This story takes place well after the Harry Potter and his generation of students have left Hogwarts. ElfFlame and I had created several sets of children from the various stories we've written, and since they were all around the same age, decided to throw them into school together. So this is a story, hopefully soon to be a series of stories based on several others. To help make more sense of these stories, it may help to read my story, De Die In Diem: From Day to Day, and ElfFlame's stories, Dragon's Tears, and Lost Love. Most of the kids come from those. We've also created many original kids not from our stories to help fill the ranks. Many of their last names may sound familiar to you. ElfFlame has files of the names and basic family trees of some of the children for all who are interested in finding out more background on these kids. Email her at if you want them. We hope you enjoy these, we've been having lots of fun thinking about them!

Arsinoe de Blassenville: I'm finally in my new apartment, and my computer is up and running, so I'm able to post a chapter again! It feels like it's been forever since I posted last! Anyway, yes, Narcissa and Snape, what an odd couple, but ElfFlame and I are determined to make it happen, especially since the entire last story of the True Revenge world depend upon it! Ah yes, teenage angst at its finest! This year will be filled with angst I'm afraid. It'll still be a much lighter year than the previous year, which I think Teecie deserves. So, enjoy the next chapter!

The Hogwarts Weekly Howler

The day after the Lake party, Teecie and Paige made up. Patty had left for breakfast, leaving the two girls alone. Both of them had stood around in silence for several minutes trying to decide how to broach the subject. Teecie knew she'd been wrong to taunt Paige with the fact that she'd been involved in the wedding and Paige had not, and it was her responsibility to apologize to her. After taking a deep breath, she walked over to Paige, who was fixing her hair in the mirror, and spoke, "Look, Paige, I'm sorry I was so mean to you at the wedding rehearsal. I shouldn't have been so obnoxious about being in the wedding…when you were not."

Paige turned to look at Teecie with a curious look on her face. "You were also mean about Hunter," she reminded her before turning back to the mirror.

Teecie bit her lip and kicked at the chair leg. "Your family is so big…and mine is so much smaller. Reni married your brother which means she's not a part of my family anymore, really. Hunter either. I was upset about losing them," she replied honestly.

Paige turned to look at Teecie again. Her face had softened considerably, and her eyebrows were furrowed in a look that showed her concern for her friend. "She's still a part of your family, and so is Hunter," she replied.

"No they're not, they're moving out. They're going to move into a house with Peter and be their own family. They'll probably hang out with your family from now on. Maybe they'll stop by for a while on Christmas to get our gifts…but, otherwise…" Teecie trailed off while sniffling as the thought overwhelmed her.

"Teecie, that isn't true! Reni and Hunter will always be a part of your family! Peter's a part of your family now too. In fact, it's kind of like all us Weasleys are your family now. You said so yourself at the end of the school year last year, we're sisters now!" Paige exclaimed while standing up and hugging Teecie warmly, trying to comfort her.

"I guess it's true," Teecie conceded, "So, will you forgive me for being so mean to you?"

"Of course! All friends get into fights once in a while, I think it's a rule or something," Paige replied while petting Teecie's curls in a motherly fashion, "Now let's go down to breakfast."

Teecie and Paige strolled down to breakfast arm-in-arm and chattered happily to each other for the entire meal. Patty was quite happy to see they'd made up.

Towards the end of the meal, Professor Creevey stood up to make an announcement. "As the clubs begin meeting this week, it is my pleasure to announce the formation of a brand new club this year: a Journalism club. It's high time this school had its own newspaper. I and Professor Charlie Weasley will be heading it, and you are all welcome to join us Wednesdays after dinner for the club meetings," she said in an airy voice.

There were squeals and cheers heard from all over the different tables from students who were excited about the new club. Teecie was intrigued at the idea. She'd written in her journal all last year, and over the summer holiday. She'd also written short stories for fun before too, and liked the thought of writing for a large body of people who would read it.

Across the table, Paige and Carl were talking about the newspaper too. They planned to join the club as well. Kern joined in the discussion too. He thought it would be a lot of fun to be in the club. They all made plans on going Wednesday night to Professor Creevey's classroom for the meeting.

Teecie rejoined most of her old clubs. She'd dropped several of them last year due to being too stressed out, so she was only in four this year, instead of her usual six. She still intended to volunteer her time up at the orphanage, one Saturday a month.

