Author's Note:

So here it is, mid-November just as I had promised! Of Mugwumps and Toadstools takes place in the Hesperus Mansion in Glasgow, Scotland. It will be six or seven chapters long, fully, and I will be able to update every week or so. The first chapter, A Story and a Dream introduces us to Evander, the youngest Rosier, and his relation to Hestia. The next chapters will go more toward the other children and everyone else living in the Mansion at this present time.

For all those of you who have never read any of my works: Stop! I command you to not read any further, else you shall be sorely confused and will have to read up on The Witching Hour so as to not have any difficulty reading! It is a One-Shot and will take but a few fifteen minutes to read! I advise you do so.

Thank you so much, all of you reviewers! I write just for you! Now, enjoy the tale!

Signed, Hestia Hesperus

Of Mugwumps and Toadstools

Chapter One: A Story and a Dream

Evander rested his chin on the table and stared. The quill was scratching back and forth, whining across the parchment inconsolably. The long feathery end rose up and tickled the nose of the woman holding it. Her face was so close to the parchment that it was a wonder she wasn't crossing her eyes to read.

Evander sat across from her, his wide blue eyes focused on the quill going back and forth, back and forth, furiously across the page. He wondered if he could ever write like that when he grew up. Right now, all he could do was make a large, crooked "A" diagonal on a parchment.

He watched the tip of the blue feather sway and then brought his eyes up to the woman's face. Her eyes were screwed up in concentration with a fiery gleam as words and ideas flowed into her head and out through her fingers. Every moment or two, she would pause and lick her lips before diving in again.

After five minutes of studying her face, watching it pucker and then slack, fall in disappointment and then beam brightly again, he decided to ask her a question.

"Aunt Hestia?"

Hestia Hesperus gave a startled yelp and jerked her head up. Her hand slipped and a sharp, black line appeared, attached to the bottom of a "Y".

She looked at him, startled. "When did you get here?"

He lifted his chin off of the desktop to talk to her. Except for the part where his chin had rested, it was completely filled with papers and books and quills and inkbottles. His only aunt was up to her elbows in her latest writing project.

All Evander knew about his Aunt Hestia's writing was that it was called something like "The Templest" and that she had been working on it non-stop for the past two and a half weeks. She hardly even ate anything, unless you were to hold a biscuit next to her face for twenty seconds. Only then would she open up her mouth, and even then it was absent-mindedly.

Evan knew that she would get like that a lot when she was writing another one of her books, because him and his brother and sisters were usually there each time she started one. In fact, they were at her house so often that they were usually there when she would hold up her finished manuscript, proudly announcing, "I'm done!"

He took his time answering. He was like that. Of course, Alexandra and Tobias often grew frustrated with him because they were very active, and they thought that he was very slow. But he didn't care; he was only five, after all, and that was a pretty good excuse.

When he was sure of what he was going to say, he answered her in his small, boyish voice. "I've be'n here for a whole seventeen minutes!"

Hestia's eyebrows lifted up. "Oh."

And that was that.

They were seated in the library, of course. Every single person in the Hesperus Mansion had already tried their luck at getting Hestia to come out and enjoy the beautiful day, but no one had succeeded. Marmie, her beloved cook, had even tempted her with her famous peppermint pansies…but even if Hestia had taken the bait she would have been too late, because as soon as Marmie's back was turned in the kitchen, Tobias had snuck in and smuggled them out, via owl.

Lord Balfour had tried, and failed, to send a stunner in her direction so that he could carry her successfully to her bed and sufficiently feed her. It almost worked…except for the fact that Hestia's house-elf and long-time friend, Biddy, had turned the corner on him as he peered into the library. Just as he had raised his wand, she had shouted, "Bad Balfour!" just as she would have scolded her own son, then pulled him by the hem of his blue cloak down the hall and away from her mistress.

Irene, Hestia's older sister, knew that when she got like this, all you could do was leave her be. Irene was a very sensible person and an even more responsible mother, but when it came to her sister, all she could do was throw her hands up and say "Bah!"

