So, here it is. Tell me what you think!

Disclaimer: This world and these characters belong to J.K. Rowling. The only thing I own is the plot.

Roxy watched from her cot as Neville clasped Alice's hand worriedly. (After Hugo had left, she had volunteered to get herself put in the hospital wing to continue administering the Polyjuice to the imposters).

"She'll be fine, Professor," assured Roxy. "They all will."

Neville started, as if he hadn't noticed her there. "Thank you, Roxy," he said with a smile. She saw with some shock that there were tears in his eyes. She knew he was ridiculously overprotective of Alice, but she supposed she could understand that – after what had happened to his parents, and all.

Alice had never said it outright, but Roxy thought that to the members of Legacy who had been through the pensieve, it was obvious why – he had, after all, named his daughter Alice.

Roxanne Weasley was not the sort to comfort people. Looking at Neville, however, she wanted to tell him that she knew firsthand that Alice was a fighter, and that it wasn't really Alice on the bed.

She also knew, however, that he wouldn't want to know what was really happening to Alice. The four hadn't shared much with Teddy and the others, and had tried to pass if off calmly, but they were sure that story would change when they could speak in person.

If they had suffered under the Cruciatus curse, it would destroy Neville, although Alice had seemed quite sane when they last spoke to her. Besides, he couldn't know about all the illegal and dangerous activity they had engaged in, no matter how much illegal and dangerous activity he had been involved in himself at their age.

"Drink this," Madam Pomfrey ordered her brusquely, noticing that she was awake.

Roxy hated that stuff with a burning passion. "Do I have to? It's disgusting, and I don't think it should be forced on innocent children –"

"You should have thought of that before you got yourself injured in that mad game," Madam Pomfrey snapped, glaring at her. "How you managed to do this to yourself the very day your cousin left the hospital wing for the same reason is beyond me. One would think you're trying to get landing in here."

"So I could drink this stuff?" Roxy asked disgustedly. "Yeah, right."

Madam Pomfrey gave her an arch look before bustling off, and Roxy heard someone snicker behind her. "What a typical Gryffindor answer." Lorcan shook her head at Roxy as her cousin turned to face her. "I would have said something like, 'Maybe we can't help but want to be around you.'"

"That's disgustingly cheesy." Roxy gave him a skeptical look.

"Yeah," conceded Lorcan, "but it would have made her smile. And then maybe she'd be a little nicer, or more inclined to like you."

"I'm not here to make her like me," objected Roxy, lowering her voice. "I'm here to break more rules, which would be easier without a teacher's supervision."

Lorcan glanced at Neville. "I don't suppose you want help getting rid of him?"

Roxy gave him a grin, and he sighed. "What would you do without me?"

"Clever," Dylan complimented her, sounding impressed.

Cecy glanced up at him briefly. "Ravenclaw, remember?" She was carefully erasing all vestiges of their illegal Portkey-making. Holly and Lucy were off taking care of that part; Lucy's Hit Wizard experience was invaluable.

There were some sorts of Portkeys that could bypass powerful wards, but only Hit Wizards and Aurors with had the authority to use them, and only if they had consent from either the Head of the Auror Office (one Harry James Potter), the head of the Hit Wizard Department, or the approval of the Minister of Magic, who would first contact the aforementioned heads to verify the necessity of such a Portkey.

They were breaking all kinds of major laws by their actions. Cecy risked a quick glance at the clock. "We only have five minutes left," she said worriedly. "The guards will have started back this way."

Dylan muttered into his Legacy coin, and Will was alerted. He was taking care of the security wards; he was erasing all traces of their having broken in. His Hit Wizard training was really coming in handy; it took incredible skill to break into the office without setting off the wards, and to erase the traces left by their undetected breaking-and-entering took even more skill.

"All right," Cecy told Dylan, "carefully repeat put the concealment charms on the here; we don't want them to know what we've done here. Then we'll make it untraceable and undetectable and that should be enough. Nobody ever really looks at these files except in cases of –"

"Trials," Dylan interrupted, "which is the only case it'll matter."

Cecy looked uncomfortable. "If they need to look this up for a trial, we'll have bigger problems to worry about. This isn't the only time we've broken the law. We'd be off to Azkaban no matter how well we concealed our tracks."

Dylan glanced at her but didn't say anything. "There," he said after a moment. "It's done. How are you coming along?"

"Just a second," she answered, concentrating. "All right. We're good."

"Hurry," he urged, offering her a hand up. "We've only got a minute left." They made their way out of the room, making sure not to disturb the wards that Will had so painstakingly bypassed. They ran into Lucy and Holly in the hall.

Will met them near the entrance. "Get back," he hissed. "We're too late. The guards are coming."

Damn it. They went back into the records room, keeping to the shadows. They all had disillusionment charms on, but if the guards actually entered and did their hourly routine check, they would be found out.

