"Draco, I swear to you, I'm fine. I can walk as well as before, I can move all my limbs, and I'm not planning on attempting anything. Just let me out of here, alright?"

Draco didn't look like he agreed at all with any of what Theodore had said. He looked down at the charts and shook his head. "Theodore…no, just…no. You nearly died, you're not psychologically stable…Theodore, I would really like you to stay here for at least the next couple of days." It sounded like Draco didn't just want Theodore to stay, he needed him to stay.

Theodore looked down and gave Darla a slight nudge. They had been over this whole plan earlier that morning and Darla was fairly certain she knew her part. All she had to do was act the part of the sad and scared little girl and everything would go perfect. "Uncle Draco," she whined and widened her eyes slightly. "Are you saying that Daddy can't come home? I mean, I go back to school in just a couple of days and I want to see my daddy outside of the hospital."

Unfortunately for both of them, Draco didn't seem like he was caving. He looked at both of them and quirked an eyebrow. "Did the two of you plan this out? It's not going to work. Theodore, you have to stay here, no amount of whining is going to change my mind, I'm sorry. So, please, please go back to bed," he pleaded and brushed back his hair.

Theodore leaned on his cane and limped forward, relying on his cane more than usual. "Malfoy, listen," he said lowering his voice slightly. "You're a healer, and you're great at what you do." It sounded as though it actually physically hurt him to say that. "You can come by the house if you want, and, um, how about I come back? Just give me a couple of days. I just want to spend the last couple of days here with my daughter…"

Draco groaned and looked back to the chart. "Theodore, I can't…you'll come back?"

"Three days, that's all I need. Let me go home for three days and then I'll be back once I know that Darla is safe and back at school."

Draco closed his eyes and shook his head. "It's like arguing with a child. Alright, I'll write you your leave and you can go. But, if you're not back here in three days to follow up then I will come get you and you won't be happy about it."

"Thank you," Theodore said in a quiet voice.

"Yeah, don't mention it," Draco said begrudgingly. "And next time you decide to start doing…this, don't ruin my party in the process!"

Darla trotted forward and grabbed Theodore's free hand. The plan hadn't gone exactly as she had picture it, but something had worked. "We're going home," she asked and grinned.

"We sure are, right Draco?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, you win, Nott. I don't quite know how, but you won. I'll see you in a couple of days." He rolled his eyes, still looking like he didn't like what was going on. He threw his hand up in a small wave and hurried off down the hall.

Theodore smiled and looked back down to Darla. "And that, Spite, is how you beat a Malfoy. Just use logic, they won't know what to do with it, they'll get confused, and they won't be able to argue back. That's how I got through all of Hogwarts."

"Duly noted!"

"Good, good. Now, let's go home, I'm certain that there are presents that need to be ripped apart."

Darla smiled and trotted out of her father's room and into the corridor. Of course, she had to slow down on the stairs so that Theodore could keep up with her. Thus far, Theodore hadn't mentioned anything else about his experiment gone wrong and Darla really didn't want to ask. She was a bit afraid, to be honest. She didn't want to know what had happened or what happened. The whole thing terrified her to no end and she just wanted to enjoy the time she had with her father without giving him any reason to go back to work.

"Spite, dear, slow down before you—ugh."

Darla had just started listening to her father when she crashed into someone in the lobby. It took her a moment to recognize the person she had run directly into. She shook her head and took a step back. "Oh, Professor Longbottom," she said cheerfully. "Happy Christmas!"

Neville blinked and managed a small smile, though it was very, very forced. "Oh, Miss Nott, I didn't recognize you without James and Freddie by your side."

Grinning, Darla backed up a bit more and took her father's hand. "What are you doing here, Professor?"

Theodore nudged Darla slightly. "Darla, honey, that's rude, don't be rude."

"It's fine, erm, Theodore," he said sounding as though it was awkward for him to call Theodore by his first name. "Your daughter is in my house, I'm kind of used to her…bluntness," Neville explained and dropped his forced smile. "I'm just visiting my father, Darla. Now, what are you doing here?"

Quickly, Theodore put his arm around Darla's shoulder, pulling her a bit closer. "Leaving, that's what we're doing here, we're leaving."

Neville raised an eyebrow and shook his head. "Some people never change, I suppose," he muttered under his breath. "I'll see you in a few days, Darla, take care."

"You too, Professor," Darla muttered as she was pulled away by her father.

