A/N: I am so, so sorry. I don't have much of an excuse for this ridiculous delay, except that I just couldn't get this chapter right for a very very long time. Eventually I just had to accept that it wasn't going to reach the standard I wanted it at, so here it is anyway. Thanks to those of you who've stuck with me this far, I hope you know how much your feedback means to me :) Happy Halloween, everyone.

A brief refresher: A protest staged against the re-introduction of Dementors to Azkaban was hijacked by Truthseekers. A lot of Rose's classmates bore witness to it, and she was forced to tell them the truth - finally - about what's been going on in the school. Nina Meyer's bigoted roommate, Laura Runcorn, wrote a message in Salamander Blood on her window in an attempt to scare her, but she was found out and suspended shortly afterwards. Cassie Miller has a big thing for James Potter, Rose's cousin. Tony Mason, Rose's boyfriend, was attacked by Penny Alderton and had his memories of the experience altered. Being present at the protest, he just recently found out what really happened to him.

Disclaimer: Copyright J.K. Rowling

Chapter 26: The Cause

"Oh, dear Merlin," Rose Weasley said as she opened up her Daily Prophet on Monday morning.

It was some seventh-year's birthday, and his friends at the other end of Gryffindor table were singing their third round of For he's a jolly good fellow at the top of their voices in celebration, so that Rose's exclamation was nearly drowned out. Only Scorpius, who was sitting by her side, appeared to hear.

"Still making the headlines, are we?" He leaned over her shoulder to peer at the photograph on the front of the paper. It depicted a crowd of witches and wizards standing on an avenue in London's suburbs, amid blaring Muggle traffic. "That must have been taken after we left."

"Don't they have anything else to report?" Scowling, Rose made to crumple up the newspaper, but Albus snatched it out of her hand from across the table. "It's been almost two weeks. They wiped all the Muggles' memories afterwards, no one's seen a Truthseeker since…"

"Or Carlotta Pinkstone." Cassie Miller joined the conversation, leaning towards them on Rose's other side. The seventh-years' voices had died down into a tolerable buzz now, and they could hear each other more clearly.

Rose raised her eyebrows. "Because none of you let me go after her at the protest."

Albus snorted, eyes fixed on the same photograph she had been looking at before. "Rose, talented witch as you are, going after Pinkstone was never a good idea. She's way out of your league: way out of everyone's league."

"She's old," Cassie pointed out. "How strong can she be?"

"Age has nothing to do with it," Scorpius said. "Carlotta Pinkstone's got wandless magic on her side."

"Looks like someone's done their research." Cassie eyed Scorpius coolly. "Is that why you're sitting over here? To give us a little lesson?"

"Be nice," Rose admonished her friend as she reached for the butter.

"I am being nice. He's the one acting like he knows every - "

"Children, children." James Potter had crossed to their end of the table. He braced a hand on Rose and Cassie's chairs, leaning down and whispering in their ears, "Prefect offices, eight o'clock tonight." With a glance towards Scorpius, "I guess you're invited, too."

"What a privilege," the Slytherin retorted, and James waved a hand.

"It's too early in the morning for sarcasm." Straightening up once more, he made to move back to the seventh-years, but at a touch of Cassie's arm, turned back.

"Will you look over this evening's training plan with me?" she asked. "I want to make sure the team's in shape."

James glanced at his friends again, then nodded. "All right. Come on."

Scorpius watched the two thoughtfully as they left the Great Hall. He turned back to his plate. "Your cousin's having the meeting in the prefect offices again? I wonder how long he can keep that up until the Head Students suspect something."

"Yeah, Lucy's not going to buy the study-group excuse for much longer," Rose said glumly. "I mean, it is James we're talking about."

"So why not tell her?" Albus suggested. As the other two stared at him, "What? Is it really such a bad idea?"

It was Rose who spoke first. "She'd shut it down, Al. You know she would."

"It's just a group of students trying to do some good."

"A group that was formed at a protest against her father's policies," Scorpius pointed out.

"Yeah, but it has nothing to do with that." Albus lowered his voice, unnecessarily, as another cheer went up among the seventh-years at the same moment. "Our group's about stopping the Truthseekers in the school."

"Lucy would be against it, for the same reason our parents would be, Al." Rose's voice was flat. "She'd say we were putting ourselves in unnecessary danger, that we were trying to do the Aurors' job for them."

"Yeah, I suppose she would." Albus looked glum as he folded up his paper.

"Rose! There you are."

"That's my cue," Scorpius murmured at the sound of Tony Mason's voice, and slipped out of his seat as the Hufflepuff approached Gryffindor table.

"I thought we could talk." Tony put a hand on the back of Rose's chair as James had done, but did not sit. His eyes were gentle, appealing as they looked at her. "Walk with me?"

Desperately, Rose looked to her left, but Albus had retreated into his newspaper once more. Scorpius was nowhere to be seen. She was abandoned. Utterly abandoned.

Taking a deep breath, she gathered up her things and followed Tony out of the Great Hall.

"She's not going to break up with him."

"She will," Nina Meyer said. "Eventually."

Scorpius stole a glare at his friend as he sat down on his bed, rifling through his satchel. Following breakfast, they had headed down to the dungeons to study for their free period. "Hardly reassuring, Meyer."

"Hey, no birds allowed," called the muffled voice of Carlos Santini from behind the bathroom door, which stood slightly ajar.

"Meyer doesn't count as a bird, Carlos," Jem called back, then ducked as Nina threw a pillow at him.

"I don't know what you want me to say," she went on to Scorpius as though nothing had happened. He drew his legs up on to the bed, kicking off his shoes. "It's not like Rose tells me any more than she tells you." At Scorpius's look, she spread her hands. "What? She doesn't. But I've had to listen to her obsessing for the past two weeks, Tony this, Tony that, what am I going to tell Tony, and all that dragon dung..."

Scorpius leaned back against the headboard, trying not to seem too interested. "What is it she's afraid of telling Mason about?"

"What do you think?" Nina said flatly. "Maybe the fact that she let his attacker escape? Or the fact that she lied to him about knowing who had done it, knowing his memories were wiped..."

