Hello. How are we all? I apologise for the lateness for my chapter, work got in the way.

Chapter 18

It was late on a Friday evening which found Jenny in her pyjamas, surrounded by Alice, Maddie, Lily and Tonks in Lily's quarters; their husbands had decided to spend the evening with Remus during his transformation, and so Lily had taken it upon herself to keep Tonks company. This had soon turned into a girl's only sleepover. The children had been more than happy to spend the evening with their honorary grandpa Albus, and Minerva had taken it upon herself to keep an eye on not only the children, but Albus as well; he was the biggest kid of the lot! Jenny had automatically been included in the group, and had also been told the truth about Remus and his little furry problem. She however wasn't overly shocked. In her words, 'she was living in a magic castle, with witches and wizards, ghosts, goblins, interactive paintings and a giant squid. A werewolf was just the icing on the cake.'

"You do have a lovely home Lily." Jenny commented. It was the first time she had been in the Potter families' quarters for more than a few minutes.
"Thank you." Lily replied, handing out glasses of butterbeer. They had decided to keep Jenny off firewhisky, unsure of what the effects maybe for muggles, even if they were sure that Jenny wasn't one.
"So how's the remembering going? Any sudden realisation?" Maddie asked taking a sip of her drink.

Jenny sighed. The girls were often asking if she had had any memories come back to her. In truth Jenny had had nothing come back to her whilst she'd been at the castle. Sure she'd had parts of the castle that seemed familiar, and in the lessons she had sat in on she felt like she had been in them before, but nothing substantial that she could call a true memory of her past. In honest truth the most at home she had felt, was when she went home for Christmas, and her chats with Narcissa. The Malfoy woman didn't seem to care at all who she was supposed to be, and she and Jenny had become very firm friends. Draco in particular seemed very keen on his new auntie.

"No nothing." Jenny finally replied when she realised she had wandered off into a daydream, whilst the others were waiting for her answer. Lily looked defeated.

She was sure that Jenny was her sister, a fact she was refusing to give up on. But at the rate this was going, Jenny wouldn't have remembered anything by the end of the school year; the point Jenny had told them that if she hadn't remembered anything by, she would leave and never come back. It was her way of saying that if she still hadn't got her memory of being Rachel back in a year of being surrounded by everything Rachel knew and loved, then she obviously wasn't Rachel. Lily had been debating to herself what would be the best way to get Jenny to remember. She had refused to allow Poppy to perform a DNA test, she didn't want her past thrust upon her, but Lily was silently wondering if she could somehow do something without Jenny knowing, maybe slip something into her drink? She was desperate to get her sister back.

"It's not a problem." Alice commented. Out of the group Alice was the kindest towards Jenny. Sure the others were kind too, but Alice seemed to be the only one who wasn't forcing anything on Jenny. She was more than happy to let nature take its course. "One day you'll remember everything about yourself, and it'll be like you've never been away." She smiled. Jenny smiled back. Tonks was quiet. Jenny had been warned that she probably wouldn't say much, her mind worrying about her husband even though he was in safe hands with the others.

"I wonder how Minerva's getting on?" Maddie chimed in, as Lily poured out more drinks. "Not only has she got our lot to look after, she's babysitting Albus too." The girls chuckled.

"I think Minerva can handle more than a bunch of kids, and Albus." Jenny said through laughter.

"That'll be true." Alice tacked on. "She's not the deputy head for nothing."

"How long has she been here?" Jenny asked.

"Ages." Alice said, "She taught us, and I'm pretty sure she'd been here for a while before that."
"She said to me once, that she must have taught at least 2 generations of most families." Maddie said.

"She never thought about having a family of her own?" Jenny said shocked, taking a sip of her drink. She thought more than anyone Minerva would have made an excellent mother.

"I think she was married once." Tonks said from her seat. "I think he died."

"And as for a family, well she got so many people who would call her a mother figure it's ridiculous." Alice said.

"Rachel thought of her as a second mother." Lily said, all be it a bit cold. The other turned to look at her.

All the while Jenny had been talking with the others, Lily had been intently staring at her.

"She wasn't the only one." Maddie said trying desperately to defuse the tense atmosphere. "I've always thought of Minerva as a second mother."
"Me too." Alice said.

"And defiantly me." Tonks added.

"What about you?" Lily said to Jenny.

"Of course." She spoke back, her walls going up. "Minerva has been so kind to me, I love her dearly." She felt her tongue had become very loose, in fact she felt like she couldn't stop what she was saying. A quick look into Lily's eyes told her the truth.

"You've drugged me!" She yelled rising from her chair. Lily neither confirmed nor denied the question.

