An Illicit Meeting
The night before leaving to catch the Hogwarts Express, Bel retrieved her bottle of hair potion from where she had been saving it at the back of her dresser drawer. The parchment strip glued to the bottle contained directions written in minuscule smudged handwriting, and she plopped down on her bed to decipher it. "Wet hair…carefully pour…something drops…onto moist cloth…rug…no rub cloth over hair…let dry overnight," she muttered. That seems easy enough, but I probably better use a lot, my hair is impossible.
After her shower, Bel took her washcloth and dumped half of the little bottle onto it. "Looks fine so far," Bel smushed the cloth together, and then began rubbing it vigorously into her sopping hair. After a few seconds, it began to get harder, until the potion had congealed into a wax-like mess all over her head. Neither soap nor attacking it with her comb made any difference whatsoever. In fact, several tines broke off the comb and became stuck in the wax. Bel looked at her reflection in the floor length mirror. A pixielike girl stared back at her. It had her own pale face and green eyes, but its curly black hair was stuck in gravity defying positions, and refused to move an inch. If it's still like this by morning, I'll just have to hope that Aunt Astoria can get it off. But there's still a chance that it'll work. I probably just used too much.
The first ray of sunlight hit Bel's eyes and she rolled over and groaned before remembering what day it was and sitting up in bed with a jolt. She grinned when she saw her reflection in the mirror on top of her dresser. The waxy substance was gone, although her hair was so matted against her head it was impossible to tell whether or not the Hair Taming Potion had worked. Bel began to work her comb through her hair, careful not to scratch her head with the broken bits. Sure enough, her hair fell straight and thick with just a hint of wave in the wake of the brush.
Not bothering to get dressed, Bel flew out of her room and began to bang on Cat's door. After a solid minute of unearthly racket, her friend blearily opened the door. She stared blankly at Bel for a few moments before jumping backwards with a sharp yelp.
"How do you like it?" Bel asked breathlessly, shaking her straightened tresses and grinning at her shocked friend.
Cat considered Bel for a few moments before speaking. "It certainly is different…you look a little closer to your real age than you usually do. More like a third year. You're not planning to try to do this everyday, are you?" It certainly makes you look less like Her but more like HIM. Not sure if that's a good thing. Not sure if they're going to let you go to the station like that.
Bel laughed delightedly, spinning in front of her friend. "It's way too much work to do every day, but I have to admit it's probably the only day I can remember that I ever managed to get all the tangles out!" She raced past a sandy-eyed Scorpius who had been driven out of bed to investigate the noise, and stood blinking at her in confusion before retreating back behind his door. Bel threw on some clothes before dragging her already jammed-to-the-gills trunk unthinkingly down the stairs. She was the first one at breakfast, other than Saeth who refused to comment on her hair even when asked point blank.
"Mistress looks beautiful every day, of course," Saeth stubbornly replied as she served Bel scrambled eggs and sausage.
Cat and Scorpius joined her soon afterward, and they had nearly finished by the time any of the adults deigned to come down, barely half an hour before they were due to leave for King's Cross Station. Aunt Astoria arrived first as usual, and laughed with delight when she caught sight of Bel. "You straightened your hair! It looks wonderful dear, just the way to start off the new school year." She swept around the table to where Bel sat before enveloping her with an apple scented hug. "Is it perhaps for a special someone?" She whispered conspiratorially, "Don't worry I wouldn't tell a soul!"
Bel turned slightly pink and shook her head, her concentration suddenly absorbed by the last scraps of eggs on her plate. Scorpius and Cat burst out laughing and proceeded to derive great enjoyment from speculating on their friend's secret crush. Prime suspects included The Bloody Baron and Peeves.
Uncle Draco trailed in only a few minutes behind his wife and took the chair next to her. Although he did not join in the fun, Bel could have sworn he hid a few smiles behind his copy of the Daily Prophet. Their merriment was interrupted by the arrival of Aunt Narcissa who dropped her teacup upon seeing Bel and promptly rushed out of the room. Saeth stopped refilling the pitcher of Pumpkin Juice and had fished almost all of the china shards out of the thick rug before Aunt Narcissa returned accompanied by Uncle Lucius.
