"So, something happened last week," Lily said by way of a Monday lunchtime greeting.

I frowned.

"What do you mean? Good or bad?"

"Bad. Definitely bad."

My stomach felt heavy all of a sudden.

"Oh god, what? Is everyone okay?"

"Oh, everyone's fine," she said reassuringly. "Well, for the most part anyway. Nothing's happened to anyone. Just, a bad thing has happened. I don't suppose you have any food by the way? I forgot to pack lunch."

"You're sitting in a pub," I pointed out, slightly irritated now – Lily had a tendency to drop hints at a big story only to drag out the details. "Soup or sandwich?"

I waited until she'd had a few spoonfuls of the piping hot tomato soup before questioning her.

"Right, what has happened? And no more cryptic remarks, just the facts."

Lily chewed on a piece of bread.

"Okay," she said once she'd swallowed, sitting up straight on the bar stool. "So it turns out that Hermione and Rose have been working on a sort of project for a few weeks now. Nothing official, just, you know, they were curious."

"Rose being curious is never a good thing," I said.

"Wait for it," Lily said darkly. "They were hypothesising – all unofficial, just a private little thing between mother and daughter that they worked on outside of work hours, remember – how we might consider going about a potential removal of the Statute of Secrecy one day."

The words took a moment to sink in.

"Removal of … the Statute of Secrecy?"

"That's what I said." Lily took another slurp of soup. "By the sounds of it, it was actually what you said about Lucius Malfoy ambushing you that started it off – that and the argument we had over dinner the next day. They wondered, are there a lot of wizards and witches out there who resent having to hide, are we in a different sort of world now to the one that required the Statute in the first place in order to protect magical people from persecution, and will we maybe get to a stage sometime in the future in which we're so tightly wound in with the Muggle world that it's impossible to stay secret? And would we potentially risk reaching a point of no return if we don't start thinking about it now?

"It's all very delicate, as you can imagine, just the suggestion of lifting the Statute is so controversial and littered with issues. Hermione in particular reached a conclusion that it was maybe in our best interests if someone could get the ball rolling on this in total secrecy, all on a purely academic basis, with no particular motives and no real ambition for this to actually happen any time soon. Completely theoretical. But then if a situation did arise in which the wizarding world came under pressure to lift the Statute, at least some work will have been done on how best to do so. Hermione is not trying to lift the Statute now, or anytime in at least the near future."

"Okay," I said slowly, my brain working double time to try to process what I was hearing. "So … what's happened?"

"Nobody's all that sure, really," she said, mopping up her soup with the last of her bread. "And that's what makes this even worse. But essentially, somehow, the Minister's office have gotten hold of it."

My jaw dropped.

"I - but - how -"

"That," she replied, "is a very good question. Hermione's now called for an inquiry within the MLE because presumably someone with access to her office is involved. Which includes Dad, and Uncle Ron, so they're having to investigate them which is madness. But, of course, that's the least of our worries, because basically this project is now public knowledge. And the Minister has decided he's interested in advancing it further."

"What?"

Minister Knatchbull hadn't been in office for very long. Nobody really seemed to know much about him or where he'd come from, which seemed fishy to me, especially in a world where everyone seemed to know everyone. His family were Canadian but one of his ancestors was allegedly a previous Minister for Magic back in the 1700s. He'd worked his way up through the Department for International Magical Cooperation, via the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, and had somewhat surprised the political establishment with his support base when he'd run for office. It was as though people were beginning to grow fatigued with Harry and Hermione's generation, who by all accounts had given the Ministry a much needed shake up in the aftermath of Voldemort's defeat, but had very much remained in the driving seats ever since.

Unfortunately, some people didn't seem to realise that this was because they were good at what they did, and change for change's sake wasn't always a good idea. According to Harry, nobody really knew what Knatchbull's agenda was or what he was likely to do.

"So ... so what next?"

"Well, nobody really knows," Lily confessed. "He's announced that his team of advisors will be 'looking into the plans' but nobody knows if that means he actually wants to act on it. He doesn't have the authority to lift the Statute on his own anyway; it's an international law, not a British one. The International Confederation of Wizards would need to rule on it, and Knatchbull would be breaking the Statute if he tried to unilaterally lift it. But that's almost a moot point right now. The fact is, the Statute is now likely to be politicised, and that's exactly what Hermione didn't want to happen."

I shook my head, dumbfounded. It felt as though my stomach had turned to iron.

