"Where'd you sleep last night, brat?"

On the roof of an abandoned building. The building was three stories tall, and Flynn had to climb the side of the building using a particularly thick looking pipe that ran down the wall. The only door that led to the rooftop was locked, and thick enough that Flynn felt safe enough to trust that nobody would be able to break it down without at least making enough noise to wake him up. The rooftop provided him with no shelter whatsoever, but the summer nights were warm enough that he wasn't afraid of freezing to death, and he was an early enough of a riser that he didn't have to be afraid of being cooked alive by the morning sun.

"Nowhere," Flynn replied, glaring up at Jones. "Why the fuck do you care?"

Jones scoffed, though Flynn couldn't be sure if he was trying to act like he was amused or insulted by the question.

"Awfully presumptuous of you, brat," Jones grumbled, confirming Flynn's suspicions that it was the latter.

"That's a big word," Flynn responded, with a glare. "When did you manage to get yourself a fucking education?"

Jones scoffed again.

"Elizabeth was worried sick for you," he said, ignoring the insult and throwing something at Flynn.

Flynn caught the object and frowned when he recognized the duster that he usually used to clean around the gym.

"Tell her to fuck off," Flynn said as he ran his finger along the length of the duster and frowned at the ironic layer of dust that he wiped away. "I can handle myself. Why the fuck is this thing so dirty?"

"You tell her that yourself, I ain't doing shit for you," Jones grumbled. "And why do you think?"

"You haven't been cleaning around the gym," Flynn said, as he looked around to see a healthy layer of dust covering every surface of the large gym, aside from the ring and the area that Tom used to teach his classes. "Lazy bastard."

"I'm old," Jones said. "And Tom's too busy."

"He didn't quit his job?" Flynn asked, vaguely remembering the life crisis that the older man had been having before he left for Hogwarts.

"Too busy training," Jones said, gesturing vaguely behind him, in lieu of pointing out a specific spot to clean. "Get to it."

Flynn glared at Jones, but didn't waste any more time before he got to work. Cursing Jones as he cleaned the gym of dust, sweat marks, and bloodstains, he worked for a few hours until he heard the heavy metal door to the gym creaking open.

"Well," Tom said, blinking a few times in surprise. "If it isn't a familiar face. Back from your magic school already?"

"The fuck does it look like, dipshit?" Flynn asked, not bothering to even pause his attempts to get a particularly annoying blood splatter off one of the ring's posts.

"Ah, there it is," Tom said, with a laugh. "I can't believe I ever thought I missed you, you little brat."

"Fuck off," Flynn responded, growling in frustration as he scrubbed harder against the post. "Why the fuck do you bleed so fucking much?"

"Why do you just assume that's my blood?" Tom asked.

"Because you were probably training with Jones," Flynn responded easily.

There was a short pause before Tom shrugged and walked into the ring, leaning against the opposite post from the one that Flynn was scrubbing down.

"So," Tom said. "You're homeless."

"Fuck off," Flynn said.

"I didn't even say anything," Tom protested.

"Liz already asked," Flynn replied.

"And so you've decided to live with her for the summer," Tom said, his voice both sceptical and hopeful.

"I'm not a fucking charity case," Flynn growled. "Fuck off and leave me alone."

Tom sighed.

"You're not an idiot, Flynn," Tom said. "You're not dumb enough to not realize that we care about you."

"Fuck off," Flynn said, refusing to try and decide whether that was true or not.

Tom sighed again and shook his head.

"I always have a free couch for you," he said, though he dropped the subject and didn't speak up about it again.

By the time night had come, Flynn had just barely finished cleaning up a majority of the gym. Having spent the entire day doing nothing but clean, he couldn't help but feel annoyed at Jones for not keeping the place clean at his absence, but when Jones came in around dinner time, with a plastic bag full of meat, he decided that he would keep any criticism to himself until after he was fed.

Flynn frowned when his stomach growled at the thought of food, annoyed that his stomach had become so spoiled that it couldn't even handle going a full day without eating before it started to complain.

Dinner turned out to be noodles and meat, which Flynn wasn't surprised by. Though it tasted like utter shit compared to the stuff they served at Hogwarts, it had a nostalgic taste to it, and he ate as much as he could manage.

At the end of the meal, after suffering through several comments from Tom about his weight, Flynn found himself satisfied, but a little regretful that he hadn't been able to secure any noodles for his pockets. Jones's humble cooking produced an amount of food that was nowhere close to what had been available at Hogwarts, and by the end of the meal, the plate had been completely scraped clean.

All in all though, it was a good meal, at least until Jones pulled out his wallet and five twenty pound notes on the table.

Flynn glared at the old man.

"What the fuck is that?" he asked.

"It's money," Jones said simply.

"I know what it fucking is," Flynn growled.

"Then why'd you bother asking, brat?" Jones grumbled back. "Waste of my fucking breath."

Tom just sighed and reached over the table to gather the plates and utensils.

"I'll wash the plates tonight," he said, shaking his head. "Don't kill each other, you two."

Flynn ignored the comment in favour of trying to burn a hole in Jones's forehead with his glare.

"I'm not a fucking charity case, Jones," Flynn growled. "I don't need your fucking pity."

