Ch.18

Questions and Answers

A/N: the antepenultimate chapter! Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I never owned Harry Potter and never will, unfortunately…

I'm not afraid to cry every once in awhile

There are days every now and again

I pretend I'm okay

What hurts the most

Was being so close

And having so much to say

And watching you walk away

And never knowing

What could have been?

Not knowing that loving you

Was what I was trying to do

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Lily locked herself up inside the dormitory and refused to speak or see anyone, even her friends. The other occupants of the dorm were not happy, seeing how they had to sleep on the Common Room couches for the last few days. Alice and Kaleen didn't mind so much, seeing how they were rarely seen in the Gryffindor Common Room anymore; they had been spending most of their spare time with their newly founded boyfriends. Marcie and Madeline, on the other hand, had a lot of free time on their hands. There wasn't much to do anymore, now that they couldn't go inside their own dormitory.

"Something has to be done," Madeline said finally. She and Marcie were lounging by fire, like always. "Don't you find it a bit odd that Lily has locked us out of our own dormitory?"

"Something happened," Marcie replied thoughtfully while Madeline rolled her eyes.

"No really?" Madeline scoffed. "Too bad we can't talk to her."

"Right but even so, I have a hunch on what's wrong with her," Marcie faced Madeline. "It had to be something to do with Harmony?"

"What makes you think that?" Madeline asked curiously.

"Because all the drama that has been occurring lately almost always has something to do with Harmony," Marcie's eyes narrowed. "That girl's seriously messed up."

Madeline sat in silence. "Harmony's disappeared. I haven't seen her for the last few days," She said at last.

Marcie got up. "I'm going to the Hospital Wing."

"Why?"

"Lily and Charity have always been close. Maybe she can tell me what's wrong," Even as she said this, Marcie was halfway across the room. "You coming?"

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As soon as they entered the room, they knew something was wrong. The curtains were drawn shut and they noticed black sheets drawn across it. Madame Promfrey looked worried as she fluttered nervously around the room. Looking up, she spotted the two girls and gave a shriek of terror.

"Girls! You aren't supposed to be here!" She said anxiously.

Marcie ignored her and asked," What happened to her?" Her voice was shrill.

Madame Promfrey said nothing but looked at her in despair. Madeline gasped as realization swept over her. Marcie stared at her in horror.

"How?" Madeline whispered, still in shock.

"Childbirth," Madame Promfrey admitted reluctantly.

"Childbirth?" Marcie repeated incredulously. "Who…was the father?"

Madame Promfrey paused. "The last word Charity managed to say was...'James'."

"Potter?!" Madeline hissed. "He is so dead!"

Marcie gaped, as she finally understood. "Lily! That's why she was so upset? But how could she have known."

"She was here when Charity…moved on."

Madeline opened her mouth to speak but the door was suddenly thrown open. A young woman in her twenties burst through. She has flaming red hair and light brown eyes. Madeline and Marcie recognized her as Molly Prewett, a Gryffindor who graduated a few years before.

"Where's my sister?" Molly asked without any greetings. She noticed the black sheets and shrieked. "No! That's impossible!" She sobbed.

Madame Promfrey quickly hurried over to calm her down. Madeline and Marcie felt like they should leave them alone and left the Hospital Wing.

"Well," Marcie stopped as soon as they were out, "we wanted answers and it looks like we got them."

"Yeah. So let's go find Potter and kill him," Madeline growled in anger.

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"I have no idea what you're talking about!" James Potter laughed nervously, while Madeline pointed her wand at his throat menacingly.

"Excuse me? But you got Charity pregnant for Merlin's sake! And now she's dead! How can you not know anything, you bloody prat?" Madeline roared at him while he looked dumbstruck.

"C-charity?" James looked shocked. "She's…dead?"

"Thanks to you!" Marcie, who had been silent all this time, snapped at him. "Don't you dare stand there and deny it!"

"What?! I'm not pretending," James protested weakly while Madeline shrieked in frustration and jabbed her wand further into his throat.

"This is getting old," Madeline narrowed her eyes. "You know I don't want to hex you but if you would just admit-!"

