Chapter 9

Home Sweet Home

Regulus Black insisted on going with the house elf when it popped! Severus to his house on Spinner's End - the most prosperous section of Cokeworth, of course. The Black house elf was even more pathetic than the one Severus had summoned at Hogwarts. The bat-eared creature insisted on grovelling at Regulus' feet until the boy got incensed and sent it to count some pebbles somewhere else.

Standing in the street in front of his abode, Severus tried to decipher the look on the wealthy boy's face as he took in the sight of the dilapidated shack that Severus called home. The black-eyed Slytherin steeled his insides for the snide remarks -or worse, condolences - that someone of Regulus' status might automatically spew. Severus was not ashamed of his home - not completely - but he definitely understood the reality of his life without anyone else offering their figurative and therefore useless "two-cents".

"If you are done gawking," began Severus, harshly, " you and your house elf can leave."

Severus crossed his arms and inhaled deeply. Black continued to stare at his house as if it were a thing of marvel. However, Severus knew it was the very antithesis of marvel, and he could not exactly blame the unworldly boy. After all, people tend live in their own bubbles where everything on the outside did not exist. Magical folk were particularly guilty of it, Severus found. I should have taken a car.

Severus stepped in front of the slightly taller boy. "Well?"

Regulus blinked as if he were coming out of a daze.

"Aren't you going to invite me in?" the boy asked, blankly.

"No." Severus felt his face heating up. "Leave."

"You sure? I sort of want to see what Severus Snape's room is like."

"Leave."

Regulus rubbed the back of his neck, looking very uncomfortable.

"Fine," the younger Black conceded. "Keep your eyes open for an owl - "

"No," Severus interrupted. "Owls can't be seen around here."

"Why?"

"They aren't native to these parts. It would be strange for them to be flapping about."

"Owls... not native. But this is England! And birds, you know, fly places," Regulus insisted, again gesturing with his hands. "Besides, it doesn't seem like anyone from around these parts would be cognitive enough to even care about bloody owls."

That was true: they would not care. The residents of Spinner's End were a desolate sort. Their days played out the same each day. They worked, they drank, they fought and they slept - all things normal people do. But the residents of Cokeworth lived oppressively and that oppression was reflected in how they lived their lives. Everything in area revolved around the mill. The stupid bloody mill. Severus hated the mill for he saw it as the stem that facilitated all the problems of the town. It was the reason he grew up in misery.

Severus stepped closer and peered up into Regulus' face.

"Some people do care."

Regulus narrowed his eyes. "Fine. I'll just send it with the elf here. I'll tell it to let itself be unnoticeable, especially by some people."

"Fine." Severus grabbed the edge of his trunk. "I'll answer your damn letter, but I'm not making any promises about visiting."

"That's fine too," said Regulus, stepping back to give Severus more room to maneuver his trunk. "In any case, I can visit you."

"No."

"Wha-"

"Friends don't impose, Black." Severus drawled. He dropped his trunk and moved into Regulus' space. "I don't want to stand outside my house all day nattering on with you, so just let me say this and then you will leave. Understand?"

Regulus looked like he was about to argue, but he took a breath and nodded.

"We can attempt this friendship idea of yours, but I will not tolerate you making a nuisance of yourself," hissed Severus. "I expect you to respect boundaries. Do not come around here."

Severus noted a stiffness to Regulus' posture. If he had disuaded the boy's attempts at friendship, it would not be that big of a loss. Maybe. Severus deflated.

"Well, what I mean is - "

"We can be friends?" Regulus' face radiated a kind of happiness that Severus, through the fog of unease, could only describe as psychotic. He wants my liver. I'm sure of it.

"Yes. Now leave."

Regulus gave a half smile and beckoned the wimpy house elf that had brought them there. The thing scampered over - scattering pebbles along the way - and grabbed on to the hem of his master's robes.

"See you around, Severus," said Regulus, still looking strange. "Expect an owl soon."

He nodded at his house elf and the two vanished with a pop! and a flash of light that was lost in the brightness of the sunlight.

"I told the dunce no owls!"