Chapter 7 : Inspections At Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft And Wizardry

Of course, the term "wrong" could have multiple meanings, couldn't it? That's the thought that Albus clung to, anyway. They were now midway though October, and as far as Albus knew, Ares hadn't so much as left his office. As each day passed by without any new and startling evidence, he was forced to succumb to the idea that his Headmaster was not doing anything wrong, let alone murdering in his spare time.

And as far as spare time went, Albus felt that his was slowly thinning too. His studies still came first, but truth be told, Scorpius was doing roughly half of his homework. His time was instead spent on practicing.

He had had about five Quidditch practices now, and though both he and his team felt that they were in top shape, there was no denying a sense of unease. The last time a Slytherin seeker had made the team as only a second year, Slytherin went a decade without winning the cup. It didn't help that the Seeker in question was Scorpius' father, making it a rather touchy subject indeed.

And even less welcome than talking to Scorpius about his father's weak Quidditch skills was attempting to talk to his brother again. He had not spoken a word to him since he was wrongfully accused of orchestrating the prank on Eckley, and Albus didn't plan on being the one to break.

"I'm sure he's forgotten it by now" Morrison told him on a Friday during lunch. "You might as well go and talk to him. He probably thinks you're ignoring him for nothing."

Albus stared down at his plate. "He knows exactly why I'm not talking to him" he said menacingly. "He had no right to automatically assume that it was me."

"Well...you were kind of in on it" Morrison said.

Albus threw him a nasty look.

"He's right, you were" Scorpius said, his eyes scanning a textbook that he had propped up against his goblet. He had neglected to do his Potions essay until moments before the class was set to begin.

"What, are you both against me?" Albus asked just as the bell was ringing.

They gathered their things and walked down to the dungeons for Darvy's class. All the times that Albus had seen him, at meals or even in the halls, he looked quite gaunt and fatigued. He wondered if he would even be fit to teach, but sure enough, when they entered his classroom they saw him standing by his desk, which had several different cauldrons on it, all of them bubbling and different colors.

"Take your seats, take your seats" he said lazily. "Today we have a special assignment. Well, it's not really special, it's just an assignment. I don't know why I said that" he added with a shrug. "But anyway, today we're going to do something that borders closely on reverse engineering."

The class exchanged looks.

"I'm going to give you each a cauldron with a potion in it, as well as different vials and other various ways to measure certain aspects of it. It will be your job to discover what was used to make the potion by learning its attributes-its color, its smell, its temperature, its effects. By the end of the lesson, you should be able to turn in a rough list of the ingredients used in it, and possibly even take an accurate guess at what exactly the potion is. Sort into groups of four now."

Mirra drug Rose over to the table that had Albus and Scorpius at it, which wasn't very surprising at all. The previous year, Mirra had been something of an academic-over-achiever, good at everything, but apparently her knack for potions had wasted away over the summer. She was absolutely dreadful at it this year, and not a lesson had passed where she hadn't came to Albus for help with group work.

Morrison, who was sitting at a different table, inched his chair over to the one full of his friends.

"Nope, sorry Morrison" Professor Darvy said as he grabbed the back of the chair, preventing it from reaching them. "Four to a group, you heard me."

"Ahh, come off it Professor!" Morrison whined. "What's one more?"

"I believe that makes five. It's not my fault your friends automatically abandon you for group work" he said with a small laugh. "You can go work with Charles, Donovan, and Wendell."

Morrison threw a look of contempt over at the group of Gryffindor boys and made to argue, but the professor had already begun giving the groups their cauldrons. He skidded his chair towards the group and furiously slammed his things onto their table, knocking their things off.

Albus and the rest of the people at his table chuckled. "I almost feel bad" he said.

"I couldn't put up with Eckley for an entire period" Scorpius chimed in, fetching fresh ink out of his bag.

"He's really nice!" Rose said defensively. "Maybe if you would get to know him instead of judging him on his house, you would see that!"

