Let's Try Again

Chapter 23: Fourth Year (Part 2)

January 10, 2005

Eventually winter holidays came to an end, and the students had to return to class. Although most huffed and groaned, not liking to have to get up early for class again, Hadrian was happy. He really did like learning this time around since he was able to access his full intelligence and power, and he didn't have the traitors making him miserable. Plus, it served as a distraction for the other students.

Over the past few weeks, Rita had been continuously publishing different articles, most of which involved him in some way. The part that surprised Remus, who was the only one in their family that even bothered to get that paper any more, was that none of them were attacking him, or even slandering him in the slightest.

One of the major articles, titled 'Bullied Beauty', was about what happened with Fleur during the ball. It went into the blatant bullying the girl was being subjected to while at Hogwarts. About how there were certain students going out of their way to insult her, claiming the only reason she had the things she did was because she was beautiful.

Hadrian was more than annoyed when the article directly quoted him about what he had told Fleur after he found her outside during the ball. It even included Rita's memory of the event. Hadrian was really annoyed that he hadn't thought to keep an eye out for the woman. He should have known that she would be spying.

The good thing was that it made people like him more. He had been receiving dozens of letters ever since complimenting him on being such a kind boy and good friend. But, it also made things more uncomfortable for him because now over half the female population of the school was looking at him with puppy love in their eyes. Some had even started to come to him with their problems, like he was supposed to make them better. Amongst those girls was of course, Ginny Weasley.

Another of the more important articles was titled 'Harassment at Hogwarts'. Rita hadn't just been spying on Hadrian, but his dad as well. She wrote about how James, who she called Sebastian was dealing with near constant harassment by Lily, who she referred to as Rose.

Well this didn't directly affect him, it did result in him getting plenty of looks and people were back to whispering behind his back. There was plenty of theories floating around about what Lily was doing. Many thought she just wanted to have some sort of connection to Hadrian given how closely she watched him during every charms class.

The other articles were smaller, and less dramatic, but they all made some sort of mention of him. It seemed that the Prophet was trying to get on his good side by not writing anything negative about him. He didn't think it would last all that long, but he did understand why they were doing it. After what they had done to his papa and Lucius the paper was under investigation for corruption, had already been fined for their involvement in the false imprisonment, and the editor and upper level staff were all being watched by the DMLE for any other criminal involvement.

Thankfully, with classes starting up again, he hoped that the other students would focus on class work a little more. He didn't hold out much hope that it would stop them from talking about him completely, but by this point any form of distraction, no matter how big or small, was preferable.

Study Nook

As the official classes came to an end, Hadrian made his way to the study nook to work on his self study. While he was exempt from the exams in his regular classes, he still had to take the ones for his self study courses. Since the only grade that mattered when it came to self study of the non core classes was the exam if he didn't do the exams he wouldn't be able to test for his OWLs.

Sure, he could take them at the ministry after, like he was planning for a few other subjects. But, if he took them at the school he would be able to do a majority of his tests at once, and without having to pay for them. It would also give him extra time to devote to the other courses that he was planning to test for at the ministry.

Hadrian was glad for his friendship with the other champions. Since they were all older, they were able to tutor him. Cedric, who had studied many of the same subjects as Harry in particular was able to give him pointers for his OWLs.

The magic of the OWLs stopped all students who had taken them from telling anyone else about what was on the test, but it didn't stop them from pointing others in the right direction.

Hadrian was just going over one of his magical law books when Fleur came in. Like Hadrian, she had had to deal with the fallout of the articles. She was furious that such a private moment had been broadcast to the world. Now she was dealing with people coming up to her and acting all supportive, the part that annoyed her the most was that many of the worst bullies were amongst them, trying to give themselves a better image. Like she was going to fall for that.

"So, Hadrian, when is it my turn?" Fleur asked with a slight smile.

"Your turn for what?" Hadrian put his book down to give her his full attention.

"Well, you have so far helped to set up both Viktor and Cedric, as well as many others if what I hear is true. So, when will you find me they guy of my dreams?"

Fleur and Roger had decided that they would just be friends. Which ended up being a good thing as Roger had ended up dancing with Marie during the ball and was really starting to like her.

Hadrian leaned back in his chair and thought. He knew that Fleur and Bill had been great together in the past, he figured they would do well together again, if they met. But, things were different this time. Fleur had first seen Bill when the Weasley's came to see him before the final task, but that wasn't going to happen this time. So, maybe he should orchestrate a meeting between the two.

"I think I just might know the perfect guy for you. But, he has already graduated. Hows this, I will invite him to lunch during the next Hogsmeade weekend and you can come too. It will give you a chance to get to know him without too much pressure."

"Seriously?" Fleur was surprised. "I was really just joking, I didn't think you would actually have a guy in mind for me."

"Well I do, and now it's too late to back out." Hadrian gave her a vicious grin.

Ministry of Magic - January 12, 2005

Regulus was confused as he made his way through the ministry on his way to the DMLE evidence room. It had just occurred to him this morning that there was something they had overlooked.

How could Voldemort be involved in what was happening with Hadrian. Severus had banished his spirit into the Mirror of Erised. So what was going on? He needed to check

It was easy for Regulus to get through the ministries halls. The robes of the Unspeakables tended to intimidate everyone so they quickly moved out of his way.

Slipping into the evidence room, Regulus looked up the location of the mirror and went off in search of it. He couldn't help but sigh in exasperation when he reached the spot where the mirror was supposed to be. It wasn't there.

He knew he should have had the mirror transferred to the department of mysteries as soon as it had been sent to the ministry. But he had known that Dumbledore was keeping an eye on the mirror and he hadn't wanted to draw the old mans eyes to him. Now he wished he hadn't waited.

There was no doubt in Regulus's mind that Dumbledore had arranged for the mirror to be removed from storage and had Voldemort's spirit released. It was something he should have expected the old man to do. He needed a villain so that he could play the hero.

Regulus made a quick stop in the DMLE office to let Amelia know that evidence had disappeared before he went back to his department. He hoped that Amelia would be able to figure out who Dumbledore used to steal the mirror. She wouldn't just fire them, she would charge them. One less Dumbledore follower in the ministry would be for the best.

Criss Cross - January 15, 2005

Bill Weasley made his way into one of the rooms on the upper floors. This room was intended for larger groups and was designed to look like the table had been placed in the middle of a rainforest near a small pond and waterfall.

Hearing some cooing, Bill looked down at the stroller he had brought with him.

There had apparently been some major emergency at JT and his fathers had all been called in. Apparently something had happened with the viewing orbs that they were planning on using for the upcoming quidditch season. Since he was already home, Bill had offered to take the twins for a few hours while his dads put out the fires at work.

None of his parents had been overly happy about being called in, but they had gone in just to keep the plan on track. All three of them would be getting royalties for their assistance in the project for the rest of their lives. They would all be able to retire and never have to work again off what they had made possible, but they weren't sure what they were going to do yet.

All three of them were struggling with what was going on. After what had happened last time, the older boys all understood the near obsessive level of devotion they had to the babies, but it was bordering on unhealthy. Arthur was considering that they might have to start seeing mind healers, so long as the healers took strict secrecy oaths.

This was actually the first time they were going to be spending any time away from the twins since they were born. It had been hard on them, but they knew it was for the best. Nicole and Leo were perfectly safe with Bill, and they needed to get the job done so they could return home.

Now, Bill was just waiting for his brothers and Hadrian. He didn't really understand why they had wanted to see him, but he wasn't about to pass up the chance to see them. Plus, it would allow Fred and George to spend a little time with the younger twins. He felt bad for them having to go back to school so soon after they were born.

Hadrian smiled as he led the others into the private room he had had arranged. Fred and George had gotten a letter earlier about Bill bringing Nicole and Leo so they both went directly to their baby siblings.

Fleur followed behind the three boys, wondering about Hadrians smile he had been giving her all morning. What made him think that he knew the perfect guy for her?

She kept wondering that until she felt warmth bloom in her chest. Looking up, she saw the tall man she had seen near the dragon enclosure. And, like last time, he was the focus of her attention. But this time, she knew why he seemed so important to her. That small little place in her heart, the portion of her that was veela, purred in contentment at his presence. If she had been a full veela, this man would have been her mate. As she was only part veela she could refuse him, but she wasn't sure she wanted to.

Hadrian quickly introduced Fleur and Bill to each other. Fleur wasn't just thrilled to know his name, finally, but she was happy to meet the two babies. She had always wanted a large family, and seeing just how he was with his siblings made her like him even more. He was smart, kind, handsome, powerful, and clearly devoted to his family. He was perfect.

When Bill had first seen pictures of Fleur in the paper after she had been chosen as champion, his first thought had been to congratulate his other self. Although, he did hope that he hadn't been so shallow as to only get together with a woman because of how she looked.

But now, sitting here actually talking with her, Bill was relieved to known he hadn't become shallow. She was perfect. When Nicole had started to fuss when they were just sitting down to eat and Fleurs first reaction had been to turn away from the food to soothe the girl, Bill felt himself starting to fall in love. When Hadrian started talking about her little sister Bill had seen just how much she loved her family. It would seem, that behind the girls beauty was a heart of pure gold, a heart Bill intended to have.

He was a little startled with just how quickly he was finding himself falling in love with her, he had only known her for less than an hour after all, but he decided to just go with it. His dad had always told him to trust his heart after all. And, love at first sight, resulting in long happy marriages, was fairly common in the Weasley side of his family.

Seeing the quickly developing relationship between the two, Hadrian, Fred, and George quickly excused themselves. Taking the younger twins, after both Bill and Fleur had covered them in protection charms, they went to wander the village. The charms would ensure that the babies stayed nice and warm, and, not a single germ would get within three feet of them.

At first, when they had left the restaurant, the babies had been in the stroller, but soon enough they had started to fuss. George had shrunk the stroller and stuck it in his pocket, while Fred carried Leo and Hadrian was playing with Nicole as they walked through the town.

Hadrian was having fun as he bounced Nicole and made the baby girl break down in peals of laughter. The little ones were just such happy babies. From what Hadrian remembered, his little sisters, although happy, had been far more dramatic and there had been much more tears whenever they felt they weren't getting the right amount of attention. His sisters had always been drama queens and demanded the attention of their family. Hadrian loved his sisters, but calm they were not.

They were walking through the village laughing together. All three of them were sure that soon enough Bill and Fleur would be getting engaged. It made all three of them happy remembering the looks on their faces as they stared at each other while they talked.

"Harry!" Came a voice that made the three all sigh.

"What do you want Ginny?" George asked as he turned to see his sister and brother, along with Hermione.

"We came to see Harry." Ron growled at his brothers.

"Is that your little cousin? He's so cute." Ginny gushed as she looked at the baby, hoping to form a connection with Harry over the baby.

Hadrian laughed at the girls blatant cluelessness. "No, this isn't Rigel. This is Nicole, you know, your little sister. Fred has Leo."

Ginny looked between the babies in shock. "Why do you have them?"

"Bill brought them for a visit. We decided to show them around town." Fred smiled.

"But they're babies. They aren't smart enough to realize whats happening." Hermione said in confusion. What did they think they were going to teach two babies.

"We know, but we wanted to spend time with them. You know, like family does." George rolled his eyes. What was wrong with these three that they didn't understand that it was just about spending time with the babies?

Ron just watched. He really didn't understand his brothers or Harry. Honestly, he didn't really feel anything for his younger siblings either way. He knew that Ginny really didn't like them, Nicole especially, but he just didn't care. They were just more annoyances that he ignored.

Looking around, he saw that others were watching, many girls in particular were paying attention, he wondered why. From those stupid potions and spells during his stupid mind healer sessions he knew that there had to be some reason, but he just couldn't figure it out. He still didn't understand peoples reactions to babies, maybe he should ask Healer Savoy about it.

"Why do you have them?" Hermione questioned. Although she admitted that the babies were cute, she didn't understand why three teenagers were going out of their way to carry babies around with them.

"Like Fred said, Bill brought them and we offered to take them for the afternoon. We wanted to spend time with them. You know, because they are family and we love them." George said like they were being stupid.

"Ohhh, look." Autumn pulled Viktor over to see the babies, Cedric and Lily, and Draco and Fey, following. "They are just so sweet."

"Hey Autumn, hey Viktor." Hadrian smiled as he turned so Autumn could get a clear view of Nicole.

'Who are they?" Autumn questioned as she looked at the babies.

"Well, isn't it obvious?" Fred said in mock surprise.

"Just look at how gorgeous they are and it will be clear." George added.

Hadrian couldn't help but laugh at his twins antics. "This is Nicole Weasley-Prewett, and Fred has her younger twin brother Leo."

"They are so sweet." Lily sighed as Nicole grabbed on to her finger and smiled at the girl while she babbled.

"They're just babies." Ginny said in confusion.

Everyone just gave her a look.

"They're your little brother and sister." Autumn said, expecting the girl to understand the significance, but from the blank look it was clear it went over her head.

"They are rather sweet." Viktor said with a smile as Leo smiled at him. "Where are your dads?" He questioned. He had heard from the twins just how obsessed their dads were about the twins.

"Emergency at work." Fred said.

"They need to get everything set up before the new quidditch season starts." George added.

"Oh, yeah. I completely forgot. It's absolutely amazing that they're going to get the games recorded for people that can't make it to the games." Viktor grinned.

"Yeah, once they finalize these last few things they said they are done and can return all their focus to the twins." Fred smiled.

Ron was stunned. He hadn't thought that some one like Krum would be interested in what his dad was doing. Maybe this was his way in.

"Ahh, there you are." Came a voice before Ron could say anything. Everyone turned to see Arthur and his husbands making their way towards them.

"Hey dad." Both of the older twins said as one.

"Hello kids." Arthur smiled at his children and the others. "Bill sent a message that you two had the twins."

"Yeah, we left him to enjoy his date." Fred said, exaggerating the word date.

Arthur, Fabian, and Gideon laughed, along with George and Hadrian.

"Date, what date?" Ginny demanded. She didn't like not knowing who Bill was seeing, she didn't want him being stupid like Charlie was.

"Hadrian set him up with a friend of his." George smiled, knowing that the girl wouldn't cause problems for their elder brother knowing that.

Ginny just stared. Who had Harry set Bill up with? She needed to know. The only person she could think of was that stupid girl that claimed to be his cousin, Ginny didn't like her. She didn't want her anywhere near her family. But, it did give her more of a connection to Harry. If her brother was dating Harry's cousin than that might be useful to her.

"Let's have some fun looking around." Hadrian suggested as he handed Nicole off to Arthur. He could see the man was having a hard time not having at least one of his children in his arms.

Arthur, Fabian, and Gideon joined Fred, George, and their friends for the rest of the afternoon. Ron and Ginny stayed with them for a little while, trying to get closer to Hadrian and convince their dad to get them things, but when that wasn't working for them they became frustrated and stormed off with Hermione.

When it came time for dinner, the students made their way back to the school. Fred and George making sure to kiss their younger siblings goodbye before saying goodbye to their fathers.

Entrance Hall - January 29, 2005

Soon enough it was almost the end of January. The second task was coming closer and closer, much to Hadrian's annoyance. Just the idea of going into the lake in February made him shiver. He and the twins were already making plans to ensure that the judges all ended up in the lake. If they thought that it was fine for teenagers to be in the freezing water, then they deserved a dip.

Hadrian was sitting with the twins and their friends while they waited for lunch. Luna was just explaining what a blibbering humdinger was to everyone when the annoyances stormed into the entrance hall.

Everyone sighed secretly, knowing that they were going to get the joy of hearing whatever it was that had upset them this time. So far, ever since Hogsmeade, they had managed to avoid them.

"I can't believe this. How does that woman keep getting this information?" Hermione shouted as she shook the paper at her two friends.

Hadrian almost smirked. As he had expected Rita Skeeter had been writing new stories almost every day about the goings on at the school. Hadrian didn't really know what they were about, he still refused to read that paper, but he had heard plenty of other students talking about them. They all questioned the same thing, how was she getting the information? It was causing a great deal of suspicion amongst the students as to her sources.

The thing that really surprised Hadrian was that none of them showed him or his family in a negative light. If anything, they praised him and his family. Hadrian just figured that the paper was still trying to avoid angering his family any more, also, the public wouldn't tolerate them attacking him again.

Basically since the beginning of this year, Hadrian had seen the green beetle buzzing around. He had warned those that were close to him about her to help to protect them from her.

One of the things he had heard around the school was that she had managed to find out who it was that were the worst bullies of Fleur. That had included naming Hermione as one of them. The girl had been seething ever since.

Seeing Harry, Ginny grabbed the other two and pulled them towards the group. "Hi." She chirped.

"Can you believe this?" Hermione demanded as she shook the paper at them.

"Believe what?" Neville asked in confusion from where he sat with Luna resting against him.

"This!" Hermione thrust the paper under his nose.

Neville took the paper and read the story aloud to his friends who hadn't seen it. The story was questioning Dumbledores ability to manage the school properly. It brought up not only what had happened with the triwizard tournament, but it also went into the bullying issue as well as growing evidence of love potions being used at the school.

Over the past months almost every apothecary had reported that their supplies of love potions ingredients had been purchased separately. Since love potions were illegal, the ingredients couldn't be sold together. Any person wanting to brew them would order each ingredient from different apothecaries. It was normal that there would be orders for those ingredients, but this year the orders had more than doubled, all simply stating delivery to Hogwarts. And, since each of the individual ingredients could be used in a multitude of potions the only way to determine what was being brewed would be to have aurors interview every one who ordered them, and they couldn't legally do that without cause.

They knew that love potions were being brewed at the school because 5 students had already had to be treated for being given improperly brewed potions. If a love potion wasn't made properly it could become toxic very easily. And since love potions weren't something they were taught to brew the students really didn't fully know what they were doing.

"So, it's an article in the paper, why should any of us care?" Draco asked condescendingly.

"Because she is using quotes. Either she is making it up or students are betraying the school and telling her peoples private information. Last week she included information on students health, and now this!"

"Or, she's getting the information herself." Luna said in a soft voice. She didn't like Skeeter or Granger, she thought it would be funny to turn them on each other.

"She can't have. She hasn't been at the school since the first task." Ginny rolled her eyes at the girl. If she had heard that Rita was coming to the school she would have made sure that she was photographed with Harry.

"Well, she's been here obviously." Fred said, waving the paper they had brought with them.

"How?" Ron questioned in confusion.

"Simple, she's an animagus." Luna said happily. She already knew that this was going to set Granger off. She couldn't wait.

"No, she isn't." Hermione stated in her bossy tone.

"Yes she is." Hadrian responded.

"No, she isn't. I looked up all animagi for our transfiguration class. She isn't on the list. All animagi are required to register. Since she isn't on the list she can't be one."

"Because she never registered." Hadrian said simply to the girl.

"Then I'm going to report her." Hermione was smug. She hated that woman for writing such terrible things about her.

"What's that supposed to do?" Draco asked in confusion.

"It's the law that you have to register when you are an animagus." Hermione said like they were stupid, before becoming excited. "Maybe she'll end up in Azkaban."

"No, on both counts." Hadrian said in a bland voice, smiling internally when he saw how angry the other girl was getting. "The Animagi Registration Act never managed to pass fully, due to Family Magic laws, it is only a policy, not a law. A miss-information campaign is the only reason some register.

Most however, know that they aren't legally required to register. Although it is extremely hard to become an animagus, there are far more than people think."

"Family magic laws?" Ginny said in confusion, wanting to keep Harry talking.

"Most of the major families have their own private grimoires, filled with ancient magics. They guard these family secrets jealously. There is also the fact that some magics only work for certain bloodlines. Because of that, laws were made to protect family magics.

The animagus transformation was originally Switch family magic. About 200 years ago a member of the Switch family fell into debt due to a broken contract so he sold the animagus transformation process by ripping the pages from the grimoire. He was ultimately disowned for his betrayal of the family, the Switch family spent over 100 years trying to regain control of the process, but wasn't successful ultimately, but there are still those that pay royalties. Those that know about what happened willingly pay royalties to the family out of respect."

Hadrian explained. He was actually a little surprised that Hermione didn't know this. He had heard her often enough bragging about taking the law class for some reason, like she was the only one.

"What?" Hermione was outraged. "It's against the law, and how can we be denied the right to learn magic just because we aren't pure bloods?"

"Like Hadrian just said, it isn't against the law. It is policy. Legally there are no requirements to register as an animagus. If it were a law, she could be punished for being unregistered, but since it is only a policy, she won't get in to trouble." Draco said simply.

"And the magic? What right to they have to deny people the right to learn magic. It is our right." Hermione crossed her arms in her anger, stomping her foot.

"It's their spells." Neville said. "The spells and rituals in grimoires were created by members of the family. If you invented something, it would be yours. I think we all know that if you had created a spell and anyone else took it from you, you would throw the worlds biggest fit."

"We don't have anything like that." Ron argued.

"Really, how can you not? Both the Weasley and Prewett families have existed for hundreds of years. Surely they have grimoires." Hadrian said in confusion.

"Oh, they do." Fred smiled.

"But Ronniekins and Ginnykins have never been very interested in books or learning." George added.

"The rest of us were aloud to start reading the family grimoires when we were 10."

"But neither of them wanted to."

"Although we are forbidden from using any of the higher level spells until we are of age."

"They are too powerful."

"And once you start, you can't always stop."

"So we can only use the lower level stuff now."

"But it isn't right." Hermione huffed. "It isn't fair. The public deserves to know."

"It's also dangerous. The spells and rituals can be extremely dangerous if not done by family members." George said.

Hermione was furious, she wanted to learn, and they were standing in her way, again. "They aren't dangerous. That's just some excuse that you make up to keep it to your self. It isn't right."

"Yes, they are dangerous. The Longbottom grimoire has a spell to enchant certain dangerous plants to be more manageable. About 60 years ago some one managed to steal one of the plants that had been enchanted with the spell. The thing is, the enchantment is meant for those with an earth elemental leaning and was blood bound to the family.

That made it so any family member with that leaning could handle it easier, but anyone outside the family couldn't. It was sold to a tree nursery that started taking cuttings of it in the hopes that the saplings would be safe to handle. Over 30 people died before the plant and its saplings was located and returned.

Family magic can be great. But it can also be incredibly dangerous if you don't have the aptitude for it or aren't a member of the family." Neville said.

"Leaning?" Ron questioned.

"Wow." Most of the group said in shock. How could Ron have even grown up in their world and not know. Not to mention passed their magical theory classes. Sure, it wasn't specifically covered, but any wizard raised child knew about it.

"Every witch and wizard has a magical leaning. It's something that you are just naturally inclined towards." Draco said like they were stupid.

"The Longbottom's lean towards earth elemental magic, you would know it better as herbology."

"The Malfoy's lean towards enchanting."

"The Lovegood's excel at mind magics." Luna giggled. Technically having seer blood did effect the mind.

"The Potters are more inclined to transfiguration. While the Blacks are known for their dueling."

