The Ties That Bind

The Ties That Bind

Part 1, The First Rise

By Laura ([email protected])

Chapter 17: Shadows of War

Dedication: I decided that after my depressing dedications in a few of the chapters that I would add a cheery one. This is dedicated to Faith Krystalynn, my niece that was born this summer. She was named Faith because after the two babies before her, that's exactly what we all needed - Faith. She has personality plus for only being six months old. It's great to be an aunt! LOL

New Characters:

(I think I might have to make a support group for people like me: "Making New Characters Anonymous". Tehe Honestly though, I really try hard not to, but these two have been patiently waiting on the sidelines, so I really have no choice. (Now, if I can only make excuses for all the other characters...tehe.))

Sean McKillian (mc): He is only briefly mentioned in passing two different times. For now, I will only say that he is a "Mind Examiner" for the Ministry of Magic (yes, I made "Mind Examiner" up). You will be able to deduce what exactly a "Mind Examiner" is when that job actually becomes a part of the plot, but I can give you a hint now: it's in the medical field. Now, with that information (and the little bit included in the chapter), look at the title of the occupation and take a guess. (If you want confirmation from me, just e-mail me.)

Professor Graden (mc): The professor of Transfiguration before Dumbledore started as the professor of that subject. (Graden was just before the one Dumbledore took over from). Graden was also the Head of Slytherin House and one of Grindelwald's top men. His position in Grindelwald's circle was publicly unknown since he was in Hogwarts undercover. His job was to keep an eye on Grindelwald's trainees and to recruit more.

Timeline:

Only within a couple weeks of the school year. Jessica, James, and crew are all in their Third Year. We'll be here a little while, so sit back and get comfortable. It shall be a dramatic ride (and it will include our canon Slytherins! And some canon Gryffindors as well.).

Quote:

"Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well."

-Josh Billings

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

"Deep thought, Miss Ziners?"
Jessica didn't even jump when, a week after Marcus and Tom's meeting in London, Stephen Medley walked up to her.

"Yes, Sir," she replied.

Stephen grinned. "Such deep thought for a beautiful fall day. It's actually warm again."

"Be wary of the fall," she murmured before replying to him. "Ironic thought for it being a fall day." Suddenly, she shook herself from her thoughts and looked at him for the first time. "Is there a reason you stopped to speak to me?" she looked up from her spot by a tree in the front lawn of Hogwarts.

Stephen spared a glance to see what she had been staring at. When he saw the Third Year Gryffindor boys messing around in her line of vision, he figured that she had been staring into space.

"Actually, there was," he said. "I couldn't find Professor Rum anywhere in Hogwarts, and Headmaster Dumbledore is uncertain as to his location."

"And you're here to ask me? A mere student?"

"Professor Rum's favorite student it actually appears much of the time," he responded.

She sighed, looking back at her previous spot in space. "I actually don't know where he goes most of the time, but you're in luck today. He offered to get me some ointment for my back, and I took him up on it. He went to Hogsmeade."

"Doesn't Madam Pomfrey carry the ointment you need?"

Jessica shook her head. "In a probably fortunate circumstance, not a lot of Dark Arts is cast within the school, so she doesn't carry much in the way of healing ointments for Dark Magic, including ointment for Cruciatus scars to the degree of which I need."

"Can't Professor Rum make it then? I'm sure he has the needed ingredients."

"Actually, he thinks that a friend of his makes an ointment that will be of more help to me than the regular stuff I use; Professor Rum does carry the needed ingredients for the regular stuff, but he was going to his friend today. His friend lives in Hogsmeade."

Stephen shook his head with a grin and a sigh. Strange. He started back into the school when he returned his look to Jessica. She was still sitting there, staring in the direction of the Gryffindor boys. Stephen was just about to look away when he saw a large ginger cat trot up to Jessica. She grinned at the cat immediately and grabbed it into her lap. The cat went quite willingly, rubbing against her. Suddenly, something was visible on the side of the cat. Jessica glanced around nervously, and Stephen diverted his eyes to make it look like he was looking at some Hufflepuffs tackling each other. When she was confident that she was unnoticed by everyone, Jessica took the note that had been attached to the cat and opened it. Stephen figured out quickly what the cat was - a Magical Messenger. Since it wasn't illegal in the school, it didn't bother him, but it made him terribly curious.

Jessica started laughing at something that was in the letter. She looked up, towards a group of girls walking past the Gryffindor boys. She looked at one in particular - Lily Evans. Lily was looking over her shoulder at Jessica and grinning. Jessica made a motion quickly with her hand for Lily to turn her head. Lily did so, barely suppressing another grin.

Turning back to the school, Stephen thought over this interesting development. A Magical Messenger between a Gryffindor and a Slytherin? He understood the need for secrecy. He just didn't understand how the need had developed in the first place. A friendship between a Slytherin and a Gryffindor? Let alone with Jessica Ziners being at one end of that friendship.

With a number of new questions raised in his head about Gary's pet, Stephen did have one very amusing thought. This was like a play, this whole situation with Jessica Ziners. And he was very curious as to what the plot truly was.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

"I'm a little frisky."

Brittany started laughing. Grinning like a devil, Marcus Potter grabbed his wife and kissed her passionately.

"I love the school year," he said, kissing down her neck. "The house is all our own."

Brittany couldn't form a reply. As a matter of fact, both got so enraptured in what Marcus was doing that the house elf had to cough loudly to get their attention.

"Urgh," Marcus growled before closing his wife's blouse and turning to the house elf, using his body to block the little creature's view of Brittany's unbuttoned blouse, biting out as he did so, "What?"
"Sorry, Sir, but it's Master Moody, and he says it be important."

"I'm decent," Brittany whispered. Marcus nodded and the couple went out to their living area. Moody was dressed in a very wet cloak and was dripping in a puddle onto the floor.

"It's the Dark Mark," Moody said without preamble. "It was over a Muggle house."

Neither Marcus nor Brittany responded, but Moody could see the tensing in both bodies, which made his next announcement, in a way, easier to make.

"All the Muggles are dead."

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

"Marcus!"

Marcus turned towards the voice and, with a sigh, started towards the 6'2" wizard standing by the Muggle police chief. They were in the middle of the police and mildly media crowded street. Brittany followed Moody towards the house.

"Harrison, this is Marcus Potter," Landon Scooner started, but Harrison waved him off.

"I met him a few years ago. Hello again, Mr. Potter. I would say that it's good to see you, but it never is."

Marcus gave a terse grin, his mind still working on wrapping itself around the situation. Suddenly, Marcus glanced above the house. The Dark Mark was gone.

"It left about a minute after someone discovered it," Harrison said. "I would have claimed it to be a trick of the light, but I saw it just before it disappeared. I thought I would call you guys in. After describing it to that crazy guy," he nodded towards Moody just before the wizard disappeared into the house, "he said that we needed to call you specifically in."

Marcus nodded and started towards the house but was stopped only a step away from the new Minister of Magic. A terse 'Potter' caused him to turn and glare. Only two months into the job, Landon Scooner had all of the Aurors in an upheaval, none more so than Marcus. Scooner, a tall, imposing figure with iron-gray hair, was not a pushover like many former Ambassadors. He set himself on a course and now with no boss to stop him, no one could.

But Crouch said to be nice to be nice to Scooner. And since Crouch was the one with the say-so on what cases Marcus could take, Marcus would obey the man.

"Yes, Minister?" Marcus said, almost painfully.

"Our press is out there among the Muggles," Scooner said, his voice quiet but steady enough to be heard and understood by Marcus. "Don't say *anything* about your stupid Voldemort. He doesn't exist. I don't want to scare our people needlessly. They don't want to think about another Grindelwald, which this Voldemort is not and will not be."

Marcus started to say something but bit his tongue angrily and turned on his boot heel.

When Marcus entered the room where the murders had taken place, he found that he was not surprised, though the others in the room were taken aback. Only two people had managed to pull themselves into the room and set to work, but they were completely silent, not disturbing the pristine energy of the room.

The house was a small house. The family had obviously been on the poorer side, though not poor enough to be unable to afford their own home. The murders had taken place in the kitchen.

Marcus took a step into the room and even his own feet seemed muffled. There was a sort of grey color quality surrounding the whole scene, the noises of the past suspended in frozen time, crystallized at the moment that this kitchen had the chance to honor an evil sorcerer.

The victims were an older man, probably the grandfather; a boy, probably about ten years old; a man old enough to be the boy's father but probably not, judging by his similarities to the final victim, who was a woman probably around Marcus' own age, probably the boy's mother and the daughter of the older man. The victims were placed around the kitchen table, in the chairs. A Muggle board game sat on the table, appearing half-played.

