Although it was possible to apparate or use floo powder to travel between St. Mungo's hospital and the Ministry of Magic, Hermione elected to walk though the streets of muggle London. They strolled to the tune of Ron's grumbling (about the protection detail) and the constant alerts from Pepper's mobile, notifying her of thousands of emails, texts and phone calls; only half of them were from Tony's AI.

Taking pity on her friend, Hermione agreed to let Pepper wait outside St. Mungos while she attempted to redirect the endless correspondence to her unwilling assistants. Pepper found a strange sense of relief in the hour long shred of normality she'd been given; even the high stress New York muggle business world was a welcome respite from the ridiculously dangerous Wizarding world.

When she finally stopped her assistant pulling her hair out, she no choice but to call Mr Stark and order him to step up. The idea was not one she relished. She knew the instant FRIDAY answered the phone, her call would be traced to London - unless the anti-muggle charms around the hospital interfered with the technology's ability to trace the call. It was unlikely. As far as she could see, the best case scenario would be Tony flying out to England, finding out about the magical word and (knowing him) probably announce it to the universe. The worst case scenario involved him convincing her to go back, leaving her family behind yet again.

Nothing could have prepared her for how events actually played out between the pair of them. Indeed, Tony answered the phone without any panic or worry or care in his voice, all she heard was anger.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" He bellowed down the phone, his tone surprisingly similar to the one Uncle Vernon used when she or her brother would accidentally mention the 'm' word. It made her feel small; she'd watched enough Disney movies to know Prince Charming wasn't supposed to make you feel like that. Gritting her teeth and hardening her heart, Pepper forced herself not to back down and grovel at his feet.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked innocently, silently cursing herself for the British accent that came racing out of her mouth. Luckily, Iron Man's acute hearing was dimmed by the furious pounding of blood in his ears, so he didn't notice her slip.

"Don't push me! Don't you dare..." His voice was so loud that several pedestrians glanced at her, brows furrowed as they heard the voice at the other end of her mobile. "You're supposed my girlfriend. If that mean's nothing to you then how about this, you're my employee, my CEO for God sakes! And you just disappear, next thing I hear is that you've bought a ticket to England!"

"I wonder how that must feel like." Her voice was thick with sarcasm as she spoke. "Having your partner disappear completely only to hear about their whereabouts on the news. Wait... I know exactly what that's like. You do it at least once a week." It hadn't been her intention to be so confrontational, however, she refused to be spoken down to as if she was his possession or some misbehaving child begging for forgiveness. "I've put my entire life on hold so you can fly off and and satisfy your little hero complex-"

"So what is this? A punishment? Or is this you taking your life back by eloping with that blond haired guy-"

"Eloping? You think I'm eloping with that greasy, slimy creep?" She snapped incredulously. For the first time, Tony stopped talking, trying to think of another accusation to hurl in her direction. Pepper stole the brief silence as an opportunity to force Tony Stark to listen. "How many times do I have to say this? My life does not revolve around you!" Already, her throat felt sore from the loud exchange. She began to feel extremely conscious of the curious and judging expressions of the faces of the strangers around her. "I have a friend who's in trouble-" She started to explain, while attempting to hide her face with her hand

"What friend?" Tony scoffed in disbelief. "Just the other day you told me I was all you had..."

"I have friends!"

"No, you have business contacts!" He snapped. The truth of his words cut deep into her soul, carving wounds he could never understand. "I have never met anyone that you're willing to let your guard down around-"

"You don't know what you're talking about!"

"Well then tell me who the mystery, English friend is you had to go and save at the last minute." He let out a loud, sadistic laugh. "Go on, let's see what story you can come up with..."

"MY BROTHER!" Started passers by turned to glare at her for disturbing their walks, yet it was the only thing she could think to say that would shut him up.

"You don't have a brother." He said quietly.

"Or perhaps you've just never bothered to ask." Pepper said, knowing her words weren't fair. "Perhaps, you're incapable in talking about anyone or anything other than yourself and the avengers."

"Well if that's how you feel-"

"It is!"

"-then I don't think I have anything left to say." There was something broken in his voice that made guilt fill her like some sort of disease. "Goodbye Ms. Potts." Her heart skipped a beat. Did she have it in her to say goodbye to him for good? She'd told him she'd quit what felt like a thousand times before, but it had never played out, because they loved each other. Because he was all she had. As dysfunctional as their relationship was, he was the closest thing she had to family in the muggle world. It had been hard enough to say goodbye to her Wizarding family all those years ago, she didn't think she had thick enough skin to endure another change.


"Harry Potter."

The instant her brother's name rang out in the great hall, a silence so intense she could have heard a pin drop descended across the room. Everyone in the three schools stared at her brother. He hadn't entered the tri-wizard tournament, of this, Virginia was certain. His eyes were wide, face showing more shock than anyone else in the room. Everyone else seemed to be annoyed. A furious buzz filled the air as people hissed his name, commenting that he wasn't old enough. Not even one person smiled as he dragged his feet down the length of the hall, eyes fixed upon his toes.