"Oh, yeah. Of course."

"You know she's not worth it, Scorpius." Jem tossed the pillow back to Nina and moved towards his own bed, unwinding the strap of his satchel from around his shoulder. "She's been stringing that Mason bloke along all this time."

"I hate birds who do that." Santini emerged from the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his torso. "It's just unfair."

"No one invited you to join the conversation, Santini," Nina said in a pained voice.

"I think you missed the part where this is my dormitory, Meyer."

"Then at least put some clothes on. My eyes are burning." Turning back to Scorpius and shading her eyes with one hand, "Look, I don't know what Rose is on at the moment. But she wants to break things off with Mason... at least I think she does."

"Blimey, if this bird's as mixed up as she sounds maybe Mason'll chuck her first." Santini wore a look of intense concentration as he began to thread gel through his wet hair. "Save you a lot of grief."

"You can do better than Weasley, anyway, Scorpius," Jem said wearily.

Santini snorted. "Yeah, maybe Diana Turpin will take you back."

"For the last time, I broke up with her," Scorpius snapped.

"That's not what I heard."

"This coming from a wizard who was dumped by a witch two years younger than him."

"Oh, for Merlin's sake, you lot," Jem broke in impatiently. "How is this helping?"

"I feel a little better," Scorpius said dryly, sitting up and smirking as Santini made an obscene gesture and retreated to the bathroom with a slam of the door.

"Thank God," Nina said, with a shudder. "I was afraid his towel was going to slip."

"If you're so scared of men's bodies, what are you doing in our dormitory?" Jem teased.

"You've got a point, Sharpwood. I suppose it's a good thing there aren't any men around." Nina rolled to her feet and stuck out her tongue at them. "I'm off to class. See you tonight, Malfoy."

"What's on tonight?" Jem asked, once she had gone.

"You know," Scorpius said, with a shifty glance at the door, through which Santini could be heard stomping around the bathroom. "That group I told you about. We're having our third meeting tonight."

"Oh yes, the secret society." Jem stretched out on his bed, sighing. "Can't believe you're going to that thing."

"Keep your voice down, Sharpwood." Scorpius scowled. "You know, it's actually good. If you came along, you'd see for yourself."

"No way in Merlin." Jem fixed his friend with a sceptical glance. "As if James Potter would let in a Slytherin interloper like myself."

"Of course he would," Scorpius said quickly. "Of course, there's an initiation rite - you have to drink dragon's blood, sacrifice a few lambs..."

"You're hilarious, Malfoy."

"Has it occurred to you that our group needs a name?"

James, whose lips were at that moment pressed against Cassie's neck, was not at liberty to respond right away, but she didn't mind. When their walk to the Quidditch pitch to survey this evening's training plan had turned into… well, this, she hadn't minded either. In fact, it had been her intention - even if the broomshed wasn't the most classy of locations for such a rendezvous.

Tightening her arms around his shoulders and bracing herself against the wall, Cassie continued, "I've been giving it some thought. We could go with some abbreviation like the D.A., and call it the H.A. instead, but I feel like that's a little lazy."

James raised his head from her neck. "The H.A.?"

"Hobspawn's Army," Cassie said nonchalantly. James burst out laughing, and she rolled her eyes. "It was just an idea."

"A terrible one," James said, and then he bent again, this time to kiss her collarbone. Cassie tugged the collar of her shirt back to allow him access, and sucked in her breath at the touch of his lips on her skin. Her hands moved to his head, and she curled her fingers into his dark, thick hair. A moment later, he covered her mouth with his, and they went on in that fashion for quite a few minutes, not a word exchanged between them.

At last, Cassie emerged for air. "What about the Alliance? No, that sounds too Star Wars."

"Is that another Muggle reference?" James didn't seem to really care about the answer, though, as he kissed her again, murmuring, "You know I don't get those."

"How about the Guardians of… something-or-other…" Cassie trailed off as James slipped a hand under the material of her shirt. "Or the Fellowship of… no, that's too Lord of the Rings."

"Again with the references I don't get." James twisted her around so that he had his back to the wall instead. It was so dark that they could barely see each other. "Miller, is this really what you're choosing to think about right now?"

Cassie traced a hand along his cheek – at least, she was pretty sure it was his cheek. "I can multi-task," she said sweetly.

"Not if I have any say in it." Roughly, James spun around again and pinned her against the wall. He dragged his hands down her chest, her stomach, her abdomen, and followed with a volley of light, infuriating kisses. When he straightened up again, she lunged at him, crushing his mouth with hers and locking her hands around his neck.

"That's more like it," he said against her lips, and she just kissed him harder. He reeled backwards, then caught his balance again and put out a hand, knocking the nearest broom off its stand. Shocked, Cassie broke off the kiss to stare at him.

"Cruelty to broomsticks!" she exclaimed, but James just rolled his eyes.

"It's only a Cleansweep. It'll survive."

Cassie didn't let the plight of the broomstick bother her for too much longer, as James was hooking his hands around her waist and hoisting her onto the empty broomstand, and his lips were on hers again… then he stopped. "Do you know, I've thought of a good name."

A furious, guttural sound emerged from Cassie's lips, and James just grinned, his teeth showing in the dark. "Now you know how it feels, Miller."

"So are you going to tell me what it is, Potter?" she said through gritted teeth.

James put his hands on her back as he leaned in to kiss her. "How about the Secretkeepers?"

"You've been avoiding me." The courtyard was nearly deserted at this time of morning, but Tony Mason glanced around all the same, as though afraid people were listening to them. Then he turned back to Rose, looking downcast.

"I didn't know what to say."

The Hufflepuff captain took a deep breath, then ran a hand through his hair. "Well, sorry would be a good start."

"You know I'm sorry." Rose's voice was quiet. "After what Penny did to you, I shouldn't have let her run off like that. And now that both her and her brother are gone from the school, we have no way of finding them and it's my fault for letting her go - "

"It's not so much that," Tony said. "She was your friend. I know it must have been hard to believe. I still find it hard to believe, that she could have cast an Unforgivable Curse."

