Turning Points

Note on currency: A lot of Rowling's prices are varied and bizarre, so I've taken liberties with what I say is what price. Rowling has said that one Galleon equals about five Muggle pounds. If we go on that, the same Galleon equals about ten Muggle American dollars. It is this exchange that I'm basing all my pricing on.

A huge thank you to the TPP staff for catching those nasty commas. For a woman who is seriously lacking the formal education sometimes required for writing, they are lifesavers. Really.

Chapter 4 – Turning Points

The phoenix cooed, a noise quite unlike any I'd ever heard before. Not that I'd heard that many sounds in my very short memory. Red-gold mixed with a few deep blue feathers. I had read somewhere that phoenixes often reflected their masters. If my reading was correct, then the red and gold of the bird before me reflected a courageous, intelligent man with a touch of oddity. The bird squeezed its feathers gently between the metal frame. He landed on the couch, his sharp talons not even sinking into the plush black fabric.

A leather satchel of sorts was tied to its back. Molly relieved the beautiful bird of its package. Although I'd read much on phoenixes – it was a wandlore text – I didn't know if the bird would allow me to touch it. Tentatively, I reached for it, my hands curled just slightly in my trepidation. Fawkes' eyes rose and met mine – black beady eyes that twinkled in the harsh Muggle lights of the flat. He met my hand.

The feathers of his head and neck were soft, like a duckling's down. His skin burned as though he were aflame within. I was gentle, not wanting to pull any feathers from him. The deep royal blue feathers on his wing seemed almost taut with power. Not since I had first opened my eyes in this world did I feel so at peace.

Fawkes cooed again, and I knew I'd never refer to him again as an "it" or a "bird" – he was too sentient for that. His head ducked again under my fingers. I giggled nervously, uncertainty bubbling in my chest. Fawkes fixed his twinkling black eyes up at me again, as though telling me not to worry. I felt the tension in my limbs loosen.

He allowed himself one last touch against my hands. As though admonishing himself for his lack of decorum, he snapped his beak. Somehow the move didn't frighten me as it might have. Fawkes spread his wings – an impressive wingspan full of gold and blue and red – and flew back through the window again.

"I think you should read this," Molly said quietly, interrupting my thoughts. She pressed the short piece of parchment into my hands. The parchment was rough to my hands, which had only moments before felt the softness of a phoenix's down.

Dear Ms. Taylor,

Albus Dumbledore

Several prestigious-sounding awards followed, including an Order of Merlin, First Class. It was no wonder such a man was the Headmaster of the school. Even before one took into account that he owned a phoenix – in itself impressive – he was an important man. Who wouldn't want such a prestigious man teaching their children magic?

"The twentieth... isn't that two days from now?" I asked, even though I knew perfectly well it was.

"Yes," Molly said. "I'd best go and get Scorpius, then. You'll need all the time you have to get these done. Here, dear," she handed me one thick packet, "go on and get started."

I found a quill and settled in at the kitchen table. The packet divided again into individual packets – Potions, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Astronomy, Herbology, History of Magic, and Transfiguration. I started with my worst subject – History.

Name three influential wizards or witches during the era of Muggle-Magical Cooperation, and explain why we still celebrate them today.

I grinned. This was simple.

By the time Molly and Scorpius had returned, I was halfway finished with the History packet. Scorpius wordlessly began on his packets, starting with Potions. We worked all afternoon and into the evening, only putting away our quills and inks and packets for supper.

Remus came over the next day for lunch.

"I don't envy you," he said, eyeing the thick piles of parchment. "It looks like the professors gave you all our end-of-term exams. Even I'd be hard-pressed to recall some of this."

"The Headmaster is going to come tomorrow at noon to pick them up and test us otherwise," Scorpius said. "I'm looking forward to meeting him. You guys make him sound so awe-inspiring."

I glared at my brother and friend. "You've been talking about the Headmaster and not telling me?"

"Just about how he is with me," Remus said quickly, as though it would sound less terrible that way. "Professor Dumbledore is a very kind man. Also highly influential, I might add."

Recalling the letter, I was inclined to believe him even if I didn't already trust him. Remus went home right after lunch.

