A couple sat in the waiting room of a small clinic on the second floor of St. Mungo’s. The woman was gripping the man’s hand, her face pale and her eyes swimming with tears. He was staring straight ahead, seemingly lost his own world. Well-worn creases could be seen on his forehead, and though he was only in his late thirties he looked considerably older and positively ancient next to his wife, who was five years his junior and looked even more so.

The tense silence was broken by the opening of a door. A young curly-haired witch emerged and smiled at the couple. â€�“Mr and Mrs Radley, would you like to come back in?”

They both stood and the woman made a concerted effort to straighten her shoulders and adopt a more neutral expression. They followed the woman into a large room where another, somewhat older woman sat talking to a young boy. As soon as he saw the couple the boy grinned and ran over to them.

â€�“Mummy, Daddy, Healer Catherine has been showing me special spells. She even let me wave her wand a little bit.”

Mrs Radley’s eyes lit up for the briefest of moments until the child continued. â€�“Nothing happened, but it was so much fun. I want a wand of my own!”

Those words made Theia’s heart sink. An eight-year-old boy waving a wand about would usually have done something. She remembered the day their older son, Adrian, had found Edward’s wand and had managed to transform the garden into a sea of multi-coloured grass. He had only been six at the time. They’d been a lot more careful with their wands since then.

â€�“Well, darling, you know you’ve got to be a little older before you can get a wand of your own. I hope you said thank you to the Healer for letting you play.”

â€�“Thank you, Healer Catherine,” the boy mumbled, suddenly shy at his mother’s reproach.

â€�“It was no problem at all,” the Healer replied, smiling at him. â€�“Now, if it’s all right with you, Becky here is going to take you through to the other room and find some more things for you to do, while I have a little chat with your parents.”

â€�“Come on Samuel,” the younger woman said, holding out her hand. â€�“I do believe I saw a train set in the other room. Perhaps we can make it go round the track.”

Samuel stood up quickly. Though he sometimes tried to act older than he was, he couldn’t resist the lure of a train set.

Once the door was firmly closed behind the pair of them, Catherine instantly became serious. â€�“Mr and Mrs Radley, as discussed we have spent the last sixty minutes running various tests on Samuel to establish his magical ability. As you may have just gathered from your brief conversation with him, the results have unfortunately not shown what we would have liked. It would seem that Samuel does not possess magical ability.”

â€�“You mean he’s a squib,” replied Theia flatly.

The Healer’s face was all she needed for confirmation.

â€�“So what happens now?” asked Edward, speaking for the first time.

â€�“Well, there are several options. You can choose to integrate him in the Muggle world and send him to their schools so that he can find work alongside other Muggles.”

â€�“No,” Theia said sharply. â€�“We won’t be doing that. We are still a wizarding family.”

â€�“Yes, of course.” Catherine did her best not to frown at this outburst. â€�“It is of course possible to continue to raise Samuel as a wizarding child. He will not be able to go to Hogwarts, but he can learn other things and there certainly are jobs he can do.” She hesitated. It was obvious this family didn’t want to hear about the Muggle options but she wouldn’t be doing her job properly if she didn’t explain the situation fully to them. â€�“The only problem with wizarding careers for a person without magical ability is that there is only so far Samuel will ever be able to advance. If he joined the Muggle world, he could do anything. In the wizarding world, there will always be people who don’t want to give him a chance. It won’t always be easy for him.”

â€�“We will support him,” Theia said certainly. â€�“It won’t matter if he cannot earn money. We will make sure he knows the value of who he is.”

â€�“Do you know whether there is still a likelihood of him having magical children?” asked Edward.

â€�“All the evidence thus far is that yes, those from wizarding families but without magical ability can still pass magic to their children, though it is of course beneficial if they marry someone else with magical ability.”

A look of relief passed over both parents’ faces. Catherine couldn’t help but feel a little sad. She wondered what would become of Samuel. Would he simply be a blip on the Radley family tree - made to live a miserable life in a world in which he would never quite fit just so that they could be sure he would marry a witch and produce wizarding children? Perhaps she wasn’t being fair on the Radleys. They obviously loved their son. But she had seen far too many cases like this and they hardly ever ended well.

â€�“Is there anything else we need to do now?”

â€�“No. I would be happy to talk to Samuel about this if you like, or you can explain it to him yourselves. He is likely to find it confusing at first and he will of course be upset. It’s especially difficult that we don’t really have any answers for why some children are born without magical ability so there is no explanation you can really give him.”

â€�“We’ll tell him ourselves,” replied Edward. â€�“That is our responsibility.”

Catherine nodded. â€�“If you do have any problems or issues you wish to discuss, you can make an appointment to with me at any time.”

She pressed a button her desk and after a few moments Becky and Samuel returned.

â€�“Do we have to leave, Mummy?”

In spite of the news they had just learnt, Theia’s face still softened at the sight of her son. â€�“I’m afraid so, darling. The Healer has other people to see.”

â€�“Goodbye, Samuel. Be a good boy for Mummy and Daddy, won’t you?”

Samuel nodded. â€�“Bye!” he said to both Becky and Catherine, before grabbing Theia’s hand. Edward took her other and the three of them left the room together. A new family was sitting in the waiting room. From the confused and slightly terrified looks on parents’ faces, as well as their attire, it was painfully obvious that these were Muggles. A young boy, around the same age as Samuel, sat between them, gazing around in wonder. Theia narrowed her eyes at them. Seeing this, Edward gripped her hand tighter. â€�“Come on,” he murmured.

As soon as they were out of earshot, she rounded on her husband. â€�“How is it fair?” she hissed. â€�“Those people, who know nothing of what it takes to survive in the wizarding world, who have done none of the work we have done to maintain our position, get to have a magical child, while poor Samuel has to suffer. They will never be able to give their child what we could have given ours. How does it happen?”

Aware that Samuel was still nearby, though had fortunately wandered further down the corridor when his parents stopped, Edward could only say, â€�“I know, love.” There were no words that could have made this better for either of them. They were just going to have to learn to live with it. Somehow.

When they arrived home fifteen minutes later, Samuel instantly ran off to continue the game he had been playing that morning before they’d left for the hospital. Theia sank into the sofa and closed her eyes. She was shaken by her outburst at the hospital. She had never really understood Muggle ways and thought that everything was considerably more convenient as a witch, but she had never felt the same hatred that had coursed through her body at the sight of the family in St Mungo’s. The more she thought about it, however, the more is just didn’t seem right. How could a family with no magical blood, no history whatsoever, produce a wizarding child, while the Radleys could not? Surely, it must be the case that there simply wasn’t enough magic to go around. But why would magic choose a Muggle family rather than a pure-blood one? It just didn’t make sense. What had these people done to get for their son what Samuel would never have? How could their claim to magic be stronger than his?

The deeper she sunk into her thoughts, the angrier she became. Samuel would suffer all of his life, she knew, and all she wanted was someone to blame, someone whom she could consider responsible for her son’s misfortune. And at the moment, all she could picture was that family and their child, who was getting to cross from one world to another, while Samuel slipped back the other way.

She could hear voices in the kitchen and so she did her best to drag herself out of her thoughts. It would be Edward, having just returned from picking up Adrian from a friend’s house.

They had decided they would talk to Adrian first. Having just turned eleven years old, he would be starting Hogwarts himself the following September and was full of excitement for his first year. Trying to explain to him that his brother would not be following in his footsteps, therefore dampening his excitement, was horrible, but it was something they would have to deal with as a whole family.

â€�“Adrian, will you come here for a minute,” she called through the kitchen.

A moment later, her older son bounced into the room. He looked so much like his brother, though while Samuel had always been quieter and more reserved, Adrian seemed to simply overflow with energy.

â€�“Did you have a nice time at Dorian’s house?” she asked. Dorian was the son of one of Edward’s friends from the Ministry, who would also be starting September the next year.

â€�“Uh-huh, his Dad took us out with the broomsticks in the huge wood behind their house. Why are we never allowed to fly here?”

â€�“You know why, Adrian. There isn’t enough space in our garden and there are too many people nearby who might see us.”

Adrian pouted. They had this argument every time he came home from Dorian’s. The Whitbread family lived in the countryside, in a large house with plenty of land attached. The Radleys, meanwhile, had to make do with a still spacious but very overlooked house, in the North of England, close to the Scottish border. They lived in a small town, where a handful of other wizarding families had settled, but which was predominantly Muggle. Given that they could easily travel to London or Hogsmeade for their shopping and to see other wizards, this location had proven to be good enough for them. It was, anyway, all they could afford.

â€�“Adrian, we have something we need to talk to you about. Why don’t you sit down?”

Perhaps it was the worn look on her face, but something told him that now he needed to be quiet for once. He sat on one of the squidgy arm chairs and looked at her expectantly.

â€�“We took Samuel to see a Healer this morning.”

â€�“Why, is he sick? Is it dragon pox? Don’t let him touch my things if he’s sick!”

â€�“No, it’s nothing like that. You can’t catch anything from him. But the thing is, the Healer says that Samuel isn’t going to be able to use magic.”

â€�“Does that mean he’s not a wizard?”

â€�“He is definitely a wizard,” Theia replied. â€�“Just like your Dad and I, and you. He will always be one of us. But unfortunately, he just doesn’t have any magic.”

â€�“But why?”

Theia hesitated. â€�“We don’t know, darling. Perhaps there just isn’t enough magic for everyone to have some.”

Adrian had heard of Squibs of course, but he couldn’t really understand how his brother could not have magic. And his mum said he was still a wizard, so what did that mean? All he knew was that this was not going to be good for Samuel or for his family. His brother wouldn’t be joining him at Hogwarts, wouldn’t be buying his first wand or experiencing the thrill of casting his first spell.

He felt angry. It was so unfair! Hadn’t Mum always said that the Radleys had been wizards for generations? Dad had once shown him a copy of the family tree and told him that while they weren’t as old as others, they were still a powerful magical family who were sure to achieve great things. But without magic, Samuel was not likely to do those things. And there had to be a reason for it, Adrian was sure. These things didn’t just happen, not without any explanation. No matter what anyone said, he knew that Samuel was a Radley and could have been a great wizard. If he didn’t have magic, it wasn’t just a weird accident - it was someone’s fault.

â€�“Mum, we’re going to be late!” Adrian shouted up the stairs. â€�“We’re always late,” he muttered under his breath.

Samuel came through from the kitchen, munching on a piece of toast. â€�“She’ll be getting stressed about the station,” he said, looking worried. â€�“I don’t have to come.”

â€�“Don’t be stupid,” Adrian replied, ruffling his brother’s hair. â€�“You want to come don’t you?”

â€�“Yeah, of course. I want to see the trains.”

Adrian laughed. Of course, his train-mad brother was less interested in coming to see him off to school and more in getting to see which of the latest models were at the platforms of King’s Cross. And there was the exciting opportunity of seeing the Hogwarts Express - one of a rare few steam engines left in Britain.

â€�“Don’t bother about Mum, she worries about nothing.” He felt a little bad saying it though, because he knew it wasn’t true. The last few times he had gone back to school had been increasingly awkward, with people staring and muttering at them as they passed. Almost everyone (or as their mother said, all the people that mattered) had heard that Samuel was a squib and even for those who weren’t sure, it would be especially obvious when he didn’t join his brother for what should have been his first year.

â€�“So, when are you heading back to school?” he asked, referring to the specialist Squib Institute Samuel had attended for the past two years.

â€�“Not until next weekend. We obviously don’t need as much training as you lot.”

â€�“You’ve already been there for two extra years! I’d say that makes up for the extra week here and there.”

â€�“Yeah, yeah.”

It was a common conversation between the pair, and completely light-hearted. Most of the time, Samuel seemed unbothered about not having magic, and Adrian found that his attitude helped him not to care either. When they were together, they were just brothers - closer than other boys their age perhaps, but still able to play and have fun like any other pair of siblings. It was only when their parents or other witches and wizards got involved that things became more difficult. Then it seemed to hang over them like the kind of cloud that hovers around all day threatening rain but in the end just drifts away.

â€�“What will you be studying this year?” Adrian asked, curious. While Samuel knew a lot about Hogwarts, Adrian never really felt he’d learnt as much about the school his younger brother attended. He had started there a year or so after it had been confirmed that he was a Squib. It was designed for children from wizarding families who couldn’t use magic but whose parents didn’t want them to enter the Muggle education system. It was a boarding school that accepted students from age eight (the youngest age that a Squib could be conclusively tested by a Healer) to eighteen to teach them how to survive without magic in the wizarding world.

â€�“I’ve got to take all the usual things like Maths, English, Wizarding History, and Administration skills. I swear though, I’m never working in a boring office like Dad no matter how many administration lessons they make me go to. I get to take a few new things now I’m eleven though. I’ve chosen a course in magical engineering. Apparently there’s a lot of work that kind of work that can be done without magic. And it would be more interesting than working in a shop.” He wrinkled his nose at the thought.

â€�“You’re far too clever to ever work in a shop,” Adrian said, feeling his usual frustration that cropped up every time they spoke about the future. The kind of jobs Samuel and the other Squibs were taught to aim for were not the sort of things he should be doing, especially not when he was as clever as he was, having inherited his father’s Ravenclaw brains.

â€�“Do you have everything you need, Adrian?” Theia’s smooth voice rippled down the stairs.

â€�“Yes, Mum. I’ve been standing here with my trunk for half an hour!”

â€�“Don’t talk to your mother like that, she was only asking,” reproved Edward, following his wife down. â€�“I’m afraid I’m not going to be able to come with you today, Adrian. I have to go to work. Your mother will take you via side-along Apparation. Both of you hold on to her hand and do exactly as she says, okay?”

â€�“Yes, Dad,” both boys mumbled in reply. Edward gave his son a quick hug and then left.

â€�“We’d better be off too,” said Theia, attempting to sound bright. â€�“Now with two of you and one of me, I’m going to Apparate both of you there, and then you must stay exactly where you are while I come back for the trunk. Did Lars ever come back from Dorian’s, Adrian?”

â€�“No, he’ll probably go straight to Hogwarts now,” Adrian replied, referring to his recently purchased Tawny Owl.

Ten minutes later they were all safely at King’s Cross station. Samuel was already eying up one of the new Virgin trains that was sitting waiting for its passengers. Their mother pursed her lips in disapproval. â€�“Come on, Samuel,” she said sharply. â€�“We haven’t got time for this silly train nonsense today. Besides, I can’t see what the fascination is with them - they’re just Muggle trains.”

Once, Samuel might have been hurt by these comments but he had grown so used to his mother’s frequent negative remarks directed at anything and everything Muggle, especially the trains he so loved, that it no longer mattered to him. â€�“I’ll race you to the platform,” he said instead, breaking into a sprint as he approached the barrier between nine and ten. Adrian, pushing his trunk on a trolley, broke into a half-hearted run but knew he was never going to win.

Inches from the barrier, however, Samuel suddenly stopped running. It looked like he had hit something but he was not touching the stone of the barrier. He had just halted in mid-air.

Theia and Adrian immediate hurried over. â€�“Are you all right?” she asked.

â€�“I can’t move any further, it’s like the air is stopping me,” Samuel replied, confused.

Theia put a tentative step forward and found she was able to continue. â€�“Don’t worry, I’ll go and fetch someone to help.” She passed through the barrier and returned a few minutes later with a black-robed wizard. Adrian couldn’t place him. He definitely wasn’t in Auror robes, but nor did he look like one of the usual attendants from platform nine and three quarters.

â€�“Perhaps the charm isn’t set up correctly,” he muttered as he waved his wand around the wall of air carefully. â€�“It was only supposed to prevent Muggles.”

â€�“Ah, well.” Suddenly, Theia blushed bright pink. â€�“Samuel here is unfortunately unable to use magic.” She lowered her voice slightly. â€�“He’s a Squib.” The guard started at the word but quickly pulled himself together.

â€�“Well, that would explain it.”

â€�“He’s never had any problems before and he’s been with us on several occasions. We are, after all, one of the older wizarding families.” Her tone had changed from one of embarrassment to indignation. The guard faltered for a minute before continuing, more smoothly than before.

â€�“I do understand, of course. I will make adjustments to allow your son through. The extra protection is a new step we have taken this year to ensure no one of the wrong kind gets through. I’m sure you have heard about the new laws.”

At this, Theia softened. â€�“Well of course they do make it difficult for you.”

â€�“We’d hoped some who haven’t yet registered yet would turn up today and we would be able to speak to them. This charm is supposed to be rigged to an alarm but it obviously hasn’t worked too well.”

â€�“Mum,” Adrian interrupted suddenly, â€�“we’re going to miss the train!”

â€�“Oh goodness yes!”

The guard waved his wand and Samuel was able to pass through the invisible barrier and on to the platform with Theia and Adrian.

Adrian need not have worried. Half the luggage still seemed not to have been loaded on to the train and there were guards everywhere, checking names on lists and cross-checking wands and identities. Adrian spotted his best friend Dorian and his mother a little distance away and immediately headed over to them.

â€�“Such a pain,” Mrs Whitbread said to Theia. â€�“But necessary I suppose in order to weed out those unfit to be here. I’ve seen the recent news in the Prophet,” she said, quickly glancing at Samuel and lowering her voice. â€�“It really is about time they were doing something about this. There are so many of these so called Muggleborns in the country now - it really is getting out of hand. And yet the number of non-magical wizards seems to rise every year. How many in Samuel’s year, did you say?”

â€�“Eighteen,” Theia replied. â€�“I agree. I can’t tell you how pleased we are to see the Ministry acting on this problem. Who knows, it may be that during the course of their investigation they establish exactly how these people are obtaining their magic and why it is that so many wizarding children are being born without it. There might even be some way to reverse the process.”

Dorian looked over at Adrian and rolled his eyes at their mothers’ conversation but Adrian had been listening carefully. He knew about the new laws, of course, and he was as happy with his parents that after years of being ignored someone was trying to get justice for Squibs, but he’d never heard anyone talk of reversing the process before. Was there really a possibility that Samuel could use magic after all?

â€�“Come on, Ade, let’s leave these two to it and get on the train,” Dorian said impatiently, clearly not interested in the Muggleborn conversation.

Adrian gave his mum an awkward hug and said goodbye to Samuel. â€�“Enjoy the engineering,” he said and Samuel grinned.

â€�“I will. You enjoy all the boring wand-waving.”

Adrian and Dorian headed for the train. Adrian noticed the usual stares following them but there seem to be considerably more sympathy in the looks than usual. â€�“Samuel really doesn’t seem to care about not being a wizard, does he?” Dorian remarked. â€�“I can’t imagine knowing it was the year I was supposed to start Hogwarts and not being able to go.”

Adrian shrugged. â€�“That’s just Samuel. He doesn’t ever seem to get worked up about anything. He must care a little bit though.”

Before they could get on the train, their names were checked off against a list. Adrian suddenly became aware of some sort of commotion further down the train. An older boy - a Gryffindor, he thought - was arguing with the guard at the train.

â€�“I’ve given you my name,” he was saying. â€�“But you’re not touching my wand. Just let me on the train!” A red-headed girl stood next to him, her arms folded. The guard looked like he was about to say something else, when a blonde girl wandered over to join them and put her hand on the Gryffindor’s arm. She said something quietly to the boy and he relaxed his shoulders. Sensing there wasn’t going to be anymore fighting, the guard waved them all on.

Dorian raised his eyebrows. â€�“Things are a little different this year, eh?” he said.

They quickly found a couple of other friends on the train. For the most part, the journey was no different to usual. There were a few comments about the changes at the station but in general the conversation was about their O.W.L courses and how much homework McGonagall would give them in her first lesson. Adrian relaxed. He enjoyed going back to school after the long holidays, even if it meant starting work again. He was thinking of trying for the Quidditch team this year. He had been flying since he was young an could reach decent speeds as a Chaser. They had a strong house team but a couple of seventh years had left the year before and Adrian was hoping he could take one of their spots.

Mid-way through the journey, the food trolley came round and they gorged themselves on chocolate and sweets. The hassle at King’s Cross was long forgotten and everyone in the carriage was feeling settled and ready for the year ahead.

***

Many hours later, dinner was over and Adrian, Dorian and their other friends were heading for the common room. They went down a flight of stairs, winded round a few corners and ended up standing by a stack of barrels. The group of first years, who had come down a few seconds behind led by the prefects, looked very confused. Adrian, as the person at the front, stepped forward and began tapping one of the barrels, concentrating hard on the rhythm.

When he finished, the barrels began shifting and rearranging themselves, moving aside to create a space tall and wide enough for a person to pass through.

â€�“Welcome to Hufflepuff,” he said to the first years, a huge smile on his face.

This was home. The bright comfortable common room, with its soft armchairs, crackling fireplace and round windows, was Adrian’s favourite place in all of Hogwarts. The first time he had seen it, when he had arrived at Hogwarts full of nerves, following in the footsteps of neither his Ravenclaw father nor Slytherin Mother, he had felt instantly calmed. And since then, every time he entered the room, no matter how stressed or restless he was, the room seemed to make him feel better.

An older student had once told him that Hufflepuff had a unique ability to make everyone feel welcome. Adrian couldn’t agree more. He had never really been sure where he would fit in at Hogwarts. When he had sat with the Sorting Hat on his head, there had been a long pause before the hat said anything to him, and in that pause, all he had been able to think was, I wish Samuel could be part of this. The hat had latched on to this thought, delving into Adrian’s mind and finding all the strong feelings he had for his family.

â€�“You’re certainly loyal,” the hat had said, â€�“but I don’t think you’d fit into Slytherin. A little bit softer than your mother was. You could be very clever, but I think you hold back, so in that case, I’ll send you to HUFFLEPUFF!”

Slightly dazed, Adrian had joined his new house, followed some minutes later by Dorian, and had never looked back.

As was often the case on the first night, the younger years went to bed early, leaving a scattering of fourth years and above sitting about in the common room. Adrian noticed a couple of seventh years sitting in a corner talking in low voices with their heads close together. He recognised one as Ernie, the house prefect.

â€�“I’ve not heard from him since we left school,” he was saying.

â€�“Me neither. I do hope he got away,” a girl replied. Suddenly she stopped, aware that they were being listened to, and gazed at Adrian coolly. â€�“Can we help you?” she asked.

Adrian flushed with embarrassment. â€�“Sorry,” he muttered, turning back to the conversation of his friends.

â€�“Have you seen how many people are missing?” Rosa was saying. â€�“All the Muggleborns, and a few more besides.”

â€�“Well of course they are,” said Dorian. â€�“This Muggleborn registration committee has been a sham. It’s an excuse to get rid of them. Anyone who turned up was arrested. Anyone who refused has had to go on the run.” He lowered his voice. â€�“I saw Mark in the first week of the holidays. McGonagall came to see his parents and told them to get out of the country. The whole family have just vanished without a trace. Good on them I say.”

Adrian frowned. â€�“But they’ve broken the law,” he said.

â€�“Says who?” This came from Gemma. â€�“How come it’s suddenly against the law to be Muggleborn? How can they help how they were born?”

â€�“They’ve done tests,” Adrian replied. â€�“They said so in the Prophet, and they’ve realised it’s impossible for Muggles to be born with magic. They have to get it from somewhere. They’re stealing it from wizards.”

â€�“You can’t really believe that!” Gemma was incredulous.

â€�“Why not? How else do you explain Muggleborns?”

â€�“Why do they need explaining? Some people are born with magic, some aren’t, it’s just how it works. Surely you should know that.” She gave a little gasp as she finished speaking, as if realising what she’d just said.

â€�“I’m going to bed,” said Adrian abruptly. â€�“But I for one support the Ministry in what they’re doing.”

â€�“Open your eyes, Adrian,” spat Gemma, recovering her voice. â€�“Half the house is missing. Do you really think Mark, our friend, is a criminal and should be locked up in Azkaban? This isn’t about justice for Squibs or whatever you’ve got in your head. Look at what’s happening to Hogwarts. Snape is headmaster - some people say he murdered Dumbledore. And why are we all suddenly having to take Muggle Studies? Something bigger is happening here.”

Adrian didn’t say another word. He simply stormed from the room and up to the dormitory. It was empty - of the fourth year boys, only he and Dorian had returned. As he changed for bed, he couldn’t get Gemma’s words out of his head. Was she right? Was there really something else happening besides enforcing the Muggleborn laws? But no, it couldn’t be. The Radleys had waited three years for someone to do something about the Muggleborn problem, and now that they were, he wasn’t going to let anyone stop him feeling happy for Samuel.

The next morning, the other Hufflepuffs acted coolly towards Adrian. Ever the peace-maker, Dorian did his best to keep things friendly, but Adrian could tell that even he was looking at him differently after the conversation of the evening before. Gemma could barely look at him at all.

He wouldn’t feel bad though. He was still happy that something was being done to protect the Squibs. He thought for a moment about Mark, Jeremy and George - the three boys missing from his dormitory, and he felt a stab of something that might have been guilt. But then he pictured Samuel instead. Samuel was his brother. What was happening to his housemates was a shame, but the Ministry seemed so sure that the magic had been gained illegitimately and if they’d broken the law, it was difficult to feel too sorry for them.

Professor Sprout distributed their timetables during breakfast and the fourth years all seemed to become very engrossed in studying which subjects they had first. Everything had been shuffled about a bit to make room for the new compulsory Muggle Studies class each week. Adrian saw that his wasn’t until Friday morning. That morning he had Ancient Runes followed by Transfiguration. He enjoyed both of these, even though they could be difficult, so he looked forward to being able throw himself into work for the morning.

He was the only Hufflepuff left in his year who was taking Ancient Runes so he headed to the class alone. Professor Babbling wasted no time in setting them a difficult translation. â€�“You’re in your pre-OWL year now - it’s important to learn as much as you can,” she warned. She allowed the students to talk to each other and share ideas, but Adrian preferred to work alone. Last year Mark had been in the class too and they had occasionally helped each other out but now the class was full of Ravenclaws and one or two Gryffindors or Slytherins. He thought briefly about what Adrian had said about Mark and wondered where he was now. But rather than dwell on it he pushed it to the back of his mind and started on the translation. He had always been better than the other Hufflepuff anyway.

Transfiguration passed in a similar manner, though in this class he was with the rest of his housemates. Professor McGonagall had them working from beginning to end, meaning there definitely wasn’t time for talking.

By lunchtime, Adrian felt he had never been away from the school - he was also wondering what everyone had made such a fuss about. Other than the missing students, everything seemed exactly the same. He packed up quickly and arrived at the Great Hall before the others. He sat down in time to see Dorian hesitating for a moment before coming to join him. Obviously, the previous night’s argument was not going to be forgotten easily. Before he could say anything, he heard someone shouting his name from the other end of the table.

â€�“Oy, Radley, come here a minute.” He looked up to see the Quidditch Captain, Ralph Summerby. Shooting an apologetic glance at Dorian he quickly went to join him.

â€�“We’ve got a Chaser spot open this year,” the older boy said when he approached. â€�“I’ve heard you fly well - will you be trying out?”

â€�“I hope so,” Adrian replied, do his best to sound confident.

â€�“Great. I’ve booked the pitch for Thursday at seven. I wanted to make it earlier but the Gryffindors got in before me.” He scowled. Gryffindor had been Quidditch champions for as long as Adrian had been at the school, though there had been no tournament in his first year much to everyone’s disappointment. The other three houses were desperate to beat them, especially Hufflepuff, who hadn’t won the cup in over ten years, as they were constantly reminded.

â€�“I’ll be there.” Summerby nodded and gave a little wave of his hand to show that Adrian was dismissed. Adrian headed back to where Dorian and the other fourth years were sitting.

â€�“What did he want?” Dorian asked, his curiosity overtaking the earlier awkwardness.

â€�“Oh he was asking about try-outs. I think I’m going to give it a go this year.”

â€�“You should. Dad’s always talking about how fast you can go.”

Adrian smiled, enjoying the compliment. He may only ever have been average at most school subjects, but flying was something he could do.

â€�“Perhaps I should ask for a new broom for my birthday,” he remarked, referring to the fact that he would be turning fifteen in a matter of weeks. He knew they were expensive but the Firebolt had been out for at least four seasons now and a series one model could be picked up for a reasonable price.

â€�“Mark probably would have tried out too,” Gemma remarked suddenly. Adrian felt a funny flip in his stomach as his former housemate entered his mind for the third time that day. What was going on? Surely it couldn’t be guilt. He had nothing to feel guilty for. He simply shrugged at Gemma’s comment, not really sure how else to respond.

After an afternoon and dinner of awkward silences and working alone, Adrian was finally back in the common room to relax for the evening. The classes may have been tough but at least they hadn’t been set any homework yet so he didn’t have anything to worry about.