Uncle Lucius took one look at Bel and sighed, shaking his head, before sinking into the chair at the head of the table. Bel attempted an innocent smile, but it did not want to stick under his rueful gaze. "What have you done to your hair?" he asked calmly, pouring himself a cup of coffee.
"She straightened it. Isn't it wonderful!" Aunt Astoria replied oblivious to the sudden tension in the air.
Still looking calmly at Bel, never sparing Astoria even a glance, Uncle Lucius continued speaking. "I can see that she straightened it, I am trying to find out how."
Bel felt her stomach attempt to hide behind her spine. She wasn't sure why everyone except Aunt Astoria was so concerned, but that wasn't exactly comforting. "I bought it from one of the stalls in Diagon Alley. Extra-Strength Hair Tamer. I thought it might make it a bit more manageable."
Uncle Lucius said nothing but raised his eyebrows as he turned to look at Aunt Narcissa who was standing behind his chair looking a little paler than usual. "It's impossible to remove. It just has to wear off. Thankfully it only takes about a day."
"You'll just have to go as you are," Uncle Lucius proclaimed. "Is there any left?"
"About half the bottle," Bel muttered.
A few moments later the little bottle streaked down the staircase and landed in the coals with a little puff of silver smoke. No one spoke for the rest of breakfast. While the trunks and cages were being loaded into the back of the Mercedes, Bel sat on the back bench seat between Cat and Scorpius.
"Would someone please explain to me why everyone acted as if I had decided to shave my head this morning?" Bel asked, confusion and frustration boiling over.
"It's not that it looks bad or anything," Cat began cautiously. "It actually looks quite good but…did you look in the mirror this morning?"
"Of course I did!" Bel snapped. "It looks straight. Or at least as close as I'm ever likely to get. Even the Extra-Strength one didn't get rid of all of the wave."
"That might be part of the problem…" Cat trailed off, not quite sure how to continue.
"What Cat is trying to get at is that you don't look like Bellatrix anymore. Congratulations. Now you look like him. They're all scared that someone will notice…well, everyone but my mother."
Bel sat quietly for a moment, watching the adults talk nervously outside the windows. "Shite."
"It should wear off by tomorrow," Cat said hopefully. "Just try not to talk to any of the Professors or anything till then. Not like anyone our age will notice. Except the Gryffindors, but they know already."
Bel had started to turn a pale shade of green. "I'm not so sure about that. I used over half a bottle. Way more than I should have. It would probably work on normal hair for weeks." Bel began to laugh. "This is probably the only time in my entire life I will be grateful for having hair that refuses to obey the rules of nature."
Soon, Cat and Scorpius had joined her and the car shook with laughter that could not be quelled even by Uncle Lucius's glares and dark protestations about taking the situation seriously.
The first crisp red leaves of autumn were beginning to fall on the first of September. The inevitable chaos of getting so many children's trunks packed in the car, and the children themselves settled in the seats was only intensified by the addition of Albus and Rose. It was impossible to keep the confusion safely contained in their separate houses and it inevitably spread out into the quiet side street in Godric's Hollow. Belongings always migrated over the summer, and it seemed as if any item forgotten until the last minute had been left in a different house than its owner resided in.
This phenomenon was particularly intense this year, as, unbeknownst to their guardians, the playroom in the attic of the Potter's house had been quietly converted into a clandestine meeting spot. While the series of meetings and verifiable flurries of owls had not actually uncovered anything new about the curious events of the previous school year, they had served to make the shaky partnership slightly more stable. This new camaraderie between the older and younger children had not escaped their parents' notice, but they had been forced to bemusedly conclude that the trauma had caused the older children to take notice of their younger kin, which was-all in all-not a bad outcome.
As usual, the Potters were the last to leave, pulling out of the drive ten minutes behind Ron and Hermione, fifteen behind Bill and Fleur, and a full half hour after Andromeda had come to collect Teddy. Even with all three siblingsand two owl cagesin the backseat, it was not crowded, as the bench was nearly twice as wide as it had any right to be. It was also twice as loud, as James was debating his brother's sorting prospects causing Lily to laugh uproariously.
