Chapter Thirty-Four: Spy


Peter Pettigrew's fall from grace was one widely known in the Wizarding World. After the first war, he had gone from a beloved member of the Marauders to the poor, heroic boy who had died trying to stand up to Sirius Black. In the second war, his role as Voldemort's spy had been revealed, and he had become known as the traitor that he truly was.

Few knew how Peter Pettigrew's life had ended. Most believed that he had simply died in the Final Battle, his body lost to the wreckage or one of the creatures that Voldemort had had fighting for him.

Uncle Ron had told us his true fate when James and I begged him for a scary story while he was babysitting. He never had been able to tell his godson no. Uncle Ron had changed names and made the story less gruesome than it likely was, but there had still been enough there for me to figure out the truth.

In all honesty, he had probably assumed that we were too young to even remember the story. In fact, I didn't think that James did. It had stuck with me, however, especially after I figured out who the story was about.

Though the man had been responsible for the deaths of my grandparents and had been the reason that Sirius Black spent most of his adult life in prison, a small part of me had always felt badly for him. Being strangled by the limb that was, for all intents and purposes, his own must have been terrifying. I couldn't imagine the sensation of my own arm moving against me, like the worst sort of imperious curse, for he was aware of what was happening the entire time.

Uncle Ron had ended the story by claiming that death was the only sort of ending that was fair for a spy who betrayed the people who were supposed to be his friends. Bravery was not what you did in the absence of fear, he said, but rather what you did when faced with it.


It was disturbingly easy to keep track of Max Holland.

He was everywhere that I looked. A part of me wondered if he was following me, as opposed to it being the other way around, but half of the time when I looked at him, I found him staring at nothing with a horrible, vacant expression on his face.

When he showed up in the corridor that I was patrolling one night, near the library but also not far from a staircase, I knew that I had caught him trying to fulfill his task. I wasn't sure if he was looking for a book or if he had been on his way to a different floor, but it was clear that he was up to something when I found him.

"Hey, Holland," I said softly as I approached him. Circe let out a soft growl, but quieted when I shushed her. Cooke was patrolling the other end of the corridor, and I knew that she would leave me alone for my shift, so long as nothing particularly disruptive happened. Her attitude towards me had almost completely dissipated throughout the year.

"Max," The boy corrected at once, his eyes tracking me as I drew closer. Any time that he truly looked at me, as opposed to simply looking straight through me as he was prone to do, the hairs on my arms all stood on end.

"What are you doing out?" I asked, ignoring his comment altogether. Circe wound herself between my ankles, forever keeping me from getting too close to the boy.

"I-" He looked nervous, though the expression still didn't properly reach his eyes. Nothing did but anger, it seemed.

"That's okay," I said, forcing myself to smile at him. It was probably unconvincing, but he didn't seem to notice as he returned the gesture. "I sneak out a lot too. I get it."

"You do?"

I nodded. "You don't want to get caught, though. Why don't you just come do my rounds with me and then we can go back to the Common Room together?"

He lit up like I had just given him a perfect O in all of his exams. As he turned his wide grin and vacant eyes on me, I was reminded strikingly of the clowns that decorated the haunted house mum and dad had once taken us to. It was there that we had discovered Al's crippling coulrophobia. None of us were upset when our parents suggested we forgo future haunted houses in favor of a scary movie night.

Holland was quiet. In all of the years that I had known him, it was never a word that I had associated with the boy, yet he hardly made a sound as I did my rounds. All of the Potter kids had learned to move pretty quietly in order to have even the slightest chance at getting away with anything in our house (between mum, who was the youngest of seven, and dad, who was an Auror, sneakiness was a well-perfected craft long before we ever came into existence, so they knew all the tricks), yet Holland was practically a ghost at my side. When my shift ended nearly three hours later, I actually jumped when he spoke.

"You should go first. I'll give you enough time to get your boyfriend out of the Common Room before I come in. You know how he gets."

Hating the way that he spoke about Jay, I forced myself to give him a friendly smile and nod.

He was a spy. I was sure of it. All I needed to do was figure out what he was up to without letting him know that we were onto him. Jay would want me to find someone else to do it, and I knew it. The problem was that Holland didn't seem to have any friends. Anyone else making an effort to keep an eye on him would be noticed at once. We would need far more people to keep a proper eye on him than we had at our disposal, so I was the only real option.

I bid Jay a goodnight, wondering how Holland knew that the boy stayed up to make sure I made it back from my shifts most nights. He must have had to learn the schedule of everyone who stayed out late in the Common Room in order to plan when he would sneak out without anyone noticing him doing it with the frequency that he would need for whatever his task was.

As I lay in bed, I tried to think of what he could possibly be up to. Was his task to find something in the library, or was his placement there happenstance?

Whatever it was that Holland was doing for the Minister, I was determined to stop him. I was tired of feeling like I was unable to do anything useful. If Max Holland had been given a task to fulfill, I was going to make sure that he was unsuccessful.


Coleen grabbed my arm a few weeks into the semester, tugging me into a secret corridor without so much as a hello. I had been coming back from the Room of Requirement, having finally thought to check the room for the book that I was after. It turned up with the "Out of Order" room, which was incredibly infuriating, as I knew that the book had once existed in the room, but must have been destroyed by the fire.

I tried to put on a happy face as I stared at Coleen, not wanting to take my frustrations out on her. She had clips in the shape of constellations in her golden hair, the little stars twinkling at odd intervals, and she had twisted the sleeves of her jumper around her fingers in what looked to be a nervous gesture after letting go of my wrist.

"I need your advice," She said, her eyes wide and pleading. I watched as she pulled the camera that my twin had sent her from her bag, the wrapping paper still half on it. "I told him thank you, but I didn't know what to say past that."

"You don't really have to say anything," I told her, eyeing the paper that I had worked so hard to make pretty for her. The charm was fading, the paper meant to have been thrown away long before the ugly pattern that it had originally been resurfaced.

"No, I do. Phoenix, I like James. A lot. I just don't know how to tell him that without making it seem like I'm indecisive or that he won me over with a gift. I was going to tell him over the break, when I came by your house, but then this came in the mail and now I don't know what to do."

I watched the pretty blonde run her hands through her hair, envious of the way that her fingers ran right through the strands and still left her looking flawless, though she nearly knocked three of her clips free.

"Col, calm down a bit. If you tell James that, he'll believe you. Just tell him that you were already planning on confessing your feelings for him and let him know that you haven't changed your mind about the boy that he was a few years ago, but rather that the man he is now warrants a second glance, and that you like what you've found. He'll like that, Col. You know he will. You've been torn up about my brother for a year at this point. Just go tell him what I think you've known for a while now. James is mad for you, Coleen. I promise you that this will be nothing but good news for him."

She bounced forward, gripping my face and pressing a kiss to my cheek before I could react.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," She said, the words rapid-fire. "Oh Merlin, thank you for not hating me for being flakey, indecisive, and absolutely hopeless at talking to your brother. I promise you that I didn't make this decision lightly. If James wants to date me, I'm giving this 100%."

I laughed lightly, pulling the anxious and excited girl into a hug. "I know, Col. If I thought that you were anything but sincere, you would most certainly not have my blessing in this. Now, are you good, or do you need to practice what you're going to say or something?"

She giggled, fixing a clip in her hair that slipped out of place. "I think I'm just going to go with 'hey, I know that I told you thank you for the gift, but I probably came across as ungrateful because I wasn't even half as sincere as that sort of a gift deserved. The truth is that I was afraid to seem too happy about the gift because I didn't want you to think what I've been trying to tell you for months was caused by it, because it's not. When I turned you down a year ago, it was because you really weren't someone that I could see myself being in a committed relationship with. That being said, you've matured a lot in the last year, and I'm really impressed by the person you've become. I really like you, James. You're someone that I respect greatly, and I love spending time with you. It would make me the happiest girl alive if you would please be my boyfriend.' What do you think?"

I blinked at her, feeling a bit dumbstruck. There was a beam of light that fell across the center of her face at an angle, lighting up one of her amber eyes as she waited hopefully for my response. I watched as she twisted her hands, which were clasped nervously together, around for a moment before finally saying, "If you had that in you, why on Earth did you need my help?"

She snorted, her face instantly brightening as she picked up on my approval. "I only came up with that because of your help!"

