Chapter Twenty-Five: A Missing Puzzle Piece
Not mine.
Don't forget that the Point of Views will be switching between Kailey and Keena from this point forward in the story! Enjoy!
Kailey's Point of View:
It was freezing and I was shivering. Everything felt heavier and I knew in the back of my mind that I should be crying out in pain. Somehow, though, the pain had stopped and I was left only with the darkness and the cold.
I hoped it warmed up soon…
Keena's Point of View:
It was quickly decided that Snape, Lily and Harry would stay at the castle with Kailey. We all figured that James, Sirius and I were probably the best ones to pull Remus out of his slump considering how long the four of us had been friends. If we couldn't get him to come back willingly then we'd just have Lily go and force him to come. Knowing Remus and how stubborn he was, it just may come to that.
I led the other two back into the living room before stalling by the fireplace, wracking my memories from Kailey to see if she knew where the floo powder was. I ended up spotting it on top of the mantel piece in an ancient looking pot. I took it down and handed it to the other two.
"You had no clue where it was, did you?" Sirius asked.
"Nope," I answered, stepping into the fireplace before flooing over to Remus' house.
I stumbled into the living room and stepped aside, brushing some of the soot off of my robes. I'll admit that though I'd never been terribly graceful, I was stumbling far more than usual. I accounted it to being part of having a new body. I looked up to see Remus aiming a wand at my face.
"Woah, Moony, it's just me," I said, raising my hands in defense. That's when I remembered that Kailey and I shared a wand. Guess who it technically belonged to. Perfect.
He lowered his wand only to raise it again when Sirius stepped out of the fireplace before he was quickly followed by James. "What are you all doing here?" he asked angrily.
"Good to see you too after you disappeared," James replied, rubbing his hair to get the soot out.
"Like you've never done that before," Remus spat back acidly.
"Touché," was James' answer. "You going to lower that any time soon, mate?" he added.
Remus paused. "Anyone else coming thru there?"
"No,"
He lowered the wand. "Now what do you want?" He really had no excuse for his tone, the full moon had already gone by this month.
"We need your help," I said frowning when he began shaking his head.
"I'm not going back there." He turned and sat down on the couch. "And if you three are just here to tell me how I did nothing wrong and I wasn't in control just shove it. I'm not coming back."
"Right, because we're defiantly going to listen to you," Sirius said with a roll of his eyes. "Besides, we haven't even gotten to the news yet,"
"What news?" Remus asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"Well, do you want the good news or the bad news first?" I asked guiltily.
His face somehow turned even more sour. "The last time you two announced something together like that was when you were pregnant,"
"Get your mind out of the gutter," I snapped. "Now, good or bad?"
"Bad," he answered in response to my temper.
"Kailey is in terrible pain and we don't know how to fix it," James answered.
Remus' anger faltered for a moment and turned to confusion. "I don't understand…what could possibly be good news if you're stuck as Keena?"
"That is the good news," I said. "Kailey and I are now officially separated. Lily and Snape and I need your help figuring out how to fix her."
"Sounds like you've already got three brains, no need for another," he replied sourly.
"Remus this is not about you," James said, growing tired of Remus' attitude. "This is about a fourteen year old girl who used to be a significant part of my sister. Now, you're either going to come willingly or--"
"Or what? You're going to drag the stupid, dangerous wolf along for the ride just because you think he's got nothing better to do with his life?"
"Remus, stop it, you're neither stupid nor dangerous," I said patiently, closing my eyes.
"Then why don't you tell me how many times I almost killed you, Keena, go on. How many times?" he growled.
"I'm not dead, Remus," I replied, glaring at him.
"But you could be!" he shouted, jumping to his feet.
"I could've died a hundred times before and you think that that is going to change?" I shouted back. "Fine, blame yourself for those two times, but do you really want to be partially responsible if Kailey does die this time? Because you couldn't swallow your bloody pride and help? I am ashamed of you, Remus, you're better than this,"
Remus just stared at me, shocked.
"C'mon, I've just remembered I don't have a wand anymore," I directed towards Sirius. "I'll be no help if I haven't got one. We'll be back at the school as quick as we can," I added to James who nodded and went thru the floo to tell the others.
We left Remus standing there, in the same state of shock, heading for Diagon Alley. Lucky for us it was hardly afternoon by the time we reached Ollivander's. The ancient wand maker looked up at us as we entered and his face broke into a wrinkly grin.
"I wondered if I'd ever see you enter my shop, Ms. McIntosh," he said coming to close the blinds to the window display and locking the door. "Your wand arm is the same as it was three years ago?"
I froze before just shruggin it off and shaking my head.
"Should I bother to ask how, sir?" I asked, still upset from arguing with Remus. I wasn't in the mood to play mind games with the old man.