So they had left her alone for two and a half weeks. But the children's aunt was Hestia Hesperus after all. The same woman who had successfully become assistant to the Head of the Magical Entertainment Department two months after her graduation at Hogwarts. The same woman who had actually become the Head of Department just ten years later, making her the youngest person to hold any Head office in more than thirty years at the age of twenty-eight. The very same person who had written just one book on the development of witches since the year 1000 in the culture of Wizarding society, receiving top awards, countless interviews, thousands of fans around the world, one long continuous book tour, and thousands of Galleons in shares.

Not to mention this immense stone house in Glasgow, left to her by her great-uncle Haverington, who had passed away happily at one hundred and thirteen years of age, clutching her Magical Munificence: A Witch's Guide to Generosity in his hands and chortling madly.

Evander thought that his Aunt Hestia deserved to spend some time alone. She could take care of herself. No one else thought so, though, and it was most unfortunate, because she was doing quite well on her own. Why, as Hestia dipped her quill into the inkpot, Evander thought that she looked better than ever!

Her white fingers were stained with black ink and her face quite pale. Her dark blue eyes, dancing with fire in their sockets, made her pallor all the more noticeable. Her long brown curls were knotted and disheveled.

She wore a thick, rose-colored cloak (surprising since it was the beginning of July), a white, buttoned-up shirt, dark gray pants and shiny, black, high-heeled boots. It would have been a good combination if you overlooked the fact that they were wrinkled and ink-stained, because she had been wearing them for three days straight.

Evander heard his mother saying the other day that it was a good thing that they were staying with her -- otherwise, there would be no clothes on Hestia at all, just the pajamas she had been wearing when she'd started writing two weeks ago. Irene had had to confiscate these because she couldn't magically vanish the ink stains or fix the many tears with her wand. Evan had watched his mother scrub and scrub with Mrs. Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover, but to no avail. So away they went.

Evander was still standing next to the desk that he could just barely see over, resting his chin on the surface. He was waiting, with unusual patience for a small boy his age, for her to remember that he still needed to ask her a question. Sure enough, she was in the middle of sprinkling some iodized salt onto her finished parchment when she looked up at him.

"Didn't you want me for something, Evan?" she asked narrowing her eyes suspiciously.

He gave her a shy smile and his bright blue eyes almost made her heart melt all over her precious papers. Unfortunately for her, the unheeded salt bottle was destroying them sufficiently enough. Her hand, poised in midair, was still holding the bottle upside-down, creating a mound of its contents upon her newly finished writing, with more trickling out every second.

He transferred his gaze from her face to the desk. She looked down and realized her salty mistake. Righting the bottle hastily, she vanished the salt with the wand she pulled out from the special pocket in her cloak. Nevertheless, the top page had ink smears all over it. She put her head in her hands and groaned.

She heard Evan ask, "Can you make Topples do the sparklies again? Please?" Looking up, she saw him holding a certain green, long-legged stuffed turtle with a multi-colored shell.

She sighed and smiled wearily. "Alright. Hand him over."

He stood on his tiptoes to hand his stuffed turtle over the desktop and into her hands. He gripped the desk's ledge, watching her with wide eyes, as she picked up her wand again and tapped Topples' back.

"Micochelonia." Hestia gave a small circular wave of her wand, and Topples' shell, already covered with dully-colored jewels, shone brighter, each color beginning to coruscate rapidly.

Hestia handed the turtle back to her nephew, her eyes twinkling when she saw his awed look and bright grin. Evan hugged his favorite toy to his small chest tightly. Topples glittered imperiously, now the proudest and handsomest turtle in England (either real or stuffed).

Now, by the strictest interpretation of the law, this was illegal, and Hestia knew that. Muggle things were not supposed to be enchanted except under strict Ministry supervision, and Topples was a Muggle toy. Hestia had bought Topples for Evander for his birthday in January, at a Muggle toy store in Glasgow, and he had carried it around everywhere ever since. It was too adorable and Evander-ish for her to pass it up.