The two of them walked out into the bright sunlight and Darla glanced up at the sky. Snow was starting to fall again on the already white ground. St. Mungos disappeared behind them, disguised as a rundown building. "Daddy," Darla said and leaned against him. "Why didn't you tell Professor Longbottom that you got hurt?" It seemed like a ridiculous thing to do. What was so bad about being injured? It happened to the best of people.

"Spite, dear, what have I told you about asking stupid questions?" Theodore stopped walking and pulled his arm off of Darla's shoulder. He lifted his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "I'm sorry, Spite, I'll try not to say things like that."

"And I'll try not to ask stupid questions."

It wasn't going to be easy at all. It was going to be a lot of hard work on both their parts to get along. But, Darla figured that they could do it if they both tried. In the end it would be worth it, Darla had to believe that much.

When finally returned back home Darla was greeted with three things. The first was a large pile of gifts on the doorstep from James, Freddie, Lily, Adam, Lorcan and Lysander, and even Maggie had sent her something. This got her much more in the Christmas spirit and she made a note to go and get everyone presents before she went back to school. Next, a very hungry and anxious Buttons stood waiting when they opened the door. He let out his pathetic meow and rubbed against Darla's legs until she finally sat her gifts on the kitchen table and picked him up. As soon as she had Buttons in her arms, Darla noticed that something was amiss. The cat was sticky. Lifting him up, Darla realized why. His stomach was covered in blood. Panicking, Darla turned him over, looking for any sort of wound. Then she discovered the cause of the blood.

Stepping into the living room, Darla was greeted finally with the mess their house had become. The walls were sprayed with blood and the wallpaper was barely hanging onto the walls. The sofa had been flipped over, torn open and stuffing covered the scuffed up hardwood floor. Darla dropped Buttons on the floor and backed up until she backed into her father. "What…what the hell?"

Theodore quickly put one arm around Darla's waist and literally pulled her back into the kitchen. "Sorry about that, I suppose Draco just forgot to clean up," he muttered quickly. "I'll make some tea or something for you and then I'll get the house back in order."

"What happened here," Darla asked frantically. She held onto her father tightly, trying to keep him with her. What if whatever had done that to the house was still out there, waiting? What if it was one of those blood mummies that she had dreamed about?

Theodore sighed and managed to pry Darla off his arm. "You know that the experiment went slightly wrong, right? Well, that's kind of what happened. Please, just wait here while I get it all cleaned up. Open your gifts or something."

As Theodore disappeared back into the living room, Darla sat down, alone, at the kitchen table. She didn't really feel like opening anything. By now she was far too concerned with what happened to the house to worry about what people had gotten her. Still, she had to try, for her father. Mechanically, she peeled off the paper from each of the gifts. Adam had sent her enough Sugar Quills to last a month, Lily had sent her a how-to guide on riding a broom, Freddie, oddly, sent her a large maroon jumper with the letter 'F' stitched into the front. Darla wasn't quite sure what to make of this, but she pulled the jumper on anyway and rolled up the sleeves. Then from Maggie she had gotten a book of fairy-tales she assumed was from the muggle world because the pictures didn't move. Darla flipped through the thin pages, reading titles she didn't recognize from any fairy-tale she had ever heard. Lysander, being Lysander, had sent her a small collection of preserved bugs. This included a note that said 'I have collected these from Hogwarts over the last semester, I hope that you can do a better job indentifying them than I did'. Most of them just looked like ants. Lorcan, being the saner of the two, had sent Darla a small silver looking ball that, when thrown, latched onto the ceiling and produced small twinkling lights and then came back down when you asked it to nicely. Also included was a note saying 'I'm terribly sorry about Lysander, he's insane, ignore him'. Though, the best gift of all came from James. At first it appeared to be a small stuffed hedgehog, but then it transfigured itself into a small creature that resembled a brownish-blue pixie. There was a note with it saying 'Since you're my Hedge-Pixie I thought you should have one of your own. Mum helped with the Transfigurations. Also, I thought you could use a new stuffed animal since that owl is getting a bit rough'. By the time Darla discovered this she had almost completely forgotten about her father trying to clean up the house.

She was reminded, however, when Theodore limped back into the kitchen and examined the mess of wrapping paper on the floor. "Quite a lot you've got there, Spite," he said as his eyes moved to the presents on the table.

