When the summer holidays arrived, I didn't go back to Spinner's End, but instead returned to the Petrovs to be Mrs. Petrov's apprentice again. Sarah and Niko had given birth to a daughter on June 8th, named Vera Magda, the former after Sarah's maternal grandmother, who had died when Sarah was thirteen and her only family member that had no problem with her being a witch, and the latter of Mr. Petrov's older sister (and Niko's aunt), who had perished in the Holocaust at the age of twenty-one with her two-year old son. Ana and Stephen were godparents. Sarah and Niko had moved out at this point, and were living in a small house of their own, bought with the money that Sarah's grandmother had left her, what they had saved up for the past year, and the gift from Niko's parents.
Brian was no longer working at the apothecary, having found a new job at the Ministry. Ana had taken over his work, and in fact was now virtually co-owner with her mother, since she got half of the profits and helped make some decisions regarding the running of the apothecary. That was only natural, since unlike Maria, who was also skilled enough at Potions to obtain a Mastery in it, Ana had a passion for brewing and would therefore take over the apothecary when Mrs. Petrov either retired or died.
I learned some more things about the Petrov family over the summer. Apparently every female of Mrs. Petrov's line had some form of the Sight. In Mrs. Petrov's case, she could read palms and crystal balls, and what she saw of the future came true unless the person in question did something in the present to change it. Maria could read tea leaves and got visions of the future every so often. She couldn't control them, though she tended to get more visions connected to those close to her more often than of anything else, and if the present events didn't change, then her visions would come true. Ana could read tarot cards accurately, and she occasionally made prophecies. The last one she had made had been two months ago, which was about the Dark Lord's eventual downfall, but then returning to power many years later and would have to be defeated once and for all by the person that defeated him the first time.
Prophecies, however, were a bit tricky, and there was no guarantee that they would come true. Half the time they only became true because they were self-fulfilling, in other words the actions of the subjects of the prophecies made them come true. Therefore, in the case of the recent prophecy that Ana made, the Dark Lord could do something that would result in his downfall, and then when he returned to power, would then go after the person that defeated him the first time in revenge, which would result in his final defeat.
Dinner no longer alternated between just the homes of the older Petrovs and Romanovs, for on Wednesdays they were at Sarah and Niko's home, Thursdays at Tobias and Maria's house, and Fridays at the rented house that Ana and Stephen had moved into. On Saturdays was a picnic at a park, and Sundays we had dinner at a restaurant, usually something non-British, like Indian or Chinese. Maria and Tobias normally paid for the meals, as they earned the highest salary as Aurors. First-year Aurors were paid five hundred Galleons a month, but with the war, they now earned six hundred. Theirs was the second-highest paying job at the Ministry, the highest being that of a Hit Wizard, who had a salary of seven hundred Galleons (eight hundred with the war) and a bed at St. Mungo's. Well, technically the highest paying jobs were that of Minister for Magic and the Department Heads, but I didn't count those as they weren't something that everyone could aspire to.
When not brewing potions and learning everything I could about the subject, I practised wandless magic and learned things about aspects of Romany magic. I couldn't know everything, of course, for Gajos, or non-Gypsies, weren't supposed to be privy to all Romany secrets unless they were raised as a Romany or married to one, like in Sarah's case. In the evenings, I read the accounts the Petrovs and Romanovs had written about their experiences in the Holocaust, having finally worked up the courage to do so, and was horrified with what I read. Mrs. Romanov, being a Healer, had spent over a year working in Auschwitz's hospital as a nurse, and had recorded everything she could remember about working there. She devoted several pages to a Nazi doctor named Josef Mengele, who was obsessed with his 'experiments' and collected twin children and others he found interesting, such as those that were short like dwarves.
