Discovered

Piece of the Puzzle?

The astronomy tower was silent as death. Tracy leaned on the balcony saying nothing.

"I screwed up." She finally broke the silence.

A tear slid down her cheek. "Now if I don't fix it....my parents..." a sob ripped from her throat, "it's all my fault Eris! I couldn't do it."

"Deep breath love." I patted her shoulders gently. "Couldn't do what?"

"I couldn't kill them." She wrapped her arms around me soaking my shoulder with tears. "Now, if I don't find others...he'll kill my parents! I didn't want anything to do with any of this!"

What could I say? What could I do? Nothing.

So I stood there and let her cry into my shoulder. Stroking her hair trying to calm her the best I could.

The bluish white glow came back into my hands. Tracy jerked suddenly. Tears stopping suddenly.

"Are you ok?" A stupid question really.

"Yeah I feel better now." She smiled dreamily.

Oh gods. Hopefully I haven't done anything to her. I watched her saunter off without a care in the world.

"Professor!" I burst through the potions room door.

"You're late." Severus gave me a measuring look.

"Sever...." I stopped short noticing the twins and Tracy's old friends.

"We need to talk." He growled.

"Can this wait?! Something's happened and I don't have time to nurse egos."

"What happened?" His voice was colder than usual.

I gestured frantically at the other.

He finally growled, "everyone out!"

My shoulders finally relaxed.

"What happened?" He asked with a gentleness I wasn't expecting.

"Tracy...I was trying to comfort her and my hands started to glow again. Except instead of a shield like in the forest...it was like....I don't know. She was just suddenly fine??? But not really. Like she was in a dazed state." I took a breath trying to calm myself. "I have no idea what I did or how I did it."

"I'll alert the head master." Was all he had to say.

"Th...thank you." I murmured.

He merely nodded. "You still have detention after dinner."

The hallway looked empty. Doing my best not to give it away I followed the extendable ear to the tapestry.

"Well. Now you know." I sighed leaning against the wall.

"Who's Tracy?" Fred asked.

"She's a girl in my house. Thanks to her parents she's stuck in Voldemort's clutches." I slid down the wall. "I wish I could do anything."

Fred slid down next to me. "Everything is going to be ok. We're going to take him down."

"I know." I sighed. "I just don't want her to turn into a name on the radio. Or worse."

The twins sat in silence with me for a long time. Nothing could really make this better.

"Well how have things been going in the Slytherin house?" George asked suddenly.

"No clue honestly." I shrugged. "Other than Tracy now, no one else trusts me. Or even speaks to me for that matter."

I gave a bitter laugh. "How much more useless could I get?"