Chapter Fourteen
Mrs. Halvorson, being a trained nurse, had looked bit askance at the box of Mason jars. She didn't put too much trust in herbal remedies. But she watched as Severus drank an ounce of the stuff in water in front of her, and when he didn't fall gasping to the floor after fifteen minutes had passed she grudgingly said she'd be willing to give it a try.
Fifteen minutes after that, she was badgering Severus for the recipe, as he had thought she would. He agreed, but only on the condition that he be present to help her make it. (It was one of the few potions that didn't require any sort of magic to prepare, which is why he had picked it.) He wrote it out for her and made a mental note to send her some ginkgo, periwinkle, and Chinese club moss by Muggle post once he got back to the wizarding world. (Assuming, of course, that they didn't already have those particular herbs readily to hand in this part of the Muggle world. He would have to look into that...)
And all the while, all that time, he could feel Julie's mind near his.
She was broadcasting at first a mix of hope and fear; then, as Severus stood before them, hale and unharmed, the hope began to overtake the fear; and then later, when the mist cleared from her grandmother's eyes, the joy she felt could have fueled a Patronus Charm.
The joy, and the gratitude she felt towards Severus, and the affection she already had for him, surrounded him and lifted him up as if he were a feather floating on a river. He felt as if he could float on top of that tide of love and happiness almost until it brought him home.
But did he really want to go home? He was starting to have his doubts about that.
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There was a light tap-tap-tap on the picture window in the Nortons' parlor. It was so soft a tap that Severus, who was just coming down the front stairs, thought at first he was imagining it.
Then he looked up, and saw the eagle.
It was a bald eagle, quite large and impressive. It also was perched, somewhat precariously on one leg, on top of the small bush underneath the picture window, and it didn't look too happy about it.
"What is an eagle – " Severus started to say, before he realized what it must be. The largish parcel gripped by the talons on the eagle's other leg confirmed his suspicions.
"It's a messenger bird from the American wizarding authorities, it must be," he said, just as Mrs. Norton came out from the kitchen to investigate. He turned to her. "Do you have any crackers, Ma'am?"
"I'll go get some, and some water," said Mrs. Norton, who turned on her heel and went back the way she had come. Severus was impressed that she took Avian Post in stride; he remembered his father's reaction to his first Owl Post...
No, Severus told himself, abruptly shutting off that gruesome memory. But it left enough of a residue that he trembled a little as he opened the front door to let the bird inside.
The bird flew into the open door and made for Mrs. Norton's dining room table, upon which it deposited – or rather, heaved – the parcel it had been clutching. The package, a half-cylindrical item about an inch thick and a foot long, skidded across the table top, nearly hitting one of Mrs. Norton's candlesticks. The bird, relieved of its burden, perched atop the back of a dining-room chair. It looked at Severus with a rather discerning eye for a bird, even for an eagle.
"She'll be back with some food and water for you, don't worry," he told the eagle. It blinked, and made a loud sound that was half chirrup, half screech.
Severus picked up the parcel. It was wrapped in some sort of parchment, which was fastened together with a red wax seal. He tried to pull off the seal, but the eagle screeched at him so loudly he dropped the package.
"Cursed bloody bird," Severus muttered, picking up the parcel. "Why won't you let me open it?"
The eagle looked at him, then looked at Mrs. Norton, who was entering the room carrying a tray laden with crackers and a dish of water.
"You – you want her to open it?"
The eagle chirruped and nodded.
Severus turned and, shaking his head, handed the package to Mrs. Norton. She looked at the bird, which nodded its head again, this time more forcefully.
Mrs. Norton carefully pulled off the wax seal, set it on the table, and gingerly unwrapped the parchment. Inside was an ivory tube, with another piece of parchment inside of it.
"This is so strange," Severus said. "Why use a tube? Why not simply use an enchanted envelope, the way our Ministry does?"
"Don't ask me," Mrs. Norton said with a chuckle. "I've never got a letter from a bird before, tube or envelope." She tapped the tube on her palm, and the rolled parchment slid out onto her open hand. She held it up and motioned Severus to her side, so that he could read it as well:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Department of Magic
Washington, D.C.
July 2, 1974
Mr. John B. Norton
Mrs. Sarah L. Norton
County Route Ten
The Exact Middle of Norway Township
Fillmore County, Minnesota, USA
Dear Mr. & Mrs. Norton:
It has come to our attention that though you are a non-magical couple, an underage witch or wizard has been using magic in or near your home.
An official from the Department of Magic will make a visit to your home tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. Central Time to review the situation and to take any measures that are authorized or recommended under Federal wizarding law. If the underage witch or wizard will be living with you for an extended period of time, the official will provide information and Federal guidelines as described in Section 14 (d)(1) of the United States Wizarding Code.