Albus stifled a laugh at this; if anybody at their table treated people unfairly because of their house, it was Rose. He remembered all too well the cold shoulder he had gotten when he was sorted into Slytherin, and she hadn't exactly given Scorpius a warm welcome either. He turned his head to Mirra to see what her view was on Eckley, but she was busying herself with writing their names on the parchment they would be using.

"Okay so...Al? Care to work your magic?" Scorpius asked him.

He grinned at his friend. "I suppose so" he said as he took a whiff of their pink potion and smelled peppermint. "Okay, there's definitely a few nettles leaves in there" he told them.

The first hour of their lesson passed by with little more than Albus telling them what he thought was in the potion and Mirra recording it while Rose and Scorpius bickered. More than once they heard an angry retort come from a few tables away and knew that Morrison was not warming up to his partners. It wasn't until Albus began really trying to distinguish different smells and effects (and even the occasional tastes) of their potion that Mirra brought up a topic.

"So I put a lot of thought into your theory on Ares, Al" she said as she doodled on the paper.

For a brief second, Rose and Scorpius stopped bickering to unite and laugh, only to return to whatever it was they were arguing about.

"I'm serious" Mirra continued. "I thought about it, and I realized that whoever dropped that wand got in here without permission from Hagrid."

"Right" Albus said, unsure of what she was getting at.

"So that means that they were let in directly by the Headmaster. Meaning that he's letting people in and out at his leisure. But why would he only let one in? Couldn't he be letting loads of people in at once?"

"Yeah- I suppose" he said, still unsure. He actually hadn't given it a great deal of thought. The wand that he had found was at the bottom of his trunk, untouched.

"So he's probably got a great deal of people at his disposal. You mentioned he got a new wand, and a wandmaker was found dead. Maybe he didn't do it. But maybe he got someone to do it for him."

Scorpius and Rose stopped arguing and joined the conversation. "What do you reckon he's got an entire army behind him?" Scorpius asked, obviously trying not to laugh. "Yeah I can picture that. 'Go and do my bidding, I am an all powerful recluse former Hogwarts teacher'" he said, in a rather accurate impression of Ares' lazy, bored voice, which even made Albus smile slightly.

"I don't know- she could be on to something" he shrugged.

"Al, are you seriously still on this?" Rose asked.

"She brought it up!" he said.

"He's a Headmaster. How many Hogwarts Headmasters have been murderers, honestly?"

"I don't know..."

"None! They couldn't be!" she cut him off loudly; it was a good thing the rest of the class was talking as well. "I can see if he had a criminal record or something, but all-"

"He does!" Albus shot out.

"Really?" they all asked him.

How could he have forgotten about it? Ares did have a criminal record! He had even asked him about it!

"Yeah, really, he was in Azkaban!" he said.

"No way" Scorpius said, awestruck. "For what?"

"I don't know, I heard it when he was talking to my dad, but he's definitely been in there!"

He instinctively turned to Mirra, to see if she cared about talking about Azkaban when her parents currently resided there. She didn't seem to mind however, and seemed just as much involved in the conversation as the rest of them.

"Did he mention for how long?" Rose asked.

Albus racked his memory for a concrete number. He remembered that Mirra's parents would be going there for a year at the time. Hadn't his father said that Ares was there for half that time?

"About...six months I think" he said, knowing full well that the relatively small number lessened the impact of his argument.

Rose almost laughed. "Six months?" she asked. "Al, maybe fifty years ago that would have been big, back when Dementors were in charge. But these days that's nothing! They just locked up my dad's friend for a year not too long ago! Dung, or whatever his name is, for impersonating a Ministry official!"

"Well we don't know when he was locked up was he?" Mirra said, coming to Albus' aid.

"Either way, it was probably in the last twenty years or so, if my uncle knew about it. You'd be more likely to find incriminating evidence in his school records than by his Azkaban records" Rose argued back.