Sadly, almost no one else saw this reaction as anything but proof of guilt. Most students in Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin believed Harry to be an attention seeking, teachers pet, conspiring to take all the schools glory for himself. As rumours spread, the almost the entire school turned their backs on the boy-who-lived. The boy they'd once regarded as a celebrity. True, he still had a few friends left in Gryffindor, but most rallied around Cedric. The other Hogwarts Champion.

Badges boasting the slogan 'support Cedric Diggery' were passed around the school like wild fire, and were made even more popular when a group of six year Hufflepuffs, with the wit of six year olds, enchanted them to say 'Potter Stinks' when they were pressed. It didn't matter that her name hadn't come out of the Goblet of Fire; her unwavering support for her brother along with her unfortunate surname had the entire Ravenclaw common room pressing their badges whenever she walked into the room. She went to bed with jeers and cruel laughs following her up the stairs to her dormitory.

Of course, Luna was the only person the whole of Ravenclaw house who had even a remotely kind word to say to her. Luna Lovegood was the only person who didn't seem to care how Virginia's Potter's famous brother had gotten his name into the goblet of fire. However, as loyal as she was, she wasn't always the most helpful person, as Virginia found out in one defence against the dark arts lesson where everyone was sniggering at the back of the class.

"Miss Potter" Moody growled. "I suggest you take a seat at the back of the classroom, and Miss Morag, if you keep sniggering you'll get a detention." Virginia sent a baffled glance at Luna before taking a seat at the other end of the classroom. Her back stung as she sat back in the chair; she supposed she had slept at an awkward angle as it had been aching all morning.

"What's he talking about?" She whispered to the last person who seemed to have anything nice to say to her.

"I think it's the way you accessorised your robes." Luna told her, in her usual dreamlike tone.

"Luna, I didn't accessorise my robes." Virginia hissed, very aware that more people had been laughing and whispering as she walked past more frequently than normal. Craning her neck, she looked at her back where the words 'Potter Stinks' were emblazoned in writing that looked like muggle glow in the dark paint.

In her first year, she'd learnt quickly not to let the words of other's get to her when everyone believed her to be the heir of Slytherin's sister, but since that disaster, she'd thought she'd made friends in her house. In one fell swoop, those supposed friends had tarnished the respect she'd built up as a student ambassador for the foreign students and had made her nothing but a joke. Tears of shame and humiliation began to build up to the point where she did not dare to breath; had she not been in a crowded classroom, she probably would have sobbed silently into her cursed robes.

"I personally think you smell lovely, like elder-flower." Luna told her, eyes wide with sincerity, misjudging the horrified expression on Virginia's face.

It was with unexpected kindness that Moody instructed her to stay behind, and even summoned one of her muggle outfits for her to change into. Anything was better than staying in her Hogwarts robes; even the old pair of dungarees that were an inch too small for her legs and gave her a wedgy coupled with one of Dudley's old shirts that she and Aunt Petunia garishly tie dyed in an attempt to jazz up his wardrobe.

"Scorgify won't get those letters out." He growled. "That's cursed on, will probably even be written on your back by now. Your parents would have never been so foolish as to get themselves cursed like that. Even your brother exercises more vigilance than you. Foolish girl." With a large bang, he put an ancient, dusty looking cauldron down on her desk, half filled with raw ingredients, including one little bottle filled with blue liquid. As he stared down hat her with his one good eye, his false eye spun around him its socket, so it faced the door. Wordlessly, he flicked his wand, and the heavy, oak classroom door swung open to reveal a stunned looking boy. "Mr Scamander, your detention involves helping Miss Potter clean her robes."

Shyly, the tall, skinny boy she recognised as Rolf Scamander walked over to her, his eyes fixed on his odd shoes, one brown, one blue. He had a glorious tumble of sandy coloured curls that fell gracefully to his shoulders that most girls would kill for, half hidden by a yellow Hufflepuff scarf was wrapped tightly around his neck despite the mild weather.

Great. A Hufflepuff.

The last thing she wanted was to have someone shoving down her throat how great Cedric Diggory was in comparison to her brother; she'd listened to enough of that over the last couple of days. As he opened his long, thin lips to speak, she mentally prepared herself for more pro-Cedric propaganda.

"That's Murtlap essence." The boy said awkwardly, nodding to the vial in her hands. That was the last thing she had expected him to say. "It's extremely effective at removing curse scars... may I?" Clumsily, he reached past her to grasp the cauldron and began making a potion he seemed particularly familiar with in complete silence. His only acknowledgement of her presence occurred when she offered help, on multiply occasion and he just glanced awkwardly at her, not knowing what to say.

When he was done, he jerked his head to let her know it was time to scrub her robes in the bright blue liquid. Nervously, she did as he told her too, half expecting to end up with 'Potter Stinks' written in pimples across her forehead.

"You're really Pepper Potter then?" Rolf asked, as he caught a glimpse of the two words scrawled on the back of her robes. As she nodded, Virginia couldn't help but wish they'd remained in the uncomfortable quiet. "Can I ask... have you always been named after a condiment?" Having been expecting him to ask a question about her brother, as did almost everyone else when they found out who she was, she paused for too long, contemplating his words. "Sorry was that rude?" His voice was quieter, his eyes directed at her feet. "I'm not very good at talking to people, my mum said I should ask people questions but I always seem to ask the wrong one."

