Chapter 7 Going to the Movies.
Flying was one of the most relaxing things he could do. When he was airborne he felt free from all of the daily strife of belonging to a large family with siblings that always expected him to have all the answers to the hard questions. Shadow stayed out with his hawk for the whole morning getting back just in time for lunch. He already knew that the afternoon would be spent in town doing some errand or another. Sunday afternoons were put aside by the family to go shopping for food, clothes or anything else they needed. After the shopping was finished the extended family would go out for dinner then do something together like go to a movie or ice skating or if anything interesting was going on around town they might attend that instead. Usually this early in September there was a carnival someplace or sometimes they would go on a boat ride down the Colorado River for a few hours. Whatever they did it was to provide quality time with the adults and children together. Shadow personally liked it when it got colder because then they would switch the shopping around and go skiing during the afternoon. In October they had the Halloween festival and in November there was the ice festival. December was the best though. That's when they had the snow sculpturing contests and cross country skiing and of course Christmas. Oh well, whatever they did this evening he was sure he would enjoy it even if they had company along today. "I wonder if Mr. Snape likes movies or ice skating," he wondered aloud.
When it was announced that Mr. Snape would be visiting Ice had been so scared that he would try to take him back to his natural father. Shadow had been prepared to hate the man on site just for scaring his brother like that but Mr. Snape turned out to be kind of nice. A little snarky perhaps and he definitely had a twisted sense of humor but he was ok. He didn't even bitch too much when the kids had turned his hair purple. Of course they had to do that because somehow dad had talked mom out of making him wear a dress for dinner. Well, the purple had only lasted for a few hours anyway but Mr. Snape had howled about it and then promised to turn all the kids into potions ingredients then did some sort of spell that had turned all of their hair neon colors. It was great. He promised it would stay that way till he went home. Shadow planned on cornering the man before bedtime and learning the spell for future use.
After lunch the whole family went grocery shopping then decided on a movie for an after dinner activity. Course it was a toss up between a chick flick or a good horror or si-fi show but the boys outnumbered the girls so if they could only agree amongst themselves on what to go see they would not be stuck watching another sappy love story. After much debate it was decided to go see the newest si-fi show. It had great reviews so perhaps it wouldn't be too bad. It turned out that Snape had never been to a movie theater so for him it was a new experience. Watching him get bug eyed over the big screen, eating popcorn and drinking soda was even more fun than watching the movie. On the trip back to the compound he had to be assured over and over that there was no magic involved in the movie.
When the family got home the kids made their way to their bedrooms for bed and the adults went to the family room to have some quiet conversation.
"Explain to me again about this movie thing. I can scarcely believe those were not real people shown to us by some sort of a strange pensive. Do things like that truly exist and if so why don't we know about them and do they have these movies in Scotland?" Snape asked as he finished his popcorn.
LeAnn laughed, "Severus, its like muggle books except that people called actors play the parts in the book and they record it with things called video cameras. It's not real and yes, movie theaters exist in Scotland." She looked at Chandos and said. "You know we corrupted him. When he gets home he's gonna find the nearest theater and start going every weekend now."
Chandos agreed "But it's better than if we turned him into a couch potato. Severus, just be happy that we don't have a TV or else you would be totally corrupted."
"TV? What's that?" Snape asked.
"Nope, no way are we going to pollute your mind with TV. Give it up Severus" Tracy added. "Just be happy with the occasional movie and forget about TV."
The adults talked for about another hour before they broke up for the night and headed for bed.
In the morning after breakfast the children went with Asia for lessons in spell weaving. Snape and Martin went off to Martin's potions lab to work on a potion that Martin was trying to improve and the rest of the house went off to deal with various other activities.
As the two were working Snape took the opportunity to ask Martin some questions on the family.
"Chandos told me that LeAnn can hear elementals that are in pain. What exactly did he mean by that?" Snape asked.
"I donno how she does it. I think I wouldn't be far off it I said it was some sort of mind elemental or something. I just know that she has some sort of special connection to young untrained elementals. When they reach the age of about 16 or are trained she can't get into their minds anymore. The untrained kids hate it because she always knows when they get hurt. It's funny to watch her stop what she's doing to rush out to take care of a skinned knee or a splinter. They can't hide anything from her."
"She reads their minds? I didn't think that was possible. I know legilimens comes close but even that's not quite mind reading." Snape said.
"No, its not legilimens. Its something different because she can get into their…I guess you would say pain centers. She senses their pain. Emotional, social and physical. Even she doesn't know how she does it. She almost always has up her occlumency shields and that cuts out the noise I guess you would say but when the pain just keeps happening then she can't tune it out anymore and we end up with another kid. Ice just about turned her into a basket case I think because he wasn't being abused for most of his life and then suddenly his father went off the deep end and started beating the shit out of him. Chandos thinks it has something to do with old Moldy Shorts but we aren't sure. I guess you would know about that better than the rest of us. You use to spy for the Order didn't you?"
