The next full moon was in nineteen days I calculated as I looked out the Gryffindor dorm room window. My mother and Aunt Ginny sat on my mum's bed talking about something. Their conversation was not something I was entirely interested in and as I stood looking out the window I wondered how they came to be so distant in the future.
My arms folded over my chest as I heaved a sigh and looked into my reflection. I hadn't slept well the past week and my eyes showed this fact. My hair was limp as I was taking less care of it and my clothes were over wrinkled as I just stopped caring. The past really was a bleak place just like Uncle George had said.
"So Jillian," a voice interrupted my inspection of my self. Turning I saw it was Lavender speaking to me and I quietly wondered when she entered the dorm room. "What is your story?"
"My story?" I questioned her.
"Yes, like for instance your parents, who were they?" Lavender tossed her hair over one shoulder as she said this. I have expected her to be chomping on a piece of bubblegum as she did that little hair flick.
"Oh Lavender," my mum's voice came into the conversation. "How inconsiderate can you be? She just lost her parents." She hissed this last part.
"No, I can talk about them." I said as I sat down on the edge of my mum's bed. "My dad is half and half. His father was pure blood and his mother was a muggleborn. My mum is a muggleborn. They fell in love during the war and it was to many peoples surprise." I glanced back out at the moon and let out a sigh. "My mum is the smartest person I know and my dad the bravest. My mum says I got my dad's stupidity for taking risks and his quidditch skills. She says he can never stay out of trouble…even with her. My dad says my mum is never wrong, and he is right. He says I got that from her."
"They fell in love during the war," Lavender said wistfully.
"Yes, they did. It was as they were trying to survive all of this," I pointed to my school books that were piled up on my trunk. "And fight battles that they realized what everyone had said was true really was meant to be. Of course my dad wanted to keep it a secret, but my mum just wouldn't hear of it. She told him that she didn't care if she got killed because even if she died fighting for him her love for him would keep her with him…in his heart, but most importantly in his soul."
"In his soul?" My mum's asked and that is when I snapped out of my dream like state. I remembered where I was and who I was talking to. I was talking to my mother whom had yet to discover her love for my father, and I was talking to my Aunt Ginny who wasn't about to let my father go.
"I should go to bed," my body was all tense from the slip ups I could have made and I didn't dare glance at the girls in the room. "Early day tomorrow," faking a yawn I slipped behind the curtains of my four poster and let out a sigh.
"Good morning," A pleasant voice chimed behind me. Ron, I thought as I turned around but I saw it was Uncle Neville. My face must have fallen and I tried to smile. "May I sit down?"
"Good morning, Neville." I said as I took of my tea.
"You look terrible," he said as he peered closer at my face.
"Hey," my father's voice shouted out at us and I jumped back from Neville's close face. My eyes met his and I could see the same protectiveness that I saw in his eyes whenever Ron was around.
"Harry you okay?" Ginny asked as she took a seat opposite from Harry. Harry gave me one last glance, as if trying to figure it all out, and then turned to say good morning to Ginny.
"I've got to get going, Neville." Without another thought I fled the Great Hall. I don't know how long I stood in the entrance hall but it wasn't long. With a crack on my head I disillusioned myself. Footsteps were coming my way. Soon Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna, and Neville had passed by me without a second glance. Carefully I followed them listening to their conversation.
"I just don't understand what you're saying," Ron said and Neville bobbed his head in agreement.
"I'm saying, Neville," Aunt Ginny snarled. "That Jillian is hiding something."
"Okay lets say she is hiding something," mum spoke up as the moved outside.
"The future always hides," Aunt Luna dreamily spoke up.
I could tell my mum was rolling my eyes at Luna. "Right, well, what would she be hiding?"
All heads turned to look at Ginny, "Her parents." Ginny spoke up after a second with sudden confidence. "Didn't you notice last night that she talked about her parents in the present tense?"
"And that is all you're basing this on?" Harry spoke up.
"Yeah that is a little far fetched," Neville added as they sat down by the lake.
"I'm just saying…"
"Ginny," Ron let out a sigh before continuing. "Give it up."
"Oh yeah…well you," she suddenly pointed at Harry. "Were all over Malfoy last year and no one believed you. And now, NOW, that I have a theory you won't listen."
"We are listening," Hermione hesitantly said. "It is just that there is no evidence to back up anything. We heard Professor McGonagall explain her situation. And if her parents are alive then the order would be hiding them because obviously she is in the know."
"The order is scattered," Harry reminded Hermione.
"They are scattered but not broken," Hermione put her head into her head. "They hid my parents this summer." It was then that I remembered that Mrs. Figg has taken in Grandma and Grandpa Granger and kept them hidden during the whole school year and part of next summer. In fact Aunt Poppy was their secret keeper.
At this fact my father put a comforting arm around my mother. This was the first act of their relationship that reminded me that my parents were in fact in love with each other in the future. It was hope that I could still succeed in my quest.
I was startled by this thought as their voices floated back over to me. "We should be cautious." Ron said, "We still don't know who the mystery helper is." I took a look around and noticed Neville, Ginny, and Luna making their way back to the castle as my parents and Ron gazed back over the lake.
"When is the next full moon?" My dad asked and I rolled my eyes at his question.
