Aftermath: Secrets - Chapter 1

A/N: I'm back and have the first two of the five part Sequels to the Aftermath Series finished. So I will be updating often over the next few weeks. I want to thank all of those that have liked and read the first two Aftermath Stories. I promise many more to come. I also want to let you know I will be posting a family tree of sorts on my Profile because a lot of our favorites have had children and it sometimes gets confusing as to who is who.

A special thank you to everyone who reads this story, please feel free to leave a comment. No flames accepted but I love constrictive criticism. I am looking for a beta reader. Please PM me.

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Minerva took her spot at the head of the table. She looked around and noticed that all of the teachers were in chairs with packets in front of them. Albus was at the opposite end waiting for her to start. She cleared her throat to demand attention that she already had. "Good morning, Professors. It is nice to see all of your smiling faces." She began. "I hope that you all had wonderful summers and got some time to relax. You are going to need it; we have a very interesting year ahead of us." She smiled and looked at all of the familiar faces; the faces that have taught at Hogwarts for many, many years. Together they all had been through so much together.

"It seems that this year enrollment is up twenty-five percent compared to last year. It is up a hundred percent compared to twenty years ago and a hundred and fifty percent compared to forty years ago. What a marvelous feat." Minerva said. "It goes to show that the new legislations passed by the school board and the Ministry of Magic have impacted the school greatly." There was a mummer of approval from the professors.

Minerva and Albus both fought hard for the legislation that allowed parents to wait a few years before sending their students away for school. After the war ended parents were hesitant to send off their eleven year old students to a place that had both a positive and negative reputation. Enrollment fell to almost nothing causing the school to lay off professors, cut back on classes, and offer more vacations for students to go home. But about ten years ago Albus had an idea he took to the board that he wanted to implement many years ago. Rather than waiting until a prospective student turned eleven to send them an acceptance letter they sent it at age ten. The letter stated that it was the parent's choice to decide when the student would go to Hogwarts, between the ages of eleven and thirteen. All the parents had to do was owl the school sending back the acceptance letter with the students name on it the May before the new term. It took a few years to get it off the ground, but five years ago enrollment began increasing. Two years ago they got back to a full teaching staff and even had to hire some part-time professors to handle the N.E.W.T classes in sixth and seventh years.

"Parents seem to be more comfortable with their new control over their children's education. I know that from the parents I have talked to, parents that don't even had children that attend Hogwarts, they say they admire the new choices and wished that other schools would do the same." Severus Snape stated.

"They feel the same way about the transfer program we established five years ago as well. I know of at least three people that have removed their children from their current school to have them enrolled in Hogwarts." Remus Lupin the Defense Against the Dark Arts year sixth and seventh professor stated.

"Kingsley really came through for us with that Magical Schools around the world catalogue. It is helping not only us but all the magical schools around the world. And don't forget Miss. Granger… er Mrs. Black, She is excelling as the Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation. I am deeply satisfied Kingsley appointed her to that position five years ago. The two of them have really helped, and stood up for Hogwarts when not many were willing to do so. " Albus stated. "The statistics are there at the Ministry. I must admit, in the seventeen years since the defeat of Voldemort the magical and muggle world has not been a safer more unified placed. The Ministry of Magic has taken great strides into making things right."

"Are we still allowing weekend family visits?" Neville Longbottom asked. "I know at the end of last term it was on the Board's agenda for summer deliberations."

"Our representative for Hogsmeade, my brother Aberforth, explained to the board that they were in the process of completing a forty room inn in Hogsmeade for family to stay at for weekend visits. Since it would be a profitable venture for Hogsmeade and allow money to be put back into the town and the school they are going to continue to allow them. On the premise that we pick two weekends a month for the visits and have parents send in request forms." Albus stated.

"We are sending out the request forms to parents this week with available dates. We are only allowing them four visits for a year." Minerva added.

"Is it true professor that the Triwizard Tournament is coming to Hogwarts this year?" It was almost a whisper, but the room became silent as soon as it was asked.

"Yes, Mrs. Snape," She said turning to Bridgette Celosia-Snape, the newest professor to the Hogwarts. "We have signed the contracts, and the participating schools will be arriving here on the thirtieth of October. The Goblet has already arrived and rests in the room of our Headmaster." Minerva explained.

"The same rules apply; we are going to ask students to be seventeen or at the age of seventeen by the school years end. This means that if someone is sixteen on the thirtieth when the cup is placed in the foyer, but will be seventeen by the end of June then they can participate. Judges for this tournament will be the Headmasters and Headmistresses of the three schools, the Minister of Magic, and the heads of both the Department of International Magical Cooperation and The Department of Magical Games and Sports."

"Are we still having Quidditch? I got the memo from Dumbledore about posting notices in the Common Room for Quidditch Tryouts!" Neville asked.

