Author's Notes: Okay, I know, I know. I assure you I'm ashamed of the way I've neglected this fic but see, I have my reasons. In February, I had happily written the first part of this chapter (which is what you'll be reading now, and no, I don't know by when I'll finish the second part), but then my mum broke herself four ribs and things at home got a lil' chaotic (don't worry, she's fine and going to the gym again). Then holidays came to an end, and I had to move back home ('cause, in my family, every time we travel it seems we're moving out given the amount of stuff we take with us). And then I started university and I had little time for anything else.

But I guess the main reason was that I had sorta writer's block with this fic, I'm afraid that for a long while I just lost inspiration, so I abandoned it. But then I started feeling guilty, given all the wonderful reviews you left me and for which I'm very, very thankful, so I decided that I'd publish this chapter in two parts, so here's the first one. As my exams are coming, I'm not sure when I'll be able to upload the second part.

Until then, see you!

Part Three: Ron and Ginny - First Episode

Harry had always found Professor Rosemberg strange, even by Hogwarts Defence Against Dark Arts teachers standars. He wasn't the only one: there were all kind of rumours about her flying around school, such as she'd never attended to a magic school and had learnt all she knew on her own, that she worshipped some arcane goddess, that she could speak Parsel, that she could read minds, that she was able to perform wandless magic...

Harry didn't know about her Parsel or Legilimency abilities, but he could assure anyone that might be interested that Professor Willow Rosemberg did not need a wand to perform magic... some quite impressive magic.

'Harry, are you okey?'

Harry looked up at Lupin's concerned face and nodded. The man turned to ask the same to Ron, Hermione and Ginny. Hermione had a small cut on her forehead, Ginny had bumped her arm and Ron's face was a pale shade of green, but on the whole they were fine. Actually, if they were anything like Harry, probably they were more shocked at the sight of pure energy bursting from Rosemberg's fingers than scared because of the creatures that had attacked them.

'Willow, can you stand up?'

Rosemberg, whose hair had turned back to red, nodded and rose to her feet with some difficulty.

'Yes, I'm fine, thanks. So,' she gave Lupin a dubious look, 'what should we do now?'

Lupin seemed to ponder in the question.

'That attack was hardly a coincidence, we should probably report it – but first, we should find a safe place for them.'

He shot the four teenagers a quick glance before looking back a Rosemberg, who seemed thoughtful.

'We could go with you,' Harry suggested. Lupin raised his eyebrows.

'No offense, Harry, but I'd feel calmer if I knew you were somewhere safe. And I seriously doubt that Dumbledore, who asked us to escort you all to the Order's Headquarters, would be pleased if we let you tag along while vampires and demons attack us.'

Rosemberg's head jerked up, her eyes suddenly gleaming.

'That's it! I know where we can take them as we solve this.'

Harry and Ron exchanged a glum glance. And they had had the perfect chance to see something really interesting...

---

'Wasn't it supposed to be a single Slayer in each generation?'

Rosemberg turn to look over her shoulder at Hermione, as they walked quickly down London's streets.

'Well, yes, that was until last year. Now all the Potentials – those are the girls that had the inner potential to become a Slayer – can be activated as Slayers without the death of their predecessor. As the Watcher's Council was destroyed – it's a long story – now most Slayers are trained at a special school... right here.'

Harry thought that, for being a school, it was quite a grim building. It was a rectangular concrete block, where the grey paint had started to peel off the walls and the door was covered in old graffittis.

'It looks better in the inside,' Lupin said, as if he had read Harry's mind. He turned to look at him, surprised.

'You've been here before?'

'Oh, yes, on Dumbledore's orders. We've worked together in the past.'

Before Harry could interrogate him any further, though, Rosemberg had turned the knob and held the door open for them to pass. Bracing themselves for the unexpected, the four teenagers walked in.

Certainly, the Slayers' School looked much more cheerful and comfortable on the inside. Bright shades coloured the walls, from which several posters of rock bands and pictures of peaceful-looking landscapes hung hazzardly. Harry reckoned that whoever that had put up the decorations hadn't been thinking about harmony and esthetics; despite this, the effect wasn't unpleasant at all. Actually, it looked quite cozy.

