Chapter 6 – Detours and High Places
----------------------------
URGENT OWL POST
Headmaster A. Dumbledore Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Dear Headmaster Dumbledore:
This is to advise you that Severus Snape has been returned to St. Mungo's. As you may already know, Severus has spent time with me this summer learning more about potions. Apparently, he encountered a piece of furniture here that frightened him. He did quite a bit of damage before I was able to calm him.
He is stable and doing well at this time.
Obviously, I am anxious to speak with you about this. I will be at my manor house should you wish to visit and I will tell you what I know.
Yours, Sejanus Sartoris Potions Master
--------------------------------------
To state that Albus Dumbledore reacted negatively to this missive would have been the understatement of the century. It was a good thing that the small and rather timid Saw-Whet Owl who delivered the letter had chosen to hide under a chair. Otherwise, it might have been swept up into the five- mile-high tower of thunderheads that suddenly burbled up in the disturbed air directly above the Headmaster's person.
Argus Filch, Rubeus Hagrid, four faculty members, and at least two dozen House Elves beat tracks to the Headmaster's Office. The squall line over that portion of the Castle was already starting to produce thunder, lightning, high winds, hail, torrential rain, and a few dangling (though thankfully puny) tornadoes.
"Great Merlin, Albus! What is it?" Minerva McGonagall shrieked, opening the Headmaster's office door.
She was stunned to see absolute and unbridled rage on the old wizard's face. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, although that was most likely electrical energy being stored up for the next jolt of lightning. Dumbledore stood in front of his desk, the parchment clutched in his fist, hyperventilating and swearing in Chaucerian English.
"Easy, Headmaster!" cried Poppy Pomfrey, casting a soothing charm over the irate man. "Easy, if you please!" Most of the assembled House Elves ran away shrieking.
"Albus!" cried Professor Penderdandis. "Calm yourself!"
"READ IT!" Dumbledore cried, thrusting the crumpled parchment under the esteemed teacher's rather long nose. He looked like Moses, about ready to mow down the infidels with a couple of slabs of marble tablet. Gingerly, Minerva minced her way under his arm and snatched the letter away.
"Oh my goodness," she murmured as the other teachers crowded round to read it.
"He -- hurt -- my -- child -- " Albus snarled. "He -- hurt -- "
"Easy now," Poppy said again, easing the old man over to a nearby chair. "Sit down and calm yourself. Please."
"Albus," Minerva said in what she earnestly hoped was a soothing tone of voice, "it says right here that Severus is doing well."
"Snap -- the -- old -- monster's -- neck -- for -- him -- "
"I don't think so, Albus," Penderdandis sighed, patting the now-seated man's shoulder. "Once you calm down, Minerva and I would be happy to floo with you to St. Mungo's. Does that sound like a good plan?" If his words weren't getting through, perhaps dumb show would suffice. He bobbed his head up and down at Dumbledore to signify that this would be a good thing.
"Breathe in -- breathe out -- " Poppy chanted.
The anvil clouds above the school began to dissipate. The shrieking winds died down. Fawkes the Phoenix pecked morosely at a hailstone that had landed in his water bowl.
"I'm -- all right," Dumbledore said at last.
"Sir, would you likeum usses to get Perfesser Sartoris for youse?" one of the few remaining House Elves asked.
"Professor Sartoris can go to the devil, if he hasn't made the trip already," Albus Dumbledore growled, his voice not unlike the booming claps of thunder that preceded it.
"And if he doesn't know the way, kindly give him directions," Minerva McGonagall added, scooping up a handful of floo powder and pushing both elderly men before her into the fireplace. Then -- poof!
They were gone.
"It won't be an easy job to clean up this mess," growled Argus Filch, trying to rub a lightning-strike scorch mark from the dark oak wainscoting that ringed the room. "Come on, Mrs. Norris."
The animagus purred and eeled her way around the caretaker's ankles.
--------------
Albus and his two colleagues hardly broke stride when they burste through the floo portal at St. Mungo's Hospital. "Wait a moment, please!" the wizard tending the front desk sputtered indignantly, getting up and racing after them.
"Hurry," Albus Dumbledore cried. "We might be able to outrun him. This way!"
Minerva whirled around, pointing her wand at the gentleman. "I wouldn't," she said, giving him such a schoolteacherly scowl that the wizard stopped dead in his tracks.
"St. Bartholomew Prep School flashback," the man whispered.
