Sunday morning came, and the majority of the student body awoke earlier than they would have under any other circumstances. Not only were they going to see Petal Arclight's older brother, but Gellert Grindelwald's grandson was arriving today. No one wanted to sleep in and risk missing either of the events.

Petal had gone down to the Dark Forest by herself to call Makato out of hiding, and the students had begun to gather at the top of the entrance footpath that led from Hogsmeade's Station to the castle where Kobi Arclight was going to meet his sister. Erebus had remained quiet over the three days, but Scorpius and the twins had succeeded in dragging him down there with the other students. Scorpius had almost needed to be literally dragged because the nightmare of his father killing his mother and then him had struck again, so he hadn't gotten much sleep.

Midway to the entrance, Griffin Lestrange appeared and cut the three of them off.

"Can I borrow Scorpius for a minute?" He asked them.

They had been talking about Petal, what her brother must be like, and about the Arclights in general. Scorpius had nodded and the twins had gone ahead to secure him a place. He and Griffin walked a little way away and Scorpius turned to face his cousin. Scorpius wondered what Griffin wanted to talk about and if it could wait.

"Scorpius," Griffin began, "do you like Petal?"

"Like her?" Scorpius asked, not understanding.

Griffin nodded. "Do you consider that Arclight a friend?"

Something about Griffin's tone when he said "that Arclight" unsettled Scorpius. It wasn't said gently.

"What of it?" He asked dubiously, going on the defensive without even realizing it. "She's a little strange, but I like her."

"Nothing about it," Griffin raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "I just want you to be careful around her. Not very much is known about her family and there are a lot of rumors. Regan told me-"

"That vampires won't touch Arclight blood," Scorpius interrupted. "I know. You already said that."

"Regan's father says that the Arclights are dangerous," Griffin implored. "He told me one of the stories the vampires have about them. I don't think it's safe for you to get too close to Petal."

"I'm fine," Scorpius repeated with steel in his voice. Then he sighed and settled on a compromise. "I'll be careful, cousin. Besides, she's only eleven."

Griffin watched as Scorpius shrugged his shoulders and then let him leave to catch up to his friends. He sighed softly as he thought about Sanguini's story about the Arclights. They saw only other Arclights as worthwhile beings. All others, from muggles to pure-bloods were prey. That was the word Sanguini had used. At first, Griffin had thought it was because Sanguini was a vampire, but he had realized as he kept reading that that was how the Arclights saw non-Arclights. They had nearly exterminated the vampire species when they had gone to war. A war, Sanguini admitted with bewilderment, that all records and memories of had been destroyed.

"Eleven years old is probably enough," Griffin muttered.

Then he turned to catch up to Scorpius. He had promised Sanguini he would tell him what he could about this new Arclight and he intended to be able to.

Scorpius was a little surprised to see there wasn't an overwhelming crowd when he finally caught up to the twins. Erebus had found the brothers and the three of them were having an animated discussion about whether or not Erebus's cousin Jen would be swooning over Petal's brother. Erebus and Jacob said yes but Luke was less sure.

Jacob waved at Scorpius obviously, a movement that attracted the attention of another nearby group. It was comprised of Albus Potter, Rose Weasley, Conner Finnigan and several other Gryffindor students. Things did not escalate this time as neither house wanted to look bad in front of their mysterious visitor. Jen came walking up not long afterwards with a friend from Slytherin, and there were other third-years including Victorie Weasley and Edward Lupin.

Still, there were surprisingly few students. There were classes tomorrow though and no one knew exactly when Kobi Arclight was going to appear. Likely, they didn't want to sit around wasting time they could be using for study or homework. Scorpius knew that Kobi would be showing up soon though. Petal had tipped him off just before she had left to coax Makato out of his hiding place in the Forbidden Forest. It seemed that word of Kobi's imminent arrival hadn't spread far past the Slytherin house.

Headmistress McGonagall came walking up around the same time Griffin caught up to some of his friends. Everyone probably assumed that meant Kobi was due to appear, but it was not in fact Kobi. The students heard the approaching carriage being pulled along the path by invisible Thestrals. There was murmuring among the students. Thanks in part to Jacob's lack of tact, most of the school knew about Gabriel Grindelwald's expulsion from Durmstrang and subsequent transfer. Although there were rumors that he was the son of Rikárd of the Light, the unconfirmed son of Gellert Grindelwald, no one knew for sure.