"How does anyone even think the Statute could be lifted, anyway? You can't just stand up at a UN meeting and say 'hi guys, we want to share our powers with you all and stop being isolationist,' like we're bloody Wakanda or something."

"Which is exactly the point of Hermione and Rose starting this going in the first place," Lily sighed. "We would have to be so much more discreet than that, and they both understand that. Hermione's from a Muggle family, out of everyone in our family she's probably the only one who understands as much as you and I do how damaging it could be if the Muggle world found out about us, especially if it was carried out the wrong way. Do we really want to put this decision into the hands of purebloods who have little to no interaction with Muggles?"

She let out a heavy sigh.

"But ... I mean..." I was trying to calm myself down more than anything. "I mean, surely if the Confederation has to decide to lift it, then it means the whole world has to sign off on it? Which is beyond unlikely, so..."

"Pretty much," Lily agreed. "I mean there are countries like the USA who have much stricter laws than us. Over there it would be illegal for you to date James at all, whether you knew about us or not. There's absolutely no mingling with Muggles there. So they're very unlikely to want to revoke the Statute. Then there are some countries with oppressive regimes, or where there has been a hostile takeover, in which the rulers don't even know about their magical population because obviously the preceding government wouldn't have had chance to tell them and what wizarding community would willingly admit their existence to an oppressive dictator ... so, yeah, I'm sure there will be so much resistance to this. But whether this even gets to international level or not, the point is it's damaging enough having this discussed by our government. Because now everyone is talking about it, and this is the sort of hypothesis that quite frankly some people shouldn't be allowed an opinion on. Incidentally, don't look at what the Daily Prophet has been saying, somehow they're making it personal."

"Oh, I've banned it from here," I said. "So if you're referring to any comments they may have made about me, it's probably fuelled by that. They don't like me now."

Lily snorted.

"Speaking of things being banned from here," she added, "James banned the Weasley Sunday dinner too."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, he said he didn't want us all gathering here yesterday when you guys weren't here," she clarified. "This whole fiasco ... hasn't exactly gone down well within the family. I expect James realised that putting us all in one room was just asking for trouble."

"Oh shit." That hadn't occurred to me. "Who's said what?"

"The usual culprits, the usual crap. This all kicked off at the start of last week but James didn't want to tell you while you were away with your family. And he didn't want to rush the whole thing this morning, so I told him I'd come round and fill you in with the details. It's undoubtedly going to be the talk of the town for weeks now."

I groaned.

"This is..."

"Shit," Lily provided succinctly.

"Shit," I agreed.

That evening, Freddie and Brigid came round for dinner. Monday nights were usually quiet, and so Lauren and Kreacher were manning the pub, leaving James and me free to host dinner upstairs. Ordinarily I would have felt guilty about taking a night off on my first day back at work, but the four of us hadn't had a chance to catch up properly in weeks, and after Lily's bombshell I really needed a distraction.

Unfortunately, as I should have expected, the conversation topic didn't really allow for much distraction.

"How was your week with mad Spanish people?" Brigid asked once we were all settled in the lounge.

"It was ... hectic," I admitted. "I'm glad it's over. I love some of them, but most of them are just idiots, it's a wonder we're all related. You guys have no idea how lucky you are that you all get on," I added towards James and Freddie.

"Well," began James.

"Mostly," Freddie finished. "When people don't have stupid ass ideas about changing the world."

"Yeah, Lily told me about that today," I said darkly. "Bloody mental, the whole thing."

Freddie frowned.

"Do you not want the Statute lifted? I would've thought you'd want your world to know about our world."

"My world is definitely not ready to learn about your world."

"Surely not all Muggles would take it badly, though? I mean, wouldn't it make it easier for you if your family knew about us?"

I thought about my rosary-clutching wider family, and their refusal to even believe in modern medicine.

"It would make my life many things, but easier is not one of them. I don't even know how my parents would take it."

"You were pretty chill about it."

"Not at first," I reminded Freddie. "And besides, I ... well, my parents aren't exactly all that fond of James in the first place. I can't see them ever taking this well."

Brigid looked confused.

"I don't get what there is not to like about James."

