Chance Meeting at the Ink Pot
by Healer Teddylonglong
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
COMPLETELY AU! Partly OOC!
It is my story, and I intend to write it the way I want it. If you don't like it, don't read it.
Reviews are very welcome, as they inspire my muse.
Sirius and Kazumi dashed over to where the tabby cat was lying on the floor, while Mandy and Kenji ran to fetch Professor Ito. The older student quickly fled from the hall. Suddenly, the cat opened her eyes, letting out a soft miaow.
"Aunt Minerva, are you all right?" Sirius asked in concern. "Can you try to transform back, or shall I take you to the infirmary?"
Slower than usual, the Transfiguration professor changed back into her human form. She took a step over to Sirius and grabbed his shoulder, leaning heavily onto the boy.
"Professor!" Kazumi exclaimed with a mixture of shock and amazement on her face. "That must have been a de-aging spell. Are you in a lot of pain?" She quickly transfigured a sweet, which she found in her robe pocket, into a chair and motioned for the teacher to sit down.
"A de-aging spell?" Minerva queried in disbelief as she slowly lowered herself onto the chair.
"Wow, Aunt Minerva, you look gorgeous," Sirius blurted out, just when Professor Ito, Poppy and Severus came running along the corridor, stopping dead in their tracks at the sight of Minerva.
Poppy quickly waved her wand over her friend, chuckling as she put it away and made Minerva drink a pain relieving potion. "Congratulations Minerva, you managed to get yourself de-aged by thirty-five years."
"Thank you, Poppy," Minerva replied, dazedly. "Do you have a way to reverse the spell?"
"If we find the culprit and find out which spell he cast on you, it won't be a problem. Do you still have the memories of your older self?" Ito queried, casting a diagnostic spell, before he slid his laser wand back into his robes.
"Yes, I remember that we put up all the paintings, and I wanted to get back to my room quickly; so I chose my cat form," Minerva replied. "And I know everything about the recent developments at Hogwarts."
"In that case, why would you want to reverse the spell?" Severus spoke up in a soft voice. "I have to agree with my son. You look fantastic."
Minerva looked up in surprise, finding a rare smile on the Potions Master's face. "Maybe you're right," she said quietly. "Let me sleep on it."
"And the four of you," Severus turned to the students, "better return to your rooms, before we realise that it's already after curfew and take points from your class."
The four friends exchanged a shocked glance and hurried back to their rooms, making an unspoken agreement to meet in Sirius' and Kenji's room to discuss the event as soon as Mami Abe had left.
本屋さんでの偶然の出会い
During the following weeks, the news coming from Britain was disturbing. Since Minerva and Poppy had moved to Japan and his source of information had dried up, Severus had bribed the owner of The Ink Pot to provide him with a copy of the Daily Prophet through the wiz2wiz connection every day. 'Thank Merlin no one except for him, Minerva, Poppy and Sirius know about my invention,' he thought, 'so that I don't have to fear that someone might want to break my connection.' Normally, the newspaper arrived just before lunchtime, and Severus used to separate the newspaper from his parchments and take it to the Planetarium to read it together with his colleagues, who were all concerned about the situation in Britain.
One day, a huge picture of Albus Dumbledore looked at them from the front page together with the headline, 'Albus Dumbledore, former Headmaster of Hogwarts, admitted to the psychopathic ward of St. Mungo's.'
The text under the photo explained, 'Albus Dumbledore has apparently gone nuts. As we know from reliable sources, he has been looking for Harry Potter, the boy who lived, for several years. When Potter did not show up at Hogwarts for his schooling one year ago, Dumbledore began to become depressed, and since his most trusted Deputy Headmistress resigned a few weeks ago, he is said to have become crazy. We wish Albus Dumbledore all the best in the wizarding hospital. Continue on page 5 for information about Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and Tom Riddle, the new Headmaster of Hogwarts.'
"Oh no! That's my fault," Minerva blurted out in shock. "What can I do?" She looked at Severus as if the Potions Master was able to help.
"The Dark Lord has become the Headmaster," Severus said, slowly exhaling the air. 'I wonder why. What does he want at Hogwarts?' he thought. "Minerva, it's not your fault, and there is nothing that we can do about the matter at this time." He absentmindedly laid his arm around Minerva's back, pulling her close to gently wipe away the tears that leaked from her eyes in sorrow for the fate of her old friend.
本屋さんでの偶然の出会い
The teachers' second source of information was Sirius. Nearly every night, the boy woke up after seeing visions of Voldemort speaking with one or more of his Death Eaters, who were slowly taking over the school. One night, he woke up in extreme distress.
"Sirius, are you all right? Do you need the anti-cruciatus potion?" Kenji asked in concern, sitting on the edge of his bed.
"No, but I'm going to be sick," Sirius mumbled, only to empty the contents of his stomach into a bucket, which he had made a habit of always keeping next to his bed since he began to have visions. "Dad," he moaned, shivering, as Severus entered the room.