"No it's fine." Virginia reassured him, realising for the first time the lack of malice behind his hazel eyes. "It's just something people call be because..." Pausing, Virginia wondered what the best explanation would be. In the end, she settled on saying; "I'm allergic to strawberries." Part of her was expecting him to look confused or to ask a follow-up question, she certainly hadn't expected him to let out a loud snort of laughter.

"Did - erm - did you have rather a nasty reaction to pepper-up potion?" He asked, still staring out the window rather than looking into her eyes.

"Yes!" She chuckled with him. "Nearly no one gets that!"

"Well, pepper-up potion has some rather fascinating medicinal abilities for not only humans but many other magical species..." His voice trailed off. "Sorry, my mum says I shouldn't go on about magical creatures." He mumbled, watching as she began to scrub the two words off her robes.

"No, it's ok." She wasn't going to spurn the one person who'd actually spoken to her kindly who wasn't Luna or a Weasley. "It's nice to have someone to talk to about something other than the Tri-Wizard tournament." By her words, she meant people asking how her brother had entered the blasted thing, and how she could be so sure he didn't enter. Her first point was always the same: how could he get past Dumbledore's age line? Secondly the cup obviously had some form of intelligence that allowed it to select one student from each school. Why choose two from Hogwarts? Moody had said only dark magic could confund the Goblet, well beyond the abilities of a fourth year. Because the truth wasn't interesting, People didn't believe it.

"Yes, that seems to be at the forefront of every ones minds." He nodded, his blond curls bobbing up and down only lightly out of time with the rest of his head. They fell into yet another silence. "People don't really like you, do they?" He eventually asked her. Not knowing how to reply, she merely shrugged. "They say mean things about you and... well... they did that." He nodded awkwardly to her graffitied robes.

"It's not me." She told him. "At least, I don't think it is. It's my brother; people think he's an attention seeking teachers pet, conspiring to take all the schools glory for himself. They end up taking their anger out on me as well." An adorable little crinkle appeared between his eyes as he pondered her words.

"Doesn't that bother you?"

"I don't let it." She shrugged. "It's never permanent, once he get's though the first task everyone will love him again."

To her surprise, at the mention of the first task, his eyes dropped to his feet and nerves crept upon his freckly face.

"You're going to ask me how to do it, aren't you?" He murmured. Confused, Virginia stared at his slumped figure; sadness seemed to be oozing from him as the stink of aftershave oozed from Hagrid the last time she saw him. "You're going to ask me how to get past a dragon."

"Why on earth would I ask you that?" Virginia laughed.

"The first task..."

"The first task is dragons?!"

"Your brother told Cedric, I would have thought you'd known." The crinkle on his forehead only deepened.

Virginia, on the other hand, was experience a rush of emotions far greater than confusion. Anger was at the forefront of her mind; she was angry he hadn't told her. Over the past three years, he'd hidden things from her; everything to do with the chamber of secrets and whatever happened the year before with Sirius Black. This however, was important, especially when she'd been one of the few to blindly support him after his name emerged from the Goblet. He had no idea how much she'd been through because of that one moment...

He didn't know. Because she hadn't told him; she'd assumed he had enough on his plate. As quickly as her temper had boiled, it calmed and was replaced with shame. Once upon a time, they had told each other everything. She missed that.

"So Cedric has a plan then?" She asked; Rolf nodded. Sighing, Virginia turned back to scribbling her robes; her hands taking on a bluish tinge from the potion. She had a strong feeling that Fleur and Krum would know as well; they'd both have plans spoon fed to them by their head teachers. Knowing Harry's style, he'd go in blind and make it up as he went along. Maybe that had worked in the past, by it might not be enough this time.

"I can tell you what I told him..."

"No!" She exclaimed. The last thing she wanted was to let him think the only reason she was talking to him was the tournament; it would feel like abuse of his kindly nature. "Besides, you can see what happens to the people jumping on the Potter support train, it's not particularly nice."

"I'm not suggesting I do." He mumbled. For the first time that conversation, he raised his head so he was looking at her directly in the eyes. "Pepper, I don't take sides. I gave this information to Cedric, It's only fair I give it to you too." Rendered speechless, Pepper could only nod as he began a short lecture about dragons. It was another half hour before they were interrupted by Mad-Eye Moody leaving his office.

"You still here?" He grumbled, his false eye spinning around the school. "Potter, are you brewing a revenge plan behind that pretty face of yours? It's the sort of thing your father would do." He didn't even give her the chance to deny it. "You need a plan of course, that plays to your strengths, otherwise you'll probably end up at the hospital wing-"

She stopped listening... Without knowing it, Mad-Eye Moody had given her a brainwave.

Since Ron had refused to talk to her brother, Harry spent most of his time in the library with Hermione. That was exactly where she found him, chin resting on a book about caring for dragon hide boots. Clearly, he'd exhausted the rest of the library's stash of books about dragons and was now scraping the bottom of the barrel.

"You have a blue forehead." He mumbled as she rushed up to him, stinking of the bleach smelling potion Rolf had made. Virginia brushed off his comment, as she sat down opposite him, her blue hands resting on the desk.

