21

"The merpeople are very grateful," Dumbledore informed Snape while they both had toast and paté the foie gras for breakfast the next morning. The house elves had outdone themselves. The meal consisted of delicacies normally reserved for special occasions. "The batch you provided was much bigger than they had hoped for. I wish to thank you, too. It's important for the school to be on good terms with the merpeople."

Snape agreed. All they needed was a bunch of angry merpeople in front of the Slytherin Common Room window every evening. The merpeople had no magic like wizards or house elves and thus were not dangerous but they scared the younger children when they turned up and shook their tridents. It had happened in the past.

"Caviar for breakfast?" enthused the Dark Lord when he sat between Snape and Dumbledore. "That's what I call luxury. There are perks to sitting at the Head Table."

"May I point out that the students have the same meal as we?" asked Lucius from Dumbledore's other side.

"Then it's not luxury but decadence." The Dark Lord put a spoonful of the delicacy onto his buttered toast.

"This is strange," said Dumbledore and called for a house elf.

One of the oldest elves residing at Hogwarts appeared. He bowed as low as his age would allow. "Headmaster?" he looked at the old wizard for orders.

"Hinky," the headmaster said solemnly, "I wish to know why you are serving caviar and paté for breakfast. What is the special occasion?"

The elf twiddled his thumbs awkwardly. "We are almost out of food," he said after a few moments of hesitation. "The headmaster forbade any resident of the castle to leave the grounds. The elves cannot go shopping without leaving the ground."

"You should have brought this to my attention," said Dumbledore and the old elf banged his head on the Head Table. The headmaster must have anticipated the move for he had cast a cushioning charm on the table before the elf could hit it for a second time. "I will come to the kitchens after breakfast and we will plan how to get food."

"Oh no!" the Dark Lord looked disappointed. "I was hoping we were going to go skating again. I had no idea it was so good for my figure! Bella already noticed the change in my legs!"

"I would love to skate with you, my Lord!" offered Bellatrix Lestrange.

"I don't think you would be able to follow my pace like Dumbledore," huffed the Dark Lord.

The headmaster looked at the dark wizard over the rim of his glasses. "Think of what practicing lifts would do for your arms, Tom!"

"You are right," cried the wizard. "Lucius, I need you to help Bella with her clothes. You have much better taste than she. Maybe you could lend her your feather boa."

Dumbledore winked at Snape. Now that the Dark Lord was busy, they could take care of the food problem. All that remained to be done was open the advent calendar window to let the students think that everything was in order.

Draco had put his elf ear potion into the calendar. It was Luna Lovegood who got it and she was delighted.

Hagrid got a bag of nuts which was a strange gift in Snape's book but the half-giant was thrilled. It seemed the nuts were just what he had been wishing for in order to be able to feed the Hogwarts squirrels. Snape had no idea that there were Hogwarts squirrels. If so, why did the school buy squirrel whiskers from old Mr Mulpepper? Had the food problem not been more pressing, Snape would have loved to investigate.

Harry Potter got a duck whistle. Snape made a mental note to confiscate it as soon as possible. The noise grated on his nerves within ten seconds.

Snape got a scarf which seemed to have been knitted by somebody who had only recently learned the art. When Sprout saw it, she left her seat to inform the potions master that it had been made by a first year Slytherin at a workshop she had held on Sunday. The girl had expressed her hope that her favourite teacher – who happened to be her head of house – was going to get it. Snape looked down to the Slytherin table and gave the girl who was looking at him with pride the tiniest of smiles.

Once the students had been sent off to their lessons, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape and Madam Pomfrey conferred with Hinky how to acquire food in times of a pandemic.

"We could owl our order," suggested Snape.

"The amount of food we need is too heavy for owls," McGonagall pointed out.

"I was not talking about having the food delivered by owls," Snape pointed out. "The merchants could bring the food to the gates and an elf could bring it inside. Hinky, can one elf handle the amount of food we need?"

"Easily," said the little elf. "Especially when it has to be moved only a small distance like from the gates to the pantry."

Madam Pomfrey shook her head. "Sending an elf outside is risky. Too risky, if you ask me."

"We do need to eat," McGonagall pointed out.

The nurse made an impatient noise. "There's enough fish in the lake."

"Feed them fish two days in a row and you get a revolution," Dumbledore waved the suggestion aside. "Minerva, you certainly remember March 72."

The witch confirmed that, yes, she did remember. Hinky nodded, too.

"We could put the elf who gets the food inside into quarantine," Snape suggested.

"That would work," agreed Madam Pomfrey.

It was Hinky who objected now. "A house elf in quarantine would die of boredom."

"We could find a task for the elf to perform while he or she is in isolation. Would that work?"

Hinky nodded.

McGonagall sent out orders for eggs, milk, vegetables, fruit and anything you might need to feed several hundred teenagers for a month. Shortly after lunch, the food started to arrive in front of the gates.

Dumbledore and Snape stood on the castle grounds and greeted the merchants with waves and bows, depending on the person.

After the last delivery had been made, a brave little elf, Fipsy, left the safety of the grounds and took the food inside. Once everything was safely stowed away, the elf apparated to the quarantine quarters the Dark Lord and his deatheaters had occupied. Dumbledore had equipped the room with everything one would need for embroidery and ordered the elf to produce as many tablecloths without magic as possible. McGonagall had the presence of mind to also order the small creature to take breaks, eat and sleep. Madam Pomfrey added daily gymnastics to the list of duties.

Meanwhile, Snape used a strong disinfecting spell on the pantry.

In the evening, Snape found stacks of essays his students had written instead of his lessons on his desk. With a sigh he sat down and started reading.