"Where is Daddy?" I asked, "When will he be back?"
"I don't know, Honey," Mommy was pacing back in forth and seemed quite distracted. "I don't know."
"But he promised he would read The Three Goblins to me if I was good while he was gone," I persisted. "Will he be back before bedtime?"
"He should have already been back by now," Mommy said, more to herself than to me. "Something must have gone wrong. I told him it would. He wouldn't listen. He never listens. Why couldn't he just listen, just this once?"
Mommy wasn't making any sense, and I was about to ask her what she was talking about when the door to the living room burst open, causing me and Mommy to jump back in fright.
"Daddy!" I jumped off the couch and rushed over to embrace him.
"Charles, Dear, what happened?" Mommy sounded worried behind me. "Are you alright?"
As I hugged Daddy, I felt something wet seeping through my sleeve. I pulled away and saw red stains that had soaked through the sleeves of my dress to my skin. It felt warm.
"Daddy, you're bleeding!" I exclaimed in realization.
"I'm fine, Darling," Daddy reassured me, "Just a small scrape or two."
"Let me take a look," Mommy started to lift up the hem of his shirt, "What happened?"
"There's no time for that now," Daddy brushed her hand aside. "We have to leave. Now." Daddy made his way over to the fireplace and removed one of the bricks, the one that hid the "secret puzzle piece" as Daddy had once called it.
"Here," He took out the black metal piece and handed it to me. "You hold on to this for me. I need you to keep it safe until we get to where we're going."
I nodded my head and took the metal piece from him, placing it in my dress pocket. "Where are we going?" I asked.
A loud knocking sound was heard from the hall, startling me.
"They are here," Daddy had a look of panic in his eyes. "Abigail, take Alexa upstairs and hide in the master bedroom. You should be safe there."
"What about you?" Mommy asked, scooping me up and heading toward the stairs.
"I'll try to talk to them. Whatever happens, stay hidden."
I held on to Mommy tightly as she fled upstairs, down the hallway and into hers and Daddy's room.
From downstairs, I heard a loud crashing noise and someone yelling.
"Mommy," I whispered, "I'm scared."
"Don't worry, Honey. We'll be fine. " Mommy said as she closed the door to the bedroom behind her quietly, "I promise."
I felt something pushing down hard on my chest over and over again as I came to. I felt water come surging up to my mouth and I rolled over onto the muddy ground to cough up lungfuls of water, gasping desperately for breath.
"Oh, thank goodness," I heard a relieved voice say from beside me.
"Remus, did you just kiss her?" Another voice asked, sounding thoroughly disgusted.
"Don't be daft, Pete," A different voice said, "He was performing CPR on her."
"What's CPR?"
I tried to ignore the voices around me as water came burning up my throat and I continued to cough and splutter. I was gasping for breath and I felt tears began to stream down my face. My heart pounded hard in my chest and I felt sobs escaping me. I felt embarrassed for crying in front of a group of people, but I couldn't stop the tears and sobs from escaping.
"Are you alright, Alexa?" The first voice asked.
I tried to answer but ended up only coughing again.
"I can't believe this happened." This voice sounded rather dazed and unbelieving.
"What happened? How did she even get in that water?"
"You pushed her in there, didn't you Potter!" I knew this voice as belonging to Lily Evans.
"What do you know? Where you there?"
"It was Potter who saved her, actually. I saw him, he was the one who got her out of the water, Evans."
I tried to open my eyes to look around me, but my vision was too blurry from tears and my hands were covered too much in the mud from the wet ground to wipe them away. All I saw was mists of color around the people who hovered over me. Even in my confused state, I recognized the moods as worried, confused and fearful. It was exactly how I felt at the moment.
"We need to get her to Madam Pomfrey," The soft voice that had first spoken said. "She's shivering and turning blue with the cold."
"What happened?" Another voice asked again.
"Somebody giver her a jacket."
"Merlin, she's actually turning blue."
"I know you had something to do with this," The voice I recognized as belonging to Lily spoke again. She sounded mad. "My friend saw you bullies bothering her earlier in the hallways."
