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Summary: Harry and friends visit the Flamels for the first time, opting to build new identities for their “Gray” counterparts. The group eventually returns to Hogwarts, not knowing what to expect from the year. Last year their teacher had Voldemort in his head so... whatever happened this year, couldn’t be that bad, right? The group quickly learns what it means to be family, what it means to be united, and how to rely and trust others. Well, that and that Voldemort’s a dumb son of a bitch who decided immortality was the key to success (hint: it’s not). Words: 26k+ Rating: T, mostly for language Mild Trigger Warning for the series: non-graphic child abuse The summer had been dreadful for all parties involved the first time around. Snape and McGonagall had to interview dozens of teachers for the Defense job, but few of them showed the least bit of competence. After a few days of constant interviews, Dumbledore had stopped pestering the two, claiming to have found the perfect professor who was also interested in teaching the Boy-Who-Lived. Severus and Minerva had been pleased to be done, but questioned who on earth this teacher was. Dumbledork, however, refused to tell the two and the Gray were left guessing. Minerva had had to make all sorts of plans over the summer and had even planned how to propose to Poppy sometime over the school year. Luna had been stuck with her father who once again didn’t feed her properly and who physically abused her when given the chance. She had a few scars on her wrist now from where he had taken a knife to her when she tried to cook dinner. The knife she had used to cut the vegetables was ripped from her hand and wielded against her. She had of course tried to calm him down, but he did not listen to reason (not that she actually talked to the man she’d been on non-speaking terms with for the past years). He grabbed her wrist and brought the knife down harshly. She hadn’t even cried... He said that cooking was her mother’s job and Luna couldn’t try to take her place. Xenophilius left after three sharp cuts to her right wrist. She simply healed the wound, but let the scars remain in testament to her father’s actions.She would not forgive.
She would never forget.Tonks’ had been pestered persistently by Albus Dumbledork to take the defense position. She was close to giving in just to shut the old coot up, but she honestly felt like now was not the right time. Tonks’ mother, Andromeda, was trying desperately to find her a husband and Nymphadora would have none of it! She was free to make her own decisions and if she was not, then she would make it so. That was part of the reason why she was fighting for the Gray and not the Light or remaining neutral. Furthermore, she was excited to be engaged, even if she couldn’t tell her mother or anyone else. It upset her slightly that no one could know, but she satisfied herself with the knowledge that once the war was over she and Severus could be married. The untold fact that the marriage depended on the two’s survival went unsaid and Tonks did her best not to consider that possibility.Although she would not be able to inform the group until after the session with the Flamels since she was no accompanying them, Poppy’s summer had been unusual. She typically lived alone, but had been pestered more and more by Alaster Moody to join the Light and work as their medicinal healer (until he suddenly finally stopped pestering her or whatever reason). Poppy simply stated that she wished to have no part in the war at the moment, but would consider the possibility. Furthermore, the man had even made a move on her! She was happily soul-bonded and basically married! She hated not being able to tell him to bugger off, but he eventually stopped visiting half-way through the summer for which she was extremely relieved.Neville’s gran took extreme measures that summer to make him like his father by attempting to take away his wand and make him use his dad’s, but Neville used wandless magic to make her forget that plan and give him his wand back (not that he really needed it). Augusta tried to take away his books on Herbology and replace them with books on Transfiguration like her son had liked. She tried remodeling his room like his father’s had been. She colored it Gryffindor colors- not caring that Neville was in Hufflepuff.Perhaps she simply didn’t want to believe it. Neville hardly spoke to her all summer and Augusta’s actions became even more controlling without Neville trying to fight back. Neville simply ignored her and continued reading from the Longbottom family library. Augusta locked herself in her bedroom more and more and Neville could hear her muttering to herself in the room when he passed the doorway. Neville truly did believe that she had lost her mind.One day she had asked him to come with her to Gringotts. Neville decided that he would much rather stay and finish his book as he didn’t need anything at the moment from Gringotts. Neville calmly told her that he would rather stay at home- but thanks for the offer. However, Augusta didn’t like that answer.She reeled her hand back, bringing it down swiftly on the boy. His cheek started to swell and color slightly, but he did not flinch in the least. He simply looked up at his gran for a minute before she stalked off to the floo. Neville refused to hit the woman- he didn’t exactly blame her for her actions. She was simply insane and as long as she didn’t hurt anyone else, he would leave her alone- for now.Theo’s summer was harsh. His father made sure that he didn’t lose his ability to handle the Cruciatus Curse for five minutes. He didn’t relent until Theo finally let out a painful groan after nearly seven minutes. Theo’s dad nodded approvingly and Theo was left alone for a few days. Nearly halfway through the summer, Theo had had to go to Gringotts with his father. Theo had shown the proper respect towards the goblin earning an almost-smile from the goblin who gave him a curt nod of approval and returned the respect. As soon as the two got back, Theo was brought into his father’s office. Theo’s father wasting no time in telling him exactly how Goblins- “the vile creatures!”- were so far below them they hardly merited the time of day and how goblins were not worthy of a pureblood wizard’s respect. Theo was subject to the Imperius Curse for nearly twelve minutes before he managed to successfully fight off the spell. Glad he could fight off the Unforgivable, but cursing his inability to throw it off sooner, Theo trudged up towards his room to do a bit of research from one of his many books.Hermione’s summer was no better. She had been locked inside the house so no one from her primary school would recognize her, not that she had any friends to speak of from her old school who would care how she was fairing.Her uncle, who was in the military, was not welcomed at the Granger household and Hermione was extremely dis-heartened to hear such, but her parents didn’t want her uncle to learn of Hermione’s abilities even though Hermione’s uncle had been her one solace in her childhood. Instead, Hermione read as much as she could and avoided her parents’ glares. Hermione was beyond the stage of remorse for them now.After nearly two weeks of silence, her father attempted to talk with her.“Hello, Hermione.” The man said stiffly.“Hello, father.” Hermione glanced back at her book after a few minutes of silence reined again, not expecting her father to reply. He didn’t. Her father walked away without another word and silence started again. It took another week for her mother to try talking to her by bringing her up a sandwich.By then, the damage had already been done. Hermione sank further into her research, eager to learn all that she could. She had already packed up half of her possessions, eager for school to start again before the end of the first week of summer vacation. She had managed to pack the last of the things that could already be packed very quickly, knowing they would not be missed. Hermione hid all of her magic from her parents. She refused to carry her wand around with her in case one of her parents somehow saw it. She even disguised any magical books (which were quite plentiful in her case) to look like muggle books that she had already read such as Romeo and Juliet or The Great Gatsby. Her parents rarely visited her and she felt almost like a stranger in her own house.Hermione was very eager to go be with her friends. She didn’t care if it was Voldy himself’s house just as long as she was with her friends. She felt as though she was going absolutely mad! Her parents had eventually gotten her a few books from the bookstore as if they would make up for her parents’ silence and negligence. Hermione had already read all but two of them and those two were finished before the end of the day, but the peace offering wasn’t entirely welcomed. Hermione was glad that she had purchased so many books at Flourish and Blotts and even more thankful that Madame Pince had taken pity on the girl and had taught her how to copy books so that she had plenty to read, thus initiating almost a hesitant friendship with the younger lady. What she had not expected was for the girl to copy dozens of books to bring with her for the summer. Regardless, Madame Pince was impressed with her and her friends' thirst for knowledge. They would be powerful witches and wizards, she just knew it.Fred and George’s summer was... well, it wasn’t dreadful. Both boys had been questioned as to why they were hanging out with Slytherins and not Charlus and their brother (meaning Ron). Percy simply scoffed- they had not hung out with him either, but he didn’t mind that much as he was still studying for his NEWTS for the next year (can never be too prepared). This year, perhaps, he would talk to his younger siblings more. Maybe. Hopefully.Fred and George were once again criticized for always wanting to do everything together. The two boys were growing up, Molly had said, and they needed to start becoming their own person, maybe even date (although she still believed they were too young, she said it anyway). To mock her, the two began saying they were dating which irritated Molly to no end. Bill and Charlie were happy to pretend that they were as well and Ron simply glared at his brothers. That summer wasn’t too bad for the twins except that Molly and Arthur kept pestering them incessantly about becoming friends with Charlus. The twins simply ignored them. The twins tried to support their sister, Ginny, more, but it was a tad hard because she had to pretend to fawn over Charlus all the time in front of her parents and Ron. It took a while for the twins to realize that her obsession was fake and to please her parents (though thinking back, they should have known), but afterwards, the twins began hanging out with their sister even more, even helping her learn a few spells over the summer, but they hadn’t returned to the close bond they’d once shared just yet.Draco’s summer was not the most pleasant one. Lucius used the Cruciatus on Draco for having learned by another student’s father that he had befriended a Hufflepuff of all things! And it didn’t end there; he had been seen conversing with TWO WEASLEYS- known blood traitors!That day, Draco found out that he could last under the Cruciatus for over a full five minutes. Draco squirmed slightly, but never did he let out a noise. Lucius eventually grew bored and let up the curse, choosing instead to lock Draco in the dungeons for two days. His house elves Dobby and Nilty, which had been loaned to the school over the school year to care for Draco, as well as Harry’s elf Tiddly had helped to feed Draco and care for him during those two days (and the rest of his visits to the dungeons). While Lucius had made sure that (weak and easily tricked) blood wards prevented wizards from getting into Malfoy Manner without permission from Lucius or Narcissa, he was a cocky bastard and never once questioned whether house elves would try to get in or let other wizards in (what house elf would be smart enough to wonder?).The wards were only for humans and Tiddly quickly became the link between Harry and Draco over the summer which raised both of their spirits. Unfortunately, it was determined for the time being that they could not use Tiddly to communicate with any of the other members of their group of friends for their safety and to prevent their mission from being somehow compromised. Both had been disheartened by the news, but found themselves talking to each other as frequently as possible although indirectly.Harry’s summer had basically lived up to his expectations, but his communication with Draco had certainly improved the dreadful time. Harry was glared at by James for being in Ravenclaw and not Gryffindor. Lily looked at her son with curious eyes- how the hell did he get smart enough to get into Ravenclaw of all things? Besides, with his dark tendencies, she was almost expecting Slytherin (okay, that was a lie; she’s been so sure he’d go into Slytherin and they could disown him, but apparently not). Charlus had been as annoying as ever, bragging of having taken on the troll single-handedly, making up details as if he hadn’t passed out. He told the story frequently, both parents extremely happy at their son’s accomplishment. When grades came in the mail, Harry’s long list of O’s was ignored for Charlus’ list of one Dreadful (you can very well guess), one Poor (Herbology), three Acceptables (Transfiguration, Charms, Defense), and one Outstanding (Hagrid’s Care for Magical Creatures class).The Dreadful was blamed on Snape being Snape and the Poors were blamed on jealousy. Lily and James fussed over Charlus constantly, bending to his every whim. Harry was ignored, but he was happy to be able to see Tiddly full time again.He had truly missed his mum even if he saw her multiple times in a week at Hogwarts. Harry began using a spell that Hermione had been taught by Madame Pince to replicate books. He made frequent use of this spell, shrinking the books once he had finished them to fit in his still-half-packed trunk. Considering he didn’t have many possessions, he managed to fit as many books as he wanted. He managed to read an average of a book or two a day depending on how thick and complicated the books were (and how many distractions he had). He was learning new spells as well as learning new information on spells he already knew.James had smacked him around a little, making sure to point out that Charlus was more powerful and better than Harry. Harry let him continue because it wouldn’t exactly be fair to fight back and why not let the guy let off some steam (sarcasm)? But truthfully, Harry felt it was better James hurt him than go after his mother (referring to Tiddly of course). After what felt like ages, the group finally managed to have Severus pick them up from the station so they could go back in time to study with the Flamels. Each snuck off to the “loo” and Severus gave them the long-lasting potion to change their appearance. It was similar to a mixture polyjuice and an aging potion. The kids were transformed into seemingly completely knew people, but they were not carbon-copies of anyone in particular. The group, although sad that they were so close to Hogwarts and couldn’t go, were glad to see each other and be given the chance to practice under the Flamels. The chance to study Alchemy as well as acquire any knowledge that Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel may have gained through their many centuries was an honor few, if any, could brag of.Nick and Nellie, as they had asked to be called, were quite welcoming when the eleven strangers suddenly appeared at their door. Harry, Luna, and Draco had used one time turner. Hermione; Neville, Tonks, and Severus had used another and Theo, the twins, and Minerva had all clutched onto one another to use the third and final of the devices, having not let go after the immediate apparation following the... well... turning back time. The group nodded to each other before the door was flung open revealing the two Flamels who quickly ushered them inside so they would not be seen (just precaution).“Well.” Nellie said, clapping her hands together anxiously.“Finally some excitement around here! I do believe introductions are in order.” Perenelle continued. Severus stepped forth first. He had already set up the names with the group.“I am Prince.” Snape said. Tonks stepped forward.“I am Princess.” She stated happily, basing the name off of her fiancé which had been after his mother’s maiden name.“I am Owl.” Minerva said.“Athena.” Hermione stated bravely. She thought it was quite funny that Minerva was not Athena since Minerva was the Roman translation of the Greek name, but was very happy to take the name.“I am Ares.” Theo stated, nodding to Hermione.“I am Moon.” Luna stated dreamily.“I’m Leaf.” Neville said, proud to have a name based on his plant powers.“I am Fire.” Draco said, having based his name on the meaning of his actual name- Draco means dragon after all.“We’re Yin and Yang.” Fred and George said. Fred being Yin and George being Yang.“And our unofficial leader-” Tonks sang. Harry rolled his eyes playfully.“I am Nightshade.” Harry said, taking a step forward and extending his hand towards the Flamels who both looked extremely shocked that it was one of the younger members who was leading, despite his physical age being that of a man in his early twenties.“Hello, to you all. Forgive me if it takes a bit of time to remember the names.” Nick said.“We were not aware of how many would be staying and only set up six rooms. I apologize for the inconvenience and we can easily change that number-” Nick began before Severus cut him off.“Say no more. Six will be plenty- in fact, I believe six will be perfect.” He paused for a moment.“Yin and Yang.” Fred and George snickered quietly.“Fire and Nightshade.” Harry and Draco smiled at each other.“Athena and Ares.” The Flamels raised an eyebrow- pairing the men and women together? Were they married or something? Soul-bonded?“Leaf and Moon.” Luna and Neville nodded to each other with small smiles.“Princess and I.” Snape said, seeing as the two were practically married.“And I shall room by myself.” Minerva concluded approvingly.“Fair enough.” Harry and Draco chorused.“Very well. Nellie and I shall show you to your rooms so that you may get comfortable and we will start lessons and training early tomorrow morning.” Nick said.