White Heather for Protection

Back in Business

To everyone's relief, George was recovering, slowly but surely. When he woke the next morning, the first words out of his mouth was a joke. That was how they knew he was going to be perfectly fine.

He would always have that faint scar on his abdomen, though. Even Heather's best potions weren't able to get rid of it entirely. Dark magic was tricky like that – it lingered, it left marks on both the caster and victim. It was why her werewolf scarring was also giving her so much grief.

Much as Heather would have liked to just rest after such trying events, she knew they were on a tight schedule. George insisted that he was well enough to get some work done, though Fred wasn't too happy about it. He only backed off when Hadrian assured him that they were only discussing and planning for now.

"Okay, does everyone remember Professor Snape's suggestion to keep the muggleborn students away from school? I think I have an idea," Hermione said. When she received nods to go ahead, she continued, "Hogwarts owns an enchanted book created by one of the previous Headmasters that automatically records the name and address of magical children born in the UK. There must be indications inside it that mark out muggleborns and muggle-raised, because the school needs to know which students to organise the Diagon Alley tours for. Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout were in charge of the tour for me and all the other muggleborn students in our year."

George's eyes lit up. "So if we just get that book-"

"-we'll have the information we need!" Fred finished with a satisfied grin.

"How are we even supposed to get it though?" Ron asked, "I figure it should be heavily guarded 'cos it's so important."

"I'm sure Professor McGonagall would lend it to us if we tell her our reasons," Hadrian said, "She wants to protect them as much as we do."

"We would have to go to Hogwarts though," Ginny muttered, frowning in worry, "It that really safe?"

Heather shook her head. "I don't see why we all have to go. Hadrian definitely can't. The safest bet would be for me to go to Hogwarts. I'm the only one with a viable excuse to be there, anyway."

"But you can't go alone!" Hadrian protested. The others echoed his opinion.

She held up her hands. "Okay, okay. How about the twins come with me? George can get looked at by Madam Pomfrey while he's at it."

George pouted and was about to say something when his twin gave him a warning look which shut him up.

"So, that's the plan. Heather, Fred and George go to the castle and borrow the book from McGonagall," Ginny said.

Humming thoughtfully, Heather considered something. "Why don't we steal it?"

"What?" came collectively from the group.

"Why go to the trouble when we could just ask Professor McGonagall?" Hermione asked, rolling her eyes.

Quirking her lip, Heather waited for them to settle before continuing. "I don't mean that literally. But what if we just keep the book in our possession for as long as Hogwarts is under Voldie's control? Professor McGonagall can just say it went missing one day. No one would know we're the ones who have it. That way, Snakeface can't get the addresses of the students."

Her friends and brother stared owlishly at her.

Ron, surprisingly, was the first to break the silence.

"That's brilliant! And maybe we could get McGonagall to not send letters to the incoming muggleborn firsties, so they wouldn't even know about Hogwarts! They'd be safe from Noseless!"