February 1944

There was silence for a minute or two as Poppy, Ro, Minerva and Irma just watched the new puffskein family. "Are we going to keep them all?" Poppy asked no-one in particular, struggling to keep the plea out of her voice. But although she really did want to keep them all, she was very aware that they had no idea how to care for baby puffskeins. The adults were easy enough to cater for as they simply ate the dust from under the bed and the occasional leftovers they brought back from dinner, but five babies on top of four adults would undoubtedly make things more interesting.

"Definitely!" Ro grinned, to which Minerva responded with an uncertain sound. "What, you don't want to be able to raise tiny fluffballs in our own dormitory?"

"It would be nice, but-"

"There we go then!" Ro declared, interrupting her completely. "We'll raise them here, and maybe when they're all grown up they can live on the grounds. It'll be perfect!"

Poppy waited for Ro to finish her plan, before pointing out. "But we don't know how to raise them. And what happens if any more are born? We'll be overrun before we know it!" Minerva nodded in agreement.

"Well there's one place where we'd be able to find out everything we needed to know," Irma said, looking thoughtful. "The library."

Minerva nodded approvingly. "We'll definitely be able to get some books there. If not I'm sure Professor Kettleburn will be able to help us, or even Hagrid might know something."

"That's settled them," Ro said, "Let's go up to the library now and if there's something missing we'll go ask for help. Does that sound good?" A rumbling sound answered her question, and all eyes turned to Minerva who wrapped an arm around her stomach with an embarrassed smile.

"Sorry," she laughed, "but I think I'll need to get something to eat first. I'm really hungry."

"I'm not surprised!" Poppy exclaimed, shaking her head in mock despair. "How about this- Ro and Minerva will go down to the kitchens, and we'll meet you up in the library."

Ro nodded. "Sounds fine to me. We'll get changed too, before we end up treading grass into the library carpet. I think Mr Pratchett would probably jinx us if we went up there still in this!" She motioned down to her Quidditch uniform with a grin. Mr Pratchett, the librarian, was a stern yet kind man, though he had an incredibly short temper with anyone messing around in the library.

Once they'd left the Common Room, Ro and Minerva took the first staircase downwards leading to the kitchens while Poppy and Irma carried on walking through the seventh floor corridor. "I imagine Septima and Millicent would want to come with us- I know the way up to Ravenclaw Tower so we can get them before going down to the library." Irma explained, leading Poppy up a steep spiral staircase that stopped at a large wooden door. The eagle-shaped bronze handle seemed to stare at them both as they approached, but then it startled Poppy by moving its head and asking "What loses its head in the morning and gets it back at night?"

Poppy's brow furrowed with thought, but it was Irma who swiftly replied "A pillow. We're not here to come in though, we only want to collect two of our friends."

"I thought not, Slytherin and Gryffindor. Someone is coming for you." The eagle said, somewhat contemptuously, before falling still again.

Poppy glanced at Irma, impressed by the speed at which she'd answered the riddle. "I was almost put into Ravenclaw too, but the Sorting Hat changed its mind at the last moment." she explained without waiting for Poppy to ask.

"Would you have preferred that?" Poppy asked softly, remembering the anguish that some of Irma's fellow Slytherins had caused her in the past. She had a feeling that the blood-traitor taunts hadn't stopped, but Irma didn't like to talk about it so Poppy didn't like to ask.

Irma bowed her head wordlessly, and was saved from answering when the door creaked open to reveal Peggy Gilbert looking down at them with a curious expression. Poppy was glad to see the Ravenclaw Chaser back in the Tower, as it meant it was more likely that Septima would have changed and returned too.

"Hello Irma; and Poppy, isn't it?" Peggy greeted them in a polite tone. Poppy nodded; she vaguely knew Peggy from the brief talk they'd had upon awaking in the Hospital Wing after their petrification. "I'll go and get Septima for you, she and Millicent got back here about five minutes ago."

The door was shut as Peggy went back into the Ravenclaw Common Room, but not long later it was opened by Septima and Millicent. Septima's hair was damp and frizzy, presumably from where she'd just had a shower, and she greeted Poppy and Irma with a slightly subdued smile. "How come you're up here? I'd have thought you'd be celebrating with Minerva and Ro?"

