Chapter 14

Revelations, Part I

The last two weeks of term rushed by in a flurry of late homeworks, a final D.A. meeting, and another heavy helping of snow on the grounds, bringing it to a point where venturing outside was a dangerous activity. Indeed, tiny Daphne Akers had to be equipped with snowshoes just to make it to Herbology. Albus had received a letter from his father the day after the attack, reassuring him that they were going to catch whoever was responsible. Albus wondered how long it took to convince his mother not to come up to Hogwarts again.

Albus and Conrad had left the hospital wing the morning after the attack, but not before a visit from Button. The Headmaster had seemed as nervous as usual, wringing his hands and softly dabbing his forehead and neck with a handkerchief while they recounted their story. Albus thought that perhaps the act seemed a little forced, as though he were putting on a show of it. Of course, he later realized that if he tried to fit everything to his new theory of Button having attacked them, he was going to start seeing things that weren't there.

It was with mixed feelings of sadness at leaving and excitement at coming home that Albus boarded the Hogwarts Express with his companions.

"How long's the train ride?" Olivia asked.

"Just as long as it was getting here," Ewan responded. Olivia scowled at him.

"What are you guys going to do when you get home?" Albus asked as he stowed Struana's cage in the luggage rack. The owl hooted in a reproachful manner, not at all happy at being caged.

Ewan and Olivia both shrugged. Neither of them talked much about home. Ewan had said that he went to a Muggle primary school, and he had inferred from one of Olivia's rants about their homework that she had been tutored privately most of her life, but other than that, Albus realized, his friends' home lives were much a mystery.

"I dunno. Catch up on some television programs I used to watch, maybe visit a few friends from my old school." Ewan didn't seem very enthusiastic about the prospect.

"I plan to sleep until noon every day," Olivia declared.

"I can understand that," Rose said, rubbing her eyes. "I didn't get much sleep last night. I woke up shouting at one point; I'm surprised I didn't wake the rest of you up.

"Really? I didn't hear a thing," Olivia said, flopping into the seat across from Albus. "Anyway. After I sleep until noon, I'm going to get up, stuff my face, maybe go for a fly on one of the horses - "

"You have flying horses?" Albus interrupted, incredulous. "And you never mentioned them?"

Olivia blushed, a rare occurrence. "Well, how would I have brought them up? 'Oh, by the way, my family breeds Granians. Just saying.'"

"Granians?" Rose asked. "But those are really rare..."

There was a moment's silence. Olivia turned even more red and began fiddling with her fingers.

"You're rich, aren't you?" Ewan asked, a smirk creeping onto his face.

"No! Well, I mean..." Olivia was positively crimson now, refusing to make eye contact with anyone. "We're well enough off."

"How many house-elves do you have?" Ewan asked.

Olivia mumbled something in the direction of Rose's trunk.

"Four? Did you just say four? Yeah, you're rich," Ewan snorted and sat back. Albus was suddenly struck by how little he actually knew about his friends.

"This is why I didn't say anything!" Olivia complained, her eyes looking desperate. "The only people who like rich people are the ones who want to get some of their money for themselves!"

Albus and Rose looked at each other in surprise. They had both been brought up in families that never spoke much about money, and as such, never thought much about it.

Ewan, however, seemed to want to press the issue. "What do you mean? Poor people try to pretend to like rich people so they can take their money?" All trace of the usual good-natured sarcasm was gone from his voice. Now he sounded angry.

"No! That's just what my parents told - "

"I'm poor as can be, but I don't want to take your money."

"That wasn't what I meant!" Olivia looked incredibly flustered. Albus had never seen her on the defensive side of an argument before. It didn't suit her.

There was another moment of tense silence, then Albus felt moved to intervene. "I think there's a lot we didn't bother to ask each other about." He took a deep breath and summoned enough courage to do something that would either be very effective or very embarrassing. "I'm Albus Severus Potter. I live near Ottery St. Catchpole in a comfortable-but-not-large house with my brother, James, my sister, Lily, my mum, who's a Quidditch reporter, and my dad, who's an Auror and apparently saved the world or something once."

