Pierce awoke early the next morning in a good mood, ready for the first day of classes. He always found himself in a better mind when he was away from home. He completely ignored the existence of his parents and genuinely enjoyed his schooling. He glanced over to see Julius still asleep, hanging half off his bed but still cuddling his pillow tightly. With a grin of his face, Pierce pushed himself out of bed and smacked Julius on the boy's bare leg, startling the boy from his slumber.

"The pixies ate it, Mum, I swear!" Julius called out as it shot up out of bed.

Pierce and Julius stared at each other for a moment.

"The pixies, eh?" Pierce chuckled.

"Shut up..." Julius grumbled before shuffling off to the bathroom.

"What did they eat exactly?" he called after him.

"I said shut up!"

"Did they at least enjoy it? Come on, these are important details, Julius!"

Once the boys were dressed in their uniforms, they decided to head down to the Great Hall to enjoy some breakfast before classes began.

Pierce was mid-peeling an orange when the morning mail came into the Great Hall. The post was dropped before him and as soon as he read "The Daily Prophet" at the top of the paper, he frowned. For some reason, even though Pierce did not subscribe to receive the Daily Prophet, it seemed his mother was sent on sending it to him, especially when she had published an article. He was fully prepared to take the paper and trash it, but the headline caught his attention.

"Further Mistakes at the Ministry of Magic."

He opened the article further to see that his mother was of course the writer of it. He read over it briefly as his mother had yet to drag another name through the mud. This time it was Mad-Eye Moody and Arthur Weasley, who his mother called Arnold in the article. Probably on purpose. Apparently, what he had heard his mother mention about the enchanted dustbins was not the only subject of the paper, as she continued to point out how poorly the Ministry of Magic had handled the crowd control at the Quidditch World Cup.

Out of anger, Pierce crumpled up the paper and threw it away from him down the table.

"Relax, mate, it's just an article." Julius told him with a mouthful of bacon.

"Yeah another article of slander written by the infamous hag." Pierce mumbled before resting his head down on the table with a sigh.

"Here, you should eat this.." 

Pierce lifted up his head for a brief moment to see Julius waving a piece of bacon in his face. 

"I don't want bacon, Julius."

"But it's bacon. Bacon makes everything better. Bacon is love. Bacon is life."

"Is that what the pixies were eating last night?" Pierce mused.

Julius didn't respond but rather bit into the piece of bacon in front of him. "No bacon for you."

Classes provided the perfect distraction for Pierce to forget about the morning events. He was listening to Professor Sprout discuss the topic of the Herbivicus Charm and how it helped some plants bloom faster. He enjoyed learning about the various topics, however, Pierce hated being called upon in any class. Many of the professors knew who his father was. Mr. Holmes was a well-noted wizard for his gifted mind, many times in his youth being compared to the intellect of Rowena Ravenclaw. Naturally, they assumed that such a "gifted" man had passed it along to his son.

They weren't wrong, but Pierce hated the fact that they were right. He didn't want to be seen as his father and he certainly didn't want to be viewed in the same light as his mother.

His mother was a psychopath, his father was a high-functioning sociopath, and Pierce was just trying to find his own path.

"Hey Pierce, check it out." Julius whispered to him.

Pierce glanced over at his friend to see Julius with flower petals in his hair, while holding onto two green leaves in his hands.

"Don't I make the prettiest flower?"

Pierce snorted loudly causing several students and Professor Sprout to look over in their direction. Julius quickly dropped his arms and shook the petals from his hair.

"May I continue, gentlemen?" Professor Sprout asked them.

'By all means, Professor." Julius said.

"Please do." Pierce added.

The last part of the day involved doubling up, which meant double Arithmancy for Pierce and double Divination for Julius.

"I don't know what I was thinking when I signed up for that class." Julius groaned.

"You were thinking about Parvati, remember?" Pierce answered.

"Oh right." Julius smiled dreamily.

Pierce shook his head at Julius. Despite Parvati's identical twin Padma being in Ravenclaw, Julius seemed to have fallen for the other twin without so much as saying three words in the girl's general direction.

"Have fun, Julius, and try not to drool over your tea leaves." Pierce told him.

"It was one time, Pierce, let it go!"

Arriving somewhat early to the class, Pierce took to one of the seats near the front, as Professor Septima Vector tended to call on students who sat in the back of her classroom. She was by far one of the most strict professors at the castle, but unlike the majority of the other professors, she never spoke about his parents. He was allowed to be Pierce in her classroom, leaving Arithmancy to be one of his favorite classes.

But that was only one of the reasons as to why the class was his favorite. He also enjoyed the fact that Hermione was in the class as well. It was a definite bonus.

He was pulling out his textbook when Hermione entered the room. He expected her to sit in the back, hoping to be called upon, but instead to his pleasant surprise, she sat next to him. She looked slightly flustered, her brown hair a bit disorderly and frizzed, her lips pressed together, and her eyes focused on the table.

"Something wrong?" he asked her.

She turned to him. "Yes," she answered. "Something is wrong..in this castle...in this society"

"Would you care to explain further?"

"Do you know how poorly they treat the house-elves?"

"Uh no, I am not too familiar with that subject matter."

"It's horrible. And it's not here, but even at the World Quidditch Cup I witnessed it. Those poor creatures. Their working conditions are disgusting! No holidays or time off whatsoever and some of their owners are just so horrid to them."

Pierce's face scrunched up as Hermione's fiery tone growled in disgust beside him. In all honesty, he had never given a second thought to house-elves and their working conditions. He only had experienced one house-elf on a personal level, and it was his father's house-elf, Pepper. A kind little house-elf who normally served his father by carrying documents or preparing tea when his father was too busy to look up from his work.

However, Pepper always seemed to enjoy her work, but he wasn't about to tell that the fuming girl next to him.

"Well, if anyone is capable of changing something like that...it would be you." he said.

Hermione glanced over at him, her eyes slightly wide from his statement before she smiled.

"You think so?"

"I wouldn't have said it otherwise if I didn't believe it to be true."