Chapter Fifteen

The Next Generation

1

Diagon Alley was crowded as ever as the sun beamed down over the early afternoon shoppers. Logan walked with little Libby riding piggyback on his back. Sydney was there as well, tagging along with them on their outing to pick up a few things.

"Bonjour, je meh…meh…" Liberty struggled with the French phrase Syd was trying to teach her.

"Je m'appelle," Sydney supplied.

"Bonjour, je m'appelle Libby!" the girl exclaimed triumphantly.

Logan laughed proudly.

" Merveilleux!" clapped Sydney. "You're brilliant, Liberty! Okay, Logan, I'll be back in a min. I just need to stop in the Apothecary."

"We'll be at the Weasleys' shop," Logan told her before she hurried off.

Inside the Apothecary, Sydney gathered everything she needed in a shopping bag and paid the clerk. She was just stepping out of the shop to go catch up with her friends when she collided with someone, bouncing off of them and dropping her bag.

"Oh, my – I'm so sorry," she said automatically. Then she froze as the man she had hit bent to collect her bag for her. Though she couldn't see his face yet, his hair was a golden color that seemed to shimmer like a phoenix's feathers.

"No, sorry, it's my fault," he told her, straightening. It was indeed, the Optimus Marduk.

He stopped as well when he recognized her, holding the forgotten bag halfway between them. They stood that way for some time, neither one knowing quite what to do. At last, Sydney snatched her bag away from him and grabbed her wand.

"Are you honestly going to pull your wand on me in public?" he inquired with raised eyebrows.

"I was thinking about it yes," Sydney responded hotly. "After all, you are a Neo and it's my duty as a Blood Traitor to bring you to justice." She glared at him challengingly. "What do you think, Marduk? Care for a very public duel?"

"Please, don't call me that here," he asked politely.

"Fine. Will scumbag do?"

Marduk sighed. "How about Fintan?" he responded.

"Is that your real name?" Sydney demanded.

"…Yes."

"Why the heck would you tell me that?"

He rolled his eyes as he shook his head. "I really have no idea."

She gave him a confused look. After watching him fight with the BT only four months before, it was very strange seeing him out in public like a normal person. He was acting so peculiar – almost shy, or something.

"Are you going to curse me with that, or can I pass?" he asked, eyeing her wand.

"I don't know if I can trust you not to kidnap the nearest teenager and make them a freak. Of course, the nearest teenager would be me." She paused to arch a sarcastic eyebrow at him, "You can give it your best shot, if you'd like. I'm a half-blood werewolf, so that should add an interesting touch to your new boss's experiments."

"I don't want to do anything to you," he hissed, glancing around the crowd to make sure no one had overheard her. "I just want to leave here without starting a duel."

"For someone who causes a lot of fights, you sure don't like confrontation," she commended dryly.

"Not with you, I don't," he replied. "So?"

They regarded each other for another moment, but eventually Sydney relented and put away her wand. "I have to meet someone," she said bitterly, "and I wouldn't want to spoil their day by bringing you into it."

"Fair enough," he sighed as she brushed by him.

She was only a few steps away when suddenly:

"Sydney…"

The dark haired girl spun back toward him, never having felt so affronted that someone had remembered her name. "What?" she snapped.

"Before, you… you asked me a question that I haven't been able to answer," he said.

"And what was that?"

"It was what you said about those students," he said, looking incredibly awkward as his skin flushed brightly. "And I think…you were right. I can't see how pure bloods are really any different than everyone else."

Obviously embarrassed by his words and eager to go, he turned on his heel and walked away, leaving Sydney gaping after him in total shock.

2

Construction on level two of the Ministry of Magic had finally finished after four months of work, and things seemed relatively back to normal in the Auror headquarters. Harry was still working on the same case about missing children, and he realized now that finding all of them probably wouldn't happen. However, as the Blood Traitors specialized in runaways (having quite a few in their group), they had agreed to keep their eyes and ears open for the young people in his files.

He had put a huge map of the UK up in his office and had several of the kids' photos pinned to certain locations – the rest of the wall was plastered with handwritten notes about the case.

It was this map he was staring at when he heard Yates's awful, curt voice pass by his door. Harry glanced over at the door to see Remus's daughter still following the terrible woman around.

"Here are some notes I took. It should be a pretty straight forward case," said the old woman to her assistant as they paused near his office.

"Yes," Lenore agreed, nodding as she looked at the notes.

"Well, that's all. You're on your own."

Lenore swayed on the spot. "My own? You mean you're giving me a case?"

"Why else would I give you the notes?" snarled Yates.

Lenore looked absolutely thrilled. She even hugged the crotchety old cow before she ran back toward Investigations.

Harry grinned when he saw a smile threatening to form somewhere on Yate's deeply wrinkled face as she walked off. Harry's new assistant passed her in the hall, wishing her a good afternoon before coming inside.

Not long after meeting Antonia Allen on the Hogwarts express, Harry offered her the job as his assistant – which she took the very next day. It quickly became evident that Antonia could make friends with just about anybody. She was almost too friendly – plus she talked incessantly – but she was making an amazing assistant.

"Here's today's paper, Harry," she beamed, tossing the Daily Prophet onto his desk. "There's an article about those blokes everyone hates so much."

Harry leaned over the paper and saw a headline about the upcoming trial of Huxley and Hellewege, the two officials who had been marked as Neos during the recent battle. After Icarus Crocker's arrest less than a year ago, more and more Ministry employees were being questioned about any suspected Otpimates activity. Tonks was in charge of the case, and she was already sick of it.

He looked up and saw that Antonia had sat down at her desk and was ripping into an envelope of her own. "What have you got today?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

"My Remy-kins sent me a letter," she told him, twirling a strand of her curly orange hair around her finger. "He's so thoughtful. I can't wait to get married!"

