Chapter Eighteen

The bicycle had been waiting for him in the back yard when he came back from helping Mr. Norton with the berries. It was mid-July now, and while the strawberries were finished for the year, the blueberries and raspberries were at their peak; there had been a lot of them to freeze that hazy, humid summer afternoon.

Mrs. Norton was going over the bicycle with a rag, polishing what parts of it were amenable to polishing. A basket was mounted on each side of the rear wheel.

"Sorry about all the dirt," she said, even though Severus could not see a speck of dirt anywhere on the thing. "I picked it up at an estate sale over in Bratsberg. Tires are in good shape, and the internal hub mechanism's intact. Rides pretty good."

"Erm, what's it for?" he asked, looking at the contraption.

"You, Severus," replied Mrs. Norton.

"... But why?"

Mrs. Norton gave him a small smile. "Because you're not yet old enough for a driver's license, and Apparating everywhere will make folks suspicious."

"Ah." He paused a moment. "Driver's license?"

"Yes, for a car."

"An automobile?"

"Uh-huh. You can get a farm work license when you turn fifteen, which allows you to drive so long as you do it in the daytime, stay within twenty miles of home, and don't try to drive in a big city. And when you turn sixteen, you can get a full license that lets you drive anywhere."

"An automobile..." Severus stared off at nothing in particular. "I never imagined I'd ever be driving a car..."

"It's a necessity out here, honey, what with everything being so far away from everything else." She stood up and pushed the bicycle out towards him. "But you don't have to think about that just yet. Think about this instead."

Severus looked at the bicycle, all hunks and curves of metal and rubber and blue paint. It was obviously old, but aside from a few dents and scratches, it looked well cared for. The leather saddle was worn yet sleek, an invitation and a rebuke. He had sudden memories of his first day of broom lessons, and the shame he felt as the Cleansweep had sent him tumbling to the ground in front of a laughing Sirius Black...

It all scared him more than anything else had in his time here at the farm.

"I – I've never ridden a bicycle in my life," he said quietly.

"You haven't?"

"I haven't."

"Oh, it's very easy, honey. Here, I'll show you."

Mrs. Norton dropped her polishing cloth on the ground and threw a jean-clad leg over the bike, straddling it as if it were the most natural thing in the world for her to do. She slid onto the leather seat, gripped the handlebars, put her feet on the pedals, and sent herself and the bicycle scooting slowly and gracefully around the yard.

Well, at least it sticks to two dimensions, Severus thought morosely. It can't drop me from a great height like a Cleansweep can.

"And to stop, you just pedal backwards, like this." She suited the action to the word, and the machine came to a halt. She put a foot out to touch the ground and stay upright. "It's really very easy."

"Sure it is," said Mr. Norton, coming out from the kitchen, where he'd stopped to wash up after a dusty day in the fields. "C'mon, son. We'll teach you the same way we taught Becky."

Severus frowned. He'd forgot that Becky had a little bike of her own, one which she used to zip around to the neighbors and back. If Becky could do it, he certainly could.

And then he remembered Julie.

Julie had a bicycle. If he could learn to ride, he could ride with her, everywhere she went...

"All right," he said.

The smile on John Norton's face turned into a full-fledged grin. "Okay, son. Sarah'll stand on one side, I'll be on the other."

"We'll be holding you up, Severus," added Mrs. Norton. "We won't let you fall, we promise."

Severus looked at the Nortons, looked from one of their shining faces to the other, and in that moment he knew he could believe them.

He walked over to the bike, which Mrs. Norton was holding out towards him as she had before. Cautiously, he swung a leg over the frame. When that went successfully, he slid himself onto the seat. So far, so good.

Mr. Norton came up on his right side, and Mrs. Norton on his left. They each put an arm around Severus' waist, holding him steady.

"We'll just start you out by having you go forward about twenty feet. Then, when we say 'stop', you start pedaling in reverse to stop the bike. Got it?"

"Got it, sir," Severus replied, in an almost-calm voice.

"Put your hands on the handlebars, honey," Mrs. Norton said. "That's how you steer."

Severus tried to control his breathing. He wasn't going to panic, not here. Not now. Not when the Nortons could feel his panic through his ribcage. Slowly, he put his hands on the handlebar grips. Mrs. Norton gave him a little squeeze.

