Chapter 44: The Holiday Season Arrives
Author's Notes: (1) Sorry for the long absence, but I'm back now. (2) The Southern Academy of Magical Arts has been changed to the Bayou Academy of Magical Arts. (3) Be sure to drop over to the Red Hen Publications website for the beautifully illustrated "Voyage 1" of Birds of a Feather. Voyages 2 and 3 are currently in the works. (4) And now back to our story!
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When the Thanksgiving holiday drew near each of the crew invited Severus to come home with them to celebrate with them and their families.
"You should come to Baltimore with me," Captain Clark had said. "Mom and dad have a nice place near the bay. You haven't lived 'til you've been to Baltimore."
"You'd be welcome at our place in Pittsburgh," Seabiscuit told him. "Mom and dad taught me to cook and the food will be fantastic!"
"Or you could come home to Memphis with me," Kat said. "Angie would be glad to see you. I just hope she doesn't bring up Sylvia again, like she did last year," he added. His ex-girlfriend Sylvia had dumped him for a muggle who made nature documentaries and the memory was still painful. The last he'd heard of them, they'd been filming volcanoes in Vanuatu.
But Severus had firmly declined their offers. Seeing happy families would remind him of his family and how profoundly unhappy it had been. "I'll stay aboard and guard the boat," he told them. "I want to be alone. I happen to like being alone."
Captain Clark wouldn't hear of anyone being alone at Thanksgiving, however, so Severus accepted an invitation from the Bayou Academy of Magical Arts. There would only be a few people there then and he could brew whatever he wanted in the school's potions laboratory. There were limits to what he could brew on board the Knight Boat, after all. The middle of an ocean is not a good place to risk toxic fumes and explosions.
Fawkes accompanied Severus, of course, and the school was indeed exceedingly quiet. Mr Cohen was there with his wife, their kids and their grandkids, all of whom had flown in on brooms for the holiday, but all of the others had dispersed to their homes. Severus welcomed the quiet and went off to organize things in the potions lab. Fawkes found it a bit too quiet and went off to hang out with some ibises at the school fountain. He missed his colorful fledgling friends with their movies and cartoons.
When they were all gathered around the table for the Thanksgiving feast Mr Cohen asked everyone to take a few moments to think about all the things they had to be thankful for. Thankful? Severus thought. I'm thankful just to be alive! And on further reflection he realized that he was thankful for his new friends and his life on the Knight Boat, too. It was a vast improvement over his earlier life. And he was thankful for Fawkes. He looked over at the bird. If it hadn't been for that bird, my desiccated corpse might still be lying on the floor in that filthy shack, he realized.
Fawkes, on the other hand, had no idea what was going on and was impatient for them to bring out the food.
When the food arrived it proved to be excellent. The elves had prepared the all the traditional dishes: turkey and gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, squash, and Brussels sprouts, with pumpkin pie and pecan pie for dessert. Fawkes liked the latter but had little interest in the rest of it. The pumpkin pie was too squishy for his taste and the cranberry sauce too tart. He wasn't sure how he felt about the turkey, either. Many birds eat other birds at times, so that wasn't what bothered him, but he knew that most domestic turkeys were raised under miserable conditions. They were not exceptionally bright birds, but they were rather elegant with their big fan of tail feathers and their bright red snoods and wattles. The phoenix felt that they should have decent lives before they ended up on the dinner table.
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Severus spent the rest of his visit absorbed in his brewing and he was starting to cook up a large batch of floo powder when he heard someone at the door. It turned out to be Ms Larose, the Divination teacher, looking lovely in lavender robes and smelling faintly of lilacs. His pulse quickened. "Please come in," he said, trying not to look startled. "I didn't know you had stayed here for the holiday."
"Yes," she said, "I always stay but I keep to myself. I have no place to go, actually. Which is what I'd like to talk to you about. Do you have a moment?"
Severus tried to compose an answer but his mind kept wandering to how stunningly beautiful she was.
"Don't worry," she said, "I know I'm distracting. I have Veela blood, you see; my mother was a Veela, so I have this effect on men." She crossed the lab and took a seat beside one of the windows.
Severus took a deep breath and focused his mind. "Excuse me a moment," he said. "I must see to my potion." He waved his wand, reducing the fires so the solutions would simmer. Then he moved to stand behind the lab bench.
Finally he said, "I suspected as much. What can I do for you?"
"I'm looking for someone who can make a potion that will nullify my Veela allure. Some say that it can't be done, but what do you think? Arusha says you have a way with potions. I'm only half Veela, after all; half of me is human, so it might be possible."
Severus tore his gaze away from her beautiful eyes and focused on a spot on the window frame. "I'd have to give it some thought," he said, "but why would you want such a thing? To be a Veela is to have great power over men."