"It ain't pity, brat," Jones responded, putting his wallet back in his pocket, but leaving the notes on the table. "It's payment."

"I don't need your fucking payment, old man," Flynn said, clenching his fists and barely holding himself back from slamming his hands on the table.

"Oh yeah?" Jones growled back. "What? You're too good for my fucking money? You come here, clean my gym, and you think you can just walk away without me giving you something in return?"

"You gave me dinner, or are you too fucking senile to remember that?" Flynn said. "I clean your gym, you give me food. That's our fucking deal."

"Well it's a fucking shit deal," Jones said. "Most people pay good fucking money for cleaners to do the same shit that you do. Frankly, it's fucking robbery the way I treat you, and I ain't a fucking thief, brat."

From his spot at the dishes, Tom let out a low groan.

"Can't you two be a little less embarrassing to listen to?" he asked.

"Fuck off, Tom," Flynn and Jones said simultaneously.

Tom sighed again.

A few minutes passed where neither Flynn nor Jones spoke a single word, the silence between them being broken only by the sounds of Tom washing dishes.

Eventually, Jones moved first, placing his hand on top of the money, but rather than taking it away or pushing it forwards, he simply didn't move at all.

"Listen brat," Jones said, practically spitting out the word. "I'm not looking to get a reputation as someone who doesn't pay his proper dues. As far as I see it, you've got three options. One, you take my fucking money and keep taking my fucking money for as long as you want to come here. Two, you fuck off out of my life and never come back. Or three, you do me a favour and sleep in the gym instead of in the streets and I'll never mention money in front of you ever again."

Flynn blinked in confusion at the sudden appearance of a third option, though he quickly recovered and reformed his glare.

"How the fuck am I doing you a favour by sleeping here?" Flynn asked.

"It'll get Elizabeth off my back," Jones grumbled.

Flynn scowled at the reminder of how annoying Elizabeth had been the other day, nearly bursting into tears when he adamantly told her that he'd rather find a place to sleep on the streets than stay with her. A pang of annoyance ran through him at the memory, and he let out an irritated sigh.

"Fine," he grumbled. "But if I'm gonna do you a favour, I get to use the equipment in the gym whenever I want."

"Fine," Jones spat out. "But if you break anything, you're paying for it."

"Wait," Tom said, as he dried the last of his plates. "Wasn't Flynn always allowed to use the equipment in the gym?"

Jones scowled at Tom and stood up, taking his money off the table and stowing it into his pockets, before rifling through his jacket for his cigarettes. Once he managed to fish one out, he violently shoved it into his mouth and stomped out the back door of the gym.

Tom sighed and shook his head as the heavy metal door slammed shut behind Jones as he left.

"Dumbasses," he said. "Both of you."

All in all, Flynn's summer was largely uneventful. His daily life consisted of cleaning, helping Tom budget for the gym, and training. Though Tom insisted that Flynn exercise light for now, since his body's development might be altered if he pushed himself too hard at such a young age, Tom had given Flynn a fitness conditioning schedule that Flynn stuck to almost religiously ever since Elizabeth squeezed his cheeks and called him pudgy.

Thankfully no such limitations existed on his mind, so whenever he couldn't train his body, Flynn trained his mind instead. He had all but carved out a designated corner of the gym's kitchen for himself where he studied his textbooks and his notes, ignoring Tom's mocking comments on Flynn's literacy, while Flynn all but memorised his textbooks back to front, even if he couldn't put the information to practical use until he was back in Hogwarts.

There were a few days when he was forcibly dragged out of his comfortable daily routine throughout the summer, but none that were too exciting.

Occasionally, Elizabeth took it upon herself to kidnap Flynn for entire afternoons at a time. Though she had long since moved into a smaller apartment since her kids moved out and her husband died in a car crash, she had apparently been much too busy with her clinic to keep even her small two bedroom apartment appropriately clean. After learning that Flynn apparently exchanged labour for food, she had put him to work in helping her clean her place in exchange for dinner.

Her cooking was horrible, but Flynn refused to let his work go unpaid.

Similarly, Tom had tried to pay Flynn with money for helping out with the busier summer classes that the gym held for young kids, but Flynn had gotten his payment in another way. Tom had specifically pulled Flynn into the class to help him tame an abrasive kid around Flynn's age named Dudley, who apparently refused to listen to any sort of authority figure that was older than him. The pudgy boy seemed to think that he could get away with bullying his peers by throwing around his weight in a literal fashion, until Tom had volunteered Flynn to "spar" with him.

Flynn held back on Tom's request, pulling back his punches to the point where they would sting, but wouldn't bruise. Thankfully, with the thick layer of fat that protected the boy's body and face, that threshold was still pretty high, and Flynn was still able to take his frustration out onto the pudgy boy. Though it wasn't quite the same as getting back at the four bastards that had beaten him last year, it was a decent replacement until he could make a plan to get back at them later.

Strangely enough, the beating seemed to make the pudgy boy admire him as his "rival", and Tom begged him to occasionally show his face to the class so Dudley wouldn't get too out of control. The constant hounding and trailing from the pudgy boy was annoying, but rare enough that Flynn was able to hold himself back from snapping.

