Heavy Snow

by welfycat

Book 8. Following the war, Rachel and Severus must navigate the world outside of Hogwarts. Adulthood comes with a series of unique challenges for Rachel, including the Wizengamot, the aurors, and living away from home.

9. Moving Out

Rachel checked her reflection in the bathroom mirror. She'd put the concealing cream on her scar, just in case her hood fell back. Her hair was tied back, though with the disguise cloak's hood up it showed loose straight light brown hair that fell around her shoulders. It was a little odd looking at herself without glasses and with different colored eyes.

She patted down her pockets and checked her jewelry. She still needed to see if Professor Dumbledore wanted his phoenix pendant back, but he'd always been busy when she'd seen him at the Wizengamot.

Yawning, Rachel told herself that she could have an early night. She'd slept twelve hours last night, eaten a big breakfast, promised Severus that she wouldn't use The Final Defeat again and told him that she did understand why it was a dangerous spell, and managed not to be too irritated at him. Sometimes he treated her like she was a child. She hoped that would change after she moved out and proved that she knew what she was doing with her life.

"What do you think?" she asked once she was downstairs.

Severus looked her up and down. "It would be obvious to any Hogwarts students who you are, but I don't think the general public is familiar enough with your friend group to make that assumption. Do you have a sticking charm on that hood so it doesn't fall down?"

"No," she said, thinking she was going to have to go back upstairs to the mirror to fix that.

Severus stood and drew his wand. "Hold still."

"There, just use finite when you want to take it off, it shouldn't pull at your hair too much. You're going into muggle London as well as Diagon Alley?" he asked.

"Yes. Hermione already checked it out and found a place we can apparate into where no one will see us. We also went over clothes with everyone so that they know what to wear," she said. That part had mostly been convincing Draco that he would get a lot of attention if he wore his robes to an electronics store. Rachel hadn't bothered with robes beneath her cloak - she was wearing jeans and a long sleeved shirt.

"You have money?" he checked.

"Yes, we have plenty of money. And I have my wand and my portkey and I'm still wearing my message bracelet. No one recognized me when we went to Gringotts and the bookshop," she pointed out.

Severus finally nodded. "Keep your guard up. I'm not anticipating there will be an attack during the daytime, but stay aware of who is around you and who is paying attention to you."

"I will," Rachel said, not telling him that of course she knew to do that.

"Alright. You'll be back for dinner?"

"I will," she said again. "I'll tell you all about it when I get back." She waited until Severus nodded again and then apparated to Sirius' front step and let herself inside.

She went into the kitchen and found her friends gathered.

"Alright, are we all ready?" Hermione asked, her voice rising above multiple conversations

"Let's go," Theo said, checking his watch. "Hermione, you have the list?"

"I do," she said, patting her pockets.

They left through the floo to Chedwick's Furniture Emporium. It looked just about as Rachel remembered it, and just as daunting. She didn't know how they were all going to agree on things.

"Welcome to Chedwick's Furniture Emporium. This week we have fifteen percent off sitting room sets…Wizengamot Member Malfoy," the tall man said, bowing his head to Draco and looking over the rest of their group. "Wizengamot Member Longbottom as well. Welcome to my establishment."

"Thank you," Draco said, inclining his own head slightly.

"Thank you," Neville echoed, bowing his own head.

"Wizengamot Member Snow is not with you as well?" he asked, his gaze sliding directly over Rachel.

"Rachel has more important things to be doing with her time," Draco said, his tone slightly haughty.

"Yes, of course, I'm sure. What may I help you with today?"

"We are furnishing a house, we'll come to you if we have questions," Draco said.

"I'm available at any time. Feel free to take some boxes, shrink down what you want and bring it back with you," he said, gesturing to a pile of cardboard boxes.

Draco nodded to them and they retrieved boxes and looked around the large space that was filled with furniture as far as they could see.

"Where do we want to start, Wizengamot Member Malfoy?" Hermione teased.

Draco's cheeks colored ever so slightly. "Let's do bedroom sets first, since that should be easier, and then we can decide on the communal rooms."

"We can do that," Millie said.

They wandered as a group over to the section of the building that contained bedroom furniture and slowly split up as they wandered among the beds and wardrobes.

Rachel was intending to pick a full bed this time, wanting to be able to stretch out, especially because she could make her bedroom whatever size she wanted. She also wanted a slightly bigger wardrobe, since the one she had at home was very full, plus two bookshelves, a bedside table, and a desk with a chair.

"I wish I was moving in with you now," Ginny said, looking at the wardrobes wistfully.

"I know, but your seventh year will go fast," Rachel said. "Between NEWT studying, Quidditch, the DA, and doing animagus lessons with Professor McGonagall, you will barely have time to think."

"That's what I'm afraid of. These past few years have been intense," Ginny said.

"Well, you've already done a great deal of the NEWT preparation with us, so that won't be too bad. You're well prepared for the animagus transformation. Your Quidditch team is in good hands; you didn't lose any players this year. And the DA will be about the same as it ever is. You're well prepared for this," Rachel said, not sure what she could say to help Ginny feel better about going back to Hogwarts.

Ginny nodded, though she didn't seem reassured. "I'll miss all of you. I know we have the DA, but it's not the same."

"I know. We're going to miss you too. We'll see you on Hogsmeade weekends and over the Christmas holiday." Rachel picked a wardrobe, shrank it so it was the size that would be appropriate for a dollhouse, and then put it in her box.

"How did tryouts go for you? Ron said he thought they went okay." Ginny asked.

"Not sure. I did the tasks pretty well, but I'm not sure I did what they were looking for," Rachel said, finding a desk with a back that had room to stack papers and scrolls that also came with a padded chair.

"They should have been more specific about what they wanted then."

"Severus said it was part of the test, to see what we would decide to do." She decided the desk would work and shrank that as well as the chair. Bookshelves were in another section, so that would have to wait for a moment. That just left a bed and a bedside table. She'd get an electric lamp from a muggle shop. She was looking forward to having access to electricity again.

"I can't imagine they're going to be picky about who they choose. My dad says the MLE is in dire straits at the moment," Ginny said, examining a bedside table that had charmed drawers that were bigger on the inside.

Rachel shrugged. She had no idea if the aurors would pick her, but now it was beyond her control. She'd done the best she could do, even if she was now second guessing her choices.

She picked a bedside table, without charmed drawers, and then began examining the beds. After about a dozen she found a full sized bed that was comfortable and had enough room beneath it that she could both store things under there and drag out a cat if she needed to. She was looking forward to getting a cat and that was at the top of her list of things to do once she wasn't living with Severus.

They returned to the rest of the group, who had made their own decisions about bedroom furniture and were now examining sitting room furniture.

"As long as it matches and is comfortable, I don't care," Hermione was saying.

"Two sofas and two armchairs should fit all of us," Neville said as he looked around.

Luna sat down on a sofa with a thoughtful expression and then shook her head. "Needs more cushions."

"Let's try some out then and see if we can actually agree on anything," Theo said.

They spent three hours at Chedwick's but finally managed to agree on furniture for all the communal rooms. Everyone looked a little harried by the time they went back to Sirius' kitchen for lunch.

Rachel undid the sticking charm on the hood of her cloak and was glad to have her own face again. She was also relieved that the cloak had done its job, which meant it should be fairly easy for her to go out in public without being recognized.

After a late lunch of soup and sandwiches, everyone got ready to go back out again, this time into the muggle world. Most of them simply dropped their robes into the boxes that held their furniture, but Draco was hesitating and Rachel noticed that both Theo and Neville looked uncomfortable.

"We won't be long," she told them. She expected this to be an easier trip as they were only searching for a few things in the muggle shops. Rachel wanted a lamp and so did Hermione. They wanted a television and a vcr. For right now they were focusing on the television and the vcr. Rachel and Hermione could make a separate trip for lamps if they needed to.

Draco finally undid his robes, looking awkward in trousers and a buttoned shirt. "There better not be anyone there with a camera. The last thing we need is a picture of three Wizengamot members going around like this."

"Draco, plenty of people have seen me without robes. I never wore them on the weekends," Rachel pointed out.

"You weren't a Wizengamot member then," Draco said, raising his eyebrows at her.

"It really isn't proper," Neville said.

"Well it is proper for the muggle world and that's where we're going. Besides, who do you expect to run into in a muggle electronics shop?" Hermione asked.

"Let's just do this if we're doing it," Theo said, glancing around the room.

"Everyone has the address?" Hermione checked. "Aim for the back alley."

They left the anti-apparition wards and disappeared one by one. Rachel found herself in a somewhat dingy looking back alley surrounded by her friends.

Draco was making a face. "Why does it smell like rubbish?"

"Because muggles can't vanish their trash and we're standing next to the bins. Come on," Hermione said, leading them around the side of the building.

"So what do muggles do with their trash?" Luna asked.

"They take it to a central place and get rid of whatever they can and the rest just stays at the landfill," Rachel told her.

"Really?" Neville asked.

Rachel nodded. "There are people whose entire job is to collect everyone's trash and take it to those places."

"I'd think you were fucking with us if I didn't know better," Draco said.

"Okay, try not to talk about muggles or things like that where people can hear us," Hermione said just before they stepped out onto the main road.

The city wasn't too busy where they were, though there were a number of cars in the street and a handful of pedestrians. They gathered for a moment on the inside of the pavement, letting everyone gawk at the traffic. Rachel was starting to wonder if this might have been too immersive of a trip for their first time into the muggle world.

"Where's the shop?" Millie asked after looking around.

"Right there, two shops down," Hermione said. "Everyone alright?"

"Yeah," Ginny said, peering in a shop window. "I should have brought my dad, he would have loved this."

