A Black Flower

Part II

II

-o-

My brain short circuited.

What the actual fuck?

I just stood there blankly, not even looking at Professor Rosier, and tried to process what he just said.

"...Brightest witch of her age, yeah?" I said finally. My voice sounded strange, distant to my own ears. "Friends with Ron and Harry. Her parents were dentists."

Rosier's expression could only be described as victorious.

"Just as I suspected then, you're like me."

"How... why did you suspect?" I asked, starting to come back to myself. "...What do you mean, by 'like you,' exactly? I mean, I think I know, but..." Perhaps it was obvious what he meant, but I had to be sure. It was too hard to believe, I needed him to say it.

"I mean you remember a past life, one where magic like this was just a very popular book series." Rosier confirmed. "As for why I suspected... several reasons.

"I wasn't big on the Harry Potter books, to be honest. I don't know much about them. I read them as they came out, but stopped after the one where Albus died because I lost interest. Never watched the movies, either. Even before I died, it'd been at least a decade since I'd engaged with the series in any meaningful way besides the occasional pop culture reference.

"But I remembered things, like that Harry Potter only had one aunt, and she was a muggle. So when I was asked to deliver letters to Lily Evans and Pansy Evans, I thought that maybe... But that wasn't enough, honestly. It could have just been that the books weren't accurate. Or perhaps my memory wasn't.

"Before I met you it was just an idea, a wish, really, that there was someone else like me." he smiled sadly. "I don't know what it's been like for you, but being like this, I've found it very lonely here."

I licked my lips. I knew exactly what he meant. I had my family, Severus and Auntie, but it was lonely here. My relationships with them were not honest, they saw me as a child, as someone I was not. There was no one I could just be me with. There was no one I could talk to about my previous life and everything I missed and longed for. There was no one to understand my experiences as an adult living as a child, to understand the difficulties that came with that. No one who understood me.

(But maybe now there was.)

"I think I know what you mean." I agreed after a pause, mirroring his expression.

He nodded at me and continued. "Once I met you in person I actually started to believe you were like me. What really did it for me was your accent."

"What do you mean by that? What's wrong with my accent?" I demanded as my cheeks grew hot.

"Your accent isn't really British. It definitely has British influences, but compared to the people around you? It's off, it's different. You have either an American or Canadian base." he explained, then winced. "I have the same issue, though not to the same extent anymore. Did you not notice?"

He seemed amused by that, so I scowled at him. "I assumed it was a regional difference. I haven't been out of Cokeworth much."

He tilted his head in acknowledgement. "Fair enough."

"Basing the guess on my accent though? Anything else?" I prodded.

"Your accent was the first thing that caught my attention, but not the only thing. You heard your parents when I delivered your letter, they went on about how intelligent you are, abnormally so. While it was possible you really were just a genius, it was an indication that you were like me."

"What would you have said if I didn't know who Hermione Granger was?"

He shrugged a shoulder. "I would have said something about how I knew her, and you looked a lot like her so I was wondering if you were related, or something."

I snorted. "I look nothing like her."

He shrugged again. "I don't actually remember what she was supposed to look like. Nor does it actually matter."

"I am ashamed of you."

Rosier rolled his eyes. "Moving on, the reason I wanted to know if you're like me is because I want help investigating what happened. Having someone else involved could help a lot."

I tilted my head, confused. "Investigating... what, exactly?" I asked.

Rosier looked at me like I was an idiot and he was reconsidering asking for my help. "How we ended up here, why we were reborn." He left off the word "obviously," but it was clearly implied by his impatient tone.

"Oh. Oh." I replied, nodding slowly, then shaking my head. To be honest, in most reincarnation fanfiction there was no real explanation for people being reborn in their favourite work of fiction, so I just kind of accepted it as was. I wondered, of course, but...

"I never considered seriously looking into it. I just figured it was unknowable. Where would you even start?" I asked.

"I would think with the obvious—how we died. Mine was hardly typical, and I assume yours wasn't either."

"I... don't actually know how I died. I don't remember it." I licked my lips. "Yours was unusual, though? How so?"

Something settled on his face when I said I didn't remember how I died. Perhaps he was reevaluating my lack of effort in solving the mystery of my rebirth. "Yes, though perhaps unusual is an understatement." he chuckled.

"You should sit," he said, waving his wand. A pile of books rose off a chair in the corner of the room and set themselves back down on the floor as the chair positioned itself behind me.

