Chapter Seven: Muggles
As they had last year, Eileen and Tobias took Severus to Diagon Alley after meeting him at the station, and before they headed for home for the Christmas holidays. Although Tobias' shortness of breath was still confined to the first day of the work week, the cold weather was hard on him, and for the first time he seemed to have trouble keeping up with his wife and son.
When they got to Flourish and Blotts, the store was running a promotion on Hesper Starkey. She was mortally ill, leading to a resurgence of interest in her books. Severus and Eileen went into the book store. Tobias normally would have come in with them, but felt tired, so he waited for them outside on a bench.
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Tobias liked watching the witches and wizards pass by and pretending he was actually one of them. Years ago when he had been courting Eileen, he had even bought a wizard's robes, and he always wore them when he went someplace like Diagon Alley. It was still the same robe, all black and a little shabby and out of date, but it still fit and was in reasonably good shape. After all, he only wore it two or three times a year at the most.
There went another witch in a green robe. Green seemed to be the fashionable color this year. She had flaming red hair, and a small baby in her arms. At her side her tall, thin husband, a more muted redhead, was levitating several sacks and packages. The trio went into Flourish and Blotts. Obviously doing their Christmas shopping.
It seemed to be the day for redheads, because a man and a woman in Muggle clothes were next, accompanied by a young red-haired girl, also in Muggle dress. A Muggle-born witch with her parents, thought Tobias. They were usually pretty easy to pick out. They liked to do their Wizarding shopping when they were already in London to meet the Hogwarts Express.
The girl disappeared into the book store and her parents came over to Tobias' bench, carefully sitting at the far end. They think I'm a wizard, he thought with pleasure.
The Muggle woman started digging through her purse, while her husband kept a nervous surveillance on his surroundings. It seemed to be more than the usual Muggle unease in magical surroundings.
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Severus and Eileen ended up in the Potions section together, as usual.
"Look, Salazar," said his mum. "They've got that Hesper Starkey book on sale."
"Cool," said Severus. "Buy it for my Christmas present, and you can read it over the holidays. Then I'll take it to school and bring it back during all my breaks for you."
He noticed a movement out of the corner of his eye. Lily Evans was in this section too. Made sense. She was contender with him for best Potions student in second year. Okay, so she was the best Potions student in second year. He was a close second and it could change any time.
Lily noticed that Severus had seen her, so thought it only polite to acknowledge the fact. "Hi, Severus. Funny meeting you here."
Typical Gryffindor joking, but she didn't seem to mean anything by it.
"Are you looking at the Starkey too?" he asked.
"What are you ... ? " Lily was confused, then saw the poster. "Are you talking about her? Is she good?"
"Well," smirked Severus, "she's on her deathbed, which seems to have made her famous, but actually, yes, she does have a good reputation. She's an expert on the use of the phases of the moon in potion making. And her books are usually twice this price."
"Do you think I should get a copy?"
"It depends," said Severus, thoughtfully. "There are certain Potions books you should have first. But if you already have the others, this is a really good next level addition, and it's a great price."
"What other ones?" asked Lily. She was a bit surprised to be having a civil conversation with Narcissa's Slytherin thug.
Severus started pointing out the must-have references, occasionally drawing his mum in for a second opinion. Lily noticed that they sounded more like two colleagues discussing their profession than mother and son.
"Where do you work, Mrs. Snape?" Lily asked, after another such "professional" exchange. Snape's mother was obviously working in some potions-related field.
Eileen and Severus went silent. The boy suddenly took on the largely emotionless expression he usually wore at Hogwarts, eyes cold, with a hint of disdain on his face. His mother lowered her head, suddenly seeming intensely interested in a book on a low table just in front of her. Lily was taken aback by the sudden reaction, realizing that she had crossed some line that she was unaware of.
"I mean," she stuttered, "you know, you're so up-to-date with Potions and all, it's like I thought you had a job in Potions, and I thought, maybe, you know, someday, I'm pretty good in Potions myself, you know, and I might want to work in that field and I haven't met many professional witches, you know." Lily petered out, hoping she hadn't made it worse.
All the mothers on Spinner's End did some sort of work for pay, of course, and Lily's question would have meant nothing there. But this was Diagon Alley, and it was low-class to have a mother with a job. Bringing the topic up here was usually a ploy to put someone in their place. And there was no way Severus Snape was going to put up with that from a Muggle-born Gryffindor. But then the girl suddenly started a long string of barely coherent phrases and Severus realized, once again, that she meant nothing by it. He relaxed again. "Yeah, Mum, Lily's even better at Potions than I am."
At that, Eileen relaxed too. Salazar obviously didn't consider it a slight, so she wouldn't either. "I work full time over at Slug & Jiggers Apothecary. After all, now that Salazar's at Hogwarts, there's no reason not to anymore."
"Salazar?" Lily blurted out, instantly regretting it, but there was no chill this time.
"Yes," said Eileen proudly. "Severus for my brother and Salazar for Salazar Slytherin. The Princes have been Slytherins for centuries. Salazar is his second name."
Severus actually looked slightly embarrassed, but mainly indulgent. "Mum, Lily's Muggle-born. Now she's going to think we're descended from Slytherin himself." He turned to Lily. "She just means our family always gets sorted into Slytherin House."
"She said the Princes are," said Lily. "What about the Snapes?"
"Oh, Da's a Muggle," said Severus. "The Snapes are mostly all Muggles. But if he was a wizard, he'd be a Slytherin. He's the one gave me my second name." And something in the boy's tone told her this was a favorite story of his.
Lily was fascinated by this turn in the conversation. She had been disturbed by the reports of attacks on Muggles in the Daily Prophet, and none of her Gryffindor friends would give her straight answers. And yet, Severus and his mother seemed more comfortable talking about their Muggle relatives than about where Mrs. Snape worked!
Since she had finally found someone who seemed willing to talk about Muggles, Lily decided to risk a question. "I didn't think Slytherins approved of Muggles," she said carefully, keeping any note of accusation from her tone.
Severus looked over at his mum, then sighed, and lowered his voice. "These are strange times," he told Lily. "Pure-bloods are like Wizarding royalty, you might say. But recently people have started applying pure-blood standards to regular people. It makes no sense. Everyone can't be royal. Slytherin House has always been mostly half-bloods and a few Muggle-borns, with the few pure-bloods in charge, of course. Just like the other Houses. But there aren't any Muggle-borns in Slytherin these days. In my year, I'm the closest we have to one, with a Muggle dad and a half-blood mum."
"The Princes aren't pure-blood then?" asked Lily.
Severus snickered, and Eileen broke out in a wide grin. "Um, no," said Eileen. Just as soon ask a chimney sweep if he was related to the Queen.
Then Lily risked a joke. "But then you're almost royalty, Severus. You're a half-blood Prince."
At this, both Eileen and Severus broke out laughing. "Is there any other kind?" Eileen asked.
Lily bought every Potions book Severus had pointed out to her, including the one by Hesper Starkey.
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Author's note
I did not make up Hesper Starkey, or her area of expertise. According to the Harry Potter Lexicon, she is on a Chocolate Frog card:
Starkey, Hesper (1881 - 1973) Witch who studied the use of phases of the moon in potion making.
Her death in 1973 means she would have died in the second half of Snape's second year, or the first half of his third year.
The red-headed couple with the baby are Arthur and Molly with Charlie, who was born December 12, 1972.
As I noted for an earlier chapter, I realize that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince implies that Eileen Prince is a pure-blood, but for the purposes of the this story, I'm making her a half-blood.
Posted by Madmaxime at May 12, 2006 05:26 AM