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Chapter 2: Friday meeting

Minerva McGonagall had a very long day escorting one Miss Hermione Granger and her family on their Diagon Alley visit. Not only was the child highly intelligent the whole family was and Minerva had to provide a number of detailed explanations. There were times were she was stumped by the questions or the Muggle comparisons that all the family made for various points that they had discussed. Today was a day when the Professor felt it was time for her to go back to school. In all the years she had been doing the Muggle inductions it was the first time she seriously felt out of her depth.

The child was bright, brilliantly bright that was highly evident and she seemed to grasp the theoretical basics of Transfiguration like a sponge. Minerva would bet you a galleon that Hermione Granger and her parents would be back to the shopping street sometime before the start of school as she had pry the whole family out of the book shop to get all their supplies.

When she had seen them off at the Leaky Cauldron the first thing she did was get Tom to give her a large Scotch.

"Make your head hurt with all them questions from the lot of them. Here have a double you look like you need it", sympathised Tom. Yes he had experienced the Grangers in the morning when they were thirty minutes early for their appointment with the Professor.

"Thanks Tom I will have another two as I have friend arriving soon. Do you think you can snag us a private booth?" asked the woman seeing the start of the Friday crowds in the popular wizarding establishment.

Tom was able to get her into a booth and Minerva was sitting mulling over her day and the plans for the weekend when she was pulled back to the here and now. "Earth to Minnie. Earth to Minnie" said the speaker.

Looking up Minerva recognised Roberta Prince. "Robby," was the cry of delight from the older woman. Tom dropped by to see how the drinks were going and did a double take of seeing the old friends together again.

"Please don't tell me the Mynxes are dusting off the cobwebs and starting up again" he implored them.

"Well then Tom I wont burst your bubble of delusion," smirked Roberta Prince.

"That is not fair not only do I get the threat of female pranksters I also get the Prince patented smirk. I am blaming you Minerva McGonagall and I was kind to you with after that Muggle family today," he then lessened the sting of the rebuke with a chuckle. "At least it would spice life up again".

"Do tell?" inquired Robby as she curious to find out what had caused her friend to zone out like she had been when she arrived.

"1000s and 1 questions. Bright, if not exceptually gifted student and matching set of parents. Today was the first time I ever thought I needed to go back to school and learn more about the Muggle world cause I was well out of my depth when they talked about science and technology," explained the Scot who had considerably brightened when her old friend had arrived.

"And then some" comment Tom. "Do you ladies want a refill?"

"No thank you, Tom we will be off to meet up with some other Mynxes shortly," advised Minerva looking at her watch. It was time to be off to the Summer Cottage.

"We did not really get to talk about the Severus issue did we," commented Robby.

"Don't worry many hands make light work and there are a few of us this weekend," explained Minerva.

On their way out of the Leaky Cauldron they gave Tom a wave before using his floo to head to the cottage.

After they had left the barman of the Cauldron was seen to be having a flaming prairie. The regulars had watched him mix the drink and wonder what had driven the calm fairly unflappable man to the drastic action of this flaming drink. Arty Blotts from the bookshop looked over his stein of stout and was the one to ask the question. "Why the drink Tom what has rattled your nerves?"

When the answer came out that the Mynxes seem to becoming active again quiet a few other patrons joined Tom in the consumption of the flaming prairie. The old stories of the hijinks of this group was trotted out and while there was some trepidation about the ladies there was also some admiration for these firebrands and their passionate responses to various issues.

Xxxx

At the Summer Cottage Minerva and Robby barely had time to settle down before the rest of the guests started to arrive. After getting everyone settled in their individual rooms Izzy rang the gong to call all the witches to dinner. There was a pleasant formal dinner with a lovely selection of wines for each course and the conversation was a plenty.

After dinner in the lounge the ladies mingled in small conversation groups and the hostess Minerva found that she was enjoying hosting such a pleasant evening. Checking with her guests she found what activities her guests were interested in and made a mental memo to suggest a schedule in the morning.

As her guests excused themselves to turn in for the night Minerva, Roberta Prince and Augusta Longbottom found themselves going over past adventures and remembering missing friends who had passed on to the next adventure. The ladies reviewed the guest list and were quite proud at the interaction between Andromedia and her estranged sister. There was still some distrust in the wife of Lucius Malfoy but it was wonderful to see the two sisters making a tentative reconciliation.

Talking about the missing witches from their generation and the missing witches from Narcissa generation the three agreed it was time for the Mynxes to do a major recruitment drive. Lily Potter and Augusta's own daughter in law Alice was some of the witches who were missing. It seemed that there were not many witches representing this generation and it was really time to start recruiting the next generation.