The oddest thing about the scene - the factor making the place so eerily still - was that the four Muggles appeared stupefied into their positions. A trained eye could tell that they were indeed dead, but the whole action was very strange. The family had been placed into position to appear as though they were having a good time while they played. The woman was smiling with pride across the table at the boy while he grinned mischievously back at her.

Marcus walked around the table slowly. He looked over the men. At a new angle, he realized that the men were not having as good of a time playing as the mother and son were. They seemed frustrated. As Marcus walked, he saw the boy differently now. He had just played a trick, a good trick, on the men, and it had made his mom happy.

"I want close up pictures of each face," Marcus murmured to the photographer as he walked past him. "And someone get me someone from Muggle Artifacts. I want to know if the Muggles played this board game or if it was set up to look as though they had."

"Marcus," Brittany, who had entered after Marcus and now stood beside the mother, said. Leaning closely to the woman's arm and then at the side of her face, she said, "This woman was abused."

Marcus stopped, looking upon the scene with a new light. It suddenly made some perverse sense to him. "Probably by the men." To the Auror Forensics Team, which was now being pushed in by Moody, Marcus said, "I want to know if she has bruises elsewhere. The boy as well."

"This doesn't match anything you have on this Voldemort," Scooner said, making his presence in the room known.

"No, but it matches what I've learned about the man."

"If the mother and son were abused, this was a mercy killing," Scooner replied.

"But he killed the mother and son too," Brittany said in defense. "That wasn't mercy."

"In his mind...it was," Marcus murmured as he glanced under the table. The boy's feet didn't even reach the floor. "In Voldemort's mind, this *was* mercy."

"Mercy, Marcus?" Moody asked.

"Yes. He was protecting the mother and son...from the world, or something else. I don't know."

"This creates a very interesting portrait of this supposed Voldemort then," Scooner replied.

"It does indeed. But there is something more interesting to ponder. This was a present for me, Minister. And for you. It was a taunt."

"Pray explain, Marcus," he said skeptically.

"Murdering Minister Rin under my nose had two advantages. Minister Rin was a little freer with the Aurors...than other people would be," Marcus said, trying to be as diplomatic as possible while being so distracted. "And then there was the advantage of bringing me down a notch. He wants me to keep in mind how much better he believes he is than I am. He wants to be noticed is my guess, and he knows that I'm noticing him. But he doesn't want me to forget who it is that I'm noticing."

"But, to the aggravation of most, you are noticing him quite a bit. So why the Muggle killing?"

"In his mind, he chose his victims as a present to me. Getting rid of a little bit of evil - abusers. I'm sure he had the Ziners kids in mind when he did that. The choice of his victims was a reward to me."

"How do we know he even knew who he was killing?"

"For one, he rarely leaves out the details. But for the second one, look at the boy and then at the men. The men are angry with the boy. The boy's grin tells me he just did something devious. He probably tricked the men into losing, something abusers tend not to take so well. And now look where the boy is looking." Marcus bent next to the boy and looked where the boy was looking. He gestured the line of vision to those present. "The mother. 'Ha, ha, Mommy, I did it. I got them. I beat the bad men at their own game.'" Marcus was quiet a moment, still squatting next to the boy. He brought his hand back and tapped his fingers against his chin. "Maybe Voldemort thinks that's what Jessica should have felt." The words were so quiet that no one heard him, but that didn't enter into Marcus' brain for one second, for the others in the room were barely there to him. "This was a reward to me for noticing him." Standing up, Marcus continued perusing the scene, looking around the kitchen, at the different Muggle devices and seeing if he could spot anything that had been touched by Voldemort. He was then surprised to notice that Voldemort may have touched a few things. Pointing them out to the Forensic Aurors as he continued speaking, he said, "And then this killing is for you. Actually, the Dark Mark was for you specifically, Minister. That meant the death of our last Minister, Malfoy not withstanding. Voldemort wants you to be aware of him.

"And thirdly--"

"Potter," Scooner said, his voice loud and threatening, "Rin may have tolerated this idiocy of yours, but I will not. You are taking a string of unrelated incidents and trying to tie them into a neat little bow and call it Grindelwald the Second. You were too young during that idiot's reign, but I wasn't. I lost a wife and a daughter. Trust me, *Grindelwald will not happen again*. You will not make this Voldemort up to being one. So far, we may have two murders that *might* be related. However, the only thing connecting them is some conjurings of green smoke that I still highly doubt ever existed." Scooner had crossed the kitchen during his speech and almost stood toe-to-toe with Marcus. Despite Marcus' height, he stood up to the man, which surprised no one, for everyone there highly doubted that Marcus even realized he was shorter than the average male. Glancing skeptically around the room, Scooner said, "And from what I have read and seen, neither of the two murders with this *green smoke*," the words were said almost bitterly, "are, in any other way, alike. I would have good mind to split the cases and give them to two separate Aurors, and not to someone," he grinned sarcastically at Marcus, "*as important as the Head of Major Cases*, but I have no interest in disturbing Barty Crouch's world *yet*. But, Potter," he took a step closer and had to bend his head slightly to glare at Marcus, "don't doubt that I will fire you if you step out of line too much, even if I have to fire Barty Crouch to do it!"

And with that, the Minister left.

The room was silent for another half a minute before the other occupants were of good mind to pretend as though nothing had happened. Marcus remained unmoving, still in the spot he had been when publicly threatened by the Minister of Magic. He didn't move until Moody and Brittany walked up to him.

"And thirdly what, Potter?" Moody barked.

"What?" Marcus shook his head before turning back to the counter. He looked back at what he had been looking at before the Minister's little speech - a pan in the sink. He saw that the suds on the handle of the pan had been disturbed. Either the mother had been caught mid-washing or someone had touched the pan afterwards. And for some reason, Marcus thought it the latter and that the one that touched it had been Voldemort himself. Why had he touched it? Out of curiosity? Or because he had been in such deep thought, as Marcus was now, wondering what had been going through the mind of the person who had stood in this spot before him. Marcus could also see a hand print on the handle of the pan. Marcus grabbed some suds onto his own hand and brought it up to his face. Had the suds reminded Voldemort of something? Maybe it brought up a memory. Had it been a good memory? Or a bad memory? Had it made him sad? Or had it made him happy? Had it reminded him of his mother? Did Voldemort even have a mother? Yes, he did. Marcus wondered where she was. What was her story?

"Marcus, what was the third thing?" Brittany said. "You were about to say a third thing before Scooner lapsed into his power trip."

"Unfortunately, I think it was a true trip," Marcus said quietly. "I think he was serious about those threats."

"We'll deal with that bridge when we have to worry about it," Moody growled. "Third thing?"

Glancing around the room again, at the articulate detail paid to the kitchen's shabby possessions, Marcus murmured as he pushed between Brittany and Moody to continue his perusal of the room.

"Thirdly, Voldemort committed this murder because he was bored and wanted something to amuse himself."

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

"Marcus Potter is heading the case, Minister Scooner informed reporters late last night. When asked if the Ministry thought that this had anything to do with Voldemort, the man that Potter has been investigating the past three and a half years, Scooner said no. 'Mr. Potter was chosen as investigator because he is the Head of Major Cases, and we take the murder of Muggles as a very grievous offense. Finding those responsible is a top priority.'"

"Scooner's an idiot."

"*That* I actually agree with."

Those in the hearing vicinity stopped to give Lily Evans a surprised look. Folding *The Daily Prophet* back up neatly, Lily grinned innocently as she bit into an apple.

James just shook his head before adding, "My dad doesn't say it, but I think he thinks Scooner's an idiot too."

"Yeah, he does," Julie Rin said, coming to breakfast slightly out of breath, signaling that the Head Girl had slept late. "I heard him agree with my mum when my mum told him about the moron coming to our house."

"You should write to your dad and ask him if he thinks that the Muggle murders were committed by Voldemort," Sirius suggested.

James shook his head. "I can't talk to my dad about that. I can't ask about any of my mum's and dad's cases."

Suddenly, Sirius started laughing, and the group looked to where he was looking. Casey Ziners was pulling himself up from having fallen over a book someone had dropped. Glancing toward a nearby crowd of laughing Ravenclaws, Lily quickly figured the book had been dropped on purpose to trip the accident-prone Second Year. They quieted quickly however when another Second Year, a blonde boy, helped Casey up. The boy, Lily recognized then, was Jim Jones. As small as Casey, he, surprisingly, frightened many of the other kids, young and old alike. He was very intelligent, very intense, and unsettled many people.

