Chapter 1: It Started with a Hat

2022

Melody Boyd was angry; the meeting with the teacher at the Muggle school had not gone well. More than an hour of enduring withering gazes and terse comments from an elderly Muggle woman wearing sensible shoes while sitting at a very small table was not something that she relished, especially as Melody was most definitely not a Muggle. She opened the front door of the house with her wand and looked at her daughter.

"Hermione Helen Boyd, go to your room and stay there until supper! Do you hear me?"

Mione, her blonde hair arranged in two pigtails and fastened at the end with Butterbeer cork hair ties, scowled at her mother and walked to her room as slowly as possible. After closing, not slamming, the door she sat on her bed and stuck out her tongue in the general direction of her mother. Not more than a minute later the door opened and her twin sister Minnie sat on the bed with her. Mione didn't say anything to her twin, as for the most part the girls knew each other so well they didn't have to really say anything. Finally, Mione couldn't take it and turned abruptly towards her sister.

"It's not fair, Minnie. I don't wanna go to the Muggle school. I wanna go to the Aunt Lavinia's school like everyone we know."

"You shouldn't have done it, Mione. Susie's mean, but you can't make her books do that."

"It was pretty keen, though, wasn't it? When her books flew out of her hand and started hitting her on the head?" Mione laughed. "An' nobody saw it except for us, so she can't prove it."

Minnie shook her head. "But Mum knows. It's not even Christmas yet and you've been in trouble six times. I heard Mum say that if you get in any more trouble they may not let you go to Hogwarts when we turn eleven."

"Uncle Neville will make them." Mione's face was defiant. "He's the Headmaster now. He outranks Mum."

Minnie shook her strawberry-blonde hair, causing her ponytail to sway. "I don't think anybody outranks Mum, including Dad." After a few moments Minnie stood up. "I'm going to see if I can help her with supper. Maybe that'll stop Mum from being so angry at you."

Mione didn't say anything, and after her sister left the room she flopped over on her stomach, ending up flat on her bed. She reached underneath her pillow and pulled out a creased black and white photo of a boy who smiled at the camera, waved, and then flew off on a broom out of the edge of the photograph. She sighed; when she was Mrs. Albus Potter she'd never have to listen to her Mum's rules.

Saturday morning, surprisingly, was a clear but cold day. The last few weeks of incessant rain and snow had kept the Boyd girls inside the house, and Melody Boyd was at her wit's end. Only the owl from Ginny Potter gave her any hope, as the letter had suggested that a trip to see the Hufflepuff versus Slytherin Quidditch match might be the cure for the stir-crazy family. After broaching the topic with the twins, Melody was surprised at the reactions; Minnie actually wanted to go, but Quidditch-mad Mione wanted to stay home.

"Mione, you love Quidditch. Why don't you want to go?' Melody looked at her daughter and took a sip from a cup of tea in Hank's office. "The weather's going to be fine. Cold, but no snow."

"It's not fair, Mum. They get to use magic an' all I do is get in trouble for it."

Melody sighed. "One more year, Mione. Next September you'll be in Hogwarts with your brother and sisters."

Mione shook her head. Mum didn't get it; next year would be Al's sixth year and she wouldn't have time to grow up and make him fall in love with her.

After Melody and the twins arrived outside Hogwarts Mione immediately let go of her mother's hand. Side-along apparition was bad enough on its own, but to be forced to hold her Mum's hand? Horrible. As they walked across the Hogwarts grounds to meet up with Ginny Potter Mione's mood had not improved; if anything it had deteriorated, causing her to walk slowly and become even more irritated with her Mum. Luckily, though, when they entered the pitch her Mum, Ginny and Minnie all started to walk towards the Hufflepuff side and Mione saw her chance.

"I'm going to see Virginia. See you back here after the match." Before her Mum could disagree Mione ran off towards her older sister, who stood with her Slytherin classmates about twenty yards ahead. Eventually Mione found herself with a group of girls and couple of boys, some who looked her sister's age and some a bit older.

Virginia looked down at her little sister. "Why are you coming with me? You never sit on the Slytherin side. What are you up to this time?"

"Mum's making me mental, an' nobody really sits with you very much, just Dad when Hufflepuff's not playing."

Virginia shook her head, causing her long ponytail to sway. "Mum sits on my side, too. It's HR's turn today. She's fair about stuff."

"Nu-uh. She's been really unfair about Muggle school." Mione pursed her lips in irritation and sniffed a couple of times.

Virginia sighed as they began the climb up into the stands with two of her Slytherin housemates. She knew those signs from her little sister well enough to know that whatever she said Mione would disagree with, so it was easier just to ignore it. "Fine. Let's just find a place to sit and watch the match."