As Harry was examining their surroundings, a thin girl with a pallid face and a mousy nose approached them, blinking.

'Excuse me, ma'am,' she talked to Rosemberg, although she kept studying the others with ill-concealed curiosity, 'but which is your business here?'

It became clear at once that visitors were not an everyday thing at this school. Rosemberg, though, didn't look taken aback at all.

'I wish to speak to Mr. Giles or Mr. Wyndam-Pryce, please.' At the blank expression on the girl's face, she added: 'Tell them that Willow's looking for them.'

At this words, the girl's face suffered a sudden transformation. The glint of distrust in her eyes vanished at once to be replaced with a gleam of surprise and awe. Her jaw fell open, letting them all see a bit of spinach stuck in her teeth.

'You're Willow Rosemberg? The Willow Rosemberg?'

Professor Rosemberg looked somewhat thrown off-balance. 'Er, yeah, I guess I am.'

The girl's eyes grew as wide as saucers. 'Oh, my gosh, oh my gosh,' she exclaimed, jumping up and down. Harry exchanged a quick glance with Hermione, but for once his friend looked as clueless as he was. 'You're like, a legend here. We've all heard about you, what you did...' The girl stopped jumping long enough to offer Rosemberg her hand. 'I'm Maxine, by the way, but everybody calls me Max. Oh, the girls won't believe me when I tell them I've met you!'

Still looking utterly perplexed, Rosemberg shook her hand.

'Um, nice to meet you, Maxine... er, Max.'

Max beamed but then her face fell.

'Oh, no, I forgot!' From her face, it was evident that some Earth-shaking tragedy had taken place. 'Mr. Giles and Mr. Wyndam-Pryce aren't here, they've gone downtown for some scrolls, I think.'

Although she didn't look as apalled as Max, it became evident that this was an incovenience for Rosemberg.

'Don't you know when they're coming back?'

Max's brow furrowed in concentration. 'In a couple of hours, I heard.' Her face lightened up. 'Faith's here, though. I could go and get her.'

Rosemberg slapped her forehead. 'Of course, Faith! Yeah, please go and get her, Max.'

With one last grin, the girl hurried away. Lupin turned to Rosemberg, his lips curving.

'It would seem like you're quite a celebrity around here.'

'Yeah...' Rosemberg replied, looking non-plussed.

So Hogwarts' students aren't the only ones who gossip about Rosemberg, Harry thought. He noted that Ginny and Ron were looking at their teacher with renewed interest, whereas Hermione had an awed look in her eyes, but Hermione had felt fascinated by Rosemberg from day one. Ron reckoned she even liked her more than McGonagall and Vector put together, and that was saying a lot.

'This is your area of expertise, Willow. What do you think those demons were?'

Professor Rosemberg pondered in Lupin's question. Both Ron and Hermione turned to look at Hermione, hoping that she might have a clue of what was going on as she always seemed to know everything, but soon it became evident that there were no books about demons at Hogwarts library.

'If I remember them well, they looked like M'Fashnik demons – they are mercenaries and work for whomever that could promise them a good amount of money, so that doesn't narrow much the possible identity of our attacker.' Rosemberg frowned. 'However, those symbols on their chests... I've never seen them before. They looked like the symbol of a clan, or perhaps...'

What Rosemberg thought about the symbols, though, was never known. In that precise moment, a feminine voice was heard.

'Willow, about damned time you showed up, girl.'

Harry turned to the sound of the voice and had to suppress a gasp. Ron, on the other hand, not only gasped but also let his jaw fell open. At this, Hermione frowned, whereas Ginny's eyes just widened a little.

The woman standing in front of them was the type of person that was not only accostumed to getting this sort of reactions, but also enjoyed them deeply judging from the mischievous grin that curved her full lips and the even more mischievous glint in her eyes. She must have been about Rosemberg's age, although she could't have looked more different from their techer's shy manners and earthy-coloured robes, with her curves outlined by tight denim trousers and a black top that showed much more cleaveage than either Harry or Ron had ever seen up this close.

