{Disclaimer: The Harry Potter World was created by J.K. Rowling and rights are owned by, but not limited to, Warner Brothers and Scholastic Books. I, therefore, own no parts of this save for Andromeda McGee, Wyvern and my twisted, yet original, plotline.}
Chapter 3
The Basement
**"A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins, nor early. He arrives precisely when he means to." Gandalf, The Fellowship of the Rings**
Sirius paced back and forth across the living, pausing every few seconds to glance at the worn watch he had found in the top drawer of the dresser in his room. "They're late. It's already 11:36." He muttered to no one in particular.
"They are not late. We never told them a set time to be here. Sit down before you wear a hole in my floor," Remus didn't bother looking up from the Daily Prophet that he had been reading; Padfoot had been going on like this since before nine o'clock.
The flames in the fireplace flickered to a blazing green. A few seconds later, Harry Potter popped up, looking slightly disheveled.
"Good morning, Harry," Sirius turned calm. "You're right on time." He clapped his godson on the shoulder.
Ron came next, followed by Hermione, Ginny, and Mrs. Weasley.
"Well, isn't this nice," Molly Weasley commented politely as she looked around the tidy room.
"Hello, Molly," Remus laid down his paper and stood up to welcome her.
A loud crash reverberated from the kitchen followed by a pent up low scream. "Wyvern! You twink!" A black and orange blur shot out into the living room, colliding with Ginny's leg. The girl scooped the cat into her arms, stroking the creature's soft head.
Andy stepped out of the kitchen, wooden spoon in hand. "That cat is going to be the death of me." She noticed that everyone else had arrived. "Oh, I'm sorry. The cursed cat just got into the pots and pans cupboard." She smiled warmly, breaking any tension that had been in the room.
Mrs. Weasley immediately took a liking to her. Whether it was the spunky aura she gave off or the fact the she was dressed in an apron and brandishing a wooden spoon, Molly could not be sure. "You're the new Potions Mistress?"
"Yes, Andromeda McGee at your service, ma'am," Andy inclined her head. "Hello all. I do have lunch together in the kitchen if you would like it."
The group was herded into the large kitchen. An odd assortment of enough chairs to seat everyone surrounded the table.
"Oh, no, I'm afraid I can't stay. Bill said he was going to stop by this afternoon," Molly fluttered. She hugged all four children tightly before Flooing back to the Burrow.
"I guess it's just us chickens," Sirius decided before helping himself to a sandwich. Andy swatted him with her spoon.
"Kids first. There's turkey, ham, tuna, and peanut butter raisin sandwiches, macaroni salad, fresh vegetables, and peanut butter-butterscotch-oatmeal cookies for desert." A timer began to beep. "Oh, shoot! I'll be back," she grabbed a random sandwich and raced down the basement stairs.
Andy didn't realize how quickly time had passed after she had run down to the basement. She had begun to experiment with the recipes that had been found in a multitude of drawers. Some of them were hilarious and made her wonder what exactly she had been thinking when she had figured them out. Who would want a specific potion that would only dye people's toes a shade of electric purple? Wow…That was one of the more pathetic ones. The notes themselves, on the other hand , were just as horrible. There were parts in English, parts in Spanish, and most of it in a crude mix of Spanglish. She wanted to know how she had written them in the first place. Ignoring the rumbling in her stomach, she poured the next ingredient into the potion.
Upstairs, Ginny Weasley sat alone. That was how it always was. Bill and Charlie were too many years above her to be close. Percy was, well, he was Percy. That explained everything. He had his studies on cauldron bottoms and such stuff now. Fred and George were always off exploding things. Ron was being himself, playing chess against Professor Lupin. Remus, she corrected herself, his name was Remus. Both men had told them to call them by their first names, not liking the formality of 'Professor' or 'Mister.'. Her brothers always left her out of everything just because she was a girl. It didn't matter that Ron was the only brother with her, but still, she felt left out. Harry and Sirius Black was engrossed in the chess match, attempting to give Remus the help he did not need. The man had already beat Ron once. Hermione curled herself up in a comfy armchair with a large tome, probably about some obscure topic that would never be used in life. Ginny was still alone despite the company of the other people. She wished she had brought her books with her. There were things she could be doing with them, such as homework or just reading. She supposed she could ask.
