– Chapter One –

The Outback

The heat was incredible. Waves of it poured down through the windows and out the open doors. There was no coolness from mechanical devices, and the Australians did nothing at this time of day.

Romi was completely unused to this kind of heat. Any degree of cold she could take, but she didn't know what to do with herself in this heat. Most of the time, she slept during the peak of the day and spent her evenings out among the magical part of town.

Her father, Hector Black, spent a lot of time in Sydney, talking over business with other important wizards. Romi's mother, Charis Black, was making connections with the other wives of the ambassadors, so Romi had a lot of free time to wander, Ley Lane, Sydney's equivalent of Diagon Alley, which was near where they were staying.

They were in Australia this summer. Romi never really understood what her father did, but this is the first time that he's had a placement for all of July, in some place that wasn't England. Charis had decided to join Hector in Australia instead of staying with her mother in Canada. So, through default, Romi was now living in Australia for July, with only letters to communicate with her friends back in England.

At least most of her friends were writing back to her – Neville Longbottom, her best friend, sent her a letter nearly every three days, and Romi replied just as quickly, so she had the feeling that she'd never left him. Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger sent letters too, but not as frequently, they were friendly, but not in the way of defeating a crazy witch who wanted to destroy the lake friendly, like Romi and Neville were after their first year at Hogwarts experience.

She did not get any letters from Draco Malfoy, her cousin. She was still angry with him because last year when they went to school, Draco was sorted into Slytherin, and Romi was sorted into Gryffindor. Normally, Romi would not have thought that a problem, because she tried not to play by other people's rules. Draco, however, had told her that she was not allowed to hang out with him – because of the Slytherin Gryffindor rivalry. Romi hadn't spoken nicely to him since.

The one letter that she was expecting, and that she never got and she didn't know what to think about it, was the letter she was expecting from her twin brother. She had only found out last year that they were twins, and she had only accepted it about six months ago, and she had only told him when school ended. He had taken it well, or so Romi had thought, but she hadn't received a single letter from Harry Potter since the beginning of the summer.

She wanted to say it was because she was in Australia, and it was sometimes difficult for birds to find their way down, and they easily got lost – but all of Ron, Hermione and Neville's letters made it too her. Even Severus Snape, her godfather who was travelling to France these last two weeks for a research case, managed to find time to send her letters.

But she hadn't received any letters from Harry Potter.

Romi had spent most of the early afternoon, lying on her stomach in her bed. Her black cat, Zhi, now fully grown was lying in the small of her back as she had pulled her shirt up to relieve the heat. It didn't help that the cat was lying on her bare skin.

She kept her eyes closed, her cheek against the cool section on her pillow. The room around her was quiet. The window was open to the hot outside, and Romi could hear the buzz of cicadas. Even though it was Australia's winter, it was still some of the hottest days Romi had experienced.

She could hear her mother moving on the floor below her. Charis and Hector had taken a two story little bungalow on the outskirts of Sydney. It was a house that the Ministry for Magic Australia had found for them, and it was in the magical area of Sydney. Romi had enjoyed her first two weeks in Australia. But it was stretching into the fourth week now, and Romi was beginning to miss her friends. It would be another few days before they left for England.

Zhi stood up on her back, stretched, carefully took three steps up her back, and then after stretching once more, curled up again, tucking her tail under her body. Romi adjusted her head on the pillow, finding a cooler patch.

She was just falling into a daze, almost dreaming, though she was awake. She thought about going down to the market place, in fact she almost felt like she was being drawn there. She had the sensation of falling and she jumped, fully awake, staring around her bedroom.

She gave a sigh, and rubbed her eyes. She felt like she wanted to go back to sleep, but instead, she got up, washed her face and went downstairs to find a cooler part of the house. Her mother was cooking something in the oven and so the kitchen wasn't that much cooler either.

"Why don't you walk to your father's office building," Charis suggested when she saw her daughter moping about the kitchen.

"Because it's hot outside," Romi muttered.

"No hotter than in here – besides there is a breeze and Ley Lane is opening again. Take a stroll through there, but don't buy anything," Charis warned.

