A/N Greetings all! In this book, I'm happy to introduce another student to Hogwarts, Corey Willowby, (who will be our child point of view for the next four) and Anna...someone inflicted with a slightly different type of magic...I got the idea from House Elves, actually, and how they can get in and out of places regardless of any Apparation constraints. However, before I was done developing it, it turned into a research project of old faerie myths.

This is the third and last book in the first series, which begins with Jennifer Craw and the Phoenix Wand, which is basically a short semi-dark intro of the main character. The second, Ivory Skull, introduces a couple of new characters as well as gets in depth about Truth Seeking; which is basically something I took from Rowling's hints that Voldemort and Dumbledore both had ways of discerning the truth from people.

This first series (and the second following it) was written in 2002 (after Goblet of Fire.) Last edit: March 2021

Chapter I

The Witch's Broom Closet

Nestled between a rocky coastline and green rolling knolls, it was perhaps little wonder that no one gave a second thought to the sea stone cottage. There was really no reason for any of Jennifer's Muggle neighbors to walk up the narrow pebbled road that wound around the bluff to her house. Even if they had, the cottage would have appeared abandoned to anyone not predisposed towards magic.

But Jennifer Craw knew that the cottage had come a long way from when she first rented it. The old shingles were mended or replaced, the shutters painted, and the tall stone wall around the side yard was replanted with Lynxclaw vines and Muffleleaf Pomona, trailing into the wildly growing herb garden that tangled its way across the ground. It was, in Jennifer's opinion, the next best thing to Hogwarts… a cozy, quiet place for a witch to spend her summer holiday.

She had already spent the better part of a month fixing it up. The witch who had rented it to her, Terra Pince, was the older sister of her school's librarian and was not as spry as she used to be. She often reminded Jennifer of that, and often explained she had little time to spend on her country cottage. Instead, Miss Pince spent what little magic she could muster to keep up her London townhouse. Despite its condition, Jennifer was grateful for the reduced rent that had come with its dilapidated appearance, and had no qualms about fixing the place up.

She had every intention of keeping things in budget this summer and so far had succeeded wonderfully, putting knowledge she had gained from her mother while growing up to good use. Not that Jennifer was by any means destitute; her job paid well, and she hadn't even been tempted to open the vault her parents had set aside for her as a trust for when she was married. Her father had already given her permission to open it if she needed, but so far she'd been able to resist, hoping to stay out of it until her wedding day, whenever that ended up being.

Jennifer sighed softly to herself as she straightened the tiny corner she had dubbed, 'the library,' categorizing the books carefully. For the past two years, Jennifer had been the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was quite an accomplishment for her to be teaching at indisputably the best magic school in the world, especially so young in her career… not that her age seemed to matter to Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of the school. Dumbledore did seem to have a knack for collecting some of the most unlikely set of professors that anyone could ever imagine, and yet not one that he did not trust implicitly.

The students of the school had their own flare and appeal. She had become good friends with many of them, especially Harry Potter, whom she had fought beside on a couple of occasions against the dark forces of Voldemort. Ah, yes, things were far from perfect. For years now, the dark wizard had been terrorizing not only the magic world but also the non-magic… or Muggle… world, which Voldemort and his followers, the Death Eaters, hated with a passion.

Her father had been a Death Eater before he fled with his family to escape. But her father, like her, had recently returned to Britain; only unlike her he had come with the sole intention of destroying all those he had allied with for murdering Jennifer's mother. Because of it he was now in prison for his crimes, while most of the Death Eaters still roamed free.

Jennifer heard a flutter at the kitchen window followed by a hoot, and she went over to greet a snowy white owl carrying a bundle of letters.

"Good morning, Hedwig! How are you doing? Is Harry well?" Harry's familiar hooted again in response, and Jennifer made her comfortable and gave her some water before turning to the post, sorting her post out from the letters Harry had sent along to be delivered to his friends. She woke up her own familiar, Ratfly the fruit bat, to take those on to their destinations.

Perhaps the exchange seemed a little elaborate, but it was necessary; for both Harry and Jennifer had become two of Voldemort's worst enemies and he and his followers were looking for them. They had decided last year to try and confuse them by becoming each other's Secret Keeper, so that no one using magic could discern where they were. The keeper could tell someone where they were, and anyone trying to find it on their own would end up getting waylaid in some other location. Only Dumbledore had been told where both of them were, and Severus Snape, of course, knew where Jennifer was.

