Birds of a Feather
Chapter 13: Digressions
Summary: After Fawkes rescues Severus Snape in the Shrieking Shack, the phoenix decides to stick around.
The usual disclaimer applies. See Chapter 1.
"And don't forget, you two, if you put so much as one toe outside of the grounds, or put your finger on a wand, you'll be back in Azkaban before you know it," the Auror said sternly.
As if they could forget. The house-arrest spell would zip them back automatically. Lucius bit back a sharp reply and simply nodded. Draco turned and looked toward the manor. "Can we go now?" he asked.
The Auror snorted and disappeared with a loud crack. The noise startled the white peacocks, and Narcissa looked out the window. "They're here!" she cried to the house-elves. "Fix them some food!" Then she ran out the door and down the long driveway to embrace them.
She nearly smothered Draco. "I'm okay, mom, honest," he insisted, hugging her back. "Take it easy! You'll crush me to death on my first day home."
Then she threw her arms around her husband. "Wait, dear," he said, drawing back a bit. "I'm sure we smell terrible."
"Not as bad as last time," she laughed. "They must have let you bathe before you left."
"Actually, things are a bit better there now," he told her. "It's warmer, and they give us clean clothes and let us take showers twice a week."
"I think I like the stubble," she said, kissing him. "It makes you look wild and savage."
"Well, I don't feel wild and savage," he said, smiling tiredly. "Let's go inside, shall we?"
~~~~~
"I'm not sure what we're going to do," Minerva said. "It looks like very few of the Slytherins will be returning. Their parents are a bit upset that their children were 'driven out' before the battle, and now they say that everyone believes that their children were all Death Eaters, each and every one of them, even the first years."
The Heads of Houses were gathered in Minerva's office for a staff meeting.
"I can't imagine how that could have happened," a sarcastic voice said from across the room. It was the portrait of Phineas Black.
Filius Flitwick frowned. "They're all going to drop out? That won't bode well for their futures."
"Being branded as Death Eaters has ruined their futures anyway," Phineas said, "so I really don't see what difference it will make."
Minerva ignored Phineas and continued. "The ones who can afford it say they are going to hire tutors or send their children to other schools abroad. Some are going to try home schooling. And the parents of some of the new students are threatening to sue if their children are sorted into Slytherin. You wouldn't believe some of the Howlers I've gotten!"
"Slytherin house will be almost empty, then," Horace Slughorn said quietly. He looked despondent.
"Which brings me to another problem," Minerva said. "The Sorting Hat was badly damaged by Voldemort during the battle, and I'm afraid that my repair spells haven't been able to fix it. It seems happy enough, but its words are all gibberish now. The new students will be arriving next month, and I'm not sure it will be able to sort them."
The Hat stirred on its shelf. "Huwawah!" it said happily.
"Hmmm," said Filius. "Maybe one of us should put it on and see what happens."
"Good idea," Pomona Sprout said. She put the Hat on her head.
"Frazzengavit!" it cried.
"Now take it off and put it back on again," Filius told her. "If it says the same thing again, then we'll know that 'Frazzengavit' means 'Hufflepuff'."
Pomona did as he asked. The Hat said, "Wheechee!"
Filius sighed. "Yes, it seems that we do have a problem."
~~~~~
"I'm not so sure about becoming an Auror," Harry said, staring into his butterbeer.
"Don't worry, mate," Ron said. "They're glad to have us; we're war heroes."
"That's what worries me. We aren't really qualified to be Aurors. We defeated Voldemort because of my mom's protection, and because of that stuff about the Elder Wand. But that isn't going to work against ordinary blokes. And most of the stuff that we learned in Defense was crap. Lupin and Snape were the only ones who taught us anything useful. As Aurors, we'll be going up against a lot of people who know more and have more experience than we do."
"They're going to be training us. It will work out. You'll see." Ron signaled the waitress to bring more crisps.
"Yeah, maybe, but we didn't even finish school. And a lot of the time, we weren't really paying attention. Hermione won't be there to help us any more. We depended on her a lot."
"Do you want me to try to talk her into becoming an Auror, too?"