"Oh, yes, my friends are very…." She looked down at the dead bugs. "Interesting, that's for sure." She clutched her stuffed Hedge-Pixie to her chest and smiled again. Opening the presents had made her feel a lot better about everything.

"Mind me asking what that is that you're wearing?"

Darla looked down at her jumper and grinned broadly. "My friend Freddie sent it to me. I guess he didn't want me to forgot what letter his name started with."

Theodore raised and eyebrow and looked at the jumper and then at the box of bugs. "And that it…"

"Oh…" Darla put the lid back on her bugs. "Um…I don't really…some of my friends are weird…"

"That's alright, I was friends with Draco back in school, I can't rightfully say anything about you having weird friends." Theodore reached into his pocket. "Well, during the other night's…excitement, a lot was destroyed. But I managed to save this for you. Ignore the wrapping job."

Theodore threw a small box on the table unceremoniously. It wasn't wrapped well at all. In fact, it looked as though Theodore had simply taken whatever was left over from the Daily Prophet and tapped it over the box. It was, however, better than most of the presents she received, which weren't usually wrapped. "Thank you," she said happily and pulled the newspaper off to reveal a small black velvet box. Carefully, Darla opened the box and pulled out a small golden locket from inside. It was a very simple locket, very plain with a very plain chain. Darla turned it over and noticed a small inscription on the back. With love, to Daphne.

"It was your mother's," Theodore explained and looked at the ground. "I, uh, I got it for her when we first got married. I'm not going to wear it…so, I thought maybe…I, uh, I changed the picture inside it for you…"

Darla didn't quite know what to say. She held tight to her hedgehog and stared down at the locket. After a moment of hesitation, she pressed the small button on the side to open the locket. It stuck a bit from lack of use, but it finally opened and she could see a small mirror on one side that displayed her own reflection and on the other side was a picture of her mother when she was younger. Her dark brown hair had been curled and fell gently over her pale face. Her dark brown eyes met Darla's and she offered her a small smile. Darla quickly closed the locket back and tried to think of what to say. She knew she should say 'thank you', but for some reason the words just wouldn't come.

"What was she like," Darla asked and stared down at the locket in the hands. "Momma. When you brought her back, I mean…."

Theodore shifted his weight slightly and leaned forward on his cane. "She was…scared, I suppose," he said though it sounded as though he didn't quite believe that himself. "That's why the house was so…I need to take more time to work it all out, Darla. Soon enough it'll be—"

"No!" Darla snapped her head up. She didn't think about what she saying, she just said what she was feeling. "I-I love momma, I do, but if it's going to hurt you, if there's a possibility that this whole mess is going to happen again, then I don't want you to do it. If bringing Momma back is going to kill you then you can't do it!" She was nearly frantic as she spoke. She had seen what it felt like to almost lose him once and she didn't want to have to go through it again. In fact, she wasn't sure she could go through it again. Jumping up, Darla wrapped her arms around Theodore's good leg, sending him a little off balance. "I already lost momma, I can't lose you too."

Theodore swayed for a moment and had to quickly steady himself with his cane. Once he was back on his feet, Theodore looked down at Darla as though seeing her for the first time. He put his arm around her shoulder, maybe because he needed the extra standing support or maybe to try and calm her down. "C'mon, Spite, calm down, alright? I'm not going anywhere, no one is losing anyone right now."

Darla buried her face in Theodore's shirt and held onto him tight as though afraid he would disappear on the spot. "Promise?"

"Yes, dear, I promise. I'll still be here when you come back for the summer, alright?"

"Alright…" Darla couldn't help but be at least a little bit afraid. She couldn't believe that her father still wanted to experiment with the very thing that had almost killed him!

"Spite?"

"What?"

"You can let go now, dear."

"Oh, right." Darla managed a small smile and let go of her father's leg. Maybe she was just being ridiculous. After all, he had said that they were going to be a real family, at least for a little while. As long as she was here she could keep him away from work. She sat back down and put the locket on her neck, afraid she might lose it if she didn't keep it one her.

Now free from Darla's hold, Theodore moved out a chair and sat down at the table. He drummed his fingers against the table and tried to think of what to say. "I'm out of practise with this whole having polite conversation thing," he admitted and adjusted his glasses. "So, maybe you can start…tell me something I don't know."

At first, Darla thought that it would be difficult to talk to him. How was she supposed to know what would interest him? It was a little awkward at first as she told him about James and Freddie. He didn't look very interested until she started talking about the prank with the owls they had pulled. His eyebrows rose until they were hidden under his hair.

