Chapter 1: I Get Some Good Advice

(Hugo)

I stared at the board intensely. Then I smiled. "Queen to E5."

I looked up and saw the tense face of my father staring back at me. He swore under his breath and mum hit him over the head with the newspaper. "Not in front of the kids."

"He didn't hear me, right Hugo?"

I laughed. "Didn't hear a word Dad."

Mum rolled her eyes and continued cleaning.

"Your move," I told my father. "Unless you want to admit surrender already."

"Admit surrender," Dad snorted. "Do you hear this kid, Hermione? He thinks he can beat me."

"He has beaten you, Dad," Rose pointed out looking up from the book she was reading. "Like a hundred times."

I grinned and leaned back in my chair as my father pouted and said, "Rook A6."

I shook my head. "Queen E7." I watched as my queen moved along the board and got out a little sword which she used to destroy my father's king with. "I win. Again."

Dad looked up disappointed and scowled. "You're grounded."

I laughed and turned to Mum. "Mum, Dad's being a sore loser again."

"Ronald stop threatening Hugo," Hermione said not bothering to look away from what she was cooking.

"Do you want to play, Rose?" I inquired twirling a king in my hand.

"I'm reading," Rose replied shortly.

I sighed. "Mum, I'm going to Lily's."

"Floo powder?" she asked.

"Yeah," I replied.

Mum nodded. "Let us know if you're staying overnight okay, sweetie?"

"Yeah, sure Mum."

I sighed as I walked towards the fireplace. I loved my family but sometimes they got annoying. Which is why I liked having the Potters as a back-up family.

I grabbed a bit of Floo Powder and said very clearly, "The Potter House."

A few seconds later I tumble out of the Potter's fireplace.

On the couch in front of the fire place I had the honour of witnessing Al and Cassidy snogging.

"Ew!" I said loudly.

They sprung apart and at least had the decency to look embarrassed.

"Oh… hey Hugo," Al said awkwardly biting his nail, a nervous habit we shared. "What's up?"

"Trying to get that image out of my head," I replied. "I clearly don't need to ask what you're up to."

"Uh…"

"I'll go find Lily now," I decided.

"Good idea," Cassidy said, maybe a bit coldly. I decided I didn't like her at that moment.

"I think her and James are playing Quidditch outside."

"Cool, I'll go join them."

"We'll come to," Al decided.

"We will?" Cassidy parroted.

"Yeah, it'll be fun."

So Cassidy, Al, and I went outside to the mini Quidditch pitch. Well it wasn't mini, it was huge. But smaller than the one we had at Hogwarts.

"Albus, Cassidy, Hugo," James greeted when we stepped outside. "We were just going to get you."

He had on his charming smile, obviously for Cassidy. I didn't see what all the hype was about. Sure she was pretty. But that's really it. Her personality seemed fake. And to anyone but the Potter brothers it was obvious.

"Great, we can play two on three," Lily agreed hovering beside us. "Hey, Hugo."

I raised my hand in acknowledgement. "Hey."

"I say me and Hugo versus the three of you?" James suggested. "Well, in all honesty I could go up against all of you."

"Yeah, okay, you keep telling yourself that," Albus snorted.

"You wanna bet?" James challenged.

"Yeah, I'll put five sickles on it."

"Sickles, Hugo? You're such an amateur. But I'll take it. Anyone else care to bet galleons?"

In the end James had three galleons and five sickles on this game.

And half an hour later James was complaining.

"That's not fair," he moaned. "You cheated."

Albus snorted. "If being better than you is cheating then yes, we cheated."

James grabbed Al in a friendly headlock and ruffled his hair. "Well, I'll play you any time little brother. And I'll win."

"Okay, right now. Race for the snitch."

James looked at Albus for a second before bolting back outside yelling, "First one to the pitch gets a head start!"

Cassidy followed them and I stayed with Lily who was watching her brothers take off in the air.

"It's nice to see them getting along isn't it?" I said smiling at Lily. I knew that though she never said it out loud her brother's fighting drove he nuts.

"Yeah, it is." She sighed. "You want to go to my room?"

"Sure."

I knew by the tone of her voice she had something very important she wanted to talk to me about.

"I guess you know there's something I want to tell you."

"You can tell me anything Lily," I replied honestly.

"I…" She paused and didn't say anything for a minute. Then so quickly I almost didn't understand her, "Code's been trying to get in my head!"