Rosemberg smiled, apparently unaware of the reactions her friend provoked.

'Nice to see you again, Faith. Guys, this is Faith, she's the Slayer in charge here – Faith, this is Remus Lupin, a colleague, and these are some of my students.'

Faith shamelessly checked out Lupin, who offered his hand, which she hastened to shake, and then shot a curious glance at them.

'So, how's Lil' Miss Rosemberg as a teacher? Is she the tight-up type or...?'

'Faith, I rather you didn't ask them that in front of me,' Rosemberg hastened to intervene, but her lips curved. Faith raised her hands in defeat.

'Okey, okey. Guess you didn't come all the way down here just to chit-chat an' have a cuppa, did you?'

Rosemberg shook her head. 'Nope. See, we were trying to escort them,' she gave a small nod towards the four teenagers 'back to our Hedquarters, when these demons attacked us...'

Faith listened to Rosemberg's description of that afternoon's events, all her playful stance gone. Once Rosemberg was finished, there was a frown on her face.

'Sounds like a job for the Geek – I mean, Andrew – but he's busy translating some Armaggedon prophecy, or like G-man's or Wes' line of work, but they're both out –'

'Yeah, that Maxine girl told me – by the way, what on earth have you lot been telling the girls about me? She acted as though I was some rock-star or something.'

At these words, Faith grinned devilishly.

'We've told them nothin', 'cept that you were the one who did the mojo that ended with the Chosen One crap and gave them all their kicking-butt powers... but, apart from that, nothing.'

Ginny and Ron looked impressed, whereas Hermione turned to Rosemberg, her eyes as round as Bludgers.

'You did the spell that unleashed the Slayer power so all the Potentials could be Slayers? That's incredibly advanced magic!'

Rosemberg smiled at her favourite student. 'Thanks, Hermione.'

Faith raised an eyebrow. 'Seems to me like you've got a fan.'

Rosemberg ignored the comment. 'So, given you're the woman-in-charge here, commander in chief and all that – can you lend us a hand?'

Faith smirked. 'Sure. You know what's the best thing of being commander in chief? I get to boss everyone around, just look.'

As if to illustrate her prior statement, she turned her head towards the stairs behind her and called at top of her lungs.

'Perce, get your ass here tight now!'

Her voice echoed across the hall, and within seconds came the muffled reply from somewhere upstairs.

'Coming, Faith!'

Rosemberg raised her eyebrows. 'Impressive.'

'Yeah, isn't it? That's what real power feels like...'

And sure enough, it took no time for 'Perce' to show up. He was a lanky, tall man, wearing a denim jacket, a half-buttoned dark shirt and worn-out camouflage trousers. In his arms, he was carrying a heavy pile of books and, for some reason, a crossbow. Harry guessed he was in his late teens or early twenties but, as his face was half-hidden by a messy curtain of dark red hair, it was hard to tell.

''Bout time, Perce,' Faith said, although she sounded more playful than annoyed. 'Look, this is a friend of mine, Willow Rosemberg and a colleague of hers, Lupin –'

The man nodded as Rosemberg smiled and muttered a 'nice to meet you', whereas Lupin, on the other hand, simply said:

'Hello, Percy.'

Something in the familiar tone used by Lupin told Harry they'd seen each other before and that alone should've been enough to rise an alarm in his brain, but it didn't. However, when Faith waved a hand in their direction, introducing them as 'Willow's students' and he saw the man stiffening, he realised there was something off. He wasn't the only one: Hermione frowned, Ron's eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his face and Ginny covered her mouth with her hand. At first, Harry could not place why the face behind dark red hair looked so familiar and yet so foreign to him until Ginny gasped:

'Percy?'

To Harry's astonishment, he saw Ginny was right and this was indeed Percy Weasley, although it was no wonder he hadn't recognised him at first, given his informal attire and the lack of glasses and freckles, not to mention that this was pretty much the last place on the face of earth where he would have expected to find him.

