Minor! And a full complement of six brothers, this year - James and Samuel are of Hogwarts age.

"Hi Minor! Hi James and Samuel is there a good way to tell you apart."

"Hi Miranda! Not really - Mum can and Timothy can but everyone else we can fool if we're trying -"

"Well, do you have tells if you're not trying?"

"I talk more, Samuel never buttons his cloak -"

"I did today," objects his brother.

"- unless it's a very important occasion, then he buttons it but he's off by one."

His brother looks down at his cloak, sighs, and starts correcting the off by one buttons.

Karen giggles. "Hi all the rest of you too."

"Hi," echoes Miranda.

"Hullo - how were your summers -"

"Pretty good."

"I still didn't get to go to India but I did get piano lessons."

"Ooooh! There's an empty classroom at Hogwarts with a piano, it was dreadfully out of tune but I tuned it. Fourth floor."

"Ooh, good to know."

"What elective courses did you two pick?"

"Arithmancy, Runes, independent study."

"Same thing but her independent is wandlore and mine is in healing."

"Arithmancy, Runes, and more Runes."

"Yes, we've heard."

"Healing? Is there a recommended self-study curriculum for that or are you trying to develop one?"

"I owled Madam Hirudinea and she said she'd point me at things and let me help in the hospital wing."

"Cool!" He's Head Boy; has the badge and everything. 

"I wanna get on the train before it's full -"

"Take care," says their mother, "owl us -"

"Minor writes every few days and gets all the pocket money he pleases. In case you were trying to sort out where your incentives are."

"That depends how you're doing your inferences and your decision theory! So if you think that Minor writes more and therefore gets pocket money, you could write more expecting to get more pocket money. But what if instead you think that Minor just writes more for reasons that are related to the reasons he gets more pocket money, namely that he's Father's favorite - well, then, writing more won't make you Father's favorite, but arguably being the kind of person who'd write more does -"

"I love all of you," Finis says. 

"That wasn't one of the disputed premises."

"What's the going rate on an inch of parchment?"

"What if Minor just likes writing?"

"I also get more pocket money because I spend it nobly."

"Nobly? You mean on destroying lake ecosystems?"

"Destroying ecosystems is kind of a stupid complaint - not always, but often - they don't have a stable state from which people nastily perturb them, they just change all the time in lots of ways..."

"- that was you?"

"Yeah."

"Thank you."

"Didn't do it for you."

"Theo -"

"But you're welcome, if you like."

"The merfolk would probably thank you too? I just really didn't want to have to decide how many of them I could get away with being sure I had never seen before."

"I kind of hope they wouldn't thank me I kind of hope they'd be like 'what are you doing about the fact that was an acceptable thing to happen at all' and then I'd be like 'uh, nothing, because I'd last three days in politics before challenging some nitwit to a duel' -"

"As a family, though, we're fixing it."

Squeeze. "It's going to be a while and it's going to be complicated, don't congratulate yourselves yet -"

"Is there a specific merfolk-related plan?"

"Minor's talking to them to try to avoid incidents like the one last year and obviously in the long term once everything can be ordered exactly how we like it merfolk can be their own political jurisdiction just like anybody else and they can have treaties with their neighbors and the treaties will actually be enforced so they don't just expect them to be functionally meaningless, and also I kind of want to do Hogwarts discipline differently - do you think you've ever been improved in character by being whipped? I sure haven't - but that's not a very high priority. Medium-term I just want enough people on the board that I can get them to - not do that kind of thing."

"I haven't actually ever gotten in enough trouble to get whipped. I'm not sure I would have been even if I were a boy."

"Not super worth it."

"Didn't think it was."

"I've been late to things enough that I've gotten swatted on the hand but yeah it did not feel character developing."

"I admittedly don't have a replacement in mind."

"So how are you infiltrating the board of directors?"

"- we should get actually on the train."

On the train they get.

They will not all nine of them fit in one compartment. Karen and Miranda stick with Minor, where's he going?

