"I found it! I found it!" Louis Weasley cheered out in excitement, holding up a golden plastic egg. He received a chorus of both groans and cheers; cheers from his teammates and groans from his opposing team.

This was how Easter was celebrated at the Weasleys: an enormous Easter egg hunt where everyone who participated in the search was divided off into two teams. They spent the day trying to find eggs that had been hidden by the adults. The golden egg being the most important (it promised a shopping spree at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes to the team who found it).

All the hunters were then told to gather around the picnic tables to 'hatch' their eggs and see what prizes were inside them.

Candies that had been charmed began to come to life. Gummy worms wiggled, chocolate frogs leapt in every direction, and spiders made of pretzels scurried away.

The children darted after their treats, many of them squealing with excitement.

"I've never been to a wizard shop before," Simon announced, studying a toy owl that had been in one of his eggs. It waddled across the table top, flapping its wings, and bumped into one of Talli's chocolate candies.

Talli, Edgar, Scorpius, Lily and Simon were all at the same table, each fiddling with their own Easter egg loot.

"Didn't you go shopping in Diagon Alley for your school supplies?" Lily asked.

Simon shook his head. He reached across the table to retrieve his toy. "The man that came by had to do it all for me. The Morgans didn't want me going with a stranger."

"I guess that makes sense," Lily said.

Talli found that to be strange though. If they were already so cruel to Simon, why would they care if he went off with a stranger?

"So you didn't get to pick out anything you currently own?" Edgar asked in disbelief.

Simon gave his head a small shake. "Nope."

"It's a good thing your team won the shopping tickets then! You'll love my dad's shop! There's lots of candy!"

"And useful trinkets," Lily added. "Like Thinking Caps and Remembralls."

"And don't forget prank toys!" Louis chimed in, stopping by the table when he overheard them talking about his dad's shop. "It's great!"

Simon didn't express his feelings about it either way. That was one thing Talli noticed about him. He didn't get very excited over many things.

Talli's parents took them all to Uncle Ron and Uncle George's shop the next day so that Scorpius and Simon could cash in their tickets (Talli had been on the other team, so she didn't get any tickets).

Scorpius was nice and let Simon have all of his so that he had double the amount of tickets to use. Simon objected to this at first, but lost the argument after Scorpius said that he already had gotten to try everything unlike Simon had.

So Simon spent the next thirty minutes browsing through the entire shop, wanting to see everything before he made his choice.

He finally settled on a mood ring, a deck of Tarot cards, a Slytherin themed wizard chess set (Edgar was always teasing him by saying no one was a real wizard until they had their own wizards chess set) and several treats to share with Scorpius and Talli.

Talli decided that she liked having Simon around. Not only was he thoughtful, but he liked flying, and that meant that she had someone to race brooms with. She of course won every race, but it was still nice to have someone there to do it with.

He stayed throughout the entire holiday, and when it was time to see him go back to Hogwarts, she felt a pain in her chest. She wondered when she would see him again. She had no doubt that her parents would keep him from having to go back to those retched Muggles, but where would he end up then?

Talli stopped waving when she could no longer see either her brother and Simon. "We should just adopt him," she blurted out the thought as it came to her.

The looks she got from her parents with that were priceless. She had shocked them, and they weren't sure what to say. Talli could tell they were trying to communicate with each other silently through facial expressions, but they didn't know how to read each other's minds, so it was a pointless thing to do.

"Sweetheart, Simon has a family." Mum said it so forcibly, Talli could practically hear her body tense up.

"I know his real story."

"And what is his real story?" Dad asked, pretending like he knew nothing.

Talli rolled her eyes. She stopped walking and stamped her foot irritability, setting her hands to her hips. They were no longer at the train station where they had saw the boys off, but they still had to travel to a safe house so that they could floo home.

"Don't play dumb, Daddy!" she scolded. "I overheard you and Mum talking! He has been badly abused!"

Mum and Dad went back to looking at each other, attempting to once again communicate without her being part of their conversation.

"I also know that you're going to stop him from going back there.

"I like Simon," she told them. "Scorpius likes him, and you like him, and he likes us too— let's just adopt him."

Mum's eyes reddened up. "Oh, Talli!" Her arms squeezed around the tiny girl, and Talli hugged her mother back.