But Jones alone wasn't what caused the Ravenclaws to quiet. It was the group behind him. The Slytherin Quidditch Team had entered then. Rodolophus Lestrange, by far the tallest of the group, was giving the Ravenclaws a menacing look that would have even made Sirius Black cower. Lily wondered briefly if a fight was about to break out, but she stopped worrying a second later when Jeff Rin stepped in front of them. The Ravenclaws stopped laughing and turned away without a word. But Jeff, strangely, didn't seem satisfied. He turned to Rodolophus with a nod. Grinning wickedly, Rodolophus bent down to pick up the offending book that had tripped Casey. Starting towards the Ravenclaws and grabbing Casey while he did this, the Ravenclaws nearly started to run for their lives but stopped when Rodolophus made a motion to hand them the book. When they gave the Seventh Year a confused look, Lily realized that Rodolophus didn't have the book anymore. Suddenly, Casey shoved the book into the gut of the Seventh Year Ravenclaw that had dropped the book. The shove had been unexpected and caused the Ravenclaw to grunt in pain. When McGonagall stood up and started to the crowd from the teacher's table, both Rodolophus and Casey became instantly very kind towards the Ravenclaw, helping him up. From the looks on their faces, apologies were being said, apologies Lily would bet were very insincere. Just before McGonagall was within hearing range Rodolophus whispered something to the Ravenclaw, something threatening Lily was sure.

By the time McGonagall reached them, Jeff Rin had stepped forward and was there to give an explanation to McGonagall, an explanation that probably oozed with misunderstandings and accidents on the part of the Slytherins.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Marcus barely glanced at the door when there was a knock.

"Who is it?" he called distractedly.

"Ar-Arth-Arthur Weasley."

Marcus smiled at his paperwork before he told the man to come in. He gave the man a smile prior to gesturing that he should sit. "And how is my favorite man in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Department?"

Arthur looked embarrassed and mumbled a positive reply before revealing, "I have the results from the report you requested."

"What?"

"The Muggle board game at the murder scene last night."

"Oh," Marcus nodded, finally giving Arthur his full attention. "Yes. Was it played correctly?"

Arthur shook his head. "No. It was set up but not played according to the Muggle rules."

Marcus nodded. "Thanks, Arthur. I know that it's not your department's usual practice to look into these things."

Arthur shook his head. "No, that's fine. I enjoyed it. Well, not the cause, but--"

Marcus chuckled and waved him off. "That's fine, Arthur. I understand. Thanks for letting me know."

Arthur stood up. "Here's the official report." He handed Marcus a parchment that had a mixture of writing and pictures and a piece of odd-looking paper. Marcus held up the odd paper and gave Arthur a curious look.

"It's the instructions from the game. It's on Muggle paper."

Marcus nodded again and bid the man goodbye. Arthur opened the door, and Brittany nearly ran into him. Apologies were excused, more profusely by Arthur than by Britt, causing Marcus to bite his tongue to keep from laughing.

When the door was shut and Brittany and Marcus were securely alone, Marcus chuckled softly. "He needs to calm down."

Brittany smiled. "I like him. Both him and his wife." Brittany's beautiful smile faded as she got lost in thought.

Marcus sighed. He knew what was going on in her head. "Just because you didn't believe him at first doesn't make you a bad person. Daniel Montgomery didn't even suspect that his niece and nephew were getting abused."

Brittany shook her head. "It's not that again. Well, not entirely. I was doing my morning check on our *ever-so-favorite* potions mistress, and I overheard some things." Brittany, who had taken a seat in the visitor's chair that Arthur had vacated, picked up the frozen Snitch that sat on Marcus' desk and played with it for half a minute before continuing, her eyes remaining on the Snitch. "Rebella Snape was complaining that Gary Rum came to take her son Severus away to school. She didn't think that Severus was worth the effort."

Marcus remained silent.

Brittany finally set the Snitch back on the desk and leaned back in the chair. "Tell me that all of Voldemort's followers treat their kids like the scum of the earth. Maybe they'll all get a very great lesson from Jessica Ziners."

Marcus smiled at her before taking his glasses off and rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I wish," he said after a minute, "but I think Miss Ziners will be our only contestant in *that* game." Marcus slipped his glasses back on. "Did you find anything else out about Rebella?"

Brittany shrugged. "Not much. She mainly complained about Severus' lack of worth. However, I am starting to think that another raid on Borgin & Burkes might be in order within the next three months."

Marcus laughed. "That is always a delight of epic proportions."

Brittany grinned. After a second, she nodded towards the parchments that Marcus had set on his desk just as Brittany had entered the room. "What is that?"
"The report on the board game." Brittany immediately leaned forward and swiped the parchments off the desk. "Weasley took a look at the game," Marcus continued. "It wasn't played correctly."

Brittany glanced up from her skimming. "It wasn't?" There was a half grin on her face. "That is very fascinating."

Marcus nodded. "To say the least."

"He took the time to find these Muggles involved in abuse, he stalked them, and he took the time to not only set the scene but to set the game. Hours and no attention paid to detail with the game? This lends credence to your theory."

"Which one?"

"The one where this murder was a present to you. The Muggle game wasn't the present. The abusive family. He spent no time to actually care about the Muggles themselves. The idea - the time involved - it was completely for you, Marcus."

"Don't try to cheer me up," Marcus replied before looking back at the list that he had been looking at before Weasley had entered the office - the list of who had signed in the night of Minister Rin's murder. Brittany remained in the visitor's chair and started reading Weasley's report. They kept to themselves for a few minutes before there was a knock. Tom Riddle walked in without announcement.

"Hi, Tom," Marcus said. He returned to staring at the list for one more second before sighing.

Tom leaned slightly over the desk to see what Marcus had been looking at. "The name still not identifying itself?" Tom chuckled, causing Marcus to smile. Ever since Rin's murder, Marcus had taken to staring at this list, sometimes for almost an hour. A while ago, Tom had joked that Marcus was waiting for the name of Voldemort to leap off the page and identify itself.

"How was your possible lead? I thought you would be gone longer."

"It turned out to be a lot quicker than I had originally expected. Some idiot pretending that he knew more than he actually did."

Marcus nodded. "Okay. Take a seat, Tom." Marcus gestured towards the other visitor's chair since the man hadn't taken a seat yet. He seemed almost...excited about something. Marcus rarely read the man correctly, so he didn't even bother to ask.

"Alastor is God knows where. Something about hearing something and maybe a lead somewhere. Anyhow, he's not here, so let's get started on a meeting." Marcus snapped his jaw shut however when the newly installed red light on his left wall blinked twice. Tom looked at the light in fascination as Brittany and Marcus both groaned.

Scooner walked in without knocking.

"Potter!" But he stopped before he even got started. "Who's this?" In his motion to gesture to Tom, he nearly knocked him on the head. Tom got out of the way just in time.

"Minister, this is Tom Riddle, my second man. Tom, this is Landon Scooner, our new minister."

Tom raised his eyebrows at Marcus before standing and turning towards the Minister. He reached for Scooner's hand but had to suspend his own to wait for Scooner to realize that he wanted to shake his hand.

"Hello, Minister. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Yeah. Likewise." Scooner smiled at him. "Sorry, but.--"

"Yes. You came in to talk to my boss." Tom let go of his hand and sat down. Once he was facing away from the Minister, Tom grinned at Marcus. Marcus didn't flinch, merely looked back to Scooner.

"Yeah?"

"The *Prophet* is going to run a story tomorrow on your cockamamie theory about Voldemort murdering the Muggles!"

Marcus gave Scooner a confused look. "What?"

"Don't give me that!"

"I'm not giving you anything but bewilderment, Minister. I had no idea that the *Prophet* had any information."

"Then where did they get the information?" Scooner demanded.

"If I may interject," Tom murmured.

Marcus nodded at him.

"The *Prophet* has already conjectured on the possibility that Voldemort is responsible for the Muggle murders. It would not be that big of a leap to say it for sure."

"Maybe for you," Scooner replied before pointing at Marcus. "There will be an investigation on the leak, Potter!" Scooner turned on his heel and left.

"*That* was a treat, to say the least," Tom commented before nodding towards the light. "What is that about?"

"It's a warning light," Brittany said without amusement. "It's charmed to flash when Scooner is coming towards the office."

Tom laughed. "Very nice. I would ask why you would want warning, but I imagine I already know the answer to that."

Marcus nodded absently as he searched through the parchments on his desk. "I have the crime scene report," he muttered. "I want you to look it over, Tom, before we talk about a new approach to Voldemort."

Tom nodded silently. When Marcus finally found the report and handed it over, Brittany finished the board game report and handed it to Tom. "You can read this when you're done with that."

Tom took it and put it underneath the other parchments. "When I'm done, do you want this, Brittany?" He pointed to the crime scene report.

She nodded. "Yeah. I haven't had a stab at it yet."

Tom got up and started to leave but was stopped by Marcus. "Your parents were from Little Hangleton, weren't they?"

Tom's turn was slow and curious. "Yes." The word was as slow as his movements. "Why?"

"Did you stop there on your trip to your lead?"

