"Koschei, Koschei, I have the best idea ever!" Theta came running straight up the stairs the moment he had flooed in. A string of relatives looked up at him disapprovingly from the bottom of the stairs, a clear sign that the floo password would soon be changing again. That or Koschei would finally be allowed a floo in his own room. Theta came every day, seeing as they had no school to be at. Just tutoring every so often when his parents could be bothered to remember. He felt like his mind was rotting away. He wanted to do things! And he had one very specific thing in mind right now.
"What is it, Theta?" He said, trying to keep the illusion of not being too excited about it.
Theta leaned in. "We could sneak into Hogwarts and go to lessons that don't need magic!" He whispered excitedly.
Koschei couldn't believe he hadn't thought of that before. They were allowed to floo to Hogsmeade at any time, and getting into Hogwarts from there wasn't hard. They could walk up the path, Theta at least been there before to see his siblings once on a holiday. Anyone their age could get into Hogwarts if they could see it, and because they grew up around magic they could see these things no problem. Hogwarts security was terrible. There was probably something that prevented people with malicious intent from even getting into Hogwarts, but Koschei wouldn't bet on it.
"We can sneak into Muggle Studies or something. Brax says that the professor is really stupid, he doesn't notice anything and if he did he probably wouldn't care." Theta continued excitedly.
Koschei, however, was starting to have his doubts, the initial excitement wearing off.
"Theta, we don't know anything about muggles. And what if the class is full or something? And we can't sit down and we get kicked out. We don't have anyone to contact in Hogwarts for robes or a timetable or details or even a map. We can't do this."
Theta grinned. "Give me a week. I can do this."
Koschei smiled, his friend's excitement infectious as usual. "Fair enough. So, what are we going to do today?"
#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#
"Koschei!" Theta called up the stairs, running up the moment he flooed in. The floo password had only just been changed, and his mother had given him three lectures about his 'out of order...ahem... 'squib friend'' already since everyone had left for Hogwarts, and it had only been a month. At this rate, he'd have had about ten by Christmas.
"I got a sort of lead." He said quietly, as soon as the door was closed on them. "I knew Brax wouldn't help, but he won't tattle either. So he said that Susan does Muggle Studies. Susan is my cousin, I think. Probably. I don't pay much attention to my family tree, but it's something like that."
"She's your cousin once removed." He said. "Cousin by grandparents." Theta's lack of knowledge about everything that wasn't stuff he didn't really have to know was almost embarrassing.
Theta shrugged. "Same thing. Anyway, she said that she wouldn't help us either, because she would be worried about us getting caught. Susan is head girl, so I'm not surprised. She never had a sense of adventure."
"So we're not doing any better than we were at the start." Koschei summarised, rolling his eyes.
Theta shook his head and grinned delightedly. "She passed us on to someone who would definitely help, because she wanted us to do this, just not on her neck." He reached into his coat and pulled out a slightly crumpled piece of parchment that had been folded and refolded many times.
"And what did this person say?" Koschei knew that Theta liked being asked questions so he could do a big reveal. They were both dramatic people at heart.
"'Dear Theta Hartnell and other interested parties. Fuck yes. Of course I'll help you do that it sounds like so much fun. We will meet to help prepare you every Saturday and with an additional Wednesday during Christmas if you are able to. Can't wait to meet you, Ace McShane.'"
Koschei laughed. "Sounds absolutely great. I can't wait to meet them."
"Her." Theta said cheerfully. "I met her a few years ago when she came for Christmas, she was Susan's date. If there was ever a thing that Susan did that our family didn't approve of it was Ace."
Koschei nodded. "Anything your family doesn't approve of is definitely good enough for me. Is she any good at this kind of thing?"
Theta nodded. "She's on an advanced course to become an auror. She's good at practically everything."
This was going to be far easier now they had someone to help.
/'/'/'/'/
Koschei kept going over and over what he was going to do on Saturday. How he was going to do it, what he was going to tell his parents, how long they were going for, where they'd meet, it was meticulously planned as far as actually getting to Ace and Susan.
They were using the excuse that they were going to watch the Quidditch match. Technically anyone was allowed to go to those, especially kids from other schools (it was so they could brag about how good all their facilities were). Koschei doubted that they would actually be welcome, squibs as they were, but they were sort of given an open invitation and squibs had never been excluded from it.
And they WERE going to see the Quidditch match, so they weren't exactly lying. Ace was one of the beaters on the Gryffindor team, and she would be meeting them after the match. It wouldn't be a long meeting, but it would be enough to invent some reason for the pair to be at Hogwarts every weekend for what would definitely be a long time. If everything went to plan, of course.
When the day finally came, Theta had been gushing about it constantly for two days. Koschei left in the early morning, through the floo, straight after breakfast. The match wouldn't start for another hour, but he wanted to meet up with Theta first, and it would take a while to get into the school once they had walked up and queued at the gates to get seats that weren't for students.
It was pretty cold, but still only the first match of the season, so it was more wet than cold. Koschei was wearing a thick waterproof charmed cloak anyway. He could take it off if he got really hot (most wizards charmed their cloaks with warming charms but for obvious reasons Koschei couldn't do that), anyway, and it didn't hurt to be prepared. Theta never prepared for anything, he'd probably have to take his cloak off and give it to Theta to stop him from freezing to death or something.
Hogsmeade was grey and dull when it wasn't sunny or covered with snow. There was little effort to keep it anything more than an old looking village when there wasn't a Hogwarts weekend. Not much was open even at half eight in the morning on a Saturday, but everything would be open and sparkling the moment the game ended.
Theta was already waiting by the gates to Hogwarts when Koschei got there. He wasn't surprised, he'd been held up by his father at the last minute about greeting about a thousand relatives whilst he was at the game. He wouldn't be talking to anyone except Ace and probably Susan. They'd be sitting with Susan as they were invited by her, and they were glad to not be sitting with all the proud parents and bratty kids who would most likely be in the stalls. And there would also be members of the press there, small papers that report of tiny games like this to get more readers from the graduating members of Hogwarts.
Koschei had been spoken to by members of the press when he'd been out in wizarding places, usually when he went to Diagon Alley when all the sales were on a day before Hogwarts, and people would come up to him asking whether he was looking forward to school this year and what his favourite lesson was and it was the worst feeling to tell them that he didn't go to Hogwarts or any wizarding school at all. Their noses would turn up for a second and then they realised that they should be sympathetic, so they would hurry off without saying another word, usually. Sometimes he'd had women ask him what he was doing whilst holding the hand of a young child, and they'd gasp and hurry off, clutching the child tighter as they went.
Koschei really hated wizards and witches and all of them. All of them who didn't consider squibs to be worth just as much as them. He was still just as human as all the rest of them, why should he be treated differently...
"Hey Theta," he said cheerfully, "Sorry I'm late, my father held me up."
Theta nodded. "I only just got here anyway, so you aren't exactly late. It's quite early at the moment, but Susan said she'd wait in the Owlery for us from eight, and she'd show us around a bit if we wanted to see." Susan was definitely one of the better witches in the world. Of course he wanted to see around Hogwarts.
Theta grabbed his hand and lead him forwards, the invitation from Susan in his other hand, and they went to try something new, something they deserved.