The Ties That Bind

The Ties That Bind

Part 1, The First Rise

By Laura ([email protected])

Chapter 6: Green and Glowing

Neutral:

Narcissa Black: Second Year Slytherin.

Calista Andrews (mc): Second Year Slytherin.

Bertie Magal (mc): A Second Year student in Slytherin House.

Rosemary Mavea (mc): Another Second Year Slytherin.

Brigham Michaels (mc): First Year Slytherin.

Gibson Handley (mc): First Year Slytherin.

Fabian Prewett: A First Year Gryffindor. He's Gideon Prewett's younger brother. He is tall for a First Year and mouthier than most. He has straw colored hair, tall, not overweight but not skinny either, and has brown eyes.

Gideon Prewett: A Fourth Year Gryffindor. He is Fabian Prewett's older brother. He and his brother look a lot alike.

Lauren Melbrook (mc): She is also a Fourth Year Gryffindor. She is Gideon's girlfriend.

Jim Masterhead (mc): He is a Beater on the Gryffindor Quidditich team.

Lynn Reger (mc): She is a Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditich team.

Andrew Bella (mc): He is a Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditich team.

Hunter Hosen (mc): He is a Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditich team.

Grant Havee (mc): He is the Keeper on the on the Gryffindor Quidditich team.

Alice Bolmond: (The last name is mine, but the first name and the character are not.) She is a Second Year Gryffindor.

Marlene McKinnon: Another Second Year Gryffindor.

Dorcas Meadows: Another Second Year Gryffindor.

Kelly Brier (mc): A nervous, panicky, but well-meaning Second Year Gryffindor.

Edgar Bones: Hufflepuff's Quidditch Captain.

Milo (mc): Jessica's Barn Owl.

A'Marie (mc): Casey's Great Hawk Owl.

Friar Laurence (mc): Small, snowy white owl that Jessica and Casey used for secret communication Jessica's First Year at Hogwarts.

Crookshanks: The same cat from the series, except in my world, he is what I call a "Magical Messenger." He delivers secret messages back and forth between Lily and Jessica. For information as to how I have this work, see Chapter 2: A Penny For Your Thoughts.

Andorra Dumbledore (mc): The younger sister of Albus Dumbledore. She is the Head of Magical Law Enforcement in America.

Mark Halmer (mc): Member of the Dark Operators, a special team under the direction of Magical Law Enforcement in America. He went to school in America with Riley Haderson.

Andrea 'Drea' Kay (mc): Member of the Dark Operators, a special team under the direction of Magical Law Enforcement in America. She was a year behind Mark Halmer and Riley Haderson is school in America.

Kevin Benson (mc): Member of the Dark Operators, a special team under the direction of Magical Law Enforcement in America. He is Josh Benson's identical twin brother.

Josh Benson (mc): Member of the Dark Operators, a special team under the direction of Magical Law Enforcement in America. He is Kevin Benson's identical twin brother.

Richie Thender (mc): Member of the Dark Operators, a special team under the direction of Magical Law Enforcement in America.

Feng Cong (mc): Member of the Dark Operators, a special team under the direction of Magical Law Enforcement in America. She is the newest member of the team.

Grens (mc): He is an assistant to the Secretary of Magic in America.

Lemore (mc): He is the other assistant to the Secretary of Magic in America.

Zeckaroy (mc): He is the Head of International Magical Cooperation in America.

Good:

Frank Longbottom: In my book, Frank is a loveable, cocky kid. The oldest of seven boys, he is in Gryffindor House. He is also the new announcer for the Quidditch games.

Amelia Black (mc): An assistant to Minister Rin, she hates her counterpart, Ignatius Malfoy (and that's putting it mildly). Amelia is also the mother of Sirius Black and the wife of Malcolm Black.

Malcolm Black (mc): The husband of Amelia and the father of Sirius, he is a very influential school governor.

Barty Crouch: Just a reminder - he was the Head of Magical Law Enforcement during the Voldemort years.

Bad:

Rabastan Lestrange: He's a Second Year student in the Slytherin House. He is the younger brother of Rodolophus Lestrange.

Rodolophus Lestrange: He is a Sixth Year Slytherin and a Chaser on the Slytherin Quidditch team.

Evan Rosier: A somewhat stocky fellow. He is a Chaser on the Slytherin Quidditch team.

Mitchell Avery: The Slytherin Quidditch team's Keeper. (The first name is mine, but the last name and the character are Ms. Rowling's.)

Brent Crabbe (mc): The later to be father of Vincent Crabbe from Ms. Rowling's characters. He's a Second Year student in Slytherin House as well.

Mavis Goyle (mc): The later to be father of Gregory Goyle from Ms. Rowling's characters. He's a Second Year student in Slytherin House as well.

Lucius Malfoy: The son of Ignatius Malfoy. He is a Second Year student in Slytherin House as well. (And I do apologize. It wasn't until long after I created this story idea that I realized that Lucius was older than Snape.)

Richard Mulciber: He is a Sixth Year Slytherin. (The first name is mine, but the last name and the character are Ms. Rowling's.)

Antonin Dolohov: He is a Fourth Year Slytherin.

Walden Macnair: He is a Fifth Year Slytherin.

* * *

"Hello, Narcissa...Calista...Rosemary," Jessica greeted the three girls as they entered the dorm room. They each gave a "humph" and looked the other way. Jessica glanced across the room at Bertie Magal, who had come up but a minute ago. Bertie looked away, but it seemed as though it was with reluctance. Jessica sighed.

She finished untying her shoes before shoving them under her bed. "Is this the way you're going to play it?" she asked Narcissa when the room remained silent.

Narcissa opened her mouth to respond before clamping it shut and looking away, as though she suddenly remembered that she had resolved not to talk to Jessica.

"Look, Narcissa...the rest of you. We've got to share this room for the next 6 years. We might as well try to be on talking terms and make the most of it." No response. The three girls just continued to unpack, and Bertie kept her gaze on anything but Jessica. Jessica sighed again before coming up with another idea. "I could have picked any of you at that dinner party to give the Crucio to," she pointed out. The three girls paused in their packing and Bertie looked at her curiously.

"I didn't pick any of you. I had to pick someone, but I didn't pick any of you. As far as Lucius..." Jessica thought hard quickly before coming up with, "he...took one for the team, you could say. Lord Voldemort wanted something, and it was something tough, but Lucius took it for him, took it for the Dark Lord." Jessica couldn't believe she got through that out without gagging. It was sick that she had to use Riddle's own arguments, but it was called survival in her book.

"I only unleash the power when he commands me," Jessica took a minute to swallow the bile that had started to creep up the back of her throat. "I am only for his beck and call. I will do nothing to any of you unless he commands me." Jessica wanted to vomit, but she continued. "And who knows? Those close to me...I might be able to protect them if a time comes when they need protection." She was going to gag herself if she continued, so she was glad when Narcissa responded.

"I apologize, Jessica," she said then looked at the other three. They apologized as well, but it was mumbles. The fact that Bertie also apologized caught Jessica as peculiar as the girl had remained her normal quiet self since arriving and had even spoken to Jessica briefly before the other three came up.

"Thanks," Jessica said, and in an attempt to cover up the now stilted feeling in the room, she asked, "So, how did the rest of summer break go for you guys?"

That got them all yammering...except Bertie, Jessica noticed. The little blonde girl sat on her bed, listening, a small smile perched on the corners of her lips as she watched an interaction of which she chose not to participate.

* * *

After their morning of a double Defense Against the Dark Arts, Severus and Jessica headed quietly to lunch. Casey was already there amusing himself by making his empty goblet dance. His plate was empty, so he was clearly waiting for Jessica and Severus.

"So, how did Charms and Transfiguration go?" Jessica asked when she and Severus sat across from him.

"Boring," Casey responded, not stopping conducting his goblet with his wand. "Tom's already taught us all that stuff."

Severus shot Jessica a glance, which she ignored as the three dished out their food.

"I know what you mean," she told her brother.

Suddenly, Severus' eyes caught his brother walking in, followed by the other three boys in Casey's dorm room: Brigham Ryan, Gibson Handley, and Jim Jones. While Brigham and Gibson seemed to latch as close as they could to Salazar, Jim seemed content just to trail behind, though he was obviously part of their group now.

Salazar slapped the back of Casey's head on his way past. "Hey, dweeb. We gonna see you in Potions or are we going to have to wait for your next fall?"

Brigham and Gibson laughed heartily at the joke, but Jim only gave a smile. When Salazar and his two goons turned to head down the table further, Jim set a book next to Casey's plate before following them.

"Thanks," Casey murmured, picking it up and sliding it into his bag.

"What's that?" Jessica asked, trying to lean over the table to catch a glimpse before he hid it in his bag.

"My Charms textbook," Casey sighed. "Salazar took it from me. Jim pulled me aside and said not to worry. He would get it back."

Jessica's gaze swung down the table to the boy who had taken a place next to Gibson before she went back to her brother.

"He seems to be one of them now..."

Casey shrugged. "He seems cool though."

The three ate in silence for a bit before Casey said. "Oh, Jess. I have the obligatory letter to Dad done. I thought you might want to sign it before I owl it."

"Oh, cool," Jessica said, earning a look from Severus when she talked with her mouth full. She swallowed before smirking wickedly at him causing the 12-year old boy to shake his head wearily. She chuckled before saying; "I've got a letter to Uncle Danny too. Let's finish early here then we can go to the Owlery together."

Casey nodded.

* * *

Jessica and Casey entered the drafty room at the top of the West Tower. The Owlery was already full of everyone's birds. Jessica quickly spotted Milo looking over a small, snowy white owl that Jessica had almost forgotten about. "Hey, Case," Jessica said. "It's Friar Laurence."

Casey turned away from searching for his own ornery owl and turned to their small secret communicator from last year. Jessica had bought him with Uncle Danny's money so she and Casey could have an 'unhindered by Dad' communication. She used to send the owl to Uncle Danny's, and he would give her brother the note.

"I forgot that I had asked Hagrid to take care of him over the summer. I couldn't come home with the second bird without the proper excuses."

Casey nodded. "We don't need him anymore now that I'm here instead of home, so what do you reckon we do with him?"

Jessica shrugged. "I reckon we keep him here. Don't know." She glanced at her brother. "He might come in handy one day." Jessica turned back and took Milo from his perch. "I'll run by Hagrid's hut soon and ask Hagrid to take care of him. Maybe I'll work out some sort of pay arrangement or something."

"He probably won't take it. The man loves creatures of all kinds," Casey murmured as he searched for his bird. Suddenly, there was a loud, distinct hoot from near the ceiling. Both kids looked up to see A' Marie, Casey's Great Hawk Owl, glaring at them from the highest perch in the place. Casey sighed helplessly as all the bird did was glare at him.

Jessica laughed. "She probably thinks she's too good for this place."

"And probably angry now that I had the audacity to let her be stashed here," Casey finished, before biting his lip to think of a way to coax the girl down. He frowned before grabbing two treats out of his pocket. He always had to be careful with A' Marie and treats because, with her attitude, if she got used to a lot, she would expect a lot, then more as time went on. But Jessica saw, this time, Casey caved.

A' Marie saw her master cave too and flew down to his shoulder. As she ate the treats, Casey grumbled. "You're a snob, A' Marie. A full blown snob."

She stopped before the second treat and glared at him.

"But I love you anyway," Casey grinned as he stroked part of her body.

Jessica shook her head with a laugh. "Come on," she said. "We have to get back before the end lunch bell."

* * *

"Is something wrong, Mr. Medley?"

Stephen startled out of his revere and looked at the door of his empty classroom. Professor Dumbledore stood there.

"Hm?" Stephen asked.

"Is everything alright, Stephen?" Dumbledore repeated, concern now edging his voice as he took a step into the room. "You didn't show up to supper this evening."

Stephen straightened up in his seat. "Yeah, I'm fine. I had the house elves bring some up here." Stephen gestured towards his untouched plate.

Dumbledore walked over and peered at the food before giving Stephen a knowing smile. Stephen chuckled before rubbing his eyes. "I've got something on my mind."

"Do you need to talk about it?" Dumbledore asked quietly.

Stephen started to shake his head but stopped himself. "Can I ask you a question, Professor?"
"Certainly," Dumbledore responded. "Mind if I sit down first?"

Stephen shook his head. "No, that's fine."

Dumbledore conjured a chair before sitting and giving Stephen his full attention.

"Ziners...both of them, they seem to know Gary quite well..."

Albus chuckled and nodded. "Yes, they've known him since they were born. After the children's mother, Madeline, died, their father started bringing the children with him when he travels for business. When Jeffery is in this area or when he is going to a place that he can't bring the children with him, he'll bring them here to Hogwarts, and Gary supervises them. They even made a trip this past summer, about a week and a half before the start of school actually."

Stephen nodded thoughtfully. He was quiet for a period of time, but Albus could clearly see that he was processing this new information and forming another carefully worded question. After a couple of minutes, Stephen turned back to the Headmaster.

"They don't seem to trust a lot of adults besides Gary."

"No, they don't."

"Why?"

