Title: Always Time for a Drink (part three)
Part Two of the Silent Song Series.
Author: PLS
Date: May 20, 2003
Rating: G
Summery: Response to a challenge on HarryXSnapeML- Alternate Timeline/ Albus didn't stop Grindelwald, he joined him. How has that impacted the Wizarding world and how do Harry and Severus Snape interact now?
Quote for the section: We really don't have enemies. It's just that some of our best friends are trying to kill us. -- Anonymous
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The room was one that showed a love of travel and a love of adventure- it was one that any boy would have loved and one that still held a lot of intrigue for the grown and well traveled man. The walls were draped with archaic tapestries of sniget hunts, battles, and medieval pastoral scenes. Old maps of distant locals, paintings of dragon slayers, treasure hunters, and outlaws decorated the welcoming sitting room. Severus was pushed in by a hurrying Harry and he took notice of the many Persian carpets on the floor and the huge grizzly bearskin rug in front of the huge blazing fireplace. On the large worn mahogany mantle were piles of what looked like old Quidditich magazines and a few odd and very used comic books both Wizarding and Muggle. The bookshelves next to the fireplace held books on a great multitude of subjects, astronomy, navigation, atlases, histories, military theory, fairy tales, adventure and fantasy novels, and even a few very rare books on martial arts styles, both western and eastern. The large oak desk held scattered papers and odd and archaic instruments of brass and copper. Quills and old bottles of ink littered the desktop as well, Severus moved closer to the desk, the papers were a mix of notes about information in the books, notes about ideas that the bedlam known as Harry's mind created, and very crude and rather childish sketches. Severus was sure that Harry was not like any other of the many fighters he had met before. Harry was enlarging his arsenal and filling the formally empty cheery and glass cabinet. Swards, axes, pikes, javelins, and many other odd and rather old weapons filled up the cabinet and as Harry closed it he took out two last arms and enlarged them, a well worn battle axe and a short Spanish sward in a beaten up scabbard, then placed them on a tall pink granite and iron table by the entrance.
Harry smiled contentedly as he hung his dark cloak on a twisting iron coat rack and then took off his heavy plaid over shirt and kicked off his heavy black combat boots. "Ah, it's still home." Marveled Harry, Severus looked at him with a questioning expression.
"Still home? How long has it been since you last came here?" asked the taller man.
"Oh," Harry collapsed on a brown velvet chaise lounge near the weapon cabinet, "well, I'd say about seven or eight years. I've had little or no chance to come here, work has been too steady. Back to back jobs from the Snakes, Fireballs, and whatever government is desperate to get rid of the black spots from the inside, this is the first time in a long time I've gotten to rest without fear of yet another summon from the idiots of the world."
An odd sound started to fill the room, insane laughter, a loud annoying voice and a small whistling tune. A tapestry was flung up as a ginger jarvey ran into the room. It was carrying a small black fuzzball on his back that Severus recognized as a puffskin The jarvey had a bright white star on his forehead and was running to Harry.
"Boss! You lazy bum, came home!" shouted the large ferret looking creature yelled in a loud and very grating voice. Harry had stood up. He laughed and hugged both animals with nothing less than affection showing.
"Yes, Boss has come home, you pathetic excuse for a pet. Have you been playing with Noxxy?" Asked Harry as he sat down again.
"I played with the great lump of idiotic fur. He is dull and I can't stand him. Who's the dummy?" the jarvey was curling up in Harry's lap as the puffskin was nestled on Harry's shoulder.
"He is not a dummy, you waste of fur. His name is Severus, you will call him Fang, if you refuse to call him by his name like you do with me." Harry was now stroking the jarvey's fur. "Severus, the jarvey is Lumos, the puffskin is Nox. Don't hurt them, I've had Lumos since I was nine and Noxxy since I was twelve."
"Who on earth gave a nine year old boy a jarvey?" asked Severus sitting in a large brown leather armchair. Harry laughed.
"Well, Mister Filch found a ferret, or what looked to be an ordinary ferret, in the owlery and I stopped him from killing it or feeding it to Buckbeak. I then hid it in my bedroom, under my bed. It turned out that Lumos wasn't a ferret, but a baby jarvey. I kept him secret for a long time and bribed anyone who found out to keep quiet about his existence. The whole staff knows about him, but they don't know that the others all know as well." Harry gave a roguish grin as Severus' gaze turned to the puffball in his shoulder, "Noxxy, he was a gag gift from one of my less than loved classmates at Drumstrang, I found him so amusing though. Noxxy basically complements Lumos' overly noisy and aggressive presence, and is just fun." Lumos was sleeping now, the jarvey looked almost peaceful.
