When Tobby interrupted Alduin's play time with Wynn one afternoon to announce that Dumbledore came calling, Alduin was rather surprised. Up to now, he always had to go to Hogwarts when he wanted to speak to the man, or at least Floo. Dare he hope that this was perhaps a gesture of respect, intended to say that they should start their cooperation with turning a new leaf, and this time on better terms? Or was Dumbledore simply in a hurry?

He left Wynn with Litty and his first attempts at crayons and went down to the afternoon parlour. He opened the door and nodded to the Headmaster. "Good afternoon," he said. "I wasn't expecting you. May I offer you something?"

"No, no, it is quite all right," Dumbledore said with his usual benevolent smile. "I did not come with the intention of being nourished, otherwise I would have waited until tea time. But this seemed like the most likely time to catch you at home."

It was true. Too late for work and morning calls, too early for afternoon visits and garden parties, this was usually the time Alduin devoted to his family. "What can I do for you?" He asked.

"I managed to gain access to Haley, the house-elf sentenced for Hepzibah Smith's murder. She is almost dying, but fortunately, her memories are intact."

Alduin preferred not to think about the way Dumbledore got them. He sincerely doubted it was ethical, but it wasn't exactly as if he could take a moral high ground. They needed that information, and he himself would have likely stopped at very little to get it as well. "Shall we go to my study and put them in a Pensieve, then?" He asked.

"Please."

Alduin nodded and led the way through one door and another to where he received his private visitors. The emptiness of the house had one advantage at least: he could have two studies, one truly private for work and one for conversations like this.

Of course, he could have six studies if he wanted, with the number of rooms available, but he preferred not to think about that. It brought memories of the people who were supposed to live there.

His private pensive was in his private study, of course, but his father's had a place of honour here and Alduin now took it out for Dumbledore to pour the contents in.

Watching the scene unfold, Alduin couldn't but sigh. It was intimately familiar, this old lady's house and old lady's charm, and the young man they were interested in. It was a tragedy that it had to be Riddle who caught her eye, though a tragedy the causes of which were easy to understand. Alduin was intimately familiar with Riddle's charm from the diary memories, but his ability to tailor it precisely as needed was truly amazing. He had never in his life seen anything like it. Oh, he thought again, what a tragedy it was that this man, out of all of them, had to turn so very Dark…

The memory went some way towards confirming their suspicions. Heirlooms of both Hufflepuff and Slytherin were involved, and the second at least would fit in with Dumbledore's theory of personally relevant objects as well. Given that, Alduin wondered if Riddle perhaps only took the locket. But then, they had also discussed the mystery of why he took the job at Borgin and Burke's with Alexandra. Wishing to obtain objects for Horcruxes seemed like the only reasonable answer, and he couldn't have seriously wanted to make six of these and hope he would find enough Slytherin memorabilia.

There was just something deeply wrong about Riddle making a Horcrux out of a Hufflepuff relic.

They emerged from the memory and Alduin frowned. "Fascinating as this was, we still do not have a clear answer. We do not know which – if any – of these heirlooms is in the Lestrange vault."

"No," Dumbledore agreed, "but I would venture a relatively comfortable guess. If Riddle only gave one of these away to his followers, it would have been the Cup. The Locket was much more personal to him, and he would have wished to keep it private."

"Possibly, yes," Alduin reluctantly agreed. "It is the best guess we have, at any rate."

"Precisely. So given this, I'd ask you to use your undisclosed method of getting into the Lestrange vault..." Alduin didn't take the bait, and so Dumbledore continued, "while I will do my best to locate the locket."

"Very well, then. I wish you success."

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"The final match is like a month earlier this year than it was the last," Harry muttered.

"Don't tell me you're complaining," Sophie said, rolling her eyes. "Because you complained last year it was too late, so..."

"No, I'm mostly just bewildered. Are there no rules to this?"

"Perhaps someone else complained too," Neville suggested.

"They switched the order, too," Ron pointed out. "You're playing Hufflepuff last this year."

"To my great joy," Harry muttered. "Ravenclaw was safe at least."

"I don't know why you care," Seamus said, "it's not like we're going to win the Cup anyway. Those Slytherin tossers didn't lose a single match.'

"Hey!" Harry protested.

