Disclaimer: I do not own any characters or places that are mentioned in the Harry Potter books, or in HP Lexicon. Everything else, however, is mine. Cheers!
Oh, and just in case any of you were wondering, I did not not make up the spell Hestia used to change Evan's turtle. The words are Latin-based! I didn't just pull out a funny word out ofthe top of my head!
---H.H.
Chapter Two: A Violet, an Imp, and a Feather
Meanwhile, in the large kitchens, it was chaos.
Marmie Dunblane was Hestia's plump and boisterous cook. Her gray-streaked hair was always drawn messily into a bun to keep out of her eyes while she mixed ingredients and chopped vegetables. Marmie had cooked for old Haverington, too, and kept the rooms cleaned and the floor swept for him before he passed away a year and a half ago. She lived with her Muggle husband in the countryside and came to work every day by Floo.
Today she was bustling around, taking pots off the fires and opening the cupboards magically. Plates and cups were zooming out, flying over everyone's heads and across the room to land on top of the table in the adjoining room, maneuvering around Tobias' outstretched hand and Lord Balfour's tall brown head. Irene was trying her best to set the table around Balfour's big frame, and her oldest son, who was trying to snatch things out of the air for devices of his own, did not help one bit.
"Tobias! I swear, if you do that one more time, I'll----" Irene snapped just as he had managed to capture the sugar bowl, which was quaking in his grasp.
"Mum! Don't swear on my account! It would horribly deflect upon my conscience if you did, believe me!" the nine-year-old replied cheekily. Tobias was an imp and a smart one at that.
Irene only swatted the back of his curly head in response and relocated the sugar bowl.
When she moved away, Tobias snuck a small handful of Pepper Imps and Fizzing Whizbees into his pockets. Marmie always insisted on keeping a small bowl of sweets for a snack in the afternoon, and on this day Tobias was taking advantage of that.
At the other end of the large, wooden table, Morgan sat with the Baron, Lord Balfour, or Uncle Balfour, as the children liked to call him. They were huddled together, whispering excitedly, both of them looking down at something clasped in Balfour's hands. Morgan's long curls fell over her face and onto the table, so Irene couldn't quite see on what they were looking at. She had a guess, though, seeing as how it was green and wriggling…and seeing, also, that this was her daughter and the baron, Lord Balfour.
In fact, her guess was right on the dot, if one were to take a closer look at it; and since Irene was now in the kitchen, retrieving a bowl of buttered rolls, Morgan could now lean back a little bit, so that one could take a closer look at it. Morgan knew what her mother would say if she saw just what exactly Uncle Balfour was holding.
In his soft, soiled hands, he held what looked like a small cluster of slimy violets. The tiny blue flower at the end of the wiggling stem kept opening and closing, producing the faintest smell of rotten fish and boiled cabbage. This flower was only a seedling so its stench wasn't deadly yet, but upon maturing, the scent of the Violent Violet could make trained wizards pass out.
"Do you see this small blue cut underneath its petals, Morgan?" Balfour whispered, trying to show her. The Violet was squirming so much at his touch that Morgan could only see it for one split second when its petals curled up, before it stretched them back out again.
"I saw it, Uncle Balfour!" the six-year-old girl squealed excitedly. "It does something, doesn't it? When it's big and grown, huh?"
He chuckled, "You're right! Where did you hear about that? The older they get, the more the cut swells, and when they are full grown it is this very same cut that can somehow sense danger. Before anyone can pick it or squash it or do it any harm, it lets out the most disgusting smell---so terrible that the person nearest it will fall down, choking. If there is no one there to pull him away instantly, then he will die."
She looked at him, eyes wide in astonishment. "But then, how come you have one? Won't it kill you?"
Balfour shook his head, smiling, "No, Morgan, don't worry, I'm not going to have it long enough for it to mature. You see, the Violent Violet, when ground into powder, is often used in such potions as the Befuddlement Draught, the Shrinking Solution, and the Polyjuice Potion."
"What's that?" Morgan lowered her voice as Biddy walked by and cast them an unsavory look.
