Prince residence

Point Pleasant, New Jersey:

"But Harry, when can I learn to make a potion?" asked Mia, Harry's  nearly six-year-old cousin.  She gazed up at him pleadingly and he stifled a groan.

Merlin's socks, how come little kids always manage to make you feel all guilty with just their eyes? He wondered inwardly as he bottled up a finished batch of Severus's Veritaserum and placed it gently in a lined cardboard box, ready for shipping.  His father's mail-order potions business he had begun last year had really taken off, so much so that Severus had recruited Harry, Neil, and Aria to be his assistants over the summer.  Good thing all three of them were excellent potions students, and they could brew some of the more complicated drafts that customers requested. 

"Later, Mia, okay? I promised Aria and Neil I'd play Quidditch with them after I finished brewing." He told the anxious child, who was the only one of the Prince line here in America to have inherited magic.  Her mother, Melody, was a Muggle and her grandmother Aurelia a Squib, but Mia would be a strong witch someday, and she was impatient to get started on her magical education.

The curly haired girl sighed and pouted.  "But that'll be another hour at least. I want to make a potion now, Harry.  Please?"

Harry groaned as the full force of her hazel eyes bored into him.  They ought to have been classed as a lethal weapon, he thought ruefully, trying to remain firm. "Aww, Mia! Don't whine, I promise I'll brew a potion with you this afternoon.  But right now I really really want to go flying.  Why don't you play with Rosie till then?"

"O-okay!" Mia sulked, seeing she wasn't about to convince her cousin otherwise.  She frowned at him and trudged up the stairs, whistling for Rosie, Harry's young beagle.  It's no fair! I wish I was big, then I could make my own potion and I wouldn't have to wait for Sev or Harry or Aria to help me.

She had waited all spring for her wizard cousins from Britain to return to New Jersey and hopefully teach her how to do real magic.  But in the two weeks they had been back in Point Pleasant, the only thing Mia had learned was how to chop up flobberworms and write her name and address with a quill and ink. That afternoon, Harry had said he would teach her how to make a Boil Cure, which was the first potion Severus had ever taught him, but Mia hadn't known that the afternoon meant after two o'clock.  She had been waiting all day, ever since her mother had dropped her off this morning. 

Severus and Aurelia had gone to the supermarket to pick up something for dinner that night and left Mia with Harry, Aria, and Neil.  Remus had gone to the American Magical Association to finalize some papers for his guardianship over his niece, Aria, and figured he would be back within an hour.

Rosie frisked up to the little girl, jumping up and licking Mia's face, grinning her happy-go-lucky beagle grin. "Hi, Rosie! Wanna go play?"

Rosie lifted her head and bayed, dancing around Mia and wagging her tail.

She raced Mia to the back door and burst into the yard her long ears flopping.  Mia followed, picking up one of the beagle's nylon bones and throwing it for her.

"Go get it, Rosie!"

Rosie galloped over and snatched the bone up in her jaws and brought it back to her.  She loved playing fetch and would fetch for hours if the humans in her family were willing to oblige her.

But Mia soon tired of throwing the bone and playing tug-o-war with the beagle, she was still stewing over making the potion.  She walked into the den and turned on the TV, watching cartoons for half-an-hour before growing bored and walking outside to see if Harry and Aria had come home yet. 

But the two teenage wizards were still over Neil's house, playing a rousing game of Quidditch, with Aria as Seeker in her hawk form. 

Disappointed, Mia returned to stand in the middle of the foyer, at loose ends.  I wonder if Severus will mind if I borrow a potions text to look at some potions recipes?  She knew she wasn't allowed to go down in the basement potions lab without an adult or Harry, but just this once she thought it wouldn't hurt.  She only wanted to read a book.

She opened the door, preparing to go downstairs, and Rosie whined and started to follow.

"No, Rosie.  Stay here." Mia ordered and shut the door in the beagle's face.

Rosie whimpered and kept her nose plastered to the bottom of the door.

Mia entered the lab, going straight to the bookshelf near the door and looking at all the potions manuals Severus had stored there.  She found one called Potente Potions for Beginners and took it down from the shelf.  She walked over to an empty lab table and began to read it. 

There were potions to cure boils, potions to make people sneeze, to reduce wrinkles, and even one to change hair color.  Hmm . . .that looks interesting.  Wonder what goes in it?

She read the list of ingredients and it didn't sound too complicated.  She knew where Severus kept most of the ingredients for it and could probably make it herself.  She chewed her lower lip, knowing she shouldn't attempt anything magical without supervision.  But she was so bored and she was able to read fairly well and really, what was so dangerous about a Hair Color Change Draft?

I'll just gather the ingredients and put them here beside the cauldron.  Then I'll leave and see if Harry's come home yet.  I'll tell him I want to make this potion instead.

She slid off the high stool and began gathering up what she needed.

Before long she had what she thought was everything lined up neatly on the counter.  She read over the instructions again and began to chop and dice the dried kelp and the sunflowers. 

Put two cups of water into the cauldron and simmer slowly, then add the kelp, the mallow root and the . . .what's that word there? Ginger? She squinted, unsure, since the writing was small, but she was almost sure it was ginger.  That doesn't sound too hard.  She concentrated, and a fire bloomed in the grate beneath the cauldron. 

"Okay, now I can add the water," she said aloud, and poured the water into the cauldron. 

* * * * * *

Remus had arrived back at the house just as Harry and Aria returned from Neil's.

"Hey, Uncle Remmy, how was your meeting?" asked Aria, going up to the werewolf and hugging him.

"It went well, Aria.  It's official, you're now my daughter." He hugged her back and smiled.

"Great! Now can we go to New Orleans?"

"Yes.  Severus and I had planned on going next week.  We can stay at Gran Lara's house for two weeks and see the sights." Remus said.

"I can't wait," Harry said, he'd been itching to go to New Orleans ever since Aria had arrived.  "Neil can come too, right, Uncle Remus?"

"That would be up to your father." Remus said. 

"I'll ask him when he comes back.  He won't mind, I think."

"He likes Neil.  Claims he's a good influence on you, Wild Harry," teased Aria, tossing some of her honey-blond hair out of her eyes, which were the color of amber, a mark of her shapeslipper heritage.

Harry raised an eyebrow at her nickname, but before he could respond there came a huge bang and the whole house shook violently.  Smoke poured from the windows, followed by the sound of a frantic beagle howling.

For an instant, nobody moved.

Then Harry shouted, "Mia! Rosie!" and began to run towards the house.

Only to be caught in his godfather's relentless grip.  "No! Harry, stay here! I'll go, I'm faster than you and can Apparate if the house starts to collapse."

Remus bolted up the stairs, chanting a Shield Charm as he did so.

He found a terrified Rosie huddled beside the door leading to the basement, whimpering and cringing.  But she was not hurt, only scared to death.

"Merlin help me!" Remus muttered, his face ashen. He feared to open the door, but knew he had to. 

He cautiously unlocked the basement door.  Green and purple smoke drifted in wisps up the stairs.  The werewolf coughed, his sensitive nose assaulted by a foul odor.  But he forced himself to continue down the stairs and into Severus's potions lab, where he found a blackened smoking cauldron and lying next to it was the unconscious form of little Mia Barry.

"Oh God, no!" Remus groaned, and knelt to gather the child into his arms, she was barely breathing and one side of her arm and her hair had been burned. He pulled his wand and waved it making sure the fire beneath the cauldron was out and then he raced upstairs with the badly injured child, praying that Severus had returned home.