Draco was having trouble getting his collar pin straight. In the reflection of his dresser mirror, he saw his wife behind him, appraising his appearance. “My, we are getting all dressed up just to visit a married woman’s office. Should her husband be jealous?” Astoria asked.

Draco finished adjusting the collar and concentrated on centering the tie pin. “Her husband is lucky to have found the only woman in Britain who would have him.” Draco turned his head from side to side to insure that his hair was its usual perfection.

Astoria leaned into him and kissed his neck just above the collar on the left side. Faking annoyance with her little game, he said, “Are you done marking your territory, Astoria? I’ve got to finish up.”

Draco looked in the mirror as if he was examining himself, but he was really watching his wife’s curious behavior. Is she jealous of Granger? He couldn’t have that. It would complicate all they had to do. “You know that since Scorpius’ sorting, I have been ingratiating myself to Granger. As a small business man with a history, I needed an in with a respectable barrister. Hermione is only a tool. An admittedly sharp tool, which today I will brilliantly manipulate to do what I require of it. Even if it means she bends the rules, in the belief that what I want is not only desirable but necessary.”

Astoria’s arms wrapped around his chest and spoke. “There is nothing sexier in the world than a Slytherin Man on the make.”

Draco smiled and thought to himself, “Just remember that later.”

Astoria’s little smile disappeared as she fondled his tie pin. Draco saw her eyes move up to his collar pin and down to his cuff links. “Draco, why are you wearing this old dark opal set? Where is your Malfoy triple diamonds formal set?”

Draco winced and said, “I sold them to buy Scorpius’ broom and your necklace.”

“Oh, Draco,” she sighed and turned his face to kiss his lips.

After removing lipstick traces and rechecking his cuff links, he turned to face the mirror one last time and thought, “Today is the day that I prove that I am still a Slytherin.”

Draco and Astoria were already waiting at Hermione’s office when she arrived. Hermione greeted the Malfoys saying, “I got your owl and I understand what and why. However, I fear that you may already be too late. Over Christmas would have been the best time.”

Draco smiled at Hermione and said, “Well, Dumbledore just started talking to me at Christmas. However, we both know he and I never communicated well.”

Showing her confusion, she replied to Draco, “Dumbledore?” In response to her question, Draco quickly told her of the dreams and his dawning realization of its true meaning.

After he finished, he leaned forward and with all of the real and fake earnesty he could muster asked, “Can you help my friends?”

“I don’t think you understand what needs to happen. We will need an interview with the Dokes, a hearing and approval from Alfred Bede’ and all of the paper work that has to be perfect. And even then, you need an agreement from the subjects,” Hermione answered.

“That’s why we came to you. You’re the only person we can trust,” Draco said.

When the lift doors opened onto the atrium, the three young Gryffindors sprinted out.

“Where to?” asked Albus to Scorpius and Rose.

“The security desk,” answered Scorpius.

“Why?” responded Albus.

Rose rolled both her head and eyes toward her cousin. “We need to be able to get to the Muggle Street. So we need to use the visitor’s exit,” she replied.

“Huh?” said Albus. Scorpius was happy that his friend had said that and not him. If Albus hadn’t, Rose would have been as impatient with him as with her cousin.

“So we can get to the Underground station,” Rose said, using the are-all-boys-this-dense tone that she was expert at. Although Rose was the last one to the desk, the boys were happy to let her do all of the talking. “Hello. Ah well, we need to use the visitor’s exit. Where is it?” she asked the guard.

The guard, not looking up from the sports page of the Daily Prophet, replied, “Just ask for it and it will appear.”

Rose looking to the ceiling said, “I need the visitor’s exit.”

The guard, now fully paying attention as the telephone box lowered from the ceiling, said, “Hey, you need to turn in your visitor’s badges!”

As the three jumped in Rose answered, “Sorry, we don’t have any badges.” The door of the box shut and they were lifted up through the ceiling and onto a Muggle alleyway. Scorpius struggled with opening the door. Rose sighed and pulled the folding door toward them until the door opened.

Albus had already taken three quick steps toward the larger street when this time both of his friends called his name. He stopped and returned. “Haven’t we got to go?”

“Where? Have any of us been to the Leaky Cauldron from the street?” asked Scorpius.

Rose sighed again. She walked out of the alleyway to the street, stepped to the curb and held out her wand over into the street. Scorpius and Albus were just able to exchange what-in-the-world-is-she-doing-now looks before there was a bang and a large triple-decker purple bus appeared.

Out of the bus stepped a young man. “Welcome to the Knight Bus. I’m your conductor, Caleb-” was all the young man was able to say before Rose interrupted.

