Chapter 29

Arcturus pinched his fingers to his forehead as he sat down in his family's seat in the Wizengamot session that was occurring that day. He had already known before he had shown up that it would be a long day, and in all honesty, he wasn't as young as he once was. He wasn't young enough to be dealing with this sort of nonsense anymore.

It had been bad when Grindelwald had been in power all those years ago. And despite his disdain for Dumbledore, it had been the fear of the man that had stopped him from ever entering British soil.

But he remembered what it had been like for the rest of the world. The deaths, the horrors that had occurred. He remembered reading about horrible bills that had passed. Bills that left the world spinning and had caused whispers in the shadow of his own country. Whispers of those who secretly supported the man and wanted similar policies to occur in their own home.

His own peers had wanted a similar sort of occurrence for England. For them to embrace the concept that they did not need to hide in the shadows from muggles. That muggles should be bowing down to them instead.

And it had left the world spinning, each day, picking up the paper to read of more and more deaths, more and more countries fallen as their governments were overtaken by his men. More and more refugees fleeing from Grindelwald. More and more pain, until Dumbledore finally decided it was worth his attention to try and bring down the man.

He didn't want that for his children or grandchildren. He didn't want them fighting in a war that they had no place in. A war, which if it were to come, would tear their world apart, would tear them apart.

He was no stranger to his granddaughter's political beliefs. He knew Bellatrix would be in the midst of the fight if this Voldemort were to rise to power. He also knew Sirius would disagree and fight against it as it went against his very constitution.

He refused to let his own family be torn apart for a man with ideals that would only hurt their world. And if the rest of the Wizengamot could not see that, and allowed his horrendous bills to pass, then Arcturus wasn't sure what chance there was for the rest of the country to make it through the storm that would occur in Voldemort's wake.

"We are here today to discuss the newest legislation brought to our attention," Dumbledore spoke out, as he held out the parchment which contained the bill. "This bill at the moment is merely being voted on for if enough houses believe we need to consider the bill, or if houses wish to dismiss it without debating the fine points. We are simply voting today a mere yes to begin debates on this bill or no on this bill to dismiss it outright, not debating passing it or not yet."

He took a deep breath, knowing fully well whatever bill would be mentioned today would be more ridiculous than the last.

"This bill is in regard to the security concern presented in muggleborn students," Dumbledore's voice called out while displaying no emotions or his own feelings on the matter, "And if by telling their muggle parents we are letting too many people know about our world. The proposal is to not tell their parents or siblings about their magic due to the fact that there is nothing preventing them from talking about it to other muggles. Instead, they should simply be told that their children are attending a prestigious boarding school."

Well, he wasn't expecting that.

He swallowed as he looked around the world, knowing fully well that there would be arguments for and against the discussion coming up.

He had to admit, he did see the reason for concern in the bill. He understood where the Dark faction was coming from. There was nothing stopping one rogue muggle from talking about magic. One parent who hated their child enough for their "freakishness" and went straight to the masses. And while they survived the witch hunts, it was not something any of them wanted to endure once more. Especially when the muggles held more than just fire now.

He could see the murmurs amongst them, knowing fully well that there were others who were just as torn. Because as ridiculous as some of the other bills presented had been this one was, while slightly extreme, not entirely wrong. It might not need to be as simple as just not telling the parents about the magic, but instead causing them to be unable to speak about it to anyone other than a witch or wizard.

But it wasn't unreasonable.

He met Fleamont's eyes from across the chambers and could see the man looked just as torn himself, knowing it was a complex matter.

"We will now hear arguments for opening up discussions for such a bill," Dumbledore said, and he shouldn't have been surprised to see Thaddeus Nott standing at that moment.

"My fellow members, I can see by the looks on your faces, that you all see the merits for such a bill. You all can understand the security concerns presented by these students coming into our world, but then returning to theirs. And we would never try to stop them from entering our world, that would be far too extreme," Thaddeus said, and Arcturus nearly scoffed out loud, "But we must admit that there is a problem when they can go home and talk to their families or their friends freely about their magic. The Statute of Secrecy cannot protect us if they come to our doors once more. Our families are old, we all remember the pain and injustices our magic felt when we were unfairly murdered for our gifts. Unfairly hunted. None of us want that. By allowing them to speak freely to muggles, we are opening up our world to more breaches. This bill will simply close that gap."

