AUTHOR'S NOTE Hope you enjoy – remember again, this story does NOT follow Deathly Hallows. So in this story, Snape is MIA and still presumed a bad guy. Also, I know that Whitney never came back to Smallville, but hey, this is fan fiction.
As always, a big thank you to my endlessly patient and tireless beta Lauren!
DISCLAIMER Still don't own anyone.
Clark came to a halt in front of a dark cave opening. He entered cautiously, not daring to call out. Slowly he crept through the dark, finally resorting to his X-ray vision to located Lex, Lana, and the others around the next corner. "Hey guys," he said as they came into view.
Lana leapt to her feet and ran to his side. "Clark, I'm so glad you're here!" she said as she threw her arms around him. Clark smiled as he held her close for a minute. Then she pulled away, blushing. "How'd you find us?"
"Uh, I just went the same way you did," he replied lamely. "How'd you find this place?"
"I used to come here all the time," Lana replied shyly. "When I was little. You know, when I wanted to be alone."
Clark was investigating the contours of the cave. He was particularly drawn to a passage way at the back. "What's back there?" he asked. Harry and Lex joined him in peering into the darkness.
Lana shrugged. "Don't know. I've never really explored them."
Harry put a hand on Clark's shoulder, "Now isn't the time to do it, either. Bellatrix could be anywhere."
Clark regarded the older wizard begrudgingly for a moment before nodding and joining the rest of the group. Lana retreated into a corner and curled up against the wall with her knees at her chest. Lex approached her. "Are you okay?"
She nodded unconvincingly and tried to smile. "I'm fine. Just need to kind of sort out my head."
Lex smiled gently. "Alright." He led Clark away to where he could keep the latter from hovering over Lana, no matter how good his intentions were.
Harry gestured to Lana and asked Cho quietly, "So she's your sister?" Cho nodded without replying. "Must be nice," Harry continued offhandedly. "I'd be thrilled if I ever found out I had a sibling."
Cho looked at him, seeming to see him for the first time since they ran from the Lang house. "Oh Harry, I'm sorry. I must seem so horrible to you, being mad at my parents for dying."
Harry blinked, taken aback, but just patted her hand. "Nope. Do you have any idea how many nights I swore to myself that I hated my mum and dad while I lived with the Dursleys? They told me that they died in a car crash. It was easy to hate them for that." Cho nodded silently. Harry gave her a gentle push. "You know, I bet Lana is pretty freaked out. Maybe you should go talk to her."
She thought about it for a minute and decided that maybe Harry was right. Her parents ('My adoptive parents,' Cho thought begrudgingly) were both magic. It was simply part of life for her. But for Lana to suddenly have a long-lost sister thrust upon her and then find out on top of that that she's a witch must be throwing her for some loop. She sat beside her sister. "Mind if I join you?" she asked.
Lana shook her head. "No," she said quietly.
They didn't talk for a minute. "I know this is all really shocking for you," Cho finally said.
Lana laughed a little. "You might say that." After another quiet moment, she asked, "What happened to your friend? The one with the long hair?"
"Bill?" Cho asked.
"Yeah. He looks like he was on the wrong end of a saber-toothed tiger or something."
Cho often tried not to think about that awful night, but she couldn't lie. "It was a werewolf."
"A werewolf?" Lana repeated. Cho nodded. "So werewolves are real," Lana muttered, trying to make sense of it.
"And vampires," Cho added. "And Inferi." Upon Lana's blank look, she clarified, "Zombies. And witches and wizards." She let Lana absorb it all, unsettled by her sister's strange and fearful look. "I know it's a lot."
"Everything you spend your entire childhood trying to convince yourself is just your imagination, it's all real," Lana finally answered. She allowed herself a small laugh. "What about aliens?"
Clark, who had been inadvertently listening, raised his head a fraction of an inch, determined to look uninterested.
Cho shrugged. "I don't know."
"I mean, we've had some weird stuff happen in Smallville, but we've never had a werewolf." Lana screwed up her face. "I don't think."
"What do you mean?" Cho asked.
"I told you about the meteor shower," Lana said. "The meteors were made of this strange green rock that practically blanketed the town. It sort of...mutated people."
Ron, Hermione, and Harry were now nonchalantly listening to the conversation, as still was Clark. "Mutated?" Cho repeated.
Lana nodded. "Sounds crazy, but it's true. Greg Arkin became a giant bug, Tina Greer could morph her bones, Jodi Melville turned into a fat-sucking monster to lose weight, Eric Summers got super-strength and speed overnight then lost it almost immediately, Sasha Woodman could control bees…" Lana ticked off on her fingers as she went. She grinned sheepishly. "I even got visions."
"Wow." Cho paused. At her sudden glance, Harry, Hermion, Ron, Bill, and Gabrielle all turned their gazes to various parts of the cave walls. Clark grinned into his hand.
Cho dropped her voice out of eavesdropping range. "So, Lana, tell me about your friends over there."
"Lex and Clark?" Lana asked. Cho nodded. Lana shrugged. "Clark is…Clark. He's naïve sometimes and secretive about everything." She smiled softly. "But he's always there when you need him. And he can be very sweet."
Cho had to grin. Her little sister might very possibly be falling in love. And judging by his earlier behavior, the farm boy definitely returned the sentiment. She glanced toward him, only to lock eyes with the bald man beside him. "And Lex?" she asked.
