Chapter Text
She had braided her long platinum blond hair into a bun and was wearing tight fitting blue work robes alongside a new matching work belt Severus had gotten her. It had pouches and places for her to keep her work tools as she climbed trees or worked in the workshop.
Severus had put his hair back in a ponytail and mostly wore a white buttoned shirt and black trousers as he worked in summer.
That aside their new almost matching black dragonhide work boots they both wore, hers had a few more touches to help her while climbing.
Filius had his clipboard out while he wore a white button shirt with red Geraniums plastered over them and white shorts to go with his sandals.
His thirteen year old nephew, Felix lived at Hogwarts with him and today wore a plain white button up shirt as he didn’t need flowers on his because that would make it a ‘dad’ shirt. The two stood arguing with each other while Felix’s brown locks kept getting in the way of his face until the older Flitwick took advantage of his nephew's current state to summon a white headband onto his head.
“There, you can argue better with that out of the way” Filius noted with a small smile, Felix went to argue again but Filius was having none of it as he arched a brow at his nephew. “As I said before there’s nothing you can help with yet . Go and play with Daisy and Rose. We will inform you whether you can help with anything.”
Felix opened his mouth to argue again but shut it promptly when he saw how fierce his uncle’s eyes became and gave up to walk off in a huff to play with Pomona’s nieces by the lake.
“I don’t know what has gotten into that boy, he's usually quite sweet” Filius said, letting out a deep sigh before turning back to Minerva who had her hair up and her practical green robes on.
When that woman would take a break they would not know, it was like the idea of stopping working had her terrified that Hogwarts would fall apart in her absence.
“I went through the same with all my nieces and nephews, Filius. They get to an age and suddenly believe they know better” Minerva said, shaking her head in disappointment. “Now the next step.”
They turned to the new, much larger foundations for the first greenhouse and Filius triple checked the runes were working with Lea.
“The magic is flowing nicely” Lea informed them, after touching the ground.
The ground was pulsing with magic and staying within the foundations from what she could perceive.
“Good. This one will help us map the rest with better efficiency” Filius said, nodding. “These should seal everything in and keep it working for generations to come.”
“Lea, do you know Albus’s plan for the Minister?” Minerva asked and Lea shook her head.
“But we’re going to a summer brunch at the Malfoy’s next weekend, which Fudge and his wife will be attending” Lea informed them and Minerva’s brows rose in surprise. “I was planning to play this all off an opportunity for good publicity and suggest he expand the budget for another herbology teacher since we have expanded our plans for the greenhouses.”
That was an understatement, it was decided that they would use the Snapes help anyway, the Ministry be damned when the students could greatly benefit from it. However, her words did bring them all together for the project to keep costs down and to make sure the benefits outweighed the risk of their funding being cut.
“Good plan, but do you think he will agree?” Filius asked skeptically.
“That depends, he has quite the bad disposition towards me at the moment” Lea said and Filius gave her a knowing nod.
“Our work this summer is not going to win you any favors” Filius answered, his brow furrowing. “I usually would be inclined to tell you not to care what others think but the least we need is upsetting him further.”
The extreme bitterness he had towards her needed to end sooner rather than later when it could cause more damage.
Even though Lucius reassured them that everything was going to be fine, he did specify they had to get ready for the family secret to be revealed at some point during the coming school year as Brutus had stolen a lot of incriminating information that included her grandfather's old school diary.
Filius started pointing them all to the places they needed to go and what they needed to do. He had done all the charm work and modified the plans to work within a school setting. Having dials that could easily change the weather inside would be too tempting for children like the Weasley twins to not touch.
The greenhouses were going to be twice as large as they were before and the entrance rooms were to stop most of the wind from outside getting in, as well as providing a space to hang up coats and store bags. The back rooms were to store gardening tools.
As well as a huge storage building due to the increased space and needs of the greenhouses, it was to be made along with a basement underneath that would allow the growing of more nocturnal and aquatic plants.
Some aquatic plants were inadvisable in normal conditions due to the toxins that they could release into the air but Filius had looked at her mothers other spell work and altered it with ease to allow them to grow such plants safely.
For now they had everything slowly building into place to ensure that the coming school year Herbology classes would vastly be improved and Pomona would not have to provide the mandrakes with knitted wear in the winter.
They managed to get the first greenhouse one up and running smoothly by lunch, the inside was remaining the same temperature and humidity all throughout the main room.
“I think we should upgrade Pomona’s office and add another just in case we do get the help, if not the room can be used for storage” Filius noted, flipping through his plans and documenting their progress so far. “That leaves a huge space for...Lea, I have an idea. You can channel and focus magic through your hands but have you tried to focus on a target you're not touching in your close vicinity.”
