Ch 29- House Divided


The weekend had seemed to last forever, Lily Luna Potter realized with a groan. It felt like a lifetime had passed since Zoey had confronted Rose about the Scandals article. Since everyone had found out about the Halloween break-in to Ravenclaw Tower. Since her coin had burned and gave the time for this meeting.

So here she was, skipping out on a perfectly good meal to instead sit in the North Tower, which used to be the divination classroom. Her Dad had told her all about the retired bug-eyed teacher of the subject when he'd been at Hogwarts- what was her name again, Twillany?- and how musty her classroom was, so Lily never thought she'd come here voluntarily. But it turned out that James, Roxanne and Lorcan had deemed this place the Legacies' unofficial club room of Hogwarts. The three had cleared out the tea tables and shelves, shaken dust from the rugs and taken down the heavy drapes from the windows all to give the room a much brighter air. The plush armchairs and poufs were the only things from the original divination room that hadn't been thrown out. Instead the collection had been added to. Now the piles of cushions on the floor was so thick that someone could randomly flop to the ground and be well-swaddled in a double layer of pillows. A fireplace kept the otherwise nippy room cozy in the winter chill, and the whole tower was so far out of the beaten paths that other the students barely knew it existed. The Legacy family had been using the retired classroom for all their meetings ever since, because the one thing their coins didn't convey was locations.

She grasped the fake galleon in her hand, looking at the time written on the gold metal. The family meeting was set to start soon. After the fight though, Lily knew it wouldn't be a full meeting. Roxanne was still recovering in the Hospital Wing, and her brother Fred had refused to leave her side. Lily supposed that wasn't the worst thing in the world- Freddie could be a little bit stuffy sometimes, especially since he'd filled in as a Prefect for this year.

The youngest Potter groaned and pressed a pillow to her face. What was taking everybody so bloody long, her and Hugo had been here for ages already! James and Lorcan were even here on time, a world wonder in and of itself.

As though summoned by her desire, the small silver bell chimed. This classroom's equivalent of a doorbell, it meant that someone was outside and wanting in.

Lily rolled on the pouf cushion she was curled on, rapping her knuckles on the floor in a specific pattern. The magical trapdoor opened and a shimmering ladder dropped to the floor below, where she heard a "Merci," float up. It took a moment for Lily to process this, but once it did she sat bolt upright in surprise, staring as the latest family member arrived. She didn't usually come to these.

Dominique Weasley climbed the silver ladder with far more grace than should have been possible. The Fifth Year's motions were always innately fluid because of the bit of Veela blood she'd inherited from her mother Fleur. She somehow made sitting on the edge of the trapdoor and then turning to her feet appear like a choreographed dance move, catching all attention away from the person who came up behind her. The image of poise was shattered though when Dom's nose wrinkled a bit as she looked around with a mumble, something about "more dust than I remember".

Lily followed the gaze and, while the place wasn't really as dirty as all that, knew Dominique was right. Though the house elves of Hogwarts were very meticulous even they didn't come here often. Normally a quick cleaning scourgify or something would have been cast by now, but… well, nobody had their wand. Her empty fingers twitched at the thought.

Despite her disapproval Dominique entered the tower room anyways, making a beeline for one of the few hard chairs left, by the fireplace. She used a handkerchief to wipe off the seat and perched at the edge so her spine didn't touch the ornate back, looking around the room.

A puff of air announced Albus's presence as he sat next to her, his mouth pulled down in a small frown. He was looking across the room at James, his eyes narrowed.

Lily ran a hand through her red hair, a thrill of worry going through her as she realized this was the first time her brothers had voluntarily sat in the same room since the school year started. Part of her was hopeful that this was a step of progress, especially after Albus defended James from Scorpius's spell, but she somehow doubted it.

"So-" Dominique's voice cut through her thoughts. "Looks like this is everybody."

Everyone looked and took count as well. James and Lorcan were sitting on their usual spot on one of the couches, their arms crossed on opposite sides of the seat. Hugo and Lily were on the other side of the circular room, having taken the two softest spots of the day, and Albus was next to them. Dominique wasn't moving from her spot by the empty fireplace and Lysander was sitting against the windowsill- holding a book, of course. His gaze had flicked up to look at everyone's entrance, but now he was marking his page with an owl feather before shutting it.

It always feels like there are more of us, Lily thought to herself as she looked around at the mere seven of them. Her family had such a large presence in Hogwarts she frequently forgot there were less than a dozen of them still in school. But it still wasn't quite all of them.

"What about Rose?" Lily asked the room at large.

"She was sulking at the bottom of the ladder. Close enough." Dominique waved a hand dismissively, then wrinkled her nose at the dust the action kicked up.

Not sulking, Lily thought, probably worried and embarrassed about what might be awaiting in this meeting.

"She's just nervous." Albus said softly, tapping his coin on the cushion. "She'll be up soon."

Lily glanced at him and nodded gratefully, glad he'd made the correction to the room. He didn't respond, his eyes still trained on James. "So- it seems- we're about ready to start."

The oldest Potter gave a small jolt of surprise at being addressed, then smirked and adjusted his round glasses. "Seems like it."

The tapping increased, small and mute thump thumps in the room offset by the ticking of the clock. Albus narrowed his eyes. "...And?"

"... and what?" James said with a spot of confusion.

"And what did you call this meeting for-" he paused. "Sirius."

Everyone else did a double-take in surprise to hear Albus use his brother's middle name instead of his first. James in particular looked muddled, but Lily wasn't. Since summer James had insisted on calling Albus 'Severus' for whatever reason, so she supposed that turnabout was only fair play.

"I..." James looked around, his brown eyes unusually uncertain. "I- didn't call this meeting."

Albus stopped his fidgeting, surprised. His brother always called the meetings. Though any of their coins could be used to reach out to the group, there wasn't usually much need to get everyone together in this secret manner unless it was for one of James's many escapades against Slytherin, more often Malfoy specifically. Otherwise everyone else was fine just openly talking about their daily problems over lunches or dinners.

Lily was equally confused, looking around the room. "Then who...?"

"I did." Six pairs of eyes snapped over to the window, where Lysander Scamander sat with his hands laced over his lap, facing the room. "I called this meeting."

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Urm- what?" Lorcan Scamander said to the dead silence in the room, looking at his twin as though he'd just announced an undying love for dementors. "I'm sorry, but- what? You?"

James jerked on the other end of couch. "You also thought it was me?"

"Well- duh! Why else would we have met today instead of yesterday after the scrimmage?"

"Because under normal circumstances," Lysander interjected, "A loss would have meant James taking his team- ergo Roxanne and Rose as well- to practice through the team's mistakes until nightfall. While a victory would have meant excessive celebration, ergo all of you Gryffindors would likely have 'forgotten' to come."

He used finger quotes to show exactly how doubtful the innocence of their spotty memory would have been, and Lily piped up softly "He's got a point."

Lysander's gaze flicked across the room and Lorcan followed the look to see Rose closing the trapdoor, apparently having just worked up the gumption to join them. The Gryffindor girl looked around the room, then sat on the closest cushion with a resigned look.

"Then I ask- ask again," Albus spoke, his coin glinting in his hand. "What did you want to meet about?"

Lorcan had an idea what. Merlin, everyone did. It was more a matter of how to actually bring it up-

"I wanted to discuss your break-in to my House. Using my face. It was inexcusable." Lysander listed bluntly, and Lorcan felt a surge of equal parts affection and irritation. His was twin was so horrible at social interactions- give him a presentation or an intellectual debate and he was as smooth a talker as a veela's charm, but put him in front of actual people and the rapier finesse of his words became a rusted club. Clubs still hurt though. Different kind of hurt, but definitely still hurt.

He winced at the accusation, noting Rose doing the same on the other side of the room. James was behind him so Lorcan couldn't see it but could only imagine his best friend had reacted the same.

"It's my face too," he said sheepishly, squirming, knowing that even the old joke wouldn't do much.

"And you have no right to use it like that." Lysander's gaze cut to the other culprits. "Any of you."

Rose looked like she was trying to merge with her chair.

"You say that like this is the first time." James sighed, looking almost amused by Lysander's outburst. "You know it's not."

"It is, however, the last." the words were practically a snarl as he tapped one of the blue badges on his chest. His Ravenclaw Prefect badge. Lorcan felt a chill.

He hadn't meant to cause any kind of rift between himself and his twin. Truly. "Why didn't you say something, then?"

"This is me saying something." Lysander put a finger to the brow of his nose. "In an environment in which I know you will all listen to me, and in which you know I am saying this as your friend and family. I am through turning a blind eye to you. Any of you. Once we leave that door, I will report any and every wrongdoing I find you guilty of."

"You're not serious-"

"What part of me is screaming 'joking' at this moment, James?" The Ravenclaw held out his hands in invitation of scrutiny, his eyes glittering with the rare emotion in him. "What makes you think this is anything but a serious situation?"

