Albus Dumbledore was pissed. The bastards at the ministry somehow got it in their collective heads that the first task wasn't dangerous enough, and had taken from the headmasters the ability to plan the other tasks.

The first task was supposed to be dragons, for crying out loud. They avoided that insanity, and now they were terrified that any future tasks would be boring, since the competitors were just too clever, and could work out clever solutions, if given any warning whatsoever. So now it was just whatever insane tasks they could spring on the group without warning. He further knew that they had arranged for the event to be held at the same arena as the quidditch world cup, but he was also pretty sure the competitors would be port keyed elsewhere and monitored via large scale viewing charms. Either way, they had fully taken any ability for him to influence the outcome and he was not happy about it. It would be different if people did not love the first task, but they did. He suspected someone was getting revenge for the arrests but he had no proof.

Cyrus Greengrass considered the request before him, signed by both Lord Potter and Lord Black. It was a very curious request. He further considered the reports his daughter had given him about the flight suits they had developed, as well as Ragnok's poorly veiled threat not to use his daughter to steal the work.

The contract that was on the table, if he did what Potter and Black wanted was potentially very lucrative. The goblins got twenty percent. Potter, Delacour, Black, Krum, and Himself would get a split from forty percent for their capital investment and connections and this mysterious new corporation got the remaining forty percent, including the rights to derivative works.

We'll that was the deal if he signed it. Signing it would require holding up his end of things, yet he wasn't quite ready to yet. It was why he was here at Hogwarts sitting in a conference room waiting for his daughter to arrive.

Daphne Greengrass was hesitant as she walked towards the conference room she knew her father was in. It seemed that Lafiel and the rest had come through, after a fashion. Oh, they failed to find a safe way to remove the binding to her father. He had only ever used said binding to advance the Greengrass interest, but she still resented that her duty to her family was compelled magically. It was insulting and she didn't like how demanding he had been with secrets their club was trying to keep.

She was surprised that he had not started selling the suits himself, but the fact that she had deliberately not memorized or studied certain key parts, probably helped there, though she doubted it would have been enough to stop him trying. A lot of money was at stake here.

She opened the door and instantly stiffened, but recovered herself quickly enough that most would not notice. She knew her father had noticed.

She closed the door as she stood on the opposite side of the table her father was sitting at.

Cyrus sighed. "I'm not the bad guy here you know?"

"You have always been kind to me, and never hinted at forcing me to marry," Daphne conceded.

"I would not do such a thing," Cyrus said.

"But don't you think it inappropriate that you could?"

Cyrus looked surprised at her comment. He paused for several seconds and eventually said, "I honestly never thought about it."

"Will you sign it?" she asked.

"You know what is in there?"

She nodded.

"Tell me your actual thoughts, and what you know of this new corporation that has rights to derivative works."

She sighed. "Fleur, Luna, Victor, Harry, Lafiel, Hermione, and myself are the organization. We decided to try to keep the team together and do future work together." She started to say more, but it seemed the compulsion didn't require it, so she didn't.

"And derivative works?" he prompted.

She scowled.

"We are planning to revolutionize world travel with the equivalent of magical jet planes, that travel at multiples of the speed of sound." She stopped, cursing that she had to say that much, but at least she stopped from saying what she really thought it was for.

"And can you do this?"

"We believe so."

Cyrus nodded.

"How fast is that?" he asked.

"The speed of sound is 767 miles per hour." This was simple truth. Nothing to regret there.

Cyrus's eyes boggled. "I find this hard to believe, and yet..."

And yet she was compelled to tell the truth, and they had already succeeded once, beyond all expectations.

He looked at her and asked, "Can I trust you with the future of the family?"

Daphne's eyes widened. She exclaimed, "Always. I would never betray my family."

Cyrus held his wand out, casting a complicated spell on her, but she knew what it was. She smiled.

"You are free Daphne. You remain my primary heir. Nothing has changed there. You still are under the trace. I can't easily get that changed, but you know all the exceptions, and I suspect your group could make a few more, if they were inspired to do so."

Daphne grinned, saying nothing.

Cyrus chuckled, having apparently the answer from her expression.

Daphne asked, "What about Astoria?"

"I doubt you could convince me that Astoria is this responsible yet, though I do understand your concerns. If you doubt my actions with respect to Astoria then come talk to me. I will listen. For now she appears to be interested in the Malfoy brat, so color me skeptical. She has always been reckless. You well know why."