Conversation was slow to get going among their group. Eventually Dorian let out an exasperated sigh. â€�“How long is this going to keep up? Can’t we all just remember that we’re friends?”

â€�“That depends,” said Gemma, â€�“on whether Adrian thinks he’s wrong or not.”

All eyes turned to Adrian and for a minute he almost considered lying and pretending everything was fine but he simply couldn’t do it.

â€�“I’m not going to pretend I don’t agree with the Ministry because I do,” he said instead. â€�“And frankly, I thought you’d all be a little bit more supportive. You know what my family has been through.”

â€�“At least they’re not in Azkaban,” came the response.

â€�“No, but Samuel doesn’t get to be here either. He’s got generations of magic behind him. How can you tell me that he didn’t deserve a place here more than Mark or any of the others?”

Gemma looked at him in disgust. â€�“You’re as bad as the Slytherins. Perhaps you should go join them in the dungeons so that you can be among your own kind.” The final words were delivered with a venom he didn’t even know the girl was capable of and it shook him for a moment. Before he could collect his thoughts to reply, she stood up. â€�“Come on,” she said, looking towards the others. Rosa immediately got up to follow but Dorian hesitated.

â€�“Gemma, can’t we-” he started before being cut off.

â€�“No, Dorian, I’m not spending one more minute with this git who thinks that what’s happening to our friends is right. You said for yourself that you’d seen Mark and how awful it was. You can’t agree with Adrian?”

â€�“No, but I-”

â€�“Look, you’re either on our side or his. You can’t be on the middle with this one.”

Dorian continued to hesitate but Adrian could see from the look in his eyes which side he was on. â€�“It’s fine,” he muttered. â€�“Go with them. I don’t want friends who won’t support me anyway.”

And with that, his three friends left him. They didn’t go far - it was hard to escape in the common room - but it was enough to make Adrian realise that it was the only the second night of term and already he was completely alone.

***

It turned out to be the beginning of a long week. Adrian went to classes and worked hard. At mealtimes he sat on his own, concentrating on his food. He began to feel grateful when the teachers set large amounts of homework because it gave him an excuse to sit in the corner of the common room surrounded by books and not talking to anyone. He even started going to the library occasionally, something he had rarely done before. A couple of fifth years remarked that they had never worked so hard when they were fourth years, but it was pretty obvious to most that he was only on his own because he had to be. A couple of the other girls in his year, who weren’t part of his usual group, made occasional conversation but they had never really known each other well and it was awkward.

By the time Thursday and the Quidditch try-outs rolled around, Adrian was desperate to get out on his broomstick. He arrived at the pitch early, just in time to see the Gryffindors finishing up. The red-headed girl Adrian had seen at platform nine and three-quarters was leading them. He vaguely recognised her from the previous year when he had seen her with Harry Potter’s arm round her waist. Harry Potter was one of the many who hadn’t returned to school that year, though not because he was a Muggleborn. According to the Prophet, he was wanted for questioning over the murder of Dumbledore. This was something Adrian was confused about. At the time, everyone had seemed to say it was Snape, but now Snape was at Hogwarts as headmaster - surely that wouldn’t have been allowed if he’d murdered his predecessor. Perhaps Potter had been responsible after all.

He hung back from the pitch, not wanting to look like he was spying, until the team had finished. From his brief glance they had seemed less polished than the previous year. He wondered how many of their players were missing.

Summerby arrived just as the Gryffindors were finishing. He looked at his watch impatiently. â€�“They’re always pushing beyond their time. Come on, let’s get out there.” He led the small group of Hufflepuffs onto the pitch, glaring at the other team.

â€�“Hurry up, Weasley,” he called over. â€�“We haven’t got all day.”

â€�“Keep your hairpiece on Summerby,” the girl replied. â€�“We’re on our way out anyway. We know you lot need the practice.” A couple of the Gryffindors laughed and Summerby went so red he looked like he might explode.

â€�“Right, you lot, in the air,” he snapped at the group of try-outs, ignoring the Gryffindors completely while they trudged off. Adrian immediately mounted his broom and kicked off the ground. He soared into the sky and followed the others round a quick circuit to warm-up before returning to the centre where the existing team was gathered.

â€�“Right, this is simple enough. I’m going to try out each position separately. We only have spaces for a Beater and a Chaser, so if you’ve come here for anything else then I’m sorry but you’re going to be disappointed. We are looking for some reserves though so you may as well stick around.

â€�“Beaters, you’re up first. Chasers, you can watch from the stands.”

Adrian watched while the Beaters were put through their paces. He also spent some time studying the others trying out for the Chaser position. There were a couple of third years that he felt sure he’d beat, and then a fifth year boy who he recognised as having tried out last year and failed. The person he thought would be the biggest threat was a sixth year girl. He wondered why she hadn’t tried out before. She was thin and wiry, the perfect build for a Chaser. She looked nervous though and he wondered if it might affect her performance.

â€�“Okay, Chasers, it’s your turn,” Summerby called from the air after half an hour or so. The light had faded and the pitch was now lit by lighting charms. Adrian quickly got back on his broom and stretched out his limbs, stiff after half an hour on the wooden spectator benches.

â€�“First off, we want you to do some laps so we can see your speed and agility,” Summerby explained. â€�“Then we’re going to put you in formation with Smith and Cadwallader and see how well you can work with them on passing and scoring. Any questions? No, off you go then.”

Adrian shot off as quickly as he could. He knew this was his biggest chance to impress. He focused on staying low on his broom to gain momentum, careful to take his corners tight without having to slow down too much. The others couldn’t keep up with him, especially the third years, who looked out of breath after just one lap. Adrian had flown for hours at a time when he could so he didn’t get tired easily.

After five laps, during which Adrian held on to his lead, they were called back into the middle. The two third years were called first, one at a time to practice formations with the other two. They didn’t last long however and after a few minutes Summerby called them a halt. â€�“You both flew well,” he said, â€�“but you’re not quite ready for the team yet. Try again next year.”

The younger students looked disappointed but not surprised. Adrian was surprised at how nice the Captain had been to them. He had thought him rather hard before.

The fifth year followed and was met with a similar response, though Summerby invited him to go back for training as one of the reserves. He flew back towards the castle, looking disappointed but relieved that it was over.

â€�“Radley, you’re up,” Summerby said suddenly, taking Adrian by surprise. He quickly darted forward to join Smith and Cadwallader in formation.

â€�“Right, this is simple enough,” Cadwallader said. We’re going to fly in a straight line, one heading for each hoop. Lewis, our Beater, will be sending Bludgers our way so keep an eye out but always try and get back in line. Pass the Quaffle quickly from player to player so the Keeper doesn’t get an idea of where we’re going to shoot from. As soon as we’re in shooting range, whoever has the Quaffle makes one last pass and the next one goes for the goal, preferably for the ring ahead of them but diagonally if you have to. No hogging the Quaffle! It’s more about scoring than who scores, and refusing to pass because you want the goal isn’t going to get you a place on the team. Got it?”

Adrian nodded, feeling suddenly nervous. He did his best to focus his energy though and got into formation. He kept up well with the other two, keeping an eye out for the Bludgers and dipping and swerving when he had to, while also making sure he always knew where the other Chasers were. His passes weren’t as smooth as they could be but he caught every throw, even when he had to swing off to the side to catch a Quaffle that had veered off course. A few metres out from the goals, Smith passed to Cadwallader, who threw it on to Adrian with a shout of, â€�“Shoot!”

This was his moment. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Keeper turning, lightning fast, to guard the ring directly ahead of him. Without missing a beat, he shifted his aim diagonally, all the while keeping his broom pointing straight forward. He put all his power into the throwing the Quaffle and watched as it soared away from him and then, to his horror, over the ring.

He had missed only by centimetres but it was enough. He had failed at the most important part. All the speed and agility in the world wouldn’t make up for a Chaser who couldn’t score those all important points.

He headed back to the centre. The disappointment was obvious on Summerby’s face, but rather than dismiss him, he gestured for him to wait while the older girl took her turn.

She flew in the exact same formation, and though her flying was a little timid, it was good. Adrian’s heart sunk further. Then, halfway down to the goal, Smith threw her the Quaffle and instead of landing safely in her hand, she fumbled and it dropped.

For a split-second she just stared dumbly at the Quaffle as it fell, and her late reaction cost her. By the time she had spurred in to action to dive and get it, Cadwallader was already there, grabbing it from the sky beneath her. He threw it upwards and she caught it this time, but the damage was done. Adrian could have cheered. He suddenly felt as though he had been given one more chance.

They regained formation and resumed their speed towards the goal. As with Adrian’s turn, she was thrown the Quaffle just as they reached a scoring distance from the goals. However, unlike Adrian, her throw took the Quaffle straight through the centre ring. She punched the air in happiness as she flew back to them.

Adrian had no idea what to think now but he couldn’t help but feel that scoring the goal when he hadn’t would be a huge mark in the girl’s favour. They all descended to earth and the two of them were left standing on the pitch while the team went into a huddle. After a couple of minutes, Summerby beckoned them back over.

â€�“You’re both good players,” he started. â€�“And there are strengths we could take from both of you. Radley, you fly well, really well, but you have to be able to score every single time. You can’t afford to miss out on the points.” Adrian nodded glumly.

â€�“Lockley, your shooting was excellent and you’ve got some good flying technique there too, but it needs a bit of polishing. You’ve also got to work on your reactions. It’s a quick game and you had a few near Bludger misses as well as the incident with the dropped Quaffle. It’s no use being able to score if you lose the Quaffle to the other team before you can reach the goal.

â€�“It wasn’t easy, but we’ve come to a decision.” Adrian thought he might be sick. After Summerby’s comments, he didn’t really know what to expect.

â€�“Radley, you’re on the team. But we expect to see you here practising your shots. Lockley, you’re a reserve. Train hard and you’ll make the team next year. You’ll also have to play if Radley is unavailable.”

Adrian’s face had broken into a huge grin. He couldn’t believe he’d actually made the team. He’d expected to be told to try again next year but they’d just taken him as a first team player.

He changed as quickly as he could, the smile never leaving his face, and headed back to the castle, making it well in time for curfew. He couldn’t wait to tell Dorian and the others and he could just imagine their reaction when they found out. Except - suddenly he stopped. He couldn’t tell Dorian and the others because none of them were speaking to him. In his excitement he had forgotten the argument and the fact that there was no one waiting for him in the common room. It was the happiest day of his school life, and he didn’t have a single person to share it with. His pace slowed, his grin faded and he headed back to common room feeling suddenly unenthusiastic and wishing he had stretched the journey out longer.

It was going to be a long year.

Adrian couldn’t fall asleep that night. He was still buzzing from the success of his try-out, and not having anyone to share the excitement with meant it was still pent up inside him. He went to bed at eleven, but when he had been lying there for well over an hour and sleep still seemed far away, he decided to get up again. Sitting up in bed, he whispered a spell and his wand lit up. He thought about writing to Samuel to tell him his news - he would understand how important it was.

Using just his wand light to guide him, he began scrabbling about in his trunk, trying to find some spare parchment and a quill. Once he had hold of both, as well as a book to lean on, he sat back up in bed and began writing

Dear Samuel,

This letter probably won’t reach you until you’re back at school, but I’ll make sure Lars knows how to find you.

Guess what? I made the Quidditch team! It was between me and another girl and even though I missed the goal, they still took me as a first team player! I’ve got a lot of practice to do though. Maybe you’ll be able to come and watch one of the matches some time. I think they let family come when it’s the final at the end of the year.

School is going -

He hesitated. How was school going? All the time he had to himself meant he was doing well in classes but in truth, it was probably the worst first week of term he had had since he’d been at Hogwarts. He’d never realised how much difference having friends at school made. Still, there was no point in bothering Samuel with all this.

- well. I’ve already got a lot of work though. McGonagall never lets up! I nearly fell asleep in History of Magic yesterday - I hope your history teacher is more interesting than stuffy old Binns.

Suddenly a voice broke through the silence in the dormitory.

â€�“What are you doing?”

Dorian was whispering even though they were the only two in the room.

â€�“Sorry,” Adrian replied, also whispering. â€�“I couldn’t sleep so I’m writing a letter. I can go to the common room.”

â€�“No, that’s okay.”

There was a pause and then Dorian spoke again. â€�“How did you get on today?”

Adrian couldn’t help grinning in spite of himself. â€�“I made the team,” he replied, unable to keep the pride out his voice.

â€�“Well done. I knew you would.” Dorian sounded genuinely happy for him.

There was another pause. Adrian desperately wanted to apologise, to make everything all right between them again. But he knew that no matter what was said here in the middle of the night, by the morning nothing would have changed. The disagreement was just too deep.

â€�“Well,” he whispered at last. â€�“I think I’ll sleep now. I can finish this tomorrow. Night.”

â€�“Night,” Dorian replied, and silence returned to the dormitory once more. Adrian dropped his quill, parchment and book to the side of his bed and lay back down. He still wasn’t even remotely tired and it took a long time until he heard the deep regulated breathing of his friend. It seemed so stupid that they were both lying there unable to speak, but unwilling to talk to each other either.

At some point he must have fallen asleep, because the next thing he knew it was 7:30 and his alarm was waking him up. Dorian had already left the dormitory and Adrian took this as a sign that nothing had changed.

Something had changed, though, when he arrived in the Great Hall for breakfast. He was just about to sit down when someone called him over.

â€�“Hey, Radley, don’t sit over there on your own. Come and join us.”

Surprised, he looked up to see Duncan Lewis, the Hufflepuff Beater, waving at him. He was sitting with another boy, who Adrian thought was the new team Beater.

â€�“This is Hector Clark,” Duncan said by way of introduction. Adrian recognised the family name from some events he had attended with his parents, but he had never met Hector before.

â€�“Hi,” he said as he sat down. â€�“Are you fifth years?”

â€�“Yep, both of us. I got on the team last year, but there was an older Beater so Hector had to wait a year. We’re going to be an unstoppable team this year though. You’re fourth aren’t you?”

Adrian nodded.

The two boys kept up an easy conversation throughout breakfast, with Adrian joining in periodically. He was tense, expecting the Ministry to come up at any minute, at which point he would be ostracised by this group as well. The two Beaters didn’t seem even remotely interested in talking about politics or the Ministry though. They were talking about school work and flying and the summer holidays.

â€�“Do you get to fly much at home, Adrian?” Hector asked at one point.

â€�“Not where I live, but my friend Dorian has a good bit of land at his house so I fly there quite regularly. It’s good to get some practice.”

â€�“You’ve got some good technique,” remarked Duncan. â€�“You can tell you practice.”

â€�“Is that Dorian Whitbread?” Hector asked. â€�“I don’t remember seeing you with him.”

â€�“Yeah, we’ve had a bit of a…disagreement,” Adrian replied.

â€�“Oh we’ve all been there,” Duncan laughed. â€�“Do you remember in third year, Hector, when we had that huge falling out over a broken quill? We didn’t speak for a week!”

Hector laughed too and Adrian attempted to join in. He wished the argument with Dorian was over something that would be quite so easy to solve.

â€�“We’d better get going,” said Duncan at last. â€�“What have you got first?”

â€�“My compulsory Muggle Studies,” he said, pulling a face. He couldn’t really understand the point in making everyone study Muggle Studies, but at least he didn’t have to do an exam in it.

â€�“Oh have fun with that,” Hector replied. â€�“Bit pointless really. Professor Carrow is a right idiot. Have you had the other one for Defence yet?”

â€�“Yeah, a couple of times this week. Hard to know what to think of him yet.” In truth, he had found the male Carrow professor rather disturbing. He seemed obsessed with pain and violence and was constantly referring to spells that Adrian felt no fourth year should know. He wondered what Snape was thinking, hiring him as a professor.

Adrian said goodbye to the two boys and made his way to the Muggle Studies classroom. He had never been there before so it took him a few minutes longer than usual.

All the fourth years were taking the class together so his group of friends were waiting outside the door.

â€�“Well, this is going to be a waste of time,” he heard Gemma saying as he approached. He was surprised that Gemma of all people didn’t think it was worthwhile having Muggle Studies lessons. â€�“I was speaking to a sixth year who said these lessons are nothing but propaganda for the Ministry’s new laws.”

She looked up to see Adrian listening to her. â€�“You’ll probably enjoy it then, Adrian.”

Adrian didn’t reply, but he couldn’t believe how much the girl, who had been one of his closest friends, seemed to hate him so much now. At that moment the classroom door opened and Professor Carrow emerged. â€�“You may enter,” she said in her wheezy voice. Her eyes glinted dangerously, and Adrian wasn’t quite sure he trusted her.

Once they were all seated, the Professor began speaking.

â€�“For the last three years of your Hogwarts education, you have been fed lies and encouraged to see everyone as your equal, encouraged by the spreader of lies, Albus Dumbledore. However, the Ministry is now endeavouring to set this right.”

She flicked her wand, and a pile of books that had been sitting on her desk began distributing among the students. Adrian looked at his curiously. He wondered why this hadn’t been on their reading list. His question was soon answered.

â€�“This book has been compiled by the Ministry especially for this course. It is not available in bookshops, hence why it is being given to you now. It contains everything you will need to know about Muggles and so called ‘Muggleborns’. For your first assignment, I would like you to turn to chapter one and begin reading.”

Adrian opened the book. He wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, but on first glance it didn’t seem so bad. The first chapter covered the biological differences between Muggles and Wizards, explaining how Wizards’ larger brains gave them the capacity to do magic the Muggles simply were not capable of. It covered differences between body proportions, and how these meant that Wizards could fly on broomsticks. It was illustrated by diagrams demonstrating its points. There was also a chapter explaining Muggleborns and how up until recently they were thought to be born as wizards, but that now new research suggested this was impossible and that Muggles could only obtain magic by taking it from legitimately born wizards, resulting in the creation of Squibs. It went onto explain that the rise in numbers of Squibs correlated with a higher number of Muggleborns suggesting that this situation had become far more prevalent. Keen to protect its genuine magical citizens, the Ministry had used the most recent research to act upon this theft and had begun holding these Muggleborns accountable for their actions.

The book seemed very reasonable. It was not piled full of hate speech or propaganda as Gemma had suggested. It was based only on research and genuine facts. Seeing that he had finished before most of the other students, he turned to the contents page to see what else the book covered. There were chapters on Magical versus Muggle medicine, the ways Muggles had attempted to replace magic with ‘technology’, Muggle History and how it had intersected with Wizards, as well as accounts of Muggle persecution of Wizards and the ways Wizards had shown kindness to Muggles in the past only to be greeted by negativity.

Adrian had to concede that the book was heavily anti-Muggle. But he couldn’t really understand why this was such a bad thing. They had all learnt about the ways Muggles had burnt witches and wizards in the past for nothing more than existing. And now the Muggles were stealing their magic.

â€�“Professor,” called out Gemma, interrupting the silence. â€�“There’s something I don’t understand. This book talks about Muggles stealing magic but it doesn’t exactly explain how they do it. I thought Muggles didn’t know about wizards?”

â€�“I did not ask for questions, Miss Millar,” the Professor replied, glaring at Gemma. â€�“If you have all finished reading, you can begin to write a summary of the chapter, followed by two feet of parchment explaining how the biological differences between wizards and Muggles can assist us in assessing whether a person’s magic has been obtained legitimately or not.

There was a muted groan around the glass as everyone took out their parchment and quills.

â€�“There will be silence in my class!” Professer Carrow snapped. She looked rather strained and Adrian wondered how much hassle she had had from students like Gemma. He quickly silenced the voice inside of him saying that Gemma’s question had been reasonable and that the book had several inconsistencies. Carrow was a Professor, while Gemma was barely fourteen. She couldn’t possibly know as much as their teacher did.

Once the lesson had been discussed and the fourth years were dismissed, Gemma, Rosa and Dorian immediately started talking furiously to each other. They kept their voices low, but parts of the conversation drifted back towards Adrian.

â€�“Can you believe her? It was just as bad as I was expecting?”

â€�“The worst part is that they make it seem so reasonable. There are younger years who won’t even think to question it.”

â€�“Younger years? Ha! There’re people in our year who refuse to question it.”

There was a meaningful silence and it was clear who they were talking about. Unable to stand listening to anymore, Adrian turned down another corridor that would take him to his Ancient Runes lesson. He was surprised to find tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. He never thought that he would be listening to his best friends talking about him like that. The four of them had been so close for three years, and that wasn’t counting the years he had known Dorian before Hogwarts.

Quickly he pulled himself together. He didn’t need them. They weren’t exactly good friends if they wouldn’t support him. Yes, Mark might have been their friend too, but did they really prefer him to Adrian? Anyway, now he was on the Quidditch team, he was going to have new friends. Duncan and Hector seemed happy enough to talk to him and he liked them too.

He sat with the two Beaters again at lunch time, and while they were there Summerby came over to tell them he had booked the pitch for the whole of the next day.

â€�“Weasley, the Gryffindor Captain, has a detention, so they couldn’t get the pitch and I got in before either the Slytherins or the Ravenclaws. I except to see you there all day, Radley, and by the end of it, I want you to be scoring every single time. This is the year we’re going to win the cup, I can feel it.”

â€�“He’s starting early,” Duncan remarked after he’d left. â€�“I think he’s feeling the pressure a bit now he’s a seventh year. Still, you won’t get any arguments from me against a whole day of training.”

â€�“Nor me,” replied Adrian. Secretly, he had been dreading the weekend. Occupying himself was easy enough in the evenings, but with the long hours of Saturday and Sunday stretching ahead of him, he hadn’t really been sure what he was going to do. Now he would be flying all day Saturday, and would probably be so tired on Sunday that he wouldn’t care.

â€�“Anyway, I’d better be off,” he said. â€�“Transfiguration this afternoon. McGonagall is going to have to set us some homework eventually.” He left his new friends, knowing that he would be welcome with them again that evening. At the back of his mind he thought triumphantly that he would show Dorian and Gemma they weren’t the only people he could be friends with.

That evening he finished his letter to Sam and wrote to his parents, telling him about making the Quidditch team and hinting that perhaps a new broom would make a good birthday present. Then, for the first time that week, he fell asleep happy, looking forward to the next day.

***

Summerby hadn’t been kidding when he said he had the Quidditch pitch booked for the whole day. By 8:30am the entire team had eaten a rushed breakfast and were standing on the pitch in their kits, shivering slightly. It was a cold September morning, though it looked like the sun would be out later on.

â€�“Right, everyone, in the air, ten laps around the pitch then back,” said Summerby when they were all assembled. The immediately took off, and the Captain joined them. Unlike his try-out, when he had easily been the fastest flyer, Adrian found himself working hard to keep up. By the eighth lap he was breathing heavily and was starting to fall behind.

â€�“Come on, Radley,” Summerby shouted when he saw him slipping back. â€�“Not far to go, push it harder! You’ll have to fly for longer than this when we play our first match.”

Trying desperately to find some more energy, Adrian leaned closer to his broom and sped up. He managed to reach the pace of the other two Chasers and they finished the tenth lap almost in line with each other.

They were all panting slightly when they landed, but Summerby wasn’t prepared to let up.

â€�“That should have been easy,” the Captain said. â€�“We’re going to have to get a lot more practice in over the next few weeks. The match schedule is up. We’ve got the first match against Ravenclaw in three weeks’ time. We’ve got to be ready by then.

â€�“The most important thing is that we learn to work as a team. Clark and Radley, you need to learn to trust your counterparts and to work with them as if you’re one mind. I was impressed with you both at try-outs but there’s always ways to make things smoother and in greater sync.

â€�“We’re going to practice some drills. Like the try-outs, I want the Chasers to approach the goal, passing the Quaffle between you, while the Beaters try their hardest to unseat you, and then shoot. Whether you score or miss, you go straight back down the other end and come again. I want to see different formations and different shooters. You’ll keep going until I’m happy with it.”

The players took to the sky once more. As Seeker, Summerby didn’t have to involve himself in the drills, which meant he could supervise.

The first run down was a disaster. Adrian began to wonder if the other two had been flying easy on them during the try-outs. Suddenly, they were so much faster, so much more powerful. He could hardly keep up. More than once he fumbled the catch and though he did his best to recover, he knew it wasn’t good enough. As soon as they were playing against another team there would be other Chasers, waiting to take advantage of any opportunity.

â€�“Okay, okay,” Summerby called after five of these drills. â€�“Forget the run-up, just do some practice shots. One at a time, quick fire.”

The three of them lined up and began shooting towards the goal. The Keeper - Bethany Jones - was good and she saved Adrian’s first two shots. He sent the third wide. Smith and Cadwallader meanwhile knew their Keeper’s pattern and sent ninety per cent through the goals around them.

â€�“Take a break,” said Summerby after fifteen minutes of shooting. â€�“Radley, come over to me will you.”

They landed and Adrian nervously headed for Summerby. He knew he was playing badly, and he was terrified that the Captain was going to kick off the time.

â€�“I’m really sorry,” he started, but Summerby held up his hand.

â€�“I don’t want to hear it. You’re on this team because I saw potential in you. But right now, you look like you’ve never flown before. You look terrified. You’ve got to forget that these guys are older than you and that they’ve got more experience. You’re all on the same team now. Find some confidence!”

Adrian nodded. He hadn’t realised how nervous he was to be playing on an equal level with the two seventh year Chasers. He shook his head. â€�“I can be just as good as them,” he muttered to himself.

After a few minutes, they were called back in to the air. Cadwallader began talking Adrian through the next manoeuvre. Rather than staying in straight lines, they were going to cross each other with each pass. It would keep the Keeper and the Beaters confused as to where each Chaser and the Quaffle was.

â€�“Do you get that?” he asked Adrian.

Adrian nodded. Taking a deep breath, he got into line.

Smith started off with the Quaffle. He passed it to Cadwallader and as he did so, Adrian swooped down and to the left, passing under Cadwallader and back up so he was now in between the other two. Cadwallader threw him the Quaffle and he caught it safely, at the same time switching places with Smith. This pattern continued down the line until at last, with one final switch, Adrian passed to Smith, who sent the Quaffle flying through the goal.

Summerby clapped. â€�“Finally! That was a bit more like it. Now go again!”

They repeated the drill several times, each time getting smoother and better. Adrian even scored one or two goals.

The day continued in a similar fashion, with only a brief stop for lunch. By the end of the final drill, Adrian was feeling a lot more confident in his ability to score and he was finally starting to understand what Summerby meant by working as one. He began to read the little signals that the other two made before a manoeuvre and started to develop his own.

At five in the afternoon, Summerby called them to a halt. â€�“We had a rough start,” he said when they were all gathered again, â€�“but I’m really pleased with how the rest of the day went. I’m going to book the pitch for three practices each week. We’re going to smash the Ravenclaws!” The team cheered, and the Captain dismissed them. Exhausted, Adrian got straight into the shower and spent a long time in there, warming up his aching limbs.

He arrived at the Great Hall for dinner just after Duncan and Hector, and the two boys waved him over. For the first time that week, Adrian’s face broke into a genuine smile. In spite of everything, it had been a good day.

Adrian settled back into life at Hogwarts during the next couple of weeks. It was a different life to the one he was used to, but other than the occasional twinge of pain when he saw his former friends sitting together or laughing at something, he was happy with it. He spent a lot of time flying. True to his word, Summerby had booked the pitch three times a week and the Hufflepuff team were training harder than ever before. The Chasers were a tight group, passing seamlessly to each other, and scoring from at least half their shots. The only reason the other half weren’t going in was the skill of Bethany, the Keeper. The Beaters’ shots were getting better and harder with every practice.

Adrian’s birthday came on the Wednesday before their first match. He woke up to find presents and cards piled at the end of his bed. Dorian was already awake, and after a few minutes, he chucked him something wrapped in gold paper. â€�“Happy Birthday,” he said gruffly. â€�“I bought this over the summer and thought you may as well still have it.”

â€�“Thanks,” Adrian replied awkwardly. The two boys had started to speak more often when they were alone in the dormitory but it was never more than a couple of sentences and never about anything more serious than whether they should turn the light out. This was definitely the closest they had come to talking about anything personal.

He wasn’t really sure whether he was supposed to open his presents in front of Dorian or not. In previous years, whenever someone in the dormitory had had a birthday, they would all gather round their bed watching as they opened their presents. Somehow, it didn’t really feel right this year.

Before he had to make a decision though, Dorian got up off his bed and headed for the door, muttering something about finishing homework before breakfast.

Adrian barely had time to acknowledge the fact that he was now all alone before the door burst open and Duncan and Hector tumbled in.

â€�“Happy Birthday!” Hector shouted.

â€�“We were waiting in the common room for you, and we saw misery Whitbread come down so we figured he’d probably left you up here all alone,” Duncan explained. â€�“Have you opened your presents yet?”

