New Year's Day

They came off the train in a flurry of laughter and pink cheeks, wrapped warmly in fur-lined winter cloaks fastened with silver brooches. Elladora was surrounded by a clutch of girlfriends as usual, holding her own in the commotion of giggles and hugs and promises to write three times a day. She looked as happy as Phineas had ever seen her; her eyes shone with a joy that was deeper than just the simple pleasure of a school holiday.

Iola had disembarked alone, and she wasn't chattering away to anyone, but she looked happy all the same – or, at the very least, content. Her face brightened when she saw Phineas, who was standing by a pillar, out of the way of the crush, and she started to make her way towards him, tugging her trunk and owl cage behind her.

Phineas allowed himself a smile. It was good to have them back.

To celebrate the start of the winter holidays, he took his sisters out to dinner in one of the high-end restaurants in Diagon Alley. He'd grown all too familiar with these establishments over the last few months – keeping up with his obligatory social engagements was a full-time job – but The Cat's Cauldron was pleasant, as they went. Excellent food, unobtrusive human service and not an ostentatious, nouveau riche pure-blood in sight. This place was the preserve of the old families still.

Elladora chatted amiably about her term for a while, but once their starters arrived her stories seemed to have come to an end. She sipped her Gillywater as gracefully as if it were the finest elf-made wine, her long nails gleaming silver in the muted lamplight. "So what was all that hinting you did in your letters?" she asked him. "About – what was it – the prospect of the house being empty next year?" She was actually uncannily good at imitating him.

Phineas took a long draught of his own wine, playing for time. His plan was exciting, true, but with his sisters' eager faces turned towards him it suddenly seemed harder to put it into words.

"Are you going somewhere, Phineas?" Iola piped up. "On a holiday? The Grand Tour is becoming very popular, I've heard, and you've always been interested in Greece…"

"No," Phineas said slowly. "Not on the Grand Tour." He reached into the pocket of his robes and pulled out the pamphlet he'd carried with him ever since he'd first come across it.

Elladora pulled it across the table towards herself, and she and Iola leaned in together to look at it. "'Merlin College, Cambridge,'" she read aloud. "'Where the real mysteries are studied.'" She raised her head. "You want to go to Cambridge?"

Phineas hesitated. "Yes," he said. "I applied in October. I expect to hear back from them in January."

"But what do you want to go for?" Iola asked. "You're already so clever."

Phineas made an impatient motion with his fork. "I can't sit idle at home all the time," he said. "I'm bored. I need something to do. I've spent some time studying the stock market"—as it happened he'd almost tripled their fortune just by predicting which businesses were gaining value fastest—"but it's not enough. No respectable journal is going to publish me unless I have a degree, and I want to do something real, not just mess about with party tricks. Arithmancy is an important subject and it's not taken seriously enough. There must be so much more to study, outside the nice, digestible Hogwarts curriculum. So much to discover."

His sisters both looked a bit stunned. It wasn't often Phineas spoke with such fervour. Then Elladora smiled. "I think you should go," she said. "You'll enjoy it. Though it'll be a shame not to have you home when I graduate."

"I don't know whether they'll accept me yet," Phineas reminded her. "And besides, I'll be home for the holidays."

"How long is the course?" asked Iola.

"Just two years – Merlin knows what I'll do after that."

Iola smirked. The rather fiendish expression on her normally sweet face made her resemblance to Elladora suddenly striking. "Well, luckily you're going to his college, so you'll have plenty of time to ask him."

"Iola," Phineas groaned, as Elladora giggled. But it was hard to keep from grinning himself, and for a moment they were just three ordinary siblings laughing over a shared joke.

"Come on, though," Iola said. "You're not really telling me that no-one ever makes puns on the name?"

"It's Cambridge tradition," Phineas said. "The Muggles have a Jesus College and a Christ's College, so—"

"Who's Jesus?" asked Elladora. "And Christ?"

