By the time that Alex was done talking to me, I'd completely forgotten about the uncomfortable seating arrangement. I stared at him standing up, watched him throw his wand. I think the thing that finally did it was when he said he didn't deserve to be a wizard, didn't deserve his magic.

Tentatively standing up, I walked over and picked up his wand, then turning to walk over to him. The tears running down his face made my heart hurt too, a sensation that I wasn't familiar with. Reaching out, I took one of his hands and set his wand in it, closing his fist around it. I then closed my hands around his.

"Alex..." I started, before deciding to take another approach. "Look, what happened to you was TERRIBLE. Losing your family, losing...everything. My parents were forced to marry, and my controlling father pretty much kept my mom locked up, all because she was a Muggle. I'm lucky to even be here. She tried to KILL me while I was still developing because she didn't want me to grow up under his thumb. But...I did. Then...she killed herself after I was born. I don't even remember her. All I ended up with was a bastard father."

I sighed deeply, shaking my own tears back. "He passed me off to someone else to raise me, and only really ever acknowledged me when I started to show signs of magic. He didn't have a daughter to be ashamed of, at least."

My hands subconsciously tightened around his. "That's why I don't care, why I throw money and whatever I want around, because I could really care less about him."

Holding up our joined hands with his wand in the center, I told him, "And this is exactly why, Alex, you are a wizard. This is why I'm a witch. We went through some horrible things and now we are reaching out, trying to find out how to keep this from happening again. You say that you don't deserve your magic?"

I dropped our hands and pointed straight at him. "You're wrong. You can use the talents you were born with to find out what happened, and do something about it.

"If you give up, if WE give up, then who else will make them pay?"