One Day at a Time

Of Flobberworms and Family Dynamics

I saw Tarazet's eyes quickly scan the faces of the four people who had just sat down at the table: Hagrid, Ron, Harry and Heremione. For a split second I could practically imagine how he saw them: the half-breed and the blood traitor, responsible for the gradual downfall of the Wizarding race. And Harry, responsible not only for that, but also indirectly responsible for his fifteen year stay in Azkaban. And me, his little sister, friends with these people. I cringed, afraid of what he might say to them. Thankfully he only said in a rather cool tone with a hint of anger to his words, "Merlin, Liseli, I didn't know you were so needy. I was only gone for a few moments."

I felt a surge of annoyance at his insult, mixed with a sense of relief that at least he hadn't directly insulted them. Hagrid looked around awkwardly for a split second before saying, "Oh, gosh, I didn't know you were with somebody, Liseli. We can go sit somewhere else."

"No, no, it's fine," Tarazet replied coolly, giving me a quick glance before adding, "After all, if you're her friends," and here he accented the last word with a barely noticeable hint of annoyance and disappointment.

Hagrid, obviously having missed the subtle difference in tone, seemed somewhat heartened by the words and cheerfully replied, "Rubeus Hagrid. This is Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger an' of course I'm sure you recognize Harry Potter."

He nodded in acknowledgment and replied "Tarazet Colburn," as he grabbed another chair for the table. I vaguely wondered how much Hagrid and my three students remembered from what I had told them about Tarazet back in October: that he spent fifteen years in Azkaban for counterfeiting two hundred million Galleons.

"I was just telling Liseli that I think this place has a lot of character," Hagrid turned made a brave attempt at conversation.

"Yes, I suppose so," Tarazet said in a forced civil tone. "Personally, I prefer the Three Broomsticks. This place is rather—ah—dingy for my tastes. Which reminds me, you'll have to go up front to order. The bartender seems to be rather scatter-brained."

"Oh, alright. Well, it's always interesting talking to Abeforth," the large man laughed and took the others' orders. When he returned he attempted to start a conversation again by turning to my brother and saying "So what do you do?"

"Currently I'm unemployed, but I used to work for the Ministry," he said smoothly, not revealing that his employment status had changed only when he was arrested, fifteen years ago.

"Oh, my dad works there," Ron said brightly. "He's head of the office which confiscates those fake defensive charms and objects which everybody sells on Diagon Alley. His name's Arthur Weasley. Where did you work?"

He replied in a tone that was still cool and slightly condescending, "I worked at the Department of Magical Transportation. My job was to determine a method of tracking illegal Portkey and Floo Powder use."

Ron snorted out a laugh before quickly disguising it as a cough, while Tarazet gave him a quick glare. Clearly the red-haired boy, at least, had remembered that Tarazet had served time in Azkaban, and I suppose the irony of his last job had been too much to not react to.

At this point the bartender arrived with our drinks, and I took the opportunity to change the topic of conversation. "I saw your last Quidditch match," I said cheerfully, turning towards Ron and Harry.

"Oh yeah, that match was really close," Harry replied. "The Hufflepuff chasers were amazing." Ron grumbled something quietly and I remembered how many times he had let the Quaffle in. "I think Gryffindor still has a pretty good chance at the cup," he cheerfully clapped his hand on Ron's shoulder.

"With a Keeper like you and a Seeker like you, you have more than just a pretty good chance," Hagrid looked at them each in turn and smiled broadly.

"You're a seeker?" Tarazet looked mildly surprised. "Like your father." I knew Tarazet didn't like James Potter very much and I tried to give him a warning look, but he wasn't facing me.

"Yes, I am," Harry replied happily, taking Tarazet's last sentence as a compliment, evidently. "Did you know him?"

"You could say that," my brother replied in a tone of restrained anger. "He sent me to the Hospital Wing numerous times."

Harry looked surprised and I quickly stepped in, saying, "Numerous times is a bit of an exaggeration, Tarazet."

"Fine. He and Sirius sent me to the Hospital wing numerous times," he corrected himself. Okay, that was true.