Near the back, chattering about lightning.

Yup that's Minor all right.

"It's sort of a pity you did Runes early because now we won't be in your class."

"Yeah but if I'd waited I wouldn't know runes yet."

"You could've picked up some other language in that time!"

"I did that too!"

"Yeah, of course you did."

"I don't have any Italian, though - how was Italy -"

"It has neat old buildings and they eat tomatoes there!"

"Are they any good?"

"Tomatoes? They're all right but I'm not going to ask the kitchen elves to incorporate them."

The snack cart comes; Minor conserves his not-really-limited pocket money just on principle. 

Mid-afternoon he ducks his head in to make sure all is well.

"Hi Timothy."

"Hey! Have you been dissuaded from the mischief you were no doubt intending by this reminder there are authority figures on the train?"

"We will desist from our plan to reroute to Wales!"

"Good, good, that's strictly prohibited." And he goes on to the next compartment.

"I've been looking forward to this year for forever, all seven of us at Hogwarts."

"Pity it'll only last the one year."

"Will your parents be lonely? Mine are starting to mutter about having another kid, they miss me when I'm gone."

"Maybe a little bit, but I think they're also glad to not be interrupted all the time and make more progress on their own projects. And Timothy and Michael'll probably be getting married pretty soon and then they'll have grandchildren to fuss over."

"It's really hard to imagine Michael getting married. It's sorta hard to imagine Timothy getting married too but differently."

"Michael'll have to settle down a bit first. But girls at 20 don't want the thing he'd doing right now so I bet by 20 he'll have stopped doing it. Timothy'll probably marry as part of a scheme, it seems the sort of thing he'd do."

"That seems mean."

"Not if she's in on it."

"Okay, then it seems like it would have to be a really great plot to be worth literally their entire lives of being married for it."

"Yeah probably."

"I'm not sure my parents liked each other that much before they got married, they say you just sort of get used to each other?"

"I don't think most people from good families marry for love, who you love at 18 might not be who you want to raise a family with at 30 anyway so you might as well just pick someone you get along with? I don't want to do that. But I think lots of people do."

"To be honest I'm not totally sure about the raising a family part either but maybe that will come along with whenever I start liking boys."

"I want kids. And I don't, like, have any interest in kissing girls yet so they don't always go together. But probably for some people. Anyway I don't know if Timothy's planning on marrying for love, if you want to rule the world other stuff is probably more important."

"Well, I hope whoever he plots with gets good and used to him, I guess."

"Sounds kind of lonely but it's Timothy, he'll make it work."

"I guess."

James is in Hufflepuff and Samuel in Ravenclaw; they are mildly disappointed. There are several other Ways sorted; Minor pointedly pays them no attention. Timothy, as always, watches the Sorting as if it is the most important possible proceeding of a civilized society and perhaps also as if he wishes he were the Hat. There is a feast. There is a stern warning to stay away from the lake and not bother the merfolk.

Karen shows off her cool scar and reiterates this warning to the new Ravenclaws.

They are so impressed, she made a wand and escaped from the disgusting beasts all by herself before the Aurors could even get there?

"You aren't Gryffindors, so I was hoping you'd pay attention to the part where I almost died and the wand turned out to be unnecessary because somebody was coming to bring me warm things."

"But still, if you hadn't rescued yourself the Aurors would've had to do it -"

"I wish I had rescued myself by knowing Mermish, or by not getting knocked off my broom into the lake."

"Making your own wand's more impressive, though."

"And if you hadn't gotten knocked into the lake maybe someone else would've who couldn't fight back!"

"It was a terrible wand and I couldn't use my arm for two weeks. Leave the merfolk alone."

They are not at all planning to go pick off the remaining merfolk. 

Third years start learning proper duelling in Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Ooh.

Ugh.

Varied unhelpful suggestions (dance? charms? shoes? better parentage?) are proposed to help Miranda with her footwork.

Look, if anybody has a charm for this she's all ears. Better parentage person gets a plectere to the head and will have to go around in rather tight silly pigtails.

