Chapter Fifteen
3 July 1974
Professor Yolanda Schneider
Potions Department
Hiawatha Boarding School
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Dear Professor Schneider:
My name is Severus Snape, and I am living in Norway township in Fillmore county, in the extreme southeastern corner of Minnesota. I have just completed my third year at Hogwarts in Scotland, but owing to circumstances beyond my control am now a Minnesota resident. The bearer of this letter, Agent Euphemia Kramarczuk of the United States Department of Magic, will explain everything in full.
I have attached my most recent Potions exam paper. Please let me know if this will be enough for me to start your ninth-grade Potions class.
Yours sincerely,
Severus Snape
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July 3, 1974
Mr. Severus Snape
Norway Township
Fillmore County, Minnesota
Dear Mr. Snape:
Agent Kramarczuk has dropped off your letter and exam paper for me to read, and to explain your situation. She has also kindly agreed to deliver this return letter to you, as you are without an owl at present.
Enclosed please find a book with this letter, Gasogene Tantalus' Textbook of Ninth-Grade Potions. Your summer assignment will be to prepare three potions from Chapter Eleven of the book: the Burn Healing Potion, the Nightgaunt Repellent, and Veritaserum. The necessary ingredients are also enclosed. Bring the finished potions with you when you come to your first day of class.
I look forward to seeing you in my ninth-grade Potions class, as a teacher helper as well as a student. If you are as good in your other subjects as you are apparently at Potions, you will be an asset to the school.
Sincerely,
Yolanda Schneider
Professor, Potions Department
Hiawatha Boarding School
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Severus read Professor Schneider's letter over and over again as he sat on his bed later that evening, as the night breeze ruffled the curtains on the window. An asset to the school... An asset to the school...
He knew he'd made an impression on the professor when he heard and saw Agent Kramarczuk Apparating a second time on the lawn in front of the house, barely an hour after she'd left for Hiawatha. The D.O.M. agent had a big grin on her face, and her arms were laden with various bags, bags that turned out to be stuffed to the brim with potions supplies as well as a potions textbook.
"Schneider nearly had conniptions when she read your paper," Kramarczuk had said as Severus helped her into the house with her burdens. "She thought at first that you'd faked it. But she checked out the Integrity Spells on the parchment and then she damn near fainted. I don't know that much about potions myself, kiddo," she said, setting one of the bags down on the dining room table, "and what I did know I forgot after I took my senior-year Wizarding Apititude Tests. But I do know that Schneider's a tough nut to crack, and you've cracked her wide open. She damn near came down here herself to see you in action."
Severus found that he couldn't speak; sheer joy was causing his throat to swell up.
"But Houston, we have a problem," she said, her face suddenly losing the grin. "A big problem."
The young wizard's joy vanished as if he'd seen a Dementor. "What problem?"
"You don't have an owl, and you don't have an Apparation License."
Severus stared in sudden dismay at the field agent. "You're right – how will I communicate with the school? Or even get there?"
"We'll get you there somehow," Mr. Norton interposed.
"But how?" Severus exclaimed. "If Hiawatha's like Hogwarts, it's been made Unplottable for Muggles – you won't be able to find it." He lowered his head in despair, clenching his hands into white-knuckled fists. "What can we do?"
The grin seeped back onto Kramaczuk's face. "Well, kiddo, I have an idea."
Severus raised his head. "You do?"
"I do."
Kramarczuk looked at the young wizard, making sure his attention was riveted on her. "Now, even though I've been Apparating since I was younger than you, I'm not licensed to train young kids how to Apparate. I could lose my job over it. But," she said, raising a finger, "I can issue Apparating licenses to young persons who are already capable of Apparating. So, I want you to completely ignore everything I'm about to say and do for the next – oh, five minutes or so."
"Beg pardon, Miss?"
The grin got wider. "You heard me: Whatever I discuss, no matter how detailed or useful, don't do it. Now, Severus, you've heard about the way your body reacts when you start concentrating on Apparition, right?"
"Yes, Miss."
"Good. Now listen carefully. I don't want you to try Apparating by yourself. I don't want you to concentrate on cultivating that funny tickling and rumbling feeling and almost-but-not-quite-nausea in the stomach that happens just as you're about to Apparate."
