He was feeling nervous and agitated ever since that night. He couldn't take it anymore. Where was the letter? Where was it indeed? Nigel was pacing to and fro in the Common Study Space in the Library and Yiannis noticed that something was wrong. Yiannis knew, not all of it, but of his communications with his Uncle. The guy seemed genuinely concerned too. "What's the matter, Nigel?"

"Nothing. Well— there's — there's something but …" Nigel glanced at their surroundings to ascertain that they were not being eavesdropped. "I… Someone's been stealing from me again," he finally said, trying to keep the specific details vague. Yiannis took a moment to understand what he was implying.

"… You… you don't say… it's…"

"It's a letter this time and I didn't even get a chance to read it!"

"You reckon someone stole it again?"

Nigel nodded.

"Could it… could it be the same person that went through your stuff?" Yiannis speculated.

"But who would it be? What if they start telling people? What if—" Nigel could feel himself panicking. Moreover, this made him feel a certain mistrust towards people in his dormitory.

"Look Nigel, I… I trust you and all. You're a good friend, but I want to know the full story. You still haven't told me anything, really, and I want to know if I were to help."

"Shhh…. not here! Let's find a different place to talk."

~X~

Confiding in Yiannis was easier than expected, for some reason. Those thoughts and stories — him witnessing Uncle Albus leaving as a child, the postcards the man sent, the break-in of Hogwarts and their last dalliance in Egypt — it felt so relieving to finally be able to share them with someone he could trust. Like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Nonetheless, there was a certain guilt that came with concealing those tales in the first place. And with admitting that he knew exactly what was going on with the commotion last year at Hogwarts with the break-in, an event in which even the Aurors got involved in. They conducted a survey of Hogwarts and interviewed a bunch of people — somehow, no one suspected he would know anything. (Although he didn't think he knew everything.)

Nigel was fully prepared for any judgmental comments to come but Yiannis was very understanding. The guy listened to everything, including Nigel's personal opinion that his Uncle was not guilty of whatever crime that caused him to be banished on the run all those years ago. ("You know the situation better than all of us," Yiannis remarked.) Although, reluctantly, Nigel admitted privately that he was having some doubts. They then proceeded to speculate on who the culprit was.

"It could be Marius. He doesn't like me," Nigel theorized. "Never did. Probably wants to use this letter to — to destroy my reputation. Can you imagine? I'll get kicked off the Quidditch team and— Merlin's sake— I could get expelled!"

"The right priorities as always."

"Everyone should be worried about getting expelled!" Nigel retorted briefly before going back into the topic. "It could be Thaddeus. His mother is a reporter for the Daily Prophet so maybe he could be her scoop."

"But has the Daily Prophet published anything on you though? Wouldn't some indicting article appear last year when said culprit rummaged through your stuff?"

"Good point," Nigel conceded. "Could it be one of the Third or Fourth Years? Maybe they weren't happy about me getting on the Quidditch team and all… Nah that just sounds absurd when you say it out loud."

"Could it be Conrad? I don't know, don't want to —"

"What are you guys saying about me?" Conrad strode into the abandoned classroom. "Karen and I were just wondering—"

Nigel froze. He felt his stomach rumble. It was almost dinner time and Conrad and Karen were probably out looking for them to head to the Dining Hall. Still, the presence of his two other friends in the room presented a dilemma. He stole a glance at Yiannis, who looked rather guilty about the suggestion. "We were just—"

"Cut the ramblings, Nigel, we heard it all," Karen interrupted, folding her arms in a rather imperious manner.

"Oh? What did you hear?" Nigel pressed. He didn't want to give away too much information.

"They're spreading rumors about you in the Common Room," Karen said, "Thaddeus, Marius, Sophie and even Suyin. They say you've been communicating with your Uncle who is also none other than England's most wanted and dangerous criminal. Of course, Conrad and I were backing you up but the argument got very heated."

"We didn't like the way they were talking about you," Conrad added, "Look, no matter what, you're our friend. We have your back on this."