Hexing fellow students is not allowed but he doesn't really suppose that counts; perhaps the victim shouldn't question people's parentage.

For Miranda's birthday he gets her an obscure book of charms with unusual wand movements and a set of potions tools that extend shelf life.

She wasn't super expecting to be on a lots-of-nice-presents basis with Timothy still. Maybe the Ways just have so much money they can do that? But no, Gaunt has a September birthday too and gets a card and a pinch of potion-grade saffron, thoughtful but not as elaborate.

His birthday's in October.

She gets Nnenne to send her a French translation of The Prince and brings it to his room and knocks.

He opens the door.

"Happy birthday." Book.

"Thank you!" He turns to put it on his shelf. "You can come in."

She steps in. "I would've got you the Italian but Minor says he doesn't have any Italian and I assume you couldn't hide literacy in Italian from him."

"Maybe if the fate of the world were at stake. No - maybe if the fate of the world were at stake and I promised to still teach him by Christmas. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"I am very sorry I scared you."

"I accept your apology."

He tucks the book away. "Enjoying your classes?"

"Yeah they're good except we're doing dueling."

"I heard. Hopefully you won't need it."

"Hopefully I won't break my neck."

"That too."

"I don't want to be a nuisance."

"I - recognize the difficulty of designing heuristics that would catch if I was evil but don't position you as arbiter of as many deeply personal details as you require to decide if you approve of me."

"I - that's a separate thing, if I ever couldn't take my bracelet off on demand I would want somebody to find out what was wrong and fix me -"

"You'd told people about the Imperius because something seemed shady about the potions weeks before that came up."

"Just Minor. Not even Karen. And, yeah, I was sort of creeped out about the potions and wanted to know what the deal was but I wasn't terrified till you wouldn't take the bracelet and drew your wand on me and then I wanted to figure out how to help you, for all I knew you could've given me the bracelet as long-shot insurance against something happening to you -"

"I know, I'd do the same."

"I'm sorry how it turned out though."

"I'm not angry with you. I am vaguely worried this will keep on happening, I'm involved in trading lots of favors and none are unethical but plenty sound suspect."

"I don't really think you're evil."

"Oh, good."

"Is it likely I'll run into more weird stuff - it's already been a lot of coincidence -"

"I'm not presently involved in anything else you'd find that weird. I can let you know if that changes."

"Having warning would help a lot."

"Can do. If I were evil I'd have had you killed last year, for whatever that's worth."

"As in, you'd have the resources to put hits on people if you were evil, or as in, you already have them but you're not using them because you're not evil?"

"As in you'd be gaining resources faster than I would past that point and it would obviously be necessary eventually and so better to move while the resource gap was largest rather than when I was most prepared."

"I... think I should consider that a compliment?"

"Yes, you should."

"As far as I can I'll tell you things you'd be distressed to discover incidentally."

"Thank you."

"Thank you for the birthday present."

"You're welcome."

"Were you avoiding me because you were annoyed with me or because you were worried I was annoyed with you?"

"I'm not very good at minding my own business and may have overcompensated and yes I did think you were mad at me."

"That would have been unreasonable."

"Sometimes people are unreasonable!"

"Unreasonableness in people who want to rule the world is perhaps less worrying than expertise in dark magic but still at least a little worrying. I wasn't angry with you. There are a few hundred ways I could have handled it better."

"Yeah, next time you say 'give it ten minutes to wear off' or something."

"Didn't know how long it'd be. But yeah."

"- that sounds scary -"

"I've been filtering for ones that aren't judgment-affecting. You'd hate it but I don't, especially, it's kind of an interesting mental exercise to route around -"

"Okay."

Pause.

"Would it be a good idea for anyone else to know who - I mean -"

"The way to learn the Imperius curse is to agree to let someone put you under it. Repeatedly, until you learn to throw it off."