Theodore laughed slightly and tried to follow. "I'm sorry, back up…how did that one boy manage to catch an owl?"

"Lysander? Oh, we don't know. We don't really know how he does anything, but he's really smart." Explaining Lysander, Darla realized, would be like trying to explain the colour blue. It just couldn't be done. Theodore would have to see Lysander to really understand him. "Are you tired?"

Anyone could have seen how tired Theodore was. He had, after all, just gotten out of St Mungos and had a difficult last few days. "Exhausted is a much better word for it. But, really, don't worry about it right now."

"You need sleep, Daddy." Darla herself was getting pretty tired. She had been home for a while, but she hadn't been able to sleep in her own bed for the past two nights. She was really longing for the comfort and familiarity of her own room, and Prowly. She didn't like staying at the hospital with her father without having Prowly with her. It felt like a piece of her was just missing. "Um…but can we still talk tomorrow?"

Theodore yawned and glanced out the window. It was starting to grow dark; he hadn't realized how long he had been listening to Darla talk. "Of course, dear." He got back up and took Darla by the hand. "C'mon, let's get you on up to bed, alright?"

It was the first time in a long time that Darla could remember Theodore actually tucking her into bed. Well, it was the first time that it hadn't ended in them fighting over something stupid. Buttons jumped up on the bed and eyed Theodore suspiciously before curling up at the foot of the bed.

"We have got to get you a normal pet," he muttered to himself and grabbed Prowly off the nightstand. He dusted the stuffed animal off and looked at it for a moment. "It looks like this thing is getting a bit ratty, and his wing is falling off. We should probably get you a new one. I'm sure I could find one somewhere."

Darla sat up and snatched Prowly out of her father's grip. She held him protectively to her chest. It was true that Prowly was getting old and was starting to fall apart; Cassia hadn't exactly done him any good. Still, Darla couldn't bear the thought of having him replaced by anything, even something shiny and new. "Momma got me Prowly. A new one, even if it looked like Prowly, wouldn't be Prowly. It would just be…it would just be a toy. Does that make sense?"

"Not really," Theodore told her bluntly. "But, you've never been one to make much sense about much of anything, so I suppose that in your mind it makes sense. Just like how, for some reason, Buttons makes sense, and wearing jumpers with the letter F on them makes sense, and Lysander makes sense." He smiled slightly and pulled his hair back.

It didn't matter much to her if it made sense to her father. All that made mattered was that he was there and so was she. Darla relaxed slightly.

"Goodnight, Spite."

Darla looked up and hugged Prowly close to her. "Daddy?"

"Yes?"

"What's a Blood Mummy?"

Theodore paused and rubbed the back of his neck. "Um, I don't think, legally, I'm really allowed to talk about them. Ask you uncle sometime."

Great, the creatures of her nightmares were still identified. She decided not to mention that she was afraid one was still lurking around the house. "Goodnight, daddy," she finally said.

Theodore lightly kissed the top of Darla's head and managed to stand up. "Goodnight, Spite."

"I love you."

Theodore paused for a moment before he turned off the lights. "I know," he said simply before leaving the room and closing the door behind him.

Darla slept better than she had in years. She could hear Buttons making a noise that could be described as purring by someone who had never heard purring and had only once had it briefly described to them by someone who had once heard a dog growl. Prowly, as always, was tucked under her arm and her Hedge-Pixie rested in her other arm. When she did wake up she felt incredibly well rested and just happy in general. She jumped up and skipped down the hall, holding her Hedge-pixie tight to her chest. She hurried to her father's bedroom to see if he was awake yet. When she opened the door she saw his bed empty and perfectly made. Well, she thought, there was only one other place he could be.

Her happiness seemed to evaporate as she walked back down the hallway and opened the door to Theodore's study. "Daddy," she asked in a small voice.

Theodore sat hunched over his desk scribbling like mad on a piece of parchment. "Good morning," he muttered without once looking up.

Feeling a bit braver, Darla stepped into the study and slouched down into the seat in front of her father's desk. "Have you been working all night," she asked and looked over at the crumbled up pieces of parchment on the floor.

"Of course not," he said though the empty coffee cups and bags under his eyes told a different story.

Darla felt absolutely defeated. She dug her nails into the Hedge-Pixie and absently chewed on his ear. "I thought you weren't going to work on that anymore," she muttered and looked to the floor.

