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Chapter Two – Of Leaky Cauldrons and the Persephone Canon
Sarah sighed as she left the place where she had been interviewed, grateful to have that over and done with. Some part of her hoped that they turned her application down, but she needed the money. And if being a waitress brought that in, then so be it.
It was a beautiful day, for once, and she loved the fact that the sky was clear, the temperature mild. Perfect weather, she thought, smiling to herself. It was a good thing she had decided to take a walk today.
The bookstore was nestled between a pub and an antique store. It was the pub that drew her eye first, though it had gone largely unnoticed by her the last time, as the strangest people were coming to and from it. Some looked normal enough, she supposed, except for the minute differences in their clothes. One wore . . .
Are those galoshes? she thought to herself, stifling a laugh. Another person had mismatched clothes, as if he didn't know how to wear them. Curious now, she approached the pub.
The sign read The Leaky Cauldron, as if its clientele weren't strange enough. Most people passed right on by the place, as if they didn't even see it. Their eyes went from the records store on one side, to the bookstore that had been her original destination. Not only that, but the place felt . . . magical, for lack of a better term. Or maybe it was the right word, she reflected as she stepped inside to take a quick look, something she had decided against the last time she passed through.
There was a long bar on one end of the room, and a door that led to a dining room. A set of stairs led to guest rooms above the pub, and various small tables littered the front room. A few people glanced at her as she entered, but otherwise ignored her as she came further in, though she could tell that some were keeping an eye on her.
The clothes of the guests here were strange, though she supposed hers might be odd to them. Most everyone wore robes, though some looked a bit like trench coats. A couple of the clientele held small sticks of wood, and if she didn't know better, she might have called them wands.
Motion on the wall caught her eye, and she turned to see a poster advertising a match of some sport called Quidditch, where . . . wizards . . . and witches . . . rode broomsticks . . .
As if that wasn't enough to throw her mind for a loop, the picture was moving, and stopped and replayed like a video set on a cycle. Broomstick riders swooped over the crowd and dove toward the pitch like birds playing some sort of tag. A ball was thrown through a set of rings on one end of the field, while it looked like two slightly smaller ones were being batted between four of the players.
Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore . . .
She left the place as quickly as she could without drawing too much attention, and leaned against the storefront to catch her breath. The sticks in the guests' hands were wands, and they did wear robes, and the place was magical. She, a non-magical Yankee, had just walked into a pub full of British witches and wizards!
She groaned, massaging her temples as she set herself straight again, walking into the bookstore next to the Leaky Cauldron. There was something she wanted to confirm . . .
"Hello, ma'am," she greeted the storekeeper as calmly as she could. "I'm sorry, but could you give me directions to the Leaky Cauldron? Someone I know said it serves good food, and since I was in town, I wanted to stop by."
"The Leaky Cauldron?" The storekeeper smiled at her. "Sorry, miss, but I haven't ever heard of it. Is there anything else I can help you with?"
So no one but witches and wizards – with exceptions, clearly – can see the place . . . Sarah dismissed the thought, leaving it for later to contemplate. "Actually, yes," she answered. "My brother, Tobias Williams, said you called him yesterday, saying a book he wanted was in."
"Ah, yes, that one . . ." The storekeeper bent down behind the counter, pulling out a nice-sized book on mythology. As she rang it up, the storekeeper gave it a glance. "Persephone and Hades . . . Ever hear that tale, Miss Williams?"
"No, ma'am."
"Ah, that's all right. I'll give you the gist of it right now, if you want."
"Please," Sarah urged. "I'd love to hear you tell it."
The old woman smiled, pleased. "Well, basically, it tells how Persephone, daughter of Zeus, was abducted by Hades and brought to the underworld, of which she became goddess. Life came to a standstill as Demeter, her mother and goddess of the Earth, searched everywhere for Persephone. Helios, the sun, saw everything, and told Demeter what had happened. Finally, Zeus forced Hades to return Persephone. Before he did, Hades tricked Persephone into eating pomegranate seeds, which forced her to return to the underworld for a season each year. Thus, the Greeks' origin story of the seasons, and the origin of what some call the Persephone Canon."