"But it's true," Nigel said quietly. He didn't know what prompted him to relent and confess to his friends; something made him feel uncomfortable. Maybe it was hope that they would stick with him regardless. Yiannis seemed shocked that he would be so frank with the others. "We didn't just talk. I met up with Uncle Albus last Christmas in Egypt too."

"You what?!" Conrad's mouth was agape.

"Some criminals tried to kidnap me to ransom with any dad after a business deal they didn't like," Nigel explained. "Uncle Albus bumped into them and freed me and Andy and we chilled around the Nile. Oh and that Hogwarts break-in? —"

"Wait, wait, wait— muffliato," Conrad enunciated and flicked his wand in a futile attempt to cast a spell. It didn't work. "Crap. I swear, that was how it was supposed to be cast. Let me try again. Muffliato. Nope. Third time's the charm? Muffliato… Yes! I did it!"

"Um… what was that for?" Yiannis queried.

"That was a Charm that creates a buzzing noise around the room in case there is anyone who tries to eavesdrop," Conrad said, sounding rather pleased with himself, "I see my mum— who is an Obliviator — cast that all the time!"

"Right," Nigel said, "Thanks by the way. Anyways I—"

"So you were talking to your criminal uncle and assisted in during that Hogwart's break-in?" Karen pressed. Unlike Conrad, she seemed visibly more pissed off. She crossed her arms. "A criminal. The most wanted man in England! And I defended you in front of all of them! I thought they were making stuff up and spreading bad rumors about you! This is extremely dangerous and you can get expelled! Plus we were your friends and you told us nothing about this! Nothing! Conrad? Why aren't you mad like me?"

"Oh I am— you know, Nigel, you keeping this from us and telling Yiannis, that was rather hurtful."

"Nigel only told me this today too."

"Only today?! Damn. I feel a little better. But still, we're your friends. You should have trusted us—"

"Um Conrad? This is serious! Am I the only one who thinks that communicating and potentially helping one of the world's most dangerous criminals is a bad thing?!" Karen shouted and Nigel was thankful that Conrad had cast that muffliato spell.

"I'm sure Nigel has a good reason," Yiannis defended. "You guys were always rather close and he did save you from all the dangerous criminals back in Egypt. Plus the guy never exactly harmed Nigel—"

"Um, what about the ten Portuguese Aurors who were just Obliviated a month ago?! They were pretty traumatized! Sophie's dad too!"

"Look Karen," Nigel said, sighing, "If you want to tell everyone about—"

"Of course I'm not telling everyone! You're my friend Nigel! I just— I'm just mad at you!"

"What was in the letter?" Yiannis asked Conrad as Karen fumed on.

"Nothing too obvious," Conrad said, "Thaddeus showed it to everyone and we all thought he faked it. By we I mean Karen and I and some others — Serena, Tanya, Elena… It just said 'Hope things are going well for you. Congratulations on your Quidditch match.' Something about him staying in Spain for a nice break and enjoying himself. Something about him being in Portugal and Luxembourg and commenting how you would have liked it. Something asking about your newborn brother and a joke about your dad having too many kids. And an 'I hope we can meet again.' Signed with the initials ASP. Which basically sounded like every letter a normal relative would write. No shady crime stuff. No mention of Dark Magic. No help me break into Hogwarts and kidnap children Muahahahhahahah type. Even the initials, I mean, there's a ton of people with the initials of ASP so it's not even obvious it was him."

"Why would he kidnap children?" Nigel frowned, not happy with the insinuation. He was sure Uncle Albus would never go so far as kidnapping children.

"I'm— that's a figure of speech."

"So, what do we do?" Yiannis asked. "We should probably come up with a plan to deal with any fallouts caused by the letter."

Karen sighed, grumbling, "As Conrad said before, the letter itself bore no indication it was written by him."

"Just say it was one of your ten million other relatives who wrote this?" Conrad proposed. "And tell Marius and Thaddeus and anyone who agrees with them that they are being pricks."

