A group of people stood and gazed at the array of photographs and pieces of parchment stuck to the wall of the Auror Office, each studying them carefully. Three Senior Aurors, and Rose, who had quietly attached herself to Natalie Kennet and was saying nothing unless asked, in case they sent her away. For now, they seemed happy to ignore her presence.

One image was a photo of Julius Bulstrode, several years old, showing a well-built man with signs of middle-aged spread, grey-haired and clean-shaven. It had been there for some weeks, but now there was a new addition underneath: the word 'DECEASED'.

'So it's conclusive?' Lavender Hewitt asked.

'Apparently,' Kennet replied. 'Millicent Bulstrode was very co-operative with the French authorities, and allowed them to run tests that prove the body was her close relative. She doesn't have any other close male relatives it could be, so that's that, and the fact that she was so keen to help suggests that she doesn't know anything about what happened to him, although we're still keeping an eye on her, of course. How he died is still a mystery, but the closest guess they have is some type of externally applied poison.'

'Well, this has to cast some doubt on Scorpius Malfoy's party trick,' Lavender said. 'If Bulstrode's been dead for as long as that body's been there, he can't have been part of your Venomous Tentacular murder.'

'He also can't have been entering the UK when border control says he was,' Kennet pointed out. 'And the CIU ran proper tests before they let Malfoy loose on an active scene, you know. Persis McKay's still convinced it's genuine. Anyway, we've come up with a possible explanation.'

'Alright, let's hear it,' Harry said.

'Polyjuice Potion,' Kennet said. 'We know the League has access to goods, including potions ingredients, without going through the proper channels. It would explain how we have people in more than one location simultaneously, because it's not just Julius Bulstrode. Look, you've got it here with Andrew McTavish and the Begbie graffiti case, again with this earlier break-in at that Muggle shop, a similar story when that group of Muggle teenagers got attacked. We put it down to unreliable witnesses then, but it fits the pattern.'

'Well, that would explain it, or at least some of it,' Harry agreed. 'And you're right about those earlier cases. Of course, we can't be sure they're connected, but if they are, we can't blame Malfoy's efforts for giving us wrong leads, because those were before he was ever involved. It was Muggle CCTV that identified Orland Hughes at the break-in, wasn't it?'

'It was, except that Orland Hughes was doing a book-signing in Cardiff that night,' Kennet said. 'We decided we must have just been mistaken on the ID—the images weren't very clear. But if someone was impersonating Hughes with Polyjuice, it would explain it. And it would explain what Rose found in Millicent Bulstrode's house, too. All those clothes. If they're using this trick repeatedly, with different aliases...'

'The problem there is that we've got no evidence linking Millicent to the League,' Lavender said. 'It's not a crime to have a mysterious quantity of clothes in your spare room. I'm not saying I think you're wrong, Natalie—it's a good theory. But we need more than a theory.'

'I know.' Kennet sighed. 'We're looking for more links all the time. Rose has been trying to find out more about the people who were impersonated—if that's what happened—in case there's something to investigate there. Some link between them, you know?'

Rose's uncle looked at her for the first time since they had all come in together. 'Any luck?'

'Not really,' Rose said. 'I mean, it's easy enough to find stuff out about them, but it's nothing interesting. The only two of them who've ever met each other, as far as I can tell, are Andrew McTavish and Orland Hughes, who were both at the same Daily Prophet event a couple of years ago. There's no obvious reason for the League to have chosen any of them to frame.'

Since the incident in the warehouse, Uncle Harry had been very firm about her not being sent on any field missions, even routine ones, and as a result she was stuck on mundane research tasks. It was dull and thankless, especially when she wasn't finding anything useful. All the people she'd been told to look into had, as far as she could tell, entirely normal, boring lives.

'And there's no sign of Elenud Pritchard yet.' Uncle Harry looked back at their board. 'She either knows something or something's happened to her too, or she'd have turned up by now. What have we got on her?'