My fists clenched at my side. It must have been evident how mad I was because Lily stood and held my hands in hers. "Hugo, it's okay. He hasn't actually done anything yet."

"But he killed our grandfather," I yelled, "He could kill you next!"

"You're just as naive as James!" Lily countered. "You have no proof it was Code. None."

"Who else could it be? Let's go downstairs and ask Uncle Harry right now. We won't take no for an answer. He'll have to tell us."

Lily agreed and we went downstairs.

"Lily, Hugo," Uncle Harry greeted smiling. "What's up?"

I decided to be as forward as possible. Maybe I could surprise the answer out of him. "Who killed Grandpa Weasley?"

Harry opened his mouth in surprise and then glared for a second before his expression turned sympathetic. "I know you must be upset-"

"Upset?!" came a voice from the doorway. We turned to see James, Albus, and Cassidy entering the room. "No, we're not upset. We're devastated. And you denying us the one thing we have the right to! The one thing that might actually make us feel better!"

"And what is that?" Harry said calmly.

James' hands were balled into fists at his sides. "Closure." He took a deep breath as if trying to calm himself but it didn't seem to work. "Maybe if you weren't such a self-obsessed prick-"

"James Sirius Potter!" scolded Ginny.

"No don't 'James Sirius Potter' me, Ginevra. I've been trying to hold it together. I've been trying! But I can't deal with it! Not when you keep acting like you lost someone and we didn't!"

Harry was about to say something but then someone else came out of the fireplace.

"James, come. Now."

We all turned to see Alice Longbottom. Possibly the only person in the entire world who could calm James down.

"They wouldn't believe me!" James shouted turning to Alice. Then to his parents, "If you had just trusted me, just once, he would still be alive."

I stood watching not knowing what to do or say. I hadn't meant to upset anyone. It was a stupid idea to mention Grandpa Weasley's death but I couldn't help it. Me and James were closest to him. Out of all the Weasley cousins we spent the most time with him. We cared about him the most.

Alice was hauling James away. I put my hand on Lily's shoulder. After a quick goodbye from Cassidy, Albus followed us to Lily's room.

No one said anything for a while. Then Lily started to cry.

"It's not fair," she said through the tears.

Both Albus and I moved closer to her. "I know, Lils, I know," I whispered soothingly.

We sat for a minute, just thinking. How was it that the mood could go from happy to sad this quickly? How is it that we could have so much pain and suffering to deal with? We were only kids!

"Do you think it was Code?" Lily asked quietly.

"No," Albus replied shaking his head. "Code didn't even know about it at first, I think."

Lily and I both stared at him. Albus elaborated, "He is constantly in James' head. Somehow we're connected, James, Code, you and I. I'm able to block him out but James can't. He's as good at Occlumency as you and I are, Lily."

"You know Occlumency?" I said shocked. If Lily knew Occlumency then how was Code getting into Lily's head?

"No, not really. I just don't know what to call it." Albus sighed and bit on his nail for a minute. "We can block Code out and James can't."

"But why does it prove that Code didn't murder Grandpa Weasley?" I pressed. Personally I couldn't think of who else it could be.

"Knowing Code he would have bragged about it. We weren't told right away what happened to Grandpa Weasley. If Code had known he would have taunted James. Made him go crazy. But Code only did that after James knew. It makes no sense, unless Code didn't know either."

"You have a point," I said. "But we don't know everything about Code. He could change his behaviour. Maybe he needed the murder to be secret."

Albus shook his head. "Dad knows. Mum knows. All our Aunts and uncles know. Despite what James thinks they're not all against him. If it really was Code if they had any reason at all to believe it was Code, any reason at all to believe James wasn't lying about the bastard they would have come to us."

"The way you talk, you're so certain," Lily pointed out. "Almost like you know who did it."

"I don't know who did it," Albus replied, "But I know that Mum and Dad wouldn't hide this from us for no reason. Whoever- or whatever- did this to our grandfather is far worse than Code."

And on that happy note Al left us with our thoughts.

Lily begged me to stay for a while and so I did. I often stayed at the Potter house. Alice and I both did. Harry and Ginny never cared. In fact they loved having us over, Alice kept James in check and I kept Lily company.

"Hugo," Lily said from across the room.

I turned to look at her and realized she was holding the booklet that read Lily Potter, Jacob Cadler, 14. I recognized it immediately. I had one similar to it except it read Hugo Weasley, Jacob Cadler, 27. They were booklets that allowed you to communicate with anyone anywhere. When writing something in the booklet it appeared in the matching booklet. It was like muggle texting, without technology.

