AN: Hi! Is it just me who thinks it's been a ridiculously long month? This chapter is quite long (for me) so I hope this makes up for it. Happy Halloween in advance!

Sam acts hard but really she'd be happy anywhere that James was. Preferably somewhere exciting, with lots of stuff to do and people to prank. (Sorry this isn't really a country).

James wants to never go anywhere twice. He wants to go cliff-diving off the highest cliffs in the world and sky-diving and to Disneyland Florida and the most dangerous theme park he can find. (Again also not a country, sorry).

Let's face it; Jayna wants to go somewhere romantic. Italy (Venice) or France (Paris). Of course she'd deny it to her dying breath though.

Lydjah wants to go somewhere fun, but not scary. France, Spain, Germany… Your average holiday destinations.

Lien wants to visit all the Magical places that she's only just found out are an option. Also definitely New York because she loves acting and going to see a Broadway show would just be fabulous.

Molly would like to stay in Britain. She's a bit of a homebody, plus if they stayed in Britain her dad couldn't possibly drag her round to see Ministry members because she already knows all of them.

Albus, like Molly, isn't particularly interested in the sun. I think he'd quite like to go camping in a forest somewhere (again not a country sorry).

Scorpius is someone who could go anywhere and therefore doesn't want to go anywhere. There isn't anything fun in the idea of going somewhere he could travel to in a mere second, so Scorpius prefers to go to events rather than places, and he doesn't care where the events are held (this is really turning out to be a sort of trick question about the countries isn't it?).

Anywho; favourite subject of each of the eight? I know I've mentioned some of them before, so it'll be interesting to see if anyone gets them all right :).

Translations of the below French are at the bottom of the chapter.

Chapter Thirteen
Of New Friends and Continuing

29 years ago

Celina Daviau was eighteen years old, hopelessly in love and completely, utterly screwed. Every day she wondered at her luck, though it varied on whether she thought it was good or bad. On the one hand; Devin Luca Blackwood III was gorgeous, funny, kind and so in love with her that she often wondered if he was going to injure himself with how huge his heart must be. It scared her a little bit, that love, but it was also the one thing stopping her from crying in frustration; because, on the other hand, Devin Luca Blackwood III's parents made her want to throw herself off a cliff, he was from a family of extremely prejudiced Purebloods and her parents were active protestors for Muggleborn rights. The Blackwoods were exactly the sort of family that her parents hated, and she knew she could never convince her parents that Luca was different.

"C?" Her head snapped up, and she hurried over to her window, forcing it open with shaking fingers.

"Luca? Pourquoi es-tu ici?" She hissed. "Mes parents sont en bas!"

"Christophe a dit à mon père." She swore she felt her heart stop. Oh Merlin. This was it. The end of everything she had been hoping for. He had to break up with her now. "Je peux pas vivre sans toi, C. Je t'aime." Celina gasped, her hand flying to her chest.

"Luca-"

"Je t'aime, C. Je sais que cela est fou, et je sais que nous sommes seulement dix-huit ans mais j'ai besoin de toi et je ne me soucie pas de ce que dit mon père. Veux-tu m'épouser?" Tears welled up in Celina's eyes. He was right. It was crazy. She'd had her whole life sorted out before he came along. But they'd make it work. She had a job lined up in International Law at the Ministry of Magic and maybe with his father out of the picture Luca wouldn't be as afraid to do what he wanted.

She'd never been good at big displays of emotion though. "Bien sûr. Mais je garde mon nom." Luca burst out laughing, his own unshed tears glittering.

"Celina? Qui est-ce?" Celina sent a panicky look at her new fiancé as her mother, Bernadette, appeared in the doorway. Before she could reply, there was a rap on the front door downstairs. Celina's eyes widened; surely he wasn't that crazy? She flew down the stairs, brushing past her mother, just in time to see her father, Eugene, open the door to Roland Blackwood. Behind him stood an equally confused looking Luca.