Adrian shook his head. â€�“Well what are you waiting for?” Hector replied. He tossed another one on to the pile. â€�“This is from us. Sorry, it’s only small. We had to get via owl order as there haven’t been any Hogsmeade trips yet.”

â€�“Thanks, guys,” Adrian replied, grinning. He really hadn’t been expecting anything from the two boys. Yes, they had become close over the past few weeks but more than once he had worried that they hung out with him out of pity rather than friendship.

â€�“Sometime today, or we’ll miss breakfast,” Hector said impatiently, and Adrian turned to the first present on the pile. He hadn’t looked too closely at them before, but now as his eyes scanned the pile he saw a long box and he heart leapt. He immediately grabbed it and tore the paper off. Sure enough, inside was a box containing a brand new broomstick.

Duncan and Hector’s eyes were like saucers. â€�“Wow,” said Hector. â€�“It’s a Firebolt one point five series!”

â€�“Seriously?” Adrian asked, studying the gold lettering on the handle for himself. He had known his parents would never be able to afford the two series and he had told them he’d be happy with an original, but the one point five had all sorts of minor improvements on the original; it was faster and turned slightly more sharply.

â€�“This is going to make you unstoppable!” Duncan said. â€�“Wait until the others see it at practice tonight.”

Adrian opened the rest of his presents. Dorian had given him a new wireless record from one of their favourite bands - the Screaming Vampires - while Duncan and Hector had had a parcel of Honeydukes’ finest delivered. In addition to his broom, his parents and Samuel had also sent some chocolate, some new flying gloves and a new set of casual robes.

Thrilled with his haul, and already munching on some of the chocolate that he had shared out with the other two boys, Adrian headed for breakfast.

The look on Summerby’s face when he heard about the broomstick was incredible. Adrian didn’t think he had ever seen anyone grin so widely.

â€�“Good work, Radley,” he said, giving him a pat on the back. â€�“Happy Birthday!”

â€�“Thanks,” Adrian said, secretly thrilled at how happy his Captain was with him. He made a mental note to send his parents a letter later on telling them just how grateful he was.

As he was eating breakfast, he caught sight of Gemma staring at him. She looked almost sad. Suddenly Dorian said something to her and she turned her head quickly, her face returning to normal.

Adrian couldn’t understand it. After all, she was the one who had stopped being friends with him, not the other way around. He couldn’t help it if he’d found new friends rather than staying miserable and lonely all year.

Adrian actually quite liked his timetable on a Wednesday. He had Transfiguration and History of Magic first, followed by Ancient Runes, and then that afternoon the fourth year Hufflepuffs had a double Potions lesson. He enjoyed most of his subjects, even if he wasn’t exactly top of his class. He tried his best and, according to his dad, that’s what counted.

He went straight from Potions to his dormitory, quickly changed his clothes and grabbed his new broomstick before hurrying down to the pitch. He was itching to get on the broom and it was all he could do not to jump straight on it as soon as he left the castle. He waited though, not wanting to spoil the moment he pushed off for the first time on the pitch itself.

Everyone crowded round to have a good look as soon as he arrived. Cadwallader had an original Series One Firebolt and they lay the two brooms next to each other, taking note of every detail, every difference in the wood.

Eventually Summerby called them all to order, and directed them into the air. Everyone watched for a moment as Adrian mounted the new broom.

The feeling when he kicked off was incredible. His old broom was by no means bad, but he had never experienced this kind of acceleration before. He was at goal height in seconds. Cadwallader followed quickly and Smith was soon there too.

The next hour and a half was the best practice they had ever had. Adrian wasn’t sure if it was because the new broom was actually better, or if he was just feeding off the excited energy that surrounded its presence on the team, but he was flying better that he had before. In fact, the whole team seemed to have upped their game. It didn’t stop Summerby from working them as hard as he possibly could.

â€�“This is the best damn team I’ve seen while I’ve been at Hogwarts,” he said at the end of the practice. â€�“However nothing is guaranteed yet. I don’t want anyone thinking that one new broom is going to win us the cup, but if everyone flies like they just did in this practice, then it will be our for the taking. When we beat the Ravenclaws on Saturday, we’re going to show Hogwarts exactly what Hufflepuffs are made of!”

The whole team cheered.

â€�“Now back to the castle for cake,” proclaimed Duncan. His statement was greeted by another cheer.

It was tradition for the kitchen to send up a birthday cake to dinner when anyone had a birthday, and they could share it with whoever they liked. This year, the whole Quidditch team, including the reserves who had been training hard with them, gathered round Adrian to eat his cake. They sang a rowdy chorus of Happy Birthday during which Adrian thought he might die of embarrassment, and then all tucked in. People from the other houses were looking over curiously, to see who was having so much fun, but Adrian ignored them all. There was nothing left by the time all the players had eaten, and he was almost relieved he didn’t have to go through the awkwardness of offering it to the rest of his housemates.

It was true, however, that no one seemed to be having much fun that year. The older students always seemed to be walking around frowning or having hushed conversations. The two Carrow professors had been placed in charge of punishment and it seemed that they had given out record numbers of detentions that year. Adrian hadn’t had one, however, and he couldn’t really understand how some people managed to get so many. He was generally well-behaved and did all his work on time. Seeing the way that Gemma and some of the others spoke to the Carrows, he wasn’t really surprised they were being punished. None of them would dare speak to McGonagall that way.

Still riding high from their successful practice, the Quidditch team spent the evening together, sitting in the common room, telling stories of earlier matches, and other amusing things that had happened since they had been at the school. A lot of them had happened before Adrian started at Hogwarts and so he hadn’t heard them before. They spoke also spoke a bit about the Hufflepuff’s last Seeker - Cedric Diggory.

The faces of the older students darkened when Cedric’s name was mentioned and there was a pause in the boisterous conversation. Adrian knew who he was of course. He had been in his first year the year that he had died. Cedric Diggory was a hero to the Hufflepuffs. He had been their champion in the Triwizard Tournament and he had been one of their best ever Quidditch players.

â€�“When we win the cup this year,” Summerby said quietly. â€�“It will be for Cedric Diggory. We’ve got the team he never had now. We’ve got the chance to make it right.”

The team were silent for a moment while they reflected on quite how important victory would be for them. Then Summerby looked at his watch. â€�“Right, younger ones, it’s too late for you to still be up. I don’t want any of you getting into any trouble before the match. Happy Birthday, Radley,” he added as Adrian stood to leave. â€�“Well done on the new broom.”

Adrian, Hector and Duncan left the three seventh years and Bethany to it. They headed to the fourth year dormitory where Adrian broke off from the other to and went to his bed. He was shattered, but it had been a great day. He spent a few minutes writing a letter to his parents, making sure he expressed exactly how grateful he was for his present.

Dorian was still up, reading in his bed.

â€�“Thanks for the record,” Adrian said as he climbed into his own bed.

â€�“Oh, no problem. Like I said, I bought it in the summer, so I just thought.” He trailed off. â€�“I’ll turn the light off in a minute, if you want to sleep,” he said.

â€�“That’s okay,” replied Adrian. â€�“I’m shattered anyway - I’ll probably sleep with it on.” He pulled the curtains closed around his bed and lay down, a faint smile on his face. He wasn’t about to tell Dorian that he knew he was lying about the record. He had looked for it himself when he had been in Diagon Alley buying his school things, and the man in the shop had said it wasn’t being released until the week before Adrian’s birthday, which meant Dorian must have bought it less than a week ago. His best friend didn’t completely hate him, but he obviously wasn’t ready for Adrian to know it.

***

The next two days passed agonisingly slowly. There was no Quidditch practice on Friday - Summerby wanted them all fresh for the match - so Adrian had nothing to distract him. All he could do was wait nervously for Saturday morning.

On the morning of the match, the team sat together once again. Summerby forced them all to eat breakfast and then they headed off to the pitch together. Adrian hadn’t expected to feel quite so nervous, but suddenly the thought of the entire student body of Hogwarts watching him was rather daunting. He knew no one was expecting too much of the Hufflepuffs and he was determined to prove them all they were wrong.

The stands were filling up early as the team changed in the dressing room. The first Quidditch game was the highlight of term. It was still some weeks away until a Hogsmeade weekend and so this was the only opportunity for a bit of excitement the students had had since returning to school.

Summerby began his pre-match talk by delivering a piece of news.

â€�“I’ve heard,” he said, â€�“that Ginny Weasley has been banned from playing Quidditch all year.”

This immediately caused an outbreak of chatter among the team. The Gryffindors were seen as one of their biggest threats, but obviously they had already lost Harry Potter this year and now with Weasley out as well, they would be even weaker. Adrian wondered what an earth she could have done to get a whole year ban.

â€�“This is good news for us,” Summerby continued, â€�“but it doesn’t mean we’ve won. The Slytherins have a strong team and they haven’t lost any of their players this year.” There was a derisive laugh from Cadwallader. It was common knowledge that while Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor were each missing a substantial number of their student population, there were only a handful of students missing from Slytherin. But it made sense, Adrian reasoned. Muggleborns didn’t usually get sorted into Slytherin.

â€�“Anyway, I wanted to tell you in case someone else comments on it, but it’s still vital that you play your best today. We have been training harder than any other house, especially Ravenclaw. Stay focused today and we will win, I’m sure of it.”

The team cheered and Summerby ordered them to line up. Positioned behind Smith and Cadwallader, Adrian did his best to keep his breathing steady. He knew that all the training in the world couldn’t prepare them for them for this next moment. This was the first chance they had to face another team and to test out their moves and defences against people who wanted to win almost as much as they did.

He heard the commentator announce their names and suddenly, he was swinging his leg over his broom and soaring up into the stadium. The noise from the crowd was deafening but surprisingly after a couple of minutes, he was able to block it out and focus on his team. Cadwallader gave him an encouraging nod, and the three of them lined up.

The first few minutes of the match passed in a blur for Adrian. He couldn’t remember the whistle being blown, or seeing Smith dive to get first touch of the Quaffle. His mind went into autopilot. They began to execute the drills they had practiced so often in training. The Ravenclaw Chasers did their best to keep up, but they just couldn’t intercept the ball. As they approached the goal, Adrian snapped back in reality just in time to realise they were within scoring distance and Smith was about to throw him the Quaffle.

For a moment he thought he might be sick. But then he remembered Summerby’s words and Cadwallader’s smile and everything seemed to slow down. When the ball landed in his hand, he wasted no time in lobbing it as hard as he could towards the far right ring. The Ravenclaw Keeper went left and completely missed the save. Adrian’s aim was true, and the Quaffle went sailing through the centre of the ring.

The crowd went wild. Above the cheers, he could just about hear the commentator, â€�“Radley scores the first points of the game and the score is ten to nil to the Hufflepuffs!”

There was no time to celebrate though because almost instantly, the Quaffle was back in their possession and they were streaking towards the goal again.

For half an hour, the Chasers continued to dominate the game. It wasn’t only the Hufflepuffs - the Ravenclaws got in a few goals too, but Bethany Jones was a good keeper and kept them mostly at bay. The score stood at ninety to thirty, but as far as any of them could tell, there was no sign of the snitch.

The Hufflepuffs had just regained possession of the Quaffle after an unsuccessful shot by Ravenclaw when suddenly the sky went pitch black, and total darkness enveloped the players. Adrian felt panic rising in his chest. He could hear the crowds shouting, and his teammates calling out to each other in confusion, but he could not see even a centimetre in front of his face. He heard voices of their Professors, trying to calm down the crowd, but the noise seemed to be coming from all sides. He could do nothing but hover where he was. If he moved in any direction he risked bumping into another player or seriously injuring himself.

Just as he was starting to wonder exactly how long they would be left hanging in the darkness, the sky was suddenly lit up by hundreds of fireworks. They were high above the players, and Adrian was able to crane up his neck and see that they spelt out a message:

DUMBLEDORE’S ARMY LIVES! RECRUITING NOW!

The fireworks faded, and almost instantly, the darkness vanished, almost as if the whole incident had never happened at all. Adrian looked around to see the other players looking just as scared as he had. One of the Ravenclaw Chasers was hovering only metres away from him, though he’d never have known it. A couple of players had attempted to land through the darkness and were now standing safely on the grass. Adrian saw Summerby gesturing for the rest of the team to join them down there.

Before Adrian could reach his team however, the headmaster’s voice began echoing across the stadium, drowning out even the loudest of the crowd.

â€�“This match has been cancelled. All students will return immediately to their common rooms and remain there until further notice.”

Adrian’s heart sank. It was to be expected really, that such an incident would stop the game, but he had hoped they would just restart, or have a time-out.

The rest of his team looked equally dejected. No one spoke as they changed and headed back to the castle. They were the last of their house to return to the common room and a few people broke into half-hearted rounds of applause when they entered.

â€�“What happened, Bethany?” asked one of the sixth year girls. â€�“The pitch just went completely dark and then there were all those fireworks.”

â€�“That’s about all we know,” said Bethany. â€�“Didn’t the stands go dark as well?”

â€�“No it was just the pitch. We thought you might have all disappeared.”

â€�“Did you see what it said?” asked a boy.

â€�“What’s Dumbledore’s Army?” asked another student, who looked like he was only a first or second year.

â€�“We don’t know,” replied a prefect quickly.

Adrian saw a couple of the older Hufflepuffs glance at each other uneasily. It was clear that they knew exactly what it meant. He did too, or at least he sort of did. He hadn’t heard the name in over a year though, since the end of his second year, and he couldn’t understand what it meant now.

Before anyone could say anything else, the common room entrance opened again and this time the Headmaster himself stepped through the doorway.

â€�“The act committed today by a small number of students has had serious consequences to the rest of the school,” he said. He hadn’t bothered to magnify his voice. The room had gone so quiet at his entrance that every word seemed to reverberate round and round in the silence.

â€�“This reckless practical joke put student’s lives in danger, and there will be serious consequences. Every member of this house will be questioned about their whereabouts before and during the match by Professor Carrow.” He nodded to the male Carrow professor, who looked oddly excited at the thought.

â€�“Finally, to ensure the future safety of all students, and as a consequence for the actions of the students responsible, there will be no more Quidditch at Hogwarts.”

---

The wave of noise that greeted the Headmaster’s announcement was deafening. It was a mark of how much the students respected and feared Professor Snape that he was able to regain the silence simply by raising his hand.

â€�“Until when, Sir?” asked Summerby when there was order in the room once.

â€�“Indefinitely. Please know that this is not the fault of me or of your professors. We wanted to allow Hogwarts to continue as normally as possible in spite of circumstances beyond our control. However, this group of students has made it clear that they have no respect for anyone’s safety and we can’t therefore risk any more of these stunts at future matches. It is our only option.”

He turned and swept out of the common room, his black robes billowing behind him. Professor Carrow stayed behind. He took a list of names out of his robes and began reading.

â€�“I will begin with the Quidditch team, and then move on to the rest of you, in decreasing age order. This entrance is sealed until questioning is complete. You must not attempt to leave the room until you have been cleared by me to do so. Lunch will be served in here. Ralph Summerby, you’re up first.”

The Quidditch captain followed the Professor from the room. He looked completely thunderstruck and for a moment Adrian worried about what he might do to the Professor. He then remembered that this was the Carrows they were dealing with and they were sure to return any action against them equally harshly.

The room erupted in to chatter as soon as the two of them had left, but the Quidditch team sat in silence, not really sure what to say or do without the guidance of their captain.

Summerby returned several minutes later, and one by one the rest of the team were escorted out to be questioned. Finally, Carrow entered the room and called out, â€�“Adrian Radley.”

His legs shaking slightly, Adrian stood up. But then he remembered that he had done nothing wrong and he found a bit more confidence. He was after all one of the victims in this situation.

Professor Carrow led him along to a small dungeon room, not far from the Hufflepuff common room. He motioned for him to sit, and then took a chair opposite.

â€�“Tell me what happened at the match today, in your own words.”

Adrian explained as quickly as he could exactly what had happened.

â€�“When the darkness fell, why did you not attempt to reach a member of staff?” Carrow asked.

â€�“I couldn’t see anything. I was scared to move in case I hit something or fell. I couldn’t really hear above the crowd either.”

Carrow barely seemed to acknowledge each answer before moving on to the next question.

â€�“Tell me, have you heard of Dumbledore’s Army.”

Before he could stop himself, Adrian replied, â€�“No, Sir.”

â€�“You’re lying,” hissed Carrow immediately. Adrian was startled by his tone.

â€�“I mean, I have heard of them but only when I was in second year, not since I have been back at school this year. I don’t know what they are or what they do.”

Carrow held his gaze for a moment, obviously trying to decide whether or not he was telling the truth.

â€�“Your brother is a Squib isn’t he?” Carrow asked suddenly.

â€�“Yes, Sir,” replied Adrian, feeling suddenly defensive at this change in questioning.

â€�“And why do you believe he is a Squib, Adrian? Do you think he is the same as a Muggle?”

â€�“No, Sir. He is a wizard without magic. Our family has many years of magic so Samuel must have had some once.” He hesitated. â€�“I think it was taken from him by Muggles, like the Ministry says.”

Carrow nodded his approval. â€�“I’m glad you think so,” he said. â€�“You seem like a sensible boy, Adrian. You could do very well in your life. Just don’t let the wrong people influence you.”

â€�“Yes, Sir,” Adrian replied, hoping the interview was finally over.

Sure enough, Carrow stood and escorted him back to the common room. Now that the Quidditch team had been questioned he started with the seventh year Hufflepuffs. It looked like it was going to take some time. Food had appeared on trays and most people had started eating, hungry after the morning’s drama.

The team were still sitting together. They looked like they hadn’t really spoken since Adrian left the room. When Adrian sat down, Summerby looked up. â€�“Does anyone know what happened?” he asked.

The team shook their heads.

â€�“I can’t believe it’s over,” Cadwallader said in a hollow voice. â€�“This was supposed to be our year.”

No one knew how to reply to that. For some of them, there could be some hope that one day they might play again. For the seventh years, this was the end.

Suddenly Adrian felt a flash of rage like nothing he had ever experienced.

â€�“This isn’t fair,” he erupted, his voice coming out as a shout. There was still no much noise in the common room that only a few turned at the sound of his voice, but even so Summerby motioned to him to keep his voice down.

â€�“No,” Adrian continued. â€�“We all know who’s responsible for this. You said it yourself this morning - Ginny Weasley was banned from playing Quidditch giving the Gryffindor team no hope of winning the cup and if she couldn’t play, she didn’t want anyone else playing either. Everyone knows it was Gryffindors behind the original Dumbledore’s Army.”

Gradually more people had stopped talking to listen, and Adrian became aware that silence had fallen over the common room.

â€�“Well,” he said, â€�“what did they actually achieve today? How did that help anyone? It was attention seeking. It was selfish. It was a bunch of Gryffindors who were bitter that they couldn’t be on top for once. All that they’ve achieved is to make people miserable. It was the one thing we had to look forward to this year. And Hufflepuff were going to win this year. No one in this room ever got to see what our team was capable of. What was the point?”

To his surprise, he could see people around the room nodding, and hear mutterings of agreement. Perhaps he wasn’t alone. Perhaps he wasn’t the only person who disagreed with the people who insisted that something terrible was happening in the wizarding world.

He waited for someone else to speak up, to argue against him but nothing happened. Instead, gradually the regular noise returned to the common room. Adrian looked back at his team, but knew there was nothing more that could be said. All he wanted to do was get out of there.

He nodded to his teammates and headed across the room to the dormitory stairs. On his way he looked to the far side of the room and saw a small group of seventh years, including the two he had overheard on the first night in September, one of whom he had since realised was the seventh year prefect, whispering in a huddle. To his surprise Gemma was with them. His frown deepened. Of course, it made sense that she’d be involved in some way.

He felt too angry to do anything. He started writing letters to both Samuel and his parents but he couldn’t concentrate on it. He wondered if he would get into trouble for leaving the common room but he didn’t really care. He had already been questioned and he was still technically in the Hufflepuff area of the castle.

He spotted the wireless in the corner and reached into the case for the new record he had been given a few days before. He put it into the player and lay back on his bed letting the music wash over him. It was odd how calming music from a band called the Screaming Vampires could be, but Adrian gradually felt the tension ease out of him.

He didn’t move from the room for the rest of the day. He knew he was sulking but he couldn’t help it. After such a rubbish start to the year Quidditch had been all he was looking forward to. He couldn’t stand to be around the team, knowing they were all sharing in the same pain, and he didn’t have any other friends.

The record finished, and silence fell over the room. At some point late in the evening he heard Dorian come in. Adrian kept the curtains around his bed tightly closed, not interested in anymore awkward conversations with his former best friend. What was the point, when it was clear that Dorian wouldn’t even look at him when they were in public?

***

The next morning, Adrian headed nervously for breakfast. He wasn’t sure who he was supposed to sit with. Were Duncan and Hector still his friends even now they weren’t all on a team together?

To his huge relief, the two boys still beckoned him over. They were less energetic that unusual, and it was clear that everyone was still feeling the huge disappointment of the day before.

â€�“So,” Hector said, â€�“what do we do now?”

â€�“Dunno,” replied Duncan. â€�“Become good at school work I suppose.”

Adrian managed to let out a chuckle. One of the things he had learnt about Duncan over the last few weeks was that he hated school. There was not a single subject he really excelled in and he frequently talked about leaving school after completing his OWLs and attempting to get signed to as a junior reserve to a Quidditch team. Of course, with no matches for scouts to watch now, that probably wasn’t going to happen.

â€�“We’ve got Hogsmeade in a couple of weeks, at least,” said Hector. â€�“Are you going to come, Adrian?”

â€�“Definitely! I need to get out of this place. Let’s just hope they don’t cancel that as well.”

The two boys nodded fervently.

Fortunately, the trip was not cancelled, and two weeks later, all the students in third year and above were released to go to the village.

Adrian joined Hector and Duncan on the walk down to the village. Almost everyone who could was taking advantage of the opportunity to get out of the castle, though there were several of the older students who had been banned from attending. Since the Quidditch match, there had been more and more incidents started by Dumbledore’s Army. Graffiti frequently appeared throughout the school with slogans and messages of contempt for the Headmaster and the Carrow professors. Adrian was still clueless as to what exactly they were trying to achieve.

Though he had so far avoided talking about anything too serious with the two boys but he was curious to know how much they knew about what was going on. He knew that the Muggleborn laws had caused a bit of a stir in the wizarding world, and that their effect was especially noticeable at Hogwarts, but he felt like there had to be something more happening.

â€�“How much do you know about Dumbledore’s Army?” he asked casually as they were wandering down the main street of Hogsmeade.

The two boys looked nervous. â€�“Why? You’re not spying for Carrow, are you?” ask Hector

â€�“What? No! What made you think that?”

â€�“It’s just that someone said that the Carrow professors seem to - OW!” He broke off as Duncan elbowed him hard in the ribs.

â€�“It doesn’t matter what other people have said. But yeah, we know a little bit about Dumbledore’s Army. It was created a few years ago as a protest against Professor Umbridge.”

â€�“I know that,” Adrian replied. â€�“But what are they hoping to achieve now.”

â€�“It’s all to do with the war isn’t it,” said Duncan. â€�“And You-Know-Who.”

All three boys shivered involuntarily at the thought of the dark wizard.

â€�“You-Know-Who?” What’s he got to do with it? And since when have we been at war?”

â€�“You really are a bit clueless, aren’t you?” Duncan said. â€�“You-Know-Who came back a few years ago - even the Ministry confirmed it. And everyone’s scared that he’s going to start killing people again. It’s all been a bit confusing so far though because he seems to be in hiding. But some strange stuff has started happening - people are going missing, and then there’ve been all those changes at the Ministry.”

â€�“Do people think You-Know-Who is behind all of that?”

â€�“No one’s really sure. He’s not directly responsible, but a lot has changed in the Ministry recently, according to my mum.”

â€�“What does You-Know-Who actually want?”

â€�“He wants to get rid of all the Muggles,” Hector said. â€�“He thinks wizards are better than Muggles and shouldn’t have to live in secret anymore.”

â€�“But what have the Muggles ever done?” Adrian asked. He could understand wizards resenting Muggleborns but the Muggles who knew nothing about magic could hardly be blamed for anything.

â€�“Nothing, but he thinks that wizards are superior because they can do magic. Lots of people think that, but not many of them actually want to do anything about it.”

â€�“So how come these new laws only target Muggleborns and not all Muggles? Imprisoning people for doing something against the law is a bit different to killing them as well.”

â€�“There’s nothing our Ministry can do to Muggles. They only have responsibility for the Muggleborns. And there’re all sorts of rumours about what is happening to the Muggleborns who are arrested.”

Adrian didn’t ask any more questions. Everything was getting more and more confusing. Surely his parents wouldn’t support something that You-Know-Who was doing - they weren’t evil people after all. But they definitely agreed with the new laws, or his mother did at least. He was never quite sure about his father who had started to just stay quiet when the issue came up. But You-Know-Who was definitely back - he had read that. He definitely didn’t agree with getting rid of all Muggles, but that didn’t mean the Muggles who had done something wrong shouldn’t be punished.

Hector and Duncan didn’t push him to say anything more, but he could see they were curious about how he felt. He wasn’t quite ready to put it into words, however, so he said nothing.

The trip to Hogsmeade was uneventful. It was good to get out of the grounds and see something different to the familiar sights of the castle however. The three of them wasted a bit of money on things they didn’t really need and then headed back to the castle.

Once again over the next few weeks of term Adrian had to find a new routine to settle in to. Without Quidditch practice to distract him, everything seemed a lot more boring. Long evenings stretched ahead of him without much to do other than work or play the occasional game of Exploding Snap with Duncan and Hector. As they were both in their OWL year, they found they had a lot more homework than Adrian did and so he often found himself at a loose end while they were still in the library.

The three boys remained good friends but without the bond of Quidditch to hold on to, Adrian rarely spoke to the rest of the team. They were all older than him after all, and had other interests and problems to worry about. He would have felt like too much of an idiot to just approach Summerby or Cadwallader for a casual chat. Bethany would still smile at him when they passed each other in the corridor and every now and then she would sit near them at meal times, but it was nothing like it had been when they were all on a team together.

For the first time, Adrian found himself counting down the days until he could leave Hogwarts for the Christmas holidays. When the Saturday morning finally arrived, he was one of the first Hufflepuffs to be packed and ready to go.

During the train ride, the three boys exchanged stories of their families’ Christmas traditions. Just as Duncan was entertaining them with a story of an exploding Christmas pudding, the train ground to a halt.

â€�“We can’t be there already?” Hector said, looking out the window into the darkness that had fallen during the course of the journey.

Before any of them could do anything, the door to their compartment opened and one of the black-robed guards Adrian remembered from the first of September entered.

â€�“Names?” he barked at the three of them, and they quickly supplied their names. The man checked them off a list and left the carriage again. After a few minutes train rumbled into life again.

â€�“What was all that about?” asked Duncan.

â€�“Maybe someone’s missing?” Dorian suggested, but he couldn’t help but feel that the presence of those men on the train meant nothing good.

The journey continued and by the time they arrived in London, the random stop had been almost forgotten. It was only when they got off and Adrian overheard Ginny Weasley and another boy talking to an older man that he thought about it again.

â€�“They just took her,” Ginny said. â€�“Stormed into the carriage, asked for our names and then ordered her off.”

â€�“There was nothing we could do,” the boy added.

Before Adrian could hear anything else, he heard his name being called and turned to see his mother smiling at him.

â€�“Mum!” he called, running over to him. She pulled him in to a hug.

â€�“Hello, darling. It’s lovely to see you at last.”

Before they left the station, Adrian turned back to see if the trio was still there, but they had vanished. He found himself wondering however, exactly what had happened on the train when it stopped, and who could be missing. There was no point in speaking to his mother about it however, so he simply took the hand she was offering and in an instant she had turned on the spot and Apparated them home.

---

Adrian loved coming home for the first time after a long term at Hogwarts. It was nice to be made a fuss of by his parents and have his mum’s food for dinner and get to sleep in his own room. It was especially nice after the unhappiness of his first term of fourth year.

Samuel was already home from school by the time Adrian returned, and their mother made a special dinner to celebrate the first night that the family were back together. There was almost constant chatter from the two boys while they were eating, as they caught up on the term’s events. Adrian told them about the new friends he had made, while being careful not to dwell too much on the fact that he had hardly spoken to his fellow fourth years all term.

â€�“We were sorry to hear about the Quidditch,” his mum said as she served dessert. â€�“Especially after we had just bought you that new broom. We wrote to the Headmaster to express our concerns but he replied explaining that it really was just being done to ensure your safety. It really is such a shame that some people insist on spoiling things for the rest of you. He did say that perhaps next year, after some of the bigger troublemakers had left school, they would be able to re-examine the issue. And after all, you are only in your fourth year.”

