-11-
Wednesday morning, the house elves treated Snape and his helpers – and by extension the whole population of Hogwarts – to a breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes. There was a sinfully delicious chocolate and hazelnut spread to put on them, whipped cream, fruit and chocolate sauce.
Snape didn't have to ask. The apprentice prepared plates for both of them – pancakes with everything, but for Snape she made sure to use strawberries and not much else fruitwise while her plate held raspberries and blueberries and a little of everything. The potions master meanwhile took care of the coffee, black for himself and with a dash of milk for the apprentice. Once they both had their respective plates and cups, the girl added a big spoonful of whipped cream and a little chocolate sauce to her coffee.
"How can you drink this?" asked the Dark Lord who took his coffee as black as his soul.
The apprentice held her cup out, offering. "Try it," she invited the evil wizard.
The Dark Lord tried and turned to Lucius and the rest of his group immediately. "Why was it not brought to my attention that this is the proper way to drink coffee?" he snarled angrily.
"My Lord," Lucius said in a hushed tone, "I had no idea. Had I heard even a whisper…"
"This must be some foreign dish," said Narcissa and Bellatrix nodded vigorously. "Isn't the girl a stranger? I mean look at her, no British-born witch would dress like that."
"What's wrong with my robes?" the apprentice asked, clearly puzzled.
"They are pink," Bellatrix pointed out.
"And pink is a lovely colour, my dear," Snape interfered.
"It goes very well with your complexion," added Dumbledore.
"And with your hair," the Dark Lord hurried to reassure the young potions mistress.
It was too late. "How dare you!" cried the girl and with a swish of her wand, Bellatrix's robes turned the most violent shade of pink any of the assembled witches and wizards had ever seen.
Bellatrix screeched and retaliated by turning the apprentice's robes black.
"Amazing!" Snape tried to stop the fight before it escalated. "You really can wear any colour. You always look like a goddess!"
The apprentice said nothing but took a sip of her coffee. Beside her, the Dark Lord was trying to prepare his own cup like the blonde's. "Let me show you," the witch said kindly. She added milk and then reached for the whipped cream. Snape was aware that his apprentice was fast because he had practiced duelling with her before but he almost missed the tiny movement of the spoon that sent a huge blob of cream right into Bellatrix's face.
Thanks to regular training – you couldn't afford not to train duelling regularly if you worked as a spy – Snape had his wand out before Bellatrix had reached for hers which she had just returned into her sleeve after the colour changing charm.
"Stop this now!" he glared at the two witches. "The students are watching. Just think of the bad example you are setting!" It took all of his willpower to continue observing the two witches when he realised that the sleeve of his wand arm was suddenly smurf blue.
"Nice hair, Professor!" somebody cried from the Gryffindor table.
Snape conjured a mirror without lowering his wand from the two witches. His hair was green and his robes were blue.
"How old are you? Three?" he spat at the women.
"You have to show me a three-year-old who can change your hair to green," smirked Lucius.
Snape laughed because somebody had hexed his hair green, too.
The Dark Lord purred in his seat between the quarrelling women as he tried his coffee. "Whatever you do, don't spill my coffee!"
The coffee was, of course, spilt when Bellatrix suddenly writhed beside him screaming in pain.
"You can cast a cruciatus curse wordlessly?" the Dark Lord asked the apprentice, clearly impressed.
The girl shook her head. "Shoe shrinking charm," she informed him.
"That's enough," Dumbledore finally interfered. He waved his wand and everything turned back to normal. Bellatrix stopped screaming. "Behave or you will be banned to your quarters for the rest of the day. Now shake hands."
The two women glared at the old wizard but they obeyed. Their faces clearly told that neither of them was going to forgive and forget in the near future.
"Severus," suggested Filius Flitwick, the Charms instructor, "why don't you open the advent calendar?"
The potions master agreed that this was a good idea and proceeded to open the box. Sverre retrieved the small parcel and flew to the little Charms professor. The small wizard watched the box grow with an expression of Christmas come early. "It's such a brilliant little charm," he informed everybody. "It looks effortless but is actually very advanced magic."