"Now there, you, boy!" McGonagall snapped. "Back to your Charms class, straight away! Off with you!"
Wordlessly, the middle-aged man turned and wandered off.
"Once a teacher, always a teacher," Minerva whispered to herself, stifling the urge to giggle hysterically. "I'm right behind you, Albus," she cried, easing right behind in Dumbledore's magical slipstream.
----------------
Of course, Albus knew exactly where Severus would be. He and the two other teachers burst into what was sometimes called the Kiddie Snuff Ward.
"Severus?" he cried, looking all around him.
Asphora LaChance was immediately at his elbow. "Albus," she said. "I'm right here!"
He stopped and turned. "Oh, bless you, Asphora! Where is he?"
"We have him in his own room, right down the hall. He's sleeping now, but I'm sure he'd be delighted to see all three of you." She introduced herself to Professor McGonagall ("Ah – lovely aura," the healer whispered) and all four entered a small room at the end of the hall.
The room was thick with soothing energy that curled and spiraled through the room in ceaseless convection currents. They rose and fell, caressing the young man asleep in the bed.
"What happened to him, Asphora?" Albus whispered, not wishing to disturb his Dark child's rest.
"From what Professor Sartoris told me, Severus was walking down one of the ground floor hallways when he saw what the Muggles used to call an "Iron Maiden".
All three Hogwarts teachers frowned. An Iron Maiden was sort of like a hinged Egyptian sarcophagus that opened to reveal spikes of various lengths. Once part of any Dark inquisitor's arsenal of torture equipment, a person could be placed into it and the lid closed, piercing the occupant and causing great pain and terror.
"What in the name of Seven Hells was he doing with one of those in his house?" Professor Penderdandis hissed.
"It was some old relic from one of the Sartoris ancestors. He used it as a furniture piece in his hallway," Healer LaChance replied. "It didn't even have any spikes in it. But the mere sight of it set Sev off. Apparently, he proceeded to trash the downstairs quite thoroughly before the girl got her great-grandfather up from the Potions Lab."
"Good for Severus," Minerva sniffed. "I'd personally like to trash that old goat's laboratory as well as the house proper."
"I don't understand," Dumbledore whispered. "I thought all those memories had been obliviated."
"Many of them had been, Albus," Asphora replied. "It's obvious that we needed to do additional work. I took the risk of assuming you'd agree with us, and we performed another Obliviation Ceremony on him earlier today. As his guardian, you would have had the right to stop me."
"But you correctly surmised that I wouldn't," Albus sighed, patting the young woman on the shoulder. "Thank you. Well done. When do you think he might be able to come home, Shonsey?"
"You can take him later today if he seems otherwise well," the healer replied. "You, Albus Dumbledore yourself, can take him back to Hogwarts, that is. No side trips here, there, and elsewhere." She turned her fluffy head toward Penderdandis and McGonagall. "Might I speak alone with the Headmaster, please?" she asked with a kind smile.
"Certainly," both teachers said, and withdrew to the hallway.
"Sev's aura is all run through with tendrils of unreflective blackness, Albus," Asphora whispered. "I was quite alarmed when I saw them. Wherever he was this summer pushed him further away from the Light. I'm not intending to tell you your business, but -- "
"Then that's fine," Dumbledore replied, cutting her words off courteously yet firmly. "I will keep him safe with me until the new term begins."
"Will you fire Professor Sartoris?" she asked.
"I'm considering my -- options," he answered.
"Shonsey?" Severus whispered, rubbing his eyes. For a few confused moments the boy lay there, unsure of where he was and why.
"My dear child!" Albus breathed.
"Father!" Severus shrieked, bounding out of bed so fast that his ankle became entangled in the quilt. If Dumbledore hadn't moved quite so fast, the boy would have landed on his face.
Albus caught him in a tight embrace. "My poor Severus!" the old man said, close to tears. "I'm so sorry this happened."
"It wasn't your fault," the boy whispered in his ear, his long fingers entwined in the old man's velvet robes. "It was mine. I shouldn't have gone off like that. I'll bet Professor Sartoris is really mad at me for wrecking his hallway."
"A broken vase or smashed glass doesn't matter, but you do, honey," Asphora replied, placing her hands on both sides of his head. "We tried a bit more obliviation earlier today. How are you feeling now?"
Still enfolded in the Headmaster's arms, the Dark child thought for a moment, and then answered. "I feel -- better. Please, can I go home?"