Albus looked away for a minute, trying to word his own answer before he looked back at Stephen. "Barring family members, the other adults in their lives pressure them to do something, whether the adult actually does or does not do so on purpose. Or, because of their father, falsely categorize them. Gary, having come from a similar background as they, is a comfort to them, for they feel no pressure from him. And when they do, they don't feel that Gary will stop being around them if they do not give into that pressure."

"So we have two kids that more than likely know the identity of Voldemort, and the only person on our side that they trust, won't pressure them to reveal the name of a man who is a terrible threat waiting to happen. Gary understands the terrible threat, having been an Auror himself, but he won't pressure the kids into stopping the threat."

Albus eyed the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher carefully. His voice was not full of contempt but rather a curious thoughtfulness. Before he revealed his thoughts, Stephen stood up. "Thanks, Professor. I've got to go speak with someone, if you don't mind..."

"Not at all," Albus said and stood up. He watched Stephen curiously as the boy exited the room, almost in a hurry.

* * *

Gary glanced at the door when there was a quick succession of two knocks.

"Who is it?" He called when the person didn't identify themself.

"Stephen!"

Ah, Gary thought to himself. Finally. He had been waiting for the boy to confront him about Mr. Ziners' injured ankle. The time had finally come.

"Come in!" Gary called as he went back to his lesson plan for tomorrow's Second Year Potions lesson.

Stephen slowly pushed the door open. He didn't say anything as he stepped in and closed it behind himself. When he stayed quiet, Gary looked up to find the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor just looking at him.

"What is it?" Gary asked irritably.

Stephen started to open his mouth but closed it. He glanced at the shelf behind Gary's desk before looking back at Gary. "Do you think that Voldemort knows about Ziners' power?"

This question took Gary by complete surprise. To cover it up, he asked, "What, might I ask, brought this question on?"

"I was just thinking about your reasoning for not talking about this power and about your insistence that the Ziners' be allowed to attend Hogwarts. And I wondered. Does this Lord Voldemort know about Jessica's extraordinary power?"

"Why do you think I'm even going to answer that question?" Gary asked after another pause.

Stephen nodded. "Good point. Why would you give me the benefit of the doubt for not having a sinister intention toward the girl? Silly me. Next question. Who gave Casey Ziners his injury?"

"I don't know."

"I sincerely doubt that," Stephen sighed, crossed his arms, and leaned back before commenting, "I take it that this is not the first time you've treated a mysterious injury of either Jessica's or Casey's."

Gary didn't respond as he went back to his lesson plan.

Stephen rubbed a spot on his forehead before crossing his arms again. "I would ask," he said quietly, "what are you hiding them from, but I think I'm finally beginning to understand. But don't think that this will stop me from speaking to Dumbledore if I perceive either to be a threat to the other students."

Gary didn't respond again. Stephen gave a dramatic sigh as he pushed himself off his leaning post. As soon as his hand touched the doorknob to leave, Gary spoke.

"I suppose you're going to Dumbledore now about the injury since I have not answered your questions."

Stephen half turned. "No. Contrary to your almighty belief, I'm not a little brat that whines and stomps his feet when he doesn't get his way. I told you last time I would only go to Dumbledore if I perceive them to be a threat to the other students. I will go to him about the mysterious power then and only then.

"Until tomorrow, Gary," Stephen gave him a mock salute.

It wasn't until the door was firmly shut behind the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor that Gary allowed himself a small smile of relief. Now the only one he had to win over was Minerva.

And, of course, he still had to make sure the Ziners kids kept their powers and tempers under tight wrap, which was no easy task.

* * *

Jessica had arrived at Potions before Severus. He had wanted to go to the Owlery and left well before Jessica was finished with breakfast. He had still not returned.

Jessica slid into her seat with a sigh before she realized she was being glared at. She looked Malfoy straight in the eye, but he didn't stop, so she got up and walked over to him. She leaned on the desk and got right in his face.

"Here's the deal, Malfoy. I know you don't like me now, and I've never liked you, but we stick together in the House, otherwise the Gryffindors will bring us down. It's the code, remember? Hate me all you want within the walls of the House, but don't bring it out here. If you do, it will become noticeable, and people will start to question it." She waited for him to respond, and when he didn't, she said, "We may loathe each other, but we're on the same side so we might as well try not to kill each other. If we do kill each other, we'll just be helping..." she gave a significant nod towards the other side of the room, "them. Love me, hate me, I honestly don't give a damn, but wait to kill me until we've graduated this damn building."

Without waiting for a response, she walked back to her seat. Severus still hadn't arrived. Jessica glanced at the other side of the room. She made brief eye contact with Lily, but neither girl gave a smile. It was enough to know they each wanted to smile and nod, but they wouldn't, and Lily now understood why.

Jessica's eyes searched the Gryffindors and noticed that Black and Potter weren't seated among them. A glance around the Slytherins told her only Severus was missing. Her eyes searched the Gryffindors again. No Black and Potter. No Snape. Why didn't she like these prospects?

Suddenly, the two jokers of Gryffindor entered. Both were snickering. Jessica kept her eyes on the door after they moved in, but Severus did not enter. Jessica looked back at Potter and Black, but her eyes only met Black's. He was looking directly at her, an evil grin on his face.

"Sit down, Misters Black and Potter," Rum said impatiently as he walked in. Jessica sat forward but kept glancing at the doorway. It didn't take Gary two seconds to realize that one person was missing.

"Miss Ziners," Rum said, "where is Mr. Snape?"

"I don't know, Sir," she said tersely before throwing Black and Potter an obvious look. Both went into snickers that they tried covering up with coughs.

Gary sighed before looking at Jessica and then at the person sitting on her other side. Oh, great, Jessica thought. Narcissa.

"Miss Ziners, Miss Black, can you please go to the Hospital Ward first and see if Mr. Snape is there? If not, can you please go inform the Headmaster that we have a missing student?"

"Yes, Sir," they both said and got up. Jessica glanced over to see both Potter and Black; jaws slightly slack, glaring at her now. Jessica smirked briefly before her and Narcissa left the room together, leaving their packs behind.

As soon as they were down the hall, Narcissa whispered, "Why didn't he just use floo to do all that?"

"'Cause he's letting us get out part of Potions today as a little repayment for whatever gag Black and Potter pulled on Severus," Jessica responded darkly as the two walked into the Entrance Hall.

Narcissa's jaw dropped before she giggled and smiled. "They did something to him? And now Rum's letting us out," she laughed before frowning. "I hate Sirius. Someone should hex him."

"You and I have never been more in agreement, Narcissa," Jessica said. Narcissa smiled at her. Jessica returned the smile, pleased that she and the girl were finally getting along on something.

They reached the Hospital Wing and poked their heads in. Severus did not occupy any of the beds. Jessica bit her lip as Narcissa spoke to Madam Promphey. Severus had not shown up here since the start of school this year, Madam Promphey said before sending the girls away with an order to go directly back to class. They walked to the Headmaster's office only to meet him outside it. This time Jessica spoke.

"Professor Dumbledore, Sir, Severus Snape didn't show up to Potions class this morning, and Professor Rum has sent us on a search for where he might be, since when I ate breakfast with him this morning he seemed perfectly fine.

"He left from breakfast after only fifteen minutes, but that was to mail a letter to his mum. I have not seen him since. However, Sirius Black and James Potter showed up with grins to Potions this morning, and Sirius gave me a look, specifically me, which leads me to believe that those two might have done something to Severus."

Dumbledore listened quietly all through her explanation before nodding. "I'm sure he is fine, Miss Ziners. I wouldn't worry too much. I will walk up to the Owlery however to see if I can find him, but I'm sure he's fine."

Jessica nodded but wasn't convinced that the Headmaster was right. She left it in his hands anyway, and she and Narcissa went back to Potions.

Narcissa remained quiet the whole way back, and for that, Jessica was thankful. Every time Jessica encountered Dumbledore, she remembered her order.

"Get close. Get him to think you work for him."

She wished, oh how she wished she were working for Dumbledore rather than Voldemort, but until she could ensure Casey's safety, Voldemort was her master.

As far as Dumbledore, she knew that Riddle was greatly underestimating Dumbledore's ability to care about the students. She knew Dumbledore would not fight, kill, or prosecute a student unless there was a damn good, proof-positive reason. Therefore, she had to do next to nothing in that area.

She had given some serious consideration to talking when they came back to school this year, telling someone something because now she didn't have the threat of Casey's death being held over her head. Now he was at school under the watchful eye of Dumbledore. But her and Casey's little foray home between Molly's house and school had been for Riddle to make sure Jessica knew something. She was being watched. Someone here in Hogwarts was taking note of her every move and reporting back to Voldemort. As long as they didn't have Casey in their hands the whole time, they needed something to make her obey. Until Jessica knew who it was watching her (and if there was only one person doing so), Jessica was held down in her ability to inform the other side of what she knew.

She had given some thought as to whom it was that held this secretive duty for Voldemort. She knew it was not Malfoy. The Malfoys were only good for their money and their position. Their greed for power blinded them to the intelligence, patience, reasoning, and logic it took to become...well, the king of the world. She knew it wasn't Malfoy. But, thus far, he had been the only one she had been able to eliminate.

She was 90 per cent positive that it had to be someone from her year as that would give them an intimate position to her for as long as possible. The other 10 per cent of her reasoning was that it was someone in Casey's year. Or there were two, one for each year.

But until Jessica knew, her mouth and mind remained sealed.

She sighed as they descended the steps into the Dungeons.

* * *

Professor Dumbledore peered inside the Owlery not twenty minutes later. His eyes roamed the recesses of the place, but it wasn't until he reached the far corner to his right that he saw a dark hump in the shadows.

"Hello, Headmaster," came a low voice.

"Severus?" Albus started towards the boy. He was halfway there when the stench reached him, and he involuntarily pulled back. That's when he realized that Severus had been dragged through owl droppings and was covered in them. When Severus looked up at the Headmaster, Albus then noticed that his face and hair were covered in droppings as well. It was smeared all over him.

"Severus," Albus said again slowly. "What happened?"

The boy looked away from Albus and out the windows but didn't say anything right away.

"Why didn't you clean yourself?" Dumbledore asked.

Severus held up his hands. "No wand," he sighed before turning away again.

Dumbledore frowned before he pointed his own wand at him. "Scourgify." Severus glanced at Dumbledore before looking down at himself in surprise.

"Thanks, Sir," he said in a quiet voice.

Albus sighed. "Let's go to my office and have a talk, Severus," Dumbledore started to turn but stopped when Severus spoke.

"I can't, Sir," and to demonstrate why, he started to get up but was held down by something.

Dumbledore spoke a spell that got him unstuck. When the boy got up, he brushed his backside off before saying to Dumbledore, "Sir, I would much rather not talk about it."

The headmaster remained silent for a long time before he nodded. "Alright, Severus. I will ask Professor McGonagall to get your wand back from Mr. Potter and Mr. Black."

Severus seemed surprised for a moment that Professor Dumbledore knew the culprits, but the young boy shrugged it off before saying, "Yeah, and my bag too while she's at it." Severus then took off past Dumbledore angrily.

Dumbledore watched the boy disappear down the steps. He heard him trip before he got up and smacked the wall. He resumed his run down the steps before tripping again. Albus heard, "Damit!" before Severus' fist hit the wall again, and his feet continued down the steps. He seemed to make it this time without any more falls.

* * *

"Misters Black and Potter!" McGonagall yelled over the noise in the Gryffindor Common Room. Everyone stopped and stared at McGonagall nervously. She was seething mad. "Follow me this very instant."

They got up meekly and started towards her, but McGonagall stopped them. "Get the items then follow me."

"What--," Sirius started, but McGonagall interrupted.

"You know very well what items I speak of," she fairly growled.

Sirius and James paused and glanced at each other before realizing. "I'll get them," Sirius volunteered, running up the stairs to the boys' dormitory. A very tense silent few minutes followed while Sirius retrieved the items, no one in the Common Room moving a muscle in fear of coming under McGonagall's wrath as well. Finally, Sirius came running down the stairs with a bag and a wand.

Lily's eyes widened as she looked at the wand. If she had learned one thing since her venture into the magical world, it was that you did not take another witch's or wizard's wand, even in fun and games.

It wasn't until McGonagall and the boys left that the room came to life again.

"What was that about?" Alice asked. She sat across the table from Lily as the two did their homework.

"Didn't you hear?" Frank asked. He sat next to Remus Lupin and kitty corner from Peter Petigrew as the boys did their own homework at the next table. There were two empty seats, one next to Remus, the other next to Peter, which had once held the juveniles.

Lily and Alice both shook their head.

"They caught Snape in the Owlery," Remus Lupin said, sounding annoyed. "They thought it would be funny if they dragged him all over the floor of the room before sticking him to the wall."

Lily gasped while Alice stifled a giggle. "That's not funny," Lily said. She turned to the boys. "What's with the bag and wand though?"

"Lifted it from Snape," Frank said.

Lily shook her head. "Those two should be locked up."

Remus, head still buried in his book, nodded in agreement.

Lily looked back at her homework but found she couldn't concentrate. She pulled out another parchment and started writing.