The sheer ridiculousness of this last statement was enough to break the tension. They all snorted with laughter.

"Al, you're a dork," Rose said.

"I am not! What does that even mean, anyway?"

"I don't know, but I heard Quinn calling Guy one."

"Oh, come on, say something about yourself! It'll make you feel better, even if it seems weird."

"Fine! Fine. I'm Rose Dierdre Weasley. I live a stone's throw away from Al, in basically the same house, with my annoying brother Hugo, my dad, who's also an Auror, and my mum, who... does a lot of stuff at the Ministry that I'm not entirely clear on. And they both helped Al's dad save the world."

They all chuckled again, and looked at Ewan, who sighed. "Oh, is it my turn? Okay then. My name is Ewan Andrew Greenwood. I live in a tiny apartment in London with my sister Hestia, who is turning nine soon, and my mum, who's a secretary for a dentist's office, and may have saved some teeth once."

They roared with laughter, and turned to face Olivia, who threw her hands up in defeat. "Fine. I'm Olivia Callidora Ellis, and I live in a great big mansion with four house elves, a whole bunch of horses, and my uptight mum and dad, who as far as I can tell, visit other rich people and socialize for a living."

They all looked at her for a moment, before Albus asked the question that they were all thinking. "'Callidora?'"

Olivia blushed deep scarlet again. "My mum's Greek! D'you think I got this skin color from my Welsh dad? And what kind of name is 'Severus,' anyway?"

A voice came from the doorway. "I'm James, and I live on the moon with my twin sister Fred and pet goblin Hannah, and I'm wondering what on earth you all are doing." James and the ill-described Fred and Hannah entered the compartment, bemused expressions on their faces.

"Just getting some things out in the open," Albus said, still smiling. "What do you want, goblin tamer?"

"Well, we were going to prank that annoying Hufflepuff from your year, what's his name, Wirre? But, it looks like that big Slytherin from your year on the Quidditch team got to him first." Albus could only imagine what Mordecai Crank had done to Anteres Wirre, but he didn't feel too sympathetic. "So, we decided we'd come in here and see if you guys wanted to play some Exploding Snap. Anyone game?"

They spent much of the ride home talking about their home lives and hobbies while playing various card games, including a strange new game Ewan taught them called "poker." Ewan commented, as he nursed singed fingers, that the game was much different when the cards didn't explode.

It was with great reluctance that they disembarked the train at King's Cross. Ewan met a tired looking woman and a very small little who leapt on his back as soon as she saw him. Olivia exchanged a far too formal greeting with her very elegant and very Mediterranean looking mother. Rose hugged her mother and father and made a face at Hugo. And Albus was attacked by a small, red haired girl who nearly bowled him over.

"Lily! You're huge, what've they been feeding you, Skelegro?" He hugged Lily as James fought off their mother, who was trying her hardest to give him a hug.

"No! But it's nice not having to fight you two off to get food for once!"

"I'll agree with that," their father said, stepping up and giving Albus a hug. "Got everything? Your grandmother's cooking a huge feast for when we get home; I think she started cooking this morning."

"A big dinner? Just for coming home?"

"You know your grandmother, she doesn't need much of an excuse to make a big deal out of something."

"Albus!" He turned and saw Ewan, still giving his sister a piggyback ride, and his mother approaching them. "Figured I might as well introduce you to my mum and sister, since they were here."

"'Figured you might as well,'" Mrs. Greenwood rolled her eyes, smiling. "You were practically dancing over there, talking about - "

"Mum!" Ewan howled. His sister giggled. She had the same brown hair and eyes as Ewan.

"Nice to meet you," Albus said, smirking at his friend, who looked very cross that his cool exterior had been blown. "Oh, that's Rose - " he pointed to where Rose was chatting at lightning speed with her mother, oblivious to the introduction. "And Olivia is..." He looked around, but Olivia was nowhere to be seen. "...Not here any more. And these are my parents." He gestured to his father and in the direction of his mother, who was now deliberately doing her best to embarrass James as he and Fred said goodbye to Hannah.

"Hi. Harry Potter," his father said, extending his hand.

"Ann Greenwood," she said, smiling and taking it.

