~Albus~

As if the first week of school hadn't been eventful enough already, several other things happened over the weekend. First, and probably best, Kimmel called me up to her office on Thursday night to tell me that she was really concerned that I had too much of a burden to carry on my own, and she'd decided to appoint an interim headgirl, just for now. I didn't question the wording; acting like Ciara might just show up at some point was ridiculous, of course, but I also wanted to believe it was possible, even if I knew it wasn't.

Of course, she asked if I had any thoughts, in a tone of voice that said she'd probably already made her decision and my opinion wouldn't affect it at all. Since there didn't seem to be anything to lose, I suggested Poppy, since she'd already been helping me a little anyway. To my surprise, that was actually who Kimmel had been thinking about already. As long as we understood that the "no patrolling with your significant other" rule still applied, she didn't see any issues with it. Poppy was smart, respectable, and generally well-liked among her peers, as Kimmel put it, which was more than I could have said for the headgirl last year, at least.

Poppy said yes without even thinking about it, which was a relief. I hadn't thought she'd said no, necessarily, but I'd been scared she might not want to. It was a lot of pressure, after all. I'd never been so aware of people paying attention to me before, even when rumors had spread throughout the years that I was the next Voldemort, or the person Astra was cheating on Marcus with, or anything else. It was weird, having people look up to me. I wasn't sure I liked the attention that much. Colette told me to get over myself, because there were far worse things to get attention for.

Another thing that happened didn't actually affect me that much, except that it really upset Colette, so I was automatically involved. This term, Kimmel had apparently started enforcing a lot more rules with the staff, which were handed straight down from Russey. Haverna told us that the most worrying was one that insisted that anyone caught in "suspicious activities" would be immediately reported to the Prime Minister. Despite the fact that Colette was of age and general working with the supervision, or at the least knowing consent, of Haverna, our professor was convinced that spell creation would definitely count as suspicious activity, and she had strictly forbidden Colette from doing it anymore.

Colette took that surprisingly well, when Haverna told us after her class on Friday. She said she understood, even if she did sigh and complain about it. Haverna didn't argue with her about foul language as she called Kimmel and Russey every expletive she could think of. She just nodded, and told her that in a few weeks, after everything had settled into a more normal routine, they could talk about a way they might be able to continue secretly.

I shouldn't have trusted luck that much. As soon as we'd left her classroom, Colette whispered to me that she would do her best, but if she needed to create a spell, this wasn't going to stop her. With the choices of starting an argument I wouldn't win or not antagonizing her, I opted to sigh and tell her to do whatever she liked.

Poppy, Colette, and I had dedicated that weekend to figuring out a game plan for talking to Isla and Ryder. We'd sifted through all of our research from last year to find everything we could about them. As we sat down in the library Saturday afternoon, already ignoring our first charms essay of the year, Poppy pulled out two binders with pages and pages of articles and information she'd printed off the internet. That had been her summer project, she explained self-consciously as Colette and I flipped through them with unhidden awe. She'd found every bit of information she possibly could about each child, and printed it all off. Magical resources had been copied or hand-written at the front, and muggle articles were scanned or saved and printed in the back.

"Wow, I can't believe we found so much," I said, reaching over for the first, far larger and thicker binder. I squinted at the cover. "Hang on, is this just Ryder Portland?"

Poppy nodded. "There was so much about him, and Cassie. Their binders are huge. Most of the others aren't as large."

"You made a binder for each child?" Colette raised an eyebrow. "That's incredible."

"Nearly each of them." She pushed the second binder across the table, towards Colette. "Isla's is combined with the other two children who were wiped from existence. The only thing we could ever find about them was that one conspiracy blogger, after all. Everything we know about her is in there."

It wasn't much. We'd managed to figure out a timeline for the other children, of what order they'd been captured in, and that meant Colette was pretty sure Isla was number forty. Jack had confirmed our theory that Stillens had his people referring to them by numbers, but... if Isla was here, being called by her own name, that didn't make a lot of sense. Why use numbers at all, if you were just going to send them to Hogwarts and start calling them by their name again?

"Maybe they're brainwashing them, somehow?" Colette suggested.

"Isla and Ryder were both old enough to remember their families," Poppy said, frowning. "How much brainwashing could make them forget that?"

"Maybe they were obliviated."

Colette studied me thoughtfully for a moment. "I suppose that's possible. It would explain why Cassie didn't remember her name until Astra had told it to her, wouldn't it?"

I glanced at Poppy unsurely. "Um... I don't know. Would it?"

"Yes." Colette nodded. "Do you know how the spell works?" Poppy and I shook our heads. "This is all a little theoretical," she said, "and I don't fully understand all of it myself. The spell doesn't just delete things from your memory. That's impossible. Instead, what a memory charm does is erase it."

"Is there a difference?" I asked, rolling my eyes.

"Yes." Colette glanced at Poppy. "I don't suppose you have a pencil?"