"No," Harry laughed, "I don't think she'd go for that. Maybe we should just hit the books, you know, try to fill in the gaps. We missed a lot of stuff."
"That's because we were busy worrying about Voldemort."
"True, but that's not going to make any difference if we have to face down some murderous lunatic."
"I hope you're not suggesting a QwikSpell course," Ron said. He was starting to realize that Harry might be right.
Harry laughed again. "No, but I think we'd better get to work. I wonder if Hermione would tutor us?"
~~~~~
An interspecies romance was completely out of the question. Mavis, the captain's parrot, was a beautiful bird, but a phoenix mates only once, at the end of its life, which wasn't going to be any time soon. If they went around laying eggs all the time, the world would be so full of phoenixes by now that there would be no room for left anything else. Besides, she was a parrot and he was a phoenix. It would be inappropriate. Fawkes explained that to her, and told her they could only be friends.
To cheer her up, he told her how Queen Semiramis had built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon just for him (or so he believed; it never occurred to him that the Queen might have had some additional motives). She had been a powerful witch, and it was a shame that jealous people had sullied her reputation with lies and attributed her accomplishments to others. Fawkes missed her. She had been a fine old gal.
Mavis smiled inwardly (outwardly, parrots always look like they're smiling). The phoenix was so vain, thinking that she had a crush on him. Well, maybe she did, just a little bit, but she knew that it could never work out. He was way too old for her.
She told him how she'd been kidnapped by bird smugglers when she was just a fledgling. She'd managed to escape in Amsterdam while they were trying to sell her, but it was winter and she wouldn't have lasted long if she hadn't flown over a canal where Captain Clark spotted her. He caught her with a spell and brought her into the boat where it was warm. He tried to return her to the Amazon, but she refused to leave. She had become fond of him, and she liked life on the boat. Maybe some day she would go home to find a mate, but right now she was enjoying the adventure. Especially now that she had Fawkes to tell her tall tales. He was such a silly old bird, and so handsome, too. They chattered together for hours.
~~~~~
"I've been dreaming about a long, hot bath ever since … well, ever since …" Draco didn't want to think about the recent past. He let it drop.
"Take as long as you want, son," Lucius told him. "I'll bathe in one of the guest rooms."
He and Narcissa moved to the couch in front of the fire to let the house-elves clear the table. "We'll bathe, dear," she whispered.
"You're going to scrub my back, are you?" Lucius grinned. "It's good to be home. You and Draco are all that I have in the world. Well, aside from my wealth and the manor, that is."
"Our wealth, darling, our wealth. And I'm not going to let them take it away from us." She paused for a moment. "The chances are very good that you and Draco will be pardoned. Potter told everyone how I'd helped him, and I've been telling everyone how we'd been forced to obey the Dark Lord. How if any one of us had disobeyed, another one of us would have been killed horribly right before our eyes. I gave Rita Skeeter an interview, and told her how terrible it was, never knowing what was to become of us. It appeared in The Prophet last weekend. It was a true Skeeter masterpiece, very heart-rending. I've received quite a few sympathy notes since it came out."
"Did it cost much?" he asked.
"No, not really. I gave her a small down payment, and then the rest after the article appeared."
"My dear, you are a true Slytherin. That's one of the many reasons why I love you." He leaned over and kissed her.
Narcissa smiled and took his hand. "I have more good news for you. I got a letter from Severus two days ago. He survived! He's alive and well, but he wants everyone to think that he's dead. Except for us, of course. He says he hopes that we'll forgive him for deceiving us, but he thought it would be best for everyone if the Dark Lord was destroyed."
"That's wonderful! Of course we forgive him! He did the right thing. The Dark Lord had gone insane. He'd turned into a monster and he would have killed us all, one by one, whether we were loyal or not. He would have killed Draco, and he nearly killed Severus."
"Severus didn't say where he was. A seagull brought the letter. Can you imagine that? It gobbled up at least six owl treats while I wrote a quick reply, and then it left."
"I'm relieved about Severus. I should have gone back for him," Lucius said. "I feel guilty about that, but I was so worried about Draco at the time that I didn't even think of it until later. Then Potter said he was dead."
"Well, he's not, and we're the only ones who know."
