Random shoutout to hannahsue-- for making my day with all her comments on the last chapter.

Especially the fangirling about Jastra 😂

Oh and for being a super awesome detective and asking lots of questions about the attacker to try to figure out who he/she is!

Ok yes at this point I'm just stalling to hold out the suspense for another second so I'll stop now.

~~~~

Slowly, the attacker lifted a gloved hand and lowered the hood of the cloak.

Everything stopped.

The only sound in the room was our breathing, and I was having a hard time doing that.

I was frozen. I couldn't move.

How...how could...

"Wren?" whispered James. I could tell from his tone that he wanted the same thing I did. What I desperately wished was for this to be a bad dream. Or that that wasn't really my best friend standing there.

She looked just as upset as us, which wasn't something I would expect from the person who had orchestrated the attacks throughout the year. The attacker was ruthless...remorseless... Wren wasn't like that...

No. She was. I didn't know Wren, obviously. She'd been lying to me all year. She was never my friend. I lifted my wand arm, which had dropped to my side in shock, and pointed the wand at her.

She didn't look terribly surprised at that, though I could see pain in her face. That was probably acting. I glanced over at James, who was apparently having a hard time processing all this.

"Why?" he said, his voice full of emotion.

"I'm sorry..." she said quietly, her voice trembling. It was almost as if she was trying not to cry. "I...I didn't have a choice...I didn't want to..."

"How could you?" I growled, tears stinging my eyes. I didn't care. Let them fall.

"I-I can't explain," she said, her voice hollow. "Not yet...not now..."

"You were behind this the whole time," James said. It wasn't even a question. It was a statement. A statement full of betrayal and pain.

"I...yes..." Wren whispered.

She looked pained, as if this was actually hurting her. I saw a few tears escape her eyes. Why was she crying? She had been lying to us all year. Why was she upset? Why did she do this?

"You were my friend," I whispered, trying not to sob. There were tears falling now, I could tell. My cheeks were wet.

She didn't answer. It looked like she wanted to, but she didn't. She sighed and looked down.

The silence returned. It grew until it was deafening. I wanted someone to say something, but I couldn't say a word. The shock was setting in.

"Well?" James said finally. "Are you going to torture us?" He glared at her.

She slowly, reluctantly, raised her wand. "I don't want to..."

"Then don't!" I exclaimed, grasping at this last bit of hope. "You said you didn't want to do this, right? There's still time. We can get help."

Her eyes widened. "N-no, I can't."

"Why?" James said, his voice fierce.

Instead of answering, Wren pointed her wand at James. "I-I could wipe this from your memories..."

I wanted her to. I didn't want to remember this. I wanted to go back to having her for a friend.

"We'll still know," James said, his voice cold. "You disappear in the middle of the night, and Luna gets attacked? Even if we can't remember, Albus will know."

Disappear? Suddenly, I realized what was happening. I'd heard about the Floo Network. It was a way wizards and witches travelled. Through fireplaces. Like the one Wren was standing in front of.

James suddenly threw his wand on the ground. "Go ahead. Do it. Crucio. Imperius. Avada Kedavra. I don't care." He glared at her, and I knew she wouldn't do anything to him.

Or maybe she would. "C-Crucio..."

For half an instant, James looked like he was in incredible pain. He didn't even have time to scream, though, before he was back to normal.

Wren looked just as shocked as I was. "W-what...why didn't it-"

"Voldemort told my dad something once..." James said quietly, smiling bitterly. "You have to mean it. Or it won't work."

Wren's eyes grew wide at that, and I realized that even if she was betraying us, she couldn't have been faking everything. Because she obviously wasn't capable of harming us. Somehow, that knowledge only made everything worse.

Before either of us could react, Wren pointed her wand at the ceiling, where suddenly there was a chandelier where there hadn't been one before. It was in the middle of the room, so not hanging over us.

"Confringo," she called, and the shaft holding the chandelier up exploded. The chandelier fell to the ground, exploding into a storm of flying broken glass. The force of the explosion knocked both me and James off our feet. I looked up feebly to see Wren disappearing in a green flame, then my head fell backwards and there was blackness.