“We need to get to the Muggle Charing Cross Underground Station. How much will that be for the three of us?”

The conductor looked offended, but then replied to the bossy girl, “A Sickle and six Knuts each.”

Rose reached into her change purse, pulled out the exact amount and entered the bus. Scorpius dug in his pants and was happy to find two Sickles hiding in his jeans pocket. Caleb returned the change and all three looked toward Albus.

“I don’t have any money!” he said ashamedly.

“Albus Severus Potter! How can you not have…Oh, well!” and with that Rose snatched the Knuts from Scorpius’ hand and added some coins from her little purse.

“Potter! Are you related to the Harry Potter?” asked Caleb to Albus.

Albus nodded his head and mumbled, “He’s my dad.”

“Stan, there’s a boy here who says he’s Harry Potter’s son. Stan is our bus driver and he’s always talking about meeting your dad loads of time and being placed under a spell to fight against him. I think it’s all a bungle of pooh.”

“Are we going or not?” Rose almost shouted.

“Where are we going again?” Caleb answered.

Three high pitched voices answered at once, “Charing Cross Underground Station!”

“Oh, yeah. Take it away, Stan,” yelled Caleb.

The bus lurched forward and the trio almost fell down. Scorpius latched hold of a chair and grabbed Rose by the hand, pulling her to the chair next to his. Albus was able to crawl into the seat across from the others. He looked over at his friends and grinned. The pair’s hands were still intertwined and neither of them seemed to notice.

Soon the bus came to a halt in front of a wrought iron fence holding a blue and white sign saying Subway and a white sign with a red circle and a blue strip containing the word Underground.

“Charing Cross Station, Trafalgar Square entrance,” called Caleb. The trio all stood up as one. It was only in the standing that Rose looked down at her left hand like Scorpius had somehow kidnapped it. Scorpius saw her face and he looked down and then slowly released the grip. The pair refused to make eye contact as they shuffled, toward the door. Just as soon as they were two steps from the bus, it disappeared with a loud crack.

Down through the entry portal, the three friends walked. Down and down they went until they reached a large open concourse full of hundreds of Muggles going about their business. As they watched, the enormity of their task hit Scorpius.

“How are we going to find them in all of this?”

For once, Rose had no answer.

“Maybe, we can have a bloke make an announcement like they do at King’s Cross and tell Jimber where we are waiting,” said Albus perking up.

“Yeah and we can also invite the fat witch chasing them to come too?” answered Scorpius.

Rose reached out to touch Scorpius’ arm and he jumped. Scorpius followed Rose’s gaze and saw a heavy-set black woman in green robes walking slowly out of a tunnel to their left. She was holding a necklace in a triangle in front of her. The token in the middle of the triangle was swinging wildly. Rose crooked a finger forward and the boys followed her.

They kept the woman in sight. It was not that hard to follow her progress because of her size and bright green robes; she stood out. Scorpius knew that the trick was to not let her know they were following her until they found Jimber. Yet, if they waited that long it might be too late to help their friends. Rose suggested that they should take turns in leading the group so if the woman turned around she would not see the same three kids together, but a different kid trailed by two others. Scorpius smiled and was glad Rose didn’t play chess.

Down another level, the green robed witch turned onto a sparsely populated platform. It was Albus’ turn to be the lead. Suddenly, the Scorpius saw his friend turn around in anguish. He and Rose turned the corner to find only Albus standing on an empty platform.

“I saw her turn to the left and when I got here, poof. Do you think she Disapparated?” asked Albus.

Scorpius turned to Rose and they both said at the same time, “No.”

Scorpius saw Rose smile at him. She lifted her hand, palm up, inviting him to speak.

“It’s like Platform Nine and Three quarters. We need to check the walls for a hidden entrance.” As he finished, Scorpius saw Rose nodding in agreement.

Albus, Rose and Scorpius began to touch the walls of the platform trying to poke their hands through a hidden gateway or an illusion. Scorpius heard a slight gasp to his left from Albus as his right hand disappeared through the wall side advertisement for Purge and Dowse Department Store. Albus pulled his hand back and reached into his pocket for his wand. Just as it immerged in his hand, Rose grasped it and pulled it back.

“What?” silently mouthed Albus toward his cousin.

“We need a plan,” whispered Rose. “Those two Maliaites at Christmas used necklaces as weapons. I’ll use ‘Levicorpus’ and maybe her necklaces will fall off.”

“And I’ll use Expelliarmus”, added Scorpius.

They both focused on Albus. He paused looking thoughtful and suddenly his face lit up. Albus sprinted up the real platform to a bench. He dove under the seat and began to scrape its bottom. After a minute or two he returned. “I’m ready,” he said with his smile still present. Rose looked like she was about to say something to her cousin, but changed her mind.

