**Finally, another chapter. Thank you to those who have reviewed, it was
very kind of you! Um, all Harry Potter characters belong (of course) to
Madam J.K. Rowling. Katerina and others are mine! ( Also, the title of this
chapter is from a Beatles song.I don't own it, either.just borrowing it!
Away, enough with my babbling, onward with the story! Please remember to
r/r!**
He walked inside the busy train station and looked around. He found a line only occupied by one person and dashed for it. He waited patiently for the man in front of him to finish, so Severus could do his own business. When it was his turn, the clerk, a small blond girl, never looked up at him.
"Wait here a moment." She said, running off to answer the phone, which had been ringing for the past two minutes. "Hello? Oh, hi Becky! So, what's the story, did she get dumped?" The girl harped into the phone. She continued to blab endlessly to someone Severus was sure wasn't calling about train tickets. Professor Snape cleared his throat several times in an attempt to gain her attention. She ignored him and continued talking. Severus was an extremely patient man, except when he was already in a bad mood.
"Excuse me ma'am." He started off politely, then struggled to keep his voice at a cold and low whisper, "Would you mind getting off your rear end and doing your job? Which, just in case you forgot, is to sell me tickets, not gossip on the telephone like a school girl!" She looked up just in time to see his eyes flashed mincingly. She hurried and tried to end her conversation quickly, so not to anger the man who looked quite capable of murder at that instant.
"Professor Snape, is that you?" Came a squeaky, familiar voice from behind him. Severus whirled around on his heels to face Hermione Granger. She looked as if she had regretted speaking to him when she saw his hateful and angered face. Two Muggles, who Severus presumed to be Hermione's parents, were standing in the line beside his and were also looking frightened of him. They both looked like very kind people, the best type of Muggle to have a witch for a daughter. To their and Hermione's surprise, Professor Snape's face lightened a bit from murderous to only slightly annoyed.
"Why yes, Miss Granger.what are the odds of seeing you here?" He said in his normal silky voice. Any other person would have put some feeling into the words, but they sounded neither concerned nor polite coming from him. Hermione smiled.
"Mom, Dad, this is my potions professor, Professor Snape. Professor these are my parents." Severus nodded his head curtly at acknowledge them. Mr. and Mrs. Granger smiled, although still looking quite terrified of him.
"Sir?" The attendant interrupted. Severus now turned to face her. She had finally decided to do her job.
"Ah, finally!" He said, his face turning murderous once again. "I would like a ticket on the next available train to Liverpool." The lady looked on what the Muggles called a 'computer'.
"We have four seats left on the train that leaves at 4 o'clock this afternoon. Um, but these seats are first class." She looked down at his cloths and smiled wickedly, obviously thinking Severus didn't have the money to be a first class passenger. Severus smirked.
"So, that's how she wants to play it, eh?" He thought. "I'll take it." He said aloud simply. She nodded, still looking at him oddly.
"I need your full name, sir." She said, placing her hands on the computer. Severus sighed. He was well aware of the Granger family still standing beside him.
"Severus Snyper Snape. That's S-E-V-E-R-U-S, S-N-Y-P-E-R, and S-N-A-P-E. Do spell it correctly." The clerk had a frozen look of shock on her face. Severus cleared his throat impatiently. She snapped out of it and reluctantly typed his name in. Out of the corner of his eye, Severus saw Hermione smiling strangely.
"Will this be cash, check, or charge?" The lady asked. Professor Snape reached into his pocket and felt of the wad of muggle money he had. He had gone to Gringotts earlier in the week to exchange some of his wizard money for the muggle money needed to buy tickets.
"Cash." He stated and grabbed a hand full of the paper and laid it there for her to count out. The clerk finalized his tickets.
"Your train starts boarding at 3:30 and leaves at 4:00. You're in Box 5. Thank you and have a safe trip." She said as perkily as possible, trying in vain to make up for her previous rudeness. Severus just grunted and turned to walk away.
