Chapter Fourteen
Out Comes the Truth
It was after I'd convinced Maximus and Pascal to let me go back to school that I was finally able to calm down. Once I'd locked myself in a safe, private place (our secret spot underneath the Whomping Willow), I'd actually gone through and read the papers that were with the picture, or pictures.
To say I'd overreacted was a little bit of a stretch, mainly because it did hit dangerously close to home. But then again, when I saw the pictures of the others…well, that didn't make me too comfortable either.
Inside the satchel were pictures and bits of information on five different people, two of them girls (including me) and three of them boys. The little bit of information that wasn't about a particular person was lore about the Iasi people (all of which I already knew). Which, piecing the puzzle together, made me think Rider had somehow narrowed the contestants down to the five people, whose faces looked back at me.
The other girl? Areana. The three boys? Adrian, James, and Sirius. In other words, they were all from old wizarding families—the so-called "purebloods"—and they were all people that I cared about.
I let out a frustrated scream, unable to help myself. What the hell was I supposed to do? I couldn't very well even say anything to Adrian and Areana about this…not to mention both Sirius and James would all but go bursting into the Slytherin dorms and murder Rider in his sleep once they found out my name and information was something he not only possessed, but most likely shared with Voldemort.
Temper flaring, I stuffed everything back into the satchel and tried my best to quietly storm through the castle and up into the boys' dormitories. Not bothering to knock and give them warning, I entered their room and ghosted over to Sirius' bedside.
Clamping a hand over his mouth I bent down by his ear and hissed, "Sirius! Get up! It's an emergency." His eyes popped open and when he saw me he reared back, smacking his head on the head board.
"Who the hell are you?" he demanded.
"Ssh! It's me!" It's me. I pushed the thought towards him and felt him relax.
"What the fuck happened to you?" he hissed. "This isn't your body. Either one of them!"
"It's a long story, and I promise it'll make sense here soon. But I need you to wake the other three and meet me in the Room of Requirement…you know the place. And be quick—we've only got about an hour before the castle starts waking up."
Not waiting for a response I crossed the hall and gently woke Lily up. "Lil…Lily, hey wake up. It's me, Eridani." She muttered something in her sleep before slowly opening her eyes, and her reaction was much the same as Sirius', except slightly more graceful.
"Eridani? What the…what's wrong with you?"
I cracked a small smile. "No time right now. I need you to come with me, now. And throw something on over that, the boys are going to be there too." Nodding, she got out of bed and threw a robe and some slippers on before we quietly left the room.
"Oh thank God," Lily muttered as we neared the Room of Requirement. "I think it's wearing off. Your face is back." I knew exactly what she was talking about because the tingling sensation was starting up again. Only (thankfully) I knew my normal body was the one that was reappearing, seeing as the sun was starting to rise.
Surprisingly the four guys actually beat us there, and they all looked wide awake and alert, despite it being way too early for any of them to be up and moving.
"What the hell's going on?" Sirius demanded, his pacing coming to a halt as soon as we walked through the doorway into a room that appeared to be a rustic library.
"Are you okay?" James asked, face full of concern.
"Why are we having a meeting so early?" Peter whined, rubbing the last bits of sleep from his eyes. Remus, on the other hand, didn't say a word. He just watched me, arms crossed, face unreadable.
"Actually…I'm not entirely okay. But you guys aren't going to be here in a minute either." I held up a hand, silencing them all before they could start. "Let's take a seat. We're going to need it."
Once we were all sitting at the round, old oak table I brought the satchel out from underneath my jacket and placed it on the table.
"Why do you have that?" Lily asked warily. "I thought we wanted to keep it charmed and hidden so no one could get ahold of it."
"Yeah, I thought so too. Until something convinced me to go open it."
"Eridani!" Sirius snapped. "We all agreed we weren't going to open it because we didn't know what it could be charmed with. How could you be so stupid?"
"I wasn't stupid," I said patiently, because he, and everyone else, had every right to be pissed at me, especially here in a moment. "I had some friends check it first."
"You don't have friends outside of us."
"Padfoot that's not very nice," James muttered.
"I don't care!" he snapped back.
