Hogwarts and The Dueling Tournament

by Mippo

Harry Potter didn't know what to expect when Dudley called him, but he didn't expect a prophecy. One that mentions Hogwarts as a place of conflict in the near future. And how could it not be with children of Death Eaters and Light warriors alike, new magical beings, mysteriously powerful students, a new organization called the Freebloods, and a year long dueling tournament.

2. Letters to Hogwarts

Hogwarts and The Dueling Tournament

Chapter 2 - Letters to Hogwarts

0-0-0

Paul

0-0-0

Paul Polkiss's eyes blearily blinked open. His head has been beating against the window of the bus for however long he has been asleep. The headache was already coming on. The moderate hum of chatter went ignored because of fatigue. Waking up an hour early to put the laundry in had been a complete failure.

The bus pulled to a stop and Paul stood up with a stretch and a yawn. He shook his twin sister Sophia awake next to him and got Krista, Ben, and Carly out of their seats and out the bus. He stooped down to pick up Ben's backpack and followed after them.

Paul dropped the bag onto Ben's back and herded his siblings back towards their house. It was a few minutes of walking before they got back to their squat, one story home. Paul unlocked the fence and ushered them all in before locking up behind him.

The grass looked a bit deader than it had the day before. He picked up the few empty cans that mysteriously seemed to end up there some nights. He quickly hopped up the stone steps and into the house.

He picked up another can on the doorside table, wrinkling his nose at how much warm beer was left. He tossed them in the bucket they had for cans.

He saw only Ben and Krista at the table with their work out.

"Carly, you know you have to finish your homework before you are allowed to play with your toys," Paul said down the hall.

"But I don't have any homework," Carly lied.

"Carly, if you lie I'm not giving you any of the candy I have after dinner."

The door slowly opened and Carly joined Ben and Krista at the kitchen table to do their homework.

Paul crossed the kitchen to the bathroom and started loading clothes into the washing machine. Sophia was giving math help to Carly at the kitchen table. Paul heard the doorbell buzz.

"Paul, can you let him in?" Sophia called. "He must have forgotten his key again."

Why can't he ever remember his damn key, Paul thought as he walked to the door. How'd he even get past the fence if he forgot his key.

Paul froze mid step at the realization. Looking up at the door, Paul didn't think that the door had ever seen more menacing.

"Sophia," Paul said. "Grab the kids and go hide in our room."

Sophia looked up at him curiously. "What?"

"Now!" Paul shouted. Sophia looked momentarily taken aback before gathering up all their siblings and pulling them out of the room. Paul picked up the bat they kept hung up by the door. He held the bat up by his ear and stood before the door. He opened the door and waved the bat menacingly in front of him.

"Woah!" the man said. The man was tall and was wearing a formal suit and tie. He would have looked completely innocuous if not for the rough burn scars that covered the right side of his face. Paul narrowed his eyes at the suitcase that the man was carrying. He didn't want to have to deal with people that wanted Piers.

"Get out!" he yelled at the man, who now looked shocked at being threatened by a baseball bat. "Get! Back off!"

"Hey, hey, hey," the man said. "Let's calm down now, there's no need for violence."

"Piers is out," Paul said with an angry glare. "Don't know when he'll be back so if you want money from him you'll have to wait."

"Money? What are you talking about?" the man asked confusedly. He wasn't walking back fast enough so Paul raised the bat again, poised to strike. "Oh, stop with that."

The bat suddenly flew out of Paul's hand and into the hands of the man.

"W-what?" Paul said in shock. The man rolled the bat in his hand before dropping it in the grass.

"This has got to be a record for the messiest start to a new student visit," the man muttered while idly scratching one of his scars. His focus shifted back to Paul. "I'm here to talk to Mr. Paul Polkiss."

Paul just stared at the man with a slack jaw. "That's me."

"Well, alright then," the man said. "I'm here to offer you a place at a school called Hogwarts."

---

Paul led the man, now revealed to be Professor Longbottom, into the house and sat him down on a chair in the living room. Paul saw Sophia standing in the kitchen sipping from a glass of water, hiding that she was holding a knife in her other hand. They locked eyes for a second and Paul caught the hidden message of the kids being safe and away. Paul grabbed a pen and a notebook off of the table and sat opposite the man.

"So what is this school you are talking about?" Paul asked eventually, breaking the silence.

Professor Longbottom took a moment to respond. "Do you not have any parents or guardians around that I can speak to about this?"

"Piers is out right now and we don't know when he is going to be coming back," Sophia said from the kitchen.

Professor Longbottom just looked at her for a moment before wetting his lips and speaking again. "Alright then, well I guess we can get started now." He leveled a serious look at Paul. "Have you ever had something happen around you that you couldn't understand? Something that you didn't think was even possible just seemed to happen around you?"

"What like magic?" Paul asked. Thoughts of some of Piers's lectures about strangeness and what he thought of them. "No, never."

"N-never?" Professor Longbottom seemed to be a little bit shocked by that. "Well maybe you just aren't remembering right now, but I can assure you that something like that must have happened around you before."

A tense moment passed with nobody talking. Paul tightened his grip on the pen, ready to use it at a moment's notice.

"It was a long time ago," Sophis said from the kitchen. Paul looked over at her and saw that she was staring at Professor Longbottom with a curious look.

"That's very common," Professor Longbottom said, jumping on the opportunity to talk about that. "Accidental magic most often happens when people are very young and tends to happen less with age. If you're in control of your emotions when you are younger, it tends to happen less. And doing things with lights is some of the most common forms that accidental magic takes."

"Accidental magic?" Paul asked incredulously.

Professor Longbottom reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a letter that he handed to Paul. "I am here to offer you a place at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Paul, you're a wizard."

---

Paul sat at the table later that night. Everyone but him and Sophia were in for the night already and Paul was writing some of his thoughts down in a notebook. Sophia was sitting across the table flipping idly through a book, but Paul could tell that she wasn't reading it.

"Are we going to talk about it?" Paul asked. "Or are you going to pretend to read all night long?"

Sophia shut the book with a snap and glared at him. "I think you should go."

"I'm not going."

"God damnit Paul!" Sophia slammed her hands against the table as she stood up. The speed at which she lost her temper surprised Paul for a second.

"Well that didn't take long," Paul said. "You've gotta work on your temper one of these days. And keep it down, won't you? You'll wake up Carly at this rate."

Sophia just glared at him. "Why don't you want to go?"

"Sophia," Paul sighed. "Come on, do you really have to ask that? What are you even thinking? I didn't even think that it was a possibility for a moment."

Sophia walked around the table and took the notebook Paul was writing in away from him. She looked at what he was writing for only a moment before fixing him with a look.

"Well sue me for being interested," Paul said. "Of course I'm curious about it. It's magic! I just found out about magic being real, of course I want to try to get my thoughts straight."

"Of course you should be interested," Sophia said. "But wouldn't you be a whole lot more interested in being able to attend a school all about learning magic?"

Paul just gave her a cold glare. She knew why he wouldn't be able to go to Hogwarts, and all bringing it up again would do is frustrate him more.

Sophia slapped the notebook on the table and walked off. Paul took the notebook back and flipped through the last few pages. All of them were filled with his observations of the magic that Professor Longbottom had demonstrated. They had notes on every small little thing that he spoke about that hinted at vast valleys of knowledge. He turned a pen into a hummingbird. That made absolutely no sense to any sensibilities that Paul could think up. How did he create consciousness for the bird from just a simple wave of his wand? Was it in the movements that his wand did? Was it some kind of predestined thing that would happen because it was supposed to happen? Why were transfigurations one of the hardest things they teach at Hogwarts? Every little thing Professor Longbottom mentioned had trees and trees of further questions that he would need weeks to exhaust. It wasn't his fault that the allure of such knowledge was taunting him. It's not like he has any chance of actually being able to go in the first place.

He was shaken out of his thoughts when Sophia came back into the room. She was carrying a large stack of his old notebooks.

"Why do you have those?" Paul asked in exasperation.

"I'm making a point," Sophia said. She opened the one on the top of the stack and slowly flipped through each page one by one. She got through the entire thing like that and just reached for the next one. Paul just ignored her and got back to what he was doing earlier.

They continued like that for a while, Paul jotting down whatever came to his mind while Sophia flipped through his old notebooks page by page.

"Why are you doing that," Paul asked in annoyance. "I don't get what point you are trying to make."

"I was flipping through these until I found something that made any sense," Sophia said. "And all of this looks like hieroglyphics to me. Like I don't even get what is going on in this one. Like what does that squiggly thing by the x's mean?"

Paul looked over at what she was looking at and rolled his eyes. "That's the interval symbol."

"Well what is that."

"It's telling you to find the derivative of that expression," Paul explained. "Just multiply the coeffecient of a term by their exponent and subtract the exponenet by 1. Do it for all the terms and you have the answer."

Sophia looked at Paul, down at the page, and back again. "I have no idea what you just said."

"Well, do you want me to teach it to you? Is that what this is about?"

"Argh," Sophia grunted. "Why are you so dense exactly when you want to be? Paul, you're like really smart or something. We both know that."

"It's a little conceited for me to think that I'm a genius."

"You use big words in everyday talking! No one I know does that!"

"And your point is?"

"Paul, I know this isn't the first time you would have turned down an offer to go to a boarding school."

Paul shut up at that. That was true, teachers had been pulling him aside for extra tests for years now and speaking about big things like boarding school, scholarships, and record numbers. But he knew that he was needed more here than he was needed at some fancy school.

"Paul, I get that you want to stay with us," Sophia said. "And I could accept that when it was just fancy schools. It wasn't like you were never going to be able to succeed or get a good job, but this is different. Paul, this is… this is magic. Like actual magic. Like wizards and witches magic. How can you say no to that?"

"Because," Paul said. "You aren't 'magic', Ben isn't 'magic', Krista isn't 'magic', and Carly isn't 'magic'. How can I leave you all to go play around with magic while you are all stuck here."