At supper, Molly told us we had one hour to finish as much as we could, and then we were to go to bed. Scorpius all but panicked; he still had half of Transfiguration and all of History. I had half of Potions. We buckled down and furiously scribbled our answers to questions we both were well versed in after so much time reading.

Still, it was for naught. At eight o'clock, Molly spelled the quills clean, the ink bottles shut, and the packets into neat stacks. She pressed chamomile tea in neat white mugs into our hands, sweetened with honey and lime.

I woke early the morning of the twentieth to the smells of Molly's oh-so-scrumptious cooking. It was my turn for the wolf shirt, so I dressed in that, a black under tank, and dark wash bell-bottom jeans. My feet were bare as usual when I stepped into the dining area.

"Wake Scorpius for me, would you, dear?" Molly said, already piling flapjacks and sausages onto plates for the three of us.

I went down the hall and knocked on my brother's door. A disheveled, bleary-eyed Scorpius answered the door, dressed in plaid pants, his chest bare and pale as moonlight. I barely managed to swallow my laughter at how his hair was sticking up in a perfect rendition of oversized lint. He rubbed his eyes, mumbling something I didn't hear.

"What?" I asked.

"I'm up," he muttered. "I'll be in the kitchen in a minute."

I nodded and turned to walk away. His hand on my shoulder stopped me.

"Hecate, you're not mad at me for staying day before yesterday, are you?" he asked, a slight whine in his voice.

"No, why would you think that?" I asked. "You've got a right to friends, Score."

"So do you, Heck," he said, grinning. "It's just that you've not said anything much to me since then and..." He trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck.

I grinned. "Go comb your hair, Score. I'm just worried about today."

He grimaced, running his hands through the tangled mess of honey. "Sure."

He retreated back into his room, leaving the door open. It was the first time I'd seen the inside of it since we had moved in. Relatively speaking, I suppose it was clean enough. His books were haphazardly stacked on a small bookcase. The bed was unmade. There weren't any clothes on the floor, thank the gods.

He gathered his clothes together for a shower and pulled his bedroom door shut behind him. The bathroom was beside me; I moved out of the way. He went in without another word.

I sighed and went back out to the living room. Molly placed a plate of food in front of me, her wand held like a spatula. "That took longer than I thought it might."

"He was worried I was angry with him," I said, spearing a sausage.

"Are you?"

I paused, considering it. The sausage dangled enticingly in front of me, but I didn't move to eat it. Molly had taught us to never have food in our mouths while we spoke. "I'm a little upset that he didn't realize I left until Remus got back. But other than that, no."

Molly hummed softly as she put a plate in Scorpius' place and then served herself. "I have a job interview later today."

I swallowed the half-chewed sausage in surprise. "Why didn't you say anything?" I sputtered.

"Drink, Hecate," Molly admonished. After I had, and breathed normally again, she answered. "I wanted you two to be able to focus on your tests without worrying about me getting or not getting the job."

"What is it?" I asked.

She laughed for some reason. It sounded a lot like relief, but there seemed to be no reason for it.

"Are you all right?"

"I'm fine, dear, fine," Molly said, taking a deep breath to compose herself. "It's an apothecary in Diagon Alley, called Nellie's Nook. They sell more potions than potions ingredients. I'll start out as a cashier, and they'll retrain me on the usual ones so that I can make them in the off-time."

"The usual ones?" I inquired.

"Like Pepper-Up and Boil Begone," she grinned. "Those ordinary little ones you kids learn, but most never seem to master."

Scorpius entered the room moments later, his hair dripping water onto his deep blue t-shirt. "Did I hear something about potions?"

"Molly's got an interview at an apothecary!" I said excitedly.

Scorpius and I peppered Molly with question upon question about her possible new line of work all through breakfast. We finished eating with only two hours left before the imminent arrival of Headmaster Albus Dumbledore. Scorpius raced through his remaining packet. I could hear him cursing his sluggish hands under his breath. I, on the other hand, leisurely completed the last two questions in my Potions packet.

