AN/- hey everyone, you won't believe what has happened over the past one week-my story (this story) got nominated for Energize W.I.P. Award In the category "Most promising Harry Potter FanFiction " The Voting will be from Nov. 01. – Nov. 15.-I am so excited-never been nominated for anything before-woo hoo!. I don't know how this thing is going to work but if it is a open voting for everyone then maybe I'll put up a link and those of you who think my story has potential can go vote for it. That's all for now. So keep read and keep reviewing =)

Regards

Penny

Chapter 24

Audrey woke up as cold wind blew through the window and entangled the curtains around her bed with her feet, so when she fell off the edge of the bed that she was sleeping on her leg was still attached to the curtains. She quickly detangled herself from them and sat back on the bed, Ginny and Hermione were still fast asleep as Patricia stirred and then turned her back on Audrey. Audrey turned to look out of the window, it must have been hardly seven, she never woke up before nine on holidays, must be because France was an hour faster. She rubbed her eyes and yawned as she replaced her night clothes with blue jeans and a black t-shirt, she let her bed head be as she slowly made her way down to the kitchen hoping to get some tea.

The house was awfully quite unlike last night, when Fred and George had possibly consumed a small amount of fire whiskey from Sirius's glass and had acted drunk, Audrey could hear the light snoring coming from the couch in the living room as she entered to see Snape unceremoniously sprawled on it with a lot of gift wrappings around him some even on his chest, she giggled as he stirred and frowned to himself as he then did something like a back flip and slept on his stomach.

Audrey left him in peace and made her away to the kitchen and as always was greeted by Mrs. Weasley, her mother and Remus.

"You're up early!" said Remus surprised as Audrey shrugged and then pushed her head into his arm as she closed her eyes, she could feel him chuckle.

"For a change," commented her mother dryly as Remus laughed again.

"Well—I can't sleep—it not my fault," said Audrey in a muffled tone as her mother put a warm mug of tea in front of her.

"Why is Snape sleeping in the living room?" Tonks asked as she entered the room dressed in her robes for work, it had been hard to believe that she was actually an auror.

"I think he was out last night, must have been summou—" began Rachel as Mrs. Weasley threw her a glare reminding her of Audrey in the room.

"I already know he's a spy for us," said Audrey as she pulled her mug to her lips as she took in the boiling liquid quickly it astonished her too that she could drink the hot liquid so quickly but the warm liquid sliding down her throat made her feel pleasant, her mother looked at her uncomfortably as Remus cleared his throat.

"Yes, well don't be going around parading that Drey," commented Remus as an owl flew over his head and crashed into Audrey's head. She removed the envelope from its leg.

"Bloody bird is a menace!" she muttered as Featherless Henry fluttered and sat on top of her head, she let him be, her mother looked at her dying to state that she looked most inappropriate. Audrey had a small smirk playing on her face as she glanced at the Beauxbatons letter as she read it.

"What does it say?" her mother asked urgently as Audrey looked up at her.

"They want me to decide who should replace Fedora as captain since I am no longer going to school there and won't be captaining the house," she said her eyes still on the parchment, her mother looked at her and sighed, she knew exactly why Audrey was smirking.

"I suppose I should write Leon's name," she said to herself as if begging her mother to begin an argument. Audrey knew Patricia had been dying for that post every since Audrey had got to be vice captain and Audrey knew Patricia would do anything to get that post. Audrey was also aware that her mother wanted to be in the good books of Patricia Phelps because Patricia was always so nice and lovely in front of the adults and her uncle loved her too much, but Audrey knew she was only bullshitting everyone.

Audrey got up as Jean entered the kitchen, their eyes meet for a second and then Jean saw the letter in her hand, he looked furious as Audrey smirked at him as he questioned her.

"Where are you going?" he spat in anger as she didn't stop smirking at him.

"To give my reply as to who actually deserves to be captaining Jupiter house," she smirked at him as he growled inaudibly so only Audrey could hear him.

