Chapter 03 – End of Summer Break

oPart 1o

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Hermione

o

It's been ten days and I still can't believe I'm here and safe! My parents tell me they have settled in at their new house. I still know where it is, but it's now covered with the Fidelius charm, so that I'd only know once the Secret Keeper actually tells me. Of course the Muggles don't feel anything of the charm, but if wizards or witches look for it, they won't find it. I presume that Dumbledore is the Secret Keeper. Luckily the insurance accepted the claim and they would have a full replacement. But so many memories are lost, so much of what we all loved is gone up in ashes, especially our library. I'm glad it was insured on its own. In the end there's only one thing that matters, we're all alive and well, nothing is more important than that.

Today starts off sunny. I sit up in my bed, pull the curtains open and get up. The window is open and I stretch, looking over the geraniums out in the open. I will never tire of this view. We're in a valley, but high up on the northern side of it. The house faces south and we get to see the mountains really close. I smile, then stretch once more and start to look through the geraniums to pick off the wilted ones. I have taken over from where Barb left, caring for the flowers on the window sills and on the stone terrace which runs along the front of the house between the façade and the garden. This done I banish the flowers to the compost in the garden below, pick up my dressing gown and go to take a quick shower. I'm perfectly happy right now. True, I do miss my parents, but I'm with my best friends and my favourite teacher and my probably soon to be other favourite teacher, judging from the way we worked on that potion together. I'm almost able to forget there is a Voldemort and Death Eaters running around.

'It's been a month now and not the slightest word about anything,' I muse.

The Daily Prophet has never even brought anything about Death Eater activities, not even in hushed tones. Only comments from the Ministry that the rumours Dumbledore spreads are just that, rumours, and that there's not the slightest sign of Voldemort having returned. Dumbledore has not been able to tell us anything else though and neither has Arthur Weasley, so maybe they are really only gathering their forces right now and the attacks on my family and the Weasleys were warnings for Harry. Mr. Weasley has worked tirelessly among the more open minded Ministry employees and has even found a tireless helper in Amos Diggory, so at least some people are prepared for the things to come. It's strange to know we're on the eve of a war. Have people felt like that before the First and Second Muggle World War as well, I wonder?

I push those thoughts out of my mind and get dressed. I traipse downstairs to start the breakfast. While I'm busy I hear someone else coming down, turn around and see Ginny joining me.

"Hey! Did I wake you up?" I ask her.

She shakes her head and says: "No, you didn't. Good morning Hermione."

"Morning, Ginny."

We both take a mug of tea outside and sit down on the stoop of the kitchen door to enjoy the morning sun. The kitchen isn't the brightest spot in the house and we have to turn on the light when we are in there for most of the time. It runs behind the three front rooms and has only one window on the side of the house, next to the entrance. Before there was probably another door to the middle front room. The other end of the kitchen is now the bathroom, which holds the window on the other side. But the door to the outside faces east, so we have the morning sun. We sit in companionable silence. Harry comes down next and joins us.

"Hi girls!"

"Morning, Harry!" we both say.

"And how lovely it is," he smiles, "Did you sleep well?"

"Wonderfully, thanks, Harry. You're quite the charmer today," says Ginny, looking up at him. I wonder if she still holds on to her crush for him.

"Well, I'm feeling so perfectly happy right now, I have to show it to everyone else!"

o

o

Harry

o

The girls move apart and let me sit down between them. I love them both; a lot. I've been trying to sort out my feelings for the two since they have come to live with us. Ginny is sweet. She shows signs of becoming a very powerful witch, but so far she still needs to grow into that, as she is still very shy and rarely speaks up. Though she did start to become more outspoken lately. She is undoubtedly a very lovely girl, too. She takes after her father and is slender, freckled, her coppery red hair hanging way below her shoulder blades. Hermione is still quite small for her age, but the same goes for myself. She is quite well developed by now and I throw a quick glance at her chest. Hermione's hair is as bushy as ever, but lovely and soft, and it hangs down almost as long as Ginny's. She has only two or three stray freckles on her nose, which I really think is very cute. Both girls have almost the same colour of dark brown eyes. Both have a lovely nose, Ginny's is a bit longer.