"Harry, mate, I know Malfoy is your friend, but even you have to see that catching the Snitch every single damn time is gonna do terrible thing to his ego, and it was overblown even before."

Harry shrugged. "Draco know well enough that that first match was fixed, and that he has a better broom. I don't think he's getting too overconfident. And anyway, yeah, I know we have no chance to beat their score, but I really want to get the point difference under two hundred at least, preferably under hundred and fifty...but it's Hufflepuff."

"Yeah, their Seeker didn't get any worse since last season. I wouldn't risk it," Ron said wisely. "The last thing we want is to lose this match."

"But, I mean...Hufflepuff lost their last match, didn't they?" Neville wondered.

Ron gave him an exasperated look. "Yeah...against Slytherin on their unearthly brooms. That doesn't really count. The only one who stood a chance against that was Harry." He shook his head. "Sometimes I wanna punch that elf who enchanted that Bludger."

"Hear, hear," Dean muttered.

And so Harry, obliging as always, caught the Snitch when they were just fifty points in the lead, making the difference in the final Cup score hundred and sixty points in favour of Slytherin.

When the champions were done receiving their prize and praise from Dumbledore, Harry pushed his way in to congratulate Draco. "Just wait till next year," he said with a laugh. "There won't be any more attempts to sabotage me."

"I was really pissed about that," Draco replied, "but now I'm sort of grateful. No real harm was done to you...and this cup feels so good in my hand!"

"Prat," Harry muttered.

"Couldn't you have tried a little harder?" Daphne asked, appearing next to him. "I mean, I'm glad we won and all, but he's gonna be unbearable now."

Harry laughed. "That's exactly what Seamus said."

"Yeah, well, Seamus has to deal with him like once a year at your birthday party. We have him in our common room all the time, and sometimes, I truly regret I didn't take the Hat's advice and go to Gryffindor."

"The Hat offered you Gryffindor?"

"Sure. Why did you think I sat there so long?"

"Right. It's just funny, because it offered me Slytherin."

Daphne laughed. "You? It offered you Slytherin? What exactly did he think was Slytherin about you, please tell me?"

Harry shrugged. "Honestly, I have no clue. I have zero ambition, to be honest, and refuse to use any kind of cunning unless forced."

"At least you know your faults."

"These are virtues!"

Neville was listening to their conversation, and gave it some serious thought. "Well," he said, "I guess it's that if forced, you're actually capable of cunning? I mean, it never really offered me anything but Gryffindor, and I can see why. I just couldn't do it."

"It's true," Daphne agreed. "The one idea more absurd that Harry in Slytherin is you. Well, and Weasley. And Sophie, probably."

Harry laughed.

"Yeah, you have a point," Daphne conceded, "you're a bunch of transparent fools and you'd all have been eaten alive in Syltherin."

"But really, if you were to say which of us were most Slytherin…?"

"Parvati, maybe? Seamus? Possibly Lavender...but I don't know any of these people really well. It might be that once I got to know them, I'd realize they had some fatal flaw incompatible with being in the best of houses."

Looking at Draco posturing with the Quidditch cup, Harry had to snort.

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"Congratulations on Draco winning the Quidditch Cup," Alduin said as he met Lucius in the receiving room of Malfoy Manor.

"Thank you," Lucius replied with a tight smile, "though I do feel obliged to point out that it wasn't only my son who won it."

"Well, the Flints aren't on hand for me to congratulate them," Alduin pointed out.

They exited the room and continued to the evening parlour, and on the way, Lucius said: "I've been talking you up for the past month, so hopefully your presence here won't be such a surprise, but still, I hope you're ready with an excuse if someone asks. You have to understand that, given the activities of your Institute and the well known fact that we're lobbying against each other in the Wizengamot right now, and that your thrice-damned law is, as much as I hate to admit it, on the verge of passing, it's rather difficult to explain my sudden desire to ask you to my Ministry parties."

Alduin, who was very gratified to hear Lucius' impending defeat acknowledge d- he was well aware of the situation, of course, but it still was nice to have it confirmed from the other side - raised an eyebrow. "I'd say that we have one excuse ready-made."

"Indeed?"

"People have also noticed Harry's friendship with Draco."

Lucius pressed his lips together. "You want me to acknowledge my debt to you."