"Eh, Quidditch rivalries," I said in a tone that I hoped would diminish my brother's sentence, even if the hexing had always been more over Regulus and Sirius than Quidditch. "He was on the Slytherin Quidditch team," I jerked my thumb towards him.

Harry smiled in a would-be understanding way. "We still have that rivalry, nowadays, too. I mean, I always want to get to the snitch first, but if Malfoy's the other seeker, there's no question. Sounds like it was something like that."

"I thought you were a chaser, Mr. Colburn?" Hermione gave him a quizzical look.

He seemed surprised to be addressed so politely and smoothly replied "I was. The seeker rivalry, as you call it, was between Potter and Regulus. I was just Regulus's friend." I flinched. I didn't want to be associated, even indirectly, with known Death Eaters any more than necessary.

"I didn't know Sirius's brother was a seeker," Harry replied, surprised. "Did the rivalry between them run deep?"

I shot Tarazet another warning glance, hoping he wouldn't aggravate Harry, but he still wasn't facing me. "Quite," he started, continuing in a tone of barely restrained hostility. "The one time Regulus captured the snitch first, Potter attacked him."

"The referee said they grabbed the snitch at the same time," I snapped, afraid of a larger argument breaking out. I remembered that match well; it was directly after Sirius had left home. Regulus and James Potter had taken to hexing each other if they were so much as in the same half of Hogwarts. The close proximities of the Quidditch field had been too much, and the long brewing fight had exploded.

I heard Tarazet bitterly say under his breath, "The ref always favored Gryffindor."

To his credit, though, he restrained himself from saying anything more, which gave me the opportunity to try and change the topic of conversation again. "So how are all of your classes going?"

"They've been going really well," Hermione said happily. Harry and Ron both gave her an incredulous look to which she replied, "Well I mean of course they're challenging, but that's what makes them fun."

" 'Challenging'?" Ron said incredulously in a rather high pitched voice. "Just 'challenging'? Not, oh, I don't know, impossible?!"

"Yes, Ron, just challenging," the bushy-haired girl rolled her eyes. "Maybe if you studied instead of playing Gobstones all the time."

"What?!—I don't---not all the—" Ron started indignantly.

"Oh, that reminds me," Hermione said brightly, ignoring the red-haired boy who was opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water. "I've been reading the book you leant me, Professor Colburn. It's really interesting comparing your old Defense Against the Dark Arts book to our current one."

"That's good to hear," I smiled.

"Just ignore the cramped, blocky handwriting," Tarazet jumped in in a mostly neutral tone. I was glad he didn't know that Hermione was Muggleborn; something told me he wouldn't be nearly as pleasant to her if he knew.

"Why—?" she started, confused.

"That's Matar's handwriting. He was a rather poor student," Tarazet explained, an amused smile tugging at the corners of his lips, despite his generally annoyed demeanor.

"Matar is our second oldest brother," I clarified to Hermione. "And while you're at it, ignore the neat, cursive handwriting," I smiled mischievously.

"Hey!" Tarazet let out, mock offended. "That handwriting's mine."

Ron laughed. "Hand-me-down's are always fun. Mum didn't want Fred and George to have to share books, though, so I always had two books to chose between: the used-by-Weasleys book and the book that was bought used, so who knows whose handwriting it is. Sort of a gamble: who will be more useful?" and here he made the hand movement of judging a scale.

"I remember having to guess whose scrawled-in-the-margin notes would be the most useful, and the criteria I used. Like, let's see," I started ticking my fingers off, "Deneb's good for potions, Tarazet's good at Transfiguration and Charms, ignore Matar for everything, and ignore Seginus for almost everything. But his notes were six years old by the time I got them, anyway."

"That sounds like me," Ron smiled understandingly. "There's a ten year difference between Bill and me."

Meanwhile, my youngest brother was scowling. Not because of the (fairly accurate) characterization of my brothers, I was sure, but because I was pointing out similarities between our family and the Weasleys, who he saw as nothing more than blood traitors.

