Minerva Prepares
Minerva looked down from the eager face of Scurfpea, the head elf, to check her notes.
Ah right, one more task.
"And lastly," she said, "Four Clans have requested defensible accommodations, rather than allowing their members to be distributed among and protected by the wards of each of our founders. The same two three-bedroom suites from last year, and two new requests, both for seven-bedroom suites."
Scurfpea grimaced, "We have suites with two, three, four, and one with five, none with seven."
Minerva nodded, "That is also what my records show. What do you suggest?"
Scurfpea made an even more Snape-like grimace, "Do the masters of those houses not know that it is traditional to group by year or gender?"
Minerva shrugged, "It was in the informational packet, I fully expected Miss Granger to have read that much, even if Harry might not have."
Scurfpea scratched his blushing ears. Minerva knew that that was the elf equivalent of humming thoughtfully or pacing, not anything related to embarrassment.
"Shall we prepare four suites with three and four bedrooms each, or one each of three, four, and eight, or both?"
Minerva nodded, "It's Hermione Granger and Harry Potter that have made the requests, they might be one and the same house they are trying to protect."
"No," said Scurfpea, "House of Grangers is for political protection, House of Potters is for mind and physical protection, the members they need to protect is different. Did Harry Sir also request suites for his House of Blacks?"
Minerva blinked, "Uh, no he did not."
Scurfpea nodded, "That is why he needs seven rooms instead of four. Still would be polite to be combining more."
"Be that as it may …"
"I will have five suites prepared, if one of thems is content with two suites instead of one, then everything is settled, if the Potterses see that bedrooms have three beds each, maybe they will accept fewer rooms … Maybe both will like two small suites instead of one, so that they can be neighbours. Grangerses and Potterses were starting to make friends last year."
Minerva rolled her eyes, "Yes, I think that will do. Shall I expect that the preparations will be ready at the same time as the others?"
"Yes, Minerva Ma'am!"
.
"Severus?" said Minerva. He'd turned in his lesson plans already, right on time, with only minimal changes from last year: two because of policy changes, three because of potions formula modernisation. There wasn't anything he ought to be bothering her with this late in the month.
"House protection suites inspection day, is it not?"
"It is," said Minerva, "Is this one of the years that you follow me around on that tour?"
"It is," said Severus, "as I expect to be Faculty Liaison for at least two of them."
Minerva nodded, "That … shouldn't surprise me."
"How many of our paranoids chose to publish their membership list?"
"As many as usual?" said Minerva.
"A big fat zero?" suggested Severus.
"Correct," said Minerva.
Severus smirked, "Then the new house is approaching paranoid enough."
"We have two houses newly requesting self-protective arrangements."
Severus nodded, "Good, but … only two?"
Minerva shrugged, "I suppose that Potter's announcement last year that you-know-who was gone again eased about as many tensions as it raised."
Severus grunted, "If you read between the lines, he didn't just announce a death, he made a general accusation that those who knew how to make him not come back hadn't done enough to end the danger of another return."
Minerva shrugged, "'Not done enough' can mean several different things."
Severus nodded, "Very true, at the least it is a threat that he will return another time, at the most it is an indefinite demand for help until the House of Potter announces that their blood feud is successfully concluded."
Minerva shuddered.
"Quite," breathed Severus, "Is this our first stop?"
Minerva nodded.
"Faculty Liaison override," said Severus in old Gaelic, "Severus Snape," and pushed the door open.
"Hmm," he said, "Is this still the Barnes suite then, they'll be NEWT students this year."
He took a turn about the common room, then peeked into the bathrooms with a critical sniff.
Minerva made a thorough inspection of each bedroom. The correct number of beds, curtains washed and hung, and pulled back. The dust ruffles pulled back to reveal a whole lot of empty space. The wardrobes were appropriately empty except one was full of hangers.
"Acceptable, Nothing missing," said Severus.
"Acceptable, No contraband," said Minerva, and made notes to the same effect.
They went to the next suite.
This time it fell to Minerva to open the door.
The results were the same.
.
When Severus understood the compromises that Minerva and Scurfpea had devised to please both Potter and Granger, he became even more taciturn.
"I rather expect," he said at last, "That the House of Potter will not request as large a suite next year."
"Even if they requested so much this time because they are also hosting the House of Black?"
Severus grimaced, "Even so. Have they said as much?"
"No," said Minerva, "it's just Scurfpea's theory."
Severus nodded, "It does seem likely."
They climbed the stairs to the last suite, the last floor in this tower held the eight-bedroom suite. Peeves floated in the air as if waiting for them.
When Minerva opened the suite he followed them in, zooming much too sedately, assessing everything much too closely.
"And why are you casing the place?" said Minerva.
"Peeves is being asked, Peeves is helping." As if that wasn't much too ominous for any sane person's liking.
"You know you're not allowed in dorms," sighed Minerva.
"They is not dorms until someones moves in," said Peeves and snapped his fingers, changing the wallpaper to an abstract diamond pattern of green, purple, and gold.
"The House of Granger then?" said Severus.
What was the link between the House of Granger and the wallpaper pattern, and how did Severus and Peeves both know of it already?
"Yes," said Peeves, "I will be offering the Royal suite to the House of Potter. But Ardri will probably refuse. He protects many who are not snake speakers."
"Ah," said Severus and froze momentarily.
On Severus, that was as good as a full-blown shudder.
"What?"
"There's another wing of guest suites," said Severus, "off the docks, traditionally reserved for visiting adults."
Not that this wing wasn't also used that way, but only during summer conferences.
"I am aware," said Minerva, It's the default place to host the board of governors when they requisition the school for academic conferences over the summer. Or choose to attend other people's academic conferences.
Severus nodded, "Rumour is that the biggest suite can only be locked with Parseltongue passwords. As I've never seen it locked in my life, I … don't discount the possibility."
And Severus attended many of those conferences, but as he already had a suite of his own, he never registered for a guest suite. But what else to do at a conference besides attend lectures and network with other attendees? And everyone's rooms locking except one could cause friction. And now with Peeves' implied confirmation…
Minerva had also been to a few of those conferences, mostly transfiguration or theory of law enforcement. It had always been used as a common area, usually stocked with between-meal refreshments.
"Ah, yes. I assumed it had been permanently locked open by design, for a hospitality suite. Then again, it's the suite with the most complex interaction with the rest of the wards, having eight exterior doors. The internal wards might have just failed when something about the exterior wards was updated."
Severus nodded, "I don't discount that possibility either."
.