Tom loosened up and shook his head. "No. Why?"

Marcus shrugged. "No reason really. It's just that...well, someone thought they saw you around there."

Tom smiled. "Well, I haven't been around there in ages." He held the reports up. "I'm going to the strategy room to read these."

When he was gone, Brittany turned curiously to her husband. "Who thought they saw Tom?"

"Sean McKillian."

"What was McKillian doing in Little Hangleton?"

Without looking at his wife, Marcus responded, "He brought a couple of trainees up there for some training thing."

"Did McKillian corner you again?" Brittany asked on a sigh.

Marcus nodded but didn't speak. With good reason. A Mind Examiner with a specialty in Dark Magic, Sean McKillian was the head of the Mind Examiners in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Unfortunately, his job was not only to consult on cases but also to keep an eye on the Aurors. Marcus wished he could blame Scooner for this, but Marcus knew that Sean McKillian disliked the new Minister as much as he did and would have outright refused the order. McKillian, however, had gotten into the habit of 'cornering Marcus' before Scooner arrived. Actually, the first 'cornering' had occurred the day after the Minister Rin's murder and had only increased after the incident with Jessica Ziners.

There was a half-minute of silence before Brittany spoke again. "Tom seemed a bit...apprehensive when you asked him if his parents were from Little Hangleton."

Marcus glanced up to see his wife at the door, her hand resting on the knob, her head turning from her exit towards him. He nodded before glancing back at his work. "Not all that surprising. He grew up in an orphanage, so he never knew his parents."

"Tom shared that with you?" Brittany's voice was surprised.

Marcus shook his head at his parchments. "No. Albus Dumbledore did. The orphanage was Muggle-run, so Dumbledore was sent to help Tom get started with Hogwarts."

He heard Brittany let go of a whoosh of air before leaving the office.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Gary was knee deep into the Third Year Gryffindors' excuse for essays when a soft knock echoed on his door. Upon inquiring who it was, he discovered that Miss Ziners stood behind the wooden wall. She entered and sat after Gary's instruction to do so. He finished bashing the current essay in front of him even though he could feel Ziners' nervous tension. Her nervousness distracted him immensely for the girl was relaxed in his presence to an unforgiving degree, and he had no idea why that would change right now.

After he finished Mr. Black's horrid essay, he set it on a pile of finished essays and reached in his lower left desk drawer. From its depths, he pulled a small sack and set it on his desk. Out of it, he pulled out a tube of cream. He handed it over to her. She merely took it and stared intently at the unlabeled tube.

"What's wrong, Miss Ziners?" Gary asked tiredly.

She glanced up from the tube. "What's different about this from the regular stuff?"

"It's stronger."

She looked back at the tube. "Why wouldn't Malf make it stronger?"

"You need special knowledge and a special license to make it that way." Gary started on the next essay, relieved that it was Lily Evans' essay. After the horror that was Black's, he needed one that wasn't going to hurt his brain.

"A special license?" she asked before sucking in a breath. Gary looked up at her again to see that she was biting her lower lip.

"What is it, Miss Ziners?" Gary growled, wanting to finish these damn essays.

"This is the guy that makes your stuff, isn't it?"

"My stuff? What are you talking about?"

"Your pain stuff for your arm. Severus told me what it was, but I can't pronounce it. He told me about this pain type stuff and this special license stuff because if you don't have the pain, it makes you goofy or somethin'. He said that because you have a teacher's license, you can't have a license to make the stuff. 'Cause of the students."

Gary looked back at the essay but saw nothing, causing him to look back at Miss Ziners. "Is there a reason you're still in here?"

She nodded as she slipped the cream into her right robe pocket. "Yes, there is." She paused before adding, "Actually, I just thought of something else. Will I get into trouble for having this then?" She patted the pocket that now held the cream.

Gary shook his head. "No, it's not strong enough for your so-called 'goofiness'."

She nodded in satisfaction. "Okay, the other thing. Professor Mudbutt was looking for you yesterday."

"Professor what?"

She grinned. "Professor Medley."

"Three points for disrespecting a teacher."

Her jaw dropped. "Come on! No one's here but you and me."

"You have to start learning respect, even if you assume you're alone, Miss Ziners. And yes, Professor Medley found me." Gary looked back at Evans' essay.

She brushed his words away. "That's not what I was getting at. It's just that...he's still watching me a lot. And I think he told Dumbledore about the thing with the Boggart."

"Yes, he is. Get use to it. And yes, he did."

Jessica's jaw worked a moment before she managed to say, "But why? I thought you took care of it."
"Miss Ziners, I am not your keeper," Gary responded, irritated.

She was silent a long time, causing Gary to look back up. He caught sight of her at the door. "Miss Ziners!"

She didn't stop immediately, intent on leaving.

"Sit, now." The words weren't yelled, but they didn't need to be. Despite her intent on doing her own thing her own way, she still responded to Gary's 'teacher voice'.

Jessica walked back to the seat, head down, and sat, head still down.

"Professor Medley did share with Professor Dumbledore the incident with the Boggart. You haven't been expelled yet, so does this not say something?"

She glanced at him, but her eyes shot back down when she saw that he was looking at her. "There hasn't been enough time to expel me..."

"Yes, there has. Professor Dumbledore knew about the incident last year."

She opened her mouth and said half of the word 'when' before she trailed off. Her eyes looking straight at Gary's, Gary knew she had determined the answer on her own.

"Last Christmas," she said, before sighing down to her feet. "Should've guessed back then, I guess. With Dad's murder, I'm surprised y'all didn't bring the cavalry on me." She was scratching her ear and was completely unaware of the slip into her southern accent. Gary had noticed that the slips back into her accent while at Hogwarts had diminished considerably during her schooling. "How long did he wait before ratting me out?"
"He did not 'rat you out', Miss Ziners. You did not do something bad. You did something unusual and frightening. It was Professor Medley's duty to share his concerns with Professor Dumbledore, especially with what happened over last Christmas. Professor Dumbledore made a judgment based upon your character and performance since entering school. He did not expel you then and won't now unless you do something actually deserving of it. Did Professor Dumbledore make the wrong decision?"

Jessica looked at him quickly and shook her head. "No, no. Right decision." She glanced away for another moment before bringing her face back to him. "It's just that, well...I just don't like waiting for the other shoe to drop. Do you ever feel like you cheated? Not like on a test or at school, but...but in life. You have more chances than you were actually handed at the beginning of it all."

Gary looked off to his left before slowly nodding at the girl. "Every day of my life. But, Miss Ziners..." Gary sighed, awash in memory. He remembered the day it had happened, when he had gotten the chance he should never have received. His first taste of freedom, a life without his parents, his brother, Grindelwald. He was 17, and it was his last day at Hogwarts. That night, he hadn't taken the train back home. Nor had Vince, Celerina, or Henry. They could not hide in the dormitories of Slytherin because Professor Graden, the head of the house at the time and the professor of Transfiguration, had also been one of Grindelwald's top men. So the four had hid in a girl's bathroom on the second floor, knowing that Peeves usually avoided that girl's bathroom.

Graden, however, having been immediately informed when the train had reached London that the four had not been on board, searched all of the girl's bathrooms. Graden had given Gary some close training and knew how he thought. And Graden had come into the bathroom and before they knew what had happened, the four were wandless, Henry and Celerina, First and Sixth Years respectively, bloodied and unconscious, and Graden had Vince by the throat, his wand pressed so hard into Vince's jugular that the boy, only a Second Year then, had made involuntary gagging noises. And Gary had assumed he and his friends had reached the end of the road.

However, a man came into the bathroom then, a man that would proceed to repeatedly give Gary chances he did not deserve. That was also the day that marked the first time that Gary fought side-by-side with Albus Dumbledore, who, at the time, had been a cocky, young Auror that had been overly pleased with himself for having not only found Graden out but also tracked him into the girl's second floor bathroom, where the man was about to give Gary the 'Grindelwald choice' - his side or death.

"Miss Ziners," Gary said again, coming out of his memory, "sometimes, we really don't know the road planned for us. Some of us need more chances than others."

She glanced down and was silent awhile before shrugging. "I...no, it's not as simple as that." She sighed at her feet. "Or maybe it is." She patted her pocket. "Thank you for this," she mumbled, turning away and leaving without giving him a second of eye contact.

Gary thought that there should be a book for kids in Jessica's position, but then shook his head at himself. The only people that would understand a need for that would be the ones in that position. Others would be horrified. Horrified at desperation. At terror. At what they themselves ask people to do and then are shocked that they do it. Before they asked this, people in general should understand the task. The task of turning against evil when you are born into it. The task of being best friends with your enemies. The task of turning against men who used your little brother or your friends as weapons, weapons that were more deadly than a wand. And then they should allow those who take the task, allow them to perform it to the best of their ability. Because they were the only ones that knew how to turn against evil.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Marcus Potter showed up on Hogwarts grounds the day before Halloween. As he walked through the grounds, among some children playing in the snow, he idly looked for his son, though his son was not his destination. It was the reason for his journey but seeing him was not the objective.