"Well, it's been great chatting with you again, Liseli," Hagrid made movements to stand up, "But I should get going. Fang gets whiney if he's not fed on time. Anyway, you should stop by some time!" and with a last wave he left with the three other Gryffindors.

"How much did you tell them about me?" Tarazet asked once they had left, although he was still suspiciously eyeing the door out of the corner of his eye.

"I overheard them talking once. They knew that I had brothers who were in Azkaban for being Death Eaters, and when they saw you I thought they might suspect you were one of them." I let my eyes glance at his sunken eye sockets and waxy skin, both symptoms of a long stay in Azkaban. "So, I told them that you had just finished your sentence for counterfeiting galleons, because that way they wouldn't think you were a Death Eater."

"Fine," he curtly replied. He let out an annoyed breath before adding with a slightly cheerful sigh, "They didn't seem to think I was one."

"No, they didn't," I said honestly, glad that Tarazet was enough of a Slytherin to hide his emotions and beliefs when necessary.

Confident that nobody suspected Tarazet was a Death Eater (save Severus, who already knew it for a fact) I was able to teach my classes without worrying what others might think of me associating with him; I was afraid not only of tarnishing my reputation, but also of people suspecting that I, myself, might be a Death Eater.

It was part way through the week when an owl I had never seen before brought me a letter. It actually had two letters with it, but when I tried to take both of them it pecked me angrily before walking a bit to my left and dropping the second envelope in front of Severus. I looked at him, curious, before I slowly opened the rather elegant looking envelope in my own hands. Inside there was a single sheet of stiff, embossed paper. The script on it was ludicrously embellished, to the point that it was practically impossible to read.

Dear Miss Liseli Colburn, it read

You are cordially invited to attend an End-of-Winter celebratory ball at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Thorfinn Rowle.

Date: March 10, 1996.

Time: 20:00

Dinner will be served. Formal attire is requested.

I frowned. I didn't know a Thorfinn Rowle, yet the letter was clearly addressed to me. I thought for a moment when it struck me that Thorfinn Rowle might be the husband of one of my Hogwarts friends. The name "Rowle" was starting to seem familiar, the more I concentrated. Had my Slytherin friend Persephone married a Rowle? I had not talked with her in a very long time, but it was quite possible the invitation was from her.

"What does yours say?" I curiously peered over Sev's shoulder, yet his card was completely blank.

He glanced at mine before replying, "They seem to be written in a type of ink that can only be read by the intended recipient."

"Odd, it doesn't seem to be particularly private information," I casually said. "Or at least mine isn't; it's just an invitation. I can't speak for yours, seeing as I haven't seen it."

"No, mine is also an invitation," he said distractedly. He was staring very intently at his (seemingly) blank card, clearly thinking. "This is very interesting," he started slowly. I gave him a questioning look. Whether or not he saw it, I don't know, but he continued either way, "Normally the Malfoys hold a ball at around this time of year, with the goal, of course, of building connections and setting a positive impression of themselves. With Lucius in prison, though, it seems as though Rowle is attempting to usurp Malfoy's influence." I had not known that the Malfoys held an annual ball, nor did I knew much about the dynamics of powerful pureblood families; I knew only of Deneb's poor imitations, as we had most certainly not grown up within that tier of society. Unsure of how to reply to Severus's musing, I simply nodded and turned my attention back to the eggs in front of me.

That afternoon I decided to pay my first visit to Hagrid's in a while, both to tear my mind away from thinking about the invitation and that uppermost tier of society, and to check that Hagrid's opinion of me had not been changed by meeting my brother. Upon approaching the wooden hut, I noticed his immense figure standing with Harry, Hermione and Ron near a small outdoor pen.

"Hullo," Hagrid cheerfully greeted me. "We're feeding Hogwarts flobberworms, wanna help?"

"Sure, why not," I shrugged and glanced at the bored expressions on the three students' faces; they seemed to be manually shredding the lettuce rather unenthusiastically, as a favor to Hagrid, I was sure. "Professor Colburn," Hermione suddenly greeted me, straightening up and leaving Ron and Harry to continue poking the flobberworms with small wads of lettuce. "I finished looking at your book. I didn't notice until your brother mentioned it at Hogsmeade, but he's right. The blocky handwriting did have wrong information written in the margins a lot."