Sophia's face softened at that. "Come with me," she said. She grabbed his hand and pulled him off to the younger kids room. She cracked open the door and Paul looked inside. He didn't know what he was supposed to be looking at for a few moments, but Sophia pointed up onto the wall. There, the painted animals were moving around the lion that Ben drew, roaring silently and running around the zebra. Paul was just stunned as he watched the paint move around on the wall. Sophia pulled him away from the door eventually and went to go sit at the table.

"Paul, I don't want you to come to despise us for holding you back." Sophia said.

"You're not holding me back!" Paul said angrily.

"You say that," Sophia said. "But I know how many opportunities that you've thrown away already. How many are you going to say no to before it gets too much for you? How much are you going to wait to do what you want to do before you think the rest of us will make it without you?"

"It doesn't matter! What matters is that I'm here to keep you all safe!"

"I can keep them safe, Paul."

"Well then who will keep you safe?"

"Who is keeping you safe right now, Paul?"

"It doesn't matter who is keeping me safe!"

Sophia was quiet for a few seconds. "It's all of them, did you know?"

"What?"

"I've caught all of them doing magic," Sophia said. "I thought that I was going crazy at first when I started noticing it. Carly would get a toy from across the room, Krista would knock Ben down without touching him, Ben would run faster than I could watch him. Are you going to stop them from going to Hogwarts when they are 11?"

"No, of course not!"

"Well I don't feel safe about sending them off to Hogwarts without knowing it's safe there."

Paul just stared down at Sophia. "Don't say that."

"So I have a point then? What if we send Ben and Krista there and they get hurt and it could have been prevented if only one of us went and found out what would get us hurt?"

"Stop."

"What if Carly goes and someone makes fun of her and no one is there to comfort her?"

"I said stop."

"You're only saying that because I have a point!"

"I'm saying it because I'm not going!"

Sophia stood up and pulled Paul into a hug. "Go and learn everything that you can. Don't be distracted by anything and become the best wizard there ever was. I know you can do it because I know just how amazing you are. And we'll all be ok. I'm not useless, you know? I can actually manage to get us all through the day without you."

Paul just looked at her for a few moments before hugging her back. "I'll go. I'll go and be the best wizard I can be. And I'll make sure that it's safe for the others when they come."

0-0-0

Scorpius

0-0-0

Scorpius Malfoy walked forward with his hands clasped tightly around the handle on the casket. After having walked for so long his arms were starting to feel weak from having to carry the large wooden object. He looked over to his left to see the other pallbearers. Most of the ones that were working for the funeral company had stone cold faces that let none of their emotions slip through. Although one of the workers wore a face that held just the smallest amounts of disgust if you looked at him for a long time.

The long trek through the Malfoy grounds made Scorpius's arms feel like they were going to be ripped off of his body. His hands started to cramp up and his grip started to loosen. Scorpius had to start shifting his grip every few steps in order to continue to carry the casket. All of the other pallbearers were noticing his very obvious struggle but none of them moved to help him.

Just when he thought that he could carry the casket no longer, the procession started to slow. They had arrived at the Malfoy family cemetery and the casket was placed before the large hole in the ground.

Scorpius stood without moving as people began to mill around him, preparing for the service that was going to follow. His gaze was locked onto the mahogany casket that he had just struggled to carry the distance from the manor. For some reason all he could think about was how long this ceremony was going to last so he could return to his room.

He knows that he should feel sorrow. That is what people feel when something bad happens to their family. They feel sad when their family is hurt and wish with all their heart for their loved one to be better. Yet he did not feel any of this sorrow. No sadness. No urge to cry. No urge to feel anything worth feeling.

Eventually people found their places and the ceremony started. A middle age wizard stood in front of the others and began to say words that felt wrong coming out of his mouth. Scorpius didn't listen to the words as he instead remembered the last time that he had seen the man.

His parents were working side by side behind the table, getting food ready for the people who needed the food. Scorpius didn't really understand why they couldn't get food themselves, but he thought it was nice for his parents to give out food to those who couldn't get it themselves for some reason

His family worked with the others that were helping and soon they were ready to start giving out food. It looked like everything was going ok, until people started to refuse to get in line at the table his parents were working at.

Now that Scorpius noticed it, there were a bunch of people giving his parents dirty looks, and a few were sending those looks his way. A middle aged man approached his parents after a few minutes and they had a muttered conversation.

The three of them walked off at that and something in the air seemed to loosened. A few more people started talking with each other and the temperature of the air felt like it increased.

People were having conversations in small huddles and laughs could regularly be heard throughout the room. All Scorpius could do was watch as he saw the groups of people share their warmth. It felt all too familiar and unfamiliar at the same time, and it confused him.

It reminded him of a huge family gathered together under one roof. One that embraced often and sat around a crowded table. The air always felt warmer whenever he would think about this other family. Even when there were fewer of them crowded together this warmth would stay with them. In times like this when he felt alone in this crowded room, he would think about that family and the warmth they shared.

Raised voices coming from where his parents were talking caught his attention. He turned towards them and saw his mother look very angry at the old man. She was talking very animatedly with large sweeps of her arms and got very close to the man's face. She was loud enough that Scorpius could hear some of what she was saying.

"Why would you want us to go…"

Ahh.

That makes sense then.

Scorpius would have to be foolish to not see how others always stared at him. Strangers would dislike him immediately without him having done anything. Even when he met people his age, when their parents would come to them, those early formings of friendship would be promptly cut off by the parents' disgusted looks.

It looked like the disgusted looks had taken over too many people at this place for them to stay for much longer.

Throughout his recollection Scorpius had kept his gaze staring at the old man as he talked. The man paused his speech when he noticed and Scorpius looked away.

He saw the pallbearer who had had a disgusted face earlier staring straight at him with a strange look. It took Scorpius a second to place the look but once he did another memory came to him.

Scorpius and his father were walking down the streets of Diagon Alley. He looked into the window of the Quidditch store and his eyes were locked onto the newest model of broom that was getting main promotion.

His father looked at him and smiled at the wide eyed stare Scorpius was giving the broom. He eventually had to lightly drag his son forward in order to take his attention back.

Scorpius's eyes were then attracted towards Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. It was the loudest of all the stores on the Alley and the flashiest. His father had told him that they could not enter the store and something within Scorpius felt sad from that knowledge. Always seeing the other children explore within with the strange and fantastical objects fascinated him and left him wanting.

His imagination could vividly imagine the interior of the store. Where you could look down on lower floors from higher ones. Where the more mundane objects were located on lower floors and things became more strange and esoteric as you climbed higher. How they were only allowed to go so high before they would get in trouble. Where sometimes a product would activate with seemingly no one intentionally activating them, which was obviously coordinated by George hiding in secret. And how mother was telling them not to go outside because they could see a former Death Eater outside the store

Scorpius blinked heavily as he felt his head swim for a minute. The strange thoughts confused him for a second before his father pushed him forward with an exasperated look on his face. His father wasn't looking around him while they were walking and accidentally knocked into someone.

It was an old woman who fell down to the ground from the unexpected collision. People around them saw the old woman laying down in front of them and quickly moved to help her. His father leaned down in order to offer a hand up in apology and to help her up.

She looked about to accept the hand until she got a good look at his face and her face transformed into one of disgust. She violently slapped the hand away from herself and crawled on the ground in order to get away from him. She let out a startled cry as she looked furiously at them.

Scorpius couldn't fully understand what was happening. Before he knew it there were people stepping in between them and the old woman and others helping and comforting her. Scorpius saw in the face of the people anger directed right at his father. Some started to push his father back and others started to yell and after a few minutes aurors came to break up the commotion.

When they saw his father at the center of the crowd they brought out their wands and quickly shot stunners out at him. In the next minute they had apparated and Scorpius was left there alone. Now that his father had gone the crowd that had gathered seemed pleased with itself and dissolved.

Scorpius stood alone in the street as the hustle of the street began to pick back up. He stood there distracted to the point where someone accidentally knocked into him.

He fell forward onto his knees and painfully skidded them on the ground. No one moved to help him back up.

Scorpius looked away from the angry man and started to look over the other people. Most were looking off in the distance, and no one seemed to be paying much attention to the man talking. Some of the hired servants were looking unsettled towards the unsure future that was in store for them.

As his gaze traveled around the people he came to realize there were shockingly few people who weren't being paid to be there

Scorpius stopped his traveling eyes when the middle aged man's speech was coming to and end. There was no polite gesture extended in order to comfort him and he just stared blankly at the coffin in front of him.

All he could look at was the name engraved onto the coffin and think back to the last time that he had seen the person who laid inside.

Scorpius stormed out of the floo in a near run. Anger was coursing through him in a violent swirl that he could not control. He felt his cheeks were flushed and his chest kept heaving out heavy breaths. He couldn't stay still for long and started to pace around in circles while he waited.

After what felt like an eternity another person stepped out of the fire. Scorpius's father stood carrying his customary cane and was putting most of his weight onto it. The sight caused Scorpius to become angry again.

"What was that!" he yelled at his father. "Why didn't you say anything back!"

Scorpius had been wandering around a muggle playground interacting with some of the other children. He knew that companionship from other wizards was not likely to come quickly at all, so he had decided to try to find some muggle children to be around. And besides he knew from whenever his imagination would wander that muggle children weren't all that different to magical children.

He was riding on the swingset talking to one of the girls who were the same age as himself when he heard a loud scream. Quieter screams were common here on the playground as the kids chased each other. This scream, however seemed much more urgent.

Scorpius looked around and saw a boy near him with his mouth wide open. The boy turned around and ran to an adult that was nearby. The boy got the adults attention and gestured wildly towards him.

Scorpius couldn't make out what the boy said but he did catch one phrase that caused him to stand up and already start to walk away.

"Death Eater!"

Scorpius had a strange relationship with that phrase. He knew that most people associated that name with an evil person. He, however, knew people who had gone by that title. Whenever he was near his family and that phrase was used he knew that bad things were going to follow. Flashes of crowds, arguing parents, and sitting with bloody knees in Diagon Alley flashed in his mind. Yet then memories of his family would flash next to them. His mother bringing him soup, his father teaching him to ride a broom, his grandparents showing him how to play wizard's chess.

