Chapter Eleven
As much as he would have liked to have spent the afternoon gazing into Julie's eyes – which he would have liked even if they couldn't wordlessly talk with one another that way – Severus realized that he had to pay at least some attention to her grandmother. But what did he have to say to this woman? What could he safely say to her?
"Erm, well, so – you've lived here all your life, Mrs. Halvorson?" he asked, temporarily relinquishing Julie's gaze. (But not the touch of her hand, which still rested lightly in the grasp of his own.)
"I sure have, dear," she said in a friendly rumble of a voice. Severus guessed that she had done a lot of shouting, probably of orders to other persons, in her time. "Well, aside from the time I went to war – I'd gone to school to be trained as a nurse's aide, and I'd just finished up with that when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. That was what allowed Roosevelt to get us to go to war – there was a large isolationist movement, mostly paid for by the Germans, to keep us from helping your people out during the Blitz and afterward."
"Yes, the Blitz." Severus knew about that from BBC history programmes on the Muggle wireless. (He also knew, from Professor Binns' History of Magic classes, about the role played in the Blitz by the Dark wizard Grindewald, who was helping the Nazis attack Britain – and the role played by Albus Dumbledore, who thwarted Grindewald's efforts before defeating him for good in 1945.)
"But Pearl Harbor changed all that." She stretched a little in her chair. "That got America into the war against both Japan and Germany. By the time the war was over, I was the head of the nursing staff."
Severus nodded. He could easily see her as the Matron of some wartime hospital. Hardworking, dependable, tough.
"But then the war ended, and they didn't need so many of us around anymore. Plus I wanted to get back home. So I came home, and I stayed there."
She was silent for some time after that. Her eyes were looking, not at Severus or Julie, but apparently at nothing in particular. Severus could sense something boiling up inside her, but couldn't determine what it was.
Suddenly, she moved her gout-ridden leg from the stool to the floor, wincing as she did so. She put out her hand over to the side of the chair, grabbing onto a metal-tube contraption of some sort, and dragged the metal thing until it was in front of her.
"I have to go down the hall for a moment, Severus," she said, hoisting herself upright with her hands braced on the metal device. Her voice was a touch more strained than it had been. "Julie, why don't you take Severus outside and show him around? I'll be back in a minute."
Julie was off the couch in a flash, hovering by her grandmother. "Are you sure you don't need help, Gran?"
Mrs. Halvorson made something that she'd apparently intended to be a smile, but which came out looking more like a grimace. "I'll be fine, dear."
Julie stood back, but only enough to allow her grandmother to move past her with the walking device. Mrs. Halvorson braced herself with her arms in a white-knuckle grip on the front of the device, but once she got moving she progressed smoothly enough. Julie ran ahead of her down the hall, to a room that Severus guessed must be the bathroom, and opened the door for her; Hjordis nodded to her as she hobbled inside. Julie closed but did not completely shut the door behind her.
"It drives her nuts when I do that, but it takes her five minutes to get the door open by herself when she's using the walker," Julie explained in a low voice once she was back in the parlor. She made a small smile, but Severus saw the beginnings of tears welling in her eyes.
Do you want to stay here and watch her? he asked with his mind.
I do. But she wants to be alone right now. Probably so she can do what I'm doing, without anyone seeing her doing it. And even as Julie thought those words, large tears rolled down her cheeks.
It's not just her leg, it's her head, Julie's mind wailed, even as her voice was silent. She was always so smart, it's what she was known for... and now she's losing that, too... and she knows it...
Severus took a quietly shaking Julie by the hand and led her outside, just as they both heard soft sobs coming from the bathroom.
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The sun was now fully out, the clouds had been banished. Brilliant sunshine seemed to have lit everything from within with a golden glow. It was a stark contrast to the mood inside the house, and which clung to them like pollen to a bee.
Julie walked along in a daze, tense and shuddering with the effort of restraining her tears. But Severus pulled her to him, placing her head on his shoulder, and suddenly the tension that had been holding her up just oozed out of her as she collapsed onto him, crying and sobbing while he stroked her back.
After a while she pulled her face away from his shoulder so she could look up into his eyes. I'm sorry about that, Severus. Here I am, embarrassing myself in front of someone I've just met.
Severus gave her a faint smile as he stroked her cheek. I feel as if I've known you all my life, Julie. It's a bit scary.
Julie smiled back at him. It is, isn't it? She reached a hand up to his own cheek, copying his movements. And yet, it feels good. It feels right.
Yes, it does. Severus looked away for a moment, taking in with a sweeping glance the area where they stood, then turned back to her. So... we were told that you must show me the farm...
Julie giggled. Oh, yeah, right.
Then let's see the farm.
Julie smirked at him. "Well, there's not much to see," she said out loud, waving a hand around her. "We've got grass, and hay, and a barn, and the house, and that's about it."
Severus looked around at the hay-field, gleaming like green-tinted gold in the sun, waving and rippling in the wind just like a rolling sea. He saw the lush green grass that the cows, Ava and Marilyn, kept short by their grazing. He saw a trim white barn in back of the farmhouse. He saw in the distance the tall, graceful trees, deciduous trees of some sort, that bordered the edges of the property and dropped down to follow the contours of the ridge that sloped down in back of both the Halvorson and Norton farms.
"Not really," he said. "It's all very exotic and beautiful to my eyes."
Julie looked at him in surprise. "It is?"
"It is." And so are you.
Julie put a hand to her mouth as Severus realized he'd done it again.
"I'm sorry, Julie," he said aloud, looking away and pulling away from her.