"That is not what I said. I'm not even half as graceful with words as I would need to be to have come up with that."

Coleen was grinning as she pressed another kiss to my face-making me let out a rather embarrassing squawk of indignation-before darting towards the exit to the corridor. I barely had time to call the eager girl to a halt before she disappeared from view.

"Col?"

"Yeah, Phoe?"

I shook my hands out a bit anxiously as I considered how to word my request. Her eyes tracked the gesture, but I spoke before she could ask me what had caused it.

"Please, for the love of the gods, don't make out with my brother in front of me. I really don't care what you do anywhere else so long as I don't have to hear about it, but I don't ever want to have to think about my brother doing that sort of thing again-particularly not with someone that I actually like and plan on conversing with very regularly."

"You've never liked any of the girls he dated before?" She asked, not seeming bothered by my bringing up James's past (much to my relief, as I had tried to do so delicately for fear of upsetting her).

"No. More so than that, none of them have ever been even friendly with me, let alone one of my good friends. Just, please-"

Coleen gave me a blinding smile. "You're one of my good friends too, Phoenix. I'm not big on romantic PDA. Plus, I know that you and Jay are respectful of James, so of course we'll extend that same respect to you. If he says yes, that is."

"He will, but you've got to ask him first," I laughed, shooing her with my hands as I spoke.

She grinned, her blonde hair whipping around in the gloom as she sprinted out of the corridor.

"Wish me luck!" She called over her shoulder.

"You won't need it," I chuckled to myself, knowing she was already gone.

Though Coleen was the subject of many a jealous glare that night at dinner, she didn't take her eyes off of my twin long enough to notice. It was hard to figure out who was happier as the two gave each other lovesick grins and giggled their way through the meal.

"That's amazing," Jay said cheerfully as James pressed a kiss to his new girlfriend's cheek. "James finally has a girlfriend that we can stand to be around."

I laughed at his words, though they were true.

"She's still a giggler," Freddy said, though his tone indicated that he was joking.

Roxy snorted, lightly smacking her brother on the arm as she tried to keep from spraying juice across the table. Taylor patted her on the back, surpassing a grin of her own.

"I think we're doing an adequate job of stealing the decent Ravenclaws," Lucy joked, her smile widening when both Roxy and Taylor grinned at her for the comment.

"Oh, is that our plan?" Lorcan asked curiously, though the corner of his mouth was quirked upwards as half of the table turned a wide-eyed glance on him, clearly not realizing that he was joking.

He and Lily had come to sit by us for the evening, content to let the lovebirds have a bit of space for the duration of the meal. Lysander and Alice were further down the table, though I noticed Alice repeatedly glancing at my sister. Lily had just received a letter from Dr. Lewis days prior, and I knew that she was waiting for the perfect opportunity to show it to her best friend.

"Yep. We're counting on you to snag the next one, so you'd better make it snappy," I teased, watching the boy give me a small smile. "We're padding our ranks with brilliance."

"Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure, but you don't always find it where you expect," He shrugged in response.

I laughed, ignoring the baffled looks that half of the table was now giving us. "Oh, you're fun. Sparky, bring the boy around more often, will you?"

"Aye aye, captain," She said. We both giggled when she gave me a mock salute, with me whistling the two-toned call that the crew of the Diaboli occasionally used to sound off after near disasters in the triangle back in response.

A girl in a Hufflepuff tie flicked a spell at Coleen's back as she left the Great Hall, looking baffled when it bounced aside harmlessly. She scanned the table until her gaze locked with mine. I waved mockingly, giving her a cold smile as her eyes widened. She had just made herself my next target, and, unfortunately for her, I was planning on using her as a warning for anyone else that planned on trying to hex my twin's new girlfriend.

"Feeling up for a prank, Freddy-dearest?"

I knew without looking that his gaze was probably trained on the girl as she hurried out of the room.

"Mind if I join?" Lily asked, her fingers tapping the table as she stared at a group of Ravenclaws who were whispering to each other, occasionally pointing at Coleen.

"I could be of help as well, I think," Roxy said, her smile wicked. When we made eye-contact, she tapped first the side of her head, then her ear, and I knew that she was using her abilities to get a feel for who might be making the list of future prank-ees.

"Same," Nikki said firmly from Roxy's left side.

"I've always wanted to see how you two get the magic to work for your pranks," Taylor said thoughtfully from Roxy's right.

"It wasn't this bad when we started dating," Jay muttered in my ear, his eyes on the new couple.

"Teddy was always Vic's as far as everyone was concerned. I was always yours. With James though, every girl outside of our group could convince herself that he could be hers. It's not about my brother at all; he's just the prize, and they think Coleen's the only thing that's keeping them from getting it."

He let out a small noise of disgust, turning his gaze on the same group of girls that Lily watched. "In that case, I'd like to help."

"I've got nothing better to do," Lucy shrugged. "Need another set of hands?"

"Two," Lana countered, then hastily added. "I mean me."

I laughed. "Yes, you both can help."

Lorcan grinned when I turned my gaze on him. "I'm good with the unexpected, if you're interested in that sort of thing."

"Nothing boring ever made an impression on anyone," I responded, finding myself completely adoring how much Lorcan reminded me of his mother. "The best line of attack is that which no one sees coming, after all."

"I quite agree."

We were a bit of a ragtag group, but I had a good feeling about our prank.

"What are you thinking, Nix?" Freddy asked, no doubt watching the smirk spread across my face.

"I think that we should give them a taste of fame. Just for a day."

Lorcan laughed, the sound one of such merry delight that no one ever would have suspected that he was helping to plan a mass-prank. "Let the fame-seekers understand what they're really asking for, preferably by involving cameras to give them a taste of what someone who lacks respect looks like when wielding a camera?"

"Oh," Roxy said into the silence that followed his words. "He is brilliant."

We drew stares as we all grabbed our things and left the hall, waving cheerfully at Coleen and James as we went.


The plan should have taken weeks to craft, but the attempted attacks on Coleen were constant. Both she and James caught on quickly, which helped to keep her from getting hit by anything. Still, with as frequently as the attempts were occurring, we knew it was only a matter of time before someone succeeded. As such, we were in overdrive. I even put my plans to keep such a close eye on Holland on the back burner, though I was around him enough that I still kept relatively good track of him.

"You are so distracted!" Minnie scolded one night during our weekly Animagus practice. "You'd better not be planning anything."

"I'm always planning something, Minnie," I responded, giving her a cheeky grin. It had been surprisingly easy to get proficient at telling the truth without giving myself away to my Headmistress.

She threw a wad of paper at me in response, but was less irritated when I asked her one of the questions that she had clearly been waiting for me to ask about my Animagus form. Each time I got one, I knew that it brought me one step closer to transforming.

"Can you do me a favor?" I asked her after another half hour of reading in silence.

"Not if it doesn't have to do with your Animagus studies," She said, glancing up at me under her glasses. Her brow furrowed as she undoubtedly took in the nervous look on my face. "What is it, Phoenix?"

"Will you read my Charms paper?"

It took her a minute to realize what I was asking. Then her face broke into a proud smile, one that made my chest swell.

"You finished it?"

I nodded, though I could hardly believe that it was true. The paper hadn't wound up taking all that long to write, but I had been so busy with everything else that I had only been devoting a few minutes here and there to it outside of my extra lessons with Professor Flitwick. Still, I had been doing the research on fluid spellcasting for years, so all of the little periods of time that I applied to my paper had finally been enough. "I wrote what I hope is my final draft over the break. No one else knows yet. I wanted you to read it first, and then I'm going to give it to Professor Flitwick. If he thinks it's good enough to send in and if it gets published, then I'll tell everyone else."

She beamed, coming around the desk to hug me tightly. "Oh, I'm so proud of you! Let me see it. And here, have a biscuit."

I grinned accepting the tin that she handed me in exchange for my paper. Trying to keep from fidgeting nervously, I finally decided to go back to my research while she read, so that I wasn't staring intently at her the entire time.

The room was silent for a very long time. When I grew too anxious to read, I read the titles of the books that lined her walls for probably the hundredth time, and then gazed out of the window when I got bored of that. Finally, Minnie began to shuffle my papers back into order. I risked a glance up at her, but found her expression unreadable.

"Let me know which volume they plan on publishing this in. I'd like to have at least four copies, so that I can hang one in each of my offices, one in my house, and have another to keep on hand to read."

