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Chapter Text

Hardison’s eyes widened, and before he could stop it he choked, spraying pumpkin juice across the table. The students next to him grumbled and moved away, but he was too busy coughing to pay them any mind, not that he would have anyway. Finally he looked up, making eye contact, scary as it was, with the blonde girl grinning at him with far too many teeth. “I’m sorry?” he croaked, shoving his plate aside.

“Yeah! Here, look.” Parker chirped, holding out her fist and opening it to reveal-

Hardison dove half across the table to keep her hand shut, knowing he was getting juice all over his robes but, “If that’s what I think it is I’m gonna need you to wait a couple hours girl, not exactly something you want people to know you carry around on you.”

She pouted, but once they’d held that pose for a little too long she sighed, and he sat back with relief. “Well then you don’t get to hear about what I did the rest of the summer.”

He shook his head, smiling fondly. He’d have heard her stories twice over by the end of the week despite her threats, and he wouldn’t trade that for anything. Parker might be a little crazy, but she’d been his best friend for the past three years, and he knew her as much as she knew him.

“Well I for one always love to hear about your summer adventures, Parker.”

Hardison leaned away with a hiss, making a face at the older boy who had sat next to him. “Do you always have to do that, Nate?”

Nate looked at him a little too long the way he always did, creepy and blank, then gave a small smile. “I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about. I saw that there was space and decided to have a chat with my friend Parker.”

“Hah!” Parker laughed like a cartoon character, mouth open, head back, and as loud as possible. If he didn’t find it so endearing it would probably be annoying. “Oh, that’s a good one. Us, friends. Me and Nate. Did you hear that Hardison?” Then she looked at him, actually eager for an answer.

A smile broke across his face, even though he wanted to keep making an angry face at Nate. He really wasn’t cut out for being intimidating, especially not to someone three years older, but he didn’t need to be. There’s no shame in being happy, that’s what his Nana had told him. Besides, he had other skills. “I did, I did. Alright Nate, if you and us were friends, what would you want to talk about?”

The boy’s eyebrows went up, and the soft smile turned a little more sharp, a little more genuine. “Well theoretically, in that case, I would’ve wanted to know what Parker thought of our headmaster’s little speech.” He paused, then straightened his blue tie. “For knowledge’s sake, of course.” He stopped again, spine straight as a ruler, shoulders back, head up, and winked. At Parker.

Hardison stared, trying to remember what Dumbledore had said. He hadn’t been paying attention, honestly. The transition back to Hogwarts was always a little rough, and he had been more caught up in all the innovations in electronics and computing he was going to miss over the next nine months instead of whatever silly words the old wizard decided to announce this year. Plus, he was in his fourth year now, he knew the ropes pretty well by this point. Still, by the way Parker was practically vibrating out of her chair he’d missed something important.

“I’ve been there. Well, there’s more than one corridor on the third floor so I can’t know which is off limits until I get there but I’ve been everywhere, so I’ve been there. Nothing special about the rooms, but there’s a lot of space between where they pretend to end and the exterior wall, so they could’ve done some remodeling, attached whatever space was in between the rooms and the outside to one of the rooms to allow access, opening up a new space. No secret passages I’ve been able to find in that area, and no statues, but plenty of paintings. Ceilings are relatively low and hallways thinner than is normal for the rest of the castle, though the towers have it beat for both. I don’t know why they would’ve bothered opening up new rooms though, couldn’t they have just magicked up some more space?” She looked over at Hardison, brows furrowed.

He shook his head. “Not in Hogwarts. In spaces that have too much ambient magic any permanent spells will develop unpredictable quirks, which is not what you want when you’re messing with space where people will be. That’s how you get someone splinched.”

Nate’s hand fell on his shoulder, and when he looked back at the 7th year he was smiling. “And that’s why you two are in Ravenclaw.”

Hardison smiled back, feeling more pleased than he expected. “Age of the geek, baby,” he said, tossing a grin to Parker.

She was frowning, and he focused back in on her. That was her thinking frown. “Well, Dumbledore did say the place is out of bounds to anyone not looking to die painfully. I guess splinching would count as painful, right?”

Hardison looked between Parker and Nate, eyes wide. “I’m sorry?” he croaked for the second time that day, distress only growing when neither responded. “Parker? What was that about dying painfully? ‘Cause you know, that’s not something I’m looking to do.”

“Calm down Hardison, this was just a hypothetical conversation, after all.” Nate’s small smile was back, and even though it was the exact same this time it managed to feel like a threat. The boy put his arms on the table and started to stand, then paused and sat back down with a sigh. “Normally this is where I’d leave you, but that would mean sitting by Sterling again, and that headboy badge has managed to make him more obnoxious than ever.”

He made a face, and when he looked at Parker she was making the same one. “Ew,” she said, “But he’s so… Sterling. I guess there wasn’t much competition.”

Hardison loves when she insults people that aren’t him without realizing it. “Don’t think I’m letting this whole death room thing go, but who’s headgirl then? Maggie?”

Some emotion flashed across Nate’s face at the name and if he cared more about 7th year relationship drama or Nate’s feelings he’d probably know what it was. Probably wouldn’t have mentioned her at all. Regardless, his face smoothed out in an instant and he looked over at the Slytherin table. “No, that would actually be Miss Devereaux.”

They followed his gaze and watched ‘Miss Deveraux’ laugh, much more delicately than Parker had earlier in the feast. “Ok,” Parker said, and he found himself agreeing. He didn’t know much about her, hasn’t really been around her like he has Maggie when she used to hang out in the Ravenclaw dorm, but when Sophie Deveraux was a prefect she’d always been fair and felt trustworthy.

Nate raised an eyebrow, and when he spoke it felt like he was laughing at them. “Ok? That’s all?”

Parker shrugged and turned back to her food. “She’s always been nice to me.”

As it was easy to do when looking at the Slytherin table, Hardison’s attention was caught by the one person in red in the middle of all that green. “Oh you’ve got to be kidding me.”

Nate looked at him, at the Slytherins, and back to him. “It’s not against the rules.”

“Yeah, I know, but at the opening feast? Really? This is when they give out schedules, he’s going to have to go to his head of house later and ask for it special, is one meal with your asshole friends really worth that?”

Parker stabbed the remains of the potato on her plate, not bothering to look up at him. “I hate that I know you’re complaining about Spencer. Can’t you find someone else to complain about?”

