Kendis couldn’t breathe even though she knew she had cast her bubblehead charm perfectly. It all happened so fast that. Tony had been standing at the podium holding his award, and then there was smoke.

Then there was a crack. By the time Kendis dispelled the smoke, Tony was gone. Kendis felt like everything was crashing down around her, and she wanted to scream, but it died strangled in her throat.

Kendis couldn’t look away from the space that Tony once stood. Her eyes traveled across the pandemonium of the crowd as they rushed to the doors. Kendis looked back at the empty podium, and she knew Chester was responsible for all of this.

She felt her blood pounding in her ears, and her body shook. Suddenly, there were hard hands on her shoulders, and she tried to jerk away.

“Kendis!”

“Kendis, stop!”

Kendis suddenly spun around to see Jason and Ian behind her with a bubble of air around their heads. In the small corner of her mind that wasn’t consumed with panic, she wondered how the hell they managed that. Kendis allowed the couple to pull her offstage.

They herded Kendis out of the main room and out into a hallway.

“Hey! Where in the hell do you think you are going?” The group spun around to see Happy running over to them; his face thunderous. “What the hell happened to—”

“Obliviate!” A flash of green light hit him from behind, and Happy froze as if he were a statue. A sudden flash of green hit him, freezing Happy in place.

Kendis noticed Hermione and Ron standing there. They aimed their wands at Harry while circling to face him.

“Mr. Stark and Mx. Black headed home alone to spend time alone. Everything is fine. Please go home,” Hermione ordered. “Do you understander.”

“Go home,” Happy repeated to himself. He turned, and Ron and Hermione moved aside, letting Happy leave.

“Thank God, we used that potion on our wands to keep any Aurors from tracking our magic, or we would be headed right to Azkaban.”

Hermione nodded. “One of the better potions Malfoy has developed.”

Ron snorted, but then he frowned as he stared at Happy’s retreating back, “We should be off.”

Jason threw a concerned look at Kendis and the others. “Follow me.”

He led the group down the hallway and into an empty conference room.

With a flick of her wand, Hermione quickly dismissed the Bubblehead Charm on Jason and Ian.

“Thanks for casting that,” Ian nodded to Hermione. “I thought I was going to cough up a lung.”

Kendis pressed herself against the door as she tried to grapple with what had just happened. They couldn’t help but feel like they had slipped into a nightmare.

A part of Kendis hoped she would wake up and that Tony would be lying there beside her with his strong arms wrapped around her.

It all slammed down on her in that moment. The too-bright lights, the loud voices, her terror, her fear, and her gaping wound of her grief that widened even further. The surrounding lights flickered. Kendis shut her eyes as a harsh wind suddenly blew.

Kendis felt like she was breaking into little pieces, as she gave in to her impending meltdown. She screamed and dropped to her knees. The jumpsuit that had been around her was too tight, too constrictive, and her nails went to tear the goddamn thing off.

Tony was gone. Another person she loved had been ripped away from her, and as her meltdown began, she could only kneel on the floor and scream.

In that moment, Kendis wasn’t the powerful hero. Instead, she was a broken toy soldier that had been pushed too far.

Kendis should be able to get through this, not crumple into a ball, and give up.

Logically, Kendis knew that there was still a chance that Tony was still alive, but the meltdown that had been nipping at her heels at night would not be denied.

There was a crash as chairs, pens, and paper started to levitate in the air. She snapped her eyes closed as Kendis rocked back and forth.

They found themselves humming a melody, which Kendis later realized she was humming America’s Suitehearts by Fall Out Boy.

The song made her remember cooking in Tony’s kitchen as her husband griped about her awful taste in music.

“WHY!” Kendis suddenly roared. “WE HAD ALL OF YOU HERE WATCHING US, AND TONY IS STILL GONE! WHY DID I DO THIS? WHY DID I EVER LISTEN TO YOU? WHY DID I THINK I COULD EVER BE HAPPY?!!!”