"- okay. So not - just roaming around - I'm really sorry do you want a hug -"

"I do not. But yes, you don't need to worry about your safety or that of your friends - or anyone ever, if I can learn how to teach it -"

Nod nod.

"I'd do it again. If I needed to."

"You don't have to tell me anything it's none of my business really I just wanted to make sure it was safe."

"I can think of hazards that worry me more."

Nod.

"I hear they've been giving the third-years an awful lot of homework this week."

"You can just tell me when you want me to go away, you know," she says, and she goes for the door.

He watches her close it.

Miranda asks to be excused from dueling when nothing to help her with footwork turns up. She is denied. She makes an attempt to duel while stationary, with shields and spells that keep her opponents from closing, but she's not actually very good at dueling and there are several legal spells that make her attempt to move anyway, ones that make her dance or spin or launch backward.

There's also a few that are legal aimed at the body but not at the head.

Most people under Tarantellagra just - dance. Miranda falls, and where her shoulder was is her ear.

She hits the ground.

Poor Miranda. Dueling's fun but only if you can walk in a straight line.

Miranda goes to the hospital wing and takes more than half an hour to patch up.

That is worrying! When she's not back after a bit he finds Karen.

Karen hasn't even heard yet; she's in the library.

"Hey! Wanna go to the hospital wing with me, Miranda fell duelling. Again."

"Again? Yeah -" She packs up her books. "Why won't he just excuse her -"

"'If you get into a fight with Dark Creatures they won't go easy on you because of your incompetence' - nitwit -"

"Cretin," agrees Karen.

Miranda is unconscious and does not look comfortable.

" - what happened she just fell -"

"She took a Contusion Jinx to the ear on her way down," says Madam Hirudinea. "She'll be all right, but it will take at least overnight before she wakes and she'll be in some pain for the next few days."

"She shouldn't be dueling."

"I don't disagree, Mr. Way, but it is what it is."

"It needs to stop being what it is."

"I am not the person to whom you might most productively voice your concerns, Mr. Way."

"She has independent study with you, can you - create a scheduling conflict," says Karen.

"Certainly not," says Madam Hirudinea.

"Who should we be talking to if the professor won't -"

"I suppose you could take it up with the headmistress."

"Can you tell the headmistress that in your opinion she is unqualified to learn dueling? At least on foot, could she make it up with broom dueling - she invented it -"

Sigh. "If the Headmistress asks of course she can have my professional opinion."

Karen sits by Miranda and holds her hand.

"She's unconscious, Miss Dwimmer."

"I know."

"Is there anything you can do so she's okay faster -"

"I've done it," says Madam Hirudinea. "She just needs rest now."

"We should probably wait until she's awake to petition the headmistress."

"You don't think it'd be more emphatic if we were there on behalf of our comatose friend?"

"Maybe but Miranda's better than me at that kind of thing are you good at it -"

"Not like really good. We could ask Timothy."

" - yeah I guess we should probably do that."

"We could catch him at dinner."

Nod.

Karen sits by Miranda till then.

Yeah. 

At dinner they find Timothy.

Timothy thinks the best angle is that their parents are going to be displeased to hear their friends are suffering serious injuries in class, especially after what happened to Karen last term, people might think Hogwarts isn't trying to keep its students safe.

Okay, they can try that - should they bring Timothy along or not -?

"I'd be happy to try if you want, up to you."

"It just matters if it works and I think you'd guess better about that."

"I'll come with." And they go to Twimble.

The gargoyles outside the office allow them passage after a fifteen-minute delay.

Twimble is behind her desk. "What is it, Mr. Way?" she asks Timothy.

"One of my third years, Swan, has some sort of incapacity to stay on her feet and is unconscious overnight in the hospital wing for the latest duelling-sustained injury. She has requested and been refused leave to do broomstick duelling instead, at which she's perfectly capable. I am not looking forward to this coming to the attention of her family, who certainly heard about the incident with her best friend Dwimmer last spring -"

"By 'family' I assume you mean her mother, the rest being absentee at best?" remarks Twimble.