Faith frowned, her curiosity piqued.

'You know each other?'

'Well,' Percy said, shrugging, 'as a matter of fact, they happen to be my siblings – the red-haired ones, that is.'

Rosemberg glanced Ginny and Ron, then glanced back at Percy. 'There's some family resemblance,' she commented, fortunately not noticing Ginny's faint snort and Ron's glare.

'What the hell are you doing here?'

Ron's snapping question was received by a blank expression on Percy's face.

'I work here, Ron.'

Ginny gaped at him in disbelief. 'You work here?'

This time, it was Faith who replied.

'Yeah, girl, that's what's we Americans call it when you do somethin' and get paid for it – don't give me that look, Perce, we're gonna pay you... eventually.' Before anyone else could comment on that, she went on: 'Sorry guys to break the Kodak moment, but some demons attacked them and you're the only one that can help with research, Perce. You'll have time to catch up later – I need you to get Wes' demon books now.'

In Harry's opinion, Percy looked quite eager to get as far from his siblings as possible. Before he could make a run of it, though, Rosemberg said:

'Faith, if it's not a problem for you, could they stay here while we solve this?'

The dark-haired woman shrugged. 'Sure. Hey, you,' she shouted at a girl with a colourful schoolbag that was walking by. 'C'mere!'

The girl, who must've been about fourteen years old, walked towards them, intrigued.

'You got a lesson right now?'

The girl shook her head, making her long pendants clink.

'Nope, I gotta a free period.' Then she spotted Percy and a wide grin curved her lips. 'Oh, hi, Percy.'

Percy stared blankly at her. 'Hi, er... Chiara?'

The girl beamed, apparently thrilled that Percy had managed to remember her name. Faith rolled her eyes.

'Chiara, you're gonna give these four the tour – show them the school, take them to the cafeteria, whatever – while we sort some things out, okey?'

With her eyes still fixed on Percy, who looked rather uncomfortable by now, she nodded.

'Sure.' She finally took her gaze off Percy long enough to look at them and say, with the air of an experimented tourist guide: 'Hi there. If you may, c'me with me, this way...'

With one last look of incredulity at Percy, Ginny was the first one to follow Chiara, whereas Ron had to be nudged by Hermione to react. Harry was the last one to move, and probably that was the reason he managed to hear Faith's distant voice:

'Geez. The thing with an all-girls school is that they jump on the first guy they find, don't they, Perce?'

Harry would have liked to see Percy's look at those words, but Chiara made them turn a corner and the adults were out of sight.

---

'So, you're a Slayer?'

Chiara nodded, obviously quite proud of that fact.

'That's right: I'm Chiara Valenti, currently the youngest Slayer in the school. So, who are you?'

'I'm Hermione Granger, this is Harry Potter-' The name naturally had no effect whatsoever on the Muggle girl '– and these are Ginny and Ron Weasley.'

Chiara stopped dead on her tracks and spun round so fast she nearly knocked Hermione over.

'Weasley? As in Percy Weasley?'

It became evident that giving their full names had been a mistake.

'Are you related...? Of course you are,' she exclaimed. 'You've got the same hair... Are you siblings, or cousins...?'

'Siblings.'

Something in Ginny's cutting reply should have warned Chiara that this was not a subject to pursue – but apparently tact didn't come with the Slayer package.

'Ooooh, really? I heard once that Percy came from a big family... It must be great for you, having such a cool brother as Percy, huh?'

Harry froze, Hermione flinched, Ron's jaw fell open once more, whereas Ginny only managed to produce a faint whisper:

'Cool. Percy.'

Chiara Valenti was most definitely not a perceptive girl.

'He is cool, isn't he? He plays the guitar like, really, really well. Handsome, too. Too bad he's got a girlfriend –' at this, Ron gasped and Ginny snorted, earning them both to be elbowed by Hermione '- And he's a very powerful wizard, Giles says so, and if Giles says it...' She tilted her head to one side, eyeing them. 'You're wizards too, aren't you?'

