Chapter 4:
Skylar wanted to tell Harry about Sirius Black, but she couldn't bring herself to do so in a letter. She couldn't even bring herself to write a letter at all. Every time she tried to figure out what to say, she kept coming back to Sirius Black. She hoped Harry wouldn't notice her lack of letters, Harry couldn't send any with Hedwig, he'd made a promise in exchange for Hedwig's freedom that he wouldn't. Skylar also knew she was the only one sending him letters at all, what with Ron and Hermione, a, being away on holiday, and b, not having the owls to deliver letters with. Hermione didn't have an owl at all, and the Weasley's family owl, Errol, was not very reliable. This meant he'd likely notice if her letters stopped.
"His birthday is coming up isn't it?" Nick asked when she voiced this problem to her brothers. "Send him a letter then and it'll throw him off."
"For how long?" Skylar worried.
"I don't see why this is such an issue, just send him a letter about what you've been up to, even tell him about Remus." Leon offered.
"I wanted that to be a surprise." Skylar mumbled. "Remus is a connection to Harry's parents."
"That seems even more a reason to tell him." Leon said confused.
"It wouldn't be a surprise then." Skylar sighed.
But she ended up finding something to say and burrowed her mother's owl Cicil to send it.
But the bringing up of Harry's birthday luckily got her thinking about something different other than Sirius Black.
"I plan on sending him clothes." Dominique shrugged when her daughter asked her what to get him.
"Mum, you can only get him so many clothes." Skylar sighed. "How much have you given him so far?"
"Only two Christmas' worth." She shrugged, earning the roll of the eyes from her daughter.
"Why don't you get him some Quidditch stuff?" Leon offered. "You know how much he loves that."
But Skylar already knew Hermione had addressed that issue… sort of. She'd ordered a Broom Servicing Kit from the Daily Prophet for Harry.
Then again, Harry didn't even have his own Quidditch team to support…
"Though he doesn't even know what teams there are…" She mumbled to herself. Skylar grinned. "Mum!" She shouted, much to the surprise of Leon as she ran from his room.
As usual with Harry's birthday, the end of July also meant Hogwarts letters. As always, the letters arrived in the morning during breakfast, one of which the Rosenwald parents were missing from.
"It's like they don't even get to sleep." Leon muttered as he was slumped, his head in his palm, his elbow on the table.
"Elbow off the table Leon, mum says it's bad manners." Skylar reminded him, poking at the appendage.
"You know Dad came home at two in the morning, only to leave again an hour later." Leon confessed.
Remus was still with the family and sitting in his spot, his back to the windows that opened to the front drive.
"You have to remember that your father's department is in charge of catching Black." He said. "You mother isn't exactly going to let him work around the clock like that by himself now is she?" He smiled.
"Still, it has been rather quiet." Leon muttered. "When do the Weasleys get back?"
"A week or two before school begins I'm sure." Skylar sighed. "The article in the Daily Prophet said they'd be gone for a month and Ron confirmed it. They left a week ago so…" she nodded as she calculated the time.
"Well, I have to go to Hogwarts and set up a few things so your mother at least will be back home more often to look after you." Remus said.
All three of them turned to him surprised. "You're leaving?" They all questioned.
"Come now," he said chuckling, "it's not like you wont see me again."
The three sighed regardless. It was nice having Remus around, he hardly ever came to visit, due to thinking it was dangerous, but he'd been able to stay with them for a week now. It was a nice change.
Midori walked into the room then with the morning mail, and handed each child their own letter before giving Remus Nathaniel's morning newspaper.
"Hogwarts letters." Leon grinned, opening his.
"I'm surprised you're still excited." Nick confessed as he opened his, reading through the first one informing him of the train leaving at eleven a.m. on the 1st of September before he scanned through his book list.
Skylar had a letter thicker than usual and grinned as she found the extra piece of parchment inside to be the permission form for Hogsmeade. She read the letter from the Deputy Headmistress, Minerva McGonagall. Professor McGonagall was also head of Gryffindor house, in which the Rosenwald's, Weasleys, Hermione and Harry all belonged to.
Dear Miss Rosenwald,
Please note that the new school year will begin on September the first. The Hogwarts Express will leave from King's Cross station, platform nine and three-quarters, at eleven o'clock.
Third years are permitted to visit the village of Hogsmeade on certain weekends. Please give the enclosed permission form to your parent or guardian to sign.
A list of books for next year is enclosed. Yours sincerely,
Professor M. McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
"What's the village like Nick? Is it big?" She asked as she looked over the permission slip.
"Narr, it's quaint." Nick shrugged.
Leon snickered. "It's weird hearing you use words like 'quaint'." Nick rose an eyebrow at his brother before returning to his list.
Skylar's list was slightly longer than she'd expected. She needed The Standard Book of Spells, Grade Three, a new transfiguration book of Intermediate Transfiguration, several books for ancient Runes including Advanced Rune Translation, Ancient Runes Made Easy, Magical Hieroglyphs and Logograms, a Rune Dictionary and Spellman's Syllabary by Spellman. And then at the bottom was the book she suspected was for Care of Magical Creatures, The Monster Book of Monsters.
"The Monster Book of Monsters?" Skylar read.
