January 4th 1971 Cokeworth England


Drops of rain fell from London's sky onto the uncrowded streets. A young woman wearing a shabby raincoat ran down the street and turned the corner, having reached her destination. The building was old and run down, it had a sign on it labeled 'The Web', an appropriate name for it being located on Spinners End.

The young woman stepped into the run down, seedy joint. She found it to be just as dirty on the inside as it was on the outside and filled with people who looked questionable at best. There were several women eyeing her up and down, assuming her to be new competition. The women were of all shapes and sizes, some prettier than others, some more intelligent than others, not that it mattered when at the end of the day they were all in the same line of work to survive.

Being the middle of the day, it wasn't terribly crowded, however she had heard whispers from the men in town that it tended to get livelier at night. She walked over to the bar and asked the woman behind it if she could speak to the person in charge. The bartender looked up at her, "That would be Tobias Snape, he's the man sitting at the small table on the far right." She pointed her in the direction of a tall, sallow looking man with a drink in his hand.

She walked over to him with an air of false confidence. "Mr. Snape?"

Tobias brushed his long brown hair from his face and raised an eyebrow at her.

"My name is Julia, and I was looking for employment."

Tobias nodded, "Well Miss Julia, I assume you're familiar with this establishment and the services you'll be expected to perform?"

The woman, Julia, glanced down and nodded. "Yes sir."

Tobias took another swig of his drink. "You look awfully young, but there is definitely a clientele for that, how old are you Julia?"

She met his eyes, "I just turned sixteen."

"You are a pretty girl Julia, are you confident in your ability to please the men that enter The Web?"

Julia blushed and nodded, "I have experience."

He smirked, "Good, I'll show you to your new room, and you can show me the skills you'll bring to this establishment." Just as he stood up from his chair, there was a loud door slam from upstairs. They both looked up and there was a young girl, whom Julia assumed to be no older than nine or ten, running down the stairs holding a note crying.

Julia gasped. "Why is there a child here?"

The child looked at her and then disregarded her as if she were of no importance. The man's calm voice and overall demeanor changed drastically. "PERSEPHONE! What have I told you about interrupting me!?"

The little girl fearlessly met his eyes with a look of rage. "Mother left us! She actually did it this time, it says right here that she left the country."

Tobias snatched the note from her hand. "Go back upstairs Persephone, I have something more important I'm attending to at the moment."

"But father-"

"It's probably just another empty threat, I bet the annoying bitch will be back before tomorrow morning."

This was the one moment in Persephone's life where she would've liked to believe her father, but she knew deep down, her mother was not returning.

Notes:

Persephone is this universe's version of Severus. The first chapter will start off with Persephone's POV, and will be in first person. This is also my first ever fic :)

Also this app isn't allowing me to format/space this how I want, so sorry about that. I'm going to cross post this story somewhere else with the correct spacing.