If Artistic Types Are So Inclined...(post 2 of 2)
Some more descriptions of nine year old Severus:
Chapter 13 -- Exodus
And so it was that Severus Snape, if not outright happy, was serenely and contentedly relaxed on a hot summer afternoon, as washers, dryers, and television droned in the background and he visualized what design he wished his chain mail shirt to take.
Severus put his mostly empty glass down, stating "Thank you!" once again, and then picked up his chain mail shirt and attached another pop top.
Miriam sat down, slowly sipping her own glass of tea, not taking her eyes off Severus. Placing her glass on the table in front of her, she pulled one of the chairs out from under the table.
"Young man, why don't you come over here, show us what you are making?"
Severus looked up at Miriam. There did not seem to be any way for him to avoid the invitation, so he picked up the glass, his smock, and the chain mail shirt, and dragged the bag of pop tops over to the table and sat down, feeling a little embarrassed.
"So?" Miriam inquired. "What is it you're making?"
"A shirt," Severus answered, holding up what he had completed so far. "Like fighters used to wear in the old days..."
Severus braced himself for the derisive laughter he was sure was going to come from these women. Instead, both looked at his shirt with interest, and Miriam even took it from his hands.
"Ah, Esther!" she exclaimed, holding the item up to the light. "See how clever this nice boy is!"
"Like knights of old, it is!" Esther in turn exclaimed, perhaps glad to be distracted from her own many troubles.
"Yes," Severus giggled, blushing. "That is what I thought these looked like..."
He indicated the bag full of used pop tops.
Miriam and Esther eyed the bag critically, and then looked at each other, smiling.
"He's a knight what fights litter!" Esther laughed, picking up her crochet hook and resuming her work.
"So? You have a dragon down your drain?" Miriam demanded, and then turned to Severus.
"You going to fight dragons in this thing?" she demanded. The question caught Severus off guard.
"Uh...no," he stammered. "I mean...I don't know. Are there dragons around here?"
Severus watched the scene as if he were separate from it, like it was something he was watching on the television.
Judy was precious, he realized. She was so...new. And unlike him, she had parents who both loved each other, and wanted and adored her. Bad stuff like what Azalea, Angel, Yesmina and DeWard had happen to them would not happen to Judy.
Moreover, at that moment he also realized that Annie and Benjie were more than two nice adults who had taken a bunch of strange kids under their wing; they were now their parents. Annie was at that moment being a mother to Azalea. Benjie was the loving father none of them had ever had.
This meant that Judy was Severus’ younger sister. He smiled to himself at this thought. He now had a baby sister. He was now a big brother. He now had someone who needed him, who he would need to look out for and protect.
He looked over at Steve, who was still holding a pouting Dawn, and understood. He turned back around and leaned towards Judy in Miriam's arms, stroking the infant's arm and rubbing his nose on her neck between her ear and shoulder as he had seen Steve do with Dawn.
Judy opened her eyes as if surprised, and then reflexively grabbed Severus' nose and turning her head, put her lips around the end of it and started to suck vigorously.
This was the last thing Severus had expected, but he did not pull away. He heard everyone start to chuckle.
"She's going to be pretty disappointed as soon as she realizes nothing's coming out," Benjie laughed. Severus glanced up at him with a questioning look, but he still did not pull away from Judy.
"She thinks you're her mother," Miriam chuckled. At first, Severus did not understand, but then what they were saying dawned on him. This coincided with Judy starting to suck even harder so that it actually hurt. Severus carefully pried his nose loose from her mouth and sat back up sheepishly. He could feel his face getting red.
Everyone was looking at his nose and starting to laugh, even Free.
"What?" he demanded.
"You, like, have a hicky on your nose, man!" Free observed.
Chapter 14 -- I've Got To Be Me
Moreover, as much as Severus liked Angel and Steve, neither one gently caressed his nose with concealer and powder, nor brushed his hair and spent hours braiding it into dozens of something called "cornrows", as Azalea was now doing. She had spent all day carefully working beads and pop tops into each braid.
Free said he was beginning to look like something called a Rastafarian; Azalea corrected her, saying that Severus looked like an Egyptian god, an assessment to which Free acquiesced. She then asked if Azalea would do the same to her hair tomorrow. Azalea looked surprised at the request, then smiled and said they would all get braids so that they would be from the same tribe.