Minnie raised that the Muggleborn witch she had escorted today was a likely future member of the Mynxes. The small group of ladies discussed the missing membership and Minerva wondered if they should expand the organization to include some of the muggle mothers who witches and wizards to ensure the organization maintained its blue stocking education and lobbying role. Robby thought that it was a good idea and Mrs Granger would be a good potential recruit while her daughter was at Hogwarts. The three witches reviewed the potential witch list that Minerva prepared and there were names marked and identified for further investigation.

Additionally the two witches probed Minerva for any more muggle women with magical children they could also invite into the Royal Order. Yes bringing a wider membership would help in the development and rebuilding of the ancient female organization.

After their long discussion the three witches retired to their rooms. Minerva asked Trixie to make sure she was up at 6am. It would mean less than 4 hours sleep but she needed to be up to further the plans that had been made that night.

Xxxx

Trixie had awoken Minerva early the next morning at her requested time where the woman proceeded to write a number of invitations and other requests. She sent Trixie to her Hogwarts office to collect her file of all the muggle born students currently at the school to bring it back to the cottage for her. She also ensured that Severus was annoyed with Trixie placing a water bomb on his bedroom door so he would get a cold shower when he decided to drag himself from his bed. Yes he needed to lighten up.

Reviewing her proposed schedule for activities for her guests she prepared notes outlining her proposed schedule for all her guests and asked Izzy to ensure that each note be delivered to their room with a fresh bouquet of flowers.

The buffet breakfast was served at 8am and Trixie and Izzy distributed the mail for all that had arrived. Over their second or third cups of tea the ladies discussed the suggested schedule. A few minor adjustments were made and then they gleefully went to prepare for the first activity shopping in Muggle Edinburgh. There was an inspection of their outfits to ensure that they looked appropriately Muggle. This is where Andy and Amelia came in handy as they could make transfiguration suggestions for those who needed a little bit of style update.

The ladies had a lovely time shopping in Edinburgh and there were quiet a few purchases as they updated their muggle wardrobes. It was interesting for Narcissa to see this side of these women who she associated as being fairly dour. It seemed that Aggie Longbottom as she was known by the older members of the house party group had a wicked sense of humour. Who would have thought this stern looking woman who had a reputation for her stout defense of legislation and anti death eater politics in the wizengamot would be so funny?

Narcissa knew if she were to reestablish herself in society without Lucius she would have more support when and if she finally got her longed for divorce from him. She had been having a discrete extramarital affair for quiet awhile since he had his heir, two mistresses and other affairs. However, her lover was not a suitable replacement for Lucius financially so she needed to be reestablished to attract the fly she wanted to capture in her honey trap. The reality was her marriage was pureblood business contract, which should have been settled long ago. She had held her part of the bargain and given him an heir with Black blood but she had to endure his business interests and political views that were not her own.

While she had been a good mother protecting and nurturing her child Draco was almost off to school and she would not be needed or wanted. Now was the time to start the moves to get her out of the hellhole better known as Malfoy Manor where all she was another piece of ornate furniture to decorate the palour. No! Narcissa Malfoy was going to be the Slytherin she was and finally she was going to have the reigns to her own life.

The other option she had to finding herself an easily manipulated extremely wealth husband was to get her hands on some of the Black inheritance. There was another way she could escape. Maybe Andy would assist her if she wanted to get the family back together.

Amelia Bones would be another good contact for Narcissa to make as she could and may be would have to play dirty with Lucius and there was plenty of dirt to be had on him. Yes she had evidence in her private vault in Gringotts that dear old Lucy Lou would not like to see the light of the day. He often under estimated her capabilities and intelligence. Lucius seemed to believe that she was the dutiful pure blood wife. Goddess she was a good actor.

Emmaline Vance she had only briefly know in school but this Auror could be useful for dealing with an aggressive Lucius and her family links into Diagon Alley and Hogsmead businesses were impressive if you wanted to develop an investment portfolio. If she had only a part of the Black Family fortune she would need to have the insider knowledge for profitable investments.

Narcissa continued to do an analysis of all the other guests including her sister to identify what benefits they could bring to her in her attempt to get away from Lucius Malfoy.

Xxx

After suggesting a rest period to her guests on the return from their shopping expedition where they had a lovely lunch, Minerva had taken the time to prepare her plans for the high afternoon tea. Her discussions with the other executive members had led to a quorum being reached for the development and regeneration of the membership of the Mynxes.

Looking over her notes there was much to be done. This afternoon at the High Tea they would discuss the ideas with everyone and Narcissia would be assessed for potential membership of the Mynxes.