A/N I'm baaack! Did you miss me? Or, if you're new, hi and welcome! Sorry it took so long between updates, ignoring last weeks edit, but I had a heckuva lot of uni work, although I got some of it back today, having done pretty well, so all the hard work paid off! Also A big thanks to new(ish) reader SSS-Love2read who's reviews encouraged me to get back into the story. Actually, we're not too far from the final chapters now, maybe another 5 tops, so I really hope people who have been here since the beginning stay all the way. Also guys, I only need 6, that's six reviews to 50 which would be AMAZING! So pleeeaaase review :)

"Hello James..." Rose greeted her cousin sweetly. James looked over his shoulder suspiciously, to where Rose was leant on the back of his armchair. His female relatives were never usually nice to him. That is, not unless they had blackmail on him.

"Rosie..." he responded warily. "What do you want?"

She looked at him innocently, and looked so much like her mother it actually scared James for a moment.

"Want?" She asked, eyes open as if wondering why on earth James would think she wanted anything. James made an irritated noise and turned round fully to look at his cousin, who smiled at him again. "It's more of a case of what I can do for you..."

"You won't get me that easily." James said with amusement, and turned back to his friends, when Rose grabbed his shoulder,

"Don't think I don't know who spiked Victoire and Teddy's food with Alihotsy flowers on Boxing Day...and it would be such a shame if any one were to find out..." Rose hissed into her cousin's ear and he paled.

"You wouldn't."

"Try me." said Rose with a deceptively sweet smile

James looked at her in stunned disbelief.

"You should be a Slytherin Rosie..."he said, and she gave him an enigmatic look. James gave her a wary glance, then sighed, resigned to the fact he'd just been played by his 11 year old cousin.

"Fine." he said reluctantly. "What do you want me to do?"

"We want a diversion - to distract Madame Pince."

Jame's snorted.

"Do I even want to know why?

"Probably not. Anyway, I know for a fact you've been meaning to prank the library for months, and if you don't know what we're doing, you get plausible deniability." Rose said, and grinned triumphantly.

"Plausi- what?"

Rose sighed impatiently.

"Plausible deniabilty: the ability to deny something especially on the basis of being officially uninformed, got it?"

James goggled at his cousin - sometimes, Rose was so clever she scared him a little.

A week later, James approached as they left the Great Hall for lessons. He didn't say anything, but as he walked past, he barged Scorpius, who opened his mouth indignantly, before he felt a slip of parchment tickle his hand - on it, written in Jame's messy scrawl was one word.

Lunchtime.

Scorpius showed it to his friends and the four of them shared a significant look. This lunchtime, they might finally find out the truth that had been plaguing them since this whole thing began.

All through Charms, Mouse fidgeted nervously, completely unable to concentrate on Professor Flitwick's demonstration of a softening spell, despite the fact that the transformation of a table into what was effectively a wooden trampoline would usually have him fascinated. In Transfiguration, Becky nearly threw up when she only transfigured half of her Mouse, and Albus was unapproachable. Only Rose seemed to be outwardly calm, although she was whispering under her breath in a manner not dissimilar to how she'd been before their Sorting.

Finally, blessedly, the Lunch hour came, and they made their way to the library, Albus' hand in his back s he ran his fingers over the silvery fabric of the invisibility cloak he'd grabbed during their mid-morning break. Once inside, the waited impatiently for James, and Mouse grew more and more paranoid that he was never going to come, that they'd been set up even.

Luckily for Scorpius' blood pressure, they didn't have to wait long. It started subtly at first, then they heard an odd thudding sound coming from the corner of the Library furthest from the Restricted Section - James might not know exactly what they were up to, but he wasn't stupid. Eventually, Becky and Albus caved and stuck their heads round the side of the bookshelf nearest, then ducked back, stifling laughter.

"What?" Mouse asked, as the two giggled hysterically. Eventually, Becky got hold of herself for long enough to answer.

"They've charmed the books to hit some older Slytherins on the head!"

Rose, gasped, but then she grinned ruefully

"Well, we did want a distraction. Now we just have to wait for Madame Pince to-"

There was a crash, and the four of them dived to see what was happening. Somehow, the Slytherins had worked out that it had been James casting the spell, and had dragged him from his hiding place. James ran to hide under a table, and the Slytherin lunged over it to grab him again. Unfortunately, the Slytherin was not small, in any sense of the word, and the table had collapsed under his wait, causing the resounding crash they'd just heard and a very irate Madame Pince.

As much as Mouse would have loved to stay and watch, they had a job to do, and he pulled his friends gently away. Albus retrieved the Cloak, and they slipped away to the entrance of the Restricted Section. Mouse took a deep breath. This was it.

"Here goes." he muttered, and cast a careful Alohamora, hoping the lock didn't require anything more impressive. They all gave a collective sigh of release as the door swung open, and they stepped inside. They slipped off the cloak, having already decided that this would be quicker if they split up and Albus, Becky, Rose and Mouse went their separate ways. After about five minutes, Albus gave an exasperated groan.

