James stood, hands buried deep in the pockets of his robes, staring down at his shoes. He didn't even dare look up to try and catch Tristan's eye. They had been caught, well and truly. Either Teddy or Professor Meadows had wrapped them up in Body-Bind curses and strung them up by their ankles so they dangled in the air. At least this time James had been wearing trousers.

He had managed to hastily shove the Invisibility Cloak into the back pocket of those trousers, and was now standing flush up against the wall, in an effort to hide his somewhat-distended backside, and the existence of the Cloak from his professor.

Teddy and Professor Meadows were having a heated discussion behind privacy wards at the other end of the room. Both were red-faced, and Teddy kept running his hand through his hair, changing the colour of it each time, subconsciously.

The room was oddly silent, despite the couple who appeared to be on the verge of yelling. It made for a strange scene from where James stood; it may have been comical under almost any other circumstances. As it was, James found it much more ominous and distressing.

An owl cried somewhere out beyond the inky black windows, a door slammed deep within the bowels of the castle, and the clock on the wall continued to tick.

James saw the slight ripple in the air that announced the privacy wards dropping a moment before Professor Meadows' voice crashed over him in a vicious assault.

'What in Merlin's name were you thinking? Up after curfew, sneaking around the castle like it's some kind of game, spying on people! This isn't your silly little treasure hunt club, this is my office! My private space! You are most certainly not allowed in here without my express permission! You had better have an excellent explanation for why you are standing here in front of me right now, and not in your beds where you damn well should be!'

James would have taken a step backward, wilting under a tirade of that magnitude, had he not already had his back to the wall. Their ordinarily-bubbly Defence Professor was a picture of righteous fury. Her brilliant blonde hair, while never truly tidy, was in wild disarray, flyaway strands protruding in all directions. Her cheeks were flushed red, her eyes burning with anger, bulging out of their sockets as she pinned them to the wall with the strength of her gaze alone. Even her clothes looked angry, the collar of her robe sticking upwards, and a single sleeve pushed up above the elbow. The buttons of her shirt were undone down to – James hastily swung his gaze back to his Professor's face. He would face her withering glare any day over looking at… those.

James caught Teddy's eye from where he was standing behind Professor Meadows, and he looked cross. The only time James had ever seen him looking that mad was when James had set fire to his half-brother's favourite photo of his parents, with accidental magic. James swallowed nervously and looked back down at his shoes. They, at least, offered no reproach.

'We weren't spying,' Tristan pleaded, 'we were just er… out for a walk, erm…'

James spoke up, in an attempt to rescue his floundering friend.

'I was walking Tristan back to his common room, it's late, and I didn't want him going by himself. We were… taking a shortcut through a secret passageway; it comes out in the back of that cupboard-'

'Well, isn't that so very thoughtful of you.' Professor Meadows' voice was dripping with sarcasm. 'As it works out, I happen to know all the secret passages of the castle. The teachers are given lists of all those currently known and active. I have never seen any mention of such a passage, and I would know; this is my office, after all.'

James' heart was racing. If he could show them the entrance, maybe they would believe him, and he would avoid whatever punishment was in store for him. He hadn't heard what the consequences were for sneaking into a teacher's office after hours and spying on her while she made out with somebody, but there were rumoured to be chains and whips stored away somewhere in the dungeons. Perhaps this was what they were being saved for.

'Look, I'll show you!' he practically squealed, dashing over to the offending cupboard and throwing open the door.

Four perfectly ordinary walls stared back at him, with not a slide in sight.

'If you are quite finished wasting my time James Potter, I'd ask you to step out here. Now.'

James ran his fingers frantically along the walls, feeling for some sort of crack or undulation he could wrap his hands around, any sign of the slide that had been there only moments ago. He hadn't heard the wall slide back across when they were huddled in there. He pushed against the wall, slapping it with his palms, but the effect was laughable, the stone unyielding.

Teddy grabbed him by the back of his robes and hauled out into the classroom.

'I swear it was there, I swear it!' James was begging now, and to hell with dignity. 'Wasn't it, Tristan? There's a slide, behind a tapestry on the fourth floor, you poke the wizard in the eye and he-'

'ENOUGH!'

James' mouth snapped shut with an audible click.

'You two are coming with me. You are both going to lose fifty house points each, and you are coming to see the Headmistress and-'

She was cut off by Teddy, who had reached forward and put a hand on her shoulder. She spun wildly to face him. He was staring at her with a very significant look, and with a twitch of his wand the air rippled and another of his privacy barriers rose up around them.

Their heated debate picked up right where it had left off the last time. James watched as Professor Meadows started yelling, gesticulating wildly in his and Tristan's direction. Whatever she was saying, it wasn't likely to be that they were her two favourite students in the entire castle.

Teddy remained calm and implacable, weathering her fiery tirade. He laid a single hand gently on Zoe's shoulder, which seemed to suck the anger right out of her. Her expression softened, she sagged into him a little, and a silly smile replaced the scowl on her face. Teddy reached down and hastily did up a couple of the buttons on her blouse – Phew, though James – and she gave a small giggle, of all things.