Their looks is one thing, they're both good looking, but I also like their personality. Naturally I'm a lot closer to Hermione than to Ginny, because we've already gone through so much together. I mostly think of our adventure when we saved Sirius' life using Hermione's time-turner and how she stuck to me last year, when most of the students at Hogwarts were putting me down. Ginny's everlasting crush on me doesn't help because until recently she's been so blocked around me and she's only ever seen the boy-who-lived, only recently she started to see me, Harry. Now she opens up a bit and doesn't sputter around me and I'm glad to see that she isn't prone to embarrassing little accidents anymore. It seems to me that I can now start to know the Ginny Ron knows and loves. Hermione is more serious than Ginny, that much is clear. Which doesn't mean she doesn't have a sense of humour. Oh dear, my thoughts about the girls turn around in circles. It might be best to just hang around them a lot and maybe I'll be able to find out. Having a sudden inspiration I get up again after a while and say:

"I'm going to wake Ron. See you later!"

I run up the stairs and don't even bother to knock when I invade Ron's bedroom. I pull the curtains open and hop on the bed next to a groaning Ron, who turns around and moans:

"Harry! It's not your birthday anymore, you know! You've no right to wake me up this early!"

"Early? It's close to ten! Rise and shine, honey! – Listen, Ron, I have a fairly important question…"

"A question? What about?"

"It's difficult… but I want to be totally fair. Are you still interested in Hermione? You know, like in going out with Hermione…"

"Harry! Of course not! And what do you mean by 'still'? It was never like that!"

"Are you dead sure about that?" I ask, a bit breathless.

"Why do you want to know? – Oh! You have a crush on her, don't you?"

I blush a bit. No, I think, I'm blushing badly.

"I'm sorting out things," I say evasively.

"Aha! Well, I'm still sorting mine out, but I can definitely tell you, I'm not looking at Hermione that way… good luck, mate."

"It's difficult, Ron! I look at Ginny and think she's incredibly sweet, then I think of all that I've already been through with Hermione and think she's just impossibly nice and both of them are very cute and beautiful… how am I going to solve this?"

"By not making my sister unhappy!" Ron growls.

"As if I would want to do something like that! But if I land with Hermione she might be very unhappy for a while, Ron! I don't know if she's still got that crush, but she'll be hurt in any case if I fall for Hermione."

"Well, you're on your own in that department. I can't help you solve this."

"Do you have a crush on someone?"

"No," Ron says curtly. And adds, after a few moments: "And if I had it would not be someone with breasts…"

I stare at Ron. Is he telling me he's gay?

"Ron? Do you think you're rather playing for the other team?"

"'M not sure. It's just that girls don't seem to turn me on in any way," he admits with another blush.

"Listen to your wet dreams, then… they should tell you what you like," I grin.

Ron blushes again. Then he admits:

"That's why I think I'm gay."

"Look at Remus and Sirius, I don't think there's anything you need to be ashamed about, Ron. It's just a bit more difficult to find someone in your life."

"I know."

"Did you tell anyone else yet?"

"No. As I said, I'm still not sure."

"I see. – Will you get up now?"

Ron throws a pillow at me and says:

"After having been woken up so brutally, well, yes, I think so."

"Good! We're outside," I say cheerfully and run out of his room.

When I reach the terrace I find Ginny practicing Charms with Hermione. They have my last year's book out and are going through all the charms we learned in fourth year.

"How are you doing, Ginny?" I ask her.

"Quite well, Harry! We've been through most of the spells by now."

"That's great. You'll be perfectly ready to join our classes then."

"I expect to. That will mean that I'll be able to take my OWLS with you guys! And if we can go back to Hogwarts I'll be allowed to move up to your grade!"

"And you'll have school finished one year earlier."

"Only means I'll probably have to wait longer to get my apparition license."

Remus turns up on the living room window.

"Good morning everyone!"

"Hi Remus!" we call back in unison.

"Are you girls working?"

"Yes, Remus."

"So you'd better keep doing that. Harry, do you want to come along shopping?"

"Yep!" I say and jump up.