“I’ve been focusing on myself through mediation but besides that, I don’t have much experience on focusing my ability on one target especially when I’m not in contact with it” Lea answered and his eyes lit up in excitement.
“Well, we won’t know until we try. Now we will have to wait until the buildings are done but I have an idea that may help and another for the remaining space we have” Filius said with a beaming smile, he started writing with great vigor on the paper he had. “I was thinking of a fruit orchard in the remaining space we set for our improvements. With possible berry bushes to go with it.”
Her chest felt warm and she beamed back at him, unsure what to say.
“It’s alright, dear. Sometimes it’s hard to find the words at times” Filius reassured her before ushering her to follow him and the others to lunch in the great hall.
Lunch was nowhere near quiet as the children happily gossiped with each other over sandwiches.
Sinistra and her husband were tending to Rigel, their son. He was a two year old bundle of energy and spent most of his time with his father during the daytime while Sinistra taught Astronomy in the evenings.
Silas was sitting happily in Severus’s arms, being fed by his dad after a morning with the Sinistras.
Lea felt so formal calling Aurora by her last name but it was understandably confusing when her mother shared the same name and would visit the castle often. Not that she called her mother by her first name...no, she would have to get used to her mother’s nickname Rora being used by Albus.
Nigel and Aurora were more than willing to look after both bundles of excitement while they worked outside.
Horace Slughorn, her soon to be tutor, wouldn't be teaching her until after the summer brunch at the Malfoys. Lea had heard many things about him, how he acted around her mother and Albus’s opinion of the famous people collector.
Lea didn’t think too highly of the man and she hadn’t even met him yet. Then there was his unknown connection to Sarissa’s mother, Sophia and the fact Lea’s own mother wouldn’t even speak about the two.
Soon after lunch the children went out to play under the watch Kettleburn, who had gotten them to help Hagrid with his garden as the adults worked. Severus had elected to spend the rest of the day with Nigel to help with Rigel and Silas.
The others began setting up the next few greenhouses while Filius and Lea double checked the magic in the first one. After a few final touches to the magic inside and a few tests to see if they can try to Weasley prove the greenhouse, they went about checking the runes set up for the foundations for the next three.
By the end of the day, everyone was tuckered out and happy to enjoy the vegetable soup from the kitchens.
The next morning started with a large hearty breakfast followed by Prince shoving the letter for the owl food that Severus had ordered into Severus’s face causing the table to erupt in laughter.
A warning look from the grumpy professor and the children stopped laughing at once, however this made the adults laugh more.
The children were now off to do homework with Minerva watching them closely while Nigel and Severus dealt with the younger two.
It was good to find another use for her magical sensitivity outside her wandmaking, she remembered as a little girl before receiving basic training being hit with tidal wave after tidal wave of magic information.
Magical sensory overload.
It made her feel like she was drowning under all that information she couldn’t fully comprehend all while her mother tried to calm her down while not understanding what was wrong. But Lea just snapped at her to be quiet as she clutched her head in pain as tears fell down her face.
To the outlooker it would look like her mother couldn’t control her spoiled child but in truth it was because the world around her had become too much to cope with.
It wasn’t until they got home, her mother lecturing her on her behaviour and Lea snapping out of fear, rage and confusion that she was sent to her room... where everything made sense.
That everything was as it should. No confusing information, just her and her things. She was safe there.
She had refused to go outside since and that's when her grandmother worked out what was going on.
“It’s too noisy out there for her, take her during the shopping quiet hour” Irene had told Aurora to her surprise.
Lea had been reluctant at first but going there when the masses had gone wasn’t as bad, she was able to be her.
The realisation that Lea was different, hit her mother like a ton of bricks and Lea had overheard her crying to her father about this being her fault.
Was there something wrong with her? Was she not normal?... The thoughts had circled her mind since that day until her grandmother caught her crying in the greenhouse.
“You know my grandfather was like you?” Irene had told her as she held her. “There's nothing wrong with you, you're just different.”
Lea didn’t know much about her great great grandfather, Ackley but she did know that her grandfather had met Ackley and Irene in Diagon alley. Ackley had invited the boy to the Alder family home out of kindness.
But Voldemort craved what he never had, the well known name, the land, the power and the recognition he thought he deserved.
Ackley soon cottoned on to the darkness inside the boy, he had tried to separate him from Irene. Even passed the family home to Erica instead, so that Voldemort could never obtain it through marrying Irene.
Voldemort did not lose interest in the land or Irene. A seer was an invaluable person to have, especially with Irene’s talent.
Lea’s grandmother had never forgave Erica for kicking her out of the family home after refusing to give up her child one way or the other. It was cruel...some would say heartless but there was more to the spiteful woman than meets the eye.