~~~~

Bright lights. A white ceiling. Muffled voices.

Is this Heaven?

I'd probably died from - what was it? Oh yes, that chandelier falling. But why did it fall...?

I wonder if James is here to, then.

Oh yes, he had been with me when I died, hadn't he?

Slowly, feeling spread through my limbs, and my blurry vision cleared, and I realized I hadn't died. I turned my head a bit, and saw James asleep in the bed next to me.

I tried to sit up, but instantly the room started spinning, and blacks spots appeared on the edges of my vision. I quickly sank back into my pillows. Maybe sitting up wasn't the best idea.

What had happened? I couldn't quite remember. I turned my head to the left and saw Luna, sleeping peacefully.

Ok, if we were here, where was Albus? Where was Wren?

I felt a cold, sinking feeling as everything slowly started to trickle back. Maybe that was a nightmare...

She couldn't have done that...

For a moment, I wished I had died, that this was Heaven, so that I would never have to face the reality that I knew I would have to soon.

Eventually.

Not yet.

For now, a state of denial worked just fine.

It couldn't have been real...

I heard someone walk over to me, and sit down in the chair by my bed, so I turned my head to see who it was. Albus smiled weakly at me.

"Hey," he whispered.

"Hey," I said, my voice raw and hoarse.

"You've been asleep for two days," Albus said, frowning. "What happened?"

I shook my head. I wasn't ready to go through that again. State of denial, right? Anyway, the details were still a little fuzzy, and for the moment, I wanted them to stay that way. "I don't want to think about it."

"Ok...well, I can tell you what happened to me and Luna, ok?"

I nodded, too tired to say anything in reply.

Albus explained how he had stayed with Luna until someone showed up. He had occasionally looked at the map, but couldn't find our dots anywhere. Luna had been verging on unconsciousness, and he had been freaking out, thinking that the attacker had abducted us.

Finally, Professor Potter made it up to the seventh floor in his patrolling. He found Albus and Luna immediately, then sent Albus to get Madam Pomfrey. From them on, Albus was running around the castle, fetching teachers and aurors. At one point, he heard his dad talking about some "Room of Requirement," and a few minutes later saw us being carried down the hall. His dad found the Invisibility Cloak in a corner, and told him to put it away. Then he was sent to bed.

"And then you guys didn't wake up yesterday, and Madam Pomfrey said that was normal, but I was still worried..."

I smiled wearily and reached out to pat his shoulder. "We're ok. We're all going to be fine."

"Where's Wren?" he asked after a pause.

I sighed. I didn't want to tell him the truth. The fuzziness was already floating away, leaving me with a cold, sinking feeling in my gut that even a state of denial couldn't take away. Why did the truth have to be so painful?

"Can we talk about that later?" I asked quietly, pretending to be tired. It didn't take much pretending. I wanted nothing more than to sleep again, and stay asleep. Forever. And never have to wake up to this reality where my best friend was gone. Where she was never really there in the first place.

Albus nodded quickly. "Sorry. Don't mind me, I'll just read or something."

