Disclaimer: Except for some OCs, the characters and world here are the creation and property of JK Rowling. This chapter takes place within the timeline of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

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Dear Lucky,

It appears Potter got off, but barely. Instead of having a small hearing, they tried him before the whole Wizengamot. Dumbledore showed up just in time to save the day and he gets to stay at Hogwarts and his wand won't be broken.

Daddy says just watch, the Ministry will find another way to undermine Dumbledore. I hope he's wrong, although he never is. He got injured doing something the other night, right after Potter's trial. Mum smiles when she's in the same room as him, but I saw her in the hallway right after he got home, twisting and untwisting a washcloth and looking really upset. I think there were bloodstains on it. Maybe this is what she was worried about and the worst is over.

I've seen the convict a few times since that other letter. He's a bitter, funny, odd man, all at different times. Mum says he was once the hottest date at Hogwarts, but circumstances have affected him greatly. It makes a person think.

I'm sorry I missed you at Diagon Alley last week. It sounds like you had fun. You know we wouldn't be able to hang out together, anyway, so maybe it's just as well. I guess I'll see you next week on the Hogwarts Express.

Sincerely,
Hope

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Dear Hope,

I haven't kept up my end of the correspondence very well this week. I am quite grateful for your help in Potions. You know I would long ago have washed out of school without you.

The trip to Hogwarts this year was, to say the least, interesting. I met this girl named Luna Lovegood. Her dad publishes the Quibbler. Ginny Weasley said I'm not nobody when she introduced us. Luna is in Ginny's year. Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger are the Gryffindor prefects this year. It turns out that my friend Hannah is one of the prefects of Hufflepuff, now, too.

On top of all that my Uncle Algie gave me a Mimbulus mimbletonia. It has all sorts of interesting characteristics...

At any rate, it seems like this is going to be a good school year. I don't know why, but I'm really optimistic about it. Maybe I'm lucky after all.

Sincerely,
Lucky.

---

Hope found a time to vent her woes during the time that Healer Snape made herself available to the Slytherin girls. Emily had tried to keep a few hours per week available during the beginning of every term. Hope put herself down for one of the private appointments.

“Mum, why do I have to be me?”

“Because your Daddy would be crushed if you were suddenly someone else.”

“No, Mum, why do I have to be so dark-looking and not pretty and blonde? Why did I have to sort Slytherin, and why does my Daddy have to be my House Head? And when am I ever going to get a figure, Mum?”

“My dear, it's the luck of the draw. Somewhere at this very school I know for a fact there are girls who are jealous of your black curls and blue eyes. They envy the way you talk to the Headmaster as if he were an uncle. They would do anything to have a father who looks after them the way your father looks after you. Believe it or not, there are even girls who wish they had less of a figure. Actually, they wish they had the tall elegance of your figure. Meanwhile, some are being treated badly by boyfriends and other men in their lives because of the way their bodies are shaped.”

None of that was what really bothered Hope, anyway. “Hannah Abbott is a prefect.”

“Aha, now it comes out. Would Margo Snape have liked to be a prefect, along with Draco Malfoy?” Hope looked ill. “Or perhaps Margo Snape would have liked to be the Hufflepuff prefect along with cousin Ernie Macmillan?” The look became even worse. “I like Margo Snape as she is, unimpeded by such cares. You have three more years here, dear, and then you will be out in the big wide world. I can't promise it will be wonderful, but you will have opportunities you cannot imagine now. Try to learn everything you can while you're here so that you will be best able to use those opportunities, dear.”

“That won't make Neville like me better,” moaned the girl.

“No,” smiled the mother sadly, “but he won't like you at all if you become too clingy and needy about him. For your own sake and for the sake of your future you need to become the best whole person you can just by yourself, and find a young man, whoever he might be, who is the same way.”

“I don't like that solution.”

“No, you don't have to like it, but it's still the best way.”