It took Healer LaChance a few moments to realize that Severus meant Hogwarts School. "Why don't you stay here for a few more hours, Sev, and then I'll send you home with Headmaster Dumbledore. I'm sure he will wait for you, and I'm also sure the kitchen wouldn't mind giving up a couple of bowls of pistachio ice cream in the meantime!"
"Right you are," Dumbledore chuckled, smoothing the boy's tousled black locks off his face and kissing his forehead.
"Make that four bowls if you please," Minerva McGonagall declared.
---------------
Later that night – after Albus had tucked Severus into his bed and had asked Head of Slytherin House Professor Penderdandis to keep a close watch over him – the Headmaster returned to his own office and summoned the Potions Master.
He made the Dark Lord's treatment seem like kisses from Sartoris' mother.
---------------
The next day, Severus took advantage of the few days remaining before the start of the new term by seeking out his Magickal World instructor.
"Professor Azaki," he said, "I wanted to ask if you would teach me about mountaineering and let my friends and me climb one of the neighboring peaks."
"Of course, Severus. I'd be happy to," responded the cheerful young man, still invigorated by his recent summit of Mt. Fujiyama. "I can even spare a few minutes now. What I teach you now, you can teach them – who did you say your friends were?"
"I didn't," Sev said. "But they are James Potter and Lily Evans, sir."
"Bright and healthy students. Excellent! We could make the expedition a foursome, perhaps sometime this fall. I know a good trail up Mt. Muldoon we could try. Well, then. Tell me what you know so far."
Severus grinned. He liked to please his teachers and was glad for the chance to show them what he knew without certain Gryffindor students hissing "Suck-up!" from behind him. "Muggle mountaineering is similar to ours in a number of ways. For example, both wizarding folk and Muggles can suffer numerous afflictions if they ascend too high, too fast."
"Right," Professor Azaki said. "Explain what 'hike high, sleep low' means."
"It means that when you are trying to acclimatize – that is, get your body used to living at a higher altitude – you must do it slowly. Climb higher during the day, but come back to where you were to sleep that night."
"Correct. If you don't acclimatize, you can get what the Muggles call pulmonary or cerebral edema – your heart and/or lungs can stop working properly and you'll die."
"Also, there's not nearly enough oxygen up there to breathe, and if you go up too fast you'll be too exhausted to do anything but lie there gasping for breath."
"What's this?" said Albus Dumbledore, poking his head into the room. "A mountain field-trip planning session?"
"It is," smiled Professor Azaki, looking up. He was surprised to see Severus sprint over to the old wizard, nearly knocking him over in his zeal to hug him.
"Easy, my boy!" Dumbledore laughed. "Weren't you just talking about 'gasping for breath'?" Both laughed.
"The Headmaster is like my father, Professor," the boy explained.
"That's right," Albus added. "Severus is family, Frey." The boy looked into the old man's face with such gratitude and love that Albus scarcely kept the tears back.
"Headmaster," Sev said excitedly, "we were just talking about Wizard Mountaineering."
"And our scholar here has just told me how it is similar to Muggle mountain- climbing. Now, what are the differences?"
"We can use spells, but they work much more slowly and aren't as strong as they ordinarily would be. This makes relying upon them rather risky."
"That's right," Azaki replied. "What else might happen if a witch or wizard apparated from ground level to the summit of a mountain?"
"In addition to the other effects Muggles would suffer, the witch or wizard might drastically shrink in size. For example, the explorer who first summitted Mt. Cotopaxi in 1887 -- Eduardo de Cacahuete – went from nearly six feet tall to four feet, nine inches."
"Ah, the reason for his name – 'Edward the Peanut'!" Dumbledore (who spoke seventeen Muggle languages) added. "I assume that wasn't his original last name."
"You assume correctly, Headmaster. Well, it seems that we might have a small mountaineering society beginning here at Hogwarts. Should we count on you to join us?"
"No thank you, Frey," Albus laughed. "I am old and wise enough to know my limits. Take this young hellion here, by all means! He has the energy to leap over entire mountain chains!" He smoothed Sev's long dark hair. "Well, my child, it's time for me to continue on my rounds. Stop by later for some divinity and hot chocolate." The two hugged one another before Albus left.
"Divinity and hot chocolate?" echoed Professor Azaki with a smile. "Why weren't the teachers like that when I went to school here?"
Sev returned the smile. "I'm just lucky, I guess," he said wistfully.