â€�“Yes but three of the best players on our team were seventh years,” he grumbled. â€�“It’ll be years before we have such a good chance of winning the cup again.”

â€�“You could have been seriously hurt, Adrian! I’m not happy about the idea of you playing while there are people determined to take every opportunity to cause trouble. I think the headmaster has been very sensible.”

Adrian too could understand why they weren’t allowed to play but it didn’t stop him feeling angry every time he thought of. He wondered if the Dumbledore’s Army people considered their actions to have been a success. He still didn’t really understand what they’d been trying to achieve. Still, at least he didn’t have to worry about it for the duration of the holidays, and maybe when he got back, things at school would have calmed down a little bit.

â€�“Mum,” he asked after the table had been cleared and they were tucking in to dessert.

â€�“Yes?”

He hesitated. â€�“Can I ask you something about…You-Know-Who?”

He his mother’s face froze for a moment while his father shifted awkwardly in his chair.

â€�“I’m not really sure it’s appropriate right now, Adrian,” Theia said at last.

â€�“What do you want to know?” Edward asked, ignoring the warning look from his wife.

â€�“I’m just confused. Everyone says that he’s back from the dead and that we’re at war again. And some people have told me that the new laws are because of him, but wouldn’t we know if the Ministry was under his control? Surely he couldn’t do it without anyone noticing?”

â€�“You’re right - he’s not in control of the Ministry. When I go in to work, You-Know-Who isn’t there in the Minister’s office. The Ministry consider him to be a criminal. He would be arrested if he tried to walk in there.”

â€�“So does that mean the laws are definitely okay then? It’s just, not everyone seems happy about them.”

â€�“Well, Adrian, the thing is,” Edward started, but before he could continue, Theia interrupted him.

â€�“Of course they are, darling. The Ministry is still under control of good witches and wizards and everything they are doing is done to protect people from good wizarding families, like us. The people who object don’t understand what they’re talking about. It is a big change of course, but the Ministry know what they’re doing and there has been a lot of research. Besides, how many of your friends at Hogwarts have seen exactly what it’s like to grow up as a wizard without magic?”

Adrian could see his brother looking uncomfortable across the table and instantly felt bad for bringing it up.

â€�“Thanks,” mumbled Adrian quickly. â€�“It does all make sense.”

He still wasn’t completely sure, however. He had been feeling more and more uneasy when he thought about the Muggle-borns who were being arrested - he didn’t really know exactly what happened to them. The look on his dad’s face had suggested there was more to the story as well, but his mum seemed so confident, and it obviously still upset Samuel when they spoke about his lack of magic.

The holidays passed quickly - almost too quickly for Adrian’s liking. They spent Christmas day with his mother’s parents and Boxing day with his father’s. He got on a lot better with the Radley grandparents - they were less stuffy and enjoyed playing games with the two boys. Plus, while his mother had been an only child, his father had four brothers and sisters and between them they had twelve children, so there were always lots of other people to play with among their cousins.

Other than visiting their grandparents, little else of excitement happened. Adrian convinced his father to take him to the Lake District to do a bit of flying now that he was unable to at Hogwarts and once again he marvelled at the speed and responses of his new broom, feeling a renewed confidence that when Quidditch started again, as he was sure it would, he would help the Hufflepuff team to victory. However, his dad only had a few days off work over the holidays and so the trips were not as frequent as Adrian would have liked.

Samuel was at home though, and the two brothers made the most of the time they had together.

â€�“Thomas Edison was a Squib,” Samuel said to Adrian one night. It was day before they were both going back to their respective schools, and their parents were out at a belated New Year party. They had decided that Adrian was old enough to no longer need a babysitter and the boys were taking full advantage of this to stay up late and gorge on their remaining Christmas chocolate.

â€�“Who?” Adrian asked, chucking a chocolate frog into his mouth.

Samuel rolled his eyes. â€�“Thomas Edison! He was an inventor.”

â€�“I’ve never heard of him.”

â€�“What do they teach you in Muggle studies?” Samuel asked, exasperatedly.

â€�“Not that,” Adrian said, his thoughts turning to the weekly hour he spent with Professor Carrow. So far they had been taught about all the ways Muggles were inferior to wizards - definitely not about the things they had achieved.

â€�“Well, he was an inventor from America.”

â€�“And how do you know he was a Squib?”

â€�“It’s common knowledge, particularly in America. Our History teacher was explaining it all to us. The Edison family were originally from Canada. They were one of the earliest wizarding families to emigrate from Europe. Even when they moved to America they were still thought of as some of the oldest purebloods around. But Thomas was born as a Squib.

â€�“He grew up seeing all the ways that magic could improve people’s lives. He worked for Muggles and saw so many things that could be done quicker and more easily if they had access to magic. But he knew he could never have what his wizarding family had, so instead he looked for other solutions to the problems, and started inventing things to let Muggles have some of the same conveniences as Muggles. He was responsible for electric lights!”

Adrian groaned. Muggle things had always confused him a little bit, and electricity was just plain weird.

â€�“So are you saying you want to be an inventor?” he asked.

â€�“No,” Samuel replied, sounding frustrated. â€�“The point is that Thomas Edison did amazing things with his life. He’s famous among the Muggles! He wasn’t content to just work in a shop or an office and he didn’t see why he couldn’t do brilliant things even without magic. I want to be like that. I want to dosomething with my life.”

He paused, perhaps sensing that what he was about to say was not going to go over well.

â€�“I’m not a wizard, Adrian,” he said. â€�“I’m a Muggle. I know they call us Squibs because somehow it’s better than telling someone their child is a Muggle - it gives us some sort of link to the wizarding world. But really there is nothing different between me and the Muggles who live next door.”

â€�“Yes there is,” replied Adrian sharply. â€�“You’re not a Muggle. You’re a wizard who doesn’t have magic, and the reason you don’t have magic is because of Muggles and these Muggle-born wizards who randomly appear with no magical background whatsoever.”

â€�“I can’t believe you actually think that. I knew Mum was determined to believe that all Muggle-borns are terrible people but I thought you had a bit more sense. Everything that is happening to Muggle-borns is terrible, and when I hear them using people like me to justify their actions, it makes me sick.”

â€�“It is for you,” Adrian said. â€�“It’s to get justice.”

Samuel laughed. â€�“Justice? For what? For the fact that by some freak of nature I was born unable to do magic? It’s no one’s fault, Ade. There’s no evidence to suggest that Squibs ever had magic to be stolen.”

â€�“If there’s no evidence then how are the Ministry able to justify what they’re doing? They must have a reason for passing the new laws,” Adrian argued. â€�“You heard Mum on the first night of the holidays.”

â€�“I don’t care. I want to be a Muggle. I want to live like them, go to school with them and have the opportunity to be anything I want to be. I’m clever. I know it sounds like boasting, but I am. I don’t want to do the kind of jobs there are for Squibs in our world. I have a teacher at school, and she says that I could join a Muggle secondary school in September and then one day go to one of their universities. She knows other people who’ve done it.”

â€�“She should be fired,” Adrian said bluntly. â€�“It’s not her place to fill your head with those kinds of thoughts.”

â€�“She seems to be the only person making sense at the moment! And Dad agrees with me!”

â€�“What?”

â€�“I spoke to him. He agrees that if I can do more with my life, then I should.”

â€�“Mum would never allow it.”

â€�“One day it won’t be up to Mum. I’m going to be a Muggle, no matter what, even if it means I have to stop being a Radley.”

â€�“Then what is the point in everything that’s being done for you now?”

â€�“There is no point. That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to say. I don’t want any part of it. And I don’t want you to be involved either. It’s obvious that you’ve not been happy at school this term - all your letters sounded miserable apart from when you were talking about Quidditch, and you’ve barely mentioned Dorian since you’ve been home. I don’t want you falling out with your friends because you think you’ve been defending me!”

Adrian didn’t know what to say. Somewhere, he could hear some logic in what his brother was saying, but he wasn’t ready to accept it yet. Instead he stood up, gathered up his chocolate wrappers and walked out of the room.

***

Adrian didn’t see Samuel before he left the next morning. Their father was due to Apparate him to King’s Cross, while Theia ensured Samuel got back to the Institute safely. Adrian was both sad and a little relieved. He hated leaving home after the argument they had had the previous night, but he also wasn’t sure whether he would have been able to make things right that morning. He just couldn’t accept that Samuel wanted to be a Muggle. Why would anyone want that if there was even a slim chance that they could have so much more?

He was surprised that Samuel had said their dad agreed with him, and had specifically asked Edward to take him to the station so he could find out if it was really true. Adrian was certain that his mum agreed with what he thought about Muggle-borns and would have supported his actions the previous term, and he had assumed his dad would too. The more he thought about it however, the more he realised that he had never actually heard his dad talk about the Muggle-born laws, or do more than just nod when his mum had ranted.

Samuel had to be back at school earlier than Adrian, which left Adrian and his father home alone for a couple of hours in the morning. Adrian had finished all his packing before breakfast and had put the finishing touches to his holiday homework. When he finally plucked up the courage to speak to his dad, he found him in the study, frowning at some paperwork. However, when Adrian entered the room, Edward looked up and smiled.

â€�“Everything all packed?” he asked.

â€�“Yes, Dad,” Adrian replied. â€�“But I wanted to ask you something.”

Seeming to sense that the conversation they were about to have was important, Edward put down the parchment he was reading and looked up. â€�“Why don’t you sit down?”

â€�“Samuel said to me last night that he wanted to go to Muggle school,” Adrian said once he sat down in the desk chair opposite his father.

His dad nodded. â€�“He has told me that too.”

â€�“But I thought you and Mum had decided that he should go to the Squib Institute so he could live like one of us?”

â€�“We did. When Samuel’s condition was first discovered, your mother and I had to make decisions how about how we would bring him up and what sort of education he would have. At the time, he was very young and not really able to decide for himself so we did what we thought was best.”

â€�“Does that mean you don’t think the Institute is the best place for him anymore?”

â€�“I don’t know, Adrian. I know that Samuel has been talking a lot to his teachers about the possibility of going to a Muggle school where he would get a more academically focused education than he has at the moment.”

Adrian couldn’t quite believe his dad seemed so calm about the whole thing, and perhaps Edward could sense his frustration, because he asked, â€�“Do you think it is a bad idea?”

â€�“Mum has always said that Samuel is still a wizard, but that he was just born without magic. I thought he went to the school to allow him to keep living in the wizarding world. If he goes to a Muggle school wouldn’t it be letting the people who have stolen his magic win?”

â€�“If Samuel’s magic has been stolen, then do you think leaving the Institute would prevent him from one day getting it back?”

Adrian thought for a moment. â€�“No, probably not,” he said at last. â€�“I still don’t understand though. Why would he want to leave the wizarding world?”

â€�“I don’t think Samuel really feels like he belongs in this world. Yes, we may have always said that he is just a wizard born without magic. But what does that really mean? There is so much he can’t do and will never be able to do in our world. Every teacher he’s had has said he is very clever and has so much potential, but without being able to do magic, he’s never going to be able to use the talents that he does have.

â€�“Think about this way. You are very good at flying. Remember how angry you were when you found out that Quidditch had been cancelled. Imagine being told that you could never fly again. It wouldn’t be fair on you to stop you being able to do the thing that you’re best at.”

â€�“It’s not the same,” protested Adrian.

â€�“But it is, of course it is.” Edward paused. â€�“I’m going to tell you a story,” he said. â€�“When I was in my last year at Hogwarts, more than anything in the world I wanted to work at Gringotts. I passed all the entrance exams to get in to the bank and I knew I would be really good at it. But my mum and dad didn’t think working in with goblins was a respectable career, so they made me apply to the Ministry instead. Now, of course, I do enjoy my job, but sometimes I wonder how different things would have been if I’d been able to do what I wanted after I left school.

â€�“When you and Samuel were born, I promised that I would always support you, no matter what you wanted to do. And that hasn’t changed just because Samuel is a squib. He has thought a lot about this, and I will be speaking to his teachers as well to make sure they agree, but if he wants to go to a Muggle school, then I will do everything in my power to help him make it happen. He is very clever. I am sure he would have been a Ravenclaw like me had he gone to Hogwarts. I want to see him achieve great things and be the best he could possibly be.”

Edward had become very serious all of a sudden. â€�“I can’t tell you what to think or force you to support him, but I really hope you will be able to, Adrian. I would hate to see you boys fall out.”

â€�“What about Mum? She’ll never agree.”

â€�“I’m not going to give her the option. I don’t want you to say anything about this to her yet. I will tell her myself very shortly.”

Adrian nodded. â€�“I’m still not sure I understand why,” he said, â€�“but I suppose he should be able to do what makes him happy. And there’s still a chance that one day his magic will come back and he’ll be able to come back and be a wizard after all.”

Edward sighed. â€�“Adrian, there’s something else we need to talk about,” he said. â€�“I can’t tell you too much, but I want you to be careful at Hogwarts this term. Sometimes, things aren’t as straightforward as they seem. I don’t want you to get yourself into trouble, of course, but don’t just accept everything that people tell you. Sometimes there’s a lot more going on that you realise. Do you understand?”

Adrian wasn’t completely sure he did, but his father seemed so urgent that he just nodded.

â€�“Good. Right, we’d better be going. Go and fetch your cloak and I’ll get your trunk downstairs.”

Suddenly all the seriousness was gone and his father was bad to his normal self. Adrian headed back to his room with his head swimming and a million and one questions swirling round his head. He wasn’t completely sure what his father had been trying to tell him, but he had some ideas. Suddenly, all the doubts that had been rising in his mind at the beginning of the holidays had flared up again, and Adrian found himself wondering yet again exactly what he was supposed to believe.

Adrian was safely on the train by eleven that morning, and was soon joined by Hector and Duncan, both full of tales of what they had been up to over Christmas. Adrian found he didn’t really need to talk much with the two of them chatting at a hundred miles a minute.

His thoughts instead turned to Samuel and the conversation he’d had with his dad. He knew he wasn’t quite ready to accept that Samuel just wanted to abandon their world and even though what his dad had said made sense, it was still confusing.

And there was all the other stuff. He obviously wanted Adrian to question things, but what exactly? His mother, his teachers, his friends? Why hadn’t he just come out and said exactly what he meant? This had always been his father’s way though. He never just gave them the answers; he waited for them to figure them out along the way, with just the odd hint here and there.

Adrian didn’t feel quite ready for the answers he thought his dad was trying to give him though. It was easier simply to push it to the back of his mind for the moment.

In general the conversation in their compartment on the train was light-hearted. Duncan seemed to have spent most of the holidays trying to convince his parents that he should leave school after his O.W.Ls in the summer.

â€�“What use are N.E.W.T.s to a professional Quidditch player, anyway?” he asked. â€�“I’m better off getting a head-start in one of the junior squads.”

â€�“But what will you do after you retire?” asked Hector.

â€�“Coach, of course!” Duncan replied with a grin.

â€�“I’m don’t want to leave school a minute before I have to,” said Hector. â€�“I don’t want to live in the real world and have to earn money and cook my own food and clean!”

Adrian nodded. â€�“Same here!”

â€�“Besides,” Hector added. â€�“Who knows how much longer the Quidditch league will be able to continue.”

The atmosphere in the carriage changed suddenly with Hector’s comment. Clearly, the conversation was about to take a much more serious turn.

â€�“Has anything happened at home over the holidays?” Duncan asked.

â€�“My aunt has gone.”

â€�“What do you mean, gone?”

â€�“She left. She heard from someone that the Ministry were about to take her in for questioning and she wasn’t prepared to stick around and find out. Mum’s devastated. We haven’t heard from her since. She said it would be too dangerous to try and contact in case they’re watching us. We don’t even know if she’s alive or still in this country or anything.”

â€�“Wow,” murmured Duncan.

Adrian wondered what could have happened to cause Hector’s aunt to have to go on the run. He knew that Hector’s dad had died when he was younger and his aunt had helped out him and his mum a lot since.

â€�“She hasn’t done anything wrong, you know,” Hector suddenly said, seeing Adrian’s frown as he tried to figure out the situation. â€�“It’s just…a misunderstanding.”

â€�“Oh yeah, of course,” Adrian replied. â€�“Sorry about that, mate. I’m sure she’ll be okay.”

He knew there was definitely more to the story than Hector had said, but he didn’t really want to hear it. He had already lost one group of friends that year and he wasn’t about to lose another by arguing about things happening outside Hogwarts that he realised he didn’t quite understand.

â€�“We should probably get changed,” Duncan said at last.

As the boys changed into their robes, the easy atmosphere gradually returned and they were soon chatting and joking normally again.

When the train arrived at Hogsmeade, however, things took another turn for the worse. The three boys almost literally bumped into another group emerging from the next carriage. Adrian started to apologise but then looked up and realised who he was speaking to.

Before him stood Dorian, Gemma and Rosa. Dorian gave him a kind of awkward smile, but the other two just stared at him coldly. No one spoke until eventually Duncan coughed and said, â€�“C’mon, Adrian, we’re going to miss the carriages at this rate!”

â€�“Oh yeah, right,” Adrian replied, turning away from the other fourth years to follow Duncan and Hector off the train.

â€�“Wow, that was awkward,” Duncan said, once the three of them were safely in a carriage, rolling towards Hogwarts. â€�“I take it you’re still no closer to making up with them?”

Adrian shook his head. â€�“I’m not sure we ever will,” he said sadly.

â€�“One of the girls looked in a bit of a bad way - Gemma, isn’t it?”

â€�“Yeah, maybe she’s been ill. I wouldn’t know - I haven’t spoken to any of them in ages.”

Adrian had been surprised at how awful she looked. There had been dark circles under her eyes and she looked like she’d lost a lot of weight over the holidays. The intensity of the look she had given him hadn’t changed, however, and it was clear that whatever else was going on, she was still determined to hate Adrian. He wasn’t sure they could ever be friends again, even if he could accept that maybe he had been wrong at the beginning of the year. And he still didn’t really know if he had been.

â€�“What did you even fight about, anyway?” asked Duncan.

â€�“Oh, it doesn’t matter. I’d rather not go into it all again,” Adrian replied quickly, all too aware that if the other boys knew the details of the argument, they’d probably ditch him as well. He was obviously in the minority with his opinions, which he couldn’t understand, given how sure of them he’d been until only a few weeks ago.

â€�“Yeah, don’t bring the mood down, Dunc,” Hector said. â€�“We’re nearly there, thank goodness, and then we can eat! Plus, I’m shattered.”

Hector did look tired. Adrian suspected that the situation with his aunt had been weighing on him more than he’d let on.

The rest of the evening past without incident. As was customary on the first night back, most people headed to bed straight after dinner, tired after the long day of travelling and having done most of their catching up with friends on the train journey.

Adrian arrived in the dormitory just as Dorian was getting in to bed.

â€�“How was your Christmas?” he asked awkwardly while he was changing into his pyjamas.

â€�“Quiet,” Dorian replied. â€�“But Lana showed her magic for the first time which was quite exciting.”

â€�“Cool. What did she do?”

â€�“Nothing too dramatic. She made all her vegetables vanish. They turned up in Mum and Dad’s wardrobe.”

Adrian laughed. â€�“Sounds like fun.”

â€�“Mm, it was.”

â€�“Dorian?” Adrian spoke again after a few minutes of silence.

â€�“Do you think maybe we could be friends again?”

He heard the other boy sigh. â€�“I don’t know, Adrian. Gemma’s going through a really difficult time at the moment - she really needs her friends to be there for her and I don’t want to let her down.”

â€�“What if…what if I could speak to her, and say things have changed?”

â€�“Have they changed?”

â€�“I…I don’t know. Maybe. There’re lot of things I’m not sure about.”

â€�“Then it’s not enough. Sorry, Adrian. I really want everything to be how it was before but it’s just not.”

â€�“I understand,” Adrian replied quietly, shocked to find tears forming in his eyes.

He had decided to ask the question after the incident on the train. He knew more than ever that he wanted to be friends with the other fourth years again. He had been so sure that Dorian must want the same thing as well. But now he wasn’t sure he would ever be able to change enough for them to accept him again.

The first evening back at Hogwarts seemed to set the tone of the term. Adrian and Dorian didn’t speak again, even when they were alone in the dormitory, and Adrian reverted to spending most of his time in the library or with Hector and Duncan in the common room. He wished more than anything that they could go flying but even though Cadwallader had appealed to the Headmaster to allow them to train, he had insisted that it was still too dangerous.

There were some changes to their lessons however, particularly with the Carrows. The fourth years had Defence Against the Dark Arts on a Tuesday morning. When they arrived in the first week, Professor Carrow was waiting, a thin smile on his face.

â€�“Good morning, class,” he said once they were all seated. No one responded. It was a pretty much universally acknowledged fact that the Carrows were unpopular and even Adrian struggled to respect them. He knew they had been hired by the headmaster and so must have demonstrated some skills but so far he didn’t feel he had learnt a great deal from either of them. And they seemed far too quick to give out detentions.

â€�“I am sure you will all be pleased to hear that there have been some adjustments to the syllabus this term. The Ministry has decided that it would be more beneficial for us to change the focus of your classes in order to ensure you get a more well-rounded education.

â€�“From now on, this class will be renamed to ‘Dark Arts’ and we will widen our focus to learning about the history of the Dark Arts and some of the spells and their uses that have often been associated with the Dark Arts. Rather than only thinking about the defending yourselves from these spells, you will learn how to cast them, and when you might find yourself with cause to use them.”

There was silence in the room. Adrian could see Gemma sitting a few seats away from him, frowning. Eventually, when it became clear no one else was going to speak, she put up her hand.

â€�“Sir,” she said, her voice dripping with derision, â€�“Why do we need to learn to use spells that are illegal?”

â€�“I don’t believe I asked for questions,” the professor snapped. He flicked his wand and a pile of books that had been sitting on his desk began to distribute throughout the room. â€�“These are your new textbooks. Please begin reading on page twelve, making notes on the key points. Practical work will begin next week. I expect silence.” He glared at Gemma with this last remark but she just stared defiantly back at him, not even flinching under his gaze.

There was a moment of tension and Adrian wondered who would be the first to break the stare. Eventually it was Carrow who hissed, â€�“Is there a problem, Miss Millar?”

It seemed that the whole class was holding their breath while they waited for Gemma to respond, but after a brief pause she simply dropped her eyes and muttered, â€�“No, Sir.”

Adrian was surprised. It was very rare for a class with the Carrows to go by without some sort of altercation with Gemma and Adrian was sure she must spend more days in detention than out of it. She would normally never let an opportunity to complain pass her by, but the look on her face today, while defiant, was tired. The dark rings under her eyes seemed even more pronounced and it seemed to Adrian that she just didn’t have the energy for one of her usual arguments. He couldn't blame her - some days he wondered why she could never just sit back and be quiet - life would be a lot simpler for her. Still, he couldn't help but wonder what was going on to make her look so worn out.

He didn’t have much time to dwell though, as the rest of the class had already settled down to start reading the new textbooks. With a sigh, Adrian too turned to page 12 and began reading. The rest of the class passed quietly and the fourth years breathed a collective sigh of relief when at last they were released for lunch without incident.

Over the next few weeks, Dark Arts quickly became Adrian’s least favourite subject. Professor Carrow very quickly moved to practical lessons and while he didn’t have the fourth years practicing the nasty curses they were learning about on each other, there had been a long line of different animals, mostly bugs or small mammals, presented to the fourth years. Most people didn’t put much effort into their spells but it was still obvious that they were causing pain to the creatures.

â€�“I don’t understand,” he finally said one night to Hector and Duncan, â€�“why they need to teach us that stuff. Is it really coming from the Ministry?”

â€�“Oh that’s exactly where it’s coming from,” replied Hector darkly, but he didn’t elaborate.

The new syllabus definitely didn’t seem to tie in with Adrian’s previous ideas about the Ministry though. How could the people responsible for protecting them, the people who had done their best to get justice for Samuel, also be the ones forcing teenagers to learn spells that they would never need to use? As far as he could see, the only explanation was that the Carrows were following their own agenda, not one dictated by the Ministry. But then they had been hired by Professor Snape, who was appointed by the Ministry, and so did that not mean that ultimately the Ministry was still responsible?

It hurt Adrian’s head just thinking about it. In fact, he spent a lot of time in the first few weeks of term feeling increasingly distracted by everything that was happening. Samuel wasn’t speaking to him, or at least he hadn’t sent him any letters yet, and even though Adrian knew he needed to apologise, he couldn’t quite bring himself to write the words. He thought about writing to his dad but he wasn’t really sure what questions he wanted to ask - nothing really made sense to him anymore.

All the hard work he had done for his classes the previous term seemed to be quickly unravelling and he was really struggling to pay attention in class, earning himself more than one telling off from his professors. Hector and Duncan joked about him being in love and other stupid things, which Adrian just laughed off.

It was in a Muggle Studies class in early February that his lack of concentration finally came to a head though.

Professor Carrow was droning on and on about something while the class were supposedly taking notes. Adrian was barely even pretending to listen, instead doodling on his parchment.

â€�“Adrian!”

The first time someone hissed his name, Adrian thought he might have imagined it and so he kept going with elaborate doodle of a Quidditch game, but a few minutes later he heard his name again, and this time he looked up and was surprised to see Gemma staring intently at him from the next desk.

â€�“What?” he mouthed to her.

â€�“I need to tell you something,” she whispered. â€�“Take this.” She shoved a piece of parchment on his desk, knocking in to a bottle of ink as she did so, causing it to fall to the floor and smash.

â€�“Radley!” Professor Carrow snapped, looking over the source of the disturbance. â€�“What are you doing that is more important than my class?”

â€�“Nothing, P…Professor, it was just an accident,” Adrian stuttered, but it was too late. The Professor had marched over to where he was sitting. After frowning at the pool of ink on the floor, she looked at the parchment and saw Adrian’s doodling.

â€�“I see you don’t feel the need to take notes in my class, Radley. Perhaps a detention will teach you to pay attention. Report to my office this evening at seven. And clear this mess up!” she snapped.

â€�“Yes, Professor,” Adrian replied, doing his best to mop up the ink and clear the broken glass with his wand as Carrow made her way back to the front of the room.

When he was sure she was once again engrossed in her lecture, Adrian stole a quick glance at Gemma. He expected to see her looking apologetic or at least a little worried, but she had a small grin on his face and even though she was studiously avoiding his gaze, he could see a gleam in her eye.

He opened the piece of the parchment she had slipped over to him, which had luckily avoided the deluge of ink, and frowned. There was nothing written on it. He flipped it over but the parchment was completely blank on both sides. What on earth was going on? Had she actually meant to get him in trouble?

The fourth years were soon dismissed for lunch and as soon as they were in the corridor, Adrian rounded on Gemma. â€�“What the hell are you playing at?”

Gemma looked blank. â€�“I don’t know what you mean, Adrian. Don’t blame me for your clumsiness.”

â€�“It was you that knocked that ink on the floor and you know it! You wanted me to get detention.”

â€�“Oh yeah? Well prove it! You’re just such a goodie two shoes, you can’t handle the fact that for once you got a detention! Well boohoo, now you know how the rest of us feel!”

The other fourth years had gathered round them, obviously expecting some sort of fight.

â€�“I don’t get detentions, because unlike you I know when to keep my mouth shut. Don’t pretend to be some sort of martyr just because you can’t shut up in class. You’re not exactly helping people locked in detention are you?”

â€�“Oh you have no idea, do you? Just wait until tonight!”

â€�“You’re completely off your head, Gemma, do you know that?”

He was fairly certain that she would have launched at him at that point if Professor McGonagall hadn’t rounded the corner.

â€�“What on earth is going on?” she snapped. â€�“You should all be at lunch. Go to the Great Hall immediately. Radley and Millar stay behind.”

The other fourth years dispersed, clearly disappointed that the fight had been broken up.

â€�“I don’t know what has got into the pair of you,” the Professor said when the three of them were alone. â€�“I don’t want to hear it!” she continued, holding up her hand as both Adrian and Gemma started to argue. â€�“I’m too busy to worry about your teenage arguments, but I would have thought you would both have realised that there are far more important things going at the moment than whatever has happened between the pair of you. Now go to lunch.”

â€�“Yes, Professor,” they both muttered, before following the direction of the other fourth years.

Adrian was careful not to look at Gemma as they walked down the corridor. He was fuming. How dare she get him in trouble and then lie about it. She had been content enough not talking to him for months - why suddenly decide she wanted a fight now?

When they reached the Great Hall, they immediately separated, Gemma to sit with the people Adrian had once called friends, while he went over to Hector and Duncan.