"In Igboland, as I understand it, where they can withdraw her for school if they think Hogwarts isn't educating her responsibly."

"That seems unlikely," says Twimble.

"H-her mum is a teacher," Karen says. "Of little kids, but still. She might just withdraw her to home-educate her."

"That would be Madam Swan's prerogative. Students replacing bits of core curriculum with their own inventions is out of the question; I have enough misgivings about allowing elective substitutions. Miss Dwimmer." She looks pointedly at Karen. "Which may be no safer, if I recall your initial foray into wandlore."

"Then she should be excused on medical advice before she gets herself killed."

"If anything happens to Miranda I'm not coming back either."

"Really, Mr. Way?" remarks Twimble skeptically.

"Yes. My father could teach me everything important and Miranda's brilliant and you're risking her life for no reason, she's not going to be getting into duels, if she does there're people who can stand in for her -"

Twimble sighs and rubs her temple like she has a headache. "Unless Professor MacDougal opts of his own accord to include a broomstick dueling element in the course I will not tell him to assign marks on that basis. If Miss Swan can produce seconds at times when she will otherwise be expected to duel I will encourage him to count that for partial credit, but he may choose to assign none, which he may also do for any duels she sits out of. What I can do is allow her to decide between dueling and sitting out without threat of other disciplinary action."

"Thank you."

"Thank you," echoes Karen.

They go back to Miranda's hospital wing.

Still unconscious.

"We have Charms when she has Defense on Mondays but we can second her on Thursdays."

"And maybe some of the Slytherins would - she hasn't mentioned thinking especially highly of any of them but they're Slytherins, they're bribable practically by definition -"

"Yeah - I don't know what to bribe them with but Timothy would. I think she and Malfoy get on all right..."

"So when she's awake if it sounds good to her we can figure out how to bribe Malfoy."

"Yeah." Handholding of unconscious Miranda.

He does homework. Eventually he goes back to their dormitory to sleep.

Miranda is at breakfast the next morning but she flinches at loud noises and keeps rubbing her ear.

He will pout from across the Great Hall and then after breakfast he and Karen can go tell her what Twimble said.

"That's - good - it might also be worth trying to," pause, flinch, head-rub, "duel out of class while sitting down or something with a shorter spell list, see if I can just get good enough at all the not footwork parts."

"Yeah of course."

"They shouldn't make you at all it's so stupid."

"Maybe they think I'm faking it."

"But why would you do that?"

"To get out of dueling if I just plain didn't like it or something?"

"That's stupid, you invented a different kind that you could do!"

"Yeah. But I don't do it that much."

"And it's not like you try to get out of class all the time."

"I know I'm not faking, maybe I'm even obviously not, but maybe they think it'd be a bad idea to have a policy fakers might use?"

"Maybe they're just dumb and terrible."

"Anyway we can second you Thursdays and maybe somebody in your House can do it Mondays, if MacDougal'll let that count like Twimble suggested."

"Thanks for going to her for me."

"You could die."

"And I don't want to do that, so thank you."

Miranda hugs him.

Hug. "Please don't die."

"I'll do my best."

Malfoy is willing to second Miranda on most Mondays. MacDougal is grudgingly willing to credit this alternative solution to dueling.

Good.

Miranda and Karen practice seated dueling with spells that won't be a disaster if Miranda can't deflect them. Miranda gets better at shields - they're best with the ostensible chimaera wand - but not to the point where an inability to dodge wouldn't be an awful risk in a regular duel.

Well, she doesn't do many things that'd get her challenged to duels.

She doesn't!

But then she gets into an argument during the boring parts of Herbology with agemate Gryffindor Parthena Prewett about Azkaban, and Prewett feels rather strongly that the fellow who killed her grandmother deserves the place, and Miranda does not notice how strongly she feels about this until after Prewett is demanding that they match wands at sundown.

"You don't technically have to accept a challenge."

"I tried to turn her down and she said I did it wrong!"

"Do they do it differently in Igboland?"

