Chapter Text
“You think this year is gonna be as crazy as last year?” Draco asked with his knees brought up into his chest as he rested the heels of his black dress shoes on the edge of the train compartment’s bench. He had been squishing his cheek against his fist watching out the window for much of their ride back to school for their seventh, and final, year at Hogwarts. “Do you mean to ask if our new Headmaster will be arrested in the great hall during breakfast or if our new Headmaster will be thrown out by the majority of the pureblood families on account of all the changes he’s made already?” Pansy huffed as she filed her nails out of boredom.
The previous year had ended abruptly a few months shy of the normal end date on account of their Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, being arrested by a slew of aurors during one morning during their breakfast. The murder and hate crime charges that were tried over the summer led to the wizard’s imprisonment in Azkaban. Despite the media ban ordered by the Ministry of Magic, The Prophet let the majority of the evidence presented at the trial leak. The group of Slytherin classmates that spent nearly all summer together would read each new released detail in The Prophet while they were by the pool. Apparently, the supposed accidental death of a muggle born student during the Triwizard Tournament, was found to actually be orchestrated by none other than the Headmaster himself. It was one thing for the students to learn that their Headmaster murdered one of their classmates, it was another for the teens to have to process that most of their parents were not that bothered by the news reports. With their Headmaster in Azkaban for practically the rest of time, a new Headmaster had been selected. The choice of a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor from the American wizarding school, Llvermorny was a scandalous one to say the least.
When Draco was not by the pool with his friends, he spent most of his time listening to his parents share their clear disapproval over what they considered “a dangerous man”. Professor Black was who taught the Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, and Draco didn’t see him as being a dangerous man inherently, so he didn’t understand the correlation. When Draco had asked his parents what made the new Headmaster dangerous, they didn’t really provide an answer and were quick to change the subject.
“I’m sure he meant the arresting part, Pans, geez.” Blaise rolled his eyes at Pansy and turned toward Draco. “I think it’ll be good for Hogwarts to have some change. Everything has been so ‘it’s tradition’ for way too long.” Pansy dropped her file and hands in her lap, huffing irritatedly, “Well considering the Zabini line is fairly new comparatively, I'm sure you didn’t spend the summer nights at the dinner table hearing the same things that my parents were saying.” She was entirely over the two Slytherin boys in her compartment and wanted to go find Harry. An extra long summer of only exchanging letters with her boyfriend was not what she had planned for the two of them. However, their bigoted and murderous Headmaster mucked that too.
Harry’s father, James Sr., was very involved in the trial, considering he was the head Auror of the unit that arrested their previous Headmaster. Harry’s parents didn’t want to get Pansy involved in the media and legal circus that plagued the Potter family over the summer. Pansy’s parents weren’t keen on her even dating the Gryffindor, so they banned either one from visiting each other throughout the whole length of summer anyways. Pansy had never been excited to be back at Hogwarts, but she was this year.
“My parents said he was dangerous,” Draco commented as the two looked at him quickly with barely hidden concern. “Dangerous? What makes him dangerous?” Blaise demanded as there was a sudden knock on the compartment door. Draco sat up straighter and dropped his long legs back onto the floor in front of him as the door opened. “Hey I’m looking for a certain witch with a big attitude and a black bob.” Harry poked his head into the room and made a scene looking around until he looked at Pansy rolling her eyes while barely able to hold back her smile. “Thank Merlin, Harry! It bloody took you long enough! I’ve been stuck with these two prats nearly the entire ride.” Pansy flicked her hair over her shoulder even though it wasn’t long enough to stay and jutted her other hand toward the now offended wizards across from her.
“More like we had to put up with your rotten arse.” Blaise sneered as Harry laughed, walking into the compartment. “The trolley come past this way yet?” Ron asked as he appeared behind Harry and closed the compartment door behind him louder than intended. Draco groaned, folding his leg over his knee and leaned his head against the cool window. “Potter, do you go anywhere without your redheaded shadow?” Blaise grumbled as Ron sat down beside him on the bench almost sitting in his lap accidentally. “Sorry,” Ron muttered shifting over quickly. The youngest Weasley boy was still incredibly lanky at seventeen. He was about as tall as Draco, which irritated the six three blonde considerably. Blaise would tell anyone that Ron had the least amount of control of his movements than anyone he had ever seen.
“We’re sort of a package deal. Isn’t that right Harry?” Ron grinned as Harry threw his arm over his girlfriend’s shoulder, settling in next to her. “If you're a package deal then why don’t you sit over next to him?” Blaise frowned at the lack of space between the two of them. Ron turned and scrunched his nose, sticking his tongue out as Blaise rolled his eyes, shaking his head. “I guess you could say that, Ron.” Harry half heartedly agreed as he leaned over and kissed Pansy. The boys on the opposite side of the compartment made a symphony of throwing up noises in protest. “Oh! You prats are just jealous!” Pansy sneered as Harry broke away from her lips and sat back with a smug smile.
“The day that I am jealous of a Potter is the day that I get resorted into Gryffindor.” Draco laughed and quickly brought his arm up to shield him from the nail file being thrown his way. “You watch yourself Draco Malfoy! One of these days some witch is going to come around and take that stupidly big ego of yours and snap it in two!” Pansy declared and that made Draco laugh. “There it is!” Ron pointed out the window to the castle coming into view. “Time to get our robes on then.” Blaise suggested as he moved to stand up. Draco watched as the rest of the compartment stiffly stood up and began pulling out their robes to get changed into. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but Draco knew this was going to be another wild school year.