"Ron Weasley," came an unexpected voice from behind Albus, and he jumped as his uncle also greeted Ewan's mother. He and Albus's father exchanged small smiles that Albus wasn't entirely clear about.

"Al, write to me at some point," Ewan said. "I don't have an owl, so I'll have to send it back with Struana, but still, keep in touch."

"Of course!" Albus said. They all had felt a renewed sense of friendship after the train ride home, as though they had come to a better understanding of each other.

"Are we ready to go, yet?" James grumped as he joined the group, having finally escaped their mother.

"Well, do you have your things?"

"I dumped it off on Hugo," James said, pointing to where Hugo and Lily were trying to load up the trolley, obviously eager to get their siblings home. Bob and Jupiter were beginning to screech loudly at each other.

"Well, then, let's go!"

Three hours later, they were enjoying a delicious feast after arriving home in a thoroughly ordinary car. Two hours after that, Albus was curled in a ball in his bed, simply happy to be home with his family.

Across Britain, his friends and classmates were also climbing into bed. A red headed girl was kissed good night by her parents, who silently hoped that her sleep was undisturbed. A boy who was normally too cool for school gave his sister his blanket so she wouldn't be cold during the night in their unheated apartment. A girl who had spent the night crying herself to sleep was tucked into her elaborate four poster bed by an elderly house elf. An aunt and uncle tried in vain for the hundredth time to reach their twin niece and nephew at an emotional level as they went to bed. And a boy who was beginning to question everything his father had taught him stared at himself in the mirror.

"Presents!" Albus woke on Christmas morning to find Lily jumping on his bed, as was her usual habit. "Of course, you got more..." She rolled her eyes.

Albus rubbed his eyes and peered blearily at his exuberant sister. "It's because they love me more."

"It is not! I wish I had my birthday on Christmas, and got double the presents."

"I go the whole rest of the year without getting any!"

"But that makes Christmas so much better!" She pounced at him, and he threw his hands up, caught her easily, and tossed her to the floor. She bounced right back up again. "Come on! Let's get Mum and Dad up so we can open presents!"

Albus looked at his clock. "It's only six!"

"So?"

He grumbled, but even he couldn't resist the prospect of presents for grabbing an extra hour of sleep. He collapsed on the couch in the living room while Lily went to harass the rest of the house. A few minutes later, James came down the stairs, tousle-haired and bleary-eyed. He laid down on the other couch without saying a word and pulled a pillow over his head.

Albus was occupying his focus on the shimmering Christmas tree in an attempt to stay awake, but as he was studying the face of the miniature house-elf perched on top, he found himself drifting off. He was thankful when Lily appeared, dragging their parents behind her.

"Enough, Lily!" their mother shook her off and sat down on the couch next to Albus. Lily plopped down on the floor with a huge smile on her face and started rummaging through the presents. "Here, Al, this one's for you... so's this one... and this one..." she shot him a dirty look.

"Happy birthday, Al," his mother said almost as an afterthought, obviously not fully awake yet. Albus forgave her, as he was almost as groggy as she was.

"Here, James!" Lily dropped a large present on top of the pillow that covered James's head. He grunted in response.

Albus opened his first present and found a copy of the latest revision of Quidditch Through the Ages. "All right! Thanks!" He began to wake up, and joined Lily on the floor to investigate the presents. Even James eventually showed his face, once he discovered that one of his presents consisted of a very large box of pranks from his uncle.

Dinner that night was of a spectacular fashion, full of loud and rambunctious conversation and merriment. Friends and family of all sorts had come, and there were soon close to fifty people in the magically warmed backyard of the Burrow. Albus couldn't remember the last time there were so many people at one of their gatherings, and vowed to make the most of the evening.

In a shabby apartment building in East London, Ewan Greenwood handed his sister one of her presents and grinned as she opened it and squealed in glee at the purple dress inside. Ewan laughed as he opened a present and found a picture of his mum and sister dressed as witches (the Muggle variety) for Halloween. "Your letters said you missed us, so I figured this would keep you company," his mother said, smiling at him.