"Vous devez être Celina." Roland said, with a polite smile. "Et monsieur et madame Daviau?" Her mother came down the stairs in time for this proclamation.

"Je crois pas que nous avons rencontré." Her father replied, carefully.

"Malheureusement, non. Je suis Roland Blackwood. Et je crois que mon fils vient de proposer avec succès à votre fille." It was chaos after that. Her parents demanded an explanation; she explained that they'd been going out for two years now, since the start of their sixth year at Beauxbatons, which was met with a loud roar of disapproval. Luca stepped to her defence, saying that considering their family differences, they had been worried that no-one would be accepting of the relationship.

Her mother started to dither, saying that it was wrong that she hadn't told them, but her father cut across and looked her directly in the eye. Then he'd asked her to do the one thing she'd never thought he would have.

"Il est votre choix Celina. Lui, ou nous."

"Quoi?" Luca looked as shocked as she did. Eugene just stared her down. Tears were falling thick and fast now. "Papa, ne fais pas ça!"

"Choisissez Celina." She glared at him, and held her chin higher.

"Je l'aime, père. Et je pensais que je vous aimais." She'd grabbed Luca's hand, gripped him as the world fell out from under her feet, and her father had slammed the door in her face.

It took until April 2017 for her to find out that Roland had Imperiused him that night, and confunded her mother so that she wouldn't stop him. By then, it was too late.

Isla was slightly very worried about Jayna Blackwood. There was something about that group of eight that always seemed busy, even when they were just lounging around talking to each other. Isla, therefore, was worried because Jayna clearly still had a way to go before she was past the grieving process, even though it had been a good while since her family had died, and she wasn't getting any help from her friends, probably because of this business. Granted, Isla had only found out about her family a day ago, but her father had always said she was unusually perceptive; and very nosy.

Lydjah did not turn up for their next Magical Theory lesson either and Jayna did not seem surprised when Isla slid into the same seat again. They completed the work mostly in silence, and thus finished with a good quarter of the class to go.

"Fancy playing questions?" Isla suggested.

"What's that?"

"You basically just take it in turn to ask each other questions. It's like a get-to-know you exercise but you can make the questions whatever you want."

"Sure." Jayna shrugged, putting her quill down and facing Isla more fully. "Are you happy with the house you were sorted into?" Isla grinned.

"Yeah. I mean we're all idiots sometimes and I'm glad we're not completely separated from the other houses because all that testosterone would drive me insane but I fit in. I'm friends with my dorm-mates as well which is always a plus. I just feel sorry for you; stuck in a room with Riley Skeeter." Isla made a face and Jayna laughed.

"I have to admire her unwavering ability to be an asshole even in the most desperate of times."

"She was the one that spread all that shit about you last year, with the Muggleborn thing." Jayna's face darkened.

"Yeah."

"Did you ever find out who did that?"

"No."

"Well at least there's been nothing since then." Jayna smiled, slightly grimly.

"Yeah."

"My question then; are you ok?" Jayna frowned slightly confusedly at her.

"Yeah? I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?" She rubbed her nose as she answered, cocking her head in confusion. Isla brought a small bottle out of her pocket and waved it at Jayna.

"Care to take a swig of this and answer that again?"

"Erm I don't think you're supposed to drink Sleazky's hair potion Isla." Isla rolled her eyes.

"I know I'm no Ravenclaw but I'm not actually that dumb. That's just the cover; inside is Veritaserum."

"Where the Hell did you get that?"

"Where do you think? I nicked it from the hot new Potions teacher."

"Why?!"

"Five reasons; 1) Who doesn't want Veritaserum? It's really useful, 2) I was worried about you, 3) I wanted to test Mr Hot Potion Man's security for future reference 4) It was a win-win situation because if I pulled it off I had some Veritaserum and if I got caught then I'd have a detention with Mr Hot Potion Man and 5) I was really bored because Liv and Vi were off with their new boyfriends."

"Oh? Who are they going out with?"

