O

ERIS

Chaos

January

"Mum?" Hope decided to come clean. She had not enjoyed the New Year party after overhearing such an intense conversation, and had climbed back down from her perch the minute Harry and her mother had returned to the living room, opting instead for the cupboard under the stairs, where Lily, most disappointed that Hope, of all people, couldn't have found somewhere better to hide, had discovered her minutes later. Hope had paid no attention to the rest of the games. Her mother had left the party soon after midnight, gone off to work at five o'clock that morning, and had only just returned. It was now ten o'clock at night. Teddy was at Victoire's and Remus was already asleep.

"Hi love." She smiled, although there were dark circles under her eyes. "I thought you'd be in bed."

"I- I need to admit something," Hope blurted out, nervously rubbing a dry patch of skin on her hand. "I was playing hide and seek with the others when you talked to Harry last night, and I heard what you said. I couldn't help it. Honestly."

Her mother goggled at her in astonishment.

"Where on earth were you?"

"In the wall cupboard."

"The wall cupboard?"

"You know, the one that has the keys and quidditch balls in. I shrank myself to really tiny, like Flitwick's size."

Her mother winced.

"It can't be healthy to make yourself that small," she said. Hope could only agree with this. It had been most unpleasant and she had felt sick for the rest of the evening. "Please don't make a habit of it."

"I won't." Hope was far more worried about the other reprimands to come, but Tonks shrugged wearily.

"So you heard what Harry and I were saying?"

"I didn't mean to," Hope insisted. She knew eavesdropping was bad and how often had she been told off for it? "Really I didn't." But her mother didn't look angry. "You'd find out soon enough anyway," she said. "Kingsley's going to make a statement next week."

"So what's going on?"

Tonks rubbed a tired hand over her forehead before explaining. "There is an individual, one who, as you will have heard, calls himself The Crow. We have no idea who he really is or how he's managed to spring up out of nowhere, but he claims to have created a Narcoviral curse, and released it into the population out in Asia. Our sources indicate that he isn't lying. There are muggles falling ill on the other side of the world."

"And is that where The Crow is from?"

"No, we think he's from this country. He sounds British, although he could be forcing his appearance or speech, of course. But from this side of the world, at least, would make sense, if our understanding of his intents and purposes is correct."

"And what are they?"

Tonks shrugged helplessly.

"To create as much chaos and division as he can, before the illness caused by the curse has spread to the western side of the world at all."

"So – so it will spread, then?" Hope asked. "Like Teddy said it would when he talked about it before Christmas?"

She tried to keep the anxiety out of her voice, determined, as always, to maintain the front that she portrayed to the world. Bold and fearless. Curious, yes, but unafraid. Her mother's smile was gentle and understanding in return.

"We're doing our best to mitigate the damage. Magical organisations across the world are going to advise muggle authorities on how to handle it and prevent it from spreading as best they can. Whether we'll be successful is anyone's guess. Some are quietly hopeful that maybe, as we've been warned, we can do something about it. Contain the illness and avoid as many casualties as we can, both in our own country and others.

"Then why has this Crow person given you warning?" Hope asked. "Why didn't he release the curse and let it happen, if telling you means you can do something about it?"

"It's a good question." Tonks nodded, eyes serious. "That baffled us too, at first. But I think, after a lot of analysis and discussion today, it's becoming clearer what The Crow's intentions are. You see, the curse, while undoubtedly deadly from the off, needs to exist in specific circumstances to do the job it was created for. In order to have a drastic impact on the muggle population, it needs to be contagious enough to spread over the whole world. It can't be too virulent, though, because if it brought down everyone in its path, it would burn itself out. It needs time to have the desired - for us, undesired - effect. And the more time and opportunity it is given to spread, the more time and opportunity we have to put up a fight against it."

Hope wasn't sure she fully understood but she was listening intently anyway.

"History shows us that diseases, both muggle and magical, have always been most lethal when panic and lack of organisation have allowed them to spread," Tonks continued. "Spanish flu was a disaster for the muggle population in the early twentieth century. Knarl Flu, likewise, ran rampant in The States a few years ago because MACUSA didn't put any measures in place to contain or monitor it."

