Chapter 6:

Ted's reaction was one which is hard to describe in words. To describe his physical reaction a best approximation would be the face one has while blowing out a birthday candle crossed with the face one has while in a car about to get into an accident. As for words, well, despite the boy's dozen years of experience he somehow lacked sufficient vocabulary to express his thoughts. He sat stunned for nearly a minute before he finally strung together a coherent phrase, "…you… you're Harry Potter?"

"Yes, and while we're introducing ourselves properly, I assume I'm speaking to Ron Weasley." Danny responded.

Ted immediately paled, eyes darting to the other two, then around the room to see if there were any other people nearby. When he was satisfied that no one else was present he sighed, "Yeah… I guess I'm not too good at pretending to be someone else, I didn't even last a full day."

"Don't feel too bad. The only reason I'm half-decent at it is because I didn't even know about my real name or magic until last year. My dads were always honest about my parent's death, but they never told me more than that to make sure I was safe." Danny shrugged.

"All the better for it, you're not exactly a good liar." Alicia added.

"I'm better than Chase at least." Danny smirked as Chase frowned.

"I'm working on it, okay? I'm catholic; I have enough guilt as it is before I start lying about things…" Chase remarked.

"In any case, I suppose I owe you some truth-given how you just put yourself out there for me…" Ted responded. He exhaled, trying to stay himself as he thought back to the day when he first received news of his father's untimely murder, "I guess I should start by explaining why I'm here instead of at Hogwarts." He sat back down as the other three reseated in their earlier spots, "A few weeks ago my dad…" Ted swallowed the rising bile in his throat as he felt a heat starting to come to his cheeks, "…was taken by death eaters."

"Is he okay?" Chase asked as he leaned in slightly. Danny and Alicia exchanged a quick glance that indicated they both feared the response would be negative.

"No. They killed him." Ted looked down morosely at the table. "We found out the next night. When he didn't come home from work we'd assumed something bad happened-dad was always home on time, or at least he'd send an owl to let us know if he was held up… They found him the next morning when one of the locals went to check on the churchyard and saw the remnants of a ritual and his body."

Danny was ashen; Alisha and Chase were also visibly shaken. "I'm sorry… I can't remember my biological parents and I still miss them sometimes. I can't imagine what it's like to lose someone you remember."

Ted nodded appreciatively before steadying himself again and continuing, "The ministry did an investigation and found that it had been some sort of dark magic. It was clearly the work of the death eaters… When my mom found out…" Ted wiped a tear off his cheek, "She didn't want to believe it. But it was true." Ted tilted his head further down, something else mingling with the sadness in his voice, "After the man from the ministry left Dumbledore arrived. He was talking to my mom about something-none of us really know what because she'd sent us upstairs and none of us were close enough to hear-but from what I guess he was trying to convince her that the safest thing to do was keep living like before. We should all go to Hogwarts in the fall and she should step forward and publicly condemn the actions, act as some sort of figurehead for anti-death eater sentiments… She tossed him out after that last bit." Ted almost smiled, "She figured it wasn't safe there anymore so she picked a school as far away as she could figure and sent us all here under new names to keep us safe. Shame it seems like she picked the one school in America just as jinxed as Hogwarts."

"Well, that was only last year. Now they've got better security and there aren't any death eaters in hiding…" Chase remarked, trying to bring the somber mood to something more closely resembling the discussion prior to parental death.

Before Danny or Alicia could add more the bell chimed, marking that the four were late for their first herbology class.

**HP**

Dinner that evening was Wolfgang's specialty. The man had a penchant for anything involving meat, and lamb was always a favorite. Easily the best thing he made (which was hard to say, given the breadth and overall quality of nearly all his food) were mutton chops. Tonight they were being served along with cubed red potatoes and julienned green beans. As Danny took another heavenly bite of the meat he couldn't help but feel slightly conflicted about what had happened in the second half of the day. After herbology the four had met prior to the three non-schoolbound students departing. Ted had made them swear to keep his secret and they'd agreed for fairly obvious reasons. Now, however, Danny was beginning to feel somewhat guilty about keeping a secret from his fathers that involved a former friend of theirs. Apparently this was visible in his countenance as he chewed.