The trio stood beside each other before the wall. Rose counted to three. At three, they burst through the wall onto a hidden platform to find the green robed witch attempting to slide a necklace around a struggling Jimber’s neck.

“Levicorpus!” shouted Rose and she pointed her wand at the witch. As the woman spun upside down in the air, necklaces, totems and plants fell from around the woman’s midsection.

“Expelliarmus!”, said Scorpius and the necklace flew from her hand onto the floor.

Stretching out her right hand, the green robed woman grasped a fallen totem and raised it toward her attackers. As the woman began to mumble in a foreign language, Albus placed a pellet on the palm of his left hand and shouted, “Waddiwasi!”. The dried wad of gum flew from his hand and into the woman’s mouth causing her to choke and the totem fell back onto the tiled floor.

Rose, Albus, and Scorpius ran past the grasping woman to their friend’s side. As they ran past the upside down woman, Albus kicked the pile of magic items, spreading the debris across the floor.

Before they could say anything, Albus was almost knocked down by a charging Bethany who hugged him around the chest. She looked up at him with a tear-stained face. “Albus, I knew you’d come to rescue us!” she cried.

From behind them, the mumbling had begun again. They turned to face their opponent and saw a talisman glowing bright yellow. Scorpius instinctively grabbed Rose’s hand and pulled her down to the floor while knocking Jimber down. A flash of lightening exploded past the falling Gryffindors and smacked the far wall. Albus pulled free of Bethany and reached into his pocket. On his left palm were three pellets. Again he shouted “Waddiwasi!”.

Two of the wads flew into the woman’s mouth and the third went up her nose.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” shouted Albus.

“How?” asked Rose as Scorpius helped to pull her up.

“This way,” said Jimber, and he was running to where Bethany had been hiding. Albus, holding onto Bethany, and Scorpius, still holding onto Rose, followed their friend to find that the platform dead ended. However, approximately twenty feet above them was a stairway that went up two flights to a metal door.

Scorpius pointed his wand toward Albus and Bethany and gave it a swish and a flick. He said, “Wingardium Leviosa.”

Bethany gave out a little yelp and wrapped her arms around Albus’ waist as the two rose up to the stairway. As Albus landed he tried to pry the girl off of him. He could not.

“Go,” shouted Jimber. “Get my sister to safety.”

Albus looked down at the girl and said, “Bethany, take my hand.”

She let go of him and accepted his offered hand. The two began to climb toward the door. Scorpius raised Jimber and then followed by levitating Rose up to the next level. Just as Rose touched down above him, Scorpius heard mumbling from around the corner. Scorpius looked around and saw the witch holding a blade of Merlin Grass and a necklace. “Expelliarmus!” he shouted and the necklace fell out of her hand and onto the floor.

Grinning, Scorpius walked under the stairway. He wondered if he could control his flight if he levitated himself. However, he never found out. Rose was just swishing her wand when he saw her. “No,” he shouted at the same time she spoke the levitation spell.

As his feet left the floor, Scorpius heard a body thud on the tile floor around the corner. Rose’s first spell had ended when she had activated her new spell. Scorpius saw an anguished look on her face as she realized what had happened and for a second Scorpius began to fall. But before he began to fall very far, Rose stretched forward her non-wand hand to pull him up to her.

As soon as he touched down, Scorpius, still holding Rose’s hand, began to run up the stairs almost pulling her with him. As Jimber shut the door behind Rose and Scorpius, the sound of a fireball was heard and the door glowed red.

Scorpius looked around. They were standing in a Muggle alleyway. Jimber smiled and said, “Just a block and a half to the Cauldron. How did you know where we’d be?”

Rose, shrugging at the question, said, “We’re your friends. Who else would’ve known?”

The trio ran out of the alley and onto the sidewalk. About a half a block ahead, they could see Albus and Bethany walking very quickly through the crowd of Muggles. Trying not to draw attention to themselves by running, they also walked slightly hunched over and as fast as possible.

Then Scorpius heard Jimber whisper, “Damn.” Jimber stepped into a door way about four businesses shy of the Cauldron. Scorpius and Rose joined him. They looked back to see the green-robed witch turning onto the street with her necklace in the tracking triangle she had used in the station.

Granger and Astoria had been amazing. Astoria had spent over an hour talking to Isaac and Rebekka. She used her prodigious skills to convince Rebekka of the logic of the request and to get them to make the sacrifice.

Right now, Hermione was waiting in Bede’s office to get his approval. However, even with his approval, they would need an additional hour. So as distasteful as the task was, he had come to Ron Weasley to try and buy the extra time.

