~Albus~

By the end of the next week, Nico managed to confirm that Adalyn Lostry was not, in fact, working for Stillens. Not yet, at least. According to Madam Cantha, it was apparently just a matter of time. She was advocating for her, apparently, trying to get Stillens to consider it, and he simply hadn't had time to give the matter much thought.

Well, that was at least something to tell Brigitte. If I actually wanted to tell her, that is. Nico had asked again why I wanted to know, and for some reason I couldn't explain, I'd told him.

"Why are you doing favors for Brigitte Myers, exactly?" Nico's expression was either distaste at the thought of her, or distaste at the thought of me helping her. I couldn't tell.

"None of your business."

He stared at me for a moment, as if he could figure out what my logic was just by frowning at me. It didn't work, of course, because I wasn't about to tell him about Ryder Portland. After a moment, he shook his head. "All right, then. Regardless of the reason, I really don't think that's the kind of information you should be spreading around."

"Why not?" I rolled my eyes. "It's not like Lostry hasn't been obvious about all of this."

"Okay? And? Her loudly proclaiming to her dormmates that she wants to work for Stillens and it actually being in the works are two very different things. And even if it wasn't that big a deal, letting Brigitte Myers know might cause some problems."

"Why would that cause problems?" I asked, crossing my arms. Sure, I could think of several reasons. She wasn't quite the type to keep something like this to herself, after all. She'd picked fights with Adalyn over less, after all. And as much as she seemed determined to out Hogwarts' dark wizards, she'd never once talked to my dad about any of the things she'd found out, even though she'd clearly found reasons to suspect both Adalyn and Nico. That meant I wasn't sure what her motives for this dark wizard hunt were. Between all of that, I'd been hesitant to agree to Brigitte's deal myself. But I wasn't about to let Nico know that.

"Do you think she'd going to be content to just sit back with that information and not do anything? Where does she think you're finding this out from? DA sources?"

"I mean, I didn't say that..."

"But she did?" I rolled my eyes instead of answering, and Nico sighed. "If she were to confront Adalyn about it, and Adalyn challenged her information, she would probably claim the authority of you or your DA sources, which are both essentially the DA. And if word got back to Stillens that someone from the DA had found that out, he'd start to suspect he had another spy to deal with, likely someone who was at Hogwarts."

"And?" I asked. I was being purposefully contrary now, I knew. The truth was, I hadn't thought of that, and I didn't want to admit it. I could care less if Nico got caught and killed for being a traitor, but now that he was actually a spy for the DA, that could cause more problems. Sabotaging the DA, even to get even with Nico, probably wasn't worth it. But I didn't want to tell Nico any of that. "Who cares?"

"I could get caught, or, worse, Professor Haverna could get caught."

"What? How?"

"Stillens doesn't think there are any DA members left at Hogwarts, besides students like you, who Rinduli and Cantha and Petrov and I are supposed to be keeping an eye on. But if some random student starts spouting off things about Adalyn Lostry that are completely true and no one should have a way of knowing, the most logical options are that one of Stillens' spies is a traitor, or there's another real DA member at Hogwarts that he's not aware of. I was under the impression that we didn't want him to think either of those things."

The frustrating thing was that I agreed with him, but it was too big of a hit to my pride to admit that. I rolled my eyes. "Then I'll tell her not to mention the DA."

"I'm not sure it matters whether she does or not," Nico said, narrowing his eyes.

"I'm not sure you understand what's going on."

"How could I? You haven't bloody told me anything about it."

"I don't have to!" I crossed my arms. "I don't have to tell you anything."

He stared at me for a moment, then shook his head. "I was just beginning to think you might not be stupid, you know."

"Oh, that's real mature." With a roll of my eyes, I stood up to leave. "Lucky I don't really care what murderers think of me."

"Original," he said drily. "I'm serious, Potter. You're making a mistake."

"I didn't ask for your advice." Before he could respond, I stormed off.

I didn't go off to immediately find Brigitte. He'd had a point, as much as I hated to admit it. I wanted to talk it over with Poppy very badly, or at least Colette, but telling either of them that I hadn't been quite truthful about Brigitte in the first place wasn't something I was ready to do. Besides, I didn't want to admit that I'd been forced into asking Nico Jasper for help, even if they'd been happy to hear it.

But that meant I'd either have to go tell Brigitte what I knew about Adalyn, and risk all the things Nico had predicted would happen, or make up a story about how she'd gone back on her word. And I don't know if you know this, but I'm a horrible liar, so that really only left one option.

After dinner, I told Colette that I was going to go see if Brigitte had made any progress, and hurried off before she could question me. I walked down the Slytherin table, catching Brigitte's eye and nodding toward the door on my way to Lily. I didn't really have anything to say to her, exactly; I'd just needed an excuse to be on this side of the hall. So I asked how Slytherin's Quidditch was coming ("not great, you prat") and kissed the top of her head just to embarrass her before I headed out the door, following just behind Brigitte by coincidence.

