The last time Scorpius had been in Professor Zahradnik's office was almost two years ago, when he had been caught by Argus Filch sneaking into the Restricted Section of the library. Even though he remembered the headmistress as understanding and even helpful, he couldn't avoid feeling nervous as he looked up at the wall that he knew would open and lead to her office. His hands shook, and he swallowed nervously several times before he could speak.

Perhaps it was the gargoyle. It had a horrid grimace and looked as though it would come alive and eat him if he said the wrong thing.

Unfortunately, Scorpius had no idea what the right thing might be.

He cleared his throat. "Ah… hello? I'm Scorpius Malfoy, and you're in my way. Could you please move?"

The gargoyle did nothing, and Scorpius sighed. He hadn't really expected it to do much of anything, but it had been worth a shot to ask nicely. Now he had to figure out what else it might do.

"You've got a password, right?" he asked. "Um…" But no password came to mind. He tried to remember what Mr. Filch had said, but the trip from the library to Professor Zahradnik's office was something of a blur, and he didn't remember much until the tea.

For several minutes, he paced and fretted, sometimes pausing to say whatever word or phrase came to mind. Some were mundane, some were magical, and some came from the Muggle world. Every so often, he would think that perhaps the password was Czech, and he would never be able to guess it then.

Finally, he turned to the gargoyle and said, "Look, could you please just move? I need to see Professor Zahradnik!"

To his surprise, the gargoyle nodded once and leapt aside, revealing an opening in the wall more than wide enough for Scorpius to go through. He stared at it in surprise for a while, then darted through before the gargoyle could change its mind.

"Thanks!" he called, and as he stepped onto the moving staircase, he heard the shifting of stone as the gargoyle returned to its position.

The staircase brought him up to Professor Zahradnik's door, and before Scorpius could second-guess himself, he knocked three times. It was too late to turn and run now, so he stuck his hands behind his back, bit his lip, and waited.

A moment later, he heard her say, "Come in!"

Nervously pushing open the door, he stepped into her office. "I hope I'm not disturbing you, Professor," he said, waiting in the doorway. "Could I talk to you for a few minutes?"

"Of course," she said with a smile. "Have a seat, Scorpius. Can I get you some tea?" She lit a fire in the brazier with a flick of her wand and pulled a tea set out from under her desk, so Scorpius decided it would be rude to refuse. Besides, he remembered liking her tea, and a cup of it might bolster his courage. "I notice you didn't have to be dragged here by Argus this time," she said as the kettle on the brazier boiled. "Did a professor send you?"

"I'm actually not in trouble," Scorpius said, twisting his fingers together in his lap.

Professor Zahradnik's smile widened. "Well, that's a relief. You wouldn't believe how many students come up here because they've gotten into some sort of trouble with their professors. There aren't many who drop by just to have a chat." The water finished boiling quicker than Scorpius had expected – magic, he supposed – and she poured some into each cup and passed one to him. "Are your classes going well?"

"Very," Scorpius said. He noticed the headmistress dipping her teabag up and down and decided to do the same, noticing the water turn from clear to a gentle brown as he did so. "Ancient Runes is a bit harder than I expected, but I like it." He glanced at the cat, which was lounging on a footstool that had been set out of the way. "How are you?"

"Oh, as well as can be expected," she said. "There's paperwork, of course, and correspondence to catch up on, and all sorts of difficult things to deal with. Honestly, the things going on in America – but you didn't come here to discuss politics."

Scorpius shook his head, though he was curious now. "What's going on in America?"

Professor Zahradnik sighed. "It's a mess, let me tell you. Honestly, it makes Eastern Europe look calm by comparison. Ex-patriate Death Eaters have fled over there, and I suspect they're to blame for a good deal of it, but really, the whole country's getting so worked up into a frenzy of blood supremacy that I doubt they'd even need them."

Suddenly Scorpius decided that he didn't want to know. "I came here to ask you a question, actually," he said. "It's about other worlds."

Professor Zahradnik's eyes lit up. "Is this about Avina or the pirates?"

"Neither," Scorpius said. "It's about…" He hesitated, not sure how much to share. "There's a friend of mine who's been doing some research, and apparently the Mobrahm fish may have come from another world. I was wondering what you thought about that theory."

Professor Zahradnik didn't press him for details on his friend or why said friend had been studying the Mobrahm. She merely took a sip of her tea, set aside the bag, and said, "I think it's a complicated theory, to be quite honest. It's entirely possible that beings from other worlds would be unable to survive in this one, or that they would somehow change the environment to make it unsuitable for the live already here. Of course, over the past two years, we've seen that that's not true, since visitors from those worlds did nothing to affect ours."