“Sorry girl, but when I sit facing that table he stands out. Makes it easy to remember I don’t like him."

She slammed her fork on the table, and Hardison was glad that the people next to them had moved away after his juice issue. “It’s not my fault!” she said, and he knew he had landed on the wrong foot.

“You’re right,” he replied, mind whirling. Then it clicked into place. “I’m not asking you to switch sides with me, I know you sit over there ‘cause you like to watch the birds come in. If I wanted to sit on that side I would sit next to you.” She nodded mechanically, and he sighed. It wasn’t only him coming back to Hogwarts was rough on.

Nate stood for real this time, making a show of stretching. “Well, this has been refreshing, but if I don’t get down to the end of the table Flitwick might give me a 4th year schedule, and as much as you two are fascinating I am looking forward to graduating this year. Parker, I’ll have to hear about your summer another time.”

They watched him walk away, either oblivious to or ignoring the juice stain on his right sleeve. What a strange person. “I don’t know if I’m happy or angry that he chose us for whatever that conversation was.”

When Parker didn’t reply he looked over at her and felt a chill go down his back at her grin.

“Parker, stop thinking about the death room!”

Chapter Text

His shoulder was stiff, but that was normal. Eliot couldn’t remember the last time some part of his body wasn’t calling attention to itself, but it didn’t matter, that’s just what bodies did. He leaned back against the stone wall, ignoring the chill it pressed through his shirt. It was lunchtime and his stomach knew it, but he had just had potions so had decided to wait.

Soon enough Moreau rounded the corner, his face lighting up. “Ah, Eliot! Wonderful, hold these for me.”

Eliot peeled off from the wall to meet Moreau on his walk to the common room, taking the man’s transfiguration and charms books from him. Moreau liked to move his hands while he talked, holding them out, or wiggling his fingers, or running them through his slicked back hair. Eliot had asked why once, but Moreau had just laughed and waved the question off. He guessed it was to keep the room’s attention on him, or maybe to stop from fidgeting with something. “You know if I need to do something these are getting dropped,” he grumbled.

Moreau shook his head, smile not budging an inch. “I am not going to get ‘jumped’ in the dungeons, Eliot, and especially not twenty feet from the common room.” They reached the door, and Moreau stepped in front. “Volubilis,” he said, and the door swung open before them. “You know you can enter on your own, you have my permission to be here and everyone knows it.”

The thing was, there was no point being in the Slytherin dorms if Damien wasn’t there. Eliot snorted. “Malfoy almost threw a tantrum last night when you went to get a book and left me down here.” They had passed through the common room and up the stairs to the 7th year boys dorm. Eliot handed back the books automatically and Moreau placed them on his desk, looking above it to check his hair.

“He’ll learn soon enough. I’d have you hasten the process, but unfortunately the Malfoy name does hold some weight behind it, and as I already said, everyone knows you’re mine. But speaking of eleven year olds, I would like you to be friendly with Harry Potter.”

Moreau had turned and opened the door to leave, but Eliot’s feet weren’t moving. The door swung shut, and it was a full three seconds before it opened again and Moreau stuck his head back in, all traces of warmth gone.

Eliot should step forward, walk through that door, but his mouth opened instead. “Why do you want that?”

Moreau let him wait a few more seconds, then stepped in and closed the door softly behind him. “I know you’re not stupid, Eliot.”

Silence again. Eliot swallowed, wishing he would just nod, say okay, walk forward, anything that would break the spell of Moreau’s eyes on him, hands utterly still but he couldn’t look away anyway.

Finally Moreau sighed, and his rolling eyes broke the contact Eliot hadn’t been able to tear away from. “If he trusts you, we can use him.” The man strode forward, putting one hand on Eliot’s shoulder. “I know the name Harry Potter doesn’t mean anything to you, what’s the issue?”

Eliot looked down and Damien let him, let him wrap and rewrap his fingers around the strap of his book bag, but didn’t let him hunch his shoulders. Moreau didn’t like bad posture. “He’s just a kid. I don’t like hurting kids,” Eliot mumbled, wishing he could turn around so he didn’t have to watch Moreau laugh at him.

But Damien didn’t laugh, and instead just held him still. “Help me understand this, Eliot. We’re at a school, you’re fifteen, we’re all kids here.”

“Not us. Not like first years are.”

For a moment there was only the sound of their breathing, then Moreau stepped back. “Alright, we won’t hurt him. I still want you to get to know him, because if we don’t use him, someone else will, and I don’t want to be caught off guard when they do. Understood?”

Eliot nodded, wishing he felt relieved. Instead he followed Moreau out the door, all the way to lunch. He wasn’t hungry, but he ate anyway.

That night he went to his own common room, working on the essay Snape had assigned for potions. A lot of his work went undone, but he needed to stay on the Slytherin head of house’s good side. Plus, potions was easier than everything else. Sure, there were times where he wasn’t able to keep the stream of magic going into it steady and the whole thing blew up in his face, but if there was one thing he could do it was follow instructions. And the rest of it, the readings and the essays, once he knew the properties of one thing it was easy to see how it could fit in, what effect it would have when he put it in with everything else.

Of course, Eliot wasn’t camped out in the Gryffindor common room to get his work done. The real reason he was here was across the room, setup next to the fireplace. The Potter kid was playing wizard chess with a red-headed first year. Hopefully not another Weasley, it was bad enough sleeping in the same room as Percy, though these days the boy had given up trying to get him to do anything.

The twin Weasleys chose that moment to swoop in on their younger brother, each talking on either side of his head, probably giving him very bad advice if their grins were anything to go by. Sure enough, the first year started turning red, then stood up and chased after his brothers, leaving Potter at the table alone.

This was his chance. With Potter alone it would be easy to walk over, introduce himself, give a friendly smile, ask what the boy thought of Hogwarts so far.

His hand had paused too long and he was dripping ink onto the page. “Shit,” he muttered, putting the quill down and trying to blot it off as best he could. Eliot stood with a sigh, shuffling his papers into a bag. Then he gave one last look towards Potter before turning to approach a different table.

A blonde seventh year sat in an armchair, chatting with a few friends. She had glanced over at him a few times the past few hours, but most people had. Still, she was quick to stop talking as he approached. She smiled at him, even though her friends were glaring.

