Disclaimer:

All characters in the story are the property of J. K. Rowling and Bloomsbury Books, with the exception of Eleanora Sterling and a few supporting characters, who are my own creations. This story is created purely for the entertainment of myself and other like-minded readers and no copyright infringement is intended.

By mentioning J.K. Rowling in this story I do not intend to present her as a fictional character or to imply that the Harry Potter books are not her own 100% original works.

This is probably the hardest thing I have ever undertaken with no hope of monetary gain... so please don't sue me!

********************************************************************************

Chapter 55: First Day Back


Once we had eaten I got dressed in some summer clothes I found in a drawer. (Sev had no choice but to wear he same shirt and trousers he had worn the day before) and set about making a list of all the things I needed to take care of today.

1. Clean cat box (Eew!!! I had made the horrible discovery this morning that the litter box in the downstairs powder room had not been emptied in weeks.)
2. Find Magenta
3. Call lawn service
4. Crank up the Volvo
5. Put £3000 in bank (officially - my "pay" from working in Britain)
6. Check to see if bills are paid (I had left Angie a pile of signed cheques to various utilities and services, which shows you how much I trust her)
7. Buy groceries
8. Buy clothes for S. (in case the luggage never arrived)
9. Buy HP books
10. Make dinner reservation?? (If we wanted to dine late there would be no need for this.)
11. Call Mother (Not looking forward to this one.)
12. Water garden

This looked like enough activities for one day. All had been accomplished by four o'clock (except the call to my mother) and our luggage had finally arrived, apparently untouched. At least Severus' money appeared to be undisturbed.

My old silver Volvo station wagon started up without complaint. The money I deposited in my bank account should do us for a while. (My real pay, incidentally, had been deposited in Gringotts for me, but I saw no reason to disturb it until such time as I needed to.)

And yes, we had purchased a boxed set of the Harry Potter books from my favourite bookstore downtown. Severus was now sitting out on the deck (wearing a brand new pair of navy shorts and a dark green golf shirt) poring through them with an expression alternating between revulsion and incredulity. After only two hours I think he was already on the second book. It was going to take me a lot longer than that to read them.

I had coaxed Magenta out of the hall closet. She had not been happy to see me at first, as is a cat's way when her owners leave for extended periods, but we made friends again fairly quickly, especially when I brought her food dish to the closet. I now sat on the deck with the sleepy old tabby in my lap.

"How was the first book?" I asked gently, prepared for an outburst.

"A bit on the fanciful side. I can't see anyone taking these seriously. I certainly wouldn't be bothered reading them in any other circumstances!"

"Are they fairly accurate, as far as you can tell?"

"The events seem to be more or less as they were in actuality. Some details about Hogwarts are fudged. They seem to go on a lot about ghosts, but I never saw any ghosts at Hogwarts. And there's some character called Filch who never existed; he's supposed to be the caretaker, and he seems even nastier than I!"

"Hmm. I suppose Ms. Rowlings added some details of her own to make things more interesting. So how do you come across?"

"Well, as this is obviously written from a child's point of view, I'm presented about as well as I would have expected -- I'm well aware of how 'popular' I am with my students. Actually, I'm not sure how Miss Weasley would have known about any of the events in Potter's first year; she wasn't even at Hogwarts then."

"Perhaps her brother Ron told her things and did she have other siblings at school?"

"There was Percy, of course... he was a senior then, and the twins Fred and George. God, what a pair of hellions they were! And I suppose Miss Granger would have filled her in on a few things, the two of them are friends I think, and possibly even Potter himself. Regardless of how he's presented in this book, I always considered him to be a bit of a publicity hound!"

He finally looked up from the book and noticed the cat. "Ah, who's this? Would this be the famous Miss Magenta?" To my shock and surprise, he reached out to stroke her, took her from me and was soon holding her in his lap, actually crooning baby-talk to her. She purred loudly and unabashedly wallowed in his attention, something she never did for me.

"I thought you said you didn't like cats?" I commented, somewhat miffed at her sudden display of wanton pleasure under his attentions.

"I didn't say I didn't like them, I just said I wasn't bothered by them one way or another. But you seem like such a nice kitty, don't you, Maggie?"

I had to clap my hand over my mouth to keep from laughing at Sev babbling like an idiot to my ancient kitty. In a moment he regained his composure and handed her back to me. "Ah, well, I suppose I should get back to my reading."

"Glad to see the two of you getting along." I took Magenta back into the house. "I'm going to call my mother now. Wish me luck."

I knew she wasn't going to be happy that we had not called her as soon as we got home. I needed to make up a good excuse for that.

"Hi Mum, it's me."

"Well, it's about time! I thought you were getting home yesterday."

"Sorry, we did, but we were so tired when we got back we ended up going straight to bed. And today, I had so many things to do the time just got away from me. They didn't put our bags on the plane so we didn't get them until today. Poor Sev had no clothes to wear so we had to go out and buy some."

"Oh, that's a bother. How was the flight otherwise? I hate those transatlantic journeys."

"It wasn't bad. Too long of course, but we flew Business class so we had a little more room than in Tourist. Sev's got some money."

"That would be your young man, then. Wealthy, is he? So when do I get to meet him?"

"Well, I'm sure he'd like to settle in for a few days but then we thought we might come up for a visit. Or would you rather come here?"

"No you can come here if you'd like."