"Knarl Flu. That's what Dom had!"

"Yes," Tonks said. "It was a nasty illness, and she was unlucky, poor thing. But in general, the measures to contain Knarl Flu in this country were well managed. Dom, as you'll remember, had to declare her illness to St Mungo's, spend two weeks in complete isolation, then be tested twice and officially cleared before she was allowed to interact with friends and family again."

Hope remembered it well. It had been very unfortunate and done nothing to curb Dom's fear of hospitals, but she had recovered reasonably quickly.

"Knarl Flu demonstrated how effective containment measures for illness and disease can be," Tonks went on. "So naturally our aims are to put in similar protocols for this. But because the curse is affecting magical and non-magical people in different ways, the fight against it needs to be a collaboration between both communities. If we were to succeed in that, and present a unified fight from both the muggle and wizarding populations, the curse might not have a chance of properly taking hold."

Hope could not miss the doubtful inflection her mother placed on the word if.

"The Crow realises this," Tonks continued. "He will already know that the best way to prevent a unified fight is to create irreparable discord between magical and non-magical authorities. We believe that is why he sent us the warning in the first place. Over the next few days, magical leaders across the globe, all of whom have received The Crow's message, will meet with the muggle leaders of their respective countries, try to warn them of the danger that is approaching, and advise them on how to tackle it."

"And - and that's not good?"

"We are anticipating a huge amount of resistance. They are to be told that an illness, one that has so far affected a handful of people on the other side of the world, that manifests itself in a similar way to muggle flu, has in actual fact been created by wizards and poses a terrible, deadly threat to their people. Even to us, it sounds farfetched. Your own defence teacher is proof that some of our own kind don't believe a Narcoviral curse could exist. Yet we are asking muggle leaders to take our word for it without any concrete evidence. And the measures we will be suggesting to hold back the spread of the curse are extreme to say the least. Bans on international travel, mass quarantines, severe restrictions of movement until we can produce a counter curse, which could take months. It would incur a huge cost, one that we do not have the means to finance and that the muggle authorities, if they believe us at all, are unlikely to risk, when there is no imminent threat and when they will have to justify it to millions of people who know nothing of the wizarding world."

Hope tried to imagine being the leader of a country, knowing exactly who had caused this problem but unable to reveal it to those who looked up to them. It must be horribly frustrating.

"And that is where the problems will start," Tonks went on. "If the illness had been planted silently and left to run its course, it may have taken months for our kind to realise it was magically induced at all. It would have claimed lives, no doubt about that, but when faced with the growing, incontrovertible threat, there would have been a chance at a unified approach between wizards and muggles. A lot of muggle leaders may have turned voluntarily to the wizarding world for help and advice. By giving us certain pieces of information from the start, before it has taken hold, The Crow is forcing our hand, playing on the moral obligations of our integral leaders, forcing them to denounce the threat, and admit it has been created by wizards, right from the start. We now suspect that the rumours were started by The Crow as well. It is a clever move, there is no denying that."

"So you're saying muggles won't listen at all?"

"We imagine there will be a mix of reactions. Some will be reluctant to believe it. Some will be angry and resentful and put the blame on wizards, and can we even blame them? Especially when they have no way of explaining to their own kind what is actually the problem. Others may try and do as advised, but the measures will not be effective if only a handful of countries or regions put them into place. Regardless of the reactions, the first cracks will start to appear, just as The Crow has intended, because there won't be a collaborative approach."

"But," Hope protested, her mind still whirring. "But if they think there's a better chance of muggles listening when the curse has taken hold, can't they wait a bit? Until it's more obviously a threat?"

Her mother gazed at her sadly.

"Do you really think that someone like Kingsley, when warned of a terrible disease coming in a tidal wave towards innocent and defenceless muggles, would be willing to stand aside and let it kill them, if there was the slightest chance he could prevent it all together?"

Hope thought of Kingsley, with his fierce principles, his deep, commanding voice, his insistence on the right way forward, not the easy way forward. Of course he wouldn't.

