AN: Exams are killing me and I'm procrastinating revision to write this. Hope you appreciate it :). This chapter has a lot of revelations in it, and honestly was quite hard to write, for a lot of reasons.

Sam: Defence Against the Dark Arts
James: Transfiguration (though he'll never admit it)
Albus: Charms
Lien: Herbology
Lydjah: Charms
Molly: Herbology
Jayna: Defence Against the Dark Arts
Scorpius: Astronomy

Unsurprisingly, the follow-up question is; least favourite lessons?

Chapter Fourteen
Of Secrets, Secrets and Yet More Secrets

Sam sat, bored, on James' bed. Unsurprisingly, he took longer in the shower than she did, and she usually spent a good ten minutes sat on his bed after Quidditch practice had finished, waiting for him to come out of the bathroom. He still had his birthday cards up, two days later, and, considering she had nothing else to do, Sam thought she might as well read some.

An owl card with googly eyes caught her attention, and she picked it up with some interest. She winced as she realised it was from Irene, but didn't put it down. Though James didn't speak about it, she knew he had really liked Irene, which was probably the reason he broke up with her. James liked to be in control of his own emotions as much as he liked to live in chaos, and not being able to control how he felt was clearly something that scared him.

Sam hadn't liked Irene. She'd liked her more than she'd liked any of his other girlfriends, but Irene was too cheerful and perceptive for Sam. She kept trying to get to know her, sensing that if she didn't get Sam's approval James wouldn't be keeping her for long, but Sam didn't appreciate this. She knew it was stupid but it would be nice if they wanted to get to know Sam for Sam, not for her ability to change James' mind. She'd tried explaining this to James once, who'd looked at her like she was crazy. "They're going out with me Sam, not you. Surely they would've already made friends with you if they wanted to?" He'd said, and Sam had dropped the subject.

It didn't really help James' reputation when he dumped Irene and started going out with Laura Hackett in the same day but for some reason, possibly her Hufflepuff-status, Irene hadn't found this insulting. Sam knew deep down though that it wasn't because Irene was a nice person, though she was, but because Irene knew what only a handful of people did; James had immediately jumped on the Laura Hackett bandwagon to try and prove to himself that he didn't like Irene that much which, unfortunately for James, actually proved that he definitely did.

She knew that James didn't have feelings for her anymore, but it took him until he started going out with April last year before they went away, which was more than a year after he and Irene had broken up.

Dear J,

Happy Birthday!

I hope you like your present; you may be able to sense a slight theme here.

I haven't spoken to you in a while and I hope you know that it's not because I'm angry with you. I just feel more like myself when you're not around. Merlin that sounds horrible doesn't it! You're rather hard to get over J, don't let that go to your head, and I just need a little more time. I'm getting there though. Hanley is helping a lot, though I know you don't like him. Perhaps that's part of the reason why!

You haven't been out with anyone in a while, has some girl actually caught your eye for once? Congratulations on getting onto your house team, though I'm afraid we're still going to win the Quidditch cup.

Not-Yours (your loss ;)),

I

Sam glared at the card, putting it back where she'd found it. "Thanks a bloody lot Irene." She huffed. No doubt James was already considering girls to go out with, worried that people were going to start thinking that he actually fancied someone. After the three-week long mess that was his 'relationship' with Laura Hackett, the school had forgotten all about the seriousness of him and Irene, exactly as he'd hoped, and he wanted to keep it that way.

"What?" James asked, a towel wrapped around his waist as he tried to dislodge some water from his ear. Sam rolled her eyes and threw a t-shirt at him from the trunk under his bed.

"Nevermind."

"These glasses that Lien got me really do work."

"How many of the relationships that you've been in have you regretted Dwp?" James ran a hand through his hair in thought, not minding the abrupt subject change.

"Let's see… I regret Rephia because I didn't realise that she actually liked me and she still glares at me in the corridors. I regret Riley-" He shuddered. "Thank Merlin I ended that one. Irene… I had fun with Irene I don't regret that one. Laura-"

"Please tell me you regret Laura." Sam interrupted. James shrugged. "You do remember the time that she stripped down to her underwear in Potions because Quinn didn't believe that she wasn't wearing clothes underneath her robes?" James' eyes glazed over slightly. She threw a pillow at him. "We were twelve years old James! Who does that at seventeen, let alone twelve!" James coughed.

"Anyway, Josie was alright I suppose." Sam snorted. "And I didn't really have time to regret Sally considering we only went out for three days. While it lasted April and I were fine but I kind of regret going out with someone so prejudiced."

