There is no good and evil (original) (raw)

A bit early in the evening, Neville walked out of his room that he had been stuffed up in since early in the morning, sewing and embroidering his new robes. Neville was also given a new shirt and pair of trousers, also in red silk, possibly imported from China. And also a pair of new shoes to replace the old tattered ones. Neville didn't wear his bedsheet as he walked out, only in his new clothing and holding a velvet sack, which contained sun stones and now also his spices.

He took the "broken corridor" as he named it, leading to the kitchens. The corridor was a bit falling apart, dusty and had many views of the foundation of the original building. Stopping in the kitchens, Neville found the box of crackers that most have been eating from, was completely empty. With a sigh, Neville rummaged through cabinets and drawers, without much left inside. The cold storage, that was the alternative, however, it hasn't been opened by anybody yet since 3 years ago. The door frame had a border of ice that froze it shut.

"Flammatus!" Neville called out, as a single sun stone zipped out of the bag, erupted in flame, and melted away the ice from the metal door into the cold storage. The door flung itself open, revealing a cold, dark room.

"Helios Fota!" he cried out, and many more stones zipped out and flew to the ceiling, and started to glow like the sun itself. The room had been exposed with light. Snow lay on the floor, raw meat corpses hung from above, and crates were stacked in a corner. Neville wandered around carefully. It was cold, the raw meat didn't help comfort him either.

He headed for the crates, and tried prying them open. With frustration, he rammed his fist on the lid. Suddenly, the walls shook, and a bang came from behind him. For behind him, something fell from above. A series of golden dragon heads and mermaid carvings in a seashell moulded bowl with knobs of different colours. The Prefects' Bathtub, it had fallen from the upper level! Now the bathtub is in the middle of the cold storage room, but does it function properly?

Neville ran towards it, dusting off a bit of the dust. His hands traced over the designs of waves and squares in the borders. Greek make, no doubt about that. Rose marble founded itself within the seashell shaped bowl of the tub, and an odd fixation at the bottom instead of a drain. Ron and Hermione had been Prefects and had told them that when you finish your bath and get out of the tub, a built in portkey sends the water back to where it came from, depending on the knob you turn. Each colour symbolized a different type of bath water, and sometimes it wasn't even water. The green knob was used for an Asian herbal tea bath, hot and steaming, but very healthy for your inner organs. The blue one was for a traditional Turkish bath, and a Turkish coffee would pop out of the sides for you to drink. The purple one was for Cleopatra's golden milk bath, and probably the most nourishing one of all.

Turning the purple tap, milk begun to rise from out of nowhere. Suddenly, a teabag was dropped in and swirlled around, bronzing the milk. It was hot, steamy and fragrant.

Neville looked at it. The swirls and bubbles were tempting, the fragrance was giving him the euphoria to jump in. Neville stared at it with wide eyes, pleading that this is not a dream.

That was it, Neville couldn't take it anymore. He rushed into the tub like a dolphin at a circus, and stayed in there for a long long time.

*~*~*~*~*

Neville gotten out of the tub, dried himself with magically conjured towels from the tub, got dressed, and begun to head back. While walking, he noticed that he felt more airy and less "rough". The touch of silk against his skin was like butter.

Reaching his room, he looked at himself in the old broken mirror. His skin was radiant, rid from all the dirt and dust that the Serpent Hole carried. His hair shone in its natural mahogany brown colour and was silky smooth.

'I look incredible, what did the bath do to me? I like it! I must tell the others about my discovery!' Neville thought, and continued to gaze into the mirror.