"The idea of sacrificing the few for the many, of brushing moral qualms aside in the name of the greater good, that was so prominent in the wartime years, went out a long time ago," Tonks continued. "It is something Kingsley will not even consider, and I respect him for that. He means to be upfront about this from the start. But he will have an uphill battle and it may come back to haunt us. The current muggle prime minister doesn't like him anyway, is mistrustful of anything to do with us. Kingsley is already predicting that he will not heed a word of what he tells him next week."

Trying not to feel too depressed by this thoroughly bleak outlook, Hope thought again.

"I still don't get why The Crow told everyone," she said, after a long pause. "Can't he keep releasing the curse, wherever he wants? Even if there was a decent fight against it, couldn't he start spreading it again whenever it was dying down?"

"He could," her mother said slowly. "Assuming he evaded capture - Aurors across the world will be attempting to hunt him down and he will not want to pop up too often. But that's not the only reason. Remember this is to masquerade as a muggle illness, at least for the moment. He does not want to arouse suspicion in the non-magical world, because if the disease goes against what makes sense to muggles, it would likely drive the authorities back towards wizarding leaders for help and advice. Division is The Crow's aim, just as much as destruction. No, it appears he is playing the long game, quite prepared to sit back and watch the drama unfold, the illness take effect, while wizards and muggles are faced with the dilemma of how to act, and likely fall out because of it. These are the first fallings of snow that could lead to an avalanche of chaos."

"And will it?" Hope's eyes were wide as she looked anxiously back at her mother, unable, now, to keep the tremor of fear out of her voice. "Will it be as bad as everyone thinks?"

Tonks put a gentle hand on her cheek.

"I hope not, my love. We all hope not. But you know there are no guarantees with this kind of thing."

She looked completely wiped out.

"You should go to bed," Hope said abruptly. "Thanks for telling me, though."

She gave her a brief hug and went upstairs to bed herself, deep in thought.

oOo

April

On returning to school, Hope did not breathe a word of the news to anyone. But by mid January, everyone in the wizarding world knew about The Crow and his deadly aims. By late February, it was obvious to most people that an avalanche was approaching, not a flurry of snow. And by the end of March, there was no denying it. The world had descended into a state of complete and utter chaos.

The Crow's plan had proved effective. Muggles were falling ill across the globe. Wizards, so far, remained unharmed by the curse, but magi-medical experts estimated that up to twenty percent of them may already be carrying and spreading disease without realising. Muggle authorities were in a state of grave panic, under pressure from their own kind to act in one way and from magical leaders to act in another. Wizards were being advised to stay away from muggles wherever possible, but many were refusing to heed official advice.

The Crow remained elusive, untraceable and unheard from since sending his original message to wizarding leaders. Aurors, as Hope knew from the sporadic news she received from her parents, had barely had any time off at all, overwhelmed as they were in their efforts to track him down on top of their regular duties. Her mother had hardly spent any time at home since Christmas. Staff at St Mungo's and other wizarding hospitals were equally overwhelmed, working away on possible counter curses and cures, and preparing to aid the muggle world however they could.

O

Teddy wrote to Hope at the start of April.

Hey Dopey,

Thanks for the present, I love it. Birthday was a bit of a no go this year, as you can imagine. Work's mental at the moment. I've been taken off my regular research to try and make some progress on the cure for the curse. It's pretty intense but I'm working a lot with Jessye and also Hestia, whose been transferred to magienetics too, and they are great. They know far more about the subject than me, but I'm trying to help wherever I can.

Don't have much news other than that. Vic says hi. It's been a manic start to her healing placements but she's dong OK.

Love you always. Please stay safe.

Teddy xx

The atmosphere inside the castle was grim, as more and more students with muggle relatives became worried about friends and family back home. Professor Vector addressed the school at large before the holidays and requested that anyone with non-magical relatives stay at school for Easter.

"We will put measures in place to support you here," she informed them. "And we will address the situation in the summer when it comes. By then, we hope to have approved testing procedures that will determine whether it is safe for individuals to go home. But you could already be carrying the curse - we believe many wizards already are. Please do not go back to your families if there is any chance of putting relatives at risk. If your family are magical then you are free to do as you wish, and we will make arrangements for you to get home via the floo network, but let me make it plain that you must not mingle or loiter in muggle areas at any point over the holidays. Other people's lives depend on the actions we take, both now and for the foreseeable future. You must be sensible."