As this was going on, Severus worked on his pop-top-chain-mail shirt. He had gone back to the original design of just attaching one pop top to the other, as it was the easiest to do in the moving vehicle while one's hair was being braided. He decided that once they got to the farm, he would go back to figuring out how to either knit or crochet a version of the shirt.
Free had spent the morning working with some cotton cord they had on the bus, and by lunchtime presented Severus with a macraméd pouch to wear around his neck, into which he could put his new rock.
Everyone admired the design of the knots on both the pouch and the strap that went around the neck. Severus asked Free to show him how to do macramé once they got to the farm.
Chapter 15 -- This Magic Moment
"I am not from California. I am not a naturist. I just want to cool off,” he announced, kicking off his shoes, taking off all his clothes, and then running and grabbing the rope hanging from the tree and swinging out over the water and dropping in.
It hurt. He did not know why he did it, he just knew that at that point he wanted to get away from the drama. He did not know that when you hit water from a height that it could feel like a hard slap.
However, the water was rather warm, so after the initial shock of impact, he actually enjoyed the feeling of floating under the water. It sounded like Azalea was arguing with the boys again, perhaps with Yesmina’s help, but the water thankfully muffled what was being said.
He opened his eyes, and saw that it was rather green down here. A fish swum past his face.
Then he remembered that he was not sure that he knew how to swim.
“Don’tcha find them sexy?” Azalea prompted, waving a centerfold in Severus’ face.
“I dunno,” Severus mumbled. He was not sure what ‘sexy’ really meant, let alone how one was supposed to look it. “They’re pretty enough, I suppose…”
“Yeah, but do you think they look sexy?” Jill prodded. For Severus it did not help that in many ways, Jill reminded him of Lily, perhaps how Lily would look when she was 13 or 14.
“They look uncomfortable,” Severus answered. In response to the girls’ surprised looks, he grabbed the centerfold in question and mimicked the pose. DeWard giggled.
“Tell me this does not look stupid!” he exclaimed.
“Of course it looks stupid when you do it!” Libby responded. “You’re a boy, boys don’t look sexy doing that!”
“Then why is it considered sexy for a girl to do it?” Severus asked. Libby and Jill just stared at him.
“He’s only nine years old, he don’t know ‘bout that stuff,” Azalea stated dismissively. “To him, an ice cream cone’s sexy!”
Chapter 19 -- Have You Heard?
Severus turned and saw Elvis and Priscilla with their caravan where there had only been grass and logs before. Severus guessed that they had charmed their campsite so that it was not visible when they were not there.
“Hello,” Severus greeted them. “I had wondered if you had left or not…”
“This evenin’,” Elvis answered. “Decided to go visit that cousin in Tennessee…”
“What’s you makin’, Severus?” Prissy asked, coming up and peering at the pop top chaps Severus had in his hands.
“Another gift,” Severus stated glumly. “But it’s not working out.”
“What the fuck is it?” Elvis demanded. Severus sighed.
“They are supposed to be a pair of what they call ‘chaps’, something to put on over a pair of jeans for protection,” Severus explained.
“Likes chain mail!” Prissy exclaimed, seemingly impressed.
“Yes, exactly,” Severus answered.
“Are those pop tops you’re usin’?” Elvis asked, coming over and sifting through the bag.
“Uh, yes,” Severus answered. “I got them at Woodstock when we helped clean up afterwards…”
“That’s one shitload of shit y’got in that bag, I’ll give ya that!” Elvis exclaimed, laughing and going to lay on one of the loungers. He took out his pipe and proceeded to smoke it.
When Severus turned back to Prissy, he saw that she had already undone all of his work.
“Dis the size youze wants?” she asked, holding Angel’s jeans up in front of her.
“Yes, those pants belong to the boy I was making the chaps for,” Severus answered. “But it was harder than I thought it would be…I did make a shirt for myself, but I did have some help on it. This I had to do all on my own, because it is a surprise…”
However, Prissy was already fast at work. Moreover, she was indeed fast…her hands were a blur as she deftly attached one pop top to another.
In what seemed no time at all, she held up a perfect pair of pop top chain mail chaps. Severus was amazed…they were much more sophisticated than anything he could have done. Prissy had made the legs below the knee in a circle so that one had to actually step into the chaps. The top was finished with chain mail loops so that the chaps could hang from a belt.