"Vi's going out with Lance and Liv's with Malcolm." Jayna made a surprised face. "Yeah I know, I know he's not her usual type. She's doing it more out of a favour to me actually."

"How is that a favour to you?" Isla blushed and refused to answer.

"Nevermind that; drink the potion and answer my question again." Jayna sighed.

"I'm not having you waste Veritaserum on me. So the truth is no I'm not great."

"Why?"

"I'm terrified all the time that anything is going to set me off into another fit like the one in the Great Hall on the first day. We- that is the eight of us- are doing an… Extracurricular project that's making me really tired, but I can't get to sleep. Most of my family's dead and yet I still can't let them go, and the remaining are all horrendous racists. I'm not speaking to my sister, I don't know what to buy Potter for his birthday, or Lydjah for that matter, I'm rubbish at Herbology and my Transfiguration grades aren't great, Lydjah's hiding something from me, I'm worried about Lee, I'm in the middle of a really bad writer's block and all my clothes smell like Lydjah's dog."

"Wow."

"Yeah. Sorry. Guess I really need to let that all out."

"Let's work through the problems one at a time yeah? So the fit thing, ok, I can't do anything about that except to tell you that perhaps explaining to everyone why you have fits will stop everyone whispering about it? The extra-curricular project? I'm guessing it's top secret?" Jayna smirked, even going as far to let out a small laugh.

"You have no idea."

"Ok then well have you tried sleeping tablets?"

"What are they?"

"They're of Muggle origin; they call them drugs. They make you really sleepy so you can get to sleep easily. They're sort of a minor version of Dreamless sleep potion; they might take away some of your dreams but less than Dreamless sleep potion does. Who do you live with now?"

"Lydjah's family."

"And does she have a Muggle relative?"

"Yeah, her mum's a Muggle."

"Ask her to send you some in the post then. Why can't you let your family go?"

"There are… Complications surrounding their deaths that I'm not ready to face yet."

"Well, if you become ready to face them, I'll help you with it if you would like. I know it's on a much, much smaller scale but my mum left me too, except she left by choice."

"I'm sorry."

"It's ok, it was years ago now. The horrendous racists? Who gives a shit about them? You have a huge group of friends and a great relationship with all your teachers; you don't need them. Your sister… She's obviously going through the same issues as you. Maybe you need to come to grips with your family passing yourselves before you can try and rebuild that relationship. James is easy to buy for; Quidditch, Transfiguration books and Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans." Jayna raised her eyebrows. "I'm friends with most of his exes." Isla explained. "Lydjah I don't know as well, but you do, so find something that's special to you guys. I know I'm in danger of being stereotypical but you have two Hufflepuff friends. Get them to help you in Herbology. And if you don't want to ask for something without giving something back buy them some chocolate or ask if they want help with something else. As for Transfiguration erm hello? James Potter ringing any bells? Best in our year group at Transfiguration? Lydjah seems like a pretty private person, just let her come out with it in time, same with Lee. Take a break from writing and try something new. It might just inspire you. Put a note on your wardrobe asking the House Elves to wash all your clothes. I guarantee they'll be all fine by the morning."

It was Jayna's turn to be wowed.

"Remind me why we weren't friends before this year?" Jayna asked. Isla burst out laughing.

"I was much too busy trying to fit in instead of being myself. Much as Sally and Josie are great people, I don't actually have that much in common with them. We isolated Sam a bit, I wish I could take that back."

"She isolates herself as much as everyone else isolates her. Beat her in a fight and she'll be your friend though I'd suggest magical because she's bloody good at fistfights."

"Yeah, I don't want to take it back that much." Jayna laughed. Professor Elswood dismissed the class a few minutes early seeing as everyone had finished the work.

"Thank you Isla." Jayna said eventually, as they packed their bags. Isla beamed.

"No problem."

The next day found the eight of them stood outside the door again, wondering if it was going to be quite as easy as the last one.

'I'm not going to applaud you every time you complete a task but for now; congrats. You've completed the simplest task I could have devised.