McGongall went to greet the carriage, and the students gathered couldn't help but watch as the door opened and the transfer student made his appearance. He looked startled to see such a large crowd as he stepped out of the carriage and McGonagall spoke to him, likely telling him both that news had spread of his arrival and that the crowd was here to see someone else.

He stepped down from the carriage a little warily, and Luke stared. "He looks just like Gellert!"

Luke was right. Gellert's grandson had wavy golden blonde hair that hung almost to his shoulders, blue eyes, and was still wearing his Durmstrang uniform of blood-red robes and cape edged with brown fur. He looked just like Gellert, but while Gellert had been described as a "merry face" and having "an air of triumphant trickery about him", Gabriel was serious. There seemed to be a dark cloud hanging over his head, and a dangerous aura.

"He does," Jacob agreed with Luke, "except he looks so moody."

Gabriel Grindelwald barely glanced at the crowd as he turned back to the carriage and whistled. There was movement inside and a small dog poked his nose out. A white Jack Russel Terrier walked down from the steps to the ground and approached his master. Its long, forked tail revealed that it was no muggle dog.

"Oh," Luke whispered, "that's a crup."

"Crup?" Erebus, done speaking to a student next to him, asked.

"Yeah," Luke hummed with a nod. "They're a Rank 3 beast, loyal towards wizards and vicious towards muggles. I'm kind of surprised to see one. You need a license to be an owner."

"I've never seen a dog with a tail like that," Scorpius mused.

"That's because Crup owners are supposed to remove the forked tail when the animal's a pup," Luke grumbled. "It's to prevent it from being noticed by muggles."

"Sounds painful," Jacob winced.

"The severing charm can be done painlessly," Luke corrected.

"I find that doubtful, bookworm," Jacob scoffed.

"Care to test that theory?" Luke asked.

"You don't know the severing charm," Jacob promised him.

"My brother does," someone chimed in, weaving between the crowd to join the cluster of boys.

"Griffin knows it?" Scorpius asked, looking surprised.

"It's a fifth-year level spell," Marcelle Lestrange shrugged. "If he doesn't know it he should learn it this year. Although… he doesn't have the delicate hand needed for charms."

Marcelle giggled and the other children smiled or laughed. A murmur surged through the crowd, drawing the Slytherins and the other children's attention. They all turned and looked, following the crowd's indication. Gabriel, who had started to walk towards the entrance hall, also stopped and turned.

Approaching the school was a flying carriage pulled by something with wings. The students stepped forward and then skittered back when the carriage landed. Now the students could see it better. It was a dark blue coach carriage with silver highlights, being pulled by six tawny-colored animals. They had the bodies of giant cats with a long tail and paws, but the wings and heads of eagles.

"Griffins," Luke whispered. "Wow. I've never seen one before. I can't believe they're pulling the carriage. They're not tame like winged horses."

Emblazoned on the door of the carriage was a strange silver symbol that Scorpious didn't recognize. It looked like a crescent moon inside a sun. He frowned, trying to place that symbol. It didn't look like one he had ever seen before.

"What's that crest?" He asked the group around him, wondering if Luke knew.

It wasn't Luke that answered though, but Marcelle. "That must be the Arclight crest. I've seen it on some of Petal's things."

The carriage came to a halt, the griffins pawing at the ground. They looked around at the group, but the students kept back. None of them approached them, watching as the animals clicked their beaks and extended giant claws from within their large paws.

McGonagall signaled for Gabriel to stay and then approached the carriage. The door opened as she approached and someone in his late teens walked down the step to the ground. He had longish hair styled messily. Like Petal, the hair was silver and shimmered like moonlight. His eyes were a strange purplish-blue eyes with flecks of dazzlingly bright silver, almost as if they were made from Lapis Lazuli stones. It was obvious he was human but something about the way he stepped down, about how his body moved, that made McGonagall wonder. Rather than wear any sort of a uniform, he wore boots, jeans, a t-shirt, and a denim jacket. The female students looking at him murmured to each other.

