Chapter Six: We Get Punched by a Theoretical Fish

(Albus)

"I seriously didn't even know it was possible," laughed Scorpius.

It was sad and happy at the same time. Scorpius had been telling Rose and me that his summer had actually been enjoyable. Instead of being left with Lucius- due to the fact that Lucius was now in Azkaban- Scorpius had spent the summer travelling with his parents.

"I think the only bad part was when I was forced to visit our cousins, the Greengrass'." He made a face at that.

Almost as if on cue Jonah Greengrass, Scorpius' cousin and a Slytherin in our year walked up to us.

"Scorpius, how nice to see you," Jonah said in a voice that clearly stated it was not nice to see him at all.

"What do you want, Jonah?" asked Scorpius glaring at his cousin.

"I just wanted to ask if you've seen the Hogwarts news this morning." He held a copy in his hand waving it around.

Rose gasped and grabbed Scorpius by the shoulder. "You really don't need to see that."

"Rose what are you-?" but he didn't have time to finish his question because James had appeared.

"Is this idiot giving you any trouble?" asked my older brother standing behind Jonah and towering over him.

"Not at all," Jonah replied easily tossing the news report in Scorpius' direction. The blonde boy caught it as the Slytherin walked off laughing.

James winced. "You might not want to look at that, Scorpy," my brother said. "And neither do you, Al."

Either James didn't know me at all, or he wanted me to read the article. Telling me not to certainly only made me feel like I had to read it.

And so I snatched it out of Scorpius' hands. I immediately saw why Rose and James hadn't wanted Scorpius to see it.

On the very cover of the paper was a cartoon picture of Scorpius crying with a shadow looming over him. The headline read- Scorpius Malfoy abused by his own Grandfather!

It wasn't as though people thought Lucius was a good man. Everyone knew he was once a Death Eater but they had thought he'd redeemed himself. I knew better of course. Scorpius had told me, not long after we met, that his grandfather abused him. But besides Rose and me he had never, ever told anyone else at Hogwarts. Nor had Rose or I ever breathed a word.

"Scorpius…" Rose said hesitantly.

"Did you tell?" he asked sharply. Then he shook his head before either of us could answer. "No, you didn't. Then how'd they know? We talked in our dorm! Nobody else was there. No one else could have been there. Except…"

James who had awkwardly been standing there piped up, "If you are implying that this was done by one of the people in your dorm, I'm afraid you'd be incorrect. This whole Hogwarts News started when you were in second year. And there are some things this reporter- or whatever you want to call them- have done that are beyond the skills of a second year."

"They used to say that about your father all the time," whispered Scorpius. "And look where that got them."

No one needed clarification that 'they' referred to the Death Eaters and more specifically Scorpius' grandfather.

"I may have failed a few OWLs, but knowing stuff like this is my area of expertise," James said simply. "Trust me or don't but no one in your year is making that newspaper."

James walked off after that.

Scorpius was left with his mouth hanging partly open. I cursed James for being so insensitive, but I could only partly blame him. After all he had just spoke the truth.

With a little encouragement from Rose we had been able to get Scorpius to class.

"Hello, class, how are you all doing today?" Professor Malfoy spoke regarding the class.

"Good," we chimed.

At first I had been weary of Professor Malfoy, after all the last Malfoy we had as a teacher was sent to Azkaban, but after a few lessons with her I realized she wasn't bad.

"Did you all do the homework?"

"Yes," we chimed again.

"Good. Today you will need your wands."

The class looked at each other and grinned.

"Mrs. Weasley ten points to Gryffindor if you know a spell to cast aside the desks."

Rose easily used a spell and the middle of the room was clear.

"Very good," Malfoy approved. "Today we will be duelling. It seems most of your Professors in your previous years haven't prepared you in the same way I plan to prepare you. You must know what evil there is in the world in order to face it. My class will be just as much theory as it is magic and I assure you by the end of it you will be able to defend yourselves against the cruellest creatures and the evillest wizards."