"Thank you," I said, taking the offered seat. I hadn't noticed until I sat down, but my legs were starting to get a bit tired.

"Of course," He said. "I should have offered you a seat earlier. As I was saying, unusual was an understatement." He put his wand away, crossed his arms, and looked up at the ceiling.

He looked to be far away as he began to speak. "It was a fairly typical day. I'd been awake for three days by that point—I had promised I'd get something done by that day, but got distracted by other work. Then I realized I messed up earlier and it was more work than I thought.

"So I was sleep deprived and not functioning at my best. I was waiting for the bus, just staring up at the sky. There was a flock of geese or something flying overhead. Then there were suddenly little pinpricks of black. They grew larger, then shrunk again, and half the birds were gone.

"I thought I must have imagined it. Hallucinated. That's... not exactly unusual when I'm sleep deprived. Once I refused to use a whiteboard because I didn't want to disturb the pandas, which I later realized were really just marker dust... Anyways, so it was reasonable to assume it was nothing." he scratched his neck, smiling wryly. He seemed a bit uncomfortable. Perhaps he thought I would judge him for the hallucination thing? Who was I to speak, though? I used to be a university student. I wasn't unfamiliar with sleep deprivation induced hallucinations.

"But it wasn't nothing." I prompted when the silence began to stretch, watching him intently.

"It wasn't," he agreed solemnly. "I noticed it a few more times on my way to work, but just kept ignoring it.

"I got to class a bit early, and it seemed to stop while I was inside. I talked with some of the students who were there early—there were several, they were eager to get their midterms back, you see. But then it started again, towards the back of the classroom. It started as a pinprick again, barely visible. But it quickly grew, and engulfed everything. And then... I was a baby again."

I stared at him long after he finished speaking, trying to reconcile what he just said with my own last memories. Rosier remained silent, letting me process his tale without interruption. He shifted, perhaps uncomfortable with my staring, and shuffled back to sit properly on the desk instead of just leaning against it. He swung his legs a bit, but didn't look away from me.

Some of what he said sounded familiar. Maybe... I rubbed my eyes, and looked at him more closely.

I wasn't sure, it could have been a coincidence. But his face—his hair was the wrong colour, but if I ignored that, imagined him as a blond, if I aged him up fifteen years...

"Professor Rozanov?" I blurted in disbelief, unable to formulate a more eloquent expression of what just hit me. My mouth hung open as I continued to stare.

Rosier—Rozanov?—visibly recoiled from me. His eyebrows shot up and his jaw dropped, mirroring my own. "I—Yes. How...?" he stuttered, likewise unable to come up with a proper, complete sentence.

"Well fuck, I know how I died, now." I said, then burst into giggles. I sounded manic, hysterical. I forced myself to calm down enough to continue. "Algebra II midterm, right? Jesus Christ, how I did on that midterm has been haunting me for years... There was that one question..."

I could almost see it click into place for Rosier. "You were one of my students."

I nodded. "Yup, it was actually like, my third class with you. I was sitting in the front row, my name was Adelaide—"

"—Crane," he finished for me. "I remember you. Slightly older student, right? I had you in my class for Linear Algebra II and Calc II, as well."

I blinked, surprised he remembered me. He'd been teaching there for two or three years before I started, he'd surely taught hundreds of students at a conservative estimate. "Uh, it was Calc I, I think, back in my first year. But yeah, that's me."

"I can see it, I think." he said, scrutinizing me. "You're so young now I wouldn't have recognized you if you didn't say anything."

"I imagine in ten years I would look much as I did back then. You look almost the same as you did, just a bit younger. Only big difference is your hair..."

He winced, raising a hand towards his hair, but not quite touching it. "I dye it for personal reasons. My natural colour is the same as it was last time around. My ears are different though." He tugged lightly at his earlobe.

I snorted. "Oh, your ears are different. Excuse me for not noticing!" I was curious about his hair, but decided not to push it and changed the subject.

"Well, if there is an explanation for this, I'd certainly like to find it." I told him. "The fact that we died together and both ended up here has to mean something."

Rosier—Rozanov? I wasn't even sure how to refer to him... He nodded. "Yes, that must be significant. This is more progress than I've made it years. This seems to be an auspicious beginning to our partnership."

"Right, well, what else have you discovered?" I asked him.

