Chapter Five: A Friendly Evening:
Alvin was resting in the cozy combination living room, dining and kitchen of the apartments he had with his family here at Hogwarts. The children were in bed and Randy had finished putting the last wayward toy away in a basket that a child had forgotten when there was a knock at the door. Mary answered it and a wore out Severus Snape came in, sat in one of the four wingback chairs by the fire across from Alvin and put his feet up on a matching blue ottoman. Randy put a cup of tea in his hands and biscuits were placed by his elbow at a small side table. He never showed this to the children, but now, out of sight of the brats he looked very tired and weary. He took a sip of tea to find it was mint with a hint of lemon and honey.
"That bad." Alvin said, "I had a great day, the kids were really nice and did not kill themselves."
"I really hate you, though I do like your cunning in your contract." Severus said toasting him with the teacup, "pulling one over on the headmaster, that was brilliant."
"Not my intention, I just wanted to be able to teach and after reading Hogwarts a History and The Houses Four can you blame me for wanting to set my classes up the way I have?" Alvin asked.
"No, not at all, you are, however rather informal with the children though." Severus said.
"How is that?" Alvin asked, "I make them call me sir or professor."
"You use their first names." Severus replied.
"Oh, well, we do that in the states, you don't here?" Alvin asked. "I mean even Ilvermorny as formal as they are use the kids first names, more personal that way."
"No, Christian names are hardly ever used." Severus replied, "surprised me when you started calling me by mine."
"I can't call you hey you or Snape, now headmaster Dumbledore, I could never use his first name, and the man is legend, and old enough to be my grandfather twice over or more."
"There is that, but Minerva, well…"
"I could call her Tabby." Alvin said, then after a moment, "no, probably would transfigure me into a tea pot, Mary here did transfigure me into a chair once, then sat on me and had coffee before she transferred me back."
"Well I am a transfigure mistress myself." Mary said, "We are small but powerful breed in America."
Severus took a bite of one of the biscuits, dulling noting that the American's called these cookies. This was chocolate chip, not a tea biscuit but still very, very good. The tea was excellent and he knew that Mary had called for that, but the biscuits were made by her (and how she got around her house elf to do that he would never know) and extremely good. He looked around and saw a tidy home, the carefully put away toys, well-worn children's books and the sound of music. He had been surprised when he had seen the large six disc changer CD player, then the Stones had explained to him that electricity did work with magic, but at a different voltage, created by Tesla which brought his electrical systems up to two that he had made. To learn he was alive and well and truly a wizard (or mage as the Americans called themselves) thrilled him, very few magical ever crossed into both worlds, or so he had thought.
"So what do you think of the children?" Severus asked.
"Not bad, they listen, and don't try anything in my class, it is early yet. I got my eye on two twin boys, those two spell trouble with all capital letters." Alvin said, "Though I dare them to try and prank me, you will want access to a pensive or better yet, a student who can take photos of that."
"I know one, Gryffindor though he is, he is an excellent photographer, Collin Creevy, and you know him?" Severus said.
"The hyperactive boy, yea, good kid though." Alvin said.
"What do you think of Potter?" Severus asked.
"He has not cause trouble, good kid." Alvin said and at Severus's face, "you dislike him why is that?"
"He looks like his father, worthless bullying git."
"Looks more like his mother from the photos, the glasses and hair are his father." Alvin said, "he is a miracle child, magic did not save him, he has a destiny. You know it too."
"Yes but that does not mean I have to like the rule breaking, disrespectful brat!" Severus countered, "my first lesson he cheeked me! He not only could not answer questions that have answers in the very introduction to the potions text but then said and I quote 'why don't you ask Hermione, she knows' I was most displeased."
"As well you should have been, so how long?" Mary asked and at the pointed look, "the detentions, how many?"
"None." Severus ground out.
"So you took a lot of points?" Mary asked.
"One point, last thing I need is a teary first year in detention or sobbing about too many lost points." Severus said, "if I dared get harsh on Potter, well head of house or no I could loose my job, even if I am in the right."
"That bites." Alvin said, "well, if he does anything I can send him to you, if you don't mind, I was thinking most of my detentions could be with you."
"I think we will make very good friends." Severus said smirking, "I really have lots of work that I simply don't like doing. I find students are very good at cleaning, chopping, dicing, slicing and preparing ingredients. Young magic adds to making the potions ingredients work best. The tears of first years are the best."
"You are horrible!" Mary said.
"I know, but please, what ever you do, do not send the teen girls, ever!" Severus said.
"Oh, wow, yea, right." Alvin said, "so girls to Minerva or Pomona and boys to you, forgot about teens and their drives, glad the wards are here to stop certain stuff."
"Yes, only way purebloods, or parents would let children here at all, the founders came up with those wards." Severus said, "bloody brilliant in that they were."
