"Scars speak louder than the blade of the knife that caused them."

Paulo Coelho,

Lily Evans was pacing back and forth in a room on the second floor of HQ. She was very confused and seemed desperate for something. When James crossed the threshold of the room, he noticed Lily's distressed state and was naturally very surprised. He rushed towards her and prepared to take her in his arms.

"Darling, what's going on?"

For any answer, Lily slapped him before moving away from him abruptly.

"I've been waiting for you for three days, James! Three days! Where in Merlin's name have you been? Don't tell me you were on a mission, I checked, there are only three people and you're not there. You're seeing someone else, aren't you?"

"Honey, it's not at all what you think. There is no one else but you."

"So, what do you do when you're away? It's not the first time and it's not normal that for three days I have no news from you! Two weeks ago, four days after Remi and Helena returned, we didn't see each other for a week. A week!"

James seemed a little lost by all this talk but quickly pulled himself together.

"Do you want to marry me?" he asked suddenly.

"What? You can't tell me-"

"I love you Lily, I want you to know that, you mean everything to me. Even if we fight, even if I'm not on my knees in a fancy restaurant with a diamond ring, and we're on the verge of war, I want us to get married."

"James..."

"EVANS! Come here right now" yelled a voice easily recognizable from the first floor.

"I'm coming!"

"No, you're not coming, you get your ass back here now! it's urgent."

"I'll be right back James, don't move, I'll hurry."

James had a chuckle and let himself fall on the bed, his head in his hands. He was desperate. What was the point of trying if Lily wouldn't marry him? He loved her with all his being, and this for several years. When he finally realized, after much advice from Remus, that he was doing it all wrong and that Lily had no desire to date a jerk, he pulled himself together. He had stopped attacking people he didn't like -except for Snape-, had been less arrogant. But what if, despite everything, Lily had simply given in to please him? What if she didn't see her future with him? She might as well give up her project, which was so important to her and which required so much time.

In the meantime, far from suspecting James' moods, Lily had come downstairs to see what was going on. She saw Moody and Fabian with a young woman in their arms, she was very pale, her hair was full of dried blood and her clothes were soaked with it.

"By Merlin! Helena! What happened?"

"We found her at the edge of the wood, she was in a pool of blood. It's lucky we came by."

"Enough talk Prewett, there are more important things, Grace needs to be treated as soon as possible. Evans, do you know anything about medicine?"

"A little, but I'll never make it on my own."

"All right, let's sound the emergency alarm. Everyone in the house is gathering in the infirmary, no need to disturb those who are on a mission."

"What's going on?"

"Helena is in a terrible state."

"Why did we set off the emergency alarm then? It is supposed to be used as a last resort, not for an injury."

"You're missing the point of terrible, Marlene."

"Alright Evans, I'm going to report to Albus, Prewett, you come with me. Do what you can."

"But, I won't be much use for a report, you know that, let me stay here so I can help them."

After a few seconds of hesitation, Moody agreed and ordered Lily to manage the group, then he moved on and left the young adults in the infirmary.

"Well, there's no point in all of us staying here. Fabian, go with Marlene, Alice and Frank to where you found Helena and try to look for clues. James, Sirius stay with me and get me a basin of water."

She approached Helena and with great difficulty held back a gagging fit. The young woman was in terrible shape. Lily began by sponging her body to remove all the blood and see where the wounds were coming from. She removed her torn clothes and Helena was left in her underwear. Just then, Remus stormed into the infirmary.

"What's the matter? Why was the alarm triggered?"

"Moony, you should have stayed and rested! It's Helena, she's in bad shape."

The friends all turned to the young woman and stared at her body. No one had looked at her closely until now. She had countless scars, both old and new.

"By Merlin, Rem! She has more scars than you do! I didn't know that was possible!"

Lily glared at Sirius, making it clear that this was not the time or place to joke, let alone on such a serious subject. Before she could give him a verbal rebuke, Hermione groaned and began to shake.

"She's getting restless, which is not good at all. Hold her down while I tend to her wounds."

James and Sirius each positioned themselves on one side while Remus gently took her head.

Sirius shouted, while Remus just said 'Merlin Almighty!'

Lily and James leaned in to see what was triggering their friends' reactions. With all the self-control they had, neither of them could hold back a grimace of pure horror. Helena's forearm had the worst insult known to the wizarding world. The inscription slashed into her skin stood out oddly. It was bright red, still dripping with blood, and contrasted dramatically with her white skin, even paler than usual.

"Black."

The three friends looked at Sirius with round eyes, not understanding at all what he meant.

"Good Sirius, you know your name" James tried to joke.

"No, you don't understand. This mark is the work of a Black. Orion taught me that when I was a kid. He told me that this spell, like hundreds of others, was created by one of my distant ancestors. Only a pure Black knows this spell. That narrows the field of possibilities."

"I think we all know who did this" said Lily, her face still marked by horror.