"We can take your dad shopping," Rachel offered.

"We'd be happy to do that," Hermione agreed.

"Can you show him your Walkman?" Ginny asked.

"Sure," Rachel said, deciding she'd have to be careful about which cassette she picked out for him to listen to. Some of the ones that she had were a little awkward to have a friend's parent listen to. Or any parent.

"Are we ready?" Hermione asked.

Theo nodded, though he looked very alert. Luna was more relaxed, but it was clear she was also trying to pay attention to everything going on around her. Neville and Draco both looked a little more stressed.

They went down the street and into the electronics shop. Rachel took a brief moment to look over what she could see. There were aisles of televisions, stereos, computers, printers, video game consoles and more. Things looked roughly the way she remembered them from seven years ago, though maybe a little more sleeker. The computers looked a bit smaller, the televisions looked bigger. The dvd players were new.

There were a number of muggles in the shop, all seemingly busy with whatever their business was. One of the shop assistants came over them, looking them up and down. "Can I help you find anything?"

"We're looking for a low to mid range television and a vcr," Hermione said.

"Not interested in upgrading to a dvd player?" the man asked.

"Not right now," Hermione said. "Maybe in a few years."

The man nodded. "Sony has a better model coming out in November, you're probably better off waiting until then. Let me show you what we have." He led the way further into the store and the group followed him.

"Dvd?" Theo whispered to Rachel.

"Like a cd, but with a movie on it," she said quietly, noticing by his expression that hadn't clarified the matter for him greatly. "It's new, so it's still expensive. They'll be cheaper in a few years."

Theo nodded knowingly. It seemed that was universal.

Rachel was relieved that their group didn't look too out of place. They were staring at all of the things around them, but their somewhat confused expressions weren't too noticeable.

Hermione took the lead with talking to the sales person, though Draco was watching the conversation intently.

"Why are there so many?" Neville asked Rachel softly.

"So many types, you mean?" Rachel asked.

"They're all a little different," he said as he looked up and down the aisle.

"They all do basically the same thing, but different companies make them, and they'll be different prices depending on the size. Bigger is usually thought of as better," she explained.

"Hermione's parents have one, she showed it to me," Millie said as she looked around. "I'm always surprised at how big mu- how big shops are."

"Rachel, what do you think?" Hermione called.

Rachel moved to join where Hermione, Draco, Ginny, and the sales person were standing.

"It's not a flat screen, those are a bit out of our price range, but it's a decent size for three hundred quid," Hermione said, gesturing to a television.

"It looks good to me," Rachel said. It was encased in grey and black plastic and she thought it would take two of them to move it, but it looked about the size she remembered from her relatives' house.

"Are you thinking of a satellite dish?" the sales person asked.

"Not for us," Hermione said. "Vcrs?"

"This way," the man said, leading them down another aisle.

About thirty minutes later they left the shop, Millie and Theo carrying the television while Hermione carried the vcr. They had convinced the sales person they didn't need help getting it to their car, which was good because they didn't have a car.

"Can you apparate with this?" Millie asked. "Some technology doesn't do well with magic."

"I tried apparating with the computer monitor to see what would happen and it was fine," Hermione said. "Let me go back first and I'll get the door open for you."

They made their way back into the alley and apparated one by one back to Sirius' house.

Millie and Theo set the television box down in the sitting room with obvious relief.

"Well, that takes care of most everything. We still need pots and pans and dishes, but we've gotten most of the linens and furniture that we need," Hermione said, pulling out her list.

"Let the House Elves do the pots and pans, they'll know what they need," Draco said. "Why did that man try to keep offering us weird things that you said we didn't want? What were they?"

"Just extra options to go with the television. Honestly, it's going to be difficult enough to hook us up to cable, let alone getting someone to install a satellite dish," Hermione said. "I don't even know how we're going to pay for a television license. No one is going to know we're living there."

Rachel shrugged. "Severus and I get muggle circulars put in our mail box sometimes. The muggles know someone lives there."

"I'm sure there are other things I'm forgetting," Hermione said, looking at her list again.

"We'll figure it out as we move in. We'll spend the first month coming across things we need," Theo said as he sat down.

"Are all muggle shops like that one?" Luna asked as they migrated as a group over to the sofas and armchairs.

"More or less, though they sell different things," Rachel said.

"It wasn't so different, apart from what they were selling," Theo said.

Draco was looking intently at the writing on the side of the television box, but he nodded absently.

"I thought it went alright," Neville said.

"Yes, everyone did fine. You'll be shopping on your own in muggle shops in no time," Hermione said.

Rachel wasn't so sure about that, but it was nice that they had the option.

---

On Friday morning Rachel was back on level two of the Ministry of Magic, this time bypassing both the Wizengamot chambers and the MLE and going to some small offices further down. Plaques by the doors told her this was where Family Services and the advocates for minors had their offices and at the door just beyond that the sign said 'Ashby Miller - Victim's Advocate'.

Rachel checked her watch, which read just before ten, and then knocked. She wasn't sure what to expect, but she was a little bit nervous. Maybe more than a little nervous. She had woken early, despite still being tired, from nightmares about her abduction. Sometimes the nightmares felt more real than her memories.

The door opened and a lean man of about average height dressed in dark green robes looked at her. "Wizengamot Member Snow?" he asked.

"Yes, sir," she said, bracing herself for some sort of reaction to that.

He simply nodded. "Please call me Ashby. Come on in and we'll talk."

Rachel managed a small smile. She was always relieved when people treated her normally. "You can call me Rachel, if you'd like."

"Thank you. Have a seat," he said, gesturing to a small sofa.

She took a quick glance around the office and noted that it looked far more like Torey's office - though without all the kids' stuff - than it did Madam Bones' office. There was a sofa and an armchair set so people could have a conversation but still have personal space. There were a few bookshelves and a landscape painting on a wall, and a window looking over the Thames where there definitely wasn't a real window. Another door in the back probably led into Ashby's private office.

Ashby sat down in his armchair and placed a clipboard with a parchment that already had writing on it on the table next to him. "Madam Bones and Head Auror Robards have given me a basic overview of the case. I will tell you up front that I've never counseled a member of the Wizengamot before and I'm not sure what effect you testifying will have. Madam Bones and I do believe that it will be helpful for you to testify, but I think most of the work will need to be done before that."

"What do you mean?" Rachel asked.

"I will tell you directly that I do not know if we can win this case. The Selwyn family has a lot of influence and they are willing to use it. What I'm recommending to you is a bit unusual and wouldn't be an option in most cases, but given your status, I think it would be amiss of us not to at least try. There are certain members of the Wizengamot who will not vote against Selwyn no matter what we do. We don't need to do anything about them, nor would I recommend that you try. If you choose to do this, Professor Dumbledore should be the first person you approach. He still leads a fairly large contingent of the Wizengamot, and now that he is Chief Warlock again, that influence will spread even further. I suspect Professor Dumbledore would be willing to vote against Selwyn regardless, but as a Wizengamot member, it's only polite to make your case to him in person,' Ashby explained.

"What would I need to say?" she asked, wondering if all of these backroom deals and alliances was really how the Wizengamot worked and if she wanted to be a part of that.

"Mostly that you are certain that Selwyn was the one who used the Cruciatus curse on you, you saw him at a Death Eater gathering, and you as certain as a person can be that he wasn't under the Imperius curse at the time."

Rachel thought about that for a moment. "I really am certain. He's a Marked Death Eater. He was in the graveyard the night the Dark Lord returned, so he couldn't have been under the Imperius curse at the time. Or at least, I've been told that people came out of the Imperius curse when the Dark Lord was removed from his body, unless they were all pretending."

Ashby checked his clipboard. "Does Madam Bones know that? That Selwyn was in the graveyard that night?"

"I'm not sure. The auror and Unspeakable who examined my memory would know, but that was nearly three years ago now. I'm not sure if they told Madam Bones," Rachel said.

"I think that's something you need to tell Madam Bones directly. As far as we are aware, everyone who was under the Imperius curse from You-Know-Who in the first war was released when he was removed from his body. For Selwyn to show up at a Death Eater gathering of his own volition at the time of You-Know-Who's resurrection is strong evidence against him being under the Imperius curse, even more so than him bearing the Dark Mark," Ashby said with a nod as he made a note.

"I'll make an appointment to tell her," she said, glad that they'd stumbled across something that would help. "So am I basically asking Professor Dumbledore to vote against Selwyn? Even before he hears evidence at the trial?"

"You're telling him what to expect at the trial and giving him some more nuance and a chance to ask questions without asking them in front of the entire Wizengamot. The other person that I recommend that you speak to individually is Wizengamot Member Ethan Davies. He generally advocates for the guilds and we can be certain that Selwyn's family will be looking to influence him and the people who vote with him. If we are to win the vote against Selwyn, then we need to convince Ethan Davies that voting against Selwyn is the right thing to do."

Rachel thought that sounded like a pretty tall order. "Same thing with Professor Dumbledore, I just tell him the truth?"

"Yes, I'm afraid we're going to have to rely on Ethan Davies' conscience to direct his vote. It would be more advantageous to him and the guilds to not vote against Selwyn, but from what I've seen from Davies, he is generally a good man. If he believes that Selwyn is guilty of torturing someone and that Selwyn wasn't under the Imperius curse, he will vote against Selwyn," Ashby said, making another note.

"How do I go about speaking with them?" Rachel asked.

"Let your clerk know you need to speak with them and they'll arrange an appointment with Dumbledore and Davies' clerks. Do you have more questions about this before we move on?"

"I don't think so," she said, though she wasn't looking forward to doing what he recommended.