I laughed, "Yeah, that's Matar for you. He even almost left Hogwarts after his sixth year."

Hermione looked surprised. "I'd never heard of someone failing out of Hogwarts before. I mean, Fred and George left intentionally, but I didn't know you could be expelled for poor grades."

"Well," I frowned slightly, thinking. "It wasn't that he was going to be expelled. It was that he wanted to drop out. He wanted to stay with Seginus, our eldest brother, and get a job. But our parents forced him to finish his last year."

"Oh, were they like Fred and George? Did they start a business together?" Ron brightly asked, also taking advantage of the distraction to no longer feed the flobberworms. I supposed that even though Ron and Hermione knew I had Death Eater brothers, they did not know how many siblings I had, nor which ones were followers of the Dark Lord.

"No, they didn't," I conversationally replied. "You know your potion ingredients and the materials used to make your wands? They worked for a company that collects those ingredients and sells them to distributors."

Hermione quickly replied, "You mean they collected dragon heartstrings, and materials like that?"

"Well, I doubt they collected dragon heartstrings," I said in a startled tone. "That seems like it would take a lot of skill, and be rather dangerous. I don't know the details, but I always imagined them more as collecting toad eyes or taking wood from holly tress." At that point I decided to move the topic off of my brothers before anybody asked what they were doing currently. Somehow, 'They're Death Eaters on the run from the law,' didn't seem like an acceptable career. "So what do your other brothers do, Ron?" I asked. "I've only ever heard about Fred and George."

"Bill works as a curse breaker for Gringotts. Charlie works with dragons," Ron replied distractedly. His eyes were flickering towards a flobberworm that seemed to sneezing up a green ball.

"You forgot Percy," Hermione quickly reminded him.

"Oh, yeah, that git," Ron frowned. "He works for the Ministry."

"Don't get along with him very well?" I casually asked, hoping I wasn't prying too much.

"The only thing he cares about is success. His career is more important to him than his family," the red-haired boy said bitterly.

"That sounds like my brother Deneb," I sympathized. Deneb also worked at the Ministry, and he had publicly disowned Tarazet, Seginus and Matar once they were arrested. Despite this, he still secretly kept in touch with them, convinced that you could never know when someone might be useful.

"Now the one at the Hog's Head was…Tarazet, right?" Hagrid asked. I nodded slowly, wondering where he was going with this. "I thought you didn't get along with him very well?"

"I don't," I slowly said; I was still hesitant about associating myself with a former prisoner more than necessary. I honestly added, "He is my brother, though. I can't exactly ignore that and refuse to see him ever again."

"I wish Percy felt that way," Ron said in an annoyed tone, while looking at this shoes.

"Yeah," I gave him a sad smile. "There are an awful lot of times where I've wished that family dynamics were simple and straight forward."

Ron nodded and there was a pause in the conversation. "On a slightly cheerier topic," Hagrid started, "I was talking with McGonagall, and she said the school is thinking about throwing a ball."

Hermione groaned. "What for? It was unbearable enough listening to the girls in my dorm talk about Valentine's Day for a month straight."

Ron and Harry looked equally displeased at the concept of a ball, and Hagrid continued, "I think officially it's going to be for the Spring Solstice. Really, though, it's to try and distract from the surge in Death Eater attacks."

"It seems as though that's all the Daily Prophet reports anymore," Hermione said sadly.

There was a moment of sad silence before Harry suddenly said, "I think we got all of the flobberworms, Hagrid. I'm going to head back to the castle. I have an essay I should start." The other two thirds of the trio silently joined him, and I watched as they trudged back to the castle.

…

A/N: As a general heads up, school's starting for me soon, so updates will probably start coming a bit less frequently. On another note, a very, very big thank you to Leslie, Mark Darcy, PollyWantCookie, tibys, SomeOtherPerson, argyle owl and gothicflower for reviewing!