Bit of a boring chapter, but set-up almost always is. In other news, weasel AKA boundedsumo has posted the first chapter of a semi-crossover between this series and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.; I say semi because it's actually an AU of this story. I know nothing about the other franchise, but if that sounds interesting to you, go ahead and check it out.
Also, I couldn't think of a good disclaimer for this chapter. Sorry to disappoint.
Chapter 11
Helpful Advice
"You're up early for a Thursday, aren't you? We don't have any classes first period."
Jen shrugged and took another bite of the apple in her hand, the other occupied with the thick tome she was reading. Tracey sat down opposite her and cast an inquisitive eye over the spine, though it would do the Slytherin no good; she had vanished the silver leaf and reshaped the embossing on the leather specifically so no one would be able to tell what kind of text this was. When her best friend's curiosity still had not abated, she explained succinctly, "Had some reading to do and didn't want to be disturbed in the common room."
'Didn't want to be disturbed' was a bit on an understatement, to be honest. What she held in her hands was an introductory text on Evocation, the discipline she had decided would be her second area of study for her Dark Arts Proficiency exam, and the more she read from the book, the happier she had chosen this to learn. Evocation was undoubtedly one of the most impressive branches of magic she had ever heard of, and she already knew what kinds of things a master of Evocation could accomplish, such as calling one of the Powers to the mortal plane, which the youngest Peverell brother had done when he summoned Death. Unfortunately for her, since it was a Dark Art and – if the previous example was any indication – might legitimately be dark magic, it was not something she wanted random people seeing her reading about. She kept a spell on the book that should prevent anyone besides her from being able to open it, but waking up early to read when everyone else was still asleep was a minor precaution that could yield her large benefits.
That precaution also meant that no one had been around to hear her mutters of frustration. Evocation was a powerful art, but it was also a complicated and dangerous one. A wide variety of enticements and bindings were involved, especially for novices like her, and of all the fields she could have chosen to pursue, it just had to be the one that required a thorough grounding in astrology, a subject she had never spent any time learning. Sadly, the positions of the heavenly bodies were what formed the majority of the protections she would need from the very creatures and entities she called up, and that meant she needed to start studying.
She was just thankful this particular text included a brief introduction and a list of recommended sources for more in-depth research, several of which she had ordered that very morning from Flourish and Blotts, the form secure in Loki's talons.
And speaking of the post, a barn owl was winging its way to her with its own letter. Once it landed on the table, she relieved it of its burden and tore open the envelope. She immediately choked on her laughter.
"What in the world are you reading?" Tracey asked, a small smile growing on her own face at Jen's continued mirth.
"It's a love letter from an 'anonymous' admirer."
"O… kay?" the young Lady replied with no little confusion. "And that's funny why?"
"Well, it starts out with 'My beloved beauty, for whom I pine away' and just gets sappier from there." She nodded at Tracey's laugh. "Let's see… Ah, 'My heart was yours the first time I saw your eyes glittering at me from across the ballroom'. 'Your presence is a light that puts the sun and moon to shame'. Or maybe this one: 'On that night, I knew we were destined to spend our lives together'. The entire letter's like that, each trite little phrase even more insipid than the last. It would be pitiful if it weren't such a joke," she concluded with a shake of her head.
Tracey frowned slightly. "Don't be so sure it's a joke. Some people might actually think sending a letter like this is an honest way to get your attention."
"No, it's definitely a joke. I'm sure of that because even without a signature, I know who sent it." It was a single line that revealed that information, specifically the one that read '… every night that I spent with you in my arms …'. There was only one wizard who could claim that she had slept with him multiple times.
Jen rolled her eyes, still smiling gently. She did not know why Viktor would send her a letter like this, one so different from the others they had shared previously, but her best guess was that he meant for it to make her laugh. If that was the case, he had succeeded admirably, and she would have to thank him for it.
"Oh," the Slytherin said in comprehension, "that makes more sense. You still might want to hide it before your girlfriend catches you with it, though. I don't think she'd take it well."
"No kidding," she muttered. A quick shift of her arm shoved the sheet of parchment under the table where she could banish it into her satchel.