"Well, put it this way," I said. "They think he's a failed footballer who never made it out of the lower leagues and who has therefore had to settle for a teaching job to make ends meet. And he's now whisked me away to some remote village in Scotland with this mad idea that we can run a pub together. They don't know, they can't know, that he's a World Cup winning Quidditch player who retired in his prime to take up a prestigious job, and that we live in a lovely village in Scotland and he's used his somewhat considerable wealth earned through said Quidditch career to buy one of the most popular wizarding pubs in the world with a mad idea that we can run it together. Ironically, he's actually perfect boyfriend material for me in their eyes – wealthy, good prospects and a secure career – and they'd love the whole World Cup thing. But they don't know about any of that. They also don't know that remoteness isn't a thing as soon as you can throw some magic green powder into a fire and let it take you anywhere you like, provided it's got a fireplace."

"He doesn't have to be a failed football player, though," Freddie protested.

"He does, to be fair," Brigid pointed out for me, "otherwise Carla's parents would then be wondering why he doesn't play in the top league. I mean, ideally they wouldn't know he played any sort of sport, they'd think he was a pencil pusher like most Muggles are."

"Thanks for the advice, Brie, we'll do that two years ago," James quipped.

"But surely," Freddie pressed, "if they were able to find out that James actually is successful and rich and maybe not completely reckless with your careers, and that you could actually visit them all the time, then they'd like him and be okay with the whole magic thing?"

"Well, let's see, first off I'd have to deal with the fact that I've lied to them for the past two years, and let them think they can't see me for the past four months when I could just hop in a fireplace and be in London in a flash," I pointed out. "And once we're through that shocker, there's still the stumbling block that there's an entire society of people out there who've kept their existence hidden for centuries and in the meantime have the ability to kill people with a stick. Not sure that James winning a World Cup will make all of that okay, all things considered. Want a mead, Fred?"

"I was beginning to think you'd never ask."

"Yes, well, I'm used to working in a pub and waiting for people to ask me for the drinks they want, I've forgotten how to be a host." I got to my feet and stretched, feeling all my tight muscles screaming at me. "Brie, pumpkin juice?"

"Actually I wouldn't say no to sharing a bottle of wine if you're happy to open one?" she suggested.

I raised an eyebrow.

"Tee-total life get boring, huh?"

She smiled slightly.

"That, and I'm getting sick of having to Apparate Freddie everywhere."

"Don't I know the feeling," James grumbled, before raising his arms to shield himself from the cushion I threw at him.

Another advantage of hosting friends upstairs rather than in the pub was that I didn't need to worry about charging them for their drinks, I considered as I poured wine in the kitchen. We really needed to start recouping money back from all the freebies I'd given out in January.

Once we were all settled with drinks, James spoke up.

"We had a staff meeting at the school today. Apparently McGonagall is stepping down at the end of the school year."

"What?" Freddie and Brigid chorused.

"Well, that makes sense, she's ancient isn't she?" I supplied.

"She's only about a hundred," James said, as though that meant she was young. "But yeah, she's retiring, and boy does she deserve it. So we had this meeting today, because Flitwick is Deputy Head, but he's almost as old as she is. So it's been decided that Neville is going to be the headmaster from next September."

"Wow!" Brigid said. "That's incredible, he must be so chuffed about that!"

"Yeah, I think he's pretty excited," James said. "Course, it means we're looking for a new Herbology teacher now but there are loads of people out there so it shouldn't be too hard. And Flitwick is staying on as Deputy for a year or two just to help with the transition. Anyway, I'm not just telling you this because there's been good news for Neville." He paused for a moment. "As you all know, Neville is currently Head of Gryffindor."

My jaw dropped, as the implication of what he was saying hit. And it seemed Freddie and Brigid shared my sentiment.

"No."

"Absolutely no way."

"If you're saying what I think you're saying-"

The fact that James was beaming pretty much answered that.

"Yep! You guys are looking at the next Head of Gryffindor."

Freddie let out a bark of laughter, and Brigid snorted into her wine.

"You, Head of House? In charge of discipline for all of Gryffindor? Oh, this is going to fall apart within weeks," she pronounced.

"If I didn't find this so funny I'd be mad at you for taking on such a position of responsibility," Freddie chipped in. He looked like he was doing all he could to swallow another burst of laughter.

"He put some Gryffindors in detention the other week," I volunteered, trying to fill the position of supportive girlfriend.

"You put Gryffindors in detention?"

"Well, yeah, they got caught!"

"You punished them for getting caught?"

"They need to learn," James told Brigid simply, as he'd told me at the time.

"Are there honestly no other Gryffindors in the teaching staff?" Freddie pondered.

"They haven't just given me the post by default-" James protested.