...-...
Starting Scenes
A semi-unfamiliar figure appeared in the compartment door.
"Freyazegen?" said Harry.
The girl smiled.
"Have you shrunk?"
The girl nodded, "Someone looked at the necklace and told me this form would always start out looking the same, but grow to match my age. Or in my current case, shrink," a shrug, "at least for a year or two more."
Harry nodded, "I hadn't fully appreciated what that might mean in your case."
Freyazegen shrugged, "thank you for doing such a thorough job."
"You're welcome," said Harry, "and I had help."
"Who?"
"Susan and Padma, mostly," said Harry.
Freyazegen turned to the Patils, and took a moment to differentiate them, then bowed low to Padma, "Thank you, Madam Patil."
Padma smiled, "It was an interesting puzzle, I'm glad I could help."
Freyazegen smiled and looked around before making her way to an empty seat, but before she sat, she turned back to Harry, "May I stay here?"
Harry shrugged, "That is fine with me until the topic needs to change to house governance or anything else requiring more privacy."
Freyazegen nodded and sat down. Luna's attention stayed buried in her magazine, but the silver lizard on her wrist sat up and glared, slipping its tongue in and out like a snake.
"Hello, Snorkack," said Freyazegen.
Snorkack hissed.
"Probably," agreed Freyazegen, very seriously.
"You can understand Parseltongue?" said Padma.
Freyazegen shook her head, "No, I'm afraid not. I just … take care of toddlers sometimes, and I'd rather speak to them like adults, even if neither of us can make sense of the other. Not teach them some kind of additional baby-talk pidgin that won't help them learn the language they are trying to learn any faster."
"That makes sense," agreed Parvati.
"Umm," said Freyazegen, "Padma, Lord Potter, I'm not sure to which of you I should address this question but … how long until I must take off my necklace?"
"I don't care," said Harry.
"I'm not sure it matters," said Padma, "Before you go into your dorm? About when you change into your uniform?"
"Speaking of dorms," said Harry, "Last year, and again over the summer, I requested a private dorm for the House of Potter, I requested enough space to include the House of Black in it. But I have not yet received confirmation or instructions on where to look for it, so I'm not sure what to expect."
He turned to Padma, "I'm aware that you have prefect duties and might not sleep there every night."
She nodded.
He turned to Freyazegen, "If it does turn out to be an option, do you wish to join us? Or does it depend on exactly what accommodations are available?"
Freyazegen shuddered and looked away. After a deep breath she looked up, "Yes, the ideal would be a room of my own, and permission not to take my necklace off at all."
Harry nodded.
"Otherwise," she said, "I'll do whatever you think best."
Harry nodded, "I guess we'll wait and see what accommodations are available."
.
Someone pounded on the door. Ginny hopped up, "It's Draco,"
Harry put his book down and stood up, "Then it's either for all of us from Hermione, or it's specifically for Luna or me."
Ginny opened the door.
"Lord Potter," said Draco, "I … request a private audience."
"Sure," said Harry, "And this isn't private enough?"
"Not by half," said Draco.
"And if I asked you to leave your wands here?" said Padma.
Draco stared at her wide-eyed, then smirked, "Better to bring one of your warriors to stand guard while we talk,"
"Acceptable," said Padma, "Ladies?"
"I'm busy," said Parvati, "Lady Potter you may have this one if you want."
Ginny smiled, "Don't mind if I do."
She followed Harry and Draco out of the compartment and down the carriage until they found an empty compartment, somehow already guarded by Crabbe. Draco entered, cast privacy charms on all the walls and windows, then retreated to the hall and handed his wand over to Crabbe.
Then he stood aside for Harry to do the same, Harry assessed the privacy charms, then, though it would make him seem paranoid, he cast detection charms: No tracking or eavesdropping charms, no invisible people or things, no animagi.
He backed out and handed his regular wands to Ginny.
They went in and closed the door.
"Alright," said Harry, "What's this all about? And why the hell did you agree to be disarmed with only Vincent guarding you, rather than Theo or Hermione?"
"Or Pansy?" Draco snorted, "Never mind that, (either you are also guarding me, or I've got nothing to lose anyway.)"
Harry shrugged.
"May we get on with this, so we can get our wands back sooner rather than later?"
"Please," said Harry.
"Alright," sighed Draco, "Would you mind explaining how and why my mum is pregnant with your daut—… with a parselmouth?"
Harry blinked, "What?"
"I said, —"
"I heard you," said Harry, "But I … don't believe you, I've never touched your Mum."
Draco raised an eyebrow.
"And the only places she's touched me were on my shoulder and my forehead. And you were there for … I think all of those times."
Draco narrowed his eyes.
"She cannot animagus as a savanna cat, can she?"
"No," said Draco, "She's an acromantula, you know that."
"No, I didn't know," said Harry, "Oh!" and paused long enough for those pieces to fall into place, "I guess I did know enough to have figured that out."
Draco nodded and smirked. "So, your Lady Nim is big enough to toy with in bed?"
Harry rolled his eyes, "Not, as such… But she's one of the very few creatures with access to my bedroom."
Draco blushed, shrugged and looked away for a moment. When he again faced Harry he wore a frown, "So," said Draco, "it's that you've conspired with my parents to let them imbue my new sister with something extra via blood alchemy, not that you've gone behind my father's back to … commit line theft or something?"
Harry narrowed his eyes, "If your new sister has anything of mine, it was stolen, not bestowed."
Draco swallowed and closed his eyes. "Threat received, Lord Potter." After a pause, he bowed his head and backed hurriedly away.
What the hell is going on? Thought Harry.
A better question, thought Nim, What was going on three months ago?
Harry thought back, Nim nudged his thoughts here and there.
"You?" said Harry.
You used me fast and left me wanting more, drawn away by one of your wives, a rather cruel loyalty test for her to administer in my opinion. You passed it, of course, I had no other outlet, the others were already busy …
That is not how I remember it, thought Harry, And usually in such situations you invade my mind and observe my pleasure to your heart's content.
My mind's content at least, responded Nim, the body sometimes insists on wanting things separate from the mind.
Hmm?
All your other partners were busy and not interested in my service, so I returned to my sister. She was happy enough to drink pleasure with me.
Harry clenched his teeth, and without washing? And without contraceptive charms … I used enough to prevent your pregnancy, but not enough to kill all … And neither of you thought to use anything on her?
To be fair, I presume that she wants what she has, or she'd have rid herself of it before now, perhaps she chose this, and took advantage of the state I was in when I went to her…
Harry groaned, Alright, what needs to be done now?
