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 SIXTY-FOUR

King Cobra

Three months had passed since the attack on Reeny. My name had been cleared with the teachers, who all believed I was innocent, but the students had their own ideas about it.

Many were still convinced that I was the heir, and that I had only stopped because I'd knocked off two of the three rival Seekers, and that I couldn't attack Regulus because he was a pure-blood.

Whenever people started talking about it, however, the Marauders and Lily had a habit of standing up and yelling at whoever was doing the gossiping, ensuring silence from then on out. None of the Gryffindors believed that it was me – not even Serilda who, once she had started dating Louis Bickley, had been acting a whole lot nicer.

Lily and James were also dating, which was the only bright spot in these dark times (as we struggled through exams and my position as the school outcast). I was thrilled for them – this must be how they'd gotten together, although I wondered what would have happened if I hadn't shown up. Still, nearly everyone was happy for them, with he clear exception of Severus Snape.

He was furious that Lily had started dating his mortal enemy, and his attitude toward James had only worsened.

Meanwhile, I was still dealing with my own love-triangle problem, but I was dealing with that better than anything else.

For now, I was mainly worried about the whole attacks thing, and what it was doing to my reputation because, let's face it, people hadn't known that much about me from the beginning. For all they knew, I could be the heir of Slytherin.

Except I wasn't.

I found myself in the library one day, curled up in a little space between a bookshelf and a floor-to-ceiling window, in a long-forgotten section of the library. I was humming the Harry Potter theme to myself, and fiddling with my pocket watch – opening the clasp and closing it, running my finger over the little embossed stag, twisting the chain between my fingers. Every so often I would stop humming to sigh.

It was Sunday afternoon, and the weather was fine. Most people were outside, but I was not one of them. I had managed to ditch the Marauders, and now I was watching students milling around outside, which seemed to be the safest place of all to be, since the Basalisk only attacked students who were within the castle.

I leaned the side of my head against the window, and watched as a few familiar faces sat outside enjoying the sunshine. The Marauders were there, probably wondering where I was.

Why couldn't I just tell the headmaster what I knew?

I knew the reason almost as soon as the thought had entered my mind – because he would want to know how I knew, and I couldn't very well tell him I was from another world. I had a hard enough time trying to figure out how to tell my best friends. This was…most confusing for me, and I felt bad about not saying anything.

Well, at least no one had died yet…

Suddenly, I became aware of something that was happening on the grounds below.

A familiar black-haired student was facing a very familiar black-haired student, and from the stance of things, they were about to duel.

Snape duel Sirius?

In a second I had shot to my feet, and was running across the library toward the door, earning myself a very annoyed glare from Madam Pince, but I couldn't worry about that now, as I concentrated on getting outside alive.

I made my way downstairs at mach three, bursting through the doors to the Entrance Hall and into the spring sunlight. I pounded down the stairs, heading toward the cluster of students, as a number of hexes missed their marks and hit other things instead – trees, the castle wall, Serilda…

When people saw me they immediately moved aside and, feeling like Moses in the Reed Sea, I ran into the centre of the crowd, just as Snape caught sight of me.

He then pointed his wand directly at the ground by Sirius' feet and shouted: "Serpensortia!"

There was a bang, and girls in the crowd screamed as a big black King Cobra appeared on the ground, raising itself and spreading its impressive hood out, hissing menacingly at Sirius as students began backing away.

"No!" I said, my voice coming out in a strangled gasp and, before I knew what I was doing, and I probably should not have done it, I lunged forward and grabbed the snake firmly in my hand, keeping my fingers pinched firmly on its head to stop it from wriggling free and biting me.

Everyone was staring at me in shock now, as I pulled the squirming snake away from Sirius, and hissed angrily to it: "Don't you dare!" Then I pushed my way through the crowd of people, who jumped aside to give me a wide berth, and headed toward the Forbidden Forest.

I stopped at the edge of the forest, and then dropped the snake onto the ground. "You will not bite my boyfriend." I told it sternly.

To my surprise, the snake turned back to me, lifting its head off the ground as Cobras do best, and it began hissing back to me.

Only I could understand the hisses. "Thank you, for releasssing me…"

I gaped at it. "Uh…what did you just say?"

The snake appeared to be amused. "Ah, ssso you can underssstand me?"

Wordlessly, I nodded.

The snake swung its head to the side and said: "I mussst leave now…we willmeet again, I am sssure…" And he slithered off into the undergrowth as I heard footsteps approaching.

And I was standing there in shock – I was a Parsletongue.

I could talk to snakes.