I let out a squeal, rushing around the desk to hug her. She laughed when I hopped in place at her side after the embrace, entirely too excited to do anything but move. "You really think it's going to get published?"

"Any publisher would be a fool not to snatch this up the second it crossed their desk," She said firmly, shoving the parchment into my hands despite how I was waving them about. "Go run and take this to Filius right now. With the influence that he has in some of those journals, they might pick yours up as soon as he sends it in. You could be published in a few months, Phoenix. Go!"

I laughed, accepting the paper from her and grabbing my things as I ran from the room.

Professor Flitwick looked surprised to find me knocking on his door, but not displeased. When I handed him my paper, he read the entire thing in less than five minutes, had me fix two minor issues that he found with it, and then scrawled a letter to the publisher of his favorite journal. As his owl took off, I watched it go feeling like it took a bit of my heart with it.

I didn't object when the man demanded that we have a butterbeer to celebrate, though there really were a thousand other things that I should be doing.

Minnie wasn't even mad when our prank went off without a hitch the next day, with every girl and boy who had been attempting to torment Coleen being followed around by a pack of floating, flashing, talking cameras. They shouted moderately invasive questions all day long, multiplying every time the person in possession of them tried to do anything to Coleen. By the end of the day, most of the people with cameras following them wouldn't even look at the girl, which suited all of us just fine.

Professor Flitwick dropped a letter on my desk about a week later. My paper was still being reviewed, but the publisher suspected that it would be appearing in the journal no later than Easter.

After the prank was pulled off successfully and my paper was sorted, I turned my focus back on Max Holland.


He had taken to accompanying me on the rounds that I did by myself, always in the same eerie silence. I would find him lingering near the stairs, never able to provide a reason as to why he was there, and invite him to join me. Before too long, I truly wasn't sure if I was playing him, or if it was the other way around.

Some mornings I caught him sitting at the table scribbling onto pieces of parchment like his life depended on it. When I passed behind him, trying to see what he was writing, nothing on the paper was legible to me.

Finally, after nearly a month of walking around the school in silence, I spoke. If he would offer nothing useful, I would try to get him to slip up and tell me something. I would just have to be careful not to give him any information of my own in the process.

"I got swarmed by reporters at the Platform. Did you hear about that?" I asked him, hoping that he didn't question the choice in topic. It was one that I had come up with after a few weeks of carefully thinking it over. I needed to bring up the Minister, but do it in a way that didn't make Holland suspicious. Admittedly, I was a bit proud of coming up with the idea of mentioning the fiasco that followed Hastings's failed attempt at getting me to be his intern. It seemed like the perfect opening. "It was awful. They don't have any boundaries, you know?"

"Did they hurt you?" He asked, something crazed in his eyes as he turned to look at me. It was the first time that I had seen emotion in his eyes in a while, and I found that I liked it no more than I did the emptiness that his clear blue gaze normally held.

"N-no," I stumbled over my words at the look on his face. It was very quickly occurring to me that perhaps making conversation with him had been a bad idea. "I just…they're just annoying. They wanted to know about the internship thing."

"The what?"

I wondered if he was playing dumb, or if he really didn't keep up with the papers at all.

"The one that Minister Hastings-"

There was a brief moment not unlike the hair-raising sensation that occurred just before a lightning strike. My stomach rolled unpleasantly as every sense that I had screamed that I had just messed up. Holland stiffened, the only warning that I got before lightning struck. Then his eyes rolled back in his head as his entire body shuddered, his hands coming up to claw at his face. I couldn't stop the shrill shriek that escaped me, surging forward to try and help the boy. Circe wrapped herself around my ankles with a yowl, keeping me from getting too close.

"Don't say his name!" He howled, his voice guttural as his head snapped up to look at me. His eyes glowed a familiar shade of green as he spasmed, his voice becoming a dull rasp as he repeated the words over and over. "Don't say his name, don't say his name, don't say his name…"

I would take whatever consequence Cooke thought best for abandoning my post. Circe kept pace with me as I sprinted down the hallway, nearly falling on my face as I scrambled to get away from him as quickly as possible. The boy's cries continued until they faded into the distance.

"Let me in!" I gasped at the statue that guarded the Headmistress's office. For once, it listened, leaping aside to allow me entry to the tower.

I took the stairs three at a time, nearly plummeting to the floor on multiple occasions as I lost my balance. When I finally burst into the office, I was unsurprised to find it empty. I crossed the room to pound on the door to her quarters, the portraits giving me looks of shock and concern as I did so.

"Minnie!" I yelled, my voice strangled.

She was at the door in seconds, her eyes wide as she took in the state that I was in. It was clear that I had pulled her from bed, for she was dressed in nothing more than a long purple nightgown and had her hair pinned up in rollers. The hysterical need to laugh flashed briefly through me, gone as quickly as it had appeared.

"I messed up! I'm so sorry; I messed up! Oh my gods, I've blown everything. He knows, he knows, he knows!"

I doubled over, grabbing fistfuls of my hair as panic overtook me. My eyes were squeezed so tightly shut that I saw stars, though I could not recall making the decision to close them. Her hands gripped my shoulders, forcing me to stand upright.

"Phoenix!" She shouted, shaking me lightly. "What happened?"

"I was following him! He had a letter from Hastings! I thought he was a spy, so I wanted to keep an eye on him. He's been obsessed with me for years, even if he spent some of them obsessed with hating me, so I figured it would be easy. And it was easy, Minnie, it was so easy. Everyone has so much to worry about and I thought I could handle it, but I messed up! He's been so weird, but I thought he was just different because of what happened between us and everyone. I said his name though and his eyes-they glowed like theirs! He's not one of them, but his eyes glowed! He's going to tell Hastings that I saw him, Minnie! I blew it, he's going to kill me and then Jay-"

I cut myself off to vomit onto the ground beside me, unable to care as I undoubtedly got sick all over the floor of her office. Jay was wrong. There was no chance of me surviving the war. I was nothing more than a foolish, headstrong girl, who was going to get everyone that she loved killed with her incompetence. The tears started as soon as I fully realized what I had done. In dooming myself, I had no doubt doomed Jay as well.

Minnie was giving me a look of horror when I turned back to look at her.

"I'm sorry," I sobbed, the tears coming thick now. Hastings was going to kill me, and then Jay would have to take my place.

McGonagall surprised me by pulling me into a hug. Her arms rubbed my back gently even as one of her hands waved through the air beside my head, removing the smell of my vomit from the room.

"Who, Phoenix?" She asked once I had caught my breath a bit, though she still had not released me.

"Max Holland."

She let out a sigh, one so weary that I was forced to recall how much the woman had been through in her lifetime. How horribly guilty I suddenly felt, to realize that she was forced to rely on someone as flawed as me in this war. No doubt, were she the one spoken of by the prophecy, everything would have already been solved. Instead, I had done nothing but further complicate things.

"I would agree that you messed up," She said, making my stomach turn once again with guilt, "But the damage could be worse. Minister Hastings already suspected that you were one of the ones that he marked. Now, this has probably just confirmed you as someone he needs to keep an eye on. You have too much on your shoulders to be taking this stuff on alone though, Phoenix. Do you understand me?"

I met her eyes as she pushed back on my shoulders, giving me a stern glare. "I'm sorry, Minnie. I-"

"Do you understand me?"

"Yes."

"Good. Let me call Luna."

While she sent a patronus, I settled into one of the seats by the fire, letting Circe curl up in my lap. One of my hands shook where I ran it through her fur, the other pressed so tightly against my lips that I could feel my pulse beating furiously in my thumb.

"I'm probably going to lose my badge," I mumbled through my fingers. At Minnie's questioning look, I shrugged. "I was on duty when it happened. I left my post without telling Cooke or Sera-not that Sera does anything as headboy. That's all Cooke."

Her lips made one thin line as she pulled out a slip of parchment. When she was done scribbling on it, she called a house elf and asked him to take the note to Cooke.

"I told her that I called you here urgently and that I told you that I would take care of letting her know that you were leaving your post," She told me.

I let out a hollow laugh, my status as Prefect so unimportant to me in that moment, but knowing that McGonagall was doing anything that she could for me. "Thanks. That'll either get me off of the hook completely, or it'll get me back on her radar for favoritism. I do appreciate it, though. Thanks, Minnie."