Rose bit her lip hard, then said quickly, "But she didn't really cast it, Tony. You know that."

He looked up at her again, his frown deepening, and she closed her eyes for a moment, trying to gather her thoughts. "I mean… she altered your memories so that you'd remember her doing it, but she didn't really do it - "

"I still remember the pain, Rose," Tony said quietly. "I can still feel it. You saying that's not real?"

"Well, if it's an implanted memory - "

"It makes no difference," he interrupted, an edge to his voice that she had never heard before. Then, a moment later, he sighed. "I'm sorry, Rose. I didn't mean to sound…"

"No, Tony, you don't need to apologise. I have no right to tell you if what you remember is or isn't real. Besides, I'm only going by Penny's word, and we all know how much that's worth now." Rose gave a small, bitter laugh, and Tony did not join in.

"I wish you had told me, Rose," he said, after a pause. "And not just about Penny. About... everything."

Rose looked down at her shoes. "I know."

A silence. Then the rustle of robes, the crunch of a footstep, and Tony's hand was on her arm. She stared at it.

"I'm willing to give it another go, Rose," he said softly. "If you are."

Exactly what she had been afraid he would say. She had practised the perfect response, but now the words wouldn't form in her throat.

"It's up to you," Tony said.

Rose opened her mouth - closed it again. And then, from across the courtyard,

"Rose Weasley!"

Never in her life had Rose been more glad to see her cousin. Lucy Weasley looked harried, wisps of hair coming loose from her usually immaculate bun as she marched across the lawn and seized Rose's arm, dragging her away from a dumbfounded Tony.

"Lucy, I haven't seen you in ages, how have you - "

The Head Girl rolled her eyes. "Enough of that, Rose. You know what this is about."

"I'm afraid I don't."

Lucy Weasley came to a stop just inside the entrance to the castle, and rounded on Rose. "These meetings. In the prefect offices."

"You mean the study group?" Rose said innocently.

Her cousin's face reddened with indignation. "Albus told me what you're really about. He even - " She spluttered a little, " - he even suggested I join."

"Of course he did," Rose said in a low voice, then more loudly, "Well, Lucy, I think James is probably the best person to talk to about this..."

"Don't you give me that, Rose Lavender Weasley." Lucy fixed her with a hard gaze. "He's not a prefect. But you are - and I'm shocked that you would let this happen. Albus did the responsible thing, coming to me - but you... You never even considered consulting me about this?"

"Well, if you want to go down that road…"

"Yes, Rose. Yes, I do."

"Fine." Rose looked at her squarely. "I thought it would be unwise."

"Unwise?"

"Since our group was formed at the protest against the Azkaban Act, which your father…"

Lucy Weasley's face had gone from red to white in the space of a few seconds, but she held up a hand. "You don't need to say it."

"I figured you wouldn't let us meet if you knew why."

"I wouldn't have allowed it," Lucy said in a clipped voice, "But not because of my father, thank you very much. I would have forbidden you from meeting in the prefect offices because those rooms are reserved for prefects' business only."

"Yeah, I'm sure." Rose studied her cousin. "You know, Lucy, I think our group can really make some kind of difference. Everything that's been going on in the castle…"

Lucy Weasley shook her head. "You're not an Auror." After taking a few steps away, she threw over her shoulder, "But if you and James are so set on keeping this group going, you'd better find a new place to meet."

"So you didn't give Mason an answer?"

Rose stayed where she was as Nina shut the door of the Slytherin dormitory and fell back on her bed. "I told him I needed time to think." She glanced around, anxious to change the subject. "Is it weird, sleeping here again?"

"Not really." Nina began plumping one of her pillows. "I only share with Melanie now, and she spends most of her time in the Ravenclaw boys' dormitories. You're safe to come in."

Rose still did not move from her spot by the door. "Which one is Orchid's bed?"

"Was," Nina corrected, with a roll of her eyes. "And it's that one, over there." As the other witch moved in the direction she had pointed, "What are you going to do, curse it?"

"That might be an idea." Rose reached the bed, which was still unmade, and then shrugged. "Not worth the effort. I might take a poke around, though."

"There's not much point." Nina adjusted her pillow behind her head and leaned back on it, sighing. "Orchid will have brought all her important stuff with her when she and Torrance left the castle."

"She left in a hurry." Squatting, Rose opened one of the bedside cupboards. "Look, her books are still here." Pulling one out, she turned over the dust jacket and hmphed. "The Life of Flavius Belby. Didn't realise Ottelby was such a reader."

"She likes her biographies. And not the trashy Rita Skeeter kind, either." Nina rolled over so that she was leaning on her right side, her arm propping her up, and watched Rose thumb through Orchid's books. "You'd better not make us late for the meeting."

"Hmm?" Rose was now peering inside the cupboard, having pulled out all of the books.

"The meeting," Nina said impatiently. "You know, the one your cousin told us about this morning."

"Ah, yes," Rose said vaguely, picking up one of the books and squinting at it. She flipped it open on a random page, then put it down again, looking disappointed.

Nina sat up as her friend picked out yet another book. "Rose, what are you doing?"

"I told you, I'm curious about Orchid."

"Is this because of what I told you about Scorpius liking her?"

"This has nothing to do with that," Rose said hotly.

"Are you sure? Because right now, you seem a little obsessed."

"I am not obsessed." Rose began shoving the books back into the cupboard with more force than necessary. "For your information, I am looking for a lead on where Penny might be."

"You let her go," Nina reminded her.

"Yeah, well, I wasn't thinking." She paused to wipe her brow, and Nina pursed her lips.

"You know what this looks like to me?"

"What, Nina? What does this look like to you?" There was a bite to Rose's tone, but Nina did not so much as flinch.

"It looks to me like you're avoiding the real question." Nina got to her feet. "You don't want to talk about Mason."

"No, I don't." Rose turned away as Nina approached, replacing the last book in the cupboard. "I just – whoa."

"What is it?" Nina knelt beside her friend, peering over her shoulder, to see her knocking her knuckles against the back of the inside of the cupboard.

"There's a bit of give!" she said excitedly, her eyes fixing on Nina's. "It must be a false back."

