"So you really saw him, Latiya? You really saw him?" Carnation Evans pumped the needle hard through her fabric. The slightest thought upon that needle and even though it was no where near her cousin, it would…

Latiya shrieked and pressed her hand again her thigh. Another trick. Bad magic, her mother and father told her. Little tricks that no one should do. "Carnation, I will tell your mama!"

The effect was instantaneous. The single threat that would no doubt be forgotten in a matter of minutes was already in her eyes and bringing out the tears. "You wouldn't! You wouldn't! I'll tell you what you did!"

"Oh?" She held out her own needle, edge flickering in the firelight. "And may I ask just what I did?"

And the former threat passed. Carnation tossed her needle to the floor, red thread dangling from the edge like a strip of blood across the stone floor. "Don't lie! We all saw you!"

"Where did you see me?"

"In Aunt Rose's room."

Albeser, sitting in the corner with a toy horse that was busily running circles and neighing in a minute voice, nodded solemnly. "I was there, too. I saw you. I saw what you did."

"See?" Carnation asked, scooping up her needle and tangling out the thread. "My little brother saw you there, and I think it's just terrible that you picked up Aunt Rose's hairbrush."

"I only wanted to see it!" Latiya cried. Had it really been so much of a crime? Aunt Rose's hairbrush was the only she had ever seen with so many stones on it, and Helga had told her that it had a certain spell upon it that could keep hair from ever tangling. "I didn't use it!"

Albeser giggled. "I can tell her that you did. She likes me."

"At least I don't stab needles through people!"

"I didn't stab you!" Carnation defended. "I only…"

"Bad magic," Albeser sang. "Bad, bad dark magic."

"Shush or I'll do it to you. It is not dark magic." Carnation paused thoughtfully, anger subsiding. "Dark magic is like… what happened to Terminus."

If Latiya had dared she would have performed the same spell upon Carnation. "You can't say that… you don't know what happened to him." Her fist closed tightly, her own nails biting into her skin. "You weren't there, and you're not supposed to say his name!"

Albeser uttered a small cry, even his toy horse skidding to a hault. "I forgot… Latty, I'm sorry."

"I'm not." Carnation's small mouth curved into the worst frown she could muster. "It's been almost six months and she's never going to tell us the story."

"You're not allowed to hear it!" Even Latiya didn't realize she could scream so loud. "You're not allowed to hear that story, and I'm not supposed to be talking about it to anyone but the grown ups, so there! That's what my father and your father says, so stop asking!"

Tears filtered around Albeser's eyes, muddy buckets when wet. They were brown, like his father's. Like hers, like the brown eyes that scattered themselves throughout the family. Latiya had always been told you could tell the heart of someone by their eyes. Windows to the soul, they were, and the only thing that seemed to bind them as children when all the bad things that weren't supposed to happen did. Eyes were like that, and she perhaps would never be sure why. But how she hated it when he cried. A baby, she thought. A silly little baby who needed to go crawl back to Aunt Heather.

Carnation chose the opportunity to laugh, utter pivot from her actions. "You just made my brother cry!"

Albeser shook his head. "Not crying! Not crying!" His small fists beat against the stone, ringing out echoes.

Latiya sighed, trying an action like Carnation's. Don't let little kids know how much they could get to you. Never let them know. She had never known that when she was little. That hadn't been that long ago, had it? Is that when it stopped, childhood, when you saw things that you were never supposed to see outside a nightmare and a bedtime story? "I did not make him cry!"

"I'm not crying!" The words barely came out through the sobs.

"Not crying, then."

"Tell him the story!" Carnation pleaded. "I know that would make him stop! I just know it!"

"There's nothing to tell, Carnation! There's nothing to tell."

Albeser shook his head wildly. The horse had been long knocked over and rendered motionless save for the occasional magic whinny. "Mama will get mad! Mama will get mad!"

Carnation stood up, marched over to her brother, and yanked him forcefully to his feet. "Mama is a Muggle, and she won't care at all because she doesn't know anything about magic."

That wasn't true, Latiya thought. She had heard about Heather, and she knew plenty of things. Heather was smart. Like Rowena. Which was why Rowena was going to marry Ricky and really be her cousin. The only happy thing that was ever going to happen since that lady had killed Terminus.

At least Albeser had stopped his tears. He sniffed once, the echo of a late sob, and turned those huge brown eyes back on Latiya. "Carnation is right."

"No, she isn't."

"At least tell us who killed him," Carnation said, letting Albeser's arm drop limply to his side. "Because no one ever talks about that."

The months had done nothing to hide that face. The pretty woman with all that hair, that horrible face… she could still see it all, hear it all. Her voice laughing as she screamed what she screamed, those horrible, horrible words. Latiya choked, an entire scream from then still catching in her throat. Only grabbing the wall did she get it out. She didn't know who that lady had been. Someone very bad. She had said she wanted Ricky and Helga and the others to have their school, but that was a lie, she knew that.

"The Fighters," she muttered, barely realizing it was aloud. "Someone from the Fighters did it."

Carnation and Albeser went silent.

Yes, the Fighters. It was the only thing that made sense. The lady had been tricking Terminus against the school. She did not want it. If she had, she wouldn't have killed Terminus.

She couldn't think of anything bad enough to do to them.

"So it's agreed that the Marser child was a mistake," Rowena declared, slapping a fist down on the table. Oh, she loved how the wood rattled when she did that. Sitting at a table, utterly in charge. Yes, it was incredibly fun.