Speaking of annoying people who liked to cling to his shadow, Lily had somehow managed to establish a pen-pal relationship with Elizabeth, and the older woman was more than eager to pester Flynn to visit her on her behalf.

Thankfully, Lily only seemed interested in making sure that Flynn kept his promise to hang out three times over the summer, and no more.

The first visit was actually to Sally's house, at Lily's insistence that she wanted to wait for a day that her father was busy with work to schedule a visit to her house. They didn't spend a long time in Sally's actual house, since Sally didn't think there was anything entertaining to do there, but went to the London Zoo instead, like she had promised on the train.

It was surprising to see Sally talking just as much as Lily for once, and though that was partially because Sally had to constantly slap her hand over Lily's mouth to stop her from talking about magic in front of the rest of the Muggles that were there, her apparent love for animals made her a lot more animated and talkative than she usually was.

Eventually, Lily had carved out a day when she thought her father wouldn't be home all day, and invited Flynn and Sally over to see her house. Unlike the visit to Sally's house, Lily had no problems with showing off the oddities of her house to her two Muggleborn friends, until her father surprised them with an early return home.

Even though he clearly hadn't bothered to visit the hospital after pulling off a solo raid against a small gang of cursed artifact smugglers, he sat on the living room couch, casually cleaning his wand of blood and describing to Flynn how he had hexed the bones out of one of the smuggler's arms and used the limp tubes of flesh to choke out one of his friends.

Before he could get into the details of how he dealt with the other five smugglers however, Olivia Moon came over and scolded him for bleeding all over the floors and scaring Sally. Hugh Moon instantly panicked once he realized that Sally was on the verge of passing out at the sight of him, covered in blood, and insisted that he never wanted to scare any of Lily's precious (female) friends. Olivia barely even seemed to listen to him as she grabbed a fistful of his hair and a fistful of green powder, and threw them both into the fireplace, while chanting a spell.

Sally went into a minor state of panic when the fireplace erupted into green flames and Hugh's body disappeared, but managed to calm down when Lily and Olivia explained the concept of the Floo network to her, and ensured her that "Mungo's" was the name of a wizarding hospital and not a spell to disintegrate unruly husbands into nothingness.

For the third hangout session between the three, Lily tried multiple times to convince Flynn that he should make things fair and take his turn to host them in his neighbourhood, with some help from Elizabeth, he managed to convince Lily that they should meet up in Diagon Alley instead, since the start of school was approaching, and Sally and Lily still needed to buy their required readings. Unfortunately, since Elizabeth had been the one to coordinate the trip, being the main point of contact with Lily and Sally's parents, it meant that she had the opportunity to pounce at the first opportunity tag along as a chaperone to Diagon Alley, or Disneyland as she sometimes referred to it as.

"Ohmygodohmygodohmygod," Elizabeth said, practically vibrating on the spot as Flynn tapped his wand against the back wall of the Leaky Cauldron and the first few bricks on the wall fell away to reveal the bright street hidden behind it. "Oh my god, I can't believe this is really real."

Around them, a few of the patrons chuckled openly at Elizabeth's excitement, though some seemed exasperated by it, shaking their heads.

"First years?" one of the chuckling men asked. "Muggleborn."

Though Flynn didn't bother to even acknowledge the question, Sally, who had been handed off to them by her parents since they were too busy to accompany them, shook her head.

"We are Muggleborn, but we're in our second year, sir," she said.

"Huh," the man said, raising an eyebrow and looking at Elizabeth. "Then why's she getting so crazy? Is it a Muggle thing?"

Sally glanced at Elizabeth, who was practically salivating as she waited for the passageway to Diagon Alley to fully open. Finding no proper explanation, she looked at Flynn instead.

"She's just fucking stupid," he said.

The man frowned, shaking his head before returning to his drink.

When Flynn turned back around to look at Diagon Alley, he frowned when he saw just how crowded the streets were compared to the last time that he'd visited to go shopping for his wand and robes. It only made sense, given that he had gone some time in late spring the last time, and now he was going much closer to the school year, but regardless of how much sense it made, it didn't mean he had to like it.

When he saw Lily and Olivia standing under the shade of an awning close to the Leaky Cauldron entrance, he glared daggers at them, only to have two nearly identically beaming smiles returned in full force.

Wincing against the sudden sunlight that shone directly in his eyes, he raised his hand, accidentally waving them over.

Though Elizabeth and Olivia looked to be at least twenty years apart in age, they fell into an easy conversation like they were lifelong friends, and taking after her mother, Lily didn't hesitate in hopping up to Sally and Flynn.

"Hiya Flynn, hiya Sally," she said. "Are you guys ready to go shopping?"

"Even if I say no, you won't let me leave," Flynn said bluntly.

"Of course not, don't be silly," Lily replied.

Flynn grunted and mentally braced himself for yet another day with Lily.

Flynn was glad to learn that Lily and Sally only had one stop that they were actually required to visit for school materials, but was dismayed when he saw exactly how crowded the bookstore was.

