She thought her life was over – but fate gave her another chance, in a world of magic. Now, running around Hogwarts with James Potter and his friends, she's about to make choices that will change the future in ways she never thought possible…
Marauder's Phase
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
Carmichael Ackerly
The next day, I got up early, and dressed silently. I put on my white shirt, grey skirt, grey socks and maroon and gold house-tie, slipping into my black robes last of all, and my shoes. Throughout all of this, I made sure not to wake my fellow sixth year Gryffindor girls – Lily Evans, Molly Prewett, Alice Conners and Serilda Roans. I treaded the halls quietly, humming my favourite song, and then walked down the staircase that leads to the Hufflepuff common room, but after turning left I stopped before a big still-life painting of a bowl of fruit.
I tickled the pear, and the pear laughed and then turned into a doorknob.
I turned the knob and pushed open the new door, stepping through it and into the kitchens. Four tables were there, mimicking the house tables that were in the room above, and then I saw more house-elves then I have ever seen in my life, and one of them stepped forward, inquiring as to why I was here.
"Ah, you see…" I said, shifting my feet. "I won't be in the Great Hall for breakfast today, but it's first day of classes so I'll need something to eat, and I…" I trailed off and shrugged.
At once, a number of house-elves appeared with a silver tray on a small cart, and on the tray was a bacon-and-eggs-on-toast-with-sausages breakfast, complete with a jug of chilled pumpkin juice and a silver goblet.
I smiled at them as they showed me to a small table and chair. "Thank you." I said to them.
The bowed to me, and then left me alone to eat, which was fine, because I never know what to say to house-elves. I'm always worried about offending them, because they're – sorry – such strange creatures. Still, I knew the ones at Hogwarts had a better life than some others (ie, Dobby) and I was glad, because they're such hard-workers and made such good food – the bacon was nice and crispy, just the way I love it, and eating down here alone gave me time to think.
I finished my meal, thanked the house-elves again (it never hurts to be polite) and bade them farewell, before leaving the kitchens and going back up the staircase, running into a few Hufflepuffs along the way, who glanced at me curiously. Some recognised me, and congratulated me about what had happened last night. I just smiled, answered almost all their questions, and said hi to a few people I knew.
"Absolutely brilliant work, Emma," Said Henry Applebee. "You should've seen the looks on the Slytherins' faces when they found out!"
"It must've been really exciting, being that close to Sirius Black as well…" Said a fifth year girl, a little wistfully.
I blushed. "Umm…yeah…" I'd been close to Sirius before, what with all the kissing we'd done, but the others didn't need to know that right now.
"Professor Sprout said that Black's motorcycle is being returned to the Potters," Said a seventh year boy. "Isn't that where you and Black have been staying – with Potter's family?"
Again I blushed, as we came out into the Entrance Hall – and that's when we heard it.
"SIRIUS ORION BLACK, HOW DARE YOU ARRIVE AT HOGWARTS BY FLYING MOTORCYCLE, I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY HAD EXPELLED YOU!! YOU WAIT TILL I GET HOLD OF YOU, HOW DO YOU THINK I FELT WHEN I FOUND OUT YOU'D BEEN SEEN!! YOU HAVE RISKED THE EXPOSURE OF OUR WORLD!! YOU COULD DO WITH TAKING A LEAF OUT OF YOUR BROTHER'S BOOK, REGULUS WOULD HAVE NEVER DARED TO DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS!! I AM ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED WITH YOU!! I AM FACING INQUIRIES WITH THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC AND IT'S ENTIERLY YOUR FAULT!! IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE I WON'T HESITATE TO COME UP THERE MYSELF AND BRING YOU STRAIGHT BACK HOME!!!!"
I envisioned the stunned look on Sirius' face as the letter tore itself into pieces. Presently, people began laughing, and the Hufflepuffs, who had been standing there as if Walburga's Howler had stunned them all, all glanced at me before bravely entering the Great Hall, and leaving me standing out there on my own.
