September 10th, 1986 - Later that Day

"Headmaster you can't continue to allow her behaviour here, it is unacceptable!" Snape yells, furious with Dumbledore for not allowing him to expel Merula.

"Then, perhaps, since she is in your house, you can correct her behaviour, Severus." Snape rolls his eyes at the Headmaster. Dumbledore knew, more than any other person, that once a Slytherin's mind is made up, there is no easy way in changing it, and often those who do try to change their views only end up angering the individual.

"You know as well as I do headmaster, that she's not going to change her mind."

"Then I suggest you do your best to try and bring light to her eyes."

"Why keep her around, everyone despises her, she is not good for this school! We need to expel her now!" Dumbledore sighs and shakes his head.

Dealing with this man didn't come easy, Dumbledore knew that. He knew it from when Severus had spent his time here as a student rather than a teacher, he was always an outcast, and that wasn't going to change anytime soon.

"Severus, please…" Dumbledore trails off.

"If this were the best student here at the school, who started doing what she did, you would have her expelled in no time at all!" He shouts.

"If she were, as you say, the best in the school, and suddenly this behaviour came from the student, I would know," Dumbledore looks back up to Severus. "That something is troubling them, deeply." Severus groans and throws his arms in the air, running his hands through his hair and eventually letting them fall back down to his side.

"Headmaster, please." He begs, and then there's a knock on the door.

"Come in," Dumbledore calls, and the door opens to reveal McGonagall and Merula. "Ah, Ms Snyde, please come in, we have much to discuss." Snape glares at his student, anger seeping off of him in waves.

"You brought me in to tell me I'm the brightest witch of my age, didn't you?" Merula boasts, and McGonagall was through with her false sense of everything, from her grades to her personality. "I knew all of you would come around eventually, I mean come on, it's hard to miss." She crosses her arms over her chest, she was boasting her courage, but she wasn't showing it through her body language.

"No, Ms Snyde," Dumbledore begins and pulls out a piece of paper and lays it in front of her. "Nothing of the sort. I'm afraid it is quite the opposite." Merula's face doesn't move a muscle; it stays straight and unfailing.

"What, going to expel me?"

"Every teacher here wishes me too, including your head of house. Perhaps you should give us a reason not to do so, Ms Snyde." Merula scoffs at the suggestion, ignorance evident in her personality. How can someone so small have such prominent delusions of grandeur?

"Easy, I'm the best and smartest witch of my age."

"That would be Ms Skotadi; it wouldn't hurt for you to take a few lessons from her." Snape hisses out.

"She's a first-year, she has nothing to teach me." Merula snaps back at the potions master.

"Then perhaps," But dumbledor holds up a hand to silence him and keep them from bickering.

"Ms Snyde, it has come to light, that you have caused another student harm, almost paralysing them."

"I haven't even touched anyone, what are you talking about?" She sighs, annoyed with the accusations that were flying at her.

"Ms Skotadi was admitted to the hospital today for a painful back, turns out she had a broken spine. Everyone seems to be under the impression that you caused it, Ms Snyde. If you come forward with the truth now, we will be fair." Merula looks to the three Professors in the room, none of them took her word anymore, none of them believed her or even wanted her here at the school anymore. She would have to tread very lightly here on out. She would get others to do her work now, to bully the kids.

"I haven't touched her." She states and raises her head a little higher.

"You're lying," Severus says and moves closer to the third year. "You pushed her onto the ground the very first week isn't that correct?" He knew he was right; he always was. He was seeing if she would lie, if she were stupid enough to play dumb, permitting him to go through her memories.

"I-" She breathes out, looking at Snape's face, trying to form an appropriate sentence.

"Can you prove you didn't do this to her?" McGonagall pipes in, hoping to prove that Merula hadn't done it, giving her a piece of mind however small it may be.

The silence hangs in the room like a knife waiting for permission to cut something, and all eyes on her. She takes in a breath and slowly lets it out, shaking her head slowly.

"No." Dumbledore gives a single nod in acknowledgement.

