Chapter Eleven: The Second Task

My entire life felt like a lie. If the information Elvira showed me was true, then my 'father' wasn't really my father. It was causing my head to spin. There was no way Elvira could have forged any of those documents or created the photos herself. The mix of emotions was causing me to feel sick to my stomach. I was furious that my mother would have kept something like this from me. Heartbroken over the fact that I never had time to spend with my real father. I felt relief that Desmond wasn't my real father, but that didn't take away from the anger that filled me.

I couldn't stay here anymore. I've been lied to my entire life and I had the right to know, but they never told me. I went straight up to my room and packed my things back into my small bag. I wrote a quick note to Silvius saying, Sorry I had to leave so soon. Emergency at Hogwarts. I dropped it off next to him as he was sleeping and then I walked downstairs. I wasn't ready to head back to Hogwarts yet, there was somewhere else I needed to go.

I stepped out the back door and took off down the road. Where we lived was pretty much a dead area. I had about a ten minute walk until I reached Old Salem Village. I've only been there a few times but just walking around I spotted lots of tourist who had come to see the Witch Trials Museum. This place was packed with muggle tourists around Halloween time. I knew where to go though to find the secret wizard section of this village. Stepping into an old antique shop which was dark and dusty, I smiled at the old woman behind the counter. She was a witch who was here every time I've ever came.

I spotted a couple of tourists in the corner picking up old necklaces and bottles, fascinated by them. The eeriness of this store normally turned the muggle tourist away. I walked by the old witch and went towards the back doors which lead to an old room full of books. From there I looked around to make sure there were no tourists around. I pulled at the dark black book from the top shelf and the cabinet pulled itself in, creating a pathway for me to squeeze by and step into Salem Alley.

It was half the size of Diagon Alley and looked much more similar to Knockturn Alley. It was a lot darker because it was in the shade of trees, but it had all the necessary stores. I spotted a lot of people around my age walking around, probably because of school break though but I didn't recognize any of them. The cobblestone roads were uneven but I enjoyed the dark beauty of this place. It was originally created by the witches and wizards who lived here during the Salem Witch Trials as an escape. I knew where I needed to go though, at the end of the road their was the Salem Quidditch Hall of fame. I've never been there because I've never been to a game, but knew where it was.

The building was a lot newer looking than the original shops. Behind it was an small Quidditch pitch, probably for the Fitchburg Finches to practice when they were home. How did I not notice that when I was little? Elvira mentioned seeing my biological father's picture in the Hall of Fame so I wanted to see it for myself. As I got closer, I spotted the familiar Fitchburg Finches jerseys. They must be practicing.  Was this a good or bad idea? Either way, I wanted to see for myself.

I didn't want to interrupt their practice, so I headed straight for the Hall of Fame. It was of course tiny but held a lot of pictures. My eyes scanned the wall of all the players and the pictures reenacted their most prime moves. It only showed only a quick second of their face. It was as if all the pictures were playing together in one game, they weren't even looking at me or talking to me like the ones at Hogwart's do. But that it when I spotted him. It took just a mere second to spot the man I saw in the picture. I took on the crinkled picture of him from my pocket and it was in fact him.

He looked like he was in his twenties. He had blonde hair, the same tone, as mine which was long and flying all over the place as he flew towards a Quaffle. When I caught a second of his face looking across the way, I noticed we did have the same exact eyes shape and dark brown color. It was undeniable. Beneath his picture it read; ZAEL CHAMBERLYN. AUGUST 1954-DECEMBER 1980. So he was dead. And it happened just a few months after I was born. I couldn't believe it, so I stood there and stared at the picture for a while. I began feeling nauseous again. How could this have happened?

"Chamberlyn," a voice said walking up from behind me. "One of the best. Wish I was around when he was a player. I was too young at the time." I quickly turned to see a guy who must have been in his early twenties wearing the team jersey. The team must be taking a break.

"Yeah me too," I said sadly. If only he knew. The guy walked up next to me to get a better look at the picture. He glanced at me and did a double take.

"Wooh! You look just like him!" he said loudly while looking between the picture and myself. "Bell! Johnston! Come over here, this girl looks just like Zael Chamberlyn!" A few other players came into the hall of fame and walked over. The looked at me in surprise.

