Heaven and Hell

1st Chapter - Encounter on the Hogwarts Express

(September 1995)

Severus Snape stood in the headmaster's office and sneered at several photographs of former headmasters and headmistresses on the wall. He was impatiently awaiting the return of the office's current inhabitant. Albus Dumbledore had told him to wait while he freshened up a bit after his long journey.

Hagrid and Dumbledore had travelled together to visit the giants at the beginning of the holidays, in order to win them as allies. They hadn't returned until this morning, the first day of the new school year. The negotiations had been successful, but Severus knew the headmaster should not have had the time to look for a new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. Severus also knew that Dumbledore hadn't assigned anybody to do that in his absence. The headmaster apparently had believed he would be back in time to address the matter himself. But now the new school year had begun, and it was too late for job advertisements and interviews. This was his chance. Severus was confident that Dumbledore would rather give him the job than have no Defence professor this year at all.

The photographs appeared to know the reason for Severus' presence. They shot him glances that seemed to say he would never get the job as long as Albus Dumbledore was headmaster at Hogwarts.

Severus jumped and spun around when the headmaster's mild voice sounded just behind him.

"Hello, Severus. I see you have fared well over the holidays." Dumbledore's bright blue eyes twinkled with a childlike glee. "Would you like a lemon drop? I could not have any all summer long, because they were not available in Romania." He sighed happily. "I am so glad to be home again."

With these words, Dumbledore offered his visitor a sweet bag.

Severus shook his head. Had it been anyone else, save the Dark Lord himself, the Potions master would have said something sarcastic.

But it was Dumbledore, who to everyone's amazement had shown confidence in Severus, the Death Eater turned spy; Dumbledore, who for all his mild ways was still the only wizard Lord Voldemort had ever feared.

"No, but thank you," Severus answered instead, a little stiffly.

The headmaster acknowledged this with a shrug of his shoulders. "Well then, what else can I do for you?" he asked, putting a lemon drop in his own mouth. He gestured for Severus to take a seat while he himself sat down behind his desk.

Severus, despite any courtesy he might have shown Dumbledore, had never been one for small talk. After he had taken the offered seat, he came straight to the point. "Headmaster, as you were away on business all through the holidays I assume you didn't have an opportunity to hire a new Defence professor."

Dumbledore considered the Potions Master's statement for several seconds. A barely perceptible smile played around the corners of his mouth. "I see. And I assume you would like to step into the vacancy, Severus?"

Severus wasn't surprised in the slightest that Dumbledore knew his plans. It often seemed as if there was hardly anything at Hogwarts that the Headmaster didn't know. Well, this would make things only easier. Clearly, Dumbledore had already had time to get used to the idea and realise that this was the only reasonable choice.

"Yes," said Severus, "I would. I think I can make this subject at least as exciting and educational as those who held the position as Professor for Defence Against the Dark Arts in the last years. Although," he cocked an eyebrow, "beating Gilderoy Lockhart's pixies could be a challenge. Regardless, I know more about the Dark Arts than anyone else here in Hogwarts."

The headmaster nodded thoughtfully. "I am certain that you do. And nevertheless, Severus, I think that Potions is your field. There are few who have become Masters in Potions, and fewer still who have your skill." Dumbledore eyed the younger man for a long time before adding gently, "Dark Magic can be powerful and enticing. You have succumbed to it before. I do not wish that you occupy yourself too much with it. No, you will not get the position." The smile had yielded to a stern expression, and there was something final in Dumbledore's tone, though he had never once raised his voice.

Severus bit back anger and disappointment. Even though the Headmaster insisted that he trusted him, his reaction seemed to prove the opposite. Did he really believe that Severus would acquire a taste for Dark Magic and change sides again, just because he was teaching a load of brats how to defend themselves against it? That would certainly not happen. He had learned his lesson thoroughly.

He took a deep breath, and when he spoke nothing in his voice indicated his inner turmoil. "However, it is a fact that you have no more time to find another professor, sir. Would you really rather leave this position unfilled than to entrust it to me?"