The youngest Weasley spoke up. "Do you have any books I could read?"
"Check the basement, two doors down on the left. There should be some there," Remus answered absently, not paying any attention to the girl.
Ginny followed his direction and found herself in a dimly lit room. She could see the outlines of furniture, but not much else. From another room, light puddle out onto the floor.
"Goddamn piece of crap!" another voice cursed from the adjoining room. "What the hell is this? You aren't supposed to do that!" A cauldron clattered out of the room, landing in a crash by Ginny's feet. Andy appeared a few moments later, kicking the misbehaving pot back into the room. She looked up from where she had booted the miscreant cooking equipment, noticing Ginny standing there. "What do you need, Virginia?"
Ginny licked her lips nervously. The Potions Mistress had always commanded a great deal of respect from everyone, much like Professor Snape, but not as evil seeming. "Remus said that there were books down here."
"Of course there are books down here. What are looking for?" Andy brightened the candles in the room with a flick of her wand. Ginny saw bookshelves around most of the room. "The shelves over there against that wall are mainly Potions manuals. I have no clue what's in the rest of them, but feel free to help yourself. I think there might be some Shakespeare some place…" she trailed off, striding over to a shelf and skimming through the titles. "Have you ever read Shakespeare?"
"Hermione let me read Romeo and Juliet once."
"Hmph! Romance tragedy, I never cared for that one, thought Macbeth was excellent, but that was just because my goal in life was to be Lady Macbeth. The comedies are pretty good. I thought I had a few of them someplace," she turned back to the teenager. "I don't know. Have fun, find what you want. If it screams or bites, just let me know. I'll be in the other room." Andy disappeared back into her laboratory, leaving Ginny with the bookshelves.
That was something new. The new Potion Mistress's goal in life was to be Lady Macbeth. Ginny didn't know if that was past or present, but it was something interesting, whoever Lady Macbeth happened to be. She scanned some of the titles, ignoring the ones called things such as 1014 Ways to Painfully Poison Your Enemies or Healing Potions: Why We Can't Heal Everything and Everyone. Some of those were things she did not want to know nor need to know. She located the Shakespeare books that Andy had spoken about. There was an entire shelf full of them, ranging from The Tempest and A Midsummer's Night's Dream to King Lear and Henry V. She ignored them, not wanting something that intellectual at the moment. On the next shelf were notebooks filled with the illegible, multilingual handwriting that the Professor had found in her other notes. Those were ignored as well. There was a brief section of a few fantasy novels that she decided she might go back to if nothing else could be found.
On a whim, she pulled out a worn binder. She opened it, finding pictures inside. The first picture was of a group of six, labeled 'Graduating Gryffindors, 1979.' Underneath was a list of names: Peter, Remus, James, Lily, Andromeda, Sirius. These must have been Harry's parents, Ginny realized, and Sirius and Remus. Professor McGee, too, since her first name was Andromeda. The people in the picture waved at her. She smiled back, turning the pages.
Andy smacked her hand against the cauldron bottom in attempt to loosen the coagulated remains of what she had been trying to brew. It was not supposed to congeal. The recipe never said that it would solidify if it sat out too long. She reminded herself to write a warning on the notes eventually. It finally plopped out onto a platter. She sighed taking it in one hand to throw away upstairs. She noticed Ginny was still there, flipping through the pages of something. 'Good,' she thought to herself, 'at least the girl found something.' "I'll be right back. Please don't touch anything."