"No, you shouldn't, but I know you're curious so I shall appease you," he said, tossing the tape measure towards me while he scoured the shelves for a wand. "My family has been in the business of selling and making wands for centuries. After a while it becomes easier to match both personality, magical aura as well as physical stature with the right wands. You just so happen to maintain very similar traits in all three areas with Ms. Macauley, far more so than if she were related to you in any way,"
"It's actually Macauley-Snape now," I corrected.
He paused. "Now that does make more sense," he said quietly, more to himself than to us. "And what does it make you? You are clearly separated, not duplicated or else you'd have the same features. Or are you running purely on magic with no blood of your own?"
No blood of my own…?
"Sir, you talk as though you've seen this before," Sirius stated suspiciously.
"Wand making is not the only thing to be passed down, my boy," Ollivander replied. "My family tells of one story with a case such as yours, Ms. McIntosh, a young wizard actually could not find a wand because there was no blood within him. He lived as a squib the rest of his days because he refused to learn how to hone his magic properly so that a wand would work with it. This was in the days well before blood replenishing potions, mind you,"
"Is there any point in my trying right now then?" I asked. This was just not my day. First Kailey and her unexplainable condition, then Remus and his overly-guilty stubbornness and now my lack of blood to get a wand. Anything else I could tack on?
"I will tell you what we shall do," he said, stacking up ten boxes. "I assume you both came from Hogwarts seeing as young Mr. Potter is not with you. I shall come to the Hospital Wing tomorrow. That should give you enough time to have the one dose that it should take for your system to begin producing its own life liquids. That way you do not have to sneak into public again and you can settle whatever argument that you two are having with whoever the third party may be,"
I blinked and exchanged a glance with Sirius.
"Sir, are you by any chance related to Dumbledore?" Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No, my lad, but there is one more thing; Ms. McIntosh, you will need a drop of someone else's blood in the replenishing potion so that you have family ties. Your appearance may or may not shift slightly from this, so I recommend it not be Mr. Black if you two ever do participate in matrimony,"
"Alright, then, sir, thank you very much," I said, now wondering who was going to 'adopt' me so to speak. Even without being a fourteen year old I needed to be taken care of. Damn Remus for putting me into a foul mood. "So we'll see you in the Hospital Wing tomorrow at…?"
"Around noon I would say," he said. "People tend to panic whenever I leave the shop for too long so I will just tack on an extra half hour to my lunch break tomorrow. But come, use my floo, in the back here,"
He led us to the back of the room to a small fireplace just large enough to fit into. It was clearly an escape route. Sirius and I went back to Hogwarts, coming in thru Snape's quarters. We headed down to the potions lab where we could hear the others talking in heated discussion. Also often referred to as an argument.
"—if that isn't a bloody wolf with his tail between his legs then I do not know what is!" Snape was shouting at James when we walked thru the door.
"Don't you dare tell me that Remus is a coward, he is only doing what he thinks is best!" James shot back angrily.
"So you agree with him then?" Snape challenged.
"I did not say that, stop twisting my words!"
I sighed heavily and brought a hand to my forehead as the two continued their shouting match, not bothering to stop Sirius when he joined in. I was just thankful that their wands had not been drawn. I looked over to see where Lily and Harry had ended up. Lily was standing over Kailey's bed, muttering to herself, asking Harry questions every so often. When he wasn't answering her, Harry was watching the exchange, looking quite nervous.
"Does anybody here think that this arguing is actually helping the situation?" I finally asked as both sides paused to draw a breath. The three men turned to me and Lily and Harry looked over as well. "I'd just like to point out that the last time any combination of us argued it ended in a dual. Now I don't know about you three, but duking it out in a potions lab is really not on the top of my to do list, especially considering Kailey's current state. And you're all making Harry nervous," I grinned when Harry stuck his tongue out at me.
"Well, it would be a dual by now had someone not confiscated my wand," Snape growled, throwing Lily a look.
"Don't you dare look at my wife like that!" James growled back in reply.
"James, relax, he looks at everybody like that when he's aggravated," I said, rolling my eyes. "Honestly, you're all like a bunch of stupid teenagers," I added under my breath.
"I resent that comment," Sirius huffed, crossing his arms.
I opted to ignore him and headed over to where Lily and Harry were standing. "Any more idea on what's going on?" I asked.
"She still hasn't moved," Harry answered, shaking his head.
"Which could be a good thing because it means we've effectively blocked out the pain for the time being," Lily added, probably more for Harry's benefit. "We should move her up to the Hospital Wing,"
"I have all of the necessary potions here," Snape said, coming to stand at the end of the bed. "There is no point in moving her,"
"Except this is a dungeon," James muttered. Snape was about to retort when Lily cut him off.
