Chapter 10 – Switzerland

Lizzie looked up at a cabin style home on the hillside as Remus ran out to usher her inside. It was too dark to make out the surroundings and Dumbledore was nowhere to be found.

Inside she was introduced to a Jacob Scamander and his son Rolf who was a few years older than herself. They sat down for a hot meal, then she was shown to a cozy room to herself on the second story.

Figurines lined the shelves of the room with creatures she recognized and some she did not. Hagrid would be overjoyed by the collection.

"You should go blonde here, there's a town nearby I hear has excellent chocolate and coffee, we should make our way down there tomorrow," Tonks said from the doorway smiling at her. Lizzie focused on making the slight appearance alteration and soon sported dusty blonde curls and blue eyes. Tonks nodded with approval.

"Remus is agreeable to exploring? Dumbledore said the death eaters are amping up their search," Lizzie asked.

"Well, there's nothing quite like Swiss Chocolate is there?" Tonks laughed and Lizzie chuckled.

"They know once back at school they won't be able to get to you. The last week they're going to do everything they can. You were spotted in Innsbruck earlier today, photo and everything. Fleur made it a point to get more than a rumor out on record," Tonks explained.

"What do you mean?" Lizzie asked confused.

"She snagged some hair from you in Paris. We planned to plant actual spottings to further deter them if it came to it," Tonks clarified.

"What?! You cannot have people running around as me! ARE YOU MAD? THEY COULD BE KILLED!" Lizzie roared, suddenly extremely angry.

"Fleur is in Paris! Stop worrying, we could all get killed at any time that's what we signed up for remember!?" Tonks shouted back harshly. Lizzie frowned and shook her head reproachfully.

"I'm surprised you don't recognize their names - the hosts," Tonks said. Lizzie shook her head distracted by other racing thoughts.

"Scamander! The book...Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them! I won't tell Hagrid it didn't register in that thick skull of yours," Tonks laughed.

"Oh! Oh wow, that makes so much more sense," Lizzie said pointing to the figurine lined shelves.

"They've got an enchanted basement full off of creatures and some in habitats around the Alps. You'll be able to see in the morning, it's gorgeous! Jacob moved out here when his father was unable to care for the creatures in advanced age. Him and his son tend to them. This will be a fun stay and the last place anyone will look for you. Remus is going to leave us tomorrow because of the... you know... but he'll be back before we get to Kings Cross. Get some rest," she explained.

Lizzie couldn't rest though. She tossed and turned and turned the leaf under her tongue over and over for a couple of hours. She then decided to go downstairs and make a cup if hot chocolate if they had any, but stopped dead on the stairs to a sight that broke her heart.

Remus was sitting on the sofa, light from the flames of the hearth dances around his face. His eyes were closed but his fist was buried in the temple of his face. Lizzie approached cautiously and could tell his face was pooled with tears.

She sat on the table across from him and reached forward to get his attention. He looked startled and disoriented and wiped his face dry quickly.

"What are you doing up?" He said quietly.

"Wandering, couldn't help myself," she said with a weak smile and he rolled his eyes.

"Remus, are you alright?" Lizzie asked sympathetically, reaching for his hand.

He paused and looked at Lizzie, lost in her eyes which only made his face contort in some fresh new wave of agony.

"Remus?" She said quietly, a tremble of worry in her own voice.

"The last night is always hard for me, but I- I can't get them out of my head," he said, biting down on his knuckle and shaking his head with grief. Lizzie sat next to him on the couch and leaned in so he could rest his head on a friendly shoulder.

"I'm sorry," she said just above a whisper. "Can I do anything?" She asked.

"Just... stay alive," he said breathlessly. "My fear is they'll... or you'll...none of this can be for nothing," he said sadly, unable to put into words what he was thinking. But his mind spoke louder volumes. 'What if they get her?' and then the sound of a train and pulling her away from the tracks. Air left her body and the gravity of his losses weighed down on her like a boulder. They both suffered all the same losses but he knew them better than she ever had the chance to.