"Listen, I have a lot to tell you guys, and most of it I probably should've told you years ago. So I'm sorry in advance that I've kept this from all of you for so long, but just know I've had my reasons…just like I have my reasons for why I'm finally telling you now." No one said a word. James, Lily, and Peter looked a little worried while Sirius still looked pissed off and Remus looked…well, unnaturally at ease. I took a deep breath, and then began.
"Have you guys ever heard of the Order of the Phoenix?"
"Of course," James replied automatically. "Rumors only, because no one is sure that it even exists. All anybody seems to know—if they even know anything at all—is that the group's totally and completely against V—"
"Please don't say his name," Peter whispered, wincing as if it pained him.
"My kind of secret organization," Sirius muttered darkly.
"Well, the rumors are true. It exists, and it's definitely against him."
"Oh God," Lily gasped. "Eridani please don't tell me—"
"Yeah." I gave her a light smile. "I'm a full-fledged member." Silence fell across the table, broken by Sirius' chair crashing on the ground when he stood up so fast it got knocked over. His hands hit the table with a loud CRACK.
"WHAT IN MERLIN'S NAME ARE YOU DOING, THINKING THAT'S A FUCKING GOOD IDEA!" he yelled, his face so contorted with anger it was almost terrifying to look at.
"Sirius," Remus finally spoke up, setting his chair back up and grabbing ahold of his arm, "sit down and let her talk."
He shook him off, his eyes all but burning holes in my soul. "YOU, Eridani, are supposed to have been the only intelligent one in our whole God-damned family! And YOU are probably the one person on this whole fucking planet who has the most to lose and is in the biggest danger from that monster! So WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU DO SOMETHING SO STUPID AS JOIN A GROUP WHO ANTAGONIZES HIM?"
"Look, I get you're upset—"
"Like hell I'm upset!" he spat, cutting me off. "I'm beyond upset! I just—Merlin, I just can't believe you!" He plopped himself back down in his chair and buried his face in his hand, rubbing his temples as if he had a migraine.
Remus met my eyes and nodded at me, as if saying, It's only going to get worse, but it needs to be done.
"So, umm," I cleared my throat. "That's not even half of it." Sirius didn't even look at me, but Lily and James both seemed taken aback and alarmed. Peter just looked ready to faint as he eyed Sirius, waiting for another outburst.
I then proceeded to tell them about Dumbledore and the Order, about my part in everything, and about the Auror business, including Maximus and Pascal.
"Well at least the crazy old man had enough sense in him to insist you have partners since he just had to have you go on these suicide missions," James said, trying to keep his tone neutral. But I could tell he was angry. They all were, and they were hurt that I hadn't trusted them and told them sooner.
"Maximus was the one who checked this for me," I explained, gesturing at the satchel. "He's a magical genius, much like Remus and Lily here."
"So what's in there?" Lily asked tiredly, looking as if she'd just had the weight of the world put on her small shoulders.
"I'll get to that…but first, there's one other small piece of information I have to tell you guys before we move on to this mess."
"As if this all wasn't a mess already?" Sirius remarked haughtily, breaking his brewing silence.
"Dumbledore found a way for me to use magic," I said in a rush, knowing none of them were going to believe me. Except Remus, but that was only because he'd seen it with his own two eyes. I took the ring off my finger and the wand out from inside my jacket and placed them in the center of the table.
"This isn't funny," James said. "None of us are in the mood for pranks right now, so don't try and change the subject."
"Oh, but I'm definitely changing the subject, just without the pranks." I slipped the ring back on and picked up the wand, pointing it at one of the books that lay on a nearby table. "Wingardium leviosa," I muttered, putting all my concentration into the spell. As the book rose off the table, my friends lost it.
"How the hell is this happening?" James exclaimed.
"That's not possible…" Lily whispered, eyes wide at the floating book.
"Is nothing between us sacred anymore?" Sirius demanded, breaking my concentration, the book falling back on the table. "You couldn't even tell your own brother that you woke up with magic one day?"
"I didn't wake up with magic one day…it was Dumbledore."
"Right. The man might be a genius, but he can't cure a squib, Eridani."
"She's telling the truth," Remus finally said.
"You're telling me you knew already?" Sirius turned his blazing eyes on him. "And you didn't think that we—or even just I needed to know this?"
"It wasn't my place to tell," Remus said, seemingly unaffected by Sirius' red-hot fury.