"They're the same person," Iola explained, before Phineas could. "Jesus Christ. He's sort of… the Muggle Merlin."

Phineas raised a quizzical eyebrow at her and she coloured. "Some half-bloods in my year," she explained. "They were talking about the history of Christmas during Herbology. It is odd, how we wizards celebrate it without really understanding the religious background."

Phineas cast a quick, wary look around the restaurant to check no-one he knew was present. "I don't want you associating with half-bloods, Iola," he said quietly. "The ones with Mudblood parents are bad enough, but some of them are actually Muggle-wizard offspring. It's unnatural." Elladora wrinkled her nose in sympathetic distaste.

"I wasn't associating with them," Iola protested. "They're just in my class."

Phineas sipped his wine and studied her for a moment before replying. The memory of her mentioning that she'd considered taking Muggle Studies in her third year came to him unbidden. But Iola was a good girl, perhaps not as elegant or composed as Elladora, but obedient. He couldn't believe she'd ever really disgrace them, barring her shameful display with the Malfoys over the summer. "Very well," he said. "So long as that's all it is. I should write to Mole, though. Pure-bloods shouldn't be forced to mix with undesirables so much. And for pity's sake, don't go about spouting this superstitious Muggle nonsense. I expect better of you."

A brief rebellious look flashed in Iola's green eyes, but it was gone before he could be sure he hadn't imagined it.

"Anyway," Elladora said brightly, moving the conversation into safer skies, "did I tell you what happened in Charms last week?"

-B-

Sadie Goyle was a naturally friendly person, so Iola wasn't really surprised when she got the invitation a few days after Christmas. Still, she felt a little uneasy.

"Sadie wants me to come over the afternoon before the ball on New Year's Eve," she told Elladora. "She says we can get ready together."

"Well, that sounds like good fun," Elladora said. "Why do you look so glum about it?"

Iola hesitated. It sounded so childish. "I thought you and I were going to get ready together," she said. "I wanted you to do my hair and pick out my jewellery."

Elladora laughed. She was in relentlessly high spirits these days. "You're sweet," she said, squeezing Iola's hand. "But you'll have much more fun with Sadie, I promise. I'll help you dress before the next ball."

Iola didn't say anything to this. The next ball she was slated to attend would be Elladora's coming-of-age ball in April, and she doubted her sister would have much time for her in the run-up to it.

She went along to Goyle House – a craggy, forbidding manor hidden away in the wild moors of Yorkshire – anyway, and was shown up to Sadie's rooms by one of the myriad house-elves scurrying frantically around. The situation in Sadie's dressing room was hardly less hectic. All of Iola's dormitory-mates were dashing about in various states of undress, rooting through cupboards or struggling with the clasps of jewellery cases. Despite this there was something very reassuringly familiar about the feminine scene, as though the chaos of their dormitory on the morning of a Hogsmeade weekend had been but multiplied by a thousand.

"Iola!" Sadie sprang up from where she'd been sprawled on an armchair, an oasis of calm in the hurricane of clothes and make-up. "It's so good to see you! How've your hols been?"

"Good," Iola said, a bit disconcerted by this enthusiastic welcome, as Sadie flung her arms around her. Alice, Rosemary and Isabelle all paused in what they were doing to wave at her, too. Then she noticed the bottle of wine Sadie was holding: well over half-empty. Sadie followed her gaze and gave her a lopsided grin. "Why don't you have a glass? It'll be your last all year!"

Iola hesitated. Phineas was strict on things like drinking; even Elladora wasn't allowed to until she came of age, though for all Iola knew she drank behind their brother's back. "I'm not sure..."

"C'mon, Black," Alice laughed. "Live a little!"

Iola felt her cheeks heat up, but she accepted the glass Sadie handed her. She took a cautious sip and tried not to splutter. The wine was, at first taste, very bitter, but not unpleasant as it went down, warming her throat on the way.

