Chronicles

by Mariann's

Sequel to A Year In Switzerland The ongoing lives of Remus, Sirius and their chosen family / Pairings RL/SB HP/HG JP/LP and many others

21. A Bunch of New Animals

A/N I have to apologise for letting this lie dormant for so long! But, after the indecent long wait you get two chapters. It was meant to be one, just turned out massively long, so I split it up into two chapters.

Thanks for the support of some of you. I never wanted to leave this story behind, just some other ideas popped up and distracted me. But on we go now!

Chapter 20 – A Bunch of New Animals

Thursday, 6.1.2000 / Remus

We're busy packing and moving on to the Merry Den. I have to leave the family as soon as we're there to show up at the Ministry where I've arranged a date with the person responsible for Portkey transportation at the Department of Magical Transportation for the establishment of a permanent Portkey between the Sunnegg and the Merry Den and the Sunnegg and Hogwarts for the specific use of our family. Since those are regulated they have to be made under the watch of this department. The official I meet is an elderly woman who reminds me of Minerva McGonagall in her attitudes. I explain our needs and she replies:

"I can see your needs, Professor. Do you have an object that can be used for the Portkeys?"

"Yes, I do. I've brought it along, so we might enchant it right away. Actually it's two ropes, in two colours to clearly distinguish the different destinations. They are long enough to give room for a larger group when more than the five of us make the journey. We're a fairly big and still growing family. As I've mentioned before we're five persons in our family who will use it for the most part. We need one each for the stretch Hogwarts – Switzerland and back and between Switzerland and the Merry Den and back. Of course we could do with the one between Switzerland and the Merry Den and then use the Floo, but it's always a bit of a hassle with the small children."

"That looks very practical. The children will be able to hold on easily."

"That's what we thought. We don't know if there won't be more children in the future yet, but there's a strong possibility. We'd simply have to travel back and forth too many times with several children who are too young to use the Floo on their own. Besides it's much faster and safer if all can go together."

I enchant the ropes in her presence. This kind of Portkey is permanent and needs to be activated with a password. I'm glad for it, because it gets more and more difficult to apparate with the children, especially since we now have Addie with us, too. Now the whole family can hold onto the rope and we're getting there and back easily. The blue rope is for the Merry Den and the red one for Hogwarts. Addie can use the Floo, so between Hogwarts and the Merry Den we can use that, especially since our fireplace at Hogwarts is connected to the network.

I make a loop out of the ropes and hang the blue one on the clothes rack in the entrance hall at the Merry Den. The red one will be taken along to Hogwarts on Sunday.

Saturday, 8.1.2000 / Sirius

Today is another Quidditch day. Ron and Justin accompany Remus, myself, Addie and the twins to the Harpies stadium. The match coming up promises a great day, as my favourite team is opposed by Puddlemere United. We have pretty good seats and even though the twins don't know anything about Quidditch yet we take them with us. We've taken one of the boxes, so they can sit down on a thick blanket with some toys. We keep up the warming charms and have plenty of hot chocolate for everyone, but the adult version is spiked with some 'Kirsch', a very nice and strong clear cherry liquor. As these are two top teams of about the same form and strength we expect a fairly long game. But there should be some exciting action. Angelina is fully back on the team. We look around the packed stadium and watch the newsreels on the display. The stadium speaker informs us:

"The game will begin in fifteen minutes, so we have time for a little display from our newest sponsor. Ladies and gentlemen, watch the following very special advert for THE DRAGON'S TALES!"

Of course that makes us all look up! Draco sponsors the Harpies? Wow!

The 'ad' is a spectacular little show with a dragon rider, presenting a Welsh Green. He's flying a few times around the stadium, pulling a banner with the ad for Dragon's Tales and spreading leaflets across the public. Addie catches one and grins.

"Hey, look at this! That's the flyer for the fun park!"

The stadium speaker announces:

"The Dragon's Tales is a brand new wizarding fun park in southern France, which will open doors on Saturday, 15th April 2000. An ideal place to plan a short vacation, in combination with a few days on the beaches of the French Mediterranean along the famous Côtes d'Azur. You will find a contest in the flyer and we are going to draw ten winners of a prolonged weekend for the official opening at Dragon's Tales, including the Portkey, accommodation in the hotel in Nice, two days' entry of the fun park and taking part of the official inauguration for a family or group of friends up to six persons! So don't hesitate to fill in the blanks in the flyer and drop it in the urns which are placed at the exits! The lucky winners will be informed by owl and announced at the next home game of the Holyhead Harpies in five weeks! So don't miss the match against the Tutshill Tornadoes if you take part in the contest!"

Wow again! That's a pretty good idea. Of course we are already in possession of the invitation to this great event and Addie is already looking forward to it with great anticipation. I think it's a good idea to sponsor several contests. That should rouse interest. As the park is now announced I expect to find a number of ads in the Magic Chronicle and other newspapers in the near future.

There seems to be quite a lot of agitation about that in the stands, obviously the announcement of the contest has been good enough to rouse interest. Many people try to get hold of the flyers. In our box are several people who still look for one. Addie offers hers to a man in the seat behind her.

"Don't you want it yourself, little lady?" the man asks her.

"I won't need it, I'm already invited there…" she says with a grin.

"Oh, what a lucky girl you are!"

"I know I am. I'm so excited already, but it's still so long until then!"

"I can imagine that it's hard to wait! But now you have Quidditch to watch. Do you like Quidditch?"

"I love Quidditch. But it's only one of the first matches I get to see," Addie explains.

I let her speak to the man, even though he's a stranger; I think she does need to make her own experiences so I just listen and be prepared to interfere if needed. I can 'hear' him wondering. He asks her:

"But you seem to have small siblings along. Why couldn't you see any matches before?"

"Because my Father was an evil man who didn't let me out of my flat. Only when my big brother here found me I was allowed to go out! He sits there and he's the Daddy of the little ones."

And now I can hear the man gasp. I look around and groan. My little sister had to catch a Daily Prophet reporter and tell him her story, oh dear! He looks at me and of course he recognises me immediately. I take a deep breath and speak up:

"My little sister has been hurt beyond badly by the ways our father has treated her until last summer. I would not like to see her hurt even more by having to read her story in the Prophet. So hold your quill back and forget about this. She's only just healing now. Should I read anything in the paper you will hear from my barristers."

"I'm sorry, sir, I was just rather shocked to hear such a story… you are Sirius Black, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am. Believe me, shock was nowhere near the feelings we had when we found her. I've been so outraged I would have loved to have it brought to the public, but I have my little sister to protect. My mother is dead now and my father will die soon, going public would only hurt ourselves. Adara would suffer from being pulled through the papers like that. As she said, our father was an evil man. He locked her up from the day she was born, so Addie doesn't know yet how to be careful, she is still learning to interact with people. Until last summer she's never talked to anyone except her father and a crazy old house-elf. When we found them Father was transported to Azkaban on the spot as we were able to find proof of his repeated use of Unforgivable curses. So you can imagine that it was not easy to approach her and convince her that we would not be as cruel as he was."

"Excuse my inquiring, but as a long-time reporter for the Daily Prophet I think I'm quite familiar with your family's recent history. I'm dead sure we've printed the obituaries for both of your parents during the eighties. It must have been while you were in Azkaban…"

"Quite right. They even took the pain to inform me about them in Azkaban. Only my parents staged their deaths. Instead, they completely withdrew from the public. Their plan was to produce another heir because my younger brother died and I wasn't exactly available nor what they liked to have as the heir to the noble and most ancient house of Black. Adara was the product. The death of my mother a year after she was born kept them from another try for a male heir. Addie is a girl after all, not what they wanted. Believe me, when we found her, I was as outraged as you are right now."

"No wonder! That is outrageous."

"I would have loved to kill my father for what he's done to her. I was never close with him at all. I never thought of ever going back to my family's house, but I needed to clean up some legal things with my inheritance, so I had to go there for the needed documents, which we could only find at the house. I wasn't too keen on going back to a house where I had spent an extremely unpleasant childhood. Of course I had thought my parents were both dead, like everyone else. I went there with some friends and family as well as the family barrister to look for the needed documents expecting to find a house empty of any form of life. You can probably imagine the shock I had to find a living house-elf in the house and my father who was just barely still conscious and sick on his deathbed. And then finding out I have a little sister. We immediately asked someone from the Ministry there and she was not best pleased to learn that their records were wrong."

"Holy shit… sorry for my language! But I don't think I've ever heard a story like this!"

"I wouldn't have believed it myself if I hadn't happened to me. But there you are. Life sometimes writes the most incredible novels. If anyone would have told me twenty years ago that I'd end up being a teacher at Hogwarts I would have snorted and told the people they must be crazy. Now look what I'm doing…"

"Some people weren't very happy about that, as far as I know… we've had a few letters to the editor about that fact."

I grin.

"Yes, I know, but I suppose that's rather settled now. I can claim proudly that my students quite like me and that I have a lot I can teach them. Their feedback probably put an end to most of the parents' dislike. I've taught Potions for a year, now I've switched to Transfigurations. So far I'm having a lot of fun teaching. I would love to publicise this story, but you will have to keep mum about it – yet... As long as my sister is still a child there's no going public and once she's grown it's going to be published only if she wants it published. It would be an exemplary story of how ugly the life in one of these old pureblood families can be, you know!"