“Collins,” he said, as if he didn’t already have her attention. “Walk with me?”

She didn’t stand up yet, but kept her smile. “Are you sure we can’t talk here, Eliot?”

He shifted, crossing his arms. “It’s a little loud in here,” he replied, looking pointedly at her friends.

Her smile fell, and she got to her feet. Her friends protested, but she waved them off with a “It’s fine, guys.” She also showed them she had her wand up her sleeve, ready to use if necessary. Smart woman. Eliot pretended he hadn’t seen, better to play along with these kinds of things. “Alright Eliot, I know a place that might be a little quieter.”

He nodded and stepped back, letting Collins lead the way out of the room, down the hall, and into an empty classroom. She leaned back against a desk, feet crossed, one eyebrow raised.

Eliot had really dug a hole for himself this time, huh. He stood there, just through the doorway, feet shoulders’ width apart, arms crossed in front of him, scowling, and didn’t have a single thing he wanted to say. This was not part of the plan, but here he was, and he had about fifteen minutes before Collins’s friends decided to come looking.

“Moreau wants something with Potter.”

Collins didn’t move, didn’t change expression at all. A piece of hair fell in his face and he shoved it back.

“Told me to make him trust me.”

Collins sighed, raising one hand to rub her face. “And are you going to do that?”

Eliot didn’t reply, just shifted his shoulders.

“Eliot, I appreciate you telling me this, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t know what you expect me to do with it. It’s not like I can stop him from talking to you, or to Slytherins, or even Moreau himself.” She straightened and walked to the door, nudging him out of the way. He let her, giving her the space to move, but before she opened the door she turned to look at him again, expression a little more sympathetic. “Listen, Eliot, I don’t know what kind of mess you’ve got yourself in with Moreau, but if you ever want to tell me I’ll see what I can do to get you out of it. Until then, unless you give me proof of something that would get him in trouble, there’s nothing I can do. I’m a prefect, I can take away points or get a professor involved, that’s it.” She lifted one hand to touch his elbow, but something in his face must have made her think again because she let it fall. “When you have more to say, just let me know, okay?”

Somehow this, standing here with her eyes searching his face for something, he didn’t know what, was worse than staring down Moreau. Eventually Collins nodded, and he didn’t know whether she had found what she was looking for or not but she left, shutting the door behind her and leaving him alone in the classroom.

“What am I doing?” he asked, sitting down against the wall. He didn’t want to go back to the common room, didn’t want to look at Potter and didn’t want to be looked at by everyone else. Instead he sat until curfew, concentrating only on the way the uneven stones of the wall dug into his back.

Chapter Text

When Sophie walked through the halls, other students moved aside to let her through. Her weekends were full of invitations, and if there was an event she wasn’t invited to just asking was enough to get. So yes, she made the rounds, keeping in touch with people in every house, and even some of the faculty. She smiled at the younger ones and helped the older ones with their homework, and found it easy enough to keep her own grades. Everyone liked her, and everyone wanted to be her.

If only it wasn’t so boring.

She nodded along, letting out an occasional word of agreement or sympathy. When she had gotten the head girl badge she hadn’t realized it was going to mean spending so much time with Sterling. That boy could talk like no other, and not a single word of it was interesting. Yes, she got it, his family has always been proud of him and told him he’s special, and being made head boy has only confirmed that he’s better than everyone else. And oh, there he went, did he know that talking again about how complicated his final project for arithmancy was last year revealed that he was insecure about his skill in the subject? No? Of course not. More information she’d probably never use.

Oh, but look, there was someone worth talking to. “Maggie!” Did she put too much joy into that?, a quick glance at Sterling’s face showed that no, she hadn’t, no bruises to mend there. “Sorry Jim, Maggie and I have some business to attend to, we’ll have to continue this conversation at the next meeting.” Then she smiled apologetically, which took the edge off the squint he’d gained, suspicious bastard.

Turning her full attention on Maggie, she saw the other girl was happy to see her as well, but she also looked drained. Sure, she had covered it up with makeup, the muggle stuff, not the spells Sophie used, but it appeared seventh year was taking a toll on the Gryffindor prefect. “Hey Soph.” But that smile was genuine all the way through. She wasn’t doing too bad then.

They walked out of the great hall where Sterling had caught her during lunch, and Sophie guided them outside. There were so few warm days left in the summer, it would be a shame not to enjoy them. “It is lovely to see you, as always. Do we have actual business to attend to or did you steal me away to save me from my counterpart?” A sly grin sealed the deal. It was clear Maggie had sought her out for a reason, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t have a little fun with it.

Maggie chuckled, as intended. Admitting you didn’t like someone was inherently a secret, and therefore a wonderful bonding device. “I am always happy to provide that service, but it’s not just a social call this time. It’s about Moreau.”

Ah yes, one of the few seventh years she didn’t have a hook into. Oh, they were perfectly polite to each other, and Sophie was sure there were others in their house that thought them friends, but she knew neither had pull over the other and both of them hated it. She brought her eyebrows down, frowning and tilting her head slightly. “Has he been giving your house trouble already?”

Maggie hesitated, biting her lip. This is where their relationship came into play. If they weren’t friends the rest of the conversation would have been about the same, but if it’s something she’s reluctant to talk about there needs to be a personal element, a level of trust already in place to get the full story. Luckily, she and Maggie had been friends for two years. Of course, if they weren’t, she wouldn’t be so invested in helping resolve her problems. “It’s Eliot. I think Moreau has some sort of blackmail on him. He tried to warn me about something Moreau’s going to do.”

Well. That was… not quite what she was expecting. “Maggie,” Sophie replied gently, laying a hand on her friend’s arm. “I know you like to think the best of everyone, but those two have been friends since Eliot’s first year. They like each other. It’s not exactly an equal relationship, I’ll give you that, but Eliot chooses to follow Damien around.” She’s seen the way Spencer looks at Moreau. Devotion can’t be threatened into a person. “You can’t help everyone.” A hard lesson, but one worth learning.

Maggie sighed, reaching up to grab her bun. “I know. But this is the first time in the two years I’ve been a prefect he’s asked me for anything.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Maggie’s eyes widened, and Sophie smiled gently. “Oh, don’t look so surprised. But if nothing comes of this, think about all the extra work he’s made for you and that should help you feel less guilty.” Her eyes crinkled, and Maggie laughed.