Nigel bit his lip and nodded. He didn't like lying this way but the truth getting out would be even worse. For the first time in ages, he wanted to cry. His eyes burnt.

"You alright?" Karen asked, seeming concerned. Sure, she was still mad, but she was also the understanding type. She went across the room to get the tissue papers.

"Look, Karen's angry over this but she'll get over it— as long as you're honest about it," Conrad said, "Like I said, we're your friends and we have your back."

~X~

After a few weeks — and the initial verbal spars with Marius and Thaddeus — school was back to normal. Most people either stopped believing that Nigel was really communicating with his criminal Uncle or they had stopped caring about it. Half of them never believed it in the first place, for Nigel had loyal defenders in Ravenclaw, among some including the entire Quidditch team. It was rather heart-warming, although he did feel bad for deceiving them in a certain way. He got some annoying questions from people at first but those eventually stopped.

Well, except for Professor Warbeck.

After one DADA class— a lesson on pixies where he performed fairly well— she called him to stay behind. He met her gaze and somehow it made him feel nervous. Normally she was praiseful of his performance, encouraging and interested in cultivated the curiosity of her students but this time she looked rather concerned and, beyond that, unreadable.

"Professor," he asked, "Is there something you want to talk to me about?"

"Just checking on you, Potter," she replied.

"Right. I— I'd love a conversation and all but I do have Herbology after this so I'm afraid I can't stay for long."

"I don't need you to stay for long," she said and her brows furrowed. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Well, I'm feeling perfectly ordinary. Busy with school and Quidditch and all. Sometimes it is kind of tiring."

She nodded with a small smile. "Is that all?"

He knew what she wanted to ask about, but he didn't really feel ready to share this with anyone apart from his immediate friend group — which he was still getting used to. "Yeah. You know, some times you get drama among students but it's really nothing. It eventually goes away."

She nodded again and, as if sensing he wasn't going to elaborate further, offered, "You may go, Potter. But if there's anything you need help with— anyone you need talking to— you can always reach out to me."

"Thanks, Professor."

~X~

"Hey, Nigel," Dora accosted him one day after Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Nigel turned around. It had been a while since they last properly chatted and hung out. These days, she didn't seem particularly interested, preferring the company of her own group of friends, which at this point didn't even seem to include Maggie, who seemed pretty nonchalant and preferred the company of Third Years and boys in her House. "Hi Dora. How are you?"

"It's been a while since we last talked, really," Dora said, feeling a little sheepish. "Well, I was wondering if we could hang out sometime?"

"Is there — well — sure. I would love to catch up," Nigel said, opting not to ask her just what prompted all of this.

She smiled back. "And… I noticed Professor Warbeck was giving you weird looks."

There was it was. The reason why. "No idea why."

"Are you alright?"

"As good as I can be," Nigel said. "Life's going on nicely. Classes are hard sometimes. Quidditch practice is tiring and life is life."

"Maggie said you were very good and so did Anna. Our Chasers were pretty worried, or so the conversation in the Common Room seems to suggest," Dora quipped and complimented him.

"Did they… send you to derail me?" Nigel joked.

"Oh Merlin no! Of course not! I'd have conflicting loyalties if I had to see you play us! I mean— you were the first friend I ever made here in Hogwarts. I don't want to—"

"Okay, but really. Is there something you want? Perfectly fine to say so. I've kind of missed talking to you."

"Why do you always think I have some sort of ulterior motive?"

"I mean— I guess I put it the wrong way but my life hasn't exactly been 100% drama-free."

"Yeah and that's why I wanted to check on you. I've heard the rumors. I hope no one's giving you a hard time."

"Oh trust me. They couldn't even if they tried."

"Good to know," Dora said as they walked down the stairs to the Dining Hall. "I hope I'm not keeping you from your friends."

"Likewise," Nigel was weird saying this.

"By the way, you haven't heard all the news about all the chaos in France right? There's a lot of talk about it— well, growing talk at least from Anna. She seems kind of worried."