Light dawned for Severus. "I understand, Miss," he replied, getting into the spirit of things.
"Good. I especially don't want you to practice, say, thinking of yourself going from where you're standing and Apparating over next to the coat rack by the front door, once I've turned my back on you to gaze at this lovely kitchen for a few minutes." And with that, she winked at Severus and turned her back on him, her gaze now firmly fixed on the entryway leading to the kitchen.
Severus took a deep breath, imagined himself going exactly where Kramarczuk had told him not to go. He screwed up his face, felt the tickle in his stomach –
...fizzle. Not quite, but close. Agent Kramarczuk's back was still turned to him.
He tried again. He felt the tickle – then the rumble –
...ffffizzle. Not quite, but closer yet.
He tried yet again – felt the tickle – the rumble – the queasiness –
CRAAAAACK!
– and he found himself standing next to the coat rack by the front door.
Mr. and Mrs. Norton stood up from their chairs and applauded.
Kramarczuk turned around, the glee shining on her face. "What was that I just heard? A self-taught underage Apparator?" She looked Severus in the eye and put on a mock-stern face. "Now, young man, I must make sure that you didn't learn any unauthorized Apparition techniques. Were you told how to do this by any person who was not authorized to teach Apparition?"
"N-No, Miss."
"So you figured it out on your own, eh?"
"Yes, Miss."
The mock-stern look evaporated like summer mist, and the glee not only returned, but became positively manic. "Well, then, by the power invested in me as a magical field agent of the United States Government, I hereby declare you – Licensed To Apparate!"
A sheet of parchment appeared in Kramarczuk's open hand, along with a small booklet. She duly presented both items to a somewhat stunned Severus. "Tomorrow will be the perfect time to practice, it being the Fourth of July. There'll be lots of bangs going off, so no one will notice a few extra. Now go out there and knock yourself out. Or better yet, don't knock yourself out. Don't wanna hafta come back here and unsplinch you."
"Th-thank you, Miss."
"Don't mention it, kiddo. Now you read that booklet cover to cover – tells you what you need to know before you start doing long-distance Apparition. And have fun at Hiawatha. See you all later!"
She stepped back a foot, then waved to everyone present. There was another loud crack, and a flash, and she was gone.
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Severus and Mrs. Halvorson were standing side by side at her butcher-block cutting table, chopping rosemary leaves. Or rather, Severus was standing; Mrs. Halvorson was sitting on a high stool, as standing for any length of time wasn't possible because of her gout. On the stove, a pot of water was just coming to a boil; on the counter top, a small cauldron of water with a portable magical fire under it was bubbling away. Identical sets of cooking thermometers sat in both pot and cauldron.
"This is some amazing stuff, Severus," Mrs. Halvorson said. "Those hippies must have taught you something, eh?"
"Hippies? Oh, erm, yes, yes they did," Severus replied. "Ready now? This all has to go into the water at one go."
Acting as one, they put down their knives, scooped up their respective piles of rosemary, placed them into the boiling water of both receptacles, and clamped lids on both items to keep the rosemary fumes from escaping into the air.
"There," said Severus, once the lids were secured. He reached over to set Mrs. Halvorson's egg timer. "We'll chop up the ginkgo and the periwinkle while that boils; the club moss we can toss in whole."
"Then let's do that."
They went back to chopping, Mrs. Halvorson watching Severus' every move and copying it with precision. They finished just as the egg timer went off, and then dumped everything, including the shaggy hunks of club moss, into the boiling water. Severus then reset the egg timer for another five minutes.
"We'll need to stir each batch fifty times at the five-minute mark," Severus explained as he refasted the lid on his cauldron. He then turned to make himself face Mrs. Halvorson's blue-black eyes, the eyes that saw so much now that the potion was helping her mind regain its former sharpness. "Erm, Mrs. Halvorson?"
Her eyes, so much like Julie's, met and held Severus' gaze. For a moment he felt as if he were an animal caught in a trap.
But he had something that he needed to say, and so he said it:
"I'm not a hippie." There, I said it. And he leaned back and waited.
Mrs. Halvorson smiled at him. "I know, dear. Julie told me."
"Ah." I should have known. "So... is there anything you need to know? About me, that is?"
She reached over to pat him on the arm. "Only what you want to tell me, Severus. Otherwise, don't worry about it."