No O.W.L.'s

No O. W. L. 's

"It is my thinking that V-V day should be declared a national holiday in the Wizarding World. I'm quite certain that the Muggle Prime Minister will agree. While Muggles won't be joining in our celebrations, the Prime Minister himself should be considered a guest of honor, should he choose to attend," said Harry Potter, Minister of Magic, to his quill. He was leaning back in his office chair, with his feet up on the desk. He rattled off a few more thoughts and then folded the memo into an airplane was just about to throw it when his secretary, Lavender, stuck her head in. "Minister, your house-elf is here!"

Dobby came rushing in and leaped up on the desk. "Master Harry! Master Harry! You must get home quickly! Mistress Kay is very, very distraught!" Dobby was jumping up and down and so frightened Harry could hardly hear him he was talking so fast. Dobby's football shoes, meanwhile, were cracking the glass on Harry's desk.

"What? What is it? What's wrong with Kay?" Something had been wrong with his daughter: she had been doing very badly in elementary spellwork at Hogwarts for three years running, and Ginny, his wife, had been talking about taking Kay to St. Mungo's for an Essence Test, today if he remembered correctly.

"Mistress Ginny and Young Mistress Kay returned from St. Mungo's in such a state!" Dobby was beating his hands on his face. "There was tears, and crying, and shouting, and Dobby wanted to come get you right away, Master Harry. But Young Mistress Kay told Dobby not to." Although Dobby was technically free, he had personally sworn to serve the entire Potter family, and sometimes his loyalty tripped him up. "But then she started to say terrible, awful things about herself until finally Dobby could not obey her any longer."

Harry was on his feet. "What's wrong with Kay? Where is she?" Although now middle-aged, Harry Potter worked at hard at keeping himself fit, and was still capable of astonishing reaction times. Of course, playing on the Ministry Quidditch team helped.

"Young Mistress Kay has locked herself in her bathroom and will not come out!" Dobby swallowed and looked piteously at Harry. "She is threatening to hurt herself!"

Harry looked at the house elf, and then bounded out the door, ignoring the line of petitioners and the frantic calls of his secretary that he was to meet with the Muggle Prime Minister later today. He hurried down to the Apparation chamber, stepped in and willed himself to transport into the family garage. Hurrying into his house he heard the shouting of Ginny. Twelve children had given her a strident voice not unlike her own mother's. He sometimes wondered if Ginny was aware of it.

"Kay, come out of there, now! We love you, Kay. Your father and I will help you!"

"There isn't anything you can do, Mother. No one can!" As Harry bounded up the stairs, he heard the tears in his little girl's voice, and that made him hurry all the more. He rounded the corner, in time to see Ginny gesturing with her wand, but nothing was happening.

"No!" Harry said, seeing steam leaking out from around the doorjamb. "NO!" He leaped at the door and kicked it down with one foot. His daughter was there, amidst wisps of steam, startled in the act of reaching down to her wrist with a razor.

Ginny's wand flashed. "Expelliarmus!" The razor leaped out of Kay's hands, to clatter on the bathroom floor.

Then Harry had his daughter in his arms, and Ginny was there as well, holding their wailing child; horror and frustration ruled their daughter's heart, her shrieks echoing in the room. Five feet away, little Morgan watched in shock and stupefaction.

Two hours later, Mother, Father, and two Daughters were seated at the long dining room table. Photos and pictures of the family watched, none of them speaking.

"I'm a Squib." It was the tenth time she'd said it. "No O.W.L.'s for me!"

"Kay, there is still a life for you in the wizard's world. How could you even think of killing yourself?"

"Didn't you hear what they said? I'm nothing! Little or no magic to speak of!" She looked at herself. "I feel dirty, like I'm some sort of tramp! I don't belong, to anything!"

"You belong," Morgan said, looking at her sister with wide eyes. "We're sisters!"

"You're a member of this family," Harry said, "and that means that you have a place here."

"I just can't do anything like the rest of you." Kay Potter started to cry again.

"You can still do things!" Harry objected, trying to keep his voice calm.

"Like what? Shovel dragon droppings with Uncle Charlie? Fold towels at the Leaky Cauldron? Replace Mr. Filch when he finally drops dead?" She sniffed, and a chorus of tears rolled down her face. "Spend the rest of my life mopping floors for the kids at Hogwarts?" Kay started to cry again. "I'm nothing! I have almost no magic at all!"