She did, and passed it over along with a bit of parchment. Colette wrote out the word 'memory' on the paper, then turned it around so we could see. "Deleting this would mean just taking the parchment, wadding it up, and throwing it away. I'm sure there are ways to do that, but I imagine it causes irrevocable damage to the victim's mind. Erasing isn't as drastic." She quickly erased the word. "It basically wipes the memory away. But you can still see the impression of where it was, see?" She pointed to where you could faintly see where something had been written. "And the fragments of the memory are still there, too." She pointed to the shreds of blackened eraser still covering the paper. "With the right counterspell, those can be put back together. That's how you restore the person's memory."

Poppy nodded slowly. "That makes sense. Does that mean that someone could get their memories back on accident, though?"

"No. I think the only way to fully restore memories is with a counterspell. Cassie's memories didn't all come back, after all. She just remembered her name after Astra had already said it. I suppose that someone who knew everything you'd forgotten could try to say it all and bring it back, but it seems like it wouldn't work well beyond simple things like your name."

I was frowning. "Does that mean a memory charm wouldn't hold up against a legilimens?"

She tilted her head. "I... I think it would. After all, a legilimens can only see your mind the way you do. They can't actually change things in it. I don't think they'd be able to restore your memories to be able to see them. You'd certainly be aware of it, if they tried." She raised an eyebrow. "Why, thinking about obliviating yourself in case you ever run into Stillens again?"

"Of course not," I thought, though I kind of was. I couldn't do occlumency, and I doubted I would ever be able to. Meeting him had been terrifying, because I knew if he tried to see into my head, nothing would have stopped him.

Poppy was flipping through the erased children's binder. "Does that mean we'd be able to find one of these people who was obliviated and restore their memories? Maybe they could tell us more about Isla."

Colette winced. "It's really hard to restore memories if you weren't the one who erased them in the first place." She handed the pencil and parchment back to Poppy, a thoughtful frown on her face. "It requires a lot of concentration, and you have to have an idea of what you're restoring... I suppose it's possible, though."

"Maybe we should try it," Poppy said in a whisper, glancing over her shoulder as if someone might hear us, even though there was no one in the library except for Petrov, who I could see still sitting at the front desk halfway across the enormous room.

"Do you mean sneak out?" I asked, frowning. "That might take longer than a few hours."

"We don't necessarily have to sneak out," Poppy said, shrugging. "I was thinking we take our next Hogsmeade visit, or something."

"It might be worth a shot," Colette said slowly. "I just... I don't have a lot of experience with this charm. I don't know how well I'll be able to do it."

"I mean, does it matter?" I asked. "A little restored is better than none, right?"

"Not exactly." She fell silent for a moment, and it hit me that she was hesitating. I'd never seen her unsure about whether she could do a spell before. "It's a very tricky spell. If things aren't done just right when casting a memory charm, it can cause horrible damage to the mind. I'd assume it's the same way when performing the counterspell. I'd have to do more research..."

Poppy nodded. "Well, don't feel bad if you can't. It's all right. We can probably focus on just trying to talk to Isla herself, anyway."

"Speaking of that," I said, "I've had an idea. Would either of you being against asking Eviana Clausen to try to talk to her?"

Neither of them were, so I explained my reasoning. It had occurred to me a few days before, as I was once again wishing Wren were here, that I did know one of the Gryffindor prefects fairly well, so maybe I could get around the fact that she wasn't. Eviana didn't know much about the DA, sure, but she was at least sympathetic to it (or else she would've dropped Lily a long time ago). And she was hopefully far enough off Stillens' radar to not have been someone Isla had been warned against speaking to. Not only that, but Eviana was pretty nice and approachable, and also had a history of helping me and my friends out when we needed help without asking too many questions.

Poppy was completely on board with it immediately. Colette asked a few questions, like "How much are you wanting to tell her?" and "Are you sure she could befriend her?" Once I'd assured her that we were going to be as careful as possible, and Eviana was more than capable of befriending anyone, she agreed, as well.

I had to leave for Quidditch tryouts, then, so we didn't get to plan much more. Colette started wandering over to the charms section of the library as I left, Poppy trailing behind to hold the mountains of books she was sure to pull off the shelf. Maybe they would make some headway with the memory charm while I was gone.

Cedric had asked the whole team to come help with tryouts, because he wanted to see how the candidates worked with us, and he wanted to see how they looked playing against real people. While he sent everyone else off to go change, though, he pulled me aside and asked if I'd help him make decisions. Of course, the whole team would ultimately get a say on who our new beater and chaser were going to be (Elcie had accepted the position of seeker with more than a little excitement), but Cedric admitted to me that he was really unsure about whether he could spot talent or not.

"I really don't know what you're talking about," I said, rolling my eyes. "You've been on this team as long as I have, you know."

"Yeah, but you have Quidditch in your blood," Cedric responded.

"So do you! Wasn't your mum on Ravenclaw's team for years? And Clarissa was a bloody captain, mate."

"Well, yeah, but you've got like a billion Quidditch stars in your family. I mean, Fred Weasley is your cousin."

