Chapter 4) Outed

Selected Listening: The Genius Next Door- Regina Spektor

The twist of apparition met Anastasia's stomach once again. The sensation still sickened her. As soon as the world popped properly back into view, she ran for the nearest sink and lost the contents of her lunch, holding her hair back with one hand.

When she opened her eyes and looked down, she saw the reflections of many faces staring at her in the chrome faucet. She turned around and found she was in a long kitchen with a long table. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were there, along with Professor Lupin, Professor Snape, Mad Eye Moody, Sirius Black, and a young woman with purple hair who was trying not to laugh.

"Oh h-hello," she said turning bright red and then to Dobby, "Dobby, this isn't home. Where are we?"

"Miss Dumbledore mustn't be angry with Dobby."

"Why not? You lied." she asked in a strained tone. Dobby winced back reflexively, and Anastasia softened her stance. Professor Lupin piped up.

"Anastasia, your father arranged for all of this. He requested that Dobby bring you here after the accident in Little Whining. He didn't want you out and about in case the dementors came after you as well."

Anastasia nodded and swallowed. So, it was happening. All the signs from years before were coming true again.

"Right…well…thank you," she said emotionlessly. "Is Harry alright?"

"Harry is fine," Sirius answered her, getting up from his seat at the head of the table and striding towards her, "temporarily expelled, but an incident that can be remedied."

"Unfortunately, by nepotism," Snape said under his breath. Sirius ignored him as he placed his hands on Anastasia's shoulders. Anastasia winced at first, expecting him to smell as he did when they first discovered him or as he had been in the cave. But the man had washed up, combed his hair, trimmed his beard, put on a button-down shirt, slacks, and a blazer, and applied aftershave.

"Now, Anastasia. You, here, are closest to the situation, which makes it very important that you do not breathe a word of this place to my cousin, Narcissa, or to Draco Malfoy. Do you understand?"

Anastasia nodded. As she examined the earnest of Sirius's face, she could see how some slight features could map on to Narcissa's. His cheekbones, and the texture of his hair. She glanced at the table and found similar features in the purple haired girl. This was why Dobby lied. This house, whatever it was, ornately decorated and anciently tarnished, was Black's hideout. A family home.

"Alright," she said.

"Promise!" Sirius insisted. "Promise not a single word. If they ask you, you got back to Hogwarts without a hitch and spent a very boring holiday in the headmaster's suite."

"Yes, yes I promise," she emphasized, "not a word or multiple words or even the idea." She gripped his hand as he pulled away. Sirius squeezed back.

"Wonderful, thank you." He returned to his seat.

Severus scoffed and leaned his face into his hand.

"This will never work," he groaned.

"What?" Anastasia asked defensively. Snape rolled his eyes at her and continued speaking as if she weren't there.

"The girl is romantically involved with Draco Malfoy—"

"Forget romantically involved!" Moody continued, eyes widening as he remembered. "In June I saw her cut into her ruddy arm to alert the boy of where Barty Crouch Jr. had us trapped. They've got a lifeline spell they do!"

Anastasia, who had gone gaunt with shock, attempted to recall some words to her aid as the adults she respected stared at her in horror. At the slip of information, Sirius rubbed his eyes. Snape froze. Lupin nodded seriously as if it were unsurprising.

"It can't be, those are a myth—" Arthur started.

"They're impossible to break—" Molly continued.

Moody lumbered up from his chair and walked around the table. Anastasia flinched towards Sirius, but was too slow, and Moody grabbed her left hand, yanking her sleeve up, turning her arm around backwards, and countering the glamor so they could look.

"See, there's yer proof."

The raised lines along her arm had faded, but still clearly read, MOODY'S TRUNK HELP!

"Ow!" Anastasia yanked her arm away forcefully and stared at all the adults staring at her.

"First of all, we are no longer romantically involved…" she said, recalling Draco's harsh words from the day before, "Second, I didn't ask for the damn lifeline spell. Though I'd like to point out, it has saved my arse and others' arses countless times," she glared at Moody purposefully, "Finally, Draco doesn't believe a thing I say about Voldemort anyway, so I really doubt we'll be talking much."

Although they would be seeing each other, regularly, in the hospital, to get rid of the damn thing.

"There you have it," Arthur said decidedly. "I believe, based on that account, we can trust Anastasia to keep her mouth shut and use her apparent lifeline connection with Malfoy for our sakes."

"I agree wholeheartedly with Arthur," said Lupin.

"Can we really be so careless?" Molly asked. "Even if she intends to use it wisely, can't they read each other's minds?"

"What?" Anastasia asked. "Mrs. Weasley, that's ridiculous."

"You can't believe everything you read in your romance novels, Molly," Sirius teased.

"Molly's partially correct—" Snape said, "You do read each other. Don't you?" He finally addressed Anastasia directly. "Maybe not in perfect thought, but in feeling? That is how Draco notified me when you were attacked by dementors a little over a year ago, correct?"

Anastasia looked away, embarrassed by the Professor's memory. It was a different time. She shook her head.

"That was a special case. We feel each other's pain. And even then, it's only flashes."

"Only in flashes, she says!" Moody threw up his arms and huffed over to his seat, settling down with his cane. "I'm not sure about you all, but I'm not willing to risk the future of our world over flashes."

"I agree with Mad-Eye," Snape settled.

"So do I." Molly said. "I'm sorry dear, but you weren't around the first time," she shook her head solemnly.

"Well, I was around the first time," Sirius said, "and I see the same tenacity in her as I do in all of us who fought for what is right. She's Holly's girl for Merlin's sake. I say she stays."