I think your earlier threat should be enough, the Malfoys will almost certainly make sure her hair is permanently the Malfoy blond before letting the world see her.
I meant that as a protest, not as a threat.
If you want them to turn her over to you at birth or her first birthday with a nice letter of apology, then you need to notify them and keep in close enough contact to be part of the name negotiation.
I don't … Harry sighed, First I need to explain all this to Ginny and Parvati and see what they prefer.
Ginny will be fine either way.
What?
The Lady Potter will accept another mouth to feed with only a glare and a smirk.
And the future Lady Black?
Will discuss all the political ramifications with her sister and I and Lord Black, but if the child is to be removed from the care of the House of Malfoy, she will insist on it, but she will not gainsay Lady Potter for the right to adopt it unless there are important political or inheritance reasons for it.
Ah, good point, said Harry, Do you already have important political or inheritance reasons in mind?
No, only that as the future head of Narcissa's native House, there might be reasons why that sort of thing could or should happen. Though much more so if it were a male heir instead of a female.
Oh. Oh dear.
.
Harry re-entered the compartment, "I'm horrified to have to do this here, but … Freyazegen, out."
Freyazegen and Parvati looked up from their notes.
"Does it have to be now?" said Parvati.
"What's this about?" said Padma.
"I have no idea," said Ginny.
"It might require three days' worth of arguing, possibly interspersed with several days worth of legal research," said Harry, "But I refuse to waste a weekend on it. I prefer to explain what I know and let us all stew for a day or three and take notes, then come together and discuss what honour compels us and politics allow us."
Parvati growled. But with only a glance, Freyazegen stuffed her parchment into Parvati's folder, and they folded it all up and Freyazegen left.
Ginny closed the door. "Should I lock it?"
"Yes, do," said Harry, and cast silencing spells on the walls and floor.
"Alright," said Harry, "it turns out that … Draco suspects his mother is pregnant with my daughter. If this is true there are two possible methods this could have been accomplished, someone has stolen a sample of my blood or hair, and done blood alchemy on an unborn child. Which is illegal in three different ways. Or Nim, carrying a sample of my seed within her, went and played with her sister, and accidentally or on purpose deposited enough of it to create a child. To my knowledge that is not illegal unless it breaches the Malfoy marriage contract. Or … perhaps it puts me in their debt for not maintaining better control of what my thrall got up to. Although I think that is less of an issue with The Lady of the House, rather than with a daughter of the house."
"Do we have any reason to believe Draco's suspicions," said Padma.
"Not yet," said Harry, "But I … mildly prefer all of you listening when I ask."
"Makes sense," said Padma, "Nim, do you find the second option even plausible?"
Nim shifted human, "Yes," she said, "it's plausible."
There were sighs.
"Is there anyone else that you commonly have sex with, that isn't part of Harry's group?"
"No," said Nim.
"Is there anyone else you ever have sex with, that isn't part of our group?" said Luna.
"No," said Nim, "Since I've become sexually active with Harry, Narcissa is the only mage I've had sexual contact with that Harry hadn't already had similar contact with."
"Alright," said Luna.
Harry took off his necklace, conjured a wooden tray, and placed it in the middle, "She may not answer at this time of day, we might have to wait until breakfast tomorrow or whatever."
Parvati waved her hand in a sign for, 'get on with it.'
"Spider Queen, Spider Queen," said Harry.
After about twenty seconds, Narcissa's voice issued from his necklace, "Harry?"
"I'm here, with only my betrothed and thralls," said Harry, "I hear a rumour that congratulations are in order."
"Perhaps?" a pause, "Oh! Yes, thank you."
"I hear rumours that she's to have green eyes or hazel."
"That's much more than I have any idea about."
"To be less subtle then," said Harry, "is it a girl?"
"… Probably, but ask me again in two months."
"Is the father a parselmouth?"
"… Oh, … Probably … ask my sister."
Harry nodded, "is that the only possible source?"
"Yes," said Narcissa, "my husband has been infertile since … well, the event happened when Draco was four."
"Oh, I'm so sorry," said Ginny.
"Oh, don't mind that," chuckled Narcissa, "He's still delightfully active, don't you worry. He just won't be making any more children the natural way."
Ginny made a face like that was not at all the point of her commiseration.
"Alright," said Harry, "Draco … was under the impression that the only resolution to this situation was for one or the other of our families to sue the other for line theft or an adjacent crime, but I did not understand why that might be necessary, or even desirable, care to enlighten me?"
Narcissa harrumphed, "I will not build your legal arguments for you. Just how jealous of your seed are you?"
"My first thought is that, As long as no one abuses her, and you don't raise her a blood purist, I'm willing to leave the raising of her to you and your family."
Narcissa sighed, "And if she isn't the leader of the blood purist faction, who do you suppose will be?"
That's a horrible reason to indoctrinate a girl into mindlessly hating—
"Why, I will, of course," said Parvati.
Padma and Luna laughed.
"How do you intend to do that?" said Narcissa.
"I'm the great-niece of the Dark Lord, and am to be the heiress of Black, what other faction should I lead?"
Narcissa laughed, "Oh, my. Harry dear, wherever did you find her?"
"She was hiding in plain sight," said Harry, "experimenting with appearances and responses, leading at least two study groups from the nominal position of assistant."
"I heard she was sorted gryffindor."
"She was," said Harry, "but then, so were I and Ginny and Sirius."
A long pause, then a long and lingering, "Ah!"
Parvati sent Harry an irritated expression.
He shrugged.
"I shall share your concerns with my husband, I will let you know if we accept your terms."
"And if you don't?" said Padma.
Narcissa sighed, "I'm afraid in that case, you'll learn it from our lawyers."
Padma grunted, "Makes sense."
"Is that all?"
"For now, yes," said Harry.
"Thank you for the call, Harry, keep in touch." And the crystals went dark.
Padma snorted, "she won't warn us if they plan to sue, but we're supposed to warn them?"
Ginny chuckled and leaned back in her seat to glare at the ceiling.
"What does everyone think," sighed Harry.
"In fourteen years," said Luna dreamily, "Hogwarts will have enough friends with green eyes for everyone to have one."
Harry rolled his eyes and met Padma's eyes just finishing an eye roll of their own.
"Parvati?" said Luna, "What do you call the colour of your eyes?"
"Amber," said Parvati, "Hazel is different."
"Oh," said Harry, "I guess that's what I meant then."
Padma looked at Harry, "It's what colour our children are likely to have?"
