September 28th, 1995
Hogwarts

"So, Hermione. A little kitty told us that you have a…thing for our brother."

Hermione jumped when Fred and George approached her from both sides. They stretched out their arms in synchronicity, and then looped them around one of hers respectively. Somewhat defeatedly, she did not push back but did scowl at them as the three of them continued down the corridor.

"You do understand I am going to class, don't you?" She raised an eyebrow when George started snickering. "Has something happened? Or are you trying to trick me in retribution for shutting down your attempts to pay first years to try your experimental sweets?"

"Oh, Hermione, you do wound us so!" Fred leaned back, dramatically brushing his free hand against his head. "We are only here to impart wisdom upon you!"

"Wisdom we got by buying a sparkly dress for a certain cat. We also learnt, as it happens, that calling their mother 'disco ball' is an easy way to piss her off, though their mother is not exactly known for an easy temper. She does wear sequins and sparkly eyeshadow as much as our little kitty of an informant, though," George said, breaking off in laughter. "I don't imagine you'll be so easy to give up gossip as a certain year seven kitty."

Hermione frowned. "Are you trying to make me say something I'll live to regret?"

"No!" Fred exclaimed.

"What do you think we are, monsters?" George added.

"Well, then," Hermione said, slipping out of their grasp and turning on her heel to face them. As they continued to walk, a faintly devious smirk rose on her face. "You ought to know that gossip is the devil's telephone. Best just to hang up."

The three fell silent, before they all started laughing. For a minute, they had forgotten what they were talking about.

"Now, where are we escorting you?" Fred said, waving students away from him, Hermione, and George. "If you are, indeed, going to class."

Hermione sighed. "I have Defence Against The Dark Arts soon. I would prefer not to be late."

"We won't keep you guessing long, then," Fred reassured her.

"We know you don't have a thing for Percy," George said with a wink. "Though that's not much a shocker, even though you're a bloody prefect too."

"And we know you also don't have a thing for Bill, or Charlie," Fred went on. "Or us, for that matter, of course."

"We mean Ron," George finished with a grin.

Hermione stared at them, her annoyance slipping for a few seconds.

"Ron and I are just close friends –" She began, starting to walk away again.

"And yet you get the same look in your eyes Ginny does whenever Harry talks about Cho Chang," Fred said with a shrug, waving at George to follow after her with him. "It's all good, Hermione," He went on. "We're with you all the way if you want him. He definitely –"

"I really have to get to class," Hermione irritably interrupted, rounding another corner and praying they had not noticed her blushing. "And shouldn't you two be in class? Or at least studying? Or finding someone else to bother?"

George started laughing again. "Nah," He said, waving a hand dismissively. "We have other plans this year. And, if you must know, absolutely none of them involve any studying."

"And, about Ron," Fred slyly put in. "You know he was upset last year about you going to the Yule Ball with Krum instead of him. I don't think he'll ever get over that. It even made him happy, for a little, when we reminded him that Ireland won the Cup."

Hermione whipped around on her heel, her ears turning slightly pin

"He was upset because he thought I snubbed him!" She exclaimed, a bit flustered. "And plenty of things happened that night, forgive me if I have forgotten!"

"That was a good night," Fred wistfully remarked.

"I'd never seen Lily slap anyone before," George put in. "Rita Skeeter definitely took things a line or two or three too far. I didn't even know that was possible."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Well, and then, of course, you two and Cat changed the music to some…heavy metal screaming! I didn't even know someone that tiny could make noises as aggressive as those!"

Fred chuckled. "Well," He said, putting up his hands. "That was a damn good time, and everyone seemed to enjoy it."

Hermione groaned. "Listen to me, since I don't want to have to repeat myself," She said, if a bit unconvincingly. "My feelings towards Ron are simply platonic, nothing more, and I don't appreciate your…speculating about my relationship with him!"

George considered that. "Sure," He said. "But only if you stop helping Ginny try to get Harry."

Hermione stared at him in disbelief. "I haven't done anything of the sort!"

"Same protest," George noted.

"She's definitely lying," Fred replied.

"Can't believe it," George said as he stretched out his arms. "And, here we were, assuming she was the good girl of the group!"

Hermione sent them a dark look and slipped into Defence Against The Dark Arts just as Professor Tonks briefly stepped out. An eyebrow raised, she watched the Weasley twins doing their best not to make eye contact with her. Fred awkwardly started whistling quietly to himself. George pretended to be focused on the paintings in the corridor. Their façade did not last long, however, and they both just about leaped out of their skins when Tonks snapped her fingers at them. Suddenly, the two of them straightened themselves out. George began brushing down his hair with his hands. Fred jammed his hands into the pockets of his robes. The twins shared increasingly nervous looks out of the corners of their eyes when they felt sure she wasn't watching them. They were wrong. Eyes narrow, Tonks watched the twins closely, almost as if suspicious they were running some sort of illicit scheme right in front of her. Almost enjoying their obvious discomfort for a moment, she took a quick look back at the classroom as the last of the period's fifth years came in to various stages of anxiety around the time. Then, she turned back to them, tapping one foot impatiently against the floor.

"Do the two of you have anywhere you're supposed to be right now?" She asked, barely able to mask her amusement. "I find it hard to believe year sevens would have much free time."

"We don't, Professor Tonks," The twins said in almost creepy unison.

"We simply wanted to walk a friend to class," George explained.

"Hermione is a very dear friend of our family, you see," Fred said.

"And we would be completely remiss not to walk her to class when she's a prefect, and so many of our fellow students might take her as a target for their mischievous aims," George finished.

"Truly, we're just being responsible," Fred added.