"Professor?" Hermione said before he could leave. The Potions Master turned and looked at her. She smiled, "We're going on vacation as well.I guess you really need a vacation after teaching all year, huh?" Her parents were beginning to leave.
"Hermione, come along." Her mother said. Hermione nodded and spoke again to Professor Snape.
"Have a great summer, Professor." She said and walked away with her parents before Severus could even register what she had said. He was puzzled that any student, especially a Gryffindor, would be so civil to him out of school like that. He shook his head, clearing it and looked at a clock hanging on the wall. It was only 2:45, so Severus decided to sit on a bench and wait for the time to arrive for him to board the train. He pulled out a book he had picked up at the Hogwarts Library and opened it. It was a fairly old book about potions. He happened to stumble upon it while looking for a recipe for a Sticking Potion. He thought he had read all of the potions books ever made, but this one somehow had escaped him. It had a wide range of potions in it and surprisingly, some Severus had never heard of before. Most of the potions were of no real interest to him.
"Love potions?" He muttered and turned the page.
Finally, it was nearly 3:30. Severus put his book up and grabbed his trunk. He looked down at his ticket. "Platform 909." He said to himself and started walking. He found the correct place in no time. He walked onto the train after having his ticket checked and baggage put elsewhere and went up front to find his cabin. He entered to find it, to his relief, empty. "Perhaps the other 3 seats were in here and no one bought them." He thought. He wasn't looking forward to sharing a box with muggles. He sprawled out in a comfortable position on one of the seats. He was about to give into sleep when the door to his box suddenly opened. A woman carrying a baby with a toddler behind her entered. Severus stood up automatically, embarrassed that she should find him in such an improper position. She was a rather large lady, with black hair piled on top of her head.
"I guess you're our cabin mate, eh?" She asked happily. Severus already hated her. She was panting very hard as if she had been running. "I almost got on the wrong train, I went to the wrong platform.one after 909, I believe." She sat down across from him. The toddler, a little boy who looked nothing like his mother, sat down beside him. Severus turned his attention to the window. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the woman staring at him. She cleared her throat, trying to get his attention. "Well, I suppose I should introduce myself.Thelma Anderson." She stuck out her hand for him to shake. He stopped looking out the window and looked at her hand as if it was a large slug. Her smile faded and she withdrew her hand.
"Severus Snape." He said simply. She was pleased that he had said that much. When she started fussing over the baby, Severus let himself look in her direction. The toddler was staring at him with large green eyes. Those eyes unsettled Severus. He shifted in his seat under the child's gaze. He tried to ignore him as he felt the train begin to move. He wasn't sure why the child unnerved him; he looked back at the boy again, and saw again those giant green eyes. "Potter." He said out loud. Thelma looked up at him.
"I'm sorry.what was that?" She asked earnestly. Severus shook his head.
"Just muttering to myself." He said and looked back out the window. It seemed Harry Potter wouldn't let him be no matter where he went. He tried to force his mind to think of other things.
He brought his potion book back out and looked through it. He stopped on a page that had Carson's Invisibility Potion written at the top. He looked at it curiously; he hadn't seen this potion before. Most of the invisibility potions out there were useless, but this one didn't have any common ingredients with the other potions he had seen. He studied it for a while, but was interrupted by Thelma.
"So, Mr. Snape.where are you from?" She said, trying to make casual conversation with him. He sighed at her attempts.
"Near the Scotland-Britain boarder." He said irritably. She nodded and smiled.
She seemed to wait for him to ask her where she was from, but seeing that he wouldn't ask, she just informed him anyway.
"We're from London, but on our way to visit my husband. He's a government official and on assignment in Liverpool." He nodded absentmindedly.
"Mommy?" A small voice said from beside her. Severus jumped. He had forgotten completely about the little boy.
"Yes, dearest?" She said sweetly. Severus grimaced.
"I gotta go pee-pee." The boy said. Thelma nodded and looked down at the sleeping bundle in her lap.
