Cassie wasn't entirely surprised when she stepped through the floo to find Albus's office unoccupied. It was virtually identical to the last time she'd been here, for one of the regular little lunches with him and Violet, only ever shifting in the minor details. Some of the chittering and clicking enchanted devices he had sitting around were either in different places or were entirely new — it was impossible to tell, the chaos was so inscrutable that she couldn't identify what exactly had changed, simply that something had. The stacks of papers and books on his desk were ever-shifting as correspondence and documentation and journals came and went, never looking quite the same between one visit and the next. A few of the bottles in his liquor cabinet had been replaced, she spotted the cider brandy she'd sent for his birthday a couple months ago, roughly a third of it missing. That wasn't from his favourite mill, she'd found a place on the Continent that had a whole complex ritual and alchemical process in the growing and the harvest and the fermentation and the distillation, she'd have to remember to ask what he thought of it...

And the room was even entirely unoccupied: Fawkes wasn't here at the moment. He must be taking a look over the Valley — he'd considered himself something of a guardian of the Hogsmeade for hundreds of years now, he could sometimes be spotted flying around, phoenix song faintly drifting down out of the sky. There were rumours of him randomly appearing out of nowhere to help a resident out of a tight spot, or miraculously heal a deadly wound or illness, countless local legends dating back centuries.

Even though she had written ahead to arrange their meeting tonight, she couldn't say she was entirely surprised Albus was late. Between his responsibilities as Headmaster, and as Chief Warlock, and as Supreme Chancellor, he was extremely busy — the Office of the Chief Warlock was responsible for a variety of legal matters, some business at the Ministry must have kept him long. He'd turn up.

Cassie was idly scanning over the bookshelves when, perhaps ten minutes after their appointed meeting time, the flames in the hearth flared green and Albus stepped into the room. "Ah, Cassie, good evening. I apologise for the delay." He shrugged off his cloak, sent it floating off toward a nearby coat rack with a flick of his fingers. "It seems staff meetings at the Office drag on progressively longer by the day, lately."

There may have been a faint note of accusation on his voice — she had started all this, by insisting on an interview for Sirius. Not that he truly blamed her, of course, they'd already discussed the matter, but there was no denying that the mess at the Ministry was putting additional stress on his already overburdened schedule. "Don't mind me, Albus, I'm not in any rush. Was it the Trent affair this time?"

Albus grimaced, then let out a heavy sigh. "I would ask how you could have guessed such a thing, but I suppose Cornelius and Amelia are keeping you informed. I suspect these proceedings will continue for years."

"Better late than never."

"I don't disagree, but this is a most inconvenient time, given other projects I had been in the midst of. I don't wish to complain that the truth has finally begun to win out, of course, but I do worry something may slip through my fingers while I'm preoccupied." He glanced away for a second, his expression turning stiff and cool — if Cassie had to guess, contemplating how Sirius himself had once slipped through his fingers in a similarly complex political moment — before turning back to her with a weak smile. "Regardless. Have a seat by the fire, if you like, I'll be by in a minute..."

A few moments later, and Cassie and Albus were seated at armchairs before the fire, glasses of cider brandy in hand and a plate of chocolates sitting on the table between them. The brandy was from the bottle she'd sent him, though it seemed it wasn't for her — the unique production process had left a faint echo of light magic on it, a vague tingly burn against the sensitive skin of her mouth. (A very different kind of burn than from mundane alcohol, hot and numbing.) Albus said he quite liked it, and discussing what they knew of the magic that'd gone into it at least gave them a neutral, safe topic to discuss while they settled in.

Ultimately, Cassie gave up on the light magic -tainted brandy, dumped most of hers out into Albus's glass and poured herself a measure of armagnac instead. It was good Albus liked it, though, she would be sure to send along the mill's information...though it might be a little pricey for him, honestly.

After a short diversion discussing progress on wedding plans — summer, it was looking like — Albus said, "Well, I shouldn't want to keep you from your young fiancée too long."

She rolled her eyes at the faint teasing note on his voice — yes, Síomha was quite a bit younger than her, shockingly enough he was not the first person to note that. "I'm in no rush, Síomha has alchemy work she wanted to do today anyway. We were planning on a very late dinner. But I'm certain you have far too much work piled up, we can move straight on to what I wanted to ask you about."

"Ah yes, the eternal struggle against paperwork. It will be waiting for me no matter how long we take, but I suppose I should find my way to bed at some point tonight. You had a concern related to the school, something Violet wrote to you about?"

"Three points," she said, holding up that many fingers before reaching fo the plate of chocolates.