â€�“What on earth happened to you?” Duncan asked. â€�“You look like you could kill someone.”

â€�“I’ve got detention with the Carrows tonight, thanks to her,” he spat, glaring in Gemma’s direction.

â€�“Ouch,” Duncan replied. â€�“Sorry mate, at least it’s only one night.”

â€�“Have you two had one?”

â€�“Nah, we don’t usually mess around in their classes and the other teachers don’t really give out detentions now they have to send everyone to those two. Not that it stops McGonagall assigning extra homework of course,” Hector added, shuddering. â€�“I’ve got write an extra foot tonight and I’ve already struggled to fill six inches.”

â€�“Well maybe enlarging rather than transfiguring your mouse wasn’t the best idea then,” Duncan retorted.

â€�“The look on Lucy Pritchard’s face was worth it though.”

Duncan laughed. â€�“Yeah, maybe.”

Adrian found himself joining in. Even though the evening would be a pain, his two friends had at least managed to take his mind off the argument with Gemma and whatever her problem with him was.

As the time approached seven however, he began to feel a lot more nervous. He didn’t really know what happened in the Carrows’ detentions but he didn’t think it could be anything good.

After a quick dinner, he joined the small queue of people outside Professor Carrow’s Muggle Studies classroom. Most of the others were from older years but there were a pair of second years there too, looking terrified.

At exactly seven o’clock, the door opened and Professor Carrow’s voice ordered them to enter. Adrian followed the others in to the room and sat behind one of the desks. Both Carrows were in there, watching the students closely as they entered.

â€�“Radley,” the Muggle Studies teacher snapped once they were all seated. â€�“Come to the front of the room. Bring your wand.”

â€�“I was surprised to have to give you this detention, Radley,” the Professor said once Adrian was standing at the front of small group. â€�“You have always been such a model pupil. Perhaps you can prove to me that you still are.

â€�“I believe you have been learning the Dolorem curse in your Dark Arts classes, correct?”

Adrian nodded.

â€�“I would like you to demonstrate that curse now.”

Adrian looked around, confused. There were no animals or other targets in the room. What was he supposed to do?

â€�“Professor, I don’t understand,” he said quietly.

At this point, the other Carrow stepped forward, a small smile on his face. â€�“Jones, up front now,” he ordered and one of the second years rose, shaking slightly.

â€�“Thank you, Professor,” the Muggle Studies professor replied. â€�“Jones will be your target, Radley. Focus the centre of the spell on his left arm.”

â€�“Professor, I…”

â€�“I don’t want to hear any arguments, Radley. You are in detention and you will obey my instruction.”

Adrian didn’t know what to do. The Dolorem curse was designed to inflict pain on the victim. It was not as powerful as the Cruciatus Curse and involved targeting a specific area of the body but it was still a nasty curse, one which Adrian knew was illegal.

For a moment he held his wand up towards the second year, who had his eyes closed and his fists clenched, anticipating the curse. He tried to summon the curse, but the words just wouldn’t come.

â€�“Professor, I can’t,” he said at last. â€�“It’s against the law.”

â€�“It is permitted within this classroom. You will not get into any sort of trouble.”

â€�“Can I not do something else instead?”

â€�“You do not get to choose your punishment, Radley. But if you refuse to show us your abilities with this spell, Professor Carrow will demonstrate it for you.”

The Dark Arts teacher stepped forwards and before Adrian could say another word, he heard the incantation hissed and suddenly a horrible pain shot up his arm. It was an ice cold pain and though he did his best not to cry out it was difficult. When the spell was lifted, he was shaking.

â€�“Do you understand now, Radley?”

Adrian nodded. How could he do what he had just experienced to this kid who was barely older than Samuel? The thought of someone inflicting pain on his younger brother made him feel sick.

â€�“We are waiting, Radley,” the Professor snapped but before Adrian could respond, he heard the incantation again and held his breath, waiting for the pain. Instead, he heard a cry and looked up to see the second year clutching his arm.

â€�“My spell is far more powerful than yours will be, Radley. You can save him further the pain by doing as you have been instructed. Alternatively I will ensure that everyone in this room suffers more as a consequence.”

Adrian was hit with the spell again, this time down his leg. It buckled under him and he fell to the ground. He heard someone laugh. With great effort, he forced himself to stand again and pointed his wand at the second year. The boy’s eyes were closed again, and this time, Adrian didn’t stop to think before he muttered the spell.

The boys cry haunted him for a long time afterwards and it was all Adrian could do not to cry too. He released the spell almost immediately and Carrow sneered at him. â€�“You are not the person we hoped, Radley.” Another spell was hissed and pain hit Adrian again but this time it spread throughout his body, like every part of him was on fire. He heard his own voice shouting out but the pain didn’t stop. Even once the spell was lifted he could still feel spasms rippling through his body. One look at the second year told him that he had undergone the same treatment.

â€�“Sit down, both of you,” Carrow snapped.

Adrian was ignored for the rest of the detention but instead had to watch the other students cursing each other. Some barely hesitated and most seemed to have decided that having watched Adrian, it was easier to simply obey than try to fight. It was clear that for some of them, this was not their first time and they just wanted the time to pass as quickly as possible. The session passed in a daze for Adrian. His joints ached and all he wanted was sleep. When at last they were released, he stumbled back the common room alone, the only Hufflepuff who’d had detention.

It was getting late and the common room was quiet, but the first person he saw when he entered was Gemma, sitting with Dorian and Rosa. The other two didn’t look up, but she fixed him with a stare, almost as if she was waiting for him to say or do something.

He wasn’t about to give her the satisfaction though. He knew now why she had wanted him to get detention, what she had wanted him to see. And even though he was overwhelmed by the horror of it all, he was still furious with her for doing it.

He couldn’t bring himself to speak to her and instead headed straight to the dormitory without looking at anyone. Still fully clothed, he lay on his bed, and for the first time since he could remember, he cried himself to sleep.

It was the early hours of the morning when Adrian woke, still fully clothed on his bed. He could hear the steady breathing of Dorian on the other side of the room, telling him that his roommate was fast asleep. Luckily the curtains were closed around Adrian’s bed so the other boy wouldn’t have seen the state he was in.

Trying to stay as quiet as possible, Adrian changed into his pyjamas and got under the covers properly. Once there though, he suddenly found himself unable to sleep. The pain and exhaustion from earlier on had gone, and now his brain wouldn’t switch off and his thoughts just kept swirling round and round in his head.

He hated himself for casting the curse on the boy. At the time it felt like he hadn’t had a choice but he must have done. He could have refused. The boy would have been even more hurt, but surely that still didn’t make it okay?

He thought about Gemma and how often she was in detention. He was very rarely still up when she returned so he had no idea what sort of state she was usually in. Did the Carrows have her as the caster or the victim? He thought he probably knew the answer to that question. They wouldn’t have someone as outspoken as her doing the casting. Surely she would be the one they would make the others torture in an attempt to break her down. But still she continued to cause trouble, kept landing herself in more and more detentions.

It was her fault Adrian had been there. She had known exactly what would happen to him in that room. But why? Why did she care so much? What had she thought she was going to achieve? Was this just revenge? She obviously didn’t want to be friends again but did she really want him to get hurt? Or was she trying to show him something? Adrian already knew the Carrows were bad teachers. He already suspected that they weren’t really following a Ministry approved syllabus, though of course he still found the detention shocking. He just wasn’t sure what to do with the information. He briefly thought about going to Professor Snape but he thought the headmaster probably already knew what was happening and was choosing to ignore it.

Perhaps the school was not under the control of the Ministry anymore. Adrian couldn’t possibly believe that the Minister of Magic would let such things happen. He had heard so much talk about He Who Must Not be Named, maybe he was behind what was happening in the school? Though why were so many people just letting it happen? After all, it was the Ministry who had declared Hogwarts attendance compulsory. Unless that was He Who Must Not be Named as well? But then if he could influence the Ministry, what did that mean?

At some point in his thoughts, Adrian must have dropped off, because when he woke up the dormitory was empty. He glanced at the time - he was late for breakfast and would miss his first class if he didn’t hurry. After rushing to get ready, he joined the rest of his class outside Charms just in time, if a little out of breath due to running from the common room. He was hungry, but hopefully could wait until lunch to eat.

Dark Arts followed Charms and Professor Carrow glared at Adrian when he entered. It was clear the Professor’s opinion of him had changed a great deal after the previous day, which Adrian found confusing. Had they really thought he would perform the spells without question? Was that the kind of person they thought he was? Was that how everyone thought he was? He didn’t even know who he thought he was anymore. At the beginning of the year all he had cared about was his brother and his friends and now he had lost his friends and hadn’t spoken to his brother since Christmas. Were they the ones with the problem or had it been him all along?

That evening, he wrote to Samuel.

Dear Samuel,

Sorry I haven’t written for so long. And I am sorry for what I said at Christmas. I just want you to be happy, so I think you should do what you want. I miss talking to you.

School is the same as always - I have too much homework to do! I am already looking forward to the holidays again but Easter feels like a long time away.

I hope you are having a good term.

Adrian.

The letter didn’t seem enough somehow, but he wasn’t sure what else to say. He just hoped his brother would read it and forgive him.

He had avoided Hector and Duncan most of the day, choosing to eat lunch and dinner alone. He knew they would ask about detention and he didn’t really know what to tell them - definitely not the truth anyhow. He had also avoided having too much contact with the other fourth years. He couldn’t stand the thought of the smug look he imagined on Gemma’s face or the pointed blanks from Dorian. They could all go to hell.

It took a few days for things to start getting back to normal. He began spending a lot more time in the library and though he was eating with Hector and Duncan again, it wasn’t the same.

He couldn’t help feeling a little pathetic. After all, some people were in detention every night, going through the same horrible experiences day after day and they seemed to cope. But they had friends to support them. Adrian’s friends hated him, and those that didn’t would if they really knew him.

To make matters a little worse, he didn’t get any reply to his letter to Samuel. He wondered if this meant his brother hadn’t forgiven him at all.

He really wanted to speak to his dad but he didn’t think he could put everything he wanted to say in a letter. Maybe the Easter holidays would give him an opportunity to finally ask all his questions.

Lessons with the Carrows became unbearable. Now they had decided that Adrian was not on ‘their’ side, they began to target him as badly as anyone else. He never spoke out of turn and put as much effort in to the lessons as possible, but still they found reasons to snap at him and he couldn’t help feeling that it was only a matter of time before he ended up in another detention. He just couldn’t understand why; what had he done that was so bad except refuse to hurt some kid two years younger than him? He knew really though that even in this small way, he had proven to the Professors that he wasn’t like them and that he wouldn’t be part of whatever they were trying to achieve. Now if only he could prove that to everyone else as well and prove it in a way that wouldn’t hurt Samuel.

There was one other problem for Adrian. Though he never really admitted it to himself, the truth was that he still found it difficult not to believe everything he had been taught by his mother and the Ministry. He so desperately wanted to believe that there was a chance for Samuel to be a wizard one day and their explanations had always made so much sense to him. It was obvious that life wasn’t as simple as he had first thought, but he wasn’t quite ready to let go of his most fundamental beliefs.

Most of the details of that year in Hogwarts would eventually fade from Adrian’s memory, but even decades later there were things he could still recount with complete accuracy, including something that happened early in March, a month after his first detention with the Carrows.

It didn’t seem like a particularly special evening at first but it was one that Adrian would remember as changing everything for him.

Unusually for him, he had gone to the common room rather than the library after dinner and was playing a game of Exploding Snap with Hector and Duncan. Inevitably, the game had become rather rowdy and a few of the other fifth years had joined in, while more gathered round to watch. Hector had just won a particularly dramatic round when the door to the common room opened. Initially no one paid much attention - there were always people coming and going in the evening but gradually a silence fell through the room and the boys playing cards looked up to see what was happening.

Professor Carrow stood at the door, looking straight at the card players.

Immediately the game halted and everyone stopped talking. Though more common over the last few months than ever before, a Professor in the common room was still relatively unheard of.

â€�“Radley,” the Professor called, â€�“come with me. Now!”

Adrian rose and without seeming to think about it, the other students moved aside, creating a clear path between him and the Professor. He stole a quick look at Hector and Duncan who gave him concerned glances before looking back at the Professor.

Adrian followed Carrow out of the door. Without realising it, he had started shaking. He tried to think back to everything that had happened over the last few days, searching for anything that could have got him into trouble, but there was nothing.

He could feel the eyes of everyone in the room on him as he left and he knew that everyone would be wondering what he had done, and what was about to happen to him. The one thing they could all be sure of was that it could not be anything good.

The Professor led him in silence to his office where someone else was waiting for them. Adrian didn’t recognise the man, who was dressed all in black and had a stern look on his face.

â€�“Adrian Radley?” he asked as they entered. Adrian nodded.

â€�“My name is Ralph Richards, from the office of the Muggle-born registration committee. I have been instructed to escort you to the Ministry of Magic for questioning. The headmaster and your parents have been informed. Do you understand?”

Adrian nodded again. In truth he had about a thousand questions but he doubted the man was going to answer any of them. To test his theory, he tried the most obvious one. â€�“Sir, why am I being taken? I am not a Muggle-born.”

â€�“Everything will be explained at the Ministry. I have not been given orders to reveal any further information beyond escorting you to the Ministry.

â€�“We shall be travelling by Floo powder. I trust you are familiar with this mode of transport?”

â€�“Yes, Sir. What destination should I say?”

â€�“It won’t be necessary. This fire place is set up with a direct network to the Ministry. There are no other possible exits. I will go first and wait for you. The Professor will ensure you follow promptly.”

Adrian realised this was being done to make sure there would be no opportunity for him to run away at either side. Something was obviously seriously wrong if it was a situation they suspected he would want to run away from. Still, he was confused. He was not a Muggle-born and he had not done anything in the last week that could be cause for Ministry questioning. He thought of Gemma and of the others who caused trouble everyday but were never punished beyond the detentions with the Carrows.

It did make him question the Ministry’s relationship with the school however. Things could not be all that bad if they still had a direct connection, and if members of the Ministry were allowed to simply remove pupils from the school without notice.

There was no further time for questions or even for thinking, however, as the man from the Ministry threw powder in to the flames and vanished. Carrow threw another handful into the grate and pushed Adrian forward. â€�“Don’t try anything stupid,” were his last words as Adrian stepped in to the flames and Hogwarts vanished behind him.

It was unlike any of his previous experiences with Floo Powder. This time there were no other fireplaces, no other exits along his journey, just a black, silent tunnel which eventually came to an end with him stumbling out of a fireplace somewhere he didn’t recognise. Almost instantly a hand grabbed his arm and held him upright. It was the man who had speaking to him minutes before. Another man, also dressed all in black, stood on Adrian’s other side.

They were in a small square room with bare walls and floors, empty except for the fireplace from which he had just emerged and a door immediately opposite. The men marched Adrian towards the door and they into a corridor with other doors going off to the left and right.

Adrian had only been to the Ministry a few times in his life, when he had occasionally accompanied his dad to work, but he had never seen anywhere like this. They walked for a few minutes, twisting and turning down different corridors until finally, just when Adrian was sure they must be lost, they ground to a halt outside one of the many plain black doors. One of the men used his wand to open it and they led Adrian inside.

The room was already occupied by a man who sat at a table, looking tired and worn. It took Adrian a minute to realise that this was in fact his father but when he did so, his heart leapt. He felt suddenly confident that whatever this was, it couldn’t be anything too awful if his dad was here. Surely Edward would never sit by while his son was mistreated or forced to do things he didn’t wish to do.

Edward looked up as the door opened and he gave Adrian a reassuring smile before glaring at the other men. â€�“I hope you have not mistreated him. He is not even of age yet. I think it’s absurd that you have even insisted on bringing him here - this could just as easily have been done at the school.”

â€�“It is policy that all questioning take place in Ministry premises and it has been deemed necessary to speak to your son regarding this matter. We have allowed you to be present at this questioning but you must stay silent. Any further arguments will lead to us being far less accommodating.”

Adrian took the seat next to his father, while the two men sat on the other side of the table. Adrian looked at his father, trying to find some sort of clue as to what was going on from his face. He looked older than the last time he had seen him, and as if he hadn’t slept properly in weeks. His face was drawn and frown lines creased his forehead. He did not speak again, but Adrian could tell that something was wrong. Whatever he was going to be questioned about, he was obviously going to have to answer extremely carefully.

â€�“Tell us about your brother,” said the man whose name Adrian didn’t know.

â€�“Samuel?” he asked, confused. â€�“What do you want to know?” This wasn’t exactly the line of questioning he had been expecting.

â€�“What is his blood status?”

This was a strangely loaded question. Surely, they must know that Samuel was a Squib, so why were they asking? And what was even the answer - a few months ago, Adrian would have known for sure, but now he didn’t have a clue. He felt his father tense beside him and he knew his answer was important.

â€�“He’s a pure-blood,” he said, trying to sound confident. He was being questioned by the Ministry after all and this is what they would want to hear.

â€�“So why is he not at Hogwarts?”

â€�“He doesn’t have magic, Sir.”

â€�“Why not?”

This was the big question, the toughest one to answer, but the most important one to get right. It was something Adrian had tried not to really think about in a long time, but now he knew he had to give his old answer, even though he didn’t really know if it was what he believed anymore.

â€�“He was born without it, Sir, because it was taken from him by Muggle-borns.”

His questioner nodded his head, and Adrian felt relieved that this was indeed what they had wanted to hear.

â€�“Does Samuel believe the same?”

â€�“I think so.”

â€�“Has he ever spoken to you about not wanting to be a wizard?”

â€�“No, Sir.” Adrian’s reply was just a little too quick and he saw the man’s eyes narrow.

â€�“I hope you are being honest with us, boy. Lying now could have severe consequences for both you and your family.”

â€�“I am, Sir. Samuel is happy at his school but I’m sure he would rather be at Hogwarts if there was any way for him to obtain magic.”

â€�“You wrote a letter to your brother recently, didn’t you?”

â€�“Yes, Sir,” Adrian replied, wondering how they could possibly know this.

â€�“Can you tell me what it said?”

â€�“I…don’t remember exactly. We had had an argument at Christmas and I wanted to apologise.”

â€�“You told him that you wanted him to be happy and that he should do wanted. What exactly does that mean?”

Adrian started to hear the words of his letter read back to him, but suddenly it occurred to him that maybe the reason Samuel had never replied was that the message had never reached him. He paused for a moment, trying desperately to think of an answer to the question that would sound convincing.

â€�“He, um, he wanted to take a wizarding history class but I said he would be better off doing Arithmetic so he might be able to work in the Ministry with Dad and we had an argument about it. It was silly really.”

The questioners frowned. Adrian knew he wasn’t saying what they had expected but he desperately hoped it would be enough to keep Samuel out of whatever trouble it seemed he may be in.

â€�“Surely you have heard enough from my son now! It is very late at night and he needs to get back to school,” Edward interrupted at this point.

â€�“Mr Radley, you will not be warned again. You will wait here while we step out of the room to confer.”

The two men rose and left, shutting the door firmly behind them and leaving Adrian and his father alone.

â€�“Do not speak.” The sound of his father’s voice made Adrian jump. It sounded so loud inside his head. He looked at him, but his father was staring straight ahead.

â€�“I am using magic to communicate with you without speaking. You won’t be able to reply - it’s a very tricky form of magic. They will be watching us though, so do not speak. They want you to say something wrong.

â€�“I am not sure what has happened. I think one of Samuel’s teachers may have told the Ministry that he has been talking about going to Muggle-school and they are not happy about it. They want to contain Squibs in the Institute and they don’t want them living in the Muggle world. You did well, Adrian, thank you.

His father sighed, out loud this time before his voice entered Adrian’s head again.

â€�“I am worried about what they might do to Samuel. I believe he could be arrested for attempting to join the Muggle world so I am taking him out of the country. You will be safe here so long as they believe what you have told them. It is better for you to stay than try to run with us as I do not know how I could get you out of school without suspicion and we can’t wait until the Easter holidays. Your mother will believe that I have left her. It is too dangerous for her to know anything else. You must act as if you know nothing until she communicates with you.”

He could obviously see how much Adrian was fighting to speak but he just gave a small shake of his head. â€�“I am sorry, Adrian, there is no other way. You won’t be able to speak to us for a while. I am asking a lot of you but I know you will not let us down.”

The voice stopped and they simply sat in silence. Adrian was not sure long they were waiting before the men came back in to the room.

â€�“You may leave,” said Ralph Richards. â€�“I will escort you back to Hogwarts immediately. Mr Radley, you will be accompanied back to your home address.”

â€�“I am sure I can find my own way,” Edward replied stiffly.

â€�“The only way to leave this part of the building is accompanied by a department employee so unless you wish to remain here indefinitely, you will need to accept the escort.”

His head whirling, Adrian barely remembered to say goodbye to his father before they were separated, led to separate rooms to be transported to their respective locations. He wished there was more he could say to make his farewell more meaningful, more suitable for what could be a final goodbye.

As before, he travelled via Floo Powder as it was impossible to Apparate to Hogwarts, seemingly even for Ministry employees. Ralph Richards went first, while the other guard threw the powder into the flames for Adrian and pushed him forwards. Moments later, he arrived back in Carrow’s office, where the Professor was waiting.

â€�“I will return you to your dormitory as it is past curfew, Radley.” He gave a curt nod to the guard who returned the gesture before disappearing back in to the fireplace.

They moved through the corridors in silence and it was not until they reached the entrance to the common room that Professor Carrow spoke. â€�“You will tell no one of what happened this evening. If questioned, you will say that you were serving detention. I am sure no one will find that too difficult to believe.”

â€�“Yes, Professor.”

Thankfully, Carrow stopped short of actually following Adrian to the dormitory. The common room was empty when he stepped inside; he had obviously been gone longer than he realised. Glad not to have to talk to anyone, he made his way silently to bed.

He was lying with his eyes shut when he heard Dorian speaking quietly.

â€�“Are you okay?”

Adrian didn’t answer. He had nothing to say.

When the silence continued, Dorian tried again. â€�“It’s just, I thought something might have happened to Samuel.”

â€�“Leave me alone, Dorian,” Adrian said wearily in reply. â€�“You’re not supposed to care anymore, remember?”

This got no reply, and after a while Dorian’s familiar regular breathing filled the room and Adrian too closed his eyes, hoping for a sleep that he feared would be beyond him that night.

---

As he had predicted, Adrian did not sleep that night. Once or twice he dropped off in to a doze, but it was always short-lived and plagued with nightmares of his father and Samuel getting caught and thrown into Azkaban.

The result was that the following morning he was exhausted. He knew he must look a state, but he didn’t really care. He left it as late as possible to go down for breakfast so that he could avoid any awkward conversation and then once he was in class no one really spoke to him anyway. He did catch more than one person staring at him when they thought he wasn’t looking. It was obvious that everyone was wondering what exactly had happened to him the night before.

He wished he could talk to someone about it, but Carrow’s warning was still ringing in his ears and he knew that he definitely couldn’t reveal anything that his father had communicated. He would just have to wait to hear from his mother - assuming that everything went to plan, of course. He couldn’t help but wonder whether his father had even made it home the night before, or if he had been able to get Samuel safely out of school, or made it out of the country yet. There was so much that could go wrong and he had no idea what would happen to them if they were caught.

He hadn’t really stopped to think about his mother a great deal over the last few weeks but now that he did, he realised how awful this would be for her. At least Adrian knew the truth, but she would only think that he had left her. He knew it was for the best - his father would never have been able to convince her to leave with him and this way she would be so angry with him that she would never defend him should she herself be questioned, meaning no suspicion would fall on her. Losing Samuel would be the hardest part though. No matter what else she thought, no one could deny that Theia loved both her sons, and for one of them to just vanish would be heart-breaking.

Adrian just about made it through the day’s lessons in one piece and without getting into any trouble. At lunch he made up a story about detention which seemed to satisfy Hector and Duncan, as well as the people nearby who were eavesdropping to see what they could find out.

That evening he decided to go for a walk. It wasn’t something he ever really thought about doing, but he couldn’t stand the noise of the common room or the silent claustrophobia of the library. He needed to be outside in the fresh air. More than anything he wished he could fly, but of course that was impossible. He hadn’t even bothered to bring his broom back to Hogwarts after the Christmas holidays.

The sun was still setting early and there wasn’t much time for wandering. He decided to skip dinner and go out while there would be no one else around. He could always get something from the kitchens later on.

He circled the castle and eventually came to rest by the lake. It was a mild evening and so he sat on the banks for a few moments, just staring out on to the horizon. He was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn’t hear footsteps approaching and so he almost jumped out of his skin when someone started speaking.

â€�“It’s Adrian, right?”

He looked up to see Bethany, Hufflepuff’s former Quidditch Keeper standing over him.

â€�“Do you mind if I sit down?” she asked when he didn’t reply.

â€�“Not at all,” he said, shifting slightly.

She lowered herself onto the grass next to him, and sighed a little as she looked out across the lake.

â€�“You didn’t fancy dinner tonight either then?” she asked.

Adrian shook his head. â€�“Too many people about.”

â€�“I know that feeling.”

Adrian was surprised to hear her say that. He didn’t know her very well as she was two years older than him, but she always seemed to be surrounded by friends, chatting and joking.

â€�“The Carrows treated you roughly, did they?” she asked after a few moments of quiet.

â€�“I…yes,” he replied, not really sure how much to say. Luckily she kept talking, however, saving him from too much awkward conversation.

â€�“Makes you wonder how they can get away with it. But I suppose there isn’t really anything to stop them nowadays. Especially not the headmaster.”

â€�“What about the Ministry?” Adrian asked, keen to get someone else’s opinion on what was really happening in London.

She didn’t answer him, or at least not directly. â€�“What do you think?” she said instead, sounding genuinely curious.

Adrian sighed. â€�“I have no idea. I thought I did, but I’m not sure anymore.”

â€�“There’s nothing wrong with changing your mind.”

â€�“But how do I know if I’m changing it to the right thing?”

â€�“You can never be sure of that.”

He was very close to saying too much and he knew it. But Bethany seemed so easy to talk to and for once it was nice to be speaking to someone who knew nothing about him, who didn’t have any expectations and wasn’t judging him for his beliefs.

Neither of them said anything for a while. The sun was beginning to set, and it was getting dark. Adrian knew they would have to back inside soon but he wasn’t ready just yet.

â€�“My mum is a Muggle-born,” Bethany said at last, still staring straight ahead, almost as if she was telling the air rather than speaking to Adrian. â€�“My father is a pureblood which means I’m okay, but she’s in prison. I don’t even know if she’s still alive. She never did anything wrong. She even gave herself up to the Ministry because she thought it would be better for me and Dad.”

She laughed, bitterly.â€�“Dad lost his job not long before Christmas. He refused to abandon her and no one will hire him now. He’s not worth the trouble. So he’s struggling to pay the bills and worrying about her at the same time.”

â€�“I’m sorry,” Adrian said, though the words sounded hollow and not enough for the pain she must be feeling. Instead he decided to share his own story.

â€�“My brother is a Squib,” he started. The words sounded strange in his mouth, he was so unused to saying them.â€�“I always thought he was a wizard without magic and that perhaps he’d had his magic taken from him in some way but I don’t think that’s true anymore. He’s a Muggle really and that’s what he wants to be. He told me he wants to go to Muggle school, but the Ministry found out and won’t let it happen.

â€�“I think my father has taken him out of the country but I suppose I may never know for sure. He was worried about what they might do to Samuel if he tried to go to Muggle school. I always thought the Ministry were supposed to protect us and that they would look after people like my brother but they’re only really interested in keeping them hidden away in an Institute. Suddenly they seem like the enemy.” It was the first time he had allowed himself to say the words out loud and it felt strange to finally acknowledge the doubts that had been plaguing him for weeks.

â€�“You’re not the only one who thinks that, Adrian.”

â€�“I know, but for so long I was so sure they were right. How can I just change my mind now? No one would believe me, and even if they did they would think I was only doing it because of Samuel, not because I really care.”

â€�“Why does it matter why you’ve changed your mind so long as you have? Everyone has a reason for believing what they do. Would I hate the Ministry so much if my mother wasn’t a Muggle-born? Probably not. Would I be doing more to fight if I wasn’t worried about the impact it would have on my father? Yes, maybe. We all have our reasons, Adrian. I’m sure your friends would understand that. It doesn’t mean you care any less.”

He thought of Gemma and Dorian and wasn’t so sure. He still believed that too much had happened between them for things to really change. But perhaps they weren’t the only people he could talk to. There was Hector and Duncan as well. Maybe he could talk to them and explain how he was feeling.

â€�“I don’t know if my friends will ever forgive me,” he said.