"Who should I make your letter out to Ms Snyde?" Dumbledore asks and pulls his quill out of the ink pot, ready to write the names to whom he was to address the letter.

"You're not expelling me?" Merula asks, eyes wide as she turns to face Dumbledore.

"Would you like to be?"

"No."

"Then, since we can't prove that you did, or did not, in fact, harm Ms Skotadi, you will remain here. Under careful watch that is." He peers over his glasses, and it's the most stern she's ever seen the old man.

"Has she not said anything?" Merula asks the room, and only one person caught her question.

"Who?" McGonagall asks.

"Skotadi." The three teachers look at each other. She hadn't said a word, said that it wasn't Merula after all, but no one believed her.

"For some daft reason she decided to defend you, but seeing as how she's the worst liar in the history of Slytherin house, she was quite easy to see through." Snape is cold and calculated, giving her only the information she needed to know, instead of what she wanted.

"Those names Ms Snyde, if you wouldn't mind." Dumbledore cuts back, bringing everyone back the problem of the matter, and Merula nods in agreement. She realised just how easy she was let off.

Merula is floored, Skotadi had fended for her. She had protected Merula, and she had no reason other than that they were in the same house. No other purpose, and yet Skotadi was the one that kept her from getting expelled. Perhaps the new kid wasn't so bad after all.

And so, after she finally gave the names to Dumbledore (or in this case one name, because her aunt would freak if she read it before her uncle), and getting a good scolding from all of them (honestly what more could they really do), Merula was being escorted back to her house's common room by Professor McGonagall.

They had walked back in the second most awkward silence in the history of the world, the first most awkward, being the instance earlier with Professor Snape and Ace.

The minute Merula stepped foot into the common room she was searching for the new girl, or even her friend, who was a seventh year (they had some weird connection).

There was no one, and it was completely and utterly quiet except for the crackling of the fire, a fire that never needed to restock, or be re-light, it seemed.

Then, there were footsteps coming down the spiral staircase to the right.

Merula had to squint to see who it was, he was covered in shadows, but upon closer inspection, it turned out to be Cas, Ace's friend.

"Expelled?" Comes his one-word question full of bitterness and resentment.

"Letter Home." She bites back at him with an even nastier tone, but all he does is nod his head and begin to walk back up the staircase.

This was her chance, now or never — the time to find out why he and Skotadi had protected her.

"Oi!" She calls out.

"I don't have time for your worthless attempts at attention tonight, Merula." He says, waving a hand in dismissal.

"Why did you and the new brat defend me?" He stops dead in his tracks, his foot never touching the next step; instead, it retreats to the one beneath it. He sighs and shakes his head, and she misunderstood his and Ace's acts of "kindness".

"We didn't do it because we like you if that's what you're wondering."

"Then, why?" He turns around, his now black eyes glinting from the light of the fireplace.

"You aren't used to not having answers, are you?" He stares her down, and she doesn't respond. "You got everything you wanted as a child didn't you?" He hisses, and she snaps her head up and stares daggers into his soul.

"Ibegyour pardon?" She growls, and Cas straightens himself up,

"Then beg." He snaps and walks back up the staircase and into the dormitories.

He was right, they both knew he was, she knew everything growing up, she wasn't used to not having answers that's one of her reason she continued to search for the vaults. She needed answers.

She didn't like things going unanswered, and the vaults had done just that.

The fact of the matter was this, Cas had no reason to fend Merula than the fact that she was in his house, and his house demanded respect, and fraternity was a trait of Slytherin after all. He assumed Ace had fended her for the same reason, but he wasn't sure.

He wasn't Ace, and he would never know unless he asked her, even then she could lie.

He put his hands in his trousers pockets, and he felt a large leaf touch his fingers.

It was a mandrake leaf, the one he had managed to get for Ace, and he had reached the animagus instructions from McGonagall faster than he had planned.

He had asked her, and she had handed him the book on it and told him not to tell anyone he had gotten it from her.

She was probably the biggest Gryffindor he knew, which would explain almost everything about her.

It wasn't curfew yet. He could go down to Ace and see how she was doing, see if she was still awake.