The conference table cracked down the middle, and then the lights stopped flickering, and everything that had been floating in the air stopped and dropped to the floor with a thump.

Kendis rolled up into a ball and sobbed. She couldn’t stop shaking as she let go of the rest of her emotions.

There was a long beat of pregnant silence, and then there was a gasp, and then someone quickly muttered a spell.

Kendis looked up to see a black envelope floating in front of her.

“C-chester,” Kendis stuttered as she reached to grab the letter, but then abruptly it zoomed across the room to hover next to a furious Ron.

Kendis blinked and sniffed. Rubbing her tears that were black with mascara, she felt her face grow hot in embarrassment.

Her eyes went wide as she looked at the wreckage of the conference room and the solemn faces of her friends.

“Oh, Merlin,” Kendis whispered as she sat up. “I-I’m so sorry.” She had rarely had meltdowns this bad before, and Kendis hated them.

Shutdowns were easier in a lot of ways, and most of the time, Kendis was able to hold them off until she was alone. This is the third time in a row that she has had a public breakdown. Yet, this time had to be the worst.

Kendis felt sick to her stomach as all the words she said to her friends came back to her. She looked away, ashamed of herself.

Hermione rushed over to her and kneeled beside her. Her hands stopped inches from touching Kendis. “Can I hug you?” Kendis nodded and Hermione pulled Kendis into her arms.

“I am so sorry,” Kendis apologized. “I shouldn’t have blamed you—”

“You don’t need to apologize,” Hermione shook her head.

Jason said, smiling sadly, “You were right. We were supposed to keep you two safe.”

“We fucked up,” Ian added. “But we are going to find Tony and bring him home to you.”

Kendis’ eyes darted from Ron, Hermione, Jason, and Ian and saw the determined look on their faces. Kendis knew that they were well within their rights to clean their hands of her and walk away. She deeply regretted her words. The four of them had all but put their busy lives on hold for her.

And yet, even now, her friends had still stayed.

Thinking of her friends reminded her of something. “Beatrice? Leon?” Her heart dropped down to her stomach as she suddenly remembered her friend. “Oh, Merlin! Are they okay?”

“Don’t worry, her security got her out of there at the first hint of smoke.” Jason pursed his lips. “And that Stane fellow had run out of there like his ass was on fire.”

“What about this?” Ian nodded to the letter. “Didn’t you tell me that Chester always sent you messages in black envelopes?”

“Yeah,” Kendis said, as Hermione helped her up. She walked over to where the envelope was still floating next to Ron. He

“Mate, don’t get too close to that.” Ron shook his head. “This could be our fourth year all over again.”

Kendis cringed, remembering how Barty Crouch Jr. tricked everyone by pretending to be Mad-Eye Moody and turning the Triwizard Cup into a portkey.

But despite all of Chester’s bullshit, Kendis didn’t think that he would take any mental notes from Voldemort.

Hermione quickly cast a detection spell, and sure enough there was a portkey. “Just as we thought.”

“Fuck,” Kendis shook her head. “He upped the ante since we changed the rules of his sick little game.”

Jason crossed his arms. “Well, maybe Coil should get a taste of his own medicine.”

Ian glared at the envelope. “Hermione, can you trace the destination of the portkey?”

“I can make one,” Hermione huffed, “I just don’t know how to trace it. Very few books cover the topic of Portkey creation.”

“Bill taught me to do it when I worked as a liaison with Gringotts in Iceland,” Ron said. “He found a Viking artifact that would portkey anyone who touched it into a volcano.”

Hermione’s eyes went wide. “You never told me that—”

“Yeah, I forgot about it until now,” Ron replied sheepishly. He shook his head and quickly cast the spell.

Nothing happened and Kendis wondered if the spell worked. Then abruptly the address floated in red letters above the envelope.

“Kendis?” Hermione asked. “Do you know where this is.”

“No,” Kendis shook her head. “I don’t know that street.”

She groaned, realizing her clutch was missing, and her Starkphone was in it. Kendis then winced, remembering her magical disaster.

The phone wouldn’t have survived, anyway.