She was just in time. Not a second later, her sonar caught the aforementioned girl coming down the main staircase.
"Good morning, you two," Luna said once she had seated herself at the Ravenclaw table. "Jen, I was wondering if you could help me with something."
The dark-haired girl grimaced, recalling the disgusting substances she had needed to harvest the last time someone asked her for a favor. "I suppose I could. It depends on what it is you want me to do."
"Nothing too bad. I just wondered if you could…" The blonde's voice trailed off into a mumble, and a blush painted her cheeks bright red.
"I didn't catch that. You want me to what?"
Luna sighed. "Just… Look over at Ginny."
There was only one person she could think of who both was known to Luna and would answer to that name, and she focused her eyes as well as her sonar on the littlest Weasley. The Gryffindor sat slightly apart from the rest of her year-mates, though the gap was less a physical one and more one of posture and behavior. The young redhead seemed wrapped up in her own affairs, talking little to anyone else; to make matters more interesting, the Lions sitting nearby were sending the girl confused and worried glances, so this attitude was apparently a new one.
Jen returned her gaze to Luna and raised one eyebrow. "I didn't realize you had been keeping such close tabs on your neighbor."
"I wasn't keeping tabs on her. I just… We used to be friends," Luna explained weakly, "and if I notice an old friend's Melanchist growing at an unnatural rate, I'm allowed to worry about them."
Melanchist. She knew Luna had talked about that creature, but try as she might, she could not recall what it represented. "Okay. And what is it you want from me?"
"She's also spending a lot of time staring at Danny Potter?"
That by itself was no great surprise. She still remembered the short jaunt through Weasley's head she had taken almost two years previously during the Yule Ball, as well as the unusual structure of the psyche. Someone, she still did not know who, had gone through the girl's mind and damaged large sections of it during his or her plundering; the damage was already in the process of healing when she studied it, and two more years should have done even more good. In some ways, however, Weasley was already broken: during what Jen could only assume was the immediate aftermath of the attack, Weasley had used the memory of Potter rescuing her as the anchor upon which to rebuild her fractured mind. It was really only to be expected that she would go on to develop an incredible crush – some might, not unreasonably, call it an obsession – for her savior.
That said, there were some things one just did not do. "You're seriously asking me to set your former friend up with my half-brother?"
"…Maybe?" Tracey joined her in giving the blonde a doubtful look, and Luna looked away with a sigh. "I know it would be awkward—"
"That's assuming she even wants to talk to me."
"—and yes, you might not get anywhere with her. But I'd still like you to talk to her. She was my only friend before Hogwarts," the younger girl explained, "and even though we've grown apart, I'd still like to help her. It's the right thing to do."
Jen sighed as well before asking the obvious question. "Why do you want me to talk to her? Wouldn't someone else, someone who doesn't have such a foul history with her brother, be a better choice?" Reading Luna's expressions was normally the farthest thing from a challenge there was, and today was no exception. What would she be feeling guilty about? "Unless this is a ploy to try to patch things up between your first friend and your girlfriend," she guessed.
Luna's hanging head was all the answer she needed.
This is just asking for trouble. There is no way it will work, and I expect she knows it, even if she doesn't want to admit it. It won't be my fault when it ends in tears, and I refuse to take the blame for things that aren't my fault. Or for many things that are my fault, to be honest.
Then again, she thought, I suppose I could give it a try. If Weasley rebuffs me like I expect she will, the matter is over and done with; nothing lost except for a few minutes of my time. If she does listen, though, there is some fun that I could have with the situation. A sharp smile found its way onto her face. And if Potter is busy dealing with his stalker or his newfound girlfriend, however the matter turns out, that's less time he has to bother me. Luna's happy, Weasley's happy, I'm happy. Everybody wins.
"Fine." Her girlfriend's eyes shot up to meet hers, and she raised her hand to forestall any comments. "I will give it a chance. If she says no, however, that's the end of it."
"That's fine. I don't expect you to work any miracles. Just make an honest effort," the blonde replied happily.