"Yeah, and so is Rose, and she couldn't ride a broom to save her life." I shrugged. "It's not genetic, Cedric. You're a great player, and a great strategizer. You really don't need me here."

"Will you help anyway?"

"Whatever you want, captain." I grinned as he rolled his eyes at me.

There were a lot of people trying out. Chaser was a popular position, of course, so that wasn't surprising. Cedric decided to test out the beaters first, since there weren't as many of them. Luke Castel was the only N.E.W.T. level student there, which gave him an automatic advantage, since he was bigger than the younger students. Add that to the fact that he and River were already a near perfect team, and Cedric seemed relieved at a very easy first decision as captain.

Chaser was harder, since it seemed like half our house had come to try out. Cedric split them up into groups and had them play practice games against Elcie, Elmer, and me, with River chasing a bludger around just as an added bit of fun. Cedric watched from his broom, zooming around the players and getting so closer that he and Elmer nearly collided more than once when Elmer wasn't paying attention.

After several hours, we'd narrowed it down to a few people. Caleb Goldstein was the best, in my opinion, but he was in Cedric's year and one of his good friends, and Cedric really didn't want people to think he was choosing favorites, so as a team we had to talk through all the other options, too.

"Hot take, but I really don't think we should even consider anyone under second year," River was saying.

"I was a second year when I got on the team!" Elcie exclaimed indignantly. "We should give them a chance."

"You got a chance because you called all the other second years you were grouped with idiots," Elmer pointed out.

"And you'd already played against Durmstrang and Beauxbatons when they were here for the Triwizard tournament, anyway," I reminded her. "Fred already knew you were pretty good."

"Okay, okay, back to the task at hand," Cedric said, rolling his eyes. "We need to decide on a chaser."

"I really don't think anyone stood out as much as Caleb," River said, rolling her eyes. "Why don't you want him, again?"

"Favoritism! Nepotism! Not allowed!"

"It's not favoritism if he was the best," Elmer said, shrugging. "I mean, Fred picked Albus, didn't he? No one complained about that."

"If anyone was nepotism, it was Luke, anyway," River said, gesturing over to where Luke was sitting near the entrance to the Gryffindor changing room. "I would've said to pick him whether he was the best or not."

I tried not to laugh, because Cedric looked horrified. "Good thing Luke was the best then, right?" Cedric only seemed a little placated by that reminder, so I opted for getting us back on course rather than dwelling on it. "Our other options are Eric Finnigan, who wasn't paying as close attention as Caleb was and missed a really easy catch, or Anna Longbottom, who got a little too panicky when everyone was flying around her for one of the plays. I think Caleb is our best choice."

Cedric glanced at me uncertainly. "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely."

"Okay." Cedric nodded, as if making up his mind himself. "Is everyone all right with that?"

There was a resounding chorus of yes's (and one "Bloody Hell, that took too long," compliments of a laughing River). With that, tryouts were over. It had only taken up a few hours, I supposed. Not too bad. Fred's tryouts had lasted for the entire afternoon my fifth year. This wasn't nearly as bad.

Poppy had gone off to hang out with some of her Hufflepuff friends for the evening, but Colette was still in the library when I got back. She'd filled a whole table with piles of all sorts of books. I spotted the two binders in her bag, half hidden underneath her jacket. I frowned as I sat down across from her. "Uh... how's it going?"

"Just researching memory charms, still." She showed me the spine of her book. Restoring What's Been Lost: The Complexities of Memory Charm Counterspells.

Well, that made sense. The piles of books all over the table made less sense, though. I sifted through a few of them. Patronuses, charm theory, magical creatures, history? I frowned. "What's all this, then?"

"Oh." Colette shrugged. "I don't want to check any books out, because I don't want to tip off Petrov on what I'm looking into, if he does work for Stillens. But if I'm sitting here surrounded by books on memory charms, and he walks by, then he'll know anyway. I'm trying to throw him off."

"What if he notices you're only reading the books about memory charms?"

Colette smiled conspiratorially. "Well, that's the thing. He can't tell what I'm reading if I'm switching the dustjackets around, can he?" She pointed to the pile next to her, filled with an equally odd assortment of books. I realized they all had dustjackets on, though. And the dustjackets didn't necessarily seem to match the books.

"Sure, I'm reading a book on memory charms," Colette said. "Next it'll be about Cornish pixies, though. Then a biography on Durmstrang's third headmistress..." She shrugged. "I think it's safe to say he'll be confused, if he pays attention at all."

"Well, that's fantastic." I smiled. "Found anything yet?"

Colette's smile faded. "It's even more complicated than I remembered. Basically, counterspells are specific to every different memory charm. Every time it's performed." She shook her head. "I don't know if the incantation is different every time, or just what you have to focus on, but either way, it's very tricky. I haven't figured out how you'd find the counterspell if you weren't the one who cast the memory charm in the first place, either."

I picked up the next book in her stack. "Would it help if I was reading, too?"