"And we copy them in the States, every school, ministry and the like is protected by them. Elected officials stay in office just by agreeing updating the wards, just wish the non-magical had the same thing. President Clinton can't keep his trousers zipped." Mary said.
"And he lied about it too." Alvin said, "then again he dodged the draft too."
While lots of things could happen in magical schools (and Alvin wondered why there were no protections against those sorts of things) sex could not. It's not as if the founders were uptight about it at all (several rather filthy poems had survived and Hufflepuff was the worst of the lot in that regard), in fact the men followed the English (and world really) tradition of having a wife to love and have his children, and a mistress (or two) on the side for fun. What they wanted to do was protect the maidens mostly coming into the school, so the wards were put up and the girl's dorms were protected from boys entering and each child entering the school for the first time was marked as protected. So while the teens could kiss and hug and cuddle in a chair, anything else was not going to happen, all to protect the virtue of the girls. The village had allowed themselves to be added to those wards and centaurs were not keen on humans trying anything in their forests.
"Well I am not a virgin and I do not see a problem with a man having a mistress, but only if his wife allows it." Severus said and at the shocked looks from Alvin and Mary, "you bloody Puritans."
"Please don't call us that, they hung our kind." Mary said, "I just find that odd, though I guess if it works for you, though you know our views."
"Yes, and I would love to have a woman I could love like that, I would stay celibate if asked to gain something like that." Severus said and at a rather stern look, "I don't pay for anything, if she wants it truly does than well…"
"Yes well, I see, so what do we do about Umbridge?" Alvin asked, changing the subject "she is coming back and will start gunning for everyone here."
"And you are worried why?" Severus asked.
"Professor Trelawney, look she tends to be a bit overboard and you either are a seer or not, but you can't say she cant teach." Mary said, "I watched one of her classes and if you study and really work hard you can at least learn how to see patterns. I would hate to see her go, though she is not nearly as good as a centaur, Yarrow has one teaching Divination."
"Really, but how do you get away with having a half-breed teach?" Severus asked and got a dark look back, "forgive me I did not mean to be rude."
"It's okay, you didn't know, they are citizens protected by our constitution, in fact they took the magical school board of California to federal court for trying to classify them as half-breeds." Alvin said, "one thing centaurs are not is half-breed anything, they are what they are and are not half horse half human, but were created the way they were, they are no mistakes at all, one of my dear friends is a centaur, a royal pain but still a dear friend."
"Again I apologize, your country is, well, I have never heard of such an open country with such laws and the like. Then again magical Britain rarely speaks of any nation outside our borders." Severus said, "as for Umbridge, well I could use my charm on her, not that way! Merlin I will have nightmares tonight! I have charm that the students rarely, if ever see, they see me as a horrible evil greasy git of the dungeons and I want to keep it that way."
"Well if we are to keep your secret, I need a box of Honeyduke's chocolate, one per day." Mary said and at a look from Severus, "just kidding, I can keep your secret, the students will only hear me say what a disagreeable man you are and impossible to get along with."
"Well he is a jerk, and rude and ugly." Alvin said smirking to show he was teasing.
"And you are an American jackass." Severus said.
"I will take that as a compliment." Alvin said.
"It wasn't meant as such!"
"I know, but it annoys you."
"I hate you."
"Friends?"
"If I must, fine, you annoying Yank!"
It was from that day all three became friends, but the students never saw it. The staff did and found it amusing that these three could pull one over so well on the students like this. Though none knew of the map one Harry Potter had and the completely wrong conclusion he and his friends were coming to. That Professor Stone and Snape were plotting together and were both on the dark lords side and Stone was only waiting to kill him.
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So yes, now Severus has two very good friends. And yes the moral code of Alvin and Mary is different than Severus. I know about Europe and England and how lax they are about sex and were more so than America (though that has changed and not to my liking). Though Alvin and Mary do not agree with some ways Severus lives his life they are not going to be rude to him and so did the artful change the subject with him. I would think that chastity wards would be put on a place like Hogwarts not for moral reasons (like they would in the States eight hundred years later) but to protect the young girls going there.
As for Alvin having a centaur for a friend, America runs differently. Yes there is discrimination but if the magical world was real that sort of thing would be stamped out as quick as one could in America. Centaurs are people, and like house elves are citizens, there is no slavery in America and could not be due our constitution. It's why I as an America citizen cannot be prosecuted for saying I dislike the government and think they are all corrupt and should be fired. Nor can I be imprisoned for speaking about my religious beliefs, or if I am I can sue and sue big for that. Being American is unique, no other nation (aside from Israel) has a constitution that allows us such broad freedoms.
Is there discrimination against the magical races in my story?Yes, sadly there is, and it's against the goblins and centaurs mainly, as at one time goblins did deserve that.They were an evil, foul and horrible race in this story, just like the fairy tales portray them.However that was a thousand years ago and they reformed, and turned to banking and only fighting when their rights are infringed on.
Anyway, please do review!