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Freddie was sitting at the edge of the lake when Snape returned. She had taken her boots off and had her feet in the water when she heard him coming across the grounds. She pulled her feet from the water, put her socks on, and was lacing her boots when he reached her.
"Come on," he said impatiently.
"I'm coming," she said, jumping up. He started towards the gate without looking at her.
"Hey," she said, hurrying after him. "I need to talk to you."
He didn't acknowledge her. When they stepped outside the gates, he held out his arm.
"Come," he said shortly, still not looking down at her. She took his arm and they immediately Disapparated.
The appeared in a small, dark sitting room. The walls were completely covered in books, apart from a small fireplace, which wasn't lit at the moment. The only light came from a candle-filled lamp on the ceiling which cast a pool of dim light on a threadbare sofa, an armchair, and a table with books piled on it.
Everything had a fine layer of dust over it and a generally un-lived in feel.
"Kitchen is through there," Snape said in a bored voice, pointing his wand at one of the bookcases, revealing an open doorway. He pointed at another bookcase, revealing a staircase. "Your room is upstairs on the right, bathroom across the hall. Stay out of my room. I need to return to Hogwarts."
"Wait!" Freddie said. "We need to talk."
"No," he said coolly. "We do not. What happened at the end of last semester was a mistake. IT will not happen again."
"Wh- no! Not about that. I mean, I figured, but," she shook her head before continuing. "When...when I saw the dementors today, I heard something. I don't know if it was a memory, or..."
She sank down onto the couch and sighed. Snape watched her a moment, then sat down in the armchair.
"What did you hear?" he asked, leaning forward, looking at her. She met his dark eyes and swallowed heavily.
"Daniel's voice," she said softly. "Telling me to run. That something was coming to kill me and to run."
He stared at her for a long time, his black eyes glittering, calculating.
"I don't remember anything else, no actual memories. I didn't see anything," she said. "Just heard his voice, in my head, telling me to run."
"That something was coming to kill you," he said.
"Yes."
"You have no idea what?"
"No," she said. "...Could it have just been the dementors? My imagination?"
"It is possible," he said slowly. "I will talk to Dumbledore."
"Wait," she said again as he stood to leave. "My things, all of my stuff, it's still at Gray Manor. If I go back to get it...I'm not sure what my uncle will do."
He looked thoughtful a moment.
"Your uncle has a house-elf, yes?"
"Yes," Freddie said with a nod.
"If you call him, will he come?"
"Possibly, if he hasn't been ordered not to," she said. "Anubis?"
There was a moment of silence then the house-elf appeared with a crack.
"Mistress Gray!" he squeaked loudly. "Your uncle – hims is very mad you is disappeared."
"Anubis can you get my things? Bring them here and not tell my uncle where I am? Or my aunt?" she asked urgently.
"Yes, Mistress."
"Promise me, Anubis? Please?"
"I promise," Anubis said then disappeared.
"Now, that is taken care of," Snape said. "I must return to the castle. Are you...okay?"
"Yeah. Yes, I think so...Thank you," she said, looking up at him. "Thank you for letting me stay with you."
"I did not have a choice," he said tightly, then Disapparated with a pop.
Freddie remained sitting on the couch for a few minutes, looking around the room. When her things appeared, she stood up. No Anubis, just her Hogwarts trunk. She assumed it was all he was able to send undetected.
Freddie picked up her trunk and dragged it up the staircase.
He sure has a thing for hidden rooms, she thought as she climbed the staircase. She paused when she noticed there were pictures hanging on the wall along the stairs. She set her trunk down and pulled out her wand.
"Lumos," she said, lighting the tip of her wand so she could see the pictures. They were coated in a thick layer of dust. She used her thumb to wipe some of the dust away from one of the frames, revealing a sallow-faced little boy with a crop of black hair.
"Baby Snape," she whispered, grinning.
She cleared off another frame, finding photos of a thin-faced woman who could only be Snape's mother. The third picture was another of Snape, probably five years old, sitting on his mother's lap. He didn't look happy, even as a child.
There were discolored spots on the wall where photos were missing. Freddie stowed her wand and finished lugging her trunk up the stairs.
She opened the first door to the right and entered another dusty room. It was simple, spartan even. A twin-sized bed with white sheets, a single pillow, and a black quilt folded at the end. A wooden bedside table with a lamp on it.
A Muggle lamp, she thought, dropping her trunk and walking over to it. Curious, she flipped a switch and the room was flooded with a yellowish light. Oh wow...electricity.
Everything she knew about Muggles she'd learned from Muggle Studies class and from Daniel. He'd helped her with an assignment their third year, an essay on electricity – the somewhat mysterious element that powered Muggle homes, shops, towns. Daniel had tried his best to explain it to her – electrons, conductors, insulators. It had been confusing to her but fascinating.
