An Englishman’s Castle

An Englishman’s Castle

Author’s Note:
Thank you for the positive response for the last chapter, it’s fantastic that this small offering is being well received!


Hermione Granger was sliding her scrambled eggs around her lightly browned toast with a long handled fork when the owl post arrived in the Great Hall, flooding through the windows. As owls skidded and dipped along the students’ tables, causing a welcome diversion from cornflakes and kippers, a medium sized bird landed in front of the Apprentice and fixed her with a quizzical look from brown eyes.
“Good morning Payam,” she greeted, holding out a pair of fingers for the bird to sniff.
The owl, whose pale face was ringed with a layer of brown downy feathers, bit down affectionately and then soothed the redness by running its beak and feathery ear-tufts along the area it had nibbled. It offered a pale claw to her and stood admirably still as Hermione untied the red ribbon binding the letter to its foot. Accepting a slice of bacon and a ruffle behind the ears as thanks it left the Hall before the last owls had entered and swooped off towards London, over the Lake.
“Madame Apprentice, your presence is required in the office – once, of course, you have finished reading that sentimental scrawl from our beloved Potter.”
Three years into a four year apprenticeship, Hermione nodded once in return and turned to the envelope in her hands as Severus strode out of the Great Hall with his robes billowing behind him.
Hello Hermione!
Hope you’re alright and not disemboweling too many crocodiles, chomping cabbages or horned leeches or whatever it is that Stinky Snape makes you do – in total secrecy naturally. Met Seamus in Diagon Alley last Tuesday and he reckons that you’re chained to a desk to do the gruesome job of licking Snape’s toes clean… You aren’t are you? Anyway, wanted to know when you’re around next week as Ginny and I’ve been assigned our kids and want you to come and meet them. Owl seemed to be the easiest way to get hold of you – you going to get floo at any point this century?
The letter wasn’t signed, but Harry’s spidery scrawl made it perfectly apparent who the letter was from regardless. Frowning, she folded it up and spooned another forkful of eggs into her mouth before turning to Madame Pomfrey.
“Madame Pomfrey,” she asked, “has, err, anything been happening recently?”
“Oh yes dear,” the talkative Matron waved her toast at Hermione in response, “I heard that Minerva is dreadfully unhappy with Severus’ response. Of course, I can entirely see his point that he will terrorise a child into fits, but the fact is that he’s eligible.”
Hermione swallowed another mouthful and glanced down at the parchment again. She spent a lot of time chopping ingredients, formulating potions and hiding behind tables during explosions but surely not so much that she would miss out on something that seemed monumental.
“Does Severus fulfil the points of eligibility? I assumed he wouldn’t.”
Madame Pomfrey gave her a very startled look and nodded vehemently.
“Well, he is a senior Professor with Head of House responsibilities, and a certified brewer for both the Ministry and St Mungo’s, and, between you and I dear, he earns in excess of G10,000 yearly so he does meet the criteria.”
Hermione tapped the parchment and smiled at the Matron.
“Letter from Harry this morning,” she tried, “asking me over next week.”
“That’s lovely, dear. I should imagine you’ll be meeting his child then.”
Hermione spluttered out a mouthful of orange juice all over her plate and turned to Madame Pomfrey in amazement.
“Ginny’s pregnant?” she gasped out.
Pomfrey looked rather confused as she spread jam on a second slice of toast.
“Not as far as I’m aware,” she sniffed, “but then, I wouldn’t really know.”
“Neither would I apparently,” Hermione mumbled and then rose from the table, “well, better go and see what’s crawled up his – uhm – I mean, what Professor Snape needs.”
“Have a good day, dear.”
Hermione walked down to the dungeons re-reading the short letter from Harry and wracking her brain for any information she may have misinterpreted or any announcement she might not have been listening hard enough to. Around her students streamed towards their classes; this early in the year most children were toting around all of their books having not yet established which could be left and shared with a friend on the neighbouring desk.
“Madame Apprentice?”
Ben Gilliam strolled up alongside Hermione and held out a hand with long, thin fingers and nails bitten down to stubs. Clutched inside was a cream figure; the limbs chiselled away to a smooth grain and the body whittled as if time had been constrained enough to result in an unfinished piece.
“Could you please pass this on to Professor Snape? He requested it last night.”
“What is it?”
“I’m not sure, to be honest. He wanted a figure made from willow he provided himself - said if I could have it done by this morning I wouldn’t have to complete my detention tonight.”
Hermione accepted the figure tipped into her hands and held it up closer to her face to examine it. The face was minutely carved and the head as topped with tiny scraps of bark imitating hair. Even the nails on the hands and feet had been completed so, apart from the maimed torso, the little doll was perfect. The willow was a very pale wood, more so than normal, and there was a swirl of vein running through one arm and up the neck.
“I’ll pass it on,” Hermione affirmed absently, looking up and nodding at the boy.
“Thank you. Have a good morning Madame.”
Hermione looked at the outstretched arms of the figure again and then removed her handkerchief from a pocket and gingerly swaddled the model as she entered the staircase down to the dungeons. Gilliam was known for his constant whittling and she wouldn’t want to break the delicate piece before Snape used it for whatever nefarious purposes he had planned.
The Potions’ Master was bent over a large bell jar with a pair of protective dragon-hide gloves pulled on over his elbows. His hair was scraped back into a small ponytail and he barely turned around as his Apprentice entered the room.
“Professor Snape, you wanted to see me before I began my duties?”
Snape reached one long arm into the jar and extracted a purplish dragon’s heart from the pickling liquid before he looked at her with a sneer on his thin lips.
“You’ll be instructing the fourth years on Deflating Draughts. Once that is complete, without any mishaps if you can manage it, supplies of puffer-fish eyes are running low so you had better order some more before October’s lesson on the Swelling Solution for the third years. Fifth years before lunch, Draught of Peace, and then third years are studying rates of reactions – surface area specifically – at least with a theory lesson you can avoid damaging my classroom.”
“Excuse me? I’m teaching all the lessons today?”
“Indeed. I am rather busy, so you shall have to struggle through,” he drawled, laying the heart out on a chopping board.
Hermione scowled at the back of his head and picked up a sheath of parchment lying on the desk. Outside the office feet passed rapidly, flying down the corridor towards the classroom, accompanied by little moans of apprehension and a vague chatter.
“Ben Gilliam asked me to pass this on to you,” she laid the figurine down on his desk, “it’s a small figurine.”
“Passable,” he pronounced, picking it up roughly and turning it over to look at it, “now go away.”
Frowning, Hermione left him to his dragon heart and doll, stamping out of the office to go and teach his classes, thoroughly unprepared.
“Ripening,” Snape murmured, long fingers trailing along the edge of a shelf as he frowned at the vials of potions, “Swelling, ah, ripening.”
It was a large glass jar filled with murky brown paste and with a large green sprouting seed etched into the glass stopper. Snape unscrewed the lid, releasing an earthy smell into the office, and, grasping the figurine in a pair of tongs, lowered it into the potion and stirred it around. When he pulled the wooden person out of the jar it was drenched in mustard yellow paste. He dropped it into a terracotta pot and returned to the dragon heart.