Instruction: Get the bottle.'

The parchment still said. James looked at the rest of them and shrugged. They shrugged back and he pushed open the door. The yellow bottle from last time sat atop a shelf at the end of the room.

"Accio!" Lien said.

"Wait-" Clamoured seven voices but it was too late; the spell had been cast and the bottle was in Lien's waiting hand.

"What?" She asked.

"Nice catch." James replied. "You haven't thought about Quidditch have you?" Everyone ignored him.

"It's fine Lien it's just we could have reached that bottle just by walking. Now we can't use Accio again." Lydjah sighed.

"Oh." She replied. "Sorry."

"Speaking of, how do you know how to do Accio?" Jayna asked curiously. It wasn't a spell she had yet mastered, let alone a year-younger Hufflepuff.

"We knew what the category was going to be after Roxanne's party so I looked up some Charms that I thought sounded useful." Jayna raised her eyebrows, impressed. She'd spent the rest of the summer doing sod-all if she was honest.

"Let's all agree that if we have time we should work on the task together next time, before we act." Albus said, smiling at Lien so that she'd know he wasn't telling her off.

The next day's task was simple enough again; they had to fill a cup with water, which then started to drain out after James used Aguamenti so Lien cast the water-refilling charm on the cup, and the task was completed.

The next weekend Jayna suggested studying in the library, to come up with a good list of spells for them to use. Lots of spells had similar uses, like how Alohomora opens locks, whereas Cistem Aperio only opens trunks, so that, when they had time, they could make sure they left as many spells for themselves as possible. Sam and James protested joining in this work, and thus the Charms they found were mostly to do with blowing things up. No-one could really get exasperated with them; after all, they didn't know what was going to be useful.

Before they knew it, September yellow was fading into the burnt orange of October and James Potter was waking up to his usual small mountain of presents.

"What the fuck dude?" Was the first thing James heard that year on his birthday. He frowned, opening his eyes and scrabbling around for his glasses.

"What?" He croaked, voice still heavy with sleep. Max was staring at the bottom of his bed, where presents were literally spilling onto the floor around his bed. He grinned, half torn between embarrassment and happiness and sat up.

"'appy Birthday James." Owen said sleepily, chucking a present at him. James froze, realising he didn't know when Owen's birthday was but that he was going to have to find out and add it to his remembrall as soon as possible. This was followed by another three cries of Happy Birthday by the rest of his dormmates, and another two presents aimed at his head, both of which James still managed to catch. Max, realising he was the only one who hadn't got James something, awkwardly turned over and went back to sleep.

He opened Owen's present first, his eyes widening as he found a copy of Quidditch Through the Ages, signed by Carola and Eleonora Xylander. "Oh my Merlin, thanks Owen! This is bloody great!" Owen rolled his eyes.

"I don't understand why you're so crazy about that sport but whatever." James grinned at him, even as he opened Ned's present. A box of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans fell out onto his lap.

"I didn't even eat all the good ones this time." James laughed, pulling open Quinn's present; a new broom polish.

"Thanks guys." They all went back to snoozing as James turned to his huge pile of presents.