O

Sensible was a word that Roxanne was choosing to be selective about. She was obediently following all safety measures when it came to the Narcoviral Curse. When it came to other areas of safety, she was taking far more liberties.

"Rox, you need to be careful," Dom said in frustration, as she filled them in on her latest night time escapade with Iain Logan, a seventh year Slytherin she had been dating on and off since Christmas. "Seriously, use something. Cast the charm. Take something, please."

Hope could only agree. The last thing Roxanne needed right now was an unwanted pregnancy.

"It's fine," Roxanne sighed. "Stop worrying about it."

"But I am worrying about it!" Dom exclaimed. "You should be too. You aren't stupid. You know how these things work. I'm not going to stop going on about it, you know."

Roxanne rolled her eyes. "Fine," she said. "Next time I'll tell him my cousin Dom wants me to be sensible so that she doesn't have to be my permanent babysitter in a year or so."

She was grinning, but Dom glared at her.

"Tell him whatever you like, just have a bit more common sense."

"So, Adam," Roxanne said, changing the subject and turning to Hope. She hated arguing with Dom. "What's going on there?"

Hope gave her an unimpressed look. "Nothing, as you well know," she said. "He's still going out with Stella. You must have seen them kissing all over the place. I mean, can't they get a room?"

"I think she's getting bored of him," Dom said matter-of-factly. "She's always flirting with other guys. James told me the other day."

"I don't want to wish a break up on him," Hope protested feebly. This was perfectly true. She didn't want Stella to break up with Adam, reducing her to a rebound option at best. Of course, if Adam were to break up with Stella and happened to decide Hope was a much better choice of girlfriend, that would be another matter entirely.

"Don't you like anyone else?" Roxanne persisted. "There are loads of fit guys in our year."

"Nah, not really," Hope yawned. "And don't you dare mention Cadmus," she added, as Roxanne's eyes glinted teasingly.

"Fine, I won't. But he still likes you, you know."

Hope mimed vomiting and turned away.

O

Hope did her best to forget about Adam and concentrate on other events. But although there was a lot going on, none of it was remotely cheerful.

"How's your Mum?" she asked Michael Longbottom one potions lesson, as she bent over and tried to relight the fire underneath her cauldron. This was a recurring problem for her in potions and, to her, a sign that she shouldn't have to take the damn subject at all. If she couldn't even get the fire to light, how was she supposed to produce an acceptable concoction?

"She's talking about shutting down until they've found a cure," Michael said. His own cauldron simmered away, its contents the perfect shade of violet specified in the instructions.

"Really?" Hope said, pausing in her efforts and looking up at him in surprise. "Muggles can't get in the Leaky Cauldron, can they?

"Not in it." Michael shook his head. "But it's on a muggle street, remember, and a lot of customers use the main entrance. Even if she insisted on floo only, it's still a place for it to spread among wizards, isn't it? It's one of the busiest social spots for our kind in London, and the more of us who become cursed, the more muggles will fall ill. It makes sense to close, just as it makes sense we can't go into Hogsmeade at the moment, even though no muggles live there."

"Personally, I don't see why we should resort to such drastic measures," Elodie said loudly, from the bench next to them, and Hope glared at her. Elodie had already made her feelings about the Hogsmeade ban very plain, and it was infuriating how selfish she was being. "I mean, our kind are fine, so I don't know why we're worrying so much."

Hope's wand jerked slightly and the fire streaming out of the end scorched a hole in the work bench. "Sorry," she murmured to Michael, waving away the smoke, but he had not noticed. He was also glaring at Elodie.

"Thousands of us have family and friends who aren't magical," he snapped. "Think about someone other than yourself, Elodie, for once in your pathetic little life."

Hope felt a grim sense of satisfaction as Elodie looked put out and turned back to her work without a word in retaliation. It was unlike Michael to snap at anyone, but he commanded a fair amount of respect from the students in their year. Elodie clearly did not want to engage in a battle she may lose. Marion, standing next to Elodie, was looking thoroughly miserable, head bent low over her own cauldron, and at the end of class she hung back and took her time putting her books in her bag.

Michael nudged Hope and indicated this, and the two of them approached her.

