Exes and Uh-Ohs

"Oh, this is getting us nowhere!" Ginny moaned as the group ducked out of yet another shop.

"This does not seem to be going well…" Harry admitted.

"Are you sure we can't use some kind of locator spell?" Ginny whined. Hermione felt like she had been thunderstruck.

"Of course! Why didn't I think of that?" she scolded herself as she led the four down a deserted alley.

"But locator spells are only good if you have something belonging to the person." Harry replied.

"We do." Hermione responded and pulled out Matt's forgotten book. "Make sure there's no one around." She whispered, not wanting to risk a Muggle seeing what she was about to do. Hermione furtively pulled out her wand and with her back to the street waved it over the book and spoke an incantation.

"Will it show us where he is?" Luna asked, upon seeing the very advanced magic.

"Not exactly, but as long as we've got the book, we'll feel a pull towards him when we move away from him." Hermione replied.

"Think that'll be enough?" Harry asked.

"Should get us close enough." Hermione said and began moving, feeling the book pull them back out of the alley.

The group's movement was awkward but faster paced at least. Whenever Matt had taken a weird turn, occasionally the entire group was forced to make sudden and abrupt changes.

"What the hell was he doing?" Hermione hissed annoyed.

"Looks like he thought he knew where to go." Harry said apologetically.

"Well, he's an idiot then, isn't he?" Hermione said. "He's hopelessly lost and doesn't stay put!"

"I know, but we'll find him eventually, right?" Ginny said.

"The spell works as long as he's still alive." Hermione said. Suddenly she felt her stomach drop. If something happened to him before they got there…Harry's hand on her shoulder got her to move again as they followed Matt's circuitous route through the city.

Hermione was growing angrier by the block as they walked and wandered. If he was not dead by the time they found him, she might just kill him herself for all trouble he caused. Suddenly the pulling stopped all together.

Hermione's eyes went wide as they stood outside a shop, suddenly regretting her earlier mental death threat. From inside there was a lot of clatter and noise. Two people sounded like they were fighting. Ginny and Luna were inspecting the door sign. The store was supposed to be open according to the posted hours, but it was clearly not. A sudden crash and the sound of breaking glass.

"Something's not right Hermione." Harry said. There was a brief moment of silence followed by a loud shout.

"Oo da hell do you fink you are?" she asked. "You're s'posed ta be dead!" came a voice from inside the shop.

"Go Hermione!" Harry said, ready to use his authority as an auror if necessary. Thankfully, there was no one on the street.

"Alohamora!" Hermione cried out. The door popped open, and the group poured into the shop, all hand their wands drawn and ready.

The tinkle of the bell on the door as it popped open drew Matt and the goth witch's attention for a moment. He felt relieved upon seeing Hermione, Harry, Ginny, and Luna come into the store. Their wands drawn at the ready, but Matt's eyes grew wide, and he shouted at the group as they trained their casters on the pair of them. Hermione had a murderous look in her eyes and Harry was not happy either.

"Wait!" he yelled but it was too late.

"Stupefy!"

"Expelliarmus!"

"Reducto!"

"Diffindo!"

Matt was blasted back from the goth witch and into the corner, meanwhile the goth witch was thrown through a door that was knocked off its hinges by the quadruple attack. He let out a pained groan as the group rushed to the back of the store.

"Are you alright?" Hermione asked, worry laced her voice.

"I'm ok, leg locker curse." He said uncomfortably. Hermione quickly used the counter curse before punching him hard in the shoulder. "Ow! The hell was that for?!"

"For making us all worry! You said to meet at the Leaky Cauldron, does this look like the Leaky Cauldron? Furthermore, you're supposed to be keeping a low profile. What part of that is dueling someone in the middle of a record store?" she admonished.

"In my own defense, I didn't know she was, you know, one of ours until I started looking around. Something felt off, still does." Matt said slowly rising as Luna handed him his wand.