"Do you know what to look for?"

"I mean, anything to do with restoring memory, I'd assume."

Colette didn't seem convinced; the odds that she'd reread this book when I was done seemed high. But she shrugged anyway. "I guess it could help, if you want."

I'd just gotten a few pages into How to Charm Your Past Away, which was much less interesting than the title would lead you to believe, when we were interrupted. By something far more interesting, but something I wanted to see far less.

Nico Jasper was standing at the far end of our table. And he wasn't moving on; he hadn't just stopped to glance at us. I threw down the book I was reading and jumped out of my seat, drawing my wand as I did. "What do you want?"

Nico put his hands up quickly. "I just want to talk."

Well, that was weird. What could Nico Jasper have to talk to us about? I narrowed my eyes. "We don't talk to murderers."

Surprisingly, he winced. "Fair. Right." He hesitated, and I took the chance to glance uncertainly at Colette. What the hell was going on? She had her wand gripped in her hand, too, and was watching Nico warily.

"I'm taking my wand out," he said, slowly reaching into his pocket. "And I'm not going to use it. I'm going to put it down on the table." And he did. Weird. What the hell?

Colette snatched his wand up the second he'd set it down. Nico glanced back at me. "I'm unarmed, now. I don't want to fight."

"I do," I snapped.

Colette put her hands up and stepped between us. "All right, Jasper. I assume you didn't come over here just to get your ass handed to you, did you?" Nico shook his head. "What do you want?"

He glanced over his shoulder, in the direction of the front desk. "Not here. Petrov will see us together. We can't have that, can we?"

Colette didn't even blink at that near-admission that Petrov couldn't be trusted. She just motioned toward the door. "There's an empty classroom, next floor up, right across from the stairs. We'll meet you up there in five minutes." She stuck his wand in her pocket. "I'll give that back once I'm sure you're not just trying to attack us."

"Thanks," he said gruffly, then turned and stalked off without another word. Not even arguing about his wand? I couldn't help blinking after him as he walked away. What had just happened? Was I dreaming?

I turned my gaze to Colette. What had gotten into her? "Have you absolutely lost it?"

Colette had the audacity to look surprised. "Excuse me?"

"Why would you agree to talk to him?"

She didn't answer right away. Instead, she started quickly replacing dustjackets and moving books around to different tables and shelves. "Can't leave a trail," she explained. Grudgingly, I started helping her.

When we'd finally finished, she started out of the library. I hurried to catch up. "Colette, seriously. You can't talk to him."

"Why not?"

"Why would you?"

Colette shrugged. "I want to know what he wants. We can handle him if he tries to duel us, can't we?"

"I mean, I guess so, but—"

"Then it doesn't matter. Forgive me for being curious."

"There's a difference between being curious and agreeing to talk to a murderer, Colette."

"Perhaps." Colette shrugged again. "I can't think of a single reason he would want to talk to us, though, so I think it would be wise to figure it out rather than not know. It's always safer to have more facts than less, isn't it?"

Unfortunately, that was pretty good logic. I could only groan and follow her as we walked through the library doors and started for the stairs.

Nico was waiting for us, sitting on one of the desks. He stood up as soon as we'd walked in, though. I closed the door as Colette crossed over to him. "All right, what is it?"

He glanced at me as I came up beside Colette, arms crossed. He seemed less intimidated than I'd hoped, but at least he didn't seem to find me amusing. I'd never seen him so serious, actually. And I'd never seen him look at me without complete loathing. Still, I glared at him as he looked down. "I need to apologize."

Colette blinked. "You do?"

My eyes narrowed. "'Sorry' is absolutely meaningless, after all you've done."

"I know," Nico said. I was surprised enough to drop the glare for a moment. I caught myself quickly, and scowled at him again. Absolutely not. I wasn't going to stop being angry at him because he was apologizing. In fact, I really wanted to hex him over and over and over again. I wanted to kill him.

"I've heard it's still worth saying, though," he continued. "I'm sorry. For everything, but especially for your father."

I just responded by another glare.

Meanwhile, Colette was studying him with more than a little confusion on her face. "Why are you apologizing? What are you getting out of it?"

"The humiliation of having to admit I've done something I can never make up for?" Nico seemed a little frustrated. "What do you think? Not damn much."

Her eyes narrowed. "I don't trust you."

"You think I don't already know that?" Nico rolled his eyes, then seemed to regret it. He sighed. "Listen, you can honestly think whatever you want about me. I'm sure it's all true, anyway. I just..." He paused, as if it was difficult to get the words out. "I need your help."

"With what?" I asked, making a face. "And why on earth do you think we'd help you?"

"Honestly, I didn't think you would, but it's not like I have anything to lose." Nico turned back to Colette. "I've heard you taught Wren Predatel occlumency."

Colette's eyebrows went up for just a moment, but she recovered herself before Nico seemed to notice the surprise. "Maybe I did. Why?"