"Are you alright?" Hope enquired.

Marion nodded, her eyes still downcast. "Just thinking about my family. My parents and my grandparents. I can't go home for Easter, obviously, and even if they get testing in place for the summer holidays, I'm still worried. I could never live with myself if I passed something on to them."

Hope glowered after Elodie, who was chatting to Natalie as the two of them made for the door. Some friend she was.

"They're trying to come up with a cure," she said to Marion, hoping she sounded encouraging, not patronizing. "Wizards all over the world are working flat out trying to find a counter curse, my brother told me. So hopefully it won't be too long before we're all out of this horrible mess and you won't have to worry about infecting anyone."

Marion seemed reassured by this as Michael murmured his agreement, but he and Hope exchanged a sombre look as Marion went on her way. They both knew it wasn't going to be quite that simple.

O

Hope asked her father about it over the Easter break, one evening when it was just the two of them having dinner.

"Even if they get a counter curse to all this," she said. "How are they going to administer it? I mean, you can't wave a wand on the world, can you?"

Remus took a sip of water and shook his head gravely. "Indeed," he said. "That is why it is going to be so difficult. Because the curse is manifesting as a muggle illness, the counter curse needs to work as a muggle cure. Something that makes sense to muggles. Muggle scientists and medical experts are studying the disease all over the world, trying to create what they call a vaccine, which is a means of preventing people getting the illness at all, but of course they don't know - have no way of knowing - that until the magical world comes up with something that works, their cures will remain ineffective."

"So how will they do it? Our kind, I mean?"

"I'm really not sure," he sighed. "As Teddy explained, the illness affects everyone differently, and the levels of magic within the blood trigger various symptoms. It would seem muggles carry it in their system for a matter of days or weeks, until it has done what The Crow intended, but then it leaves them, because they don't have enough magic for the curse to renew itself and keep itself "alive", for want of a better word. Wizards, on the other hand, carry it long term, to contaminate as many people as possible. Therefore the cure, antidote, counter curse, whatever you want to call it, would need to be something that could rid it from wizards and muggles who have it, but stop those who don't from catching it at all, while factoring in the varying levels of magic within the people who need to be inoculated. This is a tall order, incredibly complicated. There may need to be two or three separate cures. One that can be given to wizards. One that can be administered to muggles who are suffering already and reverse the damage that has been done. And one that can be slipped, undercover, into muggle laboratories, that would blend with the vaccines and work at preventing transmission the way muggles expect them to."

Hope felt a heavy weight in her chest at the thought of how much further they had left to go in this battle. Her father was right. This all sounded very, very complicated indeed.

oOo

May

One afternoon in the first week of the new term, Hope was sitting underneath a gnarled oak tree in the grounds, alone with Oompa the pygmy puff, Dom having managed to drag Roxanne off to the library to do some studying, when she was approached by Scorpius and Albus.

She smiled up at them, but they were both looking a little subdued.

"What's up?"

"Not much," Scorpius said, throwing himself down on the grass next to her. Oompa bounced onto his chest at once, and he stroked her fondly.

"We did boggarts in class," Albus explained. "But most fears were related to the Narcoviral Curse. Family dying, or getting ill. Was pretty depressing to be honest. Hard to make cheerful."

"Can't really blame them for that." Hope said gloomily. She wondered what form her boggart would take if she were to tackle it now, given that Greyback was long dead. The image of her family, lifeless on the floor, still crept into her mind. Her father's face stood out in particular, stark white, his eyes wide and staring. She shuddered and shook her head to banish the unpleasant image.

"Did you have to fight it?"

"Nope," Albus said.

"Edgecombe was firm about that," Scorpius added. "Said that anyone who didn't want to didn't have to."

"She learnt her lesson then," Hope said grimly, but she didn't resent her teacher too much for what had happened the previous year. If nothing else, it had been the trigger for an open discussion with her parents and she had felt a lot better afterwards.

"Did you know muggles can see boggarts?" Al added. "Sometimes they hide in children's bedrooms, or in old, abandoned houses. That's why some muggles think places are haunted. They are actually seeing boggarts."

Hope nodded. "Yeah, Mum said. The Aurors are sometimes called out to get rid of them."

