It's all gone,
it's done, it's over.
Passed on blame is over.
And your tears,
your tears don't make me feel a thing.
It's deeper, you're a child,
you're a dad, a mother.
You motherfucked yourself again.
And break, away, your trusting.
Who told you life was easy?

November 3rd, 8PM Thursday
Evans Farm

The aurors had left that morning, long before Khalida, Draco and I returned to the farm. There was nothing left of the house but a few charred pieces of wood and a pile of ash. The pickup truck had met a similar fate and it remained in the driveway, nothing but a burnt out shell. A small piece of the barn remained intact and half of a white lightning bolt lay upon the ground in front of me.

"See anything?" Draco called out to Khalida as she dug through the remnants of the farmhouse.

"Nothing salvageable," she yelled back.

"Jenny, are you going to be okay?" Draco asked as he gently placed a hand on my shoulder. I shrugged away from his grasp and sunk down to my knees.

As I brushed away small piles of ash the rest of the lightning bolt came into view and I couldn't help but stare at it. Something about it was hypnotizing and I continued to stare at it until the sound of a twig snapping behind me caused me to turn in surprise.

"Well Severus, it seems we are not the only ones who saw fit to do a little investigating this evening," Dumbledore said in an amused tone as he walked toward us, Severus trailing along two steps behind him looking as dour and moody as I'd ever seen him.

Draco drew his wand as he extended his hand to me. I accepted it gratefully, allowing myself to be pulled to my feet. My wand was out immediately and Khalida rushed to stand at my other side. Severus sneered at us while Dumbledore's brow rose in surprise.

"Now, now," he chuckled, "There's no need for any of that."

"It would make me very happy to attempt to convince you to return to the castle with us," Dumbledore continued in an amused tone, "but I expect that would be an exercise in futility."

"So what are you doing here?" I hissed dangerously, both Draco and my wands remained firmly trained on the old wizard.

"Severus and I are merely here to do a little investigating;" Dumbledore replied innocently, "Arthur informed us of the fire and asked me if I could take a look around. Apparently the aurors have not been able to discern what exactly started the blaze."

"It was a gas leak and a stray curse," I replied simply.

"I think it was an Incendio," Draco cut in, "but I'm not one hundred percent certain." Dumbledore nodded thoughtfully as he gazed at the wood laying near my feet, his eyes immediately coming to rest on the bright white paint.

"Do you know who sent the curse?" he asked and my jaw dropped in surprise.

"It was an auror wasn't it?" Khalida asked in confusion and Dumbledore shook his head.

"If it was," he replied seriously, "it was not one of the Ministry's aurors."

"The AWG?" Draco asked.

"Who knows?" Dumbledore shrugged absentmindedly.

Anger began to bubble up inside of me as I thought about the man who met his fate the night before. A feeling of sadness or guilt was mixed in but overall I was seething with barely contained rage.

"Why?" I growled angrily, "Why didn't you tell me I still had family? Did you ever tell my father? Why did you leave him with those horrible people if he had other relatives?" Dumbledore appeared to be genuinely shocked and confused by my outburst.

"I apologize but I honestly have no idea what you are talking about," he responded, his brow furrowing in increasing puzzlement.

"Nathan Evans," I said shakily, "Nathan Evans! There's no way it can be a coincidence and he came here. He and Khalida came here and met the man's parents years ago. You cannot seriously expect me to believe that the almighty, all-knowing Dumbledore didn't know that my father still had living relatives."

The headmaster's mouth opened and closed a few times before he regained his bearings. Severus appeared to be equally shocked by the newest bit of information. I glanced at Draco and he appeared to be as surprised as Severus and Dumbledore but for a very different reason. He, just like me, couldn't believe that Dumbledore hadn't known. How could the most powerful wizard in the world not know?

"If only I had…," Dumbledore trailed off as he moved toward the remains of the Evans' farmhouse.

The night was silent as Dumbledore moved through the wreckage, a small, glowing ball floating next to him. Severus took a step towards him but stopped when Dumbledore suddenly bent down and plucked a small piece of paper off the ground. With a sad shake of his long white beard he returned to stand directly in front of me.

A small, square photo was offered to me and I hesitantly took it from Dumbledore's grasp. Draco and Khalida both leaned over to peer at the charred and dirtied square. It was a picture of my father standing between an older couple.

"Andrew," Khalida murmured as she traced one, long pale finger over the image of the kind looking gray-haired man. "Gilgamesh must have returned without me. I thought he obliviated them but now I don't know if that is what really happened."

