Capítulo 128: An Evening With The Potter Family
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The sound of a calming chime reverberated inside the Potter cottage, filling the home of the Potter family with a familiar sound.
Lily Potter, the Lady of the house, Professor of muggle studies at Hogwarts, was setting up the table for dinner with the special cutlery that only came out when special guests were coming to their home. When she heard the chime, which only rang when the knocker at the main door was used.
"Someone open the door!" shouted Lily across the house to her family.
"I will do it!" A voice came in reply to Lily's instructions, and footsteps moved towards the main door.
Lily stepped back from the table and gazed at it to see if she missed something, but the table setting for five people was set up perfectly. She moved her eyes to the kitchen, where food was currently being prepared by utensils autonomously with magic. She observed that the food was close to being done cooking.
It was then when Harry came walking into the dining area to get a glass of water for himself.
Lily looked at her son and immediately questioned him. "Did you clean your room?"
Harry was about to pour himself a glass of water but stopped when he heard her mother's question. "Mum, he isn't going to come up to my room to see if I have cleaned it or not. Why do I have to clean it?" sighed Harry and went back to pouring himself a glass of water.
"Don't give me that and go clean your room," ordered Lily, her eyes narrowing threateningly. "Quinn is already here... go comb your hair a little. It's like there is a bird's nest on your head."
Harry ignored his mother and silently walked out of the room with the glass of water. He wasn't going to clean his room; he, for his life, couldn't comprehend why did he have to clean up his room every time someone visited.
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"Someone open the door!"
Ivy Potter sitting in the living room, reading Witch Weekly, a magazine targeted towards women in the Britain magical community, looked up from her magazine.
"I will do it!" replied Ivy to her mother's call and got up from the sofa and walked through her house towards the main door.
She opened the door, and there stood the person supposed to visit her home for a thank-you dinner for saving her brother from a bunch of abductors. Her deep-green eyes met the stone-grey and saw the smile bloom on his face as he spoke up.
"Good evening."
Ivy Potter had Quinn West a lot while they were in Hogwarts. Even if she only talked to him a little while in a year, all students gathered in the Great hall three times a day for meals. Everyone got to see everyone if they caught the eye, and Quinn was somewhat of an eye-catching figure.
He was popular in the school for running A.I.D and generally famous for helping everyone out. So if any glanced at the Ravenclaw long table, their eyes would briefly stop at Quinn before moving on. And Ivy was no different; she, too, would sometimes have her attention caught by Quinn because of their shared history.
In the near three years she had known about the person named Quinn West. Ivy could recall seeing him in Hogwarts school uniform. The uniform was the same for everyone except the house color, and thus, the school uniform wasn't exciting to look at when every student you knew wore the same thing every day. And Quinn was among the students who would wear the uniform to the T with the robes and all. The only variation she had seen was when Quinn would remove the outer robes inside the A.I.D office.
But now, here he stood, in front of her, in casual clothes. She looked down to see the white shirt, black pants, and green jacket all coming together. Ivy Potter had many thoughts regarding Quinn West. But before today, thoughts like good-looking, handsome, and attractive weren't among them.
Suddenly, she could notice all the things she had seemingly missed. Quinn was tall, not as tall as her friend Ron Weasley, but quite tall. Unlike Ron, Quinn wasn't lanky: he was quite fit under those clothes, something the school uniform robes had hidden. With her mind not filled with thoughts about if Quinn was planning something could finally notice that Quinn was remarkably handsome, particularly with that smile on his face.
"Ms. Potter?" Quinn called to Ivy. Wondering why she was staring at his face without speaking anything.
"... Ivy," muttered the girl with rich red hair and vivid green eyes.
"Pardon?" spoke Quinn, confused.
Ivy matched eyes with Quinn and spoke. "You should call me Ivy. Or are you going to address me as Ms. Potter, Harry as Mr. Potter, mum as Professor Potter, and dad as Auror Potter? Surely not, right?"
"... Now that you mention it. That's a mouthful of Potter," nodded Quinn seeing the Potter-point. He looked at Ivy and smiled. "Alright... Ivy, let's start again... Good evening. I'm here for dinner."
Ivy nodded and stepped back to clear the way for Quinn to enter her house. "Please enter."
Quinn nodded, stepped beyond the threshold of the Potter cottage, and entered the Potter home. He looked around and saw an interior much different from his own home.
