Winter holidays rolled around and before Hermione knew it, she was on the Hogwarts Express, yet again, this time heading back to London. This ride, though, Blaise was in the compartment-squished into the overcrowded room meant for six. They laughed and listened along to the radio, singing along to the Yule songs, and solidifying their holiday plans.

When the train rolled into the station, Hermione grinned ear to ear at the sight of her parents and sister, and levitated her trunk down from the overhead compartment, and was grabbed by the arm and as Daphne practically ran off the train. Before they left, Hermione pinched her sister.

"Ow! What was that for?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Mum and Dad will be mad if we've forgotten how to use our masks in six months. Plus you almost forgot Theo!"

They turned around to see Theo, who was racing towards them, trunk in tow. "Ah, yes, me," he said, grinning wryly. When Daphne smiled sheepishly, he waved her off. "Don't worry about it, you haven't seen them in a while. You miss them."

"It wouldn't have been so long if you had decided to come to the trial with me," Hermione nudged Daphne with her elbow.

Daphne tossed her hair over her shoulder. "I wasn't about to sit through stupid politics. I don't ever think I'd sit through politics and governing and the Wizengamot to see Merlin back from the grave."

Theo laughed, "And that's why Hermione's set to inherit all that instead of you."

"I was also born a couple minutes before she was," Hermione said sardonically, "I think that might have something to do with it as well."

Daphne laughed. "Thank Merlin you were. I would be utterly bored to death by all of that. Now are we going to get off this train or not?" With that, she descended the stairs onto the platform. Hermione shared a smile with Theo before following her sister.

"Mother, Father" she nodded, "Astoria."

"Hermione, Daphne, Theodore," Hyperion said, "Come, let's return to the Manor."

The moment they stepped through the Floo, Hermione was engulfed in a hug from her mother, pulling her and Daphne into her arms.

"Mu-um!" Astoria's voice rang out as she stomped her foot, " I wanted to hug them first!"

When Selene stepped aside and moved towards Theo to start fussing over him, Astoria flew into her sisters like a Bludger, causing each of them to call out "Astoria!"

When they finally pried Astoria away from them, Daphne and Hermione turned towards their father and ran into his waiting arms, peppering his cheeks in kisses.

A few moments later, when they were all situated in the family sitting room, Astoria bounced onto the couch, sinking into the pillows before popping out like a gopher. "So?" she said impatiently, "Are you guys going to tell me what you did?" she looked pointedly at Theo, crossing her arms and trying to look menacing, "And Theo, you better tell me if they leave anything out.

Theo gulped, pretending to be intimidated, "Yes ma'am."

Daphne dissolved into a fit of giggles, "Okay 'Stori, we'll tell you everything."

The three students spent the next few hours going over their first semester in great detail, much to Astoria's delight. Astoria was a rather attentive listener, reacting at the right times. Although not quite as vocal about it, Selene and Hyperion were deeply engrossed in their story as well. When Daphne and Theo started talking about Ron Weasley's torment of Hermione, the Greengrasses' faces grew steadily darker. By the end, Selene was holding her teacup rather tightly, her face contorted into a strange extreme level of calmness. Hyperion, who had already heard pieces of the story, was in a similar stony calm to his wife. Astoria on the other hand, was red in the face and openly glaring.

"Just who does he think he is ?" Astoria yelled, as the pillows around her burst into bits of feathers. Although the sight that her accidental magic left-a glaring blonde girl barely four feet tall crossing her arms on a velvet couch, buried in feathers-would be rather funny in any other circumstance, the anger in the room was so palpable that none of the three students dared laugh. Hermione looked rather embarrassed-she wanted to let everybody forget about all of this and move on, after all, they had already gotten their revenge on Weasley, which they had mentioned in the story.

Selene suddenly called out, "Mippie!" When the elf popped into the room, she continued. "Please go to Malfoy Manor and ask for them to Floo or Apparate over immediately."

Hermione spun a lock of her hair in her fingers, anxiously awaiting the Malfoys. This was a complete mess-they had gone far enough already, hadn't they?

When Lucius Malfoy came storming through the doors, followed by a clearly angry Narcissa and Draco, wearing a blank face.

"I'm willing to wager that your children and Theo filled you in on the events of this semester regarding a particular Weasley?" Lucius said hotly.

