All I can do is beg for forgiveness! I'm SO SO SO SO sorry I haven't put any chapters up in four and a half months! I know I told people they were coming and then my life just went on overdrive and left me with no extra time! I promise I am still here and now my life has slowed down so you will be seeing chapters more often! Anyway now that I have plead my case, let's move on with my pre-chapter rant. This was brought on by my own many fails in baking, everything except the last problem were part of my stories or the stories of people I know. Also my writing may not be up to par after such a long break so please forgive me if it's not up to standard. Last thing I have to say, it's been a long time since I updated, I would be honored to read a lot of reviews on my first chapter back! Just tell me what you think. Is there anything I need to change? Anything bugging the heck out of you? Anything you'd like to see more of or less of? Anything you thought was funny or cute? Just let me know. I'd be happy to hear!

Cake Disaster and Strange Healing

Harmony Dawne Potter was sitting at a kitchen table looking at cookbooks when her godfather walked in the front door.

"Already thinking about dinner at two in the afternoon?" Lupin asked taking a seat across from her.

"No, it's my brother and my birthday in a few days and I want to bake him a cake." Harmony said.

"Oh—how much food has he gotten this summer after his plea for help?" Lupin asked.

"He said a ton. I bet they're almost starving him. The last time I saw Dudley Dursley he was about three of me. Now he's probably about five or six of me. Harry says he's about the size of a baby whale. I don't know if any sort of diet can save him." Harmony said.

Lupin laughed. "Harmony you should be nicer, the boy is your cousin."

"Some cousin, he tortured Harry for half his life and if would have lived there he would have tortured me too." Harmony mumbled as she turned another page.

"So what kind of cake were you thinking about, Little One?"

"I don't know. Why you call me that? I'm not that small." Harmony said smiling to herself.

"No matter how big you get you will always be my Little One. You have to put up with ridiculous nicknames from someone, Harmony."

"But who said it had to be you?"

"Who else will? Well . . . Actually I'm pretty sure Sirius will start calling you them again soon . . . after he gets back into the swing of things. But children usually have nicknames from most, if not all, their relatives. So you're lucky, Little One, so far you will only have to take it from us."

Harmony rolled her eyes. "And my parents thought I needed two godfathers, I could've done with one."

"Who are you suggesting you get rid of? If it's Sirius I heartily agree, for my own selfish reason of loving you too much of course." Lupin said.

"Why do you turn everything into some sort of statement of how much you love me? Not that I don't like it, but with my foster parents, my mom loved me and didn't say it quite as much as you do." Harmony said.

Lupin sighed. "Why do you ask hard questions? Harmony, I've missed about twelve years of your life. I guess in a way I'm trying to make up for that and I also say it because well—I want you to know that I love you as much as those who have been in your life. Just because I made the decision when you were younger to give you up doesn't mean I never regretted it."

Harmony nodded and smiled. "I love you too, Uncle Remus."

The room was silent as Harmony flipped through a couple more pages and then . . .

"Aha! I found the perfect thing." She said.

"What did you find?"

"Well I more came up with the most perfect idea."

"Let me hear this perfect idea of yours." Lupin said smiling at his goddaughter's enthusiasm.

"A four layered cake. Two white and two chocolate. I could frost it all cool and it would be perfect. I could get decorations and everything!" Harmony said, too excited to get her sentences in a coherent order.

"Well I doubt that even if we ransacked all the cupboards and the fridge we could find all the ingredients you need." Lupin said. "I guess it's time for a shopping trip."

Harmony smiled. She loved going shopping with her godfather, they always found something fun to do.

They came through the door three hours later laughing hysterically.

"Did you see how that old lady looked at you?" Harmony asked with tears falling down her face from laughing so hard.

"She seemed quite confused." Lupin said chuckling.

While at the store Harmony had found the most ugly purse, it was a in the shape of a chicken and it included beak, feathers, and everything a normal chicken has. She had immediately pointed the chicken purse out to her godfather. He walked over to it, picked it up, slung it over his shoulder and began carrying on with the shopping.

He got stares and sniggers from everyone in the store. At one point he had accidently bumped into an older woman. He had apologized and walked on. The woman stared at him and the purse all the way down the aisle, as Harmony and her godfather laughed silently. After that they had put the purse back, bought the food, and left the store laughing so hard that their sides ached and tears rolled down their cheeks.

"We should've kept the purse." Harmony said, grinning.

"We should have." Lupin said, starting to unload the groceries from their bag.

He pulled out a carton of eggs. Harmony looked away and started to giggle. Before either of them knew it they were laughing hysterically again.

