The Difference One Choice Makes
1st September 1993
"Come on you three… you best get on the train, it will be leaving in fifteen minutes" said Narcissa as she and Druella led the Potter and Black children onto the very busy Platform Nine and Three Quarters which like Diagon Alley had been decorated with wanted posters of Bellatrix Black.
This caused those few people who recognised her to look at Druella with shocked looks or looks of disdain and even anger on their faces.
"What are you looking at?" hissed Druella at the large 40-year-old Gregory Goyle Sr who was one of those people staring at her with a bitter look on his face.
Goyle Sr turned away from them and they continued walking until they saw Alice Longbottom stood next to a compartment window where Neville and Frank Jr were sat.
Once they reached Alice Longbottom Narcissa turned to each of the children and gave them a hug each.
"Be careful this year, and look after each other" said Narcissa as she hugged Euphemia.
"We will" said Edward.
Once Narcissa had hugged all of the children, Druella told all of them to get on the train.
As Edward carried his trunk and owl over to the carriage door, Narcissa checked the pocket watch in her handbag.
"I have to be back in the office in five minutes, I better go" said Narcissa sounding disappointed.
She gave Harry and Euphemia one last hug and kiss on the cheek each, both of whom looked disappointed that their Mother would not be there to see them off.
"Say goodbye to your Mother you two, she has to hurry" said Druella sternly.
Once both Harry and Euphemia had said goodbye to her Narcissa swept off back down the platform towards the floo.
After making her way down towards the end of the platform to the carriage connected to the shiny red Hogwarts Express locomotive she climbed through the carriage door and found an empty compartment close to the door.
As she sat down on the seat and used her wand to lock the door and close the blinds on the door she took her shrunken trunk out of her handbag and enlarged it.
Of course, what she had told her children about having to go back to the Ministry had been a lie with the sole purpose of preventing them from finding out what her new but temporary job was.
Two days after Bellatrix had broken out of Azkaban, Dumbledore had approached Narcissa asking her to come and teach DADA for the school year.
It had taken him quite a few minutes to persuade her to take up the position, in the end, Dumbledore had told her that it would give her the chance to watch over her Niece Cassiopeia while she was at school as well as knowing her older Sister well enough to know how she might try to meet her Daughter.
Even after hearing all of that Narcissa had not been entirely convinced to take the job and it was only after talking to James about it later that night that she finally made her mind up and accepted the job.
11th July 1993
"Are you going to take the job then?" said James as he climbed into their bed.
Narcissa got under the covers on the other side of the bed propping herself up on her elbow looking at him.
"Trying to get rid of me for a year?" said Narcissa.
James shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, it would mean I could have my mistress here without you catching us" said James jokingly.
Narcissa rolled her eyes.
"You wish you had a mistress James Potter" said Narcissa sarcastically.
James shifted closer to her propping himself up on his own elbow.
"Joking aside, Dumbledore does have a point… if Bellatrix does go to Hogwarts then we both know what would take her there… and besides, you might enjoy teaching, and being back at Hogwarts as well" said James.
"So you think I should take the job then?" said Narcissa.
James traced his free hand on the side of her head through her hair.
"Dumbledore obviously trusts you and thinks you'll be a good teacher… he could have asked Moody to come and teach if he wanted someone capable of catching Bellatrix… but he asked you instead, he must have his reasons for that… so yes, I say you take it" said James softly.
Narcissa placed her hand on his waist under the covers.
"You'll miss me" said Narcissa winking at him.
James smirked.
"Well… there's nothing to stop me from booking the occasional weekend off work, perhaps a Hogsmeade weekend, maybe we should rent a room at the Three Broomsticks, get some champagne, some room service… chuck that blue baby doll of yours in and we'll make the most of it" said James cheekily.
Narcissa smirked and leaned closer to him.
"And by making the most of it you mean you want to shag me rotten after weeks or months of sleeping on your own… and while we indulge in the bed the students will be downstairs enjoying butterbeer on their eagerly anticipated Hogsmeade weekends, for all you know our Boys could be in the pub with their friends at that time, I doubt they'd want to drink in their favourite pub while their Parents are shagging right above them" said Narcissa crudely as she tightened her grip on his waist.
"Doesn't sound so bad when you say it out loud does it?" whispered James before he pressed his lips to hers.
Narcissa had floo called Dumbledore the next afternoon telling him that she would take the job, sending him her booklist for each year group two days later.
Even now taking in the surroundings of her compartment Narcissa felt a sense of joy at getting to ride the Hogwarts Express for the first time in nearly 18 years.