"You'll never make Ravenclaw…Lily might…but you and I don't have the brains put together," said James grinning broadly.
"I helped with that riddle…" muttered Albus, his cheeks heating up.
"Your skills of reading put us all to shame," smirked James. "Hufflepuff. You could go to Hufflepuff. They'll take anyone! Think of it, sitting around the common room fire for seven years, singing and holding hands. You'd have such a great time!"
Albus sunk further into the cushions of his seat. "That's not fair! Some of the D.A. was in Hufflepuff, right Dad?"
Harry grunted from the front seat, fully engrossed in the London traffic. Ginny looked up momentarily from her notes on the last Quidditch match to reply, "Susan Bones and Hannah Abbot. Several others. There's no shame in being a Hufflepuff. All four houses pull together when it really counts. Even the Slytherins fought in the Battle of Hogwarts."
Albus leaned across Lily toward his brother. "See! I bet you're just taking the micky out of me because the Sorting Hat wanted to put you in Hufflepuff, and you had to beg! Wait, no I bet it wanted to put you in Slytherin!"
James grinned wider than the Cheshire Cat. "Slytherin, now there's an idea. You might be in Slytherin! Live underground and have the color leeched out of you! Perhaps you'll turn into a ghost. You just never know what the Hat'll do. Totally unpredictable."
Albus looked slightly green but managed to retort, "Even I know you don't turn into a ghost by living underground. Really James what did you do all last year…moon over some girl?" just before the car pulled to the curb outside of King's Cross and he jumped out of the car before James could grab him.
Shoving their trunks and owls onto trollies, the two brothers walked at the head of their family, still bickering. A few steps behind them walked their parents and sister, engrossed in their own world and surrounded by the swirling mass of muggles moving around them.
"It won't be long, and you'll be going too," Harry told her.
"A whole year," sniffed Lily. "I want to go now! I'm gonna miss so much…"
Harry laughed, grinning at the misunderstood dismay on his daughter's face. "The castle will still be there, I promise."
Lily sighed, muttering "It's not the castle I'm worried about missing out on," too low for her father to hear.
The owls perched in cages on top of red leather trunks drew several curious glances from muggles, and a few squeals from young children. But on the whole the little party was ignored in the bustle of the busy station. Most of the inhabitants were simply too busy with their own cares to spare more than a passing thought for the unusual. As they approached the barrier between platforms nine and ten, a lull in the crowd allowed the renewed strains of their sons' argument to drift back to Harry and Ginny's ears.
"I won't! I won't be a Slytherin!"
"James, give it a rest!" said Ginny.
"I only said he might be," said James, grinning at his younger brother. "There's nothing wrong with that. He might be in Slytherin."
But upon seeing his mother's warning glare he fell silent. The family approached the barrier, taking advantage of the break in muggle traffic caused by the departure of the Edinburgh train to cross inconspicuously. Tossing a cocky grin at his brother over his shoulder, James adjusted his grip on his trolly and tilted at the barrier. The bricks rippled momentarily at his passage before returning to their apparently solid state.
"You'll write to me, won't you?" Albus asked his parents immediately, capitalizing on the momentary absence of his brother.
"Every day, if you want us to," said Ginny.
"Not every day," said Albus quickly, "James says most people only get letters from home about once a month."
"We wrote to James three times a week last year," said Ginny.
"And you don't want to believe everything he tells you about Hogwarts," Harry put in. "He likes a laugh, your brother."
Walking beside Albus toward the barrier Lily hissed in his ear, "You'd better write me and Hugo about what's really going on-not just the stuff you tell Mum and Dad!"
Albus grunted as he pushed his trolly faster, following his parents toward the bricks. Lily ran alongside his trolley before darting ahead at the last minute to pass through with Ginny. Albus squeezed his eyes shut an instant before he hit the bricks, but instead of the impact he dreaded, he encountered a wall of noise. Great puffs of steam screamed out of the scarlet engine. An enormous crowd milled about within the steam, and sparks hung occasionally in the heavy mist.