Nina shook her head. "You're mad," she started to say, but was promptly silenced as a wooden board toppled out of the cupboard and at their feet. Rose reached behind where it had been moments before, pushing aside a few of the remaining books, and drew out a leather-bound volume. It was wider and longer than the rest, its corners dog-eared from being folded over, and it bore no writing on the front or back.

"It must be her diary," Rose breathed, tracing the leather cover in fascination.

Nina snorted. "Not Orchid. Do you think she'd just leave that lying around?"

"What is it, then?" Undoing the clasp on the volume, despite Nina's protests, Rose turned over the first page and let out a low whistle.

"Are those…"

"Newspaper clippings." Rose peered at the square of yellowed paper, meticulously Spellotaped to the page of the book. The print was so faded that she could barely read it. "The first baby of the year, born at 2 a.m. New Year's Day 1922, in Cornwall… to Mr and Mrs Charles Pinkstone." She stared at Nina, who pointed to the grainy photograph of a baby in her mother's arms beneath it.

"Must be a Muggle paper. The photograph is still."

"If that's Carlotta Pinkstone…" Rose shook her head. "She must be close to a hundred now."

"Well, she certainly didn't look it at the protest." Nina reached over Rose's hands, turning over onto the next page. It was another photograph, this one moving, of two little girls standing outside an old farmhouse. Both wore sombre expressions that seemed forced, especially as they kept fidgeting and nudging each other. One of them was slight, and darker-skinned than the other. "That must be Carlotta. Carlotta and a friend."

"This is very strange," Rose murmured as Nina moved to the next page, and then the next. There were more photographs, carefully ordered and dated as they depicted Carlotta Pinkstone in various stages of her youth, and then more newspaper articles, these ones from The Daily Prophet, in which whole sections of print had been highlighted. Carlotta Pinkstone's formation of the Truthseekers, their failed campaign in the 1950s to repeal Clause 73 of the Statute of Secrecy, then the demonstrations that had gained media attention at the time: the hijacking of Muggle radio stations to include broadcasts from the W.W.N., a Kelpie planted in Hyde Park in London, the delivery of charmed pamphlets to Muggle houses…

One particular article, dated 1977, depicted Carlotta Pinkstone, in full witch's attire, standing in the middle of a crowded Muggle marketplace with a sign reading STOP SPELL SUPPRESSION. She was grinning defiantly at the photographer, and Orchid Ottelby's eager hand had scrawled above the photograph: They did not break her. They could not bring her down.

"That's enough," Nina said abruptly, pushing back from the cupboard. Rose turned to her in bemusement.

"But it was just getting interesting!"

"So Orchid has a fascination with Carlotta Pinkstone's life. Is that really surprising, considering she's working for her?"

"It's more than just a fascination." Rose stood, thumbing through the pages of the volume. "Look at these, Nina. Article after article. Photograph after photograph. All revolving around one witch. What would you call that?"

"I'd call it private, Rose."

"Private?" Rose stared at Nina. "Have you forgotten everything that Orchid has done? She forfeited her right to privacy, a long time ago!"

"Just give it a rest!" Nina reached for the volume, attempting to wrest it out of Rose's hands. As she did so, a slip of paper fell to the floor.

"What's that?"

Rose picked it up, frowned at it. "It's sealed with Laura Runcorn's name." Unrolling it, "But it's in Professor Nott's handwriting. It looks like a... a list of ingredients."

Nina leaned over her shoulder, pointed out one. "Salamander Blood. Ring any bells?"

"That's what Runcorn used to write 'Mudblood' on your window." Recognition lit Rose's face. "Does this mean..."

"Runcorn didn't steal it from Nott's cupboards. He gave it to her. In exchange for these." Nina fumbled for her wand, and waved it, murmuring a revealing incantation. In a moment, another column of ingredients had appeared beside the first one.

"Jobberknoll Feathers, Baruffio's Elixir, Basilisk venom..." Rose choked on the last ingredient. "What does he want with that? And how on earth was Laura Runcorn supposed to get these for him?"

"Maybe she's friends with the apothecary in the village. I don't know." Nina took back the parchment. "Whatever it was, she didn't get a hold of the last ingredient. It's the only one she hasn't crossed off."

"Well, I'm not surprised. Basilisk venom isn't exactly for sale in Pippin's Potions, is it?"

Nina made a noise of agreement. The shortcut had brought them to the marble staircase, and they paused there. "So, what should we do?"

Rose met her friend's gaze. "Bring it up at the meeting, I reckon."

"Your brother's been gone a while," Orchid Ottelby remarked to the ceiling.

She was lounging on the sofa in the pristine study, her hands cushioned behind her head and her feet propped up on the end. Penny, on the other hand, was sitting straight as a rod before the desk. Through the high window, which was open just a fraction, they could hear the steady whoosh of evening traffic on the nearby motorway.

"Whatever's keeping him, I'm sure it's important," Penny said, without looking away from her textbook, though she hadn't been able to make sense of a single sentence in it thus far.

"I don't know why you're bothering with that." Orchid writhed a little on the sofa as though she were trying to get comfortable, then sighed. "You're not in school anymore."

"I hope to go back some time." Penny studied a pair of initials that had been scraped into the wood of the desk long ago: B.Z. "When this all blows over."

Orchid let out a bark of laughter. "I have news for you, Penny. This isn't going to blow over. And even if it did, they'd lock you in Azkaban for the rest of your life for what you did to Tony Mason."

"I'm underage," Penny said, wearily, for this was well-trodden conversational ground between her and Orchid. "That's got to count for something."

"You keep on thinking that, darling, if it makes you feel better," Orchid said silkily, again directing her words to the ceiling. A moment later, she groaned. "Merlin, I'm sick of this room. Feels like we've been here for a week."

"Geoff says the Ministry's keeping a watch on the house. If we set one foot outside, the hit-wizards will be on us before we can say Acromantula." Penny traced a finger over the initials in the wood, wondering, for the first time -

Somewhere below them, a door slammed. Orchid sat bolt upright on the sofa, her face draining of colour. At Penny's inquisitive look, she said softly, "It's him. It must be him."

