October 1994
The woman in front of Hermione certainly had the red hair of Bethany's mother, not to mention the same almond shaped green eyes that Bethany had, but that didn't matter.
"You can't be Lily Potter," Hermione repeated. "She's been dead for thirteen years, so unless I've somehow developed Necromancy as well as Empathy, you can not be Lily Potter."
"If you had Necromancy," the spirit said, "I'd be some kind of zombie and Beth would have seen me too. And I am definitely Lily Potter."
"But you're dead!" Hermione argued.
"Am I?" 'Lily' asked. "Are you sure?"
Hermione opened her mouth, paused, and closed it again, thinking back to everything she'd read about that Halloween night, and everything Bethany had since learned.
She knew that Bethany had never heard the Killing Curse around the Dementors, just seen the green light.
She also remembered reading that James and Lily's bodies had never been found.
"Everyone knows you were killed," Hermione said weakly.
"Everyone knows Sirius killed thirteen people," Lily said gently. "Try again."
Hermione shook her head. "But there would have been an investigation, wouldn't there?"
"Why?" Lily asked. "Everyone knew what had happened."
"Dumbledore said Bethany survived because you died to save her," Hermione said.
"I don't know how Beth survived," Lily admitted. "I was certainly willing to die. And I know that James had covered the nursery in family runes. Maybe the two together created a shield. Hermione, you know you're not crazy."
"I'm not," Hermione agreed. "Which means … you must be alive."
"By Jove, I think she's got it," Lily said brightly.
"You're having one of those Muggle-born moments again, aren't you?" A man asked, sounding partly amused, partly disgruntled.
He appeared beside Lily, and Hermione's eyes widened, her eyes darting back in the direction of Bethany, who was still sitting on the bank of the lake, gazing after her concernedly.
Now Bethany had different glasses, the resemblance was not quite a strong, but James's hair was still as messy as his daughter's, just shorter.
"Mr Potter, I presume."
"Call me James," he said with an easy smile, a smile she'd seen on Bethany's face a thousand times.
Bethany leaned against the nearest tree, her head spinning. "Okay, so you two are alive. Where the hell are you then?"
"We don't know," Lily admitted. "We were both hit with some sort of transportation spell. It gave off the same green light as the Killing Curse, but it was non-verbal. Whatever it was, I've never read about it."
Hermione nodded, now convinced that she wasn't making anything up in her head. Surely she would have come up with a better explanation than 'I don't know'. And it fit with Bethany's memories too.
"We'll explain more when you've told Beth," Lily added.
"Excuse me?" Hermione asked incredulously. "You want me to go and tell Bethany that I can speak to the spirits of her supposedly-dead parents?!"
"When you put it like that, it sounds ridiculous," James said dryly, surprising a laugh out of her.
"It is ridiculous! Today, of all days? It's not like either of us know enough about you to prove that it's you!"
"Hermione, relax," Lily said gently. "Do you trust me?"
"Yes," Hermione said, with just a second's hesitation. "Why?"
"Because you're an Empath, I can …" Lily paused, apparently searching for the right word. "… temporarily inhabit your body and tell Beth myself. But I can only do it with your permission."
"You want to possess me?" Hermione asked, her voice coming out much higher than normal.
"Temporarily inhabit," Lily repeated. "Just to talk to her. Please?"
Hermione was about to refuse, but the pleading note in Lily's voice gave her pause.
Lily wasn't just offering so that Hermione could prove what she was seeing.
"Please?" Lily whispered.
Hermione sighed, glancing back at Bethany. "Alright. But let me ease her into it, yeah?"
At Lily's nod and beaming smile, she returned to the place Bethany was still sitting.
"Who was it?" Bethany asked immediately.
Hermione hesitated, steeling herself both for what she was about to say and for Bethany's possible reaction. "Your mother."
Bethany raised an eyebrow. "That's not funny."
"I'm not kidding," Hermione said flatly. "She … er … She wants to talk to you."
At Hermione's nod, Lily stepped forwards, as though she was planning to walk right through Hermione, but stopped and vanished.
For a moment, Hermione didn't think anything had happened, but then Bethany's jaw dropped.
"Hermione, your eyes …" she whispered. "They're the same as mine …"
Before Hermione could ask, her mouth began to move of its own accord, but it was Lily's voice that escaped her lips, soft and soothing. "Oh, Bethany, my darling girl … it really is me, sweetheart."
