Chapter 39.

Magnolia didn't need to wait long before Hermione told her that Sirius had replied. The reply didn't do anything to lessen the tension between her and her brother though, in fact it only made things worse.

Magnolia was frustrated that Harry pushed aside Sirius' concerns for him, adamant that no one had attacked him that school year and wouldn't listen when Magnolia and Hermione reminded him that whoever put his name in the Goblet of Fire, didn't do it with pure intentions. The twins barely spoke the few days after the letter was received, Magnolia instead spending time with her Slytherin friends and Draco.

She and Theo were sat in the Common Room playing Wizarding Chess a little apart from Daphne, Pansy, Tracey, Draco and Blaise, when Theo mumbled 'Muffliato' around the pair. Magnolia glanced up at him confused.

"We need to talk, and without physically taking you away from everyone, I didn't know how else to do it."

"What's going on?"

Theo glanced back at his chess pieces, before making his move, "I saw you with George early in the morning a few days ago."

Magnolia sighed and nodded, knowing what Theo was talking about. The day Harry had sent Sirius his letter and George had taken her for a walk, just to tell her he knew about her and Draco but wasn't giving up on her.

Magnolia didn't respond straight away, instead she moved one of her own chess pieces and then looked back at Theo.

"And?"

"And…!" Theo leaned forward, quietly raising his voice at her, "He was holding your hand, Maggie! What I saw did not look like someone who was seeing someone else."

He leant back then, moving his own chess piece. Magnolia moved one of her own, leaning towards him like he had with her.

"You've misread it, Theo." She explained hastily, "He… he knows about Draco. Sort of. Somehow. He guessed that I don't want to see him, and refused anymore breakfast or dinner dates with him, because of Draco."

Theo sneered and leaned forward again, both forgetting completely about the match, "Not going to lie, Mags, but that did not look like a guy who had just been rejected."

"That's because he told me that he's planning on waiting for me." Magnolia scoffed, "He said he's waiting for Draco to mess up or hurt me and then he'll be there."

"And what did you say?"

"I couldn't. He left straight after saying it."

"Not straight after." Theo grumbled, "I saw him kiss you."

"Then you would've seen me not return it." Magnolia snapped, "What's this really about, Theo?"

"Draco has wanted to be with you for years, even if he didn't admit it." Theo relented, "I don't want to see him get hurt. I don't want to see either of you get hurt, but Draco has never seen any girl as a something other than a bit of fun that'll last for a couple of weeks. And, if the one time he does, she hurts him… I don't know if he'd have another relationship. At least for a long time."

"Theo, I'm not planning on hurting Draco. I'm risking a lot as well, Harry already hates that I'm in Slytherin and friendly with you all, especially Draco. Could you imagine what it would be like if he knew Draco and I were together?"

Theo laughed, "He'd probably combust! Will you ever tell him?"

"I'm just seeing how it goes at the moment." Magnolia shrugged, "You said yourself, Draco has only seen girls as week-long playthings up until now. I don't want to anger Harry if Draco just decides he doesn't want me anymore."

"Don't worry about that," Theo grinned, squeezing Magnolia's hand, "I think we've all separately threatened him about hurting you. Even Pucey."

Magnolia laughed then, and Theo took the spell away from around them so they could finish their game. When they did, after Theo won again, they went back to sitting with their friends. Magnolia instantly curled up against Draco and smiled when he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him.

Magnolia was sat in Divination with Daphne a couple of days later, trying to pay attention to what Trelawney was saying about Mars but mainly day dreaming about being outside in the sun, when she heard Harry yell from the other side of the room. Ron was already on the floor beside him when Magnolia reached her twins side; Harry was clutching his forehead with his face scrunched in pain.

"Harry!" She called, holding the top of his arms until he opened his eyes.

"You all right?" Ron asked.

Magnolia shot him a glare, "Does he look all right?"

"What was it, Potter? A premonition? An apparition? What did you see?" Trelawney asked, excited.

"Nothing." Harry replied, his voice shaky.

