From a Cradle to a Grave

Chapter 27

Hope's Pov

I've been steering clear of Draco, Pansy, and most of the other Slytherins, despite all of them insisting that I give them a play by play as to how I got past the Horntail. Tonight, though, I'm not as lucky as I have been the past three days.

"Weasley! Hey- Weasley!" Adrian Pucey and his sixth year friends run up to me as I enter the Slytherin Common Room.

"What?" I groan irritably.

"You've been avoiding us for as long as you can. Now will you just tell us how you did it?" Cassius Warrington says.

"Half the school thought for sure you'd get roasted alive," Miles Bletchley says in a tone that suggests he would have still found it exciting even if I had gotten burned.

"And what about the egg? Have you opened it yet?" Pucey asks excitedly.

"If I give you the bloody egg, will you leave me alone?" I say.

I Accio the egg out of my dorm room and into my hands, and toss it to the three sixth year boys. Soon, about a dozen of the other Slytherins have crowded around them. Warrington pries open the top of the egg, and-

"Shut it off!" I scream, when a horrible shrieking, wailing sound erupts from the egg. Somebody accidentally knocks the egg out of Warrington's hands, causing the wailing to grow louder. Finally, Daphne manages to clasp the egg shut.

People stare at me wildly, and immediately begin to talk to one another in loud voices.

"What was that?"

"Was that a banshee? Has she got to face one of those?"

"Sounded like someone was getting tortured to me."

"My ears are still ringing!"

I grab the egg, and furiously march up the stairs to my dorm room. The egg screamed loud enough to give everyone migraines, but me, with my heightened hearing? I can't even make my way to my bed without falling down.

"Stupid- Bloody- Egg," I mutter, as I stuff the egg into the bottom of my trunk. I still have months to go before the second task; I don't need to spend time worrying about what I'll have to face already.

Instead, I sit at my desk, take out my quill and a bottle of ink, and begin to write a letter to my parents: Dear Mum and Dad, There's been a couple of things on my mind recently. Do you think we could talk tomorrow? Maybe at eleven at night?

I sign the letter, seal it with wax, and head up to the Owlery to send it. It's almost dinnertime now, so when I head out of the Owlery, I go straight for the Great Hall. I sit far away from the Slytherin fourth-years, and instead sit with Pucey and his sixth year friends. I'd rather get eaten by the giant squid in the lake than sit with Pucey's group, but sitting with them is a better option than sitting with the people who made me turn into a bully.

I shouldn't be thinking like this, of course; It's just as much my fault as it is theirs, perhaps even more. But it's easier to blame Draco than to blame myself for my wrong choices, so that's exactly what I do.

*****

The next morning, during breakfast in the Great Hall, the owl I sent yesterday returns to me with a letter tied to its leg. I tear the letter open, and see that my parents have sent me a response; They've agreed to talk to me later at night, in the Slytherin fireplace.

"Have you asked her out yet?" I whisper to Harry during History of Magic. "Have you asked Cho to the Yule Ball?"

"No," Harry hisses back at me. "Every time I try, she's surrounded by half a dozen of her friends. Why do girls have to travel in packs, like wolves?" he scowls.

"It's just in our nature," I shove him playfully. "You'd better hurry up and ask her, though. It'd be really embarrassing if she told you 'no' because she's already going with somebody else."

"Fine," he grumbles. "I'll try again sometime this week."

I make sure to stay extra alert during Potions, because I was really pushing it with Snape during the days leading up to the first task. Falling asleep openly in class was more than a bit too much, and I'm sure if I wasn't a Slytherin, Snape would have had me kicked out of Hogwarts in the blink of an eye.

And finally, night comes. I stay in the Slytherin common room doing my homework and playing around with my useless stick of a wand, until the entire place empties out. Then, I see something flickering in the fireplace.

"Mum, dad," I grin from ear to ear. Their heads have popped up in the fireplace.

"Hope, it's so nice to see you," my dad says.

My mum, on the other hand, looks absolutely stressed. "I heard about the dragons, Hope. Are you alright? I still can't believe they made you compete! After all, you're not the one who put your name in the goblet. Are you? You didn't, did you?"

"No, of course not!" I say. "Anyways, I'm fine. The Triwizard Tournament wasn't what I wanted to talk to you two about."

"What is it, then? Is everything okay?" my mum asks me.

"I just..." I take in a deep breath, knowing how stupid this will sound to them. "I wanted to ask you about the day I was, er- Given to you?"

I expect them to laugh, and start making fun of my choice of words. Instead, their faces turn grim, and they look to one another seriously.

"What? What is it?" I say.

"Hope... Why would you ask something like that? Did somebody say something to you?" my dad asks.

"You're making me freak out," I say to them. "Why did... What does that mean?"

"Arthur, we shouldn't," my mum says.

"But we should," my dad says. "She was going to find out at some point in her life, we might as well tell her now."

"Tell me what?" I ask.

"Hope..." my mum sighs. "You're adopted," she says weakly.

This news is shocking enough, but I'm getting the feeling there's more to the story than that.

"Fourteen years ago, a teenage girl came to our house. She said she knew us through a mutual acquaintance, one of Arthur's cousins living in North America. In her arms was a baby girl... You," my mum begins. "She said that she had saved your life, and now that she had, she didn't want you to go back to your parents. These were her exact words: 'I hate her parents. They're horrible, monstrous people. But more than that, they have hundreds of worse enemies. On the very day this baby was born, there was an attempt on her life. She needs to stay as far away as possible. Far away from her family's enemies, and far away from her psychotic family, too.' She begged us to take you in, Hope. And so... We did."

My heart pounds at my mum's words. What is she saying?

"She told us you were a witch, and a powerful one at that. She had been planning on channeling your magic to revive a weapon that could be used against your birthparents, but the moment she held you in her arms, she knew you were far too innocent and pure to be used for such a dark purpose. And she also knew she couldn't let you stay with your birth family. She refused to let you be tainted by their murderous personalities," my dad says softly.

"What... What was the girl's name?" I ask in a hollow voice.

"I can't quite recall..."

"Davina Claire," my mum says, interrupting my dad. "The person who brought you to us was named Davina Claire."

*****

Did you expect that ending? I thought it would make the most sense, especially considering how much Davina despised the Originals in the first & second seasons, but at the same time, never wanted Hope to get hurt.

(The 'weapon' that Davina was going to revive by channeling Hope's magic was Mikael btw)

Oh, and sorry this chapter was so short :D