Cecy had thought of that before, however, and timed everything so they would be out just before the round preceding the guards' hourly check. They had missed it, but the time slot wasn't completely closed yet – if they could get out before the last round, during which the check would occur, they would make it out – but just barely. It was cutting it close and very risky, but it was the only chance they had.

Lucy and Will hid just behind the door, ready to knock them out and obliviate the men if necessary. Hopefully, when they were coming in, they'd be able to knock them out and take care of their memory from behind, before they had a chance to see who had broken in.

That would alert the Ministry to the fact that there had been a break-in, however, and one done by highly trained wizards or witches. And the first two departments that would be under suspicion were the Hit Wizards and the Aurors. They did not need that right now.

Lucy breathed in deeply, forcing herself to remain calm. She couldn't go to Azkaban; she had seen firsthand what it did to people. But she never once doubted that it had all been worth it. If it weren't for Legacy, every one of them would suffer under the stress of living up to their parents. It would suffocate them, and the only way to escape it would be running away, or through death.

Lucy had no doubt that one or more of them would try to run away. The entire family was full of Gryffindors, a few Slytherins, and a couple Ravenclaws. There were no Hufflepuffs among them – they were from the House of the Brave, the House of the Ambitious, the House of the Intelligent, but they were not humble.

And those of them that didn't run away would crumble. Their strength of character was based on unity, loyalty, confidence, and pride. All that would be taken away if Legacy didn't exist, and they would be lifeless drones, attempting to live the lives their parents set out for them.

Love, money, and fame were valuable only if they were earned. If they were given to them for no reason, they'd always live in the fear that everything would be taken away from them, because what were they doing to keep it?

"All right, go," Will whispered, shoving her forward, and Lucy skillfully passed through the wards, quickly heading out. The others followed briskly, and they were out of the Ministry within a minute.

"I've got the Portkeys," Holly told the others. "But we have to get these to Teddy quickly."

Seconds later, they were gone, and there was no sign that five famous young witches and wizards had every broken into the Ministry that night.

"Teddy says they'll be here in about five minutes," Alice said in a low voice.

Rose glanced worriedly back at Scorpius and Al. "We can't let any of them see us like this," she said urgently. "We've got to heal each other; at least the worst of the gashes and such. Alice, you do Scorpius."

She gave Alice a pleading glance, and with an arched eyebrow, Alice ordered Scorpius to get rid of his bloodied, ripped, and muddied shirt. "Bloody hell, Al," murmured Rose as she inspected her cousin. "You're bruised everywhere."

"Don't worry about that," he muttered back. "Just heal that large cut on my shoulder; it's still bleeding. And then make my face recognizable and heal my ankle so I don't have to limp."

Rose complied. "I'm leaving some of the grime and blood on your face, but there's only a faint scar on your forehead and shoulder, and you ankle is a bit swollen."

"Fine," he said dismissively. "Your turn." When he was done, he leaned back and surveyed her. "You still look like hell."

"Thanks, Al," she answered. "You too."

"You all look like hell," came Teddy's voice.

Rose's head snapped up. "Teddy!"

He was looking at them worriedly, taking in the bruises and cuts and dirt and blood. "You're going to be questioned very thoroughly," he informed them, "later. For now, I need you to help us round up the Riddlers. Are you up to it?"

"Yeah," Scorpius answered. He glanced at Dom, Vic, Molly, Lucy, Will, Holly, and Dylan, who were behind Teddy. "There are only eleven of them here."

"Can you show us where?"

"We actually have them tied up from our last duel. I'll show you," Rose volunteered. Fifteen minutes later, they had all eleven Riddlers rounded up, still unconscious.

"Perfect," declared Vic. She glanced at her watch. "The portkey is set to take us to Teddy's apartment in twenty minutes; we weren't sure how much time it would take to subdue the Riddlers. We didn't know you already had them tied up and knocked out, obviously. Why don't you tell us what's happened to you."

The four of them sat against the trees, exchanging glances. "We woke up in the house's basement," began Rose. "They tortured us –"

"How?" Dom demanded.

"Cruciatus," answered Alice.

"Sectumsempra," put in Al. "Things like that." He glanced at Alice, who stared at the ground for a moment before nodding. "We spent a lot of time unconscious."

Scorpius caught Rose's hand. Tell them, he mouthed. She shook her head, and he fixed her with a look, his grey-blue eyes piercing. Rose hesitated, then said, "And for me . . ." She glanced at Scorpius, who nodded encouragingly. "They blinded me."

The older cousins stiffened. "What?" Dom snarled.

"Temporarily," Rose amended. "They wanted me to feel despair, I guess, so I would reveal everything we've done."

"They were planning to kill us," Scorpius growled, sounding furious. "They wanted her to die thinking she was blind. Without hope."

Lucy flexed her fist. "I'm going to kill them," she said softly.

Teddy shook his head. "Worse," he said. "We're going to put them in Azkaban for life. And Kingsley Shacklebolt may have put a stop to the use of dementors to guard Azkaban, there are far more inhumane security measures taken to prevent break-outs." He locked eyes with Lucy and Will, looking grim.