Talli wasn't dumb, she knew it wouldn't be easy for them to adopt Simon, but those people were not his family, and they didn't want him, but Talli's family did, and they were rich; the Muggles would have to let them have him.

"Those people are not his parents," Talli stated, pulling away from Mum. "They are just foster parents. We could adopt him, and we could be his real family."

Dad's hand set onto her shoulder firmly, and he gave it a squeeze. "We're working on getting him a new home, princess."

Talli could tell that her dad chose those words specifically.

They weren't going to adopt Simon.

*/*

Potions was Scorpius's least favourite subject, and it had nothing to do with the brewing involved. Professor Lockberry was an absolute nightmare. Not only was she a terrible teacher, she had an awful attitude to boot.

And as each day passed, she seemed to get worse.

By May, students from all years were complaining about her, but there was nothing they could do. The school year was nearly finished, so they were stuck with her.

Scorpius's grade hadn't improved. With every paper that he turned in, she had to find something wrong with it. It was frustrating since he knew his mistakes weren't real, and that she just made them up.

"I can't help to think that she's purposely trying to fail you," Edgar had noted quietly upon seeing Scorpius helplessly stare at his most recent grade.

But Scorpius wasn't the only one having this issue. Several students began to voice their exasperation over Professor Lockberry who found any made-up excuse to grade them poorly.

"Oi." Albus approached the first years at the Slytherin table one Saturday morning. "We're having a meeting," he announced, speaking about the Slytherins who would occasionally group up and talk about a problem the house was having. Most of the time it was to help the younger house mates adapt to life away from home, and sometimes the elder students needed some assistance with their O. and N.E. , but with all the smack talk that was floating around about Professor Lockberry, and the fact that the last two Slytherin meetings were about the professor specifically, Scorpius was sure what the topic that night was going to be.

It was completely packed in the Slytherin common room later at the meeting. Pretty much every house member was there. Scorpius felt like a sardine. He couldn't move in his place, bunched up between Simon and Dallas.

He also couldn't see above Edgar's head, who had grown taller over the past few months, but then again, Edgar complained that he couldn't see through fourth year Xander Mason's head either, so they were all having difficulties.

Everyone went quiet all at once (a seventh year had cast a silencing spell on the room, allowing only the Prefects to speak), and Yolanda Hanson (their eldest female prefect) began to talk.

"The entire school is now noticing the problem with Lockberry—"

"Bloody well took them long enough!"

"Shush, Wallace!"

"I'm just saying, how obvious does it have to be before—"

"Let's just move on! We don't want to be here all night!"

Wallace grumbled a foul insult before Yolanda continued.

"The other houses have agreed with our idea of creating inter-house study groups. We have some of the best brewers in the school, and they know it— Hufflepuff especially."

"We're not here to dissect a house's intellect," Prissy Gandar snipped. She had a boyfriend in Hufflepuff and was easily insulted when the Slytherins would make wisecracks about their intelligence.

"The statistics are there, Priss," Wallace pointed out. "Hufflepuff only manages to get a handful of students in all of the Advanced Potions classes."

"That's because they have little interest in using it as a career!"

"We didn't come here to fight about Hufflepuff," Yolanda demanded, taking back control. "Now, for anyone who has been a target to Lockberry's inexcusable, sabotaging teaching methods and wants to get a real grade, you may sign-up using the paper that I have set up on the table behind me. We will be having a daily study group with the other houses and help them with their Potions grade as we agreed to do two weeks ago at the last Slytherin meeting. There are two forms to choose from. One is for the student who would like some help with Potions, and the other is for the student who would like to tutor students who are struggling in the class. You have until Monday to sign-up. Study groups start this Wednesday."

"I'm not quite sure how this study group idea is going to help when she's unfairly giving bad grades," Edgar said as the five Slytherin boys entered their dormitory after the meeting was over. "Her grades aren't going to change just because we study harder, not if she's already doing what she wants anyway."

"They're trying to prepare us for the end of the year tests," Simon explained. "With Lockberry's bizarre scoring, most of us really have no idea what our real grade should be— and I suspect that there's going to be a lot of failing first years with her teaching skills."