"And, darling little brother and sister, many members of the Weasley family have excelled in spell crafting." Fred smiled.

"While the Prewett's tend to be experts in warding." George finished.

"But, just because that is your family's leanings doesn't mean that will be yours." Hadrian carried on with the little impromptu lesson. "My Aunt Marlene's family had always excelled at runes, but her magic leans more towards the healing arts."

"So what does that mean for us?" Ginny questioned in confusion.

"Don't worry about it little sister. It clearly doesn't effect you." Fred said in exasperation.

"But we are a part of the family, so we get to know the family magic." Ginny announced proudly.

"And then you can teach me." Hermione and the younger girl grinned at each other.

"Not."

"Going."

"To."

"Happen." Fred and George said angrily.

"You can't stop us." Ron smirked at his brothers.

"We don't need to." Fred smirked back.

"After the whole incident with the Switch family, most families started applying protection to protect their Grimoires. I'm assuming that's what you're talking about." Draco said looking at the twins.

"Yes. Both the Weasley and Prewett grimoires have been covered in protections and curses." George agreed.

"To even be aloud to open the cover of both you would first have to make a binding agreement that you won't betray the secrets inside."

"If you were to try and tell anyone what you read the magic would stop you by taking your voice."

"But don't worry, you'll get it back after a few days." George's grin was vicious as he imagined those two being silent for days. It would be amazing.

"If you tried to show anyone not a blood member of the family, the book would go blank."

"But more than that, once again, the magic would punish you."

"It would strip you of your magic."

"Temporarily, since you're both still under age at least."

"But, can you imagine it. Going for days, if not weeks without being able to feel your magic?"

"You can't do that." Ginny shouted at the twins.

"We wouldn't be doing anything." George growled.

"That's the punishment for betraying the family."

"So long as you don't betray the family."

"Then you have nothing to worry about."

Fred and George grinned at their younger siblings before they, and the rest of their group, got up to head into the great hall for lunch as the doors opened.

As the others walked away, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all fumed.

Both Ron and Ginny didn't like what their brothers had just said. Sure, neither had wanted to learn the family magic when their dad had asked. But now they did. And, they wanted to share it with Hermione. Surely there was some way around those stupid protections.

Hermione was furious by all that she had just learned. Once again, she was being denied the chance to learn. This was something that was going to have to be changed. Maybe she should start drafting bills to change the laws now so that she could implement them once she was in charge.

Then there was Rita Skeeter. Hermione was sure that she was required to register. She was going to have to talk to the headmaster about bringing charges against the woman.

Turning, all three headed into get their lunch still thinking about what they were going to do about what they had just learned.

Ravenclaw Dorms - February 14, 2005

Hadrian woke up slowly on Valentines day. He smiled happily to himself as he thought about what the twins were going to wake up to.

It had been extremely easy to get the elves to help him arrange for them to get his gifts. When they woke up they would find themselves surrounded with their favourite candies. The main present however, was wrapped in paper the same colour as his eyes tied with ribbons that matched the sapphire blue of their eyes.

Hadrian had had an extremely hard time trying to decide what to get them, but he had eventually settled on what he thought they might like, and also be useful. Each received a dragon hide wrist wand holster that they could link to their wands magic so that if lost or taken, their wands would appear back in it. And, there were also a few books each. Hadrian knew that Fred was thinking about trying to get a mastery in spell crafting while George wanted one in alchemy, so he arranged for them to get some of the rarer books on those subjects that he thought might help them.

He hoped that would let them know that he truly cared about them and what they wanted, not just what they could be to him. Hadrian wanted them to be themselves, and never feel like he wanted them to change for him, they were perfect just the way they were to him.

He grinned, his eyes still closed, as he thought about the day before. It had been a Hogsmeade weekend, and since this year Valentines day was on a Monday, Hadrian and the twins had had a private lunch together the day before. They had gone to one of the private rooms in Criss Cross. The room had looked like a private table for three overlooking the Seine in Paris.

For Hadrian, it had been perfect. Fred and George had made sure that there was all of his favourite foods. Even appeasing Nem by making sure there was plenty of food and treats for her. After spending most of the time just talking and eating, they had gone and walked around the village together. Fred had created a spell for them that would ensure no one recognized them so that Hadrian didn't have to worry about any of his stalkers finding them. It had been the first time Hadrian had felt free within the village.

Just as Hadrian was remembering how they had kissed him after walking him back to the tower that evening, he caught the smell of flowers. Opening his eyes, he saw that he hadn't been the only one to convince the elves to help him make this day special.

There were flowers and plants all over his bed. He didn't know much of the flower language, but he knew a little. He saw sunflowers that meant adoration, red and blue salvia that meant forever mine and thinking of you, red tulips and roses which were two different ways of showing love, violets for devotion, two groups of white clover that meant think of me, and the ivy that wrapped around the frame of his bed represented friendship. He was going to have to ask Neville to borrow his flower language book so he could fully understand their message, but he got the gist of it.

Sitting, wrapped in the flowers, were two boxes. Hadrian couldn't help but laugh when he saw that both Fred and George had apparently found the same wrapping paper as he had. With a smile, he slowly unwrapped the boxes, both wanting to rush and wanting to savour the excitement.

In the first box, from Fred, was a beautiful figurine. When Hadrian touched it he could feel Freds magic, letting him know that Fred had made this himself. The figurine was of three foxes. The two larger, red, ones looked just like Fred and George in their animal forms, and there was a smaller black fox that looked just like the form that he would gain once he managed his transformation. Right now, the three of them were all curled up together, but he could see little movements that told him the three were enchanted to move.

After finally managing to set Fred's gift aside, he opened George's. It was another self made gift. Georges speciality was potions and alchemy, so, like his brother, he had crafted something for Hadrian. His gift was a box filled with all sorts of different potions. Flipping through the little booklet included, Hadrian saw that there were a multitude of new prank potions that hadn't even reached the store shelves yet. There were also purging potions, just in case he was dosed with anything like love or compulsion potions. On the alchemy side of things were potions that would increase his healing, Hadrian was surprised as he looked over what George had created because it was only a few steps away from the elixir of life made by the philosophers stone, only Nicolas Flamel had ever successfully managed to create that. Then, there was also a potion that would make him impervious to all manner of curses or jinxes, basically anything below the strength of the unforgivables would bounce off him, but the part that truly touched him was the little note that said it would also work for Nem. Hadrian was always worried about Nem getting hurt, over the years she had actually been hit by a few curses, either because a student was jealous, angry at Hadrian, or were supporters of the dark and had just been trying to hurt Hadrian. A single drop of the potion in bath water and he and Nem would be protected for a full month.

With a sad sigh, Hadrian turned away from his gifts to open his beds curtains. He smiled slightly as the sunlight hit the fox figurines, and the two red foxes gave him a disgruntled look before they wrapped themselves tighter around the little black fox. Setting the figurines and the potions on his bedside table he started to get up to go get ready for class. He was going to use the shield potion tonight on both Nem and himself.

Theo just stared at all the flowers. He knew that Hadrian was seeing someone, though he didn't know who it was. When he had asked Hadrian about it, his roommate had just said that he preferred to keep it secret. Knowing just how hard it was for Hadrian to keep his life private he had easily agreed that he didn't need to know and that he wouldn't say anything.

ROR

After classes ended that day, Hadrian and the twins met in the ROR where they had a private dinner sent up to them by the elves. They knew that it was a little risky to not be in the great hall for the feast, but they just didn't want to go. They wanted to stay together.

Besides, it wasn't like they were the only ones that were skipping the feast. He knew that most of his friends had found their own places to have a private meal with their dates. Neville and Luna were in the greenhouse, Draco, Fey, Viktor, and Autumn were scattered around the lake on picnic blankets with warming charms, Cedric and Lily were up on the astronomy tower, and Fleur and Bill, both being of age, were at Criss Cross. There were also plenty of other students all around doing the same thing they were.

They all knew that it seemed a little silly, they did spend pretty much all of their free time together, but there was just something about their dates. It just seemed more intense saying that they were on a date rather than just hanging out.

Their evening passed joyfully, with a great deal of snuggling.

Great Hall

Ginny was ready to scream. She couldn't see Harry anywhere.

It just wasn't possible. Everyone knew that the only reason students skipped the Valentines day feast was if they were having a private date.

But that couldn't be why Harry wasn't there. There was no way he was on a date. Who would be so stupid as to think that they could steal her Harry?

Looking around, she noticed that Loony wasn't there. No, no, no, NO! Loony wasn't aloud to be near her Harry. She was going to make that girl suffer for this.

Harry was hers. And anyone who thought differently was going to suffer!

Hermione could see trouble coming. She had, of course, already noticed that Harry wasn't there, and neither was Loony. The look on Ginny's face spelled trouble for the other girl, not that Hermione really cared if she suffered.

The problem was that she knew Ginny wasn't thinking clearly. She would get caught. Then there would be real trouble. Depending on just how far she went, Ginny could get in serious trouble.

And, of course, Hermione would get in trouble too. The headmaster had already called her up to his office earlier this year and told her she was in charge of making sure Ron and Ginny passed their classes and didn't get into trouble.

She was going to have to find some way to distract Ginny. Plus, she was going to have to think of a way to get Harry to smarten up and start seeing Ginny. Then there was all the school work she had and the bills she was working on to force the stupid pure blood families to share the spells they had been keeping secret.

Ron was glaring at his food. Fleur wasn't there. She had to be out on a date with someone.

It just wasn't fair. Why couldn't he ever get what he wanted? He wanted her, and once again, he was being denied.

Head Table

Up at the head table James was sitting next to Severus. Unlike Sirius, Severus hadn't been able to get away from the school that evening since he had some last minute deputy-headmaster work to finish up so he had had to stay for dinner. James had talked to Kali, who had agreed to be looked after by the house elves so that James could go up to the school to be with Severus, even if it just was eating together in the great hall. He already knew that she wouldn't be alone for long since Remus and Sirius were going to most likely be making the same arrangements for Cas and Ari and the elves would probably end up bringing the girls into one house so they could corral them in one place.

After dinner Severus had about an hours more work to get through, but James was already making plans on how he would surprise him when he got home. But, for now, he settled for giving Sev all his attention, while also rubbing his thigh under the table with his free hand.

Severus, like his husband, couldn't wait until they got home.

At the lower head table, Lily fumed. She had been feeding Sebastian love potions for months now, and he still didn't pay attention to her.

The headmaster was getting frustrated with her and she knew it. She needed to make this work. She deserved to be Lady Peverell-Gryffindor. Sure, she wasn't thrilled about being a step-mother to his brat, but the headmaster had already promised he would deal with the girl when he dealt with Severus. It wasn't that she wanted the kid to die, honestly she didn't really care, but she needed to make sure that her child would be heir, so the kid had to go.

Then there was Harry. Over the years she still hadn't figured out how she felt about the boy. He represented the fact that James had chosen another over her. But, he was also biologically her son due to the blood adoption. She had never really been a very maternal person, but she still wanted him in her life. Besides, he was famous, so even if she later learned that she didn't want to be his mum, then it would still be worth it since he could bring her fame.

Headmasters Office - February 20, 2005

Albus was just going over a few last minute arrangements for the second task that was set to take place in 4 days when Alastor and Minerva both walked into his office arguing.

"What is going on now?" Albus sighed. He was really getting sick of these two coming to his office bickering like children.

"You have to get Alastor under control headmaster. He is forcing Ron, Hermione, and Ginny to spend hours in his office doing work." Minerva all but threw herself down into one of the chairs in front of his office.

"Alastor?" Albus looked to the other man.

"You want those three to pass don't you?" Alastor questioned. "I make them sit in front of me and do their work to ensure that they can pass. Ms. Granger fights me tooth and nail about doing the work that I assign. The only way I have been able to get her to do the assignments in a way that will allow her to get decent grades is by going over it as she works so that I can stop her from going off track.

Over the term I have repeatedly caught both Mr. and Ms. Weasley plagiarizing their assignments, or simply not doing them. I either keep an eye on them, or nothing gets done."

Albus sighed again. He had known that Alastor had been doing something with the three, but he hadn't figured he had had to go this far.

"Why haven't they said anything?" Minerva questioned, some of her anger bleeding away.

"Because I placed them under secrecy spells since it isn't technically aloud. They can't tell anyone that I have been working with them." Alastor smirked.

"Why would you do something like this Alastor? They are my students, you should have come to me." Minerva huffed.

"Would you have done anything?" Alastor shot back. "Face it Minerva, you've lost your edge. You act like those three are perfect, but they aren't. I've been doing what I can to get the lot of them to start behaving properly."

Minerva growled. "I haven't lost my edge, those three are the future of our movement. We need to help them, not hold them back."

"Exactly. Those three will be completely useless unless they start learning.

Granger wants to be minister of magic, but she won't be unless she gets her attitude under control. She has gone out of her way to make enemies of almost every powerful house by repeatedly fighting with their children. As I have already told her. There is no way she will ever be elected if she doesn't learn how to start making allies rather than enemies."

"And just who do you think she has made an enemy of?"

"Bones, Malfoy, Longbottom, Potter-Black, Zabini, Greengrass, Macmillan, MacDougal, do I need to say more? The students currently at this school are all heirs to the families and she has gone out of her way to anger them. Going so far as to physically attack all of them.

You and I both know that no minister has ever been elected without the support of at least ⅓ of the Wizengamot. Potter-Black alone will have the ability to stop her with just a word. But, she has repeatedly hit him in just the few weeks I had them sitting next to each other.

If we ever want that girl to become powerful in our world she needs to learn a little humility. How to play off peoples emotions. How to manipulate people into seeing her as being better than she is."

"She's smart enough to do that." Minerva snapped back, but Alastor could see the thoughtful look in her eyes.

"No, she clearly isn't. She knows what is expected from her on her assignments, but she doesn't seem to have the brains to follow the marking scheme. If she was as smart as you claim she is, she could use the marking scheme that she has to get perfect, or near perfect, scores on her assignments, as many students do, but she thinks she is smarter than the teachers and then goes on to argue when she refuses to follow instructions."

Minerva sighed. She had fought so hard to see the girl as what she wanted her to be. But, the girl just wasn't what they wanted. She had the potential, but right now she lacked the humility to learn. "Fine. And Mr. and Ms. Weasley?"

"Those two need to start doing their work. When I force them to sit down and do it, they manage at least average assignments. It's just having to force them to do the work. It takes them at least four times as long as it should, but if they are taught how to do the work on their own, then they should be able to do well.

Albus, I know that you want the boy to be an auror, but he is going to need to learn how to do the work. It is going to take years for him to work his way up the ranks, and I do mean work." Alastor looked from Minerva, who was finally accepting reality, to his old friend.

"I know." Albus sighed and shook his head, although he was happy Minerva was finally seeing sense. "They are seeing mind healers, but I think it is going to take more. Luckily, Arthur will be home with them the entire summer, and he seems to be more willing to take a firm hand with the children."

"What are you working on Albus?" Alastor asked to get them onto a different subject.

"Just putting the final touches on the second task." Albus said as he looked at his old friends.

"And what does Ms. Weasley have to do with that?" Minerva asked when she saw the young girls name on one of the papers spread on the desk.

"I was thinking of using her as the Potter boy's hostage." Albus said thoughtfully.

"I wouldn't if I were you." Alastor said.

Both Minerva and Alastor had been involved in making a few arrangements so they both already knew what the task was.

"Why not?" Albus questioned.

"You and I both know that the girl annoys the boy right now. Be honest, do you really think that he would save her?" Alastor questioned.

Albus and Minerva both just looked at each other. They both had already been forced to admit that Harry wasn't really following their plan when it came to Ginny, but neither was willing to give up on him yet.

"He is more likely to leave the girl down there just to spite you." Alastor reminded them.

"Then what would you recommend?" Albus questioned. He wouldn't put it past the boy to leave the girl at the bottom of the lake, and then he would have to deal with Molly.

"Use the Lovegood girl." Alastor said.

"We don't want to encourage any further development in that relationship." Minerva huffed. She didn't see what the boy saw in that girl, she was just so...odd.

Alastor smirked. "There is nothing but friendship between those two."

"And how do you know that Alastor?" Albus asked thoughtfully.

"I know that because the girl has recently begun seeing the Longbottom boy, at Potter's recommendation. Despite what many might think, Lovegood didn't spend the Valentines day feast with Potter, but with Longbottom in the tropical greenhouse." Alastor told them what he had seen.

"Then who was Potter with?" Minerva questioned. Like all the others she had seen that the boy had been missing that night.

"I have no idea." Alastor growled, he hated having to admit it. "I looked all over the school, but I didn't see him anywhere. Wherever he was, it wasn't in any of the usual places."

Albus was annoyed. He hated that the boy wasn't what he wanted him to be. Sebastian was to blame for that he knew. That man needed to stop meddling in his plans. Hopefully, Lily would get the man under control soon. Although, the woman had been a clear failure, but he had plans to get a love potion into the man.

Albus made a few adjustments to the second task before he dismissed the other two so he could have a peaceful evening.

Second Task - February 24, 2005

Hadrian sighed as he made his way down to the lake to do the second task. He really wasn't looking forward to it, that water was freezing.

Checking his bag again just to make sure, he saw that he had more than enough gillyweed that he had bought through owl order a few weeks earlier. He had made sure that he had enough for the others just in case they needed it.

The task had, of course, become that much harder the week earlier. Hadrian just wished that one day he might actually have a peaceful time in his life.

Remus had been going over the law that the ICW had passed that forced Hadrian to compete. He had wanted to see if their were any loopholes. He didn't find any loopholes, but what he did find made everything that much worse.

They all figured that since Dumbledore had had to rush the writing of the bill, that he just hadn't manage to correct any mistakes. At least, that was what they hoped, because even they didn't think Dumbledore could be so cruel. Although, they figured it was a mistake since they knew Dumbledore didn't want more negative press, and the mistake could destroy his reputation.

In one of the final paragraphs of the bill, it said that all champions were required to complete every task. Complete, not compete. It was the difference of a single letter, but it changed everything.

If any of them failed to complete each task then they would have their magic stripped. That made things even worse.

Hadrian knew that Fleur had been attacked by grindylows, and as a result had had to turn back. That meant she had failed to complete the task last time. If that happened again, then she would be stripped of her magic. He couldn't let that happen.

Then there was the third task. It was a maze. The only way to complete that task was to get to the centre of the maze and take the cup. That meant, if he wanted them all to keep their magic they would all have to take the cup together, but the cup was most likely going to be a portkey that would take them to a graveyard where Voldemort would be.

Hadrian sighed again. He was going to have to deal with it later. He had already talked with his family and they had all agreed that they would wait until after the tournament ended to publicly announce the compete vs complete issue. Dumbledore was already being torn apart repeatedly for what he had done to Hadrian. Now he was going to be attacked for, once again, using underage children in the tournament since Hadrian had already noticed that Luna, Lily, and Autumn were missing. He just really hoped that he wouldn't be so stupid as to use Gabrielle, she was just a kid.

They all already had plans to use the outcome of this task to its fullest regardless of what happened. He had decided he would tell the others about the whole complete thing when they were told about the maze.

As he reached the other champions, Hadrian once again checked his bag. He had brought a bag that had been enchanted to keep all water out, even when opened. He had stored everything he thought he might need.

Hadrian glanced to the side and he saw the twins on either side of the judges table. They were more than likely putting the last minute touches on their prank.

Sooner than he would have liked, the whistle blew and it was time to go into the water. Pulling a handful of the gillyweed out, Hadrian stuffed it in his mouth and started to chew as he started to wade out into the water. It was disgusting. When he felt his gills forming he dove under the water and started to swim.

Swimming out towards the centre of the lake he started to angle down. When the light started to fade as he went deeper he once again opened his bag. He pulled out a light crystal on a chain that he wrapped around his neck. It would ensure that he had a decent amount of light.

Pulling out his wand he cast a point me spell for Fleur. He wanted to monitor her progress so that he could stop her from returning to the surface.

Going further into the lake he spotted Fleur, but she was already fighting with the grindylows. When he saw one make a dangerously large cut in her leg, he couldn't stay out of it.

Darting forward, Hadrian started sending jinxes at them to force them away from her. But that just created a new problem. Fleur looked up to see who was helping her. With her distraction one of the grindylows attacked her face and popped her bubble head charm.

The bubble head charm worked by gathering the oxygen that was around the caster. But, since they were already so far underwater, the oxygen levels in the water were too low to form a proper bubble. Hadrian didn't think the charm would hold, and the more Fleur cast it the weaker she would become. She was already losing far to much blood, in his opinion, from the gash on her leg.

Swimming right up to her, Hadrian cast a strong shield spell that forced the grindylows away. Pulling out another hunk of gillyweed he stuffed it in her mouth as she was already starting to panic without air.

When Fleur gave him a confused look, since she didn't know what he had just shoved in her mouth, Hadrian tipped his head back. He showed her his gills. Seeing the flash of understanding in her eyes he knew that she understood. It took a few moments, but he started to see the gills forming on her neck as her eyes cleared from the effects of the oxygen deprivation.

Once she was able to breathe again, Fleur tried to move towards the surface, but Hadrian stopped her. Casting a spell that would temporarily bind her wound, Hadrian started to pull her down. They needed to get to the mervillage. A message that he delivered to her using an underwater chalk board that he had pulled from his bag. Fleur nodded, and they both slowly started to make their way in the direction Hadrians point me spell directed them.

Hadrian was pleased as they arrived at the mervillage. They seemed to be at the back of the village so they couldn't see the hostages. He didn't think he would be able to keep Fleur away from her sister, even with how weak her injury was making her.

The point me spell he had cast was to guide them to the merhealer. Arriving at one of what he assumed was homes, Hadrian knocked. A fierce looking merman came towards them.

"Foolish land walkers, your fellows are over there." The healer hissed as he motioned towards the front of the village.

Hadrian glanced in the direction and saw where the four girls were floating. He was slightly glad that Fleur couldn't understand and the blood loss was slowing her down enough that she didn't turn. Gabrielle was clearly visible.

"My friend is injured, can you help her?" Hadrian questioned.

"Why should I?" The merman demanded.

Hadrian grinned. He had figured it was better to be prepared. Reaching into his bag, he pulled out an orb with a large blue flower and enlarged it to its proper size, which was about the size of a medium sized table. The flower was known simply as a blue fire sea flower. From what he had discovered, these flowers were extremely powerful and valued amongst merpeople due to their medicinal properties. The thing was, those flowers only grew in tropical areas in salt water. Since this mervillage was in cold, fresh water, they could only get it on occasion. Hagrid had admitted to occasionally getting some of the dried petals and giving it to the lakes merpeople. But, it wouldn't last long since as soon as it was in the water it started to deteriorate.

The orb that the flower was being kept in was a geo dome that Hadrian had purchased along with the flower. It was designed to perfectly mimic the natural habitat of the flower and was guaranteed to operate for 4 decades. A person, or in this case merperson, could reach through the bubbled to care for, or take cuttings of, the flower without any disruption to its micro environment.