'Same as we've got on everything else—not a lot,' Kennet said. 'She went to Durmstrang for five years, then to Beauxbatons for her final two. Good school record, nothing unexpected or out-of-the-ordinary at all. We're not sure of her whereabouts for a couple of years after school, but then she pops up again, working for a travel agency operating in France and Spain. She changed jobs a few times—started a research project in the History Department at the Academy of Advanced Magic in Paris at one point, but never finished it, and ended up working as a translator, first at the French Ministry, then privately. She seems to have travelled a fair bit, but she stayed based at her uncle's, which suggests a reasonably good relationship. Unmarried, and no long-term relationships. No criminal record, no known Dark Arts connection, and her travels never included anywhere in the UK, presumably because Julius wanted to keep her out of the way of any Pritchards. It takes a bit of a stretch of the imagination to have her murdering her uncle out of the blue, or even joining the British Dark League. Then again—where the hell is she?'

'Well, let's find out,' Harry said. 'Lavender, I know you've got a lot of your own ongoing investigation lines, so we'll leave Elenud Pritchard with you, Natalie. I assume you've got eyes on her parents' old house in Wales?'

'Of course. We set wards, so we'll know if anyone goes there. But it's a half-ruined old place in the middle of the woods. I'm not holding my breath.'

'Someone must know where she is,' Harry said. 'She must have friends. Colleagues. People who know her. Let's find them and see what they can tell us. Have another go at the Pritchards too. The French authorities'll help—they want her too. If she's not involved in Bulstrode's death, then she's almost certainly in danger, if not already dead. Finding her is a priority.'

They all nodded.

'Anything else I need to know?' Harry went one.

'Oh—only one thing,' Natalie said, glancing at Lavender. 'Scorpius Malfoy's asked whether he could get some test subjects for his experiments. Nothing dangerous—he just wants to know whether he can put a tracking spell on someone, which is tricky without a someone.'

Harry sighed. 'Well, let's keep assuming he can help us for the moment. Give him a test subject, Natalie. But make sure you know exactly what he's doing, and that he knows how to undo it before he goes experimenting on anyone. Now, Lavender, if we're finished here, let's talk about manpower for your operation in Glasgow…'

He and Lavender moved away towards his office. Natalie and Rose remained, staring at the wall.

'It just makes no sense!' Rose said, after a moment or two. 'I mean, if they wanted to frame random people, they could have done a better job. They didn't even bother to pick anyone likely to have done it. McTavish is a Scottish Ministry employee who runs wine-tasting events in his spare time, and Orland Hughes is a food critic for the Prophet. The others are even blander.'

'I'm not sure they wanted to frame anyone seriously, to be honest,' Natalie said. 'It's all smoke screen. Cloud the air as much as possible with false leads, to send us off on all the wrong tracks and keep their own identities hidden.'

'But why are they doing it?' Rose persisted. 'I mean, the whole Pureblood Supremacy thing, I know that's never gone away, and that's what the League's all about. But some of this stuff's so pointless. Painting stupid symbols on someone's house! It's like they're just playing games. Testing us or something.'

'Talking of testing,' Natalie said. 'You heard your uncle. We need to give Scorpius Malfoy test subjects.'

Rose stared at her boss in sudden suspicion. 'What's that got to do with me?'

Natalie didn't turn a hair. 'I'm sending you and O'Connell. Don't worry. All he's going to do is try to put a tracking spell on you. Which will be taken off before you leave,' she added.

Rose folded her arms across her chest. 'I'm not being a guinea pig for Malfoy!'

Natalie raised her eyebrows.

'That was an order, not a request. You're off active missions until you're qualified, which is also an order, though not from me. You'll have plenty of time to do this and keep digging on our fake perpetrators. Please try to co-operate with Malfoy—whatever Lavender thinks, I still think that what he's producing could be vital.'

Weasley looked no more pleased to be there than Scorpius was to see her. He'd half expected her to be slightly more friendly than usual, given that she was now apparently going out with his friend, but, if anything, she was frostier than she had been before.

He did his best to ignore her, because he had work to do, and she was at least co-operative, if not enthusiastic.

The objects Scorpius had developed took the shape of very fine, silver chains, about the length of an ordinary bracelet. What was important was the magic that had gone into their creation—tracking spells as powerful as he could make them, forged into the metalwork. He only had two of them, but each had their own distinct pattern, and he gave one each to Weasley and to the other trainee Auror, Philippa O'Connell, whom Scorpius recognised vaguely as having been a year or two below him at Hogwarts. Ravenclaw, maybe.

