Who: Hermione Granger and Severus Snape What: Grocery Delivery Where: Spinner's End When: Wednesday, 28th July, early afternoon Rating/Status: Low/Incomplete
The way he saw it, he had two choices: stay in his room at the Leaky Cauldron and sulk, or get out and do something. Severus needed a purpose. For most of his life, that had been his business. He had poured himself into brewing, day and night, and building his apothecary from the ground up. And he had been good at it, but for now, in between premises, there was nothing he could do on that front, except bide his time and watched the Prophet for adverts.
Then he'd had Draco, and doing his best to be a surrogate parent to the boy had become paramount in his mind. But now, since he had killed Constantine, Draco wanted nothing more to do with him. And so, just like that, his parenting days were over. If he'd stayed curled in a ball in his bed, dwelling on that loss, however, he'd either go mad or do himself harm. So he couldn't. Therefore, Severus dragged himself out of bed, forced himself to shower and shave, and set out for Manchester. Miss Granger would be needing more groceries, after all.
Of course, he probably should have written ahead of time to warn her. Or to see what she needed. Or simply to set up a pass phrase, so that she wouldn't think he was another Death Eater, disguised as somebody she trusted. But he hadn't been thinking too clearly after his row with Draco. And he could always tell her that his copy of Hogwarts: A History was badly in need of rebinding. That ought to do the trick.
He only had one small bag of groceries this time -- more eggs and bacon, along with some fruit. After knocking on the front door, he stood back on the stoop, so that Miss Granger could get a good look at him through the front window. Only Mrs. K from next door or a handful of other people would find it odd for him to knock at his own front door, but he doubted any of them would be looking at that precise moment.