Disclaimer: Don't own or profit from it. Only Emma, Pippin, and anything else not mentioned in JK's wonderful work belongs to me.
Author's Notes: I feel since book 7 is almost out, I have to hurry and get my year 7 started, so that is why I am posting 2 chapters today! Yay! (Surprise!)
Chapter 16: End of Year Draws Near
Emma and Ginny ate quickly and ran up to take a quick shower in their dorms. "You heard I broke up with Dean, right?" Ginny asked as they walked to the meeting.
Emma nodded. She was waiting for Ginny to come talk to her over this. "Yeah, I heard."
"I hope he doesn't hate me for it, he is a wonderful guy, but . . . well, he's not mine, not like how you and Draco are. Does that make sense?"
"Yes," Emma said as they walked around the castle, detouring their way so they wouldn't attract attention.
"I know he's upset right now, but how much?" She asked. "I know you can tell."
Emma sighed. "He's hurt, he swears, and truly believes, he didn't do what you accused him of, and feels that you broke up with him for no reason, but . . ." she was trying to find the most delicate way of putting this. "He will move on, Ginny, and will find the one who completes him just as you will. You were . . . good together, but not meant to be," she explained.
"Can you see it?" Ginny asked. "Can you see who I am meant to be with?" she asked curiously.
"I can't see like you see things in front of you. My friend Jane can see auras, and she is able to see things in people like you are asking. For me, I can feel that you are not right with Dean. As for who I think you are right with . . ." she trailed off with a wicked grin. "That I'll let you figure out for yourself. It's always more interesting."
"Not fair!" Ginny said pretending to whine. "Some grand-mentor," she said with a fake pout.
"Are you torturing my protégée?" Seamus asked running into them with Sinead (the mother in the triad and a girl from Ravenclaw) in the corridor before the classroom they were using.
"Always," Emma said opening the door to the classroom with a special charm. The four of them filtered in, and were soon joined by Cillian and Devon.
"It's down between Gryffindor and Slytherin for the cup," Cillian said. "We are rooting for you," he said grinning.
"I can't believe you are both graduating this year," Emma said. "What will I do without you? Have you thought of your replacement on the council?" she asked Cillian
"Either Cian, my protégée, or Tommy. I wanted to bring it up in our meeting this weekend."
"I'll vote for whoever you want," Emma said nodding. Others started filtering in so the conversation went back to the upcoming quidditch match. Since there were so few slytherins in the society, the rest of them teased them over the game until Emma changed the subject before the topic got out of hand completely. She didn't feel like breaking up a fight.
She was walking back with Seamus, Neville, and Ginny. "Don't worry about Dean," Seamus said, bringing the topic back up now that it was just the four of them. "He'll be fine, will you?"
"I will be, once we get through the quidditch match," Ginny said. "I don't know which is worse– losing to Slytherin or having to play with Dean."
"Losing to slytherin," Seamus and Neville said at the same time making Ginny laugh, and Emma smile. Ginny followed Emma up to their dorms as Emma grabbed some books to read as she guarded over Harry. "How is he doing?" Ginny asked worriedly.
Emma knew there was more than friendly concern in her tone; Harry could be so oblivious it made her want to throttle him sometimes. 'I think being a Malfoy is starting to rub off on you,' Draco thought with a chuckle.
'How is it going?' Emma asked worriedly.
'Almost finished. I keep dragging it out so that Snape and Dumbledore have time, but I don't know how much longer I can keep this up.'
'Hopefully not much longer. School is out soon, they know you have to do it by then,' Emma pointed out.
"Harry is doing fine," Emma said as they walked back down to the practically-empty common room. "Nothing really to say. Voldemort doesn't seem to be interested in him at the moment..." she trailed off thinking about how he was more interested in Draco's assignment than Harry at the moment.
"What's it like?" Ginny whispered as they found secluded seats in the corner. "I mean, it must be odd to be in Harry's head, let alone worried about another presence."
Emma tried to think of the best way to explain it. "It is. I can feel Voldemort's presence even though he is not trying to take over Harry. It's like, he is always there below the surface because of the connection between the two of them. If Harry was a skilled Occlumens he would feel it constantly too."
"Doesn't it scare you? Being exposed to him like that? Being in Harry's head?"
"Yes and no; I'm scared I'll fail and something will happen to Harry, make him vulnerable again to Voldemort, but I'm not afraid for myself," she explained.
"Sometimes I wish I was in Harry's head just to know what he thinks. Sometimes I'm jealous of Hermione and Ron just because they are his best friends and I feel like a fourth wheel," Ginny admitted, and looked at her shoes, shocked she said it out loud. Then she realized it was Emma, and she had always babbled on about Harry for a few years now.
Emma just grinned following Ginny's line of thinking. "It's alright, your secret's safe with me. As for Harry's mind, it is complicated, but let me say that he doesn't think of you as a fourth wheel," she said honestly. I'm more of a fourth wheel than you, she thought.
