Chapter 3

Niya woke to a dark room and a silent house. She laid still for a moment taking stock of how she felt and checking her shields before she slid out of bed, calling out a soft 'Lumos' to light the room and dug through her brown trunk for clean clothes and her toiletries before silently peeking through different doors to find the bathroom. She felt much better after a long hot shower, dressed and made her way back to her room and spent an hour unpacking her clothes and things she knew she would need on a regular basis.

She smiled faintly as she spotted Merc and Bassie sound asleep on the other side of her room undisturbed by her movements, well used to her moving about in the dead of night. She placed a few photos frames around the room of her and her father and of her, Dray and Haz before making way silently down to the kitchen for tea and something to eat after turning off the lights.

She was a little surprised to see the amber eyed man and Shaklebolt talking quietly in front of the fire, mugs of tea clasped in their hands.

"Up a little early aren't we Ms Jackson?" Shacklebolt commented as he spotted her.

"I don't sleep much." She shrugged pouring herself some tea and sitting down at the table. "And please call me Niya, I got enough 'Ms Jackson' at school" She requested with a small face of distaste. "It sounds so impersonal."

"I think in all the rush yesterday that you weren't introduced to many of the people here. This is Remus Lupin." He gestured to his companion.

"A pleasure to meet you Sir." She nodded her head politely over her mug.

"Call me Remus please. I never got the chance to thank you for helping Harry…" Remus replied.

"No need for thanks Remus. I would do it for any one that I considered a friend, or a person in need." She cut off his thanks with a smile, tightening her shields a little against the feelings of pain and discomfort he was putting out. He looked tired and pale, his face slightly lined with pain if you knew what to look for. "What is the time?"

"Nearly three am, no one else will be up for a good three or four hours yet." Remus answered picking up the pot of tea and poured out the last of it for Shacklebolt before rising and preparing another pot. "Are you hungry?"

"A little yes…if you show me where everything is I'll happily make myself some thing to eat…" She smiled. "At least that way I can help my self later with out having to worry about anyone else being up to find everything."

"Well actually I think the only food at the moment is a loaf of bread and some eggs, some one will have to go out tomorrow and restock." Remus admitted with a faint shrug and pulled out the loaf of bread and toasted it for her with his wand putting butter and a few jars of jam on the table. "How many you want?"

"Four will do me thanks." She replied taking a bite of the first slice. "What will the others be doing to keep occupied?" She asked making short work of her breakfast. "I'm pretty sure that Dray and Haz have finished their summer home work."

"Dray and Haz?" Remus raised an eyebrow.

"Oh sorry." She chuckled. "My nicknames for Draco and Harry."

"Well I don't think we have anything planned for them." Remus replied after a nod of understanding and putting the bread away.

"Trust me if you don't want them going mad with boredom and keep them out of trouble find something for them to do, because if they are going to be stuck in side with little to do other then homework and chores they are all going to get bored pretty fast for a month and half before school starts." She advised. "But then again you probably know what Harry is like when he isn't occupied with something." She shrugged.

"Well not really no. I know he has a small gift for getting into trouble on a regular basis and nearly every time it isn't his fault." Remus shook his head.

"Well do your self and him a favour keep him busy, it'll keep him from brooding over things, the same for Dray."

"What do you suggest?" Shacklebolt asked with a raised eyebrow. "Because Molly has been racking her brains out trying to think of something and the only thing she is coming up with is chores."

"I'm not sure, extra tutoring in a favourite class, which would be a bit hard if most of them aren't already seventeen…umm" She frowned thinking swirling her half empty mug of tea. "Well Dray loves researching things on potions and carves beautiful pieces out of wood, Haz loves to draw and has quite an interest in Animagi, defence spells he likes learning about and Magical Creatures, loves to fly, has a bit of skill with carving and metal and jewellery making." She listed the things she knew that they liked to do. "I am not sure if they have supplies to continue on with their hobbies, I know that Dray has nothing unless he managed to sneak out with his trunk. I'm pretty that Haz would love lots of paper for his sketches and metals and gems for his jewellery making." She looked up from her mug and chuckled silently to herself as she saw Remus writing down what she was saying. "As for the others…I'm not sure I don't know them, except for what Dray and Haz have told me about them. Ron, chess and quidditch, Hermione, books and research and to understand what she doesn't know about the Wizarding world. I'm not sure at all about Ginny. But the twins when they aren't working on their shop experiment with new pranks." She glanced up at the roof of the kitchen as she felt a spike of dread and fear. "Were any of my potions brought up from the lab?" She asked innocently.

