A/N: Fair warning, this one gets a bit...wibbly. Still don't own the rights.

When I had told Lisa about the agreement, she was none too pleased. Still, the next day, the boys delivered on their promise. In my hands, I held "Potions Mysterium", a book that seemed to cover some rather suspicious potions. It was old, charred, and more than a bit...dodgy.

I didn't ask how they got the book, truthfully, I didn't want to know. What mattered was that I had the key to finding out what Quirrell was up to. Upon reading the recipe, however, I discovered it was going to be no easy task. It was, without a doubt, the most difficult potion I had ever laid eyes on. And I had done extensive extra-curricular reading on the subject in recent months.

"How are you going to get these ingredients? Professor Snape will notice if they're gone-"

I exchanged a knowing look with Lisa. Her mouth twisted into a scowl of disapproval. "You can't get something for nothing! They're going to ask you for something in return! I told you Kendrick Smythe was trouble. I told you Theodore Knott wasn't a good idea."

"No, what you told me was that one was a scorpio and one was an aries. Oh, and that you didn't have a good 'feeling' about Kendrick. Whatever that means..."

Lisa sighed with exasperation. "You're logical to the extreme. You completely disregard your emotions and instincts. It's not very leo of you."

I chortled, much to her dismay. "I hate to break it you, but I'm not a machine. I cried when my mother died." Logical to the extreme? She didn't know me at all. I was usually quite an emotional creature.

"That's not what I mean. You don't let your heart get in the way of your plans. It's like you can just...I don't know. Lock yourself away. We're eleven. That's a nearly impossible adult coping mechanism."

"Coping mechanisms? Amateur psychologist now, are you?" Come to think of it, I did seem to have been shutting the pain from my mother's death out rather well, as of late. Still, that was a good thing. It kept me going.

She shrugged her shoulders. "It's what Mum does."

"Well, I'm fine. And since when did caring help fix anything?" One glance her direction and I noted the glaring disapproval. That's an unusual thing to say... "Now, I'm going to see the boys. This potion requires it to be brewed on the darkest day of the year, which is..."

"Either December twenty-second."

"Bingo! Which leaves us nearly a month to get everything ready."

"Can you brew it? I know you've got a natural talent for potions but this looks really-"

"Complicated?" I found myself grinning with delight. Honestly, I enjoyed the seemingly impossible far too much. The thought ran across my mind that perhaps I needed my head checked, especially given my rather odd behavior that day.

"Well, yes."

"I can do it."

"You sound rather confident."

"Being here seems to make me so." That part, oddly enough, was true. The longer I was at Hogwarts, the more comfortable I seemed to be. I found that my mind was sharper, my self-esteem higher, and the thoughts of my father were more frequent. It was almost like home sometimes. When evil chimeras weren't trying to kill me and the local professors weren't planning something, that is.

The boys agreed to get me the ingredients, though they wouldn't tell me what it was going to cost me. The nagging voice in the back of mind told me to be wary, but I shrugged it off. Business was business, and this had to be done.

Odd, I thought as I returned to Ravenclaw tower. I've never been able to shut down my emotions so easily before. Lisa's words rolled around inside my head; I could lock myself away. When had that ability surfaced? What was Hogwarts doing to me? Three months and I was transforming into a different person. Maybe not drastically, but piece by piece, I was changing.

Shaking the thoughts from my mind, I returned to the tower, finding the common room empty. Strange. One glance around the room confirmed what I had seen. "Lisa?" I asked cautiously.

"Lisa's not here right now." That voice. That terrible voice. Closing my eyes in dreaded acknowledgment, I slowly turned around. Upon opening them, my sight revealed the chimera, in all it's frightening fury.

"How are you here?" Transdimensional travel. A strange voice said in my mind. What was that?

"Transdimensional travel, dearest. You've been avoiding us. Smart girl."

With agitation, I clenched my fists. "What do you want?" The fear was bubbling up like tar in my stomach. I could feel it: burning, dark, and lethal. Fear of this creature and fear of what was happening to me.

"Hmm, I suppose I could change my form. I can see that you're not overly fond of the chimera, are you?" Before my eyes, the chimera changed into my mother. "Better, darling?"

It was a poor imitation. My mother never had that cold malevolence in her eyes. She certainly would never hate me with such seething loathing. No, that was not my mom. Never would be. "I'd rather you didn't." I hissed.

"Oh, too soon? Tender subject, isn't it? Ah, how about this?" The man from my dreams stood before me. Flame-red hair, the strange patches, oh, yes; it was him alright. "Dear, old Dad."

I fought to hide my surprise. Of course I had wondered, the stories Mom had told me. But still, I didn't want to jump to conclusions. He could have been anyone. "I assume you made the connection. Your mother did tell you such stories, after all."

"You still haven't answered my question. What do you want?"

"What's ours."

"I don't know what you're talking about." My voice cracked on the last syllable. Crap.

"Yes, the fear is rolling off of you. It smells so...delicious." An eerie smile spread across the man's face. A look that didn't seem to belong there. "One last time, little girl. Give it back to us!"

"I really have no idea-"

"The item you stole from us! The one you awakened in the dark of the cave! We know it's here, in this castle! Give it back!"

"I don't know!" I shouted breathlessly. I couldn't hide my fear anymore, it boiled and bubbled over.

"Show us and we can save him. We can bring him back." I knew they were talking about the strange man that was my father. Maybe...

No, Scarlett. Pull yourself together. Even if he did manage to escape, they still couldn't help you. One thought of what that thing did to my mother's memory and I found my resolve."I can't help you because I don't know where it is, or what it is, for that matter." The words came out like steel.

The creature cocked its head to the side, attempting to discern my truthfulness. "You really don't do you?" I shook my head in confirmation. "Seems I've gone back too far in the time-stream. My mistake." The words jingled with amusement. "But this is good. Maybe now, you won't steal it from us...no! It doesn't work like that does it?" The creature was still talking to itself when it completely vanished out of thin air.

The common room, likewise, filled with people from seemingly nowhere. "Scarlett! I've been calling your name for ages!" Lisa's tone was angry.

"Sorry." I murmured, slowly surveying my surroundings. There was no sign that anything had just happened. What was going on?

"Did they agree to help you?"

"Yeah." I noticed the lack of interest in my voice.

"What's the cost?"

"They didn't say." At that moment, a thought raced to the front of my mind. "Oh! Oh, that's good! Is that even possible?"

"Scarlett, what's wrong with you? You've been acting weird all day-"

"A few months ago, when I told you about my dream, you said something about a distress signal?"

"Er, yeah. But what does that have to do with-"

"Not now, I'm thinking." Wow. I definitely would not normally say that. "I need to know if it's possible to exchange thoughts, personality traits, mannerisms over an emergency signal."

"I-I don't know. Scarlett, you're scaring me."

"You pointed out today that I've been acting strangely."

"Well, today yes. But you've always been a bit cold..."

"No, that's the thing. I haven't always been this way. It's been gradual and it started my first night here. The first night I had the dream." Why hadn't I noticed? Why was it just now occurring to me how different I was becoming?

"I'm not sure if that would have anything to do with it, though. I think we need to go to the hospital wing, you don't look well."

"I was under attack! Just a minute ago! And now I'm acting completely unlike me! Lisa, we need to find out if my dad is transferring himself into me somehow." I raced off, out of the common room, my brain racing with thoughts.

"Under attack? Your dad?! Scarlett, you're scaring me! Where you going?"

"The library! The library has everything..." I was going to find out what all of this mess meant. Every last bit of it.