Chapter Eleven
"The summer before our fourth year was an eventful one, James and I were invited to a major sports event. Even though I am not a sports fan I still went because it gave me time to spend with James before school started up again, so we woke up before dawn one morning and hiked to an open field that only held an old boot. That boot was a portkey set to take us to the stadium where the event was being held that weekend, along the way we met up with an older student and his father. The young man was a Hufflepuff, a sixth year and had a lot of girls in school lusting over him.
"Once we arrived at the stadium, we went our sperate ways, after all we had great tickets thanks to Mr. Weasley winning them at work. Our tent was unlike any tent I had ever seen before, it looked small on the outside but once inside it was like a small house. By the time we got to the stadium itself it was already getting dark, which was the perfect way to watch the upcoming game between Ireland and Bulgaria.
"Yes, there is a hidden sports team in Ireland, there is a whole hidden community there. We look just like you and the only difference is we have magic to help us with everyday living. Anyways that night I came face to face with Viktor Krum the international superstar of the Bulgarian team, and even though he caught the snitch Ireland won by over a hundred points. What we didn't know was that it was a prelude to something big coming to Hogwarts, later that night while we were trying to sleep some of the Dark Lords minions started causing trouble around the campgrounds.
"We were told to run into the woods and wait for someone to come find us and under no certain terms were we allowed to use our magic unless it was a life or death situation. So, we ran and hid like we were told but somewhere along the way we lost sight of James only to find him standing near a house elf who had his wand. By the time we reached them, her master had arrived and thought she was the one to cast the spell that produced the calling card of the Dark Lord, so she was given clothes and set free.
"Now house elves are sentient creatures who live to serve a master if only to have access to the family magic, to set one free is like a death sentence to them. There is a whole bunch of them working in the castle and for James's family, most pureblood families have a house elf to do their bidding. In fact, James has a personal elf that worships the ground he walks on but that is part of James's story and not mine to tell.
"Anyways by the time we arrived at school we were still talking about what happened during event, once we arrived and was settled in for the night our headmaster dropped a bomb upon us. There would be no sporting events that year between the houses, instead there was to be a Twi-Wizarding tournament in it's place and we were hosting two other schools as well. There was to be a Goblet that would tell us who would be competing and only those of age were allowed to enter, which to James was a good thing. After all he just wanted one quiet year, one year where he didn't have giants snakes or mass murderers after him. One year to just be James Evans and have normal boy problems like having a crush on Cedric's girlfriend Cho Chang.
"He didn't want eternal glory or riches, he sure as hell didn't want to risk his life for some stupid event. I couldn't agree more with him and supported whatever he wanted to do, Ron on other was upset that James didn't want to enter. That should have been our first clue that he wasn't a true friend like he led us to believe he was, and boy was I right in that assumption. When someone put James's name in the Goblet, and he was chosen as the fourth contestant Ron got mad and accused him of cheating and not telling him what he was going to do. I knew that James didn't cheat no matter what anyone said and stuck by him throughout the whole thing. It was during one of my many trips to the library that year that I met Viktor Krum in person, he was in there hiding from his fan girls.
"He was a nice young man with little English skills, so he butchered my name a lot; he became the champion for Durmstrang, while Fleur Delacour was the champion for Beauxbatons Academy. The real champion for Hogwarts was Cedric Diggory and everyone in school never let James forget it, by the time the first event came around we had found out he had to go against a nesting dragon to get a golden egg. To say it was easy was an understatement, James wasn't allowed to bring anything but his wand, but I had helped him learn the summoning charm Accio.
"And he was then able to call his broom in which he proceeded to out fly the dragon just to be able to get the golden egg without hurting the dragon or her eggs. He was given a few good points, but the judges were clearly favoring the other contestants, which was fine to James after all, he didn't want to be in the contest to begin with. Of course, Ron had to come crawling back, pretending to have a change of heart that he finally believed that James didn't put his own name in the Goblet.