"On to testifying then. I do believe it's in the best interests for the case that you testify, though it is ultimately your decision. This will tell Dumbledore and Davies that you are willing to stand by your word in public. One thing I will caution is that you speak to people in your life about what you plan to say at the trial before the trial, as this will be heavily publicized. Most people prefer to learn this sort of thing from their loved ones rather than reading about it in the newspaper," he said, meeting her gaze.

Rachel nodded. She knew she needed to do that. She just wasn't ready yet. "The trial won't be until the end of October, right?"

"That's right, so you do have some time, which is good, because it gives us time to prepare. If you're ready, it would be helpful for me to hear an overview of events, so we can begin to decide what to focus on in your testimony."

She sat, trying to find the right words, but as usual, she came up blank. "I don't really know how to describe it."

"Can we start at the beginning, before you were abducted? What were you doing that day?" he asked, his quill posed to take notes.

"It was the end of my fifth year at Hogwarts. I wasn't yet sixteen. We'd just finished taking our OWLs the day before and we were going to our last Hogsmeade weekend of the year. We'd stopped by Honeydukes to get sweets for the summer. I bought chocolate frogs, which were my favorite, jelly slugs, and some fudge. Outside of Honeydukes, I bent down to tie my shoe. My classmate Gregory Goyle approached me and grabbed me and apparated me somewhere. I drew my wand and tried to defend myself, but he and a man who I think was his father disarmed me and stunned me." Rachel exhaled. There. That wasn't so bad.

"Good. What about when you woke up?" Ashby asked.

"I was in a prison cell, in the cellar of Malfoy Manor, though I didn't know where I was at the time. I was alone there for a long time. At least a day. It was morning on Saturday when I was taken, and night on Sunday when Lucius Malfoy came to get me out of the cell, but I'm not sure how long I was unconscious."

Ashby nodded. "Alright. And when Lucius Malfoy took you from the cell, what happened after that?"

Rachel looked down at her hands and pressed her fingers together. "He brought me to his ballroom. There were about fifty Death Eaters there. And the Dark Lord. They didn't try to question me. The Death Eaters used the Cruciatus curse on me." She stopped, pressing her lips together. She knew she had to do this, but she could feel her chest being squeezed and the tightness in her throat.

"Take your time. I know this isn't easy. We're starting here so we can practice. By the time you speak in front of the Wizengamot this won't be as difficult," he said. "When you say that the Death Eaters used the Cruciatus curse on you, can you be more specific? They did so one at a time? Was there some sort of order or direction? Did you recognize any of the people?"

She sat as she tried to find the words to answer his questions. "One at a time. They went in a circle. I recognized Bellatrix Lestrange. Barty Crouch Junior. Peter Pettigrew. Ambrosia and Wardell Parkinson. Ignatius Nott. Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy. Mr. Goyle and Mr. Crabbe, I don't know their first names. Alfred Selwyn was among the first to use the curse, but I didn't know his name at the time. I saw his face though, and when I saw him in the Wizengamot a few weeks ago, I knew it was him."

"What happened after they used the Cruciatus curse?"

"Ignatius Nott used the Flaming Whip curse on me." Rachel paused. She didn't want to explain Theo's situation to the Wizengamot. They didn't need to know why Theo's father had done that.

"Okay. And then?" he asked, making another note.

Rachel bit down on her lip. She didn't want anyone to hear about what had almost happened. Both for her sake and Draco's. "Draco Malfoy rescued me. He was waiting for the wards to drop. He had a portkey. He grabbed me and activated the portkey, but his father cast the Disemboweling curse at him from behind. Draco nearly died."

"Is there anything else you think that I should know?" Ashby asked, looking at her again.

She swallowed and shook her head. "That's all." Could she say that in front of a room full of people? She wasn't sure.

"Alright. That's good for a first pass. We're going to work on putting that together in a smooth narrative that emphasizes what Selywn did. We'll need more detail around that, but don't worry about that for right now. You did well. This is not easy for anyone to do. I've had a lot of experience working with people who have similar stories to yours. It will take time and some work, but I can help get you to a place where you can tell your story. Have you seen a Mind Healer since your abduction?"

"Yes, I'm still seeing a Mind Healer."

"Good. I would recommend that you practice this with them as well. Would it be alright with you if we make another appointment and we can work on streamlining your story and emphasizing what will be most helpful for the trial?" Ashby asked.

Rachel nodded. She was thankful that he understood that she couldn't do more today while it felt like she was being strangled.

"Let's set that up. I'm glad that you came to see me today," he said, reaching for his calendar.

Rachel nodded again. She was all out of words for the moment and was ready to go slinking back home to sit by herself for a while.

---

Severus and Rachel apparated to 15 Barton Road early on Saturday morning to find the rest of her friends along with Black and Lupin already there. They were expecting Bill at lunch time and then they'd do the wards.

"I think we can put a hidden apparition point on the steps," he said, stepping out the front door and looking around. It wasn't in a bad neighborhood, by the looks of things, though the wards would keep out both magical and muggle intruders. The houses were all in a neat connected line, but everything was clean and tidy.

Rachel peered out as well. "Will the neighbors notice that the house has disappeared?"

"No, it will be like it never existed to them." He looked down into the outside access that led down into the cellar. "Are you planning to brew downstairs?"

"Probably eventually. It's pretty clean, it just needs some ventilation charms and a workspace put in. We won't live here forever," she said.

Severus nodded. He expected that once they were truly into their careers and that Rachel and her friends would wish for their own residences. In the meantime, he was glad she would be living with people he knew and that cared about each other. If Rachel had intended to move out entirely on her own he would have tried to change her mind, at least for the time being.

They went back inside and Rachel went into the sitting room where most everyone was gathered. Severus followed, more interested in making sure everything was going smoothly than with trying to direct anything. It was clear the sitting room had already been enlarged as it now contained two sofas, two armchairs, and a television on a stand.

"Are we expanding all of the bedrooms?" Neville was asking when they arrived.

"Might as well," Draco said. "The real work is putting in the two extra bedrooms, the library, and the extra bathroom. I know how to expand space, but I don't know how to direct it to lengthen the hall when there's another room in the way."

"We can do that, no problem," Black said.

"Do you have the fixtures for the extra bathroom?" Lupin asked.

"Not yet, we weren't sure what to buy or where," Hermione said.

"We can help with that too," Black said. "Everyone good on expanding the space in your individual bedrooms?"

There was a chorus of nods and yeses, which told Severus that lesson had been given recently. Space expansion wasn't a skill taught at Hogwarts.

"We still need to pick bedrooms," Millie said.

"Does it matter? We're going to put windows in all of them," Theo pointed out.

"I'd like to be away from the staircase," Rachel said.

"Me too," Neville said.

"It would make sense for the two of you to take the back bedrooms then," Hermione said. "Millie, do you have a preference?"

"Not really, as long as I have a window I don't really care what it looks out on," Millie said.

"I'd like the front bedroom then," Hermione said, then turning to look at the boys.

Theo turned to Draco. "I really don't care."

Draco shrugged. "Me neither. I'll take the front bedroom then."

"And we can have the bedrooms that we're adding on," Luna said, Ginny nodding.

"I take it all the boys are on one floor and the girls on the other?" Black asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Seemed for the best," Theo said, looking slightly embarrassed.

Severus was truly not concerned about romantic relationships forming within their friend group. If they had not happened in the past seven years or when they were within the throes of puberty, he did not expect them to happen now. However, he thought it was wise for them to divide the floors that way simply because he knew many girls and boys tended to have different hygiene standards when sharing bathrooms.

"Well the kitchen and the sitting room are taken care of, let's go upstairs. Adding the extra bedrooms will be the bulk of the work," Black said.

"Can I watch?" Hermione asked.

"Of course," Black said.

Since Severus was closest to the doorway, he led the way out of the room and then up the staircase. There were three doors on one side of the hall, a glass door at the end of the hall looking out on a small patio, and another door by the staircase that was obviously the bathroom.

Rachel wandered down to the bedroom at the back. Severus followed and looked inside. The window looked out on a back garden and their neighboring houses on the opposing street.

"A little bit bigger, I think," she said. "It's a little small for a full bed."

"It is. Use the inside wall to expand the space," he told her, moving to the doorway so he wouldn't interrupt her work.

Rachel pulled her wand and paced off the wall with her wand tip twitching back and forth. She was well versed enough in non-verbal casting that she didn't move her lips while she incanted, which was good. Severus knew many people who started with that habit while they were in school and were never rid of it. Slowly the wall began to move away from her and the room elongated.

She lowered her wand and looked around. "I'm going to put down the furniture and then see if that's good enough. I think it should work. I need curtains. There's no curtain rod."

"We can purchase a curtain rod that will affix to the wall around the window," he told her.

"I need a lamp too. I'm thinking about a rug," she said as she looked around.

"I'm certain we can find all of those things and over the next few weeks you'll come across other items that you need." It had been that way when they'd moved into Fallow Farm where for the entire first summer that they had discovered that they didn't have miscellaneous odds and ends that a person would expect to find in a home.

"I'm going to grab my furniture, I'll be right back."

He moved so that she could get past him and then stood in the doorway and watched as Black forced the hallway to extend far enough to fit two more bedrooms and an extra bathroom.

"So you're just expanding this space first, and then adding another charm for the width?" Hermione asked. "Why doesn't that cascade when you layer them?"

"Space expansion doesn't conform to the layered spells effect," Lupin said, watching as Black worked. "You are not layering the spells so much as you're working with the spell that's already there. Think of it like vanishing. When you vanish something you are returning it to the universe. Expanding is borrowing space from the universe. You're merely extending something that is already there. That's why expansion charms don't end when the caster dies. They are fixed within the universe."