"If I understand the genetics correctly," said Harry, "the parselmouths will have amber, and the non-parselmouths will have brown. And with Ginny, the girls will be parselmouths and have green, and the non-parselmouths will be boys and have blue."
"You're not predicting the gender of ours?" said Padma.
Harry shrugged, "Since they can inherit Parseltongue from either parent, I can't predict how the genders will line up."
"Right," said Parvati, "So … half my boys might be parselmouths, and half my girls might be maledicti?"
"Something like that," said Harry.
"What? why?" said Ginny.
"Because," said Padma, getting out a piece of parchment and drawing a chart, "This is what Parvati and I can contribute to a child, girl + parselmouth or girl + not-parselmouth. And this is what Harry can contribute, girl + parselmouth, boy, so the grid fills in, double girl + parselmouth, which means maledictus, girl - girl only one parselmouth, which means regular parselmouth, or girl + parselmouth and boy, which matches Harry, or girl and boy, not parselmouth, which is just regular wizard."
"Regular wizards are … half girl?" said Ginny.
"Yes," said Harry.
"Then what are you if you get boy twice?"
"Dead," said Harry, "That's not supposed to happen, but then, the only way you could predictably get that combination is by trying to weld together a child with blood alchemy, from two wizards. But it should only happen about once in four tries."
"Really?" said Ginny.
Padma rubbed her forehead, "have I mentioned that I insist my children go to muggle school until they start Hogwarts."
"Yes," said Harry, "and I support this plan."
"I'm going to home tutor mine," said Luna, "But they can do homework together."
Harry turned back to Ginny, "The directions for how to do a lot of important things are stored in the same place that how to be a girl is stored," said Harry, "How to be a boy instead doesn't take much space."
"Ginny," said Parvati.
Ginny looked at Parvati.
"Most traits are not sex-linked. The only traits I know of that are sex-linked are Parseltongue, hypochondria, and tetrachromacy."
"What are those?"
"Hypochondria is like being born without the ability to stop bleeding, it's rare because it tends to kill someone before they're old enough to have babies," said Padma, "tetrachromacy is being able to see the colour green two different ways, some of them prefer a very different set of greens, yellows, and browns than the rest of us."
She glanced at Harry then back to Ginny, "Every once in a while, you inherit much more than you're supposed to, and a few boys get 'boy' twice, and 'girl' once. They have some weird issues, but since they got 'girl' once they survive a lot longer than anyone who got 'boy' twice and didn't get 'girl' at all."
"Oh," said Ginny.
"Anyway," said Padma "Since a regular person has 'girl' once or twice, and 'boy' at most only once, it's mostly impossible to inherit 'boy' from both parents."
Ginny frowned, "unless they were made by blood alchemy from two wizards?"
Padma clenched her teeth, then nodded.
"Is that why wizard couples wanting to create babies is more frowned upon than witch couples wanting to?"
"Perhaps," said Padma, "I'd have to research blood alchemy a bit more before I could register an opinion of my own."
"May I let Freyazegen in?" said Luna.
"No objection from me," said Harry, he looked around for other objections, "yes, you may."
Ginny studied Padma's diagram for several more minutes.
"What's the topic now?" said Freyazegen, "or shall we go back to hair dye?"
"Back to hair dye," said Parvati and reached for her folder.
"Padma?" said Ginny, "so … how does hair colour work?"
"Needs a bigger chart to graph all of them," said Padma, "but if you want to guess particular people?"
"Me and Harry."
Padma nodded, "You're red and red, Harry is black and we don't know what else, because black hides everything."
"My mum's hair was red," said Harry.
Padma's eyes widened, "That's easy then, red and red from you, red and black from him, half your children will be black and half red."
"Oh, alright," said Ginny, "What about Parvati and Harry."
"Parvati's hair is black, but that's probably hiding brown, so three-quarters black, and one-quarter reddish brown."
"Hmm," said Ginny, and she traced grids in the air with her fingers for most of a minute, eventually she looked up, "Blond?"
"Blond can't hide anything," said Parvati, "So Luna's children's hair colour will be determined by the father."
Freyazegen cleared her throat, "Malfoys."
"Yes, well," said Padma, "That's family magic, not genetics."
"What about Freyazegen?" said Ginny.
"Brown can only hide blond or more brown, I think," said Padma, "So if Freyazegen and for example—"
"Toby," said Freyazegen and Luna.
"Toby's hair is also brown," said Luna.
They all stared at her.
"I thought Toby was your brother," said Ginny.
"No," said Freyazegen, "My brother's name is Daniel."
"Toby is a muggle?" said Parvati.
"So?" said Freyazegen, "he happens to be very nice."
Padma scratched her forehead, "fair enough. Anyway, if brown and brown goes with brown and brown, or with brown and blond, all the children should look brown. Check if I'm right."
Ginny got out a pen and traced that out.
"Harry?" muttered Parvati.
Harry turned and raised an eyebrow.
"Harry, Are you alright with Freyazegen and Toby being a thing?"
Behind her Freyazegen hung her head, more than was really appropriate.
"Ben and Toby are of age, but Freyazegen is not," said Harry, "When Freyazegen is of age she may do as she pleases, until then I'd much prefer it not get sexual."
Freyazegen relaxed and raised her head. And smiled sort of towards him, without meeting Harry's eyes.
Harry nodded.
Parvati shrugged.
"Oh! Alright," said Ginny, "Yes, you're right. So that leaves, brown and blond with brown and blond, which makes brown, brown, brown, and blond."
"That's what I got too," said Padma.
"So what about … genders? Can Freyazegen even have kids?"
"I have no idea," said Padma, "I'm not sure I even solved that part of the arithmancy."
Ginny turned to Harry.
"I have no idea either, what do you predict?"
Ginny frowned, then turned to Freyazegen, "Are you old enough to bleed?"
"What?"
"Monthlies?"
"Oh," Freyazegen sighed heavily, "Yes."
"Alright," muttered Ginny and drew out a chart and filled half of it in, then drew out another. "So either, exactly what it should be if Freyazegen is a girl, or one-quarter girls, two-quarters boys, and one-quarter dead."
Freyazegen winced.
"That sounds like the correct set of options," said Harry, "But Padma and I don't know which of those options to guess yet."
Ginny nodded, then turned to Freyazegen, "How many children do you want?"
Freyazegen shrugged.
"Because if you don't want more than two, it might not matter at all."
Freyazegen's eyebrows rose, "I … I guess that makes sense."
.
