"We should have a good hour before anybody else comes out here," Fred said. He had his broomstick swung over one shoulder, and held one end of a trunk that contained one bludger and a quaffle while James held the other.
"I'm still not sure I want to do this," Alanna said, nervously toying with the old Shooting Star that she had borrowed from the school.
"But didn't you have fun playing Quidditch at the Burrow last year?" Alexandra asked.
"Well, yes. It was great, but-"
"Then there you go," James said, setting down the trunk. "If you liked it there, then you'll like it here too."
"I suppose," Alanna sighed in defeat. "But I'm still a little rusty on the rules. How much is each goal worth?"
"Ten," Fred replied. "But that's not important right now, I'll give you a crash course right before try-outs. For now just worry about getting the quaffle through the rings. Oh, and avoiding the bludgers; those can really hurt…"
Louis unlocked the trunk, and un-strapped the bludger, which immediately shot into the air, and tossed the quaffle to Fred.
"Right, Alexandra, you go up by the rings and try to keep Alanna and I from scoring," Fred instructed. "Louis and James will fly around and try to knock us off."
Alanna looked a little unsure about this, but nodded.
"Okay then, lets go!" James exclaimed, picking up a Beater's bat and mounting his Shooting Star, also borrowed from the school.
Alanna, Fred and Louis also mounted their brooms quickly and flew up into the air. Alexandra, who had only been on a broom once during a flying lesson last year, managed to get her broom mounted after four tries, and when she finally did, it was all she could do to keep her balance as she flew towards the goals to Keep.
Alexandra had only seen a few Quidditch games at school last year, but she could still tell that Alanna was an excellent player, Fred as well. James and Louis also seemed to feel at home on their broomsticks. She watched as Fred tossed the quaffle to Alanna, who then swerved to avoid a bludger hit by Louis, and zoomed towards the goal. Alexandra knew she wouldn't make a good Keeper, and she was right; Alanna easily got the quaffle past her.
"There you go!" Fred called to Alanna. "Told you, you're a pretty fair Chaser!"
Alanna grinned as Alexandra tossed the quaffle back to her, congratulating her friend.
The five played for nearly an hour. About halfway through Fred and James switched positions, and James scored nearly twenty goals himself. Alanna had scored about ten, and Fred twelve. Alexandra surprised herself a few times and managed to block some shots, but at the end of the game, she knew that she was far more comfortable on the ground, and she was perfectly content with that.
"So, how about it?" Fred asked Alanna, grinning as James and Louis wrestled to get the bludger back in the trunk. "Think you'll come to try-outs? You were bloody brilliant today."
"Well, maybe," Alanna said thoughtfully. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to just try-out…though I probably won't make the team."
"Are you mad? Of course you will!" Alexandra said. "You made nearly every shot you took. Granted, the Keeper at try-outs will definitely be better than me, but you'll still do great."
Alanna smiled.
"Keeper's one of the worst positions," Fred told Alexandra. "You have three giant rings to protect; not too many wizards are good at it, as Uncle Ron reminds us all the time…"
….
"What was that thing about Vampires and garlic? Do I have to eat it?" Fred asked, pouring over his Defense Against the Dark Arts homework.
"No, you don't," Alexandra answered. "You need to have it on you, the aroma wards them off." Defense Against the Dark Arts was easily her best subject, although she suspected that James would pass her up soon, even though he was a year younger, but seeing as his dad was an Aurror, that was to be expected.
"Thanks," he said, scribbling this bit of information down. "Alright, that finishes that up. Now all I have left to do is that History of Magic rubbish, and how in the world do you already have that much written?" He looked over at Alanna, who was working on her own History of Magic essay, which was nearly a foot of parchment already.
"Well the Goblin Revolution of 1383 was one of the biggest milestones of the fourteenth century," she said, not even looking up. "It took me over five inches just to accurately describe the Battle of Filmar…"
"The essay's only supposed to be ten inches," he said, slightly disgusted. "And your writing is tiny."
"Ten inches, I thought it was eight!" Alexandra moaned. "Damn, now I've got to go back and add some things…"
"Can I just copy yours?" Fred asked Alanna. "I'll rephrase a few things and Binns will never know the difference."
"You can borrow my notes and write your own essay from them," she replied. "Seeing as all you've got to go on is the hangman game you played."