“Thanks Sophie, I appreciate you trying. But while we’re both here, let me tell you about the newest Weasley...”

They continued their walk and Sophie laughed along to the conversation, but her mind wasn’t in it. A very delicate conversation waited for her tonight, and she couldn’t be more thrilled.

She watched them through dinner. Not obviously, of course, but whenever talking to the person on her left she could turn her head a little more than she normally would and they would be easily visible. Maggie was right, something had shifted between them, on Spencer’s part. He was more withdrawn than Sophie remembered, not snapping back at Chapman when prodded, not laughing when Moreau prompted him with a sly grin. There was concern there, in Moreau’s face after the fact, but it was quickly wiped away.

She could work with that. Maggie wanted them separated? It would be easy enough to turn that concern into frustration, and odds were good that preventing Moreau from soothing over whatever issue Spencer had would drive a wedge between them.

So she waited, sitting in the common room for an hour before the two showed up. “Damien!,” she called out, getting to her feet. “Could I grab you for a minute.”

His blank eyes met hers, eyeing her tight smile, then he nodded and waved on Spencer. The fifth year hesitated, waited until Moreau looked back at him, then went to sit by the fireplace, taking a textbook out of his bag.

Sophie walked over when it was clear Moreau wasn’t going to come to her, and she supposed that was fair. She was the one who wanted something, after all.

“What’s this about, Sophie?” The tone was polite, but he had started talking before she reached him.

“Damien,” she responded, then waited until she was next to him and dropped her voice. “You know I don’t care what you get up to in your free time, but a Gryffindor prefect already has come to be about the trouble you’ve been causing. We are one week into the school year, this is ridiculous. If this keeps up don’t think I won’t bring it up to Dumbledore.”

His eyes snapped to Spencer and back to her, the corner of his mouth tightening. “And what trouble have I been causing?” He asked.

“Don’t play dumb with me. Keep your little lion on a tighter leash and we won’t have any trouble.” Sophie turned and walked away, pointing one arm backwards and whispering a spell as she went. She had bet that as soon as she was out of the picture Moreau would switch focus, and by the way she could hear his robes swishing as he walked towards Spencer it paid off. She smiled, then settled down in her chair to listen.

A small noise when Moreau grabbed Spencer’s shoulder, and the textbook got left behind as they marched up the stairs. A door slammed, and she could hear it both through the spell and from the common room. For a little there was just Moreau’s breathing, slightly elevated but nothing alarming. Then a foot tapping, painfully slowly.

“Damien, what-”

“You’re hiding something from me.”

That suspicion was just what she was looking for.

“...”

“I had hoped you would let me know yourself, but since that didn’t happen, well, this is your chance.”

More silence from Spencer, which was not what she expected. But Moreau wouldn’t let up until he got what he was looking for, which meant she would get it too.

“You have five seconds until I walk out. Five, four three-”

“I tried to tell you!” That desperation had potential to go either way, depending on how Moreau responded. “I told you, I don’t want to mess with kids. I was going to anyway, because you thought it was a good idea, but I didn’t, okay? I didn’t. And I won’t.” Sophie blinked. The poor boy had a line he wouldn’t cross, and his only friend was pushing on it. They were practically doing her work for her.

Two steps, then, softer “Won’t? Or can’t?”

He must’ve gotten a lot closer, because she swore she heard Spencer swallow. “Won’t.”

“Okay. I trust that if it came down to it, you would do what was necessary. I have to trust you, do you understand that? If I didn’t, the type of business we’ll be doing would eat me alive. Can I trust you?” Oh, he was good. And that wasn’t exactly blackmail like Maggie had thought, but there was some sort of concrete incentive implied.

“Yeah.” Spencer’s voice was soft, so soft she thought she’d lost all her progress, but there was an underlying tension there, or maybe resignation.

Moreau laughed and it sounded kind instead of mocking, but her spell was starting to cut out, she could never get the damn thing to last very long. It was also her queue to leave. “I ─ stay angry ─ can I? ─ need to address ─ forest. ─ morning, Eliot.”

Sophie stood just outside the common room, waiting. It took a couple minutes, but then he stepped out and she immediately caught his arm. He stiffened, but she ignored it, looking at him with concerned eyes.

“Are you alright?” She asked, a little frantically. “He didn’t hurt you?” She brought her head down so it looked more like she was looking up at him.

Spencer tried to back up, but only ended up bumping against the closed door. “I- what are you talking about? I’m fine.”

“Oh thank Merlin.” She stepped back, giving him space, making this part of the conversation a little more comfortable. “I heard the door slam and I thought- well. I’ve been trying to get him to be a little nicer to you, but for a minute there I thought I had just made it worse.”

His brow was still furrowed, but he had relaxed, no longer looking to fight or flee. Instead he tried to put on a smile. Hah, amateurs. “I’m sorry, ma’am, I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She gave him a serious look. “We all see it, it’s not like he tries to hide it. He has you carry his things, do his dirty work, and what he has you do in the forest? That’s not okay, Eliot.” The forest part was a gamble, she has no idea what that was about, but Moreau isn’t the type to let anything slide with no repercussions.

But it paid off, Spencer was clearly uncomfortable when she got to the last one. “You’ve got it wrong, Deveraux,” he growled. “That’s for me, it’s to help me. It’s not-”

“Then why does he use it to punish you?”

He didn’t have a response to that, which is perfect. That meant he would dwell on it after the conversation was over, hopefully think about how whatever it was wasn’t fair, and if she was right about that she’s right about the rest of it. That he knows, deep down, Moreau’s not a good guy. If he thinks about it enough, maybe his thing about kids will be the last straw instead of the first one.

Sophie sighed. “Listen, I’ve got to go, but if you ever decide you want help, or just someone to talk to, my door is open. Try to have a nice night, Eliot.” She brushes past him, back into the common room, then gathers her things and goes to her room. As head girl, she gets her own, which is an absolute delight. It also means she can allow a silly grin and no one will ask any questions. Moreau would be pissed if he ever found out what she was doing, but for now they were playing her game, and there was nothing more satisfying.

Chapter Text

Parker hummed softly, a bounce in her step as she walked down the tower stairs. She didn’t have anything with her this time, well, nothing but her wand, but that was all she needed for now. It could be all she needed ever if she tried hard enough, but where was the fun of that? Besides, magic was traceable in a way that a rope and rappelling harness never would be.