It was Ace, of course, she'd be up. It had only been a week, but he was able to predict her actions, she was easy to figure out.

He headed out of the common room and up to the dungeons towards the infirmary, and he had never seen the halls of school this empty before, seven years at Hogwarts and he hadn't had a reason to be out this late.

That girl, Ace, why was she different than all the rest? Why did bonding with her become so easy and straightforward? He wasn't one for people, but she had undoubtedly wormed her way into his heart.

Thus the reason he was sneaking her the animagus transformation potion and going to see her in the infirmary.

"Cas?" Ace's voice reaches him sooner than he expected; he had walked most of his way lost in his thoughts. "What are you doing here?"

"I got you the leaf…" She looks at him, not knowing what he was talking about, and he shifts his weight suddenly feeling awkward. "For the animagus potion."

"Oh, thank you." She turns her gaze away from Cas and down to her hands. "But I think I'll ere on the side of caution and not do it. You were right Cas, the only reason to transform would to be to hide from the law."

"No." He cuts and walks over to her, sitting in the chair next to her bed.

"Sorry?"

"Don't listen to me, I'm stupid. You're the brightest witch I've ever known Acacia, don't let others tell you otherwise. You should do this, prove to the rest of us that you're better, prove it to the professors, to the other students, but prove it to yourself more than anything." A tear slides down Ace's cheek, and Cas realises someone hurt her, and burned her bad, and suddenly he's angry.

"But I'm just a mudblood." He sits up straight baffled by what he just heard come from her mouth.

"Why do you think that, who said it, where did you even hear that term?"

"It's what everyone is saying, that I'm a mudblood and my parents just told me I was adopted because they didn't want to deal with me being a magical person. I mean they weren't even in the house when McGonagall came to our complex, Caspian." He flinches at his name; she's never called him the full name before. Whatever happened, she's hurt by it all.

"Ace, what happened, who did this to you?" She opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out, she was left mouth agape until a scream rang out through the infirmary building.

Pomfrey and Cas went running, and Ace, as quickly as she could, hobbled out of bed and follow after them.

In front of them lay a student, a student shocked and frozen to the ground, and possibly dead.

"Mr Villin help me get him to a bed." Cas nods and Pomfrey and him lift the student up and over to the nearest bed. "Ms Skotadi, you should be in bed resting, not up and about," Pomfrey says as she checks the student's pulse. She didn't feel the beating, and there didn't seem to be a pulse, it seemed the child had died of shock.

"Are they alright, Madame Pomfrey?" Pomfrey shook her head, yes. She lied to the seventh year. Lied that the student was okay, and then he left to take care of Ace.

Ace sat down on the bed, and Cas stood in front of her.

"Is he alright?" Cas studies her, her eyes searching his for some answer, but he had no answer to provide her, at least not a good one.

"No," It's barely a whisper, and she has to concentrate on hearing him. "Pomfrey is lying. I felt his pulse." There's a pregnant silence before he continues, not knowing just how much it would affect Ace. "He's dead, and he was dead by the time we got there." Her eyes go wide, and she gasps. This school is supposed to be the safest place in the wizarding world, and now, her very first year at Hogwarts and someone had died. SO much for safe.

Then there was churning in her stomach, and she keeled over, clutching her stomach, she felt sick, and she was going to throw up.

"I need a bucket." Cas moved faster than lighting and grabbed the bucket next to him and held it in front of her just in time for the upheaval of disgustingly thick black texture.

"What the bloody hell you consumin'?"

"I'm sure it's all the potions she's giving me." Ace says through a pant and wipes her mouth.

"How are you feeling? How's your back?" He sits next to her on the bed, and she goes to open her mouth, but Pomfrey cuts her off.

"Ms Skotadi, You should be in bed resting," Pomfrey says, giving her motherly scorn, and Ace nods back at her. "Right, Mr Villin, go get me Dumbledore, I need him down here as fast as possible." Cas nods and runs out of the room

April 28th, 1969

"So, what's happened to you since I last saw you?" Tom and Scarlette were sat within a muggle pub, neither of them wanting to be recognised, but both of them despising the muggles around them.