"So you only didn't properly regret one. Out of seven."

"Are you trying to make a point about Irene? I thought you didn't like her and she's going out with Hanley Leonardson now."

"I'm not, I don't and I don't care. I just don't understand why you keep throwing yourself into these relationships that you're going to end as soon as you get bored. Why don't you just wait to find someone you actually like?" James shrugged again.

"Waiting is boring. Might as well get some practice while I am. Do you actually like Lee?" He didn't mean it to be a hard question to answer and so was quite surprised when Sam blushed.

"Yeah. Yeah I actually like her quite a bit."

"Oh?" He asked, pulling the t-shirt on. Without needing to be asked Sam turned to face the door as he dropped his towel and grabbed some more clean clothes. "You're quite quiet about it. I don't even know how you two got together."

The memory flashed back in Sam's head as if it was yesterday. She'd been desperately confused after Lydjah's party and while James was off practising like crazy to get onto the Quidditch team she'd found herself wandering around the castle, doing a lot of way too deep thinking. Being bisexual wasn't something she was against, just something she'd never considered before. When she put the idea into her head though, she suddenly realised it made a lot of sense.

It was only when Lee called her name that she realised she'd wandered into the library.

"You look a little lost." Lee laughed. Sam took a seat next to her with a strange expression.

"Would you like to go out with me sometime?" It took Sam two seconds to realise that it had been her that had just spoken. Lee blinked at her.

"I didn't realise you were-"

"Neither did I actually." Lee regarded her for a moment longer and then, as if she couldn't help herself, she'd smiled. A proper, full-blown real smile. Sam had never seen this expression on the Ravenclaw before, and couldn't help but smile back.

"Sure. But only because you know how to sneak out to Hogsmeade."

From there, their relationship had started off being very hit and miss. Neither of them were quite sure how to act until Sam finally decided that they should just go out how they wanted to, not how social convention dictated they should. They snuck out to get ice-creams in Hogsmeade every weekend and found that they could speak for hours without getting bored. The romantic side of things didn't develop until after their relationship became public, and it was still a very private affair. They'd hold hands in the corridors, especially when it was cold, but there would be nothing particularly romantic about the gesture. Both of them hated flowers and random gifts, especially since neither of them had a lot of money to throw around.

"It wasn't a very big affair." Was Sam's only reply.

"So, Andrews." Sam gave a bemused look to her girlfriend as Lydjah sandwiched her way in-between them as they sat outside on a bench in courtyard. James and Jayna were in a heated discussion about their current Muggle Studies project (Jayna was arguing that they should do it on electricity but James said that would be cheating because they hadn't actually covered that yet which led to Jayna accusing him of only wanting to do what they had already studied so that he wouldn't have to put in any extra work).

"Make yourself at home Dawson." Sam said wryly. Lee rolled her eyes and moved out of Lydjah's way.

"It's my birthday tomorrow."

"We know."

"So I'm thinking we sneak out to Hogsmeade, in honour of soon being allowed to go legally, you two, James, Jayna and I, grab some alcohol and come back to Ravenclaw tower to get royally pissed." Sam frowned.

"Sneaking out a whole bunch of us like that… We'd have to go through the One-Eyed Witch passage." James and Jayna moved into the conversation.

"The One-Eyed Witch passage? Isn't that-"

"Where we all almost died last year Lydjah? Right around this time actually?" Lee sat up straighter.

"You guys almost died last year?" She asked, not surprised but vaguely amused.

"Oh yeah it was just before Lydjah's party when James and Jayna got kidnapped-" Sam replied.

"Wait, they actually got kidnapped? I thought that was just a rumour." Lee cut in.

"How is it that gossip about Fred and I making out on the Quidditch Pitch after curfew when there was no-one around to see us gets out but a kidnapping doesn't?" Lydjah pouted.

"Anyway," Sam said, exasperated, "I don't think going down there is a good idea."

"Oh come on Sam, they had to remove the killer-plant thing otherwise the school would have been closed down. That passage is probably safer than all the other ones now." Sam rolled her eyes.

"All the teachers probably know where it is then." James harrumphed.

"As if my dad would have told them all that. He was a possessor of the Marauder's Map and code once too."

"It has a code?" Jayna snorted. James glared at him. "Oooo I'm so sorry for offending your secret map club." She said mockingly.

"It's not a map club; it's a lifestyle." James said scathingly. Lydjah bit her lips to keep from laughing. Jayna had no such restraint.

"Ok Potter, you tell yourself that."

