Unofficial Portkey Archive

News from Outside

"It's not fair!"

"I wish my birthday was a few months later!"

"Won't it be exciting to watch?"

"I wonder what the other schools will be like?"

"Are you going to enter?"

"Whose stupid idea was it to have an age limit anyway?"

Alice pushed her way forwards as she followed her friends through the babbling throng of students all making their way up the staircase. Everyone was talking about the Triwizard Tournament, whether they were going to enter, whether they were excited by the prospect of it, or, like Fred and George, were furious that they were just too young to compete; it was the subject on everyone's lips. For her part Alice just wanted to get to bed, she had been unable to focus on half of Professor Dumbledore's announcement, her brain jamming over the words: "there will be no Quidditch Cup this year."

How could there be no Quidditch? It was as essential a part of Hogwarts as ghosts, feasts and drafty corridors. Not having Quidditch was like walking to class and not having Peeves pelt everyone with ink-pellets or having Potions without Snape docking points from Gryffindor; it was inconceivable. It wasn't just that though, if she was honest with herself, what she was most crushed about was the fact that she wouldn't get to try out for the vacant spot on the team. Harry had a hard time convincing her in the first place that she would be good enough for it, and initially she had doubted that she would have had the confidence to play in front of the entire school. Now that it had taken root however she found that she had come round to the idea. Deep down she knew she could do it. She was just slow in admitting it to herself. It wasn't as though she was the only one who was disappointed, all the other Gryffindor players - and probably those from other houses - were too, but at least they had been able to do it before…

She gave herself an irritable shake as they approached the Gryffindor common room and climbed past the portrait of the Fat Lady, finally reinstated after her absence of the previous year. It wouldn't do to dwell on it; it wasn't as though she could change anything.

"You're not still going to try and enter are you?" Hermione was asking the twins reprovingly.

"Of course not Hermione," George answered, smiling broadly at her. "Dumbledore explicitly told us not to do it."

"Yeah," Fred joined in, "why would we do something we had been told not to? It's almost like you don't know us at all!" He glanced towards Alice and smirked as she fought to contain her own small smile of amusement. Trust Fred to take her mind off of it.

"Just don't get caught," she told him.

"We wouldn't dream of it." With a set of identical grins and a look of mischief in their eye the twins turned and vanished up the spiral staircase to the dormitory.

Alice dropped her smile as her best friend turned towards her, hands placed on her hips and a frown marring her features. "You shouldn't encourage them like that! One of these days they are going to get into serious trouble."

"Hermione," explained Alice tiredly, "they're going to get up to mischief no matter what I say to them, so there's no point in fighting with them about it. They're not going to change; it's who they are."

"She's right," Ron spoke up, ducking slightly as though making himself shorter would somehow remove him from Hermione's line of fire. "My Mum's been trying to get them under control for years and she's never managed yet."

"Hmmph," Hermione didn't sound convinced.

"Anyway, shall we go to bed? I'm exhausted." She took a step forwards, but neither her best friend nor her brother moved forcing Ron and Neville behind her to pause. "Aren't you two coming?"

"Well… we were just going to…" She saw Harry's eyes slide towards the empty sofa lit snugly by the glow of the fading fire before flicking upwards to his girlfriend's awkward looking face and then back to the others. She could take a hint.

"Oh, right, ok then."

"What's up?" Ron seemed completely clueless as usual

"Harry knows his way up to the dormitory Ron," Neville tried the subtle approach although he may as well have spoken to Ron in Mermish for all the good it did.

"I should hope so too, the length of time we've been at Hogwarts. Am I missing something here?"

"Probably." Alice saved the blushing pair from any further embarrassment by slipping her arms through Ron and Neville's and steering them forcefully in the direction of the spiral staircase. Whether it had just taken him a while or whether it was her deliberate exit that did it, the penny finally seemed to drop with a resounding clunk.

"Ooooh. I get it."

Neville and Alice glanced at each other and snorted with laughter as they began to climb. "You know sometimes Ron," she informed him, "you can be really thick."