Luna burst into the office a few minutes later, looking alarmed. I stayed quiet while Minnie explained the situation to her, staring into the fire and wondering if the Headmistress was correct, or if I could expect Hastings to find a way to arrange an accident for me in the near future. I doubted that he would do something so obvious that it would start the war, but there was no shortage of subtle things that he could do to get me out of his way.

"Phoenix?"

I glanced up at the women, waiting for them to ask me further questions about the night's events.

"Could we watch your memory of the incident?"

Though I had never pulled a memory before, I had read about it enough that I was pretty sure I knew what I was doing. When the silver memory came free of my mind, attached to the tip of my wand, I carefully set it into the pensieve. I was the first one into my memory.

It was odd seeing myself in third person. My voice sounded different than I expected, a bit higher than I had always thought.

We watched as I walked alongside Holland, finally deciding to attempt to start a conversation with him. I was the only one who didn't flinch when he began to shudder and twitch, though it was only now that I noticed the low keening noise that he made before he began to speak.

Luna and McGonagall looked thoroughly disturbed when we made it back to the Headmistress's office.

"You must keep your head down," Minnie instructed immediately. "And stay away from that boy. He's trouble, Phoenix. Hastings has clearly done something to him."

"Can we help him?" I asked, my voice soft. I already knew the answer to my question.

"We can help him no more than we can help ourselves," Luna whispered, though the look that she exchanged with the older woman made me suspect that the two would be trying to do what they could for Holland in at the very least a professional capacity.

The healer walked me back to my Common Room, hand occasionally brushing across my shoulder. I found myself watching the shadows as we walked, half expecting Holland to pop out of them, still mumbling eerily. Jay was waiting for me as usual, his face falling when he took in my expression.

"You're early. What happened?" He asked, his voice practically dripping concern.

If Minnie and Luna were wrong, if Hastings decided to do something about the events of the evening, I had doomed Jay to suffer my fate.

To my utter humiliation, I promptly burst into tears. Unable to stand the upset look on Jay's face, I wrapped my forearms around my head to cover my eyes. Jay didn't hesitate to bend down and pick me up, carrying me up the stairs to his dorm. There were a few people in the Common Room, who I could hear muttering as we left it, but we encountered no one on the stairs.

"Bug?" Through the crack in my arms, I could see Ben starting to get up off of the floor, where he and Arnold had been watching Jack and Don play chess.

Don was already up, hovering uncertainly as he tried to decide if he should come over or not.

I could feel Jay shake his head at them both. I tried not to feel as pathetic as I probably looked as Jay tucked me into his bed, pressing a kiss to my forehead before ducking out from behind his bed curtains to go mutter something to the group on the floor. When he came back, he silenced the curtains and crawled into the bed behind me, not even bothering to brush his feet clean like he normally did.

"What happened, Marigold?"

"Your feet," I said instead, trying to calm down a bit as the words came out slurred.

Despite the serious worry lining his face, a hint of humor crossed his expression as he slid over to the end of the bed to brush the bottoms of his feet off. "Better?"

"You tell me."

"Better. Now, Marigold, what happened?"

I let him settle into the spot beside me, wrapping an arm around my waist. He began to take my hair down when I buried my face in his chest.

"The day that I ran into Holland, he had a note from Minister Hastings."

Jay's hand froze in my hair.

"He had a task for him. I couldn't see what it was. With everything that's been going on, I thought it would be easiest if I just kept an eye on him. I messed up though, Jay. He's going to tell Hastings that I'm someone to keep an eye on. I set him off on accident and I just-"

"Phoenix, why didn't you say something?" Jay asked, aghast. There was nothing accusing in his tone, but my shame doubled at the words.

Because I don't want you trying to help, catching the Minister's attention, and getting yourself killed.

"Because I didn't want you to worry," I whispered instead of telling him my true thoughts. "It's stupid, I know that now, but I've already put so much on you…"

"I'd rather that than have you bear it alone! Marigold, we're partners. Let me carry some of the load for you. Merlin, Phoenix, your spine is going to snap under the weight on your shoulders. Do you even realize we have a Quidditch match in three days?"

"Four."

"No, Phoenix. Three. Today's Wednesday."

I wrapped my arms more tightly around him. "I'm really sorry, Jay."

"Don't be sorry. Just tell me next time."

At my nod, he moved to finish taking my hair down. Once it had tumbled free of its updo, curling over my shoulders and his chest, he began to rub my back gently. I knew that, should he continue doing so, I would find myself asleep within minutes. It was with great reluctance that I forced myself upright, running a hand under my eyes as I moved from the bed.

"It's just the guys. They won't care if you stay here," Jay said, gently wrapping a hand around mine in protest.

"I know," I gave him a soft smile. "I was just going to tell them that I'm okay."

He let me go then, following me out into the room. Everyone else had clearly gone to sleep, but our four friends were piled in Don's bed with a deck of cards. They looked relieved to see me.

"Bug, come help me beat these tossers!" Ben demanded at once, arms outstretched as though he could reach across the dorm to pull me to his side.

I laughed lightly, crossing the room to sit beside him at the foot of the bed. He held his hand out for me to see while Arnold dealt Jay in.

"Are you okay?" Ben asked me very softly. A large part of me was touched that he didn't bother disguising the question under another while he fished for details, as he normally would.

I noticed Don watching us out of the corner of his eye, his seemingly perpetual state of concern for me active as he waited to see what I said. He blushed when I smiled at him, but I made sure to speak a little bit louder than I needed to to address him as well when I responded to Ben.

"Yeah, I just had a bad night. Sometimes rounds are hard after the attack. Certain things make me think of it, you know?"

The words were actually completely true. Normally, the reminders came in the form of lightning when I wasn't paying attention, not Max Holland's glowing green eyes, but it was true all the same.

"I'm sorry, bug. Is that why Jay waits up for you?"

"I think so. Play this here," I tapped a card, letting him throw it in the deck before continuing. Jack groaned, whining that Ben was cheating, which was technically true. Still, we ignored him. "Can you do me a favor?"

"Anything for you."

"Can you find out what became of Ari Chang? Subtly, please. Like, no one even knows someone's looking, let alone that it's you."

"Give me a week, and I can tell you everything there is to know," Ben assured me, throwing another card in. It was a less risky move than I would have made, so I tapped the card I wanted him to use the next time his turn came around. He crinkled his nose, but the risk payed off.

"Thank you," I said earnestly.

"Like I said, anything for you, bug."


The semester seemed to go by very quickly after the incident. Holland drew some stares the next morning at breakfast, for he had managed to leave pretty severe marks when he clawed at his face. Jay gave the boy a wide-eyed glance before curling his arm more tightly around my shoulders.

"Set him off, huh?" Jay muttered in my ear, voice shaking with a strange combination of anger and what sounded like nausea.

"He didn't touch me. Just himself."

"Yeah, and he should consider himself lucky for that."

We won the match against Hufflepuff, which put us in the running for the finals. We were seated very nicely to win, and there were rumors that scouts would be at the match to see both Ben and Jay play, despite both only being sixth years. The idea of the two of them graduating made me panic slightly, for I wasn't sure how soon the war would begin and end, but I didn't want to spend a year without Jay, Ben, Nikki, Arnold, Don, and Jack. My mother's words over the break occasionally rang in my ears, reminding me of their looming final year.

I had Freddy and Jay help me figure out exactly how I wanted to approach Mrs. Malfoy about the book. We decided that it would be better to ask her and let her bring things up with her husband, as we had no idea how affected by Aunt Hermione's torture Mr. Malfoy still was. Despite knowing that we had worked out the best way to go about the conversation, I still found myself increasingly nervous to put the plan into action.

In order to make sure that the Malfoys were at our home at some point over Easter, I wrote to my mother asking her to invite them, the Longbottoms, and the Scamanders over when she was planning on having the Creeveys. It was, after all, Coleen's first visit to our home as James's girlfriend, so I suggested that having more of her friends that her boyfriend wasn't related to present would help the visit seem less intimidating. Mum was keen on the idea, and soon we had plans to have everyone by for dinner on the last Thursday of the break.