"Don't try and get smart with me," he snarled as Audrey threw him a glare.

"I don't need to try," she hissed angrily as she pushed past Jean and made her way upstairs.

Jean settled down in an empty chair next to Rachel as he lit himself a cigarette, Molly was very displeased but did not say much, she seemed more worried about Audrey and the animosity she had just shared with Jean.

"Going out of hand Ray," Jean muttered as Rachel sighed and got up to wash her mug of tea, they knew who he was talking about.

"Do you not like her?"Molly asked bravely as Jean looked up at her and remembered that the woman didn't like people who smoked; he instantly put out his expensive cigarette.

"Like who?" he asked his French accent getting the better of him as Tonks snorted, he glared at the woman sharply for laughing at him.

"Your niece to be," said Molly as she drank deeply from her mug as Jean burst out laughing.

"She's a weird girl," he said shrugging as Rachel breathed in deeply, not getting away from the sink.

"But you seem to despise her," said Molly sharply as Remus looked at her darkly he didn't want any fights really.

"No, I don't despise her—all I'm saying is that she has an attitude problem and absolutely no idea as to how to treat her superiors—needs a firm hand is all," he said as Rachel stiffened as Molly looked that the man she had found charming, no longer. She knew that he meant elders but when he said superiors it sent a shiver down to the pit of her stomach, she felt like he was rather cruel.

"I think she a sweet girl," replied Molly.

"Not when you are on the other side of her tongue," grunted Jean disregarding everything Molly said.

"Well—maybe you should be a bit nice to her," began Molly, she wanted to teach the man a thing or two about treating children nicely, she hadn't even had such a talk with Severus and he was cruel to children, but something about Jean was different, Molly knew Severus' reasons for his harshness, but Jean, he had no reasons.

"Nice—to Adams!—you have clearly lost your mind and besides how does it matter—if she doesn't respect me— how I am I supposed to be nice," he said clearly stating that he did not want anything to do with the girl as Rachel turned and picked up Remus's mug and washed it for him, she did not want to be in the room with them anymore, she knew Molly was going to give her lecture about how Jean should treat Audrey better. Truth was both Rachel and Audrey were over that phase of Jean's rudeness-they no longer cared as to whether Audrey and he fought, because Rachel knew Audrey was bitter about the fact that Jean as going to be her step father and Jean was bitter about the fact that he could not tame Audrey like his pathetic little niece, Audrey was no animal, she was too hot headed to even stay in the same room as Jean for very long without saying something snarky and cold to him that he would have no response to.

Everyone was now down for breakfast as Audrey noticed her grandfather had come down to speak with the children, everyone was talking to each other, when he cleared his throat and announced something.

"It has come to my attention that since dark times are approaching we need to be more thoroughly prepared," declared Albus now gaining the attention of the whole kitchen.

"I have decided to that the youngster will be trained and in the basics which will further help them enhance their defence skills which they may need to apply in dire situations," declared Dumbledore as the kitchen now was very pleased with this new rule although they could Mrs. Weasley voice her disapproval through small sounds but did not say much.

"How will that work professor? I mean won't that be counted as under age sorcery?" Hermione asked confused as Dumbledore looked at them, they did not know off the most important rule that the ministry hid from them but before he could reply someone else did for him.

"Magic done by an underage witch or wizard without supervision of an adult witch or wizard can be termed as delinquent by the law, but if supervision is supplied the ministry has no say in things—they are only aware of the area that has been subject to magic not whose wand has supplied the magic—they call tell who is doing what by the mere fact that there are not many wizards living in the same muggle regions—I mean there aren't clustered together—so if Sirius lives on Forest Street, there aren't many witches of wizards around were we live—that is how the ministry figures who is the person behind the magic, sometimes it can prove to be wrong though—I believe the theory is rubbish." finished Audrey as Patricia passed a comment.

"Is that how you've been practicing that spell of yours that pulls peoples limbs apart?" she scoffed as Audrey looked at her darkly, she noticed how her mother was now glaring at her.