Ginny was holding her daughter's hands. "Look at me!" Ginny reached out and turned her daughter's head with one hand under the chin, a gesture she had done with all of her children. "Herbology requires no overt magic; the same can be said of Potions, and you've always done well at that! And you're not alone in this: Tabitha, at the Diagon Alley Apothecary, is a Squib. Did you know that?"

"No," Kay said, her eyes slightly wider than before. Her tears were still stark in her eyes, but she had been shocked out of her misery, if only for the moment. Harry wanted to hold her again, but he caught the warning sign from his wife. Now wasn't the time.

"She's been feeding you rock candy and licorice wands for years, but you never knew that about her? She's a dab hand at potions, but she doesn't need a wand to do that, does she?"

Morgan conjured up a fresh box of tissues for her sister. Harry and Ginny smiled at her.

"And there are other things you can do, my dear." Harry added, forcing a smile. "You've seen how your Uncle Ron reacts when we take the Tube--looking around, and pointing at completely ordinary stuff. I was raised as a Muggle until I was eleven, and I was constantly prodded by wizard-folk and asked ridiculous questions. Your grandfather once asked me what a rubber duck was for! You could be a bridge between the worlds--the Ministry still needs people to work on textbooks and manuals to educate the wizarding world about the Muggle one. Who better to do that than Squibs?" He paused, considering. "At last count I think I had about 20 Squibs on the payroll, doing just that. Plenty of room for more."

Kay sniffed, and Ginny handed her daughter another tissue. Kay dabbed at her eyes, but said nothing.

"It's necessary work, honey."

"Doesn't sound very exciting," she said petulantly.

"If it's excitement you want," Ginny remarked, giving her daughter a game smile, "how does espionage sound?" Kay's eyes gaped. "Your father was watched over by a Squib--a secret one. Employed by the Ministry during the war."

Kay looked at her father. "Really?"

"Yes, Arabella Figg," Harry piped up, accepting a fresh cup of tea from Dobby, who looked at him with a secret smile. He squeezed Dobby's shoulder in thanks. "She was a member of the Order of the Phoenix for several years, and I never knew about it. Her job was to keep an eye on me, and watch for any Dark Magic activity. She lived next door to me, when I was living with the Dursley's, and I never knew she was a part of the wizarding world. Very Top Secret stuff." He sipped his tea and looked intently at his daughter. "You might want to consider that, my dear."

Kay glanced quickly at her mother, exchanged interested glances with her sister, and then looked back at her father. "What do you mean?"

The idea was germinating fast in Harry's head, but the more he thought about it, the more he liked it. "Well, I don't know if I should be saying this, Kay, but," he glanced about, and then leaned in closer, "the fact is, the Ministry is considering a project using low-level wizards and Squibs for...well for something we'd prefer to keep quiet."

Kay, having grown up with the pranks of her older brothers, James and Sirius, looked at him with suspicion. "You're winding me up."

Her father shook his head. "No, I'm not. It's been more than 20 years since Voldemort died, the last great threat to wizardkind. But we at the Ministry are not so foolish as to believe that the threat of Dark Magic is over. No, sooner or later, someone will try to take power again. So, we're getting ready to sow the dark side with ears, listen to the mutterings from underground. Our agents will travel far and wide, and you could someday be one of them. After all, who's going to notice a Squib? I never noticed Mrs. Figg, and she was right under my nose!"

Morgan looked at Kay. "It sounds pretty good to me!"

"But Father, if I was discovered, I'd be defenseless. I've hardly any magic at all."

Harry smiled. "That's because you're still thinking like a witch. When I got into your bathroom, did I use my wand? No, I kicked the door down. My friend Hermione Granger beat up a Malfoy, and she didn't use her wand. She punched him in the face, and made him run away--with a single blow." He grinned. "Your own hands can be the best weapons you've got. Tomorrow, if you're agreeable, I'll introduce you to a Muggle friend of mine in London, who teaches Karate." At her look of incomprehension, he smiled. "What would you say if I told you he was a Muggle who could split a brick in half with one hand?"

"I'd say that was magic."

He shook his head. "No, Kay. That's Muggle training. No magic at all."