She ducked off almost immediately into an antechamber. When I walked in after her, she'd whirled around already. "Well?"

I sighed. "Adalyn Lostry doesn't work for Stillens."

Brigitte frowned. "How do you know?"

"I... I have my sources. That doesn't matter. She doesn't work for Stillens, but apparently she's trying to get in with him. Close to it."

Now her eyes widened. "I knew it."

"Then why did you need me to find out?"

"Evidence, of course!" Brigitte waved her hand. "I am going to need to know a bit more about your sources, though. How do you know this? The DA?"

"I... yes." I pursed my lips. Annoying how that was technically true, now.

"Who?"

"I can't very well tell you that, can I? Wouldn't be a secret organization if everyone knew who was in it."

"Not so secret if I know you're in it."

"I'm not technically in it." I rolled my eyes. "That's not what this is about, anyway. I held up my end of the deal. Now it's your turn."

Brigitte shook her head. "I need proof, or else you didn't really hold up your end of the deal, did you?"

"Excuse me?" I glared at her. "I did exactly what you asked me to! How the hell am I supposed to get you proof?"

She shrugged, seemingly unconcerned with that minor detail. "That's on you, Potter. I'm not going to talk to that kid for you until you do, though."

"No. I'm not bloody doing that. Shove off." And for the second time in one day, I stormed out of the room.

At least now I had something to tell Colette and Poppy when I met up with them in the library a few minutes later. Brigitte had decided to turn my favor into a deal, and was refusing to do anything until I found evidence about whether or not Adalyn Lostry was working for Stillens. I didn't want to deal with that, so we'd hit another dead end.

Poppy and Colette exchanged a glance. "So, are you ready to talk to Nico now?" Colette asked.

"No."

"Al, we don't have any other options." Poppy patted my shoulder. "Isn't helping Ryder more important?"

I shook my head, though I wasn't sure. Colette huffed. "Albus, I'm going to talk to him whether you like it or not. You're being ridiculous."

"You're being insensitive," I snapped.

"And smart." She studied me for a moment, then shook her head. "I'm sorry. Really. But I think it's our best choice."

"Maybe we should ask Professor Haverna?" Poppy suggested. She glanced back and forth between us. "She might have another idea."

I sighed and shook my head. "She'll agree with Colette."

"Because I'm right!"

"No! Because she doesn't care, either!"

"Excuse me?" Colette stared at me for a moment, eyes flashing. I realized I'd made a mistake. "What do you mean, either?"

"I..." Nothing. I hadn't meant anything by that. Just that... well... "If... if you actually cared that my dad had died, you wouldn't be trying to work with his murderer."

For several seconds, all she did was blink at me. She'd grown pale, likely because I'd just made her ridiculously angry. I braced myself for the inevitable storm, with her yelling at me or calling me a moron or giving me the silent treatment for the next week or so. But it didn't come.

Instead, she seemed to almost wilt a little. "I care, Albus," she said softly. "I'm just trying to do what's right."

"What's right isn't cooperating with a murderer," I said, without any of the fire I'd had before. "You'd understand that, if... I mean, if you..."

She shook her head as I trailed off. "I think it's what Mr. Potter would want us to do, if he were still here." Her expression hardened, and she looked away. "I wish you would stop acting like you're the only one who cares about any of this. It's not true. I miss you dad, too. And I understand you want to avenge him. So do I. But let's just make sure we're avenging him on the right person."

"What if there's more than one right person?"

Colette sighed. "I'm inclined to believe that the person risking his life to make up for everything he's done wrong might not be one of them." Before I could say anything, she stood up. "I'm done having this conversation. You can think I don't care, that I'm being callous and cruel and intentionally trying to hurt you. Whatever. Clearly, I can't convince you otherwise, so at least stop reminding me what a horrible person I am. This is hard enough without adding that." Without waiting for a response, she turned and walked away.

For a moment, all I could do was stare after her. I had a feeling that I'd really messed up, but I didn't want to think too much about exactly I'd done. I was pretty sure it was my fault and I didn't want to deal with the guilt. "What's her problem?" I asked out loud.

Poppy glanced at me, lips pursed. "I think you might have really hurt her, Albus."

"How?"

She raised an eyebrow at me. "You really don't know?"

Maybe I did. I sighed and looked down, avoiding her gaze. "I don't... I mean, I didn't mean to..." She waited for a few seconds while I tried to gather my thoughts. "It's not like I was trying to say that she doesn't care, or that she's being malicious or something. That's not what I meant. I know that's not true..."

"But that's kind of how it came out." Poppy hesitated, running her hand over the edge of Ryder's binder reflexively. She did that when she was trying to find a way to put her thoughts in order. As much as I wanted to protest my innocence (I hadn't meant to say that the way I had, after all), I managed to keep my mouth shut and wait for whatever she was trying to say next.

"I... I know you never meant to do this intentionally," she said after a few moments, "but I think, sometimes, the things you're saying and the way you're acting might be giving Colette the idea that you do think she couldn't care less about any of this, even if you wouldn't ever say that out loud. Even if you know that's not true."