"You need a plan." She echoed Moody's words in a low, urgent tone. "What are your strengths?" Her words caught him off guard, so much so that he stared at her blankly with his bright green eyes. "Harry James Potter, can you really not think of a single thing you're good at?" She asked sternly. After a life with the Dursley's telling him how worthless he was, it wasn't really a surprise that he couldn't come up with an answer. Even so, she pursed her lips and folded her arms trying to make her look stern, like Professor McGonagall, but her attempts just brought a smile to his face.

"I dunno Gin." He shrugged. "I can fly... I'm a fair flyer."

"I knew you'd say that." Grinning, Virginia lent across the table to speak in hushed tones. "Look, Rolf Scamander told me that a dragon's a bit like a Labrador or a Spaniel-"

"How did you know a dragon is the first task?" He interrupted her, eyes flicking over to where Hermione stood by the book cases, pretending not to be listening intently. "More importantly, how can you draw parallels between a dragon and Labrador?"

"Ok, to answer your first question, you told Cedric about the dragons, who asked Rolf how to get past them, and Rolf told me." Virginia told him, rolling her eyes as if bored. "And, as for the second question, you'd know if you let me finish my sentence." Humbled, her brother nodded, looking at the ground. "A dragon is like a dog in that it can't resist chasing things, you know like you and Aunt Marge's pitbulls?" Harry shuddered at the memory. "So you need to irritate the dragon, not enough to make it angry, but just so it wants to chase you. They're extremely precise, so it will come after you at a fixed trajectory. Then you can whizz past it at the last second."

Triumphant, she sat back in the chair, taking in his stunned reaction. Some people would have questioned the reliability of the information she'd attained from Rolf. As a Hufflepuff, people like Fred and George were bound to think he had been recruited by Cedric's supporters to sabotage Harry. Yet, even after knowing him for only an hour, Virginia felt like she could trust the shy, awkward boy. She'd believed him when he looked into her eyes from the first time and told her that he doesn't take sides.

"But I'm not allowed a broom." Harry told her, when he'd eventually gotten over his shock. A smile tugged at her cheekbones.

"I knew you'd say that." She grinned, pointing her wand at the dragon hide book at his hand. "Accio book." She said. As her clothes had whizzed towards them after Moody used the charm, Harry's library book lurched towards her. The summoning charm was one the Ravenclaw fourth years had been showing off for weeks; too lazy to get up and walk to their quills. Like her mother, Virginia had a talent for charms and had easily learnt the spell (after several hours practising). "This will work Harry." She promised. "Please trust me."


Hermione was waiting outside Harry's ward her her when Pepper finally reached the correct floor, thoroughly fed up with the number of times she was stopped and asked whether she was a muggle. She was greeted with similar confused and curious eyes outside the ward, as Hermione was surrounded with two brunette children with extremely frizzy hair who she introduced as Rose and Hugo.

"I've seen you on the muggle news!" The girl exclaimed, staring at Pepper with wide eyes. "You're the CEO of Stark industries. They used to make weapons but... but when bad people got hold of the weapon's the owner decided to make money by becoming a superhero and your job now is just to babysit him." It sounded like the sort of thing the Daily Mail would write, Pepper reflected. She supposed whenever Ron chose the muggle newspapers he just picked the ones with the most pictures.

"What's a CEO?" The little boy asked his older sister.

"It stands for chief... executive... officer." The girl told him. Between each word she looked up at Hermione, who nodded proudly.

"That's stupid!" The boy announced, to the little girls sincere protests. "If she's just a babysitter it should stand for... child... encumbrance... officer." There was no doubt these children were Hermione and Ron's; they even bickered in the same way their parents did.

Hermione sent Pepper an apologetic expression, that she had seen on the faces of many parents when they became over excited about meeting Iron Man. Out of habit, Pepper smiled back, not allowing herself to feel any sadness or jealousy.

"Does everyone have kids?" She couldn't stop herself from asking the question, however, she worked hard to keep any undertones of jealousy out of her voice. Luckily, Hermione's answer gave no impression that the question was anything other than completely innocent.

"Everyone except Charlie, the self proclaimed eternal bachelor." Hermione explained. "Most of the kids are at Hogwarts though." Hermione's hand paused on the handle. "I will warn you, there's still enough Weasley's in there for two Quidditch teams."

Despite her apprehension that she'd be met with hostility and anguish by Harry's extended family, Pepper had no choice but to follow Hermione into the ward's waiting room. Almost instantly she felt as though she was being attacked as a red haired, stocky man bulldozed her into the wall, throwing his arms around her in a suffocating bear hug. At first, she let out a small scream that, eventually, was replaced with an awkward laugh as she recognised George Weasley's lopsided grin.

"Goodness George, let the poor girl breathe!" Even though she'd shrunk a few inches, with deeper wrinkles and streaks of grey in her red, frizzy hair, there was no mistaking Mrs Weasley's authoritative, caring voice and her warm, motherly hugs.

