TITLE: Double Back
DISCLAIMER: All things Harry Potter belong J K Rowling... basically, if you recognise it, it isn't mine... Please don't sic the Aurors on me, I'm just here for the fun.
Sunday, 15th September
Heathgate Road
Golders Green
London
James paused mid step as he came to a stop outside number nineteen Heathgate road, double checking the address on the parchment he had in his hand before flicking his attention back up to the house.
It was certainly an affluent area, the houses and cars around the street were definitely on the higher price side from what he could see. The house in front of him definitely one of the larger ones on the road, like all the others, it was detached and separated by a decent margin from it's neighbour, with a hedgerow surrounding it's front garden and a neat pebble path leading up from a white gate towards the front door.
It was a three story house, and quite large for only a three person family, well, he was assuming a three person family anyway. Hermione had never mentioned any brothers or sisters that he knew of, so he was pretty sure it was just her and her parents. He hadn't had any idea that Hermione's family were this well off, but their house certainly spoke of a comfortable, probably even wealthy family.
Pushing through the gate he took a moment to glance over at the climbing roses that were growing up trellises on either side of the house, away from perfectly tended gardens that led up to a nicely painted black front door.
Knocking loudly on the door he happily waited, looking around the garden and smiling, imagining a young Hermione playing out on the grass as she was growing up, sitting under the willow tree in the sun and reading without a care in the world.
After a few moments he heard the latch on the door being released before it was pulled open, leaving him face to face with a man about ten years older than him, with chestnut brown hair and a neatly trimmed beard.
"Yes? Can I help you?" The man asked, obviously curious about why his Sunday morning was being interrupted like this.
"Mr Granger?" James asked, double checking he was in the right place. The man was wearing a comfortable, if a bit baggy, wool jumper along with simple grey trousers and a pair of slippers on his feet and was now looking at him with a curious expression on his face.
"Yes?" The man hesitated. Probably ready to slam the door shut if he turned out to be a door to door salesman or something similar.
"I'm from Hogwarts." James explained, not even bothering to check around to make sure they weren't overheard. "I have... um..." He paused, fishing through his coat pocket for the parchment Hermione had written. "Here." He explained, passing the note over.
"Hermione, is she..."
"She's fine," James smiled reassuringly as Mr Granger took the note. "Really, nothing official, I'm just paying a visit on my way through. Hermione's become good friends with my son, so I said I'd drop by while I was around." He explained, retrieving the letter from his inside pocket. "I think it's easier, and definitely quicker than an owl." He explained with a chuckle as he handed over the letter in question.
"You... you would be Professor Potter then?" Mr Granger asked, reading through Hermione's introduction note quickly, easily recognising his daughter's handwriting and prose, even though the parchment and ink felt archaic to him.
"Call me James," James smiled over. "I said I'd be willing to ferry back any letters or anything you had for her if you wanted." James made the offer easily enough. "Like I said, my son's become good friends with her, so we wanted to give her a good birthday on Thursday."
"Come in, come in!" Mr Granger smiled widely, pushing open the door to allow James through. "I... I hadn't expected anyone to come by and offer to take letters back to the school. The other professor didn't mention anything like that."
"With the kids being friends, it's an easy thing to do." James explained with a casual smile as he walked through to the entrance lobby of the house, noticing the immaculately clean beige carpet that led through to the other rooms of the house. "I'll take off my boots, I was out on the castle grounds earlier, so there's no telling what's on these." He explained with a chuckle, leaning down and unzipping the side of his heavy leather boots before slowly unlacing them.
"Ah, thank you." Mr Granger paused, not expecting the polite offer from the man when the other professor had simply walked through their house without a care for any marks her shoes had left on their carpeting.
"Not a problem," James shrugged as he slid off his boots, making sure they were clean as he tucked them together neatly by the side of the front door.
"Please, come through." Mr Granger nodded, gesturing for James to follow him through the living room of the house and out to the kitchen. "I'd offer you a drink, tea or coffee, though the other professor..."
"A coffee would be amazing right now," James grinned over.
"Oh?" Mr Granger paused. "When the other professor didn't accept, she mentioned something about pumpkin juice and some other drinks we didn't recognise?"
"Both tea and coffee are fine, I'm a coffee drinker personally though." James said by way of explanation as he followed Mr Granger into the kitchen.
"That makes things easier," Mr Granger chuckled. "Take a seat while I put the percolator on." He said, indicating to the breakfast table in the kitchen. "I'll just go and let my wife know you're here, I know she'll be excited to speak to you as well."
"Sure," James smiled over, taking a seat at the breakfast table and looking around as Mr Granger fiddled with the coffee maker for a moment before he left the kitchen, leaving James alone to look around and admire the sleek white and metallic surfaces.
It was definitely a muggle kitchen, and extremely clean and tidy. With electronic appliances scattered around and clean white marble work surfaces underneath shining metal and glass cupboard doors.
He was casually looking around and admiring the smell coming from the coffee peculator when he spotted Hermione's father coming through and helping his wife hobble from the living room with a thick white plaster cast covering the bottom half of her left leg, she was using a crutch in one of her arms as she lent on her husband for support with her other.