With yet another shimmering of the air, the sound in the room returned to normal, washing over James and Tristan where they were stood.

Professor Meadows turned back to face the pair of them, the frown returned to her face seemingly of its own accord.

'Alright, here's what is going to happen.' The words came as if forced, and her face was screwed up in an ugly grimace as she leaned in to talk to them. 'You will tell nobody what you saw tonight, not a soul. Do you understand?'

Both boys nodded enthusiastically.

'In return, your punishment will be only a single detention, and no loss of House points. You will report back to me here, in this office at seven p.m. Saturday evening. Bring your wands. You will under no circumstances whatsoever tell anybody about the detention either, or I will see to it that you will spend the rest of your seven years at Hogwarts wishing you had been both born girls and sent to Beauxbatons! Do I make myself clear?'

More vigorous nodding.

'Now out of here, all of you! I've had enough of you boys for one night.'

James and Tristan were practically tripping over each other in their eagerness to leave. James turned at the doorway to see Professor Meadows pointing to the exit and looking straight at Teddy.

'That's you, too. I… I need some time to think right now.'

Teddy looked like he wanted desperately to say something, but eventually slunk out towards the door as well. Professor Meadows looked away as he left, and James thought she looked like she was about to cry.

'Thanks, Teddy,' James said, as his half-brother stormed past them. It had been him that got them out of whatever punishment the professor had been thinking of in the first place.

'I didn't do it for you, James,' Teddy spat, 'this isn't all about you. We aren't all here to serve as your entertainment. These are people's lives you are messing with. You better hope that I don't tell your father, or that will be the last you see of that cloak for a long time, I guarantee it.'

With that, Teddy pushed past a dumbstruck James, and stomped off down the corridor. James felt his eyes stinging, and he scrubbed at them angrily, trying to hide his tears from Tristan.

It was a silent trip down to the Hufflepuff dormitory after that.

Oh bollocks. Bloody, buggering, giant bollocks.

It was the next day, a chilly Monday afternoon, and James was sitting with his head in his hands, an agonised expression on his face. Professor Meadows had told him in no uncertain terms that what he had seen last night was not to leave that room. According to her, it was the one condition applied to their lenient punishment, the one single thing that James wasn't allowed to do.

And he had just gone and done the thing.

Holly Brooks sat opposite him, her knees tucked up beneath her chin, in complete shock. James could practically see the cogs of her brain working, behind those glittering pale grey eyes. Her mouth worked a few times, unable to form words. The strand of hair she had been sucking on lay damp and abandoned on her chest.

James couldn't believe that he had let it slip.

Holly had a way of making him say things that he hadn't meant to say. The way she steered the conversation, artfully manoeuvring James to a point where giving up this desperate secret seemed as nothing to him. His friend was a Slytherin, and she had not been chosen into the house of cunning ambition purely on looks alone. Coupled with her self-professed talents at slipping through rooms unseen and listening at doorways, she was quickly becoming a highly useful resource in the ongoing battle for supremacy that was F.A.R.T club.

James just had to remember that she wasn't always using her powers for good, as it were.

Sadly, this wasn't the first embarrassing secret he had subconsciously handed over to her. There had been the time when they were reminiscing about their childhoods, and he had told her the story of how, at age four, he had escaped the house come bath-time and run halfway down the street naked, before his mortified mother had managed to round him up.

He still couldn't manage to keep the blush from his cheeks every time she asked him if he needed a bath.

Holly popped the strand of hair back into her mouth, sucked on it pensively for a moment, before speaking carefully, the flicker of a smile dancing about the corner of her mouth.

'I think this might have been a good thing, James.'

It was even more impressive that she could manage that with the hair still actually in her mouth.

'Err…' James was still working on that witty dialogue thing.

'I bet if a teacher was caught,' she lowered her voice and giggled slightly, 'making out with one of the Aurors, they would be in more trouble than a Bowtruckle in a lumber yard.'

James just looked on, confused. That poor Bowtruckle.

'What I'm saying, is that I would bet my last Galleon that those two shouldn't have been doing… that last night, and if Headmistress McGonagall found out, they might both get kicked out of school. I bet Professor Meadows didn't even give you a detention, or take any House points, or anything, right?'

'Erm… No, she didn't,' James lied. At least he hadn't let that slip.

'Exactly,' Holly chirped, looking very proud of herself for evidently having figured out the situation. 'I bet she just yelled at you, told you not to tell anyone or else she would throw you off the Astronomy Tower, and sent you on your way.'

'Pretty much.' James was pointedly not making eye contact. Holly was uncannily good at sniffing out lies.

He flinched as she gave a little squeal, clapping her hands together in excitement.

'Ooh James, this is great! You know what you have now? You have blackmail!'

James didn't know what a blackmail was, but it sounded rather sinister. Rather too Slytherin for his tastes.

'This means, that if you ever get in trouble, or fail a test, or shoot the Professor in the bum with a Stinging Hex again – of course I heard about that – that all you have to do is say that you're going to tell Headmistress McGonagall about her making out and you will be off the hook! Blackmail is excellent, everyone in Slytherin is trying to get blackmail on everyone else so they can make that person do things for them.'

