The "Harry Potter" characters belong to JK Rowling, her associates and affiliates. CPT Holdings Inc. and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment own "Bewitched" and "Tabitha". For entertainment purposes only. There. I have spoken.
A/N According to more than one website, Adam was a warlock in "Bewitched" and a mortal in "Tabitha". For this fanfic, he's a mortal. It just works better that way. And all due respect to anyone who disagrees.
The cold, damp, overcast day seemed the appropriate setting for the melancholy occasion which had brought this group of people together, standing together and staring together at a deep, freshly dug hole in the middle of the cemetary. The trees around the edge of the graveyard were leafless. The little group of people were dressed in the dark, sedate colors customary to muggle funerals.
Minerva McGonagall stood quietly at attention, in with the other family members. This placed her somewhat behind the widow and the widow's mother, two women who called her by the title of "Aunt". Minerva wasn't really their aunt, more like a distant cousin. She was actually the cousin of the widow's grandmother, and the two women, despite being as different as could be, had maintained a lifelong friendship. Cousin Endora had married well, lived the life of a flamboyant socialite, and with her husband had one daughter, named Samantha. To the eternal disgust of Endora, Samantha had fallen in love with and married a muggle (or "mortal", as these American witches prefered), and had a witch daughter named Tabitha, and a mortal son named Adam. To Endora's further grief, Tabitha had also married a mortal man, turned her back on her magical talents to follow the man she loved, and had a mortal daughter named Sarah. Endora loved her mortal grandchild and great-grandchild, but she saw their mortal-ness as an avoidable tragedy. Tabitha was pregnant again, and Endora was keeping her fingers crossed.
This was not the first muggle funeral Minerva had ever attended, but this one was different, because Tabitha's husband, Paul Thurston, had been a local television personality. He had been a reporter, and Tabitha met him when he hired her as his production assistant. The death of the handsome, young, upwardly mobile man with the pretty young wife and child apparantly merited television coverage, and two cameramen were prowling the perimeter of the crowd, trying to film the casket and the grieving widow, as a trench-coated young woman with an appropriately serious face murmured into a microphone. Minerva was appalled at such gaucherie, but none of the other mourners paid any attention, or even seemed put out. Endora was gazing boldly at one of the cameras, and muttering under her breath. Minerva couldn't hear all the words, but she heard enough to gather that Endora was jinxing either the cameras or the people. Minerva swallowed a grin. Endora had forever flouted the custom of hiding magic from muggles, often with hilarious results which made Minerva laugh, even as she shook her head in disapproval.
That evening at Samantha's gracious suburban home, they sipped tea together as Tabitha sprawled out on the couch, Sarah played on the floor, Samantha rested in her favorite armchair, Minerva perched on the other armchair and Endora floated above the furniture.
"So there it is, Tabitha, the job is yours for the asking," said Minerva.
"Gee, I don't know, Aunt Minerva. Uprooting, moving..."
"Nobody's forcing you. I just want you to think about it."
Tabitha shifted on the couch. "It's just that, so soon after Paul...And, I would be so far from my family, and everything I know."
"Oh, for Pete's sake! Stop it already!" Endora swooped down so she was at eye level with Tabitha. "You. are. a. witch. You don't have to worry about being too far away. Hello, you can Aparate any time you want." She turned in a huff to Samantha. "This is Derwood's fault. The poor child thinks she's under the same rules as mortals."
"Mother..." Samantha said warningly.
"Oh, don't 'Mother' me. Does she even know what she's capable of doing anymore, living with mortals all her life? Tabitha, listen to me. This is the perfect opportunity for you. You will be living among other witches and warlocks. You can use your powers without disapproving mortals peering over your shoulder every minute. You can come back to visit any time you want, and we can visit you as often as you want us."
"Or more than you want us," Samantha said, with a sly grin at Endora. Endora just raised an eyebrow at her daughter.
Minerva tried again, "It is in your area of expertise."
Tabitha laughed. "I was only Paul's assistant, and I was almost never in front of the camera. Also, I haven't worked since Sarah was born. And, anyhow, mortal television is a far cry from the Wizard Wireless Network, I'm sure."
"Just think about it."
A week later, Tabitha and Sarah met with Aunt Minerva to travel to London. Much to Minerva's dismay, Tabitha insisted on flying in a muggle jet. Sarah, she explained, always got sick during side-along Aparations. Minerva offered to make her a potion to settle her little stomach, but Tabitha kindly but firmly insisted on a plane. So there was Minerva McGonagall, seated in an aisle seat, eating a little bag of peanuts and drinking lukewarm soda from a plastic cup, and feeling like a first class idiot.
They stood outside a row of houses, trying to look unobtrusive and waiting for all the mortals to be out of sight. Once the coast was clear, Aunt Minerva marched Tabitha and Sarah up to what seemed to be the in-between of two other homes. But, just as they reached where the steps should begin, Tabitha saw that there suddenly were steps, and a house where none had been visible before.
A rather scruffy looking man, a little older than Tabitha, but much younger than Aunt Minerva, let them in.
Minerva made the introductions. "Sirius Black, Tabitha Thurston and her daughter Sarah."
"Thank you for letting us stay here until we get settled, Sirius." Tabitha shook his hand.
"The more the merrier," he replied, smiling. He was thinking it would be nice to have some company. It got lonely and tedious being confined to the house.
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