The amused twinkle reappeared in Dumbledore's eyes as he answered Severus. "Oh, what makes you think the job would be vacant? I found a new professor before I left. She will arrive this evening on the Hogwarts Express, along with the students."

* * *

"I hope you didn't forget anything in the Leaky Cauldron," said Serena, heaving a bag jam-packed with magically minimized books onto the luggage rack in an empty compartment. Fortunately, the luggage racks on the Hogwarts Express were mounted somewhat lower than on a normal train. After all, even first years should be able to stow away their luggage properly. This was very convenient for Serena, who wasn't much taller than some of the first years. Of course, she could have used magic to stow her belongings, but she firmly believed in exerting oneself a little. Too much magic and too little exercise made for rather dumpy wizards and witches.

Her comment had been directed to her fifteen-year-old son Jon, who was now lifting his own trunk onto the opposite luggage rack. An impish gleam glinted in Jon's jet black eyes when he answered, "Oh, I'm sure I forgot something. I just don't know what it is yet."

He laughed and added Serena's trunk to the rack. She and her son had arrived in London the day before. They had bought school supplies for him and several things for Serena in Diagon Alley - things which she needed for the Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons she would be teaching at Hogwarts.

And, of course, Jon had replenished his stock of practical joke supplies. Serena had shaken her head and asked him, scowling, why on earth a model student would need such things. He had grinned broadly and reminded her of the fact that he had never been a model student.

"Well, you'd better not try to disturb my lessons with this stuff. I've known you for fifteen years now and I know exactly which punishment hits you hardest," she told him sternly.

The strict tone had, however, been belied by the mischievous twinkle in her eyes and the laughter lines around her mouth. Serena hadn't been a saint herself in her own school days, and she could still remember how much fun she had had then. Consequently, she did not intend to bring up her son to be a well-behaved bore. Often she had received letters of complaint from Warwick's, her son's former school, and had been routinely criticised for letting him get away with too much. But as long as Jon achieved good marks, which he did, she deliberately ignored the letters.

They had taken two rooms in the Leaky Cauldron and spent the night in London. This morning as always, Jon had got out of bed only after repeated demands and a charm that deprived him of his blanket by levitating it up to the ceiling.

Unfortunately, the interior of the room was enchanted to be unreceptive to magic - perhaps to prevent guests from doing funny things with it. However, the owner obviously hadn't taken the trouble to have this done by a professional, so the charm was neither very advanced nor very stable. Things would have gone better had the blanket not been confronted with Serena's powerful Levitation spell.

The result had been as unexpected as devastating. Instead of being cancelled, the spell had rebounded and had affected the entire room. Everything that wasn't firmly attached to the ground suddenly had ascended into the air and refused to come down again. Jon had bumped his head when his bed had suddenly shot upwards, only to be stopped by the ceiling.

They had had to waste nearly an hour dragging everything off the ceiling and making it stay down, leaving them no time to pack everything properly. They had even been forced to cancel breakfast because the cab to King's Cross had been waiting - rather impatiently - for quite some time. Jon had been obliged to grab his baggage and run without checking whether he had really picked everything up.

Serena sighed. "No doubt we'd already be rich if we didn't always have to buy everything at least twice to replace all the things you repeatedly lose. And speaking of losing - where's Spike?"

Her son's reaction was almost comical. Jon's face froze and it looked as if his heart had skipped one or two beats. He routinely lost things, unimportant odds and ends that were easily replaced. But to lose his tomcat! That hadn't happened to him yet. Serena had given him Spike four years ago, when he had started at Warwick's. Since then they had been inseparable.

Jon began hunting through their luggage, holding his breath - and let it out in a sigh of utter relief when he spotted Spike's cage among the bags. So he hadn't left him behind at the Leaky Cauldron. However, when he looked a bit closer, he realised that the cage's door was ajar - and it was entirely cat-free.