When I turn back away from the reporter, Addie looks at me anxiously and asks:

"Siri, did I do something wrong speaking to him?"

"No, darling, you couldn't know that he's a reporter. I only listened and didn't see before, so I couldn't warn you. Don't worry, love. You might just give me a little nudge next time before you start giving away your life story, okay?"

"Okay. – Oh, it starts! Go, Angelina! Go, Christine!"

"THEY'RE OFF!" the stadium speaker announces.

The game starts and we all follow it. The Chasers go into full action as soon as the Quaffle is out. The first attack comes from Puddlemere United. Madeline can prevent the goal though and throws the Quaffle out to Christine who coordinates with Dana and Angelina to find the best path to the other goal posts.

"Remember, it's Oliver who plays for Puddlemere! I can just imagine what Angelina tells him, when she gets close! He was her captain of the Gryffindor team after all so she knows his movements very well," Ron says.

"Must be fun – though not for him! How did they get along in the team? They still seem to be excellent friends," Remus asks.

"Outside of the pitch of course. Ask Harry. He was on the team when they played under Oliver. In our third year this team won the Cup as you probably remember. Fred and George only went on about how he used to repeat the same phrases to cheer the team up for the matches. They loved every minute on the team. Hey, how is the Gryffindor team doing these days, Sirius?"

"They're still building up new, but it looks quite good. At the moment there's no really outstanding team, they're all busy to rebuild. But Gryffindor's beat Ravenclaw in their first game. The next is on 12th February."

"Oh, good. Are you cheering for them?"

I grin.

"I'm just there sitting with them. I'm fair and cheer for every goal made. Remus has to watch over the speaker. Who's in Ravenclaw, so it's quite fun to hear her bashing the Slytherins with more intelligent insults than the Gryffindor commentators use."

Ron grins, too.

„Probably better. But you can show them how happy you are up in the common room, can't you?"

"Of course!"

"How do you like being head of Gryffindor house?" Justin asks.

"I love it – really! I know I don't approach it like Minerva has. I'm still finding my best course of action and they already know that I can be just as strict as she was, but I'm also trying to be closer to them than she was. I don't have any problems letting them getting close. Minerva feared nothing more than her feelings before Duncan came back… did you guys get the idea that something terrible had happened every time she turned up in the common room? We did!"

"Something serious in any case, she only came up to either yell at us to end a party or when something came up…" Ron confirms.

"Exactly. Well, I told my students that I didn't want to invoke that kind of feelings in them. I want them to be at ease when I step into the common room. They're still quite curious about what might have happened or what I want there. The older ones at least. The little ones usually come closer and start to talk. I'm not afraid to give them any form of consolation they want when they need it and every opportunity to just have fun and talk to me. I want them to learn the difference between right and wrong, but I don't only want to leave the impression as someone who punishes every time I turn up."

"Sounds good. I think, being left without any adult guidance at all in the houses is not the best thing. Not all older students are naturally more responsible," Justin remarks.

"Especially not when they're Gryffindors," I reply and laugh.

"You weren't, that's for sure," my husband reminds me.

"No, but I had to learn to feel, too, you know. The only kind of feeling I knew well was that of contempt. And it's not easy to let go of all the negative stuff I brought from home. I only knew it was wrong to feel like that, but I had no idea how to go about learning to do it all right. I'm really lucky for the friends I got. And Minerva, she just couldn't show it and since she's back with Duncan I know that she has let go of that distanced behaviour. It is receding slowly but surely."

While we talk, the game is going on speedily, back and forth and after two hours it's 80:100 for Puddlemere. Ron picks up his Omniocular and points it at Oliver who concentrates on another attack of the Harpies Chasers.

Ron

Angelina gets closer and I can see that Oliver looks at her with a wary eye. She grins and feints, then passes the Quaffle to Christine who feints again like she wants to return the Quaffle to Angelina. Oliver falls for it, but the Quaffle is going to Dana who coolly puts it into the right hoop. A huge cheer goes through the crowd. I press the replay button for Sirius and pass him the Omniocular.

"Here, look at that goal through this, it's amazing. Poor Oliver must have yelled something not very nice at Angelina there."

He takes the binoculars and looks through them, grinning. Then he gives them to Addie, who looks through the Omniocular and cheers again.

The match seems to turn in the favour of the Harpies now. They've had to struggle for a while, the Chasers not getting through to score goals for a couple of times, Oliver really is an excellent Keeper. Remus points at Aggie Morgan. She's seen the Snitch! It's been a while since anyone has seen it, but Aggie now drops through the crowd over the pitch like lead, speeding to the ground where she's seen the Snitch hovering just over the centre line. One little grab and she's got it in her hand. The referee blows his whistle three times and the game is over. The Harpies win 240:100. The stadium is in uproar for a while as all the Harpies supporters are frantically cheering.

We take our time in the long queues to get to the nearest apparition point. Justin takes Addie's hand to apparate her to the Merry Den, where we meet again to warm ourselves up with a cup of tea. Winky and Dobby bring it to the family room.

Remus

After tea I go up to the library and sit down at my desk to continue to prepare my completely new line of history subjects to cover. What an opportunity to collect history books and create a completely new course of my own! I don't have much time, but I have to go over the list carefully, so my course will be really interesting for the students. In fact I already have a very long list of topics I've noted to research and write out. I don't expect many NEWTS students as last year only three took the course in sixth year and soon stopped going to the classes with Binns altogether. There wasn't even a single seventh year who sat for the NEWT in history.

I thought it a good idea to read through a couple of set books from other countries, but they're not very inspiring either. Now that's interesting! I notice that there are huge differences between the different countries, but most only look back on their own 'glorious' magical history. An idea is born right then. I think we'll need more international cooperation on the subject of education. Just this short comparison of history texts has told me there must be nothing of the sort going on. We have to have standardised goals for all students in secondary school. Of course they need to learn about their local 'specialities', but they have to have a more even basis on their educational goals so that they all have about the same chances. If the history books are any indication there would have to be the same kind of differences between the teachings of other subjects in different countries as well! Would be a fascinating job for Minerva to start such an international campaign!

I have already contacted Madam Montgomery at the Ministry to collect information from other ministries about their local history courses. If they have courses as uninspiring as the American one I just went through then this seems to be a widespread disease!

What I find most deploring in the American course book from Salem is that it goes back to the arrival of the first European magicals to the colonies, but there's hardly a word about the indigenous peoples who were already there – and who have a very interesting magical history of themselves! I've learned from and about them while I was on an unfortunately only too short trip there ten years ago. Why are they so locked out of what's taught at Salem? Are the same types of purebloods behind that as over here or is it just the idea that before white people arrived there, the country had no magical history? I don't know, but it made me very curious what I was going to find in the French history book and the only German one I had ordered. There's nothing to be had from Durmstrang – no surprises there. They have traditionally kept their secrets for centuries. This school ought to be forced to close and open again somewhere else with a much more open-minded view of the world. The poor people don't even have an idea of what they're missing.

When I opened the French book I wasn't too surprised to find an emphasis on the wars against different kinds of magical creatures. They haven't thrown in quite as much of the Goblin wars than the Brits, but there are a number of chapters that treat other kinds like Giants and weres of all sorts. Because the French don't have a much easier approach to werewolves than the Brits and they're only just slightly less snobbish about them. Interestingly enough in the case of the French it's more a thing coming from the government and some leading families, but the rest of the population is usually much more lenient. There are many known small villages known to be solid were communities. They even have their own little education scheme since the official school, Beauxbatons, excludes them from participation. My parents never wanted me to be a part of them, because I myself didn't want to accept the wolf in me the way these werewolves do. France has a long history of the werewolf clans that live there. They do reproduce and since no werewolf is ever born a werewolf they tend to bite their children early to integrate them fully into the clans. I had found refuge in one of these clans for a while just after James and Lily were killed and they helped me on to Hungary and Romania later on.

But now more about my own preparations for the future history teachings at Hogwarts. In my view the set books in history generally ought to cover the themes that have to be worked through in an overview, not more than a synopsis of the individual events. The teacher has to impart a fair amount of information in the lectures. The students then have to go into the more specialised books in the library to work out their essays or other homework and prepare for their tests. Next to my list of topics I write down another list of books that I'm just reading or that I intend to read and a large amount of further titles to go through with Irma to see what we already have in the library and what we have to acquire new. I'd bet that most of the interesting books in my possession, upon which I plan to base my courses, will not be found in our library. But they will be an interesting set of books, so Hogwarts will have to purchase them. Not that I see a problem in that, Minerva will sign off the entire purchase almost unseen. After three hundred years of completely useless history courses by Binns she'll be aware that the library has to be stocked up. Irma will love the new haul!