"Nobody has been giving her too much trouble over the controversy surrounding Sirius, I hope — I've heard Hufflepuff made a Decision on the matter."

"Yes, I heard about that." By the phrasing in her most recent letter, Violet had seemed rather embarrassed that everyone was making so much of a fuss about her, but Cassie was pleased that Hufflepuff was taking such care to look after her. Not that it was any surprise, of course, given her position in British culture, but all the same. "Let's start with the easiest one. Albus, what the fuck was a troll doing rumbling around inside of the school?" She popped the chocolate into her mouth, settled back into her chair with a challenging raised eyebrow.

Albus let out a heavy sigh. "I suggest we come back to that issue — I suspect it will be related to at least one of your other points."

...All right, then. "Were you aware your Defence Professor has been legilimising students?"

A funny hard flare of heat breaking over her skin, Albus straightened in his chair — suddenly sitting firm and taut, like he meant to leap into motion, his eyes wide. "Has he? How do you know this?"

"I enchanted a mind-shielding amulet for Violet years ago, she's worn it ever since as a matter of habit." Cassie tactfully didn't say that she'd enchanted it ahead of Albus's first meeting with her, on the chance that he'd decide to do something foolish. If he realised that, he didn't react in any way. "It's never been broken, but she can feel a faint tingle when it's tested. She mentioned that it goes off almost any time she's in a room with the bastard."

Violet had failed to bring this up until her most recent letter, and only in passing, as an aside while talking about other people at the Castle she didn't like being around. (Lucretia and Cedrella's shared grandson Ronald was perhaps her most frequent irritant, amusingly enough — when she'd mentioned him over tea a couple weeks ago Cedrella had made a frustrated face and changed the subject.) If the man had been trying so persistently to get into her head for so long, she couldn't imagine why Violet hadn't thought it was worth bringing to Cassie's attention until now, over two full months into the term. Síomha had suggested that Violet didn't quite understand just how terrifying of a threat mind mages could be, and had maybe thought that it wasn't worth mentioning until she had reason to suspect that the amulet was failing to protect her. If she wasn't being hurt, then obviously the amulet was working as intended, so there was no reason to tell Cassie about it, right?

After talking through it for a couple minutes, she'd been forced to admit that that seemed very much like something Violet might think. She was glad she'd spoken to Síomha about it before sending a reply — she might have been much harsher in her admonishment to tell her about this sort of thing next time if Síomha hadn't reasoned it out in Violet-logic for her first.

"...I see." Albus's eyes flicked away from hers for a couple seconds, bushy brows furrowed in thought. "Do you have any reason to believe Quirinus has been intruding upon the minds of any of the other students?"

"No, but Violet didn't even tell me about it until recently — incidentally, like it wasn't anything to be concerned about, the silly girl. I think it's safe to assume he might be."

"I will investigate. How reliable is this mind-shielding amulet of yours? Would it be safe for Violet to continue attending class with him in the meanwhile?"

"It should be, I suppose. I was quite thorough, and it will draw power from Violet like a focus in an emergency. It's possible to crack, of course, no security is perfect, but she will certainly notice if it does — everyone else in the room at the time would as well, I suspect. But Albus, you can't expect her to learn anything from a professor who is actively assaulting her mind! He may not be succeeding, but that's hardly the point!"

The hard tension dribbling out of his body, Albus sank back into his chair. Staring up at the ceiling, firelight from the hearth playing off the lenses of spectacles, he grumbled, "Unfortunately, there is very little I may do. I'm certain you realise how difficult it is to satisfactorily prove inappropriate use of mind magic — especially when the assault is successfully resisted."

Cassie grit her teeth, struggling to hold in a hiss of frustration. That was, of course, very true — many expression of mind magic left absolutely no traces whatsoever, and there was even less likely to be anything detectable when a mind, like Violet's, was so thoroughly protected. There'd been a number of cases involving mind mages over the course of her career in the Aurors, and they were always incredibly frustrating for that reason. It would be Violet's word against his, and whatever authority they'd be bringing the matter to wouldn't realise that she was incapable of lying, so accusations from her should be taken more seriously than the claims of an average child her age.

"It would be practically infeasible to begin any legal proceeding. And even were we to rectify the situation internally, so long as Violet's mind remains protected, there is very little I may do to remove Quirinus from his position. I think you may not realise how terribly difficult it has become to find anyone to accept the Defence Professorship — the Board will be extremely reluctant to dismiss him without due cause. Should he harm a student — and I will begin investigating whether he has intruded upon anyone else's mind, so we may soon have proof that he has — then I may be able to convince the Board to take action. But it will be a difficult prospect, especially so early into the academic year."