I frowned. "She knows I don't think that."

"You've said that, yes, but..." Poppy pursed her lips. "I think she does understand this is hard for you, and she has an easier time pushing her feelings aside than you do, but I think that sometimes your bitterness at Nico is coming out at her, whether you intend it to or not. Even if you're not actually angry with her, you're kind of acting like you are."

"If that's what she thinks, why hasn't she brought it up?"

Poppy shrugged. "You know her better than I do, Albus. I was always under the impression that she's not big on acknowledging her feelings, though..."

That was an understatement. Had Colette really been thinking I was upset with her all this time? I mean, I'd gone in and out of being angry with her when she'd first decided to help Nico, but I'd gotten over it pretty quickly. Hadn't I? Well... actually, now that I thought about it, I'd been much snippier with her, lately. There had only been one time total since this all began, over a month ago, that we'd managed to talk about Nico without me being aggressive about it all.

And if at least a small part of me didn't think that Colette somehow didn't care about everything that had happened in June, then why would I have said that?

"Oh. Yes." I glanced back at Poppy. "I... what should I do?"

"I don't know?" She shrugged helplessly. "I don't know what Colette would respond well to. I'd say just talk to her, but I don't know..."

Maybe that would work? I'd never tried to approach Colette about anything deep like that. Generally, when we were having an argument, I wasn't the main person she was upset at. It was always either Astra or Wren, and I'd just happened to take their side. When they made up, all was right again, and Colette and I didn't ever talk about it.

But they always did make up somehow, and I had to assume that was just by talking. Maybe it was worth a shot. I sighed and stood up. "I'd better go find her, then."

"Good luck." Poppy offered me an encouraging smile. "You can do this."

She wasn't in the room of requirement, or the common room. I even asked Rose to go check upstairs in their dorm, but she wasn't there, either. After that, I started searching the empty classrooms nearby. If only James was here to lend me the marauders' map. But thinking about James just made me angry, and I was trying to calm down, so I focused harder on finding Colette, blocking my brother out of my mind.

Eventually, I found her in an empty classroom on the sixth floor. I had to use a few spells to unlock the door, and before I'd finished it opened from the inside. Colette glanced me up and down, standing in the doorway so I couldn't enter. "What do you want?"

I tried to see over her shoulder, but couldn't. "Are you working on your spell?"

"Maybe." She frowned. "What do you want?"

"Well, first, I'd like you to not work on it alone, like you agreed."

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Sorry." But she stepped back, letting me into the room.

"How are you practicing it, anyway?" I asked, frowning. "Isn't it just a counter-curse?"

Colette motioned to large glass jar on one of the desks. It had a few beetles in it, scurrying around each other. I raised an eyebrow. "Did you catch those?"

"No? I bought them, last time we were in Hogsmeade."

"And you've been practicing on them?"

"Well, yes. But I practiced on myself until I got it right."

"You did what?"

She ignored me. "I only started practicing on them once I knew the spell actually worked. I'm not cruel, Albus."

I couldn't tell if her biting tone was because she was simply annoyed with me, or if she was referencing our argument earlier. Whichever it was, I winced anyway. "I know you aren't."

"Did you need something?" She pointed her wand at the jar, clearly trying to avoid looking at me. "Because, if not, I'd really like to practice in peace."

"I..." I glanced between her and the bugs. "Yeah. There was something. Um..."

Now she'd turned to look at me, an annoyed "get-on-with-it" expression on her face. She wasn't going to take this well at all, was she? But I'd already started, so I might as well get it over with. I sighed heavily and leaned against the desk I was next to. "I wanted to say I was sorry."

Colette narrowed her eyes. "Oh."

"Not just that. But it's a good start." I glanced at the jar of bugs, because I wasn't sure I could handle meeting her eyes. "I'm sorry I've been acting like a prat recently. I didn't even realize it, which is worse. I've been angry at Jasper, but I've been taking a lot of it out on you, and that's not fair."

She shifted uncomfortably. "Oh. Okay."

"I know you care, okay? You've been really hurt by all of this too, and I'm sorry I keep acting like that's not true. It's been hard for us both, and we're dealing with it in different ways, but it's not cool for me to act like my feelings are more real than yours."

I half expected her to deny having any feelings at all, but she didn't. She just stood there, as if unsure what to do or how to respond. "Right."

"I'm sorry. Is this... I mean, do I need to stop talking?"

She shook her head. "It's fine." For a few seconds, she hesitated, then stepped over to sit next to me.

"I really do understand this. And I care about you, and I trust your judgment. And I'm sorry."

"No need to be so sappy about it."

"I'm not being sappy; I'm being serious." I turned to glance at her, and she looked away. "I want to make sure you know this. You know I love you, right? You're one of my best friends."

At that, she finally looked up, staring at me as if I'd started speaking a different language. Had I gone too far? Tread a little too much past her emotional comfort zone? She was always so stoic that I rarely even considered her feelings, but those were exactly what I'd hurt, so it had felt right to acknowledge them. Maybe I shouldn't have, though? I bit my lip. "Sorry, am I making you uncomfortable?"

