Chapter 38

Adhara Phoebe

After two months of inhabiting her husband's former rooms, Patience had finally perused the titles of all the books in what was now her private sitting room. Most of the books were in Latin, German, or Old Slavonic and many of them contained sketches and illustrations of very unpleasant results from the spells enclosed within. She knew that the nastier books had gone with her husband to his other home, as well as any other volumes that he felt were most likely to be of use to him. However more than half the bookcases that covered the walls were still filled with her husband's or the Prince family's old books, some of which Patience was afraid even to touch.

She had instructed Rem to move all of his books to the main wall of bookcases, so she could place her own things on the smaller shelves that lined the two side walls and a portion of the fourth. Yet she was not oblivious to the incongruousness of her own things and his. This was why the portion of the shelving that was directly next to the cases filled with her husband's books was where she had placed the complete set of the Astron Almanack and Influential Reference Encyclopaedia that she had been given by the Royal Astrocartographic Society upon receiving her letters of mastership. These and her textbooks were the only books she owned that were not chiefly concerned with romance or fashion.

Patience ran her finger along the spine of one of the 32 volumes of the Astron Almanack, all of which were beautifully bound and filled with gilt parchment pages, as she considered how incredibly unlikely it was that Hufflepuff's worst academic disappointment of her year, Patience Kent, was now the RAS's newest member, Magistra Eurydice Snape. Upon Luther's suggestion, Patience had agreed that she should use her proper name for her professional work, which made the name on her membership certificate seem even more unreal.

Patience had not been to the RAS headquarters in almost 6 weeks. She had requested some changes to be made to the calibrated asterothen, so that the readings could be more accurate. Since these were taking place during the time in which she had begun to feel the most miserable from her pregnancy, Patience had taken a leave of absence from the project that she and Magistra Hunley had begun. Additionally, Patience had been unable to find any enthusiasm for continuing any work at home, so her beautifully crafted platinum and copper asterothen, which had been a gift from Sarah's family when Patience's achievement of letters had been announced in the Daily Prophet, had barely been used in weeks.

The new house-elf had been helping her to put the finishing touches on the nursery that morning, but Patience was too tired to finish so she had come downstairs to read. Pokey's passionate determination to please her new mistress was proving a definite challenge to Patience's nerves. When Luther had brought the house-elf over from Daedalus, Patience had agreed that the only way to ensure the security of both the Kent and Snape family secrets was to have the house-elf bonded to Patience directly. Patience had also agreed to select an extremely young house-elf that had not yet had time to form a strong loyalty to Daedalus. However, the house-elf's immediate formation of a slavish devotion to Patience had proved a trial for all of the inhabitants of the house. Even though he had been designated Head House-elf, Wicket was far too ill to supervise the younger house-elf in her duties, so Pokey was frequently to be found ironing Patience's already well-starched robes or polishing the gleaming floor of Patience's dressing room. Therefore, Eva had been trying to convince the young house-elf that Patience wanted the rest of the house to be cleaned as well, but with little success.

Yet in the last week, Patience had hit upon a task that Pokey could perform as obsessively as she wished without causing any distress to the household at large. The old nursery on the floor above Patience's rooms had now been sanitised and redone entirely, from the ceiling to the floorboards. Additionally, during the evenings of that week, Luther and his friend Aldebaran Shipley had been placing the Celestial Screen on the nursery ceiling.

Of course, almost all wizarding children had this charm placed on their ceilings when they were infants, since the spinning galaxies and twinkling stars seemed to have a calming effect on babies. Yet it had seemed surprising to Patience that Luther and Aldebaran should be so devoted to creating such a perfect Celestial Screen. That was, it was surprising until Patience discovered that Eva had been plying them with liberal quantities of Bloodwhisky and promises of opening a bottle of l'Armagnac Noir de Limousin if she were pleased with the results. Patience would never cease to be amazed by the power that promise of good liquor had on wizards.