Harry came out of the back room, holding the goth witch by her collar.

"Don't worry, I've got her, she's going to have a nice long chat when we get back to the ministry." Harry said and started towards the door.

"Wait! She wasn't going to hurt me." Matt said. Everyone turned to look at him like he had grown a second head.

"Oh, really? And you happen to know this because?" Hermione asked.

"Because I know her." Matt replied. He turned to the goth girl being held by Harry.

"You know her?" came four astonished voices.

"Yeah, I do. She's my ex. Hello Cass, long time, no see." Matt said. The goth girl relaxed.

"Lemme go!" She struggled in Harry's grip and Matt nodded approval. Harry released her and she stretched, very catlike before she took her own wand out and tapped the top of her head. "Finite."

Suddenly the pitch-black hair faded into a straw blonde and the dark makeup was wiped away. Her disguise faded and she went from gothic to model pretty in a mere second. Her round face and blue eyes made her incredibly attractive. Her voice changed as well, the thick accent dropping, and her normal higher pitch came back.

"Better?" came a familiar voice from Matt's past and he visibly relaxed.

"Indeed! Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood, Harry Potter may I introduce, Cassidy Curtis. Potions Mistress extraordinaire, one of the legendary Warriors Three and my ex-girlfriend. Cassidy Curtis, allow me to introduce the legendary Harry Potter, his closest friend Hermione Granger, his girlfriend Ginny Weasley, and the wholly unique Luna Lovegood." Matt turned to each person to introduce everyone. "Now that everyone knows everyone, there some place we can sit down?" Matt had his wand in its cane form already and was leaning on it.

"C'mon, we can sit in the back room." Cassidy led the group in back as she relocked the door and cast the repair charm on the destroyed shop.

"I imagine you'll want some answers…" Matt began as they all sat around in folding chairs at a small plastic folding table in the middle of the shop's backroom.

"Oh yeah." Cassidy said as she sat down after closing the door to the room.

"I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to provide much. My memory's a little bit spotty. I'm missing about a year's worth of stuff, so you know…"

"Wait, do you mean you don't know what happened?" Cassidy asked.

"No. I don't remember much. Maybe about a month before it happened is where it's still clear." He admitted. Cassidy shook her head in disappointment.

"So, you don't know who all got out then? Or if you're the only one?" There was still some hope in her voice.

"Cass…" Matt began, his voice that of someone giving grave news. "No one got out. Not even me. At least not in one piece anyway."

"What about Sarah?" she pressed. Matt's eyes flashed.

"No, you know we're not dealing with that. Not here, not now!" Matt's tone indicated he was not going to talk about her anymore. Cassidy gasped.

"You did. You did it! You sent her away, didn't you?" Cassidy had struck a nerve.

"Yes! Alright? Damnit. Yes, I did! I had to! It was the only way she'd leave." Matt erupted anger, rage, and venom were all in his voice. He stood up from his chair. Guilt welled inside him. The sources were numerous, his actions in the past, his explosion of anger at his ex and losing his temper in front of his new friends. They had not seen that side of him before and he hated that part of himself. "I need some air." He said and stalked off out of the backroom.

Hermione and Harry shared confused glances. Ginny was flushed but kept her head bowed and Luna looked worried.

"Who is Sarah?" Hermione said, unable to quash her curiosity.

"Sarah is someone who loved Matt. She was like a sister to him since she got to Ilvermorny. She's a year younger than us." Cassidy said. "She was the headmaster's daughter. Well liked, sweet and damned good at magic. Matt kept her under his wing and taught her stuff about the No-Maj world. She loved him for it. And she would not leave his side."

"Sounds wonderful." Hermione said. Harry nodded in agreement and looked over to Ginny with a smile. A story not dissimilar to their own.