In his perusal of the children, he noticed a lone figure sitting under a barren tree in Marcus' own path towards the castle. It was Jessica. She was staring across the yard, watching something intently. Marcus walked up to her but didn't announce his presence. He followed her line of vision. She was staring at his son and his friends. And at the boys standing nearby. It was Ignatius Malfoy's son and some other boys, obvious Slytherins.

"Think they're going to fight?" Marcus asked, causing Jessica to glance at him.

"I don't know," she murmured. "Nothing I need to concern myself with. James has over-proven his own ability to defend himself."

Marcus grinned at the annoyed tone in her voice.

"Why are you here?" Jessica asked. "I don't recall James doing anything particularly evil lately, at least evil enough for a parent. Anyhow, Mrs. Potter usually does that stuff, doesn't she?"

Marcus turned to the girl and raised his eyebrows. "You seem to know a lot about the inner workings of my family."

"I talk a lot, but I'm a good watcher. I want to be an Auror. Professor Rum says that there are surprisingly many similarities between students and villains. So I now observe the students and their interactions. No time to start training like the present, eh?"

"Well, don't work on it with my family," Marcus said, still unnerved by her observations of his own family.

"Two Aurors though," Jessica said, either unaware of Marcus' tensing or choosing to ignore it. "And two good Aurors at that. I need to learn from the best." She grinned at him.

"Don't kiss up either," Marcus replied, returning her grin but not so easily.

"So why are you here?" Jessica asked, turning back to James and his group. She didn't wait for an answer but stood up and left back towards the castle. Marcus didn't question this for a glance towards his son and his sons' friends told him the reason for Jessica's abrupt departure. James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were now walking towards him.

"Dad! What are you doing here?" James asked.

"I have to talk with Professor Dumbledore. How has school been going?"

"Good," James said. "Only three detentions."

Marcus chuckled. He had made a deal with James at the start of the year. If he would get less than ten detentions during the entire year, Marcus would buy him the broom of his choice, regardless of the cost.

"Well, hold on there and don't spend all the detentions before Christmas."

"I don't know, Mr. Potter. That might be hard for him," Remus said with a wicked grin.

"You should probably stop hanging out with Sirius then, James," Peter added and laughed as he took off running, Sirius on his heels.

Marcus laughed at the boys but was too distracted to comment. "I have to go, James," he said, looking at his son. "Make sure to mind your teachers and stay away from the Slytherins. That should help considerably." Returning James' grin with an identical one, he grabbed his son's shoulder affectionately and started back towards the school, smiling slightly as he heard the laughs of the boys as they roughhoused in the snow. The laughter, however, made Marcus' trip here grimmer than it already was.

Entering the castle, Marcus didn't notice Stephen Medley at first. Finally, the man grabbed his arm.

"If I didn't know better, Marcus Harry Potter, I would say that you have a lot on your mind."

Marcus glared at him, causing Stephen to let go and hold up his hand.

"Okay, poor joke. I know that you have a lot on your mind. That was the joke...an obvious..."

"I get the joke," Marcus said, starting up the steps.

"What's wrong?" Stephen started up beside him, walking close enough for Marcus to whisper.

"What's not wrong - that's the shorter answer."

"I heard that you and Scooner are getting along famously."

"Another poor joke, Stephen. Where did you hear that though? We've managed to keep our intent dislike out of the paper so far."

"Sean McKillian."

Marcus snorted. "That man should stick to analyzing those he's interrogating and stay away from those in the department."

"It's also his job to keep an eye on the law enforcement department," Stephen reminded him.

Sighing, the older Auror didn't comment but merely continued toward Dumbledore's office.

"Oh, Dumbledore - that's who I assume you are looking for - is not in his office but having tea with Rum down in the dungeon."

Marcus turned back towards the stairs.

"Why did I become an Auror, Stephen?"

"To catch evil-doers and promote justice and peace throughout the world."

Marcus rolled his eyes at Stephen's happy-go-lucky tone, causing the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor to laugh. "Seriously, Marcus, we all have our own reasons. Yours, if I remember correctly, had something to do with your father."

"I wanted to be like him," Marcus supplied. "And to vanquish evil," he added with his own light-hearted tone.

Stephen laughed again, and Marcus finally grinned.

"We should get red capes and become Muggle superheroes," Stephen suggested with a wicked smirk. Stopping in front of the dungeon doors, he said, "Well, I will leave you to the dungeons and Rum. I find it best for my sanity and health to avoid the Potions Master as much as possible." Making a sweeping gesture towards the open dungeon doors, Stephen bowed.

"Thank you so kindly," Marcus quipped before walking through the doors, bidding Stephen a good-bye, Stephen reciprocating in kind.

Once in the dank dungeons, Marcus listened for a moment. He could hear quieted voices nearby and decided that they were in Gary Rum's office. He knocked on the door. Surprisingly, Marcus could actually feel his hands getting clammy as memories of detentions down here floated through his head. Rum had been a very frightening teacher and terrible with his punishments, so terrible that even a feared Auror like Marcus still remembered them nervously.

"Who is it?" came a bark.

"Marcus Potter," Marcus called back.

There was a rude comment from Rum before Dumbledore replied, "Come in, Marcus!"

Marcus entered the office with a laugh, albeit a slightly nervous one. "Sorry to disturb you, Professor Rum, but I very much need to speak with Professor Dumbledore." He paused half a second, in which time Professor Dumbledore stood up, but Marcus waved him down. "Actually, now that I think about it, it's probably best if the both of you hear it."

Rum raised his eyebrows but didn't respond.

"Please sit, Marcus," Dumbledore invited with a grin Rum's direction.

Marcus took a visitor's chair. "I really honestly shouldn't be here," he began, "not only because of the nature of what I'm about to reveal, but if Minister Scooner found out I was here, I might have a job in jeopardy. But...due to recent events, I very much am beginning to worry about my son's safety."

Neither man spoke but both looked very curious.

"I'm sure that the both of you have been keeping a close eye on both the Rin murder investigation and the death of the Muggle family that occurred just recently."

"Like every other person in the Magic world," Rum murmured.

Marcus didn't respond with a smile. "I don't mean through the papers. I mean through your contacts."

Rum merely took a sip of tea. Dumbledore, however, nodded.

"Anyhow, I don't know how much either of you know, but...I'm about to break a few laws here, but I'm going to tell you something about both those cases. And if Scooner found out I even breathed a word of this to either of you, despite the fact that he knows it wouldn't travel past either of you, he would have me unemployed for the rest of my life."

"What is it, Marcus?" Dumbledore asked, giving his former student a concerned look.

"Both of those cases are connected. They were committed by the same man." Marcus sighed. "They were both committed by Voldemort." He took an even bigger breath before plunging on, "And I have reason to believe that Voldemort is communicating to me through these murders. It was no accident I was in the Ministry the night Minister Rin was murdered. The fact I had just been in Rin's office was no mistake. Voldemort was very likely in the outer offices when I walked out. He was probably watching me.

"With these Muggle murders, I know that he was amusing himself. But in there, there was another communication with me. In a perverse way, these murders were an award to me for paying attention." Marcus shook his head angrily.

"But anyway," he said after a pause, "the more I think about this, the more I worry. I know that Voldemort is now paying attention to me, so I'm beginning to worry about my family. I've got an eye on Brittany at the Ministry, plus she can take care of herself out of the Ministry, but James...I know about the safety of Hogwarts and the fact that both of you are here. But I just want the two of you to have a heads up."

For the first time since entering his speech, Marcus looked up. Rum, who had obviously been looking at him, looked away as soon as Marcus went to meet his eyes. Dumbledore, on the other hand, being his usual self, nodded with a smile.

"Thank you, Marcus, for speaking with us. And I assure you, as long as I am in this school, every one of these kids will remain safe. And now I will know of a certain danger that may lie before James, which is more than I have on a lot of the children." Here, Dumbledore glanced at Rum as the Potions Master took a sip of tea.

Instead of taking Dumbledore's bait, Rum turned his eyes back to Marcus.

"How are you so sure this Voldemort committed both crimes? They are very different. I heard of the green marking, but both crimes are so very different."

"The fact that it doesn't make sense is the very tie to these two crimes," Marcus said to Rum after a pause. "When I am handed a case with a serial murder, it almost has comfort in its identical MOs. But the person committing the murders almost wants to be caught. He enjoys murdering and finds equal comfort as I in the rhythm of the ritual. But this Voldemort...he finds comfort in making me guess. He looks at each new murder as a certain challenge. He enjoys the taste of blood, so to speak, but he finds boredom in the ritual of death. And, unlike a serial murderer, murder is not his objective. It's more of a minor hobby to him. No, in the very fact that these murders, and the probable murders that preceded it, are not identical shows us that he isn't murdering to murder. He's murdering for a higher objective, so to speak."

