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*****
"Why are we all in a girls' bathroom?" Astrid asked, looking from Ron to Harry to Hermione back to Ron and Harry. Eyebrows rose in search of an answer.
"You'll see," Ron said. He reached out and patted the little girl lightly on her head. Harry dropped to his knees and crawled to the last sink of the row.
"Why are we all in a girls bathroom with Harry crawling under the sinks?" Astrid amended her question.
"You'll see," Hermione echoed Ron's answer. Astrid glared at her friends and stomped her tiny foot.
"Patience, child," Ron admonished.
"I want answers!" Astrid growled. She threw her hands on her hips. "Answers to questions such as to why I had to share an invisibility cloak with Ron to go to a girls' loo only to watch Harry crawl under the sinks!" A low rumbling hiss issued from under the last sink Astrid screamed.
"He is a Parselmouth!" she screeched.
"Astrid, you've been taking lessons from Mandrake Chelsea's book! Keep your voice down or you're going back to the common room," Ron scolded, completely ignoring the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets opening on the wall behind him. Astrid stuck out her tongue at the older boy.
"Ready?" Harry asked, looking up from his spot crouched on the floor. Ron and Hermione both nodded.
"Wait, are we going down there?" Astrid questioned. The three fifth years all nodded at the girl.
"Perfect place to do illegal things without being caught," Ron laughed.
"Right," Harry agreed. "Now Ron, you know how the landing down there is."
"Rough," Ron answered.
"Exactly. I think one of us should take Hermione and the other, Astrid," Harry suggested.
"I can take myself, thank you," Hermione insisted, glaring at Harry. Harry shrugged.
"Don't bother me when your bum hurts for weeks then," he said. Hermione nodded.
"Doesn't sound like fun to me," Astrid said. "I think I shall use Ron as a Gringott's cart.
"Thanks," Ron said, looking down at the girl with a glare on his face. She broke into a broad, highly contagious smile that soon wiped the scowl from Ron's face.
"Ready?" Harry asked. His three friends all nodded. "I'll go first then." He sat down in the top of the slide and waved at his friends. Quickly enough, he disappeared down the pipe.
"Shall I go next?" Hermione asked when a loud crunch sounded from the pipe. Ron and Astrid both nodded. Hermione jumped in the pipe and disappeared.
"Ready then, chica?" Ron asked. Astrid smiled up at him and nodded. Ron climbed into the pipe and sat down. He turned and held his hands out to the girl. She stepped over to him and allowed him to pick her up and deposit her in his lap. He wrapped his arms around her waist and she clamped her hands on top of his.
"Ready," Astrid said. Ron moved his feet in a walking motion down the pipe. After only a few steps, the pair were pushed flat on their backs and they rocketed down the slide. Astrid screeched loudly.
"THIS IS GREAT!" she yelled. Ron tried to ignore the scraping sensation of his back grating on stone of the slide. Before they knew it, they both shot out onto a pile of dried bones. Ron acted as a cushion for Astrid, so the bones didn't affect her at all. She bounced to her feet and ran over to Hermione and Harry.
"Wow that was fun! Are we under the school now?" Astrid asked. The two fifth years solemnly nodded as Ron stumbled to his feet. He began picking bone chips off of the back of his robes and out of his hair. Astrid looked around the slimy, damp tunnel.
"Last occupant wasn't much of an interior decorator was he?" she asked, kicking a small pile of bones towards the wall.
"The last occupant was a giant bloody snake," Ron mumbled. Astrid's jaw dropped and she looked up at the tallest fifth year.
"We're in the Chamber of Secrets," she said without a question in her voice. She ran her hands over her hair and all around the tunnel once more. Ron rolled his shoulders experimentally and pushed his hair back form his eyes.
"No Astrid," Harry said. "We're in the OTHER secret chamber under the school that only I can open from an entrance in the girls' bathroom that is inhabited by a ghost who was killed by a basilisk.
"Shut up," Astrid muttered. She glared at Harry from under the fringe of her hair.
"Actually, we're in the tunnel leading to the Chamber of Secrets," Harry corrected. Astrid nodded.
"So we're down here why?" she asked.
"To clean so we'll have a place to work on our Animagus transformations," Hermione explained. "Where should we start?"
"Cushioning the landing area," Harry and Ron chorused.
"Can we make it really smushy?" Astrid questioned.
"If we get all of the rat bones out of the way we can," Harry said. He reached down and picked up a handful of bones.
"Ooooh, Harry, put those down!" Hermione screeched. "They can't be sanitary!"
"How else do you plan on moving them then?" Harry questioned. Hermione pulled out her wand and pointed it at the pile of bones.
"Step back," she instructed. He joined Ron and Astrid against the wall behind Hermione. Hermione waved her wand in a relatively simple movement and muttered a spell. The bones quickly sprang into a neatly bundled bale.
"How's that?" she asked.
"Teach us!" both of the boys insisted.
"Do you think I could learn?" Astrid questioned.
"Do you know the cleaning spell Snape uses for cauldrons?" Hermione asked. Astrid nodded.
"I work in front of Nathan Longbottom in Potions. We'd all be dead by now if I didn't know it," she said.
"You use that on the floor and walls while the boys and I bale the bones and other debris," Hermione instructed. Astrid nodded and Hermione set about teaching the boys the bailing spell. Astrid busied herself with the floor at the bottom of the slide.
"What are you doing?" Ron asked. He and Harry had mastered the bailing spell and had attacked the bones with a vengeance. Astrid stepped about a meter away from the wall just in front of the base of the slide. She jumped straight into the air. When she came back to the floor, it dented in to accommodate her weight before flinging her back into the air.
"Like yours and Mandy's mattress," she explained, still bouncing on the floor. At the mention of his girlfriend, Ron instantly turned bright red.
"Why so red?" Astrid questioned. "Have you and Mandy used the mattress?" If Ron had gotten any redder, steam would have poured form his ears.
"Not sure you want to know the answer to that," Harry laughed. Ron's face paled a bit and he turned to glare at his best friend.
"Don't listen to him," Ron instructed. "He's just jealous that he hasn't gotten anywhere past snogging with Hannah." Astrid bounced so hard her head almost banged into the ceiling.
"So you have been doing naughty things with Mandy!" the little girl squealed. She raised her eyebrows twice at her friend.
"No!" Ron insisted, way too loudly and quickly for him to be telling the truth. A derisive snort form Harry and a half-stifled laugh from Hermione further weakened his argument.
"That's none of your business!" Ron cried.
"It's certainly not," Astrid agreed. "So speaking of naughty things done on mattresses, has your mum had her baby yet, Hermione?"
"Thank you, Astrid, for the mental image the phrasing of that question provided," Harry said. Hermione shuddered visibly.
"Thank you, Harry, for bringing up mental images," she spat. "No, Astrid," she continued. "Little Weston Jr. isn't here yet."
"She's having a boy?" Ron questioned. Hermione shrugged. The stack of bales of bones steadily grew against one wall.
"I'm, hoping," Hermione replied. "She doesn't know yet, but she still thinks Jaquenetta is a perfectly acceptable name."
"Hey!" Astrid squealed. "If you have a sister and I have a brother, or the other way around, they could date!"
"Your father would have kittens!" Harry cried.
"I know!" Astrid said. "No offence to any of you, but I think the only thing that would be comparably as bad as a Muggleborn would be a Weasley or a Longbottom."
"That's," Ron paused for a moment. "Okay, marginally funny." Astrid grinned at the boy.
"And if my little sibling is a boy, which I hope it is, Lucius will like it, but he'll ignore a sister," Astrid said.
"Why do you want a brother?" Hermione questioned. "Wouldn't a sister be safer?" Astrid stopped jumping.
"A sister would be like they were trying to replace Barrett. It would be more upsetting than happy," she explained. She began following the fifth years down the tunnel. "Draco wouldn't like another sister at all!"
"How is Malfoy?" Ron asked. He paused to cast another spell while Astrid set about cleaning the walls. "Pretend I care."
"He seems to be doing better. I guess you guys noticed that his cast came off about three weeks ago and his arm is fine. He just finished up a series of five once a week sessions with Dumbledore, Snape and Madame Pomfrey to fix his bone density and yea," Astrid said.
