Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter!
Emma Potter was having a nice dream. She had been flying through the air on a broom when suddenly, her world went blurry then dark as she was slowly shaken awake, accompanied by a soft voice. "Come on sweetie, time to get up. We're going to Diagon Alley today for yours and Harry's school supplies." Emma grinned, all signs of sleepiness gone. After assuring her mother that she would be down shortly, she hurried into the bathroom to shower. She quickly got dresses and made her way down stairs. As she approached the table, Lily smiled at her, waving her wand to dry Emma's hair. "Thanks mum!" Lily winked at her before turning back to her breakfast. Emma settled into her own breakfast with a giggle, excited about the day to come. Minutes later, Harry made his way downstairs and sat next to James to tuck into his breakfast. James cast a glance at his son, seeing through the indifferent façade that he was putting up and seeing the excitement that was pouring off of Harry in waves. Of course, Lily and Emma could see it as well, Harry was just as excited as Emma was. After they had finished and the elves were busy cleaning, the Potters set off through the floo to Diagon Ally.
Severus Snape was wondering the castle, enjoying the silence of a school without so many people in it. It had been his solace at night when he had been a schoolboy, especially after his falling out with Lily. So lost in his memories, Severus almost missed that Edward's office door was open, a light shining out. With a frown, he made his way inside to find a young woman looking around curiously. Severus cleared his throat slightly, startling the girl who whirled around in shock. "May I ask who you are." Severus looked at the girl coldly.
"I was just waiting for Professor Riddle to get here." The girl stated nervously.
Snape sneered. "I don't care who you're waiting for, I asked who you were."
The girl blinked in surprise. "Oh, I'm the new Muggle Studies professor, Laura Baxter." She held out her hand but Severus continued to glare until she awkwardly put her hand down, shuffling her feet under his critical gaze. This is how Edward found them moments later, Laura looking as if she would like to be anywhere but there.
"Oh dear, Severus stop scaring the poor girl before she faints." The girl scowled briefly before casting her gaze towards him.
"I wasn't going to faint, but it's rather weird to be stared at as if you're trying to undress my soul." Severus face adopted a look of shock mixed with revulsion before it became its usual mask and sneer.
"Have fun babysitting Riddle." Then he exited, leaving Laura irritated and Edward shaking his head.
"You'll have to forgive Severus, he's not a people person I'm afraid."
"I think that may be an understatement Professor."
That got a chuckle out of Edward. "We're colleagues now, call me Edward." He smiled, getting his first look at the new professor and finally matching the face to the name. "Ah, yes I remember you now. Laura Baxter, Ravenclaw and top of your year. You were one of the few students that could get the theory and the application of defense down."
Laura waved off the compliment. "It wasn't really all that hard as long as you paid attention, and you were very easy to pay attention to." She finished with a smile. She had dark hair with what Edward could only describe as a stunning pair of violet eyes. She was rather petite but it was a fierce looking petite. Severus had caught her off guard, but Edward had a feeling that he wouldn't be able to do so again.
"I presume you remember most of the castle but there are some passages you might want to be aware of for when you go on your patrols."
She laughed. "Oh, I know those already."
Edward raised a brow. "Why don't you show me so I can see for myself."
Laura agreed, only rolling her eyes once in the process.
Diagon Alley…
Emma skipped ahead of her family towards Olivander's calling over her shoulder. "Come on! I want to get my wand now!"
"Coming dear!" Lily called. "James, why don't you and Harry go into the pet shop and pick up some more treats for Hedwig while we do this."
James nodded and led his son away.
As Lily followed her daughter into the shop, she noticed that it had not changed at all. James had taken Harry inside the year prior so she hadn't seen it since she was a little girl, getting her own wand for the first time. "Ah Lily Potter, it's been a long time." The old man appeared from behind the counter.
"Not too long I hope." Lily smiled.
Ollivander chuckled before turning his attention to Emma. "Little Emma Potter I see. Alright then, step up here and let me measure you."