She leaned back in her seat against the compartment window waiting for the train to leave the station ten minutes later.
Half an hour later…
"I'll see you when we get to Hogwarts baby brother" said Jennifer teasingly as she pulled her trunk out of the compartment after Harry and Neville had already left before her when Hermione found their compartment to invite them to sit with her and Janet Spinnet in their compartment.
Eric scowled and did not answer her before Jennifer winked at him and shut the compartment door behind her.
She followed Harry and Neville who were being led along the carriage by Hermione, passing Euphemia's compartment who was sat with Lacey, Ginny, Luna Lovegood and Lucy Mclaggen giving them a smile and wave as she passed them.
Five doors down from their original compartment, Harry, Neville and Jennifer came to a halt outside a compartment that Hermione was sharing with Janet while a large fluffy ginger cat was curled on part of the compartment cushioned pew seats.
As the three walked inside, Janet turned to them and said hello.
"Have a good summer?" said Neville as he placed his trunk in the overhead rack.
"Yeah, me and Mary-Anne spent most of it on my Aunt and Uncle's farm flying with our Cousins Alicia and Adrian" said Janet having obviously enjoyed spending her summer with her Cousins.
The added bonus was that her Cousin Adrian was starting Hogwarts this year while her younger Sister Mary-Anne would be starting next year.
"Where is your Cousin anyway?" said Jennifer.
"With Alicia… Aunt Phoebe told her to sit with him all the way to Hogwarts" said Janet.
"My summer was good as well, France with my parents for two weeks" said Hermione once Janet and Jennifer's conversation had fizzled out.
"We spent most of the last two months with our Aunt and Uncle since our Parent's spent all of that time at work, and our Cousin when she wasn't working" said Jennifer gesturing to Harry as she spoke.
"What does your Cousin do for work?" said Hermione curiously.
"Nymphadora, she's an Auror, only qualified last year though" said Harry.
"You said your Parent's spent nearly all of the summer at work?" said Janet in shock.
"My Dad too" said Neville.
"Couldn't they have taken some time off?" said Hermione.
Neville sighed.
"Not with what happened during the summer" said Neville glancing at Harry and Jennifer who remained silent.
Ever observant as she was, Hermione saw his glance and straightened up.
"That woman… Bellatrix Black, she's related to both of you isn't she?" said Hermione curiously.
Jennifer glanced at her and nodded.
"In name and blood only… we haven't considered her as part of our family for a long time" said Jennifer warily.
"The sooner they catch her the better" said Harry bitterly.
The tone of his voice made Hermione drop the matter and strike up a conversation with Janet Spinnet instead.
When the Boys were stood in the compartment door buying their sweets from the Trolley Lady over an hour later, Jennifer leaned closer to Hermione.
"Don't mind Harry Hermione… he didn't mean it like that, Bellatrix Black is just a sore subject in his house" whispered Jennifer.
"Why?" whispered Hermione.
Jennifer glanced at the compartment door where Harry was picking out his sweets.
"She's Harry's Aunt, Bellatrix Black is his Mother's eldest Sister, Aunt Narcissa doesn't like to talk about her… that's why it's a sore subject at Potter Manor" whispered Jennifer before leaning back against the seat as Harry and Neville sat back down with a small armful of sweets each.
They shared the sweets out amongst themselves as Hermione started to talk more about her holiday in France.
Three hours later…
Narcissa was relaxing against the window while she read one of her favourite novels mostly oblivious to the outside world.
Not long into the journey, Narcissa had changed out of her Ministry robes into one of her more modest, professional-looking dresses and she was currently using her travelling cloak for some extra warmth.
Suddenly the train stopped lurching her forwards slightly causing her to drop her book and get to her feet.
"There's no reason to stop now, we're not due to arrive for another hour and a half" thought Narcissa as she pulled her wand out.
The next thing to go wrong was when all of the lights in her compartment and the carriage corridor flickered a bit before going out.
Narcissa used a silent Lumos to get some light on the end of her wand and looked out of her window with the heavy rain severely reducing the visibility.
The visibility was so reduced that Narcissa almost missed what passed the carriage several feet away from the train and it made her blood run cold.
A single Dementor was flying towards the entrance to one of the carriages.
"How could Fudge be so stupid… having a Dementor search the train when there are children on board?" thought Narcissa.
She moved towards the compartment door with her wand in hand after discarding her travelling cloak.
Meanwhile…
Harry, Neville, Jennifer, Hermione and Janet were all huddled together in the dark compartment with the window having iced over several seconds ago.
"What do we do?" said Hermione in a slight panic.