Before any of them could answer, Chiara went on: 'It must be great, learn jinxes and all, almost as good as being a Slayer, isn't it?' She started to walk again in long strides, which didn't slow down her tongue at all. 'Sometimes it's even better, you know? Like that time we had that plague, that all kinds of monsters and demons attacked us at the same time, and Percy just had to go and flicker his wand and they went like, 'poof!', and vanished, and back then the other wizard hadn't come yet to lend him a hand...' Chiara ran a hand through her hair, thoughtfully. 'Although afterwards I heard Percy explaining to Faith that they weren't real demons – I mean, they were demons, but they were all like the same kind of demons, but they changed their form, and took the shape of what you feared the most, you know? I think they were called boogies or...'

'Boggarts,' Hermione corrected. 'They're called boggarts.'

Chiara shrugged. 'Yeah, well, those.'

'But it's not hard at all to beat a damned boggart,' Ron, who'd finally seemed to have found his voice, exclaimed. 'We learnt to do so at thirteen, and it's the stupidest thing in the world.'

Chiara stopped once more and turned to face Ron, her eyebrows arched and her mouth turned into a thin, tight line. Harry wondered whether she was mad because Ron was underestimating her idol or because as a Slayer she was used to a little more respect in spite of her young age.

'Well, it can be "the stupidest things in the world" if your worst fear is something dumb like a rat or a spider, but I assure you that most Slayers don't scare that easily, and I doubt a thirteen-year-old kid would have faced even one of those demons without wetting his pants.'

She turned her head so her long dark hair whipped Ron across his face and continued walking, her nose up in the air. The comment about the spider naturally shut Ron up, but Harry would have liked to give this stuck-up fourteen-year-old girl a piece of his own mind about facing monsters and dangers at a young age. Ginny, who was clenching her fists, looked like was thinking along the same lines but Hermione, who was an expert in sensing danger and averting it, hastened to say:

'So, which are the kind of things that are taught at this school? I mean, surely you learn how to fight, but are there other subjects as well? And what about those girls that haven't finished secondary school? Do they continue their education?'

Chiara put a strand of her behind her ear, looking calm now. 'Well, yeah. See, in the mornings we go to a normal secondary school, you know, with civilians-'

'Civilians?'

'Yeah, you know, normal people that aren't aware of the existence of demons and such. Then, in the afternoons, we learn to fight and we train – here's one of the training rooms.'

Chiara opened a pair of metallic double doors and they saw a large, rectangular room filled with punching bags, mats, horses, bars, etc, where some girls were excercising, moving with a speed and a strength that looked unnatural in such petite girls. Somewhat incongruently, the walls were painted of shocking pink.

Chiara closed the doors and resumed her path.

'Then we have some Latin lessons, we learn to use different weapons, we learn tactics, we study ancient runes and some demon languages... We're also taught the different uses of certain magical stones and herbs, and we have a First Aid course... Look, here are some of the classrooms.'

For some mysterious reason Harry had never understood, in most schools classrooms were painted in soft, pastel shades, or colours that were supposed to be soothing, like grey or white. The School of Slayers did not follow that logic. Instead, each time Chiara opened a door, Harry felt like he had to cover his eyes: deep red, lime green, bright yellow, orange, lilac, turquoise walls threatened to damage his sight forever. The cafeteria, where they declined Chiara's offer of getting them some drinks, and the library were no exception. Harry wondered how anyone could focus on reading with the electric blue paint of the walls. However, that didn't seem to be a problem for the blonde man in a nearby table, who was reading three dusty volumes at once.

Without any consideration to the poor man's concentration – which given what he already knew about her, didn't come as much as a surprise – Chiara headed towards him, exclaiming:

'Hey, Andrew, guess what?'

The young man started and looked up, dropping a couple of books as he did so.

'Er...' he began, but he clearly didn't have Percy's memory. 'Kyra?'

'Chiara,' she corrected, not looking offended at all.

'Oh, yeah, Chiara,' Andrew said absent-mindedly as he picked up his books. Chiara turned to them.