She looked between them curiously, opened her mouth, then shut it again. It was personal. She of all people knew that.

"My grandfather," Scorpius said, in response to her unasked question. "He's terrifying. I've been scared of him since I was tiny. Although we've been seeing less of him over the last few years. He and Dad had a row recently, Mum told me in a letter. Not sure what it was about, but something to do with the curse. He's not following any of the regulations put down for wizards because he doesn't believe it's worth it."

Hope ground her teeth. Lucius Malfoy was a piece of work - Grandad Weasley had said so enough times. She had only seen him once or twice, from a distance, and had hated him instantly for his arrogant airs and sneering demeanour. His wife, indeed her great aunt, wasn't so bad. Hope had met her several times, and knew that she and her grandmother kept in contact and now saw each other every month or so.

"It least Gran's sensible," Scorpius broke in, echoing her thoughts. "Grandfather does listen to her, even if he listens to no one else."

"How would you have made him funny, I wonder," Hope mused.

Scorpius sniggered. "Not sure. Dressed him up as a muggle, maybe? Made him one of those football players who wear the shorts and t-shirts and have the shaved hairstyles, like on that poster Lils has in her bedroom."

Hope tried to picture Lucius Malfoy in a garish sporting outfit, with the short shorts and striped T-shirt and knobbly boots that muggle football players wore, his hair shaved with shapes cut out of it. The thought did bring a smile to her face. Scorpius was laughing to himself, but Albus still looked solemn.

"What's up?"

"Oh, nothing," he mumbled. "I've no idea how I'd make my boggart funny. I don't even know what it would be, really."

"You don't know what your worst fear is?"

"No, I sort of do," Albus said, going red. "But I don't know how to describe it. I guess it would be... like... people talking about me, or laughing at me, but.. kind of worse. Properly judging me, you know. I know that sounds stupid, and people are always saying I shouldn't care what others think. But I do care, and it's always been like that."

Hope was startled by the frankness of his confession, and glanced awkwardly at Scorpius as she tried to decide how to respond. Before she could say anything, Albus sighed and threw her an envious stare.

"I wish I was like you, Hope. You're so sure of yourself and you don't care what anyone thinks of you. Ever."

Hope was taken aback by this. She did not show any signs of offense - Albus had no doubt meant the comment as a compliment - but she wasn't sure that what he had said was true. She had been feeling less and less sure of herself recently, particularly at school. She had made no progress with making friends her own age. She was doing average at best in lessons, despite her resolve to work harder this year. Flying was her only real strength. And her parents and Teddy were being helpful and productive and working away at ridding the world of this deadly curse, while she felt powerless, even redundant.

She said none of this. As always, her bright, colourful suit of armour hid her true emotions from the world.

Thankfully.

It was something to be thankful about. Wasn't it?

O

A week later, Roxanne came to find Dom and Hope, looking ashen.

"OK," she mumbled. "You may have been right about needing to be sensible. With boys, y'know."

Dom stared at her with wide eyes.

"What? Roxanne, I thought you were being sensible. You told me you'd started using the charm."

"We were!" Roxanne said. "Honestly, we were, except this one time before Easter, we got carried away and I forgot."

She said this very fast, avoiding looking at either of them.

"So... you're...?" Dom's face was quite pale.

"Well, I don't know, do I? I just - I could be. I'll only know if I take a test."

"You need to go to the nurse," Dom said. "She'll be able to give you the testing potion. You won't be the first student to need it.'

"I'm not going to the nurse!" Roxanne sounded outraged. "The hospital wing is teaming at the moment - people worrying about having symptoms of the curse even though we've been told a zillion times that it can't affect us. Someone will definitely find out, then it will be all over the school."

"I don't think that's true," Hope pointed out. "She'll have to keep anything you tell her confidential. It's her job."

Roxanne scowled. "In theory. But everyone finds out everything round here. Remember when Julian Bailey had those boils last year. He'll be Julian Boiley forever now."

"Julian's a massive bigmouth - he probably told people himself."

"I'm not taking any chances," Roxanne said. "I am not having a rumour going around that I'm pregnant. No way. I need to get a testing potion myself from the apothecary."