It wasn't how Severus would have explained it, but it would do for a layman's explanation.

"Theoretically, how much could you expand a space, if you're just drawing space from the universe?" Hermione asked.

"Theoretically, as much space as you could possibly want. The universe is a big place. Practically, the bigger the space, the harder it is to work with. Most people can't manage more than doubling a room. Someone in Sirius' family was very powerful to expand the attic the way that they did," Lupin explained.

"Unfortunately, many of my ancestors had more power than brains and common sense," Black said, walking the hallway further down.

An affliction Severus knew that Black shared, though the man seemed to be gradually growing more responsible with some things at least. He trusted that he'd at least keep Malcolm alive and safe.

Rachel returned carrying a cardboard box and she peered down the new hallway. "Even without the wards, we'd never be able to let muggles in here. They'd immediately see that wouldn't fit for how big the house is."

"That's true," Severus agreed.

"Do most magical homes use space expansion charms?" she asked.

"No. Usually people don't want to pay to have the space expanded and I'd say maybe five percent of the population is able to do what your godfather is currently doing," he admitted, slightly grudgingly.

"Because they don't bother learning, like the Patronus charm?"

"Partially. Part of it is skill, part of it is power. Most students have not exercised their magical skills the way that you and your study group have by becoming animaguses. More people could do it if they put in the concentrated effort, but they do not. And for the most part it isn't necessary," he explained.

"I have noticed that I was casting more powerfully since I achieved my form. It was gradually increasing all of last year, but I really noticed in the first few weeks afterward," Hermione said.

Rachel tilted her head. "I'm not sure I noticed that. Or maybe I did, and just didn't realize it. It seems easier to cast new spells now."

"Both the power and finding new spells to be easier are a side effect of connecting to your magic in a fundamental way as you did when becoming animaguses," Black said.

"Professor Dumbledore says he's not an animagus, but surely he'd want to be since he is so powerful," Rachel said, looking at Severus.

"Perhaps he already had access to the power he wished for before having the opportunity to become an animagus. Or perhaps he is an animagus in secret." At this point Severus wouldn't put anything past the old bastard.

"If anyone could keep it a secret, it would be him," Hermione agreed.

Rachel nodded and went back into her bedroom. Severus followed and watched as Rachel laid out her shrunken furniture, moving things from place to place and then changing them and looking again.

"I don't like having my bed directly under the window. I think I'll put my desk under the window. The bed in the middle. The bookshelves by the door. Kind of leaves an awkwardly narrow walkway at the end of my bed though."

"You can push that wall out a ways as well to give you more space at the foot of your bed," he suggested.

Rachel pursed her lips and tipped her head back and forth as she thought. "Might as well." She moved the furniture to the side again and began pacing the back wall.

"Do you think my cat should have their own bed? Not a human type bed, but a cat bed?" she asked when she finished expanding the space and started putting her furniture where she wanted it.

Severus hardly knew what to do with a question like that. "I suppose, if you did not want the cat to sleep in your bed you should give it somewhere else to sleep."

"I don't mind if she sleeps in my bed, but maybe she'd want her own space too. I think I need to buy a book on cat care, I want to make sure I'm doing it right," Rachel said, now unshrinking her furniture.

"I'm sure you will do fine. You are a very conscientious person and I'm sure you'll take the needs of your cat into account." Given that eleven year olds came to Hogwarts with cats, Severus wasn't the slightest bit concerned that Rachel couldn't handle pet ownership. "You do know that if you had asked me for a cat, I would have acquiesced?"

"I know," she said, pausing to look at him. "But it was pretty clear that you don't want a pet and I could wait. Besides, I really wouldn't have had time to take care of a pet at Hogwarts."

Severus wondered where she thought she was going to find the time now with all of the things she was planning on doing. "You'll be home for Sunday dinner?"

"Every week," she said easily. "And I can come by whenever too. I'm not abandoning you, I promise."

"I know you're not. I just would still like to see you sometimes," he said.

"You will. It's important to me too." She finished with her furniture, dumped her bed linens on her bed and used a charm to make the bed. "What do you think?"

"I think you will want to add some personal touches, but that will come with time. Otherwise it looks nice. You're planning to fully move in tomorrow?" he checked.

"Yes, assuming we get all the wards taken care of today."

"And you're still comfortable with me as your secret keeper?"

"Always," she said, meeting his gaze. "I wouldn't have it be anyone else."

He nodded and as much as he was having difficulty with letting her go, he was relieved that they still had this.

"Let's go see where everyone else is at," she said, leading the way back out of the room.

Severus followed, willing to let her take the lead. It was, after all, her house.

---

On Sunday morning Rachel apparated into their new home loaded down with the rest of the things she was bringing from Fallow Farm and with Gladys on her arm. She'd apparated directly into the kitchen so that she could put Gladys on the perch next to Ulysses, which was Draco's eagle owl. She was hoping the owls would get along since both of them were used to roosting in the owlery at Hogwarts.

"There we go, I know that wasn't fun," Rachel told Gladys, feeling Gladys' claws gripping her arm tightly enough to leave marks, but not enough to draw blood. She brought Gladys over to the perch and Gladys climbed on and ruffled her feathers before turning her head to examine Ulysses.

Ulysses opened one eye sleepily but otherwise seemed uninterested.

"Alright. I'll let you two nap," Rachel said, turning her head and noticing that Kreacher had come out of the room that was set aside for the House Elves. "Good morning, Kreacher. Are you all settled in?" They had expanded the room for the House Elves yesterday and put in a few walls so that each House Elf would have some private space.

"Yes, Miss. Does Miss want to eat breakfast? Does Miss need help with her things?" Kreacher asked.

"No, I'm good." She'd already made one trip and everything she carried now was shrunk down and in her robe pockets and her school bag. "Have you had breakfast?" She'd talked to Kreacher about taking any food he wanted from the pantry and being able to cook anything he wanted. He had seemed uncertain, but she had insisted that she wanted him to eat whatever he wanted because he should have that sort of control over his own life.

"Kreacher has eaten. Is Miss having lunch here? Miss' friends having lunch?"

"Uh." Rachel frowned as she thought. Everyone had been in and out yesterday and today as they'd moved in and she wasn't sure what her own plans were, let alone anyone else's. It was a little strange to go from only her and Severus coordinating their meals to a whole houseful of people. "I don't know. Hopefully we'll figure that out in a little bit."

"Miss should tell Kreacher what foods she favors and which she won't eat," Kreacher said, looking up at her.

"I'll work on that too," she said, a little daunted at the prospect of defining what she'd eat. At Hogwarts it had been simple enough to pick from the variety of foods that had been served and the meals she had with Severus were usually similar to what could be found at Hogwarts. "I'm going to go upstairs and put away a few things. Are you alright here?"

"Kreacher is Kreacher, wherever he may be. If Miss needs something, she only has to say."

"Thank you. If you need something, tell me too, so I can help," she said, watching him for a moment longer before heading out of the kitchen and up the stairs. They'd finished with the room additions yesterday. There was now a room for a library on the ground floor, five bedrooms total on the first floor, and a room that would house the second bathroom on that floor once they got the fixtures.

Rachel went to her bedroom on the end and put down her bag and emptied her pockets. She'd brought over her new stereo at the size that it was, since she was a little bit leery about shrinking electronics. She'd also kept her brooms the same size since she didn't like to shrink them. Everything else she'd packed and shrank, though she'd left some things behind that she knew she didn't need right away.

She resized the boxes of books and put them by her bookshelves to unpack later, though she'd left all of her textbooks that weren't potions related at Fallow Farm. Her case of cassettes and her Walkman she placed near her stereo. She was about to put her clothes in her wardrobe when she realized she hadn't bought any hangers and she didn't know how to conjure them.

Shaking her head, Rachel put her trunk of clothes next to her wardrobe and pulled out the list she'd been adding to of things she needed that she didn't have and didn't know how to conjure. She wondered if there was a book somewhere about conjuring household objects. She added that to her list as well.

Her cauldron and her potions kit went into her wardrobe for now. She figured she needed to do some work to even begin to set up a brewing space in the cellar. That needed to happen in the next month or so. She'd brewed two cauldrons of her modified Dreamless Sleep potion yesterday, but that would only last her six weeks. She also knew enough from seven years in potions class not to try to brew in the kitchen or - Merlin forbid - in her bedroom.

She put her camera in her desk drawer for now. She also needed to make it so that she could develop pictures in the cellar, though she hadn't been using her camera a great deal lately. She thought she'd go through the house once they were all settled and take some pictures. Her quills, some spare parchment, and a variety of odds and ends that she'd collected over the years went into her desk drawers with the intention of sorting through it more thoroughly later, though she rather suspected she wouldn't. Her mom's jewelry box, which she used for her own jewelry as well, went on top of her desk. Her stuffed bunnies were sitting on her pillows.

Her mirror that connected her to Sirius went into her bedside table drawer, though nowadays if she wanted to see him she simply apparated over to his house. Barring that, she could just send him a Patronus message.

Sitting down on the edge of her bed, she listened to the sound of footsteps somewhere on the floor above her and thought how surreal this all felt. She was supposed to be dead.

Sometimes she had odd feelings that what was happening around her wasn't real. That she had stayed dead and that all of this was some crazy after death fantasy. If it was, she thought her mind was particularly messed up, because somehow she didn't feel like the past two months had been much easier than the months that had passed before them. If she was making it up, why would she have imagined Selwyn? If she was making it up, why would she imagine the Daily Prophet still writing shit about her?