Rum responded by sipping his tea.

Suddenly, there was a noisy trip and a very loud curse outside of Rum's office door.

Setting down his tea with a sigh, Rum said, "Well, Mr. Ziners has officially announced the arrival of someone in need of my library."

Sure enough, a knock sounded just as Rum finished the sentence.

Casey Ziners started to call, "Professor, Sir--", but it was cut off with a muffle, causing Marcus to start towards the door.

When Marcus got to the door, Casey was alone and putting his wand away.

"Mr. Potter," the 12-year old said with surprise.

"What happened?"

Casey gave him an innocent look. "Nothin', Sir."

Marcus heard some noise around the corner and started to turn towards it, but Casey started to gently push him back in the office. That was stopped however when Sirius, James, and Remus showed up.

"Where is she, Ziners?" Sirius demanded.

"Where is who, Black?" Casey asked with a snide, disdaining tone.

"My sister!"

Casey gestured around the dungeon hallway. "It's the dungeon, Black. The depths of Hell, as your sister so eloquently put it. Slytherin territory. I highly doubt your sister's down here."

James walked past Casey and looked in the Potions classroom. A second later he emerged with a tied up and mute Sarah Black.

Casey gave a look of shock. Marcus had to bite back a smile. The boy was really quite good.

Casey added to his act by saying, "Sarah Black, what are you doing down here? And what happened?"

"Professor," Sirius said, turning towards Dumbledore. "Look at what Ziners did!"

"You heard me knock at the door, Professor," Casey said, directing his comments toward Dumbledore. "Did I have time to do that?" he asked, gesturing towards the mute Sarah. "Sarah is quite good with her wand. It would have taken me much longer."

"No, it wouldn't have," Marcus murmured under his breath. He knew that Casey had heard him, but the boy ignored him.

Dumbledore released Sarah Black from her spells. "What happened, Miss Black?"

Casey launched into a version of what happened at the same exact time she did, resulting in that neither was heard.

Dumbledore sighed.

Marcus turned back to the men with a grin. "I better get away from this as fast as I can. Thanks for your time, professors."

Bidding his byes to James and his son's friends, Marcus left.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

"Perfect Casey has detention," Jessica said dramatically, grabbing her chest and pretending to keel over from a heart attack.

Rabastan laughed and even Lucius managed a grin.

"I heard it really was well done of him," Lucius said. "He even hid her in the Potions classroom by the time Mr. Potter had reached the door of Rum's office."

"And then he got detention," Jessica felt the need to remind them all again.

"I've joined the ranks of the uncivilized," Casey said, fairly strutting his stuff around the Slytherin Common Room.

"Oh, gosh," Jessica groaned, watching him as she sank further in the chair she had collapsed on in her pretend heart attack. "He's going to be hard to live with now, isn't he?"

Everyone at the table laughed.

"Let's get back to this assignment," Narcissa said.

"Let's not and say we did," Rabastan, who was levitating a parchment, suggested.

"I'm for that idea," Lucius said, flipping through his book randomly.

Narcissa gave up just as easily. "Where is Severus? Maybe we could copy from him."

"He's in the library," Jessica said when everyone at the table looked at her. "Got a pass to the Restricted Section."

"Has he finished the assignment?" Lucius asked.

Jessica nodded, staring up at the ceiling as she spun her Divination textbook around in her hands.

"Is it upstairs?" Rabastan smiled. At the tone of his voice, Jessica sat back up. Seeing where this was leading, she laughed.

"I think so."

"Crabbe," Lucius said to the boy at the table behind him. "Go get Severus' Divination assignment. It's probably in his trunk."

As the four waited for Crabbe to do as ordered, Jessica mused, "Think Crabbe will come back with the right one?"

"No," Rabastan replied. "We'll send him back up when he comes down with the wrong one. He needs the exercise."

The girls giggled. Sure enough, it took Crabbe three tries. By the time he was done, he was dripping with sweat and out of breath.

All four of the kids crowded close to look over the assignment. Staring at it for a good two minutes, Jessica couldn't understand a word of it. She looked from Severus' parchment to her own blank one several times but only ended up with a big, dark spot where she had put her quill several times to start but never did. Silently, she started packing her things.

"Where are you going?" Lucius demanded in a whisper.

"To the library."

"Are you going to rat on us to Severus?" Lucius growled.

Jessica shook her head with a glare. "Of course not. I just am going to ask Severus for help on the assignment. I won't tell him you guys are copying his."

Lucius looked suspicious, but Rabastan stopped him. "Don't worry. She can keep a secret."

Jessica nodded. "I haven't yet ratted you out on cheating in Potions or Transfiguration. And I won't."

With a sigh, she took off. When she reached the Restricted Section in the library, it wasn't hard to spot Severus rifling through a less dangerous looking area, but Jessica of course could not enter to say anything. With a glance over her shoulder, she saw that Madam Pince was stocking a near-by shelf and giving her threatening looks.

Jessica sat at the table closest to the Restricted Section. She opened her Divination Book and then pulled out a few parchments. Every time Madam Pince turned away, Jessica ripped a little piece off a parchment. When she had seven pieces, she crumpled one up. With a wary eye Madam Pince's direction, Jessica aimed and threw a piece to the side of the aisle Severus was down. Waiting a minute with no result, Jessica tried again. Severus was in the first row of shelves. He always became so immersed in the books that, right now, Jessica despaired of getting his attention at all. When another three scraps proved as unsuccessfully as the first, Jessica got an idea. She knew that she wasn't supposed to do this at all, but she felt she had a good excuse.

She knew that taking out her wand would be noticeable by Pince, who was still casting glances at her. The librarian would notice the wand immediately. So Jessica gave a fifth scrap a toss, but before it had a prayer of hitting the ground, she whispered, "Wingardium Leviosa." Her right wrist was resting on the Divination book, and her right hand appeared to be doing so as well. Her fingers, however, were moving, directing the scrap to levitate right in front of Severus' eyes. It took him a minute, but he noticed.

Bending his head to his left, he looked around the shelf. He rolled his eyes when he saw Jessica. She grinned and ended up dropping the scrap in Severus' lap. It went unnoticed by both of them.

When he was over by her table, he whispered, "What do you want?"

"I'm sorry, I know that you've got the pass to the Restricted Section, but I can't understand this." She pointed to her Divination textbook.

"Why didn't you just copy my essay?"

She gave him her best blank look.

He shrugged. "It's okay. That's why I put it on top. I know that's what they want."

She shrugged and looked at her book, causing Severus to give a mocking grin. "You felt guilty," he whispered with surprise.

She shrugged again.

"What makes this different than all the other times you copy my homework?"

"Usually, you're standing over me giving me a hard time," she replied.

Severus chuckled but sat across from her.

"Are you sure it's okay?" she asked, gesturing towards the Restricted Section.

He nodded. "Yeah, it's fine. I can get another pass from Professor Rum."

She grinned.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

"So, are you and Severus going to Madam Puddifoot's for our first Hogsmeade trip?"

"What? No!" Jessica replied, almost too defensively.

Narcissa Black and Rosemary Mavea laughed.

"What gave you that idea?" Jessica said next, her voice betraying her nervous curiosity.

"Oh, I don't know," Narcissa laughed as she slipped on a sweater over her blouse.

"It could be the fact that you giggled yesterday every time Severus got near you," Rosemary suggested with a wicked smirk.

"I did not giggle!"

"Yes, you did," Bertie Magal piped up, ever helpful. "Well, at least after Severus asked if you wanted to check out Honeydukes first thing today."

"No, I didn't!" Jessica said, plopping back on her bed. She was already dressed. "Anyway, I heard Rabastan saying that he and all the Third Year boys were planning on checking out Rosmerta before looking at that Shrieking Shack. So Severus and I won't be hanging out for long." Jessica grinned at the thought of starting the day with him, causing the girls in the dorm room to laugh.

As it turned out, she and Severus only got to explore Honeydukes for four minutes before Rabastan grabbed Severus away. Narcissa was right there however and saved her from possible immediate retribution from Sirius Black, who had been hot to get her since Casey's incident with Sarah Black.

After buying quite the loot from Honeydukes, all of the Third Year Slytherin girls went over to The Three Broomsticks. They sat across the bar from the Third Year Slytherin boys and gossiped.

Later on, they walked by the Shrieking Shack and found the Third Year Slytherin boys there, talking about ways to get closer. The girls managed to sneak up on the boys and scare the wits out of them, and by the time they had returned to Hogwarts, they were still going back and forth on whether or not the girls had scared the boys.