Scorpius had already been walking away when the woman that the boy had gone to fetch grabbed onto his arm. The next minutes went by quickly as he was dragged back to their house, his father was summoned, and the woman's yelling began anew. Scorpius decided to escape the situation by letting his imagination wander, but he was met with an incredibly odd sensation.

Instead of transporting to another place he instead was staying where he was. He tried to slip into his imagination again but he still remained there in the angry woman's house. But something was different about it.

It was like he was viewing the room from a different person. He could see everyone in the room, including himself. His body just looked like he was not paying attention. And there was another person in the room.

A girl that looked to be about his age looked incredibly angry. She was staring directly at the woman with an intense gaze. Where did the woman get off on halting the fun they were having? They were just sitting on a swing! Why weren't they allowed to play at the playground just like everyone else!

Scorpius's head swam for a second and he took a step back. The movement seemed to catch the attention of the girl.

The two stared into eachothers eyes and Scorpius's perspective felt entirely out of whack. It felt like two mirrors being pointed at eachother, each reflecting eachother's surfaces for eternity. The sensation broke when Scorpius broke eye contact.

Anger at being kicked off of the playground swam through him and he soon found himself unable to stand the woman screaming at him any longer. He stormed out to the fireplace and flooed back to the manor. He waited and paced until his father came through the fireplace.

"Scorpius, they have a right to not want to see us. In the past we hurt a lot of peop-" his father said before Scorpius cut him off.

"I don't care what you did in the past! I was just sitting on the swing and I got kicked off of the playground. What gives them the right to do that? I didn't do anything wrong!"

His father seemed taken aback by the anger that Scorpius was showing. But his expression soon settled and he gestured for him to follow him.

As Scorpius was following he saw that his father's clothes were very messy. Dirt stains were all over his clothes as if we were rolling around on the ground and there were flakes of blood on his cheeks.

HIs father led him to a sitting room where they sat around a small table. His father had a complex look on his face but Scorpius was still too angry in order to identify his expression.

"Scorpius," his father began. "I know that this is not fair. I am so very sorry but there are going to be many things that are going to be very unfair and there is very little that we are able to do to change that. You know that family history and why people hate us so much. We've never tried to hide that from you."

"I get the family history," Scorpius bit back. "What I don't get is that you never try to do anything to change things."

Scorpius's father gave him a long look before saying "There was a time when I thought that helping others would change their minds. What I've done, some people just don't want to even give me another chance."

"This has nothing to do with that. I'm not going to go off and kill people, I just want to live my own life."

"Most people just want to live their own lives. But I've had a lot of effect on other people's lives. For every person that I hurt there are 50 of their friends, families, and neighbors that were affected by it. There are a lot of people who I've punished too much and even more people who don't think that I was punished enough."

"I don't care about you! I just want to be me!"

"And I'm sorry Scorpius because there are always going to be people who hate you for who you are and more importantly who I am."

Scorpius couldn't listen to his father go on any longer and instead decided to run off. He ran as fast as he could straight towards the floo gate and wished desperately to be anywhere that wasn't there.

He flooed into a shop and quickly left as soon as he could. When he got on the street he just started running for as long as he could. He did not stop until he felt as if his sides were going to burst. He collapsed onto a nearby bench and sat there staring into nothing for a long time.

Eventually his imagination took over and another strange perspective shift washed over him. He saw the girl sitting next to him on the bench curiously looking at him.

"Are you real?" the girl asked him. Her mouth did not move at all but he could still hear the words in his head.

He just looked at the girl and asked, "Are you real?"

Scorpius shook himself loose from the memories and found himself standing next to the open grave. The funeral workers were lowering the casket into the ground that held his father. It was the final of the five caskets that were being buried today, in between his mother and his younger brother. His grandparents were laid to rest next to eachother as well.

Scorpius stared at the graves slowly filling up with dirt, unable to break eye contact with the wooden objects until they were entirely covered. When they finally finished filling the graves the middleaged man waved his wand and tombstones appeared on all of the graves. Then the middleaged man made another wave of his wand and flowers sprouted up in front of each of the graves.

Then, the funeral company and the workers of the mansion and the middleaged man left the cemetery and Scorpius was left alone as he looked down at the five tombstones. He didn't know how long he stood there, just staring down at the tombstones that sat there.

There he stood completely alone in the world, as his entire family stood there staring lifelessly back at him. Just like one of his memories.

He finally flooed back to the manor and saw an ocean of red-

No.

Those memories were still too painful to recall.

After a long time Scorpius felt a press in his head and felt a connection to the girl open in his mind. The girl was sitting in a tire swing from her thoughts Scorpius could tell that she had been watching most of the funeral through his eyes. The girl gave a sense of her sympathies and Scorpius gave the worst attempt of acknowledgement possible. The girl caught on and didn't try to cheer him up again.

Scorpius had been spending a lot of time seeing through her eyes over the last few weeks to distract from the disasters unfolding around him.

"Scorpius," a voice said behind him.

He turned around and saw Blaise Zabini waiting for him. A slight feeling of dread took over him and he left to go with Blaise to start his new life.

0-0-0

Emily

0-0-0

"Emily, I swear if you don't get up right now, I'm going to soak you in ice cold water," Violet said. Emily just moaned in return to get her to go away. "3… 2…"

"I'm up!" Emily moaned. "I'm up. Geez, what's wrong with you today?"

"What's wrong with me?" Violet asked incredulously. "What's wrong with you today? Don't you know what day it is?"

What day is it? "Oh!" Emily yelled. "It's my birthday!"

Violet just rolled her eyes at her, "Happy Birthday, you oaf. Now get out of bed I'm already late to help Burgess with breakfast."

Violet walked out of the room, leaving Emily to get ready for the day. She floated out of the top bunk and went over to her dresser to pull out a shirt and a pair of pants that she thought looked nice enough. She flipped around as she got dressed and floated out the door. She went over to the bathroom, saying hi to a few of the other kids that were around, who all wished her a happy birthday in return. She looked at herself in the mirror as she brushed her teeth and swatted at her white hair a few times. She rubbed the sleep out of her violet eyes and slid down the bannister of stairs.

"If I've told you once, I know I've told you a thousand times," Burgess said. "No tomfoolery in the house, Emily."

Emily pouted up at her, "Don't I get an exception for my birthday?" Burgess just gave her a stern look until Emily hopped off the bannister

"Alright, now go and sit down for breakfast," Burgess said. "And happy birthday, Emily."

Emily smiled at her and skipped off to sit down at the long breakfast table. She grabbed some egg and toast and chatted with some of the older kids at the table. They all wished her a happy birthday with hugs and smiles. Violet came in a few minutes later and sat down next to her.

"So what are we gonna do today?" Emily asked her. Violet gave her a look out of the corner of her eye.

"I hope you're not planning anything extreme," Violet said. "I still remember the last time you were this excited."
"Aww, Violet…" Emily whined. "Don't I get an exception for my birthday. I want to go on an adventure." Violet gave her a long suffering look before giving in with a sigh. Emily threw up her arms in victory and popped out of her seat. "Let's go Violet! Adventure awaits us!"

She took Violet's hand and pulled her out of the room. "Violet!" Burgess shouted from the kitchen. "Make sure she doesn't get into too much trouble!"

"As always," Violet said. "It's not like she can do it."

"I resent that, you know?" Emily said. "I can keep myself out of trouble perfectly fine." Violet raised her eyebrow at her. "I just choose not to."

Emily took a deep breath of the fresh air and floated up a few feet. She smiled at the feeling of the sun beaming down on her face. A breeze came and it felt amazing. She could hear the leaves rustling on all of the trees around her. Everything was flowing around her and she just felt incredibly happy. She opened her eyes and looked down at where Violet was.

She was looking up at her with a small smile. "I'm glad you're enjoying yourself. Happy Birthday, sis."

---

Emily had led Violet down to the stream. After dropping her in and Violet retaliated with splashing water up at her, the two took a break on the bank, with Emily lounging on top a tree and Violet rested against the trunk.

Emily just let her awareness float away from her and follow the streams of air. She could feel the fluttering wings of birds flying out in the nearby woods. She could feel the moving legs of the kids playing tag in the orphanage's yard. She could feel the breaths of the fox sneaking up upon the mouse. She could feel the sudden disturbance of somebody suddenly appearing out of nowhere.

Wait.. what was that last one?

Emily sat up and focused on that one feeling. Focusing harder on the displaced air that suddenly blew outwards. It was like the people appeared and pushed the air outwards around them.

After checking it again, she was right. All of a sudden, a few moments ago, two people appeared out of nowhere. They had appeared about a hundred meters in front of the orphanage's front gate and were now walking towards the building.

"Violet!" Emily said excitedly. She let go of the tree and dropped down to shake Violet awake. "Violet! Wake up! There's something exciting going on!"

Violet just opened her eyes slowly. "What is it?"

"Some people just suddenly teleported here!"

Violet blinked at her a few times. "What?!"

"Some people just suddenly appeared! They are going into the house now! We have to go and follow them," Emily stood up and started pulling Violet to her feet. "Come on, come on. I can't wait. Oh this is so exciting! How did they just suddenly appear here?"

"What are you talking about," Violet said, still a little groggy from her impromptu nap. "What are you saying?"

"Ugh, there's no time to explain, come on!"

Emily started moving back towards the house and after a few moments of being held back by Violet's slow movements, dropped her hand and started running. She made it back to the building and checked the winds to see where the people had gone. She found that they were on the second floor in Burgess's office talking. Emily flew up and hid right next to the window in order to eavesdrop.

When she finally heard what they were talking about, all she could hear was a man talking about serious adult things. She was almost disappointed by how boring the conversation was until the man asked Madam Burgess a question.

"Forgive me for asking, but you don't seem very surprised to be hearing about the existence of magic."