"Is he going to be able to play in the match against Salem in April?" Harry questioned. Astrid watched as the walls slowly cleared themselves of years worth of slime and gunk.
"That's three weeks away. He's been training lightly with Slytherin for the last two weeks and he can come back to training with you guys full time now that his bone density is as close to normal as they're every going to get it," Astrid explained. "He's got clearance but it's ultimately Wood's decision."
"I never thought I'd say this," Harry said, "But good. As much as I hate Malfoy, he's a better keeper than Sanguinis and as long as we beat Salem fairly decently and Durmstrang doesn't beat Beauxbatons as badly as we did, we've got a shot at winning the league!"
"Really?" Astrid and Hermione chorused. Harry nodded.
"Random note," Ron said as they began trying to form a doorway of sorts in a pile or rocks. "This is where Lockhart lost his memory back in second year. Now back to Quidditch."
"Really," Harry replied. "Beauxbatons bean Salem 230-70. Durmstrang beat us 340-170. WE beat Beauxbatons 310-40, and Salem beat Durmstrang 150- 0 in a match that lasted 15 seconds."
"So we're leading the league right now," Ron said. He paused to heave a rather large rock out of the way for Hermione. "But only by 130 points, so we've got to kick Salem's butt and pray Beauxbatons can hold off those Durmstrang pricks to a score somewhere below 300 points. "
"You know Ron," Hermione said. "Your astounding ability to do math talking about Quidditch but never when it comes to school work amazes me." She moved a pile of rocks to her left to begin forming the side of a doorway
"Not funny, Hermione," Ron spat.
"What do you guys think of the new play Fred and George and Wood are coming up with?" Harry asked to avoid the impending fight between his best friends.
"The Annexation of Puerto Rico?" Hermione questioned. Harry nodded and swiped a hand across his forehead, leaving a streak of black dust in its wake.
"Well, I'd have an opinion if they'd tell us more than a name," Ron laughed. "Although the way they sit in a corner and cackle madly on the rare occasion is really quite unnerving." He moved a few more rocks to begin the right side of Hermione's doorway.
"Where did they come up with that name anyway?" Astrid questioned.
"There is a really long explanation but what it boils down to is they stole it from a movie," Harry explained Astrid nodded and began cleaning a rather large section of the floor that was covered in inch thick neon green slime mold.
"When do you think you'll get to use it?" she asked.
"Whenever its creators think its ready and teach it to us," Harry replied. "Probably against Salem."
"Too bad you don't have to play Slytherin again, I would love to see the look on my prat of a brothers face if the twins let them unleash it against his team," Astrid laughed. She had figured out how to make the slime mold roll up like a rug and was watching it's slow progress as she spoke.
"I thought you got along okay with your brother," Hermione said, looking down at the girl. She had a rather motherly, concerned air on her face.
"I was actually talking about the evil incarnate that's approximately the same age as me," Astrid replied.
"So chica, if he's evil incarnate and you spent nine months in the oven with him, what does that make you?" Ron questioned. Astrid smiled up at the boy, not missing a beat.
"An angel," she replied. "Or perhaps a saint." Ron snorted rather loudly, not bothering to hold in his amusement.
"Really man the oven?" Harry asked, looking over at his friend.
"If Arthur Weasley had given you the sex talk, you wouldn't know what to call it either," Ron muttered. "So Astrid, how do you figure you're the saint?"
"Draco's the moody one, Keiran's devil spawn, Emma's the quiet bookworm, and Barrett was the clown. The only logical step is for me to be the saint," Astrid explained. Harry joined in Ron's snorting laughter this time.
"But seriously guys," Astrid said when they'd calmed down a bit. "Who do you think attacked Draco?"
"Death Eaters," came Hermione's prompt reply.
"At Hogwarts?" Ron questioned.
"It happens," Astrid and Harry chorused, thinking of Snape and Crouch, respectively.
"Besides," Astrid said. "I figured it was Death Eaters. Voldemort is going to kill us all. He's planning to transfer our power to Keiran but that won't work unless we're dead. I sort of meant do you think there was one or more than one. Are they students or did they sneak onto school property? How exactly did they go about doing it? Draco's not completely stupid, ya know." The three friends worked in silence for a moment as they all worked out their individual answers to the girl's questions.
"Quidditch," Hermione finally broke the silence. "The Death Eaters hid near the Quidditch pitch and got him after practice the day before when I was supposed to be having my lesson with Madame Pomfrey. If there was someone else with him, they probably put that person under the imperious to get rid of Malfoy's memory before he could come around in the hospital wing. Short of getting a record of all of his visitors from Madame Pomfrey and checking them for traces of the imperious, we'd be hard pressed to ever figure out who did this to him." Hermione's face had paled and she had stopped working on sealing the rocks together.
"You look like you've seen a ghost, Hermione," Ron said. He, too paused work, to look at his friend. "It's just Malfoy after all."
"You didn't see him when he came in, Ron," Hermione spat. She turned back to the wall and looked down at the floor. Her next statement came out as something of a whisper. "You didn't see him."
*****
"Lollie, can we get ice cream after we go ta tha park?" Tallulah asked. She looked up at her sister through crystal blue eyes ad tugged on the older girls hand as she spoke.
"Maybe if you're good," Laurelai replied. She reached over and brushed a stray piece of sandy blonde hair out of the tiny girls face.
"Lollie," Tallulah continued. "I'm cold."
"Tallulah, you know ma needs to take care of Brady so we're going to the park," Laurelai said. Tallulah nodded and skipped a bit, still holding tightly to Laurelai's hand. Laurelai turned to make sure the door to her flat was locked before turning back to her three-year-old sister. Their mother needed time to tend to two-year-old Brady as their muggle father tended not to approve the use of healing spells on his children. Brady simply had the flu. Laurelai had volunteered to baby-sit Tallulah for a few days because of all of her sisters, Tallulah, being the youngest, was the hardest to take care of. Five-year-old Tara and seven-year-old Greer were fairly self sufficient as long as nine-year-old Edana and 10-year-old Saoirse were around. No one could handle Tallulah quite like Laurelai though. Of course, at 22, she figured she would be quite capable of taking care of her second youngest sister, especially after the other six. Besides the four middle-aged sisters, a brother and a sister attended Hogwarts, Tallulah was number seven, Brady made eight, and oldest brother Connor was number nine. Laurelai rounded out the number to an even 10.
"Lollie?" The tug on her hand made her snap from her thoughts. "Lollie, I forgot my cloak and it's cold outside."
"Don't worry, Lu, we can get it." Laurelai turned herself and her sister around in the narrow hallway and walked back towards the door to her flat.
"Lollie, I heared a popping noise," Tallulah whispered as the pair stopped at the door of the flat. She was suddenly very still and equally quiet.
"I didn't hear anything, Lu," Laurelai replied as she jammed the key into the lock.
"Lollie," Tallulah hissed.
"Lu, this is an old building, it makes funny noises sometimes," Laurelai said. The younger girl didn't look the least bit reassured. Laurelai pushed the door open and stepped into the living room of the small flat, Tallulah in tow.
"Well what do we have here?" An unfamiliar male voice asked from the center of the room. "Back so soon?"
"What are you doing here?" Laurelai asked, eyeing the masked, black- robed man standing in the center of the room. She eased backwards towards the door, making sure Tallulah was fully behind her. The man produced a wand from inside his robes. He flicked it quickly, causing the door to slam shut.
"Initiation," the man replied. "At least in part." Laurelai slowly reached fro the front right pocket of her jeans, where her wand was.
"Don't bother, Laurelai," the man said. Laurelai quickened her motion.
"Avada Kedavara," the man muttered, almost lazily. The bight green light caught Laurelai in the center of her chest. She crashed to the ground, crumpling onto herself like a rag doll.
"Lollie!" Tallulah shrieked. She flung herself at her older sister.
"Don't bother," the Death Eater laughed. He quickly branded a dark mark on the door so they would know who was responsible when they found the body of the muggle loving bitch.