The weekend finally arrived and everyone eagerly marched out to the quidditch field in anticipation of the Slytherin Vs. Gryffindor game. "No Draco?" Ginny whispered. Emma shook her head.
"Alright everyone," Katie said. "We have to win this game. For Harry, for ourselves, and for our house. We can NOT lose to Slytherin, not when we have come so close. This can be our second Cup in two years! Two years in a row! We can bring the glory back to our House and bragging rights!"
Everyone thought it was impressive Katie made such a great speech, but Emma knew she had a lot of practice listening to Oliver. They filed onto the platform and then flew out to take their lap around the field to the cheers of the majority of the school. 'Don't get hurt,' Draco said. Emma laughed at his form of Good Luck.
Emma lined up on the right waiting for the ball with Katie in the middle and Dean on the left. She faced off against some sixth year Slytherin. She saw, out of the corner of her eye, the release of the ball and rather than fly for the ball, flew straight at the chaser opposite her and the one in the center opposite Dean.
Dean pulled a similar allowing Katie to catch the quaffle and flew off with Dean and Emma flanking her. The first five minutes brought nothing for either team but a lot of bruises. Emma could feel the frustration starting to emerge on both sides. She caught the quaffle from Dean and had to roll to avoid the bludger. "Sorry Emma," one of the beaters said riding by.
She managed to get the goals before running into another chaser and dropped the quaffle to Katie below her. They did a weave and Emma managed to get the quaffle by the keeper scoring the first points of the game.
The Slytherins quickly scored on Ron tying the game. "Where's the snitch," Ron muttered glaring at the quaffle and ignored the cheers and jeers from the Slytherin team.
It took another thirty minutes for Gryffindor to gain another lead on the Slytherins. Dean faked out the goalie managing to score, followed by Katie and Emma each scoring a basket. They worked hard to keep the lead before Ginny could finally catch the snitch.
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Everyone cheered and sang as Harry entered the common room. Emma thought it felt a bit like being drunk on champagne. "What happened?" Harry asked as Seamus filled him in when he walked in.
Emma watched and did a mental happy dance as she felt the resolve rush into Harry. He marched right up to Ginny and kissed her. Emma felt the shock in the crowd, followed by the feelings of relief (and a lot of 'about time'), but was sad to see Dean was a little upset over it. 'Well, no one can be happy all the time,' Draco said. 'He'll probably meet someone over the summer.'
'I hope so. We should all be happy while we can,' Emma thought. She wasn't surprised by Romilda's disgust and jealousy. 'Now if only Hermione and Ron would work through their feelings. I'm thinking broom closet, what do you think?' Emma joked. She was glad to hear Draco laugh.
'If you could find a way of locking Hermione in a room successfully. She has to have read at least half a dozen books on locking spells and breaking out of things.'
'I think only four,' Emma teased making Draco laugh more. She was relieved he could still laugh. She wasn't sure either of them remembered, or would in the coming few weeks as the end of the year approached.
Emma sat in her chair and overlooked the activities as usual: Harry and Ginny went somewhere by themselves (after Harry faced Ron), and then Ron and Hermione walked off to talk by themselves in another corner; she watched Seamus and Neville trying to cheer Dean up, Lavender and Parvati talking with Jackie (their fifth roommate), some sixth years recapping the game, first years excited they won in their first year at school, and second years talking about courses to pick for their classes next year. 'At least some things are still normal in these dark times.' She summoned one of the chocolate frogs lying on a table and scratched pippin's head as he jumped onto her lap. Rather than feel alone in a crowd of people (yet again) she decided she didn't have to, so she went (with Pippin following after her) to find Draco in the Room of Requirement. 'I don't want you to help, Em. I don't want you to dirty your hands in this,' he said picking up on her train of thought.
'I know, I just am so tired of feeling so alone in a crowd of people. It's your fault, anyways,' she pointed out. 'I was used to it till you.' She found him in the Room of Requirement alone, and closed the door behind her. "Congratulations," he muttered partially inside the cabinet.
"You sound so thrilled," Emma said picking her way around the junk in the room. She found a stack of books and recognized one. She shrank it and slipped it into her pocket. "I wish you had played today. It would be great to play in a game with you. Well, it would be even better if we were on the same team instead of opposite teams."
"A Quidditch All Star game," Draco chuckled. "That would be interesting."
"Well, if that happened I definitely think it would be you and Harry chosen for the seekers on the teams," she said. "Great, you would always be playing against Harry. You just had to be a seeker didn't you."
"I would pick you for chaser," Draco said coming out of the cabinet. Emma thought it was a lot like a mechanic stepping away from his current project. "I'm going to quit for today. I'm trying to time it closer to the end of the school year." With a thought Draco had the stuff in the room disappear and their usual room with a roaring fire and chaise lounge appear. She laid down next to him on the chaise. "I'm happy for Harry and Ginny, but insanely jealous at the same time," she admitted.
"Emma, jealous?" Draco drawled. "No one but me would ever guess."
