"It's been there for some time." Asta frowned. "Decades, at least."
"What are you talking about?" Snape asked snippily as he stared at the dagger planted into the statue in front of his quarters. "It can't have been!"
"Put you hand on it, you daft boy!" Asta snipped.
Severus looked surprised, but said nothing.
"I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me." The tips of Asta's hair turned blue.
"We're all under a lot of stress." McGonagall put her hand on the girl's back, and she took a deep breath.
Severus hesitated before he put his hand on the statue in front of his quarters. He frowned. "It was charmed not to reveal itself until the caster died."
"I'll bet it was one of the men that died during the battle at the Ministry." Asta shook her head. "Charms that have been in place for a long time tend to hang on, even after the caster is gone."
"What about the darts?" Flitwick demanded in a high squeaky voice.
"Probably the same idea, if not the same person." Asta shrugged. "It's clear the castle is under attack, but who set the traps, we may never know." She shook her head. "I'll try to find and remove them, but I may need some help. Hogwarts is a big castle and there's no telling if all the traps are inside. I'm sorry."
"You can't be blaming yourself," McGonagall said firmly. "We don't even know if it was all done by one person. Perhaps his first group of followers."
"The Death Eaters weren't his first group of followers," Blaise snorted. "Just the first to get attention."
They all looked at him and he looked uncomfortable. "My father told me his father practically groomed him to be a Death Eater. Not that he ever was."
"I'm sorry for your loss," Asta said automatically. "Your grandfather was killed at the Ministry, wasn't he?"
"He was encapsulated and died when he fell to the ground. He was too old and frail to be fighting anything, let alone Jotun." Blaise snorted. "We should ask Theo if he knows more than me."
"I have a supply of Verita—"
"We are not going around dosing staff unless we have a firm suspect," McGonagall said seriously. "And right now, none of our staff is under suspicion."
"Let's hope it stays that way." Flitwick said darkly.
0
Severus entered the dining room in Russia and snickered as his eyes fell upon Hermione and her friends.
"Severus—"
"Mother, I swear it wasn't me this time," Severus said innocently.
"Like we haven't heard that before," his father said with a quirk of his eyebrow.
"The students insisted Asta be sorted since she is attending several classes."
The girls looked at each other. "Ravenclaw," they said as a whole.
"Hufflepuff." Severus smirked.
"Ooh, she could use some friends," Ginny said.
"She has a lot of friends with the Amazons." Luna looked surprised.
"No. She has a lot of people telling her what to do because they will benefit." Ginny picked at her bread. "She needs to be with people that don't have an opinion."
"Yet." Hermione added. "Who don't have an opinion yet."
"Well, it will do her some good to get out of that stuffy tower, anyway," Anastasia said as she waved her wand and a chair pulled itself out for her son.
"I'm just glad she's someone else's headache." Severus snorted as he sat and swept his napkin over his lap.
"How do you figure?" Hermione asked curiously.
"When she was here, we were responsible for anything and everything that happened to her. At the castle she'll be looked after as if she were a student." Severus waved his wand and food magically began serving itself.
His mother slapped his wand hand and gave him an exasperated look. "None of that foolish wand waving at the table!"
The girls dissolved into giggles as he glared at them.
"The school did a good enough job looking after Harry." Ginny hazarded. "I'm sure it's fine for Asta. So far the only one that wants to get hold of her is her boyfriend."
"She's a grown woman; she shouldn't need looking after at all." Hermione frowned.
Severus paused before beginning to cut his meat. "There are rumblings about that. I have no idea what's going on so don't ask me."
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.
"When you first met her, she was very child-like." It was a statement and Hermione nodded in agreement. "Now she acts like a seventh year."
"Sometimes older," Hermione pointed out. "But she could just be very shy and as she gets more comfortable with us her personality comes out."
"That's not what I got from the gleam in her eye when she drank up our experiment," Severus said with a quirked eyebrow as he picked up his fork. "She looked like Ronald at your first Hogwarts Feast, double fisting chicken legs."
Hermione laughed at the memory. "I'll give you that much."
"I think she should be observed more," Luna said as if she were fascinated. "Especially after the way she went after Mikhail. It was almost like she was triggered into burgeoning maturity."
Anastasia looked impressed. "What a group of brilliant young ladies we have at our table! You'll all be the talk of society!"