...Also a good argument, unfortunately. "Quirrell may not be getting into her head, but she finds his attempts very distracting. Between that and his stammering, I suspect she's not learning anything at all in that class." Violet wasn't enthusiastic about that particular subject matter, so she wasn't likely to get anywhere studying it independently either.

"I will speak with Pomona about having Violet excused from Defence. She may be able to assign a mentor — a NEWT student with a light class load, perhaps — who can ensure Violet is learning what she is meant to despite not attending lessons. Would that be acceptable?"

"I... Well, yes, that would be much better." Honestly, she hadn't expected Albus to so quickly agree to simply excuse Violet form classes — his abrupt capitulation was somewhat suspicious, in fact. If she had to guess, he'd already had other issues with this Quirrell, and was simply trying to arrange things such that the obviously unsuitable professor would be able to last through the year. As Lady Black, Cassie could make Albus's job as Headmaster quite difficult if she truly wished to, so perhaps giving her what she wanted and calling it a day was the easiest option, despite standing Hogwarts policy that individual students were not to be given special treatment. "Dora plans to give Violet some practical self-defence lessons already, it may be simplest to have her take care of it all."

"My understanding is that Miss Tonks has quite a full course load — she may not have the free time necessary to ensure Violet is learning everything on the curriculum. But I will leave the decision up to Pomona."

"Very well. So long as Quirrell isn't mistreating the other students, simply pulling Violet out of Defence class will be satisfactory. Thank you, Albus."

"Of course. As to your final point, I suspect I could guess what it is, but I would like to hear what you have heard."

"A fucking fully-grown cerberus? stuck in a corridor on the third floor?"

Albus nodded, the motion making his beard bunch up against his chest before releasing again. "Has any rumour of what is beyond the cerberus reached Violet?"

...Or perhaps he'd caved on Defence class so easily because he'd hoped Cassie would then be in a mood to be more charitable over whatever the fuck was going on here — she'd been hoping he would laugh off the idea of a cerberus being kept in the school as ridiculous. "She hasn't checked for herself, but she's heard that it's guarding a hatch of some kind. The speculation among the older students is that you've put the cerberus there to guard something, which is obviously absurd. A cerberus would only protect anything from people who have absolutely no ability to hold a tune."

"A cerberus would only be considered a poor option for a guard if it were meant to succeed."

Cassie blinked. "...What?"

"Over the summer, Nicolas informed me that it appears someone has designs on his Stone." She felt her eyebrows crawl up her forehead — he meant Nicolas Flamel, and his famous Philosopher's Stone. That would be one hell of a prize, of course, she was certain it was almost always under threat of being stolen. "There were multiple attempts to break into his and Perenelle's private home, some suspicious details suggesting to Nicolas what it is the thief seeks. I convinced Nicolas that his Stone may be safer here at Hogwarts, where it may be under constant guard. As busy as Nicolas and Perenelle are with their various projects, they hardly have the time to dedicate to keeping an eye out for interlopers at every hour of the day — however, it is very difficult for one to come and go here without being noticed. The goal is to capture the thief, and attempt to determine why, precisely, they are so determined to get their hands on the Stone. Perenelle would also like to know how the location of their private home was discovered in the first place, as that is hardly public knowledge."

"So, it's a trap," she said. "Whatever there is through that hatch under your cerberus, it's meant to hold this thief of yours."

"To slow him down long enough to be certain the intrusion will be discovered, and to draw him so deeply into the school that it will become impossible to escape, yes. I am also working on an enchantment which will disarm and bind the thief there to be safely interrogated, but I haven't finished the necessary work for that yet. Until I do, I am keeping the Stone on my person — as skilled as this thief may be, I think it's safe to assume he would hesitate to attack me directly."

"...Really?"

One of Albus's eyebrows ticked up. Setting his brandy aside, he reached into the folds of his robes and retrieved a small ceramic box. The box was flicked open, he plucked out a sizeable gemstone — deep vivid red, frosting white toward the edges, rectangular, the smaller sides perhaps an inch wide and the long edges as much as twice that. Cassie had never seen a photograph of the Stone — the Flamels had been quite cautious with securing their treasure for longer than cameras had existed — but she had read descriptions, and what she was looking at now seemed like a reasonably fair match. Just, Mercy, she never would have thought...

