PRONGSLET AND THE CERYNEIAN GUARDIAN

Prologue

"Milo," Minerva sighed with a small smile as she ended the boy's rambling before he could go on. "You're supposed to be meeting up with Rosmerta at the Three Broomsticks to help her today, remember?"

He glanced up at her, a wave of confusion washing over his face before he quickly tried to cover it up with a smile. 

"You did forget, didn't you?" Minerva gave her a look.

"Actually, I didn't, I simply placed that bit of information to the back of my head and it temporarily displaced-"

"When you hit your head chasing your bowtruckle around?"

"Precisely," he leaned forward and gave his mother a kiss on the cheek before he called Paden to follow him. "Bye, Mum!"

The summer was off to a good start, especially considering how Milo's term had ended on a near tragic note. But the boy was doing well, fully recovered and trying to make the most of his summer. He had volunteered to work at the Three Broomsticks for a couple of weeks in order to make some money of his own. His mother and Rosmerta were both surprised but happy to hear that he was starting to show his own financial responsibilities. What they didn't understand was Milo was hoping to save up his own money, in hopes that when he turned of age that he could start off by travelling the world just as Newt Scamander had done. 

It was a dream of his that replayed over and over in the boy's head and he was hoping that he would be able to go through with it. Of course, he understood that he had the Potter fortune to fall back on but it would make him feel a whole lot better knowing he had done it on his own. Plus it never hurt to have a little extra spending money when it came to Hogsmeade trips and buying gifts for his friends and family during the holidays and their birthdays.

Rosmerta didn't have him doing much, mainly because she managed the pub and Inn with magic mostly, but she had him approach patrons to see if they were satisfied with either their meal, drink, or stay. He cleaned here and there, took some orders, but mainly kept the woman good company for most of the day. 

During his time working, even though it had been less than a couple of weeks, Paden's addiction to butterbeer had grown immensely.  Milo was going to have to wean the bowtruckle off or they were going to have quite the problem when they returned to the school. 

Minerva felt better about Milo keeping himself busy as the summer began and she found herself along with the other professors working to revise their lesson plans due to the way the prior term had played itself out with the Chamber of Secrets being opened. Much to the surprise of everyone, Elspeth had taken up residency in Hogsmeade, but Remus did not join her. The man didn't trust himself fully but the woman was still travelling back and forth to keep an eye on him and for her own work. 

Upon hearing about Milo's near death experience, even Remus couldn't deny paying a visit to the boy to make sure that he was okay. It had been brief but it definitely meant a lot to Milo to have his family check in on him. He tried to question Remus further about Silas and the map but Remus refused to say anything about it and Milo didn't want to bring it up with Elspeth out of respect for what Remus had told him about the situation being complicated. But did the adults honestly expect Milo's curiosity to subside so easily?

As he entered the Three Broomsticks, Rosmerta greeted him and told the boy that she would be with him in just a minute as she was dealing with a man that looked as though he had started drinking early. He had a hungry and lustful look in his eyes as he continued to try to sweet talk the woman, but Milo could only hope for the man's sake that he would stop sooner rather than later as Rosmerta was quite known for having a solid punch to patrons that got carried away.