"And now they're dead," Draco said coolly, "and none of this is going to help us find any answers. Especially about who or what is…"

"Draco," I hissed loudly as my eyes flitted nervously between Dumbledore and Severus. Draco seemed to understand the hint and he silenced himself immediately.

"Are you feeling okay Miss Riddle?" Dumbledore asked as he studied me over his half-moon glasses. I quailed somewhat as I stared into his piercing blue eyes.

"I'm fine," I replied nervously, "but we should be going."

"And where would you be heading off to?" he questioned in a calm voice.

"Home," Khalida broke in quickly and the Headmaster sent her an icy glare.

"And where exactly is home at the moment?"

"None of your business," Draco drawled as he absentmindedly fingered his wand.

"There's nothing here," Khalida whispered in my ear, "Let's go back." I nodded in reply and a moment later Khalida was whisked away. Draco gave me a questioning look and I motioned for him to follow.

"I'm not leaving you alone," he stated softly.

"I'll be right behind you," I responded as I gave his hand a light squeeze. A second later he was gone.

"You've been quiet Severus," I observed after Draco disappeared. "Are you angry with me?" Severus studied me for a moment before answering.

"I am angry with the situation," he replied curtly and I nodded in understanding.

"Jenny," Dumbledore said in a pleading tone, "I must ask you to come back to Hogwarts with us. There are far too many dangerous people looking for you to remain unprotected."

"I am protected," I answered glibly.

"Actually," I continued, "I have more protectors now then I've ever had in my life."

"Then why are you afraid to return to the castle?" Severus asked snappishly. I surveyed him silently as I cocked my head to one side.

"I'm not afraid for myself," I explained simply.

"Stop acting like a bloody Gryffindor fool," he spat angrily.

"Perhaps I am more like my father then you think," I replied curtly.

I reached down and grabbed one edge of the wood in front of me. If I was going to return to Lovegood Mansion I wasn't going to go back empty handed. Besides, the painted lightning bolt could be the first clue to unraveling the mysterious message left by the elusive Charles Smith.

With a small wave and a whispered word I disappeared, leaving an angry potions master and a bemused headmaster staring silently at the ground I had recently occupied. I fell to the living room floor with a loud thud and breathed a loud sigh of relief when I realized that the lightning bolt was no worse for wear.

As I looked over the wood in my hands I suddenly noticed something that I hadn't in my earlier examination. On the very bottom of the painted bolt were two letters, "LL".

"Bloody hell," Draco whispered as he followed my gaze.

"Look at this Khalida," he drawled as he motioned toward the small letters, "Just what we need, a few more letters that won't help us one bit."

"Yes," I responded slowly, "but we know someone who can probably figure it out for us."

"Granger?" Draco asked in surprise.

"Hey, it was your idea!"

"I know, I know," he responded quickly, "but she's going to be really pissed after we trick her. How do you know she'll even help us?"

"Do you really think Hermione Granger, the smartest witch in the history of Hogwarts, could pass up something like this?" I asked with a smirk.

"How very Slytherin of you," Draco replied with a matching smirk.

"Nope," I replied nonchalantly as I pointed at myself, "This is one hundred percent pure Riddle."

November 5th, 3PM Saturday
Lovegood Mansion, Main Living Room

"What is the meaning of this?! Are you both insane?!" Draco and I flinched away as Hermione screeched at us. I glanced around for Khalida but the damned vampire must have made a quick getaway.

"Calm down Granger," Draco replied nervously, "We're not going to hurt you." Hermione's eyes flashed dangerously as she stalked across the room toward him.

"As if I would be afraid of you ferret," she responded as she threw the number 2 pencil, which had previously been a portkey, at him. Draco ducked quickly and it soared over his right shoulder.

"Watch it Granger, someone could lose an eye."

Draco began to back his way toward the door and I decided to intervene before the situation could escalate any further. Without a thought for my own safety I stepped between the both of them and flashed Hermione an apologetic smile. Her anger seemed to wane for a moment and she gave me a tight-lipped smile in return.

"We need your help Hermione," I stated in a pleading tone, "and we couldn't risk going to see you so this was all we could come up with. Please don't be mad."

The anger on Hermione's face disappeared almost instantly and was replaced with a look of mild curiosity. I glanced at Draco to see if he noticed and his lips twitched up into a small grin. We had Hermione right where we wanted her.

"Help with what exactly?" she asked in a fake tone of nonchalance.