At a first glance, Flynn assumed that the line that formed outside the doors meant that the bookstore was at max capacity, upon closer inspection, he noticed the posters hanging around the bookstore that each showcased a man that kept sweeping his hair to the side as he winked at anybody passing by. The bottom of the poster read, "Meet the most handsome wizard and author in Flourish and Blotts today! Free signature for every purchase of my wonderful autobiography, Magical Me. Autographed photos for a galleon apiece."

As Flynn watched the entrance of the bookstore, he noticed that several younger students were ignoring the queue and entering and exiting the store without any protest from the people in the line, and with how a large majority of the queue consisted of older women, Flynn assumed that the bookstore wasn't quite as crowded as the line might've suggested, but from a glance at the crowd inside, he still wasn't happy with the idea of entering such a crowded space.

Lily let out a quiet squeak of surprise as she nearly stumbled at Flynn's sudden stop. When she turned to glower at him, Flynn frowned and paused to think for a moment, not realising when he'd subconsciously stopped walking in the first place, and wondering just how Lily managed to grab his hand without him noticing.

"Hey, why'd you stop?" Lily asked, trying to pull Flynn towards the bookstore without much success.

Flynn was tempted to admit that he didn't want to go into the bookstore, and that he would wait outside until Lily and Sally were done shopping, but after looking at Lily's ignorantly blissful smile, he felt a little stupid for feeling so hesitant about something that Lily didn't even seem to care about.

While Flynn would never be stupid enough to put himself in a situation where he was surrounded by so many potential threats in Fredericton, he had to remind himself that he wasn't there at the moment. Just from looking at how unaware the average wizard was around him, it was more likely that he would be doing the pickpocketing rather than the other way around.

"Let go of me," Flynn grumbled, shaking Lily's hand off him.

"Aww, you finally noticed," Lily said, grinning slyly at him.

Flynn scowled at her and stormed off, ignoring Lily's instant demands to slow down to accommodate for her shorter legs.

The inside of the bookstore wasn't nearly as crowded as Flynn had imagined it to be. While there was a line of bodies that divided the store in half, like a living wall of swooning middle-aged women, it seemed that the bookstore was keeping the amount of people that were there for the book signing strictly controlled, and there were actually more people in the line outside of the bookstore than in it.

That wasn't to say the bookstore wasn't crowded, with a chaotic mess of Hogwarts students running around, and storms of books being pulled from the shelves by young store clerks with tired looks in their eyes, but it was a lot less that Flynn expected. Though the speed that his eyes darted around almost made him dizzy, as he tried to make a mental note of the other customers, and how likely each one of them seemed to be a threat to him, it was manageable. Just like the last time that he'd visited Diagon Alley, he had been amazed by how little wizards seemed to pay attention to their surroundings. It was especially true in the bookstore, as most of the people there seemed to have their attention caught by the flashing lights of cameras in the large corner of the room where the blonde man from the posters was smiling, his white teeth reflecting and scattering the light across the entire store.

Flynn grunted as something crashed into his back, and he whipped around quickly to face the threat that he'd somehow missed, but found himself scowling down at Lily and Sally who was close behind, but had reacted fast enough to not crash into her.

"Watch where you're going," he said.

"You're the one who stopped suddenly," Lily replied.

Flynn's scowl deepened further when he realized that he had no response to that, but instead of admitting that she was right, he turned around and stomped off. Unfortunately, the store was too crowded for him to walk very quickly without having to push people aside, so Lily had no trouble with keeping up with him.

"Our books are probably that way, Flynn," Lily said, grabbing his sleeve and pulling him towards the section of the store that had a waving banner with the words "Hogwarts Textbooks: All Years" written over it.

Flynn glanced at the chaotic horde of students surrounding the area, and grimaced at the idea of subjecting him to the crowd for no reason. His textbooks would be loaned to him through the school year by Hogwarts, just like First Year, and though the worn pages were barely readable in some sections, he didn't think he would buy any new textbooks even if he had the money for them. He was used to secondhand books, and why buy something when you could get it for free?

Flynn shook his hand to dislodge himself from Lily's grip on his sleeve. Turning away from the look of mock betrayal she gave him, he shook his head before she could ask her question.

"I'm good for books," he said.

"You bought them already?" Lily asked.

Flynn shrugged and walked away without elaborating. Once enough time had passed, he glanced back to make sure that Lily and Sally weren't being trampled in the crowd of impatient Hogwarts students that he'd left them behind in, and once he saw that they were fine, he turned back around and wandered into the rows of bookshelves that were relatively abandoned compared to the rest of the store.

Now that he didn't have anyone to distract him, he slowly started to realize that this was possibly the first time that he'd ever gone into a bookstore in his life. Given the fact that he had the Hogwarts library to compare it to, he couldn't think of it as being anything particularly special, but the idea that all the books that surrounded him were actually worth money was something that annoyed him profoundly.

He saw the other patrons in the store casually grabbing books off the shelves, leafing through them, putting them back, and otherwise acting like the books already belonged to them. Flynn couldn't be sure if they could only act like that because they were rich, or because that was just something you could do in a bookstore.

Flynn glared up at the bookshelves, not staring at any book in particular, but his focus was taken away from the shelves anyways when he noticed movement in the corner of his eye. A young wizard, probably an older student if Flynn had to guess his age, stared down at Flynn from a large basket that floated slowly past the shelves.