Hestia was grateful Irene did not know about Topples' "sparklies", or else she would have thrown a fit about Hestia enchanting non-Magical toys just to please her darling nephew. But Evander loved watching the "sparklies", and his aunt Hestia considered it a worthy life's work to make him the happiest boy in the world now and again. Heaven knew that he got more than his share of the world's unfairness nearly every night with the nightmares he'd been having.

Hestia shuddered, thinking about just the night before. Evander had come into the darkened library where she had been scribbling away, as usual…

It was three o'clock at night. The grandfather clock had just chimed its ringing tones throughout the circular library where Hestia was writing by the light of her wand.

She had looked up when she heard a sniffle and a whimper. Immediately she ran to her small nephew who stood in the doorway in his Cleansweep-printed pajamas, Topples hanging limp by his side. What had frightened her the most was not merely his being there, but his white, tear-stained face and the terrified, haunted look in his eyes.

As she knelt down to ask him what the matter was, he threw his arms around her and clung to her, sobbing uncontrollably into her robes.

Hestia carried him to the armchair by the fireplace. She rocked him and hugged him, conjuring a fire into the empty grate. She was startled when he compulsively drew back from the flames as though they had burned him. She hastily cast a Freezing charm over them again.

When he had settled down a bit and his hiccoughs had subsided, she drew up some hot chocolate with creamy marshmallows for him and convinced him to tell her about his scary dream.

"Th-th-there was a m-m-mean m-man," He gasped. "An'…an' a black d-d-dragon!"

He gave a dry sob and Hestia held him tighter. He wrapped his little arms around her neck and buried his face in her chest, mumbling, "M-M-Mummy and D-Daddy tried to save us from them, but th-th-then the d-dragon blew fire and it-it-it ---- hiccup! ---- hit them!"

Evander cried and his hiccoughs came back again. "M-Mummy and Dad-dy-dy ---- hiccup!----caught fire an' me and Mory and Lexa and Toby tried to run away from them ---- hiccup! ---- but the m-man got in front of us and gr-grabbed Lexa and…threw her into the ice w-w-w-water!" He wailed and Hestia rocked him.

"It's all right, Vanny, babe," she whispered. "Alexa is safe in her bed…it was just a dream, it wasn't real at all."

He nodded numbly and went on, "T-Toby tried to pull her out ---- hiccup! ----but then the mean man blasted him far away and ---- hiccup!----the dragon st-started to e-e-eat him!"

Evan took a sip from his mug to try and calm his nerves. Hestia wasn't even aware of the tear sliding down her own face as she focused on him.

He sat back and continued. "He tried to get M-Mory, but I wouldn't let him ---- hiccup! ----And then there was a green light and Morg-g-gan…she just…died! An', an' then, he looked at me, an' an' an' then, I…I…I woke up!"

Hestia let him cry into her clothes until he was spent, all the time murmuring to him. "Hush now, Evan, baby…everything is alright now. It was just a dream, and it will never ever happen for real."

He hiccoughed again and said in a softer voice, "I tried to wake up Mummy but she wouldn't wake up! An' I thought the dragon got her in her d-d-dreams, too---- hiccup!"

She wiped away his tears lovingly with her sleeve and stood up with him holding on tightly.

"Come on, Evan…there's nothing wrong with Mummy, don't worry. I'll show you."

She carried him out of the room and down the dark hall, up the magnificent staircase and towards the children's room. One of his arms was wrapped protectively around her neck, his other clutched Topples to his chest.

Inside the room, gentle snores could be heard from the other children. Only Evander's bed in the corner was empty. Hestia stepped over the strewn magical toys, some of which were still zooming tiredly around. She got to Alexandra's four-poster bed first and drew back the curtains to reveal the nine-year-old girl curled up under her red sheets, her curls splayed wildly atop her pillow.

Evan smiled slightly as he saw that his sister wasn't really struggling to stay alive under a coat of ice in a freezing lake, like she had been in his dream. She was murmuring contentedly instead, about flying and feathers in her own pleasurable dream.