"We will now hear arguments against discussions," Dumbledore said, and Caradoc Dearborn stood up to speak.

"This bill is preposterous," Dearborn said, "We are punishing students because of their parents, and how is that any different than any of the other muggle and muggleborn bills that we have already dismissed? How is any of this going to do anything but hurt muggleborn students and not allow them to feel more alienated? This bill, if passed would do nothing but further tear our world apart in this already volatile time, and I implore that you feel the same and do not allow such a thing to pass."

He sat back down, and Dumbledore stood, "We will now begin voting on this bill. If there is a tie, I will then cast my own vote. Those in favour of discussing the bill, raise your wand."

He was torn but knew that he couldn't allow such a bill to pass. Not when it would bring even more horrendous pieces of legislation their way. And if they began discussions, it would only cause more harmful clauses to be slid in. He needed to stop this from passing. So he didn't raise his own wand, despite the points he could understand in the bill.

"Those against discussing the bill," Dumbledore called out, and he raised his own wand at that.

There were a few moments of silence while Dumbledore gathered the results.

"In a vote of 24 to 26, the bill has been dismissed and will not begin discussions," Dumbledore said, and voices broke out throughout the hall, both those who were relieved and others who were angered.

And he knew this wasn't the end, as the bills would keep on coming his way.


There was something relieving about Halloween in this time. In her own, it was filled with wondering what horrendous thing would come their way, between trolls, the chamber of secrets, mass murders breaking into the tower, and the goblet of fire choosing underage wizards, she'd had a few packed Halloweens. And in comparison, knowing all too well that her brother was planning something, was hardly the worst thing in the world.

Of course, it left her on edge all day, and she knew her brother was more than aware of that, as he went out of his way to offer her drinks, hug her slightly more than usual, pretend to slip items in her bag, and so on.

And while she loved her brother, he was driving her insane.

She knew, realistically, that whatever he had planned, was most likely meant for the entire school, and not just her solely. However she also knew better than to think that he wouldn't also prank her individually because she wouldn't be expecting it.

And as such, she was left in a state of paranoia, over her brother's every action.

Something which left Remus and Sirius far too amused, as they made a show out of teasing her about it, and she wanted to hex them all until they were left begging her to stop. But instead, she took a deep breath and decided instead, she would get her revenge. Not today, not tomorrow, but when they least expected it. Or maybe yet, she would let them think something was coming their way, and the entire time do nothing, just to leave them as paranoid as she was feeling right now.

"Just you wait," she threatened James, as she sat down beside him at dinner. "I have something planned for you. Something which will allow me to get my revenge on you for everything you've put me through today. And you'll never see it coming."

"Do you now?" he asked, raising a brow at her, "And why should I be worried about it? You've never been the pranking kind."

"Do you think you're the only one who has the knowledge in their blood?" she asked him carefully, "We are related you know. Everything you know how to do, so do I. And I know how to do it much better than you. So I'd watch my back if I were you, Potter."

He looked like he was going to retort, but realized she was right. That she was far more capable than him, merely academically. And if Hermione Potter chose to apply herself to pranks, then the rest of the world had better watch their backs.

"Well, darling sister of mine," he said as he slung an arm around her, "What's say we call a truce?"

"What's say we don't?" she grinned at him, and he looked shaken. He peered down at the pumpkin juice, and she instantly knew what the source of the prank for the entire school that day was. But instead of not drinking it, she did something surprising.

Instead, she raised her glass to her brother, as she felt a feeling of superiority fill her being.

His eyes widened comically, and she almost laughed as she drank the entire thing in one go.

She wasn't the only one, as the rest of the students began their dinner as well, and that involved drinking their juice.

She felt her body begin to shift, as ears popped out of her head, and her hair began to grow unrulier than it usually was. And unsurprisingly, a tail sprouted out of her back. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a compact mirror, and saw that her had turned into a cat, albeit a far cuter cat than she had been in her own second year of school.

She looked around and saw that the other students had turned into different sorts of muggle Halloween characters, including witches, skeletons, ghosts, mummies, vampires, and so on.

"Clever," she mentioned to her brother and he beamed at her, before raising his own glass and drinking the juice for plausible deniability.

Professor Flitwick stood up then, having a Jack O'lantern as a head, and said, "Five points to each of the students involved in these festivities."

