"Where have you three been?!" Molly asks loudly. "We have to go-"

"I'll apparate back after closing," I say to Molly.

"Alright dear," Molly says, "Ron take her bags." I hand them over to him as he protests slightly. But shuts up as she glares at him. As they all leave I look to Fred.

"They were avoiding my eyes weren't they?" I ask him.

"I didn't want to say anything," Fred says, "but it seems like they're hiding something."

"Merlin are they really hiding things with a war going on?" I scoff.

"It must be big enough that it's a safety thing," George says joining us. I sigh as I look to the daydream charms.

"I'm taking some of these back to Hogwarts with me," I say as I grab a couple. "Take it out of my pay."

"You don't pay here either," George says, "you're our business partner. Just advertise."

"Of course," I nod, "But must you hand me freebies? I mean I feel bad."

"We'll be fine," George says, "and I'm going to guess things at Hogwarts are going to hit you hard this year."

"Me too."

****

The next couple days Harry kept looking to me anxiously. Until finally he stopped me as I was trying to send off a letter to Draco.

"Can we talk?" Harry asks.

"Sure," I say. He walks in and sits down on my bed.

"So have you and Draco been writing to each other all summer?" Harry asks.

"Well I've been writing but he hasn't much contact," I admit to Harry, "he said when we saw him at Diagonal Alley that his moms having a hard time."

"Has he mentioned what he's been doing?" Harry asks.

"No," I say to him, "why do you ask?"

"He seemed different when we saw him," Harry says cautiously, "I couldn't tell why. I thought he would of talked to you about it." I think back to Draco's urgency in not being able to tell me. "Do you think something is wrong with him?"

"Why are you asking?" I ask.

"I'm just worried," Harry says quickly. I scan along his features to find a hint of an alternative motive.

"I'll talk to him when we get to Hogwarts," I tell Harry, "but I'm sure he's fine. Now if you'll excuse me I have a couple letters to send." I leave him and his suspicion just seemed to increase. What could possibly be going through that boys head?

That last day at work was a little hard. As excited as I was to be returning to Hogwarts I would really miss the twins. Both of these boys being my go to people when I just wanted to laugh or to have fun.

"Merlin I'm going to miss you losers," I say as I wrap my arms around them.

"Same here," George admits, "right Fred?"

"Right George," Fred says, "our favourite of Ron's friends for sure."

"One of our best friends even," George says. I smile at them.

"Awe that's so sweet," I say to them as I hug them each. Fred holding on slightly longer than his brother. As I back up from them I look around seriously. "Please be careful. Okay?"

"We will," they say in unison, "and you too."

"I will," I say to them. I wave before I apparate home. Once at the burrow I see that everyone was preparing to leave. People hobbling with their trunks as I use my hand to pull my down. Just to piss off the others. The journey was much smoother than any of the previous years.

"Quick, quick, through the barrier," Mrs. Weasley says, who seems a little flustered by this austere efficiency. "Harry had better go first, with—" she looks to one of the Aurors who was travelling with us. He grabs Harry's arm and starts to pull him.

"I can walk, thanks,"Harry says irritably, jerking his arm out of the Auror's grip. He pushes his trolley directly at the solid barrier.

"I got him," I say as I shove my trolley into the barrier. As I get to the other side I see the rush around to get inside the train. Soon the others were with us. Harry looks back and mumbles something about following him to a compartment.

"We can't, Harry," Hermione says, looking apologetic. "We have to go to the prefects' carriage first and then patrol the corridors for a bit."

"Oh yeah, I forgot," Harry says.

"You'd better get straight on the train, all of you, you've only got a few minutes to go," Mrs. Weasley says consulting her watch. "Well, have a lovely term, Ron..."

"Goodbye Molly," I say quickly before rushing to get on the train and get to the prefects carriage. As we sit I look around and see a apparent lack of Draco.

"Where's Malfoy?" Our head girl asks. I shrug and burry my face in my book. "Y/n how don't you know?"

"I'm his girlfriend not his babysitter," I snap at her. She backs off slightly giving us all our duties. Since Draco decided to skip out she gave out carriage rounds to Ravenclaw. As we split up I march back to the carriage where the Slytherins cling to. As I reach the door I see Draco in a deep discussion with Crabbe, Goyle, and Nott. "That the hell Malfoy?! It's not like you to ditch our prefect duties." He looks up and waves them off before waving me over.

"I'm sorry love," He says calmly as I sit beside him. "It was about their dads." I nod sympathetically. Their dads too were arrested at the Department of Mysteries. No doubt causing issues among their families too.

"I'm sorry," I apologise. He sighs and pulls me onto his lap.

"I'll forgive you for a kiss," Draco says. I smirk and push my lips against his. He claims his dominance in this as his hand rest of my waist. I readjust my position to have my butt sitting on his lap as my knees rest on the sides of him. I start to pull away from him as I hear a whistling audience. He gently bites my lip as we separate.