She blinked a few times, then managed a small smile. I got the distinct impression that she was as near tears as she ever got. "A little. But it's probably a good thing."

I couldn't help letting out a sigh of relief, which made her smile widen. "That's good. I thought you were about to yell at me."

"I considered it," she said lightly, though I didn't believe her at all. She grew serious again after a moment. "I'm sorry if you've been feeling like I don't care. I haven't... I mean, I'm not trying to shut down. I just don't know any other way to deal with everything. It's less messier to listen to logic than emotions, after all, but... I know I can come across a little unfeeling. I'm sorry."

"I sometimes wish I could just shut my emotions down and only listen to logic," I said with a chuckle.

Colette gave me a dry smile. "It's really not that great, Al. You eventually forget how to turn them back on."

"Oh."

"I'm trying. Really. Astra was helping, a lot, before she ran off. But it's really hard when it's been drilled into me my whole life that feelings make you weak." She shook her head. "Anyway, I'm sorry. I probably could have brought all this up myself."

"Hey, it's okay. I haven't been super approachable lately, either." I patted her shoulder, which seemed to catch her off guard. I laughed as she glanced up at me in surprise. "We just have to figure how to communicate with each other better, I think. Now that... now that it's just us."

"Right." Colette looked down, then nodded. "Clearly we're doing something wrong when it comes to Jasper, so what can we do better?"

I frowned thoughtfully. "Um... well, I don't know. I think I just need to get over myself?"

"I'm not sure it's all that." She shrugged, staring thoughtfully at the jar of beetles across the room. "I would appreciate it if you saved the arguing until we weren't with him, though."

"Oh. Yeah. Sorry."

"It's just hard enough to deal with him, without feeling like you haven't got my back, you know?"

I nodded. "Right. Well, then... I'd really appreciate it if you'd talk me through what you want to ask him about before you do it? Just so I have time to think it through and not get upset in the moment. I know we can't do much about Haverna, but I probably wouldn't be half as likely to argue about things if I already knew what to expect."

I half expected her to get mad at me, but Colette just nodded. "I can do that." She tilted her head thoughtfully. "On that note... are you really against asking Jasper to talk to Ryder Portland? Because we can try to figure out something else, if you are."

Part of me wanted to say yes, but I knew there weren't any other options. Now that Brigitte was being impossible (and I'd already told her more than I probably should have), we didn't have anyone else who could slip past Ryder's defenses. I sighed exaggeratedly. "I suppose there are worse things in the world."

She smiled. "Okay, cool. That might involve telling him about our research."

"I mean, he already knows about that," I said with a shrug. "If Poppy's all right with it, I guess I am, too."

"She is." Colette hopped off the desk. "Now, if there isn't anything else, I'd like to get back to practicing."

"Any way I can help?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Well, if you're all right with it, it would be nice to see if this spell works for other people, too, or just me."

"Spells might not work for other people?"

"Sometimes." Colette shrugged. "I've made a few that Astra wasn't able to do, and I think it's because the incantation wasn't quite right, so they only worked for me."

"Oh, I didn't know that."

"Normally, I can tweak the incantation a bit until it's universal, but sometimes it's just a lost cause." She cringed. "A few times, it actually caused an explosion. That's why I normally try to perfect it on my own, first..."

I glanced at the jar of beetles uneasily. "How likely is this to create an explosion?"

"Not very likely, I think." She glanced at me. "You don't have to try if you don't want to, though."

"No, it's fine." I supposed that an explosion wouldn't really be that bad. Colette had cast so many protective charms on this room that it probably wouldn't hurt anything except possibly me, and I had enough faith in her abilities with healing spells to not be very concerned about that.

Colette smiled. "Thanks. The incantation is prasidio tebria." She demonstrated the wand motion and talked me through casting it. Apparently, it lasted about twenty minutes, from what she could tell. You cast it on a person (or bug), and it would lessen the effect of most curses. She hadn't tried with the cruciatus curse or anything, but a lot of other painful ones had been nearly harmless when she'd tried them on herself, and as far as she could tell, they weren't affecting the bugs, either.

To both or our delight, I was able to cast it without blowing anything up. When Colette cast the stinging hex on the bug I'd charmed, it seemed to have no effect. Then she made me try on her (which I was a little bit more hesitant to do), and it worked exactly the same way. Other than a slight tickle when I first cast the spell, she said she felt absolutely nothing.

"That's great," I exclaimed. "That means it's done?"

"Nearly," she said, smiling. "There might be a few small adjustments I need to make once I see how it reacts to different people and different wands, but I guess that can wait until later."

"Think you could teach it to Poppy?"

"For sure." Colette picked up the jar of beetles and started for the door. "Lacy and Iris and Rose might want to know, too..."

"Anyone Petrov or Rinduli might pick on," I agreed.

"Just so you know, I will definitely be casting it on you every time we go to that class."