“We’ll let you settle in. Dinner will be ready around six and until then you can explore or what-have-you. First would be Owl’s room.” Nellie said, leading the group through a long hallway. The first door they came to quickly had a plaque on it stating Minerva’s code names. The next room became Prince and Princess’s. The following room became Yin and Yang’s, the next Ares and Athena’s, the next Moon and Leaf’s and the last being Fire and Nightshade’s. Each quickly went into their rooms and began relaxing on the large cushiony beds. The ten younger members all began squishing into Fire and Nightshade’s room to catch up, not having been given much opportunity before arriving.The best part about the potion they had taken- they could turn it on and off. The group all felt like smirking. Safely inside the room with the door closed and silenced- just in case- the group decided to turn off the effects, letting their true twelve and fourteen year old forms to show through. Immediately, each started to share the stories of their summer- no matter how horrific- and told each other how much they had missed one other.Fred and George shared the story of their summer last and declared that they had an announcement to make. Fred and George wrapped their hands together, intertwining their fingers with nervous smiles.“We’re dating. Like... not just for show.” The group raised many eyebrows. Hermione suddenly sighed and shook her head.“I should have seen this coming.” The group gave her somewhat incredulous looks.“Well they obviously get along great and if the love they share is romantic and not brotherly then so be it.” Hermione explained. The group all nodded their heads. Fred and George’s smiles grew infinitely.“You have our blessing then.” Harry said to the happy couple.“I can’t wait to see Sev and Minerva’s faces when they find out...” Harry chuckled.“Kiss!” Draco called out to the couple. They immediately blushed a bright red.“We haven’t... uh...” George started.“Hey, we aren’t kissing if you lot aren’t!” Fred said, sure that the group would shrink away from the dare. Draco groaned and grabbed Harry, surprising the lad. Draco slammed their lips together and a bright light grew, blinding the other couples. After a minute or two, the two boys pulled away panting and blushing furiously. Their eyes would not meet anyone else’s.“Well...” Theo started.“That was unexpected.” Neville said. Luna rolled her eyes- she had expected it of course because she had seen it. “That was a soul-bond, wasn’t it?” Hermione asked. Harry and Draco nodded strongly, holding hands, but not looking at the other, cheeks still aflame.“We should see if anyone else has a soul-bond...” Hermione started.“Fred and George first!” Draco shouted. The twins groaned and leaned forward to peck each other’s lips. The light surrounded them as well and all parties had to look away. Hermione and Theo shared a look, shrugged and leaned into one another. Another white light glowed.Neville was looking hesitantly towards Luna. Luna finally rolled her eyes, grabbed the front of his shirt with her fist and slammed them together, starting a kiss. The light surrounded them too. Harry and Draco watched on as all the couples started glowing with renewed strength, a more healthy appearance even in their alter-egos. The group felt stronger and more united than ever. The entire party was breathing heavily due to the magic floating in the air. Not to be left out of the snog-fest and already overwhelmed by the love and lust the soul-bond caused in the two, Harry and Draco commenced kissing. Let’s just say Tonks nearly had a full-blown heart attack when she entered the room as they had not locked the door.Uh... oops?Tonks felt a smirk grace her lips, realizing what had happened. That night, only Minerva, Severus, and herself showed up to dinner. When questioned as to where the others were, Tonks grinned then smirked.“They’re a bit... preoccupied. We’ll see them soon though.” After that... exciting... first day, a routine was established. The Flamels asked the group what it was exactly that they wanted to learn to which they replied physical combat, effective spells, counter-curses, and alchemy. After all, they had already learned basically the entirety of Hogwarts courses, passed all of their classes, and even knew the electives’ knowledge by heart. The group had quickly taught Fred and George who had already been on a fifth or sixth year level the rest of their classes and had significantly raised their grades from high EE’s (exceeds expectations) to nearly perfect O’s in each class.Their days soon started at seven thirty each morning and they began their workout. After the workout, they would eat breakfast and start their training sessions of hand-to-hand combat. Afterwards would come a lesson in alchemy and then lunch. After lunch, the group had a mock-battle in which anything goes. There had been a few serious injuries, but nothing that they couldn’t easily fix or reverse, especially with the aid of the soul-bonds. To say the soul-bonds had been a surprise to the older members of Shadow (and the Flamels to a lesser extent) would be an understatement.Quickly though, the adults accepted the new-found romances and continued on with their lives. But a day quickly approached that would help shape the fate of Shadow.The day had started normally; the group got up and worked out, ate breakfast, and started the alchemy lesson. However, the alchemy lesson was a bit unusual.This lesson was to be more hands on than most of their previous lessons. Basically, the intention was that the lesson would be like a potions lesson (which made Severus extremely happy).“Okay, for this lesson, we will be working on a revealing solution. And, although this may seem like potions, I assure you that the concept is slightly different because the intent is different. Is everyone ready to begin?” The group of eleven nodded and listened attentively for instructions. After half an hour, the mixture was almost complete. The only ingredient that still needed to be added was dragon blood. Harry was holding the vile in his hand when Nellie was walking by. Her dress caught on the table corner and Harry jumped when Nellie let out a small shriek. The dragon blood poured from the vile into the potion and shot back up, covering his hand in the solution. Harry pulled his hand away immediately and tried to use his water elemental abilities to shift the new mixture away and back into the cauldron. He succeeded after a moment, but by then the damage was done. The revealing solution had undone the effects of Severus’s aging/polyjuice on Harry’s arm, showing the skin to be much younger and the frame thinner for only a few moments. Nellie quickly did a spell that vanished any remaining solution on Harry’s arm before staring long and hard at him.“Nightshade... that was not the arm of a twenty year old. That was the arm of a child.” Perenelle said. Harry said nothing. Draco walked over to him, giving him a strong hug before turning back to Perenelle.“With all due respect, Mrs. Flamel, that changes nothing.”“You are all children?” Nellie said aghast.“No, but they are.” Minerva said, stepping forward.“But-”“Yes, we’re aware that we are being led by those younger than us. However, that does not change the fact that they are more powerful and probably have more experience than we do with fighting in this war.” Tonks said. Perenelle and Nicholas shared a look.“Very well, then we shall trust in them as well and fight should our aid be needed, but we do not support using children to fight- they must be fully consenting.” Nicholas stated. The group all gave nods to Nick and the lesson continued where it had left off, Harry joining Draco at his cauldron to see the end result.That afternoon, the Flamels tried to go easy on the kids. Well, the kids would have none of that. Noticing what was happening, Severus, Minerva, and Tonks slipped out of the fight and the kids smirked.They had free reign.Harry and Draco joined together. The twins simply winked at one another. Hermione and Theo sent each other a nod of understanding and Neville and Luna gave each other a look. They would teach the Flamels not to go easy on them. Tonks watched on in amusement as the Flamels fell under the same trick she had not so long before- underestimation.Theo, Hermione, and Neville went for an all-out attack to distract the couple. Luna used her gift of sight to tell them where to go and direct their actions. She smirked, realizing what Draco and Harry had planned. Harry and Draco disappeared into the shadows and the Flamels quickly separated so as to be a harder target. After hundreds of years of living together, they made quite the team, but they underestimated the group. The twins, already on such a level of understanding with each other, were quick to see what they were doing. The twins, however, did not separate because they knew that their strength laid with each other.Fred and George clambered into the middle of the space between the Flamels, back to back, and managed to keep the two separated. Theo, Hermione, Neville, and Luna continued to be the distraction. Luna suddenly shifted in tactic and directed everyone’s attention to the right of the room. Neville, Hermione, and Theo didn’t fall for the trick, but the Flamels did. The twins tripped Nicholas and Perenelle who had not expected the physical fighting. Harry and Draco emerged from the shadows. Harry blinded and silenced Nellie before disappearing all in less than five seconds. Harry and Draco flew back into the shadows. Nick turned around to try to see his wife and not even a second later, Harry and Draco had him blinded and silenced as well. Harry nodded to Neville who used his botany abilities to quickly tie the couple up who were unable to perform almost any silent wandless magic. The group smirked and the twins removed the blinds and silencing spells.“Still think we’re just kids?” Yin AKA Fred asked. Nellie and Nick groaned.“Nope. Now will you please let us down, Leaf?” Nellie asked. Neville obeyed and the two jumped up to attack the twins who quickly moved aside, already thinking spells in retaliations, but Harry acted first. Harry instinctively released his air ability to hold the two in place in the air, mid-leap.“Tsk, tsk. Never underestimate your opponent.” Theo said.“And never forget the pros of physical hand-to-hand combat. Wizards rarely remember that it’s a possibility and have grown weak and ignorant over centuries of relying on magic.” Hermione said with an obvious smirk. The Flamels groaned.Beat by a bunch of kids. That just does wonders for one’s pride. The Flamels never went easy on the group again. They knew what the kids were capable of (even though they didn’t look like kids). Training continued all summer leaving the group exhausted and ready for school (as well as eager to get rid of that damn potion for a while- it tasted disgusting).Finally the day came that the group would return to the platform and board the train as if they hadn’t just gone for months to train for war (and Tonks would go back home although she would frequently use Severus’s floo to visit the group). When they got back to their families, they used a tiny glamour to disguise their new muscles and health until they could get on the train. Separating from their soul-bonded partners was hard even for such a short period of time, but they had been practicing for such and knew that it would be even worse during school hours until they could adjust to the new pull. The kids got on the platform and began heading off to get on the train. It was only around 10:45, leaving another good fifteen minutes before the red and gold train (Gryffindor favoritism? Yes, definitely so) would leave the station.The Potters were fanning over Charlus, as usual, while Harry, Hermione, Luna, Draco, Neville, and Theo just left their families quickly and efficiently with short (or no) goodbyes. The twins had a minimal trouble getting away from the Weasley parents since Molly was busy talking (well, crying) over Ginny, her youngest and only daughter, going off to Hogwarts and reminding her to make friends with Charlus and talk to Ron. As soon as the group got on the train, they chose a compartment, enlarged it, and locked and silenced it- having finally learned their lesson.Briakora, Shade, and Draco’s owl, Hunter, chased each other happily around the room while Bree wined pitifully to Draco, Hermione, and Harry about how she couldn’t fly and couldn’t Harry just use his air elemental to let her fly around too? Goddamnit, why couldn’t she have wings?The train ride was fun as the group got some much needed alone (well, not alone but still) time. There were no interruptions this year thankfully although the cart-lady did knock on the door until Hermione politely replied that they didn’t want anything from the trolley. The train ride was less exciting than last year and the group half expected someone else to trounce through the door (or try) and be scared shitless by the snake and two birds, but alas, that did not happen.Meanwhile the group flipped through the texts for the new upcoming term.“Well, Defense is gonna be another self-study.” Hermione said, sighing after a few minutes of scanning through the pages.“What? Why now?”“Dumbles hired Lockhart- a fraud who’s books are a bunch of bullshit.” Theo pulled out his own copy of Lockhart’s books to glance through after Hermione’s comment.“That’s wrong... wrong... impossible... that’s not a deterrent for Vampyres, you nitwit!” Theo started, muttering to himself. He took great humor at watching the front of the book with Lockhart’s picture start to tear up for no reason. Sure, it sounds mean, but seeing the pretty-boy finally being seen as a fraud and the fact that the real Lockhart would never see it, meant it was okay to the group. The books were put away and the group discussed what they would do about self-studying in that class this year. Eventually, the group changed into their robes and prepared themselves to go back to Hogwarts.As the group got off the train, they were not herded together with the first years, but instead led to carriages. Horse-like creatures pulled the carriages. Charlus could be heard complaining to Ron how there were undead-looking creatures pulling the carriages while Ron persistently stated that the carriages pulled themselves with magic. Harry supposed that Charlus must be able to see them due to having seen Voldemort “die” as a baby.“They’re thestrals.” Luna commented off-hand to Charlus who happened to be passing by after entering the doors to the Great Hall.“What’d you say, Looney?” Charlus asked, sneering.“The creatures. They’re thestrals. Only those who have witnessed death can see them. You’re not crazy.” Luna didn’t even flinch at the name she had been given since her father had called her much worse than insane. The rest of the group remained visibly calm but were seething on the inside. After all Luna had gone through, she did not deserve to be called names and picked on.“Whatever, Looney.” Harry growled lowly so that Charlus would not hear. Draco placed a reassuring hand on Harry’s shoulder to calm him down. Luna had had one of the worst childhoods of the group and they all knew it. Luna never deserved the useless hate she received for being different. The sorting was taking place and the only student the second years automatically recognized was Ginny Weasley who was sorted into Gryffindor after a nearly three minute debate with the sorting hat.Charlus rolled his eyes and turned his attention back over to Ron and Ginny (who was almost literally hanging off of Charlus’s every word or action). Ginny listened with fake-admiring eyes and Charlus bragged again about his run-in with the troll almost a year ago. The group walked into the Great Hall, preparing for what they might find. The group all sat together at the Hufflepuff table, eager to let first years know that inter-house unity was okay. Ron and Charlus glared at the group while Ginny practically pretended to drool over Charlus, but she’d glanced at the Hufflepuff table a few times when Charlus and Ron weren’t looking.They had to give her credit; she was a great actress.After Christmas of last year, a few students from each house (mostly younger years) had started switching to other house tables and conversing with each other. The Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables had become neutral territory and as long as you didn’t insult anyone at those tables, you could stay and not be bothered. The best part about the whole situation was that Dumbledork was getting more and more annoyed by the inter-house unity. He was supposed to be able to control such things! Now a pathetic group of first years had managed to change things right under his nose! Dumbledore was mad at the group, but even angrier at himself. How had he let that happen? Surely, he hadn’t been that focused on the Stone and making Charlus seem a hero... right? No, Dumbledore had everything under control this year. No more surprises. If these little brats wanted house unity, as long as such didn’t interfere with his plans, so be it! It’ll make him look like a good headmaster and improve his position.If only he knew exactly how much those same first years had done right under his crooked, wrinkly old nose...Lockhart sat in the usual spot for the Defense professor. Dumbledore had been lucky to get Mr. Price (Elizabeth Price’s pureblood dad - she herself being Slytherin halfblood) to teach for the remainder of the school year after Quirrel disappeared, making Elizabeth very happy. Thomas Price had been a great teacher that all the students had loved (except for a few Gryffindors on principle). However, Mr. Price couldn’t keep teaching as he had another child on the way- a baby boy. Mr. Price loved the students and the students loved him and he still communicated with many of the students by owl and sent word with Elizabeth over the health of the newborn. Several students, although not expecting Professor Price, were still a tad upset to see Lockhart in his place.The majority of the female population of the school was admittedly fawning over the new professor though.Lockhart smiled brightly at the group, his smile faltering slightly at the Gryffindor/Slytherin friendship at the Hufflepuff table, but the smile returned whole-heartedly upon sighting Charlus Potter. Harry raised an eyebrow and Draco and he burst out laughing as Theo began impersonating Lockhart. Neville impersonated Charlus. Luna impersonated Ginny’s acting and Hermione impersonated Ron. Soon the whole group was in hysterics until Audrey Neds (halfblood Hufflepuff), Alexis Strym (pureblood Gryffindor), and Amelia Gold (muggleborn Hufflepuff) directed the group’s attention to Dumbles who had started his speech- this time without the threat of death for