"He reminds me of a cat like that." Said Severus.
"Yeah." Harry carefully lifted Lumos off his lap and set him back down on the soft fabric of the chaise lounge. Nox stayed on his shoulder as he stood and turned to Severus. "Come on. I need to show you your rooms. Believe it or not, I do have a room set aside for my guests. I was always told that I was too good of a host for a child, I hope my skills haven't worn away during the battles." Severus gave a very small smile of understanding and followed Harry to the tapestry of the sniget hunt that his host pushed aside and the wall behind it opened up to a long staircase that looked like it wound around the large room they had just left.
Small hanging chandeliers blazed to life as they followed the stairs up to the second floor. When they reached the top Severus saw that the ceiling was lower and something like a trapdoor was in the center of the circular common area. Four doors opened out to the common area. Harry lead him to the closest on the right, it opened to a bathing room, a large tub was imbedded in the floor and it was a lot like the prefects bathroom. A large cabinet and two shower stalls were on the far curved wall and three toilet stalls and a urinal decorated another wall. The last was lined by three sinks, a large pink granite counter top, and mirrors lined the last wall. The showers had rather ornate stained glass windows and charmed floating candles lit the room.
"Towels, soaps, potions and almost anything else is in that cabinet. If you need something I don't have please leave a note in the cabinet and the house elves will be happy to get what you need. I used to stick notes in there asking for books or things that Uncle Tommy refused to get me. Most of the time I'd get what I wanted that way, but I had to hide the more dangerous things. I was a spoiled little kid."
"Okay, somehow I'm not surprised." Said Severus. Harry led him to the next room, this time it was a storage room of sorts. Inside were shelves and shelves of all sorts of things. Toys, books, bottles, broomsticks, and anything that could be found were in that room.
"In here is anything I collected, I bet I have all my old potion finds, most of the lab stuff I had found was broken or worn out things I tried to fix. I keep everything here that isn't legal as well. You'll find dangerous potion ingredients, magic weapons, the magic carpet I made in the fourth year, and the books on non-human combat magics here. You're welcome to almost anything unless it is warded, no matter how weakly. If you find something that is warded come tell me. I'm sure I warded a lot of things as a kid that are really very pointless now." Harry smiled as Severus gazed around. This room was lit by floating candles again, only they were charmed to float around the looker and whatever was being used at that moment. No windows decorated this room, it was totally sealed from the outside. Severus finally came back and Harry took him to the next room.
This next room was all windows and floating candles, a rack of well maintained brooms of various ages and types was near the large French doors that opened to a large terrace. A large wardrobe with glass doors, which held Quidditich robes and other accessories for the broom sports, was located on the other side of the doors. A large hassock like bench was in the center of the room. A set of shelves caught Severus' attention, on them were potions and Muggle and magical medical spell books. All were carefully labeled and arranged in order of type and strength.
"You're free to escape Hogwarts this way. I often will. I and the house elves created this room after my eighth birthday, the day my rebelliousness landed me in another month of confinement to my tower. I think Aunt Mina caught me sneaking off to go barrow one of the school broomsticks. As you noted my first aide kit is right there, and as with the rest of the rooms feel free to use anything that isn't warded." Harry spoke as he fished out a miniature broomstick and enlarged it. "My Nimbus Two Thousand Five is off limits." He said as he put the broom into its place on the rack. Severus nodded and followed Harry as they left the room.
Harry opened the last door and ushered Severus inside. It was a very well decorated bedroom. Again large stained glass windows were on the curved wall and a large bed stood under them. It had no large headboard, but held a large quantity of pillows all swathed in various shades of gray. The huge comforter seemed to be made of a patchwork pattern of grays and whites and filled with goose down. A desk was in one corner next to semi-empty bookshelves. The floor had rugs of various whites and grays scattered around and near the door was a large wardrobe of a light colored wood.
"This is your room. House elves come by every other day and if you need anything let me know. I'll see you in the morning." Harry left Severus alone and shut the door behind him.
"I don't know if I want my own rooms now." Said Severus as he started to get ready for bed that night. "I'll talk with Harry about it tomorrow. After all there's always time for a drink."
End of Part Two. . .