Patience slid the book that she had wanted from the shelf and settled uncomfortably into the large Morris chair. Wicket had almost cried when she had brought the dilapidated old chair into her rooms from the conservatory, but she had found that no other chair in the house was more comfortable to her. She had spent every afternoon for the past fortnight nestled into its cushions and wondering why anyone ever preferred wingchairs or sofas when they could have a reclining chair with generous cushions. However, as soon as Patience had found the least uncomfortable position possible, there was a knock at the door to the room.

"Who is it?"

"It's me. Luther has left, so we can get on to planning his party if you like."

Patience did not care at all what they did for Luther's birthday. They could hire out dancing goblins for all she cared, as long as she could sit still and not have to move. She had already approved his birthday gift, so she felt she had done her part. As she struggled to unseat herself, Patience thought how very touchy and grouchy she seemed to be these days and hoped that she would be more herself once the baby arrived. Toddling awkwardly to the door, Patience opened it and shuffled out into the hallway. "Right then, shall we just go up to Baby's room? Those stairs are easier."

"You look miserable, darling. Why don't you have Pokey bring you a nice footbath or something? She is dying to serve you, Patience. She's begged Wicket three times already today to allow her to polish your silver brushes again, when she's already done them every day this week."

Patience fiddled with the beryl encrusted bangle on her arm as she replied, "I know, but it breaks Wicket's heart if I ask for a special service and he's not allowed to perform it. I just cannot bear to see him look so sad. I am sure that Pokey can find plenty to do for Luther if she really needs work. Anyway, let's go on and plan the party. Although, I thought you'd really sort of finished already."

"Well, I have, I suppose. I just want to go over it again to be sure."

Patience bit back a retort that Luther was not likely to be less than thrilled with anything Eva did for him and pulled herself up the stairs with the handrail. "Have you heard from Sarah this week? I thought that she and Freddie were to have moved into the new house."

Eva waited patiently for her friend to reach the top of the stairs and replied, "Elspeth helped her to take over the wedding silver and linens yesterday and Freddie's mates should be moving the rest today, I think. I did see the house. It is incredibly tiny and very old."

"But Sarah is happy she married him, isn't she? She doesn't regret running off with him, does she Eva?"

"No, I don't think so. Freddie is still so happy he can hardly stand it. I talked to him last weekend when I went to see the house and he was beaming at Sarah as if he had been made emperor of the world. He admitted to me that he never thought she would agree to it, so he was prepared to ask her father for permission until next century if it took that long. Determined bloke, Freddie."

Patience leant against the wall to rest and smiled. "I like him. I think it is wonderful to see how much they love each other. Euan and Elspeth are a little sickmaking though, aren't they? You know that old story about the wizard tossing down his cloak over a mud puddle for his witch to walk upon? That's Euan—he'd really do that if he were thick enough to have forgotten how to escort her round the puddle."

Eva giggled as she slid her arm through her friend's. "Really, do you think Euan allows Elspeth to walk? In her delicate condition? I'm shocked at you, Patience."

Patience snorted, but then added, "You know, I haven't walked in weeks anyway. It's more of a waddle, isn't it?"

Eva patted her friend's arm sympathetically and asked, "Have you decided what to do about the baby gifts from your aunts?"

"Oh, well, Luther checked them for curses and he believes that they are safe, so I don't know. We have so many lovely gifts already, so I don't really need most of what they sent, but the Pacifying Spoon...those are awfully expensive and would really come in useful. Aunt Sorcha wrote that it is an O'Shaughnessy heirloom actually, so I am considering keeping that."

"Well there isn't much that they could do to it that Luther couldn't detect."

"Probably. However, you know that when Severus comes to see the baby he has the right to inspect the layette and everything else we have been given. He might just bin the lot, knowing him."

"Is he really going to revive that old custom? What a bastard he is, Patience, really."

Patience rounded on her friend sharply and spoke angrily, "Don't you say that about my husband! Of course, he would want to be certain that his child is safe. What sort of wizard would he be otherwise?"