She'd been eleven years old when she'd walked out of the blue, flying Ford and wondered into the lopsided Weasley house, only to be confronted by the most terrifying witch she'd ever seen. Somehow, Mrs Weasley had managed to discipline her sons and threaten them with bars on their windows whilst lovingly piling endless spoonfuls of food onto her and Harry's plates, telling them they needed to be fattened up. Since they were used to Aunt Petunia treating Harry like a servant and treating Pepper like a fashion accessory, Mrs Weasley very quickly became the closest thing to a mother-figure either she or Harry had ever had.

"It's so wonderful to see you, dear!" She pinched the skin on Pepper's cheeks fondly. "You're looking very skinny-" Before her lecture on Pepper's weight began, Mr Weasley rescued her, an enormous, welcoming smile on his face.

"So you've been living with muggles all these years." He nodded eagerly. "I was wondering whether you could tell me that all this 'sustainable power' lark is. People are always talking about it when your picture is in the muggle news..."

"That and the Tin Man." Bill rolled his eyes. "Dad, you can interrogate her later, she's only just walked through the door!" His wife, Fleur, gave her a proper French greeting with a kiss on two cheeks before starting to chat about her three children; Victoire, Dominique, and Louis.

"We let zem choose which school to attend." Fleur told her proudly. "Victoire chose 'Ogwarts, but Dominique and Louis both chose Beauxbatons. But what about you? Any children on ze way?" Pepper shook her head, murmuring something about having discussed it with Tony. In truth, their discussion about babies was centred around the creation of Stark Tower, luckily she was once more accosted by George once more who eagerly chatted about his children; Fred and Roxanne as well as Percy's children; Lucy and Molly. Apparently, his formally pompous big brother had started to get his hands dirty and invest most of his time in Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes.

"He has a good head for business, not as good as yours, obviously." George told her, his grin never faltering. "And he's pretty good at ideas, apparently he actually picked up a few things from all those pranks we played on him as kids."

"When you victimised him you mean." Hermione tutted, fixing him with her most minister-like glare that only made George laugh harder. Pepper couldn't help but wonder how long after Fred's death had he started smiling again. "Pepper, come see your brother... Oof!" Hermione gasped as she was head butted in the stomach by a little skinny boy with black, messy hair and glasses who was, without a doubt, Harry's son.

"Are you my auntie?" The boy asked, fixing Pepper with his bright green, curious eyes.

"Yes she is, Albus darling." Mrs Weasley grabbed her Grandson's shoulders and smiled happily at Pepper. "Sadly she can't talk right now, she and auntie Hermione are on a tight schedule." At this, all the children rolled their eyes (apparently auntie Hermione was always on a tight schedule) , and stood away from the door so they could enter Auror Potter's private room.

As the door opened, Pepper's stomach started twisting in nauseating somersaults and made her feel very dizzy. The day had been extremely overwhelming and stressful; somehow she'd muddled though it without eating a single bite of food. Taking an extremely deep breath, Pepper manoeuvred herself past the final hurdle and strode into her brother's hospital room.

At first, his figure was hidden by Ginny who was perched at his bedside, her face lined with worry. Rudely, Ron cleared his throat, shattering whatever romantic moment they were having; making Ginny look up to acknowledge they were there.

"Pepper!" Ginny's eyes widened, clearly unsure about whether she should hug Pepper or slap her. All Pepper could think to do, was send a sympathetic wave to her old best friend while looking straight past her to Harry. Her brother placed a gentle hand an Ginny, silently telling her everything was ok. Ginny shifted her position, allowing Pepper to look straight into her brother's eyes. Almost instantly, her eyes were stinging with salty tears as she realised how much she'd missed him.

"Your eyes are red, baby sister." He told her, with a large, goofy grin that looked out of place on a face she was used to looking sincere.

"Tears of joy big brother." She whispered back, echoing his smile.


As she'd predicted, after the first task people started talking to her again, as if they had never teased her. It always surprised her how fickle people were; her brother flies past a dragon and he's a hero when half an hour earlier, he's an attention seeking teachers pet - and whatever else Rita Skeeter had written in her foul article.

Even if the other students had forgotten how they'd treated her, Virginia hadn't forgotten. All her life, she'd striven to practice the whole forgive and forget thing, and, although she had made a conscious decision to forgive people, she was determined not to forget who had actually been there for her when she'd needed them. Thus, she ended up, on one chilly November afternoon, helping Rolf tie scarves around the necks of Hagrid's Bowtruckles.

A long time ago, she'd realised that animals didn't like her much; Hedwig, Errol and Pigwigon had all taken turns to shit on her and had given her a rather irrational fear of the post arriving. A dog's barking made her nervous and when the Dursley's sent her to Mrs Figg's house, all six cats clawed at her arms whenever she ventured to close and even the Hogwarts cats didn't like her much. The only cat who didn't seem to mind her presence was Hermione's cat, Crookshanks.

"He's not a cat." Rolf had told her once. "He's a Flerkin." Virginia had ignored this comment, assuming a Flerkin was the same sort of made up magical creature as a Crumple Horned Snorkack or Nargles or whatever else Luna fervently insisted existed.

