Chapter 7: To Sip Whiskey Like Water

Hello! Welcome back. Last chapter was jumpy a tad, but I promise we are back to normal. Thanks very much for returning and I hope you will take some time to help better the story. Give me a nice R&R and I'll give you house points or something... Anyway. Please enjoy the chapter!

When they landed, her stomach held and he looked down at her as she got to her feet. They stood at the train platform of Spinners End, she turned to look up at his hallowing glare. Without a word he extended an envelope which she quietly took. It was heavier than normal and Haven examined the outside before shoving it in her pocket.

"Thank you."

An audible pop answered her and she raised her head and sighed as she looked around the empty platform. The wind blew the cold winter air over her cheek and she settled herself on the bench before pulling the envelope from her pocket to examine the contents..

**End FlashBack**

To Sip Whiskey Like Water

Haven:

It had been a few years time since that day where Severus handed her that envelope. She was turning eighteen somewhere within the next month and found herself that day stepping off the train and leering at the old swinging sign on the decrepit platform before looking behind her at the deepening black clouds. There was said to be a hurricane of sorts approaching and Haven could feel it racing through her veins. Storms woke her mind up and swirled in her soul. She was stronger, more agile and more alert as the approaching storm whispered dark lullabies into her brain and clouded her eyes to magic. She loved the way her skin sparked and how the striking lightning only fueled her set anger further.

Although her powers were great, she could not escape sickness and cold and knew this well. She had been kicked from the workhouse earlier that week after a bad incident, and after years of refusing foster care, the government gave her up to the streets she longed to be in anyway.

She made her way up the empty side walk and stalled at the at the corner of his street and closed her eyes to absorb the world around her. She sensed for life, for magic and evil, and when nothing came to her attention, she slowed her steps and slipped up the stairs of Severus's flat. She knocked on the front door and when no response was heard, she turned and quietly walked back down the stairs and turned the corner at the end of the street. She pulled behind the layer of houses and skillfully jumped each back fence and quickly ran each private lawn

After multiple successful vaults, she landed heavily in a bush and swore angrily, crawling pathetically out of it's branches. She stood to her feet in the backyard of Severus Snape's flat and she approached the rear of the house while slipping the tattered and stained envelope from her pocket. That day on the platform after Snape had disappeared, she had opened the envelope and extracted its contents. There was money like always, but a small, cold metal key shined for her attention. With the key and the money he had also encased a note. A note of unbreakable rules bound by a black silk ribbon that later became the tie at the end of the key.

In his note, he told her the key was for emergencies only and he gave a strict list of what constituted as an emergency. She always had to check the area before approaching his home and had to always check the front door first. She could also never leave the assigned room she was given to use, which luckly, included a private basic bathroom and shower she was to keep clean. All this was a promise. A promise that meant the end of their friendship and his promise to make sure she would never remember him or her own magic. It was also the one of the only promises Haven would ever hold dear.

She took out the ribbon from the envelope and looked at the house. In her mind's eye, she remembered the first time she saw its twin as it waved in the wind, stuck under the window of the second floor guest bedroom. She turned around and skillfully climbed the lonesome tree and scooted across the thick branch. She leaned over and slipped the key in the lock that kept the window closed and with a moment of struggle and almost falling out of the tree, she slid the window open enough to fall inside the bedroom with a loud swear.

Severus:

It was late when Severus found himself half stumbling up the stairs to his door. It had been a heavy night of drinking in private VIP rooms with "friends", and he had drank himself near stupid off of Lucius's willing tab. He leaned his burning forehead against the cold, damp door and held back vomit as the world spun around him. He took a moment and he allowed the light falling rain to land on the back of his neck and cool him through his robes. He felt himself smile and chuckle at nothing in particular before pulling himself together and standing upright. It was starting to rain heavily and thunder crashed across the sky as a deathly chill struck to Severus's skin.

A fuzzy feeling sparked under his hand when he grasped the door handle and he quickly pulled back and examined the source. With a physical step back, Severus turned his eyes to look in either window as he ran his hand over the door. Slipping his wand from his sleeve, he unlocked and pushed the door open before stepping inside his dark home with a deep breath in.

In the wake of what sensed like company, he was attempting to regain sobriety the best he could and quickly realized he was more drunk than he could control. He pulled his mind together the best he could and sensed for the source of the energy and traced it up the stairs. As he blindly followed the trail, allowing his magic to lead, one misplaced step caught his foot against a small pile of books as he crossed the living room, knocking them over and stumbling him slightly.

He bit his knuckle in silent anger and cursed himself off for being a stupid drunk before pulling his wand to a fighting position as he began his slow ascent up the stairs. Once at the top, his eyes narrowed on a flickering light from under the guest door and he gave a frown when the wood held an absence of energy. His breath came easier as his suspects lessened and he muttered the spell for the lock and slowly pushed open the bedroom door.

