Using the prompt 'imposter'

Chapter Thirty-Nine

It was August before Hugo realised it. In less than a month, he'd be boarding the Hogwarts Express again, ready to journey back to Hogwarts.

Although he was looking forward to it, Hugo was also rather nervous. What was it going to be like on the platform without his parents there saying goodbye to him? That was going to be strange, and although he was okay now, he wasn't sure it'd be the same story in a month's time.

Although it had been many months now since his parents' deaths, their loss still was very, very real. There were times when he'd think he was coping without them, but then just one little thing would spark his memory of them.

It was hard, but he supposed he was okay.

On August 4 – a Saturday – a Hogwarts owl arrived carrying five letters (one for each of them). On that same day, Ginny and Harry thought it would be a good idea to take them to Diagon Alley to buy all their new books.

They went via Floo Powder, which landed them in the Leaky Cauldron. Despite being the most common way, Hugo had rarely travelled it. His mum would always say it was a creepy place, and she'd rather arrive somewhere a bit further down.

Hugo didn't see anything wrong with it, truly. Sure, the barman, Tom, was a bit odd, but he was quite friendly. And he greeted the seven of them warmly.

"Should we go to Flourish and Blotts first?" Harry wondered. "Get all the boring stuff over and done with?"

Everyone agreed. They all knew that buying books was the least fun – well, for everyone but Rose, of course. It was like a holiday in there for her and she had to be dragged out most of the time.

Hugo didn't understand how she could find it so interesting. Wasn't it the same books every time? She'd probably read most of them, anyway. Her book collection was beyond imagining.

"Then we'll have to get James some new robes. He's grown over an inch in a few weeks," Ginny added. "I think the rest of you are okay?"

They all nodded. Unfortunately, Hugo had not inherited his father's height. Most of his class mates – some even in first year – towered over him.

It embarrassed him at times.

They entered Flourish and Blotts with people staring at them. Hugo guessed most were looking because Harry Potter was in their presence, but others probably thought it strange that such a large family entered at once.

Was this what it had been like for his dad growing up? It'd probably been worse, actually, because back then the Weasley family weren't very highly regarded. Things had changed, of course. Now, if Harry Potter thought they were a good family, then everybody thought they were a good family.

Rose was the first to approach the shop owner. She handed him her school list, and it only took five seconds for the wizard to wave his wand and the five books she needed were in front of her and all wrapped up.

A thought occurred to Hugo.

"Rosie," he hissed. "How are we meant to pay?" His parents had always just paid for everything, that the thought had never even crossed his mind. His parents weren't here anymore.

"I've got it," Ginny said, pushing forward and handing over five Galleons. "Harry went to Gringotts the other day and got some out for you."

Hugo resisted the urge to ask his uncle how much was there. He and Rose had been left everything. Whatever was inside that vault belonged to them.

They took it in turns to purchase their books, Ginny handing over four to five Galleons every time. Hugo ended up with four new books, most of them as dull as the next.

How was Rose standing in the corner, flipping through them with goggling eyes as if she was reading the most interesting story the wizarding or Muggle world had ever come across. She wasn't even reading anything interesting. Something to do with Arithmancy.

They continued down Diagon Alley, stopping to enter a shop whenever they thought of something. Hugo ended up needing a new cauldron and some new dress robes. Although still functioning, his cauldron was in need of replacement after a mishap with a potion in the middle of last year. He'd never bothered to tell his parents about it. He wasn't sure they'd want to buy him a new one.

As for the dress robes, well, he wanted nicer ones. His grandmother had picked the other ones out for him, and as much as he appreciated it, they were quite boring and old-fashioned. He didn't want to be laughed at again.

Ginny and Harry were more than happy to comply, Harry taking him in to be fitted. He ended up choosing some really nice blue ones. Harry approved of them, as did Rose when she saw them.

Hugo was rather happy.

It was a nice day spent there, and Hugo even spotted some of his classmates. He saw the twins, Lucian and Quenton Finnigan. Well, they saw him, shouting his name across the street and waving to him.