I smiled wearily and closed my eyes once more.

~~~~

I didn't have any dreams, which was probably a good thing, because my dreams that year had been less than pleasant. And now, after what happened, I couldn't imagine what would have happened if I had dreamed.

When I woke up, James's eyes were open. He smiled when he saw me, and I felt a small buzz near my heart which I instantly denied existence.

Neither of us said anything. There wasn't anything to say. I still didn't know how I felt about everything, and if I knew James at all, he was still processing everything as well.

After a while, someone seemed to notice we were awake, and Professor Potter sat down in between us. "Can you tell me what happened?"

I glanced at James. There was no way I'd be able to get my thoughts together enough to form a coherent order of events. Not without a lot of crying, at least. James nodded slightly. He'd do the talking.

Slowly, James explained everything that happened that night. He told Professor Potter everything, except about the Map. That wasn't important, though. It hadn't helped, anyway.

I stayed silent the whole time, and Professor Potter seemed to understand that I couldn't handle any questions. I just listened, telling myself over and over that this was real. It had happened. I needed to find a way to handle it.

But how can you handle something like that?

How could I just deal with the fact that my closest friend, who I'd told everything to, had been lying to me since at least October? And not about anything small. My best friend had literally tortured children for no reason. It didn't even make sense. Why? Why did she do this to everyone?

Why did she do this to me?

Finally, Professor Potter left. One by one, my friends drifted in to see me, and James's came to see him. Eventually a few Ravenclaws, led by Dominique and a completely healed Clarissa, came to check on Luna, and take her back to their dorms.

Lacy and Iris came to see me, bearing a large bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. They were closely followed by Eric and Henry, who awkwardly said hello to both James and me before scuttling out. Something told me Iris put them up to it.

Luke gave me his pen, grinning sheepishly when I protested and saying that he could get another one soon. I finally accepted his gift, rolling my eyes and laughing. I hadn't thought I'd do that again. It felt good to laugh.

Rose and Scorpius were probably the most worried about what had happened. Well, Rose was. She was in tears, almost, and freaking out about how we could have died. Scorpius kept apologizing to us and trying to calm her down (uselessly) before giving up and dragging her out before Madam Pomfrey did it for him.

Lillie, Mackenzie, and Roxanne visited us in a group, though it seemed like Lillie and Roxanne were trying their best to give Mackenzie and James alone time. They kept glancing over their shoulders at them and giggling. Honestly, it was very annoying. I hid my irritation, though, and let their giggles appear to go unnoticed.

A few surprises appeared throughout the day. Elizabeth Finch-Fletchley, who I'd never really spoken to before, even after she got attacked, came and thanked us for saving everyone. The Scamander twins ran in after Luna had left to completely confuse us. No, they actually just thanked us for saving their sister, but it was completely confusing because I couldn't tell them apart.

So far, it seemed, the students hadn't been told anything. There were insane rumors, all centered around James and me, about how we "single-handedly battled off the attacker," or "risked our lives to save the school." All of our visitors pressed us for details, but James and I seemed to have made some silent agreement not to tell anyone anything. We just shook our heads and pretended was too hard to talk about whenever anyone asked. Which, really, it was.

The next day, Madam Pomfrey announced us perfectly healthy and shooed us out to "go enjoy our last days before summer." One glance at James told me he would be enjoying about as much as me. That is to say: nothing.

I would never recover from this. Never. I pushed the thoughts away when they came up. I didn't want to think about it, I didn't want to go through everything. It was all too confusing. Because, honestly, even though I hated her, I still considered Wren...well...

My friend...

~~~~

Remember hannahsue--?

SHE LITERALLY GUESSED WHO IT WAS!

She went back and reread the book to see if she could figure out who it was, and picked up on my clues, and I couldn't be happier!

So congrats, double shoutout I suppose. I tip my hat to you, and I'm very (pleasantly) surprised that you cared enough 😂

Anyway...

Was that reveal as shocking as I hoped (For the rest of you, that is)?

Honestly, though, if you're very observant, and know Russian, or at least checked out everyone's first and last names, you would find that Predatel means traitor (well, really it's predatel'skiy). So, really, I told you what she was from the start...

I'm guessing that clue didn't help.

And then of course I left small clues that you wouldn't pick up on unless you were looking for them, and I was betting you weren't.

And I don't know if you're upset about what Wren did, but I certainly am, and that's exactly why I did it. It made me upset, brought forth emotions, and that, in my opinion, is the best thing an author can do. I hope I made you feel something too.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaall right, I'm rambling now and probably boring you to death, I just thought Wren's last name was interesting and all.

The next chapter will be the last. In this book, at least. See you there!

Vote, comment, and send in your questions! You're bound to have at least a few after that reveal... This is your last opportunity to have them in the first release of the Q&A!

~Ellie