Chapter 18 - Mum, Part 2
"Anita," Anastasia said, "I agree with the boy. You should trust first in this case. Severus could not have brought a more powerful icon of his true self or a better peacemaker. He has met you much farther than halfway." She waited for Anita to respond. When a time passed, she said, "What is still bothering you?"
After a long moment, Anita said quietly, "I raised a dark wizard."
Harry glanced at Snape, who was staring at the floor before his mother's chair.
"You would never believe I changed," Snape said. "Twenty years have gone by and you still refuse."
Her eyes went dark. "You were a monster—there was no path back for you."
Harry bit his lip and waited for someone else to speak.
Anita took a deep, calming breath. "I fear now that you have fooled this boy," she gestured to Harry.
In a level tone, as though he were being extra patient with a student, Snape said, "Even if you have no faith in me, you are seriously underestimating two people, Albus Dumbledore and Harry himself." Snape stood up and looked back at Harry still on the couch. "Are you ready?" he asked factually.
"To leave?" Harry asked in surprise. "If you really want . . . " He studied Snape. Whatever had emerged to unhinge him was completely submerged again. Harry wouldn't have known it was ever there, looking at him now.
Anita stood as well. "We prepared lunch for you," she said a little strained. "Please, give us a chance to be decent hosts, at least."
Snape bowed acceptance of that after a brief hesitation. Anita led the way out the back to a stone paved area with a wooden table. Harry only now got glimpses of the other inhabitants, working in the gardens, weaving; he thought he heard a fire roaring hot nearby and imagined a kiln or a blacksmith. A wave of Anita's wand set the table.
A little sheepishly, she said, "I assumed your son would be a little younger, so I invited two of the young girls who live here to join us. They are nine and eleven. I think they will be thrilled to meet Harry."
The old witch had stepped away. She returned accompanied by a woman with long blonde hair with two sun-bleached children in tow.
"Severus' new son is a little older than I imagined, Caroline," Anita apologized to the woman as they gathered at the table.
Harry held out his hand. Caroline accepted it and said, "Caroline. We only have one name here," she explained.
"Harry Potter," Harry said.
The two girls gasped and the woman froze halfway to sitting down. "My goodness," she said.
"Are you really?" one of the girls asked.
"All my life," Harry returned.
"I want to sit next to Harry," one of them insisted and immediately leapt around the table to squeeze between Snape and him. The other, upon seeing this, jumped up as well. "Me too!" She took the short end of the bench. Snape moved down to make more room for them all.
"Hello," Harry said, feeling strange to be pressed between two glowing children with wide blue eyes of amazement.
"I'm Rattanita," one of them said. "Call me Ratta."
"Pleased to make your acquaintance," Harry said lightly, making her giggle.
"I'm called Princess, but that isn't my real name," the other one ended in a whisper.
"You have to forgive them," Caroline said. "They are very sociable, but we get very few visitors. Especially not ones that they already worship."
"When are you coming out with a poster?" Princess demanded.
Harry gave her an alarmed look in return. "Never, if I have anything to say about it." When she pouted, looking honestly crushed, Harry said, "You can always magically blow up the chocolate frog card."
Princess leaned forward to look at her sister in excitement. "Good idea!"
"I didn't really say that," Harry said in disgust, taking off his glasses to rub his eyes.
Snape said, "Ah, it is good to see how well Potter has adjusted to his fame."
Harry narrowed his eyes at him. "Don't go there," he said in mock threat.
Ratta grabbed his arm rather hard and said, "I can't believe it! Harry Potter," as she shook him.
"Girls," Caroline admonished them. "Some decorum now, if you can manage."
They released him and sat up straight, primly putting their serviettes in their laps. Harry decided he preferred them the other way.
Salad arrived with dark red tomatoes and crisp cucumbers. Then cold soup. Then roasted vegetable sandwiches. "You eat well here," Harry said to the girls.
They shrugged. "What is your favorite food?" one of them asked.
"Chocolate cake," Harry replied.
"Birthday cake?" the other asked for confirmation.
"Yep. The first one I ever had was the best one," he said, falling into a mode of entertaining them. "Even though a giant had squashed it by carrying it in his pocket."
"No!" Princess insisted. "Don't be silly."
"I'm not," Harry said.