"Yes, Severus brought up a selection shortly after you retired for the night." Remus nodded and pointed to a cupboard above the sink.

She walked over and opened the little door and browsed through the three dozen phials, before plucking out four. Two very mild calming draughts and two mild sleeping potions that would either block dreams all together or promote good dreams and was not addictive. She had made this one with Haz in mind after hearing about his nightmares that he had on a regular basis and easily adapted it for everyday use for up to a week and for anyone to be able to use it. "Be back in a minute." She said softly slipping out the door and made her way back up the stairs and followed the distress to a room with faint light filtering under the door and tapped softly on the door and slipped in.

Haz was huddled in a ball at the head of his bed, his shoulder shaking violently but silently. On the bed across the room Ron slept on unaware and Dray shifted uneasily.

"Haz…" She spoke softly and sent out soothing and calming waves as she perched on the side of his bed, rubbing his back gently as he slowly calmed and uncurled. She handed him the calming draught first and just held him, letting him cry himself out. "Do you want a sleeping potion?" She asked softly. "I upgraded it from the last one I gave you, a little bit stronger then the last one." She held out the violet phial in her hand, letting him decide if he wanted it. She let him take it after a few moments of thinking about it. "Let me know if it is strong enough and if it's not I'll tinker with it again." She kissed his forehead as he passed her the empty phial and puled his blankets back over him and made her way over to Dray sensing that he was in fact awake. She laid the second sleeping potion on his little beside table. "Your choice if you take it or not Dray." She whispered so only he could hear her and made her way back down to the kitchen, replacing the calming draught that she had used.

"Who's having nightmares?" Remus asked quietly, Shacklebolt absent. "I'm guessing that is was you sensed."

"Haz and Dray. They both have had nightmares for years, and each year I try making different potions to help them sleep even a little with out them, even if it's only for three hours," She sighed and sat back down murmuring her thanks as he refilled her mug. "Last year I made a sleeping potion that promoted good dreams rather then suppressing them, in its current form it works but it's not strong enough for Haz to last more then two hours."

"And on Dray?"

"Three, maybe four hours, five at the most which is I admit better then nothing and at least he can function on five hours sleep with out making too many mistakes or looking too tired." She shook her head. "I've been trying for the last three months to increase the good dreams for at least seven hours before waking them feeling refreshed and rested…"

"And the difficult part would be?" Remus smiled with understanding at how hard it was to do just that.

"The bad and difficult part is making it so it isn't addictive and they can take it for up to a week or even two with out any side effect." She made a face. "At the moment I am half way there, I got the good dreams part, and will let them sleep peacefully for four hours but can only be taken for three days before it has to be shelved for a week before it can be taken again." She rubbed her forehead. "Haz and Dray offer to test them for me when ever I have a new one and tell me to effect it has over the three days they take it, so I can adjust it…" She pulled a piece of parchment out of her pocket. "I also have them monitored so if they do have a bad reaction I can do something about it…though it's rare that I do have some one have a bad reaction to a potion that I have made as I can sense if they are going to react to it…but it has happened a few times for unknown reasons." She flushed slightly as she realised that she was babbling and to a stranger at that. "Sorry don't mean to bore you with the details."

"I don't mind at all." Remus chuckled. "I can tell that it means a lot to you and that you take it hard when something fails…it's all written there on your face…and I have no problems listening Niya."

"Thank you." She nodded and pulled a note book out of her pocket and wrote out a few things. "This is the instructions for Haz and Dray for the day. I checked them over when I was up there. It's pretty self explanatory, just make sure that they follow it…and make sure some one calls me up for lunch"

"Will do, Severus should already be down there." He nodded.

"Right." She murmured to herself and made her way to the lab, nodded a greeting to the Professor and began setting up cauldrons and ingredients for her next batch.