Emily's eyes shot wide open at that sentence and she could feel her heart beating in her chest.

"Well I would be pretty foolish to not notice with the amount of tricks that the girls have been pulling over the years," Burgess said.

"I see…" The man said. "And how long ago did you notice these… tricks?"

There was a pause before the Madam answered the question. "I don't really know what you mean. It would be impossible for anyone to not notice it. Emily is almost always using magic. I mean, there's no other possible explanation for it. Everyone here at the orphanage knows about it."

"Well that is unusual," the man said. "Usually when we come to give muggleborns their letters their powers are not as well known. When we tell the children about the magical world we also tell them that they can't tell anyone who didn't already know about the magical world. It's actually against the law to tell muggles about the magical world if they are not family."

Emily's eyes went wide at that. Had she broken the law without even knowing about it? That was actually kinda cool. In her excitement, she accidentally moved a gust of wind into the room which caused some papers to flutter about.

"Emily," Burgess said and Emily winced. "You can come in here anytime that you want to. You already know that we are talking about you."

Emily sighed and floated her way into the room, coming to a sitting position on the window sill. Inside, she saw a man in his forties with some burn scars on his face and a girl about her age that looked like his daughter. Both of them were looking at her in shock, but the girl's mouth was hanging open a few inches.

"Heard you were talking about me," Emily said. "Thought I might drop by."

"How did you do that?" the girl asked. "Isn't this the second floor?"

"It is," Emily said. "I flew up."

The girl just blinked dumbly at Emily for a few seconds before looking at her father for answers. The man looked as lost as his daughter did and could only blink dumbly at her for a few seconds.

"Emily," Burgess said, getting her attention. "These people are here today to offer you a place at their magic school."

"Cool," Emily said. "So are you both like me?"

That seemed to knock the man out of his shock. "Yes, I think we are. Let me introduce myself. My name is Neville Longbottom, and I will be one of your professors at school. I came here to give you a letter of acceptance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

The man, Professor Longbottom, stood up and handed her a letter with her name and address written on the front. Emily opened it up and read over it quickly.

"So do you have a letter for Violet, too?" Emily asked. The man looked confused.

"I'm sorry, Violet?"

"Yeah, my sister."
"I'm sorry to say this but only people with magic are allowed to attend Hogwarts."

"Well Violet does have magic," Emily said. "She might even be better at it than I am. She can do all kinds of crazy stuff with it."

Professor Longbottom just blinked a few times before responding. "I see… and is she the same age as you?"

"Yup!"

"That's strange," he said. "I'll have to check and see if there was a problem with the lists of accepted students, I'll be able to get back to you in a couple of days about it. In the meantime why don't you take Abby here. She's my daughter and she is going to be starting Hogwarts this year alongside you. She'll be able to answer any questions you have while I talk with Madam Burgess."

"Alright," Emily said as she turned her attention to Abby. "Come on, I'll go introduce you to Violet."

Emily led Abby out of the room and into the hall, where Violet was waiting. "Hey Violet, this is Abby. She's magical like us and we are going to go to a magic school in the fall."

Violet sighed and followed after Emily. Emily floated a few inches off of the ground and started leading them out of the house.

"How are you doing that?" Abby asked.

"Doing what?" Emily asked.

"How are you flying?"
"Uhhh, magic? Duh," Emily said. "I'm just using magic to push the air around me and make me float."

"But magic doesn't work that way," Abby said. "No one has been able to use magic to make themselves fly."

"You mean no witch has flown before," Emily asked, curious.

"Well we use brooms and those can fly."

"Flying brooms?" Violet asked. "That just sounds ridiculous. And it's magic. It can do anything you can think of. How can nobody have thought of flying before?"

"You've flown before too?" Abby asked.

"Well I have once or twice but it's way harder for me to do it than Emily can." Violet said. "But I can do tons of other magic way better than she can."

"You can do magic?" Abby asked. "How? Neither of you have wands."

"You need a wand to use magic?" Emily asked. "We didn't even know that wands were a thing until today. We just do the magic without a wand."

"You can't do magic without a wand!" Abby said. "The only time people do that is accidental magic."

"Well whenever I lift things I'm definitely not doing it by accident," Violet said. "Here, let me show you."

They made their way out of the house and across the yard to where some rocks were lying in a field. Violet picked up a rock and she stared at it in the palm of her hand for a second before the rock started to float above her head. She moved the rock up, down, farther away from her, back towards her, and had it revolve around her head. She made the rock the size of an ant then grew it to the size of a basketball. She changed the color from purple to red to orange. Then she actually changed it into a basketball and threw it towards the sky where it exploded into colorful fireworks.

Abby stared at her like she couldn't believe what she was seeing. "No one our age is able to do magic without a wand! You shouldn't be able to do that. That's not normal!" Emily and Violet looked at each other for a second before bursting out into laughter. "What's so funny? Why are you laughing at me?"

"Who cares about what's normal?" Emily said. "It's magic! How can magic be normal! Normal is standing on the ground for your entire life. Normal is having to carry hot things out of the microwave and risk burning yourself. Normal is having to put your clothes away one at a time. We have magic! Isn't that amazing! We can do anything that we can think of if we try hard enough. Who needs to be contained by what is normal and what is not? Look at this."

Emily floated about a foot off the ground and spread her arms to either side of her. She put her head down as she started to concentrate. She focused on the clouds in the sky, thinking about their movements, and started to change the movements piece by piece.

She brought warm air down, and cold air up, and kept mixing and mixing the two of them until they started to form small droplets of water. The water grew and grew until they grew large enough that the clouds couldn't keep them up anymore. But she didn't stop there. Clouds were forming from the wind that Emily was creating. Dark clouds that had promise of storms. The clouds were billowing against each other and could not hold a shape. It was like watching a timelapse of clouds but it was being played in realtime. And all too soon the clouds began to spark. She kept spinning the air in faster and faster circles, letting the clouds grow larger and larger in a spiral that started to slowly grow. She started to feel the static in the clouds start to grow, zipping around the spiral without control.

And then she started making the air spin as fast as she could, pushing it faster than she thought that she had the ability to. And then she made it go faster still, letting all of the static build up in the clouds. She brought all of that static into one location and let it fall and…

A lightning strike crashed into the ground only a few feet in front of her. She could feel the static on her skin and the smell of earth filled her nose. She looked over her shoulder to look at Abby, who was emanating an intense heat and her mouth hanging open.

"Well how many rules of magic did that break?" she asked.

"Nice one Emily," Violet said. "That was almost your fastest time. A few seconds faster and you would have had it."

Emily groaned. "Really? I swear that I had it that time. That sucks."

"W-what was that?" Abby said in shock. Her jaw seemed like it was about to reach the floor from her shock.

"That, my friend Abby, was what some real magic looks like," Emily said snootily.

It was then that an owl flew down to them. It looked slightly angry from having to have been subjected to the sudden onset of lightning and strong gusts. It cawed angrily at Emily which made her look at the owl in shock, then it landed on Violet's shoulder.

The owl was carrying a letter and Violet delicately removed it from its leg. As she read the front of the letter she got a confused look on her face.
"What is that?" Emily asked.

"In the magical world, owls deliver letters," Abby explained. "That's probably your acceptance letter into Hogwarts."

Violet just kept looking at it with a strange look in her eye. Emily got a little concerned about it. "Violet what's wrong?"

"It's nothing," Violet said with a far away voice. "It's just the name that's on the letter. I guess we finally know what my actual name is."

Emily's eyes went wide as she came over to take the letter out of Violet's hand and read the name. It was addressed to Ms. Bellatrix "Violet" Black.

0-0-0

Albus

0-0-0

Albus Potter knew that today was a big day. After the hours of lectures that had been given to him, James, and Lily about how they were going to act and what was expected of them, it was impossible for it to be anything but. Today was the day he was going to get all of his things for Hogwarts. Today was the day he was going to finally get his wand. Today was the day he was finally going to start learning magic. Today was the day he was meeting his cousins.

The reveal of the Dursleys having a magical daughter had come as a shock. The Dursleys had always been evil people who kept boys shut in cupboards under the stairs, fed boys through a catflap, and hammered bars onto that boy's windows. Albus knew that some of the stories had to be exaggerated, like all things Uncle Ron told, but knew that there had to be some kernel of truth in there.

So why were these bad people now being thrust into their lives?

Because one girl was magical, they had to forgive them for everything they did to his father?

His father had told him off for thinking like that. That if you never forgave anyone and gave them a second chance, all you would end up with is a bunch of enemies, but Albus didn't listen to him.

He didn't owe the Dursleys anything. In his mind they were only a few steps away from being Death Eaters.

Yet, here he found himself, dressed up in decent robes welcoming the Dursleys into 12 Grimmauld Place. There were three of them. There was Dudley, who was as large as the stories but not in the way that that word was intended. He was extremely muscular and his arms made Albus look like a stick figure. If he was sized to Hagrid's height, he very might well be more muscular than he was.

Next was the woman who had to be Daphne. And what a shock that was. Albus didn't really believe his dad when he came home and told them that Dudley Dursley had married a witch. Much less Daphne Greengrass who was presumed dead and from a Death Eater family.

Astoria Greengrass had married Draco Malfoy and Xerxes Greengrass had been notorious during the war.

In other words, the entire family was scum.

Which made sense because one of them had decided to marry a Dursley, who is also scum.

So Albus put up with the pointless pleasantries in order to please his parents while openly scorning the entire situation in his mind.

Then he looked at the girl that had come with the Dursleys. That had to be Clover Dursley.

It was too bad that she was already ruined by the horrible family or else she could have been someone to befriend. Clover was standing behind her parents and trying to hide. Her eyes were downcast and she hadn't even looked any of them in the eyes.

Harry then decided to break the ice then. "Well, Dudley, here's my wife Ginny, and my kids James, Albus, and Lily."

"And this here is Dudley, Daphne, and Clover." He said while gesturing to the Dursleys.

"It's nice to meet you again, Daphne." Ginny said with a smile.