The girl sighed and sat closer to her mother. When the professor poked his head into the sitting room, he found them there, the daughter practically in her mother's lap in a pose reminiscent of many years before. When she saw him, Hope jumped up to give him a big hug and a smile and then left to prepare for dinner.

“More trouble with that boy? I should have found a way to cut if off in her second year.”

“Somehow, I think she will be better off for going through this, painful as it is right now. Give her a chance to work through it.”

“I want to hex him into next week for mistreating her.”

“Don't you see, though? He hasn't mistreated her in the least. He's simply not returned her feelings. Feelings he may not even know she has.”

The father sighed and looked carefully at the mother sitting on the couch. He sat beside her and took her hand. “You look tired.”

“I am a bit, yes.”

“Could it be that--” He slid his hand along her middle.

“No, quite the opposite, actually.”

He absorbed this news and its implications. “Are you disappointed?”

Emily shook her head. “It would have been pushing the limits of 'too soon', I think.”

“So we're in for a quiet evening?”

“I would love to spend some time just enjoying my two favorite men. That reminds me; I should figure out where the elves have taken Brendon.”

---

Dear Hope,

Have you got any idea what made my Draught of Peace harden like that? I need to write an essay by our next class. I noticed that you and Hermione were the only ones to make it perfectly.

Have you had DADA, yet? We cannot decide what to make of Umbridge. One of my classmates got put in detention just for saying that You-Know-Who is back. She acts sweet and girly until you cross her. If you haven't had her yet, watch your step.

Sincerely,
Lucky

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Dear Lucky,

Thanks for the heads up on Umbridge. She's just as you said. One of the boys in my House says she's just the sort of thing the Ministry should have been doing all along, taking a firmer hand on things here at Hogwarts and exercising more control over “controversial” subjects like DADA.

Of course, that particular person would like to see more Dark Arts taught, generally, not worrying about defense in the least. I don't think he understands just what the Dark Arts can do to a person. He's all excited about the power his family is gaining with the Ministry right now.

There are a couple of things that would make the Draught of Peace harden up like yours did. I'll lay out the ones that are most likely...

Sincerely,
Hope

---

“That blasted boy is using her.” Emily was pacing as Severus looked up from grading essays.

“I thought you were the president of the Neville Longbottom fan club.”

“He's got friends and a certain popularity, now, and only contacts her when he's in a jam in your class. I can't watch this again, Severus.”

“Watch what again?”

“It's like studying for N.E.W.T.s all over again. She made nice to you to pick your brain for Potions for a few evenings and as soon as that test was over she dropped you. You were crushed and I laid awake nights thinking of which hexes and curses I wanted to use on her.”

“So my little brainy Ravenclaw Healer has some blood lust deep in her soul after all.” This was said with an ironic chuckle.

“Severus, this isn't funny. What's to become of her if he breaks her heart as thoroughly as... as...” She turned in her pacing and her husband was standing before her.

“We'll have to hope that there is someone willing to ply her with penne and Chianti.”

“You're still being amused by all of this. What if there is no one?”

“I know you will be there, and I know she will come to you in a way I could never go to my parents. I was wrong about a great deal the night I asked you to marry me, Emily, but I was right that you would be a wonderful mother.” He clasped her to him. “What's amusing is that you are more worried about this friendship tonight than I am.”

“You are just overjoyed that it's not likely to turn to romance.”

“Don't tell me you want her romantically involved at fifteen!”

“No, but I don't want her heart broken, either.” Emily buried her face into her husband's robe and simply absorbed his presence.

Severus kissed the top of her head. “May I tell you what I want, right now?”

The figure within his arms shifted slightly. “That seems to be self-evident,” came from the face pressed close to his chest. “Don't you need to finish those essays, though?”

“Half an hour should do it. Why don't you prepare? I rather fancy the black, tonight.” He released her and she backed toward the bedroom.

“This other conversation isn't over.”

“Of course not.”

She looked at him from the doorway, an open invitation in her face.

“I'll be there soon,” he responded.