Happy New Year Everyone! Please stay safe this evening and have a wonderful time. I'm not going out which is my favorite way to spend the evening so I might post a couple of chapters this evening. ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!
Daphne stood over the stove, keeping careful watch over her omelette. Aries stood beside her. "I think the bottom's set," she said. "All right," replied Aries. "What do you do now?" "The cookbook says to flip the omelette." Daphne replied. "So do it." Aries replied in an easy tone. "I don't know how," Daphne said. "I'm scared that I'll break it. Could you show me how to flip it?" "No," Aries replied casually. "That's not very nice!" Daphne snapped. "How am I supposed to learn if you won't show me?"
Aries flashed her a wry grin. "I've never managed to flip an omelette without breaking it myself." "Oh." Daphne's cheeks turned slightly pink. "What do we do then?" "Think about it," Aries said. "Why do we want to flip the omelette in the first place?" "Because the recipe says we're supposed to," Daphne replied automatically. "Daphne!" Aries exclaimed. "Sorry," the girl replied. She thought for a second. "To make sure both sides are cooked."
Aries smiled. "Excellent. Now, can you think of any way of cooking the top without flipping the omelette?" Daphne frowned, then squealed with delight as she figured it out. "I know! We can use a Broiling Charm over the top." "Go ahead then." Aries said inclining his head in invitation.
Daphne took out her wand and cast the Broiling Charm. Moments later, a perfect omelette was lying on her plate. She cut it in two and offered half to Aries. He accepted it graciously. "So what's the key lesson here?" he asked as he took a bite. "Don't worry about the recipe so much," the girl replied. "Focus instead on the results you want to achieve." "Precisely," Aries said. "All the processes they teach us in Potions are simply the best way they have found to achieve a certain result. It's not necessarily the best possible way. Sometimes the books even purposefully teach you an inferior method because they assume that the best way is too difficult for children to manage. So, once you understand why the ingredients interact the way they do, you can use that knowledge to find better ways of doing things." "I see," Daphne said. "I'd never thought of it like that before." "The omelette is perfect, by the way," Aries observed. Daphne beamed.
On a lovely afternoon in early May, Narcissa was sitting quietly on the terrace sipping a cup of tea and reading one of her favorite books. The emptiness of the house still bothered her, but she expected that to improve once Abraxas and Draco came home from school at the end of term. In the meantime, Sirius was taking great pains to ensure that she didn't wallow too long in self-pity. Narcissa smiled softly to herself. Her cousin had matured very well, she thought.
The chime indoors signaled an arrival via the Floo network. Sirius had come rather earlier than she had expected. Moments later she heard the sound of a wizard's resolute footsteps across the stone of the terrace. Narcissa put her book down, but did not turn around. "You're early," she said. "I wasn't expecting you so soon." "Really, my dear, I should have thought you would have expected me to come much sooner." The voice was cold, and definitely not Sirius.
Narcissa gasped and turned around slowly, only to look directly into Lucius's blazing blue eyes. She reached for her wand, but Lucius seized her arm roughly before she could grasp it. "Let go, Lucius," she said quietly. "You're hurting me." The blond wizard smiled cruelly. "Whatever makes you suppose that it was not precisely my intention to do so?" Narcissa opened her mouth to call for Dobby, but no sound came out. Lucius must have cast a Silencing Charm. She struggled against his grip, but her husband was physically far stronger than she. "Come now, Narcissa," he whispered in her ear. "Soon we shall all be a family again, united once more in the service of the Dark Lord."
He dragged her back inside to the fireplace in the drawing room. Narcissa managed to grab hold of a heavy statue with her left hand and swing it at Lucius's head. He dodged easily out of the way, and she succeeded only in angering him. "You will learn your place, woman," he snarled, and grabbed her roughly by both arms. In desperation, Narcissa knocked over a table with her foot, shattering a priceless crystal vase. Dobby appeared moments later, just in time to see his former master drag his mistress through the fireplace.