Eva, who told herself that she ought to have known better than criticise Severus Snape within Patience's hearing, said soothingly, "I'm sorry, Patty. Of course he should want his child to be safe."

Patience, whose chest was heaving with emotion, continued, "Just because our relationship isn't quite perfect doesn't mean that he won't take an interest in our child. He has already provided for her and is very concerned about her future."

Eva sighed, inured to her friend's unaccountable defence of Severus Snape no matter the possible transgression, and tried to gently push her friend into the well-cushioned nursing chair. "Of course, darling. Would you like Pokey to bring you something to drink?"

"I don't know. I'm tired. How much longer until teatime?"

"At least two hours."

Patience frowned and rubbed her face lightly with her hand. "Yes, I think so. Summon her, would you? I don't have my wand again. I have the worst backache imaginable. Maybe I had better go back downstairs and rest."

Eva stepped closer to her friend and asked with concern, "Should I contact Healer Van Ussel?"

"Eva, darling, please sit back down. I don't know when Snape will be coming, but it won't make it happen any faster to walk the floor, you'll only wear down the rug."

Eva shot her husband a glance of dislike and replied, "He's going to scare her into a depression again. He is horrible to her, you know? She is in love with him, Luther. I don't know why or how, I almost suspect some sort of coercive spell, but she does love him, and she's pitiably excited to be seeing him today. However, you know and I know that he is only coming to recognise the child as his own. He'll insist on seeing every blessed object we've collected for the child and then he'll say something cutting and cold to her, which will make her cry herself to sleep for a month. She has not seen him in four months, but she still defends him like a tigress. It makes me ill, Luther."

Luther stood up from the desk where he had been working on a paper for publish and walked over to where his wife was standing. He took the piece of parchment that she had been viciously shredding from her hands and raised her fingers to his lips. "I know, Eva. I cannot understand her feelings for him either. It is probably my family's fault—she was love-starved and he is the first one to give her some semblance of love. Nevertheless, we cannot change it, not even to help her, so we shall do our best to support her, Eva. I think you are right. She will be shattered after his visit, so we will have to do what we can. That means not forgetting ourselves and threatening to curse his fingers off."

Eva gasped and started to defend herself, "I never…"

Luther laughed and interrupted, "I know, my beauty, I meant myself. That's not even the first curse that comes to mind either."

The couple, who were now standing with their arms entwined round each other and noses touching, were rather inopportunely interrupted by the sound of a house-elf popping into the room behind them. Uttering a growl of frustration, Luther pulled away from his wife and turned to find Pokey grovelling on the floor.

"Pokey knows that the Brother does not wish to be disturbed, sir. Wicket sends me to tell the Brother that Master Snape and Mr Yaxley has arrived, sir."

Luther snarled under his breath, "Bloody Wicket has got her calling me 'the Brother' now," and marched to the door of the ground floor sitting room. "Are they in the drawing room, Elf?"

"Yes, sir. In the drawing room. Wicket is serving Master, sir. Pokey is to bring the Brother to Master, sir."

Without responding further, Luther pushed past the house-elf into the hallway. Barely waiting long enough for Eva to catch up to him, Luther opened the door to the drawing room and, after Eva had entered, strode forward to where Severus Snape and another dark-haired wizard had just stood up from their seats.

"Hello, Kent. How nice to see you again, Mrs. Kent." Severus Snape's voice rumbled silkily as his eyes glittered dangerously. Gesturing with his hand toward the tall, narrow faced wizard at his left, Snape continued, "Corban Yaxley, my brother-in-law Luther Kent and his wife Evelyn Kent."

Luther inclined his head towards Yaxley and turned towards Eva, who had extended her hand politely. Yaxley perfunctorily raised Eva's hand to his lips briefly and spoke coldly, "Pleasure, Mrs. Kent."