Ewan stared at the picture for a moment more. "It's perfect." He set the picture aside and reached for his other present, from his grandparents. He opened it up and found a luxurious black fur cloak inside, which Ewan figured was thick enough to keep out even the bitter cold around Hogwarts.

"Ooh, that looks nice. Try it on!" his mother said, admiring the cloak.

"Er - one second," he said. "I wanna put the picture in my room before I lose it. He hurried into the bedroom he shared with his sister, which was divided by a sheet hanging from the ceiling to the floor, and placed the picture carefully on the night stand. He then opened up the cloak, and a number of smaller gifts came tumbling out. He grinned as he saw a wristwatch (mechanical), a box of chocolates, and, to his amusement, a small book on Muggle magic tricks. He reached for the letter that had also fallen out of the cloak, and opened it up.

Ewan

Happy Christmas! We hope you're well, and having fun at school. Hearing everything your father told your mother and us about it, we can only imagine what it must be like to learn real magic! We are extremely proud of you - even if we can't tell anyone what it is you're really learning. Hope you make good use of your gift! It can get pretty cold up north.

Love,

Mummum and Poppop

Ewan smiled as he tucked the letter behind the picture frame. His mother was an extraordinarily proud woman, and refused to take money from his grandparents for anything. She let them give a Christmas and birthday present to Ewan and Hestia every year, but she insisted on no more than one. They had to learn, she said, to appreciate the meaning behind the gifts, and not focus on the gifts themselves. Ewan and Hestia, being young children, never understood this, and were more than pleased to accept the extra gifts their grandparents snuck into their parcels. This year, though, Ewan felt a twinge of guilt as he surveyed his loot. He shook it off, attributing it to keeping his mother waiting for him to show her the cloak.

Ewan hurriedly hid the watch, chocolate, and book behind an old pillowcase under his bed, fastened the cloak around his neck, and marched back into the living area.

"Well, that certainly took long enough!" His mother said, although still smiling.

"I couldn't figure out how to work the clasp," he improvised, motioning towards the elaborate but really quite simple buckle.

"Ewan, look at my new dress, isn't it pretty?" Hestia burst out of the bathroom, twirled in place like a ballerina, and then promptly fell over, giggling. "You look like a vampire!" she said, pointing at his cloak.

"Well, then, you'd better be careful I don't... SUCK YOUR BLOOD!" he spread the sides of the cloak out like a bat's wings and chased his little sister, who shrieked gleefully, happy to have her brother home.

In a large mansion far enough away from Nottingham that Muggle eyes wouldn't notice the horses flying above, Olivia Ellis ate a quiet lunch by herself. Her parents had woken her up far before her desired time to open presents before they went off to the first of their many parties of the day. She had asked to come, even though she knew the attempt was futile.

"Dear, you don't want to go to one of these parties. It's all adults, and some of them are rather... unsavory," her mother had chided in her thick accent, while her father had a house-elf make sure his robes were free of any stray horse hairs.

"Then why do you go?" she had asked, only to receive the standard response of it being good for business to show their faces and socialize. To keep their name among discussion when the elite of the Wizarding world were mentioned.

And that was how Olivia found herself sitting alone at the small kitchen table they reserved for the nights they didn't have company for dinner, eating a cold turkey sandwich and idly making the fire in the lamp on the table grow and shrink.

"Miss shouldn't do that," an ancient house-elf said, entering the room holding a large hamper of laundry. "Miss will get in trouble for using magic."

Olivia rolled her eyes. "The Ministry will just think it's one of you or my parents, you know that, Maddy."

Maddy the house elf gave her a stern look, and Olivia knew better than to argue with the elf who had been her nanny since birth. "Why doesn't Miss go out and try the new saddle her parents got her? Or the broom?"

"It's freezing out!"

"It would be better for Miss than sitting inside moping all day."

"I am not moping."

"Yes Miss is."

Olivia paused. "Okay, maybe I am. But they always leave me behind! They never take me anywhere, even to parties where there aren't any 'unsavory characters.' I didn't even get to see Dad at all the day I came home, and Mum left as soon as we got back."

"Missus just wants to keep Miss Olivia safe."

Olivia rolled her eyes again. "You know that's not the only reason - if that's a reason at all."

