The Lestrange heir should not have been sneaking around the corridors of Hogwarts after hours, but he had been told by the Weasley twins to meet them in the Charms classroom around midnight. He was well aware that it was most likely a prank, but he wondered why the twins wanted to meet him.

Against his better judgment, he made his way to the Charms classroom, silently opening the door and stepping into the room. Something moved near the front of the room, and Laverne was about to reach for his wand when two redheads stood up from behind the desk. "Lestrange," one of them said.

"...Fred and George," Laverne said after a moment. "I can't address you individually as I can't tell you apart."

"Our own mother—"

"—can't tell us—"

"—apart," they finished together. "But I'm the handsome one."

Laverne merely smirked at this. "What was the purpose of this meeting?"

"What made you give up Quidditch?" George demanded.

"What?" Laverne said in disbelief. "This is not about that."

"No, but we were talking about it earlier today," Fred shrugged.

George eyed him suspiciously. "Did Malfoy pay you to leave?"

Laverne frowned at both twins, not really wanting to talk about his leaving the Slytherin Quidditch team, and one of them continued, "We know Draco's father paid for his place on that team, but you weren't the seeker. You were a beater, with your sister before she graduated."

The dark-haired boy didn't answer for a moment, then said, "I'll die before I let it be said that the House of Malfoy bought me out. I left when it was insisted upon that the entire Quidditch team receive new brooms."

"No handouts," Fred nodded. "Even Weasleys understand that."

"Yeah, we get our brothers' hand-me-downs, no need for Malfoys," George joked.

"I told them that I quit when I found out," Laverne said simply. "I'm not one of his worshipers."

Both twins exchanged looks, and Laverne added, "But he's my cousin, you see. Our mothers are sisters, so it's complicated. Mum has always told us to keep our family close, but sometimes I could do without some of them."

Fred and George chuckled. "We know about that," they agreed. "So—"

At that moment, the school poltergeist appeared before them and they all jumped. "What have we got here?" cackled Peeves. "Students out of bedses!"

The twins glanced at each other, then said, "Hello, Peeves. Any good pranks lately?"

Laverne hesitated for a single moment, and the poltergeist began yelling, "Students out of bed! Students out of bed!"

Laverne ran for the door, throwing it open and pelting down the hall, hearing the Weasley twins run in the other direction. Great, he thought to himself. Meeting Weasleys and caught running away. Why didn't I just ignore them?

He heard Filch questioning Peeves and paused to listen, then realised Filch was coming his way. Looking around in horror, he noticed a closet door and silently moved to it. The second he opened it, something moved inside and he heard a stifled scream. After a moment of shock, he stepped into the closet and shut the door.

"What are you doing?" he hissed at his sister, then realised she was not alone. Her face was flushed in embarrassment as she straightened her skirt, and Laverne clearly saw Alvin Nott standing further back in the shadows.

"Hush," Athena hissed at him as they heard Filch's footsteps draw closer. She raised her hands and put a Notice-Me-Not ward on the door.

That was the last thing Laverne remembered before he opened his eyes and found Alvin Nott staring at him in shock and horror. "What?" he asked, seeing Athena had lit her wand and was staring into his face.

Filch's footsteps were fading into the distance as Athena breathed, "You went into a kind of trance… I think you had a vision, Laverne."

"No," said Laverne after a moment. "No, no, no."

"Yeah," Alvin nodded seriously. "You were talking about the Dark Lord, sounding kind of like Nymphadora."

"Laverne," Athena said in concern, "I really think it was some kind of vision. It wasn't normal."

"I didn't do anything," Laverne protested. "I don't recall anything!"

Athena reached out and grabbed her brother by the shoulder. "You have to do something about it because you basically said the Dark Lord's returning next year. You can't ignore it if it was a real prophecy."

"What specifically did I say?" Laverne asked her pointedly, irritated at the whole situation.

"You said that when one thought dead returns, will the Dark Lord also return," Alvin said.

"No, no, no," Laverne said, shaking his head. "There's no way."

"Let's get back to the Common Room," Athena said to him. "We can talk about it there."

Laverne's eyes narrowed. "I don't want to talk about it."

Athena sighed, shaking her head at him. "Look: you need to tell Mother about this. She'll know more about it than I do."