"I don't know I've never been there!"

"Do you want me or Karen to do it for you?"

"Which of you is less likely to get hurt - I don't care if you win it I'll apologize if she wants but I don't want you to get hurt -"

"I don't know let's ask Karen - I care if we win -"

"I really don't object to apologizing, I was trying to do it when she said I refused the duel wrong." But they can go hunt up Karen.

"But you're right and she's wrong!"

"Yeah but I didn't want to upset her, I don't have anything against her."

"And I probably really wouldn't care about whether it was right to torture someone if they murdered my dad. But still."

"But still what? Why should we care if we win?"

"Because then people'll agree we're right - okay, when put that way it sounds stupid -"

"Yes, a bit."

"I still wanna win."

"Well, I wouldn't want you to throw the duel."

And Karen is caught up on the situation.

"I'm not sure which of us would be better -"

"We should specialize more, have someone get good at duels, it might come up."

"You don't have to win!"

"There will still probably be occasions when it's useful to be good at duelling!"

"Well, I suppose we could duel each other and see who wins but if we wound up getting hurt it'd put us at a disadvantage for this evening."

" - yeah. Would it be unsporting to just ask one of my older brothers who'd definitely win -"

"It doesn't! Matter! If you win!"

"Would it be unsporting to ask one of my older brothers who definitely wouldn't get hurt, then!"

"Maybe? I am not sure, MacDougal mostly covers practicals and not etiquette. I bet Michael knows duel etiquette?"

"Yeah because half his relationships end in duels."

"Yeah that's why I think so. And all the other duels."

"There are kind of a lot of them. Let's go find him."

So they go find Michael and "Is it bad dueling etiquette to get an older second, Karen or Minor would do it but I'm worried they'll get hurt - also for future reference how am I supposed to decline a duel if 'I decline your challenge' isn't it -"

"Ooooh, who're you dueling? - a year'd be all right but it'd be fairly poor etiquette to duel a child once you're of age unless they really provoked you and wouldn't back down - though if whoever you're dueling has an older sibling I could fight them and there'd be nothing unsporting about that -"

"Prewett. She's just got little siblings and I think Avery's her cousin."

"Yeah unless she, like, tried to strangle you in your sleep it'd be pretty unfair to have someone older settle it for you - in future you can say 'I regret my words and am unwilling to defend them', that'd settle it -"

Miranda writes that down. "She didn't try to strangle me in my sleep. I have no idea how good Prewett is in a duel, either."

"You're third years, I am presuming someone'll knock someone over and that'll be it -"

"I mean, I hope so, but it's not actually impossible for people other than me to take Contusion Jinxes to the head, just less likely."

"I mean, if you want me to knock over a third-year for you I will, it'd just be terribly rude."

Sigh. "No, it's okay, I was just consulting on the etiquette thing."

"Sure. Take care."

Miranda goes and gets an actual book on duel etiquette and flips a Knut to pick Minor to stand in for her and the sun sets.

And they can have a duel! Even if it's kind of stupid.

Prewett is annoyed that Miranda is having her second duel for her but can't say anything about it. She bows formally to Minor.

He bows back. 

Prewett's really good.

They should definitely have someone specialize in duelling, it seems likely to come up. Maybe Timothy and Michael practice secretly. He doesn't want to do that though, so many other things are more interesting. He dodges something he doesn't even recognize, blocks something else...

She dodges really well and seldom needs to block, which means she seldom needs to let up. She has a couple spells she can cast nonverbally.

That's fifth year.  It's a shame how she's wrong about Azkaban - 

- he fails to dodge something -

- and he's flipped heels over head and lands in a heap, bleeding through his robes.

Miranda shrieks and takes just the one step from the second's box to take over and Prewett was not expecting Miranda to take over even if Minor did die, and Prewett's hair is braided over her eyes and she can't see to dodge and she takes a chimaera-wand Stunner and skids a few yards across the floor. Prewett's second can't step in because Prewett is still alive.