"That's the problem," the Divination teacher said. "I want to be able to tell if a man really cares for me, or it he's simply drawn by the Veela effect. That was my mother's downfall, you see. She thought my father really loved her – and so did he – but after a time it became apparent that he did not. He was strongly attracted to her, but he did not really love her. Finally he broke free of his obsession, cursed her for 'enchanting' him, and fled. After that she sort of stopped living and slowly died of a broken heart. That's why most Veelas live in enclaves together and seldom ever marry.
"I don't want what happened to my mother to happen to me. Maybe it's because I'm part human, but I'm tired of being alone. The men here at the school, like Mr Cohen and Mr Armstrong, all know what I am and avoid me – I don't blame them, it's the only sensible thing they can do, poor fellows. Veelas won't associate with me because I'm part human, and human women avoid me because they're not sure what to think of me. Many are jealous. And then of course there are the disruptions in the classroom. It's a very lonely life."
"Hmmm," Severus said. "Many people would like to have your problem. They turn to love potions to get what they want, but the 'love' that those brews inspires isn't real, either. It always leads to trouble and heartbreak. There is no shortcut and no way to tell if love is real or if it will last." He thought of Lily and frowned. "Love is overrated. You might be better off alone."
"No!" Larose cried. "I just want a chance to meet a man without him immediately obsessing over me. I want a chance to be fully human, a chance to find true love, even if I don't succeed."
Severus gave her a skeptical look. "If you're sure that's what you want, I'll try," he told her, "but I'll have to give it some thought and obtain the ingredients." Part of him was intrigued by the challenge. I'll need henbane, he thought, lots of henbane.
Her eyes lit up. "Oh, thank you!," she cried. "You can't imagine how much this means to me."
She doesn't know what she's asking for, he thought. He remembered how wonderful love had felt with Lily, but that had ended in pain. Later there was Holly, the girl he'd been tutoring in potions. Due to his experience with Lily he'd tried not to have any feelings for Holly, but the feelings had developed despite his best efforts. He thought she had cared for him, too, but right after they'd finished at Hogwarts Holly had disappeared without a word. Larose doesn't know how terrible the pain can be, he thought, and no one is as lonely as a person who's been rejected by someone they love.
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The period between Thanksgiving and Christmas was extremely busy on the Knight Boat. Lots of passengers were travelling and lots of gifts were being shipped. The crew was getting tired, so when Captain Clark called them together for a short meeting they were afraid he was going to announce more work assignments. Fortunately, he wasn't.
"You'll all be glad to know that I've managed to get us some extra time off," Clark told them. "In addition to Christmas, Mr Flushwell has given us time off for New Year's Eve. He's been much more kindly disposed toward us since Slade took over filing all our paperwork," he added, smiling at Severus.
"It's nothing," Severus said, recalling the mess he'd sorted out at Hogwarts when he took over as Headmaster.
Biscuit chuckled. "That's great!" he said. "We'll need the extra time for that Masquerade Ball!"
He and Kat were brimming with enthusiasm for the Ball. Severus definitely was not.
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"What are we going to do for entertainment at the Ball?" Pomona Sprout asked. "The holiday season is almost upon us. We need to do some planning."
Faculty meetings were beginning to get on Minerva's nerves in a big way. "Lucius Malfoy wants us to let that Slytherin band that calls itself Parselmouth perform a song from that rock opera that they've been working on," she said. "We really can't allow that, but Lucius is getting very pushy about it and he's the one that's paying for everything."
"Why can't we allow it?" Horace Slughorn asked angrily. "Because they're Slytherins?"
"It would be way too divisive," Minerva told him. "You know what their songs are about. We have to put all that behind us."
Horace scowled at her. "It can't be more divisive than when you drove all the Slytherins out before the battle. Lots of the older ones came back to join the fight on our side – I know you saw them there – but nobody cares about that."
"I think we need to face the past, not sweep it under the rug," Filius said.
"I agree," Pomona added. "We can't heal and move forward if we don't come to terms with the past."
Minerva slammed her hand down on the table so hard that everyone's teacup bounced. "I apologized for driving them out. What more do you people want me to do?" she asked angrily.
Unfortunately, no one had an answer to that.
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Severus went back to the Bayou Academy for Christmas just as he had for Thanksgiving, and when the boat arrived to pick him up he was waiting on the dock with Fawkes, several crates of completed potions, a few house-elves, Mr Cohen and his family, and Ms Larose. The latter, dressed in a simple light blue robe, beamed happily and blew Severus a kiss as he levitated the crates up the gangplank.
"Oh ho!" Biscuit laughed, "What have you been up to?"
Severus almost told him to shut it, but then he realized that he really should give the crew some sort of explanation. They were his friends, after all.
"I designed and brewed a potion for her. She is part Veela and she wanted something that would counteract the attraction that comes with that heritage."