Daphne smiled. She said, "Did you really think I would get this good at arithmancy and runes and not think of Story? Lafiel helped me with the rune array to remove the curse long ago, and we have continued to work on it. Gringotts head curse breaking team has verified our work."

"That's great! When can you do it?"

"Samantha wants to look at a copy of all the information you have on the curse. I've told them all I remember, but I may have forgotten something. We also still haven't chosen the healers that we want involved. Madam Pomfrey would be of course, and I was hoping our own healer would also be involved."

"I'll get what you need. Have you told Astoria?"

Daphne said primly. "There is a perfectly reasonable explanation for why I have not. If I told her early she might push before we were ready."

"Bullshit," her father said. "You may love your sister, but you didn't want her underfoot continually while you were working."

Daphne's cheeks pinked. She was busted.

Narcissa Malfoy walked around the estate at Malfoy manner and could not help but smile a small smile. It was true that her husband was going to be pushed through the veil soon. It was also true that the goblins had done a number on her home, but purging it of every ounce of magic made walking through it feel a great deal cleaner. She was horrified when she leaned what their wards were based on.

It had cost her a large chunk of money to get the Goblins to put up high quality wards back around the estate. There was nothing overly special about them, and the goblins had not overcharged them. They had insisted on cleaning up the remnants of the old ward structure that remained. There was no magic left there, and she readily approved the expense, to put one more thing behind her. In truth, she considered selling it all, but she wasn't going to be able to walk away so easily and she rather doubted she would get a fair price, given the history of the property.

The marriage had not been her decision, but she had loved the man. It wasn't potions. She had St. Mungo's test for residue. It was strange even to think of how foolish she had been. She had also pointed the goblins to all the dark artifact caches she knew of, having them dispose of them, and just remove the hiding places all together. They were all inert, but it was best to make a clean sweep. She let Severus go through the Malfoy library, removing anything they thought should be removed. Neither he, nor the goblins, were going to drag her name further through the mud.

That brought her to her husbands businesses, ethical, and otherwise. She brought the actual books to the Malfoy goblin at Gringotts. He had normally only handled the legal businesses, and even then under strict supervision by Lucius. She directed him to wind down the illegal potions trade and to make such investments that were reasonable. Most of those resources would slowly go into their actually legal potions business, so it wasn't as bad as it sounded. She would review each change and sign off on it. She didn't expect any trouble, since if they made money, so too did their advisor. She also knew that the increased scrutiny from law enforcement was something she didn't want to tempt. Best to get her house in order while she had a chance.

Draco remained shocked. Most of his influence at school was gone. He was still a decent student. She told him to just focus on his grades.

Draco was surprised when Lafiel walked into their common room. "What are you doing here?" he asked sharply.

She smiled and said, "I'm a Slytherin tonight."

"That is still absurd."

"Probably," she admitted.

Severus Snape was about to pass from the hallway into the common room when he heard voices, so instead cast a disillusionment spell on himself and listened.

"Why are you here?" Draco questioned.

She asked, "Do you know what it means when something is efficient?"

Draco glared at her, which only caused her smile to widen.

She said, "Part of the magical world is the belief that some are better than others, and to be fair, some no doubt are better at certain things than others, but that is not what they believe. They believe that some do not deserve the same rights and respect, which is something I cannot accept."

"I still don't know why you are here," he pointed out.

"Don't you? I thought I made it clear." She grinned, apparently knowing that she did not.

"Just tell me and leave?" he asked in a bored voice.

"If you wish," she said. She then opened a bag she was carrying around and produced a standard leather bound book of standard letter sided paper. She held the book out to Draco, who hesitated before accepting it.

He flipped it open, surprised at the clear, easy to read text. He asked, "What is this?"

"It is something I read when I was younger and have read many times since then. The book is keyed to you. I believe it will help you, as it has me."

Draco looked up at her. "Why are you doing this? I'm supposed to be your enemy. I was hoping Potter would die in the first task."

"I've already answered your question, but do not mistake my kindness for foolishness. If you make a serious attempt on Harry's life I will kill you, but for now my answer remains unchanged." She smiled once more and said absently, "Maybe I'll be a Ravenclaw tonight after all." Her robes changed once more as she exited the common room.