"Out of the way, out of the way," I heard a thundering voice say. I recognized the voice as Hagrid's.
Suddenly, I felt myself being lifted up into huge arms. I struggled to get away from the person on instinct.
"There now," Hagrid said, "Calm down now, Alexa. Yeh're safe. I'm takin' yeh to Madam Pomfrey"
I relaxed into the warmth that emanated off of him, my teeth chattering and my body shivering from the cold as he carried me away from all the students and their questions.
"Wha' happened?" Hagrid asked as he carried me back to the castle.
I couldn't answer him, so I just shrugged my shoulders in answer. I felt if I opened my mouth again, I would start another coughing fit, and my throat burned enough as it was.
Soon we had reached the infirmary and Hagrid set me down gently on one of the beds before Madam Pomfrey began to fuss over me as was her custom with her patients.
Pomfrey covered me in thick blankets and cast warming spells on me, and I managed to stop shivering uncontrollably after a while. She handed me a cup of warm tea, but I couldn't bring myself to drink it, fearing I might cough it up.
"Drink it," Madam Pomfrey commanded gently but sternly when she saw me shake my head in response, "It has honey in it and it will soothe your throat."
I took a hesitant sip and then drank more fully after realizing I wouldn't cough it up, letting the sweet, warm liquid sooth my dry throat.
"Alexa, Dear," Madam Pince looked down at me, concerned. "What happened? A few students have told me that this is James Potter and Sirius Black's doing, though I don't know whether to believe it or not. It seems harsh, even for those two. Is it true? Did they have anything to do with you nearly drowning?" Her face took on an expression of anger as she spoke. "Because if they did, I will see to it that they are given a severe punishment they won't ever forget."
"I-I," I wasn't sure what to say. If I told her James Potter and the others had thrown me into the lake, what would happen? Would they be expelled for nearly killing one of the students? Or would they be punished with detentions? The punishment would be severe, whatever it was.
For a moment, I felt a strange sense of glee knowing that they would be punished for what they did, and I hoped they would be expelled. That way, they could never bother me again, I would never have to lay eyes on them again. But then I felt a bit guilty for thinking that way. They were just kids, after all. I didn't want to be the cause of them all being expelled from Hogwarts, even if they had hurt me. I would be ruining their lives if I got them expelled.
If I got the boys in trouble, not expelled, I knew they wouldn't be happy with me. I couldn't imagine what they might do if I got them into serious trouble. Just accidentally embarrassing James Potter in Charms had gotten me thrown in the Great Lake, I feared what might happen if I told on them. I had to go to school with these boys for another six school years, I didn't want to be on their bad sides, especially knowing them and how they treated those they disliked.
Taking a deep breath, I answered Madam Pomfrey.
"I slipped and fell in the water," the words were hard to say, but I said them anyway. "Somebody pulled me out."
Madam Pince looked at me for a long moment. "You fell?"
"It was muddy out," I replied, not meeting her eyes. "I feel much better now, Pomfrey. Can I go? I need to get to Transfiguration class."
"Very well," She sighed, looking at me in approval. "Be sure to stay away from the Great Lake in the future, Alexa. You could have died if you had been in there only a few minutes longer. You shouldn't go anywhere near it if you can't swim."
"I know," I said, getting up, "I'll be more careful next time." With that, I left the infirmary and headed to class.
As I headed in the direction of Transfiguration, trying to hurry along and avoid any questions students might try to ask me, I spotted the four boys up ahead of me leaning against the wall. At the same moment I saw them, they saw me.
I turned around quickly and began to walk the other way, not sure where I planned to go, but anywhere away from them.
"Wait!" I heard one of them say. I really hated how I couldn't go as fast as most people with my wooden leg slowing me down. Otherwise, I would have run away to escape them. A moment later they were all beside me.
"What d-do you want?" I asked, shrinking back as they all surrounded me, looking desperately for an escape route. Were they going to grab me again?
"It's alright, Alexa," Remus said in a calm voice. "Relax." It didn't reassure me, though. True, Remus hadn't actually thrown me in the lake or helped the boys do it, but Remus had sat by and watched them do it and had done nothing about it. I trusted him just as much as I trusted the rest of them. If they did something, I couldn't count on his help, that I knew. Maybe if I screamed for help one of the professors would hear.