After arriving in the Slytherin stands Mione's good mood took another downward swing, as Virginia sat in the middle of her two housemates and the three girls did nothing to include Mione. Instead the girls huddled together and giggled occasionally, pointedly ignoring Mione. The few times she tried to interject herself into the conversation she was either ignored completely or given looks of extreme annoyance.

That was the last straw for Mione. School was awful, Mum was awful and her big sister was being awful. She felt her anger build until it made her close her eyes and shiver.

"Oh! My hat!"

Mione opened one eye to see a woman around her Mum's age lift up her wand towards the sky. A distinctly hat-like shape, but with wings and a tail, was starting to fly towards the Quidditch pitch. The woman waved her wand and the hat lost its wings and tail and floated over to the woman, who grabbed it and sat it on her lap. Before Mione could do anything the woman looked towards her and the other girls.

"Did one of you young ladies have a bit of fun with my hat?"

Mione covered her face with her hands. She couldn't see Virginia, but she could hear her.

"MIONE! What did you do now?"

"I couldn't help it, Gin! You and Mum just made me so mad 'n I couldn't stop it! I didn't do it on purpose, an'…"

The dark-haired lady smiled. "It's quite all right, girls." She motioned towards Mione. "Would you mind joining me?"

Mione's heart fell as she opened her hands to look at the lady. Great. Now she'd get an earful from the hat-lady, then Virginia and then Mum when the match was over. She didn't look at Virginia as she made her way down to the bottom row of the seats and sat down quickly next to the hat-lady.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…"

"It's quite all right, my dear. I think the last time I saw you, well, you were just a baby. You've grown quite a bit since then."

"You know me? Uh, how's that? An' what's your name? Oh, I'm sorry I'm being rude again…"

The dark-haired woman put her wand back into her cloak and smiled down at the blonde girl. "My name is Astoria Malfoy. You don't remember me because it has been quite a long time since I was back in England. I've been traveling with Draco, my husband, for a number of years, but you probably don't want to hear about that. The match is about to start. Why don't you stay here with me?"

Mione nodded and watched as the teams began taking their warm up laps around the pitch. The hat-lady, or Astoria, didn't seem angry, but you could never tell with grown-ups.

Surprisingly to Mione, Astoria was very interested in the Quidditch match and didn't say much; instead she watched the players very intently. Even though she knew she was going to be in trouble Mione became interested in the contest. Slytherin was playing a very fast paced game while Hufflepuff's tactics were more defensive. More than anything Mione wished she was out there on a broom, a Seeker, of course, swooping and feinting until the other Seeker couldn't keep up anymore. Mione knew she would be a Seeker, Uncle Ron had told her that the last time she'd been on a broom over at Rose and Hugo's house. All the grown-ups went spare when they found out that Uncle Ron had given her a real broom instead of a toy broom, but he told them she was going to go to Hogwarts soon and needed to know how to ride a real broom. Aunt Hermione yelled at him for a while, but when she wasn't looking Uncle Ron winked at her. Uncle Ron was the coolest but even better he was her godfather.

When Astoria let out a small whoop Mione was brought out of her daydream of living with her godparents and riding a broom all day. She looked over to the lady and noticed for the first time that instead of sitting on the bleachers like everybody else Astoria had her own chair, one with wheels. That was odd. Before she could ask the match was over; the Slytherin Seeker had nabbed the snitch and Hufflepuff had lost again.

"Well, Miss Boyd, what did you think of that match?" Astoria turned to Mione. "I thought it was rather exciting."

Mione crinkled up her nose. "Yeah, I guess. Hufflepuff is always boring, they always play defense. I keep telling Dad to fix that but he never listens to me." Without realizing it Mione began staring at Astoria's chair.

"My legs don't work anymore, dear." Astoria patted her on the arm. "It's quite all right. It happened a few years ago when I was in New Orleans."

That snapped Mione to attention. "My mum said that's where Dad took her on their honeymoon." Mione cocked her head. "You know my parents?"

Astoria nodded. "Draco and I were back for a visit when you and your sister were born. Is your mum here today?"

Mione suddenly realized that the stands had almost emptied out, that Virginia was nowhere to be found and that she was going to be in trouble. "Um, can you talk to Mum? Sorry about your hat."

"Of course. Now let's head down." Astoria wheeled her chair towards the staircase and Mione couldn't figure out how she was going to get down. After a quick wave of the wand Astoria's chair seemed to float effortlessly down the stairs, Mione following behind until they both were on the cold grass.

"Hermione Helen Boyd!"

