Author's Note: First off, I have to thank a couple people. Bubblea, for double-checking my French for me—not being a native speaker and not having much occasion to practice lately, I'm a bit rusty. And galopitu, who has gradually been reading and reviewing each chapter; I really appreciate the feedback! Thank you to you both! And to everyone who has been reading~

Midway through the following week, Charlotte received another letter from her mother. She read it over once herself and then, to Tom and Valeria, both of whom were sitting with her, said "Enough of the mandrakes are grown up already that she's going to have the draught ready to bring with her on Saturday."

"Is that all she wrote you to say?" asked Valeria.

"She's also looking forward to meeting you, Tom."

"I'm looking forward to meeting her, too," he replied.

"And she'll be pleased to see you as well, Val," Charlotte added, because she knew her friend would want to be mentioned also.

"I'll be out on the quidditch pitch for a little while that day," Valeria said. "But I'll definitely make sure I get to see her."

"More testing of your new designs?"

"Yes. I feel like part of the team now," she laughed. "Who would have expected that?"

"Not me." Charlotte laughed along with her. Tom stayed quiet, but a smile was on his face.

Lisabelle Soleil carried herself in an almost regal way, head held high and confidence in her gait. Even Tom felt she was intimidating, but he reminded himself that he could make anyone like him, and he had no reason to fear her, or anyone. At this thought, however, he found himself longing for the day when he would have the freedom to forgo ingratiating himself to others and simply impose his will on them.

She wore a red cloak and the classic, black pointed hat that somehow had even made its way into muggle imagery of witches and wizards. Hers was embellished with black embroidery in a design reminiscent of plant vines. This was the only indicator, albeit a minuscule one, of her interest in Herbology; her hands and fingernails hardly looked like they spent any time working in dirt, which was something not even wizard gardeners could avoid if they wanted to do their work. It was very easy to see she was Charlotte's mother. She was possibly more attractive than Charlotte, but her daughter might in future resemble her more closely, Tom thought hopefully. But then—he caught himself—why did he care? He didn't see himself with Charlotte beyond their time at Hogwarts, if that long.

She greeted Professor Dippet, also there to receive her, before her daughter. Tom couldn't be sure whether this was peculiar or not because he hadn't been around parents and their children enough to make a judgment. He looked over at Charlotte; she didn't act surprised or put out, but kept her face still with a little smile.

"Professor Dippet, it is a pleasure to meet you. However I am sorry that it is under such circumstances in this school." Unlike Charlotte, she spoke with a distinct French accent.

"Indeed," answered the headmaster. "Have you brought mandrakes as well as the potion?" He pointed to a wooden box floating next to her.

"Oui. I am so glad they can be of use, but again, sorry that it is necessary."

Charlotte approached her now. They hugged and exchanged some words in French. He stayed back until Charlotte beckoned him over.

"Charlotte told me I should be here," he said to her, joining them.

Yes," she answered, clasping his hand in both of hers while she shook it. "She has told me so much about you; I couldn't wait to meet you myself."

"I'm very pleased to meet you too. The work that you do sounds fascinating. And, of course, I'm happy that I now know someone of Charlotte's family."

Madame Soleil looked as if she had been about to say something, then her look changed to something a bit sad. It was pity. Charlotte must have told her he had no parents. Next to him, she had stepped forward, preparing to intervene if her mother asked something regarding his family. It had almost been necessary, he reasoned; although, he would have been fine without Charlotte coming to his aid.

...

Charlotte had wanted to be present when Perdita was treated, because she felt she was partly responsible for the girl's more speedy revival. This worked very much in Tom's favor, as he had needed an excuse to be around the unconscious Perdita so that he could replace her memory of him with one of Cyrus Quinn. A diversion was planned so that he could do this while the others were preoccupied.

Madame Soleil's eyes traveled across the room as though looking for something. It was, in fact, someone that she was searching for. "I wrote that I would be able to treat the girl when I arrived—and her parents aren't here? I would think they would like to be with their child at this time."