Staring at his doppleganger, Lorcan knew it was true. He knew his twin like the back of his hand, knew all the little tells. Saw that Lysander was biting the inside of his cheek, as he always did when nervous but determined. Saw the crease between his eyebrows that was only present when Lysander was not merely annoyed but truly irate. And, most obviously, Lorcan saw that his twin's book hadn't just been lowered or closed but put completely away. This was his twin with his undivided attention entirely in the present, to say something he thought warranted that much effort.

Oh Merlin he'd really screwed up, hadn't he?

James faltered as well in the face of Lysander's sincerity, his amusement dwindling to a small frown. "All right then. You're pissed- fine. I get it. I'm sorry we got caught, but-"

"That's what you're sorry about?" Lily sat up, frowning at her eldest brother. "James- you three destroyed Zoey."

"Putting it mildly." Hugo mumbled. "She's a mess because of you. Do you have any idea how nice that girl is? Why would you even do that to her?"

"Well…" Lorcan fumbled with his hands. "It wasn't like we planned to. It got a bit out of hand."

He didn't notice the way James shifted guiltily, but Albus certainly did. The emerald eyes lingered, then snapped back to Lorcan since he was the one actually talking at the moment. "What was your plan, then?"

"We were- worried." He rolled his thumbs, not knowing how to explain this.

"For Zoey?"

"No… more… about her." Lorcan kept his eyes on Lysander as he talked, needing his twin to understand why he'd done what he had. "She- that girl- we thought she might have- oooh it sounds so stupid, but we thought she'd enchanted Orion and the other professors."

Lily looked a bit horrified by the statement, asking a drawn out "Why?"

"James and I saw her and the Assistant with the Minister of Magic," Rose put in, pulling at a strand of her hair. "On the Marauder's Map."

"Kingsley Shacklebolt?" Hugo asked in surprise, turning to look at her. That was always a problem with these meetings, Lorcan reflected. Twisting to look at everyone always left him with a sore neck the next day.

Rose nodded to confirm her little brother's question. "Yeah. And- and we used a Speye and heard her talking to Orion about him manipulating McGonagall, or something like that. And her magic just… it's so weird. Like she's intentionally making it look terrible. Remember how she transfigured those matches, Hugo? And yet she can't even cast wingardium leviosa…"

Lily nodded a reluctant agreement to the facts. She was in Charms with Zoey and had seen the frustrating fluctuations of the girl's magic herself. "But- I mean, that's just Zoey. She's a little…" the Hufflepuff paused to find a good word for the strikingly unique Ravenclaw, "strange, but she's not dangerous."

"We were worried she might be. So we decided to investigate, just in case." Lorcan glanced at Lysander. "Really, that's all."

After a long moment the Ravenclaw Prefect nodded once, his gaze softening. "You're an idiot, Lorcan. A well-meaning one, but still an idiot."

The tight feeling in his chest released and he leaned back on the chair with a sigh of relief and his signature smile. "I am, aren't I?"

"Does he sound happy to you?" Hugo stage whispered to Lily, who loudly whispered back "He thinks it's a compliment."

Lorcan chucked a pillow without looking and grinned when Lily squeaked as it knocked her over.

"In that case, you found what you looked for. Made an incorrect assumption. And proceeded to ruin Zoey's standing in school." Lysander summarized, back to wielding that rusted club as he leaned back against the window. "Did I miss anything?"

"Making us all look like fools," Dominique piped in without looking up from filing her nails. "And subsequently making us targets in that fight. Don't forget that little fact cherie."

"Thank you." He nodded at her as she blew dust off her nails. "That is another thing that won't happen again-"

"Yeah, right, it'd be a bit hard for us to get in a magical fight since McGonagall took our wands." James interjected with a bitter scowl, his and everyone else's right hands twitching emptily at the reminder.

"-and your investigating my Housemate." the Ravenclaw narrowed his gaze and finished as though he hadn't been interrupted. "That fight happened because of your recklessness, I hope you know. And the school retaliated because of your Halloween misadventure."

"Please." Lorcan sighed, calling his twin out on that one. "You know that Gryffindor and Slytherin have had problems long before us."

Lysander wanted to protest, but obviously couldn't. "... fair point. But that doesn't change the fact that you aggravated that rivalry. Divided the Houses even further. And in the process drove Zoey to tears. You will leave her alone from now on."

That protective tone was usually reserved for family. Lorcan tilted his head, surprised by how close his twin had become to the transfer.

He wasn't the only one.

"You make it sound like this is all about her." James said warily, him and the rest of the family watching Lysander's reaction.

"Isn't it?" Lysander asked with a spot of confusion. "I mean, she's the reason you broke into my House in the first place."

"Well of course- but why do you care?" the Gryffindor asked, stressing the other's usual apathy. "Don't tell me you like her."

"Of course I do." Lysander's confusion only grew at question with the obvious answer, and then more when Lorcan groaned, running his hand down his face.

"He means romantically, Ly." he explained to his twin with no small amount of pity and a smile twitching at his lips. "He thinks you like Zoey romantically."

"Ah. Well in that case, no. Our relationship is entirely platonic."

Albus let out a small puff of air while Lily and Hugo stifled giggles of their own at the miscommunication.

"I'm not going to stop investigating Malam." James declared, then cut off their overlapping protests with an angry wave of his arm, his voice defensive. "No, I won't! I don't know how this girl got you all wrapped around her finger, but she's suspicious! She petrified Lorcan! She attacked Rose!"

"That was in self defense-" Lily started to say, but James didn't seem to hear her.

"Someone attacked Lorcan too yesterday morning- for all we know she's in on that- And nothing has been said to explain her connection to The bloody Minister of Magic." The eldest Potter reminded them. "I don't care what you say. I'm gonna get to the bottom of this."

"You-"

"Oh shut it Lysander. You won't hear a word of it. What do you care anyways, as long as nobody gets hurt?"

"Cherie, your actions reflect on all of us." Dominique chided, pointing her nail file at him. "Do you know how many people think I was involved in this? Do you realize how many spells were sent my way yesterday, even though I never said a word?"

So that's why she was here for once, Lorcan realized. Dom usually did her best to stay out of their drama with the other Houses, far more interested in the boys outside of her family than the ones in it. But if the drama was affecting her anyways then of course she'd try to put a stop to it.

James looked vicious as he demanded who exactly had targeted her.

Albus, however, looked annoyed. He made a sweeping gesture at his brother. "And that, right there, that is what we were afraid of."

Lorcan looked at Albus sharply, shocked by the harsh tone that was coming from the normally sweet kid. "What do you mean?"

The younger Potter boy was slowly spinning the family coin in his fingers, his other hand resting lightly by his chin. "Correct me if I'm wrong, Sirius, but you have a tendency to make any situation into a school spectacle."

Jaws dropped around the room.

"You- I- that-" James stuttered, obviously not prepared for that tone or comment from his younger brother.

"So you acknowledge it then? Wonderful." Albus nodded as though the incoherent words had been a confession of guilt. "In that case there's a few things I'd like to address myself."

"Al…?" Lily asked, looking at him worriedly.

"First- bollocks." He went on. "Complete and utter bollocks that you didn't mean to ruin Zoey's school life."

Lorcan sat up with a frown. "We most certainly did not, it just-"

"You? No. Him? Definitely." he didn't move as he tilted his head to a side. "Rose? Maybe."

The girl in question whimpered, then shrunk when he turned to face her. "You've never let yourself get drawn into his crazy ideas before. You've even called them- and I quote- 'Deplorable, childish actions that you wouldn't be caught dead participating in'."

"Oi!" James protested the insults.

"Deplorable?" Hugo whispered to Lily, who whispered back "It means shameful."

Her cousin-and-friend nodded thanks at her subtle aid.

"Well… I mean-" Rose flushed and turned her head to the side. "They usually are."

"I mean I am right here."

Albus continued to ignore James. "And what made this one different?"

"Like- like Lorcan said, we were trying to see what her relationship with Assistant Orion was, and- well…" Words failed her.

"Fair." He grumbled reluctantly. "But you never considered asking her outright, did you? You never gave her a chance to tell the truth. Part of you wanted this to hurt her, otherwise you would have been smarter than that."

"I…" Rose scrambled again, but everyone knew he was right. Rose Granger-Weasley was not an idiot, and honestly had no real explanation for why she'd done something so monumentally stupid.

Lorcan expected Albus to retract his accusation, to stutter and apologize for hurting her feelings. Instead he looked almost satisfied.

"And then, instead of going to McGonagall or Uncle Neville or any of the other professors you make those false accusations direct to the students." Albus turned away from Rose, looking at James and Lorcan. "Tell me, whose idea was it to use Scandals?"

"...James's." Lorcan admitted, glancing over at his friend.

