Arriving at Spinner's End, Harry stared at the row of dingy buildings. The streets were quite bare and narrow as were the houses. As they went up the steps to the front door of Snape's house, Harry didn't complain. In fact he was very glad to be away from Privet Drive.
"Now, it's not much but at least you have a room to yourself." Snape opened the door. A narrow corridor led to two open doors. A small kitchen sat to the inside of the first door. It served as a dining room too.
The room at the end of the corridor was a livingroom. Shelves of books and odd potion ingredients covered every wall and a small sitting area with a round coffee table sat at the centre of the room.
"This way Potter." Harry turned, noticing the stairs. Snape went up first, carrying his trunk. Harry followed. Three doors were on this floor. One was a cramped bathroom and the other was a nice room, roughly the same size as Harry's previous one.
"I know it's not as big as Hogwarts… I've been planning on selling but-"
"Snape… It's great." He said. Did Snape feel self-conscious? Sure it was tiny but… Harry liked it. Because he was welcome in it.
"Get settled, my room is next to yours. You're not allowed in. I'll be downstairs preparing lunch."
Harry nodded and went into the room. A tiny window looked into the unimpressive street. He could see a patch of green off in the distance through the narrow space between two of the houses. A rare sight as every other house was back to back against each other. He loved it though. He was away from Privet Drive and he was with Snape. They still hadn't talked about what the other told him. He was still angry but… he wanted to forgive him.
Harry opened his trunk and took out his duvet. The bed had been freshly made, he could tell from how fresh the sheets felt. It made Harry's heart feel warm. He heard a tapping on his window and turned to see Hedwig there. The window was only just big enough to allow Hedwig to comfortably perch on the window sill without crouching.
"Hedwig!" He smiled and came to open the window. It was a bit of a struggle as it seemed like it hadn't been opened in years. When the door finally opened, his bird cooed softly and he petted her soft white feathers. "Here you can go and stretch your wings all you like." He said gently. Hedwig hooted in agreement and went to perch on the top of the wardrobe and settled for a nap. Harry put his things on the table and sighed remembering that he had to re-take his O.W.L.s in three weeks. He was probably going to get a worse grade than if they had just let him take them back with everyone else.
He organised his things and found the mirror that Sirius gave him. His heart clenched painfully as he looked at it. Sirius had said that if he ever needed him he just needed to look into the mirror, call his name, and he would appear. But he knew it couldn't be. Not anymore. Sirius was dead. Still, he had hope. All that had happened in his life had never been able to destroy his hope entirely.
"Sirius?" He asked softly. The mirror remained showing only Harry's reflection. He sighed softly and held the mirror close to his chest. "I'm sorry…" he mumbled.
"Potter, lunch, come to eat." Harry turned as Snape called him from the bottom of the stairs. He put the mirror in the one drawer the old rickety desk had and went downstairs.
Lunch consisted of a bowl of tomato soup and a main dish of mashed potatoes, sausages and a simple salad. It made Harry's stomach rumble loudly. Snape glanced at him as he heard it and Harry felt his face heat up.
"Don't just stand there if you're hungry. Come on." Harry came and sat on the chair, while Snape poured them out two glasses of mango juice. It wasn't pumpkin juice but it was pretty good, sweet, and filling.
He waited for Snape to take the first bite before he felt comfortable starting. "Mmh… it's really good Snape." He said gently.
"It's simple enough to make." Snape shrugged.
"I can cook dinner if you want." Harry said. He felt uncomfortable with the other doing everything for him.
"If you want to take on some chores you'll have to wait until after you take your O.W.L.s." He said. "Have you been studying?" He asked.
Harry sighed. "How could I?"
"Hmm… well I'll help you. You need to get good grades."
Harry didn't understand why he needed to. No one else ever cared about his grades, why should he be the one to care now?
"Potter… did you hear me?"
"Yes… I'm not deaf."
"Alright, alright. Spear me the attitude." Snape didn't sound angry but he did sound exasperated.
"Lunch is really good… thank you." Harry said, trying to appease him.
Snape nodded. "You're welcome." Harry watched as the other continued his meal and noticed the bruises on the man's knuckles from where he'd beaten Emwood to a pulp.
"Thanks for getting there in time." He mumbled.
"I should have come for you sooner… in fact I never should have let you go back there." Snape said.
"Just… thanks…"
"…Did he do anything to you? Do you want to talk about it?" He asked softly. Harry saw how the other avoided looking at him, finding it awkward to hold eye contact. It made Harry squirm.
"No… he just punched me… I'm fine." He said poking at his mash with the fork.
"I'll give you something for the bruise later."
Harry nodded.
"Did your owl made it ok?"
Harry gladly took the opportunity to change the subject. "Yeah, she's much happier after flying for a bit. She's sleeping right now."
"Good, you can send letters to your friends if you want. Just for now, it's better to pretend that you're still in Privet drive. Only until I find a house easier to ward."
"Aren't houses expensive?" Harry asked.
"I have savings."
"But…"
"Don't worry about money, Potter. Besides, I've always hated this house. A change will be most welcome."
Harry relaxed at that. "Ok then. Where were you thinking?"
"Scotland is quite nice. We'll go together if I hear of any good ones." Now that did sound like fun. Going house hunting. It would give him the chance to see different places.
"Yeah, that sounds nice." He said.
"But first, study schedule." He said handing him the timetable on parchment paper. Harry groaned seeing every morning and afternoon booked with study hours.
"Great…" he mumbled.
"It's only until your O.W.L.s. After that you can relax."
oOoOoOo oOoOoOo oOoOoOo
Severus never hated Spinner's End more until today. If he thought it was cramped before, with Potter, it seemed ten times worse. It was embarrassing that this was all he had to offer the boy. He had rarely spent any of his earnings in the last decade so he might as well buy a house. Somewhere with enough space to fly a broom. Even if he didn't like flying he knew Potter's particular fascination with being several feet in the air.
It was the least he could do.
At least the boy did fall into the study schedule with relative ease. He did remember a lot from this year though he needed to consolidate a bit more depth on the subjects. Surprisingly potions was one of the subjects the other didn't have too much to work on.
He made sure the boy had a break from studying after tea time though most of the time the boy simply picked a couch and napped on it. Sometimes he read a book and sometimes he played chess with Severus though the boy lost interest after Severus kept winning.
Snape looked into the living room, watching Harry play a game of solitaire. Maybe he should give the boy a day off and visit the Weasleys.
"Po-Harry." The boy looked up a little surprised at the call of his first name. Severus needed to get used to it. "Would you like to go visit the Weasleys one of these days?" He asked.
The worry and confusion in the boy's eyes faded into excitement. "Yes! When? Tomorrow? When can we go? Did you already ask?" Clearly Severus' assumption that the boy was bored was well founded.
"I haven't asked yet, you can go ahead and do so. I'm sure there won't be a problem."
"Ok!" Potter ran past him and up the stairs like a bat out of hell yet he couldn't help but find it amusing and endearing. There was a loud thud. "Ow!"
Potter seemed to have slipped on the last step up. "Be careful!" Severus snapped.
"I'm fine!" More running. Severus sighed and shook his head. How could he blame the boy. He himself was bored stiff every time he had to come back here. The surrounding area was nothing worth exploring and there were the wrong sorts of muggles living in this dingy neighbourhood so even if Potter wanted to Severus would never allow him to go out by himself.
Yes, a visit to the Weasleys would do him good.