Hugo waved back just to be nice. He wasn't really sure what had given them the impression he was friends with them. They weren't even in his year.

Because they were there, that also meant Jasmine was there too, which delighted James, and irritated Rose.

As his cousin approached Jasmine and kissed her – well, maybe kiss was the wrong word. He more like stuck his tongue down her throat and didn't come up for air for a good two minutes – Rose gave a little huff of annoyance.

"Are you jealous?" Hugo asked her.

"I'm not jealous!" she snapped. "Why would I be jealous of those two? James is my cousin and Jasmine's a girl."

"Not of them, just that they're snogging," Hugo corrected.

"Why do I care about that?"

"Because you're not snogging Scorpius."

Rose made to smack him, but Hugo ducked out of the way.

"Shut up!" she said. "I don't care about that. I just don't want her to hurt James."

"Because he has such a fragile heart," Hugo replied mockingly. "How many girls has he ditched in his time?"

"Not as many as Jasmine has boys."

Rose continued to glare as Jasmine and James ogled one another for some time. Her twin brothers came over to talk to Hugo, talking about their holiday to Italy over the summer. Hugo listened to be nice, but really, he didn't give a Hippogriff's arse about what they did.

Once Ginny finally managed to drag her son away from his girlfriend, they continued on to the owlery. James' snowy owl, Maple, had one day delivered a letter then never returned. No one knew where she'd gone, and due to the circumstances over the past months, James hadn't asked for a new one. But, he was getting desperate now.

Something about Jasmine's owl being too slow, he'd mumbled.

They'd barely pushed the door open when a voice sounded from behind them.

"Rose?"

Both Rose and Hugo spun around, Rose gasping.

"Scorp!" she exclaimed, running over to him and throwing her arms around his neck. "Oh, it's so good to see you again."

Looking quite embarrassed by his friend's affection, Scorpius gave her a quick hug back and then stepped away. "It's good to see you too!" she said. "My dad told me all about the court case and everything. I'm really glad it went well. That woman deserved to go to Azkaban. Even my dad thought so."

"I didn't think your dad liked my parents?" Rose teased, then blushed as Draco Malfoy came over to them. "I mean…." She went even redder.

Scorpius shook his head, leaning in so only Rose and Hugo could hear. "He said it didn't matter; he said your parents had done a lot for the Ministry and they didn't deserve to die."

Rose smiled. "Well, I hear you had a lot to do with it," she said. "Something about threatening to run away if he didn't help."

Scorpius also went rather red. "Well, that too," he said. "Dad wins heaps of cases and I didn't want that woman to get away with what she'd done. At first he was hesitant, but I convinced him in the end."

"Well, thank you, Scorp. Your dad really helped and I know Mum and Dad would really appreciate it if they knew." She seemed to think about it for a moment. "Well, Dad would have needed some convincing, but he would've come round in the end. He always does… did." She looked at the ground.

"You're coming back to Hogwarts, aren't you?" Scorpius then asked, breaking the tension. "Are both of you?" He turned to Hugo.

Hugo nodded, as did Rose. "Yeah, that's why we're here," he said. "Buying our stuff."

This seemed to brighten Scorpius' mood by a great deal, and Hugo nudged his sister hard in the ribs (something she didn't appreciate at all).

"You promised," he hissed.

"Not now!" Rose hissed back.

Scorpius stared between them, looking blank. "What?" he asked.

Rose blushed. "Just my brother being an idiot," she said. "Come on, let's go for a walk… er, if that's okay?" She looked up to Draco Malfoy.

"I have some things to do anyway," Malfoy said. "Just don't be long."

Both Rose and Scorpius made to leave, but were stopped by Harry and Ginny practically running out of the shop, their children following.

"Rose, wait just a moment!" Harry said.

Rose spun around, clearly ready to reprimand Harry for treating her like a child, but any words abruptly stopped when she noticed the panic on his face.

Hugo was curious too. They'd just been on a normal trip to Diagon Alley. What could have possibly gone wrong?