"How do you remember the first birthday cake you ever had?" Ratta asked in accusation.
"I was eleven. Your age."
"You didn't get one before that?" Ratta asked in horror.
"Not a one."
"We'll make you one!" They insisted.
"That's okay, really. I had chocolate cake for pudding last night. Our house-elf makes it all the time," Harry insisted, only then realizing the oddness of that.
"You still have that house-elf?" Anita asked Snape.
Snape shook his head. "A different one."
"What happened to Tidgy?" Anita asked suspiciously.
When no one answered, one of the girls parroted while tugging on Harry's arm, "What happened to him?"
Harry took a deep breath and replied, "He was eaten by a snake. A really big one."
Anita gave him a disbelieving look at the same time as the girls whined, "Nooooo, silly."
"I keep telling you the truth; I can't help it if you don't believe me."
Princess put her hands on her hips in mock disgust. "What happened to the snake?" she asked as though to test his story.
"I told it to go sleep by the hearth. Then the Ministry took it away."
Princess eyed him strangely as though realizing he wasn't playing the game properly; his tall tales were not supposed to be true.
"You told it to go sleep by the hearth?" Anita asked carefully.
Snape said quietly, "You have no sense of when to hide the truth, Potter." The entire table had frozen, staring warily at Harry. To the table, Snape said, "You have to realize that he was raised as a Muggle; he doesn't understand the implications of what he is admitting to."
The girls leaned around Harry and whispered, then slid off the bench and scampered off. Harry felt a little alone on his end of the table now.
"More tea, anyone?" Anastasia brightly asked, her aged hand holding the pot up unsteadily in invitation.
The girls returned, giggling. Harry turned to them in surprise. Princess held up a green garter snake for his inspection.
"Girls," Caroline said, although it didn't have the sharp edge it could have.
"We want to see him talk to it," Ratta insisted. "We've never seen anyone talk to a snake before."
"Because only dark wizards can do that," Caroline replied slowly, eyeing Harry.
"Mum, don't be dumb! It's Harry Potter." She handed him the snake. It was all of two foot long and as green as grass. It asked to be put down.
"It wants to be left alone." At their doubtful expressions, he insisted, "That's what it just said."
"Oh, you can't really talk to snakes," Princess said in disappointment. "I could have told you that."
Harry sighed. "What do you want me to ask it?"
Caroline sat back with her tea. "Ask it if it ate Peralla's Crickets. They all disappeared one day.
"Where were they?" Harry asked.
"In a small white box," Ratta provided.
Harry asked the snake that. Everyone at the table stiffened as he did. "Whoa," Princess breathed. The snake nodded. "It did! Did you see that mum—it nodded!" she exclaimed. "You really can talk to snakes." She took the garter back gently and set it down in a patch of tarragon nearby.
"You sound really strange when you do that," Ratta said.
"I can't hear it," Harry said. "I just think I'm talking normally." Snape gave him a surprised look at that. Harry shrugged in return.
Ice cream was served for pudding. Harry savored every bite of each of four flavors, thinking with satisfaction that it was probably twice as good as anything Dudley ever ate in front of him. Princess curled up in Caroline's lap across from him despite being far too big to do so easily. Caroline alternated bites between herself and her daughter. She set the spoon down to wipe her mouth, then ran her fingers through Princess' hair before kissing her on the top of the head. Princess looked up and got a kiss on the forehead as well. Caroline picked up the spoon again.
Realizing that he was staring, Harry went back to his ice cream, feeling colder inside than the ice cream could account for.
Ratta came up to him and nudged him shyly. "Can you sign this?" she asked, holding his chocolate frog card.
"Oh, get mine too!" Princess said, sitting up suddenly, unbalancing her mother and herself.
"I got it," Ratta insisted, pulling another roughed up card from her pocket.
Harry borrowed a quill and signed them both personally. With ginger motions they picked the cards up and carried them off, careful not to smudge the ink.
"Thank you," Caroline said across from him. Harry shrugged that it was no big deal.
The girls returned and now sat more quietly beside him. "Did a giant really squash your birthday cake?" Princess asked.
"Not really," Harry said. "It was only a half-giant."
Princess punched him on the arm. "What other funny things have happened to you? Tell us something else."