"Well I bet there is!" Albus said. "Do you think he went here?"

"I'm pretty sure every wizard in Britain was educated at Hogwarts" Scorpius said, speaking up for the first time in the debate. "If he went to this school, there's a record of it."

"Okay, so tomorrow we can go to the trophy room; that's where all the records are kept" Rose said. "I'll check all the detentions in Slytherin house and see if his name pops up."

"Okay" Albus said, agreeing. "And I'm willing to bet- wait, what?"

"What?" Rose asked him back.

"What makes you think he was in Slytherin?"

She blushed deeply, making her face look like a giant red tomato. Mirra coughed loudly and went back to doodling, and Scorpius gave a low whistle and pretended to be interested in his fingernails.

"Well- I mean, I just guessed, you know?" she said hesitantly.

"Because he was in Azkaban?" Albus said, his face now equally red.

"Well, I didn't mean-"

"I'm in Slytherin, Rose" he cut her off

"I know but-"

"So I'm going to end up in an Azkaban cell in a few years?" he cut her off again.

"Wizarding World Today did an article and found that more than sixty percent of Hogwarts alumni who were incarcerated in Azkaban had been in Slytherin! I was just going statistically-"

"What's going on here?" came the voice of their Potions professor, who was peering at them curiously.

"Nothing" Albus said, his tone more bitter than he had expected.

"Well the bell is going to ring in a few seconds" Professor Darvy said. "So gather your things up. Everyone hand in your papers now and have a good weekend!" he called out to the class as the bell rang and students shuffled to the door.

Morrison approached them with a very annoyed look on his face. "If I have to hear Eckley complain about not being on the Gryffindor team one more time I'm going to do more than toss him off his broom" he said. "I'm gonna stick it up his -"

"We're going to the trophy room tomorrow morning" Albus heard Scorpius cut him off.

"Why?" Morrison asked.

"To see if Ares was a Slytherin or not, because apparently that will determine if he's a murderer as well" he said dryly.

Morrison looked from Scorpius to Albus as they walked to their common room. "I miss one class!" he said irritably.

Albus woke up bright and early the next morning, though he supposed that as he had gotten very little sleep, it could hardly be called waking up. He pulled on his clothes and left for the Great Hall, hoping to catch an early breakfast. He entered the hall and looked at the Slytherin table; other than a few seventh years, it was completely empty.

He yawned and piled bacon onto his plate, and was just getting ready to sink his head into his hands from exhaustion when he heard his brother's voice.

"You okay?"

Albus looked up and saw that his brother was indeed standing near the Slytherin table, along with his girlfriend Denise, who, despite sharing a name with Albus' housemate, didn't look quite as welcoming or nice. She was standing with both of her hands on her hips, apparently annoyed that James was talking to his brother when he could be spending valuable time with her.

"Yeah I'm fine" Albus said, though he knew that this answer wouldn't suffice.

"Did I tell you I'm Seeker now?" James asked him.

"What?" Albus asked back, completely thrown off by this piece of information.

"Yeah, they swapped me with some kid named Arnold. Sixth year. They needed someone speedy as a Seeker for their first game. We're intimidated" he added with a sneaky smirk.

"By me?" Albus asked.

James shrugged. "You come from a family of good players" he said pompously.

"Yeah...I suppose" he said.

They continued talking for some time, Denise refusing to sit down and clicking her tongue impatiently every time James spoke. They discussed Neville's reworked lessons, how tired Darvy seemed to be looking, and numerous other things that Albus had wanted to catch up on since the beginning of school. Thankfully, they skipped over any mention of Eckley or the prank. It wasn't until a loud chorus of booing came that Albus even remembered that James was sitting at his table.

"Aww come on, it's a Saturday!" James shouted over them, but far too many Slytherins had joined the table for breakfast at this point, and eventually James reluctantly grabbed Denise's hand and steered her away.

