PROLOGUE


There were only a few days left until Bill and Fleur’s wedding, and there was a definite increase in tension in the Weasley household. Mrs. Weasley snapped at everyone she thought wasn’t doing enough work in preparation for the wedding, and the trio could not find any time to discuss their looming quest. They scrubbed, swept and organized until the Burrow was practically spotless, and yet Molly Weasley kept finding more and more things for them to do.


“Blimey, I don’t know how Mum is keeping it all together,” whispered Ron to Harry on a rare moment in which their paths crossed. The rest of the family seemed to be feeling the same way. Two days before the wedding, Mr. Weasley all but ordered his wife to have a quiet afternoon in the kitchen while everyone else did the work.


“I’ve asked your cousin Stella over for tea. She’ll be here for the wedding, I know, but today I want the two of you to stay in the kitchen and just relax," he told Mrs. Weasley as he steered her to the table. "Molly, please don’t argue with me, I can see that you’re worn out,” Mr. Weasley continued as Mrs. Weasley opened her mouth to object, and he put a kettle of water to boil.


Harry was de-gnoming the garden for the third time in two days. The little things seemed to become more vicious and persistent when excitement was in the air, and Harry was feeling particularly resentful towards them as one had just given him a rather nasty bite on his index finger. He was just about to lob the offending gnome particularly far away when a voice called his name from the window of the Burrow.


“Harry! Harry, could you come here for a minute?”


He flung the gnome as far as possible and set off for the door a little warily. Mrs. Weasley was sounding much more relaxed than usual, but he hoped she wouldn’t try to confront him about his, Ron and Hermione’s plans for after the wedding.


In the cosy kitchen of the Burrow, he found two women laughing merrily over two huge cups of tea and a plateful of biscuits. This was such a change from that morning’s flustered and stressed Molly Weasley that he stopped in the doorway and looked between the two women in confusion. The younger one- he assumed this was the cousin Arthur had invited over- had strawberry blonde hair and facial features that he thought looked vaguely familiar. He remembered seeing her pop in and out of Grimmauld Place when it was still headquarters of the Order meetings, but they had never been introduced.


She turned around and the look on her face turned to surprise and then recognition.


“You must be Harry! Oh, but you look so much like James! I’ve heard so much about you, from Molly and from my daughter, and yet we’ve never met. I’m Stella Spinnet,” she stood up and held out her hand, which Harry shook, struggling to process all the information she had just given him.


“Er, there was a girl named Alicia Spinnet on our Quidditch team at Hogwarts, she wouldn’t happen to be related?” Harry realized that Alicia and this woman looked very much alike.


“Related to me? Oh, yes, she’s my daughter.”


“But I thought you and Mrs. Weasley were cousins?”


At this Mrs. Weasley herself spoke up. “Yes, first cousins on my father’s side. Alicia and my lot are second cousins, of course, but they haven’t spent much time together since they were all much younger, and then at Hogwarts, of course. Harry, dear, pull up a chair and have some tea, I daresay those gnomes are being troublesome… oh, no, that looks like a nasty bite, I’ll get you some potion…” She made as if to stand up, but Mrs. Spinnet glared at her pointedly.


“Arthur asked me here to make sure you got some rest, and get you some rest is what I’m going to do. Second cabinet on the top, yes? Here, Harry, this should clear it up in no time,” she handed him the bottle and sat back down. Harry sat down and dabbed some on his bite, aware that both women were studying him intently.


“I daresay everyone tells you that you have your mother’s eyes, Harry?” The younger woman spoke up after a pause. Harry looked up, a little surprised.


“Yes, they do,” he replied after another second.


“Well, you certainly do, but I think there might be something in the nose as well. James’s was a bit longer and wider, just a tad bit.” Seeing his confused look, the woman smiled, “I went to Hogwarts with your parents. Same year, same House.”


Harry’s mind was buzzing as he tried to put all the facts together. The only people he had known to be in his parents’ year at Hogwarts were Lupin, Sirius, Peter Pettigrew, and Snape. All of them had many stories to tell about his father, but few about his mother. He suddenly realized that he wished he knew more about her. Taking a sip of his tea, he missed the sympathetic glances the two women gave him.


“They were two of the best people I’ve ever met, Harry,” Mrs. Spinnet told him quietly. “Well, James could be downright obnoxious at times, but Lily was always so kind and understanding. She never let anyone walk over her or any of her friends- always stood up for what was right. I’m truly sorry you never got to meet them.”


Harry could not trust himself to look up, so he simply nodded. It must have been the stress of planning the quest to destroy the Horcruxes, of leaving behind nearly everyone he cared for to go on a foolish journey to who knew where- or perhaps he was just tired.