I stared. The thing that shocked me was that Malfoy was speaking as tough she knew a war was coming. The only other person who seemed to speak like that was James. I disagreed with him, there was no immediate threat. It wasn't as though Code seemed to want to wage a war. He just wanted revenge. So the wizarding world as a whole had nothing to fear.

"Albus Potter and Louis Weasley," Malfoy announced, "You will be duelling first. The winner will get five points for their house. If you manage you duel in a way that impresses me, you'll earn ten."

We did the whole ten step and turn thing. Louis made the first move. I always found it helpful to go for defense, rather than offense, at first. It allowed you to focus completely on keeping yourself safe while they used their energy and it gave you a clear look at their strategy.

"Expelliarmus!" Louis shouted.

"Protego Reflecto!" I countered.

I didn't have to spend that much time on defense because I already knew Louis' strategy. He was a good duellist but he wasn't good at memorizing spells so his attacks consisted mostly of stunners, disarming spells, Impediment jinxes, and the leg locker curses.

It was almost as if he read my mind and wanted to prove something to me because he caught me off guard.

"Castreo!"

I was so shocked I had barely had time to roll out of the way. I had no idea what that spell did but I was pretty sure I did not want to get hit with it.

"Anakatus!" I yelled once I'd recovered.

Louis had attempted to duck out of the way but the spell skimmed him. It was easy after that. With Louis dazed from the spell- the effect was that it left you confused for a few seconds- I cast a simple Expelliarmus and finished it off.

The spell wore off and I gave Louis his wand back.

"Good duel," he said shaking my hand.

"Not too bad yourself," I admitted.

Malfoy awarded Gryffindor five points and had the next pair go.

This went on for the rest of the period. No duellist had been awarded ten points.

At the end of the period as we were packing up Malfoy addressed us. "That was pathetic. Had you been duelling a dark wizard or even an experienced seventh year, you would not have lasted a second. Looks like we're going to have to go over the basics."

As we left Rose turned to Scorpius. "What'd you say she was? Your dad's cousin?" Scorpius nodded. "I feel bad for your dad."

Scorpius and I were both astonished. Very slowly Scorpius asked, "Did you just make a joke?"

Rose lifted her head high and gave as an annoyed expression. "I am capable of being funny, you know."

We all laughed as we made our way towards the dungeons for Potions.

On our way into the class we saw James leaving. He grabbed me by the shoulder and whispered, "Do not anger her today."

I tried to ask my brother what he was talking about but he had disappeared in the crowd.

James was right. Today was not a good day to get on Parkinson's bad side for she was already in a very foul mood. I felt bad for James who just had double potions.

While Scorpius and I were busy doing the assigned reading and questions Parkinson wandered over to our table.

"Potter," she barked, "Stop talking."

I looked up at her. "I wasn't."

"Talk back to me one more time and you get detention."

I sighed and didn't say a word because I didn't want to get in trouble. It seemed to annoy Parkinson that she couldn't get the best of me like you could James.

"Detention Potter," she snapped. "After dinner my office."

I was about to ask why but kept my mouth shut and only nodded.

The rest of the day went by fairly quickly. I had a spare after lunch which I used to catch up on some work in the library and after that Arithmancy.

"Are you seriously going to go to detention?" asked James during dinner.

"You're not?" I replied taking a bite of chicken.

"Nah, I got some important business to deal with."

I knew better than to ask what this business was. James was always dealing with top-secret projects that he's tell no one about.

"Suit yourself," I mumbled through another bite of chicken as I got up and headed towards my detention.

Once I got there I was surprised there was so many other people. Almost all the desks were full. The only available seat was the one right in front of Parkinson and one in beside a Slytherin girl.

Reluctantly I went to sit beside the Slytherin. Then I realized I recognized her.

"Crystal?" I whispered, hoping not to draw Parkinson's attention.

She turned around. "Albus," she said as way of greeting. "Nice to see you."

I suddenly remembered the last time we spoke she had been angry with me. I hadn't understood why until Rose explained it. Crystal had thought I fancied her and was angry when I started dating Cassidy.

Why did girls have to be so complicated?