* * *
“You ass!” Theo yelled storming into the kitchen. “You want to try that again, Theo?” Tom advised, shifting the eggs in the pan on the stove in front of him. “She’s a fucking menace!” Theo groaned, throwing his hands up in the air out of frustration. “The fucking menace is right here,” Hermione kicked her legs out in front of her as she sipped her coffee perched on the counter. “You-you-!” Theo gritted his teeth as he seethed at the sight of his sister. “UGH!”
“Theodore, this really is not the morning to be-” Tom began to lecture as he turned around and stopped mid sentence. His son’s normally dark black curls were now a vibrant shade of pink. “Look at what she did! I can’t go up in front of the whole damn school like this, dad!” Theo blinked rapidly as his eyes filled with tears. Hermione huffed as she rolled her eyes, drinking from her mug casually. Tom took a deep breath, closing his eyes and rubbing his temple. The twins were much easier to handle when their mother had been alive. More often than not Tom felt like he was over run by the two hormonal and out bursting teens. Between their move from one continent to another, a new school, and his new job created a monster of a storm that Tom wasn’t sure he could handle. If his wife was still here it would have been a different story, but Phoebe wasn’t, and they all were feeling her absence.
“Are you guys so excited for your first day of-oh my gods Theo! What happened to your hair?” Lily Potter strolled into the kitchen and gasped suddenly covering her mouth. Theo let out a choked sob he had been desperately trying to keep in, as Hermione laughed into her coffee. “Dad, you have to fix this!” Theo begged as Lily came up to his side and pulled a curl up into the air examining the bubble gum pink color. “What did you do?” Tom sighed and opened his eyes finally, looking over to his daughter unable to hide the telling smirk on her lips. “It’s a temporary potion. It’ll wear off-” Hermione giggled and quickly stopped laughing seeing the expression on her father’s face, “In a few days.”
“Dad!” Theo sniffled as Lily looked at a few more different curls. Tom sighed and looked at his son with bright pink hair on his first day at a new school that also happened to be Tom’s first official day as Headmaster. “Lily?” Tom asked, already feeling exhausted. She nodded quickly, “Come on, Theo. Let’s see what Professor Snape can do about this.” Lily said softly, guiding the almost in tears teenage boy toward the door that led out to the Headmaster’s office.
“One bloody day, Hermione!” Tom didn’t dare turn to look at his daughter. He could feel his anger bubbling up in his chest as he closed his eyes and focused on breathing through the waves of frustration. “Dad-” Hermione set her mug down on the counter beside her, recognizing the familiar look of her father being at his wits end with her. She had been getting this look a lot, not that it convinced her to change her behavior. Hermione didn’t want to go up on some stupid stage and put some gross old hat on her head to have some lame personality assessment announced to the entire student body alongside a bunch of eleven year old's. Turning her brother’s hair pink seemed to be the best way to avoid that. Their dad wouldn’t make Theo go up on the stage like that and he certainly wouldn’t make Hermione go up if her brother wasn’t.
“No Hermione! I know you don’t want to be here, but you can not keep taking it out on your brother!” Tom let out one more breath, finally settled enough to turn and face his daughter. Every day had seemed to be some new torment his brilliant witch of a daughter was inflicting on her twin. Items Theo used everyday were spelled to shock him. Then there was the bird hex, where a trio of conjured birds that followed Theo around and chirped loudly. Tom nearly lost it when she had made an illegal portkey that sent her brother somewhere in the Hogwarts grounds. It took the entire bloody day to find him.
“It’ll wear off in like a day or two. It’s not that big of a deal,” Hermione shrugged. She started to wonder if she had maybe taken this one a bit too far. Her dad certainly seemed to think so. That being said, Hermione didn’t think this was nearly as bad as the portkey she had made over the summer. “You don’t want to be a part of the sorting ceremony? Is that what this is?” Tom demanded his voice starting to raise. He felt his magic buzzing under his skin, and knew he needed to calm down. Tom took another breath and started to occlude just slightly, his eyes darkening a shade. “Well, fine, Hermione. I won’t make either of you go up. But understand this, young lady, there is no more after this. You’ve officially used all your get out of jail free cards.” Tom said firmly and looked at her pointedly. Hermione clamped her jaw shut feeling her eyes fill with tears and quickly slipped off the counter. Tom clenched his jaw, seeing the sparks of magic begin to pop in the air around her.
Hermione hadn’t asked for this. She hadn’t asked to be ripped from her home, her school, her friends. Hermione didn’t want to to be in fucking Scotland, about to start at a new school with students who had been together for the past seven years. She was so damn angry. She didn’t get to spend her last year of school with her friends, instead she was the new Headmaster’s daughter and the weird transfer student. All while she felt the aching absence that her mother’s death had left behind.
“Hermione-” Tom called after his visibly upset daughter that had just darted out of the kitchen. He was mid step to follow after her when the pungent smell of burning eggs filled the kitchen. Tom cursed loudly, turning back to the stove and motioning his hand wandlessly, vanishing the pan quickly. He brought his hand up and pushed his own dark black curls back out of frustration. He knew it was going to be a very long school year.