Chapter 9: A treasure
After breakfast Severus, Lily and her mother went to the Snape house with an assortment of cleaning rags and detergents.
"I´ll do the kitchen, Lily the living room and you can take the sleeping rooms, dear." Mrs Evans directed. "That way Lily and I aren´t likely to intrude too much onto your private properties."
"Thank you, Mrs Evans. If you´re not sure about an item, please ask me or Lily. There might be some magical things lying about. And if you happen to find mom´s old broomstick, please, don´t use it for cleaning."
They started at once. From time to time Mrs Evans checked on the two children, but they were doing well. Lily dusted the book shelves in the living room, which contained only old battered muggle paperback books. Mrs Evans experienced a moment of shock when a nutcracker tried to bite her, but Severus – alarmed by her shriek – showed her how to handle the rebellious thing.
Lunch was taken in the living room. "Didn´t your mom read any magic books?" asked Lily and pointed at the now dust free shelves.
"I suppose she did, but she must have kept them somewhere else. Dad wouldn´t have tolerated magical stuff in his living room. She only had some magical kitchen items, because he never cared to come to the kitchen."
"There´s more?" Mrs Evans looked uncomfortable.
"At least a self-acting rolling-pin. I can finish the kitchen if you feel uncomfortable."
"No, dear, no need to. I´m warned now." Mrs Evans smiled feebly.
They met again in the living room four hours later. All three of them were exhausted. Mrs Evans wiped sweat from her forehead. "That was hard work. We could have used Petunia's help. I just hope she prepared supper," she sighed. "But the house can be used now. You come over for supper and then can return here for the night if you really want to do that."
Severus nodded. "I´ll do so, Mrs Evans. Thank you."
It turned out, that Petunia hadn´t cared about supper. Her mother was furious. She sent the girl upstairs without a meal and prepared some sandwiches for the rest of the family. After a quick bite Severus returned to his parents´ house.
-x-
When Lily came to the kitchen for breakfast the next morning, Severus was already there. He was just finishing his ham and eggs.
"Hi, sleepyhead," he said. "I was just talking to your mother about moving our potions lab to mom´s kitchen. I´m not using it to cook anyway and you´d get all the herbs out of your room."
"Heaven knows, I could do with some more space," yawned Lily. "Can I have peppers with my eggs, mum?"
Mrs Evans put a plate in front of her daughter. "Cocoa or tea?" she asked.
"Tea, please."
"It might not be a bad idea to move your potions workshop to the Snape house, dears. I know, your work is important for school, but sometimes the stench is really irritating." Mrs Evans poured a cup of tea for Lily.
"So then it´s settled. We can start moving our things when I finished breakfast." Lily took a forkful of egg.
"Hurry up then," the boy urged, "we got loads to do!"
"Severus Snape, you stop pushing me. We have all summer to do this. There´s no need for me to suffocate on my breakfast."
"Sorry, I just wish, you´d hurry up a bit."
"Nuisance!"
-x-
They started packing their herbs and mushroom concoctions after breakfast. It soon became clear, that they´d have to make the way to the Snape house several times. But as Lily had pointed out, they had all summer. When they left Lily´s room with a huge box of ingredients each, Petunia came out of her room.
"Are you moving out, finally?" she asked pertly.
Lily was angry. "No, we´re not. We just got ourselves a house as a playground for the day."
They carried their boxes over to Severus´s house. When they reached the entrance, the boy put his box down and rummaged in his pocket.
"Ah, here it is," he finally said pulling a pink ribbon out of his jeans.
"What´s that?" Lily asked.
The boy laughed. "Your key to your lab, stupid." And really, from the ribbon dangled a key.
"You´re giving me the key to your house?"
"Why not, it will be your lab as well as mine, it´s only just you have a key!"
"Thank you. I only wish, you wouldn´t have made the ribbon pink. I´m not eight years old, you know."
Severus grinned and produced another key on a pink ribbon from his pocket. "It was the only ribbon I found, and foreseeing you wouldn´t like the color, I thought, I might appease you by using the same thing for my key." He pointed at the door invitingly. "If you please..."