"This is impossible" he said. "how're we supposed to find anything in this place?"

"It'd be so much easier if we had Google." muttered Becky, and Mouse stifled a snicker.

"Keep your voices down!" Rose's whisper drifted over the shelves, then paused. "Wait, what's Google?"

"Muggle Joke...nevermind. Thought you'd know though." Becky called back, but quietly, but Mouse was only half listening. Google...Minna had grown up in the Muggle world, and one of the things she was always going on about was the internet. She always complained about the fact that the magic on their narrow boat made any sort of electrical connections impossible, and some of his funniest memories started with Minna dragging him and Nat to an internet cafe in Camden, so she could feed her Facebook addiction, whatever that was. But Google...

"Wait...isn't Google something that finds books and stuff by searching key words or something? I think Minna used to use when she was at uni."

"Yeah - but how's that gonna help us?" she asked as Rose, who appeared to be doing some sort of victory dance appeared around the corner of the shelves.

"Have you found something?" Mouse asked Rose, as she seemed far too happy for someone who had been trawling through an unhealthily dusty library.

"Well, no..." Her voice rose to cover Becky and Albus' groans of disappointment. "Hold on! It's an idea actually, but I think it'll work." she said and grinned mischieviously. "It's a spell I think my mum help design at the Ministry, it sort of works like how you said, looking for specific words in documents - and my dad is terrible for losing stuff, so uses it at home too. And I know the incantation and wand movement, so I think I can pull it off."

Mouse stared at her for a moment, and she shrugged.

"Thought it might come in handy one day." said Rose, and performed a complicated wiggle with her wand saying, 'Quaerio Siren!' as she did. The four of them let out a collective breath they didn't realise they were holding, as a small globe of multicoloured light shot from Rose's wand and disappeared through the shelves.

"Quick, follow it!" Rose called and they shot after it. After a few twists and turns between the labyrinthine stacks, they found the little orb bobbing in front of a very dusty tome, so old the lettering of the title had faded. Mouse thought he could make out the words Tales of the Founders underneath the main title as he pulled it from the shelf, coughing as he disturbed the dust that had settled over what looked like centuries.

"Is it it?" Becky asked, bouncing on the balls of her feets.

"Mouse, open the book," Rose suggested, realising the the orb which usually disappeared after finding its goal was still bobbing up and down by her friends shoulder. He did as she suggested, grimacing at the gruesome woodcuts that had obviously caused the book placement in the Restricted Section. The orb glowed brighter, flashing like a strobe until Mouse stopped at a page in the middle of the book. He gasped as he saw the title. It was in the strange script that you saw on copies of posters from the Elizabethan Era, where the s's looked like f's and the w's like v's, but he could make it out:

The Revenant of Hogwartf School of VVtchcraft and VVizardry known locallie as the Siren and the fealing thereof, of which the Four founderf did Participate.

"This is it!" said Mouse, his voice shaking a little in excitement. His excitement drained quickly as he skimmed the page, realising the story was written in an archaic and ridiculously elaborate English that would take far to long to stay and read - they would be discovered long before actually understanding it.

"We'll never read it in time..." he groaned, disappointed. Becky tutted and rolled her eyes, and he looked her, a little irritated- after all it was him this bloody Siren wanted, wasn't it?

"Boys...honestly, you're hopeless, the lot of yous. Here, why d'you think I brought me camera?" She said, and brought it out of her bag. "As long as you hold the book still, and you or Al do Lumos, Rosie, we should have enough light not to damage the book." Becky grinned triumphantly. "Not just a pretty face."

Mouse grinned back, blinking slightly as Rose conjured light. It didn't take long to get enough shots, Al reminding them to try with different lights, before disappearing to check whether the coast was clear for their escape. It was, and only about about ten minutes after entering the Restricted Section, Albus, Becky Rose and Scorpius came back out, grateful for the protection offered by the Invisibility Cloak. Madame Pince was still shouting at James, who was doing his best to look contrite, but grinned as he saw his little brother, cousin and their friends sit down at a table, with huge grins that suggested whatever it was they'd used him to cover for had worked. They owed him now though...

Later that evening, Mouse and Rose had returned to the Library alone, since Becky was helping Albus with an essay that due in the day after. He would have probably left it 'til tomorrow breakfast, but Isaac Jordan, the Quidditch captain had threatened to kick him off the reserve if he got another detention for poorly done work .It hadn't taken Becky long to develop the film, having practised over the holidays, and two have the prints had been legible enough that they could do more research. The book they'd found hadn't given them a huge amount of information, at least not useful information, but they knew enough that the dismal mood that had settled over the group since returning for the Spring Term had dissipated to leave an easier, happier atmosphere.