"What's going on, why are we booing?" Scorpius asked, wiping his eyes and sitting at the table along with Morrison. They both looked as though they'd just woken up, but they also both looked reasonably more rested than Albus.

"Nothing, my brother came over. He's the Gryffindor Seeker" he told them.

"Sucks" Morrison said, drowning his sausages in ketchup so that they were swimming in a puddle of red. "Isn't he a Quidditch prodigy?"

"Yup" Albus said, shrugging. "Something like that. When are we going to the trophy room?"

"I don't know" Scorpius said. "Are we waiting for Rose and Mirra?"

Albus didn't even need to think about it. "No, we're not" he said.

And so, a few minutes (and in Morrison's case, several ketchup drenched sausages) later, they walked to the trophy room. Located on the third floor, Albus had never been in the room before, and wasn't entirely sure they were even allowed in it without permission. Nevertheless, the door wasn't unlocked.

"Whoa" Morrison whispered softly when they walked in.

Albus thought that Morrison's whisper accurately described the room. The only other room that he had been in that was as big was the Room of Requirement, which wasn't exactly a regular room. There were plaques and medals and shields hanging on the wall, along with numerous suits of armor placed in the corner, giving the room a very honorable feel. The floor was made of a deep brown wood which shined and clashed terribly with the drapes that were hanging on the walls all around them.

"Where do we look?" Scorpius asked.

Albus scanned the room and saw gigantic cabinets just across from a wall with the Hogwarts Coat of Arms painted on it. "Over there, maybe?" he said, walking towards them. He opened them and saw several leather bound books, far thicker than any textbook in the school.

"List of Hogwarts Heads" he read off the first enormous book.

Scorpius and Morrison joined him, pulling out books at their leisure. Some of them were incredibly dusty, as though they hadn't left the cabinet in a while. "Awesome, the Hogwarts record book!" Morrison exclaimed, pulling out a gigantic leather book roughly three times as large as an encyclopedia. It was so heavy that he couldn't lift it all, so he and Scorpius drug it across the ground and began skimming through it.

"C'mere and look at this Al!" Scorpius said.

"In a bit" he replied irritably. He was still searching for a list of the house members. He rifled through more books, including Quidditch Captains of Hogwarts History and Encyclopedia of Important Hogwarts Events, before finally reaching the back, where he pulled out four large books, all of them a different color. "Aha!" he said, but the others weren't listening.

"Hey Al, your brother's in here" Morrison said.

"Really?"

"No wait, it must be a different relative, this was years ago. Check this out. 'Fastest recorded detention in Hogwarts History-Double Detention awarded to James Potter and Sirius Black. Lit firecrackers under the thestrals minutes after Hogwarts express arrived. Multiple minor injuries, one major.'"

"Yup, that sounds like my grandad" Albus said, opening up an emerald color book entitled "List of Hogwarts Slytherin Alumni". He skimmed the first few pages, all of which had those who's last names began with an "A."

"Hey, he's on here again!" Morrison said. "Most points lost in single day. Gryffindor-500. James Potter, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, and Sirius Black. Bewitched Sorting Hat to replace founders names with their own nicknames. Mass confusion amongst first years."

Both Scorpius and Morrison laughed, but Albus was only half listening. He had scanned from 'Abbleton' to 'Avery' and the name Ares was nowhere to be found. "He wasn't in Slytherin, you guys" he told them, grinning from ear to ear.

"Nice" they said simultaneously, and they continued reading. "Haha. Archibald Beaker is the only Chaser in the history of Ravenclaw to never make a single shot, and he played for four years!" Morrison continued reading.

Albus stowed the emerald green book back in the cabinet, but subconsciously reached for the scarlet one next to it. Wouldn't Rose really be eating her words if Ares had been in Gryffindor? He ignored the random statistics that his friends were spitting out as he flipped through the first few pages. He scanned all entries under "A"...and Ares wasn't there.

He frowned and picked up the blue Ravenclaw book.