Lily unlocked the door and they took their boxes to the kitchen.
"I have to show you something." Severus grinned and pointed at a small door beside the refridgerator.
"You want to show me, where your mom kept her tins?"
"Oh, come on, I discovered it this morning. I woke early and thought I could make myself a cup of tea." Severus led the way to the door and opened it. "Tataaa! Mom´s stock of potion ingredients. And a box of books."
Lily entered the small storeroom. Only one shelf contained things like tins of beans, the others were full of bunches of herbs, small bottles, jars and vials. "Oh my god!" the girl exclaimed. "Do you have an idea what we can do with all this stuff?"
"Actually I have. A pity we still can´t use wands."
"What´s in the book box?"
"No idea, I wanted to wait for you to have a look with me."
-x-
The box was big and heavy. They dragged it to the kitchen with united forces. "Oh, I wish we were allowed to use wands," Lily groaned as she leaned against the box with all her might.
"This will do," suggested Severus. "It will be easier to move the kitchen table a bit." He bent down and took the first book out of the box. It was dusty. The boy tried to blow it clean in order to be able to read the title.
"Hey, use a rag! This kitchen was cleaned only yesterday. You´re going to ruin all our potions if you keep behaving like that!" Lily scolded.
"Sorry!" Severus apologized. He uttered a low whistle. "Moste potente potions. It´s in the restricted area at Hogwarts."
"Don´t you think, this is a bit too advanced for us?"
"Probably. And we won´t be able to get our hands on the ingredients needed for those anyway. But reading the recipes will be interesting nevertheless." He took the next book from the box. Lily offered him a rag to dust it.
"Healing draughts." He scanned through the book quickly. "Look, the cough syrup we started with." Lily smiled.
They unpacked no less than twenty potions books, among them Mrs Snape´s old school books.
"Ha!" cried Lily cheerfully, when she discovered a fourth year potions book. "This is more like it. We can work through these in advance." She put the fourth year book on a stack of fifth, sixth and seventh year books.
"Let´s take the books on the shelves in the living room. There´s no more reason to hide them." Severus suggested. "I wonder, where mom kept the rest of her school books."
"She may have sold them," Lily pointed out. "You said, your parents were short of money. She may have sold them to feed the family."
"No, dad lost his job after I was born. She knew I would need school books. They must be somewhere in the house."
"Let´s set up our potions lab and search for the books another day. Mum will be concerned, if we don´t come back soon."
"Right, it´s time for lunch anyway. I´m starving."
-x-
It took them nearly a week to move all their potion material to the Snape house, store things away, make an inventory of Mrs Snape´s stocks and start brewing. Seeing that some of Mrs Snape´s things were old and would lose their powers soon, they decided to experiment on how to elongate the durability of ingredients. Severus found some chapters about this topic in his mother´s old fifth year book.
As most preservation methods were time consuming, they developed a habit of taking sandwiches to the lab for lunch and only return home for supper. Lily´s parents approved of the arrangement as it granted them some rather peaceful hours concerning Petunia. The girl cared less and less to hide her refusal of her magical sister and foster-brother. Meals became more of a battlefield at the Evans´ house as Lily and Severus were not ready to stand Petunia´s behavior in silence.
"I really could do with some quiet days," sighed Mrs Evans at breakfast after a particularly nasty scene had occured the previous evening. "I know, it´s not your fault, it´s Petunia´s, but I´m at my wits´ end. I´ve been talking to that girl for hours and hours, but she´s mulish."
"May I make a suggestion, Mrs Evans?" Severus asked.
"Anything that helps is welcome."
"My mother used to take me on hiking tours in the surrounding moor land. She collected herbs there. If you gave permission to me and Lily for such a tour, we´d be out for some days and you could have a break from trouble."
"You want to go out to the moors alone? No, no, dear, that´s out of question, you´re only thirteen years old and Lily won´t even be that for some weeks. You can´t go hiking alone for some days."