"Lollie," Tallulah sobbed. She lay completely on top of the older girl's body, crying into her sister's hair.
"She's dead," The Death Eater laughed. "And you're coming with me. If the Dark Lord can't use you for any rituals then we can just kill you later." He plucked the three-year-old off her dead sister and gave Laurelai a swift kick in her ribs. Tallulah struggled against the man so he caught her left hand in his and applied pressure to her pinkie until he felt the bones snap. Tallulah wailed. The death eater quickly apparated away, but not before a neighbor heard Tallulah's shriek.
*****
"Do you think we'll actually get to go inside next time?" Astrid asked, as she, Harry, Hermione and Ron walked back towards the common room.
"Did you smell it?" Ron questioned. I'm not sure I want to go in!" the group had stopped short of actually entering the chamber, as the smell of rotting snake carcass had overtaken them before Harry could open the door.
"I'm wondering what we're going to do with the thing," Harry said. "You can't even begin to imagine how bloody huge it is."
"Can too," Hermione insisted. "Spent months in second year petrified because I saw it!"
"You mean these two solved a mystery without you?" Astrid asked. She practically skipped a few steps ahead of the fifth years.
"Nope," Hermione laughed. "Stole my research out of my stone cold hand while I was out of it in the hospital wing."
"They didn't!" Astrid screeched. She looked appalled at the two boys. Hermione nodded while Harry and Ron looked properly sheepish.
"Password, dears," the portrait said.
"Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. The place for all of your joking needs," Astrid recited.
"Shameless, really, how they've taken to advertising with the passwords," Hermione muttered as they crawled inside the room. The eerie silence hit the quartet almost as soon as the portrait clicked shut behind them. They scanned the room.
Alicia and a group of first years sat in the back corner. Jason, Sawyer and Nathan sat in front of the fire looking unusually somber and more than slightly bewildered. Ginny and Jae, both looking slightly teary eyed, sat on a couch on either side of a very distraught and silently weeping Parvati and a sobbing Lavender A pile of entangled bodies in a corner diagonally opposite the first years looked like the seventh years were having together time. Finally, in the corner across from the seventh years, Seamus leaned facing the joining of the walls. He had his arms braced over his head to support his weight. Dean and Kyle Burns stood to his right and left, respectively. Each boy had an arm on the wall and the other hand on one of Seamus's violently shaking shoulders. Neville sat about a meter away from them on the floor. Muffled sniffs and whispers punctuated the air at odd intervals. Ron's eyes didn't get any further than the seventh years before his mouth decided to open.
"Why does everyone look like someone has died?" he asked. He tried to be quiet about his statement but nonetheless; half of the room heard him.
"YES!" Jason exclaimed. Those who hadn't heard Ron heard Jason and turned to look at the boy.
"What?" He asked, shrugging his small shoulders. "I'm finally not the one who gets the extremely icky experience of gnawing on my foot!" Ron was so busy staring at the first year that he didn't notice Seamus until the Irishman had jumped on him and forced him to the ground.
"You bloody, Snape-feckin son uv a bitch!" Seamus screeched as he repetitively pounded his fist into Ron's face. Ron was so caught off guard that all he could do was struggle to keep his arms over his face so they more than his nose could absorb Seamus's blows. Dean and Kyle made no move to stop Seamus. Prefects Harry and Hermione were too busy trying to figure out why Ron's statement had caused such a reaction in Seamus to pull the boy off their friend.
Suddenly, Ron gained a bit of leverage and rolled himself and his attacker towards the fireplace. Sawyer had enough presence of mind to put out the fire before jumping out of the way. The pair rolled to a stop on the hearth. Ron ended up face down with Seamus straddling his back. Seamus sank his hand into Ron's hair and pulled his head backwards, up off the floor. He quickly fell forward, letting Ron's face take the full force of his fall. Ginny screamed as blood exploded from Ron's nose. Seamus pulled Ron's head back up and started towards the stone hearth again. Harry ripped his glasses form his face and pitched them at Hermione. Hermione was so surprised that she dropped her wand to catch the glasses. She had been fully prepared to end the ridiculous fight.
With a roar, Harry dived at Seamus's back. He hit the Irishman, who was still holding onto Ron, with such a force that all three rolled farther towards the corner Seamus had started in.
Dean, sensing the odds were suddenly not in Seamus's favor, dived into the fray with a flurry of dreadlocks and a cry of "VIVA!" No one was sure exactly what he wanted to live because a fist to his jaw cut off his sentence. The boys moved more towards the corner. Before Neville could move out of the way, someone landed a stray kick on his knee and he tumbled directly into the pile of thrashing limbs.
Kyle's sense of fair play kicked in. He stepped over and allowed himself to be sucked into the fray, telling himself that he was doing it solely to save Neville. Ron rose out of the fight and released an animalistic roar. He swung his head violently from left to right, slinging blood over all of the spectators. None of the girls moved to stop the brawl, but rather watched it with all of the fascination of muggle spectators at the scene of a car wreck.
Hermione was nearly taken into the mess as two identical Weasley's rushed past to aid their brother and surrogate brother in the four on two odds.
"I know Kung Fu!" Came Lee's only warning as he followed his best friends directly into the fray.
"Seamus's sister," Sawyer answered Astrid's unanswered question.
"Karey?" Astrid asked brightly, not bothering to hide the ever-so- slightly hopeful look on her face.
"No," Sawyer said, but that was the only word he managed to utter.
"FREEZE!" Roared a magnificent voice from the doorway. They froze.
*****
The nine of them sat on a bench in the hallway outside Dumbledore's office. Ron sat on the complete left. His nose had gone to roughly the same size and color as a purple tennis ball. Both of his eyes were turning rapidly black form the nose injury. A large fist shaped bruise formed on his left cheek. The way he kept nervously touching the back of his head said Seamus had managed to remove a good portion of Ron's hair in his attempt to make sure Ron's face and he hearth were fully acquainted. Harry sat next to Ron sporting a swollen blackened left eye that wouldn't stop watering and a swollen left fist with ripped knuckles he'd received when he aimed for Dean's face but due to his lack of glasses, punched the floor instead.
Next to Harry, Neville had an ice pack held to his left knee and a handkerchief held to his right eyebrow to staunch the flow of blood from a cut that ran right through the feature. Lee was next in line. He held a dread lock in his hands and the way he kept looking down the bench at Dean suggested it wasn't his own. As the last participant in the fight, he had only managed to obtain a few bruises, a couple of scrapes and a particularly vicious set of five scratches down the right side of his face. The center three dribbled blood. Next to Lee, George seemed to be completely oblivious to his rapidly swelling left eye and totally interested in a mark on his left arm.
Fred tentatively ran his fingers over his severely busted lips. He reached a spot where he thought he'd felt his teeth actually go through his lip and winced. Kissing Hermione was going to be the kind of fun that just wasn't.
Kyle's right shirtsleeve was missing entirely. He had claw marks to match Lee's running down his right bicep. His nose dripped blood at a fairly steady pace. Blood trickled down Dean's face from a patch just at his hairline. Lee had taken scalp when he'd pulled Dean's hair. His hand, like Harry's was bloodied but mostly because the Weasley twins were just too damned fast to hit.
Seamus, the bench's final occupant, looked nearly as bad as Ron. When Harry had tackled him, Seamus's face under Harry's weight had skied across first the hearth, then the carpet. His left cheek and the majority of his nose and forehead was completely void of skin, first from scrapes, then carpet burn. One of his teeth felt loose and he had quite the distinct feeling someone had landed a knee, foot, elbow or fist in an area where the sun didn't shine. All nine of them were covered in scratches and slowly forming bruises.
A smoking flash went off just in front of the boys. Ron rose to go after the person holding the camera but Harry grabbed him by the back of his shirt and pulled him back to the seat. Colin ran around the corner, camera clutched tightly in both hands.
"You're probably in enough trouble already," he muttered.
"And if you went after Colin Creevey every time he got on your nerves, he'd probably be dead already," Fred added. Ron leaned around Harry and glared down the bench at Seamus. Harry smashed his good fist into Ron's right knee, causing Ron to turn his glare on Harry.
"What was that for?" he hissed.
