The Core of the Apple
Author's note: Folks, those of you who haven't reread the previous chapters, please do. Otherwise, you will be severely confused with this one. I did an overhaul on this fic, after the many suggestions and critiques about the length and content. Thanks! - Rey
Black Lodge, 7th May 2004
“You have been… quite productive.”
I gape, staring goggle-eyed at the items arranged neatly on my bed, complete with handwritten cardboard tags – or maybe brief notes – taped or tied to each.
Sai’yo, following me into the bedroom as I asked him to after getting Odi’s report about his inventions, rejoins bemusedly, “You asked me to ‘make things’, my lord. Are you not pleased?”
I turn round and point a chiding finger at his chest. “You wish to continue tinkering?” I demand. On his hesitant affirmation, I continue with, “If you don’t call me Harry, I’ll shut down your workshop and your access to my resources. You got to get them from others or the money you’ll get from these things alone, and I tell you now, my resources are nicer than many.” Because pranking him was no fun at all, as he never retaliated or complained, and just looked resigned whenever I changed his hair colour some neon shade or whatever. It made me feel quite like the bully, and didn’t stop him from calling me “my lord” or “Lord Harry,” anyway.
Instead of worrying about the premature end of his tinkering, though, he wonders about the money.
“I said I was going to hire you, didn’t I? It means you get paid daily, weekly, monthly, or for what you got for me,” I reply, confused, my exasperation flagging. “I just didn’t think you’d start this early, or produce so many, yet. I was about to discuss it with you today, actually, and some safety rules too, hence why I’m here. Then Odi told me you wished to show me what you made already…. I thought it’s just one thing!” I scratch the side of my head. “Now, were you careful when making these? Wass any of the elves there to spirit you away if one of your experiments diddn’t like you tinkering with them?”
“I could move fast… Harry,” is his answer, which is not a placating one as his tone indicates. “My symbiote would heal me, as well, should I incur some injury.”
I glower at him, though I’ve got to look up to do so, which rather lessens the effect.
“It can heal death? Transformation? Mutation? Missing limbs?” I snap, then roll my eyes when he shakes his head. “Magic can do that and more, you know. Usually, people like me spend seven years learning just the basics, so we won’t endanger ourselves and others when we’re loosed out in the society.”
Looking back at the rows of items that the reticent, hesitant Jaffa has made in two days, I let loose a great sigh and try to think hard and fast on what I can do to keep him safe, without curtailing something that he seems to like so much.
Well, my thoughts keep flashing to the mixed-subjects school at Black Sanctuary, my own Potions apprenticeship, my previous tutorials for A-Levels, and my brief experience at a school lab in primary school, so, “Well, I’ll get you a tutor or three, then, or even an apprenticeship on a particular subject. Start thinking which subject you want to study the most. You can choose one magical and one mundane, as long as the magical one doesn’t require active magic.”
Picking up the nearest item, which is a small square of stone slab which is runed at the back and polished till mirror-like at the front, which he labelled “light emiter based on motion”, I hastily add, “No trying on anything before you know more about it, by the way. I don’t even dare to turn on this thing…. Pity, that. This looks interesting.”
Then I get an idea…. “Maybe you could keep George company some time. Both of you like making things. He can help protect you from your own experiments, and you can help him survive without Fred. Or… I don’t know; maybe the Muggles have something like this already, and we could adapt our own from theirs. They’ve advanced much, lately. It’s been a while since last I stayed in a purely Muggle environment, though, so I don’t know what they’ve come up with. Maybe both of us should explore places for ideas and options, instead of just start making things that are already out there. I got the money for that, and I’ve been meaning to travel for quite some time….”
And Sai’yo… stares at me. He looks unsure, and befuddled, and even a little scared, or perhaps worried.
I cock my head. “Sai’yo? You all right?”
“I am well, my lord,” he replies blankly, automatically.
Oh. Not good.
“Come on.” I grab his hand and tow him out of the bedroom, gently. “Let’s go have some hot chocolate or something. – Tita, the library, please, and your bestest chocolate for us. Snacks if you think they won’t damage the books.”
But Sai’yo still looks lost, even when we’re surrounded by his beloved books.
I don’t know what to do, next, to draw him out of this automaton mode. My baseline form will just confuse him more and maybe even make him more apprehensive, while the kiddy version will make me lose control of what’s currently important, which is getting down to the reason why this person still tiptoes round me even after nearly half a year spent in close vicinity with each other.
Well, but if we’re having hot chocolate and snacks…. “Tita,” I address the thin air, with Sai’yo’s hand still in mine, “change of plans. Bring the chocolate and snacks to the living room, please. We’re having a nest time.”
