"Here." Lucius Malfoy handed Severus a small box.
"What is this?"
"A gift."
Severus opened the box. Inside was a comb.
"A Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes product—a comb that can change your hairstyle," Lucius explained. "It was left over from the last party at my house."
"Thank you," Severus said with a false smile.
"I also asked that old man some other questions," Lucius said. "About George Washington and Athens."
Severus looked at Lucius.
"Don't worry, I didn't reveal your little secret," Lucius said theatrically. "He told me some interesting things. Have you heard of Kabbalah?"
"I've heard a little about it," Severus said.
"According to him, when L'Enfant planned Washington, he based it on the Kabbalah Tree of Life," Lucius said. "With the White House as the center, nineteen locations can be marked out according to the Tree of Life's framework: Number One, Washington Masonic Temple; Number Two, Dupont Circle; Number Three, Logan Circle; Number Four, George Washington Statue; Number Five, Central Public Library; Number Six, the White House; Number Seven, the United States Institute of Peace; Number Eight, the United States Department of Justice; Number Nine, the Washington Monument; Number Ten, the Jefferson Memorial; Number Eleven, General Scott Statue; Number Twelve, Longfellow Memorial; Number Thirteen, General Thomas Equestrian Statue; Number Fourteen, Farragut Statue; Number Fifteen, McPherson Statue; Number Sixteen, Arlington Cemetery; Number Seventeen, Lincoln Memorial; Number Eighteen, the Schoenberg Museum; and Number Nineteen, the U.S. Capitol. All nineteen points are major American buildings and statues of heroes. The divine realm symbolized by the triangle at the top of the Tree of Life—the place where the Benben Stone beneath the all-seeing eye atop the US dollar pyramid stands—is the Masonic Temple. Points Two through Six and Eleven through Fifteen happen to form an inverted pentagram. Doesn't that sound familiar?"
Severus