To The Honour of the Mother
Chapter Three: You Don't Bring Me Flowers
After breakfast, which included porridge, eggs and kippers, toast, muffins and jam and three cups of coffee with cream and sugar, Snape betook himself to a Quidditch match, or intended to. On his way to the stadium, he was distracted by a hedge of blooming wild roses, and fell into the matchless beauty of the blossoms as he witnessed their growth from single pollen cell to bud to bloom and seed. Finding the game over by the time he reached the stadium, he returned to the castle, and visited Madam Pomfrey's domain, inquiring after one of the students who was injured by an exploding cauldron. He looked into the boy's wound and saw the astonishing healing taking place therein.
Something had definitely happened to him. He decided not to eat luncheon; fearing that he may somehow have been poisoned. He was discomfited by his hunger (after such a breakfast), and instead of going to the dining hall, he walked out into the Forbidden Forest in search of toadstools or his potions. He found a large ring of toadstools around a hummock of moss as soft and thick as green velvet. He sat down on it just for a moment, and was instantly asleep. His dream began as before in the ivy copse, but this time he was not the sacrificial victim. He knelt on the flat stone by the dolmen and offered up a bouquet of toadstools in homage to the Mother, but they turned to worms in his hands.
He found himself drawn back in time to his sad childhood, and he wept, his stomach tied in knots with hunger, his joints aching from cold and his back from a beating he did not know he had been given. Face down on the moss, he trembled with fear and anger together. All was dark. A soft, warm mantle covered him, and an arm under his shoulders turned him over and lifted him to a half sitting position. He was held against a very female body, a gentle hand stroked his hair away from his face. He buried his face in the hollow of neck and shoulder, and then to the soft globe of a breast. The nipple touched his lips, and his hunger was sated, his cold warmed. He slept against the motherly bosom.
He wakened standing on the steps of the Great Hall; his hands filled with toadstools, and almost fell to the floor. Unfortunately, Harry Potter, late for luncheon, in the process of tearing into the Hall, bumped into the Potions Master, sending both onto the floor in a welter of toadstools, which promptly turned into worms and crawled away. The Runes Mistress, Dame Angharad, was standing beside him when he regained his feet, brushed off his cloak and tried to gain a semblance of dignity.
"Ye have been given a sign; the Mother lifted ye and nourished ye and comforted ye when ye were in need, and that after ye offered her naught but toadstools. She gave ye to see how the rose grows by her mercy; ye saw a wound knit, again by the mercy of the Mother, and still ye will not understand?" Dame Angharad's voice was soft, but her tone was severe. Snape backed away from her in fury.
"And was it the Mother," he bellowed, striding up and down and striking his fists together, "whose pleasure it would have been to castrate me in the wood?"
To his disgust, the Green Lady laughed, a soft chiming like that of foxglove bells. He opened his mouth to speak, and her small hand covered it, gently, gently. He was immobile. She took his hand and led him to a settee against the wall, and pushed him lightly onto it. He sat. "Ye are the Mother's son and brother and husband," she said. "She would never hurt ye, even if ye hurt her. She meant to cut the spirit ivy twining round your loins, to free your male strength so that ye could worship her properly."
Her palm rested on his brow briefly, and he could move again. She sat next to him, knee to knee, and he was no longer afraid. "What do you-I don't understand. How does one worship her?"
The Green Lady smiled and nodded. "Not with offerings," she said. "One worships the Mother by accepting her gifts, as you did the rose and the wound; by respecting her, as ye do by caring for her trees and farms and waterways; by doing what she asks of ye to perpetuate the cycle of life, and, for ye, to love her daughters."
Snape paled, his way of blushing. "I have no time for love," he muttered. "I'd be equally as willing for a dentist to be drilling than to ever let a woman in my life. *"
* From "My Fair Lady," Lerner & Lowe, I Shall Never Let A Woman in My Life, performed by Rex Harrison as Prof. Henry Higgins.
