Dear Finnigan,

I enjoyed your last letter. It was nice to hear about you enjoying Astronomy. No, I do not believe I know Professor Hubble or Meghan's Uncle Bill. Is there any particular reason why you're asking? Tell Meghan I do know her Uncle Charlie if that helps.

I hope you're eating well, including vegetables. I've been busy with work and our flat is quiet without you here in the evenings, but I've been finding things here and there to do. Your invitation to come home still stands, of course. The wizarding world isn't right for everyone, but I know you're trying very hard.

Study hard and mind the professors.

Love,

Mum

Remus had decided that adding a small shot of Firewhisky to his coffee would make his essay marking slightly less mind-numbing. In fact, he had discovered that a dash more made things downright cheerful.

"Very good," Remus said to the essay. "With the exception to the fact that W.L. Bagby was a woman."

He as just taking another drink of coffee when someone knocked on his door.

"Hope it's the slimy git!" Remus said lifting his cup towards the door. "I mean, Headmaster."

The individual at the door was most certainly not Professor Snape. She definitely lacked the height and Professor Snape could only wish for long hair like hers.

"Chloe Grace?" Remus was genuinely surprised to see her, especially without Meghan and Finn.

"Ineed to talk to you, Uncle Remus." Chloe's mouth was set and her brow was furrowed.

Remus understood immediately. Uncle Remus. This was family business and something more serious than schoolwork. He had been concerned about her for a week or so now. She hadn't been acting like the usual Chloe.

She plunked herself into one of the chairs in front of his desk and her eyes snapped to the Firewhisky bottle. "You've been dri--"

Remus halted her question, but certainly not her inquisitive gaze. He was an idiot to forget to put it away. It might not be school hours, but it was the last thing he needed was for his niece to think he was a drunk. "I'm using it as a catalyst for an experiment." He cleared his throat and grabbed the bottle off his desk and put away in the cabinet.

"What experiment?" Chloe asked immediately. "What's a catalyst?"

Remus took a deep breath. "Ah. The effects of impediment...erm, impedimentation on a Doxy." Yes. That sounded scientific.

Chloe's eyes brightened. "Really? Can I see?"

Remus warily pulled the whisky bottle out of the cabinet. "Yes. You just...measure about this much and study their reaction. It takes awhile...so you may have to come back tomorrow to see what happened." He tried not to wince when he sloshed the Firewhisky into the Doxy's water dish. He hoped beyond anything that the Doxy could hold its alcohol.

Chloe peered in the cage for a moment and then turned back to Remus, her face serious again. "I want to ask you about something."

"Anything," Remus said, sitting in his chair again.

"Aidan Malfoy," Chloe said quickly. She looked down at the floor, ashamed as if she had just said a swear word rather than the name of one of her classmates.

Remus wasn't remotely surprised to hear his name from her. He knew it would come eventually. "What about Aidan?" he asked her.

Her words came tumbling out of her mouth, faster than she could say them and Remus heard everything from her nightmares coming back to Kinsley Auden calling her a snob.

Finally, she bit her lower lip, fighting back tears and looked up at him. "And I don't know what to do, Uncle Remus. You're the only one who will understand."

Remus could already see the relief on her face. She had needed to tell someone. He only wished it had been sooner, Chloe could have saved herself a lot of worrying and questions about Aidan Malfoy. "Chloe Grace," he began, pulling a sheet of parchment from his desk. "I think you're growing up to be a fine young witch. You did the right thing, coming to talk to someone."

Chloe wiped her eyes on her robe sleeve and her attention suddenly moved to his window. "You haven't been giving your ivy Firewhisky, have you? It's not good for it."

Remus glanced back at his ivy on the windowsill, hanging on to life with a withering green leaf. "No," he said, smiling in spite of himself. "I'm just a serial ivy murderer."

Chloe fetched his ivy and fiddled with it. "What can I do?"

"I want you to find everything about Aidan Malfoy yourself," Remus said. "You need to know the whole story."

Chloe looked up from the ivy, perplexed. "But I know the whole story...I was there."

"You don't know what happened after you came home," Remus corrected her. "You were five. Your father wanted to protect you." It was the truth. Havenwood hadn't seen a shred of newsprint for weeks after the trial. Harry had also refused to speak about the Malfoys in Chloe's presence.

"Protect me? From being kidnapped again?"

"No. From the media, from what happened between him and the Malfoys. He was right in doing so then, but now you're old enough to know everything and you deserve to know." Remus sincerely hoped Harry would agree with him when he found out about this.

Chloe plucked off another dead leaf. "You can't tell me?" she asked quietly.

