Chapter 5
It had once been a nice, suburban neighborhood full of rosy cheeked, Muggle children, busy housewives who cooked full course meals from scratch, and attentive husbands that drove moderately priced cars to their 9-5 jobs. But over the past two years, the once quiet street began to change. A general malaise overcame its inhabitants slowly. Relationships and communities started to erode over the past six months, as a somber void began to suck the cheery air out of the homes, leaving the block discontented with its lot in life. As these things are wont to do, one family finally moved out, leaving an empty house in their wake. This was soon followed by another and another until the entire block was a sea of For Sale signs while perspective buyers quickly crossed the entire vicinity from their potentialities.
At three A.M., two people appeared out of delicate air on a dewy sidewalk. The older man seemed exhausted but stood there, completely at ease in the overly familiar night. He watched as the adolescent groped out against darkness, one hand fighting the blinding night, the other arm scrunched against his waist, making him look particularly young. His freckles were harsh against his face- tiny bruises that dilated at random. His eye color was no longer under his control and kaleidoscoped into a morass of color beneath the thin, milky moon.
"Tollie," Remus said, taking out a folded scrap of paper from his pocket. "I want you to read this."
The boy reached out and took the paper, "what is it?" he asked, peering at the folded sheet. "Lumos" he ordered, and his left shirt sleeve began to glow softly.
"A sanctuary, if you desire it," Remus replied before the boy had a chance to expose the hidden writing.
"I don't-"
Remus's stomach roiled, "Tollie, I can provide a safe haven for you, but you have to do it yourself. I am unable to do it for you." The boy looked back down at the note, this time more solemnly, and opened it. The letters on the paper were thin, reedy, but the hidden light caused the ink to glow black until they were readable. Immediately, a tiny house appeared between two houses. The miniature building began to swell vertically, a thin tower in the sky. After it finished growing up, the house started to flush out horizontally, pushing its neighbors away.
The boy grew wide eyed at the scene, but remained silent as he was led into the house. It was spartan inside. Few furnishings decorated the rooms, filling a mere fraction of empty space. As they entered the parlor, Tollie found a large, wooden box magically and physically fastened to the wall. Occasionally, a muffled thump would emanate lowly from inside the box. "Just ignore it, you'll get used to it in time," Remus explained, his voice conveying more malice, subtle though it be, than Tollie had ever heard from the man. "Go on, look around. I'll get dinner started."
"But we just ate." Tollie replied, his stomach churning in hunger.
"Then I'll make us a nightcap." Remus rejoined, leading him into the kitchen. "Maybe some warm milk."
The boy stayed there in the room, trying to be cordial to his new benefactor as Remus put a kettle on to boil until the urge to explore finally overcame him.
New rooms revealed barren rectangles with maybe a chair or a painting as its sole inhabitant soaking up barren moonlight. Every so often, more plywood shaped into half boxes, squares, and rectangles were fastened against the walls.
Circuiting through the first floor, he finally found a grand staircase, and traveled up to the second floor. The silence overbearing as his dirty sneakers squeaked on tile and wood as the staircase dumped him into a large hallway. Several doorways ran along each side of the passage until it finally ended with an oval window with a family crest stained into the glass. Randomly opening a door, Tollie found a cenotaph for a young man. The room, thoroughly unconcerned by the living, exuded dust and pent up despondency. The door was shut quickly, and Tollie quickly went to the next one. He was presented with a spare bedroom that an unlived in look but for the barest hint of Professor Lupin's temperament. A half open closet revealing exactly one spare set of shabby robes and a pair of muddy shoes and a small stack of books arranged neatly upon a small table were all that illustrated the room's degree of habitation.
Another door shut, another opened, only this one revealed a large pair of eyes that stared straight into his soul and found it deficient. A silver beak abruptly appeared beneath those severe eyes and charged straight for him until the door somehow managed to slam against the beast.
The rest of the floor revealed bedrooms in various states of occupancy until the last room at the far end of the hallway by the window remained. He grabbed the blunted silver handle slowly and pushed forward. A cold wind blasted his face; the magically lit candles inside the room never wavered.
"Hello, Tollivan," a refined voice slithered from the dimmest part of the room.
Tollie started a second, then frowned at the long forgotten tone. "Snapeā¦" he hissed in response.
"I knew that Remus would do it. He is simply unable to help himself."
"Do what?"
"Try to save himself by trying to saving others."
Tollie frowned at the teacher's assertion, "Professor Lupin is a good human."