Seeing the stunned look on the merman's face, Hadrian smiled. "If you help my friend, this is yours."

The merman quickly agreed, taking both the flower and Fleur inside after Hadrian had used his chalk board to explain to her what was happening. He had requested that the healer send Fleur over towards the hostages when she was better, so he went over to them and settled down to wait.

While Hadrian sat, waiting for Fleur, he watched out for the others.

Cedric was the first to arrive. Seeing Hadrian, Cedric swam over with a questioning look.

Hadrian held up his chalk board that he had already written a message on. He explained that Fleur had been injured and that he was going to wait for her to make sure she made it back to the surface with her little sister.

Cedric offered to wait with him, using the second board Hadrian had brought with him. But Hadrian had refused, encouraging the other boy to take Lily up to the surface and to let the healers know what was going on just in case the merhealer couldn't fully fix her injury. It took a little convincing, but eventually Cedric took hold of his unconscious girlfriend and pulled her towards the surface.

It was only shortly after Cedric had left that Viktor arrived. Like Cedric, he wanted to wait, but Hadrian convinced him to go ahead. Just as he was convincing Viktor to go, Fleur made her way towards them, escorted by the merhealer.

She was moving slowly, and was still dangerously pale. There was a wrap of seaweed going up her injured leg, from her ankle to her knee.

The healer explained that he had been able to heal the physical injury, but she had lost a great deal of blood and there was nothing he could do about that since they were different species. She would need to keep the wrap on for the next few hours, and it would need to remain damp, preferably with water from the lake for the best response, but then she would be fine.

Thanking the merman again, Hadrian watched him leave. Turning to Fleur and Viktor he wrote down what he had been told. Viktor agreed to go on ahead to tell the healers while Hadrian would slowly help Fleur back to the surface. When Viktor offered to take their hostages, Hadrian refused. He wasn't sure if that would count as non completion, but he didn't want to take that risk. Instead, he just said that that would slow him down and they needed him to get to the surface before they did. He had some ropes that he planned on using like a leash so that his hands were free to help him move quicker.

After that Viktor had grabbed his girlfriend, Autumn, and took off towards the surface.

With Viktor gone, Hadrian and Fleur freed both of their hostages, he could clearly see the fury in the girls eyes. Hadrian knew that even in her weakened state, Fleur was going to have a word or two for whoever thought of using her little sister in this farce.

It took them close to half an hour to slowly make their way to the surface. Fleur was exhausted and clearly feeling weak, but they needed to keep going. Hadrian could feel the gillyweed starting to wear off. They needed to get to the surface soon or they were going to lose the ability to breathe. He had given Fleur a smaller piece than he had taken since they had already been a decent amount of time into the competition.

When they were just below the surface of the water, Hadrian started moving them towards the shore. He figured he had about another minute, and he knew that Luna and Gabrielle would wake up as soon as they were above the surface. It was probably better for them to stay unconscious until they were closer to shore to limit their fear, and their discomfort in the cold water.

When the pain finally came signaling the gillyweed wearing off Hadrian pushed his head above the surface of the water. They had come up near the centre of the lake, so they were still a decent ways away from the shore. One of the worst parts was that now that the gillyweed had worn off he was absolutely freezing. This water was like ice.

Only a few minutes later, when they were only about a dozen yards from the shore, Fleur's head popped above the surface of the water. Hadrian started to worry more about her as he could see her slowing down even more, her eyes were glazed, and her lips were going blue.

Finally, when they were close enough, Hadrian pulled the two younger girls above the surface of the water. Both, like him and Fleur, immediately started shaking from the cold. It was just so wrong to use girls as young and small as both Gabrielle and Luna like this.

Reaching the shore, both healers Forsythe and Savoy rushed to them. Even though Fleur was so clearly in the worst shape, she insisted that they take Gabrielle and Luna first, Hadrian was right there with her on that insistence. The girls needed the healers first.

While the healers were quickly moving the younger girls to the healers area, Hadrian wrapped one of Fleur's arms around his shoulder and started to help her out of the water. Fleur was limping slightly, but was in much better shape than Hadrian might have thought.

Before the healers had even come back out of the healing tent, Hadrian and Fleur made their way in.

Fleur was clearly suffering from blood loss, but thankfully Viktor had informed the healers of what was going on so they already had blood replenishing potions lined up for the girl. They also didn't want to mess with what the merhealer had done, since they didn't know if there would be any negative reactions, so they were going to leave the seaweed wrap on the injury.

Once both healers were assured that Fleur would survive they turned on him. Hadrian shrank back in fear as both healers advanced on him with potions. Turning to run, he froze. Both his dads as well as his uncles were blocking his escape, looking at him with both fear for his safety as well as a clear refusal to let him escape the smothering effect of the healers. Hadrian had no choice but to suffer the assault of two healers trying to help him. Sure, they only wanted to make sure he was ok, but it was still a little overwhelming.

As soon as the healers backed off, his family rushed forward to make sure that he was ok. This was going to be a long day. After letting his family fuss for a few minutes, Hadrian and Fleur had to go and get their scores.

When the judges finished giving them their points, which once again put Hadrian in a tie for first with Cedric, Hadrian gave the twins a barely noticeable nod. There was a loud crack, streamers and glitter started falling from the sky. With most of the students distracted, only a few noticed as the judges all disappeared from their seats, just to reappear a few feet above the surface of the middle of the lake.

All the judges dropped with a huge splash and screams. That caught everyones attention. When the shock wore off, everyone started to laugh. No one noticed that the judges wands were all sitting uselessly on the chairs they had previously occupied, meaning that they had to swim all the way back to shore.

The house elves had been less than pleased when they heard what was planned for their students.

When the judges finally made their way back, they were brought into the healing tent just as the others were being released. The champions, and their hostages, all got to hear as the judges complained about just how dangerous that prank had been, one of them could have died in that water.

That was just too much for Fleur. She gently pushed Gabrielle into the middle of the others so that she could be assured of the younger girls safety before she turned on the judges.

Fleur did not hold back as she told the judges off. They had used underage children in this task, and she had no doubt that they didn't get parental approval since her parents would never let them do something like that to her baby sister. If they thought that it was just fine to do that to children then it was just fine for them. She even said that they should be trapped in the lake for over an hour like they had done to the kids. She carried on scolding them for over 20 minutes.

During the entire lecture, Fleur did not try to keep her voice low at any point. The end result was that most of the students that had gathered around got to enjoy watching the headmasters of their school being scolded like children by an infuriated 17 year old girl.

The worst part for them was that Rita heard the entire thing and was already planning. She was going to have to get in touch with the girls families to see if Dumbledore had gotten parental permission to use their children that way. Just how would the public react to the great Albus Dumbledore effectively abusing children by forcing them into dangerous situations? Rita couldn't wait to find out.

Great Hall

That night Fleur made sure to put Gabrielle between her and Hadrian at the table. She wasn't going to take any risks with her little sister. A furious letter had already been sent to her parents telling them what had happened.

According to Gabrielle, she had been invited to surprise Fleur. When she had gotten there she had been pressured into allowing herself to be used as hostage by Dumbledore and Bagman. She had never even been told what was going to be done to her. After she had fearfully said ok, they had simply stunned her. Now that she was awake she was completely terrified by what had happened.

Fleur was going to make sure that anyone involved in using her sister like that was going to suffer. And she knew she wasn't alone.

All of the other girls had admitted to being pressured into agreeing. None of them knew if their guardians had been contacted, but they had their doubts.

Even though they had known what was coming, all of the champions were angry about what had happened. The older three had willingly entered this competition. They had chosen to take a risk. Their family and girlfriends had not. They knew the risks they had chosen to take, but they hadn't known that it would risk those they cared about.

Delacour Estate, France - February 29, 2005

Marius and Apolline Delacour were absolutely furious as they read the letter that Fleur had sent them. This meant war.

How dare those english fools treat their baby like that. Gabrielle was a sweet innocent little girl, not a pawn for them to endanger.

Over the past few months Marius had been using his connections on the ICW to damage Dumbledores reputation, but now he wanted him gone. He would not allow that monster to have any control over the international community.

Headmaster's Office - March 12, 2005

Albus arrived back at his office in an absolute fury. He was ready to kill. And he knew who he wanted to start with.

Marius Delacour.

That veela loving french bastard.

When Albus had left for a surprise ICW meeting this morning, he had actually been in a relatively good mood. The paper this morning hadn't had a single article slandering him for what happened during the second task. It was the first time since the task had occurred that that had happened. That waste of magic, Rita Skeeter, had been dragging his name through the mud for the past few weeks.

But, with the lack of any new articles, he had settled down and started to feel better. He had had a few words with Barnabas about getting that woman back in line. It had taken more than a few very thinly vailed threats, but he had finally gotten his point across about the cost of crossing him.

Arriving at the meeting, he had figured it would just be some simple little thing. It wasn't.

Marius Delacour had filed a formal motion to not only have him removed from his position as the Supreme Mugwump, but to have him completely removed from the ICW. And those fools had done it.

Officially, it would appear as if Albus had chosen to withdraw so that he could focus more on Hogwarts, but everyone that looked closely would know the truth. He had been fired.

The official story had only been constructed to avoid a scandal, and not even for the benefit of Albus. The ICW didn't want to be linked with his recent actions, in their words, so they had made up some stupid reason that would hopefully downplay his role.

This just wasn't possible. Albus had been stripped of his only formal position of power on the international stage. Plus he wasn't able to pass any bill in the Wizengamot like he had in the past. Even just his public image had lost power. Then, there was his loss of control in his own school.

He had lost so much power, and when he didn't think he could lose any more, he did.

That was it, Albus needed to focus.

Right now, all he could focus on was the school. Once he had regained the control of the school he would then start to make those fools regret ever thinking they could cross him and get away with it.

Yes, it was time for the rise of a dark lord to remind them all just how weak and easy to kill they were.

Granger House - March 26, 2005

Sirius was doing his best to keep from bouncing as he made his way into the Granger house to sit down. It was time to get the girls parents involved. Although he didn't have much hope that they might actually do something, he would at least get to tell them what a brat they had raised.

Both Hermione and Ginny were 'grounded' to the common room for the rest of the year after they had attacked Luna the day before. Albus and Minerva had used the little pull that they did have to make that their punishment rather than the suspension Sirius and Filius had been pushing for.

The day before Luna had been on her way back from the library on her own when Ginny and Hermione had cornered her. They had insulted her as they pushed her around for a bit. Luna had chosen not to react and instead just chose to walk away. They had followed her and shoved her. The major problem was that they had all been at the top of one of the stair cases and when they had shoved Luna, it had been in the direction of the stairs.

Luckily, the Slytherin and Hufflepuff prefects had been on their way to break up the fight when they had heard the girls yelling at Luna, and they had been on the stairs. They had managed to catch Luna before she could get to badly hurt.

Luna had ended up with a fractured ankle and a few bumps and bruises, but everyone was grateful that it wasn't worse.

The reason they were at the Grangers was because after receiving her punishment, Hermione had written home to her parents making up some sort of sob story and now the Grangers were threatening to get the ministry involved for discriminating against their daughter. Sirius, as her co-head of house, and Alice and Rowan, as school board members, had decided to go and speak with them in an attempt to avoid the involvement of the legal system.

"Well?" Jean Granger demanded as soon as the three sat down in her living room. She was furious that her daughter was once again being discriminated against.

Hermione had written home and told them that a pure blood girl had been bullying her, and when Hermione had fought back she had been punished while the pure blood girl hadn't. It had only been a week since their daughter had come home for break and told them all about the favouritism at the school.

Sirius cringed slightly, it was clear where Hermione got her abrasive voice from.

"We are here today to discuss what happened at the school yesterday in hopes of avoiding this going any further. It won't end well if law enforcement is brought in." Alice said in a calm voice. Or, as calm as she could manage given that it was her sons girlfriend, and a girl she was quite fond of, that had been attacked.

"You just don't want us to sue the school for discriminating against our daughter." Howard Granger huffed. Like his wife, he was furious.

"I think there has been some sort of miss understanding. None of this is about discrimination. Now, when you wrote to us you mentioned about what your daughter told you in a letter she sent you. The thing is I have a feeling your daughter wasn't exactly truthful in what she said happened." Alice said.

"Hermione doesn't lie. She has been the victim of bullying the entire time she has been at that school of yours and whenever she responds she is punished. It isn't right." Jean snapped.

"There is a simple way to solve this issue so you can compare what you have been told with what actually happened. In the magical world we have something called a pensive. It is something similar to your security cameras, except it shows the memory of what happened. We brought a projector pensive and just a few memories with us of the reasons your daughter has been getting in trouble as well as the attack yesterday." Sirius explained as he set up the projection and started adding memories that dated back to Hermione's ride on the train her first year.

Over the next half an hour Howard and Jean Granger grew more and more horrified, and more and more ashamed, as they watched how their daughter behaved.

They watched as Hermione pushed and insulted other children. They watched as she called them stupid when they struggled to answer questions.

One of the longer memories showed a 13 year old Hermione storming over to a table of students in the library studying. One of the students had a book she wanted. When the student said she could have the book when they were done with it when she demanded it, Hermione shoved the student, grabbed the book, and then used the book to hit the student on the head saying that they were to stupid to even understand it. The incident was stopped when one of the librarians spelled the book out of her hands and kicked her out of the library for the rest of the week along with detention and point loss.

The memories went on and on. But they all had one thing in common. Hermione started it.

Eventually, they came to the memory of the attack on Luna. Howard and Jean were stunned to see that the smaller girl hadn't even said a word, she had just tried to walk away.

When it all ended, both parents just continued to stare blankly at the wall. They couldn't believe this. Hermione had been lying to them for years.

Thinking back, they knew it wasn't the first time. There had been a few teachers that had talked about her attitude during primary school, but Hermione had always told them she had just been responding to a bully. Had she always been the one to start it and they had just not noticed because they trusted her.

How had their sweet little angel become so cruel and violent. She had said so many terrible things to those other students, most of whom were younger than her. They both were forced to come to the same conclusion.

Hermione was a bully.

"I can't believe this." Jean said softly as she turned to the others. "What happens now? What kind of punishment was she given, because I honestly don't think I can trust what she has said."

"I am co-head of Gryffindor house, and as such am responsible for her discipline." Sirius said, happy that they were willing to listen now. "When I took up the position at the beginning of the year I implemented a few rules.

She is going to be writing a series of essays on bullying and its effects for me. She will also be, what I call grounded. She will be able to go to class, but other than that she will be in her dorm. If she needs to go to the library to do school work, she will be required to have adult supervision.

When she is in the dorms, so long as she isn't causing problems or arguing, she will be able to sit and talk with the other students in the common room. I'm not going for complete isolation, that isn't healthy. But she won't be involved in any activities.

That means, she won't be able to attend the last triwizard tournament event. She also is barred from Hogsmeade for the rest of the year.

I also have a request for you. The other girl in that memory, the red head that took part in the attack, Ginny, is already seeing a mind healer at the school. I believe in the muggle world you call them therapists. I think Hermione might benefit from the same thing, so I would request that you allow me to set up appointments for her."

"Of course." Howard said instantly. This was nothing like what Hermione had said was happening. She was going on about how they were going to use her for slave labour. The grounding actually sounded light in comparison to what they could have done, plus, therapy sounded like a good idea.

Rowan and Alice were pleased with how the Grangers were reacting. At first they hadn't been going to bring the memories, but Sirius had recommended it. He said that it might b best to let her parents see the truth to break through the girls lies.

"Is there anything else you think we need to discuss." Jean asked tiredly.

"Her grades." Sirius wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to address this issue.

"What about her grades?" Howard questioned. "She's getting mostly A's."

"That's one of the issues. She is capable of more, it's just getting her to do the work." Sirius said in slight confusion.

"What did Hermione tell you about the grading scheme that is used in the wizarding world?" Rowan questioned as Sirius and the Grangers gave each other confused looks.

"She said an A is an A and EE and O are even better." Jean said simply.

"Clever. And I'm assuming there was no cover sheet with the grading break down with her report card." Rowan said. Both parents nodded, Sirius and Alice looked at her in confusion. "In the muggle world they use an alphabetical grading system too, but an A is the best grade a student can get.

In the magical world our marking system is different. We have six grade levels. Three fail, and three pass. The fail grades are T, D, and P. T means troll, and is 0-14%. D is dreadful, it's 15-34%. And, P means poor and is for grades between 35-49%.

The pass grades are A, EE, and O. A stands for acceptable, it's for grades between 50-74%. EE means exceeds expectations and is 75-89%. and O is for outstanding and that's any grade 90% and above."

Howard and Jean once again just stared. Hermione had always been so smart, but if what that woman said was true then she was just barely passing.

Jean needed to speak up in defence of her daughter. "But Hermione is smart. How could she not be getting top grades?"

"Hermione could do very well, it's true, but she would need to change her attitude." Sirius said. "I teach defence, I had her in my class for a year and a half before I got switched to the upper years.

Hermione is very intelligent, and if she put in the work she is capable of doing much better than she is right now.

I will tell you there was a slight mistake that I spoke to her about at the beginning of the year. She saw the class rankings that is put on the notice boards in the common room and it said she was first, but she didn't realize that those were only the rankings in her house. Last year she was the top ranked Gryffindor in her year, but 17th in the school over all.

Also, when the rankings are made it takes into account not only the students average grade, but how many classes they are taking. If the rank had only been based off average then she would have been in the lower half of the class rankings."

"But if she's so smart, why isn't she doing better?" Howard asked in a faint voice.

"Her work." Sirius actually felt a slight amount of pity for these two, their entire world had just been shaken. "While it is true that Hermione can memorize any information and give answers, that isn't enough.

One thing that really brings down her grades is her assignments. Hermione absolutely refuses to do as she is told. I'll give you an example from just last week that I have already spoken with her about.

In her political theory class they were assigned to make a timeline of the major changes to the wizarding bill of rights. When I spoke with the professor, she told me that there were 18 major dates that she was looking for. The only way to get a perfect score was to include those dates. If they wanted to put in more information for extra credit that was fine, but they needed those 18 dates.

Hermione handed in a 12 foot essay on what she thought should be in the bill of rights. It was a perfectly good essay, but it wasn't what was assigned. Since her professor decided to be kind she went through the essay and found 3 of the dates, so she gave her points for that, but Hermione still failed the assignment.

You see, there was an issue with discrimination years ago, so the board of governors implemented a marking scheme that we are required to follow. That marking scheme hangs at the back of every class, so none of the students can claim ignorance.

We can not give her marks, if she doesn't do the assignment properly.

Then there is our practicals. In classes like defence, charms, and transfiguration we have 2 hour practicals every week. It's just a basic mark for those classes, did they practice, or not. Hermione refuses to practice. Once she has managed the spell once, she stops and refuses to do more.

The thing is, it can take years to master a spell. When we do tests, to get full marks on a spell the student must do the spell, with the right amount of power, the first time. They are given three chances, losing a few points each time.

Because Hermione won't practice, when it comes to her tests she generally over or under powers her spells the first few times. So, she can't get full marks on them.

All of this comes together to give her the grades she has. I know myself, and many other professors have tried talking to her about it, but she refuses to listen. She actually says that she's right and we're wrong even when she makes mistakes.

That might be something you could address with her over the summer. We've been doing what we can in class, but we have other students that need help so we can't devote all our time to arguing with her."

"And it's something that's going to need to be addressed soon." Alice said when Sirius finished.

"Why? What's happening?" Jean questioned looking to the other woman.

"We have two major standardized tests that dictate what kind of job a student can get. They are called OWLs and NEWTs. OWLs take place at the end of 5th year, while NEWTs are the end of 7th.

A student can only carry on in the classes that they get OWLs in for 6th year and up. And it isn't just enough to get an A. In the more demanding classes like defence and transfiguration, a student is required to get an EE to keep going in those classes. And, in potions, they need an O since that is when they go into the more dangerous potions where mistakes can, and have in the past, been lethal."

"I've spoken with Hermione, and she's told me she wants to get a job in the ministry. But, depending on what department in the ministry she wants to go into she would be required to have between 2-6 NEWTs minimum. And she can only get into those NEWTs classes if she does well enough on her OWLs next year." Sirius put in.

Howard nodded already making plans. School was something he had always taken very seriously and he wasn't going to let his daughter fail just because she had a bad attitude. Hermione had always caught onto things like math and science so quickly that she had never really had to practice, and that was probably her biggest issue. Since it had always been easy in the past she had never learned the importance of practice.

After all that, the three school representatives left rather happy knowing that Hermione was finally going to be forced to face the music. It was time the girl grew up.

Great Hall - March 27, 2005

Hermione Granger was pleased as she went into the great hall for breakfast. Sure, she was still technically in trouble, but it wasn't going to last long.

After Professor Black had finished punishing her, she had written to her parents. She had gotten a letter back only a few hours later from her parents telling her that they were going to deal with it and would be filing a criminal complaint. Hermione couldn't wait to see those disgusting pure bloods get what they deserved.

Then she got two different messages. The first, was to inform her that she was to meet with Professor Black when she finished breakfast. Hermione was pleased, she was sure the man was going to apologize to her.

The second letter was just a short message from her parents that they had made arrangements with Professor Black for her and that they would discuss everything with her when she got home. She was a little confused by that, but sure that things were going to work out for her.

After she finished her breakfast, Hermione made a decision and went up to the head table to get Professor McGonagall. It would probably be best to bring the other woman in. Professor McGonagall would be able to ensure that Professor Black was kept from lashing out at her again since he was clearly wrong. The more people to witness this the better.

Professor Moody, who was sitting next to Professor McGonagall, decided to come with her. She wasn't really sure how she felt about that, she wasn't particularly fond of him. She hated being forced to sit down and do the stupid assignments he gave her.

Then, as the three of them were making their way out of the hall the headmaster had stopped them. When professor McGonagall told him where they were going the headmaster decided to join them as well. Hermione was thrilled that she had such powerful people backing her.

Leading the way, Hermione marched into Professor Black's office.

Sirius looked up from the assignments that he was marking when his door was opened. He had only come in this morning to do a little marking and have his meeting with Hermione. After this meeting he was going to be heading home, taking the marking with him so that he could still do his work but be with his family.

Sighing, he summoned more chairs as he saw who was following the girl. But, this might actually be a good thing. Get it all done in one shot and limit the blow back, hopefully.

"You wanted to see me Professor Black?" Hermione said in a sweet voice.

"Yes Ms. Granger." Sirius said to the girl and looked to his colleagues. "Minerva, it's nice of you to get involved with our Gryffindor's. Albus, Alastor."

Minerva seethed silently at the less than subtle jab. Only staying silent because of the look Albus was sending her.

"My parents said they had spoken to you about my punishment." Hermione wanted him to admit that he had been wrong.

"Yes. I attended a meeting with your parents yesterday. They have requested that I arrange for weekly mind healer appointments for you. I have spoken with Healer Savoy, and she has said that she will be expecting you from 1-2pm Saturday afternoons." Sirius smiled at the shocked girl.