"Where are they?" asked Albus anxiously, peering at the hazy forms they passed as they made their way down the platform.
"We'll find them," said Ginny reassuringly.
The thick water vapor muffled voices and obscured faces, making it hard to really see anyone standing more than ten feet away. Detached from their owners, voices bounced around the platform, and snatches of conversations mingled together in the air. Somewhere Percy had found someone to listen to broomstick regulations, and the Potters hurried past, hidden in the mist.
"I think that's them, Al," said Ginny suddenly.
A group of four people emerged from the mist, standing alongside the very last carriage. Although their faces only came into focus when Harry, Ginny, Lily, and Albus had drawn right up to them, the flaming red hair of three of the figures stood out like beacons.
"Hi," said Albus, immensely relieved to have found at least one of the people he was supposed to be meeting on the train.
Rose, who was already wearing her brand-new Hogwarts robes, beamed at him. She leaned closer to whisper, "Bel is only one carriage down, but I haven't seen anyone else, have you?"
Albus shook his head. "James ran through the barrier ahead, I haven't seen him since."
"Parked all right, then?" Ron asked Harry. "I did. Hermione didn't believe I could pass a Muggle driving test, did you? She thought I'd have to Confound the examiner."
"No, I didn't," said Hermione, "I had complete faith in you."
"As a matter of fact, I did Confund him," Ron whispered to Harry, as together they lifted Albus's trunk and owl onto the train. "I only forgot to look in the wing mirror,
and let's face it, I can use a Supersensory Charm for that."
While their parents had been occupied with catching up, Lily and Hugo had been commiserating about how much they were likely to miss being stuck at home an extra year. "Think about it, someone has those pages that we couldn't find. I doubt they were just planning to sell them to Flourish and Blotts," Lily fumed. "And whatever happens, a Knut says that it'll happen at Hogwarts. Everything happens there!"
"Yeah," replied Hugo looking at the ground. We should read the paper or something. Try to see if anything strange is happening."
Lily looked thoughtful. "That's actually a good idea. Everyone always jokes about me ending up in Ravenclaw, but maybe it'll be you instead!"
"If you're not in Gryffindor, we'll disinherit you," said Ron, "but no pressure."
"Ron!"
Lily and Hugo laughed nervously, relieved that their parents had only heard the last bit, but Albus and Rose looked solemn. Sorting just hit a little close to home at the moment.
"He doesn't mean it," said Hermione, and Ginny nodded encouragingly, but Ron was no longer paying attention. Catching Harry's eye, he nodded covertly to a point some fifty yards away. The steam had thinned for a moment, and three people stood in sharp relief against the shifting mist.
"Look who it is," commented Ron, distaste showing on his face.
Draco Malfoy was standing there with his wife and son, a dark coat buttoned up to his throat. His hair had receeded somewhat, even since the end of last year, which emphasized the pointed chin. Scorpius resembled Draco as much as Albus resembled Harry. Draco caught sight of Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny staring at him, nodded curtly, and turned away again. Albus caught sight of Bel through the mist just beyond the Malfoys, standing near Lucius and Cat. He noticed something was off about her hair, but the gap in the mist closed before he could be sure of what it was.
"So there's Scorpius, so nice to see him again," said Ron under his breath his eyes narrowed. "Make sure you beat him in every test, Rosie. Thank God you inherited your mother's brains."
"Ron, for heaven's sake," said Hermione, half stern, half amused. "They're not even in the same year, don't try to turn them against each other before they've even started school!"
"You're right…sorry," said Ron, but unable to help himself, he added, "Don't get too friendly with him, especially after everything that happened last year, Rosie. I met your mother fighting a troll, and Granddad Weasley would never forgive you if you married a pureblood."
"That's not how it happened, Ronald," Hermione said with a long suffering look.
"Hey!"
James had reappeared; he had divested himself of his trunk, owl, and trolley, and was evidently bursting with news.
"Teddy's back there," he said breathlessly, pointing back over his shoulder into the billowing clouds of steam.
"Just seen him! And guess what he's doing? Snogging Victoire!"