Nico hesitated. Swallowing his pride, maybe, or the hate he definitely still had for me and Colette. I couldn't imagine why he was putting himself through this, because I could tell he was restraining nearly as much frustration and hate towards me as I was feeling.

"I was wondering if... if you would teach me. Please."

Okay, that time I actually did let my wand fall to my side as my mouth dropped open. Nico wanted Colette to teach him occlumency? And he'd said please? Colette was glancing unsurely at me, and I realized I'd dropped my wand. I quickly trained it on him again as Colette asked, "Why do you want to learn occlumency?"

Nico took a deep breath. "A couple of reasons."

"Which are?"

For a moment, he hesitated. I glanced over my shoulder. What if he was just buying time? Maybe Petrov was sneaking up here to help kidnap us or something. I shot a nonverbal spell over at the door to lock it, just in case.

"Stillens is mad," Nico said, and I spun back around, shocked yet again. "I don't... He's wrong. And I know that now. But thoughts like that are going to get me killed." He put his hands up quickly, before I could point out that I would be happy to watch him die. "And I know you couldn't care less about that. Whatever. I wouldn't be coming to you if that's all it was. But..." He winced. "Ciara Malfoy disappeared, you know. Stillens is holding her over my head, threatening her to keep me in line."

I rolled my eyes. "That's ridiculous. Why would that work?"

Nico gave me a disdainful look. "Merlin, Potter, I don't know. She wasn't my best friend for four years or anything. Or did you think I didn't care about anyone at all? I'm just a psychopath with no emotions, is that it?"

"Wouldn't be surprised to hear it."

"Al, shut up," Colette snapped, sounding annoyed. I was surprised enough to close my mouth. She gestured at Nico. "Is that all?"

His face flushed a little. "Not exactly, no."

"What else?"

"I... I want Stillens to fall. I think I might be able to help that happen from the inside. If... if only Stillens couldn't see inside my head.

Colette didn't say anything right away, probably feeling as floored as I felt. Nico wanted Stillens to fall? This couldn't actually be happening. But I wasn't about to make any assumptions. He didn't get to have anything come easily, not if I could help it. I crossed my arms. "Help who?"

"What?"

"Who do you want to help? Because I promise you, the DA doesn't want your help."

Colette glared at me, for some reason. "You don't speak for the DA, Albus." She glanced back at him. "Is that what you'd want?"

"I... I suppose. I don't know." He shrugged. "Whatever it takes, I guess."

She regarded him thoughtfully for a moment. "Why should I trust you?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. You don't really have a reason to. I'm not asking to know all your DA secrets, at least."

My glare intensified. "There's got to be something else you're getting out of this. Some ulterior motive. Stillens put you up to this, didn't he?"

Nico's eyes flashed, actually angry for the first time. "Absolutely not."

"But how do we know that?" Colette questioned.

At that, everyone fell silent. That was the question of the hour, wasn't it? We were just having to take his word for it. And considering I'd be sooner to trust The Daily Prophet than Nico Jasper, I wasn't quite ready to do that.

After a moment, Nico offered, "What would Stillens be getting out of this, exactly?"

I rolled my eyes. "What kind of argument is that?"

"Actually, he's got a point..."

"Are you mad?"

"No, just listen, Al." Colette frowned thoughtfully. "Why would Stillens want him to learn occlumency? Surely he has better ways of infiltrating the DA than letting someone learn how to hide things from him. Seems a little counterproductive."

"That doesn't mean we can trust him," I snapped.

"No, but eliminating a reason we wouldn't be able to trust him has to count for something." She looked back at Nico. "You think Stillens is wrong?" He nodded. "You think you were wrong for joining him? And for everything you've done since?"

Nico nodded again, looking down. "Yes."

"Colette, what if he's just saying that?"

Colette held her hand up, ignoring my question completely. "What made you change your mind? Last I heard of you, you were giving in to Stillens and committing murder."

"I didn't want to do that," Nico said. "I know that doesn't make it better. But I didn't want to. He would've killed me."

"And he won't now?" Colette raised an eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure he'd count this conversation as treason, Jasper, if you're telling the truth. So I want to know what's changed since then."

He hesitated. "It's kind of complicated."

She raised an eyebrow. "We've got time."

"Well..." Nico scowled at the floor. "I guess it started last December. I suppose you'd both know about Magnus Caldwell?" Colette nodded, which was good, since I had decided not to answer him at all. Nico didn't seem to mind my lack of response. "Wren said Stillens wouldn't have cared, so it wasn't worth telling him about it. And I didn't really believe that, but... I also didn't see why she would say that if it wasn't true. And if it was true, it was an awful thing to be true, you know?"

Colette raised one shoulder. "I suppose. That still doesn't explain anything."

"I know." He swallowed. "I... well, yeah, that was it. I guess I was able to just put up with it all until June. It wasn't unbearable until then. And... and I know it should have been. I understand that. But it wasn't until... well... I forced Astra Lestrange to hurt Wren, and then..."

"And then you killed my father?" I asked flatly.