Severus walked in and silenced the area around Draco. He said to Draco, "She meant it you know. There was no hesitation in her voice. In her mind she has already cast the spell. Endanger Potter and your dead."

Draco glared at Severus.

Severus said, "I'm sure you have noticed Daphne's improvements this year."

Draco nodded.

"As her head of house I've seen her grades and talked to her teachers. She was an exceptional student before. Now she is as much above that as you are above Greg. Right now only Granger beats her. Lafiel is close, but I think she is choosing where her focus is, which hurts her some in areas she considers less important. Luna Lovegood is next, but she too chooses what she focuses on."

"And Potter?" he asked.

"After Lovegood, then about five more steps down is you."

"What does this all have to do with this?" He waved the thick book around.

"I've seen all of that group read what I presume is the same book quite often. Filius has good things to say about it as well."

Draco look contemplative.

Snape was about to leave when he paused. He said, "She really did answer your question you know." With that he continued to his rooms.

After Snape returned to his quarters he read again the missive from Daphne. It seemed that they had been working on her sisters incurable blood curse, except they didn't believe it was incurable. Daphne had let her father in on their progress, but had not yet told her sister. She had included with her note a book bound to him with all of their work so far. It was very impressive. The magic protecting the book was not set to restrict him from sharing it. She merely asked for him to review their work, and said that her team would make themselves available to answer all questions he, or whomever he might bring in had.

He hesitated before asking a house elf to bring Draco to him. Ten minutes later he was standing there before his cluttered desk.

"Godfather?" Draco asked.

"Draco, I am curious, are you serious about Astoria Greengrass?"

Draco blushed furiously. It was an answer, of a sort.

"And if I asked you to do something that may indirectly help Astoria, would you do it?"

"You can cure her?" he asked.

"I can do nothing of the sort, but her sister has been quite busy." Snape opened the book, tapping it with his wand so the next person touching it could read it, then handing it to Draco.

He flipped pages, trying to understand. "What does this mean? I'm not remotely this good at runes."

"Neither am I, though I suspect I wasn't approached for my runic knowledge, but rather my dark arts knowledge."

"Then what do you want of me?"

"What I want you to do is to grade, fairly, all the potions work from grades younger than yours."

"But.."

"Draco. This is serious. I need to free up a lot of my time if I'm to give this the attention it deserves, so are you willing to work to possibly help her or not? If your not, you should tell her. If she is not cured, then her having a son or daughter might kill her, and even if not, she probably wouldn't reach fifty."

"No, that's fine. I'll do it."

"Good, and I will be checking, so keep your biases in check."

"I will," he said quietly.

Severus pointed to a stack of papers sitting on the other desk in his room and Draco immediately moved over to them, but then he turned back, "You will let me know?"

"What I think of this? Of course, though to be fair I'm going to be looking at different things. I'm not remotely good enough at arithmancy to think I can best your sister's team, or the top Gringotts team, but good or bad I do have a certain flair for dark magic, so maybe I can contribute something."

"When will Astoria find out?"

Severus shrugged. "The note I have from Daphne suggests not telling her until they are basically ready, so as not to get pressure from Astoria to rush it, and perhaps make mistakes."

Draco snorted.

"I didn't buy it either, but I know that Daphne has been working on this for a few years now."

Draco's eyes widened. "Paying attention is an important skill Draco. All those times you think I didn't notice you sabotaging Potter or Longbottom's potions, you were wrong. I noticed."

"But?"

"To an extent, I was playing a part, since we thought the Dark Lord would come back. To an extent Potter annoyed me, and your antics amused me. I am, also, your godfather and perhaps gave you more leeway than I should have."

Draco nodded somberly as he got to work.

Samantha had readily agreed to supervise the advanced arithmancy group on a more regular basis. She was about to suggest similarly, but having the decision made for her worked as well. Garnok, simply put, didn't care to fake being human for such a long time and they didn't think it was worth it to stir up that particularly hornet's nest.

More importantly, they were close to curing Astoria, well as close as can be. They now had all the information the Greengrass clan had, including detailed medical records of every member in the last two hundred plus years that was hurt by the curse.