"Mum …" Bethany whispered. "Mum, is it …"
"It's really me." Hermione reached out without her volition, brushing a strand of Bethany's hair out of her eyes. "We are so proud of you, Beth. Your dad and I … We love you so much …"
A sharp pain stabbed through her head, and Hermione doubled over, just about biting back a pained cry.
Abruptly, the presence in her head vanished and Lily reappeared beside her.
"What happened?" Bethany asked, her voice trembling.
"Mrs Potter, what just happened?" Hermione asked, taking Bethany's hand.
"You're a Natural Occlumens," Lily said, eyeing her speculatively. "Even though you let me in, your subconscious pushed me out. And please call me Lily, Hermione."
Hermione grimaced. "Oh, sorry." She caught Bethany's eye. "I'm a Natural Occlumens; accidentally pushed her out, I'm really sorry."
"It's okay, Hermione," Bethany said with a weak smile. "I guessed it wasn't on purpose. What's an Occlumens?"
"Someone who practices Occlumency," Hermione answered. "Madam Pomfrey gave me a book after the start of term and that migraine. It's the art of magically defending the mind against external penetration."
"You mean mind-reading?" Bethany asked. "That's a thing?"
Lily chuckled. "The mind is not a book. It can't be read."
"The mind is not a book," Hermione repeated. "It can't be read. But it is possible to practice Legilimency, which is the ability to extract emotions, memories and thoughts from someone's mind. They're very advanced branches of magic though - Madam Pomfrey was surprised when I told her I seemed to be doing all the Occlumency exercises anyway."
"Of course you were," Lily said. "You're a Natural, which means you were born with the gift of both. Legilimency and Occlumency won't work against you, neither will things like Memory Charm or the Imperius Curse."
"That's why I could throw the curse off," Hermione said, for Bethany's benefit. "There can't be that many of us then?"
"Very rare," James confirmed. "Mother Magic only gifts it to those who won't abuse it."
"Does that mean what we just tried will never work?" Hermione questioned, glancing at Bethany.
"Possibly," Lily said sadly. "Or it might mean you just need to work on your control a bit. Try looking for Improving Mind Magics in the library - I don't think it's in the Restricted Section."
Hermione rummaged in her bag for some parchment and a quill. "And that will help?"
"Hopefully," Lily assured her. "Addie swore by it."
Hermione jotted down the name of the book, and almost asked about the name, before she caught sight of Bethany, looking utterly lost.
"You know this conversation would be better if Beth could hear you."
"I'm not an Empath," Bethany said flatly. "Remember?"
Hermione smiled. "Do you know the Dicta-Charm?"
"The what?" Bethany asked.
"And that's why I was asking your mum and not you," Hermione teased.
"Excellent idea, Hermione," Lily praised. "The incantation is Dicteria and the wand movement is a sharp anti-clockwise quarter-twist."
Hermione aimed her wand at the quill and followed Lily's instructions. The quill twitched slightly, and she loaded it with ink again, setting it point down on the parchment. "This is Hermione Granger, on October 31st 1994."
As she spoke, the quill skated across the parchment, transcribing her words.
"Excellent," Hermione said smugly. "Will it work on you, Lily?"
"You cast the spell, so I don't see why not," Lily answered. "My name is Lily Potter - Beth, you'll have to give it your name as well."
Bethany's eyes widened as she glanced at the parchment to see the quill writing out Lily's words.
"My name is Bethany Potter, and this might be the most amazing thing that's ever happened to me."
Hermione smiled. "Who's Addie? Swore by Improving Mind Magics," she added, seeing Bethany's confusion.
"Addison McKinnon is one of my best friends," Lily answered. "She was supposed to be your godmother, Beth, but her whole family was murdered in March 1978, during our last year of Hogwarts."
Hermione winced. She had read about the so-called McKinnon Massacre, but …
"I thought both daughters were killed," she said hesitantly.
"It's … complicated," Lily said slowly. "There is, apparently, another form of the Killing Curse. The incantation is almost identical, it gives off the same green light, but it separates the spirit and solidifies it, leaving a body."
"Why?" Bethany asked. "I mean, what's the point?"
"We assume to allow for kidnappings with no search parties," James answered.
"James, the quill," Lily reminded.