"OK, just give me a couple of days to figure it out and I'll let you know when. Maybe next weekend?"

"That would be alright. Oh, and dear, there's something I need to ask you about."

"Yes, Mum?"

"You've heard about these Harry Potter books, I suppose?"

"Um, yes, we have," I said with a sigh.

"So you know they're all about Hogwarts, don't you?"

"Unfortunately yes. I know a bit more about them than that, such as how they came to be written, but I'll have to fill you in when I see you. Have you read them?"

"Just the first two, so far."

"Well you have the advantage over me."

"So, your young man is someone from the books, isn't he?"

"He's not 'from the books' Mum, he's a real person. And if I tell you who he is I hope you won't go forming an opinion about him as a result of reading a fictional version of him in a bunch of silly children's books."

"You said his name was 'Severus.' That wouldn't by any chance be Professor Severus Snape, would it?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, it would."

"Oh dear." There was no mistaking the tone of disapproval in that statement.

"Mother, what did I just say to you?"

"All right, all right, I promise to reserve judgement until I meet him for myself."

"Great, now promise me something else: not a WORD of this to anybody. There is more at stake here than you can possibly realise. I've learned some things while I was away that will truly amaze you. I cannot possibly talk about it on the phone."

"Well, aren't we being mysterious?"

"I promise I'll tell you everything I know when I see you." There was a knock on the door, I heard a young female voice call out and presently Angie came in. "I've got to go. Someone just came in."

"All right then, goodbye, dear."

"Talk to you soon. Love you, Mum." As I put down the phone I rolled my eyes and slouched in a pose of exasperation for Angie's benefit.

"Don't you just love talking to Mommy Dearest?" she asked.

"Well, at least I don't have to talk to her again until we go visit her next weekend." I made a gagging gesture. "It's time for her to 'Meet the Boyfriend'."

"Speaking of which, where is the Prince of Darkness right now?"

Secretly, I was amused and not unpleased by this phrase and her earlier description of him as "Dracula on a bad hair day." While she might not approve of my taste in men, she seemed to have unwittingly hit on the precise reason I had found Severus so attractive in the first place. Still, I found myself defending him from her intended slight.

"He's out on the deck. He actually cooked breakfast for me this morbning. And you should have seen him cuddling with Magenta earlier. I wasn't sure which one of them I should be more jealous of."

"I always said cats were bad judges of character. Anyway, I'll just slip upstairs and grab the rest of my things. Why don't you come up with me? I have stuff to tell you."

"What's that? Did you and Dougie finally get it on last night?"

"Eeeeeww... As IF No, it's about your boyfriend being in that Harry Potter movie. It was one of the ones we watched last night."

"And?"

"There's this guy in it - well, of course it's just our darling Alan Rickman but the way they've got him made up he looks just like your boyfriend. I swear they could almost be twins. And the weird part is didn't you say your friend's name is Sev?"

"Yes"

"The character's first name is 'Severus'!! Isn't that just the most wild coincidence?"

"Huh." I grew weary of this conversation. "Well, just don't mention it to Sev. Somehow I don't think he'd be as amused by this as you are. And naturally, you mentioned this startling resemblance to Dougie?"

"Oh, yeah He got pissed at me because it was all I talked about."

Great. Now I'll have to keep Dougie from meeting Severus.

"Anyway, you should have a look at this movie, even if you do it by yourself. It's really spooky the resemblance, I mean. The movie's a bit of a laugh really. Kids stuff. Kinda fun though."

"Yes, well, I'll have to add it to my list. Anyway, before you go, I have a little gift for you."

"Ooh, ooh, prezzies!" Angie rubbed her little hands together. Now I was hesitating: I was about to give her a package of REAL "Bertie Blott's Every Flavour Beans". I'd have to feign ignorance, I realized, but all the same I knew she'd like the gift.

The candy had been in my suitcase and I brought it out from my bedroom with the package held behind my back. "OK, when we were in London I saw these for sale, and I thought the package was so cute I just had to get them for you. Ta-dah!"

Angie squinted at the package for a moment and said "Oh! These are from the movie!"

"Are they?"

"Yeah, Jelly Belly makes these. I never saw them done up like this before, though. I guess they designed the packaging after the movie."

"Oh. Well, maybe you can only get them this way in the UK."

"Wow. They look pretty authentic, don't they? I wonder if they really are 'every flavour', like they say in the movie?" She opened the red and yellow cardboard package and tasted one, chewed contemplatively for a moment then made a face. "Bleah! Liver!"

"Huh. I guess they really are every flavour."

**************************************************************************

A/N:

My, Nora is the anal retentive one when it comes to making lists. Still, she managed to get everything done, didn't she? I hope Snape appreciates her thoroughness.

Snape seems a bit mellow here in his reaction to the books, perhaps? Still, if he were presented "accurately" in the story I'm not sure what sort of objection he might have to it, other than being utterly nauseated by having to read about Harry Potter. But I'd have to presume his opinion of Potter has mellowed somewhat since his graduation. But that's just my opinion. I'd imagine his reaction would have been a lot stronger a few years back.

By the way, does anyone know if Bertie Blott's Every Flavour Beans ever were marketed in that very amusing red and yellow package shown in the film? If so, I would love to have some!! If not, Jelly Belly is missing a really good bet.

- Grey Lady

**************************************************************************


NEXT: Nora's Take on the Books