"What happened?" James asked quickly, standing up quickly from the table and sliding out the chair he'd been sat on to make it easier for Mr Granger to manoeuvre his wife around into.
"A fall," Mr Granger explained with a nod of thanks as he helped his wife down into the chair. "Just last week."
"Just caught my foot on the stairs wrong," Mrs Granger explained. "Ended up at the foot of the stairs with a broken leg and a twisted hip."
"Owch," James winced, eyeing the plaster cast covered limb. "Are you OK though?"
"I'll be fine," Mrs Granger smiled up. "Thank you for your concern though. Professor... Potter was it?"
"James," James smiled, holding his hand out for Mrs Granger to shake.
"Celeste then," Mrs Granger smiled back, taking the offered hand and shaking it. "My husband, Mercutio."
"Mark," Mr Granger clarified with a small smile. "I suppose you don't have to worry about things like this happening to you then?" He asked, motioning to Celeste's broken leg as he headed back over to check on the progress of the coffee.
"I've broken a few things in my time," James chuckled, still standing comfortably in the kitchen. "Typically they're pretty easy to fix up though, really it only takes..." He trailed off thoughtfully. "Actually." He muttered, looking through his coat pockets and hunting through for his potions vials. "Sorry, I'm normally more organised than this, just got a lot in here today." He explained with an embarrassed chuckle as he slid out the box containing the mirror for the Granger house and put it on the breakfast table before returning to his pocket, sliding his arm deep inside to hunt around for his emergency stash of potions.
Celeste Granger however was more than amused by watching James retrieving things from his pockets that logic, and the laws of physics, said certainly shouldn't fit inside them. "That must be handy." She said with a wry chuckle as she watched James bring out a thick black leather roll that tinkled and clanked as he placed it on the table.
"Oh definitely," James grinned over. "Though actually, I'm pretty sure I've lost some things in here over the years, I can't even reach down to the bottom of them any more, so I've got no idea what's really down there." He said with a rueful smile. "Probably my old keys somewhere, and tons of rubbish, it's like behind the couch cushions, everything ends up down there." He explained with a laugh.
"I'm certain Hermione would find a use for that sort of thing." Celeste said knowingly.
"Probably on her trunk and bags so she can fit more books inside," James chuckled back automatically.
"Ah, you do know our daughter well then." Celeste smiled up in amusement.
"Here," Mark smiled as he came over, leaving the folded letter from Hermione on the table for Celeste to read first. "From Hermione. The Professor said he'd be kind enough to take a letter back with him if we wanted."
"You would?" Celeste beamed over, watching as James happily nodded while he unrolled the black leather pouch he'd retrieved from his pockets, exposing a long line of small vials with liquids in that shimmered with all the colours of the rainbow. "Oh my goodness, what on earth are those?" She asked in amazement.
"Potions, elixirs, that sort of thing. Well, some of them are half potions and half alchemy really. I buy them in bulk, whatever I can't mix up myself anyway." James happily explained as he ran his fingers down the various potion vials. "I normally keep a pretty good stock on me, just for emergencies. Never know when something's going to come in handy." He explained with a chuckle as he came down to the pale purple one he'd been looking for and slid it out of it's little pouch. "General all purpose fix-me-up, with a skelegrow and organ regrower base and just a touch of pepperup." He explained, placing the vial in front of Celeste. "Sorry I don't have any skelegrow on it's own, it's easier to keep blended potions around that cover multiple things, rather than just one for every little thing."
"You... you mean..." Celeste whispered, looking at the vial in amazement.
"It'll fix a broken bone easily enough, a sprain too, along with any bruising you've got." James nodded happily. "I've used it to treat shattered fingers before, broken arms, regrow a punctured lung, things like that'd take a few days of rest though. A simple break and a sprain won't be an issue."
"Are... are we allowed to use this?" Celeste asked as she took the purple vial and stared at it in amusement, looking up to see her husband watching with interest.
"There's no laws against it," James shrugged as he rolled his potions kit back up. "You might want to have a drink ready to chase it down though, like a lot of these, they're not the nicest things to taste." He explained, tapping on his rolled up potions.
"I... thank you." Celeste beamed up at him.
"No problem," James shrugged. "Hermione will learn to brew most of the parts of that one around her fourth year, it's a pretty simple one really, knowing her, she'd probably be able to brew it by this time next year actually." He said with a chuckle, remembering 'his' Hermione brewing complicated polyjuice in their second year.
"Here you go," Mark said with a smile, bringing over three mugs of coffee on a tray, along with a bowl of sugar cubes and a small jug of milk. "How is Hermione performing then?"
"She's doing great, I did see her practising charms yesterday in a group of friends. She's made good friends with my son, he's in the same year as her, along with three others." James explained. "She's doing great with charms and jinxes so far, I haven't checked on her potions and other subjects, but I haven't heard that she's had any problems so far."
"She's made friends then?" Mark asked hopefully.
"Oh yes," James nodded happily, watching as Celeste was still staring at the potion vial curiously. "Her and Harry, Susan, Daphne and Neville. I've seen them all together in the library a few times now." He explained with a small laugh.