"Hello," McGonagall greeted him. "Are you Kobi Arclight?"

Kobi nodded, his wavy hair moving with him. "That's me. Where's my sister and the Runespoor?"

"They should be here any moment now," McGonagall assured him.

Right on cue, another buzz went through the students and they quickly backed away, clearing a path for whoever was approaching. It was Petal, walking towards them with Em on her shoulders and Makato following behind her. The Runespoor's right head was swinging around, looking every which way as it slithered forward while the middle one kept its eyes on Petal and the left one looked ahead to the carriage.

It was impossible to deny Petal and Kobi were siblings when they came to stand next to each other.

"How are you doing Pet?" Kobi asked her, speaking in Parseltongue instead of English. "Have these mutes given you any trouble?"

"Nothing I can't handle," Petal smiled, responded in Parseltongue, and stepped aside to introduce the Runespoor. "This is Makato. Northwind wanted to put him in a cage."

"Who's Northwind?" Kobi asked curiously.

"Head of the Gryfindor House," Petal grumbled. "I had to… convince her not to interfere. She didn't want to listen to a Slytherin. It's like our informers told father. The Wizarding World is still divided from the Great War, and I doubt there are few places more obvious then here. I think the others want to kill the Slytherins because so many of them had family with the Death Eathers."

"Sounds like you've had plenty of chances for practice," Kobi grinned.

"Several already," Petal nodded agreement. "These mutes see my body and look no deeper. To them I am only a little girl. They don't even think to guess that I am a fourth-year mage that has been training in combat for twice that time."

"Have you needed to use your combat yet or just magic?" Kobi asked worriedly.

He knew his sister was in little danger, but she was still a young girl. Mutes could be unpredictable when they met something that was greater than they were. Students she could handle, but if Petal got into a fight with one of the teachers things could end badly. Kobi hated the fact that his sister was the only Arclight here. If nothing else he wished that he had been able to attend the school with her so Petal would have kin. That wasn't the plan though.

"Nothing too extreme," Petal shrugged. "I had to tell them about the reserve and some of my training though."

"That's fine," Kobi told her and looked at the Runespoor. "Makato, is it? Are you ready to leave?"

The Runespoor's heads looked at him curiously and then nodded the heads together. Kobi exchanged a smile with his sister. Petal gave him a sound look, one that promised Kobi she was fine. She thought about mentioning Scorpius's dreams concerning the killing curse, but put the idea aside. There was no proof the dream was relevant.

"You can go in the carriage," Kobi promised, "and you, little sister, need to remember to keep up with your combat training as well as your spells."

Petal suddenly looked guilty. "How did you tell?"

"Your stance is bit too relaxed."

Petal crossed her arms over her chest and looked away with a huff. That made Kobi laugh and ruffle her hair affectionately. She smiled at him anyway. Makato slithered to the foot of the carriage and lifted himself to the step and then inside.

One of the advantages of Parseltongue was that it was fast. If it took five seconds to say a sentence in a mundane language, like English or French, it would only take two seconds to say it in Parseltongue. Thus, their conversation had taken half the time to say it as it did to read it. Unfortunately, the language was one of magic. It couldn't be taught like a mundane language. Either you were born able to speak it or you weren't.

Someone else moved inside the carriage and as the Runespoor vanished inside. Another human, this one also in her late teens, appeared at the doorway. Her skin was a mocha brown color and her eyes several shades darker with her dark chocolate brown hair in a pixie bob. There wasn't much for clothing, wearing a white haltertop, shorts, and sandals.

Kobi raised a hand, offering to help her down from the carriage. She shook her head no and looked around at them, her gaze setting on McGonagall. The woman tilted her head to one side, watching the Headmistress in a way that was both unsettling and animalistic.

"You're a werewolf," McGonagall said flatly.

The teen's eyes flashed gold and reflected the light like a wolf's. Then they returned to brown. McGonagall remembered part of her conversation with Anna Mirfield, wishing that she didn't.