The week went by quickly. Teecie was surprised at how much homework was being assigned to them so early on in the year. Hopefully it would all help towards the OWLS next year. Master Wilkes had been telling her which OWLS she'd have to do well in next year in order to study further to become a healer one day. Transfiguration had always been her hardest subject in school, with Potions being the easiest, and the rest somewhere in between.

Professor Weasley was so excited when Teecie visited her office after classes on Tuesday for help on her Transfiguration homework. They were supposed to turn hedgehog into a pincushion, and her pincushion never managed to have any pins sticking out of them, like the quills of the hedgehog. "Teecie, you really should come see me more often. I'm always here to help all the students, but so few choose to come and visit me in my office. Would you like some tea?" she asked while conjuring up a teapot and two teacups.

The two worked on the pincushion and drank tea together for over an hour before walking to the Great Hall for dinner. They had finally perfected the pincushion, and Teecie was very happy to have learned how to do it the right way. She was still in a great mood when she sat down at the Gryffindor table with her classmates. She couldn't help but notice how upset James seemed to be. "What's the matter?" she asked him while dishing herself a plate of chicken pot pie.

"Quidditch tryouts were today. I wanted to make seeker for the team," James replied while stabbing at his green beans.

"Oh, and you didn't make the team," Teecie replied sympathetically, "I'm sorry."

"I'll just try again next year I suppose," he said in a depressed tone of voice.

"Do you need a hug?" Teecie ventured to ask. Candace was sitting at the Ravenclaw table where she belonged, so Teecie figured it couldn't hurt to try and comfort James.

James looked thoughtful for a moment. "Yes," he finally replied. Teecie smiled and stood up to lean over the table, but was surprised when he stood up and walked over to the Ravenclaw table to find Candace. Teecie watched with her hands on her hips. How dare he?

Teecie caught Carl's eye as she sat back down. "Tough break," he said sympathetically.

Teecie threw her head back haughtily. "I don't care. If he wants to spend time with…that person…it's fine by me. It's none of my business," she replied proudly.

"Teecie, why don't you just tell him you still like him? It'll make your life so much easier," Carl suggested while pouring himself a goblet of milk and not looking at her. They were sitting apart from the rest of their classmates, and nobody seemed to be paying any attention to their conversation.

Teecie dropped her fork with a noisy clatter on her plate. "He's moved on. He only likes me as a friend," she said quietly. It was very difficult to talk about this, but there was something about Carl that made it easier to talk about her feelings.

"But you love him," Carl whispered.

Teecie froze when he spoke those words. She looked into his eyes with terror showing clearly on her face. Was she really that obvious? Candace had said so at the party. Did everybody know? What if James knew she still liked him and was ignoring her because he truly didn't like her anymore? "How did you know?" she gasped.

Carl rolled his eyes. "Teecie, darling, I'm Carl! I know these things," he said with a twinkle in his eye. "If you love him, you have to let him know!"

Teecie's throat felt dry as she thought about looking into James's eyes and saying those three words. They were so small, yet loaded with such great meaning. She'd never said it to anybody other than her family before. "What if I tell him and he doesn't feel the same way? What if he laughs at me?" she croaked.

Carl sighed. "Teecie, you used to go out with him. You should know him better than that. You know how he feels about you. He's just going out with Candace because he missed going out with you," he reassured Teecie.

Teecie bit her lip nervously while glancing over her shoulder to see what James was doing. He was nuzzling Candace's nose with his own and feeding her strawberries. Teecie turned back to look at Carl and shuddered. "Yeah, right, I can see how he's pining away for me," she replied sarcastically. Without finishing her meal or saying another word, she stood up and ran out of the room, back up to her dormitory where she spent the rest of the evening crying into her pillow and writing about her feelings in her journal:

James is always kissing Candace or hanging all over her. If he really liked me, would he really do that with her? How can I tell him I like him if he might not like me? What if he tells me he's in love with Candace now? I can't say the words to him unless I know for sure if he loves me. I can't even write them. Why am I so afraid? What's wrong with me? Carl could tell that I still like James, so does that mean that everybody can too? Is it written all over my face? And what would I do if James told me he didn't love me? I think I'd just die! I can't even really tell if he likes me or not. He seems to like me as a friend, but does he only like me, or does he like me like me? Maybe I should ask Carl to ask him if he likes me for me. Maybe that would work. And what if he does like me like me, but wants to keep seeing Candace? Where does that leave me? All alone! I don't want to be alone! But I don't think there's any other boy I want other than James! Why is love so horribly cruel when it's supposed to be the most best thing in the whole world?