'See, Andrew works with your brother... they're quite close friends...'

This got Andrew's attention, who jumped to his feet at once.

'Brother...?'

'Oh, yeah, they're Percy's siblings...'

'Percy's siblings? Here?'

From the astounded look on his face and the slight stiffening of his muscles, Harry got the impression that there was at least one person there that knew of Percy's problematic relationship with his family. Chiara, of course, didn't notice a thing.

'Yeah, they are...'

'Ron and Ginny,' he finished for her, placing the books on the table carefully and walking towards them. Now he had a better look of him, Harry saw he was rather tall and thin, possibly a couple of years older than Percy. He glanced at Harry and Hermione. 'And you are...?'

'Our friends, Hermione and Harry,' Ginny replied. Andrew gave a small nod.

'Nice to meet you.'

His tone was guarded and he was careful to keep some distance from them, which only managed to increase the current awkwardness of the situation. Chiara, who had as many social skills as Argus Filch, kept smiling.

'Hey, Andrew, I gotta a lesson with Mrs. Vines right now... would you mind hanging out with them for a while?'

Andrew shot a quick glance at the towering pile of books on his table and opened his mouth to reply, but Chiara didn't give him the chance.

'Thanks, Andrew!' She flashed a smile in their direction. 'See you later, guys!'

'See you... never,' Ginny muttered as soon as the young Slayer had mercifully disappeared from sight. Andrew gave her a faint smile.

'Some of the girls can be a little...'

'Full of themselves?'

'Well... yeah,' Andrew admitted. 'I guess it's because of the whole "Chosen Ones to Fight Darkness" stuff, you know. They are lead to believe they're superheroes... which they sort of are. I mean, they have the cool superpowers, the risky mission... After a while most of them calm down... once they realise how close they are of being ripped, beheaded or bitten by a vampire on a daily basis. Until they do, we just put up with them.'

The end of the speech was received by blank stares. Noticing this, Andrew cleared his throat.

'Er... So, you're Percy's siblings.'

'We are,' said Ginny unhelpfully.

'We didn't come here to see him,' Ron hastened to add, apparently determined to establish that fact. Andrew didn't look surprised, which confirmed Harry's earlier suspicions.

'We came here with Willow Rosemberg, one of our teachers,' he informed, thinking that maybe Ron's sudden outburst needed some sort of explanation. 'She's with Faith right now.'

'Oh, Willow's here? Good, I had to ask her something about that translating spell...' He gave them an interested look. 'She must be a great teacher, isn't she? I mean, she's a fascinating woman, with all her knowleadge of Dark Magic... all first hand, of course. There's no place like a Hellmouth to learn all about demonology and magic, is it?'

Harry and Ginny exchanged a glance and shrugged. None of them could say they knew what a Hellmouth was like.

'So,' Andrew said, as he bent over the table and started to grab his books, 'if you want, you can come with me to our office – not a very spacious place, but we aren't high- maintenance – or go to the cafeteria, although I must warn you that it's probably full of Slayers-in-training by now.'

Both Harry and Ron shuddered at the thought of facing dozens of Chiaras all at once.

'I think we'll go with you, if you don't mind,' Hermione began and then, as she caught sight of the title of one of the books in Andrew's arms, inquired: 'Is that a Sumerian-Latin Dictionary? I wanted to lay my hand on one of those for ages!'

Not unexpectedly, Andrew looked surprised.

'Indeed? So you are interested in ancient languages?'

'Oh, yes! At Hogwarts, we have this subject, Ancient Runes...'

Ron caught Harry's gaze and rolled his eyes but said nothing. Hermione and Ron had just reconciled after the huge fight over Lavender Brown and Cormac McClaggen, and it would have been rather stupid on Ron's part to risk another fight like that. Especially after the time Hermione had hexed him with the bitting birds.