"Severus, it's okay."
He turned his face back towards her again, disbelieving what he'd just heard, yet hopeful all the same.
"This – this is all so new to me," she said, putting a hand on his arm. "Not just the mind thing, but – the whole falling in love thing, if this is what this is." She brought her eyes to meet his dead on. "Do you think there's such a thing as 'love at first sight'?"
There was no way he could lie to her, ever if he'd wanted to. "I didn't think so, until now." His face grew solemn. "But I'm afraid we might not have a future."
"Because we live so far apart?"
"That's one reason." He took a deep breath. "But there's another..." He looked around the area and saw the Halvorson barn. "I can't show you or tell out here. Let's go into the barn."
"The barn? Why?"
"So you won't be lying when you told your grandmother you'd showed me everything."
Julie crinkled her nose at him. "Smarty pants."
Severus smiled at her. "Bossy boots."
"All right, then, let's see the barn."
---------------------------------------------------
The barn turned out to be just a storage place for hay. Hay, hay, and loads more hay, with some soybeans stored off to the side. It was hot, and close, even with a set of double doors on the upper storey hayloft open for ventilation. But despite the heat, Julie made good on showing Severus the barn, even climbing with him up into the hayloft so he could see that.
"All right, now," she said, wiping the sweat from her forehead. She'd spent the last five minutes explaining the various machinery used to move and store hay bales, and it was thirsty work up in that loft. "What is it that's so secret that we have to be in here for it?"
"This," Severus replied.
He pointed a finger at a hay bale next to Julie, closed his eyes, and thought hard. It would be difficult without a wand, but he thought he could manage it...
"Frigidio!"
A blue, wavering cone of power shot from Severus' finger, and a layer of frost settled around the hay bale. The cold wafted from the bale in all directions, and suddenly the hayloft was no longer so oppressively hot.
Severus lowered his arm. Now for the really difficult part.
He looked at Julie. Julie looked at him, then at the hay bale, then at him. She reached out a hand to touch the bale, then drew it back as if she'd burned herself.
"You did this," she breathed.
"Yes."
She looked him in the eye. Is this the same thing... that lets you read my mind?
A little. But you can read mine, so it's not totally the same thing.
What IS it?
Severus wanted to wait before telling her, but he wasn't yet skilled enough to keep his thoughts behind a wall. Magic.
Magic? You mean like witchcraft?
Severus snorted. Depends on the witch. But actually, I'm a wizard; only women are witches.
Julie's mouth hung open, but no sound came out. He feared the worst.
Julie, please don't hate me!
She looked at him perplexedly. Why should I hate you, Severus?
He bit into his lower lip to try and maintain some control over himself. Because... our kind gets hunted down by your kind. Have been for centuries.
Julie put a hand out to him. Well, not by me, they don't.
Severus couldn't have hid his relief from her even if he'd wanted to. Thank you, Julie.
She took her other hand and put it on top of his. Please don't be afraid of me, Severus.
She smiled at him. I promise not to eat you. Or hurt you in any other way...She grinned. ...but only if you show me another magic trick.
The young wizard gave her a small smile. Oh, all right. It's tricky without my wand, but I'll try something...
Severus looked at an old scythe that was hanging on the wall nearest them; from the rust stains adorning the wooden pegs holdingit in place, he guessed it probably hadn't been touched in decades, not since Hjordis Halvorson was herself a young girl like Julie.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" he shouted pointing a finger at the scythe.It rose slowly and wobbly, into the air.
"Wow," Julie whispered. "You really can –"
But that was as far as she got. The scythe trembled in mid-air, and started to fall towards her.
Severus jumped in the path of the blade, pushing it out of the way with his arm. The scythe fell with a thump onto the wooden floor of the hayloft.
"Whew! That was close!" Julie said. She bent down to pick up the scythe – and saw a small smear of blood on the rust-pocked blade.
"Severus! You're hurt!" Julie cried, just as Severus noticed the gash on his shirt sleeve and the red stain spreading from it. "Oh my God – let me go get Gran – "
"No," Severus said forcefully, though pain-gritted teeth. "I can handle this. Just – help me with my shirt, all right?"
"All right," Julie replied, undoing the buttons on his shirt, "but if whatever you're doing doesn't work --"
"It'll work, believe me."
The shirt was soon off, and they both could get a better look at the wound. A light gash, luckily, only about an inch and a half long, but it was bleeding.
Severus put his hand over the wound and murmured something Julie didn't quite catch, over and over again, for a few minutes. Julie looked at him with increasing worry, but she didn't dare interrupt.
At last, he stopped his chanting and lifted his hand from the wound. The gash was gone, as if it hadn't happened. Only the dried blood around it hinted that anything could have been amiss.
"Ohmygod," Julie said, her hand to her mouth. "You did it. You healed yourself."
"That's nothing," Severus said gamely. "If I'd had my wand, I could have done this in ten seconds. Then again, if I'd had my wand, I wouldn't have dropped the scythe at all."
Julie stared at the spot on his arm where the wound had been. "Oh, Severus... I was so scared for you..."
And then she wrapped her arms around him and put her mouth to his.
It was a light kiss, shy and tentative; their noses almost touched more than their lips. But it sent Severus' blood singing.
Oh Julie, if you keep doing that I'd gladly take a thousand cuts from a scythe...
"You would?" she said out loud, giggling as she did so.
"Well, maybe not a thousand... but two or three more, probably --"
Her lips found his again, and this time they lingered.
It was quite some time before he could be bothered to use the Repairing and Cleaning spells on his shirt.