After finally agreeing to let Lucy transfer to Hogwarts, there were many preparations to be made. Ignatius found himself engaged in a lot of back-and-forth communication with Minerva McGonagall, headmistress since the war had ended. He hoped and prayed that the name "Ignatius Prewett" would not raise any alarms for her. He declined to bring Lucy in for an in-person meeting, knowing that McGonagall would certainly recognize his face on sight. Instead he sent her a list of spells Lucy could perform, knowing full well that she was on track or perhaps even ahead for her year.

Their paperwork was processed within a month. By April a second Hogwarts acceptance letter came for Lucy, stating that she was beginning as a second-year transfer student and that she would be sorted upon her arrival in September. A list of required books and supplies was also enclosed.

"What does that mean, sorted?" Lucy asked as she scanned the letter.

"Did I not tell you about school houses?" Ignatius asked.

"You told me Hogwarts was scary and horrible, and you're only letting me go because Mum made you. You didn't tell me anything else."

"Well, Hogwarts has four houses. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house values different traits. Gryffindor values bravery and chivalry. Hufflepuff values hard work and fairness. Ravenclaw values intelligence, and Slytherin values ambition. Now, Slytherin—be careful with Slytherin. During the wizarding war, a lot of bad people came from Slytherin house."

"Like Voldemort?" He'd told the girls enough wizarding stories that they knew the major players in the war.

"Yes, like Voldemort." Ignatius said. "Now, when you get there they'll put you in your house. All the members of a family tend to go in the same house. I was in Gryffindor, and so were my parents."

"The dead ones?"

"Yes, the dead ones. We were a Gryffindor family. It wouldn't surprise me if you ended up there, but I also wouldn't be surprised to see you in Ravenclaw. Now, let me see that supply list." He took the list from her and scanned it. "We've got your cauldron and potion-making supplies, as well as a few of these books. We'll need the rest of the books, and your robes of course."

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

The whole family went for a trip to Diagon Alley in May. Ignatius had picked this date carefully. It was well before the annual Hogwarts supply lists came out, meaning no one else would be buying school supplies today. He was unlikely to see anyone he knew here today. Just get in, buy supplies, get out, and under no circumstances visit the joke shop he was fairly certain was still operating out of number ninety-three.

They slipped in through the Leaky Cauldron and out to the brick wall, where he took out his wand and tapped the bricks. They shifted into an archway, revealing Diagon Alley.

It was all exactly as he remembered it. All the brightly lit shop windows, the colorful displays, the witches and wizards in their cloaks and hats scampering around selling their wares. It was like the war had never even happened. A wall to his left was covered in posters, one advertising a children's quidditch league and another advertising bezoars—new and improved, as if one could improve a bezoar. Ignatius felt a pang in his throat. He half-expected to find his mother over his shoulder, carrying several supply lists at once and trying to keep track of all her children. He half-expected Oliver Wood to be at his other shoulder, ogling racing brooms and babbling on about quidditch. He shook his head. That was a time that was over, a world he'd given up on. He was here with his daughters today.

Lucy was gazing around the alley, her mouth slightly open. "Dad, why didn't we come here last year?"

Ignatius shrugged. "It was easier to do an owl-order last year, since we only needed books." His daughters, rapt with wonder, ran down the alley ahead of him, pointing out colorful window displays and funny signs and racks of cauldrons for sale. He couldn't help but feel a little guilty about keeping all of this from Lucy. Hadn't he loved Diagon Alley as a child? Diagon Alley was a nearly sacred tradition in the childhood of every wizard, and here he was making sure Lucy had missed out on a year of it. But then, there were much worse things a parent could do to their children.

"Dad!" Both girls were peering in the window of Quality Quidditch Supplies. "The Nimbus Cloudchaser!" Molly pointed excitedly at the window. "Look, it's so fancy! Can I have it, please please please?"

"Absolutely not!" Ignatius thundered in his scariest Dad Voice. "You're not allowed a broom! And why any child of nine needs a broom that goes a hundred kilometers per hour is utterly beyond me!"

