Chapter 2 – The Sunken City
When the carriage had left, he stepped outside to take a look at the front of the house. Unlike the interior, the exterior looked as if nobody had taken care of it for the past hundred years – which probably was the case. The front of the house was perfectly symmetrical, with above the oaken front doors a rather large loggia. On the ground floor the windows reached almost from floor to ceiling. The windows on the first floor were smaller, each positioned exactly above one on the ground floor. The second floor had only very small windows, but still placed exactly symmetrical. Ivy grew over most of the facade and draped the loggia like hangings of green velvet. Beneath the ivy red brick walls were barely visible. The [limestone] roof was overgrown by moss as was the driveway.
He decided to go inside and inspect the basement laboratory. Then he would take a shower and unpack and see whether the house elf was a decent cook.
The laboratory was large, probably nearly as large as the surface of the house – he remembered the kitchen was also in the basement. Small windows just beneath the ceiling enabled daylight to get in, but there were chandeliers for when that was not sufficient. There were cupboards, stocked with potions' ingredients, common as well as the more rare and dangerous. Workbenches at a nice height for working standing flanked places where a fire could be lit. Chains to hang a cauldron above the fire dangled from the ceiling. Reluctantly, Severus gave Albus credit for thinking of his needs.
Swiftly he climbed the two flights of stairs that leaded to his rooms. Dumbledore had chosen him a joined study and bedroom to the left side of the house, with a bathroom next to it. Again, he had to give the old fool – as he called him often in his mind – credit. He didn't have to stroll the house in his dressing gown with the risk of meeting Miss Granger. The study had two large windowed doors that led to the loggia. The bookcases had already been filled with most of his books and a large amount of magazines was piled up on the desk. A large, old chair with green velvet clothing was standing next to the fireplace. The curtains as well as the hangings of the four-poster bed were in dark green velvet. Severus wondered idly whether Aberforth was by any chance a Slytherin.
He undressed and turned on the shower. The one advantage of the discovery of his spying career was that he didn't have to play the Death Eater anymore. At Hogwarts, there were always the children of the Death Eaters that could betray him. Here, he did not have to worry about that: there was only one student, and she was certainly not a Death Eater's daughter.
He decided to keep up all appearances of a normal life and dressed in full robes. Whatever the girl choose to wear, he certainly would not drop decorum in front of a student just because a twist of fate had put him up with her.
When he went down to dinner – it was already past seven – the girl wasn't there yet. The dining room was majestic; it had a long table of dark wood in the middle, with at least twelve high-backed chairs around it. He walked towards the fireplace and stumbled over something. It squeaked and ran away, brush-like tail high up in the air. The cat. Of course the girl had taken her cat as well. He heard a 'pop' and saw the head of the house elf appear in the fire.
"Dinner is ready, Master. Shall Lizzy find the young mistress and serve you, sir?" So, it was called Lizzy.
"She would no doubt like that," he answered sarcastically. Of course, sarcasm was lost on this house elf as on all others. "And she is not "the young mistress" and will never be, do you understand that?" he continued in a harsh tone. The elf nodded, its great eyes shining with tears and its head disappeared.
Ten minutes later, the girl entered. He shot her a short look. She looked as if she had been crying, with swollen eyes and a red nose. She still wore her school robes. They ate in silence.
The elf – Lizzy, he reminded himself – was indeed a decent cook. Dinner had not been like the ones at Hogwarts, of course, but certainly better than those of most of his childhood. When they both had finished eating, or playing with their food, like the girl did, he left with a curt bow. She didn't respond. He headed towards the study and grabbed one of the magazines from the desk. He settled himself in the chair by the fire and started reading.
As soon as he had dressed and shaven the next morning, he went down to the breakfast parlour. He asked the elf to make him a cup of coffee, and it went to the kitchen to do so. That minute, the girl entered. She still looked as harassed as the night before and her robes were wrinkled as if she had slept in them. What she probably had. As soon as she saw him, she tried to get away, probably hoping he hadn't seen her yet. Regrettably, for her, he had.
"Good morning, Miss Granger. Did you sleep well?" he asked, knowing she had not. She tried to hide it, though.
"Morning, Professor," she answered timidly. "I did, sir, thank you. And you?" With a little more bravery she returned his question.
"I slept very well, Miss Granger, thank you." With a hint of sarcasm. Then the elf came in with his coffee. He took the mug, folded his long fingers around it and watched the elf mollycoddling the girl.
"But you must eats something, miss. If you don't eats, you'll loses your strength. I mades a nice toast and eggs for miss, miss. Come, eats." The girl obliged, seemingly happy with the fussing of the elf. Of course, she probably had been used to this kind of meddling from childhood. The breakfast parlour was less impressive than the dining room. It had a smaller table, with not as many chairs around it as the dining table, but nevertheless enough for four times the present number of occupants. The walls were neatly papered in a kind of yellow and brightened by some paintings, whose images eyed their guests curiously. Not feeling like a chat with a mere wall ornament at the moment, Severus finished his coffee and left. The girl was still eating everything the elf putted in front of her. Severus remembered some stories he had heard in the year of the Triwizard Tournament, about Miss Granger wanting sick leave and wages for the Hogwarts House Elves. Presumably she didn't want to insult this example of the species. Good, as long as she did the public relations, he didn't have to.