â€�“They might, if you give them the chance. They probably have their own reasons for acting how they do. I don’t think there’s anyone who hasn’t been affected by whatever is happening at the moment.”

Adrian thought of Gemma’s worn appearance and how quick she was to argue against anyone who supported the Ministry. He knew Bethany was probably right. He had just been too blind to think too much about anyone else’s problems until now. All he had seen was someone who just seemed determined to cause trouble in any way they could.

â€�“It’s dark,” Bethany said a few minutes later. â€�“Do you want to get some food?”

â€�“Sure,” Adrian replied. â€�“Thanks for, you know, chatting.”

â€�“That’s okay, kid. Anytime. We all need people to talk to now and then.”

The wandered up to the castle in silence and headed down to the kitchens. The elves were as obliging as ever and soon Adrian was completely stuffed. When they had both had had their fill, they made their way back to the common room. He was glad that it was late and there weren’t many people there to see them arrive. Hector and Duncan weren’t in the room, nor were the fourth years, so Adrian was able to slip off to bed without too much attention. He felt a lot better after his conversation with Bethany but he still struggled to sleep yet again. He kept thinking of his father and brother and wondering where they were, and then wondering how his mother was handling it all. He wondered if the Ministry would come back asking more questions once they’d disappeared or whether they’d believe from his previous interrogation that he didn’t know anything. He wasn’t convinced he would be able to lie well enough a second time around.

The night seemed to pass agonisingly slowly and yet again he was up well before breakfast time. He may as well not have been in his lessons that day, and the final straw came when he actually started snoring in Charms. Luckily, Professor Flitwick took pity on him and sent him to the Hospital Wing, where Madam Promfrey didn’t ask any questions and simply put him straight into bed with a dreamless sleep potion. His last thought before he fell asleep was relief that for yet another evening he could avoid the common room and the risk of any awkward confrontations.

The next evening he was not so lucky, however. He slept straight through until breakfast, at which point Madam Pomfrey woke him up and discharged him, with instructions to come back that evening if he was still struggling to sleep.

Duncan waved him over when he got to the Great Hall.

â€�“Are you okay, mate? You’ve hardly been around the last couple of days.”

â€�“Yeah, I’ll tell you about it later,” Adrian replied. At some point he had decided that he was going to tell the boys as much as he could about Samuel and the situation in the hope that they might be able to understand.

He watched the post owls anxiously that morning, hoping to see his parents’ tawny among them, but there was nothing. He thought about the way the Ministry had intercepted his letter to Samuel and wondered if the same thing might happen to his mother’s. Or maybe she just hadn’t written it yet. She may even wait until Easter to tell him though he hoped not. He needed to know that his mother was at least okay and that his father had left as planned.

It was a good day in that there were at least no lessons with the Carrows, which meant Adrian could relax a bit. By the time evening came he was feeling a little bit more like himself and ready to finally have a proper conversation with his friends.

He wasn’t really sure how to bring it up but luckily Duncan saved him. â€�“What were you going to tell me earlier?” he asked at some point after dinner, when the three of them were sitting alone in a corner of the common room, supposedly working on their homework.

â€�“It’s quite a long story,” Adrian began.

â€�“That’s okay, we’re not in any hurry,” Hector replied. â€�“There’s obviously something going on with you.”

â€�“Well, it’s my brother. I don’t know if I’ve ever told you before, but he’s a Squib.”

And with that the story began and for the next half hour, Adrian just talked without any interruption. He told them everything, going back to when they were growing up and Samuel had broken his leg falling out of a tree trying to prove he had magic and how he had cried when Adrian had started Hogwarts.

â€�“He says now that he doesn’t care and I think he’s happy but I saw how difficult it was for him growing up, trying to understand that he wasn’t the same as us. I saw how angry it made my mother when people in Diagon Alley would stare or talk about us behind our backs. I think we all wanted someone to blame, except Samuel perhaps. He didn’t notice other people in the same way that we did.”

The story continued until eventually he reached that year. For once he was honest about his fight with Gemma and how he and his mother had celebrated the Muggle-born laws.

â€�“I thought it was the best thing for Samuel. I thought they wanted to help him and I thought that no one else could really understand because they hadn’t been through what my family had.”

Then he tried to explain how he had changed his mind, how his father had helped him realised that perhaps the Ministry wasn’t always right.

â€�“And now, I can’t say how I know, but my dad and Samuel have had to leave the country, before they got arrested. Samuel told me at Christmas that he wanted to go to Muggle school and I was angry with him. I tried to apologise but I don’t think he even got the letter, so now he’s somewhere far away and he doesn’t even know that I’m sorry.”

At this point he stopped talking and took a minute to steady his breath, hoping that he would not start crying. He could barely look at his friends. He was so worried that they would get angry with him, or refuse to speak to him ever again. After a minute though, he felt an arm on his shoulder and he looked up to see Hector.

â€�“Sounds like you’ve had a rough time, mate.”

â€�“I…don’t you hate me?” Adrian asked, confused. â€�“I mean, your aunt, I used to think it was better for Muggle-borns and people who helped them to be in prison.”

â€�“You had your reasons. We’ve all had our reasons for believing what we do and yours were good reasons. It’s not because you hated people or thought less of them. You just wanted to protect your brother and I’m sure most people can relate to that.”

Duncan was nodding. â€�“I can’t believe you’ve been keeping all this to yourself. Did you really think we wouldn’t want to speak to you again?”

â€�“Well look at my old friends. I’ve known Dorian since we were kids and he doesn’t even really look at me anymore.”

â€�“Have you ever properly spoken to him about this stuff?”

Adrian thought back to the fierce arguments from the beginning of the year, the occasional hushed conversations in the silence of the dormitory and the quick glances during lessons or at meals. â€�“No,” he admitted.

â€�“Well maybe you should. They might surprise you.”

Adrian shrugged. One conversation had been enough. He wasn’t sure he would be able to handle another one as draining as this.

â€�“I don’t know,” he said. â€�“I think it might be best to leave it for a while. I might go to bed.”

He said goodnight to the boys and made his way up the stairs. Though he was exhausted, the relief of having finally spoken to someone about everything was huge. He hoped that he might sleep a little easier that night. He had been careful to leave out the details of the trip to the Ministry; he worried that the Carrows would have some way of knowing if he told anyone, but other than that, he had told the two boys everything and he already so much lighter.

He had only just climbed into bed when the door opened and Dorian came in. He changed in to his pyjamas in silence, as always, and Adrian was almost asleep when the other boy spoke.

â€�“Is it all true?”

Adrian was startled awake by the sudden sound. â€�“Is what true?” he asked, his mind a little hazy.

â€�“Everything you said to those fifth years.”

â€�“How did you hear that?”

â€�“I was there. I had to finish my Potions homework so I tried to find a quiet place to sit. I didn’t realise you were there until it was too late to move. I wasn’t trying to listen in.”

â€�“Did the others-?”

â€�“I was on my own. No one else heard. You should tell them though.”

â€�“Gemma already knows about Samuel, why would it make any difference telling her stuff now?”

â€�“She would know you’ve changed your mind for one thing, and perhaps she would understand it better if she heard you speaking. You’ve never really told us that stuff before, about Samuel breaking his leg or the people talking about you.”

â€�“Gemma wasn’t interested in hearing what I had to say at the beginning of the year. I could have done with a friend then so why should I go crawling to her now?”

â€�“Gemma’s had her own stuff to deal with, Adrian. I know sometimes you think there is nothing beyond your own family but surely now you can see how much trouble this has caused for everyone? Just look around you - we’re the only two people here and that’s not because the other boys are on some sort of holiday.

â€�“She would support you now, I know she would, especially if you told her everything you told those two boys, but you’d have to support her too. She wants to be your friend again, Adrian. I know she does. She was worried when you disappeared with Carrow the other night and I know that she got you in detention on purpose but she still felt guilty about it. Please, just speak to her and I know you could be friends again.”

â€�“Maybe,” was all Adrian could say in reply. He thought back to Bethany’s words a couple of days ago. They were all trying to deal with some sort of problems that year - had he really just been too selfish to care?

I’ll speak to her tomorrow. He wasn’t sure if he said or only thought these final words because moments later, he was fast asleep.

---

The tomorrow Adrian had thought of so hopefully as he fell asleep on Thursday evening never happened.

He woke up that morning after the best sleep he had had in a long time. Dorian had already gone, but for once Adrian didn’t worry about it, knowing that by that evening, he might actually have his friend back for good.

He didn’t notice that there was anything wrong immediately. As usual, he ate breakfast with Hector and Duncan and had become so used to not bothering to look for the fourth years in the Great Hall that nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It wasn’t until he reached his first class, Muggle Studies, that he realised Gemma was absent. Dorian was looking worried while Rosa seemed as if she might have been crying, but of course with Professor Carrow there it was impossible for Adrian to ask what had happened.

The lesson dragged even more than usual and Adrian wasn’t sure how much more he could take listening to yet another lecture about how stupid Muggles were. No one else seemed to be listening either and when the class finished, Adrian couldn’t actually have told anyone what the topic was. He was too concerned with trying to speak to Dorian and find out what was happening.

The class was dismissed a little later than usual, however, and Adrian had to rush to make his Ancient Runes lesson, while the other Hufflepuffs dispersed to their various OWL choices. He didn’t get to see the other fourth-years again until lunch, when he found Dorian and Rosa having a serious conversation at the far end of the table, a place they had obviously chosen for its distance from any other students. Duncan and Hector weren’t in the Great Hall yet, so Adrian headed straight for the other two.

â€�“Dorian, what’s going on?” Adrian asked when he reached them.

Rosa glared at him. â€�“Don’t suddenly pretend you care,” she snapped. â€�“For all we know, this is something to do with you. You’ve been awfully cosy with the Carrows after all.”

â€�“Rosa,” Dorian said, putting a hand out to stop her. â€�“It’s not like that. You know Adrian’s been having a hard time with them too. Besides, we talked last night, and things have changed. He’s one of us now.”

â€�“And we’re just supposed to believe that? Tell me it’s not a little bit too convenient - he tells you he’s had some big change of heart and the next thing we know, Gemma’s missing!”

â€�“Gemma’s missing?” Adrian asked, raising his voice in shock.

â€�“Shh…keep your voice down!” hissed Dorian, glancing warily at the teachers’ table. â€�“We’re not sure yet. We need somewhere better than this to talk.”

â€�“The lake,” said Adrian at once, thinking of his conversation with Bethany. â€�“It’s usually quiet down there in the evening, and I don’t think anyone would be able to listen in without us seeing them.”

â€�“Fine, there’s not enough time now, but meet us down there after dinner.”

â€�“Why don’t we just skip dinner?”

â€�“It’ll look too obvious, and we don’t want to draw attention to ourselves.”

â€�“What exactly is going on?” asked Adrian. He was starting to feel like he had walked in to something a lot more sinister than he had realised.

â€�“We just don’t know, and that’s the problem. I’m going to try and find out and then we’ll tell you everything tonight.”

Adrian nodded.

â€�“Adrian,” said Rosa, her voice calmer than it had been before. â€�“Don’t come if you’re not 100 per cent with us.”

â€�“I am,” Adrian replied and was immediately surprised at how confident he sounded. Had he really changed his mind that quickly?

The afternoon passed agonisingly slowly. Dorian rushed off as soon as they were dismissed and Adrian saw him entering the Great Hall a little while later from the outside entrance. Professor Sprout arrived a few minutes later and Adrian wondered if Dorian had been at the Greenhouses trying to get information from their Head of House about Gemma’s absence.

He sat with Duncan and Hector again that evening, though the two older boys commented on his earlier absence.

â€�“We saw you talking to Whitbread at lunch,” Hector said idly. â€�“Is everything okay?”

â€�“Yeah I think so. He overheard me last night when I was talking to you. I think maybe we might be able to make things up again.”

Duncan grinned. â€�“Sounds good, mate. These things never last forever. Just don’t forget about us once you’ve got your real friends back.”

Adrian smiled back. â€�“I could never. Though if you decide to bugger off and join a Quidditch team in September I may not have any choice.”

Duncan’s face suddenly darkened. â€�“Doesn’t look like that’s going to be an option anymore,” he replied.

â€�“What?” Adrian asked, confused. â€�“I thought your parents were coming around?”

â€�“They were but then they remembered the new law.”

â€�“What new law?”

â€�“Last summer, it was made law that every young witch and wizard had to attend Hogwarts. I thought we’d still be allowed to leave after OWLs like in the past, but Mum and Dad looked in to it and we’ve got to stay for the full seven years.”

Adrian vaguely remembered hearing about the law, though he hadn’t thought too much about it at the time because of course he was always planning to be at Hogwarts anyway.

â€�“I’m sorry,” he said, sympathetically. â€�“But the teams will still be there for you when you’re done with NEWTs.”

â€�“I just didn’t want to have to spend another two years in this place,” said Duncan with a sigh. â€�“I know there are worse things of course, but I just feel so trapped here. And goodness knows how I’m supposed to pick subjects I’m actually good enough at for NEWTs. I’ll be lucky to scrape a handful of Acceptables in my OWLs.”

â€�“Surely things aren’t as bad as that?” Adrian asked.

â€�“Yeah, I’m pretty stupid,” Duncan replied, though he was smiling now.

â€�“You’ll figure something out, I’ve been telling you,” Hector cut in. â€�“Stop worrying about it until it happens. You never know, the law might change back before then.”

The mood had taken a turn for the worse at the table and none of them talked for a while. Adrian instead concentrated on the apple crumble he now had in front of him. He was already feeling anxious to meet Rosa and Dorian but he sensed it was important to try and do things as normally as possible and that meant sitting and eating dessert.

â€�“I’m going to head outside for a walk,” he said when they were all finally finished eating.

â€�“Want some company?” Hector asked.

â€�“I think I’ll be okay,” said Adrian, trying to sound casual.

Hector shrugged. â€�“Okay, have fun.”

Rosa was sitting a little further down the table with the other fourth-year girls but Dorian was nowhere to be seen and so Adrian headed outside alone.

It was another nice evening, which he was grateful for as he didn’t have his cloak. He walked briskly in the direction of the lake, where he could just about make out a figure sitting on the banks, skimming stones.

â€�“Hey,” he called out, when he was a little closer. â€�“Still okay for me to join?”

â€�“Of course.” Dorian smiled but it didn’t quite seem to reach his eyes which were lined with worry.

â€�“Have you been able to find anything?”

â€�“I think so,” he replied cautiously, â€�“but I’d rather wait for Rosa and tell you both together. She shouldn’t be long.”

â€�“She was in the Great Hall when I left.”

â€�“Yeah we agreed to come down separately. We’re still not really sure how much the Carrows are watching.”

Adrian wanted to say he thought they were being a bit over-suspicious but he knew he didn’t really understand what was going on and maybe Dorian had good reasons for being so, so he kept his mouth shut.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, Rosa joined them.

â€�“Everything okay?” Dorian asked shortly.

â€�“Yeah, they’d already left when I finished - probably got another a detention to supervise,” she said bitterly. â€�“What have you managed to find out?”

Dorian sighed deeply. â€�“I think they have her.”

Rosa gasped. â€�“Oh no. Are you sure?”

â€�“No, but it makes the most sense. I spoke to Ernie and he said they saw her last night before she went to detention but that she never came back to the common room and he hasn’t been able to get out of anyone exactly what happened last night. So I went to Sprout.”

â€�“Was that really a good idea?”

â€�“We have to trust someone and I don’t really think Sprout would be against us. Anyway, she wouldn’t tell me anything outright, but from her hints, I think she knows something and I don’t think it’s good.”

â€�“Do you think she’s…”

â€�“I don’t know,” Dorian cut her off before she could finish. â€�“But we shouldn’t think about it.”

Adrian had only been half following the conversation. It was obvious Dorian needed to tell Rosa what was going on but now he needed to understand the background.

â€�“You’re going to have to catch me up,” he said apologetically. â€�“I’m not sure I understand.”

â€�“You know Gemma’s been doing her best to cause trouble for the Carrows don’t you? I mean, none of us like them, but she’s really been trying to disrupt them. She got involved with the Dumbledore’s Army group and was part of a lot of their stunts, including the Quidditch game,” he added before Adrian could ask. â€�“She’s had her reasons for it and I’m not going to go in to it because it’s her business but believe me when I say she’s been fighting for what she believes is right.

â€�“Anyway, she’s been getting involved in more and more dangerous stunts with the older students. Last night she had a detention and I don’t know what they were planning but she obviously went too far.”

â€�“She usually comes back late, so I fall asleep but she always wakes me to tell me she’s back safely.” Rosa took over the story, tears shining in her eyes. â€�“Last night, I fell asleep and then I woke this morning and she wasn’t in her bed. She went to detention and just hasn’t come back. You know what those detentions are like, Adrian. Anything could have happened.”

â€�“We hoped she might have run away, but if she had the others would know something. She wouldn’t have just taken off without a plan. So all we can think is that either the Carrows have hurt her so badly she couldn’t come back or they have taken her somewhere. I just wish we knew where. We do know her dad has been causing problems too at the Ministry and we’re not sure if Gemma is being punished for that as well.”

â€�“You don’t think Azkaban?”

â€�“I honestly don’t know, but it doesn’t look good.”

Adrian sat back in the grass. â€�“Wow,” he breathed. â€�“I had no idea it was that serious.”

â€�“Well you wouldn’t would you?”

â€�“Rosa, not now.”

â€�“No, Dorian, why shouldn’t I be allowed to challenge him after the way he’s treated us this year?”

The way I’ve treated you?” Adrian spluttered. â€�“You’re the ones who cut me off, who refused to so much as look at me.”

â€�“Because you believed they were right. You were so blinded by your precious brother that you ignored everything else that was going on around you, no matter how obvious it was.”

â€�“Don’t you dare have a go at my brother!”

â€�“Oh yeah? What are you going to do about it?”

Suddenly Adrian realised that he was on his feet, his wand pointing at Rosa, who held a similar stance opposite him.

Before she could say anything else, he dropped his wand to the ground. â€�“I was wrong okay? I get that now.” He sank back on to the grass, all the adrenalin draining from his body. â€�“Though I had my reasons too. Gemma isn’t the only person who thought she was doing the right thing. I was doing what I believed in too. I didn’t want to hurt any of you. We just believed in different things, but I know now that she was right and I was wrong.

â€�“The Ministry are going after my brother now. They talked for so long about protecting him, about the Squibs being the reason they were taking a stand against the Muggle-borns and yet as soon as he tried to do something different, to not be what they wanted him to be, that all changed. Now I don’t know if I’ll ever see him again. I don’t know where he is either.

Rosa had lowered her wand and though she was no longer glaring at him, she hadn’t made any move to sit back down.

â€�“We have to support each other,” Dorian said wearily. â€�“Can’t you see that the only thing this has shown us is we can’t let stuff like this drive us apart. We have to be strong if we’re ever going to beat them. Rosa, Adrian is sorry. He has said he was wrong and he can’t change what’s happened. It’s time to move on. And we should say sorry too, because we could have been there for him more, or at least made more of an effort to understand what was going on.”

Rosa said nothing.

â€�“Please,” Dorian begged. â€�“I can’t stand this anymore.”

â€�“Fine,” she muttered at last. Tears were rolling down her cheeks in earnest now. â€�“I just can’t…What if we never see her again?” she whispered.

Neither of them replied.

They sat out there by the lake until it grew dark and eventually Adrian suggested they should make a move.

â€�“What happens now?” he asked as they started walking back up to the castle.

â€�“I don’t really know. I don’t think there’s anything we can do to get her back if the Carrows have her. I suppose we just have to keep going.”

Adrian didn’t really know what to keep going meant. He had admitted he was wrong but he wasn’t sure he was ready to stand up to them. He was still all too aware of the fact that he didn’t know where Samuel and his father were. If there was any chance that the Ministry had them, any chance at all, then he couldn’t do anything that may risk their safety.

It took him a long time to fall asleep that night. Over the last couple of days there had been so much new information he almost didn’t know where to start processing it all. A lot of the boxes that had held questions before were starting to be filled however, and the more he learnt the less he liked it.

Gemma was a fifteen-year-old child, for Merlin’s sake. What business did they have arresting someone like her? They were just at school! Did they really see her as a big enough threat that she had to go? What would that mean for the rest of them?

He had to decide what would happen next. The one thing this did show him was that they could make a difference. Gemma was just one person and yet she was seen as enough of a problem to get rid of her. Maybe if they could all cause those problems, they wouldn’t be able to get rid of them all, and eventually they could be beaten. Maybe it was time to stand up to the Carrows.

He couldn’t do anything until he knew what had happened to his father and Samuel though. The Easter holidays began in a week and at that point he would know whether they had been successful in leaving the country. If they had, he would come back to school and do his father proud. He somehow knew that this was something that would make his father proud. This was what he been waiting for Adrian to figure out all along. Adrian wondered how much his father knew, how much he had already been involved. Dorian had mentioned Gemma’s mother so obviously this was something that was going on in the real world, not just inside the walls of Hogwarts. Could Adrian’s father have had a part in that?

There was too much to understand right now, and yet for the first time it felt as though all the pieces of the puzzle were finally fitting into place. If he could just make it to the holidays and get home to see his mother, then those final questions might be answered, and Adrian could finally start doing what was right.

â€�“Are you a member of this Dumbledore’s Army?” Adrian asked Dorian when they were both changing for breakfast the next morning. Adrian was even more exhausted than before he went to sleep, having slept badly, and was still not really sure what to do next. It was a Saturday at least so he didn’t need to worry about classes.

â€�“No,” Dorian admitted. â€�“They don’t really let many people our age in. Gemma practically had to force them. I suppose I haven’t really done anything to help.”

â€�“What can we do though?”

Dorian shrugged. â€�“I’ve been asking myself that all year. I settled on just trying to be there for Gemma, and helping her out where I could.”

â€�“What happens now that she’s gone?”

Dorian sat back down on his bed and slumped his shoulders. â€�“I have no idea. I thought about trying to join the DA myself but I still don’t think they’d take me, especially now Gemma has disappeared. And I’m not convinced I’d be good enough at magic to do it. But it feels like such a waste to just do nothing. What do you want to do?”

It was a simple enough question, but it was the one that had kept Adrian tossing and turning all night and the truth was that he still didn’t really have an answer. Now that he had finally admitted that he had been wrong, he felt as if he needed to do something to show that he was serious. He was just stuck about what.

â€�“I don’t know,” he said in answer to Dorian’s question. â€�“I think I need to wait until I can be sure my dad and brother are safe, but maybe after the holidays we could….I don’t know.” He trailed off. The situation just seemed so unbelievably hopeless. What could they actually do?

â€�“I suppose we just keep going,” Dorian said. â€�“Keep going to class and ignoring everything the Carrows say, and wait for an opportunity to do something that might make a difference.”

â€�“Yeah,” Adrian replied. â€�“I guess you’re right.”

He sat with Dorian and Rosa at breakfast that morning but afterwards he found Duncan and Hector sitting outside on the grass, supposedly revising but in reality throwing bits of rolled up parchment at each other.

â€�“You’re going to do great in your OWLs,” Adrian said, rolling his eyes.

â€�“We’ve been working very hard actually,” Duncan replied indignantly.

â€�“Some of us need to,” Hector snorted.

Adrian laughed. It was amazing how these two could cheer him up even though everything seemed so bleak at the moment and it wasn’t as if they didn’t have their own problems.

â€�“How’re things, Adrian?” Hector asked.

â€�“All right,” said Adrian, settling himself on the grass next to them. He really should have brought down some of his own homework to do but he was too tired to concentrate. Instead he quickly filled the others in on what had happened with Dorian and Rosa. He didn’t give them too much information about Gemma - just that she had disappeared and they suspected the Carrows were behind it.

â€�“I just don’t know what to do,” he said, at the end of his story. He paused a moment then asked cautiously, â€�“Are either of you in Dumbledore’s Army?”

Duncan shook his head but didn’t elaborate.

â€�“It’s difficult to know what to do,” Hector said. â€�“I know with my aunt, I wanted to do something that would help her so badly, but I quickly ran out of ideas. Everything I thought of would probably only make the situation worse. I keep telling myself we’re just kids, but then so was Harry Potter and that’s never stopped him from doing anything. Maybe we’re just not brave enough.”

â€�“How do you stay so…upbeat after everything that’s happened?” Adrian asked, struggling to find the right word.

â€�“I guess we just accepted that we couldn’t change things, not really, and that at some point there’ll be a time we can make a difference but until then, what’s the point in wallowing in misery?”

â€�“Yeah,” Adrian murmured. It made a lot of sense of course, but it still didn’t feel like enough.

He spent the rest of the day not doing very much. He left the boys after a while and went back to the common room where he tried to work on his homework with little success. At about four o’clock, a rather terrified looking second-year came up to him. â€�“Adrian Radley?” he asked. Adrian nodded. â€�“Professor Carrow has asked to see you in his office,” the second-year said quickly and before heading over to his own group of friends on the other side of the room, relieved his duty for the Dark Arts Professor had been done.

Adrian swallowed down the lump that instantly rose in his throat. What on earth now?

â€�“You going to be okay?” Dorian asked.

â€�“Yeah, I’m sure it’s nothing,” Adrian said with a small smile, trying to ignore his rapidly beating heart. â€�“I’d better not keep him waiting.”

He ascended through the castle to the Dark Arts classroom where Professor Carrow was waiting for him alone. Adrian felt a little relieved by that. There were no more mysterious strangers from the Ministry to cart him off for questioning, or worse.

â€�“Sit down, Radley,” Carrow snapped as soon as he entered. â€�“My friends at the Ministry tell me your father and brother have disappeared.”

Adrian tried to keep his face as neutral as possible though his heart was now beating even faster, half from relief, half from fear.

â€�“Do you want to tell me where they are?” Carrow continued.

â€�“I don’t know, Sir,” Adrian replied.

All of a sudden he was flying backwards out of his chair, and landed on the floor a metre away, banging his head on the edge of a bookcase as he fell. He looked up in shock. Carrow was still sitting at his desk.

â€�“I don’t have time for these games anymore, Radley. I am tired of children thinking they are smarter than me or that they can keep things hidden from me and I won’t know the truth.” Spit was flying out of his mouth with every word and there was a slightly wild look in his eyes. Adrian wondered Dumbledore’s Army was finally succeeding in making Carrow feel less in control of Hogwarts than he had been.

â€�“Stand up,” the Professor snapped. â€�“You look pathetic down there.”

Adrian quickly scrambled to his feet, standing too quickly and causing all his blood to rush to his head, which was already a little woozy from the force of impact against the bookcase.

â€�“Now tell me, where are they?”

â€�“I really don’t know, Sir.”

â€�“One day you’re going to realise that it’s a bad idea to lie to me, Radley. You lot think you can get away with anything and all we can do is give you a detention but believe me, you have no idea of our real power, or what’s really happening in the world. I have already dealt with one of your little friends. It would take only a word to deal with you too.”

â€�“I can’t tell you what I don’t know, Sir.”

â€�“You’re weak, Radley,” the Professor sneered. â€�“And far too easily influenced. It’s pathetic. But then, looking at your family, it’s easy to see where you get it from.” He paused and then stood up and slammed his fist against the desk. â€�“See, you don’t even react when I insult your darling family!

â€�“I used to think you were someone with the right ideas but you’ve sided with the wrong people now, and it’s not going to be long before you find out the world isn’t the innocent place you’ve always believed.”

â€�“I think I’ve already learnt that, Sir,” Adrian replied, shocked at his own bravery. â€�“I learnt it from you in this classroom. And it’s not weak to admit you’re wrong. Maybe you should try it sometime.”

He almost gasped at his own cheek. What on earth was he thinking? He looked at the Professor nervously, waiting for him to react. He prepared himself to be hit by another curse and wondered how much this one would hurt.

â€�“Get out,” Carrow spat instead. â€�“Or perhaps I’ll teach you something else. That smart mouth is going to get you in a lot of trouble.”

Before anything else could come out of his mouth without him meaning to, Adrian turned and practically ran out of the room, relief flooding through his body.

By the time he got back to the common room, he thought was about to pass out. His heart was beating so fast and Carrow’s final threat was still ringing his ears. What was going to happen to him now? Would they arrest him too? Or something even worse?

He paused outside the entrance to the common room, desperate not to cause a scene with his entrance. It took a few minutes but his breath eventually returned to normal and though there was nothing he could do about the lump that was rapidly forming on his head, it wouldn’t be immediately obvious to someone who wasn’t paying attention.

The first thing he did when he entered was look for Dorian. The other boy looked up as he approached. He seemed about to say something but then stopped when he saw Adrian’s face. He mouth formed a small o of shock but Adrian gave a small shake of his head and nodded towards the common room. Get Rosa, he mouthed.

