At noon, a housewife was preparing lunch for her family.
Because of the heat, cooking near the fire was even more unbearable. More trying still were the children crying and fussing, while the two older ones chased each other around and roughhoused in the already cramped house.
The scene could hardly be associated with "happiness," yet it might have been what Ginny Weasley had to face when she was born. Bill was eleven that year and could "finally" leave home for boarding school at Hogwarts.
"Quiet!" the housewife in the story shouted at the children. "If you don't behave, the Noon Wizard will come and take you away."
If it had been Molly, she would have threatened to send the children to Aunt Muriel's house. But such threats were useless. The children still did as they pleased; those who cried kept crying, and those who made a fuss kept making one.
"What is a Noon Wizard?"
Severus asked as he dried his hands, looking at the fairy-tale book in her hands.
"A wizard who appears at noon," Pomona answered. "Muggles seem to think wizards only appear at midnight."
"What does he do?" Severus asked.
"Muggles believe they take children away," Pomona said. "But that was before magical schools were founded. Wizards from Eastern Europe would travel around, looking for children with magical talent to take on as apprentices."
"Good luck to them," Severus said. After drying his hands, he took a bottle of soda from the "refrigerator" and drank it.
Pomona could not forget the cola at Lily's house, and Severus could not forget the soda at Spinner's End. Childhood memories remained with a person for a long time, whether pleasant or unpleasant.
Tobias and Eileen often argued because the household appliances had broken down, regardless of whether Eileen was