want Wood?" I asked, my temper had been very short recently and I fought to keep it in line.

"Come out in the hall and I'll tell you." Wood urged.

"Fine, but if this is some dumb joke…" I trailed off and followed him off into the hall, not making eye contact at all.

"Riley, I'm sorry. Okay, that's all I wanted to say. I didn't mean to break up with you but I did and I know that you're mad and you have every right to be…" He trailed off.

"That's great, can I go back now?" I started to turn and leave.

"Will you go out with me again?" He blurted in a rush.

"Hmm let's see. You somehow were with my sister long enough to get duped and take a love potion. You broke up with me when I most needed you. Those feelings had to have come from somewhere. I may have family issues and maybe even some personal ones but I refuse to put myself through you again right now. I forgive you and maybe we can be friends but I'm NOT going to date you!" And with that I turned to see everyone's heads pop back into the compartment and grinned as I walked back into the compartment full of my friends.

"Nice job Riley." Celeste said.

"Come on did he really deserve that?" Colby asked. "That was kind of harsh."

"Yes!" cried everyone in the compartment.

"Okay, I know when I'm outnumbered." He said laughing.

"There's Mum!" Celeste yelled as we dragged all of our trunks off the train.

"And Dad and Greg are there too." Lauran added excitedly.

"Hey, do you see your folks Colby?" I asked.

"Yeah, they're right over there. Why?" He suddenly sounded suspicious.

"I kind of wanted to avoid too many happy family reunions." I said sheepishly. "And that's Oliver Wood talking to George Weasley."

"Oh, right. Come on, I'll introduce you to Mum then." I followed Colby through the crowd to a medium-height lady who looked very sweet. "Hi Mum."

Mrs. Seaworth pulled Colby into a huge hug. "And who is this charming friend of yours?" She asked politely.

"Ah, this is my star Quidditch player. She's the Seeker you know, Riley Potter." Colby's mother pulled me into a hug as well.

"It's very nice to meet you dear. Where are your parents?" She asked concerned.

"Um, they're actually not coming. My sister is sick and I'm staying with friends at the moment. Hey Colby, I bet your mom would like to meet your girlfriend."

"Ah, yes I would as a matter of fact. I've heard so much about her from him you see. Actually I know her parents, sweet couple really. Now be a good boy and go get her." Mrs. Seaworth pushed him off into the crowd. "Riley dear, I imagine that Colby would agree with me on this subject. You really MUST come and stay with us at some point this summer. It would be a lovely time."

"Oh, well maybe I will. Ah here comes Colby now." I watched grinning as Colby and Celeste pushed their way back through the crowd. "I have to go and leave my things with my friends. It was nice to meet you. See you around Colby." I gave him a quick hug before vanishing into the crowd with my trunk and Zandra's cage.

I was disappointed to see that the Woods were taking their jolly good time in vacating the Weasley family. I rolled my trunk over all the same and their brief talk halted for a second as I got my round of Weasley hugs.

"Why didn't you come right over dear? Avoiding family reunions indeed," Alicia muttered as she hugged me.

I sat down on my trunk and watched as they talked with the Woods for a little while longer. Greg plopped down next to me.

"So, that's who you were trying to avoid?" He asked pointing to Spencer Wood in the crowd.

"Yep, that's the one." I replied. "So, you excited about going to Hogwarts next year?"

"I guess. I don't know anyone yet though." He looked at the crowd. "Why are they all looking at you?"

"Oh, um, well they think I killed my sister, put Wood over there into the Hospital Wing and cheated at Quidditch." I replied honestly.

"And yet most of them aren't afraid of you." He noted as almost the entire school waved to me or said goodbye.

"Yeah, I guess they sort of got used to me." I waved to Julia and Olivia Johnson as they left with their parents.

"See you next year, detention buddy!" Olivia called grinning.

"Yeah, I've got no doubts you'll see me there." I yelled back grinning.

"A bit of a trouble maker are you?" Greg asked.

"Yeah, I'll tell you all about it later. Oh great, Wood beckons. Be right back Greg, I'm sure your dad will enjoy the story too. Your mum not so much since it involves Celeste and Lauran too." I walked over to Spencer and stood, one eyebrow raised in question until he said something.

"So, I'll write to you, okay?" He asked.

"That doesn't mean I'll write back." I answered smartly.

"Yeah, but I can hope you will. And I'd just like to point out that I deserved what you said on the train. Friends?"

"Friends."
"I guess I'll see you next year then."

"It's unavoidable." I replied before walking away.

"Hey wait a second kid. You're Harry's daughter aren't you?" Oliver Wood called after me.

"Yes I am Mr. Wood." I answered.

"It's good to see you. Tell him I said hello."

"I'll be sure to tell him that in my next letter." I said honestly.

"Letter? Who are you staying with?" He looked puzzled.

"She's staying with us Oliver," George said. "I'm sure your son can tell you the whole story if you'd like."

"I'm sure he will, won't you Spencer?" Mr. Wood asked.

"Yeah," Spencer said shifting uncomfortably. "I'll tell you if you really want to know."

"Oh, I do want to know. You can tell me on the way home."

Lauran and Celeste came back from wherever they had been and my 'family' and I walked off out of King's Cross Station pulling three trunks full of spellbooks and laughing at the boat hijacking experience among other strange and funny Hogwarts experiences. And I realized that I had done the impossible, I had won them all. At least I had won everything that mattered.

END BOOK 1