"You gave us some of the basics the night you visited Hogwarts," Selene said brittily, "Did you happen to leave anything out?"
"No, we were told some of the main points. We were unaware of the rest until Draco decided to fill us in." Narcissa sat down rigidly on a chair. "How about we start the story over again with just the part regarding any of the Weasleys and what they've said to any of you, but especially towards Hermione."
Theo, Daphne and Draco nodded stonily, but Hermione desperately shook her head. "No! No, it's okay. We handled it, it doesn't matter anymore!"

It was Draco's turn to burst. "Bullshit, Mia. I don't know why you keep on trying to do this, but it needs to stop."

Hermione flushed and twisted her hair harder. "I just don't want to draw more people in and have to do all these things for me."

"We want to, Hermione," Draco returned.

"But what if it gets you all in trouble?"
Draco snorted, "We won't and even if we did, it'd be worth it."

"But what if why go to all this trouble?"

"Because we care about you!"

"But what if-"

"Hermione!" Draco cut her off. "What he said really hurt you, don't try to deny that! I know he's made you cry at least once a week! What are you so stubborn about?"

Hermione tugged down hard on her hair. "But what if what he said about me is true?" she said quietly, as tears started to leak from her eyes. "What if I am evil?"
Daphne hugged Hermione fiercely from the side. "Is this about the magic thing?"

She nodded tearfully. "The only other person who had magic come so easily was You-Know-Who. What if I'm like him? What if I become the next him?" The leaking dam burst. "I don't want to! I don't want to hurt anybody but what if I do? What if retaliating further against Weasley changes me and makes me want to hurt people for no reason? What if I'm evil like You-Know-Who?"

She was swept up into Selene's arms and cradled against her chest. "Oh my sweet girl," she murmured into her hair, "My sweet little Hermione. You are nothing like You-Know-Who. Do you know how I felt when Professor Snape told me of your special little ability?"
"Frightened? Ashamed?" Hermione cried into her mother's chest.

"No, my Hermione. I felt proud. I have a beautiful, smart daughter who was blessed by Lady Magic. Why would I feel frightened or ashamed? I know you, and I know that you are not any of the things you are so afraid of being."

Hermione dashed her hands across her cheeks, wiping away tears. "Promise?" she asked in a small voice.

"Promise."

"We're just giving Lady Magic a little helping hand," Narcissa said gently, "It's the responsibility of the House of Black to help carry out Her revenge and karma in this world, given eons ago in exchange for her blessing House Black with wealth. As Draco is the Heir to House Black and I am still a member of House Black-as is Lucius, partially, it is part of our responsibility."

"Woah," Daphne breathed, turning to Selene and Hyperion. "Do we have any responsibilities or boons from Lady Magic?"
"House Greengrass keeps records of family histories. In exchange for that, our ancestors bargained for Neutrality. We can stay Neutral in any war, and we will not be drawn into conflict unless we want to. We will never be targeted in war. That is our boon."

"Does every family have a responsibility and boon?" Hermione asked.

"There are five houses with responsibilities and boons," said Narcissa. "House Greengrass and House Black, we've covered. House Malfoy protects and unites those that follow Her in exchange for power. House Nott conducts Magical Research in exchange for knowledge. And House Potter keeps track of, creates and records all Rituals in exchange for an innate ability to perform protective magic."

"How come we've never been told any of this at all?" Draco asked, a little put out.

"Although you receive the gifts of your family when you are born, you do not have to carry out House Responsibilities until you're of age in the Wizarding world," Hyperion explained.

"What about Draco?" Hermione asked. "He's heir to House Malfoy and House Black."

"He takes on both responsibilities, but also receives both boons. Although Lucius and I both take up responsibilities of House Malfoy and House Black, I only receive the boon of House Black and Lucius only receives the boon of House Malfoy. Although I suppose for instance, if Draco and Hermione were to marry-" both went bright red, "The Greengrass boon is a group sort of thing so it would apply to Draco as well," Narcissa said.

"Do you all understand?" Selene asked. When they all nodded she smiled. "Good. Now go to the kitchens and drink some hot chocolate. I want you to write a list of every single insult Ron Weasley has said to any of you four, as well as to Hannah or Pansy. If there's any other people he targets, I want you to include that." She paused. "Now go! We're going to do some grown-up talk. That means none of you need to be in here."

When everybody started groaning and complaining, Narcissa raised an eyebrow. "I'm going to start throwing some stinging hexes in five...four...three…"

None of them heard the end of the countdown as Draco hightailed it out of the room, Theo followed him, and Daphne and Hermione grabbed a complaining Astoria and ran from the room.

Draco stared down at the list in his hands. Here it was. Every single insult that the Weasel had lobbed at Hermione for no good reason. He looked up from the list at Hermione, who was crying quietly, being comforted by her two sisters. Draco shared a forlorn look with Theo.