"Convenient, then, that it just happened to reach every student in the school before the professors ever heard a word of it. Otherwise, it would have been resolved peacefully. And quietly."

"Enough," James snapped, not taking the criticism like Rose had. "You really think I meant all this? Lorcan and Rose got detention."

"I dunno." He started spinning the coin again. "I never thought you had it in you to steal someone's wand during Finals, but you proved that wrong."

The older boy's jaw shut with a snap and he glared at Albus from behind his crooked glasses.

"He what!?" Lily screeched, jumping to her feet. "How- when- what!?"

"When was this?" Lysander demanded as well, sitting ramrod straight.

Lorcan groaned and sat back on the couch as the story went around. That was another annoyance with these meetings. It took forever for everyone to catch up with what everyone else knew. He'd already known that James had swapped Scorpius's wand last year- he and Roxanne had been the ones to find the exact Wheezes replica, after all. But seeing how Lysander's eye was twitching, he decided not to volunteer that fact among the many that had to be rehashed.

By the time he tuned back into the conversation Albus and James were standing five feet from eachother in the middle of the room. James was defending himself, saying something about Scorpius Malfoy needing to go down a peg or two. "I don't trust the guy! You know he only associates with Death Eater offspring like himself."

"Who's acting more like a Death Eater now?" Albus said pointedly, folding his arms.

James whirled on his little brother. "Take that back."

"You're persecuting people based on their family. Their blood. Last I checked, that- that was what Voldemort and his cronies valued. Not the good guys. You're so- so desperate to be like Dad. You're making Death Eaters out of children so you can try and be half as important as him."

"Why you little-" With a roar that was truly lion worthy James charged the last five feet between them, tackling Albus to the ground. The two rolled over the uneven cushions in the room, each trying to pin the other as they shouted:

"Take it back-"

"Why? It's true."

"It is not!"

Despite the aggression in their actions neither Potter was actually out to harm the other. Grappling like this was fairly common at home and during holidays- as per unspoken code, neither boy was punching or scratching, instead grabbing and pushing and sometimes sitting on the other. After the two vented for a while one of them would call uncle, the other would win the point, and then they'd both get up and be fine.

Rose and Lily, though, hovered around the tousling boys, even daring so far as to try breaking them up from time to time. Their attempts were completely unsuccessful, James refusing to cease his assault and Albus matching him with determination but not much else. It was obvious who had the upper hand physically.

Verbally though Albus was showing a surprising quick wit and silver bladed tongue. "You wear fake glasses and dye your hair black."

"It's natural!"

"Oh I've seen the products-"

Lorcan snorted in amused surprise.

Finally James succeeded in getting the smaller boy pinned face down to the ground and his arms on the small of his back. Albus squirmed valiantly, kicking at the ground and trying to twist free without dislocating his shoulder but wasn't strong enough to throw his brother.

Rose breathed a sigh of relief. "You won, James, let him go."

Neither boy made a move to stop. In fact, James put a stronger angle on Al's wrist.

"James!"

"Not till he takes it back."

Albus set his jaw in matching stubbornness as his feet kept twisting. "Only if you admit you were wrong to use Scandals."

"I-" he glared. "I was not."

There was a moment of silence as the rest of the room looked at James incredulously. Lorcan sat up straighter and narrowed his gaze at the Gryffindor's back. He wasn't serious- was he? Using that article had been what had blown everything out of proportion and set the whole school against itself. Well, that and Zoey's public accusation of Rose, but that might not have happened if the stolen picture hadn't made its way into Scandals first.

"Of course you weren't." Albus drawled, his feet finally landing on one of the pillows in the room. He pinned it between his ankles and pulled it up to hit the back of James's head, unbalancing the bigger boy. Al's wiry thin frame was a boon for once as it gave him just enough room to squirm free of the hold. He immediately braced a foot between them and kicked off to make even more space, enough to get out of James's reach.

"Because you- you- you're never wrong, are you?" he was saying bitterly as he stood, stepping away from James instead of continuing the fight, his eyes narrowed into slits. "James Sirius Potter, the wonder child recreated. And everyone should know it, right? Merlin forbid a single one of James Sirius Potter's accomplishments go uncelebrated. Be sure to brag on every graded essay and test you pass. Sign every Chocolate Frog Card in the school. Better use the Scandals so everyone reads about the big game you won- never mind that it was a scrimmage." Albus started brushing the dust off himself. "Oh- oh- and how dare someone else take that spotlight away from you, yeah? Absolutely horrible of her. Better make sure people hate her instead."

"That's not-" James reigned himself in, finally managing to control his own anger to actually take the time to explain himself. An action singularly difficult for the Gryffindor, Lorcan knew. His friend preferred speaking with actions instead of words.

"Zoethia Malam." James started, saying the girl's name slowly as though tasting the sound as it left his mouth. "Is- okay, yes, I know she's mostly nice. But I stand by what I said. That Ravenclaw girl is a transfer student- the first in what, a hundred years according to Uncle Neville. Which is weird, but makes sense if she has connections to Kingsley Shacklebolt. Which we know she does. And, she'd related to the History Assistant- a position which, might I add, didn't exist before they arrived. Almost as though it was made just for him. Orion is suspicious, the transfer is unexplained- and, and- and how many weird things did our parents ignore? How many things could they have figured out sooner if they'd just taken action instead of waiting for things to unfold?"

"They might have realized Snape was helping them. Could have figured out Crouch Jr. was Moody, maybe stopped the trap at the end of the Triwizard Tournament. Could have realized that Lupin and the Mauraders Map and Pettigrew were all connected, found Sirius and properly explained to the Ministry." His voice wavered with rare emotion as he folded his arms. "They could- could have helped Mom before she was dragged into the Chamber of Secrets."

There was a heavy pause in the air. Every one of their parents were undoubtedly traumatized by the events of the Second War, but what had happened to Ginny Potter was certainly one of the worst. Her soul had been used to feed a horcrux, and her mind… not even Harry Potter had been completely taken over by Voldemort the way that she'd been.

"James," Lily said softly. "That- you're holding them to a bit too high a standard. They were just kids."

"And yet Dad had stopped Voldemort three times by the time he was my age." James recited with pride. "I just… I don't want to…"

He gave up and put his forehead in his palm with a sigh. Lorcan recognised that he'd reached the end of his explaining words.

"But- but she's not Moody." Hugo piped up. "She's Zoey."

"She's not a threat to us, James." Albus agreed with his younger cousin, his voice less spiteful but still obviously displeased with his older brother. "Zoey's a nice girl. Forgetting the detail that she's already friends with like half of us. Ignoring the fact she not famous for anything other than being herself-" The Fourth Year paused at his own words, a thoughtful glint in his eyes. "Or was- was that it? Was it that she got so popular and so well known so easily, without having to put on a set of faux glasses for people to give her a second glance?"

James was practically shaking with anger as they stood across from eachother. "If that's how you feel, then why the bloody hell did you have my back in yesterday's fight?"

Albus crossed his arms too, his own fingers clenched into fists around his thumbs. "Egotistical prat that you are, you're still my brother."

"Is that so? I had no idea." James had hurt buried in his voice. "I am truly blessed, aren't I, to have you at my back. The little brother who can't ride his broom in a straight line, can't get through a sentence without repeating at least one word twice. How lucky am I to have such a useless brother. A little brother that spent the whole semester hiding from me instead of talking like a real man- not a bone of bravery in you, is there? No wonder the Sorting Hat thought you were really meant for-"

A resounding smack rung through the old classroom as Albus punched his brother right in the jaw, an unintentional echo on the same spot that Scorpius Malfoy had struck a year earlier.

This time though James merely staggered back a few steps, his hand going to his cheek in shock more than pain. He wasn't hurt too bad. Though his eyes teared reflexively, he had the build and mass of a quidditch player behind him, while Albus… didn't.

"Bugger." His brother swore instead as he cradled his hand, which was swelling rapidly on the spot. Lorcan took one look and knew Albus had broken something with the poor jab.

"Albus-" Hugo rushed to his side to look at the injury, while Lily stood rooted to the spot, torn over which brother she needed to support.

Lysander pinched his nose and mumbled a mantra under his breath. Lorcan leaned toward him to hear an endless chant of "Still in the room, still in the room…" coming from the Ravenclaw's mouth, the boy trying hard to keep his earlier promise not to punish them using his Prefect standing until after this meeting was over.

"Let's get you two to the Healer-" Lily eventually said.

"No." Rose jumped to her feet. "No, one look at the two of them and they'll both be expelled."

"It wouldn't take a genius to see they'd been fighting. Again." Dominique added in, still seated by the fireplace. She'd put away the nail file but was now holding the handkerchief over her nose to filter out the dust that had been kicked up by the rolling scuffle. "Something McGonagall specifically said not to do."

"Don't be dramatic." Albus groaned through grit teeth, still glaring at James. "He'd be expelled. I'd only get suspended."