"A really hard riddle," I explained excitedly as I grabbed her arm and led her to the couch, "Of course we're not sure if it's a riddle or not, that's just one of our theories."

Hermione listened in rapt fascination as I explained the clues left by Charles Smith and the initials underneath the lightning bolt. We poured through the notes that Draco and I had made and Hermione seemed to become completely oblivious to everything around her as we worked. A few hours later Draco left and returned with tea which we eagerly accepted.

"It's strange," Hermione stated thoughtfully as she fingered the edge of her cup, "The clues really don't seem to have anything to do with one another."

"At first I immediately thought it was some kind of password," she continued as she sipped her tea with one hand and flipped through a few papers with the other, "or perhaps…" Her voice trailed off as her eyes widened in surprise.

A few seconds later she thrust her teacup into my hands and ran over to the old, wooden bookshelf standing against the wall on the other side of the room. She returned with a large, thick book. With a wave of her wand the notes on the table arranged themselves into a neat pile on one of the armchairs. She dropped the book onto the coffee table with a loud thud. Just before she opened it to the first page I caught the title on the cover.

"An Atlas?" I asked in confusion.

"I'm not sure if I'm right," she explained as she pulled out a blank piece of parchment and began to scribble furiously, "but I had an idea."

"Okay," Draco said slowly as Hermione continued to write, "what's the idea?" Hermione glanced at him for a moment before returning her attention to the paper in front of her.

"What if the initials aren't supposed to have anything to do with one another?" she asked, "What is its not the initials at all but the letters themselves that are important?"

"What in the world are you going on about Granger?" Draco asked as he leaned forward in his chair and peered at her notes curiously.

Hermione finished her work and pushed off the floor to sit on the couch once again. She handed me the paper and I attempted to read it but I was completely lost.

"I'm sorry but I have no idea what I'm looking at," I stated quietly and she rolled her eyes before taking the parchment back.

"The Evans family lived on a farm," she explained as she glanced at the paper in her hands, "and that's where you found the lightning bolt, correct?" Draco and I both nodded in reply.

"I think it means that the initials pertain to a place," Hermione continued, oblivious to the identical looks of confusion Draco and I were giving her.

"Where did you get that from?" Draco asked and Hermione shrugged.

"It was just a hunch until I looked at that," she stated as she pointed at the piece of wood leaning against the wall, "At the bottom of the lightning bolt are the initials 'LL' but in front of them both is a very small dash."

"So what's 'LL' stand for then?" I questioned.

"Latitude and Longitude," she replied simply, "and the dash would denote them as negative."

"But how can letters be used for latitude and longitude?" Draco drawled in an annoyed tone.

"They can't be," Hermione stated, "but if you convert them to their corresponding number in the alphabet they can be."

"Look here," she said as she laid the parchment over the atlas on the table, "W is twenty-third in the alphabet so 'WWW' would be twenty-three, three times."

"MWPP would be thirteen, twenty-three, sixteen and then sixteen again," she continued excitedly, "Now obviously there must be more to it so I took into account the actual number of letters."

"WWW is three letters so I took the first three numbers and added them together giving me negative seven point three two three. MWPP has four letters so I took the first four numbers and added them together giving me negative thirty-six point one six one six."

Draco and I sat in silence, both of us dumbfounded at Hermione's explanation. The way the witch's mind worked was simply incredible and I knew that I needed to convince her to stay the night. Who knows how many mysteries should could help us solve?

"Are you sure about this theory of yours?" Draco asked after Hermione finally stopped to take a breath, "It sounds a tad bit farfetched."

"Of course I'm not one hundred percent sure," she said thoughtfully, "but for some reason the idea just came to me and it feels right."

"So what does all this tell us?" I asked as Hermione pushed the parchment full of notes away and began flipping through the Atlas.

"Well the coordinates correspond to a location in Brazil," she replied worriedly, "but it appears to be in the middle of nowhere about fifty kilometers south of a town called Esperanca."

I leaned over to see exactly where Hermione was pointing to on the map. The spot did seem to be in the middle of nowhere which made me slightly nervous at the idea of actually going there.

"What do you think Draco?" I asked and Draco was silent for a moment as he mulled the information over in his mind.

"I think it's the best lead we have," he replied, "Not that we know what all of this is leading us to but I would prefer to do something productive rather then hideout here in the mansion forever. Perhaps we should discuss this with Khalida?"

"Discuss what with me?" Khalida asked as she walked into the living room.

Hermione quickly explained her idea to Khalida. The vampire seemed to follow her theory much better than Draco or I had.