"They were told, but chose to distance themselves from our world; they are muggles, you see," replied Professor Dippet.

Madame Soleil muttered something he couldn't understand. "Celles qui sont expérimentales auraient suffi." ["The experimental ones would have been fine."] Charlotte later told him. At present, her only reaction was a sharp intake of breath and a sudden outburst.

"Her parents would be just as upset to lose her as you would be to lose me!" she exclaimed. Her mother looked at her, eyes wide in shock, face showing disapproval, her mouth already forming the words of a reprimand. Of course, even if the whispered words had been audible to others in the room, no one else had been able to understand, so this extreme statement from Charlotte brought a shocked and confused look to everyone.

"Charlotte, je ne t'ai pas élevé pour que tu te conduises comme ça!" ["Charlotte, I did not raise you to behave like this!"]

"Non, tu m'as élevée pour que j'accepte le préjudice, n'est-ce pas?" ["No, you raised me to accept prejudice, didn't you?"] Lisabelle was growing angrier, but she controlled it well. 'Accepter le préjudice' added some clarity to the subject of their argument for the English speakers, these words being recognizable to them.

Tom stepped in. "Let me talk to her, Madame Soleil." He tugged on Charlotte's arm, taking her aside from the others.

"You're causing a scene. Just like you didn't want your mother to do."

"I—I know," she answered slowly. It was now dawning on her what she had just done. "I should have not spoken in English at the very least." Tom smiled at her. She looked at him. "What do you think?" He was on her mother's side, but opted to express it in a less definite way, one more palatable to Charlotte. He would bring her around to his view eventually.

"I think… you should be proud of your ancestry, their history, your family's lineage. As you were that day when we spoke in the library about it." She smiled. "And I don't think you should fight with your mother," he added.

"I don't want to fight with her. I don't want to be against her at all." They stood in silence for a moment. Everyone else waited somewhat awkwardly for things to have cooled off. Madame Soleil, however, was carefully watching them together.

"Are you calm now?" he asked. She nodded.

"Yes." He started to lead her back to the group, but she stopped. "But I don't want to talk to her right now. Or any of them." She looked away, but glanced back at him briefly. "I don't think I can face it."

"Go then. It's alright. But if I can give you some advice, walk out with dignity, not like you're ashamed. You'll feel better." Before she had a chance to reply, or take his advice, Winky Crockett and another boy in Slytherin quidditch uniforms rushed in, holding Valeria between them. Tom did his best to look surprised. As expected, Charlotte, followed by her mother and Professor Dippet, hurried over to her injured friend. Madam Beauregard would obviously have to tend to Valeria, leaving Perdita unattended.

"She got hit by a bludger," said Winky.

"I hit it," admitted the other boy, "but I definitely wasn't aiming for her. It headed right for her though, swerved off course and made her its target. I reckon someone jinxed it," he said uneasily.

Tom quietly moved past the group surrounding Valeria and over to Perdita. With everyone else in the room otherwise engaged, he was free to do what he needed to about the mudblood's memories. He stood over her and concentrated very hard, pointing his wand covertly at the top of her head then whispered the spell. Feeling the feat had been accomplished, he backed away and joined the periphery of the huddle around Valeria.

...

Charlotte remained with Valeria when they administered the restorative potion to Perdita. Tom stood a bit uncomfortably between the two, feeling that he belonged at neither of the girls' bedsides, until he decided to join Charlotte at least momentarily while Perdita was revived. The Beater had left, but the Captain had stayed; he was just saying good-bye to Valeria, and apologizing that this had happened to her, when Tom joined them. Winky gave him a nod as he left.

"This should make Valeria feel better," Tom said, putting his arm around Charlotte and briefly pressing his lips to her cheek. Valeria laughed weakly.

"That's it, you can tell Madam Beauregard I'm perfectly well again."

"She hasn't lost her sense of humor," he remarked with a smile and a glance between her and Charlotte.