"It is. Except, the only reason she would have left the school was if he did something. Something so terrible she wouldn't want to stay. The three most loyal people to Ilvermorny were Headmaster Morrow, his daughter Sarah, and Matt. And if Matt and the Headmaster stayed behind, and she didn't, there's only one reason…"

"Why would she have not, if she's the headmaster's daughter?" Harry asked.

"Because, the one thing that would have made her go, would be if Matt broke her heart. He had to have done the one unforgiveable thing he could have. He lied to protect her, and he had to have told her he didn't love her and that she meant nothing to him." Cassidy's voice broke and she swiped her eyes.

"I'm going to go check on him." Ginny said and got up, heading out into the shop.

"I think I'll go too." Luna said and joined her. Cassidy turned back to Hermione and Harry.

"Please, you must like him a lot if you're going to go busting into shops just to save his sorry ass." Cassidy started. "Don't think less of him. He's damned noble and a rock, hardheaded as one too. He can be a total ass at times, but he's completely reliable and trustworthy. He's kind, compassionate, and funny. He's one of the good ones, you know?" Cassidy replied. She was almost looking at only Hermione when she spoke, as if she thought there was something there.

"Me, him, and David were inseparable, ya know? We were the 'Warriors Three.' The school dubbed us that." She gave a dismissive wave of her hand. "All of us were in the same house and we were all in the same classes together, did everything together." Knowing glances were shared between Hermione and Harry and Cassidy grinned. "I see that was the same for you too, huh?"

"Yeah, you could say that." Harry replied.

"Funny how that works, huh?" Cassidy said. "Well, anyway, Matt's genuinely a good guy. But he's a bit dense. He's not great with subtleties and he's damned self-sacrificial. He'll take on the whole problem or blame himself if it goes wrong, if you let him. I couldn't keep watching him let himself get hurt. And I got tired of trying to figure out if the plans we made had actually gone wrong and he charged in and was in over his head…" Cassidy continued.

"Or if it was all part of some more elaborate plan he came up with and didn't tell anyone and was never in over his head, he just wanted it to look that way." She scoffed. "If he could just learn to not be in control and let someone else help him for once, he'd be great. I just don't know if he can or not." Cassidy said. She had been looking more at Hermione most of the conversation, as if forewarning her specifically, for some reason.

Hermione did not understand why Cassidy would be telling her all this, she was not dating Matt. She had only just recently gotten out of her relationship with Ron. She was not ready to start something new so soon. She still needed a little more time to heal.

She turned and looked out at the store floor. Matt was standing beside a CD rack with a disk held up to the light. He was pointing at the shiny side of the CD as he explained something to Ginny and Luna. The other two were looking up at the disc fascinated by what he was saying. Hermione realized that was how Harry had looked during their training sessions for Defense Against the Dark Arts during their fifth year. It felt like a lifetime ago now. It made her smile for some odd reason.

"We should get going, you know? Loads of stuff to do." Harry said, getting up from his chair. Hermione followed suit, slipping her bag over her shoulder as she stood.

"Oh yea." Cassidy said and stood to follow them.

"How did you end up in London anyway?" Harry asked.

"I came looking for answers. After we found out David was killed and the school was destroyed, I though maybe I could figure out what happened." Cassidy answered. "At least I found some anyway." She said as they exited the backroom.

"Are you three done browsing?" Hermione asked with a tone of amusement in her voice.

"I think so." Matt said, his voice even and cool. "Told 'em all my secrets Cass?" he asked, annoyance underpinning his words.

"Oh yeah. How you like to scare children and chase small animals through the forest for fun." she shot back, sarcasm heavy in her voice.

"Ha ha. Very funny. Like you didn't terrorize the trick or treaters that one Halloween just to steal their candy."

"Get out of my store Matt!"

"Hey, I need to buy something." He spoke.

"Get out!" Cassidy said and shoved him out of the door. The others were chuckling as they exited as Hermione, Harry, Matt, Ginny, and Luna all headed back towards the Leaky Cauldron.