"It sounds like a good idea," Khalida stated after Hermione finished, "but what if it's some kind of trap?"

"A trap?" Draco exclaimed incredulously, "Who in the bloody hell would leave clues that are almost impossible to figure out if they wanted to set us up? Don't you think if someone wanted to ambush us they would've made it a bit easier?"

"That would be the logical thing to do," Hermione replied but Khalida didn't seem convinced.

"Why don't we wait until tomorrow or the day after before we decide?" Khalida offered, "I have a few friends in Brazil and I'm sure they'd check the place out for us."

"That sounds like a good idea," I responded and Draco nodded in agreement.

Hermione stood to leave and I quickly latched onto her arm. She gave me a questioning look which I returned with a warm smile.

"Stay the night," I pleaded nervously.

"I really should get back," she replied worriedly. She studied me for a moment before shaking her head slightly, a wide grin appearing on her lips.

"I suppose one night wouldn't hurt anything," she added, "but tomorrow morning I have to go back." I nodded in understanding as I pulled her toward the doorway.

"Let's go to my room," I said excitedly, "I've got so many things I want to talk to you about."

I could hear Khalida and Draco chuckling softly as I left the living room but I didn't care. It would be nice to have another woman in the mansion. A woman that wasn't dead or insane that is.

"Why do I get the feeling that you want to talk about something other than Charles Smith or your father?" Hermione asked as we neared my bedroom.

"I just need a little relationship advice," I stated nervously. Hermione appeared confused for a moment until I glanced in the direction of the living room and her eyes widened in surprise.

"Malfoy," she whispered and I nodded in reply. "But he's…"

"Yes, yes, I know," I muttered under my breath, "He's too old for me and I'm too young for him."

"That's not what I was going to say," Hermione replied quickly, "I was going to say that he's bloody gorgeous but a little immature for my taste and he's a bit dense sometimes."

"I know," I stated with a sigh, "I like them dumb and pretty I suppose."

Our laughter echoed through the hallway as we entered the bedroom and shut the door.

November 5th 11PM, Saturday
Lovegood Mansion, Bedroom

I was sitting on the gigantic bed with my journal out in front of me when Draco snuck into my room. I remained so engrossed in my thoughts that I didn't even notice when he climbed up to sit next to me. He gently brushed his fingertips against the side of my arm and I started in surprise.

"Don't scare me like that!" I exclaimed as I fought to catch my breath.

"What in the world are you doing?" he asked as he leaned over to look at the open book in my lap.

"Just writing in my journal," I replied simply and he gave me a puzzled look.

"How in the world do you write while you're staring off into space?" he asked in a confused tone.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. I've been sitting here for the last half hour writing in this thing." I motioned to the writing in front of me and Draco quickly grabbed the journal before I could do anything to stop him.

"Give that back!" I yelled indignantly.

Draco scrambled off the bed and ran to the other side of the room. He childishly stuck out his tongue and began to flip through the pages.

"Let's see what Jenny's got to say this evening," he said as he smirked haughtily.

"You are so dead," I hissed angrily and climbed off the bed. I stalked across the room toward him but stopped as all of the blood drained from his face.

"Are you feeling okay Draco?" I asked worriedly.

"When was the last time you wrote in this book?"

"I told you already," I replied, "I was just writing in it before you came in."

"Explain this then," he stated as he held the book out to me.

I could immediately see it was open to the page I had just been writing on. I accepted the journal from him with shaky hands. For some reason I couldn't remember what I had written. I knew I had written something but for the life of me I couldn't remember.

In the middle of the page was a paragraph in handwriting that I didn't recognize as my own. I read what was written there twice over before returning my attention to Draco.

"I didn't write this," I stated nervously, "This isn't my handwriting and I don't remember writing anything like this."

"I'm going to get Khalida," Draco replied quickly and I nodded my head slightly to show that I had heard him.

A moment later I heard the door close with a slam. I headed over to the desk and nearly missed the chair as I stared down at the page in front of me.

"My friend, did you not call out to me? Why did I wake up?
Did you not touch me? Why am I so disturbed?
Did a god pass by? Why are my muscles trembling?
Enkidu, my friend, I have had a fourth dream,
and the dream I had was deeply disturbing.
The walls of the forest crumbled around us
and pieces of stone and wood fell upon our heads
I ran quickly to escape, expecting you to follow
but when I turned I saw you imprisoned
captured in the jaws of a darkened monster
The forest sank underneath us as I fought to release you."