Keyword: Curious

Severus stood in the square of Grimmauld Place, gazing at the wall between houses with trepidation. This was the first time he'd returned since the end of spring and it was now late July, just a few days before the chase of Harry Potter was planned. As he watched, the defeated building that was Number 12 Grimmauld Place forced itself into the non-existent space between the numbers eleven and thirteen. He loitered outside for a few moments, dreading whatever had been set up inside, and then cast a powerful shielding spell upon himself and walked slowly and proudly up the stairs.

To Severus's great surprise, no curses awaited him. He frowned to himself, guessing that they had perhaps not got around to it yet – though he was sure they would soon. It was just as well he had come when he had.

Severus gave the house a thorough searching and, despite having searched every room in the house, did not even find what the Dark Lord had sent him for in the room of Regulus Black. As he exited the room, closing the door behind him and glancing at the deep scratches in the door with obvious annoyance – what an unnecessary precaution to have a Thestral-like creature guarding the door, one which sprang at him when he touched the door handle, when there wasn't even anything in the room.

His curiosity was suddenly peaked as he stood on the landing, staring at the door of Sirius Black's bedroom. He went in quietly, coughing slightly against the thick dust that had coated everything in the room. The room was typically decorated, for Black, with Gryffindor posters and pictures of muggle girls in bikinis plastering the walls. The only wizarding photograph in the room was of the infamous four, arm in arm and laughing out of the picture at him. Severus sneered at them and went to search the room, finding nothing interesting until he reached the last drawer of the dresser. In it, at the bottom of the drawer, there was a letter from none other than Lily herself. Severus recognised her writing and sat down to read it, clutching the photograph he had found with it tightly in his other hand.

By the end of the letter, Severus had tears pouring down his face. He tucked the second page; containing Lily's love and signature, and then studied the photo. Lily was standing in the background as a small black-haired baby, presumably Harry, rode around on a toy broomstick as James chased him around. Snape gazed at Lily, the tears flowing faster, and then ripped the photo in half so he had a picture of Lily, and a picture of Harry and James. He threw the one containing the boys away and left the house hurriedly, clutching the photograph of a laughing Lily tightly in his hand.