The flicker of candlelight was the only thing keeping Jaqui from being swallowed whole by the darkness of the library. She had been pouring over the old, dusty records for hours, every page feeling like a step deeper into a truth she wasn’t sure she was ready to face.

  Her hands were shaking as she turned another page of the family history. The Longbottoms. A family of courage, of pride. Her family.

  She should have known. It was all there — the whispers, the strange feelings she had whenever she looked at Neville, the way she never quite fit in with the Potters. Harry’s intense protectiveness. The way Dumbledore’s eyes always lingered a moment too long on her whenever they spoke.

  A knock on the door broke her concentration.

  Jaqui snapped her head up, heart pounding. She hadn’t even heard anyone approach.

  Neville stood in the doorway, a look of concern on his face.

  "Jax?" he said softly, his voice a little rough from the cold outside. "You’ve been in here for hours. What are you—"

  "I know," she whispered, the words tumbling out before she could stop them. "I know who I really am, Neville."

  Neville’s face went pale. "What… what are you talking about?"

  Jaqui stood up quickly, the old parchment rustling in her hands as she stepped toward him. "I’m not a Potter, Neville. I’m a Longbottom. Your sister. Your real sister."

  The shock on Neville’s face was almost more than Jaqui could bear. He blinked, stepping back as if she had struck him. "What… What are you saying, Jaqui?"

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  Jaqui shook her head, not trusting herself to speak any further. The room felt suffocating, the weight of the truth too much to hold on her own. She opened her hands, letting the papers fall in front of him. There, on the page, were the names. The Longbottoms, her true bloodline.

  And there, in bold letters, her mother and father’s names.

  "They told me. Theo and Tom told me everything," Jaqui continued, voice trembling with a strange mixture of anger and disbelief. "My parents… they’re not who I thought they were. They were—"

  "You can’t trust them," Neville interrupted sharply. His voice was hoarse, pleading. "They’re using you, Jaqui. You don’t know what they’ve done… What they are."

  Jaqui’s breath caught in her throat. "What do you mean, Neville? You’re my brother… You knew all this time?"

  Neville’s face hardened, and for the first time, Jaqui saw something dark in his eyes. "I never knew for sure. I wasn’t even sure you were alive until last summer." His eyes softened, though the fear lingered there. "But I promised… I promised your parents I’d keep you safe. They were afraid of the Riddles, Jaqui. They didn’t want you to become one of them."

  Jaqui took a step back, the ground suddenly feeling like it was tilting beneath her. "They lied to me. Dumbledore lied to me."

  Neville reached out, taking her hand in his, his fingers trembling slightly. "Jaqui, I… I didn’t know how to tell you. I wanted to, but it wasn’t safe. If they knew what we were planning, everything would have fallen apart. The truth about your parents—your real parents—isn’t something I can explain in a single conversation. There’s so much you don’t understand."

  Jaqui looked down at their hands, the weight of the words settling on her chest. "What am I supposed to do with all of this, Neville? What am I supposed to do now?"

  Neville pulled her into a tight hug, his voice barely above a whisper. "I don’t know, Jax. But I’m not going anywhere. We’re in this together."

  For the first time in what felt like years, Jaqui let herself relax in his arms. But it wasn’t just relief she felt. It was a fire, smoldering deep inside her, burning brighter with every passing moment.

  The truth had changed everything. And she knew, deep down, that there was no going back.

  The next morning, the weight of the truth still clung to Jaqui like a second skin. Her heart beat with the echoes of a family she didn’t remember, a name that didn’t feel like hers — not yet.

  But the storm was far from over.

  Theo's presence in the shadows felt like a warning, a shadow that had been stalking her for far too long. The closer Jaqui came to understanding who she was, the more he seemed to draw closer. And when he spoke, his words were laced with something darker than she was ready for.

  "You are a Longbottom, Jaqui," Theo said, his voice smooth like silk but carrying the weight of something ancient. "And with that blood comes a power you can’t yet comprehend. Your destiny is bound to the darkness. It’s in your veins, just as it is in mine."

  But Jaqui’s heart belonged to a different truth now — a truth that had once been kept from her.

  And the time was coming when she would have to choose.

  Would she embrace the darkness of her bloodline?Or would she fight to claim a new path, one of her own making?