Erica had never forgiven Irene for forever tying herself to the dark lord by keeping the girl, she would have settled for Irene giving him Aurora and agreeing to a quick marriage to another pureblood.
Erica could never allow family rings into the hands of that man’s child, was it spiteful? Yes, it was but she was too stubborn to let matter’s go.
What she had done to Irene was inexcusable but Irene understood why she did it but she never forgave or forgot.
However, Irene was pained that the wands had been taken and the bodies burned during Voldemort’s attack on the family home. Even more so on hearing about Erica’s final stand with the dark lord, spitting in the man’s face as he threatened her.
She had blamed herself for what happened to the Alders and the fact they wouldn’t get a proper burial. That she had helped the man who stole everything from the family that had helped him as a child.
On hearing the story Lea had vowed to get the wands back and bury them in their rightful places.
With their trees.
Her grandmother believed the wands lost or destroyed but Lea held hope that once everything was over they could bury the wands together.
The day was long again and they managed to get two more greenhouses built, then checked.
Then the next, it was three and then it led them up to the weekend where Lea was sitting out on the grass with Filius with the buildings now firmly in place and working as they wanted.
“First a quick exercise, now we have all the magical distractions away from us and in the castle” Filius began, handing her a small pebble. “Using your touch to focus on it, become familiar with it’s magic and the spell I’ve cast on it.”
Lea felt a small pulse on the stone, it had a small alarming charm on it to alert the castor when someone else picked it up. Deactivated off course for now.
She knew the game they would be playing and when she handed the pebble back she saw the mischievous smile on his lips.
“Now, close your eyes and no, peeking ” he told her and she closed her eyes only to feel a cloth wrap around her eyes to the back of her head with a small tug of a knot in place.
She heard no movement, so she could only assume he was covering up his movement and voice with some form of sound based spell.
“Now point out where it is!” he called out to her, his voice seemed off and echoed a bit to confuse her hearing where he was.
She took a deep breath and opened up her channels to start sensing the magical world around her.
Lea felt the magic pulsing from her, it was heavy, old and was a mixture between fiery and pure darkness. She had shivered at the sensation when she had first mediated with Severus on the grass outside the castle but she knew her roots.
Next she could feel Filius’s magic ahead of her a small distance away, it was very old, earthy yet bouncy. She took a mental note of that for later as she felt the castle pulsing behind her, it was a thick smog of magic of all varieties.
Then it hit her, as she felt the small pulse that seemed to jiggle like a bell right next her. She reached to the right of her and picked up the pebble.
She heard laughter. “I’ll be taking that and hiding it better this time,” Filius said, taking the small stone.
Taking a deep breath she tried to focus on Filius so she could monitor where he was taking the stone. She felt the magic from her behind become less distinct, like a blanket had been thrown over her ears muffling the sound.
This is when she noticed she couldn’t detect the stone on him or even near him as he called out to her again.
He had thrown it somewhere ... he knew what she had been planning all along.
She focused again and then immediately pointed to the left of him. There was a small laugh as she tried to keep focus on it this time as he moved it for a third time.
He placed it behind her and called to her. “Behind me.”
“Excellent!” he exclaimed happily, picking up the stone again. “Now for something more difficult, I’m going to hide it somewhere more noisy and let you know when to find it.”
A few minutes later and he called out to her to remove her blindfold.
“It’s not in the castle and it’s not too far away. Go find it” he told her cheerfully and she nodded, knowing what direction the stone had been taken.
She walked towards the new greenhouses to where Filius had gone out of range of her abilities but it only took two steps forward when she felt a pulse of something familiar.
She walked round the corner and stopped, bent down and felt the grass near the greenhouse one. She muttered a small incantation to remove the glamour on the stone before picking it up.
“Now, that’s cool” a boy called out behind her and her blue eyes met with Felix’s brown eyes as he bit into a red delicious apple. “Is uncle playing the come find it game again?”
“Yes, we are. Speaking of which, do you want to tell her or should I?” Filius said from behind them and Felix’s eyes lit up as he nodded eagerly.
“I’m magically aware too” he told her with a smile and Lea returned a smile back. “Though we have played the come find it game a few times, I can never find the stone when uncle hides it near noisy places like here.”
“Quick question, how were you taught to block and focus? I’ve read books and we managed to get the basics but I’m unsure how to proceed further with Felix’s training” Filius asked and Lea thought for a moment.
“I had occlumency training with my mother and learned the basics of blocking, channeling and focusing by touch from Mia from Ilvermorny. I have also received some books from Wolfe and Ollivander, so I’ll see what notes I get you from those” Lea answered and Filus took out some parchment from his robes to start writing.