Sirius high fived James under the table, and Remus grinned brightly at both boys. Sirius had turned into a ghost, Remus a bat, and James a skeleton. Peter on the other hand, had turned into a giant pumpkin.

"POTTER! BLACK! LUPIN! PETTIGREW!" McGonagall's voice yelled out over the other students, as she had turned into a giant werewolf. "DENTENTION! DETENTION FOR A WEEK."

Her brother simply grinned at her, "Worth it." And she laughed at that.


It was no surprise to Hermione Potter to find out her brother and Sirius had once again, managed to wind up in detention.

Then again, it probably hadn't helped that they had placed catnip all over Professor McGonagall's classroom and she had spent the better part of one of her classes rolling around, attracted by the scent of it.

To say she wasn't pleased would be an understatement.

It didn't stop Hermione from giggling when she had found out just what her big brother had gotten up to, and the thought of her professor doing such thing was enough to get her to unable to be mad at her brother, and more amused than anything else.

Remus was in the library, and she supposed she could join him, but it wasn't as if she really needed to study anyways. No, she had another more important mission that she needed to attend to now, and it was time to finally face it whether she liked it or not.

Peter Pettigrew.

With his friends all occupied, it meant that he would most likely be alone. And it was such a build-up of loneliness which was dangerous. It meant that there was more time for him to develop insecurities, and more time for Death Eaters to wiggle their way in and try and manipulate him.

Not that it excused what he did in the future. There was nothing which could justify willingly selling out your best friends.

She walked into the common room and saw Peter sitting alone in a corner, a set of chess in front of him, while he stared idly at it, as if he could will the game to play itself, without another player. And she supposed if he really wanted to, he could play by himself. Not that it would be very fun.

"Peter," Hermione greeted him, and he jumped slightly.

"Hermione," he said, squeakily. "Why aren't you in the library?" he asked her curiously.

"I needed a break," she said with a shrug, "And regardless of what my brother thinks, I don't spend all my time studying. I'm capable of leaving the library every now and again."

"James isn't here," he informed her, "He and Sirius have detention."

"I know," she smirked, remembering just what they had done to deserve it. "I actually wanted to know if you wanted to play a game of chess with me."

"Why?" he asked her, unsure. "I'm sure you have better things to be doing.

"Because I'm rubbish at it," she admitted, "And James has mentioned how good you are at it, and I would like to try and get better at it. Do you know how annoying it is to play James and have him laugh happily when he beats you? I love my brother to death, but just once, I want to beat him."

He looked unsure for a moment, as if he couldn't tell if she was only offering because she felt sorry for him, or if she truly wanted to play. And she tried her best to look at genuine as possible, because she needed him to say yes. Needed to try and befriend him and steer him off the dark path if possible.

He gestured at the chair across from him, "It's not like I'm playing anyone anyway," he shrugged, "Let's see how good you are." He moved to set up the board.

She probably shouldn't have been surprised that she lost within a few minutes. Or that she lost the game after that or the game following that. She knew he was good at the game for a reason.

Perhaps she just needed to be able to get through to him to see it was more beneficial for him to stay loyal to his higher pieces than to sacrifice them in order to win.


Peter had no idea what to think about Hermione Potter, and yet here she was, sitting across from him as she all but begged him to play a game of chess with him. And he had no idea why. He was sure there were better things she could have been doing. He was hardly the most interesting person in the world.

And she had more than enough friends, they all knew that. Was she only here cause they were all busy? Or did she truly want to be here like she claimed?

He had no idea, and honestly, he couldn't think of a good reason as to why she was sitting here. And yet, he couldn't think of a good reason for why she would force herself to hang out with him if she didn't want to. There was nothing in it for her. Her brother never would ask her to hang out with him, more like the other way around.

And when he won the fourth game, she had a bright look on her face, not even fazed by the defeat.

She grinned, "I knew you were good at this game, but I didn't know you were this great at it! Colour me impressed."

He turned slightly red at the praise, not sure how to react to it entirely, but it was always nice for someone to think he was good at something.

She moved to set up for another game, and he wondered at that, if perhaps he was wrong about Hermione Potter. That there was a reason Sirius and Remus were so quick to accept her into their folds. That there was a reason James would bend over backwards for his younger sister. Because she was definitely something else.

But he had yet to determine if that was a good thing, or not.