"Yeah, well, you've been jealous of Harry for years so it shouldn't be anything new to you," she teased. She ended up falling asleep wrapped in Draco's arms as they talked.
They both woke up around 9 that night and headed back to their dorms. 'We just have to wait for this to all be over,' Draco reassured her.
'Sure, give it another five, ten years,' Emma said sarcastically. Neither had to say it, but they both knew they were each hoping for another five, or ten years.
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The next few weeks seem to go by quickly. Draco had finished fixing the cabinet and Emma thought it felt like a blinking contest: everyone trying to see who would go first.
She loved watching Harry and Ginny. Harry spent all his time with Ginny, and she missed spending time with him, but she could feel how close the two of them were so she couldn't complain.
NEWTS and OWLS were coming up for the seventh and fifth years; the stress of the end of year exams compiled with the stress of Draco's mission was exhausting Emma to the point where she felt she was losing her mind. Emma was reading a book in the common room (hoping to distract herself) when Harry and Ginny walked in and took seats across from her. "I told you you were wrong," Ginny said triumphantly. "Hey Em!"
Emma nodded and listened to their playful banter. When they started arguing over a potion another conversation started to play in her head as she remembered her mother witnessing an eerily similar conversation between James and Lily.
"Slughorn still says Snape was wrong," Harry said.
"We all know you would never agree with anything Snape did, James," Emma said rolling her eyes and getting up. "I'm heading to the kitchens. Who wants a snack? Lils?" she hollered as she headed to the portrait.
Harry and Ginny exchanged looks. "Did she just call me James?" Harry asked fearfully. He had never seen Emma not be Emma; he knew there was always that possibility but he never gave it much thought, Emma always seemed to be in control.
"I'll get you some pastries if they have any," Emma/Emily called out.
"Watch it, Longbottom," a sixth year complained as Neville tripped out of the portrait.
"Frank?" Emma/Emily asked confused since it didn't look like Frank from behind. She strode out the portrait hole but Neville had disappeared.
"Emma!" Harry and Ginny called out as they rushed after her.
"What is it now James?" Emma/Emily called out. "I said I'd get pastries. I haven't forgotten which ones you and Sirius like," she said rolling her eyes. Harry noticed that her eyes seemed glassed over. She suddenly gave them a fearful look. "Did one of you say something?" she asked fearfully.
"No one has said anything Emma," Ginny said. "Sirius isn't here, remember?"
All of a sudden she clutched her head and pressed her fingers against her temples as if in pain. Harry and Ginny exchanged looks wondering what was happening. Draco appeared suddenly, wrapped an arm around her waist, and led her off in a different direction.
"Is she going to be alright?" Ginny asked.
"I'll be right back," Harry said and ran after them.
"Not now, Potter," Draco said darkly.
Harry just glared at him as he looked at Emma. "What happened?"
"She mistook you and Ginny for your parents," Draco explained like it was an everyday occurrence. "What do you think happened?"
"That was Emily?" he asked in wonder. He crouched in front of Emma who was sitting down. "Are you okay?"
"You mean who am I," Emma drawled. "I'm myself, or at least as much myself as I ever am," she said dryly.
"That's a relief," Harry said.
"I should have just looked at your eyes," she said shaking her head. "Those, and your scar, are what separate you from your dad, but it's as if she is trying to rationalize anything that doesn't fit. Well, I suppose that's a natural reaction."
"I'm sorry," Harry said hugging her.
"It's not your fault," she said. "It's not," she told Draco who was glaring at them.
"I didn't say anything," he said darkly.
Emma started laughing. "Not out loud," she said. "Besides, with that glare, Harry would be dead right about now," she said. "It's not. I am just . . . so burnt out, I guess," Emma said. "I just couldn't keep a grip on myself."
"How can I help?" Harry asked.
"You can't," Draco said blankly. Harry glared at him.
Emma sighed listening and sensing the two. "I just need to go," she said and walked off leaving them to stare, glare, and yell at each other. She use to seek out Cedric when her control was borderline and wished desperately for what felt like the millionth time she could owl him. She ended up at one of the classrooms they used for their meetings and waited. She was happy when her Hufflepuff and Slytherin guard came in later. She needed something to keep her herself, and the society was the one thing that was completely her and had nothing to do with her mother. "I was looking for you Emma," Finn, her Slytherin guard, said coming in.
"Hey," Emma said. "What for?"
"I wanted your help in my audition piece," Finn explained.
"For the summer program in Dublin? Sure," Emma said happy for the distraction.
"Is she okay?" Harry asked as he watched Emma leave..
"She will be fine," Draco said turning to leave.
"Where did she go?"
"Normally she would have looked for Cedric, but right now she just trying to find something that doesn't have to do with her mother. Tough in the same castle her mother has thousands of memories in as well," he said.
"I know you are up to something," Harry said darkly.
"Prove it," Draco drawled and went back towards his common room. If Harry knew to look, he would have seen the pupils in Draco's eyes weren't normal, but, in fact, the storm blue of Emma's.