A/N: Witches and gentlewizards, please please please review! Even if you want to copy-paste "I hate it and you suck."
Since no one took me up on ID'ing all the elements of my law firm, William Blackstone was a British legal authority in the 1800's, Dowery refers to a right under which widows have the right to partial control over a trust left to their husbands before their husbands die, Habeas (perhaps the most obvious) refers to Habeas Corpus, the right to appear in court, and a motion made in Limine is made before a trial begins. Gideon (v. Wainwright) Fullilove (v. Klotznick) Marbury (v. Madison) Habeas was originally Gideon Filibuster Habeas, the heir to the Filibuster Firework fortune...and a thoroughly embittered Squib. (While the irony was fun, I couldn't think of a way for him to appear, and so he was renamed, in favor of centuries of precedent (albeit American precedent)).

Beyond the Veil, Emmeline Vance lived in a world of her favorite memories: being named a Prefect for Ravenclaw, graduating with top marks from Hogwarts, being made a member of the Order of the Phoenix. By and large, however, one of her favorites was a night when Albus Dumbledore had knocked on her door with a bundle wrapped in his arms—a beautiful baby girl, two years old, with delicate golden-skinned features and enormous almond-shaped eyes. The seventeen years that had followed that day were some of her favorites. She swirled the cocoa in her mug, thinking about one of the last times she had seen the grown witch that had emerged from that bundle over the years, and closed her eyes, reopening them to find herself inside the memory.

Snow was falling merrily on Diagon Alley by the time the Japanese witch Apparated in from the Wizengamot. A sullen-looking wizard inside Slug & Jiggers Apothecary caught the girl's eye and she waved at him, a lopsided smile curving her lips. A raging maroon rose in his sallow cheeks, and a smirk split his face as she disappeared inside the Leaky Cauldron.

Akiko fought her way through the teeming packs of witches and wizards in the crowded Leaky Cauldron, waving a cheery "hello" to Tom the barman, who waved back and immediately conjured forth a flute of mead for her. "Seen Emmeline?" she called to him as she pushed a handful of Sickles and Knuts across the bar, and he pointed to a corner booth where a fortyish, brown-haired witch in a sapphire-blue cloak was waiting. "Thanks, Tom!" she called, as she struggled through the crowd, holding her goblet overhead to protect it from being jostled, and finally making it over to Emmeline. She hugged the older witch fiercely, pressing a wrapped parcel into her arms. "Got you a present," she said brightly, bouncing on her toes. "Go on, open it!" Emmeline pulled the paper apart, dearly hoping that it wasn't a book, and found a beautiful, emerald-green shawl from Gladrags Wizardwear inside it.

"Oh, dear, it's just lovely. Thank you," Emmeline gushed, and rose to her feet to hug Akiko again, fussing briefly over a few flakes of snow on Kiko's deep amethyst Wizengamot robes before they sat down "So...did you find out about..."Akiko began, but Emmeline cut her off.

"Oh, let's not talk about that yet. How is your job going, dear? Griselda Marchbanks not working you too hard, is she?"

"I love it; I write a lot of background opinions as a clerk, it's a good deal of work but I enjoy it." The younger witch's almond eyes glowed. Her passionate fervor for the law was admirable, but odd in a capable witch: the vast majority of wizarding barristers were Squibs, capable of no other vocation but clerical and academic work.

"You look pale, Kiko. I worry about you sometimes...you do so much."

"I'm fine, Mum," Akiko insisted, with a twinge. Even though Emmeline had told her how her parents died when she was five, Akiko still slipped and called her "Mum" on occasion. "But that's not why I'm here."

Emmeline's smile faded somewhat. "You're not going to like the reason why."

"The truth is the truth, even if it hurts," Akiko mused. It was a phrase Emmeline had used with her many times.

Emmeline breathed in heavily, swirling cocoa in her mug. "Well, I don't think it was a very good reason on their part, first of all...but..." She paused, examining Kiko's face. She'd raised the witch as though she'd been her own daughter, ever since Albus Dumbledore had knocked on her door almost 17 years ago, and knew her well enough to know that the redness rising in her cheeks wasn't a result of the warmth of the bustling bar. By Merlin, I have dreaded telling you this; you'll positively explode...She sighed, and admitted, "It was because he was in Slytherin, Akiko. No one wants to take a chance on a potential Dark wizard these days...I know, I know he's not, dear," she added soothingly, seeing, the younger woman's jaw drop in disbelief, "But you've got to admit, he does look the part..."