Once finished, I gathered the Prophet from Molly to pass the time. There were several articles in it on defending yourself, and a group of suspicious deaths that Magical Law Enforcement was investigating for foul play. I suspected Death Eater involvement, myself, but the presence of the Dark Mark over all of them seemed not to matter to MLE. I snorted.

Oh, the stupidity of some people.

At five minutes till noon, I put away the paper. Scorpius was frantically finishing up his last question. Three broken quills lay to one side where he'd pressed too hard, too fast. Molly picked these up just as Scorpius blew out a breath and sat back in his chair. He grinned over his shoulder at me.

"Nick of time, eh, Heck?"

"Indeed it is," I said.

At precisely that moment, the fireplace flared up in green flame. An extremely old man in long, fanciful purple robes bedecked with golden pentangles stepped out. With a soundless wave of his hand, he cleaned up the soot that had stuck to his clothes and trekked out onto Molly's clean carpet. Not even a speck of black found its way with him.

Odd, indeed.

He smiled pleasantly and extended his hand in greeting to Molly. Long white hair and an even longer white beard cascaded in odd waves down his front and back. What skin I could see was so pale it almost matched his hair. His gaze found me, light blue and twinkling over a pair of half-moon glasses.

"Hecate, Scorpius, and Molly Taylor, I presume?" he asked in a wizened voice, full of the youth only his eyes could fully carry.

"Not exactly surprised to see you, are we?" Scorpius asked dryly.

The old man chuckled. "No, in that you are right, Mr. Taylor. I see you were working just as I arrived?"

Scorpius flushed scarlet, which was only made worse by how pale he was. If his hair had been paler, he'd be in major trouble.

"He just finished," I said. "And with remarkable timing."

Dumbledore nodded kindly toward my brother. "Shall we, ah, what is the Muggle saying? 'Get down to business?'" He sat down at the table with the kind of grace usually reserved for upstanding gentlemen. Or did all elderly people have that skill? "I'm afraid the Governors have been quite strict on how you are to be admitted into our school."

"Our friends seem to think that we'll get in because of you," Scorpius said. He gathered the rest of our packets together and set them all on the coffee table in front of Dumbledore.

"Ah, I do seem to recall Mr. Lupin lives nearby," Dumbledore nodded. I would call it sagely, but the youthful, mirthful gleam in his eye belied the notion.

"What kind of spells do you want us to do?" I asked. "We're pretty well-versed in most of them."

"Show me what you can do," Dumbledore said. "I'd like to see what you mean by 'well-versed'. Don't worry about the Ministry, they are well aware of what will occur here today."

I blinked. "I'd almost forgotten about them."

He smiled kindly. "That is to be expected, Hecate."

Dumbledore's gentle reminder of my "condition" was by far the most eye-opening one yet. Molly had met it head-on, as a challenge to be sorted out and surmounted. Mr. and Mrs. Pomfrey had analyzed it. Remus, at our request, had ignored it. Sirius and James had been openly – and rudely – curious about it. But Dumbledore pointed it out, and then left it at that.

I smiled at him. "True. All right, shall I go first?" I glanced at Scorpius. He nodded. For a moment, I thought of what spell I could do that would impress this man. Obviously, I shouldn't do one that I didn't know whether it would work or not, but neither should I do any simple ones.

I smiled and hit upon one that I thought he might like, considering he owned a real live phoenix. "Avifors!"

From the tip of my wand, a bubble-like shape began to form. The bubble grew black and brown feathers, and tiny feet. A beak formed, and a little bird flew from my wand-tip and fluttered onto my outstretched finger. It chirruped noisily as I pet it on its head.

"A conjuring spell," Dumbledore nodded thoughtfully. "And quite well-done, too." He petted the bird on its head. "Tell me, Hecate, do you know what kind of bird he is?"

I thought for a moment, tilting my head to the side. "I believe it's a chickadee, sir."

He chuckled softly. "Do you know where they are from?"

For a moment, I didn't know exactly what he was playing at. Then, it dawned on me. "From the Americas. It's a common bird there."

"Precisely." His eyes twinkled again.

