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Chapter 37: Sento Imperial Palace
To say a certain little Japanese matchmaker was doing a jig for joy was a bit of understatement. She was dancing round her house and was just about controlling the shouting from the rooftops feeling. Right, right! What to do now? A quick list was made and the lady concerned picked up her wand and her mobile phone as she had a large number of tasks to do this evening in the next hour, so that everything would be in place at by the 9pm meeting.
There was an apparation up to Ohara and Severus Snape found himself being bossed about by a Japanese witch who ordered him to smarten up and to be at the Imperial Palace Gardens by 9pm. After a quick look over his wardrobe Madam Sakura had pulled out a small box that she then enlarged. It turned out to be a traditional wooden travelling wardrobe. From this wardrobe, she quickly pulled a number of items together for him to wear in his proverbial black. To add salt into the wound, the matchmaker had spoken to the Ryokan owner Madam Mikako and now he had two women on his case about not being late for the Omiai.
Severus had attempted to get dressed on his own but found that between Madam Mikao and some of her senior housemaids; this just was not going to happen. He was going to be dressed by them. It was at this point that Severus put a frantic call to Hiroto to come and save him from a horde of bossy, little Japanese women as his best sarcastic professional stare had done nothing to stop their attack on his person.
Fortunately for Severus, Hiroto was amenable and when he arrived he managed to keep most of the biddies away from Severus. However, Severus had to endure being dragged out to the front lobby lounge and being put on display. He felt strange in the Hakama and kimono but he had to admit he liked the dark matte silk clothing. What had surprised Severus the most was when Madam Sakura had selected a nagajuban she had looked at the coloured ones before going "No, he needs black." This undershirt he had seen on others to be strikingly patterned or coloured yet the matchmaker had remembered his history as a spy and let him have a dark undershirt under his dark slate, almost smoke black kimono.
Hiroto did the obligatory photos for the family and then he gave Severus a firewhiskey and told him to sit. For Goodness' sake he felt like a little firstie on the first day of school.
oOoOo
Madam Sakura had been busy on the phone and suddenly at the Granger machiya there was knock at the front door. Hélène opened the door to find a delegation of Japanese ladies asking for Miss Hermione. Being the polite hostess, Madam Granger led them to the dining and lounge room while she did a mad dash round the merchant house to find Phillip and, more importantly, Hermione. One of the visitors had observed that Hélène had been preparing dinner and they went into action, saving the meal and organizing the necessary additions for extending it to cover the six visitors who had suddenly arrived.
By the time Hélène had found Hermione and led her downstairs, the pack of women had mobilised. Another knock on the door and Phillip was assisted by the cook lady to answer. It was a wizarding takeaway deliveryman. With some lightening fast Japanese and the exchange of Yen, Phillip found himself being used as a packhorse to bring in bento box after bento box of items into his kitchen.
"Miss Hermione, Madam Sakura sent us to help prepare you for your appointment tonight. I am Kameko and will be leading your dressing team tonight," advised the bossy cook one as Phillip had called her in his own mind.
Kameko then proceeded to introduce the rest of her team, while putting Phillip to work laying out the bento boxes as she served up Hélène's prepared dinner in another set of serving dishes. With a swish and a flick of her wand the dining table was enlarged so that all could sit comfortably. There was a nod to her second in command and Hélène and Phillip found that they were served Sake. "No Sake for Miss Hermione. You need a level head to make decisions," the young woman was advised when she was served apple juice.
There were questions about what was going on and Phillip just advised Hélène to go with the flow and he would explain later when he got an opportune moment.
The group had a strange but pleasant meal before Madam Kameko – or should that be Officer Kameko? – checked her mobile phone and then proceeded to order Miss Hermione to the bathroom so she could be bathed. The offsiders all swung into action and were busy rearranging the lounge dining area into their workspace with military precision.
One of the little ladies had peeled off from the dining area and was now apparently scrubbing Hermione's back a little too hard according to the verbal commentary floating down the corridor from the bathroom. The dinner dishes were magically handled and by the time Phillip had explained to Hélène what was going on, the chief protagonist of the whole situation had arrived at the house, in the shape of Madam Uchi Sakura.
To deal with the slightly confounded mother, Madam Sakura gave her the chore of getting a nice white fairly plain underwear set out for her daughter so it would not show too much through the clothing that they were going to dress her in.
Phillip chose that moment without either mother or daughter present to ask Uchi why she was going for the intrigue, as both parties of the meet up knew the other. It was then explained to the father of the potential bride in simple words that the couple needed to see each other in a different light. By not advising the who they were and going along to the meeting in traditional clothes would stop any unwanted preconceptions occurring. Oh, they would make assumptions but the assumptions would be wrong.
Hermione was directed in her underwear and robe to the dining and lounge room of the renovated machiya to find that the room had undergone a radical change while she had been bathing. Sitting on a chair, her freshly washed hair was attacked by two hairdressers. Fortunately for Hermione they were also witches so they could charm her hair rather than use the other methods to form a fairly traditional Japanese up do, the taka shimada, that would enable the addition of the kanzashi when she was fully dressed.
Hermione was bundled quickly into a very light almost spider silk thin white nagajuban. This undershirt was then covered by a white patterned silk kimono. It was then that Hélène was brought into a discussion over the outer kimono. It turned into a fairly heated discussion before they were done.
Using magic the war band had put a number of kimonos on formal stands for the decision making purpose. There was a pale mint green kimono with cherry blossoms on it that Hermione was quite drawn to while the other were a little more flashy and gaudy to Hermione's eye.
In the end it was Phillip who settled the discussion (a polite way of saying almost argument!) between mother and daughter with a comment that the green one was nice. Madam Sakura jumped at that and Hermione was placed into the outer kimono and then proceeded to be ordered to stand on a step while her Obi was tied onto her. "Magic makes these tasks so much easier," advised Kameko.
At 8:45pm Hermione had been primped and preened to an inch of her life. She felt that even Lavender and Parvarti could learn something from Madam Sakura's helpers. The matching Kazshen had been added to her hair, a suitable mini handbag found for a small purse and her mobile, her wand had been placed in her sleeve, light make up applied and a pair of light coloured slippers conjured for her feet. The obligatory photos were taken. Madam Sakura had been using her mobile phone frequently and it appeared that she was the stage manager for this event in more than one manner. In rapid Japanese she fired orders off over her phone before clicking and saying it would be a good time to go so Miss Hermione would not be late. With a final thank you to her dressers and well wishers, Hermione Granger squared her shoulders to embark on the next adventure.
"Now, Papa. We clean up and then we have a firewhiskey or two," advised Kameko.
When Madam Sakura and Hermione arrived at the Imperial Gardens the older woman reminded the younger witch to breathe and that the man she was meeting was shy but did speak English. There was a pleasant walk through the gardens to the predefined meeting point of a cherry blossom tree that shaded part of the South Pond of the Sento Imperial Palace grounds. There in the dark shadows of the tree off the main path round the pond was a tall dark haired man dressed in a kimono looking out across the pond. Looking from the rear it appeared that he was fit and very tall, thought Hermione.
Listening to the crunch of the stone path told Severus Snape that two women were there. Was it her? Apparently she spoke English. Why am I doing this to myself? thought the man. Duty? Honour? Family? Shit, I am just lonely.
"Konbanwa" called Madam Sakura.
oOoOo
Konbanwa = Good evening