"Yes. And then I killed Professor Potter." Nico blinked, then took another deep breath. "Then, of course, you both know about all the children in the basement... Anyway, I... I realized then, or I've been realizing, I don't know, but I've realized that I'm on the wrong side. And I have been, for a long time. And I've done a lot of really horrible, bad things. But I want to do better."

"What makes you think you deserve to do better?" I snapped.

"I don't think I do," Nico said, to my surprise. "Wren convinced me I should still try, though."

A chill went down my spine as Colette's eyes widened. "Wren's alive?"

Nico nodded. "She told me to give you this. I thought you wouldn't believe me if I led with it, though." He reached into his bag to hold out a folded piece of parchment. I stepped forward to snatch it from him, then stepped back so that Colette could see over my shoulder as I unfolded it. It was her handwriting, so unless Nico had suddenly gotten very good at forgery, this was really from Wren. My hands shook a little as I read the short note.

Dear Colette,

Please don't worry about me. I'm doing all right. I really need you to help Nico, though. He really means this. If not for his sake, help him for mine.

Love, Wren.

"Is she really all right?" I asked. My voice sounded hollow when it came out, which I hadn't been expecting.

Nico shook his head, not looking up. "No. Not at all."

Wren was alive. Wren believed him, for whatever reason. That made sense; she'd always been a little too quick to give people second chances, after all. She tended to look too closely for the good in irredeemable people. Like Nico, who had murdered my father and only now had decided he'd gone too far, apparently. I was just supposed to believe that?

Colette finally broke the silence. "Maybe I'll help you. But if I do, it's not for you; it's for Wren. I think you're absolute scum. Don't forget that."

"If it makes you feel better, I don't like either of you, either."

That didn't make me feel better, and I nearly told him that, but Colette shot me a look as if she could sense what I was about to do. When I settled for just glaring at him, she pursed her lips. "I need time to think about this."

"Okay," Nico said, nodding. "How long?"

She considered that for a moment. "Come back here tomorrow. After dinner."

He nodded, and she pulled his wand out of her pocket and handed it back to him. "No one hears of this."

"You think I fancy getting killed?" he said, rolling his eyes. "I'm not stupid."

"Just making sure." She waved her hand dismissively. "Tomorrow, then."

"Tomorrow." With that, he was gone.

As soon as the door had closed behind him, I turned my glare on her. "You're mad."

"Oh, shut up. I haven't agreed to anything yet."

"But you're going to!"

"And?" Colette gestured to the door. "Explain how Stillens could benefit from this, Albus. What do you think he'd get from this?"

"I don't know! But I know we can't trust Nico Jasper!"

"You're too angry to think clearly about it," Colette said, shaking her head and starting for the door. "Just think what an asset he could be to the DA, if he's serious."

"You didn't watch him kill my father, Colette!"

"I heard it!" she yelled. She whirled around to glare at me. "I miss him, too, Albus! Maybe not as much, and maybe I don't understand completely, but I heard it all, and it hurt me, too. You think I'm just lightly taking Jasper at his word, after that? Absolutely not."

"How are you doing anything except taking him at his word?"

Colette shrugged. "I'll figure it out. I have some ideas."

She wouldn't elaborate, just told me she needed to think about it. When it became clear that my suggestions weren't having any sort of effect on her thinking at all, I stormed off to the common room to go hang out with the other Gryffindor seventh years. My absence seemed to have even less effect on her, annoyingly.

The next morning, Colette still hadn't quite made up her mind, and had suggested we ask what Poppy thought as a bit of a tiebreaker. We managed to fill her in with minimal arguing and name-calling (of each other, at least; I called Nico a lot of foul names that made Poppy roll her eyes).

Unfortunately, Poppy wasn't much good as a tiebreaker. She couldn't make up her mind. Colette pointed out that her side was the more reasonable one, and claimed that the only reason Poppy wouldn't decide was that she didn't want to hurt my feelings. Poppy said that wasn't true at all, she just didn't know Nico Jasper well enough to know, and hadn't been there to see it herself, so she couldn't know if he was being genuine or not. Unfortunately, they both seemed too caught up on the "does he mean it" part, and didn't care at all about the "this is Nico Jasper and I'd rather hex myself into next week than tell him good morning" part.

When we still hadn't come to a conclusion by the end of breakfast, Colette stood up and announced she was going to talk to Haverna. Of course, Poppy and I didn't have anything better to do than tag along with her.

"I'm sorry, what?" she said after Colette had quickly explained everything that had happened. She blinked at us, looking as if she didn't quite believe what she'd heard. "This was Nico Jasper who said all this?"

Colette nodded. "I think I'm going to help him."

"I..." Haverna shook her head. I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen her totally speechless. Had it ever happened? I don't know. It was certainly happening now. "You're going to help him," she repeated incredulously.

"He seemed like he was serious. And Wren wouldn't have written that note if she didn't trust him."

"May I see the note?" Colette handed it to her, and I watched her skim it quickly. "Wow. All right."