"Wooh, dude you're right!" the younger one said looking at me. I wasn't in a very pleasant mood at the moment and their staring wasn't helping. If I wasn't so upset over this I would probably start fawning over their Quidditch team though.

"Yeah, you could be like his kid or something," one said with a beater stick in his hand.

"I am," I said. How weird was that, never in a million years would I have thought I'd be saying I was someone else's child. All of their faces looked right towards me.

"You're that child?" the guy who walked in first said as realization spread across his face. He continued staring at me. "Bell, you were around right? When Chamberlyn was still around?" The smiles on their faces faded.

"Yeah," Bell said sadly, he by far looked the oldest out of the group. He looked like he was in his thirties. "I was just starting out on the team, I was only seventeen though. I remember hearing that he had a child, but we never got to meet the mother. We were bugging it about him to bring the kid around but he never did and then he was killed." It was even stranger hearing the story come from a complete stranger. "Wait, what's your name anyways?"

"Carlie," I said to him while I tried to wrap my head around all of this. There were so many questions I wanted to ask. There was that sick feeling again.

"Come on! You have to meet our coach, Coach Blackwell, he always spoke so highly of Chamberlyn." I nodded and followed them out onto the Quidditch Pitch where most of the team was gathered. "Coach!" he yelled not really grabbing the gray haired guy's attention. "We have solved the mystery and found Chamebrlyn's child!" Now that completely grabbed the coach's attention.

"Merlin..." he muttered in awe. He began walking towards me with his eyes wide open. "I've wondered when I'd be seeing you!" He then surprised me and pulled me into a hug. "I begged Zael to bring you around and right when he was about to agree...well...you know." I stood there and starred at him not knowing what to say. "Scarlett, right? That's all I got out of him."

"Yeah, well Carlie," I said almost stuttering over my words. So this was all true?

"I'm your God Father, you can call me Giles."

From there Giles cancelled the practice and the players all went home. Most of them wanted to stay to ask questions but he told them there would be another day for that. He then told me he wanted to talk to me and offered to buy me coffee. I of course couldn't say no, there was so much I wanted to ask him anyways, and he knew that. "So, I'm sure there are a lot of questions you probably have," he said knowingly and I nodded.

"I know he was...killed..." I said, even though it was hard to form the words. "But do you know who it was?" Giles looked down and shook his head.

"No. No one does. I searched for years trying to figure it out but...no one ever did," he said with complete sadness in his voice. I nodded. It felt weird being so upset over the death of someone I never even knew. But that someone was my father. I will never get the chance to know him now. "He was like a son to me. His parents passed away when he was seventeen and he bought a smaller house for himself near mine when he joined the team."

"His parents passed away?" I asked.

"Yeah, sadly they were always interested by muggles so decided to try driving one of those muggle cars and it didn't end too well." I sipped my coffee as Giles told me more about him. I loved hearing about the wonderful and fun person he was. I wish I could have grown up with him instead of my horrible parents. He let me ask a lot of questions. Apparently my mother never came around. The team referred to her as his 'secret girlfriend'. No wonder...she was married and had four other kids. My stern mother didn't seem like the type. I guess there was a lot I didn't know.

He told me about his friends and more about his parents. Even though they were purebloods they loved muggle inventions. His father had a collection of them. "They were great people. They left him a fortune of money though being purebloods when they passed, which allowed him to buy a whole house to himself at seventeen. Then he became a beater on a professional Quidditch team, so his money just doubled. Which must have come in handy for you over the years I suppose?" he asked with a small smile.

"...what?" I asked confused, never in my once I had I ever received any money of my own.

"You mean, you're mother never gave you the key to the vault?" he asked me in surprise. "Zael told me a few days after you were born he had a vault set up for you just in case."

"No, actually she never told me anything about him," I said truthfully and his face looked beyond shocked. It was nice to see I wasn't the only one who felt that way. He then began asking me why and I just shrugged. He asked if I had access to the key and I shook my head, no I had no access. My mother would never give that to me even if I begged, even if she knew that I knew. She probably took the money for herself.