"Can I have it, then?" Lucy asked. "I'm the one going to school, and I'm allowed to have a broom at school."

"Certainly not. There are school brooms you can use if necessary. And no one in this family needs anything from the Nimbus brand. Those are for teenage boys with ego problems. Come on now, we've got a lot of things to buy."

For the next hour, the Prewetts puttered around Diagon Alley like busy little worker ants. Lucy had to be fitted for robes at Madame Malkin's, had to buy new books at Flourish and Blott's, had to refill her supply of potion ingredients, and even got an owl at the end of it all so as to keep in contact with her parents. Finally, purchases complete, they sat down at Fortescue's for ice creams.

"I think that's everything." Ignatius held up the supply list and checked off all the items they'd bought. "Double-check, Lucy, but I think we got it all." He passed the list to her. "Well, are you excited to start?"

"I don't start until September." Lucy said. "I have to put up with homeschool for another month, and then it's summer. But I am excited. Why couldn't I go before? What's so terrible about this school that you had to keep me home for a year? Hannah loves it there, so it can't be all bad."

"Well, it's a long story." Ignatius turned to Molly. "Molly, would you like to look at some more shops? Mum can take you." Audrey nodded and pulled Molly away. They'd agreed that it was time for Lucy to learn more about the family, but Molly was still too young to know.

"You know, I went to Hogwarts back in the day." Ignatius began rather awkwardly.

"I know." Lucy was unimpressed.

"And since you're going now, I feel it's important that I tell you a bit more about the wizarding world, and the reason I'm not part of that world anymore."

"Ok."

"Well, I went to Hogwarts. You know this. But then I left the wizarding world behind and chose to live as a muggle."

"Are you finally going to tell me why?" Lucy asked. "The wizard world is so cool! You kept this hidden from me my whole life, but it's so cool! Why would you give this up?"

Ignatius sighed. "Well, it has problems. You know about Voldemort, right? He had this idea that pure-blooded wizards were the best, and muggle-born wizards like your friend Hannah shouldn't be allowed to participate in our world. There's no real difference between pureblood and muggleborn wizards. It's just a lie purebloods tell themselves to feel superior. Anyway, Voldemort tried to eradicate muggleborn wizards and he would kill anyone who stood in his way. I knew so many people . . . teachers, friends, family, who died in the war."

"My grandparents." Lucy said.

"Right." He plugged on, trying not to look too closely at her face. He'd lied to her, to her sister, to Audrey so many times that it only barely panged his conscience. "They're dead, yes. And you know about your uncles?"

"Dead Uncle Fred, Alive Uncle George." Lucy recited. "And we don't talk to Uncle George. But you never tell me why we don't talk to him! I was beginning to think he didn't really exist!"

"Well, now you're old enough to hear about that."

"Really?" Lucy sat forward, suddenly interested.

"Well, Uncle Fred died in the war, along with my parents. Uncle George and I didn't get along well after the war. We were both grieving, but we grieved in different ways. One day we got into a fight and he said some very nasty things to me, and we parted ways. We haven't spoken since."

"Oh. That's it? What did he say?"

"That will wait until you're even older." Ignatius said. "It's not a pretty story, and it's not something a twelve-year-old should hear."

"So I can't go to wizard school because your brother was mean to you one time?"

Ignatius flinched. The reason he'd left was much, much bigger than that, and Lucy had trivialized it to something the same size as one of her petty sibling arguments with Molly. It wasn't her fault, of course. She didn't know. Even he did tell her about the argument with George some day, she would never know the role her grandfather had played in it all. More and more lately, Ignatius was feeling constricted by the web of lies he'd woven. "It's a little more complicated than that." He spoke gently, trying to assuage the frightened look on her face. "I didn't want to stay in the wizard community because there were too many reminders of the people I'd lost. Also, I wanted a new start after cutting off your Uncle George. There aren't a ton of wizards in Britain, and they all know each other. It's much easier as a muggle. You can disappear into the crowd."