I plan my lessons by subject and content. For the third to seventh years I'm not going to follow a strictly chronological view of the historical events. I'll rather pick the subject and follow this through the centuries. I want to include as much of magical as well as Muggle history and especially bring in where the two touch each other. In both areas I'm going to include some politics and some basic civic education. I hope to give my students a broader view on things this way. I have to talk to Quentin, to see how much of Muggle history he covers in Muggle Studies and what. Only the first two years will receive a more chronological view of the time-lines. To make the course more interesting from the start I plan on one subject per year as a lead story. I'll only do this once, this year, to advertise the new teaching and then I'll drop it or it will quickly become boring. I'm quite sure I won't need anything like this anymore for the following years, because seen from the reaction of the Sunnegg bunch I can already estimate that the verdict about my teaching will be far better than Binn's. Of course, the measure for that is low, but that won't mean that I can set it much higher than it currently stands. The first years will hear all about the Hogwarts Express and derived from that, developments of magical and Muggle means of transportation. The second and third years will hear about all things concerning games. For the fourth years it will be sports, the fifth years will get fashion and if there are sixth and seventh years they will have a political subject. Wars and conflicts are going to be taught, but only informatively and as a basis for social scientific discussions. As I've already done at the Sunnegg there will be role-playing games for Wizengamot meetings and the likes to draw them into historical politics where they can also bring in their own ideas. There will be lectures about international magical organisations as well.

It's going to be great to introduce a completely different way of teaching history next fall! I'm so looking forward to it. And even though it's been interesting to teach Defence I won't miss it for even a minute! The only aspect I'll miss is the practical teaching of spells.

Well, there's nothing for it. I start to split the list of all subjects to spread them over the third to seventh school years and calculate how many lessons I can spend with each of them. Two school years are NEWTS level; therefore they are a lot more demanding. My notes from my teachings back at the Sunnegg are a good source for the accumulation of subjects as I had taken quite meticulous notes for the history course. I think a meeting with Madam Montgomery is also called for to give her the material covered to prepare OWLS and NEWTS exams. It'll be interesting to hear what she has to say to my proposed subjects. Kate and I had actually planned to work out completely new course books for Defence as well, but she's now going to work that out with Duncan. I'll only proofread and help with writing.

Sunday, 9.1.2000 / Sirius

We're packing up what we have to take to Hogwarts and prepare for our return there. The twins are driving us mad, pulling out things we've already packed in suitcases and bags, and generally creating a great mess. It would be funny if it didn't hold us up. Finally I'm taking over the children while Remus packs their things. When everything is ready we move to the fireplace in the entrance hall and I take the first trip to Hogwarts with the luggage. Then I return and pick up Seraina. Remus has Denny on his arm already and tells Addie:

"I'll go ahead, then it's your turn and Siri comes last with Seraina, okay?"

"Okay."

I watch as Remus vanishes in the green flames, Addie goes next and finally it's my turn to throw the Floo powder into the fire. It turns green, I step inside and say:

"Hogwarts fireplace nine!"

In a flurry of spins we get catapulted out of our fireplace. I manage to stay upright and put Seraina down, brushing the remaining soot off her with a wave of my wand. Then I clean myself and we both join the rest of the family. We spend the evening playing with the children. Not long after dinner the twins get very sleepy, so we pack them off to bed.

Addie takes a bit longer. She is allowed to stay up until nine, no longer, because it's school again for her tomorrow. But she's a very obedient child and we don't have to tell her more than twice. She passes both of us to give us goodnight kisses and vanishes in her bathroom and then in her bedroom. That leaves Remus and I to our own devices. We sit down on one of our sofas and play some backgammon until we decide it is time to go to our bedroom. Remus yawns and follows me to the bathroom to wash up and drop our clothes into the hamper.

I quickly brush my hair and follow Remus to our bedroom.

I've come to love this bedroom a lot. It's huge and fits not only our four poster bed nicely, but has enough space for two well sized wardrobes and a sitting area in the middle of the room. We have a couple of bookshelves here and a lot of them along the long wall of the second flat that has been added to our original one. They're not all filled with books yet, but with the speed we're acquiring new ones I'm sure it won't take all too long until we need to think about space saver spells. We've covered the hardwood floorboards with several oriental rugs and I'm actually thinking of getting a wall to wall carpet, because it's a fairly cold area of the castle. We're on the ground floor, but below us are at least three or four levels of dungeons and cellars and the winters are fairly cold.

I feel my lover embracing me. I turn to him and we find each other for a long kiss before falling into our beds. I extinguish the lights and close the drapes on the windows and the bed.

Monday, 10.1.2000 / Remus

I wake up early. It's a sign that I'm well rested after the vacation. I'm getting up and find a hearty breakfast as soon as I turn up in the kitchen.

"Good morning, master Remus!" Winky greets me cheerfully.

"Good morning, Winky. Thanks for the breakfast."

It's only shortly after seven, so my whole family is still fast asleep. Sirius loves to sleep in and he's really happy that the twins seem to like that, too. I enjoy that short hour before everyone is up as time on my own. With now three children in the family alone time has become precious. For many years I had too much solitude, but lately I've almost started to miss some of it. The days usually fly past me!

The first one to turn up is Lily.

"Hi Remus!"

"Hi Lily! Ready to tackle another term with Addie?"

"Absolutely. She's a real pleasure to teach. But she's very isolated here, don't you think? She should be getting in contact with other children of her own age."

"Yes, we're aware of that. We only didn't want to rush her with too many strangers at once. Since she's come out of that confinement she's only been with adults and the babies. Though the twins are good for her, she really does need contact with children of her own age now. I have to talk to my colleagues with children..."

Then I hear Seraina calling for me. I get up and go over to her room to get her out of her bed. She's happy to see me and drops whatever toy she's had in her hands and stretches out her arms.

"Papa! Saina slept. Can get up now?"

"Yes, of course, my love. Did you sleep well?" I ask with a smile.

Pulling the curtains and the window open with my wand I pick her up from her bed. I'm taking her sleeping bag off and lift her on the changing table, where I open her nappy. I quickly summon a washcloth and clean her, then I get her dressed into a fresh nappy, tights and a baby overall. I fix her slippers. She's talking to me all the time. It's great fun to see how her vocabulary grows every day. While I'm taking her over to the dining table she asks:

"What papa do now?"

"I'll be up in my office to work on all the things that must have run up while we were enjoying our vacation, love. I'll have to see Auntie Minnie and prepare some lessons. That's going to keep me pretty busy for a while."

"No play with Saina?" she asks.

"Of course I will. There will be some time for that, too, sweetie. Only today I do have to do some work and tomorrow I have a very full schedule. So you'll have to play with Mum and Daddy today and with Uncle James tomorrow…"

I put her into her high chair next to Andy, who's already had his breakfast.

"Shall I take over, Remus?" Lily asks.

"That would be really sweet of you, Lily, I'm sure there's a huge pile of correspondence to get through upstairs. Thanks a lot!"

"You're very welcome. The sooner you start, the sooner you can come back to the little ones. And in the mean time I have something of my children, too."

"Quite. I have to go and see Minerva, too. Thanks, again, Lily. Love you!"

"Love you, too, Remus."

I empty my last cup of tea and go over to the study to pick up my briefcase and my laptop. I leave Lily and my daughter with a wave of my hand and head up the stairs to my office. Minerva has left quite a pile of letters in my in-box. I'm going through them to determine their urgency and start with the most pressing ones. My Dictaquill runs hot as I'm composing my replies. I copy them all, file them with the original letters and summon a house-elf. When one of them turns up I ask him to take the letters to the owlery.

Then I throw a quick glance to the clock on the wall. It's just after nine and I know that by that time Minerva has arrived at her office. Armed with parchpad and quill I rush down to the gargoyle protected entrance, give the password and head up the moving staircase. I knock and poke my head around the door. Minerva is there and greets me:

"Oh, you're back already! Hello, Remus!"

"Hello, Minerva. We actually came back yesterday, I expected some work on my desk. How was your Christmas break?"

I'm going in, close the door and sit down in front of Minerva's desk. Since Albus left, the office has received a decidedly Scottish appearance. I spot a couple of things with tartan patterns, especially several throws on the sofas and armchairs as well as the curtains and all of Albus' strange objects have vanished with him. I look at the portraits. Albus is there and awake and he greets me cheerfully. I greet back. Minerva offers me some tea and biscuits and replies:

"Oh, very well, thank you. There were only seven students in the castle, so it was very quiet this year. How was yours?"

"Very nice, thank you."

"Well, then you might want to tell me the all about the latest little Potter, Remus!"

"Oh, he's really a cutie. But I'm quite sure that he'll be a handful. Probably has more of James than of Harry, and physically a lot more of Lily! He'll have her eyes and possibly he'll get red hair. Hermione said that there are some redheads in her family, too."

"Lovely. Since you were out I couldn't get away from Hogwarts much, but I definitely want to visit Hermione one of these days. How is she doing?"

"She's adapting. I think, this time Harry had something down faster than Hermione. He's absolutely sweet with his son, Minerva. I know they're young; they were already very young when they got married, but I think he desperately needed that. He loves Nevin so much already. And it's finally something I find he does exactly like James did. James was awful just before Harry was born, Harry was a lot cooler during Hermione's last weeks of pregnancy. Maybe because we warned him about how Prongs was back then. But James was a great father and he would have done very well in raising Harry. And Harry reminds me a lot of his father when he picks up Nevin. He picks him up a lot and holds him often. It does him a world of good to be affectionate with his child, Minerva! It's the last bit of therapy he needs to heal completely from those thrice damned Dursleys."