"Y/n Cultven?" A third year boy says as he stands in front of us.

"What do you want kid?" Draco growls.

"I'm supposed to give Y/n this," The boy says as he extends a letter to me. I take it and he quickly skips off.

"What is it?" Draco asks. I rip it open and pull out the card.

Y/n,
I would be delighted if you would join me for a bite of lunch in compartment C.
Sincerely,
Professor H. E. F. Slughorn

"An invitation to lunch with Slughorn," I say as i place the card back in the envelope.

"Who's Slughorn?" Draco asks.

"Horace Slughorn? Hogwarts old potions teacher and new Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher... apparently," I say as I slide off his lap.

"And he wants to have lunch with you?" Draco asks, "isn't he like a million years old."

"I doubt it's like that," I say to Draco, "But I'm a little concerned too- Blaise! Did you get one of these invites too?" I ask seeing as he was also holding a similar card.

"With Slughorn?" Blaise asks. I nod. "Yeah wanna head there together?" I stand up and meet him in the aisle way.

"I'll be back," I say to Draco before planting a soft kiss in his cheek. Blaise and I set off for compartment c. Once inside we could see a collection of students. Ginny was the first one I noticed.

"Call her over," Blaise says, "I know you want to." I nod and wave over the ginger.

"You got an invite too?" She asks. I nod.

"Yeah I did but what's going on?" Ginny asks. A plump older man with with a slight limp wobbles over to us.

"You must be Y/n Cultven, and Blaise Zabini I suppose?" The man asks, "I'm professor Slughorn nice to meet you." We both shake his hand in that elitist "I don't want to touch you," way. Mostly because of the mans weirdness putting of weird signals.

"Nice to meet you sir," I say to him as I tuck a piece of my lavender hair behind my ear.

"Well mingle amongst yourself we start soon," He says. I nod and walk away from him slightly. Blaise looks at me then sighs.

"I hate this already," he scoffs and he pulls a book from his robes. I look around at the group. Most being kids I didn't interact with, but clearly something stuck out about all of them.

"Harry m'boy!" Slughorn calls as Harry and Neville strut in. Slughorn looks around the room starting introduce Harry to people.

"Blaise Zabini is in your year, of course—" Slughorn says. The boys sharing nothing but a glare. Then Slughorn gestures to me. "Y/n Cultven also in your year-"

"We actually know each other," I stop him, "Harry and I are good friends."

"Of course you are," Slughorn says, "your mother was close with his mother Lily. The best of friends in school." I look to Harry and smile, "but I remember Lily always tried to talk her out of dating her your father- well in the end he did the right thing." Harry smirks at me.

"Maybe some time I can ask you some more about my parents?" I ask him, "but for now I'll let you get back to Harry."

"Of course," He says. Ginny stays as Blaise and I walk away from him. Blaise looks over my shoulder.

"How's Draco?" He asks.

"Fine I think?" I say slightly confused, "why don't you ask him?" Blaise nods like he finally got something. Like it finally clicked in his brain. "What?"

"Nothing-"

"Alright sit down," Slughorn says. Blaise and I sit down, Harry takes my other side. As everyone sits Slughorn looks over us.

"Well now, this is most pleasant," Slughorn says cozily. "A chance to get to know you all a little better. Here, take a napkin. I've packed my own lunch; the trolley, as I remember it, is heavy on licorice wands, and a poor old man's digestive system isn't quite up to such things... Pheasant, Belby?" Belby accepts what looked like half a cold pheasant. "I was just telling young Marcus here that I had the pleasure of teaching his Uncle Damocles," Slughorn tells us now passing around a basket of rolls. "Outstanding wizard, outstanding, and his Order of Merlin most well-deserved. Do you see much of your uncle, Marcus?" Unfortunately, Belby had just taken a large mouthful of pheasant; in his haste to answer Slughorn he swallowed too fast, turned purple, and began to choke.

"Disgusting," I scoff as I pull a roll onto my plate. Wanting the actual food over the candy.

"Anapneo," Slughorn says calmly, pointing his wand at Belby, whose airway seemed to clear at once.

"Not... not much of him, no," Belby gasps his eyes streaming.

"Well, of course, I daresay he's busy," Slughorn says looking questioningly at Belby. "I doubt he invented the Wolfsbane Potion without considerable hard work!"

"I suppose..." Belby says who seemed afraid to take another bite of pheasant until he was sure that Slughorn had finished with him. I look ok to Blaise who just rolls his eyes. "Er... he and my dad don't get on very well, you see, so I don't really know much about..." His voice trails away as Slughorn gave him a cold smile and turns to McLaggen instead.

