A/N: Profuse apologies for more than a year without updates. Sue me. Who's reading this, anyway? In any case, this chapter is dedicated to my very good friend sweetsmile613 whose bugging and urging finally made me post this chapter. I know it's shrot, but there will hopefully be more to follow. Enjoy.

Of Kin and Kindred

Slytherins, Grace thought disgustedly, are only too eager to help others break rules.

Mark had refused to let her into the common room with him while he procured an Invisibility Cloak so they could sneak up into the D.A.'s meeting with Professor Dumbledore. She had hidden herself behind a statue of a grim-looking witch with crossed eyes and a moustache, nervously waiting for Mark to return. Torchlight had illuminated the dark dungeon walls in a creepily terrifying way; the walls had looked like the walls of an underwater grotto. Grace had felt like the walls would drown her if she remained down in the Slytherin dungeons for too long.

Soon, someone had crept out of the Slytherin common room, but it hadn't been Mark. It was Malfoy. Grace had retreated further into the shadows behind the cross-eyed witch, forcing both her shoulder blades against the stone wall behind her. Malfoy hadn't seen her, thank goodness, and he passed by without sparing a glance at the cross-eyed witch.

Mark had rushed out moments afterwards.

"That was quick," Grace remarked as they raced back upstairs, where dinner was almost over. "It only took five minutes?"

"He owes me a favor," Mark shortly answered. Then, in response to Grace's stare, he elaborated, "The Cloak belongs to another one of my cousins. I think my second cousin once removed on my mother's side. Anyway, his whole family stayed at my house this past summer. I helped him worm his way out of a dinner party he really didn't want to attend."

"Oh?"

"His parents were meeting with the parents of another girl to discuss their betrothment."

Grace could see Mark's face better now that they'd left the dark dungeons and reached the well-lit Entrance Hall. "I thought he's only thirteen!"

Mark nodded with his chin thrust forward. "He is."

Grace nodded. "O-kay. Well. The meeting isn't going to start until eight, so we've got an hour or so until we have to be upstairs. What do you want to do?"

"Maybe we should get something to eat first and then wait in the corridor outside the meeting room –"

"Hi, Grace!"

Grace abruptly halted and tried to stand in front of Mark so he would have time to hide the Invisibility Cloak. "Hi, Teri!"

Teri stood alone next to the giant double doors that led into the Great Hall, The Advanced Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration clutched tightly in her arms. She glanced at Mark.

"Why do you have an Invisibility Cloak?"

Grace sighed. "Come on," she muttered, grabbing Teri's arm. "We can't explain here. Let's go find an empty classroom …"


After introducing Mark to Teri, Grace sat down on the stone floor of the classroom and motioned for the other two to join her. Once arranged on the floor in a crude sort of triangle, Mark got right down to business.

"Look, Teri, this is kind of –"

"-secret," Grace cut in. "We can trust you, right? We don't want anyone to know we have this Invisibility Cloak."

Teri looked confused. "You're not using it for anything bad, are you?"

"No!" Mark said.

"Not bad," added Grace. "What we're doing isn't bad, but it's against the rules."

Teri smiled. "Well, that goes without saying. The Cloak makes you invisible. You wouldn't need it if you were doing something 'legal'."

"Right."

"It's 'illegal', but for a good cause," Mark said.

"What is this good cause?"

"Um …"

"Can't say," said Grace. "Top secret. That sort of thing."

"Did a professor ask you to do this?"

Mark took out the Cloak from his roomy pocket and laid it out on the floor between them. "Sorry, Teri, but we really can't say. We're not trying to hide anything –"

"– yes you are," she pointed out. "'Top Secret.' 'Can't say.'"

"Teri –"

"I'll go to Professor Dumbledore and tell him that you two are sneaking around invisible," Teri said.

"No, you won't," Grace said.

"Will too!"

"You can't," Mark pointed out. "Because then we'll tell him that you – oh. You probably haven't done anything worth blackmailing."

"It's like this, Teri," Grace wildly invented, trying to cover Mark's blunder. Teri turned an unamused eye on her and raised her eyebrows. "Harry's aunt survived Voldemort's terrible attack last night."

"Oh?"