Sarah blinked as she absorbed that, the last term giving her pause. "The . . . Persephone Canon? What's that?"
"Basically, if a human were to eat fairy food, they would become a Changeling, some being allowed to return to their human families, and would belong to the fairy realm."
Sarah's blood ran cold.
The peach . . . And Toby was a fussy baby, he would have wanted to eat . . . Jareth must have fed him. Is this why Squint wanted Toby to read this? So he would know . . .? Sarah forced herself the remain calm, and smiled at the storekeeper. "Thank you, ma'am, for the book and the story. Farewell."
"Ah, goodbye, Miss Williams. Come again!"
She left, and ran home.
...
"Skeeter!" Sarah called, disturbed and distressed by her thoughts and this new information. The wizarding world was far from her mind as she considered her own destiny.
The goblin stuck his head out of the living room, and his grin disappeared at the ever-changing expression on Sarah's face. "Skeeter here," he reported, simultaneously concerned and nervous.
Sarah did her best to keep her cool, but it wasn't easy at the moment, with her mind in a jumble. "Is Bluey here?"
"Yep. Lady unwell?"
"I have no idea. Ask Bluey to come talk to me, please."
"'Kay. Bluey! Lady want to talk!"
The hunched-over mother of the troublemaking triplets soon came into the kitchen, where the exhausted woman had seated herself at the table. "Something distresses you?" Bluey asked, seeing Sarah's posture. Sarah looked up, and forced herself to think clearly. "Did your king feed Toby?"
Bluey stopped and stared at her for a moment. Finally, she nodded. "The Persephone Canon, is it? I see Squint did his job. Yes, Milady, our king fed young Tobias."
"Why? Surely he knew about the Persephone Canon. And – oooh! – he fed me, too!" She let her forehead fall to the table, the sharp pain breaking her out of her panic. Images of Jareth's pained expression as he let her go on two occasions while in the Underground filled her mind, and she realized exactly why he had fed them. "He never wanted to let us go."
"Milady is smart," Bluey observed, climbing into the chair across from hers. "But that's not entirely true."
"It isn't?"
"No. The king was planning all along to let young Tobias come back to the Aboveground, to live life as a mortal until he turned eighteen. He wanted you to stay, but he realized the truth . . . You were too young to keep yet, though he tried."
Sarah knew she resembled a fish, what with the way she was staring at Bluey, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to find words. "Because . . . I didn't understand. I knew nothing of love. I didn't know what he was saying, or why he was saying it."
Bluey positively beamed at her. "Milady is smart!" she repeated.
Sarah smiled, only a little surprised that she wasn't angry at Jareth for feeding them. It was as much her fault for eating the peach, though she didn't know about the Canon, and she didn't know it was drugged. No, she had long been over that. But there was something else . . .
"Bluey, why do all you goblins call Toby 'Master'? And why do you call me 'Lady,' or 'Milady'?"
Bluey coughed, suddenly looking everywhere but her. "Well . . ."
"Bluey."
At her warning tone, the goblin relented. "The king named young Tobias as his heir."
"He what?"
Author's Commentary #2
On the Leaky Cauldron . . . In my initial idea and brief plot outline of the beginning steps, Sarah's visit to the wizard pub was inexistent. As I was writing, though, I realized that in order for her to have some idea of this other world, she had to see something of it. At first it was going to be just a visit to a bookstore, and finding out about the so-called Persephone Canon, but it was mentioned somewhere in someone else's story that one of the stores next to the Leaky Cauldron was a bookstore. While I am not sure if this was in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, it is a useful enough detail, so I used it. As to why she can take this discovery so calmly, she did freak out briefly, but she is somewhat used to the idea of other worlds, as the Underground and its Labyrinth are a common element in her life.
