AN: Reviews are better than nachos!

Chapter Fourteen
Of Interrogation By the Potters and Trick-Steps (You Can Tell This Won't End Well)

Lien headed up to the sixth floor, wracking her brains for anything that may come in handy during this 'interview'. Unfortunately, like the two Ravenclaws, Lien could remember very little of lunch break the previous day. Both Lydjah and Jayna had already been questioned by the Aurors but for some reason Lien had the privilege of talking to Harry Potter himself.

She reached the room, and after double checking its number, knocked timidly. "Come in!" The voice was not unkind but authoritative. She stepped into the room and sat quickly down in the chair he indicated, pulling her bag off her shoulder and onto the floor. She did a quick survey of the man in front of her.

The years had been kind to Harry, while laughter lines had creased around his eyes and he was sporting a new scar over his right cheekbone, in addition to the lightning bolt hidden behind his unruly hair, he still had a certain youthfulness about him and, although he no longer looked like a student, Lien could easily imagine him as he would have looked some twenty years prior. This may, of course, been because of the striking resemblance to his sons, James in particular. When he looked up at her, his still-round glasses reflecting the bright green of his irises, it was as if the young Slytherin was sat directly before her, but if she ignored the eyes, James could have been his twin. Surprisingly, Harry was wearing what looked to be a faded Gryffindor scarf.

"Lien Irby isn't it?" She nodded. "Ok, can you give me a rundown of what happened from the start of that lunch break to the end- as much as you can remember."

"Well, I came out of Transfiguration intending to go to the Great Hall for lunch but Lydjah caught up with me and she had something she needed to tell me." Harry nodded encouragingly so the first year sat more comfortably in the chair, speaking with more confidence. "She warned me about- well the threats to the Ministry. Her father, I think, works there?" Harry nodded again. "Anyway she thought I should be careful because I'm a Muggleborn and well, apparently they were targeted in the last war-" The lines around Harry's eyes tightened considerably. Lien swallowed. "Anyway then Cara turned up-"

"Cararon Blackwood?"

"Yeah." The way Harry had spoken her last name, with the tiniest amount of inflection, confirmed Lien's suspicions. "They- her family that is- they weren't on the right side of the war where they?"

"The right side?"

"The winning side." Harry's eyebrows rose, as if he thought that was interesting way of putting it.

"No, no they weren't. However, I see no reason for their children to be the same." Lien struggled for a moment, wondering, if she could fully appreciate the war, would she hate Jayna by default?

"What happened to her family?"

"I'm sorry but that's not for me to disclose." Lien blushed, remembering that this was an authority figure she was conversing with; not another pupil.

"Right, sorry. Erm, anyway, Cara turned up and started taunting me about my blood status or something and then Jayna came in- oh we were in a sectioned off part of the courtyard at this point- and started talking to her sister…" Lien frowned trying to remember. "It started off angry, I think, but then Jayna… She broke-down?" The answer was not a question of what she remembered but that she hardly believed the memory, even though it was one of the more vivid ones, because the idea of Jayna breaking down was rather ludicrous. "And then there was a duel… I'm not sure who between but I wasn't involved in it. And then I saw something that made me push Lydjah- no, Cara, over. My next memory is of standing up when Cara and her friend left and then noticing the bloodstain on Jayna's shirt. Then I remembered I had another class and I saw more students entering the courtyard so I assumed break was over and headed to my third class." She finished, looking up at Harry nervously. He seemed to be comparing her story to the other people's interviews.

"Can you remember the killing curse actually being uttered?" Lien blushed again.

"I'm sorry, er," She paused wondering what the proper address for him was before disregarding it and carrying on, "but I wouldn't know the killing curse even if I heard it." Harry blinked, and something like jealously flashed over his face before he smiled warmly.

"Of course. Look I'm trusting you to never repeat this- not that you would be able to perform the spell anyway but the incantation is Avada Kedavra." As he spoke the words his voice took on a slightly more sinister tone but Lien trusted the look of disgust on his face as he crinkled up his nose and curled his lip. Lien thought about the words but couldn't find any familiarity in them at all. She shrugged.

"Sorry." Harry sighed but it was with a smile.

"Thanks for your time Lien; I'll notify you if there are any developments." Lien made to stand, grabbing her bag and slinging it over her shoulder. "You're a first-year right? Which house?"

"Hufflepuff."

"Ah I was hoping you would be with my son."

"Unfortunately not." Lien said politely. Harry smiled at her again and then returned to his notes. Lien, recognising the dismissal, turned the door handle and stepped out; directly into yet another Potter.

"Ahh!" She yelped, somehow managing to jump out of the way of the classroom and into the corridor, the door swinging shut behind her, Harry apparently not noticing. The dazed Slytherin blinked confusedly at her and then burst into a rush of apologies.

"Oh, Lien! I'm so sorry! Are you ok?" Lien was pleased that he'd remembered her name.

"Yeah I'm fine sorry- are you?" She asked awkwardly, fiddling with her bag strap.

"Yeah I'm good."

"Why are you here- I thought we had a class now-" She cut herself off. "Oh, right, yeah, he's your dad."

"Yeah."

"I like his scarf." She blurted. Albus looked at her as if she'd grown three heads; she turned scarlet with humiliation.

"Yeah." He drew out slowly. "He always wears it- it's not even a Gryffindor thing anymore- it's because he misses this place." He wondered why he'd told her that. Lien and Albus both mentally-begged to fall through the floor into a puddle of embarrassment.

Fortunately for Lien, her wish was granted rather suddenly as she stepped back onto the trick step at the top of the sixth-floor staircase. Her left leg sank to the knee before she could blink causing her to topple over. Albus grabbed her sleeve as she fell, and without thinking about it she reached up to grab his wrist with her flailing arms.

"Don't struggle- that just makes it worse." Albus said calmly, steadying Lien's rising panic. "I'm going to grab your elbow and yank you out in three- all you have to do is try to kick off."

Lien nodded, searching worriedly with her encased foot for some kind of bottom. "Got it."

"Right; three, two, one- kick!" Lien pushed down rather hopelessly on the nothingness beneath her foot but she needn't have worried because Albus was able to pull her out quite easily. They were both pulled over, though thankfully not on top of each other, and lay breathless for a second before Lien slowly stood up.

"Thanks." She offered her hand to pull Albus up but she figured her helpful tug didn't really help that much- she wasn't weak but neither was she going to be giving someone a lasting bruise any time soon.

"No problem." Albus put his hands in his pockets, both of them refraining from eye-contact.

"Right, well I had better get back to class-"

"Sure you're not going to need any more help with the staircases?" It took Lien a beat too long to realise it was a joke so she tried to make up for it by laughing heartily- which just sounded stupid and fake.

"I'm sure I'll be fine." She flashed him a quick smile, which really looked rather more like a grimace, and hurried down the steps making sure to dodge the trick step this time. Albus shook his head, heading back towards his dad's make-shift office, wondering, not for the first time, if the pretty girl was entirely sane.