So tired was Alice that night that she had fallen asleep long before Hermione appeared in the dormitory. As she drifted off she could hear the excited babble emanating from the other three occupied beds; usually the sound would keep her awake, but tonight after so long in a room on her own over the summer she found it strangely comforting. The following morning she awoke refreshed, reconciled to the Quidditch situation, and ready for whatever Hogwarts had to throw at her.

"So did you and Harry have a good chat last night?" She asked brightly, brushing her tangled hair as Hermione yawned and staggered blearily from her bed to her trunk.

"Y-Yeah," her friend yawned, the sort of yawn that lasted for more than a few seconds and gave Alice a good view of her tonsils before abruptly her mouth closed with all the snap and force of a mouse trap. "Why?"

"No reason. Just call me curious."

Hermione didn't look convinced. "Ok, Curious, well why don't you run along down to breakfast and I'll catch up with you once I'm ready?"

Alice grinned at her friend. "You're no fun at all."

The Triwizard Tournament was still under much discussion throughout breakfast that day. "I heard that it was stopped because a dragon ATE all of the champions one year," Sally-Anne was telling Seamus and Neville, an expression of ghoulish delight on her face as Alice took her seat.

"Well, I heard that one year they locked the champions in a dungeon until they could free themselves; it took them five days!"

Neville looked perplexed. "They wouldn't actually do that would they?"

As she poured herself some pumpkin juice Alice smiled at him. "I doubt it, not any more at any rate, but we can ask Professor Kreevain when we next have History of Magic, she's bound to know."

At exactly that moment, as though Alice's words had been a signal, Professor McGonagall began handing out their new timetables. Her usual stern expression was nowhere in sight as she smiled kindly at Alice, enquiring how her holidays had gone as she handed over her schedule for the year; at the same time she gave Alice Hermione' timetable to pass on. Glancing at her friend's timetable she saw that it was just as impossibly full as it had been last year. Evidently Hermione had no intention of giving up the Time-Turner or her unenviable work hours; she shook her head in exasperation. Turning to her own, she scanned down the first column and was just in the process of thinking that today seemed a reasonably good day when she heard Ron groan further down the table.

"What's wrong?"

"Double Divination. This afternoon." He thrust the timetable in her direction to emphasise his point, a disgruntled expression on his face. "A whole afternoon of Trelawney."

"Look on the bright-side, mate," Harry informed him gloomily, "at least she doesn't tell you that you're going to die painfully and horribly every five minutes. Then again," he brightened at a sudden thought, "maybe she'll move on from me this year and start focusing on the fatal end of someone else instead."

"Well, it's your own fault," Alice chuckled, "you chose the subject, and you could have swapped it last year. It's too late now."

"Don't remind me."

At that moment there was a distraction as the post arrived and several enormous owls descended on the table. With a clatter Alice saw her goblet go flying as a particularly large barn owl descended with a thud in the space it had occupied. She raised her eyebrows a fraction as the bird hooted imperiously at her, ruffling its feathers and nearly sending a platter of bacon cascading into Neville's lap before she grabbed it. She never got mail. Not unless you counted the occasional letter from Sirius last term and she didn't think this was from him, not so soon after she had last seen him. Curiously she reached up and untangled the thick wad of parchment from around his leg. It was a letter from someone, but she didn't recognise the handwriting on the envelope.

"Who's that from?" Neville asked curiously as he watched her tear it open.

"No idea," she shrugged, running her eyes over the first few lines of text.

Dear Miss Potter

My name is Doris Giddypeyn. I just thought I would take the time to write and tell you how pleased I am that you have discovered your relation to Harry Potter, The Boy-Who-Lived. It must be very exciting for you. I have been an avid supporter of your brother for years now and follow with keen attention everything that is reported in the Daily Prophet about him, and anything else in which he happens to appear. I and a few of my friends actually have a society dedicated to supporting him, of which I am President. I thought you might like to know that we have now extended this to include you too. I have sent you some of our club badges which I thought you might like.