'How long does this tracking spell last?' O'Connell asked, looking dubiously at the chain in her hands. She looked slightly uncertain about the whole thing, although he wasn't sure whether that was because of what they were doing, or because Weasley's perpetual glare was making the atmosphere uncomfortable.

'It's not a tracking spell, exactly,' he explained patiently. 'I don't make new spells, I just use them in new ways. The magic is already in the object, which could be anything really, but this is an easy thing to carry, and also eventually to attach to someone. Look, you put them around your wrist, and you're only trackable as long as you're wearing it. The point today is just to check how well they work.'

Theoretically, he knew they worked. Practice could be a very different thing.

Persis, who was responsible for organising the whole thing, appeared cheerfully—and, he suspected, deliberately—unaware of any tension between him and Weasley, and to his irritation assigned O'Connell to go with her to the secluded spot on Hampstead Heath that they had arranged to be the other end of their test. That left him with Weasley, standing in the designated Apparition Point—you could only Apparate to and from specific places in the Ministry—while she fiddled with the silver chain around her wrist.

He busied himself with casting the necessary wards around the Apparition Point. He'd been told that both Weasley and O'Connell could be relied on to be accurate when Apparating, but he still worried that it was too small a spot to aim for. When he'd finished, he stepped in and out of the circle a few times, to test it. Nothing happened, which was as it was supposed to be. An ordinary ward would be set off by anyone trying to cross or break through it—he wanted this one to be triggered only by his tracking device.

Weasley spoke suddenly from behind him.

'So, I hear you're coming out with us all tonight. How'd he bribe you into that then?'

Scorpius paused what he was doing for a second, startled. From the stiff and formal way she'd spoken to him before, he'd assumed this was going to be business only, which, honestly, was the way he'd prefer it. Damn Danny, dragging Rose Weasley into their personal circle.

'How did who bribe me?' he said, attempting to play casual and stupid, although he couldn't imagine she was going to be fooled.

He finished the wards and turned around to face her, and she raised her eyebrows.

'Right, of course. You're coming out because you'd never miss James's birthday. Come on, Malfoy. There's no way you'd be going if Danny hadn't convinced you.'

Scorpius sighed. He couldn't tell whether Weasley was amused by the situation or annoyed about something, and he didn't want to get in the middle of her and Danny's weird relationship.

'It was Hazel who invited me. I just said I'd go and keep him company.' And Merlin knew he was regretting that choice now. 'You can't really blame him for being a bit intimidated by your entire family being there,' he added.

She laughed unexpectedly. 'Not my whole family, just my generation of it. And probably not all of us, even then—Victoire and Teddy are a bit busy for partying these days, and Lucy's at school.'

'Do they even know you and Dan are seeing each other?' Scorpius asked, curious despite himself. Weasley family dynamics could be complicated, but at least it wasn't him tangled up with them this time. He'd be an innocent bystander, that would be all.

'Lily does, which is your fault. And the others are going to find out tonight, so they can put up with it or piss off.'

He stared at her, then shook his head. 'Well, that's one approach to introducing your new boyfriend to your family.'

He'd been right when he'd thought that this could be some sort of challenge she was setting—it definitely was. But now he wasn't sure whether it was Danny she was challenging, or her own family, or even herself. What the hell had Danny got himself into with Rose Weasley?

At that moment, there was a soft popping noise, and Philippa O'Connell appeared in the middle of Scorpius's wards. Half a second later, the wards blazed into life. A wall of white heat sprang up around O'Connell, and Scorpius jumped back from it. The air rang with a high-pitched sound.

'Merlin, Malfoy!' Weasley had her wand in her hand. 'Is that meant to happen?'

'Er, sort of.' Scorpius looked uncertainly at O'Connell as the blaze died down. 'Sorry—that was a bit more extreme than I was expecting.'

O'Connell looked shocked and dishevelled, and possibly very slightly singed.

'Is it safe to move?' she asked in a strangled voice.

