The valleys Severus Snape walked through were as quit as he liked them to be. The stars were shinning so bright that Severus did not even need to light his wand as he unlocked the backdoor of the closed Italian wine bar of a three storage high red bricks.
He found himself in the kitchen, standing face to face with the owner of this place.
"Good night, Eleanor, " Severus addressed the woman quietly.
"I wish you would tell me about your arrival before hands, I almost smash your skull in pieces, thinking you might be one of those little hooligans…" Eleanor putted his wand back in the inner pocket of her night robe.
"Sorry. I think I trusted the goodness in you that you to not perform such an unspeakable cruelty to a poor burglar who was unfortunate enough to pick the wrong place to rub, and also the wonderful memories we shared that you would not mistake me as a thief…I just didn't want to wake anyone." Severus said lightly as he started fallowing the fair woman up the stairs along the wall.
"Well, you surely woke me. Anyways, your old room is still there, we'll need to discuss about that in the morning though." Eleanor handed him an old silver key as they stopped in front of a door at the end of the corridor.
"Good dreams, Eleanor." Severus said as he opened his bedroom's door.
"You too, young man." Eleanor soon disappeared around the corner.
Severus entered the room he had not return for seventeen months. Everything was kept the same, and clean. Severus thanked Eleanor a thousand times silently under the dim starlight, may that woman be blessed for eternity.
He dropped his backpack beside his bed, kicked off his traveling boots, and fell into a hand chair beside the fireplace, which was lit with a snap of his finger. Severus subconsciously started rubbing the left side of his neck, a large scar, which extended down to his upper back and left shoulder, shined with the fire light.
After a few moments, Severus got up, picked up a pair of navy blue pajama pants from his traveling bag and headed his way to the washroom. That was when he noticed something unusual.
There was dim light coming through beneath his washroom door. He did a small wave to the fireplace, and silenced the cracking noises of the burning woods, along with the light coming out from it. Under the dim light of stars, Severus could see the movement of some unnamed shadow through the leaking light.
"Hooligans," Eleanor's earlier words slipped in. He took out his wand, and tried not to make any sound as he putted his hand on the doorknob, and slowly turning it.
Severus bursted in and pointed his wand at the stranger in his washroom. The person reflected fast, and ducked down, moving away from Severus wand. Severus was surprised at the intruder's instant reaction, but he also knew for sure that this person did not carry a wand with him.
A sudden stroke hit his stomach with so much force it threw him on his back on his bedroom floor. "Oh, for sake," thought Severus, "this person can use magic without wand." He should have thought about it! The intruder jumped to him, but Severus was no stranger of ground wresting. He knew his attacker was going to jump to him, and he did. Severus caught the other's wrists and lifted the person with his right knee, threw him backward onto his back, and took the chance to pin down the attacker, with his wand pointing right in the person's face. The millisecond Severus thought he had the person down, a hand caught his throat.
They got each other. A spell was on the tip of his wand, and so was on the attacker's fingertips. He could blow the other's face off, but the same time his head and his body would probably be disconnected at the same time. He could barely breath, but he could hear another person panting. They stay there in silence for what seemed like forever.
A wind from the west blew the dark clouds away, and the moonlight shone down on the stranger's face, caused his eyes to shine like diamonds, too bright that Severus almost look away. Just when the clouds were climbing up to the moon again, when there was just enough light for Severus to take a good peek on the person's face, he saw a pair of dazzling greens looking back at him.
He snatched a quick breath in, so fast that his lungs burned.
Severus leaned in to take a closer look, too anxious to even blink – he had to be sure. He could feel the person underneath him shift uncomfortably to where this might seem to be going.
What was he thinking? He would never mistake it as anything else in the world.
Then, very slowly, Severus opened his mouth –
"…Potter?" those green eyes widen with his word. Severus could feel his own body shaking.
Then from below him, an even shakier voice answered, "…sir?"