I saw a photograph of the two of you at the Quidditch World Cup and thought it was a very good picture. I have enclosed two copies, I wonder if you would autograph them for me, if it wouldn't be too much trouble? I would love to have one. We were also thinking, that is the society - did I mention our name? We have recently renamed ourselves so that we are the Potter- Evans Aldershot Society, or P.E.A.S. for short - Anyway, we were thinking that we might have a quiz night soon and we would like to be able to give away an autographed photograph (wouldn't that be a mouthful to say?!) as a prize. I thought that you might like to know a little about us…

Alice stopped reading and put the letter down, feeling queasy and slightly shell-shocked. Knowing that half the wizarding world knew her name and that everyone knew Harry's was one thing, having it shoved in her face like this was another. Why would anyone want to set up a fan-club dedicated to them? It was mental.

"So?" Neville queried. Rather than answering Alice just pushed the letter towards him.

"You should read it when he's done," she informed her brother who was frowning at her in concern. "It's not bad, it's just… weird. Really weird."

Neville let out a snort as he finished the missive and passed it over to Harry, as he looked at Alice he tried to keep a straight face and bit his lip to keep from laughing; he didn't entirely succeed. "Let's see the badges then."

As the rest of her friends crowded round Harry to read the letter Alice glanced back inside and fished out the two large, round objects about the size of her palm inside. "Oh, for goodness sake!" Each badge had a person on it; one was herself, the other Harry. She vaguely recognised the images as coming from a photograph of the two of them that had been taken at the start of the summer when a photographer had snuck up on them on their way to Pettigrew's trial. As a result, since these were moving photos, both of them had expressions ranging from surprise to disgruntled annoyance and back again. Occasionally her `badge self' would get bored, yawn widely and take an irritated swipe at the gold lettering below them scrambling the letters so that on Alice's badge it currently read: A.P.E.S. "It's not funny," she scolded the others as they began to laugh, showing them the badges.

"No," Hermione covered her smile with her hand. "No, of course it's not. Sorry Harry," she added as he looked askance at her. "It's really not funny."

"Some people are just mental," he informed Alice, "just ignore them."

"It's not so much them I'm worried about. Can you imagine if Malfoy got wind of this? Or -"

"What's this then?" Fred and George descended on the table, scooping the badges from Alice's hands as they did so.

"-the twins," she finished dully. Hermione smirked into her cereal at the look on Alice's face.

"Evans, what are these? Are these in case you forget what you look like? A mirror would be handier you know. And what is Apes?"

Alice raised an eyebrow. "Well they're these really big primates, and they don't have tails. They look sort of like -"

"Ha. Ha. Evans you're hilarious." George swung his head round and stared at her for several seconds, his expression immobile except for a slight twitch next to his nose that said he was struggling to keep a straight face. Alice stuck her tongue out at him and he cracked.

"You know Harry, being on a badge suits you. You should get more of these made." Fred held it up next to his face as though comparing. Both Harry's scowled back at him murderously. "Do you want one Hermione?"

The brunette smiled at him. "Much as I'd love one… G-Fred?" She paused uncertainly.

"I'm George," he told her helpfully.

"He's Fred," Alice informed her, digging him in the ribs.

"Aw Evans, you're no fun."

"And you're just being mean."

Hermione was looking from one twin's grinning, freckled face to the other and back again. "I give up; how can you tell the difference?"

Alice shrugged. "Dunno; I just can. Fred's more annoying I suppose."

"Oi!" He exclaimed as both of his brothers laughed at him. "I'll pretend not to be completely shattered and mentally scarred by that remark. I know you love my wit and devilish charm really Evans, so I'm going to keep you close to my heart." He pinned the badge with her face on it prominently to the front of his robes, dodging smartly out of the way when she groaned and made a grab for it as the others laughed uproariously.

"Fred Weasley!" She shouted down the Hall after him as he scampered off, George only a few paces behind as always. "Honestly," she muttered turning back to the table and trying to calm the growing blush in her cheeks. "I am going to kill them when I get hold of them." She looked up at the other four trying to conceal their laughter as they ate. For a moment she tried to retain her stern expression, but in the end she succumbed and saw the funny side too. With a tiny snort, and then a giggle which turned into a full-bellied chuckle the five of them proceeded to crack up for the next few minutes, eventually eliciting more than one concerned stare from those round about which only made them laugh all the harder.