Emma looked nervous, and a little freaked out by Ollivander but Lily assured her there was nothing to worry about. Finally, the old man wandered to his shelves and started pulling boxes, humming all the while. "Your brother's wand is quite unique, Yew with a thestral hair bathed in the venom of a basilisk. Not completely unlike Professor Riddle's own wand. Aspen wood with a dragon heartstring, also bathed in basilisk venom. The oddest thing though, is where the heartstring came from. I procured it from the body of a Hungarian Horntail. Fierce animals they are and this one had lived a very long time."
Lily was about to tell the old man to get on with it when he pulled an old box from the back of the shelf. "Ah yes, it's been a long time since this wand was made. Been waiting for the right one I have, Cedar wood with the hair of a unicorn, treated with phoenix flame as a core."
Emma couldn't help the question. "How do you treat it with Phoenix flame without burning it?"
Ollivander just winked. "Magic my dear, magic. Now, give it a wave."
Emma took the wand, immediately noticing the warm feeling that traveled up her arm. She waved it, causing gold sparks to leap into the air before forming a golden bird that screamed once and flew away. "Oh my yes, a most perfect match." The wand maker said with a smile, clapping his hands together excitedly.
With a grin, Emma waited for her mum to pay for the wand before skipping out onto the street where her father and brother were waiting. "Daddy! Daddy! Look at my new wand!"
James grinned before obliging his daughter. "It's beautiful, love." Harry had a smile on his face while watching the exchange.
"Alright, now where to?" Lily asked.
"On to get schoolbooks love." James answered.
Lily scrunched her nose up, which James found extremely cute. "Are you sure? There's that Lockhart book signing going on and it's sure to be busy."
James shrugged. "I figure as long as we can get in and get out we'll be fine." Lily sighed and nodded as the family made its way to the other end of Diagon Ally.
Hogwarts…
A smug Edward led a stunned Laura Baxter back towards his office. "I can't believe that the entrance to the kitchens is behind a pear."
Edward laughed. "Most of the secret passages are easy enough to find if you know what to look for."
Laura shook her head. "So, where to next?"
"Oh, that's it. Your office is not far from mine, it's easy to find."
"Oh, well ok then. What are we going to do now?"
Edward shrugged. "Well, I need to go to Diagon Ally for a couple of books. Perhaps you could come if you like. That way you can look around and see if there's a textbook that you like. You'll have to deal with last year's book but by next year, you can have your own book."
Laura looked thoughtful. "Well ok, that sounds like a good plan. Do you think we could get lunch after?"
"Sure, if you like."
"I would." Laura said with a smile.
Flourish and Blotts…
Harry sighed as he slipped past the crowd to an uninhabited part of the store, Emma close behind. "Bloody hell there are a load of people here." Harry whipped around to see Cassie come up beside them.
Emma grinned up at here. "Too right there are."
Harry rolled his eyes before a grin made its way onto his face. "I bet Sirius is having fun, he hates crowds." Emma and Cassie both laughed as a short, red headed girl walk past them, causing Cassie to look her way. "Hey Ginny!"
The girl, identified as Ginny, turned around at hearing her name. "Bloody hell Cassie, I didn't know you were here."
Cassie nodded. "Just got here. Harry, Emma, this is Ginny Weasley. Ginny, this Harry and Emma Potter."
Ginny rolled her eyes. "I know who they are Cassie." She then stuck her hand out. "It's nice to meet you both."
Emma shook her hand, a smile on her face. "Nice to meet you too Ginny."
All eyes went to Harry, who had a curious look on his face. "Ron's your brother, isn't he?"
Ginny shrugged. "That's debatable." Harry grinned in response.
"Weasley's alright I suppose. He's a little stiff though." Said a blond boy that made his way to stand with the group.
"Hey Draco, how's your summer been?" Harry asked.
Draco shrugged. "Alright I guess, Father has been insufferable though."
"That might be my Dad's fault." Ginny grinned.
"It is all your father's fault." Draco quipped back.
"Draco, where are you?" A silky-smooth voice called.
"Oh, bloody hell, I can't get five minutes."
Harry snickered as the group followed Draco back to his father. "Ah, there you are Draco. Are these your friends?" Lucius asked with a sneer as Draco answered the affirmative.