"No way! I've got to see that." She was shaking her head, refusing to believe. She looked so much like Hermione at that point that Harry smiled. Different from both her Mother and Father, Kay had strawberry-blonde hair and her grandfather's hazel eyes, under thick black eyebrows that gave her a very serious expression.

"You will, Kay, I promise you."

"C'mon, Dad! No Muggle could do that. And if you're lying to me, I'll see it! I've got enough magic to see that!"

He raised his hands in mock surrender. "All right, Kay. But it's true, I swear!"

She smiled, and then rushed into his arms. He folded them around his little girl, and looked at his wife. An entire conversation passed between their eyes, but most importantly, the danger was over. Morgan smiled and walked over, and Ginny joined them, and the foursome enjoyed a long deep group-hug.

That night, as Kay slept, Harry and Ginny instructed Dobby and the other house-elves to keep a watchful eye on her. Although she would never know it, she was under suicide watch.

"Kiai!" The man's hand flashed downward and his concentrated blow split the brick in half.

Kay Potter stared--not a single iota of magic had leaked from the man's hand.

With trembling fingers, she reached out and picked up the shattered object, her fingers tracing the rough lines, hardly believing. She looked about the dojo, and saw boys her own age tossing older men this way and that, or pinning each other to the padded floor with clever handholds--without magic! Daddy was right! I can't believe it, but it's true! At last, she raised her eyes and looked at the man her father had named Mr. Benjamin Sato. "Could you teach me how to do that?"

"Is that the only reason you want to learn?" He was a hearty man with black hair and a beefy face, but his eyes were hard and direct.

Kay blinked, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw her father smile. This is another one of his tests! She straightened herself up a bit, and wished for a moment to brush her hair. Morgan, her sister, would just flick her wand at her hair and use one of the beauty charms she'd learned in Slytherin House, but Kay now realized that she would never be able to do that. If she wanted to succeed, she would have to work harder, but that didn't mean she was going to come in second! She tossed her head slightly, letting gravity pull the hair out of her eyes and stared boldly. "No. I need to know how to protect myself."

"Really?" Mr. Sato, a mixture of Scot and Japanese, glanced at Harry Potter, standing quietly to one side in jeans and a leather bomber jacket. "I know your father quite well. We were in the war together. He's more than able to do that for you."

Instinctively, Kay knew what to say. "In a few years, I'll be on my own, and Daddy won't always be there, and besides, no woman should have to depend on a man to do what she's capable of doing for herself." She left out the fact that she didn't have her father's abilities, but somehow she knew that he'd already guessed that.

"Very well. Two hours, twice a week; Tuesdays and Thursdays. And payment in Pounds, not Galleons." He named the times, and presented her with a list of the equipment she would need. Kay found she was excited, and when they left the studio she turned to her father. "Thank you, Daddy! I think I'm going to like this a lot more than Hogwarts!"

Harry looked at her and smiled "Just remember that when you get your first bruise." He nodded in the direction of the underground, and they continued walking. All about them, Muggles rushed this way and that, intent on their own lives.

Kay kept pace with her father, but she was far from silent. "He said he was in the war with you. What did he do?"

Harry smiled. "I had him training wizards in nonmagical combat skills. More than one Death Eater lost their wand due to a shattered wrist or a dislocated shoulder." He stopped their walk, and looked at his daughter. "What you're about to start learning is going to be very hard, Kay. There will be times when you'll want to quit, when you'll be in pain, and you'll wonder if there isn't an easier way to do things. When you're feeling that way I want you to remember: your Mum and I are here for you, and don't ever think that we won't understand."

She nodded, but said, "But you've never been where I'll be going, Daddy."

"Really? Remember what I told you about my cousin, Dudley? He learned boxing, and used me as a punching bag, and my uncle did nothing to stop it--and as an underage wizard, I couldn't do magic to stop him. I had to learn to fight back. It was tough, but I did it." He placed his hands on his daughter's shoulders. "One of the hardest lessons we have to learn as adults is what we're capable of. Just remember this: the only time a person is helpless is when they give up hope, and there's always hope. Always!" He bent over and kissed his daughter on the forehead. She smiled bravely at him. "Now, let's see if we can get all your stuff so you'll be ready for your first lesson."

