After some days, the Ferreira family had completely adapted to the new routine. Flora found out that a short one hour drive to the nearest Muggle town was required everyday for Yan to continue studying, due to lack of school in Hogsmeade because of less number of children. Flora and Yan soon found out where the other children lived, and arranged with their mothers rotational rides so that none of them had to go twice a day to the boring neighboring village.

With Flora's invitation, Hermione was more at ease to visit her the following week. Flora didn’t have to drive the kids that day, so she was at home when Hermione knocked on her door.

“Hello, Flora. May I come in?”

“Hermione! You’ve come? What a nice surprise! Come in.”

“I’ve just arrived. Have you seen Hannah? Her house is closed...”

“Oh, yes. She went out early to prenatal care. She should be back for lunch with us. Would you like to have lunch with us too?

“If it’s not a problem.”

“Of course not, please have a seat.”

While Flora was leading her guest to a comfortable rocking chair near the window, she tried to dodge a Screech owl that got into the room and dropped a letter.

After having read it Flora said to Hermione:

“It's from McGonagall allowing me to do some reading in the library once a week... I feel somewhat useless being at home all the time; besides, I also don’t feel at ease knowing that any child over eleven knows more about magic and our world than I do.”

That comment didn’t sound good to the attentive Hermione. She immediately blinked and thought that she should tell that to Harry as soon as possible. She also offered to go with Flora to the library since she probably knewmore about the books in it than the librarian herself.

Though Felipe wasn’t very fond of reading, he took the chance and went with them. He was very curious about the library as it was one of the places he hadn’t visited before.

There was also the fact that both Felipe and Flora hoped to find their children and hear from them their feelings about the school. They knew that their children might not like to find them there. But they would be discrete, as discreet as doting parents can be.”

“Flora, don’t embarrass the kids with overdisplay of affection.”

“Look who’s talking! Felipe! We're going to embarrass the kids anyway; we just wouldn’t do it if we were invisible. But I'll try to be discreet and not draw too much attention to them.”

“It’s going to be hard not to draw attention to them; parents don’t usually move about the school, except in extreme cases. I too would like to meet Rose and Hugo, but children this age usually don’t like any show of affection in public.” Hermione laughed.

“As good parents as we are, one of our roles is to give them reasons to complain about something, isn’t that so?” Flora laughed openly. She knew that even if she slightly nodded when passing Ricardo, he’d be as embarrassed at his mother’s show of affection as happy about it.

When they arrived at the school, Flora was disappointed to see the children in class. She had expected to meet all of them at that time.

The school easily fascinated anyone that came in there. Flora was sure she would always be feeling that mixture of fascination and oppression, by looking at the huge and ancient walls and imagining them completely filled with magic and history. She commented that to Hermione, who immediately recommended that she read as her first book:

“Hogwarts, a History. It was my favorite book in the months before the first year. It’s really fascinating and exciting! I had never thought that someone, someday, would have the same feeling for this school as me!”

Flora smiled:

“I’ll accept your suggestion. I think it's a great idea to start from the origins to understand the present days. We do this often in my profession; we try to know the person’s history to understand the present on which we work.”

“Your profession must be very exciting. I’ve never talked to a psychologist.”

“Indeed it is; it's the opportunity to see life in a thousand different ways ...
But at the moment I'm having a holiday; I’m actually claiming the right to get to know myself by exploring the magic that used to occupy only the secondary place in my life ... Now it's become a priority! Wow! That’s strong! I think I got carried away.”

“Nothing more natural ... It's your life, Flora. And don’t forget that your ancestor was one of the founders of this school; if the walls are filled with magic, it is since the times of Slytherin. I agree with Mrs. Weasley, one should start with the history.”

Surprised, Flora turned to the lady that had said who was standing behind her.

“Prof. McGonagall! How nice to see you again. I didn’t imagine that you’d meet us, since you’re so busy. Thank you for allowing us to visit the school.”

Flora, Felipe and Hermione greeted Prof. Minerva McGonagall. Flora got excited and hugged her, in such a spontaneous and personal attitude that the old lady returned it tenderly.

“I wasn’t going to deprive you of this right. I just came to greet you. Now I’ll leave you in the pleasant company of Hermione, who was one of my brightest students.”

Blushing Hermione thanked her. They went to the library and spent some hours between thousands of books. At the end of the day, they got to meet their children.

The meeting with the children was brief, but intense. On the contrary to what they had thought, the children looked up for them. Lia introduced them her new friend Lily Potter.

“Mom, this is Lily, Harry and Ginny Potter’s daughter. We haven’t been away from each other since the train station. Then we were sorted into the same house. ... We’re having so much fun! Ricardo, though, only messes about, mom. He’s already doing detention in three different subjects.”