Mione closed her eyes for a moment, and when she finally got up the nerve to open them her mum was walking over very quickly, the rest of her family, even her Dad and her brother, following behind.

"Um, Mum, I didn't mean to…"

"Keep your mouth shut and listen to me. If you ever, and I mean ever do that again…"

"Melody, so good to see you again." Astoria smiled and Mione noticed that her mum's anger waned a bit. "Mione watched the match with me, she was fine."

"Hello, Astoria." Mione breathed a sigh of relief as her dad came over and shook hands with Astoria. "Thanks for keeping an eye on her. Sorry about your hat."

Mione glared at Virginia, who reciprocated. "Dad I didn't mean to, it's just that…"

"I know it's hard to keep the magic in, isn't it, Mione?" Astoria smiled at her Dad and he nodded. "Oh, there's Scorpius!"

Mione looked to see a tall, skinny teenager walk over in his Quidditch uniform and give Astoria a kiss. As they talked for a minute Mione compared him to her perfect man; he might be a little taller than Albus, but he had white-blonde hair, he was sweaty and kind of stinky.

"Good match, Scorpius." Mione's dad stuck out his hand and clapped Scorpius on the back.

"Thanks, Professor Muggle. Sorry about Hufflepuff."

Mione crinkled her nose. Scorpius' voice kind of wobbled up and down, going from high to low. She thought it sounded like one of the voice changing sweets from Uncle George's shop. Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see her Mum's angry face.

"Mione, I think…"

Luckily for Mione she never got to finish, as her Dad suggested a little private father-daughter time. After telling her stupid brother HR and stupid sister Virginia goodbye she waved at Minnie. Hopefully Minnie would fix it so Mum wouldn't be so angry when she got home.

Mione sat in the big green chair, her favorite place in her Dad's room at Hogwarts. She watched him putter about the room for a while, taking off his robe and putting on his nasty slippers before opening a window. Mione smiled as she knew what that meant, and also because it would help her get out of trouble because she could always tell her Mum.

Hank packed, lit the pipe and then stood next to the window. "You know the rule, don't tell your mum. Ok, now what's been going on? I understand you had a bit of trouble at school again, and then today at the Quidditch match."

"I hate Muggle school. Its pants."

"It's only for a little longer, Mione. You'll be here at Hogwarts before you know it."

Mione shook her head. "That's like a million years. I just get so angry because we have to do dumb stuff when I could be doing magic." She looked at her father and put on her best face. "Can we go to Ollivander's at Christmas? Please?"

"No, Mione, you and Minnie will go over the summer like every other new first year. We'll probably need to budget the day, actually, you and your sister plus the fact that we can hardly get your brother out of there once he steps foot in the shop…"

Mione didn't say anything and she watched her dad drift off like he always did. "You're doing it again."

"Oh, sorry." Hank took a puff off of his pipe. "And how exactly did you end up sitting with Astoria Malfoy today? Something about her hat?"

Her shoulders slumped. "I accidentally made Mrs. Malfoy's hat turn into a bird and it tried to fly over the pitch but she got her wand out and stopped it and Virginia yelled at me like she's Mum but she's not, she's just a big pain an'…"

"Ok, ok, I get the picture." Hank laughed. "Mrs. Malfoy wasn't mad, was she?"

"Nuh-uh." Mione sat up. "She was really nice, and told me that she hadn't seen me in a long time and that she knew me an' Minnie when we were babies."

After making sure his pipe was out Hank went over and sat on his desk. "That's right. Scorpius, the boy who came over to talk to her after the match is her son. I remember when Scorpius was born, Draco, his father, sent me a note."

"Why's she in that chair? And where was Mr. Malfoy?" She noticed her father's expression changed and it looked like it did when watched some old boring Muggle movies. "Dad?"

Hank took a deep breath. "When Draco and Astoria were living in New Orleans, in America, Astoria was ill. It was a new illness that they'd never heard of, and they tried a new potion. It got rid of the illness but it made her legs not work anymore. They changed the potion now, so it doesn't do that any longer, but she can't walk and has to use the chair. As for Draco, why he wasn't here…" Hank took off his glasses. "That's a very long and hard story. That will have to wait until another time. He'd like to be here but he can't, and…"

"And what, Dad?" Mione looked at her father, confused. "Did he get in trouble?"

"Um, yes, you could say that."

Before Mione could say another word there was a knock on the door. As the door opened Mione's heart leapt into her throat.

"Professor Muggle, Headmaster Longbottom wants to know if you're coming down to dinner. Said something about Muggle Club needs to move their meeting." Albus looked over and saw Mione sitting in the big green chair. "Oh, hey squirt, didn't know you were here. Crap match, wasn't it?"