It was Severus Snape, Jennifer's fiancée, who had mockingly called the cottage Jennifer's Broom Closet because of its small size, although he did have to admit it had a nice large basement dug into the hard granite cliff. Trust the Potion Master to have an eye for a work area if they ever came back, Jennifer chuckled. Not that they were going to get married any time soon, for they'd decided that would not occur until Voldemort was dead. It was a strange pact, perhaps, to wait for such an event, but Jennifer had quickly agreed with Severus' wish to wait, preferring for nothing to taint that day.

As she was finishing tying up the return bundle for Hedwig, she couldn't help but glance out the window, her eyes drifting up to a maple tree where a young figure sat. Jennifer leaned on the window, propping her head in her hands.

It was the boy again.

He'd been watching the place since she moved in. At first she had discounted it… it was fairly normal for ten or eleven-year-old boys to get interested in abandoned buildings. He was from one of the local Muggle farms nearby, which one she wasn't quite sure. But now he was coming by so often that even though the boy never seemed to get too close, Jennifer suspected that he saw much more than an abandoned building. One time he came down with two other kids, a boy and a girl, who had shrugged at him and told him to come away from there. As they left, he had stopped to stare long and hard at the cottage before finally leaving.

Well, there really was only one way to find out what he saw, she thought. But what if he wasn't magic? Could she act non-magic enough that he wouldn't notice? And what if he was? She really wasn't supposed to make first contact with a youth; that was handled by a letter and a large book of names and there was no guarantee the boy's name was in it. Sooner or later, if not chosen, he'd grow out of it… drilled by his parents that such things did not exist until he'd only remember he could once do things in his deepest dreams.

Still, what was she going to do, let him sit in a tree all summer? She could almost imagine what it must be like to see a house no one else could, and wondering why. He was probably even losing sleep over it. Making up her mind at last, she glanced in the mirror, hoping her appearance wasn't too over the top, and then walked up the road to where it curled around the tree. She gazed at the boy who was clinging to a branch, his eyes wide with surprise, his face red from holding his breath.

"Good morning! Isn't that a bit uncomfortable?" Jennifer asked.

The boy stared at her. Jennifer, having inherited a talent of Truth Seeking, was able to easily read the truth in people's faces when she was looking at them. But she really didn't have to much of that talent to figure out that he was just as curious as he was frightened. She also now knew he did see the house for what it was, and she was just as certain he had watched her as she was making repairs and working on the garden. This put her in a very awkward position. She was sure she'd get in trouble for talking to him. And yet here he was in her backyard, probably with a family that was starting to think he was going a little crazy. Her sympathy once again won out over her reason, and she decided to be up front with him.

"Who are you?" he asked at last.

"I'm Miss Craw. What's your name?"

"Corey Willowby," he stammered.

"Your father owns the sheep farm up the hill, doesn't he?" Jennifer smiled warmly.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Would you care to come in for some tea?" she asked.

"I had better not. I'm not supposed to go in strange houses… er, I mean, in stranger's houses," he gulped.

"That's very good advice," Jennifer nodded. "It's also good advice not to spy on strange houses either."

"I wasn't spying exactly. I was just looking," Corey said defensively.

"And what exactly do you see when you look at it, Corey?" Jennifer asked.

"I see… uh… an abandoned old shack," he stammered.

"Oh, I see," Jennifer said, hiding a smile behind her serious expression. "I suppose there's not much to look at, then, is there?" He shook his head slowly. "In any case, if you change your mind, I'll be inside," she said, turning around.

"Oh, I would but… I might get in trouble," Corey said.

"You and me both," Jennifer chuckled, going back inside.

Hedwig hooted, wondering what was keeping her. Jennifer finished tying the package for Harry and handed it to the owl, petting her gently before she took back off into the wind. It wasn't a moment later that there was a knock at the door. She opened it to see the young boy standing there, gazing curiously inside.

His hair was a light ash brown in color, partially covering a pair of dark brown eyes that peered inquisitively around. He wasn't very tall but was wiry, and was tanned like someone who had spent every waking moment outside, probably at the expense of other things he should be doing.

"Come on in then. Welcome to my Broom Closet," Jennifer chuckled, letting him in and closing the door behind them.