"There is something else about the Arclights," Mirfield had said slowly, "a rumor, nothing more. It has to do with their werewolf allies. The rumor says that the Arclights have found a way to remove the limiter."

"Limiter?" McGonagall had asked.

"Werewolves only become werewolves under the light of the full moon," Mirfield reminded her. "They have a limiter so to say. The Arclights can supposedly remove the limiter so they can shift to their wolf form anytime they want. They can access a werewolf's power at will and arrange it so the werewolf stays sane. They retain their humanity."

"That's impossible," McGonagall said flatly. "To let the werewolf shift outside of the full moon is one thing, but for them to keep their sanity…"

"That's the general consensus," Mirfield had nodded agreement. "The Ministry of Magic wants to know the limits of the Arclight's magic though, so they need to make sure these are rumors only."

"Why is the magic of the Arclights of such interest?" McGonagall repeated her question. "Why?"

McGonagall also remembered Mirfield's answer, but she didn't want to think about the rest of the conversation right this moment. It was too troubling. Besides, the Ministries of Magic of the world had no proof behind their claims concerning the Arclights. The only reason they even knew about the Arclights was because the vampires had warned them, and all they had were stories and legends.

"Now, now Leah," Kobi Arclight chided the werewolf beside him, "do calm down. You should know by now that most humans don't get along with werewolves. I half think they hate werewolves more than they hate vampires."

His cordial demeanor became the least bit more serious when he mentioned the word vampires, but quickly returned to normal. Petal's disdain of them was not unique among her family.

"Those leeches at least have an excuse to not act human," Kobi continued, "they're not human after all. Werewolves though, are former humans. Humans do not like to see the ferality they have inside them, a ferality that comes forward for werewolves under the right conditions. Most refuse to admit they even have one, treating werewolves as if they're inferior or bestial, believing that they are better than them. It's quite conceited."

"You're human though," Northwind, who had approached behind McGonagall, asked.

Kobi tipped his head in a move that could be interpreted as agreement. "Knowing your own flaws and weaknesses is a good thing. If you know your limits, you're less likely to get in over your head."

"Seaweed Head," Petal muttered at Kobi.

Kobi knew she was referring to his messy hairstyle, and leveled a glare. He liked his hair. Petal looked up at him with sweet innocence. It was his own fault for being so free with his speaking that he had almost gotten backed into a corner about their heritage. She supposed he had managed to dodge the question, but he shouldn't have needed to do so in the first place.

Northwind looked at Leah, who was still smirking, dangerously. Kobi shifted his stance so he was partially in front of Leah, surprising Northwind. He was still smiling softly, but his eyes had become hard, cold, and flat. They sparkled with a light that was not at all comforting. Petal was looking at her to, but her smile was less pronounced. Her eyes had an excited look as if she wanted a chance for a real fight. The head of the Gryffindor House did not feel particularly threatened by the elven-year-old girl and her fifteen-year-old brother, but something about them troubled her nerves.

"Will you be staying?" McGonagall asked him, trying to mediate the parties.

Northwind looked away, and both Petal and Kobi seemed to stand down. Petal looked a little put out.

"I'm afraid not," Kobi told her in a tone both gentle and docile as if he was still speaking to his little sister. "I should get Makato to his new home. My family also alerted me that there have some strange ships spotted near our island. It may be poachers again."

"Does your family require assistance?" McGonagall inquired.

Kobi and Petal both gave her a strange look as if they couldn't understand why they would possibly need help.

"No thank you," Kobi shook his head finally. "There are many magical animals on our family's reserve. We're used to poachers."

"I'm going to miss all the fun," Petal grumbled.

Kobi pat her on the head as if she was a toddler and she shoved his hand aware with a scything glare. As Kobi's arm moved aside, Scorpius saw that his left forearm was wrapped in leather. Scorpius lost sight of it as Kobi lowered his arm and his sleeve fell back in place, leaving him to wonder about it.

"Sorry this is such a short visits, sis," Kobi apologized to Petal in English. "But you know how things are back at the reserve."

"I know," Petal assured him. "I'll see you at winter break."

"Headmistress," Kobi turned to address McGonagall. "If you will pardon the abruptness of our visit, we shallt dally anymore."

