A/N: Ok, so I've been working hard at getting the second half of Busted out before Violet puts up Chapter 10 of AA and some of the premises I've made get contradicted...

I've had a really hard time putting the different snatches of conversation I had in my head into a coherent order. Thanks for all the encouraging reviews. I don't think I would have kept working on this particular scene without them.

The next update will probably take a while as I've got to go take care of my real life for a change.

The Reckless Ruse: Busted (continued)

Rigel took a deep breath. "I should have all I need in my school bag. I just need to get that from my room. That's what I get for not taking it with me." She sighed and raised her wand to once again disguise her face with a stinging hex. "This is gonna hurt."

He stalled her, catching her hand in his own. "What are you doing?"

"I need to cast another stinging hex on my face so nobody will realize my features have changed. And I'd better adjust my eye colour again, too."

Aldon smiled gently at her as, instead of releasing her hand, he rose, pulling her up with him and manoeuvred her to sit on the bed. He stroked a strand of hair behind her ear and looked at her with such tenderness that she felt her heart clench. She couldn't remember the last time anyone had looked at her like that. And he was looking at her, the real her that no one had seen in two years.

"I like your eyes the way they are. Just like Rose described them. They are even brighter than I remember them from the gala. Why don't you stay here for the rest of the day and spend some time in your own skin? I can ask Edmund to stay away until tonight. He'll understand. And I'll tell the others you're just a little out of sorts after what happened today and needed some time without everyone asking what's wrong. I'll just get one of your dorm mates to fetch your bag so you can change back when you're ready to leave." He rose, placing a soft kiss on her forehead. "Draw the curtains, won't you? In case Edmund comes back before I get a chance to talk to him."

"You won't tell anyone?" Rigel hated how small her voice sounded. He was right in that she was exhausted and needed time to rest and regroup. She also needed to talk to him about what he had learned and what he would do with that knowledge. Hopefully she could strike some kind of deal with him, as she had with Flint, but she wasn't up to that at this moment. Still, the idea of letting him walk out that door without some kind of safeguard made her very uncomfortable.

"I won't." He promised. "Though you and I will have a serious conversation about this later today."

She watched him leave the room before she stretched out on his bed, after kicking off her shoes and drawing the curtains, idly wondering if he appreciated just how difficult it had been not to hit him in the back with a stunning spell and obliviating him. She'd never been a very trusting person and she wasn't at all sure that changing that now was a good idea.

Rigel opened a bleary eye as she felt the matrass dip. Aldon had slipped through the curtains and deposited her bag next to her. She reached for it but he caught her hand once again, saying "Relax. It won't go anywhere." He settled himself on the bed, back leaning against the wall; one leg folded in and the knee of the other pointing straight up. He tugged her over until her head rested on his thigh. His raised leg leaned comfortably against her back as she curled up again and went back to dozing. She relaxed under the soothing strokes of his long fingers in her hair.

Normally when Rigel awoke, it was instantaneous. So coming to slowly was a new and slightly disorienting experience. The first thing she noticed was that she felt warm and strangely content. Next she realized that she was covered by a blanket. That was unusual as she normally slept on top of the covers. Then she felt something move next to her and woke with a start. The something in bed with her gave an echoing start, immediately followed by a hiss of pain. She opened her eyes to see Rosier looking down on her with a wry smile as he rubbed the back of his head with one hand, apparently he'd just hit it on the wall. Everything came suddenly back to Rigel and she sat up quickly, shedding the blanket he must have placed on her.

"Morning." The older boy yawned, his smile getting warmer.

Harry's green eyes widened in arlarm. "What time is it?"

The upperclassman chuckled as he reached for his pocket watch. "Don't worry I'm sure it's still Sunday. We can't have slept that long." He opened the watch and frowned at the many dials that sat unmoving behind the glass casing. He shook it slightly but everything remained still. Cursing softly he shut the lid and stowed the watch back in his pocket. "It's been acting up for a while now. Keeps getting stuck. I think it might have been hit by a spell during duelling practice. But there's no point in getting it fixed now. I'll be getting the Rosier watch when I turn seventeen next month anyway."

"Family heirloom?" Rigel asked while digging out her wand. "Better not leave that in your pocket when duelling. Tempem eda." The wand spun on her flat hand, indicating first the hour and then the minutes. It wasn't the most exact spell, as the only reference was her middle finger being the positon of the number twelve on a clock but it served her purpose well enough, telling Rigel that it was a few minutes after four in the afternoon.

"Handy." commented Rosier, taking out his own wand to try the spell.