"Bet you'd love that, wouldn't you-"

Lily interrupted the two of them with a sound halfway between a sigh and a scream of frustration, throwing her hands in the air. It went on for almost half a minute before it trailed into a shout and she commanded all of them "SIT."

Everyone tentatively did as told. In moments like this, she had a scarily strong resemblance to her mother.

"Lorcan, get that Wizard Wheezes bruise paste out and use it on James. He didn't break anything. Hugo, stop trying to look at it and Al, stop trying to figure out which bone it is. You boys are only making it worse. Lysander, if this is bothering you so much, wait at the bottom of the ladder and give us detentions then. Dom, if the dust is that bad for you, feel free to join him. Otherwise there's a broom in the corner. Rose get your hair out of your mouth. You spent three years breaking that nervous habit and we are not going through that again. James." Lily snapped his name at the end of her long list of instructions, her attention back to him as she completed the circle around the room.

He jumped a bit in surprise, then hissed when the motion pressed into the healing cream Lorcan was applying. "What?" he grumbled, trying not to move his jaw.

"You- just…" her shoulders slumped with her adrenaline, the small Hufflepuff trying to figure out where she should be looking. It looked like there were simply too many people with problems for her to process how and who to help first.

Lysander took the decision out of her hands. "Look," the Ravenclaw Prefect stated. "Frankly, I don't care what your reasons were. This meeting was to ensure that our actions don't make things worse. Half of Hogwarts looks up to us, and the other half despises us."

Hugo looked up in surprise. "Despises us?"

The echo wasn't answered, Lysander once again on a warpath to finish his agenda. "So we are going to do nothing. We are not going to rally our Houses, or seek vengeance on individuals or groups. We are all going to step back from this entire ordeal. I am declaring peace."

"Ly, I don't think it works that-"

"I. Am declaring. Peace." Lysander repeated, and maybe it was his determination, or maybe it was his complete ignorance of how a social group decision should have been made, but the Ravenclaw's words were somehow more powerful than the many outbursts that usually frequented family meetings.

Looking at his twin Lorcan couldn't help a dot of pride as he agreed "Peace it is."

His sentiment was echoed around the room, everyone's relief palpable. This school year had gotten way out of hand and it wasn't even Christmas yet. Dominique breathed her french accented cherie and Lily and Hugo mirrored each other with their emphatic nods. Rose with a barely audible 'of course' and Albus- well, actually, Albus had grown alarmingly pale. Almost green.

"Al?" Lorcan got off the couch, going to the smaller boy. "You okay?"

His green eyes were hazy with pain, obviously not seeing what was in front of him as he cradled his broken hand to his tummy. "Hurts like bloody hell," he murmured, slightly slurred.

There was instantly a fuss as everyone rushed to their feet, hurrying Albus down the ladder and out of the room. It was just a broken bone- nothing a Healer couldn't fix in a jiff- but none of them liked seeing family in pain.

In their haste, they didn't realize that one of them hadn't agreed.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

It wasn't often that Scorpius was late. To anything. It was a point of pride or something. Zoey Malam smirked, easily imagining him saying 'A Malfoy is never late- Everyone else is merely early.' She then paused with a frown. Wasn't that a quote from- somewhere? Yeah, a muggle movie. One she couldn't remember for the life of her. She used to be really good a quoting movies… she didn't used to divide things into 'muggle' and 'wizard' either…

She shook her head and dropped her hands over her eyes, groaning as the clock ticked loudly in the empty classroom. She had way more things to worry about than where some random line in her head had come from.

Zoethia Malam had struck a bargain with a statue. A living, thinking, but still obviously-not-breathing magical statue that had been festering under Hogwarts for hundreds of years, and had already tried to kill her. Zoey had felt understandably nauseous when she'd woken up- she'd inhaled a lot of water, unfortunately- and the fact that she'd even woken at all had been understandably confusing before she remembered Salazar's little 'test'.

Her eyes had snapped open and she'd tried to jump to her feet, but she'd only managed to roll off the round table.

"... are you alright?"

"Yup, yup-" she groaned, rubbing at her elbow and shoulder. "Just, you know, checking on gravity."

"Isaac Newton's theory, correct?" Salazar Slytherin had asked, and Zoey snapped her head up to him.

"...yeah. Apple from a tree and all that." She had gotten to her feet, glancing anxiously to the door. Most of the water puddles in the room had drained- how long had she been out?

"Oh it's quite open." The statue had assured, looking almost amused by her instinct to flee.

Indeed, it did seem pretty redundant. Salazar had made a flip in personality now that he seemed to trust that her presence wasn't a danger to him. He was still arrogant, of course. Slytherin pride and all that, but it was once more turned to his achievement in keeping his texts protected. And some, detailed, ways of how he had done that. He had mostly told her about the people who hadn't convinced him they were trustworthy… and what had happened to them… so maybe not that much of a personality change as much as talking through another window.

He'd been almost as eager as she to teach her the first of the spells, his marble cheeks tilted very slightly upward in what might have become a smile on living features. Apparently she'd get the pleasure of picking which to learn first.

While the Enchantment of Tongues was tempting, Zoey had instead asked for a more defensive spell. Some sort of shield. Salazar had tilted his chin in amusement, obviously thinking she was hoping to protect herself from him. And while, yes, that was certainly part of her reasoning it wasn't all of it. With the recent bullying emerging at school and joining the DDC and the potential outbursts of Jon's magic and- yeah. She'd like to know she could defend herself. Most importantly, however, Zoey had wanted to compare his version of the spell to one still used in modern lessons. See how 'superior' these texts really were.

They'd gone to one of the other septagonal rooms- her carrying Rasputin and her broomcase, the statue smoothly sliding over marble with barely a sound. Then Rasputin started wriggling in her grip and she'd let him go, watching him scurry off. Jon probably wanted him for something, and she hadn't thought much of it until Salazar commented "Will your familiar return in time for the lesson?"

"Dunno." She had shrugged absentmindedly, distractedly theorizing about why the statue wasn't scratching the floor as he traveled over it. "Raz isn't mine. He's my cousin's. That faculty member I told you about."

"Truly? Shame." He stopped before one of the walls, gesturing to the text and describing the spell before she could ask about the comment. The biggest difference in this spell- as far as Zoey understood- was that it could be adjusted to protect the her from different things. Mundane projectiles being the simplest to defend, to the point that the spell could be cast continually. Then, with more effort, it could defend her from magical assaults- assuming, of course, that her casting was a comparable strength to the opponents. And finally it could defend from the elements themselves. Fires, blizzards, hurricanes, not even a stray breeze would touch her if she didn't permit it. But that, Salazar had assured with a wicked gleam, took years of practice to master. She'd likely only learn after graduating.

In other words, it wouldn't protect her from drowning should she cross him.

Zoey hadn't cared. This was a very different manner of magical protection. The one Scorpius was teaching her was more of a literal shield, a small manifestation of magic meant to stop or deflect a single jab. This sounded more like a magical armor, something that could be donned and maintained without a need for conscious direction.

It sounded perfect. Zoey had eagerly asked one question after another until Salazar- a touch impatient himself- had told her to just try it. He'd wanted to see how well she understood the basic concept before taking her through a more complete lesson.

She'd eagerly opened the silver charm that held her mother's wand, mumbling to herself as she tried to remember his exact description of the enchantment. Then his laugh had broken her concentration before she'd even started to try.

"A wand, Sorceress?" He had scoffed, disappointment echoing in the septagonal room. "You wish to use a wand?"

"Something wrong with that?"

"It's like trying to cross an ocean in a station wagon. Useful vehicle. Wrong situation."

Zoey lifted her hands from her eyes, frowning at the ceiling of the tutoring room. "The 'wrong situation'. What does that even mean?"

Nothing answered, of course.

Her eyes flickered to her silver bracelet, to it's empty link. The Ravenclaw Common Room had been literally divided after the Great Brawl last night. (Zoey had no clue what other people were calling it, so that's the name she was using). Students were on opposite the center fire when she arrived back at the tower, glaring at each other and silent for once. While 'moody' rarely applied to Ravenclaw House as a whole, it was the only word to describe the general tension.

Zoey had blinked in surprise and wondered if she maybe should have stayed invisible, instead of wandering Hogwarts until Jon's spell had worn off. Slipping her shoes off by the entrance, she'd felt everyone looking at her from both sides of the room as she walked to her usual chair.

"Uh…" she had looked around the silent room, then made the rare decision to not comment, instead perching silently on the arm of an empty sofa. She sat on one stocking-clad leg and let the other one swing freely, using her toetips to trace patterns on the plush carpet. Zoey felt herself buzzing with anticipation that something was about to happen, a feeling that tightened and snapped with the arrival of a dozen elves in the middle of Ravenclaw Tower.