The trouble was Rachel couldn't even imagine a perfect fantasy life for herself, even now. She thought the situation around her could be absolutely perfect and she'd still be struggling. Overall, things were pretty good. She had the options for the careers she wanted. She had people who she cared about and who cared a lot about her. She had the opportunity to do things that she thought were important and that would affect their entire society. Somehow none of that fixed what was inside her.

She hadn't yet gone back into her mental architecture. Fixing the situation with her manifestation was on her list of things she needed to do, but at the moment it was fairly low on her list of priorities. The Wizengamot and the Death Eaters were her top priorities for the moment, and she thought that would remain the case until the situation with the Death Eaters was resolved. Seeing Torey was still important, but right now her focus there was making it through the trials of the Death Eaters and through Selwyn's trial.

All of the rest would have to come with time. Things weren't so bad. She just needed to keep moving forward.

She looked up at the sound of footsteps in the hall. "Hello?" she called.

The footsteps continued in her direction and Draco appeared in her doorway. "Didn't know you were here yet."

Rachel nodded. "I heard people up there, but I wasn't sure who was here."

"I just finished unpacking. Neville and Theo are still up there. Hermione has been in and out. I haven't seen anyone else yet," Draco said. "Can I come in?"

"Sure." She watched as he curiously looked around.

He eyed her nearly empty wardrobe and then came to a stop in front of her stereo. "You were going to show me what this thing does."

Rachel got up, picked a cassette out of her case without checking to see which one it was. "Power, that turns it off and on," she said, pointing to a button. "The green light means it's on. Eject opens the door for the cassette. The cassette goes in tape part down and then we close the door. Then we press play for music."

They listened for a few moments as Simon and Garfunkel sang a somewhat melancholy song.

"Stop ends the music. Rewind goes backwards, so you can hear what was before it, fast forward moves the tape forward." She pressed fast forward, letting him watch as the spindles spun through the mostly transparent door. She pressed stop again, and then play, and a different song started playing.

"Why not just use records?" Draco asked.

Rachel shrugged. "Can't carry around records with you. My Walkman does the same thing and I can carry it places with me."

"And muggles just walk around listening to music?"

"Well, not everywhere. But you could go on a walk or sit outside and listen to music. Or, if you wanted it to be quiet for other people you can use headphones."

"I suppose," he said, peering at the buttons. "How did you know which ones did which?"

"The symbols. I don't know why those symbols mean those things, but they do." Rachel pressed stop again, ejected the cassette, and put it back in her case. Then she turned the stereo off. "You'll see this same technology used in the vcr for moving pictures. We can probably rent video tapes somewhere in London."

"I really don't understand how that works."

"I don't either, but it does. I'm sure there's a book somewhere if you want to know more," Rachel said, returning to sit on the edge of her bed again.

Draco looked uncomfortable for a moment, his eyes traveling everywhere in her room but to her. "Were you still willing to go to Malfoy Manor with me?"

Rachel pressed her lips together, but nodded. "I'll try." She had the feeling that if Torey or Severus were there, they'd be telling her not to do this.

"Does now work or do you need more time?"

"Now," she said, standing. If she gave herself more time, she might think twice about it. And Draco needed someone to come with him.

Draco held out his hand. "I can bring us to the gates."

Rachel understood that this was just something between them and took his hand. A moment later they were standing in front of the gates to Malfoy Manor. They stood and stared through the gate, Draco's hand still clinging to hers. She didn't know what Draco was feeling, but Rachel decided that she felt something akin to anxiety, but not exactly anxiety. It was more foreboding. Maybe even dread.

Finally Draco nodded. "Alright. Alright. The wards should recognize me as being the rightful master of Malfoy Manor, so this should work." He held out a hand and took a step forward and the gates rippled and then became nothing more than shadows. His other hand gripped Rachel's hand tighter. "There we are. It should be safe for us to go in."

She wondered if she could will herself to step forward and found that she could. They walked past the gates hand in hand but both froze when a loud squawking and rustling sound came towards them from the hedge.

"Peacocks," Draco said after a moment. "My father's bloody peacocks."

"How many of them are there?" Rachel asked, eyeing the nearest hedge.

"At last count, four. Come on, they're mean but if we walk aggressively they won't bother us," he said, and they continued forward.

"Do they have names?" Rachel asked, still keeping a close eye and ear out for the sound of anything getting closer.

Draco looked at her. "Do you really think my father was the type of man to name his ornamental peacocks?"

Rachel shrugged. "You could have named them. Or your mother."

"No, we both hated the damn things. I was pecked and nipped more than once by them during my childhood and they made a mess of my mother's garden. I don't even know what I'm supposed to do with them. Who exactly am I supposed to give them to? I don't want them."

"The zoo, maybe?" she suggested.

"Why would the zoo want a group of non-magical peacocks?" Draco asked.

"You mean there's a magical zoo?" Rachel asked.

"Of course there is. I take that means there's a muggle zoo with ordinary animals?"

"Yes. Quite a number of them. I've never been, but I've heard about them." She wasn't really sure she needed to go to a magical zoo after three years of Care of Magical Creatures. An ordinary zoo might be nice though, there were lots of non-magical creatures she'd never seen.

They came to a stop in front of the double doors that led into the foyer of Malfoy Manor. Draco looked at the doors, his lips pressed flat, and finally he stepped forward and opened them.

Rachel followed him inside, remembering the times she'd been here with Severus and trying hard not to remember the last time she'd been in Malfoy Manor.

"Do we want to deal with House Elves now or later?" Draco asked, his voice wavering ever so slightly.

"Whichever you want," she said. She could feel that she was trembling and she wrapped her arms around her stomach.

"Let's do it now so we at least get one thing accomplished while we're here. "Elves, to me."

There was a small series of pops and six House Elves appeared in a row in the foyer.

One of them knelt on the floor, tears in his eyes. "Miss Rachel Snow. Dobby is sorry. Dobby could not deliver your message. Dobby has been in the Manor for nearly three years now without permission to leave."

"It's okay, I was able to give him the message myself." She turned to Draco. "You haven't been letting them leave the Manor?"

"I didn't realize my parents had stopped any of them from leaving. All of you now are allowed to leave the Manor when you need to," Draco said.

"Thank you, Master Draco," one House Elf said, bowing, the rest echoing and bowing a second later.

"Dobby, you want to be free, don't you?" Draco asked.

"Yes, Master. More than anything," Dobby said, his voice wavering.

"What will you do when you're free?" Draco asked.

Dobby blinked at him a few times. "Dobby would work. Dobby would be a paid House Elf."

The rest of the House Elves shuddered and moaned. "Please, Master. He is not well," the same House Elf who had spoken first said. "He knows not what he's saying. He is a bad Elf."

"It's not bad to want to be free," Rachel said firmly, though she could already see that none of the rest of the House Elves here would take Draco up on his offer to free them. "Dobby, if you wanted, I could employ you. You could live with us, if you wanted to."

Dobby looked between Rachel and Draco with obvious disbelief. "Master Draco would set Dobby free?"

Draco sighed. "If that's what you want, but I think Rachel is pretty much the only person in magical Britain who will offer to pay you."

"I don't think that's true. You don't have to come with us if you don't want to, Dobby," Rachel said, not wanting Dobby to feel like she was his only option. "If you wanted to stay with us though, you could. We have another House Elf there as well, but you'd have some private space. We could pay you thirty Galleons a week. With weekends off, of course. Or more, if you wanted."

The other Elves were moaning and one sat down in a near faint.

"You are terrible at negotiating," Draco told her. "The rest of you can return to your duties. Dobby stay here."

"Thank you, Master Draco," the House Elf who seemed to be in charge said and five of the House Elves disappeared with a pop.

"Dobby could not take thirty Galleons a week. No, no, Miss Rachel cannot." Dobby was shaking his head so hard that his ears were flopping back and forth.

"How much do you want to be paid?" Rachel asked, figuring that was the easiest way to go about this.

"One Galleon a week. And one day a month off," Dobby said after a moment, his eyes wide.

It was Rachel's turn to shake her head. "That's ridiculous. At least ten Galleons a week. And at least two days a month off."

Dobby looked at Draco.

"I'd take it, if I were you. You won't get her to go lower," Draco said.

"Master Draco will set Dobby free?" Dobby asked.

"If that's what you want," Draco said. He pulled his wand and conjured a knit sock. He walked over to Dobby and pushed the sock into his hands. "Dobby, I release you from service to the Malfoy family."

Dobby clutched the sock and sobbed. "Thank you, Master Draco. Thank you."

Rachel watched and wondered how they could find out if more House Elves wanted to be free. If there was one House Elf who did want that, there had to be more somewhere. She vowed to herself that fixing legislation on House Elves was her next task with the Wizengamot after she figured out how to end Azkaban.

"Are you taking Rachel's offer to work for her?" Draco asked.

"Miss Rachel means it? She will pay Dobby?"

"Yes, of course." Between her pay from the Wizengamot and from the Harpies she could more than afford ten Galleons a week. "There's six people living there and another House Elf. Will that be alright?"

"Yes. Then Dobby will work for Miss Rachel. Where should Dobby go?" he asked, wiping his eyes.

Rachel looked at Dobby's dirty pillowcase and thought that would be the first thing she was going to be fixing. "Why don't you get your things and we'll go back to the house together. Draco and I need to do a few things before we can go."

"Dobby does not have anything, Dobby is ready whenever Miss Rachel is ready."

"Okay," she said, though she gave Draco a look.

"What?" he asked.

"Why don't they have anything?" she asked.

"What are they supposed to have?" Draco asked.

"I don't know, things. People are supposed to have things." She didn't know how to explain to him why it was important to be able to have possessions that were just yours, but it was important.