"Has Jacob replied to you yet?" I asked as I walked over to her bed and sat next to her.

"Yeah, he told me something big went down," Lily explained.

I frowned a bit. "He never actually tells you what happens while he's there, does he?"

Lily looked like she was about to defend him, but she must've realized the tone of my voice wasn't accusatory but more worried.

"I know," was all she said.

(Jacob)

Five days.

Or at least I thought so. Johnathan knew it drove me crazy not to know what time it was. Not to know how long it passed since he locked me away.

Right now I was in the closet. It was one of Johnathan's favorite ways to punish me without using his fists. I was claustrophobic. And combined with my ADHD it was almost impossible to not be crazy while trapped in here.

But on the bright side I had managed a bit of wandless magic. I was so angry and frustrated that I was able to get the one thing I really needed. Human communication.

Somehow in a burst of energy as I was pounding on the door begging Jonathan to let me out, my Instant Message book flew right under the door along with a pencil.

It was the only way I could talk to Lily and Hugo during the long summers. Sometimes it was the only thing that kept me sane.

Is everything all right? Lily's words appeared on my paper.

Don't worry about me I'll be fine. It always felt horrible lying to her. The worst part was knowing I might never see her again. I knew Jonathan would never kill me on purpose, he was too sadistic for that, he loved the torture, but I was always worried he might accidentally starve me. After all I hadn't eaten in at least a week and hadn't had any water in around two days.

I don't understand why you don't just break out of there. I know you're smart enough, Jake.

And that was the problem. She didn't understand and she never would. Jonathan had ways of controlling me. Too many ways to count.

The main reason I hadn't escaped yet was the "necklace" that was not removed until I went to Hogwarts every year. When he had first discovered I was a wizard Jonathan made me where a dog collar that said if found please return to Jonathan Cadler. At first it was just another one of his ways to embarrass me, show me he had full control over me. But then he took a technology course in high school. And he got smarter. He figured out how to turn the collar into an electric dog collar. Whenever I stepped off the property it would give me a jolt. Nothing I couldn't handle until Jonathan figured out how to make it stronger. So strong that unless Jonathan deactivated it- using the remote he always made sure was well hidden- it would give me a jolt so strong that I collapsed to the ground.

So I was never able to leave without permission. Once or twice I had managed to endure the pain and run away but never for long due to the tracking device also planted in the collar.

I paused with the pencil above the paper wondering what to tell Lily. I could never tell her the truth.

Suddenly the door to the tiny closet opened and light flooded in. My brother stood blocking the doorway.

I attempted to slam the little book closed- as long as it was closed you had to type a code to get in- but Jonathan got to it first. He grabbed the book.

"Well, well, well," he said smiling. "What do we have here?"

"Jonathan-" I began but my brother shot his foot out carelessly and it made contact with my face.

"So you have been communicating with your little wizard friends," Jonathan noted as he flipped through the pages of what could be considered a diary.

Jonathan's smile widened. "Lily, I can't wait for the term to start!" Jonathan read in a not-bad imitation of me. "Me too Jake, I can't wait to see you!" He continued this for a while. I was absolutely mortified. Especially once he got to a certain passage.

"I love you Lily, and maybe its lame telling you this way, but I love you and I know you love me. I know we have a connection that's unbreakable. I know we need each other in a way that is more than a normal friendship. But I'm not sure if that's what you call love, you know, like boyfriend girlfriend love, because I don't understand it. I know we "made up" at the end of the year but something didn't feel right. I never apologized for being an idiot. I never said the words I'm sorry. So here it goes: I'm sorry I acted the way I did. I could tell you it was out of love, I couldn't tell you it was my brother's fault-" I this Jonathan raised his eyebrows "-but in reality I can't stop blaming other people for my mistakes. So yes, Lily I love you, and yes, my arse of a brother is a big part of the reason I'm so messed up but neither of those things are responsible for my actions. So, I'm sorry for ignoring you for half the year, I'm sorry for dating Roxy to try and make you jealous. I'm sorry. Okay? I just want things to go back to the way they used to be before I was nominated for the Biggest Arse of the Year Award."

Jonathan looked at me and smiled again. "Wow, little bro, quite the declaration of feelings here."

I didn't say anything.

Jonathan laughed. "I can tell how mortified you are right now, Jacob. So I'll do you a favour, I'll leave this book alone, if you promise me one thing."

"Why do you have to make a deal with me? I snapped. "You already do whatever you want."