"What do you mean? You are supposed to be cancelling that stupid punishment you gave me." Hermione demanded.

"No. Your punishment stands." Sirius kept his face blank.

"Now my dear boy..." Albus started.

"Now nothing Albus. Ms. Granger will be doing the punishment she earned, and her parents have fully agreed to it." Sirius interrupted.

"My parents would never let you get away with doing this to me." Hermione was furious. She had her parents wrapped around her little finger and she knew it.

"That is where you are wrong Ms. Granger. After you wrote them lying about what happened, myself, and two of the school governors, paid them a visit yesterday and explained what has been happening here. Upon learning the truth they gave me their full support in grounding you and signed off on getting you a mind healer." Sirius gave the girl a sharp smile.

"You can't be serious Sirius." Minerva huffed.

"Oh, I am serious, twice over." Sirius chuckled. He had always loved to use his name in jokes like that.

"And what is this punishment?" Albus questioned, he hadn't been paying attention to the kids since he had been dealing with the ICW issues lately.

"Ms. Granger and Ms. Weasley have been grounded for the rest of the year. They are aloud to go to meals, classes, and the library, under supervision, but other than that they will be restricted to the Gryffindor dorms and common room. They are going to be writing a series of essays on bullying for me. And, they are barred from any extracurricular activities. That includes, Hogsmeade, and the final triwizard challenge." Sirius explained.

"There is no need for that. The girls will serve a detention for whatever it was, it surely wasn't that bad. There is no need to be so cruel." Albus said as soon as Sirius finished. Hermione sent the headmaster a grateful look, she didn't want to suffer that punishment.

"No, Albus. They will be serving the punishment I assigned." Sirius relaxed back in his seat.

"Sirius... That is enough. The girls made a mistake, that is all." Albus started.

"Oh, it was more than a mistake Albus. Since you clearly don't know what this is about, even though you involved yourself by stopping their suspension, let me inform you what really happened. Ms. Granger and Ms. Weasley attacked Ms. Lovegood when she was on her way back from the library and shoved her down a flight of stairs. The only reason Ms. Lovegood didn't suffer serious injury was because she was caught by two prefects that were on their way up the stairs to the girls."

All the other teachers glanced at Hermione at that.

"We weren't trying to push her down the stairs. We didn't even realize how close we were to them. Besides, she started it. You have no idea how mean she is. She hides behind that crazy behaviour, but she's been bullying Ginny since they were kids." Hermione whined.

"If the other girl started it then she should be the one that is punished. I will have words with Filius." Minerva started planning on how to force the other professor to deal with his student.

"Well then, that's that. The girls will serve the detention I assign, along with ms. Lovegood and then we will carry on." Albus smiled.

"Again, no." Sirius gave them a cold look. "Is this the story you are planning to stick with Ms. Granger?"

Hermione just gave him a blank look. She had no intention of breaking.

"You should know that Ms. Lovegood's parents arranged for the girls memories to be retrieved. I have seen them, in full." Sirius warned the girl, seeing the spark of worry in her eyes, but she didn't break. "Ms. Lovegood didn't start anything. She actually didn't say a single word. I do not believe it was the girls intention to push Ms. Lovegood down the stairs, but the reason they were at the top of the stairs was because Ms. Lovegood decided to simply walk away and was followed to the top of the stairs.

Now, I have already spoken with the Lovegood's and they have agreed to allow this to stay a school matter, so long as both girls serve the full punishment I assigned. If the punishment is changed, or the girls do not follow the rules, then they will take this to the DMLE and file charges of aggravated assault."

Everyone in the room just stared at him when he said that.

"What?" Minerva sputtered.

"This latest attack is only one in a long line of incidents. The Lovegood's are done with allowing their daughter to be bullied by attacks like this, along with Ms. Weasley and ms. Granger calling their daughter 'Loony'. If this harassment doesn't end, then they will be filing charges.

And, given the repeated instances of physical attacks, as well as the girls history of bullying other students, I have no doubt that they will be found guilty. Either you can let the girls serve the punishment they earned, or risk the girls facing criminal charges and probable arrest." Sirius said blandly. He really didn't take any joy in this, he honestly felt the adults in the girls life were the reason she was as bad as she was.

"The memories would have to be certified." Alastor said. His mind going to the legalities of the case.

"They are. And, so are the memories of many of the other victims. The Lovegood's reached out to multiple families whose children have suffered the bullying." Sirius looked back at a man he had once respected.

Alastor just nodded. He had known Sirius when he was an auror. He might have his issues with what the man became, but his skills were always top notch.

"They can't do that." Hermione whined.

"Yes, they can. And, Ms. Granger, I will now also be adding an essay on lying. Now, I think you should be getting back to the common room. Your study group for ancient runes should be starting soon." Sirius gave the girl a small smile. "I will send you a reminder about your mind healers appointment next week."

Hermione growled slightly before she stormed from the office. She had a letter to write. How dare her parents allow him to do this to her?

"Is all this really necessary Sirius?" Minerva growled now that their student was gone.

"Yes. You didn't bother to do your job and rain the bullying in, and now it needs to be addressed. Can you imagine what would have happened if those prefects hadn't been there? They could have killed that girl." Sirius said in exasperation.

"And you think that you're the best one to deal with issues like this?" Minerva questioned, remembering just the kind of terror that Sirius had been when he had been a student.

"Yes, I think I am since, clearly, no one else is doing it. I was horrible when I was a student here. I am man enough to admit that. And I regret my actions every day.

But the thing is, since no one ever bothered to hold me accountable for my actions it took a war and being falsely imprisoned for me to grow up. I don't want that for this generation. I want to let them grow up slowly as they go to school. Because trust me, being forced to grow up the way I did is like flying your broom directly into the ground. It hurts, and makes you forget who you are for a time." Sirius explained.

"I have heard that before. Many in your generation were forced to grow up in the harshest ways possible." Alastor nodded along, understanding. He too had been on the front line of that war.

"But Hermione and Ginny are still kids, they made a mistake." Minerva started again.

"Yes, they did. And now they are dealing with the consequences of that mistake. And no one will be changing that. I have already spoken with the Grangers and Arthur. All have agreed that the girls will be serving their punishment."

"Surely we can talk about this?" Albus suggested.

"No Albus. I already told you. If you, or any one else, tries to stop or change their punishment the Lovegood's will take this directly to Amelia, and I will back them. It is time for those children to meet reality. You shove a student down a flight of stairs, you get punished." Sirius snapped.

"I agree. It could have been much worse." Alastor said thoughtfully. "Given the girls history of bullying, and the fact that they followed her after she had chosen to walk away, it could even be taken to attempted manslaughter, if not attempted murder."

Albus froze. He couldn't have that. The last thing he needed was his pawns being accused of attempted murder. The press would eat him alive. Not to mention what it would do to his plans.

"Do we know what caused this latest attack?" Alastor questioned, not really understanding why any of this had happened.

"Yes, apparently the girls got it into their heads that Luna was dating Hadrian and Ginevra was jealous." Sirius shook his head.

"But she's dating the Longbottom heir." Alastor said in confusion. Was this all caused because the girls were to foolish to see what was right in front of them.

"Exactly." Sirius agreed.

Hogwarts - April 1, 2005

The day of the twins 17th birthday was plenty of fun. Like had become common, Hadrian and all of their friends spent the night before setting up all kinds of different pranks.

Fred and George always loved their birthday when they saw the chaos their soulmate and friends created. This year, every stone in the castle was a different colour, students words were coming out in multi coloured bubbles, there were also students that were now floating along near the ceilings as they hiccuped, and many of the teachers were singing their lessons.

While many of the teachers were annoyed, some just laughed it off. Sirius had even taken great joy in dramatically singing nearly non stop that day just to make everyone laugh. These were the kinds of jokes he liked, everyone had fun, and no one was hurt or humiliated.

The Burrow

After a day full of fun and jokes the four Weasley children at Hogwarts returned to The Burrow. Coming of age was a very important event in the wizarding world, and now that Molly was out of the house, Arthur intended to properly celebrate the twins birthday.

He had called all the children home for the weekend, including Bill and Charlie. He had had to make special arrangements with Sirius in order to get approval for Ginny to come home and had only done so after speaking with the Lovegoods. Pandora and Xeno had agreed to allow the girl to get out of her punishment for the weekend because of how much they cared for the twins and didn't want to disrupt their birthday.

As it was Ginny would not be leaving the house. The girl would be aloud to take part in the traditional birthday events, but other than that she was grounded to her room. Arthur had been horrified when Sirius had contacted him about Ginny pushing Luna down the stairs. He had no intention of allowing the girl to get away with it. He had even arranged for her mind healer appointments to be every week since she would not be going to Hogsmeade on weekends for the rest of the year.

With the twins coming of age they would gain full access to their core as well as family magics. Both boys planned on spending most of the weekend going through the family grimoires. They were finally old enough to learn the more advanced spells and rituals.

During the weekend Arthur made sure to make time to just go and sit and talk with both Ron and Ginny, Ginny in particular. He didn't want them to feel that just because there were new babies in the house they weren't loved.

He also wanted to talk to them about their issues with bullying. Talking it through, making the children put themselves in the role of the victims, was one of the things their mind healers had recommended. It had been something they had started to do over the summer, and Arthur thought they were actually making a little progress, though, not nearly as much as he might have liked.

Arthur just wanted to give them the chance to grow up a little more. He had no intention of giving up on them, but he was getting frustrated. If they didn't start to improve their attitudes and behaviours soon he worried about what was going to happen, Ginny could have ended up in prison for what she had done to Luna.

Arthur had gone back to the children's mind healers to ask a few questions. He had thought the children would start to get better faster. Both healers had been more than willing to sit down and explain things to him more.

They reminded Arthur that every child was unique. There was no one size fits all when it came to the treatment of mental illness. Each child needed something different.

They were still fine-tuning the potions and spells. Once they managed to get that right, they would also need the children to work with them. You can't help someone if they are not willing to accept help. From what they had learned during their discussions with Healer Savoy, Ron was starting to accept some basic treatment, but Ginny was still just using the sessions to vent but was unwilling to do any self reflection.

The only way to change a childs behaviour immediately would be to use compulsion spells and potions or to use mind magics to completely wipe out the childs personality and rebuild a new one. And no qualified mind healer would be willing to do that because it would be considered on the same level as murder. It would be the destruction of a human being, even if their body survived.

Arthur had to agree. He wanted his children to recover, but he didn't want to hurt them to do so. All he could do was give them time and hope that they would accept the help he was offering.

Earlier he had had to deal with Molly. When Ginny had written to her mum and told her that she was being punished Molly had been furious. And, when she had learned that Arthur had aloud the punishment she had sent him dozens of howlers.

Finally, Arthur had gone to meet with her at the restaurant just to ensure they weren't alone. He had explained what had happened but Molly still hadn't been willing to listen. She didn't care what Arthur said, Ginny had written to her lying about what had happened so Molly wasn't going to believe anyone else.

Ultimately he had had Sirius come down with a copy of the memories so that Molly could see that Ginny had once again been lying to her. Even after seeing that Luna hadn't done anything Molly hadn't cared. She didn't want her daughter punished regardless of what she did.

Sirius had said that he would be willing to cancel Ginny's punishment, making Molly very happy. That was until he explained that if he did so then Ginny would be facing arrest and prison. Then he went on to explain that an agreement had been made that Ginny had to serve her punishment, without interference or reduction, or charges would be filed.

Molly hadn't thought Ginny would be convicted since she was a light witch, but she still hadn't wanted her daughter being arrested. That would, of course, make the papers because of all the attention on the tournament, and she hadn't wanted the public to believe that her baby girl was a criminal.

She had been forced to accept the punishment that had already been decided if only to keep her daughter out of the legal system.

Hogwarts - April 20, 2005

Lily smirked to herself as she made her way down the hallway. She finally had a plan that was going to work.

For months now she had been slipping Sebastian love, submission, and compulsion potions. But none of them seemed to be taking effect. When she had talked about it with the headmaster he had theorized that the Prince ring that he wore might weaken or destroy the lower level potions that she had been giving him. Although Lily had passed potions, she still wasn't the best brewer so she hadn't been able to brew the higher level, stronger, potions.

But now she had the strongest potions available. The headmaster had had to arrange getting the potion from China since they couldn't risk asking Severus to brew them and he was the only one that they knew that had the skill to brew them.

There was no way the Prince ring or anything else would be able to block these potions. There actually was nothing that could. Not only that, but the potions cause a near permanent effect. It would take a full system ritual purge to remove them from his system. But the compulsion potion would make him refuse to accept a purge.

Soon enough she was going to get everything she deserved.

James was once again watching the map as he did some paperwork. He was planning on convincing the rest of the board to demand a detailed scan of the wards. There was no doubt in his mind that Dumbledore hadn't been maintaining and updating the wards like he was supposed to.

But before he could do that he needed a detailed list of the schools rules regarding the wards. Luckily, since Dumbledore had previously mentioned the wards may have been what aloud Hadrian to be entered into the tournament, he was able to go over things while at the school doing his monitoring. He had a copy of one of the original regulation books out so that he could note down the expectations.

He had seen Lily on her way towards the room they were using to monitor the school and had called both Kingsley and Auror Proudfoot as well. Kings had opened a file on the possible love potion use and alerted Proudfoot to it. Over the past months they had both been watching and making note of everything they had seen. Now, they were ready to catch her in the act.

They were sure she was going to try again since James had found his drink and food spiked every time she came anywhere near him.

Kings got him a fresh cup of tea, that he took a sample of so that they had evidence that it wasn't tampered with before she had been near them. Then, both he and Proudfoot hid themselves using masking and invisibility spells. Both making sure that they had a clear, but different, view of the tea.

"Hello Sebastian darling." Lily smiled and fluttered her eyelashes as she flounced into the room in a cloud of sickeningly sweet perfume.

"Ms. Mathews." James said in a cold voice. "Is there something I can do for you? It is the middle of the day, I'm sure you have some work to do, I know that I do."

"The headmaster sent me to get you. He said he needed to have a word with you." Lily kept her smile plastered on her face even as her eyes narrowed at his dismissal of her.

"Fine." James wrote down one last thing before he moved anything sensitive into one of the desk drawers and locked it.

Getting up and walking past her, making sure not to get anywhere near her, he left the room.

Lily let the smile slide off her face as soon as she was alone in the room. She hated just how much that man disrespected her.

A little grin worked its way back onto her face as she pulled out the vials of potions. Soon enough he was going to learn his place.

Albus had told her just to start with the submission potion since that would make him defer to her which would make it easier to make him take the other potions. But, she didn't want to wait any more. Albus wanted her to wait a week in-between each potion, but she didn't want to.

Opening each potion, she dropped a few drops of each into the tea. Smiling as she saw the tea swirl a different colour after each drop before returning to its original brown. Once she was done, she slipped the vials back into her pocket.

Just as Lily was going to turn and leave the room, she was hit with a stunning spell from behind.

Kings and Proudfoot stared down at the stunned woman. They really hadn't thought it would be that simple, or that she would be that obvious.

Whenever most people were going to drug a drink they surreptitiously spelled the potion into the cup. Maybe she had just figured she didn't need to since she thought she was alone in the room. Either way, it made their job easier.

Kings went back to the tea and took another sample before collecting the rest for evidence. Proudfoot recovered the potions from the woman's robes.

Once they had collected everything, they activated the floo and levitated the stunned woman through before they followed. They would lay the formal charges and then get a warrant to search the woman's quarters.

Headmasters Office

James sighed as he walked towards the headmasters office. Reaching the guardian he realized that Lily hadn't given him the password so he started listing off candies. It took him less than a dozen tries before the guardian jumped aside when he said snickers.

Walking up the stairs, he entered the office after he knocked and was aloud entrance. Once he was in the office he leaned against the back wall. He knew that this was just a way to get him away from his drink so he didn't bother to sit down since this wouldn't take long.

"You wanted to see me Albus?"

"Yes yes my boy, lemon drop?"

"No, thank you Albus." James raised an eyebrow, waiting for the man to say whatever it was he wanted to say.

"I just wanted to check in on how things have been going."

"The same as they were when you asked me last week. Unless you allow us access to the ward stone, we can not complete a proper examination of the wards to verify they had no part in the events of this year.

However, I still don't understand your logic in blaming the wards for a flaw in the age line you drew."

"I'm sure you'll figure it out." Albus gave him a small, brittle, grin. He hated being questioned like this.

"If that is all, I have work to do. I'm sure you do as well." Without waiting for an answer, James strode out of the room.

James smiled when he arrived back at his office and found the note Kings had left for him.

Headmasters Office - April 21, 2005

Albus was pacing his office. He had given Lily the potions she needed to get control over Sebastian, but she hadn't contacted him yet. She knew she was supposed to let him know what happened. So, why hadn't she come to see him yet.

He had even gone to her quarters to speak with her, but she hadn't been there.

Albus sighed, she most likely didn't listen to him. He had told her to give him the submission one first, but he would bet that she had used the love potion instead. Stupid selfish woman that she was.

Just as he was about to go back to his desk, his floo alarm went off. Checking the connection he saw that it was from the DMLE. He just assumed that it was Amelia coming to give him an update on her aurors in his school so he aloud entrance.

Amelia did come in, but she wasn't alone. Four other aurors followed, including Kingsley and Proudfoot.

"What is the meaning of this Amelia?" Albus was more than a little concerned about his school being invaded.

Amelia handed over the warrant. "This is a warrant allowing for the search of Rose Mathews quarters and the seizure of anything found that is deemed of value to our case."

"Your case?" Albus stuttered slightly as he sunk down in to his chair in shock.

"Yes, Rose Mathews has been arrested for the use of a love potion, amongst others, on a Lord. As you know the use of any potion like that on a member of the Wizengamot is taken very seriously given that it can be seen as an attempt to control our government." Amelia started to head towards the door when she noticed that Albus hadn't moved. She turned back. "If you don't feel like showing us her quarters then please inform us which one is hers and we will find our own way."

Albus just kept looking at her blankly. This wasn't possible. That woman couldn't have been stupid enough to get caught. He was so caught in his own spiralling thoughts he didn't even notice the others.

"I know which room is hers Madam Bones." Kings said when it became obvious that Albus wasn't going to give them the information they needed.

"Then lead the way." Amelia and the other aurors followed the man out of the office.

Albus didn't even notice. What was he supposed to do now?

If they questioned Lily under truth serum, which they would due to what she was being charged with, then the first question they asked was going to destroy everything.

The first question was always the persons name. As soon as Lily said her name his entire story about the life of Harry Potter would be destroyed. He had spent years talking up the love that had existed between James and Lily. The moment they started questioning that woman it would bring up all sorts of questions that he really didn't want to have asked.

How had she gotten caught? Hadn't she bothered to check the room before she did anything?

Even more than that, they would have needed to catch her in the act. That might be the avenue to getting her free. If all they had was suspicion then he could have the warrant thrown out meaning they wouldn't be able to gather any evidence and the case wouldn't make it to trial.

But if they had gotten a warrant then they had to have something. He needed to figure out what they had before he could make any plans. And that would mean getting in contact with one of the aurors that was loyal to him. There were still plenty of them, they just weren't in the higher level positions like he would have liked.

He needed to think.

Lion's Den - May 16, 2005

Molly was furious as she sat at one of the tables in the restaurant after closing. Nothing was working out how she wanted. She had had such plans for her life, but now they had been stolen from her.

Arthur was with her stupid brothers. They even had more children that she hadn't been able to meet. All she knew of them was what she managed to get from Ron and Ginny. And neither of her babies really knew all that much about the new little ones since they didn't really like them.

Then there was this stupid job. She was proud of what she had created, but it was just so hard. Managing a restaurant was extremely difficult, especially since she didn't trust the staff Albus had hired. The cooks just weren't up to her standards and neither were the servers. She ended up having to do most of their work since they just wouldn't listen to her and do their jobs properly.

She was also annoyed that she was being denied the money she earned to fix up the few little issues in the restaurant. While walking through Hogsmeade the other day she saw the most darling figurine of a lion cub. The sign in the window had said it came from something called Lion King, whatever that was. But no, she wasn't aloud to buy anything new. Not to mention just how little she was being paid to do all the work she did. It wasn't even enough for a decent living. She was going to have to talk to Albus about paying her better.

Ginny was another problem. Molly couldn't believe how cruelly her baby girl was being treated. She had never thought the Lovegoods would be so terrible, oh, she had known that Sirius would be, but not the Lovegoods. Ginny hadn't meant for the brat to get injured, although, it did sort of serve the girl right for trying to steal Ginny's boyfriend.

Molly had been receiving letters almost daily about how cruel the teachers were being to her poor baby. Plus, she wasn't being aloud to see her since Ginny was basically imprisoned in that school. And Arthur had aloud it all. Molly was sure that Fabian and Gideon were behind it. They were most likely trying to force a separation between Ginny and Arthur so that their daughter would get all his attention.

And finally, there were her letters to the DCW. It had been over a year now since she had started filing abuse reports and nothing had been done. There was just no excuse for that. She wrote letters almost every day, and nothing.

Maybe she was going to need to arrange a meeting with Albus. He needed to get everyone back in line. She was not going to put up with this for much longer.

Hogwarts Grounds - May 27, 2005

Hadrian and the others were walking back towards the school after having the third task explained to them. He was going to warn the others about what Remus had found.

"Can we talk?" Hadrian motioned the others to follow him further away from the school so they wouldn't be overheard.

The others just silently followed him. Trusting that whatever it was he wanted to speak about would most likely be important.

Hadrian was concerned. He knew they all needed to take the cup, but then they would all be portkeyed away. What would he do if any of them got hurt because of him? He just couldn't handle someone else getting hurt because of him.

"What is it Hadrian?" Cedric asked once they were decently hidden from the path. He could see the worried look on the younger boys face.

Hadrian handed over the ICW bill that forced his competing in the tournament and tapped at the hi-lighted section.

"All students whose names are given by the Goblet of Fire are required to compete in every task." Cedric quickly read aloud.

"Try again. Go slower and read every word as it is written." Hadrian said.

"All students whose names are given by the Goblet of Fire are required to... Oh Merlin... This can't be possible." Cedric went pale as he saw the mistake. "All students whose names are given by the Goblet of Fire are required to... Complete... every task."

"My Uncle Remus has been going over what the ICW passed and found this a few months ago. He thinks it may have just been a mistake, but the problem is that by passing it with the mistake in the wording makes it binding.

I figured that it wouldn't be too much of a big deal, until we learned what the final task is." Hadrian told the others. Once again lying a bit, but everyone has their secrets.

"That's why you wouldn't let me give up and return to the surface during the second task." Fleur said in shock.

She had been a little confused why Hadrian hadn't let her give up and instead had her keep going. But now she did. If she had turned back she would have been stripped of her magic. Hadrian nodded at her.