For the next few weeks things went along relatively calmly, especially for Hogwarts. Alice saw less of Hermione than she would have liked as her friend was often busy either catching up with school work and sleep or spending some time with Harry. She tried not to grudge her the time, after all she couldn't expect to be the main focus of her life, but she did still miss her friend occasionally. One particularly blustery afternoon in early October she was sitting by herself in the courtyard, her back against the wall, idly plaiting stems of grass together. Harry and Hermione had vanished somewhere and Ron was in the library frantically trying to finish his Potions essay. She had been trying to help him with it, but he had gotten so snappy and grumpy that she had given up; Potions could do that to a person.

Above her the thick white clouds that had roofed the valley all morning were zipping by at a brisk pace, becoming ever more thunderous looking as they went. The walls of the courtyard kept out the more savage gusts of wind leaving the smaller gusts to sneak in about, whipping at her face and tugging strands of hair loose to tickle at her cheeks.

"Hey, Alice!"

She glanced up to see Neville approaching with Ginny and Luna Lovegood, whom she had spoken to on several occasions, following in his wake. "Hi, Neville, what are you three up to?"

"We were just… actually I have no idea," Neville admitted this last quietly as he sat down beside her, pulling a confused face when the other girls couldn't see. Alice had to contain a smile.

"Luna was looking for… what was it Luna? A Hagelambular?"

"A Hagelnimbulus," the blonde girl replied vacantly as she gazed upwards to the clouds.

"Yeah…" Ginny looked sceptical and shrugged as she caught Alice's eye. "One of those, Luna reckons she saw some. Apparently they come out when it's about to rain to play in the sunbeams if there are any… she wanted a hand to look for them."

"Ah," Alice nodded slowly, "I see… any luck?"

"Not so far, but they'll be about somewhere." Luna's wide, pale eyes were so unfocused that she reminded Alice forcefully of a blind woman she had seen once. It was as though she wasn't even looking at anything in particular. Then again it occurred to her that it was often said that the blind saw more clearly than regular folk, so perhaps she shouldn't judge her too critically.

"Ok…" Having no idea what exactly Hagelnimbuli (if that was indeed the plural term) were, much less if they even actually existed Alice wasn't really sure what else to say on the subject. In the end she didn't bother trying. "So did you have a good summer Luna?"

For a moment she didn't think the girl was going to respond, and she glanced at Neville and Ginny who were both smiling in amusement. Eventually though she spoke in that slow, airy voice which was so unusual and yet rather endearing at the same time. "Yes thanks, my Dad and I went on a trip to Sweden, Daddy thinks we might find a Crumple-Horned Snorkack there." She said this with such sincerity as she sat down with the others that Alice couldn't find it in her heart to laugh at her.

"Any luck?" Next to her she could feel Ginny trembling with laughter.

"No, but it was a good trip. Did you do much? I heard you were Harry Potter's sister now? Although I guess you always were, and it is rather obvious," this was news to Alice, "and you're staying with your godfather Sirius Black and that he didn't kill all those Muggles. Is it interesting?"

"Erm… Yes, I guess so," she chuckled, "interesting is probably a good word for it." As she had on previous occasions Alice found herself warming slightly to Luna despite, or perhaps because of her peculiarities and odd way of looking at the world.

"That's nice," Luna paused for a moment as she watched Alice continue to plait the grass in her hand. "That's nice," she repeated distantly; Alice wasn't sure if she was continuing their conversation, remarking on the grass or talking about something else altogether, with her it was difficult to tell. "Well, I think I'm going to go and carry on looking, I might go for a walk; sometimes you can find them down with the Thestrals, they enjoy the company." With a vacant wave that suggested she was already thinking about something else Luna wandered off. The three of them watched her go in silence, the brisk wind picking up and casting her long blonde hair out in a streamer behind her as she walked, swirling around her robes and snatching up leaves around her made her look almost ethereal herself.

"What's a Thestral?" Neville asked eventually.

"No idea," Alice laughed, "though I'm sure if you chased after her and asked Luna would happily tell you."