Jess-

I just heard about what Sirius and James did to Snape. I'm sooo sorry. I would tell you to give him a hug for me, but I'm sure you probably haven't told him about us being friends. Be extra nice to him. And, for goodness sake, don't go after Sirius and James. All you need is more detentions (I think you had more last year than Sirius). Plus, guys don't like girls protecting them or their honour, so don't protect Severus. Just give him comfort.

Your Friend,

Lily

Lily read over her letter and giggled. Jessica had never said she had a crush on Snape. She had never even hinted at it, but Lily was pretty sure that's what her friend felt for Severus.

"Can you watch my things for a second?" Lily asked Alice. Alice nodded, and Lily took the note upstairs. Crookshanks was lying on her bed sound asleep. She shook the cat awake. He glared at her, but Lily only smiled as she held the note to the side of the cat and tapped it with her wand.

"Hidea-Mora," she whispered. The note became invisible. The cat gave dramatic sigh before jumping off the bed. Lily followed the cat out of the dorm and down the stairs. She let him out before rejoining Alice and her homework.

It was over an hour later when Sirius and James came stomping back into the Common Room, moods dark.

"Two months detention," James growled. "Just you wait and see, Snivellus, what we have in store for you when we get out." James didn't seem to realize people were around.

Neither did Sirius. "I'm thinking hanging him over the Great Hall in his skivvies," he muttered angrily.

"Two months?" Lily asked, in a bright, cheery voice. James and Sirius swung towards her. "I think you deserve two years," she said, her bright mood becoming as dark as theirs.

"What?" James shot back. "You have a crush or something on Snivellus, Evans?"
"No," she said, "I just think it's not right for someone to get picked on. Why do you pick on him anyways?"
"He's a Slytherin," Sirius threw at her. "We need no more."

Lily shook her head and rolled her eyes. "You're both idiots," she muttered.

Both James and Sirius looked about to respond to her, but Frank interrupted that thought, seemingly almost unknowingly. "Ever think what Ziners might do in response?"

James just shook his head. "She wouldn't do anything."

"I wouldn't count on that," Sirius said. "She's got to protect her manservant and all."

"Would you stop calling him that?" Remus asked, throwing Sirius a glare. "It's become rather old."

Sirius rolled his eyes at him. "Ziners, she's a freak herself. We should get her next time," he said to James.

James shrugged noncommittally.

Julie Rin, the tall Prefect from last year, spoke up from the fireplace. "That girl has a chip the size of England on her shoulder."

"It doesn't excuse her though," Sarah Black said from the table behind her brother and his friends.

"It may not, but she's got a chip on her shoulder. Her mother's death, then her father's wayward allegiances."

"Her wayward allegiances," Sirius muttered.

"Her mother..." Lily suddenly whispered, before looking up at the general audience. "How did her mother die?" Lily had been told it was a heart attack, but now Lily wondered if it was something more, something to do with magic.

Julie took the initiative to answer. "Her mother was an Unspeakable for America. One of the best. Anyway, she had a lab in the basement of their house. One night, she was working in it, and it exploded. No one's quite sure what went wrong, but something did."

"I heard that it was Jessica that found her," Alice said.

But Frank contradicted, "I heard it was Casey."

Julie shook her head. "It was both of them. Dad had just become Minister then. I remember hearing him talk about it. It wasn't that long ago. Something like 5 years ago."

Oh my gosh, Lily thought to herself. Jessica and Casey had found her. How hard that must have been...and she had to not only suffer that, but she had to lie to Lily, something Jessica said time and again she hated doing to Lily.

"Is everything alright, Lil?"

Lily glanced up in startlement at Alice. "Yeah, I'm alright. That's just so sad."

Alice nodded. "I know. But it's just a danger with an Unspeakable. At least it was only death."

"At least it was only death?" Lily asked, in shock of her friend's careless dismissal.

"Lil," Alice said, almost as if Lily had missed something obvious. "With magic, there are many other ways you could end up. Trust me, if you can't be fully functional, many times you almost would much rather be dead than other things." As Alice went back to her homework, she said, "There was that one Unspeakable that my dad was working with, George something or other. Well I remember when I was waiting for Dad in his office one time there was this loud explosion. I'll never forget watching that guy walking out of the room down the hall." Alice shivered before looking back up at Lily. "Scariest thing. He was walking around, this blank look on his face. He seemed to know people when they walked up, but it was like he was unsure of who they were. Couldn't speak or anything. Saddest thing. I never want that to happen to me. Would rather be dead..."

* * *

A little over a week later, Severus and Jessica sat side-by-side listening to Jeff Rin talk about what would occur when they tried out for their positions on the Slytherin Quidditch team. The current Slytherin Quidditch team was made up of Jeff Rin, their sole Beater now; Bellatrix Black, Rodolophus Lestrange, and Evan Rosier, all three Chasers; and finally Mitchell Avery, the Keeper. The team stood behind Jeff, sneering at the kids who had gathered to try-out.

The kids who had decided to brave the game were her, Severus (after much prodding), Lucius Malfoy, Rabastan Lestrange (all from her year), a Sixth Year named Richard Mulciber, a Fourth Year named Antonin Dolohov, and a Fifth Year named Walden Macnair. Idly Jessica noticed that she was the only girl trying out, and she also noticed that Bellatrix was the only girl currently on the Slytherin team. Oh, now, that would be interesting: her and Bellatrix being the only girls on the team...Jessica eyed the girl and cringed inwardly.

It wasn't long though, and they were in the air one at a time.

First, it was the Beater try-out. When it was Severus' turn, Jessica watched with trepidation. Even though she had told him to practice over the summer, she had wondered if he actually did. She knew that she had pushed him into this, and she suddenly felt extremely guilty.

But the feeling was nothing compared to what happened during his time in the air.

Rodolophus kept hitting Bludgers to Jeff, who would then hit them to Severus. It would have been bad if Severus just had merely swung and missed all of them. If that had been the only thing he was doing. But no. If he had just been swinging even though they were ten meters away, though a little worse, it would have been good compared to what actually went on. Jessica couldn't think of something worse than what went on. Maybe if his broom went out of control and plummeted to the earth...

But that didn't happen. What happened was that every time Severus took a swing, he put his whole body weight into it (and then some to get the momentum he was getting). When he missed, which he did every time, he swung...the whole way...around...in a circle. Every. Single. Time.

No one bothered to hide their mirth, even when Severus descended and started the long walk to the school, not even waiting for any results. There were only two people that had no mirth to hide. One was sitting on a broom high above the crowd, watching the boy walk away, his expression sympathetic. The other was the girl that Severus stopped to whisper to.

"Don't ever talk to me again."

* * *

Jessica dragged herself into the Common Room. The try-outs had ended four hours ago, but she hadn't had the heart to come back right away. Instead, she made a feeble continue of her search for the portrait. She hadn't really looked at all, but at least she had an excuse to chicken out of facing Severus right away.

She was surprised at the array of people in the Common Room. Well, only three people. Bertie Magal sat at the table on one side of the room. Casey was lying on the floor in middle of the room. He seemed to have been reading, but his head lay on the book now, eyes closed, and he was snoring softly. And then Jim Jones sat up on one of the sofas in front of the fire. He was reading. They were the only three people in the room. When Jessica entered, Jim and Bertie looked up at her.

"Hey, little guy," Bertie said a little loudly, but not too loud.

Casey snorted himself into awareness, causing a faint smile to light Jessica's lips for but a second. Casey looked around, unsure of his surroundings for a minute, before he spotted Jessica.

"How'd it go?" He asked.

"Seeker," she whispered.

Casey gave her a huge smile. "Congratulations."

"That means that Malfoy didn't get it," Bertie said, almost a little too excitedly, causing Jessica to give her a curious glance.

"It took you until now to figure that out, Magal?" Jim asked dryly, almost startlingly Jessica. This was the first time she had heard the boy speak. "I thought it was a dead giveaway when Malfoy blew half the books off the bookshelf over there."

"Only half?" Jessica asked, earning herself a smirk from Jim. Jessica smiled back at him before looking at each kid again. "What are y'all doing up anyway?"

Bertie looked down at the table as though to remind herself. "Uh, Charms homework."

Jessica looked at Casey, who spoke unashamedly. "Waiting for you."

Jessica's eyes moved to Jim, who shrugged. "I don't sleep much. Never have."

"Uh, Jess," Casey said. She looked at her brother. He waited a minute before saying, "How mad is he at you?"
Jessica looked away. "I'll be surprised if he ever talks to me again."

Casey frowned then. She knew her brother had started to like Severus. But, as siblings, Severus would probably avoid him as well as her. Casey was, again, guilty by association.

"Yeah, I don't get that. Why would Severus be mad at you?" Bertie said. Jim was also giving her a curious look.

Jessica shrugged, looking away from both of them as well. "I sort of bullied him into trying out. I knew he would never do it on his own, but I thought he would be good. I still think he would, with a little practice..."

Jim snorted. "Not with his mum. She seems to think there's only one use for him, and that's not practicing Quidditch."

Jessica's gaze swung and latched on the little First Year. "What?" she asked sharply.

Jim suddenly realized what he had said. He started to look back down, but Jessica started to advance on him. "You're not shutting up now, Jones. What do you know?"
Jim gave her a nervous glance. "I thought you already knew, Ziners, being friends with him and all."

"All I know is his mom hurts him somehow. It's the woe of many in this House, though some have it worse than others. I figured something was going on, but your hint there sounds much more devious than I first thought."

Jim shook his head, quickly understanding what she had interpreted from his comment. "No, not that. It's the potions. Salazar said something, and then I sort of figured out the rest from there. It's why he always looks sick."

"What is it, Jones?" Jessica pressed.

"Figure it out, Ziners," Jim said sharply. "She's a Potions Mistress, and she has a boy that she doesn't like. From the sounds of it, the father seems to prefer him to her. So, what do you do to get back at your husband?"

When Jessica still gave him a blank look, Jim growled, "And you're inventing all sorts of nasty potions you don't want the ministry to find out about, but you need someone--"

"To test it on," Casey finished, startling Jessica. Her brother had gotten up during her confrontation with Jim and now stood beside her.

Jim nodded. "Exactly."

"But what about the dad? Hasn't he figured anything out yet?" Jessica asked.

"Rebella may be the Death Eater slut and her ego may fill the whole Guthrie Manor," her brother said bitterly, comparing her to the Manor that the Snapes resided in, "but she's not dumb. You said Severus' dad is away a lot. She wouldn't do it when he was around."

"But why doesn't he tell his dad?" Jessica pressed, but the other three in the room could see her quickly answer her own question.

Murder as blackmail. Both Jessica and Casey looked at each other. They knew that weapon all too well.

* * *

The next night, the Quidditch Pitch saw another try-out. This time, it was the Gryffindors.

The group sitting behind Julie Rin as she talked were a lot friendlier looking than the Slytherin team. There was Julie, a Gryffindor Beater; Jim Masterhead, the other Beater; Lynn Reger, Andrew Bella, and Hunter Hosen, all three Chasers; and Grant Havee, the Keeper.

There were only two people trying out for Seeker. The rest of the Gryffindor Second Years, however, all gathered to watch with great amusement. Since the incident with Snape a few weeks ago, Lily and James constantly yelled at each other. The fact that both also had wanted the Seeker position since the end of last school year never ceased to cause laughter amongst the rest of the Second Years.

The team had already warmed up, so they started a pretend match after they sent the Seeker up into the air. James was the first up. He could have had the Snitch after seventeen minutes, but Julie's well-placed Bludger hindered that, and James pulled out of the dive for safety's sake. It wasn't but three minutes later though that he victoriously claimed the Snitch.

"Good job, Potter!" Julie yelled. She and Potter landed, and he handed over the Snitch. Julie waited until Evans was a good ways in the air before releasing the little gold ball, and then taking off again herself. Both Julie and Masterhead kept an eye on Evans. Once Julie was sure the Second Year had spotted the Snitch and was diving for it, she nodded at Masterhead, who slammed a Bludger Julie's direction. She hit it, and it sailed for Evans. Lily spotted it out of the corner of her eye, but instead of pulling out as James had done, she kicked her broom ahead with a new burst of speed. Evans caught the Snitch, the Bludger brushing against the very tips of the straws at the end of her broom.

When Lily landed, a huge smile on her lips, the Gryffindor team quickly landing themselves, Julie said, "Outstanding, Evans! Only fifteen minutes!"

Julie looked over to notice that not only had James' jaw hit the floor, but so had Sirius', Remus', Frank's, and Peter's. Lily and the rest of the Gryffindor girls giggled just about bursting in their glee. Julie glanced at her team. They all nodded towards Lily. She turned to the girl.

"Well, I guess we have our new Seeker. Congratulations, Lily." Gosh, she hated this next part, but Julie knew she had to do it. "Good try, James. You were excellent. You'll be our reserve Seeker..." Julie trailed off as James turned to stomp towards the castle, Sirius immediately following him, Remus hesitating before joining. Peter stayed rooted into his spot, his eyes now giving Lily an admiring look. Frank came forward to congratulate Lily with the rest of the Gryffindor girls and the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

As the group started back towards the castle to celebrate their new Seeker, the team in bright spirits at such an excellent player, Julie caught up with Lily, who had seemed a little down about James' reaction.