The Potions Master thanked Kenji profusely, before he took his place next to Sirius and asked quietly, "What happened? Do you want me to cast the Legilimens spell and watch the scene?"
"Yes please," Sirius whispered and looked straight into Severus' eyes in order to share the horrible vision, in which he had seen Death Eaters kill the families of muggle born students, who had been attending Hogwarts up until a few weeks ago.
"I'm sorry that you had to watch this," Severus said softly. "Sirius, do you need a headache potion?"
"Dad, is there anything we can do to warn other families of muggle born students? Can we save them and ask them to come here? We could make space for them. It wouldn't be a problem," Sirius suggested, reaching for his father's hand.
"I will speak with Minerva, Poppy and the Abes tomorrow morning. "You're right. We should try to help them, if it's only that we bring the students here for the time being," Severus said thoughtfully. "Do you think you'll be able to go back to sleep? Shall I give you a potion?"
"No, I don't want to sleep anymore," Sirius said in determination. "What time is it?"
"It's half past four in the morning. Do you want to join me in the lab?" The Potions Master raised an eyebrow, realising that the edges of Sirius' mouth pulled slightly upwards.
"I'd like that... If it's all right for you," he replied hesitantly.
The two Snapes spent the next few hours in the potions lab brewing a few potions for the infirmary, before Severus glanced at his wrist watch, noticing that it was time to head to the Planetarium for breakfast.
"Dad, I'm not hungry. I'll go back to bed and try to sleep some more," Sirius said in a small voice when they arrived in front of the dining hall. "I hope that the Dark Lord will be asleep by now."
Severus eyed his son in concern, before he relented, "All right then; call Cicero when you wake up; he'll bring you breakfast."
Sirius nodded and returned to his room, feeling so tired that he fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. By the time he woke up, Mandy, Kazumi and Kenji were sitting on Kenji's bed, talking in hushed voices.
"Hey, what are you doing?" he asked sleepily, scrambling out of his bed.
"We were waiting for you. Mum promised to take us on a hippogriff ride to the beach," Kenji replied in excitement. "Are you well enough and ready to go?"
"Of course," Sirius replied eagerly, hurriedly throwing his robes over. "I'm sorry for making you wait. You should have woken me up."
Mami Abe and the four students headed out onto the grounds, and Sirius gently hugged Taiyo. "Taiyo-kun, we're going for a flight to the seaside. Would you mind taking me there?"
Taiyo carefully rubbed his head against Sirius' robes, before he gently licked his hand. "Thank you, Taiyo-kun. I wouldn't want to ride any other hippogriff," Sirius said quietly and mounted the hippogriff.
Half an hour later, the small group arrived at the seaside. Sirius had never before seen a magical resort and realised in surprise that they were able to leave the animals with a caretaker, who promised to look after the hippogriffs while they were on the beach. The four children had much fun, playing on the beach and swimming in the shallow, warm water. For lunch they had O-den, a Japanese delicacy consisting of Tofu, radish, potatoes and eggs. Sirius, who was very hungry since he had missed breakfast, tucked in with gusto, as it was absolutely delicious.
"In other places of Japan, they eat O-den with mustard, but here we use Miso," Kazumi explained, apparently thoroughly enjoying the meal on the beach. They only returned to the Mirai school in time for dinner.
"Can we come here again and bring my father, Aunt Minerva and Aunt Poppy?" Sirius asked Mami on their way back to the hippogriffs.
"We can ask them," Mami replied gently, playfully ruffling his hair. "I'm glad that you enjoyed the day," she said, smiling at the excited boy. "It was a good idea to go to the beach today. I'm glad that we managed to make him forget his horrible visions at least for a few hours," she told Kazumi when Sirius was out of hearing distance.
本屋さんでの偶然の出会い
At dinner, the headmaster addressed everyone, who had remained in the school over the summer. "By chance we received the news that Death Eaters have taken over Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Scotland and that they're now attacking muggle born students and their families all over Britain," he explained. "Professors McGonagall, Snape and I therefore decided to send house-elves to all the other muggle born students, who were attending Hogwarts up until the beginning of the summer holidays. We decided to offer these families a temporary home at our school. The house-elves will take a letter explaining the situation as well as a Portkey to the families, and all those, who want to come to our school, while the war in Britain continues, will arrive here by Portkeys the day after tomorrow. Your teachers will magically build a house at the far end of our school grounds for the families of the students, while we're going to enlarge our year common rooms and add additional rooms for the students. Please help us with the organisation if necessary, and please help our guests to feel at home as quickly as possible."
Huge applause erupted when the Headmaster finished his brief monologue.
'Thank Merlin they're so nice here. At least now I know that the horrible vision I had last night was good for something,' Sirius thought as he returned to his own room together with his friends. Unfortunately, as soon as he lay down in bed, the images of his vision pushed themselves back to the surface of his mind. 'I don't want to sleep,' he thought, panicking. 'What if the Dark Lord kills more muggles?'