However, Rolf was not like Luna, indeed her was a little bit nervous of her. His knowledge and passion for magical creatures was like nothing she'd ever seen before, something he'd inherited from his grandfather, the famous biologist Newt Scamander. Everything he said seemed to be backed up by the way all magical and non magical animals gravitated towards him. With surprising delicacy, he was able to tie the slither of material he'd made around the little twig-like creatures.

"There you go." He smiled happily. "And don't go taking it off, you'll catch your death otherwise." Virginia couldn't help but laugh at him when, in her words, he acted like a 'mother duck'. "It's theorised that, in the right conditions, they have the potential grow up to a hundred feet tall, and can learn how to speak English, rather than communicating in squeaks."

"What would the right conditions be?" She asked, as one of the Bowtruckles leapt onto her shoulder and started clambering out of of her plaits, playing as if her hair was a set of monkey bars.

"No one knows." Rolf shrugged. "My grandfather can simulate all sorts of conditions in his brief case, but never managed it. In his old age, he kept saying that he perhaps another planet would have the right conditions."

"Can I quote you on that?" A high, female voice asked from behind them. Virginia and Rolf spun around, to see a middle-aged woman standing before them, a emerald green quill floating above a long line of parchment. "Newt Scamander, famed writer of Care of Magical Creatures gone barmy in his old age speaking of the stars." By the way her quill scribbled down the words she's stolen from Rolf, twisted and poisoned, Virginia could guess who this was. "Miss Potter, my name is Rita Skeeter, from the Daily Profit." She giggled the irritating, high pitched giggle of a twelve year old girl while flicking one of her bleached blond ringlets out of her face.

Virginia recognised the journalist's name from the frankly outrageous article about her brother entering into the tournament. She'd been shocked, amazed and outraged that she was allowed to publish so many articles that were simply trash with no reliable sources. Such a thing would never be allowed in the muggle world... well it would, but it probably wouldn't be in a paper the equivalent of the Daily Prophet.

"I've been asked to interview all the families after the tournament, so tell me." She said, a hovering quill copying down every word she said. "How do you feel about your brother entering the Tri-Wizard tournament? Are you concerned it shows a pathological need for attention or, worse, a psychotic death wish?"

Virginia Potter's mouth fell open in shock and the quill kept scribbling. Unable to read what the parchment said, Virginia did catch a few words including 'speechless' and 'intricate cover-up'.

"My brother didn't enter." Virginia said slowly. "I suppose, whomever put his name in the goblet of fire has some sort of agenda... there's not enough evidence yet to suggest what that may be."

"Murder perhaps?" The journalist raised one bleached blond eyebrow unnaturally high. Unwilling to sound morbid, Virginia shrugged, which sent the quill writing reams of nonsense about her being to afraid for her 'little brother' to speak. "Tell me, why would anyone want your little brother dead? His name in revered in many circles."

"You're kidding right?" Virginia laughed. "He's Harry Potter. I'm willing to bet a quarter of the Wizarding world would happily kill him to carry favour with you-know-who."

"Doesn't it sound more realistic that, instead of a rather extravagant and risky murder scheme by a dark Wizard whose been dead for thirteen years, your little brother utilised Dumbledore's blatant favouritism to enter? Could it be that the idea that the mere idea of another Hogwarts student, a Hufflepuff no less, ripping the attention to which your brother so desperately clings if a haunting premise for him and lead him to enter?"

"No." Rita's words were so ridiculous, they weren't even remotely amusing.

"My darling Virgy-"

"Don't call me Virgy."

"-I don't understand why you're so unwilling to open up. Don't see this as turning on your brother, see this an an opportunity to tell the truth. The little boy behind the scar. What in your childhood could lead him into risking his life so frivolously?"

"Very well then." Virginia said, in a gossiping tone that she absolutely hated. A if she would be speaking in a low voice, she leant forward, "just between you and me, my big brother has never, and will never lie to me. We have no secrets, so I can tell you with the utmost certainty that he detests this attention. I doubt he'd even enter the contest on his volition if he was seventeen, because he doesn't want glory and doesn't need gold. He just wants to be normal, but sadly, he can't be treated like a normal fourteen year told because of people like you. You ought to be ashamed."

"I've spoken to some of your little friends about you." Rita said stepping forward and pressing her finger against Virginia's chest. She left her plait move slightly as the terrified Bowtruckle peaked out from behind it. "They say you prefer the company of freaks like him and Xenophilius Lovegood's daughter, who's just as batty as he is. Now I see why. You give the impression of being a sweet, mild mannered, confident, talented little girl when I see the madness behind those eyes..."

"Don't you dare say anything more about my friends." Virginia warned dangerously, her hand clutching her wand. People like Rolf and Luna may not be one's first choice when it came to choosing friends, but they were the one's that stood by her even when no one else would, and she'd repay the favour even if it killed her. "They're worth ten of you." She didn't have to curse Skeeter in the end, the Bowtruckle leapt out from between her plaits and bit the journalist with surprising strength on the perfectly manicured finger that was pressing into Virginia's chest.

The journalist let out a little scream flicking her blond ringlet as she hurried away, struggling to move quickly in her ridiculous heels and light, garish outfit. Virginia's initial euphoria dissipated as soon replaced by a feeling of dread. Rita's writing could not only deepen her unpopularity within the school, but had the potential to turn much of the Wizarding adults against her.