Remus nodded again, thinking hard with crossed arms, but didn't say anything. Arthur put in his sense.

"And I trust Dumbledore…Albus…and he wanted her here. Considering that, and the fact he brought us all together, I think he knows well enough to trust his own flesh and blood. I'm with Sirius," said Arthur.

"Lupin?" Snape asked slowly.

"Even though my head says in all logic that I should say no…and that we should wipe her memory and floo her home as quickly as possible…in my heart and in my gut, I know she wouldn't betray us. Our scars and our curses do not make us who we are. Am I right, Miss Dumbledore?" The professor asked, referring to one of the first conversations they had when he began teaching.

Anastasia smiled thankfully.

"Yes, professor."

"It's not a matter of will she feel like betraying us!" Snape shouted. "If Voldemort or any other Death Eater uses a legilimency spell on her, we are doomed."

"Severus, It's not your decision." Moody said diplomatically. "We have three for and three against. There is one more voting member present who has been awfully quiet…" his eyes drifted towards the purple-haired girl on his right. "What do you vote, maggot?"

Her eyes scanned over everyone, but then she looked Anastasia in the eye.

"I don't know you…" she said thoughtfully. "I only know what I've read in the papers, and honestly not much of that is good. I know you're particularly strong because you've survived two obscuri, and I know you're particularly proud, because you go to pureblood establishments with your godmother…" Anastasia looked away, feeling like the young woman had already decided against her.

"Oh, come on! Do I not have a veto here? This is my house for Merlin's sake," Sirius complained. Moody only put a hand up for him to be silent.

"I know you care fiercely, because you've shown it. I also know, that without you, I wouldn't have had my mentor this year," she patted Moody on the elbow. "And for that, I already owe you one."

Moody sighed into his hand disappointedly.

"What'll it be, Tonks? We don't have all day."

Anastasia's head snapped up. She remembered Tonks. She used to watch her in class and hope she could be as wonderful as the funny one day. She saw her at the ministry when they went to employ Moody, and she saw her at the music festival when they bumped into the elder Weasley siblings.

"I trust Sirius and Remus—" Tonks mused.

"She trusts one of us, that's for sure," Sirius said under his breath. A red sheen appeared on Lupin's neck.

"—and I trust Dumbledore. I'm for her staying. Plus, it would be a bit nice to have someone around here who's about as clumsy as I am."

Anastasia smiled and gave Tonks a slight bow of the head.

"Thank you," she replied, face flushing.

And then, unprompted, Snape drew his wand and pointed it at Anastasia's head.

"Legilimens!" he cried.

Pain struck Anastasia's head, and she could no longer see the room in front of her. She was back at the riverside, walking with Draco. They were finding the parchment letters in the abandoned giftshop. Then at the house, him leaving abruptly. Her crying in the dark, hoping that he would come back.

Then, she was back in the large dining room, her face damp with tears.

"Who was following you? Tell us!" Snape yelled.

"I don't know!" Anastasia cried back. "Narcissa said everyone was following us."

"What the bloody hell is wrong with you?" Tonks snapped at Snape, holding her wand in the offensive. She had cut off his spell.

"Nothing is wrong with me, Nymphadora. She couldn't withstand it! She could not force me out. She could not put up one block. This is who we're trusting if we keep her here. She is an open book."

"He's got a point, maggot." Mad Eye said.

"You don't just go through a girl's brain! We start pulling that bullshit on each other, we're no better than them!" Tonks argued.

Moody rolled his eyes and shook his head.

Anastasia, who couldn't stand listening to the adults argue about her another second, ran, tears streaming, out of the first door she could find.

Hands caught her by the arms.

"Woah, woah, Stasia! You're here." Fred grinned. They stood in a rather dark entryway. More friends lined the stairway behind Fred, and George on the ground, wrestled something squishy from Crookshanks's grasp. She had nowhere to go.

Anastasia collapsed into Fred's chest, sobbing. His hands hesitantly rested on her shoulders.

"Hey, it's okay," he murmured through her hair as he held her tighter. "You're okay."

"What the bloody hell happened?" George asked as he rolled up whatever item he rescued and peeked into the dining room behind her. "Don't you think the girl's had enough problems without you all mucking her about? Shame on you!"

Moody shut the door with a spell, sealing the drama-ridden teens out, but the adults' conversation continued.

"You're insensitive, Severus." Remus said across the table. "You think because you're a teacher, you can bully children without paying attention to their well-being or their self-esteem.

"You may have seen those two together, Anastasia and the Malfoy boy, but have you really seen them? They're like magnets constantly flipping to repel and attract with no trace of being still. That lifeline is a force of nature, and it's not Anastasia's fault she's stuck in that."

Snape growled.

"Of course, I've seen them. It's a problem! She has no sense of holding her tongue, and if anyone were to use her against us, this operation would be over, dashed before it even starts. Is that what you people want? Did we not have enough traitors the last time?" He seemed to throw the last question specifically at Sirius and Lupin. They stood from their chairs.

Arthur spoke up.

"Severus, Anastasia might be misguided and naive at times, but a traitor she is not. She is loyal to those who are loyal to her, and I believe we would be putting her in a poor situation if we abandoned her. She'd have no choice but to go to their side."

"So, you're saying we purposely keep her close…to keep an eye on her?" Molly asked.

"That's exactly what I'm saying," Arthur enunciated.

"Sounds like there isn't much of a choice for any of us." Tonks argued, she tilted her water glass this way and that, fumbled it, and watched as the water flung itself across the table. "Crap, sorry."