When consciousness finally returned to her, the first thing she noticed was that she was no longer laying on the cold, stone floor. Beneath her fingers, she felt fabric and her body was placed on a soft surface. Next thing she knew, her nose was assaulted with the strong scent of disinfectant. She felt extremely weak, and when she opened her eyes, she shut them immediately again, bright with light assaulting her sensitive eyes.
After a few seconds, she opened her eyes once more, slowly this time. Looking at the ceiling, she knew her suspicion was right. The hospital wing. Slowly she turned her head around the room, hoping to find someone there to tell her what was going on.
With a pang, she remembered what had happened, and nearly vomited on the floor. She'd killed a man. One that had tried to kill her and Charlie, but still... Oh Merlin! Where was Charlie?! He couldn't be – be dead, right? She'd saved him before Voldemort did anything too bad to him.
With new energy, the motivation to find out what had happened t her brother, she sat up and got ready to leave the bed. With her legs hanging off the bed, she looked around for her shoes. Or any pair of shoes, really. She quickly came to the conclusion that there were none to be found. 'Okay, then without the shoes.' In her pajama's, she got up from the bed and headed to the large doors that lead to the hallways.
She got about halfway there before she had to lean on a nearby bed. She was very dizzy, and needed a minute to make sure she wasn't going to fall over. When she leaned on the bed with her right arm, a sharp pain shot up through her entire arm, and she noticed a bandage around her upperarm. That must have been where Voldemort had hit her, she guessed. She hadn't even felt it during the fight, adrenaline keeping her sedated to the pain. She looked at the bandage, seeing it slowly turning red with her blood.
With a deep breath, she continued her way to the door. When she finally made it to the doors, one of them swung open, hitting her dead in the face.
"Ah!" Okay, that hurt.
"Jennifer?! Oh, dear Merlin, you're okay!" She recognized that voice, it was her best friend after all.
"Neville?" She looked up from her position on the floor. How had she ended up on the floor? She tasted something metallic on her lips, and reached up to find that her nose was bleeding slightly.
"Oh, no! I'm so sorry Jay! I'll go get Madam Pomfrey. Wait here." He took off, running back out the door he'd just entered the room through, with speed she didn't know he was capable of. She looked at the retreating form of her friend, still slightly dazed. Blinking her ayes a few times, she managed to stop the world from tilting so much, and got back up on her feet. But by the time she finally made it through the door, her friend was back, together with not only Madam Pomfrey, but also her parents, the Headmaster and her Head of House.
"Miss Potter, why honstely! The moment I leave to go to the end of year feast is when you decide to awaken?"
"Oh, my baby is finally awake! Thank Merlin, we've all been so worried-"
"Are you allright cub? How are you feeling? Is there something wrong-"
The noise flooded her, and she couldn't make anything out of it. Everyone was trying to get her attention and they were all speaking through each other. Her eyes darted from one person to the next, unable to focus. Her breathing got more irregular, and at that point Madam Pomfrey luckily made an end to it all.
"Quiet, the lot of you! You are clearly distressing my patient!" They all fell silent, and Madam Pomfrey began leading her back to her bed. There was something that she'd been doing, right? Something important. She looked around, in hopes of remembering what she'd needed to do a minute ago.
When she looked at her dad though, she remembered. She sat up once more, much to Madam Pomfrey's dismay. James rushed forward, trying to keep his daughter from leaving the bed she was in.
With frantic eyes, she looked at her dad, "Dad, is Charlie all right? I thought he was, but I didn't see him and –" "He's fine sweetie, he's just at the end of year feast. Nothing to worry about. He woke up days ago." He cut off his daughters near hysterical voice.
"All right, let me near her. I need to check on that arm of hers, before it gets even worse." With that said, James reluctantly, yet obediently stepped back to let Pomfrey near his daughter. A worried frown appeared on his face when he caught the small line of blood running down her arm. She absently looked at the soaked-through bandage, no expression on her face. When Pomfrey finally let up, she was immediately hogged by the Headmaster.
"Miss Potter, do you remember what happened that night?" The Headmaster was looking straight at her, and she knew she had to lie.
"No, I don't remember anything besides following Charlie, Granger and Weasley down that hole on the third floor. I kept myself hidden from them, but past the room with the potions, I can't recall what happened... Headmaster, what did happen?" She turned her eyes to the man, full of innocence and confusion, hoping the man would buy it. It wouldn't do for her plan to fall apart at the seams right now.
The headmaster shared a look with her parents, obviously deciding whether or not to tell her what their theory was. "You brother went to protect something very important, and came face to face with Lord Voldemort." A gasp was heard at the name, Madam Pomfrey seemed the only one to be afraid of the name though. "When you arrived at the scene, Voldemort tried to kill you, first by throwing a cutting hex at you, which hit you in the arm," He pointedly looked at her -now freshly bandaged- arm. "And next he tried to hit you with a blasting spell. Luckily, you brother was able to shield you from the blast by summoning the mirror." Jay listened with great attention. Oh, if only they knew how wrong they were.