Balfour cleared his throat and waved his hand impatiently. "Oh, it just turns you into another person. Anyway, the other batch I have in the greenhouse aren't ready yet, but when they all have seven blossoms attached to the stem, that means they are just ripe enough. Then we will shave off the slime----which I'll boil and send to Professor Snape for him to use in a Truth Serum----and wait three days for the stem to dry."
"An' then we'll grind it, right?" Morgan asked. At her uncle's nod, she looked down at the small plant sadly. "Do we have to kill it, Uncle Balfour?"
"You said yourself that it's dangerous to keep a full grown one, Morgan. I told you before that some plants in the greenhouses are not to keep and take care of, but to put to good use for potions and other things. That's why I have two greenhouses, remember? To separate them. So don't get too close to this one!"
Morgan looked down at it wistfully for a moment, before it spat out another horrible whiff. She wrinkled her nose in disgust and said, "No, that's okay…I don't think I will!"
Balfour roared with laughter, causing the whole kitchen to look over at them. When he just shook his head, smiling, they all went back to getting the food ready.
Biddy, the house-elf and Hestia's oldest and dearest friend, was carrying a bowl of hot peas to the table. She was only two feet high, so she had to reach a bit to set the hot bowl next to Balfour's plate. The tall Baron looked over briefly, saw the house-elf's clothes whip out of sight, and focused his attention onto the vegetables before him, digging hungrily in.
Alexandra, meanwhile, was carrying out her own mission. She was in the kitchen pretending to help Marmie and Biddy and her mother, but in reality she had swiped Marmie's wand when the cook wasn't looking. The girl had taken but two steps---the stolen wand hidden safely up her sleeve---when she stopped and realized just what Marmie was doing…
The cupboard doors, the drawers opening and closing, knives cutting without assistance, utensils flying across the room…Marmie was doing all of this without her wand!
Alexandra twirled around and stared at the cook wide-eyed. Marmie was still bustling around, setting pots on the table in the attachment room, scooping up moving knives and setting them in the soapy sink. She didn't even seem to notice that her wand was missing! A grin stole across the girl's face and she was almost out of the door when she bumped into the person nobody thought was ever going to arrive.
"Aunt Hestia!" Alexandra said in surprise.
Everyone turned to look at her and Hestia smiled sheepishly.
"Does this mean you're done?" asked Balfour hopefully.
Hestia shook her head. Evander, who had walked in with her, released her hand to go sit with his brother, cupping his small hand against Tobias' ear and whispering.
"No, actually, I just needed a little break is all!" Hestia replied.
Marmie muttered to the sink, "A little one? I'm never gonna let her out o' this kitchen, now!"
Irene smirked. "Yes, please don't!"
Tobias hurried into the kitchen, having just spotted a pan of crisp apple pie. He devoured it with his eyes as he carried it reverently to the table, setting it in the middle like it was the King of England.
Hestia missed Marmie and Irene's interchange due to a very sharp eye. Just as Alexandra tried to pass her, Hestia stuck out her arm and glared at her.
"Care to hand that over, Alexa?" she asked.
The girl groaned and pulled the wand out from her sleeve, where the tip had slipped out a bit. She had nearly made it out!
Handing it over, she muttered, "It's Marmie's."
Her aunt grinned in satisfaction. "Thank you. Next time don't take it from such an obvious person, Marmie's looking for it already!"
Alexandra blew her cheeks out in frustration and flipped her long hair. Glancing over her shoulder she saw, sure enough, that Marmie was searching all over the counter for it.
Hestia looked surprised, but pleased, when Alexandra gave her a quick hug before exiting, calling over her shoulder, "Nice to see you out of that room, anyway!"
Hestia chuckled and helped bring in the last of the food onto the table. Finally, after what seemed like ages to Tobias, everyone dug in.
Tobias reached for the pie with a well-practiced arm. He had the pan in his grasp and was just lifting a knife to cut it when his mother caught his arm.
"Eat some food first! Desserts are for last, you know that!" she scolded. Tobias rolled his eyes, gave her the pan, and reached for something else.
There were baked potatoes as well as mashed, bowls of cooked peas and carrots, hot buttery rolls, creamy fruit salads, and an apple pie. While Marmie had been busy with the vegetables, Biddy had made sweet lemonade for the children and iced tea for the adults.