Helga shook her head. Yet a red face and the giggle that was refusing to be hidden did nothing for her defense. "I wouldn't say that. He was a very sweet boy. Very sweet."

Godric didn't even bother to hide his amusement. He leaned back, laughing his hardest. "Helga, sweetness does not prevent a fool of a boy—no, a man, he's fifteen, by all means—from killing a full-grown deer with a misplaced water spell."

"I still feel bad for the poor deer, of course—"

"But it did taste delicious," Salazar mused.

So he was enjoying himself. Rowena nodded at him from her place. He had been so silent all day. No, for the past week, if not more. She had almost doubted his enthusiasm in this project. It had been nearly impossible to drag him up to the castle—still named Hogwarts in honor of Latiya Weasley and her apparently very vivid imagination—all those months ago. And today… she nicked a nail over the table's surface, still enjoying the scratching sound. Back then it had been understandable. Everyone had felt the same way. She still hurt, in fact, as well as did everyone else, she was certain. Terminus Clearwater, gone. Dead, never coming back in this world or life.

But that hadn't stopped Godric from going through with it. The school. Hogwarts. What everyone was so against. Well, it served a greater satisfaction to the joy of simply creating a school out of revenge. Which of course they weren't. But it could be quite fun, at times, to pretend.

He saw her watching him, and smiled.

That wasn't… she blushed, eyes dropping. This was not appropriate. Already she could hear her mother's voice screaming inside her head about the appropriate actions of a betrothed young woman.

Damn. The word almost went aloud.

The contact did not last long. He ripped it away just as she did, turning once again to Godric. "You realize it was because his of his blood."

A joke. Even Helga groaned. The same old joke that had been thrown about for months.

Godric responded with the appropriate sigh of disgust and infinite patience. "You're saying you don't like him because his grandmother happened to be that old Muggle peasant that threw a rock at you as a child."

"Exactly."

"So you're saying that you refuse to teach children who are not full blood."

"Define, "full blood."'

Helga snorted a laugh through her nose, a painful-sounding explosion that caught on quickly to Rowena. Oh dear, but she had told herself she was not going to laugh. She had told herself that. Too late. "This is just an excuse to get out of teaching, isn't it!" she shrieked, flailing her arm out toward him. "Because then we'll have to get rid of you!"

Godric shook his head, still laughing the hardest. "Then Salazar will no longer be involved in the creation of this school because he himself is not a full blood…"

Salazar jumped from the seat and fell to his knees, another pleading sinner. "No! I beg of you, let me stay!"

Godric turned to her and Helga. "I suppose this will take an agreement, then? Shall he stay?"

"He's your brother, Ricky," Helga said. "You should be generous."

"And I would hate to marry into a broken family," Rowena said. "So…"

"I'm still in." Salazar hopped back into the seat.

However, the incident had brought up an awfully good point. It seemed odd to be in so solemn a room, one they had found hidden among the walls and that she had immediately slapped a password on, and to be joking when that child had indeed been so foolish. "We really need to decide who we're letting in."

"We're letting in everyone, Rowe," Helga said patiently. "This was already discussed."

"But I don't plan on teaching kids like that."

"Anyone that shows skill…" She sighed, plucking a strand of blonde hair from her shoulder. "I would feel so terrible to not let them in, not when the entire concept is that we can teach them things."

Rowena frowned. That was true. "But I want smart ones. Ones that actually understand what's going on. Ones that we can actually teach! It's impossible to teach rock heads!"

"I believe that is a reflection upon a poor teacher," Helga replied with a wink.

She was much too good.

"The smart ones are usually the snotty ones, though," she continued. "Much like Salazar. He should pick next, since he can't choose bloodline at the risk of being evicted himself."

At least he was still in a good mood. Rowena glanced back at him, willing herself not to blush or… anything silly. She was marrying Ricky, and that's all there was to it. In a month's time… she hadn't realize it was coming so close. No wonder at his behavior. And yet if he feared her leaving… why was he so happy and silly now?

He shrugged, impish grin still shining. "The sneaky ones."

"Sneaky ones?" Godric echoed.

Salazar shook his head. "I phrased that wrong. But you know what I mean. The sneaky ones. The ones that can think. Maybe not library readers as Rowena wishes, but…" The grin was fading into a smile, the dreaming one she liked so much; he was going to be serious. "They can think. They are daring. They're willing to look and fight for what they want. I think it would be a great characteristic of a wizard."

Thinking. That hadn't been a reference to her wishes, had it? Rowena turned to Godric. He had yet to throw out an idea. If he could stop laughing himself.

He had. "They'll fight for the school, won't they? That's what we need. Someone who won't fail. Brave."

"People who will work," Helga whispered. "People that will believe in all of this. They'll work for it."

"Exactly."

Something wasn't feeling right. Rowena bit her lip, turning it away. Helga and Ricky had always looked at each other that way. Always. Just because he was now betrothed to her… not that she had ever given her heart to him, anyway. She jumped to her feet, head spinning. "I need air."

Helga stared, then gestured at the window, one overlooking the lake.

"No." She shook her head. "I need…"

Elope with me.

She froze. That hadn't been…

Salazar. He was the one watching her now. Still smiling. No longer his declaration of a student. No longer that silly smile. Something else.

Elope with me, came the command again. His voice in her head.

When could he do that sort of thing? She slunk back into her seat, perfectly aware of how Godric and Helga were watching her.

You love me, they love each other. Tonight, by the lake.

She found herself nodding.