Ginny came up and took the cauldron offered to her by Fred, which had her books in it. It got Lucius' attention. "What's this?" Lucius snatched a used Transfiguration book from her cauldron. "You mean to tell me Arthur, that the Ministry isn't paying you overtime for all the raids you've been going on?"
By this time, Arthur was beginning to go red faced. "Don't listen to him Arthur." Lily advised.
This caused Lucius to sneer even more. "Ah yes Arthur, you do enjoy being around riff raff don't you. And I thought you couldn't get any lower."
Before Lily could respond, Arthur lunged forward, his fist catching the snotty pureblood in the jaw and the two men began to brawl, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. Sirius and James tried to pull the two apart while Molly screamed for her husband to stop. It was only when Hagrid stepped in, having been drawn in from all the noise, and physically picked the two men up and held them apart that they stopped struggling. Hagrid walked everyone outside, the two men still in his grip. "Alright you two, stop all the fighting." He set them down and Lucius straightened his robes forcefully before tossing Ginny's book back into her cauldron. "Take your book back girl, it's the best your father can do for you."
"I hope you taught your son better manners than that Malfoy." Everyone turned to see an amused Edward Riddle standing there with his hands clasped in front of him.
Lucius sneered. "Riddle. And who is this?" Lucius nodded towards the woman behind him.
"I'm the new Muggle Studies professor, Laura Baxter." Said woman nodded with a smile.
Lucius snorted. "Taught by a mudblood no less."
Everyone around tensed, while the Grangers, who had met with the Weasleys earlier, looked confused. Edward's face became hard. "Really Lucy-boy, I thought you were above petty insults."
"Being petty does not change the facts, Riddle."
"Perhaps you should leave now, before you embarrass your son further." Edward warned, his teeth, grit.
Lucius' hand tensed on the handle of his cane, where he kept his wand, before he simply turned his nose up and made his way down the street. "Come Draco." He called and Draco, who looked ashamed, said goodbye to his friends and followed his father.
James looked on at the retreating man's back as Edward unclasped his hands and holstered his wand. "I was hoping he'd be stupid enough to draw his wand."
Sirius snorted and grinned at his friend. "I figured you had your wand out somewhere."
With a shrug, Edward rolled his shoulders. "Well now that was fun. Who's up for lunch?" Lily could only roll her eyes while she muttered 'boys' under her breath, which made Jean Granger giggle into her hand.
The group filled up the Leaky Cauldron. The children sat on one end of the large table that Tom had provided in the back room of the pub. The talked excitedly about the upcoming year while the women talked in hushed whispers about being a woman in the magical world in the middle of the table. The men sat on the other end of the table, talking about general things.
"So Eddie, who's the girl?" Sirius grinned at his friend who just looked at him with a deadpan expression.
"I'm fairly certain I've gone over this already. She's the new Muggle Studies professor."
"So why did you accompany her to Diagon Ally."
"Because Albus asked me to show her around Hogwarts so I figured I'd show her a couple of textbooks she might be interested in using after she's had a year of that terribly outdated textbook we use now."
James laughed. "But you didn't have to ask her to lunch, though did you?"
Edward leveled a glare at his friend. "I didn't want to be rude. Stop trying to pair me up with every female teacher in Hogwarts. You did it when Albus hired Aurora Sinistra for Astronomy. It gets old after a while."
James shrugged. "I'm happily married and I just want to share the happiness."
Richard Granger fought to hide the smile that was creeping onto his face while Arthur just let it show. "You know, you're rather outnumbered here."
Edward then turned his glare towards the Weasley patriarch. "Thank you for your support my friend." He answered dryly. Arthur just smiled wider.
With a chuckle at the antics of his friends, James took a drink of his butterbeer before changing the subject and sparing his friend from further scrutiny. "You ready to hear about our progress in our 'mission'." With a nod from Edward, James started. "Well, we've spoken with Amelia and of course, she's all for it. But she advises that it is going to take time to implement such things because of the deep-seated hatred and degradation of muggleborns."
Edward noticed the frown of Richard's face and chose to expound on James' statement. "Our world isn't very inclusive of muggleborns. Lily, for instance, had to marry a pureblood in order to get anywhere. And the only reason Mrs. Baxter has a job is because Albus is all for the advancement of muggleborns. Which is one of the reasons bigoted purebloods hate Albus so much. He despises the bigotry that muggles and muggleborns are shown by our society. We're trying to fix that. But it'll be a long process and we may not live to see the fruits of it. But change has to start somewhere."
