A few days later, Alice and her roommates were summoned by robed, masked figures to the lunar new year celebration. After they had gone outside to the site of the bonfire and sorted themselves by hall, she was pleased to see her husband standing near the edge of the gathering. Alice smiled at him, happy that he was feeling better. He smiled back at her before returning his attention to the ceremony.

She had been quite pleased with the roses that arrived a few days ago. First nine, then the ninety-nine…the first offering would have been adequate, and then he had managed to surprise her. Both offerings meant the same thing…that he would love her forever. She had spent most of the morning in the library, and had come back to put some books up before seeing Hieronymous with lunch only to find that her room had been transformed into the Botanical Gardens.

When she had made it upstairs with his lunch—after stopping to count the flowers—she had found him awake with a grin on his face. He had admitted that Clark had helped with the scheme, given his own condition.

She thought it strange that his magical medical treatment shortened the flu and helped with his symptoms, but could not cure it immediately. Potsdam had told her to make sure that he took it easy for a few days…. Actually, what she had said was to 'make sure he doesn't overwork himself, even if you have to sit in his lap to accomplish it.'

Alice was unsure exactly how much of that last bit of advice had any medical basis.

When the woman had started asking when she would need help moving her things, Alice had to confess what had happened during their Christmas visit. Alice had figured she would have to know eventually anyway, as someone had to make sure that the potion had stopped working, and green magic was not her husband's area of expertise. Predictably, Potsdam had been rather indignant upon learning of the situation, but Alice guessed that her reaction had more than one reason behind it. At any rate, she had not said anything concerning Alice's sleeping arrangements since.

The seniors got up, interrupting her thoughts, and walked toward where Potsdam waited by the remains of the fire and took turns stirring the ashes with a long stick.

"The old year has died. The past has gone, and will not come again," Potsdam intoned. "Let us leave behind our sorrows in the ashes of the past."

Alice wished that Hieronymous could do that. He seemed so much more alive now than when she had met him, but there was still something that perhaps only she could see lurking in the depths of his eyes. At this time last year, she would never have seriously considered prying. Sometimes, he needed it though. On the last May Day, she had shown him his wounds. Since then she had been drawing the swelling and soothing the irritation, but as long as the infected shards remained, so would his pain.

"As these ashes become soil, so may our hearts become the ground of the future," Potsdam said as the last of the seniors took their turn stirring. That done, the class presidents carried new wood over and put it in the fire pit. "Let the new year be born!" Potsdam declared.

The wood slowly started to crackle, and the fire began anew. Potsdam then asked for omens, or recurring dreams for the new year.

This year, Barbara was unable to stop Suki from speaking. "I dreamt of a small figure in bright white being encircled by a large snake. There were objects tied with breaking strings above her, and bats. There were also larger white-robed spirits who were making music, and they were trying to say something but I couldn't hear."

"Meditate on this dream and what meaning it might have for your lives in the new year, and may the seeds of the past bear fruit in you all," Potsdam finished.

When she was done, everyone got up to dance around the fire until it was time for bed. As she was headed out, she felt a familiar hand grab hers. "Are you in a hurry?" Hieronymous asked.

She smiled up at him. "I'm a bit tired, but not so much so that I need to hurry to bed. You are looking better."

He nodded. "It is due to Potsdam's vile-tasting concoctions and your tender care, I am sure," he said.

"She said to remind you to take it easy for a few days," Alice said, and she could almost swear that her husband rolled his eyes but it was too dark to be sure.

"I am sure that the woman will tell me the same at least twice before breakfast is done," he deadpanned. "For some reason, every time I get sick she insists on treating me as if I only have five years."

Alice giggled. "I'd say that she has strong mothering instincts, but I could not describe all her behavior as motherly."

Hieronymous sighed. "If she has been at you again…."

Alice cut him off with a squeeze of her hand. "She's actually been better lately, due to my explanations of certain practicalities. She seems satisfied to have us successfully married off for now, though I suspect she'll start up again later. Personally, I think she should learn to be at least as patient as we are."

She could hear the smile in his voice. "Undoubtedly so."

She decided to change the subject, just in case Potsdam was sneaking behind them. "What did you think of our omen this year? I wasn't sure what to think about the cake turning into sand for Angela last year."

"Typically they are only dreams," her husband answered slowly. "This year, though…. You will not get into Divination Studies until next year, but that dream was full of dark omens."

"I think I know that snakes are bad in any culture," Alice said. "What about the robed spirits?"

"If in white, like they were," Hieronymous explained, "someone's health is threatened. That they were making music suggests sad changes within the household, but that they were speaking gives hope that the crisis may be averted if their council can be understood and followed."

Alice frowned. "When someone has a dream, it always directly about them?" she asked. Suki's brother was Clark's roommate, and a friend of his. She hoped nothing untoward would happen to them.

"Typically, but not always," her husband answered. "And that is assuming that Miss Sato had a prophetic dream rather than falling asleep after reading a book about bad omens."

A smile tugged on her lips as they neared her entrance. "That sounds like her choice of reading material, though." Hopefully, that was all it had been.