"What's the matter?" Rose asked.

"Oh, Malfoy, you're here too," Harry said, ignoring Rose's questions. "Fantastic timing. I'm going to need your help."

Even Draco looked confused as Harry passed him a folded up bit of parchment.

"What's that?" Hugo questioned.

"It just arrived," Ginny explained. "It seems we may have a little problem… one that will be resolved quickly, we hope."

Hugo was really curious now. It obviously had something to do with them, or Harry wouldn't have gotten Rose to stop. But what else could have possibly happened? When was this going to stop?

After he'd read the letter, Draco looked back to Harry.

"Is it legitimate?" Harry asked.

Draco shook his head. "It's hard to tell," he said. "There was nothing in the Will. Did you hear Hermione mention her at all?"

"What's going on?" Hugo demanded. "What's wrong with the Will?"

"Nothing, Hu; it's fine," Ginny said gently.

Her words only angered Hugo. Why did they insist on not telling him things all the time?

"No, they might be able to help," Harry said. "Hugo, Rose… neither of you ever heard your mum speak of someone by the name Hannah Wills, did you?"

The name meant absolutely nothing to Hugo. He didn't know any Hannahs.

"No," Rose answered. "Why?"

"It seems that a woman by that name is claiming that not only was she a very close relative of your mother's, but that your mother also told her that if they were to ever die, everything – including her children – would be left in this Hannah's care."

Hugo gaped.

"That's ridiculous!" Rose exclaimed. "Mum and Dad left everything to us… and wanted Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny to look after us."

"But, Rose, this matter has to be addressed formerly," Harry told her. "There's a chance it could be true."

"It's not!" Rose said. "Mum and Dad would have said so."

Harry nodded. "It's very suspicious," he said, "but the letter was very formal. I must look into this, get it sorted out."

"But, if Mum and Dad put it in the Will what they wanted, then surely she can't," Hugo said. He wasn't all that familiar with the legal side of things, but his mother had been. She never would have just told somebody that.

Harry nodded again. "It should all be sorted out shortly," he promised.

"Is this crap ever going to end?" Rose then demanded. "Or just when we're starting to get over it, will something always come back to bite us on the arse?"

"Rose!" Ginny warned.

"What? This woman is a complete liar, obviously. You should just toss out her letter and be done with it. She probably just wants all Mum and Dad's money… which, might I add, wasn't much anyway."

"Come on, Rosie, let's go on that walk." Scorpius tugged on her arm.

"I'll go to the Ministry as we speak," Harry said. "Try not to dwell on it too much. Hopefully we can sort it out shortly."

"That's right," Draco added, "It's not hard for those who know how to identify a fake document when they see one. This woman who claims to be your mother's cousin has very little grounds to stand on. And, the fact that it was delivered by owl post is suspicious enough, considering your mother's family. Did people know she was a witch?"

"People knew," Hugo said. "But no one called Hannah. We met all the people who knew."

Draco nodded. "Very well. Scorpius, please stay here and out of trouble while I go with Mr Potter to the Ministry."

"Dad!" Scorpius whined. "What do you think I'm going to do? Rob Gringotts?"

Hugo and Rose laughed.

"We'll just go for a walk," Scorpius continued. "We'll stay out of trouble, I promise. Hugo, wanna come?"

Hugo shook his head. "Oh no," he said. "I wouldn't want to intrude."

Rose shot him a deathly glare, which Hugo returned with a grin.

"I'll send an owl if I'm going to be longer than an hour," Harry said.

"And if you need us to take Scorpius home, that's okay," Ginny added. "You can pick him up from our place if need be."

Hugo was really surprised by his aunt's words, but didn't say anything. Maybe she appreciated Draco's help in the case more than she let on.

With another quick goodbye, Harry and Draco hurried off to the Leaky Cauldron. Rose and Scorpius snuck away, and in the distance, Hugo thought that maybe – just maybe – they were holding hands.

Thank you to Sunny Lighter for beta-ing again! She has been much help. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and please leave a review if you read it. Much appreciated!