"Oh no, Spike's gone!" Jon ran his hands distractedly through his hair, eyes wild, before diving back into the luggage. "And I don't know if he got out in the train or outside! How am I supposed to find him until the train leaves?"

While her son dug frantically through the baggage, Serena eyed the platform and found the answer. "I think he's over there," she said, pointing out of the window.

Jon followed her gaze, his eyes coming to rest on a display panel. He looked as if he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Perched on the panel was a nearly all-black cat. Only its paws, right ear, and the tip of its tail were white. Apparently, Spike had climbed up the panel during the hunt for a bird, where he had got stuck about four yards off the ground. The bird must have flown away, and Spike didn't dare to climb down. He meowed pitifully for assistance.

"I'll go and get him!" Jon exclaimed, running out of the compartment.

"But hurry up, the train will leave soon!" Serena yelled after him as she loaded the last of the baggage.

When she checked for stray luggage, a bit of parchment on the floor caught her eye. It was the letter from Albus Dumbledore - the letter that had abruptly changed her life. It must have been fallen out of the pocket of her travelling cloak. She picked it up and reread it, as she had done countless times over the last two months.

My dear Serena,

I have not heard from you for many years, and I hope that you, Jon, and Henrietta are all right. I wish I had a more pleasant reason to write. As you might have noticed, there are some serious events taking place. However, I shall reiterate them here anyway.

Lord Voldemort has returned. He has acquired a new body, and he is on the way to becoming stronger than ever before. The Ministry of Magic hides its head in the sand and declines to do something, so now we must prevent him from regaining his former influence, and we need every single ally we have to achieve this. I would be pleased if you could return to Britain. And what is more, the position of Professor for Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts is vacant. This is in fact your area of expertise, and I would be most glad if you would take it.

If you could return your decision to me within the next week, I would be extremely grateful. Please forgive me that I make the issue so urgent, but if you should not accept, I have not much time to find another teacher for that subject. My owl will wait for your answer.

Kind Regards and Best Wishes,
Albus Dumbledore

PS: I think Harry would be delighted to meet you.

Serena put the letter back into her pocket. It hadn't taken long to make her decision. On one hand, she hadn't left England voluntarily, and she wasn't entirely sure about the reception people would give her. And, over the years, she had grown rather fond of her new home and her new life.

But on the other hand... At their last meeting, Voldemort had sworn not to rest before he had wiped out her entire family. If he had returned as Dumbledore claimed, Jon was in grave danger. She was sure there was no safer place for him than Hogwarts, and if she taught there she could see him every day, instead of only through the holidays. She would be near him and hopefully be able to protect him, and she could keep an eye on Harry as well.

And Albus needed her. Years ago he had helped her when she had been in dire straits and now, at last, she had a chance to pay him back...

After reading the letter for the first time, she had just sat in her armchair and stared into space for a while. After many long minutes, she had sighed heavily. The fact was that she didn't really have a choice. As soon as she had realised that, she had walked over to her desk, pulled a piece of parchment out of the drawer, and had started to write her response.

Now, just two months later, she was onboard the Hogwarts Express, still asking herself if she had actually done the right thing.

* * *

Meanwhile, Jon, who was outside under the panel, pondered how he could get Spike down again. "C'mon, jump!" he called to the cat, holding out his arms. Spike, looking terrified, refused to move. "I'll catch you, I swear - and Mum'll have some treats for you!" he coaxed.

Suddenly someone clapped him on the back and a male voice boomed, "Hey, Harry! How were the holidays? Muggles starve you again?" Jon turned and faced a grinning, gangling, freckle-faced redhead, dressed in faded dark robes.

When the redhead saw Jon's face, the broad grin vanished. "Oh, excuse me," the boy said a little less enthusiastically. "I thought you were my friend Harry, you look a bit like him." He stared at Jon for another second or two, mouth slightly open.

"It's your hair," a second, female voice explained. "I don't know anyone except Harry who has such messy hair."