"I'm sure it does. That sounds like they get along well?"

"They do have the usual trouble all new parents have. Like having to get up several times during the night and so on. Consumes them quite, I wonder how they'll get along with university and the nightshifts Nevin forces them to observe. He doesn't sleep too well as far as I've heard."

"That would be a newly born. Seems pretty normal to me."

"It is. You have no idea how much I learned to appreciate uninterrupted nights since the twins finally sleep through from early evening until morning. It's like paradise. But I do think that these sleepless nights await you, too, or am I wrong?"

"How did you guess that, Remus?" she yells and confirms my suspicion.

Instead of an answer I simply point to my nose. Her eyes open and she asks me, aghast:

"What? Don't tell me that I stink like pregnant?"

"Minerva, strictly speaking everyone in my surrounding stinks for my nose! It's about ten times as sensitive as yours, even smallest nuances I can well pick up. And I've had a few pregnant girls around me lately, so I know how to detect this very slight difference in your scent. So it's true?"

"Yes, it is. Baby's going to be born in August, so it's very fresh. We saw no reason to wait any longer, Remus!"

"None to see at all! Congratulations, Minerva, and welcome to the circle of the best kind of people in the world: mothers. With a few notable exceptions, of course, because Sirius' mother must have been the most unnatural mother in the world!"

"She certainly must have been. Thank you, Remus! – Anyway, we have to discuss shop now. This week is pretty ordinary, but next week there will be an inspection of the kitchens by the Ministry. Every fifty years the Ministry is inspecting the whole school and this year it's on again. So they start with the kitchens next week and then they'll go through all the classrooms in use and the Great Hall. After that it's the houses and finally the teachers' quarters. We need to have our little helpers do an extra careful cleaning of the kitchens first upon the deadline. I'm glad it's only the parts of Hogwarts used for the school – because I'd not want any ministerial official in the other parts of this place, unless they've been invited for something."

I take note of that.

"I'll order that today. I'm quite sure they will manage to have the kitchens even more spotless by the time the Ministry team turns up. Do you know how they usually go about it?"

"Not really. Albus? You've been around at the last inspection, haven't you?" she calls over to the portrait.

"Yes, as I was the Deputy then I was responsible for the inspection. They are of course checking that the castle still fulfils the necessities of the sanitary standards. You might want to go around using the detection spells for anything unsanitary."

"Fine, we can do that. Luckily they don't do it all at once. And they only check the parts of the castle that are officially in use for the school. If the team will take on the kitchens on one day and then come for another part of the castle next makes it a little easier for the house-elves. They will probably go around with the same detection spells, won't they?"

"As far as I remember they do that, yes."

"Good. Thank you, Albus."

"You are very welcome, m'dear."

I'm noting down some of the spells I know and think of looking up further ones. Then I inform Minerva on the state of affairs in my preparations for the history course:

"I'm on a good way to collect the subjects for my history course, Minerva. I'll have an immense book list for the school to purchase for the library."

"Well, there have been no purchases in that subject for ages. I'm quite sure there are no books about the twentieth century at all apart from the wars with Grindelwald and then Voldemort. Irma will be delighted to get new material for this rather dusty area of study," she says, proving that I was right in believing she would let this pass easily.

"The students who will have to come to the mandatory history lessons won't know what hit them in the first week of the new school year, I promise you. You might want to come into the classroom to spy when I teach the first returning class!"

She laughs and asks:

"So, will you tell me what you have up your sleeves? I should know what you are going to teach as I'm your superior after all."

"Of course. Here's what I've already planned for the first years as a punch subject for the first class: the Hogwarts Express and its history. Why a seemingly old tradition can't be older than about 150 years. And parting from that I'll lecture on the history of means of travel and transportation. And because the Hogwarts Express is a steam train they will learn about the Muggle side of transportation development as well. Actually I plan to teach the first and second years along a chronological time line with some show stopping points here and there. Third to seventh years will have all of their subjects taught by content and the content followed through the time and only a rough following of the time line. I will coordinate with Quentin what parts of Muggle history I'm going to integrate into my lesson plans and give him more opportunity to talk about other areas of interest in regards to the Muggles. He's not a history buff anyway, so I'm sure he'll jump on the chance to drop that part. From politics to culture to fashion, sports and leisure. With all the Muggle technology and science he'll have enough to cover in a more specialised way than I can integrate into the general history course. I'll lay more emphasis on the social and political subjects."

"That sounds excellent, Remus. I'm sure the students will be much more interested in the subject in no time."

"Judging from the reactions of the Sunnegg bunch I expect that will be the case. They all liked the lessons very much. For me, this is going to be sheer fun. It's not as specialised as Defence and allows me to talks about everything and everyone. It's a chance to undo much of the wrong the purebloods did, Minerva. Nothing like teaching history and showing the pure facts that might help those children blinded by their parents' upbringing to see what this kind of thinking really is – cruel and self-destroying."

"I'm already impressed, Remus. I'm very happy that you were ready to change to this subject, you will be the perfect teacher."

"What I've told you already, Minerva! I've heard what his students at the Sunnegg had to say about him teaching history," Albus calls from his portrait.

"Thank you, Albus."

"You're welcome, my dear. It's the truth."

We turn to the next subject. After about an hour we've gone through the everyday things and I'm ready to tackle the work. I'm going down to the kitchens first to inform the house-elves of the impending inspection.

"May I have your attention, please?" I ask.

They all gather around me and I tell them of their extra task.

"I'm sorry to burden you all with even more work, but this week you'll have to do extra cleaning in the kitchens, as they will be inspected by a group of people from the Ministry next week. Once the kitchen complex is done it will have to be maintained in a perfect state until the inspection is through. That means absolutely spotlessly clean. The guys from the Ministry have to get the impression that this is all perfect. Of course it already is, the way I know you people! After that you will have to go through other areas of the castle to give it some extra careful cleaning. They will be moving into another part of the castle every week in the coming weeks. Some of you might already know that the Ministry is conducting this inspection every fifty years."

"We is knowing, Professor Lupin, we has been here for the last one. We is knowing what to do," one of the older house-elves tells me.

"That is perfect then, so you will guide your friends to go about it the best way. Make sure that everything is even cleaner than it usually is. I don't think you will have to fear anything as it's usually so clean there really can't be much to criticise. That's because you people are the best ever!"

They're all blushing! They're such a wonderful bunch of little helpers. Like Hermione I often wish they'd accept more freedom, at least here at Hogwarts they'd be granted a lot more of it, but all of ours are so happy here, they don't even think of anything like freedom. On the other hand I know that ours are treated in the nicest of ways and if the children who ever bother to get into contact with them treat them well, then I really expect them to become more self-assured. I make a mental note to discuss house-elf mistreatment with my students at some point and introduce a new tradition for the Leaving Feast, the cheering of our house-elves' work.

House-elves really are a strange kind of beings. They cannot really thrive outside of this bondage. In Muggle biology terms one could say that they are living in symbiosis with wizards and witches. They provide the services and in turn the wizards support their own kind of magic, which they lose if they are out of the close proximity to wizards and witches. Unlike Hermione I'm fully aware of this and know that giving them 'freedom' actually brings them close to squib state, because they need our magic to support their magic. If they do have our magic to support theirs they are some of the strongest magical beings and range rather above most wizards and witches in power. Their innate need to provide and serve is what keeps them on the ground. A house-elf in the service of people who treat him or her as family and friend will surpass by far the work of any maltreated house-elf. Their freedom is 'belonging' in every sense of the word. Happy house-elves are the happiest and most powerful little bunch of people imaginable. That is why the Potter elves have been just surviving for years on the magic of the Potters' house, but now they begin to thrive again, because 'their' family is back. We haven't just hired Winky and Dobby, Sirius is their bonded Master. Hermione doesn't know that and sometimes ignorance really is bliss, and neither Dobby nor Winky will tell her. It doesn't stop us from honouring their work with a regular wage for Dobby and an occasional 'gift' for Winky. They are happy to be with us and to provide for us, we are happy to have them and love them for their quirks, their help and an unknown number of other reasons.

After having that done I'm through with my tasks for today. That will certainly please my family, as I have time to play with the children in the afternoon. The two hours of the twins' nap belong fully to Addie who loves to play games with us.

Tuesday, 11.1.2000 / Sirius

After breakfast I kiss Addie and the twins goodbye for the morning and move up to my office to pick up my material for the morning's lessons. I have a double lesson with the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw sixth years. They are probably my favourite class, because they're all really fun people who learn with a lot of enthusiasm. Many students in the class are not only very good at Transfigurations, they love the difficult task of figuring out the mixture between logic and fantasy. For every form of transfiguration there's an amount of fixed parameters and above that clear images of the end result in the head is necessary to make the spells work. They are the mental support of the transfiguration spells. For this branch of magic it takes a lot of cool thinking and calm spell-working and a healthy imagination is essential.

