Chapter One: The Basil Vendor
"...Never give anyone unlabeled Basil..." Rodale's Encyclopedia of Herb's on making Tussie-Mussies
Time: Morning, July 13, 1995: The summer that begins the OotP
Place: The Black mansion at 12 Grimmauld Place
Molly Weasley was staring out the front window of 12 Grimmauld Place with a furrowed brow. A cleaning rag was rotating aimlessly a good six inches from the glass, as the tip of her wand sagged unheeded in her hand. Not two yards distant, on the other side of the half cleaned panes, a woman stared back. Wide set dark eyes peered intently from under her strong brow, but seemed not to see Molly.
"Mom?", came her son's voice from behind, making her jump and the rag splat on the sill. "Are you OK?"
"Ron! Don't sneak up on me like that!" Molly gasped, pressing her hand to her heart. Then she pointed at the window. "Look, she's doing it again."
The woman walked a few paces to her right, squinted in their direction for a long minute, then retraced her steps. She repeated the process moving to her left, then returning to the spot where she had started. She ignored the walkway to the front door, but seemed to be scrutinizing the whole front of the house.
"It's like she's looking right in the window!", exclaimed Ron.
"She's been there since before I started cleaning it," his mother replied." She doesn't seem to see us; how could she? Without a direct invitation she should be looking at the solid wall of one of the muggle houses; yet, she acts as though she expects to find something here." Molly fidgeted absently with her wand and continued staring out the window.
Ron asked, "How can she know we're here? Do you think Dumbledore sent her?"
"If he were sending someone we don't know, wouldn't he have told us? And wouldn't he have told her the location?," Molly reasoned.
The woman outside looked barely over five feet, with a thick, black braid of hair falling to her waist. Her face had the firm jaw and smooth brow of youth, but her eyes seemed older, and were rimmed with dark circles that stood out above high cheek bones and slightly gaunt cheeks. She moved with a puzzled hesitation, but also a cat-like grace; balancing lightly on her toes as she turned. She seemed to be holding something in her left hand, which was buried at her hip in the flowing folds of her blue cotton skirt. Below the skirt, she showed a few inches of leggings and sturdy short boots. She was draped against a chilly morning mist in a rough woven, fringed blanket, which was decorated with bold geometric designs that were partly obscured by what Molly assumed to be grass stains. This was pinned across her chest with a silver brooch set with a small blue stone. A large backpack lay nearby on the pavement.
At that moment, a tall, dark man and a teenaged girl entered from the hallway, carrying a bucket that exhaled an essence of fish bait. "There must be some way to feed Buckbeak that doesn't involve having to fumigate half the house," the girl was saying. "Sirius, what's wrong?"
Her companion had stopped dead in front of the window, his mouth open and sunken gray eyes fixed unblinking on the woman outside. His already pale face blanched and froze like ice.
"See this woman in your front ...," Molly began; then turning and seeing Sirius' face she stopped. "What is it? Do you know her?"
His mouth formed the word,"How...", but no sound emerged. The woman outside suddenly gripped the skirt folds on her left hip with both hands. Her face turned toward the spot where Sirius stood and her eyes, already large, widened. She stepped forward a few paces, then slowly extended a hand. When her fingers touched the window glass, she drew them back quickly with a look of astonishment. She felt for the glass again, then retreated a few steps. For a moment, she closed her eyes and was still except for the slight movement of her lips.
"She's casting a revealing spell!" whispered Hermione.
"No, Hermione, I don't..." Sirius had begun, when the woman opened her eyes again. With a look of resolution, she reached back for her pack, and began singing in a clear, carrying voice.
"Basil, lavender, rosemary, marjoram,
yarrow and ginseng, rose hips and rue.
Fresh herbs and dried herbs, for cooking and healing.
Herbs to find out if your love is true.
Ginseng's best picked when the moon is waning,
Basil as summer's star dries off night's dew.
Only the best herbs ..."
"What's this noisy woman doing outside the window?" said a beak- nosed man with limp, black hair as he entered from the far doorway and flung aside a decidedly damp, long black cloak . He too stopped when he saw Sirius; but his initial expression of distaste was replaced with puzzlement, when he assessed the state of the other's countenance.
"Severus, shush!", Molly whispered.
Out on the lawn, the strange woman sang louder,
"Mint grows strong as the dog of Orion
follows Apollo's fire into the sky.
Hunting the hunter's dog , faithful's the hunter,
finding the best herb's your..."
"Sirius, she's singing about you!", said the teen girl.
"Hermione, take this bucket to the kitchen", Sirius muttered, still looking out the window. The girl took the bucket, but didn't move.
"Follow the dog star and find the best bourage,
or maybe he'll sniff out Skye lovage for you..."
Severus Snape reached into his sleeve with one hand. "Miss Granger, surprise us and do as you were told," he snarled at the girl. Then to Sirius, "your girlfriend will announce us to the whole world." He pointed a wand at the window. "Dissendium." As the window slid open, he aimed at the woman, but before he could speak again, Sirius leapt forward, grabbing the other man's wrist and forcing his arm down with one hand while producing his own wand with the other.
"Accio, rapier!" he cried.
