Author’s Notes: This chapter remains to (right now) this day the only un-beta’d chapter of Malicious Intentions. I’m hoping, if you’ve read it before you’d not suffered the consequences of a pre-beat chapter. Thank you for all your reviews!
Revelations
Hours passed and Millie’s absence from classes went suspiciously unnoticed. It wasn’t until all the light had dimmed from the window had the girl dragged her sister’s lifeless form out from behind the statue.
The lightening bolt necklace glinted in the overhead light of the moon as the attacker dragged Millie’s limp, lifeless form into an unused classroom. The moonlight flooded in through the large bay windows, and the girl walked over and yanked the curtains shut. The Attacker had waited for hours in the shadows, concealed from anyone who happened to walk past. She had been waiting for Millie to stir, and she saw with some satisfaction the bruise on her head purpling and Millie starting to mumble incoherently.
Millie’s eyes opened at the sharp contrast and she blinked and looked blurrily around. She could vaguely make out a form some six feet away. Suddenly the blur shifted and was standing over her and Millie saw again to her surprise the same, piercing blue eyes she herself had.
“Get up, Millicent,” the girl demanded icily, “Are you surprised to see me after all these years?”
Millie shrank away from the girl, pushing herself backwards into a corner. She felt her back hit the cold hard wall and she stopped as the blue eyes drew equal with her own.
“Who are you and why do you think I should know you?” she said bracingly.
The girl reached down and grasped Millie’s hand in her own and roughly pulled her to her feet.
Millie was surprised at the strength the girl had, and stood there in front of her swaying slightly.
“Millicent, do you know who I am? Haven’t you been wondering?” the girl mocked her, walking around her in circles lifting each foot delicately and setting it down again on the wooden floor, and plume of dust rising each time contact was made. Millie followed her every move, scared that if she had her back to her for too long something awful would happen.
“You could stop teasing me, but of course that would ruin your fun,” Millie said lowly, her motto being ‘When in doubt, fake it’.
“You don’t like games, sister dear?” the girl with the silver hair taunted her, stopping again and staring into her eyes “ the girl’s eyes.
Millie gasped and brought her hand up to her mouth. No, couldn’t be Wendy?
“That’s right, Millicent; I’m Wendolin. Your ‘missing sister’. The one you dedicated your life to finding. I won’t lie to you. I much prefer my life as it is, so I ask of you to stop trying to change me. The Dark Lord has powers over me you know not, much more powerful than your little magic you use.”
Wendolin pushed her roughly to the ground and whispered in her ear menacingly. “Speak of this meeting to anyone, and I swear on our Grandmother’s grave you will never know what hit you.”
Millie gazed stunned up at the girl. What was the point of this? Sure, so Wendy wanted to make herself known, but why go to all this trouble to knock her out in the middle of the day then wait for it to become dark enough just to tell Millie who she was? Something wasn’t right. Nothing seemed to be adding up.
Just as suddenly as the girl turned up she swished away, her silky robes flashing and swirling in front of Millie’s eyes as she exited through the stone arch at the further end of the classroom. Millie sat dazed, unaware of the details that had just happened. She got slowly to here feet and walked back up to Gryffindor tower. Her mind felt absent from her body as the said the password.
“Thestrals.”
The Fat Lady swung open mutely and as she climbed up the spiral stairs she could hear the carefree giggles coming from her cousins, and this woke her mind up enough so when she walked into the dormitory she was alert enough to answer their questions sufficiently.
“Where were you today? We were worried when you didn’t turn up for practice.”
“What’s up with your hair, mate? Are you trying for a new manky style or something? Because I have news for you: Not gonna happen.”
Millie sat down heavily on the center four-poster and sighed. Suddenly the smirks on Halle’s and Giselle’s faces turned to looks of concern for their friend. Usually Millie would have shot back with a retort so fast you’d crick your neck trying to see it. But tonight something was wrong. The girls thought it best just to leave Millie to wallow in her own thoughts for the evening. This wasn’t the first time something like this had happened.
“G’night then, sweetie,” Halle said patting her hand before returning to her own bed and settling in for the night.
Giselle instead said nothing as she brushed her hair out in a methodical way, parting each section and swishing the brush through it the compulsory number of times.
Silently and without looking at Millie who was now staring aimlessly at the ceiling she leant over and switched of the light.
The room was engulfed in darkness and Millie rolled over and waited for dawn to come.
