Chapter Twelve
The rest of that afternoon, Severus felt as if his feet were barely touching the ground. (Well, they weren't – they were touching the wooden beams of the hayloft floor. But that was beside the point.)
At home and at school, he'd watched with envy as boys like Sirius Black had girls draped over them like jewelry. He'd wondered if he himself would ever have even one girl to call his own. Now, he'd not only found a girl, but a soulmate. I'll wager that none of Black's girlfriends can talk to him with their minds, he thought to himself, and the realization made him even happier.
Once his borrowed shirt was clean and whole and on his back again, Julie and Severus had sat in the barn, curled up near the frozen hay bale (it kept back the heat of the day rather nicely, it did) and talked about many things. They had a lot to talk about, but they also wanted to be sure that they didn't walk in on Julie's grandmother while she was still crying.
Severus told Julie about the wizarding world and why it hid from the Muggle world, and he told her about Hogwarts and some of the things he'd learned there, and even, with only a little hesitation, about his mother and father and what had happened to them. That last story seemed to get easier to tell each time he told it. Maybe it was the fact of the repitition; maybe it was the people to whom he was telling it.
In return, Julie told him about the United States in general and Minnesota in particular, and what it was like to grow up as a Muggle girl in a large Norwegian-American family, and that she lived in a big city called Minneapolis but was staying with her grandmother for the summer, and that the flag on the plates on display in her gran's parlor was the Norwegian flag, and that she wanted to be an actress – "but a stage one, not a movie one" – when she grew up.
And all the while, they sat next to each other, bodies touching, communicating in a way that neither tongue nor brain could accomplish.
They might have sat up in the hayloft the rest of the day, were it not for the sudden arrival of a squinty small girl with a loud voice:
"So are you two gonna sit up there and be disgusting all day?"
Severus looked down at the floor of the barn. Becky was staring up at him, scowling.
He laughed, and started to climb down the hayloft ladder.
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The proprietors of the Café di Napoli had done well by the Nortons. When Severus entered the kitchen, he saw Mrs. Norton carrying a huge tray of some meat dish that smelled delicious. She set it on the kitchen counter as she greeted Severus and Becky with a smile.
"They gave us so much food today, I can't get all of it on the table," she said, nodding her head at the display of steaming trays that covered nearly every inch of space on the counter. "I put the tiramisu in the fridge because there's no room for it out here. We'll just have to dish everything up from the counter."
The meat dish turned out to be veal scallopini, breaded veal cutlets with stuffed mushrooms and Marsala wine sauce. The other trays were filled with red and yellow peppers, spinach in garlic and olive oil, artichoke hearts, toasted garlic bread with olive oil for dipping, and a salad mix of baby greens, beefsteak tomatoes, onion, garlic and basil, drizzled again with the ever-present olive oil.
There was so much of it that Severus, staring at the vast amounts laid out before him, had a sudden thought.
"Mrs. Norton?"
"Yes, Severus?"
"Would it be all right if we invited Mrs. Halvorson and her granddaughter to share this supper?"
Mrs. Norton's bright blue eyes twinkled. "That'd be a wonderful idea, Severus. There's way too much here for just us anyway. Hjordis might not be able to come, but we can bring some of it to her. You wait here while I make up a tray, then you can bring it to her and Julie."
And he did.
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Severus sat upstairs in his room, reading by the light of his wand. He'd just finished the first part of his Dark Arts essay, to be handed in to whoever was teaching the class next year. Strange, the way Hogwarts ran through Dark Arts teachers. Perhaps it was the subject matter.
A Muggle newspaper, the Minneapolis Star, was at his elbow on the table; he had been reading it in fits and starts, trying to understand the world into which he had suddenly been thrust. He was amazed at how chaotic things seemed to be among the Muggles. The American president, on the verge of being removed from office for acts of corruption, escaping his own country to make a tour of Russia. The death of Juan Peron, the Argentine dictator, and the immediate succession to power of his widow. More violence in Northern Ireland. The murder of a woman who was the mother of a prominent leader in the American Civil Rights movement, himself murdered a few years earlier by Muggles who apparently were the Muggle versions of 'pure-bloods'.
He leaned back in his chair and sighed. The Muggles seemed to have a talent for mucking things up.
And yet, here in this farmhouse, the muck-up all seemed so far away. All he saw were rolling green fields and tall trees, and good people (aside from Becky)... and a soulmate.
It had been such a glorious day. Even the fact that his old underwear had finally disintegrated in the washing machine couldn't detract from it. Mrs. Norton promised to go into town to get him some new smalls and some extra socks, in case his stay here was prolonged.
Prolonged. There was the rub.
On the one hand, he wanted to get back to the wizarding world. On the other hand, he didn't want to get back to most of the people in it.
Severus sighed again, and got ready for bed.
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Mr. Norton didn't need any help with the cows the next morning, thanks to Severus' fixing the milking machine, so Severus instead offered to pick berries and see to the truck patch. This offer was gladly accepted, and after a good breakfast (it was Severus' first encounter with hashed brown potatoes, and like most everything else here so far, he found that he liked them very much), he set out with Mrs. Norton and Becky to the barn to fetch the berry baskets.
Julie was standing by the barn door, wearing jeans, a short-sleeved shirt, and a kerchief round her head to hold back her hair. She smiled when she saw the Nortons, and she smiled even more when she saw Severus.
Good morning, she said to him mentally, a greeting meant for him alone.
Good morning, he replied, as his heart rose in his chest.
"Good morning, everybody," Julie then said out loud, taking her eyes off Severus for the moment. "May I help with the berrying?"
"Good morning, Julie," replied Mr. Norton, his ever-present grin on his face. "Sure! Come along!"
"Gran and I really appreciated the dinner last night," Julie said as they entered the barn. "So we thought the least we could do would be to have me help out a bit now that the berries are in high gear."
"That's really sweet of you both, Julie," Mrs. Norton beamed. "Here, here's a set of baskets; you and Severus can do the raspberries."
"That would be great, Mrs. Norton," Julie said as she took the baskets Mrs. Norton handed her.
Severus was right behind Julie, waiting for his own set of berry baskets; when Mrs. Norton handed them to him, he thought he saw her smile grow even wider as she looked him in the eye.
"You run along now and have fun," she said warmly.
Great Merlin's Bones, he thought as he followed Julie out to the berry patch. Is it that obvious?
Yes, Julie mentally giggled in front of him.
This nearly made Severus drop his baskets. Oh bloody hell, we can communicate without needing to look at each other!
Is that a bad thing? Julie asked as she walked.
No – it's just that it's not supposed to be possible...
Julie snorted. In my world, you're not supposed to be possible. If I can handle it, you can handle it.
If you insist my lady...
Julie giggled some more.
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There were two figures standing on the grounds just outside of Hogwarts. They were soon joined by a third.
"Ah, Molly! So good of you to come on such short notice."
"Good evening, Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall."
"Good evening, Molly."
"You remember the coordinates, Molly?"
"Like the back of my hand, Professor."
"Then let's be off."
There was the sight of three near-simultaneous flashes of light, and the sound of three near-simultaneous loud bangs, and then the grounds were empty.