"My brother?" Penny half-rose from the desk, her fingertips still hovering over the wood. There were footsteps outside the door of the study, and then it opened, and suddenly Penny Alderton's world was spinning around her, and it wouldn't stop.

Somewhere, she heard his laughter, and realised that her knees had buckled beneath her. Rough hands - Orchid's - pulled her back up again, grasping her by the forearms, and then she was staring into his face.

"Well, are you going to thank me for my hospitality?" Blaise Zabini asked. "Or are you just going to stand there staring? It's a little rude, you know."

Penny tried to speak, but her tongue felt heavy. She tried again. "Your - hospi - "

"Orchid didn't mention?" Zabini tutted, straightening the folds of his leather jacket. He was clad in Muggle attire - unlike the last time she had seen him. Lifting a hand, he gestured towards the portraits on the wall, the soft wooden paneling, the latticed windows. "This is my house. Been in the family for generations."

"Your house?"

"Mmm. Look at this here." Zabini twitched a hand, and Penny felt herself jerk forward, out of Orchid's grip. The wizard beside her was pointing out a painting on the wall that she had not noticed before, of a stunning witch with piercing golden eyes. "My mother. Her looks were legendary. A bit of family resemblance there, do you suppose?"

"Where's my brother?" Penny said in a very low voice.

"Your brother?" Blaise Zabini glanced at Orchid, looking genuinely surprised for the first time. "Doesn't she know?

"Know what?" Penny demanded, her head suddenly filling with visions of Geoffrey lying Stunned somewhere - or worse... "What have you done to him?"

Zabini turned back to the painting, as though he had lost interest. A slight movement of his hand, and she was back in Orchid's grip again. This time she struggled, kicking out as her throat seized up in sobs. "Geoff - where is he - Geoff?"

"I'm here, Penny," her brother's calm voice came from behind her, and Penny sagged in Orchid's arms, relief flooding through her. She saw him standing in the doorway, still clad in his Auror robes.

"Geoff - thank Merlin - Geoff, he's here."

"I know," Geoffrey Alderton said quietly. "I invited him, Penny."

"You - "

"Zabini and I work together." He averted his eyes as she began to make choking noises of shock. "We have done for a while now, Penny."

"But - how - how could you? After what he did?" Penny's eyes were wild as they darted from Zabini to Geoffrey and back to Zabini again.

"Your brother and I have agreed to let bygones be bygones," Blaise Zabini said, turning from the painting, his chiselled face impassive.

"It's true, Penny." Geoffrey took a step forward, coming level with Zabini. "I know it might be hard for you to understand, but the cause - "

"The cause?" she repeated breathlessly. "Then he's a Truthseeker, too?"

"Entertaining as this is, Alderton," Zabini said to Geoffrey, "It's time you were going. Both of you."

"I know." Her brother's voice was low. "Ottelby, let go of my sister."

Orchid relinquished Penny with a grunt, and Geoffrey took hold of her shoulders. His nails dug into her skin. "We've got to do as Zabini tells us now, Penny. Do you understand me?" His eyes bored into hers. "Do you understand me?"

Penny nodded dumbly.

"Excellent." Blaise Zabini waved a hand at Orchid, who hurried out of the room. "Now, Penny, I've got a special job for you. Oh, you're going to just love it. I know you will." His eyes glittered with amusement. "After all, weren't you just saying that you wanted to go back to school?"

The cramped classroom at the bottom of the North Tower was not used to bearing so many students, and the floorboards positively groaned with their collective weight. Clouds of dust rose as the members of the Secretkeeper society moved to take their seats on various desks and chairs.

"This is purely a temporary arrangement," James said, raising his voice over the din of grumblings and complaints. "The Head Girl isn't being very cooperative about the prefect offices, so we're going to have to find a new place."

"How about the Shrieking Shack?" Jackie Saunders piped up, and James wrinkled his nose as he placed a Sneakoscope opposite the door.

"Too obvious."

"More obvious than here?" Scorpius Malfoy pointed out from where he sat at the back wall. "What do we do if the Aurors stumble across us?"

"More to the point, Malfoy, who's your friend?" James raised his eyebrows. "I wasn't aware these meetings had a plus one policy."

Scorpius glanced at the bespectacled wizard beside him, and lowered his eyes. His companion spoke up, eyes directly on James as the rest of the room watched them.

"My name's Jeremy Sharpwood, and I'd like to join the... Secretkeepers."

"Why should I allow that?"

"Well, since I wasn't at the protest, I didn't have the same chance to join the group as the others - "

"And why weren't you at the protest?" James demanded.

"I was at my father's funeral," Jem said flatly.

"Oh." James shifted on his feet as an uncomfortable silence fell over the room. By the window, Rose squeezed her eyes shut. "Well, I am - sorry for that. But we can't just let anyone in, you know. If people start talking about the group around the castle, it's only a matter of time before the Aurors and professors find out and then..."

"I have an idea to stop that from happening." Jem did not break eye contact with James, even as Scorpius and Nina stared at him. "A Tongue-Tying Curse."

A gasp swept through the room. "That sounds a little extreme," Cassie Miller said, but James was looking thoughtful. Sharpwood took a step forward, pushing up his glasses with one hand, as they had slid a little down his nose.

"Whoever's serious about being part of this group can swear to take one, right here, right now. It's a precaution we're going to need to take. Isn't it?"

Slowly, James nodded, even as the rest of the room was scattered with protests. "Can't you just trust us?" Rory Finnigan grumbled, while Summer Birchgrove looked apprehensive at the prospect. Albus and Rose, however, simply looked to their cousin.

"If anyone wants to leave, they're free to do so now, before the spell is cast," James said, raising his voice over the noise. "But be warned that you won't be welcomed back."

A pause, during which everyone watched everyone else, and no one moved. At last, James beckoned to Rose. "I'll need help casting this."

Rose got to her feet and came to his side, with a sweep of robes. Everyone in the room seemed to hold their breaths as she lifted her own wand in time with her cousin's. Their mouths moved in unison as they uttered the words, and then a current of cold air whooshed around the room, as though someone had opened the window. Rose had the strangest sensation of her tongue folding backwards in her mouth, and a wave of nausea crashed over her. Then it was over, and several pale faces stared back at her.

