CHAPTER 20 – DISCUSSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
For the next few weeks, Jude and Rach stayed in the Hospital Wing tending to their baby. Harry did the honours to give the babies their names. He named Jude’s baby Kiaran Slytherin-Potter and Rach’s baby Talos Ravenclaw-Potter. The gang, namely Ron, Hermione, Darren and Angelica came to visit them occasionally. Draco also had his share of visiting.
After their few weeks’ rest, they moved back to their teachers’ room. Jude was glad to be back in Prof. Snape’s domain. She had taken out a bottle of Carlsberg (which she secretly sent an owl to her Muggle bartender cousin to get some) from her luggage bag, waved her wand at them to make them cold and swallowed a few gulps of the bitterish alcohol. She belched in satisfaction.
“Ahh~ The feeling of being able to burp out after a good swig, now that’s life!”
“Light, what are you drinking?” Prof. Snape entered the room. He was quite surprised to see her having Kiaran in one hand and a bottle in another.
“Carlsberg. Muggle beer. Wanna try one, sir?” Jude asked, handing a bottle to him. Prof. Snape snatched both of the bottles away from her hand.
“You know you are not supposed to drink alcoholic beverages! Your baby hasn’t even finished weaning yet!”
“Come on, sir. Just a swig! It won’t hurt anybody now, would it?”
“The answer is still no,” Prof. Snape said indignantly. “As long as you are still under-aged and still breast-feeding your child, you are not entitled to drink this.”
“Well, I hate to see them go to waste now, wouldn’t I, sir?” Jude looked up at him with those puppy eyes.
Prof. Snape stared at the bottle he was holding and finally took a swig out of it. He almost choked after drinking about a mouthful of it and his sallow cheeks actually went red immediately. He wanted to ask what was in the drink but Jude answer for him.
“42% alcohol made by the finest, purest grains available. Cool, huh?”
Prof. Snape sat on the floor abruptly. Jude found it hard to believe that a grown-up like him couldn’t take alcohol like her. To think that she would only feel a little woozy after about 4 bottles of beer and that she was about 22 years younger than Prof. Snape, yet he got woozy only by one swig.
“Are you alright, sir?” Jude asked. “Need any help?”
“I am perfectly alright,” Prof. Snape said indignantly. “And for your information, Headmaster Dumbledore has orders to let you, Yearne and Potter go with some of us on a mission to save Levi.”
“Save Becka? You mean as in come in battle with Voldemort?!” Jude exclaimed.
“You know exactly what I mean,” Prof. Snape took another swig of the beer and hacked in the process.
“But-But-But…we can’t battle with Voldemort now, can we? I mean our job is to have these kids, not fight with Voldemort…”
“Why do you say that? Are you afraid of facing your father?” Prof. Snape suddenly had his face near Jude. His breath smelt of Carlsberg. He was beginning to go drunk.
“Well…no, but…”
“You think your task is just to have Potter’s child? You thought wrong, Light. Your task is more than that!” Prof. Snape practically began to drain the beer before he continued, “You have to protect his heir, keep them safe until the day comes when they are ready to kill the Dark Lord. You have to be by Potter’s side in order to battle against him. You are his so-called Soldiers of Fortune, Sidekicks, Warriors, whatever!”
“I didn’t know that…” Jude said hesitantly, trying to keep her face away from his alcoholic breath.
“Now you do know! You girls and that wretched Potter have everything way too easy, yet I have to suffer the most. We all have to suffer because of your existence! Do you know how much I detest you?!”
“Um…sir, I think you’re drunk,” Jude pushed him away. “I think you should go to bed…”
Prof. Snape pulled up his robe sleeve and showed her the Death Eater mark on his wrist, “I want to be rid of this mark! I want to be free from the Dark Lord’s grasp! As long as your father’s alive, I will never be free! This mark will stay on my hand and I will be marked as a Death Eater for life! I want to be free from his tyranny! I want to live a normal life, teaching you dunderheads all I can offer! My life is nothing with this hideous mark on me, you understand that?”
“Yes, sir, I get the point…Please, your breath stinks,” Jude tried to push him further away but Prof. Snape continued to advanced towards her.
“I want to be free. I want to be rid of this cursed mark. I want you…”
Prof. Snape’s lips were closing in towards her own. Jude blushed. Was he actually going to kiss her on his own intentions? Was he, drunk as he was, going to share tonight with her? Jude closed her eyes, waiting for him to claim her lips…
A few moments later, she felt a sudden weight on her knees. She opened her eyes and was disappointed to see that Prof. Snape actually fell asleep on her knees. Looks like she didn’t get her wish that easily after all. She sighed, finished what was left of the Carlsberg bottle he just drank and dragged him back to his bed.
After finished feeding her baby Kiaran, she, too, sneaked up beside Prof. Snape on his bed and slept.
“You have just got to be kidding me! You, Jude and Rach are actually going to go out there and fight that You-Know-Who?!” Ron exclaimed in horror. “You’re saying that you guys are going out on a suicide mission!”
“Come on, Ron. We are not going to go there on our own,” Harry chuckled. “Prof. Lupin and Sirius will be there. And, sadly, Prof. Snape too.”
“Wow, that tongue-lashing, cynical teacher is also going?” Angelica said in exaggerated trepidation. “Now that’s a bad call for you, Harry.”
“Jude can’t just go! What about the baby? Who’ll take care of the little Kiaran?” Ron was still unsure.
“If you want, you can take care of him for us,” Harry replied.
“You sure?” Ron was all smiles. Harry nodded.
