Well, I got a few follows and favourites so thank you to those people!


CHAPTER TWO: Struggling with New Roles

James made his way through the corridors of the prefect carriage, trying to look as though he knew what he was doing, scared silly of one of the new fifth year prefects coming along and catching the new Head Boy looking as if he didn't know what he was doing. Which, in truth, he didn't: He'd never gone near the carriage before, never had any sort of position of authority.

"Two doors down on the right,"a voice said quietly in his ear. James looked round and found Neville standing there. He gave him a grateful smile. Neville patted his shoulder reassuringly before heading off in the direction of the staff carriage.

James went into the compartment Neville had indicated. A girl with long dark hair in Hufflepuff colours got up to greet him, hand outstretched: He noticed the Head Girl badge pinned to her robes. "James Potter! I heard it was you." He took her hand politely but slightly awkwardly: He recognised the girl from a few of his classes and knew she'd been a prefect but had no idea what her name was. She seemed to realise the reason for his discomfort. "Susannah Amos,"she supplied.

The name rang a slight bell with James. "Do I know your family?"

"I don't think so, I'm Muggleborn. My sister's a witch though, she was two years above us. Helena."

James thought for a second then it came to him. "She was dating Timothy Wood, right?"

"She married him last month."

James nodded. "We were on the Quidditch team together."

"Well, since we're going to be working closely, I suppose we'd better get to know each other. You're dating that Ravenclaw prefect, aren't you?"

James was about to answer when he heard voices coming down the corridor. "Maybe we should talk about this later." Susannah nodded and they took their places.

A large group of prefects filed in. Albus, Rose, Emily and Scorpius were among them, along with Zara Mills, the other Slytherin prefect from their year. Several of them did double takes when they saw James, not least Brian Higgs and Angela Barnes.

"Sit down,"James told them, trying to imbue his voice with some authority. "Let's get started."


Martin was glaring hard at Lily and Hugo, a fact that both of them were completely unaware of since they were engrossed in a game of exploding snap. It was bad enough having to share a compartment with his best friend's youngest siblings because said best friend had suddenly taking to hanging out with the posh kids. Having them ignore him was even worse.

"I suppose you two will be prefects next year,"he grumbled. "At least I won't be around to see it."

"Not me,"Lily replied. "All the teachers say I talk too much."

"And I don't talk enough,"Hugo added. "Snap."

Lily did a double take just as the cards exploded. "I was distracted,"she complained. Hugo shrugged.

"Maybe you'll have a normal year at Hogwarts this year,"Martin suggested.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, in your first year the school got raided by Death Eaters trying to revive Voldemort, second year the Potions Mistress turned out to be an imposter organising a breakout from Azkaban and third year the new Herbology assistant turned out to be helping erase people's memories. You haven't got the best history." Martin gained a certain satisfaction from seeing them both blanch.


Harry was filing through reports in his office at the Ministry when Hermione came in and sat on his desk. "No, I can't do any work with you there,"he remarked in mock protest. "Too distracting."

Hermione rolled her eyes slightly. "I just wondered if you fancied some lunch. Assuming I can keep any of it down today."

Harry gave her a sympathetic look. "It'll be worth it at the end."

"Well, at least then I'll get to share the hardship with you then." Hermione smiled. "And it'll be nice to share other things with you as well."

Harry was struck by the comment. Every now and then he found himself in awe about the fact they were going to have a child together. Like Hermione, he'd thought those days were behind him but perhaps it was inevitable, given how completely he'd fallen in love with her, that something would come out of that love.

"Thought I'd find you two together,"remarked Ron as he entered the office. They both looked suddenly guilty but he wasn't paying attention, instead producing a file. "Got a case here that should concern both of you, looks like we're going to have to prosecute. Some idiot decided it would be a good idea to enchant a batch of razors so they make hair instantly grow back longer and then put them in a Muggle shop. You wouldn't believe the trouble it's taking to cover it up…"

He was interrupted by a yell of pain from the corridor. The three of them drew their wands and ran out.

It took them some minutes to find the corridor from which the shout had originated. When they did, they found Anthony King, their former classmate who worked in the Department of Magical Transportation, sitting with his legs straight out in the middle of the corridor, looking dazed. Parvati and Padma Patel came running up from the other direction. "What happened?"Padma asked.

Anthony shook his head to clear it. "Death Eaters,"he said at last.

Everyone froze at the declaration. "Are you sure?"Harry asked.

"They looked like them. They had the robes and the masks." Anthony gestured to a nearby room. "They came out of there, one of them was carrying a scroll. I tried to stop them but they stunned me."

Harry looked around at the rest of the group. "I think we'd better tell the Minister."