"Wouldn't expect any less." I smiled at her, then patted her shoulder. "I'm really glad we're friends, Colette."

"You're too sentimental." She rolled her eyes, though she seemed pleased, so I took that as a good thing.

~~~~

On my way to breakfast the next morning, I was stopped by a first year running directly into my path. Jemima smiled at me as if she'd had more than one interaction with me total and hadn't nearly crashed into me just now, as I took a deep breath and tried to calm down from the scare. "Eviana said you wanted to know how Isla was doing?"

I raised an eyebrow in surprise and managed a smile. "That would be great, yeah. Thanks, Jemima."

Jemima grinned, then clasped her hands together and grew serious like she was giving a presentation. "I've made friends with her. She doesn't really have any other friends, so she kind of follows me around most of the time. But I think she's starting to talk to the other girls in our dorm a little more, too."

"That's wonderful." I hesitated. "Do you feel like you've gotten to know her, at all?"

She frowned. "Well, she definitely doesn't talk a lot. She told me she lives with her aunt and uncle, in some little town in Wales?"

"Why does she live with her aunt and uncle?" I asked.

Jemima's mouth dropped open. "I didn't ask her that! That's a little rude, you know."

"Right. Sorry. That wasn't what I meant."

"She didn't say, so I assume it's because her parents can't take care of her?" Jemima shrugged. "I grew up in Edinburgh, though, so I've asked her a lot about growing up in a village. Unfortunately, I don't think she's really paid that much attention to anything at home, because she doesn't really know how to answer sometimes?"

Well, that was interesting. Why would Isla not know that much about Wales? Perhaps because she was actually from Bristol, not a small town in Wales, and until nearly a year ago she'd lived there with her parents. Who was to say she'd even ever been to this small town in Wales where her "aunt and uncle" lived for more than a few days?

Jemima had been talking this whole time. "I mean, who doesn't know where the nearest grocery is? But she can't even tell me if it's in Trelewis or not. And I asked if she had any cousins, and she said she wasn't sure? And I just meant that lived with her, but she seemed really overwhelmed about it all, so I just asked what their last name would be, and maybe we could find out together, but I guess they're probably muggles, if they exist, because I've never met anyone named Langston anywhere."

I barely managed to keep my jaw from dropping. Langston? That had been one of the names on the tunnels. I could still remember the blueprints perfectly, burned into my mind like a curse. It was definitely Langston. Merlin, that made sense, too! If they were in Wales... This was proof. We were right. Without a doubt, Isla was one of the missing children.

Jemima had tilted her head, frowning at me curiously. "Are you okay?"

"What?" I blinked quickly. "Oh, yes. I'm fine. Just fine."

"Really?" Jemima seemed unconvinced. "You were looking at me like I'd just told you I was the one who killed Nearly Headless Nick."

I shook my head. "What? That's ridiculous. Why would I do that?"

"I don't know! You were the one who was looking weird!"

"I don't know what you're talking about." I pursed my lips. "Back to Isla... does she seem all right?"

"What do you mean, all right?" She seemed more confused than accusatory, but I still had to keep myself from wincing at the question.

"Just... it's the prefects' duty to make sure that any students that need help get it. And that includes help with, like, mental health stuff? And if she's having such a hard time adjusting, then maybe she needs help?"

Jemima stared at me for a moment, then shrugged. "I already told you, she's really shy. Doesn't really like personal questions a lot. But she's super nice, and generally seems pretty normal to me. I don't know what you mean, honestly."

"Okay, cool." I forced a smile. "Thanks, Jemima. I really appreciate you befriending her."

She smiled brightly at me. "Of course!"

Just then, I saw Eviana coming down the stairs. Jemima heard her voice, and waved at me. "Okay, bye! Have a good day!" Before I could say anything, she'd sprinted off. She was already out the portrait hole before I realized she was wearing red stockings with her school uniform again. Eviana just rolled her eyes at me from across the room.

Colette and Poppy both agreed that this was the closest thing to confirmation we were going to get about Isla. Until we thought of what to do next, we just needed to keep an eye on her. Our priority was definitely Ryder, and since I'd finally given in and agreed to work with Nico, they didn't waste time tracking him down.

For some reason, Nico didn't mention any of the information-gathering I'd asked him to do, even when Poppy explained why Brigitte had fallen through. In fact, he had the decency to act like nothing to do with Brigitte Myers or any of the first years had ever crossed his mind, even though I had a feeling he knew exactly what I hadn't been telling him a few days ago. Not that I was giving him any credit for that, of course. Doing the minimum to not piss me off didn't deserve any praise. But I suppose nothing was stopping him from letting Poppy and Colette know about that, so I was glad that he didn't.

Nico said he was more than happy to try to talk to the kid, though his reputation as a very weird loner might get in the way. Luckily, Ryder seemed to be following in those footsteps, so maybe the other Slytherins wouldn't think much about it.

With that taken care of surprisingly easily, Colette announced that it was time for us to figure out how to help these kids. It was nearly the end of term, so it would probably be a good idea to start planning for after the holidays, especially if Nico managed to get somewhere with Ryder by then.

The problem was, we weren't sure exactly what to do. Nico was fairly confident he could restore their memories, but he was also fairly confident that it would be wildly traumatic for them. Not the process itself, that is, but having so many traumatic memories flood back at one time. Even a lot of normal, good memories coming back at once could be difficult to handle, he said, but the types of things we thought these kids might have witnessed? Their families being murdered, the brainwashing, maybe even Stillens himself? That was traumatic enough on its own, let alone getting it all at once.

None of us were really sure what to do about that. Colette suggested we all try to read up on memory charms for now, and see if anything like this had ever happened before, maybe in some experiment. Poppy suggested we ask Haverna, which was immediately shot down by the rest of us, since part of our restoring-memories plans included possibly assaulting a professor (she was appalled that we hadn't let that go yet). Reading it was.

Speaking of that particular professor, Rinduli's class was not getting any better. She'd announced that our end of term exams would have a practical portion, which would mean actually using the dark arts we'd been learning on a mannequin. I didn't want to use the dark arts at all, and was considering boycotting the exam completely. Haverna told me I was not allowed to do that under any circumstances, and as long as it was on a mannequin she'd much rather I just do was I was told than get in trouble over ethics. If I wanted to get into a fight with Rinduli, I could do it when she asked me to use the dark arts on another student.