Daphne looked up at her and sighed. "It's nice to see you again, Weaslette."

"Don't call her that!" James yelled out but he was cut off by the sound of Ginny laughing.

"It's been too long without anybody calling me that." she said while laughing. "Let's go Ice Princess, we've got more Weasels to find."

Daphne's face paled considerably. "You're making me interact with more Weasleys?" She turned her face to Harry. "I hate you so much Potter."

Harry laughed awkwardly at that and rubbed the back of his head. He walked off to give a quick tour to Daphne and Dudley.

"Hi Clover," Lily said. "I'm Lily. Isn't it so exciting that you're going to be getting a wand today?"

"I guess so," Clover shrugged. "I don't really care much for magic so far."

"You don't care for magic," Albus asked, shocked. "How can you not care about magic?"

The idea astounded Albus and he couldn't quite understand what had led her to feel that way. Probably just Dursley entitlement about hating magic. If her grandparents hated magic then she must have that same hatred as well.

"It's really scary," she said. "I don't like what happens when I use it. The hat was nice though."
Albus didn't know what she was talking about and felt uncomfortable around her so he walked over to James.

"So Albus," James said with a smirk. "Are you ready to find out that you are a squib today?"

Albus felt anger flood through him. "I am not a squib!"

"I don't know Albus," James said with fake worry. "It has been a while since you last used magic, maybe you don't have enough. It would be super embarrassing if a Dursley was magical and you weren't. Maybe she stole it from you!"

Albus had enough of James and decided to wait by the floo until it was time for them to leave.

About 20 minutes later that time came and he was the first to floo into The Leaky Cauldron. When he got there he spotted Hermione, Ron, Rose, and Hugo sitting around a table waiting for them. He walked up and sat quietly at the table.
"Hey Albus," Ron said jovially. "How were the Dursleys? Did they scream at you until your ears bled?" Albus just gave a noncommittal shrug.

The rest of the Potters and Dursleys took turns going through the floo, with Clover and Dudley having wild exits out of the floo. Ron let out a whistle.

"Damn Dudley you've put on a lot of muscle since the last time I saw you." he said before walking out of his earshot.

Albus turned his attention to Rose who was staring off into the distance.

"How long do you think that we have to put up with them?" he asked Rose. She didn't give him a response and continued to stare off into nowhere. He snapped his fingers in front of her face in order to get her attention. She blinked wildly before focusing on him.

"What?"

"You were staring into nowhere so hard that you didn't hear me."
"Sorry," she said. "Hey didn't a Greengrass marry a Malfoy?"

"I don't know," he said. "I don't care about Death Eater families."

"Albus…" Aunt Hermione said chidingly. "Don't talk about people that way. Those times are far behind us."

"Yes, Aunt Hermione," Albus said noncommittally. Albus walked over to stand with his family when the others moved over to introduce themselves to the Dursleys.

"And here is my family," Ron said. "My wife Hermione, and my kids Hugo and Rose."

"Of course you married Granger," Daphne said incredulously. "If anything I'm more surprised the three of you together didn't become a thing."

"Well what about you and Davis?" Hermione asked. "You two were practically attached at the hip for seven years."

Daphne's eyes honed in on Hermione and something seemed to pass in the air between them. Hermione flinched. "Sorry, sensitive topic I see."

"Yeah."

Dudley saw the argument starting and asked Harry a question to change the topic. "So where is the entrance to the shops? I never got to ask when we were younger."

Harry smiled at the change of topic and he and Dudley went off with Ron to talk.

Albus walked with Rose as she went to introduce herself to Clover.

"Hi. You must be Clover." Rose said. "My name is Rose, we'll be going to Hogwarts together and we're close enough to cousins."

Clover looked at her for a few seconds before speaking. "You look lonely."

Rose was taken back by that for a few seconds. "Uhh what?"

Clover blinked a few times and shook her head. "Sorry, I think magic is making me go crazy."

"Does that mean you just got your magic?" Rose asked. "I didn't think it was common for magic to start coming in so late."

Clover just shrugged. "I don't care. I want to go home."

"You just want to go home?" Rose asked. "But you're getting your wand today! That's supposed to be a big deal."

Clover shrugged. "I didn't grow up thinking that it was a big deal so I guess it's not that big of a deal for me."

"Well you must be excited to see a bunch of other wizards and witches, right?"

"Well, my mom has been talking about a lot of the bad things about wizards and witches," Clover said. "Apparently her family was on the bad side of the last war and people like me are discriminated against for not having true magical parentage."

"Well, it's not like that anymore!" Rose insisted. "I'm a half-blood too and I'm not treated any differently because of it. My mom worked really hard after the war in order to change that. And for Death Eaters, well… they don't have much of a say anymore."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Rose said awkwardly. "A Death Eater family was killed recently and there hasn't been much of an investigation into it. My dad was complaining about it because he knew the victim. He thinks that they should at least try to find who did it before closing the case, but that's kind of just how former Death Eater families are treated now."

"Well isn't that great," Clover bemoaned. "I've got a target on my back one way or another. Can't wait to be outed for having bad people in my family and be blamed for their actions."

"Stop complaining so much," Albus said under his breath. "You should just be grateful that you are here at all."

Clover seemed to have heard him from her reaction. She went as still as a rock and stood straight up. "Yeah, you're right. I should be grateful I'm still here. I haven't earned my place here like you will earn your place in the future. "

After that Clover walked away and Rose slapped him on the side of the head.

"Hey! What was that for!" He said.

"I was talking to her!" Rose said. "Stop saying mean things to people I'm trying to befriend." Rose then stormed off angrily to try to catch up with Clover.

Albus stood there awkwardly and went over to stand with his mother. She was talking to Hermione and Daphne.

"This hole hasn't changed in the time that I've been gone," Daphne bemoaned.

"Well the ownership has changed since then but they decided to keep the aesthetic," Ginny said with a smirk. "You remember Hannah Abbott? Well she owns the place now and she married Neville Longbottom."

"Longbottom got a wife?" Daphne's face said in abject horror. "That poor woman. How did he do it? Did he use a love potion? Did he use amortentia on her?"

"No, nonono," Hermione said with a chuckle. "Neville has changed a lot since his Hogwarts days. He's a much different person."

Albus didn't understand why they were being so tolerant of Daphne saying those deplorable things about people he knew. She shouldn't have the right to insult Neville or any of the Longbottoms.

"Well I doubt there will have been a bigger change than Longbottom's sex appeal in the time of my absence."

"Well…"

"I don't like the way you said that."

"Oh come on I'm just having you on."

"I don't like how much the two of you are being buddy-buddy with me. Are you trying to get something from me? Especially you Granger. I don't trust that innocent smile for a second."

The two other women laughed again and Albus walked away from the conversation to stand with the fathers.

"Dad," Albus said. "Do you think we can head into the Alley now?"

"Sure, Albus," Harry said with a smile. "Let's head out the back then."

---

"I don't know what I expected," Dudley said as he stared at the brick wall in front of him. "But it definitely wasn't this."

"I promise this is the entrance," Harry said with a smile as he counted off bricks on the wall. When he got to a specific brick the wall started to shake and the bricks rotated on themselves in order to get out of the way to reveal Diagon Alley.

Albus's eyes were drawn to the flashy advertising floating in the air, salespeople shouting out the sales on potion ingredients, and the occasional broom flown around. The Alley looked much like he remembered it and he felt himself become slightly more comfortable in his surroundings. Being surrounded by so much magic had always felt like a warm blanket.

He looked over to Clover and she looked the exact opposite. Her hands were clenched tightly around her shirt and she looked at every act of magic like it was a threat being made explicitly against her.

"Wow." Dudley said dumbly. He was staring out into the Alley and had a dumbstruck look on his face. He looked shakily over to Harry. "This is what they were so afraid of for so long."

Harry had a sad smile on his face. "Not exactly this but this definitely was a part of it."

"I'm sorry."

"Hey none of that," Harry said with a smile. "That's ancient history. Today we are worried about the little ones. We'll catch up more over drinks later. Alright everyone. Let's go to Gringotts."

Gringotts was a tense trip like it almost always was. According to Ron's exaggerated storytelling they had stolen a dragon from one of the vaults and had almost been banned from the bank for life before they realized they would be losing the patronage of the Potters, one of their largest assets, and they had changed their tune. Nevertheless a few goblins growled at them on their way in and on their way out.

"Those people didn't seem to like us much," Clover said.

"Clover, if there was one thing that I was most happy to leave behind when I left, it was dealing with Goblins." Daphne said. "They complain about even the slightest 'offenses' that humans make against their race and riot over the smallest of things."

Dudley looked a little uncomfortable about Daphne talking about the magical world. Albus guessed it was from Daphne keeping that big a part of her past secret from him for so long.

After their quick trip to Gringotts, they went off to get their school supplies. Albus was dragged from the robe shop, to the bookstore, to the apothecary, and the astronomy shop in excruciating fashion. His father kept being approached by people for conversation and it was grating on his nerves.

Albus was beginning to think that the shopping was never going to end when he spotted Neville leading a large crowd of people out of the trunk store.

"Hey Neville!" Harry yelled out from right next to Albus to get Neville's attention.

Neville looked up and spotted him. He said a few words to the people around him before pointing to the astronomy shop that Albus and crew had been coming out of.

"Hey Harry," Neville said once he had walked up to them. "And hello Albus. I was just leading the new muggle born on their shopping trip."

"Yeah we're doing the same," Harry said. "And I picked up Clover for you."

Neville smiled. "Well she isn't exactly a muggleborn in many ways." Neville's smile then disappeared and he grew serious. "Although there is something that I need to talk to you about the muggleborn this year."

Harry grew serious as well. "What is it?"

"Well it's one of the students," Neville started. "Well two… well kind of a few actually. But there are two that are the most important here. One of the girls. She has power."

Harry looked at him like he was crazy. "Power?"

"She's crazy strong," Neville said. "She's got a crazy amount of control of magic. When I met her she was flying."