Chapter Three: You Don't Bring Me Flowers
After breakfast, which included porridge, eggs and kippers, toast, muffins and jam and three cups of coffee with cream and sugar, Snape betook himself to a Quidditch match, or intended to. On his way to the stadium, he was distracted by a hedge of blooming wild roses, and fell into the matchless beauty of the blossoms as he witnessed their growth from single pollen cell to bud to bloom and seed. Finding the game over by the time he reached the stadium, he returned to the castle, and visited Madam Pomfrey's domain, inquiring after one of the students who was injured by an exploding cauldron. He looked into the boy's wound and saw the astonishing healing taking place therein.
Something had definitely happened to him. He decided not to eat luncheon; fearing that he may somehow have been poisoned. He was discomfited by his hunger (after such a breakfast), and instead of going to the dining hall, he walked out into the Forbidden Forest in search of toadstools or his potions. He found a large ring of toadstools around a hummock of moss as soft and thick as green velvet. He sat down on it just for a moment, and was instantly asleep. His dream began as before in the ivy copse, but this time he was not the sacrificial victim. He knelt on the flat stone by the dolmen and offered up a bouquet of toadstools in homage to the Mother, but they turned to worms in his hands.
He found himself drawn back in time to his sad childhood, and he wept, his stomach tied in knots with hunger, his joints aching from cold and his back from a beating he did not know he had been given. Face down on the moss, he trembled with fear and anger together. All was dark. A soft, warm mantle covered him, and an arm under his shoulders turned him over and lifted him to a half sitting position. He was held against a very female body, a gentle hand stroked his hair away from his face. He buried his face in the hollow of neck and shoulder, and then to the soft globe of a breast. The nipple touched his lips, and his hunger was sated, his cold warmed. He slept against the motherly bosom.
He wakened standing on the steps of the Great Hall; his hands filled with toadstools, and almost fell to the floor. Unfortunately, Harry Potter, late for luncheon, in the process of tearing into the Hall, bumped into the Potions Master, sending both onto the floor in a welter of toadstools, which promptly turned into worms and crawled away. The Runes Mistress, Dame Angharad, was standing beside him when he regained his feet, brushed off his cloak and tried to gain a semblance of dignity.
"Ye have been given a sign; the Mother lifted ye and nourished ye and comforted ye when ye were in need, and that after ye offered her naught but toadstools. She gave ye to see how the rose grows by her mercy; ye saw a wound knit, again by the mercy of the Mother, and still ye will not understand?" Dame Angharad's voice was soft, but her tone was severe. Snape backed away from her in fury.
"And was it the Mother," he bellowed, striding up and down and striking his fists together, "whose pleasure it would have been to castrate me in the wood?"
To his disgust, the Green Lady laughed, a soft chiming like that of foxglove bells. He opened his mouth to speak, and her small hand covered it, gently, gently. He was immobile. She took his hand and led him to a settee against the wall, and pushed him lightly onto it. He sat. "Ye are the Mother's son and brother and husband," she said. "She would never hurt ye, even if ye hurt her. She meant to cut the spirit ivy twining round your loins, to free your male strength so that ye could worship her properly."
Her palm rested on his brow briefly, and he could move again. She sat next to him, knee to knee, and he was no longer afraid. "What do you-I don't understand. How does one worship her?"
The Green Lady smiled and nodded. "Not with offerings," she said. "One worships the Mother by accepting her gifts, as you did the rose and the wound; by respecting her, as ye do by caring for her trees and farms and waterways; by doing what she asks of ye to perpetuate the cycle of life, and, for ye, to love her daughters."
Snape paled, his way of blushing. "I have no time for love," he muttered. "I'd be equally as willing for a dentist to be drilling than to ever let a woman in my life. *"
* From "My Fair Lady," Lerner & Lowe, I Shall Never Let A Woman in My Life, performed by Rex Harrison as Prof. Henry Higgins.