Ginny glanced up from the photo album. She was at a picture of a snowball fight. "Did you make pudding?" she asked curiously, seeing the plate.
The Potions Mistress's eyes lit up. "Thank you, Virginia, that would explain a whole lot. And I was trying to figure out what Biehensootch Pud was. It's butterscotch pudding! I just can't read my cursive hand writing!" She started to laugh, shaking her head at the pudding, which had somehow come out correctly even after being kicked across the floor. She set it on the desk, not having to worry about her creation any longer. "So what'd you find?"
The girl paused not knowing if she was allowed to look at the pictures. "I found a few old photo albums."
"Really?" Andy perked up again.
"Yeah, there was a whole bunch on the bottom shelf here."
"Virginia, you are amazing. I was wondering if those had survived. Do you mind if I look on with you?"
It struck her as odd that a teacher was asking a student's permission to do something. "No, I've only gotten through 1979 and 1978. I'm on 77 right now."
"That was my fifth year, then," Andy took a seat next her on the floor, peering over Ginny's shoulder. She pointed to a picture. "Remus wasn't too happy when I took that one. Sirius and I had just finished perfecting an improved Dung-bomb that would turn things different colors. He got hit was a pink one on accident, if you can't tell."
"You did things like that? But you're a professor!"
"Virginia, just because I am legitimate now does not mean I was the same way in my youth. In fact, I can honestly tell you that McGonagall still has grudges against the entire lot of us."
"For what?"
"Well, we had the record for the most detentions, though I think your brothers might have been very close and we lit her hat on fire on the first day that we were there."
"How'd you that?" Ginny was amazed at this. She had always been mystified by the tales her older brother had told her about the pranks they had pulled.
"We had been trying to light Snape's hair on fire and the spell missed and hit McGonagall instead."
"Professor Snape was in your year too?"
"Of course he was. He was our main scapegoat, along with the rest of the Slytherins. I have a picture of him somewhere in here." She flipped through the pages, finding what she was looking for. "That is you ex-Potions Master."
Ginny's jaw dropped. "That can't be him!"
"It is," Andy spoke softly. It was a picture of her and Snape of them dancing during a Christmas Ball. James had snapped a picture for blackmail, though in the end she had kept it.
"But he's…he's…"
"Handsome?"
Ginny nodded speechlessly.
"He used to be almost gorgeous, though you wouldn't know it from the talk from the rest of the girls. He was too much of a loner to have many relationships. But he was rather good looking even if he was a Slytherin."
"I thought you and Sirius had been together, at least that's what the captions said."
"We were a couple at that point. Snape's date wanted to dance with Sirius so somehow we had switched partners, so I was with him and his date was with my boyfriend at the time. The picture was for blackmail, but I conned James into letting me keep it. Severus used to be able to dance really well, too."
"You're kidding, aren't you?"
"No, not at all. He was a marvelous dancer, when you got him out of the corners."
"Wow," Ginny whispered, having a hard time imaging a younger, good-looking Professor Snape who was a good dancer.
"I probably just ruined your entire image of the man with that picture. And you're going to think about it every time you see him, aren't you?"
"Probably. He doesn't seem as terrifying anymore."
"He'll always be a scary person. Just remember, inside everyone has their own little quirks. His is just to scare the crap out of everybody. If you want to get on his good side, all you have to do is respect him. So, do you want to try the butterscotch pudding?"
"Sure."
From somewhere in the laboratory Andy produced two spoons. "I can't promise how it will taste, considering I didn't even realize what I was making until after it was finished."
"Aren't you going to share it with everyone else?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I don't how it will taste or if it'll blow up in someone's face."
"Why would it blow up?"
"Some of the recipes for food stuffs that I found in here were for prank foods, like your brothers' Ton-Tongue Toffee."
"And you're going to try it?"
"Alright, so maybe that's not the best idea then. Wyvern! Come here, cat!"
