So, with Rose peering anxiously over his shoulder at the letter, Albus began to read the disorganized writing of his father.

Albus—

We've just received word from Neville that your Apparation lesson in Hogsmeade didn't go very well. Because of what you've told the Muggles—or whoever it is they are—the Ministry of Magic is seriously considering the use of Obliviators. Try not to panic, though. I've convinced them to think it over a bit—told them it was a good opportunity to improve our relationship with foreign Muggles. They've been considering doing things to improve those relationships for a while, so I don't think they'll be terribly difficult to convince. You probably won't be put on trial or anything like that, but you must remember to be prepared. The Ministry is at times very unpredictable, as you've learned in History of Magic—well, as Professor Binns has still been teaching, you probably haven't. You can relax for now, and try not to do anything that will get you into even more trouble.

Hopefully your future Apparation lessons won't be so disastrous. Good luck. We'll be sure to tell you what's going on as soon as we can.

And before we forget, Ron wants to give you his congratulations on finally giving your instructor some trouble. He's never really been fond of the instructor, you see, though we'd have to discourage you from doing something like this in the near future.

He could tell quite easily where Rose was in reading and rereading the letter, for she kept muttering things like, "Obliviators..." and "That's only going to do harm, of course..." giving her the appearance of a madwoman.

"Rose?" Al said, slightly louder than he would have normally done.

"Hm?" asked Rose distractedly.

"I was thinking... Maybe we should get back to that research. It could only help."

"Right." It seemed at the word "research," Rose had left whatever place in her head she had been. Immediately the far-away look in her eyes returned to normal, and her voice became as quick and bossy as ever. "How is immediately for your schedule?" she asked.

"Great."

And so, not for the first time, the two were headed toward the library with much more enthusiasm than displayed from your average Hogwarts student.

"I think we should look for cases similar to yours, in specific," Rose informed him as they turned a corner. "Of course, we've seen some before, like the wizard I was telling you about a few days ago. But it would be helpful knowing even more. Just in case you've got to go to the Ministry."

Al didn't comment. The thought of going to the Ministry because of what he'd done wasn't pleasant, despite everyone he knew there. That fact, perhaps, made it even worse.

Rose didn't speak directly to him any more until they reached the library. Albus did, however, catch her speaking under her breath to people unknown several times before she finally said, "Here."

The ancient Madam Pince had grown quite used to the company of bushy-haired girls and mischief-making boys in the library, though she never became any fonder of it. They usually ended up dirtying the books unnecessarily, and removing more from the shelves than should be allowed. More than once she mad attempted to make the entire library inaccessible to these students without a pass. It would, after all, cause far less trouble. However, as these attempts had all failed miserably, she found herself in the presence of these mess-making, problem-causing students quite often. This visit, she was sure, could mean nothing good for her or for the books.

Albus could see on her face from the moment they walked in the library that they weren't wanted. Rose could as well, he noticed, because she was noticeably nervous when she strolled past the many shelves until she found a good place to search.

As she ran her fingers across each of the books' spines, Albus asked her, "Where should I look?"

She didn't look away from the shelves as she replied calmly, "Somewhere over here. I've got a good feeling about this."

He searched the opposite side for quite a while. Dragons That Can't Stop Killing People and Why You Should Maybe Avoid Them, which Al suspected contained the names of every dragon in existence… Muggles Who Know, which wasn't as useful as it seemed; it was merely about Muggles inventing such clever things. By the time he had seen half of what this section contained, Albus was quite certain this was the portion of the library that contained books students were too lazy to put back where they belonged. Copies of The Adventures of Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle from over thirty years ago were lying flat on the shelves, under a Charms book that was dancing madly on top of them while changing colors so rapidly, Albus found himself with a slight headache by the time he passed it.

"Rose?" he asked, setting down the disappointing Wizards Who Can't Shut Up. "Why are we here exactly? Isn't there a, well, better section?"

"I thought it was obvious," Rose said, sounding quite relaxed. "Other people have found these useful, or else found them too odd or boring. We'll probably find something helpful, too. This is where I found a lot of the books we were using earlier." She picked up a mustard-colored book that seemed to Al likely to fall apart any moment, and flipped through the yellowing pages. "I think this one might be good."

"Spellotape: How to Fix Situations Caused by Wizards with Bigger Mouths than Jarveys," Al read slowly, struggling to make out the black letters so faded they now resembled cobwebs. "Should I be offended?"

"That someone wants to help you?" asked Rose. "I wouldn't be."

"Well, er, thanks…"

"Do you want to look some more? Just in case this one doesn't help, I think that would be a good idea." She went back to searching without another word.

Ice Mice: Candy from Space(Al made note to read this later), What a Hufflepuff Truly Is, and a copy of Hogwarts: A History… Just in Thyme: Simple Recipes for Wizards…An old book on invisibility that kept flickering so that it was sometimes there, and sometimes just and empty space between a potions book and Writing Wrongs: Wizards Tell of Their Mistakes and How the Ministry Fixed Them.