"Good, isn't it?" Sadie said with a grin. "Do try to keep it from my parents, though. They don't know the house-elves keep my secrets from them."

"In our vineyards en France, ze grapes are of ze 'ighest quality," said Isabelle. "Zis is nice, but eet cannot compare."

"Oh, we've French vineyards of our own," Sadie said cheerily, dropping back into her armchair. "Mother's family's been investing in good wizarding vintages for centuries now."

Isabelle sniffed and turned back to the mirror, where she was using her wand to twist her long brown hair into an elaborate chignon. That was something else Phineas was strict on: no magic over the holidays, even though he was of age and no-one at the Ministry would be able to tell who in the house had cast the spell. But Iola's classmates all had their wands on them, casually Summoning their jewellery or casting subtle charms to keep their pins in place.

"What are you wearing, Iola?" asked Rosemary, who was already dressed in burgundy velvet robes. Iola unravelled the bundle of cloth in her arms to show the other girls her own dress robes, pale pink silk with a chiffon overlay so delicate it was barely visible.

"Ooh, they're lovely," Sadie sighed. "Have you got some jewellery? I have plenty to lend you otherwise!"

"Of course I've my own," Iola said, rather affronted. She unclasped her jewellery-case to reveal her pearl earrings, the sparkling diamond necklace Phineas had given her for her thirteenth birthday and the slim gold bangles Elladora had bought her last Christmas.

Her dormitory-mates all exclaimed over the pretty trinkets, insisting that they each had the privilege of draping Iola's robes or doing her make-up or her hair – plaited, or loose, or no, Rosemary, are you crazy, an updo just won't work – and it was nice to be the centre of attention for once, sipping her goblet of red wine while the five of them debated whether metallic nail colours were a good look or not.

"I do have a bit of an ulterior motive for getting you to myself, though," Sadie told her when the two of them were shut up in one of the private dressing rooms leading off the main chamber, Sadie having won the right to pin Iola's robes in place.

"Oh?" asked Iola, trying to keep very still as Sadie attended to the folds over her shoulder.

"Yes," Sadie said. "Look." She went over to the closet and pulled out a tissue parcel. "I didn't know what to get you for Christmas, but then I was remembering that conversation we had in the dorm a few months back, and I thought I could buy you some nice Muggle clothes. Isabelle's right, some of them can be good quality, even if robes are much nicer. See?" She ripped open the wrappings with one manicured nail to show Iola some long dresses that actually didn't look too different to minimal work robes – they had long sleeves and full velvet skirts that would cover Iola's ankles, though the bodices were tighter than she was used to.

"I – I don't know what to say," Iola stammered, because what she was thinking was that Phineas would be furious if he saw these. And also that she would quite like to try them on anyway.

"No need," Sadie said with a smile. "Let me know whether or not they fit, though. Now come on! It's time for the ball."

-B-

It looked bad for a single wizard to devote all his time to one lady, and so midway through the ball Elladora found herself sitting by the drinks table, flushed with dancing and laughter, sipping her punch and trying to ignore the little twinge of jealousy in her stomach as she watched Julius take Eudoxia Carrow for a turn around the ballroom. She was being silly, she told herself. Julius was just acting like a gentleman. Besides, he'd offered to take her for a walk around the Goyles' gardens later, his voice loaded with so much meaning that she'd blushed and nodded eagerly. But Eudoxia was smiling simperingly at Julius, and Merlin, how could he stand to look at her?

"Careful there," came a drily amused voice behind her. "If you glare any harder you might set her hair on fire."

"And what a tragedy that would be," Elladora said archly, holding out her drink so that her brother could refill it.

"Watch it, Elladora," Phineas said with a smirk, handing her the full glass as he took the seat beside her. "You wouldn't want to seem petty, would you?"

Elladora rolled her eyes. "What are you doing here, anyway? Where's Livia?"