"I won't tell you," Remus answered. "This is something you need to do yourself. If you have any questions, you can come and ask me anything or write to your father."

Chloe was quiet as she pruned the plant, obviously thinking over his words. "Daddy won't be upset?"

"I don't know," Remus answered honestly. "But would you rather know the truth or hide from it?"

"What do I do?" Chloe asked immediately.

Remus handed her the parchment. "Try looking in these places first. It may be hard to find."

Chloe folded the parchment and tucked it into her robes. "Uncle Remus?"

"Yes?"

"Do you like Aidan Malfoy?"

"I don't have a reason to not like him," Remus said raising an eyebrow.

"I still want to beat him at the academic competition," Chloe said with a mischievous smile that was strikingly similar to the one Remus used to see across Harry's face. "He thinks he's so clever, but he really just studies more than everyone else. I think I can beat him."

"There's nothing wrong with a little healthy competition," Remus smiled. "You're both quite clever."

"But slightly more clever than Ai—" Chloe stopped her argument when a sudden bright orange glow from the Doxy cage nearly blinded them.

After it was over, Chloe squeaked and ran over to the Doxy cage, which was unfortunately Doxy-less.

"He's exploded into nothing!" she exclaimed, horrified. "Uncle Remus!"

"Disinegrated," Remus said, sighing heavily. Obviously Doxies could not hold alcohol. "I guess the experiment was flawed."

"You weren't experimenting," Chloe informed him. "The poor Doxy."

Remus decided he might as well confess. "I wasn't. I do apologize to the Doxy, even though he nearly took my hand off when I put him in that cage."

Chloe hmphed at him and collected his ivy. "I'm taking your ivy. You might try to blow it up."

Remus waved his hand at it. "Take it. I wish it nothing but good health and happiness in your care."

Chloe hugged him before he left and Remus knew that despite what Harry would say, he had done the right thing.

Penny double-checked her sums to make sure the totals matched. It was custom for her to have tea with Hermione and Ginny on the weekend. Penny often used this time to go over the household accounting. She would never let Percy hire an accountant when she could easily do it herself. She enjoyed having control over the household finances.

Hermione was talking about her teaching escapades, and Penny knew that eventually one of her children would be mentioned. Catherine and Mortimer always got glowing remarks from Hermione. Meghan always got the more interesting comments....

A secret part of Penelope, the part that didn't add up sums for fun, really enjoyed hearing about Meghan and Chloe being silly in class, or causing a little bit of trouble. No one ever expected that out of calm, rule-abiding, Ravenclaw Penelope.

An ungodly shriek jerked Penelope from her thoughts and Jamsey Potter came crashing through the kitchen door.

"James!" Ginny exclaimed when he ran to her lap, sobbing.

"DADDY IS TRYING TO DROWNDED SHOEBOX!" James screamed into Ginny's robes.

It was then that Penny noticed a sopping black puppy in James' arms. So that was Shoebox. She poured more tea for herself and waited to hear the rest of the story.

It was then that Harry came stampeding through the kitchen door, clad only in a white terrycloth towel. He slipped on the kitchen tile and did a sort of Highland Fling until he caught his balance again.

"James Albus Potter!" Harry shouted. "Come here this instant!"

"HARRY!" Ginny exclaimed, mortified enough for the both of them. "We have guests!"

Penelope hid her smile behind her teacup when Harry noticed both she and Hermione sitting there.

"Ladies," Harry said politely, as if he were in his best Auror dress rather than being one towel away from his skivvies. "Good afternoon."

"Would you kindly get some clothes!" Ginny said, waving him out of the kitchen.

"Daddy is a mean old jaybird!" James sobbed into Ginny's lap.

Harry exited the kitchen, presumably to follow his wife's directions, but not without a dry look in the direction of his four-year old.

"Daddy is not a mean old jaybird," Ginny said, taking the dog from James. "Accio dishtowel." She wrapped Shoebox in the towel.

"Yes he is," Jamesy sniffled. "He's old, mean, and naked."

"James Potter, you will not talk about your father that way," Ginny said firmly. "Now sit down in that chair and wait until Daddy gets back down here."

Jamesy took his seat and openly pouted.

Harry returned to the kitchen, fastening the clasp on his robes. "Where is that idiotic dog?"

"What is going on here?" Ginny demanded.

Harry snorted. "I was not trying to drown his dog. The dog doesn't need my help. After Jamesy chucked him into my bathwater, he sunk like a blo--"

"Language," Ginny snapped.

"Like a rock," Harry continued. "I was trying to fish him out, but your son decided I was trying to drown him, so he threw everything he could find at me." Harry glared at James. "INCLUDING, my clothes for this afternoon, my wand, a dried flower arrangement, and almost all of your bubble bath!"

