A FINAL CHANCE

By: Shadowedheart89

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters, nor do I claim to.

Chapter Sixteen: Marlene's Story

Uncle Albus conjured two more chairs for Ron and Harry. I sat in my chair, feeling four pairs of eyes on me: Ron and Harry's curious, Hermione's apprehensive, and Uncle Albus's amused. I was at a lost as to where to begin or what exactly to tell them. I spent most of my life trying to keep my story secret, but now Uncle Albus just expected me to tell everything. I paced back and forth for a few minutes before turning to Uncle Albus, "I have no idea where to begin."

His eyes twinkled, "Well Marlene, I have always found the beginning a good place to start."

I glared at him, "You want me to tell them everything?"

He nodded, "I think the full truth would be prudent. The main points at least. Don't worry, I'll guide you."

I laughed, "Have you even ever told the entire truth?"

"Occasionally," he told me with a twinkle in his eye.

I sighed and began my story. "I guess it all starts with a prophecy. A very long time ago, even before Professor Dumbledore's time, there was prophecy saying that a child would be born during a time of war. The child would have power greater than any ever seen in our world, and would lead the effort to end the reign of darkness and herald in her own."

"You are that child," Harry whispered. I nodded. "How can you be sure it's you?"

"There were a lot of signs. The child was to be born on the summer solstice, and was to be part of a pair."

"You are a twin?" Ron asked.

"I was. My sister died when we were young."

"You know for sure that you are the one?" Hermione asked, sounding skeptical.

"All of the signs point to it being her. Most prophecies are self fulfilling if people know of them. Marlene knows of the prophecy and we have convinced her that she is the child, so whether or not she is, her actions will fulfill it," Dumbledore answered for me.

"What does it mean that she will 'herald her own reign'? Will she be the next dark lord?" she asked, her suspicions of me growing even more.

Dumbledore and I exchanged a look. "The exact wording isn't very clear. It is believed that she will choose her own path. She may become a dark lord with a hundred times the power of Voldemort, or she can lead us to the greatest time of peace our kind has known. She has been raised to hold the beliefs of the Light and has been taught tolerance of others, but ultimately it is her own choice what she does with her power."

They all looked at me in awe. "What about your relationship with Malfoy?" Harry asked.

"Draco and I have different beliefs. I honestly don't think he is truly evil, but he has seen too much darkness to be willing to fight it. We know that there may come a day where we will have to face each other on the battle field, and we are resigned to that."

"Does Voldemort know about you?" Hermione asked.

"He did know, but as far as our sources have been able to tell, he thinks that I am dead." I answered. They looked confused, so I continued. "The prophecy has been around for so long, it has become more of a legend. It wasn't very specific about the time frame, so no one knows what war the child was to be born in. Very few people believe that it is true or that a person could really hold that much power without self destructing. They think that it is nothing but an old tale to keep morale alive. I don't know if Voldemort believed in it or not, but he wasn't going to take any chances. He started killing all sets of twins born on June 21.

"My family has always been kind of sheltered from most of the rest of the world, so it took him awhile to find out that my sister and I were born on that day. We were about five when he found out about us. When he came for us, we were supposed to be at my aunt and uncle's house for a little family gathering. I was sick though, so Uncle Albus here was taking care of me, and my sister was at the party.

"My sister and I are metamorphmaguses. When we were little we liked to imitate our cousins our age to make them mad. When the death eaters attacked, she was imitating a cousin. They saw two identical little girls and killed them both."

A silence fell over the room. "That had to be difficult," Harry said softly.

I shrugged, "I was too young to really understand what happened. I just remember asking everyone when she was coming home and my parents being sad and crying all the time. I did miss her a lot though."

Another silence fell, and I could feel the questions swimming around in their minds, but they were all too nervous to ask them. It was finally Ron who broke the silence, "Are you really a metemorphmagus?"

I nodded and began morphing different parts of my body. "This is my true form though," I told them returning to my previous state.

"What other powers do you have?" Harry asked with a grin.

I shook my head and laughed. "You've been waiting to find out since the train, haven't you?"

He nodded and Hermione looked outraged. "You knew she had powers?"

I intervened before Harry could explain. "I'm a telepath. When I shook Harry's hand on the train, I accidently entered his mind and trigged a memory."

"And it didn't cross your mind to tell someone that she was in your mind?" Hermione scolded.