"Not much until recently, but I have a friend looking into things. He said he found something big, but he hasn't been able to get in contact with me for a few months." Rosier-Rozanov glanced up at the wall behind me. I turned in my chair to followed his gaze, landing on a clock.

I blinked, surprised to see it was already nearing six. We'd been talking for over an hour and a half. Dinner would be starting soon.

"We'll have to finish this conversation at a later time. For now, I'd best escort you to the great hall... If anyone asks what kept you, just tell them I went over the stuff from the first fifteen minutes of class that you missed, and then spent the rest trying to find a textbook for you."

I raised my brows. "It took you two hours to do that?"

He waved a hand. "My office is notoriously disorganized, and depending on where it was a summoning spell could make a large mess or knock things down. It's perfectly believable I spent over an hour looking for it."

"And I suppose I just sat here and looked pretty while you did?"

He smirked, seemingly amused by my sarcasm. "I suppose you did."

-x-

We walked to the Great Hall in silence. We passed a few students who lingered in the corridors after class hours, and Rosier waved to some of them and smiled politely, but for the most part we were undisturbed.

"Thank you for your help, Professor." I said before we parted ways in the Great Hall, Rosier heading up to the staff table, and me towards the Slytherin table.

I scanned the table, which was still mostly empty, likely because it was still a few minutes before dinner officially started. I didn't see Severus, so I took a seat at the end of the table, where it would be easy for him to find me. The other students paid me no mind. Upon closer inspection, they all appeared to be at least a few years older than me.

I glanced at the head table, and saw Rosier in quiet conversation with one of the many professors I didn't recognize. Slughorn caught my eye and smiled, which I hesitantly returned.

There was a chime as the clock struck six, and food appeared on the table. I debated whether to start eating or not, and eventually settled on serving myself, but waiting a few minutes to see if Severus or any of the others would be arriving soon.

By quarter after the hall had filled up a little, but there was still no hint of the other Slytherin first years. I began to slowly eat, not wanting to look awkward just sitting there by myself doing nothing.

I was half done by six-thirty when Foster and the other prefects led the other first year Slytherins in. Severus saw me immediately and beelined in my direction.

"Where have you been?" he demanded as he took a seat beside me. "You didn't come back to the common room."

"I was with Professor Rosier. It took longer than expected, so he brought me straight to dinner instead of the common room." I explained.

Severus stared at me doubtfully. "What's going on with you? You missed nearly the whole day, and now this."

I sighed. "I'd really rather not do this here, Sev."

"Fine, whatever." He snapped and turned away from me.

"Sev, don't be like that," I pleaded. "I don't want to discuss it where anyone could hear."

Severus didn't turn back to me, but he nodded in agreement.

We spent the rest of dinner eating in silence until we finished and one of the older students volunteered to escort any first years who were done back to the common room.

Once we arrived in the common room I pulled Severus over to an unoccupied settee.

"Well?" he demanded.

"My roommates stole and destroyed all my things." I told him bluntly. "They stole my clothes while I was showering so I was stuck in the bathroom all morning until a prefect found me."

Severus looked horrified. "You're joking! Why would they do that?"

I looked at him like he was stupid. "Because I'm a mudblood, obviously."

He frowned. "You shouldn't have told them that."

I rolled my eyes. "It's not something I could keep secret. Lily isn't going to keep quiet about our blood status or relation. It would come out eventually. It's better not to seem ashamed of it."

Severus snorted. "Really? This is better?"

I glared at him. "Yes, it is. They would react the same or worse if they found out in a few weeks."

He appeared to be unconvinced, but nodded anyway. "If you say so. What about after class?"

"I was late you know. Rosier went over what I missed, and found me a copy of the textbook to borrow until I can get a replacement."

"And that took until dinner time?" he asked skeptically. I fought back a victorious smirk, now wasn't the time. I told Rosier that was a dumb excuse.

"Yes. His office is a mess."

"...But two hours of mess?"

"Yes." I replied forcefully.

-x-

Severus and I were forced to separate at eight, when Slughorn arrived in the common room. Dinner had officially ended a half hour before, and most everyone had returned. He called for everyone to line up in front of him, but when I went to do so, Foster pulled me aside.

"Not you," she said. "We'll go to your dorm. You missed orientation, so I'll go over it with you while Slughorn handles this."

I nodded. Obviously the professor was going to be giving the house a lecture because of what happened to me earlier. It was slightly embarrassing, to be honest. I was glad that I didn't have to listen to it.