"Right. My name is James Potter," James said to the quill. "Hi, baby girl. If the Death Eaters wanted to get information from someone, and when they attacked they left a body, no one was looking for them, you see? Not that they needed to bother," he added darkly. "Clearly no one bothered searching for us."
"So what happened to you?" Bethany asked eagerly.
"The best we can figure out," James said, "is that Voldemort decided he wanted to kill you, and then kill us, once he'd done some gloating. Except the curse on you backfired, so he never had a chance to come after us. We ended up on an island. Lily thinks we're in the Pacific."
"I'm not sure of the radius we can reach," Lily added, "before we have to latch on to someone else, I mean, but however far it is, there's nothing but ocean."
"Are you …?" Bethany hesitated. "I mean, is there …"
"We're in a house," Lily said gently. "Food appears three times a day; I think at some point Addie and Leona managed to charm the house-elves. I was so relieved when I saw them, and then …"
"Then realised that no one was looking for them," Hermione finished, before she could think better of it. She winced, squeezing Bethany's hand. "So you're there; Addie and Leona are there - is there anyone else?"
"Not to our knowledge," Lily said.
"Is there anything we can do?" Bethany asked.
Lily and James exchanged a look.
"Technically yes," James said. "Gringotts would be able to confirm that we're not dead. But that should have been confirmed years ago, so I have a feeling someone's covering it up."
"Who would do that?" Bethany asked.
"No idea," James answered, but he and Lily exchanged another glance that suggested they did have some suspicions. "When you can, tell Padfoot and Moony; they can start looking. You focus on school."
"Speaking of the Marauders," Hermione said, before Bethany could argue, "is Addie Miss Shadow?"
"Yes, that's her," Lily said with a chuckle. "I was Jade, Arabella was Bastet, Mandy was Talon and Jen was Selena."
"Who's Jen?" Bethany and Hermione asked in unison.
"Your godmother, Beth," James answered, wrapping an arm around his wife. "She disappeared the day after your first birthday. Her wand was found under the Dark Mark, but they never found a body."
"So she might have been taken as well, right?" Bethany asked.
"Possibly," James said cautiously. "But she's definitely not with us, so I have no idea what could have happened to her."
"Have you always been here?" Bethany asked.
"We've tried," Lily said sadly. "Not that it does either of us any good - you can't see us, and we still don't actually know you're alive."
"Of course," Hermione murmured. "Because you can't influence your bodies."
"So you were there last June?" Bethany asked. "In the Shack?"
"We were," James said darkly. "We knew that Peter had betrayed us, obviously, but we didn't see what happened next, so we had no idea what had happened to put Sirius in Azkaban; we assumed he had killed Peter. And then you got on the train and met Ron and …"
"That was the worst part," Lily said, her voice trembling with rage. "Knowing that … that was in Gryffindor tower with our little girl."
"You heard the prophecy then," Bethany said heavily.
"We heard it," Lily said. "And your little guilt-trip in Moony's office."
"Whatever happens next," James said firmly, "it is not your fault. I am so incredibly proud of you for how you acted in the Shack. And you were absolutely right. I didn't want them to kill him. I wanted him to pay for what he did, and I wanted an explanation."
Somehow, the quill managed to portray at least some of the emotion in James's voice and Bethany's hand contracted around Hermione's tightly.
"Mione," she said after a few minutes, her voice rough. "How are we going to tell Sirius? We can't tell him something like this in a letter."
"Show him the transcript," Lily answered. "Make sure we're there, and we can do the security questions through you. Break the Addie news gently though please. They were dating when she disappeared, and he was heartbroken. If she knew I was doing this, she'd never forgive me if I didn't find some way of telling him that she still loves him."
Hermione frowned. "Do you know how they created the fake Killing Curse, or whatever it's called?"
"That's your next question?" Bethany asked.
"Well, the book said that the spirit thing was a theory," Hermione said. "I'm wondering how You-Know-Who knew it wasn't."
"He's an Empath as well," James said with a sigh. "Hence why we haven't gone looking for him to get information."
"No!" Hermione and Bethany agreed hastily.
"Don't do that," Hermione added.
"We're not going to," Lily agreed. "Now I would love to sit here and chat with you all day, but don't you two have work to do?"
Hermione glanced at her watch and jumped up. "Beth! It's nearly lunch and we haven't done our Potions homework!"
"Mum …?"