Minerva looked around the teacher's lounge, where by tradition they'd meet one last time before the students arrived, mostly to reassure one another that all preparations had been made, and the only thing left to do was wait. Sybil was absent as usual but there was one other absence, not that it surprised her …
"Albus?" said Minerva, "where is our defence professor?"
"He'll be here," said Albus.
"That's what you've been saying for weeks," commented Sprout and lay down her knitting.
Albus sighed. "He's stuck in customs," said Albus, "and refuses to tell me where so that I can come to get him out."
Minerva rolled her eyes, "What aren't you telling us about this one?"
"He's a warlock."
Minerva's eyebrows sprang to their maximum altitude.
"That," said Severus, "Is a very odd compromise for you to make."
Albus shrugged, "We must have someone, and Amelia and the minister's office have been locked in a power struggle since last year, about who has the right to nominate someone to temporarily fill the spot."
Minerva groaned, "This is not going to be a good year."
"On the contrary," said Albus, "I'm sure even if he's held up in customs until May, he may do a better job than some of our recent defence professors."
Minerva felt her jaw go completely slack.
It was an assertion to which she had no answer. Gilderoy for instance had been horrible. Ironically enough, even Qurrinnius had been better.
Albus' eyes twitched, "There's the train," he said and stood, "Shall we adjourn to the great hall?"
As they left the teachers' lounge, they passed Peeves, who now wore not a mockery of Albus' most wild fashions, but a loose-fitting muted blue-grey coat and trousers, edged with a blue ribbon and held together with a green belt.
Albus froze in shock and stared at him.
Peeves turned to stare back, after a pause he smirked, zoomed up over Albus' head, and disappeared with a roar of "Wua-aa-aa-ah!"
"Oh," sighed Albus, "Oh, no."
.
After the sorting, and Dumbledore's traditional 'this is not a speech' speech, the food appeared and they set to eating.
Harry almost buried a scrap of parchment lying on his plate with a slice of roast.
He paused his right hand's motion long enough to snatch the parchment up with his left, then continued serving himself.
After he passed the platter of roast on, he read the scrap of parchment:
"""
"Ardrig,
"After you eat, meet me on the stairs down to the docks.
"Your proud hostess,"
Followed by a series of runes.
"""
He read them over twice before he understood that it was neither an enchantment nor a spell. It was a name.
Peeves.
"Does Ardrig mean lion?" said Harry.
"No," said Seamus, "It means 'high king'. But it usually dates from when 'king' didn't mean as much as it does today. So 'high king' is more equivalent to what we mean merely by king, or even duke, not emperor."
"You revising for ancient runes already?" said Dean, "or history?"
"No," said Harry, "the ghosts are pranking me with semi-treasonous notes again is all."
"Harry!" said Hermione.
But Harry didn't pass it to her, he passed it to Parvati.
"Is this Peeves' method of informing you that she's keeping an eye on Lion's-Keep?"
"That's as good a guess as any," said Harry.
"Let me see?" said Ginny.
Parvati passed her the note.
Ginny read it, shuddered, and returned it to Harry.
"Or that as a nymph, and part of the land, she felt you get your shoulder mark."
"Bloody hell," said Harry.
.
After Dumbledore made his real speech, which included the unusual announcement: 'I regret to inform you that the new professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts has been unavoidably delayed, please study from your books and in your regular study groups, and at your regular pace, until he deigns to grace us with his presence."
"Harry!" muttered Hermione, "Are you running AHDTA again this year?"
"It sounds like I had better," said Harry with a roll of his eyes.
.
After dinner, they met Luna and Freyazegen on the same steps.
"Padma had to go be a prefect," said Luna, "But she told us to check out the message from Peeves."
"Well, here we all are," drawled Professor Snape descending towards them, "if you would go down already, we could get this over with and go to bed."
"Yes, Professor," said Luna, and led the way down to the next landing, then stepped aside and let the rest catch up.
"Now," said Professor Snape, "This way, I believe. There are five of you?"
It was a long hallway.
"Six, but Padma's not here yet," said Luna, "she's got prefect duties tonight."
"Of course," said Professor Snape, "Just through here, these suites are traditionally reserved for the Board of Governors, should they ever deign to visit overnight. To translate for the dense among you, 'DON'T go mucking about with or in the neighbouring suites!'
"Yes, sir," said Parvati.
"But, since you requested such an excessively large suite. Peeves took it upon himself to volunteer this one. You may have to repair the wards yourselves if you want it password protected."
"I think we can handle that," said Harry, "at least if we work together for a month."
"Good," said Professor Snape, "I like that attitude."
The girls spread out to explore and figure out where their trunks had landed. Before long they reassembled in the common room, "Are there any further questions Lord Potter?"
Harry glanced at the others, none of them seemed inclined to ask anything.
"Not at this time," said Harry, "Thank you."
Professor Snape nodded, "Peeves and I presumed that I would continue as the faculty liaison for your houses, is that acceptable?"
"Yes," said Harry, "Thank you, sir."
Professor Snape nodded, "Don't get into trouble, and I shan't have to make your lives miserable."
"Of course," said Harry.
Professor Snape left.
Harry glanced around again.
Ginny was hanging her circumstance clock on the wall immediately across from the entry. By now it had hands for all the mages she'd met in the Houses of Potter, Black, Gaunt, Bones, and Granger. Or rather the subset of them that had willingly lent her a piece of hair. It was much easier to read now that she'd grouped the arm colours by age and hand colours by House.
Luna was … on the balcony feeding Hedwig, Gnome, and Snorkack.
"We have a balcony?" exclaimed Harry and headed that way, his imagination full of visions of launching off it on his broom.
When he got outside he realised that it wasn't a balcony, it was a dock.
That was even better for flying, in that there was no balcony railing to contend with, not so good if it meant … He turned back. The others had followed him out, "Alright," said Harry, "How many of us can swim?"
Parvati and Freyazegen raised their hands. Ginny's hand came halfway up and wavered. Harry knew she was quite comfortable in water, though more comfortable if it was either not deep or not fast moving. they had a swimming hole within strolling distance of the Burrow, and a bend of the Otter River was close enough to have given their town its name, but it took something of a day's hike to make the trip.
Then Freyazegen lowered her hand with a thunderous expression, "Harry, that's the Black Lake, not the Withywindle, it's freezing. No one wants to swim in that."
"Only in September and May," agreed Harry, "My point was more of a safety question, not a pastime question."
She shivered, "No, my swimming skills aren't up to risking that."