Remus and I get into the car and drive off to the usual shops to get the groceries for ourselves and our neighbours. Barb has given Remus a list and some money. I guard both. We start at the butcher's and move on to the dairy to get our supply of milk, cream and cheese. Finally we have to go to the shopping centre where we get everything we couldn't get in the specialised shops. I always enjoy the time I can spend alone with either Remus or Sirius. We're always able to talk about things privately.

"Remus?" I ask, while we carry our bags to the car.

"Hm?"

"How did you know Sirius was the one? How did you find out what you felt for him was love?"

Remus smiles.

"I'm not really a good person to ask that question, Harry. The wolf had a lot to say as to who I fell in love with."

"Didn't you ever like someone before Siri?"

"I did. – Or, I thought I did. It's not the same. I actually had relationships with a couple of people, before I was with Sirius and after he'd been taken to Azkaban, but I can't really tell you anything about the how. The wolf did not fully accept them anyway. You might rather ask Sirius that one, he was much less sure in the beginning than I was. I think, Moony had decided on first sight that this was his mate."

"Oh, I forgot the mating part."

"It is a good part, believe me. Neither your godfather nor I thought about ever separating. We wouldn't have, which is why he finally decided not to be the Secret Keeper of your parents. He couldn't have left me. And he suspected me, so he thought once he was your Secret Keeper, he wouldn't be able to resist me if I tried to pry the secret from him."

"That makes sense in a way."

"Which is why I have forgiven him, too. He loved me through all of this. Even though he suspected me, he loved me."

I smile.

"He chose well!"

"Thank you, Harry. – Why do you ask this question? Are you in love?"

"I don't know. That's rather why I'm asking it. I want to know if there's a way one can know for certain that one's in love. I don't think I am that far…"

"I think, if you really are, you will know for good."

"What if one likes more than one person? And can't decide?"

We have put the groceries into the car and sit inside again. Remus closes the belt, starts the car and looks back to get out of the parking space. He is clearly amused and replies:

"Then one should wait for a while longer. I'm quite sure there are signs which one is the right one. And in the end there's always the possibility that it's someone entirely different, you know."

"This is too complicated," I grumble.

"If it is something serious I would not play around if I were you, Harry, even if it is just an option right now. If it's just for experimenting go ahead, but don't leave the girl in the dark. You're torn between Ginny and Hermione, aren't you?"

I nod. He's damn perceptive. Or I'm damn obvious, that is probably more the case.

"And I don't want to hurt either one. I like them both to bits, but I don't know how I can figure out which one I like more…"

"There's no recipe for that, I think. How about you follow the advice you gave Ron before? It was a useful one…"

"Oh, you heard that?"

"You left the door open and, well, there's my hearing… sorry about that."

"So you know about Ron, too?"

Remus nods.

"He'll not like that."

"We won't mention it, Harry. If he needs more advice he knows where to find us."

I sigh.

When we get back home, I take Barb's shopping over to her and help her stowing it all away. She looks at me and says:

"I've seen you with your two friends this morning. They are lovely girls, Harry."

"They are! Hermione has been my best friend since almost the beginning of school at Hogwarts. She's always top of our year. Right now she's teaching Ginny, so Ginny will be able to join us in our classes."

"Are you a bit in love with her?"

"I don't know. – I like her. A lot. But I also like Ginny. A lot. So I just can't seem to figure it out."

"That's tough. Why don't you spend time with only one of them at a time. That should help you figuring it out… the way I understand it you will only start school in September, is that right?"

"Yes. That's how it is in Britain."

"We used to have that here, too, now it's different. It used to be that farmer's children needed to help their parents in the summer, but that's of course not necessary anymore, so they've mostly changed the vacation patterns."

I consider her advice and I'm a bit more cheerful when I return to the farmhouse. I ask Hermione if she wants to go for a walk with me.

o

o

Hermione

o

"A walk? That would be lovely…"

We start off through the pasture right behind the house and up the hill until we reach the top, then we sit down in the grass. It has been mowed a month ago and is growing back slowly. I pull out a blade of grass and chew on it. I always do that when I'm nervous and I'm very nervous right now. Harry usually only goes on a walk with me when he's stressed out but today he's all relaxed and seems cheerful. Harry flops down on his back and stares into the sky.

"I wonder where all the cows are…" he says.

