Snape nodded in response to his daughter and watched as she retreated upstairs. He found himself moving to the bookcase. There sat the Pegasus statue that he had given to Katrina on their first anniversary while they were still in school. He picked it up and slowly turned it in his hand. He gently cradled it as he looked over the other statues on the shelf. There was a unicorn, a dragon, a griffin, and a chimera – one statue for every year they had been together.

Still holding the Pegasus, he took a closer look at the photographs displayed. There were a couple baby pictures, as well as pictures of Maggie as a toddler and young child. There were a couple more-recent photos as well. One was of Maggie and Katrina standing in front of the tiger exhibit at the zoo. 'Damn muggle photos,' he thought, staring at Katrina in the zoo photo. He would have given almost anything to see her smiling at him again.

For some reason, he couldn't fathom leaving the statues or photos behind and he carefully gathered them up and placed them carefully in the pockets of his robes. He decided to give Maggie the statues for safe-keeping and the photos he would hold onto.

-- --

Maggie again followed her father into Dumbeldore's office, pulling the invisibility cloak from her head as she entered. Mrs. Weasley was already there, a cup of tea in hand. "Good morning, Headmaster, Mrs. Weasley."

"Ah, good morning Samantha," Dumbledore said with a smile. He rose and came around his desk, "May I offer you a sherbet lemon?"

Maggie caught her father pinching the bridge of his nose out of the corner of her eye and decided against giving in to her curiosity, "No thank you, sir."

Mrs. Weasley placed her teacup down on the desk and approached Maggie. "Do you have all of your things, dear?"

Maggie patted the pocket of her robes. "Yes, ma'am. My father lent me a pair of trunks and shrunk them for me." One trunk was packed to the brim with textbooks which she would have to tear through if she ever hoped to catch up to her peers.

"Well, if you're ready to go then…? I'd like to give you some time to settle in before Ginerva and Ronald return home tomorrow," Mrs. Weasley said with a smile. "We're going to have you stay in the twins' old room. Now, Severus, you needn't worry!" Maggie had seen the frown cross her father's face and wondered about it. Then she had remembered the red-haired twins from two years back in her mother's muggle-studies class. "We thoroughly cleaned their room out when they left. I guarantee there is nothing of theirs left in there."

"I will owl you with Samantha's tutoring schedule this evening," Maggie's father said, still frowning.

"That's fine, Severus. We've set up Percy's room for Samantha's lessons. And her Defense lessons can be held outside if necessary." She turned to face Maggie, "Come along, dear. Ever travel by Floo before?"

"Yes, ma'am, to Diagon Alley," Maggie replied politely.

"Good, good. Well, good day Albus, Severus." Molly Weasley grabbed a handful of floo powder from the small metal bowl on the small table next to Dumbledore's fireplace. Throwing it into the fire, she called out "The Burrow," and stepped into the green flames.

Maggie turned to face the Headmaster. "Thank you for everything, sir."

"Now, Samantha, none of that 'sir' business outside of the school year. You can still call me Uncle if you wish." He opened his arms to her for a hug.

With a beaming smile, Maggie hurried over to him and hugged him back. "Thank you, Uncle Albus!" Pulling away she turned to her father and approached him. She knew, after the first time that she had impulsively hugged him, that her father was unaccustomed to physical displays. She decided she wouldn't make him uncomfortable so she simply stood before him, "Goodbye father."

"I will see you next week, Samantha, to begin your tutoring," he said. "Go on, now, or Mrs. Weasley will begin to worry that you got lost."

"Yes, father," she said with a smile. She grabbed a handful of floo powder and tossed it into the fire. Calling out, "the Burrow," she felt the spinning disorientation of floo travel.

She stumbled slightly as she emerged from the fireplace into what was clearly a living room. Glancing around, she took in the sparse furnishings, from the threadbare sofa to the bookcase which appeared that it was about to topple to one side. The room had a very lived-in feel which contrasted with her father's comfortable-yet-stuffy quarters.

Opposite the fireplace stood a very interesting clock. Instead of having a face with hands, this clock simply had hands with names on them. Each hand was pointed to, what – Maggie assumed – each person was doing. Mr. Weasley's hand was on 'Work', Ron's hand was on 'goofing around', and the hand for Mrs. Weasley was on 'cooking'.