He gazed up at the adults, evidently disappointed by the lack of reaction.
"Our Teddy! Teddy Lupin! Snogging our Victoire! Our cousin! And I asked Teddy what he was doing -"
"You interrupted them?" said Ginny. "You are so like Ron —"
With the adults sufficiently distracted, James quietly relayed the rest of the story. "I met Teddy, Victoire and Bel in the back corner like we'd planned. Scorpius and Cat couldn't get away. Teddy's got a reserved sign on compartment 713, we're all meeting there as soon as we can. It's best if the adults don't see us getting on together."
James saw the adults begin to look at them curiously so he continued in a loud voice, "— and then he told me to go away. He's snogging her!" James added as though worried he had not made himself clear.
"Oh, it would be lovely if they got married!" added Lily ecstatically, catching on to the game. "Teddy would really be part of the family then!"
"He already comes round for dinner about four times a week, and then stays the night," said Harry. "He already has a bed in James' room. What more is required to be a part of the family, Lily?"
"Yeah!" said James enthusiastically. "I don't mind sharing with Al-Teddy could have my room!"
"No," said Harry firmly, "you and Al will share a room only when I want the house demolished. It's bad enough when I have you and Teddy on bunkbeds."
Harry checked the battered old watch that had once been Fabian Prewett's.
"It's nearly eleven, you'd better get on board."
"Don't forget to give Neville our love!" Ginny told James as she hugged him.
"Mum! I can't give a professor love!"
"But you know Neville-"
James rolled his eyes. "Outside, yeah, but at school he's Professor Longbottom, isn't he? I can't walk into Herbology and give him love. . . ."
Shaking his head at his mother's foolishness, he vented his feelings by aiming a jab at Albus. "See you later, Al. Watch out for the thestrals."
"I thought they were invisible. You said they were invisible!"
James merely laughed, permitted his mother to kiss him, gave his father a fleeting hug, and then leapt onto the rapidly filling train. They saw him wave, then sprint away up the corridor to find his friends.
"Thestrals are nothing to worry about," Harry told Albus. "They're gentle things. There's nothing scary about them. Anyway, you won't be going up to school in the carriages, you'll be going in the boats with Rose."
Ginny kissed Albus good-bye.
"See you at Christmas."
"Bye, Al," said Harry as his son hugged him. "Don't forget Hagrid's invited you to tea next Friday. Don't mess with Peeves. Don't duel anyone till you've learned how. And don't let James wind you up."
"What if James is right? What if I'm in Slytherin?"
The whisper was for his father alone, and Harry knew that only the moment of departure could have forced Albus to reveal how great and sincere that fear was.
Harry crouched down so that Albus's face was almost level with his own. Alone of Harry's three children, Albus had inherited Lily's eyes, although there was a touch of green in his sister's.
"Albus Severus," Harry said quietly, so that nobody but Ginny could hear, and he knew that she would be tactful enough to pretend to be waving to Rose, who had just boarded the train, "you were named for two headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a Slytherin and he was probably the bravest man I ever knew."
"But just say-"
"-then Slytherin House will have gained an excellent student, won't it? It doesn't matter to us, Al. But if it matters to you, you'll be able to choose Gryffindor over Slytherin. The Sorting Hat takes your choice into account."
"Really?"
"It did for me," said Harry.
He had never told any of his children that before, and he saw the wonder in Albus's face when he said it. "I think the Hat always takes your choice into account if it is truly important to you. If you really need to be in Gryffindor, you will." But now the doors were slamming all along the scarlet train, and the blurred outlines of parents swarmed forward for final kisses andlast-minute reminders. Albus jumped into the carriage and Ginny closed the door behind him. Students were hanging from the windows nearest them. A great number of faces, both on the train and off, seemed to be turned toward Harry.
"Why are they all staring?" demanded Albus as he and Rose craned around to look at the other students.
"Don't let it worry you," said Ron. "It's me, I'm extremely famous."
Albus, Rose, Hugo, and Lily laughed.
Albus and Rose walked down carriage five, fighting their way through the crowds of students and billows of magic to compartment 713. "Imagine doing this with no place to go!" Albus shouted over the roar that reverberated through the train.