Teecie fell asleep that night without any answers to her many questions. She went to class on Wednesday feeling very out of sorts. The Journalism club's first meeting was tonight and Teecie, Carl, and Paige were really looking forward to it. They spent their lunch break talking about which columns they wanted to write. "I think you should write a love advice piece!" Paige told Carl.

"Nah, I want to do a fashion column. You should do love," Carl said to Paige. "Teecie, what do you want to write about?" he asked her.

Teecie hadn't really even thought about what she wanted to write. She wanted to be a part of the newspaper, but wasn't sure what she wanted to do. "I don't know; I haven't had much chance to think about it. Lots of newspapers and magazines have etiquette columns or household tips. Maybe I could do that. I could research things to show people how to be polite. Draco made me take etiquette lessons for a couple years. They actually weren't that bad," she said. "Or I could write a medical column. I could talk about a different part of the body or a different disease each week!" Teecie said excitedly, but when she saw the disgusted looks on her friends' faces, added, "Or maybe not."

Teecie spent the rest of the day thinking about what she wanted to do for the newspaper. She stopped by Draco's office to talk to him about it before dinner that night. "What would you write about Draco?" she asked while sitting in the chair across from his desk.

Draco looked thoughtful for a moment. He really enjoyed talking to Teecie when she was acting more mature as she was right now. "I'd probably write about potions. I'd pick one out each week, and write it out for the students to try, and give them all the properties and effects of it. It would be fun to do," he replied.

Teecie thought this over for a minute. "That might be fun," she finally said slowly, as though getting an idea right then, "but what about a cooking column? It's really the same thing. I could choose a recipe each week and try it out and tell them if it's any good or not. Wouldn't that be fun?"

Draco shook his head. He'd never be able to break her of such middle-class ways, would he? Not that he'd ever stop trying to. "Would you at least use cooking spells?" he asked, trying to find a way to compromise.

Teecie looked horrified. "Magic, on food? How horrible! Uncle Sev used magic to cook food for us after dad had his heart attack, and it was good, but it didn't have that feeling of being homemade. Besides, it's fun, and I enjoy cooking," she replied.

Draco decided it was time to change the subject in order to get her mind of such mundane practices as cooking without magic. He'd spent a lot of his summer holiday trying to figure out what to do with his youngest sister now that she'd ruined her chances at making a good marriage. He still held out hope that there was a way for her to have as good a marriage as possible. The boys available to her would never be the cream of the crop, but they would still be able to give Teecie a comfortable life in which she'd never have to work, and their children would have a chance to rise higher in society. It was time to get her interested in boys who could offer her the most in life. "So, Teecie, how do you feel about going on some dates again? You know that the boys from your party that you were going to date are no longer available, but there are a few nice Slytherin boys at the school that you could see if you want," he said kindly.

Teecie looked up at her brother in surprise. They'd just been talking about the newspaper and now he was trying to set her up on dates again? Did she really want to see a boy who wasn't James? "But…but…" she was starting to feel frantic. Before she knew what she was saying, the words were spilling out of her mouth, "But what about James? I don't want to marry another boy. I love him!" As soon as the words left her mouth, Teecie felt shocked that she'd said them. She clapped both her hands over her mouth as though to keep any other words from seeping out accidentally.

Draco stared at his sister for a few minutes while she tried to compose herself. He desperately wanted her to fall in love with a boy other than James Lupin, the middle class son of a werewolf. James would never be able to provide Teecie with the life she deserved to have. They'd live a decidedly middle class life, without any idea of how much better their lives could be. Though, there was the inheritance she'd come into after she married. All but two million of Lucius's galleons had been stolen or confiscated over the years, and each of his children had a half million galleons due to them that they would get after they married. Draco had received his from his father after he'd married Tanith. He'd put it away in trust funds for his children's futures. The girls didn't know about the money, and wouldn't until Reni received hers after she returned from her honeymoon. Hopefully she'd use some of it towards a nice house for her new family.