"I feel so stupid ," Hermione said softly, "I don't know why I care so much! Why does it hurt?" Daphne made small shushing noises, trying to comfort her twin.

Astoria glanced at Hermione and seemed to come to a decision. "It's 'cos you want to be liked, Mia. And when you set out to do something, if it's not absolutely perfect and what you intended for it to be, you beat yourself up over it." She paused for a moment. "I think you need to figure out that it's not your fault all the time when something doesn't go the right way. You know, I used to think that you were practically the next Merlin when I was little. You always understood everything so quickly, and you could do every single thing you set your mind to. I never wanted to be Mum or Aunt Cissa, I always wanted to be you. I don't know if you remember this, but I tried to read A Midsummer Night's Dream after you did when I was six or seven, and I couldn't understand it, but I read through it because it was your favorite book, and I wanted it to be my favorite book."

Hermione looked up and threw her arms around her younger sister. She stayed like that for a few moments, before untangling herself from Astoria. "Thank you, 'Stori."

"No problem. You don't need to say that I'm super smart for being able to psychoanalyze"-Hermione snorted as Astoria horribly mispronounced the word-"you. I already knew that. Also I gave up on trying to be you after reading A Midsummer Night's Dream 'cos I realized that I was not about to put in that kind of work to be you. It's much more fun just being Astoria anyways."

"More fabulous?" Hermione asked, grinning wryly.

"Of course!" Astoria scoffed. "Obviously, I'm much more fabulous than all of you combined. It's called pizzazz ."

Everyone laughed as the girl tossed her hair over her shoulder. "You've been spending way too much time with Aunt Cissa," Daphne laughed.

Hermione yawned, followed by Astoria, who quickly tried to cover her yawn. "I think I'm going to call in for an early night. I'm really tired. And Astoria, you're coming with me."

"Aw, come on! I'm not even-" Astoria yawned again, "Well maybe I'm a bit tired, but I can stay up later!"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "I guess then I won't give you the Chocolate Frog Cards I've saved for you…what a shame, I even found a Hedwig!"

Astoria leaped up, and said, "Good night!" as quickly as she could before racing out of the room. Hermione rolled her eyes and tossed them a smile before stretching and following Astoria out of the room.

When she left the room, Daphne grabbed the piece of parchment from Draco's hands. They had listed out every single thing that Weasley had said to Draco, Theo, Daphne, Hannah, Pansy, and Hannah. Hannah's was the shortest, followed by Theo and Pansy. Daphne had a few more. Then there was the list for Draco and Hermione, both about the same length, stretching the entire piece of parchment.

Daphne furrowed her brow, "I had no idea he said that much to you, Draco."

Draco shrugged. It had never mattered to him, he just let it roll off his shoulders and would lob an insult back at them. "I interact with him the most, so I guess it makes sense. Doesn't bother me though, so it's whatever. I mean I know that whatever comes out of his mouth isn't true and is just because he's a complete berk and he's jealous." Draco hopped to his feet. "Come on."

Theo and Daphne looked at each other, shrugging their shoulders before following Draco. His intentions suddenly became clear when they were outside the sitting room, where all the adults were talking.

"-I don't care if you think that's too much, Hyperion, did you see how Hermione was crying? She thought she was everything that Weasley boy said she was! Over the top would be killing all of them, on the other hand burning down their house to send a message-"

Everyone stopped talking when they saw Draco, Daphne and Theo standing in the doorway.

Narcissa raised an eyebrow, "And how long were you eavesdropping?"
"Not very long, just enough to hear about burning-" Daphne started, before being cut off by Draco.

"We finished the list." Lucius held out his hand expectantly. "We're not giving it to you," Draco took in a deep breath to gather his courage, in the face of the mutinous looking adults, "Unless we get to help."

Sirius Black stared at the bottom of his glass, sloshing around its remaining contents. It was New Years Eve, and the Malfoys were throwing a small party with some of their closest friends, but Sirius couldn't have been less interested. He turned the unopened letter over in his hands.

It was the sixth letter he had sent to Harry. And it was the sixth one that came back, unopened.

"Hey Sirius."

Sirius looked up to see his younger cousin standing in the doorframe. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be out with all your friends at the party?"

Draco shrugged. "Mother said you were wallowing, and said either Father or I had to come and get you to come out of your room. Father's still angry about something I did about a week ago so he said that it was my job to cheer you up."

"What did you do?"

