Written for
Quidditch League: Wigtown Wanderers Chaser 3: Hotel {[character] Severus Snape ; [word] Priority ; [object] clock}
...xXx...
The clock chimed midnight.
Severus stared at his childhood home. His suitcase was packed, propped gently against his leg. He had a wistful urge to look back at his childhood home, hoping that someone, anyone, would somehow wake.
That they would see him.
That they would rather he stayed.
But his father's snores echoed even past the thick walls of the house. His mother was without a doubt fast asleep as well. Fighting those sleepy growls to sleep was no easy task. Severus knew that much from all the times he had burnt the midnight oil while studying.
The wind whistled past him. His responding shiver reminded him that it was time to go.
No one would wake up.
No one would stop him.
No one needed him here.
He didn't have a plan, but that didn't matter anymore.
...xXx...
Gringotts Hotel was magnificent.
The snowy white pillars swept upwards, supporting the arched ceilings that held paintings of battles and wars long won. The paintings were bordered by what Severus could very well believe was real gold. It was a hotel he would never have had the opportunity to breathe the air of, if they hadn't been in need of new staff.
Severus had little hope of being selected, but he had sent in an application just as he had for every store, hotel, motel, and service that had so much as hinted to having a vacancy. He needed food to eat, if nothing else. Yet somehow, he had been called back the next day, the ink on the contract freshly dried as he read through it.
They offered a decent salary in addition to food, shelter, and the uniforms that would need to be worn nearly daily - so he didn't even need new clothing. It was all Severus could want while he figured out his next steps, while he figured out exactly where he fit into the world.
And whether the gigantic world had a space for a small, insignificant person like him.
Severus signed the contract and took the keys to the shared dorm without a second thought.
...xXx...
It didn't really surprise Severus that no one looked for him, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt.
Suspecting that you were unneeded, unwanted, unnoticed, was one thing. Facing the reality of it was something completely different. There was no preparation in the world that would soften that blow.
But Severus now had the other staff at Gringotts as company. They groaned and complained about the long hours, about the absolutely foul smell of Rabastan's socks once he took off his shoes, and the fact that Peter had yet to be banned from the kitchens despite setting his fifth countertop on fire – while cutting carrots!
He knew he was just another one of them – staff 394 – but there was a sense of camaraderie among all of them. They knew each other. They greeted and pranked and complained about each other. They went out drinking together, or even smuggled some alcohol from the kitchens into the dorms. They shared the leftovers from the large gatherings hosted at Gringotts. It was almost like having an abundance of siblings.
His co-workers reminded him that he really did exist every single day. Each time someone dug their elbow into his ribs to get him to smile when he didn't react to a joke or prank, he didn't care about the joke, he smiled at being remembered.
Severus wondered if this was how it felt to be acknowledged - not as a priority because that was too much for someone like him - but just another one of many. It wasn't appreciation, but it was acknowledgement; it was inclusion – and that was all Severus had really wanted.
Most of the time, Severus could imagine Gringotts to be home.
...xXx...
Severus met Mr. Gringott well over a year after he had first started working at the hotel. The man was stout and his pinstripe suit didn't do much in the way of making him look taller. His aura, however, was one that made Severus pause and straighten as the man passed.
He knew there was a rule about a greeting or ritual they were meant to perform whenever they saw the man, but Severus had been alone, and could only watch the man pass in awed silence.
Mr. Gringott didn't acknowledge his presence, or even complain that he hadn't followed the rules. The man eventually rounded the corner and left Severus's sight, but Severus still couldn't bring himself to move.
That was a man who had made himself noticed and hadn't relied on the small recognition of other people passing by in their own life's journey. He owned his own space, and he ruled it however he wished – there was a reason Gringotts was one of the most famous hotels.
...xXX...
Cleaning rooms was a disgusting, but utterly boring task. It left Severus with a lot of time to think.
Was he really satisfied?
Was being an anonymous worker at Gringotts all he could really be?
Was having a substitute for home, even if he had desperately sought it, worth serving other people for the rest of his life? Making a profit for someone else that was clearly confident and proud in their skin, despite being in a body that would easily be overlooked otherwise?
If that was all he was really worth, then his father wasn't wrong in calling him a waste of space - his parents weren't wrong in continuing their peaceful sleep while he waited in the chilly wind, hoping for them to stop him.
If that were really the case, Severus should have stayed home and continued serving his father beers and cleaning up the empty cans. He should have continued cleaning their small home with no hope for the future.
He should have given up before he'd even packed his suitcase.
...xXx…
A clocked chimed from within the hotel.
Severus didn't know what time it was. He didn't care to look back at the magnificent halls of the hotel he had called home for nearly three years now.
The comfort of Gringotts' walls had been - still was - dangerous. It had offered him the security he never had, and threatened to keep him tied to it for the rest of his life. He had been weak to the comforts of companionship while he 'made his plan' for the future. Until he had turned around, and there was no plan to leave, only a bleary vision that wandered no further than the next suitcase to be carried and the next bathroom to clean.
There was still no plan, perhaps there never would be, but if the price of comfort was the mind-numbing monotony of being invisible - nothing more than a replaceable staff 394 - Severus realised he didn't want that.
He wanted to be seen for his own efforts.
Surely, there was something out there that he could do far better than anyone else. If it didn't already exist, then he would simply drag it into existence.
Severus would be back.
But next time, he would be a guest at Gringotts and not a grunt worker.