Draco supposed Teecie's inheritance money would go towards a house as well, and to support the several children she and James were sure to have, but there would be no rise above the class in which they would live. Teecie had been the only one of his sisters to be receptive to his attempts to provide them with more than they already had, and he'd felt so close to being successful with her, that it was difficult to see it all slipping away and being replaced with something so…average.

"Teecie, why don't you try going on some dates with the boys I could introduce to you? They're good boys, from good families, and I know you'd probably like some of them," Draco finally replied, trying desperately to hold onto her future.

Teecie's mind was reeling so much from what she'd said that she didn't hear anything Draco had said to her afterwards. Had she just admitted to another soul that she was in love with James? This was too much to deal with right now. Teecie stood up and started to walk out of the room. "I can't talk about this now, Draco. I need to go to dinner or something," she muttered while leaving.

Once in the Great Hall, Teecie picked at a plate of roast beef and mashed potatoes, barely eating any of it while she thought about what she'd said to Draco. She'd told him she loved James. There was no taking that back. James was sitting just a few seats away from her, wolfing down large amounts of meat and gravy, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the terrified girl a short distance from him was in love with him. What would he do if she told him? Teecie contemplated walking up to him and declaring her love for him right then and there, but was too afraid of being laughed at by either James or the other students, so she did nothing instead.

When the meal had finally ended, Teecie stood up and walked to Professor Creevey's classroom where the students interested in the Journalism club were meeting. Professor Creevey and Charlie explained how the newspaper was going to work, and soon Teecie was so enthralled with the idea, that all her worries about James flew out of her mind entirely. She spent the hour with the rest of the students brainstorming ideas for possible columns. At the end of the session, they'd come up with ideas for articles about Quidditch, fashion, food, love advice, Muggle facts, potions, want adverts, comics, and school news, also known as gossip.

Teecie had fun talking to the kids in the club, among them, Kern, Paige, Carl, and Peter. There were a few fights, but almost everybody ended up getting the job they wanted. Joshua Northrop, one of the Ravenclaw boys Teecie had danced with at her party and went on a date with, was elected editor-in-chief. Ashford Creevey was the photographer. Paige got the love advice column while Carl chose the fashion column. Teecie chose food while Peter did the comics. Other students chose to do horoscopes, runes puzzles, weekly student polls, and professor interviews. Not everybody was doing an article. Some of the students, like Curtis Goyle, were interested in printing the newspaper, while June Lindon was excited to help with the formatting.

After all the jobs had been assigned came the debate over a name for the paper. The Hogwarts Weekly, The Hogwarts Times, The Bugle, and The Weekly Planet were among the list of names suggested. It wasn't until a half hour of discussion that somebody suggested The Weekly Howler. Everybody thought it was a great idea, and it was unanimously voted the official name of the paper. By the end of the meeting, everybody knew what their task was in order to produce the first issue of the Weekly Howler next week.

Teecie spent the rest of the week trying to think of which recipe to test for the upcoming edition. She spent hours pouring through her cookbooks looking for just the right one. It wasn't until Friday night, after her fencing club meeting, that she found one that interested her. Alder plank roasted salmon with a citrus beurre blanc sauce. She'd never tasted something cooked on alder before, as it was a wood not widely available in Britain. The picture looked divine, and it was something that sounded like a challenge, which appealed to Teecie. She decided to try it at the Cooking club meeting the next morning.

Teecie walked into the kitchen on Saturday morning and was horrified to see James standing next to Candace at one of the tables. What was she doing there? She wasn't part of the club. Teecie narrowed her eyes and walked to another part of the room, trying her best to appear nonchalant.

Try as she might, Teecie had no luck finding anything made with alder to transfigure into a plank, so she had to ask Charlie how to do it. Together, they worked on turning a large dinner plate into an alder plank that would work in the oven without burning up.

With the plank ready to go, the next step was preparing the fish. Teecie found a nice side of salmon in the ice box and took it to a cutting board to get it ready for the oven. The recipe was quite simple really, a bit of salt and pepper, then onto the plank, and into the oven. The hard part was the butter sauce, which Teecie worked on with painstaking precision while the fish roasted.

The sauce took a lot of stirring with a whisk on the stove. Teecie had a good view of Candace and James, where were busy making cookies together. She scowled to herself while they laughed and fed each other dough from spoons. James should be feeding her cookie dough, not that Ravenclaw twit! She was just about to march over there to break up the happy couple when Charlie, who Teecie thought must have a radar to detect such thoughts, stopped to talk to her before she'd gotten a chance.

