Pomona made some "Hall Chicken Pies." The dish's proper name was Tarragon Chicken Pie; as the name suggested, the difference from an ordinary chicken pie was the addition of tarragon. This herb grew naturally in Siberia and West Asia and was said to have been brought to Europe by the Mongols.
It could lend an ordinary chicken pie a distinctive fragrance, but Pomona's dish today differed from the ones she usually prepared for the start-of-term feast.
She had come up with it after being inspired by the owner of a Sicilian restaurant. Italian dumplings were all square, and the Sicilian restaurant downstairs rolled out its own pastry, which was wonderfully crisp to eat, much like the flaky crust of a "Hall Chicken Pie." That gave her the idea of making round chicken pies in the shape of acceptance letters.
Harry had displayed a talent for magic at a very young age, and it had caused him no small amount of trouble. Vernon Dursley was always warning him not to cause problems.
He would certainly receive an acceptance letter, though not until after he turned eleven. Pomona was making these envelope-shaped Hall Chicken Pies now as compensation for him, because she intended to act tonight and cast a Shielding Charm on the Dursley family.
"Resolve" required not only breaking things apart, but also rebuilding them cleanly and decisively. If alchemy stopped at decomposition and went no further, it was merely destruction.
Using the Killing Curse also required resolve... If Bella had been standing before him, Pomona doubted Snape would have dared roar at her as he had last night.
Hesitation did not merely mean being unable to carry out one's own decisions. If someone offended you and you only verbally warned them, "Don't force me to act," they would instead press