"I'm not going anywhere, I promise, not on my terms anyway," she said, knowing he was thinking about what happened at Kings Cross. "I won't do that to you," she whispered, feeling utterly ashamed she ever tried.

His body shook slightly as he cried into the hand wrapped over his eyes. "I promise," she said in a broken voice. If there was one person she hated to let down it was him. He knew a life without control, a life with afflictions. He knew the importance of friendship, and the pain of losing everyone you've loved most. She wished she could shoulder all of it to give him the reprieve he deserved, and she knew he'd do the same for her.

Lizzie got along well with Rolf despite thinking he was beyond weird. Weird in the way Neville was into plants and Luna was into creatures others debated the existence of.

"I don't remember you from school," Lizzie said curiously when they were tending to young occamys.

"I went to Ilvermony not Hogwarts. We lived back and forth between New York and Great Britain up until a few years ago," he explained. Lizzie nodded in understanding.

"My mother insisted on Ilvermony," Jacob laughed, as he entered the area they were in to pass food out to a collection of small creatures.

"Dumbledore and my father were good friends, I'd have joined to the Order, but he wants a group of us to be just outside the realm of knowledge for instances like this, they'll never find you here," he added, pointing to Lizzie with a smirk.

"You've got quite the collection," Lizzie said with admiration looking around in awe.

"You have an affinity with creatures?" Rolf asked curiously.

"Sort of. Took a liking to a hippogriff that my godfather adopted. Suppose he's mine now. Dragons, battled a particularly vicious one in the tournament a couple of years ago, rode a non-aggressive ones in Romania with my best friend's brother. Got past a slew of various creatures in the tournament actually... Ripped apart by grindelows, chased down by acoratulas, I can speak to snakes... but I don't fancy them, killed a basilisk in my second year and a runespore in the tournament... up until a couple of months ago I both hosted an obscurial and ophidians. Do you know anything about those?" She asked.

"Ophidians? Merlin no, not much," Jacob admitted with a genuine look of concern on his face.

"It's Egyptian magic, was explained to me in some detail when we stayed in Giza. I'm trying to figure out how to control it if he - you-know-who - ever gets his hands on me again. It doesn't work the same on me because I can speak to them but it's not exactly enough to control them either," she explained. Jacob nodded in contemplation.

"I've been trying to secure an animagus form for nearly a year but events have made it difficult," Lizzie admitted.

"Hard bit of magic," he sighed.

"I don't normally talk with a slight lisp. Three weeks now with this bloody mandrake leaf...planning on planting the potion when I get back to school. My father was a stag, my godfather a dog. They did it as students to be with Remus on a full moon," she explained.

"It would be useful in this climate but you should keep the form secret for the time being," Jacob advised. Lizzie nodded.

"Obscurial though, you were abated?" He asked curiously. "That's a first," he added.

"It's complicated. Part of me died the night my family did. The curse didn't kill me but had an effect nonetheless. I absorbed the magic he lost when it rebounded. It rebounded because my mother sacrificed herself in my place. That love preserved enough of me to survive and protect what was left alive..."

"Then I was raised by an radically religious family, more so than anyone realized. Suppression of not just my own magic but his as well funneled it inward and it fed off what was dead. Learning how to survive the abuse further split my mind. I stopped living in the part that was killing me and it stayed dormant for many years, it took me as already dead. When the dark lord returned it bridged the split because he used my blood, the protected blood, to return and I lost some of that shield. It ate away at me quickly over the course of the year, and when I was possessed by him I think it couldn't tell the difference, because it latched onto him and was ripped free, only to die without the host. Enough of me was left intact and still protected to survive. That's the way I've understood it at least," she explained. Jacob looked perplexed but frowned.

"There's something missing there," he said shortly and Lizzie blinked at him in confusion.

"Pardon?" She asked as he scribbled on a notepad.

Jacob started mumbling but it was mostly nonsensical. "My... my father studied obscurials a great deal. There was a case in Africa that devastated him and then another in New York that was a key factor in the war against Grindewald. Dumbledore would know more about him. Anyway... let me... let me see if I've got this because you are a true anomaly," he explained.