"So…Teecie, how's the salmon coming along?" Charlie asked while glancing at James and Candace.

"Oh, who cares about the stupid, bloody salmon? I sure as heck don't!" Teecie cried irrationally.

Charlie smiled slightly, but made sure that Teecie didn't see him. "Is there something you'd like to talk about?"

Teecie looked up at him while contemplating telling him or not. "I…I…don't like Candace, that's all," she finally replied in a small voice.

"I see. So, it must be hard to see a good friend like James going out with a girl you don't care for," Charlie said, leaning down to look in the oven door to see how the salmon was doing.

"It's the most hardest thing in the world to sit back and watch."

"The most hardest thing, eh? That is tough. Well, you'll have to do something about it then," Charlie suggested before walking off to check on the other students.

Teecie didn't have time to do anything about it right then, for the salmon was done roasting, and it was time to take it out of the oven. The first thing she noticed about it was the aroma. She'd never smelled anything quite like it before. It was very strong, smoky, woodsy, and exotic. Eagerly, Teecie took a forkful and put it in her mouth. The salmon was crispy on the outside, and melted in her mouth. The fish tasted even better after it had been prepared this way. It was so flavourful, and the smokiness was really complementary to it. For the next bite, she tried it with the lemon sauce and found it was even better. The citrus flavours blended with the woodsy flavour of the alder plank, and the fresh taste of the salmon. Teecie didn't think there had ever been a better tasting food she'd ever had in her entire life.

Charlie made his way back over to Teecie and tried the fish. "Wow, Teecie, this is amazing! That wood really tastes great with the salmon! This is what you're writing about for the newspaper, isn't it? I'd say it's definitely a keeper recipe," he raved.

Teecie felt a thrill at having impressed Charlie. She decided that she'd have to send the recipe to her father to try. He'd love it too.

Teecie spent the afternoon writing the article for the paper. She had to talk about it, not just copy out the recipe.

Alder Plank Roasted Salmon with Lemon Beurre Blanc

This recipe was really delicious and easy to make too. I didn't have an alder plank to use, so I transfigured one out of a large dinner plate, and it worked perfectly. Alder is available in Britain, but I'd never had it before. It's a kind of tree, by the way. When the salmon cooks on it, it tastes woodsy and smoky, and really strong. It's so delicious to cook it this way. I know I'll never cook it any other way than this. The lemon sauce takes the most time and attention. You have to stir it for a while on the stove or it could burn. But the tanginess of the lemon mixes well with the smoky flavour. I hope someday you all have a chance to taste something as delicious as this. I give this recipe an O, for outstanding.

After Teecie copied out the recipe, she finished her Charms homework before going to Professor Lupin's office for tea. It was their first teatime of the year, and she was looking forward to it.

Teecie chattered to Professor Lupin about her holiday and Reni's wedding, getting him all caught up on her eventful life. He listened with a smile on his face and kept offering more biscuits to her while she talked. When she'd exhausted herself and stopped for a minute to drink her tea, Teecie thought about what to ask the professor about his holiday. "So, how was your holiday? How's Sirius doing? What's he doing now that he's out of school?" she asked while sipping her chamomile tea.

"My holiday was wonderful. I spent a lot of time with my family. Sirius moved out of the house and is now working in the Himalayas with yetis. He's working with a group of people who are trying to make contact with them. They're very dangerous creatures, and we're all quite worried for his safety, but he seemed so excited about it that I could hardly tell him he couldn't go. Pamela, his girlfriend, wasn't too happy about the move. She's studying to be a children's advocate for the justice system, and wanted to spend time with him, but I'm sure he'll floo home often enough," Remus replied.

"Wow, that sounds scary! I don't think I'd want to see a yeti. I read all about them in an article in the Quibbler. They have horrible tempers and will eat you just as soon as look at you," Teecie replied expertly. "I sure hope Sirius is careful around them."

"I'm sure he'll use every precaution possible," Remus reassured her.

"So…what about your other sons? What did they do over the holiday?" Teecie asked, hoping she didn't sound too desperate.