"To keep you from jumping into something that you could really get in trouble for. Right now you're probably the most innocent one of the entire group and I'd hope you'd fancy staying that way for once," Harry replied. Ron instantly looked down at his feet, rubbing the spot on his knee Harry had just punched.
"What do you have to say for yourselves?" a voice from just in front of the boys said. All nine looked up to see the severe form of Albus Dumbledore looking down on them, flanked by McGonagall. The boys remained silent for a moment. George finally spoke up.
"Someone fights like a girl!" he announced. "I've been bitten and Lee over there has claw marks down his face." McGonagall glared at the younger twin while Dumbledore had to bite back a laugh. George glared down the bench at Kyle, Dean, and Seamus.
"Don't look at me," Kyle insisted. "I got clawed just as badly as Lee did."
"Someone!" Dean cried with a very pointed look directly at Lee. "Pulls hair!"
"I suppose, boys, a better question would be why I found the lot of you rolling in the floor like you were in a barroom brawl in the middle of your common room when I came in to give one of your number some news," Dumbledore said. Eight of the number looked down the row at Seamus. He took a deep breath. Dean clapped his friend on his shoulder.
"I got an owl from my little sister Edana telling me that my older sister Laurelai had been killed and my littlest sister Tallulah was missing," Seamus began.
"So THAT'S what I said!" Ron cried. Dean, Seamus, and Kyle all glared down the row at Ron.
"Ron came in the common room and said 'Why does it look as though someone has died?'" Dean continued the story. "So Seamus sort of lost it and attacked him."
"I didn't realize someone actually had died!" Ron said, quite sheepishly. He had gone pale under his quickly purpling nose. Tears trailed down Seamus's cheeks.
"Mr. Potter, you're a prefect, why didn't you stop them?" McGonagall asked, glaring down her nose at Harry.
"I think Hermione was planning on it, professor, but I threw my glasses at her and she dropped her wand," Harry replied.
"Why did you throw your glasses at Miss Granger?" McGonagall asked.
"Because Seamus was beating Ron's face into the hearth," Harry said.
"So you decided to go to your best friend's aid," McGonagall assumed. Harry nodded and looked down at his torn hand.
"Then what happened?" Dumbledore asked. He had a merry twinkle in his eye that suggested he was slightly amused by the boys' tale.
"It wasn't bloody fair that Harry AND Ron were fighting Seamus," Dean said.
"So you jumped in," Dumbledore guessed. Dean nodded. He, too, looked down at his bloodied fist.
"I got pushed in," Neville declared. "When Dean jumped in they all rolled into me and I just fell." Dumbledore smiled benevolently at the boy. Kyle looked up at the headmaster.
"Someone had to save Neville!" he said.
"So you went on a rescue mission," Dumbledore said. Kyle nodded with a smile.
"Gryffindor Bravery and all," he said. McGonagall's face, if possible, became more severe.
"What about you three, then?" Dumbledore asked, looking at the twins and Lee.
"Four on two isn't what you'd call fair odds," Fred announced.
"So the three of you decided to even things up a bit." George and Lee both nodded.
"I know kung fu," Lee said with a bright smile. George reached over and smacked Lee lightly on the back of his head. He rubbed the spot and shook Dean's dread at George.
"Merlin Lee, that's nasty. Give Dean his hair back!" George insisted.
"No thanks," Dean said. "He can keep it." McGonagall coughed, catching all of the boys' attention.
"You mean to tell me that the majority of boys in Gryffindor tower above fifth year decided to brawl in the middle of the floor because the youngest Mr. Weasley said something stupid?" McGonagall asked.
"Like that's never happened before," Fred muttered. The rest of the group exchanged looks before nodding.
"That is simply the most absurd thing I think I've heard," McGonagall said. "I don't know where to even begin handing out punishments."
"Allow me, then," Dumbledore said. "I believe your house is in need of you. Both your council and your assistance in removing blood from the carpet." McGonagall nodded curtly and turned on her heel to head back towards Gryffindor tower. As soon as she turned the corner, Dumbledore looked back at the nine boys. He looked slowly from Ron to Seamus. Somewhere between Harry and Neville, he began chuckling and by the time his gaze fell on Seamus, he was howling with laughter. The boys exchanged nervous glances but none of them said anything.
"I must remember to ask Colin Creevey for a copy of the picture he inevitably took," Dumbledore muttered as his laughter subsided. He looked at the boys. "Now then. Ron, did you have prior knowledge of Seamus's family situation before you made the comment you made before you made it."
"No sir," Ron replied. "We had just gotten back from." Harry's elbow to his side cut off his sentence before he could give them away.
"We had just gotten back to the common room, sir," Harry said.
"Seamus, why did you attack Ron?" Dumbledore asked.
"I thought everyone had heard Karey screaming for me when she got the owl from Edana. She was rather loud, and I just didn't think that Ron possibly wasn't in the room and didn't know what was going on," Seamus said. "So when he said what he did, I lost it."
"In my defense, the first upset person I saw was Lavender and I thought she was crying because her boyfriend had dumped her or something. I didn't even see Seamus or Karey before I opened my fat mouth," Ron said.
"I think I'm the one with the fat mouth here," Fred muttered.
"Seamus, Ron, step up here for a moment," Dumbledore said. The pair struggled off the bench and walked over to the head master. Dumbledore placed his right hand on Ron's left shoulder and his left hand on Seamus's right shoulder and turned the boys to face each other.
"When I step away and let you go, it is your opportunity to finish the fight in the manner you see fit. I will ask the rest of you to stay seated, as this is between Mr. Weasley and Mr. Finnegan. Ready?" Dumbledore asked. Both boys nodded. Dumbledore released their shoulders and took two steps backwards from the pair. Seamus didn't move. He simply eyed Ron stonily and waited for the attack he expected. Ron took two steps towards the boy. Seamus steeled himself for the punch Ron was about to throw. Ron reached up and ran his fingers lightly down the bridge of his nose. Seamus's eyes closed and he turned his head towards the floor. Tears still leaked from under the lowered lashes.
Ron pulled his right arm back next to his shoulder and lunged towards Seamus. He tossed his arm around the smaller boys shoulders and clapped him twice on his back in a rough hug.
"I'm sorry," he said. Seamus sniffed loudly and Ron stepped back from him. "I didn't mean it man."
"I smashed your face into the hearth and you're not going to pound me now that you have the opportunity?" Seamus asked. Ron shook his head. He clapped Seamus on his shoulder again and stepped over to retake his seat next to Harry. Seamus collapsed on the bench next to Dean. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. He lay his forehead on the palms of his hands so no one could see his face. The other eight boys tried to ignore the fierce shaking his shoulders were doing.
"Congratulations boys, you just brought yourselves and your friends immunity from the two weeks of detention with Filch that is the punishment for brawling," Dumbledore announced. The boys looked relieved, but Dumbledore continued.
"However, you are not getting way from this without punishment. None of you will magically alter your injuries. Seamus, I shall allow you to mask yours so you don't have to tell your parents when you go home for the funeral. However, the rest of you, if you magically heal yourselves, you will serve three weeks of detention with Mr. Filch," Dumbledore said. The boys still looked relieved, though Ron did tentatively run his fingers across his nose.
"You may go back to the common room and assist in cleaning up the mess the nine of you made."
*****
"Malfoy," the familiar silky voice issued from the shadows. Draco didn't even jump, but merely looked up from his potions homework.
"Borgin," he said. Contessa slid into the empty chair at the other end of the table where Draco worked. Her long hair hung loose over her shoulders and she wore a dark forest green sweater that looked to be hand knitted and black skirts.
"Do you have information for me?" he asked.
"Do you have payment for me?" she questioned. Draco reached into his bag and pulled out three books.
"My little sister stole them from father's library," he explained as he laid them on the table. Contessa tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and pulled at one of the bangles on her wrist.
"He's a seventh year Quidditch player, not a prefect, not a Slytherin," Contessa said. She eased out of her chair and reached for the books.
"No name?" he asked.
"Oh, I know a name," she replied. She tucked the books under her arm and slid back towards the shadows. "You didn't pay for a name."