Millie woke to the sound of the shower running in the next room and Halle singing in her off-key voice to Millie’s now working radio. Fickle things, those Muggle radios. You were never sure when they would start working. As Millie gathered her things together for a shower she noticed Giselle’s bed was made so tight you could drop a Sickle on it and it would bounce half way to the ceiling before coming back down again. This was an unusual manner for Giselle, to be so orderly. Something was up. Then she noticed the note pinned to the bed covers down near her feet.
Millie,
There’s something serious I have to talk to you about. I can’t talk about it at the moment. Some of the things you said were confusing. I’ll talk to you after the D.A meeting today. Dad said something significant would be happening today, and I don’t want miss any of it by thinking about you.
Giselle
Millie stared at the last line of the note. Did she sense a touch of hostility? Then she looked closer.
Some of the things you said were confusing What had she said in her sleep that have possibly been so offending?
There was no time to think about it however, as Halle came barreling out of the shower wrapped in a towel, her brown hair slick with water droplets falling steadily to the floor.
“Hey! You’re up! Good timing too, Giselle’s gone down to the Hall for breakfast, she said to meet us at the meeting. You all right?” she added, the cheerful expression on her face faltering at the look on Millie’s.
“It’s nothing really; Giselle just said she had to talk to me about something.” Millie swept past Halle into the bathroom and slipped under the shower.
Halle stood in the middle of the room with a bemused look on her face. Then she brightened and laughed.
“Giselle was right. We should really get her some new pyjamas. No wonder she was grumbling in her sleep last night! Anyone would have nightmares if they wore those fashion faux pas!”
“I heard that, Halle!” Millie’s disgruntled voice could be heard above the sound of the spraying water.
* * *
Millie lathered up the shampoo inhaling it’s sweet citrus scent. She worked it into her scalp, enjoying the feel of her fingers on her sore head. She worked it in harder then rinsed it out fully before adding conditioner to the tangled mess, letting the water cascade down her sore aching body. She closed her eyes as she let the water flush the stinging shampoo from them. It felt good to be toasty and warm beneath the hot water of the shower, but suddenly her good mood that had come so suddenly vanished just as fast and she was displeased when the water suddenly began to cool rapidly so she was shivering when she got out and wrapped a fluffy white towel around her dripping body.
She walked over to the fogged up mirror and rubbed her hands through the mist to wipe off the condensation. She stepped up to the counter and looked into her eyes.
The girls eyes, she thought suddenly.
She refused to think anymore about the strange happenings of the previous night and started getting dressed. As she pulled on her Gryffindor robes and shoved her wand in her skirt pocket she glanced on more time in the floor length mirror opposite her bed, fluffed her hair and hurried down to the Great Hall before the meeting was due to start.
* * *
As she hurried up the stairs she thought vaguely of Giselle and her mood last night. She didn’t say anything after Millie walked in, and this morning she took off before Millie was even awake. Usually the trio waited for each other every morning. She reached the landing where the Room of Requirement was waiting for her and fingered her lightning bolt necklace as she walked back and forth three times thinking to herself I need to be at the D.A meeting, a place to learn how to defend ourselves.
Suddenly a door appeared on the wall next to a piece of parchment with all the members of the D.A printed on it in Harry’s messy untidy scrawl, and opposite an tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being clubbed into submission by trolls.
Millie signed the parchment with the quill provided, then pressed her necklace into the ink and made and imprint next to her name. The door sprang open and she entered the room.
The walls were lined with heavy wooden bookcases lined with books with heading like A Compendium of Common Curses and Their Counter-Actions and Self Defensive Spell work: The Arts Outsmarted.
It still amazed Millie to see all the different types of Dark Magic Detectors such as Sneakescopes, a large Foe Glass that belonged in Harry’s office and a silver spindly object Millie had seen in Headmaster Dumbledore’s study. Small cushions and comfortable chintz chairs completed the look and as Millie sat down slowly and deeply into one she saw Harry giving her a hard look. Apparently he had been giving the D.A a lecture on why the meeting was so significant. He gave a questioning look as to where she was the previous day but Millie focused instead on Halle and Giselle who were attentively looking towards Harry to continue.
Harry cleared his throat and looked back at the rest of them. “As I was saying before, today is a highly significant day because it’s the birth of some of our most powerful members. Halle Weasley, Millie Weasley and Giselle Potter.”
He paused and looked at the three of them for a moment before continuing. Millie’s mind however was else where. How could she have forgotten her own birthday, let alone Giselle’s and Halle’s? Maybe this was why Giselle was so annoyed at her this morning. But even now as her eyes met Giselle’s she was greeted with a cold look before she turning back to her father. Millie was abashed. What had she done? She turned back to Harry’s waiting face and listened, concentrating hard and deliberately looking over the head of her cousin.
