AN/- Thanks for reviewing and enjoying my story so far-sorry for the late update-but do enjoy!

Chapter 41

There were only two days left for Christmas break and today was the day when the DA would have its last session till the new term started. Audrey seemed to have arrived earlier today, she had to teach the lesser skilled batch today, not that there was anyone left there, well apart from Neville everyone had progressed into the other group and were having fun learning new things.

When Audrey placed her transfiguration text book into her bag and looked around she noticed Neville staring at the mirror in one corner that held the pictures of the order of the phoenix and Cedric, the DA and a few others as well. Neville was looking at one picture that had two people in particular.

"Hey!" said Audrey staring at the picture Neville was looking at. She hadn't seen him since yesterday, he hadn't attended classes since the past two days, someone told Audrey that he was down with bad depression and fever and was in the hospital wing for two days.

"Did you know your mum and my dad are actually cousins," said Neville as Audrey looked at him.

"Really how?" she asked him as he smiled looking at the picture of the order as his parents smiled down at them, Audrey could the smug smile on her mother's face as she stood next to Remus, she remembered Sirius had shown the picture to her and Harry in the summer and Audrey had almost laughed when she had seen that smug look on her mother's face, typical Gryffindor-her father would have commented, but that smile wasn't just relative to her-a man with dark unruly hair called James Potter shared a similar smile as he held his lovely wife, she was glad her mother didnt smile like that anymore, what shocked her even more in the picture was how young her grandmother looked and how much her daughter on the other corner of the room exactly like her.

"Well my grand mum is McGonagall's cousin, " said Neville.

"Yea but McGonagall isn't my—," she began the boring tale of lies.

"Don't lie to me Audrey—my grandma already told me!" said Neville as Audrey looked away sheepishly.

"I suppose you can't help it," he said helplessly as he smiled to himself.

"I suppose," she said a little embarrassed to have been caught lying, that awful lie that she had been ever since she had found out.

"You must miss them?" she said but then wanted too take it back, what sort of a stupid question was that, of course he missed them—they were his parents, he sighed.

"Fourteen years ago a death eater called Bellatrix Lestrange tortured my parents for information, but they didn't give in, I am quite proud to be there son, but I am not sure if they'd be proud of me," said Neville disappointedly as Audrey slumped, she felt terrible for him.

"We're going to make them proud Neville—that's a promise cousin!" said Audrey as she placed her hand on his shoulder, Neville smiled.

"If it's any consolation—I am not speaking to my father at all anymore," said Audrey as Neville frowned.

"Why?" he asked her.

"Well—how'd you like it if your dad was a bastard to your friends—forget that, to you too!" she said angrily.

"He loves you Audrey!" said Neville as Audrey sneered.

"Yea—sure," she scoffed.

"No—no—I—saw him Audrey—when you were in the hospital wing that night—I came to visit but I couldn't because he sat there all night—in that chair—checking if you were alright," said Neville as Audrey's features melted slightly as she tried to change the topic, she wasn't comfortable talking about her father anymore, not after what had happened.

People began arriving for the last session as Audrey was trying to show Neville the Expelliarmus for the 1000th time, Nigel stunned Harry and the stunning session was quite fun as Ron and Hermione got into a tiny argument to see who was better obviously Hermione was far to conscious to lose out and so she attacked Ron before he could and Fred lost the bet with his brother and when Fred asked for reason, Ron said he meant to let Hermione win, although the best Christmas gift for Audrey was when she was waiting while Neville practiced and her attention had been wavered when Neville performed the disarming charm and caught Audrey's wand with ease. Almost everyone in the class saw it, Audrey was so proud of Neville she hugged him tightly and even gave him a small kiss on the cheek making Neville blush deeply. Audrey then let Neville join in with the main batch and she taught everyone the reducto, Ginny's was the strongest seeing she was rather mad that day.

"Alright—that was a good lesson—but I think that's enough for today—I hope you guys will have a good holiday—right thank you," said Harry as Audrey next to him while they dismissed the class.

"Oh! And keep practicing as much as you can!" said Audrey loudly as everyone laughed and wished them a happy holiday while exiting. Audrey noticed Harry walk up to the mirror she had been standing at with Neville, where Cho currently stood admiring Cedric's picture. An angry bubble rose inside Audrey—what was wrong with this girl? She was in love with a dead guy and ignoring the one who had a crush on her but at the same time playing with his feelings—while he played with HERS!

"Audrey come on," said Hermione a little sadly, she felt bad for Audrey as the girl stared at Harry being pulled away by Cho who obviously—oh!