"Wow, this kid Tom M. Riddle holds the record for highest grade on his N.E.W.T's in eight subjects" Morrison read aloud.

"He was probably a nerd" Albus replied, only half listening. "Got bullied every day." He frowned. Ares was nowhere to be found in the list of Ravenclaw students. It would have to be Hufflepuff.

"Cool, Hagrid's in here too!" Scorpius read. "Tallest Hogwarts student in the history of the school. Blimey, they keep a record for everything don't they?"

Albus was too busy scanning the Hufflepuff list as well. Once more, Ares was nowhere to be found.

"Did you find him?" Scorpius asked.

"No, he didn't go to Hogwarts" Albus said, pushing the books back into the cabinet. "But at least he wasn't in Slytherin!"

Scorpius slammed the record book shut, and with Morrison's help, carried it over to the cabinet, where they roughly jammed it in, closing it just before all of the books could topple out. "Right, well then lets get out of here" he said.

They walked to their Common Room, Albus planning on getting another hour of sleep in before noon, as he had yet another Quidditch practice today. They had just entered the common room when someone called out to them.

"Hey you!" it was Melissa Zuerte, a member of their house that Albus rarely spoke to.

"Me?" he said, intrigued.

"No, him" she said, pointing at Scorpius. She approached him. "You got a letter today, but you weren't there for it."

"Erm...thanks" he said hesitantly, slowly taking it from her hands. She seemed very forceful. "It's from my dad!" he exclaimed as she walked away.

He opened it and read it quickly. His mouth split into a wide grin when he was finished.

"Good news?" Albus asked him.

"See for yourself" he said, handing the note over to him. Albus read to himself :

Scorpius,

I'm sorry that we didn't get back to you sooner, I've been looking for work and have meant to write you for some time. Your mother is well, and grandad Lucius looks forward to seeing you for the Holidays. And on that subject, your mother and I have both agreed that there's no harm in letting your friend stay with us for a few days, provided of course he isn't here on Christmas day, and of course, that his parents allow it.

Furthermore, we are unable to disclose your birthday present to you this year, as we fear the Hogwarts postal service may not be too fond of it. We will, however, happily give it to you when we see you over yourbreak. Your mother wants to remind you not to lag behind in your studies-you have both a reputation to break, and a new one to create. We hope you enjoy your second year, and we look forward to seeing you.

Love and best wishes,

Your mother and father.

PS. Don't send anyone to their room.

"Don't send anyone to their room?" Albus asked when he had finished reading the letter. He handed it to Morrison while Scorpius grinned.

"Bit of a joke between me and my dad" he said. "When I was way younger, I did something bad, I forget what it was. But anyway, he told me to go to my room, and I kicked him right where every guy doesn't want to be kicked."

Albus and Morrison both cringed.

"Yeah exactly. But it was a while ago, and he remembered it and brought it up when he was driving me to King's Cross this year. Guess he wanted to remind me of it. He doesn't laugh much, my dad. It's about the only thing we both grin at."

Albus couldn't help but feel a little sorry for him. He and his dad were always laughing. He had only met Scorpius' father once, but he had the strange idea that he was telling the truth. He didn't seem like the laughing type.

"I wonder what they're going to give you for your birthday" Morrison said when he too had finished reading.

Scorpius shrugged. "Something I'm not supposed to have at school I guess" he said, grinning.

Days later, Albus was sure that he had never had a better week at Hogwarts. His Quidditch practices had increased tenfold in both frequency and intensity, but he was a better player for it, and for the first time in his life, he felt confident that he was on par with his brother at something. He had been delighted to inform his cousin that she was quite wrong about Ares being in Slytherin (he made sure that he had used the term "wrong" several times, in fact) and he was enjoying the company of his friends more and more as their classes became more interesting than they had ever been. But it wasn't until the week before Halloween that something truly remarkable occurred at the school.

