October 4th, 2022

"And," Hugo said excitedly, shifting the stack of books in his arms, "you know, so many of my relatives and their friends were part of the Second Wizarding War, so I have a whole list of people that I can interview about their experiences." He smiled down at Sylvia Nack, who looked absolutely interested in what he was saying. She was the first person he had met who seemed genuinely curious about his plan to write about the First and Second Wizarding Wars.

"Who have you interviewed so far?" she asked. Her voice was quiet; he wasn't sure if that was simply because it was a library, or because that was her natural voice. They were in the same year, but Sylvia was a Ravenclaw and not particularly outgoing. Hugo had never had a conversation with her before. She was a tiny little thing, barely five feet tall and stick-thin, and Hugo - who didn't consider himself particularly tall - felt like a giant next to her.

"Nobody yet," he answered. "The things I've written down so far are all from books. I feel like a lot of people are reluctant to talk about the war to fourteen-year-olds, and so I was thinking that I would wait until I was of age before asking too many questions. A lot of dark stuff happened, after all - stuff that the survivors might not be willing to admit to me."

Sylvia opened her mouth to answer, just as Al showed up, stepping between the two of them. "Hugo," he said, "You need to come back to the common room."

"I'm in the middle of something," Hugo said, shooting Al a dirty look. "Sylvia, this is my cousin Al. Al, this is Sylvia."

Al quickly glanced over at Sylvia. "Hi," he said; she murmured a response, and then he turned back to Hugo. "Louis and Lucy are waiting. Come on."

You have got to be kidding me, Hugo thought. He had found the one person who was actually interested in his lifelong project, and now his cousin was showing up and interfering. With a heavy sigh, he nodded. "Fine," he said to Al. "Sylvia, I'll see you later - I'd, um, like to talk again sometime?"

"Sure," she said softly, giving him a small wave as Al half-dragged him away.

"What is your problem?" Hugo said as soon as he was sure that there was no chance of Sylvia overhearing him. "Mate, if you didn't notice, that was a girl. Who was talking to me."

Al rolled his eyes. "Your love life is absolutely none of my concern, you know. Lucy wanted to talk to us - you heard about her book being spread around the school, right?"

"Yeah," Hugo said. "I've got a copy sitting in my dorm - my roommate got hold of one, and I asked if I could read it. How'd Lucy do it, anyway? No one's really supposed to sell stuff, I thought."

"She didn't do it," Al answered. "That's the thing. Someone else did - and Lucy didn't give them permission." They reached the Hufflepuff common room and entered it. Hugo instantly saw Louis and Lucy, the two blond heads bowed together in the corner. Four chairs were set up, and Hugo and Al slipped into the empty ones. "I found Hugo," Al said, and the other two looked up.

"Good," Lucy said. "You know what's going on, right?" she asked him, and Hugo nodded. She looked a little crazed; there was a wild look in her eyes that he had never seen before from her. "Yeah, well, I really hate this." She sighed, and Louis - looking a little nervous - patted her arm.

"Any ideas who did it?" Hugo asked.

Louis took a deep breath. "I...have no idea."

"Why don't we ask somebody who got a copy where they got it?" Hugo said. It seemed like the simplest answer to him.

"I tried that," Lucy said, "but it's been spread around a lot, apparently...I don't know anybody who got a copy that hadn't been passed around a lot." She shook her head, making her hair fly around her face. "Merlin, this is infuriating. Nobody's supposed to read that! It isn't even finished." She furiously wiped her eyes, and Hugo leaned over, worried that she was going to start crying. He felt bad for her; he could understand not wanting people to read an unfinished work, but he also felt a bit jealous that people wanted to - and had - read Lucy's book. Absolutely nobody was interested in Hugo's, apart from Sylvia.

"Just think," Louis said, unnecessarily cheerfully, "when you publish it, you'll already have hordes of fans."

Lucy hit him with her book bag. "I'd never get published, you dolt!"

Louis looked like he was about to say more, but at that exact moment, Isaac - one of Hugo's roommates - entered the common room. Hugo watched him look around, and then the other boy made his way over to where the four Weasley-Potters were seated. "Louis, right?" Isaac said. "There's a girl out there who wants to see you - Slytherin, blonde, kinda hot."

Louis furrowed his brow, but nodded. "Thanks," he said, turning to the others. "Be right back."

"Oh, no," Al said. "I'm coming out there with you. I have to see this." He nudged Louis. "I mean, if you get beat up by some Slytherin girl, I want to preserve the moment in my mind forever, and then save your stupid arse."

"Shut up," Louis said as Hugo also got up. "Oh, you're kidding me. You too?"

"Yes," Hugo said. "Me too. C'mon, Luce - who knows what this girl wants from Louis?"