"The final task is a maze. The only way to complete this task is to reach the centre and take the cup." Viktor said slowly, fear in his eyes. "That means that as soon as one of us takes the cup, the others will all have failed to complete the task and will be stripped of our magic."

They all just stayed silent, thinking, for a few minutes. Each imagining having their magic ripped from them. There was almost nothing worse in the eyes of a witch or wizard than to lose their connection to their core.

"It will be fine." Fleur shook her hair behind her shoulders and straightened her back. "We have made it this far together, we will finish it together.

We find each other in the maze, or we wait for each other in the centre. We take the cup as a group only. If all four of us take the cup at the same time, we will have all completed the task. And, we will all receive the same amount of points so our positions will stay as they are.

Hadrian and Cedric will tie for first, Viktor, you will get second, and I will be third."

"That should work." Cedric smiled.

"I agree, we stand together, and we will all be fine." Viktor grinned.

"I agree. But, there is also another issue." Hadrian gave the others a shy smile. "My Uncle Sirius pointed out that the DMLE thinks my name was added as an attempt to kill me, but nothing out of the ordinary has happened during the other tasks. They think that whatever the plan is, it will happen during the final task."

"Then we will handle it together." Viktor said like it was the simplest thing in the world.

"Like Fleur said, we finish this together. If someone comes after you, they are going to have to deal with all of us." Cedric told him as Fleur hugged Hadrian close.

"I just don't want any of you getting hurt because of me." Hadrian said, pain in his voice as he remembered Cedrics death.

"Hadrian, you aren't responsible for any of this. It's that stupid headmaster of yours and whoever put your name in the cup. If anything happens to any of us, it is their fault not yours. I can tell you right now, I would never blame you if something happened to me. In fact, if something did happen and you started to blame yourself I would be furious with you. None of this is your fault, and I won't let you blame yourself for the danger others have put us all in." Fleur held him at arms length in front of her as she lectured him.

Hadrian gave a small smile. Fleur was just such a naturally caring woman.

"I agree." Viktor said once again.

"Me too." Cedric added. "This is not your fault. I don't care what happens to me, or if anything happens to me, I would never blame you and wouldn't want you to blame yourself."

Hadrian smiled at Cedric. It made him feel a little better. He wondered if the Cedric in the other timeline would have felt the same way.

The four agreed that they would keep this to themselves, or at least, keep it to their little group of trusted friends until after the task was done. They didn't want to have to listen to everyone telling them what they should, or shouldn't, do.

Hogwarts, School Board Meeting Room - June 1, 2005

About half an hour after the board meeting had started and they had dealt with a few minor issues James caught everyones attention.

"I think there has been something we have been overlooking. The wards."

"There is nothing wrong with the wards my boy." Albus huffed.

"Really, because you came to me earlier this year saying that you thought the wards might have been the cause of Hadrian's being forced into the tournament. You clearly believed that there was flaws in the wards.

But that got me thinking. I have not been able to find any information on the updates to the wards. According to the schools charter, the Headmaster is required to update the wards before the start of every new year. And the wards are to be goblin tested every decade. I spoke with the warding guild at Gringotts and they informed me that you have denied them access for the past 40 years.

This might be why so many accidents and dangerous things have been able to gain access to the grounds. If the wards have not been properly maintained then every student at this school is in danger." James gave the old fool a slight smile.

"The headmaster said the wards are fine, so the wards are fine." Molly growled. She hated when others questioned the headmaster.

"Then how was a possessed teacher able to teach here? How did trolls manage to get into the school?" Alice questioned. "Clearly, there is a problem with the wards. And, as Sebastian said, the schools charter dictates that they are tested every ten years. You have no right to deny those tests."

"Now my dear..." Albus started again.

"Enough Albus. Given everything that has happened in the past few years it is clear there is a problem. We can blame it on the wards, or you... You decide. The wards are required to be checked, so they will be checked.

I don't want anyone else's child to be placed in the danger that my son has been in over the past few years. This is my last board meeting since Cedric is graduating this year, I want to know that I left this school a better place than it was when I started." Amos Diggory argued.

"I agree." Helen Davis smiled. She looked over and smiled at her elder son who was set to graduate who was once again selected to represent Ravenclaw. "I hate the amount of danger that my boys have been in. The wards should have been checked years ago after that troll and possessed teacher incident.

Sebastian, you are on the best terms with the goblins, would you be able to schedule the ward checks?"

"Easily enough." James nodded to the woman. "When I spoke with them they informed me that since they haven't been able to do the checks they would recommend a full examination to make sure that everything is up to the standards required for a magical school. The checks would only take about a day, but the full examination will take a full week.

Albus, you will have to make arrangements to ensure that everyone is out of the castle for a week so that the goblins can come in and do their job. If you would let me know when is the best time I will speak with the goblins warding department."

"I'm afraid that isn't possible my boy." Albus twinkled.

"It is going to be done Albus. Whether you like it or not." Narcissa said in a cold voice. "You can willingly arrange a time with Sebastian or we will have the goblins remove you. This is about the safety of the children. You might not take that seriously, but we do."

Albus narrowed his eyes at the woman. He had always hated having to have those on the dark side as governors, but having Narcissa Malfoy made it even worse.

"Don't you speak to the headmaster like that." Hestia Jones demanded.

"Auror Jones, the headmaster is standing in the way of securing this school. As you are an auror you must know about the recent arrest." James sat back to examine his old colleague.

"Arrest?" Jaanvi Patil questioned.

"Yes. The charms assistant, who the headmaster personally selected, Rose Mathews was arrested for attempting to use love potion, amongst others, on me just a few months ago.

Madame Bones is in the process of bringing her to trial, but somebody in the Wizengamot seems to be attempting to secretly get the charges dismissed." James told the room, making sure that everyone knew who he blamed.

"So along with all the other issues, this school is also harbouring criminals." Pandora Lovegood gave the headmaster a calculating look.

"If you refuse to give me a date, I will just say the warding will be done starting on the first Monday in August. You, and everyone else will be out of this school at that time headmaster, or, like Narcissa said, the goblins will remove you." James chose a random date, while still giving the staff time to do any last minute things after the end of the year.

"You can't just do that." Molly screeched.

"Then let's put it to a vote. All in favour... All opposed." Alice announced, counting each result. "Well, it appears he can. By a clear majority vote the goblins will be doing the warding in August. Anyone still on the premises will be removed."

"Next, there is the problems of former auror Alastor Moody, and junior auror Nymphadora Tonks." James announced.

"There are no problems my boy." Albus twinkled hiding his anger. "They are both exemplary in their positions."

"And, once again, I must disagree with you Albus." James gave the man a cold smile. "Like happened 2 years ago, a great many students have chosen self study."

"Yes, I was actually wondering about that." Helen Davis said. "Theo was one of those who chose to self study, but he didn't give me any specifics. He just told me that he felt that he would be better off without those two teaching him."

"Same here." Said a few of the others there. If anyone bothered to consider things they would realize that the parents that all said the same thing all had their children in Slytherin other than Helen.

"I think I can explain. Draco had absolutely no problem with telling me what was going on when he came home during spring break. He had tried to stay in the class, but eventually gave up and left after Yule." Narcissa's glare was practically glacial as she looked to the headmaster. "It would seem that both Alastor and Nymphadora are prejudice agains those from my own former house."

"I'm sure it's just a slight misunderstanding." Albus tried.

"There is no misunderstanding." Narcissa snapped back. "Draco allowed me to see his memories of what was going on in that classroom.

Two adults should know better than to behave the way those two do. I had thought we had already addressed this issue, but apparently not.

Both Alastor and Nymphadora seem to be going out of their way to make class time miserable for all Slytherins from what I saw in the memories. I was also informed that they have done the same for any student who had a Death Eater in the family. That might be Theo's issue Helen. While they can't downgrade them because of the policies we have put in place that doesn't stop either of them from going on rants every lesson and repeatedly insulting the students.

I feel that I must remind you headmaster that the students of this school are not to blame for the actions of their parents or family members took over a decade ago. A lesson that you seem not to have learned yet, and neither have certain members of your staff. It is completely unacceptable to take out what ever issues one may have on children."

"Now surely it isn't that bad." Albus said with a brittle smile. He knew it was true. Both Alastor and Nymphadora had gone out of their way to make sure all the Slytherins and children of dark families learned their place.

Albus hated having so many dark children in his school, they were just too dangerous. Look at what Tom had done. No, it was better off if those students were kept restricted and informed of the results of being dark in a respectable world.

Helen was furious. Had those fools actually tried to blame her son for the actions of his biological father, the same father that had tortured the boy. No wonder Theo had been so out of sorts lately. "Are you out of your mind old man. Are you telling me that those... those... people have been using Thaddeus's actions to hurt my son.

You were there for that trial Albus, you should know very well what something like that would do to him."

Albus actually flinched at that. He had been at the trial and he knew that the boy had been tortured. Young Theodor Nott was one of the students he kept a close eye on. The boy was powerful and dark, but he also knew just how bad dark wizards were from his own experiences. Albus had attempted to form a mentorship bond with the boy over the first few years he was at the school but had given up last year. Although the boy knew the true danger of the dark he still followed their lead.

It was a bit of an annoyance as he could have used the boy. Not only was he the new Lord Nott, he was also Harry's roommate. It would have been very beneficial for Albus to get the brat's roommate on his side. He could have used the boy not only for information but also to push the brat towards Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. But no, the boy was just as stubborn as Harry was himself.

Ultimately he had chosen to hit the boy with a secrecy spell. He couldn't have the boy telling his family about what had been going on in the class. Albus knew that Helen and her husband were more than capable of causing problems for him, and being from a well known neutral house he couldn't just brush them off as being dark supporters. He had cast the spell at the boys back only a few weeks after the first term had started, it would stop the boy from being capable of telling his family anything about the classes other than the material.

He could still talk to the other students, but just not his family because if he had completely blocked the boy from speaking about it to anyone everyone would become extremely suspicious. Albus had ended up having to do that to a great many students. If they were from Slytherin he hadn't bothered because those were people he could just brush off as being dark. It would be easy to say the reason they didn't like Alastor or Nymphadora was because they were aurors, and, Alastor had more than likely put a member of their family in Azkaban and that was why they were complaining.

"I think we are going to have to get even more involved in the teaching at this school." Sophia Zabini sighed. "This is honestly getting ridiculous. If you aren't hiring incompetent teachers, or criminals, now you are hiring teachers that verbally abuse the students. I am putting forward a motion to have those two removed from their positions. I do understand that the year is almost done and some students may need them to help them prepare for exams, but I do not think that they should be rehired for next year."

Most of the other board members agreed. Molly, of course, went off on another rant against Slytherin's and dark wizards, but most had just learned to tune the woman out.

"I'm sure it's just a slight misunderstanding. Alastor and Nymphadora both signed contracts for the next two years. It's for the greater good that they retain their position." Albus smiled.

"No. Their contracts will be cancelled." Alice snapped. "When Neville brought this to my attention I looked into their contracts. There is a morals clause that they have clearly broken by emotionally abusing the students. We can use that to remove them from the school."

"Then that is that. Alastor and Nymphadora will finish out the year and then they will be gone. We can't have those sorts of people working here." James smiled.

"Those sorts of people?!" Molly shrieked. "Just because Nymphadora is a half blood does not give you the right to treat her like this."

"He didn't say anything about their blood status." Roger Davis said in a confused voice. All the other student representatives agreed. Roger was furious that his little brother was being treated the way he was. He just wished that Theo had come to him, but he did understand that Theo still did everything he could to avoid talking about his birth father and the abuse.

"Like the students said, I didn't say anything about blood status. What I was referring to was the fact that they seem to think that it is fine to emotionally abuse children for things that happened when they were extremely young, or in the cases of the second years and some of the third years, before they were even born. As we have already covered, multiple times, in multiple different ways, it is never ok to abuse a child, wether it is physical, emotional, or mental, it is never ok."

After that, the meeting carried on in typical fashion. Everyone talked and discussed little things, all making sure to touch on the final task. Most kept trying to get information about the task in a hopes of trying to increase security.

Even with all the power they had managed to wrestle away from the headmaster, the man still had too much control for their comfort.

St. Mungo's - June 7, 2005

Dedalus Diggle sighed as he made his way to the long term care ward in St. Mungo's. The time had finally come for him to die. And, after decades of fighting it, he had accepted his fate.

When Dedalus had been a young man he had worked in the transportation department. It hadn't been glamorous, but he had been happy. Until the accident.

He had been working on a faulty floo when there had been a massive surge. The amount of power that had forced its way into his body had cracked his core. There was nothing that the healers could do. His magic would slowly bleed out of him until he died. The healers had only given him a few months to live, but Albus had offered him a chance to survive. And all he had to do was give him his unwavering loyalty.

It hadn't seemed like much, after all, he was the great Albus Dumbledore, there was nothing too bad the man could do. Now he knew how wrong he had been. Dedalus had no doubt that the power Albus had arranged for him to get that kept him alive had come from those prisoners that had been found. As soon as the prison had been found the power he had been getting started to decrease, only increasing slightly whenever another one of Albus's loyal older followers died.

But even then, Dedalus had been too afraid to die to do anything. But it all came to nothing in the end. Since Albus no longer had access to those poor souls, the power had been fading. Over the past year Dedalus had been growing weaker and weaker. Until now, he knew the end was near.

Dedalus was dying. And he wasn't afraid.

No, he was ready. He was done living his life by stealing it from another.

He wished that he could let the world know just what kind of man Albus Dumbledore was, but a part of the loyalty vow he had taken so long ago was that he could never let anyone know anything negative he learned about the man. But he could still make the man suffer in his own way, but only after he died.

Since he had known what was going to happen Dedalus had been making plans. He had already arranged for Mundungus 'Dung' Fletcher to take over running his bar. He wished that he would be able to see Molly's face when she learned that she was going to be working with a confessed criminal. If she thought the clientele he had was bad, just wait until she met Dung's friends.

There was also the Diggle money. Since his injury was work related, and the ministry had thought he was going to die quickly, he had been given compensation. He had been receiving almost 1000 galleons a month ever since the accident. He had lived primarily off that, but he also had old family money. He had never been an overly materialistic man, so he didn't tend to buy lots of things. He also hadn't really seen the need for fixing up the manor, it had been just fine for him since he was almost never home.

But, there was no way he was going to allow Albus or Molly to touch a single knut of his families money. It was the legacy from his ancestors that they had absolutely no respect for. He knew them, they would waste everything it had taken generations to build in less than a year he was sure. No, they weren't getting it.

Dedalus had come up with a plan. He had gone to the DCW. He had explained that he was the last of his bloodline, and that he didn't want it to end with him. He had requested to be aloud to blood adopt a young orphan so that when he died, his blood would live on. It would also serve to give the child a prominent family name and a decent inheritance.

They had been a little weary at first, but had ultimately agreed. Dedalus had been introduced to a young 8 year old boy named Deven, and his 5 year old sister named Daisy. The children had been discovered after their mother's car had hit an ice patch and gone off a bridge. In his fear, Deven, who had been holding on to his little sister, had apperated by accidental magic back onto the bridge.

The burst of accidental magic had been enough to get the attention of the accidental magic reversal squad who had gone to see what had happened only to find two terrified children. When they had at first approached the children Daisy had accidentally pushed them back using accidental magic of her own. Their mother had been a single parent, and they didn't have any other family that they knew of so the children were going to be sent to the Sea Cliff Home.

After talking it out with the DCW as well as the staff at the Sea Cliff Home and the children the kids had agreed to being blood adopted. It wouldn't change anything for them, they would still be going to the orphanage. But, when they came of age they would inherit the Diggle estate.

Dedalus had made arrangements with the goblins that after he died the manor would be closed down and repaired before being put into stasis for the children when they grew up. He had also made sure to give the kids copies of the family history so that they could learn what they were going to inherit as they grew up. The goblins would hold the Diggle grimoire in trust for them to ensure that Dumbledore never got his hands on it.

Now, all he had to do was wait for his time. The healer that had examined him had said that he had a few months left, but he was too weak to manage on his own.

When they asked if they should contact his wife, Dedalus had told them they could if they wanted, but that he didn't expect the woman to care. This had shocked the healers slightly as many believed Molly to be a good and caring woman. It gave Dedalus a little joy to damage the harpys reputation.

Hey, he was dying, he figured that entitled him to be a little mean.

Third Task - June 24, 2005

By the time the third task arrived Hadrian was nearly in a constant state of panic. He was barely sleeping or eating. Fleur had taken to practically force feeding him at meals.

The only thing that was really serving to distract him was studying for both the task and the exams in his self study classes. Since it was some of the only time he was able to relax even slightly, Hadrian threw himself into studying. There was no doubt that he was going to do amazing on the few exams he had.

And he wasn't the only one. All of the other champions joined him in using studying to relax.

But, now it was the day. All four of them were nervous as they went to breakfast. They weren't even going to pretend that they weren't allies like many wanted, so they all sat together at Ravenclaw table.

Over the past few weeks Hadrian had had to deal with Dumbledore and his pawns all telling him he needed to win for the glory of Hogwarts. They all kept cornering him every chance they got to tell him he needed to start treating this as a competition and stop being so friendly with the others. He had even been lectured about how they were a danger to him. Hadrian had just ignored them since he knew the truth.

After breakfast, all four of the champions were guided to the side room where they met their families. Hadrian smiled as he saw his dad and Uncle Remus along with his little sisters. Both his papa and Sirius had exam review classes.

The day ended up being a lot of fun as everyone got to know each other. Both of Fleur's parents, and Gabrielle, were happy to see him. Gabrielle ended up being instantly accepted by his sisters. Hadrian grinned as he saw the shock on the older Delacour's faces as they saw how quickly the girls drew Gabrielle out of her shell. If anyone could make someone feel comfortable and talkative, it was his sisters.

Viktor's mother was actually an activist for the rights of those with creature blood, so she was thrilled when she learned that Remus was a werewolf. She peppered him with all sorts of questions about his views on the treatment of those like him from a British perspective. Britain had been one of the most regressive countries when it came to protections for creatures so she wanted to get a first hand account.

Amos bonded quickly with Viktor's dad. Both men had a similar personality and were soon enough talking like they were old friends. A similar friendship was forming between Fleur's mum and Cedrics.

That left James with Marius Delacour, much to his joy. By now everyone knew that it had been Marius who had had Dumbledore stripped of his position on the ICW and James loved the opportunity to get a first hand account of the look on the mans face.

But, all good things must come to an end. Soon enough it was time to head down to the quidditch pitch. The third task was about to begin.

Since Cedric and Hadrian would be going in together, they decided to just stay together and wait for the others around the first corner. But it didn't seem things were going to be that easy.

As soon as both boys walked into the maze, the entrance they had just walked through closed up behind them. As they were trying to figure out where the others were going to come in from, a hedge shot out between them, separating them. It would seem they would just have to meet in the middle.

Hadrian set off. This time his trip through the maze wasn't as easy as he remembered. Over the hour he walked, he didn't just meet up with a sphinx, a boggart, and a mist that turned the world upside down, but also an occamy, quicksand, tangle vine, and almost had flubberworm mucus dumped on his head, thankfully his quick reflexes saved him.

Eventually, he saw a light ahead and walked out into the centre of the maze. The cup was on a pedestal in the centre of the clearing. Looking around, Hadrian saw that no one else was there so he just sat down to wait. Making sure he wasn't near the hedges since he didn't trust them not to attack.

About five minutes after he sat down Fleur made her way into the clearing. She looked a little worse for the wear, but in much better condition than she had been after the first two tasks.

Hadrian waved her over and she joined him on the ground. They had just started to discuss what each of them had faced when Viktor skidded into the area, glancing over his shoulder. He had had an unfortunate run in with a very persistent ghoul that apparently wanted a friend to hug, or strangle, Viktor hadn't waited to figure out which.

Shortly after that, Cedric walked in, his eyes slightly glazed. At first Hadrian had started to panic thinking that it was the imperious, but then Cedric started talking about beautiful women that wanted him to come swimming with them but he had had to tell them no for some reason. Fleur laughed before she called up her veela side to break the sirens spell.

"Are we all ready?" Fleur asked in excitement.

"Just remember to be on guard, this just doesn't feel right." Hadrian reminded the others.

"I agree with Hadrian, something is off." Cedric said as he glanced over his shoulder. He had been having cold chills running down his spine almost constantly since he first walked into the maze. He felt like something really bad was about to happen.

"Wands out. And, be ready for anything." Viktor told the others.

Once they were all ready, they counted down from three. Viktor and Fleur grabbed the left handle at the same time Hadrian and Cedric took the right.

They all felt the hooking feeling in their stomachs as they were portkeyed away.

Up in the stands, all the parents nervously watched the maze. The hedges were so high, and it was already so dark out that the path was completely covered in shadow. They could only see the vague outline of the maze and the glowing cup in the middle.

Albus clearly hadn't been thinking about the view the spectators would have when these tasks were designed. Severus thought this was just as much fun as watching the surface of the lake during the last task.

James, Severus, Remus, and Sirius were all wound as tight as was possible, but they were trying to play it off. The girls were noticing how nervous they were and that was putting them on edge. Sometimes it sucked to have observant children.

There was a collective gasp in the stadium as Hadrian made his way into the clearing in the centre of the maze. Everyone started to cheer as Hadrian made his way towards the cup, but then he sat down. Then there were all manner of sounds. Some remained excited, others were confused, and some were angrily demanding he take the cup.

But, it would seem Hadrian couldn't see or hear them as he just sat and waited. They all watched as each champion made their way into the clearing, but none took the cup.

It was only after all four were there that they got up and surrounded the cup. When it became clear that they intended to take the cup together the crowd once again got both angry and excited. Some thought it was nice that they were sharing, but others were furious and said that it was cheating, not that they said how it was cheating.

James felt his heart stop as he watched the four champions take the cup and disappear.

Albus was annoyed as he saw the stupid Potter boy sit down in the centre of the maze. What was that fool doing? He was supposed to take the cup and be sent to Voldemort.

He knew that there was a good chance that he would die in this encounter, but Albus didn't care. If the brat survived then many would look to him to save them, and that wasn't what he needed. Albus needed the public to look to him, not the brat.

This might actually help him to regain his power. With the Potter brat dead, and Voldemort back, everyone would look to him to save them. He could easily use that to force the Wizengamot to declare him Chief Warlock for life.

Maybe, with a few well placed compulsions, Albus could get Voldemort to take his rein of destruction global. That would teach those fools on the ICW to question him. If he played this right, Albus knew he could regain all the power he had lost in the past years.

All he needed now was for the brat to take the cup. Honestly, what was he waiting for?

Finally, after all the others arrived, they took the cup together. Albus didn't like the friendships that had been forming between the champions, but now that problem was solved. They would all die together now.

It might even help get attention from the international community as two of the soon to be dead students were from other countries. Plus, this was going to make Marius suffer for what he had done to him.

So, all in all, this had worked out pretty well for him.