Tobias, like his twin sister, was curled up in his own bed; his sheets and pillow had long since fallen to the floor. His arm was thrown out over the edge, as if he had tried to dispose of that as well, and his mouth hung open, a small snore emerging from it.

Evan stifled a giggle, but it was quickly quenched when he remembered the sight of his brother being scorched and then gored open by the raging monster. Hestia, noticing her nephew's suddenly heavy limbs, carried him around to his other sister's bed.

However, when Hestia drew back the hangings of the third bed, they found that it was unmistakably empty.

Evan's eyes grew big. For one painful moment, Hestia's heart stopped. What had happened to her? Where was she?

Evan could see in his mind's eye the bright green light and Morgan's pale body landing in the snow…

Hestia drew in her breath sharply. There could be a thousand reasons for why she wasn't in her bed at night…perhaps she had to use the toilet…or maybe she had gone to look for Evan?

With Evan's increasing anxiety (and her own) clutching at her chest, Hestia strode out of the room, Evan's face buried in her shoulder, his arms clutched around Topples. Maybe Morgan was with her mother…yes…that would be the best place to look first…

When they reached Irene's room, Hestia sighed in relief. Irene slumbered in the big bed against the far corner and, settled next to her, lay her youngest daughter, Morgan. "Evan, look," she whispered, gently freeing his face so that he could see his mother and sister. "Everything is all right, see?"

Evan nodded, swallowing hard. Hestia carried him to the bed and laid him in it. Evander crawled under the covers in-between his mother and his sister. Both ladies slept on, unaware that Evan had taken Mory's hand under the sheets comfortingly and put his own arm around Mummy's stomach. He didn't want them to leave him, ever.

He closed his eyes and muttered sleepily, "G'nigh'…aunty Hestia…" before sleep took a hold of him completely.

Hestia stood beside the bed for a moment, hearing their gentle breathing. She watched Evander's chest rise and fall as he slept with a golden-curled girl on either side of him.

She wondered why Evan had nightmares every night. She had only had one nightmare as bad as his, when she was eleven, about her parents. And she knew she had only had it because it had come true right in front of her the week before…

Hestia softly murmured her own good night before leaving the bedroom and shutting the door behind her...

Hestia jumped, realizing that she had been so caught up in her thoughts that she hadn't even heard Evan's question properly. He was sitting on the floor next to his shimmering turtle, looking up at her expectantly.

"I…I am sorry, Evander, what was that you said?" she asked.

He scratched his head. "I've just 'membered, Marmie tol' me to ask you if you want your lunch in here or in the dining room."

Hestia stood up, brushing her hands free of any salty substance that had been left behind. All of a sudden, she had become so deathly tired of the library. It was musty and old smelling, and she had the strongest desire to take a big breath of fresh air.

Sheran her fingersthrough her wild curls, then gave up, deciding that they would just have to do for the time being. Tucking her wand into her robes once more, she walked over to Evander and held out an ink-stained hand.

"Would you like to go for a walk with me?" she inquired of him.

He sat on the floor and looked at her, his face passive. Then he reached up and took her hand gravely, pulling himself off of the floor. He picked up Topples and walked with her, hand in hand, out of the library.

A/N: Well, there you have it! Please review and tell me what you think of it so far. If you think I need to brush up on anything, feature more of someone or something, or if you would just like to express your undying displeasure, feel free to do so.

Also, my Hestia Hesperus series (what shall I call them, anyway?) will be a large assortment of one-shots, short stories, and large plots and will cover the next few years following Hestia, the Rosier children, and co. until the children all go into Hogwarts, and beyond.

So don't despair! I plan on never forsaking these people I have created. Their Universe is the same asthe Harry Potter canon, so please watch for any known characters. Some might even marry one of mine...(hint, hint)

IMPORTANT: You must pay very close attention...even the slightest detail may betherelevant to the center plot of my series. I have already planned them all out, and things will get very interesting later on...!

I love you all!

----H.H.