"No—that is because this house in registered under a wizard's name—therefore the magic done here cannot be traced as such—not to me at least," said Audrey looking at Patricia as if she were ignorant, she simply went back to her oatmeal.

"Very good," said Dumbledore nodding his head in approval of her answer making Audrey slightly uncomfortable.

"Magic and rules by Hindershaw I presume?" he asked.

"The ministry of magic rule book actually," replied Audrey throwing him a small smile as he chuckled.

"Now, I will be passing down little boxes with a list of your portion to be covered and the name of your tutor, you'll read it out loud please," said Dumbledore as he went around the table asking the kids to chose one black box each, they began opening it.

"There will be a duel after you have perfected the spells to see how well you have learnt them." Finished Dumbledore as he motioned Fred to read the name he had got.

"I got Dad," he said grinning at his father.

"I got Remus," said George who next in line as he raised his cup to salute Remus, who gave him a smile.

"Tonks," grinned Ginny as Tonks bounced slightly in her seat.

"I got Uncle Jean," smiled Patricia as her uncle sitting next to her, gave her a one arm hug.

"I got Ms. Adams" said Hermione, as she smiled at Rachel who took a large sip of her drink but communicated her pleasantries through her eyes.

"Sirius," said Harry as Sirius high fived his godson, they all turned to Audrey who opened her box and the chit popped out as she read it.

"Professor Snape," she said casually as Rachel spat her drink out which landed on Remus's face, they all looked at her as she quickly handed Remus her napkin and apologised profusely. She noticed that Snape threw her a glare along with her daughter how looked oddly at her.

"Well, then I suppose we can start with your training from today then," said Dumbledore cheerfully as the kids seemed to be very pleased as they read the list in their box, it felt like school again but kind of different.

Breakfast was done as people had started clearing off and were going outside into the backyard, they had decided to begin with spells, but Snape asked Audrey to wait back and she did what she was told, as everyone left the room Snape was still sitting enjoy a quiet cup of tea and biting into his buttered toast as he looked through the curriculum he had been handed by Audrey as she sat opposite him.

"So what do you want to do first?" he asked her chewing his bite of toast, he frowned and spread some marmalade on it.

"Don't no—whatever seems feasible," she replied as he scoffed and then pushed the toast into his mouth, he seemed to be feeling more hungry after those stupid death eater gatherings that happened ever so often.

"Follow me," he said swallowing the toast with a cup of really hot tea. Severus got up and climb his way up the stairs and then into the narrow hallway as he opened the cupboard under the stair and walked inside where he opened a trap door in the wooden floor, he tried to pull the damn thing open but it was once again hopelessly jammed, the inside latch must have fallen again. He pulled violently again but nothing happened as he stood up and stomped violently on it trying to loosen it up a bit. Audrey looked at him like he'd lost his mind.

"Can I try?" she asked him as he looked at her.

"Sure," he drawled and moved aside a short smirk on his but he did what he should have she pulled out her wand.

"Alohomora," she said as the latch fell open from the inside and she managed to the door open as she smiled at him and went down the ladder that led to the basement laboratory.

"Brilliant!" muttered Severus annoyed with himself for not thinking of the obvious and then followed the girl down. He found that someone had already occupied the laboratory.

"Hello," said Hermione as Audrey eyed her mother suspiciously while Snape readied the opposite workstation for them.

"What are you preparing?" Audrey asked curious as Snape put a cauldron to heat as he dumped three crucibles of water into it.

"Draught of peace," replied Hermione as she smiled and then got back to referring to the book she had as Rachel looked at what the girl was doing and giving her advice to make it better.

"What are we making?" she asked Snape as he looked at her and pushed an open book in front of her that read Draught of Peace.

"Lovely," she said, as Snape stood behind her, towering over her like a looming shadow.

Audrey read the recipe three times before she actually began, she emptied the cauldron he had put on heat for, it was now clean and ready for use.