Not that they let her use them here, she thought with a pout. The whole place had such wonderfully high ceilings, but as soon as she tried to use them they were all “Parker, you’re going to get yourself hurt, get down from there – wait, not like that!” as if their favorite activity wasn’t the same thing but outside and on a stick you could fall off of.

“Ah, Miss Parker, right on time. And where are we headed tonight?”

Her face scrunched up, and she turned to face Fun Cedric, an old man sitting properly in what looked to be a very uncomfortable chair. His frame was heavy and gold, which she could appreciate, and he had a plain blue background. “Pshh, don’t insult me like that. I don’t go out on a predictable schedule, I’m not an amateur .”

He chuckled, a light in his eyes that just wasn’t there when he wasn’t talking to her. She still didn’t know how that worked, his eyes being paint and all. “Of course not.”

“And I’m just looking today, nothing fun.” She pauses, then brightens. “But Flitwick said if I help charm the staircases with him he’ll show me how to levitate myself!”

Fun Cedric grinned, and it made him look much more mischievous than the serious good posture person he had been painted as. “He’s finally giving in? I knew he would eventually. Keep at it and after your OWLs he’ll show you anything you want, he’s a sucker for students interested in his subject.”

“Yeah, he said he’s only going to show me so I don’t try and figure it out myself and crack my head open, but it’s not like that’d happen.” She paused, eyes unfocusing. She wasn’t stupid, she wouldn’t try flying without a backup safety system in place. But after a couple trial runs, all bets are off. “Ok,” she said, looking back at Fun Cedric. “Bye!”

She kept going down the stairs. The man said something behind her, but it probably wasn’t important. She had places to be, after all.

When she arrived at the third floor corridor, she stopped. It was too quiet, too bare. There weren’t any paintings or suits of armor or even any ghosts, which seemed kind of silly because if there’s somewhere you don’t want people to be it would be handy to have a camera. They can’t put any cameras in the school because magic doesn’t like electricity, but a guard could still tell them who was lurking around, even if that guard’s a painting that doesn’t have arms and so can’t stop anyone from going inside.

But Parker had found that wizards were kind of silly that way. They didn’t bother with good locks, just spells to stop other people from using spells on the door. She had to bring her own locks to school to keep in practice, that’s how bad they were about it.

Still, just because she couldn’t see anything watching her didn’t mean there wasn’t. Parker whispered a spell, feeling it settle just over her skin. As long as she kept sending power to it it should tell her if anyone was watching her, she’d tested it enough with Hardison to know it worked for magical watching too. But it fit snugly, nothing out of the ordinary. 

Parker let the spell fall, then started saying another spell. Cameras were only one way to monitor a place, after all. What she was looking for now was the wizards’ equivalent of motion sensors and lasers, things that didn’t set off an alarm unless something happened. She hadn’t been able to find a spell to tell her where those types of things were, but they probably wouldn’t keep that stuff in a school’s library anyway. Instead she used one that pointed to any active magic in the area. She started it up and three little arrows of light came off the tip of her wand, all pointed at the door.

“Yes!” she hissed, pumping her free hand in the air and wiggling her shoulders. That one was hard because everywhere in the school was magical, so she had to feed it the right feeling of what to ignore so it could give her what she wanted instead of what it thought she wanted. Like having a dog sniff something that belonged to a person before having it follow a scent. Hardison didn’t really get it, but he had been really impressed when he saw her practicing this kind of stuff. This was the first time she was using it for real though, so it was better to be careful.

She went up to the door. One arrow pointed at the handle, another at the top of the doorframe, and the other right in the middle. That was weird. Anti-unlocking spells were normally where the lock came out of the door and entered the doorframe, but whatever this was was on the handle itself.

The middle one was normal, when she first started trying this out she had asked Flitwick about what stuff was magic and a lot of the doors and other things had strengthening charms on them so they didn’t break if a kid fell on them, this was probably just a stronger version of that. The doorframe one was a mystery, when she raised up her wand it looked like it wasn’t even pointing at the doorframe, but instead the space between it and the door.

What would you spell a door with? Parker scrunched up her nose, letting the sensor spell drop. The handle one could be some sort of ID system, or an alarm for when the handle was turned. Something to do with when a person touches the handle, which means if it is ID it’s probably DNA or fingerprints, or whatever magical signature thing she hadn’t read anything about faking yet. They really needed to update their library.

The other one, maybe that was also an alarm for if someone went through the door? She looked more closely, and saw that there was a little bit of light coming out from around the door. So that wasn’t blocked, but maybe it was to stop sound or smell from escaping? She hadn’t ever tried the spell near the greenhouses but the way they smelled inside weren’t at all how they smelled outside, now that she thought about it.

She brought her wand back from where she had been tapping it on her chin, and pointed it at the ground. This one was a spell for sensing movement, and it couldn’t go around corners or through walls or anything but if she upped the power enough she should be able to tell if there was any movement at all, no matter how small. It would act as a sort of seismic sensor, so she could tell if anyone was walking around on the other side of the- oh.

Thump. Thump. 

Parker took a step back, and sure enough her own step was barely a blip in comparison. Whatever was on the other side of that door was big, and that meant it was time to go.

When she got back to the stairs she went down instead of up, then snuck through a secret passage into the Hufflepuff common room. There were two people there who looked at her a little strangely when she dropped down from the ceiling, but she had one goal and they didn’t matter for it, so they could think what they wanted.

She went straight up the stairs and straight into the 5th year girls’ dorm. “Peggy,” she said, letting the door fall shut behind her. “Peggy, wake up.” Her voice was a little sharp, and Peggy wasn’t the only one waking up.

“Parker? How are you- no, what are you doing here? It’s,” Peggy stopped here, flipping some of her hair out of her face and grabbing at the watch on the end table next to her bed. “Three in the morning?”

“We should get hot chocolate.”

Peggy blinked four times before shaking her head. “Couldn’t this wait until the morning, we’ve got four hours until breakfast starts, I-”

The person in the bed nearest Peggy groaned, and leaned over to hit her with a pillow. It didn’t hurt, Parker knew that, she’d hit Hardison with those things hundreds of times, but it made her shoulders tense up all the same. “Go get her some chocolate, Peggy, or we’ll be up all night.”

