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Sirius


Oh this is fun. I explain them the theory as usual and they take as meticulous notes as if it were a headache or some other healing potion.

"You'll never know when you find it useful that you can do it without thinking, because when you find yourself in NEED of it and still have to brew it it's better you don't need to study the recipe first. It doesn't hold up too long, just a month or maybe five weeks, and if you haven't used it by then you should throw it away..."

The brewing is not finished when our first guests, Shannah and Vaidyanathan Patil turn up in the door to the classroom. I spot them and open the door immediately, walking over to greet them. They have their little son with them, Sadhu, I think, is his name. Sadhu had stayed with his parents, because he was not yet going to school.

"Hello, Sirius! It's great to be here. We found it easily, too, thanks for the invitation," Vaidyanathan greets me with a huge smile.

"Shannah! Vaidyanathan! How good to see you again! Come in, come in... we're just finishing in about half an hour, then the vacation officially starts for the kids... are you all very tired?"

"It's okay, we've travelled Muggle transportation but it wasn't too bad. Sadhu is a bit tired though. And he's cranky, so if we could put him down for a nap that would be great."

Parvati and Padma look over longingly, but their potions are still not finished, so they stick to it. They only call:

"Hi Dad, hi Mum! Hey, Sadhu! We'll be through here soon..."

"Just finish your lesson, girls, we can say hello later on, we should put Sadhu in bed anyway," Shannah tells them.

"I call Remus, he can lead you to your rooms, Shannah," I tell them.

Then I quickly call Remus over and he comes and greets our old friends. Vaidyanathan brings a nice case of red wine forth.

"Here, something nice for the two of you to enjoy on some lovely evenings, Remus. Thanks very much for this invitation, we're thrilled to be able to spend some time with Padma and Parvati, we miss them terribly," he says.

"Yes, we thought so. It's good to see you again. Let me show you the rooms we prepared for you."

"Thanks a lot."

They go through to the back of the house and I concentrate on checking the potions the kids brew. Harry and Hermione just add their last ingredient and stir the necessary way. Then Harry grins and says:

"That'll cure more than the hangover from the contents of that case over there, Siri."

I grin.

"I don't expect to have a hangover from anything Vaidyanathan Patil brings, Harry, believe me. He wouldn't treat us with anything less than perfect and a good wine will not give you a hangover."

"Do you know our Dad?" Padma asks.

"Sure. He was what? I think four years ahead of us and your mother was in our year. Or a year ahead? Something like that, in any case we know them from Hogwarts. And after Hogwarts, too, by the way."

"Oh, that's good then."

One by one the potions are finished. They still grin over it and Justin asks with a very cheeky grin:

"Sirius, does this mean we're entitled to have a drinking party to be able to test this?"

I snort.

"Believe me, Justin, you do NOT want to test this if you can avoid it. But go ahead, this stuff is punishment enough!"

"So, what IS it?" Vaidyanathan comes back into the classroom and looks into the cauldrons with the nose pinched closed.

"Hangover potion..." I explain and laugh.

"Don't tell me that this is taught these days in accordance with the syllabus for fifth year? - Ewww, I've had too much of this stuff in my time," he says, still pinching his nose.

"Dad! You did not!" Parvati squeals.

"Sirius will tell you sooner or later, love, so there's no use trying to deny it. We were a bad bunch, believe me."

"I thought I'd give them something useful to learn for a change, Vaidyanathan. How often do you need a shrinking solution? And how often it's most handy to have this vile stuff here at hand?"

"True. - This looks great here. Thanks for making room in your room, Padma. It's a lovely one. Mum puts our stuff away and is getting Sadhu to sleep."

A few minutes later Shannah joins us, just as the kids start clearing up the brewing stations. She looks around and says:

"Well, this is one lovely class room, Sirius."

"It's great, Shannah, I love to work here. Do you want to see the library and their common room?"

"Yes, after reading so much about it in the twins' letters I'd love to see everything!"

"Up there!"

I point to the gallery. Two upper levels are visible, covering two thirds of the classroom's area. We walk up the stairs.

"This contains the complete Hogwarts library, Shannah, without the restricted section, which we have over in our study, locked away. They have to use spells to get out what they need, but by the fairly impressive amount of resized books you can see how much they're working here..."

It's true that the shelves have started to fill. They're far from full yet, but they fill out slowly but surely. She looks around and seems pleased.

"Lovely. What a nice place to work..."

"Yes, I think so, too. They like it in any case."