To be continued …
Summary: After Fawkes rescues Severus Snape in the Shrieking Shack, the phoenix decides to stick around.
The usual disclaimer applies. See Chapter 1.
"And don't forget, you two, if you put so much as one toe outside of the grounds, or put your finger on a wand, you'll be back in Azkaban before you know it," the Auror said sternly.
As if they could forget. The house-arrest spell would zip them back automatically. Lucius bit back a sharp reply and simply nodded. Draco turned and looked toward the manor. "Can we go now?" he asked.
The Auror snorted and disappeared with a loud crack. The noise startled the white peacocks, and Narcissa looked out the window. "They're here!" she cried to the house-elves. "Fix them some food!" Then she ran out the door and down the long driveway to embrace them.
She nearly smothered Draco. "I'm okay, mom, honest," he insisted, hugging her back. "Take it easy! You'll crush me to death on my first day home."
Then she threw her arms around her husband. "Wait, dear," he said, drawing back a bit. "I'm sure we smell terrible."
"Not as bad as last time," she laughed. "They must have let you bathe before you left."
"Actually, things are a bit better there now," he told her. "It's warmer, and they give us clean clothes and let us take showers twice a week."
"I think I like the stubble," she said, kissing him. "It makes you look wild and savage."
"Well, I don't feel wild and savage," he said, smiling tiredly. "Let's go inside, shall we?"
~~~~~
"I'm not sure what we're going to do," Minerva said. "It looks like very few of the Slytherins will be returning. Their parents are a bit upset that their children were 'driven out' before the battle, and now they say that everyone believes that their children were all Death Eaters, each and every one of them, even the first years."
The Heads of Houses were gathered in Minerva's office for a staff meeting.
"I can't imagine how that could have happened," a sarcastic voice said from across the room. It was the portrait of Phineas Black.
Filius Flitwick frowned. "They're all going to drop out? That won't bode well for their futures."
"Being branded as Death Eaters has ruined their futures anyway," Phineas said, "so I really don't see what difference it will make."
Minerva ignored Phineas and continued. "The ones who can afford it say they are going to hire tutors or send their children to other schools abroad. Some are going to try home schooling. And the parents of some of the new students are threatening to sue if their children are sorted into Slytherin. You wouldn't believe some of the Howlers I've gotten!"
"Slytherin house will be almost empty, then," Horace Slughorn said quietly. He looked despondent.
"Which brings me to another problem," Minerva said. "The Sorting Hat was badly damaged by Voldemort during the battle, and I'm afraid that my repair spells haven't been able to fix it. It seems happy enough, but its words are all gibberish now. The new students will be arriving next month, and I'm not sure it will be able to sort them."
The Hat stirred on its shelf. "Huwawah!" it said happily.
"Hmmm," said Filius. "Maybe one of us should put it on and see what happens."
"Good idea," Pomona Sprout said. She put the Hat on her head.
"Frazzengavit!" it cried.
"Now take it off and put it back on again," Filius told her. "If it says the same thing again, then we'll know that 'Frazzengavit' means 'Hufflepuff'."
Pomona did as he asked. The Hat said, "Wheechee!"
Filius sighed. "Yes, it seems that we do have a problem."
~~~~~
"I'm not so sure about becoming an Auror," Harry said, staring into his butterbeer.
"Don't worry, mate," Ron said. "They're glad to have us; we're war heroes."
"That's what worries me. We aren't really qualified to be Aurors. We defeated Voldemort because of my mom's protection, and because of that stuff about the Elder Wand. But that isn't going to work against ordinary blokes. And most of the stuff that we learned in Defense was crap. Lupin and Snape were the only ones who taught us anything useful. As Aurors, we'll be going up against a lot of people who know more and have more experience than we do."
"They're going to be training us. It will work out. You'll see." Ron signaled the waitress to bring more crisps.
"Yeah, maybe, but we didn't even finish school. And a lot of the time, we weren't really paying attention. Hermione won't be there to help us any more. We depended on her a lot."
"Do you want me to try to talk her into becoming an Auror, too?"