"Right," said Audrey turning away instantly as she saw Cho kiss Harry softly and mistletoe began creeping above them. It was truly Christmas now.

Audrey sat with Ron and Hermione staring into the fire as Ron and Hermione spoke about something with each other.

"Audrey you alright?" asked Hermione sitting down on the ground next to Audrey as Audrey stopped glaring at the fire.

"Yea—fine," said Audrey shortly as Hermione came closer to her and whispered into her ears.

"Why can't you tell Harry the truth?" asked Hermione whispering so that Ron couldn't hear as Audrey looked taken aback by her question.

"Because he obviously likes someone else—look I don't want to come in the way of anything," said Audrey shrugging.

"But he—" began Hermione as Ron piped in.

"Harry, so how was it?" asked Ron excitedly while Harry sat down opposite them all.

"Well it was wet and-," began Harry.

"Wet?" asked Hermione a little oddly.

"Yea—I mean she was crying," he said.

"Merlin, why the bloody hell was she crying while kissing...did you bit her or something?" asked Ron laughing as Harry shook his head violently.

"Don't you see—she's obviously depressed about the ministry trying to sack her mother—she depressed about Cedric's death now she's confused for kissing Harry obviously guilty about cheating on Cedric's memory," finished Hermione as Ron and Harry looked at her oddly.

"Whoa—how can one person be depressed about so many things about at once—they'd explode," said Ron.

"Just cause your brain is the size of a teaspoon Ron-," snapped Hermione they sat there in silence for a few minutes but then Audrey burst out laughing and the effect continued it when reached Ron soon enough, Audrey who had gone back to sit next to Ron fell of the couch but continued to laugh her head off. Little did she know and all the laughing was going to cost her a good year's sleep.

Audrey did not know where she was or how she had managed to go there all she knew was there was a room full of crystal ball like things placed on stands and numbered in order, there were blue lights being emitted from the crystal orbs along with something foggy floated around in them. She turned when she heard a thud like thing next to her, it was Harry standing there looking at her but when she tried to reach out to him her hand fell right through like he was a ghost but how? She noticed Harry moved towards something Audrey had not noticed before.

"Harry wait!" she cried out but he couldn't hear her, how was this possible—weren't they in the same memory—then why couldn't he hear her?

"Harry!" she called again louder than last time but he didn't respond and walked further that was when Audrey saw that he was following someone else itself. The man in front of Harry had red hair but he was balding from the middle he wore a pine strip suit and square glasses, Audrey almost laughed at the thought, he looked like Ron's father. The man walked a slow pace as he reached his hand out to one of the blue orbs in its stand but stopped.

Audrey came and stood besides Harry as she looked at him in horror, he was glaring at something on the ground; a rather large snake slithered towards the red headed man and attacked him just as he turned to notice it.

The snake attacked as its fangs bore into the man's neck as the man who Audrey now knew was Mr. Weasley himself. Audrey screamed at the sight and tried to pull her wand out of her clothes but it seemed as if she didn't have one.

"Harry! Do something!" she cried helplessly as Harry to looked frightened and shocked, they waited till the Snake bit and attacked Mr. Weasley who by now was unconscious and had stopped thrashing around, the snake slithered around the body and opened its mouth, that was when Harry spoke for the first time.

"SayahasssSiyath"

Audrey stared at the boy who was making hissing noise at the snake glaring at it angrily, Audrey noticed the snake paused in its attack and looked at Harry as it hissed something back and Harry made hissing sounds in return. She had heard of people who could talk to the merpeople, like her grandfather could, but people who knew the language of the snake—this was a first.

She noticed a strong foul stench coming as what looked like pixies and flies had gathered around Mr. Weasley's body, there was a voice the voice she hadn't wanted to hear and it seemed as if he was there..in that room with the blue orbs...Voldemort was there...Voldemort was the snake..Harry was talking to Voldemort in snake language!

"Audrey wake up! Wake up! please WAKE UP!" shouted Hermione as she slapped Audrey awake, the sleeping girl woke up the lights of the dormitory were bright as she sat up straight as she noticed tears following down her eyes as she shivered in fright, next thing she knew all off her dinner was out on the floor as Hermione patted her back and handed her a glass off water.

"Hermione—Ron's dad! He's hurt!—he's hurt—we've got to save him!" shouted Audrey pushing the sheets around her bed and walking out when she stepped down but fell as her legs were too cold and too numb to withstand the sudden pressure of her weight.

"Go call professor McGonagall!" said Hermione as she pushed Audrey down into the bed and straddled her so that she would stop moving like she was held under a knife, Lavender nodded and ran out off the dormitory.

