Chapter Seven – Reunions

By the next morning, neither Bill, Charlie, Fleur or Harry's cousin, Sam, were anywhere to be seen and there was a rumour that they were being interrogated by the Ministry of Magic. Harry didn't like the sound of that as it was the best part of a week before he saw any of them again, and it was the breakfast on the Saturday. The first weekend since the incident, and Bill, cleaned and bandaged, hair in a ponytail, was at the Gryffindor table, obviously talking to someone who was lying on their back, across the bench, looking up at the ceiling. They were on the opposite side of the table to the mains doors of the Great Hall, so Harry couldn't see who it was when he entered. He wondered over, with Ron, and Herimone.

"You know, Billy, This place is so cool, how do they do that?" The person lying down pointed at the ceiling, showing a hand covered in sterling sliver rings and black nail varnish, her voice high pitched and bubbly, an odd mixture of American and British accents. "We had nothin' like this at Kosworth's, all we got was Turnbull, and even she's not much fun, especially when she hates your guts..." But Bill cut in.

"Potter, Professor Turnbull does not hates your guts and besides she's coming here, Professor McGonagall told me yesterday!" He said to the empty seat beside him. Sam Potter say up so fast, she made some of the Gryffindors jump. She was still pale faced but she had a bit of colour in her now, though not much.

"What do you mean, she coming here?" Sam said in disbelieve, her long red hair also tied back in a mid ponytail.

"Potter, you heard me! Now stay here, I need to talk to McGonagall and Flitwick at the vortex, they want to know how I did it." Sam looked very put out.

"Hey, the only reason why you know about vortexes, was because I taught them ya. So go ahead, take the credit for my knowledge again, and leave me with nothing left." Her voice was full of attitude and sarcasm. Bill got to his feet.

"Yeah, thanks, I'm forever greatful, and by the way, how did you deflect that death curse?" Sam eyes narrowed, her attitude getting worse.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Knowing full well it didn't matter what Bill said, she wouldn't tell him the answer. Bill signed and kissed Sam on the cheek, and left the Great Hall, before she could say another word. She watched him leave before tuning to the table and putting her head, in her hand.

Harry, Ron and Herimone, and the other Gryffindors looked at each other, who would have the guts to speak first? Everyone looked at Harry. He looked at his cousin, he saw that she had had a rough life, with deep scaring on her hands and arms. He took in a deep breathe, and about to speak, when Herimone beat him to it.

"Why don't you like Professor Turnbull?" Herimone spoke so fast that Harry barely made out what she had said, and wasn't surprised that neither had his cousin either.

"What?" Sam spoke in a very confused voice, staring at Herimone with some interest though those yellow eyes.

"Why don't you like Professor Turnbull?" Herimone said again, slowly this time but fearful. Sam grinned, and almost laughed.

"Do you read the Daily Prophet, at all?" Sam spoke directly at Herimone, who nodded and whimpered. Sam laughed, but it wasn't cold laugh, but the opposite.

"And you believed it! Oh, come on. All those gits ever think about is writing stuff that will make their papers sell. You know, the more evil and dangerous, the better!" She pretended to growl evilly, "And, the gullible wizarding worlds of this country and America lap it up, like nobody's business, causing people like me problems and besides, the real story about me is far worse!."

Herimone went very red and hid, Harry laughed. Sam was right and Harry was now beginning to like her a bit. Sam continued, with even more sarcasm.

"And, as for me hating Turnbull, how did you guess? No, she's alright providing you don't destroy anything, which for me, can be difficult!"

"Why?" Harry asked automatically, without thinking.

"Why?" Sam answered, now casually looking at Harry, "Because Professor Turnbull is the High Headmistress of Kosworth's Academy of Magic and the High Head-Minister of the American Ministry of Magic, and has been for years."

Harry whistled, and he was the only one,

"Yeah!" Sam continued, "It's a lot. Which is why it is a rule, not to mess with Turnbull, unless you want a death wish!" She sighed, putting her head on her hand.

"Your Professor McGonagall, is about the closest thing I have ever seen to come close to Turnbull, but about twice her age. No, don't, and I repeat, don't do what I managed to do, in my fifth year, and get annoyed with the Malfoy's, who I might add, had set out to mock me all day, lose my temper, and burned down half the castle." She grinned broadly. Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Nop, not a good idea considering that Kosworth's is three time bigger then this place, has twice the student population, which had to be sent home two weeks early for Christmas, because I had slight fire trouble. But I have better control of it now. Here, I'll show you."

At this, Sam smiled and clicked her fingers. A single lit flame was produced on the end of her thumb, pointing towards the ceiling. The Gryffindors gasped as Sam turned the flame round and created a tight ball of fire, four inches across hovering in the palm of her hand.

"Doesn't that hurt?" Harry asked amazed, putting his hand near the ball of fire, feeling the heat.