Though I wasn't really looking forward to the holidays, walking into our last day of defense against the dark arts before exams was a bit of a relief. I sat down in the very back row next to Poppy, determined to get through this class without saying anything at all. Then we'd just have an exam before we were free for a month.

Petrov was there that day, to no one's delight. Rinduli's apparent discomfort around him had slowly turned into annoyance, I thought. Nico had told us that they both claimed to have no idea what he was talking about when he'd asked them what their problem was individually, so my current best guess was that, like most of the people who followed Stillens, Rinduli and Petrov were simply both horrible people who enjoyed frustrating others, even the people they were supposed to be working with.

Rinduli called the class to order. I slouched down in my seat as everyone grew quiet.

"Today, we're going to be discussing the unforgivable curses," she announced. A murmur went up around the room, and she raised her hand for silence. "Not how to do them. They're unforgivable, legally speaking. But it's important for you to understand them, especially when there are many violent extremists who would have no qualms using them on you."

I wanted to be frustrated at that, but I supposed that was a fair point. Not that I wanted to learn about the unforgivable curses in my defense against the dark arts, class, but I suppose it wasn't the worst topic we'd covered so far. At least she didn't seem to be wavering on that line being one you couldn't cross.

At first, that really did seem to be what the lesson was about. She talked through what each curse did and how it worked, things I definitely already knew but had never actually learned in class. We spent a long time talking about how to throw off the imperius curse (luckily, she didn't suggest a demonstration, and Petrov didn't interfere), then how defend against the cruciatus curse. Apparently, a shield charm was rarely strong enough to defend against it, but an alternative was to simply play mind games with your opponent until you could get them to a spot where they couldn't mean it. I'd never thought of that (and wasn't sure how well it would actually hold up against any of the people who had ever tried to use the cruciatus curse on me, considering I wasn't sure how I could play mind games with Isaac Predatel or Caymus Stillens).

Then we got to the killing curse, and it all went downhill from there.

"Are there any ways to defend against the killing curse?" Rinduli asked.

For a few moments, there was silence. Then Iris hesitantly raised her hand. "Um... expelliarmus?"

Rinduli pursed her lips. "That's pre-emptive. I meant against the curse itself."

"Stupefy?" suggested Eris.

"That's also pre-emptive."

Whispers flew around the room. A few people looked at each other. Arthur Longbottom was the one who said, "What's wrong with a pre-emptive defense against someone who's trying to kill you?"

"Oh, nothing." Rinduli shrugged. "That's not what we're talking about right now, though. I hope this never happens to any of you, but there may be times when your pre-emptive defense is blocked or dodged by your assailant. If that's all you know how to do, then you won't stand much chance once they start firing curses at you. So, what else could you do?"

I had a feeling I knew where this was going, but I wasn't about to help it get there. Instead, I listened to my classmates murmur to each other. Poppy glanced at me, seeming confused, and I just shrugged and rolled my eyes.

"Maybe... a shield charm?" suggested a Ravenclaw.

"Shield charms don't hold up against the killing curse," Rinduli pointed out.

"Bloody hell, then, what are we supposed to be doing?" Luke exclaimed. "If none of that's going to work, I suppose I'll just let the bloke kill me, then?"

"No, that's not what—"

"Why can't I just keep trying to stun them?" Lacy asked. "Or disarm them? They can't kill me without a wand."

"Mr. Potter always said those were the two most important spells we would ever learn," someone else pointed out. "Why wouldn't they be useful now?"

There was a loud crash, and everyone fell silent immediately. Petrov was standing up from his seat in the corner, now, and it appeared as if he'd slammed his cane against the chair to make the noise. Now, he regarded us all through narrowed eyes. "If someone comes at you with a killing curse, do you think your precious little tricks will protect you?"

No one answered. I think we all knew the answer was no. My dad hadn't ever spent a lot of time talking about the unforgivable curses, but he'd told us at least that much. The best way to defend against someone willing to use the killing curse on you was to knock them out before they could.

"No, they won't," Petrov answered after a few moments of silence. "You can't defend against that. It's what Professor Rinduli's been saying all this time. Your best defense against the dark arts is a good offense. Odds are, if you know how to do a shield charm, they do, too. You can't use a shield charm to deflect the killing curse, but they can definitely use one against your disarming spell. Instead, you have to debilitate your opponent before they can kill you."

I couldn't help it. He was about to make a case for using the dark arts when it was unnecessary, and if my dad had ever taught me anything, it was that there were always nonviolent ways to deal with people like that. Expelliarmus was what had ended Voldemort, after all. I couldn't just sit here and let them retract everything my father had ever stood for. "Yeah, that's why you need to know how to knock people out. But we learned that first year."

Petrov narrowed his eyes. "Again, a stunning charm can be blocked, Mr. Potter."

"And a killing curse can be dodged." I shook my head. "There's no need to resort to the dark arts. That's just stooping to their level."

"I'll make sure to pass that sentiment on to your family when it gets you killed," he snapped. "You don't understand the complexities of actually dueling someone."

"Really?" I glared at him. "You're going to sit there and tell me I don't understand how to fight? How many times have you had to duel someone who worked for Stillens, exactly?"

"Do you think the rest of Europe doesn't have its own dark wizards to deal with?" He hit his cane against the ground. "Your insistence on a moral high ground will get you killed one day, Mr. Potter. My only interest is in helping you ensure your survival."

Poppy's hand on my arm kept me from snapping back at him, but I did hold his glare with my own for several tense seconds. Finally, Petrov shook his head. "Absinthe, I believe your class may require a demonstration of how to defend themselves."

She blinked. "Oh. Are you sure?"

"Mr. Potter, in particular, seems to need to see this for himself." Petrov raised an eyebrow at her. "Well?"

"A demonstration of what, exactly?"