Lily laughed. "Sorry, sweetheart, you do need to do that homework. I promise I'll have a word with Snape when we get back though."
Hermione reached for the quill. "Can I stop this now?"
"Not yet," James said seriously. "Sirius Orion Black, if you don't stop blaming yourself for what happened, so help me Merlin, I will hex you into the next century, even if I have to find a way of doing it from here."
"He means that in the nicest way, Padfoot," Lily said. "I'll be helping him."
October 1994
Hermione paced around her dorm room, keeping her Occlumency wards up as high as possible to ward off the wave of jubilation (mostly) coming from the main common room.
When the door opened, she hoped it was Bethany, but instead Lavender and Parvati piled in, almost shaking with excitement.
"How did she do it?!" Lavender squealed.
"She didn't," Hermione said flatly.
Parvati sighed. "Hermione. Bethany's name came out of the Goblet of Fire."
"Yes," Hermione agreed, still pacing. "I was there."
"So she must have put her name in," Parvati said.
"If Bethany put her name in," Hermione said, "her name would have come out as the Hogwarts Champion. Not as well as the Hogwarts Champion. It's the Triwizard Tournament. Three. Not four."
"Okay," Lavender said, relaxing a little. "So what do you think happened?"
Hermione shook her head. "I don't know. Someone must have Confounded the Goblet into thinking there were four schools competing instead of three. And I guess Bethany's was the only name submitted under the fourth school. Bethany never wanted to be in the Tournament. Why would she?"
Lavender rolled her eyes. "A thousand galleons and eternal glory? Same as everyone else?"
"Lavender," Hermione said patiently, "the Potter family is one of the wealthiest in the country. A thousand galleons is pocket money considering what she's set to inherit when she turns seventeen. Although I'm not sure she knows that, to be fair. As for eternal glory - she's the Girl-Who-Lived. I think she's got that already."
"She does have a point," Parvati said to Lavender. "And that would explain why Bethany looked so shell-shocked."
The noise from downstairs rose into a roar and Hermione winced. "Sounds like she's back."
"Should we go and get her?" Lavender asked, no longer sounding excited.
They didn't need to.
A few moments later, the door opened a second time, and if Hermione hadn't convinced them of Bethany's innocence already, the look on her face would have done.
"Beth …" Hermione said, reaching out to her.
Bethany threw herself into Hermione's arms, sobbing into her shoulder.
Hermione gave the other two a pointed look over her head, and they both slipped out, hopefully to quieten down the party.
"Do you want us to sneak over to the boys' dorm?" Hermione asked, but for some reason, this made Bethany cry harder, her body physically shaking.
Hermione had a horrible feeling that something else had happened, and she led Bethany over to her bed, helping her get changed the way Bethany had helped her the first night of fourth year, lending her some of her own pyjamas.
Hermione propped herself up against the headboard, Bethany curled up in a ball with her head in her best friend's lap. "What happened? Do you have to compete?"
Bethany nodded miserably. "They all agreed I couldn't have put my name in, but it's a magically binding contract. If I don't compete, I lose my magic."
Hermione grimaced. "What about the other champions?"
"Krum remembered me," Bethany said. "He told Karkaroff off, told him that I didn't need to enter for eternal glory. Fleur took one look at my face and immediately decided I was a little girl who needed protecting, which I'm not sure if I'm glad about or not."
"And Cedric?" Hermione asked softly, praying that their other champion had not let them down.
"He walked me up here," Bethany said, a small smile crossing her face for the first time. "Told me he knew I didn't put my name in and that he'd talk to Hufflepuff and tell them that as well. And then he gave me a hug."
Hermione decided not to comment on the pink hue that appeared on Bethany's cheeks at that. "I see. Gryffindor think you put your name in, as you heard."
"I could deal with that," Bethany said, sniffling. "They at least love me for it. Ron …"
Ice flooded Hermione's chest at that and she tightened her arms around her best friend. "Ron, what?"
"He doesn't believe me," Bethany said. "He's mad at me because I didn't tell him I was doing it."
Had Bethany not been in such a state, Hermione would have stormed downstairs to give Ron a piece of her mind.
But Bethany began to cry again, and Hermione stayed where she was, closing the bed curtains around them with a flick of her wand and Silencing them.
Bethany cried herself to sleep eventually, but Hermione lay awake long afterwards, her mind racing.