I ducked my head as I followed Foster to my new dorm, which was almost identical to the other. She gestured for me to sit on my new bed, which again was in the middle, while she pulled out the chair at my desk and sat there.

"Since you missed the meeting this morning, I'll go over things with you now," Foster began. "Breakfast is served from seven until ten, lunch is served from eleven until two, and dinner is served from six until seven-thirty.

"For the first two weeks of class, a prefect will escort the first years to classes and meals. After that point you are expected to have memorized the way.

"Prefects will escort you to breakfast at eight, then directly to your classes, so be sure to have everything you need for the day with you when you leave for breakfast. You can go earlier or later on your own if you wish, but getting lost is not an excuse to be late to class.

"After your last class a prefect will escort you back to the common room. At four-thirty you will be given the opportunity to be escorted to the library until dinner.

"At quarter after six you will be escorted from either the library or common room to dinner. Again, if you wish to head down earlier or later on your own, you are permitted, but if you get lost and miss dinner or curfew, there is no excuse.

"On weekends a prefect will escort you to meals and back at eight-thirty, noon, and quarter after six.

"You are permitted to explore the castle in your free time, restricted areas are clearly marked, do not enter them. If you get lost and there are no students around to help you, a portrait will likely be willing to assist you." For the first time in her speech Foster paused. "Are you aware of how magical portraits work?"

I nodded. "They are semi-sentient, and able to communicate with us, and travel between frames."

"That's correct. Do you have any questions so far?" she asked. I shook my head, and she continued on. "Excellent, moving on then, I will cover the rules of the library..."

-x-

Foster finished the orientation in just under fifteen minutes and left me alone in my new dorm. It was almost a further half hour before my new roommates joined me, which I spent organizing the supplies Severus had passed back to me earlier in my desk.

They seemed quite annoyed when they entered the dorm, but they paid me no mind. At all. I waved, trying to be polite, but they looked right past me, like I wasn't even there.

I didn't particularly care. If they wanted to pretend I didn't exist, that was fine. It wasn't like I wanted to talk to them or befriend them, either. An arrangement where we ignored each other as much as possible would be ideal.

Following their lead, I left them alone as well. It was nearing nine, so I decided to get ready for bed. I decided to shower before bed this time, so tomorrow I could distance myself from what happened today. I doubted morning showers would be in the forecast for a long time.

It was a different bathroom, but it looked incredibly similar. I did my best not to think about what happened earlier, but I was anxious the entire time I was in the shower. In the past I tended to favour long showers, but this time I hurriedly scrubbed down and was out as soon as possible.

Out of the shower, I changed into the robe I'd found in my wardrobe that I presumed to be pyjamas. Looking closely, I saw the words "Property of the Hospital Wing" on the inside of the collar. I would be sleeping in a fancy hospital gown. Great. I could only hope my new roommates wouldn't notice. Hopefully the fact that they barely seemed to know I was there would help with that.

-x-

I woke the next morning to the shrill sound of my alarm clock at seven-thirty. I groaned in dismay. I'd had trouble sleeping last night, and twice had adjusted my alarm, delaying it as much as possible. I would have been willing to skip breakfast to get another hour of sleep, but I didn't know how to get to class on my own yet.

I forced myself to sit up, knowing that if I didn't it was likely I would fall back asleep. Still, it wasn't until the minute hand ticked past the eight that I actually got out of bed and shuffled over to the wardrobe to grab a uniform. With the robes in hand, I returned to my bed and drew the curtains to get dressed. As I did so, I couldn't help but notice the uniform was a bit different from the ones I bought. Nothing major, but the cut of the fabrics and the way it hung on me didn't seem right.

It wasn't terribly surprising. From what I understood they were the schools "extra" robes. That probably meant they were old and the uniform style had changed since they were acquired. Again, I hoped it was something that my fellow students would not notice.

I grabbed the worn book bag sitting beside the desk and filled it with the supplies I would need for the day, and the borrowed defence book for good measure. Defence against the dark arts was only on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but I figured I might have a spare moment to read sometime during the day.

When I entered the common room I looked for Severus, but found him surrounded by a bunch of boys his age. He seemed to be enjoying his conversation with them, so I kept to myself until Foster came to lead us to breakfast.

When we arrived in the hall, he sat with the boys surrounding him, and I ended up seated next to Foster.

"How was everything after I left last night, Evans?" she asked me.