The sharp cracks of their apparitions had made the whole room jump, turning to see their magical arrival. A number of house-elves were nervously wringing the ends of their togas together, only a few standing straight under the sudden attention. As one of them scuttled to pin something to the notice board- sadly there wasn't much of a better way to describe the way the nervous elf seemed to melt and slide along the ground without meeting a single gaze- Zoey had wondered if she'd been wrong about the house-elves not liking Hogwarts students, and were maybe more afraid of them.

Then Snottgrout had stepped forward with confidence, the caretaker-elf reading a copy of McGonagall's proclamation.

Zoey's mouth had dropped open with shock. While she wasn't particularly dependent on her mother's wand, she appreciated that many of her Housemates were at the very least fond of their own. But with a threat of expulsion hanging over everyone's head, there was hardly a choice for the academic Ravenclaw House. Every wand had been turned in.

She looked down at her wrist, pursing her lips at the empty charm link on her bracelet. She'd turned in the silver case for Zelina's wand as well as the hazel stick itself, not thinking it too bad a loss. Still, it was unbalancing for her to be missing even a single one of the silver tools, even if that particular tool had been all but useless to her. Out of habit she assured herself that her favorites were still there, her green eyes darting to the shrunken dagger, staff, binoculars and shield. Still, the lack of a wand felt strange and she wondered if Salazar would laugh at her again if she mentioned it.

Zoey took a deep breath and then released it, restarting her train of thought. Turned it to the nature of the statue itself. She summoned the image of the marble figure behind closed lids, taking care to recreate every detail of Salazar Slytherin's likeness. At first she assumed that it was similar to the many portraits that donned the hallways of Hogwarts, but that didn't seem right.

A picture was nothing more than a frozen moment of time. A wizard portrait, while more complex, was much the same. Oh the person could talk. Could move. Debate and remember- but they couldn't change.

Portraits could not learn new morals or values. Zoey would know. The Malam had once spent an hour trying to tell the Victorian portrait that she did not need to carry that shade umbrella everywhere. The painted woman was eternally the same image, she couldn't get a new freckle let alone a sunburn. There wasn't even real sunshine either!

Yet, the portrait simply could not toss aside a priority the Victorian woman had held in life. It wasn't possible.

Salazar's statue, on the other hand, had accepted a cultural change like girls wearing pants with surprising grace. Especially considering that he was from a time when the sight of a female ankle was scandalous.

Portraits couldn't learn the concepts of entirely new theories either, like the existence of gravity as a force. Well, Salazar had obviously 'known' about gravity. Gravity had existed before Newton after all it's just that nobody had bothered to give it a name until then. Classic case of not being able to see a forest because of the trees. Probably the least surprising scientific 'discovery' in history.

Jon had made a joke about it once. Clearing his throat and speaking as though addressing a group even though it was just his family at the dinner table. "Guys, get this. I have discovered- wait for it, this'll blow your mind- that things. fall. down." Then he'd mimicked an explosion by his head, complete with a little kepow.

Zoey chuckled at the old memory but quickly sobered. Salazar Slytherin's statue broke what little standard of magical rules she'd known. She had no clue what that statue truly was, or how it worked. How could it accept a progression in understanding the very nature of the world, how could it form relationships with the living, how could it grow and build new values based on experiences that occurred after its creation?

The mystery of the statue itself was as alluring as the lessons he offered. So like a moth to a flame, Zoey knew she would inevitably go back down that secret slide. Just, not for a while. Probably. Depends on whether she got bored or needed to avoid people again.

"Probably sooner than later, then." she admitted to the classroom with a sigh, sitting up from where she'd been reclining over the slanted desk.

"What will be sooner?"

Zoethia Malam jumped with a squeak and barely managed not to take another tumble onto a stone floor, turning to see Scorpius looking down at her with one blond eyebrow raised. "I- um, what are you doing here? When did you get here- why didn't you say anything?"

The eyebrow stayed aloft on his forehead as he summarized. "Tutoring."

"We've been here ten minutes," said a voice at his right, and Zoey was surprised to see Melissa Goyle walk around the desk Scorpius was leaning on. "And you looked asleep."

"Sorry, I was- very lost in thought."

"At least you were quiet for once." Melissa grumbled as though that was a phenomenon rare as the alignment of the seven planets. And really, considering how Malam rambled during their herbology extra-credit work, it was a more than fair assessment.

Zoey was undeterred by the statement, instead tilting her head. "Wait- what are you doing here, Melissa? Oh no, did Longbottom change the schedule? Do we have to be at the greenhouses- I am so sorry I completely forgot, I'll be down in two seconds-"

She grabbed her bag and was already rushing to the door when Scorpius grabbed her arm just above the elbow, halting the small Ravenclaw in her tracks. Zoey blinked rapidly at his hand on her arm, then looked up at him with her classic face of confusion. Eyebrows together, a small pout and tilted face and even more rapid blinks.

Scorpius's stormy grey eyes stayed on her for a moment, then he released his grip, apparently satisfied that she wasn't going to run off in the time it took for him to tell her "Melissa is here to join our lesson."

"Oh." Zoey looked between the two of them, confused. She pulled her orange hair back into a ponytail as she asked "Why? I mean, no offense, but I had no idea you'd be here. Do you also need tutoring? But the only class we share is herbology, and even that is just our extra credit. Scorpius doesn't help me much with herbology anyways- I just need to learn an entirely new set of flora is all, not much he can do to teach that. Shouldn't you learn with your peers? Why are you here?"

Melissa rubbed her forehead and sat down heavily. "Trust me, it wasn't my idea."

After a moment the Ravenclaw turned to Scorpius. "Well?"

"You and she share a few fields of magical performance that need improvement." The Malfoy conceded as though pandering her curiosity.

"Such as…?"

Melissa stiffly interrupted "Doesn't matter. All we're going to do is wandless stuff anyways."

Zoey blinked in surprise. She had assumed that today's lesson would be textbook learning. Which made sense after all, because book lessons and wand spells were the only things ever on tests or quizzes and without wands, process of elimination meant that they should spend the next hour of their lives leaning over a textbook or two.

Instead, Zoey found herself staring at a little mottled feather, watching Melissa struggle to make it float off the desk. The Slytherin girl was mumbling "WingardiumLeviosaWingardiumLeviosaWingardiumLeviosa" in an endless loop under her breath, waving her index finger in a poor replacement of her wand.

Eventually she gave up with a huff of annoyance, leaning back and crossing her arms. "That's all I got."

Scorpius looked over her with a small shake of his head. Zoey felt a twinge of sympathy for the other girl, having been on the other end of that look several times herself and knew first-hand how it made her chest clench with failure and her mood plummet to have disappointed-

"Is there a particular reason," Scorpius's drawling voice broke into her thoughts, "that you haven't even tried yet?"

Zoey felt herself blush, sitting forward at once. "Sorry, sorry I thought we were taking turns. I mean, it would make sense for you to prefer one-on-one attention to correct each of us- after all, that way you could give better advice. I mean-" as she absentmindedly rambled she put a hand above her own practice feather, narrowing her gaze on it and giving it a firm mental command Up.

It was lighter and less less aerodynamic than she'd expected though, so instead of rising to her waiting palm it twisted around her hand and kept flying into the air like a leaf in the breeze. "Noo-" the Ravenclaw jumped to her feet, reaching for it but missing. Instead it just went higher and higher in the air, and though she scrambled to stand on a desk she still couldn't reach where the brown-and-white plume bounced. "No, stop it! You get back here-"

The feather stubbornly bobbed as though debating whether or not it should listen to her request, before the magic lifting it up ended and it fell back into the hold of gravity. Zoey snatched it from the air as soon as she could reach. "Thank you." she told it, turning to sit when she noticed the looks of shock directed at her.

Melissa's mouth was hanging wide open, her eyes as big as galleons, and while Scorpius wasn't nearly as open with his expression his eyebrows were raised and his gaze flicked between her and the feather with disbelief.

"...what?"

"You- how did you do that?" The Slytherin girl reached out to pluck the feather from the Ravenclaw's hand. She started turning it over and inspecting every barb as though there had to be something existentially different about it. It was just a normal feather though, same as hers. Might have even come from the same owl.

"I- I just told it to come up?" She fidgeted on her feet, unable to shake the feeling that she'd done something unusual. Something wrong. "Like a broom? Works well enough for them so I figured why not give it a try… I mean, it can't be part of the broom's enchantment to react like that. Brooms don't fly from verbal commands, you just guide them- which is a good thing, because if they were stuck to verbal directions that wouldn't work well on windy days. Plus, it might mean that only one witch or wizard would be able to use them. At least that's the way voice recognition works for some phone commands and-"

"-So," Melissa cut her off before the rambling went any farther. "You just said 'up'. In your head."

"The exact same thing we do with brooms." Scorpius's eye twitched minutely. "And that worked?"

"Well…" she glanced up to where the feather had flown moments before. "Yes?"

