Author's Note: I was going to hold off on this story until next week, but I'm writing it so fast I decided to start early. There is no Voldemort, there is no war, there are just people trying to live their lives and do the best they can. For those who are interested, my fourth (yup fourth) novel is out on Amazon called "The Thrice Blessed Year". It's a lot like my stories, without the magic - love, romance, drama and a bit of comedy. Enough of an advertisement. Enjoy A Year and A Day. MNF

A Year and A Day

By Mutt N Feathers

Chapter 1:

Itch

January 8, 2000

Hogwarts Castle

Juniper Meadows awoke to the weak stream of sunlight that penetrated through the windows to her quarters at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry and stretched. So, this is what forty feels like, she thought. It wasn't bad. She was finally in her dream job, teaching Muggle Studies at Hogwarts. Headmistress McGonagall had lured her away from her work in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement as a Muggle Legal Liaison with the Crown Prosecutors Office. Certain crimes needed to be moved between the courts, and Juniper had helped facilitate these. She was more Muggle than witch, if she was honest, even though she'd gone to Hogwarts and done well; it was just that she'd grown up that way. Her mother is a Muggle who taught at a college, and her father was an apothecary assistant. He wasn't particularly powerful or talented in magic, although he too had gone to Hogwarts. Potions were the one subject he excelled at, thus his career. He could identify any ingredient by sight and know how to use it to the best effect.

Juniper found herself mindlessly scratching at her chest, and it didn't matter how much she scratched; she was still itching rather insistently. Great, somehow, a student broke in and dosed me with Itching Powder. She was all too familiar with the stuff, having had it poured over her – albeit inadvertently – by the infamous Marauders during her own school days. The quartet was attempting to dose Severus Snape with it; she happened to be standing near enough to him to be covered as well. It wasn't even a magical substance; it was something even the most Muggle of Muggles could make it in their kitchen. Thankfully, a good shower was all that was required to stop the stuff. Groaning, Juniper prepared herself to leave the warm confines of her bed, cutting her birthday lay-in short and braving the chill of her quarters that no amount of charming could break.

Throwing back the covers, Juniper slid her feet into the moccasins she kept on the floor by the bed, as the stone tiles were too chilly to have bare feet on, and dashed toward her loo. Last summer, just before she joined the staff, Minerva had set about updating her staff's quarters – starting with a modern loo. Curiosity aroused, and Juniper pulled the neckline of her top over to see where she was itching since the rest of her felt nothing, leading her to believe it wasn't itching powder after all. Maybe I was bit by a spider? The castle was full of little creepy crawlies.

"Why has The Source seemed fit to give me this now?" she yelled, bewilderedly.

The Source was the well from which all Magical people drew their power. On a witch or wizard's seventeenth birthday, The Source would put the person's name to whom they would be Heart Bound. This coupling was chosen to match magical skill and temperament and provide the best couplings to bear more magical children. The Wizarding World had been shrinking for centuries. The High Mages, those who attended to The Source, had asked for a way to reverse it. This was the answer. There was an out, however. If the couple found themselves incompatible and did not form a real Heart Bond, they only needed to stay a couple for one year and one day from the younger of the two persons' birthday. After that, they could leave one another, and the bond would never form.

This had happened with Juniper's father. He was to be bonded with a pureblood witch, but she wanted nothing to do with him. His magical potential and name weren't enough for her. They parted and had never seen one another again. Juniper also knew of two others who let their bonding lapse. One was gay. The other decided she never wanted to use magic and simply escaped into the Muggle world and left her magical partner behind. When Juniper didn't get a mark at seventeen, she just assumed that because her father had broken his and her mother was a Muggle, she wasn't deemed necessary enough or magical enough to get one. It suited her just fine.

Dating had been a challenge, and she'd not found someone who she'd consider spending more than a few nights with, let alone her life. It didn't matter if they were wizards or Muggles. No one kept her attention or stimulated her intellectually. When she'd attended Hogwarts, she was sorted into Ravenclaw and enjoyed the riddles, debates, and discussions of magical theory her house regularly engaged in. She knew how to relax as well and excelled at Gobstones, and adored wizard chess. While she worked for the DMLE, she'd even begun a regular chess match with James Potter that the two would play while eating their lunches. Lily Evans had been a friend while in school; who wasn't Lily friends with? She'd become close to the Potter family over the years. Their children had to remember not to call her Auntie Junie while in class with her. It was hardest on her goddaughter, the Potter's eldest daughter, Rosie, who had just begun at Hogwarts. They did get together for tea each Sunday, so Juniper could check up on Rosie.