A few minutes later the three of them were safely up in the fourth-year dormitory. Adrian studied his face in the mirror and was shock by how bad it looked. He had obviously caught the bookcase at a bad angle and there was a large dark lump forming on the side of his forehead. He gingerly pressed his fingers against it and gasped in pain.

â€�“Don’t do that!” Rosa said at once. She pointed her wand at his head and Adrian immediately flinched.

â€�“Calm down! I’m just going to do something about the pain,” she said. â€�“I learnt a few healing spells for Gemma. It seemed like a way to help,” she mumbled. It was clear that she too was feeling guilty about not having done enough. She muttered an incantation and instantly the ache in Adrian’s head lessened, and when he touched his head the pain had gone.

â€�“Wow, thanks.”

â€�“I can’t do much about the appearance,” she said. â€�“I’ve shrunk it a little but you’ll still get some funny looks.”

â€�“It doesn’t hurt anymore, at least,” Adrian said. â€�“I bet you helped Gemma a lot when she was hurt.”

Rosa didn’t reply but she gave him a small smile.

â€�“Okay, enough of that, tell us what happened,” Dorian asked impatiently.

Adrian relayed his brief meeting with Carrow.

â€�“I suppose we know that they’re responsible for Gemma’s disappearance then,” Dorian said when he was done.

â€�“Yeah, but what do you suppose ‘dealt with’ actually means?” asked Rosa. â€�“You don’t think they’d do anything worse do you?”

â€�“No,” said Dorian firmly. â€�“Things are bad, but we’re not at a point where they’d kill a teenage girl just for a speaking up in class and pulling a few stunts. We can’t even think about it.”

Adrian didn’t think they’d have killed her either but he couldn’t deny it was a possibility. Dorian was right though - there was no point in thinking about it.

â€�“Either way, you need to keep your head down, Adrian. You’re a target for them now and if you ask me they’re starting to lose control. It doesn’t seem as if anyone is scared of them anymore except for the really young ones. We need to be prepared for the fact that things might get worse now. He’s shown you that tonight.”

â€�“I didn’t mean to speak like that,” Adrian said. â€�“I don’t really know what happened to me.”
â€�“Well try not to let it happen again. The last thing we need is to lose you too.”

Adrian didn’t reply. His thoughts turned to Gemma and he wondered where she was. Was she on her own somewhere, hurt, scared, not knowing what was going to happen next? He shivered. Would he be next?

***

He spent the next week on edge. Every DA lesson he waited for Carrow to call on him, or find some excuse to give him detention. In the evenings he sat in the common room, one eye constantly on the door, waiting for a summons. Nothing happened though. In fact, the Professor seemed to be completely ignoring him. By the time the end of the week and with it the start of the holidays arrived, Adrian was starting to relax again. He was still happy though to be leaving the tension of the castle for a week at home.

Or at least he was until he saw his mother. She greeted him at the station, not looking hugely different to usual. As soon as they got home though, he realised that was just for appearance’s sake. The house was not its usual pristine state - there was post piling in the hallway, unwashed dishes in the sink in the kitchen and laundry hanging out of the basket.

Theia ignored all these things. She sank in to a chair in the living room and closed her eyes. â€�“Adrian, I have to tell you something.”

Adrian tried to prepare himself to act surprised. â€�“What’s happened, Mum?” he asked.

â€�“Your father has left me. I don’t know where he’s gone.”

â€�“Why?” Adrian asked, hoping he sounded suitably shocked.

â€�“I don’t know. He was too spineless to even to tell me to my face. He left me a note,” she said, her voice cracking at the end of the sentence.

â€�“He turned up to Samuel’s school before I could get in touch with them. He told them we were withdrawing him and they let him go of course. Now he has my son and I don’t even know where they are!”

Adrian didn’t know what to do. He had never seen his mother like this before and he had certainly never seen her cry. Suddenly he felt guilty for lying to her. Surely if she knew the truth she would understand. It would make her feel better to know.

â€�“Mum, I,” he started but then he’s father’s words from the last time they had seen each other came floating to the front of his memory. It is too dangerous for her to know anything else.

â€�“I’m sorry,” he finished off.

â€�“He can do what he wants,” Theia replied stiffly. â€�“But he has no right to take my son away without a word. Don’t worry though, Adrian, the Aurors will find them and they’ll bring Samuel home to us.”

â€�“The Aurors?” Adrian asked panicking. â€�“You reported to him the Aurors?”

â€�“What else could I do?”

â€�“Maybe he thought he needed a holiday or something,” Adrian said, desperately. â€�“I’m sure they’ll come back. He wouldn’t just leave you, Mum.”

â€�“I’m sorry, Adrian, but he has,” she said. Her voice had softened as if she was only just remembering that Adrian was still a child himself.

â€�“Why don’t you go and unpack,” she said. â€�“I have a headache.” She closed her eyes and leant back in the chair. Adrian took his cue and headed upstairs to put his things away. He didn’t need much for a week at home and so it didn’t take very long, but he didn’t go back down. He couldn’t stand to be with his mother while she was so sad, especially not with everything he knew. Suddenly his father’s plan no longer seemed like such a good one. Yes he hadn’t really left her and he would be back, but would she forgive him when he came? Would she accept that he was doing the right thing?

Adrian sighed. It seemed like both he and his father would end up regretting doing what they thought was best. He just hoped that on this occasion, everything would work out.

It was the beginning of a bad week of holiday. His mother seemed to have sunk completely into a depression. Adrian did his best to tidy up, but he was hopeless when it came to the laundry especially as he was unable to use magic outside of school. He discovered there was almost no food in the house but he couldn’t get to anywhere he might be able to buy some so he sent off for an express owl order from Diagon Alley which arrived the next day.

Theia refused to leave the house. Adrian suggested she might want to go and see some of her friends in London or even just go for a walk.

â€�“How can I possibly face people after what’s happened?” she asked him. â€�“I know what they’ll all be saying behind my back. I will not give them the satisfaction of letting them see me like this.”

Sometimes, Adrian wondered if his mother cared that his father had left because she missed him, or because of what other people would be saying about it. There could be no denying that she was desperately worried about Samuel though, and more than once he heard her crying late at night after she thought he was asleep. Every morning she sent a letter off with the family owl, but every evening he returned with it still tied to his leg. Wherever his father had taken Samuel, he had done a good job of making them unreachable. While this was even more upsetting for his mother, it reassured Adrian that the Ministry were going to have a difficult time tracking them down.

Desperate to get out of the house, he arranged to see Dorian on Wednesday. Dorian was able to convince his own mother to Apparate over and collect Adrian, though Theia insisted that he was to wait outside for her and not let Mrs Whitbread in the house. Given that Dorian’s mother was supposed to be one of her closest friends, Adrian was surprised that she was being so strict but she was adamant she wouldn’t see anyone.

â€�“It’s terrible, Dorian,” he told his friend. â€�“She hasn’t left the house all week. I’m surprised she’s even changing her clothes.”

â€�“And you definitely can’t tell her the truth?” Dorian asked.

â€�“I think I have to trust Dad. He thought it was too dangerous for her to know and given everything that’s happened since, I believe him. If the Ministry came round now, they definitely wouldn’t have a hard time believing she doesn’t know anything. No one could be that good of an actor.”

â€�“It sounds rough,” Dorian said sympathetically.

â€�“At least we’re all alive and free,” Adrian said, knowing it was something to be grateful for. There was still no news of Gemma. Dorian had asked his father to enquire at the Ministry but he hadn’t been able to find out anything. She seemed to have simply vanished.

The two boys spent the afternoon outside. They had come out to the land behind Dorian’s house with their brooms and Adrian was desperate to get back in the air again. Being with his best friend on their brooms was almost enough to make him forget everything else and believe that it was this time last year, when everything had been so much simpler.

The afternoon had to come to an end of course, and Adrian was forced to face reality again.

â€�“I’ll see you the train,” Dorian said when it was time to go. â€�“I hope the rest of the week is okay.”

â€�“Thanks, I’ll see you then. ”

Dorian’s mother Apparated him home again. â€�“Are you sure she doesn’t want me to at least pop in and say hello?” she asked when they got there. â€�“I haven’t seen her in so long.”

â€�“I’m sure she’d be happy to see you, Mrs Whitbread, but she was suffering from a migraine this morning so I’m not sure it’s the best time.”


â€�“Well, please do tell her that I’m thinking of her,” she said. â€�“And if you need anything, let me know, Adrian.”

â€�“Thanks,” he replied with a smile. â€�“And thanks for having me this afternoon.”

â€�“Not at all. I must say I am glad to see you at our house again. I was dreadfully worried at Christmas when Dorian said you’d had a falling out. I’m glad it was nothing serious.”

If only you knew, Adrian thought.

Relieved that he had successfully fended her off from coming inside, Adrian made his way in to the house alone. He hated how sad and empty it felt now. â€�“Mum?” he called.

â€�“In here,” she replied from the living room.

The room was almost in complete darkness but when he moved to open the curtains she stopped him. â€�“My head,” she said by way of explanation.

â€�“How was Dorian?”

â€�“Good. His mum sent her thoughts.”

â€�“I bet she did. She probably couldn’t wait to find out all our business.”

â€�“Mum, she’s your friend! Please, you’ve got to see someone sometime. They’ll understand that it’s not your fault.”

â€�“My fault? Who suggested that this was my fault? No, it’s all your father’s doing. He didn’t even stop to think about the situation he was leaving me in. People like us don’t just leave each other, Adrian. I will be a complete social outcast after this.”

â€�“But don’t you think there are more important things than what other people think?” Adrian asked, starting to feel more than a little fed up with his mum’s attitude.

â€�“Adrian, I can’t have this conversation now. Don’t you have some homework to do?”

In truth, Adrian had done his homework on the first day of the holiday, but he went to his room anyway. At least in there he didn’t have to walk on eggshells or sit in darkness. Though he had never thought he would, he was almost looking forward to being back at Hogwarts.

It seemed to Adrian that things changed rapidly after the Easter holidays. There were more rules to follow, harsher punishments being enforced and a general feeling in the air that something bad was about to happen. There also seemed to have been a noticeable drop in the number of students at the school. Given that it was now law for everyone to attend, Adrian wondered what had happened to those who had not returned. Were they on the run like his father and Samuel or had they met the same fate as Gemma wherever she was?

He found himself thinking about her more and more often, wondering what she must be going through. Even for someone as strong and confident as Gemma, Azkaban - if that was where she had been taken - would hardly be a picnic. He remembered hearing some of the older students talking in his first year about the Dementors that had been used to guard Hogwarts the year before Adrian’s arrival, when Sirius Black had been on the run. They sounded truly terrifying, even in the safety of Hogwarts where they were kept a good distance away from the students at all times. He couldn’t even imagine what it must be like to be imprisoned with those things near you at all times. How long would they leave her there - long enough just to teach her a lesson and ensure she wouldn’t cause or any more trouble, or long enough to ensure that she simply couldn’t cause any more trouble?

Wary that it had only been a couple of weeks since his own warning from Carrow, Adrian continued to keep his head down. However in some ways, even with the constant fear that he was about to be tortured in detention or arrested in the middle of the night, he felt better in school than he had done before. He was no longer facing every lesson alone, or spending silent evenings in the library working on his homework. He had his friends back and while their group was still greatly diminished, the three of them that remained supported each other.

However, with the tension rising throughout the school, it was only a matter of time before something happened. Every day there were more disappearances, and new rumours of the Carrows’ increasingly harsh punishments were accompanied by students arriving at breakfast with fresh injuries that they were forbidden to visit the Hospital Wing to treat. Stories about what was happening outside of Hogwarts began to seep into the castle. Adrian started to hear more and more about Harry Potter and his friends. Some of the stories sounded far too ridiculous to be true, but there was one overriding message, one fundamental belief that everyone seemed to hold on to. No matter how bad things got, or how many people the Carrows hurt, eventually Harry Potter would be back and he would fight with them and help the escape the place that Hogwarts had become.

It seemed like a lot of responsibility for someone so young, but everyone Adrian heard speaking about him sounded so sure that it was hard not to get caught up in the hype as well. He found himself starting to believe that maybe things would change and they wouldn’t just have to put up with the Carrows’ treatment of them forever.

Of course, he should have known that the second he allowed his guard to drop even a little, everything would start to unravel.

It was Friday morning and after a long week, the fourth-year Hufflepuffs were having to endure another Muggle Studies lesson. There was no one who bothered to listen to these lessons now, though there was equally no one left to speak up against them anymore, which meant they usually had to sit in silence through an hour of Professor Carrow droning on about the stupidity of Muggles while they all did their best not to listen.

â€�“Good morning, class,” she greeted them, to be met with the usual silence. â€�“I thought today we should discuss some of the more undesirable elements of society, some of whom are not all the dissimilar to the lazy, arrogant Muggles.”

Expecting this to now turn in to a lesson insulting trolls or goblins or some other rubbish, Adrian let his eyes glaze over and began doodling on his parchment. The Professor’s next sentence brought him out of his daydream, however.

â€�“As you know, Squibs are those who are born in to wizarding families who do not possess magic.”

Suddenly Adrian was sitting bolt upright. He saw Dorian eying him nervously, obviously hoping he wouldn’t have been paying enough attention to hear but from the look on Professor Carrow’s face, it was obvious that this lecture was going to be aimed directly at him.

â€�“Extensive research has proven beyond doubt that these Squibs have had their magic stolen from them by so called ‘Muggle-borns’ who do not have a birth right to possess magic. However, further research in to how exactly magic is stolen has subsequently revealed that there is a certain type of person most susceptible to have their magic stolen.

â€�“These people are usually weaker than other wizards in some way. They come from parents whose blood is not strong enough to protect their magic and their pathetic inability to protect their magic when face with a challenge from disgusting Muggle filth makes them the most inferior of our kind.”

Adrian could feel rage rising in his chest but he somehow managed to keep his mouth shut. He knew this was what she wanted. This whole lesson was designed to get a rise out of him and he had to avoid taking the bait. Professor Carrow was not one to give in easily, however.

â€�“As a result of this research, the Ministry has decided that steps should be taken to remove these weak elements from our society. If it were not for their existence then we would not be plagued by the increasing numbers of Muggle-borns we find ourselves with. Steps are being taken to ensure that these worthless Squibs are contained and not allowed to further spread their pathetic and weak genes.”

â€�“They are not worthless.”

At first, Adrian didn’t even realise he had spoken. But he suddenly became aware that the Professor had stopped lecturing and the entire class was staring at him.

â€�“Do you have something to say, Mr Radley?” the Professor asked, her lips curling upwards at the sides in a sly smile.

â€�“They are not worthless,” Adrian said again, his voice louder and more confident than before.

â€�“I think perhaps you should stand up if you are going to address the class.”

Adrian rose shakily to his feet, ignoring Dorian’s mutters to shut up.

â€�“I said they are not worthless,” he repeated, his voice steady and confident now. â€�“You are wrong about them, just like you are wrong about everything else.”

â€�“Are you trying to say you know better than a Hogwarts Professor?”

â€�“Yes.”

A gasp went up around the room.

â€�“Silence,” commanded the Professor at once.

â€�“Well, well, Mr Radley,” she said. â€�“I do believe we should continue this conversation at a more appropriate time. I suggest eight o’clock, at the Dark Arts classroom. Perhaps you can think of some other things I am wrong about before then?”

Adrian didn’t answer. He started to sit back down but the Professor stopped him.

â€�“I think you should stay standing for the rest of my lecture. It may teach you how to show some respect.”

And so he spent the next half an hour on his feet while Carrow continued to lecture on the inferiority of Squibs and gave various examples of Squibs throughout history and their failures. Adrian knew that as much of the class were watching him as were watching the Professor. They were all waiting to see what he would do next. Somehow, though he had no idea how, he managed to block out the rest of the lecture. He stayed standing, staring straight ahead at the Professor, but he did his best not to hear another word she said.

When the bell rang, he was first out of the classroom. He couldn’t bear to see Dorian and have him tell him that he shouldn’t have said anything or how much danger he had put himself in. He knew all too well how stupid he had been. It was obvious the whole lesson had been there to set him up and he had risen to it. The Carrows were going to get to carry out their threats and it was all his own fault.

He spent the entirety of Ancient Runes trying to think of a way out. He couldn’t run away - the school was too closely guarded and he would be caught before he’d even left the school gates. Besides, he couldn’t use magic outside of Hogwarts, so he wouldn’t be able to get very far. He thought about just not turning up to the detention but it would just make the eventual consequences ten times worse. He wondered if he could say anything to one of the other Professors - Sprout or even McGonagall - it was obvious they hated the Carrows as much as the students did, but they were equally powerless. The Headmaster was on the side of the Carrows, and while the other Professors did as much as they could to protect the students, they couldn’t do anything if someone had been stupid enough to talk back and land themselves in detention.

At lunch, he avoided speaking to Dorian or Rosa and in Transfiguration, he sat in the back of the classroom, avoiding eye contact with anyone. This made it hard to get a quick getaway after the lesson however, and they cornered him immediately after class.

â€�“I don’t need to hear it,” he snapped before either of them could speak. â€�“I know how stupid it was okay. I know that I did everything wrong.”

â€�“I actually thought you were remarkably restrained,” said Rosa.

â€�“Yeah,” Dorian agreed. â€�“Adrian, it was obvious you were never going to be allowed to leave that lesson without getting yourself another detention. You’re not made of stone - no one could have listened to that idiot woman’s words about their family member and not said something. Did you really think we were going to have a go at you?”

Adrian nodded. â€�“Sorry, I should have had more faith in you. I’m just…used to dealing with this stuff alone.”

â€�“Well, we’re worried about you. We wanted to talk to you about how to handle detention. It’s obvious they’re trying to force you to a put a foot out of line so they can take further action.” He lowered his voice. â€�“Maybe they think if they arrest you, it might force your father out of hiding.”

â€�“Why all this just to track down one Squib?” asked Adrian, helplessly.

â€�“I have no idea. Maybe it’s about more than just one Squib. We just can’t know.”

Adrian didn’t eat much at dinner and at five to eight he got up to head to detention.

â€�“Adrian, be careful,” begged Dorian before he left. â€�“It’s probably going to be ten times worse than it was in class this morning but you have to let it go.”

â€�“I’ll try,” replied Adrian, though he truth he wasn’t sure how he was going to.

The detention seemed to be in roughly the same format as last time, though on this occasion Adrian knew what to expect. He arrived at the classroom with the group of other students who all looked like they had been through this before. A number of them were sporting cuts and bruises and seemed somewhat worse for wear.

At eight o’clock sharp, the male Professor Carrow summoned them in to the room. His eyes locked contact with Adrian’s and gave a small nod of approval at the sight of him.

â€�“Such a shame to see you back in here, Radley, but I understand you were rather rude to your Professor earlier,” he said. â€�“Take a seat and you’ll be summoned when it’s your turn.”

Adrian was not called upon first this time and instead had to sit for over an hour, watching other students being forced either to torture each other or be tortured by the Carrows. They never used their hands but they seem to have an ever growing range of curses they could use to inflict pain and injuries on the students. There was no option to look away. Anyone who tried to turn their attention was immediately reprimanded and forced to look back at the front of the room. This had the added effect of meaning that by the time it was Adrian’s turn, his rage at what the Carrows were doing was at its peak.

At last Adrian was called, alongside a second year, a girl who looked so small and mousey that he could hardly believe she could have done anything to warrant detention.

â€�“You were rather good at this last time,” Carrow sneered. Why don’t you try something a bit stronger this time? You know the Cruciatus curse I believe?”

Adrian gasped. He couldn’t cast an Unforgivable on an innocent child. He stood with his wand raised, but the word wasn’t going to come. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Carrow smirking.

He was suddenly picturing every injury he had witnessed that year, every stupid word that had come out of the mouths of both Professors, the way they had pushed and pushed, knowing exactly how to test his limits. Suddenly, without really thinking about what he was doing, Adrian heard himself saying the curse. He heard everyone in the room gasp and in horror he looked down at his wand and found it pointing squarely at Carrow.

Carrow had a shield up before the spell could reach him but the damage had been done. Adrian didn’t even wait to witness his reaction. Before anyone could say or do anything else he ran for the door and sprinted from the classroom. His feet took him back to the Hufflepuff common room and he tumbled inside, breathing heavily and desperately looking for someone who could help him.

The room was almost empty. Most students went to bed early nowadays, to avoid the depressing atmosphere that had settled itself over the castle. Dorian and Rosa were there, however, and he had never been so grateful to see them. They rushed over as he entered and when he collapsed to the floor they grabbed his arms and hauled him back up, guiding him over to the sofas. The other people in the room looked up curiously but they knew better than to ask questions and immediately buried themselves back in whatever they had been doing before his arrival.

â€�“Adrian, what happened? What did they do?” Dorian asked urgently.

â€�“I…I tried to Crucio Carrow.”

They both gasped in horror. He knew from the looks on their faces that this was just as bad as he thought.

â€�“I’m done,” he said, his head in his hands. â€�“What are they going to do to me now?”

Neither of them answered. One thing was for certain though - it seemed unlikely that Adrian would still be at Hogwarts by the following morning.

He was vaguely aware of the other two muttering quietly between themselves, discussing options for getting him out, but he couldn’t concentrate. His heart was still thudding and every beat seemed to bring the Carrows closer to him. Why weren’t they here already? What had stopped them following him from the room - surely they would know he would head straight for the common room.

â€�“What about Ernie?” he heard Dorian asking. â€�“He was the one who Gemma used to talk to.”

â€�“I haven’t seen him since the beginning of the week,” Rosa replied. â€�“Most of the older ones seem to have suddenly vanished.”

â€�“I don’t know who else we can speak to.”

â€�“There’s no point,” Adrian said heavily. â€�“Like you said, anyone who might have been able to help has already gone and besides, why would they help me anyway - I haven’t done anything for them this year.”

â€�“That’s not how it works, Adrian. Anyway, we’re Hufflepuffs - we’ve got that loyalty thing going for us.”

Adrian smiled weakly. â€�“I don’t understand why they’re not already here,” he said.

â€�“Maybe they’re waiting for something,” Dorian suggested though he didn’t seem sure.

â€�“It is odd,” Rosa added. â€�“They know more and more people have been disappearing and I don’t think they’re behind them all, not from the way they’ve been acting over the last week. They’re losing control and it’s starting to show.

â€�“Do you think the Professors-”

â€�“No,” Adrian cut in. â€�“I’m not risking anyone getting into trouble for me being an idiot. Let’s face it, I’m stuck. There’s nowhere to go and no one to speak to. I’m better off just facing up to what’s about to happen.”

He did his best not to let the terror he was feeling come through in his words. He had been hiding all year, it was time to be brave. He just wished it wasn’t so tough. A year ago everything was so simple. He knew what was right and what was wrong. He was the last person who would have been preparing to be arrested.

â€�“If anything happens,” he started.

â€�“Adrian, don’t.”

â€�“No, please, it’s important. If anything happens, you need to tell my mum the truth. She was so sad, she needs to know that Dad loved her and that they’re safe. I just hope he won’t try and come back or do anything stupid.”

â€�“I don’t think it’s going to be as bad as you think, Adrian, you’re over-reacting.”

â€�“I tried to cast an Unforgiveable Curse on a Hogwarts’ Professor in front of twenty witnesses. Even if this was a normal year that would be enough to land me in Azkaban. Gemma did nothing and she was taken away. Of course they’re going to come for me.”

They sat in silence for a while after that. At one point, Adrian suggested that Dorian and Rosa should go to bed. Rosa just laughed. â€�“You think we’re going to just leave you down here on your own?” she asked. â€�“Don’t be stupid.”

He worried about how bad it would be for them to be found with him when the Carrows arrived, but the selfish part of him didn’t care. He didn’t want to be alone.

The remaining Hufflepuffs gradually left the room to go to bed, leaving the three of them alone. Minutes passed, and then hours. At one point Adrian found himself dozing off to sleep, but he quickly roused again. Somewhere at the back of his mind, a small voice at was telling him that it was odd they hadn’t come for him yet and that maybe, just maybe, he had overreacted and they weren’t going to come after all. But then it was equally likely that they were just waiting for the Aurors to arrive.

They didn’t talk much over those hours, but Adrian was glad of their company nonetheless. Waiting seemed easier with them there.

In spite of the time he had had to accept the idea of what was coming, when the door to the common room finally opened, Adrian felt more scared than he was expecting. His hand briefly went to his wand but then he realised that was the most stupid thing he could do. Instead he stood up and waited.

â€�“Adrian!” The person that greeted him was not who he was expecting.

â€�“What on earth are the three of you doing out of bed?” their Head of House asked.

â€�“I…we stayed up talking,” Adrian said quickly. â€�“Professor, what are you doing here?”

â€�“All students have been summoned to the Great Hall,” she replied. â€�“The three of you can help me wake them. Tell everyone to get dressed and bring cloaks and wands and to do so as quickly as possible. I’m afraid there isn’t time to explain.”

It took a minute for Adrian to understand the Professor’s instruction. Until a minute ago he was expecting to be arrested. Now, the whole school was being woken in the middle of the night. What on earth was going on?

He was aware of Dorian grabbing his arm. â€�“Let’s go wake the boys,” he said firmly.

Between them, they made their way through the dormitories. Adrian went to the fifth-years, wanting to see his friends himself.

â€�“What’s going on?” Hector asked as they quickly dressed.

â€�“No idea, Sprout just told us to get everyone to the Great Hall.”

â€�“What were you even doing awake?”

â€�“I’ll er, tell you later,” Adrian replied quickly. Now was definitely not the time. He still hadn’t fully discounted the idea that they were being summoned to the Hall to witness Adrian being arrested in front of the whole school, or worse. Somehow though, he sensed this was something bigger than that.

â€�“You don’t think this is the fight people have been talking about do you?” asked Duncan. â€�“People have been talking about overthrowing the Carrows - maybe it’s finally happening.”

â€�“I guess we’ll find out,” Hector said, grabbing his wand. â€�“Let’s go.”

They made their way back to the common room where the rest of students were starting to process out, all looking sleepy and slightly disorientated. Adrian called over Rosa and Dorian and along with Hector and Duncan they joined the throng of students heading out into the corridor.

They arrived at the Hall to find students of all four houses there, along with some other people who didn’t look like they belonged at Hogwarts. Adrian put all thoughts of his arrest out of his head now. This was definitely something bigger than just him. It looked as if all the rumours were true; Hogwarts was preparing to fight.

The next few minutes passed in a blur for Adrian, but it quickly became apparent that Hogwarts was indeed intending to fight. All around him people were starting to prepare and he wondered if they were going to be expected to do so too.

He was relieved when McGonagall announced that everyone under the age of seventeen would leave the castle. It wasn’t that he didn’t support the cause, but if the last few weeks had taught him anything, it was that he didn’t have the necessary ability to meet their standards of magic.

The sound of You-Know-Who’s voice was one of the most chilling things Adrian had ever heard and it was not a sound that would leave him for a long time. For the first time he wondered how he could ever have doubted the evil that had been happening in the school that year. This wasn’t the Ministry in control, this was a madman determined to build his idea of a perfect world and kill anyone who tried to stop him.

Adrian had seen Harry Potter before of course - he always seemed to be at the centre of something happening at Hogwarts - but tonight was the first time he understood the kind of power that he held. Fresh from hearing You-Know-Who’s threats, he was spotted in the crowd. He looked older than the last time Adrian remembered seeing him, and he had obviously been going through hard times himself. On the surface, he didn’t seem like a person who would be able to combat the evil they had encountered. But something about him seemed to radiate that he was that the person, and from the way everyone looked at him, to the way the rest of the students rose en masse to protect him from the Slytherins, it was clear that he was someone for whom people would die. He was someone worth protecting.

There was hardly time to consider this thought however, because Adrian found himself swept along with the other students through the corridors of Hogwarts, heading upwards to a corridor he had never visited before. And it was here that it became clear exactly what had happened to the students who had been disappearing rapidly since the Easter holidays. He had no idea how, but they had managed to form themselves a secret room at the heart of the castle where the Carrows couldn’t find them, and from that room, there was a passageway into Hogsmeade.

It was through this that they would leave Hogwarts that evening to be taken to safety. While the older students and the staff and others who had arrived to help stayed behind to fight, Adrian joined those forced to leave. He wished he could do more, but he knew this fight was going to be a tough one, and it was not one that a group of underage teenagers would be able to fight.

They were taken down the corridor in small groups and then Apparated to their homes by a Prefect. Adrian and Dorian were taken together to Dorian’s before the Prefect rushed back to Hogsmeade for the next ones. There was little time for the older student to explain why the Whitbreads had been woken in the middle of the night by their son and his friend arriving home.