"Simply the best way to fight against an attacker who is using the killing curse. Unforgivable curses are allowed in self-defense, are they not?"

For several long seconds, our professor frowned at him. I couldn't imagine what sort of "demonstration" Petrov was hoping to do, but it if was going to involve both an unforgivable curse and me, I wanted nothing to do with it. Though I had no reason to think either of them was more reasonable than the other, I found myself desperately hoping that Rinduli might pull through this time.

Instead, she shrugged. "I suppose that's fine, then." She gestured towards him. "The floor is yours."

Petrov smiled. "Potter, come up here."

I slowly stood up, because I was a little afraid of what might happen if I didn't. As I walked up the aisle, the room was completely silent. Petrov gestured to a spot near Rinduli's desk for me to stand, then stepped back to where he'd been standing. He held his arms out. "All right, Potter. Try to kill me."

"I... what?" That wasn't exactly what I'd been expecting.

"Try to kill me," he repeated. "Don't worry. This is purely for educational purposes. You won't get in trouble."

I looked down at my wand, then back up at the librarian. As much as I hated him, I didn't think I was even able to cast the spell, even if I knew he'd dodge it somehow. "I don't think I can do that."

Petrov rolled his eyes. "Weak. Open your mind."

"I can't."

"Alexei, just have him cast a different spell," Professor Rinduli said, sounding tired.

"Fine." He scowled at me. "Any other curse will do. Just make it one that requires thought."

I barely restrained myself from rolling my eyes. "Fine. Petrificus totalus."

Instead of blocking, Petrov just stepped to the side. "If he had just cast the killing curse, no defense I put up would have been able to protect me. However, if I can use offensive tactics to make him unable to cast the spell, that will work as a defense. Now... if only there were offensive spells that couldn't be blocked by your average shield charm."

At that, I felt my stomach sink. He was going to use one of the unforgivable curses on me? In the middle of class? Was he mad?

Apparently so. He raised an eyebrow at me, then waved his wand. I saw the yellow light of the spell coming at me as time seemed to slow down. But then a flash of blue hit my side, and instant before the cruciatus curse did. And instead of being immediately overcome by blinding pain, the curse just felt like someone was pinching my arm really hard definitely nothing what that curse was supposed to feel like.

I blinked a few times in surprise, unsure exactly what was going on. After a few moments of me not reacting at all the way a normal person would, Petrov stopped, too, seeming confused.

Slowly, I turned towards the direction the blue light had come from. Colette was standing in the aisle, watching us both tensely, and I suddenly realized what had happened. Her spell.

"What the hell just happened?" Rinduli asked quietly. I slowly turned around to see her looking stunned. I couldn't tell if she was angry or not.

Before anyone else could respond, the bell rang. I'd never seen the room clear out so quickly, though when Petrov glared at us, Colette and I remained right where we were. Poppy hesitated for a moment, but Colette waved her off with some sort of assurance I couldn't hear.

As soon as the door had closed behind her, Petrov snapped, "What was that?"

"A spell," Colette said unhelpfully.

"Which spell?" Rinduli seemed torn between being annoyed and being curious, which was fair. I'd certainly never heard of a spell like that until Colette had created it.

Colette shrugged. "Just a spell."

"Where did you learn this spell?" Petrov asked.

"Some book, maybe? I don't remember."

Now Petrov was glaring at Rinduli. "I suggest you take them to the headmistress. Interrupting your class like that was incredibly disrespectful."

Rinduli pursed her lips. "I suppose it was." She stood up. "Let's go, then."

I saw Colette tense up, though luckily I don't think either of the professors did. That was the last thing we needed. Couldn't they have just taken us to Professor Edwards? She was our head of house, after all.

Kimmel was completely unamused by the entire story, from hearing that Petrov had tried to use an unforgivable curse in class (he claimed that hadn't really been what he'd cast, and unfortunately no one could say otherwise, since it hadn't hit me with its full effect) to hearing that Colette had interrupted an educational demonstration. That was all completely unacceptable, of course. No unforgivable curses should be used in the school, and no students should be interrupting lectures. She was very interested in hearing where this new spell had come from, of course, but Colette refused to say anything at all the entire time, even after Rinduli and Petrov had left. Eventually, when even threatening us with calling the ministry didn't work (knowing foreign spells was rather suspicious behavior, after all, given Colette's history), she settled with detention and a warning that if anything like this ever happened again, she would certainly be calling the aurors in to talk to us about it.

Somehow, Haverna had already heard about it all, and was waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs. She hauled us into her office to lecture us about being discreet.

"What should I have done instead?" Colette snapped. "Let him torture Albus in the middle of class?"

"Of course not. Perhaps reminding him that Kimmel wouldn't approve of it would have worked, though. I don't suppose you tried that, did you?"

"It kind of escalated a little too quickly for that," I said softly, though I wasn't sure that was true. I simply hadn't thought about it.

"Excuse me for not trusting Kimmel to care what happens to her students," Colette said coldly.

Haverna sighed. "I know. These things are complicated, though. There are ways to do the right thing without being reckless. Especially when Kimmel already has her eye on you, Colette." She closed her eyes, rubbing her forehead like she had a headache. "Have you really been sneaking around to make this spell behind my back?"

Colette looked down. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but I think it was the right thing to do."

"I hope so." Haverna frowned. "She really said she'd call the aurors on you if something like this happened again?"

"Yeah." I hesitated. "What would happen if she did?"

"I have no idea, Albus. It would be up to the Ministry, then."

"Why would they care?" Colette asked softly, though I think she could think of several reasons they might. I certainly could. A witch who was well-known at Hogwarts for supporting the DA, and also created spells in her free time? That was a little dangerous.

Haverna shook her head. "These are dangerous times, Colette. You need to be careful."

"I can't stop making spells if they're important."

"Fine." She sighed. "But you're not doing it on your own. You can come talk to me, and we can decide together if it's important enough to risk your safety, all right?"

To my relief, she agreed. The last thing I wanted was for my last friend to end up in a detention center, or worse. I didn't think I could bear to lose Colette, too, on top of everything else.