"Flying?!" Harry exclaimed. "Without a broom?"

"Yeah, and then a few minutes later she summoned a lightning bolt."

"A...lightning bolt?"

"She created a localized storm and created a lightning bolt from nothing."

"That's…crazy."

"That's not all," Neville said. "She was at an orphanage." Harry froze. "And there with her was another first year. But I didn't get her letter with the muggleborn list."

"Some wizard got frisky with a muggle?" Harry asked, all but forgetting Albus was a part of the conversation.

"I don't think so," Neville said. "It's who it is, Harry. Her letter said Bellatrix Black."

Albus felt his veins turn to ice.

Bellatrix Black. The second in command to Voldemort himself. She had a daughter. No, that didn't line up. A granddaughter?

"DUDLEY?!" a voice screamed out, cutting off Albus's train of thought. In the crowd of people entering the store, a bald black man was staring in shock at Dudley.

"P-Piers?" Dudley asked, completely shocked. His mouth was hanging open and his eyes were showed confusion. "What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?!" Piers shouted. "Are you a wizard?!"

"What? No!" Dudley said. "Piers, we went to high school together. How would I have gone to a magical school?"

"I dunno magic?" Piers said. "Well then what are you doing here?"

"My daughter is magical."

"Really, my son is magical!" Piers said. "Wait, why aren't you with us then. Shouldn't they have all the normal families coming together?"

"Well do you remember my cousin Harry?"

"Like Harry-hunting Harry?" Piers asked then gasped. "Are you saying that he was a wizard?"
"Hi Piers," Harry said. "I sure wasn't expecting to ever see you here."
Piers's eyes widened as he took in Harry's robes. "Holy shit! You're a wizard!"

"Have been for my whole life," he said amusedly.

"Oh my god," Piers said in dawning horror. "I bullied a wizard. I'm so sorry wizard, please don't kill me!"

Albus was shocked as he processed his words. Bully? And this was one of Dudley's old friends? This man had bullied his father when they were younger. Albus mentally put this man and his family in the category of unforgivables.

Harry had to calm the man down before they were able to continue on reuniting with another.

"Ah!" Piers exclaimed. "Meet my son. This is Paul. Paul Polkiss."

Piers pulled forward a dark skinned boy who was calmly looking around himself.

"Paul say hello."

"Hello," Paul said simply. Piers flabbergasted at his son before taking over the conversation with Dudley. Albus left them to go and stand with Abby

Albus soon found Abby in the group of people gathered outside. She must have been accompanying her father as he did his duties of introducing the muggleborn families to Diagon Alley. She was talking to a pair of girls and for a second Albus thought about if they were the two that Neville had mentioned earlier but dismissed that. Neville wouldn't let his daughter interact with a girl who was descended from Death Eaters.

"Hey Abby," he said as he walked over to the three.

"Oh Albus!" Abby said happily. "Albus, this is Emily and Violet. Emily and Violet, this is Albus, one of my friends." Albus looked at the two girls he was introduced to and was struck by one of their appearances. The girl whose name was Emily had shockingly white hair and vibrant purple eyes. It made him take half a step back before recovering from it.

"How long have you been shopping," he moaned. "It feels like it's never going to end."

"Oh right, you were introducing your cousin to Diagon Alley today right?" Abby asked.

"Yeah, and I'm tired of her too."

"You come from a magical family too?" Emily asked him curiously.

"Yeah my whole family is magical," he said. "My father is Harry Potter."

The lack of recognition on their faces surprised Albus even though it really shouldn't have. Abby explained it quickly to them. "His father was the person who defeated a terrorist about 20 years ago. You should learn more about him when you go to Hogwarts in History of Magic."

"Oh," Violet said cautiously. "There's terrorists in the magical world too? I guess that makes sense if you think about it. Just because they have magic doesn't mean that people are any different."

"Uh, yeah," Abby said awkwardly. "Well there's more to it than that. The terrorist had a lot of followers and kind of took over the government for a year or two. There was a big war that happened and Harry Potter was the one who brought it all to an end."

"Wow," Emily said. "How did they not tell the muggle government about it? How did nobody know what was going on? I get that they don't tell muggles about magic, but shouldn't they if something that big was going on?"
Albus shrugged. "Wizards mostly keep to themselves. Even most muggleborns that go to Hogwarts end up staying in the wizarding world."
The conversation continued on for a while before Harry walked over to them and led them over to Ollivander's in order to get their wands. The group that had been following Neville also followed along with them as Neville and Harry were still not done with their conversation.

"What's that alley over there?" Violet asked while pointing to her left. Albus looked to where she was pointing and saw that she was pointing towards Knockturn Alley.

"That's Knockturn Alley," Abby said. "It's where a lot of the shady shops are."

"Shady shops?" Violet asked.

"You know, Dark magic, potion shops, artifact shops, that kind of stuff."

"Oh, well what's beyond Knockturn Alley?"

"Uhh," Abby wondered. "You know I don't know. My parents always just told me not to go down there. I haven't put much thought into it."

Albus didn't know what was down there either and he made a mental note to ask his father about it later.

It was then that they arrived at Ollivanders and all of the children who were getting a wand went into the store at once carrying gold. There had to be at least a dozen with Neville's group added onto theirs.

The shop felt very old even though a new Ollivander had taken over the position a few years ago after the last one had passed away. The wand boxes were stacked on every visible surface and seemed to have next to no way of organizing themselves.

One of the muggleborns that he hadn't talked to went first. Ollivander took out a tape measure that got dozens of various measurements all around the boy's body. After a few minutes of that, Ollivander walked back into the back of his store and picked a box and brought it out. When the boy tried waving around the wand inside of it, a few sparks popped out of the top and he paid the man before leaving.

This process repeated for a few times before Albus saw that Paul was up next. He stood still as the tape measure roamed him over and it took Ollivander a few tries to get a correct wand but Paul walked away with an aspen wand with a dragon heartstring core.

Soon Abby got up to the desk and got a hazel wand with salamander scales after only a few measurements. She seemed unhappy with this somehow and walked out of the store quietly.

Rose went next and got a pear wand with a unicorn hair core without Ollivander even taking a single measurement. She just walked up to the desk and Ollivander told her to open the box and she left with the wand.

Emily went next and she took a long time to get a wand. Ollivander went through at least three dozen wands before he found one for her. He seemed shocked to be giving her the wand in the first place. The wand was made of elder wood with the core of a thunderbird's tailfeathers. Ollivander was looking at her with an air of reverence as she left the store.

Violet was next and her wand took just as long to get picked out. After all that wait, she finally got one and Ollivander had a large reaction to this one as well. It was made of yew and had a phoenix feather core. His eyes were large like saucers as she left the store.

Clover took her turn and quickly was given a wand of silver lime and a core of a unicorn tail hair.

Finally, it was time for Albus to get his wand. Ollivander used the tape measure to take a few measurements but the tape measure stopped moving fairly quickly. Next, Ollivander gave him a wand but that wand was replaced by another. That wand was taken too and he got a third wand. He didn't feel anything much different between the wands, but to Albus's surprise Ollivander said that that wand was his fit. It was made of pine and had a dragon heartstring core.

Albus didn't know what to feel. The sensation that he had heard others talk about was not present. He didn't feel an immersive feeling of magic sweep over him. He just felt normal, if not a little disappointed.

He left the store in a haze of disappointment. He didn't pay much attention as Neville's group left to do other things, and didn't pay much attention while his family went to get ice cream.

He sat morosely looking at his wand while eating ice cream when his father came to sit next to him.

"Knut for your thoughts?" Harry asked.

"I'm happy I got a wand," Albus said with a fake smile, trying to mask the emptiness he had felt. That seemed to be good enough for his father because he smiled warmly at him. A thought returned to Albus at that moment.

"Dad, what's beyond Knockturn Alley?"

Harry looked surprised for a minute but soon started to talk again.

"Well, beyond the shops of Knockturn Alley there's some restaurants and what not, and after that there's an expansive residential district."

"A residential district?"

"Yeah, Albus," Harry said with a serious face. "About ten to twenty percent of the population of magical Britain lives in the alleys beyond Knockturn Alley."
"But why?" Albus asked. "Don't they know about Knockturn Alley?"
"Well some people can't afford to live elsewhere." Harry said. "There's a lot of squibs down there, I know that. There's people that need to hide from the law, some magical creatures like vampires or hags. People who have failed out of schools like Hogwarts and can't find any good paying jobs. There's a lot of reasons people might find themselves down in the lower alleys."

Albus didn't know what to think about that. How could there be so many people living in such a horrible place as Knockturn Alley. He couldn't understand what would drive a person to want to live there.

Albus was so ingrained in his thoughts that he didn't realize that his family had started to leave. He trailed behind them as they left Diagon Alley and went to lie down in his room at the first possible opportunity.

Albus had dreamt of this day for as long as he could remember. Yet now that it had happened, he couldn't help but feel disappointed. He looked at his wand and tried to feel any kind of connection to it. There wasn't one. It was like he was just holding a dead stick.

Was there something wrong with him?

Why didn't he feel the excitement of going to Hogwarts?

Why did he feel like he was dreading having to wake up the next day?

Probably the Dursleys' fault.

---

"Albus, I'm very disappointed in you," Harry said. Albus felt something stab him in his stomach.

"What?" he asked dumbly.

"Don't 'What?' me!" Harry said. "Don't think that I didn't see how you treated Clover all day! You acted like she was a horrible person for no reason!"

"It's not my job to be her friend," Albus said quietly. His dad just shook his head.

"Clover's been having a very tough time adjusting to the fact that she's a witch," Harry said. "And I thought that she would at least be able to have a friend in you to rely on when she made it to Hogwarts. When we meet them at the station, I want you to apologize to her."

Albus just fumed to himself as he stormed up to his room.