Theodore stopped writing and looked up. He sighed and brushed back his hair. "Well, I'm not really working on it…I'm just seeing what went wrong." Theodore pushed his glasses up and looked down at his paperwork. "I have no idea how to be a father to you," he admitted.

"That's okay," Darla told him. He looked so lost and Darla wondered if the reason he worked so much was because that was all he knew. He had never really had to be a father before Daphne died, and Darla wondered if that was part of the reason he was so bad at it. "I don't really know how to be a good daughter. So, I guess we'll both have to learn how to do it."

For a moment, Theodore just stared at Darla and tried to figure out what to say. "My mother, Atropos," he finally said and opened his desk drawer. "The woman in the box was my mother, and yes, she was important." He pulled the small box out of his desk drawer and stared at it for a moment as though he didn't quite want to open it. He finally did open it and pulled out the picture of him and his mother. "She passed away when I was twelve."

Darla took the picture from her father and looked it over. They both looked so happy, even though Theodore was trying hard not to smile. Atropos was a beautiful woman, that was all Darla could really see. She was simply amazingly beautiful. "Did she die like momma," Darla asked without taking her eyes off the photograph.

Theodore shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Well, no, not exactly." He looked down and toyed with his hands. This was much harder than he had expected it to be. He rubbed his head and resumed shuffling through the box. "She, uh, she was killed," he explained and his voice cracked. Deciding that this was enough talk of his mother, Theodore pulled out another photograph. "Oh, look, here's one of your mother playing Quidditch."

Quidditch didn't interest Darla in the slightest, even if it was her mother playing. "Who killed her," Darla asked bluntly.

"Merlin, Darla," Theodore said exasperated. "Let's move on, shall we?" He dropped the picture of Daphne back in the box and shook his head. "I'm sorry, Spite, I just…can we move on?"

Darla would have liked to hear more about her Grandmother, but the tone of Theodore's voice caused her to slip the photograph back into the box and nod. She didn't want for him to get angry with her for being curious, but she figured that she would have time later to try and understand exactly what had happened. "Alright, um…what do you want to talk about?"

Well, Theodore couldn't say 'I don't want to talk'. He was forcing himself to not go back to work. "Um…why don't you tell me more about school," he said and closed the box and slid it back into his desk.

"I've done that already," Darla reminded him. She wasn't exactly sure what they were supposed to talk about and it was quite awkward for both of them. Maybe forcing themselves to get along wasn't the best idea. "What was school like when you were there?"

Theodore leaned back slightly and smirked. "Oh, well…I don't want you getting any ideas from me, now," he said and folded his hands over his chest. "It wasn't all that exciting, really. Blaise and I once broke into the Ravenclaw Common Room." He chuckled a bit. "I don't know if anything has changed, but then we discovered that you just had to answer a riddle to get in. Anyone with half a brain could get in. Well, Blaise had trouble with it, but I managed to get it alright. I suppose I was the brains of the group. Blaise was really…well, I'm not sure why we kept him around, but he helped. Well, he helped when he wasn't making sarcastic comments."

"What about Momma," Darla asked. Her curiosity was getting the better or her again. "What did she do?"

"Daphne was on a whole different level. She was smart, pretty, and she played on the Quidditch team. She was a beater, and honestly that fact made me a little afraid of her." Theodore touched his hand to his throat and blinked several times.

Darla leaned forward and rested her elbows on the desk. This was the most she had ever heard her father say about her mother before and she was anxious to hear more about it all.

As though just realising he was talking, Theodore stopped and glanced out the window. "You should go pack, Spite. It won't be long before you need to go back to school and I would like to finish writing up my report." He managed a smile and spoke up before Darla could come up with a good argument. "Don't worry, I won't lose myself in my work. I just want to finish writing up what happened the other night and then I'll be done."

Darla smiled and decided that it would be best to at least try and believe her father. "Alright, Daddy, I'll go play with Buttons and get some stuff packed."

"Good girl."

It didn't take Darla long to realise that Theodore was easily lost in his work. She watched the hours tick by and not once did Theodore even venture out of his office to go get coffee. It was a whole new kind of loneliness. Sure, Darla was used to being alone, she was used to spending a lot of time alone, but now it felt different. For a few hours she had her father back to the way he was supposed to be, she had had him the way he was before her mother had died. She wanted to call him out on it and tell him what she was feeling, but she was afraid. She just kept telling herself that eventually he would come out and she should just give him another hour or two. He would remember, he had to, he had promised her. She sat in her room and waited up for him until she eventually fell asleep.