"They shouldn't be worrying about primping and presentation when they could be studying or experimenting!" Severus snorted through his mouthful of food. "What a complete waste of time and energy! We'd be along further than we are if people paid as much attention to potions and spell work as they do those beauty rags I keep confiscating!"
"That's going to lead to an eventual mutiny, you know." Ginny took a mouthful of soup before she shook her head at him.
"You'd be better off giving them back to the offenders' Head of Houses and let them take care of it instead of whatever you're doing with them." Hermione furrowed her eyebrows. "What are you doing with them?"
"Incinerating them," Severus said coolly.
"Oh, you're going to get hexed for sure." Hermione chuckled. "Those are expensive."
"Then they should be tucked away in book bags during class."
"If he gives them back to their Heads of Houses what does he do with the Slytherins?" Luna asked.
"No Slytherins would be caught doing such an inappropriate thing—"
There was a unified snort from all the females at the table.
"Well, there isn't any evidence of it, at least," Severus said grumpily.
"They're still using the bubble charm under their desks," Ginny said coolly. "Scrambles up regular magic scans."
Severus worked his jaw before beginning to eat, ignoring her.
"Is he always like this?" Anastasia asked.
"Worse." The girls echoed as a whole. Severus threw them a dirty look.
"So, what about this Asta?" Jacob asked curiously. "She's been sorted, but she's not a student?"
"They're acting like she's a consultant." Severus shrugged. "I know she's been sitting in on some Herbology and Transfigurations classes so she's learning something while she's there, at least."
"Is she sleeping in the Hufflepuff common room?" Ginny scrunched her face up.
"She's got more freedom than that, although there's no Floo hook-up in her room. The Amazons thought it best," Severus said flatly.
"That's just ridiculous!" Hermione blurted out. "She's a grown woman!"
"But she might not be! We just don't know, and our Care of Magical Creatures teacher is Hagrid." Severus hissed. "Need I say more?"
"There's got to be some way of finding out," Luna said dreamily. "They must have measured her growth from the time she appeared. There's something to start on."
Severus narrowed his eyes. "That does seem like something they would do. She certainly is acting like a moody teenager."
"I think this young lady should do what she wants." Anastasia said with a note of finality.
"You're going to have to get the Amazons to agree with that." Severus snorted.
"I don't think so," Anastasia said in a strangely high voice.
Severus was silent while he appraised his mother. "I don't want to know."
"Probably better if you don't." Jacob snorted. "Probably better if none of us do."
"Do you need help?" Hermione asked.
Severus groaned. "I think your friend in the dungeon will need you soon. You might want to keep yourself free."
"What's going on with Harry?" Ginny asked quickly.
"The Ministry is reopening some old Muggle murder cases because of something they found, that's all I know. I don't know more than that."
Hermione took a deep breath and let it out.
"Veritaserum works both ways, you know," Ginny said in a low voice.
"Don't you go dipping into my stores!" Severus looked flustered.
"She has her own, now," Hermione snorted. "But we're not going to start dosing each other for spite. Knock it off. Both of you."
"Thinks must be getting exciting at Hogwarts," Luna said thoughtfully. "Halloween is coming up."
"They're trying to keep things low-key under the circumstances," Severus said with a shrug.
"I don't see why." Ginny shrugged. "No one's actively setting off traps and decorations might catch things like those darts before they reach people."
"Or set them off while decorations are set in place." Severus raised his eyebrows at the food on his plate. "I'd hate to see a petrified person fall off a ladder."
Hermione winced. "I thought you said most of the students were using those body-armor charms."
"They are, for the most part. The fifth years were eager to learn more about self-protection so Professor Flitwick had them make a store for the school."
"Then why do some people not have them?" Hermione asked with a frown.
"Several of the Slytherins believe they are immune—"
"Seriously?" Hermione gave him an exasperated look. "After everything?"
Severus shrugged. "You underestimate Slytherin stubbornness."
"See them get poked with a dart and pop out in boils. Then we'll see who's immune." Ginny was darkly amused.
"Thankfully, it looks like most of the spells were sixth year-level." Severus took a bite of a dinner roll. "Some of them were quite crude, as if the person was flustered or afraid of getting caught."
"Wait, could it have been someone you knew?" Ginny turned to look at him.