Madam Pomfrey was even now reviewing them, along with the Greengrass healer. They had hoped to find a healer that maybe had actually healed this condition, or had similar experience, or something, but so far nothing. The head healer for Gringotts had offered to help, and they would likely be taking him up on the offer, but there was still a lot of unknowns, mostly because they simply didn't have the original curse and it defied analysis. The records they had were that attempted to force the curse to reveal its secrets endangered the life of the one affected. About half the time the attempt killed the one they were trying to save. Whoever created this particular curse was a real piece of work.

They had accounted for all this. They had accounted for everything they could think of, and it had been double and triple checked. Still the bar for trying to heal something that wasn't killing someone yet, but would one day was pretty high, but even there the arithmancy said sooner was better. It wasn't a lot better, but better. The healers agreed with that thought.

Severus had come up with several insightful comments that she hadn't quite figured out how to apply or whether to apply it at all. He had said, "When it comes down to it Light with purpose neutralizes Dark, but be careful that it is the right purpose, or they may add together. Dark may also be destroyed with more Dark, though the art of not making things worse is a difficult one. Finally, such curses often have a hidden key that must be accomplished to end it. Sadly, the most likely key is the end of the Greengrass line. Note, just because I said it is the most likely, does not mean they didn't use something else, or none at all."

They had considered the idea of their insanely overpowered true Patronus, but she had nixed that, as had every healer she talked to. Healing was and is a delicate art. They were pretty sure it would destroy the curse, but Astoria's body was way too delicate for that kind of club like approach. The healers had nixed the idea of using any harmful spell to destroy the curse, since it was non localized, though their rune array work was meant to selectively extract it. At that point how they destroyed it was irrelevant. The plan was to let the rune scheme grind it to oblivion.

The only useful idea seemed to be light to destroy dark, which was not a new idea. The magic they were using was neutral, but the people involved were certainly anything but. That might be enough, maybe. It didn't feel like enough. Her instincts told her they still needed something, that their very clever rune scheme would not quite be enough to do what they needed to do, although by all rights it should be.

She looked back at what she knew about the curse. The Greengrass family had apparently brought the daughter of a now extinct house into their own, by simple romance, if you believed the notes she had. It may be true. Most likely any real truth was probably lost ages ago. Either way the patriarch of the other family, who was now due to go extinct because of it, cursed the females in the Greengrass line that derived from his granddaughter's blood. In effect they were able to inject the curse easily into the family magic, because it was their family too.

All of that was very unhelpful. The Greengrass family couldn't unring that bell. She briefly resisted the temptation to bang her head against the wall. Assumptions were dangerous in curse breaking.

What if they were looking at this the wrong way all along? They solved a hard problem. They triple checked their work, but what if it wasn't the actual problem? She pulled out a fresh notebook. This would require expertise beyond hers, but she could at least do the initial work. Could they truly unring the bell and if so, would Astoria and presumably Daphne accept this outcome? It may only be active in Astoria, but Daphne was almost certainly a carrier. The thing was too persistent for her not to be. Magic was about intent, and this magic was part of their magic, was part of them. In theory they could just extract it, but she had a feeling it was a bad idea. It had been a part of them all their lives. Filtering it would be like filtering the fundamental essence of a person. Sure it looks good on paper, but she didn't trust it.

The Arithmancy class was surprised when their next meeting was going to be a field trip, and that Astoria would be joining them. They were even more surprised when both Astoria and Draco showed up, and calmly joined them as they walked to the headmaster's office to take the Flu to Gringotts with them. Cyrus Greengrass and his wife met them as they exited the Flu inside of Gringotts.

They were led down into the heart of Gringotts, near to the goblin city itself. The Greengrass family members were directed to change into simple white robes in separate rooms. They were then directed to a bare stone room with three flat stone beds arranged in a triangle configuration with one bed in the middle splitting the triangle into two smaller triangles. Mrs. Greengrass was directed to that bed, with her daughters to left and right. Mr. Greengrass was then directed to lay down on the remaining bed at the bottom of the triangle.

Seven goblins surrounded the bed. In front of each goblin was an empty rune carved book. Etched on the outside of the goblins was several feet of carefully drawn runic symbols.

The Greengrass family was directed to remain still and think of nothing. The goblins bent down, each touching a triangular rune nearest to them as the entire array lit up with power. The Greengrass' glowed brilliant white, save for a pulsing thread of black in the sisters and the father. The glow moved and was quickly absorbed by the seven books.