"I made him promise that he wouldn't. I didn't want anyone to know that there was anything different than me. The most I could let people think was that I was just exceptionally bright, which fit in well with my having to transfer from school to school," I sighed. "I lied to you when we met. I told you that my family moved around because of my parents' jobs. My parents are researchers and they do specialize in Ancient Runes, but we move because of me. I don't always have the best control over my powers, and whenever it seems like people start noticing that I might be more powerful than normal, we move in case someone finds out. There are other evil wizards out there besides Voldemort, and all they need is the right leverage to gain power. My parents were scared when I was younger that someone would try to kidnap me and corrupt me if they found out. I had all kinds of tutors and mentors that were friends of the family for what seems like forever, like Dumbledore, who would come and try to teach me control over my powers, but we don't know how strong my powers will grow, or even if they will stop growing. I find myself being able to do things all of the time, and there really isn't anyone around to help me understand them, so it's a learn as I go kind of thing, which is pretty dangerous.

"As for my actual powers, I am a metemorphmagus, a telepath, I can sense magic, I am better at casting without a wand than with one, I don't even need to know spells, and I recently found out I can teleport."

"What's the difference between teleporting and apparition, and why can you do it in Hogwarts?" Hermione asked.

"Apparition requires a spell, a set of movements, and a wand. Teleporting is the natural ability, just as telepathy is the natural ability of both Legilimency and Occlumency. The school is not warded against teleportation because it was believe impossible. It was nothing more than a muggle take on our magic. It seems as if Miss Wizidore likes to do the impossible," Dumbledore answered for me.

"So are you like some all powerful witch?" Ron asked, sounding amazed.

I laughed. "Not really. I mean I have a lot more power than the average witch or wizard, but I have a lot of weaknesses too. Like when I got here, the magic from the school overwhelmed me and made me extremely weak. It's also part of the reason I was unconscious in the hospital wing. I can be brought down by some stupid things, and I'm not immortal."

"That we know of," Dumbledore added with a twinkle.

I laughed. "I already almost died once, and I'd rather not push to see how far I can go before breaking."

Ron's eyes went large. "How did you almost die?"

"I tripped and fell into my aunt's pool and almost drowned," I told him.

He looked at me for a moment then turned to Harry, "That was a bit anticlimactic, wasn't it mate?"

Harry started laughing. "Yeah it was. Couldn't you just do the controlling water thing you do?" he asked.

"I could have, if I knew how to do it then."

"What are you talking about?" Hermione asked.

"She can do this thing where she can control water. It's amazing," Harry told her.

I explained to her the manipulation and she just nodded. She still seemed hesitant to accept me. She still doesn't trust me, I sent Uncle Albus.

He studied her over steeped fingers. "I give you my word, Miss Granger, that Marlene means no harm to any of you."

I nodded, "I want to help in any way that I can. I'm teaching Harry everything that I can. I'm teaching him how to block his mind so that Voldemort can't use him anymore. I'm teaching him defense spells that he wouldn't learn anywhere on this side of the world. I know what kind of monster Voldemort is, and I know how much pain he has caused. I will never be like him. I believe that killing should be the very last resort, and would never purposely end the life of anyone unless it was necessary."

She studied me for a moment before speaking. "Ron and I swore that we would stick by Harry until the end. Maybe you should teach us too."

I smiled at her, "I'm sure that could be arranged."

Uncle Albus twinkled at us. "I hope that this settles some problems between you four. I'm sure you all can handle the rest of the questions on your own. Now, if I could speak to Harry and Marlene in private for a moment, please?"

Ron and Hermione nodded and left. Harry waited until he was sure they were gone before he spoke. "Well it looks like you and I are supposed to save the world together."

I chuckled. "Just because Voldemort keeps coming after you for some reason doesn't really mean that you have to be the one to kill him. Just stay alive."

He shook his head. "There was another prophecy. Either I have to kill him, or he has to kill me. 'Neither can live while the other survives.'"

I looked at him for a moment, then turned, outraged to Uncle Albus. "You knew, didn't you? That's why you have been pushing us together. Instead of just telling us that we weren't alone, you just throw us together and hope for the best, after letting us think we had to do it on our own."

He sighed. "Yes, I knew. I've been trying to get you to come here for years so that you and Harry could meet. I knew you two would get along well once you did, you are very much alike. I couldn't tell you before you met, because I couldn't bear to get your hopes up and then not be able to bring you together. I knew that you would be angry with me, Marlene, so I put this off. Please forgive me?"

I sighed. "Is there any part of our lives that you don't orchestrate? I mean did you organize me and Draco too?"

"Or my friendship with Ron and Hermione?" Harry put in, looking angry too.

Uncle Albus chuckled. "I assure you that those relationships were completely of your own accord and unexpected. I'm glad to see that they are working out though."