Flynn pretended not to notice him, not wanting to draw attention to himself, but the older boy floated closer still. Flynn kept his arms stretched out in a way that casually showed off his empty hands in a way that wasn't unnatural, not wanting to deal with the annoyance of being accused of stealing, but the store clerk called down to him anyways.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Hey, you there."

Flynn grimaced and looked up at the boy, but surprisingly enough, now that he was looking directly at him and not out of the corner of his eye, the older boy wasn't looking at him with any sort of accusation in his eyes. If anything, he just looked a little bored.

"You need help getting something off the shelves?" the older boy asked. "Most of these books are enchanted so you can't use magic to grab em, so if you're looking for something, you gotta ask."

Flynn glared up at the boy, but couldn't summon any real heat behind it as his annoyance was quickly fading into confusion at the unprompted offer for help.

"Just browsing?" the boy asked, pushing through Flynn's silence. "Looking for recommendations? I might be a part-timer, but I know a bunch of good books. Ravenclaw."

"Charms," Flynn responded.

"OWL stuff?" the boy asked.

"Basics."

"Oh," the boy said. "Then in that case you probably don't need my help. The easier books are all in grabbing range. You should find a bunch of good stuff on charms in the next row over."

Flynn nodded, but didn't move from the spot, still too confused by the situation to respond to it in any way.

"Is that all you're looking for then?" the boy asked.

"Yeah," Flynn said.

"Alright then," the boy said, with a shrug. "If you need anything else, don't be afraid to holler. I'll take any excuse to not go anywhere near Lockhart's signing."

And with that, Flynn finally understood that the boy was just using him for his own benefit, and things finally started to make sense again. Though he still had to admit that it was a very strange feeling for any shop clerk to pay him any attention except to give him the stink eye and stare daggers at his hands whenever they came close to any merchandise that wasn't bolted down, it at least made sense that this random store clerk was treating him so politely when he was using him as an excuse to avoid doing his job.

Turning away, Flynn walked towards the next row of books like the boy had indicated, and found an entire section dedicated to the basics of charms. While he obviously didn't have any money to actually buy anything, he figured that he could dedicate any interesting titles to memory, and see if the Hogwarts library would have any copies to borrow.

At a certain point during his search, the same boy from before floated by, and on a whim, Flynn picked one of the books off the shelves and leafed through the pages like he owned it. Watching the store clerk's reaction out of the corner of his eye, he was surprised to see that the older boy barely paid any attention to him, giving him a glance but otherwise passing over him without even bothering to give him even a single ounce of suspicion.

After the boy floated by and left his sight completely, Flynn kept standing there with the open book sitting awkwardly in his hands, before he scowled and put it back into its place on the shelves, not knowing what he had even been trying to achieve with his little experiment. Walking away with nothing in his hands, a few of the other patrons glanced at him as he passed by, but didn't bother giving him a second look before returning to whatever they had been doing before.

He headed out of the store, but paused at the exit, as if expecting someone to stop him. When nobody did, he stepped out of the door and had to shield his eyes as the light of the sun threatened to blind him, but he received no other consequences for leaving the store unharassed.

Frowning to himself for no reason, he noticed Elizabeth waving at him from her spot in the queue to Lockhart's book signing.

"Hey Flynn," she yelled. "Where are Lily and Sally?"

Rather than shout back, he jerked a thumb towards the bookstore. In response, Elizabeth rolled her eyes and said something to Olivia, who was standing beside her. Olivia seemed to enjoy what she said, laughing and shaking her head before waving Flynn over.

Though he didn't particularly enjoy being beckoned at like a wild animal, he walked over, not having any reason to refuse.

"You shouldn't leave two ladies on their own like that, Flynn," Elizabeth said, reprimanding him with a mock sternness as soon as he got close enough. "It can be dangerous for two cute girls to be wandering around on their own, you know."

"They're in a fucking bookstore," Flynn responded, earning him more than a few stares from the other middle-aged ladies that were in the queue, though Elizabeth only gave him an exasperated look and Olivia laughed quietly into her hand.

"Well, you should still be a gentleman about it, Flynn," Elizabeth said, placing her hands on her hips.

"Oh don't be so hard on him, Liz," Olivia said.

"He just doesn't know how good he has it," Elizabeth said in response, shaking her head solemnly before staring back at Flynn. "Liv and I are going to stay in line for the book signing, but from how slowly this thing is going, I doubt we'll be finished anytime soon."

"And I'm sure none of you three are interested in waiting around for us adults," Olivia chimed in, with a smile that looked suspiciously like it was hiding a laugh behind it. "The bookstore might not be so dangerous, but I'd feel a lot more comfortable knowing someone with a level head is watching over my daughter and her friend while they wander Diagon Alley."

Flynn glared at Olivia, not at all amused by the blatant manipulation.

"Don't fuck with me, you old bitch," Flynn said. "Just because I promised Lily I'd hang out with her, doesn't mean I'm her personal bodyguard."

Not at all bothered by the swearing, Olivia only laughed. "But you will be accompanying her."

"She'll be even more of an annoying bitch than she already is if I don't," Flynn responded, with a grunt.

"You're a very cute boy, Flintstone Fredericton," Olivia said, with another laugh.