Graveyard, Little Hangleton

The four champions arrived in the graveyard in a crouched defensive position. Cedric had the strongest shields, so as soon as his feet hit the ground he threw up his strongest shield.

It was lucky he did as less than a second later a series of stunners hit the shield. The shield held.

Hadrian quickly looked around to figure out how things had changed. It would seem that Barty hadn't kept Voldemort's return to himself. There were five people in Death Eater robes in the graveyard with them. Then he looked for the cup, it seemed to have been thrown away from them and Hadrian couldn't see where it was.

"We need to get somewhere with cover." Hadrian whispered to the others as he threw a blasting hex to the ground in front of the death eaters causing large chunks of dirt to block their view. That was the problem with wearing masks into battle, it severely limited their field of vision.

With Hadrians distraction the others all quickly moved to hide behind some of the head stones. Hadrian and Cedric stayed together and went left, while Fleur and Viktor went right. Crouching down they looked to each other.

Hadrian was a little frustrated, he had wanted them to be hidden, but closer together. Viktor and Fleur were at least 4 feet away and that was too far. Cora and Ragnock had given him an emergency portkey at the beginning of the year and he was wearing it. He needed them all together before he activated it.

But that was driven momentarily from his mind as the Death Eaters refocused and started firing spells. Hadrian and the others might all be amongst the strongest in their schools, but they still weren't a match for full grown wizards that had previously fought in a war and also been skilled enough to escape getting caught.

They all kept shooting spells from behind their shelter, and it was slowing the Death Eaters down, but they were still advancing. Hadrian was starting to panic as they got nearer.

"Bring me the boy, kill the rest." A voice hissed.

Hadrian felt the fear as he heard that voice. He couldn't let the others die for him. Not again. Never again. No one would ever die for him again.

Then he felt a tugging in his chest and Nemesis popped up in front of him with a flash of light. Hadrian had left her with his sisters to protect them.

Nem quickly looked around and summed up the situation. 'Well you've gotten your self in quite the mess haven't you." Nem huffed in his mind.

Nem walked out in between the head stones. She was furious. Not only were they attacking her human, these were full grown adults attacking students. She was not going to let them get away with this.

Drawing on the well of magic within her. Nem walked forward as she summoned her lightning.

Hadrian could feel Nem calling on her power and then watched the flashes of lightning. He waved the others over to him.

"Hadrian?" Fleur whispered once she was next to him.

"I have an emergency portkey. Grab on." Hadrian slid the pendent and chain over his head and held it out.

Each grabbed on. Hadrian called Nem back and once he had her in his free arm he triggered the portkey.

Gringotts

Hadrian and the others all arrived huddled together in the bank. Both Ragnock and Cora were there waiting for them.

"Are you all well?" Ragnock questioned.

"It doesn't matter. They are not leaving here without a full check up anyways." Cora huffed at her husband as she bustled forward.

"I think we're all fine." Hadrian smiled. "There is no need to get worked up Cora."

"Don't you tell me what to do youngling. You know very well that charming smile of yours won't work on any healer worth their licence. Besides, I'm just fine." Cora ran her hand over her growing stomach, she was almost half way through her 18 month pregnancy. "Give Ragnock your portkey and he will take some of our warriors to go and deal with those foolish trouble makers that thought they could attack one of ours."

Hadrian only smiled at the over protective goblin as he handed over his portkey. "Come on guys, we aren't getting out of a full check up."

The others all just grinned. Goblins were always such a gruff race, it was amusing to see them fuss over Hadrian like he was a disobedient child.

The four champions followed the clearly annoyed goblin healer to the medical ward. Once they were there, Cora gave Hadrian one of the contact mirrors so that he could let his family know that he was safe.

"Dad." Hadrian said as he activated the mirror and saw his dad's face.

"Hadrian, are you ok? Are you safe? Have you been hurt? What about the others? What's happening?" His dad started.

"Give me that." The mirror shook and Hadrian saw his papa's face. "Are you safely at the bank? Is Nemesis with you? She just disappeared from your sisters arms."

"We're at the bank. We're all doing fine." Hadrian smiled at his papa. "I have Nem. Ragnock took some of their warriors to the graveyard and Cora has trapped us all in the healing ward. You might have to come save us, I think she's gone crazy." Hadrian stage whispered the last bit and got a cloth thrown at his head for it.

"Can you tell our parents we're ok?" Fleur called out.

"I'll let them know and we will all come to the bank to meet you." Severus said before he ended the call. He was in a hurry, talking to his son was fine, but he wanted to have him in his arms and the only way that was going to happen was getting to the bank.

Hadrian and the others had convinced Cora to let them push a few of the beds together so they could sit together and talk. Cora had forbidden them from getting out of the beds, so this was their compromise. They didn't really need to be in the beds, there had only been a few minor injuries from the maze and other than that they were in perfect health, but Cora was being over protective.

They were just eating the last of the biscuits Cora had given them when the door opened and their families were led in by a guard. Hadrian's sisters, and Fleur's little sister all ran in and joined them on the beds, attacking them with tears and hugs. Their parents quickly followed, all expressing both fear and relief.

There were so many questions coming from all different directions. Seeing her patients getting overwhelmed trying to answer all the different questions, Cora stopped them and forced them to all sit and start asking their questions in an orderly fashion.

Each of the adults took turns asking their questions under the watchful eye of the goblin. The children all worked together to explain everything they knew.

When they explained why they had waited and took the cup together all the other parents just stared. It was amazing to them. If even one of the four had gotten greedy then the rest could have lost everything. That level of trust in each other was astounding. It also once again infuriated them about what Dumbledore had done to their children.

They were going to make that man suffer for everything he had done. They were also going to be demanding answers on just how the Triwizard Cup was turned into a portkey. That shouldn't have been possible.

Amos was glad that they were forcing the old fool to fix the wards. He knew that there was supposedly a ward that would stop any portkeyes from working on the grounds.

Hogwarts

Fred and George watched everyone as they tried to figure out what was going on. James had stopped by to let them know that Hadrian was safely at the bank and that they were going to get him. They would have wanted to go with them, but Severus had requested that they keep an eye on how everyone reacted. They still didn't know who it was that added Hadrian's name.

Most of the student body was panicking. While they had heard that everything that happened may have been an attempt on Hadrian's life, it just hadn't seemed real to them.

Right now, the ones they were watching the closest was Headmaster Dumbledore and Headmaster Karkaroff. If anything, Dumbledore looked... Smug. Karkaroff kept shooting the man odd looks. It was like he couldn't decide if he was proud, afraid, or suspicious.

If they were betting men, which they were, they would say Karkaroff was the one who put Hadrian's name in the goblet and had spelled it to be a portkey, but he hadn't done it alone. Dumbledore had to be involved some how.

He had been the one to pass the law forcing anyone who's name came out of the goblet to compete. He was the one who drew the age line. He was the one that planned the challenges. And the Triwizard Cup had been stored in his office.

Everything connected back to the old man.

Glancing at each other they grinned. These fools were going to regret conspiring against their soul mate.

Albus was pleased as he surveyed his panicking students. Finally, a plan was working. Soon, the brat would be dead and Voldemort would be back. The public would be bowing at his feet again in no time.

As he was looking around he saw the looks Igor was shooting him. That man was going to have to go. He knew too much. It looked like it was time for an accident. He did consider letting Voldemort kill the man for his betrayal, but he just couldn't trust that Igor wouldn't be able to worm his way out of it. Given that he was the one that put the Potter boys name in the goblet Voldemort might actually believe the man.

Albus started looking around, wanting to see the look on Marius's face with the loss of his eldest daughter. Now all he had left was the little one he had yelled at him for 'endangering'.

But Marius wasn't there. Starting to turn in circles he noticed the parents of all the champions appeared to be missing. Where had they gone? There was no way they could know where their kids were, it hadn't even been ten minutes since the task ended.

He really should have guessed something was wrong. The fact that Amos and Marius weren't there crying their fool heads off was proof enough of that. How could they have just disappeared? Weren't they concerned about where their children were?

Surely if they needed help they would turn to him.

Gryffindor Common Room

Hermione and Ginny were angrily sitting in the common room. Because of Professor Black they were barred from attending the task. They had tried to convince Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall to let them go, but had been denied.

Hermione hadn't really wanted to go, she really didn't care about any of this stupid competition, but she had wanted the option. She thought that studying was more important right now. Right now she was more concerned with maintaining her position in her grade than attending some stupid competition.

Ginny, however, had really wanted to attend. She had wanted to see Harry win. She was sure he would, the others just weren't as great.

Ginny just stared into the fire in her anger. Why didn't Harry love her? Healer Savoy kept telling her that she needed to step back and look at what was going on. She had told Ginny so many times that maybe Ginny should turn her attention on someone who would give her the attention and love she desired. But, Harry would do that, eventually. She just needed to make him see that she was perfect for him.

The two girls could hear all the noise from the task, but didn't know what was going on. One thing they could figure was that what ever it was, people weren't happy. There was the roar of the crowd, but it didn't sound positive.

Then they heard screams of shock. Both went over to the windows to see if they could see anything, but they couldn't.

Both of the girls were getting annoyed for not knowing what was going on when the portrait hole opened and the other students started streaming in.

"What happened?" Ginny demanded as soon as Ron sat down.

"I don't really know." Ron was confused by everything. "The task was a maze. The Triwizard Cup was in the center and the first to the cup won."

"So... Who got to the cup first?" Ginny pushed.

"Harry."

"Yay." Ginny cheered with a huge grin.

"What happened? You don't look like that's all." Hermione had looked up from her law book to see the confused look on Ron's face.

"He didn't take the cup. He just sat there and waited for all the others to get there." Ron really didn't understand. Harry had been so close to the glory of winning, and he hadn't taken it. "When all four of them were there they took the cup together and disappeared. No one knows where they are. I heard some of the others saying that they thought Harry had been kidnapped by Death Eaters."

"WHAT?" Ginny shrieked. Her Harry had been kidnapped by Death Eaters. "What is the headmaster doing?"

"I don't know, we were all just sent back to our dorms. He said that they would figure out what was going on and let us know in the morning." Ron shrugged.

"Well what are we supposed to do?" Ginny questioned, annoyed at her brothers disregard for her fiancee's safety.

"We study." Hermione said as she put books into the two Weasley's hands. "Ron, you and I have our runes and alchemy exams tomorrow, plus I have my law exam, and Ginny, you have arithmancy and charms. You've both been putting it off, but I have had enough. The exams are tomorrow, you need to study, unless you want to do summer school, again."

"And what about Harry?" Ginny whined to the other girl. "He could be in danger."

"The headmaster is dealing with it. If anyone can figure out what is going on and save Harry it's him." Hermione said in a superior voice before she forced them to study.

Gringotts

Amelia Bones made her way into Gringotts. She and her aurors had been at the school trying to figure out what had happened when she had received a message from Sirius telling her to come to the bank to get the answers.

It seemed a little odd, but she trusted that Sirius wouldn't waste her time when it came to the safety of his godson. With that in mind she had left Kingsley in charge and made her way to the bank.

Amelia was slightly startled when she walked into the healing ward of the bank to see all four of their missing champions.

"I think I am going to need some explanations." She went to sit down and pulled out a notebook so she could get it all done.

"The cup was a portkey." Hadrian said.

"We had expected something was going to happen since nothing out of the ordinary had happened yet and there had to have been some reason Hadrian was entered." Viktor supplied.

"Where did you end up?" Amelia stopped writing and just spelled her quill to record everything for her.

"We ended up in a graveyard. There were five people in Death Eater robes waiting." Cedric told her.

"How did you get away?" Amelia was shocked that all four had gotten away.

"Cedric threw up a really strong shield as soon as we landed." Fleur, along with all the others in the room sent Cedric a grateful look. Amos puffed up proudly as he laid a hand on his sons shoulder. "Hadrian summoned Nemesis and she did something and then we used Hadrian's emergency portkey to bring us here."

"Nemesis?"

"Nemesis is my familiar, she is a lightning kitsune." Hadrian held up the sleeping fox. She had worn herself out forcing the Death Eaters away from the champions. "She summoned her lightning as a distraction so we could gather together for me to activate my portkey."

"And why did you have a porkey?"

"Young Hadrian was declared a goblin friend." Cora answered for them. "From the moment he was forced into that farce he has worn an emergency portkey that would bring him to us.

There was an activation phrase, but we also added a few key features. If at any time our Hadrian was unconscious or spelled immovable for more than 10 minutes it would automatically activate. We will not have the life of an honorary member of our clan endangered by the foolishness of wizards."

Amelia was a little stunned. It had been generations since a goblin friend was named. She didn't even know what being a goblin friend entailed.

"Can I see this portkey to see if I can track it back to where they were taken? We need to see if we can figure out who was behind this kidnapping."

"There is no need for that." Ragnok strode into the ward, a few injured goblins following, none with more than a few scratches. The only reason they even went to the ward was because Ragnock knew that if Cora ever learned he hadn't brought them his life would be over. The only thing scarier than a goblin female, was a pregnant goblin female.

Cora moved to heal the warriors as they came in. It only took a few quick spells and a blood replenisher and they were all good as new. They all quickly excused themselves to go and join in the victory festivities. The goblin warriors of the goblin nation had gotten to draw the blood of their enemies for the first time in a very long time. This was something to celebrate.

"Why is there no need?" Amelia asked hesitantly. She knew just how dangerous goblins could be and wondered what had happened to have goblins coming to be healed before leaving happily. It had sent a shiver down her spine when she saw that the goblins had been practically... grinning.

"An attack on a goblin friend is an attack on the goblin nation. According to our treaties the goblins have the right to respond with force in the event of an attack on the goblin nation.

Earlier our warriors used the portkey to find the attackers. One had already fled, but four others were apprehended." Ragnock was furious that one had gotten away, but glad they had caught the others. "You may view their sentencing if you wish, it will be starting in ten minutes. As you four are amongst their victims you are invited to ensure that justice is done."

"They need to be tried in the Wizangamot." Amelia said at that.

"No. They don't. In accordance with the 1589 treaty if both wizards and goblins are attacked those who capture the criminal get to punish them first. As they were apprehended by goblin forces they are our prisoners. You may put in claims to have them charged in your courts but you will only be able to get them once they have served their punishment here." Ragnock gave a toothy grin.

Everyone decided they wanted to see this, it wasn't often wizards were able to witness a goblin trial.

Arriving in an amphitheater like room, the champions and their families took seats. All of them were surprised when Tamsan Dove came and sat with them.

She explained that Luna had sent her and told her to tell one of the goblin guards that she was sent there in regards to goblin friend Hadrian. They just trusted that Luna had a reason to send her, even if they didn't see it yet.

"Wait, did you say sentencing? Don't they need a trial first?" Cedric questioned Ragnock when he suddenly realized what had been said.

"Yes. Goblins do not run things the way your people do. They were caught in the act and as such are already shown to be guilty. Now, since one got away they will be given truth serum and ordered to provide all the information they have on this plot. Once that is done they will be given their sentence." Ragnock explained to the humans just as the goblin judge came in and the four Death Eaters were brought in.

"I call to order the sentencing of Alecto Carrow, Amycus Carrow, Thorfinn Rowle, and Walden Mcnair. They are guilty of the attack of Hadrian Potter-Black, a friend of the goblin nation and as such are guilty of attacking the goblin nation.

As goblin Friend, Hadrian Potter-Black and others have reported five attackers and there were only four when our noble warriors arrived, they will be questioned about this discrepancy. Each has been given goblin truth serum, questioning will be carried out by law goblin Grimfang." The judge announced in a formal voice.

"Alecto Carrow, how many others were with you when you attacked goblin friend Hadrian Potter-Black and his allies?"

"Four."

"Alecto Carrow, what were there full names?"
"Amycus Carrow, Thorfinn Rowle, Walden Mcnair, and Bartemius Crouch Jr."

"Alecto Carrow, what happened to Bartemius Crouch Jr.?"

"After Potter-Black and the others escaped he fled."

"Alecto Carrow, do you know where he is now?"

"No."

"Alecto Carrow, do you know where he would have gone?"

"He may have gone to Riddle Manor."

"Alecto Carrow, where is Riddle Manor?"

"Atop the hill overlooking Little Hangleton, England."

The Judge looked to the warriors that were standing at the side of the hall and gave them a nod. Swiftly and silently they made their way out. Everyone knew where they were going.

"Alecto Carrow, how did you get goblin friend, Hadrian Potter-Black, into the Triwizard Tournament?"

"Igor Karkaroff put his name into the cup."

All those in the stands were shocked. Viktor hadn't thought that his headmaster would do something like that. Hadrian and his family were all surprised because they hadn't thought Karkaroff would have worked for the man. According to the journals, Karkaroff had fled and been killed by Death Eater's last time. It had never occurred to them that he would help them.

"Alecto Carrow, how did the Triwizard cup become a portkey?"

"Igor Karkaroff spelled it when he volunteered to place it in the maze."

"Alecto Carrow, where is Igor Karkaroff now?"

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"Alecto Carrow, why did you kidnap goblin friend, Hadrian Potter-Black, and his allies?"

"He was to be used in a ritual to bring back my Lord. We were going to sacrifice him for our Lords resurrection."

"Alecto Carrow, did you plan to kill goblin friend, Hadrian Potter-Black?"

"Yes."

"Alecto Carrow, did you plan to kill goblin friend Hadrian Potter-Black's allies, Cedric Diggory, Fleur Delacour, and Viktor Krum, and if so, why?"

"Yes. We were to kill anyone that got between us and Hadrian Potter-Black."

"Alecto Carrow, are you admitting to the planned attack and attempted murder of goblin friend Hadrian Potter-Black and his allies Cedric Diggory, Fleur Delacour, and Viktor Krum?"

"Yes."

Grimfang then went through and asked all the others the same questions. All gave the same answers. Once it was all done, the judge called attention back to himself.

"Alecto Carrow, Amycus Carrow, Thorfinn Rowle, and Walden Mcnair, all of you have been found guilty for attacking the goblin nation and the attempted murder of an honorary member of the goblin nation. As such you are each sentenced to 200 years in the goblin mines, your magic shall be bound, and your assets shall be seized and divided amongst the goblin nation and those to whom you intended harm.

This ends the sentencing of Alecto Carrow, Amycus Carrow, Thorfinn Rowle, and Walden Mcnair. This case is closed. No considerations shall be aloud, and there will be no chance of reduction of sentence. Guards, take them to the mines."

Everyone watched as the four were removed from the court room. Ragnock invited them all back to his office so that he could explain a few things to them.

Hogwarts

Filius Flitwick was not happy. Normally he could make the best of any situation, but right now he was furious.

One of his students had been forced to compete in an extremely dangerous tournament for the entertainment of others. Now, that same student, as well as all the others, had been kidnapped. And there was nothing he could do.

He had just managed to get all of his students, minus one, into his house to request that they stay calm and stay safe. No one yet knew just how the others were kidnapped and he wasn't going to risk any of his other students. Once all the students were safely inside the entrance was sealed. It was one of the schools defences in the event of something like this. All students were sealed in their dorms that only a head of house or the headmaster could bypass until it was determined the rest of the students were safe.

He knew that his students were worried, but he didn't know what to tell them. One of their own was in danger and he didn't know how to help. The aurors had sent everyone away so he couldn't even track the portkey residue.

Filius was going to see if there was anything he could do to help when a house elf popped up next to him and told him that there were goblins at the front gate demanding to speak with him. Filius made his way down to the gate as fast as he could.

"How may I help you?" Filius asked after he bowed and formally greeted each of the goblins.

"We are here to arrest Igor Karkaroff for the kidnapping and assisting in the attempted murder of goblin friend Hadrian Potter-Black." The lead warrior informed him as Filius lead them to the Durmstrang boat.

"Attempted? Hadrian is ok? The others?" Filius was desperate for information.

"Yes, all are well and attending the sentencing of the other kidnappers. After they are subjected to one last scan by Healer Cora they will be released."

"Do their families know? They disappeared from the school rather quickly."

"Yes, their families are with them and will most likely be returning with them."

Filius and the warriors went onto the boat to find the headmaster, but he wasn't there. The students told them that he never came back from the third task. Even with that the goblins still searched the boat, but found no evidence of where he may have gone.

Filius calmed the Durmstrang students by telling them that their classmate was fine and would be back soon before he followed the goblins off the boat. The goblins all stared up at the school and looked around the ground, there weren't enough of them to properly search and they told Filius so.

"Otis." Filius called.

The aged head house elf popped into view right next to him. "Duel Master Flitwick calls for Otis?"

"Otis, we have an enemy that has endangered the students. Can you have the house elves check the school and grounds for any trace of Igor Karkaroff?"

You wouldn't think that a house elf could look vicious, but Otis did upon hearing that there was a danger to the students. "It shall be done."

"Come, join me in my office while they search." Filius guided the goblins to his office.

All knew that if the man was on school grounds the elves would find him. Goblins understood the loyalty of house elves. They might not understand their life style, but they understood their fierce devotion to what they considered theirs.

It took only about 20 minutes before Otis popped into Filius's office.

"Duel Master Flitwick I is sorry to report that Igor Karkaroff is not on school grounds. We elves's found traces of his magic leading from the quidditch stadium to the front gate and out into Hogsmeade. The traces were faint and we's believe he left as soon as the students's was taken." Otis hung his head.

"Thank you for your information and work head elf Otis. It has helped our hunt greatly." The lead goblin bowed to the house elf. He was not willing to disrespect one who saved them time and gave them a new lead at the same time. "We shall continue to track our enemy."

"Allow me to show you out." Filius added his thanks for the elves work before escorting the goblins out.

Gringotts

"Ragnock, is there any word on Barty Crouch Jr.?" James asked as soon as they were in the office.

"Unfortunately no. The manor is abandoned. The same for Igor Karkaroff. Our warriors went to Hogwarts and searched. Traces of his magic were found leading away from Hogwarts. The man seemed to have fled. Have no fear, we shall hunt them until they are retrieved, one way or another.

Now, something else to worry about. Cora has insisted on giving all of you a health scan before she will let any of you leave, and I am not brave enough to tell her no."

Apolline chuckled as she saw the goblin admit he feared his pregnant wife. She had always known goblins, although obsessed with fighting, were a wise race. "I think that will be fine."

"Chief Ragnock, I was wondering, what did the judge mean about their assets being seized?" Cedric questioned.

"In the goblin nation any crime results in the loss of all monetary assets that are then given to the victims." Ragnock took the legal file on his desk while his wife started her scans. "Between the four of them they had... 3.82 million galleons. As such, each of the four of you, and the bank, shall be receiving... 764,046 galleons each. I will need to get your vault numbers to have the money transferred in." Ragnock announced.

Everyone just stared at him for a moment.

"Are you serious?" Viktor questioned in shock.

Although he was doing just fine financially now, he hadn't grown up wealthy. Even now, that was still a lot of money. Even the highest paid quidditch players only made a maximum of about 200,000 galleons per year.

"No, I'm Sirius." Sirius said on instinct.

Everyone chuckled softly when Remus cuffed the man upside the head.