It was that night that Severus broke his leg.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

"It was an accident!"

"Yeah," Rabastan growled. "And so will your broken bone!"

Medley braved the elements and stood between the group of Slytherin boys and Gryffindor boys. Even McGonagall would later congratulate the young professor on standing specifically between Sirius Black and Rabastan Lestrange.

"I'm very sure it was an accident," Medley told Rabastan.

"You would say that! You love the Gryffindors!" Rabastan yelled, getting red in the face. "Big news for you, Professor! Gryffindors can be just as malicious as Slytherins!" Turning back to Sirius, Rabastan added in a low voice, "And you remember that too, Black."

Rabastan stepped back when Dumbledore entered the room. The Slytherins, the Gryffindors, Medley, and McGonagall all stood in the Entrance Hall. It was past curfew by now and the candles burned brightly. Remus, who trailed Dumbledore, rejoined the Gryffindor boys as Dumbledore strode up to the fray.

"What happened?" Dumbledore asked McGonagall.

"Severus Snape fell over the edge of the railing. Professor Rum took him up to Madam Pomfrey. His leg is broken."

"How is Mr. Snape doing...considering his previous injuries?" Dumbledore asked carefully, his voice soft.

"That is why Professor Rum is still up there, I assume."

Dumbledore nodded.

Glancing at the boys and then deciding against it, he turned back to McGonagall. "Do we know exactly what happened?"

But one of the boys still answered.

"We were coming down to the dungeons for curfew when Black and his crew pushed Severus over the edge!" Rabastan yelled.

This started the groups up yet again, causing all three professors struggles in order to quiet them.

When they were quiet again, Dumbledore sent all of the kids to bed - with the exceptions of Rabastan and Sirius.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

"What did Dumbledore say?" were the first words thrown at Rabastan Lestrange when he entered the crowded Slytherin Common Room twenty minutes later.

"He just wanted to know what happened. Says it was an accident!"

The Common Room erupted into shouts of anger, someone shouting that they should have figured that 'the old crony' would take a Gryffindor's side.

The noise quieted when Professor Rum shouted from the doorway for silence. When all eyes were on him, he spoke:

"I know that everyone is angry right now, but I want all of you to listen in silence," Rum said. "First of all, Severus is going to be all right in a few days. It will take a little longer to heal the bone because he has some other injuries that were not finished healing. But he will be fine.

"Secondly, I know that none of you agree with the Headmaster's decision, but I want all of you to respect it." He launched into a speech about not seeking revenge, though no one listened, and Jessica knew that Rum knew that they wouldn't. When he finally left, the crowd was a little less angry but already plotting revenge.

And Jessica and Casey worked at trying to control the violence without making it seem like they were working against the crowd. By the end of the night, Casey's genius at spells and Jessica's ability to coordinate a play of innocence had won out. Casey was pleased, but Jessica knew that this was hardly the end. And she knew that she couldn't control it.

But, at least, Jessica and Casey had won the first round.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Severus Snape woke up to see Jessica Ziners leaning over him.

"Can't I ever get away from you?" he said.

She chuckled. "No." She started to pour something into a cup. The bottle the liquid was coming from caused Severus to cringe.

"Not another one of those."

"Professor Rum thinks this will be your last," she said in an encouraging voice. He sat up, and she handed the cup to Severus. She watched him take large, painful gulps. When he was nearing finish, she took another cup that had already been sitting on the stand next to the bed. She exchanged the cups when he was done. It was water, and Severus took grateful sips. The water helped put the rest of the nasty tasting stuff down his throat and served to get rid of the taste of it. She took that cup too, and it joined the first cup on the nightstand.

Severus gave her another look. "What are you doing here anyway?"

She grinned. "I'm actually here on Dumbledore's suggestion, believe it or not. He knows I want to become an Auror, and he said part of that is to know how to heal someone. He thought helping to heal you might be a good experience for me."

Severus nodded at her before looking around the Hospital Ward. Madam Pomfrey was tending to a kid at the other end of the ward. Other than that, the place was deserted.

"Most kids are still asleep," Jessica explained. "Goodness knows the Slytherins are. We were up until four in the morning."

"Why?"

Jessica, who had been looking at the kid at the other end of the ward, turned back to Severus. Her grin had disappeared, and she asked in a quiet whisper, "Did Sirius really push you?"

Severus looked away angrily. "Does it matter?"

She nodded. "Yeah, it does."

"Why?" he turned back to her in surprise.

"Because something's going to start, and I don't know if I can stop it and...and I just have to know if what Sirius did to you was on purpose or an accident."

Not realizing right away what she was talking about, Severus nodded. "Yeah, he did push me over...," he trailed off, looking at her before asking, "Are the Slytherins getting revenge?"

Jessica glanced at Madam Pomfrey. She was now looking at them, so Jessica turned back and shook her head at Severus. "No. I don't know." She stood up. "I'm going to go see if Professor Rum is awake. I'll come by later."

Severus nodded. "Okay, I will see you later."

Jessica started to leave but stopped and pointed beside Severus' bed, near where her feet had been. "There's your bag. I packed the books for your Monday classes and some of the other books that were in your trunk. Casey also added one of his books, thinking you might be interested in it." She grinned. "Actually, he said he wanted you to glance at it regardless." She shrugged. "I don't know why. He's a weirdo." She smiled and waved at him before finally leaving.

Severus waved back with a shake of his head. He picked up his bag and set it gently on his lap. His leg didn't hurt anymore, but he was still nervous about moving it. His first question to Professor Rum last night had been if this would affect his walking situation from earlier this school year. He said that he didn't think so, but Severus was still nervous. It had been scary facing the prospect of never being able to walk again. He was given the gift back, but now he was terrified more than ever of losing the ability.

Looking through the books in his bag for the one that didn't belong, he found what he was looking for at the very bottom. He pulled it out. The title of the book was *The Art of Legilimency*. Opening the book, he discovered that it had been checked out from Hogwarts library yesterday.

Severus knew the book backwards and forwards. It was the one he had used in his original discovery of the art. Why did Casey want him to look at it?

His question was answered when he turned the next page. There was a note from Casey there.

*Severus,

What do you know about Legilimency and Occlumency? I've read this book backwards and forwards, but I want to know more.

Casey*

Severus was surprised but guessed a moment later that he should not be that surprised. After all, Jessica had told Severus repeatedly that Casey was a lot like him in his pursuit of knowledge.

She had also said that both of them were a bit like sticks in the mud, but he had ignored her at that point.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

By the end of the week, the Slytherins had not reacted to Saturday's incident. Severus was out of the Hospital Ward. Oddly, he had a limp. All of the Gryffindors, including Lily, suspected that the limp was added for effect. Most Slytherins suspected the same, but they didn't argue. No one suspected that he really did have to limp.

"I hate to say this," Julie Rin said during supper early in the second week of waiting, "but their lack of response is making me nervous."

"Did you ask your brother?" Gideon Prewett inquired.

She nodded. "Yeah, but it was in front of Professor Medley. Jeff claimed not to know anything. Medley told him it was his responsibility as Head Boy to find out, to which my brother responded that Slytherins were smart enough to keep him not only out of the loop but too far away from it to even have a clue."

The Gryffindors grumbled as they again glanced across the Great Hall. A number of Slytherins were staring at them as they talked but all of them turned away quickly when they noticed that the majority of Gryffindors were looking at them. Suddenly, a number of the Slytherins started laughing quite loudly. A few of them were pointing or gesturing towards the Gryffindor table.

"Potter," Lauren Melbrook said. "You're friendly with Ziners. Why don't you ask her?"

"I'm not getting near a Slytherin without an escort of ten very experienced Aurors," James said. A week ago, this declaration might have brought James jabbing for being a coward. Today, it brought some nervous laughter. The Gryffindors were all nervous but none more so than Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter. Since the four had been together at the time of the incident, it was agreed all around that they were probably going to be the primary targets.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

A similar conversation was going on at the Head Table, though with a slightly less nervous tone.

"You must admit," Professor Flitwick was saying. "It really is quite well done of them. They are making the Gryffindors paranoid."

"Have you had another talk with them?" McGonagall snapped at Rum again.

Rum didn't respond, which had been his habit starting three days prior.

"Talking to them is pointless, Minerva," Stephen Medley said. "They're going to seek revenge regardless of what Gary says."

Most were surprised that Stephen had defended his nemesis. Gary, on the other hand, didn't appear to realize that Stephen had even spoken. He just kept looking over the members of his house and eating his food.

"Our job," Stephen continued after a minute of looking back and forth between the table of Gryffindors and the table of Slytherins, "is to try to prevent the revenge from getting out of hand."