The goblins picked up the books and left. They were joined by Garnok and Samantha a few minutes later. Garnok said, "Everything went well today. Nothing changed of course, but we think when we have time to analyze the readings we will have more to go on. The curse of course stood out, in that we could identify it. Removing it is much harder, but we think we have a path."

Draco asked, "Can you cure her then?"

Garnok said, "We are doing our best. Do you understand what our ultimate goal is now?"

Draco said, "Yes, your trying to remove the remnant of the family line that the Greengrass' clan blood curse descends from. That combined with your earlier work should cure her, since the magic is linked to the family who blamed them for taking their daughter."

"Close," he said, "but not quite."

Draco looked puzzled. "What am I missing?"

"Samantha, would you care to finish?" Garnok asked.

"Sure. Simply put, we can't simply take without replacing, and this is all complicated enough as is, so if it is to work, she basically must be blood adopted by someone, ideally with a quite different background, so as to make it all work, and not leave the magic anything to leech onto."

A guard brought in a scroll and handed it to Garnok. He thumbed it open and read it. A few minutes later he said, "We'll its a little worse than I thought. It's not just a fragment. The curse shifts over time. It is just over fifty percent contamination in Astoria and about thirty five percent in Daphne. Cyrus is at sixty percent, but it is inactive. In short the curse is not, apparently, getting any weaker in subsequent generations."

Astoria asked, "What does this all mean? Half of our families are related in some way. Wouldn't a blood adoption just fail and be useless?"

Samantha said, "It would, normally, but there are exceptions. You basically need blood that is actually not from our magical region. Most muggleborns qualify. Cho Chang, Su Li, Padma or Parvati, Lafiel, Hermione. There are many. We would have to check that they really are different enough, but there are options."

Hermione asked, "You mentioned most Muggleborns qualify? Why not all?"

Samantha sighed. "I don't suppose you could forget I said that?"

"No," she stated sharply.

"Fine. Some muggleborns are really decedents of squibs." Then more quietly but also more quickly, "And more than a few are probably the result of wizards doing things they should not."

"Rape! Your saying some muggleborns are the result of rape," she said flatly.

Garnok said, "If you wish to know, we can easily do an inheritance test, or you can grab a robe and lay on a table. It would ordinarily be a more expensive test, but..." He shrugged

.

Hermione huffed before stalking off to one of the changing rooms.

Samantha said, "Daphne, your curse is inactive. If you avoid having children you should be perfectly fine. There is no need for you to take any risk."

She then turned to Astoria, who was leaning into her mother. "Astoria, your curse is active. Avoid children and you will probably make it to fifty or so. We might find a better solution before then."

To both of them she said, "But if you want to be free, I personally think this is your best bet. You will have to choose who will effectively blood adopt you. It is more complicated than that, and they must agree and be suitable, but the choice is yours."

Daphne walked over to stand in front of Lafiel. She bowed formally. While bowing she asked, "Will you do me the honor?"

Lafiel's eyes widened. She turned to Garnok, "May we borrow one of your changing rooms? I wish to talk with Daphne."

"Of course. Take all the time you need." he said.

Samantha turned to Astoria, "Do you have a choice?"

Astoria shrieked, "How am I supposed to choose? From what I've see of Lafiel she could be the good twin version of Daphne, but none of the others are remotely like me. Chang, Su Li, Hermione." Hermione was coming out of the changing room. Astoria continued, "Don't take it personally Hermione, but if someone is to replace part of me, I'd want them to be more like me, otherwise..."

She trailed off, but Hermione finished, "What will become of you?"

Hermione was suddenly inspired when she looked around at those watching. She said, "You should talk with Fleur. I bet she is more like you than you think."

"But she is a ..."

"Veela," added Fleur crisply.

Garnok said, "I've looked up all your lineages, just in case it was important. I can't be sure without actually scanning her, but Fleur is likely a very good choice, given her family has no apparent connections to yours at all."

Astoria asked, "Will the silver blond hair come in the deal?"

Fleur laughed and replied, "If you wish my help, I shall give it, but as to what you will look like, well no Veela, or even partial Veela ever looks bad. What worries me more is you may get my allure, which causes all kinds of problems. Veela also do not live quite as long as wizards. We stay young looking and our bodies do not degenerate easily, but most die by eighty to one hundred years."

Astoria said, "Thanks for your offer, but I guess I'll keep looking. I just want the curse gone, not to have me gone, or all of that."

