A/N: Sorry everyone - my computer decided to get 3 Trojan viruses and a worm (does that mean anything to anyone...?) so it had to be taken away to be repaired. I was told it would take three days. It came bak two days ago after two and a half weeks. I jope you'll enjoy the second half of the previuos chapter. Thanks for sticking with me!
Finding What Was Lost
The next morning…
"Comperio Severus Snape!"
Harry held his wand over a map of England and watched as the red ball of light that emerged from his wand fell gently onto the parchment and rolled to a rest on top of the 'L' in London. With a sigh, Harry waved his wand and watched as the map enlarged enough so that he could see the specific road he was looking for: Spinner's End.
Harry stood up, folding the map into the pocket of his robes before pulling a warm cloak around his shoulders. Glancing at his watch, he vaguely registered that it was seven o'clock in the morning before he Disapparated to the road the map had indicated.
The first thing Harry was aware of when he Apparated to the corner of the street was that the gentle, sluggish breeze was wafting the rank smell of stagnant water through the alleyway he was standing in. The houses in the road were mostly dilapidated and held the damp, rancid smell of decay and neglect as effectively as the river did. Harry's initial thought was that no one in their right mind would choose to live somewhere like this; the dull, overcast weather making the place no more endearing.
Mind you, this place suits a greasy git like him…
Walking determinedly down the road, Harry had originally had a niggling doubt that he would have trouble identifying Snape's home but the large, forbidding chimney that grew out of the mist clearly oozed magic; magic of a slightly dubious nature.
At a first glance, the wards around the house appeared to be immeasurably strong, each protective spell intricately woven into the very fabric of the walls and the powerful anti-Muggle charms seeming to radiate from the house in palpable waves. Hesitantly, Harry tested the strength of the magic with his own and found the first layer of spells unyielding and unbreakable.
Think, Harry, think… he scolded himself in a voice strangely similar to Hermione's.
"Confringo!"
Nothing.
"Abrumpo!"
Still nothing.
"Debilito! Proscindo!"
Still nothing. The wards showed no signs of yielding.
"For Merlin's sake… Desino Praestigiae!"
The moment Harry spoke the words, to his complete amazement the wards shattered like eggshell. Harry's grip on his wand tightened as he appreciated for the first time just quite how clever Severus Snape really was.
The spell he had just used was a powerful Disillusionment charm; Snape had clearly put his efforts into creating an illusion that would make it appear his house was well warded when, in reality, there was nothing at all stopping someone just walking in. The charm, although immensely complicated to create, required very little actual magical power but now, after nearly three weeks, the Illusion Charm had all but lost its effectiveness.
Without any further hesitations, Harry walked up to the decrepit front door and cautiously tried the handle. A slight feeling of unease washed over him as the door swung open easily, flakes of paint falling onto his bare hand as it did so.
"Snape? Snape? Are you here? Where are you?"
No answer. So far, Harry's shout had provoked no response from the elder wizard.
"Oi, Snape! Where the hell are you?"
Harry walked down a short hallway and found himself in what appeared to be a small kitchen. A sink with one set of unwashed cutlery and a plate of rancid food sat on the counter while the tap dripped slowly, the clock on the wall ticking rhythmically. Everything appeared to be disused; the thin layer of dust covering every surface accentuating the air of neglect.
"Snape!"
The silence in the house was oppressive as Harry stepped into the lounge at Spinner's End. An unlit lamp was in the corner of the room alongside a worn bookcase and a moth eaten chair. A small table in the corner of the room had a note written on it in scrawling, jagged letters with an almost empty vial placed next to it. Curiously, Harry picked it up and a feeling of trepidation washed over him as he read it quickly.
If you are reading this note, I sincerely hope that you will appreciate that it clearly states that you are not welcome here. It also implies that you are a common criminal as you are breaking into my house unasked. I do not want anyone to come here looking for me; just let me make my own decisions rather than the busybody that you are trying to order me otherwise.
This is my life. You would do well to realise this.
If you are a house elf, I have decided to issue you with a direct order. All Hogwarts elves, I am part of the team Hogwarts has decided are the 'Masters' and therefore I would like to point out that this is a direct order and MUST be obeyed without question or arousing suspicion:
IF YOU HAVE COME HERE ON THE PRETENCE OF FINDING ME, CHECKING UP ON ME, CLEANING OR BRINGING FOOD, OR ANY OTHER REASON, I AM ORDERING YOU TO RETURN AT ONCE TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM SAYING THAT YOU HAVE FOUND ME IN GOOD HEALTH AND THAT I REQUEST THAT YOU LEAVE ME ALONE. YOU WILL ALSO POINT OUT THAT I AM PERFECTLY CAPABLE OF TAKING CARE OF MYSELF. YOU ARE TO RETURN THE FOOD AS WELL AND YOU ARE NOT TO TOUCH ANY OF MY POSSESIONS. YOU ARE TO DRINK EXACTLY ONE TEASPOONFULL OF THE POTION BESIDE THIS LETTER BEFORE YOU LEAVE. YOU WILL THEN REPLACE THE BOTTLE EXACTLY WHERE YOU FOUND IT.