It only took Peggy two blinks to react to that one, then she sighed, but when she looked back at Parker she was smiling. “Alright, but let me put on real clothes before we break curfew.”

Parker nodded once. “I’ll wait outside,” she said, then turned and walked out of the room, and didn’t stop walking until she was out of the common room. Even then she kept pacing, not wanting to stop moving.

Peggy joined her pretty quickly, but was still wearing the same clothes she had been. It wasn’t what she had said, but it didn’t matter. Parker set off to the kitchens, and Peggy followed behind. Soon enough they were in with the hustle and bustle of house elves, prepping for breakfast either now, and a steaming mug sat in front of both of them. Parker relaxed. She didn’t quite remember how they got here, not in the way that’s right, but that’s okay because they were here, and the house elves were here and they were always nice and gave her chocolate, and the mug was so warm in her hands. She took a sip, smiling.

“So… what’s going on? Are you okay?”

She looked up. Peggy was concerned, which was no good. Peggy should be happy because they were in the kitchen drinking hot chocolate together. But it was three in the morning, which maybe wasn’t the normal time to drink hot chocolate with friends, so maybe it was okay she was concerned. “Yeah, I’m not hurt or anything. Are you okay?” Reciprocation was a big part of friendship, and she didn’t want Peggy to be feeling bad.

Peggy smiled, in a way that was kind of weird because one side went higher than the other and her eyes didn’t move at all. “Physically I’m fine, but right now I’m a little worried that something upset you. Why did you want to have hot chocolate?”

“Because it’s warm and nice and good and you’re good. And I wasn’t feeling good, so I thought if we came here I would stop feeling not-good.” And she had been right.

“Are you-” Peggy paused, biting her lip in thought. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, but did something happen? Or if you don’t want to talk to me, we could go to Madame Pomfrey?”

Parker shook her head. “Nothing happened, I just, um.” To talk about something you had to think about it first, and that was the not fun part. “I used to be scared a lot, because I was bad at a lot of things and that meant I couldn’t make things happen how I wanted them. But now I’m good at things, and I had thought that would mean I wouldn’t get scared anymore, but I guess that’s not true.” Not when there were big things that stomped around and probably had too many teeth. Not when there was only a door between them and it could have been there the whole time and she had never known about it, would never have known about it if she listened to the rules.

Peggy smiled again, but this time it looked more normal. “Thanks for telling me. I’m glad you’re not scared so much anymore. Are you feeling better now? Because I’d like to sleep some more if you are, but if not I’ve got a funny story about one of the sixth years.”

“No, that’s okay.” Peggy was always wanting to talk about the other people in her house, and never about stealing things. It was weird. “Thank you for drinking hot chocolate with me.” Another big part of friendship was making sure people knew they were appreciated.

“Alright. Have a good rest of your night!”

Parker took another sip of hot chocolate and leaned back against the wall. The house elves bustled around her and she decided it was going to be a good night after all.

Chapter Text

“Well, Mr. Ford, you seem to have a clear picture of your goals, and I have to say, they’re rather more practical than a lot of what I hear from my seventh years. Do you have any questions for me?”

Nate blinked, head turned slightly to the side, then slid into a smile. “No, thank you professor. I’ll see you in class.” He stood and gave a short nod to Flitwick, then walked out the door. “It’ll be more practical once I’ve actually got some experience,” he mumbled.

Then Sterling was there of course. “If you’re looking for any career tips I’ll have you know that being head boy looks quite good on a resume.” The asshole smirked at him. “Captain of the chess team as well. Though of course, you’d have to actually follow the rules to have a chance at those.”

Nate rolled his eyes, not slowing down so that Sterling practically had to yell by the end of his little speech. He had better things to do than let an old friend try to rile him up. Things like break a couple rules.

But the rule-breaking would have to come later, for now everything would be strictly above-board. There was nothing against casting magic inside the castle, after all, or even on the castle. Even if that magic was adjacent to off-limits places, and didn’t have anything to do with his school work. In just a week he’d be seventeen anyway, not much they could say about him using magic in the halls then.

Leaning against the wall, he tapped the door, pronouncing the spell clearly. It was important to get these things exactly right; after all, it was the words and movement that gave the spell intent. Poor enunciation or sloppy wandwork had no place in sensitive magic. Nate touched the door, then nodded, satisfied with the results. Now he would know not only when someone used the door, but who they were. It was a complicated bit of spellwork, but he’d been working on it for some time. The security business of the wizarding world was in rough shape compared to the muggle world. There was creativity in spades, sure, curses to do all sorts of nasty and strange things, but most of it was knowledge passed down through the ages, and more focused on the punishment than preventing entry in the first place. Once he graduated, he was going to bring the competence they were lacking.

“Uh, Nate?”

Nate turned, a sleepy smile already on his face. “Hmm?” 

Hardison stood on the landing, one hand still on the railing and both eyebrows high on his forehead. “Uh-huh, don’t give me that, mister ‘hypothetically, Parker, what if I asked you to break into a super dangerous place that I’m now standing right next to even though I have no reason to be here’. Really? Do you gotta pull us into this?”

Nate gave three quick blinks. In his experience, it was almost always better to act confused. “Hardison, I’m not trying to pull you into anything at all. I’m doing extra-curricular research to better prepare for my career post-graduation.” And it was even better when your lies were true.

“Right, right, just like last year when you told Parker there was a physical element behind the Great Hall’s ceiling weather system and you wondered where it was stored and what it looked like, then she told me about her plans to climb up there, then I spent the next three days straight researching sticking charms so I could enchant her gloves so she wouldn’t have to make her own handholds in the walls of our school - which I shouldn’t have had to explain is a bad idea, by the way. Then, when she showed it to you, you made it rainy all the time because you were sad Maggie broke up with you.” Hardison folded his arms over his chest, giving a half-hearted glare Nate’s way. “Which, wow. Just wow. Except this time, it’s not random storage space in the ceiling she’s going to try to climb into, but a room which we were told to avoid on pain of death. You do see why I’m against this, right?”

Nate’s smile turned a little more attentive, and he mirrored Hardison’s staance. “You really did well on those gloves, by the way. Parker let me try them on, they were really sensitive to the movement of the hand inside.”

Hardeison’s arms dropped, and Nate’s followed. “Well of course, when you’re climbing downward force is something you want to resist, but if you’re going to be on the ceiling down isn’t always towards the wrist, so I had to add in a- No. Uh-uh. I see what you’re doing and I don’t like it.”