"Nothing quite as ostentatious. I'm not doing it for my ego, merely to make our situation more plausible. A few hints if someone asks should do quite well."

Lucius reluctantly nodded. It was still better than the other options, for him. He looked like he wanted to say something else, but then he turned and put a bright, just a little too obviously fake smile on his face. "Ah, Dolores!" He said. "How lovely to see you!"

Spotting the creature that just entered the drawing room, Alduin sighed. What lengths I am willing to go to for the sake of my House, he thought as he went to welcome her, taking his cue from Lucius and making his smile just a little too obviously fake too. Some people had power, but were still widely unpopular, and it was important not to seem to jovial with them. Alduin just wondered for a moment how a person of this sort could make it as far as a Senior Undersecretary, but then he realized that with Fudge as Minister, everything was possible. And so he smiled to Lucius' introduction, and hoped that not all guests to arrive to this party were going to be as repulsive as the lady or her boss.

"Ah, Mr. Travers!" She was saying. "The guardian of the famous Mr. Potter! I've been dying to speak to you, simply dying, for ages...I am so curious about your ward..."

Yes, Alduin mused, this was going to be a very long evening.

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Being such a great success last year, Dean's Quidditch birthday party was repeated, and this time, Ginny, Katie and Kiara were asked as well, while Alicia couldn't come. That made it possible to play five against five, while Kiara, Neville, Lavender and Parvati watched them form the ground and offered comments.

It was especially interesting because they played with only one Bludger, and Fred and George Weasley were facing against each other. Harry forgot to play at times and just watched them. They were so perfectly synchronized that each seemed to know what the other would do before he did it.

Ron and Sophie were Keeping, naturally, and the rest played Chasers. Playing against the team with Angelina, Harry felt a little like an idiot, especially as Dean had his Nimbus and he was flying on a borrowed, inferior broom. The brand new school Nimbuses were not available for simple student fun. That was probably wise, if they were to stay in good condition for a while, but Harry couldn't but regret it at the moment. Ginny, too, was a big surprise: Harry had known she flew, but he didn't realize she was that good. Seamus, for his part, looked like he felt like the most useless person on the pitch. Apparently, he had been putting his hopes in Ginny to make him look better, at least, and was now bitterly disappointed.

When they finally had enough of playing and landed, the sun was just above the horizon.

"You're insatiable, aren't you?" Parvati muttered.

"You don't know what's good," Dean replied.

"I do. Sitting on a blanket, having picnic and talking to friends. I learned so much from Kiara!"

"About?" Harry asked curiously.

"What is it like growing up as an Ancient family girl. I mean, my aunt married into the Crockfords, so we have a cousin from an Ancient family, but he's a boy, so it's not the same..."

Kiara shrugged. "I think it pretty much is, really. The only difference probably is that the education is focused on something else in later years – like, boys are taught more about the workings of Wizengamot, since they're expected to sit there one day, and girls – unless they're their parents' only child, obviously – are taught more about charity work and how to run it, and how to run a household and throw good parties without offending anyone by not inviting them and so on."

"That's just not fair," Sophie muttered. "What if a girl wants to be in Wizengamot?"

"Well, she could try arranging it with her family – either her birth family, if she never marries, or her husband's family. It's not common, but it's possible."

"It doesn't have to be the head of the house who sits there?" Lavender asked, surprised.

"No. They can name a representative, anyone with the right surname, really. Very old people usually do it, naming their sons."

"So you think that boys have harder time studying, then?" Parvati wondered.

Kiara shook her head with emphasis. "Oh no, I didn't say that. Running a household and organizing all of the things ladies of the house are meant to organize...it's very complicated."

"As complicated as sitting on the Wizengamot?" Seamus asked sceptically.

"Well, when all is said and done, you can just sit there and raise your hand when they call upon you, though of course that would mean you weren't doing your job well," Kiara pointed out. "Women have no way to get out of it that easily. And all the actual academics are equally difficult for both, so..."

"I wouldn't mind if our exams were easier than the boys'," Sophie muttered.

Angelina groaned. "Don't even remind me," she said. "I feel like our teachers are trying to prepare us for OWLs by making it almost equally difficult this year. And there are only two weeks left! Ugh. Thanks for this great party, but I really should get back to studying."

With that unpleasant reminder, they all dispersed back to their books.