~~~~

This chapter took way too much effort to write (even though I'm caught up on school and all my plans were cancelled for the week because of a blizzard), because I'm too excited for the next one. Good excitement or bad excitement, you ask? I guess you'll just have to wait and see. 

Also, it's occurred to me that Albus's chapters have all been significantly longer than Astra and Wren's recently? I suppose Wren's kind of fluctuate, but Albus's have consistently been 6000+ words? I'm not sure exactly why except that Albus has a lot more moving parts in his chapters at the moment. But don't worry! Things are about to change! Act II will be here before you know it. 

Question of the Day: If you had to describe yourself using only characters from any book, movie, or tv show, who are you? Why did you choose those people?

Answer: First and foremost, Sokka from Avatar the Last Airbender? Oh my gosh, would tiny Elli have connected with this guy. Like... I am an idiot, objectively, but a smart idiot? I have enough braincells to plan things and lead well and be generally book smart and clever, but I'm also just like insanely dumb? But in a generally funny way? 

I've also been compared to Padme Amidala recently, which I'm not sure I can accept as that is a very great honor, but I do tend to share her level-headed and pacifistic approach to things? And I care deeply about justice and caring for people who need help. Just... if I were a politician (which I will never be), I would 100% be her. 

I feel bad that I don't want to put Hermione on here, but I don't know that I'm really that much like her anymore. I'm still fiercely passionate about similar things as her, but the whole "reading textbooks for fun" and "is not like other girls" thing is very much not me anymore. Perhaps adult Hermione grew out of those things, too, but canon, teenage Hermione is really just descriptive of teenage me, not adult me. 

Anyway, vote and comment!

~Elli

Word count: 8214