It was a Thursday morning, and Albus was chewing on some bacon as he let Morrison copy his Charms homework (they had Professor Flitwick first in the morning). The hall was just as noisy as ever, students chattering over their favorite and least favorite professors, or who they were betting would win the first Quidditch game of the season. In fact, it took several loud coughs for Headmaster Ares to get everyone's attention.

"Excuse me" he said, his voice echoing as he stood up from the teacher's table.

The talking immediately ceased. Some people rubbed there eyes to make sure that they were seeing right, or desperately tried cleaning out their ears as if they heard the wrong voice. No one could ever remember the Headmaster making an announcement that wasn't a start of term or end of term speech, and they certainly never counted on him making an impromptu one.

"I would like to introduce you all to two members of the Ministry of Magic" he said, his lazy voice still echoing through the halls. Two men stood up from beside him, one of whom Albus thought that he had vaguely recognized.

"What are Ministry people doing here?" Scorpius asked as several students began whispering.

"Both Mr. Wilde and Mr. Orvin are here to inspect-that is to say, watch-how our school is performing."

More whispers from the crowd. Inspections at Hogwarts?

"I know him!" Albus whispered loudly to Morrison and Scorpius. "That's Fango Wilde! He knows my dad!"

They all looked up at the staff table, where Ares was continuing his speech. "I have no way of knowing which classes they will be inspecting, nor do I have any idea how they plan on doing it. I advise you all to welcome our guests here today, and to treat them with kindness and courtesy if you encounter them. I believe classes are ready to begin."

More whispers came from the crowd of students. Albus saw Mirra and Rose discussing it with a few other Gryffindors, which included both Eckley and James. But the students weren't the only ones talking. The teachers were doing it as well, and Albus saw Neville in particular lean in and begin a conversation with Professor Darvy, who, despite appearing tired, seemed quite interested in what he had to say.

The discussion of the Ministry visitors was still going on when they entered their Charms class. It was quite usual for people to talk, as Charms was almost entirely practical, but this morning few people even bothered to attempt the spell that Professor Flitwick was trying to teach them.

"Now really!" he said, his tiny voice squeaking as he approached a group or Hufflepuffs who hadn't even bothered to pull out their wands. "I understand that you're all excited about having guests in the school, but they will be gone by tonight anyway. Cheering charms-though a bit advanced for your age-will last you much longer."

Bartleby raised his hand. "Sir, what are they doing here? What do they mean by inspections?"

There was muttering in the class; apparently now the students were willing to listen. Professor Flitwick heaved a tremendous sigh. "I don't know" he squeaked, his voice sounding the slightest bit agitated, a rarity for him. "I found out about it minutes before you did. I can only guess that the Ministry feels like our Headmaster isn't up to scratch."

"Do you think he is?" someone called out.

Professor Flitwick turned a very bright shade of red, making him appear to be a relatively large apple. "Cheering charms" he continued his previous topic, "can only be performed when one concentrates, not on a happy memory, but a happy feeling that they remember having, whether it be the taste of their favorite food or the relief of passing an exam."

But cheering charms didn't seem to interest them, and sure enough, the class had returned to talking about the Ministry representatives in seconds. Albus noticed that this particular pattern followed his next two classes as well, History of Magic (in which Professor Binns point blank refused to comment on anything that wasn't a boring goblin rebellion) and Transfiguration (in which Professor Bellinger pretended as though she had no idea what the students were talking about).

By the time they had reached lunch, however, it became quite apparent that there really wasn't much to talk about. No one seemed to have had an inspected class, regardless of their year, and for that matter, no one in Ravenclaw had either, as the conversation seemed to be the same at the table next to them.

"So do you reckon they already left?" Scorpius asked, speaking slightly louder than those around him so that Albus and Morrison could hear.

Albus looked up at the staff table. The teachers were chatting with one another, but one chair was noticeably absent. Headmaster Ares wasn't attending lunch with them. "No, I think that they're talking to Ares."

"About what?" Morrison asked

"Probably about him murdering famous wandmakers" Scorpius said, and they both laughed while Albus threw them a dirty look.