"Okay, son," said Mr. Norton. "Now put your feet on the pedals."

Severus did so. Now he was being held up solely by the Nortons. His heart thudded like a hammer on an anvil, and he found himself staring at his feet.

"All right, son. Start pedaling."

Severus was fighting the urge to hyperventillate when he felt a sudden presence flowing under him and around him, making him feel light and warm and protected.

Julie.

She had apparently felt his distress and come outside to investigate. He looked up and saw her, her beautiful smile beckoning him to move, to come to her, to pedal the bike to her.

Don't worry, Severus. They won't let you fall. I won't let you fall. I love you.

Severus' feet started to move of their own accord, pushing the pedals around and around. The bike moved, and the Nortons moved with it, balancing Severus between them as he felt himself being lifted and pulled towards a slender, dark-haired girl with eyes the color of star sapphires..

I love you too, Julie.

She smiled at him as he, the bike, and the Nortons drew nearer. I know you do, Severus.

He found himself grinning from ear to ear.

Five minutes later, he was pedaling unassisted, and still grinning from ear to ear.

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Now that Severus had a bike, he and Julie rode together nearly every day. He couldn't go very far at first, but by the end of July he was following Julie out to Rushford and back, a twenty-mile round trip on hilly terrain where he got to discover the uses of an internal hub shifter – especially on the return trip, as Rushford was located deep in the Root River Valley while the Norton and Halvorson places were perched atop a high green rolling bluff top a good five hundred feet higher up in altitude. Now he understood how Julie kept so trim despite having such a hearty appetite...

When going to Rushford, they most often went to the Tew Public Library, a small, well-built two-story brick structure next to the City Hall, but they usually also did a few errands for either Julie's gran or the Nortons. The shopkeepers had given him a few odd looks at first – he suspected that had to do with his longish hair and his English accent – but after a while they knew and greeted him by name, just as they did Julie. The librarians were even friendlier, having sensed in them fellow book-lovers; they sent Severus home with reference books on chemistry and plant biology and the like.

It was a bit of a shock to be treated so well by so many people, but Severus was starting to get used to it.

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Severus sat and stared at the Mason jar on his bedside table. It was his allowance jar, and it currently had three dollars and twenty-six cents in it.

The Nortons had insisted on giving him a weekly stipend that they called an "allowance". He had protested strongly at first – he hadn't seen what he'd done to earn such a thing – but gave in when he realized that he could use the money to buy things for Julie and himself when they went into town. Little things mostly, like soda pops and ice cream cones, though for the magnificent sum of fifteen cents he once bought her an old paperback copy of Antony and Cleopatra that was sitting in the "withdrawn" pile over at the library, and which she'd been looking at wistfully.

Still, he made sure that he earned the money. He was already getting free room and board; this "allowance" business on top of all that was a bit much, by his lights. He made sure that he was out in the fields at least two to three hours of every day, when he wasn't with Julie. And when he was with Julie, he often was helping her and her gran with something or other.

He would earn his keep, he vowed to himself as he balanced the Arithmancy textbook on his lap. He would do his best to be worthy of all the pains the Nortons and the Halvorsons had taken on his behalf. He would go to Hiawatha with samples of each potion that Professor Schneider had asked him to brew, and include samples of other potions into the bargain. Whatever he was doing now, he would do better in future.

Above all, he wanted to be able to get a position with a local wizarding apothecary, preferably before he was graduated from Hiawatha, so that he could go to Julie's parents and show them that their new son-in-law-to-be was no slacker.

A new thought brought him up short: What if they didn't want their daughter marrying a wizard? It bothered him for all of about three seconds, until he realized that with Julie's gran on his side, and she was, it really didn't matter who else approved or disapproved.

And with that pleasant thought, he put away the Arithmancy book and got ready for bed.

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"He's talking to himself again, professor," Harry whispered to Dumbledore as he came into Snape's bedroom. Dumbledore nodded his snowy-white head.

"Still the same subject matter, Harry?"

"Yes. Except now... well, it sounds barking mad, sir..."

"Yes, Harry?"

"He's talking to someone, and whoever it is, seems to be answering him."

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows. "I see."