All the way to Andrew's office, he and Hermione kept talking about obscure subjects as ancient languages and the significance of number seven in arcane magic, whereas Harry, Ron and Ginny were kept as much in the dark as usual. Harry didn't mind not being able to join the conversation, though, as he was having a hard time trying to digest that day's events. First the attack of creatures Harry had never heard of in his life and, most shockingly, neither Hermione nor Ron had; then, the sight of magic just bursting from Rosemberg's fingertips, the discovery of the School of Slayers... and at last, Percy Weasley's transformation.

Harry was still trying to reconcile the image he'd always had of Percy – a neat, stuck-up boy whose clothes were always spotlessly clean and had every hair in its right place – with the haggard-looking man he'd just seen. Which was even more unbelievabable were the circumstances they'd seen him, especially when he compared them with the last time he'd seen him, in Dumbledore's office when the Headmaster had been about to be arrested. Back then, Percy had been more pompous and obsequious than ever before, laughing at Fudge's pathetic jokes and eagerly writing whatever the moron said. Now, though, not only he no longer worked for the Ministry, but he'd also found a job in the most unlikely place. A place that probably wouldn't be respected by most wizards, as it mingled with Muggles and dealt with the obscure, not to mention a place where things tended to be chaotic and where dull, safe paperwork had been replaced by unfathomable dangers. What sort of change could Percy – always the first to play it safe – have undergone to accept working in a place like that?

His mind was still swirling with all those thoughts as Andrew led them through a wing of the building that clearly did not belong to the school. Instead of classrooms or dorms there were offices and storage rooms, the hallways, instead of being decorated with posters and pictures, where obstructed by towering piles of files that they had to carefully avert, and the walls were covered with a greyish paint that had started to peel off.

'Here is where we take care of all business that isn't directly related to the school,' Andrew explained, 'such as potential demoniac threat, major vampire activity and some truly creepy dark magic cults. Oh, no, not that cult,' he added, seeing the looks on their faces. 'We leave everything related to You-Know-Who and his minions to you, guys. We are well-aware of our limitations.'

'You call him You-Know-Who?' Harry inquired, perplexed. After all, Andrew was a Muggle. He hadn't been raised to fear the mention of Voldemort's name.

The man seemed surprised by the question. 'Oh, I just thought that you'd freak out if I said it... the only two wizards that work here do, so...' He shrugged and kept walking, zigzagging through the files. Finally, he came to a halt in front of a door that looked excatly like the others and opened his arms theatrically.

'Ladies and gentlemen, this is... our office.' With a dramatic gesture, he pushed the door open... to reveal a room that was barely bigger than Mr Weasley's own office at the Ministry.

'I know it doesn't look like much, but it is big enough for the three of us now that we've stashed all the files in the other room... besides, we don't spend much time in there. The guys are usually checking the school's safety measures, whereas I have to acompany Giles and Wesley in dangerous missions... 'cause, you know, this isn't just about sitting on your butt all day translating some ancient scroll or another. Unless it is a prophecy of the upcoming Apocalypse... Er...' He hesitated at the blank looks on their faces. 'Well, come on in.'

The office, although it was quite reduced, wasn't altogether uncomfortable. At least, it was bathed in sunlight, which poured from a skylight and the grey walls were covered by posters, photographs and books. There were three desks, so small that they looked like they had just been taken out from a classroom, one of them freakishingly neat, one quite normal, and the last one a complete mess. Ron arched his eyebrows as he pointed at it.

'Guess that one doesn't belong to Percy...' Then, possibly remembering his brother's new looks, he added more seriously. '...right?'

Andrew's lips curved.

'No, Percy and I are the neat ones here. So, er... get yourselves comfortable.' Andrew cast a dubious look around. 'Maybe I could bring more chairs... Oh, there's a coffee machine down the hallway. Do you want some? Before we also had a vending machine – those that if you put a coin gives you candy and Twinkies –' he explained at Ginny's and Ron's perplexed looks 'but it broke down so, no more Twinkies. I know, it's awful. In a shop across the street you can get Mars Bars, but they are just not the same.' Andrew sighed. 'I miss the Twinkies.'

A silence followed these words, as the four of them were too stunned to speak.