The next day, Darla resumed her pacing and stared at the clock. Really, she thought, she should have gone down to the study to try and force him out, but she couldn't. She thought about their last conversation and thought about how he had looked. Just when he started to open up he had shut down almost immediately. It was strange, and she wasn't sure what to make of it. It was nearing midnight when she finally managed to muster up the courage to go into her father's study. The only reason she knew that he would still be alive was because she could occasionally hear him muttering to himself. Her trunk was still unpacked and she hadn't made any effort to fix this. Silently, Darla crept through the hallway and opened the door and peaked inside, trying to figure out exactly what she was supposed to say.

Fortunately, she didn't have to say anything. The moment the door creaked open Theodore looked up. For a moment Theodore looked a little confused, but then his eyes got wide and his face fell. "Oh no," he muttered to himself as he grabbed his cane and limped away from his desk. "Darla, I didn't forget about you," he said a little too quickly. "I just…I just fell asleep."

"For a whole day," she asked and took a step away from him. She wanted to spend time with him and be a family, just like he had promised, but she wasn't sure what to make about this. He had promised that he wasn't going to work and now here he was, half buried in his studies. "You lied to Uncle Draco," she pointed out, her voice blank and unemotional.

Theodore shook his head and leaned forward to rest on his cane. "I didn't lie, I just…I just got a bit distracted writing my dissertation. It won't happen again. We can spend the whole day together tomorrow if you want."

Darla felt very much like smacking him, as though that would knock some sense into him. Luckily, she had a bit more restraint than that. "Daddy, I go back to school tomorrow," she pointed out and sighed. "It's okay, I'm not mad…I'm just…I'm going to go pack, alright?" Honestly, Darla wasn't angry in the slightest. If anything, she was disappointed. It felt like she had been close to everything she wanted, and then someone had ripped it all away. Her stomach felt hollow and her body seemed heavier than usual. She just felt absolutely gutted.

"Let me help you."

"No," Darla said quickly. "I'll do it…you need to work."

"Spite—"

"I got it," Darla snapped and turned around. "Just…stop trying, okay? It's hard for you, I ken. Just…I don't feel like talking."

Even though Darla didn't feel like talking, Theodore certainly did. He followed her out into the hallway. "Darla, don't do this right now, alright Don't get all gurnie on me."

Darla brushed back her hair and did her best to ignore the fact that she was being followed. "I am not gurnie. I'm accepting, that's all. Just don't forget to take me to the train station tomorrow, alright? I'm anxious to get back to school, I'll write you once I'm there." She was anxious to get back to her friends, and to get back to a place where there were no Blood Mummies or Alchemy.

Theodore managed to catch up with her and put his hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry," he said.

Darla paused and looked down at the ground. Theodore had sounded so sincere and she didn't want to let go of everything so quickly. "I acted irrational," Darla stated. "You can come help me pack if you want…"

Theodore smiled softly and put his arm around Darla's shoulders. "I would love to."

It was more work than either of them had planned. When Darla had unpacked she had thrown everything onto the floor and everything was spread throughout her room. Not to mention she had to manage to fit all her presents into her trunk. It might have been slower had Theodore not been there, though it also might have been faster. His constant questions ("Do you really need all these books?") slowed the process down a bit. Regardless, it wasn't a terrible process. In fact, Darla found herself smiling a bit as Theodore helped her pack up several jumpers.

"Really, I can fix that one so it has a 'D' on it instead of an 'F'," Theodore pointed out as he half folded half crammed the jumper Freddie had given her into the trunk.

Darla shook her head and used the same folding technique on a skirt. "No, Freddie gave it to me so there must be a reason for it. I don't quite know what the reason is, but I'm sure that it exists."

"What about the bugs?"

"Don't question the bugs, Daddy. Trust me, I've known Lysander for a while and I've learned that questioning him leads to either dead ends…or dead bugs."

Theodore smiled slightly and slid the box of bugs into the side of the trunk. "You're a strange one, Darla."

Darla looked up and raised her eyebrow. For a moment she wondered what he meant by that. Then, catching his smile, Darla disregarded the meaning. "It runs in the family."

"That it does." Theodore paused and closed the trunk, apparently deciding that they were done. "So…one a scale of one to ten how terrible has this break been? I mean, between the drinking and the hospital and Blaise…" Theodore brushed back his hair and fiddled with the lock on the trunk.