"Yes, we are going to have Quidditch again this year. We feel that Quidditch would be a wonderful way to allow the students to exercise off their bottled up energy. I have not yet set up the schedule of matches, but I am going to have it finished before term starts. The first match will be in November allowing enough time for tryout to be held in September and practices through September and October. Heads of the Houses are going to have to set up the main tryouts and be present at them so you can pick the team captains." Minerva explained. "So Severus, Neville, Pomona and Filius make sure you get those notices in the common room quickly and set up the tryouts as soon as possible." She looked at them each in turn and they all nodded.

"Now are there any more questions?" Minerva asked. When there weren't any she presented her last piece of business. "As some of you might know we have a few interesting students arriving for first year. As you know we already have our hands full with the troublemaking Potter Twins, but this year we have another set of Potter Twins arriving, a Granger-Black, a Lovegood-Weasley, a Longbottom, a Malfoy, a Celosia-Snape, and a Celosia-Weasley. As you all can see by their names, these children just might be the next wave of troublemakers and one of the worse group of troublemakers Hogwarts has seen since their parents were here both twenty-some and forty-some years ago." Minerva stated. "If you mixed this group in with the current children from the Potter, Wealsey, Malfoy and Granger families in attendance; we might have more than what we can handle."

"I can promise you, Minerva, our Arabella will be on her best behavior." Severus said in defense of his daughter.

"And I've already talked with little Frankie, he knows I will be watching him." Neville added.

"That might be the case, but you cannot be in every place your children are all the time. I just want all of the professors here to know that we are going to have to watch them like hawks. We are quite aware of the trouble their parents got into here at school." She said with a smile. "Now if none of you have any questions or comments, this meeting is adjourned. Please be aware that you need to have your syllabuses on my desk by weeks end. The new semester starts Tuesday. You all will be expected to check in here Tuesday morning by 9am." She said closing out the meeting. She watched as the professor stood up and exited. She and Albus were the only ones left.

"Another exciting first of the year staff meeting, Minny!" Albus stated.

"Yes, it is. But I feel that this year is going to be a handful." She commented. "I am getting to old for all of this." Albus laughed at what she said and she shot him a nasty glare. Then she too began laughing.

"Minny, my dear, you are only as old as you think you are. I personally can last another fifty years!" He said springing up out of his chair.

"I certainly hope so, Albus. The school needs you. The wizarding world needs you!" Minerva said with a smile. He patted her hand and grinned.

"Don't worry; I am not going anywhere soon. Now let's go and get our tea!" He said walking from the room. With a sigh she shuffled her papers and followed him out the door.

XXXXX

"Muuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmm! The owls are here! Can I get them? Can I get them?" Granger squealed from his chair at the table. Hermione turned around from stove the sausage pan in her hand.

"Yes, Granger, you can. Then put them on the table and go get your sisters and brother up. And tell your dad to come up from the potion chamber! We have a very busy day and we cannot be late for our meeting in Diagon Alley!" She said looking at her impatient brown haired, grey eyed son. He walked over to the window and took the letters out of the bird's beak. Hermion put the last of breakfast on the table as he sat down the letters. He was nine and impatiently waiting for his acceptance letter to Hogwarts. Sadly he had two more years to go before he could attend.

"This is for you and dad." He said handing her a thick envelope, and then he disappeared down the hall to the second half of their home. They stilled lived in the bungalow home that she and Sirius fall in love at. It just had a few reconstructions. First of all the small room that was used for potions so many years ago was no longer small; it was the size of the main part of the house and served as a sitting room of sorts. It had the staircase that ran down to the potion dungeon and the staircase that ran up to the rooms of their children. It had a private flooing fireplace and a few muggle fold out couches for when company stayed over; which was quite often actually. They were in the process of constructing a smaller guest home to the right of their house, but it was still in the early stages.

The second floor of their home was where their children slept. There were four rooms up there, one for each of their children, but only two were being used currently; Cordelia had her own room and Orion and Granger shared a room. Aurora, who was still five, stayed in the room on the same floor as Hermione because Hermione wanted to wait a bit longer before moving her upstairs. That was her baby after all.

"'Orning mummy!" Aurora said coming into the room with her old brother Granger holding her hand.

"Good morning, Aurora. Granger is your sister and brother coming?" She asked him as he helped his younger sister into her chair.

"Dil is not in her room. I think she might be with the dragons. Are Uncle Charlie and Uncle Xavier coming over here to go with us to Diagon Alley? I miss Kenzie!" Granger asked. Hermione laughed.

"Didn't you just see her two days ago, Granger?" Hermione asked him.

"Yeah!"

"You know that Uncle Xavier and Uncle Charlie took the kids to London for the week. We are meeting up with them in Diagon Alley. They have to get first year things for C.X.!" Hermione explained. "Now did you call for your dad? And what about Orion?" She asked.

"Dad is on his way up, but Orion doesn't want to get out of bed. You know he doesn't want to go off to Hogwarts yet. He wants to stay home. I don't understand why, but he does. I can't wait to leave here for Hogwarts." Granger said. Typical Granger, Hermione thought, always ready for his next great adventure, too much like his father. On the other hand, Orion was a lot more shy, sensitive and worried; a bit like her in that respect. No matter how many times she explained to him that all of his cousins he grew up with over the years were going as well, he just didn't want to budge.

