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-EIGHT

Accusations

I opened my eyes and, the first thing I thought was: 'Something's happened'.

Then, to my right, Peter gave a frightened squeak.

I sat bolt upright.

Lying in the bed next to me was Mark Jotes, his face pale, his brown eyes wide and scared. His face was bearing a number of recently-healed scratches. Lying next to him was a fragment of a bathroom mirror.

I groaned. "Oh no…it's attacked him too…the Basa…" And then I remembered Peter. "Umm…" I glanced at him. He was looking at me. "Umm…"

Just then, Madam Pomfrey came bustling in, and Peter only just managed to dive out of sight again.

"Ah, there you are, you're awake." She said to me.

"Yes…Madam Pomfrey, there was another attack." It wasn't a question.

She looked at me and nodded. "Yes. Poor Mr. Jotes…he was attacked in the second floor boys bathroom. The mirror shattered and cut up his face…"

My heart was sinking faster than the Titanic.

I had to get out of here – I had to talk to Lily and the Marauders.

***

I was sitting in the common room reading Quidditch Through The Ages that evening when they all came back from their lessons.

"Em!" Sirius exclaimed, crossing the room to me in an instant and sweeping me up into a big hug.

Peter, who had only just managed to make it to his first lesson that day, followed, along with Remus, Lily and James.

As soon as I saw James, over Sirius' shoulder, my blood ran cold.

"Prongs, listen," I said, as soon as he was within earshot. "I am so sorry we lost yesterday I couldn't believe it when it happened you were right you should be Seeker I can't…"

"Can I slap her?" Sirius asked James, with a straight face. "Please?"

And it was Lily who answered: "No." She was wearing a strange expression.

"What's up?" I asked her, but she just shook her head. The others, save for Sirius of course, also looked subdued.

Remus was looking pale.

"Listen, guys," I said, closing my eyes briefly. "I…I need to tell you something. It's about thew Chambe…"

Just then, the common room portrait swung open, and a group of third year students came in, chattering.

When they saw me, however, they all stopped what they were doing and stared at me.

I stared back at them, feeling dread creeping her way cruelly down my spine.

This would have gone on for awhile, except that I finally stood up, and walked out of the common room, feeling dizzy with disbelief. Why had the third years acted so strangely…unless…did they think I was the heir of Slytherin?

Well, I should've expected it really. They'd all thought that Harry was too…

Wait…if I told Professor Dumbledore everything I knew about the chamber…then would he suspect me too?

Unless I told him everything…

I cringed, just as a hand grabbed my wrist. I could tell it was Sirius without even turning around.

"Em, listen…" He began, but I cut him off – I'd been cutting people off a lot lately.

"Sirius – people think I'm the heir of Slytherin." I said, my voice hollow. "People think I ordered the Bas…the monster to attack those two students."

Sirius' eyes were dark. He nodded. "People have been saying that…a lot of people, actually…" He glanced out the window. "They say…you set the monster on Mark because of the Quidditch match…"

"But I didn't!" I gasped, shaking my head vehemently. "I'm in Gryffindor, I'm not the heir of Slytherin or else the hat…" I stopped talking.

Because a tiny voice in the back of my mind was reminding me that the hat had tried to put me in Slytherin, which was when I'd screamed 'no' in the middle of the Great Hall, and the hat had thought otherwise. But it wouldn't have put me in Gryffindor if I didn't belong in Gryffindor…right?

I only became aware that I'd taken a few steps back from Sirius when I backed into a suit of armour, which wobbled precariously.

"S-Sirius…" I began, and then I shook my head. "N-never mind…it's nothing…not important. I'm not the heir of Slytherin…umm, I'll be back in a minute." And I turned left and took off running, heading toward God-knows-where, and just running.

I ran past a group of Ravenclaw girls that had never been particularly friendly to me, and one of them called to me: "Going to attack more people, Pax?"

I kept on running, despite the way the girl's words had angered me, because I was afraid of what I might do to her if I stayed – then they'd really have a reason to suspect me.

Without really knowing it, I found myself on the second floor and, with a deep sigh, I headed toward Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

***

Last year, Severus Snape had used the Sectumsempra curse on me in that very bathroom, he claims he wasn't trying to kill me. Sirius disagrees.

As I went in there, I hoped Myrtle wouldn't be in there and, to my luck, she wasn't.

I went over to that sink, and looked at it. It looked exactly like the others – except for the snake that was carved onto the tap handle.

"This is it…" I whispered. "This is the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets…right where I knew it would be…"

Someone was using the entrance to go in there, and command the Basalisk to attack muggle-born students. I was just deciding whether or not to call up Myrtle and ask her if she'd seen anyone in here recently, when I heard the bathroom door open.

For some reason, I didn't really feel like staying around in plain view of what I knew to be the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, and so – for this reason – I ducked around to the back of the sinks and sat there on the cold stone floor, praying to God that whoever it was wouldn't see me.

Footsteps echoed across the floor, and then stopped, directly in front of the sink I had been standing before.

My breath hitched in my throat, and I hardly dared to breathe.

There was a long period of silence, in which neither myself nor the person who'd just come into the room moved, and then I heard them speak.

"Open up."

Only that's not what he – yes, he – said. It was a strange hissing sound, a sound like snake's whisper, and then things began moving and I knew, I just knew, that someone had just come in and opened the Chamber of Secrets.

Oh Lord, oh Lord, this was not happening!

I sat there, with my heart pounding in my chest in a very betraying way, for what seemed like a year, but really I only waited for ten minutes, until the heir had entered the chamber, and then I got up and I ran.

I flat-out ran.

If he'd discovered that I was there…then I would be in big trouble.

After all…I was the Most Wanted on the Death Eaters' list. Lestrange, Nott and Rosier had been sent by Voldemort himself to capture me, and I still had no idea why.

And I knew, I just knew, that the attacks on the muggle-borns had something to do with all of this.

And then, halfway down a staircase, I came to a dead halt.

The Basalisk was attacking muggle-borns.

The Basalisk was a creature of the Slytherin house, so to speak.

Salazar Slytherin had wanted to use it to purge the school of all muggle-borns.

There were no muggle-borns in Slytherin.

And yet…the Sorting Hat had tried to place me in that very house.

Did this…did this mean what I think it meant?

Did this mean that I, Emma Lucy Pax, was not a muggle-born?

Could I be a half-blood or, even, a pure-blood?