"While you were unconscious, Charlie dueled with Voldemort, but eventually lost to him, getting blast into the wall. When he tried to recover the important item Charlie was protecting, he released a great wave of accidental magic, setting him ablaze, and eventually the man died due to this." Dumbledore looked at the girl, who was getting more and more stressed as the story continued. He noticed a few tears making their way out of her eyes when he told her what happened to the man. "Or so Charlie told us he did."
Wait, Charlie lied? Did he really take credit for something she did?
"Your brother showed great bravery that night, Miss Potter, and perhaps it would do you well to stay away next time something like this happens. He can't be distracted, should this happen again." Dumbledore gave her a strong look, as if trying to make a point.
"Of course, Headmaster. I don't even know what I was thinking, following him that night!" She said in a whimpering voice, now fully open crying. Her mother immediately rushed forward, trying to calm her child. Outward, it seemed that she was terrified and distressed, while inwardly, she was bristalling with anger. How dare he take credit for something she did?! Even if it was better for her plans, it was such an insult to her abilities! The only thing her brother did was nearly get killed, and then twisting the story so much that it seemed she was the helpless one! How she wished she could tear him a new one... Now, she had to act like her brother saved her life, like he was her hero. She could almost tear her hair out at the mere thought of doing that.
All in all, it was going to be a hard few weeks ahead of her. If she made it through the week, she'd get herself a new pair of boots for not killing the bloody imbeciles she was forced to live with.
Fr now though, she let her mother hold her tight, trying to smooth away fake distress.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
A few days later, Jennifer and the rest of the Potters were back home. And boy, did she miss her alone time.
There wasn't a minute they'd leave her alone until now, and Charlie made no point of not boasting about his great victory against the Dark Lord to her, and everyone who would listen. Her cheeks were hurting because of the ridicules amount of time she had to put on a fake smile. It was getting very old, very fast.
On top of the interruption during her daytime schedule, her nights were filled with nightmares. Nightmares of burning flesh, and awful screams. More than once a night, she'd wake up, completely drenched in sweat and her breathing heavy. It was getting less though. She'd read more than a few books on psychology, and knew a few ways to help herself. Playing piano seemed to help, and while it took her a bit longer to get her full night's sleep, her life was slowly getting back to normal.
Which also meant that her parents would be leaving her alone at home, very soon. And by very soon, she meant in five days. They'll be gone for a month and a half, just over six weeks. Which gave her six weeks of freedom. Already, she'd been planning her own vacation. There wasn't much more she could do alone at home that she hadn't done yet. That day on the third floor, it showed her just how right she was with training herself, and how unprepared she was. She'd fought a version of Voldemort that had almost no power compared to his old form. If she were to fight him right now, she'd lose. Badly. She needed more info, more knowledge, more... everything. And she wasn't going to find it here... The logical option would be to leave. To travel and explore more areas of magic.
She looked at the locked door of her room, listening if there was anyone out and about. When she was certain no-one would come to interrupt her, she opened her trunk and pulled out a map of Europe. There were nine dots on the map, and detailed descriptions of the areas to visit.
Each dot on the map indicated a magical city that she wanted to visit, to see the magics of that specific country. Everywhere magic was different, different spells, different clothes, different rules. While she did have lots of books from different countries, there was always some information lacking, a few pointers that she didn't get with references to other books she didn't have.
Most of these books could be ordered by owl, but that was always very expensive, and there were always books that she couldn't just order. The only solution was to go to the area and get the books herself. Her trip should last six weeks as well, and she will be back on time for her families return. With just five days left, there wasn't a lot left for her to do. Luckily, she'd already received the train ticket to get to the rest of Europe. She hadn't planned anything except for how to get to her first destination, which was in the Netherlands. From there, she'd figure it out as she went, moving from place to place without knowing how she'd actually do it.
But that was fine, there were so many things to see, she didn't know how long she'd be staying at one of her destinations. She may be only eleven, but that wouldn't be such an issue. She could travel with public transport. As long as she didn't use any magic outside of the big magical cities, there wouldn't be anyone that'd be able to tell she'd been gone to begin with. Her money had already been resupplied by her parents, and there was no way she could ever use that much money in just six weeks.
He had made a list of things she needed, and had pulled out her old duffle bag out of her trunk. She'd be leaving her trunk at home. The only bags she was going to bring were the duffle bag and a backpack. Both were featherlight and bottomless, leaving her with more than enough space to put her clothes and other necessaries in.
All that was left to do was wait for her family to leave once more, and she'd be gone.
With a smile no her face, she fell backwards on the bed, thinking about the freedom that awaited her, just one step away, and few days out of reach.
End of book 1