"That's good to hear," Mark smiled as he arranged the mugs of coffee and placed one in front of each of them. "Hermione had some troubles fitting in at school before, so to hear she's got friends now is all we really wanted for her."
"I'm sure she says more in her letter," James nodded, accepting the mug of coffee with a nod of thanks. "And I do have her birthday present here, though it probably requires a bit of an explanation." He said, tapping the box he'd placed on the breakfast table with his finger. "It's what we call a two way mirror."
"A two way mirror?" Mark asked, looking at the box with curiosity now, overriding his first question about why the professor would have bought their daughter a birthday gift.
"A communicating mirror, you would have one, and Hermione has one. You can see and talk to each other through the mirrors like a phone." James explained. "My son has one, his friends are all going to have one as well. I thought it was a bit awkward with them all having one and Hermione being left out."
"We... we could see Hermione through this mirror?" Celeste asked hopefully.
"And talk to her too," James nodded. "I did have to make the one for you receive only though, so you won't be able to call out from it, sorry about that, but you can answer the mirror easily enough."
"That... that is actually the most useful piece of magic I've heard of so far." Mark nodded, happily impressed by what he was hearing. "Magic mirrors have their place in folklore of course, stories and such with an evil queen and cursed apples, but I never thought they'd actually be something real that started the stories off."
"I was planning on giving Hermione her mirror after the evening meal on Thursday, so if we arrange for a time, maybe around seven? Then she can use the mirror and speak to you both straight away." James asked.
"That sounds perfect," Celeste smiled widely at him. "We'd thought we were going to miss her birthday this year. It's her first one away from home, and since we couldn't send presents or anything, I was just afraid it was going to be such a lonely day for her." She explained. "That other Professor, she seemed to think it would be fine for us to just drop Hermione off on the train and then expect us to forget about her for the rest of the year."
"There's a few other ways she could do something like this. Like enchanted books you could both write in, one displays copies of the other, they're pretty popular with kids writing to parents, but she won't be learning that sort of enchanting until sixth and seventh year really." He explained, remembering the lessons on enchanting where Hermione had learnt about the charms and how to create her enchanted bag. "I'll take any presents back you want, and make sure she gets them on Thursday." James offered, receiving thankful smiles from both Granger parents in response.
"How... how long will this take to work?" Celeste asked, holding the purple potions vial in her hand.
"Depends on how bad the break is," James answered honestly. "Probably less than an hour for a simple break, less if it's only a fracture or something like that, the sprain and anything else should go almost immediately, but anything more serious will fix itself while you sleep it off tonight."
"And it's perfectly safe for me to use?" Celeste asked.
"I wouldn't have given it to you otherwise." James explained with a smile, watching as Celeste uncorked the vial and took a tentative sniff, wrinkling her nose immediately at the smell.
"I did warn you they weren't the nicest of things," James explained with a chuckle at her reaction.
"Well, down the hatch then." Celeste said, taking a breath for bravery first before she upended the vial in her mouth, swallowing the slimy purple liquid down as quickly as she could before she gagged on the taste and started scraping her tongue with her teeth.
"I know, horrible things." James laughed, sliding her coffee forward in front of her to remind her that it was there. "One of my friends keeps trying to make them taste better, but anything like sugar or a sweetener like honey, ruins the potion completely." He explained as Celeste took a mouthful of her coffee to try and wash out the taste from her mouth.
"That tasted like old socks and mould," Celeste gagged, still trying to scrape the taste off of her tongue with her mouth, causing Mark to laugh quietly at her response.
"Like I said," James chuckled. "Actually I'm pretty sure they make them taste that bad on purpose, some of them can be pretty addictive, so making them taste horrible is the easiest way to stop people from using them too much."
"A sensible precaution," Mark laughed with a nod of agreement.
"Let me show you these mirrors, take your mind off of the potion." James smiled, sliding over the box he'd brought out and taking the lid off, exposing the two mirrors inside. "Do you mind?" He asked, retrieving his wand from his pocket.
"Oh, not at all." Mark nodded over, watching the wand with curiosity as James took the larger of the two small mirrors from the box and laid it down on the kitchen floor, a flick of his wand and the mirror quickly grew and expanded out until it was nearly four feet wide and three feet tall.
"There's an unbreakable charm on it, along with a cleaning charm. They'll last years, so you don't need to be worried about it." James explained as he lifted up the mirror, sliding it over to lean against the wall before he returned to the box and brought out the other mirror. It was only a simple compact mirror the same ratio as the larger ones, with a soft brown leather back to make it more comfortable to hold and bevelled edges to round off the sharp corners. "This is the one for Hermione." He explained, holding out the mirror for Mark to take.
"You say this is... unbreakable, like that one?" Mark asked curiously as he examined the mirror in question.
"I did the charms myself," James nodded back. "So if you hold it and say 'Grangers'..." He trailed off, indicating for Mark to try it.
"Grangers." Mark spoke aloud, holding the mirror to watch as it's surface fogged over before shimmering and changing to the view of their kitchen that was clearly coming from the larger mirror.