Miranda trips her way over to Minor to make extra sure, third years are not supposed to know lethal spells -

He is not dead but that is an awful lot of blood wow.

"Episkey -?"

"Is he -" calls Prewett's second.

"No I was mistaken but go get Madam Hirudinea."

Prewett's second runs for Madam Hirudinea. Miranda knows a little healing, she tries what she's reasonably sure won't make him worse.

It does not seem to make him worse!

And then Madam Hirudinea arrives and forces blood-replenishing potion down his throat.

"Is that even a legal spell."

"Yes, only this bad if it hits an artery and not too debilitating even then," says Madam Hirudinea.

"So he'll be fine -"

"Yes, up and about in an hour, but let's bring him to the hospital wing anyhow."

They do that.

He wakes up there.

" - did we win?"

"Yes."

He gazes adoringly at Miranda and then closes his eyes again.

She waits for him to wake up for real.

Couple more minutes. "- are you okay -"

"I'm fine but I thought you were dead for a minute."

"Oh. I'm not dead."

"Yes this was clarified after I stunned Prewett."

"Good for you. Can I get out of bed or -"

"Yeah, your blood replenisher should be all kicked in now."

Out of bed he scoots. "Someone should super specialize in dueling. I guess maybe Michael's doing it and that just doesn't help us at school -"

Hug.

Hug. "Let's not do that again."

"Yeah next time I just turn whoever down. Properly."

"Unless it's important, might be important someday, and then we get someone specialized, Aaron's going to lecture me. Though at least I'm not in Slytherin and Timothy can't lecture me."

Nod.

And he heads breezily back to his dorm.

Timothy does not lecture him. He also doesn't lecture Miranda, though he does raise an eyebrow a tiny bit when he next sees her.

"I tried to turn her down."

"And then she dragged you down to the site of the duel?"

"And she said I did it wrong and Minor and Karen both volunteered - so did Michael when I went to ask how I should've done it instead but he said it would be rude - and I flipped a coin."

"You could have not showed up."

"I didn't want her to have a vendetta against me forever and I didn't think he'd be hurt."

Nod.

"I know how to decline duels right now."

"I am overjoyed to hear it."

She goes to her dorm.

Over winter holidays when they're exceptionally secured against witnesses Timothy tries to teach Michael to throw off the Imperius curse. It doesn't work. He can't mean to hurt him badly enough, or the right way.

"Should I be more annoying."

"I do not think that would do it."

"Should I be trying to kill you or something."

"That might do it but if it doesn't then you've killed me, which would be terrible."

"How'd you pick it up I can just do that -"

"No."

"Suit yourself."

"Imperio -"

Michael sticks out his tongue at him.

Timothy invites Jocosa Smith to the winter ball. She's a perfectly capable witch with a grandmother on the Wizengamot and he doesn't especially see himself marrying her but he thinks he might just have a hard time seeing himself married for some reason. He'd really sooner they not break up until after he's graduated, anyway, lest people notice he's inept at this thing; it'll be less noticeable after Hogwarts. So he watches Michael and in addition to being exceptionally charming tries for some actual warmth.

Jocosa is so charmed and very animatedly delighted about the whole thing. She likes flowers and she likes going for walks in the woods (not the Forbidden Forest; there's some less forbidden trees on the grounds) and she likes Timothy. She really really likes Timothy, she hadn't thought he'd noticed and wasn't sure how to let on and never did figure out what was going on with Crouch but she's so pleased he asked her.

He can do flowers and walks in the woods and if he gets credit for mysteriously knowing that she liked him well that's just a bonus. 

(This isn't manipulative. This isn't unfair. If he marries her he'll love her by then. Correcting disabilities with potions is no one's concern but his.)

They go for walks and he gives her flowers and he kisses her.

She is possibly slightly more delighted about being kissed than respectable witches are supposed to be. Okay a lot more.

...maybe she's taking potions too. For the same reason, even. 