The West manor was ornate, and Ms. Rosey, who was in charge, placed everything to form a clear structure and design that screamed a dignified beauty. The only parts of the West mansion under others' control were their own rooms and offices. Quinn himself had only control over his own room, the practice hall, and the piano room. Other than that, Ms. Rosey decided the place of everything.
While the Potter cottage, from one look, was much more personalized to the residents and very homely and homey. Right by the door were photos of family and friends along the walls. A shoe rack by the side, coat hangers on the other side. They painted green and white wallpapers along the walls while the ceiling was white.
Ivy watched as Quinn watched her home and recalled that Quinn's family was exceedingly prosperous. Her father had told her that the West family lived in an enormous mansion in the distant countryside and owned vast land in that area.
'He must think that the house is too small,' thought Ivy, but Quinn had other plans.
"This is a nice home," complimented Quinn. "When I grow up, I'm going to get something like this for my own. Something personal and cozy. I like my home, but there is just so much walking! I spend a lot of time walking, you know. Not as much as Hogwarts, though: that place is crazy. And think about the cleaning that's needed. Thank Morgana, we have Polly, or we would be so screwed."
He turned to Ivy and asked, "Shall we move in?"
Ivy snapped out of her thoughts and gestured, "Yes, mum is looking forward to seeing you. She hasn't stopped talking about you ever since you sent the reply."
"Not surprising," grinned Quinn. "I'm most teacher's favorite student. They can't love me enough. All of them want some Quinn. Let's go and meet Professor." He winked with a cheesy grin, making Ivy roll her eyes.
The pair went inside the home with Ivy in the lead as Quinn continued to examine and observe the house. The chance to be inside Potter cottage was a rare opportunity, so Quinn was taking in everything he could see with his eyes. The two entered the living room where Harry Potter was sitting with a Quidditch magazine in his hand.
"Mum, Quinn is here," called out Ivy to inside the and turned to Quinn. "Please sit down and make yourself comfortable."
Harry stood up from the sofa and stepped towards Quinn to shake hands with him and greeted, "Good to have you here, mate. Also, I didn't get the chance to say this, but thanks for saving me. Seriously, I don't know what happened, but from what I heard, it could've been gone very wrong."
Quinn shook the Boy-Who-Lived's hand and shook his head, "Don't mention it. It was just luck that I happen to be here. Also, the situation was set up for me to have an advantage."
Being humble and courteous was much better than being cocky and overwhelming when creating an impression. Quinn was definitely going to exploit the fact that he saved Harry in the future, but until then, he would rather be a friendly acquaintance so that when the time came, he could exploit this connection.
Lily Potter finally entered the living room with a smile on her face and greeted Quinn. "Welcome, Quinn. Were you able to find the house easily?"
"Yes, it wasn't a problem. The repellant wards made it easier for me to narrow the houses down," answered Quinn. "And we live in the same Knight Bus area, so it was just a bus ride away."
"That's good to hear," nodded Lily and then gestured around the house to ask. "How did you find our house?"
Quinn looked around as he answered, "It's a lovely home, Professor. I can feel the time and effort you put in to turn a house into a home. But I do have to see one more thing before I can give my final remark."
"What is it?"
Quinn turned to Harry and asked with perfect seriousness, "I want to see your room. You did clean it, right? Let's go see it right now."
Harry's jaw dropped when he heard Quinn, and he started to feel flustered. He glanced to his side towards Lily and saw her mum staring at him like she expected him to show Quinn his room.
"... Okay, let's go see my... room," said Harry, sounding shy with a low voice. In his mind, he was planning on how to convince Quinn to keep quiet about his messy room. 'I will even grovel to Eddie Carmichael if he keeps quiet.'
The other three exchanged looks as Harry turned to walk to his room and burst into laughter. Harry turned to face them and was surprised to see the three loudly laughing like they had heard the joke of the century.
"Harry, d-don't worry, he's joking," spoke Ivy between her laughs. "No one is going to see your room."
Harry turned towards Quinn, who was giving him a thumbs up. "You have a talent, mate. Don't let it go to waste."
Harry Potter, the young prankster, grown under the wing of Marauders, felt embarrassed about getting caught in a prank. He hadn't been caught in a prank since his first year when the Weasley twins launched a week of prankster hazing to show him that they were the prankster general.
"How did you know that mum asked me to clean my room."
"Every mum says that. I was sure that here was the same deal," grinned Quinn. "I know you are a prankster, so I wanted to see if I could pull one under from you."
Now that Quinn was here, he decided to showcase some of his charms and entertain his hosts: a good way to pass his time here.