THIS MUST ALL BE DONE WITHOUT ARROUSING ANY SUSPICION WHATSOEVER ONCE YOU RETURN BACK TO WHEREVER YOU CAME FROM.
IF THESE ORDERS ARE NOT OBEYED, I WILL PERSONALLY SEE THAT YOU RECEIVE CLOTHES.
S. Snape
Harry suddenly became aware of a sweet, sickly smell in the room and he realised that it was the stench of rotting wood. Looking at the floor, Harry also noticed marks on the floor which looked suspiciously like stains of blood.
"SNAPE!"
The dark, dried marks seemed to be laying a fine trail across the room from a bookcase to a doorway. Panicking slightly, Harry walked back into the hallway and went up the stairs to find a small bedroom, the bed immaculately made and everything unnaturally tidy. To Harry, it looked as if it had not been touched for weeks, let alone slept in.
"SNAPE!"
Virtually running down the stairs, Harry bolted back into the living room and paused by a chair, thinking desperately.
No one else has been here for weeks, Harry mused. Does that mean that Snape has left here? Or have Death Eaters or, worse still, Voldemort come here for revenge…?
Absentmindedly, Harry reached out to touch the arm of the chair. And froze.
The worn, padded arms of the seat were cold and hard and a lot narrower than what they first appeared. The chair itself was oddly rigid and the two decorative wings at the back of the seat were curiously shaped like a pair of handles while the four feet were curled into spirals.
Cautiously, Harry flicked his wand, hissing a disillusionment charm under his breath. He wasn't disappointed as the armchair instantly shrank into a red framed wheelchair, the swirls of the material fading to a solid black. A cushion, which at first glance looked to have just been knocked onto the floor immediately morphed into a footrest.
"What the…?"
Harry stepped back in surprise and stumbled slightly over the table, reaching out a hand to break his fall. It was just by chance that the first thing he touched was the bookcase.
The bookcase in question instantly swung open to reveal a narrow, rickety staircase which spiralled upwards into darkness. Dust had settled on each of the stairs to leave a thin layer up the centre of each step while a thicker layer hugged each of the walls. To Harry, it looked like an object had been dragged up them to leave a wide strip while the majority of the grime had been untouched. Hesitantly, Harry started to climb the stairs, knowing that this was the last place Snape could be.
"Snape?" Harry called softly as he reached a second wooden doorway. "Lumos!"
Harry's first impression of the room when the door swung open was that of a small, cramped prison cell. The room resembled barely more than a roughly converted loft with almost no furniture except a small camp bed. A thin blanket lay over the mattress and, across the faded excuse for a pillow, a ragged bundle of black robes lay in a crumpled heap. Harry edged closer, halfway torn between horror and morbid curiosity.
"Snape?" Harry murmured, reaching out a hand towards the bundle of robes he now recognised as a person and gently rolling Snape over.
Lank, greasy hair fell across Snape's pale face, the hollows of his cheeks more pronounced than ever before. Darting his eyes downwards, Harry noticed a small pool of dried blood had seeped into the greying mattress from an opened wound across Snape's stomach. Feeling suddenly ill, Harry groped at Snape's thin wrist in search for any sign of life. The strong, steady pulsing under his fingers came, although he never admitted it, as a great relief.
"Snape?" Harry repeated louder this time, shaking the other man's shoulder. "Enervate!"
A/N: I hope you enjoyed that! Sorry about the wait between chapters but I hope you'll bear with me – I'm on holiday for a week now so I should get some work done on it. Stormy x
You may have noticed that I was using some spells unknown to the HP series but since I was trying to keep this as close to JK's style as I could, all the spells I invent are rooted in Latin as hers are. In case anyone's interested, the translations are below:
'Comperio' – 'Find / discover'
'Confringo, 'Abrumpo', 'Debilito', 'Proscindo' – 'To break into pieces / destroy / break down'
'Desino' – 'stop / cancel', 'Praestigiae' – 'Illusion' : literally, 'Stop the illusion'