Title: Footsteps
Rating: G – You know, I find that a rating of G (or U in the UK) is annoying, but I cannot seem to be able to make myself up the rating content.
Genre: Humour – no Romance in this chapter … well, cannot really see it anyway, but you never know what happens. You sometimes find romance in the strangest of places and creatures…
Summary: The eventful afternoon tea that has been mentioned in all but the first chapter finally (almost) occurs. But first, another minor (and very brief) detour…
Disclaimer: Please look at Chapters I, II, III and IV. Sorry, do not feel inspirational at the moment.
A/N:
Thought that a time-line would be useful … (for you as well as me)
Monday: Markus' 11th birthday.
Tuesday: Bonbon's introduced to the mainstream wizard population by HJP. SOS (for once in his life) is late for lessons with the sixth years. SOS and A"B"D have a discussion in afternoon.
Wednesday: Family picnic. Second time in his professional life at Hogwarts SOS takes a sicky.
Thursday (this chapter): The Thursday that A"B"D discussed two days previously. Takes place around afternoon tea (this takes place at 3:30pm).
Friday: Wait and See…
A/N2: Thank you to besnaped twice! (You know, I'm going to have to send some biscuits your way some time very soon) About chapter III – Sam's first word has something to do with me having so many relatives (my brother's first words were "Baby did it" and Baby was a doll. He can lie to you as he looks you straight in the eyes) We are nearly at tea … you just need to wait another chapter. I put this part separate cos it didn't make much sense together. Chapter IV of course Snape enjoys teaching – why would he do it in the first place? It must be why he gets so angry at Neville (and my parents have trouble detaching me off the internet/television. I'm just way into cult, fantasy and sci-fi)
A/N2.5:Also, yesterday I went onto statistics and I realised that additional people have reviewed "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall" and I thought I would thank them here (plus the other wonderful people who reviewed … sorry, I didn't add a second chapter). So big thanks to franthephoenix, Katana47, Gone, Spirit of Rain, Mae Noelle (2 lazy 2 log in), Princess of Mirrors, deep.fried.chicken.wings, michee, thistlemeg, Logana, spangle*star, stephanie and One of Grace.
To answer spangle*star question, TTFN = TaTa For Now … it was created during the Second World War and was a fav among those in the British Army (I get it from my grandmother – I also get putting 'me' instead of 'my' in my sentences, like 'me bag' from her. Very Suffolk thing to do)
A/N3: Slight (sorry, major) reference to Disney's "The Sword in the Stone". My excuse? Sam is obsessed with Disney, and I have just discovered my lost copy of the film. "Yay!" to Artemis (sp?) and Merlin!
Chapter V – The Madness of Wizard-Squirrels Last Centuries (aka – Very Long Author's Notes & Thanks)
Near the outskirts of a dense forest, two light "pop"s disturbed one of the few red squirrels left in Britain, making her accidentally bang her head on a tree trunk. Once she realised what was happening she looked apon the two wizards that had suddenly appeared in front of her out of nowhere.
All red squirrels know about wizards (they do not though, really know about witches). This particular squirrel's great-great-great (we could go on forever) grandmother, fell in love with a very young King Arthur (instead of being described as 'scrawny' Arthur was described as 'lean and graceful' in the local squirrel folklore). Although her ancestor did mate later on in life, it was said that there was always an aura of sadness that surrounded the squirrel. All her daughters had inherited this aura about them – and also a gift of telling when a wizard was about and when magic was used. Buttercup (which is the girl-squirrel's name) had even messed around with magic herself (… not that her mother knew about it, of course). It was supposed to be human-stuff. But one of these days, she would discover the secret of becoming human and would seek and find her very own Arthur (he did not, however, have to be a king/prince. Just 'lean and graceful').
Knocking herself out of these unfulfilled dreams, Buttercup focused on the two wizards that were brushing down their clothes. One man was borrrring. One tone for him (and no squirrel would be proud to have human-fur stuff on their head) … but the older man with a beard to rival Merlin was a marvellous mish-mash of stripes and textures. She could also smell the sweet smell of sugar from the rival-Merlin-wizard-guy, which made her nose twitch. She decided she liked this fella.
The two humans looked around them to get a sense of their surroundings; the man-in-one-tone pointed to a path into the forest and the two wizards set themselves determinedly through the thick undergrowth that grew along and on the almost hidden path.
Buttercup set herself to follow them, but a thump on a branch behind her halted her.
'We keep out of humans' business, Buttercup.'
Buttercup sighed. 'Yes, mama.'
Mama did a squirrel nod (that kind of involves the tail) and jumped back towards their hometree. Buttercup looked upon the two disappearing wizards with a familiar growing sadness before she turned to run in the direction of her mother. To renew hope, she whispered mentally to herself:
'One day, Buttercup. One day.'
As an afterthought, she pointed herself towards the man covered in those delightful stripes. A yellow (although Buttercup didn't know what colour it was – it did though, remind her of the sun) ball of cold fire flew from her mouth and into the ear of the stripy man.
Ooh! Buttercup giggled. She would make a fabulous spy.
A/N4: I know, could this chapter be any smaller? Don't worry, Chapter VI is a long one!