"Yeah, that's on my list too," Nick said, before he looked at his sister. "Care of Magical Creatures right?" He asked and she nodded.
"You don't already have that one?" She asked.
"No…" he said looking confused, "Wonder what Professor Kettleburn is up to."
"I've heard he's a bit mad, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was something weird." Leon confessed.
"He apparently lost a Chimera once around the school several years ago so I wouldn't be surprised either." Nick mumbled.
"He still missing all his limbs?" Remus chuckled.
"Not all of them." Skylar rolled her eyes. "You don't know why he's added a new book do you?"
"As I take it, he hasn't." Remus smiled. "Kettleburn retired at the end of last year."
The three all shared a surprised look.
"So a new teacher is taking on Care of Magical Creature? Who?" Skylar asked excitedly.
"Oh he asked me not to say anything." Remus smiled.
"Oh come on Remus." Nick rolled his eyes, "That means you want to tell us."
"A promise is a promise Nick." Remus said.
"Remus, are you close with all the teachers?" Leon wondered.
"Close? Well, not to all. Most of them were teachers when I was at school. Dumbledore of course was there, McGonagall, Binns naturally, Snape was still a student, Kettleburn was still teaching. Honestly the teachers haven't changed much." He confessed.
"But you still wont tell us?" Leon grumbled and Remus chuckled.
"Fine, we wont ask you to tell us." Skylar shrugged.
"Try your legilimency all you want Skylar." Remus smiled. She scowled at him.
"Hey isn't is Harry's birthday tomorrow?" Nick suddenly asked.
"Yes," Skylar grinned, "speaking of which can I borrow one of your owls to send him his gift?"
"You can burrow Mitchum if you'd like." Nick shrugged.
"Thanks." She grinned before turning to Remus. "Remus, do you have to go now?"
"Yes, wont you come to Diagon Alley with us!" Leon beamed.
"And when are you going?" Remus asked.
The three were quiet and then turned to look at one another.
"Well, we can't go until the Weasleys get back." Leon said.
"You want to spend another day with Ginny in Diagon Alley?" Nick asked with a mock surprised look on his face. Leon glared at him. "Wasn't one last year enough?"
"We don't have to go with the Weasleys." Skylar said, "But I'd like to, with Hermione and Harry too."
"And we all know you want to go with Fred and George, run into Lee if you can." Leon said to Nick, who shrugged.
"Well, when you figure out a date, you let me know." Remus chuckled.
"Well, then I'm going to send Hermione and Ron a letter and ask them." Skylar decided.
"Hang on we can all send them some." Nick decided. "And since you're using Mitchum for Harry, we can send Reylon."
"Don't you think it'd be unfair to have him go to France and then down to Egypt all at once?" Skylar asked. Nick looked surprised for a moment before he sighed.
"I keep forgetting she's on holiday too. That's a good point."
The three of them moved to their bedrooms and got dressed for the day, before heading back to the living room. Remus leant on the doorframe as he looked at the three students, Leon lying on the stomach on his floor, Skylar curled up on the couch and Nick sitting at the table between the three couches. Each of them had parchment in front of them and each was scratching at them with quills in their hands.
"I'm assuming you two have finished your holiday homework then?" He interrupted and was looking at the older two Rosenwalds.
Nick nodded without looking up. "I'm almost done." He responded and Remus turned his gaze onto Skylar.
She paused at the feeling of his eyes on her and she looked up at him. "I started it…" she admitted.
Her brothers turned to her as Remus rose an eyebrow.
"Well, I started it all with Ron, we got Transfiguration done, mostly cause it was the most exciting and started on our History of Magic essay but then he left." She admitted, rambling.
"You've had how much time with the Weasleys on holiday and didn't think to continue?" Remus asked smirking.
She pouted, her bottom lip jutting out. "I was hoping to do it all with Ron, it's more fun when you do it with another." She confessed. "Besides, Ron slacks off so much that it makes me feel like I'm actually accomplishing something and then I do better." She grinned.
Nick, Remus and Leon all starred at her for a moment before they started laughing. She shrugged with a smirk on her face.
She returned to her letter as the three males laughed before she signed off the bottom.
"Right, I've finished my letter." She smiled as she folded it up. Nick quickly returned to his letter, still snickering and Leon began to fold up his. "Mum promised that Harry could come stay this holidays and I think, especially with the Sirius Black issue, that it's about time he did." She confessed as she stood up. "You two done?" Nick signed off his and nodded before he held his hand out to his sister. Skylar handed him the letter and Nick handed them both to Leon.
Reylon and Mitchum were both enjoying the sunlight outside, sitting in a tree and napping, their heads under their wings. Leon and his siblings moved through the garden trying to find the two owls before the barn owl and little tawny came into view.
"Reylon!" Leon called, waking the bird up. It blinked as it rose its head and looked around, blinking in the sun light. Reylon stretched his little wings before flying down to sit on Leon's outstretched hand. "We have a bit of a trip for you to take Rey." Leon said as the owl stuck his leg out, clearly not bothered. Nick began to tie the three letters to the owl's leg. "We need you to deliver these to the Weasleys, they're in Egypt at the moment." Reylon ruffled his feathers proudly before stretching his wings and taking off into the sky.
"Oh, I should probably go and get Harry's birthday present to send." Skylar remembered and she turned to hurry back into the house.