It's nice to see them all again after the break. They take their seats, nicely mixed and I'm picking up the subject we've been working on before Christmas.

"Hello, everyone. Are you all ready to plunge right in?"

"Yes!" they all reply.

"Good!"

It's mostly practical today as soon as we've recapped the theory. They've practiced already, but now we're fine tuning. They're supposed to transfigure materials to learn about the different textures, colours and shapes, which will give them a good basis of changing things around to their own liking. It's one of my favourite uses of transfiguration and I think the spark is hopping over to them, because they enjoy the lesson. There's no doing it wrong really, but if they want a certain object in a certain way they have to work on it and for some of them it takes a while until they get those parameters right. After that they really start to play around with shape, material, texture and colour.

In the afternoon I meet some of them again for the Animagus course. I'm leaving the tables and chairs in their usual spots today, even though we normally push them out of the way and drop more comfortable cushions on the floor. We've got used to sit in a circle in this class. The students are comfortable with each other and with me. I've asked Remus to give the seventh years leave to come to the Animagus lesson, and I've given notice to the Hufflepuff and Slytherin seventh years in the course to turn up early, too.

When they all come in, I ask them:

"So – today's the big day. Up to start a fairly complicated potion? I have asked you all to come so we can save some time and get it done in one go. It's got a couple of cooling phases, so you will be able to leave the cauldrons to rest. And if you're very hot for it, we can finish it off on the weekend."

"Yay! Of course we are. Can we do them in here?" Gregory asks.

"We can, but first we'll do a bit of practical training of the transfigurations that the sixth years are just doing - redecorate the tables to give them a granite top, so we can heat cauldrons. Go ahead and make the granite a bit larger in length and width than the tables beneath. While you do that I hand out the recipe…"

I reveal the potion instructions on one of the side blackboards and hand out a few sheets of parchment with it as well. The last time I've seen the potion has been a few years back, when Harry and Hermione have made it. I've prepared the ingredients yesterday and they can come up front to get them. We do it in three batches, so there are three cauldrons out and the kids help each other with the brewing.

"I'll split you up, dears, so you can work in three groups. You'll forgive me that I'm choosing the strongest students in Potions to be the leaders in your three groups."

The best among them are working on the cauldrons. One student reads the recipe, one takes over the timing for all three groups, the others prepare the ingredients that need to be cut up or ground in some way and the chief in every group adds the ingredients and takes over the stirring. I keep a keen eye on them doing everything right. Just as the fires under the cauldrons are started there's a knock on the door.

"Come in!" I call.

Annis pokes her head inside.

"I've just heard from Remus at lunch that you're going to brew the Animagus potion today. Can I come watch for a bit? Never had a chance to even look at it!"

"Hi Annis! Well, do come in. Though this one is only the one that helps determine the animal that's in them. For the full potion, which I'm going to do with them in another week I'll have to take a full two weeks' time with them. That's about what we'll need to do it after normal school time."

"Wow. I'll peek in for that as well then. Maybe I can be of some help?"

"Absolutely. I've got to watch three cauldrons. I'd be only too glad if you could help supervising one of them."

"Done."

She studies the instructions and whistles.

"Wow. Not a small feat for sixth and seventh years that…"

"No, it's not. And I've done it in my fifth. With only two helpers! One of them wasn't very good at potions," I say.

She grins.

"But you seem to have managed."

"Because James and I were pretty good at brewing potions. Remus would have been good at cutting up ingredients, but we wanted to surprise him, and Pettigrew was at least able to read. I actually expect James to turn up, at least as soon as Remus is down in our flat, so James is free from babysitting."

Annis' daughter Margaret is one of the three Gryffindor seventh years who are in the course. She's doing quite well in Potions and I've made her responsible for her group's cauldron. Annis and I wander around and watch their progress, keeping an ear on the reading and watching that the ingredients are prepared correctly.

James comes in after Remus has let him go. He grins and says:

"Nice to see that this is now done in an official function, Padfoot!"

"It's immense fun for me, too, Prongs. It's going to be fun to see what they'll become."

"Nicknames will be called for! Every 'pet' needs its own name..." he insists.

"I think they will come forth naturally as they develop, James."

As we've been able to use the whole afternoon we get all done until the first cooling phase. I ask the students to return for the second day's procedure on Friday afternoon, when we'll have a go at another three hours of brewing and they all promise to come.

"Can you spare your two Hufflepuff sixth years on Friday afternoon, Annis?"

"Of course. You'll have to watch them on your own though…"

"That's okay. James can help, too. Or Lily."

"Well then, Irene and Helen, you'll do your bit of Potions on Friday afternoon here, okay?" Annis asks her students.

"That's fine with me, Professor," Irene replies and grins.

"Okay. And then we'll do the final part on Saturday, starting right after lunch at one thirty here, is that fine with all of you, too?" I ask.

They all confirm it and I thank them:

"You won't regret it. Come Sunday you'll know what animal you'll become! How's that?"

"That's great!" Margaret exclaims.

She's not the only one. They're all excited at the prospect.

"Very good. I'm off to talk to Minerva about possibly getting a week scheduled for all of you to get the main potion done in the right order. That would make things a lot easier. But you'd have to work up for your other subjects of course."

All of the students think, that should be doable, so I'm walking up to Minerva's office, where I knock on her door.

"Come in!" she calls.

I enter and greet her.

"Hello, Minerva!"

"Hello, Sirius. Is there a problem?"

"No, not a problem, just a question." I reply.

She looks relieved.

"Honestly, Minerva, why do you always think of problems when I turn up?" I ask, looking indignant.

She smiles and offers:

"Maybe because I do have a certain amount of respective experiences with you?"

"I give you that. But this is about the Animagus course. They're all doing pretty well and the test potion will be done by Saturday. I let them take it on Sunday."

"Oh, that's wonderful. Can I attend?"

"Of course, if you'd like to… but then it will be about brewing the main potion. I would like all of them to participate, to share the experience. But it does take a whole week. At the Sunnegg we've spent a whole week and pushed back the other lessons. It was the best thing to do and I'd like to ask you that I can do it with my students here, too…"

She looks pensive for a moment, then says slowly:

"I could take over your lessons for the week. That would free you and if the other teachers are supportive I'd say we could give it a go ahead…"

I smile. This would be wonderful.

"That would be great, Minerva. The week after next?"

She quickly checks her schedule and my lesson schedule and decides:

"Yes, I will have to reschedule two meetings but that's okay. I suppose you have the sixth and seventh years together then?"

"Yes. I've had them work in three groups of four and two students are reading the instructions and timing for all. Has worked amazingly well again. Today I've had Annis and James who helped watching, for the week I'll have James or Lily helping."

"Good. I see you are doing this with great care. We wouldn't want things to go wrong…" she reminds me.

"No, we wouldn't want that. For that reason they're making three full batches of potion, if one of them goes wrong we still have enough of the stuff for all of them. It doesn't exactly take much of it, so that shouldn't be a problem."

"You do look like you have a lot of fun doing this, Sirius."

"Oh, I do! It's something that's really close to my heart, Minerva! My motivation may have been a much more real one than my students', but they'll love being an Animagus. I know you do…"

"Yes, I do. It's a way of slipping into the skin of someone so completely different, sometimes it's like a way out of everything. Prowling around in cat form for a few hours always refreshes me immensely," she admits.

"Exactly! Remus and I have noticed that taking a short run in the forest after dinner sometimes works as good as a full night of sleep. Okay then. The week after next it is. I'll be able to procure all the ingredients we need by then. There are several fresh ones. But I can order these from the Hogsmeade apothecary and then pick them up from there myself."

Friday, 14.1.2000 / Sirius

The classroom is ready for the next round of brewing and my students turn up on time to tackle the next stage. It's not an easy one and they have to watch out, but all three potions are looking good. Victoria Hamilton, the only Slytherin in the class, leads her group. Tania Hodgson, Horace Ashton and Steven Fisher, all Ravenclaws, prepare the ingredients and hand them over to her to add them at the appropriate times.

Margaret Limbury works with three other Gryffindors, Geraldine Michaels, Gregory Simmons and Felix Rochester. The third group consists of Jon Higgins and Phyllis Night, two seventh year Hufflepuffs and their sixth year housemates Helena Bykova and Irene Gray. Jon leads the group

Martin Hayes reads the instruction and Sabina Gibson announces the timing. Everyone works quietly, but when there are longer simmering times they can talk for a bit. Most of the preparing of the ingredients is done during those times and there's enough material to replace something that might go wrong.

"You've worked very well again, so we're tackling tomorrow, which will be a six hour run; everyone please turn up just after lunch at one thirty in the afternoon. Okay?"

"Okay!"

When all students have left I lock the door very securely and spell it impenetrable to keep out the ghosts.

"Do you expect any of the ghosts to be tampering with the potions, Padfoot!" James remarks.

I laugh.

"It's not any of the ghosts I'm worried about, it's Peeves! He's still quite an evil bugger if he wants to be. And I can't risk him ruining anything. There can be no accidents if I want this trial course to become a permanent one."