Jamesy stuck his tongue out at Harry.

"Then once I managed to get the dog out of the bath, he grabbed the goods and took off," Harry crossed his arms. "So, I pursued. That's my story, your Honor, and I'm sticking to it."

Ginny calmly stroked Shoebox and looked over at James. "Jamesy, do you have anything to say in your defense?"

"I want a solicitor!" Jamesy exclaimed from his chair. "He was trying to drownded Shoebox! That's against the law!"

"We do not sue members of the family, James Albus," Ginny said flatly. "You may speak in your own defense."

"Wait a minute!" Harry said pointing at James. "Why do we have to get a story from our four-year old? I'm the big person here! I get parental veto!"

"You," Ginny said, pointing at Harry. "Are biased against the dog. And anyone who runs through the house practically naked, LOSES their parental veto."

"Fine," Harry said, "but I get to intervene if he starts telling stories."

Hermione leaned over to Penny, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "Does this mean we're the jury?" she whispered.

Penny inclined her head towards Ginny and smiled. "It's all Ginny."

"Since today is Sunday," James began, swinging his feet in his chair, "I 'membered that me and Daddy were supposed to go see Mr. Professor Albus Dumbledore."

"Oh no," Harry said, shaking his finger. "Don't start that cute stuff. You're going to grow out of that...and when you do...."

Jamesy glared at Harry. "Shoebox and me aren't talking to you, Daddy."

"Quickly," Ginny sighed.

"Well, an Daddy says that Shoebox always smells funny and he never wants to take Shoebox to Mr. Professor Albus Dumbledore's house. So, I thought that when Daddy was in the bath, if Shoebox got a bath like him...Daddy couldn't say that Shoebox smells funny."

"So you decided to drop him in the bathtub? With Daddy in it?"

"Yes I did," Jamesy said. "But since he didn't get a proper bath, Shoebox is going to get maganomia."

"Maganomia?" Hermione whispered to Penny.

"Pneumonia," Penny translated.

Ginny looked down at Shoebox, who wagged his little black tail at her. "He seems fine, Jamesy." Shoebox wriggled against her hand happily.

"So, our son is allowed to throw dogs into the bathtub?" Harry asked clearing his throat.

"You may not take Shoebox to Professor Dumbledore's house," Ginny said to Jamesy. "You were wrong to throw your dog in the bathtub without asking Daddy. You may, however, tell Professor Dumbledore why Shoebox isn't there to see him. I think he'll enjoy hearing the story."

"I'll bet," Harry grumbled. "Come on, Jamesy, we're late as it is." He kissed Ginny on the cheek and waved at Penny and Hermione.

Jamesy kissed Ginny and Shoebox goodbye and hugged his aunts.

After they left, Ginny finally allowed herself to laugh. "To think that Harry wants to have another baby!"

"Another baby!" Hermione said, sounding surprised. "But, wouldn't it be nice?"

"Harry misses Chloe like crazy," Ginny smiled a bit sadly. "We all do. But really...another baby! I don't think so! Jamesy is quite a handful."

"Chloe is quite a handful," Hermione commented. "She and Meghan are free-spirits, that's very certain."

Penny smiled. "Oh, Hermione. Meghan doesn't purposely cause trouble. She's a good girl, just not as quiet as Catherine."

"Oh no," Hermione said, "not on purpose. But believe me, if either of them had the tools to cause trouble, they would. Thank goodness Harry promised he wouldn't show Chloe the map."

"Map?" Penny said curiously. "I've never heard about a map."

Ginny's eyebrows lifted. "Really? Well, I guess you wouldn't have. The twins would have never let Percy in on it...."

"In on what?" Penny asked again.

"A map of Hogwarts. The Marauder's Map," Hermione said. "A magical map with listings of secret passages and where the teachers and other students are. Sirius, Remus, and James Potter created it and it found it way into the twins' hands."

"Then Harry's," Ginny nodded. "He has it somewhere, but he promised Hermione he wouldn't show it to any of the children. For their safety really, they did quite a few stupid things with that map."

Hermione colored slightly. "Well. There's no need to give it to Chloe and Meghan when they can make plenty of trouble by themselves."

Penny nodded behind her teacup. Honestly, Hermione made it sound like she and Ginny were raising a pair of hooligans. Meghan wasn't that much of a troublemaker. Hermione seemed like a very strict teacher. They should be allowed to have a little fun.

"You were the best out of all of us at school," Ginny said to Penny. "I never heard of you getting into trouble once."