"James just took him back after he was the first friend, he had ever made that wasn't bullied by his brute of cousin. It took months to figure out what the next clue was due to the fact there was a screeching sound whenever James would open the egg during that time, we found out there was to be a Yule ball and fourth years and above were allowed to go, a third year could go but they had to be invited by someone older.
"One day while in the library Viktor cornered me and asked me to be his date, and me being the type of girl who normally wouldn't be asked I accepted right away. I figured I might as well give it a go and have some fun while I was at it, by the time the Ball rolled around Ron and James still hadn't found dates and Ron tried asking me, but I got mad and flounced out of study hall mad as a wet hen.
"James found last minute dates for the two of them in the set of twin girls in our year which they proceeded to ignore the entire night while trying to make mine miserable. It wasn't until Ron confronted me afterwards that we got into an argument, Ron said that Krum was just using me and was way to old for me to begin with. Krum was only three years older than me since I was 15 already with having my birthday that past September.
"James looked torn between helping me or going along with Ron so in the end he didn't say anything which just made matters worse in the end. We were back to talking by the second task, which was where I was being held underwater in suspended animation while my rescuer had one hour to come and save me. I wasn't alone underwater oh no, they had taken everyone dear to the other champions; there was a twelve year old girl named Gabrielle who was Fleur's hostage, Cho Chang, Cedric's girlfriend, and date to the Yule Ball and finally Ron which was James's hostage.
"They had an hour to come to our rescue or face the chance of us being lost to them, which I didn't believe that the judges would let someone die just because they were left down there past the hour mark. But James, being James, rescued not only his hostage but Fleur's as well when she got caught up and couldn't reach her baby sister. That earned him top marks from some of the judges and half marks from others for coming in over the allotted time, but just like before James didn't care one iota about marks; he just wanted to survive the events.
"The last event was the hardest for James, I really don't know what happened in the maze or at the graveyard when James was kidnapped off school grounds. Yet again we had a different defense teacher, except this one was an impostor posing as an ex-Auror, it was him who helped kidnap James from the school. By the time he arrived back, he was bleeding and Cedric was dead; killed by the very traitor to his parents. He tired to get people to believe the Dark Lord was back, but the Minister wasn't having it and just declared him the winner of the tournament.
"It was then that we found out our defense teacher was an impostor when he whisked James away before any of us could reach him. It turns out he was drinking a complicated potion or at least complicated to anyone who wasn't a bookworm. I brewed that potion myself in second year when we were trying to figure out who opened the Chamber of Secrets, and we wanted to see if Draco knew anything about it. Well even though I brewed it correctly, I still messed it up by having cat hair instead of the hair of the girl I was trying to become.
"He kept the real ex-Auror locked in a trunk in his office that way he always had access to his hair, he was later given the kiss of death by the Dementors and thrown through veil of death. That summer was the beginning of everything that brought us to where we are today, we were hidden away in the home of Sirius Black, James's godfather and wanted criminal. We were told to keep everything we learned there a secret from everyone including James, to say I wasn't happy was an understatement; I hated lying to James even over the smallest detail, but we were told it was for his own good.
"Finally, Dumbledore had him brought to the house and he wasn't happy we were keeping secrets on Dumbledore's orders. He had to go to court due to having used magic in front of a muggle even though that muggle knew of magic in the first place, all James did was try and save his cousin from the Dementor's. To tell the truth and he was my cousin, with the way he treated James I would have let them suck his soul out but in true James fashion he had to save the git. He won his case after all who in their right mind break the wand of their savior, the one they hoped to defeat the Dark Lord someday.
"When we arrived back at school, we found out our new defense teacher was a Ministry planted sent to spy on Dumbledore and in doing so making our lives a living hell at the same time. She looked like a Giant toad who wore to much pink and had an unhealthy obsession with cats, she told us that there was nothing out there that could hurt us, so we had no reason to learn defense.
