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.

Any opinions, political or otherwise, on world events, personages or governments expressed in these pages, are the opinions of the characters speaking them and not necessarily those of the author.

Chapter 2: Appeasing Nora


Severus woke late on his second morning in Stratford. Nora was already up, and it seemed from the coolness of the sheets on her side of the bed that she had been up for a while. He rose and rinsed the perspiration off his face (it was already intolerably hot, and so early in the day!) and rummaged through her closet for a robe of some sort. Without his suitcase he had nothing to wear but the clothes he had worn on the plane and it was already too warm for those. He managed to find a sort of black satin kimono with a green dragon embroidered on it, which did not appear to be overtly feminine in cut. That would do nicely, he thought as he put it on, and went downstairs to find her.

Nora was out on the deck drinking a cup of coffee. She had already been on her computer, had checked for e-mail and had found a message from Algernon Welkin, one of Dumbledore's agents in Mundane London.

Welkin had proved to be a bit of a bother for them in London, but in the end it had not been his fault. Due to some as yet unexplained complications and the unfortunate circumstance of Nora receiving a frightening warning from one of the Death Eaters while in Muggle London, Welkin had been suspected of being a spy for Voldemort. Every time he had popped up in London they had done their best to avoid him, which had resulted in their having to change hotels and resort to some rather outlandish disguises in order to throw him off the scent.

It had turned out he was merely trying to warn them of the existence of a series of books, written by an author in the Mundane dimension, about the real Harry Potter. Welkin's message explained how the books had come to be written and his involvement with it. This message Nora had printed out from her computer and was now handing to Snape to read for himself.

The short version was this: Welkin had met by chance, while on a visit to Mundane Edinburgh, a woman who was writing a series of children's books about a boy who discovers he's a wizard and is asked to attend a school to learn magic. Struck by the parallels between the book and his own world, he introduced her to a young lady of his acquaintance who was at that time attending Hogwarts and who was working on a biography of Harry Potter, and the two of them began to collaborate - without the knowledge or permission of Albus Dumbledore, of course.

Snape was appalled at the breach of protocol. It was bad enough that Welkin had introduced a wizard to a muggle and encouraged them to freely exchange information, but he had actually taken this woman into the Magical dimension from the Mundane one and provided her with proof of the existence of magic. Now these blasted books had been written, published and apparently been made into a film, in which he, himself, was a featured character.

The true irony of the situation struck home when he realised that the little collaborator must have been none other than Ginny Weasley, whose father and brother both worked in the Ministry of Magic. He wondered if in fact the elder Weasley's had been aware of the breach? If the truth were known within the Ministry, both of them would be fired instantly and if they were not fired they would at least be put in the position of disciplining their young relative. This thought gave Snape a small amount of satisfaction. Just wait until he was able to pass the information on to Dumbledore!

Nora, however, did not seem to think the problem was as serious as he did. In her mind they were only going to be considered works of fiction in this dimension. Surely no one would be daft enough to accept the story as fact. The style of writing suggested fantasy, and certain non-factual details added to the feeling of unreality. She had strongly urged him not to tell Dumbledore about the books until they could assess the damage, or at least read them for themselves.

Grudgingly, Snape agreed. If no real harm had been done perhaps it was best not to alarm certain persons in the Wizarding dimension. Albus Dumbledore probably had enough on his plate at the moment without dealing with this silly problem.

In the meantime, it was decided that they would purchase and read the books.

* * *

That morning Severus prepared breakfast for his lady. Although he had not had an opportunity to cook in quite some time, he usually found that he quite enjoyed doing it. On the rare occasions when he was in his own home on summer holidays or other breaks from school, and particularly on his last hiatus from Hogwarts, he preferred to do for himself while at home, and had no servants. Not trusting house elves and having a particular loathing for the ugly, malformed little creatures (who bore little resemblance to the splendid Elvish race of yore and, in actuality, were more closely related to Goblins) he wouldn't have them in the house.

He was wary of some of the newfangled gadgets Nora had in her kitchen, particularly something called a "microwave" which appeared to be able to cook food without using a flame -- he had watched her reheat a cup of coffee in it. He had coped well with her gas-fired stove, which operated very much like the old gas cooker he had at home, except that he had been surprised to discover he did not need a match to light the burners.

