Maggie followed her father back to his rooms under cover of the invisibility cloak. Her father had finally agreed to have her stay with the Weasley family during the summer – assuming the family in question agreed. They would be meeting Molly and Arthur tomorrow morning after breakfast.
Since it was a Friday, her father had 4 lessons today. Then he would be free. Dumbledore had insisted that Harry Potter's detentions be dropped due to the stressful events of the prior evening. Maggie didn't hear any details of what happened, beyond the fact that no one died. Her father had grudgingly dropped the detentions.
Maggie was disappointed that Harry wouldn't be there to give her lessons tonight, even though the previous one hadn't gone very well. She was also nervous about being sorted into Slytherin. She knew the reputation that house had from her reading of Hogwarts, A History. She hoped her mother wouldn't be disappointed in her.
Maggie sighed and shook her head, trying to bring her attention back to the potions class she was supposed to observing. It was no use, though, as her thoughts kept going back to her mother's disappearance. She knew it was possible that she might never see her mother again and that they may never know what happened to her.
Dashing at her tears, Maggie finally reined her attention back onto her father's lesson, frantically jotting down notes.
-- --
Sighing quietly, Harry stopped before the painting of a snake wrapped around an apple. Hesitantly raising a hand under his invisibility cloak, he knocked on the door. He wasn't quite sure why he had come here, since he no longer had detentions with the man, but he had found himself unable to remain in Gryffindor tower.
The door opened and he quickly spoke, "It's me, sir."
"Potter," the word was a sigh as opposed to its normal invective. "Come inside then."
Harry hastened inside and removed the cloak as the door closed behind him. "Thank you, sir."
"Maggie, you can come out here," Snape called as he moved to sit at his desk.
"Hi, Harry," she said with a bright smile, moving to hug him.
He returned it, but the glare directed his way from his professor had him stepping quickly away. He turned to face the Potions Master, "With your permission, sir, I thought I might try teaching Maggie again…" A wave of a hand in a dismissive gesture as the older man turned back to the desk was his only answer.
Turning back to Maggie, Harry rummaged in his bag for a moment, pulling out a small box of matches. "I thought we might try something else tonight." He'd thought Maggie's problem with their first spell had been due to her worry about her mother, but then he had realized that Charms may simply not be her strong suit. "I'm going to teach you how to transfigure a match into a needle." He pulled a match from the box, placed it onto the coffee table, and pointed his wand at it. He spoke the incantation, careful to enunciate clearly so Maggie would be able to repeat it, and smiled as a needle replaced the match. "Give it a try," he said, placing a new match beside the needle.
Maggie raised her wand and copied his actions. Her smile triggered one of Harry's own as she exclaimed, "I did it! Father, I did it!"
Snape rose and approached them, "Show me."
Harry placed another match on the table and beamed at Maggie as she effortlessly changed it.
"Congratulations," Snape said quietly. He turned to Harry, "Try something more complex."
Harry placed another match on the table and focused on turning it into a quill. This was more complex due to the change in size as well as the details of feathers. He spoke the incantation and watched as the match became a hawk-feather quill. He brought out another match, "Try it, Maggie."
He watched her concentrate and the match disappeared to be replaced with a raven-feather quill, which at first glance appeared to be perfect, but when he picked it up, he realized the barbs of the feathers were fused solid. "Close," he said with a smile, handing it to his professor for his examination of it.
"Indeed, it is rather good for your first attempt, Maggie." Snape handed it to her so she could examine it.
"I didn't get the feather right, though," she said, turning it in her fingers.
"Continue practicing," Snape said, returning to his desk. "Mr. Potter, I think it would serve well to also teach her how to reverse the transfiguration."
"Of course, sir," Harry said, pointing his wand at his transfigured needle. "Finite Incantatem." The needle returned to a match and Harry gestured that Maggie should attempt it.
She pointed her wand at her own needle and easily undid the transfiguration. "You know, it wasn't real until this moment, my having magic I mean. Even now, it kinda feels like I might wake up and find this was all a dream…"
"I know exactly how you feel," Harry said quietly. "I sometimes feel like I'm going to wake up and find myself still living in that cupboard under the stairs in my aunt and uncle's house. It's difficult to cope sometimes when your life changes drastically so quickly." He glanced down at the coffee table and the two quills before glancing back up at Maggie. "Have… have they found your mum yet?"
Maggie shook her head, her gaze dropping to the floor.
"I'm sorry," he said quickly, pulling her into a hug. "I shouldn't have asked." He hadn't meant to ask, but he was genuinely concerned about Professor Smith. He had liked their muggle studies professor.
"No, it's okay," she said quickly, drawing away slightly. "I… I know there's nothing I can do about it, so I have to learn to cope with it." She pulled away fully and her eyes dropped to her wand, "I forgot to tell you… I was Sorted this morning."
Harry took a deep breath, sensing that she was hesitant to tell him the results of her Sorting. He knew how to break through her nervousness, though. He plastered a goofy smile on his face, "Hufflepuff, right?" That earned him a short giggle from her and he smiled. "It's okay if you're in Slytherin," he said quickly. Seeing the hopeful look in her eyes, he knew that he had guessed correctly. "I'm not going to stop seeing you simply because you got Sorted into a different house," he chided. "It just might be more difficult, but I'm sure we'll find a way."
"You… you're sure you're alright with this?" Maggie asked timidly.
"I'll tell you a secret," Harry said, forgetting entirely that they weren't alone in the room. "The Sorting Hat wanted to put me in Slytherin."
-- --
Severus had been pretending to correct the parchments on his desk while the children conversed. He had filed away Potter's comment on his living conditions, intent on asking Dumbledore about it later. The boy's last comment, though, had his head shooting up in surprise.
"You're joking!" Maggie said, surprise evident in her voice.
"Nope. I asked it not to put me in Slytherin and it put me in Gryffindor instead," Potter replied.
"May I inquire as to why you didn't desire to be in my house, Mr. Potter?" Snape asked quietly.
He saw the boy jump slightly as he turned to face him. Potter swallowed before speaking, "Well, sir, I… I met Draco before coming here. He… well, he didn't make the best of impressions with me. He mentioned that he was sure he would be sorted into Slytherin. Then I met Ron on the train…" The boy paused and took a deep breath, "I realize now that it was bias which made me ask not to be put in Slytherin. I also realize things are a lot less black and white than I thought when I first came here."
Impressed by both the boy's honesty and maturity, he quietly said, "Five points to Gryffindor." He turned back to his work, but not before he saw the surprised look on Potter's face.
"Thank you, sir," Potter said quietly, respectfully.
"Back to work," he muttered in response.
-- --
Katrina had been forced to kneel beside Voldemort through two more torture sessions with other Death Eaters. Following that, he led her back into the kitchen where she knelt beside his chair for lunch. After lunch, he dismissed her back to her room.
Dinner was again held in her room and she was rewarded for her behavior with a larger portion of food than the prior day. He left her alone after dinner and she took a long bath, trying to banish the memory of the screams.