The Ministry of Magic Christmas Gala was the biggest event of the season. Everyone who was anyone was invited, as well as every member of the Ministry staff. Sylvia Lyon felt more than a little overwhelmed, but her husband Marcellus, a junior member of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, had insisted that it was time she had a real taste of the magical world.
Sylvia was a Muggle - the word still sounded strange to her - and until she and Marcellus had become engaged three years before, she had believed that magic was a thing of imagination and fairy tales. But now, as her young husband escorted her into the elaborately-decorated hall, it was all around her, singing from the rafters and twinkling from the branches of dozens of fir trees.
"I'm just going to get us some drinks," Marcellus said before abandoning her in a sea of strangers.
Some of the strangers were very strange indeed, with their unusual clothing and wands. One woman even appeared to have a stuffed buzzard perched atop her hat. Nervously hefting her squirming bundle onto her shoulder, Sylvia looked around desperately for anyone remotely normal looking. Her eyes lit on a young dark-haired woman who also held an infant. Common ground.
"How old is yours?" she asked, the age-old conversation opener of mothers meeting for the first time.
The young woman laughed. "He's six months, but he isn't mine. I'm only the nanny." She turned her own bundle so that Sylvia could see a cap of dark fluff and a face red from fussing. "Normally, I wouldn't even be here, but you know how these high-society types are about having their heirs seen."
"Remus is nine months," Sylvia said proudly, presenting her son. "Our first."
Unlike the other boy, Remus was a happy baby. He cooed and drooled and reached his chubby hands towards the strangers.
The black-haired baby stopped fussing and regarded Remus and his mother with large, grey eyes. The nanny sighed in relief.
"That's the first time he's stopped squirming all day!" she said, smiling, as Remus's fat little hand clutched the sleeve of her charge's gown.
"Making friends?" asked Marcellus, returning with the drinks and a smile. "Wonderful! We've been hoping to start making play dates for Remus."
"Petronella!" cried a shocked voice. They turned to see a tall, sour-faced woman striding towards them. "What have I told you about exposing him to riffraff? Do you want to be dismissed?"
The young nanny hung her head, stepping away from the Lyons. "No, Mrs Black," she murmured.
"Come along," the woman said tartly. "I want the Minister for Magic to see him."
She turned and strode away, the nanny trailing meekly in her wake. The wide grey eyes of the infant she carried stared back at them over her shoulder until they disappeared into the crowd.
Remus began to fuss.