She turned to Felix to ask “I’m assuming this is why you get extra jumpy in potions class?”
“Yes, the explosions are worse” Felix said, looking down at his feet as his cheeks reddened.
“I guess we can try something right now, if you like?” Lea suggested and his head shot up in surprise. “We’ll need to go back out to grass and I will have draw out a circle to sit in to insolate you from the magical noise your receiving.”
“You can do that?!” Filius exclaimed in shock, almost dropping his paper and quill.
Lea nodded. “We’ve modified it for Silas, just in case he shows signs and I’ve been reaching and withdrawing from him magically to slowly see if he starts focusing on me on Wolfe’s advice”
“Then I guess we’ll need to go from the top and then see what we’re missing from there,” Filius said, recomposing himself.
“Gladly,” Lea answered.
“What are you doing?” Felix asked, seeing Lea sitting with a filled flower pot in the soon to be fruit orchard.
It had been a few days and they had begun filling up the new buildings with new equipment and plants. The orchard was last on their list to fill, with enchantments surrounding the area so they could grow fruit no matter the season and fruit that could not be grown in Scotland normally without magic.
“Seeing if I can channel magic without direct contact, complex hand movements or a wand to grow an apple sapling” Lea answered as she saw Filius appear behind the boy and made sure he didn’t get too close when she was trying out something fairly new.
She had been playing the game with Felix in the castle now, she was surprisingly good at it but she wished she had known earlier in order to have caught on that her grandfather was in the castle a lot earlier.
Nothing could change it now and all she could do at the moment was make sure she wouldn’t have that issue later.
“Can you do it, grow an apple tree?” Felix asked, looking at her eagerly.
It would be more efficient to create more by grafting because growing an apple tree from a seed was playing the food lottery with flavour but it was a good exercise to try.
“Well, Pomona isn’t pleased that I broke some of her pots by using too much magic on trying to grow nettles but yes I can” Lea answered and his eyes lit up in excitement.
“You broke some pots?” Filius questioned her, arching a brow at her.
“Five. The plants outgrew them” Lea said, her cheeks becoming flushed as she remembered Pomona and her having to remove the huge patches of nettles from the field outside the castle. “Her words were if you're going to break this one, at least have the tree growing where it should be.”
“So you thought that because apple seeds need to be wet and cold to germinate, that it would be safer to try them out next?” Filius asked and Lea gave a weak nod.
“I find it’s hard to channel magic into objects without touching them because some of the energy is lost along the way and it takes a lot more control than most spells I know” Lea said and he brought his right hand to the bridge of his nose.
“Just try and remember whatever happens it’s yours to clean up” Filius said, his tone strained as he took a deep breath due to knowing that experiments like this tended to have varying results.
She nodded before taking a deep breath and focused on simply conjuring water into the pot only for the water to fill to the top and spill onto the ground.
Lea grimaced at the result and she got a scolding look from Filius. “You might as well finish now” he said.
She took her time this time and slowly focused on the pot, the air became colder but the water did not freeze. Lea hovered her hand over the pot and decided even the air around the pot was too cold for her liking.
She sighed and went even slower this time, leaking out her magic at a slow pace. Keeping an eye on the pot as she did so but after five minutes it was clear nothing was happening.
“I think I killed the seed…” Lea grumbled, getting up but Filius walked over and knelt down to the pot.
He dug his hand down into the wet soil and water to remove the seed to show her that it had spilt. A green shot poking out of the opening.
“It was a good attempt and from the looks of things you didn’t just sap it with a lot of magic to force it to happen either” he said with a small smile, then looked at the mess around the pot.
“I see you’re experimenting again , Lea” a silky voice said from behind them and they turned to see Severus with Silas in the baby carrier, sleeping.
Lea waved her hand to clean up the water and dirt from the ground in front of her. She accepted the seed from Filius and went to take the pot only to see it was already gone.
She looked up to see Severus’s wand. “Pomona will be wanting that back. Now, Lea. Are you done for today?”
Lea thanked Filius and said her goodbyes as both men shared a polite nod before Severus took her back to the castle.
As soon as they reached the castle doors, he plucked the seed from her hands and summoned a jar from thin air to place it in.
“I have an experiment to run on this one, if you don’t mind?” he asked, arching a brow at her expectantly.
“Go ahead. How's our little kit been doing?” Lea asked and his lips twitched.
“Enjoying his time with his father. Not that he'll get much of it when the school year starts” Severus answered before a scowl spread across his face at the thought of returning to work. “I hope this plan works because I’m losing my patience with the amount of nonsense we’ve been dealing with.”
“Me too, Sev”