Three hours later, Kay was standing in front of her full-length mirror, tightening the belt on her gi; then she looked at herself. The sleeves were about as loose as her Hogwarts robes, but the salesclerk had assured her that was natural. She bounced a bit on the balls of her bare feet and then struck a pose she had seen in a few of the books that Daddy had insisted on buying her: Karate and Kata; Martial Arts for Beginners; and, The World of Jui-Jitsu. She flipped open the first one, looking at the movements and stance.

Her bedroom door opened, and her 12-year-old sister, Morgan, walked in. "I heard what you're doing. Are those your new robes?" Black haired and green-eyed, Morgan was like a female version of their father, but had Ginny's easy self-confidence. There was a slight arrogance to her nature, which made Kay feel her sister would always be a bit unpredictable. "My gi, they call it. I think it means 'fighting clothing'." She laced her fingers in her white belt and then struck a pose, imitating the forward stance Mr. Sato had showed her. "What do you think?"

Morgan cocked an eyebrow and smiled slightly. "You look very threatening."

Kay dropped her hands. "I'd better. Without magic I'm going to have to drop Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Daddy said this would be a good alternative."

Morgan nodded, and then walked over and sat on her sister's bed. "Kay, do you think Mum and Dad still trust me?"

"Well sure they do! What kind of a question is that?"

"A serious one. I mean, I'm the only one in the family who's been sorted into Slytherin, and you know how Daddy feels about that house! All the stories he's told us about fighting Voldemort, and quarreling with Draco Malfoy, and the detentions he got from Professor Snape, and how Grandpa James was always facing off against them, and now I'm one of them!" She sighed and dropped her eyes to stare at the floor. "Sometimes I see him and Mum talking to each other and I think they're talking about me. Wondering about me, whether Slytherin's corrupting me, or taking me away from them." She stared at the floor and then burst out, "I was trying so hard to convince the Sorting Hat to put me in Gryffindor with everybody else! I kept thinking the Gryffindor name over and over again, and when it shouted out 'Slytherin' I couldn't believe it! You saw me: just sitting there saying 'No, no, no, no'. Professor Slughorn actually walked over and led me to their table! I felt like a lost sheep being herded over there!"

Kay frowned. "I thought you liked being in Slytherin. Didn't you say you were learning a lot?"

Morgan nodded. "I think that's the problem. Mum and Dad don't know all of what I've learned, and it's making them nervous."

"Well," Kay said, remembering her father's assurances to her about his own experiences, "both Mum and Dad have been through Hogwarts themselves. They've learned a lot more than we have, both there and elsewhere."

"But they haven't been in Slytherin. They're Gryffindors, like you and everybody else!"

Kay offered a slight smile. "Not all us Potters are in Gryffindor. Emma is, but Charlotte's in Ravenclaw, and they're twins! Brian's in Ravenclaw, too! And there's still Percy to go to Hogwarts, and who knows? He could wind up in Hufflepuff, for all we know."

Morgan nodded, and then sighed. "Yeah, I guess I'm just worried about what they think of me. It's not like all Slytherins are evil or something! The Voldemort War painted Slytherin House with a big dark brush, so they...we've been working extra hard to clear the house name." She smiled. "It's a good thing that Professor Slughorn caught that Youth Ray from Nott's wand in the final battle, because he's just the one to organize the House: bringing in contacts, arranging his little parties, and paying for our Quidditch coach out of his own pocket! It's almost like being in a service club there's so much stuff going on!" She sulked, swinging one foot nervously. "I don't know why Mum and Dad feel they can't trust me!"

Kay blinked. I'm not the only one who's got it hard! Morgan may have magic, but she's got a bigger problem than I do. At least I know where I fit in! Right now I bet she'd give anything to switch with me! Kay walked up and stood in front of her sister. "Hey," she said, putting her finger under the younger girl's chin, and tilting her head up, as their mother had done to her. "You're a Potter, just like me. Remember what Mum and Dad always say about the Potters, and the Weasleys?"

Morgan offered a brave smile. "'We're family, and that means we stick together!'"

Kay smiled back. "Right. So let's you and me go downstairs together, and you can tell Mum and Dad what you just told me. And I can show off my new robes!" Holding her sister's hand Kay and Morgan went down and did just that.

