Draco Malfoy looked around at the store. After two days of hard work, he and Astoria had the Potion shop ready to open. The counter tops were spotless. Astoria had placed vases with special plants in them to soothe the customers. Beside the counter, they had a collection of their most popular potions in fancy vials sitting on shelves ready for their first customers. In between the shelves of potions was a window which opened up to a back work room that was stocked with supplies. Almost every Knut belonging to his family was tied up in this store; if this failed, his family would be broke and eventually homeless. He could not fail; he would not fail. After all, he had repaired the cabinet. He stopped. Fixing the vanishing cabinet was something to be proud of, but what happened as a result of that was the source of even greater shame. The train of thought was interrupted by the appearance of a somewhat familiar face which peered through the painted words ‘Astoria’s Perfect Potions’ on the front glass door.

After a second’s hesitation, the last person Draco would have expected to be his first customer entered. As the door opened, the small brass bell tinkled from the door frame and Loony Lovegood stepped into the store. She paused, looked at him, and silently walked over to the counter. She read the labels under each vial on the shelves. Finally, Lovegood walked over and inspected the Potion Maker licenses from the Ministry of Magic. She turned her head to the right and seemed to contemplate him.

“Do you make Oberon’s Nectar?” she asked.

Draco did not answer. He turned toward Astoria, who was looking out through the work room window, and she answered, “I made some during my N.E.W.T. classes. However, I’ve not made any of it since. Why?”

“Well, Father Ollivander uses it in his wand-making process, and no one in Britain seems to be able to make it pure enough for our use. So we have to import it from a Potion Maker near Lisbon,” Luna responded.

How much do you use, and how often would you need a batch?” Astoria asked.

“Usually, we use a few dozen drops per each wand. How often? I’d have to ask Father Ollivander,” Luna said, as her head turned from Astoria to stare at the shoppers who were walking by the window.

“Father Ollivander? Do you mean Mr. Ollivander, the wand maker?” Draco asked. Luna nodded. Draco mulled over Luna’s question. “Could we come over to Ollivander’s in the morning to talk with Mister Ollivander?” Lovegood looked at him with those maddeningly large eyes. She nodded her head in the affirmative.

Draco escorted Luna to the entrance. As he opened the door, she turned to him and said, “You need a sign outside over the sidewalk to catch the shopper’s eye. When you walk up the street, Gringotts draws your eyes. You could walk right by here without even knowing it. It’s good to see you doing something positive with your life. Good luck.” As Luna started through the door she stopped, turned toward Astoria who was still looking through the window and waggled the fingers of her left hand in a wave.

Only two more customers showed up before lunch, and neither of them made a purchase. Astoria spent the free time searching for the definitive recipe for Oberon’s Nectar. She found two different versions for the nectar in her reference books. The ingredients for the potion would be very expensive, and the formula took almost two days of constant brewing to make. If she chose the wrong version of the elixir the cost of the failure might close the shop even before it got going. In desperation, she had sent her owl with a message to Hogwarts addressed to Professor Slughorn. She hoped he would help the former member of his ‘Slug Club’ with the correct instructions.

Just after Draco went home to pick up their packed lunches, another familiar face peered into the shop window. After a second or two of staring, Astoria recognized the window shopper; the face belonged to Rebekka Dokes. The shopkeeper saw Dokes take a deep breath and smooth the same tan dress she had worn to the train platform. The opening of the door triggered the bell to tinkle as the nervous tall black woman entered the shop. Astoria had moved away from the window, and she also adjusted her work wardrobe by using a cauldron lid as a mirror before entering the store front.

Rebekka paused when she saw the woman entering from the workroom was Astoria. “This is your store, Mrs. Malfoy?” asked Mrs. Dokes. Astoria, with her hands folded across her waist, smiled and nodded affirmatively. “Somehow, that makes this so much harder. Perhaps I should just leave,” added Rebekka, her accent somehow thicker than Astoria had ever heard it.

The tea scheduled in Hagrid’s cabin on the first Friday of the school year had its guest list amended; because of Scorpius and Jimber’s support of Albus, he invited the pair. Rose also invited a girl from the dormitory. Scorpius had tried to, by motions and nods, get Jimber to not accept the invitation. So, when Jimber accepted, Scorpius smiled and followed the path to meet the gamekeeper who would escort them to his cabin beside the forest.

When Hagrid opened the door to his little hut, his dog Olympe jumped onto the giant man, and Hagrid scratched the dog behind her left ear. Hagrid then moved into the kitchen, and soon steaming mugs of dark tea, plates of flatbread biscuits and rock cakes were being placed upon the tall wood table. The gamekeeper was almost aglow with happiness as he beamed at the room full of children and said, “It seems like old times. Albus and Rose’s parents used to sneak down here just to visit and such. Even Malfoy’s dad did it once. ’Course, they all got detention that time.”

Scorpius was surprised. His father had never mentioned visiting Hagrid’s hut, nor had he been told him being in detention with Potter or Weasley. “My father was in detention?” he asked.

“Oh, yeah! Harry, Ron and Hermione had snuck down here after hours and your father followed them down. When he told Professor McGonagall, she gave all four of them the same detention for being out after hours.”

“Was that when they had to go into the Forbidden Forest?” asked Rose.

“Yeah, I believe it was, come to think of it,” the Hagrid answered Rose.

“Why’s the forest forbidden?” asked Jenelle, as she nervously twirled a strand of her blonde hair.