"Housi told me that most of them are higher up in the mountains in summer. So the farmers can harvest the grass here for the winter feeding."

"Oh, I see."

"I love it here. And you?" I ask.

"It seems so unreal. Don't you think so, too? So far away and we're not even far from the next town. But you notice nothing of it."

"That's true."

"But yes, I really like it here, too. – What's not to like? We're a family and we have another month free of school and we have Remus and Sirius around all the time. Even in class it won't be much different with them…"

I laugh softly. How typical it is that Harry would name the family as his source of happiness. I really have a good relationships with my parents, but I also have no siblings. I enjoy it, too, having my three friends around like siblings. Though I would have liked one of them rather not as a sibling. I look down on Harry. Those eyes… gosh, I've never seen any green eyes like these. They are like emeralds.

o

o

Harry

o

I notice she's staring at me and it gives me a fuzzy feeling. Does that mean she'd be interested in taking our friendship one step further?

"I'm looking forward to them teaching us, Harry. We can learn so much more being only four of us in the class. This will be great!" she says.

Before I can reply, a figure appears just a few metres away from us at the edge of the forest. He is dressed in black robes, so my first thought is Death Eater, but then I notice that there's no mask and the hood of his cloak is down. It's Snape. Hermione realises it at the same time.

"Snape? What does he want here?" I wonder in a low voice.

"No idea," she replies and then calls: "Professor Snape!"

Snape looks up and comes close. We both get up and greet him:

"Hello, Professor. Did you want to come to Remus and Sirius?" Hermione asks.

"Have to. Where do I find the place you live?" he asks back curtly, ever the same old miserable overgrown bat.

"You're pretty close actually, it's the farmhouse over there." Hermione points at the house.

"Ah! No need to accompany me, I'll get there." He snaps and turns around.

"Everyone's probably on the terrace at the front of the house, next to the garden."

Snape nods and stalks off. Hermione and I follow him a bit slower. He surely has news, we don't want to miss out if we can listen in on the conversation with Remus and Sirius.

o

o

Remus

o

Sirius and I are sitting in two comfortable deck chairs and read. Sirius is still going through all the theory for his Transfiguration lessons. He is almost done with that and has the Potions books already waiting next to him on the ground. All of a sudden I hear the Death Eater alarm going off. Looking up I see that it's Severus sticking to it. I'm taking the ward down, which he cannot cross, then reset it after he's passed.

"Oh, hello Severus. Come, sit down under the sunshade – you would melt otherwise, it's pretty warm today."

"Lupin – Black! I'd better, yes. I'm bringing the school materials you'll need for the next school year and I'm also bringing you news that you will have to add two more students to your group. – Do you remember Blaise Zabini, Lupin?"

"Yes, now a fifth year Slytherin," I confirm.

"His parents have been killed. He only escaped because he had been with his grandmother at the time. We have him safely at Hogwarts right now."

"Death Eaters?"

"Who else?" is Severus' grumpy answer.

"Now why would they kill Slytherins?" Sirius asks.

"They were not inclined to follow the Dark Lord, Black. Reason enough to kill even purebloods. Not every Slytherin follows the Dark Lord. That's one. The other is Justin Finch-Fletchley. Hufflepuff. Muggle-born."

"I remember Justin, too. – Oh, some more visitors, just a moment, Severus, I'll have to tend to them, they are the people who will reconstruct the part of the house which is going to become the class room."

I get up and walk over to where two persons climb out of a car. I greet them and lead them to the house, where we discuss some details about when the construction work would be starting. I guide them to the very back of the house and we look at the former stable.

"Could you possibly rebuild this into bedrooms and bathrooms? We'll also need passages to the rest of the house."

"Of course we could. We thought we should offer to do that part as well, but you never mentioned anything…"

"We didn't expect to use the extra living space. The reason for the reassessment of the available space is that we will receive some more pupils, so it would be great to have this done, too."

"We could draw out some plans and give you some ideas in a few days if you like. How many rooms will you need?"

"Well, this is about the same size as the front rooms and kitchen on the other side, isn't it?"

"Yes. Looks like this is about it."

"That would mean two rooms on the inside, one bathroom in between and three rooms to the outside wall on the first two floors and three more rooms and a bathroom on the top floor. Just in case they decide to dump more students on us. As I now think they will."

