Hey everybody! I would just like to say that now that school is starting up again, I might not have that much time to be updating as much as I used to. But I will be updating, I definitely won't be abandoning this story. I feel like I have a moral duty to you all. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter and thanks for everything.

Chapter 22

We were currently on a train back to the Kings Cross Station and I still hadn't told anyone anything and it was driving me insane. I was always looking for the perfect time, the perfect moment to just explain everything. But you know what they say, when you're looking for something you never find it and I could not find it. The only reason I was stressing out so much was because if there was one thing I couldn't do - it was keep secrets. I couldn't keep a secret for the life of me, unless it was absolutely urgent (like finding out your best friend is a werewolf) it was especially hard to keep a secret from your best friends.

"I can't do this anymore!" I said, slamming my hand down on the chair.

Remus sprung out of his seat, almost dropping the cards that he was holding. "What the- are you alright Win?" He said, looking at me weirdly.

Thats when I began to spill everything, it was like I couldn't stop my mouth from talking - it felt like my body was literally forcing me to tell them as if it couldn't take the pressure of holding a secret. Which, knowing me was probably true. Once I had finished talking, they all paused for a moment before shooting at me questions in a rapid manner.

Peter gasped, "Mulciber and Avery performed an unforgivable curse on you?!"

Sirius looked at me like he was talking to Satan himself, "Wait, so what? Kenneth is innocent?" He scoffed, "No, no way. I call bullshit."

James then looked at me, "Hey, is this what you were telling me about the other day?"

Sirius looked at him, curiously. "What'd she tell you?"

I rolled my eyes, "Look! That's not - that's not the point. The point is that I don't know if there is a point at all!" I said, honestly. "To answer all of your questions. Yes, to all."

James then wiped his glasses with the bottom of his shirt, "But it doesn't make sense Winnie. So you say that Kenneth took the potion and then used the imperio curse to make you say all those stuff but then he suddenly somehow realises what he did was wrong? What kind of potion works like that? I don't believe it."

Sirius's eyes flickered between me and James, "Well, The Elixir of Hades if taken in small doses has a very temporary effect on the drinker. The smaller the dose, the less it has an effect on you. But they probably only use the elixir for special occasions, I mean it is extremely rare and hard to find."

We all looked at him suspiciously, he wasn't one for sprouting out random facts - especially when they were related to school.

"The Elixir of Hades? Is that what it's called?" I asked, impressed.

Peter narrowed his eyes as he bit the head off a chocolate frog, "How do you know that?" He asked suspiciously.

He coughed and I could swear that there was a twinge of pink on his face, "Yeah, when I'm at home there's nothing to do so I read. A lot. So, my great aunt was a potioneer, she kept a lot of her work documented. She also wrote about various potions. Including rare ones."

James tilted his head to the side, "Wait, how did you know which potion it was?"

Sirius shrugged, "It was fairly easy to pin-point, it's the only elixir that can cause symptoms like that."

"Sirius, what else can you tell me about this elixir?" I asked, inching towards him suddenly feeling very gravitated towards the subject.

He drummed his fingers against the handrail, "Let's see, well like I said. It's hard to come by, so he must have connections outside because it's been banned from the wizarding world since 1803. It's so rare that you can't even find the ingredients that you need to cook up the potion."

"Okay, what effects does it have on the drinker?" I said, watching him carefully. The only reason I was asking because it was the only way I could verify if Kenneth was telling the truth or not.

Sirius gave me his usual nonchalant look, "Well, the best way I could describe it would be to say that it's like being a human version of a dementor. You become a emotionless, psychotic shell of a human being. Originally, the elixir was supposed to help cure mental illnesses by subduing the drinkers emotions. But, it didn't really work out so well because it ended up enhancing the drinkers emotions to the point where the idea of killing was fine. The crime rates around that time shot up like crazy and nobody realised that there was a link between the elixir and the murderers until they ran a series of tests on the murderers- but by then it was too late and twenty five people had already died."

Remus looked up, "Wait isn't that the massacre of twenty five? But I thought that killers were escaped Azkaban prisoners." He said, looking bemused.

Sirius chuckled, "Not at all, they were ordinary people. But I'm sure that the ministry would never admit to that. They don't want to look like they're bad at their job."