going into the third floor corridor. The feast was more happy this time than last- the students were all talking to the friends they hadn’t seen all summer and were telling each other about their vacations.All too soon for the friends lined up at the Hufflepuff table, the feast was over and the group was being led to their dorms to rest. The group went to their prospective dorms to learn the new passwords should they need them, before heading back to Ravenclaw tower to sleep. The group had ended up unloading their things into Ravenclaw tower (having worked it out with the house elves ahead of time). Harry and Draco would be bunking together. Hermione and Theo would be sharing a room as well. Luna and Neville would be staying in a room and the twins had been given their own room. Tiddly, it turned out, had had a knack for such charms and it had been one of the ones she had taught Harry in his youth... er... when he was younger- he was only twelve after all.The group had all said goodnight and prepared to get their class schedules tomorrow at breakfast and spend the rest of the day training. The group awoke promptly at five thirty as was their usual school routine. They then went to the Room of Requirement to start their work out. Their muscles were getting bigger, but they finally had the room to just run around freely instead of on treadmills like at the Flamels (thank Merlin they knew about non-magical advancements). After their hard workout, the group headed down for a semi-early breakfast. The group sat, once again, with the Hufflepuff table and were soon joined by about half of the early risers.Professor Sprout, not surprised that the children had joined her table, passed along all the schedules (someone had finally suggested that a uniform schedule be passed to the younger years and by the time they had the option of an elective, the early risers had been spotted and pointed out for future reference). The entire group groaned realizing that their classes the next day included DADA with Professor Gilderoy Lockhart AKA “Fraud”. The students headed off to the library immediately upon their break to find new books for self-study for that DADA class. Having already finished the course, they decided on a few books for review and some texts explaining the complexities of runic spell crafting. The next day was not highly welcomed by the group simply because the first class for the second year Ravenclaws would be with Lockhart, the arrogant fool- and with the Gryffindors! They often were quite bitter and disliked the group for hanging out with Slytherins, but a few of the Gryffindors not in Charlus’ year started breaking the old house rivalries. Unfortunately, even the twins were sometimes ridiculed for hanging out with Draco and Theo. The twins, however, groaned because they had Herbology- one of their least favorite classes to Neville’s dismay.Hufflepuff and Slytherin were forced to go to Care of Magical Creatures- a class that was often entertaining, but that had little to no educational value due to Hagrid’s preference for learning by doing instead of learning through books, giving the children less than half of the information they needed when confronting magical creatures.Training continued like normal and breakfast was eaten slowly as if to delay the impending disaster that would be DADA class. When the class started, the group was sure they had steeled themselves for what lay ahead.They were wrong.Blond hair and white, flashing teeth entered the room dramatically with flair. Many of the girls swooned. Lackheart, as Theo liked to call him, flounced into the room and bustled around with haughtiness undeserved by his actual accomplishments which totaled absolutely nothing. Charlus glared coldly at the man for taking his spotlight, not that Lockhart seemed to notice.“Hello, hello. As you well know, my name is Professor Gilderoy Lockhart and I shall be your professor for the rest of the term. Hopefully, you have already read my books as it will make this class much simpler. I would like to start this class off with a demonstration. Who here is familiar with Cornish Pixies?” Harry, Hermione, and Luna raised their hands along with two other Ravenclaw students (Padma Patil and Anthony Peters - Ravenclaw muggleborn) and one Gryffindor (Steven Con - halfblood). Charlus glared at Steven for some reason and he shrunk back slightly in his seat. The three third year Ravenclaws wondered for a moment if Lockhart had mistaken this class for Care of Magical Creatures; Cornish Pixies were not considered Dark, much less “dark arts.”“Well, then. Cornish pixies are infamous for their devilish pranking ways. They are extremely tiny, but can carry multiple times their weight.” Well, at least that part was truthful, but he left out a lot of information about the tricky creatures- such as that their weakness is shiny objects and that they react much like a child when given sugar- all over the place and all at once. He didn’t even mention that the only way to properly calm a Cornish Pixie down was to give them milk and let them sleep.Fraud (Lockhart) pulled out a small cage- never a good idea when caring for Cornish Pixies as the confined space gets them highly agitated due to their ways resembling children with ADHA and claustrophobia to boot. A thick purple cloth covered the cage and the group agreed that that was not a good sign towards Lockhart’s teaching methods. He removed the fabric and dozens of blue/purple little Cornish Pixies were seen stuffed into the cage, pulling desperately on the bars for release. Harry was fairly certain that he could see one Cornish Pixie hyperventilating from the confined space and claustrophobia.“Well, in my experience the best way to learn is hands on experience.” Lockhart opened the cage’s door and dozens of the damn things raced out, anxious for chaos.Oh Merlin, what had the fool done?!Cornish Pixies began attacking all students in sight. The blue/purple miniature devil-look-alikes flew all around the room as if on a sugar high. One began pulling Lockhart’s hair while another started making faces and poking one of his portraits (of himself of course). Three more began lifting an angry Charlus in the air while another stole his wand and used it to break the chain of the chandelier floating above them. Charlus was then dropped onto Ron who was frantically trying to avoid the little buggers and help Charlus at the same time. Two pixies began attacking Steven Con and Harry was fairly certain he saw one try to go up Anthony Peters’ shirt. Anthony thankfully grabbed the thing and threw it out of his shirt, before shockingly holding the creature and petting it on it’s head like a pet.The thing didn’t fly off or bite him, but instead seemed to lean into the touch.“Well... I’ll just leave you lot to- clean up! Yes... Consider this a lesson in cleaning up for yourselves.” Because we clearly caused this, the three friends mused. Hermione rolled her eyes as Lockhart and well over half of the class fled leaving the group of Ravenclaw friends and surprisingly Anthony Peters who was still standing there with his little buddy. Harry and Luna began conjuring little beds for the pixies against the wall about ten feet in the air while Hermione got a house elf to bring warm milk from the kitchen. “I’ve got milk!” She shouted. Everyone froze. Anthony looked at her like she had lost her mind before all except Anthony’s pixie rushed forward to get a taste of the milk. Hermione skillfully conjured little thimbles to hold the liquid and the Cornish Pixies devoured it before they started getting drowsy. Hermione indicated to them, the beds which were now complete. The pixies flew to them to sleep, happy not to be stuffed in that stupid cage again.Anthony’s pixie looked up to him with pleading eyes and the three friends turned their eyes to him. Anthony then gave the friends puppy eyes. Luna capitulated first, having seen no harm from it in the future.“Fine.” She sighed. “You can keep the damn thing if you look after it and care for him and ensure that he won’t get into any trouble.” Anthony let out a girlish squeal as if he had just been told he got a puppy for Christmas. He turned to the pixie still cradled in his hands and started stroking its head again.“I think I’ll name you Fay after Morgana and I suppose pixies are close enough to fairies, eh?” Anthony cooed. The group had to admit, it was one of the more odd things they’d seen, and they’d seen some weird shit. Hermione, Luna, and Harry quickly cleaned up the classroom and found the class waiting outside the doors to see if they would come out alive. The four (seeing as Anthony was there too) glared at the professor who quickly dismissed class despite there being another forty-five minutes in the lesson.Yeah, it was gonna be self-study all right. Lunch was an interesting affair since the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs had a similar story to tell. It seemed Lockhart hadn’t learned his lesson and had re-locked the pixies up for the next class (Merlin knows how he accomplished that). He had released them before trying some silly spell to stop them (a made up one by the sounds of it) and Draco, Theo, and Neville had had to save Amelia Gold from plummeting to her death after some pixies decided it would be fun to lift her till she touched the ceiling before dropping her. Again, Lockhart had fled and class was dismissed early after Theo, Neville, and Draco repeated the process that Hermione, Harry, and Luna had used- warning him never to put Cornish Pixies in confined places and threatening him if he attempted to repeat the process at any time. The Cornish Pixies were given to Hagrid to deal with who at least knew more about the things.“That blithering bafoon! What the hell was he thinking!”“He didn’t even know how to round them up!”“Well one thing’s for sure; we need to keep one eye on the look out in that class so we don’t end up having to save it again.” Harry said and the group fully agreed. The twins were curious as to what their lesson would be. Lockhart ended up just gloating about himself the whole class period and the twins were happy to have the time to think of new prank ideas- a favorite pastime of theirs. Snape who had heard about the incidents had asked to see the group after the training session to fully discuss the new teacher. That evening at dinner, the main topic of conversation among the many students was Lockhart. The girls were mostly drooling while the guys talked about how annoying he was. The most interesting action took place over at the Gryffindor table. Somehow, a shouting match had been initiated between Ron and Ginevra Weasley.“No, he’s a bloody fool!” Ron shouted.“Lockhart’s only had one day! He’s still learning the ropes!”“Oh, he’s learning something alright! He’s learning how to run and hide! He literally fled from our class leaving us to pick up the mess!” Charlus shouted back.“But-” Ginny started. She had intended to say that in her class, he had actually taught them a tiny bit about werewolves and that he probably was just anxious or nervous or something as it was his first day.“No! That blasted fool’s incompetent! And you’re incompetent if you think otherwise!” Ron shouted at his sister. Ginny flinched back at if slapped. She looked frantically at Charlus who seemed to agree with Charlus. She ran out of the room, tears gathering in her eyes as she fled. Ginny used her bright ginger hair to cover her face as best as she could, rapidly fleeing the Great Hall. Neither Ron nor Charlus made any attempts to stop the poor first year. Fred and George started walking towards her, but decided that it might be best to simply let her let out some steam. Alone, Ginny cried. Training continued that afternoon after classes were over for the day. When Forge and Gred finally made their way back to the Gryffindor dorm to visit Ginny before they would go to Raveclaw Tower (and the dungeons before that), they found their sister sleeping peacefully in her bed with a small book wrapped in her delicate hands. They silently closed the door that they had peaked through and allowed their sister to sleep. They would talk to her in the morning at breakfast, they decided. For now, rest would do her well. The group had met in the dungeons with Snape to discuss Lockhart and his idiotic teaching skills. Their conversation had just been ending when an odd noise sounded through the room, echoing and bouncing off the rooms of the dungeon. Briakora, Harry, and Draco had immediately recognized it as snake-language and Hermione could understand and identify it already due to her skill with language and communication.“Must obey... must obey... yes, awake... freed from slumber... must obey master...” The group glanced at each other, wondering if the non-speakers had heard anything. Half of the group continued, oblivious, with their conversation.“Um.... guys?” Hermione interrupted quickly.“Yes, ‘Mione?” Theo asked, turning from the discussion of the group’s new self-study plan in Defense Against the Dark Arts.“You didn’t hear that, did you? The Parseltongue?”“Briakora was speaking?” Snape asked.“No.” Harry said with conviction. “That wasn’t Bree.” He knew the language was Parseltongue, but something sounded... different. It was almost like an accent or something.“Then...?” Draco asked Harry, raising his shoulders slightly in question.“Then we’re dealing with either another snake familiar or some sort of rampant serpent.” Harry concluded, his senses focusing in case the snake made another sound.“But... how can we know for sure? You hide Briakora from the majority of the school. It could be another familiar...” Hermione said, hoping that it wouldn’t be an issue.“That... that didn’t exactly sound like a normal familiar/bonded relationship. It sounds like it’s being commanded, not practically equals.” Harry said. The use of the word master didn’t escape his notice.“So you think we’ve got a snake loose in the castle?” Theo questioned.“Yeah, that sounds possible. What if Hagrid lost something and a student got it?” Neville commented. The group knew that Hagrid cared for a lot of animals and wouldn’t be surprised if he had accidentally lost an animal that a student then found and adopted.“Briakora?” Harry whispered in Parseltongue to the snake in his robes. Bree slowly slithered out to join the group.“You heard it, I assume?” Harry asked in English, knowing Briakora could understand it and that it would be easier for the group.“Yesss, Harry.”“Then do you know what the creature was? That didn’t sound like normal Parseltongue.”“It wasssn’t. Even Parssseltongue is sssomewhat regionalistic and that was a Norwegian basssilisssk- they’re related to the Norwegian Ridgeback.” Hermione and Draco translated.“Dragons and poisonous snakes. What next?” Neville asked sarcastically.“Basilisks as in the King of Serpents with the ability to kill with a glare?” Hermione asked.“That would be the one.” Theo stated. The group decided to focus.“Okay, first thing’s first. We would have noticed that a gigantic snake was here before if it had been free. That must mean that its owner is most likely a first year. We can’t rule out older years though. So...”“And I’m fairly certain we can rule out Lackheart.” Theo said.“Yeah, unfortunately that was genuine stupidity. Not faked.” Hermione added.“Why the hell Dumbles hired him...” Neville said.“Probably no other options.” Fred remarked. George shrugged noncommittally. It probably was the truth after all.“Well we should try to find it soon. Briakora?” Harry asked the reptilian familiar.“Track it without getting ssseen. Got it.” Bree told Harry.“No... if you determine that it’s not inherently evil, you may speak and try to help the basilisk if it’s trapped in an unhealthy relationship with its master. Just tell me when you learn anything new, yeah?” Harry then spoke to his and Draco’s owl/eagles. “Shade, Hunter, can you two go with her to keep an eye on her?” Shade and Hunter who had been playing together in the RoR immediately sent an affirmative.“I still need to learn how to do that...” Hermione said.“It’s easy actually. It’s based on Ligillimency- just the opposite. You send thoughts. I’ll teach you sometime.” Harry said.“Regardless, it’s nearly ten o’clock on your first day of classes. I think a break can be allowed. You kids go to sleep. Workout’s still first thing tomorrow morning.” Snape told the group. “I’ll go tell Poppy, Tonks, and Minerva about this and then we’ll head off to bed as well. We’ll discuss this more tomorrow morning. Rest first.” Severus ordered. The next morning was... different than expected. After the tiring and hefty, but worthy workout, Fred and George were anxious to see how Ginny was, but she appeared to be back to her normal self and had chosen to sit with Ron and Charlus again. Ron and Charlus were once more prattling on about some inane thing and Ginny again seemed chipper and a far cry from yesterday’s attitude. Happy about Ginny’s sudden change, the twins continue with their usual routine although they made sure to keep an eye out for their little sister. At last, the final class of the day approached and ended in a blur for the two that were studying. After classes Ginny asked Forge and Gred about hanging out after their classes for the day, but Fred and George had to sadly tell her that they had prior engagements. Ginny’s face dropped slightly and didn’t even pick back up when the twins promised that they would hang out at breakfast the next day if she was up early enough and- if not- then lunch and dinner to make up for everything. Ginny nodded, glaring at the ground determinedly. Fred and George sighed slightly. They felt absolutely awful for ignoring their sister, but felt even worse for letting down Shadow when they were preparing for war. As much as they wanted to stay with Ginny, they would be protecting her by not letting her near anything war-related and keeping her out of the fight.“Yeah... sure, I’ll... I’ll just be in my room. I’ll see you tomorrow.” That night, nobody saw Ginny as she had basically holed up herself in her bunk. The next day, Ginny showed up with a bit of a smile and sat next to Gred and Forge.“Hi.” She said shyly.“Hey, Gin. Feeling better?” George asked.“Yeah, we’re sorry-” Fred added.“About yesterday and for-”“Ron and Charlus. They’re-”“Complete idiots and we are too-”“For not coming to you immediately. We-”“Should have so-”“Sorry.” The two finished together. Ginny smiled at the two brothers.“It’s okay. I’m feeling better now, really. I started writing down my feelings and coping with them. I know I always get really emotional and I’m sorry too.” Ginny commented.“Don’t be sorry, sis!” Fred exclaimed with exuberance.