Author's Note: My apologies that this has been too long in coming. All I can say is my life got extremely hectic there for a while and I will try to do better. Please review so I know you are still reading!

Chapter Six - Going Home

Penelope watched the sunrise from the window seat of her bedroom. It was the beginning she liked the best, when the sky turned from black to a soft gray blue with stars still bright above. Below her, a mist floated over the manicured gardens and she pulled an unfamiliar blanket close under her chin.

This had been her room at the Manor for as long as she could remember, but it showed no signs of the life of a teenage girl. After her first year at Hogwarts, Phillip had built her a special compartment in her closet and she had learned a magic locking charm, even at the age of 12. Only grandmother, Phillip and Iris knew the truth. To the rest of the house, the rest of the world, Penelope Clearwater attended an American boarding school. It had been easiest to just avoid people during the summer months. But she could write letters and from this window seat she had poured out her heart on paper. Imagining herself a princess trapped in a tower, she had waited for a handsome owl to swoop down to her window so she could exchange one precious piece of parchment for another.

Over the years, she had learned that her prince could not always save her. Yet strangely enough, it didn't matter. Real love was so much grander than fantasy. She painted a small circle in the condensation on the window. Somewhere, under the same rising sun, her love lived and breathed. She murmured a silent prayer to keep him safe.

Grandmother had been asleep when she arrived last night. She would have to see her first thing this morning. After a long shower, Penelope stood in front of her closet pondering just the right muggle attire. Grandmother cared about appearances. She pulled on conservative navy pants and a neat cardigan, fastened her curls at the nape of her neck and dotted her ears with pearls. When she knew she could primp no longer, she made her way through the long hall, down a grand staircase and into the morning room. Her grandmother sat alone at the table making notes in a leather book while she ate off rose covered china. Penelope stole up and gave the woman a kiss on the cheek before she sat and fluffed a starched white linen across her lap.

"What is this I hear? You have countless gardeners and yet you trip while you are raking leaves? Please, Grandmother, raking leaves!"

"Well, what am I supposed to do? They just keep coming down!"

"This winter you'll be wanting a vacation on the ski slopes."

"No darling, give me a little credit. Though a trip to the Alps would be lovely, wouldn't it? Let me look at you. You look very well. I suppose you are learning all sorts of interesting new…um…things?"

"Yes, I am," Penelope grinned as she buttered a piece of toast. "It is very difficult, Grandmother, but it is wonderful to be around people who are as interested in healing as I am. St Mungo's is fascinating. It's huge, you know. You would not believe the things I have seen."

"I don't think I want to know," the elderly woman sighed as she sipped her tea. "But I am glad you are happy and doing well. You are comfortable in your flat?"

"Oh yes. It is small, but I like it."

"And your young man? What is his name?"

"Percy, Grandmother."

"Yes, Percy. How is he?"

"He's lovely, of course."

"We must see him."

Penelope almost choked. "Excuse me, Grandmother?"

"We must see him soon. He must come to Clearwater Manor."

"Grandmother, Percy's very busy. He has an important job with the Ministry of Magic. I'm not sure…"

"I think the boy can make some time to come here. Certainly he has time off during the holidays?"

"Well, I suppose…"

"Good, then that's settled. We'll enjoy the company of Mr. Percy…um…"

"Weasley, Grandmother."

"Mr. Percy Weasley during our Christmas holiday." Penelope watched her grandmother write in the leather book and she knew the case was closed.

"Now darling, this afternoon, I want you to meet with Mr. Norman Brown. He has been our attorney for many years and he has matters to discuss with you. I have instructed him to give you financial reports on Clearwater Holdings. I want you to study them this weekend and then attend the Board of Directors meeting early Monday morning. You do not have to speak at the meeting. Just observe, begin to learn names and faces. I will be with you, of course."

Thank you, Grandmother."

"Well, I have become exhausted by my breakfast. I believe I shall retire to my study for a while."