"Why did you lie?" Rolf asked her in a small voice. "Just now, when you said you didn't have any secrets from your brother." His words came as a surprise, even though he knew she was purposefully not telling Harry about how deeply the 'Potter Stinks' campaign had cut her.

"He's my brother." Virginia shrugged, placing her hands back into the cauldron containing her robes. "I don't care how much older he is or how much he annoys me, it's my job to look after him... well not my job, I'm happy to do it."

"Even when you get punished by the other students when you do?" He frowned in confusion. Many of the things she did naturally often puzzled him; not for the first time, Virginia reflected that he understood animal interactions far better than he understood other humans.

"Sometimes people behave irrationally for the people they love."

"Even though you're both hiding things from each other?" A crinkle appeared between his eyebrows as he thought carefully about her words, staring at the book as if it was expecting him to reveal information about the human mind. "I don't think you should have been a Ravenclaw." He eventually announced. The treat of a smile tugged at the edges of her lips as she waited for him to explain his statement. "You should have been a Hufflepuff, you're the loyalist person I know."


Years of being one of Britain's best Auror's had taken it's toll on his looks. Although he'd managed to spare his face from the more horrendous injuries Mad-Eye had sported, what she could see of his arms and legs were covered with scars that could not be magically healed. The most recent one, was a large gash on his leg that had apparently been bound with spider webs (one of Rolf's less brilliant ideas), however, although it had allowed him to walk, the webbing had infected the wound.

"There will be spiders crawling out of my leg at night, burrowing through my flesh..." A sickened looking Ron slapped him hard, making Harry laugh out loud.

She still wasn't quite used to this new, carefree, happy, joking Harry. He'd already explained the change was due to the part of Voldemort's soul leaving his body back when he was seventeen - something he spoke about in a very blasé manner. However, Pepper still hadn't forgotten watching Voldemort murder him at close range; her shiver stopped him from trying to explain.

"Right then." Harry moved on, eyes falling from Pepper to Hermione. "Shall we get this over with?"

Only he could access the contents of his moleskin bag, so the other Aurors hadn't been able to access the artefact until that moment. After digging around in the bag for a few seconds, he pulled out an object Pepper couldn't quite see. She could just about see its silvery surface glinting in the sunlight that reminded Pepper of the way Captain Rogers' shield shone when it was freshly polished. While Pepper craned her neck to get a better look, Hermione flicked her wand, causing an ink pot, quill and parchment to float out of her handbag and hover at her shoulder, poised to write. Pepper's mind flickered back to that horrendous interview with Rita Skeeter and, by the irritated expression on Ron's face, she could tell the thought the same thing.

"Mission report of Auror H.J. Potter-" Harry stated clearly, not even glancing at the quill as it immediately started scribbling across the paper.

"The Aurors now have to give an official report to the minister." Ron muttered darkly in her ear, seeing the confused expression on her face, "about what happened, how we dealt with it and the 'lesson's learnt'. Afterwards, the reports are graded. I've done about a thousand... never get above an E." Hermione pursed her lips disapprovingly at her husband's tone of voice, all the while making an obvious effort to look at Harry.

"-mission code is 26781R. Retrieval of potentially dangerous artefact. Artefact research conducted by D. Malfoy. Description of object... well... it kinda looks like half a PlayStation controller." Harry shrugged, tossing the artefact between his hands; the action made Ron wince each time he caught it. Noticing this, Harry grinned and handed the artefact to Pepper. "It's been scanned by a dark detector; it sound no traces of dark magic."

His words did very little to reassure her as she took the cool metal object in her hands. It was surprisingly light, and strong, furthermore, it did not seem to retain any of the heat from Harry's hand. There was only one type of metal she knew that behaved in that way.

"It's made from Vibranuim." She told them, as she turned the object over in her hands, staring at the strange markings scrawled across the sides. Having taken ancient runes, she knew that the markings were not from an ancient Wizarding civilisation, nor did they look like anything she'd ever seen in the muggle world.

"Also, it doesn't seem to possess any obvious magical powers." Harry said, surprising the other four adults in the room. "My baby sister has always had an unusual ability to sense magical quantities in pretty much everything... Apparently it's quite a common trait in muggleborns." Hermione looked rather indignant that she didn't have this innate sixth sense.

"So it means it's not magical?" Ron asked, wide eyed.

"Well of course it will need more tests." Hermione said, arms folded. "I've read about objects that can appear perfectly normal to the naked eye; avoid all sorts of basic magical tests and suddenly bam! A whole street of muggles have been turned into canaries." That sounded like a Weasley product, Pepper smiled at the thought, causing Hermione to fix her with an disapproving glare. Luckily, Ron spoke before Hermione could start lecturing her on the severity of the event.

"Hermione has a point, mate." Rob said nervously. "It made you properly disappear for days!"

"If it weren't for Malfoy seeking out Pepper for his searching potion, you'd probably still be lost." Hermione explained sadly.

"I find it hard to believe Malfoy made a searching potion!" Harry scoffed, tactically changing the subject at the concerned expression on his wife's face. "After Professor Snape stopped handing him and other other Slytherins generous hints, he completely flunked it!"