There was another moment of silence, then Melissa turned and slammed her hands by her own feather, glaring at it for a long moment before she started muttering "Up-up-up" the same way she'd been she'd been chanting the spell before.

Zoey chuckled at the sight and relaxed, seeing Scorpius stare at nothing with the blank expression he had whenever he was caught off kilter. "You okay there Malfoy?"

Grey eyes snapped over to her in a moment, "Is there a particular reason you thought to do that?"

"Not really." She gave a careless shrug, picking up the feather Melissa had dropped. "I mean, you're acting like it's unusual but to me it's really not. I'm not used to the school rules of witchcraft and wizardry and brooms and sorcery and herbology, so I just… find one thing that works, then try it everywhere else. Lets me figure things out."

"Not Sorcery." Scorpius corrected her absentmindedly, his gaze narrowing slightly as he considered her words.

"What do you mean? Why not sorcery?"

"Hogwarts doesn't teach sorcery, Wainbata. That word is muggle hogwash." One that he still believed could be related to a forgotten field of magic, but forgotten still meant useless. At this moment though he was trying to wrap his mind around the realization that ignorance, such as Zoey's, was something that could lead to surprising insight. It went against the grain for him. Power is knowledge. And a Malfoy was a master of all kinds of power. Yet, with all his education, he hadn't thought of something as simple as 'saying Up'. Scorpius felt his left eye twitch again.

"But…" Zoey didn't finish her question, instead leaving him to his own internal musing, and he was grateful for it.

But Salazar Slytherin had called her a sorceress. Multiple times. Zoey Malam looked down at the feather with a small frown. She really doubted a Founder of Hogwarts would casually use a 'hogwash' term, therefore it had to mean something.

A small epiphany went off in her mind and she fingered her silver dagger charm absentmindedly. Maybe- maybe those spells of his, maybe they really weren't usual magic. He'd called them powerful, and said that not everyone was suited to learn the lessons. In an extremely bigoted and self-important manner, but that had been the jist of it. Salazar had laughed, laughed at her wand- and now that she was looking past her instinctive defense of the tool her mother had used, maybe… maybe she didn't need to use it. Maybe she needed something other than a stick with a bit of dead animal inside it.

Sorcery. Wizardry. Wands. "Sailing in a wagon, huh?" Zoey mumbled under her breath, blinking rapidly at the silver bracelet of charms on her wrist. At the staff and binoculars and the dagger and at the newly-open link. She ignored the curious looks of the two Slytherin's, not explaining the strange comment as she reconsidered everything she knew of magic and most specifically Salazar's casual words. Then her lips curled into a smile. "Looks like I need a boat."

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

As one of the most successful Wizengamot Lawyers, the spearhead for S.P.E.W. and other creature rights organizations, and one of the smartest witches in History, one would assume that Hermione Granger-Weasley was more than equipped to handle any conundrum thrown her way. In fact, more often than not she found ways to conclude such issues before they turned into anything monumental with a deft efficiency that her colleagues admired and envied.

Indeed, it was quite rare for the war-hero-turned-successful-politician to ever be at a loss for what to do next. Rarer still for that indecision to be visible to the people around her. Hermione had grown deathly silent when she read that Rose had broken into another House's dorm room and stolen from another student. It hadn't just been the many, many rules she broken in doing so- "No fewer than thirteen, if the rulebook hasn't been changed-" but the description of the near-malicious rumor mongering Rose had apparently started. It was entirely unlike her sweet daughter to do something so harmful, but Hermione was not one to ignore facts. She had immediately pulled out a parchment and quill to start drafting a letter to her daughter. Apart from a few stray ink drops from the readied quill the parchment remained blank, feather pensively tickling her chin as she repeatedly revised the letter in her head.

Ron Weasley had been far more explosive in his reaction, picking up the letter from where Hermione had dismissed it. Upon reading the same words his Weasley temper reared in its usual spectacular fashion. Ron had shouted almost every swear there was- probably the only range of vocabulary in which he knew more euphemisms than his wife. It was hard to tell where his anger was directed, as his rant traveled after several topics. Rose for her actions, doing something so extreme to mar her previously spotless school record. Then to Lorcan, who had been a part of the delinquency that his daughter had been caught in. He couldn't seem to decide if the Scamander twin should be blamed more for doing it or for not bringing Rose to her senses. Then his anger went on to this Ravenclaw girl who remained unnamed in McGonagall's letter, because could this possibly have been instigated by her first and if so, how dare she do something to his daughter. And if that were so, why in Merlin's beard hadn't his daughter come to him about it first? If it weren't so- what had Rose been thinking?!

His anger having made a full circle Ron had eventually sat at his wife's side, his foot tapping impatiently on the kitchen tiles.

Harry Potter looked at the very different manifestations of anger on the opposite side of his dining table, at a bit of a loss himself. The two had been over at his house because apparently, yet another Second War Chronicle was being drafted, and as 'The Big Three' they were asked to verify the accuracy of most of it. They'd enjoyed a very nice meal before getting to work on the thick stack that was still in the planning stages, and was mostly just lists of facts at this point. It still sat forgotten in the middle of the table, a history of grand success that seemed to mock their mundane and yet somehow even harder circumstances.

Harry was more used to receiving news of his children's misadventures than his childhood friends. James was up to an antic of some kind with Roxanne and Lorcan near every week, something that initially made him more wistful than anything. After all, his time at Hogwarts hadn't been nearly so carefree. This was his children experiencing the extended childhood they themselves had been denied, exploring and adventuring without a threat of imminent death hanging over their heads. Because wasn't that exactly what he fought for? Harry would remind Ginny. Why he chose to remain an Auror even after they'd found the last Death Eaters, a wizard who literally fought to create a safe environment?

George Weasley had been even less concerned about the similar troubles with his youngest child, Roxanne. He usually bragged about her latest adventures when they gathered around family dinners, and Harry suspected his brother-in-law of even aiding in some of the plans. It was too much of a coincidence that Roxanne had released frogs and a swarm of mayflies in the very same corridor that her father had once turned into a swamp. George Weasley was not a disciplinarian. It was part of the reason he was so successful in running his Joke Shop.

Harry Potter sighed. He'd thought life would become simpler as an adult. He hadn't realized how much work and stress there was for parents in even a functioning family. Growing up with the Dursleys hadn't exactly given him a good model, either. All he knew, when James had been born, what what not to do. Harry had never ignored or dismissed his children, never withheld meals, never forced them to wear or look any particular way for the sake of his 'image' in public. He knew the Dursleys were a spectacularly low bar for him to judge family standards against, but it was all he had. Everything else he'd done as a father was completely made up and sometimes he wondered if everyone knew it.

He could see the headlines now- 'Rita Skeeter, Here to Report Harry Potter's Complete Failure as a Family Figure'.

The feeling only grew as he read McGonagall's second letter. His children had instigated a fight in the Great Hall. Not a foodfight, not a fistfight, but an actual magical fight had happened at school. As an Auror he knew that was the most dangerous of the three- if one spell had gone wrong, or if even unharmful spells mixed and amplified in untested ways, injuries could be bad enough to land wizards in St. Mungo's for weeks. McGonagall had several students set to be expelled.

And his son, James, was one of them. Along with Roxanne. As soon as the later was cleared to leave the Hospital Wing, both were to be suspended and sent home. Pending an investigation, they may or may not be allowed to return after the winter holidays.

He put his head in his hands, sharing his friends' confusion. Harry could never have predicted any of his children choosing such actions. Assuming, of course, that any kind of action had been warranted at all. Harry was most surprised that the fight had been Hufflepuff. He was well aware of James's dislike of Slytherin House- it was something of a family trait, unfortunately. Suddenly remembering Albus's fear- fear- of being Sorted into that House, Harry knew he'd made the right decision to try and undo that prejudice as much as possible, to try and re-teach his children that no House was better than the others just because. But it seemed he hadn't succeeded with correcting James' mindset. If anything, this fight implied that it had gotten worse.

This had become… bullying. The word made Dudley's face flash across his mind. Not Dudley Dursley the adult, the distant cousin to whom Harry sent and received family Christmas pictures every year. No, in his face hovered the hamfisted, overweight and sneering boy who had been a monster at school and treated as an angel at home because his parents wouldn't listen to the many teachers and counselors who'd told them about their child's flaws.

Harry felt sick to the stomach remembering conversations with both McGonagall and Ginny, both women expressing their concerns about James's behavior over the last few semesters. Had he really raised a Dudley, right in his own house without even realizing it? Merlin's beard- did- did that make him an Uncle Vernon?

Before Harry's fears could grow any further Ginny arrived, tray in hand. "Tea?"

The word broke the cloud of frustration and melancholy that had gathered, and Harry took the offered mug gratefully.

Hermione put down her quill to take a drink as well, nudging Ron with an elbow to prompt him to do the same.

