Professor Potter

Chapter 18

Chapter 18 

Harry got up from his favorite chair in the library to go to the kitchen to get himself a cup of tea. Ginny was getting James ready for bed and as was his habit, he didn't call on the house elves for service, since he was by himself. It was a little silly in his mind to have something brought to him that he was capable of getting for himself. Having tea served when you had guests was one thing. Having it done while you were alone was just plain lazy. As he passed by the dining room he noticed Abagail standing by the table which appeared to be covered with papers of some kind. 

"Hello, there, little one. What have you got going on here?" 

"Hiya, Harry. I'm going over my illustrations for that children's book I've been working on," she replied over her shoulder. 

"I thought Ginny told me you had turned in all that work to the publisher," he said, a bit perplexed. 

"Those were the first drafts, Harry. They had a couple of small changes they wanted me to make and the author asked me to add two new ones." 

"Ah, I stand corrected. She did say they were first drafts. So it sounds as if they liked what you did." 

"Yes. They have a couple of other projects coming up in the next year or so that they'd like me to work on," she replied happily. 

"That's great. How's it coming with the Salisbury construction people?" he asked. 

Abagail made a bit of a rude noise. She looked up at Harry and said, 

"At the risk of being unkind, the people wanting the house have no idea. I went through an entire sketch pad the other day, most of it trying to help the building people convince this couple that what they wanted was physically impossible, even with magical help. You and Ginny were much easier to work with." 

"You mean Ginny. I didn't have a whole lot to do with it," Harry said with a smile. 

As Abagail was talking, Harry's eyes were roaming over the illustrations. As usual he marveled at the quality of the artwork. He got the impression the characters she drew could almost walk off the pages. 

"What's the story behind all your artwork, if I may ask?" 

"You certainly may," she said with an impish little grin. "It's about a child in a muggle family growing up to find out she's magical. When I first met the author she said it was a bit of an autobiography since she's a witch from a non magical family. She had the idea for the book years ago, but was too afraid to try and get it published during the Voldemort years," she said looking up at Harry. "She hoped that if children from magic families read it they'd be more accepting when they meet kids from non magical families. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?" 

"Yes, it does and it's a brilliant idea. Please tell her I'd like to buy the first one off the press, signed by her." 

"I think she'd be happy to give you one, Harry." 

"No, most authors don't make much money so I'll pay for it," he said. 

Abagail smiled at him and gave him a one arm hug around his waist which he returned along with a kiss on the top of her head. Then he left her to her work and went to get his tea. 

Harry was looking forward to his last Saturday before school started. It had been a little while since the family had had a gathering so he and Ginny decided to have one before he and Bill got tied up with school. Bill was scheduled to referee the first match for the camp pickup games that morning and Charlie wasn't needed since a number of volunteers had signed up for the series of matches that weekend so the whole family would be available.