the marriage stone (Discontinued)

Chapter 15 - Manners

"What are what like?" Hermione asked.

"Formal dinners," Harry explained. "I mean I saw my Aunt set her table once for a formal dinner, and there was more than one fork I remember. What do you need two forks for?"

"Good question, mate," Ron snickered. "Maybe it's so you can eat twice as much food."

"Haven't you ever had a meal at a nice restaurant, Harry?" Hermione asked curiously.

Harry thought about that. The Dursleys had never even taken him for fast food, let alone a nice restaurant. Truthfully until he'd come to Hogwarts he rarely even got to sit at a table to eat. "I've eaten at the Leaky Cauldron. And we had ice cream in Diagon Alley."

"Oh," she said vaguely, looking over at Neville who gave her an uncertain shrug. "That's not really what I meant."

"The different forks are for different courses of the meal, Harry," Neville told him. "But this is a Wizarding dinner, which might mean you'll be using something called a 'scramasax' in the old language. That means a dagger."

"Daggers?" Harry asked in disbelief.

"Depends on how considerate the Snapes are," Dean told him with a nod. "Since everyone knows you were raised by Muggles, courtesy demands that they make a concession to that and have proper Muggle implements like forks. But some of the old Pureblood families wouldn't be caught dead using a fork at a formal dinner."

"No forks?" Harry asked in bewilderment.

Ron nudged him, drawing his attention toward the Slytherin table. "Ever notice how Malfoy eats. He holds his knife in his dominant hand and spears his meat."

Harry glanced at Malfoy. He was deep in conversation with Blaise Zabini, but Ron was right. He held a rather pointy dinner knife in his dominant hand and a spoon in the other, only using the spoon when absolutely necessary. Most of the other Slytherins did the same - and as Harry glanced around the hall he noticed they weren't the only ones. There were a number of Ravenclaws and even a few Gryffindors with similar manners.

A quick glance at the head table showed Snape doing the same thing. To his surprise so too was Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick and Sinistra. Hagrid was like usual tearing at his food with his fingers.

Harry looked back at his friends in bewilderment. "What about daggers?"

"At a formal Wizarding dinner, there are typically only daggers and spoons at a setting. Forks are considered too Muggle, and even unlucky to have at a table," Neville explained.

Harry looked at Hermione for confirmation. She just shrugged. "I've never actually seen a formal Wizarding dinner myself," she informed him. "But I've read about them. They have all sorts of customs Muggles don't have."

"But I don't even know the Muggle customs," Harry protested. "How am I supposed to figure out the Wizarding ones?"

"We can give you a crash course, Harry," Neville offered. "I'm completely hopeless at formal occasions, but at least I know what the customs are. My grandma made certain of that."

"You can teach me everything I need to know by tomorrow?" Harry asked hopefully.

"Well. . .." Neville looked skeptical. "We can try."

"Don't forget Quidditch practice," Ron reminded him. "That's more important than Snape's dinner."

"Not if Snape strangles him," Neville pointed out. And on that point Ron had to agree, though only grudgingly. Few things in his opinion were more important than Quidditch.

Severus spent most of the day in the Potions Classroom, marking papers and preparing for next week's classes. He returned to his own rooms to dress early in the afternoon, since his family was expecting them around four o'clock. Harry was nowhere in evidence.