Flynn felt his face glowing hot with annoyance and he glowered at her one last time before turning to stomp away, but she stopped him before he could get too far.

"Wait, Flynn," she said.

Flynn glanced back at her, only to furrow his eyebrows when she held out a small leather pouch towards him.

"What the fuck is this?" he asked.

"It's a small coin purse," Olivia replied casually, as if there was nothing wrong with that statement. "And inside is enough money to buy three double scoops at Florean Fortescue's, plus some change."

Flynn narrowed his eyes into a sharp glare.

"I'm not a fucking charity case," he growled.

"Of course you're not," Olivia replied simply. "I'm not giving this to you Flynn. I just want you to deliver it to my daughter, if that's okay with you."

Flynn kept his glare trained on Olivia for a few more seconds, before his gaze dropped onto the coin purse, still held aloft a few feet away from his face.

"Why don't you just give it to her yourself?" Flynn asked.

"Knowing her, she might just fly onto the streets after she buys her books without even bothering to drop by," Olivia responded, with a shrug. "Besides, I trust you."

Flynn glared at Olivia for a few more seconds before reaching out quickly and snatching the coin purse from her hands before she could realise how stupid she sounded. Turning away, he stomped away without caring to check her reaction.

When Flynn finally located Lily and Sally, they were both trying and failing to haul their bags filled with books until Flynn grew annoyed by the sight and grabbed both of their bags and slung them across his shoulders. Although he thrusted the coin purse into Lily's face immediately afterwards, demanding she take it, after she demonstrated how shallow her pockets were and how easily the coin purse would be lost if she carried it, he shoved it back in his pockets with an annoyed grunt and accepted his fate as the mule for the day.

Soon after, Lily dragged him and Sally to Florean Fortescue's and after she convinced him that she had to give him something in exchange for carrying her bags all day, he discovered what a "double scoop" and brain-freeze were, to the amusement of both of the girls that he was with and to the annoyance of Florean Fortescue after the resulting string of swears that erupted from Flynn's mouth.

They went to a candy shop after Flynn accepted that Lily hadn't been trying to poison him, and despite her insistence, he managed to refuse her proposal to buy him something. Even without his help, Lily and Sally managed to buy enough candy to spend the rest of the money that Olivia had given them, though there was enough that they couldn't eat it in one sitting, Sally stashed away some of the candy in her pockets, excited at the prospect of giving her parents their first taste of wizard candy.

Even without any more money, Lily still somehow managed to drag them around Diagon Alley, shamelessly dragging them into different shops to just look at the merchandise, as if she were trying to give them a tour of the entire street, although the exploration was stopped short when Sally discovered the Magical Menagerie and refused to leave until she said hello to each of the animals that were living there.

By the time they were done with their tour, it had gotten dark enough in Diagon Alley that the streetlight had turned on, and they had to wander around a bit before they heard Elizabeth and Olivia cackling loudly as they talked outside a small cafe.

Though the two women seemed just as regretful to leave as the two girls, they eventually parted ways as Olivia and Lily made their way to a public floo portal, and Sally went with Elizabeth and Flynn, back out the Leaky Cauldron to the muggle part of town.

Elizabeth drove Sally to her home, and though Sally's parents offered to have them for a cup of tea, Elizabeth thankfully declined with how late they ended up staying in Diagon Alley.

"So, how was your day?" Elizabeth asked, once she and Flynn were alone in the car, headed back to Fredericton.

Flynn shrugged in response.

- - -

Spellcrafting was a subject that many wizards tended not to explore, for several reasons.

The primary reason for this, strangely enough, was a lack of usefulness. While many might assume that the ability to spellcraft also results in the ability to do anything that the crafter can imagine, the same was already true through spellcasting as a whole. Wizardkind had existed for long enough that often, a spell that one might seek to invent had already been created by someone else. Even if the spell was specific enough that it had been largely forgotten to time, the task of searching through existing records for the specific incantation and wandwork was still often much less taxing than attempting to create the spell entirely from scratch.

Furthermore, in addition to the effort involved in creating a spell, there was also a factor of danger involved with the creation of a new spell. It wasn't uncommon for spellcrafters to suffer permanent injuries or even die from a failed attempt at casting a spell with a flawed design, and the possibility that one could die from what many viewed to be an unnecessary hobby was often enough to push away all prospective spellcrafters aside from the truly motivated.

That being said, it wasn't as if all endeavours of spellcrafting involved a risk of death. Spellcrafting in and of itself shouldn't be considered to be inherently dangerous, and was actually an incredibly common practice for wizards thousands of years ago.

While wizards are eager to share their knowledge in modern times, thousands of years ago, even when magic schools like Hogwarts were in existence, spell knowledge was much more coveted and closely guarded, and fledgling wizards would often be forced to reinvent what modern wizards might think of as common spells from scratch. Not only did this force wizards to develop their spellcrafting skills in tandem with their spellcrafting, but it ensured that they started small, and the smaller the spell, the smaller the consequences of failure.

It was only when one considered these factors, in relation to the art of spellcrafting in the modern wizarding age, that it becomes apparent as to why spellcrafting is considered and has become a more dangerous endeavour.

