Book One of the Mercury Series: Liquid Mercury {A Harry Potter Fanfic} EDITING

Ch. 12 ~ Story of Her Life

Song for Chapter::::: Secrets - One Republic

CHAPTER TWELVEEE!

Remus changed into a werewolf right before my eyes. I took a flying leap and landed on top of him, just as he lunged to attack Hermione. Remus howled and threw me off.

We fought like this until Sirius came to help. With two opponents, Remus was overwhelmed. I managed to sit on top of him, so he couldn’t attack the others. 

I heard shouting, and turned to see Peter scurrying away in Animagus form. 

“Stupefy!” Hermione yelled, and Peter was frozen in place. Hermione changed into an otter, and retrieved Peter in her mouth. Harry then Stunned Remus, and I was able to get off of him. 

I slumped down on the ground, bleeding from a gash on my leg and shoulder. Sirius transformed and lifted me up. I didn’t have enough energy to growl a complaint. Only enough to hold back a roar of pain. Hermione jumped onto Sirius’ shoulder, and watched me with triumphant and sad eyes. She was probably feeling victorious for catching Peter, and sad about me being injured. Snape levitated Remus with his wand, and Harry helped Ron walk back up to the castle. Everything was still going according to plan. 

We walked silently up to the castle. And funny enough, Dumbledore and the Minister of Magic were waiting in the entrance hall with Dementors. 

“Don’t let them use the Kiss!” Harry said loudly, just as the Dementors were swooping in. 

I felt myself go lightheaded, as I was victim of another attack. 

“Stop!” Dumbledore commanded, and the Dementor swooped back to the minister’s side. 

“This animal is wounded. Sirius, take her up to the hospital wing. I trust you remember where it is? I will have Severus escort you,” Dumbledore instructed. 

Snape put a disillusionment charm on Sirius, so that no one in the school would get freaked out by the sight of him. Then the two of them carried me off into the direction of the hospital wing. 

I could tell that the two were enemies. Maybe it was the way they walked at least two feet away from each other. Or how they both were stiff as boards. Or maybe it was the way that their eyes flashed in hatred whenever they laid eyes on one another. 

I was slipping and I could tell, though that didn’t comfort me in the slightest. Black edged my vision. Snape and Sirius’ footsteps rang and echoed in the silence, the sound pounding into my skull, giving me dull, throbbing headache. Finally, the blackness crept in until it consumed everything around me in a black nothingness. 

I woke up in the hospital wing, still in the form of a lioness. Sirius was asleep on one side of me. Harry was on the other. Hermione, Fred, and George were crashed on the floor. Ron was in the bed opposite of mine, leg in a splint. Apart from Ron’s obnoxious snoring, the wing was deadly silent. I couldn’t take it. So, I maneuvered my way out of the bed and across the floor towards the door, which I pawed open. 

The corridors were empty, which was odd. It should have been overflowed. It was a school day. Perhaps Dumbledore canceled the lessons because of what happened. Oh snap! Where is Peter Pettigrew?! Oh well. Hermione can’t have let him go…

I shook away these thoughts as if they were flies in my fur. I bounded down the vacant hallways towards the main entrance. When I’d gotten to the great oak doors, I found them slightly ajar. Hmm… Maybe someone slipped by me. I did take the long way. 

I slid through the open doors and out into the world. It was white. The grounds were covered by a sheet of frosty snow. It reminded me of a white silk blanket. I padded over to the edge of the lake. Peering into it, I saw merpeople under a frozen layer of lake water. They waved up to me merrily. I swished my tail in greeting. 

I heard a bark. I turned to see Sirius in Animagus form. He was a big, shaggy black dog that had strands of grey. 

Did Hermione bring in Peter? I asked through my thoughts. 

Yes. The little bastard will get what’s coming. Fudge nearly had a fit when Hermione turned him into a human. Dumbledore and Fudge listened to my story and claimed me innocent. He thought. 

Lovely. 

Then silence until: How did your mother die?

Why do you care so much? You weren’t there for 13 years of our lives. Mum didn’t even talk about you. Or herself, or any relatives. All’s she said was that I had three uncles. James, Jacob, and Jason. Two were dead. I thought fiercely. 

He paused, not knowing what to say. 

Your mother, James and Jacob were triplets. Looked all the same. You could never tell James and Jacob apart unless you were close to them. All three were my best friends. Jess kept getting attacked. At first, we didn’t know what by, but she kept getting dragged into deep water, always almost drowning. When she was 16, she found out that she was a superste. That’s why she never could die. 

I left her when she knew she was going to have you. I-I panicked. I wasn’t ready to have a kid! I was only 20. But you know, after I’d left, we never seen each other again because I’d been sent to Azkaban. 

I then filled in the rest of the blanks of what happened in mine, and my mother’s life. When I was eleven, mum and I used to play piano together. But on one particular day, I didn’t feel like playing, and that never happened. So I was sitting in the kitchen, listening to my mother play. Then, I heard a crack, crumble and crash. Bellatrix and Augustus came. They were the ones who blew apart the wall. They started calling for me. It was horrible, you should have heard Bellatrix’s screeching. I was in a crawl space that was hidden in the kitchen. That’s why they couldn’t find me. Later I went to see the damage in Mum’s study. Everything was ruined and she was dead.

I packed a bag and bolted. As soon as I stepped out of the house, I was found by Dumbledore. He explained everything to me and took me to live with Harry and the Dursleys. It was horrible, I admitted with a laugh. At Hogwarts, Harry and I had gotten into some kind of fight. It was because he thought that I’d been trying to steal Hermione away from him. He accused me of corrupting her. I snorted at this thought. After, I’d proposed the idea of becoming shifting Animagi with Hermione and the Weasley twins. We’d managed to get through to the Animagi part, just not the shifting. 

In second year, I helped Ron, Harry, and Hermione brew a Polyjuice Potion. Then they accused Draco Malfoy of being heir of Slytherin. Ha, as if! Then Ron and Harry went down into the Chamber of Secrets. 

This year, I’d become an Animagus, watch a hippogriff die, and met my father in the Shrieking Shack along with a werewolf and a traitor. I summed up my life. It was rather amusing to see Sirius’ face. It was a mixture of bewilderment and confusion, all on dog features. It was amusing. 

I’m sorry that I wasn’t there. 

I thought for a minute before replying, I know. 

After awhile, we’d made our way back to the castle. I was excited, and finally glad that I had a dad now. He’d offered me to stay at Grimmauld Place with him. I’d accepted. He was also going to offer Harry a place to stay, though I think Dumbledore would rather him to stay with the Dursleys. 

You could see our footsteps imprinted in the snow. Paw marks and human tracks. We walked up to the entrance hall, through the corridors and back up to the hospital wing. When we returned, everyone was up and about. 

Hermione flung herself on me in a hug, her bushy hair obscuring my vision. 

“We woke up, and you were gone! Thank Merlin you’re okay!”

If I was in human form, I would have laughed and reassured Hermione that I was okay. But I wasn’t, so I settled on rolling my eyes good-naturedly. 

Fred and George were next. They picked me up and placed me on my bed, telling me that I was going to be okay. More eye rolls on my part. 

Then Harry came up to me, scratching his neck sheepishly. “I wanted to apologize for before…”

I raised an eyebrow. He wanted to apologize? From 1st year when he ruined our relationship? This’ll be good.