The Chosen

Chapter 6: Things Have Already Started

"How can someone run away from Hogwarts?" Jean asked Frank, after all the others had run out of the common room headed in several different directions.

"I don't honestly think you can," Frank said, frowning. He cast his eyes toward the portrait hole as though he were about to leave and then remembered that he and Jean were to wait "In case she comes back."

*****

Fiona, Remus, and Peter had been sent one way and James, Sirius, and Lily went another to search for Arabella." Someone should go for Professor McGonagall!" Lily cried frantically as she ran down the hall after Sirius and James.

"No!" Sirius cried, "She'll get in trouble!"

"There she is!" James said. Arabella was sitting in the entrance hall. She sat atop her suitcase sobbing. She had her head in her hands and didn't see the three of them approaching.

"Arabella, are you okay?" Lily asked as they got to her.

"I couldn't figure out how to leave!" Arabella wailed.

Lily hugged her tightly. "Don't worry, Arabella. You'll see your mother very soon." Arabella looked up to see her friends and let a very tiny, yet visible smile slip through. She was very happy to have people who cared about her so much. She eventually let them talk her into staying at Hogwarts until the holidays, and not trying to kill her mother for not telling her about her father. They considered this quite a victory.

*****

Defense Against Dark Arts was usually a good class. Professor Fletcher didn't give much homework and tended to doze off in class. But some days, the ones when he stayed awake, he was absolutely frightening. He was known to curse students for random reasons, such as forgetting homework or goofing off. And he also had a strange habit of getting off topic onto something that no one really wanted to have to hear about. "I grew up in the 1940's..." This was one of those times. "During my childhood magic began to grow darker. I didn't know that it had ever been any other way, because I grew up with it. My parents, of course, were very distressed..."

"And he just goes on and on," said Sirius from the back of them room.

Professor Fletcher either didn't hear him or chose not to because he just continued on and on. Most of the class was trying to ignore him, so that they didn't have to hear the gory details of horrible things that went on during the Professor's childhood. This, the Professor noticed and he stopped talking suddenly. "Ahh the innocence of youth," he said. "It's such a wonder to be able to just block out all the horrors that older minds have experienced. I feel sorry for you because you're all used to your little happy world. Well, just don't get too comfortable, because you won't be this naïve for long. Soon, you'll all be cynics like me."

Arabella's hand shot up suddenly and Professor Fletcher nodded at her. "Professor, I agree with you."

"You do?" He asked, looking at her as if she had sprouted and extra head. Arabella nodded quietly and the rest of the class looked at her the same way Professor Fletcher just had.

"What were you talking about?" Sirius asked Arabella as all the Gryffindors walked out of Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"I was thinking about what he says, about all the horrible things that happened when he was a kid. I can tell, things won't ever be the same. Everything's just going to get worse."

"That's awfully morbid, Arabella," Fiona said with a small, involuntary shudder.

"Well, it's true," Arabella snapped and she hurried down the hall.

******

"Why do we always do our homework in the library?" Arabella asked irritably. Lily had brought her to the library in hopes that she might think of happier things, but so far it hadn't worked.

"Because all the books are here?" Lily suggested.

"Yeah, sure." Arabella stared down at her copy of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection. She had been staring at the same page for almost an hour now. After another long and awkward silence, Arabella looked up from the book. "Lily, what's your family like?"

"What?" Lily asked, she had been reading and didn't expect Arabella to start a conversation anytime soon.

"What's your family like? I mean, I know that you're muggle-born and that you have a sister, but that's it. What are they like?"

Lily frowned thinking about the still unfinished letter sitting up in the dorm room. If her parents thought that there was a rift between her and Petunia before it was going to be impassable eventually. She just wasn't sure what to say to her. They were both experience things that they couldn't talk about with the other. "I love my family," Lily said after thinking about it a great deal, "they've got their problems, but I still care for them a great deal."