Her eyes fixed on the Stone, she frowned — there was something off about that thing. The feeling she was getting was only faint, the Stone too far away to clearly pick out through the magical noise filling Albus's office. She was tempted to start tossing analysis charms, but she suspected Albus would hide it away before she'd be able to get a good look.

(It felt almost alive, its aura more spiritual than alchemical.)

Albus returned the Stone to its container — any hint of its magical presence abruptly cut off when the lid was clicked shut again, the box must be isolated to conceal it — tucked it back into its spot in his robes. "As powerful and wise as Nicolas and Perenelle are, they are concerned that the thief managed to locate their home at all — Perenelle's wards should have prevented anyone from being able to approach even that close without an invitation. Nicolas admitted to me that preoccupation with the matter has been distracting from their work since spring. When I offered to draw their assailant to me instead, and to do what I could to discover whatever flaw the thief had exploited, they agreed to allow me to try."

Doing her best not to raise her voice, Cassie said, "Albus, have you forgotten that Hogwarts is a school for children?"

"I assure you, Cassie, the children are perfectly safe."

"You can't possibly be certain of that! You said this person found their way to the Flamels', you have no idea what they're capable of! They're responsible for the troll getting into the Castle, aren't they? That's what you meant, when you said you think it's related to one of my other points."

"I suspect so, yes," he agreed with infuriating equanimity, giving her a slow, unconcerned nod.

"And how did he get a troll into the Castle anyway? Or, how did he do it without you noticing — shouldn't the wards have alerted you, at least?"

"They should have, yes — our thief clearly has a talent for subverting divining elements of all sorts. However, while it is concerning that a troll was slipped into the Castle at all, it is important to keep in mind, I feel, that no student was harmed. No student ever even saw the troll."

"It was a fucking mountain troll, Albus!" her voice coming out in a half-strangled hiss. "That nobody was harmed was a bloody miracle — when you're responsible for this many young people, you can't depend on luck!"

Still speaking low, calm, he said, "I realise you are frustrated, Cassie, but do take a breath and try to consider the implication. A troll was snuck into the Castle, while the students were all out of bed — it was within these walls for hours, and not a single student even saw it. How likely do you think it is such a thing may come about by chance?"

...Not very likely, honestly. That thought was interesting enough for Cassie to be drawn out of her ire, relaxing back into her chair and stalling with a couple slow sips of her brandy. The Castle was large, and the student population relatively small — much smaller than it'd been in her time, though it would begin picking up again soon, thanks to the spike of births following the war — but the areas that students frequented were woven through the entire building. Not every room or corridor was in use, but every floor and wing was, virtually every segment of the structure seeing at least occasional through-traffic — and further, even back in her time students had a habit of sneaking off to find private places to read alone, or work on illicit potions or enchantments, or snog. And a troll was hardly likely to sit still, no, it seemed practically impossible that no student would even see it.

Unless, of course, whoever had release the thing had meant for no student to encounter it.

"It was Samhain, wasn't it?" she asked, after a few moments of silence. "The troll, it was released while all the students were at the holiday feast." That was the only possibility she could think of — any other time, there would still be a few students off doing who knew what, but on that one particular evening every single person in the Castle could be expected to be in the Great Hall. Or making some private observance of the holiday, she supposed, but those would be done in their dormitories, which would be secured from a troll by other means regardless.

"Precisely. It was set loose in the middle floors, perhaps the third or fourth, far away from the Great Hall or the student dormitories. Quite close to the professors' apartments, as it happens — I suspect the staff would have encountered the troll on the way to their rooms after the feast even without any warning as to its presence. The timing and the placement cause me to suspect that our thief meant to avoid any harm coming to the students. I believe he means to avoid drawing too much official attention to the school, as that may well complicated his effort to reach the Stone."

...Reasonable. That was somewhat reassuring, honestly — someone who could beat both the wards of Hogwarts and wards set by literally Perenelle Flamel was likely to be a serious threat, but causing too much damage might bring Hit Wizards to the school, which would make any attempt to steal the Stone practically impossible. Even if this thief were the sort who might harm a child, if it were in their interest, it seemed doing such a thing would be quite firmly against their interest, and they'd already proved capable of careful planning to avoid doing so. Keeping the bloody Stone here in the school, when he knew for a fact someone was trying to steal it, suddenly seemed only moderately insane. "Without any warning, you said, so you did have warning?"

"Yes, but not from the wards. Quirinus burst into the Great Hall well after the feast had begun to warn us that there was a troll in the dungeons."

"Quirrell did? But you said a second ago it was found—" She blinked. "It was a distraction. He directed you down to the dungeons to prolong the search."

