Rose's mind whirled. Thewlitt had been broken out of the Ministry's holding cells. It made sense; the holding cells at the Ministry were guarded, but not well. Anybody who was a decently powerful witch or wizard could defeat the guards, which obviously had happened. The person came in, attacked the guards somehow, and released Thewlitt. The person obviously had to be a member of the Circle of Darkness; who else would have bothered to do such a thing?

A couple of days had passed since Christmas Day, and there had been no more attacks. She had gotten hold of James and copied down all the names that were presently on the Marauder's Map, in case there was an attack, but so far, the list was pointless. If there was no attacks over the holiday, then the four students were back to suspecting everybody over fourth year, which was a much bigger number.

About twenty-five students had stayed for the holiday. All the professors were there also, however, which bumped up the number even more. Rose was reluctant to suspect any of them, but Leda and Scorpius had insisted, saying that just because somebody was in a responsible adult position didn't mean they were responsible adults. They made a good point, but she still firmly believed that it was a student; she had a hard time picturing any of the professors attacking anyone.

Rose sighed as she made her way through the stacks of library books. Allison had supposed to come with Rose into the library, in the interest of sticking together, and then work on the little schoolwork they still had while Rose was with Leda, Scorpius, and Al. They had come up with the idea together, and Allison had seemed all right with it. Until, of course, she had seen a group of second years, including Rose's cousin Molly, heading back to Ravenclaw common room. The blonde girl had dashed ahead so she could go back, leaving Rose to go into the library alone.

She wasn't that scared, however. The library was not the place for an attack; Madam Turpin would certainly notice if somebody was attacked, or at least she hoped so. She headed to their desk near the Restricted Section, coming up behind Al, who started. "Whoa," he said as she sat down. "I did not hear you coming."

"I saw you coming," Leda, who was sitting across from Rose and Al, said. She was currently using her wand to carve their initials RW, SM, AP, and LL into the desk, where they joined several other scratches and marked initials from previous students.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Al protested.

"Because it's fun to see you jump." The Slytherin smirked. "Anyway, I overheard some interesting gossip in the common room today," she said suddenly, her tone of voice taking on a more urgent, important-sounding note. She looked at Scorpius before turning her attention back to the two Weasley-Potters. "This - the attacks, I mean - is connected to the Circle of Darkness and the Muggle-borns' murders. Officially. I was skimming through a book while I was in the common room, trying to appear like I wasn't listening, and then I heard this girl say something about how glad she is that the Circle of Darkness is getting involved at Hogwarts, and not just outside. And she sounded extremely convinced. She fully believed what she was saying."

Scorpius nodded. "They left the common room right after that, literally before either of us could see who it was. But I was closer to them, and I overheard somebody say 'So it's officially the Circle?' and somebody else the same person who said she's glad, I think said 'Yes, I'm certain'."

"Wow." Al quietly whistled. "So this is connected to what's going on outside of Hogwarts. The Circle wants to kill off the Muggle-borns, or at least enough of them to make their point."

"Exactly. And somebody at Hogwarts is involved with them," Rose said. "And they're attacking Muggle-born students. None of them have been fatal, thankfully, but-"

"It's only a matter of time," Leda interrupted. "We need to figure out who's doing this." She ran her finger down the list of people staying. "Merlin, I...it's not like I want somebody to get attacked, but it would be really helpful if the next one occurs over the holiday." The Slytherin kept her voice low, not wanting anybody to overhear her. "Then we'd know, at least, that it's one of these people. It would have to be; I don't think the attacker would be risky enough to try and Floo in from outside. Too much of a chance of being seen."

"Exactly. Then it would have to be one of these people," Scorpius agreed.

Rose sighed, looking at the name at the very bottom of the list. "Leda, I told you that it's certainly not Victoire-"

"Just because she's your family doesn't mean we're taking her off the list," the dark-haired girl replied firmly. "She's staying here over the holiday, so she's a suspect. All these people are, no matter what. I'm not thrilled at having MacDougal as a suspect. I like her. But she's here, so is your cousin, so they're on the list. Personal preferences aside."

"Why is Victoire staying, anyway?" Al's forehead wrinkled up in confusion. "I would have thought she would have gone home to see Teddy, since they're dating."

"Roxanne thinks that they had, in his words, a 'lovers' spat'," Rose responded, rolling her eyes. "As much as her wording is ridiculous, she's probably right. They probably fought in writing. It can't be easy, after all, since Vic is still at Hogwarts and Teddy's in Auror training." Everybody in the Weasley-Potter family knew that Teddy was going to be an Auror. He was always interested in it from a very young age, rather like Lily in that way. "Anyway-"

She was cut off by a loud bang from the front of the library. Leda grabbed the parchment, tucking it away, and they cautiously crept towards the front, wands drawn just in case. It was obvious what had happened when they reached the area; a bookshelf had fallen down, obviously by magic, since nobody would be strong enough to do that by physical strength alone. Madam Turpin rushed up from a different corner of the library just as the four students did, gasping, "What on earth was that?" She hadn't been around there when it happened, apparently, which was rather disappointing.