"Or maybe the effects were very small," Scorpius said. "We might not see them for a long time."

"Perhaps," Professor Zahradnik said with a small smile. "You've been thinking about this a great deal, haven't you? That, or you're quite good at thinking on your feet."

Scorpius's cheeks grew warm, and he shifted a little in his chair. "I guess I have been thinking about it," he said. "But what about the theory? Is it possible that the Mobrahm came from another world? What about other animals? Where did they come from?"

Professor Zahradnik set down her cup and looked at him carefully for a moment. "There are a few possible answers I could give you," she said. "The first is that it doesn't matter where the animals came from. After all, they were able to survive here, and that makes this world as good a home for them as any. The second is that they couldn't possibly have survived in this world, though I think we both know there's proof against that. The third is that it's very possible they came from another world, and that's why there so different from a good many other animals here. That's a rather dangerous theory, though. Do you think you can tell me why?"

Scorpius took a sip of his tea and coughed. He had forgotten how spicy it was, but the taste gave him a moment to think. Why were so many – well, two – of his professors interested in finding out what he thought? Were they trying to get him to teach himself? "Well, I already talked about this with Ro – with my friend. We decided that magic couldn't have come from another world because that would mean magical creatures couldn't interbreed with normal creatures."

"Go on," Professor Zahradnik said, and when Scorpius hesitated, she prompted him, "But clearly, the Mobrahms could interbreed with something, if there were enough to merit mention in a book."

"But couldn't they only breed with themselves anyway?" Scorpius asked, and his eyes widened as he realized what that would mean. "So a lot of them would have had to come through, enough to make a stable population, or at least enough to leave behind a lot of fossils."

"Exactly," Professor Zahradnik said, "but that's not the dangerous part." Scorpius frowned, so she leaned across the table and went on, "Think. If magic comes from another world, even leaving aside the question of wizards and humans being unable to have children together, that means that wizards are different from humans on the most fundamental level. What could that lead to?"

"Witch burnings," Scorpius said, and his stomach shifted at the thought.

"What else?" Professor Zahradnik asked. "Witches and wizards are safe now, but what's going on today that could come from this idea?"

"Blood supremacy," Scorpius said, and this time he felt even worse. "The idea that we're better than they are because we come from somewhere else."

"That's right," Professor Zahradnik said. "You look as though you've had enough worry for one day. Finish your tea, and we'll meet next week. I'm eager to discuss anything you and your friend might have learned."


Scorpius did return the next week, and the week after that, and soon Professor Zahradnik didn't even bother inviting him back. She simply gave him a knowing smile at the end of each meeting, and he would smile back, sometimes excited, sometimes nervous, but he would always be there at the appointed time.

Another thing Professor Zahradnik didn't need to tell him was the password for the gargoyle, and though Scorpius knew he shouldn't really be, he was proud of himself for figuring it out on his own. The first time he had realized it, it had been from desperation, hoping saying anything would let him in. When he returned, he said it again, hoping it might open, and it did. He grinned all the way up the moving staircase, and the next time he was in the library, he told them about the past two meetings.

"You've been hanging out with Zahradnik?" Ruby asked, sounding awestruck. Not one of them thought it was strange, but then, he supposed the group of people he spent time with would be more impressed than scornful that he had voluntarily gone to the headmistress's office.

"Yeah," Scorpius said. "And guess what the password is? 'I need to see Professor Zahradnik.'"

Albus's eyes grew wide. "Really? It's that helpful? Dad says Professor Dumbledore's was just some random type of candy that would change every year."

"Dumbledore was different," Rose said, as though that could explain everything about the man. "He probably could have done anything with his password, and it wouldn't change the fact that he was a great headmaster." Before the argument could continue, she turned to Scorpius and asked, "So she's okay with me exploring the river?"

"I didn't tell her about that," Scorpius said. "I just told her that I have a friend who's studying fossils and found out about the Mobrahm."

"Good," Rose said. "I found a few more fossils and an interesting rock last time. Maybe she'll know more about them." She handed Scorpius a rock and looked at him carefully, as though afraid he would betray her secret. "I want to be the first to explore this river."

"I don't think Professor Zahradnik would stop you," he said, but Rose just shook her head and went back to her studying.

Professor Zahradnik was incredibly excited when Scorpius brought her the rock, and she explained that it was made up of minerals that weren't natural to this world. A little thrill ran through Scorpius, and he saw that same thrill go through the headmistress as she drew a bright light closer to the rock and showed him various striations and explained that the rock was made up of minerals from several different worlds.

"There must be a natural portal near wherever this was found," she said eagerly. "They're very rare; most portals have to be made by magic. Where did you find this?"

"I didn't," Scorpius said.