To say that Darla was surprised by the question was an understatement. She looked up and then quickly looked to the floor. She didn't quite know what to say. Sure, there had been worse times but there had been better times. There had been times when she hadn't been hit by a cane or had to stay with someone she barely knew. "Well, considering it's my first break from school I guess it was the best and the worst. I really can't rate it, since I have nothing to compare it to."

Theodore nodded and stood back up. It was nearly four in the morning and they had to leave in less than six hours to get to the train station in time. "You should probably get some sleep," he pointed out.

Following Theodore's lead, Darla got up. She wasn't quite ready to go to bed and she wasn't quite ready to let go of her father. After all, it would be another five months before she got to see him. "If we go to sleep now then there's now way either of us will wake up in time to get to school. You want to get some tea and maybe read some books or something?"

"Um, well…" Theodore rubbed the back of his neck and looked down at Darla. He could have just said no, that might have been the simple way out. "You know what? Yeah, alright, we'll, well, we'll pull an all-nighter. Come on, let's go get that tea."

Just like before, Darla and Theodore stood at the train station, but there were a few differences between this time and the last time. This time Theodore didn't look frustrated and Darla wasn't causing a scene. She held tight to Theodore's robes and leaned against him. There weren't nearly as many people here as there had been before. She looked around and spotted a few familiar faces. Scorpius was standing over by Draco, leaning against his father's shoulder. Something about the scene didn't look right, but Darla chalked it up to Scorpius not feeling well. Then she saw Adam playing with a small blonde boy across the platform. Darla blushed and hid her face in Theodore's robes.

"You alright, Spite?"

Darla smiled and tightened her grip. "Yeah, I'm great. That boy," she said and vaguely gestured in Adam's general direction. "He, um, he kissed me before break—"

"He did what?" Theodore stopped and turned around, his eyes wide. "You didn't mention…um, ahem…" He paused and adjusted his glasses. "Erm, I just always thought you would be a bit more of a late bloomer. Um…I don't really know…uh…oh, look, there's your friend James."

Darla rolled her eyes at Theodore's pathetic attempts to change the conversation. It was almost cute. "Yeah, I should go get on the train." Darla let go of Theodore's robes and grabbed her trunk. "So, um, I'll write to you when I get there?"

Theodore smiled weakly and looked down at Darla. "And I'll write back."

"Okay…" Darla paused for a moment before wrapping her arms around Theodore's waist, nearly knocking him off balance again. "I love you Daddy, be careful with your projects."

Again, Theodore looked like he didn't quite know what to do or say. He managed to pry Darla off of him and brushed her hair out of her face. "I will…um…do a little better in Charms, alright?"

Darla wasn't expecting much of a goodbye, and at least this was better than being pushed onto the train. "I will, Daddy. See you over the summer!"

Theodore gave her a small wave and stepped back. "Yeah, have fun, Spite."

Before Darla went to get on the train she spotted someone very familiar. "Professor," she cried and nearly took of running toward him.

Professor Amicussio was walking toward the train and dragged a very large suitcase behind him. "Oh, well hello there, little Phooka."

Darla grinned and hurried over to him. "What're you doing here?"

"Well, I need to get back to school, don't I?" He looked down at his suitcase and struggled a bit to get it off the ground. "Ugh, this is heavier than I expected."

Quickly, Darla attempted to help him carry it only to discover that it was far too heavy for her to carry. "Merlin, Professor, what have you got in here?"

Professor Amicussio smiled and sat the bag down. "Oh, you know, the usual things. Books, clothes, a body."

A body? Darla looked up, her eyes wide. "Are you serious?"

"Darla, I just said I had a body in my suitcase, what do you think?"

Darla relaxed a little and grabbed her own trunk. "Right, of course. Daddy says I'm very bad at detecting sarcasm."

Professor Amicussio ruffled her hair and picked his suitcase back up. "You sure are. Now, you better get on the train with your friends before it's too late. I need to get my stuff up front."

"Alright, Professor. I'll see you at school!" She called as she went to board the train.

Professor Amicussio offered her a small wave. "Yes, I hope it's a fun second semester for you."

Darla would quickly learn that fun was the last thing that she would be having over the next few months.

/ Yeah, I should change the summary. I, uh, I didn't expect it to go on this long. Everything just kind of, well…it just kind of happened….I don't really know how else to explain it.