A glance over to the larger mirror showed it was displaying the view from the smaller mirror, just enlarged for the size, showing Mark's face as he stared at the mirror in amazement before handing it over to Celeste for her to examine.
"This... this is amazing." Mark whispered, heading over to the larger mirror and crouching down by it to examine it more closely, staring at how clearly he could see through to where his wife was looking out of the mirror at him.
"I can hear you," Celeste said quickly, looking over at James. "Through the mirror."
"These are fantastic," Mark grinned widely, watching his wife's amazement in the mirror. "It's like... like some sort of viewscreen from Star Trek!"
"It's probably best keeping that one somewhere out of the way, that way if you're using it to talk to Hermione and someone else comes around..." James trailed off with a shrug.
"Yes, yes of course." Mark nodded, standing up from the mirror. "Keeping magic a secret of course."
"How do I..." Celeste asked, looking at the mirror that was still displaying their kitchen.
"Press your thumb to it and say 'off'." James explained, watching as Celeste followed his instructions and the mirror went back to simply being another mirror in her hand.
"These... I... you can't imagine how much this means to us." Celeste said softly, looking from the mirror then over to James in amazement. "I've missed having Hermione around so much."
"Harry and Hermione are pretty close, he wanted to get her something when he found out about her birthday, but I knew about these and it seemed like something that would make a good birthday present for her." James explained with a smile. "She'll be able to use either of them to call Harry or any of her other friends as well, any time she wants. So she'd be able to stay in touch over the holidays."
"Ah, yes, Christmas of course." Mark smiled, coming to sit back down at the table. "Do you live near by then, I know you said you were in the area but..." He trailed off, not knowing exactly what 'in the area' meant to a magical person.
"Oh, no, my place is... Honley I think, somewhere in West Yorkshire. Pretty sure it's near Huddersfield, somewhere maybe?" James explained with a shrug. "I was in London dropping off some things, so it was easy enough to come by."
"You don't sound like a Yorkshire lad," Mark said with a small laugh, getting more comfortable with James than he'd ever had felt with that stern female magical professor in the house.
"Actually I grew up just over in Surrey," James chuckled, taking a sip of his black coffee before wincing at the bitter flavour and adding two cubes of sugar to it and stirring. "It's a family home up there really, I just inherited it."
"So, what do you teach then?" Celeste asked curiously.
"Defence," James nodded thoughtfully. "Defence against the Dark Arts, but just calling it Defence covers more of it. Charms and curses, that sort of thing. Shields and how to protect yourself against magic and magical creatures like imps and dragons, werewolves and vampires, those sorts of critters."
"Sounds exciting," Mark nodded, eager to know more.
"I think Hermione actually prefers charms and transfiguration," James explained with a small laugh. "My class tends to be a bit physical from time to time."
"Ah, I can see that, Hermione has never really been one for physical exertion." Mark chuckled in agreement.
"She had her first flying lesson on Thursday, I don't think she liked it much." James admitted with a laugh. "Brooms, flying on brooms." He clarified when the two Grangers looked at him for an explanation.
"Oh my," Celeste chuckled, covering up her mouth with her hand. "No, Hermione never was any good with heights."
"That's what I figured," James nodded in agreement.
"We should read that letter of hers before we reply, you don't mind waiting around while we put together something for you to take back with you do you?" Celeste asked hopefully. "We had some gifts for Hermione that we'd bought earlier in the year, but we never expected this."
"Not at all," James smiled, shaking his head. "I was going to head back home today, but half the place is in chaos at the moment while one of my friends is setting up a small lagoon in the basement." He explained with a small laugh.
"A... a lagoon?" Mark asked in amusement.
"A tropical swimming area, a little beach, some summer sun, a hot spring pool." James explained. "A little bit of luxury I think, but it sounded like a good idea to me. Somewhere to relax and get a bit of a tan over the winter."
"And you're... having this in your basement?" Mark clarified. Struggling to try and picture what he was being told.
"Apparently so," James shrugged. "It seemed like a good idea at the time, though... I'll wait and see how it turns out." He explained with a laugh. "Enchanting big things like that is pretty complicated work, I never got the hang of it, but I guess I'll wait and see how it looks."
"Yes... well," Mark chuckled, shaking his head at that and giving up on trying to understand magic for now. "Lets see what our daughter has to say, shall we?" He asked, shuffling his chair over so he could sit next to his wife as he unfolded the letter from Hermione and held it out so they could both read it and see exactly what she'd been up to since they first put her on that magical train two weeks ago. "And perhaps you'd be willing to tell us some more of what our daughter has been learning? It's going to be rather hard I imagine, with Hermione coming back at Christmas and unable to show us all the things she's learnt so far." He admitted.
"I'll bet," James nodded back, enjoying the taste of the freshly ground coffee. "I'll figure something out, maybe you could all come up to my place for the day sometime. She'll be able to show off everything there, give you two a taste of what she's been learning." He mused aloud.
"That... that would certainly be worth the long drive up north." Mark admitted, looking up from his daughter's letter.