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*****
"Why are we all in a girls' bathroom?" Astrid asked, looking from Ron to Harry to Hermione back to Ron and Harry. Eyebrows rose in search of an answer.
"You'll see," Ron said. He reached out and patted the little girl lightly on her head. Harry dropped to his knees and crawled to the last sink of the row.
"Why are we all in a girls bathroom with Harry crawling under the sinks?" Astrid amended her question.
"You'll see," Hermione echoed Ron's answer. Astrid glared at her friends and stomped her tiny foot.
"Patience, child," Ron admonished.
"I want answers!" Astrid growled. She threw her hands on her hips. "Answers to questions such as to why I had to share an invisibility cloak with Ron to go to a girls' loo only to watch Harry crawl under the sinks!" A low rumbling hiss issued from under the last sink Astrid screamed.
"He is a Parselmouth!" she screeched.
"Astrid, you've been taking lessons from Mandrake Chelsea's book! Keep your voice down or you're going back to the common room," Ron scolded, completely ignoring the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets opening on the wall behind him. Astrid stuck out her tongue at the older boy.
"Ready?" Harry asked, looking up from his spot crouched on the floor. Ron and Hermione both nodded.
"Wait, are we going down there?" Astrid questioned. The three fifth years all nodded at the girl.
"Perfect place to do illegal things without being caught," Ron laughed.
"Right," Harry agreed. "Now Ron, you know how the landing down there is."
"Rough," Ron answered.
"Exactly. I think one of us should take Hermione and the other, Astrid," Harry suggested.
"I can take myself, thank you," Hermione insisted, glaring at Harry. Harry shrugged.
"Don't bother me when your bum hurts for weeks then," he said. Hermione nodded.
"Doesn't sound like fun to me," Astrid said. "I think I shall use Ron as a Gringott's cart.
"Thanks," Ron said, looking down at the girl with a glare on his face. She broke into a broad, highly contagious smile that soon wiped the scowl from Ron's face.
"Ready?" Harry asked. His three friends all nodded. "I'll go first then." He sat down in the top of the slide and waved at his friends. Quickly enough, he disappeared down the pipe.
"Shall I go next?" Hermione asked when a loud crunch sounded from the pipe. Ron and Astrid both nodded. Hermione jumped in the pipe and disappeared.
"Ready then, chica?" Ron asked. Astrid smiled up at him and nodded. Ron climbed into the pipe and sat down. He turned and held his hands out to the girl. She stepped over to him and allowed him to pick her up and deposit her in his lap. He wrapped his arms around her waist and she clamped her hands on top of his.
"Ready," Astrid said. Ron moved his feet in a walking motion down the pipe. After only a few steps, the pair were pushed flat on their backs and they rocketed down the slide. Astrid screeched loudly.
"THIS IS GREAT!" she yelled. Ron tried to ignore the scraping sensation of his back grating on stone of the slide. Before they knew it, they both shot out onto a pile of dried bones. Ron acted as a cushion for Astrid, so the bones didn't affect her at all. She bounced to her feet and ran over to Hermione and Harry.
"Wow that was fun! Are we under the school now?" Astrid asked. The two fifth years solemnly nodded as Ron stumbled to his feet. He began picking bone chips off of the back of his robes and out of his hair. Astrid looked around the slimy, damp tunnel.
"Last occupant wasn't much of an interior decorator was he?" she asked, kicking a small pile of bones towards the wall.
"The last occupant was a giant bloody snake," Ron mumbled. Astrid's jaw dropped and she looked up at the tallest fifth year.
"We're in the Chamber of Secrets," she said without a question in her voice. She ran her hands over her hair and all around the tunnel once more. Ron rolled his shoulders experimentally and pushed his hair back form his eyes.
"No Astrid," Harry said. "We're in the OTHER secret chamber under the school that only I can open from an entrance in the girls' bathroom that is inhabited by a ghost who was killed by a basilisk.
"Shut up," Astrid muttered. She glared at Harry from under the fringe of her hair.
"Actually, we're in the tunnel leading to the Chamber of Secrets," Harry corrected. Astrid nodded.
"So we're down here why?" she asked.
"To clean so we'll have a place to work on our Animagus transformations," Hermione explained. "Where should we start?"
"Cushioning the landing area," Harry and Ron chorused.
"Can we make it really smushy?" Astrid questioned.
"If we get all of the rat bones out of the way we can," Harry said. He reached down and picked up a handful of bones.
"Ooooh, Harry, put those down!" Hermione screeched. "They can't be sanitary!"
"How else do you plan on moving them then?" Harry questioned. Hermione pulled out her wand and pointed it at the pile of bones.
"Step back," she instructed. He joined Ron and Astrid against the wall behind Hermione. Hermione waved her wand in a relatively simple movement and muttered a spell. The bones quickly sprang into a neatly bundled bale.
"How's that?" she asked.
"Teach us!" both of the boys insisted.
"Do you think I could learn?" Astrid questioned.
"Do you know the cleaning spell Snape uses for cauldrons?" Hermione asked. Astrid nodded.
"I work in front of Nathan Longbottom in Potions. We'd all be dead by now if I didn't know it," she said.
"You use that on the floor and walls while the boys and I bale the bones and other debris," Hermione instructed. Astrid nodded and Hermione set about teaching the boys the bailing spell. Astrid busied herself with the floor at the bottom of the slide.
"What are you doing?" Ron asked. He and Harry had mastered the bailing spell and had attacked the bones with a vengeance. Astrid stepped about a meter away from the wall just in front of the base of the slide. She jumped straight into the air. When she came back to the floor, it dented in to accommodate her weight before flinging her back into the air.
"Like yours and Mandy's mattress," she explained, still bouncing on the floor. At the mention of his girlfriend, Ron instantly turned bright red.
"Why so red?" Astrid questioned. "Have you and Mandy used the mattress?" If Ron had gotten any redder, steam would have poured form his ears.
"Not sure you want to know the answer to that," Harry laughed. Ron's face paled a bit and he turned to glare at his best friend.
"Don't listen to him," Ron instructed. "He's just jealous that he hasn't gotten anywhere past snogging with Hannah." Astrid bounced so hard her head almost banged into the ceiling.
"So you have been doing naughty things with Mandy!" the little girl squealed. She raised her eyebrows twice at her friend.
"No!" Ron insisted, way too loudly and quickly for him to be telling the truth. A derisive snort form Harry and a half-stifled laugh from Hermione further weakened his argument.
"That's none of your business!" Ron cried.
"It's certainly not," Astrid agreed. "So speaking of naughty things done on mattresses, has your mum had her baby yet, Hermione?"
"Thank you, Astrid, for the mental image the phrasing of that question provided," Harry said. Hermione shuddered visibly.
"Thank you, Harry, for bringing up mental images," she spat. "No, Astrid," she continued. "Little Weston Jr. isn't here yet."
"She's having a boy?" Ron questioned. Hermione shrugged. The stack of bales of bones steadily grew against one wall.
"I'm, hoping," Hermione replied. "She doesn't know yet, but she still thinks Jaquenetta is a perfectly acceptable name."
"Hey!" Astrid squealed. "If you have a sister and I have a brother, or the other way around, they could date!"
"Your father would have kittens!" Harry cried.
"I know!" Astrid said. "No offence to any of you, but I think the only thing that would be comparably as bad as a Muggleborn would be a Weasley or a Longbottom."
"That's," Ron paused for a moment. "Okay, marginally funny." Astrid grinned at the boy.
"And if my little sibling is a boy, which I hope it is, Lucius will like it, but he'll ignore a sister," Astrid said.
"Why do you want a brother?" Hermione questioned. "Wouldn't a sister be safer?" Astrid stopped jumping.
"A sister would be like they were trying to replace Barrett. It would be more upsetting than happy," she explained. She began following the fifth years down the tunnel. "Draco wouldn't like another sister at all!"
"How is Malfoy?" Ron asked. He paused to cast another spell while Astrid set about cleaning the walls. "Pretend I care."
"He seems to be doing better. I guess you guys noticed that his cast came off about three weeks ago and his arm is fine. He just finished up a series of five once a week sessions with Dumbledore, Snape and Madame Pomfrey to fix his bone density and yea," Astrid said.