"No, he's right, the surroundings could help her. Windows, sunshine, and fresh air should all be more beneficial than a potions lab with Merlin knows what sort of fumes left over from past potions. I know you've taken all the necessary precautions," she said, holding up her hand when Snape opened his mouth in argument. "It doesn't change that you can't get rid of every vapor and we need a clean environment if we're going to make her better more efficiently,"
"Yeah, and I've got to meet Ollivander in the Hospital Wing tomorrow afternoon in any case," I put in. Everyone but Sirius looked at me as though I'd grown an extra head. "Kailey and I can't exactly share a wand, can we?"
"Well, sure that makes sense, but in the Hospital Wing?" James asked. "That makes zero sense,"
"Kailey and I were one body, right? Well, she still has that body and that life force. I've only taken enough magic to give myself a body but nothing else," I explained. "I'm running, my organs are running, purely on magic at this point,"
"Of course," Lily said, going wide-eyed. "You've taken some magic and she's taken everything else…"
"That's why her body is still in pain," I replied, catching onto Lily's epiphany. "Her body is used to having twice the normal amount of magic to block things out..."
"She's magically exhausted whereas you've got too much at the moment," she added.
"Too much or just enough?" I asked, frowning.
"It's probably better not to test it," Lily said, nodding to herself. "But what do we use to give you blood? A replenishing potion? That would only work if we gave you something…something for the potion to build on…"
"Ollivander said something about a drop of someone else's blood being necessary," I said, remembering the old man's words. "Something about family ties or whatever,"
"Yes, that makes perfect sense," she agreed. "And once we've got you all squared away, we can probably help her along to regenerate her own magic back if she is still exhausted by tomorrow,"
We grinned at each other before one of the boys coughed. The four of them were all staring at us with various faces of confusion.
"Let me see if I understand all of this," Harry said at last when none of them said anything. "You don't have any blood in your system, but you have enough magic to keep you going at the moment, and you just need a potion to fix that," I nodded and he continued. "Kailey doesn't have enough magic so she's in more pain than she should be and all that she needs to do is rest," again, I nodded. "Alright, when do we move upstairs?"
"Potter, consider yourself lucky that you received your mother's intelligence," Snape commented.
And so commenced the arguing once more.
We finally got Kailey up to the Hospital Wing via levitation gurney and had everything set up in a matter of minutes. Everyone's moods seemed to have lightened up considering we had solved the most difficult part of the puzzle, though we had to wait for Madame Pomfrey to return in order to figure out the proper treatment. We were thinkers, not healers.
Snape had brought up a fresh batch of blood replenishing potion after we had all eaten lunch, and James had volunteered a drop of his blood. We had always been introduced as siblings, so we figured why not make it permanent?
The blood red of the potion changed into a more scarlet color once James' part was added in and the potion no longer smelled as metallic. I looked at the goblet for a moment before looking back up at the others, all of whom were staring at me as I sat on my old Hospital Wing bed.
"If I drink this, will I end up with the cursed Potter hair?" I asked skeptically.
James frowned. "I don't know, there hasn't been a girl born into the family in generations, possibly centuries," he admitted.
"Well, those odds make me feel better about this," I answered, frowning into the goblet. "Well, bottom's up," I said, tipping my head back and draining the goblet. It tasted as metallically as it had smelled, but there was also a certain flavor that I couldn't identify. It reminded me of Potter Mansion, however, so I dismissed the odd taste. I put the goblet down onto the table next to the bed and looked at the others. "Now what?"
"Didn't you three think things through when you were Unspeakables?" Sirius asked.
"No, that was always Remus," Lily answered shaking her head. "Keena, do you feel alright?"
I had slumped back onto the bed and was currently rubbing my forehead. "I can feel it rushing to my head and all my limbs," I answered. It was an aching sort of feeling. More of an annoyance everywhere except my head, which was throbbing. "Must be why Ollivander said he'd come tomorrow,"
"Is it anything more than a headache?" Sirius asked, his voice full of concern. I shook my head in reply. "Why don't you try and get some sleep?"
"It's not even two in the afternoon," I answered before attempting to suppress a yawn.
"You should lie down, let the blood figure out how to circulate," Snape suggested from his seat next to Kailey's bed.
I did so without hesitation and soon sleep overtook me.
Kailey's point of view:
It scared me at first when the cold began receding. I didn't know quite what to make of it. It was happening so slowly that I hadn't even noticed it at first but now I felt much warmer in my core, but everything else was now intensified. It was like the cold was trying to fight back and in places I was sure it was winning. It was still very dark…
Keena's point of view:
I awoke to the sunlight glaring in my face. I felt a strange sense of déjà vu and realized that the same thing had happened to Kailey not even a week ago. I sat up and stretched, throwing the blanket off of myself that someone had covered me with. Looking around the room, I saw Snape by Kailey's bed once again and Sirius was sitting next to mine. The others must have been in Gryffindor's chambers.
