Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I won't own Harry Potter in any future chapters, either; this disclaimer applies to the entire fic, so that I do not have to write a disclaimer on every chapter.

Written for the Weekly Updater Competition, Long Haul Competition, 100K Multi-chapter Competition, and Prove Me Wrong Competition.

To clear things up, this will focus on all of the next-generation's Weasley-Potters, along with their friends and romantic interests, over the course of one school year. The story takes place five years after the Epilogue; to put it in context, Lily Luna Potter is fourteen at the start of the story, and Teddy Lupin is twenty-four. Although the story is filed under RoseScorpius, there is certainly more to the story than the ScorpiusRose relationship; there are many other pairings, and many other characters, but ScorpiusRose will definitely play a major part. The story is filed under Scorrose simply so that it does have character tags, allowing people to actually find it.

I would also like to note that you may want to pay attention to the date at the start of each chapter; since the story is told from a different point of view each chapter, there is a chance that two consecutive chapters may take place on the same day, or something of the sort.

I sincerely hope you all enjoy the story.

September 1st, 2022

Victoire Lupin's gaze flicked to the clock for what must have been the fifteenth time that night. It was now eight o'clock, and while that was not particularly late in the general sense, it was late for Teddy to arrive home. He worked until six-thirty on a pretty consistent basis, and he was usually good at contacting her the few times that he had to work a significant amount of time past that. She felt simultaneously worried about him and annoyed with him; either something bad had happened, something urgent had come up, or he had simply lost track of time. Knowing the Auror Office - and knowing Teddy Lupin - it could be any one of those three things.

Her stomach growled; she had not eaten supper yet, as she always waited for her husband to arrive home. Thinking the word 'husband' still gave her a certain thrill, and a quick smile crossed over her face. She had loved Teddy since she was little, apart from a brief period during Hogwarts when she found herself interested in other boys. When she was sixteen, however, Teddy had become her primary focus again, and they had started dating the summer before her seventh year. She couldn't think of anybody that she cared about more than Teddy, and the thought made her eyes flick to the clock again. He wasn't usually this late - surely, something had to be wrong. Eight-oh-one.

She was tempted to Floo the Auror Office and ask somebody what had happened. There were certain privileges to being the spouse of an Auror, and there were even more privileges that came with being a Weasley-Potter. Nobody would have dared tell Victoire Lupin - the child of war heroes in their own right, not to mention the niece of the Head of the Auror Office - that she was breaking protocol. She knew how the Auror Office worked enough to know that although they wouldn't have given her details - even her name and her relationship wouldn't grant her that - about Teddy's assignment, they would have told her whether or not he was okay.

Victoire probably would have ended up Flooing them, if the door hadn't opened, and Teddy stepped inside, closing the door behind him. He looked tired, but seemed unhurt, and Victoire breathed a quiet sigh of relief before placing her hands on her hips. "Are you all right? You didn't Floo, and I was getting worried about you."

"I'm sorry." Teddy pulled Victoire close to him, pressing a soft kiss to the top of her head before moving down to her lips. "The Auror Office has their hands full - everything that's going on with the Circle of Darkness, you know? They're getting bigger and bigger, and we fear that it's going to be like...well, like how the Death Eaters were. There's already been a few murders and disappearances, and there's a chance it could just get worse and worse."

Victoire frowned. "Have the Aurors even managed to catch anyone who's a member? I haven't heard anything."

Teddy sighed, closing his eyes for a few seconds. It was obvious to Victoire that the lack of arrests was a bit of a sore spot with him, and probably a sore spot with the rest of the Auror Office as well. She couldn't picture the Aurors taking such a thing lightly. "No," Teddy said. "They're not as obvious as the Death Eaters were. As far as we know, they don't have any marks or tattoos like that, and they've never ran into any Aurors. The few murders that we can attribute to them were all done without witnesses."

"Then how can-" Victoire started to ask how they could know it was the Circle of Darkness if there were no witnesses, but Teddy cut her off.

"Can't tell you that," he said, wiggling out of his outer robes and dropping them on the top of the coat rack. "That's classified for now. I can't tell you everything, after all." He smiled at her, in an obvious attempt to let her know that he wasn't trying to be mean about it, and gave her another kiss. "How was your day, Vic?"

