Snape

"Ah, hello Nymphadora and Christina. Honestly, I am very surprised to see you both awake at this hour."

There in the doorway stood a tall, thin man with waist-length silver hair and beard. Half-moon spectacles were perched on his crooked nose, and he was wearing a long black travelling cloak and a pointed hat.

"Professor!" Tonks and Chris exclaimed together, surprised.

Chris noticed behind Professor Dumbledore, there was a tall, thin boy, with untidy jet black hair and bright green eyes behind a round glasses.

"Harry? But Aurelia said you were coming tomorrow?" said Chris surprised.

"We were lucky," said Dumbledore, ushering Harry to cross the threshold. "Slughorn proved much more persuadable than I had expected. Harry's doing, of course."

"Slughorn?" repeated Tonks. "As in Professor Horace Slughorn?"

"Yes, well I better be off," said Dumbledore. "Take care, Harry. Enjoy your godfather's company, then a few weeks later you can join others in Burrow. I advise you to stay together."

Dumbledore smiled at Tonks and Chris then unlocked the door again and walked out.

"Wotcher, Harry," said Tonks.

"Hi, Tonks. Hi, Chris," grinned Harry.

Chris smiled and hugged him. She just realized how much she missed her friends and seeing Harry's grinning face reminded her the last few days of the last term. Harry was a really nice person.

"How are you?" asked Chris pulling back.

"Good, you?"

"Nice."

"Do I need to show you the room, Harry?" asked Tonks uncertainly.

"No, thanks," said Harry. "I remember which was it."

"Okay, then —'Night."

Tonks forced a smile and went upstairs.

"But Tonks, your soup —" Chris began but Tonks was already gone.

"Soup?" repeated Harry.

"We were eating in the kitchen just when you and Dumbledore came," replied Chris.

"Is there anything left? I am really hungry," said Harry.

"Yes, I think," said Chris and walked down to the kitchen.

Harry followed.

Chris quickly cooked some more eggs and gave it to Harry with bread.

"Sorry, everything else will take time to cook," said Chris sitting down to eat her own food.

"No, it's g'at, 'anks," said Harry, with a mouth full of bread.

Chris chuckled.

"So how were your two weeks with the Dursleys?"

"Mostly good, actually," said Harry after gulping some water. "They didn't bother me, at all. Just left food outside of my door every day. That's it."

"That's — harsh," said Chris, surprised to see Harry so happy about it.

"Oh, this is the best thing, for me," replied Harry. "Anyway, who else is here?"

"You have seen Tonks and you know about Sirius," said Chris finishing her food. "Aurelia and Remus are also here."

"How is Tonks doing? She didn't look that good."

"That's because she isn't doing that good," sighed Chris. "And today Remus got injured and things got worse."

"Remus got injured? What happened?" Harry said surprised.

"Malgino's people," said Chris shortly. "Remus was following them. He managed to escape before they could kill."

There was a long pause. Harry didn't eat, just stared.

"The situation is dire," said Chris, understanding what Harry was feeling. "But don't worry, Sirius said Remus will be fine in three days."

"I never thought, someone can win against Lupin," said Harry. "He always seemed so —"

"I know what you mean but Aurelia thinks, Remus is being reckless intentionally," interrupted Chris.

"Why?" Harry looked shocked.

Chris sighed before speaking.

"Er — well — Remus is kind of hoping that he would die one of these missions so that he doesn't have to marry Tonks."

"What?"

"Yeah, they are in love and Tonks wants to marry him but you know Remus, he is busy pitting himself."

"I — well — he shouldn't," said Harry. "If they love each other then they should be together. Remus is normal, he just has a little problem."

"Tell him that," smiled Chris. "Maybe he will listen to you. Anyway, what's Dumbledore's work you helped him with?"

"Dumbledore took me to meet Professor Horace Slughorn," said Harry finishing the eggs. "It wasn't that exciting. Dumbledore just wanted me to help him persuade Slughorn to come out of retirement."