As he got off of the lift, he noticed that blue-robed people were running to and fro. He slipped into Weasley’s office, and found a harried, elderly assistant sifting through a six inch high stack of paperwork. At first she did not notice him, so he cleared his throat, and said “I’m here to see Mr. Weasley, please. I’m afraid I don’t have an appointment.”

“I’m sorry, sir. There has been an emergency and Mr. Weasley is out,” answered the tired secretary.

Holding his face as neutral as he could, he thought, “Maybe I can get my hour without having to debase myself with Weasley.” What he said was, “I can wait.” Just trying to get in good with the assistant, just in case it might pay off later, he asked, “Can you tell me, why all the activity?”

“Sorry, Ministry security business,” she answered as she sorted through the memos. Draco seated himself in front of a table which held a chess set abandoned in mid game. Just as he was trying to figure out which color had the advantage, he heard a gasp from behind the desk. The woman, holding up a sheet of paper, cried, “Oh, no! It was buried under all of this other paperwork. How could I have known?”

“What’s wrong?” Draco asked, and he stood up and began to read the precise penmanship upside down. Draco froze. After a few seconds, he found his voice, “The Weasley girl was here! Was she alone?”

The assistant, who was inking her quill, replied, “She was here along with her cousin Albus and a blonde boy whose name I didn’t catch.”

Draco pulled the note around and read it carefully as new notes flew from the assistant’s desk and out the door. He had no idea about the location of the Muggle Underground, but he knew exactly where the Leaky Cauldron was.

Thrusting his hand into his vest pocket to confirm the location of his wand, Draco sprang through the door and out of the office.

The three young Gryffindors looked at each other and nodded. They sprinted the last fifteen yards to the door of their goal. When he entered the pub, Scorpius saw both Bethany and Albus talking at the same time to Hannah Longbottom. He could see no one else was in the pub. As soon as they got close to Hannah, Jimber and Rose added their voices to the Bethany’s and Albus’ babble.

Suddenly, a bright March Hare was hopping around the room. The bizarre sight caused all of the children to quiet. “Could you please be quieter, I just got Lysander and Lorcan down for their naps. Albus, why aren’t you in school?” asked Luna.

“A witch in green robes is trying to kidnap Jimber and Bethany. We stopped her, but she’s followed us here. She’s already beat two Aurors,” Albus practically shouted at the two women.

“A green robed witch,” said Hannah, as she turned to look at Luna.

Luna returned her friend’s look and, without missing a beat, said, “Hannah, take the kids upstairs. Protect them and the twins. I’ll hold her off down here.”

“No, this is my business and I say who goes where,” rebuffed Hannah.

Luna walked over to Hannah, reached out and touched her abdomen. “You can’t endanger this one. You and Neville have been trying too long to risk it, Hannah.”

Scorpius watched Mrs. Longbottom set her jaw and shake her head. “We’ll both stay. That’s what mother’s do. Protect the young.” Hannah Longbottom turned toward Rose and in a calm, no-nonsense voice said, “Now, Rose take your friends upstairs. Get Luna’s twins; they are asleep in the small bedroom off of the formal dining room. You are responsible for keeping them safe, understand?”

Rose nodded. Rose turned and at that moment both she and Scorpius realized that they’d been holding hands again, this time since the stairwell. She smiled at him and did not attempt to shake him off. The five rushed through the kitchen and up the wide carpeted stairway into a formal dining area.

Rose noticed a large picture frame above the mantle place where an orange backdrop had been painted. She released Scorpius’ hand and ran over to the mantle to yell, “Excuse me, whoever you are in the portrait, I need to speak to you immediately. Please, my name is Rose Weasley.”

Minerva McGonagall entered the portrait from the left side. She had a cross look upon her face. In her scolding Scottish accent, she inquired, “Miss Weasley, what in the world are you doing in the Leaky Cauldron?”

“Please, ma’am, a witch has attacked Jimber and his sister. She will be here any second. Mrs. Longbottom and Aunt Luna are going to try and hold her off, but she’s already defeated two Aurors. We need help.”

“Very well,” replied McGonagall. “I will go to the Headmaster’s office. One of the former Headmasters has a portrait in the Auror’s offices,” she added as she turned and walked out of the frame.

Rose turned around, looking relieved. Her face changed to perplexed as she focused on Scorpius. “What?” she asked.

Pointing toward Albus, Jimber and Bethany, Scorpius ordered, “You three go get the twins and bring them here. Now!” The three exited into a small bedroom. “Rose, don’t you see,” he added pointing over Rose’s shoulder.

“What?” she said as she turned back toward the portrait. He walked up behind her, placed his hand on her shoulder and pointed to the obvious. “Brilliant,” Rose replied.