"Says the person who found it easy to believe he was skilled enough to be a death eater at sixteen." Ginny said, disapprovingly.

"Well I was right about that." Harry winked at her. "He was trying to kill Dumbledore... but, since he's about as cunning as a brick, he failed didn't he? Dumbledore died by Snape's hand as he planned.

Something in his words irritated her. Every crude remark Malfoy had made and every ambitious scheme he'd cooked up at school, had been rather obvious: Whereas whatever he was scheming now was an intriguing web of deception. True he could have changed over the last few years, but by the expressions on the face of her brother and his friends, it was unlikely.

"Where could he have obtained the potion then?" Hermione asked in a low voice.

"Dunno." Ron shrugged.

"Thank you for that enlightening input Ronald." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Goodness sake, stop bickering the pair of you!" Ginny rolled her eyes, before turning to Pepper. "Do you remember Astoria Greengrass? She married Malfoy..."

Astoria Greengrass was a Slytherin girl who was in the year below Pepper and Ginny. Even when she was eleven, it had been clear she was one of the most beautiful girl in the whole school. What's more, she was extremely intelligent. In their sixth year, while Snape was the headmaster, Astoria had been one of the Slytherins who helped the Carrows to brew Veritaserum for interrogating students linked to Harry to try and gain some information on his whereabouts. She was still ashamed over the amount of information she had given them.

"Veritaserum is well below the skill set of a normal fifth year." Hermione told them, her quill scribbling behind her as Rita Skeeter's had all those years ago. "I'll check with the education board to see whether she did a potions mastery after school. In the mean time, I need a full statement of everything that happened when you disappeared." As she spoke, her voice became far more formal, completely different from when she'd been speaking to her children. It was almost as if she'd developed an alternate personality to wear while being Minister Granger-Weasley than when she was Hermione; friend, wife, mother. Ron's expression began to darken at the change while Harry just rolled his eyes. In school, he'd always been a buffer between the two of them when they'd fought, Pepper guessed that role had extended to become their marriage counsellor.

"Ah... yeah." Harry said, a sheepish expression on his face as he itched his scar nervously. At first, Pepper's mind flickered the the dark lord... but he was long gane and, by the almost bored expressions on Ginny and Hermione's faces, this had just turned into a nervous habit. "That's when it gets a tad unbelievable."

"Why?" Pepper asked nervously, just as Ginny asked;

"What happened?" Both women sounded like they'd rather not hear the answer to his question, while Ron just looked queasy and Hermione had adopted a professional detachment. Harry took a deep breath, looking at the four people he loved most in the world (other than his three children).

"It took me to the Realm of the Dead." He told them.


Author's Note:

Sorry for the super late update, and happy Easter for last weekend! The weather was amazing in the UK last weekend so I spent the whole bank holiday weekend outside so just didn't get around to writing! Thanks for all the lovely reviews for the last chapter and thanks for everyone favouriting / following my story. You guys are the best! :)

The flashback scene was from the fourth book, after Harry's name came out of the goblet of fire and is before and after the first task with the Horntail. I rewrote this so many times trying to get it right, and hopefully I picked the right version.

It plays on how Moody (or Barty Crouch Jr.) cleverly manipulates the students into helping Harry - he knew to put Rolf and Pepper together as Cedric would obviously ask the magical creatures expert how to get past the dragon. Since, like his grandfather, he doesn't take sides, he would have also volunteered to tell Pepper exactly the same information: Dragon's like to chase things. In the end, Cedric (as in the books) got past the dragon by transfiguring a rock into a goat, and Harry used his broom. I think this is better than Moody just asking him directly because, first, Harry would be wondering how Moody knew Harry knew about the dragons and wonder why he was telling him. Hopefully that makes sense!

I see Rolf as an adorable combination of a young Newt Scamander (played by Eddie Redmane) and Pike from Dad's Army (hence why he always wears a scarf). He's going to come up in the next couple of chapters as well... because I'm a little bit in love him. This fourth year is, of course, the year that no one has a hair cut which is why I've given his shoulder length blond curls.

There are a couple of magical creatures hidden in the flashbacks of this chapter that also relate to the MCU. Because I like guessing games I'll let you guys have a think and see if you can get them - one is easier than the other. Let me know if you want a hint!

This chapter isn't my favourite, but it feels like it had to be there just as another transition between her muggle life and her Wizarding life. In the seventh book, the Weasleys were all very welcoming of Percy when he came back into the family in the seventh book, and I think it would have been the same with Pepper. I like to think they all understood why she left so there wouldn't be any lasting animosity. It would also be extremely hectic as she has around two minutes to catch up on the lives of nine people! The short conversation she had between Hermione's kids was based upon the kids from the TV show Outnumbered. I definitely see Ben when I write Hugo.

The next couple of chapters are where it gets a bit more exciting. I'm telling them from Harry's perspective, so you'll find out exactly what happened to him on his mission and get more of an insight on how this relates to the MCU. But if anyone has any theories, I'd be really interested to hear them!

I hope you enjoy this chapter and thanks for reading :)