There was a knock on the door.
Ivy turned her eyes away from the mouse she was practicing transfiguration. She pulled out Marauder's Map and checked who was outside. The map confirmed that the people outside were the people she was expecting.
She raised her wand to the door, and the lock clicked open.
"Come in."
The door swung open, and three people dressed in green trims entered the empty room. One girl and two boys— Daphne Greengrass with Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott in tow.
Ivy's eyes narrowed a fraction at the large rectangle of cloth floating above Daphne's hands. It was apparently known as Recon, a magical map with the functions of the Marauder's Map— but better. . . or as Quinn had said. She didn't know something like this existed until it showed up in Daphne's hands. She found out from both(Quinn and Daphne) that Quinn had created the map early in his Hogwarts years to sneak around. It made sense why Quinn had never been caught outside despite it being an open secret that he broke curfew religiously.
"Daphne, Zabini, Nott," Ivy greeted the three Slytherins. "Let's get started right away," she looked at her wristwatch, "he's going to connect anytime now."
"What are you doing?" Daphne walked to Ivy's table.
"Trying out Transfiguration from William's compendium."
"Which one was that?"
"The one Professor McGonagall suggested as extra-extra reading."
"How is it? Anything new?"
"New, no. I'm reading this because Quinn had referenced some concepts from here in the one he gave us. I'm just exploring those references— the language is terrible. . . just as Quinn said it would be. What are you reading these days?"
"I'm alternating between Herbology and Arithmancy. . . . Yes, I know they're far from each other, but that helps me to put a break when I need one."
"I heard Luna's already on the second volumes," said Ivy.
Daphne pursed her lips, "She has an unfair advantage of being with Quinn before us. Moreover, Quinn taught her personally for such a long time. It's not surprising that she's ahead of us."
Ivy nodded before turning to the two boys who were looking at them. "Any idea why he wants to talk with you today?" she asked.
Zabini said, "We don't know. He sent a letter asking to talk to us; other than that, he didn't say much." Not nodded the same. Zabini looked around the room before asking, "How will this happen? Is he going to come here?"
Ivy stood up and walked to the wall where something large stood covered in a blue curtain. She grabbed the fabric and pulled on it to reveal a body-sized mirror.
"This is how he's going to talk to you." As Ivy said that, the sound of chimes rang in the room. "Right on time," she said and retrieved a big hand mirror.
Daphne's eyes followed the mirror as Ivy went and tapped it against the frame of the larger. The mirror shone with a short burst of light, followed by the reflection disappearing away, and what took its place was the image of Quinn sitting on a chair.
"Good evening, everyone," Quinn smiled. "I hope everyone here's doing well and had a great day till now." His eyes turned to where the boys stood and greeted them, "Zabini, Nott, I hope both of you didn't have any prior commitments that you had to miss to meet with me today."
The Slytherin boys shook their heads.
"Good. Now, that was enough pleasantries. I'm sure both of you're busy, and we can always come back to them afterward if we have time. I will come straight to the reason why I asked to meet you like this. . . . I'm curious as to why didn't you contact me, and seeing that both of you're in Hogwarts makes me further curious about what happened."
Zabini and Nott exchanged looks and then glanced at Ivy and Daphne.
"It's okay; they can stay and listen. I trust them, so can you."
"It was all because of Malfoy," Nott took the lead.
"Malfoy. . . Draco?"
"Both father and son. It seems that Draco was given a task that he failed. . . and the punishment for it was given to his father," said Nott. "My father, who was eager to induct me into the ranks of the marked Death Eaters, suddenly changed his mind. It seemed that dear father didn't want a mistake from me to affect him, so he canceled his plans to make me a Death Eater," Nott snorted, "he even went as far as to dress it up as conceding to mum's request— what a farce!"
Quinn looked intrigued. "Is that so. What happened to Lucius Malfoy? What sort of punishment did the Dark Lord bestow upon him."
"Father said that he lost an arm and his wand."
"An arm and a wand," said Quinn with surprise— but unlike Ivy, Daphne, and even Zabini— Quinn seemed less shocked by the revelation. "The Dark Lord must be furious to take away Lucius' wand."
"I overheard him talking about avoiding meeting with the Dark Lord for some time. . . it was the worst— he stayed home longer."
Quinn hummed. He turned to Zabini and asked, "What about you, Zabini? How were you able to stay at Hogwarts. What's the reason behind why your mother didn't whisk you away from the country."
Zabini sighed heavily. He didn't look like he wanted to talk about it and even glanced at the others in the room, slight unwillingness in his voice.
He sighed again, "She has found herself. . . a fiance." Eyebrows in the room and in the mirror were raised. "She has moved out of the country for the moment— she wanted to take me with her, but the school isn't as good, and well, she had a talk with Dumbledore," everyone could see him turn into a tomato, "and he assured that I'll be safe as long as I'm in the castle. I still can't believe that I'm still here."
"Everyone thinks the same, Zabini, everyone," said Quinn sighing. "Which one would this be?"
"Eight, ninth, I don't know."
"Let's hope this one hangs on to his life force."