Mrs. Petrov had worked in the kitchens, thanks to a bribe she and Mrs. Romanov had paid, and was sometimes able to 'organise' extra food for other young women they were acquainted with. Since they had relatively good jobs, they were able to avoid being selected for the gas chambers, and due to their magic, they escaped being taken along on a death march and so were still at Auschwitz when they camp was finally liberated. Mr. Petrov and Mr. Romanov had eventually been sent to work at a factory with a large group of other 'prisoners', and then had been part of a death march toward the end of the war. Since they were wizards, they had been able to use magic to pull through to liberation, but it hadn't been enough to save Mrs. Petrov's brother, who became ill and collapsed one day on the journey. His two friends tried to help him, but eventually one of the guards noticed and shot him. That evening, Mr. Romanov and Mr. Petrov did Disillusionment Charms on themselves and two men that they were friendly with and ran away. After finding shelter at an abandoned farm, they modified the memories of the Muggles so that they forgot about magic and the group stayed hidden at the farm until liberation.
When it came time to return to Hogwarts, Sarah revealed that she was pregnant again. She and Niko asked me to be the godfather for this child, and after my initial surprise and protests that there were others better qualified to be godfather, I gave in and accepted. I was relatively happy upon arriving at Hogwarts, until I discovered two things, that my nenemis James Potter had somehow become Head Boy, and Lily Evans, who was Head Girl, had finally decided to go out with him. While it was true that Potter hadn't bullied me as much last year and he seemed to be trying to act more mature, he was still nowhere was well-behaved as Lupin (which wasn't saying much), and I couldn't understand why Lily had agreed to date him. However, my friendship with her was over and she didn't speak to me except when absolutely necessary during Potions and Charms (the two classes we had together), so there was nothing I could do about it.
I ended up burying myself in my schoolwork, determined to do well on my N.E.W.T.s, especially my Potions one. If I achieved an Outstanding on the Potions N.E.W.T., then scored at least an 85 percent on the Mastery test and got passing grades on the rest of my N.E.W.T.s (that weren't electives), that plus the time I spent as an apprentice would fulfill the requirements and I would become a Potions Master. I would have to figure out what to do with my life after that, even if it was taking up Mrs. Petrov's offer to work at the apothecary, though I would only be paid room, board, and twenty Galleons a month, since she couldn't quite afford to pay me the kind of salary that she paid Fiona if I lived at a place of my own now that Ana was practically part owner.
When the Christmas holidays arrived, Mrs. Petrov insisted on me spending it with her family again. Two days after Christmas, I got the news that my father was very illl. Mrs. Petrov accompanied me to the hospital, where I found that he wasn't far from death. Though I hated the bastard, my mother had loved him once, and he hadn't started drinking and became abusive until I was five and he had lost his job at the mill. For that, I attempted to make sort of peace with him, but it didn't work. Though he couldn't shout, since he was too ill and weak to do so, he snapped in the loudest tone he could manage, "Good riddance, you worthless freak of nature. Those powers couldn't save Eileen or do me any good. I'm glad I'll never have to see you again and-"
At this point, he burst into a fit of coughing, and Mrs. Petrov rushed me out of the room before he could recover and say anything more to me. Her mouth was a thin line, and her eyes flashed angrily as we left the hospital. "Pay him no mind. You are a million times better than Tobias Snape, and he doesn't deserve to be your father. The only good thing that came out of his marriage was you."
The next day, the hospital notified me of his death. Mr. Petrov made the funeral arrangements, and only myself, the Petrovs and Romanovs (except for Sarah, who stayed home to look after Vera), and the vicar were present. I inherited the house at Spinner's End, and nothing else, as what little money was left went to paying the bills left behind.
When the holidays ended, I returned to Hogwarts and threw myself into my studies again, only taking time away when the other Slytherins pressed me to spend time with them. They were all supporters of the Dark Lord, and though associating with them had been one of the reasons that Lily had stopped being my friend, I really had no other choice. They could end up being more dangerous than the Marauders, and I didn't want my housemates after me, since I couldn't escape them the same way as I could with the Marauders. Things continued like this until I took my N.E.W.T.s (getting Outstandings in everything except Herbology, which was an Exceeds Expectations) and graduated from Hogwarts. I went to the Petrovs after graduation, where I helped Mrs. Petrov in the apothecary and studied for my Mastery exam in Potions.