Lily was thrilled that Ali seemed eager to come. The two's friendship had blossomed again after their common interest was once again made prominent in both of their lives. Lily admitted that she had finally told Alice that she needed her to just be there for her, rather than wanting to be involved so that she could help her, and it had apparently gone well. Jay showed me a letter that he received about a month after the two girls began writing to Dr. Lewis that was nearly four pages of the man gushing over how brilliant my sister and her best friend were. He had already begun ironing out dates for them to come shadow him over the summer.

Additionally, Alice had apparently agreed to be put in contact with a Healer who wanted to work with Minnie, the Board of Education at Hogwarts, and several other current and former students on creating a curriculum that was more inclusive for disabled students.

I had pulled Ali and Lily aside after reading the letter to make the girls promise to let me read the research papers that they were bound to write in the future. They had blushed and giggled, swearing to send me one of the first copies before making me vow to do the same. I could only hope that I played off my own agreement well enough that they didn't suspect that they would hopefully be receiving a copy of my own research sooner than they likely thought.

It took another two weeks before Ben came to me with information on Ari Chang, his apologetic expression instantly clueing me into how the search had gone as he tugged me into a side corridor with a glare at something over my shoulder. The passageway was more dimly lit than the one that we had been in before, causing my gaze to dart around without my permission in order to ensure that we were alone.

Sometimes, there was nothing more embarrassing in my life than the fact that I couldn't even have the decency to be afraid of the dark-no, I had to take it a step further, and be afraid of bloody shadows. I dreaded the moment that someone noticed the way that my eyes always jumped to the shaded parts of the room and realized that it was with fear that I scanned them.

"Sorry, bug," Ben said, drawing me from my thoughts, "This guy barely exists even to my sources. All I can really tell you is that he graduated last year and went into the Spell Research and Advancement Department at the Ministry, but got released on dropped charges. Those records are completely wiped, so I can't tell you more than that. Now he works as Minister Hastings' personal assistant, which is weird considering that he got released from SRA on charges. Beyond that, nothing."

"That's okay; that was helpful. Thank you, Ben. I owe you one, okay?"

Ben gave me a grin, ruffling my hair affectionately. "I'll keep looking, but I'll be subtle, don't worry. And be careful promising me a favor. I'll collect."

I laughed, fear of the looming shadows that surrounded us fading as Ben helped me fix my hair almost as soon as he finished messing it up. "I know you will. Thanks, really."

As he wrapped an arm around my shoulders and walked me to my next class, it occurred to me that one of my favorite things about Ben was that, despite his need to know everything he possibly could about everyone, he never pushed me for answers unless he thought I was in trouble or was teasing me.

We had our meeting about our career choices at the beginning of February. Neville posted the schedule on the notice board in the Common Room, creating absolute chaos as everyone realized that they would need to figure out what they wanted to do so that they could determine which subjects they needed to go further in. My decision was easy, as I was still going with Quidditch as my future career, but Roxy surprised us all by panicking completely.

"I have no idea what I can do!" She gasped the next morning over breakfast, looking more and more distraught by the second. "I'm not good at anything!"

"That's a lie," Several people said at once.

"You're good with people," Nikki suggested, though she did not offer any specific ideas.

Freddy and I nodded, though he was giving me a look that said he did not know what to tell his sister to do with the rest of her life, should she ask him.

Taylor leaned over, resting a hand on Rox's arm. To my relief, she looked perfectly calm, waiting until Roxy met her gaze before giving her girlfriend a warm smile. "I think you should consider opening a business. You said that you like helping your dad with all of the shop paperwork, and you are really good with people. It will help that you've always got a good feel for what's going on around you."

"That's a great idea!" Lana said encouragingly.

"What kind of business could I even open?" Roxy asked, already seeming far calmer than she had minutes prior. I wondered if she had told Taylor about her abilities. "And no one say a joke shop, or I'll wring your neck."

"What about a shop that sells products that could be used in pranks?" James suggested with a smirk, dodging the piece of sausage that Roxy threw at him in response. Coleen flicked his bicep, giving him a faux stern look before squealing as he wrapped his arms around her waist and blew in her ear in response.

"You could open a bookstore," Freddy said, tone half-joking. "Phoenix and Jay would probably single-handedly keep you in business."

"What about a speakeasy?" I chimed in with a playful grin, imagining the look on my godfather's face if Roxy walked into his office and declared that she wanted to open a speakeasy. "Make it look like something harmless, like a bookstore, and then have a shelf where you speak a password to reveal the entrance to the bar."

"Wait, that's actually a really good idea!" Roxy gasped, leaning across the table to look at me. "A lot of places are transitioning to more hip, self-created drinks. The creation of them relies really heavily on Potions, which I'm actually decent at. Do you think people would actually want to go to something like that?"

"Are you kidding?" Taylor laughed, giving me a very approving look as she took my cousin's hand in hers. "A prestigious, hard to get into speakeasy? People will eat that up. Plus, you won't be able to open the liquor portion of it right away, so you can establish whatever store you decide to run as your front and then start dropping little hints when you get close to opening the bar."

"If you ran a bookstore, you could do bookmarks and charm just a few of them to reveal a little message about the speakeasy's opening," Jay suggested, looking very intrigued by the idea. "Maybe you could make it so that each person has to bring their bookmark to get in, rather than speak a password, at least for the grand opening?"

"Oh my god," Roxy said, beginning to grow excited. "Okay, I love this. What would I name it?"

"Tequila Mockingbird," I responded immediately, grinning widely when the suggestion got a few appreciative noises. She would, of course, have to consider if she wanted the bookstore to be named something that suggested the presence of the speakeasy or not, but I was entirely too proud of the pun to not at least offer it up.

"Olive or Twist," Don countered, meeting my gaze head-on when I turned to gasp at the suggestion. His expression was playfully challenging, making me grin a bit crookedly as I wracked my brain for another pun.

"Catcher in the Rye."

"The Master and Margarita."

Don whooped when I smacked my hand onto the table in protest. "That was my next one!"

He was giving me a look of intense apprehension as I debated if I was willing to make a really terrible pun simply for the sake of continuing. "...Jack-erwocky," I finally said.

"No!" He shouted, turning heads as he reacted with precisely as much horror as I had anticipated. His face then twisted in what had to be nearly the exact expression that I had been sporting only moments prior. "Firewhiskey and Ice."

A great groan went up from everyone who had been listening, though I personally thought my last suggestion had been worse.

"That's terrible," I cackled, leaning against Jay as I giggled. "Oh no."

"Oh my god, enough, please," James pleaded, though he was chuckling, "You're making my brain bleed with your nerdiness."

I was laughing so hard that I had to catch my breath before getting Roxy's attention, "Okay, but seriously, name the speakeasy something both alcohol and literary related, but I think you should name the actual bookstore-if you do choose to open a bookstore-The Secret Garden."

"Oh, I love you," Roxy crowed, clearly delighted. Nikki pulled out a spare piece of parchment, insisting that they make enough of a plan that Neville couldn't argue with Rox's new career path. Taylor began suggesting locations, tactfully avoiding anywhere too close to WWW. My cousin looked slightly overwhelmed, but also incredibly eager, and I found myself praying that I would get to see her plans come into fruition.

As Roxy began planning her speakeasy, I remembered hearing stories of Grandma Molly's reaction when Uncle Fred and Uncle George wanted to open their shop. A part of me prayed that Roxy never mentioned where she got the idea for her business within hearing range of the fearsome woman.

As it turned out, working on controlling the beautiful golden magic that I had been gifted by Magus was more difficult than I had anticipated. It was easy to bring flames into my hands, letting the little dancing plumes change colors to amuse Lily, but it was hard to get to a point where I felt that I could not control it in order to practice doing so.

It was Freddy who eventually figured out a means for me to do so. After a long session of the two boys yelling things that they thought would upset me in an attempt to push me out of control (which they despised-we planned those practices for days when Lily was otherwise occupied, for the things that they brought up were not pleasant), my cousin paused with a very contemplative look on his face.

"Freddy?"

He paced then, expression pulled taunt in what I was coming to recognize as the face that he made when he had to do something to me that would have been cruel were he to do so under any other circumstances. "I have an idea. Can we be sure that Lily isn't here next Tuesday?"

"I can get Coleen to plan something," I offered. Col was always kind about not asking questions when I requested that she didn't.

"Yeah. Do that please."