"He's a House Elf," Draco said.

"He's a person. And we will fix this, but you've got to fix it for the other House Elves here too."

Draco shook his head slightly. "You are crazy. Now can we get the files I need and get out of here?"

Rachel nodded. They could have this discussion later when they weren't standing in a place that was seriously freaking her out. "Where are we going?"

"My father's office and hopefully I can manage the wards on it because otherwise we're going to have to ask Bill if he can break in," Draco said. He looked unsettled as he looked around, his eyes wider than usual. "This way."

Rachel followed and became aware that Dobby was following them too. They went down a hallway and Rachel thought she was okay until she recognized where she was and what was behind the closed double doors to her right. "That's the ballroom," she said, the words coming out somewhat strangled.

Draco turned back and nodded. "I need to do something about that. I can't go in there. Not…not after what happened. I can't go in there."

She nodded. "Did you know there's a prison cell in your cellar?"

Draco's forehead crinkled. "We don't have a cellar."

"It's hidden. It's disguised as a fireplace. In a room down there." She sank down to the floor and wrapped her arms around her legs. She felt…she wasn't sure how she felt. Eerily blank. Almost convinced that there were Death Eaters behind those double doors. Kind of like she wanted to cry, but couldn't.

Draco knelt down. "Is this an anxiety attack? Theo said that you had those sometimes."

Rachel shook her head. She then licked at her lips because her mouth and her throat and everything else was painfully dry. "I feel like us being here that night changed everything. There was a separate version of me that got taken that morning in Hogsmeade, and that part of me never came back."

He bowed his head. "I've never heard anyone say it like that, but that's how I see it too. I came home that Sunday night and I left a few hours later a different person. Before I came home, I was still a child. I thought I understood things, but I didn't. And after that…I don't know who I am. I haven't known that since that night."

"I haven't known who I am since I killed the Dark Lord. That was supposed to be it. I wasn't supposed to survive."

"There's no supposed to. There's just what is. Things would be very different right now if all the things that were supposed to be true were. Do you want to leave?" he asked.

Rachel did want to leave, but she also wanted to finish what she started. "Let's go get your stuff then we can both leave." It took longer than she wanted to make her body cooperate. She could still feel herself shaking and she could also tell that something in her mind wasn't quite right. She got to her feet, kept her arms wrapped around herself, and followed Draco down the hallway.

"The wards are gone. I suppose they vanished when he died," Draco said, pushing open a door and peering inside.

They went inside and Rachel watched as Draco moved around, looking a little lost.

"I knew he was dead. I've known for six weeks now. But…" Draco turned around the office. "I'm glad he's dead. I really am."

"It's okay to feel other things about it too," she said, knowing firsthand how complicated it was to have a family member die when things weren't good between you.

Draco shook his head, though his eyes were a little glassy. "No. I'm glad." He moved to one of the walls, used his wand for something, and then cut his thumb and smeared blood on the wall.

Rachel stared, confused until the wall opened to reveal a compartment.

Draco pointed his wand inside the compartment, working silently before he retrieved a folio and a pouch and then resealed the compartment. He shrank the items and put them in his robe pockets. "Let's get the hell out of here. That's as much of Malfoy Manor as I can manage for today. I don't know how I'm supposed to live here."

"You don't have to live here any time soon. And maybe you could do what Sirius did," Rachel suggested as they quickly left the office. She was also very ready to leave Malfoy Manor.

"Hid a bunch of muggles in my attic?"

"No. Remodel. Sirius took out most of the old furniture, cleaned, painted, put up wallpaper, took out the carpet. All of that so it wouldn't look like his childhood home. You should have seen Grimmauld Place the year before you arrived. It was gross."

Draco looked around as they walked. "I suppose I could. I have no idea what I'd want it to look like though."

"It's not something you have to do now. Maybe look at what some other houses look like and get some ideas of what you like."

"Maybe," he said. They went out the front doors, Dobby still silently following them. "I can get us through the anti-apparition wards from here." He offered Rachel her hand and she took it.

"Dobby, can you follow us or do you need the address?" Rachel asked.

"Dobby can follow Miss Rachel."

"He needs to know the secret," Draco said.

"Right," Rachel said, digging in her pocket. Severus had written a note specifically so that they could invite a second House Elf. "Dobby, this is the secret of where we live."

Dobby looked at the note and bowed down so low that his nose touched the ground. "Miss Rachel trusts Dobby with her secret. Thank you, Miss."

"Burn the note, just in case, and let's get out of here," Draco said.

Rachel vanished the note with her wand. "Just meet us there."

A moment later they were back in the kitchen where they found most of their friends gathered around the kitchen table. Dobby appeared a moment later.

"Everyone, this is Dobby. Dobby, this is Millie, Hermione, Neville, and Theo," Rachel said, pointing them each out.

"What in the world is he wearing?" Hermione asked.

"We'll fix it," Rachel said, though she hadn't figured out exactly how she was doing that yet. "Dobby, would you like to meet Kreacher?"

"Dobby is a free Elf," he said firmly. "But yes, Dobby would like to meet everyone."

Kreacher appeared and the two Elves peered at each other.

"Kreacher, this is Dobby. Dobby, this is Kreacher." Rachel watched, not quite sure what to expect.

"Kreacher is Miss's House Elf," Kreacher said, drawing himself as tall as he could.

"Dobby is Miss Rachel's employee," Dobby said.

After a long moment, Rachel decided that was about as much togetherness as they could manage. "Let's show you where you'll be staying. And then we can figure out some clothes for you."

"Clothes? Dobby could wear clothes?"

"Do you want to wear clothes?" Rachel asked, a little surprised. She'd more meant clothes just as a general term for something to cover him. She'd never seen a House Elf in clothes before.

"Real clothes," Dobby said.

Kreacher was pulling on his ears before he disappeared. Rachel decided to follow up with him later.

"We can get you real clothes, though I suppose we can't take you into a muggle shop to shop for children's clothes," Hermione said as she stood.

"We could shrink clothes for him," Millie suggested. "I've got a few things I don't wear anymore."

"So do I," Neville said.

"This should be fun," Theo said, glancing at Draco and looking slightly amused.

Draco shook his head. "Crazy. All of you. Next thing you know he's going to be wearing robes."

"Let's shrink something for now and then get you your own clothes," Hermione said.

"Is that alright?" Rachel asked Dobby.

"Yes, yes Miss Rachel," Dobby said, looking like he was about to cry.

"We can look through our wardrobes," Millie said as she stood.

"Do any of you know how to conjure clothes hangers?" Rachel asked.

"I know that one," Hermione said. "I'll teach you."

They went upstairs as a group and Rachel felt herself relax a little bit. She thought she could get used to this being their home.

---

After dinner they stretched out in the sitting room. They'd already added rugs to their list of things they needed and Hermione wanted a bookshelf for the sitting room as well as the built-in bookshelves for the library.

Hermione had managed to get the television hooked up and had taught everyone how to use the remote. So far the idea of watching the shows the entire way through hadn't yet permeated, so they were mostly switching from channel to channel and watching bits and pieces. The thing that seemed to surprise them the most was the idea that it simply kept going all the time and there would always be something on those channels.

Ginny and Luna were spending the night and everyone had dinner in the kitchen before migrating to the sitting room. Rachel had offered for the House Elves to join them, but both of them had retreated into their room. She hadn't heard any arguments between Dobby and Kreacher yet, though the way they looked at each other was certainly aggressive enough. Rachel was hoping this was a problem that would be solved through time and through Dobby and Kreacher getting to know each other.

Rachel had brought down a book and a piece of parchment with her and was idly making a list of topics she needed to include in her book for muggleborns and their families. She had decided that she needed to figure out what she was writing about before she organized it into similar topics. She had also realized that there were some areas that she needed to know more about before she wrote those sections. Despite sitting on the Wizengamot, she still did not have a great grasp of how their government worked or even all the departments that were in the Ministry.

She had listed things like ghosts and souls together, since that seemed related. Magical creatures had its own section, as did beings that weren't creatures but would still be alarming to muggles. She decided she wanted to do a list called 'Myth or Magic?' at the front of the book, which would give people an overview of what was real and what were things that muggles had made up. She also wanted to do a chapter called 'What to Expect at Hogwarts', though she somewhat suspected her own experiences at Hogwarts might not be representative of most students' experiences.

The part she was less certain about writing was about the war and about prejudice against muggleborns. She hadn't experienced any real prejudice for being a half-blood, even in Slytherin House. The students who would have had a problem with her being a half-blood had much bigger problems with her for being the Girl-Who-Lived. She also wasn't at all sure what to say about the war. It seemed like a significant event that people entering the magical world needed to know about, but she wasn't sure she trusted herself to write about it in a historically accurate way. Her own experiences of the war were different from anyone else's experiences of the war and there was a lot that she couldn't say about it.

On a separate piece of parchment she'd begun another list, this one of things that she thought magical people needed to know about the muggle world. There were a lot more holes in this one where Rachel didn't have that knowledge herself. She had a vague understanding of how the muggle government worked, but it was an understanding based on lessons in her primary school and she was certain it was more complicated than what she understood. She knew that airplanes flew and electronics worked, but she couldn't say why those things worked. She knew that chemistry and physics and muggle medicine worked, but she didn't have enough understanding of the subjects to write about them.

She had crossed out some of the topics as being too confusing. Maybe they didn't really need to know how a television worked so much as they needed to understand what a television did and how to interact with it. And it was unlikely that a magical person would be subjected to muggle medicine, but they should have a concept of what things like pills and surgery and casts did so that they weren't confused if they were brought up in conversation.