-----------
----------------------------
URGENT OWL POST
Headmaster A. Dumbledore Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Dear Headmaster Dumbledore:
This is to advise you that Severus Snape has been returned to St. Mungo's. As you may already know, Severus has spent time with me this summer learning more about potions. Apparently, he encountered a piece of furniture here that frightened him. He did quite a bit of damage before I was able to calm him.
He is stable and doing well at this time.
Obviously, I am anxious to speak with you about this. I will be at my manor house should you wish to visit and I will tell you what I know.
Yours, Sejanus Sartoris Potions Master
--------------------------------------
To state that Albus Dumbledore reacted negatively to this missive would have been the understatement of the century. It was a good thing that the small and rather timid Saw-Whet Owl who delivered the letter had chosen to hide under a chair. Otherwise, it might have been swept up into the five- mile-high tower of thunderheads that suddenly burbled up in the disturbed air directly above the Headmaster's person.
Argus Filch, Rubeus Hagrid, four faculty members, and at least two dozen House Elves beat tracks to the Headmaster's Office. The squall line over that portion of the Castle was already starting to produce thunder, lightning, high winds, hail, torrential rain, and a few dangling (though thankfully puny) tornadoes.
"Great Merlin, Albus! What is it?" Minerva McGonagall shrieked, opening the Headmaster's office door.
She was stunned to see absolute and unbridled rage on the old wizard's face. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, although that was most likely electrical energy being stored up for the next jolt of lightning. Dumbledore stood in front of his desk, the parchment clutched in his fist, hyperventilating and swearing in Chaucerian English.
"Easy, Headmaster!" cried Poppy Pomfrey, casting a soothing charm over the irate man. "Easy, if you please!" Most of the assembled House Elves ran away shrieking.
"Albus!" cried Professor Penderdandis. "Calm yourself!"
"READ IT!" Dumbledore cried, thrusting the crumpled parchment under the esteemed teacher's rather long nose. He looked like Moses, about ready to mow down the infidels with a couple of slabs of marble tablet. Gingerly, Minerva minced her way under his arm and snatched the letter away.
"Oh my goodness," she murmured as the other teachers crowded round to read it.
"He -- hurt -- my -- child -- " Albus snarled. "He -- hurt -- "
"Easy now," Poppy said again, easing the old man over to a nearby chair. "Sit down and calm yourself. Please."
"Albus," Minerva said in what she earnestly hoped was a soothing tone of voice, "it says right here that Severus is doing well."
"Snap -- the -- old -- monster's -- neck -- for -- him -- "
"I don't think so, Albus," Penderdandis sighed, patting the now-seated man's shoulder. "Once you calm down, Minerva and I would be happy to floo with you to St. Mungo's. Does that sound like a good plan?" If his words weren't getting through, perhaps dumb show would suffice. He bobbed his head up and down at Dumbledore to signify that this would be a good thing.
"Breathe in -- breathe out -- " Poppy chanted.
The anvil clouds above the school began to dissipate. The shrieking winds died down. Fawkes the Phoenix pecked morosely at a hailstone that had landed in his water bowl.
"I'm -- all right," Dumbledore said at last.
"Sir, would you likeum usses to get Perfesser Sartoris for youse?" one of the few remaining House Elves asked.
"Professor Sartoris can go to the devil, if he hasn't made the trip already," Albus Dumbledore growled, his voice not unlike the booming claps of thunder that preceded it.
"And if he doesn't know the way, kindly give him directions," Minerva McGonagall added, scooping up a handful of floo powder and pushing both elderly men before her into the fireplace. Then -- poof!
They were gone.
"It won't be an easy job to clean up this mess," growled Argus Filch, trying to rub a lightning-strike scorch mark from the dark oak wainscoting that ringed the room. "Come on, Mrs. Norris."
The animagus purred and eeled her way around the caretaker's ankles.
--------------
Albus and his two colleagues hardly broke stride when they burste through the floo portal at St. Mungo's Hospital. "Wait a moment, please!" the wizard tending the front desk sputtered indignantly, getting up and racing after them.
"Hurry," Albus Dumbledore cried. "We might be able to outrun him. This way!"
Minerva whirled around, pointing her wand at the gentleman. "I wouldn't," she said, giving him such a schoolteacherly scowl that the wizard stopped dead in his tracks.
"St. Bartholomew Prep School flashback," the man whispered.