Victoire shrugged. "I went to St. Mungo's, to see if any new spots had opened up for a mind-Healer, but they still don't have anything." She led Teddy into the kitchen and started heating up the food that had gotten cold. "I don't know where else to apply. I asked Professor Clearwater the other day if she might consider hiring me for the Hogwarts students, but she said it was unnecessary, that it isn't this generation that I should be worrying about." She shook her head. "I respect Penelope Clearwater, but that seems ignorant to me. We haven't been through a war - yet," she added grimly, "but that doesn't mean everybody in our generation is perfectly stable."

Teddy snagged a sliver of chicken as the plate passed by his head, popping the piece into his mouth. Victoire rolled her eyes at him. "Try talking to somebody other than Clearwater," he said. "I'm sure some of the others will agree that having a mind-Healer at Hogwarts is a good idea. Susan Bones is a wonderful Healer, but you know she only handles the physical stuff. The students don't have anyone professional to talk to if they're having problems. I'm sure...ah, what's her name, damn it." He paused for a second, looking pensive, and then snapped his fingers. "MacDougal, the Defense professor. She'd agree with you, no doubt."

"Professor Clearwater is the Headmistress of Hogwarts," Victoire replied. "If she says no, there's really nothing else I can do. I can't pester the woman. And," she added before Teddy could continue, "I'm not going to go beneath her and talk to all of the other professors, either. I don't want to use 'But everyone else agrees with me' as an argument for why I should get a position there." She slid a plate of food in front of Teddy, placing another one on the table and sitting down, starting to eat as well. "I'm sure I'll find something - mind-Healers are becoming more respected now. Twenty years ago, barely anyone had even heard of the profession."

There was a brief silence as they both ate; it was late, after all, and they were both hungry. Teddy had finished his first plate and gone back for more around the same time Victoire was halfway done with her first plate, and when they had both finished - around the same time, unsurprisingly enough - Teddy leaned back in his chair. Victoire always felt like he was going to fall backwards, but he never had yet. "You know," he said, "it still feels a little strange that it's September first, and we're sitting at home. I know it's been years, but still...I dunno."

Victoire nodded. "I feel old. James, Roxie, and Molly are leaving Hogwarts at the end of this year."

Teddy shuddered. "James Potter and Roxanne Weasley are going to be let loose on the real world. That's a scary thought, you know."

"And can you believe Lily is fourteen? She's going to be dating people."

Teddy held up his hand. "I don't want to hear about my little sister dating anybody, thank you very much. I'm with James on that. Lily can wait until she's of age to date. Mainly because I'm never at Hogwarts or Hogsmeade, so I have no access to her boyfriends."

"Lily would hex you in the balls if you dared intimidate any of the people she fancied," Victoire said bluntly. "And she would probably succeed, as well - oh, don't make that big bad Auror face. Leave Lily alone - she's old enough to go out with people if she wants. If I recall, you and Kiara started going out at the beginning of third year, and considering that you were caught in a broom closet together-"

Teddy's face was a violent shade of pink; he blushed just as easily as most of the Weasley-Potters. "That was over ten years ago."

"Oh, I'm not jealous. I'm just pointing out that you started even younger than Lily - and yes, I know for a fact that Lily hasn't done anything, because I'm a girl, and she's a girl, and therefore we can have that sort of conversation together." Victoire brushed a strand of strawberry-blonde hair back from her face. "Anyway. To think - everyone's at the opening feast right now, eating and catching up with their friends. James is probably terrorizing the first years."

"And Roxanne is probably helping him," Teddy pointed out, levitating the dishes so that they flew neatly into the sink. "Lily's probably plotting something, Lucy's writing in that book she carries everywhere, and Molly's being a prefect."

"Head Girl," Victoire corrected. Teddy's expression changed to one of surprise. "You didn't know? Molly got Head Girl. Uncle Percy's been telling it to anyone with a set of ears, and even that's not really a requirement."

"I haven't seen Uncle Percy in a while," Teddy said. "You know I missed the end-of-summer party." He stared out the kitchen window, and his hair, almost unconsciously, got darker. "The Auror Office is struggling. Even though we have a decent amount of people, it's still difficult. It's not just the Circle of Darkness making trouble, but it's people being paranoid about the Circle and doing crazy things. Some woman suspected her brother of being a member, and they got into a duel in the middle of Diagon Alley."

"Was anyone hurt?"

"Apart from the two of them? Nah. Auror Vane happened to be in Diagon Alley at the time, and she managed to break it up and take them into custody." He absentmindedly played with a loose string on his sleeve. "Sometimes I wish we were back at Hogwarts, you know? Everything was so much easier."

