Chapter 32: Home...
The Hogwarts Express...
Most students rode it home for the holidays, but Daphne and I returned by Portkey, which deposited us straight onto the front steps. I stepped forward, opened the door, stood aside to let Daphne through, and then walked in myself. Both mothers and Valpurga were already waiting.
"My darling. Daphne..."
The mothers descended on me at once. Grandmother merely smiled warmly.
"I'm home."
"Yes, welcome home. Kreacher, take Draco's and Daphne's bags. And you two, go wash your hands. The table is ready; we shall celebrate the end of the first half of the year."
"All right..."
We made our way to the bathrooms, and shortly afterward found ourselves in the small dining room.
"Daphne!"
Astoria came running to meet her sister, closing the gap in seconds and throwing her arms around her neck.
"Astoria, that is hardly proper," her father began.
"Hmph!"
Astoria stuck her tongue out at him. He had been trying to remind his daughter that clinging to the neck of a girl who had been cast out of the family wasn't entirely proper.
"Right. I see you're all here. That means I should check on Astoria today, and then we can begin treating Mrs. Greengrass. I should mention upfront that I cannot offer a quick cure, though I do hope that training under Master Flitwick has made me rather stronger and more skilled."
"You have become Flitwick's apprentice?"
Mr. Greengrass looked at me with some surprise.
"Yes. I was fortunate that he noticed me. It did require a certain amount of work on my part, of course. Becoming his assistant and taking responsibility for the first three years."
"You mean to say you are teaching Charms and Spellwork to the first, second, and third years?"
He looked at me with no small amount of skepticism. The doubt was clear in his voice as well.
"Yes..."
I shrugged, helped Astoria and Daphne into their seats, then sat down, and a small celebratory meal began. After it was over, I withdrew with Daphne's mother to the ritual room and got to work.
Several hours later.
"Phew..."
I collapsed into an armchair.
"Master, do you need anything?"
"Well..." I shrugged. "...I wouldn't say no to some warm cocoa."
"Kreacher will make it..."
The house-elf, who had appeared beside us without so much as a pop, vanished again with the same silence. I looked over at Daphne, with Astoria sitting in her lap. She was the one who had asked. After a moment, I turned my attention to our small guest.
"So then, what are you two doing here?"
"Are you against it?"
She dropped her gaze slightly.
"You little manipulator. You know that doesn't work on me. No, it's not that I object to your being here. I'm simply curious what brought your parents in for an end-of-term celebration."
"I insisted..." Astoria shrugged. "...I wanted to spend some time with my sister. So I put some pressure on my parents."
"I see. Well, I shall leave you to it. You have plenty to talk about without me getting in the way."
"Stay..."
She turned the full force of a kicked-puppy expression on me, and I sighed.
"And what do you want from me?"
"Well... my sister is the quiet sort, and I want you to tell me about her. How is she getting on? Who does she spend time with? What are her favorite subjects?"
"I think she can perfectly well tell you all of that herself. For my part, I would rather just rest while Daphne tells you everything you want to know."
I closed my eyes.
"Grouch..."
"Astoria, please do not speak about our Master that way. He has just spent hours treating your mother, so he is very tired. If there is something you would like to know, simply ask."
"Are you in Ravenclaw?"
"Yes."
"What are your favorite subjects?"
"Charms. Transfiguration."
"Sister, could you perhaps give me a little more detail than that?"
I simply smiled at the pleading note in Astoria's voice and kept my eyes closed. About fifteen minutes later her parents came to collect her, and they all went home together.
"Master, what are our plans?"
"Plans?"
I looked at Daphne and smiled.
"Study, study, and more study. We cannot afford to stand still. We are Blacks, and ordinary people look to us as a standard. So, today and tomorrow we rest, we gather ourselves, and after that we go back to work with fresh energy."
"Understood..."
Daphne gave me a nod.
"...Master..."
"Yes?"
I could see she was struggling to say something, so I gave her an encouraging smile.
"I wanted to apologize. At Hogwarts it felt a little awkward, but now..."
"Apologize?"
"I let you down. I didn't come in first for Charms, and..."
"Stop that."
I waved away her concerns.
"You didn't let me down. You performed brilliantly. Yes, Abbott scored higher, but there will always be someone better than you, or me, or Mother Cissy, or even Flitwick and Dumbledore. And every time we climb higher, we'll find someone already there, or someone climbing faster."
"But I..."
"Are you planning to give up? To just stop growing?"
"No!"
She shook her head fiercely, her voice and bearing making it clear I had never been more wrong.