Arabella smiled. "So what about your mum?"

"My mum is over-excited about my magical ability. She's something like a little kid reading fairy tales. It's sort of funny actually."

"I can't even imagine," Arabella said with a laugh. "You know what my mum did?"

"What?" Lily asked, rather surprised that Arabella had brought up the subject of family on her own and was actually laughing and smiling about it.

"Well, you see, she got really drunk the night before I was born and she had this ridiculous hangover the next morning. So the doctors come in and they ask her, 'What are you going to name her?' She must have thought they wanted to know what her name was because she says, 'Arabella Figg'. We're both Arabella Figg. Isn't that ridiculous?"

Both girls exchanged a glance and then burst into a fit of giggles.

"What's so funny ladies?" asked Gretchen Malfoy, who had just appeared with her gang of Slytherins.

"Nothing, Gretchen," Arabella spat angrily.

"Oh, it's got to be something," Gretchen continued as she pulled out a chair and sat down at the table. "I didn't think little Arabella would be over Daddy's accident so quickly."

"Accident?" Arabella asked, turning curiously toward Gretchen.

"Did I say accident?" Gretchen looked at her gang of Slytherin followers innocently and they all shook their heads to say 'no'. "I didn't think so."

"What do you mean accident?" Arabella asked. She looked as though she was getting extremely angry. Lily had never seen Arabella's cheeks flush red before and the look in the girl's eyes was practically terrifying.

"She didn't say anything about an accident," Ryan Lestrange said, leaning around Arabella's other side, between her and Lily.

Lily was starting to worry that her friend would try and take out the whole lot of them, but instead Arabella refused to give in to the rage that was flowing through her. She gathered her books and walked angrily out of the library with Lily following close behind. "That little git," Arabella mumbled to herself.

"Bella, don't let her get to you," Lily said, trying to be comforting.

"Yeah, sure," Arabella stopped in the hall and sighed. "I can't believe I did that."

"Did what?"

"I left my potions stuff in the dungeon."

Lily looked at her incredulously. She was extremely tempted to ask 'How absolutely stupid can you get?' but considering all that her friend had been through in the past few days she didn't say anything. She just followed Arabella down to the Potions Dungeon to get the forgotten schoolwork.

"Professor, my sister isn't exactly as trustworthy as one might think," said a voice from inside the classroom.

"Who's that? A male version of Gretchen?" Arabella whispered. Lily didn't respond, except to glare as Arabella decided to continue eavesdropping by hiding behind one of the hanging curtains. "Come on Lily," she hissed.

"We're going to get caught. Let's just get your work later," Lily whispered nervously.

"Come on, please, just this once, stick your neck out." Lily sighed, but she did as Arabella asked. She was feeling a little sick about eavesdropping, but she had to admit it was a little fun doing something she wasn't specifically given permission to do.

"If you don't feel that your sister is trustworthy, Mr. Malfoy, than why did you inform her of the incident with Mr. Figg when you know very well his daughter is in her year?"

Arabella let a small gasp escape from where she was standing, but thankfully she wasn't heard. "I don't have to tell Gretchen anything. She just finds them out."

"That's a good quality," Professor Pearson said with a strange tone in her voice, "but only if someone teaches her to keep her mouth tightly shut."

"Don't worry, Professor, she'll learn."

"I hope so, Mr. Malfoy. We have a lot of more important things to worry about without your little sister babbling all of our plans."

"Oh Professor, if she told any of our plans to anyone..." he trailed off, rather hesitant to speak of a threat in front of a teacher.

"I understand completely Mr. Malfoy. Now, I have to ask, have you had a certain conversation with Mr. Lestrange yet."

From their hiding place, Arabella couldn't help but giggle. Lily, however, rolled her eyes. "I don't think she meant that kind of conversation," she whispered.

"Yes, I've spoken to him. He seemed somewhat eager to take the job. If you don't mind my saying so Professor...it seems a little bit odd to me."