"Oh, I almost forgot that one. You're right of course."

"I'm terribly keen to continue this course, for that to happen nothing can go wrong. Therefore: Peeves has to stay out!"

Sunday, 16.1.2000 / Sirius

I'm very relieved! Everything with the potion went so well! Minerva has asked to attend the trial, so I take the students to the Great Hall in the afternoon where we meet Minerva. She's curious, because it seems that she hasn't done this when she became an Animagus herself. It's not a must be done step, but for the students it's definitely a good motivation to keep going and a bit of fun, too. And the fun factor, in my book, is always a good reason to do something, especially when it can be combined with something useful. Most of the other teachers have miraculously turned up as well. Methinks that there is a good amount of curiosity at play here.

"Okay, let's see the outcome then!"

Quite many students are hanging around the Great Hall as the weather is dreary, cold and wet outside. The Great Hall is bright and warm, so many students use it to study, play cards or chess or meet their friends in other houses, which seems to happen more and more these days and I'm very pleased to see that some Slytherins start to mingle with the other houses again, too.

I've prepared goblets with the potion and have them ready on the teacher's table. The students have lined up and are looking at the goblets expectantly.

"Very well. The potion looks fine, so it won't poison you," I say with a grin.

Remus, James and Lily are with us while Winky is keeping an eye on the children for a few hours.

"I will call you in alphabetical order, that way we avoid having to ask who will have the first go. Watch for smoke coming out of your ears. The smoke will form your animal. Horace, you're first!"

Horace steps up and receives his goblet with the potion. As with my other students it just takes a minute or two until the smoke starts to pour out of his ears, rises up and forms the shape of a cat above him. Minerva smiles and claps.

"Looks like you follow in the paw prints of our esteemed Headmistress, Horace!" I exclaim.

"Great! I'm going to be a cat! I'm really looking forward to it, so I can play with my cat on a whole other level!"

"You'll even be able to communicate with your cat, Horace. Not in words, but as soon as you'll transform you'll understand. – Helena, your turn!"

Helena's smoke forms a deer. Steven is next and he gets a horse. With Sabina we get the first bird, a falcon. We do recognise the shape, but of course it's not yet possible to say, which subspecies she'll be, but knowing Helena it's probably going to be a peregrine falcon.

"Irene!"

Irene drinks her potion and when the smoke is up it has the shape of a dog. I grin. I expect at least one or two dogs as this is a very frequent Animagus-form.

"Victoria, you're next!"

Victoria's smoke shapes up to another bird, it looks rather like an owl. Martin is another dog, swiftly followed by one more dog, Jon. Tania will become another cat. And then comes Margaret, whose smoke shape gives us thrills as she gets a very rare form, she'll be a phoenix! Now, magical animals do come up as Animagi, I've seen old registers where there was the odd kneazle or crup, but a phoenix? That is simply incredible!

"Wow!" most of the adults around remark.

"A phoenix! How great is that?" Margaret squeals.

She has every reason to squeal. Even 'normal' magical creatures are extremely rare Animagus forms. Annis stares at her daughter and says:

"She must be an exceptionally good kid that she has such an animal inside of her! I never would have thought..."

That's definitely the case. Margaret belongs to those enviable people who have it all. She has a wonderfully even temper and good looks. She's highly intelligent and has a healthy sense of humour combined with a wonderful ethic. She's the seventh year Gryffindor prefect and only lost out very thinly to the Hufflepuff seventh year for being head girl. She usually manages to calm down her housemates when they are in one of their more cheerful moods.

I can't wait to see how it looks when she transforms.

Geraldine will be another cat. Felix' is going to become a vulture of some sort. I'll ask Ginny to take him somewhere up high, so he can get the feel of using the thermals to fly.

Phyllis is another rather rare animal. She'll become a gazelle. Gregory will be yet another dog, the fourth in this group. Fun for me!

"Now you know. I suppose you're all happy with your animals, because all of you look rather content!"

The students confirm that, even the ones who will be dogs and cats, very normal animals, look happy. I tell them:

"All of you with very regular everyday animals can celebrate, because you can actually go out and really be an animal. Phyllis as a gazelle won't be able to just run across the fields, or people will think she's got out from her enclosure at a zoo! She'll need a disillusionment charm or at least a charm that makes her look like a deer or something."

"What about the birds," asks Felix, "Will we be able to fly?"

"Of course. In my other group which I've taught was a girl who's a golden eagle, I'll ask her to take you to the mountains to try out flying in the thermals. She says it's one of the most amazing things she's ever experienced to draw her circles up in the air."

"That's Ginny Weasley, isn't it?" Minerva asks.

"Yes. She's absolutely stunning as a bird!"

Then I turn back to the students.

"Well, end of the show, dears, tomorrow in a week we get serious and start on the potion. Next Tuesday you'll work on the recap of your spells. I want you to be able to recite them in your sleep."

"We're making the others go bonkers in our common room, when we recite them all together," Tania tells me.

"They'll get even more stressed when your common room will become your den and all of you crawl, fly, hop or run around there," Remus remarks with a grin.

A moan comes over from some Ravenclaws in the room. But some of those students come over and ask if they can try the potion, too.

"Sorry, but I have to say no. That's for next year if you're good enough at Transfigurations," I inform a fifth year.

"How good is 'good enough'?"

"Exceeds Expectations in your Transfigurations-OWL, Mr. Dunaway," Minerva tells him.

The boy sighs, he's pretty good at the subject, but to get an 'E' he'll have to work a bit harder. Having seen this display though might be the boost he and some others need to do just that. Other students seem to have taken note of Minerva's explanation as well.

We clear up the goblets and I take the leftover potion to dispose of it.

Thursday, 20.1.2000 / James

I have several meetings scheduled for today. The first is with a magical architect and a surveyor to go through Seaview Manor and see what it needs to bring it forth to the twenty-first century in all technical parts. It's a very old house that's been imbued with magic over the centuries, but new developments and spells like the one Ginny and her friends have invented allow to bring in modern technologies and electricity into these houses, too. The second is to look at the building in general and find out where it needs repairs, if any. It's been in a magical lock-down with only the house-elves on the premises for the better part of twenty years and we'll have a good look at the structural parts and the rooms. Since we're planning to move in soon I want these works to have been done as quick as possible.

"I'm glad you've asked me, Mr. Potter, because as you know I've been responsible for the last addition of that wing to the left side of the building."

"Then you do know the house well, Mr. Guilding, which should help us through fine. I have laid out the plans as they are in the library. If you'd like to follow me, gentlemen…"

I also welcome the structural engineer, Mr. Simmonds, and guide the two men to the library, where I've placed all the plans I've found for the house. The latest ones are already rolled out and ready for perusal. Through the large number of reconstructions, renovations and additions to the house since the original house was built, there are quite a few of those plans. Earlier generations have continuously added and changed, with the wing addition by my grandfather James Jacobus being the largest ever addition. He died when I was in my first year at Hogwarts.

Even though my family never employed a curator I was able to find all the plans. Sometimes it's a joy to have such a wonderfully well documented and well-structured library. One of my ancestors in the sixteenth century had the grandiose idea to install the library such that books only needed to be put down on a special lectern, from where the library itself pulled them to their original place on the shelves. This spell is still fully active and working and is part of the Potter family magic.

Mr. Guilding, who has also brought a much younger partner, Mrs Janet Brown, is ages old and has overseen the construction works on the last substantial wing in 1903. Back then there were numerous Potters to accommodate, which is why this wing consists of bedrooms and more bedrooms. Two horrible wars and extensive persecution by the renegade parties in both wars have brought the extensive family down to my parents and me as the only remaining family members. But now we're on the up again and I wish for my family to have a comfortable abode that suits all our needs and works well in our time of existence. Some of us are Muggle-born and two close family members are Muggles, and I want them all to feel at home.

"Thank you for calling me back to this lovely estate, Mr. Potter. I'd like to introduce you to my young partner, Mrs Janet Brown, who will do the actual work. I'm well acquainted with all the old buildings, but your specifications said you wanted to modernise the house, for that Mrs Brown will be of much better help as she's trained not only in the magical craft but also at the respective Muggle schools. She's an architect with a Muggle degree and will assist you for all your needs on that side. I'm very glad to say that since there are spells to integrate electricity into our buildings we can offer a much wider range of houses offering those modern Muggle comforts so many of the newly minted magicals love."

I shake hands with the lady and since she seems to be around forty and has a certain resemblance I ask her:

"Nice to meet you, Madam. You wouldn't have a daughter named Lavender, would you?"

"Actually, yes, Mr. Potter, I do. I think she was at school with your son."

"In this case, yes, she was. I'm really looking forward to hear what we can do. I do love this house and I would love nothing more than it to become my home again. In the past few years I've enjoyed a wonderful place in Switzerland that had all the mod cons, and to be honest, I wouldn't want to miss them anymore. We have been able to install a few things here just before Christmas, but I'd now like to have the whole building brought up to speed professionally."

We're taking an extended walk through the building and Mrs Brown notes down a few things, the engineer checks everything and decides at the end:

"No need for any changes, Mr. Potter. This building is perfectly sound and secure. All wards and household magics are intact and functioning without fail. An exceptionally beautiful house I might add."