“Oh, oh, can I take care of Talos?” Angelica asked hurriedly.
“Be my guest.”
“I am so glad! I can take care of Jude’s child!” Ron said with glee. “I may not have Jude’s heart, but I still have her kid close to me! I just hope that Becka is really OK out there.”
“Do you have any idea that hanging endlessly on unrequited love is a total waste of time?” Hermione suddenly voiced out after being silent for sometime before walking away to the girls’ dorm. The others were quite surprised at her sudden attitude.
“What’s her problem?” Ron asked. Everyone shrugged. Neville, who was listening to their conversation all this while, said his opinion timidly.
“Maybe she’s been jealous all along since your obsession with the Dark and the Black Witch.”
“Are you saying that…Mione has a…a crush on…?” Ron started to blush.
“I’m just suggesting. It’s quite obvious, you know,” Neville replied before turning back to his Herbology text book.
Ron slowly got up and walked towards where Hermione just went. He saw Hermione sitting on her bed reading a book she borrowed from the library. He walked towards her bed and sat down beside her, asking, “Hey, Mione, you OK?”
Hermione didn’t answer, but she put down her book and glared at him with a pair of sodden red eyes. Ron gasped slightly. He was surprised. It was very seldom to see Hermione actually cry.
“Mione, are you crying?”
“No,” Hermione replied indignantly, brushing the tears off her eyes.
“Yes, you are. Tell me what’s wrong. Is it something to do with me?”
Hermione’s eyes started to well up again before saying, “Did you know that I…I have a liking towards you ever since we first met? You are so oblivious to everything that you don’t even notice my existence! I tried many ways to make you at least like me but you just treated me like some kind of smarty-pants!”
“Well, you have always given me the impression of a smart-alec…” Ron replied but was cut short by Hermione’s slap on the shoulder.
“Then why did you think I let myself be seduced by Victor Krumm? Why did you think I was terribly attracted to Gilderoy Lockhart? I wanted to get your attention! I wanted you to be jealous! I wanted you to notice me! Guess it only lasted for a temporary moment! And why do you think I was angry when you said that you have a crush on that Rach and Jude? You are so blind!”
“You…You did it all…for me?” Ron couldn’t help being touched and so foolish. All this while she was trying to make him notice her and yet he blew it all away by some fruitless obsession to a girl—two, in fact—that has her heart for someone else. He came near towards Hermione and hugged her from behind.
“Go away, leave me alone. Go to your dear Witches!” Hermione tried to shake him away. “You don’t care about me. You never will be!”
“I’m sorry, Mione, I’m so sorry. I promise I will never ignore you again. We can start over again,” Ron whispered to Hermione’s ear. Hermione burst into tears even more as she hugged Ron back.
Meanwhile, Harry was still discussing about his soon-encounter with Voldemort. Angelica asked, “Don’t feel nervous about the coming battle? That recent attack at the Quidditch field was really pretty scary, you know. Jude actually survived the lightning blow. That’s creepy!”
“The creepier thing is that Cedric is actually alive!” Neville said, not looking up from his book. “He was supposed to be dead, yet he was brought back to life by that You-Know-Who! I wonder what his girlfriend Cho Chang would think.”
“Come on! Cho Chang would be horrified!” Angelica replied. “Besides, that Tony did say that he and Becka are already an item, she wouldn’t want to go back to him now, would she?”
Harry remained silent at this point. It wasn’t easy but, after Cedric’s death, he tried to help Cho Chang to cope with her feelings as much as he could. He had no intentions to seize the opportunity to make Cho Chang like him back, but somehow, their chemistry has sort of clicked together and they were pretty much in a girlfriend-boyfriend term. As Harry said, words spread fast in Hogwarts, yet when Cho Chang found out from the word of Tony’s story about Cedric being alive and having the hicks for Becka, she didn’t react the way Harry was afraid she would.
“You’re going to go out to a death-defying battle,” Angelica brought Harry back to reality, “and you’re not going to spend some time with your girlfriend? Go and talk to Cho Chang! Come on!”
Without another thought, Harry got up quickly and walked out of the common room.
Rach sat on her sofa bed, stroking Slipper with one hand and holding Talos with another, feeding him. She still felt a little bit awkward about having to open her blouse and exposing her breast to the baby but she had to do it—after all, he was her own flesh and blood, as in spiritually.
“I can’t believe it, Slipper. I’m 14 years old, a 2nd year in Hogwarts, and yet I’m actually becoming a mother all of a sudden. Too much too soon, you know! I don’t know if I can handle this! And to top it all up, I’m going to go out on a mission with Jude to save Becka. Who will take care of Talos for me?”
Slipper wound himself around Rach’s waist, giving her an encouraging squeeze.
“You’re right. I guess I’ll have to count on Madame Pomfrey to baby-sit Talos for me, or get Darren to help me do it! Oh, I just love making a slave out of everyone. I’m not too nervous about this mission—I’m pretty ready—but I’m suddenly becoming a worried wart over Talos here.”
Slipper slithered round and round Rach’s waist playfully.
“You think it’s what they call ‘motherly instincts’? Man, I haven’t even get to experience a mid-life crisis yet!”
Slipper hissed, making a sound like a snake-laugh or some sort.
“You will help me check Talos too now, won’t you?”
Slipper cocked his head, letting it touch her arm, meaning, “Yeah, sure.”
“I know I can always count on you,” Rach said as she kissed Slipper’s scaly forehead. “I love you, Slipper.”
Slipper hissed back, licking her cheek with his tongue in his way of kissing her.
No comments:
Post a Comment