While he was occupied Rigel routed through her school bag. With the undetectable extension charms Sirius had placed on it, it was quite roomy and she had taken to carrying around a lot of things constantly so she wouldn't have to return to her dorm when she was time-turned. She finally located her potions kit under several heavy books on advanced ancient runes she was reading for Flint's latest essay. Next she started going through the specially sealed compartments in her potions kit, many of which had also been extended. She smiled in relief when she found a small bottle labelled 'PPJP'. She wouldn't have to spend a whole month in time-turned isolation. It saved her from figuring out where she'd sleep during that time – and brew her potion as well, as her dorm room, lab and the room of requirement would all be occupied by alternate versions of her own self. She guessed Aldon might let her sleep here if she explained it to him. No that wouldn't work she'd have to explain it to him a month in the past and that obviously hadn't happened or he wouldn't have been so shocked to discover she was a girl. – And he would be sleeping here. Where had that thought come from anyway?

Harry mentally shook herself. If she ever really had to redo a whole month at once she could leave Hogwarts through one of the secret tunnels marked on the Marauder's Map and floo to her apartment in Dogwood Lane. Leo would be happy to see her but he'd also have a lot of questions as to why she was living in the Alleys for a month. Especially if she went now, looking more girly than usual. As she still had one conversation with an inquisitive friend awaiting her, Rigel was glad to avoid another. Luckily, the little vial of permanent Pollyjuice Potion spared her such a fate for the moment. Now that she came to think of it, she remembered that Snape had told her she could only repeat a maximum of one week at a time with her time-turner anyway. She might have been able to take the potion with her as she relived that one week four times to stretch it into a month but with the time-turning she had already done over the past seven days she'd have exceeded the maximum of six versions of herself at any given time. Setting the vial down carefully, she decided right then to make sure she always had some spare Pollyjuice Potion, both the long and short lasting varieties, in future.

Harry was about to look for the other ingredients she'd need to revert to the physical appearance of Rigel Black, when Rosier snatched up the little bottle.

"What's this?" he asked, eyes sparkling with curiosity. "Pollyjuice Potion? No wonder you changed back all of a sudden, we always practice for more than an hour and you didn't bring anything to drink with you."

Rigel blinked. Why did he have to be so observant? Ah well, what was one more lie? She widened her eyes slightly and started prattling. "You're right. And it wouldn't have looked too strange to take a bottle with me when exercising but I didn't expect it to take this long. Rigel never told me he turned into such a sports enthusiast. He never was at home." She had to convince him she was only filling in for her cousin today. Her mind scrambled for a reason to make that necessary.

Rosier smirked. "Oh wasn't he? That's strange. The way Pansy and Draco told it, he was so fit at the beginning of the school year, he simply must have exercised over the summer."

"Really?" Harry asked, feigning interest. "I never knew. But then he's always been very secretive."

"You don't say."

"Yes. I don't know where he gets it from. None of the rest of our family are like that."

"Oh? And here I thought you were like that."

She frowned at him. "Where'd you get that idea?" This wasn't going the way it was supposed to.

"From your uncle at the gala. He seemed to think it strange that you were so open and friendly. Like he wasn't used to seeing you this way. On the other hand, he never noticed anything off about Rigel's behaviour. We all know your cousin acts less reserved around his father than he usually does. Now why is it that your family seems to think your characters are exactly reversed to what your friends have discovered them to be?" the older boy asked, voice tight, glaring at her.

Oh crap.

She cast around for something to say but came up empty. What was the point anyway? He'd obviously guessed the truth already.

As if to prove her point Rosier continued. "For someone who is unaware of her cousin's habits, you certainly have the finer points of his character down to a T. You've shown no trouble navigating the castle and were aware of all manner of small details like the fact that you can't enter the corridor leading to the dorms unless you are in that year or being taken by someone who is. And you've demonstrated you know a lot about our personal interactions when you regaled me for always staring at you. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that you're the person I've been getting to know as Rigel for more than two years now. You must have switched places with your cousin the moment the two of you left for school for the first time. What I can't figure out is how you managed to pull it off or why you'd even want to do that in the first place."

Harry had to smile a little at that. Flint had guessed at the reason right away, though he didn't know who she really was. There was nothing for it. Rosier obviously knew too much to misdirect him now and if she wanted him to agree to some sort of deal she needed to humour him. So she explained how this solution enabled both her and Archie to follow their dreams.

He stared at her incredulously. "You did all that to get a bit of an academic head start? It can't even make that much of a difference. You can take healing lessons here as well and they have to teach potions at that American school. Every wizarding school does."

"Healing classes at AIM are far more extensive than what can be covered in lessons here. And their potions tract is nowhere near as good as the one at Hogwarts. Snape's a genius and I would have done anything to study under him."

"Obviously." Rosier blew out a breath, looking frustrated. When he continued, he spoke more slowly, as though trying to reason with an imbecile, seeming to choose his words with care. "It can't possibly give you enough of an edge to justify the risks you're taking. You can't start making a name for yourself while pretending to be someone else though you've certainly made a name for your cousin. How are you expecting to reclaim your own life after seven years at school? Or were you planning on pretending to be a boy for the rest of your life?"