"Is he going to be able to play in the match against Salem in April?" Harry questioned. Astrid watched as the walls slowly cleared themselves of years worth of slime and gunk.
"That's three weeks away. He's been training lightly with Slytherin for the last two weeks and he can come back to training with you guys full time now that his bone density is as close to normal as they're every going to get it," Astrid explained. "He's got clearance but it's ultimately Wood's decision."
"I never thought I'd say this," Harry said, "But good. As much as I hate Malfoy, he's a better keeper than Sanguinis and as long as we beat Salem fairly decently and Durmstrang doesn't beat Beauxbatons as badly as we did, we've got a shot at winning the league!"
"Really?" Astrid and Hermione chorused. Harry nodded.
"Random note," Ron said as they began trying to form a doorway of sorts in a pile or rocks. "This is where Lockhart lost his memory back in second year. Now back to Quidditch."
"Really," Harry replied. "Beauxbatons bean Salem 230-70. Durmstrang beat us 340-170. WE beat Beauxbatons 310-40, and Salem beat Durmstrang 150- 0 in a match that lasted 15 seconds."
"So we're leading the league right now," Ron said. He paused to heave a rather large rock out of the way for Hermione. "But only by 130 points, so we've got to kick Salem's butt and pray Beauxbatons can hold off those Durmstrang pricks to a score somewhere below 300 points. "
"You know Ron," Hermione said. "Your astounding ability to do math talking about Quidditch but never when it comes to school work amazes me." She moved a pile of rocks to her left to begin forming the side of a doorway
"Not funny, Hermione," Ron spat.
"What do you guys think of the new play Fred and George and Wood are coming up with?" Harry asked to avoid the impending fight between his best friends.
"The Annexation of Puerto Rico?" Hermione questioned. Harry nodded and swiped a hand across his forehead, leaving a streak of black dust in its wake.
"Well, I'd have an opinion if they'd tell us more than a name," Ron laughed. "Although the way they sit in a corner and cackle madly on the rare occasion is really quite unnerving." He moved a few more rocks to begin the right side of Hermione's doorway.
"Where did they come up with that name anyway?" Astrid questioned.
"There is a really long explanation but what it boils down to is they stole it from a movie," Harry explained Astrid nodded and began cleaning a rather large section of the floor that was covered in inch thick neon green slime mold.
"When do you think you'll get to use it?" she asked.
"Whenever its creators think its ready and teach it to us," Harry replied. "Probably against Salem."
"Too bad you don't have to play Slytherin again, I would love to see the look on my prat of a brothers face if the twins let them unleash it against his team," Astrid laughed. She had figured out how to make the slime mold roll up like a rug and was watching it's slow progress as she spoke.
"I thought you got along okay with your brother," Hermione said, looking down at the girl. She had a rather motherly, concerned air on her face.
"I was actually talking about the evil incarnate that's approximately the same age as me," Astrid replied.
"So chica, if he's evil incarnate and you spent nine months in the oven with him, what does that make you?" Ron questioned. Astrid smiled up at the boy, not missing a beat.
"An angel," she replied. "Or perhaps a saint." Ron snorted rather loudly, not bothering to hold in his amusement.
"Really man the oven?" Harry asked, looking over at his friend.
"If Arthur Weasley had given you the sex talk, you wouldn't know what to call it either," Ron muttered. "So Astrid, how do you figure you're the saint?"
"Draco's the moody one, Keiran's devil spawn, Emma's the quiet bookworm, and Barrett was the clown. The only logical step is for me to be the saint," Astrid explained. Harry joined in Ron's snorting laughter this time.
"But seriously guys," Astrid said when they'd calmed down a bit. "Who do you think attacked Draco?"
"Death Eaters," came Hermione's prompt reply.
"At Hogwarts?" Ron questioned.
"It happens," Astrid and Harry chorused, thinking of Snape and Crouch, respectively.
"Besides," Astrid said. "I figured it was Death Eaters. Voldemort is going to kill us all. He's planning to transfer our power to Keiran but that won't work unless we're dead. I sort of meant do you think there was one or more than one. Are they students or did they sneak onto school property? How exactly did they go about doing it? Draco's not completely stupid, ya know." The three friends worked in silence for a moment as they all worked out their individual answers to the girl's questions.
"Quidditch," Hermione finally broke the silence. "The Death Eaters hid near the Quidditch pitch and got him after practice the day before when I was supposed to be having my lesson with Madame Pomfrey. If there was someone else with him, they probably put that person under the imperious to get rid of Malfoy's memory before he could come around in the hospital wing. Short of getting a record of all of his visitors from Madame Pomfrey and checking them for traces of the imperious, we'd be hard pressed to ever figure out who did this to him." Hermione's face had paled and she had stopped working on sealing the rocks together.
"You look like you've seen a ghost, Hermione," Ron said. He, too paused work, to look at his friend. "It's just Malfoy after all."
"You didn't see him when he came in, Ron," Hermione spat. She turned back to the wall and looked down at the floor. Her next statement came out as something of a whisper. "You didn't see him."
*****
"Lollie, can we get ice cream after we go ta tha park?" Tallulah asked. She looked up at her sister through crystal blue eyes ad tugged on the older girls hand as she spoke.
"Maybe if you're good," Laurelai replied. She reached over and brushed a stray piece of sandy blonde hair out of the tiny girls face.
"Lollie," Tallulah continued. "I'm cold."
"Tallulah, you know ma needs to take care of Brady so we're going to the park," Laurelai said. Tallulah nodded and skipped a bit, still holding tightly to Laurelai's hand. Laurelai turned to make sure the door to her flat was locked before turning back to her three-year-old sister. Their mother needed time to tend to two-year-old Brady as their muggle father tended not to approve the use of healing spells on his children. Brady simply had the flu. Laurelai had volunteered to baby-sit Tallulah for a few days because of all of her sisters, Tallulah, being the youngest, was the hardest to take care of. Five-year-old Tara and seven-year-old Greer were fairly self sufficient as long as nine-year-old Edana and 10-year-old Saoirse were around. No one could handle Tallulah quite like Laurelai though. Of course, at 22, she figured she would be quite capable of taking care of her second youngest sister, especially after the other six. Besides the four middle-aged sisters, a brother and a sister attended Hogwarts, Tallulah was number seven, Brady made eight, and oldest brother Connor was number nine. Laurelai rounded out the number to an even 10.
"Lollie?" The tug on her hand made her snap from her thoughts. "Lollie, I forgot my cloak and it's cold outside."
"Don't worry, Lu, we can get it." Laurelai turned herself and her sister around in the narrow hallway and walked back towards the door to her flat.
"Lollie, I heared a popping noise," Tallulah whispered as the pair stopped at the door of the flat. She was suddenly very still and equally quiet.
"I didn't hear anything, Lu," Laurelai replied as she jammed the key into the lock.
"Lollie," Tallulah hissed.
"Lu, this is an old building, it makes funny noises sometimes," Laurelai said. The younger girl didn't look the least bit reassured. Laurelai pushed the door open and stepped into the living room of the small flat, Tallulah in tow.
"Well what do we have here?" An unfamiliar male voice asked from the center of the room. "Back so soon?"
"What are you doing here?" Laurelai asked, eyeing the masked, black- robed man standing in the center of the room. She eased backwards towards the door, making sure Tallulah was fully behind her. The man produced a wand from inside his robes. He flicked it quickly, causing the door to slam shut.
"Initiation," the man replied. "At least in part." Laurelai slowly reached fro the front right pocket of her jeans, where her wand was.
"Don't bother, Laurelai," the man said. Laurelai quickened her motion.
"Avada Kedavara," the man muttered, almost lazily. The bight green light caught Laurelai in the center of her chest. She crashed to the ground, crumpling onto herself like a rag doll.
"Lollie!" Tallulah shrieked. She flung herself at her older sister.
"Don't bother," the Death Eater laughed. He quickly branded a dark mark on the door so they would know who was responsible when they found the body of the muggle loving bitch.