Ginny snorted. "Yeah, about that and every other mad thing she comes up with." The three of them sat in companionable silence for a few minutes longer and as she sat there it occurred to Alice how far she and Ginny had come since their frosty start in second year, then again they were getting older, perhaps they were growing up at the same time?

"Come on," Neville abruptly got to his feet, stretching out a hand to both girls as he did so, "I don't know about you, but I'm freezing sitting out here. Let's go inside and warm up a bit, it's nearly lunchtime anyway."

"You're as bad as Ron, thinking about food all the time."

"I am not!" He laughed, pretending to look offended and failing miserably as they wandered through to the Great Hall.

"True," Ginny smiled as she waved at a few of her friends who were already sitting at the Gryffindor table, "no one's as bad as Ron, but you definitely come close!"

As she settled back into her normal routine with practiced ease, Alice wondered how she could ever have doubted that home was Hogwarts. Yes, she loved being at home with Sirius and Harry, but Hogwarts would always be her first home, the first place she had found a family. Even Potions didn't seem too bad this term; Snape seemed to have taken to ignoring both Harry and Alice. She assumed that she was receiving the same treatment since she was Harry's sister and the Potions master felt the need to extend his grudge to include every member of the Potter family, she wasn't sure why he was ignoring them though. Not that she was complaining, it was certainly better than having him breathing down their necks every time they stirred their cauldrons and deducting house points for having chopped a gurdyroot incorrectly. It was a tad disconcerting though.

It wasn't until over halfway through October that Snape eventually broke his silence though as it turned out the circumstances were highly unusual. They were all sitting at breakfast one Tuesday morning, Ron tucking into an unhealthy quantity of bacon, sausages, black pudding, fried tomatoes, and beans on toast as per usual whilst Hermione looked on in mild disgust, her spoonful of porridge frozen halfway between her bowl and her mouth, when the mail arrived. Alice who was more interested in buttering her toast than unravelling her Daily Prophet thought nothing of it until the noise level in the room began to build. It began in patches, spreading along each table as students shared out the newspapers or relayed the news.

Glancing towards Hermione she saw her friend frown as she eavesdropped on distant conversations before suddenly snatching up the paper from in front of Alice. Tearing it open her eyes seemed to pop as they travelled across the front page. "Merlin," she whispered; her voice barely audible above the hubbub of the Great Hall.

"What's wrong?" Harry leant across the table to see what had startled his girlfriend and set the entire room on edge. In response Hermione flipped the Daily Prophet around so that they could all see the cover. Alice, who had just taken a considerable bite of toast, swallowed sharply.

Emblazoned across the newspaper in print three inches high was the headline: WIZARD BANK RAIDED! And underneath there was a picture of Gringotts bank - or what was left of it. Leaning forwards for a closer look Alice could see that someone, or something, had blown an enormous hole in the front of the normally pristine building. The ruins of the marble pillars seemed to smoke gently in the moving photograph as the occasional flurry of dust swirled towards the viewer. She could just pick out the dark silhouette of several goblins rushing around inside the building, which from what she could see was in a similar state of destruction. The three of them stared at it in silence, there mouths hanging open and Ron's breakfast long forgotten.

"What…? How…? What happened?" Alice whispered eventually. Gringotts was meant to have the tightest security of any wizarding place in Britain, except for Hogwarts of course, how could something like that happen? Seeming to recover herself slightly Hermione turned the paper back and flipping it open she began to read. "Witches and Wizards on Diagon Alley were stunned today by the sight of the nine-hundred year old bank in smoking ruins after an attack last night. The high-security bank was targeted by witches or wizards unknown last night in a raid lasting mere minutes.

Spokes-goblins for the bank insist nothing was taken and the intruders - who were all masked - didn't make it beyond the Entrance Hall, this of course is not to say that considerable damage was not inflicted and the bank will have to undergo significant repair work. No one was arrested for the incident. Ministry officials from the Department of Magical Law enforcement also refused to speculate on the reasons behind the raid and insist that there is no reason to link it to the recent disturbances at the Quidditch World Cup…" Here she stopped reading and looked up at them expectantly.

"Do you think it was?"