“That’s in San Gabriel Valley,” Ian pointed out, startling her out of her thoughts.

“Jason, you remember Hinshaw’s on Prospect Avenue?”

“Oh, yeah, they used to have the best burgers for miles.” Jason nodded. “I heard it became a speakeasy during Prohibition.”

Hermione shot them a startled look and then turned to Kendis. Kendis just shrugged, because she knew that Jason and Ian were immortal just as she suspected Lan Zhan and Wei Ying were immortal. But that wasn’t her secret to tell.

“Luckily for us, we don’t need to have seen their bloody place to apparate there.” Ron coughed.

Kendis turned to Hermione. “Do you have my go bag?”

“I hope you don’t think you are going there alone.”

Kendis gave her a weak smile. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“It’s a trap, Kendis.” Ian pointed out.

If Kendis still had been the cocky teenager she had been, she would have just blown her friends off and gone off on her own.

Back then, Kendis was all Gryffindor bravery with zero sense. Now, she was a grown ass adult who knew that charging in first without thinking could bring deadly consequences.

She felt a pang when she thought of Sirius. Kendis took a deep breath.

“We’ll do this together,” Kendis nodded. “Together.”

“Together,” Hermione agreed as she handed over her duffle.

Jason and Ian glance at each other. They had a quick, silent conversation and then nodded.

“Count us in,” Ian said.

“Thanks, guys,” Kendis shot them a grateful look.

Kendis sighed as she summoned her wand to her and enlarged her duffel bag. She eyed her friends and abruptly realized that they were both wearing robes.

“You have armor on?” Kendis asked, lifting an eyebrow. They pushed the robe aside to show the black leather dragon battle suit (that, despite Ron’s protestations at the expense) had been custom made.

“What about you?” Kendis looked at Ian and Jason in their suits. “You can fight in that?”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. We have fought in worse.” Jason shrugged.

“Gives us one tick,” Kendis said, rushing to the corner to put up a privacy screen.

She dashed behind the screen and then yelled, “Scribus!”

Her clothes unzipped and fell off her body and onto the floor. With another muttered spell, her curls were quickly plated into a long braid that fell just below her shoulder.

As she slipped on her battle suit, Kendis could finally push aside her fear and anger, and anxiety.

An icy determination gradually replaced Kendis’s earlier chaotic emotions as she quickly pulled the black dragon hide battle suit into place.

This was the mindset when she went off to battle Voldemort. The same mindset that had kept her sane as she tracked down Death Eaters.

Whatever happened tonight, she was certain of one thing: come hell or high water, Kendis would bring Tony home, and Chester would finally pay for his crimes.

Kendis slid her feet into the boots and put on her gloves. She finally placed a black robe over it to cover it. This had been a present from the twins.

After discovering that the invisibility cloak was one of the Deathly Hallows, she felt uncomfortable around it. And instead, tonight she was using her black battle cloak.

It wasn’t as powerful as her old invisibility cloak, but it had notice-me-not spells embedded in it and, with the right spells, could camouflage her appearance.

With a sigh, she banished the partition and stepped forward. Ian whistled, “You look like you are ready to go to war.”

“Something like that,” Kendis said drily, as she slipped on her gloves and her bracers.

She looked down at her battle armor. It fit her body like a second skin; the scales glimmered in the light.

It was a little more than Kendis would normally wear, but the sculpted bodice protected her chest and supported her back without restricting her breath.

Her leather leggings were tucked into tall combat boots. A utility belt encircled her waist, with her wand holstered inside.

Kendis shook her head and said, “Thanks.” She hadn’t worn this suit for more than ten years. Kendis put it away, hoping she wouldn’t have to use it again. ‘I should have known that was a pipe dream, ‘ Kendis thought to herself with a sigh.

“I’ll apparate with Hermione,” Ron said, taking her hand.

“I’ll do a side along with Ian and Jason,” Kendis volunteered. Her friends approached, and each took one of Kendis’s arms.

“Hold on,” Kendis said, as she fo