"Thank you, Mr. Simmonds, that relieves me of that worry. Not that there were too many of those though, but still, the house was unlived in for a long time."

Mr. Simmonds bids goodbye and Mr. Guilding follows him on the spot, telling me that I'd be very well served by his partner.

"I'm sure of that, Mr. Guilding. Thank you for your time!"

Mrs Brown and I sit together at the library and she meticulously copies the plans I have. Then she tells me:

"I wouldn't suggest too many changes in the house itself except for the wiring. But you said that you would like to invite your son's parents-in-law frequently, and that they are Muggles, is that right?"

"Yes. I'd like for them to have an apartment in the new wing with all they would need, so that they can come and stay any time they'd like. That would need a kitchen and a fully fitted bathroom of the non-magical kind. In fact we could do with quite a few extra bathrooms in the house."

"Good. I'd set up this apartment here at the end of the wing, in these four or five rooms. They're wonderfully Edwardian and I don't want to spoil them, so I'd reproduce that Art Nouveau style there and integrate the bathroom and kitchen in these two rooms. This way they'd have a bedroom and a spare room and a living room."

"Sounds great. Would you mind to meet with Mrs Granger, so she can tell you what she'd like to have as a kitchen and bathroom? She knows the building already and if you tell her which rooms are concerned she'll probably remember. Or you can show her around at any time."

I give her the Grangers' business card and she replies:

"I'll take contact with her, Mr. Potter. As for the wiring of the rest of the house, that won't be a problem, I assure you. Despite the purebloods' attempts to rule the society there have been many Muggle-borns like myself who have found niches in the economy to thrive and the building sector is one of the main niches where we have developed wonderful things with magic. But we basically had to build Muggle houses for magical users until the spells were developed by Miss Weasley and her friends. This now enables us to meld both magic and electricity, which is really great, because we can now integrate it into existing buildings. In a new build it's usually not a great problem to integrate the two, but old houses like yours have so far been out of our reach. I'm looking well forward to this project!"

"In case you should need advice from Miss Weasley regarding her spells you can tell me – I know the young lady and let me tell you that she's currently still furthering her studies in Charms and she does have the good basis to do further work on those spells."

"That might be needed at some point, Mr Potter. It's not all that obvious with all the old magic in the house. We want to add something new without destroying something old after all."

We then discuss possible dates for the work once I've given my okay to the plans and who will execute the work. She explains the means and methods and the materials that would be needed. I've set the date for the move around my birthday in March. In fact I'd like to use my birthday for a big party celebrating the move and the re-introduction of the Potter family in Britain!

My second appointment today is together with the whole family at the painter we found for our portraits. A first sitting is planned where everyone attends so that he can get acquainted with all of us. Lily and I get dressed more formal than we usually would, and we put our children in robes, which they don't like too well, but for once they'll just have to live with it.

The painter is an elderly Italian who has been working in London for the past fifty or sixty years or so. He seems to have a smile plastered firmly on his face and greets us, still with a heavy Italian accent after all the decades he's already spent here. Harry and Hermione enter the rooms with Nevin a while later.

"Welcome, Lady Potter, Lord Potter, I am most pleased to meet you. It is an honour to be chosen to paint your portraits. May I invite you straight to te parlour, here I have te light to acquaint myself wit your faces."

We're shown to a wonderful sunroom/conservatory with very lush greenery where we take seats and are served tea. Then Giancarlo Bernasconi takes us through the process of the making of magical portraits. While he talks us through it he already starts sketching us in coal. Painting works no different than for Muggles as such, but the gist is that the paint needs to be infused with the magic of each of us, to connect us to our paintings. As long as we live these portraits will be unmoving. Typically they only come alive when the portrayed person dies. But as long as that person is alive and in fairly regular contact with the portrait the infusion goes on. Once the person in the painting dies the painting will come alive with the memories right up to the person's death.

"Is there an age when it is best done?" Lily asks.

"Yes, one could say tat it is best to do it when a person is around twenty to tirty. Ten tey are already adult, because it is not recommended to keep only a picture of a person as a child. Tis would not make for a good magical portrait."

"But will you paint the children anyway?" Hermione wants to know.

"Yes, of course. Only tey probably will not be infused well, because tey are still small, but we will still give them magic. We do of course not hope so, but if one of them should die, te portrait would be keeping te child's memory. If te child grows to adulthood and a new portrait is done, tis children's portrait will always keep only te child's memories, according to its age."

"What about later on, when our portrait selves come alive – what will happen to the children in the picture who will at that point still be alive?" Lily asks on.

"Oh, tey will certainly have a little bit of life in tem as well, coming from your magic, I have seen tis in oter portraits tat I've done. But naturally tey won't talk or know more tan tey could do at teir age."

"We'll probably have them painted again when they're at Hogwarts anyway," I throw in.

The first sitting is Bernasconi's first chance to get a grip with our physiognomy, to understand a little of our characters and while he gets the grip of us we don't need to sit absolutely still. When he shows us the sketches we're baffled! The likeness even in these drawings is amazing. With what seems only a few lines here and there he's managed to bring our faces onto the paper and he's quickly got the gist of each of our characters! I'm amazed.

Bernasconi gets the commission and we arrange for the number of sittings he will most probably need and the price of the portraits. We forego a portrait with the whole family in favour of one individual one of each of us and one of Harry and Hermione together as well as Lily and I together. In addition to that I need the official Wizengamot portrait, which he says he can do as he's made a few others before. The whole commission would take about a year to finish completely, the first portrait being done the official Wizengamot one, because I have to hand that over in the next few months.

"May I also recommend you to my friend Lord Black and his partner? Lord Black will also need to have a portrait for the Wizengamot and I'm sure he'd like to have a portrait done with himself and his partner."

"But of course – here is my business card, if you'd like to give it to him. I'm well reachable by owl."

"Thank you so much, Mr. Bernasconi."

A long day comes to a very satisfying end! The house renovation is scheduled and our portrait sittings are set up as well. Onto the next project, the next meeting of the Wizengamot…

Tuesday, 1.2.2000 / Sirius

Wow! They've really worked great, all of them. For a week we've been working on the Animagus potions and it looks like all three batches are useable. I collect them in large jugs with lids and I have everything ready. One more time the seventh years come together with the sixth years and the classroom fills with them, myself, Minerva, Annis, Remus and a very curious Amos Diggory from the Ministry who is accompanied by Madam Elizabeth Montgomery for the Education Administration. I'm calmly pushing tables and chairs out of the way, place a large mirror in the front of the room and a couple of comfortable armchairs in the back for the visitors. For all of the students and myself I have set up our cushions on the carpet.

"Well, people, this is it. Let's welcome Mr. Diggory, he's the head of the Department of the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures as you might know and he's here on behalf of the Animagus Registry. I suppose there's a bit of curiosity in there, too! Perfectly alright, isn't it?"

Everyone grins and applauds that and Amos winks.

"And let's also welcome Madam Elizabeth Montgomery, she's the head of the Wizarding Education Administration and it's up to her impression of today's proceedings whether this course will be offered in the future or not," I explain and again there's a small applause.

"Shall we start then?" I ask in Diggory's direction.

"Please proceed. I'm very excited to be allowed to follow the procedures," he admits.

"If it's anything like my first group you'll be in for a treat. We've had a lot of fun that day, didn't we, Remus?"

"Absolutely," Remus confirms.

He has let his other seventh year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws off the hook this afternoon, because he really doesn't want to miss this.

"Okay. Let's get serious first though. I'm handing you each your potion, you take it, then you can mentally prepare on reciting your incantations, which have to be absolutely right in pronunciation and accurately spoken as has been said probably a Thousand times before. In the other group people started to help each other by speaking them along to help remember everything, that worked quite well. Not all of them had the confidence to really do it completely on their own, but all of them managed with this bit of help. Don't panic if anything unplanned or nothing at all happens. Professor McGonagall and myself know the necessary help and you can have as many chances to try as you need. The potion takes a while to take effect, therefore I'll time you before I will give you the go ahead. Because we want to make this as safe as possible I will have to let you have a go one by one. I shall give the potion to the first two now, and then the next one will get the potion while the last one works on the transformation, that should cover the time we need for the potion to work. I think that about covers the necessary information so let's start. Who wants to be the first?"

The Gryffindors all call out immediately, with Victoria a close second. I grin and ask:

"Ladies first, okay? Geraldine, why don't you step up first? And Margaret or Victoria, you come as well."

Margaret and Victoria exchange a glance, then Margaret gives Victoria the go ahead.

"Thanks, Margaret. I will, Professor."

"Very good."

The other students seem to be okay with it, so the two come to me. I hand them a small goblet with the necessary amount of potion.

"Here, drink it, please."

Both girls' hands are shaking just a tiny bit while they lift it to their lips and swallow it. Consequently both girls look up surprised at the taste.

"Wow, that's very nice… for a potion, and considering what we put in it," Geraldine remarks.