"But we´d be safe. We can take our wands."
"No, young man, no. This is my last word."
Petunia chose exactly this moment to enter the kitchen. "Still here?" she hissed at her sister.
"Yes, I am. By the way, we were just talking about using our wands."
Petunia dropped the plate she had just taken from the dresser. "How dare you mention your abnormity in my presence," she shrieked. "This was a threat! Admit it! Mum, she´s threatening me!" She grabbed an apple and fled from the kitchen.
"Tell me more about that hiking trip." Mrs Evans sighed.
Severus and Lily smiled at each other.
-x-
Mr Evans insisted on showing Severus how to pitch a tent. Mrs Evans packed a rucksack with sandwiches, tins and lemonade bottles for three days. Lily added a stack of small plastic bags for the herbs they were going to collect. After checking the weatherforecast what must have been for the hundreth time, Mr Evans put the tent, two sleeping bags and the rucksack into his boot and drove them to the moors. Before leaving, he checked once more on a map, where the children were going. Severus had to give his word, that they would stick to the planned route.
"That was pretty sly of you, to tell them we were taking our wands," said Lily, as she was walking beside Severus.
"It was pretty sly of you to never tell them, we weren´t allowed to use them at home." Severus pointed out. "Doesn´t that look like arnica? Let´s put down our rucksacks and collect some."
They collected herbs the whole day. By nightfall they had more than they could put into Lily´s rucksack. "Eat this," Lily held out a bag of sandwiches. "It will give us room for the herb bags."
"I can´t eat all that now. I´d explode!"
"Well," Lily sighed, "in that case, I´ll have to carry it. Find a place to pitch up the tent, please. I´m tired."
Severus did as he was told. "Here," he cried and waved to Lily from a short distance. "Here is a good place!"
The girl stamped over to him and dropped her rucksack on the spot. "Oh my god, I never knew hiking was this exhausting!" She dropped herself beside the rucksack.
Severus smiled. "I´ll take care of the tent. If you´ve recovered when I´m finished, you could make supper."
"Why is cooking always women´s work?"
"Because I´m pitching the tent. But we can change, if you prefer."
"You know pretty well, that I don´t know how the tent thing works. Why did dad choose you to explain it to?"
"Because cooking is women´s work and he thought I should be doing something. Oooops!"
Lily was fuming.
"Look," Severus continued, "if you like, I can show you how to pitch the tent today and tomorrow we reverse roles."
"OK, that sounds fair." Lily was appeased. "I´ll show you how to open a tin later."
The boy stared at her in disbelief, but didn´t dare to say anything.
-x-
Severus had the tent up within ten minutes. It would have been five, hadn´t he explained every move to Lily.
"That was interesting," the girl stated. "Are you hungry now?"
"I´m starving."
Lily rummaged in her rucksack. "Beans or goulash?" She presented two tins.
"You choose."
"Lentil-soup then."
"I didn´t know, we had lentil-soup."
"Sorry, but I have only two hands. Is lentil-soup OK with you?"
"It is, I like lentil-soup. Mom used to take it with us when we were hiking. It´s bringing back good memories."
"I´m glad it does." Lily smiled. "So, now look..."
"Lily, I do know, how to open a tin."
"Of course you do. Sorry." The girl put on the camping cooker and started warming the soup. "You have to stir it."
"I know."
"Shut up and hand me a bowl."
They crawled into their sleeping bags soon after their meal and Lily fell asleep immediately.
-x-
The girl awoke, when the scent of fresh coffee filled the tent. She sat up, stretched and moaned.
"Are you awake?" Severus asked from outside the tent. "I have breakfast ready."
"Mmmh," Lily growled and left the tent on all four. The sun was shining brightly and judging by its position it was well past ten.
"Why didn´t you wake me, it´s late!" Lily asked and got up on her feet.
"I´m not suicidal. You´re quite insufferable when you´re tired."
"I´m sorry, I´ve been a pest." Lily groaned. "Can I have some coffee?"