"What?" Harry asked, looking deep in thought. "Another Death-Eater attack? It might have been…" As he spoke he worried absentmindedly at his lip, his teeth almost in danger of drawing blood. "It could just be a coincidence though…"

"It says they were masked, so were those Death Eaters at the World Cup," Ron pointed out. He looked ill at even the possibility that there could be Death Eaters involved and it occurred to Alice that even though none of them had been alive, Ron was really the only one of the four of them who really knew the impact that Voldemort had had on family's before. Yes, she and Harry's lives had been irrevocably changed by Him, but they had been ignorant of that for much of their childhood. The Weasleys on the other hand would have grown up with constant stories of that time, they hadn't been terrified by tales of Bogeymen, but by Death Eaters and she knew that Ron had lost some uncles at the very least. She glanced around at the scared faces scattered throughout the hall who had obviously reached the same conclusion they had; he wouldn't be the only one who had lost loved ones either.

"Why would they do it though? I'm not saying that it wasn't Death Eaters," she added as the others made to interrupt her. She dropped her voice on the last words too, not wanting to start a panic. "I just mean would it be to scare people or do you think they were trying to steal something but were disturbed?"

"I dunno," Harry shrugged, "we should ask Sirius. I'll send him a letter at lunchtime."

"Yeah, I might owl my Dad too," Ron added, "to see if they know anything at the Ministry."

"That's a good idea Ron," Hermione smiled at him.

Alice nodded. "You can use Archimedes if you like."

She glanced up from where she had been looking at the paper again in time to see Ron gulp and, if it were even possible, turn paler, his freckles standing out starkly against his skin. Chuckling she smiled, feeling some of the tension the article had created lift as she did so. "He's not going to eat you Ron -"

"I wouldn't bet on it!"

"Well, maybe just a finger, but you've got ten it's only fair to share." Standing as everyone began to file slowly off towards class she took a last bite of toast. "The offer's there anyway, or you can use one of the school owls, I really don't mind."

As it turned out Ron, much to his evident relief, was able to use Hedwig instead because as they went up to the owlery at lunch it was to find an imposing eagle-owl perched impatiently just inside the door as though it was waiting for them. At first they hadn't noticed it, but as Harry had made to cross the room it had suddenly taken flight and in a few short wing flaps had hopped onto his shoulder.

"It's from Sirius!" He exclaimed once he had recovered from the surprise and unfurled the letter attached to its leg. As he read the letter, Alice stamped her feet against the feather-laden floor of the owlery, careful not to dislodge Archimedes perching on her shoulder as she did so. Her motion was partly inspired by impatience and partly to ward of the bitingly cold wind that was gusting through the space. It may have only been mid-October but already she could see that the highest of the surrounding mountains had snow on their peaks.

"Hurry up will you?!" She complained when it seemed he must be re-reading it for the third time, either that or Sirius had written a novel. She pulled her robes more tightly around her and noticed Hermione doing the same. "What does he say?"

"They think it might have been old Death Eater's the same as at the World Cup, but they don't know for sure. He says…" Harry scanned the letter for more excerpts, "that the word on the ground is that they really didn't take anything, that they were just trying to scare people. That they got away with it at the Quidditch and thought that they would try their luck again. He mentions at the end that Fudge is refusing to admit it might be Death Eaters and a lot of people are taking their lead from him." He stopped and looked up at them. For a moment Alice thought that he was going to say something else, but he glanced at Hermione and the smallest of frowns seemed to flit across his features, so quick that she would have missed it if she hadn't been watching, and he stayed silent.

Hermione scuffed at the ground with the tip of her shoe, her face hidden out of sight by her long curtain of bushy hair as she thought. "Well," she began after a moment, "if it was the same people, and they keep this up, someone is going to end up getting hurt. I mean it was a miracle no one was hurt this time!"

The four of them began the long walk down to the dungeons for their Potions class, still discussing the events. They fell silent as Snape swooped in, robes billowing out behind him as usual, like the sails of some wraithlike ship, but once he had set them their task - to brew a Calming Draught - Alice spoke up again. She waited until Snape was at the far side of the classroom, praising the way Malfoy could chop up the ingredients probably, frankly Alice was surprised that the slimy twit could wield the knife without lopping his own fingers off. Once Hermione was busy explaining to Ron exactly how to press the juice from the raspberries and stir it into his potion, Alice took her opportunity to talk to her brother.