Fleur said, "I can ask my friend Aimee Beaucourt if this is something she might be interested in at least discussing it. You have some similarities."

Daphne's father said, "I know of the Beaucourt family. They are a proud light family in France that regularly marries muggleborns. I'm afraid to say they have reason to be annoyed with me."

"What did you do?" exclaimed Astoria.

"I'd rather not say. Suffice to say it was my fault. If you decide on this path and they wish recompense, I will of course give it."

Astoria looked dubious. She settled on, "Well, I can at least meet her I guess."

Lafiel cast a silencing spell as soon as the door closed. She said, "I am not sure you know what you ask."

"You're alien," said Daphne before immediate covering her mouth.

"No, not really. I did not connect the dots in the beginning. My people began in your world many centuries from now, but even then my people were originally not born, but designed, using the best genes possible. We became a variation of stock humans. We weren't the only ones, but we were the most common."

Lafiel turned to face Daphne directly. "We were designed and built to serve. Does that bother you?"

Daphne said, "I did not ask because I thought you were an alien. I asked because I respect you."

Lafiel's expression widened at that. "And if I told you that I intend to return someday, and that I have responsibilities, and that if you accepted my heritage, you too would have those responsibilities."

"I don't understand."

"I am third in line to the throne of the Humankind Empire Abh. We live and die in starlight, often never setting foot on a planet. My time here is a aberration in the normal life of an Abriel. My journey here was an accident. I may not ever be able to return, in which case, I shall try to do honor to my family name here. If you were to become my child in effect, you would be forth in line to the throne, until I had a child of my own. If I find a way back, you would have to choose where you may best serve, to return with me, or to remain here. At the very least I would consider you an Abriel as much as a Greengrass and take it upon myself to train you like one."

"I had no idea," Daphne stated.

"Do you still wish to do this?" asked Lafiel. She continued, "I meant what I said. If I find a way back, you must make a decision on which is best for your family, to remain, or to come with me, likely never to return."

"But it would be the best for not just Abriel right?"

"Correct, and I would not make the decision for you. I simply need to know you are willing to make the choice, based on what is best for your family, both old and new."

Daphne said, "I think I still want this."

"When you are sure, I will tell you the rest, the good and the bad. Once you know all, you can make your final decision."

"Thank you Lafiel."

Lafiel smiled. She then casually started taking off clothes.

Daphne started to turn away, but Lafiel said, "You might as well look. If you accept, you may look a bit more like me."

Daphne watched as Lafiel removed the last of her clothing. She said simply, "You are beautiful."

Lafiel smiled, "We are designed to be so."

"Why the ears, if I might ask?"

Lafiel said, "The ears are the ears of the Abriel family. They signify that we are of the ruling family of the empire. Only Abriel, may have Abriel ears."

Daphne laughed. Lafiel, who had just slipped on the robe looked at her curiously.

"I just thought about how funny it would be if Draco realized all of his nonsense was the opposite of true. You are a muggleborn, yet you are not. You are royalty, but royalty of a people built as slaves. I assume there was a revolt at some time?"

"Given that we control half of the galaxy, yes, but part of that story is not a proud one, so it will wait."

Daphne said, "I'll do it?"

Lafiel asked, curiously, "You agree after I said we control half of the galaxy?"

"No, not for that. Besides, fourth in line, well most likely you will have a child and that's that, and even if not, fourth in line is pretty unlikely to mean much."

"That is not necessarily true. War still exists. People do die often enough, even if we live about as long as wizards."

"I want to learn all about it."

Lafiel said, "You do realize my secrets must be kept. This world is not ready for most of them."

"I will not betray you. That would be crazy. We are going to save my sister, and my family. Heck my family is going to be your family. How could I betray my family? The very idea is crazy."

Lafiel said, "You know there is a chance this won't work?"

"I know. No one has sugar coated the odds, but I just feel it will work."

"I hope so as well. I hope so as well."

Hermione was pleased to find out that she likely wasn't a product of a wizard abusing her mother. She also turned out to be a good potential donor, not that anyone seemed interested, much to Hermione's not well hidden annoyance.

Lafiel too turned out to be a good donor. The goblins that were testing her seemed very curious about several details, but that ended after a glance from Garnok.

Daphne said softly, "I don't suppose we could do this now, while I'm still feeling brave."