"No. What's the deal?"

"Oh something to do with necromancy? To be honest I didn't even know that was possible."

"Me neither."

"But you know, since — well— Anna is getting a lot of letters about it from her parents, the rest of her family and all. They seem to be distressed and she seems to be distressed as well."

"Did she confide in you about anything?"

"Well, yeah. We're sort of best friends now. I mean, I'm spending a few days with her for Winter Break and all."

"In France?"

"Well, my family is headed to Italy and we're stopping by France so might as well."

"With all the chaos and you're not worried?"

"My parents are muggles, they don't exactly follow wizarding news."

"Oh and—"

"Well. Never mind. I was just — Well. I've heard your Grandpa is also in France. And your Aunt. It seems to be a big deal but I was just wondering if you knew anything about it."

"Unfortunately no."

"They never talk to your parents about work? Or—"

"Even if they did, I wouldn't know. My dad barely even tells me about his own line of work."

"Oh."

"I'm sorry, but we're almost at the Dining Hall. If there's anything secret you want to tell me. This is our last chance."

Dora paused and then pulled him to a dark corridor. "Are the rumors true?"

Gazing around them, Nigel felt especially sensitive to any potential eavesdroppers. "What do you mean?"

"Do I have to spell things out for you?'

"Yes. Yes. There is some truth to it."

"I knew it!" Dora gasped. "Anna was sure about it too! She pieced things together from her parents' letters! You should have told me! It would have been so much easier!"

"For whom? Do you know how difficult it was for me to go through the past few weeks? The Ravenclaw Common Room is just starting to get over the drama surrounding it! I had to lie to my own Quidditch captain about it! I'm pretty sure Karen is still unhappy with me about it. I barely, well — I barely mustered the courage to tell Yiannis and Conrad too. But we're all pretending this didn't happen." Nigel felt a rush of emotions, the repressed frustrations spilling out. He was glad there didn't seem to be anyone around them to care.

"Anna's parents were involved with this French criminal guy for years and finally got him to leave them alone," Dora said. "But they had to pay a price. He demanded a lot — he demanded the Resurrection Stone. I'm not even sure what that is but everyone I've asked seemed to think it was a myth or something and those who believed it was true said it was faulty anyway."

"And what does this have to do with anything—"

"Last November!" Dora said. "When your uncle broke into Hogwarts— the Stone was somewhere near here! He retrieved it, at least that was what Anna seemed think from all the letters. But of course, he didn't help Anna's parents for nothing. They had to pay a hefty price to him too and leverage their connections to erase his traces, pull strings to get him secure spots in Europe."

"What? I though— but I thought he was here to retrieve a book!" Suddenly Nigel felt like an idiot. Maybe Karen was right and maybe Uncle Albus really was just using him and he was being a useful idiot. Of course, Dora's version made much more sense. He felt stupid. His shoulders slumped. "Never mind." He wanted to write to the guy, ask him why, but suppressed that thought. His owl seemed to trust Uncle Albus, for some reason. So maybe there was more to it.

"I'm— it's not just this but— they're all still quite distressed about it. They didn't expect their attempts at resolving something with the criminal gangs to create such an unintended upheaval. I was just— you know, your family's sort of familiar with law enforcement. Was wondering if you could help. Your Aunt, your Grandpa, your cousin Teddy … heck even your Uncle if you can reach him."

"No. No I don't think I'd be able to help." He was almost about to walk away but something held him back. He wanted to know more. He wanted to get down to the core of things. Reasons. "But I'd like to try."

They both grinned.

~X~

Christmas holiday this year wasn't so nice. Sure, they had fun parties in different relatives' houses all the time but both Aunt Lily and Grandpa Potter were still in France for an important case, as was his cousin Teddy. No one knew if they would make it back in time for Christmas Eve dinner at the burrow, which no one normally missed. It was the one night when the whole big family was together. In the midst of it all Nigel felt that something was wrong. It was all in the news, chaos in the underbelly of the French Wizarding World. Everything was much less carefree too. There was an unspoken tension.