An opportunity to speak with the female Weasley came sooner than Jen expected or wanted. After her third-period Transfiguration class the next day, she retreated to the library to finish the homework she had been given for the week so she could have the weekend for her extracurricular studies. What she found when she got there was Ginny Weasley sitting off by herself in a corner, her nose buried in an extraordinarily thick tome.
Now the only question was what to do about this. She could go ahead and get this discussion over with now, or she could put if off until some later date. The former meant a likely pointless irritant, but the latter meant Luna would continue to pester her in that kicked-puppy way she had. Decisions, decisions.
A flick of her fingers as she walked closer ensured they would not be disturbed. "Personally, I've always found it helps to keep your head a little farther away from the page than that."
Weasley's eyes popped up to stare at her, though it took them a second before they hardened with dislike. "What do you want?" she demanded in a cute little growl. A puppy pretending to be a pit bull.
Oh, yes. This situation had all sorts of entertainment possibilities.
Still, she needed to satisfy Luna's request before she started making herself a new toy. "Hard as it may be to believe, I'm here to offer you some help."
"Help?" The redhead's hastily stifled laughter caught Jen off-guard. "Yeah, thanks but no thanks. The last thing I need right now is more 'help'."
"Okay."
She turned around and started walking away, and Weasley stared at her back for a second or two before asking, "'Okay'? That's it? No 'No, you really do need my help' or anything?"
"No, nothing else." Jen came to a halt and shrugged, not turning around to face the younger girl while she thought about her next step. Lying would be easier, but if she was going to try to guide the girl behind her, it went against her nature to make only a half-hearted effort. Full disclosure would give her a better chance of succeeding, and it was not as if the truth in this instance was damning in any way. "If you don't want my help, that's fine by me. I'll tell Luna I gave it a shot and it didn't work, and that will be the end of it."
"What… What does Luna have to do with this?"
"She's the one who asked me to help you. Apparently, she thinks I could give you useful advice regarding your whole…" She waved one hand in the air vaguely. "…Potter situation."
If Weasley's eyes were wide before, it was nothing compared to their size now. They darted to the book in her hands and then back to Jen, and they repeated that a few times. "Is it that obvious?" she finally whispered.
Spinning around on her heel, Jen's head bobbed up and down as she thought over all she had seen of the love-struck Lion's behavior. All things considered, it was a quicker acquiescence than she was expecting, but she was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. "Pretty much. Not enough that everyone knows all the details, I'm sure, but if anyone spent the time watching you, they should be able to put all the basic facts together without too much trouble."
"Oh." Those doe-brown eyes fell away; after another moment, Weasley closed the thick book and set it face-down on the table. "If I do listen to your advice, what proof do I have that you won't make me look like a fool for your own amusement?"
"Better question: what reason would I have to trick you in the first place?" she asked, propping her hand on her hip. "It isn't like I thought to myself, 'How about I go out of my way to make a fifth-year look bad today?' If it weren't for Luna all but begging me to do this, I wouldn't be here talking to you. I have other things I could be doing with my time. Since she did, though, I'm honestly here to help you."
Weasley looked at her silently for several seconds before sighing and closing the heavy book. "What kind of help can you even offer, anyway? It isn't like you and Danny are close or anything."
"No, we're not. That doesn't mean I don't have useful advice. Regardless of what you may think, Potter is just like every other boy. The same tricks will work on him that work on everybody else." Jen pulled out a chair and seated herself in it. "Or, if nothing else, I can at least answer whatever questions you might have. It's really all up to you."
A quiet settled over them for nearly a minute, the redhead busy with her thoughts and Jen's own mind bouncing back and forth between impatience at waiting for Weasley to get her thoughts together and anticipation for what she could convince Luna to do in compensation later that night. Finally, Weasley sighed. "I don't know what to do about it. I lo— care for Danny a lot, but I don't know if we're right for each other."
Jen rolled her eyes. "So?"
"What do you mean, 'so'?!"
"Exactly that." One of her eyebrows rose at Weasley's continued confusion. "Whether you think you two are 'right' or 'good' for the other is irrelevant. Do you want Potter to be yours?"