Because it was a cool July day, the windows on one side of the paneled room were all open, inviting the nice afternoon breeze into the room where Hestia, Lord Balfour, Irene, Marmie, Tobias, Morgan, and Evan were sitting. In addition, the open windows let the sweet wafting smells escape outside to where the groundskeeper happened to be working not fifty feet from the windows.
Old William Rhum set down his pruning sheers and sniffed. He was an old fellow and very thin with astonishingly blue eyes and white, wispy hair. He was tall, too, though you couldn't tell because he always stooped, as though hunch-backed.
He stood back and admired his handiwork. Around the perimeter of the Hesperus grounds was a high stoned wall, and before that was a hedge. It was near the gatehouse that Old William was pruning. Things tended to get wilder as they neared the gatehouse.
Old William picked up his shears again, having just spotted one unruly branch in the back that he missed before. He leaned forward, wobbling on his knobby legs, and snipped the small branch, nearly falling headfirst into the hedge. His crooked cane lay discarded by the gate, and next to it lay his graying cloak and a bottle of dram. Finally, he straightened up and concentrated once more on that delicious whiff he caught earlier.
Tatties…yes, he could smell tatties…the unenchanted normal ones that he planted in his small garden that was kept far away from the Baron's wild greenhouses that were teeming with magic. He also caught the smell of freshly squeezed lemons, and…hot bread...and something else...the overpowering smell of apple pie. He nodded in satisfaction and picked up his things, limping slightly to the kitchen door.
A babble of sound met his ears as he entered; everyone was talking at once. Hestia laughed delightfully at a joke Tobias had told her, while Irene beside her was dabbing at the tea on the table that her sister had spat out. Evander, instead of eating his peas, was balancing them on top of his spoon, his eyes silently willing them not to fall over. Marmie was trying to hide her grin as she scolded him for playing with his food, but she wasn't quite succeeding. He had just placed the seventeenth pea on his precarious pile; Marmie was astounded that they all hadn't fallen over yet.
Tobias was stuffing taters into his mouth cumpulsively, saying, "Yer shpoiling ush today, Mahmie!"
Balfour rescued some of the mashed potatoes from Tobias and shoveled them onto a plate for the groundskeeper.
"Eat up, Old William!" the Baron boomed, "You could use a bit of fattening up, yourself! Where's Alexandra, by the way? Rolls are her favorite."
Tobias shrugged, feigning innocence. "Who knows? The girl has a mind of her own, she's a free spirit! Doesn't take well to being tied down! Like me! Can I have some apple pie now, Mum?"
Irene shook her head, pushing back her blond curls from her face. "No, Tobias! She probably went to see where Dingy went. He's been hiding ever since Toby said he was going to show him Balfour's collection of Mediterranean sponge."
"An' wot's so frigh'enin' aboot them?" Old William asked, sitting down next to Biddy.
"They have spikes!" Tobias said eagerly once he had cleared his mouth, "That shoot out of the pores when they sense someone approaching. They are the only sponges in any saltwater sea that can do it---!"
"Ah! Well that would do it!" Hestia took a sip from her icy cold tea and glanced over at Biddy. The house-elf sat composed atop the stack of books that were perched on her chair.
Hestia had known Biddy all of her life; they had grown up together, really. When Hestia was little, Biddy usually watched her when her parents were gone to work and Jason and Irene were at Hogwarts. They were at the age when neither of them paid any attention as to the difference of their species. They played together, ate together, and Hestia would even join Biddy in the housework. When Hestia's parents died the spring after she turned eleven, it was only she and Biddy who went to stay with great-uncle Haverington while Jason and Irene finished up their school year. Hestia was very pleased that the children's relationship with Biddy's son, Dingy, was the same that she had shared with her own house-elf.
Morgan sat on Biddy's other side, smearing gravy into her mashed potatoes. She was softly singing a song about pansies she had heard Old William singing just a while ago. Now and then, she would sneak glances at Uncle Balfour's cloak pocket, where the Violent Violet sat wriggling. She couldn't wait until supper was done so that she could pot it with Balfour in one of his greenhouses.