Severus took steps through the threshold and saw Haven laying on her stomach on the bed set up and she looked up and gave him a sly and cocky smile. His eye's moved from the girl, to the cracked opened window and around the room he rarely entered anymore.

Over the years, the soul of Haven somehow overtook the bedroom. First, she had put up posters of muggle bands and actors and pictures she found and wanted to keep. When he did not reject it, he quickly found himself helping moving in a few accepted furniture pieces she had found around Spinners End. She had told him she was building a happy place. A better place. A place to remind herself of a warm feeling that she had only experienced as a very young child. A space she built in beautiful contrast of her mind and reflection of her soul.

He told her not to get attached.

As Haven grew up so did her taste, she painted the walls as she wished like a canvas. Dark, psychedelic portraits on the walls and ceiling. Pictures that showed one image to the sun, and a hidden picture under the cloak of darkness. She hung colored string lights, wind chimes and plants from the ceiling and the closet door was always open and a zebra stripe blanket hung in it's place. In her own space, she had built herself a fort within the small space. One that held many pillows and blankets and inside it held a red tinted lantern and stacks fantasy books. On the wooden desk that sat across her bed, she placed a TV and cheap DVD player that faced her, and currently ran a muted movie as his eye's made their way back to hers.

"How long have you been here?" He asked through gritted teeth, finding it hard to not slur.

She gave a toothy smirk and sat up on her knees, "Long enough to hear you stumble in, and now you're close enough for me to understand why."

His glare silenced her attitude and she dropped her gaze to her open notebook and pen. Breaking the tense awkwardness only slightly, he walked fully into the room and closed the door behind him. He stepped across her room before heavily dropping into the recliner next to the headboard of her bed.

She watched his eyes narrow on the TV screen and her smiled to herself.

"What did you drink?" She asked and followed his attention on the silent running movie.

"Is it that apparent?" His voice came quietly after a moment.

"If your bloodshot eyes and stumbling didn't give it away, it would have to be the smell." She laughed quietly and Severus gave an uncomfortable grin.

For whatever reason, in the right company, Severus Snape was a sort of loose and happy drunk. He never fully pulled back his walls or got intoxicated to unruly behavior since he was young, but the spoils of rich life made drinking a relaxing and social event. As the warmth of the home set in, Severus found his shoulders and neck relaxing with good company, and his posture sank deeper into the chair as the protection of his home pulled him from his personal walls.

Haven smiled and unmuted the television.

Haven:

"Are you mad?" She asked after a while and Severus snapped his drunk attention from the movie to her while keeping his eyes on the screen.

"Why do you think I'm mad?" He asked, with a drunk and exhausted slur.

She had been watching him for awhile now, she watched the way the light reflected off his hair and how his glossy eyes focused on the unfamiliar muggle movie. She watched as he had cracked every knuckle and she watched him crack each knee before asking her question.

"You look mad."

"I always look mad." his reply was blank and emotionless.

"That doesn't mean you always are."

She watched him stay silent and noticed his Adam's apple move as he swallowed uncomfortably, his eyes remaining on the screen.

After a moment of nothing else said, she quietly put her eye's back on the screen as well and minutes would pass before either would speak again.

"I'm not mad." His voice came quietly, random enough where she almost missed it.

"Just drunk?" Havens teased, her smile heavily reflecting in her tone.

His eyes glared at her now and he gave a snarl in attempt to silence, "Yes... Just drunk."

"How drunk?" She quipped and felt her lip twitch upward.

"Haven..."

"Severus."

"Haven..." Her name was a threat that dripped off his fangs but Haven was not afraid of things that bit, nor was she afraid to dance with devils, and she looked at him with fire in her eyes that flickered at a fevered pace.

"See, now you seem mad." She joisted, raising an eyebrow as her eyes held on the television and head tilted.

"I'm getting there."

"Why?"

"Because." His voice was dangerous and his apparent losing temper showed in his narrowing eyes.

She fell into a quiet smile. She knew what she was doing, and she knew how it annoyed him. But, she also had come to learn that if he really wanted her to stop, when his limit was maxed, he'd make sure she knew.

Therefore, using that logic, she continued her poking.

"Because, why?"

"Haven, I swear to God..." The muggle phrase left his lips without so much as a notice.

"That doesn't sound like a nice thing to do."

"For the love of Merlin, Haven!"

She laughed and fell back against the pillows which placed her at his side.

"You're no fun, Sev." She sighed.

"I was never supposed to be."

"Doesn't mean you can't be."

"Full circle."