In addition, Severus could see that Prissy had worked actual designs into the garment using additional tabs from the pop tops.
“Stand back,” Severus heard Elvis instruct, and as he did so the elf pointed a wand at the chaps, and in an instant they were now shiny as chrome, rather than a dull aluminum color. Severus just gaped, open-mouthed.
Chapter 20 -- Departure
Severus did not say anything, but went over to where he had been sleeping all week, and found not only the rest of his now clean jeans, tee shirts and knickers, but his smock shirt which had been put back together. However, there were also additional shirts, new ones that had been sewn that week based on the smock’s design. There was also a pile of shirts and jeans that Severus did not recognize.
“Those from the Temples and the others,” Azalea explained, starting to pack Yesmina’s bag. “They old clothes, they say take what fits us.”
For the first time Severus noticed that Azalea was wearing one of the smock-blouses that had been based on his shirt, but he had not seen Azalea with it before. He then noticed that Yesmina had many more blouses and dresses than she’d had, and he realized that someone must have decided to not only give them old clothes, but to make new ones for them.
He did not know what to make of this gesture. It was one thing to go to a “Free Store” and just take what one needed, but this was, well, charity. For some reason it made him feel uncomfortable, and it seemed that Azalea felt the same way.
However, if he declined the offers, then they would all have to, and he knew that he could not make that decision for the others. And he surmised that Azalea had come to the same decision.
He went over to the pile of old clothes and picked through the jeans, finding a faded pair with holes in the knees that was about his size. At home, he would have been made fun of for wearing such tattered pants, but over here in America, he had seen that such old, worn clothing was actually considered quite fashionable.
He also found a green and brown tee shirt in his size proclaiming one’s devotion to the local high school, a “Go Thunderbirds!” emblazoned across the chest.
Azalea put Angel’s bag down and looked at Severus. He thought that her eyes looked unnaturally bright.
“Come here,” she ordered softly. Severus did as he was told, and she guided him to sit in front of her. She reached into her bag and retrieved her comb, and started to comb his hair.
“Gotta do somethin’ with this,” she observed. “You got it all messed up this week.”
Severus just nodded acquiescence, but remained silent. This would probably be the last time ever that Azalea would do his hair, and he just wanted to enjoy the experience.
She softly grasped his hair, which was now well below his shoulders, and combed it for much longer than was necessary. She then created a few braids in front, finishing each braid with a bead.
Severus glared suspiciously at the paper cone in front of him that was an absurd shade of orange with bright red balloons printed on it. He had thought that it was something that was going to later be filled with candy, not something that he was expected to put on his head.
Most everyone, the adults included, did not hesitate to put on their own party hats, but Severus noticed that Azalea was eyeing her own party hat as suspiciously as he had his own.
Annie encouraged Azalea and Severus to put on their hats, but as Severus slowly complied, he noticed that Azalea only made a half-hearted attempt with her own hat before loudly announcing, “It don’t fit!” and taking it off.
Severus did not say a word, but silently took his party hat and placed it out of sight on the bench beside him.
He in turned just smiled and turned to concentrate on the piece of cake he’d just been served, but before he could take a bite Benjie, who had been having quite a few glasses of mead all evening, sat down next to him.
“Where’s your hat?” he demanded, putting his arm around Severus’ shoulders. “It’s a party, ya gotta wear a hat! Oh, there it is!”
He unfortunately, for Severus’ sake, found the offensive hat on the bench beside him, grabbed it, and placed it rather roughly on Severus’ head, pulling the elastic cord under Severus’ chin to secure it.
“There!” Benjie proudly slurred. “Y’look festive!” Benjie then slapped Severus on the back.
Severus could see Azalea looking at him with a smirk, her eyes going from the hat on his head to his face and then back again.
“Fit you fine!” she announced, before turning back to eating her slice of cake.
Severus was not happy about the hat, but since Benjie had decided to stay put, he knew if he tried to take it off that Benjie would just put it back on. Severus decided to drown his sorrows in cake and ice cream sundaes.
It was only when Angel finally started opening his gifts and Benjie’s glass was empty and he went in search of a refill, that Severus was able to slip the hat off. This time he threw it on the ground under the table, stepping on it and scrunching it with his foot for good measure.