"I'll sort something out," James nodded thoughtfully, making a mental note to himself that apparating them both up to The Manor or sorting out a portkey wouldn't be that much trouble at all really.
As he watched Hermione's parents get engrossed in the letter, he started planning things for the Christmas holidays already, and a Christmas spent with friends and family was something he hadn't actually thought about in a long time now.
Christmases for him in his future had normally been spent with Andromeda, Teddy and Victoire, and times when they were abroad somewhere, he'd either spend the holidays on his own, working through it, or just him and Andromeda passing the time together.
It was a rather strange realisation that for this Christmas, he'd actually have Amelia around, along with Julia, and Harry and Sirius, and Susan and Daphne, Neville and Hermione too if they wanted to join them for a few days.
Quite the drastic change from spending the holidays alone.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Highlands of Scotland
James was happily smiling as he wandered through the corridors at Hogwarts on his way up to see Minerva. He'd only been back in the castle for twenty or thirty minutes when a house elf had popped in and told him that his presence was requested.
His day at the Grangers had gone really well, he was actually surprised that he'd never actually met Hermione's parents properly in his old life, at least not that he could remember, but he'd spent most of the day happily chatting with them, helping to fix up the large two way mirror over a fireplace in the upstairs study of their house, and then removing Celeste's plaster cast on her leg once she'd told him that she was sure her leg wasn't hurting at all anymore.
He'd received a small plastic carrier bag of presents that he'd shrunk down for Hermione to give to her on her birthday, along with a letter to pass on when he saw her, and a birthday card for Thursday.
Overall, it had been a pleasant day, and he'd found that he actually enjoyed being back in the muggle world and away from all the magic for a time, it was a nice break away from the stupidity and arrogance of magical life to a place where common sense was welcomed.
It was a pleasant reminder of the days he'd spent with Hermione in his future, out in the muggle world with her where it was a relief to just be himself and walk around without being stared at all the time.
He didn't even have to pause as he approached the gargoyle that led up to Minerva's office, it simply jumped aside as he approached, leaving him clear to walk up the stairs and into Minerva's office without interruption.
Knocking on the door at the top of the stairs, he pushed through and wandered into the office, stopping only when he recognised the witch that was quietly talking with Minerva over her desk. The bright pink hair was a pretty good indication of who the witch was, but as she turned to look at him, her casual punk style coat, along with a Weird Sisters t-shirt and torn jeans finished off the look perfectly.
"Ah, James, I was worried you weren't in the castle today." Minerva smiled, looking over at him and beckoning for him to join them. "This is..."
"Nymphadora Tonks," James filled in with a nod towards her, taking a small amount of pleasure and smirking at how her hair flushed bright red when he said her first name.
"Just Tonks." Nymphadora said firmly.
"Yes, well," Minerva moved on, her lips pressed in a thin line of disapproval at Nymphadora's refusal to be introduced by her proper name. "I have spoken with Miss Tonks, and she would be amicable to apprenticing under you for the foreseeable future as your assistant." She explained, looking over to James.
"Alright," James nodded, looking over at Tonks and studying her curiously, looking her over and studying her face to see how much of her he could recognise after raising Teddy for his entire life.
"I have her NEWT transcripts here if you wish to look through them." Minerva noted, gesturing to some parchments on her desk for James to look at and causing a groan of embarrassment from Tonks in response.
"That bad huh?" James chuckled as he accepted the thin pile of parchments, flicking down to the various exam scores. "Outstanding in charms and transfiguration, exceeds expectations in defence, muggle studies and potions." He snorted, shaking his head and handing the parchments back to Minerva. "Double E in Potions? How'd you manage that? Snape was a dick to anyone who wasn't in Slytherin?."
"Mr Potter!" Minerva huffed, frowning at James for his language.
"Tell me I'm wrong." James retorted simply, waiting for Minerva's response before he looked over to Tonks when she remained silent.
"My mum really, she tutored me in potions a lot." Tonks explained with a small shrug.
"Makes sense," James nodded thoughtfully.
After talking with both Amelia and Sirius, and going through his own memories about everything Tonks had done, he was now pretty sure that in his time, Tonks had only been following Dumbledore's orders because she was still in the mindset of Hogwarts. The 'Dumbledore can do no wrong and must be obeyed' mindset that so many people seemed to slip into for absolutely no reason.
Tonks specifically hadn't done anything really wrong to him, she'd kept him at The Dursley's and Sirius at Grimmauld Place, that much he knew, but at least she'd been decent about it and friendly, getting to know Remus along with him and Sirius while they were imprisoned, unlike some of the other Dumbledore sycophants that just looked at him like a burden they had to watch over, or others that looked at him like he was just little child and treated him as such, like Molly Weasley had done.
"Alright, we can give this a try." James nodded slowly, startling as Tonks jumped forwards and hugged him.
"Quite," Minerva chuckled to herself, watching as James quickly extracted himself from Nymphadora's arms. "Miss Tonks will be responsible for covering classes while you are... indisposed with your other duties."
"Cursing the crap out of Voldemort and his merry band of arse kissers you mean," James smirked over as Nymphadora grinned openly at him.