The architect laughs and says, serious again:

"But we won't get that done before September."

"That won't matter. The two more we will get for sure can bunk with the two boys. We'd like the rooms in the same style as the rooms up front, so that the outside looks like the front, too. Dormer windows on the upper floors."

"Good, I'll hold that thought. You'll have our ideas within two days. I'll find away to fit the rooms. The construction work starts tomorrow. I wanted to present the man who's leading the workers to you. Any questions you may have, just ask Mr. Franzen, he'll probably know or tell you to ask us. What I think we can do without much planning is adding the floors along with the gallery floors and maybe also fix the floors and the heating and electricity parts…"

o

o

Sirius

o

I summon some iced tea for us all to drink. Ginny sits at the table under the sunshade and writes a letter for her parents. Ron is sitting in the front room and plays on the computer. All the windows are wide open.

Snape looks around.

"Pretty place…" he growls. I bet he begrudges us the pleasure to have an easy way out of the war right now..

"Yes, it is. The house is great, too. We're all happy here, believe me. It's like a small bit of heaven after all I've been through. The kids are great, too. I'm sure, Blaise and Justin will adjust well and be just as happy."

"You're going to teach them Potions, I suppose? Lupin wasn't worth much in that subject…"

"Yes. Right now I've worked through all the Transfiguration theory again, the fifth year bit in any case, I'm ready to go through the Potions now. Will you give me what you've planned to do with them?"

"I've got it all here with me. – Were these people Muggles?"

"Yes, don't do any magic until they are gone. The neighbours and former owners of the house are Muggles, too, but they know about us and they're comfortable with it."

Hermione and Harry have sat down at the table, too. Harry has gone to get some glasses and more iced tea. He takes out a game to play with Hermione and Ginny joins them once she has finished her letter. We see Remus showing the architects to their car and once they are gone he joins us again. A slight wind starts to blow. Then, as we continue talking, I notice the sky covering and I'm not the only one. By now we have learned that this is a sign for a hefty thunderstorm, so we quickly banish everything inside and close all the windows.

"You better turn the computer off, Ron!" Hermione calls.

"Why?"

"Impending thunderstorm! Computers don't like that much."

"Oh. – Okay."

Barb's dog comes running inside with us. He feels the coming tempest, too. And really, not long after that we hear the first claps of thunder and see the first bolts of lightning. The kitchen is getting as dark as night and we turn on the light.

"Let's go to the living room. Though we will have to turn on the light there, too," I suggest.

We sit down and Snape resizes the packages he has brought. There is the syllabus for all the subjects we intend to teach, then there are the school books for the children, including the ones for the two boys who would be added to the group, then there are all the potions ingredients that came in dried form.

"I'll send you all the fresh parts when you need them. Or can you get them locally?"

"We have to go to Bern, but that's okay, I can get them here. It's a good sized apothecary. And maybe I can owl order them," I say.

"Just hope that next time there won't be any Lucius Malfoy walking past when we're in it…" Remus remarks.

"Lucius? In Switzerland? What was he doing there, I wonder…"

"No idea, and we didn't wait to find out, we had the shop owner show us an alternative exit and were out of there," I say.

"That was probably wise. Well, inquire and tell me if you should need anything sent. We can always use Anana, though it would be better if you can get them locally," Snape says.

"That's good then. – So the attacks have started?" asks Remus.

"In a way. Not much so far, but I know of several raids already. That Zabini killing was a routine bullying thing though. He wants to point out that he won't take 'no' for an answer."

"How does Fudge react?" I ask.

"Not at all of course, what would you think, Black? No, they are quick to hush it all up, but we have order members who usually get there before the Aurors do and they take the tracks and pictures. When the time is right we'll play them into the hands of the Daily Prophet. We have already gathered some evidence that Aurors are to put memory charms on neighbours so they won't remember seeing the Dark Mark. Not by order of Bones, by direct order of Fudge, but I think, they're mostly disregarding it."

"Fudge is dangerous!" I remark.

"And he sits right in Lucius Malfoy's pocket, because he already got so many 'donations' that he's an easy target for blackmail. Lucius practically orders him around. All we need is some proof for it and we'll get it. Then we can do Fudge in, and possibly Lucius as well," Snape says.