"Sluggy's Slytherin, Babbling's Hufflepuff, Vector, Sinistra and Trelawney are Ravenclaw, Firenze is a centaur," Brigid began, counting them off on her fingers.

"As if you'd make Trelawney a Head of House anyway," Freddie interjected.

"Hagrid's not on the full teaching staff any more, Binns is … heck, does anyone know what House he was in?" Brigid continued. "Anyway, he doesn't seem to acknowledge that Hogwarts even has students so he's out-"

"Will you stop counting?"

"Filch is a Squib, Pomfrey's the nurse so she's not an option-"

"Fine, take the piss," said James sulkily, sitting back in the sofa and looking genuinely annoyed. I shuffled over towards him and kissed his cheek, feeling a bit guilty that my first reaction to his news had been to poke fun at him. He was clearly excited about his promotion and we were supposed to be the supportive ones.

"I'm proud of you," I said. "Maybe you can be a good role model to some of the troublemakers at the school."

"Thanks, pet." He smiled and threw an arm round my shoulders. "And I get a pay rise," he added towards Freddie and Brigid, neither of whom looked as abashed as I felt.

"I still maintain that McGonagall, Flitwick and Longbottom put you in that many detentions as a kid, it beggars belief they want to give you more authority now," Brigid said.

"Yeah, how come when kids cause trouble at the school now, McGonagall's on my back for selling them the stuff and yet she's giving you, my childhood partner in crime, a promotion to a position of authority?" Freddie shook his head in mock protest.

"Probably because while I am now putting students in detention for using banned goods, you are the person supplying said goods. Just throwing that out there."

"It's an outrage," Freddie continued. "A Potter, Head of House? What would your namesakes say? You're not worthy to use the Marauder's Map, you're a disgrace to your parents and to the Weasley name, you're worse than Molly-"

His tirade continued on throughout the evening, with even dinner not providing a distraction from his mock anger. It was a lovely evening, and actually proved the relaxing mental break that last week's holiday should have provided me. It was in fact almost the perfect night – if not for James' comment just before bed, once Brigid and Freddie had left.

"Are you going to call your dad?"

He hadn't yet talked to me about my bust-up with Dad at the train station the previous evening, though I knew he'd heard what had been said.

I chewed my bottom lip.

"I feel like I should…" I began.

"He'll want to know you got home safe," James pointed out.

"I know, but … oh, I just don't want to talk to him right now," I sighed. "He can't say everything that he said to me and still expect me to be a good daughter and call him when he tells me to. How is it any of his business what my job is?"

"He's your dad, of course he worries about you-"

"No, James, this isn't him worrying about me, this is him not having a clue what it is I do and not attempting to understand because he thinks having to tell his country club friends that one of his children works in hospitality makes him sound bad. Toni's in banking, Nita's in politics, and I've let Dad down by daring to settle for a job in a pub. He's been like this ever since I left school and decided not to go to university, and he's worse now I live further away and he feels like he has less of an influence on me. I'm sick of him not listening to what I want to do, and trying to tell me what I should do with my life."

I took a deep breath. I hadn't meant to rant, especially not to James of all people, who knew exactly what my dad was like and was just trying to help me see his point of view. Unfortunately, this time I wasn't going to give Dad a single inch.

"You should still call him though," James eventually suggested. "He'll be worried until he hears from you."

"He can hear from me tomorrow night then," I said firmly. Let him stew for a bit.

"Look, Carls, are you sure you don't want to tell them about me?" James said tentatively. "You know, magic and all. They wouldn't need to know as much as you do. But it might help them understand why we live in Scotland, and you could visit them more often if they knew about the Floo."

"I can't," I said flatly. "I just … can't. They're my family, and I can't risk pushing them away. Any more than I already have done."

"Well, it's your choice," James said. "I've got to admit, I've never deliberately told someone about magic, I have no idea how scary the thought is. But I do know how much I was shitting myself after you found out about us, and I know that's nothing compared to your situation." He leant forwards and kissed my forehead. "Come on, bed time."

"You never know," I said, getting up and raising my arms above my head to stretch out all my stiff muscles, "Knatchbull might just manage to single-handedly lift the Statute and make my decision for me in the end."

"Don't," James said darkly. "Just imagine what might happen."

"I don't think we need to worry too much," I said, having spent the whole afternoon reading up on the Statute and its implementation. "The number of hoops he'd have to jump through to get it through, it's never going to happen. Anyone can see it's far too risky a move and there's no right way to pull it off."

If only I'd known at the time just how wrong I was.