"So what else was in the letter?"

"What?" He hissed, peering into the depths of his cauldron as though it contained the answer.

"You know what," Alice elbowed him gently in the ribs, "there was something else in Sirius' letter and you didn't want to say it in front of Hermione. I saw your face."

Harry looked at her for a moment then sighed and reached into the pocket of his robes. Pulling out the letter he smoothed it out on the workbench and pushed it towards her, pointing wordlessly at the end of the final paragraph. Alice glanced down at it with a frown.

And Harry - it read - actually this probably applies to both of you, but Harry especially: be careful and keep your eyes peeled for anything suspicious this term. This is probably nothing and will all blow over, but… saying that this is also how things started last time. There were a few random incidents that no one thought anything about until later. I don't want to alarm either of you, and Hogwarts is definitely the safest place for you to be right now, but it's not completely outside the realms of possibility that someone might try and get to you. Just keep your eyes open as I said, look after each other and let me know AT ONCE if you see or hear anything out of the ordinary.

Your overprotective godfather

Sirius

Alice glanced up at Harry realising that he hadn't wanted to say anything that might upset Hermione. Understandably. "He sounds worried," she hissed adding ingredients to her potion so that the bubble and spit of the boiling mixture would cover her words. Harry slipped the letter back into his pocket. "How serious do you think it really is?"

"I reckon that if Sirius is even hinting that it might be a problem then he thinks it could be very serious, I mean he wouldn't want to spook us unnecessarily would he?" Harry gave her a sideways look that was full of concern.

"Well, no, but then again there's no harm in keeping us on our guard, I mean -"

"I wasn't aware that I was merely chairing a social club for budding celebrities such as yourselves." Alice jumped, dropping her ladle into the cauldron with a splash as she heard the cold, menacing drawl of Snape behind her. How he managed to sneak up on people like that she would never know. "Please continue, don't let me disturb you," she chanced a glance upwards and saw him staring down his considerable nose at them both with dark, fathomless eyes. "In fact since you both seem to have so much to say and enjoy the limelight so much, why don't you share your observations with the class? I'm sure we would all benefit enormously from whatever pearls of wisdom you have to offer that are important enough to interrupt my lesson for. No? Then perhaps we may all continue in silence?" He stood over them for a moment as they sat, heads bowed in silence, before he straightened his robes with an irate twitch and made to move away from the desk. Across the room Alice heard Malfoy snigger. "Oh, and twenty points each from Gryffindor for your rudeness," he added walking away.

"What was that about?" Hermione whispered once she thought he was out of earshot. Unfortunately for her, Snape appeared to have a bat's hearing capabilities as well as appearance and general demeanour. He swooped back across the room almost as quickly as though he had apparated.

"Ah Miss Granger, you usually have some comment to make about the proceedings. Is it possible that you are able to suffer in silence for the remainder of this class or do I need to make it a further twenty points?"

Hermione opened her mouth to argue, but seemed to think better of it and shut her jaw again with a click. Stung by the injustice and the severe penalties they had incurred Alice risked flashing the smallest glare up at Snape. The Professor had a self-satisfied smirk playing at the corners of his thin, pale mouth; his black eyes were running over the bowed heads at the bench, compelling silence. When he caught Alice's eye however, his expression changed, it was at once severe and reprimanding, but at the same time there was almost an element of… she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Embarrassed she dropped her gaze, but she had to admit that she was surprised, there hadn't been the same level of loathing in there as she had expected, certainly not the volume of antipathy he reserved for Harry. Why then had he been singling her out as well as her brother of late? If she hadn't known better she would have said that there had been a touch of regret in his eyes too, but that was ridiculous, this was Snape they were talking about. It was all rather confusing.

A/N: I have no idea how old Gringotts is (though I did try and check and couldn't find anywhere that told me!) so if it isn't 900 years old and there is an actual date for its founding please accept my apologies and call it artistic license. I also have no idea what the ingredients of a Calming Draught are so I made some up.

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