"Lily!" Cried the others. Nobody could understand why Lily had gone so far.

"Oh don't give me that look, you all want to know if she's Rachel just as much as I do."

"Lily, this is not the right way to go about that." Alice cried out, whilst Maddie desperately tried to calm down Jenny.

"What did you give her?" Tonks asked her, "You know you could get into serious trouble for this."

"It's just veritaserum." Lily said, "All I want is the truth."

"I'm guessing that's a truth drug?!" Jenny spat out.

"Jenny calm down, the effects aren't that long it'll be over soon." Maddie said. "Lily where did you get that?"

"I brewed it. You forget how good I was at potions."
"You've been planning this for ages, veritaserum takes about a month to brew properly." Alice bellowed. She'd never raised her voice that loud, the girls winced.

"I had to know the truth!" Lily yelled back. "Rachel is my sister, my twin!"
"And she's our friend too." Tonks yelled.

"What do you wanna know?" Jenny spat.

"I want the truth. Are you my sister?" Lily cried. The room was silent. It was obvious that Jenny was fighting the effects of the potion, and trying desperately to not cry.

"Fine, you want the truth have it." She finally spat. "I have no idea if I'm your sister, I have shown no magic while I've been here, nothing what so ever. But you know what, I'm glad I haven't. Because if I was related to you, and this was how I behaved, I'd wish that I had lost my memory and never got it back!" She yelled finally dislodging herself from Maddie's grasp, slapping Lily round the face and storming out of the room, her tears finally falling.

"Well done Lily." Maddie said with a disgusted tone, as she followed Alice and Tonks out of the room, who had both chased after the emotional Jenny. Lily fell to the floor and sobbed.

"All I wanted was my sister." She cried to herself, knowing now what a stupid thing she had done.

Meanwhile Severus was heading back inside the castle. Remus's transformation had been as normal and was now being escorted back to his home by Sirius. The others had said their goodnights and headed for home, James staying with Frank for the night whilst his home was used by the girls. Severus had just turned into the dungeon corridor containing his quarters when he heard a noise. Turning and drawing his wand, he soon realised that the noise had come from one of his students.

"Professor Snape?" He recognised her immediately as his 6th year Slytherin prefect, Elouise Cunningham.
"What are you doing out of bed so late Miss Cunningham."
"I'm sorry sir, one of the first years fell ill so I took them to Madam Pomfrey."

"I see, well head back to bed, it's late."

"But sir, whilst I was coming back I heard crying in one of the corridors near the Potter's quarters." Elouise had babysat for the Potter's a few times over the years.
"Did you see who it was?" He asked.

"Yes sir, its professor Matthews. I asked her if she wanted me to get anyone for her, and she said you. She's in a state sir, crying and everything."

"Show me." Severus said, and the young girl led him up to the spot where a still crying Jenny Matthews sat.
"Thank you Miss Cunningham, you may return to bed now. Go straight to the dungeons and if anyone catches you, tell them you have my permission to be out of bed."
"Yes sir, is professor Matthews alright?"
"I'll see to her, go and don't tell anyone what you've seen tonight ok?" Elouise nodded and hurried away.

"Jenny, hey what's going on? I thought you were with the girls tonight?" That made Jenny cry harder. Severus could see he wasn't going to get anything out of her sitting in the middle of the corridor, so he scooped her up to carry bridal style in his arms, and hurried away.

Severus made to Jenny's quarters in a record time. Jenny had stopped crying so much and was able to let the pair into her rooms. Severus took her by the hand and let her to her sitting room, where her gently placed her on the sofa and called for his personal elf to bring her a cup of tea. Jenny flinched when he handed it to her.

"It's ok, it's just tea."
"The last time I took something someone gave me, it had a potion in it." Jenny said, her eyes all red and her cheeks were stained.

"What? Who?" Severus asked.

"Lily." Jenny said quietly. "She'd put ver… verita… some truth drug in it."

"Veritaserum?"

"That's it."

"Why on earth would she do that?"
"She wanted me to tell her the truth, she wanted to know if I was her sister." Jenny admitted still slightly under the influence of the potion. "Can you stop it please Sev?" Severus couldn't help by smile when he heard Jenny call him Sev. She was so much like Rachel.

"I can't, you just have to let it get out of your system I'm afraid. But I'll stay with you until it's gone I promise."

"How long will that take?"

"A couple of hours." Severus estimated. Jenny sniffed. Severus smiled and used his wand to conjure up a handkerchief for her, and passed it to Jenny. She thanked him, and blew her nose. Severus couldn't help himself and drew Jenny close to him into a hug. He had lit her rooms when they had first arrived, and now in the dull light all you could see was a man holding a woman tightly in his arms, almost like husband and wife.