With a lack of necessity for the art comes the lack of importance in fully understanding it. The modern spellcrafter may skip several steps in the learning process that would otherwise be a requirement for the wizards of olde.

Nowadays, wizards are allowed a lack of experience when crafting spells, due to the countless amount of instructional tomes that were written on the subject, but with a lack of experience comes a lack of understanding one's own limits. Modern spellcrafters tend to begin their journey with the goal of creating a never before seen spell that they can sell for gold and glory, and may ignore their limits in pursuit of such a goal, whether they are ignored consciously or unconsciously.

"Hi Flynn. Can I sit down, or are you busy?"

Flynn glowered up at Sally as she held the door open, standing awkwardly outside of the train compartment as she stared at the chaotic spread of loose papers that Flynn had laid out across the seats.

Flynn briefly considered shooing her away, but with an internal sigh, he decided it would be more trouble than it was worth. Besides, unlike Lily, he could trust Sally to stay quiet. All he would be doing was giving up some seat space.

"Close the door behind you," Flynn said, as he grabbed a handful of the less important notes that he'd taken on Spellcrafting, and shoved them back into his bag, clearing a small space for her. "Don't touch anything."

Sally didn't seem to fully understand what he was doing, but didn't seem too bothered by that fact. She entered the train compartment and sat down on the spot that Flynn had cleared for her.

"Why are you sitting on the floor?" she asked.

"What does it look like?" Flynn asked back.

Sally glanced around the train compartment again, as if she hadn't fully taken in the sight of Flynn's notes yet.

"Are you studying?" she asked.

Flynn didn't bother to acknowledge the question with a response, turning his attention back to the notes, reading through them yet another time, as if it would give him a burst of inspiration.

All throughout summer, Flynn had been mentally preparing himself for the moment that he would be allowed to practise magic again. Though the main reason that he'd arrived at King's Cross station three hours early was more because of Elizabeth's excitement than his own personal choice, he had still been eager to finally put his readings to use and finally begin his first attempts at spellcrafting. Unfortunately, now that he actually had the chance, he found himself paralyzed with indecision on what he would attempt first.

According to the author to A Theoretical Guide to Crafting Spells, the first spell that a novice spellcrafter should attempt to create should be a very basic one, though it was often difficult to "recreate" a spell that one could already cast, which made it difficult for more experienced wizards to learn spellcrafting. Thankfully, with only a handful of spells that Flynn could honestly say that he "knew" that wasn't much of a problem, but with so many options to choose from, he had trouble deciding on just one.

After rereading his notes over one last time, he couldn't help but focus on how hard the author stressed the idea that new spellcrafters should focus on creating a spell that's basic for their first attempts. While a spellcrafter shouldn't try to reinvent a spell that they already knew, since their preconceived notions on how the spell "should" work might taint the creation process, it wasn't a bad idea to build on a spell that one was already familiar with, and while Flynn had been wrestling with a handful of ideas for entirely new spells that he could create, there was really only spell that he could claim to be completely comfortable with.

Though he'd already toyed with the idea of a spell that was adjacent to the knockback jinx over the summer, he continued to toy with the idea some more before deciding on the most simple idea he could think of. He wasn't arrogant enough to claim that he'd mastered it, but the knockback jinx was by far his best spell. Maybe the idea of a "pull-forward" spell that applied the knockback jinx's force in the opposite direction was a little too basic, but he had a feeling that the author of the spellcrafting guide would approve.

As Flynn started to scan his notes for a refresher on the next steps to actually crafting the spell now that he'd decided on what it would be, but out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Sally's eyes darting back and forth between Flynn and the view outside of the window. With there being nothing to see, aside from the unmoving brick wall of the train station, he doubted that she was as entranced by the sight as she was pretending to be.

With a sigh, he decided that a small train compartment might not be the best place to practise a new spell anyways, especially one with enough power to theoretically match his knockback jinx.

"What?" Flynn asked. "Spit it out."

Sally gave a start, like she hadn't expected to be caught staring. She turned her head slightly away, but seemed to decide against it before she could fully hide away.

"I got a pet," she said, shyly. "Is it okay if I let her out? It might be a little stuffy for her in my pocket."

Flynn narrowed his eyes at her, before he glanced down at his scattered notes.

"Oh, she probably won't move around much," Sally said, before Flynn could move to clear them away. "She's pretty lazy so she'll probably just stay on my head or my hands."

Flynn glared at her, but continued to gather up his notes anyways.

"I'm not doing this for your stupid pet. I'm just done for now," Flynn said.

"Oh, so you do want to see her?" Sally asked.

"I don't care," Flynn said, with a glare. "Do whatever you want."

Sally stared at Flynn blankly, before reaching into her jacket pocket and pulling something out enclosed in her fist. Without any further fanfare, she turned her hand around to reveal a small frog.

"Flynn, meet Ms. Garfield. Ms. Garfield, meet Flynn," she said beaming down at the small creature. "Isn't she beautiful?"

Flynn glared down at it with a frown, and the frog stared blankly up at him with no signs of intelligence in its eyes.

"It looks fucking stupid," Flynn said.

Surprisingly, Sally glared daggers at him, before cupping the frog in both hands and bring it closer to her face.