Lana smirked at the staring contest between Lex and Cho. "Lex is rich, as you know since you saw his mansion. And a lot of people in Smallville hate him."
"You and Clark don't."
"Clark and I have gotten to know the real Lex. Most people haven't," Lana replied. "But he's also a good friend. I bet he's just about your age," she finished slyly. Cho tore her eyes away from Lex enough to look at Lana, flustered. Lana just giggled and changed the subject. "What about your friends? Tell me about them."
"Well Harry, Ron, and Hermione have been inseparable since first year. Then Hermione and Ron finally got together after sixth year. Not long after, Harry began dating Gabrielle, who is Fleur's sister, who is Bill's wife, who is Ron's brother."
Lana blinked, shook her head, and just said, "What?"
Cho laughed, startling everyone in the cave. "We all went to school together," she said simply. "Ron and Bill, brothers. Ron and Hermione and Harry and Gabrielle, couples."
"And where do you fit in?"
"I'm a friend. And an Order member."
Lana got very quiet. "So, uh," she started uncertainly. "Is Bill a werewolf now too?" Lana asked. "Isn't that how it works?"
Cho smiled a little. "You can ask him yourself if you want." She sobered. "Actually, I think it would be good if the three of you heard about what we're actually up against."
She stood up and helped Lana to her feet. Lex and Clark got up and followed them curiously to where Harry, Gabrielle, Ron, Hermione, and Bill sat restlessly playing with their wands. "Harry," Cho said. "I think we should tell them what we're really facing."
Harry frowned. "What do you mean?"
Preparing herself for the pain that would inevitably come, Cho said, "We need to tell them about the war. About Voldemort and Dumbledore and all of it. Otherwise, we're just leading them to die."
Lex and Lana looked fairly alarmed at her words. Ron and Hermione looked at Harry and Bill at the mention of Dumbledore's name. The night that he was killed had changed both men's lives forever. But Harry just nodded and said, "All right." He took a deep breath and pushed up the bangs of his unruly black hair. "Do you see this scar?" he asked, pointing to a mark shaped like a lightening bolt on his forehead. They nodded. "When I was a baby, my family was attacked by a powerful Dark wizard known as Voldemort."
Ron and Gabrielle shuddered. Lana frowned. Before she could ask though, Harry interrupted, "For years no one dared say his name. He cast one of the three Unforgivable curses, the killing curse, to murder my parents. But when he turned on me, the curse reflected off of me and destroyed him instead. All I was left with was the scar."
"That's horrible!" Lana said, tears springing to her eyes.
Harry smiled warmly at her, knowing that he did not have to say anything. He turned to Lex. "The other two Unforgivables besides Avada Kedavra are Imperio and Crucio, the two that Bellatrix Lestrange cast on you. Crucio causes extreme pain. Imperio is a form of mind control."
Lex shifted uneasily. "But I didn't tell her anything."
"Some people can resist," Cho broke in with a smile. "Very strong minded people." Lex smiled back at her.
Harry ignored them and continued. "Voldemort had hundreds of followers. Our Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, was the only wizard Voldemort feared. He and a handful of my parents' old friends were the closest thing to a family I ever had."
The sorrowful look in Harry's eyes nearly broke Lana's heart. "What happened?" she asked softly.
"Sirius, my Godfather, died trying to protect me. Bellatrix was the one who killed him. And Dumbledore was killed by a vile murderous traitor."
Ron gently put a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Harry, mate, not now. It's not the time."
Nodding, Harry finished quickly and stoically. "There was a final battle. I won. Voldemort died. And now Bellatrix is trying to achieve the same goal as Voldemort."
"What is…?" Clark prompted.
"Immortality," Ron replied begrudgingly.
Lex whistled. "Lofty goal. Something my father has been chasing after with little success."
Gabrielle snorted. "No mere muggle could even hope to approach the secrets of immortality."
Lex glared at her. Hermione jumped between them. "It doesn't matter. What matters is that for some reason Bellatrix is rather fixated on Cho and her life here in Smallville as Liza Lang. We need to stay out of her way until we figure out why and we can't afford to Apparate out of here."
"What's Apparate?" Lex asked.
"Why can't you?" Clark asked.
"Apparating is disappearing in one place and reappearing in another," Bill replied.
"And we can't do it because a, you three can't Apparate," Hermione answered. "And b, Bellatrix is following Apparating points to track Cho. And the rest of us if we give her the chance."
Harry stood up abruptly. "So we stay put. If this place is as unknown as Lana says, no one should find us."
"Lana!"
A voice rang through the cave and Harry sent Lana a sharp glare. Cho threw Harry one of her own. A blonde man in uniform ran into the cave chamber and swept a very surprised Lana into a hug.
"Whitney?" she asked, shocked. "What are you doing here? What are you doing home?"
"I just got out of basic," he replied. "I don't ship out for another week. Are you okay?"
Lana looked doubtfully around her. "Whitney, how did you find me here?"
"Your sister's friends are looking for her. You never told me Liza was alive!"
But Lana wasn't listening. Her blood had gone cold. "My sister's friend?"
"Yeah, she – "
"Avada Kedavra."
A flash of green light cut Whitney's words short as his body fell lifeless to the ground. Lana screamed, but Cho held her back from running to him. Bellatrix and her followers blocked the cave entrace. "Hello again, Liza," she sneered. "So nice to see you."