"Well then, we'll just go have to explain that to the Salem Bank then won't we?" he said. At a time like this it seemed horrible to be even thinking of money. But if I found out my mother took all of that money...I would be furious.

Giles took me to the Salem bank and it was nothing compared to Gringotts, it looked like an old town hall and had a few Goblins working the front. Giles argued with them for about a half an hour on why I didn't have my key. He then started talking about how he was the Coach of the Fitchburg Finches and how Zael Chamberlyn was a player on his team. Then I remembered I had the picture in my pocket. The Goblins compared it with a newspaper clipping Giles had in his wallet of Zael's most prime moment. Finally, they agreed to go down stairs and check out the vault themselves, see what kind of key it may be.

When they came up they said the entrance required a blood sample. Giles thought then that Zael must have known my mother would have done this. The Goblins brought me downstairs and gave me a needle to prick my finger, it was disgusting and I almost decided to just leave, but it had to be done. I let a drop of blood drip on the lock. The safe was then opened and I was beyond shocked. This would easily pay for my Hogwarts tuition if I left my family. It would help me be on my own. Why wouldn't my mother have even taken this for herself? It would have easily paid for all seven years at Hogwarts. "Wow," was all I could say looking at the variety of galleons.

After speaking to the Goblins, I asked if they would be able to switch all of this to Gringotts, that way I wouldn't have to deal with my family when getting money. They said it would be able to be done by the end of this school year. I would even get my own key to the vault at Gringotts. This all felt rather weird though, taking money from someone I had never met.  I told Giles that but he told me how my father used to speak of spoiling his child. He would have wanted it this way.

After we left, Giles told me he would take me to the cemetery. It was combined with the large muggle one. Cemeteries never gave me the chills like they did many people. They were quiet. We walked for a bit until Giles came to a stop. I turned to look down at a simple grave stone. To any old muggle it would just look like a stone with a fancy design and strange name, yet to a wizard you could clearly see that there were designs of a snitch engraved in the stone to symbolize Quidditch. It had his name and the date written on it. Underneath, one of the best players of all times, was written. It was sad that they couldn't write Quidditch because of the muggles, but at least he was recognized. "I used to come here all the time," Giles said looking down at it. "But now I only come every once and a while. He was so young."

"I wish I knew him," I said sadly. How nice it would have been to have had another parent, one who may have actually been like a parent. Maybe I could have stayed with him instead of my awful family. How different things may have been, I guess I'll never know.

From there I had used the Floo network in Salem Alley and went back to Diagon Alley. Giles made me promise to write to him and that if I ever needed anything, or wanted seats to a Quidditch game, to let him know. I was glad to have met him. It was still too early to catch the train back to Hogwarts so I had to rent a room at the Leaky Cauldron for two nights, thankfully I actually had the money to do that this time.

It was nice to have some time to walk around and enjoy Diagon Alley without the massive summer crowd. As I walked I stopped the shady  alleyway. I had to admit...Knockturn Alley did fascinate me. Plus, at this time of the year it was so quiet what was the harm? I needed to explore to keep my mind off of things. I ventured down the dark alleyway. The last time I went down this way was when I met Draco's parents. The thought of Draco put me back in a bad mood. I remember he told me not to go this way, so I went further this time. 

It was very quiet and ghostly. I came across this old pub located in Knockturn Alley and for some reason I was interested to go inside. It was falling apart on the outside and I was just curious to see what it looked like. It was the only pub this way. When I entered into the cold room, I noticed there were some fascinating creatures in there. For example, I swear there were a group of werewolves seated at the bar, because their faces looked as though they rarely changed back to human form. Secondly, there was a vampire sitting over in the corner. This pub was dark enough for him to be comfortable in. I hope he didn't see me staring, but Vampire's were so interesting to me. I was probably the only person who didn't fit in there, but I guess I was used to that.

"Are you lost?" a woman's voice said from behind me. I turned to see a lady, probably in her forties, with dark hair and dark eyes.

"Just wandering," I answered while looking around.

"Are you sure you're wandering in the right place?" she asked with a laugh.