"Shut up Blackwood. Are we going to Hogsmeade or not?" Sam sent a questioning look to Lee who shrugged.

"Sure." Jayna frowned, scrunching her mouth up.

"Come on Jay-Jay; we're only breaking the rules a tinsy little bit."

"Fine. But if we get caught I can do a really good impression of a victim of a Confundus curse and I will not be afraid to use it."

"Great! Meet tomorrow at half seven and wear something practical but pretty if you can manage it." Sam rolled her eyes heavenward.

At precisely half-seven on the 3rd of October 2018, James Potter finally turned up at the One-Eyed Witch statue, seeming not at all put off by the fact that he was the lone boy in a group of girls, but rather out of breath.

"Get in the passage; Thorne's just round the corner." Sam immediately leaped to do what he said but it took the other's a second to remember who Thorne was, as they were so used to having Filch as the caretaker.

The walk through the passage was rather cramped, and the tension radiating from Sam and Lydjah was enough to cramp the conversation too, until they turned up in Honeydukes' cellar.

"Where are we?" Jayna whispered.

"Honeydukes." James answered, smiling appreciatively at the sweets around him. Their first Hogsmeade weekend was the next weekend coming up, but the novelty of the village had lost its appeal slightly since James had been coming to it from his first year.

Jayna looked around in awe, a happy grin lighting up her face. "I feel slightly faint but I'll live. I think this breaking the rules thing will have to be slightly more occasional."

"Jayna we break the rules every weekend." Sam pointed out.

"How?" Lee asked. The rest of their group tensed slightly, completely forgetting that Lee wasn't in the know.

"We keep visiting the Chamber of Secrets." James supplied easily.

"The place I had to get you out of last year?" Lee asked, unimpressed. "Why?"

"Shits and giggles." Lydjah replied. "Sam and James like to practice for Quidditch down there, and Jayna and I have to supervise and check that they don't kill themselves." Lee smirked. Sam gestured to them from the top of the stairs that led up into the back of the shop.

"It's all closed, we're good to go."

"Wait; how are we going to get out if they've locked the door?" Jayna asked as they climbed the stairs. James froze from above her, and then hurried to talk to Sam. Sam went over to the front door, not looking very hopeful.

"Alohomora!" Nothing happened.

"If they hadn't put the anti-unlocking spell on it, Honeydukes would have been robbed ages ago." Lydjah pointed out.

"Looks like we're stuck in here then. Sorry Lydjah." James sighed.

"It's alright, there's still a lot of nice food in here." Jayna gasped.

"Lyd-Jah! That's stealing!" Lydjah rolled her eyes.

"I wasn't suggesting that we just take it and don't leave money on the counter you lemon."

"We should leave a list of what we took as well; they must have an inventory that they have to fill in." Sam added.

"How do you know that?" James asked curiously.

"My mum worked in a shop for a while. Used to have me as her assistant in the summer."

"Fair enough. Let's go find some snacks." The group split off to find food. They came back with varying degrees of spoils, from Sam's simple chocolate bar to Jayna's outrageous two bags full of food.

"What? I get really hungry before tea. I'm not going to eat it all in one go."

Lydjah reached a hand into her pocket and brought out her phone, switching it on at the side. "What the Hell is that?" Lee asked.

"It's a box that Muggles use to talk to each other across long distances, because their post takes ages." Jayna said proudly. Lydjah rolled her eyes.

"It does other things too but yeah its primary function is a talking device. It's called a mobile phone, phone for short."

"Oh." Lydjah hit the screen with her spare hand.

"Work you piece of shit!" She said angrily. The screen flickered a few times before the phone gave up again.

"This is an all magical community Lydjah. Muggle devices still don't work here." Sam said. Lydjah scowled, putting her phone back in her pocket.

"I love the Wizarding world to bits but seriously Muggles have their shit together much more in terms of everyday appliances."

"Why bother developing appliances when you have magic?" James pointed out.

"We still use quills here James. Quills."

The conversation between the five of them continued until late into the night, when they finally decided to head back to the castle. Sam and James bid them goodnight, Jayna profusely thanking Sam and Lee for setting a good example for Lydjah of what an appropriate public goodbye should be like (a quick peck on the cheek), much to their embarrassment, and the three Ravenclaws made it back to their tower thankfully without and trouble, giggling all the while.

They stayed up chatting in the Common Room for a bit and helping themselves to Jayna's sizeable chocolate stash before Lee finally got up with a yawn and made her way into their dormitory, rather quietly for someone of such a muscular build.