Remus knew exactly what this was about, but wasn't going to let on. He didn't want to embarrass Teecie. "Well, Peter spent a lot of his time building another level of the tree house in the backyard. He put in a deck and shingled roof. It looks really amazing actually. Let's see…what did James do?" Remus thought for a moment how best to answer this. James had spent most of his holiday locked in his room, lying on his bed and not responding to anybody. Remus assumed this was a bit of a depression because he wasn't seeing Teecie anymore. He'd kept up his correspondence with her, and Candace as well, but Remus knew his son didn't have the same kinds of feelings for Candace as he had for Teecie. "James spent a quiet holiday of reflection and contemplation," he finally replied cryptically, hoping Teecie didn't ask for him to go into further detail.

"He told me he'd gotten grounded," Teecie replied, nodding her head in understanding. "That's cool about the tree house. Maybe I can see it some day."

"Perhaps." Remus could hear footsteps approaching his office door and looked up to see who was about to walk into the room. After a couple seconds, James walked into the room without knocking.

"Hey, pop, you said you'd help me with…" James broke off while he looked over at Teecie. "Hey, Teecie. How are you today?" he asked quietly.

"I'm good. How are you?" Teecie whispered.

"Good too. I heard about your salmon from Charlie. He said it was really good."

"It was. You should try it some time."

"Maybe you could make it for me some time."

Remus looked back and forth between the two kids with a smile on his face. Poor things were obviously miserable without each other. Perhaps he should give them some time alone. Quietly, he slipped out of the room and shut the door behind him.

Teecie's heart fluttered at the thought of cooking for James. "Sure, I'd love to," she replied eagerly.

"You would?"

"Uh huh."

"Cool."

The conversation continued in this manner for a while longer. They talked about clubs and classes, and carefully avoided the topic of Candace. Teecie poured James a cup of tea, and the two chatted for over an hour before they realized Remus had left the room. There was an awkward moment of silence as they realized they were no longer being chaperoned. "Um…well…I suppose I should go and find my father," James finally said while walking to the door to leave.

"Oh, sure, I guess I should go and do some more homework," Teecie replied, standing up to follow him out of the room. As she watched him leave the room, she had to fight against the urge to throw herself at him and profess her undying love for him. She couldn't do anything until she knew for sure how he really felt about Candace. That was the first step. For now, Teecie managed to keep her hands and feelings to herself while walking back to the Gryffindor common room.

The rest of the weekend and the next week flew past until Wednesday's Journalism club meeting. The students had all worked very hard and were working furiously in order to get the first edition of the paper ready for distribution for Thursday morning. All the students would be receiving a free paper, to be delivered by owl, first thing at breakfast.

The largest article was a three page interview with the headmaster. Teecie was able to read through it, and learned a lot about Uncle Sev. The questions were quite broad-ranging. Teecie was fascinated by what she learned from the article. Particularly a question about his most treasured possession. Uncle Sev's response had been: "A set of measuring instruments that my mother gave me for my seventh year. She died shortly after I left for school, and having them reminds me of her." Teecie felt saddened by this. He'd never talked about his parents before, and she had the feeling his home life must have been a lot like her own father's early life had been.

She was also quite amused by his response to a question about which type of Muggle technology he was most intrigued by. His answer had been the computer, which he had mispronounced "Com-pewter." She laughed at this. She had a computer of her own at home and could show him how it worked any time he wanted!

Teecie was surprised at his answer to the next question. The interviewer asked who he felt was his best friend. He had chosen Draco. This surprised her, for she was sure that he was quite close to her mother. She wondered why he hadn't mentioned her at all.

One of the most interesting questions was very personal, and Teecie was quite surprised that he'd actually answered it. The interviewer asked who had influenced Uncle Sev's life the most. The answer moved Teecie. "I would say that there are three people who count as having most influenced me. The first has redeemed himself, and so I will not reveal his name. The second is gone, and good riddance. The third, and the only good influence in my life, was Albus Dumbledore. I hope he is looking down on this school and approving how well things have turned out for all of us." Teecie wondered if the first person had been her father. They'd always had an odd sort of alliance over the years. They'd never been what you might call "friends," but they weren't enemies either. She wasn't too sure of who the second person was though, maybe his father.

The final question of the interview was deep and thought provoking. Uncle Sev was asked if he'd seen what his life would be like now, as he thought about the future while he'd been a student at school, was it as good as he'd thought it would be? His answer was quite touching. "Well, considering the life I imagined, I think it is better. But had you asked me then if I would have liked this life, I would have sneered at it." Uncle Sev had had a very hard life. He was a very unhappy man-that much Teecie could tell. He'd come a long way from his Death Eater days, and deserved happiness. She thought it was quite brave of him to give the interview and to answer so frankly. He must be worried about how the students would react to it all. She could only imagine how nerve wracking it must be for him right now.