"Mr. Snape? Would you mind looking after Vanessa just a minute while I take Oliver to the bathroom?" Severus just looked at her. He didn't know what on earth to say. He didn't want to be responsible for the muggle child even if it was for just a minute. He bowed his head to look at the floor and she mistakenly took it for a nod. The next thing he knew, Thelma and Oliver were out of the cabin and the baby was lying on the seat where they had once sat. Severus watched it apprehensively, it gurgled and moved a little. Severus peered over at it. Her brilliant green eyes were open and staring at him.
"There is it again, those eyes.just like Potter's, and Lily's before him." He said softly. Vanessa smiled. "Oh, you think that's funny do you?" He asked, to which she laughed again. "You're an odd one.I've never been around a child that didn't cry when it looked at me. I can't decide which is worse.the crying or the laughing." She laughed once more. Severus heard footsteps coming down the hall outside the cabin and leaned back into his seat. Thelma and Oliver entered.
"I hope she didn't give you any trouble." Thelma said, picking up and cooing girl and sitting down. Severus shook his head and went back to reading his potions book.
By almost nightfall the next day, they had arrived in Liverpool. He had expected the children whom he was sharing in cabin with to being extremely annoying, but to his surprise, the boy never whined (hardly spoke for that matter) and the girl only cried once. Thelma was the thing that got the most on his nerves. She constantly tried to make conversation with him, but Severus continually put a stop to it.
He picked up his trunk and walked out of the train station in Liverpool. He knew he could find his own way to his sisters' houses; they didn't live far from the station. He walked in the crisp night air, thinking about his life. All of this would be strange to him, being back on the little street in the houses of his sisters. He reached Thomas Drive about 20 minutes after he set off from the station. He gazed at the three large houses and began walking towards the first one, where his eldest sister lived.
**::Evil Laughing:: And so, here is our little Sevie about to go to his sisters'! Well, what did think? I had to make him have a difficult time in the train station and on the train! And what about Hermione finding out Sevie's middle name? Of course I made up the middle name, I don't know if wizarding people even have middle names! Oh well, it's my story. Anyway, I probably won't be updating until after Christmas. So, to anyone and everyone: HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!**
He walked inside the busy train station and looked around. He found a line only occupied by one person and dashed for it. He waited patiently for the man in front of him to finish, so Severus could do his own business. When it was his turn, the clerk, a small blond girl, never looked up at him.
"Wait here a moment." She said, running off to answer the phone, which had been ringing for the past two minutes. "Hello? Oh, hi Becky! So, what's the story, did she get dumped?" The girl harped into the phone. She continued to blab endlessly to someone Severus was sure wasn't calling about train tickets. Professor Snape cleared his throat several times in an attempt to gain her attention. She ignored him and continued talking. Severus was an extremely patient man, except when he was already in a bad mood.
"Excuse me ma'am." He started off politely, then struggled to keep his voice at a cold and low whisper, "Would you mind getting off your rear end and doing your job? Which, just in case you forgot, is to sell me tickets, not gossip on the telephone like a school girl!" She looked up just in time to see his eyes flashed mincingly. She hurried and tried to end her conversation quickly, so not to anger the man who looked quite capable of murder at that instant.
"Professor Snape, is that you?" Came a squeaky, familiar voice from behind him. Severus whirled around on his heels to face Hermione Granger. She looked as if she had regretted speaking to him when she saw his hateful and angered face. Two Muggles, who Severus presumed to be Hermione's parents, were standing in the line beside his and were also looking frightened of him. They both looked like very kind people, the best type of Muggle to have a witch for a daughter. To their and Hermione's surprise, Professor Snape's face lightened a bit from murderous to only slightly annoyed.
"Why yes, Miss Granger.what are the odds of seeing you here?" He said in his normal silky voice. Any other person would have put some feeling into the words, but they sounded neither concerned nor polite coming from him. Hermione smiled.