"The dark lord killed your family, but your mother's sacrifice preserved your life - that is old magic he wouldn't have been able to kill you..."

"He didn't realize this and used the curse anyway which killed a portion of your mind and soul and destroyed his body. If it had simply rebounded on him he would have died, but you both absorbed it and were left in fragments. Him more so than you because of your mother's protection... his body would not have been able to support his power so it latched onto you..." Lizzie nodded, frowning down at what he was writing.

"You suppressed that magic, his and yours to survive and an obscurial formed. You survived long enough to gain an outlet for the magic and it went dormant. When you lost some of your mothers protection it gave it a channel to resume its course. But he was able to free you of it?" Jacob asked. Lizzie nodded.

"But there's, there's something else, there has to be something else. Obscurials won't feed off of something dead. That would have needed to be animated by something alive, like an inferious - which is otherwise just a body without the animation... I reckon the obscurial could feed off an inferious if it was animated by something with enough power to sustain it," he explained.

"What do you mean? I was animating the part of me that was dead?" Lizzie asked.

"No, unlikely at that age because you were suppressing magic," he said, scratching his temple. "If it confused him for you when it tore free, it was probably animated by him," he reasoned.

"But how? I was only raised by those psychopaths because of the blood wards, my mothers protection made him unable to touch me," Lizzie explained.

"You, the live you, not the part that wasn't alive..." he said, and Lizzie had a sudden moment of clarity.

"I've got to go talk to Remus, excuse me," she said breathlessly.

"Is he back?" Lizzie yelled up to Tonks.

"Remus?!" She yelled, and he came around the corner looking confused. Her heart sank at the fresh scratches and he could tell by the apologetic look on her face. He dismissed it as nothing new. "What's wrong?" He asked and they sat down at the table.

Lizzie reiterated what Jacob had told her across the table, scribbling out a visual of what was happening. He looked confused but followed and acknowledged the sound premise. Tonks frowned down trying to wrap her mind around it.

"In Bulgaria, Viktor explained that legend to us the muggles there refer to as a Vedma, Vedmak for warlocks. It's what they think is a witch but actual witches like us fear them all the same. Historically, witches created them upon committing murder. He claims legend says a witch must kill their Vedma or once the witch dies, the Vedma ascends to something more evil and powerful. The witch will see her own Vedma, but it is a sinister version of herself...like a doppelganger... I think that's exactly where the death omen around the doppleganger comes from," Lizzie explained to the best of her recollection and the same clarity seemed to slowly wash over Remus.

"I've seen my vedma, multiple versions of her ever since the night my parents died even though I did not kill them, it was my boggart. In recent years others have seen her too," Lizzie explained gesturing to Remus.

"If he was animating my body all this time, or rather the portion of my body that he could animate, it would explain why the obscurus did not present itself until we physically shared blood and bridged the divide between the part of me being animated and the part of me my mother's sacrifice protected. It ran a course quickly like a cancer at sixteen when it should have killed me as a child. It would explain why I saw a vedma that young even though I was not the one who killed my family...why the ophidians were confused... why our wand cores are the same and our powers match...why the imperious doesn't work, why our minds are connected...why the obscurus latched onto him," she explained. Remus looked up at her with fear in his eyes but nodded slowly.

"I don't know what this means for you though, didn't you kill it?" he asked quietly, shaking his head.

"I've killed MY vedma. The one that was created when I killed people," she whispered. "I don't think I can kill his, only he can kill his, it's why I wasn't able to kill myself. Between my mum's protection and this, only he has control of that and only to the degree the love protection has broken down since he returned... but it's complicated because he can't use his wand when mine matches, we share blood, he bonded me to him with that ophidian curse, he can't kill me like I did mine, we're too intertwined. Neither can live while the other survives," she said, and Remus buried his now aching head in his palms.

"Talk to Dumbledore about this. This is going to be key..." he said finally. "Stop killing people too, would you?" the last part came out sharp and she nodded shamefully. But he put a reassuring hand on her shoulder all the same and smiled weakly.