"Lollie," Tallulah sobbed. She lay completely on top of the older girl's body, crying into her sister's hair.
"She's dead," The Death Eater laughed. "And you're coming with me. If the Dark Lord can't use you for any rituals then we can just kill you later." He plucked the three-year-old off her dead sister and gave Laurelai a swift kick in her ribs. Tallulah struggled against the man so he caught her left hand in his and applied pressure to her pinkie until he felt the bones snap. Tallulah wailed. The death eater quickly apparated away, but not before a neighbor heard Tallulah's shriek.
*****
"Do you think we'll actually get to go inside next time?" Astrid asked, as she, Harry, Hermione and Ron walked back towards the common room.
"Did you smell it?" Ron questioned. I'm not sure I want to go in!" the group had stopped short of actually entering the chamber, as the smell of rotting snake carcass had overtaken them before Harry could open the door.
"I'm wondering what we're going to do with the thing," Harry said. "You can't even begin to imagine how bloody huge it is."
"Can too," Hermione insisted. "Spent months in second year petrified because I saw it!"
"You mean these two solved a mystery without you?" Astrid asked. She practically skipped a few steps ahead of the fifth years.
"Nope," Hermione laughed. "Stole my research out of my stone cold hand while I was out of it in the hospital wing."
"They didn't!" Astrid screeched. She looked appalled at the two boys. Hermione nodded while Harry and Ron looked properly sheepish.
"Password, dears," the portrait said.
"Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. The place for all of your joking needs," Astrid recited.
"Shameless, really, how they've taken to advertising with the passwords," Hermione muttered as they crawled inside the room. The eerie silence hit the quartet almost as soon as the portrait clicked shut behind them. They scanned the room.
Alicia and a group of first years sat in the back corner. Jason, Sawyer and Nathan sat in front of the fire looking unusually somber and more than slightly bewildered. Ginny and Jae, both looking slightly teary eyed, sat on a couch on either side of a very distraught and silently weeping Parvati and a sobbing Lavender A pile of entangled bodies in a corner diagonally opposite the first years looked like the seventh years were having together time. Finally, in the corner across from the seventh years, Seamus leaned facing the joining of the walls. He had his arms braced over his head to support his weight. Dean and Kyle Burns stood to his right and left, respectively. Each boy had an arm on the wall and the other hand on one of Seamus's violently shaking shoulders. Neville sat about a meter away from them on the floor. Muffled sniffs and whispers punctuated the air at odd intervals. Ron's eyes didn't get any further than the seventh years before his mouth decided to open.
"Why does everyone look like someone has died?" he asked. He tried to be quiet about his statement but nonetheless; half of the room heard him.
"YES!" Jason exclaimed. Those who hadn't heard Ron heard Jason and turned to look at the boy.
"What?" He asked, shrugging his small shoulders. "I'm finally not the one who gets the extremely icky experience of gnawing on my foot!" Ron was so busy staring at the first year that he didn't notice Seamus until the Irishman had jumped on him and forced him to the ground.
"You bloody, Snape-feckin son uv a bitch!" Seamus screeched as he repetitively pounded his fist into Ron's face. Ron was so caught off guard that all he could do was struggle to keep his arms over his face so they more than his nose could absorb Seamus's blows. Dean and Kyle made no move to stop Seamus. Prefects Harry and Hermione were too busy trying to figure out why Ron's statement had caused such a reaction in Seamus to pull the boy off their friend.
Suddenly, Ron gained a bit of leverage and rolled himself and his attacker towards the fireplace. Sawyer had enough presence of mind to put out the fire before jumping out of the way. The pair rolled to a stop on the hearth. Ron ended up face down with Seamus straddling his back. Seamus sank his hand into Ron's hair and pulled his head backwards, up off the floor. He quickly fell forward, letting Ron's face take the full force of his fall. Ginny screamed as blood exploded from Ron's nose. Seamus pulled Ron's head back up and started towards the stone hearth again. Harry ripped his glasses form his face and pitched them at Hermione. Hermione was so surprised that she dropped her wand to catch the glasses. She had been fully prepared to end the ridiculous fight.
With a roar, Harry dived at Seamus's back. He hit the Irishman, who was still holding onto Ron, with such a force that all three rolled farther towards the corner Seamus had started in.
Dean, sensing the odds were suddenly not in Seamus's favor, dived into the fray with a flurry of dreadlocks and a cry of "VIVA!" No one was sure exactly what he wanted to live because a fist to his jaw cut off his sentence. The boys moved more towards the corner. Before Neville could move out of the way, someone landed a stray kick on his knee and he tumbled directly into the pile of thrashing limbs.
Kyle's sense of fair play kicked in. He stepped over and allowed himself to be sucked into the fray, telling himself that he was doing it solely to save Neville. Ron rose out of the fight and released an animalistic roar. He swung his head violently from left to right, slinging blood over all of the spectators. None of the girls moved to stop the brawl, but rather watched it with all of the fascination of muggle spectators at the scene of a car wreck.
Hermione was nearly taken into the mess as two identical Weasley's rushed past to aid their brother and surrogate brother in the four on two odds.
"I know Kung Fu!" Came Lee's only warning as he followed his best friends directly into the fray.
"Seamus's sister," Sawyer answered Astrid's unanswered question.
"Karey?" Astrid asked brightly, not bothering to hide the ever-so- slightly hopeful look on her face.
"No," Sawyer said, but that was the only word he managed to utter.
"FREEZE!" Roared a magnificent voice from the doorway. They froze.
*****
The nine of them sat on a bench in the hallway outside Dumbledore's office. Ron sat on the complete left. His nose had gone to roughly the same size and color as a purple tennis ball. Both of his eyes were turning rapidly black form the nose injury. A large fist shaped bruise formed on his left cheek. The way he kept nervously touching the back of his head said Seamus had managed to remove a good portion of Ron's hair in his attempt to make sure Ron's face and he hearth were fully acquainted. Harry sat next to Ron sporting a swollen blackened left eye that wouldn't stop watering and a swollen left fist with ripped knuckles he'd received when he aimed for Dean's face but due to his lack of glasses, punched the floor instead.
Next to Harry, Neville had an ice pack held to his left knee and a handkerchief held to his right eyebrow to staunch the flow of blood from a cut that ran right through the feature. Lee was next in line. He held a dread lock in his hands and the way he kept looking down the bench at Dean suggested it wasn't his own. As the last participant in the fight, he had only managed to obtain a few bruises, a couple of scrapes and a particularly vicious set of five scratches down the right side of his face. The center three dribbled blood. Next to Lee, George seemed to be completely oblivious to his rapidly swelling left eye and totally interested in a mark on his left arm.
Fred tentatively ran his fingers over his severely busted lips. He reached a spot where he thought he'd felt his teeth actually go through his lip and winced. Kissing Hermione was going to be the kind of fun that just wasn't.
Kyle's right shirtsleeve was missing entirely. He had claw marks to match Lee's running down his right bicep. His nose dripped blood at a fairly steady pace. Blood trickled down Dean's face from a patch just at his hairline. Lee had taken scalp when he'd pulled Dean's hair. His hand, like Harry's was bloodied but mostly because the Weasley twins were just too damned fast to hit.
Seamus, the bench's final occupant, looked nearly as bad as Ron. When Harry had tackled him, Seamus's face under Harry's weight had skied across first the hearth, then the carpet. His left cheek and the majority of his nose and forehead was completely void of skin, first from scrapes, then carpet burn. One of his teeth felt loose and he had quite the distinct feeling someone had landed a knee, foot, elbow or fist in an area where the sun didn't shine. All nine of them were covered in scratches and slowly forming bruises.
A smoking flash went off just in front of the boys. Ron rose to go after the person holding the camera but Harry grabbed him by the back of his shirt and pulled him back to the seat. Colin ran around the corner, camera clutched tightly in both hands.
"You're probably in enough trouble already," he muttered.
"And if you went after Colin Creevey every time he got on your nerves, he'd probably be dead already," Fred added. Ron leaned around Harry and glared down the bench at Seamus. Harry smashed his good fist into Ron's right knee, causing Ron to turn his glare on Harry.
"What was that for?" he hissed.