The "tests" moved much like this. Scorpius and I cast spells – all sorts of spells – between the two of us. We were laughing by the end of things mostly because Scorpius had botched his Cheering Charm and hit everyone in the room.

"I don't think the two of you have anything to worry about," Dumbledore said, as one of our slippers hopped past in the form of a rabbit. "If your tests are as good as your practicals, I believe you'll soar straight in." As though to punctuate his statement, the chickadee from before fluttered past, flashing its white wings.

With a single wave of his hand, all of the spells we'd cast set themselves to right. The rabbits turned back into slippers. The chickadee disappeared. The elated feel of the Cheering Charm seemed to remain, but I think that was more to the fact that we were feeling that way. Most of our other spells did not have lingering effects, like Expelliarmus and Warming and Cooling Charms.

"I will send you the results of your tests with Fawkes," said Dumbledore. "And you will most likely receive your letters in a few days time."

We said good-bye to the Headmaster. He disappeared with a dreidel-like whirl in the green flames. Scorpius turned back to us.

"That went well."

"Yes, it did," Molly said. She glanced at her watch. "Come on, then, grab your shoes. I've got to be at Nellie's Nook by two and it's a quarter till now."

Scorpius and I scrambled for our shoes. We Flooed one by one to the Leaky Cauldron. I stumbled a bit on the cobblestone floor, but Molly made sure I didn't fall.

The Leaky Cauldron stood up to its name. It held a sort of shabby appearance, even though it was pretty clean for a place that thousands of wizards walk through every day. A few patrons were seated at the bar, and a loud bunch of old women were at a booth against a wall. There was a set of stairs near the front door.

"Molly!" a scratchy voice called out. "Finally bringing your kids out?"

A man with dark hair shot through with silver wiped the glass he was working on and then made his way round the bar. When he grinned, I noticed he had fewer teeth than the usual man. He stopped right in front of Molly. This man only had a few inches on Scorpius, and he was far taller than Molly and me.

"Hi, Tom," said Molly. "Yes, these are my children." She put a hand on my shoulder. "This is Hecate and Scorpius."

"Very nice names you've chosen yourselves," Tom said, his grin revealing more missing teeth. "You'll have to come back and see me when you've got time."

"We'll probably come down here and see about supper," Molly said. "But I've got that interview, Tom, so I must be going."

"All right, won't keep you, then." Tom retreated back behind the bar.

Scorpius and I scurried along behind Molly, out the back door. A bunch of dustbins sat to one side. The wall to one side was entirely free of debris and made of rough brick. A handful of them were brokenly concave, and it was here that Molly tapped with her wand.

It happened that first time, in that moment. There was no vague sense of déjà vu, as if this moment had happened before. Oh, no. Literally, everything around me changed – and yet remained exactly as it was. Molly was no longer there – instead a plump, pleasant red-haired younger woman stood in her place. I didn't wear blue jeans and our shared wolf shirt; instead, I wore crimson witch's robes.

In Scorpius' place by my side stood a red-haired boy. He was tall, gangly, and had the same pointed nose as the woman. As did Molly, come to think. The bricks parted before us.

And as soon as the vision had come, it shattered. I grasped desperately in my own mind for the faint details of that scene, so displaced in time and space. All I could capture, all that did not fade from my inner workings like so much sand between fingers, was the color of his hair. The boy's face muddled away, the woman almost completely scrubbed out. I held onto that particular shade of red. I had a memory.

I had a memory.

I was so terrified to lose it that I immediately started looking for something – anything – that resembled the hue of that strange boy's hair. My eyes zeroed in on a particular piece of brick that had chipped off of the wall as it closed. Before Molly or Scorpius realized what I was doing, I picked up the sharp bit of rock.

The color of his hair.

I had a memory.

Molly stopped just outside the apothecary Nellie's Nook and pulled out a drawstring bag. She handed us each five gold Galleons. "Go into Flourish and Blotts there to wait for me. You can get whatever books you want with these." The store across the street was a bookshop. "I'll only be a little while."

Though all five round gold coins fit nicely in my pocket, I soon discovered that I had a lot more money than I thought. Some of the cheaper books were around seven or eight Sickles. A large tome called Dark Arts of Our Times, detailing some of the stuff Death Eaters have done since the start of the war, cost a little bit more than two galleons.