150 ml of Salamader blood

1 tbs of wormwood

1 chopped Redneck tart plant

9 ounces of olive leaves.

Mix Salamder blood in 50ml of water and crush the wormwood into a fine powder with 5 ounces of olive leaves and put three spoons of it into the boiling mixture. Place 5 pieces of the redneck tart plant into the brew and stir clockwise continuously till the brew receives a pinkish red colour. Stop stirring and add the rest of the olive leaves, pour 5mls of water and mix the tart plant making it a semisolid mixture and pour it into the brew, stir 6 times clockwise and 8 times anticlockwise and then put off the heat, add another 5ml of water and stir quickly clockwise, let it cool for a few minutes, if the potion is light pink in colour, it is ready. To check for the potion's reliability check with limestone or calcium. If calcium melts then your potion is ready.

Audrey looked at the recipe and began the potion how the recipe had instructed, she looked at Hermione, the girl looked rather flustered her bushy hair had become bigger because of the heat, thank Merlin Audrey was wearing her hair in a pony tail that hung at the back of her head. Hermione coughed continuously as Audrey continued with her potion, she noticed a rather bad whiff coming from Hermione's potion as her mother sighed and asked the girl to calm down and try again. Audrey had already reached the recipe half way and was stirring the concoction clockwise hoping that it would turn light pink, she wondered if Snape was even present but her doubts were cleared when the potions master cleared one side of the workstation of papers and pushed himself up and sat next to the cauldron dunking his head into it. She smiled, he seemed to be acting oddly, even Hermione noticed and gestured Audrey about it as Audrey shrugged in response. She continued with the recipe as a few seconds later Hermione's concoction suddenly acted as it began oozing out of the cauldron, Rachel cursed herself and cleared the cauldron and read the recipe Hermione was using making small changes here and there, that was when Audrey realised that the recipes they had gotten were different and were actually written by the people who were training them, Audrey knew her mother wasn't the best at potions and so she was thankful she had gotten Snape, he seemed to know a lot about things.

"Done," she said a few minutes later as Snape nodded and pushed a piece of chalk to her as she picked up a spoon with the potion to test it, the chalk melted.

"Hmm," hummed Snape as if grunting his approval, he filled a few containers with the potions.

"Show me your recipe Granger," said Snape as Hermione looked at him and then turned to Rachel who glared at Snape and got up.

"Why? She doesn't need your help!" said Rachel hostile in her approach as Hermione looked at Audrey who was staring at her mother and Snape.

"Yes, but I need to work here tonight—I won't be able to if she screws up another one" he replied silkily as he looked at the ingredients that the girl had just used.

"What are you trying to do—make a bloody bomb with that!" sneered Snape as he pointed at the Septimore flowers and three eyed slug juice.

"I said we don't need your help Snape—so just get lost," snarled Rachel—who was she kidding?

"Fine—you'll be the ones clearing up then," said Snape as he noticed Audrey handing Hermione the recipe from below the table.

"No, Adams! Your aunt doesn't need our help—go on," he said pushing the girl out.

Snape clearly didn't want to stay there any longer and so he pushed the girl out of the laboratory maybe they'd look up stuff on charms in the library, just as they shut the door to the cupboard, there was small blast that was heard from the laboratory as a satisfactory smirk sat on his face while Audrey looked at him a little scared but pleased by the fact that she had him as an instructor, even if he was a death eater or ex-death eater or whatever—he was just misunderstood.

Severus was having fun searching through the Black library for books on charms as the girl pointed out a few good references that she had found, from her time there. They had finally gotten the hang of things and scribbled things down on two rather long parchments when the door of the library slammed open as Rachel stalked in covered in what looked like tar. Audrey wanted to say something but she stifled a giggle.

"Don't! " snarled Rachel as Audrey pushed her back into the chair and sniggered to herself as she could see Snape bit back his laughter as well. Rachel pulled out a few potions books and then flipped the pages to find anything relevant on draught of peace.