'It should be. But maybe take the tracker off and throw it out here first. Without it, you won't trigger the wards at all.'

'Well, that was very impressive,' Weasley said, as O'Connell did as Scorpius suggested. 'But I'm not sure how useful it is if whoever we're tracking gets a screaming, burning alarm when they set our wards off. Shouldn't the alarm be happening at our end, not theirs? Plus, how do we get them to wear a bracelet? Ask nicely?'

Scorpius scowled at her.

'Obviously it isn't finished yet. Anyway, Persis should have got an alert—she's got the other half of O'Connell's tracker. And I've got yours, so when you go out in a minute, I'll get an alert here when you enter the warded space. When I've finished with it, the person you put it on shouldn't even be able to tell they're being tracked.'

'But they still have to pass our wards for us to know where they are. We can't just follow them anywhere?'

'Not yet, no,' he said, through gritted teeth. Why did she have to be like this? 'This is still experimental, Weasley. I'm working on it.'

She looked at him and grinned suddenly.

'Right. Sorry. Okay, what do I have to do now?'

'Wait a second while I get rid of these wards. Persis should have hers up at the other end in a minute. Then you're going to Apparate to her co-ordinates, to test how it works out in the open. But make sure you land exactly where you're meant to and don't overbalance or step out of the circle as you arrive or anything—you saw what just happened.'

The expression on her face made him feel slightly better.

'Seriously? You can't stop it doing that?'

He shrugged. 'Well, I didn't know it was going to do it the first time, so no. It's something I'll have to take it away and work on. For now, just be careful. This is exactly why I needed test subjects.' He grinned, remembering something else. 'Anyway, blame your boyfriend. This was his idea.'

Issie came rushing into the room they'd reserved for a tech meeting, her hair still damp from the quick shower she'd managed after Quidditch practice.

'Sorry I'm late!' she announced to the room, then stopped.

There didn't seem to be a tech meeting going on, even though it was meant to have started ten minutes before, and Tilly was always strict about start times. Instead, most of their little tech team was sitting around the room, not doing very much, while Tilly appeared to be having a whispered argument with Titus at one end. Lorcan Scamander and Milo Quinn were attempting to balance quills on their noses, and Tilly's brother and his friends were chatting between themselves, but the fourth-year girls, Dalilah Stone and Lauren Pritchard—two that Issie and Tilly had marked for promotion to committee the following year—were leaning forwards, looking worried and attempting to listen to Tilly and Titus. To Issie's disappointment, there was no sign of Addy or Felicity, even though they'd signed up to help before Christmas.

'Is everything okay?' Issie asked.

Tilly turned towards her, her face grim.

'Look, Issie, I need to go and help Lucy. We've got a bit of a crisis. Can you run the meeting with Titus? We need to assign jobs for the performance, and we really need to start working on costumes.'

Issie stared from one of them to the other. Even Titus looked uncharacteristically serious.

'What's happened?' she asked.

'Titus'll catch you up.' Tilly was already moving towards the door. 'I need to go and help sort it out. I'll come back before the end if I can. Here, take my notes, and I'll see you in a bit.'

'What's going on?' Lauren Pritchard asked as Tilly disappeared. 'Lilith said Weylin was dropping out or something. But how can we do the play without him? Isn't he the main character?'

'What?' Issie turned to Titus. 'Is that true?'

Titus looked uncomfortable.

'Lilith didn't need to go fucking talking about it to everyone…'

'I'm not everyone, I'm her cousin,' Lauren pointed out.

'Yeah, and now you're telling everyone else. Anyway, it's not true—he's hasn't dropped out. He's just dealing with some crap, and he's sorting it out with Lucy and Tilly. You heard Tilly—there's still shit to do.'

However, at the end of their little meeting—when Tilly still hadn't returned—Issie and Titus remained where they were as everyone else shuffled out.

'What's really going on?' Issie asked quietly.

Titus, who had been very cheerful in a forced kind of way for the whole meeting, dropped the act and slumped back in his chair.

'He says he's fucking dropping out, that's what's going on.'

Issie stared at him in horror. 'What? But you said he wasn't!'