"Don't worry about Potter, Evans," Julie said. "He's just sore a girl's better than him."

Lily gave her a smile.

"He'll get over it," Julie continued. "They always do."

Lily laughed.

* * *

Lily-

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wish I could hug you, but I can't. My mom use to have this saying; I'll say it now even though I think it's corny, "Wrap your arms around yourself and squeeze." She said it was a long distance hug. So there you go, a long distance hug.

I made Seeker too if you haven't heard. It's cool, but it kind of sucks we're going to be going head to head. No matter what, we're friends forever, but I will hold nothing back and expect you not to either.

Thanks for the note about Severus. He was quiet after that incident, but I did as you said. I didn't go beat the crap out of Sirius and James (though I wanted to). I just "comforted" Sev (the way you comfort Severus is to leave him alone for a day, then slowly start to warm up to him with a well-placed joke here and there). Anyway, there are bigger problems now.

I bugged Severus into trying out as the new Slytherin Beater. Though I knew he needed some work, I didn't think he needed THAT MUCH WORK. The try-out was horrible. I won't even go into detail about the incident because it's horrid to remember. Let's just say he didn't make Beater, a lot of people laughed at him, and he told me to never talk to him again. I've been leaving him alone because I don't deserve to talk to him again. Lily! It sucks! I feel worse than horrible for pushing him into the try-out, but it's nothing compared to not talking to him. He even leaves the library when I walk in! He hates me now. The worse part is I deserve it.

I've got to get back to my homework. Congratulations again.

Your Friend,

Jess

* * *

Severus glanced up when someone sat across from him at the lunch table. He was surprised to see Lucius Malfoy looking at him. The boy didn't say anything but started dishing out his food. Mavis Goyle and Brent Crabbe flanked his sides, and Rabastan, the last boy in their house, sat next to Severus.

The four engaged in a conversation as Severus continued his lunch while reading his Transfiguration textbook. Suddenly though, the four lapsed into silence, catching Severus' attention. He looked up to see them all looking at him expectantly.

"What?" Severus asked sharply.

Undaunted, Rabastan repeated, "So you gonna practice and maybe try out for Jeff Rin's position when he graduates in 2 years?"

Severus shook his head and went back to his book.

"Why not?" Rabastan pressed. "With a bit of practice, you'll get it. Maybe we could set up a practice, just me and you..."

Severus gave him a surprised glance, to which the boy shrugged. "Couldn't hurt to get a damn good Beater before Jeff leaves."

Severus bit back his happiness. Someone was accepting him? Someone other than Ziners? At the thought of her, his eyes shot down the table where she was sitting with Narcissa and the rest of the girls from her dorm. Casey was even further down, finally having been partly accepted by the boys from his dorm. Severus looked back at Rabastan.

"Sounds good. Let's wait until after the first game, so we can figure out how best to fit in a practice."

Rabastan nodded. "Sounds good to me. Anyway, it'll help for me to get a bit more use to the position before I start helping someone else. I would have rather been Chaser, that's what I'm usually in our games," he nodded towards Malfoy, "but I just wanted on the team bad enough I was willing to settle for Beater for now."

"If I was willing to settle for less," Malfoy sneered, "I would have beaten you for Beater. But instead, I will settle for nothing but the best."

Here, Rabastan gave a gruesome half grin. "And your best, Malfoy, didn't hold a hope and a prayer of passing Ziners' best."

Goyle and Crabbe burst out laughing but two well-placed Malfoy glares had them shutting up.

* * *

"He's back to the book again."

"Remus, get away from the book. It's the weekend. RELAX!" James Potter said to their brown haired friend. The three were lounging outside by the lake. James and Sirius had been playing around with the toad that one of Sirius' aunts had given him early last school year. They were trying to enchant it to do different things. Meanwhile, Remus, who had been going from watching to reading, was leaning against a nearby tree. His friends had been giving him a hard time for reading a book other than his school textbooks.

"This is completely fascinating," Remus looked up at them, but it appeared he had no idea that they had just spoken to him. "A Basilisk 'is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad,'" he read, almost reverently. (Author's note: the part of Remus' spoken sentence enclosed in apostrophes is a direct quote from Chamber of Secrets.)

The boys shook their head at him before looking back at the toad.

"What the...?" Sirius started to say as they looked at their now orange toad.

As Sirius changed it back, James glanced around to see if anybody nearby might have done something. He didn't see anyone...until his eyes stopped at Jessica by a tree a ways down. She was still holding two fingers in their general direction as she leaned against a tree herself, a book in her lap. She smirked at James, but he fought the urge to nod at her. Then his eyes spotted Severus Snape just exiting the castle with the rest of the Second Year Slytherin boys. What? James thought Snape always hung out with Jessica because the others didn't give him the time of day. James looked back at Jessica. She had obviously noticed where his attention had gone and what he was thinking. She shrugged at him and went back to her book.

"Whatcha looking at?" Sirius asked, glancing over his shoulder.

"Nothing," James quickly said as he looked back at the frog.

"I'm going to go start in on that Transfiguration essay," Remus suddenly announced, standing up before grabbing his bag and starting towards the castle. "See you guys inside."

They nodded at him before going back to their task. A few minutes passed before Sirius spoke of something other than the many ways they could use the toad to pull a practical joke on the Slytherins.

"You know, James, I've been thinking about Remus. You know, his weird disappearances."

James nodded. The two had noticed that their friend had disappeared once a month. He had a variety of excuses, some he used twice, and some only once. But something always occurred once a month, which had James and Sirius both questioning the validity of the excuses. They had since brought in their kind of fourth friend Peter, who had locked himself up in Gryffindor tower this weekend in attempt to finish the Charms essay that was due last week and the Transfiguration essay due Monday. Peter had no idea why Remus disappeared other than to observe that he would return sore, bruised, and a bit scratched up.

"I've sort of put some more thought into it, and for some reason I just glanced at a calendar," Sirius said. "The last two times he went missing last year..."

"Yeah?" James prompted when Sirius stopped.

Sirius looked up at him and took a minute before whispering, "They were during full moons."

* * *

Jess-

Congratulations yourself!! How exciting. And you had better watch yourself, because I will most certainly not hold anything back. But we're always friends, no matter what happens.

About Severus - I'm sorry. That sucks. You do get kind of pushy, but that's you. Don't change for a boy. No matter what, don't change for a boy. Anyway, it looks like you've got yourself some other friends (though I can't believe you're hanging out with Narcissa).

I'm having problems with James Potter myself. It was only him and I trying out for Seeker. I beat him, and now he, Sirius, and Remus (though I don't think Remus wants to) are trying to annoy me any chance they get. Just tonight, they sent Sirius' toad across my Transfiguration assignment, smearing the ink. I have to write the thing over again. Urgh! I would have told Professor McGonagall on them, but I suppose that would only make things worse.

I'm nervous for the first Quidditch match. I can't believe its Gryffindor against Slytherin! Tell me you're as nervous as I am, so I know that we'll have the same problems facing us at the match.

Hope everything else is going all right. Oh, one more thing about Severus - I'll tell you the same thing Julie Rin told me about James. He'll get over it. They always do.

Your Friend,

Lily

Lily folded the letter into an envelope and, after assuring herself that she was alone in the dorm room, attached and hid it on Crookshanks' side. She grabbed the cat when he went to trod off alone. Ever since the Quidditch try-outs, she had been more careful with Crookshanks going off alone. She was worried that James and Sirius would try something with the cat in their escapades to annoy her. So Lily grabbed the cat and brought it down herself.

When she reentered the Common Room, Sarah Black was griping loudly to her brother and his friends about Casey Ziners. Lily listened as she went to let out Crookshanks.

"The boy is a jerk! It takes two seconds for him to make a potion, and the rest of the time, he spends trying to blow up others' potions behind Rum's back. The old freak knows he's doing it but won't stop him 'cause he's a Slytherin," she spit out the last word as though it left a bad taste in her mouth.

"Welcome to the world of Slytherins and Potions, Sis," Sirius said unenthusiastically.

"But get this, Sirius, he's a freak also. In that stupid double Defense Against the Dark Arts we have to have with the Slytherins - we were doing a Disarming Spell. Ziners kept rolling his eyes behind Medley's back. Finally, Medley caught him doing it and asked him if he thought he could easily do the Disarming Spell himself, to which Casey said that he could. Medley had him do it on him. The boy blew him half way across the room!"

"He did not, Black!" Fabian Prewett yelled from over by the fire. Fabian was tall for a First Year and mouthier than most. His brother, a Fourth Year, was the same way. Both brothers looked a lot alike, straw colored hair, tall, not overweight but not skinny either, and had brown eyes. "Just blew him on his bum!"

"Still!" Sarah responded. "That little maggot blew a full grown wizard on his bum! You know how he did it, right?"
"Dark magic?" Fabian said with sarcastic horror, and then followed it up seriously with, "Medley very well knows that the Ziners' know dark magic, yet he asked Casey Ziners to do it, so, in my opinion, he was asking for it."

"What if it was the Killing Curse instead?" Sarah bit back. "You think he would have deserved it then?"

"Shut up, Black!" Fabian said. "You know Medley's smarter than that."

"Well," Sirius said loudly enough to stop both, "I have spent enough of my Saturday evening speaking about Ziners."

"Going to finally get going on the Transfiguration essay, Sirius?" Alice asked with a smile.

"Oh, bloody hell no," Sirius waved a hand at her. "Got more important things to do."

Sirius nodded towards the entryway of the Common Room. "James?"
James nodded. "Remus, wanna come?"

Remus looked at the two as though he was asking a silent question. They nodded, grins on both of their faces. Remus thought a minute before saying, "No, I've really got to finish this." He nodded towards his essay.

"Boring, Remus. You're turning into a boring, ol' git," Sirius said before the two took off. Remus chuckled.

* * *

Later that month, school was well underway, and the Quidditch teams of Gryffindor and Slytherin were preparing for their first match that was to occur within two weeks. But late one Sunday night, someone was missing from the Gryffindor Common Room.

"Where's Remus?" Frank asked suddenly, looking at Sirius, James, and Peter. He had been reading Quidditch Through the Ages in preparation for the game at the end of next week, but he had glanced at his watch to notice it was 11 p.m. and Remus hadn't shown up in the Common Room all night.

"Mum's sick. Went home," Sirius said as he perused through a spell book to find something else to do to his toad. Frank went back to his book unawares, but Sirius and James suddenly looked at each other. Peter gave them a questioning look before James whispered to him.

"Another excuse to be gone."

Peter nodded as though he understood, but when he looked away, he still appeared puzzled.

Sirius glanced at Gideon Prewett, Fabian's brother. He was one table down. He had been grumbling not five minutes ago about his Divination assignment on planetary alignments. James could see the spark on Sirius' face as he got an idea.

"Hey, Gideon," Sirius asked in a detached voice. "When's the next full moon?"

"What?" Gideon said, almost angrily.

"When's the next full moon?" Sirius repeated, a little more cautiously.

"Why do you care?"
"I was reading something here," Sirius nodded towards his book, "and I got curious. When's the next moon?"

Gideon glanced at his parchment before looking at his book dumbly for a moment. His girlfriend, Lauren Melbrook, another Fourth Year, pointed at something on his parchment.

"Oh," Gideon said before reading for a second. "It's October 22."

"Tonight in other words," Lauren laughed at her tired boyfriend.

Sirius and James looked at each other a minute before Sirius murmured, "Thanks."

* * *

"You come to watch the Quidditch game?"

Severus turned to the voice in surprise. Casey was looking up at him. Severus had at least four inches on the boy.

"Yes," Severus said quietly before trying to move away.

"But not Jessica," Casey said without moving. The words were meant to make Severus pause in his retreat, and they worked like a charm.

"No, not Jessica," he clarified. "I have other friends now, and one is playing in this game." Severus turned to retreat again, but stopped when Casey spoke yet again, but this time, there was a chill in his voice that Severus had never heard before.

"Just clarifying there, Snape."

He glanced at Casey to see the boy's hazel eyes giving him a cold look before he turned to sit with Salazar and the rest of the First Year boys.

Severus stood there a minute before he saw Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle walk in. "Over here, Severus," Malfoy said. They all sat down together, at least two groups of friends between Severus and Casey. Casey never looked at Severus once during the game.

* * *

James tried not to notice them staring when he, Sirius, Remus, and Peter sat next to them. But it was hard not to notice four girls gawking at you like you had grown a second head. It was the other four girls in Lily's dorm: Alice Bolmond, Marlene McKinnon, Dorcas Meadows, and Kelly Brier.

Finally, he glared at them. "We're here in support of Frank since this is his first time announcing! And in support of the team, even though she's on it!"

"Mmm-Hmm," they all said in unison and turned to look back at the Pitch and talk amongst themselves.

"Girls!" James groaned as he and his friends sat.

"Hey, guys," Hagrid bellowed as he joined them, taking a seat next to Peter, nearly squishing him to death next to Remus. James and Sirius quickly took a seat up one so Remus and Peter could move down to make room for Hagrid. Hagrid apologized, but the boys waved it off.

"I've come ter see Lily as the new Seeker," Hagrid informed them.

