Primrose

Chapter Three - From Beyond the Grave

Severus was sleeping soundly until a cacophony of sound jerked him brutally from his slumber; without wasting a second, he had grabbed his wand and was headed toward the stairs before he even thought about what he was doing.

The sound had come from the kitchen, directly beneath his bedroom, and so, when he reached the closed door, he pushed it open only to find Primrose covered from head to toe in flour with pots and pans scattered all over the floor around her. "Dad!" She grins, waving a spatula at him "hi!"

To some parents, finding their eleven-year old daughter cooking might be a surprise but not to him; Primrose cooks more often than he does, when they're at home, so he had no issue with this. However, Severus was not accustomed to seeing his daughter up before him and actually looking happy about it. "Primrose" he starts slowly "what are you doing?"

"I totally fancied pancakes for breakfast" she then gestures to herself "why did you put the flour way out of reach? I almost killed myself trying to get it down!"

Severus didn't answer her question, instead, he stowed his wand safely away and walked over to Prim who was manically tapping the spatula on the kitchen counter as she watched the pancake cook slowly in the frying pan. He took the spatula out of her hands and placed it on the side before guiding her to the kitchen table. "How much coffee have you had this morning?" He asked once she's sat down.

"I lost count after five!" She replied happily, jiggling her foot "it's great stuff!"

"Prim" he sighs "your heart is going to give out one of these days!"

Frowning, Primrose stared at her father as though he'd just spoken to her in mermish "but you said that we were going to make a day of it! I wanted to be up and ready!"

Severus almost laughed out loud at her reasoning but managed to keep his humour contained as he said, "It's not even five yet."

She seemed almost alarmed at this fact but she shrugged it off and said "so? I don't turn eleven every day; is it such a bad thing to want to make the most out of the entire day?"

"Not at all" he assured her before saying "stay here, I will be back in just a minute." Prim did as she was told and stayed put; it was a hard feat, considering how much caffeine she currently had flowing through her system but stay she did and she didn't even have to wait long because not even two minutes had passed before her father returned with a glass vial of honey coloured liquid. "Drink this" he instructed "I will finish the pancakes."

"What is it?" She asked, accepting the vial and sniffing it. It smelt soft...if that were possible; it reminded her of calmness, clouds, gentle music...that kind of thing.

"It will counter the effects of the caffeine" Severus replied, prodding at the half-done pancake, flipping it onto the other side.

Primrose considered this for a moment before shrugging and drinking the concoction in one gulp. She was only able to savour its heavenly taste for one moment before she felt, literally felt, all of the energy that the caffeine had given her seep out her veins and she slumped onto the table suddenly feeling very tired.

"How many would you like?" Severus asked her, dumping the, now cooked, pancake onto a plate and pouring more mixture into the frying pan. "Primrose?" When she didn't reply, he turned to look at his daughter only to find that she was slumped on the table, snoring softly. Chuckling softly, he quickly rescued the grass vial from her steadily loosening grasp before picking Prim up and carrying her back to bed.

Leaving Primrose to sleep for a while gave Severus enough time to continue fixing breakfast and to unhide the gifts he'd gotten for her. He couldn't say that he'd made any real plans for today; of course, he promised a trip to Diagon Alley and figured that he'd take it from there.