May 6th 1998

"Arthur, you need to do something," Jen said, as they stepped through the floo to Ravenscroft Manor.

"I'm not sure what I can do," Arthur said. "Short of forcing her to go to St Mungo's - and there's no guarantee she'd do it. She's not hurting anyone."

"Dad," Bill interrupted before Jen could. "Open your eyes! She's trying to set me up with coworkers even though I'm engaged, she's been so horrible to Katherine that Charlie's moved out, she's planning Harry and Ginny's wedding, and now she's set fire to the twins' shop."

"We don't know that for certain," Arthur said, although he didn't sound sure. "Wait, Katherine?"

Charlie snorted. "Told you she wouldn't have said anything to Dad," he said, half to his brother, half to his wife. "Dad, this is Katherine, your daughter-in-law."

"We do want to have a proper wedding," Katherine said hastily. "It's just we thought I was dying."

Arthur looked delighted. "That's wonderful! Well, not that you thought you were dying, but - Charlie, you should have said!"

"Well, when I did, Mum screamed for the house to hear that I'd married a Dark witch and she wasn't having it," Charlie said.

"Oh." Arthur came over to shake Katherine's hand heartily. "It's lovely to meet you, my dear; I am so sorry about Molly."

Katherine gave a shaky smile. "Thank you."

The floo chimed, and Addie stepped through, looking exhausted. "Oh good, you're all here."

"How did it go?" Lily asked. "Did you speak to Molly?"

"I did," Addie said heavily. "I've just got back from St Mungo's."

Arthur paled. "She agreed to go?"

"Not exactly," Addie admitted. "I convinced her to let me take a look. I found the problem - she told me to remove it - the thing is … it kind of … unravelled a lot and she had another breakdown. The mind healers are the best people to help right now."

"So what was wrong?" Percy asked anxiously.

"Basically, when Ginny went missing in her first year, she couldn't cope," Addie explained. "Understandable, really, When we experience things like that, our minds sometimes do things to protect themselves. The thing is, Molly's never went away, which is why she never wanted to hear about what happened."

"If we don't talk about it, it wasn't real," Jen murmured.

"Exactly," Addie said. "Then when Voldemort came back, it happened again. She built up a fantasy world to cope with the real one. Again, not unusual, but she retreated so far into hers that she couldn't find her way out again. But the more time passed, the more the real world clashed with the fantasy one - it wasn't just the war, or lack thereof anymore. And that started undermining her fantasy world and it started to collapse. Hence the breakdown." She looked directly at Arthur. "I'm sorry - I didn't mean to make things worse."

"You haven't," Arthur told her sadly. "Thank you for getting Molly to a place where she accepts that she needs help."

"The Healers say it might be a while," Addie warned. "It's not going to be overnight."

"Can we visit her?" Bill asked.

"Tomorrow," Addie answered. "I did ask, because I knew you'd want to know. They said to let them work today, and she should be okay for visitors tomorrow."

"In the meantime," Jen said, "I have some good news. Thank you Winky."

No one had even noticed Winky appear, but Jen now had everyone's attention all the same.

Jen smiled. "There's someone else who probably could do with some visitors."

George leapt to his feet. "Fred's awake!"

July 2nd 1998

Hogwarts was empty again.

The summer holidays had officially started and, thankfully, the repairs were more or less finished.

Amelia - now the new Minister of Magic - had sent a team of Ministry workers and volunteers to help, which had seriously sped up the process.

Now Addie was back at the castle for another staff meeting, this one in the actual staff-room, rather than her office.

"Good morning everyone," she greeted.

"Good morning, Addie," Minerva greeted. "How's Molly doing?"

"Much better," Addie answered. "She's knitting a lot. I don't think she quite knows how to apologise to people, so she's making jumpers and baby blankets left, right and centre. Although James managed to get the twins' shop back up and running, just in time for summer."

"Wonderful," Snape muttered.

Addie smiled. "Don't lie, Severus," she said. "You love them really."

"The only thing I have ever applauded those two for was the trouble they caused Umbridge two years ago."

Filius smiled. "That was amazing."

Addie chuckled. "Well, she's in Azkaban now."

"Good riddance to bad rubbish," Minerva said. "Now are we all set up for next year?"

"We should be," Addie said. "I'm still looking for a Muggle Studies teacher, but I have a meeting with Penelope Clearwater next week that I'm quite hopeful about. Severus, I've managed to get Mandy for a year, but she can only teach first through fourth due to Ministry commitments; can you take the OWL students as well please?"

Severus sighed. "I suppose so. The upcoming fifth years are mostly not too bad."

"Thank you," Addie said. "I've spoken to Draco - he's really keen on the idea, so maybe you could speak to him about it as well?"