"Mum, dad, all this news about France," Nigel approached them. "What's going on?"

"Well, your Grandpa, deciding that fighting Dark Wizards in England is not enough, headed off to France to do the same," Dad said rather sardonically.

"James, don't say that!" Grandma admonished him, folding her arms. "Your Grandpa is doing very important work to help the French," she turned around to Nigel.

"Never said he wasn't," James remarked defensively as he picked up the twins, who proceeded to pull his hair. "Oi! Kids! Stop! Oi—Not my hair!"

"You need to cut your hair," Fred teased, "Son you'll have to sprout a man bun."

"I'm getting a haircut next week! Been working my ass off to—"

"James! Language!" Grandma chided again.

"Mom!"

"Your Dad always had such a potty mouth," Fred joked, knowing this would rile up James. "I miss having Lily here she would always supplement me with amusing anecdotes."

"Fuck off—"

"Language!"

Andy tugged at him and gestured him towards the food. "Come try the Christmas Puddings with me. Mum wants us to help her with the sauce."

"Well, then I must go, Dad, Gran and Uncle Fred. I have to make sure she doesn't eat all the food," Nigel said with an eye roll.

"Hey!" Andy complained. "Dad — Nigel is making fun of me again!"

"Was just telling the truth." Nigel shrugged and pinched her cheeks.

"Ow!"

James laughed at his children Fred smiled, "Your rowdy children will be the death of you. They've domesticated you to no end. Hey! Lucas— no climbing— oh whatever! Climb on your Uncle Fred all you want…"

~X~

"Do you think we can ask Grandma why Uncle Albus never ever shows up at Christmas gatherings?" Andy inquired after the finished mixing the sauce.

"Andy!" Nigel scolded. "No! That's a bad idea."

"But I want to hang out with Uncle Albus! Why does he never show up?"

"No," Nigel said. He didn't want to think about his Uncle anymore. It wasn't as if he was mad or anything — well, actually, he probably was. A little hurt and betrayed.

The investigations his friends, Dora and Anna were conducting weren't exactly leading anywhere but increasingly, he was coming to the sinking realization that perhaps the papers did have a point on how dangerous Uncle Albus was. Everyone else seemed afraid of the man, or fear mixed with respect in the case of Anna's parents. He never believed any of the posters of his Uncle they showed in Diagon Alley — tousled jet black hair, piercing bloodshot green eyes and the laughter of a maniac — and he knew that the guy wouldn't hurt him, but just what was the guy hiding from him? And why?

Or maybe there was a lingering resentment at the fact that the letter Uncle Albus sent gave him difficulties with some of his housemates last term. Or maybe—

"Mum, why does Uncle Albus never show up to Christmas gatherings in the Burrow?" Andy blurted the question out before Nigel could react. He wanted to kick himself.

Mum's face turned white.

~X~

"I'm telling you James, something is off. The children know something," Claire said as they climbed onto their beds. They were finally back at home after an exhausting day at Fred's with the rest of the family. "Andy and Nigel, at least. Andy asked me about your brother earlier today."

James' expression grew grim. "What did you say?"

"What we told Nigel before," Claire explained. "That we don't really know and we shouldn't ask about anything lest they upset your parents."

"Oh." James looked visibly uncomfortable; Claire knew that look. It was the same look the day after the attack on the Ministry, when Albus Potter stayed with them overnight and bade farewell with just a simple note. Nigel was the only one to see him leave and for a long time the boy had had so many questions. James had never really gotten over it, in spite of the cheery facade he would often put on and neither did she.

"I'm sorry to bring this up, James. It would have been most unnecessary — were it not for the fact that this was the first time Andy asked about it. It was usually Nigel back when he was younger. I find that strange."

"Do you reckon Nigel told her about it? Or do you think"— James' face turned white at the realization of this implication—"Do you think—"

"I think Mimsy knows something. She was very hesitant about it so I had to coax it out of her…"