"Was there anything else?" I asked. I was frustrated with him, and knew that the longer I would be in the room with him, the more likely it was that an argument would ensue.

"I wanted to see how the training and D.A. was going."

"Harry has been making a lot of progress. He has his fundamental shields in place, so now we are just working on strengthening them. He's gotten pretty good at non verbal magic. I was thinking that the next couple of sessions we could have a few mock duels while teaching him a few more spells, and then move on to wandless magic. He wants to learn how to manipulate the elements, so I figured that it would be a good place to start," I told him.

His eyes twinkled, "Sounds like a good course of action. "Do you have anything to add, Harry?"

"The first D.A. meeting was yesterday. We did a review and then Marlene taught on non verbal magic. It went really well and everyone seemed to like her. I asked everyone to ask around to see if anyone else wanted to join. I figured more people would be willing since it's no longer illegal, and the more people prepared, the better."

Uncle Albus nodded. "You two seem to really be on track. I'll check in on you two later. For now, keep up with your classes, and study hard."

Harry and I made our way out of the office. When we made it downstairs, we found Hermione and Ron there waiting for us whispering. As soon as they saw us they fell silent, and I didn't have to be a genius to figure out they were talking about me. The four of us stood there looking at each other awkwardly for a moment, digesting all the information we gathered that morning before Ron broke the silence. "Do you read our minds all the time?"

I sighed. "I don't think this is a conversation we should be having in the open like this." They all agreed, with Ron looking a bit abashed, and we headed off to the Room of Requirement as they called it. We spent a few hours in there talking. I explained more about my powers and show showed them some of the stuff I could do. Ron for one loved my demonstrations and kept asking for more. Harry was pretty enthralled too. I could tell that Hermione found them fascinating, but was still a bit reserved with me. She couldn't help but to ask about some of the spells, and I was sure that I would soon be finding her practicing them in her spare time.

After awhile I looked at my watch and realized that I was a few minutes late for my lessons with Xavier. I told them that I had to go and I teleported from there straight to Xavier's office where he was sitting at his desk grading papers. "You're late," he told me without looking up with a hint of amusement in his voice.

"I'm sorry," I told him collapsing in a chair.

He looked up at something he heard in my voice. "You look exhausted. What happened? You haven't been in the hospital wing again have you?"

I laughed and shook my head. "No. I just had a long morning. I kind of slipped up in front of Hermione, and Uncle Albus made me tell her, Ron, and Harry all about me."

He raised his eyebrows. "Are you sure that was a good idea?"

I shrugged. "Uncle Albus wanted me too. I trust him, even if he is a scheming old coot sometimes."

He chuckled. "Are you okay? I know that must have been hard for you."

"I'm fine, just kind of glad to get a break from the questions and requests for demonstrations. I felt like some kind of freak on display."

He studied me a few moments then put down his quill. "Let's take the day off. Go spend some time with that boyfriend of yours. You're being so overworked, I bet he's feeling neglected."

"My boyfriend?" I asked shocked. I hadn't said anything about me and Draco to him.

He rolled his eyes, "I'm not oblivious. I know that you and Draco Malfoy or going out, or whatever you guys want to call it." He came around his desk and pulled me to my feet. "Now go, before I change my mind and give you double to work."

"Thanks Xavier," I said hugging him.

I let him go, but he placed his hand on my shoulders, holding me in place. "How much does Draco know about you?"

"Too much. He knows most of my powers, but not their strength."

He sighed, and his concern was apparent in his eyes. "I've heard about his father. Do you think it was wise to trust him?"

I bit my lip, feeling uneasy, almost as if I was about to get in trouble. "He made an Unbreakable Vow. He can't tell anyone anything about my past or my powers."

His eyes met mine and I started to get drawn into him. So beautiful and strong. I don't know how she does it. She's seen so much for someone so young…I turned away from him before I could hear more. "What's wrong?" he asked, unaware that I had accidently tapped into mind.

"How can you not know that you are doing that?" I asked.

"Doing what?" he asked genuinely confused.

I shook my head. "Never mind. I think I'll go find my boyfriend."

I wandered the castle in search of Draco, trying not to think of what I heard from Xavier. It really could have meant anything, and I didn't want to jump to conclusions about it. I was debating just casting a Disillusionment charm on myself and teleporting to Draco when I heard his voice up ahead and around a corner.

As I got closer, I heard a female voice join his and could hear their words. "Where have you been sneaking around to? We haven't been able to spend any time together," the girl said.

"I've been busy," he drawled.

"You haven't found someone else have you? I love you Draco," she said just as I came around the corner.