"I know. I was just as surprised as you are. Now this will take about five minutes, before it takes effect. The potion is the chemical basis your body needs to prepare for your other form. Let me warn you that it will hurt quite a bit. Not from the potion, but the first few transformations, because you will be squeezed together a lot to become a cat. It's a very small animal after all."

"That makes sense."

"But don't be afraid, that's a pain that gets lost very fast, the more you transform, the quicker it vanishes."

Once the five minutes are through I ask her:

"Ready?"

Geraldine swallows for a bit and then replies: "Yes, I'm ready."

She points her wand at herself and starts to recite the spells with a little help from the people in her surrounding who use this as their last opportunities to practice the incantations. I watch her closely and as soon as she's finished she seems to feel it. She looks at me in shock, because it must be more painful than she expected, but she doesn't have much time to regret her actions as she's pulled and shoved around and shrinks to her new form. Within seconds there's a lovely grey tabby cat lying in front of me, panting hard.

Everyone in the room claps and the students yell their congratulations. I hold up my hand and say:

"Wait! That's not finished yet. Geraldine, can you hear and understand me? Just nod, please!"

It takes a moment, but then she nods. Good. I'm relieved.

"Very good, please try to get up on your paws."

She's working a bit on that, but manages. Minerva follows her every move and I can see her lips twitch. I then ask the cat:

"Please walk over to the mirror and look at your image until you know yourself in your animal form very well, Geraldine. Twist and turn around a bit, you really need to familiarise yourself with your cat shape and look."

She tries to follow that order, but gets into a tangle with her four paws. There's a bit of laughter and I bend down to help her up on her paws again. She trembles a bit and tries again. It takes her a while to sort out four legs instead of two, but then she finds herself in front of the mirror. I can see her eyes open in amazement and she twists and turns in front of the mirror.

"Okay. Do you have a clear image of yourself in your mind? And of your cat form?" I ask.

It seems strange that the little grey tabby nods and confirms that.

"Then come back to your human form now, please. Use the mental spell."

A few seconds and a small pop later Geraldine stands next to me again. She's grinning all over her face and says:

"Wow! This really was painful, but it was great! Only having four legs seems to make things a bit complicated…"

"At the beginning most of us have a little problem with that, but the more experienced you get the easier it will be. Now this isn't over yet. The next step is that you will have to transform using your mental spell. That's why I wanted you to memorise your cat form, because you need the image to transform. Think the spell and transform now."

She takes a deep breath, closes her eyes and for a minute nothing happens. Then she slowly shrinks and finds her cat form again. Bravo, girl! That's it, you have done it!

I let her walk around for a bit, then I call her back.

"Congratulations, Geraldine, you have mastered the initial transformation. That's an amazing bit, you know."

She beams of course and steps back into the circle, where she sits down next to Irene, who's just as excited as Geraldine.

"Okay, the next who offered after Victoria is Margaret, right?"

Margaret nods and steps up to take her potion, while Victoria comes forth to start with her incantations.

We proceed exactly the same way and when I tell the class that the potion should be working all chatting stops. Everyone turns their attention to Victoria who goes through the incantation, but makes a mistake on one of the longer ones. She looks at me in distraught, but as nothing happens at all I tell her to catch her breath and start again.

She tries hard, but struggles again and has to start for a third time. She shakes her head and concentrates harder. The others help by saying the incantations along with her, while she does the respective wand movements. It's looking a lot better and when she gets through the last incantation correctly her body starts to convulse and shrink and there's the owl sitting on the ground, looking rather ruffled, but okay. Everyone applauds her and I ask her to go over to the mirror. She hops and struggles a bit, but manages. Just like Parvati and Padma she has kept the golden eyes of an owl while we've seen that Geraldine had her own grey eyes in her cat form. I think she's a great grey owl, with the typical ring of feathers around her beak, which helps hearing the slightest little noises.

"You're doing very well, Victoria, now please come back just like Geraldine did before."

I can see her closing her huge eyes and then she comes back.

"Well done!" I commend her.

One by one the students step up and go through their initial transformation. I'm very proud of them as they all manage. Some have to try a couple of times, one, Phyllis Night gets so excited, that I have to send her back to her place to go over it again after someone else is done. But even she gets her first transformation. The other two cats, Horace and Tania are a red and white tabby and a light beige one with brown eyes. The dogs are fun, Gregory looks something like a beige coloured Labrador; Irene is almost as big as my own dog, but she looks more like a Newfoundland than I do; then there's Jon who turns out like a grey Pointer. And finally there's Martin, who transforms into a perfect little brown Spaniel with huge blue eyes.

Steven is a black horse. He looks quite impressive in this big form. Reminds me a lot of James. Felix looks almost the same as Ginny, he's just a bit smaller, but that would be because the male golden eagles are always a bit smaller than the females.

The most magnificent is certainly Margaret. When she's through her incantation she starts to merge into a beautiful red and gold creature, but her wings are of a wonderful deep blue like lapis lazuli. The colour combination leaves all of us in the room speechless. For Diggory her form is a complete surprise as we haven't even given him a hint about what they would become. Now she sits there, transformed again by her own will and I pick her up and let her perch on my outstretched arm.

"I'd say there's a WOW-effect here," I gasp.

I think, everyone in the room agrees with me. I look at Margaret.

"I think, we'll need Albus Dumbledore's help in training you. Albus' and of course Fawkes'. I'm sure they will be delighted to do this," I suggest.

Once everyone is through with the initial transformation and I'm not too astonished that they all did it, I'm telling them:

"Well, that was only step number one. You now know your forms, you have transformed for the first time, you know how to do it, but the real training only starts now. You will have to become the animal you have inside of you. You will have to work through your transformations daily, for a number of times. Best do it for a short moment right after getting up or before going to bed. Do it anytime you are in the mood to do it, just as long as it's outside of class and meal times. Your first job is to get used to your form and transform easily. During the lessons we'll talk about and practice the finer details of the behaviour of your animal. You will study that more intensively of course. And you will learn to live the animal more by instinct than conscious thinking. It's supposed to be one with yourselves."

Minerva stands up when I have finished and says:

"Well, I do think that a reward is called for. Your achievement will be rewarded with fifty house-points for each of you, which means two hundred points for Gryffindor, two hundred for Hufflepuff, two hundred and fifty for Ravenclaw and fifty for Slytherin. And each of you will have an O extra in Transfigurations counting to your overall marks. I strongly recommend showing off the form at your practical Transfigurations NEWTS, seventh years! I'm very proud of all of you and I really hope you will enjoy your new ability as I have for the many years I've been an Animagus."

The next who has something to say is Diggory who gets up and produces a stack of parchments.

"On behalf of the Ministry I'm happy to be the first one to congratulate you to your achievement. Well done, all of you! And well done, Professor Black! This is the second group of fourteen people under your supervision to pass their initial transformations flawlessly. Congratulations, Professor! I do hope you continue to teach students in this art, which has been almost disregarded for a long time. – Now. These here are your Registrations. All we have to do now is to fill in the animal you've become and a short description of your features. I suggest that you take the same kind of photos you did the last time, Professor. How did you manage to have them still?"

Remus and I laugh straight out. Oh, these pure-blooded witches and wizards with not the slightest idea about the Muggle world.

"They're simple Muggle photos, Mr. Diggory. Those can't move. We'll supply you with one for each of them. It worked with the other ones, didn't it?"

"Perfectly. Much better than drawings. Especially since you did them from all four sides."

"Then we'll repeat that procedure in one of the next lessons."

Then Madam Montgomery has something to say as well:

"As I've just witnessed this was obviously a sound success and therefore I see no problems in keeping this course up. Especially since there are certainly many more unregistered Animagi than registered ones, so if students can learn it here then they won't do dangerous stuff later on their own. Well done, Professor Black."

"Thank you, Madam Montgomery. It was a pleasure to accompany my students on this path. And of course it was also much fun. I'm amazed for the second time how it can be done with a larger group of trainees. Both times I've been amazed at the transformations, but this time we were even more surprised with that wonderful Phoenix!"

Once the students have returned their parchments to Diggory the afternoon is over and we all go over to the Great Hall for dinner. Passing through the Entrance Hall we can hear many students whisper excitedly about the point gains in their respective houses, only the Slytherins grumble. They keep asking why their level has only risen a small bit, compared to the other houses. Once we have taken our seats I can hear Victoria tell her classmates that she's the one who got the points for Slytherin.

"I'm the only one who has joined the Animagus course. Professor McGonagall has given fifty points to all of us who managed the transformation. Since I am the only Slytherin in the group we didn't get as many."

"FIFTY points? Wow. I don't think I've ever seen her hand out that many at once. I've only seen her dock that many!" a boy in her year sighs.

I turn to Remus and we both grin. Don't we know that! He turns back to Minerva and remarks:

"Must have been a first for you to hand out that many points in one go, Minerva. They're all still speechless."

She smirks. She actually SMIRKS!

"Becoming Headmistress has softened you down, Minerva!" I chide with a laugh.

"Yes, maybe. It gives me more distance and I can now understand Albus a good deal better. I can let go much more easily now. I don't think, I'm really softening down, but I am a bit milder these days. Gives me a good feeling, too."