Minerva had just gotten back from patrol, a nice bath would be good, seeing how old she felt all a sudden and not having Albus tell her she was codswallop for thinking so made her even more gave the doorknob the answer to its riddle and opened the door to her quarters, thank Merlin there were only two days left for break because Minerva knew she wouldn't be able to take on the pressure.

Minerva discarded her robes and cracked her neck slightly as she entered her bathroom to run a bath, she added some bubbles...no she didnt need the wretched bubbles, Albus wasnt here was he. Minerva pulled the plug out of the tub and sighed as she sat on the edge of it.

There was a knock at her door as she looked up from where she was sitting, the knock grew increasingly sharp and urgent as she walked to her bed where her outer robes lay, she pulled out her wand from them and walked to the door, it couldn't possibly be a student she was aware seeing not many would dare knock on her door after curfew even if they had smuggled in a drink or two. If it was her husband, he never did have the decency to knock, he'd just jump in on her whenever he pleased through the blasted floo and if it were her daughter seeing that she would follow her father on everything, made Rachel's chances very scanty as well.

Minerva reached for the knob and turned it slowly her wand arm raised and ready for attack, when she swung open the door she came across two rather dishevelled looking fifth year Gryffindors, Longbottom and Brown looked like they'd seen a ghost.

"Mr. Longbottom, Ms. Brown what is it?" she asked as the two tried to catch their breath as Neville spoke while Lavender still panted for air.

"It's Harry and Audrey professor—they're extremely ill!" said Neville as Minerva looked at them a little severely.

"Well then why are you here and not at the hospital wing!" called Minerva as she came out of her quarters and shut the door behind her loudly making her way to Gryffindor tower with Neville and Lavender.

"Audrey said she had a dream—were someone was hurt or something and then she vomited her guts out and then she acted quite unstable, Hermione had to straddle her to keep her calm," said Lavender still trying to catch her breath.

"Harry too," whispered Neville oddly, he found it excessively odd that two people were acting the same after they had a dream...it couldn't be humanly possible that they both had the same dream, could it?

"Expecto Patronum!" cried Minerva as she walked with the students, her tabby cat patronus running along with her.

"Tell Sirius he is needed urgently at Gryffindor tower in his godson's room—then go to Albus and tell of this incident—do you understand!" said Minerva as the patronus ran down the hall of the teachers quarters as she and the students made their way out of there.

Minerva and the students were almost there when they saw a large black dog sprinting towards them; he morphed into a man when he reached them. Sirius looked at Minerva worriedly hoping for the best but seeing that his previous head of house wasn't being very friendly with him, it was bound to be something Sirius did not hope for.

"Wait in the common room!" ordered Minerva as Neville and Lavender didn't really listen as when she climbed up the staircase with her wand, they both followed. Neville followed Sirius while Lavender followed Minerva as quietly as she could.

When Minerva did reach the room she noticed Hermione wasn't straddling her granddaughter as she had been told but was standing patiently staring at the door and waiting.

"Ms. Granger—pull of the spell!" said Minerva noticing that Hermione had put Audrey under a body binder. Hermione looked at her professor slightly unsure but obeyed.

"Finite." Muttered Hermione as Audrey sat up straight like a spring.

"Explain yourself Ms. Snape!" said Minerva sternly.

"I had this—well—I dunno what it was—but Ron's dad is hurt—he's dying in this room—with blue crystal ball like things—you've got to believe me Aunt Min!" cried Audrey deliriously.

"Calm yourself! I believe you—put on a robe we are going to go see the headmaster—Ms. Granger put your badge on and wake Ms. Weasley and get to the headmaster's office," said Minerva as Audrey got up unsteadily, she was grateful for the supporting arm around her shoulder it made her feel safe. She didn't know how safe she was in reality.

The walk through the cold corridors of Hogwarts felt like eternity as Audrey, Ginny, Hermione and Minerva made their way to the Dumbledore's office. When they reached the gargoyle statue they stopped as Minerva gave it the password.

"Pepper toffee,"

"Come on," said Minerva as she didn't even consider knocking, they knew Sirius and the boys were already present there seeing that they could hear Harry narrate the whole tale. When Audrey entered they heard Dumbledore talking to Harry.

"In the dream were you looking up at the victim or down?" asked Dumbledore.

"What sort of a question is that?" asked Audrey feeling a wave of anger crash over her.

"She says she saw it too!" said Minerva looking worriedly at her husband.

"That's not possible!" said Dumbledore not looking at anyone as Audrey looked at him painfully.

"I am not lying!" she said disheartened.