"Now there, you, boy!" McGonagall snapped. "Back to your Charms class, straight away! Off with you!"
Wordlessly, the middle-aged man turned and wandered off.
"Once a teacher, always a teacher," Minerva whispered to herself, stifling the urge to giggle hysterically. "I'm right behind you, Albus," she cried, easing right behind in Dumbledore's magical slipstream.
----------------
Of course, Albus knew exactly where Severus would be. He and the two other teachers burst into what was sometimes called the Kiddie Snuff Ward.
"Severus?" he cried, looking all around him.
Asphora LaChance was immediately at his elbow. "Albus," she said. "I'm right here!"
He stopped and turned. "Oh, bless you, Asphora! Where is he?"
"We have him in his own room, right down the hall. He's sleeping now, but I'm sure he'd be delighted to see all three of you." She introduced herself to Professor McGonagall ("Ah – lovely aura," the healer whispered) and all four entered a small room at the end of the hall.
The room was thick with soothing energy that curled and spiraled through the room in ceaseless convection currents. They rose and fell, caressing the young man asleep in the bed.
"What happened to him, Asphora?" Albus whispered, not wishing to disturb his Dark child's rest.
"From what Professor Sartoris told me, Severus was walking down one of the ground floor hallways when he saw what the Muggles used to call an "Iron Maiden".
All three Hogwarts teachers frowned. An Iron Maiden was sort of like a hinged Egyptian sarcophagus that opened to reveal spikes of various lengths. Once part of any Dark inquisitor's arsenal of torture equipment, a person could be placed into it and the lid closed, piercing the occupant and causing great pain and terror.
"What in the name of Seven Hells was he doing with one of those in his house?" Professor Penderdandis hissed.
"It was some old relic from one of the Sartoris ancestors. He used it as a furniture piece in his hallway," Healer LaChance replied. "It didn't even have any spikes in it. But the mere sight of it set Sev off. Apparently, he proceeded to trash the downstairs quite thoroughly before the girl got her great-grandfather up from the Potions Lab."
"Good for Severus," Minerva sniffed. "I'd personally like to trash that old goat's laboratory as well as the house proper."
"I don't understand," Dumbledore whispered. "I thought all those memories had been obliviated."
"Many of them had been, Albus," Asphora replied. "It's obvious that we needed to do additional work. I took the risk of assuming you'd agree with us, and we performed another Obliviation Ceremony on him earlier today. As his guardian, you would have had the right to stop me."
"But you correctly surmised that I wouldn't," Albus sighed, patting the young woman on the shoulder. "Thank you. Well done. When do you think he might be able to come home, Shonsey?"
"You can take him later today if he seems otherwise well," the healer replied. "You, Albus Dumbledore yourself, can take him back to Hogwarts, that is. No side trips here, there, and elsewhere." She turned her fluffy head toward Penderdandis and McGonagall. "Might I speak alone with the Headmaster, please?" she asked with a kind smile.
"Certainly," both teachers said, and withdrew to the hallway.
"Sev's aura is all run through with tendrils of unreflective blackness, Albus," Asphora whispered. "I was quite alarmed when I saw them. Wherever he was this summer pushed him further away from the Light. I'm not intending to tell you your business, but -- "
"Then that's fine," Dumbledore replied, cutting her words off courteously yet firmly. "I will keep him safe with me until the new term begins."
"Will you fire Professor Sartoris?" she asked.
"I'm considering my -- options," he answered.
"Shonsey?" Severus whispered, rubbing his eyes. For a few confused moments the boy lay there, unsure of where he was and why.
"My dear child!" Albus breathed.
"Father!" Severus shrieked, bounding out of bed so fast that his ankle became entangled in the quilt. If Dumbledore hadn't moved quite so fast, the boy would have landed on his face.
Albus caught him in a tight embrace. "My poor Severus!" the old man said, close to tears. "I'm so sorry this happened."
"It wasn't your fault," the boy whispered in his ear, his long fingers entwined in the old man's velvet robes. "It was mine. I shouldn't have gone off like that. I'll bet Professor Sartoris is really mad at me for wrecking his hallway."
"A broken vase or smashed glass doesn't matter, but you do, honey," Asphora replied, placing her hands on both sides of his head. "We tried a bit more obliviation earlier today. How are you feeling now?"
Still enfolded in the Headmaster's arms, the Dark child thought for a moment, and then answered. "I feel -- better. Please, can I go home?"