I shrugged a shoulder and reached for some toast. "Okay. My new roommates left me alone."

"Good. Let me know if there's any trouble, okay?"

As my mouth was full, I nodded. Foster seemed satisfied, turning away and focusing on her own meal.

I made quick work of the rest of my toast, and was left with nothing to do but sit and observe. I found myself looking towards the Gryffindor table, searching for my sister. I found her towards the middle, sitting with several of the girls she had been with on the train.

She looked happy and energetic. Excited for her second day learning magic. I couldn't help but feel a bit jealous. It was obvious no one bothered her yesterday or the night before, and she didn't have to worry about hiding a magic addiction.

With everything that had happened the previous day, I didn't have time to think about it. But with classes starting shortly, it was weighing on my mind. Did the professors know how to spot it? Was I desensitized enough to the magic from practising spells that channelled more magic that most of the first year spells?

I was snapped out of my thoughts by a male prefect, who called for the first years to gather around.

My first class of the day was transfiguration, with McGonagall. The prefect led us through a courtyard he said was called either the Middle Courtyard or the Transfiguration Courtyard into the Transfiguration Department, stopping outside a door marked 1B.

I followed my classmates into the room and saw that the room was already half full of Ravenclaws. I was a bit annoyed to see the seats at the front were all taken by them, so I made do with a seat towards the middle, and Severus finally broke away from the Slytherin boys to sit with me.

Professor McGonagall entered the class and stopped at the front just as the clock struck nine.

"Good morning class, we will begin today with a brief recap of our previous lesson, then return to attempting to transfigure matchsticks into needles..."

What followed was what I assumed was a summary of the previous day's lecture, and then McGonagall setting us free to cast the spell.

Nothing she said made any sense to me, and I could only hope it was because I missed the previous class.

I hesitantly pulled out my wand, and practised the wand movement she had demonstrated while mouthing the incantation. Once I was confident with them, I tried to transfigure the match. Nothing happened. I sighed in disappointment. It was a shame this wasn't one of the spells Auntie taught me already.

I looked over at Severus. He didn't have the spell down perfectly, but he had made some progress.

"Sev, can you explain a bit more how to do the spell? I'm confused since I missed last class."

"Hm, sure, it's like this..."

I nodded along as he spoke, but he wasn't much help beyond telling me to visualize the result I wanted. The advice did help in that on my next attempt the appearance of my matchstick changed to perfectly resemble a needle, but despite appearances it still seemed to be made of wood. Upon further examination, what appeared to be a hole in the needle was not, it was simply invisible.

My further attempts proved futile, and soon class ended. McGonagall assigned a few questions from the textbook as homework due on Monday, and reminded the class that there were extra copies of the textbook in the library if needed. I was certain that last bit was aimed at me, though she was kind enough to make it more general.

At ten to ten we exited the classroom where yet another prefect was waiting. This one led us back down to the dungeons to Slughorn's classroom.

Severus and I took a seat together in the front row. Shortly after we arrived the Gryffindors joined us, and I was slightly horrified to see how many of them there was compared to the other houses. The numbers of first years in Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin were comparable, but there had to be at least fifty percent more Gryffindors than any other individual house.

I didn't have time to ponder why there were so many of them because class started. While this was technically the second class, I was easily able to gather that the first class hadn't gone anything like it had in the books, where they brewed a potion in the first lesson.

Slughorn was starting us all off with theory. Like McGonagall he did a review at the beginning, though he went about it differently. He asked the students to bring up the key points from his previous lecture, which was about lab safety, and then asked students questions about it. He elaborated on the answers he received and wrote them down on the board. By the end of his review I had a clear idea of safety procedures and precautions when potioneering, which I think was his intent.

After the safety review, he moved on to ingredient prep. He demonstrated the differences between things like dicing and cubing and chopping "finely", and explained which terms were effectively synonymous.

During the last twenty minutes he handed out packages of ingredients and wrote out a set of instructions on the board. We were to prep the ingredients as instructed and then put them back in the containers to be handed in for grading. We would have time on Monday to finish.

While following the instructions, I found that while I understood what I was supposed to do with the ingredients, it wasn't actually very easy to do it. My hands were a bit clumsy and Severus had to show me how to hold the knife for better control, which helped a lot, but didn't make it easy.

Slughorn dismissed us promptly at ten to, with a wink and a comment about not giving us homework during our first week.

As I left the room I noticed Lily staring at me. I ignored her and followed the prefect from breakfast to my charms class.