"Stay here and keep quiet I suppose" said Neville trying to stay calm as the visibility was reduced even more making it almost pitch black in the compartment.
The door opened suddenly and someone rushed into their compartment before closing the door.
"Who is it?" hissed Harry.
"It's me" said a panicking Euphemia going over to sit behind Jennifer between the older girl and the compartment window.
"Ouch Neville that was my foot!" said Hermione.
"Sorry!" said Neville still panicking.
The door opened once again making them all jump as someone quickly made their way inside shutting and locking the door behind him with a small bang.
"Harry, is that you?" said the panicked voice of Ron.
"Sit down Ronald" hissed Janet.
She shouted out in pain as in his panic, Ron squeezed in between her and Hermione.
"Sorry" said Ron.
As the seven people who had squeezed themselves into the compartment breathed heavily wondering what was happening, the carriage jolted violently.
"Bloody hell, what's happening?!" shouted Ron sounding scared.
Suddenly they all felt the temperature drop from slightly chilled to very cold as the windows on the compartment door iced over slightly.
With those windows being only slightly iced over, the seven could still see through them where thin black cloths could be seen rustling in the air as if it was windy.
As the seconds passed by, more and more rustling black cloth appeared outside the compartment door revealing some sort of hooded figure with its thin black hood completely obscuring its entire head.
They all shifted backwards as the figure waved its hand next to the door which made the door lock click loudly as it was unlocked.
As the door started to slide open slowly a large, decaying dead-looking hand with long thin fingers wrapped itself around the inside of the door pushing it open.
Hermione gasped and felt very cold as the figure in the doorway became clear revealing itself to be one of the Dementors of Azkaban Prison.
It was larger than any of them almost reaching the ceiling and did not look like it was made of anything underneath the thin black cloth's covering most of its body but what terrified her even more, was when she looked down where its legs and feet should be and there was nothing there.
Crookshanks which was Hermione's new ginger cat hissed at the Dementor before retreating into the space under the seats.
Suddenly Euphemia who had been squashed up against the wall and the window as everyone in the compartment tried to move as far away from the Dementor as possible, started to hyperventilate as her deepest, darkest memory started to surface in her mind in the presence of the Dementor.
The noise coming out of the Dementor sounding like one long continuous heavy breath that sent chills down all of their spines.
Harry who was sat the closest to the Dementor as it turned to him was much worse.
A long stream of energy connecting from the Dementor's cloak to Harry's face causing him to go rigid in the seat as he started to feel the same thing Euphemia was feeling.
This carried on for several seconds before a bright white light from outside the compartment started forcing the Dementor away from them.
"GWANDMA!" Harry heard the voice of his five-year-old self cry out in his head as everything went black and he slumped against the compartment wall only being prevented from falling to the floor by Neville and Ron who managed to catch him before he hit the floor.
Fifteen minutes later…
"Harry" Harry heard Neville calling out to him.
"Big Brother are you alright?" Harry heard Euphemia in a slightly panicked voice.
"Harry are you alright?" Harry heard Hermione call out to him as he started to slowly open his eyes with blurred vision.
"Wake up Harry" called out a voice which Harry was sure could not have belonged to who he thought it belonged to as Neville handed his glasses to him.
When Harry finally put his glasses on he was shocked to see who was kneeling down in front of him with a scared look written all over her face.
"Mum?" said Harry in shock before Narcissa wrapped him in a tight hug that felt like it might squeeze the life out of him.
Looking around the compartment he saw Hermione, Neville, Jennifer and Euphemia sat on the seats while Ron and Janet were stood outside the door watching them.
"How are you feeling?" said Narcissa.
"Better" mumbled Harry getting his breath back.
Narcissa breathed a sigh of relief and handed him a piece of chocolate.
"Eat this, it will help you feel better" said Narcissa moving away from Harry slightly to give him some space.
Harry bit into his chocolate feeling some of the energy the Dementor had drained from him coming back.
Before he could ask his mother what she was doing here, Hermione spoke up.
"Mrs Potter… what was that thing?"
Narcissa turned to Hermione.
"That was a Dementor Miss Granger, one of the guards of Azkaban… it was searching the train for Bellatrix Black but it's gone now" said Narcissa standing up.
"Mum… what are you doing on the train, I thought you had to go to work and that's why you left so suddenly" said Harry with surprise in his voice.
Narcissa sent him a small smile.
"I did… I'm your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher darling" said Narcissa sweetly.
Looks of shock were on all of their faces with Harry and Euphemia being the most shocked.
"Just for this year… nice to know my children want me to teach longer" said Narcissa with sarcasm upon noticing the looks of shock and slight embarrassment on her children's faces at the thought of being taught by their Mother.
