Eileen squinted out at her backyard as she wrung out the grey, frayed dishcloth. Rain again for the third day in a row. It had soaked her herb garden and formed a huge, rusty pool around the tools which were leaning against the privy wall. Eileen frowned. She had asked Tobias several times to repair the broken gutter pipe. He had gotten so far as to bring the tools outside, then promptly deserted the project. For what? Some bottles of beer, a fight with the next door neighbor—it didn't really matter. The uncollected tools were now rusted and useless and the water from the broken gutter was soaking the privy roof and creating a muddy lake in what passed for a garden.
As a girl, Eileen had always welcomed rain. She liked the crystalline patterns that the drops would form on the window and would amuse herself tracing them with her finger, and as she grew older, directing them in new patterns and directions with her wand. She welcomed the fresh, clean smell of wet grass and cleansed air. The rain in Cokeworth was not like the rain she remembered in childhood. It was dark, gray and left filthy streaks on the windows.
It also made days spent with her son more difficult. Eileen turned and faced her five-year-old son, Severus, or "Sir Broods A Lot" as she referred to him on days like today. He sat at the kitchen table with his chin cupped in his hands sullenly staring at the teeming rain outside. Ordinary indoor activities bored him. As a toddler he had sat stone faced through the impromptu puppet shows that she half-heartedly put on using Tobias' old socks on her hands. He didn't like to draw or paint and found hide and seek boring, since he knew each and every hiding place in their small row house. He had already mastered the muggle games of checkers and snakes and ladders. Watching the telly was out of the question. Eileen considered it a stupid waste of time. Besides, the reception was poor and they only received one channel after Tobias had kicked it off its stand in a fit of temper. Something about losing money on a football game.
"He really does need playmates his own age," Eileen thought. Severus had no friends. It would be too easy to solely blame Tobias, who had made enemies with most of the families who lived on their street. No, she was partly to blame as well. She had invited some of the other women and their children over for tea, but these visits had never gone well. She had no interest in soap operas, muggle politics or the everyday grievances and interests that these women chatted about. She did not attend their church. Severus did not yet attend school. Conversation soon dried up and there would be an uncomfortable silence.
Severus fared no better with the local children. He did not approach them and would silently eye them when they approached him. He spoke little but was not shy about stating that he thought that their games/toys/rules were stupid. At this point the child's mother would suddenly remember an appointment that she had forgotten and would leave. The invitations to tea were never reciprocated. When she took Severus to the local playground on sunny days it soon cleared, leaving him full range of the rusted jungle gym and the creaky chain swings.
He was her son, and not just in looks. Along with her sallow, narrow features and lank black hair he had also inherited her prickly disposition and sour nature. Keeping him busy today would be a chore. Merlin's beard, she not only had the usual household chores, but her supply of practical potions was dangerously low. She brewed them quietly and secretly, when Tobias was at work. Her magical skills were the main source of their fiercest arguments. As a muggle, Tobias could not understand how one could transfigure a teapot into a cat, but could not turn stones into money. He found it useless that a wave of her wand could produce a stream of rainbow butterflies, but could not put food on the table. He was befuddled and enraged when she tried to explain to him that there was no potion in the world that could permanently make someone smarter, stronger or more successful. Lately their arguments had also been about Severus. He was an odd boy, Tobias complained, and it was all her fault.
"Well, Severus, how would you like to play with my gobstones set today?"
"No. You've already shown me all of the tricks. It's no fun to play with alone."
"You can look at the new books that I got out of the library."
"No, Mam. I already read them." Although Severus had not started school, he already knew how to read.
"Well, find something to do. I have work here and I do not need you in my way." Eileen reached for the copper cauldron which she kept hidden behind the cooking pots. She pulled out the potions book which was discreetly wedged between the cookbooks above the stove. She found the potion that she was looking for and began to assemble the ingredients. Some were harmless household and garden variety objects, such as dried lavender and iodine. The more unusual ingredients which she bought at a nearby apothecary she kept hidden in a box under a loose kitchen floorboard. She crouched down and began prying it up.
"What do you have there, Mam? Buried treasure?" Severus was suddenly crouching next to her, his dark eyes wide with interest.
"You could say that. These are ingredients that I need to make something special for us."
"What? Soup? Stew?"
"No, Severus. You know that special vitamin tonic that I give you to keep you healthy? That bruises paste that makes your cuts heal quickly? Those purple drops that help put daddy to sleep? I make all of them."
"Really? You can make potions like Merlin the magician?" She had read her collection of Merlin tales to him. They were his favorites.
"Yes, darling. Like Merlin." Her eyes met his.
"You are magic like Merlin." His eyes shone and he was smiling. "You can do wonderful things. Oh please, Mam, can you show me?"
Eileen hesitated. He was very young, but quite advanced for his years. He was a wizard, no doubt about that, although she had not yet told him for fear of Tobias' wrath. The boy probably knew already. Dead leaves would turn green in his hands. The other day an old twig that he held had momentarily transformed into a pinwheel.
