Harry Potter and The Jade Dragon

Chapter 29 ~ Reunion

The clearing seemed very quiet, as they all sat around, Robert's still body lying in the middle, Jeanne and Shan sitting next to it, looking at each other.

Harry looked at Ron and Hermione, and saw from their stunned faces that they were thinking the same thing as he : that they hadn't heard rightly. Shan was looking at Jeanne in disbelief, her face pale.

Jeanne glanced at Harry and the others, looking rather tired, then turned back to Shan.

"I am your sister, Shan," she said again, "Your father was my father, and Mrs Chen was my mother. You had an elder sister, but you never knew, because I left all of you long before you were born."

She glanced at Lupin, who had seated himself next to her, and was quietly listening.

"That day in the river, when she saw me transform, Mother said she knew at once who I was," said Jeanne. "She told me who she was, the second time I went to visit her. She told me that I had a sister, ten years younger than me, whom I'd already met.

"I spent several hours with her in the hut, that evening. She told me everything that had happened since that day Charles Graham came, and took me away to live with him."

Jeanne was silent for a moment, as if thinking.

"When Charles Graham came and told our parents that Deorg was looking for a shape-shifter, Mother and Father didn't want to let me go. Father said that the family could go instead to Long-Shan, where his old friend Kung Xian-Wen was teaching at Tian-Long. He said Tian-Long was well-protected, because Lady Wen-Li was a powerful witch, and that I would be safe from Deorg there.

"But Lady Wen-Li didn't agree. When Father contacted her, she and Master Kung Apparated over to discuss the matter. Master Kung felt Tian-Long was safe enough; but Lady Wen-Li said Deorg was becoming very powerful, and that she could not guarantee our safety there. She and Charles Graham persuaded Father and Mother to let Charles adopt me, and he brought me to England, and hid me in a remote village there.

"When I was gone, Deorg came to our village, looking for me. He was furious to find me gone, and he would have slaughtered Father and Mother but Master Kung came, and they managed to escape. Lady Wen-Li asked them to stay at Tian-Long, and Father became the Caretaker of the Grounds there.

"As time went by, our parents gradually came to regret adopting me out. They felt that Tian-Long was safe after all, and that they should have brought me there instead. Father tried to contact Charles Graham, but was unsuccessful. Mother soon became distraught with grief. She couldn't forgot how terrible Deorg was, and she felt sure he would eventually find Charles and kill his entire family. Rumours of his awful deeds were spreading through the land, and she became convinced that I was dead.

"Mother swore she would never have any more children. She said she could not bear the pain of having another child, only to risk losing it again. And she hated all animals, because they reminded her of me. She couldn't bear the sight of them.

"But fate intervened, and several years later, she conceived again."

Shan was looking at Jeanne, very pale. Jeanne glanced at Harry and the others, who were all listening intently.

"When Shan was born, Mother vowed she would not have another shape-shifter as a child. She felt she had lost the ability to love. She was afraid to love, because she was afraid of the pain of losing a loved one again. She said many things to Father that she didn't mean, because she was insecure. She told him, if this child also turned out to be a shape-shifter, she would drown it.