Balfour finished the last of his supper and scooped some delicious apple pie onto his plate, covering it with whipped cream. Tobias watched his every movement closely, his mouth watering. He looked down at his own plate, which still held the cooked carrots that he hated. "Can I have some apple pie now, Mum?" he asked pleadingly.
"Not until you finish your carrots, Toby! How many times do I have to tell you, you crazy imp?" Irene shook her head. "Well, that girl had better hurry before there's no food left! What with Balfour, William, and Toby all here, she's going to have to scrape the bottoms of the pans to get anything!"
Alexandra walked through the empty halls of the mansion on the third floor. Her footsteps echoed each time she placed her booted feet on the elegant stone.
Ever since she was six years old, Alexandra had exasperated her mother by acting and wanting to dress like her wild aunt. Irene could never get over the similarities in those two's personalities and looks. They shared the same dark brown, almost black, hair that curled and twisted down to their mid-backs. Their eyes were similar as well, though Hestia had dark blue and Alexa's were green.
Both of them acted on impulse, though Hestia's were more guarded and analyzed given her age and her past. Both of them even loved to write; Hestia was more interested in facts and history and bettering the lives of others, while Alexa would scribble away happily for hours, filling rolls of parchment, telling fantastical tales and weaving stories to suit her own fancy.
But right now, Alexandra was looking for Dingy. She called the small house-elf's name and poked her nose into several rooms, including Uncle Balfour's. She was about to exit it when her eye snagged on a small, quaking figure in a small corner beside a tall vine.
"Dingy?" She walked over and crouched next to him. He hid his little head in his arms, making his large, bat-like ears stick out protrusively. He was dressed in small trousers that Hestia had made for him and a little white shirt that was severely stained.
"Dingy, what's the matter?" Alexa questioned, placing a hand on his shoulder.
He lifted his face up to hers and blinked tears out of his enormous brown eyes. Then he threw his little arms around her neck and gave a small sob.
"Aww, Dingy! Was it what Toby said about the sponges? Cause if it was, I'll pummel him for you!" she said, hoping to reassure him. She was most surprised when he shook his head violently and spoke up.
"Oh no!" he squeaked. "T'wasn't Toby a' tall! Dingy isn't frightened of sponges, Miss! It's something else…but Dingy can't say! I is not wanting to!"
Alexandra stood up with him wrapped tightly around her. She walked to Balfour's bed, pried him off and set him on it, and said, "Alright, spill it!"
Dingy sniffled and heaved a great sigh. "Okays, okays, Dingy will. Me was in the gatehouse one days---but just looking!" he added hastily at Alexandra's face.
"Dingy! You know Old William hates us going in there! But then…that's why you did it, didn't you? I think me and Toby are bad influences. Did he catch you?" she asked eagerly.
"Oh, no's! Dingy wouldn't be so foolishly if he's did that! Nope, Dingy hids when Ol' Williamer's comes in! He's wasn't been catching us that days, no sir!" Dingy smiled proudly, and Alexa grinned.
"Anywho's, Dingy's be hiding in a cupboard with ratses and roachies…me hates them, Miss!" He shivered.
Alexandra rolled her eyes, "Dingy, I've told you not to call me that! You call Toby, Morgan, and Evander by their real names, why can't you with me?"
"Oh's because, Miss! Dingy's be thinking you looks like a Miss an' nothin' else. Mory looks like Mory and Hesty looks like Hesty and Barons looks like Barons, so that must means that Miss must looks like Miss!"
Alexandra cocked her head at his reasoning, but decided to let it pass. "Go on," she said.
"Dingy's be's in filthy, roaching cupboards an' hears Ol' Williamer's bangings and tootings, Miss! Then pops is heard an' fire crackles an' then i' tisn't only Dingy in the room with him…Ol' Williamer's talks to the head in the fire an' then they leave, and guess what Dingy heard, Miss! Guess!" Dingy looked up at her, his big ears wiggling and his squat, tomato-like nose twitching.
"Er…er, I have no clue, Dingy, what?" Alexandra looked puzzled.