"Granger, help your sister get her breakfast. I am going to go and talk to Orion. You sister and father should be up here soon. If you need anything just yell." She said walking over to the door that led to the rest of her house. In the hallway she ran into Sirius.

"Good morning, love. Are the kids ready?" He asked looking at her. Even though he was almost fifty-six he was still as gorgeous as hell and they had troubles keeping their hands off of each other. Maybe that was why they had four children. She pulled him into a kiss.

"Good morning, Sirius. I missed you this morning." She said looking at him. "When I got up at six I was hoping you were still in bed, so I could wake you up. But you were already gone." She said looking upset.

He touched her cheek. "I got up at five thirty so I could check the eggs for Hagrid. But if I knew you had that kind of wakeup call in mind, I would've stayed in bed." He said grinning. He kissed her, "what time do you need to be up tomorrow?" He asked.

Hermione laughed and then playfully slapped him away. "You'll never know. And to answer your question Granger and Aurora are eating, Delia is M.I.A and Orion is refusing to get out of bed. I am going up to talk to him right now." She said.

"I can't believe he is still scared to go away to Hogwarts. It is not like he is going alone; all of his friends he grew up with are going: Arabella, Frankie, Charlie, Albus, Lily. Maybe seeing them get their first year things today as well might get him more excited. You go talk to him and I will find our missing in action daughter and make sure the other two are ready to go when you get finished. I love you, Hermione." Hearing it still sent chills down her spine.

"Love you too, Sirius." She said and then she walked down to the sitting room while Sirius walked out to the kitchen. There were thirteen steps to the upstairs and five doors. The ones on the right were the girl's room, the first being Aurora's empty room, the second next to the bathroom at the end of the hall was Delia's. Across from Delia's room was Granger's unused room and the one to her left was the room the boys shared. She rasped on the door quietly. "Orion, honey, can mum come in?" She asked.

"Sure I don't care." He responded. She pushed opened the door and looked at her son. He was the prefect copy of Sirius; he had long dark black hair and grey eyes that matched the exact color, shape and size of his fathers. He had the classic handsome Black looks and was on the taller end for his age. He was lying on his bed playing with Basil his ring-tailed lemur.

"Good morning, love." She said sitting at the foot of his bed. "Granger said you didn't want to come down for breakfast, why not?" She asked him. He said nothing just gave Basil another piece of banana. "Honey, you can tell me what's wrong. Why aren't you excited about going to Hogwarts?" She asked. He remained silent for the longest time.

"Mum, I'm scared. I know all there is to know about Hogwarts. I've been reading about it forever and I thought I was excited, but it will be so different. It won't be like home. The food will not be like yours and dads, and there won't be long days on the beach like I have here. And I will have to follow a schedule; everything will be the same there; no excitement and no adventure."

She rubbed his leg as she talked to him. "I went to Hogwarts forever ago it seems, but I was there. And I felt the same way. I was a muggle after all; I didn't know anything about the magical world. But once there, I made some friends and we had many adventures. Some good and some bad, but it was still fun. I learned so many things there and if it wasn't for Hogwarts I never would've met your dad." She explained.

"Yeah, and you face Lord Voldemort. How will I live up to your reputation?"

"Orion, I am not asking you to live up to my reputation, the reputation I have is not one that I wanted, but was given to me. I wouldn't wish my life upon anyone, Orion. I don't ever want you to face what I had to face. Your father and I only want what is best for you, and an education at Hogwarts is the best."

"But mum, there will be so many new people there."

"But you already know many of them. You know Professor Snape his wife, their daughter, you know Uncle Remus and Teddy and Andie, and Uncle Neville, and you see Professor McGonogall and Professor Dumbledore all the time. Your friends are going to be there: Lily and Albus, Frankie, Charlie. Your sister is going to be there and Haley." Hermione explained.

"But what if I am not in Gryffindor? What if I am in Slytherin, Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw?" He asked her.

"Whatever house you are put in your father and I will be proud of you. And we will come over for weekend visits and you will be home for Christmas and Easter break. Between classes, tea with Hagrid, spending time with all of your friends, and Quidditch, you won't even notice the time passing by." Hermione said.

"Mum, we don't know if I am going to make the Quidditch team. First years almost never do."

"That is true, but you are too good to pass up. Now are you feeling better?" She asked him.

"Do you and dad promise to come and visit on the weekends? And will you guys send me letters and packages?" He asked.

"We promise."

"And will you take good care of Basil?"

"Yes, Orion. We will." She said.

"Then I feel better."

"Good. Now get your butt dressed and get downstairs for breakfast." She said standing up. She gave him a kiss on his forehead and messed up his hair.

"Mummmm…" He said, but she turned and walked out of the room. Before she got halfway down the stairs he was right there with her. They walked into the kitchen, sat and had breakfast. Hermione sighed. This was one of the last times her family was going to be at this table together enjoying breakfast for a while. She loved her children and wanted the best education for them, but she missed them like hell when they were gone. Lucky for them they didn't have the threat of a dark wizard hanging over their head like she did every year she went back to school.