Chapter Two - Pipes

Severus opened the front door carefully and shut it behind him just as slowly, making sure not to make a noise. He crept up the steps, into Sebastian's room. The little boy was on his back, arms and legs flung wide, chest rising slowly, black hair mussed. Severus grinned and moved into Silas' room.

The seventeen year old snored loudly in his castle of pillows. Severus chuckled and left for the kitchen where he began making a breakfast of pancakes for his little family.

After Severus had finally gained custody of Sebastian from the Dursleys he had decided that he no longer needed to be at Hogwarts. He wanted his son to have as happy a childhood as he could and he didn't think being surrounded by people knowing who he was and what he had done as a toddler would be entirely good for him.

Severus had given in his resignation and moved Silas and Sebastian into London, into a home of their very own. Seb had been ecstatic but it didn't compare to the absolute joy that was plastered over Silas' face.

For all his life Seb had known that he was loved and cared for and that someone would always be there to protect him, that in whatever convoluted sense he had a family. Silas however had never truly experienced that. Sure he'd had a mother, father and brother but by the time Silas had been born their mother was already quite frail and while she loved him deeply she was not what a child needed. She was weak both physically and mentally. After years of being beaten down by an abusive husband and trying to defend her son, Severus, from his attacks she had given up, and really was a shell of a woman.

Severus and Silas' father was not something that they mentioned often. He was far from an ideal husband and father and lived much more in the realm of abusive drunk.

Severus lost in thought didn't hear the soft patter of feet coming into the kitchen until he felt a small body slam into his legs.

"Dad! You're back!" Seb squealed.

Severus turned and lifted his son into his arms. "What do you mean?"

"You left, after you said goodnight. I woke up and you weren't here and Silas said you'd gone out. I tried to wait for you but you were gone a really long time." Seb cuddled into his father's chest.

Severus' heart clenched painfully, he knew he should have come home last night, but he hadn't seen Julia properly for over a month now and he had missed her and wanted to spend time with her. He realised now that that was no excuse, he should have been here for his son.

He and Julia had been seeing each other for a year now but during school time he hardly saw her; she always just assumed that work was hectic.

"I'm sorry Seb." Severus hugged his son to him for a moment longer before putting him down into a chair and placing a plate of blueberry pancakes in front of him.

"My favourite!" The boy cried and dug in eagerly.

Severus put a plate in the oven for Silas, the boy wouldn't be awake before noon and then sat across from Seb.

"We're interviewing tutors today Seb." Severus informed him.

"Oh." Seb said, to be fair Seb was actually much more excited about the prospect of having a tutor and beginning to start school, but he was too into his pancakes at the moment to be much interested in anything else.

After breakfast Seb went to get ready for the day and Severus tidied the downstairs. An hour later found Severus in the sitting room, interviewing a balding man wearing a tweed jacket and smelling heavily of cigar smoke while Seb sat in the corner quietly drawing and listening to the conversation.

"Previous employment?" Severus asked.

The man cleared his throat. "Teacher at an all-boys boarding school. St. Peter's."

"Reason for leaving that position?"

The man cleared his throat again and looked around awkwardly. "Fired."

Severus hadn't read the man's resume yet, the man, Mr. Feal had only brought it with him now. Severus looked up and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh well, they accused me of things that I never, ever did." The man said gruffly.

"And what would that be Mr. Feal?"

"A boy said that I slapped him when I assigned him a detention and he gave me cheek. But he made it sound much worse than what it really was."

Severus just nodded, "Of course."

Mr. Feal was told five minutes later that Severus would call him. Severus tore up his resume as soon as the door was closed and put it in the fire place.

There was a knock on the door just as Severus straightened from the hearth. Seb looked up to see who was at the door as Severus opened it.

Standing before Severus was an older woman, she must have been in her late thirties, early forties. She was rather short and quite plump around the edges. She had mousey brown coloured curls and soft blue eyes.

She smiled up at him. "Hello dear, I'm Eleanor Martin. I'm here for the tutoring position." She offered her hand, and Severus shook it gently.

"Yes, welcome Mrs. Martin, I'm Severus Snape." He opened the door for her and led her in. "And this is Sebastian, my son."

Seb looked up from his drawing and smiled at the woman. "Hello." He said, Severus was a little surprised, Seb wasn't usually so confident with strangers.

"Hello. Oh I see you're drawing. May I see?" She said as she settled herself on the couch, her legs next to Seb who was sitting on the floor so that he could press on the coffee table.

Seb lifted his pad up for her to see. He was drawing a picture of Silas sitting in a tree. The two had gone tree climbing yesterday afternoon and Seb had had the time of his life.

"Oh wow! That really is quite something. You're quite the talented little artist aren't you." She smiled and Seb beamed up at her before returning to his picture.

"So Mrs. Martin I was quite impressed with your resume." Severus settled himself in his arm chair, facing her. "But it was unclear why you left your last position." It was a question, even though it sounded like a statement.

She smiled. "Well the little girl grew up, and it was time to move on. They don't stay young forever, unfortunately. Before you know it your son will be leaving home and getting one of his own."

