Chapter Seven

The Weasley's Explained

The three girls walked into Transfiguration. Addy promptly sat in the front row, followed closely by Rhea and Jenna. Addy took out a copy of A Beginners Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch.

Jenna looked around the classroom. Her fellow Gryffindors sat behind her talking excitedly. On the other side of the room, the first year Ravenclaws were doing the same thing. In front of her was the teacher's desk. Some books and a large cardboard box sat on top. The bell rang, but the teacher was nowhere to be found. Suddenly the box seemed to grow large bushy, brown hair.

Professor Weasley stood up, after being hidden from view by the box. She pointed to the board. Twenty heads shifted focus and forty eyes rested upon the neat letters.

Professor Hermione Weasley

Transfiguration

The professor smiled as people turned their heads back around.

"Shall we begin?" She started passing out toothpicks. As she handed them out she continued explaining.

"You are to turn these toothpicks into needles. It may not seem like much, but you must start with smaller things like toothpicks, before you transfigure larger ones such as mice or furniture." She stopped and proceeded to turn her desk into a large beach umbrella. She smiled at the twins, then continued passing out the toothpicks.

Once again, Addy and Rhea were the first to fully transfigure their toothpicks. Jenna's had only gotten pointier. The boy sitting next to Rhea looked over at Jenna's toothpick, and chuckled.

"What's so funny?" Jenna asked. The boy looked up from her toothpick.

"I was just noticing that your toothpick was sharp."

"So?" The boy fidgeted in his seat.

"Well, I was thinking if we put our toothpicks together, we could get one needle." He said this as he lifted his toothpick into view. It had turned silver and had a small hole in the top, but it was unmistakably still a toothpick.

Jenna thought about it, then giggled softly.

"What's your name?"

"Dylan Renata."

"I'm Jenna Meyers."

All three girls left Transfiguration in high spirits. Rhea looked at Jenna for a moment.

"So, I saw you and that Ravenclaw boy talking in class." Addy's head shot up.

"Wait, a Ravenclaw? It's only the first day of school and you already have a crush on a boy! What about your schoolwork?"

"Geez Addy, can't you let the girl have a little happiness? You and your schoolwork. Sometimes you remind me of Mum too much." Addy stuck her tongue out at her sister.

"At least I don't have crush on a teacher!" Rhea turned scarlet.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Jenna stared at Rhea.

"A teacher? Who is it...professor Lupin?" Jenna joked. Rhea face turned the color of beets.

Jenna made a gagging noise. "But he's got to be in his fifties!"

That night Jenna, Rhea, and Addy sat a group of soft, red arm chairs by the window. Jenna kept on asking questions about their family.

"So, how many people are in your family?"

"There's three on our Mum's side." Addy said.

"And like a billion on our Dad's" Rhea added.

"There's eighteen – no wait, nineteen if you count the fact that Aunt Penelope is pregnant."

"Wow. It's just my grandparents, my mum and me. How many of you family goes to Hogwarts now?"

"Well, there's just Désirée and us right now, but Désirée's little brother, Russell will be here in two years. Our little brother Rufus will be here in five, then Johnny the year after that, and then Olivia. But she's only three. Then of course there's the new baby."

"Can we stop talking about this? I already know my family."

"But Jenna doesn't!"

"I don't care. I'm going to bed."

"But we still have to figure out when we should that study group!"

"I know the perfect time, Addy."

"Really? When?"

"Never!" Rhea walked up the staircase and vanished from view. Addy sat there very pensively.

"She reminds me a lot of my Aunt Ginny."

Jenna sat up that night thinking about the conversation between her and Addy and Rhea. Tears rolled down her cheeks.

"I wish I had a real family." She whispered to herself. "I wish I had a father." She kept on repeating her wishes all night. This continued for many nights afterwards.

Jenna raised her head from the pillow. Her puffy eyes glanced through an opening in her bed hangings to the window. A pale streak of pink light edged the dark blue sky. It was dawn. She groggily got out of bed and shivered against the cold. It had been two weeks since that conversation. Two weeks since she had been able to sleep for more than a few hours each night. Haunting images of what she never had still plagued her mind.

She showered and changed into her school robes. Friday, at last. No week had ever seemed so long. Jenna sat in the common room reading. Addy had been trying to get her to read Hogwarts: A History for a week now, and Jenna had finally caved in.

"It really isn't that bad." Jenna thought to herself. She had barely gotten two pages when a pair of icy cold hands covered her eyes.

"Guess who?"

"I don't know. The Queen of England?" Rhea giggled and let go.

"I severely doubt the Queen would play guessing games with an eleven year old." Jenna chuckled at the thought and waved as Addy walked down the staircase rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"S-sorry I'm late." She said as she tried to stifle a yawn. "I was up late studying."

Rhea rolled her eyes. "Mum would be proud, Addy." Addy smiled at this. "But Dad would think you were bonkers." The smile left Addy's face as she stuck her tongue out at her sister.