All four of them were obviously thinking of the same person. The one who gave chills to all those who one day had the misfortune to cross her path. The one who was so hated, sometimes more than Voldemort himself. Bellatrix Lestrange, formerly Black.

"What exactly does this spell do?" asked Lily, though she knew in advance that she would not like the answer.

"It etches Mudblood on a part of your body combined with a special dagger, imbued with dark magic. And if you think too much about your scar or if anything happens to it, it starts to bleed again."

"Didn't Helena say she was a half-blood?"

Lily shrugged, the witch's origins were the least of her concerns at the moment, she had to make sure she survived before thinking about asking her questions. Sirius had not taken his eyes off the scar on his arm and Remus had just seen another one.

"I've never seen another one before."

"Other what?"

"Werewolf bites. That's strange, we both have them on our necks. Even though it's on my left and her right. It's kind of strange for wolves, usually it's more vampires that mark there."

Lily approached to inspect it, she herself had never seen one up close. She pulled back the young woman's black hair, but it wasn't the bite that appealed to her so much.

"Remus, James, can you lift her up, I have to check something."

The two wizards obeyed and slowly pulled her up. They had to restrain themselves from letting go of her in surprise when they saw what was on her neck. Sirius had detached himself from the mark on her forearm, but when he saw the other mark, he furtively thought to himself that he would have preferred not to move.

A gigantic snake, which looked alive and ready to bite, was staring at them. Blood was flowing from its fangs and it was moving slowly.

"It looks like the Dark Mark" Remus muttered after a long silence.

"What the hell is this? Who could have done this to her? When? How?" James snapped.

He knew he shouldn't get so angry at his friends, it wasn't their fault but he couldn't calm down, not after seeing all those marks on Helena's body.

"We need to inspect her body to see if there are any more marks like that."

It was with great difficulty that they obeyed Lily. All these scars had come out. Lily and James already knew that Helena was hiding her scars, but they clearly didn't expect so many. Every square inch of her skin looked like it had been scarred. Some looked more recent than others, but the first ones were clearly several years old.

Aside from the two marks, the most prominent scar was undoubtedly the one that ran across her entire chest. It looked both old and new, blistered and fluctuating between red and purple.

The more time passed, the more Hermione became agitated, so much so that she almost fell out of bed, since the marauders had stopped holding her when they saw her marks.

"She had to calm down or her heart would give out, she was already very weak."

At that moment, Hermione started to choke, Lily ordered the three wizards to put her on her side and the young woman vomited blood.

"It's really not normal that her wounds aren't closing up" Lily said with a worried look.

She was about to continue, but was cut off by a soft light emanating from Hermione's ring, and then it went out as suddenly as it had come on.

"Did her hundred-carat ring do this?"

"I already told you that this ring must have magical properties, Sirius. This only reinforces my suspicions."

"What's on her fingers?" asked James.

"It looks like runes" said Remus.

"No, I don't think that's it... But yes!" said Lily after a moment's thought. "These are the objects she hides from the world. It's incredible, it takes such magical consistency! All the time, no matter what happens, these objects, probably rings, remained invisible to our eyes. She loses control of herself, so she draws on her magic to survive. Her magic perceives what is important and what is not. For her, keeping these objects secret is not important, so she releases magic."

James and Sirius leaned in toward the rings and recoiled at the same time. They looked at each other briefly, as if to see if they were hallucinating.

"This can't be... Impossible."

"What is it? Let me see."

The door slammed and the four of them turned around. Minerva and Remus had just entered the infirmary while Minerva was supposed to be at Hogwarts and Remus was supposed to be on a mission for the order. They rushed to Hermione's bed without asking the marauders or Lily.

"Professor McGonagall, Remi? What are you doing here?"

"Helena needs us."

"How did you know?" she asked. "The emergency alarm sounded only for those in the house."

Unconcerned with the young woman's questions, Minerva and Remus turned to each other and talked while watching Hermione.

"It can't be the full moon that put her in that state, she's been doing it for years without a potion and even the time she had her allergic reaction, she wasn't in that state. It can't be a mangemort, she would have killed him in no time, even after she changed back and I doubt Voldemort hurt her. She's not important enough yet."

"You're wrong, her wound was done by a Death Eater" Sirius said in a neutral voice.

"I never said that this wound was not made by a Death Eater, it is far too old. By Merlin! Minerva, her ring."

The marauders gasped at their former teacher's distraught expression. Remus took Hermione's hand and brushed the ring with the time. It was almost imperceptible, but the ring had a slight crack.

"We have to heal the ring in order to heal Her- Helena. We can't take it off her, she's far too weak, it would kill her."

"What did She tell you about this?"

"Take care of this jewelry as if your life depended on it, it is attached to life. A scratch is like... a stabbing."

"Miss Evans, Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, and Mr. Lupin, get out, thank you for what you did" Minerva said in a tone that left no room for discussion.

Except for Sirius.

"Are you kidding? She's going to die because her ring has a scratch? Isn't that mysterious enough? And what about her other two rings, how did she get them?"