He glanced at Magnolia, and she could tell that he was lying. He saw something, and it had terrified him. He grabbed her hands, pulling her closer to him, as his eyes shot around the classroom as if they were looking for something.

"You were clutching your scar!" Trelawney enthused, "You were rolling around on the floor, clutching your scar! Come now, Potter, I have experience in these matters."

Magnolia glared at the woman as Harry said he needed to go to the Hospital, just for the Professor to insist he stayed in case he lost the opportunity to see further into his vision.

"Back off, lady." Magnolia spat at her professor, "He's going to the Hospital Wing."

Magnolia quickly pulled her twin off the floor, and grabbed both their bags, before hastily leaving the Divination Room. They were halfway down the corridor when Magnolia paused beside an open window to let Harry get some fresh air.

"We're not really going to the Hospital Wing, are we?" Magnolia asked, "I know you saw something, and Sirius has told you if your scar hurts anymore to see Dumbledore."

"Sirius is being paranoid." Harry mumbled.

"What did you see?" Magnolia demanded.

Harry looked down at the floor, "Voldemort. He was torturing Wormtail because he let someone escape."

"You saw Voldemort, and you're really trying to tell me that you think Sirius is being paranoid? Come on Harry, even you're not that stupid."

Harry scowled at his sister but relented and the two walked through the Castle towards Dumbledore's office. Once Harry had guessed the password, the two practically ran up the stairs towards their Headmaster's office.

"Dumbledore, I'm afraid I don't see the connection, don't see it at all!"

Magnolia grabbed Harry's hand to stop him going any further when she heard the Minister of Magic's voice. He was talking about Bertha Jorkins' disappearance and Crouch's, with Professor Dumbledore and Moody. Magnolia rolled her eyes when she heard Moody start talking, he always seemed to be there when there was trouble.

"Well, I'll reserve judgement until after I've seen the place where he was found, but you say it was just past the Beauxbatons carriage? Dumbledore you know what that woman is?"

Magnolia and Harry glanced at each other, neither wanting to believe that Cornelius Fudge would suspect Madame Maxime had something to do with Crouch's disappearance because she was part Giant.

"I no more suspect Madame Maxime than Hagrid." Dumbledore replied, "I think it is possible that it is you who are prejudiced, Cornelius."

"Can we wrap up this discussion?" Moody growled, "The Potter twins are outside the door."

Magnolia shrank away from the door; she had forgotten that Moody would be able to see them with his magic eye. Moments later, he opened the office door and beckoned them inside. Magnolia looked around the room whilst Harry spoke to the Minister, taking in all the portraits of the previous Headmasters and mistresses that lined the walls.

"I wanted to talk to you, Professor." Magnolia heard her brother say.

"Wait for me here, our examination of the grounds will not take long."

Magnolia was glad when the three men left, she had felt Moody watching her the entire time he had been in the office with her. Magnolia carried on looking around the office as Harry moved to Fawkes. She moved over to a small basin, with a silvery light coming from the inside. The more she looked, the faster the swirling light began to move, until Magnolia called her brother to look at it as well.

They both leaned closer, to get a better look at the liquid and find out what it was when Magnolia felt her feet be tugged off of the office floor as she fell into the basin. When she opened her eyes, Harry appeared next to her, and she glanced around to see that they were in what looked like a courtroom.

No one else in the room had noticed the twins fall from the ceiling, they were all watching the centre of the room, where an empty chair stood. Magnolia heard Harry gasp, and turned to see that they were sat next to a younger looking Dumbledore. Harry spoke, but Dumbledore didn't seem to hear him. Magnolia grabbed her brother's hand and pulled it back down when he began to wave it in front of Dumbledore's face.

"Harry, he can't see us. No one can." Magnolia explained hurriedly, "Look at him. Really look at him, this isn't the Dumbledore we know. I think this is from the past, like we're seeing the past."

A door on the other side of the room opened then, and two Dementors swept in with a terrified man between them. Harry grasped Magnolia's hand at the sight of the Dementors, but Magnolia didn't feel the same feeling she had when they were stationed around the school the previous year.