"I like dark places," I answered. "It's interesting down here, it's different." I liked different. She smiled at that comment. "I wanted to see what this pub looked like. Is it really the only one in Knockturn Alley?" I asked.

"Not many young girls would say that about this place. And yes it is. It's been in the family for centuries," she answered.

"You own this place?" I asked and she nodded.

"Grew up here." I could sense there was a dark element to her, and that was probably why. Growing up in Knockturn Alley would do that to you. The pub was called The Druid Tavern and Inn. "Well I have to get back to work. Don't  believe everything people tell you about this place, they're just trying to scare you." I laughed and then left the pub to head back to the Leaky Cauldron where I rented my own room.

After those two nights, I found myself and my small bag at King's Cross Station. I boarding the Hogwart's express once again. I passed through the barrier and was standing in front of the train. It wasn't nearly as crowded as normal, but that's because most students stayed behind for the Yule Ball this year. "Carlie?" a voice said shocked and I turned to see Eowyn and Dasha looking at me surprised.

"Oh hey," I said turning to see them. I forgot they didn't know I went home. "Let's go get seats." Eowyn was already bombarding me with questions but I told her I would tell them everything when we sat down. I had a lot of explaining to do. We stepped onto the train and had no problem finding an empty compartment. With it just being the three of us we easily spread out our things and shut the door. 

"So why are you on the train?" Dasha asked me as she took a seat. "You were supposed to be staying at Hogwarts."

"Well Silvius got injured and splinched, so Dumbledore let me use the Floo network in his office to go visit him," I explained. 

"It wasn't his beautiful face, was it?" Eowyn said and then laughed. "Gosh your brother is gorgeous. I wish he went to Hogwarts! Anyways! How was the Yule Ball by the way? Tell us all about it, how was Jake? I bet he looked amazing in a tux!" The thought of that made my heart hurt once more. I think they noticed when I didn't smile in response.

"Um...there is something I have to tell you," I began. I then continued to tell them the entire story of what happened that night. No lies or anything, I didn't even bother to leave out any names. I even had to stop myself from talking at one point because I may have started crying. It was harder telling them what happened than it was telling Elvira, because they actually knew these people.

"I mean, Carlie, you can't blame yourself for what happened," Dasha said shockingly. I was expecting them to think otherwise. "You didn't kiss Draco, he kissed you and they happened to see it." I nodded, but I didn't pull away either I wanted to add. If only I pushed him away or something.

Although I told them the entire story of the Yule Ball,  I left out that part about discovering that Desmond wasn't my father. I'm not sure if I wanted to tell anyone about that. Maybe it was better off as my own secret. If anyone found out at school, mainly Draco, it could somehow get back to my 'parents'. I didn't want them to know that I found out.

When we got back to Hogwarts, I wanted to stay seated forever in my seat but I had to get up. I just prayed what happened would be forgotten when I got back. But I doubt that would be true. We left the train and took the carriages up to the castle. It was beautiful riding through the snow, but it went by too quickly. We were just in time for dinner. The three of us walked up the steps to the castle and into the entrance way.  Of course the first people I passed by were Harry, Hermione, and Ron. I assumed they were all friends again. Harry gave me a dirty look while Ron and Hermione basically pretended I wasn't alive. Fine. I could deal with that. Though when I saw Jake walking down from the end of the hall, I took a sharp right and ran down a hallway I never go down, just to avoid him while dragging my two friends with me. "Carlie, you can't avoid him forever," Eowyn said. "You need to talk to him."

"I know...but not this time. I'd rather talk to him without people in the hallway around us," I answered and then we headed back to the common room. I even feared seeing Malfoy. I yelled at him last time and then ran off not giving him time to explain himself. I hope Jake doesn't do that to me. Anyway, whether Malfoy did it on purpose or not I still feared running into him because I didn't know what I was going to say. When I got back to the dorm I unpacked and sat down on my bed. I was too afraid to go to dinner tonight, so I skipped it. I told my friends I had an essay to do, which wasn't even a lie.

I woke up and dressed in my robes for my first day back to classes. I tried to stay calm and walked down into the common room which was basically empty, except for Draco...of course. He sat there and stared at me. I didn't know what to say. People were walking quickly around us, probably trying to get to breakfast on time. Yet Draco stayed frozen. I passed by him and he looked over at me. "You disappeared pretty quickly after the Yule Ball," he stated. So I stopped, but kept my distance.