Sincerely Yours,
Rolando Hawkinson
Assistant Deputy Associate Vice Manager
United States Department of Magic
RL/js
Mrs. Norton looked at the letter, then at Severus.
"So they're coming to get you," she said.
"It would seem so."
She bit at her lower lip. "We'll miss you, Severus."
"I'll miss you all, too," he replied, with some difficulty owing to the lump that had appeared in his throat.
"And you'd better write to us."
"I will, Ma'am, I promise. And I'll come back someday."
The eagle made a brief cracker-muffled chirrup from its perch on the dining-room chair.
She looked down at the letter again and re-read it. The sad look on her face turned into a pensive one. "Wait a minute – this is dated for yesterday..."
Severus caught her meaning. "And it refers to a visit to take place today at 1:30."
Mrs. Norton looked at her watch. "It's 1:45 right now. So where's the official?"
There was a bright flash and then a loud crack, sounding midway between a lightning bolt and a car backfiring, on the front lawn outside. The eagle screeched, and so did Mrs. Norton; she jumped straight up into the air, almost landing on one of Severus' feet.
"What was that!"
"Probably the official," said Severus, craning his neck so he could peer out the open front door. "That was somebody Apparating onto your property."
"Apparating?"
"It's a form of magical travel," Severus explained, his eyes still on the front door, and on the figure rapidly approaching it from the outside. Said figure was that of a woman, rail-thin and spiky, with dark-rimmed glasses, a beaked nose, and brown hair tucked into a bun. She was wearing what would have been a rather smart three-piece navy blue suit ensemble, were it not for the straw boater on her head. She carried a briefcase and wore a somewhat harried, businesslike look on her face, striding right up to the threshold before stopping short as if she had suddenly hit a glass wall.
"Mrs. Norton?" she said, squinting through black-rimmed cat-eye spectacles.
Mrs. Norton was at the door in a trice. "Yes?"
"I'm Euphemia Kramarczuk, and I'm a field agent with the United States Department of Magic. May I come in?"
"Oh, certainly. We just got the letter from Mr. Hawkinson."
Agent Kramarczuk's eyes snapped wide open. "Just now?"
"Just now," replied Mrs. Norton, stepping to one side so that the D.O.M. field agent could see the eagle perched on a chair.
"Flipping Paracelsus on a crutch!" exclaimed Agent Kramarczuk. "That letter should have got here yesterday! I'm so sorry about this – we try to give folks a day or two to get ready before we arrive." She entered the house and made straight for the eagle, which gave her a loud caw and shook a gold-banded leg at her.
"Oh, no wonder – Rolando sent it out," she sighed in disgust. "He's been busier than a one-armed paper hanger, what with all the hoo-ha about Nixon. He probably sent it out yesterday afternoon, which of course means there was no way you'd get it until now."
"Nixon hoo-ha? You mean the impeachment?" asked Mrs. Norton.
"Yeah. Tricky Dick's caught between the Republican National Committee, which wants him to resign before he can be impeached and take down half the sitting G.O.P. members of Congress in the elections this fall, and his own damn ego. Al Haig's asked the D.O.M. to keep a close watch on the ding-dong and his staff so they doesn't do something really stupid; meanwhile, we're busy bringing Gerry Ford up to speed on the wizarding world so that we're ready if and when Nixon does leave office." She looked at the bird and petted its head; it chirped softly at her in response. "That's been taking up all our time lately, Rolando's especially. It means that tracking underaged magic-users has sorta fallen by the way side." She looked over at Severus. "Speaking of which..."
Severus stepped forward. "That would be me, Miss. Severus Snape."
Agent Kramarczuk's eyebrows went up; she had obviously noted the English accent. "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Snape. Are you a house guest of the Nortons?"
"Erm, yes."
"Are you an American citizen?"
"No, Miss, I'm not."
"Thought so. Hold on a minute." The D.O.M. agent lifted up her briefcase, and then let it go; it obligingly tilted on its side so that it lay flat as it floated in the air. She gave it a light tap, and it sprung open, revealing a sheaf of papers stuffed rather haphazardly inside.
"You're not going to punish him, are you?" Mrs. Norton said, as the agent rooted through the papers in the floating briefcase. "He was only trying to get home."
Agent Kramarczuk lifted up her head from the pile of papers. Her straw boater tipped precariously backwards on her head. "Get home?"
"I was standing on the platform at King's Cross in London this Sunday afternoon last when I was hit by several hexes," Severus supplied. "I was knocked unconscious, and the next thing I knew I was lying on my back in the middle of a farm field. The Nortons took me in, and I decided that if I used a lot of magic, then someone like you would come and take me home and off of their hands."