"I think I'm going to throw up," Lisa Harvey moaned, and her friends recoiled several inches from her.

"Take a little time," James said grandly, even as he stumbled on his words a little. "When everyone's back to normal, we'll continue with things."

It took some minutes for the shock of the spell to wear off, during which Lisa Harvey threw up repeatedly out of the window, Jackie Saunders rubbed her friend's back while averting her own face, and Mark McLaggen handed out Drooble's Best Blowing Gum to anyone who looked a little green.

At last, they could continue, and Rose resumed her seat by the window, leaning on Nina's shoulder, as the effort of casting the spell had left her a little tired. Her eyes met Scorpius's briefly across the room as James began talking again. He looked concerned for her.

"... hoping to get the Room of Requirement for our meetings," her cousin was saying. "Al, what's the latest on that?"

Albus stepped forward. "Rory and I have been taking turns watching the entrance over the past week," he said. "The house-elves seem to have some kind of mental password, and something else we've noticed is that they only ever go in - we've never seen them come out."

"The passage to the Hog's Head must be one-way," James mused. "That's probably because the Room was damaged by Fiendfyre during the War."

"Hopefully we'll be able to make use of the Room," Albus concluded, "As soon as we figure out the password."

"Great, Al, thanks. What about you, Miller? See anything unusual when you were watching Nott's rooms?"

"Nothing." Cassie's reply was accompanied by a significant look, and Rose noticed James grin a little. "Yet."

"Professor Nott?" Scorpius interrupted. "What does he have to do with any of this?"

"We think he might have ties to the Truthseekers," James replied, his expression serious once more.

"You think so, you mean."

"Well, you know as well as I do, Malfoy, that he's not averse to making shady deals with students." James's eyes burned into Scorpius's. "Isn't that right?"

"We have news about Nott," Rose blurted out, pushing off Nina's shoulder.

James turned to frown at them, his attention deflected from Scorpius. "You weren't assigned to watch Nott this week. I gave that job to Cassie."

"So that's how this group is going to work from now on?" Rose asked, struggling to keep a straight face. "You assign us tasks at the meetings, and we report back to you?"

"Yeah, something like that." James folded his arms. "You have a problem with that?"

A few people sucked in their breaths. Nina cast Rose a warning look, and the latter shook her head. "Of course not. But we do know something about Nott that you might find interesting."

"Fire away, then."

Somewhat hastily, Nina explained about the list of ingredients she had found among Laura Runcorn's things, and handed it to James. He frowned at the parchment, just as Rose had.

"Basilisk venom? What does Nott want with that?"

Rose was about to reply when a high whistling reached their ears. They turned as one to see that the Sneakoscope beside the door had lit up and was spinning frantically. Everyone began to talk at once.

"It's the Aurors!"

"No, it's the Truthseekers! They've found us out!"

"We're going to be expelled!"

"Everyone keep calm," James said loudly, but people were already scrambling out of their places, moving for the window, the door - when it opened to admit Penny Alderton.

She stumbled a few paces into the room, shutting the door behind her, and stared around at them all. There were shadows beneath her eyes, and her hair was limp and greasy, her robes grubby. When she saw the several wands all pointed at her, she raised her own hands into the air.

"What's this?" Albus was the first to speak, rising to his feet and staring at Penny. "Are Ottelby and Bole with you? Have you led them to us?"

Penny shook her head, and said something very quietly. James jerked his wand at her. "What was that?"

"I've broken with them," she said in a louder voice. "And with my brother."

"And you expect us to believe that," Cassie said bitterly. "After you lied to us all. After what you did to Tony Mason, and to Albus."

"I'm telling the truth," Penny said, her voice shaking a little as she spoke. "You can use Truth Potion on me if you want. It won't make a bit of difference."

"We don't exactly have Veritaserum on hand," Albus snorted.

Rose had risen, too, from her seat at the window. "Maybe we should hear her out, you lot." She pointed to the Sneakoscope, which had stopped spinning. "It looks like she has come here alone."

"Says the one who let her go," James pointed out, and Rose lowered her head.

"I'm telling the truth," Penny said again, her eyes darting around the room. "I was safe where I was, hiding out, but I came here; I put myself in danger again - "

"What, do you want a medal?" Cassie mocked.

"I just want you to believe me." Penny was pale, her eyes like two round coins. "I made a horrible mistake, but I realise that now. The Truthseekers - and my brother - they're all enemies."

"And you expect us to - " James began, but Jeremy Sharpwood's much quieter voice cut him off.

"What makes them your enemies?" He eyed Penny. "If you tell us that much, maybe we'll believe you."

Penny swallowed hard, and directed her eyes up to the ceiling for a moment. Then - "They're working with Blaise Zabini."

A silence. "Well, we knew that already," James said at last, glancing at Rose and Albus. "He's been involved with them for months, it's been all over the papers."

"I thought it was just a rumour," Penny said hollowly. "I thought they were lumping him in with the Truthseekers because he was an escaped criminal. I didn't think he actually worked with them."

"So?" Cassie threw her hands into the air impatiently, staring at her former roommate. "Zabini, Pinkstone, they're all as bad as each other. Why should it matter to you that they're working together?"

"Because - " Penny began, then swallowed again. "Because - "

"Oh, for Merlin's sake." James strode forward, seizing Penny's arm. "Someone go fetch an Auror. We're wasting our time here."

"If the Aurors come now, then they'll find out about us," Jem pointed out. "And something tells me your father, the Head Auror, wouldn't be in favour of this little group of yours."

"Well, do you have a better idea?" James shot back.

"How about actually listening to her?" Scorpius suggested calmly. "She clearly has something she wants to tell us."

"She's a liar," Cassie argued.

"Maybe, but she's telling the truth about this."

"Is she, now?" James raised his eyebrows at Scorpius, who shrugged.

"I believe her."

"And do you think that makes any difference to me, Malfoy? What you believe?"

