Chapter 12: The Gypsy Life

{A/N: Here's Another Update...}

My Thanks To All My Readers And Reviewers...Enjoy-S.S.

Unknown Back Road, Unknown Location, Unknown World...

Awakening to a pounding headache in the middle of nowhere with nothing aside from darkness and thick banks of snow surrounding him, Severus Snape rolled off the back seat and onto the floor of the van as he found the temperatures to be so low he could see his own breath as his body shivered. On instinct he had attempted to use a warming charm only to find that he had still been in the same strange magical-less world as before. Much to his annoyance, he also recalled his drunken fumbling in the back of the van ending in disappointment for not only himself but the attractive barkeeper he had managed to convince to allow him to sate his lust without the use of his formerly impressive magical abilities.

He recalled being mere moments from being enveloped inside her warm body only to have his treacherous cock make a fool out of them both by losing his erection before he could have the chance. The experience of being unable to sustain his arousal had been something that unnerved him as he always been able to perform so to speak even with his constant drunkenness.

"What the fuck is going on?" he asked once more shocked by the coldness that surrounded him.

Moving toward the fogged windows, he wiped them enough to get a look at his surroundings only to find that all traces of the pub hand been gone and he was in another strange place but more or less on the side of the road. From the looks of it someone had driven him this far before the back tires got stuck in a thick snow bank and he had been trapped a good distance from anything that might have been familiar.

Even Sidney Sinclair's memories had been no assistance as he had not been aware in the slightest of how to get back to his home and possible warmth via the fireplace.

Finding himself bitterly amused about possibly skipping being killed by a brain tumor to being frozen to death due to his idiotic muggle status Snape sat back down on the seat as he resigned himself to his fate having gotten good and drunk in defiance of the so called enchantress and her game.

For a moment he wondered what it would be like to have been born into a gypsy lifestyle given the number of them always on the go when he had been a boy. Life on the road didn't seem all that special given how most of their "adventures" would lead to certain death or mandatory isolation.

He closed his eyes finding that keeping them open in the wake of the brazen cold had been a difficult task to say the least. They had not been closed for long as he heard the sound of voices coming from outside the van.

"HELLO!?" called the voice from amid the ice and snow. "IS ANYONE IN THERE!?"

The voice had been male from what Snape gathered of it an quite naturally dripping with authority.

"HELLO!?" called another voice, a very familiar female voice. "SIDNEY ARE YOU IN THERE!?"

Before Snape could stop himself, he had gotten to his feet and opened the door upon recognizing the voice of his former student turned wife.

"Miss Granger?" he asked in confusion.

The familiar amber eyes of Hermione Sinclair had been on her idiotic wayward husband as she entered the van wanting to hug him as much as she wanted to strangle him for taking off into a snow storm without a word of where he'd been headed or why.

"Officers he's here." she called back to the apparent policemen assisting her in her search for him.

Snape didn't want to admit that he had been glad to see her, given her status as his unwanted wife but it was a good deal better than freezing to death in some unsavory world.

"Where have you been?" asked Hermione narrowing her eyes at him. "And...why do you smell like perfume and alcohol?"

Snape had no words as his apparently grateful wife had chosen to drop her line of questions pertaining to his almost affair with a bartender in favor of seeing to his well being.

"You're freezing." she noted touching his face. "Let's get you back home where you belong and warm...the children miss you terribly."

Snape said nothing as he found himself actually looking forward to seeing them for the first time since he had awakened in this strange place.

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The Master Bedroom, The Sinclair Residence, Unknown Location, Unknown World...

A long hot shower and a fresh change of warm clothes had been just what the doctor ordered as Severus Snape found himself once more back among Sidney Sinclair's rather strange family. They had seemed to be quite upset that he'd chosen to rush off without word, especially little Eileen whom had been in tears the moment he stepped through the door. She had refused to allow him out of her sight even when she had finally fallen asleep. They managed to pry the girl off him long enough to put her to bed as her mother had taken it upon herself to follow him about the house ensuring that he didn't rush off in the middle of the night and get himself lost again.

Snape exited the shower, a towel had been tied around his waist as he entered the bedroom he shared with Hermione since arriving in this place. The woman in question's amber eyes had been on him as she slipped into her pink silk teddy and climbed into bed with her back turned to him. While she had been grateful for his safe return, it was clear that she'd been quite upset about his lack of trust in her and brazen need to get as far away from her as possible to the point of risking his health in a storm to do so.

Sensing that he'd once again made things worse between them, Snape busied himself with pulling on his trousers as he too climbed into bed facing the opposite side. Lying there in the darkness of their shared bedroom he could hear all too well the sobs of the younger woman as she tried desperately to understand what she had done wrong to her husband that would warrant his apparent outright rejection of her and her affections.

"What's happening to us Sidney?" she asked softly in the darkness.

Snape had no words for her as he pretended to have already fallen asleep as she searched for answers in the darkness. He couldn't truly answer her question given that he wasn't Sidney Sinclair and giving her a notion of false hope or utter rejection had not been his right. Hermione continued to sob softly in the darkness as Snape did his best to ignore her, not knowing what else he could do given his situation.