"Like what?" Scorpius asked.

Will shook his head. "Just say that the putting a witch or wizard in Azkaban is like putting a werewolf in a cell by itself with a clear view of the sky. It would attack itself every full moon with no ability to heal and eventually lose its mind."

"He or she," corrected Teddy softly. "Not it." He gestured for the four to continue their story.

After they were finished, Rose asked, "What are your plans for the Riddlers? How are you going to manage to put them in Azkaban?"

Teddy closed his eyes. He seemed to be struggling with himself. "The Imperious Curse," he said finally, his eyes trained on the ground.

They stilled, the jaw of every person around him dropping. "Teddy," Al said cautiously, "that's an Unforgivable."

"I know," Teddy muttered miserably, sounding the least confident any of them had ever heard him.

"It's all right," said Vic, though it looked as if it physically pained her to say those words. "It's the least inhumane of the three Unforgivables, and they deserve it."

Rose's hand went to her eye. "Yeah," she said suddenly. "They do. But Teddy, the punishment for an Unforgivable is a life sentence."

Teddy didn't look at her. "I know," he repeated. "But at least this way we have a chance of escaping this without being discovered. I'll be the one to perform the curse. I was thinking we should administer the remaining sleeping draught to them and leave them in the house. Then we'll return you four to school, and you'll wake up and say it was Devienne and a few people you don't know who gave you the potion in an attempt to permanently put you out of commission. The potion we gave them, after all, could only be reversed by the people who administered it. We'll say that Lily discovered the plot when she accidentally fell into the room they use for meetings and began to explore. She found three important documents: a list of the inner circle and the graduated Riddlers, a letter from Andrew Danforth, that Gryffindor with the grudge against me, to Devienne that detailed the plan, and one that gives us the location of the Riddler safe house; the one right here. Because I'm the Auror that began the investigation, at their trial, I'll be allowed to ask a representative of the group five questions under Veritaserum. One of them with good control – one of your torturers; that way, their answers will hold only a minimal amount of information, so they won't implicate us."

"That's what the Imperious is for," Molly realized. "To get their consent for the use of Veritaserum."

Teddy nodded. "Exactly."

"It's risky," Vic pointed out worriedly.

"So is everything we've done so far," Teddy pointed out, and she nodded slowly.

He exhaled. "All right." He reached into his pocket and produced the draught. After having Will give it to every Riddler, he levitated their bodies. "I'll be right back. Al, could you show me the way to the house?"

Will closed his eyes. "He'd better alert me before they circle the house."

Rose looked at him questioningly, and he explained, "I'll have to revive them just before they're collected, and it should be me that does it because Teddy will be the Auror leading the investigation. It could've been Lucy, but that would be more suspicious because she's related by blood to you."

"We'll give you a day to rest," Vic told them. "After that, you'll have to wake up in the hospital wing, and the whole thing will start. But once it's over . . ."

"We'll be free."

"Hopefully," put in Molly.

Vic glanced at her watch. "We'll have to go any minute now."

Teddy and Al returned just in time, and they crowded around the portkey, which was a copy of Hogwarts, a History. Within seconds, they were sucked into the portkey and were gone.

"Mr. Scamander is the third Gryffindor Quidditch player to be injured, Miss Potter," Professor McGonagall reminded her frostily.

Lily hung her head. "All right," she sighed, glancing at Xander. He was currently unconscious. "I'm ashamed to say it, but I overheard some Slytherins talking the other day. They're worried that if Gryffindor wins our game against them, they'll win the Cup, so they've been jinxing the brooms. I think . . . I think the upcoming Gryffindor-Slytherin game may be unfair, but if you switch the brooms, they'll be playing on the horrid school brooms and will lose anyway." Appeal to her Gryffindor Quidditch pride and desire to win.

McGonagall's lips were pressed into a thin line. "I see," she said. "And who was it you overheard?"

"I don't know," Lily admitted. She closed her eyes and muttered, "You owe me for this, James Potter. Professor, I think if you switched this game and the upcoming Slytherin-Hufflepuff game, it would be fairer."

McGonagall narrowed her eyes at Lily. "They're my family," Lily explained, making sure her voice sounded reluctant and grudging. "And I know I can beat their sorry arses anyway."

McGonagall's brows arched ever so slightly at that, but she said nothing. Glad that she hadn't commented on her use of the word "arses" in front of a teacher, Lily listened attentively as McGonagall conceded, "Very well. The game shall be postponed."

Lily nodded. "Er, Professor . . . if you could keep this anonymous . . ."

"Nobody will know it was you," McGonagall promised, and Lily exhaled in relief. After the teacher had left, she glanced at Xander.

"You can stop pretending to be unconscious, now, Xander."

Xander sat up, grinning. "Well then," he said, "want to help me Polyjuice the imposters?"