James slapped a hand over his eyes.

"James, you're being a baby!" Alice said to him. "Lily is pretty good you've got to admit, especially since she hasn't been zipping around on a broom her whole life like you have. Give her some credit!"

"Yeah," Marlene joined in. "Give her some credit finally."

"Have you even watched her practice?" Dorcas asked. "She's pretty good. You are too James. She had some daredevil luck at the try-outs. If she hadn't, Julie would have had to pick her or you based on something other than talent. She just had luck that night, and you didn't."

"What's more than that," Kelly said, "is that it was daredevil luck. Let's just hope that she doesn't try it again, because that Bludger could hit for real this time!" Kelly's voice squealed with fear at the end.
Alice patted Kelly on the back. "She's been worried about this game more than Lily has," Alice informed the boys.

The three others boys looked at James to see him smirk at the overly worried 12-year old. The other boys felt they could join in the smile as well then.

"You know, Kelly," James finally said. "It's just the danger with Quidditch, getting hit by a Bludger. It'll probably happen more than once in Lily's career on the team, but she'll be alright."

"Yeah," Sirius agreed before saying to James, "Remember that one time we were playing in my yard, and the Bludger smashed me in the face and broke my nose."

Both boys started laughing at the memory, earning themselves a horrified look from Kelly and a stern one from Alice. Remus laughed at the looks, followed by Peter, but he only seemed to join in the laughing because the other boys were doing it.

* * *

"Nervous, Jessica, Rabastan?" Jeff asked.

"No, not at all," Jessica said. Her voice may have been shaky, but no one could mistake her sarcasm.

Jeff smiled and looked over at Rabastan, who gestured towards Jessica. "Same here," he croaked.

The team burst into laughter, but Jeff quieted them down, though he seemed to find the two Second Years just as amusing as they did.

As they started out of the changing rooms, Jeff walked with the two. "Don't worry. It's going to be all right. You," he pointed at Rabastan, "just keep the Bludgers away from us, the ones in green. Try to aim for the ones in scarlet, but don't worry about that too much yet. Just don't hit them at us while trying to keep them from us. Got it?"

Rabastan nodded.

Jeff turned to Jessica. "You. Just worry about the Snitch and the score. The sooner you catch it, the better, but if it's taking you a bit--"

"Which it better not!" Rodolophus Lestrange, Rabastan's older brother, yelled from behind them.

Jeff glanced over his shoulder to give Rodolophus a look (to which the boy sneered at) before turning back to Jessica. "If it takes you a bit, make sure only to catch the Snitch when we're either in the lead or if the Snitch will definitely put us in the lead. Got it?"

Jessica nodded as they emerged onto the Quidditch Pitch. The Slytherins and the Gryffindors all gathered in the middle. Madam Hooch was referring. She looked between Julie Rin and Jeff Rin to see the twins giving each other challenging glares.

"Fair game, the both of you," Hooch said and waited until she got a nod from both before saying, "Mount your brooms!"

* * *

"Ladies and Gentlemen," Frank Longbottom started in quickly but smoothly, "And the game gets right off with Gryffindor Chaser Andrew Bella grabbing the Quaffle. Bella is a sturdy Fifth Year with a great arm I must say...And there he goes using it. Ahh!" Frank yelled along with the rest of the Gryffindors. "Slytherin Keeper Mitchell Avery makes a fantastic block on the far hoop...and Slytherin's Black grabs the Quaffle and is off racing towards the Gryffindor end, Rosier and the older Lestrange acting as her escorts. The younger Lestrange makes an awesome save of Black's head, blocking the Bludger with his bat...but now the Bludger is hit up, narrowly missing the Slytherin's new Seeker, Ziners! The Bludger is now coming down after her...wow, that was some good maneuvering...Slytherin's Rin hits it toward Gryffindor's Rin...And it misses Julie by mere inches! Meanwhile, Gryffindor's Chaser Hosen and Slytherin's Chaser Black seem to be in a fight for the Quaffle...but it's dropped! And Gryffindor's Chaser Reger saves it with a nice swoop! She's off to the other end now like a shot of lightening! Can the Slytherins catch up to her? And--wow! Where did that Bludger come from?! Nearly missed taking off Avery's head! Reger scores!!!"

The Gryffindor section of the audience went up in cheers, and Frank didn't bother to bite back his smile when next to him McGonagall let out a squeal of delight. But Frank had to carry on announcing as the game continued...

* * *

Jessica made slow circles above the Pitch as she leaned close to her broom. She fervently searched below for the Snitch but couldn't see it anywhere. Lily was doing the same thing as her, but farther over.

Jessica decided a different tactic was needed when Gryffindor scored three more times to Slytherin's one...

* * *

"Meanwhile, Slytherin's Seeker Ziners seems to be descending a bit in her search for the Snitch, who has yet to appear in the game. It now seems that Gryffindor's Seeker Evans is following as well..."

* * *

As the play moved down the Pitch, Jessica swung around the hoops at Slytherin's end.

"What are you doing?" Avery asked.

"Dancing, you?" She gave him a glare as she gave the sarcastic response to his stupid question. She shook her head at his own glare before glancing down Pitch. The action started to come back this way, but Jessica decided to go down instead of up. She watched the action for a second on her way down. Suddenly though, she noticed something lagging behind the group...

* * *

"And Avery makes a save at the hoops, and the Quaffle makes another descent...wait a minute...Ziners sees the Snitch!!" Frank watched Jessica make a race down towards the Gryffindor hoops, but he knew that's not what her aim was because dead center of the Pitch at his eye level was the Snitch. It started to race back toward the Gryffindor end as Lily started after it too, and soon the Seekers were neck to neck...

* * *

Jessica didn't even glance at Lily as she kept her eyes on the Snitch. Suddenly, it faked a left but swung right and up, right into her path...

* * *

"Ziners is about to get it! Ah, no! She missed it by mere millimeters!"

* * *

Both girls recovered at about the same time and followed the Snitch as it started back towards the Slytherin end. Play had resumed there, but everyone was trying to keep an eye on the Seekers as well, especially considering that they were now heading into the center of play. Play stopped, as Rodolophus held the Quaffle dumbly at his side.

As the girls zoomed in, players started to move, but stopped when Jessica yelled, "Don't move!!"

This caused everyone to become stock still as the girls zoomed around them in an attempt to get the darting Snitch. It flew around Julie Rin's head before diving below Andrew Bella's broom and in front of Rodolophus. It was when it ducked around the somewhat stocky Rosier that it seemed to disappear. Both girls flew around him twice but couldn't find anything. They sighed then glanced at each other before looking around the two still teams. Suddenly, Jessica spotted it. She didn't move except to stare at Jeff Rin. He understood her silent communication and kept still.

"Well, I guess..." Lily started to say just as Jessica zoomed around Rosier and straight at the flying device by Jeff Rin's head. She grabbed it out of the air just as it started to take off.

Everyone in the stadium was quiet, unsure of what went on, until Frank said:

"And this game is over! Slytherin wins 160 to 40!"

As the Slytherin section burst into applause, Jessica held up the Snitch victoriously.

The Slytherin team converged on her still in midair, but Jessica was able to spare Lily a glance. Lily gave her a soft, defeated smile before she and the Gryffindors descended. Jessica gave her a sympathetic look before the Slytherins started giving her high fives and patting her on the back, nearly knocking her off her broom.

* * *

Back in the changing rooms, after the Gryffindors had changed out of their uniforms, Julie called a meeting. "Okay, I know tonight was a tough loss. It's always tough against the Slytherins. But I just wanted to congratulate our new Seeker. I don't know about you guys, but I thought she did a good job for her first game." The team gave tired nods.

"You and Ziners were neck-in-neck for the Snitch," Julie continued, looking specifically at the depressed Lily. "She just got the Snitch before you by sheer dumb luck."

Lily nodded, the dark mood seeming to lessen only a little bit.

"Okay," Julie clapped her hands together as though done. "That's all." The team got up with tired groans. "Oh, one more thing," Julie said, earning herself a few glares, "you all watch over Evans. If Potter or his cretins harass her, I want you all there backing her up."
Everyone smiled and nodded, Lynn Reger giving Lily a pat on the back. Lily gave a small smile to her then Julie. "Thanks," she whispered.

Julie smiled and nodded.

* * *

On the way back up to the castle though, Lily got a pat on the back from James Potter. The team looked at him as though daring him to do something. He gave them a curious look before saying, "Good job, Evans. Ziners had luck on her side this time. Next time, she won't."

He gave her a smile before casting another curious glance over the team, who was still looking at him, before he ran off with Sirius, Remus, and Peter. Lily looked back at the team to see them burst into smiles and chuckles. Julie grinned. "I think he got over it finally."

Lily nodded. "I hope so," she said just as the Gryffindor Second Year girls ran up to her.

* * *

In the Slytherin Common Room, it didn't take long for a party to get into full swing. Jessica was getting pats on the back wherever she went, and people were congratulating her. Everyone was talking about their prospects at winning the Quidditch Cup this year, something they had secured for the last 3 years.

Jessica had just finished talking with Rabastan and Rodolophus when she noticed Severus staring at her. He was sitting next to Lucius, Goyle, and Crabbe having a butterbeer. She smiled and nodded at him. Without acknowledging, he went back to his conversation with Malfoy. Jessica sighed.

"That was great," came a laugh next to her.

Jessica turned and grinned at Casey.

"Yeah, Jessica," Salazar patted her on the back. "We're going to cream the Gryffindors this year."

"Like every year," Rabastan said, joining her again.

Jessica chuckled.

* * *

It was about 2 weeks later. Since Jessica sat next to Severus in every single class, soon after their fight, when she realized things were not going to get any better, she moved to other seats. In Potions, she now sat next to Rosemary Mavea. In History of Magic, she switched seats with that moron Crabbe (she bet Severus loved that) and now sat next to Rabastan, behind Malfoy, and in front of Calista Andrews (otherwise, she sat on the edge of the room). In Charms, Astronomy, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, and Divination, she now sat next to Bertie Magal. Lastly, in DADA and Transfiguration, she now sat next to Narcissa. Severus made no bones of the fact that he could have cared less about the new seating arrangements (well, maybe except for History of Magic).

All this didn't help Jessica escape the fact that she missed Severus. But she'd get over it. She just had to watch him with his new friends to get mad at him and go to her new friends. She was already starting not to care. Well, except for in Transfiguration...

The Second Year Gryffindors had Transfiguration just before the Second Year Slytherins did, so it was obvious that it had been one of them. Someone (and Jessica soon started giving herself three guesses who) had put a Sticking Charm on a certain seat before they left.

The bell rang after the Slytherin class, and Severus went to get up. The chair creaked and then banged down when Severus fell back into it. He tried getting up again. No go. Severus started to turn red when Crabbe and Goyle started sniggering. The sniggering caused McGonagall to look up. It didn't take her (or the rest of the ogling class) long to figure out Severus' plight.

McGonagall quickly got him unstuck. While she was doing that, Jessica, who was closest to the door, heard some snickers outside the door. She turned her head to see Sirius and James in the hallway, watching over Jessica's shoulder.

"Black! Potter!" She yelled, and they took off. McGonagall stopped her from giving chase.

"I will speak with Misters Black and Potter, Miss Ziners," she informed Jessica and the rest of the class, "but since no one saw anything, I cannot punish them or take away house points."

The class groaned, moaned, and grumbled angrily as they left. Severus still was sporting a shade of pink as his friends ribbed him about the incident. When Jessica spotted the hoodlums down the hall though, she decided to turn their attention. "Hey, guys!" She whispered loudly. Nothing. "Malfoy!" She yelled in his ear.

He jumped. "What, Ziners?" He growled.

She pointed at Black and Potter, now surrounded by Lupin, Petigrew, Longbottom, and a few Hufflepuff boys. They all seemed in an animated conversation. When they heard Jessica yell at Malfoy, they turned. All of the boys cracked up laughing when they spotted Severus and a few pointed.

"Time to teach them a lesson for harassing one of our number, you think?" Rabastan asked. The Slytherins nodded. They started for the group. It was when Jessica spotted Lily and the rest of the Gryffindor girls come out of the Charms classroom that Jessica stopped the Slytherin girls.

"Let's let the guys handle this," Jessica said suddenly when she got the curious gazes of the Slytherin girls. When Jessica turned back to Lily, she had noticed her friend had quickly assessed the situation. Lily's green eyes turned curiously to Jessica. Jessica didn't nod or anything, but just turned to the confrontation in time to see Rabastan push James.

It took two seconds for a brawl to start, and about four teachers to put a stop to it...

* * *

Jessica wasn't surprised to see Bertie Magal walk in to the Slytherin Common Room, Crookshanks nestled in her arms. She handed the cat over to Jessica.

"He was waiting outside the dungeon doors, waiting for someone to open them," Bertie explained.

Jessica nodded. "Thanks," she said before standing up. "Can you watch my homework?" Bertie nodded as she took a spot across from Jessica's homework, next to Narcissa.

Jessica ran up the stairs to the dormitory and threw herself and the cat on the bed before she took the note off Crookshanks. The cat crawled up on Jessica's pillow and promptly went to sleep.