"Eighteen days," mum answered him in an offhanded sort of way. "We need to find a boggart."
"I'll ask Lupin after class tomorrow."
I sat in the second row of desk third desk from the door in defense class. This chair was directly behind my fathers and it was the one I sat in for the last seven years at least nineteen years into the future. Today we were discussing the Imperius curse.
"Now I now you all discussed the Imperius curse a few years back. Well, all accept you Miss Pomfrey."
At this I sat up straight. I had already learned how to counter the Imperius curse and quickly progressed onto occlumency lessons. So when Professor Uncle Lupin asked me how much I knew about the Imperius curse I smiled softly before answering.
"The Imperius Curse can be either a nonverbal or a verbal spell. You cast it by saying or thinking Imperio. This spell causes the victim to be completely under the command of the caster. The caster can make the victim do anything he/she wishes. The thing is that this unforgivable curse, which means that by using it on another human you get a life term n Azkaban, but it wasn't at one time."
"Go on," Professor Uncle Lupin seemed to be impressed by my knowledge which he himself had given me.
"Before Voldemort's first reign of terror," I was getting into my lecture mode which made me sound a touch too like my mother. "The spell was used regularly be law enforcement and even healers."
"You can't be serious?" A voice said from the back of the room. I turned to see a boy with a pompous air sitting in the back and saw that he was from Hufflepuff with a shiny Head Boy badge pinned to his robes.
"She is Ernie," my eyes stayed on Ernie as Lupin spoke. Before he could go into his own lecture I stopped him, "What is your surname?"
"Macmillan," He said giving me a queer look.
I turned back to look at the black board suddenly shivered. My father spoke highly of Ernie Macmillan, and I had to fight back the tears as I remembered what Dad had said. Ernie was the first to die in the battle of Hogsmead. He was literally blown to pieces as he jumped in front of my mother to save her from a very powerful reductor curse.
Before I had known it class was coming to an end. I had spent the whole class lost in memories that weren't my own. Knowing I had to act before Lupin dismissed the class I quickly raised my hand. "Professor I have this problem." A few sniggers could be heard coming from behind me. Ignoring them I forged onward, "Professor Vector has given me a classroom to use for our project and well it contains a boggart."
I saw Professor Lupin's eyes swivel to my father. They silently communicated before he turned back to me, "I'll take that boggart. My third years could use some more practice." I gave him a thanking nod as he dismissed class without a mention of the homework. No one thought to ask him for we already had enough work on our hands.
"Oh not you too Ron," I heard my mother say as I walked down the hall with my mind buried on the book buried deep in my bag. "This is pure coincidence. I heard her last week asking about a classroom to do our term project in. And she was asleep when I left Monday night." Hermione hissed the last part as our class merged with other classes being let lose for lunch time.
Two days later found me in the arithmancy wing. I was calculating what and how long it would take to cure silver getting into a werewolf's blood stream. The effect would slowly kill the werewolf but I had almost calculated how long it would take, three days nine hours and twelve minutes. With this calculated I could figure out how big of the magnet shield spell I was inventing would have to be. This is how my parents and Ron found me.
"Oh sorry," Harry said upon seeing me and I quickly grabbed my shirt. His hand had automatically gone up to shield his eyes. "What the heck are you doing with no shirt on?" He said which caused Ron to entered the room and for Hermione to hit Ron upside the head.
"I'm sorry." I stuttered out while trying to not shout at my father, "I'm not use to people entering without knocking. Plus I was sure I had the room to myself and I like to be comfortable when I work."
"Comfortable requires clothes." Harry said as I told him to open his eyes as it was safe I had put my shirt back on. "Nice shirt," Glancing down I saw that my shirt was one that Uncle Fred had given me as a joke. It read, "An exit should have all the dramatics as poking a sleeping dragon…running usually works."
"Thanks I got it from Uncle Fred."
"You have other relatives beside your Aunt?" Hermione asked as she peered at my calculations. "What are you working on?"
"Nothing important," I said hastily as I made my writing invisible with a slash of my wand. "It's not complete and I don't like anyone seeing my work until it is. Sorry," I added the last part when I saw my mum's face.
"No that's okay. I completely understand."
"Yeah she doesn't even let us see it when it is finished." Ron spoke for the first time since entering my work area. "We came for the boggart."
Biting my check to stop myself from smiling I replied, "I was under the impression that Professor Lupin was picking it up."
At this Hermione, Ron, and Harry shared a look. Apparently I hit a nerve, "well he asked us to pick it up for him." Ron shifted from foot to foot as he spoke.
"Okay," They shared another look at my lack of hesitation about their answer. "It's in that closet." I vaguely pointed to the left, far wall and then went back to my work. I didn't care that my mum was watching me as I lifted the charm or that she would probably recognize my math.
"What shape does the boggart take for you?" Ron asked as Harry walked by levitating a trunk in the air.
"That is a rather personal question don't you think?" I replied as I stared at the board. Something was missing in my equation of the magnet shield.
"Right," Ron mumbled. "We will be leaving now." He shut the door behind him as I sunk to the floor the tears threatening to spill from my eyes. I knew perfectly well what shape a boggart would take for me and I knew when that had to be revealed. The full moon just wouldn't come soon enough, I thought. I straightened up and gazed at my equations. "Something is off."
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