"S-stay away from me," I said, backing up.
"Listen," James Potter said, scratching his head. "we didn't mean to, I mean, we just meant to give you a little dunking, that's all. How were we supposed to know you couldn't swim? I mean, it wasn't our fault-"
"James!" Remus cut in sternly. "It was completely your fault."
"What I meant to say, is, uh-"
From beside him, Sirius Black rolled his eyes. "What James is trying to say, and failing terribly, I might add, is that we didn't mean to actually put you in danger, we just meant to scare you a little for what you did to James back in Charms. We wanted to apologize for nearly drowning you."
"Yeah, we're sorry we nearly drowned you." the words came out in a rush from Potter, as if they were actually hard for him to say. They seemed forced and rehearsed and he didn't meet my gaze as he said them. It was as if there was a teacher standing nearby making him do it, but from what I could see, no one was forcing him.
I stared at him, wondering if he was actually being serious or not.
"Y-you are?" I asked, incredulously. Was this some sort of trick, to get me to put my defenses down before they pulled some kind of prank on me? I had never known Potter or Black to apologize to anyone they pulled a prank on. I wished Aileen was here to do the talking, she would know how to get rid of them and make them leave me alone.
"Did you tell anyone it was us?" Potter asked casually as if he didn't care one way or the other, but from the way he stared at me expectantly, I knew he was worried I'd told and gotten them into trouble.
"Alexa, they didn't mean to actually hurt you," Remus said, "They weren't thinking, as usual, and-"
"No," I said, interrupting Remus, not sure where they were going with this, "I didn't tell."
James Potter let out a sigh of relief.
"Well, that's good," Potter said, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "See, Remus, I told you."
Black didn't seem reassured though, staring at me suspiciously.
"Why wouldn't you tell?" Black asked. "That doesn't make any sense."
"I-I don't know," I responded. "I just didn't. C-can you let m-me pass now? I'm gonna be late for class."
"Sure," Potter said, stepping aside.
Before he could change his mind, I rushed past him and went straight to Transfiguration, the boys trailing at a slower pace behind me.
I kept expecting a curse or a spell to hit my back, but nothing happened. I reached transfiguration unharmed and sat down in my usual seat, getting out my parchment and quill. Perhaps Potter really was sorry, and he wouldn't bother me anymore. I didn't know, but I could only hope.
With Easter Break the next day, I didn't see the four boys again for another week, for which I was extremely glad of.
Not as many students went back home for the Easter Holiday as had gone home for Christmas Break. Aileen stayed, like on Christmas, but Frank left to visit with his parents.
Although Easter Break was supposed to be just that, a break, the professors had given us all so much homework that I ended up spending most of Easter Break completing it. I had easily mastered The Tickling Charm over the Easter holidays as Proffessor Flitwick had told me, and he was quite proud when I showed him the next time in class.
I didn't tell anyone what had really happened back at the lake, and when Frank and Aileen asked about it, I told them the same story I had told Madam Pomfrey and anyone else who had asked me. I had slipped and fell.
Remus Lupin had tried to talk to me a few times during the following weeks after the Easter holidays, but I had made excuses about needing to study and he had stopped trying after the first few times. I think he took the hint that I didn't want to talk to him.
Other than the few times Lupin had tried to talk to me, the four boys ignored me as usual, going about as they usually did. I avoided them at all costs, doing my best to not sit anywhere near them at meal times or during class.
It appeared that I wasn't going to be one of their usual victim's of pranks, so I took that as a sign that I had done the right thing is not tattling on them. If I had, I would probably end up like the Slytherin boy Snape, who was constantly being tormented by the boys.
I could only hope it stayed that way and their attention stayed away from me for the rest of my years at Hogwarts.
I hoped you all liked this chapter! I myself didn't feel like it was the chapter I wanted it to be, but it will have to do. Only about four chapters left to go.
Thank you so, so much to all of you who have already voted on which POV to tell book 2 from! :D I love seeing the results!