Mione couldn't speak; she just nodded her head rapidly. There he was, perfect green eyes, perfect nose and oh that hair!

"Sounds good, Al. Tell him I'll talk to him later tonight. Having supper with Mione."

Al nodded and left. As soon as he closed the door Mione shut her eyes and imagined their wedding, both of them zooming down out of the sky on brooms coming to an abrupt stop where they would say their vows.

"Mione!" Hank shook his head. He knew of Mione's crush on Albus, obviously, and thankfully Al had always been very good to her. "Mione, look at me. I know you don't like going to Muggle school, but remember, Christmas is coming up. I'm not above bribing you because I know the other stuff doesn't work. When your mom gets mad at you I hear about it, and trust me, you remember the last time you were in big trouble with me, don't you? We don't want a repeat of that."

Mione slunk down in her seat, as she remembered very clearly the last time she was in big trouble with her dad. She and Minnie had been out in her dad's Muggle car, the little black one, but that time Mione had taken the keys from out of her dad's desk and tried to see if she could make it go. Making it go was easy but she couldn't make it stop and they had hit the corner of the shed, knocking out one of the windows. "Yes, Dad."

"Right, remember that." Hank put his glasses back on, always a good sign to Mione. "So, lady, what do you want to eat tonight?"

One of the best parts of coming to Hogwarts and visiting with her dad was the visit from Nonky. Mione gave him a big hug and kissed him on the tip of his nose like she always did, making the house elf smile. They had a special bond, as ever since she was little Nonky had helped her in many little ways. There was the time when he let her dress him up in the fairy princess clothes and jewelry her Aunt Candice sent her for Christmas, and the time the two of them made all the candy and didn't tell anyone, but they'd both been in trouble for that.

"Nonky, next year I'm going to be here at Hogwarts! Won't that be fun?" Mione was surprised to see Nonky wasn't as excited as she was. "What's wrong, Nonky?"

He rolled his fingers over and over, a sign he was nervous. "When Mistress Mione comes to Hogwarts Nonky will be working, Nonky can't do special things like Nonky can do at Colony House." He looked up at Professor Muggle and then back to Mione. "Professor Muggle says that when Mistress Mione is here Nonky has to treat you like all of the other students, just like Master HR and Mistress Virginia and Mistress Minnie when she comes to Hogwarts, Nonky will."

Mione hugged him. "That's ok, Nonky. We'll still have breaks and holidays. What's for supper?"

"Fish and chips, Mistress Mione's favorite, it is."

As usual Nonky declined Hank's invitation to stay and eat with them, so father and daughter started eating. Conversation turned, as usual with Mione, towards Quidditch.

"Dad, why does Hufflepuff play so defensively? They need to attack more."

Hank paused, chip covered with ketchup halfway to his mouth. "You sound like your godfather."

"Well he's right, even if he does support the Chudley Cannons. They're crap." Mione took a drink and immediately made a face. "Dad, this isn't pumpkin juice!"

"Ah, no, it's sweet tea. I forgot that Nonky always makes that for me. Blame your Grandma Karen and my Southern roots." He looked at his daughter, debating on whether or not to tell her. "You really, really hate Muggle school, don't you?"

"Merlin's pants, Dad, it's awful. Why can't we go to Aunt Lavinia's school like everybody else? I know, you grew up in the Muggle world, it'll help us understand Muggles, blah blah blah. But I'm not a Muggle, Dad, I'm a witch."

"Yes, yes you are sweetie. Ok, now you have to promise to keep this a secret. I'm only going to tell you if you don't say a word and you promise to be good in Muggle school. Promise, promise. And if I hear of anything, Hermione, anything you'll…this will be worse than my car."

Mione nodded rapidly.

"Ok, now if you saw a word of this to your Mum she's going to lose it, but your godfather sent me an owl the other day. He and your godmother were asking about Christmas presents for the two of you. I'm not going to say what it is specifically, but let's just say it's something that you and Hugo like quite a bit."

Mione gasped, as she knew exactly what he meant. Whenever she and Minnie went over to the Weasleys Minnie and Rose always stayed inside with Hermione reading books and talking about dumb stuff, but she got to go with Hugo and Ron. Uncle Ron would take them to The Burrow and that's when the brooms would come out, not the toy brooms but the real brooms. Uncle Ron was going to get her a real broom for Christmas?

"Like I said, Hermione, not a word." Hank shook his chip at her and then popped it into his mouth.

Mione sat at the little table in her father's room and soon became lost in dreams of flying on her very own, real, no Muggle could ride it Quidditch-ready broom. Now that was worth staying in Muggle school.