"Grandmother, will you let me do a magical exam of you? I know I am just beginning, but I brought a few magical medical instruments and a couple of potions that might make you feel worlds better. If you'd just let me, I'd…"

"No darling. No magic on me."

"But Grandmother, please, I could - "

"No, Penelope. No magic and that's final." The older woman laid a slender hand on Penny's shoulder and smiled. "It's good to have you home, dear."

After breakfast Penelope strolled out into the gardens. The images of the night still haunted her, leaving a constant dull stab in her chest, but the morning was bright and crisp and she was determined to shake this uneasy feeling. Percy would tell her not to waist time on things she couldn't change. She quickened her step as the pebbled path turned to worn dirt. Ahead she saw the stone caretaker's cottage hugged by a neat picket fence. She started to run, landing breathless in front of the door.

"Iris, Phillip, it's me. I'm home!"

Within seconds Penelope found herself being wrapped in the arms of the closest thing she had to a sister. Iris had been a teenager herself when she came to Clearwater Manor to be the governess to a sad, strange little girl. Perhaps her own youth had kept her mind and heart open, but she had never questioned Penelope, she had listened and slowly, she had come to believe. Phillip seemed to have understood Penelope from the beginning. He had once told her the mountains of Scotland were filled with magic and not much she could say would surprise him. Somehow in caring for her the two of them had come together. "You were our joint project, Penelope," Iris had told her. "And what an amazing project you were!"

"Get in here." Iris pulled her through the door and she was thrust in front of a grinning Phillip who surveyed her with his arms crossed.

"Are you not eating, girl? You're skinny enough as is."

"Phillip, Phillip, Phillip," Penelope sighed dramatically, "where is your hair going? You know I could fix that for you with a hair growth charm," she pulled her wand from her pocket with a straight face, "but then the side effects are messy."

"Put that thing away and sit down."

"Not until I see him. Where is he?"

"He's still asleep, believe it or not," Iris smiled. "Go take a peek."

Penelope tiptoed down a narrow hall, into a darkened bedroom and gazed down quietly on the soft sleeping bundle that was her 10 month old godson. Soft yellow curls blossomed from the nape of his neck and his lips were parted peacefully. He was innocence incarnate. She had no idea how long she had been starring at him when Iris pulled at her elbow and led her silently away.

Penelope kicked off her shoes and curled her feet under her as she sank into Phillip's cushy recliner.

"Well, you are not going to believe this, but I have a job working in a pub."

"You are kidding!" Iris laughed as she settled next to Phillip on the sofa.

"Yes, and don't you dare tell Grandmother. I wanted to make my own money for a while. Pay for things myself. My boss at the pub is really nice and he lets me coordinate my hours with St. Mungo's."

"Your father would've approved," Phillip said "I think he'd be quite proud of you."

"Thank you, Phillip," Penelope smiled. "St. Mungo's is hard and sometimes scary, but I'm loving it."

"How is it scary?" Iris asked with her eyes wide.

"Oh magical folks get into magical messes and sometimes, well, let's just say there's a lot more than blood to be concerned with." Penelope's face darkened. "I want the truth about Grandmother. I tried to get her to let me give her an exam. I brought some potions that could help but she won't have it."

Phillip and Iris exchanged looks, and Phillip spoke first. "Penny, your grandmother is a wise woman. I'm sure she feels that she was born without magic, she's lived without magic and she'll die without magic."

"Well that's just ridiculous," Penelope huffed.

"Is it?" Iris said softly. "Maybe when you have lived through your life you will feel differently. At any rate, you can't worry. She has the best medical care. Her doctor says her issues are perfectly natural for a woman her age. She's just slowing down a bit."

"She wants Percy to come here."

"Yes I know," Iris smiled. "I think that's good. Don't you?"

"You do realize it will be confusing for him. Percy grew up in a magical family, he went to a magical school, he works in a magical job. Simple things that you take for granted in this world will be completely foreign to him. Percy's not going to know how to turn on a light switch."

"You didn't know anything when you started at Hogwarts." Phillip said.

"No, but I didn't go there to be put on display or tested either," Penelope shot back.