"Are you planning to just accept that she's better without even trying to surpass her?"
"No..."
She shook her head.
"Then what exactly are you apologizing for? We're schoolchildren. Yes, I had a big head start, but you're forgetting you started at roughly the same level as your peers. The Abbotts are a well-respected family, and I'm sure they made sure their daughter was prepared before she started school. You saw for yourself how the pure-bloods outperformed the Muggle-borns as a group, didn't you?"
"Yes..."
"Well, there you have it."
I smiled at her.
"...which means they all studied before coming to Hogwarts. Not everyone can afford tutors, of course, but you can still get ahead of the curriculum on your own. And you outperformed virtually all of them. So you have nothing to be ashamed of."
"My darling..."
Mother Bella chose that moment to cut in.
"...you shouldn't encourage complacency."
"I'm not encouraging anything..."
I frowned slightly as I watched Daphne lower her head at Bella's words.
...I am simply saying that she put in a little less effort than she was capable of. Did she disgrace me? No, she did not finish last with a negative tally. Am I satisfied with her results? Yes. However...
I raised one finger.
...I know Daphne can do better, and I expect that in the second half of the year she will show still greater dedication. Especially now that the students in my lessons will be working their hearts out. They will push themselves harder and harder for the chance at a reward at the end of term. Perhaps I should look into tickets to the Quidditch World Cup. Good seats, say, four tickets going to the winner. Or perhaps a concert by some well-known wizarding band...
I scratched my cheek thoughtfully.
...It still needs thinking through. But it will not be easy in any case...
I looked steadily at Daphne.
"I won't let you down."
"Good girl."
The praise made her color slightly.
"Ha! Quite a way with young ladies, tugging at a girl's heartstrings like that..."
Bella shook her head.
"Mom, what are you talking about?"
"Nothing at all... just thinking aloud. Actually, I wanted to ask, do you have any plans for Christmas?"
"What do you mean?"
"Inviting friends, perhaps..."
"Hmm..."
I was momentarily caught off guard.
"Well, Nymphadora would be good; she's a lot of fun... Penelope Clearwater; she's the prefect who helped me more than once."
"Master, you might as well tell the whole truth..."
"The whole truth?"
Bella looked at Daphne with interest.
"Draco has taken to making small bets with her. At the moment, for example, she is obliged to greet him with a kiss on the cheek until the end of the school year, and to end every sentence outside lessons with a meow."
"Ha!" Mother laughed.
"And I want to make her wear cat ears as well, and probably a tail."
"The tail is a good idea, actually..."
I gave a thoughtful nod. That would have to wait until next year, along with gloves shaped like cat paws, so that before every meow she would have to bring them up to her chest. By the end of this year I was planning to try to get her to agree that all the current conditions would carry over to the following year.
"Are you trying to win the girl over?"
"No..."
I shook my head at Mother's question.
"And if she finds a boyfriend, I would be quite happy to revisit some of the terms. But for now things are as they are. What I am genuinely interested in is her abilities, so if she does not disappoint me, I intend to offer her the position of secretary. That is considerably more distinguished than going to work at the Ministry. Though if she has a business idea of her own, I could consider backing her."
"I see... and is there any girl you actually like?"
Mother looked at me closely.
"No... and as you know, pure-bloods are almost all wrong for me, and half-bloods and Muggle-borns are too much of an unknown at this point. You cannot tell what they will become. So..."
I shrugged lightly.
"Honestly, I think one should look abroad. France, Russia, the United States, Germany. Japan, perhaps."
I looked at Mother thoughtfully.
"But that can all wait until summer. Perhaps we could visit a few resorts in different countries and see what wizarding life is like there, get a proper sense of whether forming ties with people from those places is worthwhile."
"And what about your apprenticeship?"
"Well, we can pay for a Portkey for Flitwick, a room, a training space..."
I shrugged.
"That's certainly not beyond us, but will the professor agree?"
I think so... though it's a conversation for later.
"Bring it up with him after the New Year, then, and we can use the time before summer to put together a proper travel plan that works for everyone. You know Cissy and I can't just disappear..."
"A reusable Portkey..."
I shrugged.
"It will be more expensive, yes, but if that's the cost of spending the summer vacation not only with family, but somewhere worth visiting as well, then I'm prepared for that. And in a year or two I'll be able to contribute properly anyway."
"As you say."
Bella gave a nod.
"You're the heir. Cissy and I are only regents. If you're not concerned about the expense, then..."
"For the House, it's not significant. And besides, if we look through the family vaults there may well be old Portkeys already sitting there."
"Well... we shall see..."
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