“Yeah, Gin, we love your emotions.” George said, sticking his tongue out playfully at Ginny who gave out a soft giggle.“Okay, okay!” Ginny shouted after Fred and George started making all sorts of funny faces to get Ginny to laugh again. She was smiling brightly and looked over to see Charlus and Ron glaring at their table. Her face blanked. Fred and George took note and followed her gaze to the Gryffindor table. Seeing Charlus and Ron’s glares, the twins glared back and each put a comforting arm around Ginny. Ginny stared at the ground. She kept her voice relatively steady, her head still facing the ground and refusing to return to the joyful bundle she had been moments before.“Uh... guys, I better go get my books and head to class. I think I’m gonna write in that journal again...” Ginny started hesitantly.“Are you sure?”“Yeah, and besides, it may only be the second day, but I think some studying is in order even though I know half of this year’s course after you, Bill, and Charlie going on and on about classes.” Ginny teased, making Fred and George blush.“Uh... yeah, sorry about that... at least it was a learning experience! And if I remember correctly-”“We taught you that wandless lumos and the feather-light charm and the shrinking charm.” George ended, smirking. Ginny rolled her eyes and stood to leave.“I’ll see you guys later.” And with that, she left the group with Charlus and Ron’s glares following her out the large doors. The afternoon of the third day at school, Harry got the newest update from Bree, Shade, and Hunter. The class that he was in was just DADA with Lockhart, so Harry didn’t feel bad about tuning him out and communicated using mind-speak with Briakora, Shade, and Hunter. Hermione was about to ask him something when Luna put an hand on her arm to stop her. Shaking her head slightly, Luna silently convinced Hermione to sit back and wait. Hermione leaned back in her chair, pretending to be paying attention to Lockhart when she was really waiting for Luna or Harry to tell her what was happening.“Harry, we know more about the basssilisssk. Her name’sss Talon and she’sss really big- around 50 feet. Her master goesss by the name of Tom Riddle. She’s not allowed to sssay sssome things, but her master controlled her many years ago, left her in a ssstate of dormancy, and now she can feel that sssomehow her master has returned after decadesss. She thinks she has to lisssten to him because he is the only parsssel-mouth ssstill alive and I told her about you, but I don’t think that she believesss me.” Briakora hissed.“We’ll have to talk to her soon. Any way we could arrange to talk without her master knowing?” Harry asked mentally.“Not that we know of sssince her master would probably find out. We’ll let you know if there is, but until then, you can communicate through me.” Bree replied. So the master had been at Hogwarts before and had returned. Beyond that, Talon felt that her master was resourceful enough to find out if Harry had talked to the basilisk. Just who was “Tom Riddle”?“Okay... thank you, Bree. Remind me to get you an extra mouse for tonight.” Briakora shouted in victory and Harry turned off the mental link to finish looking through his book on basilisks while Lockhart droned on about some silly nonsense involving vampires and how he defeated a hoard of them just last year without a wand on him. Harry rolled his eyes as a girl sighed longingly from another table across the room and tuned the girls’ lust-filled stares out as he continued reading. Luna gave an indication to Hermione that she would explain after class or let Harry do it. Hermione nodded mutely as turned her face one more to the teacher, silently reading the book resting innocently in her lap. She was quite content learning about the many aspects of spell crafting and had taken to runes with ease, the ability falling under her language powers. Ginny had tried to hang out with Ron and Charlus again the next day. She wanted to make her parents happy and the only way to do that was to be friends with Charlus Potter. She was instead called a naive child (only being a year younger) and turned away. She locked herself in her room for hours. When the twins next saw her, she was somewhat happy again, but she looked absolutely wrecked. The twins assumed that she had not slept well.“You okay, Gin?” She let out a weak smile, her dulled eyes showing her true exhausted form.“Yeah, just really tired.” Ginny said, shrugging slightly.“Why are you so tired?” Gred asked his only sister, care and concern seeping into his tone of voice.“Yeah, Gin. You look like you hardly slept a wink.” Forge added, putting a comforting hand on her thin shoulder.“I was writing in my diary for a while and I got distracted. I slept for a while though. I guess it just wasn’t restful sleep, but I’ll be back to normal by tomorrow. I’m gonna study for now though. Can you help quiz me?” Ginny asked, changing the subject. Fred and George noticed, but did not comment. Ginny was correct about knowing quite a bit of the course work, but she didn’t seem to realize that she was on level with the third year curriculum. However, she still pushed herself to study- she didn’t want to fall behind and hoped that if she couldn’t be friends with Charlus, she could at least impress her parents with her grades. She had even searched out Percy once for a tutoring session and had been happy when he willingly agreed, but was quickly torn away due to his Prefect duties.Ginny understood though, he was trying. Percival had sent his sister a pitying look and had unfortunately had to leave her with the advice ‘don’t let them get to you- you’re so much better than any of them.’ Percy sent a small smile and ducked out of the library. Ginny nearly teared up, unused, after so long, to the caring side of her brother.She really hoped that they would be able to communicate more frequently, but he was studying almost religiously for his N.E.W.T.s next year- the wizarding equivalent of the American non-magical school system’s standardized testing, SAT’s or ACT’s. Although Percy wanted to reconnect with his little sister and the twins, he really wanted a position in the ministry so that he could change the unjust acceptance of bribery, the lack of respect, the corrupt pureblood views, etc, etc. Percy knew he was ambitious and quite possibly out of his league (or out of his mind), but he had devoted nearly all of his life since he was little to correcting the wrongs of others because he felt powerless to help his own siblings who were being forced into his parent’s molds. He felt glad that he wasn’t the ones being pressured, but at the same time, regretted that the weight of the world had been placed on his younger siblings’ shoulders and not his own.He vowed to do what he could to fix the world, but he had to get a position in which he had some influence first and that would only happen with extreme dedication and a lot of work on his part to restore the family’s poor reputation due to their status as supposed ‘blood-traitors’ for ignoring the pureblood beliefs to one of respect and significance. In this corrupt society, his chances were nearly slim to none, but he refused to capitulate simply because times were hard. He would change the world for the better, no matter what it took. The next day at lunch, Ginny attempted one last time to be on good terms with Charlus and Ron- this time just desperate for acceptance. This acceptance wouldn’t exactly be acceptance from Charlus or Ron; no, she craved her parents acceptance and this was the only way to get it.“H-hey, Ron, Charlus...” They gave her cool stares as the twins and the rest of the group watched from the Ravenclaw table with silent interest and worry.“Um... do you mind if I sit with you? I’m in Gryffindor after all...” Ginny tried, managing to put a small smile on her face and mentally beseeching her brother’s aid.“Yeah, I don’t know how you managed that, but why don’t you just go back to your dorm and play with dolls or something?” Ron snarled in anger. Ginny visibly recoiled, her temper flared for a moment, but she kept it down, replacing the emotion with sadness.“Just go away! When will you understand that as long as you hang out with those traitors, you are not welcome?!” Charlus shouted. The Great Hall silenced immediately. Ginny only nodded numbly and started walking away, attempting to save her pride as best she could. The more steps she took, the more her gait turned into an all-out sprint. Again, Ginny disappeared for the day, showing up only to class before hiding out until the next morning. She desperately wished to go with her brothers. She could visit the twins or try to talk to Percy! But would they side with Ron?She didn’t know how she had gotten into Gryffindor either. She had desperately wanted to go into Gryffindor to make her parents happy, but the hat said she could more easily fit into Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. However, she’d had it drilled into her head from a very young age that the best house was and would always be Gryffindor. She really wanted to go see her brothers. The twins would be busy probably though. She nearly started searching them out, but chose not to. She had even walked to the door once, intent on finding Percy and spilling her guts, but he would be busy at the Prefect meeting for another hour or so.She grabbed the small black book from underneath her pillow and unshrunk it, removing the spells she had placed on the book to keep it hidden from her dorm mates that found it quite funny to mess with her. She closed the curtains and creatively used a sticking charm to keep the curtains in place, stuck to the ground and each other. She silenced the area and let the tears fall as she picked up the quill and ink from her bedside table, opening the book carefully so as not to rip the thing to pieces. Her hands shook as she began to write. ‘Dear Tom,’ She did not turn up to dinner in the Great Hall that evening.The twins were starting to resent their younger brother- how dare he do that?! Their own sweet sister! Sure, she may be a bit emotional, but that’s one of her endearing qualities that make her, well, her! She was perfect the way she was and Charlus and Ron had no right to do such a cruel thing. Fred and George honestly didn’t know what to do next. The two had asked the group for any advice they could offer, but the Gray didn’t have much experience with siblings except for Harry who just avoided his brother. Eventually it was decided that the twins would skip training the next day (fifth day of class) and try to show Ginny support and protect her from Ron and Charlus. With waning hope, the two ate in near silence.Meanwhile, Briakora and Harry tried to communicate with Talon, the basilisk, as much as possible. Talon, the friends had quickly learned, was unable to utter her master’s name, but she was able to describe the man. The description was somewhat vague, but Harry was sure that the appearance didn’t match any current year and (for safe measure) had even asked that it wasn’t Lockhart under a strong glamour or something. Briakora reported that Talon had actually laughed at that... When Ginny finally turned up, she was glancing over and over again at a small black book in her arms. She seemed almost paranoid. She hardly glanced at Ron and Charlus before staring at the ground and avoiding their gaze, not wanting to see the malice that filled their eyes. She headed over to the Hufflepuff table (she had learned to not sit at the Gryffindor table unless she was willing to sit through the glares of her peers, her brother, and Charlus all at once) and sat down, not daring to look at the curious faces meeting hers. Fred and George looked up as Ginny sat next to them and took in her haggard appearance.“Hey, Gin, are you alright?”“Yeah, you look pale...”“I’m fine.” Ginny muttered. “I just didn’t sleep that well last night.” Fred and George nodded in understanding.“Well, we can conjure another bed in our dorm for you to sleep in tonight.” George suggested. Ginny’s face brightened for half of a second before it fell again.“I don’t wish to be a bother.”“Why would you be a bother?” Fred asked, astonished.“I-I-” Ginny began.“C’mon, little sis! It will be just like a sleepover!” George encouraged.“McGonagall wouldn’t allow it, she-”“We aren’t staying in Gryffindor dorm rooms this year!” Fred said encouragingly. He could already tell that Ginny wanted to give in.“W-what do you mean?”“We’re staying in Ravenclaw Tower. We got some of the house elves to make us a room.” George said.“Oh... but-”“No buts!” Fred exclaimed. “You are going to stay with us, Missy!” He said, poking a finger into her side teasingly. She flinched somewhat, surprising the other two.“What happened, Gin?”“I don’t know. It’s nothing, I think I just slept on it funny.”“Well you won’t have to worry about that tonight, cause we’ll conjure the absolutely softest bed of all time!” Fred happily shouted.“Okay...”“Would you rather it be a big thing or just us two and you?” George asked.“Um... what do you mean ‘big thing’?”“We would invite our friends. They’ve been dying to meet you!”“I’d rather it just be us three, but I’d love to meet your friends too.” Ginny muttered shyly.“Okay.” The twins chorused. The two decided that the night couldn’t come fast enough and although the two wanted to show Ginny a good time and make her laugh and smile again, they also desperately hoped that she would finally get some well-deserved rest even if they had to spell it so. Harry, Draco, Hermione, Theo, Luna, and Neville were all in a training session without the twins when the news arrived of yet another talk with Talon. It was inadvertently revealed that Talon’s owner had ill-intent. Briakora had been commenting about how she was released from the control of a bad man just for Talon to start getting upset.Talon was unwillingly being made to do something bad just as Bree had been. Talon didn’t know exactly what her master wanted her to do, but she had an idea that it had something to do with her stare that could kill people in an instant. With one look, the victim could be dead. Basically, there was a type of magic in snake eyes that sends chills up most people’s necks, however, this magic was amplified a thousand times by basilisks. The victims were literally scared to death and if that wasn’t enough, basilisk’s bite was venomous and could kill within seconds.Unlike common knowledge though, basilisks like many reptiles had a third eyelid that allowed them to dampen the effects. Basilisks can live in normal environments if they so wish. They can adjust their size at will, but Talon had been ordered to remain at the largest size she could maintain. Her preference was, in fact, more like Briakora’s size.Basilisks also have the ability to petrify if the person doesn’t look directly in a basilisk’s eyes, but Talon knew that her owner was malicious. She hadn’t known before, but now she had to obey her master or else she would be killed, according to her master.“Then what are we supposed to do?” Draco asked Harry for the third time that night.“For now, we try to see if Briakora can get anymore information. We can’t risk exposing our advantage of knowledge at the moment. We have to let Talon’s master continue his plan for now as long as no lives are in danger that we’re aware of. Talon herself said that she has only had to do a few small things for her master so far, but he’s growing in power somehow. The rate of growth however is not natural... he’s gaining a lot of power according to Talon. It seems like he’s leeching off of something, but if he was draining magic from Hogwarts or Dumbledork, we’d feel it. So he must be leeching off of something else...”“You don’t think it’s a student do you?” Hermione asked worriedly.“I don’t know... it could be. They would have to be very powerful for him to syphon such power without a dramatic effect on the student.” Draco replied.“What sort of effect?” Neville asked.“They’d be practically drained of energy and magical power by now if they were weaker. They have to have power, but at the very least they’d be tired, drowsy, and perhaps a bit irritable.” Theo answered.“You don’t think it’s...” Neville questioned.“We’ll find out.” Luna stated assuredly. However, her stare was grim. That night, Fred and George were preparing their room for Ginny’s arrival. Their beds had been moved slightly to one side to allow room for the big bed the two had made for their sister. Keeping their word, they did as much as they could to make the bed comfortable. Decorating the room with owls and scenes from fairytales as Ginny had always loved. They kept the room a neutral light yellow and added swirls of silver all over. When Ginny entered the room, she was blown away. She was ecstatic at this show of compassion and kindness from her brothers, but also hesitant. Tom had said that they were only faking it... Could she trust that they wouldn’t turn their backs on her like Ron did? Or should she trust Tom who had cared for her when they had not; who had helped her, complimented her, and told her that she was beautiful and didn’t deserve Ron and Charlus’s malice.“Gin?” Ginny snapped out of her daze and turned to the two.“Sorry.’ Ginny mumbled.“No problem, Gin. We were just wondering-”“What you wanted to do first since-”“It’s Friday and we have-”“Practically all the time in the world!” George finished by flinging his hands out excitedly.“So we ask again, what would you like to do first?” The two said in sync, somewhat creepily. Ginny laughed at their plotting and smirking faces.“Well...” She began with an evil grin, rubbing her hands together as schemes filled her mind.The next morning, Dumbles woke up with pink hair and only able to make goat noises. Regardless, the next hour was filled with pranking Dumbledore, who earlier that day, offered Charlus extra lessons. Unhappy with the unfair treatment Dumbledork was happy to give Ron and Charlus, Ginny was ecstatic to get the old coot back. Besides, he had gotten her brothers (the twins) in trouble before. Unfortunately, on the way back from the prank, the three saw Charlus and Ron walking back to their common room.“I don’t know why she thinks we’d like her.” Charlus said.“She just wants to be me because she likes you.” Ron easily claimed.“Yeah. She’s just an annoying brat.”“Ginny’s always been that way. She was always a body of emotion- she felt all too bloody much and wouldn’t shut up about it until mum yelled at her.” Ron remarked, walking through the door to the next corridor. Ginny looked physically sick. Fred and George were quick to put their arms around their sister.“That’s not true, Gin.”