"Of course not. We've been studying each other's syllabus as much as possible so we both know what the other is supposed to know."

"There's no possible way he can learn enough about all the people you know to fool them after they spent seven years with you. Were you planning to just break ties with every one?"

"Yeah well." She floundered. "I'll have to break ties anyway. Even if Archie maintains some sort of contact it's not like I'll be able to switch places with him every time I want to talk to someone I met at Hogwarts. I've tried to keep my distance, to be inconspicuous, not to attract too much attention, it just kind of happened."

Rosier let out a humourless laugh. "Harry you've been nothing if not conspicuous from the moment I met you."

"Don't." She said, feeling panic rise in her. "Don't call me 'Harry'. It's 'Rigel' while I'm at Hogwarts. You can't get the two confused." Not like she'd been doing. It was just difficult to think of herself as 'Rigel' when she knew she looked like 'Harry'. And she still didn't know how she'd get him to actually agree to keep her secret. She took a deep breath to try and regain her focus, promising herself a long meditation session as soon as this crisis was resolved. I am Rigel. She told herself. As long as I'm at Hogwarts I am Rigel. No reason to get confuse about it, just like I told Rosier. Or was it Aldon? She'd been calling him by his first name for over a year now. But only out loud, when she spoke to him directly. In her mind he'd remained Rosier. Until a few hours ago when she'd lain crying in his arms. Just the thought of it was enough to make her flush in embarrassment. Now she was as confused about who he was, as she was about herself. Time to make a decision. Her green eyes met his golden ones. He was staring at her with such intensity as though he hoped he'd be able to read her thoughts if he just looked hard enough. But what need had he of it? He already knew all of her secrets. Well, most of them. Nearly as many as Archie, more than Leo. She decided that if he were to join them in that, she might as well call him by his first name.

"It's too late to back out now, isn't it?" Aldon asked in a softly, sounding very concerned. "You've spent too much time here already, become too well known. Why did you have to come here? If you're only studying healing to keep up the pretence then surely if you'd gone to AIM and spent all your time on the things that interest you, you'd have gotten just as far in potions."

"I wanted to learn from Professor Snape. He's a genius. I'd never have gotten to where I am today without him." Never mind the additional practice and information she'd gotten from trying to keep the ruse going. She'd never have studied Pollyjuice Potion so intensively otherwise and if she hadn't needed money to rent an apartment she'd never have gotten a job at Krait's and the internship at the Potions Guild as a result.

"You can't know that –"

"Yes, I can."

"But it's not worth your life." Aldon almost shouted. He jumped up from the bed and started to pace the room. Rigel didn't think she'd ever seen him this riled up. She wondered if this was how Leo would react if he ever actually found out her secret. It was kind of scary.

"What if anyone ever finds out?" the older boy demanded.

Well it wasn't really a question of if but of when and who, wasn't it? She was still waiting to figure out the 'what's going to happen' part where he was concerned, though it didn't sound as if he was planning on turning her in. Maybe it was time to force the issue.

"Someone already did find out." She noted drily.

"What? Who?"

"You for one."

He huffed. "I meant someone who isn't your friend, whose knowing would put you in real danger. You realize that they could lock you up in Askaban for the rest of your life for this?"

"Of course I realize that. What, you think this is news to me? You think I didn't think this through before coming here? It's not exactly a spur-of-the-moment kind of decision."

"Well yes, maybe I was hoping you didn't really think this through. Because the alternative is knowing you went into this fully aware of the danger it places you in, a much greater danger than it is for your cousin, I might add, and you did it anyway. Would you have gone along with it if the roles were reversed? If your cousin might end up imprisoned for life or even subjected to a dementor's kiss? I think not. Once again you demonstrate your total disregard for your own safety. How can you place so little value on your own life?"

"Because if I didn't do this, it wouldn't be a life worth living for. What good is knowing you're safe if it means you can't follow your dreams, if there's no way to realize your ambitions? You're a Slytherin as well, you should know all about ambition and how it sometimes drives you to bend the rules."

"You didn't just bend the rules. You've twisted them so much it's impossible to discern their original shape."

"What?" she couldn't help but give a little snort of laughter at the picture he painted.

Aldon grinned at her in response but his tone remained serious. "I mean it. I know you're not above exaggeration and bending the truth along with the rules but there is only so much bending you can do to the rules until you've clearly broken them. And we're not just talking about school rules here. This is the law."

"There's really –" she began but he stopped her with a raised hand and continued.

"That's not what I'm complaining about however. What bothers me is that you have once again put yourself into immense danger without telling your friends about it. How can we help you if we don't even know when it might be needed?"