'We are fine, thanks' Hermione, the first to recover, reassured him. As if to reinforce her words, she grabbed the closest chair and sat down, starting to examine the books' titles. At this, Ginny shrugged and climbed onto one of the desks, careful to push everything to one side.

'Good' Andrew replied, as he placed his books on the desk opposite Ginny and sat down. 'I just got to finish this stuff and then I'm free.' He started to fidget among his papers, looking for something. A small frown formed on his face. 'Where did I put those notes...?'

'So you're a friend of Percy's? For real?'

Everyone turned to look at Ron, different grades of shock on each face. Andrew seemed non-plussed.

'Er... yeah.'

Ron cast him an incredulous look. 'Percy's never got a friend in his whole life!'

Andrew straightened and eyed Ron as if it were the first time he saw him.

'How interesting.'

His response, detached and even, wasn't what Ron expected. He bit his lip for a moment, then shook his head in disbelief.

'Percy can't have friends, he just can't. He's always been too busy bossing everyone around to bother making friends with anyone.' Harry and Hermione exchanged an alarmed glance as they saw how Ron started to fire up. Harry made a movement towards Ron but his friend, who was finally getting out what he'd been bursting to say since they'd arrived, wasn't going to shut up... Ginny, on the other hand, remained in silence, stubbornly staring at the wall. 'He's not cool or awesome or a hero, he's just a stuck-up git. Can't anyone of you see that?'

Ron fell into silence, panting. His ears had gone red and his eyes were flashing. For a moment, no one dare to move.

At last, Andrew pulled himself to his full height, his hands clenched in fists.

'You know what, Ron? You are unbelievably narrow-minded, and even a Vulcan shows more tact than you do. Geez, Dr. Spock could've been a shrink in comparison to you!' Andrew shook his head, fuming. 'Just because a person isn't particularly sociable it doesn't mean that he is a git or a jerk or a freak or anything, he could just be misunderstood! After all, we live in a society that its based on the exclusion of many just for the empowerment of a few, that guy on TV said it. I think he was a shrink. Well, it doesn't matter. It's beside the point. The point is,' he continued, folding his arms and raising his chin, 'that you can't judge a person just because he isn't popular. Look at the great heroes of all time: Peter Parker, Bruce Brennan, even Superman was unpopular at school, according to Smallville's first season, that is. It could happen to anyone. I bet that even James Bond was a geek in high school.'

Andrew looked thoughtful. 'Well, no, probably not, but that doesn't mean anything. Anyway, just for you to know, your brother's got a lot of friends here and so do I. And now, I'm leaving 'cause I forgot those damned notes at the library so yeah, bye.'

He turned and strode to the door, his head held high and walked through it. Within seconds, he popped his head inside again to add, in a tremulous voice:

'I'll be back.'

With those last words echoing, he was gone.

'So... is he a nutter or what?'

Hermione shook her head. 'Ron, you weren't particularly tactful...'

'Oh, c'mon!' exclaimed Ron. 'I said what everyone was thinking!'

Hermione opened her mouth to reply but, after a second thought, she closed it. Even though she and Ron were friends again after the whole Lavender/McClaggen debacle, their relationship was still edgy and peace between them far too fragile to stand another row. Harry and Ginny exchanged a glance, both relieved that they wouldn't pursue the argument, after the odisea they'd gone through to make their friends reconcile.

'It was quite a shock, though, to see Percy dressed like that' Harry commented, earning a raised eyebrow from Ginny.

'Tell me that. I nearly choked.'

Before anyone could reply, the door swung open, letting a square-shouldered man in. Without looking up once, he headed towards the messiest desk and dropped a pile of books and magazines on it, and took off his coat, scarf and gloves to toss them to the nearest chair. Only then did he catch glimpse of them and realised he was not alone. His eyes widened just a little. At first, there was a surprised look in his eyes, which was soon replaced by a pensive one as he scanned the room. His gaze registered quickly each one of them to finally fix upon Harry.

'Hi. How are you doing?'

Harry gaped, thunderstruck.

'Oliver?'

To be continued...