"Jenny?" She didn't move. "Jenny? Jen?" Severus called quietly, and reluctantly Jenny moved her head.
"Come on, let's get you into bed, and you can sleep it off ok?" He helped her off the sofa and gently led the way to her bedroom.
"You so nice." Jenny said, once she was sitting next to him on her bed. "I don't honestly know how the children can say you're mean." Severus chuckled.
"I'm different in the classroom." She was beginning to get sleepy, he noticed and that combined with the veritaserum leaving her body gave her the impression of being drunk.

"No." She said "I don't believe you. I've not seen you like this with any of the others. It's me, it's because I look like her isn't it? I remind you of Rachel." Severus knew she was right, she did remind him of Rachel in nearly every way, and that tugged at his heart. To all intents and purpose she could very well have been Rachel. She lifted a hand to his face and placed it on his cheek. Severus was shocked.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"Testing a theory." She replied. Before he had time to respond, Jenny had moved from where she had been sitting and pushed Severus back onto her bed, she climbed on top and pressed her lips against his.

Jenny had kissed men before. That she was certain of. She hadn't however allowed herself to get into any kind of relationship until she knew that she didn't have a husband or partner waiting for her. She knew in her heart that she wasn't the kind of woman who would cheat, intentionally or by accident. But there was just something about Severus that made her feel something she felt like she knew. She felt safe around him, and even before she discovered how close he and Rachel had been, she knew she liked him. At first Jenny wasn't sure what she'd call her feelings, it wasn't a crush, but they weren't purely platonic either. She knew that whenever she was around Severus the man drove her crazy! Sometimes she just wanted to shout and scream at him, other times she just wanted to snog him senseless. She knew that he loved Rachel and always would, but something in her heart told her she had to try. And now? Now she couldn't seem to stop. Whether it was the veritaserum making her braver or the fact that they were just simply alone in her bedroom, she couldn't tell.

Her lips had hit his before he had time to think. He knew he should stop. He should push her away and leave, act like nothing had ever happened and leave her alone. But when she kissed him, something in him snapped, and he felt himself kissing her back.

'This was wrong.' His mind told him, 'Rachel is your soulmate!' But despite all the shouting in his head, he couldn't stop. He kissed Jenny back, harder pushing his lips to hers and running his tongue over her lips, which gently parted allowing him access to her tongue. They kissed like a perfectly choreographed ballet, which only ended when Severus gathered the strength to flip their positions and stare down at Jenny.

Her hair was fanned out over the duvet, she was breathing heavily and looking directly into his eyes.

"What was your theory?" He asked breathing just as deeply as she was.

"That you wouldn't kiss back." Severus gave a growl and pressed his lips to hers again, Jenny responded accordingly.

"Sev?" She mumbled, as she felt something pressing against her she was certain wasn't his knee. He looked at her, she looked back.

"Tell me this isn't because I remind you of Rachel." Severus couldn't answer. Jenny shifted from under him and he moved to allow her to sit up. He grabbed one of her pillows and placed it to cover his bulge in his trousers. Jenny suddenly found herself feeling more awake than she ever had been. The pair were silent.

"I can't say you don't remind me of her." Severus admitted. Jenny turned away. Severus grabbed her hand, and she turned back.

"You didn't let me finish. I can't say that you don't remind me of Rachel, but when I'm with you Jenny, there's something there."

"What?"
"I don't know, but I know that it's something. And I know I care about you." Jenny suddenly felt very small.
"And that frightens you doesn't it?" Severus sighed.
"I need to show you something." He pulled back his sleeve to show Jenny a fading mark on his wrist of one half of the symbol for yin and yang.

"It's called a soul mark. There rare, only found between soul mates. I have one half…"

"And Rachel has the other." Jenny finished for him. Severus couldn't speak and simply nodded.

"I think you should go." Jenny said quietly. Severus said nothing. "Please, just go." Jenny stared at the floor. She didn't move at all when she felt her bed rise once Severus left it, and the door to her rooms close behind him. Her tears had returned and they dripped down her nose and onto her lap. Jenny knew in heart that Severus would never be hers. He loved Rachel, and no amount of time would ever change that. Even if she was dead, she would still be his true love, his soul mate, and Jenny could never compete with that. But what hurt her the most was that she now knew 100% what her feelings towards Severus were; love. She loved him, she loved him like she had never loved anyone before, and that made her cry harder, because in that moment, Jenny had never felt more alone in her life.

This chapter was fun for me to write, as I have never tried anything like this before. Let me know what you think.

So two updates in one day for two different stories, that's good for me :)

As always please read and review, all I post again soon.

Happy reading,

Beth xx