"You want me to tell my friends? Besides putting you all in danger just by association, all your parents are members of the SOW party, some, like Draco's father, are even on the board of governors for Hogwarts. They're the whole reason I couldn't come here under my own name. Anyone I tell will have a conflict of interest between their friendship with me and loyalty to their family. You may be fine with that since you've told me that you hate your parents but do you really expect me to put the others in that position?"

That shut him up.

Rigel decided to use his silence to raise some questions of her own. She finally breached the matter of how he planned to handle knowing her secret. When he agreed to keep it, not setting any conditions, she went on explaining the danger involved both to her and him and what precautions could be taken against it. She listed everything from obliviating him to occlumency and the sealing curse. In the end he agreed to let her seal the truth inside him like she had done with Flint but unlike the Quidditch Captain he asked for nothing in return. Rigel felt almost bad about it, considering how much work she had to constantly put into her arrangement with Flint, but not so bad as to reconsider. It was necessary and would protect Aldon as much as her. When the spell was complete she felt a great weight lift from her mind. As long as he didn't noticeably change his behaviour towards her, everything should be fine.

It was getting late so Rigel decided it was time to readjust her appearance. She had taken out the little bottle of Pollyjuice Potion earlier but still needed to merge her and Archie's hair. She hoped she hadn't changed too much since last summer. While she still had her cousin's hair in her potions kit – and since the hair preserved the essence as it had been when it was cut, any changes in Archie's appearance wouldn't register – she hadn't kept any of her own hair from summer. No need to put it in her potion's kit when she carried it around on her head after all but people were bound to notice if she ended up looking very different this evening from how they had seen her this morning.

After locating the small vial with Archie's hair, she opened the compartment of her potions kit that contained her notes and leafed through the sheaves of parchment until she found the one depicting the runes she needed for the essence blending spell. She set the sheet aside to stow the others in her potions kit once more. Predictably Aldon picked it up immediately.

"What's this?" He wrinkled his nose in a show of indolent distain. "It looks horribly complicated."

Rigel smiled. As far as she knew Aldon didn't take runes but he seemed to approach any academic subject with the same detached aloofness. She couldn't remember ever seeing him studying for anything or even reading a book. He only kept interrupting her when she did so. However, he was so knowledgeable in general that his sharp intelligence couldn't account for it alone. He had to be studying sometimes even if he hid it well. Or maybe he gleaned all his learning from pestering other people. "It's a runic circle that will shape the magic for a spell I need to change my appearance." she explained.

"And the runes anchor the magic to make the spell permanent and keep it going even when you're asleep or otherwise distracted?"

"No." Rigel frowned. That was actually an interesting assumption. She wondered if it was possible to use runes for something like that. Maybe to create an amulet that worked like a kind of glamour. Seeing the other Slytherin cock his head in question, she elaborated. "I use a potion for that. But you need to add the essence of the person you want to change into so I need to create the essence of 'Rigel Black'".

"What do you mean 'create' it? Don't you have some of his hair?"

"Not yet, seeing as Rigel Black doesn't exist."

"Of course he exists. Everyone knows that Sirius Black has a son. I don't see how you'd be able to lie about that. You said he's taken your place at AIM. So why don't you just use your cousin's hair to change into him?"

"Because I don't want to run around in the body of a boy for seven years." Rigel nearly shouted. Rosier had a way of driving her up the wall with his incessant questioning. Aldon, she reminded herself. Now that he knew her most intimate secret he had suddenly become Aldon, even in her mind – at least most of the time.

Aldon's eyes widened in shocked understanding, "You've been a girl the whole time?" He frowned as he seemed to consider everything he knew about her in light of this new information. "That certainly explains a lot." Then his eyes narrowed in almost comic contradiction of the expression he'd worn only a moment before. "And Malfoy knows. I thought you said you didn't tell anyone."

He sounded a little jealous.

"What? No he doesn't. What makes you think that?" Things would get a lot more complicated if any of her dorm mates ever found out. There was no way they wouldn't change their behaviour to only dress in the bathroom as she did. And that way the other two would know something was up as well.

"He hinted that there was a reason why you don't like other people touching you."

Oh, that. Right. Rigel felt an immediate wave of guilt at the reminder how much she misled her best friend.

"You're the only one at Hogwarts who knows Rigel Black is really a girl." She explained calmly. Not even Flint had figured that part out.

"Flint? He knows something?"

Crap. Had she said that out loud?

"How did you get him to stay quiet about this? Wait. Oh no. You're not telling me you're the one who's been doing all his homework."

"You're right." she smirked. "I'm not telling you that."

Seeing Aldon gear up for another discussion Rigel sighed in exasperation. At this rate she'd never get back to her own dorm room again.