"Oh, yes, for 353 nights out of the year."
Tollie flexed his arm a bit, and the candles guttered. They whispered there in the dark for a second, then flared up, brighter than before, casting Professor Snape in glittery shadows. "I see that I'm not the only lost soul that he's brought here. Should we compare Marks? See whose is darker?"
Severus stood there in a corner, his body fully rigid against the wall, poised and far too still. "Ah, Andrill, you will always be a child playing grown up games."
"At least I have an excuse for my Mark. But I know exactly what you have done in the past to deserve yours. I wonder if Professor Lupin knows about April 30, 1979."
"Most likely not, and you certainly won't be the one to tell him. You respect him far too much to resort to such petty vulgarity."
"Everyone's got secrets, Snape."
"And the sad part is that you don't even know half the ones concerning Lupin. You only see a sad, pathetic shell of a man worn down by too much pain and death. You are incapable of comprehending his true nature."
"That's where you're wrong, Snape." Tollie smirked, his entire body slouching into that of an arrogant teenager. "Professor Lupin trusts me far more than you could ever imagine, but he also has the odd notion of trusting you as well. Otherwise, I would have blasted you on sight." Tollie's grin grew almost savage. "I trust him enough to not kill you."
"Which only goes to show how pathetic he is," Snape replied, "he is only fond of you because you remind him of Sirius Black."
Tollie's stance went from slacker to predator immediately. "Now I know that you are unable of understanding Professor Lupin. You might be an old friend of his, but you will never truly value his gifts and friendship. You simply insult him, because, in the end, he is a better human being than you will ever be capable of, and you know it."
A quiet knock on the door behind them disrupted Snape's response. Tollie instantly lost his cheeky impudence, and answered the door nervously. Remus stood outside, holding a tray with two cups on it. "I'm sorry, Severus." he explained, looking down at the tray. "I brought some hot cocoa for Tollie and myself. I didn't realize that you were still up, otherwise I would have made you some too." His voice remained quiet as he tried to ignore the heated looks that the two gave each other. "Why don't you come with me, Tollie, and I can show you your room. I'm sorry about this, I should have told both of you about the current situation." He led the boy back out into the hall, and entered a room two doors down, where the dead room lie. "I'm sorry about the room, Tollie, but this is the only room that is presently unclaimed. It was Sirius's brother's room, but he won't need it now."
Tollie surveyed the grey colored room, and sat on the dusty bed, hot chocolate in hand. "I'm sorry about fighting with Snape."
"I admit that it's not hard to do, but Professor Snape is in a rather difficult position at the moment, and it leaves him, well, cranky."
Tollie snorted marshmallows up his nose. "That's an understatement, Professor," he replied once his sinuses finally drained. "He must have been in a 'rather difficult position' his entire life."
Remus acquiesced the joke, finishing his own drink in one gulp. "Why don't you get some sleep? It's late, and I'm much too old for these late nights anymore."
"Fine, Professor," Tollie yawned and stretched out on the bed, his eyes slightly watering from tiredness. "I would like to know one thing, though. Snape said that the only reason why I'm here is because of Sirius Black."
"Well, considering that it's Sirius's house, then yes, I suppose he's right in that sense."
"No, no, I mean, he said that I was a lot like him, and that was the only reason why you brought me here."
"Well, you do share some of his traits," Remus answered after a bit. "A penchant for aloofness, mischief, tremendous loyalty, extreme cockiness, and fighting with Professor Snape on a regular basis. But you are very different. You're able to think things through, for one thing. Sirius was never one for details- always action, never stopping to consider the consequences or even planning- that was where James came in, you see. But he also spent twelve years in Azkaban, and it left him: a child. He never mentally or emotionally grew out of being twenty-one. Everything was a grand adventure with him, especially after he escaped."
"I'm sorry, Professor."
"It'll be okay, Tollie. War is always full of victims. It's only a question of degree. Now, get some sleep. I really need some sleep myself."
Tollie yawned dramatically as he snuggled deeper onto the blankets, kicking off his shoes and socks. Remus blew out the candles, and closed the door on the newest resident of Black Manor.
Turning around, he found the other resident of the house standing beside him. "You, Severus, should have left things well enough alone," he stated a bit testily. "Tollie is going to stay here for as long as he needs to, and that's that."
"Very well," Severus replied, "as you are now the sole owner of Black Manor, I will respect your decision. Just don't let the boy out of your sight." With that, Snape glided back to his room at the end of the hall