A girl with a bushy brown mane appeared from behind the redhead, smiling at them both.

Jon could only think of one word to describe her: gorgeous. Admittedly, this assessment was probably made by his hormones, but she wasn't ugly either. She was slender, and all the lines of her figure were smooth and flowing. Her bow mouth had a slightly stubborn set and her clear brown, intelligent looking eyes sparked with gold in the sunlight.

Suddenly very unsure what to say, Jon ran his hands through his luxuriant hair that was as dark as his eyes. As soon as he was through, the hair sprang back into its former position, looking as if it hadn't seen a comb in ages. "Well, I got it from my mum," he finally answered. "She said it's a family trait."

After saying these words, Jon quickly shut his mouth, before he could utter more rubbish that certainly no one was interested in.

The two of them looked as if they were about to move along, most likely in search of their friend Harry. When they turned, Jon hastily said, "I'm Jon, by the way. What's your name?"

He didn't want the girl to leave yet, and he hoped he could engage her in a longer conversation.

"I'm Hermione," she answered. She was smiling in a friendly way, but the smile lit her whole face until it literally glowed.

"And I'm Ron," the redhead chimed in.

Jon swallowed and glanced at the redhead - Ron - wondering if Hermione was his girlfriend. But if she was, why was she smiling at him like that?

'Maybe she's just being nice, you idiot! Say something! Something intelligent!' Jon silently chided himself.

Feeling his cheeks blush a little, Jon managed to mumble, "Erm, I guess you're going to Hogwarts?"

What a stupid question, he thought. They were at platform nine and three quarters, and the train here was the Hogwarts Express!

"Yes," Ron answered. "And you?" At these words he glanced at Jon's black robes that didn't show any of the four Hogwarts House emblems.

"Me too."

Jon began to doubt that he would be able to have a longer conversation, when he had even trouble to speak in whole sentences. At least he knew the girl's name now - Hermione - and that she was a Hogwarts student. So if everything failed, he could try to talk to her again later. This thought was oddly comforting, and, strangely enough, it somehow took the pressure off him, enabling him to answer Ron's next question with more than two words.

"Why don't you have any House emblems on your robes?" Ron asked. "And anyway, Jon, how come I've never seen you around at Hogwarts? You can't be a first year."

"I used to go to Warwick's - that's nearer to my old home. My mum's from England, though, and she decided she wanted to move back. So now I'll be going to Hogwarts - Mum went there, and she thinks I'll like it."

"She's right, I suppose. Hogwarts is really fantastic. Which year will you be in?"

"Fifth."

Did this information cause Hermione's smile to brighten even more, Jon wondered, or did he imagine things?

"We're fifth years too," she said, and at least she didn't sound put off by the prospect of seeing Jon frequently at school. "We're both in Gryffindor. Did your mum tell you about the different Houses?"

"Yeah, she did." Jon looked little self-conscious. "But I'm really not sure if she was pulling my leg or not - she told me you get Sorted by a talking hat."

Hermione nodded eagerly. "Yes, the Sorting Hat. You put it on your head and it reads your mind, and then -"

She looked ready to launch into a detailed explanation, but Ron interrupted her. He had noticed Spike - the cat was still looking at Jon in abject terror, and he was now mewling pitifully. Ron pointed at him, asking curiously, "Is that your cat up there?"

"Oh, Spike!" Jon had nearly forgotten him. "Yeah, he's mine. Stupid cat climbed up there and now he can't get back down," he explained, eyeing the cat and wondering what to do.

"That isn't any problem," said Hermione brightly. "Hold on a minute -" and she disappeared into the crowd.

"Where's she going?" Jon asked Ron, looking confused.

Ron didn't have a clue either and shrugged his shoulders. "No idea what she's thought of now."

They didn't wait long for an answer. Hermione returned after a few seconds, followed by a plump, kind-looking woman who shared Ron's brilliant, carrot-on-fire hair - though hers was a little darker, and muted, and here and there tinged with a bit of grey.