"If he hasn't already consolidated his power too well to be touched!" I throw in and ask: "Anything you could do about catching Pettigrew?" I ask.

"I've only seen him once so far. I think Voldemort keeps him out of sight. But I've only been summoned three times. The first time wasn't pleasant."

"But you were able to get back into the fold?" Remus asks, wide-eyed.

"More or less. I think I'm still on probation, but I'll get there. I know very well how to handle the Dark Lord. I'm just afraid that I will be the cause of some deaths. He's already ordered me to brew several poisons and I can't have them all fail and I definitely can't refuse to brew them."

"You do need to prove yourself. That's an ugly job, Severus," says Remus and I agree wholeheartedly. It's dirty work, dangerous on top of it and I do have quite a lot of respect for Snape to take it upon himself. Tougher and braver than most other Slytherins he is.

"You've got the nicer end here… never mind. – What I wanted to ask you was when you need fresh Wolfsbane potion, Lupin?"

"Sirius is working on it, I probably don't need any from you anymore, Severus. Thank you for brewing it for me."

"Good. Well then, I must be going."

"When will you bring Blaise and Justin?" Remus asks.

"Minerva will do that. I don't know when exactly, security reasons. So I won't be able to give anything away, not even under torture."

"Fine. We'll just arrange that Harry moves in with Ron then. Until we have the back part of the house reconstructed they will have to bunk together."

"They should survive that."

The reconstruction work on the barn starts the next day. Whatever was left in the barn has been cleared by all of us, then we've thoroughly cleaned the whole barn, so they'll be able to start right away.

The first workers to turn up are the carpenters, who construct the wooden frames on the outside walls for the glass windows and the doors.

Then there's a new bit of cellar dug out very carefully and connected to the existing basement, so we have a place to put in the new heating. It will be a heating system that uses the heat of the earth, which warms up the water pumping through the pipes in the house and warming up the floors. We can't get the floor heating in the front rooms, but it can be connected to the old system and use the existing radiators. A thin layer of cement is added to the floor in both remaining parts of the house, then the heating is put in and the pipes get laid out throughout the ground floor. That gets covered with another layer of cement. While this all dries, the heating is connected in the cellar. They fill the existing door to the back with bricks and break a new door into the wall where it will be needed later on to get to the bathroom. A second door is added for the passage to the rooms.

Luckily our house is already connected to the local sewer pipe system, all we need to do is to get additional water pipes for the drinking water and the drainage. There's already a water line in the back part of the house, we just have to add the pipes to the upper floors and to the new bathroom on the ground floor. Hot water tanks have to be added to the upper bathrooms.

Once the floor and the walls have been made, the carpenters are back. They have a lot of work to do, to change the old thin floor of the hay barn to the new solid floor of our library and add a staircase. They add a neat row of four widely spaced pillars made of solid old oak. Then they continue with the frame of the floor, which leans to the back wall. The first floor covers roughly two thirds of the size of the ground floor.

Now they build the next pillars, which will carry the floor of the future common room. Another staircase leads up to it. We want a larger common room, so we won't be crowded in the living rooms up front of the house.

The architects return with the floor plans for the remaining third of the house. They look perfect and we order them on the spot. Remus takes the girls out for a shopping trip to choose the bathroom equipments. As soon as the architects receive the choices they order everything.

All the new rooms looking out the north front of the house will receive the same windows and shutters as we have on the southern end. On the two first floors we have two rooms that look out at the side. There's a regular window on the ground floor and a dormer window on the first floor. On the top floor is only one bedroom looking out to the side, it receives two dormer windows. Another dormer window will be added for the bathroom opposite that bedroom.

The work should be done by the end of October.

The class room on the ground floor will be fitted with a whiteboard which we can let down from the ceiling. I'll furnish it with two rows of long tables, and some more as the potion stations where the tables will be covered with granite tops. Since the barn area makes for a large part of the house we will have lots of space. The class room floor will be partly tiled and partly covered with wall to wall carpets for additional warmth. The upper levels receive hardwood floors, covered with carpets. On the first floor we will set up the library with shelves along the sides and in the middle there is space for some work tables. The top floor will be furnished with several armchairs and sofas and some small tables like a fairly large living room. It will serve as the kid's common room.

o

o

Remus

o

Three days after Snape's visit Minerva McGonagall brings Blaise Zabini, Justin Finch-Fletchley and the Patil twins. Sirius and I welcome them and lead them inside the house as it is raining.

