Returning Home

Maria Flint

Death had not been joking when He had told her she had some animal companions to reassure. Apparently she had spent much longer exploring the depths of her own mind than she had intended to. Nero had seemed entirely confused as to why she had erupted in laughter at the sight of him, poised to strike her wrist if she had remained inside even a moment longer. It had taken the better part of an hour to calm him down and only when she had told him that she had spent almost the entire time with Death who had helped her to navigate away from any locked away moments of her past, did he finally calm down.

She had spent the next hour trying her best to suppress her giggles while she got caught up on the letters Death had mentioned previously. It only took a moment of deliberation before she decided that her friends truly did need to learn about occlumency before she even considered telling them some of her secrets. She trusted them more than she trusted herself most of the time, however she did not trust the world around them one bit. She quickly noted down the name of the text she had used in each of her letters to them, asking her friends to please find and study it. Did she think they would become masters before school started in a year? Obviously not, but it wouldn't hurt for each of them to have a good foundation.

Much to her surprise she had actually received a letter from Uncle Sev.

Gwynyvere,

I do apologize for it taking so long in getting back to you. I hope that you have remained true to your word and not touched the potions labs. Now, onto business. Our first lesson will be over a general theory of potions. I will tell you now that there is to be a two foot essay detailing the theory and times when it is necessary for a potion over a spells. I am giving you this foreknowledge so that you may grade the essays of your peers and then turn them over to me as well as your own for review.

Next order of business. For the wolfsbane potion you will need:

31 blossoms of aconite
15 sprigs of dittany
31 valerian root
15 ounces powdered moonstone
31 crushed moonseed

I would normally provide my own ingredients for brewing, however your previous work shows an aptitude for quality. Do not let me down. I look forward to working with you on this project.

Severus Snape.

Gwyn took a moment to sit back and read through the list. The advanced notice of the assignment and that she would be grading her friends work as well came as no surprise. However, this list of ingredients was much different from the one in the published works. There's no silver... , she thought suddenly. A part of her was dying to know why the recipe had changed but an even larger part knew that she could ask in due time. Right now she needed to make sure she could brew this potion perfectly as many times as needed in order to help Lupin and in turn, Harry.

She shook her head and quickly called for Tiller, showing him the list and asking him to please have all of those ingredients, in double the quantity in her favorite lab by the end of the day. It never hurt to be prepared for any mishaps during one's first time brewing a potion. She gave him full permission to trade some of her tentacular clippings for the moonstone but only from the apothecary they had done business with so far. One of the added bonuses for anonymity while doing business is no one knew if they were willing to double cross her, and with the quality of ingredients she had been selling she knew it wasn't worth the risk for any business to potentially have her cut all ties.

Once she had all of her replies written and sent out with Maeve and Tiller busy about his own task, she decided it was time to find Harry. Much to her chagrin it only took one very pointed look from her companions for her to realize that she was late to lunch after having already missed breakfast and that the dining hall was exactly where she would find her dearest cousin. She had tried not to rush it, truly she had meant to walk down the stairs at a much more sedate pace. Could anyone really blame her for wanting to hurry and tell him all about the news from Uncle Sev and that she had found a way to protect anyone from prying in his mind that would work for him?