Snape waited until Eva had drawn back nervously to Luther's side before turning to his brother-in-law to ask, "Is the child ready?"

"Yes. The nurseries are on the top floor. Wicket has been attending the girl."

Snape nodded his head and turned to follow Luther, who had led Eva to the door of the drawing room. The group proceeded silently up the four flights of stairs to the nursery. The door was opened immediately by Wicket, who almost bent to the ground in a bow before Snape.

"Master, sir, the baby is sleeping, sir. Please come in Master, sir."

The house-elf stood aside to allow all four people to enter the room. Eva immediately moved to walk across the room to where Patience was sitting on the nursing chair, but was restrained by Luther's hand on her arm. Snape crossed the floor without a glance at his wife and leant down to the cradle, which had been Charmed to rock slowly beneath the festooned white gauze drapes that had been hung from a baldachin on the wall above.

Patience, who had sat up from a depressed slump in her chair the moment that she had seen Snape enter the room, was still trying to raise herself from the chair without aide. Luther, having once more restrained his wife, walked to his sister's side to help her stand and aided her to hobble forward to where Snape was now holding the baby.

"What do you intend to name the child?"

"Adhara Phoebe."

"Her birth astron, I assume."

"Yes. Predicting a bright future and purity."

"Acceptable. Adhara Phoebe Eurydice Snape." Snape lifted the tiny baby up in the air as he spoke the name and then laid her carefully in the still rocking cradle. He placed his wand overtop the baby and began the ancient, traditional series of complex charms as Patience leant against her brother for support. When he had finished, Snape turned round and asked his wife in a sharp voice, "Where is the layette?"

Patience pointed at the large white cupboard in the corner of the room and spoke weakly, "There is a Pacifying Spoon, which was sent by my Aunt Sorcha. Luther has checked it, but I think you had better ought, as well. There is nothing from my parents, as I have already disposed of all they sent. The gifts are from Eva's family, from Luther and Eva, from Sarah and Freddie Boyne, from Sarah's parents and a blanket from her brother Nolan, from Elspeth and Euan McDiarmuid—that would be the silver bowl and the pewter cup, from Elspeth's parents—I believe that was all clothing so you'll find that in the wardrobe, from Magistra Hunley—a silver parastron of course, from your cousin Gideon—that's well labelled for you to check, and a few little things from some of your friends and colleagues—all labelled as well."

Snape nodded in recognition of her speech, but said nothing in reply. His hand rested only a second longer than strictly necessary on his sleeping daughter's chest before he turned on his heel and walked over to the large white cupboard, which was filled with boxes and piles of the objects necessary for a newborn, pure-blood wizarding child. He ran his eyes along the shelves and listlessly lifted several blankets before raising his wand to shoulder height and speaking several words aloud. A bright blue light shot out from his wand and grew to form a giant cloud of grey smoke that surrounded the cupboard from top to bottom. After the smoke dissipated, Snape then swirled his wand round the cupboard's exterior, leaving a bright green aura trailing behind his wand, which slowly faded. He pulled the box with the Pacifying Spoon out from the cupboard and turned it over, before speaking, "Did you check for Oneirôxis, Kent?"

"Yes, as well as the Hupnos Curse."

Snape frowned and then tapped the box lid with his wand tip. The spoon glowed dark orange and then faded to a pale shimmering green. "Hmmm, Agrypnia. Not terribly subtle."

Luther looked surprised and responded, "No, not at all. It would have been detected immediately and is easily fixed."

"Sorcha O'Shaughnessy is never subtle, Kent. A Pacifying Spoon that does the opposite of what it is intended to do would amuse her. The Deathless Sleep curses would have made more sense, I concur." Snape dropped the spoon onto the small ebony table against the wall and in a low, emotionless voice ordered, "Remove this one and the box from Gideon and you may keep the rest. I will leave my child under your protection, Kent. You will send an agreement to me soon?"

"Before this evening."

"Acceptable. I think that we are finished here, Yaxley."