"Hmm," said Harry and looked around. There wasn't just one door out onto the dock, there were four, the common room and three bedrooms. Well then. He shown wand-light down into the lake. There wasn't one ladder at each end of the dock, the entire side of the dock was a stone staircase. It seemed to be about ten steps worth, followed by a sheer drop into the black depths. He shuddered and pulled his centre of mass more firmly over the dock. The steps were stone, but the top surface was paved with wood, probably for better comfort and warmth or something. He took another step away from the edge.
"There are steps," he said, "so maybe it's more safe than I thought, but … yeah, I'm going to re-assess in daylight. I'd rather we all practice swimming twenty feet out and back so that we can be sure if anyone falls in by accident we can get back out. Otherwise, I'm thinking about locking the doors, or requiring no one out here without another person watching and ready to summon them back to safety."
Ginny nodded emphatically.
"What do you think, snorkack?" said Luna, "Would you let me drown?"
Snorkack made a tiny vomiting noise.
"That's what I thought," said Luna, "Do you want to practice to make sure?"
Snorkack grunted. Luna snatched him up and tossed him thirty or forty yards out over the water. He turned huge and lavender with lots of rounded horns and paddled leisurely back to the deck, only to shrink to dog-sized, and climb back up out of the water.
"Again!" said Luna and jumped in. "Ouch," said Luna, "The steps are sharper than they look.
Snorkack grunted and shook off thoroughly, then jumped in and wrapped his tail around Luna's wrist and dragged her back up onto the deck. And shook off again.
"Alright," said Ginny, "I'm convinced. Friendly kelpies trump water as usual."
Harry rolled his eyes. We only have two friendly kelpies and…
The giant squid flopped up onto the surface from somewhere and slid past with one eye staring up at them.
Gnome chattered at the apparition and dived in.
In the same colour water, they are the same colour grey.
Another interpretation of why no one could get a full count of how many tentacles the giant squid had.
"Good," said Luna, "I was afraid she would be missing Stormy too much."
"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" said Freyazegen.
"Oh dear," said Luna, "Yes, come inside, have you picked out a room yet?"
"Not really," said Freyazegen, "My trunk is already in the room over here, and…
And they were gone.
"Harry?" said Ginny.
Harry sighed.
"Thank you for worrying about our safety, but … I think that's not one of the ways you need to dwell much on."
Harry nodded.
"Come on, let's look at the wards."
They went inside and looked around until they found that the massive lintel and door posts extended out from the wall about 2 inches, and the outer edges were covered in runes.
"Ugh," said Ginny, "it's like when they were carved, someone saved only about half of the stone flakes, and later tried to erase them with the mending charm."
Parvati made her tisking noise that mostly meant judgement of incompetence and/or laziness. She came over and looked too, "It's not half repaired water-futhark," she said, "It's Parselscript."
"Oh!" said Harry, "I thought it looked familiar."
He cast several cleaning charms so that he could see more of each rune.
"Can you tell where the beginning is?" said Parvati.
"Not yet," said Harry.
After a bit more cleaning they found that it started on the lower right side of the door and continued up, over the lintel, down the other door post, and along the top of the baseboard, circling the entire common room, and all the doors out into bedrooms.
"So," said Parvati and stepped into her bedroom, "Same in my room, same formula, this room is a unit of space, it has 6 walls impenetrable, except that, in these walls are two doors, and two windows, all of them, when closed are to remain closed unless commanded with the sounds, x. When commanded from inside to seal, they are to remain sealed until commanded to unseal, … and repeat … and repeat again."
"So we each can set our own password," said Harry.
"But only with noises that we can spell in Parselscript," said Parvati.
"Lovely," said Ginny, "Can I even say anything in Parseltongue?"
Harry shrugged.
"Wait, you have a queen-sized bed?" said Harry.
"Technically I think it's a 'full'," said Parvati.
"We all do," said Ginny.
"Nice," said Harry.
.
"Freyazegen!" said Luna, "You brought Grandma Margaid! WHY?"
"Dear god," said Parvati at the same time that Ginny said, "Bloody Hell."
Harry swallowed and rubbed his forehead.
"Because she wanted to," said Freyazegen in a small voice.
Harry sighed and went to the door to the room that the elves had picked out for Freyazegen. Its door led outside onto a patio and then grass, but from the tint of the moonlight off the grass, Harry had the inkling that the edge of the deck was covered by an illusion barrier like the wall at platform 9 and 3/4s.
The fact there was a chair and a bookcase out there, both seeming to have been cobbled together from branches from the forest, and the disparity between the rough furniture outside, and the well-made furniture found in the rest of the castle might imply that the patio was often accessed from the outside by someone who'd learned the secret that at least one section of the castle's foundation wasn't as solid as it seemed, and rarely used by guests of this suite.
And yes, there was a trunk halfway unpacked into the wardrobe, and a snake, dark brown and dark grey in colouring, was just sliding its way up Freyazegen's side onto her shoulder.
Freyazegen seemed, half freaked out, half annoyed, and half triumphant.
"I thought you didn't like snakes," said Parvati.
"I'm … trying to get over that," she said proudly, "Anyway, Margaid is always gentle … (with things she's not planning to eat,) Also way smart enough to know how to, and why to, keep her poison to herself."
Ginny shuddered.
"That might be true," said Harry, "but—"
"And I think she can read."
"She can certainly read," said Harry, She's human and old enough to be your grandmother, which is why we call her great aunt or grandmother. But you can't spill that if I don't tell it to you. "… we ought to have requested permission to bring an unusual familiar."
Freyazegen rolled her eyes, "They'd just have said 'no' because she's poisonous without asking if she's smart enough not to bite."
"As well they should," said Ginny, "she's not a normal snake."
"What do you mean?" said Freyazegen.
"Magically poisonous, for one thing," said Parvati.
"That she's smart enough that it takes more than just a parselmouth to control her," said Ginny, "I think only Harry can, though I couldn't say why."
Freyazegen's eyes opened wider this time. Like she was finally contemplating reality. "I thought Padma could."
"Only because Padma and Parvati are deputised by me to negotiate between the snakes and everyone else on the estate, that's not quite the same thing as being directly able to control them."
"Hmm," said Freyazegen.
"§-Aunt Pearl,-§" hissed Harry, "§-What do you have to say for yourself?-§"
"§-I planned to stay only in your suite to guard it, except for after-curfew forays to the restricted section. But it sounds like I need to stay with MotherJoy all the time to act as her key back into this suite.-§"
"§-Are you willing to stay with it and mind what it says?-§"
"§-Yes.-§"
"§-And mostly stay out of sight?-§"
"§-Yes.-§"
"§-And not bite anyone?-§" said Parvati.