Clang. Akiko knocked her glass to the table, but ignored it completely as a raw hurricane of fury stormed across her face. Her words poured forth in torrents just as quickly as the growing puddle of mead staining the tablecloth as she sputtered, "But...that's just ruddy unfair. Loads of Slytherins from the old pureblood families get jobs all the time! Bella and Cissy Black got hired by the Ministry straight out of school…not that they needed jobs, but still!"

Emmeline watched in bemusement as the young witch paused, heaving a deep and angry breath as she formulated her argument. She had observed Akiko in bad humor far more times than anyone else; normally the girl was bright and sunny, but even the most optimistic of witches could be pushed to her breaking point, and it was this issue that typically did it. It was best to let her indignation expend itself rather than argue with her at this point.

"And it doesn't bloody matter whether Severus 'looks the part' or not! You can't judge based on looks...besides, St. Mungo's is one to talk, honestly...after all, that Rackharrow bloke, the chap who invented the Entrail-Expelling Curse, well, he isn't exactly the picture of goodness and light, now is he?"

Finally noticing the mess she'd made, Akiko whipped her wand from the loose knot of hair at the nape of her neck and cleared the table with a practiced flick as she continued to fume. "That's employment discrimination, that is...Oooh, if I had my barrister's license..."

"Severus would never let you file suit on his behalf, and you know it," Emmeline pointed out. She had to admit, Akiko's fierce underlying temper was probably the only reason she could hold her own with the unpredictable Slytherin boy's capricious bad humors and volatile pride, but in a sense, their turbulent natures made them kindred spirits. Not that it made either of them any more pleasant to the rest of the wizarding world when their hackles were raised…But you had to pick your battles, and Akiko's righteous indignation occurred so infrequently that it wasn't one of them.

As Akiko wrapped her wand back into her long, thick ponytail of black hair, still grumbling, Emmeline added, "I wish you wouldn't stow your wand back there, dear; anyone could take it. Not to mention that you could vanish your spine by accident."

"All right," Akiko sighed, and removed it, conjuring forth an identical black chopstick, and then stowing her wand in her sleeve.

"Don't tell him, dear. I know, I know… it's not my place to tell you how to handle things with him, but there's no possible way he'd take it very well," Emmeline advised her.

"Wasn't planning on it," Akiko said moodily, taking a sip from her restored glass. "He'd be devastated." She paused, recalculating, then said, "No, well, first he'd be furious, then he'd seethe about for a few days and bite the head off everyone he met, but sooner or later when he'd calmed down again, he might get around to being devastated. If he hadn't done anything drastic by then."

They prattled on for a few more hours, until the Leaky Cauldron was almost cleared. Lily Evans and her fiancé, James Potter, had wandered by to say hello: Emmeline always loved to see fellow members of the Order. If she'd set her mind to it, Akiko could probably have been a member as well, but she loved the law too much.

Finally, as the bar was beginning to close, Severus Snape meandered in, looking gloomy as ever as he searched the place for Akiko. Emmeline watched as Kiko popped to her feet brightly and motioned the tall, stringy boy over to the table. "Kiko, sweetheart? I think I'm going to leave. For now," Emmeline told her.

Akiko met her eyes. "Are you sure?" she asked. "We don't mind…"

"No, love. I need some sleep, anyway, so you two have a good evening. Hello there, Severus," Emmeline said, greeting the boy with a warm handshake.

He inclined his head, formal as always. "Madam Vance…" he started, but she cut him off with a correcting tone of voice. "Emmeline. We're all adults now, Severus." He turned slightly red, and Emmeline decided it was best not to pursue the matter further.

Akiko hugged Emmeline furiously once more, with a smile, and then whispered in her ear, "We'll be 'round first thing on Boxing Day; you can count on that."

The Emmeline behind the Veil smiled into her cocoa, wondering when she would encounter her adopted daughter. Hopefully, she would find Akiko sometime soon—she'd already found the Potters, and her old classmate Amelia Bones. Akiko had to be here somewhere, and eventually, they would be reunited.