Holly looked positively gleeful, like it was Christmas all over again and James had just handed her the newest Firebolt Supreme Mk. II. If she wasn't careful she was going to suck that hair right out of her own head.

'I am not going to do a blackmail to Professor Meadows Holly, that's, that's mental!'

Her face fell.

'Oh come on James, I bet you'll think twice next time she goes to take points from you because you and Fred are goofing off again!'

James shook his head firmly. Inside he was all disbelief; this girl was certifiably insane. By the sounds of it all Slytherins were certifiably insane, if this was what they spent all day talking about.

'I'm not doing blackmail, and you aren't doing it either. If you do, then I'm never talking to you again, ever. I like Professor Meadows, she's my favourite teacher and she might be my almost-half-sister-in-law one day. You can't do blackmail to family.'

Holly pouted, she gazed up at him with those big, grey eyes, she tilted her head to the side, she even took the hair from her mouth in order to look more sad.

James wasn't buying it this time.

'Fine,' she grumbled, 'you Gryffindors and your honour, or whatever. Anyway, come on, I know the best place we can finish that Herbology essay. I found this totally awesome room up on the sixth floor, every wall has a miniature waterfall on it, and it's so peaceful. It does kind of make me need a wee though…'

James got up from his spot by the library window and trailed after his friend, idly wondering how it was that he managed to attract all the nutty ones.

The next morning, when James arrived at breakfast, flanked by Clip and Freddy, the entire school was abuzz. The soft susurrations of whispered conversations were being shared within tightly-huddled groups of friends all across the hall. Every so often laughter would bubble over, but the offending individual was always quickly silenced.

James sat down across from Leah and Rosalie, who were also having their own private conspiracy meeting. He looked up and down the table in confusion. This was breakfast, yet almost every single table setting as far as he could see was adorned with a dark-glassed bottle, or a steaming, frothing pitcher of amber liquid.

An older student slid a tankard down to the confused trio, and James hesitantly took a sip.

The drink was warm and sweet, sliding down his throat eagerly and heating him up from the inside. He felt his fingers and toes, which had been stinging slightly in the January morning air, begin to thaw almost instantly.

'Hey!' he exclaimed, 'I think it's Butterbeer!'

'You bet your Kneazle it's Butterbeer, Potter,' laughed a fourth-year Gryffindor, three seats down, 'you'll never guess what happened.'

James, Fred, Clip, and now Rosalie and Leah all turned to look at him, nearly identical masks of curiosity adorning every face.

The fourth-year tapped his friends on the shoulder and nodded towards James and his crew. The older group swivelled in their seats to face them, James noticed that each of them had at least three empty bottles in front of their setting. One dark-haired, freckled, boy was swaying slightly in his seat.

The boy, who James remembered as Connor… Something, was gesturing for them all to gather round. He grabbed his bottle and took another hearty swig, before wiping his mouth with the back of his hand and letting out a gut-tearing belch.

'Listen close, little firsties, this is important news,' Connor leered at each of them in turn, and James returned his attention with a sickly grimace. 'Last night, our dear friends at R.U.S.T managed to push through a bill past the dear Headmistress to allow Merlin's own nectar to be distributed in a limited sense throughout the school.'

Leah was looking at least as confused as James felt. They could have Butterbeer at school now? How was that such important news?

'Ha!' Connor barked, slapping his hand on the table, causing one of his friend's bottle to crash to the floor. 'I see your confusion, for what does a little firstie know about the comings and goings of the big school, the pacts and deals made between the upper years.

'Ponder this, then, if you will. A certain money-lending society, who make a good deal of Galleons from gambling, and a good deal more from black market imports, suddenly finds itself at war with a group of equally ambitious individuals, who have the guts, nay the indecency, to challenge their not-so-free-market capitalist regime.

'Now, said ambitious individuals lack the required contacts and experience that forms a vital part of any black market trading, so what do they do? They attack the way that they do best; with their minds. They don't go after the individuals, they go after the system. Genius, I say, they're all brilliant!'

With that, Connor leaned back in his seat, as if to press up against a wall that wasn't there. He toppled over backwards, spilling his remaining Butterbeer all over his robes. The group all turned to look at him, but he just lay their laughing madly, muttering 'genius, genius,' over and over again.

James looked back at his friends, an eyebrow raised. He watched the progression of comprehension march across Clip's features, before he opened his mouth and gasped.

'He's right, they are geniuses! The Lenders make most of their money from smuggling in illegal items; Weasleys Wildfire Whizbangs, Skiving Snackboxes, Firewhiskey and Butterbeer! I bet the market for it was huge; it's like everybody's favourite drink. Now, with anyone able to get it from the house-elves, or have some at breakfast, they've completely removed a section of the Lender's cash flow.'

His face went dark for a second, and when he continued it was in a much more sombre tone.

'I bet there will be some real backlash from this.'

