Harry Potter: A Twist In Time

As the kids were sitting down to lunch at the Institute Harry arranged for a quick meeting with Jillian and her staff as well as Pomona, Minerva, Hermione, mum and dad.

"Bellatrix Lestrange has escaped and I am worried that she may head for the former Malfoy Manor looking for help from her sister. Why I have everyone here is to discuss our options and ask the following questions: can the orphanage staff stay here and will we have room come September the first for our students and the orphanage should they still be here?"

Jillian glanced towards her staff and received nothing but nods, "some of my staff only work part time but would be delighted to spend a few days a week staying here."

Minerva and Pomona were deep in discussion regarding accommodation and quickly came to a decision, "we don't see a problem with numbers but think it would be a good idea to have a separate floor or wing adapted to their specific needs.

We also think it would benefit everyone if we all ate our meals together and allowed the children to mix as much as possible with the students. Even with teaching two subjects our relatively low numbers for the moment means that staff have some spare time on their hands and both Minerva and I would like to volunteer to run some classes for them, I'm sure some of the other teachers will do the same."

Emma immediately spoke for her and Dan, "we're pretty sure we wont be returning to dentistry and I can't think of anything more worthwhile, we will help you all we can."

Jillian could only nod in thanks; her throat just wouldn't work as she struggled to fight back the tears. Here were people she'd only recently met rearranging there school and lives to freely offer of their time and expertise to help her orphans. This was not a typical experience for the lady who had ran the orphanage for the last eight years, she had never went to Hogwarts but had learned the business from the inside out.

Thirty-one years ago she had been left on the orphanage steps and, like Joan and so many others over the years, her undetermined blood status had meant she was left to grow up in the place she now worked. When the manager left she had been working as her unpaid assistant for six years and had got the job under the prefix that no one else wanted it.

She was paid a pittance of a salary and ploughed most of it straight back in to help keep the orphanage running, these people were showing her more kindness than she had ever received and asking nothing in return.

This was beyond her experience so she just had to nod and hope she was doing the right thing, life had taught her that when something sounded too good to be true it usually meant trouble but she couldn't see what the Potters had to gain by scamming an orphanage. Amelia was a frequent visitor to the orphanage and helped out when she could, the fact that she trusted these people went a long way to easing her fears.

What Jillian didn't know was that the Potters were well aware of not only her origins but the fact that she had been spending most of her money to ensure the children got at least fed.

She would now be paid directly into her newly opened Gringotts account and the first time she visited it would be quite a shock, they had deposited back-money that amounted to her being paid a decent wage for the last eight years. A person who was prepared to give of herself in that manner was definitely the woman Harry and Hermione wanted running the orphanage.

They left the meeting to find Joan sitting on a chair beside the door engrossed with a book she had bought that morning, she came straight over and took Hermione's hand while asking her about something she'd read but not understood.

Dan and Emma watched with Harry as Hermione sat beside Joan with her arm around her shoulder, "she reminds me so much of Hermione," said Dan "I only wished that I'd put my arm around my daughter when she didn't understand something. It was right there in front of us all the time but neither of us saw it, it's not just about answering the question but also giving comfort with the gesture. That arm around Joan's shoulder is saying that it's ok not to know everything and always ask questions if you don't understand something. Our daughter and son are already better parents than we were."

"I hate to ruin your pity party dad but Hermione turned out just fine, you're just going to have to spoil your grandchildren."

This earned Harry a playful smack from Emma while he watched his wife answer his unasked question over their bond, 'yes love, this is what it's like to have family.'

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