"I don't think it worked," Kat said, waving happily to her.
Severus raised an eyebrow at him. "My potions always work," he said sternly. "She just happens to be quite attractive in her own right and she doesn't need a magical boost."
None of them dared to mention the faint trace of lipstick that lingered on their friend's cheek.
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"New Years Eve is coming up fast so we've been working on your disguise," Biscuit told Severus after the boat was under way. "You'll look great as Captain Hook. We've got a broad-brimmed hat with an ostrich plume for you, a frilly white shirt, a long coat, and a sword and stuff."
"You can do the hook with a Glamour," Kat said. "It won't matter if the spell wears off occasionally because that won't reveal your identity. You can just renew it as needed."
"You can use a large domino mask to conceal your nose and cheekbones," Biscuit told him, "but you'll need to colour your hair. First you have to bleach it, and then you add the colour. The directions are on the package." He handed Severus several boxes, one of which featured a picture of a lovely young lady with chestnut-brown hair. Autumn Adventure, the label said, promising hair colour of unsurpassed richness.
"And we got some tinted contact lenses for you, too. You've got to practice wearing them." Kat handed Severus the lens kit and a sheet of paper. "Here are the instructions."
Severus took a look at them. The lenses were a vivid blue colour. I'm supposed to put these in my eyes? he wondered. Well, muggles do it all the time, so it can't be too difficult.
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At the next faculty meeting the subject of entertainment at the Ball was once again at the top of the agenda.
"I'm happy to announce that the Lawrence Lombard Quintet will be playing for us and everyone can dance the night away to their 'sweet champagne music'. Lucius Malfoy has agreed to pay their fee in exchange for allowing Parselmouth to perform a song. I'm not happy about it, but Mr Malfoy drives a hard bargain."
"Did you ask Celestina Warbeck if she would be willing to perform a song or two for us?" Pomona asked. "I know her fee is very high, but perhaps she would do it for charity. I would love to hear Celestina!"
"Celestina met with me here over tea last week and I'm sad to say that she declined," Minerva told them. "She will be attending the Ball, however, which is good news. She also reminded me that she's currently writing an opera and would like to perform it here at Hogwarts when it's finished." That will no doubt be another headache that I don't need, Minerva thought. "It's called Lily Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Celestina says it will be an epic tragedy."
"Hmmm," said Filius. "Flawed characters in a doomed love-triangle that ends in death? That certainly sounds like a suitable topic for an opera."
Minerva scowled. "That's true, I suppose, but the problem is that it will reopen so many wounds. It's not ancient history like other operas. We all lived through it very, very recently."
She remembered her meeting with Celestina all too well.
"When it's finished I want to stage it right here at Hogwarts," Celestina had told her. "The Quidditch stadium should be large enough. The students can help with the production. It will be an excellent experience for them. I will play Lily, of course. It will be the greatest wizard-opera ever!"
"I'm sure it will be wonderful," Minerva had said, although in fact she wasn't sure at all, "but I don't think Hogwarts is really the best venue." How could they put the past behind them if people were going to keep writing songs and stories about it?
"Of course it is!" Celestina had declared. "This is where it all happened! I'm sure the Board of Governors will be happy to approve it. All proceeds will go to the Magical Orphans Fund. Except for my fee and royalty, of course. The script isn't finished yet but I should be ready to start rehearsing some of the scenes next spring. I'll see you then, Minerva."
Celestina had drawn herself up, taken a deep breath, and sang out "Severus! Deliver us!" as she left the room. Her voice had rattled the windows.
Minerva had been stunned.
The portrait of Phineas Black had laughed so hard he nearly cracked his paint.
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"You can't call yourself 'Jolly Roger'; that was the name of Hook's ship, or his flag, or something," Biscuit complained.
Kat frowned at the cook. "Well, I'll be 'Jolly Jake' then," he said. "And since when do we have to be historically accurate, anyway?"
The sound of splashing and swearing could be heard from Severus's cabin. It was followed by the sound of Fawkes chortling, the wizard chasing him out into the passageway, and the door slamming shut.
"I think Slade's making progress," Biscuit said. "I haven't hear any crashes in there for a while now."
"I'm sure he'll manage," Kat agreed. "He's probably trying to mix up a better hair dye. Do you think he'll explode when we try to get him to wear the gold earrings?"
"Absolutely!" Biscuit laughed, "but we'll win in the end, and that'll be the best part."
Fawkes flew over to them and Biscuit conjured a perch for him. The bird gave them a quizzical look.
"You know what?" Kat said. "We ought to take Fawkes to the Ball. I'm sure he'll enjoy it. In fact, he'll probably be miffed if we leave him behind."
"True enough, but what could we disguise him as?" Biscuit asked. "He's pretty distinctive."
"I'm sure we'll think of something," Kat assured him.