Nora seemed particularly pleased with his efforts and praised him lavishly, which naturally had the effect of making him want to do it more often. Was the way to her heart perhaps through her stomach?

Also in the interest of appeasing her, he had gone out of his way for the remainder of the day to take an interest in her various projects, several of which had involved the dreaded activity of "Shopping". Luckily clothing shopping had not been a large part of this, but he did allow himself to be dragged into a men's clothing store for the purpose of outfitting him in a pair of short pants and something called a "golf" shirt.

He had naturally heard of the game of golf; it was something Dumbledore and Lupin had unsuccessfully tried to interest him in; but he had no intention of taking up the game here or anywhere else and failed to see why he should be obliged to wear a shirt made solely for the purpose of playing this ridiculous Muggle "sport". Nora had explained that these shirts were comfortable, stylish and easy to care for. Accordingly, he was now wearing one. He had to admit, though, that the short pants did provide him with welcome relief from the heat and the shirt actually was quite comfortable.

The other shopping project had involved food, and this did not annoy him quite as much as shopping for clothing. In fact he found himself mentally planning menus and purchasing items for several of his favourite recipes, which he wanted to try out on her.

Two more hurdles remained, after which he would presume that he had accumulated enough "points" to keep him in her good graces for quite a while: meeting Nora's cat, and her mother.

* * *

Later that afternoon, they were out on the deck again, the only place on the property where they seemed to be able to get any relief from the heat. There was that "fridge" thing in the kitchen and he had at one point suggested they just leave the door open and cool off the entire room, but Nora had said that would result in an enormous "hydro" bill (what did water have to do with it, he wondered?) He then attempted, without much success, to chill off the upstairs bathroom using his freezing skill, but the result was too much condensation on the walls, and the cooling effect was not long-lasting enough to be worthwhile. Luckily Nora had not yet noticed the water dripping down the walls. So until he thought of something else, cold drinks and passing breezes seemed to be the only relief.

"I think it might be a good idea to have the air conditioner on in our room tonight, just to get a break from the heat. I'm sorry I didn't think of it last night," Nora had mentioned in passing.

"What's an air conditioner?"

"It's a machine that chills the air in the room to a comfortable level."

"Humph. Why couldn't we have just followed my suggestion and used the fridge?"

Nora's cat also made her first appearance that afternoon. Apparently there had been some difficulty in coaxing it out of the closet and Snape sensed that Nora thought he might have been the cause for the cat's reluctance to rejoin society. He disliked cats as a rule, it was true, but he doubted highly that any feline was prescient enough to pick up on that.

He had just finished reading (with much distaste) the first book in the Harry Potter series, which they had purchased that day, and was about to start on The Chamber of Secrets, in which, much to his displeasure, Lupin seemed to play a large part. The cat was sitting on Nora's lap and he decided it was time to make the supreme effort and make contact with it, aside from which he felt he needed a break. Making "friends" with this cat could not have been any less pleasant than reading that book.

Hesitantly, he reached out to stroke it. It didn't try to bite him; thus encouraged, he took it from Nora and put it into his lap. For some unaccountable reason the damned thing began to purr loudly as though it actually liked him. Cats never liked him. To his own surprise, he actually found himself warming up to the little creature. He stroked its silky soft fur with unaccountable pleasure, and even tried to talk to it. His attentions were rewarded with more purring and affection.

"I thought you said you didn't like cats?" Nora commented dryly.

"I didn't say I didn't like them, I just said I wasn't bothered by them one way or another."

Nora's reaction was one of profound amusement. Snape, regaining his composure, unceremoniously handed the animal back to her. "Ah, well, I suppose I should get back to my reading."

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

NEXT: Meeting Wynona

A/N

For those who were puzzled, as Snape was, by the term "hydro", it refers to "hydro-electricity" (electricity generated by water power) It's a bit of a regional term in Ontario as our key energy producer was once known as "Ontario Hydro" (before deregulation anyhow...)

Did you like Snape's version of his encounter with the cat?

- Grey Lady