Draco wore what Sirius would describe as a shit-eating grin. "I told them I wouldn't give them the list of names Weasley's called us, but more importantly, what he's called Hermione , unless I got to help them with their retaliation."

Sirius cringed. "Is Harry as bad?"

"Well he certainly doesn't discourage Weasley," Draco scowled, "I know he's your godson and all but he's a tosser. I bet he's not even written back to you."

Sirius looked down, torn between defending his godson-a boy he hadn't seen in ten years-or sticking to the unofficial Black family motto, one he hadn't really cared about until it got him out of the hellhole that was Azkaban-family first. And that wasn't even taking into account Hermione-the girl who had caught Pettigrew, something he had failed to do ten years ago. And was standing by and doing nothing while an innocent girl was caught in the crossfire exactly what he and his friends had given Snape hell for back in school? Wait a minute .

"So what's Hermione like?" Sirius asked in a deceptively innocent tone.

Draco's face lit up. "She's absolutely amazing. She's so ridiculously smart and she's nice to everyone, even Gryffindors. Well I guess not Weasley and Potter, but she did try. But she's friends with Neville Longbottom. She's just ridiculously sweet. She always just cares so much about everyone and everything, you know? Sometimes I think she could've been a Hufflepuff with Hannah, or maybe a Gryffindor in a different life. Oh, and she could've easily been a Ravenclaw too, with that brain of hers. Sometimes it feels like she's lightyears ahead of the rest of us," Draco laughed. "She always gets her spells on the first try, and she's absolutely brilliant at helping anyone who needs it with magic. Longbottom was absolute pants at everything except for Herbology, so Hermione started trying to figure out how to help him when she found out that he still had his father's old wand, and she marched right up to McGonagall and told her that she needed to take him to Ollivanders to get himself a wand. And she's got just about the prettiest eyes. They look like the sea when we holidayed in Greece, and you can always tell what she's thinking just by looking into them."

Sirius's vision flashed full of James Potter, mooning over Lily, wearing the same expression Draco was wearing that very moment. He grinned mischievously. "So, do you think she's going to be the next Lady Black then?"

Draco went bright pink. "What gave you that impression?" he asked weakly.

Sirius grinned, "An old friend of mine was head over heels for this girl, and would talk about her with the same exact stupid mug you're wearing."

His face turned redder. "Who was he?" his voice became quieter, "Did he end up marrying her? Not that I care of course," he added on hastily.

Sirius's expression turned wistful, "James Charlus Potter. He was my best friend. Took one look at Lily Evans on the train, looked at me and told me that that was going to be the girl he was going to marry. Of course, she was friends with Snape for a while, and he and James hated each other, so that didn't really help his cause. James would go all out and do these big giant displays professing his love to Lily, which she hated. Couldn't get her to go on a date with him until seventh year. But once they started?" Sirius laughed, "Man they were besotted with each other. I'd always look at them and think 'hey, that's what love is.' Then the war happened." His face was stony. "And everything went to shit and everyone died. And one of my best friends is dead, the other is a traitor, and I have no idea where Moony is. Harry's all I've got left from them. From that time."

"Mother was right, you are wallowing. I thought Gryffindors were supposed to be all optimistic." Draco looked at the half empty whiskey-bottle sitting beside Sirius. "Is that stuff any good?"

"Want to try it?" Sirius asked, "I won't tell if you won't. Burns like hell going down."
"If I drink it and I don't cough or gag, will you come out to the party?"

Sirius laughed, "Sure, but you're going to react, so I'll be staying in here, wallowing with an eleven year old kid about the miseries of life." He thought for a moment. "Why am I offering you whiskey when you're eleven?"

Draco shrugged, "So I can build up a tolerance now so I don't look stupid when I'm in fourth year playing a drinking game?"

Sirius let out a bark of laughter. "If Cissa finds out though, make sure my gravestone doesn't say something stupid. Have like a picture carved into it or something, so the ladies won't be devastated that they can never see my beautiful face again." Draco snorted. "Pureblood inbreeding tosses you out one way or the other. You either get a good looking bloke like me or Gregory Goyle Senior. Well?" Sirius asked, looking at Draco, holding out a shot glass filled with whiskey, "Bottoms up."

Draco looked him in the eye, smirking, and downed the liquor in a flash, without a reaction.

" How ?" Sirius asked, dumbfounded.

"Theo and I used to have this game when we were kids where we'd mix ridiculously gross drinks together and whoever got sick lost," Draco shrugged. "Deal's a deal though, you're coming out. Have you met Astoria yet? I think you two'd get along great."