Houses

"Best idea I've ever had. Oh, don't act like you didn't laugh while the whole thing was happening, Miss Prefect," June snorted. "Besides. I still remember some of the stunts that you pulled in our school days."

"I already told you the love potion story from fourth year, so that's out. Let's see..." June grinned. "Oh, I know a great one. One time, your mother, Lyra and I were in Hogsmeade. Most of the Slytherins were sick with food poisoning, so Alfred, Will, and Rafael couldn't come along. Actually, that sickness was my doing, but that's a story for another day."

"I'll never know," Romano muttered, "Why you of all people were the one to actually go into a law career."

"Anyway," June cut in, "We were around the Hog's Head. It was closed up just a few years before we all entered school, because the owner died in a pretty violent accident. They always said that it was haunted. So your mother had the bright idea of locking Samantha-- this girl we hated, she was responsible for all of the love potion shenanigans-- inside the building."

"Well, after about five seconds Izzy started to feel guilty. So we went in to get her. Long story short, Samantha was mad, there was a duel which ended in a fistfight-- which I won, that little twig was stupid to try to start one with me in the first place-- and we she ended up with a broken arm. We, on the other hand, had to check all of our drinks and meals for any potions she may have snuck in for a month. And we are the reason that there is a giant hole in the roof of the Hog's Head."

"True. We've done worse. But you actually led that one, which was a first."

"The doctors say that it'll take a few weeks, maybe even a month for you to be well enough to attend studies," Alfred answered quietly. "And they assume that you're going to Muggle school. There's a whole different set of circumstances if you're going to Hogwarts, so your mother and I... we think it's safer to keep you for a bit longer."

"They can't expect you to have remembered everything. Not with the ordeal that you've been through all year. I honestly doubt that Hogwarts would allow you to take the exams the same way that the other students are."

"And they will," Alfred said quietly. "Eventually."

"If something's up, they haven't told the Auror Department anything," June sighed. "Honestly. I feel as if there's something that they've got under tight wraps at the moment. The Department of Mysteries is more tight-lipped and jumpy than usual. And that's saying something. If I were still a snot-nosed kid I wouldn't have thought twice before breaking in."

"I don't know anything yet," June corrected, after giving Will a punch in the arm. "I'm curious about this. So I'm going to try to figure it out as well as I can without losing my job." Not that I couldn't find another one back home, easy.