"§-If I am so ordered …-§"
"§-Do you prefer to be ordered something else then?-§" said Harry.
"§-Not to bite anyone, except to defend against a credible threat to the life of a member of your Houses or of ally Houses.-§"
"Certainly," said Harry, "§-Promise on your magic not to bite anyone except under those circumstances, and agree on your name, to behave obediently to safe orders by house members, even if only in human speech, and stay with Goddess'Blessing and out of sight when it leaves the suite, to let it back in when it needs.-§"
"§-Good, You should have asked for that promise months ago,-§" she said, and then she promised.
Parvati sighed.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing wrong, She just promised on her magic, not to bite," explained Parvati, "and on her name, to obey the rest of us as well."
"Oh," said Ginny, "Good."
Harry turned to Freyazegen, "Freyazegen, for the rest of this term at least, Great Aunt Margaid is your key to get back into the suite, so remember to keep her with you when you go out."
"And into your room," said Parvati, "we're fairly sure only Parseltongue passwords work."
"Why?" said Freyazegen.
"Because Peeves thought putting us in this suite would be funny, and a fitting punishment for me asking for each of us to have our own room."
"Damn," said Freyazegen, "so … now I don't just have to deal with her when I'm here studying, I have to take her with me to all my classes?"
"Yes," said Harry.
"Damn," said Freyazegen.
"Or else move back into ravenclaw tower," said Harry.
"And give up my necklace?" she muttered, "Oof!"
"Or be content with waiting around for someone else to let you in."
Freyazegen wrinkled her nose and then glanced resignedly at Aunt Margaid.
"That's about the size of it," agreed Parvati, "what do you want for a password?"
Freyazegen shrugged, "Does it have to be complicated? Can it just be 'open sesame' or something?"
"§-Open in the name of grass seed,-§" hissed Margaid, "§-Just make it 'grass'.-§"
"That works," agreed Parvati and conjured a step ladder, to climb up and mark the top of the lintel.
Almost from the first mark, The deadbolt on the patio door snicked into place.
"Done," said Parvati, "Harry, Test it?"
He closed the door, then hissed, "§-Grass,-§" nothing.
"§-Open,-§" it opened.
"Good," she said.
"Just a second," he said and closed it again.
"§-Open,-§" he hissed. Nothing. "§-Grass,-§" it opened.
"You have to say both 'open' and 'grass'," said Harry, "Order might not matter."
"Alright," said Parvati and climbed down. She closed the door, then opened it again, "No password needed to open from the inside," she said.
"Good to know," said Harry.
She carried the ladder out.
"Just a minute," said Luna and followed Parvati out and closed the door, "Can you make mine 'moon' and teach snorkack how to say 'open moon?'"
"Sure," said Parvati. "Which door?"
Luna pointed. Parvati carried her step ladder in that direction.
Harry went around until he found his own trunk. He started unpacking into his wardrobe, while he thought about what password he wanted.
In the other room, Ginny was saying, "'Hearth' for me?"
That won't work.
After a while, Parvati said, "No, but stone can work, or fire."
"Fire," said Ginny, "talk about a bit too cliche," and her braid beads rattled.
"But it will be that much easier to remember," there was a smile in Parvati's voice.
"True," said Ginny.
"How about the main door?"
"Hmm, maybe we should all decide that together."
"Can you say a 'black pot'?"
Parvati laughed, "No, 'black' works, but … how about 'den' as in house."
"Is that similar or different than a nest?" said Luna.
"A den is a hole, a snake's place of safety, a house. Nest means specifically a physical and thermal fortification for eggs, I'd rather not say that with Freyazegen inside."
"Oh," said Ginny, "House it is."
"Hmm," said Luna.
.
Padma made her way down the stairs to the kitchens, but she still didn't know where her sister was.
She took every turn she knew, but none of them led in the correct direction.
She was just starting to get despondent and consider returning to Ravenclaw when her next turn brought her smack into Peeves.
"Lady Patil," he said, "You is too far down by the wrong stairs, be following me."
The note had said the stair to the docks not the stair to the kitchens or dungeons.
"Thank you," she said and followed.
He led her up a flight of steps, around to the rarely used front side of the great hall and down toward the docks. There was only one more turn to reach the docks, except then he turned the other way, along a hallway whose windows looked out over the water. Another turn, and a hallway whose walls had been painstakingly plastered, and whose doors were fancier than average. Until the door at the end, the fanciest of all, and on it hung a piece of parchment, charmed as flat and smooth as a muggle whiteboard. It was mostly filled with a cartoonish drawing, of a snake with a speech bubble containing a house.
"Here is your House Suite, Lady Patil," said Peeves.
"Thank you Peeves," said Padma.
Peeves wrinkled his nose then leaned closer and whispered, "You is welcome, Lady Patil!"
Then he turned and zoomed through the ceiling.
Padma shivered, "You don't have to make that sound like a threat."
She turned back to the door. After a few seconds of staring at the picture, she tried to say, "Why is the snake saying house?" and why is that even important? But the word order came out wrong, and so did the word 'house'. And she realised that she'd been speaking Parseltongue.
And probably that she had been meant to be doing so.
She reached for the doorknob, but there was none. Which meant, she still hadn't found the password.
She sensed magic and motion, she demanded wandlight and shown it on the picture, and looked closer. The snake's jaw and the house's door were now opening and closing in sync with each other.
"Open," she said.
The animation stopped and the door opened.
Good grief.
Oh, and the outline of the cloud of smoke, pouring from the chimney spelled 'open house' not that any kind of runes were easy to differentiate with the middles filled in.
The place was quiet and dark, except someone had drawn moonlight runes along the edges of the crown moulding. And the inner edges of the door lintels.
She shown her wandlight around, leftmost was a door with no picture but a light on inside, but after that, each door had another picture on it, a green square, a tawny square with a blond rosette, another door with no picture, the next had a chair with a belt and sword draped over the back, that wasn't Harry's sword, that was Parvati's. The next had a table with empty dishes, that door was propped open with a shoe, one of Harry's shoes, the next was a grey fireplace with wood … and smoke, the last was a blue square with a star, and last of all, a wall of plate glass windows and a door out onto a patio. Stars were visible, barely twinkling, and a mountain right side up, and upside down, and more stars that were twinkling much too fast.
We've got a door out onto the docks!