Severus handed her a cup. "Are you feeling better?" He watched the girl with concern.
"Yes, much better, thank you." Lily took a sip of coffee.
"We´ll leave our things here today and come back here in the evening. Things will be easier, if you don´t have to carry your rucksack."
"Isn´t that risky? Somebody could steal our things."
"I´ve never met one soul while I was hiking here. Nothing will be stolen."
"OK."
After breakfast Severus emptied Lily´s rucksack except the plastic bags for the herbs. Lily protested, when it became clear, that he intended to carry it, but he wouldn´t indulge. They picked herbs the whole afternoon and came back to their tent with plenty of prey. Severus started making bundles and suspending them from a string, which was attached to the bushes behind the tent and held already the crop of the previous day.
"When did you do that?" Lily asked.
"This morning. I´m an early bird."
"I should have helped!"
"You were tired. You don´t expect me to wake you, when I know you´ll be in a bad mood the whole day. It was easy work anyway."
"What do you want for supper? Goulash?"
"If you like it."
Lily started preparing the meal. They ate with a good appetite. The evening was warm, the air was fresh and perfumed with the scents of the drying herbs. Soon the first stars could be seen. Severus produced a star chart and a torch from his rucksack. "I thought, we could work on astronomy a bit," he explained. "Observing the stars is easier out here. There are no disturbing lights." He lit the torch and looked at his map of the nocturnal sky. Then he lay back and gazed at the sky.
"What are you looking for?" asked Lily.
"The dolphin."
"Let me have a look."
Severus handed her the chart and the torch. Lily studied the chart and lay back, too. After some minutes she exclaimed "There!" and pointed at the sky.
"Well done! I see it, too."
"Ah, this is uncomfortable. I wish I had a pillow."
"You can use my shoulder, if you want."
"This would be very uncomfortable for you."
"I´d do anything to keep you from being a pest again."
"How dare you!" Lily was up in the fraction of a second and pointed the torch at her friend. "You are a pest yourself!" she said in a soft voice when she saw his broad grin. She lay back down and rested her head against his shoulder. "I hope, I´m heavy."
"Now that you mention it... you are." They giggled and went on searching the sky for constellations.
-x-
They used the last morning of their trip to collect some more herbs. Lily found a sloe bush, which had already berries and they picked two small plastic bags of them. After a quick lunch Severus took down the tent and Lily packed their crop of herbs into her rucksack. They hiked back to the meeting point they had fixed with Mr Evans, who turned up early and was quite relieved to see them.
"How was your trip?" he asked after packing their luggage into the car. He looked at the two hikers in the rear-view mirror.
"Wonderful, dad. How was your magic-free time?"
"Relaxing, though we missed the two of you." Mr Evans smiled. "Did you find herbs?"
"Plenty of them. Lily even found some sloe. It is used for healing draughts."
"I´m glad to hear your trip was a success. Your mother will be waiting with supper."
"Mr Evans, can you please discharge the herbs at my house?"
"Of course. Did things go well with the tent?"
"Yes, Sir. Your explanations prooved very useful."
Severus returned to his house after supper to unpack and store away the herbs.
-x-
The next weeks were filled with experimenting with preservation of ingredients and trips to the near forest. Severus developed a habit of noting things down directly in his mother´s old books, which annoyed Lily.
"Nobody can read that. Look at that tiny handwriting of yours. You have to be a seer to read that," she scolded.
"It´s easier that way," the boy replied. " We don´t have to search books and notebooks for information. Everything is in one place and the books even have an index. You just need some practice with my handwriting."
In the middle of August two book lists arrived at the Evans´ home and Mrs Evans decided to go to diagon alley the next day. This time Lily and Severus watched out for Black and his friends. They couldn´t avoid being seen together, but this year they wanted to make sure, they were not surprised by a confrontation back at school. They were lucky. As Mrs Evans had chosen to get their books early, only few students and their parents were in the shops. None of the Gryffindor four was among them.