Scorpius and I agreed to share whatever books we bought. We both broke down in giggles when we saw that we both held a copy of Potions: a Study of Arithmancy. I put mine back and grabbed instead a book called Moste Potente Potions, which set me back three Galleons and five Sickles. I recalled some of the potions within it and the opening few lines. I must have read it at some point. I dragged that and five other books on various topics to the front.

The cashier at the front was a girl who either was working for the summer or had just gotten this job out of Hogwarts. Her hand paused over my most expensive text, her entire form stiffening. Pale brown eyes flickered up into mine.

"Er, you do know that these potions are very difficult and some dangerous, right?" she asked hesitantly.

"Of course I know that," I said calmly. "I don't plan on making any of them. It's just reading."

The tension in her seemed to melt away, and the false brightness that she'd exhibited with earlier customers returned. "Oh, right. I knew that." She glanced at the other books quickly. "Four Galleons and fourteen Sickles, please."

I handed her all five of my gold coins and received back three silver ones and a thick cotton bag. All six of my books were cozy within it.

"Thank you," I said.

Scorpius went next. He bought the potions text and two others similar to it, but he also had seven fictional books. He had sixteen Sickles left over when done. We glanced out the window over to the apothecary; Molly was in the window. But we had promised to wait in the bookshop, so we settled down into a handful of chairs at the front of the shop with our purchases.

We had only just sat down when a boy slightly older than us sat down in the opposing chair. He was taller than anyone I'd met so far. His white-blond hair cascaded past his shoulders, kept from moving forward by a silk green tie at the base. He wore expensive dragon's hide boots, soft silver-white gloves, and an expensive green set of robes.

"I couldn't help but notice that you bought Moste Potente Potions," said he with a slight smile in my direction. "May I ask why?"

"No, you may not," I said, trying not to sniff indignantly.

The blond boy seemed taken aback. Then, he smiled in the silky way that spiders do when luring tasty insects more firmly into their webs. "I apologize, it was rude of me to ask."

Wary, I nodded. "Apology... accepted."

"Either you are visiting," said the boy, "or you've just moved here."

Scorpius and I exchanged our customary glance. "Er... guess we just moved here."

"You don't know?"

An embarrassed flush colored my neck and cheeks. "No."

The boy's eyebrows rose expressively and then fell in thought. After a handful of heartbeats, they rose again. "You're the Obliviated kids." It was not a question.

"Yeah," I answered anyway. I tried to focus on Moste Potente Potions again, but it was no use. He was determined to talk to us.

"Have they decided whether you're going to Hogwarts yet?" he asked. "My father is on the Governor's Board, you see."

"We just finished our tests today," I admitted. "Dumbledore said he'd get back to us soon. We did well on the practicals, at least."

The blond smiled again, this time much less false and more like a real smile. "I'm sorry, where are my manners? My name is Lucius Malfoy."

"Hecate Taylor," I said, smiling shyly. For some reason, his smile sent little frogs hopping inside my stomach. "And this is my brother, Scorpius."

Lucius regarded my brother fully for a moment, his pale grey-blue eyes traveling up and down my brother's form. "Do I... know you? You look familiar."

"If you do, you're the one who's going to have to remember," Scorpius quipped. His tone wasn't entirely friendly. I glanced with my eyes only at my brother, keeping the surprise from my face. My brother had never sounded like that before.

"So I should," Lucius nodded, not unkindly. "Apologies again. Well," he clapped his hands on the chair's arms as he stood, "I should be going. Thank you for conversing with me, my lady Hecate, Mr. Taylor."

He then grasped my fingers delicately between his larger, softer ones. In one graceful move, he pressed a kiss to the back of my knuckles, nodded at Scorpius, and waltzed out of the shop.

As soon as he was gone, Scorpius spoke. "I don't like him."

The query at the tip of my tongue never got there, however, because Molly came in at just that moment. I trusted Molly, but... I think some things were best left between my brother and me.

"Did you find many books?" Molly asked cheerfully.