"Nobody wants to test Percy," Iris said soothingly. "We just want to get to know him and if he is serious about you, he should want to know us. We all know he has been very kind to you and that you care about him, so that makes him tops in my book already."

Penelope immediately felt guilty, "I'm sorry. I want you to know him too. I guess I'm just nervous about it all. I'm nervous about everything. This afternoon I have to meet with an attorney."

Phillip scowled, "Norman Brown?"

"Yes." Penelope eyed Phillip suspiciously, "What's wrong with him?"

"I don't trust him. Dodgy if you ask me. Something about the man doesn't feel right."

"But my father hired him."

"Yes, Penny, he did. But that wasn't long before the accident. Your father never had much time to review his work. Afterwards your grandmother wouldn't change anything your father had done. I'm not a businessman, Penny, but I know a little about human nature. If I were you, I'd pay close attention to those financial reports."

There was a soft wimper from down the hall. "Daniel's awake. Do you want to help me with him, Pen?"

"Oh please!" Penelope said eagerly following Iris into the tiny nursery. Daniel was standing up in the crib waiting expectantly. Iris swooped him up and bustled to the closet and changing table. Penelope let him grab onto her finger and tried to distract Daniel while Iris changed his nappy. "He is lovely, Iris, so lovely. Can I hold him."

"Of course, how many children have a real Fairy Godmother?" Iris laughed.

Penelope giggled "I'm not a fairy, I'm a witch. Believe me, you wouldn't want a real fairy for a Godmother."

Iris looked at her shyly, "Penny, do you think you could do just a little magic for him? You're out of Hogwarts now, and we are family."

Penelope sucked in her breath, "Yes, but it would have to be something small."

The two girls sat happily on the floor and placed Daniel between them. Penelope took out her wand. "Daniel would you like a toy? See your teddy bear? Let's get him to come to you. Accio bear." The bear sailed through the air toward them and Penelope caught it firmly in her hands.

Iris clapped, "Wasn't that fun, Daniel?"

The small boy crawled toward Penny and reached for her wand. "You want to see Penny's wand?" Penelope said. "Don't worry, he can't hurt it." Penny offered her wand to Daniel. He grabbed it, happily, and it emitted a small beam of yellow light.

"Penny…" Iris gasped.

"Maybe it had some left over power in it," Penelope suggested. She took the wand back for a second while Daniel protested.

"Daniel take the wand again," Penny said.

This time the wand zoomed from Penny to Daniel's outstretched hands. Once again, a yellow beam of light shown from its tip, like a tiny flashlight. The child pounded the wand on the floor and bright golden sparks burst from the tip and circled around his head.

"Oh Iris!" Penny covered her mouth with both hands to control the joyous laughter that was about to explode.

"Penny what does this mean?" Iris looked confused.

"What does it mean?" Penelope pulled Daniel to her and lifted him high in the air. "Iris! Don't you see? It means Daniel's a wizard!"

***

Percy apparated into a patch of trees on a hill behind the Burrow. Below he could see the smoke coming from the crooked chimney and his mother's garden was laid out like a large neatly sewn quilt. He stopped and counted the windows up to his room. He had said goodbye to it that night and he knew there was a chance he'd never see it again. It had been a lovely home.

He turned his back and walked deeper into the woods. He had been only five the first time he had walked this path. He remembered the pain in his side from climbing the hill and stumbling to keep up with Charlie and Bill. When they had reached this spot it was Charlie who had shown him how to place his hand on the boulder in front of him.

"It's very simple, Percy. All you have to say is 'I'm a Weasley.'"

"'I'm a Weasley' he had repeated and he had watched as the stone beneath his hand glowed red and the rock slowly moved away.