The two boys did their best to explain what had happened at the school though there were many parts of it they didn’t understand. Upon hearing the news, Dorian’s father grabbed his cloak. â€�“I should probably see if I’m needed at the Ministry,” he said, â€�“This is going to cause trouble.”

Mrs Whitbread asked if Adrian wanted to stay, but instinctively he felt like this was the kind of night he needed to be with his family. â€�“I think I’d better go to my mother,” he said. â€�“I’m sorry, I know it’s late, but…”

He didn’t have to say anything else - Dorian’s mother immediately offered to Apparate him home. It took several tries knocking before his own mother came downstairs.

â€�“Adrian?” she said, sounding confused as she opened to door to find her son standing there. â€�“What on earth is going on?”

â€�“You-Know-Who is attacking the school. They evacuated us all.” A look of horror crossed his mother’s face. She may not understand everything that went on in the world but even she hadn’t sunk to supporting You-Know-Who.

â€�“He’s at Hogwarts?” she asked faintly, ushering him inside and closing the door firmly behind him.

A quick look around told Adrian that little had changed since he had last been there. The progress he had made in tidying during the holidays had quickly been undone and there were things everywhere.

â€�“Have you heard from Dad?” he asked, nervously.

â€�“Why would I? Your father has gone, Adrian. He’s not likely to come back and check I’m okay now.”

She needed to know the truth. With everything that was happening that night, Adrian couldn’t see how telling her the truth would put her in any more danger than she was already in. Earlier that evening he had made Dorian and Rosa promise to tell her what had really happened, but now he was going to do it himself.

â€�“Dad didn’t leave you, Mum,” he said. â€�“He found out the Ministry were planning to do something to Samuel because he wanted to leave the Institute and so he ran away with him. He’s keeping him safe and he couldn’t tell you because he wanted to you to be safe too.”

Theia stood staring blankly at him for a moment. â€�“I don’t understand,” she said faintly. â€�“How do you know all of this?”

â€�“They took me to the Ministry and questioned me about Samuel. They’ve not been trying to help him at all - they wanted to keep him locked up in that Institute, hidden away so they wouldn’t have to admit that none of it makes any sense. Samuel never had his magic stolen - he just doesn’t have any and he never did.”

â€�“Adrian, I don’t know what they’ve been trying to tell you at that school but it’s not true. Your brother is a wizard and his magic was stolen from him by Muggle filth.”

â€�“Don’t call them that!” Adrian shouted and was shocked by his own tone. He had never spoken to his mother like that before. But the way she talked, it was too much, it was like listening to the Carrows all over again.

â€�“You’re wrong, Mum. I know it’s hard to say but it’s true. They’ve been lying to us.”

â€�“No,” she said firmly. â€�“Adrian, they haven’t. You’ve had a long night, Adrian, though that’s no excuse for talking to me like this, so I’m going to ignore what you just said. You’re obviously tired.”

â€�“I’m not tired!” This was actually true. Adrenalin was coursing through his veins and he knew it would be impossible to sleep now, even if he wanted to.

â€�“Dad still loves you, he told me. He’s been trying to protect you. But you have to accept that Samuel is going to be a Muggle and go to Muggle school and live a Muggle life, or they’re never going to come back.”

â€�“Stop it,” she said, raising her voice slightly. â€�“Stop talking about things you will never understand. You were not there the day the Healer told us he would never use magic, the day we found out he could never be like us. You didn’t see the Muggles in the waiting room, so completely clueless, so surprised by everything around them. Their lives would have been no different if their child had been born one of them but instead they got what we should have had, what Samuel should have had.”

Adrian was shocked to see that she was crying. She sat in to the sofa and began to sob.

â€�“Mum,” he whispered. â€�“Mum, I’m sorry.” She didn’t hear him, or if she did, she didn’t reply.

At some point, she fell asleep on the sofa and eventually, Adrian did too, curled up in one of the armchairs, exhausted from everything that had happened over the past few hours. When he woke again, it was light outside and the sun was streaming in through the windows. He thought guiltily of what had been happening at Hogwarts and the fact that he had slept while people fought.

A glance at the clock told him it was a little after eight. His mother was still asleep, her eyes stained with tears. Suddenly the silence was startled by a knock at the door. Feeling nervous, he grabbed his wand and went to answer it.

He was relieved when he found Mrs Whitbread there.

â€�“Adrian, is everything okay?” she asked when she saw him.

â€�“Do you know what happened?” he asked, ignoring her question.

She took a breath. â€�“You-Know-Who is dead,” she said at last, â€�“and the Ministry has been overthrown. It would seem he has been behind a lot of the things that have been happening recently. Dorian’s father was only able to come home for a few minutes but he told us that there is a new Minister - an Auror who fought at Hogwarts last night. He has promised to change things.”

Adrian remembered hearing Mrs Whitbread speaking to his mum about Muggle-borns on the first of September that year and he wondered how she felt about this news. It was not the time to ask, however. He had something more important to talk about.

â€�“My Dad,” he said, hesitantly. â€�“He ran away with Samuel, because they were in trouble. How will he know that it’s okay to come back?”

â€�“I’m afraid I don’t know, Adrian. It will take some time for things to go back to normal, I expect. You may be waiting a little bit longer for the news to reach him. I am sure it will though. You father is a clever man, he will find a way to get the information.”

Somehow, Adrian had never really thought about what would happen when it was all over. He wasn’t sure if he was really ever expecting it to be over. But now his father wasn’t exactly going to just stroll in through the door. It would take time, just like it would take time for his mother to forgive him for the things that had happened.

She hardly reacted when he told her the news. It was as if she had simply switched off to the world after her outburst the night before.

Please come home soon, Dad, Adrian thought desperately. I don’t think we can go much longer without you.

As predicted, however, it took a while. The next couple of weeks passed agonisingly slowly. Theia hardly moved from the living room and it was nearly impossible to get her to speak. Adrian got his news from Dorian, who wrote to him every day aboutwhat was happening, which he found out through his father. Apparently Hogwarts had been almost destroyed and large chunks of the castle were now reduced to rubble. At least fifty people had died, killed while defending the castle. In one of his letters, Dorian told him that Ralph Summerby, the Hufflepuff Quidditch captain for their short season, had been among them. Adrian cried that day.

As the days passed, the letters became less about the damage and more about what was being done to rebuild. Teams of people were working day in and day out at Hogwarts, trying to return it to its former glory, however impossible that seemed. Hundreds of people who had been wrongly imprisoned were released from Azkaban and those who had gone on the run slowly began to return to their families. There was no news of Gemma however, and still no sign of Adrian’s father.

It was two weeks to the day after the battle, when he heard the knock at the door. He had been in his room, trying to distract himself by reading, but in reality going crazy from being cooped up inside the house. He raced to the door, hoping beyond anything that he would see his father standing there, and not some Ministry official, come to deliver them bad news.

It was neither of those people waiting for him at the door however, and for a minute he almost didn’t recognise the person standing before him. Her hair had been hacked off and she was painfully thin. There were bruises on her face and she stood slightly unevenly as if trying not to put too much weight on her left leg. Her clothes were clean however, and she was smiling weakly. Wherever Gemma had been, she was now free.

Without stopping to think, Adrian immediately threw his arms around her neck, almost knocking her backwards.

He hugged her for a moment and then stood back, feeling suddenly embarrassed. It was then that he noticed Dorian and Rosa were there too.

â€�“You’re back,” was all he could say.

â€�“Is there somewhere we could sit?” Dorian asked. Adrian glanced warily in to the house behind him.

â€�“Maybe the garden,” he suggested, not sure how his mother would react to the unexpected visitors.

He led them round the side of the house and they sat cross-legged on the grass. It was a warm day and the sun bounced off their faces, lighting them up and casting less of a shadow on Gemma’s injury.

â€�“When did you get home?” Adrian asked.

â€�“A few days ago. I was too ill to leave the house at first - they wanted me to stay in St. Mungo’s but there was a shortage of beds so they told me I had to rest at home. As soon as I was allowed to leave I made Dad contact Dorian and Rosa and they said we should come and see you too.”

It was then that Adrian realised that in spite of everything that had happened with the other two, as far as he knew, Gemma still hated him.

â€�“Don’t worry, Adrian,” she said, obviously seeing the expression on his face. â€�“They told me a lot of stuff about what happened. I had a lot of time to think while I was locked up. I’m not sure I can dwell on the past anymore.”

â€�“What happened?” asked Adrian, â€�“Though you don’t have to talk about if you don’t want,” he added quickly, catching the warning look shot at him by Rosa.

â€�“No it’s fine. I think it would help to talk about it.

"You know I was part of Dumbledore’s Army, don’t you? We used to help free people who had been put in detention or chained up in the dungeons along with other things. The older students were wiser than me - they knew there was a line you shouldn’t really cross. I never really got that -I was just determined to cause as much trouble as possible, and it really cost me.

â€�“My dad did a lot to speak out against the Ministry over the last few months and I suppose between me and him they started to get a bit fed up with the Millar family. It would have been a lot more difficult to arrest a fully grown adult so of course they picked the easy option and went for the teenage daughter instead.

â€�“I was taken to Azkaban. I can’t talk about it in there, not yet. But I feel lucky to be alive now. There were days when I thought I would die. Or worse.”

Adrian didn’t ask what or worse meant, but he shivered slightly at her words.

â€�“I really am sorry, Gemma,” he said. â€�“I know it doesn’t exactly make up for it, but I wish it hadn’t happened like it did.”

She shrugged. â€�“I learnt there are more important things to be worried about. We were both following our hearts, Adrian. What more is there to say?”

Adrian didn’t reply. He was amazed how easily she was able to forgive him. How could she not hate him after everything she had been through, after all the times he had just stood back and watched, or raged against the way Dumbledore’s Army stood up against the Carrows?

â€�“Have you heard from Mark?” Rosa asked, finally voicing the question that had been lingering on all their minds.

Gemma’s face darkened slightly. â€�“Not yet, but there’s been a lot to sort out. He wasn’t one of the people arrested which means he probably went abroad, and it’s taking time for them to get everyone home.”

â€�“My father is abroad somewhere,” Adrian said. â€�“They were starting to threaten Samuel. Mum’s not taking it well,” he added, nodding his head towards the house, where the curtains in the living room were still tightly drawn. â€�“I’m not sure she’s going to forgive him, even if he does come back.”

If. It was a big word and one Adrian had been thinking a lot recently. In the days immediately following the evacuation of Hogwarts, he had been expecting his father to walk in at any moment, thinking it would only be a matter of time before he returned to them. The more time that went on, however, the more he began to wonder if there was a chance his father wouldn’t come home. What if something had gone wrong when they made their escape? What if he waited and waited but they just never came home?

The others had moved on and were talking about Hogwarts again. There was some doubt as to whether the school would reopen again in September given its current state.

â€�“Even if we could go back, I’m not even sure what year we would be in,” Dorian said. â€�“It’s not like we had a full year of proper lessons.”

â€�“I’m not sure I want to repeat fourth-year though,” Adrian replied. â€�“I suppose they’ll have to figure something out. Most of the subjects were okay. It was just the Carrows who were incapable of teaching.”

â€�“And some of us weren’t actually allowed to go to all our lessons,” Gemma added dryly. She laughed at the look on Adrian’s face. â€�“Stop feeling so guilty,” she said. â€�“You couldn’t have done anything to stop it. I may look a mess now but it will get better.”

They sat on the grass for a while talking about not very much in particular. Dorian invited Adrian to go and stay at his for a while but he felt too worried about leaving his mother alone.

â€�“Maybe when Dad’s back,” he said, though he knew that when his father and Samuel eventually returned, he wouldn’t want to let them out of his sight again.

It was early evening when Gemma’s dad arrived to collect her. By then, she was looking tired, the strain of just having spent a few hours outside clearly showing on her face. She was obviously weaker than she had let on and though she understandably didn’t want to talk about it, Azkaban had been tough on her.

Another couple of days passed before Adrian received another visitor. Except this time, it wasn’t really a visitor. The knock on the door came late in the afternoon, when he and his mother were spending some rare time together in the living room. Adrian was immediately on his feet, desperate to see someone else. He opened the front door and gave a yelp of joy.

â€�“Sammy!” He ran at his brother, pulling him in to a huge hug before turning to his father and hugging him too. â€�“You came back!”

â€�“Of course we came back, Adrian,” his dad replied. â€�“Did you ever think we wouldn’t?”

â€�“It’s been a long time,” Adrian said, slightly reproachful.

â€�“I know, I’m sorry. It took a couple of days for the news to reach us and then there were things I had to take care of. How is your mother?”

â€�“She’s not good,” Adrian replied lowering his voice. â€�“I’m not sure she’ll be that happy to see you.”

â€�“Well I suppose I have a lot to explain to her. Does she know?”

â€�“I tried to explain it to her, once everything was over, but it didn’t go well.”

Suddenly there was a shriek behind him. Theia, drawn by the sound of the voices in the doorway had come in to the hall and had spotted them. Immediately, she ran towards Samuel.

â€�“My baby,” she cried, hugging him closely. After a few moments she pulled away, smiling the first smile Adrian had seen on her face in weeks.

It quickly faded however and she turned angrily to Edward. â€�“How dare you!” she half-screamed. â€�“How dare you leave without a word, kidnap my son, fill Adrian’s head with all sorts of nonsense and abandon us? And don’t try and tell me it was all for the best. You had no right to take him from me, no right at all.”

â€�“Theia, please, you don’t understand.”

â€�“Don’t tell me what I don’t understand.”

Adrian looked at Samuel. â€�“Why don’t you come upstairs,” he whispered. â€�“I think they need to talk.”

â€�“I’m not sure there’s going to be any talking,” Samuel replied, looking worried.

â€�“Maybe it will do them good to shout for a bit. It’s more than Mum’s been doing for the last few weeks. Come on, I want to hear all about wherever you’ve been.”

â€�“We’ve seen all over Europe,” Samuel replied, as they made their way upstairs. â€�“Dad said he may as well use it as an opportunity to see the sights. He spent a lot of time contacting other wizards as well though. I don’t really know what’s been going on, but Dad’s definitely been up to something. I just wish we hadn’t had to leave Mum behind.”

â€�“I think Dad did what he thought was for the best,” Adrian said carefully, â€�“Though it’s been hard for Mum.”

â€�“They’ll work things out, won’t they?” Samuel asked.

â€�“Yeah, of course they will,” Adrian replied, too happy at finally seeing his brother again to want to spoil the moment. In truth though, he had no idea whether their parents would be able to work out their differences. So much had changed for them as well as everyone else. Could they really just go back to the way things were?

It was the first of September and once again the Radley household was preparing to go back to school. Things were a little different this year, however. Instead of a trunk in the hallway, there was a rucksack, instead of a set of brand new black robes, there was a stack of freshly pressed crisp white shirts and instead of a collection of quills and ink, there was a pencil case filled with pens, pencils and something called a protractor, the purpose of which none of them had quite figured out yet.

For once, students were not returning to Hogwarts on the 1st September, breaking a tradition that had been in place for as long as anyone could remember. The rebuilding of the school had been progressing well but with everything else that had to be taken care of, they hadn’t been able to finish in time and so the start date had been pushed back a month. Adrian didn’t mind, though, as it meant he got to be there for Samuel’s first day at Muggle secondary school.

Almost immediately after their return, Samuel had begun intensive Muggle tuition with one of his former teachers from the Institute and a Muggle teacher who knew of the wizarding world due to their magical cousin. Between them, they had spent two months teaching him as much as they possibly could so that he would be ready to start school when the new year began. There was still work to do and they had warned Samuel it could take up to a year before he really understood everything in his classes but he was desperate to start as soon as he could so they had agreed to let him try.

The school he would be going to was not far from their house - he would be able to walk there and back - and was supposed to be decent enough according to the Muggle teacher. The Muggle school system was similar to Hogwarts in some ways so Samuel should have been starting in second year at the school - or year eight as the Muggles called it - just like he would have been at Hogwarts. However, with so much ground to make up, it had been decided to start in the year below along with all the other pupils new to the school that year. He was going to be studying a lot of subjects, most of which sounded completely alien to Adrian who particularly couldn’t understand why there were so many English lessons.

â€�“Do the Muggles not speak English in the same way as we do?” he asked after reading Samuel’s timetable.

Samuel laughed. â€�“It’s not about learning to speak English, it’s learning about the history and meanings of words and studying the way books are written.”

â€�“And what on earth is Chemistry?”

â€�“It’s the way different things react with each other to make new things,” Samuel replied though he didn’t sound entirely sure himself.

â€�“Like Potions, then?”

â€�“Yeah, I think so.”

Adrian had no idea how his brother was ever going to learn this stuff but everyone had always said he was smart so he was sure he would get by. And at least for the first month, Adrian would be at home to make sure things were okay, especially with their parents.

He wasn’t sure yet if Samuel knew that his dad had been sleeping in the spare room since his return but Adrian was worried about what was going to happen once he had to leave to go back to Hogwarts. In some ways he was desperate to go back to school - it would have been five months by the time he went back and that was a long enough summer holiday for anyone - but he didn’t like the thought of leaving Samuel there alone while his parents were still struggling to even talk to each other.

His father had promised that it would be okay, that they were trying to sort things out and they were talking, but that these things just took time. Adrian didn’t know how much to believe. He thought, or perhaps hoped, that his mother seemed a little better than she had done, and that she was starting to smile again, but that was hardly enough to convince him that everything was back to how it was.

It was Edward who would be taking Samuel to school that morning; Theia was certainly not ready to encounter the Muggle world so directly. She had tried to object to the plans but as promised, Edward refused to let her stop Samuel following his dream and so gradually her objections had faded and while acceptance was still some way off, she seemed to at least be trying.

While his parents struggled to bridge the gap that had grown between them, Adrian was taking advantage of having his father home to properly talk to him about everything that had happened over the last year, and everything that had changed. The more they talked and the more he learnt, the more Adrian questioned whether he ever really knew him at all.

Edward had, it turned out, been working against the Ministry the entire time. Even as Adrian and his mother were celebrating the introduction of the Muggle-born laws, his father was plotting to have them overturned. He had confessed to Adrian that the reason the Ministry had shown so much interest in Samuel was most likely because they were starting to suspect Edward’s lack of support for the Ministry.

â€�“We were a small group of staff from some of the core departments,” he had explained, â€�“It was impossible to know who to trust and who might suddenly turn on you without any warning. But we did our best and we managed to slow things down, to provide misinformation or derail investigations. Petty things really, but it felt like we were at least doing something.”

It had almost been good for Edward, the night Adrian had been summoned to the Ministry for questioning. It was the warning he had been waiting for and it had given him enough time to get out of the country before the net had closed around him.

â€�“There were always contingency plans,” he told Adrian, when he asked. â€�“I was always ready to leave if I had to. The fear was that you wouldn’t know they were coming for you until it was too late to do anything about it. As soon as I realised they were targeting Samuel, I knew it was time to go, that I was about to be discovered. Thank Merlin I already had the plans in place and we were able to leave as quickly as we did.”

He also revealed that though he and Samuel had spent the time traveling and learning about the places they visited, there had been an ulterior motive. Through Edward’s network of Ministry contacts, he knew the details of most of the people who were believed to have fled and bit by bit he started tracking them down. It was difficult, but a few people had left limited contact details with trusted friends and though there was little time between his arrival in Europe and the day when they were summoned to return safely to Britain, he made good use of it, forming a chain of communication, making sure that the latest news was able to reach those in need of it. Once the war was over, it meant fewer long searches for family members. With the help of Edward’s colleagues still in the Ministry, they were kept fully informed and able to return within days of the end of the war. Edward’s delay had been caused by wanting to ensure the message reached as many people as possible as quickly as it could.

Though it was clear he didn’t want to try and overstate the things that he had done, they still sounded pretty impressive to Adrian. Indeed, in the long list of Ministry honours awarded after the final battle, Edward was awarded an Order of Merlin, Third Class, which in Adrian’s eyes showed the value of his father’s work.

Hearing quite how deeply his father had been involved in the resistance made him even more worried about the future of his parents’ relationship and on that morning of the first of September, once Samuel was safely at school and their mother was out shopping, Adrian finally plucked up the courage to ask the question he had been wondering.

â€�“Dad, do you love Mum?” he asked awkwardly while they sat in the living room, both supposedly reading.

Edward looked up, surprise evident on his face. â€�“Of course I do, Adrian.”

â€�“But how can you, when you believe such different things?”

His father sighed. â€�“It’s difficult to explain but please believe me that I do. I have loved your mother for many years, since we first met, when I was new in the Ministry, working for her father. I love her spirit, her loyalty to her family, especially her children. In fact, I was not at all surprised when you, her son, were placed in Hufflepuff. She may have been a Slytherin but to me it never quite fit. She was much kinder, much softer than the Slytherins I knew at school.

â€�“I know you find that hard to believe, but you must understand that Samuel changed things for her, for us both. Not because she didn’t love him, but because she loves him, and you, more than anything in the world, and it caused her so much pain to think that Samuel couldn’t share in our world in the same way. I know Samuel is happy with how things are now, but you remember how it was when he was younger, and how sad he was at times. She blamed herself for a long time, and it hardened her. I think when the new laws came in, and things started to change, it gave her something to cling on to, someone else to blame. Even as things started to get out of hand, she couldn’t find the strength to accept that there is no reason to explain Samuel’s lack of magic.

â€�“I’m not saying it’s right, but I think deep down, she knows herself that it wasn’t right. We just need to have patience with her, Adrian, to let her find the person she used to be, the person she really still is. It’s going to take time, and I can hardly pretend I am blameless in this situation. No matter what else, leaving with no warning was a big shock, and not really fair to her. But I am confident that we’ll be okay.”

There was silence while Adrian digested this, and then finally his father spoke again.

â€�“I don’t want you to worry too much about this, Adrian. We’re your parents and at the end of the day the most important thing is that we both love you very much. You shouldn’t dwell on our relationship or how things might have changed. It is not fair to burden you with our problems. I feel you deserved something of an explanation, but I hope you will understand that I do not wish to talk about it any further.

Adrian nodded. He had felt awkward enough asking the first question and his father’s words had done something to put his mind a little more at ease. He just wished the answer wasn’t patience - it was one of his least favourite things! Still, he thought back to how long it had taken him to finally accept that the Ministry had been wrong about Muggle-borns, and he knew that he had to give his mother time to come to the same conclusion herself.

***

The next month passed quickly. Each day, Samuel would come home and tell Adrian about his classes, until Adrian’s head was swimming with lots of Muggle words which meant very little to him, like algebra or photosynthesis. One thing was clear though, Samuel had never been happier, and as the weeks went on, their mother’s attitude seemed to soften and Adrian started to catch more and more glimpses of the woman his father had described.

At last the first of October rolled around, and it was Adrian’s turn to go back to school. He felt a lot better about leaving his family now things were starting to improve between his parents, and was looking forward to seeing his friends once again.

Still, much as he was looking forward to returning, he somehow thought that Hogwarts would be different this year, as if they couldn’t possibly go back to the way things had been before. He was surprised, therefore, at how normal it all seemed. In fact, it was a lot more normal that it had been the year before. The platform was once again crowded with people and a buzz of excited chatter filled the air. No sooner had he and his parents pushed through on to the platform then he caught sight of Dorian, and after giving his parents a quick hug goodbye, ran over to join him.

They boarded the train together and began pulling their trunks through the train looking for somewhere to sit.

â€�“Adrian!”

Distracted from their quest to find an empty carriage, Adrian turned to see who was calling him. At the sight of Bethany Jones - the now seventh-year Keeper from the Quidditch team, who he had poured his heart out to a few months ago - his face lit up. Telling Dorian he would catch him up, he turned back on himself to speak to her.

â€�“Bethany! I’m so glad to see you back,” he said, relief overwhelming him. â€�“I heard about some of the others, but no one knew what had happened to you.”

â€�“I made it out of Hogwarts with some cuts and bruises,” she replied. â€�“It was a horrible battle but I am glad I stayed. It felt like the right thing to do. How about you? How’s your brother?”

â€�“He’s okay, better than okay in fact. He and my dad managed to escape the country and stay somewhere safe until everything quietened down. Since he’s come back, I’ve realised quite how much he’s changed - he’s going to a Muggle school now, just like he always wanted.”

â€�“I’m so happy for you, Adrian.”

â€�“What about your parents - are they okay?” Adrian asked, and Bethany’s face darkened.

â€�“My mum, she didn’t come home from Azkaban,” she said quietly, tears shining in her eyes. â€�“We don’t know what happened for sure, but some of the people who managed to get out of there told us that once the Death Eaters heard what was happening at Hogwarts, they tried to kill as many people left in the prison as they could. We’ll probably never know for sure - it’s not like they kept comprehensive lists of everyone they’d murdered each day - but from what we’ve been told it’s the best guess we have.”

â€�“Oh, Bethany, I’m so sorry,” Adrian said, painfully aware of how small and insignificant the words were compared to the horror that her family had experienced. The thought of how many families had gone through the same thing was just too awful to imagine.

â€�“We’ll be okay,” Bethany replied, trying to sound positive but still not quite smiling. â€�“And I’ve been made Quidditch Captain this year - Professor Sprout wrote to me a couple of weeks ago.”

â€�“Congratulations,” said Adrian, though they both knew that it was an honour tinged with sadness and it was obvious that she too was thinking of their captain from the previous year, who had been so close to leading them to victory but now never could. How many other people, Adrian wondered, were missing from the train that year? Suddenly he was painfully aware of how abnormal this year actually was, and how they wouldn’t just be able to forget the last twelve months so easily.

â€�“We’ll win it for him,” Bethany said after a pause and he smiled.

â€�“You should be proud. I can’t think of anyone better to follow on from him. He would have chosen you himself, I’m sure.”

A glimmer of smile formed on her face and a tear rolled down her cheek.

â€�“Thanks, Adrian. I’d better get back to my carriage, but it’s always good to speak to you.”

â€�“You too. I should probably catch up with the Dorian - he should have found us a carriage by now.”

He hurried away, looking in each carriage for the rest of his friends. He was surprised at how much quicker his heart was suddenly beating following his conversation, but he dismissed it. She had been so good to him and she had been through so much - he was just relieved to see her again and know that while she may not be fully healed, she was at least still alive.

â€�“There you are!” Dorian said, when Adrian found them at last. He was surprised to see Duncan and Hector in the carriage with Dorian who had also managed to track down Gemma, Rosa and Mark.

â€�“Hope you don’t mind,” Duncan said, â€�“but there seemed to be some space in here.”

â€�“Not at all,” replied Adrian, grinning. He couldn’t believe how good it felt to see all his friends in one place again. And while there had been so much sadness and there was still so much healing to be done, it felt like one day, they would get there.

He took one of the spare seats and it was only then that he made eye contact with Mark for the first time.

â€�“Hi Mark,” he said and the other boy smiled. He had aged so much since the last time Adrian had seen him and was thin and a little pale but otherwise seemed unharmed. Adrian knew from Gemma that Mark hadn’t managed to make it out of the country but that one of his uncles, also a wizard, had taken him on the run in the UK and between them they had just about managed to stay hidden.

â€�“Hi Adrian, how’s it going?”

â€�“Okay thanks. How about you, are you okay?”

â€�“Getting there. I guess you know about everything?”

â€�“Gemma filled me in. I…I don’t know how much she’s told you but I think I owe you an apology.”

â€�“It’s okay, let’s not talk about last year - it was a horrible time for us all. Let’s just look forward to the one that’s beginning instead.”

Adrian nodded and let out a breath he didn’t even know he’d been holding. He had been more nervous than he had realised about seeing Mark again. In fact, it was only now that he noticed that Mark and Gemma were holding hands and looked as if they had been doing so for a while. He didn’t say anything of course, but as his thoughts gradually clicked in to place, there was a lot of stuff making sense. They stayed that way for most of the journey and at one point, Gemma nodded off and her head drooped to rest on Mark’s shoulder. Adrian caught Dorian’s eye when this happened and they both tried not to laugh. Still, awkward as it was, Adrian was happy for his friends.

The train ride passed with a surprising amount of normalcy. At one point, someone found a pack of exploding snap cards and later on, they gorged and spent far too much money on the snack trolley. There was still a lot of healing to be done - every now and then someone would make a comment and the mood would turn suddenly serious, or someone would laugh about something a Professor had said the previous year but then instantly stop themselves and look guiltily at Mark. Still, it was perhaps the best they could have hoped for. It would take time for everything to go back to how it was, if that was even possible, but sitting in that carriage, surrounded by friends, Adrian felt more at peace than he had done for long time.

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