"You know," Ron said, leaning back in his chair in the office him and Harry shared at the ministry. "I reckon the Cannons have a shot this year, don't you?"

"Why? Because they only lost their last game by fifty points?" Harry asked, flipping through a few files on his desk.

"What a match," Ron said proudly, beaming. "Their best margin in over forty years."

Harry laughed.

"What are you two up to?" Hermione asked, walking into the office.

"Nothing," Harry told her as she sat down in the empty chair at Ron's desk. "Just getting ready to do the last probation interview of the day then we can head home. Blimey, I don't think we've ever finished up before noon before."

"Well you two have been here since eleven last nigh," Hermione pointed out.

"Too true," Ron said. "Can't wait to go home and sleep."

"Aren't you forgetting that you promised Hugo you'd play chess with him as soon as you got home?" Hermione said, turning to her husband. "He's been talking about it since he woke up this morning."

"Bloody hell, that kid won't forget anything, will he?" Ron sighed. "He's no fun to play against anymore, though."

"Why, because he beats you?" Hermione laughed.

"No."

"So who's probation interview are you doing?" Hermione asked Harry.

"Claridina Wretermoust's," he muttered darkly. "She should still be in Azkaban, not on bloody probation."

"Perk up, mate," Ron said. "Maybe she's slipped up and we can send her back to Azkaban."

"I highly doubt she'd slip up," Harry sighed. "Did I ever tell you I saw her in Knockturn Alley last summer?"

"Really?" Hermione inquired. "What were you doing there?"

"It was when Ginny and I went with Dudley and Alexandra to get her school stuff," he explained. "Alexandra got separated in the crowd and wound up there. Found Wretermoust and her pals huddled all around her."

"Poor thing, she probably scared her something awful," Hermione said.

"We'd probably get going," Ron said, glancing at his watch. "Interview starts in five minutes."

"Right," Harry nodded solemnly.

"Remember, Molly's making one of her famous feasts tonight," Hermione told them. "She said to be there around six. Oh, and Harry, she said that you should invite Dudley and Alexandra as well this year."

"Sounds good," Harry said. "I'll call him soon as I get home."

"You going home 'mione?" Ron asked.

"Not until around two," she said. "I have a meeting I need to be at soon with Kingsly. My mum's at the house watching the kids. Good luck with the interview."

"Don't be so down, mate," Ron said as him and Harry made their way to the elevator. "We're done after this!"

"I just don't like Wretermoust," Harry sighed.

"Neither do I; Dark witch if I've ever seen one."

"She's not just Dark," Harry said. "It's like she's a whole other level of evil."

"Don't you think you're exaggerating there, mate?" Ron asked gently. "There's loads more wizards who've done worse things than she has; not that what she's done isn't bad."

"Not when they were fresh out of school," Harry pointed out. "Remember, she was only eighteen when we arrested her; our age. She was just getting started back then, who knows what she's capable of now."

"But we stopped her," Ron reminded him. "And even know she's being watched by the Ministry, she's lost."

Harry shook his head. "Witches like her don't just lose. She's probably found ways to get around the our sight, I just wish I knew how…"

"Bit paranoid there, are you?"

"Ron, I know she's up to something; I've known it from the day she was released from Azkaban."

Ron didn't say anything, and the two continued to walk in silence until they reached the interview room.

"She's right in there," a young Aurror, Hank Ashmen, greeted them outside the door. "I handed her wand over to Robbs, who's checking it right now."

"Thanks," Harry said. "Has she been given the Veritaserum?"

"Ten minutes ago," he nodded. "Should be well into her system by now."

"Probably knows some way to fool it," Harry said so only Ron could here him. "Great work, Hank, Ron and I can take it from here."

Hank smiled and turned down the hall.

Harry and Ron opened the door and entered the interview room.

The room was small, with only a table and three chairs, and no windows. In one of the chairs sat Claridina Wretermoust. She had dark circles underneath her eyes, and her face was stretched thin. Her hair was wrapped in a black shawl.

"Well Ms. Wretermoust," Ron began, sitting in a chair across from the woman. "You know why you're here."

"I do," she answered back coolly. "And can we make this quick? I need to pick up my son from the train at eleven."

"I'm sure your son can stand a few moments away from his mum," Harry said. "Speaking of which, hear he's taken after you; stunning students up at school."

"He's a boy, he doesn't know any better," she shrugged. "Besides, that blood-traitor probably had it coming."

"How do you know he was a blood traitor?" Ron asked.

