RP: Brooding Characters: Severus Time/Date: 24 August 2023, early evening Location: Spinner's End Warnings/Rating: None Summary: Severus broods over his mail. Status: Complete
Severus Snape sat in his living room and brooded. He did an exceptionally good job at it, mostly because he’d had a great deal of practice over the years, and his living room was really an excellent place to brood.
Of course it hadn’t been when he’d arrived here after giving the Healer at Hogwarts the slip a few days ago. He’d been surprised to find the place intact and undamaged until he’d realised that there were still a few wards that had survived his death. Blood wards like those that some of the purebloods used and it made sense that those were the ones that survived. The purebloods wouldn’t want wards that died with each generation. He’d wondered though how Minerva – and it can only have been Minerva since she was the only beneficiary of his will – had gotten past them to put the boxes and trunks full of his belongings in the living room. Perhaps the wards he recognised his magical signature on the belongings or perhaps Minerva had simply levitated them inside. Either was possible.
The house had been covered in a thick layer of dust though and there had been the faint smell of decomposing food and potion ingredients. Faint because the decomposing had finished long before he’d returned. It had taken him the better part of two days and one trip to the Muggle grocer with some Muggle money he’d found tucked away in a drawer to clean the place out and make it vaguely habitable. It still needed work but he could live here now without choking on the dust or doxies.
He’d ventured out this morning to Diagon Alley. Not because he’d wanted to but out of necessity. He’d needed to see what, if anything, remained in his vault. The key had been in one of the trunks and he’d found everything as it should be in his vault. In fact interest had done him a very nice favour and he’d stopped off in the apothecary in Knockturn Alley on his way home and restocked. He’d chosen Knockturn because even if he was recognised, no one was likely to care. The denizens of Knockturn were almost aggressively uncaring about who was in their midst. It was one of their few charms.
He’d also taken the opportunity to look up an old contact or three. Most had moved on but he’d found one who was still there… and more importantly still wiling to talk to him. He’d had the most salient of his questions answered and the rest of the answers were coming. Malachai was putting together a potted history of the last twenty five years for him. He wasn’t looking forward to reading it.
However, it was the owl that had been waiting for him when he got home that had prompted this particular bout of brooding. He hadn’t been surprised to see an owl waiting for him. He’d been receiving them off and on over the last few days. Mostly Howlers which were destroyed before they could start shouting but there had been a bare handful of intelligent letters. He’d set them aside to decide whether or not he should reply.
But this owl had been different. It had brought a package for starters – a package containing two very intriguing books – and the note had been written in a very, very familiar handwriting. He hadn’t even needed to look at the signature to know who it was from. He ended up standing frozen for an unknown period of time, simply staring at the note.
Lily was back. Whatever magic had brought him back had also brought Lily back.
The very idea left him dumbfounded, floundering, uncertain of what to do or say. He hadn’t replied to the letter for that very reason. He just didn’t know what to say to her. How much did she know? He had to assume she’d been reunited with her son. How much had Potter told her? Was the note a conciliatory gesture or was it angling to gain revenge for his betrayal? Would Lily even think in such a Slytherin way? Probably not but he couldn’t be sure.
He slumped further down in his comfortable but tattered armchair, his legs stretched out in front of him and his chin sunk onto his chest. He knew he needed to make some sort of decision but he didn’t know what. Maybe he should wait until Malachai delivered his information. Perhaps once he had a better idea of what had happened and what was going on now, he might know how to answer that letter from Lily.