The DOM agent's thin-lipped mouth twisted and puckered as she digested this information. "Hmmmm. Getting you home's going to be easier said than done, Mr. Snape."
Severus' mouth fell open in surprise. "Why?"
Agent Kramarczuk held up a hand. "First off, things are in turmoil in the D.O.M. right now, as I've said. Second off, we have to put through a formal request to your Ministry of Magic before we can get you back into their jurisdiction. Third off..." She made a small, grim smile. "... your Ministry heads and our Department heads aren't getting along well right now. They're angry at us for not being of more assistance to them with their Death Eater problem, even though we've got our hands full keeping Nixon from opening up his briefcase with the launch codes. So they're not talking to us. Our eagles to them come back unanswered."
Severus' heart sank. "So I can't go home."
"Not right away, you can't. But the Nixon thing should be taken care of in a few weeks, at which time we'll be free to start smoothing things over with your Ministry. In the meantime," she said, and her smile turned a bit more cheerful and genuine, "if the Nortons don't mind, you can stay here a few more weeks. Heck," she said, pulling out a set of papers from the briefcase, "you might decide to stay here for a bit longer if you want." She handed the papers to Severus, who looked at them with a puzzled expression on his face.
"What are these?"
"Citizenship papers, plus applications to the various American wizarding schools – we have four of them, you know. One of them happens to be in Minneapolis."
"Minneapolis..." That was where Julie lived, when she wasn't staying with her gran.
"You might not want to be going back to the U.K. anytime soon, what with the Death Eaters running around. The D.O.M. has issued travel warnings to American witches and wizards – only essential travel, no vacation trips or anything like that is being allowed right now."
"But things aren't that bad," protested Severus. "I was perfectly safe at Hogwarts."
"Yeah, because Albus Dumbledore's running the joint now, and he doesn't mess around. It's the one place in Britain the Death Eaters don't dare touch, but how long that's gonna last, nobody knows." A sober expression appeared on Agent Kramarczuk's thin face. "Lots of British wizarding families are sending their kids over here to wait it out until they're finally stamped out."
"Have you heard anything from Severus' aunt?" Mrs. Norton asked. "Anything at all?"
"Not a thing, either officially or unofficially," replied Agent Kramarczuk. "I just checked through my copies of the latest Missing Child Reports, just to be sure. The Ministry hasn't forwared any reports to us, and we haven't had any direct inquiries from private citizens in the U.K."
"So Aunt Lobelia's not looking for me," Severus said, in a toneless voice.
The D.O.M. field agent looked at him with a sympathetic expression on her face. "I hate to say it, but she probably isn't. We usually get inquiries, even international inquiries, within a few hours of the child's disappearance."
"I see." It didn't surprise him overmuch, but it still hurt.
"Then he's staying with us," said a twangy, drawly male voice, coming from the kitchen. Mr. Norton had been out in the chicken shed; he had apparently heard the loud crack made by the Apparition and had come to investigate.
Agent Kramarczuk whipped her head around to see the source of the voice. "Are you Mr. Norton?" she asked.
"Yes, Ma'am."
"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Norton," she said, setting out a hand for him to shake, which he did. "How much of this have you heard so far?"
"Enough," he replied. He wasn't smiling, for once. "Enough almost to be disgusted with his aunt for not taking him back, if it weren't for the fact that he's better off here." He looked at the sheaf of paper in Severus' hands. "What do we need to sign?"
The agent looked him up and down. "Do you and your wife wish to be Mr. Snape's legal guardians until such time as he can safely be returned to the U.K., or becomes a legal adult – which in the U.S. wizarding world is at age seventeen, same as in the U.K.?"
"You bet your sweet bippy we do," replied Mr. Norton, who had moved to stand by Severus' side.
"Of course we do," added Mrs. Norton, taking a surprised Severus' hand in hers.
"But – but I don't want to be a burden–" Severus started to say.
"You're not a burden, son," Mr. Norton said. He put a large, work-worn hand on the boy's shoulder, and gave him a friendly smile. "You're one of the finest young men I know. And there's no way on God's green earth that I'm going to let you get sent back to a place where you're not wanted and you're in danger."
"That's right," said Mrs. Norton, squeezing Severus' hand. "Don't worry, honey. We'll take care of you, for as long as need be."
Severus found himself taking deep lungfuls of air, trying to will himself not to cry.
These people... these good people... they want me... they like me...
"I'll stay, then," he said, his voice a bit wobbly.
"I was hoping you'd say that," beamed Agent Kramarczuk. "Got all the paperwork right here. Now, here's a brochure for the Hiawatha Boarding School in Minneapolis..."