Their last class of the day was Defence Against the Dark Arts, in which they would finally be able to see Rose and Mirra. The Slytherins arrived first, and when Mirra and Rose walked in, all five of them said simultaneously "Did you get inspected?"

They all shook their heads. "No one in our house did" Rose said as they took seats near each other. "Not even the seventh years. Same with Hufflepuff."

"Same with us and Ravenclaw" Albus told them. "What do you guys think they're doing here?"

Rose shrugged, but Mirra spoke up "Probably talking to the Headmaster" she said. "He wasn't at lunch after all. And no one has even seen them in the hallways, so they must be in his office."

"That's what I said!" Albus exclaimed, raising his hand for a high five. She returned it, smiling broadly.

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "Guys, I doubt that they're giving him a good talking to about how he runs the school. He let them in didn't he? My guess is that they just came to discuss some improvements on the school."

"But how do you improve Hogwarts?" Albus asked him skeptically.

"Well they could fix one of the girl's bathrooms" Rose chipped in. "One of them's been out of order since I got here..."

But they were cut off from further talking by the arrival of Professor Handit, whose normally wavy brown hair looked oddly ruffled, as though he was annoyed. "Let me guess" he said when he entered "You want to know why they're here?"

There was a murmur of "yeah" throughout the students.

"Well I don't know!" he said "Now can you guys please be the first to cooperate today? I haven't had a single class that's bothered to try. Today we will be working on identifying some dark creatures. Who can tell me, for five points, what a hinkypunk is?"

The class groaned. They just weren't interested.

The conversation about the inspections had died down during dinner, when it was revealed that the Ministry members had left but an hour before. By the time they had went to their Common Rooms for bed, the other students were much too disappointed with the lack of information to even talk about it. At around ten 'o clock, everyone in the common room had went to bed except for Albus, Scorpius, and Morrison, one of whom was quite deep in thought.

"Okay, so we have two Ministry officials that came to inspect a school but don't inspect it, and a Headmaster who duels centaurs in the forest. Well at least there isn't a dungeon" Albus said as he paced around the room.

Scorpius rolled his eyes as he flipped through his charms textbook. "True. And I think you're reading way too much into this mate. Okay, some strange stuff has happened. But it's Hogwarts! What do you expect?"

"You can't tell me none of this isn't suspicious!" Albus rebutted. Though in truth, he didn't know why it interested him more so than his friends. Maybe it was because he had discovered the wand in the forest, or maybe it was because he had had a small personal battle with Ares last year, but his confidants seemed much less enthusiastic about the idea of the mystery than he was.

Morrison looked up; his head had also been buried in a book, The Five Hundred Greatest Plays in the History of Quidditch. "It's not that we don't find it suspicious, it's just that we don't really care that much. You and Mirra can play around with your theories, but leave us out of it."

They both chuckled and high fived. Albus had no idea what they found so funny, but their lack of enthusiasm was starting to bother him. "What the hell why can't you guys be a little more helpful!"

"Watch your language young man!" came a loud serious voice from seemingly nowhere.

Albus spun around on the spot to see who had spoken, and almost laughed when he did. In the center of the lit fire was his Uncle Ron, who was grinning sheepishly. His orange hair blended in with the fire so well that he looked bald; or like his entire head was engulfed in flames. "Just kidding" Uncle Ron said.

Scorpius and Morrison had both gotten up from their chairs and were staring at the fire alongside Albus, apparently quite intrigued.

"What's up?" Ron asked them.

"Nothing, just talking. What are you doing here?" Albus asked him. "Oh, and this is Morrison and Scorpius by the way."

His Uncle nodded his head towards Morrison and gave the tiniest of head jerks towards Scorpius, to whom his eyes also lingered on just a few seconds longer. "Just thought I'd pop my head in for a visit. I heard you made Seeker" he grinned.