He frowned. "Know about what? Mum's no Seer, Athena."

"No," Athena said gently, "but having visions like this runs in our family. Mum mentioned it once years ago. Apparently Uncle Rodolphus once had a vision when they were at a family dinner. I don't know anything else about it, but Mum should. You need to at least talk to her."

"Why did no one tell me?" Laverne demanded, glaring at his sister and noting that Alvin looked even more nervous than before. "Even Grandfather never mentioned it."

"I don't know," Athena answered. "Maybe Rodolphus was the only one who had them in recent generations."

"You can ask him if the Dark Lord returns like you said," Alvin suggested, and Laverne shot a furious glare at him before wrenching open the closet door and storming away. As he left, he heard the Nott boy say, "I see what you mean about the Lestrange rage."

Laverne didn't care. He went straight to his dormitory, hiding behind his bedcurtain as he immediately wrote his mother about what had happened and curse-warded the letter. He would send it to her first thing in the morning. He needed to figure out some way to not let this be a regular occurrence.

Dora arrived home one evening to find Andromeda standing in the Entrance Hall, grinning at her. "Mum?" Dora asked cautiously. "What's going on? Why are you grinning like that?"

"Can I not smile in my own home, Nymphadora?" the woman questioned, raising an eyebrow, and Dora frowned.

"Mum, don't play like that," Dora sighed. "You're acting weird."

"I'm not Mum," the woman giggled, and in a matter of seconds, she had morphed back to her girl form of Arielle.

"You little brat," Nymphadora said to her. "Where's Mum?"

Arielle shrugged. "She went to talk to Laverne. I think he's having nightmares or something. She really wouldn't tell me, but apparently it was enough for her to need to go see him."

Dora shook her head at this, then turned and walked away, heading toward her room for the evening when Arielle called after her, "Dora, why don't you talk to me anymore? Fly with me like you used to."

Nymphadora stopped and turned back to her youngest sister. "Well, I—" she said, then stopped and began again. "All right, I'll meet you out there in ten minutes."

Arielle hurried away without another word, and Dora sighed, but continued to her room to put on her Quidditch robes. Her little sister often got annoyed with her nowadays because all she did was work and generally act like more of an adult than she ever had, leaving Arielle without anyone to amuse herself.

Dora quickly met her out in the grounds, her broom in her hand, and grinned when she saw the girl waiting on her. "I can do the Barrel Roll now," Arielle said excitedly. "I can't wait to show you. I showed Astrid the other day, but she wasn't thrilled. I think she's too young for such things, or she's just weird."

"Oh dear," Dora said, shaking her head. "Shall we fly around the edge of the ward first? I haven't seen the grounds in a while."

"I haven't seen you in a while," Arielle retorted as they mounted and began to fly. "You've gotten very boring."

"Everyone thinks I've gotten boring," Dora called over her shoulder, smirking. "My old schoolmates, you, and even a couple of my coworkers think that. I dare you to keep up with me, though." And she zoomed off, leaving her sister to try and catch up.

Arielle did not stay behind for very long, soaring up above Dora and yelling, "I'll race you around!"

Dora responded by leaning forward and accelerating, her robe flapping in the wind. It was not until Arielle tried to sideswipe her that Dora yelped and said, "You want to play dirty, little girl? I'll show you dirty!"

They continued to try to knock each other out of the race until they neared the house again and heard their mother call for them. The two barely glanced at each other before slowing and diving toward the ground to pull up at the last second, landing in front of Andromeda.

"Are you two trying to injure each other?" Andromeda asked wearily. "Honestly."

"Hi," Dora said with a grin. "How's Laverne and his nightmares?"

"No, no," the brown-haired witch said, turning and leading the two fliers into the house. "Your brother had a vision. It's not uncommon for the Lestrange heir to have visions, but I only ever saw Rodolphus have one, and Rabastan never had any. Come to dinner and we'll talk more about it."

The two girls exchanged looks and hurried to wash up from their activities. Almost as soon as they had sat down at the table, Arielle asked, "What did he see, Mum?"

Andromeda called the food to the table, then replied, "Laverne spoke of the Dark Lord's return. Perhaps sooner than we think. He has no memory of the prophecy he made, but Athena was there, thankfully, and I was able to see her memory. Laverne said, "When one thought dead returns to his master; Will the Dark Lord return."