"It's the students who know a lot about Potions who are mostly affected," Scorpius noted.

His statement had been proven right at the following meeting for the study group. All those who were previously top students in Potions now only had a top average score of 74, which was only a few points more than the students who naturally weren't so good in Potions.

This angered the students who formerly had top marks. And rightfully so. They worked hard for their accomplishments, and what Lockberry was doing to them wasn't fair!

Some of the the elder students spoke to the Headmistress about it, but Professor McGonagall said that Lockberry was allowed to teach her own way so long as it wasn't abusive. She reminded them that some professors were more strict with their grading than others, including herself.

"You know it's the amount of NEWTs you get that matter in the end. Stop fretting, you'll do just fine." That was what she had told a seventh year Gryffindor.

"Well, if she won't listen to a Gryffindor, she isn't going to listen to any of us," Wallace said with finality. "We'll just have to ace those NEWTs on our own."

"We'll help each other," Molly said encouragingly. "Well, I mean with the OWLs , I'm not doing the NEWTs yet."

"She's real good at Charms though," an older girl from Ravenclaw spoke fondly of Molly. "She knows so many spells that Hogwarts doesn't even teach."

"I sure do! I can help there!"

"Alright, but it isn't our Charms teacher who is sabotaging our grades," Yolanda pointed out.

"We'll keep that in mind though, thank you Weasley," Travis Doodleberg from Hufflepuff added.

Mid-May, and Scorpius was struggling. He was worried about Simon mostly, but the added stress of the Potions dilemma wasn't helping. He had promised to help several students ranging from first to third year, and that took a lot of time, but he didn't think it was right for them to fail because of one lousy teacher.

Besides tutoring, Scorpius was working on a spell that Molly had taught him. He had to perfect it. It was important that he did. Now that Mother and Father were involved with Simon, he knew they were trying all that they could to help him, but Scorpius wasn't taking any chances. He had an alternative plan just in case.

He just had to master the shrinking spell first!

"Come on, Scorp!" Edgar pulled at his sleeve, cutting off Scorpius's concentration. "We'll be late for Potions!"

A spark shot out of Scorpius's wand and hit Dallas's pillow. It disappeared altogether.

"Oh, that can't be good," Simon mused, looking over at the spot where the pillow had been.

Thankfully, Dallas wasn't in the room then. Scorpius had no clue how he would have reacted if he had been.

Scorpius put his own pillow in place of it for the time being until he could figure out how to get the other one back.

They then all trudged up to the Potions dungeon where Lockberry instantly scolded them for their two minute tardiness. She sat them up at the front of the room, separate from the rest of the class— this was where the 'bad' students were supposed to sit.

"Yes, Miss Water?"

Scorpius looked up five minutes later when he heard Lockberry permit Eloisa Water to speak. He wasn't the only one to do it; usually Potions was quiet except for the scribbling of quills and shuffling of paper.

"The information about moondew on the black board is incorrect."

The entire class was now looking at the information that Lockberry had written down. She had written down that moondew was a product of a full moon that could be found the morning after.

It was indeed wrong.

A boy laughed. Scorpius nearly shook his head at Lockberry's ignorance. It was no surprise to him.

"Mr. Donaldston, detention this Friday night," Lockberry snarled, catching the boy who laughed.

Several students' eyes dropped back down to their papers, not wanting to be next.

"Moondew is not associated with the moon whatsoever," Eloisa continued, when Lockberry didn't make a comment about her statement. "It's only called 'moon' because of its bright colour of which glows in the dark."

Professor Lockberry stiffened. "Where are you sitting, Miss Water?" she demanded calmly.

"In a chair," the girl responded slowly, unsure of where Lockberry was going to go with this.

"In a classroom, yes?"

Eloisa nodded.

"And who is the professor?"

"You, ma'am."

"Exactly. You're the student. You have no authority, no education to attempt to declare that my knowledge is inaccurate. You are just a child. An adolescent. You know so very little. That is why I'm here: to teach you things that you don't know. Is there anything confusing with that, dear?"

Eloisa shook her head.

"Good. Back to work then." Lockberry let out a satisfied sigh when Eloisa bent her head down low, hiding her face from the professor.

"No." Scorpius abruptly stood up.