It took Healer LaChance a few moments to realize that Severus meant Hogwarts School. "Why don't you stay here for a few more hours, Sev, and then I'll send you home with Headmaster Dumbledore. I'm sure he will wait for you, and I'm also sure the kitchen wouldn't mind giving up a couple of bowls of pistachio ice cream in the meantime!"
"Right you are," Dumbledore chuckled, smoothing the boy's tousled black locks off his face and kissing his forehead.
"Make that four bowls if you please," Minerva McGonagall declared.
---------------
Later that night – after Albus had tucked Severus into his bed and had asked Head of Slytherin House Professor Penderdandis to keep a close watch over him – the Headmaster returned to his own office and summoned the Potions Master.
He made the Dark Lord's treatment seem like kisses from Sartoris' mother.
---------------
The next day, Severus took advantage of the few days remaining before the start of the new term by seeking out his Magickal World instructor.
"Professor Azaki," he said, "I wanted to ask if you would teach me about mountaineering and let my friends and me climb one of the neighboring peaks."
"Of course, Severus. I'd be happy to," responded the cheerful young man, still invigorated by his recent summit of Mt. Fujiyama. "I can even spare a few minutes now. What I teach you now, you can teach them – who did you say your friends were?"
"I didn't," Sev said. "But they are James Potter and Lily Evans, sir."
"Bright and healthy students. Excellent! We could make the expedition a foursome, perhaps sometime this fall. I know a good trail up Mt. Muldoon we could try. Well, then. Tell me what you know so far."
Severus grinned. He liked to please his teachers and was glad for the chance to show them what he knew without certain Gryffindor students hissing "Suck-up!" from behind him. "Muggle mountaineering is similar to ours in a number of ways. For example, both wizarding folk and Muggles can suffer numerous afflictions if they ascend too high, too fast."
"Right," Professor Azaki said. "Explain what 'hike high, sleep low' means."
"It means that when you are trying to acclimatize – that is, get your body used to living at a higher altitude – you must do it slowly. Climb higher during the day, but come back to where you were to sleep that night."
"Correct. If you don't acclimatize, you can get what the Muggles call pulmonary or cerebral edema – your heart and/or lungs can stop working properly and you'll die."
"Also, there's not nearly enough oxygen up there to breathe, and if you go up too fast you'll be too exhausted to do anything but lie there gasping for breath."
"What's this?" said Albus Dumbledore, poking his head into the room. "A mountain field-trip planning session?"
"It is," smiled Professor Azaki, looking up. He was surprised to see Severus sprint over to the old wizard, nearly knocking him over in his zeal to hug him.
"Easy, my boy!" Dumbledore laughed. "Weren't you just talking about 'gasping for breath'?" Both laughed.
"The Headmaster is like my father, Professor," the boy explained.
"That's right," Albus added. "Severus is family, Frey." The boy looked into the old man's face with such gratitude and love that Albus scarcely kept the tears back.
"Headmaster," Sev said excitedly, "we were just talking about Wizard Mountaineering."
"And our scholar here has just told me how it is similar to Muggle mountain- climbing. Now, what are the differences?"
"We can use spells, but they work much more slowly and aren't as strong as they ordinarily would be. This makes relying upon them rather risky."
"That's right," Azaki replied. "What else might happen if a witch or wizard apparated from ground level to the summit of a mountain?"
"In addition to the other effects Muggles would suffer, the witch or wizard might drastically shrink in size. For example, the explorer who first summitted Mt. Cotopaxi in 1887 -- Eduardo de Cacahuete – went from nearly six feet tall to four feet, nine inches."
"Ah, the reason for his name – 'Edward the Peanut'!" Dumbledore (who spoke seventeen Muggle languages) added. "I assume that wasn't his original last name."
"You assume correctly, Headmaster. Well, it seems that we might have a small mountaineering society beginning here at Hogwarts. Should we count on you to join us?"
"No thank you, Frey," Albus laughed. "I am old and wise enough to know my limits. Take this young hellion here, by all means! He has the energy to leap over entire mountain chains!" He smoothed Sev's long dark hair. "Well, my child, it's time for me to continue on my rounds. Stop by later for some divinity and hot chocolate." The two hugged one another before Albus left.
"Divinity and hot chocolate?" echoed Professor Azaki with a smile. "Why weren't the teachers like that when I went to school here?"
Sev returned the smile. "I'm just lucky, I guess," he said wistfully.
-----------