"I know you see me as a social butterfly, Miss Weasley, but believe it or not I didn't know every Death Eater at Hogwarts," Severus said sarcastically.
"Mrs. Potter," Luna and Hermione said in unison. Severus rolled his eyes.
"Have you any word from the Ministry, dear?" Anastasia asked Ginny.
"Nothing from them, but I did get an owl from Kingsley that sounded promising. They're going to try something this weekend that might break at least part of the curse." Ginny admitted.
"What is it?" Severus looked suspicious and Jacob's ears pricked up.
"Something about trying to remove some of the magical shrapnel." Ginny scrunched up her face and shrugged.
"I'd like to look that letter, if I may. I was always a dabbler in experimental magic." Jacob looked interested.
"No, you may not!" Anastasia frowned at him. "Last time you destroyed three rooms and I had to have everything redecorated!"
"Oh, heaven forbid!" Jacob put his hand over his heart. "I'm sure you hated that!"
"You could have died!" Anastasia fumed.
"I was fine!" Jacob pooh-poohed her.
"Experimental magic is more dangerous than you think," Luna said wistfully. "My mother blew herself to bits. Well, ground herself down to sand, actually."
Hermione turned green as Jacob and Anastasia looked surprised.
"That could just be a transfiguration gone wrong!" Jacob pointed out. "I hope you kept all the sand!"
"After I saw my first thestral father finally admitted she really was gone. He had her made into a ring." Luna said dreamily.
"What!" Hermione squeaked.
"There's a wizard in Hungary that does it. You send him remains and he heats them and there's some spells he layers on top of it. It's really very clever." Luna nodded. "She's a diamond now. Quite pretty, but father says she was more beautiful when she was alive."
"Amazing." Jacob said as he nodded his head. "The clever things they're doing now."
"I'm not having any more experimental magic in this house unless someone oversees you!" Anastasia looked at him crossly. "I don't care if I get a pretty, new ring. And someone official! Not just Severus or the girls!"
"What about Pieter or Anna?" Jacob suggested. "They both excel at experimental magic!"
"If you leave their children orphans, I will murder you in your sleep," Anastasia said coolly.
"How about he just sits in with the Amazons when they come to tutor the girls?" Hermione suggested.
"Aren't you one of us?" Ginny asked sarcastically.
"I'm out of Hogwarts. While the extra learning is amazing, I'm not being graded." Hermione pointed out.
"We're being graded!" Ginny sqwalked.
"Well, of course you are, dear," Anastasia said as she passed Severus a bowl of small potatoes. "Since the Amazons are working with the Ministry, they're close enough to make sure you're getting at least as much as you were from Hogwarts. It would be a shame to have an incomplete seventh year."
Ginny goggled at Hermione.
"Don't look at me! I had to finish the year with all that marriage nonsense!" Hermione squeaked.
Severus chuckled at the sight of his mother's expression.
"But it was your decision!" Anastasia blustered. "The two of you!"
Hermione blinked. Then she looked at her husband. "You didn't tell her!"
Severus winced and Ginny and Luna brightened.
"Tell me what?" Anastasia snapped, glaring at her son.
"I was really petitioned for," Hermione said hesitantly. "I had no idea. We didn't even like each other. It was the only way they could protect me from the Death Eaters."
"And you didn't know?" Anastasia looked horrified.
"Not until the scroll arrived the morning of the ceremony." Hermione winced.
Anastasia went pale and began to fan herself.
"And after a summer, you got her?" Jacob nodded at his son with an impressed look.
"When did the falling in love happen?" Anastasia asked weakly.
"When they saw Faust!" Ginny piped up. She batted her eyelashes dramatically.
Anastasia swooned as Jacob burst out laughing.
"How romantic!" She breathed.
Severus grumbled at his father who only laughed harder.
"What if things hadn't worked out?" Anastasia asked.
"We'd have gotten it annulled." Hermione shrugged.
"No wonder your father was so upset." Jacob mused as he looked at Severus thoughtfully.
Luna snorted. "There was never any doubt. They even had a betting pool."
Jacob roared until tears fell from his eyes. "Master of your own destiny? I'd say you're just along for the ride, my son!"
"Don't worry," Anastasia said, patting her husband on the shoulder. "So is he."