A greater understatement had possibly never been made, as by lunch time the Hospital Wing was overflowing with students suffering an array of curse- and hex-related damage. Connor Something had been found, not hanging from a tree, but tied to it, stunned, his arms spread-eagled as if he were being crucified. The message was not lost on the students or the staff, and by the end of the day faculty and Aurors alike were striding the corridors with wands drawn, looking for any hint of violence upon which they could mete out swift justice.

After a double-period of Charms to end the day, James made his way with Tristan, Clip, and Fred, to the library. The whole group had decided to band together and pool their resources to work on a particularly nasty seven feet of parchment that Professor Plye had assigned them for Transfiguration. When they arrived, however, the rest of their friends weren't located in the groups' usual study spot.

The group wandered around, searching the nooks and crannies of the maze-like library, until finally, in a quiet, out-of-the-way corner, in which Cassie loved to come and read when she was seeking some time alone, James found her.

He knew immediately something was wrong.

Cassie was sitting on the floor, in the corner of the alcove, hugging her knees. Her face was down, hidden from view, and James saw her body lurch every few seconds in response to great, heaving sobs.

James called for the rest of his friends, and crouched down next to Cassie, resting a hand on her arm. She looked up momentarily, but shrugged him off again once she saw who it was.

'Cassie, what's wrong? Are you hurt? Are you ok? Did the Lenders do something to you?'

James had a sudden onrush of crippling fear; he was still owed a not-so-friendly visit from the Lenders. Their last meeting had been vague but ominous, and they had directly threatened Cassie, as well as Holly. Were they finally collecting their dues?

Cat rushed in to Cassie's other side, immediately leaning in to whisper soft, crooning words in her ear, rubbing her gently on the back. The muffled sobs stopped shortly after, but she still refused to lift her face. James looked around again, Rain and Holly were supposed to have been here, too. There was no sign of either. The sense of dread increased exponentially.

Eventually, Cat managed to coax Cassie up into the lone chair within the alcove. James and Tristan were lingering around just outside; it really wasn't a space designed for more than two. Fred and Clip were in the next one over, supposedly working on their essays, but James had heard the phrase "Long-life Dungbomb" at least three times in the past minute, and he knew that definitely wasn't part of the essay.

Surreptitiously, James was shooting worried glances at Tristan. He still hadn't told any of his friends about that visit from the Lenders, and now they were being attacked, all because he was too damn proud to just throw the dumb game and come in fourth. He debated pulling Tristan aside to confess, to get the pressing weight of this secret off of his chest, but Cassie was about to speak, and James lost his train of thought.

The six of them squished into the alcove together, James wedged up hard against a book on how to turn ones vegetables into Quaffles.

'Professor Plye pulled me aside,' Cassie sniffed, 'at the end of Transfiguration… He- he handed me back the last test that we did. He said I got all the answers exactly as he had them written down on his manuscript…'

James was yet to see how this was bad. If he had got all worked up over Cassie scoring a ninety-eight percent instead of one hundred…

'He said I got them exactly right, even the two that he made mistakes on when he wrote the manuscript. He- he thinks I cheated and he gave me zero and detention and now I'm going to fail the class and no one believes me!'

She burst into tears all over again, and Cat pulled her into a firm embrace.

James, meanwhile, was battling very fiercely with the urge to be sick all over his shoes. This sounded exactly like something the Lenders would do. He wouldn't put it past them to have switched Cassie's test answers out. Merlin, they might have even wrote the errors into Professor Plye's manuscript in the first place. They were terrifying when they were mad, and right now they were livid.

Everyone was making consoling noises, and patting Cassie on the back, or the head, but James was frozen in fear. Holly wasn't here. He hadn't seen her since their study session in the waterfall room the evening before. With a final glance around the room, to ensure that his friends weren't in any immediate danger, he took off, dashing out towards the exit, the librarian's angry yells snapping at his heels.

He ran towards the Slytherin dungeon, having no idea what he would do if he even got there. Sneak in behind another student, perhaps? He cursed himself for having forgot the Cloak. The one time he would actually need it.

Once he arrived in the dungeons, James looked about, hoping to find some green-trimmed robes to follow. He located a pair – a couple, walking hand-in-hand – and latched on to them from afar. They came to the doorway and uttered a passphrase that James was unable to catch. They stepped in casually, and James sprinted up as quickly and silently as he could. The door was sliding shut, fast. The gap was still a metre wide, he could make that... Two feet, he positioned his body sideways, sprung off from the wet tiles–

And landed with a thud up against the hard stone wall. Twin serpents carved of stone gazed down at him. Was that amusement glinting deep within their emerald eyes?

'No Gryffindorsssss today, little one,' one of them hissed.

'Thisss iss the Ssssslytherin dungeon. Go play in your tower with your fat woman.'

James cursed, angrily bashing his fists up against the stone wall. The sound he generated wasn't even loud enough to echo through the dingy corridor. He turned, defeated, to make his way back and try to explain to his friends why he had just run out on them, when the grating of stone-on-stone sounded from behind him. He spun, hope burgeoning anew within his chest.

Viola Greengrass was midway through stepping out the doorway, looking very confused at having a fellow first-year, but a Gryffindor, planted in her path.