"Odd, why would Mr. Lestrange being eager to take on his responsibilities seem odd?"

"He's only a first year and..."

"I seem to recall another young first year who was extremely eager to join up. Have you forgotten, Mr. Malfoy, that the young are the most impressionable and therefore the easiest to turn over?"

"No, Professor, I haven't forgotten."

"Good, now you may go. And Mr. Malfoy, don't forget, not a word of this until I say so."

The two girls waited a few agonizing minutes after they watched Lucius Malfoy leave the dungeons before they went in. Arabella made a big show of walking into the classroom, to make it seem as though it couldn't be possible for them to sneak up and not be heard.

"What do you want, girls?" Professor Pearson asked irritably just before Arabella could pretend to knock on the door.

"I think I've left some of my books down here," Arabella said, trying to seem somewhat innocent.

"They're on my desk." Professor Pearson picked up the books and brought them over to Arabella and Lily. "And Miss Figg, do try to be more responsible. You shouldn't just wander around the school in search of your forgotten belongings. There's no telling what could happen." Arabella looked at her suspiciously, but she didn't respond. She and Lily just walked out of the classroom and hurried to Gryffindor tower.

*****

Arabella threw herself down on her bed and glared at the ceiling. "What were they talking about?" She growled. "What plans, huh? What about my dad did Gretchen find out?"

"I have no idea, Bella," Lily said, shaking her head. She was profoundly confused herself. Arabella frowned and continued to glare at the ceiling, a great frustration building inside her. "Maybe we should tell Professor McGonagall," Lily suggested, knowing full well that Arabella would never agree to tell a teacher what they heard.

"No!" Arabella said angrily. "We can't tell Professor McGonagall. What if she's in on it?"

"Arabella, we don't even know what it is," Lily said in an ill-fated attempt to calm her friend down. "Besides, I seriously doubt that Professor McGonagall would..."

"How do you know? She didn't tell me about my dad for weeks."

"She wasn't supposed to. I bet she didn't even know."

"You can't be so trusting, Lily."

"Why not?"

"You just can't. Not all people are sweet little naïve angels like you think they are."

"I don't think..."

"We need to make a pact. Swear that you won't tell anyone about what we heard until we find out more," Arabella said jumping off her bed and looking expectantly at her friend.

"What do you mean by find out more?" Lily asked, terrified that Arabella intended to spy on more people or something else much worse.

"Well, you know, what the plans are."

"How would we do that?"

"Beat up Gretchen maybe?" Arabella suggested with a laugh. She didn't really know how they were going to find out more, but she was determined to do so.

Lily sighed, but nodded her head. "I swear," she said, deeply regretting the words immediately after she said them.

*****

Lily was on a stage, in a strange restaurant or something with several tables. She was singing a song she didn't know. The words just kept coming from her mouth as though no one knew them better than her She was smiling and everything seemed like it was finally perfect. "Everything's going to change," Arabella said loudly and Lily stopped singing.

"Of course they are," Lily said, suddenly standing beside her, but Arabella didn't listen she just kept talking to the other girl sitting at the table with her; Narcissa. Lily barely had time to wonder why Narcissa would be sitting with her before they started talking again.

"They already have," Narcissa said with a horribly sad tone in her voice as though she had just lost everything that was important to her. She had a tear stained face and Lily noticed a large diamond ring on Narcissa's finger. "Lily was pretty upset when I told her. She seemed to think my parents would let me break the original arrangement."

"Well, she really thought you two were meant to be together, so did I. " Arabella shook her head sadly. "Did you tell him yet?"

"No, I can't tell him. I know I have to, but it'll kill him. It really will." Narcissa started to cry and Arabella put her arm around her shoulder, trying to comfort her. Lily tried to do this as well, but she couldn't move. Then the room started to dissolve around her, Arabella and Narcissa went along with it.