"Ah, yes. Your friend." Professor Zahradnik handed the rock back to him. "I won't force you to tell me anything, but I would like you to know that I'm very interested in whatever we could learn from this portal. I'd like to know as much as possible."

"I'll see what I can do," Scorpius said, tucking the rock into his pocket. "Um, Professor?"

"Yes?" She put the light away, and the room again became dim and mysterious. It still felt comfortable and welcoming, but there was something more secluded about it as well, as though the two of them were in a secret little hideout discussing revolutionary ideas. Rose would likely love that.

"What other effects could having a natural portal have?"

"Well, it could bring about a natural arcadia," Professor Zahradnik said. "It could also make it easier for beings from other worlds to reach ours."

"Like Avina!"

"Or the pirates," Professor Zahradnik said, sounding more somber than Scorpius had thought she might be. "It could also call in whatever it was that Avina and the pirates were afraid of. This sort of thing could be both wonderful and dangerous."

Scorpius had been ready to head out, but now he sank back into his chair. "Is there anything we can do?"

"Only be careful," Professor Zahradnik said. "We have to keep an eye out for anything that might be dangerous. Now that we know something could pose a danger to this school, we can't afford to let our guard down."

"Constant vigilance," Scorpius murmured.

"What's that?"

"Oh, just something a friend of mine says sometimes," Scorpius said, his cheeks growing hot. Actually, it was Rose's father who said it, and if Rose was anything like her father, he would say it as a joke, but it still felt apt.

"It's as good a motto as any," Professor Zahradnik said. "Constant vigilance!" She chuckled. "Well, I'll work on it."


The meetings lasted through autumn and into winter. No matter how cold the rest of the castle could get – and the dungeons and some of the lesser-used passages could get cold enough that Scorpius couldn't pass through one without shivering – Professor Zahradnik's office was warm. She always had two braziers burning, along with a bright fire in her fireplace, and sometimes the cat would hop into Scorpius's lap and try to burrow into his robe.

"Be careful," Professor Zahradnik said the first time, when Scorpius grinned as the cat slipped into the robe and against his shirt. "If she gets against your skin and starts to get too warm, she may claw you on her way out."

Scorpius did leave that day with a few claw marks on his belly and learned to keep his shirt tucked into his pants.

"Do you have any plans for the holidays?" Professor Zahradnik asked on their last meeting before the Christmas holiday started. She sipped her tea calmly, as though they were old friends, and Scorpius realized that, in a way, they were, even if he was just thirteen and she was in charge of the school he attended.

"I'm probably just going to spend it with my mom and dad," he said. "It'll be a pretty quiet holiday. What about you?"

"Oh, the usual," she said with a wry smile. "I'll say I'm going to take a break, but I'll wind up finding more work that needs to be done before the next term starts, and by the time I'm finished, there'll be enough time to take the Floo over to see some old friends in Europe for a few days before coming back. It's not all bad, though," she said, and her smile became genuine. "The first day the students are gone, all the staff go out to the Three Broomsticks and get a little drunk. This place is where I first learned to like butterbeer, though I'll always prefer firewhiskey."

"I hope you enjoy yourself," Scorpius said, and he meant it completely. He didn't want her to wind up being stuck with paperwork while everyone else was celebrating.

"I hope the same for you," Professor Zahradnik said, and she lifted her teacup in a little toast. "But I'm sure you want to spend as much time with your friends as possible before you have to head out. Is there any last minute business you want to take care of?"

"Not really," Scorpius said. The river was partly frozen over, so Rose and Thomas had been spending more time exploring up it than finding fossils, and they hadn't found any reason to believe there was a portal up there, though they still hadn't found the source. Rose was sure they should have found something by now, but she said Thomas thought she just didn't know how to judge distances.

"In that case, I think –"

"Is the Sorting Hat a Horcrux?"

The words slipped out before Scorpius could stop them, and he pressed a hand over his mouth as Professor Zahradnik stared at him. There was something cold and sharp in her gaze that he had never seen before, and it made him want to find some very small place and hide deep inside it. When she did finally speak, her voice was low and deadly.

"I ought to ask how you know about Horcruxes," she said. "I ought to ask why you would think such a thing. I certainly ought to ask why you waited so long to ask me this, unless the idea only came into your head now."

Scorpius shook his head. "I've been wondering since October," he said, his voice muffled by his fingers.

Professor Zahradnik got to her feet. "I would like you to leave now," she said. "I will see you next term. Wait for me to send you word when to arrive."

Scorpius didn't say "good-bye" or even "happy holidays" on his way out. He just leapt to his feet and ran, pelting out of her office and down the moving staircase so fast he nearly fell.