0-0-0

Nick

0-0-0

Nick opened the door and his eyes squinted at the rough light of the dying sun. He thought about complaining to Anastasius about having the entrance open to the west again. He hated opening the door and getting a face full of sun when he wanted to go outside, but he knew if he brought it up to Anastasius he would say something about patience being a virtue. The old man can use as many proverbs as he wants, but Nick could tell that it was all posturing so he didn't have to deal with the logistics of getting the entrance to the coven changed.

But after his eyes cleared, Nick went about his task of finding something to occupy his time. At this time in the Lower Alleys, many of the local shops were already closing their doors after a day of work and the residential streets were quieting down as families sat for dinner. But slowly but surely, the nightlife streets were starting to wake up. Well that's what usually happened, but today Nick was shocked by how awake everything was. He knew that he came out fairly early today, with the sun still high enough to irritate him, but it felt very unusual for this many people to be out and about. There seemed to be a very excited atmosphere in the air as well that Nick couldn't quite tell the source of.

He saw that Mr Rockwood, a craftsman that the coven had a contract with for building repairs, was just closing up his shop for the day and Nick walked over.

"Hey Mr. Rockwood!" Nick said excitedly. The man looked up and a small smile spread across his face. The man put down the boxes that he was carrying and turned to face him. "What's got everybody so excited today?"

Rockwood tilted his head curiously. "Oh you must not have heard holed up in the coven," he said. Nick's eye twitched reflexively at the word 'hole' but he ignored it. "Two of the Rogue Kids got accepted into Hogwarts on scholarship."

"Oh!" Nick said excitedly. "Was it Sebastian? It has to be Sebastian, right?" Mr. Rockwood just smiled and nodded.

"Yeah it was Sebastian and Alexis."

Nick laughed at the news and hopped in place a few times. "Oh, that's awesome! I've got to go congratulate them!"

Nick ran off in the direction of the Crow's Tavern. The familiar surroundings passed him by as he scrambled around stalls, through tight alleyways, and around areas where he knew people who didn't like vampires very much tended to reside. After a few minutes of traversing he made it to the entrance of the Crow's Tavern, but a large crowd stopped him from entering.

There was an almost physical atmosphere among all the people present. The excitement around the idea of one of their own being accepted into Hogwarts seemed to have a large draw to the people of the Lower Alleys.

Nick could recognize why people would be so excited over such an idea. Anastasius had told him about how the Alleys were a very dark place during and after the war with Voldemort. The Rogue at the time, the leader of the Lower Alleys, had been attracted by Voldemort's cause of change, and through persuasion, fear, and manipulation Voldemort used that connection to amass a large population of followers among the Lower Alley residents. So after his defeat the entire district became the victim of massive raids by the Ministry in order to stamp out all the remnants of the Death Eaters. Added to the problem were the former nobles that had followed Voldemort who tried to escape into the intricate web of streets that made up the Lower Alleys. For years there seemed to be a miasma of despair that hung over the whole of the Lower Alleys and almost all sense of community was destroyed.

The title of the Rogue became nothing but a remnant of a forgotten era. The new main power in the Alleys came in the form of a constantly shifting group of factions that were locked in almost unending disputes. It seemed that anyone who had enough power was able to establish themselves as a leader of a faction, and conflict over who controlled what raged on for years.

The problem climaxed about 10 years after the war, where the network of alliances and factions became too heavy to support itself anymore. From what Anastasius had told Nick, nobody knew what set off the fighting initially, all that they knew was that it happened very quickly and that the fighting was furious. All of the different warring factions simultaneously going to war was not going to end well for anybody. The aurors tried to help at first, but after seeing the sheer scope of the conflict, they sealed up all of the Lower Alleys and waited for the situation to calm down.

That night could have meant the end of the Lower Alleys as a whole if it were not for Garold Turner. Originally nothing but a street orphan, he had lived in the Alleys for all of his life, and using his generational skill with magic he was able to get all of the faction leaders to calm down for a time. He gathered all of the factions into one building and through sheer force of will, they came to an armistice with Garold being elected as the new Rogue of the Lower Alleys. And from there Garold began to heal the Alleys of all of its wounds that had never been healed.

Standing here, trying to sneak his way into the Crow's Tavern, Nick could feel the sense of accomplishment rolling off of everyone. It was as if this day was the culmination of all the hard work that Garold and the rest of the court had put in to bring the Alleys back from the brink.

Nick finally managed to slip into the tavern and was met with a packed house. Every seat at every table was full to capacity and the waitresses were making their way through all of the people to deliver all of the drinks.

Nick didn't think that he had ever seen the tavern this crammed. When he usually came around for the classes that the Court gave there were a lot of people, but those events always felt much more organized than the borderline chaos that was happening right now.

Nick spent a few minutes weaving between the crowd of people before he found the pair of people that he was looking for sitting in an oversized green armchair in front of a grand fireplace. Sebastian was struggling to free himself of the strong grip that Alexis had around his middle. Instead of helping him, Nick sat on the arm of the chair and smiled down at them

"Well, hello there Mr. and Mrs. Hogwarts," Nick said. Alexis and Sebastion both looked up at him.

"Oh hi Nick," Sebastian said.

"Oh please," Alexis said. "Like I'd ever let lower my standards enough to marry Sebastian! Have you ever smelled him before? Sometimes it's like you just walked out of the apothecary when you stay near him for too long."

"Wow that's a good point there, Alexis," Sebastian said sarcastically. "Wouldn't that mean that you should let go of me and let my foul stench leave you alone for the rest of the night?"

Alexis just dramatically sighed. "Sadly, if I were to do that, you would just crawl back up into your cave and not leave it for the rest of the night. And tonight is a night about celebration. You can go back to your books and your spider eyes tomorrow. So really you should be treating me like a hero for sacrificing my nose in this manner."

"You are really the best of us," Nick said. He turned his attention back to Sebastian. "You better give up now, you know that she is stronger than you, skinny knees." Nick reached over to Sebastian's knees but he squirmed away before Nick could start to mess with them.

Sebastian just looked up at him with a look of mock betrayal on his face. "Not you too, Nick!"

Nick just let out an face splitting smile and chuckled at Sebastian's misfortune of having an extrovert for a best friend.

Sebastian was a skinny kid with dirty blonde hair that never seemed to sit quite right on his head. He was quite short and very pale, although Alexis always tried her best to pull him outdoors and get him more sun. Sebastian usually spent most of his time indoors with his nose deep in a book or brewing some complex potion or writing out some complicated string of runes. And the effects of how he spent his free time were blatantly obvious, given the acceptance into Hogwarts. Nick didn't know a whole lot about Sebastian's situation, except that he lived with Persephone, a squib who was heavily involved in the going ons of the court.

Alexis was very different to Sebastian on first appearances. She had long, curly brown hair and was very tall. She was outgoing, athletic, and had an almost ever present smile on her face. Nick had known her for a very long time and it had been only recently that he had started to get to know her a little better. It wasn't like Nick knew everything about her or anything, he had just been realizing recently that there was a reason why Alexis always was around the dour Sebastian. And her acceptance into Hogwarts shouldn't have been all that surprising to anybody that knew her. Not for her outstanding intelligence, she wasn't on Sebastian's level but she also wasn't dumb, but for the not so closely held secret that her father was probably a former Death Eater.

Her father, Ed, was the owner of the Crow's Tavern and had been a mainstay in the Alley ever since the war ended, according to Anastasius's account. Ed had apparently been one of the main reason conflicts deescalated in the Alleys after he threw his support behind Garold Turner. It was a half open secret that Ed had been a Death Eater, or at least Death Eater adjacent, but given his constant use of long sleeved shirts the assumption was the former. He was probably one of the only noble Death Eaters that had escaped the ministry after the war. And given that he was from a noble family, Alexis's position in Hogwarts had already been guaranteed. Though Nick doubted that she would have gone if Sebastian had not also been accepted.

Nick noticed that he had been zoning out for a few minutes now and saw that Alexis was back to needling Sebastian about how he better not hide away their entire time at Hogwarts and that he had to at least make a few friends.

"I hope that I don't get sorted into the same house as you," Sebastian said as he glared up at Alexis.

"Oh there's no way the two of you will be in the same house," a new voice said. Nick turned his head and was slightly surprised to see Garold Turner laid across a chair opposite them. Nick shot straight to his feet and gave Garold a quick and small bow. He knew that it was old fashioned, but Anastasius had drilled into his head enough that paying proper respect when it is deserved is an incredibly important thing. "Oh none of that Nick, just sit down."

Nick watched Garold as he sat back down on the arm of the chair. He was a very grizzled man with patchy facial hair and light brown hair that Nick could see graying in some spots. He held his body in a very self assured way. It was a very strange form of forced relaxedness that helped him survive as the leader of such a dangerous place for so long.

"So have you come to congratulate Mr. and Mrs. Hogwarts?" Alexis asked with fake snootiness.

Garold snorted and sat upright in the chair. "I give my sincerest congratulations to Milord and Milady and all that rubbish. What I really wanted to ask you about was to give the two of you a mission to accomplish at the castle."

Nick could see the pair's ears perk up at the mention of a mission that Garold wanted them to do. "What is it?" Sebastian asked curiously.

Garold held his hands up to placate them a bit. "It's nothing large, trust me. I just wanted for you to make sure that the two of you are on your best behavior when you are around the Herbology professor. It's Professor Longbottom, if you didn't know."

"What's so important about him?" Alexis asked, which got a swat from Sebastian for the perceived disrespect.

"It's nothing too major, so don't' be too upset if you mess it up, but I remember him from back in the day when the ministry were trying to become more involved down here," Nick blinked at the very charitable way of calling the raids on the Alleys. "And he seemed to be one of the few that were the most reasonable." Garold rose to his feet. "But if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. Don't put too much pressure on yourself. Oh! And Nick," Nick startled at being addressed. "Just tell Ana that I want to talk to him sometime in the next couple of days.

Nick just nodded vigorously, trying to get over calling Anastasius something as informal as 'Ana'. Garold turned to leave with a swish of his cloak. After watching him leave, Nick shook himself from his thoughts and rose to his feet as he turned to Alexis and Sebastian.