Along with all of the accompanying cards, James received; a box of blood pops (from Albus, with a smiley face stuck to the outside that told James his brother knew exactly what had happened last Christmas), a bubble machine (from Lily), six tubs of Sleekeazy's hair potion (from Lydjah), a Headless Hat (from Roxanne; 'maybe you'll forget how to take if off'), a boxing telescope (from Sam; 'so it can punch you when I can't', she'd kindly not bought the accompanying bruise paste), a 'Magical Moustache Miracle Stubble Grow' (from Fred; 'for the ladies eh'), several Extendable Ears (from Scorpius… He didn't quite know what the Slytherin was trying to say with this, which was probably why Scorpius had bought it), a nose-biting teacup (from Uncle George; 'now you're getting older and more sophisticated'), an identical pair of glasses to his own; except apparently warded with a permanent Impervius charm (from Lien), a portable swamp (from his mum), a comb-a-chameleon (from Molly; 'hey, it worked for me'), a moleskin pouch (from Hagrid), sixteen smart answer quills ('maybe you'll finally come up with something smart with these), a new set of Chaser gloves, Asiatic Anti-Venoms ('look it even has pop-up pictures so you don't have to pretend you can read'), Theories of Transubstantial Transfiguration ('Everyone knows you love Transfiguration stop pretending') and a new cauldron (all from Jayna; 'you're going to need the best for the Potions we'll be making; once I've got Lydjah to seduce Professor Alfredson into letting us use his classroom obviously (don't tell Fred)'), Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland, Wanderings of a Tree in the Alps and some polos (from Auntie Hermione), a magical penknife (from his dad), fourteen dungbombs (from Uncle Ron; they'd decided between the two of them that he'd just buy him as many dungbombs as his age decreed because Ron was rubbish at buying presents), a box of chocolate frogs (from Hugo), a Holyhead Harpies hat (from Rose), a book, signed by the Appleby Arrows team, that showed the next years events in terms of the British National Quidditch team, and all the current statistics for them (from Auntie Angelina), a Holyhead Harpies scarf (from Uncle Percy), Dreadful Denizens of the Deep, Winogrand's Wondrous Water Plants and Lizard's Claws from Africa (from Auntie Audrey), a small jewellery box filled with brightly coloured sweet-wrappers (from Lucy), The Adventures of Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle and Loony Nonby vs Cornish Pixie (from Teddy), Merpeople: A Comprehensive Guide To Their Language and Customs, The Book of Charms and Spells and Most Macabre Monstrosities (from Uncle Bill), Sonnets of a Sorcerer (from Luna and Rolf; 'I thought you should have this; considering your mother's bad luck, though I thought her poem was lovely'; he would have to ask his mother what on earth Luna was on about), Dragon breeding for Pleasure and Profit, From Egg to Inferno: A Dragon Keeper's Guide and Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland (from Uncle Charlie), Men Who Love Dragons Too Much, Charms of Defence and Deterrence and Cheering Charms (from Louis), The Enclopedia of Bat Eyes, Extreme Incantations and Newts of Bognor (from Dean; he didn't know why Encyclopaedia was spelt wrong), How to Tame Tigers ('Not that I am suggesting you attempt this'), Abracadabra: An A-Z of Spooky Spells and A Children's Anthology of Monsters (from Victoire), Little People, Big Plans Basic Hexes for the Busy and Vexed and Handbook of Hippogriff Psychology (from Auntie Fleur), Blood Brothers: My Life Amongst the Vampires, A Vampire's Monologue and A Compendium of Common Curses and Their Counter-Actions (from Dominque), Hairy Snout, Human Heart, Curses and Counter-Curses and Encyclopedia of Toadstools (from Neville and Hannah), Flesh-Eating Tress of the World, Sub-Aquatic Botanical Mysteries, Magical Water Plants of the Mediterranean and Magical Water Plants of the Highland Lochs (from Lorcan and Lysander), a broom compass, The Dark Arts Outsmarted and The Essential Defence Against the Dark Arts (from Minerva), Quaint Muggle Machinery, Muggles who Notice and Cooking the Muggle Way (from Grandpa), a whole basket full of homemade treats (from Grandma) and Owl Breeds, Which Owl? and You and Your Owl (from Irene).

"Bit book heavy for you isn't it?" Quinn remarked, as they all sat on his bed, munching through the treats. Sam had come in about halfway through his present-opening and sat on his bed like she belonged there, which, he supposed, she did. James shrugged. Really he couldn't wait to get started. Not only did the books boost his academic success, but he'd always found non-fiction books interesting. Fiction books were great and all, but it was so much better when you read about something you could actually do, or something that had actually happened. The stories always strengthened his sense of adventure, and the facts and instructions just inspired him to create them.