Phineas jerked his chin towards the dance floor, where Livia had her hand on Drusus Rosier's waist as they revolved slowly together. She was smiling, but only her perpetually cool, disinterested smile, impossible to read anything into.

Elladora's gaze drifted back to Julius, who wasn't smiling – and really, who could with Eudoxia babbling nonsense in his ear? – but he was listening patiently to her, giving every impression of utter fascination with her words. Not for the first time, Elladora marvelled at how different the twins were.

Phineas was watching her. "You're fond of him, aren't you?"

Fond of him? Elladora was deeply, truly, irreversibly in love, but she didn't know how to respond to such an understatement except with a nod.

Phineas looked thoughtful. "It's a good match," he said. "I'll be happy to give you my blessing."

Cursing fair skin that showed every blush, Elladora said, "We've not got that far yet. I don't think he's—"

"I don't expect he'll propose until you finish school," Phineas said. "It looks bad. But if he does, I need to warn you."

"Warn me about what?"

Phineas sighed. "A marriage isn't just a marriage, Elladora," he said. "You know this. He'll want a dowry, maybe that land near Nottingham he's been hankering after for so long… he doesn't like me."

"And, what?" Elladora took a long sip of her punch. "You'll refuse to grant your permission unless he backs down a bit?"

"I didn't say that, did I? But an alliance between houses like ours is a weighty thing. Malfoy won't make it easy for me, even if he does care for you."

Elladora shrugged as elegantly as was possible with her constricting robes. "You're forgetting something." When Phineas merely stared at her, she continued, "Livia. I know you like her — interesting taste, by the way, she's sort of awful — so you've got your own stake in this negotiation, don't you? If you must put things in such dreadfully unromantic terms."

"I don't — that is — there's nothing between us," said Phineas, colouring.

Elladora gave him a sideways smile. It was satisfying to fluster Phineas, who was always so collected. "Because you aren't willing to say anything to her. Go on and kiss her for the new year instead, it gets the point across faster."

"Don't be absurd, Elladora," Phineas said crossly, and he got up, striding over to the corner where some of his classmates were talking. Well, Elladora had done her best.

She gazed out at the dance floor, forcing herself to stop watching Julius for a while. Iola was dancing with one of the boys in her year at school, all pretty pink blushes and pretty pink robes. Elladora still remembered the heady magic of her own first ball vividly, and she smiled to herself as she watched the dancers' jewel-bright robes gleam against the creamy tiles of the dancefloor.

The waltz came to a gentle end. Elladora set her punch glass down on the tray a house-elf was holding near her, and rose to look for a new dance partner, when she felt the brush of fingers on the back of her hand. "Another dance, Elladora?" Julius murmured, his breath warm in her ear, and she beamed and nodded.

Life wasn't so hard after all.

-B-

At five minutes to midnight, the guests all trooped out to Goyle House's gardens to watch the fireworks display that would welcome them into the New Year. It was bitingly cold up in North Yorkshire, a chill wind from off the moors numbing their extremities. In his fine wool dress robes Phineas wasn't too uncomfortable, but the girls were all in flimsy clothes with bare shoulders and they were shivering.

"Five," the crowd was shouting as one, and Phineas couldn't help but join in, caught up in the riotous enthusiasm surrounding him. "Four." An arm brushed his, perhaps accidentally; he looked around to see Livia standing so close to him that he could smell her sweet, haunting floral perfume. In her pale lavender robes, with her fair skin and silvery hair, she shone like a star beside her dark-robed companions. "Three!" There was Iola near her schoolmates; it was good to see her properly enjoying herself with them for once. "TWO!" Elladora's hand was entwined with Malfoy's, and he was smiling down at her as she leaned her head against his shoulder. No doubt they'd be going in for a kiss as the year changed, even though Phineas was standing right there. "ONE!" And Livia had seen him now, she was smiling up at him with her grey eyes clear and luminous as if he was the only man in the world, forget Drusus Rosier and Sebastien Lestrange and whoever else she'd danced with tonight—

"ZERO!" the crowd shouted, as the sky roared to life with a rainbow of exploding sparklers and fountains that actually rained coloured water down on them all, and Phineas closed his eyes and did – nothing.