"Aunt—maybe you should just take this," said Audrey pushing the recipe towards her aunt who glared at the parchment loathingly, she could tell Snape was smirking.

"No, just mind your own business," said Rachel almost tearing the page out while turning it as Audrey flinched, she didn't like it when books were manhandled.

"Really, stop acting so immature and just use the damn thing!" snarled Audrey as her mother looked at her and then at Snape he seemed to be reading something but it was clear that it was listening in.

"I am not acting immature!—I don't need your help! Or his!" said Rachel pushing the parchment back as she pushed a strand of dirty hair behind her ear.

"Sure you don't," said Audrey pushing the parchment into her mother's shorts pocket as she removed her hand from it came out with a gooey thing stuck to it.

"Ewe! Take a bath—you smell of slug slime," complained Audrey as she cleaned her hand with a quick scorgify, Rachel rolled her eyes and pouted as she walked out of the

"Sometimes I think I am the real grown up," said Audrey shaking her head and then returning to her work as Snape looked at her and chuckled, he was glad he was staying back at Grimmauld place, at least he didn't feel useless and alone stuck in Spinner's End.

"Fred, George! If you are snooping around for those pixies again," shouted Mrs. Weasley as she pushed her head into the library as she found the door ajar and thought it had to be them.

"Oh! I'm so sorry," she said apologetically as Snape glared at her and then got back to read as Audrey threw her a small smile.

"Well—everyone is down for lunch," she said as she waited for them to come downstairs, she seemed to be looking at them pitifully.

"Sure," said Audrey oddly as she did not understand the look Mrs. Weasley gave her.

"Lunch ?" Audrey asked Snape as he shut the book and nodded curtly as she did the same with her book and placed it neatly back into the shelf.

"Snivellus!" shouted Sirius from the kitchen as Audrey and Severus entered, Audrey noticed Snape's hand going for his wand, must have been instinct. She looked at Sirius he looked like he had too much to drink, she then turned to Harry.

"Cheering charms—I think I hit him too hard," he said apologetically as Sirius laughed without reason.

"Snivellus! Where's you bride Snivellus?" asked Sirius as Audrey noticed Hermione walk in looking terribly flustered and by her side stood her mother, thankfully cleaner.

"Sirius—maybe you should eat in your room," said Remus abruptly as Sirius looked at him and barked out laughing.

"Sure Moon mum I'll eat in my room—but only if Snivellus sticks his fork up his nose," grinned Sirius as Fred and George couldn't contain their laughter anymore, the nick name was too funny.

"Rach! Look Moon Mum's back!" sniggered Sirius as Rachel sat down looking at Sirius as Remus got furious and pulled his friend out of the room, but only after Sirius let slip something.

"Audrey! You look so beautiful—don't let Snivelly turn you into him—your mu—!" laughed Sirius as Remus yanked his friend out of the kitchen.

"I think he was too depressed-no wonder a cheering charm did that to him," commented Tonks as her hair now went pink in colour as Sirius poked his head back into the room and grinned at Tonks who looked down at her plate.

"Dora! Oh! Dora! Did you know Mooney loves you!" sang Sirius in a wedding march tune as Tonks blushed profusely. Snape had, had it, he was hungry and Black was ruining everything so he got up pushed his wand into Black's throat and then Sirius fell to the ground. Everyone looked at the potions master who ate in silence. Sirius snored on the floor, it seemed like Snape had sedated him with a poke of his wand. Audrey laughed into her plate as bit into the slice of bread as he chewed his morsel silently.

"Has anyone ever told you—how bloody cool you are?" she whispered to him as she returned to her own lunch, making Snape glance at her and then smile inwardly as he continued eating.

AN/- Also do leave a review I want to know what you are thinking. One more thing i want to know what you guys think Audrey's patronus should be? Any guesses? Come on, don't be shy and review and tell me what you reviewers are very welcomed.