"So what do we actually know?" Mouse asked after about half an hour of silent study, his head swimming with an information overload. Rose looked up and exhaled loudly.

"Well, we know that the Siren's name was originally Pandora, and that she had links with Ravenclaw, then for some reason she turned against the founders, even before Slytherin left." Rose said tiredly

"And then she went crazy and started killing people, so they...what did it say?" Mouse asked, and Rose grabbed the copy of the story.

"Sought to end the life of this most eville sorceress most rapidlie, in the manner which was customarie at that time." she read out loud and shuddered. "Not the way I'd have wanted to go. I think they strangled witches and burned them back then."

"Eech." Mouse shuddered theatrically. "So they executed her...but her spirit came back, does it say?" he asked.

"Yep, as a revenant." Rose nodded. "So they sealed her spirit, with a rite..." She broke off to scan the document again "for which it was necessary for all four founders to be present... as the qualities they possessed made them the only ones suited to such an onerous task at that time..." She scanned ahead and gave a little noise of disgust. "But it doesn't say what the rite was called or anything."

"Even so, we know way more now, thanks to your spell" Mouse pointed out and Rose smiled at him shyly, blushing.

"My mum's spell." She retorted. "It wasn't that big a deal."

Mouse rolled his eyes at her.

"Learn to take a compliment, jeez! There's no way I would've thought of something like that, that spell was genius." he told her, and she blushed again.

"I just thought it'd come in handy, and it's really not that hard once you get the wrist action right." Rose said, but it was obvious that despite her embarrassment she was pleased at the compliment.

"But you were the one to actually use it - and think of using it. You should have been a Ravenclaw." Mouse said, and she grinned sheepishly.

"Why do you think it took so long to sort me? I would have gone there, but for some reason the Hat thought I'd be happier with you lot." Rose stuck her tongue out at Mouse and the two of laughed quietly, as they'd seen Madame Pince shooting daggers at them from her desk.

"Huh." whispered Mouse. "I guess I can't talk though." Rose smiled and the two of them lapsed back into companionable silence. As Madame Pince moved away to berate two fourth-years, who had just entered, with a shriek of, 'eating in the library? OUT!" Rose spoke up again.

"You know, you're not so bad Malfoy." said Rose, quietly, and Mouse looked up quizzically.

"Thanks...?" he said, confused.

"No! Sorry...I'm not very good at this."

"Evidently." Mouse teased and Rose swatted his arm.

"Oh, shut up! What I mean is - well, we've never done something just us together - it's usually you and Al, or you and Becky, and the same for me." Rose said, and Mouse thought about what the red-headed girl had said.

"Huh. Yeah, you're right"

"Usually am."

"It's kind of nice though," Mouse continued, ignoring Rose's joking aside. "Even if you are a Weasley. And a girl."

"Hey!" Rose started indignantly, then saw the smirk on Mouse's face and deflated. "You're horrible." she told him, but with no rancour in her tone. "You know, it's funny," she continued conversationally. "Dad said when we first saw you - and remember these are not my words, 'So that's little Scorpius, make sure you beat him in every test, Rosie,' and 'don't get too friendly with him', and from the way him and Uncle Harry always go on about your dad I thought you'd be a spineless, arrogant ferret-faced git -"
"Charmed, I'm sure..." Mouse interrupted.

If this is Rose being nice I'd hate to see her nasty...he thought, but Rose put her hand up to forestall further complaints and was continuing.

"But you're not - you're actually pretty funny," 'hilarious' muttered Mouse under his breath. "And one of the bravest people - well bravest people our age, I know." Rose flushed crimson as she finished talking.

Mouse was silent for a moment, and when he did, his voice was hoarse.

"Wow Rosie...that's really - " he trailed off, and grinned at her as he pulled himself together. Rose might have just said the nicest thing anyone had ever told him, ever, but that didn't mean he couldn't tease her a little, and he continued speaking in an airy tone. "Still, the way my father went on about your parents, I thought you'd be an insufferable know-it-all with no tact and a superiority complex..." he paused for effect. "I have to say, he wasn't far wrong."

"Mouse!"

"I think you probably prefer walking encyclopaedia to know-it-all - and look how handy it is! As for the superiority complex...well how often do you genuinely panic about failing?" Mouse asked rhetorically, then smiled at Rose, a sincere smile this time. "You're a seriously good schemer - and a half-decent friend." Mouse smirked at the look of exasperation and amusement currently residing on Rose's face - after all, he was still a Malfoy, and the wind-up had definitely been worth the look on Rose's face.

"You Malfoy, are a prat. But thanks...I think." she said, rolling her eyes fondly.

"That's what friends are for." Mouse replied, mock-pompously, and the two of them broke into fits of giggles, both bemused by the fact that, despite theirs parents' animosity, they actually were friends.

Just wait 'til our fathers hear about this...Mouse grinned to himself ruefully.

A/N Come on, you see the review button down there...it's calling your name... ehehehe