"How could you tell him but not me?" Sirius demanded, now looking more hurt than anything.
"It was just the timing…he was there when Dumbledore gave me the ring." I then proceeded to tell them how it worked, watching as their faces switched between anger, disbelief, and amazement. "I honestly was going to tell you all everything…I just had to find the right time. I mean, how do you even bring this topic up in normal conversation? You can't. I'm just really sorry it took me so long."
"Amazing…" Peter gasped.
"No," James corrected him. "This is un-freaking-believable."
"You guys might hate Dumbledore and think he's absolutely mad for dragging me into all of this, but guys…he gave me a purpose. I don't think any of you truly understood or understand now what it's like for me here. He's always had my best interests in mind, and he's always made sure that I'm as safe as I can be, even if the situations don't sound at all safe to you. Throughout all of this I've learned to survive, all on my own, without magic. And if you don't think that's important or useful to me, then you're so, so wrong."
"Eridani, you have to look at it from our point of view though," Lily said gently, the only one who didn't seem to be quite so pissed off anymore. "You mean everything to us. We're all a small, dysfunctional, poorly put together family. And the thought of you getting kidnapped, killed, or worse used by Vo—him, well…you can't blame us for reacting this way, or questioning Dumbledore and your sanity. Don't look at it from the right vs wrong standpoint right now, and you'll see it from our eyes. It's madness, and we all, including you, know it."
"I'm not arguing with you. And I'm not going to try and make you guys forgive me or forget that for the past four years I've basically been lying to you, but that's why I'm putting it all on the table, right here and now. No more hiding, no more secrets." I leaned back in my chair, looking at each of them in turn. "Besides, after what you're about to see…well, we're all going to need to be in the loop and united."
"Oh, you mean the next chapter to your little tale is worse than the previous ones?"
"You have no idea just how bad it's about to get, James." I pulled everything out of the satchel and laid it out on the table, keeping each picture with the information it belonged to and the bits about the Iasi people off to the side.
"What…what are we looking at?" Remus asked cautiously as he leaned closer to get a better look, alarm already coloring his voice.
"Why the hell did Rider have a picture of us in his man purse?" Sirius demanded, sliding mine, his and James' pictures and information closer to him so he, James, and Remus could get a closer look.
"Because of this." I held up the few pages on the Iasi people. Sirius snatched it from my hands and as he read it all the color drained from his face. The papers fell from his hands as he jumped up from his seat and stormed to the door.
"Sirius stop!" I yelled, running to grab him. "You know that's not a good idea!"
He whirled around to face me, the anger, hate and even fear radiating off of him in such strong waves that it made me take a step back. It was rare that he got like this: I'd only ever seen him this way twice before. And both times had made me realize that Sirius—much like the rest of our unspeakable lineage—had a dark side too. And it terrified me. It had me scared not just for my safety or anyone else's in the room, but for his. Because once he started seeing red…it always ended badly, for him and whoever would be on the opposite end.
"No, Eridani. What's not a good idea is that fact that you're a member of this Order group, that you're an Auror, that you sneak out when you're most vulnerable to do dirty work that kills even the most trained soldier! What's not a good idea is that you put your trust in a flimsy little object that could backfire at any given moment because, for all we know, it's not perfected yet! And what's also not a good idea is just sitting idly by while that man roams this school, toying with you and getting closer to you when, for all we know, he may very well have figured out it's you who has this healing touch!" He grabbed my shoulders and shook me, as if trying to shake some sense into me, his fingers digging in to my arms. "So tell me why the hell it's not a good idea to go and kill the bastard before he has a chance to get his hands on you!"
For once in my life, I didn't have any words. I mean, what could I say? Everything he said made sense, and I couldn't argue with his point of view because, had the roles been reversed and it was him who was in danger, I'd be reacting in the exact same way he was.
So instead, I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him as tightly as I possibly could. At the contact it was like I'd deflated him. I could feel all the emotion just seep out of him as he hugged me tightly back. Had we been alone, I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd let some frustrated tears slide by.
"Wait…not to interrupt this moment," Remus said, looking up from the papers, a look in his eyes unlike any I'd ever seen before. "But…did you just say what I really hope you didn't just say?"
"Yeah," Sirius stated gruffly. "Rider's here, in Hogwarts. And he's posing as Eugene Fitzherbert."