When the dissolving ended the forest appeared again. Lily looked around and shivered from a strange cold that went through her and nestled in her bones. "I told you it was coming," said a harsh women's voice that sounded a lot like Mrs. Snape. "Well dear, it's come, it's already started and there's nothing you or anyone else can do to stop it."

Lily woke up in a cold sweat as she tended to do after she had one of her nightmares. She shook her head repeatedly to try and forget what happened. It wasn't as frightening of a dream as it was just eerie. 'What was Mrs. Snape talking about?' she wondered, as she got up. She didn't know why, but she felt something pulling her down to the common room. When she got down there, she gazed out the window with a smile on her face. She couldn't see very far because a great white mass of falling snow was blocking her view and that was why she was smiling. "I love snow," she out loud. Even though she spoke softly her voice seemed to shatter a perfect silence that seemed as though it shouldn't be violated. "It's just so perfect and innocent looking."

"Innocent looking, maybe, but defiantly not innocent," said Remus. He looked far more depressed than he usually did and this caused Lily to worry a great deal.

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing important." Remus shook his head sadly. "Why are you always down here?"

"I should be asking you that same question." They both looked at each other suspiciously, trying to decide weather or not to tell the other why they frequented the common room late at night.

"I told you about my parents," Remus said with a frowning.

"Yes, you did. They still haven't written to you have they?" Lily asked sincerely. She tried her best to make eye contact with him, but he kept turning away.

"No, they haven't," he said still refusing to make eye contact even though he knew he wasn't lying, entirely. "Now, why do you come down here?"

"I just can't sleep, I think too much."

"One of my biggest problems." He laughed nervously as he said it. "But that's not all of it, is it?"

Lily looked at him and felt herself blush with embarrassment. Remus had been nice to her and had given absolutely no reason not to be trusted since she met him on the train. 'Why should I keep it all a secret?' Lily thought ,' Well, except for Arabella's pact, of course, but I can talk about my nightmare's without mentioning what happened today right?'

"Remus are you good at keeping a secret?" Lily asked.

"I'm better at that than you could imagine," he said, somewhat sadly.

"Right, after our first flying lesson I started having nightmares..." Lily said with a sigh, and told him everything that had been happening. She couldn't stop with the nightmares, she told everything, and it felt good to get rid of it all, very good.

When Lily had finished Remus looked at her with a strange mixture of concern and relief in his face. "So Pearson knows what happened to Arabella's father?" He asked confused, "I don't understand."

"Neither do I." Lily paused and then suddenly remembered what she had done. "Oh no, Arabella made me swear not to tell anyone about what we heard until we know more about it. I feel like such a idiot, you must think I'm a horrible friend."

"Actually, I think you should tell Dumbledore. He's a good guy."

"That's what I think, well I suggested McGonagall, but that's basically the same."

"Yeah, you should defiantly tell Dumbledore. It doesn't sound like whatever Pearson and Malfoy are doing is right, especially if Lestrange is involved."

"I don't think Arabella will go along with that, but I'll tell her." Lily started going up the steps and then she turned around. "Thanks Remus."

"Thank you too," Remus said actually smiling.

"For what?" Lily's face clouded with confusion.

"For being nice, and telling me the truth."

"Maybe one day you'll return the favour?"

"Maybe."

*****

"I can't believe you told him!" Arabella shouted when Lily told her what Remus had said.

"It just kind of came out, I was so worried about the nightmares, but that's not..."

"And you never told me about the nightmares, what about that?"

"Arabella, calm down, maybe he could help us."

Arabella looked a bit skeptical, but Remus chose this moment to come up to them. "Lily, I've been thinking about what you said, about those nightmares and stuff, and I thought, it might be a good idea to write down your dreams. It might help clear your head."

"Thanks," Lily said smiling. He nodded and dashed off after his friends. "See what I mean, Arabella?" Lily asked. Arabella rolled her eyes, but she still nodded in agreement.