"Before I forget. I brought you a gift for you," said Quinn as he put his hand down in one of the expandable pockets.
"You didn't have to bring us anything. We are the ones who invited you to thank you," spoke Lily and wanted to refuse, but Quinn had already taken her with surprise, and she was holding an envelope.
She opened up the envelope and took a dense golden straight pressed parchment out of it.
"What's this?" asked Lily and read the bold and sizeable words on the golden parchment. "MagiFax Q1?"
"Yes, Professor, do you know what a fax machine is?" asked Quinn to the first-generation witch. He wasn't sure if Lily knew about the fax machine because she had been in the magical community for so long, and the fax machine wasn't popular in her childhood.
But Lily Potter wasn't dubbed as the smartest witch of her age for no reason and the Professor of muggle studies of two years. "Yes, I know of the fax machine."
"Excellent, MagiFax is the same thing but made from magical technology. It performs the same function using none of the non-magical technology," answered Quinn and then point at the slip in Lily's hand. "MagiFax Q1 is for personal home use. It's compact and is optimized to work in homes instead of the office as our original line of products launched one and half years ago. I think Mr. Potter might know of it because the British ministry approved the use of MagiFax in communications recently."
"The slip in your hand is a discount coupon that will get you a fifty-percent discount in our store in Horizont Alley on MagiFax Q1. Take this to the store, and they will explain to you about our entire line of products."
"You replicated a muggle item, and it got ministry approved?" asked Lily, stunned about what she was hearing.
"It might function as the non-magical fax machine, but as I said, it's nothing like the non-magical fax machine. Unlike the Hogwarts Express and Knight Bus, our product isn't based on the fax machine, so there was no way they would flag it. There was some resistance because we released the first MagiFax nearly two years ago, and it took the ministry more than a year to decide to introduce this in their offices even though we launched it here first."
The British ministry was forced to integrate MagiFax into their offices because other ministries were finally getting used to their MagiFax system. And they would ask to be communicated via MagiFax because it was so much easier this way. But British ministry wasn't able to do so because they were showing resistance to the system.
"Where is Mr. Potter?" asked Quinn after everyone settled down in the living room.
"He was called to the office because of some important work," answered Ivy.
Quinn nodded, and inside his mind, connected it to one particular thing. 'It must be because of the Tri-wizard tournament.'
Quinn turned to the Potter twins and started to converse with them. "So, what have you two been doing? How is the break going?" asked Quinn.
The Potter twins exchanged glances because they felt a bit awkward. The boy in front of them wasn't their friend particularly, and both of them had their own relationship with Quinn. Before the abduction, Ivy never got along with Quinn, and it was touchy for her to talk to Quinn as those things never happened. Harry didn't have much of a relationship with Quinn except for the one time he went to get information. The fact Harry and Eddie hated each other with such passion made Harry never initiate a talk with Quinn because of his close friendship with Eddie.
And yet, he was here talking to them like it was nothing. So the two twins felt lost on how to talk to Quinn.
"I keep my business and personal life separated," spoke Quinn startling the twins. "You don't have to worry about your respective dealings with me because I won't bring them up. There is a time and place for everything, and right now isn't time to talk business. I came here because Professor Potter asked me to, so I will be the perfect guest and have a good time. I suggest that you do the same time and given this is your house, you should relax."
Quinn picked up the glass of mixed-fruit juice that Lily had offered him and observed the twins. He already peaked into their mind to see that Harry had spilled his side to Ivy, which he didn't mind. As long as Ivy kept her side a secret, Quinn didn't mind Harry sharing. If someone came to him, Quinn would deny everything they threw at him because that was the deal made with Harry.
"Dad has been busy, so we decided to stay in for this year," answered Ivy deciding to take Quinn's advice. If he was so relaxed in her home, why shouldn't she be? "What about you? What did you do?"
"I went to Denmark for a week, alone."
"Alone?" asked Ivy.
"Yes, it was my first solo trip... well, kind of. But yeah, you can say it was a solo trip. It was an excellent trip."
Quinn turned to Harry, saw him reading the quidditch magazine, and decided to rope him into a conversation.
"Are you excited about the world cup game?" asked Quinn, pointing to the magazine.
"Yeah, it will be a fun game," nodded Harry, and his eyes shined, thinking about the upcoming game.
"Who are you supporting?"
"Ireland, of course. They are the ones who be winning the game," declared Harry with utter confidence.
"Not Bulgaria with Viktor Krum. His season record has been way better than any of the active seekers," asked Quinn. He had little idea what was going in the quidditch world, but Quinn read enough of everything that he could hold a conversation if he wanted.