That would either be the most awesome thing, or the most horrible, depending on the weather.
Great!
She turned back around, two doors with no pictures, she opened the one with the light behind it. The washroom, of course, with two ancient tubs now retrofitted with curtains and shower heads, two sinks, and two W.C.s. That might be a source of friction, In Ravenclaw she'd shared a bigger washroom with fewer girls.
She closed it again and turned, the door next to Parvati's with no picture should be hers, the door that was propped was Harry's because he wasn't going to let her feel closed off, he might not ever let his door close all the way when he was around to leave a shoe in it.
She nodded.
Or he left it propped because he wanted to hear me when I came in so that he could relax that all his people were safe at home.
Or to pass on important information. It was orientation night after all. She went to her room and made sure that her trunk was present.
She changed into sleeping attire and went to Harry's room.
He smiled to see her and welcomed her into bed, and didn't seem at all in a hurry to tell her everything, just complimented her on doing her prefect duty and helped her snuggle in.
"About the password?" she said.
"They gave us a suite that only takes Parselscript passwords," said Harry, "We're playing it safe and sticking to real Parcel words so far."
"Oh," she said.
"I'm not sure that we'd even put passwords on the bedrooms, except that they all have exterior doors onto the dock or towards the path to the greenhouses, and we'd rather everything was locked to anyone outside."
"No doubt."
"Ginny and Luna have their kelpies to translate."
"Oh."
"And for some reason, Freyazegen decided to give in to accept the challenge to her courage, and brought Aunt Margaid along in her trunk, which means she also has a translator."
"Bloody hell!" said Padma.
"I'm saying less about that than I really should, because she hates snakes, and was only planning on doing this for fear desensitisation treatment therapy one or two hours a day, and now has to carry her around whenever she leaves the suite."
Volunteering for two hours of daily desensitisation therapy, and getting six to ten instead.
Padma had to work hard to hold in a snicker. Finally, she recovered enough to say, "That's rich."
"I know, right?" said Harry.
"How's Ginny taking it?"
"I'm not sure," said Harry, "I know Nagini bit her dad, but…"
"That too," said Padma, "I meant, the last time one of us brought Voldemort to Hogwarts unawares it was her."
"Who told you that?" said Harry.
"She did," said Padma.
"Oh, that's alright then."
"What's alright?"
"That you have her permission to know," said Harry.
"Oh… ok, wow, hadn't considered that angle."
Harry nodded, "She was a victim, and has put herself back together rather well it seems to me. I've also fallen for Margaid's tricks a time or two."
He shivered, "I made her promise on her magic not to bite anyone."
"Did you explain that to Ginny?"
"Parvati did," said Harry, "Oh, hell."
"What?"
"Last time," said Harry, "He didn't need to be a poisonous snake to kill anyone, nor to threaten the whole school."
Oh, blast and bother, "That's true," said Padma. And felt him reach out through his thrall magic to find Margaid and summon her to him.
Less than a minute later she appeared.
Shortly after, Ginny and Parvati arrived too, looking bleary-eyed.
"What's going on?" said Ginny.
"Earlier today or earlier this week, Margaid Gaunt encouraged Freyazegen Windrow to break school rules to smuggle a contraband snake onto school grounds," said Harry, "and by doing so, also became an unauthorised adult trespassing on school grounds, I'm not clear if that breaks a Wizengamot law, seems more like it would be a ministry law."
There was a tense silence.
No one mentioned Nim.
Somehow Padma figured Dumbledore would allow Nim if he knew just how much Harry was influencing her.
"Earlier this evening," said Harry, "Margaid promised on her magic, not to bite anyone who wasn't a credible lethal threat to a house member. If she were a little smaller, and only a snake, that would be sufficient for me. However, she's not just a snake, and we already know what she's capable of with just her tongue."
"Flatterer," hissed Margaid.
"I want a promise not to do anything malicious."
"I can't promise that," hissed Margaid, "that might even preclude things like eavesdropping, infiltrating libraries, … just being here probably."
"Drat," said Harry, "what else can we ask for instead,"
"Can we just be content with her not trying to hurt anyone directly, and not doing anything intended to get anyone killed?" suggested Ginny.
"Except perhaps by reporting something to Harry or me," said Parvati, "we're already letting her bite if there isn't another way to deal with a lethal threat, just allow her to report non-urgent lethal threats to Harry or me, and all other threats she's not allowed to do anything likely to be lethal."
"That could work," said Margaid, "what's the final wording of the promise you want?"
.
After Margaid slithered away, Ginny approached the bed.
"I'm done here," whispered Padma, "Is it your turn?"
"It doesn't need to be …" said Ginny.
There was a pause.
"Ginny, come to my bed," said Parvati.
Ginny's head snapped up, and then a nod, and they were gone.
Padma squeezed Harry's hand.
He looked at her.
"Thank you," she said.
He smiled and laid down, "For what this time?"
"Being proactive about keeping Margaid in check."
Harry nodded.
They lay down again.
"So what's new in prefect-land?"
Padma smiled, "Oh boy, where do I start? Let's say, a lot, but not nearly enough."
"I believe that," agreed Harry, "Tell me about it, if you want."
.
The next morning as they made their way up to breakfast, Padma exclaimed, "I say! There has got to be a shorter route upstairs."
"What do you mean?"
Padma looked around then stepped out onto the dock and conjured more dock leading around the nearest buttress. Her audience followed. On the far side of the buttress, they found yet another dock, one they'd never seen before, and which didn't seem to have seen much use … ever.
That section of the dock had two doors, the smaller door was regular-sized, and the larger doorway was huge and had raised wooden tracks leading out of it, two about knee height and above them one centred overhead.
"Freight entrance," said Padma, "that figures, Bet this leads into the kitchens."
But it didn't, it led into a wine cellar, a relatively empty wine cellar.
They took those stairs up and found themselves in the kitchen, (where the elves had a lot to say about students in the wine cellars).
When they got out of the kitchen they found themselves across the hall from the tapestry that Harry and Ginny had woven to help Susan visit the seventh floor more easily.
"That was interesting," said Ginny.
"But not actually faster," said Freyazegen.
"Time to make another tapestry set," said Ginny.
"Sure," said Harry, "But I don't think we have any weaving requirements this year."
"I think I have enough hours left over from last year, already," said Ginny, "Does that mean we're going to try my quilted leather idea?"
"I think it does," said Harry.
"Good," said Ginny, "We might finish in two days instead of several weeks."
.
...-...
{End Chapter 8}