"No," Harry laughed, "I don't think she'd go for that. Maybe we should just hit the books, you know, try to fill in the gaps. We missed a lot of stuff."
"That's because we were busy worrying about Voldemort."
"True, but that's not going to make any difference if we have to face down some murderous lunatic."
"I hope you're not suggesting a QwikSpell course," Ron said. He was starting to realize that Harry might be right.
Harry laughed again. "No, but I think we'd better get to work. I wonder if Hermione would tutor us?"
~~~~~
An interspecies romance was completely out of the question. Mavis, the captain's parrot, was a beautiful bird, but a phoenix mates only once, at the end of its life, which wasn't going to be any time soon. If they went around laying eggs all the time, the world would be so full of phoenixes by now that there would be no room for left anything else. Besides, she was a parrot and he was a phoenix. It would be inappropriate. Fawkes explained that to her, and told her they could only be friends.
To cheer her up, he told her how Queen Semiramis had built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon just for him (or so he believed; it never occurred to him that the Queen might have had some additional motives). She had been a powerful witch, and it was a shame that jealous people had sullied her reputation with lies and attributed her accomplishments to others. Fawkes missed her. She had been a fine old gal.
Mavis smiled inwardly (outwardly, parrots always look like they're smiling). The phoenix was so vain, thinking that she had a crush on him. Well, maybe she did, just a little bit, but she knew that it could never work out. He was way too old for her.
She told him how she'd been kidnapped by bird smugglers when she was just a fledgling. She'd managed to escape in Amsterdam while they were trying to sell her, but it was winter and she wouldn't have lasted long if she hadn't flown over a canal where Captain Clark spotted her. He caught her with a spell and brought her into the boat where it was warm. He tried to return her to the Amazon, but she refused to leave. She had become fond of him, and she liked life on the boat. Maybe some day she would go home to find a mate, but right now she was enjoying the adventure. Especially now that she had Fawkes to tell her tall tales. He was such a silly old bird, and so handsome, too. They chattered together for hours.
~~~~~
"I've been dreaming about a long, hot bath ever since … well, ever since …" Draco didn't want to think about the recent past. He let it drop.
"Take as long as you want, son," Lucius told him. "I'll bathe in one of the guest rooms."
He and Narcissa moved to the couch in front of the fire to let the house-elves clear the table. "We'll bathe, dear," she whispered.
"You're going to scrub my back, are you?" Lucius grinned. "It's good to be home. You and Draco are all that I have in the world. Well, aside from my wealth and the manor, that is."
"Our wealth, darling, our wealth. And I'm not going to let them take it away from us." She paused for a moment. "The chances are very good that you and Draco will be pardoned. Potter told everyone how I'd helped him, and I've been telling everyone how we'd been forced to obey the Dark Lord. How if any one of us had disobeyed, another one of us would have been killed horribly right before our eyes. I gave Rita Skeeter an interview, and told her how terrible it was, never knowing what was to become of us. It appeared in The Prophet last weekend. It was a true Skeeter masterpiece, very heart-rending. I've received quite a few sympathy notes since it came out."
"Did it cost much?" he asked.
"No, not really. I gave her a small down payment, and then the rest after the article appeared."
"My dear, you are a true Slytherin. That's one of the many reasons why I love you." He leaned over and kissed her.
Narcissa smiled and took his hand. "I have more good news for you. I got a letter from Severus two days ago. He survived! He's alive and well, but he wants everyone to think that he's dead. Except for us, of course. He says he hopes that we'll forgive him for deceiving us, but he thought it would be best for everyone if the Dark Lord was destroyed."
"That's wonderful! Of course we forgive him! He did the right thing. The Dark Lord had gone insane. He'd turned into a monster and he would have killed us all, one by one, whether we were loyal or not. He would have killed Draco, and he nearly killed Severus."
"Severus didn't say where he was. A seagull brought the letter. Can you imagine that? It gobbled up at least six owl treats while I wrote a quick reply, and then it left."
"I'm relieved about Severus. I should have gone back for him," Lucius said. "I feel guilty about that, but I was so worried about Draco at the time that I didn't even think of it until later. Then Potter said he was dead."
"Well, he's not, and we're the only ones who know."
To be continued …