"... He isn't that good," humphed Harry, feeling competitive with a pro player while being a student-athlete.
"You like quidditch, any plans to go pro in the future," asked Quinn, genuinely curious what this version of Harry Potter wanted to be in the future.
"Hell yeah, I'm going to be a pro in the future," responded Harry as if there was no other thing he wanted to do. "I'm going to apply for the teams when I turn sixteen."
"Yeah, right," Ivy snorted and held back a laugh, but a lot of it escaped out.
"What?" questioned Harry, looking at his twin.
"Like mum is going to let you go professional before graduation. Dad might agree, but mum will close the door on that before you could even suggest it."
"You don't know that."
"I know it. You know it. And even he knows it," said Ivy to Harry and pointed at Quinn.
Quinn raised his hands to separate him from the conversation, even though he was the one who started.
The twins started to argue, and as they did, Quinn's mind wandered to the Tri-wizard tournament, but with the quidditch talk going on, his mind connected those two things.
"Oh, shit..."
Harry and Ivy looked at Quinn, who was suddenly holding his face in his hands.
"Aah, this isn't good. This isn't good at all. How didn't I connect those two?" groaned Quinn.
"What happened?" asked Ivy.
Quinn raised one hand and waved the question off while his other hand was still hiding his face.
'Eddie is going to kill me when he hears they will cancel quidditch this year,' thought Quinn. 'He is going to try to kill me.'
Quinn had run Eddie hard all year long in the preparation of the next year. But if Eddie hears that there won't be quidditch because of the Tri-wizard tournament, he would come after Quinn to release the frustration. Eddie could be exceedingly single-minded when he put his mind to it.
'I need to fix that somehow. I really need to fix that somehow,' thought Quinn before he looked at Harry, who was looking at with confusion. 'Alright, I would've to pull the biggest pitch of my life.'
Harry and Ivy seemed confused to see Quinn hide his face, groan, and then pat his thigh as if deciding something. They exchanged looks of confusion, wondering why Quinn was suddenly acting weird.
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"So Quinn," spoke James Potter, finally home from work after the sudden call to the office. "This year is going to be your O.W.L year, isn't it? Are you nervous about the end-of-year examinations?"
"Yes, it's my O.W.L year the coming year," answered Quinn as he sat down at the dinner table for dinner. "But no, I'm not worried. Exams are easy if you study regularly."
"As expected of a Ravenclaw," smiled James as he too sat down.
"Oh, no, no, no," chuckled Quinn, wagging his finger in refusal. "Ravenclaws aren't good at handling examinations. For Ravenclaw, the examination period is really stressful. Most of them turn into backward savaged when the time for exams come."
"... Backward savages?" All four Gryffindors: former and current, turned to Quinn for an answer.
Quinn laid a napkin down on his lap before he answered, "An average Ravenclaw wants nothing more than to score well on an exam and want to score more than anybody, and that includes other Ravenclaws. During exam times, it's every man for himself as the house unity is thrown into the trash. Then there are betrayals, backstabbings, fake notes, fake leaked papers, bogus potions, and herbs that are supposed to sharpen the mind, and so on..."
He looked up at everyone on the table and continued, "One thing that every Ravenclaw has in common is that they study regularly. Meaning that when exam times come, they are already on revisions. So to get that competitive edge, they try to mess up with their competition. Employ any means that would reduce even a single mark of others would mean that their rank would increase by some number."
"My notes eliminated the fake note problem because mine is the best, and no other notes are needed," spoke Quinn as if stating a fact. "But other than that, Ravenclaws are known used to employ laxatives to make each other miserable. When exam time comes, Ravenclaw gains the ambitiousness of a Slytherin, the courage of Gryffindor, and the hard work of Hufflepuff. Of course, every one of those traits is used in not-so-positive ways."
Quinn looked at the food in front of him as the four Gryffindors looked at him because he spoke of tales of betrayals, backstabbings, and sabotage as if he was already used to it.
"Do you also do it?" asked Harry.
"Hmm? Oh no, I don't do any of that. I don't need any of that. My grades are the result of simple and pure intellectual superiority," said Quinn before turning to Lily and complimented her. "Professor, all of this food looks absolutely appetizing and stunning. I can't wait to get started."
"Ah, please start," gestured Lily, and the meal started.
As everyone ate, Ivy continued the previous conversation. "Has anyone tried to sabotage you... during exams?"