"Careful, Potter," Scorpius said, while a few of the others murmured. He smirked, just a little. "You don't want to seem like you value some members of this group more than others, now, do you?"

"That is not what I meant," James snapped. "I - "

"Shut up!" Penny exclaimed. "All of you, just shut up!"

She shook off James's arm roughly, and took a step forward. Albus, who was nearest, eyed her warily, while the others simply stared. For Penny Alderton, in the space of a few seconds, seemed to have grown taller: her shoulders were not hunched in their usual attitude but straight, and her dull grey eyes snapped fire, her little fists clenched by her sides.

"Listen to yourselves. You can't agree on anything. You're supposed to be leading them - " She indicated James, whose mouth tightened, " - and you shout people down. How do you expect this to work? Whatever it is you're hoping to achieve?"

"It's none of your - " Cassie began, but Penny waved a hand at her, eyes flashing dangerously.

"I haven't finished yet." Her voice was sharp as a whip. "You all have reason not to trust me. I've done some bad things. But I want to make up for that now. And every second you waste arguing about whether or not to listen to me, Carlotta Pinkstone and her Truthseekers get closer to Hogwarts. Because they are coming. That's what I'm here to warn you about."

"What do you mean, they're coming? They're already here," Nina Meyer pointed out. "They're inside the castle, making stuff happen."

"Those are the recruits. Not the main players." Penny met Nina's gaze, and she didn't look as angry now. "It was Torrance and Orchid's job to recruit students over the year to help with the cause, and they did. But those students are just one small part of the plan."

"What about Nott? And Goyle, and the others?" James questioned Penny.

"I don't know." Penny glared at him as he started to argue again. "What I'm telling you now is what I overheard when I was hiding out with the Truthseekers, and they didn't trust me with everything."

("I wonder why," Albus said in a low voice.)

"They kept talking about this plan," Penny went on, "and what I gathered is that the first step is revealing Hogwarts to the Muggles. That's what they've been working towards all year."

Across the room, Rose saw Scorpius's eyes widen. Beside her, Nina shifted on her seat, and a few of the others exchanged glances.

"How would they get past the castle defences?" Cassie pointed out, at last; it seemed that she was the only one capable of speaking.

"That's where the recruits come in." Slowly reaching into her pocket, causing James to raise his wand a fraction higher, Penny produced a piece of cloth, on which was embroidered a full moon, half-black, half-white, with three snakes swirling across it. Everyone craned their necks to look at it. "Remember these symbols? They're all over the castle, still, most of them concealed. The recruits were the ones who put them up. Those symbols are the key to breaking the castle defences."

"How, exactly?" Jem asked, frowning.

Penny looked down, the cloth drooping in her hand. "That I don't know, either."

There was another pause, during which no one seemed really sure what to say. Finally, James clapped his hands together, and a few people jumped.

"Right. I've heard you out, Penny. You may or may not be telling the truth. Either way, you haven't given us a whole lot of information, so what I want you to do now is march right back to the Truthseekers and tell them you've been spying on us."

Penny stared at James. If her face had been pale before, it was now positively grey. Rose spoke for her.

"You can't send her back, James. If they find out what she's told us, they'll kill her."

"Will they?" James looked thoughtful. "For all we know, they fed her this information and sent her to infiltrate our group."

"And find out what? That we meet in disused classrooms? That we don't like the Truthseekers?" Rose said sarcastically. "Come on, James. You know she's more at risk than we are right now. You can't send her back."

"So what, then? Bring her to the Aurors? Let them find out about our meetings and put a stop to them?"

"Maybe not right away." Rose looked at Penny. "I think she should stay in the castle, for now. Hidden, obviously. She might remember something else about the symbols."

"I'm not having her in our dormitory," Cassie said at once. "I don't want to be stabbed in my sleep, thank you very much."

Penny made a face, but Nina Meyer spoke up before she could. "She can stay with me."

Several pairs of eyes regarded her curiously, but she simply shrugged. "My roommate's never around. The Slytherin dormitories are fairly out of the way. I can keep an eye on her there."

James tilted his head, considering, then nodded. "Fine. Fine, if you want to have a traitor in your dormitory, that's your business. But she's not staying for the rest of the meeting. And someone should take her wand." Holding out his hand, he looked expectantly at Penny, who glared at him for a moment before handing it over, her jaw clenched in anger.

"Come on, let's go." Nina gestured to Penny, who followed her out of the classroom. There was silence behind them for quite some time.

"Back to business, then, I suppose," James said at last, and no objection was raised to that.

"You're sure about this?" Rose asked Nina in an undertone. They stood just outside the door to the Slytherin girls' dormitory some time later, inside which they had deposited Penny some time ago. "Cassie may have had a point about the whole stabbing-you-in-your-sleep thing."

"I'll be fine." Nina looked weary as she passed a hand over her eyes. "Merlin, it's been a long day."

"We did well today."

"But what about Mason?" Her friend looked at her through narrowed eyes.

"Maybe not so well there." Rose exhaled heavily. "I'll sort things out with him soon. Though I don't know why it matters so much to you."

"Not so much to me," Nina Meyer muttered.

"What? What was that?"

"Nothing. Go on, get some sleep." Her friend squeezed her shoulder, an expression of affection exceedingly rare for Nina Meyer, and stepped inside her dormitory.

Rose tiptoed through the common room, arms wrapped around herself, and was contemplating how exactly she was going to get up to Gryffindor Tower without being caught breaking curfew when a figure stirred in one of the armchairs.

It was Scorpius, in a T-shirt and pajama bottoms, his hair mussed all over his forehead. He blinked up at her sleepily. "Rose? What are you doing down here?"

"Just visiting Nina," she explained, feeling a little embarrassed. "Did I wake you?"

"It's fine." He stifled a yawn, shifting in the armchair, the textbook sliding off his lap in the process and hitting the floor with a thump. "I was studying - must have dozed off."

"Let me get that." Rose bent, her hair falling around her face, and frowned at the title of the tome as she picked it up. "Of Ancient Blood-Magick... is this from the Restricted Section?"