Rachel wondered if she could find out what textbooks were usually assigned for muggle studies. Hermione had said that from what she'd seen of her dormmates taking the class that there were a lot of things that didn't come across quite right, but it would be helpful to find out what people were being told.

"What are you working on?" Hermione asked, moving to sit next to Rachel.

"Book ideas," she said, handing the parchment to Hermione.

"Where are you going to fit in writing a book?" Theo asked.

"I'm sure there will be time," Rachel said. Even with the Wizengamot and the Harpies she had more time than she knew what to do with. The aurors would add a significant amount to her schedule, but she thought it would be alright.

"I was kind of thinking," Hermione began, shuffling the parchment to see the other list. "What if we wrote our own OWL and NEWT guides? The ones we studied from were pretty good, but they were missing some of the things that we picked up along the way. Obviously we'd have to find someone to write the subjects that we didn't take, but I think it might be a worthwhile project."

"Could we really do that?" Millie asked.

"I don't see why not. We have all of our notes in our two-way books. It really shouldn't be that much work to convert them to something that other people can use," Hermione said. "Can I use your quill?"

Rachel handed it over as she thought about Hermione's proposal. "It would give us the opportunity to make sure that people know the Patronus charm before the end of their fifth year. And there have been a lot of spells that we've picked up that aren't necessarily on the exams but would be good for people to know. Do you think we could influence History of Magic so it's actually useful?"

"That one would be a big research project," Theo said. "I'm not sure that would so much be an OWL and NEWT guide as it would be rewriting the entire curriculum. I'm not sure that would be two books, that might be five."

"But it would be worth it to fix the History class," Hermione said, now writing rapidly on the back of Rachel's parchment.

"Do all of you just aspire to write books or something?" Draco asked.

"I don't think I'd be a very good book writer," Ginny said.

"I'd like to do a book about creatures," Luna said. "Rachel, maybe you could do the photography for it."

"Sure," Rachel said, though she didn't know where Luna planned on finding the creatures in order to take pictures of them.

"I could see writing a Herbology book," Neville said. "I'd like pictures in it as well, so people could see what the plants are supposed to look like when they're being taken care of properly, and maybe what common ailments look like and how to fix them."

"We could do these things, but there are a lot of books already out there," Theo pointed out.

"But they aren't our books," Luna said.

"And I don't know of any guides for muggleborns and their families," Rachel said.

"I don't either, and I'm sure I would have found one if it had existed," Hermione said. "Can I help with these books?"

"Yes, please. I'm missing a lot of information for them already," Rachel said.

"And all of you can tell us your questions about the muggle world, because if you don't know, then other people wouldn't either," Hermione said.

"I still don't understand what electricity is or how it comes out of the walls," Ginny said, nodding at the television.

"Cars," Millie said. "Why are there so many of them? How does driving them work?"

"Airplanes," Theo added. "Just. Everything about them."

Rachel knew he'd been interested in airplanes after reading a book that had taken place on one.

"Oh and shops, how they get all the different things," Millie said.

"I feel like we're going to be in the library a lot," Hermione said, passing back the pieces of parchment to Rachel. "Is there a magical library that just anyone can access? I miss the Hogwarts library already."

"There is. There's a big one in London and there are a few specialty libraries around the country. Most of the guilds have their own libraries," Draco said.

Rachel perked up. "Can we go?"

"Sure," Theo said. "I think there's a charge to sign up to check out books, but it shouldn't be a lot."

"Are there other things we want to do in the next week, before we start our various programs?" Millie asked.

"We could go to the beach. We're all old enough to apparate there now," Ginny said.

"We could watch a movie," Hermione said. "I'd say we can go see a play, but I'm not sure what's playing or if we can get tickets in that time frame."

"I'd just like to spend time with you before we go back to Hogwarts," Luna said.

"We can definitely do that," Theo said.

Rachel thought that all sounded like fun. She was missing Severus a little bit, but she liked this too.

---

Early on Monday morning Rachel was back at the MLE for an appointment with Madam Bones that she'd made directly after her conversation with the victim's advocate.

"Hey Rachel. Have a good weekend?" Stella asked, looking up when Rachel approached.

"Pretty good. You?" Rachel asked.

"I was here helping prepare for the trials. It's going to be a long two months," Stella said, shaking her head. "You ready to start tomorrow?"

"As ready as I'm going to be." She'd talked it over with Neville and Draco and they'd all agreed that it wasn't going to be pleasant, but that there wasn't really anything they could do about it.

"Just keep in mind that it's the past now and that none of them will have the opportunity to hurt anyone ever again," Stella said. "That's how I'm trying to look at it."

"You seem pretty confident that they'll be found guilty." Rachel had been under the impression that this wasn't a done deal. Everyone had cautioned her that Selwyn might go free.

"For most of them, yes. They were captured at one of the battles, they had the Killing Curse on their wands, and they confessed to killing people under Veritaserum. Some of them confessed to a lot more than that. We have witnesses saying they were captured here doing these things."

"What about the Imperius Curse? Can't they say they were forced to while under the Imperius Curse?" Rachel asked.

Stella shook her head and met Rachel's eyes. "The only reason that defense is possible for Alfred Selwyn was because he had himself memory charmed in advance. None of the other people we've caught were cautious enough to do that. We checked all of them for the Imperius Curse and we asked them in interrogation if they've been under the Imperius Curse. Trying to claim they were after the interrogation won't get them anywhere."

"Can someone be under the Imperius Curse and not know they're under the Imperius Curse?" Rachel asked.

"Not unless you're memory charmed afterward, but then it's best to just erase all of the memories involved. Missing memories are a lot harder to prove than false memories, and even false memories can give us trouble sometimes. Memory work can be difficult stuff. Unspeakable Lloyd is one of only two people the Ministry has specializing in it."

"And it's difficult to cast memory modification spells, isn't it?" she checked.

"Difficult and it's not generally taught. We've got a few people in the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad and in the Obliviators, they take care of stuff that muggles have seen. Otherwise, everyone who has learned that sort of thing legally is in the Unspeakables. As for learning it illegally." Stella paused and shrugged. "Obviously there are people who can do it who we don't want being able to do it, but memory modification is no small matter. The only memory spell that can really be cast quickly is obliviate, and the resulting memory loss will depend on how skilled the caster is. If they're not skilled, you'll lose anywhere from thirty minutes to a day. If they're more skilled and they're a legilimens, they can sometimes select a specific memory to erase. Planting false memories is much more involved and time consuming. You'd have to spend some time with someone for them to do that to you."

Rachel nodded. As much as she didn't want the Death Eaters going free, she also didn't want to see someone innocent sent to prison. "That's good to know. I was supposed to meet Madam Bones this morning, though she didn't give a time."

"You can go on back, she's not with anyone right now and she's expecting you," Stella said.

"Thank you," Rachel said. She went down the hallway and knocked on Madam Bones' door, entering when bidden.

"Rachel, please come in. Have a seat," she said without looking up from her work.

Rachel sat down across from her, watching as Madam Bones folded a missive, tapped it with her wand, and it went fluttering away.

"I understand you spoke with the victim's advocate?" Madam Bones asked, directing her attention at Rachel now.

"I did, and we figured out something that might help. I might have seen Selwyn the night the Dark Lord was resurrected, when he couldn't have been under the Imperius Curse. He would have been summoned there by his Dark Mark and have chosen to respond," Rachel explained. "Unspeakable Lloyd has already examined my memory of the event, along with an auror, I don't remember who, so they've seen it too."

Madam Bones nodded. "When you say you might have seen Selwyn there, what do you mean?"

"Well, they were in their cloaks and masks, so the only Death Eaters I really saw were Peter Pettigrew and Mr. Crouch. The Dark Lord mentioned some of them by their first names, some of them by their last names. For one he just said Selwyn, which I suppose could mean anyone in his family, so there is that. Are there other Sewlyns who are suspected Death Eaters?"

"Not that we know of. We were all surprised when Alfred Selwyn was first placed on a list of suspected Death Eaters and we had nothing to support it until you came to us. Obviously he trusted someone close to him with that information if he was memory charmed to believe he was under the Imperius Curse. While this is not incontrovertible proof, I think we should use it. If Alfred is willing to throw another family member to the wolves and say that it was them at that meeting, then we'll have to deal with that when it happens. You spoke with the victim's advocate about speaking at the trial?"

"Yes. I'm…" Rachel pressed her lips together. She wanted to be able to do this, she just wasn't sure that she could. "I'm working on it. I have an appointment to see him again this week."

"You have some time. You don't have to decide right now. And if you decide not to speak, that will be alright. That is not uncommon at all." Madam Bones looked at her for a long moment. "I do understand what I am asking you to do. During the first war, I spoke for my parents and my brother and his wife and children when they were murdered. The Death Eaters were sent to Azkaban, partially on my testimony."

Rachel looked at Madam Bones for a long moment. "You saw them?" she asked, uncertain if that's what Madam Bones was saying.

"I was on the auror team that responded to the call. This was shortly before we lost the Head of the MLE and I moved into that position while Rufus took the Head Auror position. We fought with the Death Eaters over my family's bodies. We caught four of them. Two others escaped and we do not know their identities. Unfortunately I do not know the identities of those who killed my other brother and his wife this last year. None of the Death Eaters we've interrogated have confessed to that. I'm only grateful that Susan was at Hogwarts at the time, even though the loss has been hard on both of us."

She felt another rush of guilt. "I'm sorry. I should have acted sooner. Maybe if I had, I could have saved more people." She thought of Susan in the weeks after her parents' deaths. She thought of Neville trying to keep his expression steady at his Gran and Great Uncle's memorial service. She might have even saved Draco and Pansy and Theo's parents if she'd acted sooner.