Dom raised an eyebrow.

"How may I ask are you planning to do that, when we're not allowed into Hogsmeade at the moment?"

"Easy. Morella's got an old invisibility cloak. I'll borrow it, sneak down there on Saturday afternoon and buy one from Amersham's."

"You'd rather sneak into Hogsmeade than go to the nurse?" Dom gaped at her. "Rox, your dad works in Hogsmeade some of the time. And Uncle Ron. The shop's only a few doors down from the apothecary - for all we know they go in there. How the hell are you going to explain being caught out of bounds buying a pregnancy testing potion if you run into them? For Merlin's sake, go to the nurse."

"No!"

Hope knew there would be no convincing Roxanne. Obstinacy was a common trait among the Weasley cousins, but Roxanne was possibly the most stubborn of them all.

"I'll go to Hogsmeade for you," she offered. "I can be in disguise so even if someone sees me it won't matter."

Dom appeared torn between the knowledge that this was a sensible compromise and disapproval that they would still be breaking the rules, but Roxanne's face split with gratitude.

"Really?"

"Of course."

Roxanne threw her arms round Hope.

"Thank you, Hope. Thank you, thank you! I'll love you forever!"

"You'd better," Hope said, grinning. Then her face sobered. "What are you going to do, if-"

She trailed off and Roxanne shook her head.

"I don't want to think about that right now."

O

Getting into Hogsmeade that Saturday proved to be remarkably easy. Disguised as a small, non-descript woman with short brown hair, Hope donned Morella's invisibility cloak up in the dormitory and made her way out of the castle and down to the village. There were no charms or warnings in place to stop her leaving the Hogwarts grounds, which struck her as odd, until she came to Hogsmeade and saw two Aurors patrolling the deserted main street. No doubt they were under orders to send any student back up to the castle immediately, and she supposed the Hogwarts staff considered a telling off from senior Aurors to be suitable punishment for any rule breakers.

As she got closer, Hope recognised them as Auror Bentley and Auror Hughes, and felt a tremor of anticipation. Senior Aurors indeed. Grateful, at least, that it wasn't her mother or Harry on patrol - even in disguise, she felt sure they would have recognised her somehow - Hope waited until they were at the other end of the street, slipped into the dead end alley right by Amersham's apothecary and pulled off the cloak. Then, checking the coast was clear, she strolled casually back out into the main street and made for the entrance.

There were other customers browsing the shelves in the shop, and Hope relaxed a little. The village was still open to residents, so there shouldn't be anything suspicious about a random woman buying supplies. She found the potion she needed and took it to the checkout. The witch at the desk, clearly bored, didn't even look at her properly as she accepted the handful of sickles Hope was holding out and grunted her thanks.

Feeling relieved as she came out into the fresh air, Hope ducked back into the alley to pull the cloak over herself once more, double checked that she had bought the right potion, and prepared to slip back out to the main street. Then she paused. She could hear the footsteps of the reapproaching Aurors, and decided to wait until they were walking away again to be sure that they wouldn't hear her in return. She knew about Auror Bentley's reputation for having sharp ears and excellent tracking skills, and she was not at all keen to be caught by two of her mother's colleagues, out of bounds, invisible, in disguise and carrying a pregnancy testing potion. She could already hear the howler that would be winging its way to her if her mother were to get wind of that.

Most annoyingly, however, Bentley and Hughes did not walk past the alleyway, but stopped right in front of it, completely blocking the exit. There would be no getting passed them without being noticed until they had moved on. Damn. Hope crept as far back as she could and tried to breathe as silently as possible.

Hughes leant idly against the wall while Bentley stood straight backed, his head swivelling right and left, not distracted from his duty.

"This is so boring," Hope heard him mutter to his colleague. "As if The Crow is going to show up in Hogsmeade."

"Oh, come on," Hughes chided, yawning widely. "It's not that bad. It's a nice day and we get to walk around. Lighten up. It makes sense to have people stationed around. And we want to be grateful we have Potter as head now. He's managing pretty well in my opinion. Savage would have fucked this whole thing up long ago."

Bentley grunted.

"I suppose that is true."