Nate walked forward and let his hand fall on Hardison’s shoulder, guiding the fourth year down the stairs behind him. “Deny it all you want, but we both know that door isn’t going to keep Parker out for long. Wouldn’t you rather be there for her when she opens it?”

Hardison grumbled all the way down the remaining two flights of stairs, then finally spoke up. “I hope you know you’re the worst.”

Nate’s expression didn’t change, but satisfaction curled in his gut. “Don’t act like you’re not eager for the challenge.”

“I’m not listening!” Hardison replied, covering his ears and hurrying away. And that was that, Parker and Hardison were locked in.

Later that night, Nate rolled the bottle of firewhiskey back under his bed. It was easier than last year to get his hands on it, and soon enough it would even be legal. Not as easy as over the summer, where he practically lived in a bar, but easy enough that he didn’t have to ration it out. He sat down on the bed. Soon he’d have to get started, but for now he just sat and enjoyed the loose feeling.

Then the door opened, because of course it did, and who walked in but the head boy and only other male seventh year Ravenclaw, his dear friend Jim Sterling. Maybe if he didn’t move the other boy wouldn’t notice him.

He got one glance, then Sterling turned to find something on his desk. “Nathan. How odd to find you in here instead of out in the common room, putting strange thoughts into the heads of the younger years.”

“Ah, but I only stay out there to avoid spending time with you. And you were supposed to be gone another hour.” Judging from Sterling’s look he might have said that a bit loud. Oh well.

“I would have, if it weren’t for-” Sterling froze, then let the book in his hand fall to the desk with a thump. He turned, sniffed the air, then “Are you drunk?”

“Hmm. Well, I wouldn’t say drunk.”

It was funny, the way anger made Sterling’s face look like it was bulging outward. “Are you kidding? You couldn’t wait a week until this was legal and I wasn’t obligated to report you? I’ve let a lot of your shit slide, Nate, but this is too far. Getting drunk in my room at,” he glanced at his watch and the anger deflated, leaving something that if Nate didn’t know better he would think might be concern. “seven o’clock on a Thursday? What were you thinking?”

He was trying not to think, actually. “I was thinking that you would be gone and I could get my work done in peace, actually. So if you want to just, grab your book and go,” he made a shooing motion to the door, “we can both forget this happened and go back to what we were doing before.”

Sterling didn’t move, and Nate could feel the bastard’s eyes crawling all over his face, his posture, the way his hands had scrunched up the blanket. “It’s my responsibility as head boy to help any student who needs it, regardless of who they are. I understand you may not want to talk about anything sensitive with me, but if there’s something wrong I encourage you to speak with a professor.” He hesitated, then added, “I know your family situation hasn’t always been, well…”

Nate almost laughed at the way Sterling couldn’t find a way to finish his sentence. He would have, if it weren’t for the tension growing in his shoulders. “You don’t know a single thing about me or my family, Sterling. And I don’t need help, so you can run along to find a first year to pretend to save.”

Sterling’s jaw tightened and he stalked out, leaving the book behind. The door slammed, and after a minute Nate decided it wasn’t going to reopen. “That counts as a win for me,” he muttered then, dropped to the ground to pull the firewhiskey back from under the bed. After that conversation, he needed another drink.

Chapter Text

Sophie - Slytherin 7th year head girl pureblood
Nate - Ravenclaw 7th year halfblood
Hardison - Ravenclaw 4th year muggleborn
Parker - adopted into Ravenclaw 4th year(saw someone go through the wall and followed, snuck around until said hi to Harrison in common room) effectively muggleborn
Eliot - Gryffindor 5th year halfblood but effectively muggleborn

Sterling - Ravenclaw 7th year head boy pureblood
Maggie - Gryffindor 7th year muggleborn
Moreau - Slytherin 7th year pureblood
Peggy - Hufflepuff 5th year prefect pureblood
Quinn - Hufflepuff 4th year pureblood
Chaos - ew
Tara - squib friend of Sophie, scams the wizarding world

Archie is out there signing permission slips for Parker
Nate's dad is the reason he's not in slytherin
Hardison has a bunch of siblings not at hogwarts

1 H Hardison and Parker set the scene opening feast during first year nate comes sits by them cause annoyed at sterling talk about Dumbledore's room warning and Eliot cause he's at slytherin table even though he's a Gryffindor how shameless

2 E Moreau asks him to make Harry trust him and he protests, later goes to Maggie to tell her to keep an eye on the kid

3 S Maggie tells Sophie what's up and she confronts Moreau, does magic to listen in on him and hears him confronting Eliot, talks to Eliot after

4 P Parker goes in door, sees dog and runs (too big, too much like a horse) goes to hang out with Peggy cause she's jittery and Peggy has the best snacks

5 N Nate set up a spell to monitor the door, confronts Parker and hardison and starts plotting

6 E Quinn finds Eliot and takes him to the kitchen where he meets Toby the house elf

7 S Nate talks to Sophie about stuff, newspaper clipping of stone, she goes to Hagrid for info learns all professors have a protection set up

8 N Nate starts brainstorming, coming up with team, Sophie suggests Eliot, Nate doesn't want to cause dad stuff but admits useful

9 P Parker figures out what's hidden on account of all chocolate frog cards and clippings of magical (and non-magical) break-ins above her bed

10 H Nate brings the team together and Hardison gives a briefing, suggests regroup and bonding next hogsmeade weekend and they all walk out except Parker

11 P Parker finds everyone and tells them to be nicer to Hardison

12 N Nate has a class with Maggie and Sophie (ancient runes?) And its awkward cause Maggie can tell somethings going on with the other two and is encouraging to Nate

13 H Hardison finds Eliot in the library, trying to study cause he's failing transfiguration. They talk, then Moreau takes Eliot, Hardison finds mirror of erised

14 S They meet up at hogsmeade, go through plan, argue, agree, hang out

15 E Eliot breaks off whatever weird thing he's got with Moreau, hangs out with Toby

16 P Hardison takes Parker to the mirror of erased room to see if it would be a good spot to hang out, Parker sees a safe or something, which discourages Hardison but she makes him feel better

17 N Nate sees Maggie chatting with Sterling, gets grumpy and decides to step out of the feast to do recon. Runs into Snape on his way

