Wonderful chapter 32
Point of Veiw
It was weeks before Ele felt safe enough to let Sev out to play. She wanted to be sure that the Travelers' caravan and the Snapeivitskys were gone. She was surprised that they hadn't tried some other means to try and capture her or her son. In the back of her mind she couldn't help think that they had not seen the last of them. Maybe Dumbledore had put more of a scare into old Dinu than she had thought. The fact that the muggle knew who that wizard was may be the only reason he wasn't harassing the witch and her child. The lure of magically gained fortunes was often too strong a lure for witch hunters. Eileen had waited an extra week after the Gypsies had moved on to be safe, but her son's constant reminding her what day was coming up made her give in.
"So what do you want to dress as for Halloween?" Ele had been allowing Sev to join in the muggle celebration of that holiday since he was four. She remembered that Toby had been the one to take their son around. The first year the father thought it was cute to see the boy dressed as a pumpkin. The second year he had been a bit reluctant, but still took the mini-Merlin trick or treating.
"Dumb-doors!" Severus shouted out in excitement. "He's even better than Merlin." The boy believed it at the time.
This would be an easy enough costume. It would only take a few changes in the Merlin costume she'd made last year to become Dumbledore. "All right I'll go find the old one so we can fix it up." When she came back with the Merlin costume it became clear that it was way too small for Severus to wear this year. Eileen knew her wand wouldn't be back in time to magically fix it. She would have to do it the muggle way. In the middle of doing just that is when Toby came home from work.
"Why you got the boy in that dress thing?"
"It's not a dress, it's wizard's robes."
Tobias' nose wrinkled up. "What for?"
"Halloween Toby, remember."
"Oh yeah." Toby was less than thrilled. Not interested in the designing of costumes, he went right for the kitchen, but not before giving Sev his daily 'you haven't said anything to your Mum' look. The look the boy gave back told the man that his son was sufficiently scared enough not to have told his wife that despite being able to hold on to his job, he had not kept his promise of not drinking at all. Toby had been smart enough not to get rip roaring drunk, yet. He still had his hidden flask of what he called 'nerve tonic' to 'keep his hands steady.'
Coming back into the living room with a sandwich and a glass of iced tea in his hands Toby plopped down on the sofa. His mouth was full of his first bite when he said, "Why you ripping that all up?"
"It doesn't fit," Ele informed. "Sev is growing. I'll have to get some material to fix it."
Toby grunted out a disapproving sound. A sip of the cold drink pushed down the food. "You know, if you just get an old sheet and throw it over him, he can go as a ghost."
"He doesn't want to go as a ghost," Ele snipped back.
The grunting noise came out of Toby again. He took a few more bites of the sandwich before asking. "Why don't you want to go as a ghost boy?"
Despite the fact that his parents had been getting along better the past few weeks, Sev still got jittery when asked anything by his father. "I - - I - - just don't."
"What is I say we can't afford to get that extra stuff to fix that?"
Eileen knew Tobias was just egging on the child. So she answered, "Then I'd take that stupid sheet you want to make a ghost costume out of and use it to fix this."
Disarmed with this argument Toby moved on to another. "What you want to be Merlin again this year. Your supposed to dress as something different every year?"
"Is different," Severus mumbled out.
"What'd you say? Can't hear you boy."
"Is different," the boy repeated a little louder.
"It's still Merlin."
"T'isn't."
"T'is."
"T'isn't"
"How's it different?"
"It's Dumb-doors, not Merlin."
"Oose Dumb-ders?"
Ele intervened in this ridiculous exchange. "Professor Dumbledore, from the wizarding school. The one who helped me rescue our son from your shiftless relatives."
"ehh - - " was the only sound to come out of Tobias' mouth after that. He finished shoving his lunch into it. After draining the glass of ice tea he stood to bring it and the dish back to the kitchen. After he returned to the living room he unceremoniously announced, "Going back to work."