Well, Albus thought, that one might not be useless.

"How's this?" he said, turning to face Rose, who was leafing through a book called Hypnotism Isn't the Answer, a Guide to Convincing Your Muggle Neighbors That It Wasn't a Broomstick You Were Flying Around Your House.

Rose looked at it for a moment, eyeing it as though trying to figure out if it were a galleon or merely leprechaun gold. Then, she smiled slightly and said, "Yes."

After searching for a bit longer, they found themselves with a pile of eight books, in varying degrees of hugeness.

Madam Pince reminded the two pointlessly of her many rules of handling these books as they showed them to her.

"…And don't even try eating near them."

"Yes, Madam Pince," Rose said tiredly, taking Writing Wrongs from the librarians wrinkled hands, and adding it to the towering stack of books in her arms. "Have a good day."

"So," Rose said immediately after exiting the library, her voice returning to its normal volume, "after our classes, we'll start reading these, and I think Lily will want to help as well."

"Okay."

"So you can read two of these, because—no offense, Albus—you aren't a very fast reader. Lily and I will each read three. I think she'll be okay with that…."

And so it was that—much against Madam Pince's instruction—there were two Gryffindor students eating their meals while deeply immersed in their books, looking up only when another seemed to be choking on his meal, while a third took momentary absences of conversation such as then to be good times to read her own book.

Albus, Rose, and Lily were all determined to read the books as quickly as possible. Rose had even suggested that they check out more when finished reading the others.

"Of course," she added hastily to Lily in the common room, "you have your OWLs next year, so if you want to study, that would be important to do as well."

"You have your NEWTs next year, but you can still fit in time for reading," said Lily. "And it's next year, not this year."

Rose, for a moment, looked nervous, apparently wondering if she should be studying more than she already was. "Okay," she said eventually, though sounding rather reluctant. "We'll go over the books as we finish them, then?"

With that, they picked up their books once more and continued reading.

Albus had to admit, some of it was a bit interesting. It certainly wasn't fun, but it was a bit of a conversation-starter knowing that one wizard in Bulgaria kept a troll as a pet, and that a witch in Russia had a fondness for showing off her highly illegal dragons.

Several long days and sleepless nights later, Albus had finished one of the books, which, as he explained to Rosie, was far from helpful in escaping serious trouble: It descried the severe punishments for these rule-breaking wizards, and the unanimous decisions of using them.

"She—the witch in this painting, the one with all the fire—was forced into living with starving dragons for mentioning her pet dragon to Muggle neighbors," he told her nervously.

"Oh," said Rose, which Al thought was a rather bad response to what he had just informed her of. "That's not very kind, is it? I suppose it was because the Muggles had been becoming less worried about wizards, and she kind of ruined it for us. I can sort of see why they might be harsh."

"Are you trying to make me feel worse?"

"Of course not," Rose amended quickly. "I was just thinking that severity would depend on what was going on at the time, so it would make some sense then, but now it doesn't, you know? So it might not be as bad for you."

"We still have nothing," Al pointed out.

Rose frowned uncertainly. "Hm," she said thoughtfully. "I suppose not if we're supposed to defend you or something… It wasn't exactly a life-or-death situation… But it was somewhat urgent, I suppose. I'm thinking the next book I'm reading will touch more on that."

Several more days and Albus had made it a quarter of the way through a book that seemed no more helpful than previous ones and much more boring, using the excuse that he was trying to get the sleep Professor Longbottom had recommended. As this was a school-related matter, Albus figured, Rose couldn't complain.

"I'm still managing to read," she told him tiredly. "And you have less to read than us, too!" But, as he'd expected, she continued almost immediately, "But I don't want you to go insane," to which an apparently eavesdropping Lily added, "Yeah, you're bad enough already."

So when Albus went to breakfast the following day, fairly well-rested and having read much less than Rose had, he was fairly content, save for the ever-present fear of being sent to the Ministry. He wasn't worrying about newspaper articles, or Howlers, or demigods, or if he'd invite anyone to the next trip to Hogsmeade.

Naturally, he was much more surprised than he normally would have been when he yet again received an owl other than his usual copy of the Daily Prophet.

AN: You're probably more worried about the end of this chapter than the small detail I'm about to go over, but I care more about the small details. Writing Wrongs is in fact meant to be spelled that way. Cheesy? Yes, it is. But if book titles include puns, they're probably bad ones. Speaking of titles, I'll agree that some of these titles are freakishly long. And that you may have trouble reading for the next few days because of all the italics in that section. Sorry about that. Let's see, oh yes, the letter! At the beginning of the chapter, I mean. Yes, I imagine Ginny was perfectly chill with all of this, so didn't bother with a letter. (Did you catch my sarcasm?) Also, I must apologize for my characterization of Harry. We missed nineteen years of his life, so it's sort of difficult for me to write him as anything but what we really knew him as. He'd have obviously changed quite a bit, without a prophecy, without Voldy, with kids. So, my apologies for those things, and for the long author's note.