Lily Potter and the Shadows' Misfortune

Chapter Forty

"It's German for Shadows," Addie furthered, sounding slightly frustrated about having to confide in the second year females. "It's a half-vampire, half-human hybrid."

"I've never heard of Schatten or Shadows," Cassie said.

"Yeah, me either," Lily said. She was slightly skeptical to say the least.

"We Shadows are rare to say the least," Romy said. "We're only really found in the Black Forest because that's where the greatest population of vampires is. And most Schatten don't have a wizard for a father; it's usually just a random human."

"Wait, that means your mum is a—"

"Vampire," Romy finished for Lily. "A full-blooded vampire."

"That's why you kept it a secret from everyone," Lily said as something finally made some sense. "Vampires aren't exactly the most popular creatures. Don't have a good reputation in the Wizarding World."

"Exactly," Romy said, her voice soft. "Now, Addie and I aren't full-blooded vampires, but we did inherit the skin, fangs, and eyes of vampires as well as a distaste for light. Without some sort of a disguise, it's obvious that we're part-vampire, and we didn't know how people would react."

"Wait, how did you keep your appearances human-like then?" Lily asked, discovering another missing piece to the puzzle.

"The pendants," Romy answered with a sigh. "They were charmed to keep us looking like humans and to let us live in the light without total discomfort. We just wanted to fit in here at Hogwarts."

Suddenly, Lily knew what was wrong with the Sanger twins.

"She wanted to fit in," Addie said, her voice lacking its normal harshness. "I wanted to keep our secret safe. That's why I was so on edge with you all. I'm sorry for that."

"I understand, but why are you telling us your secret now?" Cecily asked.

"You've lost your pendants and want our help finding them," Lily answered for the twins. "That's it. Isn't it? That's why you two look the way you do, and that's why you tore our room apart. Your pendants are missing."

"Or stolen," Romy said.

"Or not," Addie said, her severe voice returning.

"By the Hogwarts thieves?" Lily asked.

"No."

"Yes."

Lily blinked in the darkness at the twins' different responses, "Well, which answer is it? What are you two talking about?"

"Romy, don't you dare tell—"

"We're the Hogwarts thieves," Romy said, interrupting her sister, with a wavering voice. "Please, don't—"

"You two stole the artifacts?" Lily said, her mouth wide. That was a plot twist that she was not expecting. "Are you serious?"

"You two have to be kidding me. How is that possible? You're first years," Cassie said. "We're second years, and we couldn't even steal that stuff."

"I defended you two and said that you two were too nice and too good to be thieves," Lily said. She hated being wrong, and she almost felt betrayed that her friends would do something as horrible as stealing from the school.

"Well, you have to steal when it's necessary," Addie said, her voice unamused and unwavering.

"What do you need the Sword of Gryffindor, Sorting Hot, and everything else for?" Nora asked.

"What does anyone need that stuff for? It should—"

"Maybe if you four let us explain then we could actually tell you why we needed to steal that stuff in the first place," Addie said, her voice's end retaliatory.

"Well, maybe if you hadn't stolen from—"

"Nora, stop; let's let them explain," Lily said, eager to hear what was probably delusional reasoning; stealing was never justified, was it? "Go ahead. Why did you have to steal?"

"We were being blackmailed," Romy said without hesitation. "Well, we still are."

Lily cocked her head to the side. Blackmailed. Who would blackmail Addie and Romy?

"Someone knows we're Shadows, and they want to expose us to the school," Addie said. "Not even Headmistress McGonagall knows we're Shadows because we don't even know if our kind is allowed to learn at Hogwarts."

"Let me get this straight: you two have been paying someone off to keep your secret under wraps," Lily said, the story coming together in her head. "That night in the Forbidden Forest and that letter with the crow—it all makes sense now. But that means—"

"You've been supplying the revolution with magical artifacts," Cassie finished for Lily breathlessly. "That's awful!"
"We know it's bad, but that's what we had to do," Addie said.

"What do you two know about the revolution?" Lily asked, yearning to have some sort of clarity about the revolution.

"Nothing, we swear," Romy said, her voice genuine. "The people we met with never showed us their faces. They just wanted our money, and that's what we gave them."

"Until our mother's letter with our final payment didn't get to Hogwarts," Addie said, causing Lily to think of the envelope filled with Galleons that Hugo lost. "Then, the person started demanding priceless artifacts, so we stole them. It was the artifacts or our identities, and we chose to keep our identities a secret."

"And now that we seem to have stolen everything that the revolution wanted for payment and have no more Galleons to give, I think they stole our pendants," Romy said, "but Addie thinks we just misplaced them somehow."

"I just don't know how someone could steal the necklaces right off of our necks without us knowing," Addie said.

"Then how did we lose them?" Romy retorted. "We keep them on all of the time."

"It doesn't matter how we lost them," Addie said. "All that matters is that without them, everyone will know that we're Shadows."

"You want our help?" Lily asked, half-questioning them and half-assuming.

"We do. We want your help to find our pendants," Addie said with a sigh. "We need your help."

"You can't tell anyone else though," Romy said. "You can tell your three other friends, but please don't tell any of the teachers or older students. Please."

"Do you know how many school rules you guys are breaking?" Nora asked. "And have broken already?"

"Look, if we find our pendants, we plan on going to Headmistress McGonagall and telling her everything," Romy said, her voice desperate. "Please. Just help us find our pendants. We can't go out into the school looking like this."

The room was silent for a moment until Lily finally spoke, "Alright. We'll help you find your pendants."

Though she didn't know if she believed the Sanger twins' story completely or if any of it would check out, Lily knew that trying to find these pendants could lead to knowing something more about the revolution, and for two years, that's all Lily had wanted to learn more about. She was not going to lose this chance now that she had it.

-+-

Now, we've got some information and some answers! Hopefully, you all can forgive me for that last cliffhanger......so what do you all think of these new revelations?

Also, I'm thinking of putting all of my one-shots, except for "Our Fearless Leader", into one book because I think they clutter up my profile too much. What do you guys think about that?

Alright, as per usual, thank you all for reading, voting, and commenting! You guys are the best!!

-aquaseahorse