Chapter 6

Secrets

Harry walked down the hall with Ron and Hermione. They were on their way to the Gryffindor common room.

Jenna had gone to talk to Professor McGonagall again.

Ron and Hermione were talking about something or other but Harry wasn't paying attention; his mind was on something else.

Why had Jenna acted that way when he had asked about her parents? Was she ashamed of them? How could anyone be ashamed of their own parents?

If Harry's parents were alive he wouldn't be ashamed of them. No matter what happened.

Even when everyone in the wizarding world thought his godfather, Sirius Black, was a murderer Harry wasn't ashamed of him. At least not when he got to know him.

Harry didn't want to make any quick decisions about it though and tried to look at the situation in a different way. Maybe Jenna wasn't ashamed of her parents; maybe she just didn't know them that well.

This didn't make sense to Harry either. How could you not know your own parents?

Another thought came into Harry's head; Were her parents even alive? Was that why she didn't want to talk about her parents, because they were dead?

Harry decided to put the matter at rest; he would just have to wait for Jenna to tell him what he wanted to know.

Ron, Harry, and Hermione walked into the common room. The second Harry sat down girls who seemed to appear out of nowhere surrounded him.

"I can't believe you're back, I thought you were gone for good," one girl said.

"What happened? Why did you come back?" another girl asked. Then all the girls started talking over each other, bombarding Harry with questions.

"Girls" Harry tried to get the girls to quiet down, "Girls, GIRLS!" The girls instantly stopped talking. "I need a little time alone" he said.

"Oh okay" the girls said looking disappointed. They cleared out of the room muttering comments to each other.

Harry noticed that Ron and Hermione had left also.

Harry glanced over at the Gryffindor entrance and saw Jenna standing by the door looking at him with her arms crossed in front of her and hereyebrows raised.

"But-, They-, I-" Harry tried to explain but couldn't get the words out.

Jenna just shook her head at himsmiling and sat down in one of the chairs. She picked up a book and began reading.

One of the guys from Gryffindor came into the room.

"Hey, Harry good to see you!" he said. Then he noticed Jenna. Immediately his jaw dropped and he stared at her, his eyes wide.

After noticing the silence in the room, Jenna looked up from her book and looked at the guy.

She gave him a nervous smile wondering why he was looking at her like that. The guy looked into Jenna's eyes immediately darted up the staircase to the boys' dormitory.

Jenna lookedto Harry with a confused look on her face.

"You better get used to that," Harry said grinning.

"Why? What do you mean?" Jenna asked.

Before Harry could answer her question one more guy came into the room, probably because the guy before him had told him that there was an angel in the common room.

Like the first guy he took one look at Jenna and ran out of the room not knowing what to do with himself.

Harry understood how those guys felt because he felt the same way. What he couldn't understand was why they were acting so stupid like Ron had on the train.

Jenna waited a few minutes before saying anything. When she was sure nobody else was coming she turned to Harry.

"So" she said, "I guess you're wondering why exactly I'm here, what the deal is with my parents, and why everyone seems to know me."

Harry looked at her, these were only a few of the questions he had for her, but he decided to take whatever he could get.

"Yes" he said, "I was wondering about that."

"Okay" Jenna said, "But I can't tell you everything, at least not yet."

"Okay" Harry said.

"I will tell you only what I think you can handle and nothing more."

"Okay" Harry said again.

"Don't interrupt me, don't ask for more answers, just take what you get so we can get this over with" Jenna said.

"Okay" Harry said.

"Okay" she said, "Firstly I'm here because Dumbledore wants me here."

"Don't you mean he 'wanted' you here?" Harry asked.

"If I meant 'wanted' then I would have said it" Jenna snapped.

Harry thought that now was probably not the best time to interrupt Jenna and didn't say anything else.

Jenna made sure he wasn't going to interrupt her anymore and continued, "Second, my mother was a pure-blood from Gryffindor and my father was a half-blood from Slytherin" she said.

"Sothat wouldmake youonly seventy-five percent pure-blood," Harry said.

Jenna shot him an annoyed look.

"Right" she said growing impatient, "But Harry, what part of 'don't interrupt me' didn't you understand?"

"Sorry" Harry said.

Jenna wasn't in a very good mood right now and didn't have time to listen to apologies. She moved on with her story,

"Anyway, my mother always listened to my father and did what he said; she didn't always agree with what he did and told her to do,but she followed him anyway."

Harry wondered where she was going with this.

"My father has always thought he is better than everyone else so I don't like him much. Even though my mother was pretty much spineless except when it came to me,I always liked her for some reason; probably because she raised me."

Jenna stopped and Harry realized that she had used the "liked."

"Anyway, my mother always listened to V-" Jenna stopped suddenly but picked right back up again, "I mean my father, so that's how I am here."

Harry tried to process this information, but there were a few pieces that were missing and a few others that didn't exactly fit.

"So you were born because your father told your mother to-?" Harry stopped.

"Yes" Jenna said.

Harry waited for an explanation but it never came.

"Okay" Harry said.

"As you probably noticed almost everyone here knows me," Jenna said. Harry nodded; it was kind of hard to miss.

"Well that is thanks to Dumbledore. He has always been a friend of my mother's. You see when I was born my father left and only came back to see me a few times. My mother turned to Dumbledore; he said he would help and he stuck to his word, he helped my mother with raising me and educating me. He offered to let me come to Hogwarts when I was old enough. My mother declined though, she was always afraid that my father would come and take me away. My mother and Dumbledore taught me all of the magic that I know except a few things my father taught me.My mothersaid I picked it up pretty quick so it was pretty easy to teach me. Dumbledore told Hagrid about me and that's how I know Hagrid. Well you know how Hagrid is with secrets" Jenna paused, "That's how everyone else knows," she said.

Harry grinned nodding his head, and then he looked at Jenna.

"Okay, but if your mother doesn't want you here then why did you come, especially now?" he asked. Jenna didn't like Harry asking her these questions, but she decided she could answer this one.

"My mother died last year" she said, "Before she died she told me that I was old enough to take care of myself now and I could come to Hogwarts."

"Oh" Harry said understanding why she had talked about her mother in the past tense.

"Well, that's all I can tell you now" Jenna said seriously, "Don't tell anyone else."

With that she stood up and her light personality returned.

"I'll see you later" she said smiling and then she left the room leaving Harry looking puzzled in the chair. He would definitely have to get used tot he many different sides of Jenna Bailey.

Harry stayed in that chair most of the night still puzzling over the information Jenna had given him. Wow her dad was horrible! Making her mother have his child, then never coming to see Jenna. Sure Harry was happy that Jenna was born but still; what kind of man does that? Harry knew that Jenna had started out trying to answer his questions about her; but she had left him with more questions than he had before.