"I think she shouldn't do it," I said, crossing my arms. "We can't trust him."

"I had some ideas for that, actually," Colette said. "It occurred to me that I'll have to do legilimency on him, anyway, to teach him occlumency. Maybe I could just do it now, and see if he's telling the truth or not."

Haverna raised an eyebrow. "The ethics of that are a little iffy, Colette."

She shrugged. "It's not like I'd be doing it without consent..."

Our professor sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose as she did. For a moment, it seemed like she was going to say no. I hoped she would.

"I guess you should," she said instead, and I let out an audible groan. "He could be an incredible resource," she said, raising an eyebrow at me. "I know you have personal complaints with him, Albus, but you have to at least recognize that."

"All he is is an incredible prat," I muttered, crossing my arms. I didn't argue anymore, though. 'Personal complaints' was putting it lightly, but clearly no one was going to listen to me about it.

"When you're confident he can hold his own against Stillens, I'd like to talk to him," Haverna was saying. Colette nodded seriously, and I couldn't help glaring at both of them. This was ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. I couldn't believe they were giving in to this! Whether Nico was turning on Stillens or not was irrelevant. He was the one who had murdered my father. We couldn't trust him on principle, regardless of whether he was telling the truth!

Unfortunately, Colette didn't see it that way. She and Poppy spent the afternoon drawing up a list of conditions under which she would help Nico learn occlumency. I refused to take part in that, but I also refused to not be part of it, so that meant that I spent the afternoon sitting at the other end of the table we were at in the library, moping around and unsuccessfully trying to make them feel bad enough to give all this up.

We left dinner early to head up to the empty classroom where we were supposed to meet Nico. I settled myself in the corner, determined to be sullen all night, but Poppy sat down next to me. "Albus, I know this is hard for you," she said softly.

I rolled my eyes. "You think?"

"Colette and I don't like Nico. Even if she helps him, that won't change."

"That's not what I care about," I said, then sighed. "He killed my dad, Poppy. And he's getting away with it. No one cares!"

"I'm sorry," she said, patting my back. "I care. I really do."

"But you're okay with helping him."

Poppy frowned for a moment. "I want justice for your dad, Albus. For your dad, and my parents, and for every other person who's died because of Stillens. But that means we need to bring Stillens down. And maybe that means working with Nico Jasper. He made some horrible mistakes, yeah, but I don't think he set out with the intention of becoming a murderer. He got caught up in something he didn't understand, and now he's trying to make it right. Is it wrong to help him? If it means we'll be that much closer to putting an end to this war, and to Stillens, and to all the pain he's caused?"

I bit my lip. Why were my eyes misty? I blinked a few times, then shook my head. "Is it wrong to not want to help him?"

"No." Poppy took my hand. "That's not wrong. But I think it's only going to hurt you to keep being angry forever. Don't feel like you can't process things in your own time, but don't hold on too tightly to it."

Maybe she had a point. I knew bitterness was horrible and corrupting. I didn't want to be consumed by it. But I also wasn't ready to stop being angry with Nico. My dad was dead. I'd watched him die. I'd watched Nico kill him. I couldn't let that go yet.

"At least don't be angry with Colette," Poppy said, squeezing my hand. "She's trying to do what she thinks is right."

"I know." I glanced across the room, where she was seated at one of the desks with her eyes closed. "I know she is."

Before Poppy had time to say anything else, the door opened. I rolled my eyes as Nico slipped in like a shadow, closing the door so quietly he might have never touched it. If he thought anything about Poppy being here now, he didn't comment. Instead, he crossed the room to stand in front of Colette. She just raised an eyebrow and gestured to the seat across from her. "Go ahead and sit, if you want."

Nico did. He seemed just a little jittery, hands tapping across the desktop before he pulled them off of it. "I suppose you made up your mind."

"Nearly." She sat up straighter. "I'm willing to help you, but I have some conditions first."

He looked like he'd been expecting that. With a slow nod, he said, "What is it?"

"First, I want to know everything Stillens has you doing at the moment. What's your current mission?"

Nico shrugged. "I don't have one, in specific."

"Then what are you supposed to be doing?"

"Watching for suspicious activity. Keeping an eye on Rinduli and Petrov and Cantha."

"So Petrov and Rinduli are working for Stillens?" I asked, perking up a little.

Nico nodded. "Yeah. Both of them."

"And what's their mission?"

"Hell if I know." I narrowed my eyes, and he just frowned at me. "What? Stillens didn't tell me, and I didn't ask. Are you really surprised?"

"Is that all you're supposed to be doing right now?" Colette asked coldly, before I could respond.

He shrugged. "Just about. Of course, if I hear anything about Astra Lestrange, I'm supposed to report that back, but considering she disappeared without a trace, I'm not expecting to hear anything about her."

I raised an eyebrow. "Why would you even bring that up if you don't think you'll hear anything? You want us to tell you, don't you?"

"Albus," Poppy hissed, frowning at me.