Just as Ginny was going to tell her that cats don't usually obey people, Wyvern sauntered into the room purring loudly. Andy dipped her finger into the pudding and held it out for the feline. She sniffed at it then licked it off with a satisfied squeak. Andy waited, crouched down next to her. Nothing happened. "It seems safe enough."
"You just tested it on your cat! What if it had blown her up?" Ginny was appalled that a cat would be used as a test animal.
"None of my potions will blow anything up unless they are labeled that they will do so. This one wasn't, but I didn't know if it would turn someone blue or sprout feathers or something like that."
"But you tested it on your cat!"
"I know. I used to do that to my other cat. Saber, my old cat, didn't mind. Then again, she was a few donuts short of a dozen and didn't seem to understand that walls were solid and not meant to be walked through. But she did not mind and it did not kill her. In fact she lived for at least seven years. I don't know what happened to her after I left."
"Are you sure it didn't hurt her?"
"It did not harm the creature in any way, shape, or form. Any of the potions I might have tested would have changed colors or maybe shapes, but that's about it. I would not have hurt my cat."
"Okay."
"So do you still want to try the pudding?"
"I'll try it, I guess."
Andy tossed her a spoon.
{Author's Note: That was a shorter chapter, but I still have to do some set up work to get the plot where I want it to go. The next chapter is guaranteed to be much more exciting, I'll promise that much. So will the next two after that, if my imaginary plan works out the way I want it to, which it may or may not, given the circumstances that I am attempting to write. And yes, I do have a strange obsession with Shakespeare. The Lady Macbeth thing was an inside joke, but it seemed to fit with Andy. One of the instructors at the acting camp that I was at said that I would be a great Lady Macbeth. So it's one of my goals in life.
VMorticia: There! Take a peek down at the bottom! Are you happy now? The way I do flashbacks are with italics. All the stuff in the italics is the flashback, the stuff not in italics is present day. I went back in the chapter and sure enough, they are italicized.
Shasa Perino: It becomes less fluffy starting chapter four. My point this time was to try not to kill off characters in the first chapter like I did with the last fic. It took me until chapter four and then chapter is five is pretty dark, so the fluffiness will go away.
Dy: Thanks! Here's the next one!
Morgaine: Thank you. I have reasons for Remus not having a girl which I believe you saw in chapter 2. He does not want to hurt anyone when they find out that he's a werewolf and feels that because of his curse, he can't connect himself with anyone. I don't know exactly what is going to happen between Andy and Sirius though I originally have it planned to keep them together with a few problems in between. I honestly don't like Harry. I don't know why. Its probably because he's a Gryffindor and I'm a Slytherin, but maybe not. He just bothers me so I don't put him in much. I have problems writing him in character. I can write Hermione just fine, but not Harry. I've read other fics without Harry and co., so this is not too much of a different thing.
Anna Black: No, I did not have this chapter beta-ed. I get Jess to read them to make sure they make sense, not for spelling errors and the like. I'll edit them after Marching Band is over and I have a bit more time until production week of our play. The plants probably don't grow there, but I really was not in the mood to look up those type of things. Eventually when I have time I may correct them, but not now. The key to this is "time" if you haven't figured it out.
Sora G. Silverwind: I'm not too thrilled with the beginning of this story until about chapter four or so, but there were a few things that I needed to put in before I started the actual plot. I think I may have answered your question about Remus and Andy in the next chapter. It might explain a bit. I don't want to say anything now because that would give away a huge chunk of chapter 4. I'll warn you that I am not the world's best speller. I write by phonetics when I can't figure out to spell a word. So I have no clue if it is "death-throws" or "death-throes." It also helps that I type these things is any rack of spare time that I have between Marching Band, karate, drama practice, and school. That would mean barely any time, so these are not edited yet.
Ignominia: I'm glad you have returned. It's highly encouraging.
Hope you enjoyed it and please read and review! Peace, Love, and Bouncing Ferrets, Nataly Ravenlock}