Jess-

Those stupid boys and that stupid fight. I can't believe them. Every Second Year Gryffindor boy has one week detention. It serves them right.

I've got to ask you something. James said that he thinks you provoked the fight to get back at them for what they did (putting the Sticking Charm on the seat). Now, if it were Sirius saying that, I wouldn't have given it another thought, because he just likes to rag on you, but James isn't like that when it comes to you (only God knows why though. He rags on every other Slytherin). But, James did indeed say he thinks you provoked the fight. I must say that I wonder myself with what I saw of the fight. Did you provoke the fight? You got a lot of people in trouble if you did.

Your Friend,

Lily

* * *

Lily was surprised to see Crookshanks crawl into the Gryffindor Common Room after James. She had written to Jessica not an hour ago, and she had already gotten a response? Lily grabbed the cat and took off upstairs. Beginning to get use to this, Alice watched over her stuff without being asked.

Lily took the note from Crookshanks before the cat collapsed onto the bed and fell immediately asleep.

Lily-

I didn't really do anything to provoke the fight other than spot James and Sirius outside the Transfiguration doorway, putting them together with the incident, then spotting them down the hall (BRAGGING!!), and pointing them out to the guys in my year. They did it from there. I did what anyone would do when protecting the honor of their house. Plus, James and Sirius needed some consequence to their action with the Sticking Charm. They embarrassed Severus. They are always doing that to him. Just picking on him unmercifully! And they never get in trouble because no one can ever catch them in the act and Severus would rather die than tell on them, knowing it will only get him more pranks from those guys (the first time he had to say something to get his wand and books back). Anyway, I decided if the professors aren't ever going to do anything, I've got to take matters into my own hands. I'm sorry, Lily, but that's what I've got to do. I'm sure you'll understand one day.

Your Friend No Matter What,

Jess

"Is everything alright?" Dorcas Meadows asked. Lily looked up in startlement.

"What?"

"Is everything alright? You look so sad." There was concern written on Dorcas' face.

"Oh," Lily said, glancing down at the letter before folding it neatly. "Yeah, I'm alright. Just frustrated at my friend." And before Dorcas could inquire further, Lily stuck the letter in her trunk, locked it, and then went back down to the Common Room.

* * *

"Marcus!" Adam Rin looked up in surprise at the Auror lounging in the doorway to his office. "I thought you had already left."

Marcus Potter glanced at his wristwatch. "It's only 7. Still an hour more to do work before my wife decides she needs to drag me kicking and screaming from the office."

Adam laughed. "That would be a sight, though I would imagine Brittany could take you."

Marcus smiled before he gestured towards the visitor's chair. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"
"Sure," Adam said quickly. "Take a seat. Shut the door if you feel you need to." There were many times Marcus needed to do that, Adam knew, and the mention of it was automatic with him now.

Marcus did indeed close the door before he sat down on the chair. It was then that Adam noticed the man was clutching a parchment. He glanced at it before looking at Marcus. "What can I do for you? Is it about Voldemort?"

Marcus shook his head quickly. "No, it's not...it's about a personal project of mine," he said after a pause.

Adam dropped the memo he had been reading on the desk, seeing that the Auror was acting rather peculiar. "What is it?" The Minister asked in a quiet voice, giving Marcus his full attention.

"You know I go over to America with some frequency," Marcus said after he glanced away a minute before looking back to the Minister. Adam nodded. "I have an easy-going friendship with Daniel Montgomery, one of the top Aurors over there."

"Oh, that one that's the head of their special unit...the Dark Operators, right?"

Marcus nodded. "Yeah, him." Marcus paused again before continuing. "He has a niece and nephew, Jessica and Casey Ziners."

"Jeffery Ziners' children, right?"

Marcus nodded. "And that's who I want to talk about. I've gotten to know the children reasonably well during my visits there. They have a great fascination with Aurors," Marcus gave a small smile and chuckle. "Extremely smart too, the both of them." he shook his head slightly. "Anyway, I would occasionally notice something odd about their behavior."

When Marcus gave another pause, Adam prompted, "Like what?"

"For example, Jessica. She is a very outgoing precocious girl. She also has something of a mouth," Marcus chuckled and Adam smiled. "But," Marcus said, turning serious again, "around her father, she gets nervous and quiet, almost scared. Whenever she shows any emotion or has any outbursts, she always seems to glance nervously at her father. I've dismissed these each time as to the fact her father is a rigid disciplinarian, but there were times I wondered...

"Anyway, almost a year ago, Arthur Weasely came to me. His wife Molly is Jessica's Godmother. Jessica had spent the week before Hogwarts started with them (Jessica's attending Hogwarts by the way). Arthur said that they had been suspecting beforehand that Jeffery might be taking his punishments with the kids a bit too far, but they only had what I had, mere suspicions. But, during that week, they had something else..."

"What was it?"

"Molly accidentally walked in on Jessica in the bathroom. Jessica had been treating some wounds across her back. Arthur told me Molly's description...and, Adam, he perfectly described a wound from a Cruciatus."

Adam looked at his desk for a long time, digesting this information before looking back at Marcus. Before Adam could comment, Marcus continued.

"And, about two months ago, I received a letter from a Lily Evans, a friend of Jessica's. She's known Jessica her whole life. Lily wrote to me because of my employment and position here at the Ministry. Otherwise, Miss Evans was not sure who to write to. Well, she told me about Jessica sometimes showing up with mysterious injuries, blaming them on ranch accidents. She's pretty sure Jessica's lying. I can't help but think that Miss Evans is right."

"What do you propose?" Adam asked when Marcus stopped talking.

"I think if the kids were out from under their father's presence, with a promise of them not having to go back if they talk, the kids might talk. They might tell us what's going on. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. I know some relations are going to get hurt, but with children's lives possibly in danger, I honestly couldn't care less about politics right now."

Adam looked at Marcus a long time. He saw the determination in the man's face.

"How sure are you, Marcus? I want you to be positive something is going on before I let you out of the cage on this."

"Adam," Marcus said quickly, "I think Molly's words alone are pretty damning. I know Arthur; I know he knows what Cruciatus markings look like on the body. He was so afraid of making this accusation in the first place; he refused to even call it for what it was! And I looked at a branding iron when I went to the ranch this summer. That's what Jessica blamed the injury on. I asked one of the ranch hands about it, and I asked him what kind of injury it would make if it touches the skin. He showed me a burn of his own from the iron. It wasn't what Molly described. Not one bit. I think that, topped with not only my suspicions but the Weaselys and Lily Evans as well, is enough to go on."

Adam took a minute before he nodded. "I know," he said quietly looking at his desk in an effort to avoid Marcus' glare. Adam started to say something, but stopped and looked up at Marcus. "And just for the record, I'm not worried about the politics more than the kids. I'm worried that if you're wrong, that could cause not only their father problems, but those kids."

Marcus took a deep breath before nodding too. "I believe you," he said, before handing him the parchment he had been clutching.

"Eric Brenwith, from the legal department, told me that the kids could get removed from their home if I get you to sign this and the Secretary of Magic in America to as well."

Adam gave Marcus a confused look.

"Since Jessica and Casey are both attending Hogwarts, and Albus Dumbledore has his own suspicions about the kids' well-being at home, the country of the schooling can be considered an authority over the children's well-being. In the one country, all they need is the signature of the head of magic there on an Order of Removal, but since there are two countries involved here--"

"Two signatures are needed," Adam finished. He read the Order of Removal in silence before picking up his quill and dipping it in ink, signing on the bottom right, where a line for his signature had been placed.

"You realize you're going to run into some problems with the American Secretary of Magic, right?" Adam asked when he finished and was handing the order back to Marcus.

Marcus snorted. "You think I'm going to have only some problems? I'm thinking lots of problems, big, huge ones."

Adam gave him a small smile.

"I know I'll have problems with him. I thought I'd start small first. Practice on you."

"Well, good luck, Marcus. And you can tell that pea brain over in America you have my full support on this measure. I do not tolerate child abuse of any kind."

Marcus had been about to open the door, but turned back to Adam when he said that last part. There had been a vehement note in his voice that Marcus had never heard before. The face matched it.

"Thanks," he said quietly as he opened the door. "Don't stay too late."

Adam smiled. "Same to you, Marcus."

Marcus chuckled as he started back through the outside offices. He saw Amelia Black still working in her office however, so he walked over and stuck his head in.

"Work-a-holic," he said, causing her to jump. She shook her head when she noticed it was just him.

"I could be saying the same to you," she retorted.

"Nope, I was just leaving now actually. Got what I wanted," he held up the parchment.

"What's that?" Amelia asked, eyeing it. Marcus opened his mouth to tell her it was nothing but decided something at the last minute.

"I might as well tell you in case it involves Hogwarts, which I'm guessing it's probably going to," Marcus said as he came in and shut the door. "I need you to inform your husband of this..." Marcus told her about Jessica and Casey's situation and the upcoming actions he was going to take. It took about twenty minutes.

"I think Malcolm will be in your corner on this," Amelia said when he finished. "I'll talk to him tonight."

"Okay, thanks," Marcus said. "I'll owl your house if and when it's going to happen."

"I'll beat that Secretary if he doesn't sign it," Amelia growled, making Marcus smile.

Marcus left and was walking back out of the administrative area when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He turned and stood there for a good minute, unsure of what exactly to make of what he saw. There was a large green glowing skull conjured in front of the Minister's door. Marcus glanced around the offices. He was indeed still alone. He stepped out of the area. No one anywhere, even when he strained his ears even harder. No sound.

Marcus turned back to the door and started walking towards it. His movements were slow, unsure of what would happen when he got closer to the skull. Halfway there, he yelled out, "Amelia!"

"What?!" She yelled back.

"Come out here! Now!"

He heard her get out of her chair before exiting her office. "Wh...?" She started irritably but stopped when she saw what Marcus was staring at. "What on earth?" She started towards it.

Marcus reached the skull first though. When he was a hair's breath from touching it, it vanished. Marcus and Amelia gave each other a confused look. Marcus knocked on the door to the Minister's office. No response. He opened the door.

* * *

The post came in a flurry of owls the next morning. It dropped parcels and letters everywhere before the owls waited patiently for a treat from their various masters. Milo and A' Marie each dropped a Daily Prophet in the laps of sibling masters. Jessica bit one more time into her apple before setting it on her plate. She gave the passive Milo a treat before picking up the paper.

Her heart dropped into her stomach. She read the headline again slowly to make sure she hadn't misread it. She and Casey's gazes clanked with each other before looking back at the headline.

MINISTER ADAM RIN FOUND MURDERED IN HIS OFFICE

Jessica still didn't want to believe it so she searched out for Jeff. He was nowhere at the table. Jessica stood up, not caring if anyone saw her behavior as odd. Her eyes searched up and down the Gryffindor table. No Julie. The twins were gone.

Jessica sat back down and read the article, not noticing her hands were starting to shake.

Late last night, assistant to the Minister of Magic Ignatius Malfoy announced to reporters that the body of Adam Rin, 52, the Minister of Magic, was found in his office. They believe he was murdered by the use of the Killing Curse.

Marcus Potter, 38, the third in command of Magical Law Enforcement, and Amelia Black, 40, the other assistant to Minister Rin, discovered the body at about 7:40 last night. Mr. Potter was the last to see Minister Rin alive, but Mr. Malfoy assures us that Potter is not a suspect. "At this point, we are looking to who else was in the Ministry that day, including the visitors log and who the night guards may have seen," Mr. Malfoy said.

Unconfirmed reports say that a large glowing green skull had appeared in front of the Minister's door, which was what alerted Mr. Potter to return to the Minister's office after a visit with Black.

Until a new Minister of Magic is chosen, Ignatius Malfoy will be acting Minister. "I hope I can only live up to Minister Rin's legacy," Malfoy said.

Jessica looked up again, her thoughts on looking for Casey, but they looked a little further than her brother when she noticed he was still reading. Her's and Severus' eyes caught each other's. For a second (and Jessica was sure she was fooling herself), he looked as horrified at the news as she was. Not that many people at the Slytherin table looked surprised or horrified at the news. But that split second she had with Severus vanished when he looked across the table when Lucius Malfoy spoke to him.

Jessica's eyes moved back to her brother's. He was looking at her. He nodded towards the Entrance Hall. Jessica nodded back. She stuffed the paper in her bag before getting up and slinging it over her shoulder. The other girls looked at her.

"I'm going go get some reading done before class today," she said quietly to them before she grabbed her apple and took off out the door. Casey joined her in a minute.

"That's what they were talking about," he said by way of greeting.

"What?" She whispered, yanking him into the darkness of the main stairway.

"That's what Dad and Mr. Malfoy were talking about that day in Knockturn, when Dad lied to us about the meeting."

"First," she pointed at him, "I've thought about it, and I don't think he really lied to us. Just neglected to mention the location." Casey rolled his eyes at her. "Second, how are we supposed to know if that's what they were talking about?"

"What else could they have been planning?" Casey asked. "We know that he's wanted to come out. That's why he introduced us this summer."