Jayna murmured something sleepily as Lee disappeared into their room. Lydjah paused in her own ascent as she realised her friend hadn't yet moved off the sofa. "What?"

"Do you know what's wrong with Lee?"

"Again, what?" Lydjah asked, a slight smile on her face as she regarded her friend's messy hair and half-lidded eyes.

"Well I thought you might know because she knows what happened to you when you were younger."

"Sorry?" Lydjah croaked, hurrying over to the sofa. Jayna sat up, looking a little more awake.

"Whatever you're not telling me. She knows right?"

"If she's told you something-" Lydjah started angrily.

"No I just guessed. You share looks sometimes." Lydjah frowned. For someone how was generally as perceptive as a brick wall, Jayna did have her moments. She sighed.

"… I was really bad at the start of first year. I missed my parents... Did a couple of stupid things including getting piss drunk while lost in the castle. Lee found me and I ended up confessing the whole lot because I was so drunk. That's the only reason I did it. I hadn't realised there was anything wrong with Lee. I mean she's a little different but so are we."

"Ok."

"Ok? That's it? No quizzing?"

"If you wanted me to know you would've told me. So no I'm not going to ask. I hope you know nothing will change my opinion of you. I mean if you murdered someone-" Lydjah flinched, her pallor turning from her usual slightly peaky to deathly white. "Lyd-Jah? You- you killed someone?"

"It was an accident." Lydjah breathed, looking panicky. Jayna's eyes widened. Knowing the pain of losing someone close to her, she didn't know if this was something she could forgive her friend for.

"I'm sorry I was just joking I didn't realise-" Jayna said hastily, not wanting to know anymore.

"It's ok." Lydjah said, sounding very not ok.

"I'll just shut up I'm sorry you don't have to-"

"I've already confessed the bad bit. Might as well tell you the context." Jayna sat back down from where she'd half-raised out of her seat to leave. Lydjah took a deep breath, stumbling through her words. "I was eight." Jayna's eyes got even wider. "My magic had just started showing up, I was a bit late you see. My dad was showing me around magical London, and he went to Gringotts to get some money, told me to wait outside. Just for five minutes... I got curious. He hadn't told me about Knockturn alley yet... Anyway I wandered down there and got hopelessly lost. I tried to ask this man for directions-" She cut herself off, losing her voice for a second. "Sorry. I tried to ask this man for directions and he attacked me. Something about how nice young humans tasted... I don't know what kind of creature he was but after..." Lydjah squeezed her eyes shut and Jayna felt bile rise in her throat as she realised the extent of what this man-like creature had done to her best friend. "After a bit he tried to knock me unconscious. And my accidental magic..." She sped up for the last part of her explanation, rushing through the words so quickly that Jayna barely had chance to hear them. "I shot him with a bolt of light. Huge hole in his chest. Pretty painless to be fair. I found my own way out, found my dad and got out of there. Didn't hear from anybody about it so I assumed he wasn't missed much."

"Lydjah... I don't know what to say." Lydjah chuckled darkly, her face clouding over as she began to brace herself for the loss of a friend. "I don't fault you at all for killing him!" Jayna added hurriedly, to Lydjah's surprise. "I'm just so… Sad that that happened to you."

"You don't mind that I'm a murderer?" Jayna shrugged.

"So are Harry Potter and Molly Weasley technically. Pretty sure they saved loads of people by killing bad guys. All the Aurors have been involved in at least one death of a bad person. They're heroes. And you definitely killed a bad guy."

"So you're saying I'm a hero?" Lydjah said sceptically. Jayna grinned, slowly but surely.

"Yep."

Lee sighed as she moved away from her eavesdropping spot at the door. Riley and Paige were sleeping in the common room as was the custom when it was someone else's birthday.

For a moment she considered telling Jayna and Lydjah what was wrong with her. They were the closest thing she had to friends. Contrary to popular belief, her family hadn't left Africa because everyone there hated her so much they were threatening to kill her. She'd had friends there. Besides, what would be the point in trying to kill her when she was already marked for death?

By the time Lydjah and Jayna came in Lee was sat in her bed with the curtains drawn. They lowered their voices, assuming she was asleep but Lee didn't move until she was sure they'd drifted into the land of dreams.

