NOTE: This is the break between the revised section and the rough draft, so if there are a few inconsistencies, that's why. I will be going back to update further, but for now, I am uploading the less polished version of the story to this forum.

Every step felt like she was walking to an executioner, but it was time. It was time for her to tell the whole story-and it was time for her to face what she had been running from all these years.

She sat down at the table, and Jax and George immediately took a seat on either side of her, like two sentries ready to guard her, though she could tell that neither one really knew how to offer her support. "I guess it's time that I tell all of you the whole story," Thea said softly. "At the end of my third year at Hogwarts, I started to become friends with an older boy in another house. He and I started dating that summer."

"Just so you know, that boy was Liam," Jax pointed out.

Thea looked over at him. "I was about to explain that."

"Wait a minute...you dated Liam?" Ron asked from the other side of George.

Thea sighed. "A long time ago."

When Hermione elbowed him, Ron shrugged. "Well, it explains his obsession with her now."

"Continue," said Harry-he was on Jax's other side.

Thea nodded and braced herself for telling the rest. "Towards the end of summer break, he came to visit me at home," Thea continued. "It was supposed to be just him, but one of his friends showed up with him. One thing led to another, and they killed my parents." She wasn't going to get into the details. It was bad enough she even had to give them an overview, but to go back, truly go back and tell everything? She didn't think she could do it.

"I hope you broke up with him after that," said Ron.

Despite herself, Thea felt a laugh bubbling up in her throat. "Yes, I broke up with him. And I reported him, went to the ministry, and did everything I could to get him and his friend sent to Azkaban. Jax and his parents helped me with that-I actually went to stay with them after my parents' deaths. And then Orrin showed up."

Thea took a breath. "It was Christmas break, and I was staying with Jax and his parents when he showed up with two of his thugs. He pretty much explained how things were going to be-that I would drop the whole matter about my parents, that Liam would get away with all of it, and then they marked me, so they could find me, and if I didn't do as they said, they would have killed Jax and his family."

"That's awful," said Hermione. "I can understand why you did what you did," she said softly.

Thea nodded and then took a breath. "But now I have to go find Orrin."

"What? No," said Jax.

Thea shook her head. "I've been preparing my whole life for this. I have to do this."

"No, you don't," said Jax. "You've dealt with this alone for eight years-you don't have to handle it alone anymore."

"I agree with Jax," said Harry. "This Orrin sounds dangerous, and you going to him would be like walking right into a trap."

In the end, the others agreed, and it was decided that they would protect Thea there, despite Thea's protests.

As everyone began to disperse to get on with their evening, Thea approached George. "You didn't argue with them to keep me here."

George shrugged, putting his hands in the pockets of his robe. "I heard you yesterday. Jax and I were trying to protect you when we should have been listening to you and trying to back you up-not deciding for you how everything was to be handled. You've got an eight-year head start on us on this though, so you need to help us catch up."

Thea nodded. "I can try."

"You've told us what happened and that you need to leave, but you didn't really tell us what you plan to do," George said quietly. "Are you just planning to go on the run? I mean, that's what it sounds like, but I have a hard time believing that. So what's your plan?"

"We don't know what the Elite is planning, but we do know that they want me for some reason," Thea explained. "Why else mark me all those years ago? They're going to come for me either way, so why not use it to our advantage?"

"You're planning to go undercover," said George, raising an eyebrow.

"Sort of," said Thea. "I'm going to give him the scared little girl he's expecting."

"Except you're not a scared little girl anymore."

"Exactly...more or less anyway." When George looked over at her, she shrugged. "I'm still scared. This doesn't change any of that. I'm just a lot more prepared now than I was back then."

"What do you think they're up to?"

"They're trying to reverse death," said Thea. "I thought this was just some zany scheme cooked up by Liam, but it can't be a coincidence." She pulled up her pant leg just enough to show George the runes marked there. "Those symbols stand for immortality. I looked it up."

George studied her face. "There's something else. What aren't you saying?"

Thea bit her lip. "It's just a theory." When he just waited expectantly she sighed. "I just can't help but see similarities to their rhetoric and that of You Know Who's." It wasn't that she was afraid of his name-she wasn't. She was more afraid that the Elite may be using the taboo somehow.

"So what you..." He blinked as he realized what she was inferring. "You think they're trying to bring him back."

Her gaze met his. "I do."

"Well, we have to stop them."

"I know."