I don't own the story or the characters of Harry Potter, this work is entirely fan-made. The rights to everything Harry Potter belong to J.K Rowling. I also have no beta or proofreader (at least not a human one) so expect some mistakes from time to time. Finally, please read my profile before you review the story, as it may answer some questions that you could have, including my upload schedule.
A week had passed since the Quidditch World Cup. While the muggles just thought it had been a camping accident and a firepit was tipped over, the witches and wizards of the world knew better. The Death Eaters were sending a message to them: they were returning. And though James and the rest of the Aurors had been called away multiple times, during some nights too, he still wanted to be able to be there for his children's birthday. Both Harry and Zoe were turning 14 and as such were becoming more and more like typical teenagers. He remembered a conversation he'd had with Neville's Grandmother, Augusta who had said the exact same thing about Neville, though his reaction to teenage years was far more subdued than that of James's own kids.
"You needn't worry about them. They're just being normal children. Yes, they didn't have the usual upbringing, but that can't be helped in the world we live in. Both of you, and Alice and… Frank. You were all nearly taken from this world." James looked down and cringed. The older woman carried on with a sigh that managed to stifle a sniff. "That isn't something that a normal person, even a muggle could imagine. We give them space, they want attention. We start coddling them, and they flinch at our touch. We can't win here. Besides, I seem to remember Lily saying that you were quite rambunctious as a teenager." His cheeks pinked and he pursed his lips.
"Fine, you got me there. But you know as well as I do that those four are more trouble than the Marauders and I. For Merlin's sake, Harry took down a bleeding Basilisk, whilst simultaneously fending off a soul fragment and sending the Ministry's best Aurors besides myself on a wild bloody goose chase!" He was panting after his outburst but he stood by his argument.
"Please, James. Lower your voice and listen for once." He exhaled heavily through his nose but stood still as a rock. "Look at this whole thing from their point of view. Dumbledore was able to do nothing against that idiotic Quirrel, he was removed from the school during the Basilisk attacks because he was criminally negligent and he let poor Remus forget to take his Wolfsbane potion." James looked to be considering it for a second.
"Look, what I'm getting at is: If those kids are as smart as the teachers and their actions lead us to believe, they knew that Dumbledore's a few stones short of a gobstones set, and that was only '91. Since then, who knows, he may test positive for mind decay soon. All I ask is that you listen to them and understand why they do what they do. Neville was only able to open up about this whole ordeal after he and his best friends were nearly killed by Death Eaters at a social sporting event! Think of how Harry and Zoe feel, not to mention Hermione, the poor girl. She was petrified when she was only thirteen." With the pieces of insight now clearly in his back pocket, James headed back home to get some sleep.
The next morning, Harry was greeted by the chirping of birds outside his window. As he got up, he wondered how this day would go, given the distance that his parents had been giving him and his sister for a week. Speaking of which, he also noticed once he was out of his room that Zoe's room was closed. It wasn't like her to stay in her room late at all, less so on their birthday. It was entirely possible that she wasn't feeling up to a rather sociable birthday after the shenanigans last week, though she would likely have said, given that it was already July 31st. But just as he went to knock on his sister's bedroom door to check on her, his mother walked out with a smile and a tray.
"Oh, Harry. I didn't think that you'd be up yet. I was going to bring you both some breakfast in bed. It looks like you might be eating at the table this morning with me." Harry shot her a questioning look. Lily sighed and yawned. "Your father's been called away again on another raid. He said that he wouldn't likely be back until around lunchtime." His face drooped a little, more so than it had been since he got back from the Quidditch World Cup.
"Alright. Is Zoe ok? She's been a bit out of it for like a week." He wasn't wrong in that she hadn't played quidditch with him in the garden, or done any homework with him and Hermione over the last few days like she normally would in the holidays.
"She's fine. It's… private and you would be rude to ask her about it, or me for that matter. You know what your father says about proper comportment, Mister. I trust I don't have to give any further info than that?" Harry knew better than to ask about it. He'd learned enough from being homeschooled for a large portion of his life to know that any private women's matter was better not touched upon by men. So he shook his head and went downstairs for a large birthday breakfast, courtesy of his mother.
In the time between breakfast and lunch, Hermione and Neville had both come over for a small celebration. Zoe had also come downstairs, albeit closer to 1:00 pm than breakfast time, when the two guests greeted her and Harry with gifts and from the day before, Neville's were exchanged since he always wanted to spend his birthday with the people he considered family. Harry and Neville received books pertaining to their favourite subjects and hobbies, those being duelling for Harry and Herbology for Neville. They had all gone in on a present for each other and would do the same for Hermione's birthday, though Harry also had another plan for that, which no one but his Dad knew about. They all frolicked in the garden and on the makeshift football field, then had a brilliant laugh at Neville not knowing how to play football and nearly falling on his face. It was all a bit too surreal until that morning's paper caught their eyes on the way in.
Quidditch World Cup Upset! Are the followers of Darkness back again?
But just as Harry went to read the rest of the front page of the Prophet, his mother folded it up and noticed her son staring at it with anger.
"Something wrong, Harry?" He shook his head unconvincingly, so his mother flipped the newspaper around and re-read the front cover. She shook her head and rolled her eyes as they skimmed over the headlines. "Harry, it had nothing to do with you, don't worry. You're not going to be public enemy number one because Barty Crouch is a stupid old sod- Do not tell your father I said that about one of his bosses!" She blurted out the insult as if it was second nature, which all four kids laughed at. "That goes for the rest of you too." She pretended to order them with a smirk. Harry would never say something about this to his Dad; he enjoyed it when his mother swore, far too much to say something about it. So with wide grins, the four ambled upstairs and sat in Harry's room, Neville and Zoe sitting on the chairs for his desk. Harry and Hermione took his bed and sat holding each other's hand, which the others no longer made puking gestures at since they had girlfriends now too. There was a silence that permeated throughout the room, making it seem more bleak and empty than the four thought it really was. Harry's sister cut the tension in the room first.