She hadn't been there in a long time. Last year, when Jayna had been on the same Dreamless Sleep Potion as her she'd spent weeks arguing with herself about whether to warn her about what would happen when she went off it. But that would've led to questions about how she knew, (Jayna wasn't stupid though despite all she'd been through she wasn't exactly clever either) questions she didn't want to answer. Dreamless sleep potion was dangerous because it could lead to chronic insomnia (a side-effect Lee had developed years ago); in long-term circumstances it was only authorised if, by dreaming, the patient would be a serious harm to themselves or others. Lee had seen how potent Jayna's nightmares had been four months after the event that had triggered them occurred, so she assumed that had she had the nightmares from the start she probably would've injured herself in a fit, like the one she'd had at the start of the year. She didn't know the story behind Jayna's nightmares, but she knew the rumours, most of them spread by an angry sleep-deprived Riley Skeeter. (Jayna may have put up silencing charms but they didn't always last the whole night.)

Jayna had definitely been tortured, that much must be true, but Lee thought that either she'd been under for the entire time James and her had been captured or there was something else going on. She was curious, but not curious enough to find out. Curiosity led to questions which led to being in people's debt for sharing their knowledge. And Lee was not about to share any of her own.

She picked up her wand and renewed the spells around her bed, like she did every night. She didn't need to; the spells would quite likely hold until she took them away now but it was soothing, a routine. Spells to keep other things out, spells to keep her in, spells to monitor her breathing and her heart rate. If either stopped, spells to alert Professor Vector.

She had a lot to owe to the Headmistress, which was why she made a conscious effort to avoid her. All the teachers knew, in case something happened in their classes, but the old Arithmancy professor was the only one in the school who could make any decisions based on her secret. And she'd still been allowed to stay in the school. The whole summer after first year she had waited for a letter telling her that she wouldn't be allowed back in September. Professor McGonagall had been the one to let her in and she didn't expect the new Headmistress to do the same. But she had.

Not that she was a danger to the other students, or at least, not because of that. She often wondered though, why the Headmistress bothered to waste resources and time on a student who wouldn't live long enough to give anything back to the world. Not that she wanted to. This world was cruel and she'd never fitted in it. Not after her diagnosis at least.

Kidallis. The word haunted her constantly. It wasn't brought up often, for which she was grateful, but whenever someone mentioned it something like fear coiled up in her stomach and tried to poison her heart.

She brought out the dilapidated paper from the top drawer of her bedside table. Riley had learnt long ago that coming near Lee's stuff would result in an array of nasty jinxes heading her way. She did her best to smooth out the creases from being folded and unfolded too many times and opened the booklet to the first page.

Information:

Kidallis is a terminal Wizarding virus. It affects only a small percent of the population but so far no links can be made genetically or environmentally as to why certain people are born with the disease. It is not infectious. The disease is present in all the cells of the patient and can be easily diagnosed if someone is looking for it. However, Kidallis does not have any effect or symptoms until around three months before it completely takes over the host body and so most patients are found either by accident or when they only have three months left. Kidallis-patients have an average life expectancy of fifteen years of age. Even with the proper treatment, a patient can only be expected to live until eighteen at most. As of yet, there is no cure.

The last sentence stuck in her throat and she hastily shoved the booklet away, as she always did. She wished more than anything that they'd never found the Kidallis gene in her blood. She'd gone for a blood-test to find out if she was diabetic (which she wasn't) and had been told then that she had six years left to live, nine if she was very lucky. She didn't really see how three years were going to help her but her parents were determined she would have them which is why they immediately moved to England, where she could receive the best treatment the world had to offer. She'd spent the next year in her own room in St Mungo's, learning English while her parents fought and cried too much. During a particularly bad fight they'd had, Lee shaved off all her hair, just to see if they even saw her as their daughter anymore, and not just the thing they had allowed themselves to love only to find out it was intent on breaking their hearts. They had noticed, but not until a few days afterwards, and Lee had her answer.

That was about the time that she started campaigning to go to school in England, as she knew her parents would never agree to go back to Africa. The hospital had got all the samples and information they could possibly want from her; she'd done her part in helping their cure research. She wanted to live her life, because Merlin knew she didn't have much of it left.

It wasn't until she actually stepped onto the Hogwarts Express for the first time that she realised she was only going to trade her parents' depression for someone else's. She was stood on a train-full of potential casualties from the bomb her death would bring. Kidallis hadn't only taken years off her life; it had stopped her from being able to live in the first place. She could not make friends, could not fall for anybody, could not even form a close bond with her teachers. It was bad enough she'd broken her parents; she would not hurt anyone else.

She was really glad Quidditch had been invented. This year was going to be better than the last. She had something to throw herself into, something that made her make reckless impulsive decisions, something to make her forget that she was selfish and she'd tried to snatch happiness knowing the cost was Sam's heart.