Yes, that's the problem, isn't it? I might do whatever I want but you don't do whatever I want. And there's something I've always wanted to hear from you. Well three things actually."

"And if I don't say them?" I challenged knowing full well I had no control in this situation.

"Then I give this book to our dear cousin, the one who goes to Hogwarts to. The prat a year older than you? What's his name… Drake?"

I nodded. Drake Smith. My mother's sister's kid. And Jonathan was right, he was a prat. More in the gossip, rumour spreading sort of way though. If he got his hands on this…

I sighed defeated. "What do you want me to say?"

"First off, I'd like you to admit that I own you. You are mine, whether you like it or not."

"You own me," I muttered quietly, while looking at the ground.

"No, that won't do. I want you to say it nice and loud, nice and clear. Look at me when you say it."

"You own me," I said, a bit louder looking at my brother.

My brother slapped me. "No. I want you to say it loud, clear and look me in the eye. And say it in a nice long sentence this time."

"I won't say it again."

My brother frowned at me. "I'm surprised you have the energy to fight me after being locked in here for four and a half days."

"You can't break me," I said very simply.

"I was going to let you out after you did what I asked. But never mind. No food, no water, until you've learned your lesson."

"And how will you know when I've learned?"

When you're ready to apologize to me, and say what you're supposed to, bang on the door.

It was only hours later when I pounded on the door. It was pathetic but I couldn't last longer. I might as well admit what Jonathan wanted me to say. It was quite clear it was the truth.

My brother appeared in the doorway again. "Let's see if you remember what I ask you to do."

"Please let me out of here. I'm sorry for not listening to you."

"Good. Next."

I took a deep breath. "Jonathan, you have broken me. You own me and you have for a long time now."

"Good and you know what the next thing I want you to say is?"

"What?"

"I want you to thank me."

I quickly wiped the appalled look off my face. "Uh, for what?"

Jonathan punched me so quickly that all I knew was that I was back on the ground and my right cheek hurt.

"For letting you live all these years you ungrateful little piece of crap." He paused. "Forget my generous offer. You can stay in there and rot to death for all I care."

He pushed me back in the closet and locked me there. But not before he beat me to a bloody pulp.

And he was true to his word. He didn't let me out of that closet again for the next… forty eight hours? Sixty? I wasn't sure. He didn't even let me see light. He passed me water twice but no food.

I promised myself one thing though, I wasn't going to ask for escape. I wasn't going to plea for death. I might bash on the door again. Sometimes I couldn't help that. But I would not admit defeat. I would not be broken.

(Hugo)

"I'm starting to worry, Hugo."

"Lily, how many times do I have to tell you? Jacob is a big boy. He'll be fine."

Suddenly Lily looked repulsed. "It's been three weeks, Hugo! That's the longest he's gone without talking to me. Do you'd be fine if you were alone in a house with a sadistic brother and drunk abusive parents?"

She threw up her hands in frustration and left the room.

I didn't go after her. I was sick and tired of listening to her talk about Jacob. There was nothing we could do. Jacob wouldn't want us to be worrying about him.

She was way too involved with him. It was like we couldn't be alone without her mentioning Jacob twenty times. I liked him. I really did, he was my best male friend along with Frank Longbottom. But I was not a big fan of the pain he was putting both Lily and Roxy through.

And so what if I wasn't incredibly bothered by the fact he hadn't messaged either of us in weeks? Was Lily forgetting the times where he decided he had had enough "drama" and just shut down? Had she forgotten that there was a period of eleven years where we didn't know Jacob and he got along just fine?

"You looked stressed."

It was Alice. She stood in the doorway of Lily's room looking none to great herself.

"I could say the same about you," I replied.

"One of the things I like most about you Hugo, is that you almost always smile. So what's got you so down that you can't even do that right now?"

I gave her an incredibly fake smile and she gave me a look that clearly told me to spill the beans before she worked her Alice-magic and figured it out herself.

"It's Lily and Jacob. She's way too obsessed with him."

Alice nodded. "And you're jealous."

"What?" I snapped. "No, I'm not!"

"Then why do you care?" Alice pointed out. "Jacob's your friend. If anything you should encourage a relationship between them."

"I-No-It," after a minute of stuttering trying to make an excuse I sighed. "I'm not jealous exactly… just annoyed. She's acting like she can't live without Jacob. It's like he's replacing me or something."