Severus smirked, "Not for a very long time." He said and she chuckled.

The two chatted for a time, until Silas came lumbering down the stairs, only in his boxers and half asleep.

Mrs. Martin laughed and Severus blushed. "My little brother." Was all he could say, the woman nodded, smiled and made her leave.

Silas was oblivious as he found his plate in the oven and began eating over the sink.

"Silas!" Severus yelled. Silas jumped out of his skin, waking up much faster than he ever had before and Severus could hear Seb giggling quietly behind him.

"What!" The boy shrieked.

"I'm conducting professional interviews here, and having you stumble around like a half-naked Neanderthal is nothing but embarrassing!"

Silas breathed deeply to calm down. "Is that all. Here I thought we were under attack. Just relax Severus, they're trying to get the job. Not you." Silas went back to his pancakes. Severus sighed muttering profanities under his breath.

There was another knock at the door and in Severus' preoccupied annoyance he flung the door open and glared at the woman on his doorstep.

She was of middling height and her long auburn hair was wet, and for that matter so were her clothes. The woman was absolutely drenched and she was breathing heavily. Her brown eyes wide with something like panic.

"Can I help you?" Severus asked, losing all the annoyance in a split second.

"YES!" The woman nearly shouted. "Oh my God! I'm sorry! My pipe burst!" She said.

Severus was confused. "Sorry?"

"My pipe damn you! My pipe, in my kitchen under the sink. I was unblocking it and it burst and now my kitchen is flooding! Please can you help me! My sister just left," and then suddenly she started whispering, "and I know you're a wizard. Please I'm a complete dunce at fixing spells." She pleaded.

Severus frowned. "Yes alright."

"Thank you Lord!" She grabbed his hand and pulled him across the street and through her already open front door. The house was clean, it looked lived in but clean. Nothing like his or Julia's homes where everything was completely ordered, this was, well, homey was all Severus could say.

He could see into the kitchen, and the water gushing out of the cupboard under the sink. He strode over to it and muttered Restituo. The pipe sealed back immediately and then he set about some drying charms for the floors, the woman helped with those.

When they had finished he looked at her. "What spell did you try to use to unblock the pipe?"

She sighed. "Demolio."

"Ah. Yes. That's too rough for an ordinary muggle pipe, something like Expungo would have worked better." He said rather ungraciously.

She just nodded and gave him a small smile. "Thank you for coming to the rescue."

He sniffed. "Of course."

She frowned. "Sorry to keep you away from your busy schedule."

"No issue." Severus didn't miss the snideness of her response but chose not to comment on it.

"Well I appreciate it none the less." She said, moving towards the door.

"Good day, Miss..?" He said stepping out onto the front step.

"Charlie King. Good Morning Mr..?" She smirked.

"Severus Snape." He said, she laughed and closed the door.

It had been a quiet, soft laugh. The most carefree thing Severus had ever heard, it had been nice to listen to. He made his way across the street and closed the door behind him with a snap.

"What was that?" Silas said, now sitting on the floor next to Seb.

"The lady across the street is a witch, and she had problems with her plumbing."

"Lady? Sev a lady is a forty year old woman, long since married and past her prime, that girl was barely eighteen." Silas smirked to himself.

Severus frowned. "Does it really matter?"

"To you I'm sure it does." Silas laughed.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Severus glared menacingly at his little brother.

"Nothing at all." Silas stood, heading up the stairs.

"I am in a relationship, you know." Severus growled.

"But you're not married are you?" Silas said before disappearing as he reached the upstairs landing. Severus growled and Seb giggled.

"Dad, are you getting married?" Seb said.

Severus whirled around. "What? No, where did you get an idea like that?"

"Well, Silas said last night that that's what he thought you were doing, proposing to Julia and he said now when you were out that if you hadn't last night you probably never would. Marry Julia that is."

Severus sighed. It clicked now. That's what Julia had been expecting last night, that's why she had seemed so confused by Severus' revelation, why she hadn't been as happy as he had hoped she would be.

"No Seb, I'm not getting married. Not any time soon anyway." Severus cleaned Silas' breakfast plate.


Okay, new chapter! How was it? Did you like it? Am I moving too fast do you think, should I slow it down a bit. I have the next couple chapters written already but I won't post them until I'm quite ahead in writing, so yeah, tell me whether you like it or not.

Oh and I should probably warn you about Seb, he's going to seem a little strange to you for a while, like maybe he had bipolar or something but there's a reason for that so don't worry if he doesn't seem very consistent as a character at the moment.

Anywho, thanks for reading!

LemonDropsWoolSocks: Here you are then, I hope it's soon enough. I definitely like the begging, it makes me feel powerful! ahahaha ;)

hani: Really? Thanks, that's what I was going for, I'm glad it came across. BUT don't judge her too quickly, there may be deeper reasons for why she's acting the way she is.

cara-tanaka: Thank you for being a loyal reader and reviewer!

Celestialuna:ahahahah good guess! and thank you!