I was looking forward to charms, both because I had plenty of experience practising charms with Auntie and because it was the very first Charms class for Slytherins, so I wouldn't be behind.

The Charms Corridor was on the third floor like the Serpentine Corridor, but you wouldn't be able to get from one to another without switching floors. We passed a room with "STAFF" written on the door in peeling letters, and I made note of the location. You never knew when it might be useful to know where the staff room was.

Contrary to the other classrooms I'd been in so far, the charms room was set up like a small lecture theatre. Several of the students climbed up the stairs to sit in the back rows, but I sat in the front row as I preferred. Severus rolled his eyes, but sat with me. When the Ravenclaws arrived, they filled up the remaining seats around us. The girl I shared a boat with, Pandora I think her name was, waved at me, which I returned.

"Hello everyone!" the professor greeted. "I am Professor Flitwick and I will be your charms instructor! It's wonderful to meet you all. Now, unlike most professors I like to do roll call during the first class, since it helps me learn your names and faces, so bear with me..."

Flitwick began roll call, but beyond raising my hand when he called my name, I didn't pay attention. Much like the sorting, I was too distracted by the differences in a professor's depiction in the books versus in reality.

I remembered in the books he was described as needing to stand on a stack of books to see over the lecture podium or something like that, and in the movies he was played by an actor with a form of dwarfism. That really wasn't accurate to reality. He was certainly very small for a man, perhaps just over five feet, and he did step up onto a stool in front of the lecture podium, but that was just to get at a comfortable height, not to see over it.

I didn't remember if it was fanon or actually showed up in canon, but the rumour he was part goblin was very clearly false, and I doubted it even existed here, if it did in canon. He looked nothing like the creatures.

I broke out of my musings when he began lecturing and dutifully took notes. Much like Rosier, I found him to be an excellent lecturer. The entire class was theory based, but I greatly enjoyed it and found it easy to understand, unlike transfiguration.

All too soon the class ended and we filed out into the hallway where a male prefect and Foster were waiting.

"With me, Evans." Foster said. I nodded and waved goodbye to Severus, before following her.

She led me back down to the dungeons, to Slughorn's office, where he was sitting at his desk.

"Miss Evans! Sorry to disturb your lunch break. I wanted to check in with you and see how you're doing, update you on the situation. Why don't the two of you have a seat? I had the kitchen send down some food for you." he said and gestured to a sandwich platter and a bowl of fruit. Foster and I helped ourselves to the food as he continued to speak. "Now, first of all I'd like to tell you that I've arranged for you to be taken shopping tomorrow to replace your things, both muggle and magical. It was going to be Sunday, but I'm informed muggle shops are closed on Sundays for some reason...

"Well, can't say I understand muggles!" he chortled. "Please be in your common room and ready to leave by eleven. A professor will pick you up there."

"I'll be ready."

"Perfect! Now, how are you settling in, in your new room? I hope your new roommates aren't giving you any trouble?"

"No, sir, no trouble. Things are going well so far."

"Excellent! If that changes I trust you'll inform Miss Foster or a professor."

"Yes, sir."

"Next order of business, I feel you should know how the other girls are being punished—we don't want you to think we didn't take this seriously! We don't tolerate anti-muggleborn attacks here in Hogwarts." He assured me, and I nodded in acknowledgement, which prompted him to continue. "First of all, the funds for your new things have come from the families of the girls who destroyed your things, and you're free to keep any that's left over after you replace your things.

"Second of all, they will be serving detention two nights a week for the rest of the school year and have been banned from student groups and clubs for the year, pending a possible extension into next year, depending on their behaviour. They are also excluded from the pool of potential prefects and Head Girls.

"Finally, if they do something on this scale again, or near it, they will be expelled. It was only narrowly avoided this time. I hope that you agree this is fair, Miss Evans?" He looked at me earnestly, like he genuinely cared if I was satisfied by this.

"Yes, sir. That sounds very fair." I agreed, genuinely meaning it. "But I have one question, if I may..."

"Of course!" he agreed.

"You contacted the other girls' families... Has mine been contacted?" I asked. It wasn't something I'd thought about before, but if Lizzie and Richard were told, then who knew how they would react?

Slughorn opened his mouth, but hesitated before speaking. "We have not, but we can do so if you would like us to."

"Ah, please don't. I think it's best not to." I hastened to reply. "I was just wondering—policy at a muggle school would be to inform them of something like this, and I'm not sure what they'd do if they heard..."