"This is Jon," said Hermione, "and it's his cat that's stuck." Then she introduced the woman. "Jon, this is Mrs. Weasley."

"My mum," Ron added, as if this wasn't obvious.

"You must be new to Hogwarts, dear. It's nice to meet you." Mrs. Weasley smiled at Jon, offering him her hand.

Jon took it, replying, "Nice to meet you, too." She was a small woman, and he wasn't sure why Hermione had brought her. Jon was the tallest of anyone present, and the panel had been too high even for him to reach Spike.

"Hermione said you had a problem with your cat, dear. What's happened?"

"He climbed up there," Jon said, pointing at the panel. "And that's exactly the problem."

"I see." She reached for her wand. "Wingardium Leviosa!"

Suddenly Spike rose into the air. When he realised that he had lost contact with the ground, Spike hissed, bristled, and stretched, trying desperately to reach the panel. But he rose inexorably, and soon he was too far away from anything solid - and the tomcat promptly panicked. He mewled and twisted frantically in midair.

Mrs. Weasley directed him straight into Jon's arms. He had hardly landed when he started to hiss angrily at her. Then Spike curled up in Jon's arms and wouldn't deign to look at Mrs. Weasley again.

"Come on, Spike! Don't be so ungrateful! After all, you landed yourself in that trouble," Jon scolded, telling his cat off. Then he babbled an excited thanks to Mrs. Weasley. "That was great. Thank you very much! Actually, I should have come up with that by myself. Stupid of me, really... dunno where my brain's today, maybe that was what I forgot at the Leaky Cauldron..."

"You are welcome, dear," Mrs. Weasley warmly answered. With a glance at the station clock she added, "You three should get on the train now, it'll be leaving soon."

"But I haven't found Harry yet!" Ron protested, as Mrs. Weasley started to usher them towards the nearest train car.

"It won't do you any good to miss the train yet again, Ronald Weasley! Harry's probably already in there; he's got more sense than you. Now go on!" Mrs. Weasley literally pushed her son along, watching him balefully to make sure he boarded.

"Would you like to sit with us? There's plenty of room in our compartment," said Jon, when they found themselves going from compartment to stuffed compartment, seeing it was filled and proceeding to the next one.

"Us?" Hermione asked curiously.

"My mum is here along with me. She'll teach at Hogwarts. Unless you mind sitting with a professor..." Jon looked like a sad puppy when he said this, his bottom lip slightly trembling, and did his utmost not to grin.

"...Oh, no, of course we don't mind," said Ron hurriedly, looking a bit terrified, "we'd love to sit with you."

Hermione started to laugh. "Could you show me that expression again? I think I should remember this, just in case..."

Jon grinned, and Ron looked relieved.

By then, they had reached Jon's compartment. His mother was nowhere to be seen.

"I'll look for Harry and tell him where we are," Ron said and dropped his luggage. Then he disappeared into the corridor.

Jon put Spike in his cage, making sure the door was securely locked this time, and helped Hermione to stow Ron's and her baggage. He put Spike's carrier alongside Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, watching them intently. Both tomcats immediately took an interest in the other, looking and sniffing at the new arrival. Apparently, neither cat had an objection to his neighbour, so Jon quickly continued to help Hermione stowing the rest of the baggage on the rack and under some seats.

They were just finished when Ron returned. Behind him was another boy, dragging along a trunk and an owl cage. The sight of him made both Jon and Hermione gasp. The boy was tall and slim and looked to be about their age. He had marvellous green eyes, serious and alert, and was wearing round glasses. His black hair seemed to grow in every possible and impossible direction. He wasn't quite as tall as Jon, but aside from the eyes, the glasses, and a lightning shaped scar on the boy's forehead, their similarity was frightening.

Hermione was the first person able to speak again. "Oh my! Harry, Jon, you could almost pass as twins!"

"Blimey! No wonder I took you for Harry," said Ron, glancing sideways at Jon and whistling a little, shaking his head.