"To keep you from jumping into something that you could really get in trouble for. Right now you're probably the most innocent one of the entire group and I'd hope you'd fancy staying that way for once," Harry replied. Ron instantly looked down at his feet, rubbing the spot on his knee Harry had just punched.
"What do you have to say for yourselves?" a voice from just in front of the boys said. All nine looked up to see the severe form of Albus Dumbledore looking down on them, flanked by McGonagall. The boys remained silent for a moment. George finally spoke up.
"Someone fights like a girl!" he announced. "I've been bitten and Lee over there has claw marks down his face." McGonagall glared at the younger twin while Dumbledore had to bite back a laugh. George glared down the bench at Kyle, Dean, and Seamus.
"Don't look at me," Kyle insisted. "I got clawed just as badly as Lee did."
"Someone!" Dean cried with a very pointed look directly at Lee. "Pulls hair!"
"I suppose, boys, a better question would be why I found the lot of you rolling in the floor like you were in a barroom brawl in the middle of your common room when I came in to give one of your number some news," Dumbledore said. Eight of the number looked down the row at Seamus. He took a deep breath. Dean clapped his friend on his shoulder.
"I got an owl from my little sister Edana telling me that my older sister Laurelai had been killed and my littlest sister Tallulah was missing," Seamus began.
"So THAT'S what I said!" Ron cried. Dean, Seamus, and Kyle all glared down the row at Ron.
"Ron came in the common room and said 'Why does it look as though someone has died?'" Dean continued the story. "So Seamus sort of lost it and attacked him."
"I didn't realize someone actually had died!" Ron said, quite sheepishly. He had gone pale under his quickly purpling nose. Tears trailed down Seamus's cheeks.
"Mr. Potter, you're a prefect, why didn't you stop them?" McGonagall asked, glaring down her nose at Harry.
"I think Hermione was planning on it, professor, but I threw my glasses at her and she dropped her wand," Harry replied.
"Why did you throw your glasses at Miss Granger?" McGonagall asked.
"Because Seamus was beating Ron's face into the hearth," Harry said.
"So you decided to go to your best friend's aid," McGonagall assumed. Harry nodded and looked down at his torn hand.
"Then what happened?" Dumbledore asked. He had a merry twinkle in his eye that suggested he was slightly amused by the boys' tale.
"It wasn't bloody fair that Harry AND Ron were fighting Seamus," Dean said.
"So you jumped in," Dumbledore guessed. Dean nodded. He, too, looked down at his bloodied fist.
"I got pushed in," Neville declared. "When Dean jumped in they all rolled into me and I just fell." Dumbledore smiled benevolently at the boy. Kyle looked up at the headmaster.
"Someone had to save Neville!" he said.
"So you went on a rescue mission," Dumbledore said. Kyle nodded with a smile.
"Gryffindor Bravery and all," he said. McGonagall's face, if possible, became more severe.
"What about you three, then?" Dumbledore asked, looking at the twins and Lee.
"Four on two isn't what you'd call fair odds," Fred announced.
"So the three of you decided to even things up a bit." George and Lee both nodded.
"I know kung fu," Lee said with a bright smile. George reached over and smacked Lee lightly on the back of his head. He rubbed the spot and shook Dean's dread at George.
"Merlin Lee, that's nasty. Give Dean his hair back!" George insisted.
"No thanks," Dean said. "He can keep it." McGonagall coughed, catching all of the boys' attention.
"You mean to tell me that the majority of boys in Gryffindor tower above fifth year decided to brawl in the middle of the floor because the youngest Mr. Weasley said something stupid?" McGonagall asked.
"Like that's never happened before," Fred muttered. The rest of the group exchanged looks before nodding.
"That is simply the most absurd thing I think I've heard," McGonagall said. "I don't know where to even begin handing out punishments."
"Allow me, then," Dumbledore said. "I believe your house is in need of you. Both your council and your assistance in removing blood from the carpet." McGonagall nodded curtly and turned on her heel to head back towards Gryffindor tower. As soon as she turned the corner, Dumbledore looked back at the nine boys. He looked slowly from Ron to Seamus. Somewhere between Harry and Neville, he began chuckling and by the time his gaze fell on Seamus, he was howling with laughter. The boys exchanged nervous glances but none of them said anything.
"I must remember to ask Colin Creevey for a copy of the picture he inevitably took," Dumbledore muttered as his laughter subsided. He looked at the boys. "Now then. Ron, did you have prior knowledge of Seamus's family situation before you made the comment you made before you made it."
"No sir," Ron replied. "We had just gotten back from." Harry's elbow to his side cut off his sentence before he could give them away.
"We had just gotten back to the common room, sir," Harry said.
"Seamus, why did you attack Ron?" Dumbledore asked.
"I thought everyone had heard Karey screaming for me when she got the owl from Edana. She was rather loud, and I just didn't think that Ron possibly wasn't in the room and didn't know what was going on," Seamus said. "So when he said what he did, I lost it."
"In my defense, the first upset person I saw was Lavender and I thought she was crying because her boyfriend had dumped her or something. I didn't even see Seamus or Karey before I opened my fat mouth," Ron said.
"I think I'm the one with the fat mouth here," Fred muttered.
"Seamus, Ron, step up here for a moment," Dumbledore said. The pair struggled off the bench and walked over to the head master. Dumbledore placed his right hand on Ron's left shoulder and his left hand on Seamus's right shoulder and turned the boys to face each other.
"When I step away and let you go, it is your opportunity to finish the fight in the manner you see fit. I will ask the rest of you to stay seated, as this is between Mr. Weasley and Mr. Finnegan. Ready?" Dumbledore asked. Both boys nodded. Dumbledore released their shoulders and took two steps backwards from the pair. Seamus didn't move. He simply eyed Ron stonily and waited for the attack he expected. Ron took two steps towards the boy. Seamus steeled himself for the punch Ron was about to throw. Ron reached up and ran his fingers lightly down the bridge of his nose. Seamus's eyes closed and he turned his head towards the floor. Tears still leaked from under the lowered lashes.
Ron pulled his right arm back next to his shoulder and lunged towards Seamus. He tossed his arm around the smaller boys shoulders and clapped him twice on his back in a rough hug.
"I'm sorry," he said. Seamus sniffed loudly and Ron stepped back from him. "I didn't mean it man."
"I smashed your face into the hearth and you're not going to pound me now that you have the opportunity?" Seamus asked. Ron shook his head. He clapped Seamus on his shoulder again and stepped over to retake his seat next to Harry. Seamus collapsed on the bench next to Dean. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. He lay his forehead on the palms of his hands so no one could see his face. The other eight boys tried to ignore the fierce shaking his shoulders were doing.
"Congratulations boys, you just brought yourselves and your friends immunity from the two weeks of detention with Filch that is the punishment for brawling," Dumbledore announced. The boys looked relieved, but Dumbledore continued.
"However, you are not getting way from this without punishment. None of you will magically alter your injuries. Seamus, I shall allow you to mask yours so you don't have to tell your parents when you go home for the funeral. However, the rest of you, if you magically heal yourselves, you will serve three weeks of detention with Mr. Filch," Dumbledore said. The boys still looked relieved, though Ron did tentatively run his fingers across his nose.
"You may go back to the common room and assist in cleaning up the mess the nine of you made."
*****
"Malfoy," the familiar silky voice issued from the shadows. Draco didn't even jump, but merely looked up from his potions homework.
"Borgin," he said. Contessa slid into the empty chair at the other end of the table where Draco worked. Her long hair hung loose over her shoulders and she wore a dark forest green sweater that looked to be hand knitted and black skirts.
"Do you have information for me?" he asked.
"Do you have payment for me?" she questioned. Draco reached into his bag and pulled out three books.
"My little sister stole them from father's library," he explained as he laid them on the table. Contessa tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and pulled at one of the bangles on her wrist.
"He's a seventh year Quidditch player, not a prefect, not a Slytherin," Contessa said. She eased out of her chair and reached for the books.
"No name?" he asked.
"Oh, I know a name," she replied. She tucked the books under her arm and slid back towards the shadows. "You didn't pay for a name."