"Hello everyone! Come in, it's too ghastly out there, we'll get some tea ready. Two more, eh?" Sirius asks.

"Unfortunately. It looks like the Death Eaters want to rot out our fifth years. Do you remember Shannah and Vaidyanathan Patil?"

"Yes, of course. Vaidyanathan was about three or four years ahead of us in Gryffindor and Shannah was in our year in Ravenclaw…" I say.

"That's the ones. Well, they've been attacked, too, but they were able to get away. They asked Albus, if Parvati and Padma could stay at Hogwarts, upon which he offered them to send the girls here instead. They were very glad about the offer. I hope you have enough space here?"

"That's okay. The back part of the house will also be renovated and we'll have a load of new rooms there, something like thirteen. But until then they'll have to cram together a bit. Ginny and Hermione can move together and you two can have one of their rooms," I offer.

"Thank you, Professor Lupin," says Padma.

All four teens stare at Sirius though. Of course he looks much nicer than on the photos which have been published of him, but they know who he is. Minerva notices their looks and declares:

"You will hear all about Professor Black's plights and adventures, rest assured that we have not handed you over to a murderer! Do you all have your luggage?"

The teens produce their minimised belongings and Minerva enlarges everything. Then she brings another package forth which contains all the school books for Parvati and Padma.

"These are your schoolbooks. – Yours are already here," Minerva explains the boys.

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny have come in with curious looks on their faces. I look around and remark:

"By the look of things we're going to be a regular dependence of Hogwarts."

"It does look like it."

"Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, would you kindly show your schoolmates up to their rooms? I'm sure, Professor McGonagall still wants to talk to us about some school matters," I say.

"Of course, Remus."

o

o

Harry

o

We simply levitate Justin's and Blaise's things into their rooms, probably much to Professor McGonagall's astonishment. I help Blaise, Ron helps Justin, then we show them Ron's room which we have cleared for them yesterday.

"Here, that's the room you can use until you get the new ones. It will take about two or three months until they're finished though. The bathroom is down next to the kitchen, the one up here is the girls'," I explain.

"Thanks. Sorry to push you out of your room, Ron," says Blaise.

"Oh, that's just for a while! I don't mind. I hope you like it here, so far this summer has been brilliant, hasn't it, Harry?"

"Absolutely! We've had nothing but fun."

"Really? To be honest I was rather shocked to see Black!" Blaise admits.

"No need to be! He's a great chap… you'll all hear the story tonight, either he'll tell you or we will. Just make yourselves comfortable, okay? Is it alright at all, to put you two together?" I ask.

"Yes, that's okay with me… hope you don't mind, Finch-Fletchley…"

"Don't worry, I'll survive."

"I'll leave you then, just come down when you're ready!" I say and leave the room with Ron.

o

o

Ginny

o

Hermione and I help Padma and Parvati bring their luggage into their room. We clear mine, I move in with Hermione. Padma and Parvati help me empty the wardrobe and chest of drawers, then I banish everything to the other room, while the twins organise their things. Hermione looks back into their room to tell them to come down when they are ready, but Padma holds her back for a moment.

"Hermione, I was frightened to death seeing that man! And you live with him as if he hadn't killed all those Muggles…"

"He hasn't killed anyone, Padma. It just looked like he did, but he was framed. You'll hear the full story tonight, I'm sure we'll go through it all. Sirius is the kindest and one of the funniest persons you'll ever meet in your life and I can promise you to learn a LOT with him and Remus as teachers."

"I did like Professor Lupin. He's always been calm and also fair. Is it true he's a werewolf?"

"Yes, it's true. Just a little patience, we'll discuss all that, we won't get around it now that you four are here. You don't know any of the story at all…"

"Okay, see you later then. This place looks really lovely!"

"It's nice here. Just wait until you see it when the weather's nice!"