"You too." I didn't know whether it was a good idea to mention the argument. I decided to go for it. "Listen Crystal I'm sorry about-"

"Albus don't apologize. You have nothing to be sorry for. Let's just pretend that whole things never happened and be friends again like we were in first year."

I smiled. "Sounds like a plan."

We were supposed to be writing lines but instead we just talked. She told me about the vacation her and her parents took to America. She had a lot of stories to tell about travelling, since her dad had to travel for work.

I told her about my very uneventful summer. I decided to leave out the parts about snogging Cassidy. I told her about Teddy and Victorie's wedding, minus the scary hostage situation.

Before we even knew it we were dismissed. I had no idea what had Parkinson in such a bad mood today but for once I was glad for it.

(Lily)

My favorite spot was in front of the fire. It was warm and cozy and it made me feel at home for some reason. Reminded me of the nights James Albus and I, sometimes along with Hugo and Rose, would curl up with my parents and watch muggle movies, or read, or listen to Uncle Ron tell us stories about his days in Hogwarts.

It missed when life used to be so easy. Why'd it have to get hard? When did it get hard? They said Hogwarts would give you the nest years of your life, but right now I'd give anything to be five again.

"I miss it too," said a voice from behind me. "I would take anything to be back in front of that fireplace watching The Wizard of Oz for the zillionth time."

"Twenty-third," I whispered. "We've watched it twenty-three times."

I didn't need to ask who it was or how he knew what I was thinking. My cousin and I were just close like that. We just knew.

Hugo grinned and jumped over the couch to sit beside me. "You always were very specific."

I grinned a little and then frowned. "Don't talk like we're old friends meeting at a reunion, Hugo."

He looked into the fire his amber eyes getting lost in the flames. He didn't look at me when he spoke but it felt like his eyes were gazing into mine anyway. "We are though, aren't we?"

I grunted and turned to face Hugo. My sudden move startled him and he looked at me too. "Why does is have to be like that then? Why can't everything go to the way it was? Why is life so unfair?!"

It was a good thing it was past midnight and the common room was almost empty otherwise people would've stared. Thankfully though the two people quietly doing their homework together in the corner didn't even acknowledge us.

Hugo grinned sideways. "It's almost kind of funny that we never complain about the things in life that can be fixed."

"What… what do you mean?"

"Well, you don't hear us complaining about world hunger, or… or the fact that the world's gonna end. No, we're sitting here together wondering why we aren't as close as we used to be."

I shook my head confused. "What are you trying to say, Hugo?"

"I'm trying to say that if we went to the ocean right now and told all the dying fish our problem they'd probably punch us in the face. And they'd be right to do so! We can fix this Lily and it's not even that hard. Next time if we want to complain we should talk about Global Warming."

Maybe it was the ADHD part of me but I only really grasp one part of what Hugo said. "You think the solution to our problems is to get punched by theoretical fish?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying! Well… sort of. I'm saying let's not be idiots. Let's fix this easily fixed problem right now." He paused and took a deep breath. "Lily I'm sorry I was jealous of you and Jacob last year. I had no right to act the way I did. If you want to date him… well go ahead."

"Thanks you, Hugo. And I'm sorry I ignored you. You're the one who's been in my life this time, with me, protecting me, and I should respect that."

We sat for a minute in what should have been awkward silence. But there was no awkwardness between me and Hugo. We were more than cousins, we were best friends, each other's support when needed, and also siblings, and there would ever be anything getting between that ever again.

I had been sitting in the dorm waiting for Lucy and Roxanne when I noticed it was one am and neither of them had made an appearance.

In all honesty I was almost excited. The first week at Hogwarts had been quite boring- besides the new teacher Professor Malfoy whom I really liked- and finding my cousins seemed sort of like a secret mission.

I went to James' room and opened the door without knocking.

"Bloody hell!" shouted a half-naked Josh who pulled his short over his head hastily.

I blushed a little. I had always thought Josh was a little cute. He had dark blonde hair and blue eyes, and a winning smile.

"Whatcha staring at Lily?" asked Fred raising his eyebrows and nodding his head towards Josh suggestively.