They sat down at the Gryffindor table in silence. Jenna had no sooner grabbed a piece of toast that the rustle of a hundred wings reached her ears. A hundred or so owls flew into the Great Hall and began dropping letters onto their owners. Three owls headed towards them. Two landed gracefully on the table. The third, which happen to resemble a brown, furry tennis ball, landed in a second year's porridge.

"Pig!" Addy yelled as she tried to untie the letter from the soggy owl. She took the letter and grabbed a napkin to clean the owl off. Pig hooted appreciatively and zoomed around her head for a second before flying off to the Owlery.

"Pig?" Jenna asked.

"Yeah. Aunt Ginny named him Pigwidgeon, but Dad calls him Pig. He's the sweetest owl, but not very coordinated."

Jenna giggled. "Ow!" The owl next to her hooted and poked her sharply with its beak. Jenna glared at it and untied the letter from its outstretched leg. The owl gave another hoot and flew off. She opened up the letter and read:

Jenna,

How's my angel? Are you having a good time at school? Are you learning a lot? You haven't written since you got there, and I'm worried. Are you making friends? I need to know these things. I am your mother. I hope this gets to you. I've never used an owl before. Did you know they have a post office full of owls that you can use right here in London? It's really quite amazing. I hope you are doing well (but if I know you, you are) and please please write back soon. I will be expecting an owl from you (doesn't that sound strange?)

Remember, I love you and I miss you and don't forget your dear old mother, living here all alone in this big (yeah right) empty apartment.

Xoxo,

Your darling mother.

Jenna grinned at the letter and looked up. Addy and Rhea were bent over one of the letters and were giggling loudly.

"What's going on?" Addy pointed to the letter in her hands.

"It's from our Aunt Ginny. She's getting married."

"Really? That's wonderful."

"Yeah. And apparently, this bloke's quite handsome."

"And exotic. I can't believe she met him in Egypt! She's marrying one of Bill's friends. Isn't it amazing how you could end up marrying someone whom no one would ever suspect?"

"You're not marrying Professor Lupin, Rhea."

"It could happen."

'No it couldn't."

"Yes it could."

The argument continued through breakfast, while they were getting their books, and all the way down to the dungeons for potions. It only stopped when Rhea put a silencing spell on Addy 30 seconds before Snape marched into the classroom, black robes billowing behind him.

"Silence!" There was no need to say that because the moment he walked in the class had instantly quieted down.

"Today we are going to be making a boil curing potion. This is a simple potion that, as you should know, cures boils. The ingredients are on the board. Begin."

Jenna stared at the scrawling handwriting on the board, and then tossed a handful of dried nettles into her cauldron. The class continued with a hitch until a cauldron began to his. A large puff of acid green smoke wafted through the air causing people to gag.

"Astrophel! Do the instructions not specifically say that the porcupine quills should be added before the cauldron is taken off the fire?" A Slytherin in the third row with her light brown hair in two French braids burst into tears. Her cauldron had melted and the ruined potion was now making its way around the floor burning holes in people's shoes.

Bernice Astrophel ran from the room in tears, while Snape cleaned up the mess with the flick of his wand.

"He shouldn't have yelled at her like that." Rhea stated as they ate their dinner.

"She did mess up the potion horribly though."

"Addy, when will you take that stick out of your ass long enough to realize people get hurt when you yell at them."

"Rhea! Don't use that language. Mum could be listening!"

"How in the world would she be listening?"

"She has some of those Extendable Ears Uncles Fred and George made."

"Oh, right...we really should get some of those."

Jenna looked over at the Teacher's table to see if Professor Weasley had indeed been listening on their conversation, but she was talking to Professor Lupin about something and seemed to be totally disregarding her children.

Jenna watched them talk for a while. She was tired of listening to Addy and Rhea bicker over trivial things. She was about to turn away when the two teachers stopped talking and both glanced at Jenna.

Jenna was taken aback. Why would two teachers suddenly stop mid-conversation to stare at me? She wondered. They stared and she stared, and then they went back to their conversation.

"That's weird."

"What is?" Addy and Rhea had stopped fighting and were now looking at Jenna curiously.

"Oh, nothing."

"Nothing can't be weird, Jenna." Addy said.

'Fine. It's just that Professor, Weas—your mum and Professor Lupin were talking, and then they just started staring at me. Like they were talking about me. It was strange."

"Wow. That is strange. We should ask Mum about it."

"I agree, Rhea. We'll go after we study, tonight."

"How bout before we study?"

"No. You're doing horribly in Defense Against the Dark Arts. You really need to stop drooling over Professor Lupin."

"Like you telling me is going to stop me."

"Rhea, you're eleven, he's around fifty! This is really unhealthy."

Rhea stuck her tongue out at Addy and the fight was resolved.

Well, what did everyone think? Review please! I only have like one! It's sad.