"Ah ha," Albus huffed, grinning behind his beard, "I see your deductive skills have atrophied not at all during your retirement. Yes, I believe it was a distraction. Quirinus has a certain gift with trolls — I suspect our thief cast some magic to hide the troll from the wards, Quirinus guided it into place, and then made his dramatic entrance to the feast and pointed us in the wrong direction."

"If you think Quirrell is involved, then why is he still teaching? Just interrogate him, and get this farce over with."

"I'm sorry, Cassie, but that would not solve the problem. Perenelle wishes for me to discover how the thief circumvented her wards. Quirinus is not the thief, merely working with them — and if Quirinus is captured and interrogated, the thief will simply flee, taking Perenelle's answers with them."

...That was, unfortunately, also a good point. "And you are certain that Quirrell himself is not the thief."

"Absolutely certain — Quirinus simply does not have the cursebreaking skill necessary. And besides, I know for a fact that, when the first attempt to penetrate Perenelle's wards occurred, Quirinus was visiting a werewolf colony in Austria. I arranged his entry to the country myself, I am certain he was there, and so he could not have been at the Flamel's home in Aquitania."

Cassie let out a long, heavy sigh, slumping limply deeper into her chair. "I hate that this madness of yours almost makes sense."

"I'm sorry to disappoint you," he said, with a low rumbling chuckle. "Perhaps I may visit over Christmas — I'm sure I can manage to behave especially unreasonably for a few days."

"Mm. We're adopting Síomha into the Family over winter break, and there will be a proper betrothal ceremony as well, at her family's church. A Christian practice, apparently, I wasn't familiar with it before. Christmas should be a family affair this time around, with Sirius newly free, but I might be able to wrangle an invitation to the betrothal. Or maybe you could visit over New Year's."

"I'll have to see what my schedule looks like. Do you know when the betrothal will be?"

"Not yet, I'll send you a letter when I know more." Cassie drained the rest of the armagnac, set the empty glass down on the table with a heavy sigh. "I'm still not happy about this, you know."

A queer lilt on his voice, perhaps amused, Albus said, "I wouldn't expect you to be. I can't imagine anyone involved in this mess is."

"I suppose. I'm only playing along because you made a good point about the troll, and you're getting Violet away from Quirrell — so long as Violet specifically is not in danger, it's not really my problem anymore." She was arguably responsible for Dora as well — if only because she gave a damn, she didn't actually have any legal obligation — but Dora was skilled enough to take care of herself. It wasn't necessary for Cassie to make a scandal of this for her. Jabbing at him with a warning finger, she hissed, "Do not make me regret this. If I later find out that you did find evidence Qurrell has been assaulting the minds of other students, and did nothing about it, or if one of the children ends up being hurt before all this is over, I will make you regret it."

"Resorting to threats now, Cassie? How very House of Black of you," he drawled, wearing a mild sort of smile. "Besides, you could hardly make me regret allowing one of my students to come to harm any more than I would already."

"I can easily leverage myself into one of the Wizengamot seats on the Board of Governors, with Lucy and Bella's support. Fuck this up, and I will get myself on the Board specifically so I can make your life a living hell."

Albus grimaced. "...Ah. I see. Consider me threatened."

"Good." Pushing herself up to her feet, Cassie said, "I should be letting you get to your work, I suppose. Next time there's a troll rampaging through the school, or whatever such nonsense, do remember to tell me about it. I don't like hearing about these things in a letter weeks after the fact."

"Fair enough," he agreed, curling silvery hair shifting with a nod. "I do apologise, that I might discuss such matters with you slipped my mind — between my usual business, a number of projects I have ongoing, preparing for the thief, and the firestorm at the Ministry sparked off by Sirius's release, I have been very occupied."

"I'm not apologising for Sirius."

There was a flinch, half-hidden behind his beard. "I wouldn't expect you to, of course. I was merely saying."

"I didn't mean to— Never mind." In retrospect she thought he'd taken it as some sort of admonishment, for not doing right by Sirius in the first place — she was just as responsible there as he was. "Until next time, Albus. I'll send along the time and date and for the betrothal as soon as I can."

"Thank you. Tell Síomha hello from me."

"Oh, she'll love that — she's still not used to important people like Chief Warlocks even knowing who she is..."

Not happy with this chapter — sleep continues to be a bitch — but whatever.

Turns out I did get it out before my surgery (which is on the 9th). Will be doing some prep work for the sequel to First Contact, may be some disruptions to my routine due to recovery, and also my parents coming by in a couple weeks. See you when I see you.