"They're not celebrating." Irma said bluntly. "We've got a problem, and we need your help. Can you come with us to the library?"

Septima exchanged an uncertain glance with Millicent, before they both nodded. Minerva and Ro joined them as they walked through the large double doors that led into the library, both with wet hair and Minerva carrying a pumpkin pastry.

"Good game, Septima." Ro congratulated her, clapping a hand onto her shoulder. "That goal of yours was great, Alastor was miles away from the Quaffle!"

Septima's smile brightened with Ro's praise. "It was nothing against your catch though, I really thought Brutus had got you then! Nina stood no chance."

"If you two don't mind, we've got a problem to solve." Irma butted in with a dry smile. There were nods from everyone - Poppy and Irma had explained what had happened to Septima and Millicent as they walked down from Ravenclaw Tower. "There should be a section about care of magical creatures as there's one for every subject Hogwarts teaches, it's just a matter of finding it." Without another word she took off down one of the aisles, leaving everyone else to follow on behind her.

"How often are you in here?" Ro asked in amazement, as Irma seemed to know exactly where she was going.

"Very often. Here we go." Irma stopped in front of a large bookcase, which Poppy was sure was rattling ever so slightly. Her thought was confirmed when she looked upwards to see a large, furred book chained to the top of the bookcase, thrashing around so much that it caused the whole bookcase to shake.

"We're looking in that one last!" Ro laughed, before hauling a large pile of books from the shelf and handing them out. They all sat in silence for a while, looking through the books and piling up anything that could be of any use. Once their pile was several books high, they took the books to Mr Pratchett to be checked out before returning to the dormitory in Gryffindor Tower.

Poppy sat down on the end of her bed, careful to keep a respectable distance from Georg, Gabriella and the babies. Ro perched on the wooden end of the bed while Irma and Septima sat down on hers, leaving Minerva and Millicent to take Mienrva's bed. "Where do we start then?" she asked, looking from face to face. "

"From what this says," Millicent started, waving The General Care of Puffskeins around, "their diet is exactly the same as what the adults eat. Just a lot of dust and fluff."

"Apparently they like bird seed too," Septima added, "we should be able to get that from Hagrid, I've seen him feeding the birds from our dormitory window."

There were nods from nearly everyone, but Irma looked doubtful. "Are you sure he won't tell one of the Professors though?" she asked dubiously.

"He might be a little overbearing, but Hagrid's a god person. He knows how to keep a secret, don't forget that he really was raising an Acromantula in the dungeons all of last year." Poppy pointed out.

"Let's not go back into all of this again." Minerva said firmly. "What about working out whether they're boys or girls? We don't want another lot of babies in a month or two's time."

Ro nodded, sliding off the bed end to sit next to Poppy. "Yeah I can do that. It's pretty simple, the girls all have tufty ears and the boys have smooth ears." She fell quiet as she inspected easy of the baby puffskeins, before announcing "Three girls and two boys. Right then, what are we going to name them?"

Her question was greeted with all around laughter. "Your priorities are very good." Irma chuckled, to which Ro responded by poking out her tongue.

"One of the girls could be Gladys," Millicent suggested.

"What about Gilda? That's a nice name." Poppy added.

Ro nodded. "Yeah, they're both good. How about Gaston and Gregory for the boys?"

"Can the last girl be Gretel?" Irma asked.

"That didn't take long then!" Ro grinned, before suddenly frowning. "Should we check Gerald and Godric too? Just in case Erika made another mistake.

There were nods from everyone, and Minerva threw Godric over from where he'd been sat looking grumpy on her bed. Poppy presumed he wasn't happy about having all the new puffskeins on Poppy's bed, as that was usually where he slept when not on Poppy's shoulder. "Looks like a boy to me," Minerva said and Ro voiced her agreement a few seconds later. "What about Gerald?"