"There was nothing you could do, Rachel. No one was going to ask you to seek out You-Know-Who while you were a student. Honestly, even with the prophecy, I did not wish you to seek him out at all as I did not see how you could survive. Albus seemed so certain that Rufus and I agreed to his plan, but only because we couldn't see any other path forward."

"We were ready for months. I was trying to get the Dark Lord to agree to meet with me, but he wouldn't. I should have just gone to him." Looking back, she wasn't sure why she hadn't. Maybe she'd been more afraid to die than she'd believed.

"I'm glad that you didn't. The Unspeakables may like to meddle with time and causality, but I do not. I fear any event out of order may have not allowed your return to cause You-Know Who's death."

Rachel looked at her, reading both loss in Madam Bones' eyes and compassion. "There's no fixing it, is there?"

"No, there's not. I have to believe that despite what happened, this is the best possible outcome. To be frank, it is a better outcome than I was expecting. We were making preparations to move to a Ministry in exile. Given the way events were unfolding, we were fortunate. Britain would not have lasted another month for the election. We lost a great many people that day, but the only path forward is forward."

Fortunate. Were they? Fortunate that the war was mostly over, maybe. Fortunate that she'd killed the Dark Lord and that she'd been able to come back to do so. But Rachel couldn't find it in her to see that day as anything but a tragedy for everyone involved.

"We will persevere. The best way we can honor those who we've lost is to live well," Madam Bones said.

Rachel nodded. She knew her parents wanted her to live and have a good life. "I'll do my best."

"I'm sure you will. I'm told you are involved in a wide number of things."

"Not that many," she said.

Madam Bones raised an eyebrow but didn't comment. She picked up an envelope and handed it to Rachel. "These will be sent out tomorrow, but since you are here today I thought I would hand deliver it."

Rachel accepted the envelope. "The decision about the auror team?"

"Yes. Robards was persuasive and after your performance Shacklebolt and I are convinced that you will not be a liability in the field. Congratulations."

"Thank you," Rachel said, feeling a little flutter in her chest. They had accepted her. She had almost convinced herself that they wouldn't. Oh. And now she had to tell Severus. She was not looking forward to that conversation. "There was one other thing the victim's advocate said to me that I wanted to check with you about."

"What's that?"

"He suggested that I speak with Professor Dumbledore and Wizengamot Member Davies. He seemed to think I could convince them of Selwyn's guilt."

"If you feel prepared to do so, I think it would be wise. Albus will likely vote against Selwyn regardless, but as a courtesy we should speak with him. If anyone can convince Davies, it will be you, not me," Madam Bones said.

"Do you think that I can?" she asked.

"Ethan Davies values honesty and forthrightness, especially in Wizengamot members. You going to him and telling him directly what you know about Alfred Selwyn will strike a chord with him, particularly as he often gets overlooked in the larger political schemes of the Wizengamot. And he will spread that news to the rest of the guild seats in the Wizengamot. They don't always vote together, but they will at least listen to him and believe him. Ethan Davies is our best chance of sending Selwyn to Azkaban."

"Okay, I guess I'll speak with him." As soon as she figured out what exactly she was going to say. Maybe she should talk that over with the victim's advocate first. He might know how to put things.

"Anything else I can do for you today?" Madam Bones asked.

"No, thank you. And thank you for being willing to meet with me. I know I've been here a lot this month," Rachel said, knowing that Madam Bones was a very busy woman.

"No, I'm glad that you are committed to this. There would be no sense in pursuing this trial if we were not all working towards this. Please make another appointment if you wish to speak with me about anything."

Rachel stood, recognizing the dismissal. "Thank you," she said again and let herself out of the room. She waved to Stella as she passed, left the MLE, went down the hall, into the Wizengamot chambers, and then into her office.

It was quiet, which was nice, and Rachel settled into one of the chairs facing her grandfather's portrait. "Hi Monty."

"My favorite granddaughter," Monty said.

"I'm your only granddaughter."

"Then it wasn't a very difficult competition, now was it?" Monty asked with a smile.

Rachel couldn't help but smile back for a moment. "Monty, did you ever have to testify before the Wizengamot? Like in a trial?"

"No, it was never necessary for me to do so. It's very uncommon for a member of the Wizengamot to speak during a trial. Is this something you're being asked to do?"

She nodded as she looked at Monty. Monty didn't know a lot of things about her. In fact, Monty knew almost nothing about her. That was kind of nice. She wanted to just be his granddaughter and not some tragic person to be pitied and coddled. "Did you prepare my dad for taking the Snow family seat?"

"Not directly, no. James attended the dinner parties, as all children of the Wizengamot do when they reach a certain age, but I had intended to live another twenty or thirty years longer than I did. I wasn't expecting James to take the family seat until he was in his forties at the earliest. It's uncommon for anyone under the age of thirty to be on the Wizengamot. I am sorry it is being asked of you while you are so young. Now what's this about you speaking at a trial?"

"It's a really long story," she said, though it could probably be summed up in a few words.

"I have nothing better to do than listen. That is what I am here for," he said, settling his robes as he leaned forward.

"You know who I am, right? The Girl-Who-Lived?"

"Yes, I've heard that unfortunate description."

Rachel supposed she should just be happy that no one had tried to change it after she'd killed the Dark Lord. If she had to be called anything, she didn't want it to be the Girl-Who-Killed. "And you know that the Dark Lord wanted me?"

"Yes, I know You-Know-Who and the Death Eaters were after you. Believe it or not, I do listen to what people say."

"Well they captured me. A little over two years ago. I was hurt. There were some people there, Wizengamot members, actually. One is dead. One is going on trial in two months. And I'm supposed to get up and tell the Wizengamot what happened to me. And I'm not sure I can do it."

Monty looked at her steadily. "Victims are not required to speak. There's nothing saying that you have to do this."

"No one is sure that he'll be found guilty. Everyone keeps telling me he might not be. And Madam Bones thinks that we'll have a better chance of him being voted guilty if I testify. And I don't think I can come back to the Wizengamot if he's here. I just can't sit there next to him like nothing happened." Rachel pressed her lips together and blinked a few times. She didn't need to cry over this. She thought she was done crying over this.

"Even so. Do not speak in front of the Wizengamot because someone is asking you to do so. Do it because you believe it is both the right thing to do and the right thing for you to do. If one of those is missing, then don't do it."

Rachel sighed and brushed her hair away from her face. "I'm just tired of people looking at me. And if I do this, how can the rest of the Wizengamot possibly respect me?"

"I think the question you should ask is how the rest of the Wizengamot can respect him, knowing what he has done. You have done nothing wrong here. I do not believe the Wizengamot in my day would have seen weakness in you choosing to speak. They would have seen strength. To speak for yourself takes a great deal of strength, even more so in times like these," Monty said, nodding to himself.

She considered that for a long time. "You really think so?"

"I do. And I see strength in you, Rachel. I see it in you just as I saw it in James, once he'd matured a bit. I think you have already done the necessary maturing. War does have a way of doing that to people."

Rachel could see that. She thought that she and her friends and many of her classmates had grown up rather quickly these last few years. "I guess I just don't know what to say. To the Wizengamot, I mean."

"It's fairly simple, in theory if not in execution. Tell them the pertinent details about what happened and then tell them what the effect of what happened was. For example, this man hurt you while you were captured, and then afterwards you undoubtedly had to recover for a period of time. Obviously you will be more detailed than that, but those are the basic things that they expect from a victim's statement."

There were things about her recovery that she couldn't say either. All of that mess with her mind magic and mental architecture was private. But she could tell them that she couldn't walk for nearly two months afterward. That she'd needed to see a Curse Specialist in order to be able to walk again. That she had tremors that time hadn't cured. She thought she could do that. "Okay."

"Okay," Monty said. "Think about it for a while. Try writing things down. Tell them to yourself in the bathroom mirror. It will grow easier with time and practice."

Considering that's what the victim's advocate had said, Rachel guessed that was probably true. It was just like when she'd been learning to speak at all again. Time and practice.

"You're sure crinkling up a letter there. Bad news?" Monty asked.

Rachel released her hands and found her letter from the MLE all wrinkled. She carefully smoothed it out and opened it. She had made the auror team and was scheduled to begin training next Monday. "No, good news actually. I was accepted into the aurors."

"Didn't I just hear that you were playing for the League? And something about a potions mastery?"

"I am playing for the League, I'm doing that too. And I'll put my mastery off for a year. I'm only joining the aurors to hunt down the rest of the Death Eaters."

Monty shook his head and adjusted his glasses. "You won't do anyone any good by killing yourself."

Rachel raised his eyebrows at him. "I'm not killing myself. I'm just a busy person."

"Pull the other one. I don't suppose there is anyone around to talk sense into you?"

"If it makes you feel better, Severus doesn't want me joining the aurors either."

"Yet you are doing it anyway. What happened to respecting your father's wishes and wisdom? Is that a bygone of another era as well?"

"I do respect Severus, I respect him a great deal, but he doesn't get to make decisions about my life. No one does."

"Ah, and there's James' headstrongness and Lily's stubbornness, all bundled up in five feet of adolescent idiocy."

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Thanks, Monty." She shoved the letter into her pocket and stood. "I'll see you tomorrow. The Death Eater trials start tomorrow."

Monty nodded, somber again. "Take it easy on yourself during these trials. Promise me that at least."

"I will," she promised. Mostly she was going to try to keep herself from thinking about the trials when they weren't actively happening. "Bye."

"Goodbye, dear," Monty said.

Rachel left, feeling a strange combination of guilt and irritation. She knew she could handle this. She didn't understand why everyone seemed to think that she couldn't.