Hermione sighed to herself as she sat down beside Draco in the library.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked her curiously as they had a stack of books around them, dedicated towards how to become Animagi, and the entire set of procedures they would need to undergo.

"I am," she said determinedly. "We know that it is possible to do. James and the boys with accomplish it eventually. And if they can figure it out, then so can we. And if it takes us a year or so to get it right, then I'm willing to put in the time. Merlin knows there's more than enough things that can go wrong that are not in our control."

"Such as finding a dew drop that has not seen sunlight or touched human feet?" Draco asked her dryly.

"Or spending an entire month with a mandrake leaf attached to your mouth, only to find that the next full moon isn't visible and needing to repeat the entire process just so we can spit out the leaf in a phial under the moon's visible rays of light," she added.

"Merlin forbid we accidently swallow the leaf," he sighed. "No wonder it takes your brother and his friends so long to successfully turn into Animagi. The process is far more complex than one would have thought. And Salazar help us if we accidently do something wrong and turn into permanent half-human, half-animal mutations because of it. Merlin knows I won't be able to look my parents in the eye if I have dragon scales or something of the like."

She laughed at the image, despite the seriousness of the situation, and he gave her an unimpressed look.

"I can't help it!" she defended, "You're the one who gave me that mental image."

He smirked at her, "Imagining me, are you Potter?"

"Don't flatter yourself," she retorted, "You're hardly attractive in the image I'm conjuring in my mind."

"No more than usual, anyways," he gave her a smug look, and she rolled her eyes.

"Shut up, Black," she said, as she wrote down the exact instructions onto a set of parchment and made side notes about things they needed to make sure they did.

Such as meditation to try and find out what form they would take as they transformed into animals. Because while it was possible to just wait until the transformation and have the form determined by their traits, meditation allowed them the slightest control over at least knowing their form ahead of time.

"We're going to have to use a sticking charm," Draco mentioned as he held up the mandrake leaf that they had procured from the greenhouses. "Otherwise there's no way it will remain at the roof of our mouths for an entire month."

"We probably would accidently swallow the leaves," she sighed. "Merlin this entire process is going to be particularly dreadful."

He gave her a look, one she knew was him all but saying that he told her so, and she chose to ignore it.

"I ran into Professor McGonagall," she admitted to him, "While I had the leaves in my bag. I think she is aware of what we're doing, but she hasn't said anything to discourage us from doing so. I suppose if at the end of everything, if we were to register, then it doesn't do us any harm to become Animagi while we are technically underage students."

"We are underage students," he corrected her, "It doesn't matter if we once lived to be older. All any one sees now is that we are two teenagers. You're thirteen, Hermione, and I'm only fourteen, given our new birthdates. It hardly brings us close to the legal age."

"I always found that strange," she sighed, "That the ritual made us switch birthdays."

"It's your fault," he said, nudging her, "Your brother's birthday is March 19, 1959. There's no way you could have been born in September of the same year to have been able to have kept your original birthday. So I suppose it made us switch dates."

"I liked being older than everyone," she said, softly.

"You liked using your age to be able to boss people around," he corrected once more. "Admit it, Granger. You enjoyed bossing around your two friends and terrorizing half our year."

"I didn't terrorize anyone!" she protested.

"One word. Spew," Draco said, raising a brow.

"First of all, It's S.P.E.W. and secondly, I admit I might have been a bit naïve in my youth, and not have properly researched the magical bonds of house elves," she said, turning red slightly.

He shook his head, a smile on his face as they reminisced about their past. "Well I guess it just means that you have to listen to me now, because I'm the older one."

"If you think that will happen for even a moment, then you are sorely mistaken," she said, shaking her head at him. "We both know I'm the more capable of the two of us."

"Please," he retorted, "We both know that's not even close to true."

"Agree to disagree," she said nonchalantly.

"Mature, Potter," he said, "But I suppose you are right about becoming Animagi. I might not be particularly keen on running around each month with a werewolf, even one who is our friend, but it would be a useful skill to have. Who knows, maybe if I turn into a dragon, I can roast Voldemort and end all our problems."

"You're not going to be a dragon," she rolled her eyes, "And that would only be possible if Voldemort's horcruxes were all destroyed. And we still need to get the ring this year."

"I know," he sighed, "We still have a lot of planning to go before we even begin to attempt that mission."

"We'll get there," she reassured him, as she placed a hand on his, and he smiled at her.

"We will."