The three of them sat quietly for about twenty minutes, sipping tea and eating biscuits. The cousins chatted a little about the small details of the wedding plans- colour schemes, seating charts- and Harry found himself lost in his own thoughts. Mrs. Weasley never told him to get back to de-gnoming the garden. She thought that the boy needed a break quite as much as she did.


“I believe Hagrid gave you a photo album of your parents a few years ago?” Mrs. Spinnet looked over at him after a particularly long lull in conversation and gave him a smile that suddenly reminded him of Fred and George.


Harry nodded, wondering where she was going with it.


“Well, some of the more candid pictures were contributed by me,” she whispered conspiratorially. “Do you remember the one of your father beating Sirius Black around the head with a broomstick while your mother is laughing on the couch?” Harry nodded with a raised eyebrow.


“Oh, do I have some stories to tell you… if, of course, you want to hear them?” She asked, a little worriedly, as though she was afraid of upsetting him. Harry nodded again, rather eagerly. The last true insight he’d had into his parents’ time at Hogwarts was Snape’s memory in the pensieve, and he rather hoped there were happier ones waiting for him.

CHAPTER ONE

The First Steps


Stella Prewett thought that she might actually explode with joy. She had never been happier- not even when Fabian had slipped silencing powder into Aunt Lucretia’s tea- and she was having a hard time keeping her emotions in check. It was finally here! The day the youngest Prewett, the baby of the family, the often-teased cousin was entering Hogwarts. There was a calendar hanging on the wall in her spacious room at home with a countdown to the first of September.


It was finally here!


Stella clung to the cage containing her owl, Lyra, and rushed after her mother as they weaved their way through the crowds at London’s Kings Cross. The one thing marring her happiness was the fact that her mother had insisted on pulling her hair into immensely childish braids, which Stella had resolved to undo the moment her mother was out of sight. It wasn’t to be said that she wouldn’t miss her parents while being away. But the prospect of learning magic and being able to get her cousins Gideon and Fabian back for the numerous magical pranks they pulled outweighed any regrets she may have had.


Stella followed her mother through the magical barrier and gasped with delight at the sight of the scarlet steam engine. There was a huge crowd on the platform, full of bickering parents and children struggling to get away from them, but Stella had eyes only for the train that would take her to Hogwarts. There were just five minutes to go until departure, and so Mrs. Prewett helped her daughter stow her trunk away and leaned down to give her some stern instructions.


“Stella, darling, I know how excited you are, but please keep in mind that you will be at the school to learn! Pay attention in all of your classes and don’t let your cousins distract you too much. It’s a shame Molly left last year, she would have kept them in check… Be kind to everyone- even Slytherins, Stella, they aren’t as bad as Gideon makes them out to be- and don’t go looking for trouble. Oh, darling, I’m so proud of you! Write us as soon as you get there!” She hugged her only daughter tightly and gave her a warm kiss on the cheek before letting her board the train.


Stella wove her way through the crowd of students in the corridors, looking for her cousins Fabian and Gideon Prewett. They were two years older, both in Gryffindor, and both accomplished nuisances and trouble makers. However, she liked them a lot more than she let on.


After making her way all the way to the front of the train Stella realized with some consternation that her cousins did not appear to be on it. The train had just left the station and the girl was still standing in the middle of the corridor. She began to make her way back down the length of the train, absentmindedly undoing the braids in her long hair while looking into each compartment to see if there was an empty one she could sit in for the duration of the ride.


A loud bang from a few doors down caused Stella to jump slightly, and she watched with interest as a red-haired girl and a somewhat scrawny dark-haired boy stormed away from the door of a compartment. Wondering what had caused such a loud departure, she approached the door and peeked inside.


She was not surprised to see two familiar faces seated inside, both sporting identical, obnoxious grins.



“Is it really necessary for you to be so mean, Sirius Black?” She opened the door further and shook her head at the boy. It looked as though he had sworn off combing his hair altogether. The boy looked up and grinned mischievously.


“Prewett! If it’s not one redhead it’s another! So charming to see you!”


Stella scowled. Sirius and she were cousins by marriage - her uncle Ignatius had married his aunt Lucretia- and they had spent many tense family dinners together. He was not nearly as bad as the rest of his cousins, but Stella hated being called a redhead… or any of the other, more offensive names he often used for her hair colour.


“I’ve told you, its auburn, Sirius! Have you seen Fab or Giddy? I can’t find them anywhere.”


He shook his head, shrugging. “I think I saw them on the platform, but after that, no.”


Stella sighed. She had a sneaking suspicion that the third year twins were holed up in a closet somewhere, planning some sort of ridiculous prank to start off the school year. Shrugging her own shoulders, she made her way over to the window seat of the compartment and sat down, grateful that she didn’t have to spend the ride with total strangers.