Wretermoust smiled. "Oh, I know who the boy was. You nephew, no?"

"As a matter of a fact he is," Harry said, his hands clenching.

"Ah, what a shame," she said smugly. "But we are not here to talk about my son, we're here about me."

"Right," Ron said, narrowing his eyes. He opened Wretermoust's file. "You still working at that pub in Knockturn Alley?"

"I am," she replied. "Pay's not that good, but I don't complain."

"Says here that you almost got in a duel with a co-worker last week," Harry stated, studying the file. "What'd he do, look at you the wrong way."

"A simple misunderstanding," she said smoothly. "A little incident in the kitchen. Wands were drawn, yes, but no spells were cast, so I believe I'm perfectly cleared of that."

"Says you were also near a muggle village two nights ago," Ron read. "You're not permitted to be within two miles of any muggle village, you know that."

Wretermoust smirked. "I suppose you do have me on that. I made a wrong turn on the way back to my home that night. No harm done, though."

"I highly doubt that," Harry said. "Believe me; we'll be doing a full investigation to see if anybody's gone missing from that village."

"Be my guests," she replied. "Anything else?"

"Yah, looks like there was a break in at the potions shop next to the pub you work in," Harry continued, trying to keep his detest towards this woman at bay.

"I don't know anything about it," she said.

"Store keeper wouldn't tell the Ministry what was stolen," Harry read on. "Which makes us think that whatever it was is illegal. And valuable."

"I said I don't know anything about it," she said again.

"Oh, I think you do," Harry said, his eyes fixated on her.

"Mr. Potter, you know I took Veritaserum before you came in here," Claridina responded calmly. "I can't be lying to you right now."

"I also know there's ways to fooling the potion," Harry replied darkly.

Claridina laughed. "Yes," she nodded. "I'm sure there are. But, I imagine that those ways would be impossible to prove, don't you?"

Harry didn't reply.

"Am I done here?" she asked, looking at her watch. "It's five past eleven. You don't want to keep my son waiting, do you?"

"Go," Ron said, frowning still. "Your wand will be at the front desk. You have another interview in a month."

"I look forward to it," she said, picking up her purse. "Good day, gentlemen." With that, she walked briskly out of the interview room.

"Why'd you just let her go like that?" Harry demanded the second the door shut.

"We didn't have anything else to question her about," Ron said.

"What do you mean? She practically confessed to robbing that store! That would get her back in Azkaban!"

"But the point is she didn't confess," Ron said. "You know how tight the law is. If we tried to charge her for that we'd be the ones who would end up in trouble."

"We should at least be able to tighten the surveillance around her," Harry muttered. "She did go too close to that muggle village after all."

"Putting that in right now," Ron replied, scribbling notes in the file. "And your request to have the village checked out."

"Won't do any good," Harry sighed. "She'll have covered her tracks well."

"Come on Harry, go home. Weren't you taking James flying today?"

Harry nodded.

"Then go! I'll turn in the file."

"Thanks," Harry said, slowly getting up.

"See you tonight at mum's," Ron said, picking up the file.

"Yeah, see you."

Harry set off towards the apperation point. He still felt his blood pulsing from Claridina's interview. The fact that she had almost blatantly confessed to the robbery, and yet couldn't be charged really got him. And it just helped support his theory that she was up to something, and he wanted to know what it was.

….

"Here we are," Dudley said, pulling into his driveway. He had just gotten back from Kings Cross station. Alexandra and Alanna were seated in the back of the car.

"You have a nice house, Alexandra," Alanna said politely.

"Thanks," Alexandra muttered, embarrassed. She didn't see how her dinky house with barely any yard qualified as nice.

"You girls can head inside," Dudley said, handing his daughter the house key. "I'll take your trunks."

"Thank you, Mr. Dursely," Alanna said gratefully.

"Yah, thanks dad," Alexandra said quickly. "Come on, Alanna, I'll show you my room."

She unlocked the front door and led Alanna to her room.

"It's a bit small," she said, turning on the light. "But so is everything around here. There's your bed." She pointed to the camping bed Dudley had set up.

"It's nicer than my room," Alanna stated, looking around. "My parents would have never let me hang posters on my walls. Or paint my walls blue."

"Really? That's a shame," Alexandra said sympathetically. "I don't think I'd be able to survive in just a plain, white room."

The phone rang from the living room. "I've got it," Dudley called out.

"Your dad's really nice," Alanna said. "I can't believe he's letting me stay with you for the break."

"Don't mention it," Alexandra said. "I just didn't want you to be stuck at the school again."