"Of course I do, but—"
"Then reach out and take him," she declared in a commanding voice. "If you're waiting for him to come to you or for whatever issue you see between you to resolve on its own, you'll still be waiting for him on your deathbed." Barking out a single laugh, Jen leaned back into her chair. "You can worry about incompatibility or whatever when it actually starts posing a problem, but all you're doing by focusing on it now is throwing away your chance to get what you want."
It was how she started this relationship with Luna, after all. If she had spent time worrying about how the differences between them – their social statuses, her own unconventional childhood, Luna's innocence versus her amorality, her black magic as opposed to Luna's tendency to light – they never would have gotten together in the first place. That was not what she did, though; she wanted Luna as hers, and while the road had been a little rocky in places, it had ended in her favor.
"I guess," Weasley said weakly. "Except… I…" She twirled a few locks of hair around one finger for a moment before she blurted out, "Is it going to cause a problem that he has money and we… don't?"
Ah. Now things started making more sense. Luna could be defensive from time to time about how little her father's magazine made them compared to the Blacks' wealth or the Boneses' or… well, all of their mutual friends, really, and the blonde was quite likely the most easy-going individuals Jen knew. If the main reason behind Weasley's indecision was the gulf between her family's and the Potters' finances, it would help explain why the redhead was so willing to accept her advice. It was also, unfortunately, not a problem with an easy solution.
Jen nodded. "It's definitely a possibility. I know Luna sometimes feels awkward about that. I take care not to rub my family's gold in her face, but that doesn't mean it never comes up." And whether Potter would take the same degree of caution or not, she honestly could not say. She intentionally did not know the boy well enough to make any prediction.
"Better clothes, nice jewelry… Would they make it easier to get Danny to pay attention to me?" asked Weasley in a cautious voice.
"Looking nice always works better to grab a guy's attention. A girl's, too, in case you swing that way."
The Gryffindor nodded slowly, her eyes revealing her mind to be elsewhere for a long moment. "If you were in my shoes," she began, "and you found a way you could get the money you needed for all this, would you take it?"
Her own mind drifted away into her memories. The cosmetics and wide variety of outfits she had worn while working at Candyland so she could accommodate the different tastes and kinks of her many clients. The rich outfits and elaborate accessories she had shown off during the dates with her suitors. She shook her head and pulled herself back to the present. "Absolutely."
"Even… Even if you knew it might cause some problems with your family? Hypothetically?" Weasley quickly added, her voice nearly a squeak.
A small smile slid over her lips. "If you're talking about something… shady, shall we say?… I would recommend you take care to keep anyone from finding out. If it's fine other than your family not liking it, though"—she shrugged again—"you have to decide which you think is more important: conforming to the opinions of the members of your family or getting what you want. That's a choice only you can make."
"I think I understand," whispered the girl. Brown eyes rose to meet purple before she looked away again. "Thank you for the advice. I… I need to go now."
"Of course. This is something you need to think over, not make a hasty decision about. Be a Ravenclaw for a while rather than a Gryffindor," she laughed. Weasley did not seem to notice the joke, because the girl just walked away without a single glance back.
I'm actually glad I agreed to Luna's request, she thought after a moment as another, colder smile appeared. And such strange questions, too. I should have taken a moment to find out just what was going on in her head. Wasted opportunity.
Still, she could assuage her curiosity to some degree. Flipping over the heavy book the other girl had been looking through, her brows knit together as she took in the words embossed on the spine. Trees of Gold: A Compendium of the Genealogy of the Noble Houses of Great Britain, 1850–1950? She glanced back at the departing Lion in suspicion; this was a very interesting choice of reading material for a low-born 'blood traitor'.
What was Weasley up to?
Griselda glanced up at the knock on her door. She was not expecting anyone at the moment, but between her promise to be available to the grieving children and the exasperation at the budget in front of her, any visitor would be a welcome one. "Come in."
The door swung open, and she was surprised when it was not a younger child but the Head Boy and Girl who poked their heads in. "Headmistress," the young man said in a tentative voice, "can we talk to you for a moment?"
"Of course. Please, have a seat."