"Who are you, Madam Pince?" But Scorpius's tone was light and teasing as he took the book back from her, his hands brushing against hers. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." Rose didn't quite know where to look as Scorpius stretched in his chair, his muscled forearms reaching above his head. "So, er, I should probably…"

"Stay," he entreated, lowering his arms once more. "Just for a minute?"

A little reluctantly, Rose moved to the hearth, leaning her back against the mantelpiece. Feeling Scorpius's eyes on her, she was suddenly self-conscious. She had changed out of her school robes after the meeting, and now wore a poloneck with jeans and old boots.

He spoke first. "So, what did you think of the meeting?"

Rose crossed and uncrossed her boots before answering. "What do you know about Penny and Blaise Zabini?"

Scorpius looked away from her. "That's a long story."

"You asked about the meeting," she said defensively.

"Yeah, but I didn't mean..." he trailed off. That was strange; it was unlike Scorpius not to finish a sentence. "Why don't we talk about how you look like you haven't slept in a decade? Why you barely said a word during the meeting?"

"I didn't need to," Rose muttered, looking away. "James had it under control."

"Oh, I see." Scorpius's mouth quirked in a triumphant smirk.

"See what?"

"You wanted to be the one to take charge after what happened at the protest, but your cousin James got there first." He leaned back his head on his armchair. "Even though you were the one who had to fill everyone in on Pinkstone and the Truthseekers."

"I didn't tell them everything." Rose felt a throb of weariness at her temples. "I left you out of a lot of it."

"I know. And I'm grateful for that." His expression was sombre for a moment, but then he smirked again. "So what, did James steal your idea?"

"No," Rose said, a little too forcefully, and Scorpius tilted his head, smirk fading.

"You're not keen on it, then. Are you?"

"Putting together a wannabe Dumbledore's Army?" Rose pushed off the mantelpiece, and took a step towards him. "Come on, Scorpius. Anyone with a bit of sense can see that it isn't going to work."

Scorpius looked thoughtful as he trailed a hand along the arm of his chair. "You're not normally so pessimistic."

"I'm just being practical." Rose sighed. "And I don't feel like arguing about this any more."

"Fine by me." Scorpius was watching her again, with a kind of alertness, as though he expected her to bolt from her chair at any instant. "So, what shall we talk about now?"

Rose blinked. The heat of the fire blazing at her back, the heat of Scorpius's gaze before her - she was caught. Wringing her hands together, which were suddenly damp with sweat, she could not help the little tremor in her voice as she said the only thing she could think of. "I don't know."

Scorpius rose from his armchair, and then he was standing before her by the fireplace, and her heart was stammering like an invalid's. He reached out, his knuckles brushing her cheekbone, then a strand of her hair off her shoulder. "How about we talk about that letter you sent me before the protest?"

Rose caught hold of his hand, lowered it to his chest, and fixed her eyes on him in a desperate plea. "How about we talk about what Nina and I just found back in her dormitory?"

"You said you didn't know how to thank me, for being there for you."

"This book, this weird scrapbook full of newspaper articles in Orchid's cupboard… they were cut out from the Prophet - "

"But you don't need to thank me."

" - and all about Carlotta Pinkstone, Orchid must have been obsessed or something – "

"You just need to tell me one thing."

Rose opened her mouth, then closed it again. Scorpius was still holding her hand, his eyebrows raised expectantly. "I can't," she heard herself say.

"Can't, or won't?"

"I can't," she repeated. "Scorpius, you don't understand..."

"Oh, no, I understand." He dropped her hand, a strangely blank look in his grey eyes as he stepped back.

"I'm with Tony," Rose began, "And..."

"Don't do that. Don't use Mason as an excuse." Scorpius shook his head, turning so that she could only see his profile, pressing a hand on the mantelpiece as though for support. "This isn't about him, and we both know it."

"Fine." Rose swallowed, working her jaw in the movement. "It's not about Tony. He and I... we're pretty much done, in any case."

"So what is it, then?" He continued staring at the fire.

She drew in a sharp breath, feeling a little more calm now that there was some distance between them. "You're my friend, Scorpius, and I don't want to - "

"Don't do that, either." He shook his head again, his eyes half-closed, the straight slope of his profile turned downwards.

"Fine." Rose folded her arms, leaning her weight on one hip. "You want to make this more difficult than it has to be, fine. Scorpius, you and I... it can't happen."

Scorpius turned his face towards her by a fraction. Despite the heat of the fire, he was pale - pale to the lips. "Why not?"

"You know as well as I do."

The corner of his mouth twisted upwards, bitterly. "Because of our families."

"Yes," Rose said slowly, "But because of us, too. We're not good for each other, Scorpius. We'd just end up hurting each other."

"You don't know that." Scorpius straightened up fully.

"It's all we do, Scorpius. Hurt each other, and push each other away. Just think how much worse it would be if we were together." Rose watched his profile for a moment, then added very quietly, "Believe me, I have thought about it. Many times."

"So you've got it all figured out, then." Scorpius turned towards her, but his eyes did not quite meet hers. He dashed a hand across them, as though predicting an imminent betrayal.

Rose raised a hand tentatively, but he pushed it away, turning from her. Stubbornly, she pressed forward, coming up behind him. "I don't want to leave you like this."

"Well, that's too bad, Weasley."

"I just want you to understand. I need... normal. But you, Scorpius - you drive me crazy, and I can't have that." She pushed a hand through her hair. "My life has been crazy enough over the past year."

Making a scoffing noise, Scorpius shook his head. His words came out, slow and deliberate. "You are so selfish."

She did not let herself flinch, though he could not have seen her do it in any case. "Maybe. But I hope you'll understand, if not now, then soon. And I hope you'll keep coming to the meetings."

"Leave me alone, Rose Weasley." He moved away, his footsteps soft on the floor, and Rose forced herself to move in the other direction, even as her heart was thumping wildly, even as the lump in her throat grew and grew - she walked on, out of the common room and through the dungeons.

She had done the right thing. This was the right thing.

At least, that was what she kept telling herself in the days that followed. But a small part of her wondered if maybe, just maybe, it had not been the right thing to do, but the easiest.