"Here's your trunk, Alanna," Dudley said, heaving the large trunk into the room. "By the way, that was Harry on the phone. He invited us to dinner tonight."
"Are we going?" Alexandra asked eagerly.

"Sure, if you two are up to it."

"I am," Alanna said. "I'm looking forward to meeting this famous Harry Potter."

"Alright then, we'll leave at five. The dinner's not at his place, it's at Ginny's mum's house, but he said we could take their Foo thingy."

"Floo, dad," Alexandra corrected.

"Right well," Dudley shrugged. "Either way you say it, I'm still not a fan of it."

"Floo?" Alanna questioned as Dudley left. "What is that?"

"It's how a lot of wizards travel," Alexandra explained. "You go through the fireplace and wind up at your destination."

"Wow," Alanna gasped. "That's amazing!"

"Actually, it's rather uncomfortable. But I've only used it once last summer, though. I imagine it's something you have to get used to."

"Will Fred be there?"

"Probably, his whole family's usually at these dinners, or at least the couple Dad and I have been to. Anyway," Alexandra said, looking down at her watch. "We won't need to leave for a few more hours. What do you want to do in the meantime?"

"Whatever you want, so long as it's not homework, we did more than enough of that this past week."

"Absolutely. Want to go for a walk? It's really nice outside."

"That sounds fun," Alanna agreed happily.

After informing Dudley that they were going out, Alexandra and Alanna set off to nowhere in particular, simply appreciating the weather that had been taunting them for the past few weeks at school, while they were stuck inside with mountains of work.

"Hey, Alexandra," Alanna asked suddenly as the two walked past a small shopping center. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Well, on our first night at Hogwarts, Grace and Tiffany said that your dad was awful to Harry, but how can that be when he seems so nice?"

"Like I told them, they made up about six years ago," Alexandra replied. "I don't know much else about there relationship as kids. But I know that my grandparents probably had something to do with treating Harry badly."

"Really? Why?"

Alexandra shrugged. "I don't think they like magic, my grandfather especially. It was at their house that I showed my first bit of magic. Right after I made a cup of juice fly across the room, my grandfather yelled at me and my dad to get out of his house and never come back."

"That's terrible," Alanna said softly. "You haven't seen them since?"

"Nope."

"It was kind of like that with my dad, when he found out I was a witch. I mean, I guess I had been showing signs of magic before my letter came, like you. I could make flower petals open and close, and whenever I would get into a fight with one of my sisters, one of their toys would always break the very next day, but I never suspected magic was behind all of that. When I got my letter, he thought it was just a joke or something at first; he threw it away. They kept coming but dad just kept tossing them. Finally after about a week, Professor McGonagall showed up at our doorstep to personally deliver my letter. Dad wasn't home, thank goodness, but when my mum told him, he was furious. He said he knew there was something wrong with me ever since I was born, and that I was going straight to Hell and he was glad for it. Then he yelled at my mum, said that it was her evil blood that did this to me, and that she was just as damned at me. He left that same day."

"I'm really sorry," said Alexandra, holding back tears. "That's-that's terrible."

"My mum tried not to show that she was angry with me," Alanna continued. "She let me come to Hogwarts, after all, but I know she blames me for it, so do my sisters I think."

The two girls walked in silence for a few blocks. Alexandra didn't think she had ever felt this bad her whole life, not even when her own mother left; at least her Dad didn't hold that against her.

"So," Alexandra said, breaking the silence. "How many sisters do you have?"

"Twelve," Alanna answered. "Three older, eight younger and one my twin."

"You're a twin?" Alexandra repeated. "I never knew that. What's her name?"

"Christine. We're not identical, or even that close for that matter. I usually played with my younger sister, Maria more, and she played with our older sisters."

"I wish I had twelve sisters, it's dead boring growing up an only child."

"I always dreamed of being an only child, to tell you the truth. I'm always stuck sharing everything; clothes, books, games, my parents attention."

Alexandra didn't know how to reply to this, so she instead opted to stay quiet.

"I'm really sorry that I dragged all this on you," Alanna sighed. "It's break, after all, we should be having fun!"

"Don't worry about it," Alexandra assured her. "Why don't we head back to my place? It's probably time to start heading to Harry's soon."

Alanna nodded. "Okay."

And with that, they started they're way back to the house, each girl deep in their own thoughts.

…

AN- Sorry about the long wait, I'll try to have the next chapter up soon. I know this chapter was kind of just a filler, but I really wanted to reveal Alanna's background more in depth.