Jay trailed my cousin as he spun on his heel and exited the room, leaving me standing alone in the slightly dusty classroom that we had been using. I glanced at the shadowed corners of the room and quickly darted through the door into the hallway beyond, though I headed in the opposite direction from the boys, inferring that they would have simply discussed their plans in the room if they wanted me to know about them.

Coleen decided that she and Lily were going to embroider the back pockets of their jeans in anticipation of the coming summer on the Tuesday that the boys were planning our next session. She did not ask me for any details when I requested that she find a way to keep my sister busy, so I pretended not to notice when my favorite pair of jeans went missing from my trunk shortly after the plans were laid.

Lily, Jay, Freddy, and I were still combing the Room of Requirement for information on Magus and symbols of death, so we opted to cycle between five abandoned classrooms in a fairly random pattern when I practiced using the golden magic, as we were trying to minimize the chances of Al or James noticing that the four of us were often missing from the map. As such, I was surprised when Jay led me to the room for our next session.

"Why-"

My boyfriend cut me off, looking more than a bit nervous as he paced. "We were worried someone else would stumble across it before you could use it."

When we entered the room, I was surprised to find us in a small, empty classroom. Freddy was standing off to the side of the only piece of furniture in the room, a small chest that was rattling ominously.

"Oh," I said, realizing what they had found, "No, I don't think-"

"Just try it, please, Nix," Fred begged as Jay crossed the room to stand beside him. "It's the best idea we've had for getting a real reaction out of you. You know that we don't like it any more than you do."

He was clearly correct about getting an emotional response, for golden magic was already swirling around my palms, and they hadn't even let the boggart out of the chest yet. Both boys looked simultaneously relieved and increasingly anxious when I finally nodded, the gesture jerky with my nerves.

I was expecting fog and a river of blood flowing between headstones, but it wasn't what I got. It took me a long moment to realize that the high-pitched keening noise that had filled the room was coming from me as one of the Falx rose from the chest.

It was still wearing its mask, glowing eyes visible in the holes of the flat silver garment, but it soon lifted a grey-skinned hand to its face, clearly intent on revealing itself to the room.

I knew that came after the Falx removed its mask. Though I doubted I could be marked twice, I wouldn't put it past the monster to do something just as terrible. Images of terrible deaths and the pain that had accompanied them flashed through my head. I lifted my hands, magic jumping from my skin in shining trails of gold, and tried to direct it towards the terrible monster before me. No magic that I had possessed at the time of the attack had harmed it, but perhaps my new magic could.

Torch-like eyes illuminated the strange markings that covered the monster's sunken face as the mask clattered to the ground. Someone let out a noise of horror from elsewhere in the room, but I was too focused on the Falx and my own magic to consider the origin of the sound. My teeth were chattering as the monster lifted a hand, but it had only just opened its mouth when the stream of magic that I had been pushing across the room towards it enveloped the grey-skinned figure. Instantly, there was a terrible shriek, and then the Falx dissolved in a flurry of golden magic.

It was only after the swirling magic had rushed back into my limbs, dancing across every surface of my body in a layer of protective armor, that I remembered that I had not been facing one of the Falx at all. The room was hazy through a blur of tears that I had not realized were cascading down my face, but I could still easily make out the aghast looks that Freddy and Jay sported when I finally tore my gaze from the remains of the boggart.

"Was that-" Jay couldn't get the words out, covering his mouth with one hand and shaking his head in what appeared to be mute horror.

"Nix," Freddy said, tone desperate as he stared at me with wide eyes. "I'm so-I didn't know. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me; I never would have brought it out if I had known."

He crossed the room at a speed that was inhuman when I held my arms out slightly. Golden magic swirled lazily around my cousin as he wrapped me in a fierce hug. There was much to be said, but I found that I could say none of it as both boys hugged me, Jay wiping my cheeks dry. It was difficult to pull my magic back into my skin, but I eventually managed it.

If Jay and Freddy were surprised when I led them to Minnie's office, they didn't show it. I was greatly relieved to find her there, and was doubly so to discover that she was alone.

She gave us a once over, and then reached into the bottom drawer of her desk. "Have a biscuit."

I accepted the digestive, noting that she had purchased the sort with a layer of dark chocolate that I liked best, and then sat on the floor at her feet, my back against the drawers of her desk. The positioning put me out of view from the door, so no one besides her could see when I wrapped my arms around my knees and began to cry.

"What happened?" The Headmistress asked, tone sharp with concern.

I was relieved when Jay began the story by bringing up the incident at Hogsmeade and my run-in with Lucy, though I was a bit mortified that Minnie now knew that I had been in a fist-fight with my own cousin. The two boys shakily recounted how poorly our previous practices had gone and then how they had thought to try a boggart while the older woman's hand came down to rest on the top of my head, thumb gently running over my hair as she listened.

When they got done, both having expressed absolute horror at the mimic of the Falx, McGonagall let out a sigh.

"While I am glad to hear that you have all been working together to handle this, I do wish that the four of you would occasionally think to at least fill Luna and I in on your plans. I realize that you want to handle things by yourself, but there is no harm in making sure that you are not the only ones who know what's going on," She said.

Though her tone was gentle, I still flinched at the rebuke that lay within her words. Undoubtedly feeling the involuntary gesture, Minnie looked down at me then, gaze softening further as she took in whatever expression lay on my face.

"I know that you're trying," The woman told me. "Just keep us in the loop. That's all that I ask."

"It's not her fault," Freddy jumped in. "We didn't tell her about the boggart. That was my idea."

"Well, then I would appreciate the two of you keeping us in the loop," Minnie said, accepting Freddy's attempt at taking the blame easily. "We just want to keep all of you safe."

The two boys left after a while, offering apologies that I wish I had the words to explain were unnecessary. Circe entered the room as they left it, glaring at everyone as she marched over and forced her way into my lap. McGonagall worked late into the night, never complaining about my presence, though the sharp pinch of her brows did lessen slightly when I finally stood and moved to sit in one of her chairs.

When I finally made my way back to the Common Room, Jay and Freddy were sitting before the fire waiting on me. They were both deeply apologetic, but seemed to understand that I wasn't upset with them when I hugged them both tightly before moving towards the stairs to the girls' dorms.

Lily, blessedly, asked no questions when I crawled into the bed beside her, simply curling herself around me and falling asleep with one hand on my kneazle's back. If I was a bit quiet over the next few days, no one pushed me for answers, and I was eventually able to stamp down the resurgence of nightmares well enough that I could fall asleep in my own bed again.

It took a while before I could bounce back fully from the boggart incident, but everyone seemed determined to see it happen.

James was suddenly appearing at my side in the evenings, wanting to walk the grounds and talk about our significant others, Teddy and Vic's baby, and the mini-lessons that we were all taking turns teaching each other in anticipation of our OWLs.

Lily, Coleen, and Alice roped me into helping them steal jeans from all of our family and friends, embroidering little pictures and flowers along pockets, seams, and anywhere else that they saw fit. My favorite pair had been done on the first night that they got together, with a little garden of marigolds covering the back pockets. A few people (Al and Molly) whined when they discovered the stitching, but it was a fairly simple fix with magic, and the fact that no one removed the embroidery told us that no one actually minded.

Ben decided that we were going to resume our dueling practices, but they dissolved upon our very first meeting into dance lessons, of all things. According to his uncle and father, grace was important in dueling, so he decided that I needed to know how to dance before we could duel. I wasn't very good at it, and often intentionally stepped on his feet when I caught him biting back a grin after I missed a step. He always groaned dramatically and hopped around before winking and telling me teasingly that he would be happy to let me fake incompetence for as long as I'd like in order to prolong our lessons. I normally responded by stepping on his feet again.

I got another letter about my paper in late February. Everyone at the breakfast table looked greatly cheered when I had to bite back the grin that threatened to overtake my face as I realized who the envelope was from. Despite being so eager to know its contents that I had to stamp down the gold magic swirling around my hands, I waited until I closed myself in Minnie's office that evening to open it.

"Now, it could be nothing," I said, my hands shaking slightly as I accepted her letter opener from her. "Or it could be a rejection. I don't want to make too big of a fuss, just in case it's-"

"Oh, just open it, for Merlin's sake!" The Headmistress demanded, her eagerness clear as she leaned over my shoulder to read the letter.

"It's going to be printed in April!" I gasped, bouncing in place with pure joy. "It'll be out just after Easter, so I can surprise everyone when I go home!"