Penny smiled back at her and continued adding her sums. There were always the little incidents in the Muggle studies classroom with Percy that she could tell Ginny about. Somehow she doubted his sister wanted to hear about those.

"Penny was good," Hermione said, "Everyone liked you."

Penny finished her tea. "May I use your fire to check on the nanny? Madeline had a bit of an earache this morning."

"Of course," Ginny said refilling Hermione's teacup.

Penny excused herself from the table and hurried up the Potter's main staircase. Nice, calm, well-behaved Penny indeed.

She quickly found the room she wanted to be in and drew her wand. She opened Harry's closet door and lifted the lid of his old school trunk. Invasion of privacy? Certainly not. The whole family seemed to know about it anyway.

"Accio Marauder's Map," Penelope said succinctly.

A roll of parchment leapt into her hand with a satisfying pop. Now the only thing left was a few well-placed questions to Fred and George, or even Sirius.

Penelope smiled as she tucked the map into her robes. She had always been good at Summoning charms. And it was true... no one ever suspected the Ravenclaws.

Chloe's fingers were black from newsprint, and she was tired of flipping through old Daily Prophet articles. She had read about countless trials and stories about Death Eaters. She was ready to stop looking in the newspaper and start on the fat stack of books that she pulled down from the shelf.

"Hi, Chloe."

Chloe jumped and quickly covered the headline of the paper she was reading with her hands. "Hey, Finn." She smiled at him. "Just doing some extra research for Transfiguration."

Finn brushed his hair out of his eyes. "I was with Meghan at Hagrid's, but she started drawing things in his garden. I think she was drawing the bottom side of a pumpkin when I left."

"Oh, she gets like that," Chloe said, shuffling more newsprint. "Was she mad at me for not going to Hagrid's?"

"She said she was going to leave you alone, because you usually act funny for a reason. Are you doing extra credit?"

Chloe paused, trying to think of something to say. No one had approached her since she was in a tucked away corner of the library. "I...well, sort of."

Finn shrugged and Chloe saw that he looked slightly hurt. "It's okay. You don't have to tell me."

"I-I would," Chloe said quickly, trying to make him feel better. "It's just something that I don't tell a lot of people and it's from a long time ago...and...."

"It's about Aidan, isn't it?"

Chloe met his gaze. This was Finn. Finn that had been their friend since the very first day of school. Why couldn't she tell him? It wasn't fair that she kept something so secret from him. He would never use it against her. "Yes."

"I knew something happened between you and Aidan," Finn said, brushing his hair out of his eyes. "He gets very uptight when I mention you or Meg."

"I'm trying to find out what happened, but it's very hard," Chloe said removing her hand from the newspaper headline.

"You don't know what happened and you just don't like him?" Finn asked incredulously.

"No!" Chloe answered defensively, "I know a lot of what happened, but Uncle Remus wants me to find out all the other things"

"Can I help?" Finn asked. "I mean, do you mind? Aidan never says anything about himself...and well, he's my friend."

Chloe almost winced but caught herself. Somehow it was painful sharing Finn with Aidan. She had never really even thought of them as friends. Aidan was just someone that Finn tried to hold a conversation with sometimes. She wondered if Aidan had even thought of himself and Finn as friends. "I don't mind," Chloe answered. "I should have told you what happened a lot sooner."

Finn was the one that found the correct newspaper article. They had been in the library for hours, and he had quickly picked up a paper and stared at it.

"Chloe," he said pushing the paper across the table. "Is that you in the picture?"

Chloe touched the photograph and glanced up at the headline.

Special Edition Daily Prophet: Potter's Daughter Stolen. Enormous Reward Offered.

The photograph was of her standing in front of their Christmas tree.

"That's me," Chloe said in wonderment. "I didn't know he made the paper run something."

Finn rustled through the same stack quickly. "Look at this! Is that Professor Lupin?"

Chloe studied the pictures in the next paper. She saw Uncle Remus leading a group of people through a forest, with their wands out. Then a picture of her father, looking much younger but with a very awful look on his face. Chloe watched him place his head in his hands.

"Look at all this stuff," Finn muttered, flipping through more newspapers. "How can no one remember this happened? None of the older students seem to mention anything."

"It only went on for two days. I guess they might know the trial, since there was a lot of publicity before it, but there were a lot of trials then." Chloe made a face at the stacks of newspaper. "See?"

"Have you ever seen this?" Finn said, touching a paper. "Wow."

It was a photo of Harry carrying her out of the Malfoy manor. His face was grim and Chloe saw that her body was completely limp. She pushed it away.

They had to skip ahead quite a few papers to find the one they wanted. Finn and Chloe read about the trial stumbling over the legal words, but looking them up as quickly as possible.