Zabini snorted as if hearing a joke. The track record of the past husbands didn't help Lady Zabini's case— it made people how could she continue to trap more and more people even after such a public record of things not turning out in favor of her partner.
"Did Dumbledore come to your house, or did your mother approach him?" asked Quinn.
"I'm not aware of what happened there. Just that one day, my mother decided that she wanted me to continue going to Hogwarts. I, of course, didn't object one bit. . . rest is history that I'm not interested in. Does it matter if it was Dumbledore or mother who started the conversation?"
"It was just a personal curiosity," said Quinn with a smile. "I'm not going to lie by saying that I'm not disappointed that we weren't able to form a partnership, Zabini, Nott, but I'm happy that you're able to attend Hogwarts for you last year— it wouldn't have been a pleasant experience having uprooted for your school of six years with just one more going.
But. . . if you ever need my help, please feel free to contact me. As you know, I'm always ready to provide to aid those in need of it."
The conversation that Quinn had called Zabini and Nott for had ended. After he had caught up with them, both exited, leaving only Ivy and Daphne in the room.
"They gave us strange looks," said Ivy, looking at the door.
"That is to be expected," Daphne took a seat. "It'd seem odd to anyone why you have a way to contact Quinn like this when I'm his girlfriend," she gave a pointing look to Quinn.
"It's okay. Zabini and Nott are tight-lipped guys. They won't say anything," Quinn seemed carefree. "If they do give you some trouble, go visit Astoria— they both owe AID a favor or two. . . . So, how're you two doing? How's the feeling of being a seventh year?"
"Same as before." "Everything's about NEWTs." "The first years are tiny." ""
"Figured," Quinn smiled. "So. . . I have another question. Who's the new Defense Against The Dark Arts professor? I'm assuming that Professor Slughorn is still teaching potions."
"He is," said Daphne. "As for the new professor. . . it's one of the Weasley brothers— William Weasley."
"Bill Weasley," added Ivy.
"The one who works in Gringotts?" Quinn quirked his brow and asked Ivy. "How did the goblins let him off work to attend Hogwarts. Did he leave his job?"
"He said he's still working with Gringotts and is with Hogwarts for the year. As for how is it possible, I questioned that myself but haven't asked him yet. Maybe Ron will know."
"I doubt it," Daphne said with a snort.
Ivy turned a sharp eye to Daphne. "He's not stupid, you know. He's just a little slow to understand his understanding. He makes it up with his other qualities."
"Those are?"
"Alright, let's stop before this derails into a fight," said Quinn, stopping the discussion. "I was in that school for seven years, and now both of you're in your seventh— and in all those years, all of us have seen different teachers every year. It makes me wonder if there's really a curse on the position and if William Weasley, the cursebreaker from Gringotts, is there to purge said curse.
Or. . . he's there to be another person for Hogwarts security," Quinn tapped the armrest of his chair. "If we're to assume that it was the Headmaster who contacted Mrs. Zabini, then it isn't a stretch to again assume that he's taking steps to fortify the security."
"It could be any of those," said Daphne.
"I think it's the latter," Ivy gave her opinion.
Quinn quirked his brow, "You think, or. . ." Ivy fixed him with a glare that made him end the sentence before it could. ". . . okay, I'll not ask." Both Quinn and Ivy had made an agreement that Quinn wasn't to ask questions involving Order of the Phoenix. The agreement was placed to ensure no awkward conversation would ensue between them.
"I, too, think that it's the latter," said Quinn. "I think Dumbledore is trying to rebuild Hogwarts' image of being safe, which has been damaged in the previous year— Harry's almost abduction, Crouch impersonating Alastor Moody, Umbridge, the Death Eaters. . . there have been one too many incidents. . . . huh, I've been part of the first three. . . . I punched Harry's abductor's face in, he ended up in jail— I stunned Crouch, and then kicked him a couple time, he ended up in jail— I filmed Umbridge, capturing her misdeed, she ended up in jail. . . . I had nothing to do with the Death Eaters thought."
"Sending people to jail must be your thing," Ivy smirked.
"That's not my thing," said Quinn. "My thing is magic, resourcefulness, intelligent and playful charm."
"Of course, it is," said Daphne.
". . . I feel you're making fun of me."
"Rubbish," Daphne smiled before asking, "How's your grandfather doing?"
"The load has begun to decrease. The rebuilding in Germany has finally entered a stage where he doesn't feel warranted to be overlooking every single aspect of the operation."
"I don't think he ever needed to do that. I'm sure he has people to handle something like this."
"He has, but it turns out that Germany was his personal project when he was coming up, and I guess he feels sentimental enough to get involved. I'm going to try to keep him at home."
". . . So you're going to jail him in his own house," said Ivy.
Quinn and Daphne looked at Ivy and said in unison,
"That wasn't funny."
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Quinn West - MC - I have sent a lot more people to jail. . . indirectly. Also, I was involved in all four incidents. FOMO not getting me, bro!
Ivy Potter - Holder of the two-way mirror - Has sat in OotP meetings.
Daphne Greengrass - Holder of Recon - Has a pulse on what's happening through her father.
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