"I will never be able to look at chicken products or purses the same way ever again. " Harmony said.

Lupin laughed quietly. "Alright it's time to put the rest of the groceries away and never think of chickens and purses again."

"Did you really have to say that?" Harmony said while putting her head in her hand and beginning to chuckle again.

Lupin smiled. "And the funny part is, you think I'm joking."

Harmony fake glared at her godfather. Lupin raised his eyebrows and a smile began to crack on Harmony's lips. Finally the smile turned to a laugh as she grabbed a carton of milk and headed to the fridge.

"Hey it's almost time for dinner." Lupin said. "I'll make macaroni and cheese. After we eat we'll take a stab at this cake of yours."

Harmony laughed as she sat down at the table to watch her godfather make macaroni and cheese . . . again.

After dinner, they quickly did the dishes. Harmony dried and put away, while Lupin washed. When Harmony put the last dish away, she went over to a different cupboard and grabbed a mixing bowl.

"Alright, I think it's time for our next great adventure." Harmony said as she put the bowl down on the counter.

"Where do we start?" Lupin asked.

"Well . . . let's make the first layer white and while that bakes we'll make the next layer, which will be chocolate. Do you think we can handle that?"

"I believe you can, but me and ovens don't really get along, unless there is macaroni and cheese inside." Lupin said looking at the oven warily.

"I'll be on oven duty then. I don't want you burning my cake." Harmony said smiling.

"Deal," Lupin said.

They set to work on the first layer of cake. Harmony was proud as she pulled a perfectly cooked layer of cake out of the oven.

"One down, three more to go." She said as she set the layer on the stovetop.

As she began to gather the ingredients for the chocolate layer, she heard a slight chuckle from behind her.

She looked up at the ceiling. "If you tell me anything has happened to my cake I will be very unhappy."

"Oh it's fine, if you like cake that tastes like salt." Her godfather said.

Harmony strode over to the stovetop and pulled a bit of cake out of the middle of the layer. As she ate it her mouth was filled with the bitter taste of salt.

"What happened?" Harmony asked, confused and disgusted.

"Well I added the salt so . . ." Lupin started, but Harmony cut him off.

"I added the salt, and if I added salt and you added salt that means we doubled the salt. That would explain why it tastes so awful." Harmony said shaking her head.

"Maybe we should try working on different layers, that might solve the problem." Lupin said.

"I think that is a fantastic idea." Harmony said.

"I'll redo this one, while you start the chocolate."

"Deal," Harmony said, as she set to work on the chocolate layer.

About an hour later Harmony was filling the pan to her second chocolate layer, waiting for Lupin's second white layer to be done when suddenly she smelled something burning.

"Uh, how long have you left this in for?" Harmony said, turning to look at the stove.

"By the smell of things, too long." Lupin said, getting up from the kitchen table and throwing open the oven. Smoke billowed out of the open oven as Lupin reached in and pulled out a smoking black cake.

"I think you need to go back to school and learn your colors, Uncle Remus. That color would be called black not white." Harmony coughed, as she waved the smoke away.

"I told you me and ovens don't get along." Lupin said, as he set the burnt cake on the stovetop.

Harmony looked at the blackened cake. "Well that's strike two."

Lupin looked at Harmony. "Let's not go to strike three."

"Agreed." Harmony said, as she put her second layer of chocolate cake into the oven.

At about ten o'clock at night all four layers of the cake were completed in a sufficient fashion and were sitting on the stovetop, cooling. Harmony was working on the frosting, while her godfather stayed out of her way.

"Well I'm glad we haven't run into anymore issues." Harmony said, as she mixed the frosting.

Suddenly she stopped and watched the bowl intently.

"I spoke too soon." She said, setting the bowl on the counter.

"What's wrong?" Lupin said, coming over to her.

"Just look in the bowl." Harmony said, looking the other way.

Lupin looked into the bowl, and there in the middle of the frosting was a big fat cockroach that was wiggling to try and free itself from the sticky frosting. "How'd he get in there?"

"Well we walked through a field of tall grass on our way here . . . I bet that's where he got in because I dropped the bag in the grass." Harmony said. "And one of the icing sugar bags did have a hole in the top of it when I pulled it out of the grocery bag, but I thought I'd made that by pulling it out of the shopping bag because I had to pull hard to get it out from between the milk and the butter. I guess I'm not the one that made the hole and that's how Mr. I'm-going-to-ruin-some-perfectly-good-frosting got in."

"Well something tells me he's not too crazy about being stuck in there either. How did you not notice him before?" Lupin asked.