When he opened them again he saw that Livia was still smiling up at him, but she looked disappointed now. Phineas tore his gaze hastily from her and his eyes lighted again upon Elladora, who was blushing like a rose, her lips curved into an unusually soft and tender smile as Malfoy drew her into an embrace. They weren't the only couple thus entwined, either. Hardwin Fawley and Maria Macmillan were holding hands so that her diamond engagement ring sparkled at pointedly anyone who looked their way, deflecting any muttered comments about exactly how long their supposedly chaste peck on the lips had lasted; William Avery and Mirabelle Mulciber were smiling awkwardly as they drew back from each other.

But Phineas, ever cautious, ever restrained, had not acted on that single mad impulse and reached forward to close the distance between his lips and Livia's. Now she had vanished into the throng of people and he was left standing alone, as if she'd never been there at all.

Phineas was left with the distinct impression that he'd failed a test. It was not a feeling he was familiar with, and he found he didn't much like it.

-B-

They reached home only at about half past three in the morning, and so Iola knew her siblings would sleep late on New Year's Day. For some reason, however, she woke at her usual hour, and lay smiling at the ceiling as she recalled the events of the night before. Her first ball had been lovely: she'd laughed with her friends (could she call them that? Sadie had certainly treated her like one) and eaten delicious food. Triton Flint, one of her House-mates, had even singled her out for a dance. She wasn't sure if she really liked him or not, despite Rosemary's and Alice's giggling, but the attention had been nice.

She stretched languorously before rising. She and Elladora had long since stopped sharing a bedroom; Elladora had moved into one of the bigger chambers that had been locked and ignored for the better part of thirteen years, leaving Iola alone in the smaller room. Iola didn't mind. It was good to have her own bedroom, but she didn't really need all the space her sister had, with the giant dressing-table and the mahogany desk bigger than a normal-sized bed and the cavernous bathroom.

The house-elves served her a modest breakfast in her bedroom, and she ate in her nightgown before padding over to her wardrobe to dress. She was about to put on her usual woollen day robes when her fingers brushed tissue paper: the parcel of Muggle dresses Sadie had given her last night. Heart beating fast in her throat, Iola chose the one that looked most like witches' robes: a Slytherin green velvet gown with a heavy, flowing skirt. Dressing herself in the unfamiliar garment posed problems – she had no idea how to do up the pearly buttons, which took her ten minutes to work out – but finally she looked presentable enough. This shade of emerald looked good on her, bringing out the pale green eyes that still seemed more her mother's than her own.

Iola had no idea how she would explain herself if Phineas or Elladora were to knock on her door right now, so she finished inspecting herself in the mirror and moved to press her flushed face against the cool glass of the window. If anyone came in, she could whisk the drapes around her, hopefully quickly enough to prevent any awkward questions.

Her room was at the front of the house, so her window looked out onto Grimmauld Place. Frolicking on the patch of grass in the middle of the square, she could see two small forms: one white and one black. Dogs. And watching over them was the tall figure of a boy with sandy hair, holding the hand of a small figure in a pink dress.

Iola thought she must have taken leave of her senses, but before she knew it she was creeping down the stairs and doing what she'd promised herself she'd never do again: opening the front door and walking out into the square.

The boy called Bob looked up as she approached and beamed at her. "Happy new year!" he said. "It's Iola, isn't it?"

Iola nodded, trying to smile back at him. "Happy new year to you too – Bob?" And feeling encouraged when he nodded, she looked down at the little girl holding his hand. She looked about nine, with hazel eyes like her brother's and her hair plaited in two pigtails. Her baby-pink muslin dress was starched and stiff, but it was clear she was inordinately pleased with the way she looked. "And what's your name?" Iola asked.