The father of Hermione nodded. "I do fear for my daughter in this world. I've seen the looks we get. She's innocent but I fear the things she'd have to do to get anywhere in this world."
Sirius nodded solemnly. "It's not a nice world for them. Hopefully, by the time Hermione gets out of Hogwarts, we'll have anew minister that can really start implementing the changes necessary."
"Women in general face a lot of scrutiny in the wizarding world. You'll notice that the wizarding world is very patriarchic. The Wizengamot is mainly male heirs unless there are no males left in the family, only then are women allowed to take the seat. Madam Amelia Bones for instance, wasn't allowed a seat until after her brother and his wife were killed even though she was the older sibling." Arthur shook his head as he finished. "Our world is extremely backwards."
A little down the table, Lily and Molly shared an amused glance. "I didn't know Sirius could be so political." Molly chortled.
"He isn't normally. Neither is James for that matter." Lily shook her head. "But they're right."
Molly nodded. "I'm perfectly happy with my lot in life, but if I had decided that I wanted to be anything other than a housewife, I'd been ostracized even more than I am with a muggle loving husband." She shrugged. "But anyway, why haven't we met before?" Molly grinned.
With a chuckle, Lily stated. "Well I've met Arthur through the Ministry but James and I have been so busy with Harry and Emma plus I've been working on different spells and potions. I've heard of you from Sirius and Edward before, but I've never really had the time. Which is unfortunate because you seem like a wonderful woman and your children are absolutely amazing."
Molly glowed with the praise. "Well we've met now so there's no going back."
With a nod, Lily and Molly clinked glasses. Molly then looked thoughtful. "Now, you know they can't do it alone."
"Of course not. They're men after all. Don't get me wrong, they're very capable men, but this is too big for them to do it alone."
Molly agreed. "Well you know what they say, that behind every great man, is a strong woman."
Lily grinned at that. "I can drink to that."
On September 1st, the Weasleys and the Potters met with the Blacks on platform 9 3/4. The Weasleys were late of course but then again, not many could wrangle 5 children quite the way Molly could. They all said goodbye to their children, with Molly giving special attention to Ginny and Lily doing the same for Emma. Finally, they were able to get onto the train and separated to find their friends. Cassie and Harry found Draco in a back compartment waiting for them. "Hey Draco, nice to see you here."
Draco rolled his eyes. "Like I would ever lower myself into sitting in the same area as Crabbe and Goyle. Or, Merlin forbid, Parkinson." Draco shivered in disgust.
"She does like throwing herself at you doesn't she." Cassie observed with a bit of a smirk.
"It must be annoying, having the constant attention of the castle pitbull." Harry teased.
"And you know what she'll become by our fourth year. They'll be calling her the castle slut." Cassie stated nonchalantly.
Draco and Harry both had looks of disgust on their faces. "Bloody hell Cassie, I won't be able to eat now." Draco nodded in agreement with Harry's statement when the door opened and Ginny Weasley stormed in. "Blimey Gin, what's wrong?"
Ginny's had snapped up to Harry, a scowl appearing on her face. "I really don't like the girls in my year."
"Why not?" Asked Cassie curiously.
"Because they're all simpering twits. Well, most of them are anyway."
Cassie shook her head. "They won't be in Slytherin then. Other than Pansy, the girls in my year are very strong willed. Daphne Greengrass in particular is very intimidating. Even older students try to stay out of her way."
Ginny nodded. "Fred and George tell me that a lot of the girls in Gryffindor are pretty headstrong. Hermione Granger even keeps my idiot brother Ron in check."
Harry laughed. "He is a headstrong guy, isn't he?"
"That's putting it mildly." Ginny stated dryly.
A few hours later, the trolley lady stopped by, causing Harry and Draco's pockets to become a tad lighter as they bought a little of everything. This earned them eyerolls from Ginny and Cassie. An hour later, Emma stopped by with Luna Lovegood, a friend of Ginny's, and they all chatted amiably. They had to ignore some the odd quips from Luna. But otherwise, it was a very enjoyable conversation.