'Can I… help you?' she sneered.

'Holly Brooks, is she in there? Can you get her for me? Please!' James was beginning to get desperate; if she wasn't in here he didn't know where to look. Images of a dark-haired, grey-eyed body kept flashing into his brain, hanging from the bough of a tree. He shook his head to try and clear that scene from his mind.

'Brooks? That bint? I don't know where the rat has scampered off to this time. Somewhere far away, hopefully, like Australia. I hear it's very poisonous over there at this time of year.'

James' eyes widened in shock. He hadn't been aware that Holly and Viola were on such terms. In fact, he had seen them sharing a laugh during Herbology just yesterday–

He froze, surely not, not two in one day.

'What… what did she do?' James asked, cringing in anticipation of the response.

'What did she do?' snapped Viola, her pale complexion mottling with a pinkish hue, 'she only snuck into all the first-years rooms, and stole everyone's most prized possessions. Then she wrote it all down in that hideous little notebook of hers, about how she was going to "give them back to us in repayment for favours" and how now she would be able to "use us".

'We all knew she was a little weird, creeping around all the time, pretending that no one could see her, listening at doorways, but everyone sort of ignored her. Now, though, now she has crossed the line. To think! Her dirty little hands, all over my delicates. Ugh! I think I need to go shower again.'

With that she spun on her heel, and the stone doors ground shut in front of James, leaving him staring blankly at a pair of very bored-looking stone snakes.

James turned and fled, dashing up the Grand Staircase. He had an idea where Holly might be hiding, where she might have gone if she wanted to be alone. He was certain now that this, too, was the work of the Lenders, there was too much coincidence in it; Holly and Cassie being attacked on the same day. The craftiness was the real giveaway, it was so believable that both the Slytherin first-years and Professor Plye had fallen for the deception. James cursed under his breath; this was exactly the thing that he had been hoping to avoid by bringing the first-years all together. If everyone wasn't so divided about this stupid F.A.R.T club then maybe Viola would have given Holly a chance to explain, or someone would have stood up for Cassie in front of their teacher.

James lashed out and slapped a tapestry as he arrived on the sixth floor.

He found Holly curled up in an armchair, the sole inhabitant of the Waterfall Room.

He lowered himself into a seat opposite her and waited for her to notice him. Eventually, her crying subsided, and she looked up to see who had intruded upon her privacy.

'Go away James, I don't want to talk to you, I don't want to talk to anyone.'

James found himself with his mouth half-opened, stunned. He hadn't expected that. Not from the girl who had offered to steal the most powerful map he had ever seen from some of the most powerful students, or who had tried to convince him to blackmail a teacher. Her shy exterior parted only for her friends, to give glimpses of the devious, sharp, and witty young lady she surely was to be. None of that showed here, though, as she pulled a pillow over her head in a pathetic attempt to block James out.

He moved over and sat down on the arm of her chair. She buried herself deeper into the cushions, as if she couldn't see him, so he couldn't see her either. He put a hand on her shoulder, and she flinched away from him. With a sad sigh James pulled it back and lay it in his lap.

'Holly, no one is going to believe those things that Viola is saying. I know it wasn't you; everyone will believe me. It was–'

'No one is going to believe?' she snapped, throwing the cushion angrily aside and sitting up to face him. 'The entire Slytherin common room believes what she's saying. The entire Slytherin House will believe her. She's a Greengrass James; her name means something down there. I'm just – just a stupid halfblood who goes through other people's things.'

She let out an almighty howl, and the sobbing started again in earnest.

That statement stirred something in James, a faceless anger deep inside. That there were still people who held to any sort of notion of blood purity was a sickening thought. His family was – and continued to be – at the forefront of the Equality movement, but it was people like Viola Greengrass and her stupid, narrow-minded views that were making their job nigh impossible.

It was ever only those who benefited from these conceited views, that spent so much time perpetuation them. He never saw Muggleborn witches and wizards roaming the streets, wandless, sleeping in boxes, because they themselves were certain that their blood was not pure, and that they were unworthy to live as true wizards. There was something in that, James was sure.

'If Viola wants to say that stuff, then she's nothing more than a stupid, old hag,' James snarled, 'you don't need her, or any of them. We are your friends Holly, we believe you, and we would never do anything like that to hurt you.'

This last statement left James with a pang of guilt. The way he saw it; trying to win the second F.A.R.T club was exactly that.

'You don't understand James, it's not like all the other houses down there. It's different; everyone is so concerned about status, and who has what over whom. Something like this – getting caught trying to blackmail and extort the entire year – this will stay with me forever now. I'll always be the half-blood who isn't good enough, until I leave here. It's basically a death warrant James. I'd transfer now if my parents could afford it.'

The way she was talking was making James sick, was Slytherin really any different from the days that his father was at school? To hear Uncle Ron tell it, that was exactly how it was; a writhing, seething mass of snakes, snapping at everything in sight with no care if they bit friend, foe, or self.

'Well you can be a Gryffindor for tonight, or as many nights as you want. There is a spare bed in the first-year dormitory. You could sleep there–'

'James!' Holly squealed indignantly, 'I can't sleep in the boys dormitory, that's… icky!'