Harry and Euphemia turned even pinker at her words before she moved towards the compartment door.
"We should be there in an hour so I'll see you up at the castle, I need to check on the rest of the students and have a little word with the driver, here" said Narcissa throwing another piece of chocolate each to Harry and Euphemia who caught them.
As Narcissa left the compartment, Euphemia sat down next to Harry wrapping her arms around him while Ron and Janet came back into the compartment.
Later that evening…
As Harry was walking into the Great Hall with Euphemia, Jennifer, Neville, Ron, Hermione and Janet he heard a familiar voice call out to him.
"Potter!" Lucan Malfoy called out from behind them.
Harry turned to see Lucan stood walking towards them with Felix Lestrange, Crabbe and Goyle.
"Is it true you fainted?" said Lucan mockingly.
Felix Lestrange did a mock faint.
"I mean you actually fainted" said Lucan in amusement and snide.
"Bugger off Malfoy" said Harry bitterly.
To their amusement, as Lucan made his way towards them to mock Harry further he fell face-first to the ground as Edward took a step towards him and tripped him.
"Do grow up Lukie-poo" said Cassiopeia curtly who was walking next to Edward while Myranda Vaisey was walking on Edward's other side with their hands locked.
Like Edward, she had her Prefect badge fastened to the left side of her robes.
"Get up and make your way into the Great Hall Mr Malfoy" said Edward as Crabbe helped Lucan to his feet.
He glared at Edward as if he was going to start something but ultimately decided to carry on walking without another word to them.
Edward, Myranda and Cassiopeia made their way over to Harry and the others.
"Mum told me what happened Harry… just ignore Malfoy" said Edward.
Harry nodded to Edward before Cassiopeia placed her hand on his shoulder and rubbed it in support before the three Fifth Year's carried on walking into the Great Hall.
Fifteen minutes later…
"Black, Eric!" called out Professor Mcgonagall.
As he had heard from his Grandparents for as long as he could remember, "A Black must always be confident and hold himself on a high pedestal at all times" as he walked towards the stool with all of the confidence he could muster.
Not long after Professor Mcgonagall placed the Sorting Hat on his head, the decision made by the Hat shocked Jennifer and would no doubt shock their Father but please their Grandparents a great deal.
"SLYTHERIN!"
Eric felt nervous as Professor Mcgonagall removed the Sorting Hat from his head and beckoned for him to get down from the stool while applause could be heard around the hall mostly from the Slytherin's.
He felt the eyes of quite a few students on him as he made his way over to the Slytherin table and sat down next to Mathilda Baddock who was the only over First-Year who had been sorted into Slytherin besides him.
He glanced up at the staff table where Narcissa was sat at the end of the table next to Professor Sinistra watching the Sorting with interest.
She turned to meet his gaze and sent him a small smile and one last gentle bit of quiet applause before he returned her smile and turned his attention back to the Sorting.
Quite a few students were sorted into each House before.
"Longbottom, Frank Jr!" said Professor Mcgonagall.
Frank Jr looked slightly nervous as he made his way up to the stool and sat down with Professor Mcgonagall placing the Sorting Hat on his head.
After nearly a minute he was finally sorted into.
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
The Great Hall descended into applause once more as Frank Jr waited for Professor Mcgonagall to remove the Sorting Hat from his head before he went to sit with the rest of the Hufflepuff First Years at their table.
As the Sorting Ceremony continued, Malfoy, Corvus and Snape, Jerome were both sorted into Slytherin while Janet was happy to see her Cousin Spinnet, Adrian get sorted into Gryffindor.
Once the Sorting Ceremony had finished with Wilkes, Rodrik being sorted into Slytherin Dumbledore stood up and called for their attention as he reached the podium.
"Welcome, welcome, to another year at Hogwarts… now I would like to say a few words before we all indulge in our excellent feast… firstly Professor Potter has kindly consented to fill the post, of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, good luck Professor" said Dumbledore gesturing his hand to his right to where Narcissa stood up and bowed her head slightly with a smile on her face as cheers and applause erupted around the Great Hall.
"Is that your Mother Potter?" said Seamus Finnegan who was sat opposite Harry who was applauding his Mother's appointment as DADA teacher.
Harry turned to him and nodded which made Seamus look back up at the staff table where Narcissa had taken her seat once again.
"Anyone ever tell you Potter… that your Mum is hot" said Seamus with approval in his voice that had Hermione, Janet, Parvati Patil, Lavender Brown and Ellen Morrison rolling their eyes.
Harry sent him a glare before returning his attention to Dumbledore's speech.