"Yeah. I went home," I answered. Then there was silence. "Look, sorry I freaked out. Whether you did it on purpose or not I'm just not going to get angry at anyone anymore." There I said it. I apologized and hopefully Jake will be forgiving when I do the same for him.

"Did what?" Draco asked coldly and then stood up as his friends walked down from their dorm. They left the common room together. I take that back, now I'm angry at someone. How could he possibly pretend that didn't happen? He ruined my relationship with Jake and Harry...and was pretending like it didn't matter. I wanted to punch something but decided to make myself go down to breakfast instead. Seriously though? I literally wanted to kill him at the moment, time to bring back Professor Moody's curses. I could not believe him.

When I got to breakfast I made sure to get there before most people and luckily no sign of Jake or Harry. I also made sure to sit with my back facing all the other tables. I didn't even bother looking on the other side at Draco. Things were not going the way I had planned for them.

Classes were back to being normal and the second task was tomorrow. I was glad I wouldn't be missing it. I avoided Draco the rest of the day because he was a complete jerk who I did not want to deal with at the moment. Though I realized it was time to find Jake, it was better now than never. The longer I waited the harder it would become. I had a feeling he would be out at the courtyard, which seemed to be the place where he hung out a lot lately. When I got there he was alone and I slowly approached him. "Jake?" I said quietly, hoping he wouldn't walk away or ignore me.

He turned but it wasn't a friendly look, he looked at me the way he looked at strangers. "What?" he asked turning his eyes back to his book. Well at least he wasn't giving me the silent treatment.

"I just wanted to say..." I took a deep breathe. I honestly hoped he would believe me yet I knew he was mad. "What you saw wasn't really what you saw...he kissed me out of nowhere and I was completely caught off guard, when I saw you and Harry...I felt really bad and-" I didn't know what else I could say or what else I should say. I sat there waiting for him to say something, but he stayed quiet for a while.

"Sorry I have to go," he said standing up and picking up his bags. "I have to meet someone at the library." Then he left. I just wished he would have yelled at me or something! Something in response to what I had said, but instead he chose to ignore the situation. I couldn't lose him as a friend. He was too important to me.

The next morning I was awake for the second task and looking forward to it. I was still rooting for Harry even though we weren't on good terms. When I got there I made sure to stick close with Dasha and Eowyn, my only two friends at the moment. We arrived by the Black Lake and watched as the four champions looked as though they were ready to go swimming.

Once the whistle was sounded all four dived in, yet Harry shoved something in his mouth and was pushed in the lake by Moody. After that no one saw any of the four Champions come back up. It was definitely an underwater task. Perfect, the first competition I get to see I can't even really see! Draco was seated down below me, acting if all was well in the world and verbally attacking any student younger than him who cheered for Harry.

I still had yet to tell anyone about my father. I did not really want to tell Dasha and Eowyn. If I told Dasha, then she would tell Eowyn. Eowyn's a great friend but has a problem with keeping her mouth shut. It was bound to slip out of her mouth sometime. I couldn't talk to Jake at the moment and Harry was out of the question. Draco would find it as a way to blackmail me once more. I didn't know who to talk to anymore.

The first champion to come up was Krum with...Hermione? I never saw her jump in the first place. Second person to come up was Fleur but she was alone and shivering quite badly. Third person to come up was Cedric with Cho Chang. Where was Harry? A minute had passed and still no sign of him, yet Ron Weasley appeared with a little blonde girl who looked like a mini Fleur. Finally, Harry appeared long after that.

I wish I could have seen what had been going on underwater. Seeing a task was exciting yet also extremely dangerous. I would never have survived as a Triwizard champion, I would have freaked out about having to go into Blake Lake in general. From living in Slytherin house under the black lake, I knew what kind of creatures were down there. Now there was only one task left until a champion was chosen. Before that task, I really hoped to patch things up with Harry. I didn't want him to hate me forever and now I needed to start by finding him.

Hope you liked this super long chapter :)