Chapter 90: Endless Food
Ila's nervous explanation gave Shawn yet another glimpse into Sir Cadogan's past.
Bored out of his mind for years, the knight had even taken to spending time in one of the tiny paintings in the kitchens. As he himself put it:
"If I have to watch it and cannot eat it, then by Arthur's crown, you may as well burn me now."
In time, he had come to know almost every house‑elf down here.
Long ago, there was a boy who bullied the house elves. His favourite game was to order them to bang their heads over and over, just to see if they would stop.
The enraged knight had chased him for a week, bellowing him up and down the corridors. Headmistress Dilys Derwent had praised Sir Cadogan for it, and from that day, many house-elves had held him in high esteem – not that he cared.
That goodwill had, naturally, spilled onto Shawn.
"Sir Cadogan says: 'If anyone can be a noble knight, it is young Green,'" Ila whispered. At the mention of the knight, its eyes shone.
For the first time in a while, Shawn conjured a soft cushion and sat in the warmth of the kitchens, listening to Ila tell stories.
How the knight had felled a troll single‑handed. How he had held his ground against three.
Justin, meanwhile, bustled back and forth making sweets. The notes in his hand were Professor Sprout's musings on food magic.
Hermione was still rushing about trying to talk to the elves. They were so startled by her intensity that most could only stammer and twitch their ears.
Justin called the Hogwarts kitchen the best place in the castle. Shawn had to admit that seeing Justin at full throttle in here was impressive; he could turn out dish after dish in no time at all. The elves were only slightly faster.
Inevitably, Shawn ate too much.
So when another drowsy afternoon settled over the school, there were a few more small figures at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
The light that day was exceptionally gentle.
They stopped a dozen paces from the first dark trees. The trunks rose like a wall of green‑black stone, yet they left one moss‑soft slope open, as if on purpose.
Sunlight filtered through the leaves high overhead, falling in dappled pools of gold. In the brightest patch, a great old beech tree stretched its thick branches wide.
The air was damp, rich with the smell of earth and a faint trace of wildflowers.
"On the train, it is the house‑elves who bring our luggage to Hogwarts. And washing the clothes, cooking the food – all of it," Justin was explaining to Hermione. His voice mingled with the clear calls of unseen birds in the forest and the sudden rustle of some small animal darting through the undergrowth.
"They can Apparate and Disillusion at will," Hermione added, questioning him and filling in details as she took notes.
It made Shawn think of what Ila had told him.
"Ila wants to help Mr Green. If Mr Green needs food or anything else, Ila can fetch it. All Mr Green has to do is call for Ila."
Shawn had looked around at the ring of anxious elves and nodded, very quietly.
Ila had promptly been mobbed with hugs.
In short, Shawn now had a privilege: unlimited pumpkin juice. And, if he was being honest, almost unlimited food.
He was not sure how long they sat under the beech before Hermione and Justin's talk drifted to the Forbidden Forest.
"Plenty of Gryffindors want to go exploring in there. I cannot believe they can be so foolish," Hermione said, exasperation leaking into her voice.
"At least they only want to. Newt Scamander actually did it and was expelled for it," Justin replied, half-teasing.
Hogwarts had plenty of stories about the famous Magizoologist – tales of how he had broken rule after rule by smuggling magical creatures into the castle.
One of them even said he and Leta Lestrange had gone into the Forest together.
In truth, apart from the odd Hufflepuff with a streak of madness, most students from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff rarely broke the rules.
This was not the era of Headmaster Black. The Forest was not somewhere you 'farmed' every day. Greeting your friends meant waving to them, not pretending they weren't there.
Justin and Hermione looked, on the surface, deeply engaged in their debate. In reality, they had both been sneaking glances at Shawn again and again.
The wind off the Black Lake carried the tang of water. The shadows of the three students stretched long and thin and then blurred into one.
"Ila?"
That night, in the Ravenclaw dormitory, Shawn called softly.
Within two seconds, a small figure drifted into view.
"Mr Shawn Green, sir. It is an honour to help you," Ila said, wringing its fingers in its ragged clothes, nervous and earnest.
"I need a mug of hot milk. Oh, and this is for you," Shawn said, placing a piece of candied crabapple in Ila's hands. He had made it in the kitchens himself from memory. Strictly speaking, crabapple preserves should not have been possible so quickly, but magic rarely cared for earthly rules.
"N‑no. Ila cannot take gifts from Mr Shawn Green. Serving Mr Shawn Green is what Ila should do," Ila squeaked, as if the offer had frightened it. By the end, there was a bright sheen in its eyes.
"Please. Take it."
Shawn's tone left no room for argument.
A moment later, there was one fewer frozen elf and one more mug of hot milk, with a handful of biscuits on the side.
Shawn drank a mouthful in silence. He could sense how much stronger his body had become. Hogwarts did not lack for food, and what it offered was rich and varied.
Of course, Professor Snape's potions had played a large part too. Shawn reckoned he had climbed back to more than half his former strength. The rest would take time and care; even so, with Snape's draughts, it would not be slow.
By the dormitory window, Shawn held his Nimbus 2000 and traced its lines, feeling the magic humming through the wood. This, clearly, was another gift: a talent for constructing alchemical artefacts.
His notes were filled with more lines and sketches, not only about the Transfiguration and the flight test waiting for him tomorrow afternoon, but also about possible alchemical designs.
Night deepened.
In another tower, by another window, Hermione still sat reading by candlelight. To stop anyone complaining, she had cast a nonverbal Silencing Charm and moved to the sill.
She was still a little surprised that Justin had managed to talk Shawn into taking a full day's rest. Merlin only knew what that knight's portrait had said to him to make it happen.
Fine. If he was in a room with the windows and doors nailed shut, so be it. She would keep ringing the bell, she thought, hearing again Justin's light but unwavering voice.