When his father left the house, Severus felt as if he could breath again. "All right," his mother said. "Let's get that off of you."
When the pin covered robes were off of his regular clothes the boy asked, "Can I go out and play?"
"Not today," Eileen told.
The disappointed boy asked, "When?"
"After Halloween."
Severus grimaced. Halloween was four days away. To a kid that was a long time. The boy figured this would be a good time to read that book Dumbledore had let him bring home. This made him think of his little flower friend. Sev went to find her. Agri was resting in the middle of the other plants in the kitchen. She had hidden there when Tobias had come home and fell asleep.
"Agri," Severus whispered. "Time for your water."
This woke the plant up. "My water, yea!" The little plant jumped up revealing her branch legs which took her to the sink where the boy had made it a routine to water her at. She climbed down into it as the boy took out the sprayer hose to make the little live plant a shower. The little plant person danced in delight in the stream of cool water. One time Severus had made the mistake of not checking the temperature and had almost boiled the poor thing. That was never repeated. He always made sure it was alright for her to get under it first.
Now that his mother had bought some paper napkins, Severus handed Agri one to dry off with. She did another little dance as she did this. At the end she wrapped the makeshift towel around her flower head like a Carmen Maranda headdress. This made the little boy look at her in a sideways manner as she climbed out of the sink.
"What does Master Severus want to know about plants today?" Agri asked when she was on the counter.
"I thought you could help me read my tree book."
"Tree book. Oh yes, yes, yes, how interesting." The little plant lady was hopping about with excitement. Before he could even ask her to climb up she was scrambling up to the boy's shoulder. "What's a book?"
"What's a book?" The boy wondered at the question. "Oh, you haven't seen a book yet. I'll have to show you." Severus ran up the stairs with Agri He pulled out the book from under his mattress and lay down on the floor. He opened up to a page in the middle. Agri looked down to see a picture of an oak tree.
"Ooooh," the little plant squealed. "Oak, the king of trees." Before Severus could read any of the words next to the picture, Agri was standing on the page. After feeling what was under her feet for a few seconds she asked, "What's this made of?"
Not thinking Severus answered, "Paper."
"Paper - - " Agri mulled this word over in her mind. "What's paper?"
The little boy knew all about how they made paper. He'd read about it. "It's mashed up wood and - - "
"Mashed up wood!" Agri was livid. "This tells you about trees and it's made of mashed up wood."
Severus lied and told the plant, "Only after the tree is dead." Well it wasn't a complete lie. He just left out the part where the tree was cut down first. At this point something caught Agri's attention. There was a little piece of something that looked like what Mrs. Snape sometimes used to wrap things up in, cellophane.
"Then you put food inside of it?"
"Food?" The plant person was now oh the side of the book pulling on the plastic wrap sticking out between some pages. "I never noticed that before." Severus opened up to that page to find, encased in cellophane, a dried up purple iris flower that looked like it had been there over a century.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Agri cried out in horror. "Who would do such a thing!"
"It's just a dried flower."
"How would you like it if a bunch of flowers got together and stuck a relative of yours in cellophane and flattened them in something made from mashed up parts of their arms and legs."
"That would be pretty gross, but I don't think the plants could ever do something like that."
"Oh," Agri huffed as she put all of her branch hands on her hips indignantly. "So, just because humans can do it, it's okay." She turned her back on the boy.
"I didn't say it was okay." The boy still thought the plant was going a bit overboard.
"I don't think I want to read that book with you," She pronounced. "No, I'm going back to my friends in the kitchen. Unless your going to smash me inside of there."
"I wouldn't do that." The little plant had exited the room as the boy said these words. He figured she'd have to cool off before he could apologize for whoever put the iris in the book. "Mum's definitely going to have to keep her out of the kitchen the next time she makes potions." After wondering if it was Professor Dumb-doors who had put the flower in the book. He settled down, flipped back to the page with the oak tree on it and spent the afternoon reading about it and other trees.
tbs