Freddie turned the lamp on and off several times, amazed.
"Ingenious," she said aloud.
She walked over to the window and opened the black curtains. Freddie coughed slightly at the cloud of dust it produced. She opened the window, letting some fresh air and light into the musty room.
She looked out the window at the rows and rows of dilapidated brick houses. A Muggle village, she realized. A tall structure loomed over the houses. It looked like some sort of chimney. There was a dirty river winding its way past the buildings.
The village was quiet, almost eerily so. There were no people out, no children or animals. Everything was still apart from the river. She couldn't help but wonder if anyone else even lived here.
Freddie turned back to look at her room. There was a rickety wooden dresser against one wall. She opened each drawer, hoping to find more relics of Snape's life, but they were all empty.
The walls were bare, a faded pinstripe wallpaper. There were discolored spots on the walls, too big to have been photos. Posters maybe.
Freddie pulled Hemlock from her pocket, grew him to full size, and set him on the foot of the bed.
"Well," she said to the stuffed kneazle. "Looks like we've got some cleaning to do. I thought that's what Severus was supposed to be doing but whatever. He's a man anyway, I suspect we have very different ideas of 'clean'. At least the sheets look clean."
She opened her trunk, curious to see what Anubis had been able to smuggle out. Daniel's record player sat on top, much to her delight.
"This'll help," she said happily. "Cleaning is always better with music."
She put the record player on the bedside table, then pulled out her records. She decided to play David Bowie, the upbeat music lifting her spirits as she started to clean. She opened the drawer on the bedside table and found it was just the right size for her vinyls.
She pulled out her wand and started cleaning the walls, removing years worth of dust and grime. She pondered the faded wallpaper for a few minutes, then an idea struck her. Using a Color-Changing Charm she changed 3 of the walls to a dark gray color. The fourth wall she changed to a charcoal black, accenting the other walls nicely.
She cleaned the curtains and the glass on the window, letting even more sunlight into the room. She cleaned the floors, finding a nice oak hardwood floor beneath the dust.
She cleaned everything in the room that she could, dancing around with her wand to the Bowie songs. When it was cleaned to her satisfaction, she paused.
"There's still a smell," she said to Hemlock. "What I wouldn't give for some candles. Hmm...what was that spell... Nova something, nova...Nova Caeli!"
Immediately the dank smell disappeared, leaving behind a fresh scent. She grinned triumphantly at Hemlock.
"Now, that's done," she said, walking over to her trunk. "I guess I can put my clothes in the dresser."
She dragged her trunk to the dresser and began to put her clothes away. Socks, underwear, and bras in the top drawer, along with her pajamas. Shirts in the next drawer, then pants, then dresses in the bottom drawer, alone with her cloaks, including the one Snape had given her.
She took out her books and lined them up on top of the dresser. She wished she had a bookcase but she didn't, nor did she have anything big enough to transfigure. The best she could do for the time being was to stack them on top of one another. When that was done, she picked through what was left in her trunk.
She sat cross-legged on the floor and went through her things. She made a pile for trash. A pile of unused parchment, quills, and ink – things that would go back in her trunk. Then she made a pile of letters that she'd written to Daniel over the last 7 months. There were a few dozen of them. She'd taken Snape's advice to heart, writing letters to Daniel when she wished she could talk to him. He'd been right, it did help. Still, she couldn't bring herself to get rid of them.
She folded the letters neatly and went to put them back in her trunk. As she did, she felt something under the lining of her trunk. Curious, she investigated and found where the lining of her trunk was ripped at the corner. She pulled it up and found a picture under the lining.
She smiled as she turned the picture over. It was a photo of her and Daniel. Professor Merritt had taken the picture during their third year when they'd learned to develop moving pictures. They'd been sitting at a table in the art classroom – Daniel was grinning at the camera as he put his fingers up in bunny ears behind Freddie's head. Freddie was smirking slightly and rolling her eyes at him.
"You goofball," she said softly and sighed. "I miss you."
She sat staring at the photo for a long time. Finally she got to her feet, still clutching the photo.
"I need a picture frame," she said aloud. Her eyes fell on the pile of rubbish she needed to vanish. "That'll work."
She pulled out her wand and, after a bit of trial and error with the magic, she managed to transform some broken quills into a simple black picture frame. She put the photo in it and placed it on the nightstand next to the record player.
She vanished the remaining rubbish, then put the rest of her things back in her trunk.
"Guess we'll go back downstairs," she said, picking Hemlock up off the bed. "Maybe we can clean up down there, after I get something to drink. Let's go check out the kitchen."
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Author's Note: Sorry its taking me a while to get stuff typed up. Having a bit of a rough day. Hopefully will have more chapters soon.