"It was a goblin house, once," Bill explained, but they left hundreds of years ago. Now it's ours, yours too now that you're old enough. But it is a secret Percy…"

Percy placed his hand once again on the large stone boulder. "I'm a Weasley," he muttered and the familiar glow shown beneath his hand before there was a scraping of rock against rock. He ducked his head to step inside. It was smaller than he had remembered. Magic lanterns blazed from the walls and cast a warm glow across the small cave-like room. Percy crouched down and ran a finger across the wall. Ginny. Her child-like drawings of their family waved happily at him. He found a simple figure with circles for glasses, who smiled broadly at him then opened a flat rectangular book. He looked farther down the wall for Fred and George's paintings, which were considerably more violent. Dragons fought and spit fire at one another and boys on broomsticks flew in loopy circles.

He knew it had been for his sake that the meeting was occurring here. A chance to allow him to be close to home even if he couldn't set foot there. The light from the lanterns blinked and the scraping sound signaled the stone rolling away. His mother ducked her head and entered smiling warmly at him.

"Hello darling," she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him down into an uncomfortable hug.

"Hello Mum," he said patting her back then pulling away stiffly as he noticed Professor Dumbledore admiring the drawings on the walls with the posture of someone in a grand gallery.

"Charming and quite practical too," Dumbledore stroked his beard thoughtfully.

"Yes," Molly nodded. "It was a good 'safe place'. We used it once, when Percy was a tiny baby. Arthur had a portkey set so we could get out of the house in a hurry and hide. We made the charm simple, so that Bill and Charlie could do it by themselves if they had to. But we all made it that night. I'm sure it saved our lives. Afterwards, the children used it as a kind of clubhouse. They would play up here for hours."

Dumbledore waved his arms and a small table appeared with a pitcher of milk and a plate of chocolate biscuits. The pitcher floated up in the air and poured milk into three glasses.

"Let's have a seat, shall we?" Dumbledore indicated three stools around the table.

As Percy sat, he felt his knees come up slightly too high. Only Dumbledore would combine a spy meeting with a tea party.

"I'm afraid I have bad news," Dumbledore sighed as he reached for a biscuit. "We have had a magical break-in at the school."

"The children!" Molly gasped.

"The children are fine, Molly. Madam Pince, however, is recovering in the hospital wing. We found her unconscious in the restricted section. She was overcome by a powerful dark magic."

"Is something missing from the library, sir?" Percy asked.

"I am afraid someone has stolen the Hogwarts Quill, as well as the book that it uses to record the names of magical births. The quill could be a powerful tool for the Death Eaters and I believe the dreams that you both have mentioned to me could be associated with their plans."

"Percy has been having dreams?" Molly turned in surprise.

"Um no, Mum. It's Penny that's been having dreams. They've been frightening to her, so I mentioned them to Professor Dumbledore." Molly's jaw dropped. She seemed on the verge of something until she glanced up at Dumbledore who was watching her with his eyebrows raised and his fingers drumming across his lips. "Tell us about Penny's dream, dear," she said.

"It's a simple dream, really. She's had it several times. She's in her family's flying machine with a small child and suddenly the child disappears. She feels sure that something evil has taken the child."

Professor Dumbledore rose, picked up a battered magical crayon and began to doodle a smiling sun on the wall next to Ginny's pictures. "What about your dream, Molly?"

Molly Weasley hesitated, "I dream about my children. I see their names written in a book, like the Weasley Ancestral Registry. There they all are, written down under my name and Arthur's name and then one by one they disappear. They just vanish from the page and I know they're gone."

They sat in silence until Percy asked, "Are the dreams connected to the quill, Professor?"

"Oh they most definitely are."

"How, sir?"

"Did you have a biscuit, Percy? Best to think on a full stomach."

Percy paused and reluctantly bit into a biscuit.

"Percy, when Professor McGonnigal gave you a particularly large project to accomplish. What is the first thing you would do?"

"I'd go to the library."

"And once you were in the library, what would you do?"

"Well, I'd look for books to help me with the project. Do research."

"Exactly." Dumbledore nodded. "So what kind of research would require the use of the quill?"

Molly spoke in a low steady voice, "They're researching the children themselves. With a list of all the magical babies, they'll know quickly what babies are pureblood, halfblood, or muggle-born."

"Why would they want to know that?" Percy asked.