"Completely," George half smiled at the professor. "Well. We must be on our way. It's almost time for our increasingly short, working lunch."

The two of them scurried off and, rolling her eyes, Tonks stepped back into the classroom, her footsteps as heavy as the thoughts they had so briefly drawn her attention away from.

She wants to kill me, and always has. Things are unstable enough as it is. It can only be a matter of time before she is broken out of Azkaban.

September 29th, 1995
Manhattan, New York

"Welcome to MACUSA, where you can be a high level official and yet still be drowning in work despite being told you would have people for that."

Allison Kowalski raised an eyebrow when her great aunt stepped into her office, her grey hair tied up in neat, high bun. With a smile, she came over to embrace her before closing the door behind them. Jasper, did you talk to my dad again about keeping the family in touch? He's the only one even half as persuasive as grandmother is! She waved her great aunt over to the couch on the far side of her office, and Tina sat down, watching closely as Allison all but ran back around her desk, seemingly still looking for something. And to think anyone ever called me disorganised. Then again, how much work are they putting on them? She's the head of the auror office, why in the – She forced her thoughts to slow, for a moment. Still a bit frazzled, Allison seemed to calm down a bit once she pulled open one of her desk drawers, slipping something out and into her blazer pocket too quickly to even suggest what it could be. Tina raised an eyebrow when Allison quickly shut the drawer, and her fingers bounced up and down against her desk. Finally, her breathing falling more steady, she came over to her, sitting down across from her great aunt. With only a brief hesitation, Allison pulled out what she had slipped into her pocket, and handed it to her great aunt.

"I found this at a quarry of all places," She eventually said. "Training some of the higher ranked candidates out in the Rockies. To say I was surprised to see something like this would be an understatement."

"I can see why," Tina said, slowly raising the necklace up to the light. "Did you test it for any magical properties?"

"I did. It was one of the first things I had done when the training finally ended and everyone returned home. The testing took forever, though."

"And?"

"I have no idea what its exact properties are," Allison let out a frustrated sigh. "Jasper and I spent well over a week trying to understand it, and came up with nothing. I asked Victor Picquery to come by and take a look at it soon, though, so my hope is he might be able to identify something the rest of us are missing. More than half of his career has been examining old and, in many cases, forbidden magic, and, surprisingly, this is the first time I've felt desperate to get him in to look at something for me."

Tina considered that, raising an eyebrow when the necklace suddenly stopped swaying even when shaken.

"I've seen cases of jewellery used to, firstly, curse people, secondly, enable something criminal, and, most rarely, bait no-majs. Though I find it questionable that something with magical properties was found in a quarry of all places. You said it was out in the Rockies?"

"Colorado," Allison specified. "I spoke to some of the locals – those with magic only, of course – about what issues they may have dealt with over the years, and some of the things they had to say were extremely concerning. Everything from attacks by magical beasts to a spike in cult activity came up, and I don't think I've written a report that long in years."

"I can only imagine," Tina set the necklace down on the coffee table. "The last time I addressed cult activity – before I retired – was in the UK in 1982. It was absolutely brutal. Giving a report before the rest of the government here due to joint concerns between our two countries was perhaps the worst part of it."

"God forbid this turn into something that intense," Allison muttered. "I find what reports I have to present exhausting enough already without giving one before the entire government and the British one."

Tina raised an eyebrow. "I would have thought, considering who one of your best friends is, that would be less daunting to you."

Allison laughed. "Delia would be exhausted at just the notion. Her life is draining enough these days. She and her husband are subsumed in work, work neither of them – and, frankly, no one in the British government – had expected after relatively limited unrest for over fifteen years, just about."

"Newt has said about the same thing," Tina paused. "He has issues with the Ministry, has for just about his entire life, but was caught as off guard as anyone when everything changed over the summer. For as close as he is with Albus Dumbledore, he was shocked that his word and that of then fourteen nearly fifteen year old Harry Potter was enough for the government to believe one of the worst possible eventualities."

"It's unprecedented," Allison shook her head. "I've spoken a few times with Lily Potter over the years, as she and Delia are friends. I suspect that one of the boy's parents are alive and able to put in their own perspective is part of why they were viewed as credible."

"It's an odd scenario to be in," Tina frowned. "I still can scarcely believe all that's happened."

"The sentiment is very much the same here," Allison tiredly ran her hands through her hair. "Jasper and I were talking about it just the other night, and he…" She fell silent for a few seconds. "He made the point my grandfather had for years, which was that the truth is often stranger than fiction."

Tina reached over and rested a hand over her great niece's.

"Jacob would be proud of you and everything you've accomplished," She said gently. "I hope you don't forget that. You've fought with everything you have to become the head of the MACUSA Auror Office, and you're doing a wonderful job of it in the just five years you've been in the position. That you care enough to take any auror candidates out in the field rather than relegate the task to someone else is a testament to it."

Allison managed a faint smile. "I hope so."

"Don't doubt yourself so much," Tina sent her a pointed look. "Your husband, your kids, just about everyone close to you has said as much. I do wish you could believe it."

Allison blinked back tears before tightly embracing her great aunt, her entire body shaking. Tina held onto her just as tight, hoping to steady her great niece.

"Hope I'm not intruding too egregiously."

Both women startled upon the door opening and shutting quickly with the calm voice who entered.

"You're not, Victor," Tina said, standing up and eyeing him closely. "Though you might want to be more consistent about when you stop by."

He shrugged. "I had to finish out a meeting before I could address Allison's request. I'm setting a great deal to the side, Madame Scamander, and I would hope you of all people can recognise that."

Tina offered him a faint smirk. "Good to see you, just like your grandmother, haven't changed."