That night as Harry was sitting in bed reading the Quibbler, Ginny, lying beside him, spoke up. "Harry, there's something I've been meaning to tell you. Yesterday, just before you arrived, when Kay was in the bathroom, I tried to open the door with my wand, and it didn't work."

He lowered the magazine and looked at her. "Really? That's a new wand, isn't it? We'll have to take that back to Albus tomorrow. I thought Ollivander trained him better that." He snorted. "Imagine that! Giving his own mother a defective wand."

"No, Harry. It's not defective, that's the point! After you broke the door down, startling Kay, I was able to disarm her with no trouble. But before, I couldn't. Something was stopping me from casting the spell. It was like all the magic was gone!"

Harry looked at her, and then lowered the magazine, and pushed his glasses up on his nose, a sign that he was deep in thought. The overhead lamp made his bald spot glisten. "Are you saying what I think you are?" His face was ashen.

Ginny slowly nodded, her lips set. "It makes sense, doesn't it? Just like the time James was animating her stuffed toys to encircle her, and she threw a tantrum, and they all went limp! Or when Lily was babysitting her and bewitched the spoonful of baby food, and Kay refused to eat it, and the levitating food fell to the ground! I never realized what it all meant until now."

Harry was nodding slowly. "I'll take her into the Ministry with me tomorrow and have Dorcas Denham run some tests." He seized his wife's hands and kissed her soundly. "Our little girl may not be a Squib after all!"

Ginny smiled at her husband, nodding. "She might be something entirely different."

"All right, Kay, let's try that again." Harry looked at Dorcas Denham, a short, fat woman with slightly bulging eyes, who nodded once and waved her wand at some ordinary tennis balls. "Wingardium Leviosa!" The five balls rose into the air and hovered in front of Kay Potter, who looked at them with irritation. She frowned, furrowed her brow, and concentrated. The balls shivered, and then collapsed on the ground all at once, bouncing on the ground. Harry and Dorcas broke out in applause.

"Excellent! Excellent!"

Harry walked up to his daughter and held out his wand. "Lumos!" he said, and the tip of the wand glowed. Kay looked at the wand, concentrated, and the bright light flickered, and went out. "Perfect!"

Kay spread her hands in confusion. "Daddy, what does this mean? Do I have magic after all?"

"Not exactly, Miss Potter." Dorcas said, waddling up to her. "You are one of the rarest forms of magic in the wizarding world: an exsanguinator. Simply put, you have the ability to snuff out magic, to extinguish it! You have difficulty casting magic, because you embody the antithesis of it! I want to work with you on a regular basis; we need to understand the limits of your power, and I think, your father, the Minister, will agree with me: we need to keep this quiet. Exsanguinators such as you are extremely rare! Perhaps only one in a century!"

Kay found she was smiling. "How powerful am I? I mean could I stop all magic at Hogwarts?"

"I don't know, Miss Potter. That's why you and I are going to work together on this." Dorcas turned to Harry Potter. "With your permission, sir, I'd like to keep your daughter here for another few hours."

"All right, but only until luncheon. Then she has to go home and get ready for her Karate lessons." He scribbled a note and handed it to his daughter. "That's an authorization for a Portkey to our house."

Kay nodded, and stuffed the note into a pocket of her jeans.

"All right. But there will have to be more tests than just these. She's extremely valuable: the only exsanguinator in the world, to my knowledge."

Harry nodded. "Talk it out with her. I'm sure we can set up a schedule." He glanced at Kay, who was happier than he'd seen her in months. "Congratulations, dear."

She held him tight. "Thank you, Daddy!"

"Don't thank me, thank your mother. She's the one who spotted what was going on!"

Dorcas turned to Kay. "I'd like to measure the distance of the effect..."

"I'll be in my office, dear." Harry said. "Send me a memo if you need me." He waved goodbye, and left the room smiling. Three owls, I think. A letter to the headmaster, explaining 'special circumstances' and a course of little or no overt magic for her; another one to Horace Slughorn telling him that I want an invitation for her to join the 'Slug Club' to make useful contacts; and one to Fred & George, I think. If she's going back to Hogwarts, she's going to need a few things that only they can provide!

By the time the new term started, Kay's fourth year, she was looking forward to school. Though she would never cast charms, she knew her limits, and kissed her Mum and Dad goodbye from Platform 9 ¾ and hurried to find a compartment.