Offering Harry his hand, Jon said, "Hello, I'm Jon. Jon Potter. You must be my cousin Harry; I've heard a lot about you. Happy to meet you at last."

Both Hermione and Ron stared at Jon, as if he had suddenly grown a second head. Harry's green eyes grew wide as saucers, and he too was speechless for a moment. Then he seemed to catch himself, and he took Jon's hand, stammering, "Cousin? ... Jon? ... I don't know anything about a cousin Jon... Are you sure we're related?"

Jon nodded, feeling a little awkward, and more than a little confused. "Your father and my mother were siblings. Didn't anybody tell you about her?"

Harry shook his head. "No."

"Well then, I think it's high time they did," said a female voice from the compartment door. All four jumped, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione stared at the petite witch standing in the doorway, laden with a variety of sweets. Serena noticed their thunderstruck gazes and said apologetically, "I haven't had them for an eternity. What's more, I had no breakfast. And since I really didn't want to wait until noon, I looked for the snack woman and raided her cart." She shrugged apologetically. "Actually, this was meant for two, but if Jon restrains himself a bit it should be enough for five."

Jon pulled his brows down into a hurt scowl. "Me? You're the one who eats all my food if I don't watch it!" he complained.

She arched an eyebrow. "Really? Well all right, you three. Go for it, before Jon and I finish off everything alone!" Grinning, Serena dropped the sweets into a free seat and collapsed into another. Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Jon didn't need a second invitation and helped themselves after Harry had quickly pushed his trunk under a seat and set Hedwig's cage on top of the same seat.

While they were chewing, Serena turned to Harry and began to chat cheerfully with him. "So, let me introduce myself. I'm Serena Potter, this cheeky rascal's mother. And you're Harry, I suppose. Yes, you look almost exactly like Jim did at that age... Jim was my brother, so that would make me your aunt."

Harry was still chewing, which gave him a kind of excuse not to say anything. A good thing, because he was a bit stunned, and more than a bit tongue-tied. But his new-found aunt didn't wait for an answer, turning to Jon instead. "Hey, you wouldn't mind introducing your other friends to me?"

"Err, yes, well, this is Hermione, err..."

"Granger," Hermione supplied, and promptly introduced Ron.

Harry took a liking to this lively woman at once. She seemed to like him too, and the way that she and Jon were teasing each other was simply hilarious. He wondered whether he would have such a relaxed relationship with his mother if she were still alive. And Serena was his aunt! She had known his father! Certainly she could tell him more about his parents. Sure, Sirius and Lupin had known his parents, too, but they had never had much of a chance to impart much.

And he had discovered a new cousin, who seemed nice as well, quite different from Dudley. Two new and likable relatives in one day - a pretty decent start for a school year, thought Harry, especially compared to certain other years. (Four years in the wizarding world had taught him not to wonder that this, along with everything else, always happened to him.) And - his heart leaped at the thought - perhaps this extraordinarily pleasant twist of fate would spare him another holiday with the Dursleys! But... why hadn't Serena adopted him, when he became an orphan? He thought he had grown up at the Dursleys' only because he had no other relatives. But apparently he had, and Serena was even a witch, so why didn't she take him? Why had he never heard from her?

"What a gloomy expression on such a sunny day," said Serena, interrupting Harry's pondering.

Well, he might as well ask now instead of trying random guesses that would probably be wrong. "Oh, I, err..., I was wondering where you've been all those years. Why didn't you ever try to get in touch with me before?" The words came out a little harsher than he had intended.

Serena's face sobered at once. "That's a long, sad story. The condensed version is that some people deemed I wasn't trustworthy enough. They didn't let me take care of you after Jim and Lily died. You are the Boy Who Lived, a symbol of freedom for many a wizard. The Ministry can be highly paranoid, especially in regard to you. So they banned me from any contact with you. And to prevent you from initiating any contact, they saw to it that people wouldn't tell you about me." She looked down and twisted her hands in her lap.