He headed for the library, assuming the girl would take a shower after breakfast so he would have some time to explore the collection. When he entered, he was slightly taken aback. Of course, the Hogwarts library was larger, but this was the largest private library he'd ever seen. It was superior to the library at Malfoy Manor, but then the Malfoys weren't that much interested in books. He supposed the room, or hall, had once been a ballroom, but was turned into a library. Indeed, it stretched two levels of the house. The high ceiling consisted of two hemispheres in which the stars were painted true to their real positions, and as he would notice later, moving in accordance to their position in the sky. Bookcases covered the walls on three levels, accessible by tiny winding staircase. In the middle of the room there was another great table, already equipped with quills, ink and parchment. There were three large windows; positioned so high even he could not look out of them, with small stands beneath and flights of steps towards them. Over the huge mantelpiece hung a large mirror and comfortable chairs were placed around it.
A tome of about three foot high was lying on the table. On examination, it showed to be a catalogue of the library's collection. Severus contented himself with the thought that at least in the Potion's assortment there was nothing he didn't have at least read. In the other subjects, however, he had a lot to learn according to this list. There were shelves full of Alchemy, Astronomy and Arithmancy, cases of Transfiguration, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures (and what Magical Creatures never to take care of), there was a little corner with books on Divination, and another, rather dusty, one which covered History of Magic. There were books in Ancient Runes, Latin and ancient Greek as well as English and most other European languages. There had to be about a mile of books on Charms, Hexes, Jinxes and Curses, and how to defend oneself against them, as well as some bookcases with classical Muggle literature.
Severus decided that, since he was an outcast in the magical world now anyway, he could as well try some Muggle literature. He took a volume called 1984 and settled himself by the fire.
-^-^-
He had completely lost track of time when he heard the library door open. The girl entered and looked around, as surprised as he had been. She had at least taken a shower; she looked certainly less ruffled than she had done at breakfast. He watched her slyly, wondering what subject she would head to. She walked towards the catalogue on the table and seemed to peruse it rather intently. Then she walked to the Muggle literature department, looked it through twice and headed back to the catalogue. She mumbled something he didn't understand from the distance, and then went back to the bookcase where she had been looking before. She mumbled something again, and, the girl being closer, this time he understood: "It ought to be here, it's in the catalogue!"
"Are you by chance looking for this?" he asked softly, holding up the book. She jumped, visibly. Apparently she hadn't noticed him sitting there before. "Er… well… er… actually, yes, sir," she stammered. Regaining her composure and her usual – rather annoying – habit of having an answer to everything, she continued: "I've read it some years ago and on seeing it in the catalogue, I thought I'd like to read it again. I didn't know you read Muggle literature, Professor."
To hell with her, he thought. I am not going to share my reasons for reading this. "Well, I imagine you wouldn't know a lot of me, miss Granger. If you just let me finish it, it would be all yours by tomorrow."
"Yes, sir. I will take some other book for now, then." She returned to looking at the Muggle collection and at length chose another tome, took it to the table and settled there. Obviously, she chose avoiding his nearness rather than settling in one of the more comfortable chairs. Well, at least she wasn't trying to force him to drop decorum and act in a family way, just because they were not at Hogwarts.
Another indefinite amount of time later, the elf came in and coughed. Here, he could probably rely on the girl to do the talking. And indeed.
"What is it, Lizzy?" she asked in a voice he was sure only girls could muster.
"It has being lunchtime long ago, miss, but you did not seem hungry. Woulds you likes something to eating?" He stood up from his chair, nearly causing the elf to run back to the kitchen. The girl looked and he nodded, so she replied they would eat.
After the meal, the girl walked towards the door, but before reaching it she stopped and turned. "Professor Snape?" she asked hesitantly. He nodded. "Well, I er… just wondered whether you could continue teaching me Potions. I hoped to get back to Hogwarts before N.E.W.Ts. I've seen the laboratory and I thought…" her voice trailed off, obviously waiting for some kind of reaction. Again, he nodded, but then realised that wouldn't be enough.
"I agree to teaching you, but only during the time I would have taught seventh years at Hogwarts. The usual double periods. And I will expect you to do homework, Miss Granger. Do I make myself clear?" Now she nodded. Absently he noted she seemed even happy to be assigned homework. "Right. Then your first essay will be six feet of parchment on Invisibility Infusions and Concealment Concoctions. Similarities, differences, ingredients, preparations, advantages and disadvantages in comparison to other means of disguise. To be handed in by the day after tomorrow, nine o'clock in the laboratory, when I will oversee you brewing both potions."
She turned to the door and left in a hurry. Presumably couldn't wait to get started, he thought.