"Alright," Romi said. She knew when her mother said things like that, she wasn't to be argued with. Romi whistled up the stairs for her cat, and put on her shoes. It was about two thirty in the afternoon; her father was expected home at three.

Her mother was right. With the wind coming through the town it was a lot cooler outside than inside. Romi walked down the street towards the magical marketplace and after looking around, darted into the back alley. Zhi followed, twisting around her feet, staring wide-eyed at the world around her.

On the outside it looked like a back alley, but on the inside it was a bustling moving marketplace. And it wasn't just the people that were moving, everyday the vendors shuffled about their wares on carts or in makeshift shelters.

Romi could see apothecaries sheltered by nothing more than a thick sheet propped up on thick wooden beams. There was a full tent with the name of a wand maker on the top. There were also lots and lots of food vendors, selling sizzling meat, or boasting of fresh cool drinks.

Romi loved to walk among them, and her spirits were instantly lifted once among the rabble of people buying and selling.

"Fresh hare pies!"

"Freshly squeezed Lemonade! 3 knuts per ladle!"

"Charm beads! Protect you from every curse!"

Romi watched the vendors, studying their wares from a distance. She never liked to get too close, it made her a little uncomfortable when they tried to get you to buy things. Though of course, there were always a few people that ended up walking beside her trying to sell her stuff. She'd had a native try to sell her dried frog treats and another with rawhide purses. She'd had to remind herself that she was in Australia when the dried frog treat man had come along side her – not some distant extremely foreign land. Australia was still part of the Commonwealth.

Today, however, was different. Maybe it was because Romi had been feeling off, maybe because the wind had shifted. Whatever it was, the day seemed different to her.

"Care for an adventure, young lady?" said a tall man appearing beside her. He was wearing a cloth to cover the top of his head, and a lot of his teeth were missing as he smiled at her. He eyes were dark and knowing with a twinkle in them. He held his hands behind his back as he walked, his robes flowing all the way down to his sandaled feet. "I can send you on the greatest adventure yet!"

"I'm all finished with adventures," Romi answered, waving a hand. "Had too many last year."

That was, of course, true. Last year, Romi and her best friend Neville, had gone on many adventures in their quest to save the Black Lake on the Hogwarts school grounds. It ended with them finding an extremely powerful sword, currently hidden with the centaurs, and a new enemy, Elena, a teenaged Russian psychopath, who had tried to drown Romi. Elena had poisoned the lake to get the ancient sword from the past, at least that's as much as Romi understood of her goals. She still wasn't sure why Elena had wanted that particular sword, but Elena had been willing to kill everything in and around the lake to get it. Romi managed to release the Spirit of the lake before Elena had time to kill Romi or the Lake, and the Lake took revenge on Elena. Romi hoped that when the lake had swallowed Elena, that's the last time she would see her, but she still had nightmares about that night.

"Ahh, but this – this is much different, the world to see! Magic like you've never known! A riddle deep in the heart!" the man continued, striding along side her.

"No, thank you," Romi said again, giving another wave, and trying to speed up her walk.

"The Outback can be a magical and inspirational place! You won't want to miss the challenges ahead."

"No," Romi said again quickly, starting to get annoyed.

"Too bad, too bad – I'll interest you yet, Romi."

Romi spun around to the man, mouth open to demand how he knew her name. But she was alone. There were multiple people drifting around her, buying products and socializing with friends, but there was no tall, dark, mystery man there. He'd just vanished. Romi looked all around her, but she could not see him anywhere in the crowd.

After a moment, she turned and started walking again, however all she could think of was what the man had said to her.

Before she knew it, she was at her father's office building, and leaving the marketplace, she hurried up its steps. She didn't have to go very far into the building before her father appeared.

"Hello, pumpkin," Hector said cheerfully, giving his daughter a hug and a kiss on the forehead. "Did you come to meet me?" he asked.

"Mum thought it was a good idea for me to go out of the house," Romi said looking up with a little smile.

"I see, come along," Hector said and he led her out of the building again. They walked along the marketplace on the way back as well. Hector liked it just as much as his daughter did.

They were silent for a while, then Hector spoke.