"Sadly during the summer, the Care of Magical Creatures Professor Kettleburn chose to retire, in order to spend more time, with his remaining limbs… though I am delighted to announce, that his place will be taken, by none other, than our own… Rubeus Hagrid" said Dumbledore once the applause for Narcissa had stopped.
Dumbledore then began the applause for Hagrid who knocked the table forward several inches before sitting down once again.
Harry joined in the applause for Hagrid which lasted for several seconds before Dumbledore called for silence once again.
"And lastly I have a very, very important announcement to make, one that you should listen very carefully to" said Dumbledore in a voice that was more than twice as serious as it usually was.
The entire hall fell silent as everyone paid careful attention to what he had to say.
"By order of the Minister For Magic, Hogwarts this year will play host to the Dementors of Azkaban… until such a time that Bellatrix Black is captured" said Dumbledore.
Cassiopeia tried to keep her face neutral at the mention of her Mother which had had her Father and Stepmother on edge since she escaped from Azkaban.
"The Dementors will be stationed at every entrance to the grounds… now whilst I've been assured, that the Dementors will not disrupt our day to day activities… I must warn you, Dementors are vicious creatures who will not distinguish the one they hunt with the one who gets in their way… that's why I must implore each and every one of you, to give them no reason to harm you… disguises of any kind and even being invisible will not fool a Dementor, it is not in the nature of a Dementor to be forgiving" said Dumbledore.
Narcissa glanced down the Gryffindor table to where Harry was sat looking a little uncomfortable at Dumbledore's words.
"But you know… happiness can be found, even at the darkest of times" said Dumbledore as he extinguished one of his candles by waving his hand over it.
"If one only remembers… to turn on the light" continued Dumbledore waving his hand over the same candle once again which ignited it.
Once his speech was finished the food appeared on the House tables and Staff table giving Narcissa the first chance in eighteen years to enjoy the spectacular Welcoming Feast.
One hour later…
As Dumbledore called for the Prefects to lead the First Years to their respective dormitories Narcissa watched with pride as Edward and Cassiopeia and called for the Slytherin First Years to follow them before they led them out of the hall.
As the other students started to stand up from their House tables Narcissa sent a small wave and smile to Harry and Euphemia as they looked up at her before she stood up and left the hall via the back door behind the staff table.
Half an hour later…
Seamus popped one of his new sweets which he had gotten from a famous magical sweet shop in Dublin in his mouth and immediately started making monkey noises and movements.
The sweets he had brought with him were brand new and most of them replaced your voice with the noise of certain animals for about twenty seconds per sweet while others caused other things to happen to you.
He was dressed in his pyjamas with his Gryffindor outer school robe tied loosely around his shoulders with his red and gold tie tied around his head.
Harry, Neville, Ron, Dean Thomas and Josh Sloper were also dressed in their pyjamas.
Once the effects had worn off Seamus threw one to Neville who caught it and popped it into his mouth.
Suddenly he lurched forwards on the bed making loud elephant noises as he did.
"Ron" said Seamus throwing a different one to Ron who caught it in his mouth.
Placing his hands on his knees he started to roar and growl like a lion.
"Don't try one of them Harry… oh no" said Seamus as Harry picked a random sweet up and ate it which caused steam to come out of his ears.
"Oh no" said Neville laughing as Harry scrunched his face up in discomfort.
"Look at his face" said Josh laughing.
"Make me a cup of tea Potter" said Dean laughing.
Once the effects had finished affecting Harry he and the other Boys started digging into the bowl eager to try as many as they could as well as throwing a few at each other.
One hour later…
"GWANDMA!" cried out the five-year-old Harry as the now 66-year-old, greying black haired Dorea Potter nee Black collapsed sideways to the floor gasping for air.
Harry bolted awake and upright in his bed breathing heavily as he brought himself down from the shock.
"You alright Harry?" said a concerned voice to his right.
Harry turned to his right to see Ron looking at him with a concerned look on his face.
After Harry stopped breathing heavily a few seconds later he nodded.
"Bad dream" said Harry in a slightly more relaxed tone of voice before he laid down in his bed again in an attempt to go back to sleep.
After a few seconds, he heard Ron do the same thing before his friend's snores could be heard around the dormitory.
As he was lying down in his bed he found sleep hard to come by and eventually just resorted to lying in bed looking at the rain hitting their dormitory window.
A/N: I would like to take this time to thank all of my reviewers for their constructive helpful feedback and I am glad that they are enjoying this story as a whole (been meaning to do this for ages but kept forgetting so thank you for all of the support and constructive criticism, it really is appreciated).