Instead, she focused on the man between them that was now being chained into the seat in the centre of the room. Magnolia recognised him instantly; it was Karkaroff. He was younger, like Dumbledore, but it was definitely him.

"Igor Karkaroff, you have been brought from Azkaban to give evidence to the Ministry of Magic. You have given us to understand that you have important information for us."

"I have, sir." The fear in Karkaroff's voice was easy to hear, "I wish to be of use to the Ministry. I wish to help. I- I know that the Ministry is to- to round up the last of the Dark Lord's supporters. I am eager to assist in any way I can."

Magnolia rolled her eyes, he just seemed like a man who was trying to push his own wrongs onto other people, terrified after realising the team he had backed had lost. Magnolia saw Harry lean forward, and followed her brother's sight, just to see Moody sitting beside her Headteacher.

He didn't seem so daunting now, he had both his normal eyes and the aura around him was different then the one Magnolia was used to.

"Crouch is going to let him out." Moody mumbled to Professor Dumbledore, "He's done a deal with him. Took me six months to track him down and Crouch is going to let him go if he's got enough new names. Let's hear this information, I say, and throw him straight back to the Dementors."

Magnolia didn't disagree with him. She knew now that Karkaroff had been let off of his own sentence for all of the terrible things he had done, just because he gave up other Death Eaters. That didn't make what he had done any better, it just meant he was a coward.

Magnolia looked back down at Karkaroff, who was babbling about how Voldemort had kept his supporters a secret, even from them. Magnolia scoffed at the obvious ploy the wizard was playing.

"Yet, you say you have some names for us." Crouch interrupted impatiently.

"I- I do. And they were important supporters mark you. People I saw with my own eyes doing his bidding. I give this information as a sign that I fully and totally renounce him, and am filled with remorse so deep I can barely-"

"These names are?"

And so Karkaroff began giving his names; Antonin Dolohov, Travers and Mulciber who had already been caught, Evan Rosier who was dead, and Augustus Rockwood who worked in the Department of Mysteries. Magnolia could tell that when he named Rockwood, the room buzzed with anticipation. He even named Magnolia's own Head of House, although Dumbledore was quick to defend Professor Snape.

The scene changed quickly after that, Magnolia and Harry were still sat in the same room, but from a different side and higher up. When the door opened, Magnolia was confused, Ludo Bagman was brought in to sit on the chained chair in the middle of the room.

She only grew more confused when Crouch stated that he was charged with crimes relating to the Death Eaters. She couldn't believe that he had been a Death Eater, and she could tell by Harry's face that he couldn't either. The crowd cried out when Crouch began sentencing him, and instead had to put it to a vote, which led to Bagman being let go.

The room changed again, much tenser this time. Whereas in the previous memory, the crowd had been light and jovial, this time they were morose. The door opened again, and Magnolia watched as six Dementors entered, taking four people to the seats in the centre of the room.

Magnolia balked at the sight of the four people sat down. The larger man and woman didn't seem to have any regret in their eyes at all, whereas the smaller man was at least nervous. The worst one though, was the young boy sat at the end; he couldn't have been much older than Magnolia was herself, and Crouch was looking at them with pure hatred in his eyes.

"Father… Father please." The boy begged as Crouch began speaking.

Magnolia glanced at Harry, that was Crouch's son.

"We have heard the evidence against you." Crouch continued, ignoring his sons pleas and his wife's whimpers, "The four of you stand accused of capturing an Auror, Frank Longbottom , and subjecting him to the Cruciatus Curse, believing him to have knowledge of the present whereabouts of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

"You are further accused of using the Cruciatus Curse on Frank Longbottom's wife, when he would not give you information. You planned to restore He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named to power, and to resume the lives of violence you presumably led while he was strong. I now ask the jury-"

"Mother!" Crouch's son screamed, "Mother, stop him. Mother, I didn't do it, it wasn't me!"