"I expect you to keep Miss Tonks up to date on your lesson plans, and for her to be informed as to your progress throughout the year." Minerva instructed firmly through a disapproving frown. "I have set aside a living area where you will be situated for the year. Next to Mr Potter's residence on the third floor corridor. I am certain he will be able to show you there so you will be ready for your duties in the morning."
"Sounds good boss," Tonks smiled over, practically beaming at Minerva for giving her this chance.
"Quite," Minerva sighed. "While normally I would request robes, Mr Potter's choice of a more casual wardrobe has become somewhat... popular with his students, so I won't expect you to adhere to them while your master refuses."
"Good choice there," Tonks snickered over as James rolled his eyes at Minerva's 'master' comment.
"How is the investigation into the incident at Godric's Hollow progressing?" Minerva asked curiously. "Might I assume that Amelia will be somewhat of a regular in the castle now?" She asked with a small smirk at the confirmation she'd received yesterday of their relationship.
"Probably," James grinned over. "They've got a few leads, Mad-Eye's taken the lead on it, and you know how paranoid he can be about things like this. I'll head down there again in a few days and poke around, see what's going on."
"Probably best," Minerva nodded thoughtfully. "And Harry?"
"Doing alright," James nodded back. "I'll let you know now though, I'm taking him down there on Halloween. There's some things we need to do, just us two."
"Of course," Minerva nodded solemnly at that, it would be the ten year anniversary of Lily's death, obviously James would want to take Harry up to Godric's Hollow to pay their respects. "I'm sure by that point you will have Miss Tonks up to speed to cover your lessons for the day."
"Probably," James gave a small smile over to Tonks as he thought about it. "If not, we'll just head down in the evening after classes." He explained as Tonks nodded in agreement.
"A workable plan then," Minerva said, writing a small note to herself down on a piece of parchment. "I will admit, if you weren't amenable to apprenticing Miss Tonks here, I was going to ask you if Sirius would be willing to cover some of your lessons when you were unable."
"Probably not a good idea," James snorted, shaking his head. "Sirius could do it, don't get me wrong. But he's still got a couple of screws loose after his stint in the Azkaban Royal Hotel, anger problems to spare and still pretty pissed off at everyone for believing he was guilty and nobody asking why he never even got a trial. Can't really blame him for feeling abandoned by everyone when it's like that, it'd not like anyone even visited him in Azkaban to find out the truth from him or anything." He explained with a shrug, watching as Tonks winced at the explanation of her cousin's mental problems. "He's getting better, it's just going to be a few months down the road before he can be around a busy crowd without being twitchy about things."
"I see," Minerva nodded thoughtfully, frowning at her own complicity when she'd been more than happy to believe Sirius' guilt than actually stand up for the student she knew. "Then I shall simply send my best wishes to him, and table the subject for now."
"Probably best," James nodded before he grinned over. "Though if you want me to bring him if for another Animagus lesson, let me know. Sit, roll over, play fetch. I'll even bring the rolled up newspaper, or you can lend him out to Hagrid, give the first years some experience on how to give a dog a soapy bath." He added with a smirk, causing Minerva to chuckle at the mental image he was conjuring up.
"Unnecessary, but amusing." Minerva admitted with a wry smile, shuffling some parchments on her desk to find one in particular. "I have had some student withdrawals that you might find interesting. Three in their first year, and one sixth year."
"Oh?" James raised an eyebrow while Tonks looked on with curiosity.
"Marcus Flint from sixth year Slytherin, along with first years Gregory Goyle, Vincent Crabbe, and Theodore Nott." Minerva explained.
"Hmmm, you're right, that is interesting," James mused aloud as he sat down on the chair by Minerva's desk, rubbing his stubble thoughtfully as he pondered the names. "Crabbe?"
"His mother died several years ago, with his father incarcerated, his guardianship was transferred to Angus' sister, Marie Goyle. All four have transferred directly to Durmstrang, they were all collected and left with their parents this afternoon." Minerva frowned, sitting down at her desk so she was on the same level as James and wasn't looking down at him. "What are you thinking?"
"Four from Death Eater families, right after the attack on Godric's Hollow?" James asked, cocking an eyebrow towards Minerva. "It can't be a coincidence that they're all leaving so quickly though. I haven't done anything that would scare them off, I don't think I have anyway, not yet at least." He mused aloud, wondering what had caused this change of events.
"While Misters Crabbe, Goyle and Nott were only first year students, Mr Flint was hardly the most adept or powerful student." Minerva frowned over at him. "I believe he only progressed to his sixth year despite frequent warnings from myself and other members of the staff that he had neither the knowledge nor skill to keep up with his NEWT studies."
"Probably Snape pushing Dumbledore for it then, got to keep the Death Eater parents happy after all," James snorted, shaking his head at the stupidity of how things had been.
"Andromeda and Septima have brought... several things to my attention about how Severus ran things in Slytherin." Minerva admitted with a sigh. "How Albus could have allowed such things is truly beyond me."