Rose turned to look at another group of beleaguered first years fighting their way upstream and nodded furiously in agreement. "Didn't Teddy say they just added more carriages? Imagine what it must have been like before! there isn't really room for more than half of us as it is."
Albus grunted, then laughed without humor as he saw the little group seek shelter in one of the door alcoves. The four watched the chaos rush past them with glazed eyes.
"I wish we could invite them to come with us…" Rose said, looking unhappy.
"We can't and you know it!" Albus said vehemently.
"I know, I know, but it's still sad." Rose replied as they crossed into carriage six. It only took a few more minutes to find 713, and it indeed had the promised sign affixed to the door. The cousins slipped gratefully inside.
The youngest were the last to arrive and they found the compartment already filled to bursting. The bench seats weren't really supposed to hold more than three people apiece, and squeezing two more people onto them was an unpleasant process. Even the luggage rack groaned in protest at the magical addition of two more trunks.
Albus ended up sitting across from his brother, and next to a girl with long black hair that he didn't recognize for a few seconds. "You're Bel right? Forgive me if I'm losing my marbles, but I would have sworn that you had curly hair. Like really curly hair."
Bel sighed. "I do. I straightened it last night. It didn't really go as I planned though."
She was cut short by James shouting loudly over the several smaller conversations that had been filling the small space. "I'd love to just sit here and catch up but I think it's obvious to everyone that we can't spend the entire ride like this. It was uncomfortable with six last year and we've got two extra and the rest of us are a year older. Unless anyone can do an Extension Charm, let's do this quickly so we can find another compartment before they're all gone!" This was met by relieved murmurs of assent. "Anyone find anything that they didn't want to put in a letter?"
"Not really," Bel replied. "Nothing that you could put your finger on, but something is going on. Uncle Lucius is never home, and they didn't have that meeting over the summer, you know the one with everyone who stayed out of Azkaban? I was thinking earlier that the only reason that they wouldn't is if they were meeting somewhere else."
"That can't possibly be good for us…" Teddy trailed off from his position squashed against the window.
"No," agreed Scorpius grimly, "especially as we have no idea what's going on. They haven't said anything to us about…the incident…and I would bet anything that my Grandfather knows. We didn't tell them, and McGonagall didn't want to involve him, but still."
"Oh he knows," Bel stated. "I don't know how Uncle Lucius gets his information, but he seems to know about things almost before they happen. If I had to guess I'd say he's trying to find the pages, but there's not really any way to be sure. He's gone all the time, so he's definitely looking for something…What about you? Auror department find anything?"
"Dad's been remarkably tight lipped. You normally can't get him to shut up about work but nothing about anything good. It's like he knows deep down that something about this one doesn't add up but won't admit it to himself." James slumped back into his seat, not looking very happy.
"We even sicced Lily on him. Normally she can get Dad to do just about anything," Albus moaned. "But he actually told her to stop fishing."
"I don't think Dad has even told Mum anything," James added grimacing. "We tried eavesdropping."
"In other words we are exactly where we started at the beginning of the summer. In other words, nowhere," Teddy stood and stretched. "Unless anyone has anything brilliant to add, I suggest we continue this in a few days when we actually have room to breathe."
Scorpius fished a Galleon out of his pocket, holding it over the rocking floor of the compartment. "Heads we stay, tails we leave, that good with everyone?" Hearing no complaints, he tossed it into the air where it wheeled a few times before clattering to the floor, luckily not rolling under the seats. He stared morosely at the side glittering up at them before sighing, "Come on guys, we can probably kick a few first years out of a compartment or something." The Slytherin rescued the coin from the floor before hauling open the door to the compartment so that Bel and Cat could wriggle out.
Albus stood up so that this maneuver was even possible, and found himself standing across from his brother's grinning face.
"Planning to join your future housemates, Albus?" said James grinning broadly.
"You know what James? I think I will," Albus retorted forcefully before passing a startled but laughing Scorpius on the way out, leaving James behind with a look of bemusement plastered onto his face.
Release Date Will Be Announced Soon
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