"You'd have to kill me," answered Valeria. He felt his heart give a jolt and he tried to compose his facial expression to something unrevealing. He forced a laugh. It came out naturally; he had thought about the irony that it was possible maybe one day he would kill Valeria. Her eyes were closed when he looked over at her. Charlotte's body language that he could feel didn't give any indication she had reacted to this exchange, so he felt he had been inscrutable and convincing enough.

A friend of Perdita's had arrived and was explaining to her what had happened. Tom heard her mention Cyrus Quinn, saying something about how rotten it was that he had not met her like he'd said. "But not the worst thing to happen to me that night unfortunately," commented Perdita.

They left Valeria so that she could rest shortly after that. Walking past the foot of Perdita's bed, he noticed she was looking at him strangely.

"I have the oddest recollection that… you… Never mind…" She shook her head, looking confused and a bit embarrassed. He didn't smile at her, only turned away. Evidently he needed to improve his ability to alter the memories of others. If he hadn't, through the manipulation of Cyrus, predisposed her to believe the lie he planted in her mind, she might have claimed it was him she had planned to meet that night. This was the truth—the former truth; now, he had arranged what others perceived as the facts to show a very different series of events, one in which Cyrus had asked Perdita to meet him on the sixth floor and then stood her up. If he had truly known about the date, perhaps he would have shown, but at the time he had not yet been made to believe he had spoken to Perdita in the first place.

"What exactly did your mother say, by the way?" Tom asked after they had left.

"Celles qui sont expérimentales auraient suffi. The experimental ones would have been fine," Charlotte said. The thought crossed his mind that it might be beneficial for him to learn French. "I believe they have some mandrakes that they're trying to adapt to not produce murderous screams, but as with anything experimental, you don't know how else it will be affected. Realizing Perdita is just a muggle-born, she wished she had used those." She spoke bitterly, still upset with her mother; Tom's efforts to reconcile her to those beliefs were not yet at an end. Over time she would be made to accept her mother's perspective, and in helping her to do that, Tom would make himself more important to Charlotte, at the same time securing her in his philosophy.

Lisabelle wanted to see the castle, and Charlotte had to be the one to give her a tour. Tom agreed to come along because he wanted to make a good impression on Madame Soleil, not for the usual boyfriend-of-your-daughter reasons, but because he could tell she was a woman of some influence. He succeeded in doing this, given ample opportunity by Charlotte's unwillingness to say much to her for at least the first half of their walk around the school; however, she was unable to maintain this coldness for the remainder of their time together.

Standing in the entrance hall once more, they were speaking with Madame Soleil before she left.

"Je l'aime bien," ["I like him."] Lisabelle said to her daughter, motioning to Tom.

"J'en suis contente, maman," ["I'm happy about that, mother."] she replied.

"Il pourrait peut-être nous rendre visite pendant l'été?"

"She thinks you should come visit us in the summer," Charlotte told him.

"Je…" he looked at Charlotte to give him the rest of the words. "...would like that?" he said to her quietly.

She turned to her mother, "Il—". He stopped her.

"I want to say it." Ingratiating Madame Soleil to him would certainly be a good thing.

"Cela me plairait," she said, and then added with a smile, "énormément."

He repeated this, including Charlotte's addition to the expression of his pleasure, which he assumed meant 'enormously'. Her mother smiled. He was thankful that she didn't say any more on the matter, which might have forced him to talk about his dreaded summer residence—the orphanage.

After several good-byes—Charlotte's, warm and mostly unaffected by their earlier dispute, implying that she was keen to reconcile with her mother—Lisabelle was gone.

Author's Note: Lisabelle is a name I made up; it just came to mind, sounding nice, and it doesn't have any particular meaning. I debated writing out her accent, as Rowling did for Fleur, but decided against it because it was too complicated, if I wanted to do it realistically and specifically. You'll just have to use your imagination.

I'd love to know what you think of this chapter! Or any questions you might have if something was unclear...