"Mom, Dad, this is my potions professor, Professor Snape. Professor these are my parents." Severus nodded his head curtly at acknowledge them. Mr. and Mrs. Granger smiled, although still looking quite terrified of him.
"Sir?" The attendant interrupted. Severus now turned to face her. She had finally decided to do her job.
"Ah, finally!" He said, his face turning murderous once again. "I would like a ticket on the next available train to Liverpool." The lady looked on what the Muggles called a 'computer'.
"We have four seats left on the train that leaves at 4 o'clock this afternoon. Um, but these seats are first class." She looked down at his cloths and smiled wickedly, obviously thinking Severus didn't have the money to be a first class passenger. Severus smirked.
"So, that's how she wants to play it, eh?" He thought. "I'll take it." He said aloud simply. She nodded, still looking at him oddly.
"I need your full name, sir." She said, placing her hands on the computer. Severus sighed. He was well aware of the Granger family still standing beside him.
"Severus Snyper Snape. That's S-E-V-E-R-U-S, S-N-Y-P-E-R, and S-N-A-P-E. Do spell it correctly." The clerk had a frozen look of shock on her face. Severus cleared his throat impatiently. She snapped out of it and reluctantly typed his name in. Out of the corner of his eye, Severus saw Hermione smiling strangely.
"Will this be cash, check, or charge?" The lady asked. Professor Snape reached into his pocket and felt of the wad of muggle money he had. He had gone to Gringotts earlier in the week to exchange some of his wizard money for the muggle money needed to buy tickets.
"Cash." He stated and grabbed a hand full of the paper and laid it there for her to count out. The clerk finalized his tickets.
"Your train starts boarding at 3:30 and leaves at 4:00. You're in Box 5. Thank you and have a safe trip." She said as perkily as possible, trying in vain to make up for her previous rudeness. Severus just grunted and turned to walk away.
"Professor?" Hermione said before he could leave. The Potions Master turned and looked at her. She smiled, "We're going on vacation as well.I guess you really need a vacation after teaching all year, huh?" Her parents were beginning to leave.
"Hermione, come along." Her mother said. Hermione nodded and spoke again to Professor Snape.
"Have a great summer, Professor." She said and walked away with her parents before Severus could even register what she had said. He was puzzled that any student, especially a Gryffindor, would be so civil to him out of school like that. He shook his head, clearing it and looked at a clock hanging on the wall. It was only 2:45, so Severus decided to sit on a bench and wait for the time to arrive for him to board the train. He pulled out a book he had picked up at the Hogwarts Library and opened it. It was a fairly old book about potions. He happened to stumble upon it while looking for a recipe for a Sticking Potion. He thought he had read all of the potions books ever made, but this one somehow had escaped him. It had a wide range of potions in it and surprisingly, some Severus had never heard of before. Most of the potions were of no real interest to him.
"Love potions?" He muttered and turned the page.
Finally, it was nearly 3:30. Severus put his book up and grabbed his trunk. He looked down at his ticket. "Platform 909." He said to himself and started walking. He found the correct place in no time. He walked onto the train after having his ticket checked and baggage put elsewhere and went up front to find his cabin. He entered to find it, to his relief, empty. "Perhaps the other 3 seats were in here and no one bought them." He thought. He wasn't looking forward to sharing a box with muggles. He sprawled out in a comfortable position on one of the seats. He was about to give into sleep when the door to his box suddenly opened. A woman carrying a baby with a toddler behind her entered. Severus stood up automatically, embarrassed that she should find him in such an improper position. She was a rather large lady, with black hair piled on top of her head.
"I guess you're our cabin mate, eh?" She asked happily. Severus already hated her. She was panting very hard as if she had been running. "I almost got on the wrong train, I went to the wrong platform.one after 909, I believe." She sat down across from him. The toddler, a little boy who looked nothing like his mother, sat down beside him. Severus turned his attention to the window. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the woman staring at him. She cleared her throat, trying to get his attention. "Well, I suppose I should introduce myself.Thelma Anderson." She stuck out her hand for him to shake. He stopped looking out the window and looked at her hand as if it was a large slug. Her smile faded and she withdrew her hand.
