Coiled (Book 1 of 2)

Regarding Curries

A Decidedly Muggle Part of London.

August, 1978.

"This place is amazing!"

My whisper to Sirius, who nods and smiles back at me as we turned the corner and began slowly walking down another narrow aisle together.

A local hole in the wall, a small muggle grocer he happened across by pure chance just the other day while on a neighbourhood walk, one specialising in all manner of spices.

And how many spices there are; everything you could ever imagine and then add to that -

Dried red chilis, packed tightly into squat, fat jars;

Large barrels filled to the brim with salts, flours, and all different types of sugars;

Wide, yawning bowls out of which to scoop bright golden turmeric and brown cumin;

Rows of containers with fragrant ginger, cinnamon sticks, anise, orange peels, and cloves;

And perhaps most arresting of all ...

- Certainly the most expensive of all, by weight at least -

... Small glass vials painstakingly packed with the telltale flash of bright crimson, the precious threads of saffron pistils.

Stopping and picking one of the miniature vials up, I lean towards my friend, offering it up to him for closer inspection as I murmur softly, "... Worth more than gold to muggles, this one."

Laughing at this, he tilts his gaze to meet mine disbelievingly, "You're having a go."

"No. By weight, worth more than gold."

His eyebrows lifting at this, he brings the vial closer to his face, turning it slowly with his thumb and pointer finger, "And what is it?"

"Saffron. Pistils of the crocus flower, harvested and dried. Quite a labour intensive task, to say the least. The muggles grow and collect them en masse. It takes thousands upon thousands of flowers just to produce a single kilogram."

Eyes widening at this, Sirius continues to study the tiny bright red threads thoughtfully, "Does it have any known magical properties?"

"Other than making food taste and smell completely delicious?"

A sharp, warm laugh, "Other than that, yes. Though that's a wonderful magic all its own."

"If I recall ... saffron was covered very briefly in one of our Potions lectures. Crocus flowers have a variety of healing and restorative applications, yes."

"I was probably asleep in the back row that day."

Probably?

More like almost certainly -

"Or else distracted plotting pranks with Prongs."

Laughing again, he shakes his head, his expression flitting to one of likely culpability, "That too."

"That definitely."

"... That definitely."

Holding the vial up in the air, he waves it at me knowingly, "So we're buying the saffron, then?"

"You know we must."

"We must."

"Oh we must."

Laughing at this and having reached the end of this aisle, we turn the corner and begin to move slowly down the next, this one filled with vanilla pods, jars of honey, barrels of molasses, and all sorts of chocolate; dark, white, milk and ruby. Immediately, Sirius comes to an abrupt halt, staring intently at an assembled stack of large bricks of Belgian milk chocolate.