Maddy slammed the laundry basket down, making Olivia jump. Such moves were very rare from the house-elf. "Master and Missus love Miss very much!" the little elf jabbed her finger in Olivia's face. "They have hired tutors, and arranged for special lessons at school - "

"They don't care!" Olivia jumped to her feet, feeling tears beginning to well up, not for the first time since she'd been home. "They're scared! If they cared, they'd be here today, on Christmas!" And she turned and fled, hurtling up two flights of stairs to her bedroom and throwing herself on her bed, sobbing.

"I can't believe we go back to Hogwarts tomorrow!" Rose said, throwing herself into the cushions of her favorite armchair at Albus's house. "Break just flew by!"

"I know," Albus sighed. "I'm not looking forward to going back to classes."

"What?" Rose was incredulous. "What's not to like?"

"Well," Albus put his hand on his chin in mock concentration. "Let's see. There's homework. There's the Slytherins. There's Phinean and his mood swings - that man is crazy. One class he'll be cheerful as can be, and the next, he looks like he'll curse us all through the wall - There's getting up for 8 o'clock classes. There's the Slytherins. There's Guy Sheppard. There's the Slytherins. There's Anteres Wirre. Am I missing anything? Oh, yes, there's also the Slytherins."

Rose rolled her eyes. "If you just did your homework in a timely matter, you wouldn't hate it so much. Phinean is a little... odd... but he's a good teacher. Guy and Wirre are annoying, yes, but the Slytherins haven't been so bad recently!"

Albus had to admit this was true. The Slairs and their cronies had only tried to curse them twice during their last few weeks at school, and Albus had sensed that their heart wasn't in it. He still had no idea what he had done to offend them, but he figured he ought not go poking around the lives of two possibly sociopathic classmates whose parents were famous for murdering fifty people.

His thoughts were interrupted by James tromping down the stairs and through the living room, Bob the owl perched on his shoulder as he read a letter. Curious as to who his brother would be writing to the day before they returned to school (and having utterly nothing better to do), Albus gave Rose an inquisitive look, and they followed James into the kitchen.

"Whatcha up to?" he asked.

"Nothing."

"Who're you writing to?"

"None of your business."

"Why not?" Albus was needling him in the way only a younger sibling could.

"Because I'll hex you if you keep bugging me," James said as he stuffed the letter into an envelope and scrawled something across the front.

"You can't do that. We're not at school, you'll get in trouuuble." Albus sang the last word out, trying his best to get James agitated enough to slip up and let him see the envelope. It worked.

"You watch me. I'm pretty good at the Bat-Bogey Hex now, and nobody at the Ministry would be any wiser." He shook the hand holding the envelope in Albus's general direction, enough for Albus to see the name on the envelope. "They'd think Mum finally got mad at her most annoying child and - "

"Hannah? You're writing to Hannah? Why on earth are you doing that! You'll just see her tomorrow!"

James turned a deep shade of scarlet, and Rose gasped. "Ooooooh, you like her, don't you!"

"Get stuffed," he said, tying the letter to Bob's leg.

"You do!" She exclaimed. "I'll bet you two have been writing back and forth all break! That's so - "

"I do not! I'm just - She asked something important, and I - "

"Uh huh, I'm sure she did," Albus said, laughing. "Barely four months ago you were grossed out at Teddy and Victoire snogging, and now you're looking to get a bit for yourself!"

James hurled Bob out the kitchen window with a squawk of protest from the owl and strode from the kitchen without another word.

Albus looked at Rose. "Well, that was fun. What shall we do now?"

Rose was looking at the counter. "Aren't those some of your dad's work files?"

Albus followed her gaze. "Yeah. He must've forgotten them." He surreptitiously strolled over to the purple folders.

"Al! You can't open them!"

He gave her a patronizing look. "I'm not opening them, I'm just looking at the covers!" He gently pushed the top folder, labeled Werewolf Activity in Scotland, aside, to better look at the file underneath. He paused in surprise. "Rose, come here."

"What? I'm not opening those, we'll get in trouble."

"No, Rose, look. Why does he have..." Albus trailed off as he held up the file underneath, and his cousin's jaw dropped.