"Simple, he just didn't care about anyone other than his own shining backside, and everyone just accepted it. Half of them pretty much believed that the old bastard just pissed Felix Felicis and did whatever he told them to without actually thinking for themselves." James said bluntly before holding up his hand to stop Minerva's protest. "It doesn't matter, they're gone now right, out of the school?"
"Entirely," Minerva confirmed with a frown at James' attitude. "I have forwarded their academic transcripts, what little there was of them, to Durmstrang, where they will likely start classes on Monday."
"Fine, good riddance to bad rubbish then." James said, clapping his hands together. "If they're families have gone with them, thats four more Death Eaters I don't have to deal with when Voldemort rears his ugly head again. Anything that saves me time is a good thing in my book."
"You're certain these four families were supporters of... Voldemort?" Minerva asked, barely stumbling over the name this time.
"Hundred percent." James nodded firmly.
"Then they shall not be missed." Minerva nodded back. "One last thing, I doubt you'll be affected very much, but I should inform you that Argus Filch has resigned his post as well today."
"Oh?" James quirked an eyebrow at that, wondering what on earth he'd done to change that little piece of history. Filch was still at the school when Neville had been teaching in his time, so why on earth had he resigned in ninety one now?
"Apparently something," Minerva paused, giving James a wry look. "Was scaring Mrs Norris, she'd refused to come out of his dormitory for quite some time now. He decided to retire and take Mrs Norris away from the castle entirely."
"Something was scaring Mrs Norris?" James asked with a blank face, pondering the mystery. He remembered that damn cat getting petrified in his second year, but he'd never seen her actually scared of anything before. She didn't even seem bothered by patrolling the Third Floor Corridor in his first year when Fluffy was there guarding the entrance to Dumbledore's little gauntlet of traps.
"I dare say the scent of a larger cat, a predator, a lion for example? Around the castle, was too much for the old cat." Minerva explained, rolling her eyes at James' ignorance of the effect his animagus form was having on the natural animals in the castle. "The same reason most other small cats have been avoiding your classroom and the third floor corridor entirely no doubt." She explained with a small smirk.
"Oh," James snorted, not having thought of that at all.
"Yes, oh," Minerva said, shaking her head in amusement. "Very well, if you would see Miss Tonks to her accommodation and assist her in finding your classroom and schedule, it would be appreciated."
"Sure," James nodded, standing up from his hair with a smile. "Come on then, lets see if we can get you to your room without you knocking anything over." He said with a smirk, looking over at Tonks.
"Oi!" Tonks muttered, shaking her head. "Alright, maybe I'm a bit clumsy but I'm not that bad!"
"Really Miss Tonks?" Minerva asked, raising a sardonic eyebrow towards her in response.
"Oh yeah, this is going to go great," James chuckled to himself, shaking his head in amusement. "Come on then." He said with a laugh, walking towards the office door. "I'll let you know how many suits of armour she knocks over on the way." He shot back to Minerva as he opened the office door, ignoring the protest from Tonks as he let her go by first.
"I'm certain that would be appreci..." Minerva started to say but trailed off at a muffled yelp as Tonks slipped on the stairs after two steps down, tumbling and sliding on her arse the rest of the way down the spiral stairway.
"I'm alright!" Came a yell back up from the bottom of the stairs.
"Merlin help me," James muttered, rolling his eyes and shaking his head in amusement.
"I do believe that might be beyond even his power," Minerva chuckled to herself as James dragged his hand down his face and closed the office door.
"You alright?" James asked, walking slowly down the stone stairway and watching Tonks as she got up from the floor and dusted herself off.
"Yeah, probably left my dignity back up there, didn't have much of it left anyway." Tonks chuckled in response as James came to the bottom of the stairs. "Just wanted to say thanks you know, for giving me a chance like this. When I didn't get into the academy, I thought I'd have to and up trawling Diagon for a job somewhere like Malkins." She explained with a shudder of horror at the thought of being trapped in retail hell.
"Minerva and Andromeda asked," James shrugged, gesturing down the corridor for them to continue walking. "Figured it was a good idea, so you can hold down the fort here if something happens."
"My mum asked you?" Tonks asked in surprise. "Didn't know you knew her like that?"
"I know her well enough," James shrugged as he walked on. "Besides, you're Sirius' family too right? Think you and Andromeda are the only family he can really stand."
"Probably," Tonks admitted. "I've only got a few memories of him from when I was younger, after he went to Azkaban, mum didn't want anyone in the house talking about him. Still coming to grips with the news about him being innocent, all that stuff with Crouch, I didn't know The Ministry was like that. "
"It's all that and worse," James muttered, shaking his head. "They're cleaning it up now, got a muggle-born Senior Undersecretary and everything."
"Wow," Tonks whispered in amazement at the changes that were rippling through their society. "What about you and Amelia then? Heard a few things, and the old cat seems to think she'll be here a lot?" She asked with a smirk, wriggling her eyebrows at James.
"You're worse than Sirius," James muttered as he started leading Tonks down the main stairway and towards the third floor offices, doing his best to avoid her gossipy questions along the way.
Spinner's End
Cokeworth
Severus Snape snarled in anger as he stormed into his house, slamming the front door shut behind him with enough strength to rattle the pictures on the wall.