Victoire nodded, flashing back to her own Hogwarts days. Teddy and Victoire had been close, as expected, along with Freddie and Dominique; Freddie was in the year below Victoire, and Dominique the year below him. The four of them had been mostly inseparable while they were all at Hogwarts together. Victoire had loved Hogwarts. The Weasley-Potters were relatively popular around the school, especially in the early years when having a Weasley-Potter there had been a novelty, and not a common occurrence like it was now. Victoire had made friends with the girls in her dormitory, and it seemed that she always had somebody to talk to. She had done decently well enough in her classes to enjoy them somewhat, as well, and on the whole, Hogwarts had been an amazing experience.

She had gone through a brief period in fifth year of being impatient to get to the real world, due in part to the excessive pressure put on the OWL students, but now that she was in the real world, she agreed with Teddy. Hogwarts was easier. There was no worry about finding a job and paying the bills, no worry about whether or not the person that she loved had gotten hurt on an Auror mission...no adult problems in general. It had been immature, simpler things - whether or not her essay was satisfactory, whether or not she wanted to do more than kiss with her boyfriend, whether or not to go to Hogsmeade instead of studying. They had seemed like major problems at the time, but now, they seemed like bliss, incredibly simple compared to her life now.

"Do you think the Aurors will succeed?" she asked suddenly. "I mean, will the Circle of Darkness fall?"

"Good always triumphs," Teddy said, but he didn't seem completely sincere as he spoke. Faces flashed in Victoire's mind, faces she had only seen in photographs. Fred. Remus. Tonks. Uncle Harry's parents. Albus Dumbledore. Severus Snape. Maybe it was true that good always triumphed - emphasis on maybe - but it wouldn't be without some losses.

"I worry about you, Teddy," she said softly. "You're an Auror. You're in the thick of this - every day, every time you go to work, you're in danger." He opened his mouth to speak, but Victoire continued. "And I don't want to lose you. You know I love you, Teddy. I want to raise a family with you. I want to live to be a hundred and thirty, but with you by my side."

Teddy clasped her hand in his. "I'll be careful, Vic. We haven't lost any of our Aurors to the Circle yet, and we certainly don't plan to, either. I don't think they're ready for any major attacks yet. They need information first, and as far as we know, they don't have too much information on the inner workings of the Aurors. We're being very tight with security - random checks are being done on everybody, and so far, nobody's been thought of as a secret Circle member."

"So far," Victoire said darkly.

"I know it's scary," Teddy said reassuringly. "I know. Hell, I worry about you, since you're alone in the house all day. But I promise, everything's going to be all right. There's wards and protection on the house - me, you, and any of your relatives are the only people who can Apparate directly onto the grounds, and there's other things besides. And as far as me, they would never send me on a mission to get a Circle member, not without heavy backup, at least. I've only been an Auror for a few years. They'd send Uncle Harry, or Hestia Jones, or some other Auror who's been there for twenty years. Don't worry too much." He pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. "I'll be fine. We all will."

"Dom's at the Ministry," Victoire mumbled. "She's at risk too."

"No offense," Teddy said, holding up his hands in surrender, "but Dominique isn't exactly at a high position. The Circle members probably don't even know she exists. We're safe, Dom's safe, Freddie is too high-profile for anybody to get near him, and everyone else is at Hogwarts. And as far as your parents, uncles, and aunts...well, I would like to see a Circle member that thinks they're good enough to take on any of them."

Victoire tried to smile. Teddy's reassurances weren't completely convincing her, but it was nice that he was trying. She knew that she worried a lot; it was a side effect of being the oldest cousin, the mother of the group. She wanted to protect them all, but she couldn't, and that scared her as well. She was just at home all the time, because she didn't have a job, and she was unable to do anything to help the others stay out of danger. She was terrified for Teddy, the Auror, putting himself in danger every time he went to work. "Thanks, love," she said, standing up. "I think I'm going to go write a letter to Dominique."

Teddy's brow furrowed. "You saw her just the other day, didn't you? For the end-of-summer party?"

"Yeah. But I want to ask her if she knows any places that might need a mind-Healer, because if anybody would know, it'd be her." Dominique had a bit of a reputation as someone who knew everything, a reputation that wasn't completely untrue. "And you know Dom - she hates when people drop in on her, so I'd rather just write." Victoire disappeared into the bedroom that the two of them shared, coming back out within seconds with a quill and parchment in her hands.

The letter she wrote was short; she didn't want to bother Dominique by sending a long letter. She finished it in minutes, and walked over to the cage that held their owl, Patch. Releasing him, she set the letter in his beak and opened the window; he flew into the distance, and was gone.