"Severus Snape." He said simply. She was pleased that he had said that much. When she started fussing over the baby, Severus let himself look in her direction. The toddler was staring at him with large green eyes. Those eyes unsettled Severus. He shifted in his seat under the child's gaze. He tried to ignore him as he felt the train begin to move. He wasn't sure why the child unnerved him; he looked back at the boy again, and saw again those giant green eyes. "Potter." He said out loud. Thelma looked up at him.
"I'm sorry.what was that?" She asked earnestly. Severus shook his head.
"Just muttering to myself." He said and looked back out the window. It seemed Harry Potter wouldn't let him be no matter where he went. He tried to force his mind to think of other things.
He brought his potion book back out and looked through it. He stopped on a page that had Carson's Invisibility Potion written at the top. He looked at it curiously; he hadn't seen this potion before. Most of the invisibility potions out there were useless, but this one didn't have any common ingredients with the other potions he had seen. He studied it for a while, but was interrupted by Thelma.
"So, Mr. Snape.where are you from?" She said, trying to make casual conversation with him. He sighed at her attempts.
"Near the Scotland-Britain boarder." He said irritably. She nodded and smiled.
She seemed to wait for him to ask her where she was from, but seeing that he wouldn't ask, she just informed him anyway.
"We're from London, but on our way to visit my husband. He's a government official and on assignment in Liverpool." He nodded absentmindedly.
"Mommy?" A small voice said from beside her. Severus jumped. He had forgotten completely about the little boy.
"Yes, dearest?" She said sweetly. Severus grimaced.
"I gotta go pee-pee." The boy said. Thelma nodded and looked down at the sleeping bundle in her lap.
"Mr. Snape? Would you mind looking after Vanessa just a minute while I take Oliver to the bathroom?" Severus just looked at her. He didn't know what on earth to say. He didn't want to be responsible for the muggle child even if it was for just a minute. He bowed his head to look at the floor and she mistakenly took it for a nod. The next thing he knew, Thelma and Oliver were out of the cabin and the baby was lying on the seat where they had once sat. Severus watched it apprehensively, it gurgled and moved a little. Severus peered over at it. Her brilliant green eyes were open and staring at him.
"There is it again, those eyes.just like Potter's, and Lily's before him." He said softly. Vanessa smiled. "Oh, you think that's funny do you?" He asked, to which she laughed again. "You're an odd one.I've never been around a child that didn't cry when it looked at me. I can't decide which is worse.the crying or the laughing." She laughed once more. Severus heard footsteps coming down the hall outside the cabin and leaned back into his seat. Thelma and Oliver entered.
"I hope she didn't give you any trouble." Thelma said, picking up and cooing girl and sitting down. Severus shook his head and went back to reading his potions book.
By almost nightfall the next day, they had arrived in Liverpool. He had expected the children whom he was sharing in cabin with to being extremely annoying, but to his surprise, the boy never whined (hardly spoke for that matter) and the girl only cried once. Thelma was the thing that got the most on his nerves. She constantly tried to make conversation with him, but Severus continually put a stop to it.
He picked up his trunk and walked out of the train station in Liverpool. He knew he could find his own way to his sisters' houses; they didn't live far from the station. He walked in the crisp night air, thinking about his life. All of this would be strange to him, being back on the little street in the houses of his sisters. He reached Thomas Drive about 20 minutes after he set off from the station. He gazed at the three large houses and began walking towards the first one, where his eldest sister lived.
**::Evil Laughing:: And so, here is our little Sevie about to go to his sisters'! Well, what did think? I had to make him have a difficult time in the train station and on the train! And what about Hermione finding out Sevie's middle name? Of course I made up the middle name, I don't know if wizarding people even have middle names! Oh well, it's my story. Anyway, I probably won't be updating until after Christmas. So, to anyone and everyone: HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!**