“He’s just an arse.” Fred comforted.“He just wants to be cool and being friends with Charlus supposedly accomplishes that. You’re certainly not an annoying brat. You’re perfect and he’s too blinded by fame to see that.” Ginny tried to smile at her brothers’ reassurances, but felt herself grimace instead.“Can we... can we just go back to your room for a second? There’s s-something I have to do.” Ginny said. Gred and Forge simply nodded and allowed Ginny to lead the way to their room. Ginny rushed through the door to grab her diary. She grabbed the muggle pen the twins had given her earlier this year for note taking and frantically began writing something. She paused for a minute and started again, this process repeating for a while. Ginny’s eyes dulled almost immediately and a small smile asserted itself on her face. Ginny’s face grew slightly pale, but she didn’t seem to notice. Fred and George watched for a few minutes until Ginny sat the diary down and looked up. She stood up quickly and got dizzy. She fell back on the bed and the twins rushed up to check on her.“Are you alright?!”“Gin?!”“Ginny?!”“What happened?!”“Shut up!” Ginny finally yelled at the two fussing brothers. Unabashed, the two simply looked at her until she opened her mouth to answer them.“I’m fine. I just got light-headed.”“Gin, that’s not normal. And you were getting paler every second you wrote in that journal! It’s like it was draining you!” Ginny shrugged.“I guess it’s just more exhausting to write down your feelings than to shout them to the world until you’re told to shut up.” Ginny remarked, frustratingly looking at the ground.“Ginny, it’s okay to shout your emotions sometimes! You have to let it out and sometimes writing it down is just another way of bottling it up!” George yelled.“We love you, Gin, but we feel like we’re being blocked out by you. We used to be so close, but now we’re the ones that have to start every conversation. We feel like we’re losing you, Ginny.” Fred stated sadly.“B-but you’ll never lose me! You’d have to try really hard to get rid of me for good.” Ginny said, trying for a small smile and jokingly punching Fred’s shoulder. Fred pulled back feigning pain before he chuckled.“There’s the Gin we know and love.” Fred remarked. George smiled alone and the three quickly found themselves in a group hug. As Ginny rested her head on Fred’s shoulder, she looked over to see the black book lying innocently against her pillow.What if they were somehow right...? The next day, the three tired Weasleys made their way to the Hufflepuff table in the Great Hall for breakfast. Taking the opportunity to sleep in for once, the group calmly walked over to the table. Ginny went to ask Elizabeth Price (halfblood Slytherin) a question about the rules of an essay Snape had assigned the first years while Fred and George conversed with Harry, Draco, Neville, Hermione, Luna, and Theo.“Gred, Forge... We were told more about Talon’s master and... well, we think he’s somehow leeching power off of someone...”“You think that Ginny-?!” The two exclaimed, cutting Hermione off swiftly.“We think that it’s possible that Talon’s master didn’t enter in human form, and if that is the case, what form is he in?” Draco said.“Oh no...” George said, horror starting to fill his features.“G-Ginny... she was writing in that goddamned journal and started getting sick... you think he’s draining her through that thing?!” Fred asked, nearly hyperventilating.“At this point, I don’t know what to think.” Harry said. The entire group did their absolute best to watch over Ginny that Saturday. She seemed fine, nothing out of the ordinary until an arrogant nasty bitch in her year insulted her in front of the Great Hall. Surprisingly, Dumbledore did nothing. Snape and Minerva were otherwise occupied and Flitwick and Sprout were holding an extra study group that the Shadows had for once, opted out of to care for Ginny. Charlus and Ron smirked, not caring that the insult had come from a Slytherin. The twins watched in anger.Instead of waving off the pathetic insult like she would have back home, Ginny quickly escaped from the room, the twins not far behind.The next day was even worse; that morning, Ginny was insulted by the entirety of the first year Gryffindor girls. She had left breakfast halfway through and nobody saw her again for a while. Fred and George, unfortunately, had been talking with Professor Sprout, trying to figure out what they could do to better themselves at the practical side of Herbology. The two didn’t much like that class, although they were good at it, and as Pomona Sprout began explaining more and more about the uses of Herbology in possible future pranks, the more interested the twins became, gaining back the spark that had been missing from their eyes since Ginny started getting more sick.Seeing as Ginny wasn’t seen for the rest of that Sunday, it was assumed by many that she had fled and was off crying somewhere. After all, it was easier to just hide out than face reality sometimes. Around dinner time, the group came across a horrible scene. There were nearly fifty students crowded around one solid figure. Colin Creevy, a first year Gryffindor, stood perfectly still in the hall as if frozen in time. He didn’t blink or twitch. He wasn’t dead, but...He had been petrified.Maneuvering around the crowd, the group of eight quickly spotted the entire scene. Colin Creevy, standing with his camera held to his eyes, stared unblinkingly at something in front of him and Charlus and Ron stood ahead of the crowd, boasting about how they should have been there; they could have saved the poor lad. The crowd was looking horrified at the two as if they had done the petrification themselves, though the rest of the group knew that couldn’t be true- the two idiots wouldn’t know how to petrify the lad much less have reason to do so.Talon’s master had struck and made the first move. Professor Vector (Arithmancy) separated the throng of students to see what had happened. She looked in disbelief at Charlus and Ron. She had probably thought them too stupid to do such.And who could blame her?Charlus and Ron immediately started explaining the story of how they were completely innocent and found the kid there. Charlus then started spouting some shit of how he was the boy-who-lived, so he had obviously not done this. Ron was backing him up and Professor Vector was looking on, arms crossed, as Charlus’ superiority complex made itself known more and more. The group could have sworn they even saw her roll her eyes once or twice. Eventually, Professor Vector cast a levitation charm on the babbling boys and they both let out shouts of protest as they were dragged off somewhere- likely to see Dumbles. The group listened as the group of students left, conversing excitedly about the new gossip.“Have to obey master... poor child... what have I done?... have to obey or be killed... he could have been killed... why hasn’t master been killed after 50 years?...” A quiet voice hissed from the walls. Once the hallway was clear, Harry ordered Briakora to find Talon.“Wait, can’t Theo find her? He could use his location skills?” Neville asked. Theo rolled his eyes.“I’ve tried multiple times. Quite often, it’s in uncharted Hogwarts areas and the rest of the time has it basically floating in the wall. Trust me, we would be better off with Bree physically searching this time.” Theo said, annoyance and agitation towards himself for not being able to locate Talon clear in his voice.“We have to talk to Talon immediately. Obviously, it’s no longer safe to just let this play out. While Bree searches, we still have to go to lessons with Flitwick.” Draco concluded. “And that concludes our lesson for tonight. I believe-” Flitwick started.“Attention, students. I must announce the institution of a full-school lockdown. Please report to your dorm rooms immediately and do not leave unless given my or your head of house’s express permission. This is requested for your own safety. This is not a suggestion.” Dumbledork’s calm voice rang through the school.“Oh, Merlin... I need to go talk to him and report to my house immediately. I trust that you will either be there or in another common room?” Flitwick asked, silently demanding the orders be carried out.“Yes, professor.” The group stated.“Very well. Make haste!” Flitwick said, leaving the area with a pop. Hmm... apparation within the castle isn’t supposedly possible...The group quickly walked down the hallways, trying to get to the Gryffindor common room to make sure the twins were okay and see what McGonagall had to say. The six rounded a corner to come face to face with the twins who were entering from the side-path. Harry raised a questioning eyebrow and the twins shrugged, having no more information than Luna, Neville, Theo, Hermione, Draco, and Harry did. Coming across a frantic Lockhart running in the opposite direction with his tail between his legs was not an unexpected sight either and they quite honestly wanted to laugh. The Defense professor running away... ah, the irony.The group was only a few yards from the entrance to the Gryffindor common room- the portrait of the Fat Lady (she chose the name herself)- when McGonagall came out, tears running down her cheeks that she hastily tried to wipe away.“Fred, George... I’m afraid it’s not good news... your sister... was taken.” Minerva said, knowing that Talon’s master was surely to blame. The twins paled beyond recognition.“Where?” Harry commanded.“Second Floor. The mid-way corridor.” Minerva muttered.“I have to go now. Professor Dumbledore just ordered the heads of house to go meet him immediately.” McGonagall murmured. “Good luck.” She told the two boys before hesitantly walking off towards Dumbledork’s office. The twins were frozen.“No... no... not Gin...”“We have to find her.” Fred declared with determination. “We /will/ find her and we /will/ bring her back, so I swear.”“So I swear.” George repeated. The other six nodded their silent allegiance and the group hurried to the second floor, casting every disillusionment charm they knew as they went.“Plan of action?” Draco asked quickly to Harry in mid-motion.“Go there, kill the master, save Talon, save Ginny, kill Dumbles for letting it happen.” Fred stated with steel in his voice.“Works for me.” Draco said, shrugging. The two ran over to the wall where, in red paint, someone had written the words that would haunt their memories.“Her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever.”“Briakora?!” Harry hissed loudly. Bree slithered over as quickly as she could from where she had been a few doors down in the castle.“He’s hurrying the plan. He knows that Charlus is getting extra lessons with Dumbledork.” Briakora said.“Where is the entrance to the chamber?” Harry asked, his voice growing steadier and stronger with every word as he drank the potion to make him look like Nightshade. The others followed his example and did so as well. The disgusting potion traveled down their throats and in an instant, they were their alternate personas.“I think I’ve found it. It’s just down the hall in the lady’s loo.” Briakora said quickly. Harry told the others and raced to the bathroom wondering why on earth Lord Salazar Slytherin had placed the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets in a girls’ bathroom when he himself could not gain entrance without looking like a pervert. The connection had been made long ago that Talon was the ‘monster’ that had been forced to do awful things fifty years ago.Fortunately for Talon, her memory had mostly been erased of any specifics during her fifty year slumber.“You’ll have to ssspeak in sssnake language. It’s a defenssse Lord Ssslytherin placed ssso that he or his dessscendantsss may be the only onesss to open the chamber- back when little was known about Parssseltongue and the trait was believed to be genetic.”“Open.” Harry hissed to the room. Suddenly, a faucet and tap moved aside to reveal a deep hole that likely went on for several meters down. The ghost that was well known to frequent that bathroom had been invited to join the Gray Lady for ‘tea’ and was conveniently gone for the day.“No time for formalities! Cushioning charm, silencing charm, anything else you can think of.” Harry commanded, easily assuming the role of leader. The group nodded solemnly and jumped after Harry, still looking like Yin, Yang, Leaf, Moon, Ares, Athena, Fire, and Nightshade. The group hurriedly followed Harry without a word. Yin and Yang were the first to follow and were wearing faces of extreme determination. They would not let their sister die. The group landed on a large slab of some form of rock. The floor was dusty as if no one had been there in years, but the dust had been disturbed in a few places that the group soon discovered were the after-effects of footsteps.Following the small marks in the dust, the group traveled forwards. Once again, they reached another door, this one depicting snakes wrapped around a circle in gray stone.“Open.” Harry hissed. The snakes slid around at the command and slid into their respective re-locations around the circular door, the entrance made a loud noise as it unlocked. The group stoned themselves for what happen next. Briakora raced ahead to try to find Talon and the rest of the group halted at the scene before them. Ginny Weasley lay crumpled on the floor. She appeared to be unconscious. Standing in front of her was a young man of perhaps seventeen, but he didn’t look exactly... solid. His robes were those of Slytherin, but the group could attest that there were no Slytherin seventh years matching this face.“Who are you?!” The voice called.“We could ask you the same question.” Fred growled.“I asked first.” The man said haughtily.“And we request that you answer first.” George angrily exclaimed.“Tom Marvolo Riddle.” The lad said, smirking.“I am Lord Voldemort.” Hermione mumbled. “He changed up the letter order. H-he’s Voldemort in a sense.” She said. Riddle turned his head directly to face her.“Ah, the first one to figure that out.” He was smirking. Who would have thought; Riddle plus 50 years or so equals MoldyVoldy.“You also ought to be aware that your name is French for ‘Flight from Death’.” Hermione replied, smirking right back. Her eyes twinkled with mirth and hate at the same time.“And that’s why we call her Athena.” Theo muttered. Riddle’s smirk disappeared and he glared strongly at her, sneering; she was calling him a coward. After a few moments, Yin and Yang had had enough.“Every second we waste is another second closer to death for the girl!” Yin yelled, hardly pausing to say ‘the girl’ instead of Ginny.“He’s right.” Nightshade said. “Leaf, Moon, secure the perimeter. Athena, Ares.” Harry nodded to them. They understood the silent message and began running as many diagnostic spells and revealing spells as possible on Riddle and Ginny.“She’s alive. She’s a bit drained though- she’ll be completely unconscious in approximately five minutes if nothing’s done. She’s asleep now and he’s continuing to drain her.” Hermione said.“He’s not a physical being; not corporeal. He’s a spirit at the moment- but he’s becoming more solid from the energy he’s draining. He’s powerful, but currently weak. Ginny’s own magical ability tried to fight him off. He- he’s a part of Voldemort’s spirit- not the whole thing. It’s like... it’s like the book was holding a part of him... A horcrux...” Theo concluded, eyebrows furrowed. Briakora had paused in her tracks.“Tom.” She whispered. His head turned to her, eyes widening.“Briakora.” He said, sticking his nose up at the snake. Bree shook her head back and forth.“You? You are Talon’s master?!” Bree shouted in Parseltongue. Hermione and Draco were quietly translating for the group while Harry watched on.“Yes, unfortunately for you, you weren’t my only pet, Briakora.” Tom smirked evilly. “Miss me?” He said sarcastically.Bree seemed to... snort? Was that even possible for a snake? Bree’s demeanor was intimidating, even in her small size of only a foot and a half long or so.“Good riddance.” She spat. She nodded to Harry and slithered off. Tom turned back to the group.“Ah, the poor things. She’s abandoning you.” Riddle said, pretending to pout. The glint in his eyes was quite a bit like Dumbledore’s manipulative twinkle. Harry shrugged as Tom was completely oblivious. Harry mentally listened as Briakora explained everything to Talon. Leaf and Moon quickly snuck off to the sides. Tom had moved protectively in front of Ginny’s body and the two sent silent wandless spells to lift Ginny from the ground. Ginny began floating up and up. Leaf cast a feather-light charm on Ginny while Moon quietly called to Hunter and Shade. The two showed up immediately and Leaf spelled pieces of cloth to wrap around Ginny on either side to hold her up. The two immediately understood and Shade and Hunter each grabbed on piece of the cloth with their talons. The two silently carried Ginny away now that she was nearly weightless, Tom oblivious to the entire scene behind him. Riddle began calling for Talon loudly.“Basilisk, obey me. Attack them!” Talon slithered out of the hole in the wall, in what was the mouth of Salazar Slytherin’s statue.Okay, they took the ‘snake-speak’ expression a little to literally there...Talon came up to the side of her master. The group had all looked away so as not to get hurt. Talon, thinking she had to follow the order, came forward hesitantly.“What are you waiting for?! Attack!” Little Voldy commanded.“Stop.” Harry stated to the snake.“Use your third eyelid!” Draco hissed. Tom looked shocked at the two speakers.“S-speakers? But... Tom said he was the last! He said-”“He lied.” Harry, Draco, and Hermione chorused.“Return to your preferred size, Talon.” Harry commanded. Talon happily changed back to her normal snake-size, closed her third eyelid like a film over her eye, and glanced at the group of speakers. She was surprised to see a large group of eight with three speakers. Tom had claimed that he was the last! How much had changed in the fifty years of her dormancy? Talon glared at Tom and joined Briakora on the sidelines, ready to help at a moment’s notice. Talon wished desperately to use her glare on Tom Riddle, but she feared that she might accidentally kill one of her helpers. Briakora was whispering to Talon quietly and Talon watched on as the battle began.“No matter. You cannot win. She is nearly drained. You can do nothing.” Tom stated simply, glancing at his nails haughtily.Arrogant bastard.“Attack that damn journal with all you’ve got.” Harry commanded. “Ares, how can you destroy a horcrux?”“Um... feindfyre, basilisk venom...” He listed.“Parselmagic.” Hermione whispered. “That’s it! Nightshade, use Parselmagic!!!” She screamed.“How?!” He yelled back, ducking Riddle’s weak Cruciatus Curse. Riddle had started throwing curses at the group using Ginny’s wand that he had been holding in his hand.