"James of course had to open his big mouth and argue with her about if the Dark Lord was back or not, which landed him in detention, which was a record for him. I took matters into my own hands and started a secret defense group in which James led for us, we would meet in secret to learn defense since she wasn't teaching us anything practical to begin with. That's when we met Pandora, she was one of many students who joined up to fight back against the Ministry and it's plant, everything was going great until someone snitched on us. It really wasn't her fault after all Umbridge spiked her drink with truth serum, which had her spilling her guts out about the defense group which we named Dumbledore's Army.
"Looking back, it seems like such a stupid idea naming it that, but that name is what saved us in the end when it came to Umbridge finding out. She went mental and forced the headmaster out of the castle in which she named herself Headmistress, life in the Castle got a lot worse for us. Then just when things were bad it got worse, James had a dream that the Dark Lord had his Godfather and that if he retrieved something for him, he would let him go.
"I tried to talk some sense into James saying there was no way the Dark Lord had Sirius and that we just needed to floo call him to see that everything was alright. Instead of reaching Sirius they reached his house elf who hated him worth a passion, the house elf lied and said that Master Black was not at home. That put the fox among the hens with that one sentence, James went off the deep end and want to launch a full blown rescue squad.
"Before we could, our lookouts were caught and brought in with Umbridge who the proceeded to ask who we were talking too, I of course lied to teacher for the second time in my life saying we were talking to Dumbledore and how his weapon was almost ready. Umbridge demanded that we take her to this called weapon so she could destroy it herself, little did she know we were leading her into a trap. The so called weapon was really Hagrid's half brother a Giant that was small for his size, and he was living in the Forbidden Forest.
"We led her right to him and then just as we were trying to make our escape some Centaurs came to investigate, and she insulted them. They then carried her away and that's when we left, I know it was wrong, but she brought it upon herself. Ron, James, and I met up with Frank, Pandora, Ginny and her older twin brothers Fred and George and we made our way to London and the Ministry of Magic. What we didn't know was that it was a trap itself, Sirius was never in real danger; the Dark Lord just wanted James to grab something that he couldn't grab himself. Even though we were a bunch of students we fought for our lives that night, we fought hard and well into the morning when the Calvery arrived. Sirius, Remus, and a bunch of others appeared to help with the fight, then everything went pear shape.
"We were in the room that held the Death Veil and was fighting for our lives when Sirius's cousin sent a stunner towards him and he fell into the veil, James wanted to follow him, but Remus held him back. Once he had a hold of his senses, he chased Bella throughout the Ministry narrowly missing her with each spell he flung at her. She escaped just as her Master arrived to fight James himself, but of course the headmaster appeared and chased him off. That boys leads up to Sixth year, and the reason we are here in Boston.
"You see that summer I wiped the memories of me from my parents mind and sent to Australia only to have them die in route, by the time I started my sixth year I was looking for a way out. Away out of the war and the Wizarding war, that was when I came across an aging Potion that would only work once, a Potion that with the right amount of blood drops will age you up to your desired age. I knew that it was my only shot at getting out of the Wizarding world alive, so throughout the year I gathered enough ingredients to make four batches of Potion.
I had already had plans to ask Frank, James, and Pandora to come along but wasn't sure if they would or not, after all James was now dating Ginny Weasley and seem contempt in the relationship. By the time March rolled around I had everything ready to go, so I went to the one room I knew I wouldn't be bothered and brewed one batch of the Potion, leaving the recipe and the rest of the ingredients for the others to brew themselves.
"The potion itself wasn't very complicated as one might think the only reason it was banned is because I the wrong hands it could be a dangerous weapon. While waiting for the Potion to finish I wrote quick notes to Frank, Pandora, and James explaining what I was doing and why, I then sent them along with the recipe via House elf to them. I received a note back saying that they would meet me here in America in the next few days and then we could start our new lives as one big family. That is, it gentlemen, you met me the day arrived, and it was all she wrote, as you know James and the others came the next day. You now know my secret and I hope you don't think ill of me and before you ask Murphy what you feel for me is real and not spell or potion." Mia said as she finished her story.