Harry silently mouthed the last six words alone with her. It had gotten pretty predictable, since she said them every single day. That sentence was most fathers' worst nightmare, and he dreaded the day he would hear Kyla utter them. However, now he two daughters to worry about.

Ginny had given birth to tiny Risa Potter just two months ago, and she was the most adorable baby in the world in her father's opinion. She was so little and cute with her fine auburn hair and chubby face. Kyla had transitioned gracefully into big-sisterhood and had spent most of her summer babysitting.

Ginny decided she wouldn't go back to work managing the Hollyhead Harpies until Risa was a little older. She was content for now to be with her daughters at home.

"Oh yeah," Antonia said, taking Harry from his thoughts as she folded up the letter from her fiancé. "I passed Agape in the hall, and she had some good news. She took her first exam and aced it. You wouldn't believe how happy she was."

"Great," said Harry, happy Agape was doing better with training. "Maybe she can replace me in three years and I can retire at forty," he joked.

"You mean forty-one?" Antonia corrected.

Harry gave her a narrow sideways glance. "Are you looking for a dock in your pay, young lady?"

Her eyes went innocently wide behind her horn rim glasses. "I don't know what you mean," she said with a smirk, "you'll certainly be the youngest looking forty-one-year-old I've ever seen."

"That's more like it."

Antonia chuckled. "Aren't you meeting your brother-in-law for lunch?" she reminded him. "It's almost noon."

"Oops," said the Auror, dropping his open case file on his desk. "Ron and I won't take long," he informed her as he headed for the door, "but go ahead and take you lunch break too."

"Can do, Boss. Enjoy lunch!"

Harry smiled and nodded as he left his office. She really was far too friendly.

3

SMACK!

"Why did you do it?"

SMACK!

"Did you think you could take his place? Wanted to be in charge?"

SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!

"You could never be as good as him!"

Literally everything on Roman hurt. He had been kept in a dark cell somewhere for a very, very long time where occasionally they would string him up by his wrists and torture him. They had done all sorts of things to him – like test new curses. The thing about incomplete magic, is that it does things to a person that it was never intended to do. It's unpredictable what side effects a new spell might carry – especially when the new person in charge seemed to be trying to add to the list of unforgivable curses.

Roman was surprised Malleus had not taken control after his father's death (perhaps he had been judged too coarse). To his horror, Dante had ascended the throne. If he had known things would end up this way, he never would have killed Odin. Things could only get worse for everyone from now on.

"Are you listening?" screamed Morrigan, her voice starting to go hoarse.

Roman didn't answer. He never did. He just thought about anything but the pain until he eventually lost consciousness.

There seemed to be a debate over what to do with him, which was why he had lived so long. Dante wanted to keep him alive for as long as his body would hold out. After all, he could do virtually anything he wanted to a traitor like Roman. Morrigan, on the other hand, had wanted him dead from the start. Apparently, for now at least, she was allowed to take out her frustrations on him in whatever way she liked, as long as he was alive afterward.

SMACK!

He wasn't sure why his body hadn't simply given up by now. He certainly had, why shouldn't it follow suit? Other than being forced to stand, he only moved to consume the little bit of food they gave him – after that all of his energy was spent on merely existing.

Everything hurt.

He felt the blood rising up his esophagus again and he choked on it, coughing it up as Morrigan slapped him again.

"You've ruined everything!" the woman shouted irately. "All I want now is to see you die. You've ruined my life!"

She drew back her hand to hit him again, when she unexpectedly halted, her eyes wide in surprise. Suddenly, she collapsed, revealing a person standing in the open doorway behind her with a wand in their hand. The person wore hooded robes, but it was obviously a woman.

"Oh, God…" she breathed. "Roman…"

He could barely focus on her voice long enough to tell who she was, but then she pulled back her hood. The beautiful, scarred face of Jett stared back at him as if she what she was seeing caused her pain.

"Roman, can you hear me?" she asked.

"Yes," he breathed.

"I'm going to get you out," she told him.

"No…"

"Don't try to convince me otherwise," she told him, putting a finger to his cracked and bloody lips. "I refuse to let them kill you. I won't let that happen again."

She moved close to him so she could reach the chains holding his wrists.

"D-did you kill her?" Roman rasped, looking at Morrigan's body on the floor.

"No. I'll need her alive for my plan to work," Jett answered, releasing his chains and catching him under the arms to help him stand.

"What plan?"

"I'm going to make her greatest fear come true: I'm going to replace her. I'll pretend to be her and bring down the Optimates from the inside."

Using his legs sent spasms of pain up his back and his knees soon buckled. Despite being starved for so long, Jett still had a hard time holding him up. "Hang on," she told him as she set him down on the floor. "This won't take long."

She reached out and plucked two hairs from Morrigan's head before pointing her wand at the unconscious woman and slowly transforming her into a black rat. Jett picked her up by the tail and placed her in her robes pocket. "I need her hair," she explained, taking a flask off of her belt and putting the two strands inside. She tossed her head back and took a long draft, pulling a face of disgust.

Suddenly she was changing; her hair grew straighter and darker, while the skin on her pretty face became pale, taught, and ten years older. It wasn't long before Morrigan was standing before him again – only this time as an ally.

"Are you ready?" she asked, bending down to bring her face level to his.

Roman looked at her concerned expression coming through Morrigan's face. It was a strange sight. "Are you?"

She smiled wryly. "You took care of Odin. Now, I'm going to bring down Morrigan. It's time for the next wave, my friend… and for once the good side has the upper hand."

He could hardly believe it, but he actually managed to smile back at her.

"Let's go."

(The End! I hope you enjoyed it! Thanks to lulgijak for being such a patient beta reader for me!)