"I wasn't paying too much attention. Look, just get rid of it. Not much grosses me out, but that is a little more than a full stomach can handle." Harmony said washing another bowl out to make a new batch of frosting, using a different bag of icing sugar.

Finally the cakes were cooled a good batch of icing was made and everything seemed like it would go smoothly, but of course something else just had to go wrong.

Harmony had frosted the cake perfectly and was ready to box it to sent it to Harry when . . .

"Harmony!" Lupin called urgently from outside.

Harmony turned and ran for the door knocking the cake off the counter as she ran. She threw the door open to find her godfather crumpled on the porch. She fell to her knees beside him.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I twisted my ankle coming up the stairs and I heard something snap." Her godfather said, his face twisting in pain.

"Okay," Harmony said calmly. "I'm going to get under your arm and then we're going to get you up."

Harmony slipped her godfather's arm around her shoulders.

"Okay, stand on three. One . . . Two . . . Three . . ."

Harmony helped her godfather to stand and got him inside. She guided him to the couch and sat him down.

"Where's the cake?" Lupin said looking at the counter.

"On the floor." Harmony said, gently pulling off the right shoe, the side of the hurt ankle.

Lupin closed his eyes and sucked in air sharply. "So much for the cake to beat all cakes."

"It's just a cake. I was worried I was going to come out and find you bleeding to death. The cake doesn't matter." Harmony said, gingerly removing his sock.

Harmony knew a thing or two about broken bones and the swelling on her godfather's ankle, the way it was placed, and the tenderness of the area all told her the ankle was broken.

"Well I'm pretty sure you broke it." Harmony said.

Lupin sighed. "Well that puts a damper on things. I had so many plans, mostly for your birthday." He said putting his hand on his goddaughter's cheek.

"Oh hush, that's not what matters now." Harmony said moving her face away and looking back down at her godfather's injury. "Here turn on your back, we need to elevate this."

Lupin did as he was told. By putting his ankle on the arm of the couch it successfully put it above his heart. Harmony moved back and looked down at her godfather.

"Well why don't you try to sleep here for a minute while I go clean up the cake . . . I'll go get something for Harry tomorrow." Harmony said.

Harmony moved and went to clean up the cake. Her heart was still racing from hearing her godfather's desperate cry. What if that really had been something dangerous? What if it had been something terrible? What if it had been because someone was looking for her? She knew Voldemort still had followers, Wormtail was proof of that. What if her godfather had been killed and that cry was only to warn her of the killer? What would she have done then? Harmony shook her head to get the ideas to go away and went back over to her godfather.

She stood next to the arm of the couch and placed her hand gently on his ankle. She thought about how upset he had been when he had found his plans for her birthday had been spoiled. She wished there was something she could do to fix his ankle so that he could get the joy of doing whatever he had planned for her birthday. Sometimes she wished she was some kind of super witch so she could do things without spells, because she had no idea how to fix her godfather's ankle otherwise.

Harmony yawned and closed her eyes. She saw a strange glow from behind her eyelids and her eyes flew open. The glow was coming from under her hand, the hand on top of her godfather's ankle. She was afraid to pull her hand away, but afraid to keep it on. What was going on? What the heck was up with the glowing? Harmony suddenly heard a sound that sounded like bone meshing together and felt something move under her hand. Then the glowing stopped.

Harmony pulled her hand away. The swelling was gone, the ankle looked normal. She looked at her hand, there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. What had just happened? Was it her that glowed or her godfather? How . . .

"Harmony?" Her godfather said his eyes opening slightly.

"Yeah," Harmony said moving to sit next to him on the couch.

"Did you get it cleaned up?"

"Yeah, here let's get you to bed."

She helped him sit up, then put herself under his arm again. She got him up and got him into bed. She covered him up and began to walk towards the door. The room was dark, but she could see just fine. Then she saw why, there was a light on the floor. She followed the light to the source and almost yelled in surprise. Her left arm was glowing with strange gold markings and lines, the same strange gold markings and lines she had seen after she woke up from seeing the unicorns.

She went into her room and sat on her bed, thinking. So this had something to do with the unicorns. What had they done to her? Had they made her some sort of over magicked witch so now she could do whatever she wanted, wandless and without even a spell? Thinking about it made her head hurt.

She got up, put her pajamas on, and climbed into bed. She was a strange one, that was for sure. What would Lupin do in the morning when he realized his ankle wasn't broken? She would have to convince him that it was just a sprain and that she was wrong. This was turning out to be a strange situation that only got stranger, who knew unicorns could mess with someone this much?