"You're really giving us that much money?" Cedric questioned.

Like Viktor, Cedric had never had that kind of money. Although his family lived comfortably on the profit from the little antiques shop his dad's family owned, that was more than they got in 5 years.

"Yes, it is rightfully yours as one of the intended victims." Ragnok told him patiently. He understood that it was a lot of money to some.

Fleur was a little startled, but she had grown up in a wealthy family, so that much money was less surprising to her. Her mum had always insisted that she wasn't just a pretty face and had had her helping her with the businesses they owned since she was 14. She knew that her families income was close to 5 million galleons per year.

For Hadrian, it wasn't nearly as valuable. Since the goblins had gotten the idea of using something like credit cards from him, he got a portion of the profit. That profit easily totalled 2 million galleons per year. Added to that was the businesses he owned from his inheritance plus the investments he had the goblins make with his account. All in all, Hadrian made well over 10 million galleons per year.

"What about their families?" Cedric worried. He didn't know if any of them had families that would need the money.

"Only Alecto and Amycus Carrow had any remaining family. They had a younger brother, but he walked away from the family when he came of age. He has refused to have anything to do with his elder siblings since that day. Even if you offered him the money I doubt he would accept." Ragnock said.

"Yes, he would refuse. Aaron Carrow is a good man." Sirius said, he had known him when they were kids, though Aaron was a few years younger. "His wife is a muggleborn who's entire family was killed by the Death Eaters."

"Doesn't he have kids at the school?" Remus questioned.

"Yes, twin girls. Hestia and Flora. They're second year Slytherins." Severus answered. "I agree with Sirius. Aaron Carrow swore he would never accept anything from his family. I think the only reason he kept the last name was because of his grandfather who had always protected him."

The other three champions gave Ragnock their vault information, he didn't need Hadrian's as he already knew it, so that he could arrange for the money transfer. After that was all done it was time for the students to head back to Hogwarts. Cora had given them all a clean bill of health, other than Ariadne being in the beginning stages of a cold, for which she got a potion.

Hogwarts

Everyone tiredly made their way back to the school. Between the task, the graveyard, arriving at the bank, the healing ward, waiting for their families, the sentencing, and then the explanations in Ragnocks office it was late. It was almost 3 am.

They were all exhausted and breakfast started in 4 hours. Severus had told them they could all sleep in, but they wanted to be at breakfast in the morning. Amelia was going to be attending so she could tell the entire school what had happened. They all wanted to be there for that, also to let their friends know they were fine.

Since both Barty Crouch and Igor Karkaroff had escaped it was still classified as an open case they weren't aloud to talk about it. Amelia was going to tell the students and staff what they were legally aloud to know. She hoped that that would keep the students from harassing the four champions to tell them what happened.

Severus was going to arrange guest quarters for Amelia as well as the families of the other champions. He knew they would want to be close to their children, but all four wanted to be able to spend their last few days of school with their friends.

Since Viktor, Fleur, and Cedric were all seventh years they would officially be done with school in two days. Their families had all agreed to allow them to stay until the end of the school year. Both Viktor's and Fleur's families were planning on returning to their home countries with their school delegations. It had taken more than a little negotiation by Cedric and Hadrian to get their parents to agree to letting them ride the train home.

They all knew that it was going to be an interesting few months until they could convince their families they were safe.

Arriving at the school they were met at the gate by Filius. He had been waiting there since he heard that the students would be returning. Filius had wanted to make sure for himself that they were fine.

"Are you sure you're all ok?" Filius squeaked as he led them up the path to the school.

"Yes Filius." Severus smiled, he was grateful that Filius showed such care to his students, especially since his son was one of those students. "We were all given medical exams before we were aloud to leave. The only thing we learned was Ariadne is getting a cold, but we gave her the potion to stop it."

"Can you tell me anything? I know the goblin warriors were here but couldn't find Igor." The curiosity was killing Filius.

"I will be making a public announcement at breakfast tomorrow." Amelia said. "Due to the escapes it is still an open case so everyone has been requested not to speak of the specifics of the case."

Filius nodded. He knew that there were some things that just needed to stay private, especially when it came to investigation. He also knew that he was going to have to speak to his house. Sometimes their curiosity and drive to learn could be a curse.

"Here." Severus handed out potions. "These are double sleep potions that I picked up from Cora. Take them just as you go to bed and it will allow you to get twice the amount of rest, so the four hours we have left will seem like eight."

"Why don't we get these more. This would make studying so much easier." Cedric had wished he had something like this when he was prepping for his OWLs and NEWTs.

"Because if taken more than once a month it loses its effectiveness. It can also risk addiction if taken more than three times in a year." Severus informed him. He didn't want any of them getting any ideas about using potions like this.

The students all took their potions and, after being practically hugged to death by their families, headed for their beds. Severus, as deputy headmaster, guided the other families to the rooms he was having the castle and elves arrange for them while the students were escorted away by the others.

Durmstrang Ship

Viktor was escorted to the ship by the little professor. Once he was there safe he bid the others goodnight. Fleur had walked down with them and was now being escorted to the Beauxbatons carriage.

Making his way onto the ship, Viktor went to make his way to his small room as quietly as he could. But there was a light glowing in the communal living area.

"What are you still doing up?" Viktor questioned when he saw that every single Durmstrang student was sitting there talking.

"Goblins came to search for Headmaster Karkaroff." One said.

"What is going on? Was he involved?" Another questioned in their native language.

Viktor thought. He knew he couldn't give specifics, but he knew they wouldn't settle for nothing. He needed to say something, and he knew just what it was.

"Karkaroff is no longer one of us. He broke the code and attacked one of our own without honour."

Durmstrang had very strict rules. One of the most important was that when in someone else's territory you never attacked one of your own. Another was that if you were going to attack one of your own you never did it behind their back. It was fine to dishonour an enemy, but never one of your own.

By attacking him the way he had, risking his death, Karkaroff had betrayed the rules all those of Durmstrang knew from half way through their first year. Karkaroff was now the enemy. He would never find comfort or safety with any from Durmstrang again.

The other students just nodded their understanding before silently making their way to bed. There really wasn't anything to say. Their headmaster had shown he had no honour, and by fleeing, proven he was a coward.

Any respect they may have once had for the man was now gone. But for now, bed was more important.

Beauxbatons Carriage

Fleur slowly walked up the few steps into the carriage. She smiled when she saw many of the others passed out sleeping on the floor and couches in the main area. It would seem they had been waiting for her.

Going further back into the carriage she pressed a button next to the largest door. It was their headmistresses room. Madame Maxime had set it up so they could get her whenever they needed her. The button would set off an alarm in her room.

"Yes. What is wrong?" Madame Maxime yawned as she opened her door, then she spotted who it was. "Fleur my darling. Are you ok? What happened?"

"I'm Fine Madame Maxine. So are the others. I can't really tell you anything about what happened because it's still an open case. It will all be explained at breakfast in the morning. I just wanted to let you know that I was back." Fleur told her as she yawned.

"Thank you for letting me know, now, off to bed. You must be exhausted."

Fleur didn't even think to argue and just made her way to her room.

Hufflepuff Common Room

Professor Black escorted Cedric to his common room. It seemed none of the adults were going to take any chances with them.

Cedric made his way into his common room only to see a large number of his housemates cuddled up on the couches while Professor Sprout was trying to comfort them. None seemed to have noticed him coming in, to caught up in their fear.

"Shouldn't everyone be in bed? It is way past bedtime, and there are exams starting in a few hours." Cedric said, drawing everyones attention.

Everyone rushed forward to hug him. Cedric wondered if he had survived Death Eaters just to be smothered to death by Hufflepuff's.

"Everyone sit down. Let him breathe." Professor Sprout smiled. "Cedric, what happened? Are you ok? What about the others?"

"I'm fine. So are the others." Cedric smiled. "I actually can't tell you guys anything. I know, I know." Everyone had groaned. "It's an on going case so Madame Bones has requested that we not say anything. She will be announcing everything at breakfast tomorrow, so if you guys want to know whats going on we better get to bed."

Pomona was pleased as she saw her students make their way to their dorms without too much fuss. All making sure to let Cedric know they were happy he was safe. She had been trying to get everyone to bed for over an hour but understood why they were all so upset.

Once the common room was empty Cedric started to head for his room, before he looked back at his head of house. "Goodnight professor."

In his dorm Neville let out a sigh of relief. Hadrian was safe.

Ravenclaw Common Room

James walked Hadrian up to his dorm. Both were quiet as they thought about everything that had happened. Hadrian was glad that things had worked out so well given how bad it could have turned out. They all could have been killed, instead they were all safe and four Death Eaters were now being punished for their crimes, and Voldemort hadn't been able to return. James just kept going back to how his son could have been killed. He knew that Hadrian had always seemed older than he was given his past, but he was still only 14.

"I'm fine dad." Hadrian said as they reached the entrance.

"I know. It was just scary. I know you had plans, but you will never understand just how it felt to watch you disappear like that and know there was nothing I could do to stop it." James's voice held his fear. "It's just going to take some time until You're papa and I are ready to trust that you are safe."

They hugged goodnight and Hadrian went inside.

James turned slowly and headed back towards the exit. While the other families would be staying in guest quarters at the school James and the rest of their family would be going to their homes. They were just going to floo back in to Sev's office in the morning to be there for breakfast.

It had been decided that it was best to take the girls home and let them sleep in their own beds. There was no need to disrupt their routine any more than they had to.

There were more than a few ravens up studying. They all looked up when he walked in. Both Padma and Luna ran over to hug him.

"You guys do know it's after 3 am right?" Hadrian looked around.

"We couldn't sleep so we decided to study." Theo told him around a yawn.

Hadrian held up his hand before anyone could start asking questions. "Madame Bones is going to be explaining things tomorrow morning... So if you want to know you will have to go to bed so you can get up for breakfast." Hadrian smiled, he knew the drive to know would force them all to bed.

With a few grumbles everyone started to get up and go to bed. They were all exhausted anyway, they just hadn't been able to sleep out of worry. Now that they knew Hadrian and the others were safe they might be able to get a few hours of sleep.

Just as Hadrian was getting into bed he realized that, while Neville would know because of Cedric, none of his friends in Slytherin or Gryffindor knew that they were safe. He quickly wrote out a few notes and called a house elf.

He asked the elf to deliver the notes. If they were awake just hand them the note, and if they were asleep then just leave it on their bedside table.

Hadrian didn't know it, but the elf delivered each note in to the hands of its recipient. It was only after reading the notes that Draco, Lily, and Autumn were able to go to bed and actually fall asleep.

Great Hall - June 29, 2005

Albus was sitting in his throne like chair looking out at the students. He was already planning on what he was going to say to the students. They needed to believe that he was sad about the, more than likely, chance that the champions had all been killed.

Most of last night had been spent hunting down Igor. The man had been clever, but not clever enough.

Igor had ran when he had seen Albus's reaction to the disappearance of the champions. He had finally realized that he had been played. Albus had known that the man was a liability so he had started to track his magical signature, making sure to erase his own. It took a lot of power to fully erase ones magical signature, but it had been worth it.

Now, although he was exhausted, and had to take multiple wide eye potions just to get out of bed, Igor was dead. Albus had made it look like a drunken accident. The man was floating down the river just outside of Hogsmeade. Depending on when he was discovered, if ever, it would be impossible to link it back to him.

All he needed to do now was get everything in order with the aurors. He wished that Amelia Bones hadn't gotten involved, but he was sure that he could get her on his side. After all, her brother and his wife had been kidnapped by the man. Surely he could sway her to his side once Voldemort made his resurrection known.

Albus wondered just how Voldemort was going to return. Igor had told him that he had had some sort of ritual, but since Albus had lost his library when the pub burned down he didn't know what it was. He knew about the horcruxs, but it really irritated him not to know about the ritual.

The more he thought about it the more he thought of just how much he didn't know. Albus had always prided himself on knowing exactly what was going on and who was involved, but in this he was almost clueless.

He didn't know who else was involved. He didn't know where the ritual was being performed. He didn't know what was going to happen with the bodies. He didn't know what the aurors were doing.

He needed to get control. But, with the death of their saviour the public would be weak and open to his guidance. Like sheep in need of their shepherd.

Through all of his musings he never noticed that there was an extra table set up.

When the champions all woke up they knew what they were to do. Sending their friends on ahead, they went to meet up with their parents and Madame Bones. They were all going to go to the great hall. Everyone was all still tired, but thanks to the potions they weren't exhausted.

Amelia came out of her room going over copies of the different reports that had been filed by her aurors. There wasn't much more information. They had people out looking for both Barty and Karkaroff, but they weren't having any luck. She knew that the goblins were also in search of the two and they would let her know if they found anything.

After having a few quick words with each other, they all headed down.

The great hall was quiet as the students whispered to each other. All trying to figure out what was happening. Half of the student body already knew that the champions were safe but weren't talking about it out of respect for what they had been told the night before. The other half of the school knew something was going on, but didn't know what it was.

Albus had just gotten his speech worked out in his head and his sad face on and started to get up to call the attention of the students when Amelia led her party into the great hall. There was chaos.

Most of the Gryffindors and Slytherins were surprised to see the missing champions. Many were glad they were safe, but there were a few that weren't impressed. Some of the children of Death Eaters had heard over Yule break that something was happening, but it was clear whatever it was had failed since the champions all looked unhurt, Potter-Black especially.

There were a few students that wanted to get up and rush to the champions, but they knew from the look on Madame Bones's face, as well as the head shake from the champions, that they needed to stay put. So everyone just watched as the group all walked up to the front of the hall.

"Amelia, I see you found our lost students." Albus smiled, trying to pretend that he was happy.

Albus couldn't believe it. The brat was alive and he was here. Voldemort was supposed to kill him, not let him come back to the school. Then there was the involvement of Amelia. Amelia and the DMLE being involved was the last thing he needed.

If he had managed to get one of his people in charge of the investigation then he would be able to direct them in the wrong direction. But no, Amelia seemed to have taken over the case. Which meant he would have no control over the investigation. Amelia just didn't listen properly.

He had spent so much time the night before getting rid of the loose end known as Igor, so he hadn't been able to check in on who the DMLE had sent to his school. After all the work of cleaning up his magical signiture he had been so exhausted he had gone straight to bed.

"Actually they found us." Amelia gave him a frigid smile before she turned to address everyone. "As you can all see, your fellow classmates have returned safe and sound.

It was decided that I would tell you everything you need to know. This is still an open case so the others aren't aloud to give anyone specifics of the case. But we all do understand that you would be curious so I will tell you what I can. I would request that you not question the others on what happened last night, at least until the case is closed.

Now, as you all know at the end of the third task all four champions disappeared after taking the triwizard cup. That is because the cup was a portkey. They were taken to an undisclosed location where there were 5 Death Eaters waiting.

As we had suspected the entrance of Hadrian Potter-Black into the tournament was a set up. Thankfully this attack had been suspected not only by us but by the champions themselves. Working together they managed to escape unharmed.

Four of the Death Eaters have already been apprehended. One did manage to escape and a search has already been organized. He is not believed to be anywhere near the school, but we will be keeping an eye on things just to be safe. His name is Bartemius Crouch Jr. and his photo will be made public in the papers.

Also, it would appear that Headmaster Igor Karkaroff also played a part in what happened last night and is wanted for questioning. If any of you have any information please speak with myself or one of the aurors here at the school.

With all that said, please go back to enjoying your breakfast."

The hall had been nearly completely silent as Amelia had spoken, but as soon as she finished the students started whispering with their friends filling the room with a dull roar.

While their families sat at the extra table that the elves had set up for them, all four champions went and sat together at the Ravenclaw table. Luna had spoken to a few of the others, so there was plenty of room for them. Many of the Ravenclaws had understood that the champions would most likely prefer to stay together so they were sitting with friends at other tables.

Draco, Neville, Fred, George, Autumn, Lily, and Fey had all sat at the Ravenclaw table when they entered. Luna had also warned them that the champions would all be sitting at the blue table. Everyone had been understanding for the most part.

It took Albus a few moments before he forced himself to work through everything he had just learned. He was ready to start screaming and cursing everyone in sight.

Not only were his own people proving useless, Voldemort's were as well. How had those fools not only failed to kill the brat, but got caught? He needed information. Wy hadn't any of his people informed him?

Sure, he had closed and locked his office when he had returned, but they still could have sent him a letter. Didn't anyone understand the importance of information like that? Now, because he hadn't been warned he was going to have to completely rework his plans again.

Everything he had been working on had relied on the brats death, but no. The brat just had to survive. Albus was ready to kill the boy himself just to make sure he did what he wanted, but no... He needed to keep a cool head. In spite of everything the brat was still the peoples hero. If he could just gain control of him then he would be able to follow his original plans. But how?

Everything he had been doing for years hadn't worked. The brat just wasn't what he had intended. Why oh why did the Dursley's have to lose the boy. It had taken him so many years, but he had finally managed to track them down and learn that the brat had run away when he was only 5. They were supposed to have kept the boy imprisoned.

But, no? They had lost the boy only four years after he had delivered him to them. And they hadn't bothered to inform him. He had made them suffer for that failure. It was just unfortunate that he hadn't been able to kill them like they had deserved for destroying his plans. He hadn't wanted there to be any more attention paid to them, and if they had been found dead there was a risk that somehow the brat or his family would learn of it.

Albus just sat and stared. This summer he was going to have to work hard to get everything back the way he wanted it. He remembered Molly whining to him that the DCW hadn't done anything with her reports of child abuse agains Severus, Sebastian, Remus, and Sirius. He was going to have to speak to the Wizengamot about the DCW not properly doing their job.

If it worked out properly then he might manage to discredit both the DCW and the brats so called family. He knew Molly wanted custody of the boy, but Albus wasn't sure. If Ron and Ginny were the best examples of her parenting ability then he really didn't want her anywhere near the boy. He needed the brat weak and subservient.

Albus was honestly starting to question his original plan of using Molly and Ron. So far, he wasn't willing to give up on his plans of marrying the boy to Ginny. The girl was overbearing and controlling like her mother and as long as he was the one to dictate the terms of their marriage contract he knew he would be able to control them both.

But he was still wary. None of his plans had been working the way he wanted. He didn't want to risk another public backlash if things didn't go the way he wanted. He was going to have to find someone that he could use to get the job done, but still allow him some deniability just in case things went wrong.

And through all this, he needed to figure out what to say to the students.

Albus pulled the world back into focus just to hear the students cheer. Looking around he saw that that idiot, Ludo Bagman, was announcing the final scores of the tournament. The man was covered in a thin sheen of sweat. Albus knew that the man was now in debt with the goblins.

At least he knew the man was going to suffer after taking his spotlight. Albus knew good and well that Ludo had every last galleon he had, and much more, riding on the out come of this tournament. And, judging by his shifting eyes, and the dark circles underneath them, he had just lost it all. The goblins weren't going to be kind.

Although the students were happy that Hogwarts had ultimately won, there were many that were still angry about the four champions taking the cup together. No one yet understood why they had. Even Albus was confused by that. Didn't those children understand the kind of glory they had given up by going about things the way they had? Now they had to share.

Albus watched and listened as Ludo finished his announcement and retook his seat. It was his time to regain the students attention.

"Yes, yes. Well done my boys. This evenings dinner shall be a grand feast." Albus announced as he grinned at them all. "Now, while I do understand that last evening was more than a little dramatic, many of you still have exams to finish up so I shall only wish you all good luck."

After that many of the students had to tiredly go to take their exams.

Study Nook

Hadrian met the other champions in the study nook just before lunch. There was plenty of things that needed to be discussed.

Cedric had arrived around the same time given that he managed to finish the written part of his transfiguration exam early, he would be doing the practical portion after lunch. Both Fleur and Viktor had had to do their WOMBATs. The WOMBATs or the Wizards' Ordinary Magic and Basic Aptitude Test, were the equivalent of the NEWTs in the wider world. While there were a few countries that had their own systems like Britain with the OWLs and NEWTs, most countries used the WOMBATs that were administered by the ICW.

The four all talked about when they were going to release the information about why they had all taken the cup at the same time. After discussing it they had all agreed that they wanted to do it at the time that would do the most damage. They were all more than a little disgruntled at what had happened to them and wanted Dumbledore to pay for what he had done that year.

Eventually they agreed that the information would be released before the Wizengamot meeting during the summer. That would not only make him look incredibly bad, but it would also distract him. Hadrian had told the others that his dad, who he referred to as Sebastian, was planning to put forward a major bill. If they threw Dumbledore off balance there was an even better chance of the bill going through.

After their timing was decided they all carried on with their day.

Great Hall

After the students had finished a long day of exams everyone congregated in the great hall for dinner. Everyone was thrilled. Their exams were finished, they would be going home tomorrow before lunch, and it was the awards feast for the Triwizard tournament. This was a feast for so many reasons.

Everyone was still gossiping about what they had learned at lunch. While the Daily Prophet had been delivered at breakfast like usual, The Seer hadn't. Hadrian and the other champions had all assumed, correctly, that the Lovegood's had held off on publishing until after Tamsin managed to get everything in order for her report on the goblin trial.

At lunch The Seer was delivered. And, as suspected, when the paper was delivered the entire front page was covered in what had happened the evening before. The rest of the hall had been stunned when they saw that it hadn't been the aurors that had captured the Death Eater's, but the goblins.

Everyone was a little stunned when they read the sentences. While everyone had expected a harsh punishment, it was from the goblins after all, they hadn't realized just how harsh they would be. Then there was the part about the assets being seized. No one knew just how much they had, but they were all from older lines so they believed that it would be a lot.

Severus had written to Aaron Carrow on the request of the champions to see how he felt about his elder siblings assets being seized. Arron had written back quickly letting Severus know that he was actually happy with how things had worked out. He truly wanted nothing to do with his older siblings and was more than pleased to know they were finally being punished. He had encouraged the champions to spend every last knut of the money they were given.

Hadrian sighed slightly as he heard the whispers of envy coming from a few of the other students, the two youngest Weasley's in particular. Didn't they understand that he had gotten that money because someone had tried to kill him, again.

Hadrian rested his head on Marie's shoulder as he listened to the droning speeches. It seemed there were more than a few ministry officials that had wanted to attend the awards ceremony. This included the Minister of Magic himself, Cornelius Fudge, who spent over 20 minutes using a lot of words to say nothing. All the students were getting frustrated. Each speech just meant they had to wait longer for food.

When it finally came time to accept their awards the four champions all went to the front of the hall and quickly accepted their awards, Hadrian and Cedric accepting a bag of 500 galleons each. Both were a little startled when they were told to make a speech, they had never been warned of that.

Cedric was the one that stepped forward. "We thank you for the award. Although, I think we're all still more than a little angry about Hadrian being force to compete, along with the travesty that was the second task. Other than that, we're hungry. Dinner started over an hour ago and we still haven't gotten any food, so if you all could hurry this along that would be great."