"Dingy hears the Proseffor, Miss! An' the Proseffor's be's saying he's coming today, Miss! So Dingy's be's hiding from the Proseffor, cuz Dingy's is frightened of him an' wants to be in hidings so me won't be found!"
Alexandra wrinkled her eyebrows, "But Dingy! Who is a 'Proseffor'? What do you mean? Who's coming?"
Dingy leaned forward and clasped her face in his long-fingered hands. "The Proseffor, Miss! With white hairies and tallses hats! Proseffor Dummydoor!"
A loud screech came from outside, and everyone in the kitchen turned to look. Above the treetops soared a beautiful Great Horned Owl, heading straight for the mansion.
"Oh, great! Cadmus is back, I had sent a letter to Albus pertaining to…er, never mind. But that's odd...I didn't expect him to write back, I wonder what it's----"
Hestia was interrupted by a scurrying of feet, and the next second Alexandra crashed into view, holding a stitch in her side.
"I know---what it's---about!" the girl gasped. Dingy had his arms wrapped around her neck again, and looked a bit greener than usual. Hestia didn't know whether that was because of his ride down there or of something else.
Tobias shoved the last agonizing bite of cooked carrots into his mouth. With a revolted expression, he swallowed with some difficulty. He shook his head and blinked his eyes. Then, he reached for his lemonade, took a swig, and looked over at the apple pie. Old William was just reaching over, about to take the very last piece.
As quick as a flash, Tobias shot out his seat, scooped up the pie with his hand and plopped it onto his plate. He looked up at Old William and grinned.
"Ye crazy bairn! I'll roast ye fer tha'!" Old William shook his fist at him.
Tobias smirked, smearing whipped cream onto his crumb pie.
When she could breathe again, Alexa hurried to the window where Cadmus had landed and was now sticking out his leg. He looked very pleased with himself and kept glancing over at the others, expectantly.
Alexa fumbled with the knot. When she untied it and released to small scroll, Cadmus took off, clipping her shoulder, and flying over everyone's heads and food towards his mistress.
"Ow!" exclaimed Alexa, rubbing her shoulder.
"Hey, watch it, featherbrain!" Marmie roared as one of Cadmus' wings dipped into the pitcher of tea. It toppled and nearly fell off the table.
One of Cadmus' talons clipped Balfour's tall head and he winced, rubbing it. Bits of feathers fell into the nearly empty pot of mashed taters. By the time Cadmus had reached Hestia, most of the occupants were either laughing or glaring at the big owl. Cadmus usually flew with grace, but he was so big that inside the house, he just looked clumsy.
While his twin sister scanned the contents of the letter that was addressed to their aunt, Tobias picked up his fork and spoon, ready to gorge into his favorite dessert. He looked down at his food.
Irene scolded her daughter for reading someone else's mail, but it was cut short by a loud whoop from Alexa.
"He's coming! He's coming!" she shrieked. "He'll be here at four and he's going to be eating dinner with us! Yes!"
"Who's coming?" several people asked at once.
"Professor Dumbledore, of course! Who else?" She sat down at the table, flushed. Hestia snatched the letter out of her hands and read it, Cadmus pecking at her hair dolefully.
There was a bubble of talk as everyone resumed eating, asking Alexa about what she read. Everyone, that is, except for Tobias.
"Whassa the matter, Toby?" Evander asked his older brother.
Tobias still sat, staring at his apple pie mournfully, utensils in hand. Evander glanced down and clapped his hand over his mouth to stop a bout of laughter from escaping. Balfour looked over at Toby's plate, and Old William peered over the lemonade pitcher. When the old man saw what was on the boy's pie, he chuckled gleefully.
"Rotten luck, tha'!" he laughed.
There, in the middle of Tobias' delicious dessert, lay a long brown feather, plastered to his whipped cream, covering the length of his pie completely.
Tobias groaned.
Author's Note: There you have it! Please feel free to review,whether you like it, or not. For those of you who have, thank you! Hope everyone has had pleasant holidays! The next chapter of this story will be posted in one week. I love you all! If you have any questions, please let me know and I will answer them collectively.
Signed, Hestia Hesperus