January 1988

Maddison was bored. She leaned over A History of Magic and underlined letters until she had a string of words. It was all she could do to keep herself awake as the old ghost at the front of the room droned on without so much as looking up.

"Before the Goblin Rebellion, members of various magical communities sent ambassadors to navigate old world customs within foreign territories and land owned by . . ."

Satisfied, Maddison slid the book over to Rhodus Carrow.

Binns is an old fool

Rhodus smiled and handed the book back to her.

Maddison leaned against his shoulder, letting her hair fall in front of him. "Want to skip Herbology and find something fun to do?"

Rhodus shrugged.

"Or not," Maddison said.

Rhodus was tired. "I would, just, I found Amelia crying in the common room in the middle of the night."

"I knew I heard her get out of bed," Maddison said.

"I don't know what to do anymore."

"You're not supposed to," Maddison said. "She's twelve years old. It's . . . an awful time to lose someone."

"I made it worse," Rhodus said. "I yelled at her."

"What is wrong with you?"

"I don't know," Rhodus said. "I have to stop. It's not helping me or Amelia."

Maddison said, "Skip Herbology with me. You need a break."

"I have to check on Amelia."

"I'll check on her," Maddison said, "go take a break."

"You'd do that?"

I've been fucking doing that. "You think last night was the only time she has cried?"

Binns fell asleep mid-sentence and didn't wake up until the end of class.

Maddison stood up too fast and shoved her chair into Eni.

"Shite," Maddison said, "you alright?"

"I'm fine," Eni said.

"I didn't mean to, you know."

Eni didn't say anything. Her foot throbbed where Maddison's chair had crushed it. She waited for Maddison and Rhodus to walk ahead before she left the classroom. She knew Maddison didn't mean it, but she still wasn't ready to talk to her again, and it didn't matter anymore. Maddison had spent the year hanging out with the rest of her house, ignoring Eni, Charlie, Aaron, and Tonks. Eni had heard about weekend parties in the Slytherin common room, but she had never been invited. None of them had. Maddison seemed happy enough without them.

Eni hadn't gone home with Maddison for Christmas, and she didn't think she would for the summer either. That was fine. She needed to stop relying on Maddison and her family for support.

Eni dodged students in the hallways. Aaron stood outside the Charms classroom. She took the training wand out of her bag and handed it to him. "You should just keep this."

"You need it, too," Aaron said, taking the wand, "at least until McGonagall finds another one for us to use."

"Or until I get a better hold on hand magic," Eni said. Her foot still hurt. She bet it would be bruised when she took off her shoes later.

"I have enough to buy one now," Aaron said, "I was just making sure I actually needed to, you know?"

"You've been a lot more consistent."

Aaron shrugged. "It still comes and goes."

"If I start working like you, I can save for one, too." She wanted to have her own wand again, one she had paid for with her own money, not a training wand and not one someone else had bought for her out of pity.

"You should talk to McGonagall about it," Aaron said. "There's plenty of work."

The rest of the students had filed into the Charms classroom and the hallway was empty. Eni had to get to Herbology. "See you in Potions."

Aaron walked into First Year Charms and took his usual seat in the last row. It had felt better when he was a First Year taking Second Year classes or a Second Year taking Third and Fourth Year classes, even if it had just been Herbology and History of Magic. Now he felt out of place. And too tall. The First Year students around him looked small, nervous, and over eager.

Flitwick closed the door and started his lecture. Aaron opened his textbook. He had marked the page where Flitwick had left off on Tuesday, right after a noise reducing charm. Aaron hadn't gotten the hang of it in class and realized he hadn't tried it after class either. He'd have to work on it tonight.

The boy next to him dug through his satchel, frantic.

What's his name? David? Dean?

The boy had never talked to him, so he could only remember what Flitwick called him.

The boy's quill and parchment were out, but not his ink pot. Aaron slid his across the long desk.

"Use mine," Aaron said.

"Thanks."

Shite, no, his name's Daniel.

Daniel dipped his quill in Aaron's ink pot. He pulled it out too fast and droplets of ink rained onto the desk between them. Daniel started to blot at the spilled ink with his robes.

Aaron took out the training wand.

Let's see if today is better than yesterday.

"Tergeo," Aaron said. About half of the spilled ink siphoned itself into the air and dissolved. Not bad.

Daniel spent the next twenty minutes glancing nervously at Aaron.

"What?"

"Can . . . can you really apparate wherever you want?"

"No."

"I heard that you can-"

"People talk a lot."

"Do you think you could teach me how you-"

Flitwick eyed them. Aaron actually had to pay attention, but he didn't want a First Year knowing that. "If you keep talking through class I'll apparate you to the middle of the Forbidden Forest and leave you there."

The boy turned back to his parchment.

Flitwick had gotten to the practical part of the class.

"Everyone take a block of wood from the basket. There, you got it, pass it around. Everyone got one? Good. Now raise your wands and repeat after me. Colovaria!"

The First Years yelled the charm back with enthusiasm. Aaron muttered it under his breath and flicked his wand. He shouldn't have been surprised when nothing happened. All around the room First Years were yelling the incantation and flicking their wands.

Embrace it, Charlie had said. Fucking embrace it.

"Colovaria!" Aaron said, so loud that Daniel jumped. But he felt something; a pulse of cold energy mixed with broken glass and the taste of something bitter in the back of his throat, his cue that he was tapping into magic. The block of wood turned a darker shade of brown, barely enough to see. Then, it turned black.

Professor Flitwick walked around the room. He saw Aaron's block.

"Well done! Well done!"

I am actually getting this.

Aaron was so excited he did it again. "Colovaria!"

The block took its time, but it turned blue. Aaron laughed. He wanted to run down the halls and turn every fucking thing a different color.

When he left Charms, Tonks waved him over.

"Hey! Have you got a partner for the sparing practical in Defense Against the Dark Arts yet?"

"No," Aaron said. "Why? Do you want to do it with me?"

"'Course I do!"

"I don't know," Aaron said.

"Come on, it will be fun," Tonks said.

"Until you maim me."

"I'm not going to maim you."

Charlie walked up to them. "You two haven't seen Percy have you?"

"Thankfully, we share a Transfiguration class," Aaron said. "How lucky am I?"

"Has his rat gotten loose?" Tonks asked.

"No," Charlie said. "I told him he could use my broom for flying lessons if he put it back where it goes. He hasn't been putting it back. I'm gonna kill him if he does it again. I've got Quidditch practice later and I can't fucking find it."

"He was in class this morning," Aaron said. "He should have Potions now, right?"

Rhodus came around the corner and collided with Aaron. Aaron stiffened. Not because it was Rhodus, but because of what he saw every time he looked at Rhodus.

Aaron hadn't told anyone that he was the one who found Marcus Carrow's body. He couldn't if he wanted to. Moody had used a gag charm to keep him from talking about it. But the rotted corpse that had been Marcus Carrow was all he thought of when he saw Rhodus or Amelia in the halls. He had woken up a few times from dreams featuring a decomposed head and a distorted corpse that sometimes came alive. Even without the dreams, he would never shake the way Carrow's body had smelled on the train station platform.

Rhodus walked past them. He had always been tall and broad. Like his father.