Disclaimer: This story contains elements from the Harry Potter series, by JK Rowling. I’m not making any money of it; I’m just borrowing a few characters from her.

Author’s Notes: This is the sequel to Artists and Scientists. I recommend you read that story first. And the most important note: many thanks to Arianrhod for her invaluable help with this story!

A New Home

Chapter One – A Familiar Name

Albus Dumbledore was sunbathing. It was a sunny day in July and he had opened a window and adjusted his chair so he was sitting right in the sun that shone through the open window. He was enjoying himself. Not only because of the sun, but also because of what he was doing. This was a part of his work he always looked forward to: looking over the names of the new students.

There were common names and uncommon names, familiar names and unfamiliar names. He always amused himself with figuring out which students were Muggleborn, which weren’t, and how the latter students were related to older students or ex-students. Even more pleasure he derived from imagining the characters and appearances of new students only to find he had been horribly wrong during the Sorting Ceremony.

This year, a new pair of twins would be entering Hogwarts: Ellie and Katie Snow. Albus stroked his beard while he wondered if they would be more like the Weasley twins or the Patil twins. It would be entertaining to have another pair of troublemakers, now Fred and George had left school. Although Professor McGonagall certainly wouldn’t approve of that ...

Albus’ gaze travelled from the sisters Snow up to Timothy Nott, Theodore’s little brother, past Claire Larbalestier, whose parents had attended Beauxbatons, and finally fell on a familiar name in the top half of the list. Evans. Mark Evans.

Albus stared at the name, feeling distinctly uncomfortable. His instincts told him quite clearly that there was something important about this name, something he should remember and that called for swift action. Albus tried to tell his mind that Evans was simply a very common Muggle name, but he failed miserably. His instincts were not to be fooled. This was an important matter, and there was no way to avoid it. He should have been in motion already, instead of sitting in the sun.

Albus shook his head to clear it. It didn’t happen very often, but this time he could make neither head nor tail of his own thoughts. He briefly considered using his Pensieve to figure out what he should remember about the name Evans, but he thought better of it. There was no point to it. He remembered very clearly every Evans that had attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry since he had become a teacher at the school. Most of them had been Muggleborn. The Evanses, like so many other Muggle families, had never managed to make their name become a well-known wizarding name, due to the murders by first Grindelwald and then Voldemort.

In fact, there was only one wizard with Evans blood at Hogwarts right now, and he didn’t even carry the name. Harry Potter, son of Lily Evans.

Albus shook his head once again to clear it, this time from the memories of Lily Evans, one of the most brilliant witches he had ever met, and who had died much too early. Mark Evans couldn’t have any connection with Lily Evans, and Albus could only hope young Mark would be an honour to his name. He continued reading the list of names.

A few minutes later, Albus was just trying to decide whether it would be more likely that Ted Bell was Katie’s brother or cousin when the door of his office opened to reveal the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts, Minerva McGonagall. She looked shaken.

“Albus,” she said, while she hurried forward. “I was preparing to send the Hogwarts letters to the new students when I noticed where this one,” she brandished an envelope, “was addressed to.”

Feeling mildly curious about what had upset Minerva, Albus accepted the letter and looked at the address. It was somewhere in Little Whinging. That was certainly an interesting coincidence. He moved his fingers to reveal the name. Mark Evans.

“An Evans in Little Whinging, Albus,” Minerva continued. “I immediately remembered that other letter to an Evans in Little Whinging.” She paused, but when Albus didn’t react, she said, “Lily Evans. This can’t be a coincidence, Albus.”

Albus had just been thinking exactly the same thing, but about another concurrence. Was it coincidence that he and Minerva had been reminded of Lily Evans at the same time? Had his instincts been right after all? Was there something important about the name Mark Evans?

Not being able to sort out the thoughts whirling through his head, he raised his eyes at his distressed Deputy and asked slowly, “Do you believe that Mark Evans and Lily Evans are related?”

“Yes, I do.”

Minerva’s quick and brisk reply seemed to straighten something in Albus’ head.

“Lily didn’t have any relatives except her sister,” he said.

“Are you certain of that?” Minerva asked.

“To a certain degree, yes,” Albus answered, stroking his beard. “Lily left me a list of her Muggle relatives and friends before she died. Her sister was the only family she mentioned. Her parents and grandparents were dead. If she had any other relatives, she wasn’t aware of them. Mark might be a distant relative, but you might as well call that a coincidence.”

Minerva seemed to mull that over for a while. Albus bent over his name list once again. He had successfully subdued his flaring instincts with his own reasoning, and the only thing left that could bother him now was the fact that Minerva was standing in front of his window and thus blocking the sunlight.

“Albus,” Minerva said after a few minutes. Her eyes glittered; she seemed to have come to a decision. “Do you give me permission to do some research about this Mark Evans? I’m just wondering how he happens to live in Little Whinging.”

“Certainly,” Albus said, smiling. Minerva McGonagall made a wonderful Headmistress, especially because of things like this. She would never give up, and investigate every possibility imaginable. Most likely, she would return in a few days, laughing and telling him that Mark and Lily weren’t related after all, but that she had nonetheless found some other interesting fact that she wanted to share.

To Be Continued...