"Oh, Phoenix, I'm so proud of you!" She shouted, giving me a tight hug. I smiled as she practically danced behind her desk, flipping through a stack of order forms before she got to the one for April. She determinedly hid the number of journals she was ordering from my view, which made me blush crimson as I pondered just how many copies of my paper the woman was buying.

"You can always make copies," I told her as she began counting out galleons.

"It's not the same!" She argued. "Plus, if your paper does well, they may reprint it."

After that, she hauled me down the hall to celebrate in Professor Flitwick's office. They both agreed to keep my publishing a secret until I could tell my family all at once. Even better, Professor Flitwick told me that the journal should send me a pre-printed copy of April's journal just before I went home, so I could show everyone my paper in the print.


It fully hit me late one night in the library that I was taking my OWLs in a few months. I was alone in my standard table for once, as everyone else had plans. A part of me was grateful that there was no one to watch me hyperventilate over my sudden anxiety.

Though I was mostly convinced that I wouldn't live long enough for my OWLs to matter, I still wanted to do well. Maybe it was about leaving a legacy, or maybe it was pure pride. Regardless of the reason, I found myself focusing intently on not lighting the table on fire, which left little room for me to focus on breathing.

"Oh, sweet Merlin. I wondered if it would be you."

I flinched as Madame Pince's voice unexpectedly reached my ears. Though the woman was not a fan of me for my first few years at the school, five years of spending copious amounts of time quietly working in her library and never once pulling a prank within its walls had put us at a sort of understanding. She occasionally let me check out the extra book, and offered me more loan extensions than she was supposed to. In exchange, I used my reputation and later my Prefect's badge to keep order in the library far more effectively than the woman and her failing hearing could.

Still, I doubted that our unspoken agreement would excuse the probably excessive amount of noise that I must be making, to have brought her into the alcove where I sat. I was expecting her to kick me out, not to slide a bar of chocolate across the table towards me.

"Deep breaths now, that's it. We get a few every year, you know. Most are the sort that don't study at all, only to panic a few months out when they realize that they've already washed their grades down the toilet before ever seeing the exams. Some are like you, though. Remus Lupin, Lily Evans, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Draco Malfoy, Cho Chang, Hermione Granger…all good students, with an excellent chance of excelling, but who care so much that they panic anyways. Come on now, sit up and have a sip of your water. I'll see if I can't get this window open."

I watched in mute amazement as the woman climbed onto a chair, carefully pushing on the glass, which probably hadn't been lifted in years. Finally, with a great creaking noise, the window lifted from the ledge just enough to let in a bit of cool spring air.

"Thank you," I whispered, already feeling a bit better.

She nodded primly, gently reaching down to pet Circe before moving towards the bookshelves behind us.

"Madame Pince?"

She turned to look at me, lifting one eyebrow in question.

"You're friends with Filch, right?" I waited for her to nod, her expression suspicious. "The store in Diagon Alley that I got Circe from has litters of kneazles in frequently. He would need someone to go with him, of course, but my dad knew a woman who was a Squib that bonded with more than one kneazle. It's just a thought, though. I don't really know him, after all."

Two weeks later, everyone was complaining about Filch's new watchcat. The hot gossip was also that he was apparently dating Madame Pince, as she had adopted a kneazle for the library, as well. When the news reached my ears, I brought Circe into the library to meet Rowena, the calico kneazle that now lived amongst the bookshelves. The two hit it off right away, and there were often days when I caught a glimpse of Rowena, Circe, and Filch's kneazle, Nori, running through the hallways while I was moving between classes.


The owl came the day before Easter break began. I knew precisely what it was, which is why I simply pulled the package off of the owl's leg before stuffing it in my bag. A quick glance at the Head Table saw Flitwick and McGonagall beaming at me.

"Someone's excited for their mail," Roxy laughed, watching me scarf my breakfast as quickly as I could without choking. Her foot nudged me lightly under the table, making me jump and slam my knee against the bottom of the table. She snickered when I glared in response, not seeming apologetic in the slightest.

"Why can't she open it at the table, hmm?" Nikki asked teasingly, exchanging a mischievous look with Roxy. "Getting naughty magazines?"

Despite my best efforts, I choked on my toast at her words, covering my mouth with a napkin as I coughed and glared at her evilly. This only made her laugh harder.

"Stop bullying my girlfriend, Boot," Jay said with a small grin, flicking a bit of egg in her direction. "That's my job."

Jay laughed when I jabbed an elbow into his ribs, still trying to catch my breath.

After a few minutes of awkwardly coughing, I grabbed Jay's arm and tugged him to his feet.

"Ooo, they're sharing!" Taylor said with faux excitement.

"Shut it!" I whined, rolling my eyes as all three girls dissolved into a fit of giggles.

Jay was chuckling as I pulled him into an empty classroom.

"You too, or I won't show you," I poked him lightly in the chest before digging through my bag. He held his hands up in mock surrender, though he was still grinning brilliantly as I tore open the packaging and shoved the journal into his hands.

At his confused look, I said, "Page 24."

He flipped to the page, his eyes running over the glossy print once before he dropped the magazine on the desk beside him and lifted me off of my feet. I laughed as he spun me around in circles.

"You," He said, setting me down and cupping my face between his hands so that he could look in my eyes, "Are the most brilliant person I know, and I am so happy to see that you're getting recognition for your gift in Charms. I'm so proud of you, Marigold!"

"Thank you!" I squealed, giggling as he peppered my face with kisses. The look he gave me had my hands glowing golden as I held his face, though I knew that there was absolutely no chance of me setting him on fire. If the magic was set off by strong emotions, this was the joyful, rapid swirl of pure love. When he kissed me deeply, smiling into the gesture, I felt as though my chest were alight rather than my fingertips.

"Hang on, let me properly read this. Is it out officially? Can I order a copy?" He asked, picking the magazine back up and reading my paper intently.

"It's not out for another week, but I have order forms in my bag. I already ordered you a copy, though. Also, I haven't told anyone besides you, Minnie, and Flitwick. I want to tell everyone over Easter."

"That's fine, I won't tell anyone. Thank you for telling me early. That means a lot to me," He said, glancing up from the journal to meet my eyes as he spoke.

"Of course, Jay. I wanted to tell you ages ago, but I thought it would be better to actually have the journal to show you!"

He grinned, the dimples in his cheeks prominent in the brilliant sunlight that poured through the slightly dusty windows. "It was a great plan, my love. Also, I would like an order form anyways. I want a few extra copies."

I laughed. "You lot are so silly! You can just make copies of the one I bought you!"

He chuckled. "Nope. Not the same."

I chose not to argue, instead leaning my head against his shoulder and reading my paper in one of the best Charms journals in the world for the first time ever.

Professor Flitwick had also been sent an early copy. When I went to visit him later in the day, he told me, "Now, I want you to put your NEWT and OWLs above everything else, obviously. That being said, my plan for you has always been to actually start teaching you fluid spellcasting once you finished your paper. If you want, we can get started a bit early."

"As in next year?" I asked, bouncing onto my toes with excitement.

"As in when you get back from your break, actually," He said, clearly pleased by my eagerness. "Only if you think you can manage it, of course, but you already come by a few times a week for time to work and for your paper check-ins. I figured we could just adjust both of those periods of time to be for learning about fluid casting instead."

"Yes!" I gasped, jumping up and down with genuine joy. "I was hoping that's what you were going to teach me at some point! The sooner the better, I've been dying to learn for years! I can't wait!"

He laughed, fond and proud. "Now, not that I think this will be an issue with you, but it still warrants saying: I will revoke our lessons completely if I hear that you're using what I teach you in them to duel your classmates. Because my real skill in Charms lies in dueling, I'm going to teach you fluid spellcasting by showing you how to use it in a duel. It is-as you very well know, it is what you wrote most of your article about, after all-the most convenient reason for knowing how to fluidly cast, after all."

"That's fine, Professor!" I said, suddenly realizing that his teachings could be useful during the war, as well. "I'm not one for dueling my classmates, anyways."

He grinned. "Well, I'm as eager as you seem to be, so make sure that you swing by my office the week after you get back! Oh, and Miss Potter?"

"Yes?"

"Are you absolutely certain that you have no interest in going into research?"