Sirius gave her one more obnoxious grin and turned back to his friends. She recognized one of them; James Potter. Their fathers had gone to school together, and Stella had a few fond memories of playing hide-and-seek in her house or the Potter home with James while their parents reminisced about the good old days.


As if on cue, James looked up and frowned at her. “Stella? Why is half of your hair braided and the other half not?”


Blushing, she pulled the ribbon out of her remaining braid and began to loosen it. “Making a fashion statement, obviously,” she muttered under her breath.


The last boy in the compartment had dark brown hair and a friendly face. He appeared to have heard her comment and smiled. “I’m Patrick O’Malley… the rest of you seem to know each other already?”


“Stella Prewett,” she smiled in return, “and I met Sirius through my uncle and Potter through my father. What about you? How do you know the two of them?”


Patrick grinned again before replying. “I met them just a few minutes ago in this compartment. I’m Muggle-born, see, and I can hardly believe that this is really happening. My older brother back home still thinks I’m playing a joke on him!”


Stella looked at him with increased interest and surprise. He seemed to be fairly at ease with the magical surroundings, but he must have grown up without any sort of magic. She could barely imagine it. “So, you have el- eleck- electricity in your house?” Being able to pronounce the word properly was an immense source of pride for her. It was more than even Molly’s new husband could do!


Patrick laughed. “Well, yes. And television, and a toaster, and electric lamps… I bought some books in Diagon Alley when we went school shopping, and it was so surprising that no one needs electricity here!”


“Wow,” the girl said softly. Stella had not even considered buying books that were not required by the course list. She was also very fascinated by all the Muggle technology Patrick had just named.


Patrick, in turn, clearly found the magical world a lot more exciting than the Muggle world, and he fired off many questions about household spells and wizarding homes. After half an hour of comfortable conversation, James turned to Patrick with a slight frown and an expression of dawning shock on his face.


“Quidditch!”


“What?”


“You’ve never heard of Quidditch!”


Stella’s jaw dropped, but she made sure to close it quickly. She knew Muggles had no Quidditch- her mother had often come home from work at the Ministry ranting about “irresponsible wizards throwing Quaffles in their front yards”- but the sport seemed like such a natural part of her life.


“Well, I’ve read about it, but I’ve never actually played…” Patrick let his sentence trail off, waiting for James to make his point.


James nodded wisely. Stella did not think the pseudo-intelligent expression worked very well for his face.


“Just wait and see,” he told the other boy solemnly, “you’ll be hooked before the first school match. And if you ever see professional teams playing! This summer my dad took me to a Puddlemere United game, and they just recruited a new Beater. You should have seen him! Faster than any Bludger! It was kind of like the game I saw with my grandfather two years ago, the Appleby Arrows, but Puddlemere’s really much more coordinated, the Seeker has the Wronski Feint down pat…”


Patrick’s face had a rather bemused expression on it that increased with each sentence that left the other boy’s mouth. Stella could see why; for someone who didn’t understand how Quaffles, fouls, and Seekers worked, James’ rant might as well have been in a foreign language. Glancing at Sirius, she saw that he was trying hard to stifle his laughter. James was blissfully unaware of the fact that nobody was really listening to him.


At that moment, the door opened and a tall blonde girl poked her head in. Stella recognized her as Narcissa; one of Sirius’s many Slytherin cousins. She was already in school robes with green trimming, and a green-and-silver badge with a “P” on it was fastened to the front of them. “You first-years should start changing into your robes,” she told them coldly. “We have about twenty minutes.” Casting a highly disparaging look at Sirius, she shut the door and moved on down the corridor.


The feeling of exhilaration from that morning returned in full swing, though now there was a tiny bit of apprehension mixed in. The Sorting ceremony was Stella’s main concern; her cousins had refused point-blank to tell her how it worked. “It’s school tradition for the first years to be as nervous as possible, and we’re not about to break it.”


The anxiety began to build as she pulled her robes on over her red sweater and jeans. Her father, Fabian, Gideon and Molly had all been Gryffindors, which had many admirable qualities. It was the House she wanted to be in. However, at that particular moment she was not feeling very brave. Her mother had been a Ravenclaw. It was the perfect house for her studious, argumentative mother, but Stella doubted very much that it would work for her. Hufflepuff was a possibility; she knew people often assumed that the Hufflepuffs were duffers, but her mother had informed her that they were also very loyal and caring. Slytherin… she didn’t really want to think about what Gideon would do to her if she became a Slytherin.


The foursome had varying degrees of nervousness in their expressions as the train began to slow down. Sirius was pale but there was something defiant about the expression on his face. James seemed to be completely calm but the nervous glint in his eyes told Stella that no one had really explained the ceremony to him, either. Patrick looked the most openly anxious, and had not said much since Narcissa had told them to get ready.