Jessica looked away and thought for a minute. Her brother could see her face scrunched up in anger, though he wasn't sure why at the moment. She suddenly pulled the paper out of her bag and smacked it with the back of her hand. "If they had been planning something of this nature, it sounded more like for Mr. Potter than him," she slapped the paper again.

"But they were planning it for him. We didn't even get a tenth of the conversation that day, Jess. Who knows what they said when they went inside the shop?"

"Who said what inside what shop?"

Both kids jumped out of their skins. It was Professor Medley. Jessica was thankful her right hand, part of her right body, and her bag were behind her brother. That allowed for her to stuff the paper back in the bag unseen.

"Nothing," Casey and Jessica said in unison before starting to go around the stairs to head to their Common Room.

"Did you hear about the Minister?" Medley suddenly asked.

Both kids stopped and turned to look at the teacher. He was eyeing them carefully. Jessica and Casey nodded.

"Yeah," Jessica said, her voice showing the real depth of her sorrow. "Did Jeff and Julie go home last night?"

Medley nodded. "Yeah. They might be back before Christmas, but I don't know for sure."

Jessica nodded and then turned, her brother following her.

When they were walking down the dungeon hallway to their Common Room, Jessica whispered to Casey, "If that's what they were talking about, Case...do you realize what we're responsible for?"

Casey gave her a surprised look before it dawned on him. He shook his head quickly. "No, we're not. As I said, we didn't even hear a tenth of what they said. How were we supposed to know that that was what they were up to?"

She still didn't look convinced.

Casey glanced at her again before stopping them a little ways from the portrait to their Common Room. "It's like we've always said. We can't speak without knowing that he'll for sure get caught. If we speak, we know he'll find out and stop whatever it was that he was planning to do. The then false information will make us look like idiots, we won't be believed, we won't stop him. To top it off, we'll be dead."

Jessica turned and started back towards the Common Room, but Casey did hear her last comment.

"No, just you."

* * *

"Yes, put that one over there," Rum directed Severus, who carried the cauldron for the teacher.

"You say that the lacewing flies have to be stewed for 21 days and that the fluxweed has to be picked at full moon for the Polyjuice Potion to work effectively?"

Gary nodded. "That's all for now," he said before directing Severus to sit down. He handed the boy a chocolate bar. Severus looked at it as though he had never seen one before.

"For all the hard work you're doing for an old man," Gary gave him a rare smile.

Severus chuckled.

"Now, sit and talk to me a bit," Gary said before leaning against the table one away from Severus.

"First," Severus said after opening the chocolate bar. "You have to include part of the person you're turning into as well, right?"
Gary nodded again.

"But it doesn't matter what part, right? A piece of hair? A fingernail? Anything?"

Gary shook his head. "It does not matter, except that it has to be a part of their body. It cannot be their clothes or something to that effect."

Severus nodded as he took a bite out of his chocolate bar.

When Severus seemed to not have any more questions, Gary started in tentatively. "I'm not one to normally involve myself in the students' affairs, but I'm going to with you."

Severus, who had been about to take another bite of the candy bar, stopped, letting his hand go back down. "What?" He asked as though he definitely didn't want to hear what would come next.

Gary looked down, gathering his words a minute before saying, "Miss Ziners made a mistake. She's human. Don't hold her to a higher standard than that. Too many people already do."

Severus sat quietly, not looking at Gary until he said that last part. He looked away again before saying, "She held me to a higher standard herself."

"You're both 12. She wanted her friend to try-out for the Quidditch team with her. That's what kids your age do. They want their friends to be with them in everything. Only God knows why, but that's what you do.

"And anyway, Mr. Snape, I must say that she might see something you don't."

Severus looked up at him, almost eagerly, but his voice was disbelieving. "Oh, like what?"

"How many hours a day do you study, Severus?" Gary asked, earning himself a confused look.

Severus glanced away as he calculated. "I don't study at meals, or when I'm helping out here or walking to classes. Oh, and I don't study at the Quidditch games. Or when I'm practicing with Rabastan."

"Severus, you know more about your subjects than most Seventh Years. Why do you study so much?" Gary never wavered in his staring at the boy.

Severus shrugged. "To keep myself that way."

"But why not take a break? If you don't think about the information in your head for an hour, it's not going to go fly away."

Severus glanced at Gary but looked down when he finished. Severus didn't respond.

"Severus, my guess is that you study so much because you feel that's the only thing you're good at, and I think you don't even think you're good enough at that. You have other skills as well. Miss Ziners told me you even have a propensity for healing spells." This caused the 12-year old to glance at Gary quickly, but when Gary stopped in curiosity, Severus looked away. "I've seen you on a broom. You can handle yourself there. And with all the lifting you're doing in here, you making your arms stronger. Miss Ziners said you needed a little practice, and do you not realize that is what you do with Mr. Lestrange every Wednesday night? You're getting pretty good from what I saw." Here again, Severus glanced at the Potions Master but looked away just as quickly. "Yes, there is a time to be mad at Miss Ziners, but there is a time when you get over this anger. I think you've put the young girl in the doghouse long enough."

"She has other friends now," Severus pointed out, his dark eyes still investigating his shoes.

"Oh, I apologize then. Maybe I'm the only one noticing her longing glances in your direction."

Severus' head shot up to him so fast he thought that the boy might get whiplash.

Gary nodded. "Yes, and it's getting rather annoying. She nearly blew Miss Black to kingdom come last week. I decided that it needs to stop. Talk to the girl, Severus, before she blows my classroom to smithereens."

Severus gave a small smile at Gary's mock desperation before frowning and looking down again. "I'll think about it," he said noncommittally. After pause, he looked up at Gary. "Can I go now?"

Gary nodded. "Yes, Mr. Snape, and I promise never to intrude on your personal life again." As Severus got up and grabbed his abandoned chocolate bar from the table, Gary spoke, "And just so you know, Mr. Snape, intruding on your personal life was as agonizing for me as it was for you."

Severus smirked his direction. "I figured it was."

Gary chuckled as the boy left.

* * *

A week later, at supper, Dumbledore stood up and called for quiet. Once the Great Hall was silent, the Headmaster spoke.

"Tomorrow morning, Jeff and Julie Rin will return." There was quiet applause from the Gryffindor table and the Slytherin table, surprising both tables at their mutual show of affection enough to cut the applause off before Dumbledore did.

Dumbledore continued. "I request that no one confront them on the death of their father. That doesn't mean you should pretend it didn't happen. They are still grieving very deeply. Their friends should know not to avoid them. Be there when they need comfort." Dumbledore looked about to say more then he seemed to decide that that was enough and sat down.

* * *

Their return to school didn't come with an unusual bump in the routine, which probably pleased Dumbledore. The Slytherin Quidditch team had decided last night after practice that they would sit around and protect Jeff from anyone wanting to confront him. They spoke to him about the practices that week, especially how Rabastan had mastered hitting the Bludger at different people on will. Jeff gave Rabastan a weak smile, causing the team to look at each other in concern. Normally, Jeff would have been beyond enthusiastic.

They kept yapping about different Quidditch things, including Ravenclaw slaughtering Hufflepuff, and how the Slytherins thought that that would be whom they were going to be competing with for the Quidditch Cup. Jeff merely nodded.

When the end of breakfast bell rang, the team stood up and started collecting their bags, but Jeff just continued to sit there. Rodolophus nudged him. "You comin', Captain?" He asked.

Jeff suddenly seemed to realize that everyone in the Great Hall was moving. "Uh, yeah," he said before getting up and grabbing his bag. The team all gathered around him when they were leaving the Hall. It was Avery that spoke the sentiments of the team to Jeff before he departed for Transfiguration.

"You know, Jeff, we're all here for you, whenever you need someone."

Each team member nodded. Jeff's response was the first time that Jessica noticed that he looked upon the team with new eyes...and he wasn't seeing anything good with them.

"Yeah, sure," he nodded when he finally responded. He moved towards the dungeons, confusing Bellatrix and Rodolophus, both Sixth Years, who had Transfiguration with him now. They shrugged at each other before heading off.

Jessica turned and headed out of the castle for Care of Magical Creatures, meeting Bertie Magal by the door.

* * *

"What's Severus reading?" Jessica asked when she and Rabastan walked in together after Quidditch practice that evening. Severus was on the other side of the room, reading over a well-worn parchment.

She had meant the question absent-mindedly, not thinking she was going to get an answer, but Rabastan had one nonetheless.

"Oh, it's a letter he got from his dad this morning. Seems that his dad's got some time during Christmas break. Said that Sev should stay at Hogwarts, so he and his dad can spend some 'quality time' here," Rabastan cringed at the words 'quality time' before adding, "Ask me, I would kick out that old biddy of his mother to spend that father-son time in Guthrie Manor. Have you ever been there?" Rabastan asked, glancing at her. "Thing's huge. Got all sorts of secret passageways. Salazar told me that he doesn't even know everything about it, and he's searched the place a hundred times. Says the only one to know everything about it is one of their house elves, Moldy or something."

Jessica nodded at Rabastan's ranting, not quite listening to him as she watched Severus' mouth curve into a smile as he looked at the writing again. She smiled to herself.

* * *

"I want to know by day's end who killed him, Potter!!!" Barty Crouch yelled at Marcus again.

"What?" Marcus bit back irritably, getting in his boss' face. "You want me to snap my fingers to make the killer magically appear before me?! Sorry, even us wizards can't do that. If we could, I would have this Voldemort character right in front of me."
He had had only an hour or two of sleep each night since he had found Adam's dead body, and he was sick and tired of Crouch's yelling at him every two seconds.

Barty went to open his mouth again, but it snapped shut, confusing Marcus for only a second. He suddenly realized what he had just said.

"What if...?" He said quietly, to himself.

"Do you think it could have been?" Barty asked.

"Marking the spot of his murderous deeds...he's conceited enough... that would fit the profile," Marcus reasoned out slowly.

"Wasn't there something odd in the air over that Muggle's house earlier this year?" Crouch asked. "Something greenish in color?"

Marcus nodded. "Yeah. We dismissed it though as being left over magical power from the spells performed in a house that didn't see magic regularly."

"But that seemed a little out there though," Crouch said. "I said so myself."

"But I told you there was no other explanation," Marcus responded in frustration before running again the picture of what he had seen in front of the Minister's door through his head. "The skull certainly had some green about it," he said before looking back at Crouch, "but we shouldn't be grasping at straws here."

"I know, I know," Crouch said, "but now we might have a place to start. And a person to blame." Crouch started to walk away.

"Let's get a person we're certain of before we start pointing fingers, Barty," Marcus said sharply to his boss' back.

Barty stopped but kept his back to Marcus. "Find that someone and find that someone SOON, Potter!" He said before starting off again. Suddenly, Marcus remembered what had kept him up last night.

"Barty!" He called, walking after the Head of Magical Law Enforcement. The man turned back to him. "Can I ask for a favor? Someone to help me on the search for Rin's murderer."
"Who, Potter?" Crouch asked sharply.

"Alastor Moody."

Crouch seemed to hesitate, so Marcus pushed. "He's our best Auror by far, and it will look good for the Ministry to put their top guys on the case."

This seemed more than acceptable to the man, and he nodded. "I'll send an owl right away," he growled.

* * *

"Good job last night," Andorra Dumbledore smiled at Daniel as he walked into the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

Daniel gave her a grin. "Thanks," he said before starting towards the Dark Operators offices. He stopped halfway there though when Riley came in. The boy was deep in thought, but he noticed his boss's eyes, and those of Andorra's. Their top Law Enforcement officer had no idea what else had happened during the night, but Daniel did.

Riley nodded towards the offices before glancing at Andorra then at Daniel. Daniel nodded. Riley looked at Andorra and nodded towards the Dark Operators' offices again. She followed the two men back there. The rest of the Dark Operators were already at the office. Mark Halmer, a young dark haired fellow that had attended school with Riley here in the States, was leaning against one of the file cabinets, talking with Andre'a "Drea" Kay, a smallish girl that had followed Riley and Mark by a year in school. Kevin and Josh Benson, identical twin brothers, were sitting at their desks reading over the morning memos. Richie Thender was sitting on his desk, facing the desk behind him talking with Feng Chong, their newest member. Feng had definitely shown her worth last night, just as she had in the last six outings the Dark Operators had seen.

The group all quieted when Daniel walked in, followed by Andorra then Riley.

"Why weren't you with us last night, Ri?" Drea asked with a smirk. "We kicked some ass."

Daniel gave her a look that was half admonishing, half amused, before he nodded towards Andorra.

"I take that as an insult," Andorra said to Daniel. "It's not like I haven't heard worse."

The team laughed, all knowing of Daniel's little crush on Andorra. The only person in the room not to know was Andorra herself, who, some wondered, if she may return the crush.

Riley had shut the door and sealed it with his wand, both blocking the door and sealing their voices from the outside, effectively catching the team's undivided attention. Daniel leaned against the wall adjacent to the outside hall. "Riley wasn't at the take-down last night because he had another assignment."

The group looked from Daniel to Riley then back to Daniel again. "You know about our leak?" Everyone nodded. "In an effort to narrow the field down, I fed false information about our take-down last night to our Ministry suspects." Daniel glanced at Riley. "I haven't spoken to him since before he left last night, so I have no idea what happened. I'll let him take over from here then."