Ginny smiled at her brother comfortingly before she sat down herself, teacup in hand. "Not the night we expected, is it?"

The three other adults groaned like the inexperienced individuals they actually were, then looked at each other and chuckled at themselves. "Seems so." Hermione agreed, glancing at the piles of papers they were supposed to be looking through.

Ron muttered something under his breath which sounded suspiciously like 'not the life I expected', but didn't repeat it.

Ginny re-read McGonagall's letter about James, and instead of angry she looked only sad. So far, the first few moments of the fight were the only things McGonagall had complete reports about. Roxanne had petrified a Prefect, and then James had tried to hex someone who'd threatened her in response. While strong family ties were good, Ginny pursed her lips and Harry knew what she was thinking: James should have cast a defensive spell, not an aggressive one. Roxanne may have cast the first spell, but their son had undoubtedly fueled the first fight.

"McGonagall confiscated everyone's wands." Ron chimed in, his blood pressure visibly lower now that he'd had some tea. Harry wondered briefly if Ginny had put a drop of calming drought in the drink- he was certainly panicking less. "I don't think that's ever happened before."

"The school is over fifteen-hundred years old, Ronald. I'm sure some such similar has occurred."

He grunted in answer to his wife.

"I think it's a good start," Ginny spoke up. "They've been using their magic poorly, it seems, so they shouldn't keep it."

"They have their magic with or without the wands," Harry pointed out, that Auror lesson firmly drilled into his mind. Many an unscrupulous wizard took their time to learn wandless spells after all. "And it's a punishment from McGonagall. I- think," he hesitated and glanced at Ginny. "We'll need to give them our own punishment."

The ginger woman smiled encouragingly and he relaxed. Harry may not have experienced proper parenthood, but Ginny certainly had. Molly Weasley had managed to raise seven children, two of which were the most notorious troublemakers of their age, and one of whom had been the only girl in a batch of boys. If that also troublemaking girl- who became his lovely wife, Harry took care to point out even in his own mind- agreed with him, then he couldn't be too misplaced in his parental suggestion.

"Bloody hell, what are we supposed to do about that, then?" Ron threw up his hands. "There's only so many garden gnomes they can throw over the break."

"It's a start." Hermione agreed with them both. "And maybe coal in their stockings."

Harry had to hold down an amused smile. "Maybe confiscate their favorite toys?"

"They're not toddlers, Harry."

"Exactly my point." Besides, denying things to children as a punishment still rubbed him the wrong way after the Dursleys. Even little things, rather than essentials such as meals, always rankled him. "Our kids won't learn anything from us taking their hair products, or making them wear ugly clothes, or-"

He stopped, his memories of the Dursleys actually dredging up something useful. Dudley, in a horrible maroon uniform with orange knee high socks. Harry's fingers tapped on his emptied teacup and a glint of an idea started to shine in his eye.

Ginny caught that look and raised an eyebrow, but Harry shook his head a bit. He'd have to look into it first and see if it was even possible. And if it was… oh ho ho, James would lose that ego of his right quick.

He might need to pull a few strings at the Ministry to make it happen though. Normally the Auror would have balked at the idea of using his political connections like that, but he wasn't doing anything unethical, just hoping to cut through some red tape. Which in some ways might be unethical…

Harry was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't know how his wife pulled his friends from their bad moods, just that there was a round of light giggling around the table by the time he tuned back in. Ginny was passing out some fresh-baked cookies, Ron was roaring with laughter at whatever had just been said, and Hermione had set aside her quill. It would probably find its way back into her hand later, but for now she enjoyed the retelling of Draco Malfoy as a ferret.

His own face broke into a smile. Two and a half decades later, he still loved that story.

The four adults at the table could have stayed like that forever, merrily reminiscing on the best times of their lives. They talked about things from their adult lives. The Wizarding World's relief at catching the last Death Eater- "You made a complete fool of yourself that whole weekend, Ginny. I'm surprised your face didn't get stuck with that cheesy grin." "I think the entire Wizarding World was doing that, Ron. At least I was celebrating the renewed safety of my fiance."- to their weddings- "I got the worst pre-marriage warning talk ever." "Ron, I married a girl with five older brothers. Five." "Hermione's parents are dentists, Harry. Dentists. Those drills are barbaric." "For the last time, Ronald, they were showing you the family discount!"- and their family vacations when the kids were toddlers- "Remember when Lily, Albus and Hugo buried each other on the beach?" "Of course! Then that crab crawled toward them and Albus started crying, and James went running over to help. That was adorable."

They ended up talking about their time at Hogwarts too. From childhood quidditch games to win the Cup- "Which one you talking about Harry? It happened twice you know, even if you only helped get one of them." "That wasn't my fault!"-, the Yule Ball- "You were absolutely stunning, 'Mione. Couldn't take my eyes off of you." "You went with Padma, Ron." "And you went with Krum. Didn't stop me from looking."- even winning the House Cup their very first year of Hogwarts.

"You know, it was obviously intentional." Hermione pointed out, pushing away her dessert. Ron eagerly took the plate and ate what she'd left. "Dumbledore must have done the math to put us exactly five points ahead of Slytherin. Five. Just enough to seem close, but still win. He was a great man, but a bit biased."

"Or," Ginny piped in, gripping Harry's hand under the table. "He was trying to reward some foolhardy but brave children."

"Or both." Ron spoke around a mouthful of sugar cookie, hastily wiping a few crumbs away from the pile of paper that still waited in the middle of the table.

Harry smiled softly, wistful as ever at the mention of Dumbledore. It had taken quite a while for him to sort out his feeling for his old Headmaster. He'd been angry at the manipulations and the secrets and distraught by his death, but time had tempered the hurt and sadness until he could think of the man as the surrogate father he'd wished he had.

"We should get started on that." Hermione gestured to the pile of Second War facts, having been reminded of it by Ron's poor table manners.

Just like that Harry was reminded again that they were adults. As a child Ron- and okay fine, him as well- would have complained about the pile of work. Might have even tried persuading Hermione to do it all for them and give summarise at the end. Instead they each grabbed a packet and started going through it, sometimes verifying with eachother before correcting something.

"Why does this person care about the Professor's protections for the Philosopher's Stone?" Ron bemoaned. "And why the hell do they think Fluffy had four heads? Three was more than plenty."

Ginny looked over his shoulder. "They also seem to think it was Harry who saved you and Hermione from the Devil's Snare. They're suckers for a damsels in distress story."

"Damsel-s?" He squacked in outrage.

"People have a right to know, Ronald." Hermione placated him, then a teasing light entered her eyes. "And you were panicking."

Ron's face flushed and he dipped his quill in fresh ink, hurriedly crossing out the mistakes and fixing them.

Harry's packet was focused on the end of their Hogwarts years, trying to construct their path of their hunt for Voldemort's Horcruxes. He was begrudgingly impressed by what they'd gathered- by unanimous decision they tried not to let too many details about the whole Horcrux deal out to the public, lest the next power-hungry wizard attempt to follow in Tom Riddle's footsteps. They had dismissed the long time destroying them down to simply finding the hiding places, and not the actual difficulty that was destroying a Horcrux. Merlin, they'd lugged that locket around for weeks because they'd been unable to even scratch it without Godric's sword.

He flipped a page and was surprised to see a map of their hidden locations. There was the Gaunt Shack in Gloucestershire, the place they'd destroyed the locket in the Forest of Dean in Northern England, and- oh, that was unique. They'd put a giant circle around the Albanian Forest where Professor Quirrell must have been possessed. Harry usually forgot to count that one.

Then the Auror frowned at the parchment, an odd niggling suspicion at the back of his mind. This map looked familiar- very familiar, and yet he was certain he'd never actually drawn out Horcrux locations like this before.

The last time he'd felt like this had been with a different map, Harry recalled, and just like that it clicked into place. He jumped to his feet. "I'll have a thought- I'll run it by you, but I need to grab another map. I'll muddy it up if I don't have it."

Ginny looked up in shock as her husband disappeared out the door, then through the fireplace floo. She glanced at her brother, then Hermione, but all they could really do was just shrug. Harry had a tendency to run off with whatever stray thought entered his head. It didn't always result in him literally running off, but at the times it did he would be back soon. While they waited they continued to wade through the endless pile of facts, a task Hermione was doing with quick ease because of her lawyer experience.

True to form Harry returned a few minutes later, a handful of loose notes in his hands as he rushed back into the living room. He threw them all on the table and started sorting through them almost frantically, and Hermione protested as he got them mixed in with the other papers they were supposed to be sorting.

He ignored her continued complaints about the fireplace soot he was smudging on the parchment, and gave a cry as he slapped two maps down next to the one he'd been inspecting before. "I knew it." Harry hissed, looking at the places where their markings lined up. "Look- look, they're the same."