After that all four champions returned to their places and picked up their silverware just to emphasize their point. A few of the other officials and Dumbledore started trying to speak but all the other students joined the champions in picking up their silverware and started a rhythmic banging on the tables drowning them out. Laughing, Sirius stood up.

"Will all you pompous windbags please shut up. I can't speak for the other professors, but i am starving. Either I get food or you're all going back in the lake."

The students all cheered at that. It finally became enough and all the so called windbags sat down and the feast began.

Eventually, all good things must come to an end. As the last of the desserts faded away Dumbledore once again stood up and called all the attention to himself.

"Now that we have finished that fantastic meal there are a few last minute things that must be addressed.

First, a general reminder. The train leaves at 11 sharp. So make sure you have everything packed and ready to go.

Second, once again I will congratulate all four champions for their exemplary performance. And of course to Hufflepuff for winning the house cup this year.

And finally, on a more somber note, we all must prepare. Last nights drama was caused by Lord Voldemort attempting to return to our world. We all must be on guard. Just because he failed last night doesn't mean he won't try again."

The students all just stared at the headmaster as he spent the next ten minutes going over how he believed Voldemort was going to return and that they needed to start to prepare. He encouraged the students to start working together to gather as much information as they could.

Through the entire speech Fudge looked like he was having an apoplectic fit. His little sycophant, Deloris Umbridge, who was sitting next to him was even angrier. Unfortunately for them McGonagall and Moody had both cast silencing spells on them to keep them silent and sticking charms to keep them in their chairs.

They had had to sit through Dumbledore's entire speech silently screaming at the man as they tried to pry themselves off their chairs. When they had seen what the others had done the three Tonks's worked together to cast multiple notice-me-not's on them so none of the students would notice. It would give the students the impression that the ministry was supporting Dumbledore in what he was saying.

Once Albus had finished his speech he sent the students off. He didn't want to give anyone else the chance to talk. He knew Fudge and the other ministry officials would contradict him and he couldn't have that. The students needed to believe in Voldemort's return so that they would look to him to save them.

Everyone left the hall, all having plenty to gossip about. No one bothering to release Fudge or Umbridge. Most didn't notice them thanks to the spells, and those that did just didn't care.

Headmasters Office

Hadrian sighed deeply as he made his way up the stairs to the headmasters office. He had been sitting with his friend when one of the seventh year Gryffindor prefects had tracked him down and told him that the Headmaster was demanding his presence, although he said ask rather than demand, it had been clear he wasn't being given an option.

At first Hadrian had said he would just go and get his head of house and uncles, but the prefect had been instructed that they wouldn't be needed. Hadrian had had to settle for motioning his friends to go, he knew they would go and get his family to make sure he wouldn't be left alone for any length of time with Dumbledore.

"You wanted to see me headmaster." Hadrian said in a formal voice as he stepped into the office.

"Yes, yes my boy. That will be all Mr. Tucker." Albus twinkled at the prefect as he sent him on his way. Once he was gone he turned back to the stubborn brat. "Now, Harry my boy, there are a couple things I feel we need to discuss. Please, have a seat."

Hadrian cautiously went to sit in the seat he was directed too. The reason he was so on edge was that all three Tonks's were in the office and were sitting in front of the desk. The chair he had been motioned towards sat between Andromeda and Nymphadora. He didn't trust anyone in this office, all he could hope was that if anything happened Headmaster Black would go to one of his other portraits to warn his family to help him.

"Lemon drop?" Albus offered and was refused like usual once the brat sat down, oh how he wished the brat would just take the sweets. "Well then, I'm sure you are wondering why I asked you up here.

Like I announced at the feast, Voldemort is attempting to return to our world, and I have no doubt that it is only a matter of time before he is successful unfortunately. As much as we all might wish it wasn't so. You will need to start preparing."

"Why would I need to prepare for anything?" Hadrian interrupted. "I am a fourteen year old student, not an auror."

"I know my dear boy, I do understand you're young, but you have a destiny to fulfill. I can't explain everything to you yet, you're still too young, but I can say that you are destined to be the one to defeat him. I think we might need to start private lessons for you this summer. You will come and meet me ad the Lion's Den a few days a week and we will come up here to the school to work on your spell work. I know that it will mean giving up part of your summer, but it really is for the greater good my boy. But don't worry, I will allow Ms. Granger and the two younger Weasleys to attend your lessons with you so you aren't alone."

Hadrian just stared open mouthed at the old goat for a moment. "Are you out of your mind? That's it isn't it, you've flipped your lid.

I am too young to know what's going on, but old enough to kill a man. How does that make any sense? Again, I am fourteen years old. It is not my job to fight zombie dark lords, that is the job of the adults of this world, and aurors. You know, like Ms. Tonks, someone who trained to deal with criminals, unless you're saying you don't have faith in her capabilities."

Albus glanced at Nymphadora. He could clearly see the boy had boxed him into a corner. If he said that he didn't think the aurors could deal with it it would insult Nymphadora. If he said they could, then the boy would use that as a reason to leave it up to them.

"It doesn't really matter regardless, it is your destiny my boy." Albus said.

Hadrian couldn't help himself. He broke down laughing.

"This isn't funny young man." Ted Tonks huffed. "You have responsibilities to this world."

Hadrian suddenly sobered. "Yes, I do have responsibilities. But none of those currently are to save those that are so pathetically weak as to turn to a student to save them. My responsibilities are the same as every other student in this school. I need to do my homework and maintain my grades.

Like I said, I'm not the auror in the room. It is not my job to arrest criminals. I am not going to go looking for a fight if I don't have to. I think all of you might need to take a long hard look in a mirror and question yourselves as to just why it is that you look to a child to save you, and then ask yourself, if you aren't willing to try and save yourself, do you really think your worth saving?

I will be 16 in a little over a year and then I will be able to take my place in the Wizengamot. Once I'm there I will see what I can do to implement criminal reform, but other than that I really don't see anything else I can do to help you."

Albus withheld a growl. The boy was being difficult again. He had hoped that what had happened the day before would scare the boy into being more agreeable, but apparently not. He was going to have to figure this out. Maybe if he used the abuse claims Molly had been filing to get the boy away from those fools he would finally be able to get him to take stronger versions of the potions that he didn't seem to be responding to.

Once he managed to get control of the boy he would be able to fix things. It never occurred to Albus as he thought and planned just how many times he had thought the exact same things only to fail.

Maybe the boy would be more responsive after Voldemort had returned. "We shall leave that be for the time being my boy. Now, the other reason I wanted to speak to you is the Black title."

"Shouldn't you speak to Uncle Siri about that. You know... Lord Black." Hadrian said in a quizzical voice. he really didn't understand what they were trying to accomplish.

"I must agree." Came Sirius's growl from the door to the office as it opened to reveal both him and Severus. Both clearly furious.

"What do you think you are doing Albus? You know damn well that you aren't aloud to meet with students, Hadrian especially, without a parent, guardian, or head of house. I have already warned you about doing something like this." Severus walked into the office and stood behind his son.

"Now Severus my boy, I just wanted to have a few words with Harry." Albus was really getting sick of Severus's disregard for him.

"That changes nothing. There are rules, you are not above them. Hadrian, and yes, his name is Hadrian, is a student of this school and as such any interactions you have with him fall under the school rules." Severus snapped. "We have discussed this before, you know the rules. Senility is not a good enough excuse."

Albus ground his teeth. But before he could say anything Sirius stepped forward.

"I would like to know just why it is you felt the need to discuss my title with my heir Albus?"

"It's just that he is still a student. I feel that it is just too much pressure for one young boy. It really would be for the greater good if you passed the title on to Nymphadora and Andromeda. They would be able to properly manage the title while you focused on your daughters and Harry focused on school."

"Oh, so having titles is to much pressure for me but you think it's my responsibility to kill a man that's already been killed." Hadrian said sarcastically under his breath.

"That is something that we will be discussing, and don't you think other wise." Sirius snapped, glaring at the headmaster when he heard his godsons words. "But, right now we are focused on the title.

As we all know, the Black title is passed down the male line. I might feel that that is sexist, but it doesn't change anything. No female can claim the title. So just how do you figure I could pass the title to Andromeda or Nymphadora? Not that I would even consider it."

"Nymphadora will be getting married soon and it would be for the best for her son to inherit the title. Since the Blacks are known for their metamorphmagus abilities, and Nymphadora has the trait, and more than likely her son will too, the title should go to her child. It really is for the best my boy." Albus gave a grandfatherly smile.

"That won't happen." Sirius said simply.

"Really Sirius, you know that the Black family would be better served by Nymphadora's son." Andromeda huffed. "She could at least start to restore prestige to the family. Get it away from the disgrace it has been in the past.

Sirius glared. "I don't see why you would want to have the title given your complete lack of respect for the family, but then I remember just who you are. This is nothing but a pathetic money and power grab and even a blind man could see that Andy.

But, like I said, it will never happen. First off, for that to happen I would have to abdicate my position and declare a new heir. And again, the heir would have to be a male. Not a potential male child, but one that has already been born.

Then there is the fact that you were disowned Andy. The only way your daughter, or imaginary grandson, could inherit was if you were brought back into the family along with your daughter. And while I might be willing to do that, there are very strict rules on how that could be done.

To fully return to the family you would have to annul your marriage. Not simply divorce, but annul. That would mean that it would be like the marriage never existed. Luckily for you, Narcissa fulfilled your open marriage contract, or else you would have had to.

But, the thing is, only a legitimate child, with the last name of Black, can inherit. Since you would have to annul your marriage that would mean that Nymphadora would then be seen as illegitimate, and, both she, and any child she had, wouldn't be accepted as lord or heir."

When Sirius finished his explanation the others in the office all just stared. Even Hadrian and Severus were slightly surprised by all that.

"So you're just going to give the title away?" Andromeda demanded in fury before she waved to Hadrian. "He isn't even a Black."

"He is more of a Black than you." Sirius snapped. "You turned your back on this family long ago, you don't get to make decisions for it now. We both know that all you want is the money and seat on the Wizengamot Andromeda, it's all you ever wanted."

Hadrian knew that he needed to interrupt this, if he didn't Sirius and Andromeda would descend into an all out screaming match. "It doesn't matter either way. I'm not planning to keep the heirship. I figured I would pass it to Rigel when he's old enough."

Sirius smiled. That actually sounded like a good plan and he couldn't determine if Hadrian had just come up with it or had been thinking about it since the boy was born.

"That sounds like a good plan."

"I just figured that I already have more than enough power and responsibility, it would be fun to make others suffer too."

Sirius broke down laughing, even Severus smirked. They both knew that Hadrian didn't really care about all the power he had and still, on occasion, dreamed of being a normal boy.

"Surely you are exaggerating Sirius." Albus cut in, trying to force the conversation back to what he wanted. "Nymphadora really should hold the title in trust for her future son. It would restore the metamorphmagus gift. As Nymphadora is the only one left she deserves it. It really is for the greater good."

Hadrian practically sighed when he heard the greater good line. Since he had been avoiding the man he had thankfully been able to avoid hearing it, mostly. He had wished to continue that trend, but it would seem Dumbledore was trying to make up for lost time.

"Hadrian, go back to your common room. You still have to pack for the train tomorrow, and I'm sure you will want to say bye to your friends." Sirius ushered Hadrian towards the door. He didn't want his godson to have to endure the old fool any longer.

Hadrian didn't even question it. He finally let his smirk grace his face as he turned towards the door and listened to Nymphadora's near constant muttering about how she hates her name that had started from the first time her name was mentioned. Moving quickly he all but dashes from the office, not noticing two high ranking members of the ministry that had been on their way up to put the headmaster back in his place.

Up in the office, Sirius turned back to glare at the headmaster and the others once he was assured his godson was out of the room. "This is none of your business Albus."

"Don't speak to the headmaster like that." Andromeda snapped, infuriated by Sirius's tone.

Albus knew he needed to try again, the Black's were an extremely powerful seat and had plenty of alliances. If he could gain control of that seat he might be able to use that to maneuver his way back into the chief warlock position if he moved quickly, and maybe added a few potions and spells, or threats.

"Really Sirius my boy, you know that you are being slightly selfish. I'm sure you are doing what you think is for the best, but you really don't have the full picture of what is going on." Albus tried throwing a few basic compulsions under his desk just to try as he tried his grandfather routine. "You've never even sat in your seat.

With Voldemort attempting to return we need to present a united front. The Black seat would be perfect to help form alliances to ensure the lights victory in the coming war. Andromeda and Nymphadora would be excellent in helping to bring the light faction back together. Then there is Ted. With his background in law he would be wonderful at helping to write up laws that will aid us. And, of course, like I said previously, Nymphadora is the last metamorphmagus, she will be the one to bring the gene back, there really must be a way to allow for a female to hold the title if she has such an important trait.

Come now my boy. It really is for the best."

"You really need to take the cotton out of your ears and listen. No. That's N O. It is a very simple word with a very simple meaning, it means no, negative, not going to happen." Sirius said in a tone that one would use with a very young child that just wasn't learning. He had felt the spells brush across his magic, but they hadn't managed to stick thanks to his Lord ring. "They are female, that means they can't hold the title. Ted can't hold it as proxy either, so don't even bother. Only a male, with Black blood, and the last name of Black can hold the title. That's why Hadrians last name is Potter-Black. It was so that he could hold the heirship.

Also, Nymphadora isn't the last metamorphmagus. There are actually four others that have Black blood. Rigel, the child Hadrian said he wanted to hand the heirship to is one of those four. He also has the last name Black, and is clearly male. That means he meets all the qualifications."

"Who is this boy? You only have daughters." Andromeda said thoughtfully. She didn't know of any other boys in her old family, but she hadn't really been paying that much attention.

"He is a Black, and that's all that matters." Sirius said. He didn't want to let any of these people know that Reggie was still alive, as far as they were concerned he had died years ago.

"Now Sirius..." Albus needed this information but he ended up being cut off by Severus.

"Enough, all of you. Sirius is Lord Black, only he can select his heir. None of you have any say in who that heir is.

Sebastian serves as his proxy. Sirius has a full time job, so it only makes sense for him to have a proxy, I use Sebastian myself. Maybe if you focused more on the school and it's students and less on politics we would't have had all these issues with security.

But there is something we need to go over. Just what were you thinking of calling a student up here without his guardians or head of house? You know good and well Albus that that isn't aloud. Then there was what you called him up here to discuss. You are not aloud to try and force your political views on the students Albus, and you know that. You have already been warned that something like that could cause us to lose access to the schools vaults again. Or did you forget that was the exact reason the vaults were initially closed off.

As the headmaster you are required to remain politically neutral with the staff and students. I told you this only a few months ago when you tried to get me to reassign my title to you as proxy. You know better.

Then, just what do you think you are doing trying to use students in this war you are planning? They are children. Hadrian hasn't even done his OWLs and you expect him to fight in a war. Have you lost your mind?

Allow me to make this perfectly clear, if I learn that you are attempting to force any student to become a soldier in this little war of yours I will personally take it to both the board and the ministry and request you be fired. I know Molly and Hestia will never willingly agree to that, but I'm sure the minister would be able to find a way to get you out of this school. Even more so now that you have publicly announced the attempted return of Voldemort against the express wishes of Fudge."

Severus was really wishing that they could get rid of the old fool. James and the other governors were trying, but it wasn't easy. To remove a headmaster they needed a unanimous decision, and Albus's supporters on the board would never agree. Alice was in the process of going through the charter word by word to see if there was anything they could use to get the man out. But, Severus was sure Fudge was going to be trying to determine some way to get Albus out.

"I have no intent of using the children like that." Albus twinkled, forcing his anger down. He was going to make Severus pay for this.

"Don't even try that." Sirius scoffed. "You recruited both Severus and I while we were still in school, along with many others. I was 15 when you first started working on recruiting me. If I find out you have tried that with Hadrian I will have you up on corruption of a minor charges so fast it will make your head spin. I am fully backing Sev on this. The students are students, not soldiers. If you want to recruit anyone outside this school there is nothing we can do, but we will not allow you to use students under our care like that."

Without giving Albus or the others any chance to respond both Sirius and Severus quickly spun and left the office. Neither of them wanted to deal with the man any longer. On the way out both glanced at the portrait of Phineas and he gave them a discrete nod, letting them know he would keep an eye and report anything he heard to Regulus.

"How dare they say we cant get the students ready for this war." Nymphadora growled. "I would have been grateful for an opportunity to help the light like that. The students need to be better trained, sure, but they would be able to do a great deal to help the light in the war. It is their duty."

"Who is this Rigel kid?" Andromeda wondered aloud. "We need to figure out if we can get him on our side. Maybe he could be useful."

Ted glanced from where his wife and daughter were muttering to look to the headmaster. "What is you opinion headmaster?"

"We need to tread carefully." Albus sat back pensively in his seat. "I understand your anger my dears, but we need to move with caution. it would do us no good now to make enemies out of potential allies, we can wait until after Harry defeats Voldemort to deal with the others.

We can not risk a hint of impropriety with the students. Molly, Hestia, and Emmeline will be able to keep the board from removing me, but Cornelius will be out for my blood unless I can get the man under control. He would be more than willing to try sending me to Azkaban if someone offered him enough gold, or he thought it would help him politically.

No, we need to move in secret. Once we have conformation of Voldemort's return I will call the rest of the order back. Voldemort will naturally go after Harry again so we can use that to get Severus and Sirius under control. They will want to help to protect the brat."

Albus turned towards the window to think for a few minutes, the others staying perfectly still and silent waiting for his decision like dogs begging for scraps. "This is what we will do, Nymphadora, I want you to return to the auror office and start feeling out your coworkers. You will need to be careful. The last thing we need is to arouse suspicion. Both Amelia and Cornelius won't understand, so you can't let them catch you.

Andromeda, start looking into this Rigel Black. We need to know who he is and who his parents are. From the fact that Harry said he would give the heirship to the boy when he was old enough we know that he is younger than 11. We need to know who his parents are and if we can sway them.

Ted, I am going to need your help with the laws. I will need to start presenting laws that will weaken the dark and strengthen our position and your assistance would be invaluable."

All three happily agreed and he dismissed them. Once they were gone Albus pulled out some parchment and started to make a list of everything he was going to need to do over the summer. It was a surprisingly long list.

Hogsmeade Station - June 30, 2005

Just before 11 everyone was milling around Hogsmeade Station. Many of the students from the other schools were with them, saying their last minute goodbyes to their new friends. They would be going back to their own home countries just after the train left.

Hermione, Ron, and Ginny were slowly working their way closer and closer to where Harry was once again talking to that Marie girl. They wanted to get as much information about what Harry was doing this summer as they could. They had all been called up to the Headmasters office after breakfast and he gave them new tasks. If they couldn't force Harry to be their friend, then they just needed to get close to him and allow people to think they were.

Ron snarled softly as he saw Fleur make her way over to Harry and give him a tight hug before she kissed both of his cheeks and then his forehead. He had gone out of his way to try and meet her all year and nothing, she never even spoke to him.

"I'm going to be coming back to France to visit Marie and Dud this summer, I'll send a letter to see if you and Gabi want to come visit." They heard Harry say to the girl.

Now they knew that he would be going to France. Hermione started to make plans. Her family often visited France during the summer, so she was going to have to see if she could arrange a chance meeting, she just needed to figure out where Marie and Fleur lived.

"I'm sure Gabi would love to visit you while you're in France, but I most likely won't be there. I've already gotten an amazing job." Fleur's eyes were practically glowing in joy. "But, not to worry, we will definitely be seeing each other. I can say the same to the two of you."

Fred and George grinned as Fleur looked to them. They had both already taken great joy in teasing their brother on just how quickly he had fallen in love, not that they could say to much because of how they were with Hadrian. Bill seemed to bring up Fleur in every letter and conversation he had since the day they met, it was like he couldn't bring himself to not think about her at least a dozen times every minute.

"Oh, we know." Fred grinned.

"We never thought differently." George winked at her.

"Oh you two." Fleur blushed and gently smacked both twins arms.

"What else..."

"Is family for?" The twins replied.

"Well, I always did wish for a little brother, I just didn't think I would get such delightfully annoying ones." Fleur gave them her best chiding look.

"What else would the use of brothers be?" George brushed off the look.

"We annoy because we care." Fred added.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ron shouted out in confusion. He couldn't figure out why Fleur would consider the twins to be brothers.

"Just what she said." Fred gave a devilish grin. He and George knew good and well that poor Ronniekins had a massive crush on Fleur, to bad for him she was so madly in love with Bill.

"Dear Fleur is as good as family." George mirrored his twins grin.

"How?" Ginny said in shock. She had no clue how they were related to the French beauty. It was good for her because now she could learn the girls beauty regimens at the same time as making sure the other girl stayed away from her Harry.

"Our dear Hadrian had the brilliant idea of setting Fleur up on a date with Bill." George winked at Hadrian.

"The two are madly in love" Fred fluttered his eyelashes at the girl who just smiled.

"We expect to hear wedding bells soon enough." George sighed.

"They just seemed perfect for each other." Hadrian said in explanation.

"And I couldn't agree more." Fleur beamed at him. "But, back to what I was saying. I have been hired to work with Bill's team as their recorder and and apprentice historian. Bill and I were talking and we were thinking about dividing up our weekends between our families so that we had the chance to get to know each others families. So, I'm sure we will end up meeting up more than once."

Ginny just stared for a moment while she thought. She could make this work. Although she would have liked to have been informed Bill was dating someone, it could be worse. Maybe she could convince them to take her to France with them. That would be amazing, France in the summer.

Ron just stared, barely a thought managing to cross his mind. He had never managed to get this close to the beautiful girl and was dazzled, she was even more beautiful up close. The only thoughts he managed to have was anger at his brother for taking her from him and how he was going to need to seduce her away from him.

After a few more last minute goodbyes, Hadrian and the others made their way towards the train. Glancing at their reflections in the windows and side of the train Hadrian and the others could see Hermione, Ron, and Ginny starting to follow them without taking their eyes off Hadrian.

Hadrian glanced to each of the twins and saw they understood. Using a well practiced maneuver, Hadrian slipped in front of them and they stepped closer to each other, completely blocking view of him. Once he was out of sight Hadrian pulled on his metamorphmagus ability and quickly changed before walking off towards the front of the train. He knew the others would join him once they had lost the stalkers.

With Hadrian safely gone the others split up and all went to different areas of the train. Hermione, Ron and Ginny were all extremely confused as they spun in circles trying to find Harry. How did he disappear like that?

Once everyone made it to the compartment the rest of the ride past enjoyably. Everyone was making plans about visiting each other and how they were going to spend their summer.

Everyone was even able to safely get off the train without being harassed as Molly was at the restaurant and hadn't been able to be there. She had made sure to send multiple letters to Arthur reminding him that she got Ron and Ginny for the next weekend, she had even offered to take Nicole and Leo for the weekend. The reply she had received had been less than pleasant and she still hadn't returned to her usual colour and had to wear a hat since she had lost her hair.

It seemed like the start of a beautiful summer.