September 25th 2022

The Quidditch trials had finished and James had never felt so proud of their team- his team now. The pride he felt in just wearing the badge couldn't measure to the pride he felt as he watched his players fly their very best. He'd announced the positions straight away, but he'd been unable to congratulate the person he wanted to most.

Lily had outflown everyone; she'd flown skillfully, her broom seeming to almost read her mind. There could be no doubt of favourtism: Lily was by far the best suited for the position, and no one, even the sullen seventh year who'd thrown her broom to the floor and stomped off to the changing rooms, could argue any differently. James' heart was almost bursting, his little sister, a second-year, was on the house team!

He burst into the common room, spying Lily in the corner talking animatedly to her friends. "Lils!" he cried almost skipping over. Lily, who was almost glowing in happiness, turned and smiled brightly at him. One of her friends blushed and giggled loudly.

"Jimmy!" she cried, her eyes shining.

"I knew you'd smash it," he called loudly, attracting several people's attention. "My sister, my second-year sister, out-flying seventh years! Taught her everything she knows, you know?" James told an uninterested fourth year, shaking the bemused boy by the shoulders. "Tell everyone you know, Lily Potter is the greatest second-year in the school! And, more importantly, James Potter is the bestest, baddest and coolest coach in the school- no- the world! Only a galleon a month! Spread the word, my friend!" The - now annoyed - boy shook him off with a sigh of, 'Potters' and walked off. "Or not then, jeez!" James rolled his eyes animatedly.

"Oh stop it, you great oaf!" Lily said, blushing hard.

"Who you calling an oaf, little miss weed?" James retaliated, ruffling her hair, "I am so proud of you! We are so going to win this year." Fred and Dan entered the common room, hair still damp from the showers after practice. James began to run towards them dramatically. "Freddie, Danny-boy! We are so going to win, aren't we? FRED, DAN? OI! Guys! Listen!"

Lily rolled her eyes and dragged her friends away from her moronic brother, the smile never quite leaving her face.

October 2nd 2022- The Ministry

Harry Potter

It had been a long, hard, month. Not only were the cases of muggle baiting increasing but the pressure from the community was increasing dramatically, especially with the help of Rita Skeeter. The hag. They were crying out for answers, for him to do the impossible, seemingly not understanding how hard the task was.

Ron was back as deputy, and he'd recruited double the usual amount of trainee aurors, who were currently beign put through a rigorous series of tests to ensure they were field ready. The aurors were stretched so thin that they could hardly wait for the injection of new aurors. At least he and Ron were back to speaking terms, hardly as close as they were before but the anger over past events seemed to have faded somewhat and Harry had confidence that in time, all would be well.

He was also missing his children far more than before. While his job had always been dangerous, Harry had never seen it as risky. Now, the dangers were increasing and Harry was finding it harder to believe that he could see this through to the end without another serious injury. The ministry had also received several threats on the lives of muggle born ministry officials, of course Hermione was getting the brunt of those. He and Ron had insisted on auror protection but she had shrugged them off, arguing that she had faith in the departments abilities to catch the killers, and that having a bodyguard proved otherwise to the public. So far, no attempt had been made on her life but both Harry and Ron had seen to the cottage and ensured that the wards were strengthened and safe. It did little to ease their worry, though.

Harry lent back in his chair, rubbing his eyes. The last few weeks had been long and painful and they were no closer to catching the Non-Conformites than they were before.

"Hey," Ron called, entering the room with a stack of papers which he dumped on Harry's desk. Harry raised an eyebrow.

"What's all this?"

"I was going back through the old surveillance, and I agree with Teddy- I mean Ted. There is nothing suspicious in any of them. But, you were attacked while you were at one of the houses. Right?" He looked at Harry who nodded, remembering that night in summer that he'd returned to a panic stricken wife. "Well I was thinking. It must have been one of the Non-Conformites, and for them to know you were going to be there suggests we have a leak."

"Or it could just be a coincidence and it was some wacko."

"If it was a wacko, you'd be dead," Ron said sharply. "Look, we have no leads, none. Not even using your muggle methods."