“Shut up, Lia!”

“It’s true, mom. Professor Longbottom said that he is leading Scorpius astray, but then said it’s actually good, because now Scorpius was making more friends. See, the other students don’t have the guts to make fun of him in front of Ricardo who always has a bad reply to whoever tries to do it. I only miss two things: the internet to talk to my friends in Brazil and you to give me a goodnight kiss.”

“We too miss you two, but it seems to be paying off. And you, Ricardo, what can you tell us?” Flora asked him.

“Nothing, Lia has already told it all ... Well, mom and dad, I'm off.” Saying so, Ricardo tried to sprint off.

“Wait a minute, boy.” Felipe spoke in a scolding tone of voice familiar to the boy, who then turned to his father pretending innocence. “Do you really want to be kicked out from school before the end of the first year? Being a Slytherin’s descendant does not mean that your place is forever guaranteed. Don’t let me down.”

The boy lowered his head and replied:

“I won’t let you down, dad. I'm swatting a lot. It’s just that I can’t stand a prick trying to bully me ... If they think they can beat me just because I got late at school, they’re dead wrong.”

At this point Rose, Hermione’s daughter came there:

“Are you really Slytherin’s heir? I thought Scorpius was kidding… So what are you doing in my house then? You should be in the dungeons!”

“Rose!” Hermione scolded her, her look sharper than her words. “Is that the way of behaving yourself?”

“But mom, he pesters me so much! I’ll forbid my father to sell him joke kits.” She complained to her mom.

“I don’t know why Rose studies so much! She doesn’t need it.” Ricardo retorted in his defence. “She's mad just because I’m sitting in her lit corner at the library. You see, it’s well lit and I too need to study. She won’t take that, though, and says the others places in the library aren’t good to study. In addition to that, she also thinks that just because she's been here for longer, she can choose the best armchair in the common room.”

“I can’t believe I'm hearing this!’ Flora and Hermione spoke together.

“Ricardo, haven’t I taught you to be kind togirls?” asked Felipe, in a voice somewhere between laughter and reproach. Flora complemented her husband’s sentence by saying:

“Yeah son. I stopped talking about it with you about six years ago: share, share ... If both of you want the same place, share it. It is impossible that in such a big school the best place to study is the size of a pea. Moreover, since when do you really want to sit in an armchair?”

At that moment, Flora had an insight: perhaps it was a different matter altogether, but even so she threatened her son.

“If you keep on getting detentions I’ll send you a Howler. Hannah told me all about them and I’m sure you won’t like to get one of them in the Great Hall with all your classmates and teachers watching.”

“The same goes for you, Rose. I don’t want complaints about you from anybody.”

Ricardo lowers his head and answers:

“Okay, Mom. I’ll behave myself.... Hey, Rose, what is it in your ear?”
He said that laughing, while taking out one Knut coin from her ear before running off with a furious Rose behind him.

Lia and Lily both said their good-byes while the adults couldn’t stop laughing. Felipe said:

“I bet that there’s an undercurrent feeling over there.”

The women agreed, but showing Scorpius leaning against the wall, looking unhappy, Flora said:

“But it seems there’s a cousin that isn’t happy about it.”

Felipe said:

“It’s okay,, better to leave this to the children. Let's go, then, before Flora can say that she needs to return to library to pick up a dozen more books.”

The three crossed the lawn leading to the school gates where they meet, waiting for them, a Mr. Filch, completely bald and stooped with age:

“I thought you’d never come out, I've been waiting here for over half an hour.”

“We’re sorry. Sheer excitement of a mother held us. It’ll never happen again. It was very kind of you to have waited for us. We apologize once again.”

After they leave, Hermione explained:

“He’s just got here at the gates, but after so many years of cultivating a bad mood, he has become addicted to complaining. It was lready like that during my school days.”

“I noticed that, but I think that in these cases it is better not to contradict the person. He is an old man and deserves to be respected. So I just apologized and that was enough to make him happy and walk back smiling. Life can be greatly improved by small gestures.” Flora replied smiling.

“Sure, you can.” answered Hermione.

“But who am I thinking I'm talking to? You don’t need to hear any of that, I'm sorry. Hannah has told me about the movement you created for the elves’ release. It is fantastic. We have to talk about it one day. But now we better hurry. It’s time for Yan to return from her Muggle school.”

They said good-bye and with a gentle smile, Hermione apparated right from there. Flora and Felipe walked hand in hand back to Hogsmeade. With Flora sighing at every step. She was very happy.