"Well, congratulations on making it into Hogwarts," he said. "I better go and see if there is anything that Anastasius wants to lecture me about."

"Bye Nick!" Alexis said with a wave.

"Bye Nick," Sebastian said. "I'll miss you when we're gone."

Nick stopped in his tracks for a second. "Yeah, I'll miss you two too."

With a last wave Nick started to wiggle his way through the crowd. Pushing out was much easier than pushing in and shortly he found his way out the front of the building and out of the streets.

Nick decided to avoid the main nightlife streets after the crowded environment of the tavern. He walked for a few streets before he stood alone in a quiet alleyway.

"Damnit!" Nick screamed. His fist shot forwards and collided with the wall. There wasn't any dent and Nick backed up to slide down the wall. He let out a long sigh as he let his head fall backwards and sat there in the dark alleyway.

---

Nick groaned as his head fell backwards on the couch. The book he was reading fell by the wayside.

"I hate books," Nick said to no one in particular.

"Don't let Anastasius hear you say that," Irina said from the other side of the room. Nick looked over just in time to see her roll her eyes. Nick was about to respond with an equal amount of high level wit when a knock rang out from the entrance.

Nick was rolling out of the chair to answer whoever it was but he was shocked when he saw that Anastasius had somehow gotten in front of him to get to the door first. Before Nick could ask about what Anastasius was doing, he had already ushered in the person who was outside.

The man looked fairly normal from what Nick could tell. He was fairly tall and had short light brown hair. He had a handsome face and wore a kind expression as his eyes darted around the room. Nick could almost immediately tell that he wasn't from the Alleys. It was all too clear in the impracticality of his shoes and the cleanliness of his robes. But Nick did pause a moment on the man's hands as he saw dirt stuck under his fingernails.

Nick had been taught by Anastasius to try to and assess everybody he met in this way. Something about being able to better understand the people around you, but Nick usually lost interest in Anastasius's teaching when they got this ridiculous. Anastasius taught him a wide variety of various subjects. From basic literacy and mathematics, to magical subjects, to how to better understand the people around him. All of this effort to teach him was done so that he would be able to take over the coven if anything were to ever happen to Anastasius, but…

Nick saw Anastasius look at him from the corner of his eye and his posture immediately fixed itself. If this man was an outsider, there was a likelihood that he would not take kindly to being surrounded by vampires.

Nick bowed to the man respectfully, just as Anastasius had taught him. The man looked a little taken aback by Nick's politeness. Not very used to dealing with vampires then, Nick thought.

"Nicholas," Anastasius said. "Come join us in the sitting room. There is something for us to discuss."

Nick blinked a few times up at Anastasius before following down the stairs. Anastasius had never had him join him when there was on outsider inside the coven. Something about it being a show of respect to the guest to not have to deal with the young ones.

Following behind, Nick couldn't help but steal curious glances at the man. Something about the way that the man walked clued Nick into the fact that he was a fighter. Probably in the way he held his shoulders, broad and ready for a fight at a moment's notice. He must not be that comfortable to be going downstairs in a vampire coven. There must be something to make him confidant enough that nothing bad would happen to him while he was there.

Anastasius led them to a quiet sitting room, secluded from most of the other people in the coven. Anastasius usually used this room when meeting guests and as a signal to the others in the coven that the conversation must not be interrupted under any circumstances. Something shifted deep in Nick's stomach as he thought about what in the world this conversation could possibly be about. If it was important enough to be held in this room, then why was he being included?

The three of them sat down in three chairs surrounding a low table, with Anastasius in the middle and Nick facing opposite the man. A long momelnt passed in silence before Anastasius finally spoke.

"Nicholas," he said. "This man is Professor Longbottom. Herbology professor and vice headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

Nick gave a small jump in his seat at that announcement. Anastasius gave him a side eye for such an obvious reaction, but Nick couldn't help but let out that sign of surprise. Anastasius made a gesture to Professor Longbottom and the professor pulled out a letter from his cloak.

Longbottom placed the letter on the table between them and slid it across for Nick to pick up. Nick did so and was shocked to find that his name was written across the front of the letter. Losing his appearance of decorum, Nick tore into the letter and read it quickly.

It detailed that he had been accepted into Hogwarts.

"I don't understand," Nick confided.

"You have been accepted to attend Hogwarts this fall," Professor Longbottom said. Nick looked up at him but all he could do in response was open and close his mouth like an idiot.

"Nicholas," Anastasius said. Nick turned his head to look at him. "You are acting a fool. Maintain yourself."

Nick shot up in his seat and shook his head to throw off the surprise. He blinked a few times and looked back down at the letter. Nothing about it changed. It still said that he had been accepted into Hogwarts.

"Yeah, I still don't understand," Nick said, staring dumbly at the letter.

"Allow me to explain then, Nicholas," Anastasius said. "A few months ago I told the Auror department about the location of a few unsavory businesses that have been operating without restraint down in the Alleys for an inappropriate amount of time. I trust that you remember the smuggling ring that was torn apart a few months ago?"

Nick just nodded dumbly. "Well that information was given to the Aurors as part of a deal that I had made with them."

"You made a deal with the Aurors?" Nick said in shock. Anastasius's eyes darkened quickly and Nick shrank in his seat.

"Do not interrupt me, Nicholas," he said. "Learning some patience would do you well. That is not how one that will become a leader should act. As I was saying I cut a deal with the Aurors that in exchange for information on the smuggling ring, they would give you admission into Hogwarts."

Nick sat still for a few minutes, trying to understand what had been said to him.

"What about the whole, you know… vampire thing?" Nick asked. "Won't that be a problem if there is a known vampire at Hogwarts?"

Professor Longbottom awkwardly cleared his throat across from Nick. "There have been a lot of discussions about this among the staff, and while it wasn't unanimous, we came to an agreement that it is ultimately your decision on whether or not you want to hide the fact that you are a vampire. But the staff decided that they would prefer for you to try to hide the fact that you are a vampire."

Nick gave him a strange look. "Forgive me Professor but do you know how inconvenient that would be for me?" The professor just tilted his head. "I don't think it would be very easy to hide my fangs, or you know, my vividly red eyes."

The professor opened his mouth to say something, but closed it without saying anything. Nick gave Anastasius a look out of the corner of his eye, and he saw that Anastasius was giving the professor a dirty look. It seemed like Anastasius was not aware of the professors wanting Nick to hide his vampire traits.

Anastasius rose to his feet and with an air of forced politeness, which was much more obviously negative than his actual forced politeness and escorted Professor Longbottom out of the coven. Anastasius did give him a look that told Nick to stay in his seat and wait for him to come back

Waiting for Anastasius to come back felt like it took hours, but in reality was probably only a couple of minutes. When he did come back, he took that seat that Professor Longbottom had been sitting in before.

"So," Anastasius said. "Do you have any questions?"

Nick just glared at him and didn't say anything. Anastasius grinned and started to chuckle to himself. Nick rolled his eyes at Anastasius's serious demeaner breaking the second that the two of them were alone. Nick thought that it was pretty ridiculous that Anastasius insisted on keeping his serious veneer around any and all outsiders, but Anastasius would never listen to him on that and said that he would understand one day.

"Let me explain then," Anastasius said. "There's nothing I can teach you that can compare to what Hogwarts can teach you. I never learned much magic, and I'm pretty poor at the magic I do know to be honest. I've depended on what being a vampire gives me for a lot of the things in my life. And at times I've just barely gotten through alive. And I don't want that for you, I guess."

Nick stared hard at Anastasius as the man looked off into the distance. Nick could almost see the years go through Anastasius's head as he talked.

"I guess I just wanted you to have an easier path than the one that I had to take."

The two were quiet for a long moment before finally Nick made up his mind.

"I'm going to pretend to not be a vampire," Nick said. Anastasius's eyebrows scrunched up.

"I don't even know why the Professor brought that up," Anastasius said. "I never even brought up hiding that you are a vampire."

"I want to get everything that I can from Hogwarts," Nick said. "If hiding that I'm a vampire is what it takes, then I'll do it."

"I really want you to get magic out of Hogwarts," Anastasius said, raising his eyebrow at Nick. "That's the main reason that I went out of my way to get you to get into the school. I don't really care about whatever else the school has. If hiding that you're a vampire takes away from that then I don't want you to bother with it."

Nick shook his head strongly. "I'm not going to just put my head down to study magic the whole time." Anastasius raised his eyebrow at him. "I don't think that teaching magic is all that Hogwarts is able to give to someone." Nick was quiet for a moment as he searched for the words he wanted. "I think I can get more out of Hogwarts if I hide being a vampire. It's… I don't know… It's like I can try to exist away from everyone hating me for being a vampire. And maybe if they get to know me first, maybe I can change people's minds."

Anastasius gave him a long look and sighed deeply. "Alright, Nick. I'll let you do as you want." Anastasius got up and walked out of the room.

Finally being alone, Nick could not stop the smile from breaking across his face.

He was actually going to be able to go to Hogwarts and he couldn't believe it.

---

A/N: This chapter follows the general trends of all chapters from this point onwards, of switching between 4-7 different perspectives. Paul originally was based off of a character from Fiery Gray's series named Maurice, but he has transformed over time.

Right now, all you need to know about Paul is that he is a young man that is eager to prove himself and bring his siblings out of their bad situation.

I tried to keep everything from the Epilogue intact, the only thing I can think of that I changed right now is that I killed Scorpius's whole family. The thought behind Scorpius's story is that I wanted to try to take an annoying fanfiction trope of soulbonds and try to make it something that doesn't make me want to cringe out of my mind.

Emily is a super free spirit that has an insatiable thirst for adventure and stuff like that. Violet takes a very motherly persona with how she interacts with other people.

Albus is an annoying little shit.

Nick being a vampire was originally going to be a mid-book twist, where he didn't become a POV character until two thirds in, but I changed my mind and decided to go in a different direction with his story.

And yes, I ripped the Lower Alleys almost bit for bit from The Pureblood Pretense, I'm not sorry.