Riley nodded. When everyone looked at him, Riley took a deep breath. "I decided to follow Secretary Ziners last night." Riley paused and just looked at every face in the room, trying to convey what he was about to say without saying it. When he didn't succeed, he said, "I followed him to his house, before listening in on a conversation he had with his wife. He said he had...and I quote...'to pass the information on to the Dark Lord. He'll be pleased to know that they don't know the exact location.'" Riley seemed to refuse to look at Daniel at this point, so he examined the rapt faces of his team. "He proceeded to inform Mrs. Ziners that he was going to Apparate to Knockturn Alley to inform the Dark Lord."

"Our leak is Secretary Ziners?" Mark repeated and shook his head slowly. "I mean, I don't like the fellow and all. I even suspected him, but it just blows the mind."

Riley nodded. They could see him swallow again when the room fell back to silence. Finally, though, Andorra spoke the connection.

"Our problem is him then, isn't it?" She said. "This Lord Voldemort."

Riley nodded and looked pointedly over at Daniel now. The tall man was not looking at anyone. His eyes were staring into space. When he felt the stares though, he looked back at Riley. The boy's brown eyes hit the ground immediately. Riley knew that Daniel, though he had been suspicious of the Secretary himself, had hoped it wasn't going to be John Ziners. The last thing he wanted to do was take down his nephew and niece's other uncle.

Finally, Daniel spoke of the other matter. "We've suspected for about six months now that our problem might have been Voldemort, or at least connected with him."

The team, save Riley, glared at Daniel. "I didn't want to color your vision," Daniel lied. The team hadn't known about his suspicions of them during the time they had searched for the leak, and he wanted to keep it that way. The only one he had trusted at the time had been Riley, for the boy had revealed what he had heard to begin with, the information that had led them to suspect that there was a leak. If he had been working for the other side, Riley would have done his fellows a service by keeping it quiet. Daniel knew that there had been the chance that Riley had revealed the information to keep himself from suspicion, but he just had a feeling about the boy. Riley would not join the other side. Of course, there was always that chance, but as an Auror, you always had to risk that one chance. You always had to take a chance and trust at least one person; otherwise, it would be pretty lonely on this side.

"Does Britain know that we," Drea mocked that last word, "have had this suspicion?"

"The 'we'," Daniel clarified, giving her a bossy look, "is I, Mr. Haderson, and Marcus Potter, of the British Aurors, the lead on the Voldemort case as we all know. And the only reason Haderson knows is because he barged in on the conversation between Potter and myself." Daniel gave Riley a perturbed look, one that the boy ignored, especially when Mark spoke.

"Ahhh, his nosiness is what makes him a good Auror. Plus, it wouldn't be the Riley we know and love if he didn't stick his nose in where it didn't belong."

The group burst into laughter. They sobered though when Andorra said, "Guys, I'm giving you the assignment of arresting Secretary Ziners."

They looked at each other quickly before turning to Daniel. He nodded. She stood up to leave but stopped and looked specifically at Daniel. "And do it quietly. I don't want this hitting the papers before I speak it."

She started to unseal the door before Riley surprised her by grabbing her hand and stopping her. He looked around Andorra to Daniel though as he spoke, "Danny, what if...what if his assistants are in on it? They're constantly with him. They couldn't have seen nothing the whole time he's been passing information."

Andorra looked at the boy before looking at Daniel. "Didn't you say that Grens and Lemore were the ones insisting on the update?"

"And what about Zeckaroy?" Drea said. "He was there too."

"But he didn't give a hoot about the update," Daniel said as he recalled the meeting. "He really even didn't listen. Anyway, I don't think it was Zeckaroy. But Grens and Lemore are always on Ziners' heels."

"I want you guys to have a conclusion and arrest by Christmas at the latest," Andorra said to the Dark Operators, who she could clearly see all had a thousand and one possibilities running through their heads now.

"Don't worry, Miz Dumbledore," Riley said with a smirk, his slight Texan accent breaking through, "We're definitely going throw one to the dementors sooner rather than later."

Andorra smiled, hating traitors as much as every Auror.

* * *

Jessica decided it was late and packed up to head back to the Common Room. As she pulled her books into her bag, she noticed that the library was otherwise deserted. She started out of the library but chuckled to herself when she realized she was going the wrong way. I have definitely been studying too long; she thought to herself and turned back around. She stopped halfway though when she heard a book thump shut. The noise came from the other side of the far most stand-alone bookshelf in the far corner of the library. She slowly walked that direction until she could stick her head over. Jeff Rin was sitting alone at the table closest to the wall. Jessica decided to walk over.

"It's late," she said. "You should come back to the Common Room."

"I don't care," Jeff shot back without looking from his newly opened book.

She was startled for a second. Jeff had always been one of the kinder Slytherins, always treating her like a friend. He had never spoken to her like that before.

Jessica thought over his behavior for the past week and a half. There had been a distinct change ever since his return. Everyone had noticed it, but everyone excused it because of his father's murder. Jessica thought hard though and put together something she hadn't realized before now. He had been avoiding the Slytherin Common Room until he had to pass through it to go to bed or pass through it to get out in the morning. He had been short with any Slytherin that had spoken to him and had been harsh during the Quidditch practices. He avoided every Slytherin in the hallway, and rarely talked to them in class and that was only when he absolutely needed to speak with them. He ate meals separately, stopping just short of moving when someone sat near him. He never engaged in conversation with another Slytherin when he could help it. The only conversation as a matter of fact that Jessica had recalled seeing him participate in other than to talk to teachers or his sister was when Edgar Bones, Hufflepuff's Quidditch Captain, had stopped him in the hallway to welcome him back. The two had started talking about Hufflepuff's loss to Ravenclaw. Edgar had asked Jeff for tips.

"Did you need something?" Jeff asked angrily, finally looking up at her to give her a harsh glare.

Unfazed, Jessica sat down. "What's going on?" She asked.

"I want to study, and you're bugging the hell out of me. Go away." Jeff's voice booked no argument, but, again, it didn't faze Jessica.

"You've avoided the other Slytherins. It's as if we've all caught a plague or something," she said, "and you're afraid to get it." She gave him a ghost of a smirk as she added, "I can assure you, none of us caught a deadly disease while you were away. I mean, at least I don't think any of us did--"

"Shut up, Ziners," Jeff growled, going back to his book.

"I will not," she said, frustrated with him. "We didn't kill your dad, so don't treat us like we did." She knew it wasn't a polite thing to say, but she was frustrated.

"Yes, you did," Jeff bit back, glaring at her. "The secret most of you keep killed him as surely as the Killing Curse did." Suddenly, the 16-year old realized what he said, and his eyes shot back to the text on the table.

"Wait a minute," Jessica said. "What do you mean? The secret most of us keep?"

Jeff seemed to decide that this was a time to have it out with someone, and he chose her. "The identity of Voldemort," he whispered harshly and looked at her intently, as if trying to gage her reaction.

But her face didn't move a muscle. She remained quiet for a minute before she said, "Why do you think--"

"I'm not stupid, Ziners," Jeff bit out. "I pick up on things. The way some of you guys talk about Voldemort, it's almost hero worship. And I notice the way some of you really talk about him; it's as if you know him. I don't talk to people outside the house about it because it's about survival. If I speak, I still have to return to that Common Room, knowing that you guys know a man that would murder me without thinking twice about it. But stupid me," he growled. "It was my dad that got killed without me talking. Now I have to live with the fact that I could have turned you all in.

"And you know the sickest part about it, Ziners. It was just this summer. I told my dad that I heard things in the House that no one knew and most dismissed as rumors. I told him that in our House, I didn't think what I heard were rumors. I was right there, Ziners. I could have told him. I could have turned the lot of you in." Jeff had been leaning towards her, his whispers boiling with not anger but hatred. And here, Jeff pointed a finger right in her face. "I could have turned you in for knowing what you know, and I could have possibly saved my father."

"So you think you're smart now," Jessica said after swallowing the lump in her throat. She wanted to tell him. He had no idea. She wanted to tell him. But she couldn't, and he would never completely understand that. But maybe she could make him understand something. "You think that would have stopped him? You have not the faintest idea what you've stepped into Jeff, and I'm sorry your father became one of the victims of it, but I can't change that. He wasn't the first victim, and he won't be the last.

"But don't blame all of Slytherin. There are people in there that wanted to talk, and still want to talk, even more than you, Jeff, but they can't. They can't speak, and it's more than just about surviving yourself. It's about others, other lives on the line." She shook her head in frustration before continuing.

"Be thankful, Jeff, though that your dad was at the receiving end of the mere Killing Curse, because I can assure you that there are worse ways to die, and Voldemort takes pleasure in discovering them." She paused and looked around the library. Jeff remained silent as she gathered herself. She finally looked back at him, an anger in her eyes along with a mixture of unshed tears.

"In my experience, Jeff, there is one thing I can tell you. I live with a man that I call father, and he's worse than the devil in my book. He takes pleasure in practicing curses on my brother and me, but I know that we have yet to get the worse of what he can throw, because I've seen the worse and for as long as I live, I'll never forget watching it. Every time he calls my name or my brother's name and tells us to come to his study, I walk there wondering if today is the day that I will see his worse again. I fear him like something I am sure you have no concept of. I know what he's capable of, and I have no doubt whatsoever that he could care less than to unleash it on us. And even then, Jeff, I know there's something worse. And that's Voldemort. The only other person that scares me more than my father is Lord Voldemort." Jessica found she had a struggle to go on, so she said grabbed her bag quickly, trying to pretend she was rubbing something out of her eyes. "I'm sorry, Jeff. You have no idea how sorry I am. I wish things were different. You have no idea how much I wish that. And now I understand why you are mad at me, and I'm not saying it isn't deservedly so, but understand that some of us want to talk. We just can't. Someday, you'll understand."

Jessica paused a second, looking at the table. She took a deep breath before glancing back at Jeff. Though the hatred was still there in his face, it had lessoned a fraction in its intensity.

"I'm sorry," she whispered before taking off.

* * *

"Who's picking us up?" Casey asked as they disembarked from the Hogwarts Express. His answer didn't come from Jessica however. He felt the dark eyes before he spotted them. Standing in the shadows, they could make out the outline of their father.

"Him?" Casey all but squeaked in an attempt to whisper quietly to Jessica.

She nodded as she lugged the trunk off the train. She had to reach back up and hit Casey to get him to follow her.

They each took a deep breath, not noticing that their movements were completely in sync, before they started forward.

* * *

"Hey, Mum...Dad?" The last word came out of James Potter in surprise. His mother usually picked him alone.

Marcus chuckled at his son before his eyes glanced again down the platform. "Yeah," Marcus said to James. "I was in the area and had the day off, so wa la, here I am."

James smiled.

"Hey, Mrs. Potter, Mr. Potter!" Sirius Black yelled as he lugged his trunk up to them.

"You guys didn't get into too much trouble this year, did you?" Brittany asked, giving the two boys a stern look.

"Perhaps you haven't met them yet," Remus Lupin said as he lugged his trunk up to his parents, who were waiting not ten feet away. "Mrs. Potter, Mr. Potter, this is James Potter and Sirius Black, Hogwarts notorious trouble makers."

Sirius and James both cracked up laughing as Sirius gave Remus a playful push.

The boys' attention was captured again when they heard two trunks being lugged behind two long faced students as they followed their father's brisk footsteps.

"Hello, Jessica, Casey," Marcus Potter greeted them warmly before giving their father what looked to be a forced grin. "Jeffery," he nodded.

At their names, each kid had individually jumped. At his name, Jeffery just gave Marcus a cool nod. They moved on without saying anything. Neither child responded to Marcus' greeting, causing Mr. Potter to bite his lip.

When they had passed, James asked, "What's up, Dad? You don't normally take the day off for no reason."

Marcus gave him a smile, but there was something else on his face that his son recognized, something he didn't see particularly often there. Deep worry.

"I had an errand I had to run today, and I couldn't run it on the Ministry's time."

"Why didn't you just owl it?" Sirius asked.

"I had to discuss it with someone first, in person," Marcus answered then became distracted by the man that had just walked through the magical barrier. He was a tall, broadly muscled stern looking man with dark eyes and dark hair. He spotted his son right away and walked up to him.

"Sirius, you ready to go?" Malcolm Black asked.

Sirius nodded. "Yeah, Dad."

Sirius started to say bye to his friends but was interrupted by Marcus talking to Malcolm. "That thing I was working on, Malcolm, the thing that Amelia told you about."

Malcolm looked confused for a second before it seemed to dawn to him. "The issue with the two students?" He asked vaguely.

Marcus nodded. "Yeah. It's going to go down sometime during this break. I'll owl you beforehand."

Malcolm nodded. "Okay. Come on, Sirius," he said before starting to walk off.

Sirius, James, and Remus all passed curious looks to each other before Sirius said, "See you guys later. I'll owl both of you."

They nodded. "Maybe you can come over on Christmas or something," James said, before glancing at Remus. "You too."

Sirius nodded, and he and his father went back through the barrier. Remus and his parents took off soon after that. James gave one last curious look to his father before the Potters went back through the barrier as well.

To be continued...