'Yeah, to keep Pritchard's nose out of it. Anyway, Lucy and Tilly won't let him. But you know what Weylin's like when he decides something.'

'What is going on with him right now?' Issie burst out.

Titus squinted at her. 'You really have to ask that?'

'No.' She sighed. 'Sorry. Obviously, I get that he's got a lot of stuff going on. Has he talked to you about it?'

'A bit. I can't really go around repeating it though.'

Issie hesitated. She also couldn't go around repeating things her friends told her in confidence, but Titus was a decent person for secrets, and she'd been friends with him for a long time.

'Did he… did he say anything to you about something that happened at the Yule Ball?'

Titus narrowed his eyes.

'No, but I thought something might have done, and I bet I can guess who it involves. I've been waiting for something to happen with him and Alice for ages.'

'Seriously? Am I the only person who didn't have a clue?'

He laughed. 'Well, face it, you are kind of oblivious sometimes. But nah, I just hang around with Weylin. He's fancied her for ages, but you know what he's like. He thinks he's not good enough, so he never does anything about it.'

Issie had not, in face, known this about Weylin Nott. He thought he wasn't good enough for Alice? Well, he was right, but that was only because nobody was good enough for her.

'So, something happened?' Titus prompted.

Issie shook his head. 'Can't tell you, sorry. Not if he didn't. Why did you think something had happened though?'

'Well, you know. I thought for a while that he might get some bloody balls and ask her to go with him, but he didn't, only then they were both gone for a while at the ball. And he was different after. Like, in a good way. We tried to get him to tell us, but he wouldn't.' Titus narrowed his eyes. 'Did he ask her out? Did they kiss? Did they…'

'Stop that question there,' Issie interrupted. 'I already said I'm not telling you.'

'Well, she obviously ditched him again straight after.' Titus shrugged. 'Since he went right back to being a miserable fucker.'

Issie blinked. 'She ditched him...?'

But no, she couldn't tell Titus the real version of events; it wasn't fair on Alice. What was Weylin playing at, though?

Titus was watching her carefully.

'So he actually ditched her?' he guessed. 'For real? But why…' He broke off, looking thoughtful. 'Okay, look, I get it, Gryffindor code of honour or whatever, you can't tell me Longbottom's secrets. But if the stupid dick went and broke up with her, it's not because he's not into her. It's because, y'know, she's Alice Longbottom! She's Professor Longbottom's daughter. Which is a big deal, but not because he's our Herbology teacher—it's because he's a fucking war hero. All her family, and basically everyone she knew before she came to Hogwarts, are like the saviours of the world. And Weylin's got two parents who just got let out of prison for organising attacks on Muggles. He's all messed up in his head, Is. Thinks he's bad for her or something.'

Issie listened to this in silence. A small, horrible part of her whispered, 'Well, what if he is bad for her?', but that was bullshit, wasn't it? If that was true, Issie ought to be bad for Alice too. Anyway, that wasn't Issie's choice to make. Alice was her own person.

'Where is he?' she asked.

Titus looked startled. 'I don't know. He was talking to Lucy—well, Lucy was talking to him. I don't know where he is now though. Probably back in the common room or the dorm, if he's not still being talked at.'

Issie thought for a moment. 'Titus, how d'you feel about letting me into the Slytherin common room?'

He started to laugh, then stopped.

'Wait, you're serious?'

'Why not? Lucy and Tilly and Max have been in the Gryffindor common room, and Hugo Weasley and his friends used to be there all the time. And I know Lucy goes in the Ravenclaw common room with Tilly. Who's going to know?'

'What are you going to do?' he asked dubiously.

'I want to talk to Weylin. You think I don't get it, Titus? You think I don't know how it feels to come from the wrong side? There were people who thought I wasn't good enough for Gryffindor when I first came here—they never put it like that, but it's still what they thought. And they probably thought I wasn't good enough to be friends with Alice too. I want to talk to him. Oh,' she added, 'and I also want to look for Addy Goyle and find out why she and Felicity never came to the meeting today.'

Titus sighed. 'Fine, you can come with me. But I don't think you'll get much joy with Weylin, if Lucy couldn't. And if anyone asks, I'm denying everything, okay?'