To my utter embarrassment Josh understood Fred's signals and said, "Ooh, I get it. You like the Josh-ster. Well, I certainly can't blame you-"

"Dude," James said with a serious expression on his face for once. "Marauder's Code? A Marauder does not hit on fellow Marauder's sister without that Marauder's permission."

"Oh, so my opinion doesn't matter?" I countered but both James and Josh shushed me. They began arguing over their stupid Marauder Code. For a second I listened to them wondering how they could possibly call themselves trouble-makers while following so many rules. If I were to become a Marauder I wouldn't bother with the stupid rule book, though James would probably kill me for saying that.

Eventually I just went in James' trunk and took the cloak and the map, which is what I had come for. If I didn't know my brother better I would've said he didn't even notice me take his prized possessions, but he guarded those things with his life. Perhaps he just trusted me with them enough not to lose or damage the most important objects in James' life. It made me smile.

I checked the map to see where Jacob was. I felt a pang when I saw he was with Roxanne. I don't know why it bothered me so much. It shouldn't bother me. He was allowed to have other friends. He was allowed to have other female friends. I kept telling myself that but it didn't make me believe it.

Without really thinking about it I walked to the unused classroom in the Charms corridor that Jacob and Roxanne were in. In our first year the three of us had done so much exploring that I'd pretty much memorized the entire castle layout by now. I didn't even need to think where I was going now.

Once I arrived I took a pair of extendable ears and a pair of ex-ray eyes out of my pocket and silently thanked my uncles Fred and George for making these.

"Okay?" It was Jacob's voice.

"Jake, you can't keep bottling everything inside you." Roxy.

I made a fist so tight I almost crushed the near-invisible wire on the extendable ear.

"Yes, I can Roxy," Jacob whispered. Then ever so quietly, "I've done it for fourteen years so far."

"And you can't do it any longer," Roxanne stated firmly. "I'm serious Jacob, you will explain yourself right now."

There was a pause and I could see Jake's desperate face. I had never seen him like this, so vulnerable. But Roxanne didn't give in, she stared back at him and eventually he sighed. "Okay, fine, on one condition."

She narrowed her eyes before asking, "What is it?"

"You tell me what the hell happened to you over the summer." There was another pause. It seemed Roxanne was having an internal battle whether or not to agree. Finally she agreed.

Jacob nodded, but said nothing further. My cousin laughed. "Did you think I was going first? Oh, no, Cadler, you spill it."

"Fine," Jacob said with a sheepish grin. Then his face grew serious. "The letter… it was him reminding me that he could reach me even when he was here."

I thought back to this morning at breakfast trying to recall Jacob being upset about a letter from his brother – because that was obviously who he was talking about. It took me a while to remember I had eaten with Liam at the Hufflepuff table, not with the Gryffindor third years.

I made a silent vow to always pay attention to Jacob and make sure he was all right. How could I have missed something this big? And more important how did Roxanne catch it?

What came next shocked me even more than Jacob's statement. My cousin being sympathetic. She had a reputation for being incredibly… apathetic. Selfish. "You can't believe that Jacob," Roxanne said in a soothing voice, leaning close to Jacob. "He's lying to you."

Jacob put his head in his hands and shook his head. "You don't understand, Roxy. He can hurt me. And he's just playing the time game."

"No, he can't hurt you, I won't let him."

Apparently he hadn't heard her. "But it's not even me I'm worried about. It's Lily."

I could see Roxanne stiffen at the mention of my name. It saddened me. Made me think of times when it hadn't been like that. When Hugo, Roxy, Lucy and I had played nicely together. When dating wasn't an issue. When Jacob wasn't an issue.

"Why would you be worried about, Lily?"

Jacob didn't say anything for a minute, seemingly debated how much he should tell her. Roxanne stared at him until he gave in. "My brother discovered our message book."

I made a little gasping noise and immediately put my hand over my mouth. For all I know the one of the teachers was wandering these very halls. Understandably almost everyone, including the former trouble-makers, had a fear of detention after last year.