Two minutes later, Remus came out of the Great Hall, spotted me immediately, and came over to me, giving me a quick kiss that you couldn't have timed.
"Morning," I said to him. "How's Sirius?"
"Embarrassed, but he'll survive. I assume that's why you decided to skip breakfast this morning." Remus said, handing me two pieces of parchment. "Here, these are yours." And I took the things from him, relieves to see that neither was in a bright red envelope.
The first one, however, might as well have been. It was a letter from Maggie and Reginald. They weren't angry at me – just the opposite, in fact, they'd been extremely worried about me because they'd had no idea where I'd gone or if I was alright, and I felt so guilty that I closed my eyes briefly, as if in pain.
"That is the last time I listen to Sirius," I told Remus, who gave me a small, knowing smile.
The second piece of parchment was much more welcome – my time table for the year.
"Looks like we've got…Defence Against The Dark Arts, first thing." I said, noticing an unfamiliar name underneath the class name. "And a new teacher. Carmichael Ackerly…I wonder who that is…"
"Oh," Remus said, and he frowned for a second. "Him…"
"Huh?" I looked at him.
Remus just shrugged. "You'll see…" He said, in a strange voice.
"I'm not so sure I like the sound of that…"
***
"You could've heard it all the way to Sydney." I muttered.
Sirius, who was sitting next to me in our Defence Against The Dark Arts class, rolled his eyes. "Thanks Emmy, now I feel loads better." For Sirius, his mother's Howler had been an all-time low. The Slytherins were really milking the morning's events for all it was worth.
"Aww, come on, you can sort this out – get your reputation back somehow. You're Sirius Black, after all. Not your 'never-puts-a-toe-out-of-line' younger brother." I said, grinning, just as the door opened and our new teacher walked in.
Oh, excuse me, did I say 'walked'? I meant he 'strode', 'sprang', possibly 'lightly bounded' into the room. His silvery blonde hair hung down to his elbows, and he had very deep blue eyes and straight white teeth. His skin looked like it had never known the extremities of being a teenager. He wore powder blue robes that brought out his eyes and, as he passed me, I caught a scent of some kind of cologne, possibly after-shave.
Every single girl in the class had her gaze fixed on this teacher…did I say teacher?
This guy was the angel Gabrielle in the flesh.
He turned to face us.
"Good morning class," He said, in a voice that sounded every bit as lovely as he looked. "I am your new Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher, Professor Ackerly." He held up a sheet of parchment, and gave us all an apologetic look. "Due to new regulations, I must take the attendance. Please raise your hand and say 'here' when I call your name. Ashers, Marianne?"
"Here…" Came a dreamy voice behind me and to my right and, when I looked around, I saw Marianne, who is usually a very sensible girl, staring dreamily at the Professor. She looked like she was half asleep. I wondered what would happen if I pinched her.
"Bassingthwaighte, Laurel?"
"Here…" Came the reply that was just as dreamy as what Marianne's had been.
"Berth, Calliope?"
"H-here." Stammered a usually confident sixth year Slytherin girl (yes, we have DADA with the Slytherins this year, it's horrible).
"Bickley, Louis?"
"Here." Said the new boy.
"Black, Sirius?"
…
"Black, Sirius?" Professor Ackerly looked around, and his gaze came to rest on the boy to my left, who was fast asleep.
I nudged him. "Siri, wake up…Siri…" He was really zoned out by this stage. I sighed, regarded his hand lying flat on the desk, then picked up my copy of Confronting The Faceless and slammed it down onto Sirius' hand.
He yelped like a dog who'd been whipped, his eyes flew open and he sat up, looking every which way. I gave him an innocent smile.
"So nice of you to join us, Mr. Black." Professor Ackerly said, a small smile playing on his lips. To me he said: "Thank you, Miss." And continued his role-calling. There was something strange about his eyes, but I wasn't sure what. Maybe it was just because I wasn't used to seeing such deep blue eyes – Peter's eyes are much lighter than that. Carmichael Ackerly's eyes are…intense, whereas Peter's are somewhat watery.