18 E Eliot follows trio to troll, helps them, has a talk with McGonagall

19 S Sophie talks to professors, getting info on their traps

20 H they meet in erased room, everyone else is cagey about what they see, goes over info, goes on walk with Parker and Sophie joins to make sure Nate isn't forcing them into all of this

21 E Eliot sees Quinn hanging at the Slytherin table, freaks out to get him away from Moreau, Sophie tries to deescalate, starts to work then Eliot punches Moreau and gets detention, Moreau is delighted

22 H Hardison visits Eliot in detention (trophies), Quinn is there but leaves when asked, Hardison tries to figure out what's up, Eliot is uncomfortable but appreciative

23 S argues with Nate about using people hypocritically, vents to Snape who tells her to watch out for Quirrel

24 N Nate's making back up plans in the common room, Parker butts in and is surprisingly insightful, finishes up and Sterling is watching them

25 P there's a quiditch game which means she's inside cause the seekers are no good, goes to kitchins and Eliot's there, he gets embarrassed and leaves, she asks Toby, then goes to tell Eliot she thinks it's cool and she doesn't have anything like that.

26 N Nate is drunk, Sophie and Eliot have a problem with that, they show up to erised room and Harry is there

27 H everyone but Nate goes home for Christmas, Eliot and Parker can see the theatrics which Hardison doesn't know what they are and had just thougg Parker was pretending. He goes home and gives gifts to family, thinks of what to bring back for his friends

28 P Gang is back together again and Hardison is giving out gifts, but Eliot has his arm in a sling and Nate prods and finds out it's a gunshot wound, kicks Eliot out, Parker freaks out and leaves with Hardison to try and find Eliot and fails

29 E Eliot's hanging out in the corner of the Gryffindor common room to try and stay away from everyone, Harry approaches to ask about arm, it comes out the Dursleys are hurting him, Eliot drags him to McGonagall, she says they have to keep Harry there and Eliot is pissed

30 S Eliot hasn't been to his classes, H and P keep bothering Sophie about it but think he doesn't want to see them, she teams up with Maggie, who asks Fred and George where he is, find him in the kitchens cooking, he doesn't want to talk to them, they get McGonagall to talk to him, Sophie leaves a spell to overhear, he talks about his future and wants to leave and get a ged

31 H Sophie tells them they should let Eliot leave if he wants to, Hardison says no way and also gets her to teach him the listening spell and makes the earbuds

32 P Parker tries to go talk to Nate cause she still wants this to happen but everything is falling apart, but Maggie is there yelling at him and tells her not to go talk to him cause he's drunk and she reminds him why they're doing this cause he doesn't think its safe and he wants to design security and this would get him a hell of a recommendation

33 S Sophie takes a break. She talks to other seventh years, but it’s all fake. At least with the team it's closer to real, even if all she does is try to fix their problems. She wishes she could have both, and decides to try it

34 N they regroup, Eliot is there, arm still in a sling. They go through again, every thing carefully subdued. Eliot says that McGonagall's is chess set cause the pieces haven't been on her board this year. Chess. Nate can do chess. Also the mirror is gone.

35 E They go in, Eliot stays spots the trapdoor, Parker's got a rope, they go down, Nate called the devil's snare, Parker can pick the lock, Nate's got eyes on the chess piece but it would cause to much destruction and they're trying to be untraceable, Sophie casts a spell to draw attention to herself, Hardison gives Parker a camera spelled to take moving pictures, she goes in on a broom and gets a picture of the logic puzzle, but the fire come up behind her and she panics. Hardison talks her through the puzzle, at some point the music spell Hardison had set up fails and Eliot starts to start singing, it calms everyone down, Parker gets samples of each potion, drinks the going backwards, they get out of there.

36 H Hardison is analyzing the potions, recreating the ones they need. He is also low key freaking out because sure Dumbledore had said slow painful death but he hadn't believed it but if he had been wrong about that logic puzzle Parker would have died and it would have been his fault because he's the one who got into this in the first place. Flitwick talks to him after class, Flitwick doesn't know what's going on but it helps him get his head on straight

37 N they have a little party, Eliot makes food Hardison mentioned liking and Parker levitate it in. Nate really came into this expecting business only but oops he formed a family. They finish and Sophie sticks around for a short and sweet heart to heart

38 P Parker hangs out with Peggy while Peggy works on a history of magic paper. Peggy asks where Parker's been all this time, then they talk about what they want to do after Hogwarts. Parker had assumed she'd take after Archie but this whole team business has her hooked

39 E Eliot's going about his life, but he realizes Sterling is watching/following the team, and had talked to flitwick. At one point he gets him in an abandoned corner and confronts him, but it turns out Sterling has a little magical taste thing for just this situation and knocks him out

40 S meeting with house heads and Sterling to ask about Sterling's accusations, Sophie turns on earbud so everyone else can hear, Hardison rushes to infirmary to check on Eliot, changes out Snape's veritaserum for water, the crew comes down there and wakes him up to question him, he's a little out of it but not drugged and Nate feeds him what to say

41 P Parker they do another run, refilling the potions, then get into rock room. Nate says the rock's not there, Parker says they were guarding the mirror instead, Eliot says the mirror was unguarded through the first semester, Hardison says its gotta be enchanted to protect it, Nate talks about how, Sophie tells Parker to look into it, she gets it, then replaces it with a rock she found outside

42 S Nate has them bring it straight to Dumbledore, but he's not there so they put it with Parker's stuff. Then Sophie hears through the spells she left to keep watch Quirrel go through, then Harry and crew. Eliot freaks and goes charging off, Nate stops him and says they're a crew now they do it together, Hardison goes off to get Pomfrey

43 N run two of the day is quicker, since the people ahead of them haven't been resetting it. They run into Hermione with Ron, Sophie stays with them, Parker goes back to watch the entrance while Hardison brings Pomfrey, Nate goes in with Elliot in time to save Harry, but after turban has come off. Eliot bodies Quirrel, Nate magics up some rope and sends Harry back to Sophie, talks down Eliot, looks in the mirror and sees them doing this same job but grown up some

44 E after OWLS, meets up with Harry, then talks with McGonagall about future stuff

45 H Meets up with the crew over the summer, Nate and Sophie talk about their plans, Eliot mentions how much it will cost, Parker asks how much that is in diamonds, pulling a bunch out of her pocket. Life is good.