Severus nodded. "I'll make sure to."

"I'm going to carry on teaching Defence for the next year," Addie continued. "Harry's going to help me out; he wants to take the job when he's graduated, and I'm quite happy with that."

There was a murmur of agreement among the teachers.

"Now I said I was going to meet with some of the Muggle-borns," Addie said. "I did meet with them, and I also met with some of their parents. Quite a few things came out of that meeting, which I'd like to speak to you about. Is it possible to inform Muggle-born students a year earlier?"

Minerva frowned. "Why?"

"Well, we usually talk to them the summer before they start," Addie explained. "But the parents will have spent the last year going through secondary schools and an awful lot of stress comes out of that, I understand. They put all of that effort in and then we turn up and tell them the children are going somewhere else."

"I hadn't thought of that," Pomona said. "It's such a given for us that there's one school; I didn't think that Muggles wouldn't have that."

Addie nodded. "Apparently most parents have a choice of three or four schools nearby, but some are better than others."

"We can certainly do that," Minerva said. "Obviously the coming year's intake are too late for that. But we can inform both this year's and next year's this summer, providing I have some help."

"We'll divide them up," Aurora said brightly. "I've always wanted to go on one of those."

"Next point, possibly related," Addie said. "We normally take them each to Diagon Alley separately - can we arrange some kind of group outing so they can meet each other before Hogwarts?"

"That would certainly save some time," Minerva said. "We should have spoken to the parents sooner. Anything else?"

"Well, this one is a bit harder," Addie warned. "And it might not be possible. Apparently Muggle schools have parents' evenings, which are a chance for the parents to meet their child's teachers and find out how they're doing. Additionally, the parents also told me that it was quite unnerving, not being able to see what their children were doing. I can understand that. I mean, if someone turned up and told me that these two were going to be taken to a school that I couldn't see, couldn't visit, and wouldn't have any idea what they were doing and how they were … Well, I don't think I'd agree to it."

"It's not very practical," Minerva said, frowning. "As I understand it, most Muggle schools have a couple of teachers per subject; we only have one."

"Well, I was thinking," Addie said slowly. "What if we had a parents' weekend, rather than a parents' evening? We could invite the parents here for a weekend, which would give you all more time to speak to people. Some parents won't need to speak to you; I think it would just be the Muggle parents who want a bit of reassurance. We could have a Quidditch match. The only issue would be the Muggle parents seeing the school."

"That sounds brilliant," Filius said fervently. "I'm sure we can produce some kind of one-time amulet to allow the parents to see through the wards."

"It will take an awful lot of planning," Minerva warned.

"I can do that," Addie said with a smile. "I just wanted to make sure you were all on board first. I'd also like to see if we can start creating a more cohesive environment. Competition between the houses is all very well, but we have this kind of 'us vs them' mentality at the moment, which isn't very healthy. So the more we can encourage the students to mix - ages, houses, blood status - the better. We don't want another Tom Riddle, and that needs to start here."

"Hear, hear," Filius said. "I'm sure we can all think of some group projects."

"Why not use the Great Hall?" Aurora asked. "When it's not meal-times, can we not swap out the house tables for smaller study tables?"

"Muggle schools have after school clubs," Pomona said. "I know we're all busy, but we could get together, maybe come up with a couple. It would only be a few hours once a week. That would get more of a mix."

"These all sound like great ideas," Addie said. "I'm conscious of the time and that at least two of you have holidays planned, so please come up with some solid plans and we'll discuss it nearer September. The only other thing to discuss is the Head Students."

"I would have thought that was obvious," Aurora said. "It has to be Harry and Hermione, doesn't it?"

"I thought you might say that," Addie said. "So I sounded them both out - without promising anything - and Hermione said she would still love to do it, as long as it wasn't because she was Lady Ravenclaw, but Harry said he didn't want it."

"I'm surprised," Snape said.

Addie sighed. "I'm not. That's why I sounded them both out. Harry said he wanted a year when he wasn't responsible for everything."

"I can see where he's coming from," Minerva said, frowning. "Although he would have been a good Head Boy."

"What about Draco?" Snape asked.

"I was thinking Neville actually," Minerva said. "Or Ron maybe?"

Addie shook his head. "Ron is still Quidditch Captain. I know some people can manage both - James certainly did - but I think Ron would be better suited to focussing on Quidditch. Especially since I know that's where he hopes his future is. Neville wouldn't be a bad option, but I agree with Severus actually - having a Gryffindor and a Slytherin pairing might help the relationship between the houses as well."

"In which case," Minerva said, "we may be in for an exciting year."

"I hope not," Addie said frankly. "I've had enough excitement for a lifetime."