"THERE'S NOTHING TO ADMITT!" James bellowed, clearly getting annoyed. "Why can't you guys just believe me?!"

Madeline opened her mouth-probably to scream a curse-but Marcie stopped her.

"Wait," Marcie looked at James carefully. "He's telling the truth." Madeline lowered her wand and James slumped back against the wall in relief.

"You women are crazy," he muttered but Madeline still heard him and shot him a deadly glare.

"How's that possible? You don't think Charity's lying do you?" Madeline asked Marcie dubiously.

"No," Marcie shook her head. "She's was near death; she couldn't have lied."

"Then-?"

"I remembered Lily telling me something," Marcie mused thoughtfully.

James perked up at the mention of Lily's name. "You've talked to her lately?" He asked, hopefully.

The girls ignored him.

"Remember the time Charity kissed James in the Hospital Wing?" Marcie said, unaware of the angry look Madeline shot James. "Well, Lily later found out that Harmony set the whole thing up."

"Ugh! Of course!" Madeline smacked herself on the head. "Of course it's bloody Harmony. It's always about Harmony."

"It's like we can't stop her," Marcie sighed, but then brightened. "Let's go to the library!"

"The library?" Madeline wrinkled her nose. "Merlin's pants, why?"

Marcie frowned, and looked confused. "Erm, I dunno," She said uncertainly. "Lily always goes to the library when she has questions…"

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Madeline tried to keep her eyes open as she flipped the pages of a rather dusty book. Madeline sighed deeply and glanced over at Marcie, who was intently reading a dark green book with mysterious stains on its cover.

"Mars?" Madeline poked her friend on the shoulder. Marcie didn't look up. Madeline poked harder. "Oi!"

Marcie's head jerked up. "What?" she asked impatiently, her finger saving her place in the book. "I'm a little busy here."

Madeline rolled her eyes. "Never mind," She huffed and opened a book at random, her eyes scanning its pages. Her gaze fell on a particular page and she read it quickly, her insides almost bubbling with excitement.

"Marcie! I found something!" Madeline showed the page she was reading to Marcie. "Read!"

"Okay, okay," Marcie took the book and read out loud. "One of the evilest, most vile of the foreign creatures is the la hada malvada : the wicked faerie, whose most known characteristic is the piercing dark blue eyes. Most of them were destroyed during the War. Only a few faeries are known to be alive today and they currently inhibit the Enchanted Woods near the VIMA grounds. They are ruthless, cruel creatures. The faeries swoop down, like a spirit, into their victim's body and take control of their body. Once they are in control, the victim has no memory or control over what they faeries will do. The current goal of las hada malvadas is to breed, so they prefer to reside in females and use their powers to 'seduce' nearby males by using their magical pendants." Marcie gasped in surprised and looked up at Marcie. "That sounds exactly like Harmony!"

"Keep reading," Madeline urged her.

Marcie's eyes fell back on the page. "The only known way to destroy la hada malvada is by making the Hada HaProteccion Potion." Marcie looked at Madeline. "Well, that's what we're going to do!" She slowly read the instructions, a look of bewilderment on her face. "Blimey, this is complicated. I'm no good at Potions…you?"

Madeline shook her head. "Lily's brilliant at Potions," She suggested but Marcie frowned.

"I don't think she's be that willing, seeing how we can't even get her out of the dorm," Marcie replied darkly.

Madeline seemed deep in thought. "There's one person…who may be able to help us…but I don't think it's wise to ask him…." She said slowly.

"Who?" Marcie asked.

Madeline paused before answering. "Snape," She replied, grimacing at her answer.

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A/N: Sorry for leaving you hanging like this! But if you REVIEW, my dears….I'll post up the next chapter, which by the way will be the penultimate chapter.

Yes, I'm very sad that Unexpected will be ending soon. But as much as I enjoyed working on this, I'm more anxious to turn my focus to my other L/J fic: "the choice" btw, if you have extra time, please check it out!

Well the good news is, the last few chapters will be SUPER long. And I know you guys love long chapter. So REVIEW! And you will be rewarded :)

Song credit:

Rascal Flats: What hurts the most(amazing song by the way:)

XOXO

Cynthia