"Nop!" Sam replied, throwing the ball into the air about the table and it turning into six live pearly white doves, which came and landed on peoples shoulders.

They all laughed and clapped in owe, and people were looking at the Gryffindor table to see what the commotion was.

"Wow, How you do that? and what do you mean the Malfoy's?" Ron asked stunned, interested, sarcasm now in his own voice. Sam smiled.

"A mixture of real and muggle magic!" Sam replied. Harry knew what she meant by muggle magic, having seen so-called muggle magicians on the television, at the Dursleys, and knew it was all slight of hand trickery. Sam continued.

"As to the Malfoy's, we had a set of twins called Flint and Deacon Malfoy, and they were in my year, and I couldn't tell which was worse, except that they used to gang up on me, all the time. I heard that their cousin Draco is here, at Hogwarts. Yep, the Malfoy's, spot one of them, a mile off. How? By their blonde hair, blue eyes and enough attitude to stuff a horse!" The whole of the Gryffindor table laughed again, Harry glanced at Malfoy, who scowled, looking as though he was plotting something on the Slytherin table.

"Yeah, he's in my year!" Harry said with some distaste, looking back at Sam. "Having problems, Harry?" Sam smiled, "I wouldn't worry about it, there has been a long standing conflict between the Malfoy's and the Potter's for centuries. I vaguely remember Uncle James telling me that he and my dad, had problems with a Lucius Malfoy, when they were at Hogwarts, all those years ago."

Harry was stunned in silence, everyone in earshot looking at him, as Sam span round on the bench, looking down the table, towards the main door of the Great Hall. As she did this, Harry got a better look at her scar, on the side of her face. It consisted of two lightning bolts, joined at one end, at a right angle. One lightning bolt was directly over her left eyebrow, and the other fell down the side of her face, its top most tip, joining the horizontal lightning bolt. Sam gave a sideways look at Harry, reading his mind, speaking in soft voice.

"Yes Harry, I knew your father, well, for the first five years of my life anyway, and before you say anything, my parents perished, a long time before yours did!"

"What? How?" Harry gasped, for one brief moment, he thought that Sam was the key to finding his long lost relatives on his father's side of the family. He began to panic but felt Sam's hand on his arm to calm him.

"Harry, my mother, your Aunt Jasmine, died giving birth to me. She was very ill before she met by father, and knew she wouldn't survive much longer, after she had me, but I do know that she lived long enough to name me, to which I am honoured. As to my father, your Uncle Kevin, James's younger brother, perished in an incident involving me, just after you were born, and not one I particularly want to talk about here, but, as I know for a fact, had nothing to do with Lord Voldamort, I'm pleased to say!"

Harry felt as though as cloud of fog had just gone over his mind and before he knew it, he was crying. Sam frowned at him.

"Harry, you didn't know!" She sounded stunned, and fell silent. Harry stared at her, feeling as though the world beneath his feet had just been taken from him. Then Sam Potter began rummaging around in the pockets of the long black coat, looking for something. Harry watched her, as she pulled out a muggle style wallet, and began looking though it. She finally pulled out a tattered piece of very old, folded card, flattened it and gave it to Harry, who was just about to open it, but was stopped by Sam.

"I suggest you look at that alone, and you can keep it. We will talk later, I promise you!" Harry looked at his cousin and she winked at him. He mustered a weak smile in return, but the information he had told him about their family, was still rolling over and over again in his mind, but when somebody shouted, it brought him rapidly back to earth.

"POTTER!" It was Bill, he was back at the main doors of the Great Hall and calling for Harry's cousin. Sam looked at him.

"I have to go, but we will talk later and sterling sliver, by the way!" Sam smiled at Harry as she got to her feet.

"What?" Harry frowned. Sam giggled.

"How is it that muggles always seem to solve some of the toughest wizarding problems? Pure sterling sliver, three words you need to remember, if you ever come face to face with the old Avada Kedavra curse. Like that tray, is the only substance that can deflect the curse as I found out, by pure chance, when the curse hit one of my rings in the attack in Romania and didn't kill me. I don't know why! These are just standard muggle rings and there is nothing magical about them, but using the sterling silver tray with that vortex was a chance I was willing to take, especially when I was that angry. I telling you that guy had gone one step to far!" She sighed, looking at her feet.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't rant and rave. But he does get to me sometimes!" She gave Bill a look, who was standing, leaning against the door with his arms folded waiting for her, looking impatient. Sam roll her eyes again, and gave Harry a grin.

"I'll see you later!" She waved happily at Harry, and left, kissing Bill on the way out. Harry watch her go and almost laughed, mainly though relief.

"Wow, she sounds almost..." Ron spoke quietly, letting his sentence hang, as Harry got out of his seat to leave, all the Gryffindors looked at him.