Crouch ignored him as he screamed and pleaded, instead taking the vote of the jury which unanimously sent the four to Azkaban for life. Magnolia glanced at Crouch's wife as her son screamed, she couldn't look at him nor could she look at her husband. Instead, the woman was sat staring at her knees and dabbing her eyes.

"The Dark Lord will rise again, Crouch!" The woman cried, "Throw us into Azkaban, we will wait. He will rise again and will come for us; he will reward us beyond any of his other supporters! We alone were faithful! We alone tried to find him!"

"I'm your son! I'm your son!"

"Take them away! Take them away and may they rot there!"

"Father! Father, I wasn't involved! NO! No! Father, please!"

Magnolia couldn't take her eyes off the trembling boy. She knew he was lying, he had to be. But how could a boy that young become so entrenched in the Dark Arts. She shivered as the boy's eyes scanned over the room.

"I think, Harry, Magnolia, it is time to return to my office."

Magnolia startled as she heard Professor Dumbledore's voice from beside them. He grasped Magnolia's elbow in his hand and Magnolia felt herself being lifted through the memory. Moments later, she was back in the Headmaster's office.

Magnolia was thinking over the memories she had just seen as Harry apologised and Dumbledore explained to him what the Pensieve was. She couldn't believe that Harry hadn't realised that they were in Professor Dumbledore's memories. As Dumbledore showed one fleeting memory of Snape, Magnolia realised exactly what Karkaroff had wanted to discuss with Professor Snape in their Potion's class.

"So, Harry, before you got lost in my thoughts, you wanted to tell me something."

"Well, I had a dream. A dream about Lord Voldemort. He was torturing Wormtail… you know who Wormtail-"

"I do know." Dumbledore nodded.

"Voldemort got a letter from an owl. He said something like, Wormtail's blunder had been repaired." Harry began, his eyes glancing at Magnolia, "He said someone was dead and so the girl was still safe. Then he said Wormtail wouldn't be fed to the snake- there was snake beside his chair. He said… he said he'd be feeding me to it instead. Then he did the Cruciatus curse on Wormtail, and my scar hurt. It woke me up, it hurt so badly."

"I see. Now has your scar hurt at any other time this year, excepting the time it woke you up over the summer?"

"No, I- how did you know it woke me you over the summer?"

"You are not Sirius' only correspondent." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled, "It was I who suggested the mountainside cave as the safest place for him to stay."

Dumbledore paused for a moment, looking between the twins.

"Magnolia, what about you?"

"Me, Professor?"

"Have you had any strange dreams you wish to share?"

Magnolia paused, glancing at her brother before looking back at Dumbledore. Maybe she should tell someone other then just Draco. She was sure that if Dumbledore was bringing it up, he already knew she had been having nightmares anyway.

"I've had some." Magnolia nodded, "At the beginning of the year, they were just flashes of light and screams. Then they started to change. I've been seeing Tom in my dreams- Tom Riddle… Voldemort- he's usually fighting the people I love… Harry and such. Then… when I was in the Lake… I had a dream about him then too. It was like I was awake, still in the Lake, but waiting to be saved by him. It was so real."

Magnolia didn't look at her brother, although she could feel him staring at her. Instead, she focussed her attention on Professor Dumbledore, who had nodded and stood. He walked to the Pensieve and pulled out a memory from his mind before sitting back down opposite the twins.

"I have a theory, no more than that. It is my belief that your scar hurts, Harry, both when Lord Voldemort is near you and when he is feeling a particularly strong surge of hatred."

"But why?" Harry asked.

"Because you and he are connected by the curse that failed. That is no ordinary scar."

"So, you think that dream… you think it really happened?" Harry questioned, "What about Maggie's? That couldn't be real, what about her dreams?"

"It is possible your dream happened, Harry. However, Magnolia let me ponder yours for a while longer." Dumbledore smiled at her, encouragingly.

Magnolia zoned out then, worried about what the Headmaster thought of her dreams. He had answers for Harry, why didn't he have any for her. Harry wasn't the only child to affected by Voldemort that day in the Nursery. Thinking back to what Sirius had said, it was likely Harry wasn't even the only one who had been cursed by Voldemort that night.