She follows me up the second stairs and is delighted about the common room. It's a fairly bright room during the day, as the sun shines in through the skylights from the east in the morning and the west in the afternoon. There's three of them, two directly over the common room on each side. After we've walked down we find the kids have packed up their school stuff and have gone outside. The twins are still here to stay with their parents. I leave them alone and the twins show them the way out to the terrace.



Padma


They're really here! It's not enough to see one's family for a week only in one whole year, but we are living in war and so it can be necessary. My parents look well, but strained. They must have had difficult times these past few months, always watching out for another Death Eater attack. They barely survived the first one.

"We've been so scared for you and Sadhu, Mum," I say.

"I know, darling, but we've come through until now. Your brother suffered, too, as we had to send him away a lot. Here, there, always changing the location, so he was in less danger. There was another attempt at killing us of which we have not even told you two. It wasn't as bad as the first one either, rather more clumsy. We got them out of our way easily."

"Oh, Mum! Dad!"

"Don't worry, darling, it's going to be over one day, believe me."

Dad holds me tightly and then he gives the same hug to Parvati. I have a really bad feeling knowing them out there in danger, while I have fun in here with Blaise. But Dad will have nothing of it and instead asks us:

"Now, instead of whining you'd rather introduce us to your boyfriends, my dears!"

"Okay, Dad, though you probably won't be happy about it," Parvati says and looks very anxious.

She has reason to be, because in spite of what I keep telling her since at least March she hasn't told Mum and Dad who her boyfriend is. But now she'll have to and it'll be no easier. I'm glad they already know about Blaise. Though I don't think they'll explode when they meet Draco. He can be damn charming anyway. Unless he feels the necessity to come out as rebellious youth... oh well, here goes...

"Draco! I would like you to meet my Mum and Dad... Mum, Dad, that's Draco Malfoy," Parvati says with as much calm as she can muster.

I watch Dad. He looks a bit taken aback, but holds out his hand and shakes Draco's. Phew, I think he has decided on the charmer.

"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Patil. I believe, my father has occasionally bought wine from your company, hasn't he?"

"Hello, Draco. Yes, he has. - But you're not exactly on good terms with him right now, I hear?" Dad says with a crinkle in the corner of his eyes, which means he's plenty amused.

"Not exactly. I don't know what you call a relationship with a father who was on the verge of using Avada Kedavra on his son."

"That bad? Dear Lucius has definitely gone slightly too far then. - So you and Parvati are together? Her letters sounded very happy..."

Draco actually smiles and it's a smile that reaches his eyes, which happens about every tenth time he smiles unless he smiles at Parvati... then he and Parvati hold their hands and nod. Dad gets very blunt with what he says next:

"You two enjoy each other - but remember: there's a war to be fought out there and you'll be pulled inside. You'll have to take sides. If you can decide to stay on the same side, preferably ours, you'd be off a lot better... and Draco, that means that one day you're opposite Lucius again. But this time it might be you who has to use Avada Kedavra on him. That's a fairly heavy burden for a relationship, so enjoy it while you can!"

Parvati lets go of Draco's hand and hugs Dad! She's on the verge of tears, I know, but she must be terribly relieved to know he's not mad at her. I turn to Blaise, who's come to our group and introduce him.

"Mum, Dad, this is Blaise Zabini."

Dad shakes hands with Blaise and smiles:

"We've heard or better, read, quite a lot about you, Blaise. I'm pleased to meet you."

"I'm pleased to meet you, sir. The twins talk of you both very often. They must be missing you a lot."

"They may be missing us a lot, but it certainly isn't the same not seeing us for the largest part of the year than not seeing us at all anymore. I'm sorry to hear you've lost your parents, Blaise."

"I'm slowly getting over it. Professor Lupin is my guardian now."

"He's a good man, Blaise, I'm sure he's been good to you."

"Yes, he's always kind and helpful. We all like him very much."

Sirius has yet again been able to make the table outside a little longer. It's been laid already and we all sit down for the dinner. Mum and Dad sit between Parvati and I. Remus and Sirius sit opposite them and Remus opens two bottles of Swiss wine, passes them to Dad and says:

"Here, I thought you might enjoy something local, since you're here already. This is a Dôle."

"Oh, sure, pour it, please! Dôle is fine with me on such a warm evening. This is one wonderful place, you guys are damn lucky to be staying here! The view is amazing."

It is. We're sitting with our back to the house, so we have the view over to the mountains, which are bathed in the late afternoon sun. They are still mostly snow covered, but we've had a fairly warm spring, so there are already some grey and black patches of naked rock. We get Röschti (