"Kay! Over here!" It was Morgan, sitting with Laura Chang of Ravenclaw, Olivia Wood, from Gryffindor, and Julie Finch-Fletchley from Hufflepuff. They were known at Hogwarts as 'The Odd Squad' because they were all good friends, despite the fact that their individual houses rarely got along. All the same, she ducked into the compartment and sat down beside Olivia. "Morgan was telling us that Daryl Thomas and Paula Patil are going out together, can you believe it?"

"No!" She'd met Daryl once in Diagon Alley when her mother had stopped to talk with Daryl's father, Dean, while on a shopping trip. It was then that she'd learned how the two of them had once dated, before her Mummy had become Mrs. Potter. She remembered Daryl as rather good-looking, and nobler looking than his father; though a bit too interested in Quidditch, but that was normal for boys, she thought.

"It's true all the same," said Laura. "I overheard her telling Helen Abbott back on the platform that she might be spending Christmas holidays with him and his family in Leeds!" As the girls gasped at that thought she related some other news she'd heard, and the conversation started in earnest.

Later after the lunch trolley came around, Olivia Wood broached the question, "So, Kay, did you find out why your spells keep fizzling?"

She dropped her eyes, gave a dramatic sigh and then said, "I'm a Squib."

"Oh no!" Julie reached out and took her hand. "I'm so sorry!"

"What are you going to do?" Laura asked.

"Will you be leaving Hogwarts?" Olivia asked, looking stunned.

Kay shook her head. "Daddy's had a talk with the headmaster, and we've worked out a schedule." She showed it to them. "I'm skipping Charms and Transfiguration entirely, and working with Ancient Runes, History of Magic, and a few other classes. I've always been good at Potions, just like my Mum!" She gave them all a brave smile. "There's still a place for me in the Wizarding World, so it's not like I'm going to be mopping floors, after all!" She looked at Morgan, who smiled back, and they shared the joke.

The rest of the trip to Hogwarts was spent talking about Kay, and what she was going to do. Olivia Wood still seemed amazed that a nonmagical person would be attending Hogwarts, but after a warning look from Morgan, decided that it must have been the intervention from their 'famous father' that made it possible.

When the train pulled in, there was a slight drizzle of rain, but the girls were ready in their water-impervious robes (Julie obliged them all with an impervious charm) and got out. While greeting other friends, or catching the eyes of promising boys, Kay spotted Rubeus Hagrid, who stood waiting to conduct the nervous and slightly scared First Years across the lake. Kay told Morgan and the others she'd be just a minute, and walked over. "Hello, Hagrid." She always felt a special affection for Hagrid; but then, he was her godfather, after all!

"Well, well, if it isn't Miss Potter." He smiled down at her and waved a few more children down to the boats. "Got an owl from yer Mum and Dad. Sorry to hear abou', well, you know, but I'm glad you're sticking it out!" He patted her shoulder affectionately. "Got some real interestin' Magical Creatures for ye' this year, Kay!"

"Great. Did you have a nice summer?"

"Jus' fine. Had an adventure, too, but now's no' the time. Come see me soon, an' I'll tell ye' all abou' it." He herded the last of the First Years towards the boats and then waved goodbye. She waved, and then walked back toward her classmates.

A sudden flash at her backside startled her, and the shock threw her forward, but she ducked and rolled as her sensei had taught her and came up in a defensive crouch, looking at the young man who had tried to hex her from behind. "Marcus Goyle," she drawled, seeing the thuggish Slytherin boy standing stupidly, holding his wand. "I should have known." She slapped his wand out of his hand, whirled and lashed out with a foot and caught him square in the stomach, doubling him over, and then slammed her elbow on the back of his head. He fell face-first into a puddle. She picked up his wand and threw it to the far side of the railroad tracks, and then laughed as he struggled onto his hands and knees, dumbly muttering, "How? My dad told me you're a Squib! How?"

She bent down to his ear and then shouted at the top of her voice, "DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU HEAR, STUPID!" She pushed him back into the puddle with her foot, and then walked away, whistling.

"Of course," said Morgan, later, grinning at her as they rode together in the thestral-driven carriage, "it helps to be wearing a shield-robe given to you by your Uncle George."

"Why I should I give away my secrets?" The sisters shared a high-five, and then burst out laughing.