"Harry? What's the same?" Ron got to his feet and looked at the labels on the maps, then his jaw dropped. "Bloody hell, are you serious?"

The marks on three maps- the dementor attacks, the victim locations of Affliction Z, and the horcrux locations- parts of them lined up almost perfectly. Hermione got to her feet and joined in the staring, her lips pressing into a thin line.

Ginny spoke first, looking a bit concerned. "Does someone mind telling me what this is about? What's 'Affliction Z'?"

The other three started guiltily at forgetting that she was there. They shared a glance, then shrugged. It wasn't like they didn't trust her and since she'd already seen the maps they might as well. Better to tell her everything then have her draw a wrong conclusion- not that they even knew that much to begin with.

"It's- well, complicated." Ron started. "Four years ago an- incident, brought an old case to Ministry attention. A medical one. A Witch who'd gone missing was found with partial amnesia, but then her Healers noticed she didn't just lose her memories. Whatever happened, she- she's lost her magic too…"

Ginny gasped as the other three shuddered. It was so strange to imagine themselves without magic, almost nauseating.

"And we still don't know why," Hermione said with obvious frustration, "Only that there have been a few more scattered cases since. All in Europe. There's never a group outbreak like there would be for a disease, but there are no signs of poisoning or potion or any sort of animal that could be doing it either, so they haven't found the cure."

Harry took up the tale. "We only recently noticed that the Dementors- the ones that have been escaping from Azkaban- seem to have been gathering to travel along the same paths. And now-" he looked down at the newest map of their own travels in the Seventh Year. "It looks like we know why they're going where they were."

"A few stray coincidences doesn't mean anything."

"Hermione, I'd say three of seven is plenty!" He pointed to the locations on the map. "Gaunt Shack, near where they found Avery. Albanian forest, where that camping wizard family were all found magicless by a muggle search and rescue group. Forest of Dean, where we found dementors kissing that Forest Ranger-"

"And they've causing havoc in quite a few other places as well." Hermione cut off his rant, ever the voice of rationality. "Correlation is not causation."

Ron's brow furrowed and he repeated the words, taking a minute longer to process than the other people around the table. Then he nodded. A few overlaps with locations of Voldemort's Horcruxes wasn't enough to convince his wife.

"Hold on one second," Ginny spoke up again, frowning. "I- there's something that's taking the magic of wizards?"

"You can't speak a word of it," Ron immediately started to warn her. "Shacklebolt will have our heads, not to mention our jobs-"

"Priorities," Hermione mumbled under her breath, and her husband shot her a fond smile before finishing his statement.

"-and so help me I will never live down leaving the Aurors twice."

Harry didn't comment, instead watching his wife intently. He knew that expression. That was her 'I think I just found out the Heidelberg Harriers' quidditch weakness' expression. He just had to wait for her to compose whatever idea that was.

"I- that elf of the Malfoy's, Skipty?" Ginny eventually asked out of the blue. "Did you ever find out what happened to her?"

"Skipsy. And no." Hermione said through grit teeth, then her eyes widened. "Oh. Oh. Oh dear no, you don't think…"

Ginny nodded. "Well it makes sense! I mean, it would also explain the portraits-"

"-And why the cursebreakers couldn't find what had disrupted the barriers-"

"-and really, why there wasn't much else stolen at all!"

"Womenfolk." Ron had joined Harry's side, the pair watching their wives talk at the rapid pace only they understood. "Any idea what they're on about?"

"You found a witch that didn't have any of her magic," Ginny took pity on her brother and husband. "What- what do you think would happen to a house-elf if- if the same thing happened?"

Harry paled, instanting seeing the point. A house-elf, despite all of the recent laws and equal-rights legislations that had pushed their way through Wizengamot, was still a magical creature. Possibly more magic than creature. Without their magic… he remembered the House Elf's dead body, how the room's furniture had been overturned and damaged but how there hadn't been a single mark on Skipsy herself.

And the magical portraits- they hadn't been frozen, they'd lost the very element that had kept them alive in the first place.

"If Draco or Astoria had been in their Manor," Ginny said softly, "What do you wager they'd have lost their magic too?"

Ron looked bewildered. "But- but why there?"

"The Diary." Hermione said, naming the first Horcrux Harry had destroyed. "Tom Riddle's Diary. Oh, Lucius kept it there for years."

Harry sighed, mumbling "Now you believe me?" and knowing that little galvanized her into action like a mistreated House elf. He looked over the maps. "The only ones left is the Crystal Cave, Gringotts, and- and Hogwarts. The Room of Requirement."

There was a tense moment, and then Harry was running for the floo again. Ron leapt out of his chair and bodily tackled him to the ground. "Whoa there, mate- even I know we're not heading to Hogwarts now!"

"But-!"

"Harry, Hogwarts is the safest place. It has centuries of protective enchantments. Whatever's going on, that creepy cave is the better bet to catch this thing in action."

"Catch it?" Ginny repeated shrilly, then glared down at her husband. "Harry James Potter you are not about to chase down a- a magic erasing whatever and loose. Your. Memories. Are you?"

In moments like this she really resembled Molly Weasley herself, hands on her hips and red hair framing her face.

"Er- no and yes?" He offered, now using Ron as a bit of a shield between himself and his irate wife. "Or would that be yes and no?"

"Harry."

"Shacklebolt will send my Aurors, Gin. I can't ask them to go take a risk I'm not willing to take myself."

"You don't 'ask' them to go," Hermione sighed at the old point of contention. "You're Head of the Department. You just tell them to go."

"Point stands," Ron mumbled, scratching at his nose.

Harry ignored them both and cautiously stepped around the friend he'd been using as a buffer. "We'll be careful." He gathered Ginny into his chest, ignoring her initial protests and waiting for her to return the hug. "I'll be careful. First sign of danger we'll apparate straight out of there."

She nodded, eventually wrapping her arms around him too. "I thought we'd put this all behind us."

"It's not Voldemort." Harry said, not realizing he knew that until he'd spoken the words aloud. He blinked, then nodded decisively. "It's not Riddle. I would have felt- something if it were."

He reached up to touch his scar, a habit he'd lost twenty years ago.

"And if Voldemort had been able to remove magic from people, the War would have been much different." Hermione agreed, then picked up the quill she'd put away. "We need to write to the Minister about this- and McGonagall."

They all nodded agreement, wanting the extra assurance that even in the best defended school there was, their children were safe. Harry noticed absentmindedly that Hermione was using the parchment she'd previously addressed to reprimand Rose. He nodded in silent agreement. Unfortunately, they had more to worry about than what troubles their children had gotten into.


Hello! it's great to see you all back again. I wanted to add in a little bit of my planning notes that led up to this chapter- just in case any of you guys had curiosity for my reasoning/inspirations!

The nervous/scared House Elves:
I imagine that Hermione would have many programs in place for previously abused House Elves to recover and work safely, and Hogwarts would definitely be one of those places

Meeting in the Divination Tower:

Inspiration for this goes to my beta. In this generation, they don't know where the Room of Requirement is. (parents never told their kids specific Hogwarts secrets, mentioned that in ch15). Even if my beta was half-joking at the time, rereading about the divination room in Prisoner of Azkaban actually revealed some pretty cool facts. Namely, a 'silvery ladder' that forms as it descends to let Harry and the whole class into the room (JK never said how Trelawney knew that people were outside, so I made up the bell and knocking passcode. James was shown how it worked by the Marauder's Map), its own fireplace. (How cool is that?! Trelawney used it to boil some 'heavy, sick sort of perfume'. I imagine the Legacies utilizing it more for roasting smores.), and a lot of armchairs and poufs. Like, a ridiculous amount.

All of those things actually add up to a pretty cool hangout spot! So we stuck with it for the setting of the legacy meeting.

The adult's epiphany:

I have been dropping hints for ages! If ya'll want a full spoiler read my oneshot prequel, otherwise just wait a few more chapters. (RoyalRose, there's your hint if you want it!) Otherwise just rest assured IT IS NOT VOLDEMORT. Or any Death Eater return. Or one of his limbo-trapped soul pieces wreaking havoc. I personally don't like fics centered on Voldemort's re-re-re-return from death. That happened enough times in the original series. We are moving on, people.

Oh yeah, and Albus punched James. That happened. *cough*finally*coughcough* Please give me feedback on that whole scene- it was my first time writing one with eight characters interacting with eachother, I wanna know what ya'll thought!

~E

ps- a few of you were a bit disappointed by the lack of punishment by McGonagall in last chapter. I just wanted to explain that the Character POVs last chapter were of students who wouldn't KNOW what the punishments were! each person was only told their own knowledge of the situation. I always planned on James and Roxanne's suspension until Christmas- they're just waiting for Rox to wake up in the Hospital Wing before sending them off.

pps- J. that was a lot of reviews ;-) I don't mind answering the questions, but I don't wanna write them in the story. try a fanfiction account to PM me instead!