Harry gazed at her as though she were crazy. "How much time do you have?"
"Not that long," Caroline replied for them.
"Awwww," the girls complained. Princess grabbed his arm yet again. "Tell us something," she pleaded.
"Uh, about what?"
After a moment's deliberation, Ratta said, "The Tri-Wizard Tournament on the card. Tell us about that. How did you win it?"
"A dark wizard pretending to be a friendly wizard made sure I won it. I wouldn't have otherwise."
"Why did they put it down, then?" Ratta demanded, insulted.
"They didn't ask me before they wrote that. Otherwise I'd have told them to take it off."
"Did you get the bad wizard in the end?" Princess asked conspiratorially.
"No. The teachers did." Harry remembered that terrible moment in Moody's office when he realized the other wizard intended to kill him. He had already been shattered by Cedric's death and his narrow escape from Voldemort. He had been helpless, in shock. His heart pumped at the memory even two years later.
"Girls," Caroline said quietly. She gave them a palm down gesture with her hand, and they fell silent.
"I do hope you are helping this boy heal?" Anita demanded of Snape.
Taken aback, Snape didn't answer immediately. Harry did. "He is," he said quietly.
"More ice cream?" Princess asked him, looking concerned.
"Thanks," Harry said with a smile which removed her strained look instantly.
They made their goodbyes soon after that, while there was still plenty of good daylight left for the walk back to the pub. The train station was quiet as well when arrived there. Traffic on the road in the village was light and soon Harry relaxed as the door closed behind him inside their house.
"I'll tell Winky that dinner can be late and light."
"I suspect she already knows," Harry said.
"She is unusually perceptive," Snape agreed.
Post had arrived in their absence. Harry picked up two letters and took them up to his room to write replies. He told Hermione about the two little girls without saying where he had met them. Neville had been helping him with the parchment spell, even going into the wizard library in London to look for books that might help.
After a small dinner, Harry wrote a long note discussing what he had learned since they had last corresponded and tried out some spells Neville suggested in his letter. He was running out of blank parchment. If he tore a blank sheet off of the writing tablet, it threatened to not give you another. And once a sheet had been spelled, it never worked quite right for a new spell. He went downstairs and found Snape in the drawing room at the desk as usual. When he looked up, Harry asked, "Do you have any parchment?"
Snape pulled open a drawer beside him. "It is here—help yourself."
Harry came over and pulled out five sheets before shutting the drawer again. He hesitated there. "The visit went all right," Harry commented. Snape made an ambivalent motion with his head. Harry could not see him well since he was bent over some kind of form and this made his hair fall over his face. "Sorry about the Parselmouth thing. It just isn't important to me, so I can't remember that other people care so much."
Snape didn't reply, so Harry stepped away. "Hey, can I go to Diagon Alley now and get my school stuff?"
"I thought we would do that on the way to Hogwarts."
"Okay," Harry agreed and realized that Snape was right, he was trying too hard to please him, but doing otherwise wasn't really imaginable.
After playing around with some new parchment spells in his room for a while, Harry grew too tired to continue. He changed into his pyjamas, noting that they seemed too tight, and crawled into bed. He dropped off to sleep after a short while, undisturbed by dreams.
Something touching his hair woke him. Harry, lying on his stomach, turned his head to see what it was. A shadow loomed close in his mind, outlined by the dim light from the hall beyond in his real vision. He was actually starting to get used to that.
"I did not realize you would be so soundly asleep already," Snape said apologetically.
"Long day," Harry muttered.
The bed tilted slightly. "I realized something about you today, Harry."
"So did I," Harry murmured.
"What was that?"
"You are the only person who understands anything," Harry said sleepily.
"Hm."
A long silence ensued. Harry had to fight drifting off again. "Are you going to tell me?"
"I think not, upon further reflection."
Harry frowned into his pillow. "You are just here to make me nuts?"
"No," Snape countered softly. Harry started as something brushed his hair again. He opened his eyes to catch the dim silhouette of Snape's hand. He turned his face into the pillow as he realized that Snape had caught him staring at Princess and her mother. Flushed with embarrassment, he burrowed down under the covers. A hand rested on his covered shoulder a long moment before the bed tilted again and Snape left. A warm anxiety had replaced the cold ache and Harry marveled at how much better that felt.