"Got a job at the ministry actually, it's not what I thought it was gonna be."

"What do you do?"

"I'm with the improper use of magic."

"Ah, I don't even think muggle section is that boring, love. Why'd you choose it?"

"Dunno, it just called to me for some unknown reason." Tom chuckles beside her and takes a sip of his muggle beer, letting silence fall between them. "You know, muggle alcohol is shit, I can understand where-you-know-who and followers come from."

"Really?"

September 12th, 1986

Word had passed around the school about the fateful incident, and the teachers had done the best to keep it under wraps, they monitored all letters that went out because if word got to the parents, they'd have the ministry breathing down their necks in a matter of seconds.

Everyone had speculated at what happened to the student; Dumbledore said that they had passed away, but no one gave them the reason of how they died.

The only two people who had the slightest idea were Cas and Ace, and their guess was just slightly better than everyone else's.

Neither saw what happened, they had only heard, but they had heard rumours of dementors running around the school, as few as they were.

The teachers were adamant about being hush-hush.

Bill hadn't approached her, hadn't even mentioned a word to her, he kept his distance as he didn't want to upset her.

"What's this I hear about you defending Merula?" Ace says through the morning Grogg, just waking up in time to see Cas sitting next to her with a book in his lap and apple in hand.

"It's too early for this conversation." He says and bites into the apple.

"We'll never have this conversation if you don't tell me now." She groans and switches onto her back.

"Oh, you know me so well." He says in playful voice with a wink close behind, and she giggles at him.

"You know it's true." She trails off.

"Perhaps."

"I'm serious Caspian."

"Full name now?" He looks to her. "Bummer." He sighs and sets the book next to her, groaning as he gets up from the chair. "I'll send the Weasley in today, and he said he wanted to talk to you anyways."

"When?" Ace perks up at this, she had no clue what was going on in the school, she completely segregated from them, so Cas was the person keeping her updated.

"Why do you think I defended Merula?"

"I don't know."

"I defended her because of you." He walks to the end of her bed before turning around to face her. "You're a good friend, Ace, and I don't want to see you hurting." He smiles and then saunters off, leaving her alone.

She had several school texts besides her that she could read and study for when she got her homework from her bunkmate, whenever that would be. Other than that, her time passed painfully slow, and she couldn't wait to be stable enough to be in a wheelchair.

She wanted to attend her classes and walk the halls once more.

"Madame Pomfrey, will you please let me go to class, at least in a wheelchair. I'm so bored, and I want to attend classes." Ace begs as the live-in nurse comes to check on her.

"Who's going to push you around in the wheelchair and help you get up those stairs?" Ace sighs, it was no use in trying to convince her, she was done for.

Time passed, she was brought lunch and then finally the classes were over, and she saw Bill standing in the entryway.

"You don't have to stand there and be awkward; you can come in."

Are you sure?" Ace gives him a questioning gaze, and he decides that perhaps it would be better to walk in than to get glared by her.

"That wasn't too hard, was it?" Bill gives a light chuckle and nervously sits down. "I heard you wanted to pick a fight with Merula."

"She deserved it, especially for what she did to you." He spits out, Ace sighs and shakes her head.

"I don't think it was truly Merula, she added to it, yes, but it wasn't completely her fault."

"Are you positive?"

Nope, I'm negative actually." She snarks back, and Bill gives her a look, a bold look to give a slytherin.

"I'm serious Ace." She sighs in resignment

"Yes," she nods. "I'm sure me falling doesn't help."

"You fell?" His go wide, and he's trying to hold back a smile.

"Twice actually, but you know what, my parents always called me Murphy from Murphy's law. It makes total sense."

"What is murphy law?" She stares at him. Yes he grew up in the wizarding world, but he should have at least known the fundamentals

"It's 'Murphy's Law', and it's mainly that when you try to attempt something, everything goes wrong." He nods in agreement and thinks for a moment.

"Ace Murphy, not a bad ring…" He winks and smiles at her their cheery wistfulness had come back to them, and they bonded what had been broken.