After what seemed like an eternity Jacob continued, "I was using it, and he found it open. I… I couldn't do anything, Roxy. I tried to stop him. But he saw it. He knew what it was. He read it aloud, just to humiliate me, and then… he used it as leverage."

"What did he do to you, Jacob?"

I couldn't help but notice, and feel a little bitter, at her sentence phrasing. 'What did he do to you?'She wasn't at all worried about me. Of course, I was more concerned about Jacob than I was myself at the moment but still did she have to completely ignore my existence?

"It's not important what he did to me, Roxy. I can deal with that. Hell, I could deal with the embarrassment if it only affected me. But he found a way to get Lily too. My worst nightmare has become a reality."

Jacob was looking down, but I was watching Roxanne. My cousin looked crestfallen but masked her feelings easily. I supposed she had practice. We all did.

And I couldn't help but feeling a little triumph that Jacob worried about me. His worst nightmare was letting his brother get to me. Me, not Roxanne.

"Jake, tell me. What did he do?"

"To me? The usual. Starved me, dehydrated me. You know, I think I would've died by now if I weren't a wizard. All that time, before I really understood what a wizard was, I was trying to comprehend how I could barely hold on to my life. It was underage magic, not allowing me to die." He paused for a second gathering myself. "All the scars he ever gave me disappeared by the next day. It's the main reason I never went to the police or anything- that and Jonathan would never let me out of his sight. You don't know how many times I'd wake up in the morning wondering what truly happened and what was just a horrid nightmare." He laughed bitterly. "It took me way long to realize that it didn't matter whether it happened when I was asleep or not. Because it was all real. It was my life and I lived it for five years non-stop."

I was silently crying for my friend on the inside. Jacob looked like he was doing his best not to and Roxanne was staring ahead. I wondered how he could possibly pick to vent out his feelings to her over me. She looked like she didn't even care.

"But I'm not worried about myself right now, Roxanne. It's Lily. Did you know I have a cousin who goes to this school? Yeah, my mother's sister's kid. Eddie. He's in Hufflepuff, a year older than us. Major gossip. Well guess what?"

It was a rhetorical question, but Roxanne answered anyway. "Your brother gave the texting-book to Eddie didn't he?"

Jacob nodded. "Tell me something, Roxy. Who the hell controls the balance of good and bad? Is it God? Because in all the stories I heard God was good. That can't be true. It's always the good people who get hurt. Always. Some people say nobody's born evil, I disagree. God is like the person who controls our world and everything in it. He's the puppet master and we're his puppets. He loves making people evil, giving them no freaking choice because he enjoys watching it. He's more sadistic than my brother."

That was it. I couldn't listen anymore. With tears in my eyes I stuffed the Marauder's Map in my pocket and hurriedly packed up my spy equipment.

Then I ran all the way up to the dorm.

But before I could get there I heard a voice in my head.

You're a selfish brat, you know that.

At first I thought it was one of my brothers. It wouldn't be the first time James had invaded my head at a very private moment. But the voice was cold, and even James didn't verbally attacked me like that.

There was only one other person who had access to my head.

"Code," I breathed.

That's right Lily. It's you old buddy Ryan.

I was trying to think of something clever to say but I couldn't so I stayed silent.

You're not as good at Occlumency as you think, Lily. You see I've been in your head for ages. He laughed his heartless laugh. That's right, Lily, none of you are safe.

I wish I had the power to ignore his statement, to believe that he was lying. But I couldn't.

Who's not safe? I demanded. You leave my family alone!

Oh, just like you left mine alone? I'm sorry, Lily, but I can't do that. You ruined my life and I'm going to ruin your brother's. You see there's many ways I can do that. It's up to you really.

I don't have time for your games, Code.

Really? It seems you have times for Jacob's games. I thought he told you him and Roxanne weren't dating anymore? Didn't you guys make a pact not to resume that until fourth year?

I tried not to give a response. I knew that's exactly what Code wanted. But he was attacking my friends, and my cousin, and I couldn't let him do that.

Don't you dare talk about Jacob like you know him! I snapped.