The pair slipped in and walked toward the chairs in front of her desk, though they staggered to a halt when they both went for the right-hand one; they just stood there staring at each other for a second before Mr. Daye stretched out his hand to signal his counterpart to take it and instead sat in the one on the left. Not, Griselda knew, that such a thing should be a surprise. The pair were clearly still uncomfortable with each other as a result of their houses' long feud.
During her time as the interim headmistress, she had noticed that there had developed a trend never to have a Slytherin and a Gryffindor be Head Boy and Girl at the same time. It was a minor issue on the face of it, but to her it seemed like another aspect of the widening gulf between Lions and Snakes, a division that had been present to some extent when she was in Hogwarts over a century and a half before but that had greatly worsened since then. Nor could she blame Dumbledore for this the way she could for other problems within the school; as far as her and Umbridge's research indicated, the deterioration had started sometime in the nineteen-teens or -twenties, when Dumbledore was still just a fresh-faced Transfiguration professor and had little influence in wider inter-house relations. Even his own actions, which had certainly exacerbated the problem, were probably more a result of this division than the cause.
When she had to choose this year's Head Students, she had decided to buck that trend, pulling Miss Torquill from Slytherin and Mr. Daye from Gryffindor from the list of available prefects and shoving them together. She was not expecting the pair to work together smoothly from the word 'go' – though she hoped they had not come by today because of any problems – but all the records and her own observations had indicated that the pair were both fairly easy-going and would have few problems once they stopped dancing around each other. If their houses saw how these two could cooperate, maybe they would be willing to put aside their own grudges, or at least try, and take the first steps toward reconciliation.
And even if that failed, the pair she had chosen were both deserving of their new positions. For all she was using them as an example of inter-house cooperation, her Hufflepuff sense of fair play would not allow her to promote someone just so she could use them for her own purposes.
The pair had held a silent conversation during her own introspection, one consisting entirely of hopeful expressions and raised eyebrows and grimaces. Finally, Miss Torquill rolled her eyes and turned back to Griselda. "Headmistress, we wanted to talk to you about the Hogsmeade weekends."
That was not what she had expected. "What about them?" She had canceled the outings to Hogsmeade for the fall term because the town was still mostly destroyed and only in the first stages of rebuilding, so this complaint probably had to do with that, but she was curious what exactly they wanted. Surely they were not going to demand to be allowed to visit piles of rubble, and if they wanted to visit the memorial set up for the fallen villagers and students, the young woman would not have phrased her statement as she had.
Mr. Daye picked up the conversation from his companion. "My uncle's company is one of the ones involved in Hogsmeade's rebuilding, and I heard from him that the town is probably going to wind up even smaller than it was before last year. It was hard enough to find interesting things to do before, and with there being even less, Hogsmeade really won't be that good of a place to visit or shop."
"Not to mention that many students just used it as an excuse to hail the Knight Bus and go somewhere else," the Head Girl girl cut in when he began to falter. "That's what we wanted to discuss with you. Rather than canceling the Hogsmeade visits for the term, would you be willing to let us go to a different shopping area on those weekends, instead?"
Griselda sat back and laced her hands in front of her, though her thoughtful pose was ruined when a lock of white hair fell into her face. The students thankfully held their giggles behind quivering lips when she had to blow it out of the way. It was not a terrible idea, especially considering that it would only be a formal acknowledgement of an arrangement she had not known about but could do very little to stop, but there were some problems she could see with that plan. "One of the benefits of allowing students to go to Hogsmeade was that it was close to the castle. If something happened, students would be able to return to the castle in short order, and it was easy for professors to arrive there to handle the situation. Were you to go elsewhere, you would not have those protections."
"With all due respect, Headmistress, those protections didn't do us much good last year."
She had to give the younger witch a nod at that unfortunately accurate rebuttal. "No, they didn't. But shouldn't that then mean I should cancel all Hogsmeade visits until this war is over?"
"That will do more harm than good," Mr. Daye said. "I've already overheard some of the fifth- and sixth-years talking about sneaking over or around the gates on the weekends so they could go somewhere where they could call the Knight Bus from, and a few people from my own year in multiple houses have tossed around the idea of finding some spot where the wards are weaker and Disapparating out."