The conversation continued, but Gary remained silent. It was about ten minutes later when he finally spoke.

"The Slytherin Quidditch Team is missing. All except for Jeff Rin."

The professors all looked over at him before looking at the Slytherin table. Sure enough, the team members were missing, including Jessica Ziners. Stephen glanced around the table again.

"Casey Ziners is gone too."

Wordlessly, Dumbledore, Rum, and Medley all got up. With instructions for the rest of the staff to stay put until all of the kids were gone, the three professors left the Great Hall.

"I'll check the Slytherin House and the rest of the dungeons," Gary said and took off to the dungeons. Stephen and Albus decided to check the Gryffindor House. They were on the Third Floor when they ran into the Slytherin Quidditch Team, Casey in tow.

"Hello, Professors," Rodolophus Lestrange was the first to greet. The rest of the team and Casey all joined in kind.

"May I ask where you were?" Dumbledore asked kindly.

"Sure," Rodolophus said but quieted.

So Dumbledore prompted. "Where were you?"

The group smiled at the lame grammatical joke before Rodolophus replied, "Well...if you can keep a secret...we were making Captain Rin a birthday card." Rodolophus nodded at Jessica. The Third Year reached inside her robes and pulled out a card. She handed it to Professor Dumbledore.

Dumbledore took it with a smile and looked it over, showing Professor Medley as he did so. On the front, it had a Quidditch Pitch with a Slytherin Quidditch player that bore some resemblance to Jeff Rin flying about. When you opened it, it had the words 'Happy Birthday' blinking, and it was hand-signed by each of the team members. The ink was even fresh.

When Dumbledore handed it back, Jessica said, "We also filled out an order form for his birthday present. You see, since it's his last year and all, we thought we would do something extra for his birthday. We are each chipping in and are buying him a cloak. It has his name on it as well as the Slytherin insignia."

"Yeah," Bellatrix continued for her. "We had to do it away from all of the other Slytherins because we don't want Jeff to have a clue what we're doing. He knows we're doing something but otherwise, he'll be surprised."

The team and Casey all chuckled.

Medley gestured towards the Second Year curiously. "Casey's not a team member," he pointed out.

"Yeah, but I'm bearing the money and input of the rest of the house," Casey said. "We figured it would be a bigger surprise if comes from the whole House. He'll figure it's going to be something dorky from just the team, but in actuality, it will be something expensive from the whole House."

Both professors nodded slowly. Stephen tried to find some hole to poke, but he couldn't find one. He turned to Dumbledore. The Headmaster was looking at him. Stephen shrugged helplessly. Neither of them had a reason to keep the team any longer.

Once released from questioning, the team continued their journey. Watching them over his shoulder, Stephen whispered, "They're not even trying to make a fast getaway."

"They've been planning for a little over a week. They doubt they'll be caught," Dumbledore replied, looking at them too.

Both of the professors proceeded up to Gryffindor Tower. They were still examining the entrance when the Gryffindor kids started to return from supper.

"Is something wrong, Professors?" Julie Rin said after she managed to push through the crowd.

"I don't know..." Stephen trailed off when Julie, on her way to the professors, suddenly slipped. Her feet flew out in front of her, and she went sliding on the floor the rest of the way to Dumbledore and Medley.

The action was met with silence.

Lynn Reger, one of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team Chasers, took a step towards Julie. She walked very carefully, but it didn't help. She slipped. Stephen looked at Dumbledore. Shrugging, Stephen decided to attempt it. He, however, managed to get around the whole area in front of the Fat Lady portrait without slipping. Fabian Prewett attempted the area, but he was as unsuccessful as the two girls, who were still both on the floor because all attempts to get up failed. Fabian took a post on the floor with the girls.

"It was the Slytherins," one child exclaimed, starting an enthusiastic response. Both Dumbledore and Medley sighed before they started forbidding the children from moving from the hall.

Glancing over the students, Stephen started to notice that they began to itch, a few starting to turn red in the face and swell in the areas that itched.

"I better go get Pomfrey," Stephen whispered to Albus.

"Retrieve Professor Flitwick as well," Albus instructed to Stephen before he left.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

The next morning, the Slytherin table was in very high spirits, spirits which only got higher upon the entrance of each Gryffindor. Casey was the center of the attention at the table. He had been the genius behind the spells in front of the Gryffindor House entrance. It was a series of spells that caused only current students of Gryffindor House to slip and to develop very irritating rashes (that were very good at attacking *very interesting* places), things that affected no one else. The professors had finally vanquished the spell after five and a half-hours.

Casey had actually been led up to Dumbledore's office at about 11:30 last night, in middle of the spell-breaking attempts, and inquired on. He knew nothing, he said, and stuck to that story the whole time through. This morning, the Slytherin Quidditch Team figured they would be led up to questioning, but Casey's experience gave them high hopes of getting through this without detention.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Sure enough, through the morning each member of the Slytherin Quidditch Team was individually summoned out of his or her classes and up to Albus' office. Jessica Ziners was the last called, being summoned near the end of lunch and led to the office by Minerva.

Overly cocky at the moment, Miss Ziners sat in the chair across from Albus' desk and propped her feet on the desk. One look from Minerva had her removing them though. She sat up with a smile.

"You probably know why you are here, Miss Ziners," he started.

"There are a million *possible* reasons," she said, "but I can deduce what reason summoned me today. The incident last night at the entrance of the Gryffindor Tower."

Albus nodded slowly. Jessica kept glancing between him and Minerva, her brilliantly changing eyes cycling slowly through their colors.

"There is one thing that has me very curious about the incident in front of Gryffindor Tower."

She looked back at him. "What is it?"

"How did the students who did the deed know where the entrance to Gryffindor Tower was?"

The corner of her mouth curled into a smile that reminded Albus of another Third Year Slytherin, one that he had talked to in passing early this morning - Severus Snape. Judging by the amount of time the two spent together, the fact that one had picked up the mannerisms of the other was not surprising.

"Actually, that's simple to answer," she said as though she were a wise teacher. "If one is curious enough, there are certain Gryffindors that are easy to trail without them knowing."

"Interesting that you know this," Minerva said from her post by Albus' desk.

She cast Minerva a look barely hiding her disdain. "Actually, not that interesting. Anyone that is around a professional Auror enough would pick up on that little tip, whether or not they consciously know it."

"Do you know where the entrance to Gryffindor Tower is?" Minerva asked.

Jessica shook her head. "Actually, no, I don't. Never been that curious about it, I guess." She looked each professor in the eyes, her eyes changing to a green and staying there for a moment before continuing their cycle.

Albus looked at her for a minute, a look that she returned confidently.

"Your friends seem in very high spirits today," Albus commented.

She nodded. "You bet we are. To be honest with you, Sir, we don't feel bad for what happened to the Gryffindors last night. None of them or their best friends ended up in the Hospital Ward with a broken leg, so they should feel lucky. They just had a long, uncomfortable night. It could have been worse." For the first time, she broke direct eye contact and looked at her lap. She whispered, "A lot worse." She looked back up, confident and smirking once more. "I'm not going to feel bad for them.

"But, if we're done here, Sir, I have a class to get to. So does Professor McGonagall. Transfiguration for the Third Years starts in ten minutes."

Jessica looked at Minerva expectantly.

"You are dismissed, Miss Ziners," Albus said. "Professor McGonagall will be down in time for class."

Once Jessica was released from the office, Minerva exclaimed. "She is lying through her teeth to you, Albus!"

Albus nodded. "But we cannot do anything. We have no evidence." It had been quite brilliantly done by them. They certainly had motive, but they organized the retaliation in such a fashion that it would not be linked to them at all. And now Albus had no doubt who had designed the scheme. She may have gotten the idea from her brother or Severus, but the whole execution was designed by Jessica. She would be a very formidable opponent.

Albus wondered if she was currently an opponent. Outside of the Gryffindor-Slytherin feud. Albus wondered if she was his own opponent in some way. It was something to ponder.

Especially since Albus had gotten the distinct impression that she had argued for this less dangerous retaliation and won the whole house over with her argument.

It was a fight he was positive she would not win again. The question remained, would she want to win it the next time?

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Jessica walked into Transfiguration not five minutes after her meeting with Dumbledore. Severus was the only one in there. Intending to go sit next to him, she was partway there when she stopped mid-step. Something was wrong. It just felt wrong. By the way Severus was looking at her, he noticed that she was sensing some danger. Calmly, without turning towards the door, she said, "Rabastan, stay out and keep everyone out."

"Why?"

"Just do it!" she ordered.

Rabastan looked around. When he gasped, Severus looked at him. Rabastan was looking up at the ceiling so Severus followed his gaze. There were a thousand spiders crawling on the ceiling.

Someone bumped Rabastan into the room. It was at that moment that all the spiders fell.

To be continued...