"How?" Chris leaned forward curiously.

"He — well — he like to collect famous people."

"He what?"

"He showed some pictures of his old students, including my mom's," said Harry. "He likes to take credit for all of his previous students. Dumbledore said he used to make a group of his favourite students. He likes to make connections with famous people and so —"

"He will come back to collect 'The Boy Who Lived'," finished Chris, understanding Dumbledore idea. 

"The Chosen One, actually," said Harry bitterly then quickly smiled. "Hey, do you know, I am getting special lessons with Dumbledore, this year."

"Special lessons? Just you?" Chris frowned.

"I — I'm sure, Dumbledore will invite you too," said Harry hastily.

"Maybe," Chris pushed aside the dark feelings, which suddenly rose within her. "I think, we should go to bed. It's —" Chris checked the wall clock on the kitchen wall. "— almost 3 o'clock."

"Thanks for the food," said Harry as Chris got up from the table.

"You are welcome," said Chris walking out. "And good night."

"Night," Chris heard Harry before walking up to the second floor to her room.

Next morning, Chris was practising her usual punching and kicking when she heard loud noises from downstairs. She guessed Sirius had finally got hold of his beloved godson. Smiling to herself, Chris quickly finished her practice, took a quick shower and went downstairs.

As expected, Sirius was with Harry, talking and laughing loudly, like there was nothing to worry in this world. Aurelia and Tonks were with them, and Chris noticed Tonks was looking a little bit better.

"Chris!" smiled Aurelia spotting her in the doorway. "You missed breakfast, again."

"Sorry, I will ask Kreacher to make some sandwiches for me," said Chris sitting beside Tonks. Then turned to Harry, "What's up?"

"My O.W.L.s results just came," said Harry handing Chris a parchment.

"Already?" Chris took it, surprised, then opened it.

ORDINARY WIZARDING LEVEL RESULTS

Pass Grades

OUTSTANDING (O)

EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS (E)

ACCEPTABLE (A)

Fail Grades

POOR (P)

DREADFUL (D)

TROLL (T)

Harry James Potter has achieved:

Astronomy    

   A

Care of Magical Creatures    

   E

Charms    

   E

Defense Against the Dark Arts    

   O

Divination    

   P

Herbology    

   E

History of Magic    

   A

Potions    

   E

Transfiguration    

   E

"Wow," Chris said scanning the paper. "You just failed in Divination and did great in most of the subjects. That's great."

"Thanks, but I wish I had a little better grade in Potion," said Harry.

"Why?" Chris looked back at the paper. "You already got Exceeds Expectations on potions."

"Yeah, well — Snape warned that he doesn't take students in N.E.W.T.s level if they didn't get Outstanding in O.W.L.s," said Harry a little sadly. "And McGonagall said that to be an Auror you need potions in your N.E.W.T.s. So, now, that's out of my options."

"Harry —" Sirius began but Tonks spoke first, "But you don't need to follow Snape's merit schedule if he isn't teaching Potions this year."

"Snape isn't teaching potions?" repeated Chris and Harry.

"Er — didn't you say last night, that you persuade Professor Slughorn to teach back?" Tonks looked surprised.

"Slughorn teaches potions?" said Chris shocked.

"Then what about Snape —?" Harry said.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts," said Aurelia. "He is going to teach that, this year."

"But that job is cursed and —"

"Cursed or not Snape practices Dark Arts," grumbled Sirius. "Dumbledore knows that's a bad decision."

"But Harry is right, the job is cursed. No one stays in this job more than a year," said Chris. "It's possible that Snape won't be teaching DADA next year but then what? I don't understand what Dumbledore wants to do here."

"No one does," sighed Aurelia. "No one understands Dumbledore's decision. But we can't question them." She added the last part looking at Sirius, who was still looking furious.

______________________________

To be continued. . .