I hopped off of the bed and went into the bathroom, intent on figuring out what I looked like. I couldn't help the little gasp that escaped my mouth. I looked more like a Potter, that was for certain. My usually black hair was considerably lighter, closer to Mrs. Potter's hair color than to Mr. Potter's and it was thankfully going to be manageable. My eyes were no longer blue, but the warm, dark chocolate brown that Mr. Potter had had when he was alive. My skin was also fairer than it had been, but the overall layout of my face made me recognizable as Keena McIntosh, though I suppose it should be Keena Potter now.
I freshened up a little, washing my face and rinsing out my mouth before going back into the Hospital Wing's main room. I went to look at my watch only to realize that it was on Kailey's wrist. It seemed that I would be going to Diagon Alley a lot over the course of the week. I went over to my bed and took Sirius' wand off of the bedside table to conjure myself a new watch. Once I was satisfied with it, I put his wand back and busied myself with setting the time to match the clock that hung on the wall.
I was just wondering what to do with myself next when I heard a groan come from Kailey's bed. Picking Sirius' wand up, just in case, I went over to her to see if she was waking up. She moaned again and I went around to wake Snape up.
"Severus," I whispered, shaking him. He growled in response. "C'mon, your daughter is making noises,"
His eyes opened blearily. "What?"
"Kailey, she's waking up, I think," I said, keeping my voice low.
As if on cue, she groaned again before opening her eyes. "Water?" she asked, her voice cracking from either lack of use or from all the screaming she did yesterday.
I went to the bathroom and grabbed a goblet and brought it back over to her. "Aguamente," I muttered, pointing Sirius' wand into the goblet and filling it with the cool water.
"I thought you didn't have a wand yet?" Snape asked.
"I don't, this is Sirius'," I said, handing the goblet to Kailey's waiting hands. "Drink it slowly," I advised when she began to gulp it all down.
Once she was done with it she yawned and leaned back into the pillow. "Who are you?"
"I'm Keena," I answered with a grin. "Don't you remember? We're separate now,"
"Of course I remember," she said before yawning again. "You look different is all,"
"We'll tell you about that later, I think you should probably go back to sleep," I told her, taking the goblet from her hands. She nodded numbly before falling back asleep.
"What do we do now?" Snape asked, staring at his daughter.
"We wait," I answered, placing a hand on his shoulder. "From what I remember, you've been a good father so far,"
"How upset is she really that I am giving her up again?" he asked.
"She's taking it harder than she'll ever let you know,"
"You'll look after her wherever I send her?"
"Yeah,"
He nodded and went silent.
"Where is it you're trying to send her in any case?"
It was about nine in the morning when Madame Pomfrey came into the Hospital Wing in her nursing uniform. She bustled right over to me and made me lie down flat, taking the pillow out from under my head and tossing it at Sirius who woke up with a swear.
"Er…what are you doing exactly?" I asked as she began waving her wand over me. "And where have you been this entire morning?"
"She has been with us, discussing what after affects there could be," Dumbledore's voice rang through the room. I was currently having my eyes checked by the medi-witch.
"I assume Lily is part of the us?" I asked looking over before giving a glare and lying back down. "Come out of the den then?"
"I guess I deserved that," Remus answered as he and Dumbledore walked over to us. "And no, we haven't seen Lily or James or even Harry yet today."
"Well, if you had come last night then you would've known that we already figured out what was wrong with her and myself," I said, sitting up and pushing away Pomfrey's hands as she tried to make me lie back down. "I'm an adult, Poppy, remember?" I reminded her and she huffed and crossed her arms.
"Keena you could still--" Dumbledore paused mid-sentence and frowned.
"Yes?" I asked, growing a little uncomfortable when I realized they were all staring at me.
"You look like…a Potter," Remus said. "How?"
"She took a blood replenishing potion when she and Lily figured out that she was running only on magic. They put a drop of James' blood in it so that the potion would have something to work with. This is the only after affect that we expect," Sirius explained, yawning at the end.
"And what about Kailey?" Pomfrey asked, turning her attention to the sleeping teen.
"She's magically exhausted," Snape said. "We weren't sure if she should just rest so we brought her up to you, Poppy,"
"Rest and a couple of light potions will do the trick, certainly," Pomfrey said, returning to her nurse mode. "Has she woken up at all?"
"Just this morning, we gave her some water," I said.
"Very good," she said before taking out her wand and running some diagnostic spells. "Keena, Sirius, Remus, you may all leave if you wish," she added.
"Wait, an actual dismissal?" I asked grinning. "Wow, I don't think I've ever had one of those before,"
"Take advantage of it, because it is likely you will never get one again," Pomfrey informed me. I didn't need telling twice.
So that's the end of this one! I hope you all enjoyed it! Thank you to all of you who have reviewed and please continue doing so! Next is chapter 26!
:-D