“Well the forest was once the home of unicorns, giant spiders, a wild flying car, thestrals, centaurs, and Grawp,” answered Rose in one quick breathe.

“Wow,” said Jenelle.

“What are Grawps?” asked Jimber.

“Grawp is Hagrid’s little brother,” answered Rose.

“Well, half-brother, Rose, to be truthful, but he’s up in his cave, not in the forest” added the big man.

Hagrid turned toward Jimber and said, “I hear tell you are not from Britain, but from The Island. Is that true?” Dokes nodded. “Well, go on. I’ve never met an Islander before. Is it true you folks don’t use wands but just touch plants and animals to do magic?” asked Hagrid.

Jimber nodded his head in agreement as he picked up a flatbread biscuit and nibbled it over his steaming mug of tea.

“You mean you don’t have wands on your island?” asked Albus. “How can you do magic without a wand?” he asked Dokes.

“Vardoo is a type of magic that was brought over by captured African witches and wizards. It is a different type of magic from your magic” Jimber paused searching for words. After a few seconds, Jimber turned toward Albus and asked, “Albus, what is your wand made of? “

“Dragon heart-string and Hawthorne wood,” he replied.

Jimber nodded and with a sad face looked around the group that surrounded the huge table. “You see something had to die to make that wand. Now, they may not have killed the dragon just to make the wand, but you do not know that, and a branch of a tree had to be cut off, too. They at least had to hurt a magical tree,” Jimber said. Scorpius thought that trees being hurt was impossible but remained silent, Albus could not, he snorted.

“Trees can be hurt. Saps can create scabs to protect wounds just as your skin does,” Jimber explained and Hagrid nodded. “Using Vardoo in casting a spell, you can make something float by taking hold of the golden crest of the Merlin grass, touching a unicorn tail and letting the magic flow through you while saying the incantation. I’ve done it.”

“However, wands make the magic easier and more powerful,” interrupted Rose.

Jimber nodded, “At what cost, Rose? How will there be wands when the last unicorn is dead or the final dragon is slaughtered? Vardoo is slower and less powerful, but the same plant can be used again and again, and nothing has to die,” Jimber replied.

Rose pulled her wand out from her robe and a little crease appeared between her eyebrows as she studied it. “Why don’t they teach Vardoo at Hogwarts? It would have come in handy when my parents were on the run with Uncle Harry.”

“Well, Rosey, that type of magic has been sort of looked down on because it’s not as powerful as ours and you’d have to carry a whole garden around just in case you might need a plant. Besides, too many wizards link it with what Muggles call it: Voodoo,“ Hagrid said.

“Voodoo? You mean zombies and such? Can you turn someone into a zombie?” Jenelle asked. She seemed all excited.

“Yeah, James, for instance,” Albus nominated, with a growing grin.

“I can’t, but my mother probably could. My mother was a Vardoo priestess, and my father taught at The Island’s Académie de Magie before it was closed.”

“Why was it closed?” Scorpius asked, dunking his rock cake into his mug and hoping the hot tea would somehow soften it.

“The Island was rocked with a giant earthquake and a tsunami wave struck. Many were afraid that our magical protections might be lost with the loss of the plants and so, most of the families that moved went to the States…a few to England,” Jimber said.

“Could your father teach us some of this Vardoo?” requested Rose..

“Well, he tried to see if he could get on here, but the Headmaster said that it would take a majority vote of the Board of Governors to add a new subject to list of classes. So he could apply for next year. If he did get hired, I couldn’t take the class,” Jimber said.

As the sun began to dip below the top of the tallest trees in the forbidden forest, Scorpius and the other Gryffindors made their walk up toward the castle. Jenelle wiggled her left front and Scorpius heard her ask Rose if Madame Pomfrey fixed teeth.

When the Gryffindors returned after supper back to their common room on Sunday, they saw that a large notice had been posted on the house bulletin board; the note instructed all Gryffindor first years to appear Monday in Greenhouse Number One a half hour before the normal Monday class. The notice, which was signed by Professor Longbottom, gave the students no reason for the change in schedule.

On the way to the greenhouse as they reached the wooden front doors, Rose Weasley reached out a hand to stop Malfoy and asked him, “You never speak. Why is that?”

Due to the little conversation, Scorpius and Rose were the last two to arrive. As the he and Rose took their place around the work table, Professor Longbottom smiled. “Last Monday, your classmate Kaitlin came to me with a complaint. The Quidditch captain had decided upon his team without any tryouts. Now, Mr. Vance is within his rights to do as he pleases. However, I think we can get him to change his mind. All we have to do is have the announced Gryffindor team play a friendly against the most naturally talented team in the school.”

“Who? The Slytherins?” asked Jenelle.

Longbottom smiled and replied by pointing to Jenelle and her classmates. “You,” Longbottom said with a straight face.

“Last week I saw you flying on the pitch and many of you can fly on a par with the current team. Now to be honest, I don’t think you’d make the team because of a lack of experience. However, I think some of you are good enough to deserve a tryout,” Professor Longbottom said.

“We can’t play them with the brooms we used Monday. They’d blow us out of the sky,” said Kaitlin. “I’ve got a new Weasley Comet at home, but I wasn’t going to send for it except for tryouts,” she added.

“Professor Longbottom smiled at the young girl and said, “Don’t worry. I’ve already made arrangements to take care of that”