"I think you might mean Geraldine." Septima said from the corner of the room near the door. She had picked Gerald up from the floor and was looking at him with frown, before turning around to show him to the others. Poppy hadn't looked in him in close detail yet, and when she saw the enormous tufted ears he was sporting she couldn't restrain a groan.

"Wonderful." Ro said, voicing Poppy's thoughts. "Juuust wonderful."

What followed from then on was a constant need to keep Geraldine away from Georg or Godric. Minerva began carrying her around everywhere with her in her school bag, while Poppy or Ro would dart back to the dormitory between all their lessons to check on the babies. They grew incredibly quickly; by the time Easter rolled around they were pretty much as big as the adults.

The Easter Holiday brought with it another challenge for the second years; deciding what extra classes they would take on in their third year. Poppy's highest priority had been selecting the classes that would help her to become a Mediwitch, but when Augusta told her that the core classes were more beneficial she let herself relax a little. She ended up picking Care of Magical Creatures due to the many interesting conversations she'd had with Professor Kettleburn during the weeks they spent together in the Hospital Wing after the disastrous pantomime, but as she wasn't really sure what the other classes actually were she had no idea what she should be choosing.

"Well Ancient Runes is pretty much what it says on the tin, you just learn to read runes and stuff like that," Ro explained to her as they sat with Minerva, Irma, Ro, Septima and Millicent in the Library. They had tried to sit in the Gryffindor Common Room like they'd done over Christmas, but more Gryffindors staying over the holiday meant there were a few people in the near-full Common Room who opposed a Slytherin in Gryffindor Tower. So that Irma could stay with them, they'd relocated to the library to make their choices.

"That one sounds interesting." Poppy nodded as she ticked Ancient Runes on the parchment. "What about Divination?"

"My mother's favourite subject was Divination." Minerva said without looking up from her parchment. "It involves looking into the future; sounds a bit like guesswork to me but Professor Olwen seems fairly down to Earth. Arithmancy is similar, but it uses numbers rather than other methods."

Sounding more like the cold-hearted person they'd first met than she had done for a long time, Irma turned to Septima and asked "I suppose you'll be taking Arithmancy?"

Septima blinked a couple of times, saying hesitantly "Yes... yes I am. Arithmancy, Ancient Runes and Divination." Another pause, before "Aren't you?"

Irma huffed quietly. "I have no intention of following in the footsteps of the father who barely recognises that I exist."

Poppy, who was sat on Irma's other side, put her quill down for a moment to place a hand over Irma's. She looked sharply at Poppy for a minute, before her gaze softened and she smiled just slightly. "What do you want to take?" Poppy asked, wanting to move the conversation on quickly.

"Divination, Care of Magical Creatures, Ancient Runes and Muggle Studies. My mother won't be happy I'm taking Muggle Studies, but I want to know more about the non-magical world." Irma's smile vanished as she spoke, and Poppy couldn't help pitying her friend's difficult predicament.

"Crikey, that's a workload." Ro said, pulling a doubtful expression. "Kurtis and Mallory managed to take five extra subjects, but I've no idea how. Erika and Tavin did three each, but I think I'm just going to take two. Less subjects means more time for Quidditch."

Poppy nodded, seeing the sense in Ro's decision. While her siblings had all taken up jobs that required a lot of OWLS, Ro's aspiration to be a Quidditch Player meant exam results wouldn't be as important as flying prowess. "Which two are you doing?"

"Care of Magical Creatures and Muggle Studies. Apparently they're the easiest ones, which is good cause the core subjects all get really hard in OWL years."

"Alright, I'm finished." Minerva suddenly said, giving Poppy the impression that she'd zoned out of the conversation. Poppy peered over to look at her sheet, and was shocked to see ticks against every one of their new options.

"You'll run yourself ragged." She said quietly to Minerva, giving her a concerned frown.

Minerva shook her head. "I'll manage. If Ro's brothers can do it, then so can I."

Poppy sighed inwardly at Minerva's stubborness, but looked up when Millicent suggested "If we're all finished, we can hand these in to our Heads of Houses and maybe go outside? It's a beautiful afternoon."