Alice smiled. "I know how you feel. I can't stand seeing that Cassidy Cow around the house. James googles at her and makes an absolute fool of himself."

"Well, I can tell somebody isn't a fan of Albus' new girlfriend," I said a bit surprised. Alice usually got along well with everyone.

"There's something wrong with her," Alice said, with absolute certainty in her voice. "And James and Albus are just too obsessed with her looks and her fake personality to realize that."

"I couldn't agree more," I said nodding and then something hit me. "Wait… you don't think she's working for Code, do you?"

Alice shook her head immediately. "No, it's nothing like that. She's not evil. But she's not good either."

"I don't get it."

"You're a smart kid Hugo. You know exactly what I mean."

I frowned. "I do?"

"You sell yourself short. You know there's a lot more to being smart than being able to read a textbook."

I stared at Alice. "How… how did you know that was bugging me?"

"No one is perfect. We all know it, we all say it. But sometimes we take it too seriously. I don't like it when people say that. Perfect. What does that even mean?"

She waited for an answer but truly I didn't have one. "It means… well it means good, the best. Just… perfect."

"Exactly. But if no one's perfect then perfect doesn't even need to exist, does it? People who strive to be perfect are considered over-achievers, or full of themselves. And the people who don't, the vast majority of us, are left feeling like… well, like crap."

She was right, of course. Alice always was. Perhaps I didn't even know it myself but… perfect, that one simple word ruled my life in a way. I was jealous of Jacob because I thought he was perfect and I spent hours at night wondering how I could be perfect. I looked at Rose's straight O report card and I wonder what she does that I don't. Why is she perfect in everything and I failed three classes?

"Telling someone that they're not perfect, is like telling them they'll never reach all their goals in life. And telling them they are perfect is setting themselves up for disappointment."

She took a deep breath and looked at me. "Hugo, when I look at you I see a lot of things. I see a smart, funny, intelligent boy who will do great things. But I also see the boy who doesn't believe any of that's true." Alice smiled. "The point is you got to stop worrying about how good other people are, stop worrying that you won't please them, and start working on pleasing yourself."

I had been staring at my shoes for the second half of Alice's speech. Finally I looked up and smiled. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." She turned to leave,

"Wait!" I called.

"Yes?" she looked at me with her head tilted to the side.

I took a deep breath. There was a certain someone I wanted some advice on. But I just didn't know how to approach her. I was about to ask Alice about it but ended up saying something completely different than what I planned. "What do you do when you think someone you love is in danger?"

Alice shook her head slightly. "I think that checking up on Jacob will do no harm."

I stared at her with my mouth wide open. "How did you know I was talking about Jacob?"

"Hugo, you may be good at a lot of things but being sneaky and deceitful is not one of them." She turned to leave and was already out the door when she turned back around again. "And for the question you were originally going to ask me, if you like her, I say take a chance."

She walked out and closed the door.

A/N: How did you guys like the first chapter? Well not really the first chapter because of the preface but the first real chapter? Hope you enjoyed it. Now a few matter I'd like to discuss:

1: If you guys have any questions, predictions, or suggestions I'd love to hear about them through a review or a PM.

2: For the last few chapter of book 3 I asked you guys a question at the end of every chapter. I'm going to continue with that. This time it won't always be related to my series. Could be anything. So without further ado the question you've all been waiting for: What'd you guys think of the scene with Jacob? Was it too much? Do you guys like those type of scenes? Do you hate them? Do you think I show them to often? Let me know through a review.

3: Speaking of Jacob that leads me to remind everyone of something. Jacob's cousin that Jonathan I referring to was mentioned in book 2. And in case any of you were wondering Eddie Smith is Zachary Smith's kid. You see Jacob's mother's sister married Zack Smith. So Zack is Jake's uncle. And Eddie is his cousin. Does that make sense? Yeah? Good.

4: In response to the review from Lacrimae: I'm so glad your enjoying the series. I suggest you make an account so you can follow teh series and keep track of when I update. Also then I can respond to your reviews privately.

5: So I plan to update the next chapter in two weeks. So October 18. Then the next upload will be Halloween. Then every ten days. Cool?

6: I'll leave you with a few questions to think about. Who is this special someone Hugo has a crush on? What is going to happen to Jacob with this new information Jonathan has? Will Lily ever stop worrying about Jacob? Will James ever learn to control his temper? And what would James do without Alice there to save his sorry ass every time?

"We didn't make this world, we're just the poor fools who are living in it," Diana Ladris, Gone.

-Monkeywoman14