"Anyway, the reason I'm telling you all this is to explain why your mum and I didn't want to send you away to school at first. The wizarding world looks all fun and bright and colorful, but it's got a lot of horrible stuff under the surface. Lucy, I need you to promise me something, ok?"

"Yeah?"

"If you hear or see anyone doing something suspicious at school, you tell someone, ok? Go to the headmistress, Professor McGonagall. She's by far the most competent teacher at that school. If anyone's engaging in dark magic or discriminating against muggleborns, you need to tell an adult immediately. Second—you might meet people who know me. You might meet people who look down on me for turning my back on the wizarding world. If anyone tries to give you crap because you're my daughter, you need to tell me right away, understand? People can dislike me all they want, but you haven't done anything. I need you to promise me, ok?"

"Ok." Lucy muttered. "I promise."

Ignatius sighed in relief. "Good. I didn't want to let you go off to school before we'd covered Alive Uncle George and the problems in the wizarding world. Anyway, though, there are good people there too. Two people at school you can turn to are your Head Boy and Head Girl. Every year two upstanding students are chosen for these rules, and they are responsible for guiding new students and upholding a standard of conduct. I was Head Boy myself back in the day." Ignatius couldn't resist puffing up with pride.

"Ok." Lucy muttered, clearly unimpressed.

"Your Head Boy and Head Girl are role models. You should seek them out and aspire to be like them." He thought Lucy was certainly prefect material, though whether she was Head Girl material remained to be seen.

"Ok." Lucy said again. "Dad, are you going to tell Molly about our alive uncle?"

"Someday. When she's old enough. Probably when she's ready to go to school."

"And are you going to make her do a year of homeschool like you did to me?" Lucy's tone was accusatory. She glared at him, her spoon in one hand. Ignatius ought to have answered her right away, but he took a moment to stare at her, her brown eyes and her freckles and the pink clip in her hair, trying to remember his little girl before she went off to school and came back changed. "Err, maybe." he finally said. "We'll make that decision when the times comes."

Lucy glared into her empty cup and looked like she wanted to say more, but at that moment Audrey and Molly came back. "Daddy, Daddy!" Molly bounded toward him. "Mummy got me a trick wand!"

"A what?"

"A trick wand! You leave it out somewhere, then when someone picks it up it makes a squeaking sound and turns into a giant mouse! I'm gonna leave it on your desk!"

"Wonderful." Ignatius groaned. Turning to Audrey he asked, "Where did you go shopping?"

"Some little place down that way. A joke shop. Weasley's Wizard Whizzes, I think it was called?"

"Weasley's Wizard Wheezes?" Ignatius jolted in surprise. He ought to have warned her not to set foot in there. But he couldn't do that without unraveling his carefully constructed web of lies.

"Why, do you know that store?" she asked.

"Err . . . sort of. It caused a lot of trouble when I was in school. Lucy, you're not to buy anything from there, understand?"

"I understand." she grumbled. "Hey, Molly, let me see that trick wand."

"Well. Books, robes, new potions ingredients, an owl, several ice creams, and one trick wand. I think that's everything."

Audrey nodded. "We should probably get going. Don't look so sad, Molly. I'm sure we'll be back next year and you can buy more trick wands then. And the year after that, I believe you'll be starting. Do I have that right, 'Natius?"

"My god, you do." Ignatius said. "She'll be eleven in two years." He could almost handle the idea of Lucy going off to school. He couldn't picture Molly, who seemed so much younger and more innocent, going away to that place. He nodded grimly and led the way back to the Leaky Cauldron, trying to quiet the bubbling cauldron of dread in his stomach. Keeping Lucy at home kept her safe, but it had also been eroding his relationship with her. Sending her away meant she might run into untold dangers, but she would still love him. Either way, he would have to lose some small part of the girl he'd known. He supposed it was inevitable as she grew up.

Author's note: Percy seems to be having a hard time with all the lies he's told his family. Those lies might come back to bite him in the butt at some point . . .