"Don't listen to him, Ms. Garfield," she whispered. "He's just jealous of your beautiful orange colouring. He's used to being the only ginger in the group, and doesn't want to share the attention."

"It doesn't even have hair," Flynn said. "And it's also fucking brown."

Sally shook her head solemnly.

It didn't take long for Lily to board the Hogwarts Express and join them in their train compartment, showing off the excitement that Flynn hadn't over finally being able to meet Ms. Garfield in person. Though she didn't seem to understand why Sally kept stating that Ms. Garfield hated mondays and loved lasagna.

Unfortunately, when Sally proudly said that it was a muggle joke, but Flynn confessed to not understanding what the fuck she was talking about, the train compartment of three devolved into chaos, completely destroying any hopes that Flynn might've had for a quiet ride.

By the time that the train stopped at Hogwarts, Flynn had started to sincerely regret deciding not to practise his spellcrafting, with the thought of being knocked out violently by a flying object sounding like a mercy at this point, but unfortunately he remained conscious the entire way. By the time they exited the train and were taken to the castle in carriages drawn by what looked like zombie horses, rather than the boats they had taken in the previous year, Flynn was glad to be finally rid of Lily and Sally when the students were directed to sit at their respective tables according to their house.

Aside from a, "Had a pleasant summer, Lord Slytherin?" from Draco, and a few chuckles from his goons as always, nobody paid him much mind until after the Sorting had ended and the feast had started.

"Not interested in my summer, Fredericton?" Blaise asked, not even glancing in his direction as he grabbed a salad bowl from the air. "I was involved in many social events, rubbing elbows and making connections with some of Europe's finest, if you would care to know."

"Why the fuck would I give a shit about that?" Flynn asked, catching a plate that held an entire roast chicken on it before it could crash violently down in front of him in its excitement.

Blaise let out a sigh that sounded more relieved than anything else.

"Thank you," he said, before not exchanging a single word further with him for the rest of the dinner.

When dinner ended, the first years were gathered together by the two fifth-year Slytherin prefects, one of which he recognized as being Lord Dipshit, and the other being a girl he was confident he had never seen before. Lord Dipshit didn't seem to notice Flynn or the glare and the silent promise of retribution that he sent his way, but didn't care enough to stick around long enough to make sure the message was received, and joined the rest of the Slytherins on their way to the dorms.

Unlike for the first-years, there was no fanfare or introduction to the dorms before the Head Boy just shouted the password loud enough for the crowd to hear to open the door. Though some of the students immediately went to occupy their favourite spots in the common room, most of the students headed to their respective dorms.

Flynn was among the many that rushed towards their dorms, hoping to take a shower before their peers, surprisingly enough, he found himself being blocked by Gregory, who was wearing a confident smirk.

While it seemed like Gregory had hit a major growth spurt during the summer and was slowly catching up to Flynn in height, Flynn still towered over him, so he couldn't help but stay on guard, not quite understanding what this sudden show of confidence was about.

Not interested in starting an unnecessary fight when his head was still ringing from the aftermath of Lily's babbling, he glowered down at Gregory.

"What the fuck do you want?" he growled.

While that might've been enough to scare the boy off last year, Gregory barely even flinched, and if anything his smirk grew even bigger.

"You think you're so special, don't you, Fredericton," Gregory said.

Flynn didn't bother acknowledging the comment with a response, simply staring down at Gregory, though he almost broke eye contact when he noticed Malfoy in the corner of his eye, who looked completely caught off guard by Gregory's actions.

Flynn narrowed his eyes dangerously, making sure to keep his eyes on Gregory's hands, in case the sudden growth in confidence was a result of him buying some sort of weapon.

"Oh, you noticed, didn't you, Fredericton," Gregory said, with a laugh that sounded too goonish to be sly. "I'm better than you now."

Gregory quickly shoved his hands in his pockets, but Flynn had been waiting for Gregory to act. Drawing out his wand from where he had discreetly moved it to his sleeve, he held it up between Gregory's eyes and let his magic course through it, the tip of his wand pulsing with the promise of violence.

Most of the other boys in the dorm scrambled and yelped in surprise, but despite flinching at the suddenness of Flynn's reaction, and raising his free hand in surrender, Gregory didn't lose his smirk completely and kept his other hand firmly in his pocket.

"Don't be so jumpy, Fredericton," Gregory said, with a smile. "You'll embarrass yourself."

Flynn didn't speak, and simply narrowed his eyes as he watched Gregory slowly withdraw his hand from his pocket.

Flynn couldn't decide whether to lower his wand or immediately blast Gregory in the face when he saw what the boy took out of his pocket.

"That's right, Fredericton," Gregory said, holding up a chicken drumstick triumphantly up in the air. "My robes are enchanted with a space expansion charm for my pockets, as well as a charm to keep food fresh. I can hold ten times as much food as you can, and for ten times longer!"

Flynn felt his face twist up into an expression that he couldn't even guess as to what it might look like, at the annoyance that he'd actually spared Gregory a second of thought. Putting his wand down, he walked past Malfoy, who had his face held in his hands, and Vincent, who was staring enviously at Gregory's robes, before opening the door to the bathrooms and heading to the showers.