"But then a professorship opened up at Hogwarts, and it was offered to me." She shrugged, her look lightening - the offer had obviously meant a lot. "And Dumbledore convinced the Ministry that their ban is absurd, that I'm no danger for you. I believe that the events at the end of your previous school year and the resulting drop in the Ministry's esteem for you helped this cause a lot. Well, I'm not complaining. I packed my things, grabbed Jon, and returned to Britain."

She sighed. "I'm really glad to see you again. I must say you have grown quite a bit. Last time we've met I couldn't even have a decent conversation with you, since you were still a baby." The serious expression in her eyes had already yielded to a warm and cheerful shine, the same bright glow that had first struck Harry when he had seen her.

"So what do you teach at Hogwarts?" asked Hermione when Serena fell silent for a couple of seconds.

"Defence Against the Dark Arts," Serena replied. "Till now I've trained Aurors. When Albus told me that there was a vacancy for that subject at Hogwarts, I just couldn't say no."

"You've trained Aurors?" said Hermione excitedly. "You must be really good, then; almost all the professors we've had for this subject so far were a big disappointment."

"If you can tell a werewolf from a grindylow, you're far beyond the average," Ron muttered. "And if you know how to duel you're a miracle."

"Oh, I think, with a bit of concentration I should be able to manage that." Serena grinned. "Were your professors really that bad?"

Ron rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah. First year we had Quirrell - he stuttered like mad, could barely face a housefly, let alone duel. It turned out that he'd been possessed by You-Know-Who. He tried to kill Harry, even, but he didn't survive it."

Serena made a face. "That sounds terrible."

"Yeah, well, second year was worse." Ron grinned suddenly. "Did you hear about Gilderoy Lockhart ever?"

Serena looked at Jon, who was shaking his head, and threw her head back, bursting into laughter. "Don't tell me he taught you!"

Ron grinned. "Yep. Remember the time he brought pixies to class, Harry?" They both sniggered. "He couldn't duel either - oh, and the Valentines!" Ron was the only one who laughed then; both Harry and Hermione had turned beet-red, probably from bad memories. Serena wondered, feeling a bit wicked, just what had happened with the Valentines - but then Ron was talking again.

"Anyway, he's at St. Mungo's now. At the end of the year he tried to hex Harry and me." Ron sighed happily. "The spell backfired and the stupid prat blasted his own memory into oblivion - not a great loss, if you ask me."

"Ron!" scolded Hermione, but she looked amused.

"What? It's true!"

Serena shook her head. "Wow, you've certainly had... interesting professors."

"Oh, yeah," agreed Harry. "Third year was actually good, though. We had Remus Lupin -" Harry didn't notice Serena's twitch "- and he was really great. But he resigned after everyone found out he was a werewolf, because... well, you know how people are."

Hermione looked curiously at Serena, and added, "I suppose you know him. He was friends with Harry's dad - I think they were in the same year."

"That's right. I still remember him well. He was sort of the calming influence on the troublemaking quartet, and I remember him often looking as if he was ill, all tired and pale. When I found out that he was a werewolf, I wasn't surprised." Serena cocked an eyebrow. "And what I've heard, last year wasn't any better - with a false Moody around."

"Yeah." Ron nodded, suddenly grinning. "But I'll never forget him turning Malfoy into a ferret for attacking from behind - that was priceless."

"And something the real Moody'd probably do as well." Serena smiled pensively. "Anyway, I see now where the rumours about the position being jinxed come from. I wonder whether I can keep it up a bit longer."

"You can," interjected Jon, who had been listening intently. He grinned reassuringly at her before turning back to the other three. "How are things at Hogwarts otherwise, though?"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione told him in turn and did their best to satisfy his curiosity: about the Professors, the students, the Houses, Hogsmeade, and the Quidditch teams. Serena sat silent and listened to them at first. But soon her mind began to wander to her own memories of her first Hogwarts school day...