Samantha said, "While we are ready in theory, we really need to review all the information we gathered, as well as figure out who is doing what in the ritual."

Astoria eyes widened, "You're already ready? Your that sure? Already?"

Draco reach over and held her right hand in his left.

Daphne said, "Of course. Did you expect less?"

Astoria glared at her, but her glare softened to a small smile. She then looked over at Lafiel who was smiling as well.

Astoria sighed. "We'll if we are done here today, I've got a date with a French witch."

Daphne smirked. "How progressive of you little sister."

Cyrus coughed. His wife smirked fondly.

Astoria said, "You know what I mean!"

Draco wisely kept silent.

Aimee Beaucourt was sitting in Fleur's room in the carriage. "So your saying that lout Greengrass' daughter needs help, and you suggested me?" She glared at Fleur.

"She was concerned that she would change a lot, but since you remind me of her." Fleur shrugged.

"Fleur, I'm not certain whether to be honored or insulted."

"Both, surely," mocked Fleur.

"And what about that slime ball father?"

"He did offer to make amends," said Fleur.

"He did, did he? No, mustn't get distracted. If I decide to help her, then dad can get his payback."

Fleur said, "You do know that I'm just making the offer. The choice is yours and hers, not mine."

"I know." She sat on the bed and pulled her legs up to her. "It's just that, this is almost like having a kid, and that's a lot of responsibility."

Fleur replied, "I rather doubt you will have to change her diapers, though you might need to lay down the law with her boyfriend."

"Who?" asked Aimee curiously.

"Draco Malfoy."

"I'm not sure my genetics are good enough to fix that kind of character flaw."

Fleur laughed. After a minute or so of laughing she got more serious.

"The first task was nice, in that it wasn't too dangerous. The word is that the next task will be very dangerous. They are keeping it secret, but the word is they have planned several options, and we won't find out till the morning of the task. I think they figured we would just use our skill in Arithmancy to make the task ridiculously easy if we were given a chance to prepare, so, we aren't going to be given a chance."

"That's horrible, and ridiculous."

"I know, but the English Ministry is apparently full of idiots. We'd like to try to heal Astoria and Daphne before it, if we can, just in case..."

"That's less than two weeks."

Fleur nodded. "I know this isn't fair to you."

"To me? Your the one who has to deal with stupid politicians not being satisfied with their death sport. I thought the ratings for the first task were huge."

"They were." Fleur shrugged sadly.

"I'll do it I guess, but I go second, just to be sure its safe."

"You could meet her?" suggested Fleur.

"I've watched her a few time since I found out about this. It's her life. As long as its safe." Aimee shrugged.

Fleur said, "The plan was to try to remove the curse from Daphne first anyway. The risks are lower."

"Makes sense."

Samantha once again returned to Severus's comments. She had talked to him at length, but her understanding had not changed much. Light magic was annoyingly rare, or at least true Light magic. Oh there was the Patronus as well as the charm against boggarts. Both had arithmancy that look like they were drawn by a drunk first year student, which basically meant they had no arithmancy and their spells to extract it were basically given them a rather rude tell off. Well that, or their spells were flawed, which was almost certainly true, to one extent or another.

The closest thing they had to true light magic outside of that was the link that team blue could form. That seemed to meet the standard of light magic, due to the positive feelings, but their was a lot of mental focus as well, so, really she had no idea. They would be involved in helping the Greengrass sisters of course, and probably linked. That was already factored in, but what more?

There were actual dark creatures in this world, and not the list the ministry gave, but things like lethifolds and dementors. True demons actually existed as well, but thankfully the knowledge of how to summon them had been lost through the ages. There was some evidence that the demons counterpart could also walk about the world of man, but again, nothing recent, and to be honest she definitely didn't want to even touch onto an area that might bring back the dark times.

It was not well known, but all the old magical tombs were gone through by curse breaker teams more than just for treasure. There were laws, old laws, that insured that the funding was there to dismantle those ancient death traps. A few times things that made the ministries dangerous creature list look like a petting zoo had been unleashed.

She had been on one of the expeditions, and to the best of her knowledge her team was the only one to have members survive, even if it was just herself and two others out of a twenty person team. The only good things about the monsters unleashed so far, is they didn't last. They usually died under the next midday sun, if not sooner. People greatly feared that less experienced people would one day run across one that didn't die, so the decision was made to cleanse these ancient booby traps, at almost any cost. It was dangerous, but once they were found it was a lot more dangerous to do nothing.