"That was a good game, wasn't it, Alexandra?" he said, grinning. "Nearly won it, but I forgot how to spell 'Remember'…"
"Yes, well, I still managed to jot a few things down," Alexandra said, opening her bag to search for her notes.
"Hey, have you heard?" Teddy said, coming over to the round table where the three were working.
"Heard what?" Fred asked.
"Suspect it will be in the Prophet tomorrow, but Harry's just sent me an owl…There was an attack at the Ministry today!"
"An attack?" Alanna repeated, dropping her quill. "By who?"
"Two blokes wearing masks. They caught them, but they still don't know who they are. Once the Aurrors cornered them, they knew the game was up, so they snapped their own wands. It'll make it hell of a lot harder to identify them, but Harry reckons Hermione and her department will have it done within a few days."
"Was anybody hurt?" Alexandra asked gravely.
"Yeah," Teddy sighed. "A hit wizard was killed, and about a half dozen more workers are in St. Mungo's."
"Are Uncle Harry, Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione and granddad alright?" Fred asked urgently.
"Well, Harry has a slight concussion, but he refuses to get it checked, says it's fine, but hopefully he'll at least let Ginny look at it, and the others are alright."
"What did the attackers want?" Alexandra questioned. "I mean, you don't just walk into the Ministry and start setting spells off for no reason, do you?"
"Not sure," Teddy shrugged. "Maybe they just wanted attention, money, power, who knows."
"Has James heard?" asked Fred.
Teddy nodded. "Harry wrote him as well. Told everybody to just keep calm about it right now."
"An attack on the Ministry," Alanna breathed as Teddy walked away. "That's-that's just terrible."
Alexandra nodded.
It was strange, though, she thought to herself. Why go to the trouble of snapping your wand just to avoid getting identified? They would get the same punishment even if the Ministry could put a name to them, so why destroy the only weapon they had? She could only think of one type of person who would go to such lengths to conceal his identity; a person who was working for someone else, much more powerful than him…
…
"I made you some tea," Ginny said as Harry walked through the front door of their home. "And added some honey as well, just like you like."
"Thanks," Harry said gratefully, accepting the cup from her as he sat down next to her on the couch. "Had to take the underground home; Kingsley still has all Floo Networks in the Ministry turned off, and he's made it so nobody can apperate to or from the building."
"I-I heard there was a death," she said softly.
"Hector Locklear," Harry sighed. "Just started work in Magical Law Enforcement. I didn't know him very well, but Hermione did, and she's pretty torn up about it. He was only twenty two." He put the cup down. "And Amelia Midlon, that Obliviator you were talking to at the Christmas party last year, is sitting in St. Mungo's unconscious from a powerful Stunning Spell. She just got back from maternity leave."
"It's awful," Ginny said sadly. "Have you had any luck with the wands?"
"Hermione reckons that she can mend them at least back to their superficial makings; won't be able to do anymore magic, but that's all Ollivander will need to tell us whose wands they are. I don't really give a damn what their names are, though, they'll still be shipped off to Azkaban all the same."
"They deserve it. Why would someone in their right mind do something like this? Just to kill?"
"I think it was bigger than that," Harry said, sighing deeply. "Ron and I were one of the fist on the scene. As soon as they saw us, one bloke rose his wand and pointed it in the room next to him. It was the file room, where we keep records on all the prisoners in Azkaban. They were all destroyed. We have no record of anybody's sentencing now, or who's out on parole."
"There's no way of mending the damage?"
"Kingsley's going to have to draw up the old court records from the hearings," Harry said. "He's going to have to re-process everything by hand. We're just lucky we had those down in the courtrooms."
"It's just such a shame that this happened," Ginny said, wiping a tear from her eye. "All those innocent people…"
"I'm going to make sure this gets fixed," Harry told her. "Make sure those bastards rot in Azkaban."
"I know you will," Ginny said. "But just don't think you have to do it alone. Now come here."
"Why?"
"You know darn well why. If you're not going to let the doctors at St. Mungo's look at your concussion, at least let your wife."
"Gin, I'm fine-"
"Then why do you have a Snitch-sized bump on the base of your skull?"
"I'll be fine," he said. "I just got hit in one of the explosions, fell back into the wall, that's all."
"At least let me get you a potion to help the pain. For me," she added as he opened his moth to argue.
"Okay," he conceded.
"And Lily and Albus know about the attack as well," she said, going into the kitchen. "They were worried about you. I highly doubt they're sleeping up in their rooms…"
Harry nodded, and started up the steps.