By the time the Hogwarts Express pulled into Hogsmeade Station, it was dark. They disembarked, with Luna, Ginny, and Emma separating to go to Hagrid to ride the boats. Harry, Cassie, and Draco made their way to the carriages, which seemed to be pulled by an invisible force. "They're thestrals." Harry explained as the carriage was pulled towards Hogwarts. "They're invisible to everyone but people that has seen death."
Draco frowned. "Isn't your wand core a thestral hair bathed in basilisk venom?"
Harry nodded. "It is. I'm not sure how I'm able to wield it. Uncle Eddie says he'll look into it."
Cassie nodded. "And he'll find out too. Once he gets the bit between his teeth on a subject, he doesn't stop. He did the same thing when Harry spoke parseltongue the first time." Draco whipped his head around to stare at his friend. "W-what? Y-you're a parselmouth? H-how? Only people related to Slytherin are supposed to be able to do that!"
Harry glared at Cassie who just grinned at him. "Thanks Cassie." He turned back to Draco who was gaping at him. "Uncle Eddie says that being a parselmouth doesn't necessarily come from bloodline. It's rare enough so it being a bloodline trait has become the most popular theory. But Uncle Eddie thinks that it might come from mum's side of the family. He says she may be very distantly related to someone from Slytherin's bloodline. He's not 100% sure though so no telling anyone ok?"
Draco nodded. "Course I won't tell anyone mate. I'll never tell your secrets. As long as you don't tell anyone mine."
Harry grinned. "You've got a deal there." Cassie nodded in agreement.
After the hat sang its song and Minerva stood up, the sorting began. As she went through the list she came to Emma's name. "Potter, Emma!" Emma made her way up to the stool and the hat was placed on her head. As she sat there, Emma got a thoughtful look on her face until finally, the brim opened up and the hat shouted, "Ravenclaw!" Emma grinned as she raced to sit next to her new friend Luna who was beaming. Harry had a bit of a flabbergasted look on his face. "Huh. I never thought that would happen." Cassie rolled her eyes at her friend.
Finally, "Weasley, Ginevra!" Ginny scowled as she made her way to the stool. "I wonder why she hates her name so much. I like it." Harry wondered out loud. Cassie looked at her friend contemplatively before a small grin made its way onto her face.
Ginny's sorting took the longest of them all. It was as if the hat wasn't sure what to do with her. Finally, the hat shouted, "Slytherin!" The hall clapped respectively, including her shocked brothers except Percy, who just looked at Ginny as if he was seeing her for the first time. She made her way to the Slytherin table and Harry moved over so she had room to sit in between he and Cassie. Finally, Dumbledore stood up. "Before we begin our wonderful feast, I have some announcements. Firstly, I would like to advise that the banned items list has been increased to 765, for the full list and what it includes, please see the post outside of Mr. Filtch's office. Now, I'd like to introduce our new Muggle Studies professor, Laura Baxter." Laura stood shyly while everyone clapped, with more than a few drooling looks from the older male students. "Now then please tuck in!" And everyone in the hall gladly did so, lightly wondering why Professor Dumbledore decided to make the announcements first instead of last. When Minerva asked him this later, he simply stated he wanted to be different this year, which only caused Minerva to roll her eyes.
Later, after everyone had made their way to bed, Ginny sat on her bed, with the curtains closed, and pulled out the diary that she had found tucked into her books. She had simply shrugged at the time, figuring that her mum had slipped it in. She opened it up and wrote, "Hello diary, my name is Ginny." As Ginny tapped her chin with her quill trying to think of what to write, she saw her writing disappeared, only to be replaced by something else. "Hello Ginny, my name is Tom."
I do apologize for the late update, but when you find out your wife is pregnant, other things take a backseat. Anyway, I did decide to follow the advice of the one voter of my poll (which will probably be the last poll I ever post), and put Emma into Ravenclaw just because I wanted Luna to have a friend in Ravenclaw. But anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter and yes, things now start picking up. I hope you like where this is starting to go and I hope you all stick around to the end! Please read and review! Have a great rest of your week!