Her smile, so briefly it lit up her tear-streaked face, faded once more.

'Besides, I have to go back. If I don't face them tonight, I don't know what will happen to me. They might even kick me out. I have to show face James, to walk in and pretend like it didn't even happen, like they are all beneath me, or they will tear me to shreds. There's nothing you can do now James, any of you. I'm… alone.'

James' heart was aching, and he reached a hand out to touch her, but she shrugged him off again, standing up from her spot on the chair.

'At least come see the others,' James pleaded, 'we have all been worried sick about you. Cassie, too, she's… somethings happened. Come on, please?'

She sighed heavily and nodded. Wiping at her eyes before they exited the Waterfall Room. She walked a half-step ahead of James all the way down to the Library. In tandem, but not together, not any more.

They met the others just outside the Library. Fred, Clip, Cat and Tristan were walking Cassie to the Ravenclaw Tower. She had had enough of today, and wanted only to sleep, and to see her closest friend. They briefly swapped stories on what had befallen Holly, and another round of righteous fury from the young Gryffindors was stamped down on by aloof detachment from Holly.

There was silence for a time, but now it was awkward, unnerving, rather than the friendly, amicable comfort it usually offered. James was fidgeting, unsure if he should tell his friends about F.A.R.T club. He could already feel them drifting apart, would that confession put the final nail in the coffin?

Cat eventually just started walking off, and everyone just followed suit, en route to their respective dormitories. Cassie and Holly were about to turn to leave, when James closed his eyes, sighed in resignation and called.

'Guys, wait. I… I need to talk to you. In here, come on.'

He led Holly, Cassie and Tristan into a small side room, blessedly abandoned at this point in time.

'What is it James, can we make it quick? I just want to go to bed.' Cassie looked despondent, bloodshot eyes, her shoulders slumped, a very picture of defeat.

In his rampaging guilt, James felt something quite similar.

'All right, guys. I need to tell you all something. Please, don't be upset, I didn't know what was going to happen, and I'm really, really sorry.' All three of them now were looking at him with suspicious glares.

'So, before the last F.A.R.T club, the Lenders came and paid me a visit, like they did just after the first one, when you and I were in the hospital wing, Cassie. They said… they said that our team is still one of the favourites, and everyone is betting Galleons on us, so we have to lose, which would make them loads of money.

'They said that we had to finish anywhere outside of the top three. If – if we finished in the top three, they lose the money and they were going to do something to us. To you guys. They said something about throwing Cassie into the lake, or dragging Holly out to the Forbidden Forest, but I think… I think this might be them instead.'

There, he had said it. The crushing weight released from his chest, and he was able to breathe again. He looked up at them, hopeful, wanting, needing to see his relief reflected back at him.

Instead he saw only anger, and pain.

'So this, this is your fault?' Holly asked, her voice barely a whisper.

'No – I mean yes – I don't know.'

'You didn't even talk to us? Ask us how we felt about risking our livelihood for some stupid game?' Where Holly had been quiet, Cassie was screaming loud enough to wake the dead.

'Guys, I'm sorry, I didn't think–'

'Damn right, you didn't think James Potter,' Holly growled, 'you just went ahead and did what you thought was right, what you wanted to do. Never mind that my friends could get hurt. No, as long as I get my name on that trophy it all doesn't matter.'

'What was it James, did you think you could play the game, too?' Cassie was advancing on him. She was only as tall as his chin, but he somehow felt himself shrinking away from her. 'Did you think you could make this a three-horse show? Lenders, R.U.S.T and James Sirius Potter, the greatest prodigy to ever set foot inside Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Whatever it is you're playing at James, I don't want a bar of it. I'm out, I'm done with you, done with this ridiculous club. I'm done with all of it.'

With that she spun and marched towards the door, throwing it open with such force that it crashed against the wall and bounced closed again, but she was gone, and James didn't know if she would ever come back.

He turned to Holly with a pleading gaze.

'I can't believe it James. I thought you, of all people… but I guess I was wrong. Unwilling to blackmail a teacher, yet happy to ruin two of his supposed best friend's entire seven years at Hogwarts. That's what you've done, you see? Of course you don't. We're through James. If you show your face in the dungeons again, I won't be there to stop them from hexing you.'

And with a second tearing, rending sensation that ripped away a part of his own body, a second friend left for good.

James slid down the wall slowly, collecting in a heap on the floor. An awkward cough alerted him to the fact that Tristan was still in the room.

'What about you then?' James snapped, 'going to walk out on me too? Go on, follow the crowd. Hufflepuffs are good at that.'

Brief anger flickered across his friend's face, but it was quickly pushed aside.

'I don't blame you, old chap. Besides, we have detention on Saturday. Don't think I could avoid you if I tried. Father was never allowed to comment on the matter, but Mother often said a woman is always right. They might have a point here, maybe it would be a good idea to lie low for a bit, run in different circles for a while.'

He squatted down and lay a hand on James' shoulder.

'But you always know where I am if you need me, friend.'