Looking at the name, the woman cringed. She knew the man. She'd known him since school, where he was an irritation. Oh, he was handsome, talented, smart, and people flocked to him just to be in his wake. He was also shallow, childish, irresponsible, and generally adverse to growing up. Junie shook her head at the choice. Well, it wasn't going to be hard to NOT to form a bond with him; she could barely stand to be in the same room with him. In fact, she wasn't sure she'd spoken to him rather than around him in the last two years.

Shaking off the feeling of dread the mark had given her and whispering, "Why the hell now?" she stepped into her shower. After she'd dressed and was in the process of making her bed, she heard a light knocking at the small owl window on the exterior wall of her quarters. A large barn owl flew in and dropped a square letter onto her bed and then promptly left. Junie closed the window and then went to pick up the card.

"Well, someone spared no expense," she said when lifting it off the covers. She turned it over and cracked the thick wax seal bearing the family crest. The four corners of thick parchment opened to reveal a smaller inner parchment bearing the same crest and the words Please join me at the Leaky Cauldron today at noon in a perfect script. The large square of parchment also contained a delicate bracelet with three floating diamonds on it. It was signed by the man whose name was now over her heart, Sirius Black.

"This might be harder than I thought," she whispered. She looked at the bracelet and decided to leave it inside the envelope on her bed. For all she knew, he could have put a curse on it.

Leaving her quarters and heading to the Great Hall for breakfast, Junie was happy when she encountered Minerva McGonagall also on her way to eat. The older woman took one look at Junie's face and decided to wish her a "Happy Birthday" probably wasn't wise just yet.

"Did someone die, Junie dear?"

"No, but you know how I was worried when I didn't get a name on my seventeenth birthday?"

"Yes, you were equal parts of distraught and elated."

"Guess what showed up today?"

Minerva's mouth dropped. She'd liked Junie while she was in school. Bright, articulate, and always handing her work in on time, she excelled at Transfiguration, making the older woman decided to take the student under her advisement. Of course, she had her own Head of House, and Filius was an excellent resource for his students, but sometimes girls needed a woman around as they grew. The Headmistress considered herself fortunate that she'd hired the younger woman for the post she now held.

"Do you know who he is?" Minerva was finally able to ask.

"I do, here, look for yourself," Junie said and discretely pulled her robes aside so Minerva could see.

"Goodness, that's an interesting choice."

"You can say that again. He's asked me to lunch today."

"I think you should go," Minerva said honestly.

"I'm planning to. He also sent me a diamond bracelet."

"Well, he always did know how to make the grand gesture, didn't he?" Minerva's eyebrow shot up.

"Yes, he did. I don't even know how many women he's been linked to over the years," Junie said quietly. "I think he snogged nearly all of the girls in our year, as well as the years around us."

"Some of that was gossip, Junie. There were plenty of girls who just wanted him to snog them"

"Regardless, is this really what I want at forty? I'm not even sure I want children – which is the point of these Heart Bonds. I like my students, and I love James and Lily's children, but I get to go play fun auntie for a few hours and then leave. I don't know how I feel about having little ones all the time. Plus, it's Sirius, and we are like oil and water."

"Is that one of your Muggle references, dear?"

"It is. Oil and water don't mix well, and unless you add an emulsifier, they won't stay blended." Minerva looked at her Muggle Studies teacher, confused. "We're incompatible."

"That I understand, although you might find you're not as different as you think." Junie gave the Headmistress a questioning look. "He's not the same rake and prankster he was in school. I know you see him frequently, but have you really spoken with him?" Juniper shook her head.

"Juniper Elizabeth Meadows, maybe The Source has decided the two of you are ready for each other. Go to lunch with an open mind and at least give him a chance."

Junie nodded.

"Well, then, I'm ready for a scone and some tea. Shall we?" Minerva asked, her arm directed at the doorway.

"Scones it is." Sirius Black would need to wait.