"Samantha, come on into the kitchen!" Mrs. Weasley called, pulling her attention from the clock.

Following the sound of Mrs. Weasley's voice, Maggie found herself in a large kitchen with a long dining table. Knives were obediently peeling and slicing vegetables on a sideboard. Dishes, probably from breakfast, were being washed in the sink while Mrs. Weasley pulled a steaming loaf of bread from what looked like a cabinet.

'Hell, but I feel so lost,' Maggie thought, watching the woman at work in her kitchen.

"Are you hungry? Thirsty?" Mrs. Weasley asked, finally turning to face her.

"Oh, no, thank you. We finished breakfast only a short while ago," she replied.

"Hmm, Albus told us you were raised in a muggle home?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Well, I know everything must seem a bit overwhelming to you right now, but if you have any questions, or if you need help finding something, don't hesitate to ask, okay?"

Giving her a happy smile, she nodded, "Okay."

"I guess I'd better show you to your room so you can unpack. I know you have a lot of books your father expects you to read this summer…"

"Oh," Maggie said quickly, "It's not just him. I mean, he wants me to learn as quickly as I can, of course. But it's really my desire to catch up to my peers. Honestly, I think that if it was up to him, I wouldn't attend Hogwarts at all."

"Why would you say that, dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked, leading her to the stairs.

"Well, I don't think he's happy about my… friendship… with one of the other students," she responded, following Mrs. Weasley up to the second floor. There was a small landing with a door to the left and right and another set of stairs continuing up.

"Here we are, dear," Mrs. Weasley said, opening the door to the left. "This was the twins' room, but they recently moved out." Leading Maggie inside, she gestured around, "Make yourself at home. You can use whichever bed you want and the closet is all yours."

Maggie took stock of the room, trying to picture a pair of teenaged boys sharing such a small space. There were two twin-sized beds – one on either side of the room. Between the beds was a chest of drawers with a total of six drawers – three on either side. There were two doors opposite the beds, both of which were open. One led to a small closet and the other to a just-as-small bathroom with shower.

"I know it's not much…" Mrs. Weasley began.

"Oh, it's perfect," Maggie said quickly. "After all, I'll be spending most of my waking time studying."

"Speaking of which, let me show you the room we've set up for your lessons."

Maggie followed her back across the landing and into the room opposite.

"This used to be Percy's room, but…" she trailed off and Maggie glanced away from her, sensing a sore-spot. "Well, we removed the bed and Arthur put in some shelves. We also transfigured a work bench for your potions work. There's the desk for you to write your papers…"

"It's perfect. I can't thank you and Mr. Weasley enough for all you are doing for me," Maggie said sincerely.

"You don't need to thank us, Samantha. Albus explained everything that has been happening and… well… We might not exactly like your father, but we respect him. When he and Albus asked us to help, it was the least we could do. Anyway, with only Ron and Ginny still at home, well, the place would feel awful empty." Mrs. Weasley broke the serious moment by giving Maggie a knowing smile, "So, you said you had a… friendship with a fellow student?"

"Oh, uhm, yes… With Harry…"

"Harry Potter?" Mrs. Weasley asked, her eyes suddenly alight. Maggie silently nodded and the woman laughed. "Of course your father is upset about that. Those two are as alike as chalk and cheese! Now, Harry is like my eighth child. That dear boy has a huge heart which he wears on his sleeve. I don't want to see you hurt him…"

"I wouldn't do anything to purposely hurt him," Maggie swore.

Mrs. Weasley smiled again, "Good girl. Well, I'll leave you to your studies…"

"Oh, wait. I need to have my trunks un-shrunk."

"Silly me, I'd almost forgotten. You may as well place your trunk with your books down here, and the one with your clothes in the bedroom."

Maggie placed the trunk with her books into a corner and went into the bedroom where she placed her clothes trunk at the end of the bed. Once both trunks had been restored, she bid goodbye to Mrs. Weasley, returned to the 'study', and pulled out a first-year charms textbook.