It wasn't until Harry asked about the Longbottom's mentioned in the last memory that Magnolia re-joined the conversation. She had thought when she heard their names that they must have been related to Neville, but it was horrible to know that his parents had been tortured to insanity.

When the twins left their Headmaster's office, they walked silently and aimlessly. Magnolia was waiting for her brother to apologise for what he had said in Hogsmeade, although she knew he never would. Harry Potter didn't apologise for things like that.

"How's your training going?"

"Well enough as it can, I suppose." Harry replied, "I feel a bit bad that I've had to practice on Hermione and Ron though."

"Ok, so we'll give them a break. I'll help you train; you can practice with me."

"Maggie," Harry sighed, "I'm not going to do that to you."

"Oh, come on bro." Magnolia smirked, "I have shown a 'prevalence to the Dark Arts', remember? Besides, I'm not saying I'm going to go easy on you like those two. Whatever you'll face in that Maze, isn't going to just stand there and let you attack it."

After that, Magnolia and Harry met with Hermione and Ron as often as they could to train Harry for his third Task. Hermione always brought new spells for him to practice and Magnolia always made him work to get the upper hand on her.

She was glad that her brother was working so hard on getting ready for the training, even though Hermione and Ron had sometimes had to stop the pair from throwing curses at each other in training sessions. Hermione especially voiced her concern that the pair were taking too much out on each other during the training sessions.

Sirius hadn't been entirely happy with it either. He had sent Magnolia a letter only a few days after Harry's dream in Divination class berating her for not telling him about her dreams and reminding her of how important it was that she tell him things like that.

He had also told her and Harry that they need to be careful in training that they don't seriously injure each other, especially Harry before the final task. Hermione had admitted after that particular letter that she had added a small note to Sirius in the last one Harry sent to tell him about the intensity of some of the training sessions they had.

Other people noticed as well. George had stopped Magnolia in the hallway one day between class and demanded to know where she had gotten an especially nasty bruise on her arm from. Magnolia had scoffed when he asked if her Draco had hurt her and was shocked when she told him it was actually Harry.

Draco himself hadn't been happy about the arrangement after he had found a large burn mark on her side. Magnolia had never seen him look as furious as he had in that moment after she winced from his hand brushing the burn. He had been ready to do much worse to the person who had inflicted the pain on Magnolia until she explained, and then marched her to Hospital Wing for a salve.

After that, Draco was exceptionally careful with Magnolia, touching her like she could break at any moment. Magnolia still couldn't believe how caring he could be. In the moments they spent together, just the two of them, she was blissfully happy. Sometimes they would hide away to just talk together, telling each other more about their lives.

Magnolia found Draco's childhood strange but fascinating. She wasn't sure if his was a typical Pureblood upbringing, or if it was just his family, but Draco would often surprise her when he revealed more of the dances he was taught from a young age, or the musical instruments. Magnolia had laughed until she cried when he was telling her about his dinner etiquette lessons.

She hadn't been able to tell him much about her childhood. His eyes hardened whenever he realised how tough she had had it with the muggles when she was younger. Instead, they shared their hopes and dreams; Magnolia learnt that Draco was interested in Alchemy and she shared that she wanted to be a Healer.

As the Third Task neared, Harry's training sessions became even more intense. The excitement coursing through the Castle at the upcoming Task was palpable, and Magnolia could see the groups of students talking about it from the window of the room the four students were currently training in.

It was Ron who noticed Draco sat up a tree, Crabbe and Goyle at the bottom of it. She grimaced, Magnolia had never liked them, and she didn't understand why Draco let them hang around.

"He looks like he's using a walkie-talkie." Harry mentioned.

Magnolia agreed, the way he was holding his hands to face did look like that. As the other three walked away from the window to help Harry with his Shield Charm, Magnolia hesitated. She wondered what Draco was doing, she could see the smile on his face from where she was stood.

"Maggie, can you try and get through the Shield? The other two can't now." Harry's voice called to her, pulling her away the view.