Nico was just rolling his eyes. "I was under the impression that you didn't know anything Potter. If that's not true, then by all means, feel free not to tell me anything. I don't really want to know."

Colette nodded, as if that had satisfied her. "All right. Second condition, then. I want to know exactly what your plans are. You want to hide things from Stillens, sure. That's already treason, but how far are you willing to go? I'm not helping you if your only goal is to save yourself, or even just to help Ciara Malfoy."

"Right." Nico thought about that for a moment. "Like I said, I want Stillens to fall. I want to do as much as I can, though I'm not sure what that looks like, honestly. I mean... I suspect you three have DA connections, so you'd have a better idea than I do about that. I don't know if the DA would trust me enough to let me work with them, of course, but I'd still like to do whatever I can."

"He's lying," I snapped. "He must be."

Colette put her hand up, ignoring me. "You want to work with the DA?" she asked him.

Nico nodded, and Colette glanced back to exchange a pleasantly surprised look with Poppy. I rolled my eyes, but clearly they weren't going to listen to me, so it wasn't worth arguing.

"All right," Colette said. "Final condition. I want proof that you're not lying. I can't think of any reason Stillens would want you to learn occlumency, but Stillens is tricky. I want to know for sure that this isn't a trick."

"How am I supposed to give you proof?" Nico asked, frowning.

Colette tilted her head, eyebrows furrowing thoughtfully. "Do you know how a person learns occlumency?"

"I... I assume it's a lot of mental exercises and practice."

"And do you know what practice entails?"

He sighed, as if he'd realized where this was going. "I suppose you'd have to use legilimency on me."

Colette nodded. "I'm not as good as Stillens, of course, but if you really don't know occlumency yet, and I don't know why you would, then it would at least prove you're not hiding anything. That you're telling the truth. I'll have to do it anyway, eventually."

For a moment, Nico hesitated. I thought he might refuse for a second. Hoped he might refuse, more like. That would've proved me right. But after a moment, he nodded. "I guess that's fair."

Poppy glanced at me with wide eyes, as if she hadn't really been expecting that, either. As annoyed as I was, I guess I was a little glad that he'd agreed. If he hadn't, we'd probably have had to fight him, which would've been annoying, even if it had been doable.

By now, Colette was pointing her wand at him. "All right. This shouldn't hurt, but you'll definitely feel it."

"So you're really not good at this," Nico said drily.

She just narrowed her eyes. "I can make it hurt, if I want to."

He put his hands up. "Nope, I'm good. Proceed."

She didn't say anything, but I could tell by the concentration on her face that she'd started. Nico had winced, and was now staring back at her, meeting her intense stare with far less confusion and horror than last time I'd watched her use legilimency on someone. Of course, that had been Kyler Dillam, head editor of the Prophet, and she hadn't asked permission then, so that might have been part of it.

After what was probably three or four minutes of silence, Colette closed her eyes and seemed to break some sort of connection that had been keeping her and Nico so still. They both let out a breath like they'd been holding it for a while. Nico gathered himself first, watching Colette with what looked like genuine apprehension on his face. Colette, meanwhile, blinked a few times, as if she was disoriented. She looked around at all of us. After a few moments, I couldn't help asking, "Well?"

Colette glanced at Nico, then back at me. "Well, he's definitely telling the truth."

And, unfortunately, I couldn't think of an argument to combat that one.

The first thing Nico and Colette agreed on was that it was imperative to not waste time. He had no idea when he would need to report again, but if he wasn't incredibly good at occlumency by the time he did, Stillens would see right through him and it would all be for nothing. The room of requirement was the best place to practice, as long as we were never seen with him. They would meet in the room of requirement every afternoon after classes. Poppy and I would make sure they were never alone, just to be safe. Once he had successfully learned to do occlumency, Colette would talk about what comes next.

Nico agreed to all of this without argument. I almost wished he would argue, just to have an excuse to keep yelling at him. One thing was for sure: Poppy and Colette could believe him all they liked, but I wasn't going to. Ever.

~~~~

I sat down to start this chapter on Christmas Day, because I normally try to get a few paragraphs of the next chapter done the day after I post, just so it's easier to start later in the week when I actually need to publish soon. But I literally just wrote the whole thing in one afternoon? Crazy what not having school will do for your motivation. I mean, I've also been excited for this chapter for literally months, so that might have helped.

It was pointed out last chapter that I posted a depressing chapter on Christmas, and I realized that just about every chapter lately has been at least a little depressing. Hopefully, this was a nice change of pace. I thought it was, at least.

Question of the Day: It's almost a new year, and instead of my normal question about new year's resolutions, I'm going to do something different. It's hard to look forward to the future when this year has been so bleak, so let's not focus on that. Instead, tell me at least one good thing, big or small, that happened to you or that you did this year.

Answer: I finished the sixth book of this series and started on the last one, which is such an incredible achievement considering that book took like two years to write. I passed the halfway point in college, too, which is super cool!

Vote and comment!

~Elli

Word count: 8016