"Everad! Arthur is at the ministry—make sure he is found by the right people,"

"Sir!" called Harry but Dumbledore ignored him and turned away purposely.

"Phineus—go to your portrait in Grimmauld place and tell Rachel and Molly that Sirius and children will be arriving there by portkey—but tell them about the incident before—I think Molly might already know though with the magnificent clock of hers," said Dumbledore.

"Sir!" called Harry again as Everad was back.

"Kingsley and Nymphadora found him Albus they are taking him to the hospital with Moody," said Everad.

"Ah! Thank Merlin," said Dumbledore ignoring Harry's pleading was looking at Harry as the floo came alive twice, she noticed Harry crack his neck and then snap like that vicious snake.

"Look at me!"

"You wanted to see me headmaster?" asked Severus as Dumbledore's eyes snapped up from Harry to two new members in the room, they were both staring at Harry.

"Ah! Severus—Rachel—I don't think we can wait—not even until the New Year!" said Dumbedore gravely.

"Sirius—I want you to take the Weasleys and Ms. Granger to Grimmauld Place and then get back as fast as possible—we'll wait for you," said Dumbledore as Sirius nodded and made a portkey out of his one shoes there was a loud crash near Fawkes perch as a red feather fell on the floor.

"Minerva—go stop Umbridge—stall her—send her back—do whatever you must—just keep her out!" said Dumbledore looking at his wife with urgency.

"But—Albu—"

"Please!" he begged pleadingly as she looked at him her eyes bore into his as she sighed and then threw him a faint smile as she turned and then was out of the door as the floo came alive with Sirius walking out of it again.

"Molly's gone to the hospital, Remus and Tonks are staying over at the house with the kids," said Sirius flooing back as he finally sat down next to Harry who was looking at his feet. Dumbledore made his way towards Audrey his wand was out and he pressed it to her temple.

"Aperire Animum...patet clauses...compleo," he murmured thrice as Audrey felt something like her hair get pulled rather harshly.

"Severus—if you would!" said Dumbledore as Snape pointed his wand at Audrey who moved uncomfortably in her seat while her mother frowned, didn't she trust him?

"Legillimens!" shouted Severus as he went through his daughters mind, he fell into a memory, she was hardly five a stuffed rabbit in her hand while the other one was in her mother's, they seemed to be walking down a rather crowd street.

"Stay close to mummy honey," said Rachel as Audrey gripped her hand even tighter but a few more people walked towards them as Audrey couldn't really hold her mother's hand anymore and was taken away with the crowd, tears were the first things that sprung into the five year olds eyes.

"Mummy?" she called as she was deposited at the end of that street, she pushed what looked like a ruff teenager.

"Stupid girl! Can't you see where you're going!" he snarled pulling her by the scuff of her tiny t-shirt almost suffocating the child in fear as the boy then pulled out a tiny blade and slashed her stomach and pulled out her tiny earrings.

Severus pulled out as Audrey looked at him terrified, she knew her eyes were wet, she did not want to remember this, she did not want to remember anything from that day. So that was why she had run away so frightened, Severus looked at her apologetically as she turned her face away from him instantly.

"Well?" asked Dumbledore as Severus looked away from his daughter and nodded at Dumbledore who sighed in relief of some sort.

"Rachel you will be teaching her—Severus you'll have Harry—class can be once a week—Rachel you can come in on Saturdays," said Albus as Rachel nodded.

"Why does Snape have to teach Harry—why can't Rachel?—I am sure Audrey will be comfortable learning from him!" said Sirius a little put off that Harry had to spend more time with Snape.

"No!" said Audrey breaking the silence, her voice was shaky as she looked at her grandfather pleadingly.

"I don't want to learn anything from him!" she almost begged as Albus frowned, Rachel to had a similar expression her face but she did not push it, she knew Audrey would tell her in good time, she couldn't really remember the last time she hid anything from her. She knew her father looked rather hurt, she could tell from the drop in his posture although his face was as indifferent as he could have cared less.

"Very well—I think its best if you would join your friends at Grimmauld place," said Albus as they got up when Audrey was about to floo before Harry she turned to Dumbledore holding a quizzical gaze.

"What exactly are we going to be learning?" asked Audrey as she noticed her grandfather's eyes twinkling to his reply.

"You'll find out soon enough child—goodnight!" he said waving his hand as if dismissing her. Audrey stepped into the floo and a few minutes into the night she was swirling back to Grimmauld place.

AN/- hey guys review-you know how it is when no one reviews it kind of means the story sucks so maximum reviews tell me that maybe it doesnt suck that much-so review. =)

~Penny.