Author's Note: A little sad I don't have more readers. I was hoping that everyone who liked the predessesor would return even if this story is different in style and plot than the first one. Oh well. Comments are greatly appreciated. Enjoy.

Chapter 2

Magdalena carefully pulled into the empty parking space, taking her foot off the gas petal and letting the car slowly drift into the center of the spot. She almost had it perfect until the tires slid on the wet pavement causing the car to pull up a little further than she had anticipated. She quickly put it in park and turned off the car, applying the emergency brake for extra security. She just missed hitting the curb by barely a centimeter and Aidan knew it but he reminded in quiet contemplation of the dream his mother had last night. It wasn't the first time she had dreamt of him dying but there was something different about the way she had approached it this time.

Aidan had a feeling that she had been having dreams like that ever since he was born but she didn't start telling him about the dreams until he was fifteen, when she figured he could handle the startling report. This had to be the fifth one she had told him about. Usually, she would treat it like any other bad dream, telling him right away, still trying to shake off the fear, but this time it was as if she thought it could really happen. She seemed apprehensive of something he wasn't quite sure of. It made him uneasy to say the least.

Magdalena tucked her keys in her purse and looked over at Aidan who was staring out the window with a spaced-out expression he had indubitably inherited from her.

"Ready?" she asked, trying to at least sound a little more than tormented with concern for his well-being. Hopefully Hogwarts is safer than home.

Aidan lifted his chin off the palm of his hand and nodded at her reluctantly and mutely.

"Okay." she said, smiling weakly at him. He didn't return the emotion and instead got out of the car to grab his trunk from the boot of the car, slamming it shut with barely enough force to close it properly.

Magdalena climbed out of the car and gently clasped a hand on his shoulder, concerned.

"Are you alright, Aidan?" she asked him. He wasn't exactly the most sanguine person in the world to begin with but this was a new low in cynicism that she marveled at.

He nodded solemnly and moved away from her loose grip.

"We should find a trolley for my trunk." he stated stoically sounding all too much like his father for her comfort.

As the mother and son made their way through King's Cross Station, fascinated passerbys whipped their heads around to gaze at the striking display they created. At the still-young-to-have-a-teenage-son age of thirty-nine, Magdalena had maintained a youthful radiance of a twenty-four year old. Her face had yet to be marred by harsh lines, her hair had yet to contain aged strands of grey, and her physique had yet to be neglected for the solace found in snack foods that so many mothers fell victim to. Aidan, standing tall at eighteen, possessed a maturity that lead to being commonly mistaken for someone in their early twenties. When the two walked together in public they were often thought to be a brother and sister with a large age difference or, on some awkward occasions, boyfriend and girlfriend.

After many stares that could only be described as ruthless gawking at the beautiful black and white and grey clad couple, they made their way to the wall separating platforms nine and ten. Aidan raised his eyebrows.

"So we just run through it?" he asked his mother.

"Has it really been that long since we've been here?" she asked with a laugh.

"I'm just making sure nothing has changed." he said simply before disappearing into the brick. Magdalena followed, finding there to be something very dismissive about the way he was speaking to her.

"Hey, what's wrong, honey?" she asked him once there were standing on platform nine and three quarters, the smoke from the train's engine encircling their ankles. "If this is about the dream, you shouldn't reflect on it for a second."

A few other parents glared pointedly at them, fascinated by either the fact that Magdalena had been in the papers more than once for advances in potions or the fact that she looked like she must have given birth as a teenager, even though she had been almost twenty-two. A few who recognized them were simply mesmerized by the fact that they were there and not sleeping at home.

Aidan curled his red lips in a dishonest smile. "I'm fine, mum. Don't worry. I can protect myself." he said, with a slight air of confidence. His father again although Magdalena had never been well acquainted with Tom's arrogant side because he hid it so well from everyone.

"Hey Lumairo! What the bloody hell are you doing here?" shouted out a deep, husky voice from farther down the platform. Aidan and Magdalena turned and saw his friend, Chad Harman, a seventh year Slytherin, running up to them, his brawny frame seemingly more massive than it had been when he had visited Aidan a few weeks ago.

"Hey Harman. We actually woke up on time this year." Aidan replied, shaking his hand in the enthusiastic way of old friends. Magdalena smiled stiffly. From the very second five years ago when she had found out her son had become close friends with a Slytherin, she had been cautious. She told herself not to be prejudice but after her own experience with not thinking biased, she couldn't help but wonder about him and what kind of influence he could have on Aidan. Upon meeting him that summer, she had concluded that he was someone to keep an eye on.

"Miss Lumairo, you're looking positively breathtaking today." Chad purred, smiling suggestively at her as he ran his beefy fingers through his dirty blond hair.