She gave a grin and pulled her knees up and set herself against the headboard and allowed herself to fall into the movie which after awhile, she found herself drifting to sleep under the low murmur of the movie and the deep, drunken breathing of Severus as she swept her away into personal silence.

Haven:

"My sweet Jessica, I'm glad you have returned."

The gentle voice of Tom Riddle spun the girl around. They stood in the same barren wasteland next to the same dead tree trunk and Tom was there to pull her to him by her shoulders. He wrapped his arms tightly around her in a deep embrace which she quickly returned.

In time she had seen, that only when she was in the same vicinity of Severus that she should have these dreams. Dreams which always took place in the same desert with the same eerie silence that sat against their voices.

"I want you do something special for me. Can you do that?"

She nodded with her head against his chest and he gently moved her a step backwards.

"Do you remember what we have been practicing?"

Tom referred to a dream game they had been playing, one where she would travel to a certain person through a picture he would hand her and she would take them into that dream. Haven gave a nod and Tom handed her a picture which Haven took and looked down into. It was in color like they all had been and it showed a sunny scene of a slightly younger boy with messy red hair and many freckles. He was smiling warmly and had a large letter "R" on his maroon knitted sweater. She looked up from the picture and Tom was there to kiss her forehead and take her hand. Nodding, she shut her eyes and let herself go, feeling a release from her dreaming body as she and Tom sucked into the picture, leaving the dream world warp around them.

The surroundings of the dream within her dream, settled on a large open piece of land with a stacked old house that sat alone surrounded by bogs and high grass. She watched a family of fire headed children ran around the yard laughing. She watched as two older twin boys chased and casting spells after the boy in the picture. A younger girl with long red hair sat on a long lawn chair laughing. Next to her, sat a girl who matched the age of boy in the picture. Her bushy brown hair bouncing as she shook her head and continued writing on a parchment on her lap.

Tom's snake-like arms wrapped around her from behind and his nose grazed against the bare side of her head as his lips traced her ear. Haven leaned back against him and she felt his arms tighten around her in a python like hold.

"Now, change the air, love." His whisper breathed heavily on the side of her neck, sending sparks down her spine and catching her breath as Tom's thumb rubbed gently over her hip. She closed her eyes and envisioned the now sunny sky being covered by clouds with tremendous wind and rain. To no surprise, her mental picture slowly became reality as the feeling of a brisk wind sent a shiver through her, forcing her closer against the warmth that hugged her. She opened her eyes to a shadowed world where the twins stopped running and looked confused at the sky. Shrugging and starting inside, the red and brown haired girls pulled the blankets together and collected their books and feather pens to quickly follow after the twins.

"My turn, my love." Tom hissed into her ear, and Haven watched Tom's hand extend by them. With a snap, she noticed a small fire break out within the brush and becoming nervous, her heart beginning to speed up, Haven held securely to Tom as the boy left the clearing and his siblings to go investigate.

"Don't hurt him, Tom.." She mumbled to him.

"Always to teach, never to punish." He whispered as he kissed the top of her ear, a motion that sent another shiver through her.

She watched quietly as the boy approached close to the fire and Haven dug her nails into her protectors arm as in a flash, a murder of crows launched from the brush beside the boy and frightened him off balance. The red hair boy gave out a cry that rivaled the thunder and Haven watched him tip over and fall into the consuming fire.

What started as a scream from her throat came forth into reality as her body jumping upright in the bed, her lungs gasping for air. The feeling of another's energy pushed her to panic and she grabbed her knife, flipped it open and turned to slash behind her.

She quickly met eyes with Snape. He was watching her out of the side of his eyes as he leaned away from her violent motion, his wand already pointing at her. For a moment they they both just held their breath as they came out of sleep to the view of one another. Silently they sat facing off in a silent battle as they both pulled themselves from unconsciousness into a world of consequences. Haven lowered first and Severus dropped his wand quickly after and leaned forward in the armchair. Rubbing his face with his hands and taking a few deep breaths, Haven noticed he was clearly still drunk and hungover at the same time, neither made better by his violent wake up. He gave a final sigh and stood up, cracking his knees, elbows and neck before heading to the door.

"Where are you going?" Haven asked half awake, rubbing her eyes ready to turn over into the sleep.

He turned only party to her before stepping out of the room, "I'm going to go vomit, and then I'm going back to bed... In my room."

She gave a weak smile as she leaned back against the pillows.

"Good Night, Severus." She yawned into the darkness, as the door began to shut.

She felt his pause and the slight tension that rose in his throat but alas, she was to tired to care. But still she could swear she heard, cast under his breath and barely audible that he had grumbled, "Good night, Haven," before shutting the door fully and locking it behind him.