"Plenty of times," answered Quinn between bites. "They have tried to give me foods laced with laxatives, vomit-inducers, bloating potions, and a lot more things that would cause trouble if it got out of Ravenclaw walls, so I'm not at liberty of disclosing any of that. Have to keep the darkness inside the walls."
"Did they succeed?"
"Not once. I know to check my food around that time." Then Quinn chuckled at a thought, "If we ever show all those sabotage potions to Professor Snape, he would be stunned to see the quality of potions that we Ravenclaw can produce when we are motivated. They are fantastic."
Quinn looked up at Lily and once again threw a compliment at her. "Professor, I didn't know you could cook this good. Have you ever thought of changing professions? If you have, please contact me so we can set something up because this... this will be an overnight success."
Lily brightly smiled and seemed happily embarrassed because of the repeated compliments. The twins looked at their food and then at Quinn's plate, wondering if he was eating something else because what they ate was the usual cooking of Lily, who was an average cook, and that was with magic.
James, though, understood what Quinn was doing. He could see the deliberate charm talk that Quinn was laying on. He had done this a lot back in the day when he was pursuing Lily.
"Lily flower, this is really good." James complimented his wife's cooking.
"Huh? thank you, dear," replied Lily shortly before turning back to their guest. "Quinn, would you like something else? You aren't eating enough." Lily was getting excited because Quinn's charm was working, and she reciprocated by being more friendly and hospitable.
"Yes, Professor. I would like some mashed peas. I never liked mashed peas, but these are delectable. I can't get enough."
Lily happily passed Quinn some mashed peas, and he ate them as if they were the most delicious thing he had ever eaten.
'Oh, come on, enough with that. Reel some of it in,' thought James as he couldn't believe how thick Quinn was laying it and how well it was working.
Then he saw Quinn look at him and winked before going to talk to Lily.
'This kid!' thought James, flabbergasted.
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After spending some time with the Potters after dinner, it was time for Quinn to leave.
"Thank you for the wonderful evening, Professor," smiled Quinn towards Lily and kissed the knuckles of her offered hand. "I had an excellent time in your company."
"Oh Quinn, stop it. You are embarrassing me," replied Lily. If before today she was the fan of Quinn West, the student, today Lily had become a fan of the person known as Quinn West.
James Potter rolled his eyes at that. Even Ivy had caught up with what Quinn was doing and sighed with an eye roll just like her father. Harry knew that something was off, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
"Harry, meet you at school," spoke Quinn to Harry. "Tell me about the world cup game. I won't be able to attend because of some previous commitment."
"Yeah, sure. Let's do that." Harry nodded and was okay with that, even looked forward to it. As long as it was quidditch, he could talk about it for days. Quinn had given him an impression that he liked quidditch, and it helped that Quinn commentated on most Hogwarts games.
Next in line was Ivy, who Quinn spoke to briefly. "Ivy, it's always fun talking to you. Let's talk some more when we meet again... and if you need any help, you know where to find me."
Ivy nodded but didn't reply in words. She had a fun evening with Quinn West, and that thought seemed unreal to her some time back. She never thought she could even speak to Quinn politely, forget about having fun.
"Mr. Potter, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to host me. I'm sure that the current time is hectic for you," spoke Quinn to James, who was the final member.
James gazed at Quinn and wondered if the West child knew about the reason behind his business. And after thinking about it, he concluded that Quinn knew about the upcoming Tri-wizard tournament.
"Are you excited about it?" asked James, making Harry and Ivy confused while Lily understood what her husband was talking about.
"Oh, yes. It will be mighty fun," nodded Quinn with a small grin.
After saying goodbyes, Quinn left. He exited the boundary of Godric's Hollow, and after looking around for a second, there was a pop, and Quinn disappeared.
Back at the Potter cottage, the Potter family entered their homes after seeing Quinn off.
"What were you two talking about?" asked Ivy about the small talk that her father had with Quinn.
"It's a surprise," grinned James but didn't reply.
Ivy didn't seem satisfied with the answer and tried to pester her father for an actual answer, but the Auror refused to answer.
The Tri-wizard tournament was on its way.
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Quinn West - MC - Perfect guest. His charms work well on older ladies.
Lily Potter - Lady of the house - Fan of Quinn. Thinks he is an excellent child.
Ivy Potter - Girl Twin - For the first time, she noticed Quinn and...
Harry Potter - Boy Twin - Wants to be a pro-quidditch player before Hogwarts ends.
James Potter - Auror - "Oh, come on. Now that's too much, right?! How is that working?!"
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