"No, I suppose it's something," Harry mused. "Have we found anything more about the notes left in Hermione's office?"

Ron's face turned an ugly shade, "It was a common ink brand, so that gives us nothing. We haven't found anything from the handwriting but I was thinking about showing it to McGonagall, she could recognise it."

"She's taught thousands of students, Ron."

"I know, but this handwriting is somewhat distinctive."

"Did anyone see the person enter the office?"

"Justin was here at 6am, he said that he saw a man heading towards Hermione's office, he thought it was you. So we are looking for a short bloke."

"Could be polyjuice."

"No, both entrances downstairs are charmed to wash away enchantments."

"Unless he took it after he came in," Harry pointed out sighing, "it really doesn't tell us anything. It could be a short bloke or it could be some 6ft woman- we don't know. We have nothing."

"Stop telling me we have nothing, Harry," Ron said desperately.

"Ron, we'll tighten up security, have a hit wizard on both entrances and we will continue scanning the mail. That's all we can do, until they slip up."

"I just hope it isn't Hermione that will pay for this." Harry didn't reply, knowing that nothing he could say would reassure Ron, not unless the guy responsible was dead or in prison.

"Harry, I know we are doing everything we can but something is bugging me," Ron said suddenly, glaring through the window at the gloomy sky. Harry simply raised an eyebrow, encouraging him to continue. "How can we not know who this is? The wizarding community is rather small, the pureblood section more so. No one wakes up a fanatic, there are signs, cues."

Harry mulled it over feeling the cobwebs shake from his head as he sat upright suddenly. "This guy is vocal, he wants attention. He probably reached out before, perhaps submitted to the paper…"

"I'll have Ted look through old prophets, perhaps this dick sent in something that got published. We could also go visit the head office- they keep all the letters they are sent."

Harry stood up, grabbing his cloak. "No time like the present," Harry strode past Ron clapping him on the back as he went, "let's go see good ol' Rita." Ron groaned.

October 14th 2022 - Hogwarts.

Fred Weasley II

Fred sat alone in the common room, in the soft, plush chairs in front of the fire. The rest of the Gryffindors had long gone to sleep, the hour was late and the first game of the season was tomorrow, or today as it was long past midnight.

Fred relaxed into his chair, staring into the fire. The past weeks had passed- as all had since they'd returned- strangely. Fred couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something was deadly wrong. He, James and Dan had been inseparable for the first five years of Hogwarts. Now everything seemed to be on the edge of being destroyed. Like a letter left in the edge of a burning fire. He could tell that sooner or later, just like that letter, it was all going to burn away and he couldn't understand why it all felt so delicate and threatened- he just knew that it would soon come crashing down. Roxanne had cornered him earlier and the week and accused him of being jealous of James, but he wasn't. He was scared.

As much as James defended Higgs (with some weird loyalty he'd only ever shown family before) Fred knew there was something else going on, something that James for some reason was either ignoring or not noticing. The Slytherins were vocal, name calling had never been eradicated but it had become less about blood- but they were sure making up for it now. Fred couldn't walk the corridors without catcalls of 'blood-traitor' and he'd even heard a few older and braver Slyterins mutter that his family would finally suffer for everything they'd done in the last war. Between lessons Slytherins would whisper insults, hex students and generally be complete and utter pricks. Yet through all this, the fact that Lily had suffered a stinging hex and Albus had been pushed down some stairs, James was standing by his Slytherin.

They didn't see him anymore. He was with Higgs most evenings and when he wasn't with Higgs, neither Fred nor Dan had any idea where he was.

"Mate," a voice came from the bottom of the staircase, the sleep tangled voice was muffled and Fred turned expecting to see James stood there sheepishly in his pj's. Instead it was Dan. "What'cha doin'?" Dan mumbled rubbing his eyes.

"Nothin', go back to bed," Fred said more sharply than he intended.

Dan hovered for a second before walking over and sinking next to Fred. "Are you worried about tomorrow? 'Cos it'll be fine."

"No."

"Dude?"