Petal thought how strange it was that her brother spoke so properly and yet kept his hair so messy. You'd expect to see someone that talked like he did to be a nobleman primly dressed in a suit, or some slick-talking criminal kingpin in a bowler hat and carrying a cane. Yet he dressed like typical teenager that really didn't care what he looked like.

Leah, the werewolf, smirked at McGonagall and then climbed back into the carriage. Kobi bowed in a gentlemanly sort of way to McGonagall and the students, causing the female students to chatter again, and then entered the carriage and closed the door behind him.

Petal must have seen Scorpius and the knot of other students because she approached their group and stood by them to watch her brother leave. The students skittered backwards as the griffons began to move. They opened their wings and took off with the carriage quickly. Apparently, their strength was impressive.

Once the carriage vanished from sight, McGonagall clapped her hands once. The steadily increasing volume of murmurs and whispers that had taken over the students present fell silent almost instantly. Everyone looked up at her, wanting to get back to their conversations.

"There are no classes today," McGonagall admitted, "but there will be tomorrow. I am certain everyone can find better things to do then stand here."

Most of the students took her remark and began to break up. McGonagall glanced at Northwind briefly, annoyed that she had been so brisk with the Arclight visitor, and then waved for Gabriel to accompany her. He did so with the Krup on his heels. Northwind walked off in another direction, and Petal quickly found herself the center of attention.

Jen and one of her friends approached them, the friend wearing Slytherin colors.

"You have a cute brother," Jen smiled at Petal.

"Is he single?" Her friend asked.

Petal leaned backwards, surprised by the brazen question.

"Keira," Jen scolded her friend.

"Oh come on," the Slytherin rolled her eyes. "You were about to ask her that to."

Jen turned red, confirming Keira Travers's guess. Keira smiled at her friend's obvious nature. She tugged at Jen's sleeve.

"Let's go finish up our Ancient Runes homework," Keira offered. "It's due tomorrow."

"Hey," Jen stalled, "Petal never answered me."

"He's got a girlfriend," Petal answered.

Now Jen lowered her head in disappointment, allowing Keira to escort her away with a wave at the first-years. Aaron Goyle and Earic Selwyn, Scorpius saw with relief, had already left. As he looked, he saw Griffin walking away, shaking his head as he left as if dissatisfied. Two of his fellow fourth-years, the same two Peta Arclight had dueled – and thrashed – during their first day at school, were talking about the hot werewolf chick Kobi had with him.

When they tried to draw Griffin into the conversation, something he normally would have jumped right into, he waved them off and told them, "maybe later."

"Marcelle," Scorpious whispered at her while Petal was distracted by the twins and Erebus. "Is your brother all right?"

Marcelle sighed. "I think so. I don't think he likes the Arclights all too much. He's really busy chatting with Regan by letter to, and she's distracting him."

Scorpius nodded idly, thinking about what Griffin had pulled him aside to say. He was warning Scorpius to be careful because the vampires had told him some bad stories about Petal's family. Now that he thought about it, Petal and Kobi seemed to hate the vampires as much as the vampires, according to Griffin, hated them. It was sort of strange.

Scorpious let the issue slide and slipped away from the gaggle of students. He had History of Magic homework to finish. Later, he would regret not investigating things. In his defense, he didn't have access to all of the information he needed to put the clues he was getting together.

He would take small comfort from that fact when the Arclight family approached the various Ministries of Magic of the world and said "hello" in the worst way possible.

*Ominous closing music*

Just to clarify, words that are in bold in the story are being spoken in Pareseltongue instead of English. I'm copying chapter by chapter from a Word document to this website and i switched the font for Parseltongue in Word. Unfortunately, this website puts everything in one font. Grr.

Am i introducing too many characters? There are basically three "cliques" of characters: the first-years (Scorpius, Erebus, twins, Marcelle, Goyle and Selwyn), the third-years (Jen, Gabriel, Keira), and the fourth-years (pretty much just Griffin). There are also the Arclights, but that's just Petal and Kobi, and other various non-Slytherin's (which aren't as critical as the Slytherins).

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave a review or message me. I don't know how other writers do it, but I look forward to most feedback from my readers.