"Yes," she said. "She's here in Hogwarts right now. I thought she must be really upset after everything that's happened. She lost her husband and her daughter. I just wanted to see her, that's all." Teri didn't look convinced.

I wouldn't be convinced, Grace thought. She doesn't know that Mrs. Dursley's my aunt. Harry and I haven't worked out what to tell people about how we're related yet. He didn't even say which side we're supposedly related on. We really should talk about it. So. I'll be vague. "She's my relative too," Grace reminded her friend. "I want to see her."

"Grace doesn't know where her aunt is," Mark continued, quickly picking up the thread of the story. "She asked me what I thought she should do. I helped her borrow an Invisibility Cloak. We were planning to go up to the Hospital Wing and follow Madame Pomfrey when she goes to check on Grace's aunt."

"How did you know Madame Pomfrey would go to see Grace's aunt?"

"She knows how to treat shock," Grace said.

"We thought she'd go help Grace's aunt deal with everything that's happened today," Mark finished.

"Oh." Teri turned back from Mark to Grace. "Why didn't you just ask Professor Dumbledore or Professor Sprout? I'm sure they would have let you visit your aunt."

"I thought so, but I wasn't sure."

"Come," Teri beckoned, stretching out an arm to help Grace up. "Put the Cloak away, Mark, and we'll go to Professor Sprout."

They both protested, but in the end had no choice but to follow Teri out of the empty classroom, into the Great Hall, and up to the Head Table. Grace had no choice but to ask to visit an aunt that she had no interest in seeing.


"Are you sure you want us coming in with you?" Teri asked as the three of them stood outside the warded door that led to Mrs. Dursley's private room. "Shouldn't this be a ... family time?"

"Yes," Grace said defiantly. "Please. Both of you come with me."

"Shall we go in?" Mark suggested.

Without asking first, Teri raised her hand and knocked three times loudly on the door.

From inside came a muffled voice. "Go away!" it quietly shrieked. "Leave me alone!"

Grace took a breath and called back, "It's me! It's Grace! Can I come in?"

"No," Mrs. Dursley replied mordantly.

"Please, Mrs., um," Teri began shakily. "Grace has wanted to see you all day."

"Have you?"

"… Yes," Grace said. "I – I was so, so sorry to hear about everything that happened last night."

"You would be upset," sniffed Mrs. Dursley. "I can't live my life without something magical popping up every two seconds, can I? Lily, Harry, letters, owls, fireplaces, floating puddings, broken bars, Marge, the living room, Dementors, you, Vern–"

The three of them heard the sound of something very delicate, very expensive, and very breakable being smashed against the door. They all jumped away.

"Grace, is your aunt a squib?" Mark asked in a whisper.

Teri, of course, had to try again. "Please, Mrs. Grace's Aunt, can't you let us in–"

The door flew open just then and Mrs. Dursley appeared in the doorway, blonde hair frizzling everywhere, not a single one in place. Her eyes, and a good portion of her face, were red; her cheeks were pale. Not a good combination.

"Mrs. What Did You Call Me?"

Grace couldn't hold her gaze steady as three pairs of eyes turned up the heat in the drafty corridor. She'd never noticed just how many cracks and crevices could be found on the stone floors.

"But you're …" Teri said softly. "You're Grace's … aunt, right?"

"I only have one nephew." Mrs. Dursley glared. "And no nieces. Get Dumbledore," she hissed. "Get out of here and get Dumbledore."

Mark quickly checked his watch. "He's in a meeting."

"I don't care. Get him out of it."

"The teachers are allowed, aren't they?" Mrs. Dursley pressed. "Find one of them and tell them to get Dumbledore out of that meeting and up to my room right this instant or else they'll have to clean up my mess after I do something …drastic."

"Please, ma'am–"

"If Dumbledore does not come up here immediately and explain what in the name of all things holy is going on, I am going to – to hang myself, you hear me?"

"Ma'am–"

Mrs. Dursley glared at the three of them, but at Grace most of all. "Now."

It only took them one more second to make up their minds. In the next instant, Mrs. Dursley drew her hand back as though to slap one of them; Grace, Mark, and Teri sprinted out of there as if Mercury himself had granted them wings.


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