Snape nodded his head. "I still do. Ice has been here for what… About two years now? During his first year at Hogwarts a teacher was possessed by the Dark Lord. He tried to steal something that was being protected at the school. A young girl was severely injured by a Troll and almost died. We managed to stop the theft and that prevented the Dark Lord from gaining a body but it alerted his followers that he was still alive and trying to become active again. Lucius Malfoy has always been a bit unstable. I guess that pushed him over the edge."
The two became silent for a bit as they diced ingredients for the potion they were working on. After Martin added the ingredients and began stirring counter clockwise he asked in a hesitant manor. "Is he back then?" Snape closed his eyes and nodded his head. "He made a new body and at the beginning of last week he preformed a ritual that allowed his soul to move into it. He's back and after power again. That's the reason I came here. The Order needs help and Chandos is a very strong wizard. I was sent by Albus to try and recruit him again.
Martin shook his head, "Won't work you know? Chandos won't leave his family again. At least not for the Order. I don't blame him either. I remember the disregard that Albus showed for his wife and daughters safety. If Chandos wouldn't have gotten back early that last night they would have been killed by those Death Eaters to revenge what happened to their Lord."
"Chandos told me some things about Albus. Things I never knew. If they are true then I don't know how I can support him either Martin. According to Chandos Albus is as bad if not worse than the Dark Lord."
"Do you believe him?" Martin asked.
"I don't want to and I can't allow myself to without proof but I will look into these allegations you can be assured of that. If I find out that what he told me is the truth then the Order needs to be informed. I very much hope that Chandos was misinformed because what we don't need is a war on two fronts and that's exactly what it would be…an all out war on two fronts with the damned stuck in the middle."
Snape looked at his watch. "I'm leaving in about 30 minutes. This has been enjoyable but I need to get packed. Regardless of whatever I find out I will be seeing you all over the Christmas holidays."
"It has been a pleasure seeing you again Severus. I look forward to spending Christmas with you."
With that Snape left the room to pack for his return home. When he was finished packing he shrunk his satchel and put it in his pocket. He then left for the great hall fireplace floo powder in hand. When he got to the hall seven teens with neon hair were waiting to say goodbye. Shaking hands all around he promised once again to return for the Christmas holidays before throwing the floo powder into the fireplace. As the green flames roared to life Snape stepped into the fireplace saying Central transport. North America and with that he spun out of sight.
After Snape left the children and Chandos went to the courtyard to practice unarmed fighting. The children split up into pairs with Shadow and Chandos wandering amongst them correcting holds, kicks and punches. The activity was fast paced and by the end of the session everyone was exhausted including the two that had acted as instructors for the rest of the kids.
(Hogwarts)
Snape stepped from the fireplace in the headmaster's office which was empty except for Fawkes. Well, that was to be expected. Albus would be at dinner as it was about 7:00 p.m. here. Snape wrote a quick note and asked Fawkes to deliver it to the headmaster than sat down in a comfortable chair to await his arrival.
Fawkes flashed into the great hall and dropped the short note onto the headmasters plate. Albus opened it and read 'I have returned. Snape'
Albus excused himself from the rest of the staff and made his way up to his office. Seating himself behind his desk he picked up a candy dish and made the usual offer. "Lemon drop?" After Snape refused he said, "Now my dear boy, tell me how things went on your visit. Did you convince Chandos to return and more importantly did you find Harry Potter."
"No and no. Albus, Chandos made some disturbing accusations against you when I was there. I need to know if there is any truth to what he said."
The customary twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes dimmed a bit as he repeated the word "Accusations, what sort of accusations are we talking about?"
"He said you were responsible for laws being passed that restrict the rights of the mixed bloods, that you are crippling the magic world by engineering it so that the up and coming generation of wizards are weaker than the last." Snape looked down at his lap then looked up directly into the eyes of the headmaster. He opened his mouth to say something else and was hit with a powerful legilimens. Before he could take any type of action he felt the headmaster rife through his memories of the four days he had spent with Chandos family.
"How dare you invade my mind like that. You had no right." Snape sputtered.
"I am sorry but I needed to know. I am also sorry about this. Obliviate" Dumbledore waved his wand and conjured a pot of tea and two cups. As he poured tea for the two of them he asked Snape how his visit had gone and with a slightly shaking hand Snape took the offered cup and sipped gratefully. "I'm sorry Albus but Chandos does not want to leave his family at this time. I wish I had better news to report but unfortunately I don't.