After what felt like hours, the train came to a complete stop. They piled out of the compartment, joining the throng of students making their way to the door, and finally emerged onto the platform. It was rather cold and there was a light breeze in the air. Stella looked around, trying again to find her missing cousins, but before she could do so a loud, booming voice penetrated the air.


“Firs’ years! Firs’ year over here!”


She could not help but gasp and stop in her tracks when she saw the person the voice belonged to. He was absolutely enormous, no other word for it! Stella knew that he was the gamekeeper and that he was very kind, but his appearance was very misleading. Coming back to her senses, Stella found that her friends had moved on without her. She shoved her way past some older students to get closer to the cluster of first years. Her companions from the train were on the other side of the group, and before she could make her way over to them, the man called Hagrid began instructing them to get into the boats. There was an empty boat right next to her and she got in, soon followed by a short girl with brown hair and a round face.


“I’m Alice McKinnon,” the girl introduced herself with a smile. Stella vaguely remembered hearing the name from her mother. A McKinnon probably worked in her mother’s department.


“Stella Prewett,” Stella returned with a wide smile of her own. Alice’s grin appeared to be infectious.


After several moments, they were joined by a girl with red hair and the same scrawny boy Stella had seen exiting James’s compartment earlier. The boy still had a slight scowl on his face, but the girl was looking around in wonder.


“I’m Lily,” she offered as she got into the boat, “and this is Severus,” she gestured to the boy. He nodded at Stella and Alice before returning to his own thoughts.


“I’m Alice,” said the round-faced girl, “and this is Stella.”


After another minute, the boats began moving down the dark, still lake. Stella had been facing the path leading down to the platform, but now she turned her head and gasped once again. An enormous castle with several towers and infinite amounts of windows sat on the cliff straight in front of them. The night sky, lit up by a half moon and a myriad of stars, provided an awe-inspiring backdrop to the already magnificent school. Behind her, Stella heard someone whisper “wow!”


The castle loomed closer and closer and soon the whispers and gasps gave way to a nervous silence. The boats passed through what appeared to be a passageway cut straight through the rock underneath the school and came to an abrupt halt at a small cavern in the left side of the passageway. The first years clambered out of the boats, swaying with a mix of motion sickness and anxiety.


It took the group some time to climb up the narrow passageway and Stella, in the back of the group, was more nervous than ever. She found that she was also rather hungry, and hoped that the Sorting ceremony would be as swift and painless as possible.


By the time Stella reached the lawn in front of the school, Hagrid was knocking on the huge door.
It was opened by a tall woman in dark robes with a red-and-gold badge fastened to the front of them. Her black hair was twisted into a stern knob on top of her head and Stella assumed that this was Professor McGonagall; the strict Head of Gryffindor who often prevented her cousins from carrying out many of their “best pranks”. She gestured for the first years to follow her and they made their way into the huge entrance hall. Stella looked around with her mouth half-open, taking in the delicately carved floorboards, the bright torches, and the huge stone staircase that wound its way up to the higher floors.


Professor McGonagall began speaking. “Welcome to Hogwarts,” she said, and her voice was as stern as her outward appearance. “I am Professor McGonagall, Head of Gryffindor House and Professor of Transfiguration. In a moment, you will be Sorted into your new houses. These houses will be your homes for the duration of your time at Hogwarts. You will be separated into classes and dormitories based on your houses, and within your houses you will find your closest friends.


“If you break rules while at school, points will be deducted from your House. If you impress the teachers at the school, points will be given to your House. At the end-of-year feast the winner of the House Cup will be determined based on the amount of points collected throughout the year. The ceremony will begin in a moment.”


She left them in the chamber, going through the next set of doors to inform the older students of their arrival. Nervous voices began gaining in volume immediately. Stella saw Lily and Severus huddled together, speaking in one corner of the chamber. Turning to her right, she found James, Sirius and another boy, all looking rather pale and nervous.


“Do you know how the ceremony works?” The voice belonged to Alice, the girl from her boat. Stella shook her head, feeling slightly dizzy.


“My cousins refused to tell me. I hope we don’t have to do magic!”


Alice nodded fervently. “My parents wouldn’t tell me a thing, either! Surely they would have told us in the letter if we needed to know something ahead of time…”


Before she could continue her thought, Professor McGonagall returned to their chamber. “Form a line,” she told them, “and come this way.”


Stella got in line behind Alice and in front of a small boy with dark blonde hair and followed the nervous group through the entrance hall. A beautifully carved set of double doors loomed in front of them. Professor McGonagall gave them a small push and they opened into the most magnificent room Stella had ever seen.