"I will show you, Severus if you promised to keep this our secret. No one can know. Not the neighbors. Not even your father."
Severus nodded. "Daddy isn't special like us. He doesn't like magic."
"No, love, he doesn't. We don't want to get him angry about it, do we?"
"No."
"Good. Bring that stool over to the table and you can help me."
"Not yet, Mam! I need a hat and cape like Merlin. I need to look magical!"
Eileen smiled. "Go get your blanket. Bring me the scissors and the paper that we used to make Christmas cards." Severus was soon sporting a tall green conical hat with silver stars. Eileen draped the blanket over his shoulders and pinned it to his shirt.
"How do I look?"
"Like a wizard. Like Merlin." They both beamed at each other.
"What do we do first, Mam?" Severus inquired as he stared at the unusual assortment of objects on the table.
"The first thing that you should always do, whether you are a wizard preparing a potion or a non-magical muggle preparing a recipe is to read the list of ingredients and all of the steps in the instructions. Read them more than once. That will prevent mistakes. It is very important when preparing potions that all of the steps be followed exactly. "
"What happens if you make a mistake?" Severus asked. "Would it explode? Could you die?"
"Yes and yes. However, the potions that we are making today are not dangerous. The worst that could happen is that we would have wasted ingredients if we made a mistake. Let's start by making a health potion. Why don't you read the list of ingredients to me?"
"You wrote on this book, Mam!" Severus pointed to the notes that she had scribbled in the margins. "You're not supposed to write in books! Daddy whipped me when I scribbled in his book!"
"You are not supposed to write in ordinary books, Severus." Eileen frowned and pressed her thin lips together. "This book is different. When I was learning potions in school I would make notes in the margins. Different ways that I could make the potions more effective. Little short-cuts for some of the steps that made the process easier."
"Did you learn that from the teacher?"
"A lot of it I learned by myself. Practice and experience are the best teachers."
Severus pointed to the list of ingredients and began to read aloud: "Five sprigs of fresh parsley, four leeks, three pinches of standard ingredient—what's that? One gallon of water, a carcass of a blackbird—eeewwww! Three drops of flobberworm mucous. Eeeww—are those bogies?"
Eileen laughed. "Close, but not exactly. Certainly not like the bogies that come out of your nose!" Severus let out a squeal of laughter.
"Read the steps, Mam!"
"Finely chop the parsley and add to a mortar. Add three pinches of standard ingredient to the mortar and grind to a find paste. Add to the cauldron along with the water. Brew on medium flame for ten minutes. Slice the leeks and add to the cauldron with the blackbird carcass. Brew on low flame for 45 minutes. Add the three drops of flobberworm mucous and stir the potion three times clockwise. Wave wand twice over the cauldron in a clockwise direction to complete."
"You can start slicing the leeks, Severus. Not too thick and not too thin. I'll grind the herbs."
She let him add the ingredients to the cauldron (he would not touch the dead bird). She showed him how to adjust the flame and instructed him to watch it closely. If the flame went too high, the cauldron could melt. If it became too low, the potion would be ruined. She also instructed him to beware of the time.
"That is where a muggle kitchen timer comes in handy."
While the potion brewed, Eileen told Severus about Hogwarts, the magical school that she had attended. She told him about her friends and instructors. She told him the story of the four founders and the Houses which bore their names. She told him about the Sorting Hat which decided where the first year students would be placed.
"I was sorted into Slytherin, just like my father, mother and older brother. It is the best house. It is the house of Merlin, who was the greatest wizard!" Eileen said with pride. Severus' eyes grew wide and his small mouth opened in awe.
"You were in Merlin's house, Mam! You are special!" He wrapped his arms around her waist and hugged her tightly. She kissed the top of his head. The ringing of the kitchen timer shrilled in her ear.
"Time to check our potion, Severus!" She dipped a ladle into the cauldron and carefully poured it into glass vials labeled "Health Potion." She spooned the remainder into a small bowl and presented it to Severus.
"Your first potion, darling! It is perfect! Care to taste it?"
Severus looked hesitant. "It has weird stuff in it."
"Well, you've tasted the same potion countless times before you knew about the weird stuff! Come, Severus, it is the same health tonic that you like!"
Severus leaned forward with his hands on the table and slowly opened his mouth. Eileen smiled and blew gently on the spoon to cool the potion. She gently started to spoon the brew into his mouth, just as she had fed him when he was a baby.
The slamming of the kitchen door startled her into dropping the spoon with a loud clatter. Severus yelped and fell backwards off of the stool.
"Eileen, I forgot…" Whatever it was that Tobias had forgotten, he never finished his sentence. He stared at his wife and son, the scattered potions ingredients, the cauldron and the wand that Eileen had laid on the table. His expression of annoyance darkened into rage.
Eileen stepped between her husband and her child and closed her eyes for a moment. Just one brief moment to preserve the memory of the time spent with her son that morning. Just one small treasured memory to give her the strength to face the dreadful onslaught.