"Molly!" Scorpius moaned. "C'mon, did you get the job or not?"

Molly sniffed indignantly. My brother's face fell, only to light up again at Molly's words. "Of course I got the job, Scorpius, what kind of woman do you think I am?"

The two of us hugged each other, hugged Molly, and hugged each other again. Molly set her wand down to hug Scorpius again, who was exclaiming loudly how frightened he'd been that she wasn't going to get the job.

As I put my books back in the bag, I grabbed Molly's temporarily-forgotten wand. Moste Potente Potions turned instead into Potions of Our Age. No sense in getting Molly upset over a text. I returned her wand back to where it had been. Molly was none the wiser.

Little did I know the path that today's meeting with Lucius, and my deceptions of Molly, would take me in years to come.

Molly began working for Nellie McKinnon the next day. Every day following that, Scorpius, Remus, and I Flooed into Nellie's Nook after her shift. Molly went in to work at five o'clock in the morning and got off at one o'clock. After we ate lunch at the Leaky Cauldron (to Tom's delight), we would explore the shops in Diagon Alley.

It was precisely two days after Dumbledore's tests that we got the letters. Remus stared at the huge phoenix outside the window.

"Molly says Muggles can't see him," I said, shrugging. I let Fawkes in. Remus and Scorpius reached him and began petting him. I smiled, recalling the pleasant feel of his down. "His name's Fawkes. He's Dumbledore's."

Fawkes waited patiently to allow me to pet him once, too, before flying back out through the open window. I closed and locked it up as the conversation continued behind me.

"I've been in Dumbledore's office every year at the start," Remus said. "But Fawkes is usually out delivering stuff."

"Why do you see Dumbledore at the start of the year?" Scorpius asked. I took the letters from Fawkes. He flew back out the window.

"My illness." Remus said simply, with the quality of an attempted lie.

"What is this illness you've got anyway?" I asked, tearing into the letter.

"We don't know."

Abruptly, I looked up. I could hear the lie. But I trusted Remus, trusted him enough to know that once he was comfortable he would tell us. I returned to opening my letter, addressed to me with the Hogwarts seal on the back. This letter, however, was different from the one Molly had received.

Dear Miss Hecate H. Taylor,

Deputy Headmistress

As the letter had said, I found a list of supplies, a permission parchment, and also a parchment ticket that detailed the location, time, and platform of our train. Scorpius received all of this, too, the only exception being his name: Mr. Scorpius D. Taylor.

I blinked, returning to the top of the letter.

Hecate H. Taylor.

H.

"Did Molly give us middle names and not tell us?" I said aloud.

"Maybe," Scorpius said quietly. He caressed the top of his letter. "D... I wonder what it is."

"It's quarter till one," Remus pointed out. "Just go ask Molly."

I don't think I'd ever seen Scorpius so anxious to get into the fireplace. Though we'd been using the Floo for Merlin knows how long, he still didn't like it. Neither did I, come to that, but at least I didn't shrink back from the fire when it flared up still. Remus cast an amused glance in my direction.

"In a hurry, is he?"

"Well, what if you had a missing middle name you didn't know about?" I asked, stepping into the fire. I quirked my head to the side. "What is your middle name, anyway?"

"John," Remus said, giving my shoulder a shove. "Now go. I'm going to Floo over to my house."

"Pushy," I said, grinning over my shoulder at him. He blushed in reply. I just stepped into the Floo, "Nellie's Nook!"

Upon exiting the Floo, Scorpius gave me no time to catch my bearings before informing me. "She doesn't know where it came from! It's a magical... what'd you call it again?"

Molly looked like she wanted to laugh and cry at once. "It's a magical connection to your wands. When I registered you to the Orphaned Children's Board, they told me that there was a faint echo within the cores."

"So our... our wands know what our names were?" I asked excitedly.

She shook her head, dashing my short-lived hopes. "Not precisely. They recalled the starting letter to your first name, and the Board put that letter in place."

Confused, I looked at Scorpius. "But his name was on that locket." I pointed to the silver locket that hung from his neck – he never took it off.