"Ok, I'll say it. What does the Death Eater attack mean for us?" Harry made an almost angry face at her first choice of words. "Oh, don't do that, Harry. We were all thinking it, even if you two have made a stupid pact that we know one of you will break sooner or later. It's in your nature, you love him too much to stay away," she pointed at Hermione, then to the boy on her right, "and you can't help but get into danger because you have a stupid 'hero complex'." Zoe's brother blushed and Hermione mimicked him to a tee.
Harry stroked his chin in thought. There was no way that Voldemort's followers making a public statement was nothing, especially after Peter Pettigrew escaping last year. There was even less of a chance that it was a benign gesture, now that his parents had actually informed him of the Death Eaters and filled both he and his sister in on some of the things from the first war.
"I suppose there's only one question left for us now. What are we doing about it, if anything?" Zoe inquired as she looked over to Harry. The other two similarly followed suit, waiting for him to pick his jaw up from the floor and answer her. As Harry's eyes flitted between his sister, girlfriend and honorary brother, he exhaled deeply.
"Fine. If we see something amiss, we all report it back as soon as we can. But I think, for now, it needs to stay between us, even if you two" he pointed at Neville and his sister "want to keep the Rogue Society going. Remember, Dumbledore is going to be on our backs this year, especially after we technically owes him a favour from the time-turner trip." As Harry and Hermione blushed slightly and looked a tad sheepish, the other two gave each other questioning looks from the corners of their eyes. They knew that whatever happened in that time trip was better left unspoken.
The next hour faded by in a blur when Neville left to see his parent's in private. He always wanted to see them on his own in St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and without fail, he did so every year in the last two days of July. Secretly, he would also swear to Merlin that he would take out Bellatrix Lestrange, her husband and his brother, though his Gran should never catch word of it. That left three once he had disappeared in a flash of green fire in the hearth. Hermione spent some time with Zoe, catching up on some transfiguration homework until an owl flew in through her bedroom window and let go of a white envelope that was attached to a cardboard box wrapped in silver paper. The youngest Potter's smile grew as she read the name of the sender.
"It's from Daphne. I don't suppose I could have a moment alone? I'd like to thank her by using the communication mirrors. She has one too if I remember correctly." Hermione smiled and gave her a mock curtsey as the other girl opened the letter. She left, closing her door and wandering to Harry's room. The door was open when she knocked and she heard the mumbled seize and pull charm. Before her boyfriend could even turn around in his chair, Hermione ran up to him and began to panic.
"Harry, what are you doing?! You could be expelled for doing magic outside of school! That is not a very good way to live, either, relying on magic. You'll become complacent and lazy and unable to take care of yourself. I don't want that for you!" She blurted out faster than Harry could even comprehend. Once he was caught up a good few seconds later, he grabbed her hands and guided her to sit on his bed, far more comfortable than at his desk.
"Are you calmer now?" He asked with a peck on her cheek. She nodded slowly, still eyeing him and his wand nervously. He followed her gaze to it and rolled his eyes. "Ah. I should probably have mentioned this as soon as I found out; I figured you'd react exactly how you did. The 'trace' charm that is supposedly put upon every young witch and wizard to track their use of magic is not real." He deadpanned. Hermione gasped and tried to ask about a hundred questions at once. He all but silenced her with a single gaze.
"Okay, that's not entirely true, but it is close enough to be. Somehow, we are all born with the trace charm on us, or it is put on us as soon as we're born. This, in itself, brings up so many more questions, but I'll stick to what I can explain for now." Hermione was hooked on his every word. "The Ministry and the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery by extent, cannot track us. If the charm worked how we're told it is, the Ministry could in effect see wherever we are at any given time, since we have the magic inside of us and it isn't just conducted solely through our wands when we cast a spell." She nodded enthusiastically and begged him to continue. "If I'm correct in that thinking, then all it does is track if magic is used, not by us necessarily, but in our proximity. That's the reason why I didn't get a letter from the Ministry two years ago for throwing Draco Malfoy into a stack of cauldrons in Diagon Alley." Hermione gasped and snapped her fingers in realisation, to which Harry smiled.
"So because you cast spells in a magic-rich environment, you aren't assumed to have been directly casting a spell, because magic and magical adults are practically everywhere! That makes so much sense. And of course, it does." She sighed and Harry furrowed his brow in confusion.
"I beg your pardon?" He asked. She slapped her forehead.
"Hogwarts is not controlled by the Ministry, so we could get away with any magic cast when we're there. I read that Hogwarts has been privately funded, controlled and maintained exclusively by the Headmaster and anonymous benefactors in Hogwarts: A History. I'll bet that's also why the teachers claim they can track any magic done in the hallways and punish us for it! Because they think the trace monitors an individual." She squealed in glee at their discovery and hugged Harry like there was no tomorrow.
"You know, since the Ministry can't track what spells we do, what say I use a locking charm on the door?" Harry asked, waggling his eyebrows.
"Colloportus." She whispered into his ear, then she crashed her lips onto his.
Still, no, that is not a confirmation of M-Rating. That isn't what this means.
On another, less odd note: Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy more.