“If the diary’s the link between Ginevra and Tom, sever it. Focus, Nightshade!” Draco yelled.“Then you and Athena will have to help! We need to obliterate this thing!” Harry yelled back.“Fire, Athena, join Nightshade. Ares, Leaf, Moon, and Yang and I can handle this!” Yin (Fred) yelled, throwing a strong bludgeoning curse in Riddle’s direction. Riddle was overwhelmed- how could these people use wandless, wordless magic?! He hadn’t even mastered that in his so many years on this earth! These people were half of his age, how the hell could they do that?!Leaf and Moon surrounded the three friends while the others attacked Riddle with a barrage of spells. Riddle had had switch to the defensive while Nightshade, Fire, and Athena tried to destroy the diary. Nightshade summoned the damn thing from MoldyVoldy’s hands, laying the thing on the floor in front of the three friends.“Focus on your ability to speak the language and lace your words with magic.” Hermione commanded. The friends started whispering to themselves in Parseltongue and began pouring strong magic into their speech, beseeching their cores to intertwine the magical strands into their hissed dialect. The book suddenly caught on fire as the three friends shouted together “Burn!” (obviously in Parseltongue). The fire started in the bottom-right corner and continued, causing Riddle and the book to let out ear-piercing shrieks and cries. Riddle had lunged at the group to be met with the points of two swords. Yin and Yang had borrowed the swords from Nightshade a few weeks before for practice and had found that the weapons suited them perfectly. They could even use the swords to cast spells!“One more inch.” Yin claimed.“We dare you.” Yang added coldly. The fire was growing and Riddle felt himself fall to his knees in pain. He felt like he was burning inside and out. The journal was now fully aflame and it and Riddle let out one last scream. The book was a burnt, tattered mess and Riddle... well, he literally crumpled into dust and the ashes flew away in a cold wind.“Well then... and we didn’t even have to show our abilities.” Neville shrugged.Yin and Yang rushed forward.“Where’s Ginny?!” The two shouted at once to Harry.“Shade and Hunter flew her out to the hospital wing with Madame Pomfrey. The idiot didn’t even realize...” Harry said. “I sent Hunter with the message that if no adults get there before we do, we were staying with Madame Pomfrey, hearing that Ginny was taken and were waiting for Dumbles to bring her in safely.” Fred and George snorted.“As if we’d trust the old coot with our sister’s life.”The group immediately left the chamber to go back to the girl’s bathroom. Closing the entrance, they allowed Briakora and Talon to fly up with Harry and Draco seeing as Talon had taken a liking to the blond and the two immediately had an unusual friendship. Safely closing the chamber, the group changed back to their normal appearances. The group popped into the Hospital Wing using Harry’s house elvish magic after Theo made sure that the infirmary was empty except for Poppy and Ginny. Fred and George rushed over to their sister who was still asleep. Thankfully, she wasn’t unconscious, but it was deemed that she could use all the rest she could get. When Riddle faded, all of her magic returned to her rapidly along with a good portion of his own. The two fussed over her furiously and Ginny began to stir. Poppy gave the two an annoyed look, but said nothing.“Gin?”“Ginny?”“W-what happened?” Ginny said, eyes slowly opening to the harsh light of the infirmary.“Nothing. Just... nothing.”“Don’t worry, Gin. We’ll tell you tomorrow, but-”“For now, we’re required to-”“Request that you sleep.”“Unfortunately for Madame Pomfrey,-”“We were never good at following rules.”“So we’ll give you the basics now.” Fred and George nodded at Harry to continue.“That journal that you write in wasn’t just a journal. A small piece of Voldemort was inserted into that diary to drain you of your magic so that Voldemort may once again return to having a body. He was controlling you and manipulating you.” Harry stated solemnly.“I’m sorry to tell you that he removed your volition and controlled you.” Draco added quietly. Ginny’s face turned pale.“B-but Tom, he-”“Was Voldemort. Tom Marvolo Riddle spells I am Lord Voldemort.” Hermione added.“But he told me... he said...”“We hate to say it, Gin-”“But he was using you.” Ginny started silently crying. Fred and George wrapped their arms around the girl and the rest of the group put comforting hands on her shoulders and knees. She needed all the emotional support she could get.“We’re here for you, Gin.”“How do you know all of this?” She questioned, running a hand along her eye to remove the tears. However, that was the one question that they couldn’t answer. About ten minutes later, Ginny finally agreed to sleep after much pestering from her brothers and Dumbledore came in about half an hour later. He certainly hadn’t expected to see Miss Weasley laying in the bed...“Poppy, pray tell, how did Mrs. Weasley get here?” He said, an edge in his voice that the group picked up only because they were listening for it.“A group of young witches and wizards dropped her off before disappearing.” Poppy lied easily, raising her occlumency shields to keep Dumbles out. He gave her a skeptical look.“Who?” He asked. Poppy shrugged carelessly.“I’m afraid I don’t know them. They said something about... Gray, I think...?” Dumbles’s smile faltered obviously, but he tried to fix it before the group could see. The group continued as if nothing had happened.“I see... and how exactly did this current group end up here?”“Well, Professor,-” Hermione started.“We heard from McGonagall that someone had taken our sister. We decided to wait here for when you would safely return her- you are Albus Dumbledore, after all.” Fred said, calmly, seemingly gushing over Dumbles. Dumbles gave a weak smile.“Well, I’m simply glad that your sister is safe, Mr. Weasley.” Dumbledork tried as if to take credit for another’s work.“Believe me, sir. We are too.” Fred said, although the group felt like glaring at the manipulative bastard. Dumbles left shortly after. The next day was quite interesting. The group awoke early to explain the day’s events to Snape, McGonagall, Pomfrey, and even Tonks who Severus had snuck into the castle by floo. When the group had finally explained all that had happened, Snape was surprised to say the least.“He made horcruxes... that damn fool... I had my suspicions, but...” Poppy, Minerva, and Tonks looked on in confusion.“Horcruxes?” Minerva finally asked.“Soul containers. One can split their soul and put the part into an object- typically inanimate to ensure the horcrux’s safety. They’re nearly impossible to safely kill. As long as one horcrux remains, a person cannot be fully killed.” Hermione explained.“But to make a horcrux, a life must be taken.” Theo continued.“And the more horcruxes are made, the less stable the maker is...” Neville concluded.“But how many would he make?” Minerva asked. There was a brief silence.“Seven.” Luna rang out. All eyes turned to her. “He made seven. Seven is a very magical number after all.” Luna stated.“But what are they? How many of the buggers still exist?” Theo asked.“That will require research. However, the diary was one- leaving six.” Harry grew contemplative.“I might have been one. When Mum - Tiddly- adopted me, she said a dark force was released from my scar and that’s why it’s faded into practically nothing when it stubbornly refused to do so before.” Harry stated. The group looked at him.“It is possible that you were not intended to be one...” Severus trailed off.“Then that leaves five.” George stated.“And that means we’ll have to do some research. Find everything you can on the name Tom Marvolo Riddle and Tonks and I will try to see about doing some research outside of the castle.” Minerva and Poppy made indignant noises.“What? Dumbledore would notice if you were not at school. He’ll simply assume I was pulled to a Death Eater meeting.” The two finally nodded in acceptance, but they weren’t happy about it. Minerva interrupted the silence after a moment.“This war has made me realize just how precious our lives are and how easily they can be cast aside. I wish to make my life important by fighting this war, but, doing so, I do not wish to be alone. So, on this day, I wish to make a promise.” Minerva stepped towards Poppy and got knelt to one knee, holding out a beautiful ring with a fire-opal gemstone.“Pamela May Pomfrey, would you do me the honor of, in time, becoming my beautiful wife?” Minerva asked, eyes pleading. Poppy nodded, speechless. Both women were tearing up and Tonks wiped away a silent tear of her own, smiling happily at the couple. Minerva quickly stood and slid the ring onto Poppy’s finger, kissing her fiancé. Severus allowed a bit of silence before he had to move on.“Until we discover what the other horcruxes are, act normally. And you two,” Snape said, pointing to Fred and George. “Go and be with your sister. She needs you now more than ever.” The twins nodded and the group made their way to breakfast in the infirmary with Ginny, happy that Minerva and Poppy were engaged, thus giving light to the darkening day. This was the next step of the Gray’s involvement and they could already tell that things would change from now on. Albus Dumbledore was not a happy man. He had expected Charlus’s Gryffindor stupidity- oh, sorry /bravery/- to make him go save Ginny, Ron’s sister. He had not expected Voldemort to make a move so early in the school year, but he was not too surprised. What /had/ surprised him was that the Gray had ruined everything!What were those idiots thinking?! He, Albus Dumbledore, was the rightful leader! He had worked hard for this position, not to mention done many illegal things and risked some of his more valuable pawns all in the name of the (his) greater good!It’s just not fair! He’d been in this game for decades and these people decided they could just randomly join?! Who did they think they were?That’s not how this war works! There are two sides, not three. This is supposed to be a game of chess, but that requires two sides. Three sides completely changes the game and that was exactly what he could not have happen if he wanted to keep his plans as they were. Charlus was to defeat Voldemort and win Dumbledore infinite fame, but instead the Gray completely screwed up all of his fucking plans! So no, Albus Dumbledore was certainly /not/ a happy man. The next two weeks of school had started somewhat hectically, but a routine was soon established. The twins would meet with Ginny at every meal and Ginny would be given the chance to meet Harry, Luna, Neville, Draco, Hermione, and Theo. Ginny had been cautious of Draco and Theo at first because of the anti-Slytherin preachings of her family, but had quickly learned to accept the entire group. She separated herself from the students in her year (who were prone to mocking her) and instead began integrating herself into the hearts of Shadow. Ginny’s grades went up dramatically as she started hanging out with the group more and more. Her grades were nearly perfect and she was glad to have multiple tutors at her disposal. Ginny had gotten frustrated often at her brothers’ and their friends’ sudden disappearances, but she had eventually coaxed it out of them that they were basically studying.Percy was frantically studying all that he could for next year. His last year of Hogwarts was fast approaching and he was one hundred percent determined to be the best in his year and the best candidate for any scouts. This unfortunately meant that he couldn’t visit Ginny as much, but he had quickly abandoned his prefect duties finding out that his sister had been taken. He had been heard crying in his dorm for hours, not knowing where he could search, before a fellow student rushed forward and told him that Ginny had been saved by some people named Gray. He swore to himself as he rushed to the hospital wing, that whoever the hell ‘Gray’ were, he would fight for them if it came to such. Percy would not lose his sister and he would do anything he could to aid her saviors.Ginny had been raised in an unusual environment. She was the only girl and had received quite a bit of doting due to such, but her future was basically planned out by her mother. She was to marry Charlus and make her family rich and proud. She was to have a lot of kids and be the best daughter ever. However, Ginny didn’t quite fit the mold her mother had made for her since she was born. Ginny wasn’t quite the brave lion with the fiery temper that her mother had envisioned her as. Ginny was more studious and although her temper occasionally got to her, she was relatively docile. Ginny had a bit of trouble with her emotions though and had done so ever since she was a child.She felt emotions extremely strongly and it was nearly crippling at times. Ginny always had a knack for knowing people’s emotions and sometimes those emotions got to her too. Just as she felt them, she could also change someone’s mood fairly easily. She was capable of calming people down or riling them up and she knew this. The only problem was that she had trouble dealing with these emotions sometimes. Ginny’s ‘empathy’ often hurt her as a child. She couldn’t cope with the different emotions and cried often as a baby consequently.Her parents, not knowing what else to do, simply silenced her cries so they wouldn’t have a house full of crying children. Ginny was ‘cared for’ by her mother and father who never knew what was wrong and were quick to brush off Ginny’s cries. Ginny’s older brothers (excluding Ron) had quickly moved to fill the parental position. She had tried explaining her emotional situation a few times to her parents who claimed she was simply seeking attention in the family of seven children. Ginny didn’t get along very well with her parents, but she pretended to be the child they wanted. She pretended to fangirl over Charlus and be a headstrong Gryffindor when all she really wanted to do was hang out with Charlie, Bill, Percy, and the twins or sit down with a good book on fairytales or spells that she could practice. She had never been the girl her parents wanted and she knew that so she tried to change who she was. She only revealed her true self to her oldest brothers (again, excluding Ron) who loved her as she was. Her brothers quickly became her anchor.Percy helped Ginny learn a lot of spells that their brothers had taught him. Percy’s studious attitude had infected Ginny when she was tiny and created a level of understanding in the siblings. Ginny knew quite well what her brother was doing and was willing to support him in any way that she could, but she was perhaps the only one to realize that his goal may be pointless- the Ministry was far too corrupt for him to take on his own. Ginny loved her brothers (excluding Ron who she only... sorta liked? Maybe?) to death, but she was a lot more practical in some of her views.Charlie and Bill had understood her well and had always doted on Ginny like the parents she craved since her parents were lacking in the loving, her-best-interest-at-heart attitude. The twins had surprisingly been the ones to understand the most. They both liked reading and were studious as well, but they were also mischievous. Most people only saw their teasing, playful side, but she was witness to their secrets and such. It was due to such that, at the end of the summer, Ginny realized that her two brothers were actually dating. Many things had been drilled into her head by her parents. Two such things had been that: 1) gay relationships were evil and 2) incest was no better. She had, however, always been quite open minded and liked to consider herself bisexual. When she found out, she had admittedly been shocked, but she had no trouble with their relationship. They were absolutely adorable together and had the perfect amount of compatibility.Ginny was happy for her brothers, but they would tell her when they were ready. Regardless, she didn’t think it was safe to tell her parents this or... well, anything. Ginny loved her parents, she really did, but they weren’t the most accepting people. They wanted their children to fit a perfect mold that they had established firmly in their minds years ago. That is perhaps why they had so many children- one was bound to nearly fit. Unfortunately, seeing as none of the boys had matched up with the mental image her parents held, that duty was assigned to poor Ginevra.Ginny pretended to be someone she was not and hid her true potential and abilities from her parents. She played dumb to their scheming and plotting while she hid out in her room with a book on potions disguised to be a book about Charlus Potter. She would rant and rave about how ‘amazing’ Charlus was until it no longer sounded real to herself; she had firmly asserted herself into a pattern that was especially tested last year once her last brother finally went to Hogwarts. She used the excuse that she missed him and holed herself up in her room for hours. She didn’t care much for her parents, but she did love them- they just didn’t understand and never would.Ginny was pulled from her thoughts by a tapping on her shoulder. She turned to see Anthony Peters sitting next to her with a guilty expression.“Sorry to bother you, but Fay likes to explore...” The boy trailed off and Ginny looked at him a tad confused.“Pardon?” She asked.“Fay, the Cornish Pixie... she likes to explore and I’m sorry to say that her current perch just so happens to be your head.” Anthony looked embarrassed to say such a thing, but sure enough, Ginny felt a light movement on her head. She smiled brightly and tried to look up. Failing, she raised her hand, palm upwards, level with her head. After a few moments, she felt a tiny weight on her hand and lowered it slowly. She was face-to-face with a small Cornish Pixie.Her eyes lit with curiosity and excitement.“Hello.” Ginny said to the creature. Fay happily waved back.“Would you like some of my pumpkin juice?” Ginny asked the small pixie. Fay nodded happily and Ginny silently conjured a small cup, filling it with a few drops of pumpkin juice, she handed it to Fay who drank with enthusiasm.When she had finished, she licked her lips and Ginny giggled. Anthony smiled gratefully- few were accepting of his new ‘pet’ except for the members of Shadow.“So how exactly did this happen?” Ginny asked, motioning to Anthony and Fay.