A second-year girl was standing near it, shaking slightly. "I-it fell and it almost hit me but I managed to get out of the way," she stammered. "It was meant for me, I-I think. Like one of the other people who got hurt."

"Let's take you to the hospital wing," Madam Turpin replied. The girl didn't seem to be hurt, but she was obviously shaken by the whole situation. Louder, she called, "Everybody else, out of the library. The professors will want to take a look at this."

There were only a couple other students in the library besides Rose, Al, Leda, and Scorpius, and they reluctantly followed Madam Turpin out. Leda tapped the list that was hidden under her robes, nodding. "Now we know," she whispered. "It's definitely one of these people."

"Who was that girl?" Al muttered back, glancing in the direction of the Hospital Wing. "I don't know her."

"She's a second-year, that's why," Rose replied. "It'll be all over the school by tonight, you know that."

They wandered the corridors for a bit, having nothing else to do. The library was their main place to hang out, since they were in three separate Houses. It was too much work to sneak somebody into the other common room like they had that one time, and Rose didn't plan on doing it again - although, knowing Lily, it was a possibility. They were heading back down to the library after about a half hour, hoping that the teachers would have left, when Professor MacDougal came dashing in the opposite direction.

"What is it, Professor?" Rose asked.

The woman turned around, obviously making an effort to appear as though she had not been running through the corridors. She was in good shape, and barely panting, although she was certainly disheveled. "Another student was attacked," she replied. "That student happened to be my daughter."

"Wait, the girl in the library-" Al started, wrinkling his forehead. "She doesn't look anything like you. She's...she has dark hair and her skin is darker than yours."

"I know. She's not biologically mine. Anyway, I had to go investigate the library to see if there was anything left behind, which there wasn't, so now I'm heading up to the Hospital Wing." She looked at them, realizing something for the first time. "In the future, groups of five are safer. You're only first years." She hurried off before saying anything further, however.

"Isabella told me the same thing," Rose muttered as they headed back to the library. They walked inside to see that the bookshelf had been returned to its proper position, and there was no sign of anything having occurred. "So let's write this down. We've got a list of who was attacked so far, so let's add this person to the list. What's her name - Leda, can you take out the list of students?"

"Sure." They had written down everybody who was staying, even those under fourth year, although there was an 'X' next to people who were under fourteen and therefore couldn't be a suspect. Leda pulled it out of her robes as they sat down, laying it on the desk. "Here she is, this has got to be her. Teresa Vane-MacDougal."

"Thanks." Rose hurriedly wrote down Teresa Vane-MacDougal, 2nd year, blood status unknown, almost crushed by a bookshelf. "Wonder why she was attacked. If she's Professor MacDougal's daughter, even an adopted one, she wouldn't technically be Muggle-born. Maybe this is the first attack on a so-called blood-traitor besides Dominique."

"Possibly." Scorpius nodded. "That does make sense. All the others except for your cousin were Muggle-born. But I thought of something else. MacDougal's an Auror, well, now she's a reserve, but she was an Auror for years. I'm sure she's made some enemies - and I'm sure some of them are now in the Circle of Darkness. Whenever new Dark forces arrive, there are always people who flock to them. And it's certainly possible that some of them know her, and they sent a message to the person at Hogwarts saying to attack Teresa next."

"True," agreed Al. "A lot of people - like criminals and Dark wizards and stuff - don't like Aurors. Somebody probably would attack Professor MacDougal's daughter for revenge."

"But who could it be?" Leda mused. "She's been an Auror for such a long time. Even if we could get hold of her file - or, should I say, if Lily could get hold of the file - there would still be a lot of people that she's dealt with over the past what, fifteen years? It would take such a long time to eliminate who it was, not to mention that wouldn't help us. It might tell us who's in the Circle of Darkness feeding information to the Hogwarts attacker, but it wouldn't help us figure out who the Hogwarts attacker actually is."

"We have this, though," Rose reminded, gesturing to the list of students and professors who were still at Hogwarts. "We've made progress, at least. It's one of these people. That's absolutely certain." She looked at the forty or so names. "Now we just have to figure out who."

Yes, Teresa Vane-MacDougal is the daughter of Romilda and Morag; she's Romilda's biological daughter, which is why she has darker coloring. Yes, I ship Romilda Vane and Morag MacDougal. Anyway, thanks for reading!