"Yeah I did" he replied. "How are you doing that? I thought that there was no flooing in and out of Hogwarts?"

"There isn't. But there's no law against only putting your head in. I recall your dad's godfather doing it a few times actually."

"Yeah, how is he?" Albus asked him. He wanted to bring up the topic of his father quickly-he wanted to share his theories on Ares with a Ministry member, and his dad was the best one to do it with.

His uncle merely tilted his head to the side for a second, implying that he was shrugging. "To be honest Al, he doesn't really have time for much. Overworked. Way overworked."

"Why?"

"Still no leads on the wandmaker murder, and like we mentioned before, it wouldn't be a big deal if everything hadn't been so secretive for a while. It's just unexpected. There's a murderer out there, and they might be or know someone in the ministry. Don't repeat that though" he added, and all three of them shook their heads to show that they understood.

"I think- I think it was Headmaster Ares" Albus said, before he even knew what he was saying. Scorpius slapped his hand to his forehead and Morrison looked away, as though trying to show that he was in no way connected to the theory. To his surprise however, his uncle seemed to be interested.

"It's weird that you think that" he told them.

"Why?"

"Because that's exactly what your father thought too."

Albus felt his lips curl into a smile while Scorpius and Morrison both seemed to return to the conversation. "Why'd he think that?"

"Why did you?" his uncle asked him.

"I asked first."

Once more, his uncle seemed to be shrugging. "His record's against him. And him and your dad don't exactly get along. Theory's shot though. It couldn't have been him."

"What?" Albus exclaimed, and both Morrison and Scorpius rolled their eyes and went back to pretending they knew they were right all along. "Why not?"

"Because Red has been here all summer. Didn't leave. He had teachers confirm it for him, and trust me, not every teacher at this school has a reason to defend him. And he couldn't have had contact with anyone else either. I mean, no one really trusts him here at the Ministry."

"Why not?" all three of them said in unison.

His uncle blushed, making his face blend in as well. "Long story" he said. "But anyway, your dad abandoned the idea not too long ago. Said there wasn't enough evidence of any illicit activity, and he's glad for it. He got sick of trying to find something there."

"Well Albus found a wa-" Morrison started, but Albus stepped on his foot abruptly. He didn't want his father any more overworked than he already was. His uncle cast him a suspicious look but didn't ask.

"But wait, if they gave up on Ares, what were they doing here today?" Scorpius asked him.

"What was who doing where?"

"The Ministry people. They came to inspect us today" Scorpius continued.

"Really?" his uncle gave them the most inquisitive look that Albus had ever seen. "Today? Who?"

"Just two Ministry guys. One of them was Fango Wilde" Albus said.

For the first time in the conversation, Uncle Ron appeared to be lost for words. "I didn't have any say in that." He looked crushed. "Maybe they just announced it this morning or something and I didn't hear. As far as I know though, no Hogwarts inspection was mentioned. But look, I've got to go. Your aunt needs me to help clean" he rolled his eyes. "Damn I won't even have to time to visit Rosie."

"Are you going to pop your head in again?" Albus asked.

"Maybe. But you kids behave. Well nah, I can't even say that. Act like you're behaving or whatever. But listen," and at this, his voice got slightly lower and more serious, "don't read too much into this Ares thing and go all detective like. I know you guys want something to do, but it's not worth it and you can get in too much trouble from it. Whatever your father says Al, he doesn't want you focusing on things that are bigger than you can handle right now. Leave this to the big boys."

"Okay" Albus said, but his uncle rolled his eyes. He saw right through it.

"Okay, I've got to go now, it was nice meeting you both" he said to both Morrison and Scorpius, though Albus noticed that he gave a small frown to Scorpius.

"Okay, nice talking to you" Albus said. "Tell my parents to write."

His uncle nodded his head and turned to leave, his face was half way out of the fire before he turned back and grinned. "Oh, and good luck against Gryffindor, Al." And with that, his face dissolved back into the fire.