"Now, you, Cormac," Slughorn says , "I happen to know you see a lot of your Uncle Tiberius, because he has a rather splendid picture of the two of you hunting nogtails in, I think, Norfolk?"

"Oh, yeah, that was fun, that was," McLaggen says, "We went with Bertie Higgs and Rufus Scrimgeour—this was before he became Minister, obviously—"

"Ah, you know Bertie and Rufus too?" beams Slughorn, now offering around a small tray of pies; somehow, Belby was missed out. "Now tell me..." it clicks with that action. He was collecting every student with a famous name or connection that he could use. Except Ginny. After McLaggen, Blaise spoke about his mother and her multiple dead husbands. Then he looks to me.

"You're parents Miss Cultven were quite the pair," Slughorn says as I pick at the bread.

"From what I've heard they were," I say to him.

"I taught them both. You're mother was gifted in potions, you're father needed to put in more work But was still great. I got him his job at the ministry did you know?" Slughorn says.

"He mentioned how amazing a teacher your were sometime ago," I say not really wanting to talk about my parents in front of anyone.

"And you're hair- I mean you read about how wild the purple tones are and how the curse affected you but when you see it- its spectacular," Slughorn exclaims. I anxiously tuck my hair behind my ear. Wanting him to move on. "You were quite lucky. And to have a mother like yours to sacrifice herself to hunt that man down- And your father was a great man."

"Yeah," I say to him.

"And your Aunt Anna May She was a great auror," He says.

"Yeah too bad she died last May," I sigh the looks around him urged him to move on from my dead family.

"So Mr. Longbottom-" He says moving on. Forcing Neville to retell the tale of his parents. After all that awkwardness he looks to Harry.

"And now," Slughorn says, shifting massively in his seat with the air of a compere introducing his star act. "Harry Potter! Where to begin? I feel I barely scratched the surface when we met over the summer!" He contemplates Harry for a moment as though he was a particularly large and succulent piece of pheasant, then says, "'The Chosen One,' they're calling you now!" I look to see the men at the table glaring at Harry. Even Blaise. I lean over to Blaise and whisper in his ear.

"Stand down Harry didn't chose this," I plead. He sighs and looks to a book on his lap.

"Of course," Slughorn says watching Harry closely, "there have been rumours for years... I remember when—well—after that terrible night—Lily—James—and you survived—and the word was that you must have powers beyond the ordinary—" Blaise coughs skeptically and I smack his arm.

"Yeah, Zabini, because you're so talented... at posing..." Ginny snaps.

"Oh dear!" chuckles Slughorn comfortably, looking around at Ginny, who was glaring at Zabini around Slughorn's great belly. "You want to be careful, Blaise! I saw this young lady perform the most marvelous Bat-Bogey Hex as I was passing her carriage! I wouldn't cross her!"

"I wouldn't," I chuckle, "Ginny is fierce."

"Anyway," Slughorn says turning back to Harry. "Such rumors this summer. Of course, one doesn't know what to believe, the Prophet has been known to print inaccuracies, make mistakes—but there seems little doubt, given the number of witnesses, that there was quite a disturbance at the Ministry and that you were there in the thick of it all!"

"Well actually," I but it, "Neville, Ginny, and I were there too."

"Oh really?" Slughorn asks. I nod.

"That's right," Harry says, "I couldn't of done it all without them."

"We never heard a prophecy," Neville says turning geranium pink as he said it.

"That's right," Ginny says staunchly. "Neville Y/n, and I were both there too, and all this 'Chosen One' rubbish is just the Prophet making things up as usual."

"You were all there were you?"  Slughorn asks with great interest, looking from Ginny to Neville to Harry and I, but all of us sit clamlike before his encouraging smile. "Yes... well... it is true that the Prophet often exaggerates, of course..." Slughorn says, sounding a little disappointed. "I remember dear Gwenog telling me (Gwenog Jones, I mean, of course, Captain of the Holyhead Harpies)—" I follow Blaise and pull my book onto my lap. Not really wanting to listen to him I read over my Magical Creatures book. Slowly the conversation went to the past members of his "Slug Club." Soon the setting sun signals our leave.

"Good gracious, it's getting dark already! I didn't notice that they'd lit the lamps! You'd better go and change into your robes, all of you. McLaggen, you must drop by and borrow that book on nogtails. Harry, Y/n, Blaise—any time you're passing. Same goes for you, miss," he twinkles at Ginny. "Well, off you go, off you go!" As he sets off I look between Blaise and Harry who were glaring at each other once again.

"Let's go Blaise," I say waving him along with me to the compartment where Draco was. Behind us I could hear Harry, Neville , and Ginny. But my attention was on. Blaise mumbling beside me.

"The issue is that their parents were arrested," Blaise says, "so you're not a very likeable person in Slytherin right now."