The paper was finally ready for publication around midnight, and the weary students trudged off to bed while they were being printed.

The Journalism club members were nervous and excited over their paper being distributed to the rest of the students. What would they think? Would it be a success? Would they have any interest in it at all? The anxious club members had all of their fears alleviated at breakfast when the owls delivered the papers to the awaiting students. Within minutes, the school was abuzz with chattering kids as they read the paper.

Teecie was thrilled to hear what they said about her friends' columns and articles. Most of the students were excited about the love and fashion advice columns by Paige and Carl. Carl planned on writing about a new topic each week, while Paige asked the students to write to her with questions about love for her to answer. Her column was called, "Ask Miss Amore." Teecie was worried that nobody would find the recipe article interesting, when June Lindon ran up to her and told her she thought the salmon sounded delicious. Teecie was so excited she jumped up and down for a few seconds while thinking that people were reading what she'd written.

Later that day, Professor Weasley pulled Teecie aside after class and complemented her using her transfiguration skills to help her make her salmon dish. "I'm so proud of you!" she exclaimed.

It seemed the Hogwarts Weekly Howler was quite the hit. Several copies had to be confiscated during various classes during the day. At lunch that day, most of the kids talked about the interview with the headmaster. A couple of the Muggleborn students shouted up to Uncle Sev that they knew how to use computers, and would he happy to show him how. A few of the girls whispered about why he wasn't married. One Ravenclaw girl suggested that he'd be thwarted in love in an earlier time in his life, and had been so hurt, he'd never been able to love again. Most of them were reacting positively, surprised that he'd talked so much, and shared so much of his life with them. Teecie couldn't help but look up at him as he sat at the professor's table, eating his lunch. Every once in a while, he'd glance out at the students, as if trying to see how they'd reacted to the interview. She couldn't say for sure, but thought he still looked a bit nervous.

The day passed pleasantly. Teecie had a lot of fun talking about the Howler and how much fun it was to read it. Before walking up to her dormitory that night, she made a special stop at Uncle Sev's office, to talk to him about the interview.

The first thing Teecie did after she'd walked into Uncle Sev's office, was walk up to him and throw her arms around his waist. "Mmmlvsv…" she said into his robes while hugging him.

Snape was taken aback momentarily from Teecie's sudden physical attack. He stiffened for a few seconds before growing more accustomed to her touch. After a minute, he peeled her off of him. "What did you say?" he asked while holding her an arm's length away from him.

"I said I love you Uncle Sev. I'm very happy to know those things about you that you talked about in the interview," Teecie replied, beaming up at him. "It was very brave of you."

Snape wasn't sure how to react to this enthusiastic outburst. He'd been more nervous than he'd cared to admit about even giving the interview in the first place. Scuttlebutt from the various paintings around the school said that it had been very well received among the students, and he seemed to be even more respected by them than ever before. Finally, he smiled weakly down at Teecie, barely able to look into her eyes. They shone with a youthful excitement that was so bright it was almost painful to look at. It only served to remind him how far away his own youth was. He was glad to know she was so happy though.

In a completely impulsive moment, Snape reached his hand out and caressed Teecie's cheek for a couple seconds before letting it drop back to his side. "I'm glad you liked it, Ticia. Though I must admit I did it more for myself than for anybody else," he replied honestly.

Teecie looked up at Uncle Sev, and smiled. She thought that was a very good thing for him. His life was definitely moving in a good direction, and she wanted to play a part in keeping it moving that way. At that moment, the image of Narcissa Malfoy popped into her head. Those two would make a perfect couple! She could imagine the two of them walking hand-in-hand on a beach somewhere, and eventually getting married. The thought warmed her heart.

Before leaving a minute later, Teecie stood on her toes, leaned up, and kissed Uncle Sev on the cheek. She thought he'd flushed afterwards, but couldn't really tell. It could have been the flickering of a nearby candle.

As Teecie left his office, Snape sat back down at his desk, and thought about that small exchange. She really was a sweet kid, when she wasn't giving him a headache, that was. Perhaps there was hope for her after all.