Fred let out a sigh. "Just, when did everything get so… wrong."

Dan shrugged his shoulders, "I dunno mate, but it's not like it's wrong. It's different."

"James barely speaks to us," Fred said softly, "he's supposed to be our mate."

"It's hardly like we are the first friends to fall out, Fred. It'll work out you know?" Dan paused, "Me Dad told me that in his fifth year Harry and Ron had a massive bust up, but they got over it."

"Harry and Ron have always fallen out, us three never have, all these years," Fred said. "I just never thought it would be a girl that drove us apart."

"It isn't a girl though. We drove him away."

"We didn't."

"We didn't trust his judgement, Jim hates that. He always has." Dan's voice was sharp and Fred couldn't help but recoil slightly at the tone.

"We are just trying to look out for him…" Fred said softly.

"But we should trust him."

"I do trust him! I don't trust her!"

"Maybe, to James, trusting her is trusting him," Dan mused.

"So we tell James that we believe him and we want to be mates again?"

"Or we could be a bit less obvious," Dan said, rolling his eyes. Dan looked up at the clock, "shit man, we need to sleep."

"Gotta thrash Slytherin."

"True 'dat."

The two boys trailed back to bed. Dan fell into his bed and was snoring within moments. Sleep evaded Fred for sometime until he finally slipped into uneasy dreams.

The morning was overcast but the visibility good. Perfect for Quidditch. Fred had slept poorly, he'd spent the night thinking about what Dan had said and believing it more and more. Truth was, Fred had no reason to dislike the girl. His own sister was in Slytherin so he couldn't judge in that respect. But still, he did think there was something off about the situation.

Fred, however, wanted his friend back. So he was determined to make it up to James while still keeping an eye on the situation. He could write to his parents too... But that seemed a little like tattle-tailing, which really wasn't his style. He wasn't Albus.

So when Fred decided to treat the day like he had last year he wasn't entirely surprised by the confusion he caused. He'd sat at the table (by James and Albie) and stolen James' toast with no comment. James frowned at him, there was anger there, Fred reckoned,but also relief.

So unlike Harry and Ron they went back to normal with barely a word and without a life or death moment. They also thrashed Slytherin. It was a good day.

It was strange how quickly things can change.

The common room was almost deserted with it being a warm weekend- and probably the last they'd get in a while as the cold winds were already closing in on the school.

By the fireplace, however, were five teenagers in a heated game of exploding snap. Aalaa sat close to Dan, laughing whenever he spoke, leaning into him.

Maddy, who had, long ago, had an awful crush on Freddie, sat on James' right, directly opposite Fred, who never tired of picking on her.

James slammed his card down, "snap" the cards exploded, firing ash into the air.

"Loser!" Fred called, hooting as he pulled the galleons they had all bet towards him.

"God you're so childish," Maddy said, rolling her eyes as Aalaa chuckled along with Fred and Dan.

"Wait!" James called in an embarrassingly loud voice, "you didn't call Aalaa a loser when she lost."

"That's 'cos she's pretty," Dan deadpanned, "and you, well, did you even brush your hair before you came out?"

"Oi! My hair is fashionable!" James howled clutching it in offence.

"Only on The-Boy-Who-Lived," Aalaa cackled, wiping tears from her eyes.

"Or Albus," Fred, who could never help but poke the bear, laughed.

"He certainly wears it better," Dan hiccuped.

"Starting to feel offended here."

"So you should," Aalaa said in mock seriousness, her manner silencing the guffawing friends. "You are never going to get a girlfriend looking like that!"

James feigned getting up, "Well if that's how you feel, I'm off…"

"Noo!" Fred cried, throwing himself at the feet of his cousin and grasping his legs firmly: "we love you really!"

"Yeah," Dan snorted. "What on earth would we do without you!" The five fell about laughing again, James still trying to storm off with Fred wrapped around his ankles, causing his gait to become an awkward shuffle.

"Absolute morons," Albus muttered as he and Scorpius left the common room for a bit of peace and quiet shaking their heads.


A/N

Please review?