With that, James was alone in the room, and he felt as if he were alone in the entire school.

The next few days were miserable for James, he tried on numerous occasions to talk to both Cassie and Holly, but they either ignored him, or outright told him to get lost. Each time he failed it took a little bit more out of him, until by the end of the Thursday he didn't think he would be able to take the punishment any more. He scored a D on his Transfiguration essay, and a T on a potions assignment. He couldn't bring himself to focus, couldn't bring himself to care when there were more important things going on that a stupid essay to do.

Fred did little to help placate James, he teased him about taking out the competition in F.A.R.T club, and how he was now sure to win. It took not five minutes of this ribbing before James stormed out of the common room to find a quiet place to sit and mope.

Clip and Cat were a little better, they offered comforting words and reassurances that the girls would see the right of it eventually. James nodded, and smiled in the right places, but he had his fill of banal niceties rather quickly, and once again found himself in search of solitude.

He needed to talk to Professor Longbottom, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. If he went to him and told him what had happened it would make it all real, like it would all be set in stone, unable to be undone. James got right up to his door on Thursday evening, his hand raised, poised to knock. He sighed, and dropped his fist, turning and fleeing back into the depths of the castle.

His only real consolation came from, of all places, Rain. She barged in on him alone in the Waterfall Room one evening, as he lay on the carpeted floor feeling incredibly sorry for himself.

'Hello James Potter I was wondering what was bringing me up here and it was you you're all alone and sad and Cassie wants to do some very nasty things to you with her wand and so does Holly but that's okay they'll forgive you and there are other things to do anyway now.'

Evidently she was still reacting badly to that medication.

'Hello Rain, I just kind of want to be alone right now. I'm not in the mood for any weird dizzy spells tonight.'

'Oh good I was wondering if that was happening again that's good news that means it's working but I won't do it if you don't want at least not tonight anyway – achoo!'

She punctuated her sentence with an enormous sneeze, and shot six feet in the air, nearly banging her head on the ceiling before drifting back down again, giggling all the while.

'Oh dear I have lots of energy now and that means extra magic so sometimes it just pops out and does things like that ooh and this one time I was on the toilet and–'

'No, no, no!' James squealed. 'I do not need to hear that story. Please, Rain.' In spite of himself he was smiling. It was the happiest he had felt in days.

'Strange that's what Cassie said too she says a lot of things mostly about you these days I don't think she really blames you but she wanted a perfect record and now she has a T and the best she can get is an A if she gets every single question right between now and the final exam I don't even know if she is that clever is anyone that clever?'

James didn't even know where to begin responding to that, but if Rain thought Cassie didn't blame him, maybe there was some hope.

'Now that they aren't talking to you and you don't have F.A.R.T club any more you can hang out with me again and we can do things like exploring the eighth floor again we only ever did it once and then never again and ohmygosh!'

Her gasp startled James, and he looked around to see what the disaster was.

'You have been exploring with someone else behind my back haven't you James Potter how could you I thought what we had was special!'

'No!' James cried, 'I haven't, I haven't been at all, everything else has been so crazy lately I just sort of forgot about it.'

She shot him a distrusting look.

'You looked so happy last time we went like it was where you were meant to be like the eighth floor wanted you there or maybe it was the Heart that wanted you there did you ever think about that?'

James had thought a lot about that, but he wasn't sure he wanted to admit it just yet.

'Err…'

'You know what I think I think we should try and find it I bet we could you're the best explorer I've ever been with and I'm the best fun you've ever been with and together we can find it!'

James put his head in his hands, he wasn't sure that he could take a whole night of exploring with her like this, it would leave him completely worn out the next day. On the other hand, the Heart was no less enticing that when he had first been up there. He could still use it to power Wren's map, somehow. He felt like if he could find it and just see it, then the answers would be there before him, written in some sort of code that only he could read or understand. Even now, as he thought about the Heart, he felt its familiar tug on him, upwards, ever upwards it called him.

'Maybe, maybe sometime next week Rain,' he offered, 'I think I'd like that.'

She clapped and ran over to give him a hug where he lay, and ended up just falling down on top of him. She lay there for a while, her head on his chest, arms spread eagled. James was frowning at the top of her head. Had her potions stopped working, had she crashed again?

'So this is what it feels like,' he heard her whisper.

'What?'

'Nothing James Potter!' with that she sprang to her feet and skipped all the way to the door, her blue dress bouncing along with her. At the door she spun, turned and blew James a kiss and left.

Maybe the day wasn't so bad after all.

On Friday Fred cornered James after their double-Defence class, in which James had been skewered by baleful glares from Holly on one hand, and suspicious glances from Professor Meadows on the other. Both refused to acknowledge his presence outside of those acts.

'Mate, Saturday night is Holly's birthday. We are going to grab some food from the kitchens and head up the astronomy tower and have a night-time picnic. Get her as far away from the rest of those snakes as possible. She's been having a pretty rough week, by all accounts. She said it'd be all right if you came though. I think maybe she wants you there, maybe she's not so dark on you after all. I dunno, but it'd be good if you came.'