"Emily," said the girl, giving Iola a wide-eyed look that showed curiosity but not fear. "Who are you?"

"Don't be rude, Em," said Bob, but Iola was anxious not to raise their suspicions at all, so she answered readily.

"My name is Iola Black, and I live around here. I met your brother in the summer."

"I never saw you again after that," Bob said. "I wondered if you might be a fairy, disappearing like that!" He grinned at her. "And where was it you said you live again – Number Twelve?"

"That's silly!" said Emily. "Everyone knows there's no Number Twelve."

"Well, I'm afraid it will just have to remain a mystery," Iola said, as gaily as she could. She couldn't believe what she was doing.

The two dogs started to tussle with each other, barking deep in their throats, and Bob sighed. "Em, can you deal with them?"

Emily nodded self-importantly. "Yes! Bad Roger! Bad Snowy!" She ran over to the dogs, leaving Iola alone with Bob.

"So do you not come out here very often?" Bob asked. "I'm out in the square every day with the dogs, and I never see you."

Iola shook her head. "I go to school in Scotland," she explained. "I'm just home for the holidays." She paused and then added, "Don't you have servants to see to the dogs?"

"Of course we do," Bob said, sounding stung. "I just like looking after them."

"They are lovely," Iola said, trying to undo her faux pas. She'd thought most Muggles were near-destitute, but apparently not.

To her relief, the Muggle boy smiled. "Thank you," he said. "Dogs are like part of the family, aren't they? Do you have any pets?"

"I have an owl," Iola said. "Daphne. She's very clever."

"An owl?" Bob gave her a curious look. "That's unusual."

Was it? Should she try to backtrack? "I suppose she isn't really a pet, as such," she lied. "She roosts in the tree in our garden, but she eats out of my hand and lets me stroke her a little, so..."

"That's sweet," said Bob. He seemed so genuinely interested that Iola felt rather guilty for having to make things up. But it was illegal to even hint at the truth to him. Oh, why didn't Hogwarts give classes on how to seem believable to Muggles? It would be a sight more useful than some of the dull things they learned in History of Magic. Then again, perhaps that was what they taught in Muggle Studies, and Phineas had been angry when she'd even mentioned taking Muggle Studies.

What would he do if he could see her now, actually talking to a Muggle?

Iola glanced fearfully over her shoulder, before remembering that Phineas' bedroom was in the back of the house, facing out towards the garden instead of the square. She had lost track of the conversation now. "I – I should be getting back soon," she said, trying to stay calm. "I think we'll be having a family breakfast for the New Year."

Bob grinned at her, seemingly undaunted by her awkward manner. "Parents are the same everywhere, aren't they? Always marching you to the table for some fool occasion or the other."

"Oh, my parents are dead," Iola found herself saying, instead of seizing on the opportunity to go back inside. "I live with my brother and sister."

Bob's smile had faded for once. Why did that make her feel so disappointed? "Oh. I'm sorry."

"It's really alright," Iola said hastily. "My father died before I was even born, and Mother—" But she didn't want to talk about her mother, how kind and sweet and utterly useless she'd been. "It's fine," she said instead, lamely.

"Yes," said Bob, who didn't sound very convinced. Maybe he thought she was dull and depressing. Maybe she was. "Well, I suppose you should go and get ready for breakfast."

"Yes, I should," said Iola. She tried not to let the absurd unhappiness she was feeling creep into her tone.

"And"—Bob added, as she was turning to go inside—"it would be nice to talk again soon."

Iola faced him again, and smiled. "I'd like that," she said.

Author's note: Thank you so much to everyone who has faved and followed so far! Just a quick heads-up that I am travelling next week and so won't be able to update; look out for Chapter 7: A Friend on Sunday 9th October instead.