“Well... it’s sort of a long story...” Ginny smiled.“I’ve got time before class. Talk on!” She exclaimed, teasing the older boy, not knowing that such an even had sealed their permanent friendship. It was the day before Halloween that Severus made a breakthrough. After hours of research on the mysterious Tom Riddle and horcruxes, a discovery was made. Tom Riddle was named after his muggle father and was himself, a half-blood. Much like Severus’ parents, Riddle had been born not out of love, but from Amortentia. Riddle’s mom had committed suicide when he was six months old, leaving baby Tom with the father that never loved him. Riddle was taken to an orphanage before he turned seven, but by then, he already knew of how his parents’ relationship had come to be and why it had ended.Riddle never loved again and he had trust issues. He was secretive and kept to himself. He was a bully in the shadows- he manipulated people and blamed it on others successfully. Few knew the true him when he got to Hogwarts. He fit into the Slytherins well, lying and saying that he was a pureblood and that his father was simply from America. The Slytherins welcomed the new recruit and Tom moved further and further from neutrality. He bore witness to the war with Grindelwald and watched as Dumbledore defeated the man. After Hogwarts, he became even worse. Left alone with his thoughts, Riddle’s mind slowly became more and more distorted. His views became more evil and his morals disappeared. He slowly fell to darkness, changed his persona, and started a war in the wizarding world just as his hero, Grindlewald had done.However, that was not the discovery. Snape had inspected Riddle’s old family home from before he had been shipped off to the orphanage. Searching for dark signatures, he immediately detected the unusually dark signature of an object underneath the floor boards. Removing the board was quick work as Riddle had apparently been so careless as to put no charms around the area.The object was a ring- Gaunt Ring to be exact. Riddle’s mother had been of the House of Gaunt- a pureblood family too bent in its ways and distorted through inbreeding that it was left in squalor and ended with Tom’s mother, Merope. The ring radiated black magic and the group was all to happy to be rid of it. After much debate, the group decided it was better to ensure its destruction than to risk having the object placed in anyone’s care. The ring was quickly obliterated with Parselmagic. Not much else happened over the first semester of the school year. Ginny and Anthony became good friends, finding a mutual distaste for their parents’ expectations. Anthony’s parents were strict Christians (surprising in England, but both had been raised in America) and believed at first that Anthony and his older (by six years, therefor having graduated last year from Hogwarts) brother’s magical ability stemmed from the devil infecting their children. They grew wary of Anthony and his brother, Cody, and often left them to do as they pleased. Cody had often had to care for Anthony and hated that he couldn’t bring Anthony with him to school. The Peters were a poor family and were happy to ship Anthony and Cody off to a school that didn’t require much payment (they were a muggle family and therefor Hogwarts offered basically a scholarship to the lads). Anthony and Cody, however, were happy children and never complained about their parents although they did not support them exactly. Cody had moved out and was going to have Anthony move into the home with him as soon as he got out of school this year. Snape was on orders to talk with Lord Voldemort at a Death Eater meeting and had decided to have a chat with Nagini. Although the talk was admittedly difficult, having to record the answer to show to Harry, Hermione, or Draco for translation, Severus was relatively sure that Nagini was unwillingly controlled like Briakora and Talon had been.The group was able to determine that very day that Nagini was unwilling as the recorded part had her stating such. The couples’s love had only seemed to grow, the soul-bonds were stronger everyday and the couples were very happy. Even in the middle of a war, everyone was happy that love could still be found. The twins’ romance was the most unusual in that they had finally told Ginny. Suffice to say, they were extremely shocked when she simple replied,“I know.” The twins were once again happy not to be hiding that secret from their sister, but keeping the secret of their training was tiring and grating on the group’s nerves. The entire group had become close friends with Ginny and hated that they could not simply tell the girl. No decisions had been made yet about if they would tell her, but she would soon find out. Christmas break approached with haste. The group again had no troubles staying at school over the break (well, Neville may have had a bit of trouble, but claimed that he wished to practice with his dad’s wand at Hogwarts and wouldn’t be allowed to preform magic at home- that had made any of Augusta’s protests vanish). Ginny chooses to stay as well while Ron and Charlus go home. On the first day of the break, the group casually made their way to the Room of Requirements. They stepped inside, thankful that the majority of the school had left on holiday. The lesson had started with a discussion on the horcruxes Voldemort had made. With five left, a decision was made and a plan was instituted for Draco to try to find the next horcrux. After the plans were complete, the group held another mock-battle. This time, the scenario was Minerva, Severus, and Tonks against the twins and the second years.They didn’t stand a chance- the teachers that is. It was at the end of the battle that Theo sensed something.“Guys?”“Yeah, Theo?” The twins questioned at once.“I think... I think someone’s in here with us.” Theo stated.“Well, is it another house elf?” Hermione asked.“No... human.” Theo said with conviction.“Draco, can you make them visible?” Harry asked.“Yes, if Theo can point me in the right direction.” Theo nodded to the corner closest to the door. Draco focused his power to reveal instead of hide the figure.Suddenly, a blushing Ginny Weasley came into view.“Uh... hi?” Ginny said, smiling guiltily. Not much more training occurred that day as the group finally explained everything to an excited Ginny.“Can I join?” She asked.“Gin! This is a war!” Fred exclaimed.“Ginny, we don’t want you to get hurt!” George commented.“Oh please, I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.” Ginny claimed, rolling her eyes.“She’s right you know.” Luna stated, dreamy voice in full force.“See?” Ginny exclaimed.“But-” The twins began. Ginny sighed. Her eyes closed in concentration and the twins suddenly felt such sadness that they fell to their knees. The group watched on in interest.“Empathy.” Luna stated quietly for the group. It went unsaid that Ginny’s ability to feel emotions was also capable of projecting them into others as well. Ginny was given a bit of the potion that the group always had ready.“Welcome to the Shadows, Phoenix.” Draco commented.“Phoenix?” Ginny questioned. She paused for a moment in thought. “I like it.” And that was the end of that. That afternoon, Draco pretended to be staying with his Uncle Sev all day. Unfortunately, that meant that Harry and Draco had to be separated for a short while, but the plan continued. Draco told everyone present at the table that he was going to be spending the night with Severus in his chambers for some bonding time, but the Shadows knew the truth- Draco was going on a mission. Although the group really didn’t want him to go alone, it became apparent that it was necessary. Draco entered Severus’s quarters and walked straight to the floo. Grabbing some floo powder, he threw the ashes down, causing green flames to erupt from seemingly nowhere.“Gringotts Wizarding Bank!” He called out. He immediately walked forward to the goblins sitting at the desk.“Ah, Mr. Malfoy.” The goblin said. “I am Poisonthorn. What is it you require?” The creature asked.“I am heir to the Black Family, am I not?” Draco asked with the formality the goblins often respected.“Indeed you are, Mr. Malfoy. After Sirius Black’s disownment and kidnapping and his brother Regulus’ death, the Black line goes to you through your mother’s blood. If you refuse the position, then the lineage shall pass on to your cousin Nymphadora Tonks.” Poisonthorn stated calmly. Draco, although highly surprised, showed no outward emotion at the new information.“May I enter the vault without having reached my majority?” Draco asked formally, referring to the chronological majority of seventeen years of age.“Yes, you may.”“Then I wish to enter the Black Family vault. Now, preferably and please add Nymphadora Tonks to the list of those with access to the vault and remove Bellatrix Lestrange and Narcissa Black-Malfoy.” Draco commented cooly with a commanding edge he had learned from listening to his father.“Of course, Mr. Malfoy. Please follow me.” Poisonthorn said, leading Draco through multiple hallways and twists and turns. The goblin eventually led Draco to a cart that he cautiously climbed into with the goblin. The two quickly flew down the tracks (much like a muggle roller coaster) extremely deep into Gringotts- where the richest family vaults were. The cart stopped short.“Vault seventeen.” Poisonthorn called. Guarding the door was an empty suit of armor, but Draco was not fooled. The armor had been for the purpose of eliminating intruders- that is, if they could even get past the goddamned dragon that the two had passed on the ride over.Draco cautiously walked over to the vault door and felt the magic sweep over him, analyzing him for his Black blood. Seemingly satisfied, the door allowed him to enter. Poisonthorn waited outside as Draco began his search. First, he took a few precious books and heirlooms that he could use. Next, his real mission began. He scanned the area with a spell Harry had taught him to detect black or dark magic. He got minor responses from multiple things in the room, but was mildly surprised to find an exceedingly dark signature emanating from something towards the back of the vault. He cast a few censoring charms and found that there was a spell that would make any objects Draco touched in this pile multiply. Draco easily removed the simple charm and stepped forward to get a closer look at the pile. Sitting innocently at the top was the source of the dark magic; a cup. The cup was gold and shiny- still in pristine condition. Draco looked curiously at the object. That looked just like...Draco looked closer at the goblet. His suspicions were proven true by the H.H. and Hogwarts seal inscribed on the bottom of the cup. This was Helga Hufflepuff’s missing goblet. Draco quickly shoved the object into his bag and exited the vault, ordering Poisonthorn not to reveal that he had ever been there. The goblin gave a wry grin and stated that it would cost him. Draco rolled his eyes as he character demanded and tossed the goblin a few gold coins before returning to the cart to get to the floo so he could go back to Hogwarts.The entire group was waiting for him upon his return.“Well?” Hermione asked.“What happened?” Neville asked. Luna was eyeing Draco’s bag in distaste, muttering ‘such a waste.’“There was a horcrux. Helga Hufflepuff’s goblet to be exact.” Draco said, pulling the object from his rucksack. The group looked at the object. Ginny was staring in wonder at the unfamiliar cup and the unusual aura emanating so strongly from it.“Destroy it now?” Draco asked.“No!” Ginny yelled. All eyes turned to her.“That is a precious artifact! Look, horcruxes are simply containers, right?” The group nodded at her.“Then shift the piece of soul to another container and leave Helga’s cup in one piece!” Ginny exclaimed to the group as if the knowledge was obvious. Admittedly, many of the group blushed. They had not thought of such.Eventually, Harry conjured a quill and the entire group focused on moving the soul piece to the quill. The piece left without difficulty and the Shadows sighed in relief. The three Parseltongue speaking friends once again set about destroying a horcrux. This time the process was easier and the group had learned their lesson; silencing charms are the best way to go. The quill shook furiously in the air before it caught fire and burnt to a crisp right before the Gray’s eyes.“That leaves three, right?” Ginny asked. The twins nodded at her.“Yeah...” Fred answered.“But now we don’t know where to look next.” George said. The group nodded at the unfortunate truth of the statement.“Well... I know some people we might could ask...” Ginny remarked, trailing off.“Who?” Harry and Draco chorused.“Think about it; who is tied to Hogwarts and was probably here the first time Riddle went to school?” At the confused looks that met her comment, Ginny continued, sighing loudly.“The ghosts...” She said, moving her hands in an exaggerated show as if to say ‘duh’. Again, sheepish glances met hers.“That’s not a bad idea.” Harry remarked.“And I know just the one to ask.” Draco stated with conviction. The next day had Draco, Ginny, Harry, Hermione, Neville, Luna, Theo, and the twins questioning a near-silent Gray Lady- Ravenclaw’s house ghost. Hermione kept giving her odd looks until finally she asked what had been on her mind.“You look so much like Rowena Ravenclaw. You’re Helen, aren’t you? Her daughter?” The Gray Lady gave the group a calculating look.“I am she.” She muttered quietly.“Mrs. Helena, if you don’t mind our asking, we’re looking for some objects. These objects would have a very dark signature and would be connected to Tom Riddle.” She flinched at the name as Hermione spoke.“Why in heaven’s name would I give you any information regarding dark magic when I do not know if you will use it for evil as well?” Helena was getting defensive and beginning to raise her voice.“No, Lady Helena, you misunderstand; we wish to destroy these objects.” Draco tried.“Pardon me for my lack of trust, but that man that you mentioned made me trust him and broke my trust.” Lady Helena said, almost in tears.“Riddle?” Theo questioned.“Yes.” She answered simply.“How did he break your trust?” Fred asked.“He told me that he wanted to bring my mother’s diadem to its previous glory- something I was unable to do in this incorporeal form. He betrayed me, polluting the precious jewelry with dark magic and took it away from me. He hid it well inside the castle and I cannot retrieve it without a tangible form.” The Gray Lady stated bitterly.“We want to destroy such objects- we give you our word.” Harry said.“How do I know you will not betray me as Riddle did fifty years ago?” She asked, casting suspicion and doubt in her words.“We will remove the black magic without harming the diadem- so I swear.” Harry promised. The rest of the group quickly repeated the statement and Lady Helena looked on with tears of hope and possible joy.“It... My mother’s diadem is in a special room of the Come-and-Go Room. It’s the room of objects... you have to ask for the Room of Hidden Things.”“Thank you, Lady Helena.”“Wait! I-I wish to accompany you. See the evil that man did, be undone.” Lady Helena stated with conviction. The group immediately hurried to the RoR, extremely thankful that it was only the second day of Christmas break. The group entered quickly and wasted no time in summoning the diadem. The diadem silently flew over to Harry’s hand.He next conjured a piece of parchment to transfer the soul fragment to. The group silently closed their eyes and redirected the horcrux to leave the diadem and enter the parchment. The process was slightly harder without the adults present to help, but the group thought they did well nonetheless. The parchment was destroyed with Parselmagic by the three speakers without further adieu and Rowena happily looked on, tears streaming down her face as she finally felt freed from the burden she had had resting on her shoulders for fifty years.“What do you wish us to do with the diadem, Lady Helena?” Hermione asked. The Gray Lady paused for a moment.“I would like you to return the object to Flitwick. Simply tell him that Lady Helena wishes to right her wrongs.” She said, regret pouring into her words. The group nodded solemnly and began to walk out, leaving Lady Helena with her thoughts. There were only two horcruxes left and the group quite honestly couldn’t wait for the horcruxes to be destroyed and for MoldyVoldy to be mortal again.Then, and only then, would the full-out war begin. A few days later, on the eleventh day of the two week break, a Death Eater meeting was called. Severus and Lucius began talking as if they were friends although Sev knew that it was only for Lucius’s pride and Severus’s spying benefit (although Lucius didn’t know that). They had been in the middle of a conversation when Severus noticed something around Lucius’s neck.“A locket? Lucius, I never took you as the type.” Severus said with a cold uncaring tone in his voice.“Oh, please. The Dark Lord gave it to me.” Lucius boasted. “It’s apparently Salazar Slytherin’s locket- one of the founders.” Lucius raised his head in pride, turning his nose up snootily.“And pray tell, why he trusted you with such an object instead of keeping it for himself?” Lucius looked slightly angered.“I don’t know, perhaps it is because he trusts me.” Lucius said, sending a glare at his ‘friend.’ Snape was quite enjoying riling Malfoy up, but he also realized how likely it was that this was the next horcrux. Lucius turned as his name was called and Severus did a silent charm to detect the aura of the object. The aura was indeed extremely dark and perfectly matched the auras of the other horcruxes. Severus decided he would need to tell Shadow as soon as possible to make plans to steal it away. As soon as the meeting was over, Severus rushed out. He knew he would have to meet with Dumbles soon to ‘discuss’ the events going on with the Dark Lord, but he had to alert Shadow first. He passed the message through Poppy who immediately set about alerting the younger members of the Gray. After Minerva and Severus had talked to Albus Dumbledork, the group decided to hold another meeting. Poppy was able to get her seventh year apprentice to watch over the infirmary for an hour or so and was able to come. Severus was exhausted, but listened attentively as a plan was made. On the last day of the break, in two days, Shadow would sneak into Malfoy Mansion and destroy the horcrux. Snape listened to the plan. It seemed possible and if anyone could do it, it was the group in front of him. In case they got caught, they would be in their Gray aliases.The next two days passed in a blur. The group was excited to be nearly done destroying the horcruxes and took extra pride in knowing that they had done so in only about a single term of school- and obviously, they were still schooling age. That boosted their pride a tad bit. On the night of the second day, Shadow was nervous to say the least. This could potentially be the most confrontational encounter so far in the war; this time would involve possibly facing off against multiple people rather that obstacles or a single being. The evening started normally; there was a short training session after lunch, but between the session and dinner, a study session with the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs took place. A lot of even the older years looked up to the second years. Flitwick and Sprout were extremely happy that they had second years so happy to learn and so eager to help others. The study session lasted until dinner and afterwards, the group had another study session with their few friends in Gryffindor and Slytherin (who were surprisingly able to get along just fine).Eventually, it was time for the group to leave around ten thirty that night. The group had slept late that morning so that they wouldn’t be tired and were extremely anxious instead. The group drank that retched potion- someone should really invent something to make potions tasteless- and readied themselves. When Draco called Dobby, the reality of the situation fully weighed on their shoulders. The group disappeared in a half-second and steeled themselves for what they might find.Malfoy Manner was a large mansion. The walls were white marble and had multiple statues placed all around as a show of wealth. Thankfully, there were no portraits as Narcissa claimed that they irritated her. The group entered through Draco’s room. Harry found himself glancing around the large room while Draco blushed lightly. Draco quickly hurried the group through the door.The elves had made sure that both Narcissa and Lucius were asleep before the group entered. Thankfully, the two slept in different rooms, making the whole situation a bit easier. Although the two were married and had a child, the two were never on the best of terms. Narcissa cared more about her son than Lucius who only cared about profit/politics/purity. The group quietly asked Dobby where Lucius was and he directed them to Lucius’s study.Hermione cast a spell to make the door see-through on their side only and saw that yes, Lucius was sleeping at his desk, drool slipping down his chin and neck bent awkwardly, apparently having fallen asleep in the middle of reading a book as it was resting beneath his hands.Admittedly, the Shadows giggled. The scene was quite comical, but the group had a job to do. Draco stepped forward peering at the image until Lucius snored.“Yep, he’s asleep alright.” Draco remarked, rolling his eyes. The spell was canceled and a silencing spell replaced it. The door opened slowly. Making nary a sound, the group slowly walked over to Lucius. Harry stepped in front and carefully assessed the situation. He cast a spell to keep Lucius asleep for the next half hour- more time than necessary- and stared carefully at the chain on Lucius’s neck. His eyes lost their emerald appearance and turned a gray much like Draco’s. A light, but powerful wind began to form around the chain. Lucius never stirred. Harry strengthened the wind, making if more narrow and more specific. He had basically made the air into a knife with how he so accurately controlled the thin wisp. Harry focused more and more until, with one good swipe, the chain broke. Harry quickly shifted his abilities to keep the necklace floating in mid air so as not to hit Lucius or make it fall and wake anyone up. Harry pulled the chain towards him and pocketed the locket, before glancing back at Lucius. Lucius lets out a loud snore and Harry and Draco snickered.The twins, who were better at copying objects, silently made an exact copy of the physical appearance of the necklace. Ginny quickly gave the object a fake dark aura that Lucius would think no different from the original locket. The group rejoiced for a moment and walked back out for the elves to take them back to school.The second phase of the Gray’s involvement in the war was nearly over. Next would come step three- all out war.The group returned to school feeling victorious around eleven o’clock and turned off the potion’s effects. Having missed everything after dinner, the group was quite surprised the next morning. Dumbles had tried to make Charlus and Ron battle Lockhart in a mock-duel to improve the two’s image by defeating Lockhart who was well-known for his adventures. However, it was not to be. The three ended up landing on their arses from fright as a spell reigned sparks down out of nowhere. Charlus and Ron had turned up to breakfast with pink hair and green clothes. Lockhart had been too scared to leave his room. Oddly enough, that day, Dumbledore never looked so frightened. His lemon drops were following him around, yelling at him for eating all of their friends, and crying.Some even tried attacking him with tiny arms and legs. A few tried biting...All in all, it was the perfect way to start the morning for the friends. However, halfway through breakfast, Charlus and Ron stalked over to the group.“You did it. I know you did it you conniving bastards.” Charlus said. Harry raised an eyebrow.“Why would we prank you? We were talking with Professor Snape nearly all night and then went to bed- he can attest to such.” Draco calmly added. Charlus and Ron sneered.“Yeah, right. I bet you’re all just death eaters. Dark scum.” Charlus sneered, spitting the words with malice.“I assure you that unlike you, we don’t have much of a place in this war. And why the hell would a silly prank make us Dark?” Harry asked, glaring at the two idiots before him.“So you’re admitting to it?” Ron asked.“No because we didn’t do it.” Theo said.“We didn’t prank you.” Hermione said. “We were talking with Professor Snape for a few hours after we did a study session with the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs- you can ask them yourselves.”“Oh yeah? What were you talking about? How to join the Dark Lord’s ranks and kiss his feet?” Charlus asked, referring the the part about Snape.“We were discussing the relation between Herbology and Potions.” Neville said.“And how some subtle differences in the plant world affect potions at times- such as if a certain breed of gillyweed was to grow overpopulated, the ingredient would likely be found in a less-substantial quality for potions.” Luna added dreamily, looking towards the boys that were glaring at her.“What? Nothing to say?” Ron said, addressing Ginny and the twins.“Why say anything? You’ll just call us liars and go run off with Charlus.” Ginny said.“So why don’t you-”“Go find the real culprit-”“And stop blaming us-”“Innocent bystanders.” George finished.Dumbledore had stood from his seat at the high table, the lemon drops currently attacking his beard and trying to hurt his hand. Those were annoying little buggers, but it was so worth it to see Dumbledork get annoyed by the damn things.“Pardon me, but I must add that, given the Weasley’s reputation as pranksters, it seems a logical conclusion that-”“If you will excuse me, Headmaster, I can attest that they were indeed with me for part of the afternoon.” Severus said.“Be that as it may, Severus-” Flitwick and Sprout stood as well.“Sir, we saw them tutoring the Ravens and ‘Puffs earlier. They had been in the library for hours and went straight to Severus afterwards. I’m afraid you have an unknown culprit.” Sprout announced with confidence.“I can vouch the same.” Flitwick attested. Dumbledore sighed with defeat.“Very well. I apologize, Mr.s and Mrs. Weasley.” Fred and George nodded while Ginny gave the headmaster a look of surprise as the lemon drops began to climb into his robes. Dumbledore’s eyes widened as the lemon drops started... um... traveling. Students from all tables burst into laughter as Dumbledore fled the hall, yelling about how he’d never eat another damn lemon drop. Some of the older years covered the younger years’ ears. After everything quieted down, Charlus and Ron had one last announcement.“I know it was you and you won’t get away with it. I will get my revenge.” Charlus said. Unfortunately for him, it was very hard to take him seriously with bright pink hair and green clothes. The threat was ignored- and rightfully so. Charlus and Ron were too lazy to really plan any good revenge. Besides, whether they knew it or not, Shadow could kick their asses without lifting a finger. Literally.When the group returned to the Room of Requirement, it was with curiosity.
“Who do you think really did it?”“Uh...” Fred said. Fred and George slowly raised their hands.“But you were with us the entire-” Hermione started.“Remember when we went to the bathroom?” The group nodded.“Well... we may have used the time-turner a bit selfishly...” George said guiltily.“Worth it.” Ginny said, hugging her brothers tightly.“By the way.” She whispered. “The lemon drops were genius.” Over the next few weeks, plans for what to do about Voldemort were bounced around. With six of the seven horcruxes destroyed (the group had destroyed the locket’s horcrux and returned the horcrux-free locket to the Room of Hidden Things), it was decided that the group needed to strike quickly. Voldemort would protect his last horcrux with everything he had and would surely do anything he could to protect himself. He was basically at his weakest state with just one horcrux left. After it was destroyed, Voldemort would be as mortal as any other being. Severus and Minerva planned and spied as much as they could to garner as much information regarding MoldyVoldy and Dumbledork’s plans for the war as they could as well as any available information regarding when each planned to strike. After much wait and anxiety, on a day about a month from summer, Severus discovered some key plans of Voldemort’s.“He feels threatened. He knows his horcruxes are being destroyed and believes that the prophesy is about Charlus Potter, not Harry Potter. He believes that he needs to take on Charlus before he’s strong enough to fight back and well- he’s taking the coward’s way. He plans to attack next year on the day after Halloween. He’ll give a false sense of comfort simply for not attacking on Halloween night and then strike quickly and efficiently- or so he believes.”“So we have to attack first.” Harry determined. “When?” The question that had been plaguing the thoughts of the Gray for ages was to finally have a definite answer.“We need as much time as we can to practice. He wouldn’t expect an attack the day before his own.” Draco suggested, raising an eyebrow.“So is everyone in agreement? We attack on Halloween?” Harry asked the group. The Shadows nodded and the matter was settled. Voldemort would be attacked on Halloween- the same day that he had attacked Harry and Charlus so many years ago. Percy re-integrated himself into life with his sister after she was hurt. He saw the fault in his logic about the ministry after a long conversation with Ginny. He eventually agreed that it was not the most thought out plan to simply jump in and expect things to work out. He began talking with Ginny more and more and the two found themselves becoming closer and closer. Ginny had nearly told him about her adventures multiple times, knowing that Percy would worry, but would feel welcomed with such knowledge that she could tell no one else.It was with great difficulty that Ginny eventually convinced the group to tell Percy anything, BUT Ginny did succeed in arranging a new strategy that presented less risk to the joining members of the Shadows’ spy network. The Shadows began approaching different people that they trusted as their Gray personas- like the ones they used at the Flamel’s home. Instead of confessing their identities, they appeared as strangers to many new allies. Both Anthony and Percy were the first of many. Anthony was approached a few weeks after Christmas break. He had been chasing Fay alone in a hallway when suddenly a small group appeared.“Hello, Anthony Peters. Rest assured, we come in peace.” Anthony stood frozen in shock.“W-who are you? What do you want?”“I am Nightshade and this is Fire. You see, we are neither in support of the Light nor the Dark...” Percy was scared out of his wits when two strangers appeared before him in the hall on the way to the library. Immediately, he grabbed his wand and faced his attackers with a cry of “Stupefy!” The spell was cast aside with the flick of a hand and both ‘attackers’ raised their hands as if to say ‘we’re not here to hurt you’.“What do you want?” Percy said bravely. These two had somehow managed to do wandless AND wordless magic and they didn’t even look 25!“Our names are Yin and Yang. We have come to offer you the chance to have a say in the war, to make a difference, and to choose the right side- neither the Dark nor the Light...” Professor Flitwick was preparing for his usual Saturday night lessons with the talented group of third years and their friends, but the group already knew almost more than he himself in charms! Oh, but had he shown them the charm of how to make a-A soft pop alerted him to a new presence in the classroom. He stiffened and turns around, wand at the ready, immediately assessing his opponents.“Who are you?”“We are supporters of neither the Light nor the Dark. My name is Athena and this is Moon. We have come to seek your aid in the coming war...” Professor Sprout nearly had a heart attack when she heard a noise behind her.“Ah, Neville, did you forget your Herbology textb-?” She turned with a smile. Immediately recognizing the newcomers as a threat, she raised her wand threateningly.“I may be Head of House of Hufflepuff, but I know some quite creative spells.” She warned.“Who are you and what do you want?”“My name is Ares and this is Leaf. We have come to inform you of another side of this war that is neither the Dark nor the Light...” Bill turned, wand at the ready as soon as he heard the pop behind him. The healthy Egyptian tan on his face, coloring with anger at the suspected threat.“What do you want?” He growled.“My friend and I want to tell you about another competitor in the war that Dumbledore had neglected to inform you of. My name is Prince and my companion is Phoenix...” Charlie pulled his wand from its holster as soon as he spotted the woman. Spell ready on his lips, he listened.“My name is Owl. I came here from England to warn you about the war that will soon occur there. I work for neither the Light nor the Dark, but an independent force to be reckoned with...” “We are the Gray.” Twelve voices rang at once.Within the hour, 6 new spies had been recruited for the Gray.Anthony, being on good terms with the older students thanks to his brother, but lacking the physical and magical training necessary to fight in the war, quickly became the Gray’s next spy and helped as a liaison between humans and other creatures, such as Goblins, Fairies, Pixies, etc. Goblins, pressured by both corrupt sides, joined in an temporary alliance with the Gray who treated them with respect so that the war would finally be over. The faeries and pixies talked to Fay, with some help from Athena of course, and were convinced to join the war if their aid was needed as an on-call ally.Percy became their spy in both the upperclassmen and the ministry, since he had wanted to become a politician and bring change. Though not necessarily in support of violence, Percy joined those who had aided his sister and he quickly became a naturally born strategist and warrior, using both his mind and his body as a weapon. With his knowledge of the government, they had the seeds to purge the Ministry of its corruption and lay the foundations for a strong governing body. Percy was later informed by his sister (with the Gray’s backing) of their identities under oath.Professor Flitwick became an extra faculty member against Dumbles, and since Dumbledork readily trusted him, Flitwick was an in with both the secondary stage of the Order and the Dueling community.Professor Sprout, wanted no part in the immorality of the Light, joined so that her new baby niece would grow up in a world without war or fear. She became the tipping point in the faculty, as the last head of house was pitted against Dumbledore.Charlie connected the European continent due to his friends in Romania, Bulgaria, and even Russia. He returned briefly over the remainder of the school year to borrow Athena (a translator) to converse with the dragons in England. Surprisingly, the dragons had been pushed by the Dark to enter the war, but had refused. Their numbers had taken a beating, and they were itching to gain vengeance for their fallen warriors. With later aid from Anthony, the Dragons had officially joined an alliance with the Gray.Bill became their global connections, gaining knowledge from all across Africa about new fighting techniques and the gossip of the war in England.  And, well the rest was history.Only a few days later, the group was practicing with spells and charms that slow perception of objects and things around them so that they were basically one step ahead of the rest of the world- much like Luna so often was. It was during that time that a discovery was made. Fay, who had been happily playing in Ginny’s hair while Anthony studied, had been babbling on about something and the group listened as the speech slowed and became... English? But also French. And Spanish. And Latin. And Gobbledygook. And Parseltongue. What?“How...?” Draco and Anthony questioned at once.“I-it’s like a universal language, just sped up!” Hermione exclaimed once the group had canceled the spell. Her giddiness was infectious. She was happy that perhaps she wasn’t the only one to be able to understand all languages- well, that she might not be with time.“Imagine the possibilities...” Neville said, thoughts racing in his mind. Luna simply smiled, knowing that part of their fate had been sealed with such a simple use of a spell.“Well, what do we-” Ginny started before he was cut off.“Develop the idea.” Luna interrupted. “Make universal translators using the ability coupled with technology.” She suggested, calmly, already having seen this coming.“Why?” Theo questioned.“Uh uh, don’t question the seer.” Luna commented in a sing-song voice. The last time someone had questioned her seeing abilities, their clothes were filled with itch power with a sticking charm. The sad part was that it had been Severus that last questioned her ability.