"Human!" Harry said, tired, finishing it for him and looked at the piece of folded card, that Sam has given him. He looked back at the Gryffindor table,

"I'll see you later!" Harry said, mimicking his cousin, gesturing to the table and left the Great Hall, and almost ran to the Gryffindor tower. Sam had said to look at the folded card alone, and he decided that was the best thing to do, especially after what she had said. He want through the portrait hole of the Fat Lady, and to his dormitory, jumping on his bed, the place empty. He had no idea what was on that tattered card, but it wasn't want he expected, as he unfolded it and looked down. Harry had to put a hand over his mouth, to stop himself from scream, and gasped in complete shock and now understood why he had to be alone. It was a colour wizard photograph, faded over time, taken in St. Mongo's Hospital, in the Maternity Ward and it showed, Harry's family, all of them, everyone that Sam had spoke about was on there.

He reconised a few people. His father, James, beaming happily at the camera, a proud man. His mother, Lily, long pale, red hair bright in the photo, holding a new born baby, and Harry scanned the photo again, to his father's right was his godfather, Serius Black, looking young and clean shaven, also smiling at the camera. Harry looked to this mother's left, and saw a third man, hold a young girl, not much older then three or four years, with hair of long, tight, red ringlets and a pair of bright yellow eyes that Harry instantly knew. It was his cousin, Sam, when she was a little girl, which meant that the man holding her, was her father, Kevin Potter. Harry took a closer look at his uncle, trying to make him out. He looked a lot like James, taller but with long jet black hair, which it wasn't was untidy, as it was heavily gelled and his uncle didn't need to wear glasses either. Harry also saw that his eyes were a very pale brown, almost yellow, which partial explained the unusual rich colour of his cousin's eyes. Harry stared at the photograph, for what felt like an hour before his eyes fell back on the baby, seeing the small lump of black hair and bright green eyes. It was him, Harry was the baby, and he felt and sense of peace in that, he wasn't alone after all. It was a true family portrait and for the first time in his life, Harry felt part of something, part of a family.

Harry dived into his trunk and pulled out his photo album, of all his old family photos of which people had been given him over the years, and spent the rest of the day, going through them and adding Sam's photo to the collection.

It was spring and despite the fact that Bill, Charlie, Fleur and Sam were all staying at Hogwarts, Harry saw very little of them and he had never seen so many adults, apart from the teachers, at the castle either. Harry figured that every single member of the Ministry of Magic had been roped into Hogwarts and along with the members of the Order of the Pheonix too, there were about as many adults as there were students. What was going on? It was something big, but Harry didn't know, and with summer exams on the horizon and homework mounting, he had little time to think about it. He was desperate to talk to his cousin again, as he had only seen her once since their talk, and he just had time to thank her for the photograph,

"What's the matter? Didn't you believe me!" She grinned at him, before she was grabbed by Professor Turnbull, who had arrived from America, a couple of weeks ago, and was dragged away or he would find Sam preoccupied with her tongue down Bill's throat, kissing him in the Entrance Hall, making a lot of the student girls giggle. This Harry also found rather amusing himself and very cool, and if Sam Potter, his cousin, did married Bill Weasley, Ron's brother, Harry would be related to the Weasleys, and he and Ron would be cousins, of some sort and he would get to stay with them as family. Ron agreed after Harry explained this, after listening to Ron complain for over an hour in the common room, one night, saying it wasn't a good idea, and in the end, thought it was kind of cool. Mrs. Weasley was thrilled, after the shock of the announcement had sunk in, and made Harry feel very welcome, to which he was greatful, and Mr. Weasley was also very honoured. But what else also did turn a few heads though, especially when Charlie and Fleur were found doing exactly the same thing as Sam and Bill, kissing the Entrance Hall. Harry didn't trust himself to say anything as other people around the castle, were making him smile too.

Professor Turnbull, herself, always seemed to make Harry giggle, for some reason, every time he saw her, but he didn't know why, and it almost got into trouble over it. Professor Turnbull was a stern, extremely strict, woman, both in appearance and personality. Sam was right in say that she was about half of McGonagall's age, and Harry often wondered of she was like Professor Turnbull, when she was in her late twenties. Professor Turnbull had long jet black and greasy, constantly tied back in a bun, so tight that it reflected the light of any room, she was it. Tall, and slimly built, she wore blacks eyes, and a look of pure death through her dark brown eyes, and pale face. The reason why Harry always giggled, at the sight of her, was that when she said anything, her eyes may have looked as though they may have killed, they also gave a look that smiled, through that hard exterior. The first time she saw Harry, not only did he reconise who he was, but he gave him decreet small smile and a wink, her eyes sparkling, and Harry has never been able her seriously from that day on. But Professor Turnbull always seemed to have it in for his cousin, Sam, and never seemed to leave her alone.