Lucy cracked a smile at that, and the foursome made their way outside, to where the Slytherin girl was leaning against a wall. Hugo recognized her: Autumn Vaisey, a year above him, and one of Lily's close friends. She was leaning against the wall, trying to look unconcerned, a copy of Lucy's book dangling from her pale hand. "Weasley," she drawled, walking over to Louis and shoving the book into his chest, "thanks for the read. You can have this back." She looked over at Lucy. "For a Hufflepuff," she said, "you can write."

She sauntered away in typical Slytherin fashion, and all eyes turned to Louis, who had gone white, the book still held to his chest. "You?" Lucy said, her voice an octave higher than normal. She backed Louis up against the wall; Al and Hugo stood aside. Hugo was torn between simply watching the confrontation and worrying that Lucy was going to curse Louis right there. From the look in her eyes, she seemed tempted. "You did this? You passed out copies of my book to the whole school?"

"Not the whole school," Louis said, his voice a bit squeaky, "just about seventy people."

"You made seventy copies of this?" Lucy was a whole lot smaller than Louis - smaller than all three of them, actually - but in that moment, she was a force to be reckoned with. Hugo felt exceptionally glad that he was not on the receiving end of Lucy's anger, although he felt bad for Louis. "Why on earth would you ever do that to me?"

Louis took a deep breath. "Because you thought your writing was shit," he said bluntly. "Because you didn't have any confidence in yourself. I know you're brilliant, Lucy - and I wanted others to know that, and most of all, I wanted you to know that."

Hugo looked from one to the other. He could almost see Louis's point; at the very least, he could understand Louis's reasons for doing what he had done. Hugo had seen the way that Lucy often had little faith in her own abilities, and the thought behind Louis's idea, at least, was a nice gesture. His heart was in the right place, Hugo supposed, even if his head wasn't. "You didn't even think, for a second, that I might want to keep this private?" Lucy said. "That I didn't want other people reading what I wrote? Louis, this book isn't even finished. You spread around my unfinished, unedited book to the whole freaking school without asking my permission - and, apparently, without even stopping to consider if I might want you to do this or not."

"I'm sorry I hurt you," Louis said, and he looked sincere. "I'm not sorry I did it, though."

Lucy's hand inched toward her pocket. Hugo drew in a sharp breath, wondering if she was actually going to curse Louis, wondering if intervening would be a smart decision. She dropped it, though, and stormed away. Louis moved slightly to go after her; she whirled around at his first step. "Screw you!" she spat, and this time, nobody followed her.

"It was a bit of an idiot move," Al said.

Louis merely looked at him. "Yeah. Thanks." He sighed. "It seemed like such a good idea at the time. And I still am glad I did it, but..." He looked in the direction that Lucy had gone. "Merlin, I don't want her to hate me forever."

"She's not going to hate you forever," Al said. "I mean, for a little while, yes. But not forever."

"You aren't helping." Louis shook his head. "I should go."

He hurried off in the same direction Lucy had gone; Hugo vaguely wondered if he was headed to find her. It might not have been the smartest idea in the world to try and find her, considering the mood she was in. Hugo figured it would actually be better if he or Al went after Lucy, since she hadn't seemed to have any problem with either of them, but he supposed it didn't matter. If Louis got himself hexed, well, that was his own fault for being impulsive and running after an angry girl. Hugo was only fourteen, but he had seen enough angry women in the Weasley-Potter home to know that a bit of space was best.

Hugo exchanged a glance with Al. "Louis is going to get himself hexed," Al said grimly, and then headed back inside the common room, Hugo trailing behind him.

For a while, the two boys sat in silence; Hugo took notes from the books that he had taken out of the library, and Al read that day's Daily Prophet. "Merlin," he said, "the Circle is really going after Unspeakables," Al said, putting the paper down. "About a week ago, some woman went missing - an Unspeakable. They're suspecting Circle involvement, of course." He shook his head. "Hate to say it, you know, but I'm just glad that none of our parents are Unspeakables. Makes me feel just a little bit safer."

Hugo shrugged. "Your father is Harry Potter. My parents are his two best friends. We aren't safe." He gestured to the books in front of him. "People are targeted for who they are, you know, and -"

Al sighed. "If you're going to start explaining rationally why our whole family is going to end up dead, Hugo, I'll hex you right here."

Hugo held up his hands. "Sorry. Just saying." He tilted his head slightly, looking at Al. "I mean, you should be pretty safe, though - with the Lestrange girl being your girlfriend. I'm guessing her parents are in the Circle - who knows, she might join up soon, too - and they probably won't go after their daughter's boyfriend, anyway."

Al thumped his head down on the table. "I don't want to think about Leda being connected to the Circle, and I have no idea about her parents. I don't want to think about how it's logical that our whole family will be attacked. Can you please talk about something halfway normal?"

Hugo only chuckled. "Is there such thing as normal?"