James opened his mouth to say that of course he would come, especially if there was a chance at making things right with Holly, but he caught Professor Meadows exiting the class behind Fred and his stomach clenched.

'I… I can't Freddy, I've got something else on that night. Something I really have to go and do.'

Fred shot him a confused look.

'It won't be weird if you come, mate, honestly. It won't be the same without you. No one is going to hex you, promise. Well, I might, but only if you drink all the pumpkin juice.'

'No it's not that Fred, I really want to come, but there's something else I have to do that night, and I don't think I can get out of it.'

'You'll be missing out, it's a full moon. Should be nice, if you're into that. Who am I going to Charm trifle at now? What is it that you've got on, anyway?

James sighed, he had been hoping it wouldn't come to this.

'I can't say mate, trust me, I would if I could.'

Fred just gave a shrug and they headed off to lunch together.

Saturday morning, as James opened up a Transfiguration textbook to have a half-hearted attempt at studying, a note fell out into his lap.

Waterfall Room – now. Wren

By this stage, the fact that someone had been through his bag and left the note was little to be alarmed about. Evidently the older students just did exactly as they pleased, and first-year privacy was of little import. He packed up his bag, pleased at any distraction, and headed off to meet his sponsors, despite the fact that he was less than sure that they even had a team to sponsor in the first place.

Once in the Waterfall Room, the door closed sharply behind him, and the two bodyguards, Left and Right, he called them, for want of a better name, took up their positions outside.

The rest of the team was sitting there, pointedly not looking at each other, or at Wren and Nero, who were looking thunderous where they stood.

James took a seat next to Tristan, as far away as he could get from Holly and Cassie, just to be safe.

'This is going to be a brief meeting,' Wren snapped, 'we initially called you here to let you know we will shortly have access to the new rule set for the third F.A.R.T club Hunt.'

Nero chuckled quietly to himself, looking all-too-pleased.

'Evidently some of you have taken it upon yourselves to attempt to disband the team, and withdraw from F.A.R.T.' James was glad that it wasn't him on the receiving end of the glare she was shooting at Cassie and Holly. 'Rest assured, that this is not an option. You will complete the third and fourth tasks, and you will win the competition. We have invested a lot of time and effort into this venture and we will not have it come to nothing because children refuse to play nice!'

Nero leaned forward and took up the reins, which James was glad of, as it appeared Wren had been about to have a coronary.

'We don't care about your little infighting, kiddies. You weren't the only ones who suffered backlash from the Butterbeer incident, believe me. You were very far from the worst-affected, so I suggest you stop acting like the spoilt little children that everyone thinks you are, and start behaving like grown-ups capable of winning this damn tournament.

'Brooks, you have our protection against any physical harm that may be directed your way, anything else is on you. You got yourself into this mess, you can weather the storm. Featherstone, we're trying to pull some strings, but it doesn't look good. Best bet is to study hard, but by all accounts that's all you ever do anyway, so that shouldn't be an issue.

'Believe me when I say, we are in this for the long haul children. We are a little over halfway, and things have only just started heating up. When we said you were going to need to band together, we weren't just blowing hot air. We meant it, we still do. See to it, or we will be forced to take less… savoury means of coercion.'

That was a clear dismissal, and James wandered out at the back of the group, bewildered, and a little frightened. If he ended up with both R.U.S.T and the Lenders onto them, they'd be shipping what was left of him back to his parents in a shoe box.

'James, could you wait behind for a bit,' Holly called, once they were out in the corridor. She was looking down at her shoes, fidgeting with her wand in both hands. His heart leapt, maybe Nero had managed to talk her into apologising after all.

Once the hallway was clear, she looked up at him. James was a little confused by what he saw glimmering in her eyes.

'It's my birthday today James,' she began.

Uh oh.

'It was going to be my one chance to celebrate, to get away from everyone calling me such wicked names, saying such hurtful things. One day I was going to spend with my real friends, where I didn't have to be looking over my back all the time, ducking hexes and jinxes in the corridors.'

'Holly, please I–'

'But James Potter can't make it, because he has something more important on. Something he won't tell his friends about. Gee, this sounds a little familiar to me, I wonder what happened last time you pulled something like this. Surely nothing bad.

'Whatever game you are playing James, I want no part of it. Whatever secret meeting you are holding, keep my name out of it. You've done enough for me, and I've had it with you.'

'Holly please, it's not like that. I want to tell you, I just can't.'

She screamed, and shoved him up against the wall. He hit it hard, the wind knocked out of him.

'No James! Wrong answer!'

He sighed, and pushed past her. He had been getting this all week, he had Merlin-only-knows what detention coming his way tonight, and he just wanted to rest.

'You know what Holly, I've had enough too, and I don't need this. I have my own stuff on, stuff where I'm not going to get shouted at, so if you'll excuse me–'

He didn't even finish the sentence before with a howl of rage, his once-friend whipped her wand up in a vicious arc, to face him, and screamed, 'Stupefy!'

When James regained consciousness it was six p.m. and he was sitting in a bed in the Hospital Wing, contemplating just how far they all had fallen.