Slughorn visibly relaxed. "Ah yes, we used to, however we've found that it often isn't in the child's best interest to do so, as muggle parents don't always understand the broader situation."

"Could you elaborate on that, professor?" I asked, which caused Slughorn to become a bit flustered.

"Oh! I'm not saying anything against muggles, I assure you! I didn't mean anything of that sort!" He assured me.

"I didn't think you did, sir. I was just curious about the reasoning."

"Ah, good, good. Glad to hear that," he said, relaxing. "Well, there are a few factors. We've noticed that muggle parents tend to consider certain things to be more severe than we typically do.

"For example, in the past we used to inform parents every time students were in the hospital wing for an injury, no matter how severe, and muggle parents tended to over react to what we consider to be common, easily treatable injuries, like broken bones. My understanding is that breaking a bone isn't so easy to treat in the muggle world, and can take months to heal, so it's understandable they see it differently, of course... But it led to some parents removing their children from Hogwarts, you see.

"Similarly, when we reported incidents such as yours—anti-muggleborn bullying, that is, parents have removed their children. Now, they are well within their rights to do this, but we don't believe it is truly in the child's best interest." he explained. "Now I'm not saying we know better than the parents, but muggle parents don't really understand the implications of doing so.

"I understand that in the muggle world the children can simply transfer to a new school when their parents withdraw them from one, but that is not an option for young witches and wizards. There are no other magical schools that serve the area. They are essentially removing their child from the entire magical world!" He shook his head in what appeared to be a mix of disappointment and horror in such an action. "Does that answer your question?"

"Yes, thank you for explaining it to me, sir." I said. "I think you make a very good point."

He did. I know my parents were a bit hesitant about sending me and Lily to a magical school which in no way was equivalent to a muggle school. I imagine other parents were even more hesitant, and something that they perceived as a major incident could very well prompt them to withdraw their children.

I definitely understood what he meant about muggle parents reacting differently to certain incidents as well. While I understood that for a witch or wizard, a broken bone could be fixed with a simple spell and it was over as soon as you saw someone who could fix it, thus it wasn't really that serious. But even with that knowledge, after over thirty years across two life times without access to that sort of treatment, I couldn't help but think of broken bones as something serious.

-o-

Notes: Why else would I name drop her math professor in the very first chapter if he wasn't going to be important?

This was an info dump chapter, and it really gets the ball of the main plot rolling: How did Pansy and Artemis end up reborn in the HP-verse?

Going forward, Pansy and Artemis are very likely to use their old names with each other. I hope that it won't be confusing. For clarity, Pansy = Adelaide "Addie" Crane, Artemis = Aldon Rozanov.

Funfacts:

-Panda whiteboard story happened to an acquaintance of mine.

-The name Rozanov was taken from Sergei Rozanov, aka "hot Sergei." If you know who he is, kudos to you! He kinda became irrelevant not long ago.

-They were gonna shop on a Sunday until I realized muggle stores would all be closed back in the 70s on that day.

-Artemis' feelings on the HP series are inspired by my brother. He stopped reading after HBP and had no interest in the series by the time DH came out.

Help Request: Does anyone have any good sources about the Royal Ballet School in the 70s and in general? It is, obviously, for Petunia. I'm wondering about age limits for admittance, when auditions are, etc. I might just hand wave things, tbh. I don't have the time to dedicate to research for such a small part of the story. But if anyone is willing to just answer any questions I have, that would be great.

Please note I don't have a good mental map of Hogwarts. I'm using the wiki as reference for locations, but it's possible I might contradict myself or misremember things. The castle is just really confusing.

On Flitwick: While JKR stated he had a dash of goblin blood, I don't think that was actually in the books. It also doesn't work with my portrayal of goblins. There is an eventual explanation for this discrepancy, which will be mentioned later. Perhaps only implicitly in the actual text, but more explicitly in an author's note for clarity.

I fully believe the magical world has a difference scale of what is a serious incident/injury and what is not, because a lot of things that would have lasting consequences to people without magic are easily fixed with it.

One more chapter after this will be updated here, the rest will be exclusively on AO3. Furthermore, it will be LOCKED on AO3, except for a few days after an update. This means you will need to be a registered AO3 user to follow the story reliably.

The reasoning for locking it is that the story is very personal to me, and I don't want people who know me IRL to find it.