"And thank Merlin we haven't been sent on the Siberian recce." Hughes shuddered. "Three days they have to spend there, at least. They'll be bloody freezing."

"Would have been a damn sight more interesting than this," Bentley retorted. "Although, it has to be a hoax, surely? There's no way some tiny laboratory in the depths of the arctic has found a workable cure."

"Why not? It's possible."

"When St Mungo's hasn't come up with anything at all in the last five months? Nor St Etienne's, nor the Carlos Institute, nor magical laboratories all over the developed world?"

"So? Just because their equipment isn't as up to date as ours doesn't mean they aren't capable. The evidence sounded conclusive to me."

"Not convinced."

"You never are, you sceptic."

Hughes merely sounded amused.

Intrigued by their conversation and without thinking properly, Hope shifted her foot and it made a crunching sound against the loose stones of the alley. Hughes didn't seem to notice, but Bentley whipped round at once.

"What?"

"I heard a noise behind us."

Hope's heartrate accelerated madly, but Hughes gave an exaggerated groan. "Look, just because you are Auror Thomas Bentley and achieved the highest grade ever recorded for your Stealth and Tracking assessments, bla bla bla, does not mean every tiny noise means imminent threat. Tonks was right - you are starting to act like Mad-Eye Moody."

"I'll take that as a compliment, thank you."

Hughes scoffed loudly again. "Come on, let's do another patrol if you're that bored. Maybe we'll find a rogue Hogwarts student to shout at and send back up to school with their tail between their legs. You enjoyed that the other week, you know you did."

Still grumbling half-heartedly, Bentley followed his colleague further up the street. Hope let out the breath she had been holding, her heart still thumping wildly, then, as soon as their footsteps has died away, sprinted back up to school.

O

"Well?"

Dom and Hope both looked up as Roxanne emerged from the stall of the bathroom in which they were barricaded.

"Negative." Roxanne's whole body had sagged with relief. "Definitely negative."

"Thank God for that."

Roxanne held up the beaker of potion with a look of mingled disgust and delight. "It would have gone white if I was pregnant," she said, tipping the bile green liquid down a sink. "So we're all good."

"Promise us," Dom said severely, as the last dregs of the potion drained away. "Promise us you won't be so stupid ever again. Not even if you're with the most beautiful boy in the world."

"I promise," Roxanne said, and this time, Hope knew she was deadly serious.

"Thanks again for going, Hope," Roxanne said humbly. "I appreciate it, honestly. I owe you one big time. Did you see anyone in Hogsmeade?"

"Couple of Aurors." Now that the most pressing issue was out of the way, Hope recounted to her friends about overhearing Hughes' and Bentley's conversation.

"...and they said something about a cure being found in Siberia! Aurors have been sent to check it out."

"Siberia?" Roxanne repeated. "Are you sure? That's a very random place."

"Positive. At least, I'm sure that's what they said. I was only a few metres away from them. Auror Bentley sounded sceptical about it though."

"Doesn't sound likely to me," Dom agreed. "Probably a hoax or maybe people being overly optimistic."

O

As they heard nothing at all about a possible cure over the following weeks, Hope supposed it must indeed have been a hoax. Despite this, there were occasional snippets of good news filtering through from the outside world. Transmission of the illness in the muggle world had dropped significantly, and people were now being allowed out of quarantine.

"We'll be back to normal by the summer holidays, I bet!" she overheard Alec Peters saying confidently to one of his friends as they passed by her in the corridor. "Things are dying down already. Everything will reopen and we won't have to worry about staying away from muggles anymore. We can go wherever we want. I bet that Crow person is feeling pretty stupid now. Hardly anyone's getting sick at the moment!"

Hope was not convinced. Nothing about the attitude of those she respected and liked the most – her family, the Weasleys, The Potters, The Longbottoms, Flitwick and Vector, was reassuring. Her parents' and Teddy's letters remained full of requests that she be extra careful, and she knew that Dom, Roxanne and James were all receiving correspondence of a similar nature. Most students continued to worry about the situation for their muggle relatives, and they also regularly saw the teachers in groups together, talking in low voices with concerned expressions on their faces.

It didn't seem to Hope as though the chaos were dying down at all. In her opinion, it had only just begun.

OOO