"That hurt." Sirius whispered to me, holding up his hand which was turning red and bruised.
"Dunno what you mean." I smiled, before kissing his hand.
Sirius smirked.
"Evans, Lily?"
"Here."
Everyone looked at Lily, shocked. It was the first time a girl had said 'here' without sounding dreamy and breathless, and Lily certainly didn't look like she was about to fall head-over-heels for the new teacher.
James looked pleased.
The role-calling continued, although a few girls began to glance warily at Lily, since she wasn't reacting the same way as they were to Professor Ackerly.
"Lestrange, Bellatrix?"
I wondered if she was already engaged to the other Lestrange, because I didn't know how she'd already taken on the Lestrange family name…
"Here." Yeah, I guessed so, since she wasn't sounding dreamy or anything.
"Lupin, Remus?"
"Here." Remus, sitting directly behind me and next to Peter, replied.
The role-calling continued, until the Professor reached my name. "Pax, Emma…?" He asked, and his gaze came to rest right on me.
I looked back at him and, for a split second, saw something else – something that wasn't as beautiful as what he usually looked, and I'd read about it somewhere before…
"Here." I said, in a steady voice that made all of the girls in the class – minus Lily, of course – look at me in shock. Well, hullo, I'm steadily dating someone! I don't need to fall in love with a teacher! Sirius smiled at me.
Professor Ackerly nodded and continued his role-calling. "Pettigrew, Peter?"
"P-present…" Peter stammered formally, but that's just him, he's so shy sometimes.
"Potter, James?"
"President."
The boys in the class all laughed, and so did I. Lily's lips quirked upwards in a small smile, which was apparently what James had been aiming for because he beamed at her.
"Snape, Severus?"
"Here."
Oh, great, Snape's in our class. I glanced over my shoulder at him, and saw him staring back at me, his eyes like two black tunnels. I shuddered, and turned around as Professor Ackerly finished the role-calling.
"Okay," He said, smiling at us all, and nearly all the girls sighed. "This year we will be covering a wide range of things, including duelling, and confronting dangerous creatures – which you really should have learned before now." He added, and many of the girls nodded in agreement. "So, we shall begin with a small questionnaire, which I want you to fill out."
Once the questionnaire papers were handed out, we all took out our quills and began writing.
It was quite a long questionnaire, divided up by the years we should have learned them all in. I sat there writing, occasionally chewing on my new sugar quill, and hoping that the Professor would be able to read my writing. A few times, I glanced up at the Professor, and he was reading something on a sheet of parchment.
I looked back at my questionnaire, to find a small scrap of spare parchment sitting on it.
I unfolded it, and found a note from Sirius.
What did you say for question nine of year five? He'd asked, in his perfect, looped handwriting.
I looked at the question. 5.9 – Can you conjure a Patronus and, if so, what form does it take?
Oh, great. It may surprise everyone to know, but I hadn't actually seen what form it had taken. And I hadn't conjured it up since that Valentine's Day we'd been attacked by Dementors. The only person who had seen my Patronus was Remus.
Scribbling back in my illegible scrawl on the other side of the parchment, I wrote: I didn't see it. Remus did, did he tell you guys?
Sirius looked at my answer, and then shook his head silently, as I went onto the next question. It was about Lethifolds, and made me yelp out loud.
Everyone looked at me.
"What's your problem?" A Slytherin girl asked me scathingly.
"J-just the question on Lethifolds, is all." I said.
"What the hell is a Lethifold, anyway?" The Slytherin girl asked me, and I could tell that she really did not know.
"It lives in the tropics," I said quietly. "And looks something like a black cloak roughly half an inch thick," (I didn't realise that many people had started writing all this down). "It moves by rippling itself over the surface in which it lies upon and has even been known to show some form of flight by flapping itself through the air in the same means."
"Yeah, but what does it do?" The Slytherin girl asked me, raising an eyebrow. "Why is it so dangerous?"
"Because it suffocates you as you sleep…" I said angrily, because she seemed to have thought that my little yelp of surprise/fear was just trivial.
