Then I saw that beauty on ebay - a Pukifee Shiwoo. I love the Shiwoo face, such a versatile expression! She was trying to speak to me, but I couldn't understand. I went back and forth and looked at her and tried very hard to hear what she was telling me.
I am on a fashion doll forum as well, and one of the ladies there is very apt in making little thnigs from scrap. In january she made a little absinth bottle. And it made click. I went to ebay, looked at said Pukifee and finally understood what she was telling me. Don't ask me why, but now I knew that she was an absinth-fairy. I never knew that there are fairies for drinks, but you live and learn. The seller was super-nice and let me put her on a short layaway. In februray she was home.
My skeleton, whose name is Ashes Stardust, was fascinated of her. They were friends at first sight.
Her name is Marmude, but only dear friends and near relatives are allowed to call her by that name, and even those only in private. When in public she prefers to be called Madame La Fée Verte. The french use this expression for absinth.
Slowly she is revealing her story to me. I asked her if she would allow me to write it down here. She gracely gave her approval.
There are many fairies out there. All of them have different abilities and responsibilities. When mankind started to make (alcoholic) drinks, some fairies turned their interests to them. Water and herbs always played a major part in their realm and in their magic, so liquers of all sorts were exciting, too.
Marmude is a Low Saxon name for vermouth, an important ingredient of absinth. Her mother was a garden fairy, deeply connected to medicinal herbs. She lived in a pharmacist's garden for many years, after spending her youth in an irish abbey, where monks studied and practised medicine.
As Marmude herself grew up, she went to Ireland, too. Every fairy tries to come to Ireland at least once as, well, Ireland and fairies - they belong together. Later on she went to France, where absinth has gotten famous and feared. There Marmude met many famous artists, as Toulouse-Lautrec, Degas and Manet. But with the turn of the century she went on and opened a pub at Hogsmeade, "The Grumbling Owl".
It was a dark and narrow space. Goblins and house elves spend their free time there, and other, even more obscure creatures. The pixies for example, those, Professor Lockhart set free, were known to drink loudly to his health. They found it too funny that he lost his memories and had to be treated in St. Mungo's. Pixies are odd creatures and can be reckless and mean. Students and teachers of Hogwarts came rarely in, only Professor Flitwick sat there once in a while. Of the students merely Bill Weasley was a frequent guest, here he made many connections to goblins. It was why he came to work for Gringott's after school. Fairies came often in, some devas, gnomes, and sprites. Not all of them were friendly, some were even practising ancient or dark magic. Marmude had her hands full to keep things quiet and peaceful in her pub, but of course things went downhill, as the Dark Lord returned. It got harder and harder to get the guests to behave themselves. Marmude took a younger cousin in to help her, and together they managed to keep everything more or less under control.
But after the victory over Voldemort, Marmude lost all interest in the pub. Many of the habitués had died, others had fled. She left the pub to her cousin and went travelling again. She visited relatives in all Europe, so for example her aunt Anise in Greece and a cousin Krumpir in Russia.
Now she is settling down here with us and is making plans for opening a new establishment.