Remus blanched again, and glanced at Hermione's other hand, where the other rings were indeed clearly visible.

"You... You saw the rings?" he stammered.

Sirius and James nodded, looking serious. They walked out of the infirmary, having insisted that they would not leave it at that. The four of them headed for the living room.

"What's with the ring?"

"Helena had two signet rings in her hand. I can see why she was hiding them. One is the Potter signet ring, and the other is the Black signet ring."

"What! But you don't know her? She couldn't be a distant cousin or something. In first year you didn't tell me you had family in common?"

"Charlus Potter and Dorea Black. Charlus Potter was my grandfather's brother, so my great uncle. And Dorea Black was Sirius' grandfather's sister. But there's no way that she would have these rings. The rings go to the last male heirs. That would be me and Sirius. Charlus was my grandfather's younger brother. The ring is always given to the eldest unless he died before having any heirs."

"Or if he was disowned. In my family, it goes to Regulus. In any case, even if she were related to us, which I highly doubt based on the mark on her arm, she couldn't own these rings. They should be on Fleamont and Orion's fingers."

Minerva and Remus were standing around Hermione's body looking for a way to fix the ring. They had locked the door so they wouldn't be bothered by the marauders who were probably waiting for them.

"I may have an idea. The three jewels would have to rest on the book for a while and the combined powers would heal the ring. Hermione and I had already noticed that the jewels were at their brightest when you put them near the book."

"We can try Remus, but that means we'll have to remove the jewelry."

"If we don't go more than twenty-four hours without it, we should be fine. I'll get the book. You watch Hermione."

Fabian and the rest of the scouting team returned to HQ an hour later. They had found some signs of a struggle but nothing that would prove to be very fruitful. The group entered the living room and saw the marauders, Lily and Alice who had joined them. They were talking animatedly and voices were beginning to rise.

"Oh, oh, oh, oh, calm down! What's wrong?" exclaimed Frank.

The friends looked at each other and realized that they might have gotten carried away. This was a strange situation for everyone, and everyone was coping as best they could.

"It's Helena."

Faces suddenly turned white. Even though the young woman was far from liked by everyone, she was still a member of the Order of the Phoenix. Her death would be a great loss, whether it was for her talent, her experience, or simply her person.

"No, she is not dead. Don't make that face. It was McGonagall and Lucas who showed up in the infirmary about fifteen minutes after you left. We don't know how they knew she was there, they wouldn't tell us. They kicked us out and said they were taking matters into their own hands. But we saw something else. Tell them what we saw James."

Sirius stood up and began pacing the living room. He was just waiting to get out of this stifling atmosphere.

"There were countless scars, really. There were some really horrible ones. I don't know what she went through to get that many, and I don't think I want to know. She started struggling and vomiting blood. And her magic was tapping into her strength so the items she was hiding appeared."

"She had a hidden object spell on her? Unbelievable! You really have to have a lot of control over your magic. What does she have in store for us next?"

"Marlene, two rings appeared. Two rings."

"Shut up James" Lily cut him off. "Don't go on."

"But Lily, they have a right to know."

"That's just it, no. It's not their business. Wouldn't you rather have answers than tell everyone what you saw?"

"I think Lily is right, Prongs. Let's just wait for an explanation, and then we'll see."

"What about her scars? Are they really that bad?"

"You can't even imagine. It's worse than anything I've ever seen. She was tortured by someone from my crazy fucking family, there are traces of dark magic on her body that you can't imagine, even in your worst nightmares. And his ring, the one that's not hidden, lit up all of a sudden and then went out a few seconds later. No one knows what's going on."

"Except for McGonagall and Lucas" Alice interjected. "Don't look at me like that. You said they rushed to her bedside. They must know something."

As soon as Alice's words were spoken, the marauders rushed to the infirmary, followed closely by the rest of the group. What they saw left them stunned, Lucas and McGonagall were lying on a bed, each on one side of Helena. A book was placed on the chest of the young woman. On it were three pieces of jewelry. A necklace with a silver chain and a diamond inlay. A colored bracelet and a sparkling ring. These three jewels seemed to form a unity and light emanated from the book to encompass the three friends. The friends had the impression of seeing an aurora borealis a few meters away from them.

"Look, there's a letter."

The three marauders took the letter at the same time and read it carefully.

To the people reading this letter,

You must be wondering what is going on, and you are right. You will have some answers tomorrow, but we can't tell you too much for your own safety.

I hope you could have read this note before you approached us. Please don't wake us up. We are in this state to protect Helena. Please wake Minerva and me up before 11:17 am tomorrow, as the consequences could be dramatic if you don't.

Do not touch the halo. Only one person will be able to get in and they will suffer. We are sorry, but it is the only way. Only the people who read this letter will be able to get answers, but don't rejoice too quickly, it is out of the question that we tell you anything that could put you in danger.

Don't forget, 11:17 am.

Remi Lucas