Since I got more accustomed to my baseline form, given the purportedly near-disaster of my attempt of utilising the Song to do things, I find myself liking to wallow in a nest of cushions, blankets, pillows, boulsters and all sorts of other cushiony things. In all my most-visited properties, the respective living rooms have been equipped with at least one huge rattan or wooden basin filled with the comfy, cushy, nesty things for me to luxuriate in with a book or even a game. Sometimes, I even got to invite one of my friends to share the space; to chat, for a chess match, to sleep… whatever. And they seemed to enjoy the experience, though it’s new for most of them.
Now, it’s Sai’yo’s time to get the treat.
“Come on in. – Oh, wait, let me clean you up, first, and please take off your shoes.”
Well, boots, really, as the poor Jaffa is still garbed in the same clothes – some uniform, I think – that he wore when I unearthed him from the depths of the portable flat, which look rather worn down by now. Strange, that nobody thought of other clothing and accessories yet for him, though we did think lots of his more academical and scientific pursuits….
Damn. We shouldn’t just use him for his mind. He’s a person.
And this, I’ve just realised, might be why – or one of the whys, at least – he got so befuddled: He must have expected to just churn out ideas and items based on what he knows and what we have provided him, not to travel simply for the sake of travelling and exploring new things – indulging himself, in other words.
Damn. All right. Got it. I’m so, so, so sorry, buddy.
I pack the compliant Jaffa into the nest and among the cushiest of the comfy things inside, do the same to myself half opposite him, then proceed with my sincerest apology – about his clothes, about our misunderstanding, about generally not paying enough attention to him… all.
“Teal’c told me you like to explore, and I forgot that,” I conclude. “I’m sorry I forgot. I didn’t remember till just now. But I’d really like to explore, no joke about it, and I’d like to invite you if you would.”
But… he’s still seated rather stiffly in his cocoon, though I’ve already melted into mine.
Unacceptable.
“Wanna ask me something? Fire away,” I offer, right when Tita pops in, just outside of the giant wooden bowl serving as my nest here, with two trays balanced on her hands. “Oh, and feel free to indulge in the chocolate and the snacks while you’re at it. Tita’s recipe is awesome.” I grin and wink at the house-elf, who blushes profusely as she sends the trays respectively to me and Sai’yo.
My gaze returns to the Jaffa nesting nearby after my little friend courtsies and pops away, and I pleasantly find that he now looks more relaxed than before and more curious, if still rather confused and wary. He even partakes of his mug of cocoa after seeing me sip at mine.
“My – Harry? Might I ask something?” he ventures out after a while, while I’m hummingly mix a few marshmallows, some colourful sprinkles and a chocolate-chip biscuit into my mug of cocoa.
“Well, you already do, just now, and I did invite you to, so why not? – Oh, by the way, you can experiment lots with your chocolate, so why not do that, too? See, I’m already doing it, and it tastes nice if you like it. Safe, too. Just don’t throw away what you’ve made.”
He stares at me for a long moment, perhaps trying to process the idea that one can experiment safely and freely with one’s precious food or drink, something that I didn’t find out till I got to Hogwarts for the first time and saw Seamus building a flammable castle from a few cuts of pie, gravy and… a few other things.
Damn. His past might be as bad as mine, then… or even worse.
But he does ask, then, though it’s all about the names of the snacks and cocoa-companions, so maybe “asking questions” hasn’t been beaten or scared away out of him, like it has – mostly – out of me by the time I got to Hogwarts.
And we end up chatting about the art of making chocolate drink, instead of his past.
By the time I realise it, the drinks and snacks have been demolished jointly, and the both of us are reclining cosily and drowsily in our cocoons, side by side with each other.
Too late to inquire, and too comfy to boot.
And maybe it’s what he’s been aiming for; that wily, clever, lucky sod.
Well, there’s still a next time, I suppose. I shan’t ‘wake up’ another Jaffa till I get to the bottom of this one, in any case.
Might be good to chat with Teal’c about Sai’yo, too. Their reports about each other and me must be corroborated.
But for now….
Enveloped in the cocoon of cushiony things and fluffy blankets, I hum away about peace and safety and comfort and contentment, in hope of lulling the both of us all the way into sleep.
Sai’yo topples first, sooner than I would have thought, burrowing deep into his cocoon and closing his eyes in childlike slumber.
And then another set of melodies, familiar to my primal part, join mine in harmonious company.
Mother. My mother.
I smile, and let myself fall into the waking dreams of my baseline form.