Magdalena's smile became even more rigid. Oh, how she detested him.

"Hey A, you better get your arse on the train. It's leaving in, like, five minutes." he informed them.

"He won't be late." Magdalena stated curtly. "I'd just like a moment with my son, Chad. I'm sure your parents would want to say good-bye to you too."

"Naw. My parents already left. They can't wait to get rid of me every year." he said, his eyes narrowing in disgust as if he thought himself to be the most pleasant person in the world and anyone who wouldn't want to be with him should be damned to hell.

Hm, shocker, Magdalena thought sarcastically to herself.

"I'll see you later." Aidan said to Chad, as he got onto the train.

"Why do you hang out with him?" Magdalena asked Aidan, hiking up her purse on her shoulder.

Aidan shrugged. He truthfully didn't know why he liked being with Chad. Maybe it was that he was different, an outcast of sorts, and thus, terribly interesting in the most obscure way.

"Anyway, I guess this is good-bye until Christmas." she said, putting her hands on his biceps. "Be good, study hard," she touched her forehead to his, "and don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"So I can beat people up if it's for the greater good?" Aidan asked, grinning.

Magdalena laughed and pulled him into a tight, motherly hug. She could still remember when she could balance him on her knee like it was just yesterday, sitting in the rocking chair, back and forth, as she sang little children's rhymes to him to get him to fall asleep. Where did my baby go, she wondered as she placed a kiss on the top of his head, her nose getting lost in the mass of black hair. He smelled like a man.

"Write me often." she said. "I'll be sending owls all the time so I'll be expecting responses."

"I will." he promised, giving her a less circulation-restricting but still just as meaningful hug, at least for an eighteen year old whose friends were watching him embrace his mother.

"Bye Aidan. I love you." she said, slowly letting go of him.

"Bye Mum." he answered as he ascended the stairs of the train to find his friend's compartment.

Magdalena let out a heavy sigh as the train started to pull away from the station. Dear Aidan please be careful, she thought, rubbing her pale, white hands together, not so much for warmth but for comfort. A gust of wind blew past her, her hair and dress flying behind her, making her feel like she could take off right then and there. All she had to do was lift her arms and be carried away into the clear, blue sky.

"Do my eyes deceive me or is there a dark angel standing before me?" a slimy voice asked that appeared to be coming from above her. She glanced up to see a tall man with balding dark hair who was so lean that his black slacks were barely holding up. He was also wearing black robes that gave him a sinister look she found unsettling. He looked familiar though...

Magdalena glowered at Lestrange. "Hm, I thought I smelled something foul." she muttered under her breath. Mentally, she was thanking God that he hadn't approached her when she was standing with Aidan. Lestrange would have taken one took at him and known.

"Magdalena Lumairo, it's been a long time. You look damn good." he said, staring at her chest. She crossed her arms and shot daggers at him with her eyes.

"My face is up here." she snapped.

He looked up at her and smiled. His teeth were crooked and browned, a look that didn't suit all of his 'wealthy pureblood' bragging he had done in school. "I saw your name in the paper a few months ago. You made some other discovery, right? In . . . that job . . ."

"Potions research." she corrected sharply.

"Right. That's it. So, you've got a kid here, huh? I haven't seen you here before. First year?"

"Seventh. Maybe you've heard of him. He's head boy. Top of his class." she said, trying to make him feel inferior. She will never forget what that bastard did to her, or any of those bastards from the Slug Club for that matter but she held most of the blame on Avery and Lestrange because they were the ones who actually constructed the bet.

"I got a little girl starting her second year. A proud Slytherin like her dad." he said, beaming with pride.

"How sad that you felt the need to reproduce." she said, sneering.

Lestrange ignored her comment. "So are you married?" he asked.

"That's none of your business." she answered, hiding her left hand in her armpit so he couldn't see whether or not she was wearing a ring.

"I was just wondering if you maybe wanted to come by my way sometime." he said, leaning into her. If she were married, she would have said so. "I know you have a bad side. You just don't show it too often."

Not to you, she thought. The last time she had let that part of her out resulted in Aidan's conception. After it had happened, she realized what kind of spell she had been under and realized that she couldn't totally blame Tom for what happened as much as she wanted to.

A little distance away, Magdalena could see a very stiff and unhappy woman who was storming towards them with a furious, determined look on her face.

"Hm, looks like your wife is wondering why you're talking to me." Magdalena said, motioning to the disgruntled looking woman coming towards them. "Don't worry, he only wants me for sex!" she shouted out to the woman. A few people gave her strange looks but her ability to be embarrassed was depleted a long time ago.

And with that, she walked off. The sound of the woman yelling filled the platform and all she could do was smile. Oh, karma.