His words confirmed something for me. Kenneth was telling the truth. But that wasn't the part that terrified me, the thing that terrified me. That made me want to curl up in a blanket and never leave my room again. It was that it was all true. All that Kenneth had told me was true. There was a person - there were people who had no problem torturing or killing people. People who weren't even considered adults yet.

"Merlin, this means that what he said was true. You guys, Kenneth was telling the truth. I didn't want to believe it but you just told me exactly what he said." I said, leaning back into my seat.

Sirius gave me a disgusted look, "I still don't believe him." I didn't expect him to.

James gulped, "So, what are you going to do?"

Now that was the golden ticket question. What was Winnie Erhad Powers supposed to do now? If only I knew the answer to that question. Lately I felt like I didn't know the answer to anything at all, I felt like I was on a rollercoaster that once fell down and never seemed to go back up again.

I shrugged, almost emotionlessly. "I don't know what to do honestly."

Remus rubbed his jaw, looking annoyed. "I hate having to say this but it - it makes sense. Especially considering the fact that I've never heard of this elixir in my life - we can assume that he's telling the truth. I hate admitting it but it's logic. That information isn't accessible to anyone. You would only know if you experienced it."

"Hey Winnie, didn't you say that Benjy Fenwick warned you about Mulciber?" Sirius said, randomly.

My eyes widened, oh of course. How could I have forgotten? It was a long time ago but Benjy Fenwick had warned me about Mulciber and his friends. I had specifically remembered him bringing up Mary McDonald and her incident, something I never believed would happen to me. Oh, how wrong I was.

"I don't know, maybe he's had an encounter with him before. I mean, he's a muggleborn, smart and the captain of the quidditch team. Those are three things Slytherins don't like."

James realised who we were talking about then scrunched his nose in annoyance, "Oh, yeah. The captain of Ravenclaw. I said it once and I'm going to say it again. Smug prick."

I threw a chocolatr frog at him, which he dodged. "No he's not, you say that about every quidditch player who's not on your team." I ran a hand through my hair, a bit frustratedly. "But that's not about that! James - Mulciber didn't have any second thoughts about killing me! Don't you realise what's going on?" I said, slamming my hand down on the handrail.

James put his hand on my shoulder, "Winnie, are you okay?"

Sirius's gazed at me, in concern. "Winnie -" he said, almost sensing a rant coming on but I cut him off.

I sighed, "I almost died that day. Mulciber was willing to do that and more. How is that not scary?" I said, rhetorically. "Oh wait, it is scary. No, it's terrifying."

Sirius shook his head, "We're going to get him back. We are. Just you wait, if he thought that he could mess with us than he was wrong." He said, clenching his fist.

I shook my head, "You can't. He can't know that Kenneth let me remember. If he does than he'll kill me for sure." I said sadly. "This is awful." I groaned, tucking my knees under my chin.

James scoffed, "So what are we going to do? Pretend like he didn't ruin your life? Explain to me how that is fair, at all."

Remus looked at me sadly, "Well we can't go up to him and punch him in the nose can we? We need a plan."

Sirius sat up, "Why not? He deserves it. He's not exactly a nice person to anyone."

"Sirius is right, he does deserve it. He deserves it so badly. But Remus is right, we need a plan. I want to get him back, but we cant - not with our usual pranks. If we are going to get revenge on him then it won't be our usual style. It has to be intense, something crazy. Maybe we should drive him insane." I said, without a flicker of humour on my face.

James looked at me strangely, "What are you planning to do?" he said, unsurely. "Insanity isn't usually our forte."

My eyes glanced at Sirius, an idea popped into my head and I said: "Sirius and I will come up with something."

Sirius raised a brow at me, "We will? Since when?"

I shot a look at him, "Aw, come on. You don't want to come up with something to get him back?" I paused, "Besides, you're always the one who's coming up with ideas to get people back. Let's put your plans into action. What do you say?"

Sirius sighed and feigned annoyance, he had his trademark smirk on his face. "Fine. That's not a good thing by the way. Are you sure you're up for it? You're not usually one for driving people mad."

I laughed mockingly, "Yeah well some things can change a person. I'm sure you would understand." I said, hoping he got what I was referring to. His eyes flashed as he realised what I was talking about. His awful upbringing, obviously.

"You know that I do." was his only response.