"I know but they have to understand I was doing it for the greater good-"

"They think you're on the wrong side," Blaise says, "you're nothing more than a blood traitor parading around under a false level of being the good one."

"I'm trying to keep everyone alive," I scoff, "stupid ass death eaters."

"If they had a brain they would be on the sensible side," Blaise says as we turn and to compartment. I get in first but Blaise looks at the stuck door.

What's wrong with this thing?" Blaise asks angrily as he smashes the sliding door repeatedly. The door swings open and Blaise falls back onto Goyle's lap. Goyle pushes him to the ground.

"Are you okay?" I ask stepping towards him helping him off the ground.

"I'm fine," he hisses looking at Goyle. Both boys snarling at each other.

"Knock it off," I say to Blaise who looks back at me and sighs. Before taking his seat. I sit down beside Draco as he pulls me closer to him.

"Hello love," Draco says before his kisses my check. I lace my fingers around his as the others settle around us.  "You were gone a while."

"I know," I sighs.

"So, what did Slughorn want?" Draco asks us.

"Just trying to make up to well-connected people," Blaise says, still glowering at Goyle. "Not that he managed to find many."

"No ones connections panned out the way he thought they would," I say. Pansy, Crabbe, And Goyle watching Blaise and I carefully.

"Who else had he invited?" Draco demands.

"McLaggen from Gryffindor," Blaise says.

"Oh yeah, his uncle's big in the Ministry," Draco says.

"-someone else called Belby, from Ravenclaw—"

"Not him, he's a prat!" Pansy says.

"Why because he won't sleep with you?" I say harshly.

"—and Longbottom, Potter, and that Weasley girl," Blaise finishes. Draco sits up suddenly almost breaking away from me.

"He invited Longbottom?"

"Well, I assume so, as Longbottom was there," Blaise says indifferently.

"What's Longbottom got to interest Slughorn?"

"Neville's parents were big in the wizarding world. You don't give him as much credit as he deserves," I say as I trace along Draco's hand in an attempt to calm him back down.

"Potter, precious Potter, obviously he wanted a look at 'the Chosen One,'" Draco sneers, "but that Weasley girl! What's so special about her?"

"A lot of boys like her," Pansy says watching Draco out of the corner of her eyes for his reaction. "Even you think she's good-looking, don't you, Blaise, and we all know how hard you are to please!"

"I think she's hot," I say simply as Draco sinks down to lay his head in my lap. But freezes at my words. "What?"

"Nothing," he says. Blaise smirks at me. I run my fingers through Draco's blond locks.

"Well, I pity Slughorn's taste. Maybe he's going a bit senile. Shame, my father always said he was a good wizard in his day. My father used to be a bit of a favorite of his. Slughorn probably hasn't heard I'm on the train, or—"

"I wouldn't bank on an invitation," Blaise says. "He asked me about Nott's father when we first arrived.-"

"He did?" I ask. He nods.

"You were reading," Blaise says, "anyways- They used to be old friends, apparently, but when he heard he'd been caught at the Ministry he didn't look happy, and Nott didn't get an invitation, did he? I don't think Slughorn's interested in the- children on death eaters." I look to Blaise then Draco.

"Well, who cares what he's interested in? What is he, when you come down to it? Just some stupid teacher." Draco yawns ostentatiously. "I mean, I might not even be at Hogwarts next year, what's it matter to me if some fat old has-been likes me or not?"

"What do you mean, you might not be at Hogwarts next year?" Pansy asks indignantly, and I stop messing with his hair.

"I'd like to know to," I say sounding harsh but worried.

"Well, you never know," Draco says with the ghost of a smirk. "I might have—er—moved on to bigger and better things."

"Like?" I ask. I could see them all look at us.

"A different school. A job maybe," Draco says, "then again my all NEWT girlfriend would understand."

"Oh shut it," I say shoving him, "this isn't about me."

"What did you get on your OWLS?" Blaise asks.

"All Outstandings losers," I chuckle, "Better than Hermione even."

"Merlin," Blaise says, "well done."

"Isn't she amazing," Draco says happily, "and she's even got a new shiny badge. Quidditch Captain!"

"Yep," I say happily, "now you better be ready to work because my team will run better than I've ever seen. And I'm over the brawn not skill thing."

"Finally a team that's actually good," Blaise says, "maybe I'll even try out."

"Please," I say, "I'm planning to completely redo all of the spots." I eye Goyle and Crabbe hoping they would understand I'm going to cut them both the first chance I get.

"I'm so proud of you love," Draco says. I lean down to kiss him quickly before waving him off me.

"I'm going to go get my robes on," I say to him, "I'll meet you in the great hall?"

"Of course," He says sitting up. I stand and rush off from the compartment to the bathrooms. Leaving behind Draco and others, especially someone I couldn't see. Up to trouble again is he?