I chuckled. "As of right now, my answer is still no. I'll let you know if that changes."

"See to it that you do."


I waited until everyone was gathered together at the Burrow before I stood on a chair. Everyone slowly got quiet.

"Phoenix?" Mum asked, sounding amused.

"Well it's not like I could just stand up to get your attention," I quipped, masking my nerves with the rare joke about my height. Everyone chuckled, which brought a quick grin to my face. "I have an announcement."

"Obviously," Freddy laughed.

"Shut it you!" I shouted, waving my hand at him in lieu of having something to throw. Everyone laughed again. "Anyways. This-"

I held the journal over my head, grinning as a few people craned their necks to see it.

"-is April's edition of Charms and Countercharms."

"That won't be out for another week!" Aunt Hermione said, momentarily confused before she got an excited look in her eyes, smacking a hand over her mouth as she gasped and bounced eagerly in her seat.

"No, it won't be," I said, my smile widening. I lowered the journal so that I could see it, pinching a section of it in between my thumb and index fingers. I then held it back up, keeping ahold of the pages that I had grabbed. "These are pages 24 through 27. Every word on these pages, front and back, was written by me."

Aunt Hermione, having figured out where I was going with my announcement before I finished it, was the first one out of her seat. She hugged me so tightly that she flipped the chair that I was standing in over, her arms the only thing that kept me from going over backwards with it. I was passed around for hugs and congratulations. The journal was taken from my hands by my aunt, while Freddy asked me about order forms and dug them out of my bag. They were quickly distributed, with even my younger cousins taking a copy, which was unexpected and touching.

"I'm so proud of you! You're going to do such amazing things!" Aunt Fleur told me, cupping my cheek in her hand.

"Phoenix, this is really, really good," Aunt Hermione praised, making me beam at her. I understood how high a praise my aunt's genuine approval was, as I had spent my younger years striving for it when she helped with our homeschooling.

Dad reached around and took the paper from my aunt, giving her a sheepish grin when she gave him a dirty look for not asking. Mum leaned over his shoulder to read it at the same time, though I could see each time she finished reading the page before he was ready to flip it.

Grandma insisted that I let her bake me a cake. Vic tugged me into a hug while everyone was searching for quills.

"My child is going to have the smartest godparents in the world," She said with a grin. "How lucky they will be. A Healer for a mum, two Aurors for a dad and grandfather, three cursebreakers for a godfather and grandparents, and two Professional Quidditch players for a godmother and grandma, one of whom writes academic papers in her free time."

I laughed. "I don't think it gets much cooler than that. Throw in the possible metamorphmagus skills, the Veela genes, and the fact that your kid is a descendant of the Blacks, the Lupins, the Potters, the Delacours, and the Weasleys, and I think you two are going to have the coolest kid around."

She giggled, giving me another hug. "I'm really glad that you agreed to be the godmother."

"I'm really glad that you asked!"

Duplicates of my paper were made so that everyone could read it if they wanted to. I was once again touched when every member of the family picked up a copy to read it.

Everyone was sworn to secrecy for the next week about the paper, as it couldn't go public before the journal was actually published. A part of me was very glad that I wouldn't have to deal with the press immediately after it came out, as we would be back in school before it did.

"My twin sister's published," James said proudly to no one in particular. I grinned, crossing the room to give him a hug. "I'm so proud of you, P."

I was struck suddenly with how much my brother had matured over the years.


A few evenings later we were seated in the living room. Coleen and Lily were playing a muggle board game with the Scamander twins, Cassiopeia, Alice, and James. Al and Scorpius had gone outside for a walk, grinning when Mrs. Malfoy insisted that they bring coats just in case they got chilly.

I waited until dad, Mr. Malfoy, Hannah, and mum got into a heated debate about Quidditch. Mr. Creevey was discussing Rolf Scamander's travels with him, Neville, and Luna, so Mrs. Malfoy was sitting off to the side by herself.

She smiled at me when I came to sit beside her. "Hello, Phoenix. Congratulations on being published. Don't look so alarmed; my sister works for the journal. I won't tell anyone, she just wrote to me because she knows you're friends with Scorp."

"Thank you so much," I responded, trying to remember how I was supposed to segue into my question about the book.

"You've got quite an interest in learning," She said sweetly, her smile indicating her approval. "Do you focus mainly on Charms, or are your interests a bit broader?"

I jumped on the question, as she provided me with the perfect opportunity to lead into talking about the book. "I try to learn about everything possible. Actually, I'm sorry if this is a bit forward, but I came over here to ask you about a book."

"Oh, of course," She said, her smile not faltering. "Ask away."

"Well, my cousin Dominique is traveling. She sends me these charms, and this sugar skull got me interested in the way that different cultures, particularly magical ones, represent different symbols. My Aunt Hermione mentioned that she used to be in possession of a book called The Symbols and Tools of Death and Rebirth: A Worldwide Encyclopedia."

"Oh! I've never heard of it, but I can scour the library for you. Both the Malfoy and the Greengrass libraries are very extensive," She said, seeming genuinely eager to help.

I felt horrible for the next words that were to leave my mouth. "That would be amazing, Mrs. Malfoy, but, since she says it's a pretty rare book, I was also wondering…her original copy was in my Uncle Ron's bag when they were brought by snatchers to the manor. Would you happen to have any idea where their things wound up?"

She winced. "Sweetheart, I'm really sorry, but all of those things were taken by the Dark Lord. I doubt that they're anywhere that we could find them now, if they even still exist at all. I promise you that I'll do my best to find you a copy of that book, though. Okay?"

"Thank you, Mrs. Malfoy," I said, letting her grip my hands between her cold fingers. "I really appreciate it."

"Astoria, dear. You're nearly an adult yourself, Merlin knows you should call me by my name. And of course. If it weren't for my health issues, I'd have been an Unspeakable, myself. I certainly understand the itch that you get when you just need to get your hands on a book. I'll do whatever I can to help you."

I tried not to look too disappointed as I settled into the couch beside her, letting her direct the conversation back to my article. She looked pleased when I summoned my copy of the journal from my bag and let her read it. While she read, I began to rack my brains for any other places that I thought I could find a copy of the book. When I got back to Hogwarts, I would ask Jay, Minnie, Luna, Lily, and Freddy to help me. Between the six of us, we were sure to come up with something.


Third Person Point of View (Corinth Hastings)

Minister of Magic's Office, Ministry of Magic, London


Corinth had received the letter about the boy's blunder with no small amount of annoyance. The Potter girl had fled from him in terror, which could mean that she recognized the eyes from the attack, or that he had simply scared her.

When the months passed without anyone breaking his door down demanding to know why the boy had been so triggered by his name-which Corinth really needed to find a solution for-he began to lean towards the former.

Which meant that Phoenix Potter was his third Hogwarts claim. He felt better at knowing for sure, though he didn't think much of the news. She was, his assistant assured him, utterly unremarkable, her grades and all of the statuses that she held borne of favoritism.

Except now, Corinth Hastings was staring at her name in his favorite Charms journal. She had written a paper that was published in the very prestigious, very particular journal that had denied all three papers that Corinth had sent in under a pen name. It was a paper that talked at great length about dueling, no less.

"Boy!" He barked, still not taking his eyes off of the paper.

His assistant rushed into the room at once. "Yes, master?"

He didn't sound afraid. This was probably because Corinth always used such tones when they were alone, but this still served to enrage him further.

"Come here and read this to me."

If his assistant thought the request was odd, he did not comment on it. This was good, for Corinth might have ended him on the spot for it, consequences be damned.

He could see the exact second that his assistant's eyes found her name. This time, when he risked glancing up under his eyelashes at Corinth, he looked terrified.

"It has to be a mistake. Her name-"

"This journal doesn't make mistakes. They also don't publish articles just because of the name under the title. For a stupid, useless girl, I'd call this the accomplishment of the century. Wouldn't you?"

"Master-"

"I asked you if I needed to worry about her. You assured me that she wouldn't be an issue."

Corinth took a deep breath, carefully drawing the magic back into his hands. It crept into his limbs in a deep grey swirl, as much his slave as everything else under his command. It wouldn't do to kill his assistant. No, he would show him mercy and further indebt him to him.

"Silence the door."

It felt fitting, Corinth thought, that his assistant's own hand should play even a small role in the pain that was to follow.


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