Making a quick last decision and marking Divination down on her sheet, Poppy put her quill back into its case and rolled up her parchment. "I'll ask Eileen to hand mine in to Professor Slughorn." Irma said, gesturing in the direction of Eileen Pince who was sat with fellow Slytherin second years Alphard Black and Hubert Thatcham.

Ro nodded with a grin. "Good plan Irma, then we just need to go to Professor Merrythought's office and Professor Dumbledore's before we're done. We'll drop by Gryffindor Tower on the way and check on the..." Poppy watched in confusion as Ro's expression darkened and she turned to Minerva with an urgent shout of "Min, check your bag!"

Minerva looked as confused as Poppy felt, but she put her satchel onto the table and rummaged through all the same. "What am I meant to be looking for- oh no." She trailed off into silence, a hand lifting slowly over her mouth.

"Can someone explain what the problem is here?" Millicent asked, voicing Poppy's thoughts.

Her heart froze for a moment though when Ro turned to her and said "We left Geraldine in Gryffindor Tower."

Within seconds, they were all on their feet and sprinting out of the library, heading up the stairs towards Gryffindor Tower as fast as they could physically go. Poppy's legs were burning by the time they reached the seventh floor, having run up five staircases without so much of a break, so she was clinging to the banisters to hold her up by the time they skidded to a halt in front of the Fat Lady. She gave Irma a suspicious look but let them in regardless when Ro bellowed the password.

"I thought we said you couldn't bring the Slytherin in here!" shouted a shrill voice, which caused the chatter in the busy Common Room to quieten almost instantly. Poppy had to restrain a groan as she turned to see Shirley Miller pointing an accusing finger at Irma, who was looking increasingly uncomfortable as all eyes turned to look at her. It was clear that Shirley still held Slytherin responsible for the petrifications that had occurred the previous year.

"Shut it Miller," Ro snapped, surprising Poppy with the turn of her voice. Not sparing another glance at Shirley, Poppy took hold of Irma's wrist as they pushed their way through the Common Room and up the stairs to the dormitory.

The sight that met them was not a pleasant one, though Poppy had to admit it could have been worse. The five babies that had been born in February were bouncing energetically around the small room, having pushed Poppy's medicine tins off her bedroom table already and were now curiously nudging the books in the bookcase. What really caught Poppy's eye though was the sight of Godric and Geraldine cuddled up on the roof of Minerva's bed, and by the look of it they'd been there together for a while.

Ro broke the still that had descended by turning to Poppy, Minerva, Millicent, Septima and Irma, and giving them a falsely wide smile. "It's alright," she said brightly, the sarcasm blatantly obvious in her voice, "we've still got everything under control."

Author's Note:
And the Puffskein problem really gets underway! Things are going to escalate even more in the remaining chapters of second-year, with the puffskeins and our one remaining quidditch match. I'd guess second-year will be done by chapter 20 as third-year is very action-packed and I'm planning a chapter in the summer holiday this time around.

I put quite a bit of thought into the subjects our main six have chosen for their OWLs. I know Harry and Ron only did two extra subjects, but in the books several times it mentions 10 OWLs being the usual amount which means three extra choices. It seemed obvious to me that Minerva would take all 12, and Irma isn't far behind her (I'm sure you all know what that means!).

Oh Irma, you poor dear. Her situation is so sad, but so interesting to write at the same time. A great deal more will be revealed at the start of third year, and I'm pretty sure that by the time fourth-year gets here you'll know everything about her and Septima's family life.

As for background characters this chapter, Hubert Thatcham is entirely made up because I needed another Slytherin second-year. Shirley Miller is a year older than the main six, and she was mentioned a few times during first-year to do with the petrifications. She's one of those really annoying people who will pick fights for the same of it and has a voice that annoys you regardless of what she's saying. And Mr Pratchett the librarian is, of course, a tiny tribute to the wonderful Terry Pratchett.

I think all that remains for me to say here is that since it's past midnight where I live, I can wish all my amazing readers a very merry Christmas. And for my non-Christian followers, have a happy December 25th. Thank you for sticking with my and this story for the past nearly three months :)