Harry Potter stretched his legs out and put his feet up on his desk. He put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes. He was very comfortable, and therefore annoyed when he Ron interrupted his peaceful quiet time.

"What's up, mate?"

Harry groaned. "Just trying to enjoy the sound of silence. Lily's been getting us up earlier and earlier everyday. She didn't act like this when her brothers were at school, but now they're home, she's going nuts. Not to mention Al's been wild since he got home - when he finally gets up, that is. And James is spending all his time in his room, I have no idea what's going on with him." He sighed. "I'm losing control of my children, Ron!" He wasn't actually that agitated, but he felt it described the situation in appropriate hyperbole.

"Hmm. Glad I don't have to deal with that. My kids are over at your house all the time." Harry glared at him, and Ron changed tact. "So, are the arrangements all set for tomorrow?"

"Which arrangements? The kids' arrangements, or our arrangements?"

"Both, I suppose."

"Ginny's driving all of ours to King's Cross tomorrow. I pity her, with that car ride to look forward to. Arcturas is setting up a spare classroom at Hogwarts to use as headquarters for the Aurors that will be stationed there this term." They had come to a pretty easy decision to station a few Aurors at the school. It had become clear that it was not merely some pranksters hazing first years when the Head Boy himself had been attacked. The fact that his son had almost become a victim for the second time might have also played a part in Harry's decision. "Keaney and the rest of them will be there tomorrow. They'll be taking it in shifts."

"Who do you think it is?" Ron asked. Harry didn't need to ask what he was referring to.

"How should I know?" He snapped. "If I knew, we wouldn't be stationing seven Aurors at Hogwarts, we'd just be going and arresting his arse."

"Alright, relax, mate."

Harry sighed. "Sorry. Stressful job, even when your child isn't being attacked by a madman."

Ron nodded. "But, do you reckon it's a student, or someone else?"

Harry paused. "I supposed it could be a student. They'd have to be pretty powerful, though, to knock a seventh year out for nearly twenty hours."

"So... it's probably not exactly a first year, then." Ron seemed to be avoiding saying what Harry knew was on his mind.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "If you're asking me if I think that Ewan Greenwood, son of one of the last uncaptured Death Eaters, is attacking students at random and incapacitating them, then the answer is no. From what Neville says, he's not very good with wandwork. Fantastic at Herbology, apparently, Neville was raving about him there - but, no, I seriously doubt it's him." Ron still looked anxious. "C'mon, Ron, you met the kid. He was a cheerful bloke."

"Does he know who his father is?"

"According to his mother when they interviewed her last year, he knows who Voldemort was, what the Death Eaters were, and that his father was one of them, but he thinks he's dead. His father disappeared when he was young. His mother was still pregnant with their second child. I doubt he even remembers him."

Ron stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Why would a Death Eater even shack up with a Muggle woman?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know. Cover? What better way to pretend you're not a Death Eater than to marry a Muggle? But it didn't do him much good. We still knew his game. Witnesses saw Marcus Greenwood torture and kill a whole family of Muggles. Four children. He hid for a while, but we caught up to him, in the end. Arcturas said when they told the poor woman who she had really married, she collapsed straight away, and didn't talk for nearly a day afterwards."

"But she kept his name? Why would she do that, after learning - "

"I don't know, who knows. Here, read the kid's file, maybe that'll clear some things up." Harry rummaged fruitlessly through the piles on his desk. "Ah, no! I don't believe it. I left it at home." He leaned back, putting his hands back behind his head and closing his eyes once again. "I'll get it - " he suddenly sat bolt upright.

"What's the matter?" Ron looked alarmed at his friend's sudden movement.

"I left it on the kitchen counter! And Al has been getting into everything lately! Shit!" He leapt to his feet and sprinted towards the fireplace, grabbing a handful of Floo Powder as he ran. Jumping into the fireplace, he flung the Floo Powder down, shouting "The Haven!" as he went.

As soon as he appeared in the fireplace at home, he knew he was too late. Albus and Rose were standing in the kitchen, reading Ewan Greenwood's file folder with looks of shock on their face.