A/N:Hello there guys, it's been a while. I start college this Monday, god how time flies, and I probably should be working Memory Lane ( need to fix that title, if you have a suggestion I'm all ears) but this and several other things came to mind and well yeah I can't stop. As always read and review if you would be so kind, bye for now.

The first time Marcia Overstrand walked into her home after having left five months prior was one of absolute joy. She put her hand on the door nob and it gently opened. She stepped inside and looked over the place she'd called home for a decade and suppressed the urge to laugh. It was a mess and had the dank smell of Darkeness but it was home.

She stepped over the threshold and felt a weight lifted from her shoulders. She was home. Her apprentice stood at the door and stared at the woman he'd taken to be stern, strict, and not in possession of anything even approaching a sense if humor, spin around with the biggest smile he'd ever seen.

It took a moment for her to notice him, but when she saw the small boy with the close shaven blonde curls standing in the door way she extended her hand to him. "Come here and I'll show you around."

He took a tentative step forward. "Come now I don't bite. Alther said he had to make some changes to inconvenience DomDaniel, but he should be here shortly to help sort it out."

"Is the place booby trapped?" Septimus paled and took a step back out into the hall.

"Nothing deadly, I think, just...inconvenient." Marcia tried and failed to reassure the boy.

Marcia sighed, "Come on in, sit on down, and make your self at home. If you're my apprentice then you will have to live here, at least until you're sixteen."

Septimus sighed and stiffly walked into the room and sat rigidly on the sofa. He looked around at the room he'd been in once before and saw things he remembered and a few things he much imagined Marcia would deal with shortly. There were piles of clothes on the floor and Septimus could smell the unwashed stench from the sofa. The candles were burned low and wax dried in cascades down the mantle. He looked around and thought that despite the recent mistreatment it looked...inviting. It looked like home. It was a funny feeling for Septimus a boy who had recently gone from a number to a name. A soldier with no family, to an apprentice with a mother, father, sister, and six older brothers. This was the beginning of a home and a life that he'd never thought possible before and he smiled.

Marcia came from the kitchen with two cups of tea and sat one in front of her apprentice, "congratulatory drink."

They clinked glasses and took a long sip. "It will take a bit of work to get it fixed up but it won't take too long," Marcia said looking around. Septimus watched astounded as the ExtraOrdinary Wizard leaned back in the chair, kicked off her shoes, and took another deep sip from the cup. "Heavens it is good to be home," she said sighing contentedly.

This was different maybe even weird but it was a weird Septimus could get used to.