You know what the funny thing about Legilimency is? It has no limits. You see I can read you mind, because of our special connection. It takes much less work and much less concentration than regular Legilimency. But your family's isn't the only minds I can read. I've been in the heads of all your friends Lily.

I stiffened. It wasn't until then I realized I had frozen in the middle of the hallway. If anyone saw me, they might think I was stunned but I didn't care.

Please don't hurt them, I begged finally giving up on being brave.

I've always wondered what my sister's last words were. Probably begged your brother for her life, before he pushed her under.

"My brother did not drown your sister!"I shouted aloud.

Perhaps that was the exact reaction he wanted. For me to get so angry I'd actually scream then someone would come find me. But I had the Invisibility Cloak so I was okay. Hopefully.

Don't talk about stuff you weren't even around to see, Lily, Code snapped finally losing his temper momentarily. But a second later his voice was calm again. Anyway, Lily, I have no intention of leaving anyone alone unless you do something for me first.

And what's that? I asked trying to keep the nerves out of my voice.

Hand over the wand.

I had no idea what I was talking about but I decided to respond anyway, No way. You leave my family alone and then we'll talk about the wand.

I felt Code's presence leave and it was only then that I realized he had full access to my head. So if he wanted the wand, which I didn't know anything about, then why did he ask me?

(Jacob)

I shut my eyes tight willing the tears to go away. Why were all these emotions coming up now? It's not like it was the first time I'd talked about my brother before. Why did I feel like crying now?

"Jacob it's okay to cry," Roxanne whispered.

But it wasn't okay to cry. It never was. "The only power I had against him," I said so quietly, so helplessly that I disgusted myself, "was to deny him what he wanted most. To see my pain. I couldn't always do it, keep myself from crying. But I always tried. Because it was the one thing I had left. A tiny part of myself that he didn't own."

I knew Roxy wanted to cry for me. I knew she wanted to hug me and pat my back and tell me everything was going to be all right. But she didn't. And that was why I chose her to talk to over any of my other friends. If I had told Lily any of this she would've burst into tears, and give me ultimate looks of pity.

That's was another thing I couldn't stand. Pity. I had no hard feelings against the concept of feeling sorry for someone. That made perfect sense when they deserved to have someone feel sorry for them. I, however, didn't deserve that. I didn't even deserve to be here at Hogwarts, and most certainly I didn't deserve to have friends, never mind ones who felt sorry for me.

Roxanne didn't say anything and I was glad for it. I needed to vent for I hadn't done it in so long. "I just don't understand his problem. Why does he enjoy it? Why does he do this to me? During the summer he locked me in a closet. I was in there for weeks. And every night he fell asleep laughing at the sound of my screams, me begging him to give me mercy. What is so fun about that?"

Maybe Roxanne had an answer because she almost spoke. At the last second, though, she shut her mouth. Probably for the best. I didn't really want an answer to the question. Not really because whatever the right answer was it probably wasn't the answer I was looking for.

We sat in silence for what might've been way too long. Perhaps it was unhealthy for me to silently pray to the devil that my brother would die a horrible death. But the other option was accepting that he didn't deserve that. Which he did. So I continued with my silent threats until Roxy spoke up.

"Jacob, what did he say in the letter?" she asked her voice suddenly full of concern and urgency.

I was a professional at hiding my emotions so neither my face nor my voice revealed anything. "Just that he wants me to know that he has total power over me. That he can ruin my social life here, just like he did back in Muggle School. And that Lily will go down with me."

"Don't lie to me, Jacob."

How does she do that? I asked myself. I figured there really was no point in lying. "He told me if I come back and live with him he'll leave all my friends, and my sister alone."

"And you're considering it," Roxanne confirmed.

"Well I can't just let him get to you guys. I need you. I love you, and Lily, and Hugo, and Frank and hell I even like Lucy a little."

Roxy grinned at that, but her face went back to concern quickly. "Don't you understand that any of us would rather risk our social lives for you than have you risk your entire life for us?"

"It doesn't matter what you want."