“Our necklace, or amulet as the males prefer to call it,” he paused while the men laughed appreciatively, “represents a bond.” He finished, wetting his lips before continuing.
“In the time of Merlin rings were symbolic of promises. Kings gave rings to their knights when they send them on journeys. Queens gave rings to warriors who fought for them in battles. A ring given to someone else was a pledge, a physical reminder that a bond existed between two people. In our case, our necklaces symbolise our commitment to the side of good, of fighting against Voldemort.”
“Our necklaces also represent what started all of this “ my scar.” Harry paused and touched his scar in the middle of his forehead lightly before continuing.
“Voldemort gave me this scar, marking me as his equal when he killed my parents. He linked to me the powers of the Heir of Slytherin. In my second year I discovered I could speak Parseltongue, a treasured trait of Lord Voldemort. He also gave me the power to keep defying him, and our necklaces also symbolise our connection to our powers.”
He gestured around the room to which all the members were subconsciously grasping their necklaces, and not noticing them beginning to glow at their touch.
Harry too touched his amulet, much bigger than the rest before continuing his speech.
“When we find ourselves in the presence of a Death Eater or anyone of malicious intentions we send a signal out to our members, you lend their power to you, making you strong enough to fight. And Win.”
“Our strongest members all share birthdays, and even though they’re young, have great potential. They share the bond of their birthdays. It creates a triple amount of power when working together and even Voldemort cannot hurt them. Their love and respect for each other is much like how I survived my first encounter with Him. My mother lay her love down for me and sacrificed herself so I could live my life and one day avenge their deaths.”
One Muggle born member apprehensively raised her hand, and when Harry called on her looked frightened at the prospect of speaking in front of everyone.
“Sort of like the Charmed Ones?” she squeaked out, blushing profusely at being paid attention to by Harry Potter. Usually quite a confident girl, she quailed under the pressure of so many eyes and smiled awkwardly.
“I’m unfamiliar with the similarities, but could you please come up here and introduce yourself to the D.A, and explain your theory,” Harry said kindly, eyeing the frightened forth year.
She slowly got up out of her chair and Harry took her place. She stood shaking at the front of the room and opened her mouth and whispered, “I’m Stephanie Spinnet, and I’m in Ravenclaw.”
She smiled and looked around the room. “Seems a bit stupid to be scared right now, seeing as facing Voldemort doesn’t even compare to speaking in front of you lot,” she said jokingly, and her audience laughed.
“The Charmed Ones are a coven of innate witches. Not in our sense of course. They can blow up people, freeze them, Apparate and Disapparate though they call it Orbing, and one of the witches can have premonitions. Kind of like a Seer, or Divination, though more precise,” she said thoughtfully.
“The point is The Charmed Ones share a magical bond. They are the most powerful magical beings, but when one of the sisters dies they are rendered almost powerless because the third sister, or in our case cousin, was the missing link to the power. Also, when they had a massive fight then power was broken and none of their powers worked. They didn’t have any power at all, and were attacked by various demons, or Death Eaters you could name them,” she said when she was greeted by a lot of blank looks at the term ‘demon’.
“Well that’s just about it,” she finished and scuttled quickly back to her chair which Harry had vacated when he strode back up to the front of the room. She grinned slightly at the few people who smiled at her warmly.
Harry summed it up for them. “I think what Miss Spinnet was implying was the connection between the girls can’t always be the strongest. Every adolescent has a fight with their family or best friend at one time, but we need to get past our shallow feelings, and stop them from contaminating our minds and breaking the connection.”
He glanced in his daughters and niece’s directions, his mouth thinning slightly.
Then he turned back to the group. “Obviously this is a happy occasion, enough of the serious stuff for now. Bring on a party!” He grinned widely and with a flick of his wand food and drinks appeared on the conjured up tables, groaning beneath the weight of the food.
The party went on into the long hours of the night, Millie, Giselle and Halle danced, sang and partier along with the others to the sound of the Weird Sisters being played by Stephanie’s portable player. Apparently she had a knack for household spells and had found a way to knock the interfering magic out of the air.
As the party died down and everyone went back to their dormitories or homes Millie, Gis and Halle walked back to Gryffindor Dormitory and went to bed. As she lay in bed that night listening to the exited chatter of Halle in her sleep Millie couldn’t help but thinking she didn’t feel as happy on the inside as she looked on the outside.
A/N: It didn’t take me very long to write this chapter, I was bursting with ideas that hopefully will continue on to the fourth chapter and keep you guys happy. I’d just like to thank Lori for beta-ing my work and making sure everything fits in right with my story outline!
~till then, Lurid.