The evening of the ball he debates taking one. He decides against, the risks while he's still at school are too high. He's gotten better at kissing, he'll be fine without it. 

He does do a couple of Cheering Charms. Michael doesn't seem to find dating this upsetting.

Michael is taking two girls to the ball; it took some doing. He talked them into kissing each other and it was really hot and the plan is to trade off dances until the three of them want to duck out of the public eye anyway. 

Jocosa likes dancing! And Timothy!

And butterbeer!

She is four foot ten and wand-slender, and even then should be able to handle three butterbeers over a four hour ball. The extent to which she cannot is not immediately obvious - she doesn't miss steps, she can still beam at Timothy and giggle when he says things, and while people are looking she manages not to do anything too embarrassing. The minute nobody is looking she puts her arms around his neck and pulls herself up enough to kiss him and clamp her knees around his waist.

TImothy is extremely flustered! He endeavors to carry her back into a public area as quickly as possible aaaah oh god why is she doing that!

She likes being carried! It means she does not have to reserve her hands for keeping within kissing distance!

Okay now they can hardly go back in a public area - 

- he would like Feverfew to come and bite her, please -

(Feverfew is very far away). 

He set her down and moves her hands. Firmly. He's much much taller. "You're drunk -"

"I liiiiike you," she says, and she leans on him since her hands are pinned.

"Yeah, okay, I like you too, what are you doing -"

"I was kissing you I wanna kiss you -" She squirms. "Or you could hold me down that's okay too there's probably stuff we shouldn't do but if we did anyway you'd marry me right - I really really like you, kiss me -"

He stuns her.

He stuns her and then no one is touching him which is a serious improvement -

- aaaaaaaahhh -

He curls up in a ball on the ground and buries his head in his robes and takes deep calming breaths -

" - Timothy?"

Jump - "oh, Fredrick, hi. I think Jocosa had too much to drink, I was going to - take her back to her room -"

"...not a good idea she'll wonder what you did -"

" - yes but if I get a friend then she's embarrassed in front of other people and she likes me she doesn't think I'm a monster -"

"Budding Dark wizard, though, everyone thinks you're a budding dark wizard -"

"I shouldn't have Stunned her."

"Five points to Slytherin! You Stunned her? Why the fuck did you stun her?"

"She was hitting on me and I panicked - I haven't decided yet whether to marry her-"

" - you Stunned her because she kissed you but you haven't decided whether to marry her?"

"She wasn't just kissing me!"

"If you marry girls, you have to fuck them, Timothy."

"I have a plan for that."

He blinks at him for a while.

"Okay. Well, what you do is - you wake her up, holding her, you tell her that you think she might've fainted, she had a lot to drink, you had a delightful evening and are absolutely not going to take advantage and want to walk her back to her dorm. You do that."

" - right, that is approximately what I was planning to do, I just needed to calm down first."

Fredrick nods. "Please do not memory-charm me," he says, and turns to go.

"Not actually evil," he mutters, and then he pulls Jocosa into a standing position and wakes her up and - "are you all right, dear -"

"I, what happened -?"

"You fainted, it's only been a few seconds, I think you had a bit much to drink, it's quite all right -"

"Oh no -"

He kisses her forehead. "It's all right, it's all right, I had a lovely evening, let's just walk back to your dormitory, okay?"

"Okay -"

He carries her. It's faster.

She leans her head on his shoulder and furrows her brow. "I'm going to be so embarrassed in the morning," she says vaguely.

Pet pet. "It's all right, it's all right."

Sigh. "You're so nice."

"More people should be."

She's quiet the rest of the way to Hufflepuff.

He drops her off. He kisses her goodnight.

She is enthusiastic about the kiss goodnight but doesn't climb up him again.

That's good.

He leaves and goes around a corner and leans against the wall.

An hour or so later Fredrick finds him there.

He's had several more drinks; he's not quite walking in a straight line. "Got her home safe -"

"Yeah."

"Didn' tell anyone."

"I didn't think you would."

"'s that why I remember -"