"Yes, it does, Jake, because how much you care about us, your concern that Lily might get a little embarrassed, that's about a third of the concern Lily has for your life.You can't just give yourself away like that. Lily needs you." Then in a much quieter voice, "I need you."

She reached out to hug me and I returned the hug, although I hated hugs and hardly ever allowed someone to hug me let alone hug them back.

But it was nice. For some reason in her arms I felt safe, I felt good. Like for a second all my problems were gone.

That was the thing about problems though. They never fully disappeared. You'd always have one or two or twenty on your hands even if they seemed to go away momentarily.

I broke off the hug when I remembered a particular problem. "Roxy, you little devil."

She tried to play innocent but she knew what I was talking about. I explained anyway. "You were trying to distract me about our deal."

"What?" she said in the worst 'angel voice' ever. "I would do no such thing."

We both laughed before the mood grew serious again. "Roxy, spill it."

She sighed. "What do you even want me to say?" she asked sounding so unlike Roxy that it was shocking.

"Just… anything. You can cry, you can vent, or you can just calmly tell me what happened over your summer."

She looked down and I wondered if she had tears in her eyes. When she spoke it sounded like it. "Mum and Dad were fighting."

I didn't usually like listening to people's problems. More often than not it would just cause me to get upset with them. How could I listen to people complain about petty things like having too much homework or having an argument with their sibling when my biggest problem was staying alive on holidays and breaks? But hearing the helpless tone of Roxy's voice that was so unlike her made me forget about myself and focus solely on her.

"About what?"

She looked up and snorted bitterly with tears in her eyes. "I think the better question is what they weren't fighting about." She paused to gather herself. "Mostly had to do with the fact that Mum thought Dad was doing drugs. Have you ever heard of Pixie Dust?"

"I don't think so."

"Well, it's some pink powder you can buy from any dealer. It's not really that dangerous but it's still illegal. Dad keeps swearing he isn't on it but there's signs." She began sniffling now. "Your eyes go red after you do it, you start to lose weight and you suddenly don't have an appetite."

She was full out sobbing now and I didn't know what to say or do. I was about to try and reassure her, tell her that it would be okay, but I knew she would hate that. Maybe even as much as I did. There was no way Roxy would want my sympathy.

"Hey," I said tilting her head up so she was looking me in the eyes. "I'm not going to tell you it's okay, because I know you'll want my sympathy about as much as I want yours. I can't tell you your father's going to be okay because I can't be sure about that and I don't want to lie. But I can tell you that you'll be okay. No matter what I will be here for you. Understand? If I'm ever not, I give you full out permission to hex my pants off."

She laughed and leaned towards me. For some reason I wasn't quite sure of I held her. We stayed like that for what might've been minutes or hours. I'm not really sure but we didn't move until we noticed the sun coming up.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed teh chapter and so sorry it was late!

1: Next update will be December 13th. After that it'll be December 22nd. And I've also decided I'll only be able to update once in January due to exams.

2 So I've been writing these one-shots about the characters in my book. Mostly just cute fluffy stuff, some things that helped develop the characters for me, and I was wondering if you guys were interested in me posting it. If I did I'd do it during short breaks like the one in January and maybe on Holidays or something.

3: QOTC (Question of the chapter): I have some major plans in regards to character development: which characters do you think will get developed, how and why?

4: 23 DAYS TILL CHRISTMAS! Sorry I'm really excited.

Questions to think about: Who's is making the Hogwarts News? What's their motive? What's the deal with Professor Malfoy? Will Crystal and Al bus go back to bring friends just like that? Is Hugo and lily's friendship back intact? Will Lily ever get over Jacob? Will she take up Hugo's offer on his permission to date Jake? Will the jealous rage ever stop? Will Code ever leave the Potter family alone? What's this wand he speaks of and why does he want it so badly? Do Jacob and Roxy actually make a good couple? Has this chapter proven that Roxy actually has a soul despite what Lily thinks? Will Jacob's brother ever quit picking on him? Why does Jacob's brother pick on him so much? IS George really doing drugs? Stay tuned to find out!

"I lost my shoe," Sam Winchester, Supernatural, 3.3.

-Monkeywoman14