Outside the woman bit off her song with a yelp and, dropping her pack, clasped both hands on the now obvious bulge at her hip. Drug by unseen forces, she slid across the pavement toward the open window. Severus roared with rage and switched hands with his wand, but Sirius shoved him hard in the chest and stepped between him and the window. Just as the woman left the ground, Molly called, "Occultus!" A blob of the surrounding fog condensed around the levitating woman, obscuring the strange sight from those who might be watching. Out of this cloud, and in through the window, the woman flew. Her eyes started like a wild thing as she landed on her knees before them. The hilt of a partly drawn sword was visible in her clenched hands
"Incarcerous", shouted Severus, shoving his way in front of Sirius; but the green sparks had not left the tip of his wand before the woman, with a gasp, rolled to her right and produced the rest of the sword. Even as she landed on her back hard enough to force a grunt from her own mouth, plus a puff 0f dust and an angry doxie from the ancient carpet, she lifted the blade and swung it up at the binding spell. As the blade and spell connected, she twisted her wrists and the spell was repelled back in the direction it had come. She did not wait to see it's originator's astonishment at being covered in snake-like cords, but rolled again, then jumped to her feet. She backed toward the window, from which everyone else had scattered as she flew in, and placed a chair between herself and her attacker.
"Hold, hold!" she shrieked, waving one hand while brandishing the blade in the other. "I don't want to hurt anybody!"
Severus Snape was struggling unsuccessfully to retrieve his dropped wand as the cords bound his arms to his sides. Ron and Hermione had both tried to take cover behind a coat tree and were still in sort of an awkward half embrace with the stinky bucket, while Molly and Sirius each had a wand trained on the window.
Sirius waved a hand at Molly and stepped forward to stand between the strange woman and the others. "Leave her alone," he said, not taking his eyes off her. "She can't hurt you if you don't try to hurt her."
"Cool wand!", whispered Ron, gaping at the ancient looking double-edged rapier.
"It's not a wand," Sirius corrected. "She couldn't use one if it were. Unless there's some polyjuice involved, she's a muggle."
The woman's eyes swept the room with one nervous glance, then fastened on Sirius. "Am I safe here?" she asked, panting from her exertions.
Sirius gave a wry grimace. "No one is safe anywhere, as you well understood when we first met, but you will not be attacked again by these people," he said, giving one glance over his shoulder at Severus who was now red faced and grunting as he strained against his bonds. Then, turning back to her, his face grew stern. "How did you find this house?"
"I ... I'm not sure I did. I think I found you, or rather the sword was drawn to you. The blade knows it's master." As she said this, she lowered the rapier, and setting her jaw, she slowly, even ceremoniously, held the hilt out to Sirius. He looked long and deep into her frightened eyes, then grasped the hilt with one hand. The blade glowed with a cool blue light, and the rubies and cat's eye set in the basket part of the hilt seemed to burn with red and gold flames. She breathed deeply, and seemed to relax a bit. "It's really you," she whispered.
There was a pause in which even Severus' grunts were silent.
"I am not who I was," Sirius replied flatly, "and you should not be here."
"I had to know." She said. "Fourteen years, Sirius. That's a long time to not know. I had to come if only to see that you still live and are well. You said such frightening things when you left; and lately I have felt that you might be in danger."
"I told you not to follow me under any circumstances. " Sirius sounded impatient now.
Without looking away from him she asked softly, " Is she your wife?"
Sirius blinked and removed his hand from the sword hilt. "What? Ah..., no, that is not the reason. These are friends and colleagues- guests in my house- but other than some cousins, I have no living family."
"Then, may... may I... can we talk?", she stammered.
"You should not be here. I recall making you promise not to look for me." he repeated.
The woman's voice was pleading now. " I didn't take that promise lightly. See, I kept it for 14 years! Please, Sirius; I'm here because there was no alternative- at least not one I could live with." She paused and took a long breath. "Two summers ago, the rose bloomed again, and then last July I had a terrible dream that Blackie was braying in terror. Only I think it was no dream. When I woke I heard voices outside the cabin saying strange things. They mentioned you. That night Blackie got ill and he wouldn't eat, or drink, or even move. He just wasted away, Sirius!" Above the high sharp cheekbones, her dark eyes were now glistening, but her voice was steady. " And there's more to tell. But you haven't forgotten the other part of that promise, have you? I have kept it till now. Talk to me, please?" Then with a hint of a smile, she added, " We let you stay three days when we didn't know you from Adam."
"Come," said Sirius brusquely, quickly turning and starting for the door.
Molly started to speak, but before she could, a voice from the far door growled, "Undo this spell!" .
"Oh, mercy!" gasped the woman; apparently really seeing Severus bound up for the first time. "Did I do that?" She took a step toward him and he tried to retreat, almost falling as the cords restricted his legs. She stopped and partly sheathed the sword. " I'm sorry! There was no time or space to chose where to deflect the spell. Please tell me you're not hurt?"
Ron whispered something that contained the words "bull's eye" into Hermione's ear as she pretended not to hear and turned a bit pink.
"He's fine, and you did what you had to," Sirius said firmly. "Anyone should be able to take as well as give! " Saying this, he gave the slightest smirk in Severus' direction.
"Unbind me!" Severus snarled, straining harder and growing redder.
"If those ropes are magical, I probably can't!" the woman said, as she, too, started to blush. "Can one of you please help him?"
"The blade would cut them off," said Sirius, obviously enjoying a momentary flicker of horror that crossed Severus' face at the prospect of having the woman wield a sharp sword around his bound body, "but you needn't bother. Molly, if you please," he said, steering the woman to the door by her elbow. "And summon her pack too," he added as the woman pointed back at the window. " She really can't do magic. I charmed my great great uncle's old cavalry rapier to deflect spells so she could protect herself." With that he practically dragged the woman out of the room.
There were several minutes while murmured conversation could be heard from the hall. Molly removed the bindings from Severus, who was muttering something about giving charmed swords to muggle women and mandatory sentences in Azkaban.
Hermione gave Ron's sleeve a tug as he tried to inch toward the hall door. "Stop eavesdropping!" she hissed.
@2,300 words, Written 7/05; Revised 2/07; Last Edit 4/07
Posted by Madmaxime at June 18, 2007 05:56 AM