Ellen Fremedon dared me to do this.

Okay, that's not precisely true. We were talking, in the early summer of 2003, about the gap of several years between Charlie and Percy Weasley and the occasionally-kicked-around idea that there was another son in there. (Apparently this missing kid is often called David, by people who think Percy's name is really Edmund.) And then we were talking about Nimbus 2003, and the HPforGrownUps group, and the concept of being genuinely devoted to darkfic, and the fact that while she takes the prize for making people go "ack, ack, aiee" with According To My Bond, I'd have to work pretty hard even to be considered an also-ran. And I said something like "So what should I do, feed Random Weasley to the Malfoys?"

You can see Random – er – Robert Weasley, along with the rest of the clan, here; Malfoys are here.

(Incidentally, I'd named Draco's older brother Rastaban several weeks before Order of the Phoenix rolled out and included a mention of a fellow named Rabastan Lestrange. You can imagine what a tizzy that sent me into, with the appearance of unoriginality, and so forth. I decided not to change his name, however, because (a) please; and (b) "Rabastan" isn't the right name anyway. It means nothing. "Rastaban" is the name of a star, Beta Draconis, the second-brightest star in the constellation Draco, the dragon. "Rabastan" is nothing. I once googled the name and found some sort of French genaeology project; now, googling "Rabastan" turns up only HP-related stuff, and asks me if I didn't mean to search for "rajasthan".)

Heap big thanks to resonant, Ellen, and BethH, for invaluable beta assistance; and to Serena C for a swift and thorough Brit-pick.

The year is 1979.

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Root and Branch