When they got to the end of the article, Chloe felt numb. Uncle Remus had been right. She needed to know this. Why had her father never told her that they had so much control of the Malfoys?

"Wow," Finn said for the hundredth time. "I never guessed anything like this."

Aidan thrust his spade into the warm earth and quickly dug a hole deep enough to plant a seedling. Herbology was his least favorite subject, with the exception of Flying. Aidan didn't see the point of either class. Herbology wasn't anything more than Gardening for Wizards and Flying was utterly ridiculous.

"Pretty bird! Pretty bird!" screeched Whizbang, the Herbology teacher's parrot.

Then there were the birds in the greenhouse. Owls were fine, they minded their own business and delivered post. But the birds that Professor Higginbotham kept most certainly did not mind their own business.

"PRETTY BIRD!" screamed Whizbang, bouncing up and down on his flimsy branch.

Aidan eyed the parrot, wanting very much to chuck a dirt clump at him.

"Gryffindor!" screeched Whizbang. "Ten points from! Gryffindor! Gryffindor!"

Maybe the awful bird was psychic. Doubtful. He had just spent the first half hour of class making barking noises at the Slytherins.

Aidan pulled the Persnickety seedling from its pot and placed it in the hole and carefully smoothed the dirt around it. The moment he took his hands away from it, the plant proceeded to droop.

Finnigan Bell glanced at his plant and then up at him.

Aidan set his mouth and tried to perk up the leaves.

Chloe Potter already had neat perfect rows of perfectly healthy plants.

"I stepped on mine," a slow voice grumbled. "I think that kills it."

Aidan didn't bother paying any more attention. A Slytherin. Half of them were dumb as posts.

Before the Sorting, he had assumed he would be sorted into Slytherin. After all, his relatives were all Slytherins. None of them had ever told him about the other houses. Slytherin was the best, no questions asked.

Aidan had felt confused for days after he was Sorted. The group of people he had been thrown with were nothing like the type he was used to. He didn't feel like one of them and he wasn't about to start buttering up to them. If anything, they were bearable and they didn't annoy him as much as the Slytherins did. Slytherins were far too predictable for Aidan's taste.

Then there was the fact that the mere fact that he was in Gryffindor drove his mother to heights of craziness that could probably land her a suite right next to his father in Raveneux. Aidan smiled. That idea was quite entertaining. The letters she had sent him after finding out he was in Gryffindor had been the most attention he had received in years. Aidan was almost looking forward to stepping off the Hogwarts Express with the Gryffindor crest staring at her from his robes. Perhaps she had found a way to finally write him out of the will.

He watched Chloe Potter came over and kneel next to Finnigan. "Want some help?" she whispered.

Finn glanced at his drooping plants. "They look sick. I don't know what I did to them. Maybe they don't like being...I don't know, looked at?"

Chloe moved her hands around the plant and loosened the earth a bit. "They're not sick. They're just a little picky." She gently pulled off a dead leaf and smoothed the earth down.

Aidan watched the plant perk up out of the corner of his eye. She was slightly better at Herbology. He could run her into the ground in Potions. Her own aunt wouldn't give her higher scores. It was pathetic.

"They have to breathe," Chloe said, tending to the other plants.

She finished Finnigan's and Aidan supposed they looked all right.

"Thanks, Chlo," Finn smiled.

Chloe's eyes lifted. "I can do yours too, Aidan. They have to look better than the Slytherins'." She moved her hands around one of his plants, hesitating. "I don't mind really, this is my favorite class...."

"I don't need your help," Aidan said sharply. What was she playing at?

Chloe brushed her hands off and she looked annoyed. "Of course you don't," she said, matching his tone. "You don't want to talk to any of us."

Meghan and Posy had stopped digging. They were craning their necks to see what was happening.

"You're going to need the extra points for the academic contest," Aidan said. "It's rather stupid of you to help me."

Chloe's eyes blazed. "You might be in my house, but I don't like you."

Aidan's thoughts halted from the present. That sounded familiar. "I never asked to be in your house in the first place," he replied, glaring at her. "And just so you know, I don't like you either."

Finnigan sighed heavily. "Could you maybe not figh—"

"You're the one who is going to need the extra points," Chloe stabbed Finnigan's spade in the middle of Aidan's dirt.

"Extra points! Extra points!" screamed Whizbang.

"I don't believe I've needed them so far," Aidan smirked. "You're in second place."

"Not for long," Chloe retorted, before stalking off to sit next to Meghan.

Aidan felt invigorated from the argument. That was, until he had to turn his attention back to his drooping seedlings. Chloe Potter would get her competition.