I got off the Hogwart's Express and immediately began to look around the platform. I couldn't see my parent's face anywhere, which was extremely odd because they were never late to anything - ever. A habit that I had picked up from them. I glanced at my watch, they were supposed to be here by now. I was going to go further into the crowd if I hadn't heard a familiar, loud whistle. I looked up and shock filled my features as I realised who was standing on the platform waiting, my brother Greg.

I approached him with a huge smile on my face, I couldn't even contain my smile. My brother's warm, friendly face greeted me as I attacked him into a bone-crushing hug.

"Merlin's eyeballs, Greg - what the hell are you doing here?" I said, laughing as I took in the fact that he was actually here.

Greg chuckled and proceeded to hug me back, an equally big smile on his face. "Hey there little sister. To answer your question I stopped by to greet James I heard he's now the captain of the Gryffindor team," as his eyes began to search the crowd behind me.

My eyebrows scrunched up in confusion, "What!?" I said, disappointment and bemusion written on my face.

He snickered at my expression, "I'm kidding, you idiot. I'm here to see you of course! It's a funny story actually," He said and flicked his wand at my luggage making it fly above us, following our every move. "So, I just finish this match you see - we lost but yeah, so I get a call from mum saying that you're coming back and what not. So I say, why don't I go pick my little sister up! Bet you were right surprised when you saw me, weren't you Win?" He said as we began to walk out of the platform.

I nodded, "You bet your left hand I was. It really is so good to see you, how have you been? How's Emily - was it?" I said, smiling at him as we reached the family's car.

Greg ran a hand through his wavy, light brown hair. A trait he got from our lovely father. "Eh, I don't know really. I think we're broken up. But, yeah I'm alright. The team hasn't been winning in a while - they think it's a jinx of some sorts. But I reckon it's the new keeper Mitch, he's not really good. But he's pretty, well thats what the girls say."

I laughed, "Ah, is that so? Wait, what do you mean you think you've broken up. I thought you were gonna get engaged - what happened?" I said, watching him start the car engine. I could see him, take a deep breathe and shut his eyes for a moment as the car roared to life.

By his body language, I could tell that something big happened. He was head in heels in love with that Emily girl, they were planning on getting engaged and eventually to get married! In a span of three months it was all gone? That didn't sound right to me. Or logical. I wasn't sure when I was going to get the information out of Greg but I was almost certain that it wasn't today.

He cleared his throat, "We, can talk about that later. Now on to more interesting topics - how have you been, Winnie? How are all your friends? Pulled any good pranks lately?" He said, avoiding my gaze and focusing on the road.

In all truthfulness, I wasn't sure how to answer him. Was I supposed to tell him the truth - that I had almost been murdered and embarrassed by a bunch of maniacs? That I had lost every friend other than the marauders? That I had never felt as bad as I did a few days ago? I wasn't sure what to reply to him. It never really seemed to make sense to me, how people would ask how you were but not really care for an honest answer.

I nodded, despite the fact that he wasn't looking at me. "I'm okay."

Greg looked over at me for a moment, dubiously. "Aw, come on. You can tell me, what's going on? Boy break your heart? I would threaten to rip him apart but I assume you would 'ave that by now."

I couldn't stop the laughter that exited my mouth, "No, it's not that." I paused, "Do you ever figure something out? Something you never really wanted to know? Then you just start to feel like nothing is right anymore? Something like that happened to me."

Greg nodded, "I know exactly what you mean, Win. Let me tell you one thing. It's the only thing that has kept me going. Whatever you are going through - know that it doesn't last. Nothing last's forever and that isn't always a bad thing." He said wisely.

His words hit hard to home. Very hard. It was like he knew exactly what I needed to hear and he said it, Greg was always like that. He always knew the right thing to say or do. But his words gave me comfort, comfort that I needed. Greg pulled up into the driveway, I stared out at the house and couldn't help the smile that found it's way on my face.

My mother and father peered out the window as they heard us pull up, they quickly opened the door and beamed when they saw us. My mother immediately saw me and pulled me into her usual warm hug. My mother began to say something to me but I wasn't listening. I was just so relieved, relieved that I was home. Even though it wasn't true - I felt safe again.

"What's wrong, Winnie?" She said, taking me in as the hug came to an end.

I shook my head, laughing. "Nothing mum I just - really, really missed you." It wasn't a lie, per se. But it wasn't the complete truth, either. The most important thing was that I was home. I was safe again.

For now.