"You're missing your friends, aren't you?" he said, finally looking down at his daughter.

"I haven't complained," Romi answered quickly.

"I know you haven't," Hector said, putting an arm around his daughter. "But after spending ten months with someone, it's hard to spend one month alone, in a different land."

Romi didn't answer. She thought it was true; as much as she got her letters from her friends, it wasn't the same as being with them.

"I thought we'd go to the Malfoys for August," Hector said brightly. "I have to be in England for a few days, and at least you and Charis could spend time with your friends. I'm sure Draco would like to see you."

Romi forced herself to smile. "That'd be great, dad," she managed to say, and pretend like she meant it. In truth, she couldn't imagine how awful it would be to stay with the Malfoy's for a month. That would mean she would have to talk to Draco; unless their parents noticed something.

"Good," Hector said. "I spoke with Lucius today, and he said that was a fine plan." Hector gave his daughter a little shake on the shoulders.

"Can I visit Neville as well?" Romi asked, looking up to him.

Hector looked a little surprised, but nodded. "Of course," he said. "The Longbottoms live not too far outside of London, right?"

Romi nodded.

"I doubt it will be a problem, but you must write to Mrs Longbottom and ask first, understand?"

"Yes, sir," Romi answered, and then she was truly happy. Neville's gran had had her over for Christmas last year without hesitation, and without even meeting her, so Romi had no doubts that she'd let Romi come for a visit.

They made it back through to the house. Zhi went inside first and shot up the stairs, and Romi and Hector followed her. Charis came out of the kitchen to greet them and said she had tea all ready for them in the parlour.

Romi took off her shoes and went into the parlour, where she discovered a cake on the table and two presents on the floor beside a tall man, with black hair sitting in a chair.

"Severus!" Romi squealed and launched herself full force at her godfather, who only just managed to stand up before being hit by Romi.

"Hello, my dear!" Severus said with a laugh, giving her a big squeeze. Romi mumbled into his robes something incoherent. "What was that?" Severus said, trying to step back.

"I didn't think you'd be coming too Australia at all!" Romi said looking up at her godfather. Severus Snape was a tall; hook nosed man with dark eyes and hair, and a warm smile. It was her smile, of course, for he rarely wore it for anyone other than herself. Draco was slightly afraid of Severus, but respected him. Neville was downright petrified of her godfather, and Harry – Harry was a different story. Romi had a tendency to ignore the problem between Harry and Severus. Neither of them liked each other too much because Harry reminded Severus of his father, James Potter.

James had been a good man, but like everyone had his faults. He was a not friend of Severus Snape and Harry was unfortunately a little too much like his father for Severus' liking.

"Well," said Severus, releasing himself from Romi's hug, "I figured I'd come and surprise you. And seeing as you'll probably be leaving tomorrow, today was the day." Severus said.

"Yeah, tomorrow we ship out," Hector replied

Charis came up to her daughter and gave her a hug. "So we thought we'd have a birthday party two days early."

Romi grinned, and looked to the table. There was tea set up and a white iced cake with silver balls on top.

"Twelve years old, already!" Hector said with a laugh, "I can't believe it! I could have sworn yesterday you were just a baby in arms."

Romi, Severus, Charis and Hector settled themselves down to tea in the dining room, and Zhi came to sit on Romi's lap. It was one of the best days that Romi had had in Australia, and it came with the good news that she'd be able to go back to England the next day.

Severus stayed for the evening, sitting and talking with Romi's parents and herself. He was telling them of the trip he'd had in France. At about half past ten, Charis sent Romi up to bed, they were to leave early in the morning. Romi said goodnight to Severus. He would not be there when she woke up. Hector and Severus stayed up to talk a bit longer while Charis tucked Romi into bed.

Romi couldn't sleep for a long time, being both excited and nervous. She'd be able to go see Neville soon – but in between that she'd have to meet up with Draco.

She rolled over and forcefully told herself that she would worry about it in the morning.

That night she had dreams of swirling sands and Australian creatures, running around her. All she could hear was the man from Ley Lane.

"The Outback can be a magical and inspirational place! You won't want to miss it!"