"For helping maintain the peace," he read out once the parcel had reached its full size. Everybody clapped politely and the wizard opened his box.
In it were a couple dozen bottles in various colours. Flitwick inspected one. "Daydreams!" he cried excitedly. "And I have a roll of parchment which seems to hold instructions." He read the roll quickly and then informed the assembled witches and wizards that they were to be split into groups to share a daydream.
Snape was assigned to the apprentice's group together with the Dark Lord and his group, Dumbledore and McGonagall. Since Flitwick had everything in hand, the group didn't wait for everybody to have found their co-dreamers but the headmaster conjured a group of comfortable sofas and they all found a seat. Once everybody was comfortable, the apprentice opened their daydream bottle which was golden. The mist that rose from it upon opening was vividly pink like the witch's robes. It smelled of freshly brewn coffee, horses and old parchment. The group members closed their eyes and inhaled deeply.
The group found themselves in a strange city when they opened their eyes.
"Vienna!" cried the apprentice. "Come, I'll show you around."
"Why would we want to see this," Bellatrix made a face.
"I won't waste the little time we have for this dream arguing with you. Who wants to come, comes. The rest waits here."
When Bellatrix realised she was the only one staying behind, she hurried to catch up with the group.
"We are in the center of Vienna. This is our main church, St. Stephen's cathedral," the apprentice lectured as they neared a big church with a spectacular colourful roof of glazed ceramic tiles.
"Beautiful!" Narcissa craned her neck to see better.
"Why are we going inside?" asked Lucius. "The roof seems to be the best part."
It turned out the roof was only the second best part. The apprentice led the way to the pulpit where she showed them the figure of a man looking out a window. "To open the gate, a person with magic has to touch his hat," she explained and did just that. A small door opened for the tiniest of moments and she was gone. Snape was quick to follow her and the others didn't hesitate either.
"The witches and wizards of Vienna have used the cathedral as a burial place for centuries," the blonde lectured. They were in a simple stone corridor but every couple of meters there was a slab in the wall with the name, birth date and date of death of a witch or wizard. Beside most slabs was a small candle holder that held no candle but what looked like a miniature pensieve.
"This is my favourite," the blonde said. "We are not related." She showed the others how to stick her finger into the mini pensieve and the figure of a blonde woman in pink robes materialised. She informed them that her proudest achievement in her life was to have asserted schooling for girls in the wizarding community. "Only an educated woman can reach her full potential," she warned them before she disappeared.
"Consider that she lived at a time when schooling was not even for all boys," said the apprentice. "but only for the sons of the richest families in the muggle world. It is believed that the fact that young witches had knowledge normally reserved to men was the reason for the first witch hunts."
The group explored a couple of other graves – a man who had invented medical potions which were still used, a woman who had explored the magical plant life in Austria's many lakes and a renown magical painter – before the apprentice led them out of the cathedral and to a muggle coffee house.
They were lucky and got a table big enough for the whole group. A waiter in an evening suit brought them the menu and they all gulped. There were twenty-five varieties of coffee on the menu.
The Viennese witch helped them order and soon everybody had a steaming cup in front of them. After trying their own, they swapped cups to try the others', too, but in the end they agreed that the apprentice had chosen the best cup for each and every member of the group.
The blonde herself had whipped cream and chocolate on her coffee. Dumbledore's looked simple but there was a dash of caramel syrup in it. Snape had what looked like black coffee but smelled suspiciously of alcohol. The Dark Lord got to try something with cinnamon. Bellatrix and Narcissa both had ornate glass goblets with lots of milk. Bellatrix had slurs of peppermint liqueur, Narcissa had apricot brandy instead.
The sisters tried their coffee and vowed to never mock the apprentice's home town again.
When they woke up a little later, they all agreed their dream had been too short and Lucius had to promise to organise a summer vacation in Vienna. He looked thrilled when the Dark Lord expressed his wish to tag along.