"Professor," he spoke up in a barely audible voice when Mami came to tuck him in, "may I perhaps stay up a bit longer and visit my father?"
The professor sat on the edge of his bed, gently pushing an errand strand of hair from his face. "Sirius, you need to sleep," she said softly. "Are you afraid to go to sleep because of the visions?"
"Yes," Sirius hesitantly admitted, averting his eyes to his covers.
"Very well then, come with me for a while. The teachers are having tea together in our quarters to discuss the matter of the refugees." Turning to Kenji, who was listening to their conversation with apparent interest, she asked, "Would you like to join Sirius, Kenji?"
"Of course. Thank you, Mum," Kenji replied happily and jumped out of his bed.
"Thank you, Professor," Sirius said gratefully and followed Kenji's example.
本屋さんでの偶然の出会い
The teachers were sitting together in the Abes' living room, planning all the details of the new building they were going to magically set up in the morning.
"We need to cut down about one dozen khaki trees in order to fit the building in," the headmaster said thoughtfully. "I suggest that we begin early in the morning so as not to upset the gods of the forest by cutting the trees by magical means. The trees belong to the forest that you can see from the windows looking out in the northern direction, and it's a muggle forest," he explained to his new colleagues.
"I'll go and cut them right after our meeting," Ito offered.
"Very well," Abe said appreciatively, "then we can begin to set up the building right after breakfast."
During the next hour, the teachers arranged the tasks, before they finally decided to go to bed in order to get a few hours of sleep before they had to begin with their extraordinary undertakings.
"Sirius and Kenji, why don't you stay here in Kenji's room tonight?" Mami Abe suggested, glancing at her wrist watch.
'I don't want to go to bed at all,' Sirius mused, throwing the professor an anxious look.
"Sirius, you must go to bed and sleep," Mami said firmly, throwing Severus a pleading look.
However, before Severus could even open his mouth, Sirius was pulled into another vision. He saw a group of men in completely black clothing. They were wearing black hoods, so that he couldn't see the faces.
"Get to work," he heard himself hiss. "The Finch-Fletchleys are next." He pointed to a house, and the Death Eaters stormed forward.
Sirius was shaking badly as he began to throw up into a bucket that Mami held in front of him, while Severus was gently rubbing his back.
"He..." Sirius began to whimper. "Dad, just watch please; I can't tell you," he sobbed.
"Look at me, child," Severus said softly, before he cast the Legilimens spell and observed the horrible scene.
"I don't want to sleep now," Sirius mumbled when Severus pulled away, causing everyone, who had witnessed the scene, to look at them in concern.
"I don't think the Dark Lord will go anywhere else tonight," Severus replied calmingly, pulling a small phial out of his robe pocket. "Take this," he said softly. "It's a dreamless sleep potion. I'm not one hundred percent sure if it'll save you from the visions though."
Before Sirius could even think of a reply, he succumbed to the potion and drifted off to a peaceful slumber. By the time he woke up, feeling extremely refreshed, Kazumi was sitting on the edge of his bed, reading a comic. 'A History of Magical Japan,' Sirius deciphered the title.
"Wow, that sounds interesting," he blurted out, causing Kazumi to let her book sink.
"Good morning, sleepy-head," she said softly. "It's Kenji's. I'll give it to you when I'm through with it. Get up quickly, so that we can join the others. They're setting up the new building."
Sirius quickly headed to the bathroom to get dressed and followed his friend out onto the grounds in excitement, realising that the new building already stood at the far end of the grounds. Everyone was inside the house, setting up small apartments for the families that were going to stay there.
It was nearly dinnertime, when everything was finished and the group returned to the school. For the first time in weeks, Sirius felt famished. 'Well, no wonder, considering that I didn't have anything to eat today,' he thought as he took his usual seat between Kazumi and Kenji.
"Thank you, everyone, for helping us to build the house for the families who are going to arrive very early tomorrow morning. The Portkey should bring them here around six o'clock in the morning. Therefore, I suggest that you all head to your beds early tonight," the headmaster said, before the meal appeared on the tables.
"Did they say how many students are going to arrive tomorrow?" Sirius asked curiously.
"No, but I think they sent out invitations to thirty students," Kenji replied thoughtfully. "I don't know if all of them are willing to come here though, and as far as I heard, not all of them are muggle borns. There are a few, whom Professor McGonagall invited personally, because she knows their parents."
'If they're still alive,' Sirius thought to himself but didn't voice his sad thoughts.
A few hours later, he was just pondering how he could manage to talk Mami into letting him stay up longer, when the headmaster's voice sounded through the school.
"All students please report to the Planetarium immediately. Hurry up please; this is an emergency."
tbc...
Thank you so much for your kind comments!