"Do you think they'll succeed?"
"Probably not," he admitted, "but then there will just be more chaos in the school itself. And with the current… tensions"—he glanced at his counterpart, who tried and failed to hide her own worries by toying with her dark hair—"I know that's going to end badly."
A sigh left Griselda of its own accord. She had not thought of it in that light, but his concerns were well-founded. A large group of stressed adolescents without a route to blow off their youthful exuberance? That energy being bent to mischief or even violence was not a certainty, but it was a problem that would be better to defuse now rather than let sit. "Assuming I agree to this proposal"—which, the more she thought about it, the more likely she was going to do—"where do you suggest they go?"
"Well, there's always Diagon Alley—"
"No." He looked up at her in shock at her sudden interruption. "Diagon provides too many opportunities for someone to get lost, and even with the Ministry's increased presence, it is still connected to Knockturn. I will not sign off on that."
"What about Edinburgh?" She and Mr. Daye glanced over at Miss Torquill. "It's smaller than Diagon, only four or five streets, and it doesn't have an alleyway leading to an area like Knockturn. It has a number of different shops, too; I've gone there with my sister a couple of times. There have been Patrolmen stationed there ever since the attack on Diagon, so it should be fairly safe."
"That could work," Mr. Daye muttered quietly, and she gave the pair a short nod of agreement. Self-contained, a DMLE presence, enough variety to keep the other students from wandering off; this might be a better place to send the children than even the Hogsmeade of the last few years.
There were still some problems that would have to be handled if this was going to happen. She could think of a few compromises, but her curiosity had been piqued. These two had done so well already; how would they react to a few more challenges? "The Board of Governors will need to approve this since we are talking about the students traveling so far from the castle, and I don't know if they will go for letting the younger students wander around freely like that."
"Well," the Head Boy said after a few seconds of thought, "what if we limited it just to fifth-years and up? The NEWT students are definitely all old enough to be able to take care of themselves, though the fifth-years probably are, too, and with the stress of the OWLs, it's them along with the seventh-years I'm most worried about starting something. Maybe have them get another form signed by their parents that would give them permission to leave the school on Hogsmeade weekends?"
"If we mention that there are always people from the DMLE around on the form itself, more should be willing to sign," added Miss Torquill.
"Then it is just getting the Board to agree. I could write the proposal myself, but I have a great deal to do already, and I think they would be more interested in it if you wrote it yourself and I just gave it my approval." And, she did not say, writing a persuasive proposal like this would be a good skill for them to learn, not to mention they would feel more invested in the process if they not only came up with the idea but also played a major role in getting it approved. Fishing out a slip of parchment from the pile on her desk, she scribbled out a few words and passed it over to the pair. "Here are some of the general topics you should probably include in the proposal. Once you have it written out, get the other prefects to sign it as well. The more names there are, the better, and if I can tell the Board honestly that this is all the prefects, they will be more likely to take it seriously."
"Okay," he said in a weak voice.
Griselda smiled gently at their obvious nervousness. It was a good thing she was not going to throw them to the wolves, no matter how much more work her idea was going to make for her than if she just did it all. "If you want"—because they would, she had no fears about that—"I will be willing to look it over a few times before you hand it to the prefects. I won't write it for you, but I can take a few minutes here and there to make corrections and give you some suggestions."
"We understand. Thank you for your time, Headmistress." The pair stood, and Miss Torquill continued, "We should have a rough draft of the proposal ready for you within the next day or so."
"Next day or— Oh! Yes." Nodding quickly, though she could not tell if it was because of his understanding or him just wanting to avoid his partner's irritated glare, the Head Boy was the first one out the door.
Alone again, Griselda finally let out the laugh that she had carefully kept hidden. If being Headmistress meant she got to have more little chats and teaching moments with the students like this, perhaps she could handle all the extra paperwork she now had to deal with.
Her good mood buoyed her for the rest of the day.
Bonus points for anyone who knows where I got the names for the Head Boy and Girl.
Silently Watches out.