"Apparently his wand picked up on his original middle name," Molly explained softly.

Remus appeared in the Floo moments later with a jangling coin pouch and a letter much like our own.

"Your mother got a hold of you, then?" Molly asked, smiling.

I glanced back and forth between Remus – who was slightly out of breath – and Molly. She chuckled and answered my unasked question.

"Remus is coming with us to do school shopping."

The three of us grinned as Nellie came out from the back. "Oh, hello, Taylor twins, Remus, come to pick Molls from work now?"

Nellie McKinnon was a half-blood witch who had married Muggle-born Jason McKinnon way back when. Nellie herself was amazing – long black hair and a jolly, but unrecognizable, accent. They were up there in age and had one daughter a couple years our senior named Marlene. Nellie kept trying to get Marlene to come and meet us, but the girl had been sick. I had found all this out a few afternoons ago, when Molly was finishing up a Dreamless Sleep potion.

"Yup!" Scorpius replied. "I wish we could keep doing it even after we go to school. But we know you'll take care of her for us."

"Right you are, little Score!" Nellie laughed and ruffled his hair. He scowled up at her, making her laugh more.

Soon after, Nellie shooed us out of her shop. She took up the spot behind the counter.

We headed for the closest shop on the list: Flourish and Blotts.

We had spent so much time in Diagon Alley since Molly got her job that it was simple going from shop to shop for the required supplies. The hardest part was going into Madam Malkin's, the wizarding clothes shop where we bought our robes. Malkin was a short, young witch, scarcely out of Hogwarts. She had, apparently, only just taken over for her mother the year before. The elder Malkin was actually an Orville, but the shop had been passed down from mother to daughter for generations.

"Needing Hogwarts robes?" she asked on our entrance.

"Yes, madam," Molly said. "The whole set for these two, and a new robe and cloak for this young man."

Remus opened his mouth to argue. It snapped shut audibly at the fiery look on Molly's face. Madam Malkin either did not notice or was polite enough not to point it out. She dragged Scorpius back first, all the while saying that there was another young man being fitted for robes there, too. Remus trailed off into another part of the shop, behind some cheaper-looking casual robes.

It was only about ten minutes or so later that a black-haired boy came out, followed by a tall woman. The boy had a large hooked snout, though not enough to be completely abnormal. He was tall and reedy, with hardly any muscle tone, and his skin a pasty white like he hadn't been in the sun since he was a baby. He was dressed in shorts and long socks, cheap shoes, and an Oxford dress shirt buttoned to the top.

In other words, my first glimpse of Severus Snape was not a flattering one.

"Hello," said the woman politely. "I don't think I've ever seen you around before, Ms...?"

"Taylor," said Molly. "Molly Taylor."

"Oh, so you're that woman who adopted the Obliviated twins!" said the woman, startled. She glanced at me quickly and then over her shoulder as though she could see through the curtains to catch another look at Scorpius. "So you're...?"

"Yes," I said shortly. "I am."

She tilted her head to the side. "I apologize for being rude, it's just that I didn't expect to meet you. My name's Eileen Snape, and this is my son, Severus. He's a third-year at Hogwarts."

"That's what we're in, too," I said, peering at Severus Snape curiously. "We just got our letters today."

Severus did not say anything at all. Eileen, however, continued speaking. "Is that right? So Dumbledore does still have the same influence as always." She didn't look too entirely happy about that. "What are your names?"

"I'm Hecate, and my brother is Scorpius."

"Beautiful," Eileen said, smiling. I wasn't entirely sure I liked her yet. "Well, Severus will most likely see you at school, then. We must be going."

"Good day," Molly said. She looked like she wasn't entirely sure what she wanted to say. Eileen and Severus left just as Scorpius came out.

We carried our school supplies home. Molly forbade Remus from thanking her for the robes and cloak, and he did so only by sheer force of will.

I didn't get to think about Severus Snape at all until we were home. As I was packing my school things up in a rolling trunk, I couldn't help but dwell on the fact that Eileen had spoken for her son. Was he just unable to speak? Too shy? I shook my head and stacked my new books on the shelf.

I'd find out when I got there.