Another utterly infuriating day had gone by, and he was no further to securing any livelihood than he had been in the days prior.
Anyone would have thought that a premier Potions Master like himself would have been in high demand in the magical world, but after an interview at St Mungo's that had refused him employment earlier in the week, and then today's apothecary interview that had outright refused him barely moments into the interview, he was starting to get worried.
His finances were in passable shape, and his savings, while, not amazing, were passable. He could live off them for another month or two if he was frugal, but certainly no longer than that. Which meant finding a steady source of income, which meant employment.
The problem was, in magical Britain now, his name was synonymous with Voldemort and the Death Eaters. He couldn't exactly say he was a spy for Dumbledore, as Dumbledore's name was worth about the same as Voldemort's when it came to having doors slammed in his face.
Between that and the infuriating Ravenclaw that had owned the apothecary in Diagon Alley today, a Ravenclaw that he distinctly remembered from her Hogwarts classes and grimaced when he saw her, he had to admit that his attitude towards students over the last decade had left him with very little in the way of employment opportunities around Diagon Alley and the other magical districts.
The Slytherins he had favoured and allowed to skate through classes for so long had either found how appalling their brewing truly was in the real world and left the field behind for other things, or had taken more lucrative and secretive brewing jobs where he wouldn't be welcomed given the current infamy surrounding him.
All in all, he had very few options, and only a small window of time to figure something out.
Returning to Albus wasn't something he could do either, as they'd all heard that Nicholas Flamel had returned to the country. Once Albus had heard that, he'd insisted on going into hiding for reasons he didn't explain to any of them, leaving him, Shacklebolt, and the others curious as to what was actually going on and without a plan to continue their fight against Voldemort.
For now though, he was on his own, and currently neck deep in shit and sinking fast.
He had to keep his head down as much as possible, the news that the Aurors had been given permission to use deadly curses had not been a welcome one. Considering the hated mark that he had currently tattooed on his left arm was a bright red flag to be cursed first and interrogated IF he survived, he knew that his chances would be slim to none if he ended up with the Aurors either investigating him or following him for even a petty crime at this rate.
With Dumbledore seemingly in hiding and not doing anything substantial in the fight against Voldemort, that left him with a rather unwelcome and uneasy feeling of contemplating where he actually stood now. If he wanted to join the fight against Voldemort, that meant joining James bloody Potter, something he could never do and retain any sense of self respect.
The other options were staying neutral, something that he'd found was likely impossible due to the Dark Mark on his arm, the stain on his name, and his decade long behaviour at Hogwarts. Returning to Voldemort's service was equally unpalatable, as while he could survive being questioned about his time at Hogwarts and why he'd fled during Voldemort's battle with Potter, returning as a Death Eater without actually being there to spy on their activities and fight them was something he had sworn he would never do.
Even the news of the attack on Godric's Hollow hadn't been able to lift his spirits this weekend, as it was very clear now that Potter was leading the fight against Voldemort now, not Dumbledore as he'd planned and sided with for all these years. Leaving him sidelined and lost, unable to fulfil his debt to James Potter, and unable to even the scales and repent for his part in Lily's death.
He'd even heard word that Potter had taken the position of Professor of Defence at Hogwarts. The job he'd been dreaming of for years, the one job he wanted but Dumbledore had always denied him. It was infuriating that Potter seemed to have everything that was supposed to be his. Lily, a family, the Defence job, riches and power. Potter had everything, and he was stuck unable to even show his face without suspicion being levelled his way.
From every perspective, his life had quite literally turned to shit from the moment Potter had made his ridiculously dramatic re-appearance at Hogwarts.
It was infuriating on so many levels, but at the moment, he could see no way at all to improve his standing. Leaving him stood alone in his house, grating his teeth in frustration as the world changed drastically around him.
AN: Just for those complaining about the Grangers being able to use enchanted mirrors and potions. Muggles using both without issue are canon from JK's world with numerous references to both.
In JK's posts about The Potter Family on Pottermore, she states clearly that Linfred 'The Potterer' Stinchcombe was a medieval potioneer who lived in a muggle village.
Direct quote from JK - "Linfred was a vague and absent-minded fellow whose Muggle neighbours often called upon his medicinal services. None of them realised that Linfred's wonderful cures for pox and ague were magical."
Then during Goblet of Fire, we see Dudley Dursley eating a 'Ton-Tongue Toffee' which causes his tongue to grow to extreme size, upto around four feet long according to Arthur Weasley... so we have canon references that either enchanted sweets, or sweets mixed with a potions base, do work on muggles.
Throughout the various Harry Potter books, we hear, mostly from the Weasley's about Arthur's work, that muggles regularly touch and get hold of enchanted items like biting teacups and things like that, and they work for them, requiring obliviations and the enchanted items to be retrieved. There's also various quotes about muggles being able to use Portkeys, which is why wizards tend to make them out of things muggles wouldn't touch, along with many other references about muggles being able to use enchanted items.
I know it seems to have become fanon that muggles can't use potions or enchanted items, but canon says they can, so I'm sticking with JK's rule here.