"Excuse me?" Lockberry had difficulties concealing her surprise.

"Eloisa is right, what you've written up there is absolutely wrong."

"It is most certainly not, Mr Granger-Malfoy!" Her eyes flashed in fury. "Now I am tired of this, you disrespectful cretins! Sit down, shut up, and do as you're told!"

"I won't." He stood firm. "Not until you put the correct information up there."

"Mr Granger-Malfoy, I will not say it again; sit down."

An uneasy feeling bubbled up from within Scorpius. Something told him to do as he had been told, but he was tired of Lockberry's crap.

He did not sit down.

Instead, he only looked at her, his decision firmly made. "Change it first."

Edgar rose up next to Scorpius. "Change it, Professor."

"Change it!" Dallas called out from his spot several chairs away from Simon, Edgar and Scorpius. His chair scraped against the flooring as he shoved it back to stand along with his friends.

One by one, the entire class stood up to their feet, and they began chanting the words.

"Shut your mouths!" Lockberry screeched out impatiently. She grabbed her wand and waved it.

Scorpius felt his tongue swell up, and he could no longer speak. It had happened to everyone else too. Many kids were mumbling in confusion or disbelief.

"Sit down!"

All at once, the students were forced into their seats, charmed with a spell to follow the professor's order.

Lockberry smiled pleasantly. "Much better. That'll be the last of that." She locked eyes with Scorpius who struggled to break her horrid spell. It was hard to swallow with an enlarged tongue.

"She's out of control!" Edgar shrieked out when class was dismissed. Lockberry had assigned the entire lot of students detention that night after dinner.

"We really shouldn't have chanted," Scorpius said.

"Oh, we did the right thing, sunshine. She's an incompetent woman, and she thinks she can do anything she wants because she's in charge."

"So what do we do about her?" Dallas asked helplessly.

None of them had any ideas.

Detention was spent writing lines. Over and over they wrote, Professor Lockberry is the professor, and I will not disrupt her class again.

There were a few empty seats. Lockberry asked the class if they knew where the missing students were, but no one answered her. She then accused them of helping out their friends and gave them another five pages to write.

Scorpius could honestly say that he didn't know where they were. Gryffindor had two who were absent, and Sally Farley was missing from the Slytherin side— he didn't talk with the girls much, but she wasn't one to break the rules. Scorpius thought it was strange for her to miss a detention.

They could have been absent for a good reason, but this didn't matter at all to Lockberry who spent the entire hour with her eyebrows creased together in anger.

Scorpius was extremely tired when he got back to his room just barely beating curfew (Simon grumbled that Lockberry arranged that on purpose to hopefully get a student in trouble if they didn't make it to their common room in time— Scorpius mildly thought he was right).

Still, even with his drowsiness, he began practicing the spell that Molly had shown him, having very little time to accomplish this.

He did that for three hours before he heard Simon whimpering in his bed near him. It was a sign that he would wake up soon. Once Simon woke, he wouldn't be able to go back to sleep.

Scorpius stepped out of bed and walked over to his friend. He set a hand to the boy's forehead, feeling the moist, warm surface.

"It's not real anymore," he whispered to comfort him.

"Real," Simon mumbled in his sleep.

"Not anymore. You're safe now. I'll protect you, tough guy."

Simon's moaning ceased, and his breathing slowed. Scorpius removed his hand and looked back at his own bed. He yawned. Sleep was trying to pull him, but he refused to cave in; saving Simon was much more important.

*/*

Talli was having the absolute worst birthday ever! For one thing, this was the first birthday that Scorpius couldn't attend, and she was really missing her brother.

Secondly, when you're born into a magical community, a child's eleventh birthday is one of a milestone. Even if you're a Squib and can't cast magic like Talli. There's always that slim amount of hope that your Hogwarts letter will arrive.

All the adults who were present for Talli's birthday were talking about it. They all knew she was a Squib, so when Talli heard things like, "You just never know; she could be magical after all," or "How can the product of Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy have completely no magic?" she got excited. Maybe she could be a late bloomer like the others were saying!

Neville Longbottom didn't show signs of magic until three days before his eleventh birthday.

It's possible, right?

But it was after dinner when things wound down, and she still hadn't received an invitation letter to Hogwarts.