"Everything alright? You almost look as sad as I do when I'm stuck in the bunker." Wolfgang commented. He was alluding to the hidden room in the Clay basement underneath the water-heater. Apparently the two men had modified the existing basement to include a subfloor where Wolfgang could safely remain during the full-moon. Danny hadn't at first believed that his dad was a werewolf, but after seeing the results through the safety of a magical barrier he was convinced. It was upsetting that his dad-a man who never seemed to have done wrong to anyone for any reason (well, never wrong with intent to harm anyway) had been cursed in such a manner. It, along with the seeming biological predilection for potions (his ancestor Fleamont Potter had been quite successful at them) had made the twelve-year old more than certain that his goal in life would be to find a cure for the condition.

"Um… yeah." Danny bit his lip before he confessed, "No, not really. Something happened at school."

"Was it another student?" Silas said as he straightened slightly a spark starting to form in his eye.

"Kind of," Danny paused.

The spark grew as Silas was now fully erect, the slight slouch diminished as his paternal instincts were fully engaged. Wolfgang noted the change and responded before his boyfriend could start forming plans for revenge on their son's classmate, "You know we're here for you. If something happened with another student we can try and sort it out."

Danny realized what they were implying and quickly responded, "It wasn't anything bad. Well, bad for me…" He sighed, damn it. "I made a promise to someone that I wouldn't tell anyone else this but I think I should tell you…"

Both men were silent as they recalibrated to the new perceived situation, "What did they say?" Silas asked, concern edging into his voice, "If someone is planning on harming themselves or someone else we need to know."

"What? No, it's not like that." Danny shook his head, "Look, there's this new kid-his name is Ted, well really it's Ron-and I think you know his parents. They were in the same order with you years ago. He's here along with his brothers and sister and they're like me, with different names to stay safe because of what happened to his dad."

Wolfgang frowned slightly, "What happened to his dad?"

"I don't really know, he just said that death eaters killed him and there was some sort of dark ritual involved." Danny sighed.

Silas' ears pricked up at that last remark, "Danny, what's Ted's real name?"

"It's Ron Weasley." Danny replied. "But you can't tell anyone because he has to stay hiding to be safe because his mom thinks that death eaters might be after all of them after what happened."

Wolfgang set down his fork and closed his eyes. "Danny, your father and I are going to need some time to talk. You're not in trouble, and neither is Ted. You can take your dinner to your room. We'll let you know when we're done."

"Okay." Danny nodded as he picked up his plate and walked up the stairs.

After they heard the door click shut Silas quickly cast a handful of silencing charms. "Arthur. Why the fuck would they kill Arthur?!"

"Sirius, we need to keep our heads." Moony replied. "I know this is terrible, but Danny trusted us enough to tell us this. We need to try to figure something out."

Padfoot sighed as he leaned back in his chair, rustling his hands through his hair, "What would they need to kill him for? I've never heard of a ritual that requires human sacrifice."

"It might not have been part of the ritual. Maybe they just needed blood and they figured after they were done… well…"

"I hope Molly is okay."

"She will be, she's always been strong. She's kicked your ass more than once."

"I was drunk."

"I never said you weren't." Wolfgang replied, "But we have to do something. We know that school isn't safe, not after what happened last year."

"So what should we do?"

"I think we should call her."

Silas was silent for a moment. The two of them hadn't spoken to anyone in the order for over a decade. To protect Danny they had to completely cut all ties to their former lives, no matter how much it had hurt. "What about Danny?"

Wolfgang sighed, "We knew one day this would all end up catching up to him. We can't let there be more pain because of our inaction. No matter what we do, they'll find him eventually. Right now we just have to do our best to prepare him and keep him safe, and part of that is making sure he has others who can help him. I know it's a risk, but we need to try." He paused smiling wryly, "Besides, if Molly finds out about us and Danny someway else we'll all end up facing her wrath anyway."

"Alright. We'll call." Silas nodded as the two dissolved the barrier to go and inform Danny of their plan.

**Author's Note**

Hello everyone! Sorry about the delays between postings. I'm currently teaching virtually and it is taking a lot of my time and energy to do so. I promise that there will still be weekly posting on this, Introduction, and the Henderson Journals. Thank you all for sticking with me. I normally don't ask this, but if you could review I would appreciate it-I've put a fair bit of time and energy into this fic and I haven't gotten any reviews yet. If it isn't going in the right direction feel free t let me know, but I just want to make sure that people are reading. Anyway, sorry for the spiel, thanks again for staying with this!