Was this the key? Something in the past. A relic out of time. She got up from her study in her borrowed rooms at Hogwarts and quickly walked up to the Room of Requirement, pacing back and forth three times.

She knew what she asked for was unreasonable, but she used her own skills at occlumency to crush the thought, focusing only on her desire, on something she had once read existed in a fragment of a book, that she honestly didn't know if it was reality or fairy tale. She crushed all her doubts and demanded it be created.

Somewhere in the distance she felt as if a deep church bell rang as magic swirled in the air.

The door formed. She almost couldn't believe it.

She was more surprised when Albus Dumbledore appeared in a burst of fire with his familiar. He blinked, surprised to see her. He asked, "What did you ask for? It drained the wards to create it. They are recovering, but this is very concerning."

She opened the door. Fawkes flew in and flew around, admiring the view, singing a mournful song.

The site in front of them stunned them. "Is that what I think it is?"

"A legend. A myth. Our past. Perhaps even our future, though if Fawkes song is any indication, it may truly be our past."

"You plan to try to help the Greengrass sisters here?"

Fawkes settled on one of the high columns. He shed a tear before bursting into flames.

They just stared for several seconds before Samantha replied, "Wouldn't you?"

"I still can't believe you were able to summon it, let alone Fawkes possibly remembering it. Did the room recreate something that was real, or did Hogwarts somehow invent what you wanted? No, this place must mean something to affect Fawkes so."

Samantha grinned and shrugged. They walked back out the door, the door fading as they left.

Albus said, "For good or for ill, Hogwarts now knows how to make that room. The extra power it initially required does make me wonder though. What truly are the limits to Rowena's masterpiece? Did the castle somehow have some memory of that place, or perhaps did Fawkes somehow contribute to its formation?" He smiled. "Perhaps it will be one more mystery of the old girl."

Albus walked back several times himself, the door appeared again, but this time it was just a big yellow X painted in place of a door. He said, "As Hogwart's Headmaster I can block access to certain rooms, even here it seems."

"That seems reasonable. We are going to need to practice in here of course."

Albus smiled. "I added you to the permissions list. In truth I've considered locking this room entirely, just to avoid mischief, but the room doesn't allow a total lock down. At least it allows this much. The past is both wondrous and terrifying. I'd prefer not to find out how that legend ended."

Samantha snorted. "So it seemed that Rowena wanted her room to be used, but didn't trust it absolutely."

Albus nodded.

Samantha looked back on it fondly. There was much to do, but first her team should study what they had created. This path may yet be a mistake.

Inside the closed room, buried deep in the virtual space Hogwarts had created, a large blue gem shined and twinkled.

Thousands of miles away, buried deep under the Earth, lost for thousands of years an identical gem became to slowly brighten, even as millions of tons of ice started to shift.

Fawkes flamed into existence in the ancient room, a worried warble was laced in his song.

Garnok cursed when she gave her report. He said dryly, "Did you ever think there may be a reason there was so little true light magic in the world today?"

"The thought had occurred to me. Why? Do you know something."

"Only that opening Pandora's box seldom ends well."

"I've not told anyone outside of Albus and you."

"It doesn't matter. The room now exists as one Hogwarts remembers. Unless one can undo that, we are duty bound to investigate it, and probably without danger pay, since we opened it."

"Technically I was on Hogwarts payroll at the time."

"And still on ours. No one is going to buy that." He then mused, "Assuming this is more useful than not, do you think Albus will contest Goblin use of it from time to time?"

Samantha shrugged. "If it can be kept low key, there probably won't be a problem."

Garnok snorted. "Wishful thinking ill suits you. There will be problems. There always are. We shall face them and conquer them, as we always have."

Samantha glared, her gray hair flying out. "You knew what I meant."

Garnok grinned. "And you knew what I meant."

He ended with, "I will go with you tomorrow to look at your new discovery. Not having a full team has risks, but in this case I believe the greater risk is making knowledge of this possibility widespread."

Samantha nodded soberly.

Elsewhere the light in the forgotten place grew brighter, beginning to cast harsh shadows.

Author's Note: Does anyone have any guesses on what room Samantha recreated?