"And then?"
"It eats you!"
"Oh." She looked horrified, but then asked: "How the hell do you get rid of it?"
"The Patronus Charm is the only known means," I said quietly. "Flavius Belby discovered that in 1782, come on peoples, why don't you know all this!?" I exclaimed, because I had just realised that nearly half the class was looking at me expectantly, quills poised over their parchments as they waited for me to continue.
I rolled my eyes.
"The Patronus Charm is also used to get rid of Dementors though, isn't it?" Asked a shy Gryffindor girl.
I nodded. "Yes, but the Patronus Charm is also a highly advanced spell. Lots of adult wizards have trouble with it, which is perhaps what makes Dementors and Lethifolds so dangerous." There was a collective shudder.
"Can you do a Patronus Charm, Pax?" Bellatrix asked me, and Sirius swung around in his seat to glare at her.
"Yes I can." I said quietly. "It saved my life in February."
"What form does it take?" A Slytherin boy wanted to know.
I shrugged. "I dunno. I passed out before I could see it. Remus' Patronus got rid of the rest of them."
"What form does your Patronus take then, Lupin?" The Slytherin boy wanted to know.
"A wolf." He replied quietly.
"With a crescent tail." I added, remembering.
Sirius seemed to tense up beside me.
"Why?" Louis Bickley wanted to know, looking interested. "What happened in February?"
Lily, James, Sirius and I exchanged a glance.
"We were coming back from the Valentine's Day dance at Hogsmeade," I said quietly.
"When we were attacked by about twelve Dementors." James spoke up.
"Because there were so many of them, we couldn't keep our Patronuses up long enough for them to take on a corporeal form." Lily said, her green eyes dark with the memory of the attack that none of us would ever forget. "It was horrible, there were just so many of them." James gave her a sympathetic look.
"But when Emma was the last one standing," Sirius said, giving me an admiring look. "She was able to conjure up a fully-formed Patronus."
"Did you see it?" Molly Prewett asked, interested.
Sirius shook his head.
"Remus did, right before I passed out, I saw his wolf Patronus but I couldn't see my own properly," I said, and then I glanced at Remus. He was looking at me. "Say, Moony, what did my Patronus look like?"
Remus looked surprised that I had never asked him this before. "You want me to tell you, White Fang?" I nodded. "Alright, if you insist. Your Patronus is a…"
"Ooh, why doesn't she just show us what it is!?" Another Gryffindor student asked, and everyone nodded in agreement.
"Umm…okay, if you all want to see it so much…" I said, and I stood up and moved into the aisle between the desk rows. I concentrated on a happy memory, the feeling I'd had when Sirius had come over and I'd realised he was going to be living at the Potters' with me. I raised my wand. "Exp…"
But, just then, the bell rang, cutting me off mid-incantation, and there was a collective groan from nearly everyone, since we had History Of Magic next, and Professor Binns had a habit of droning on and on…and on.
Professor Ackerly, who hadn't spoken since my little outburst over the Lethifolds, collected all our questionnaires (even though most of them weren't completed) and promised us that we would be having some duelling practice in our next lessons, which we were all looking forward to.
As we were hurrying out of the classroom, I noticed a few people – particularly the Slytherin girls – giving me weird looks and muttering things like 'show-off' and 'know-it-all', but I ignored them as the Marauders, Lily and I dashed off to HoM.
But, on our way down from the third floor, we had to take a slight diversion.
"Why's there water all over the floor!?" James wanted to know, as we came to what looked like a lake in the middle of the corridor.
"Probably Myrtle's flooded the bathroom again," Lily said, sighing, and picking her way around the bathroom water.
"Hey, that reminds me…" I said, planning on telling them about the Chamber of Secrets which, I had just remembered, was currently undiscovered, but then I cut myself off.
I didn't want to seem like a know-it-all.
Besides, without the heir of Slytherin here, and no known Parsletongues, the Chamber of Secrets wasn't going anywhere. The Basalisk would sleep on, for another twenty or so years.
However long it took.