Talli hauled herself up into her room, disappointed, depressed and angry with herself for being foolish enough to think that she was a witch.

"I'm a bloody Squib," she muttered, glaring up at the ceiling where she lay on her bed. A tear trailed down her cheek. "I've failed my family."

She cursed herself out for having such false hope.

"Talli?" A soft knocking on the door followed Vanity's quiet voice.

Talli wiped her eyes dry in a haste and allowed her friend entry. "Thought you left?"

"I was just wondering if you got your letter yet..."

Talli shook her head. "No..."

"Oh..." The girl seemed antsy. Not that Vanity wasn't ever eager over anything, but something usually had to push her over. She was shy and afraid of what people thought of her, so she was careful about expressing herself.

She may have been this way because she was believed to be a Squib too, and she likely felt out of place.

"I got a new broom," Talli said.

"I saw that, it's amazing!"

"You can have it." Vanity's family wasn't rich like Talli's, and Vanity was always saying how she would like a new one, but she never bothered her parents about it. She knew they couldn't afford a nice four-hundred Galleon broom.

Vanity's eyes widened. Her mouth opened at a gap. "Oh, I can't do that, Tal, it's yours!"

"It's my birthday present to you— haven't flown a broom since Easter," Talli informed. "I haven't done much of anything really..."

"Oh, thank you!" Vanity squealed out in excitement. She ran over to it and trailed her hand along its handle. "It's a lovely broom. I wish I could give you something just as nice."

"Did you ever get your letter?" Talli asked to confirm, not wanting to make a comment on that.

Vanity looked down at the floor. She mumbled something.

"So you didn't?"

"I did..." the girl whispered.

Talli leaned back from the news, thinking. She was the only one who didn't get one now. The only Squib child that she knew of.

"I'm really sorry, Talli," Vanity whispered, incredibly sad. She sniffed. "Daddy says I have to go. He won't let me stay home, he says that Mummy can't teach me to be a witch, and he's not smart enough to teach me everything that I need to know!"

"It's okay, Van," Talli assured the crying girl and got up to hug her.

"I don't want to go alone though!"

"Lily will be there," Talli reminded her.

Vanity tilted her head. She nodded. "I guess so, but it won't be fun without you."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll have lots of fun."

More fun than I will ever have, Talli thought, envious of the girl's magic that she lacked herself.

"That was sweet of you to give Vanity your new broom," Mum said a while later after Vanity had left.

"She'll use it more than I will."

Mum rubbed at Talli's back. "I know today was rough for you."

"Yeah..." Talli sighed.

"Is there anything that Mummy can do for you, baby?"

Talli shook her head. "Nothing at all…" Her eyes stung from her preventing them to let loose a flood of tears. She didn't want her Mum to feel anymore bad for her.

Sorry, Mum. Sorry, I'm a Squib.

Talli wasn't sure why it bothered her so much that day. She had known that she was a Squib for over two years. She had accepted that fact.

Or she had thought that she had accepted it.

Maybe all this time she had just been putting on a show. One that even she had become accustomed to believe.

"We love you just the same, Talli," Mum spoke softly.

Talli looked her Mum in the eye. Mum appeared so sympathetic, Talli was sure she could ask for almost anything in the world right then, and Mummy would have done it.

But she couldn't get Talli what she wanted. No amount of love or money could buy her a magical core.

Talli threw her arms around her mother and sniffed loudly. It was so hard not to cry, and she couldn't stop herself anymore. She let the tears flow, crying into her Mum's chest. It wasn't going to fix things, but she knew it would make her feel a little better for the time being.

AN: I've been REALLY busy lately. Got a new puppy, Grandma now has a kitten, and I'm on a new diet plan, so that's pretty much has consumed up any of my free time. I'm just happy that I got this out :) Hopefully, you all enjoy!

Happy Halloween—anyone see that new Chucky (Child's Play) movie yet? LOVED it!

Review Responses:

tmtcltb: Yeah, that guy is really going to be in a rude of an awakening, lol We'll have to see about Simon, that's coming up soon :o

unfittingpuzzlepieces: Worrying my readers is part of my job, hehe :) Yeap, Simon needs all of Scorpius's time that he can get.