Dumbledore turned back to his doodle and erased the smile from sunshine. "I'm afraid we can only surmise the worst," he said softly.

"They wouldn't dare!" Percy hissed.

"Oh but I'm afraid they would."

***

Penelope spent the next several hours calming Iris and Phillip and was so caught up in discussions of Daniel's future that she was completely startled when Iris informed her that it was already 1:00. She practically skipped through the garden quickening her pace on the steps. All thoughts of her nightmares or her foreboding feelings had left her. It was not until she reached the door of the library that she remembered Phillips warning and she adjusted her shoulders to her most aristocratic stance.

Her grandmother stood smiling and talking to a handsome blonde man in his late 30's. Penelope felt herself blush as she took his hand. He was dressed in an expensive suit with a crisp silk tie.

"Norman, my granddaughter, Penelope," the old woman nodded.

"I am so pleased," Norman Brown smiled warmly, "I have heard much about you, of course. I knew your father. Wonderful man."

"Thank you," Penelope smiled, pulling her hand back.

"Do sit, dear," Grandmother indicated a chair and moved herself toward a comfortable seat. "I was just telling Mr. Brown that we are looking forward to the Board of Directors meeting on Monday. You will have an opportunity to meet some of the major shareholders. Norman has brought you some reading material."

Penelope took the thick soft bound report and began to flip through it.

"You know, of course, that your family began with ship building in Scotland over 200 years ago, but around the time of the first world war, your grandfather became interested in aviation. He wisely began to diversify the company and Clearwater escaped the downfall of many ship builders in Scotland. Around the time you were born, Miss Clearwater, the British government acquired the major air craft manufacturers. Your grandfather maintained some small outside interests, but today Clearwater is a more streamlined company with investments in a variety of operations. What you have there are annual reports from the last five years. From that you'll be able to get an idea of where the company stands."

Penelope had been reading and half listening to Brown, "Classified projects? This says two thirds of the company holdings is in classified projects."

"Your father was an influential man. He worked within many levels of the British government. As you can imagine a company with a history of both naval and aeronautical experimentation could very well be involved in research and development for projects that are sensitive in nature."

"Like what?"

Brown shifted and smiled tightly. "I can't say more, Miss Clearwater. I'm sure you can understand."

"Not really. Are you telling me two thirds of our company is operating on projects that I can't know about?"

"Essentially, yes."

"Well that's just ducky," Penelope said coldly. "I thought the whole point of this was so that I could understand the company I am about to inherit."

"In due time, Miss Clearwater. In due time." Norman Brown offered a slight bow and for the briefest second Penelope thought a tiny smirk crossed his lips.

Penelope's grandmother stood with the help of her cane. "Norman, I do hope you can find time to join us during the holidays. Penelope will be here again and she is bringing her young friend from London."

"It would be a pleasure," he said rising with Penelope.

"Thank you, Norman," she said as she walked proudly from the room.

When Penelope turned she found Norman Brown eyeing her closely. "Your friend is someone you met in the States, Miss Clearwater?"

Penelope felt her cheeks go red, "We met at school but he is from Britain."

"Interesting. Might I know his family?"

"I don't think so, Mr. Brown."

"Is he from London?"

"Not that it is any of your business, Mr. Brown, but if you must know his family owns a small farm near the village of Ottery St.Catchpole."

"Ah…rural people."

"And what does that mean?"

"Miss Clearwater, you will forgive my forwardness. You are now a quite eligible young lady. And the truth is, you will find people quite interested in your social life…or lack there of. You must proceed with caution."

Penelope felt her jaw clench, "Thank you for your concern, Mr. Brown. I assure you, if anything, I am an excellent judge of character."

He nodded with his eyebrows raised, and this time she was sure a smirk crossed his face as he turned to go.

"Do you find me funny, Mr. Brown?"

"Funny, Miss Clearwater? Not at all. Extraordinarily unusual, perhaps. But not funny." He flashed her a charming smile, "Ottery St. Catchpole…" he laughed as he left.