Sam gave him a knowing look. He told her to shut up. She squeezed his new boxing present in his direction.

"Happy Birthday- Potter, what the Hell happened to your eye?!" Jayna exclaimed, as he came and sat next to her in Muggle Studies. He huffed, sulking, and refused to answer. "Did you like your presents?" She said, dropping it. This brought a reluctant smile to his face.

"You won't believe it, but I actually got way over thirty books."

"Seriously? Have you read any of them yet?" He grinned.

"I've started Theories of Transubstantial Transfiguration in-between classes, thank you by the way, and I read You and Your Owl just because the title made me laugh."

"Who bought you that?"

"Irene."

"Who's Irene?"

"Irene Farley? Hufflepuff? Gorgeous, black hair, kind of short? She's in our year group."

"I think I know who you mean; did she take Arithmancy?" James shrugged, indicating that he didn't know. "Why would she buy you a present?" James smiled, almost sadly this time. It was not a smile she had ever seen on him before, and she was rather startled by it.

"She knows the reason why we broke up."

"Ok I'm going to pretend that makes sense for your sake-"

"I told her that I was breaking up with her because her owl ate all of my socks- which it did- hence the owl related present."

"But that wasn't the reason?"

"I think that reason is pretty legitimate!"

"Not what I asked." James glared at her. She'd never give up would she? Not until she found out every secret he had.

"I don't ask about all of your secrets-"

"You legitimately do."

"When have I ever-"

"Potter we'd barely spoken ten words to each other when you started prodding about my family and how I felt about their deaths. If that doesn't scream nosy I don't know what will."

"That wasn't a secret though-"

"Do you hear me screaming it into the void? You are one of only nine people who knows my grandfather tortured me and then wiped my memory. Do you understand how hard it was to tell you that? He could have done anything, anything to me in the time that I can't remember. I don't know who I'd be if I had all my memories. Telling you that was telling you that I don't know who I am. I really can't get more secret-like than that."

"Ok, ok so you tell me your secrets. For the record; I know exactly who you are."

"Oh?" James rolled his eyes.

"You're actually going to make me say it?"

"I have no idea what you are talking about."

"You're my friend Blackwood. Missing memories and all. And when you get those memories back no matter what they contain, that's what you'll still be." Jayna raised her eyebrows, because it was either do this or hug him. "So-"

"Move on from what you just said otherwise you're going to ruin it like you do with every other nice thing you say." James mock-scowled at her.

"Fine."

"So the real reason you broke up with Irene?" James shrugged.

"I was scared. I could see us actually staying together. Long-term style."

"So you broke up with her because you liked her too much?"

"I told myself that if I liked her enough, I wouldn't want to break up with her more than I wanted to stay with her."

"So find someone that you have to chase."

"What?"

"By the time you actually get her to like you; in a very consensual and free way that involves you backing off if she tells you she's not interested you'll like her a lot, because you've spent all that time getting to know her. However, because you're not officially together, you haven't spent the time learning to like her also learning to fear her breaking up with you. Ta-da."

"And you became the relationship guru, when?" He laughed. If he'd taken her advice then, instead of two years later, a certain conversation between a plane passenger and a person stuck in an elevator may have been very different. But that's later.

"Do some work Potter." Jayna sighed, exasperated but unable to resist being amused by his charms.

AN: Translations:

"Luca? Why are you here? My parents are down stairs!"

"Christophe told my father. I can't live without you, C. I love you."

"Luca-"

"I love you, C. I know this is crazy and I know we're only 18 but I need you and I don't care what my father says. Will you marry me?"

"Of course. But I'm keeping my name."

"Celina? Who is that?"

"You must be Celina. And Mr and Mrs Daviau?"

"I don't believe we've met."

"Unfortunately not, no. I'm Roland Blackwood. And I believe my son has just successfully proposed to your daughter."

"It's your choice, Celina. Him, or us."

"What? Dad don't do this!"

"Choose Celina."

"I love him. And I thought I loved you."