"Well, he's lost the plot," Dora muttered.

"Nymphadora," Arielle said sternly, "you've always been the one to talk about the Dark Lord's return. You can't say that."

"That's exactly what Athena told Laverne," Andromeda sighed. "I mean, who's to say it will come true? But Dora, this prophecy will be arriving at the Department of Mysteries eventually: all prophecies do, though I don't know how."

"Everyone will know," Dora breathed. "This isn't something everyone should know about...is it?"

"No," Andromeda answered, "so if you can do anything to make it seem as nothing, do so."

Nymphadora nodded. "Well, we can't listen to the prophecies unless they're broken, and if we remove them from the shelves, we get cursed. I'll see what I can do."

Andromeda shook her head slightly. "If this gets around to the Minister...what do you suppose he'd think of a prophecy from a Lestrange, about the Dark Lord?"

Dora scoffed at this. "He would see Laverne as a child still," she said. "He's not very smart about abstract ideas, you see. He wouldn't take it serious, but call it child's play or something."

"I don't know," Andromeda said doubtfully. "It's a bit concerning. Oh, and your brother is angry that this has happened to him, so don't bother him about it unless you want to risk a curse."

"Poor boy," Dora said in realisation. "It's not his fault; you told him that, right?"

"Yes," their mother answered, "though I'm not sure how much I was able to get through to him. Fifteen years old is a turbulent year in the best conditions."

Arielle frowned. "Mum, will our children have visions like that?"

Andromeda took a sip of her tea, then said, "No. It is carried from generation to generation by the males only. Laverne is the only one who will pass it on. I had to explain the same thing to Athena."

A strange look crossed Andromeda's face, and Dora asked innocently, "Why, Mum? Is Athena getting married or something?"

"Well, we have received a marriage offer for her, which when I told her today, she already seemed to know," Andromeda mused. "And apparently Laverne doesn't think too highly of Alvin Nott, so I don't know how that's supposed to work out."

"Why do we have to grow up?" Arielle huffed. "I wish Athena was still young and at home to be with us. She's going to go straight from Hogwarts student to somebody's perfect wife. It's stupid."

"Exactly," Dora said firmly. "Give yourself time to live, okay, Arielle?"

"Okay," Arielle nodded, making her mother give Dora a reproving look. "I don't even like boys."

Dora couldn't help laughing at this, especially when Andromeda said, "That's fine, dear."

"I don't want Athena to get married," Arielle said with a frown, crossing her arms. "And isn't the father supposed to give her away? What are we going to do?"

Andromeda drew a deep breath and said, "Well, everyone knows why your father isn't here, Aria. It can't be helped. Either Laverne will do it, or no one will, most likely."

"Or you could," Dora shrugged. "That would be cool, though I don't know if Athena would like that."

"Speaking of Dad," Arielle said uncomfortably, looking between her mother and oldest sister, "does he still think I'm not his daughter?"

"I...I don't know," Andromeda whispered, hardly surprised at the question, yet worried about her youngest child's reaction. "He's not well, Arielle. Everything is obscured and warped when you're in Azkaban...it's an awful feeling, being there. I can't imagine being locked up there forever." She shuddered.

"Do you think he'll like me?" she asked, watching her plate as she couldn't look at her mother.

"He'd better," Dora said sharply. "You're his daughter, after all. And if he can accept me and won't accept you, he's a hypocrite and not worth his name."

Andromeda took another deep breath to calm herself, then said quietly, "Dora, please don't say things like that."

Dora nodded, then turned to her sister and said, "We're not going to let you be hurt. We're not going to let him terrorise you, or anything like that. He may have been a decent Death Eater, but he certainly wasn't a father to us. He has no right to try to take control of us when the Dark Lord returns."

"Dora, that's asking for trouble," Andromeda warned her. "I cannot allow you to oppose him."

"Mum, if—"

"Dora, no," Andromeda said firmly, with a specific look.

Nymphadora knew what that meant. She was allowed to continue the conversation with her mother later, but Andromeda didn't want Arielle to hear too much. "I won't let him hurt my siblings," she said sharply, then stabbed a piece of meat with her fork and continued eating her meal in silence.

I actually love Nymphadora in this story, in spite of my falling out of love with her in Shadow XD

Dora