Disclaimer-this is jkr's world

CHAPTER 1

'CHAALIS RUPAIYA'

Snape rolled his eyes, this was ridiculous he thought.

'NAHI,' he spoke loudly to make himself heard over the din of the market, 'BEES RUPAIYA, AUR NAHI.'

The vendor shook his head. Snape scowled and walked as if he were going to another vendor. That did the trick, the vendor yelled 'SAHIB, BEES RUPAIYA.'

Snape smirked.

Snape returned to his beach hut. It had a repellant charm placed over it. Any muggle would find that they had other urgent business as soon as they even thought of walking towards it.

The beach was uninhabited. It gave him peace.

In the very beginning, it had been difficult for him. He had suffered from dysentery and none of his potions had worked.

How the wizards in London would laugh if they heard that a double agent, Dumbledore's murderer no less, was spending time surrounded by chamber pots and not by brimming cauldrons. The wizards in India certainly had had their fun with his predicament.

Draco's men were extremely unlike him. They were loud, jovial and were not intimidated by him or his deeds. It took a very short time for him to realize that this was the case with most of Bombay's wizarding population.

Only when he told them that he had killed Dumbledore did they sober up, his explanations of why and how surprisingly made them sympathize with him. He had become angry and told them that he did not want their pity.

They said it wasn't pity it was compassion. It was an ideal which each Indian wizard abided by.

'Vasudhaaiv Kutumbakam…'

'The world is my family.'

It had taken him four years to adjust to this kind of magic, here words held a magic of their own. Bombay had magic in its very soil and he had felt it pulsating the moment he had portkeyed. Even the muggle world was surrounded by magic; it seemed as if the wizarding world had wrapped itself up around the muggle world.

It was an ages old tradition; the wizards here protected the muggles from almost everything. Even if it was nature.

During the heavy monsoon showers ,when the city was flooded with water and the slums were getting destroyed ,the wizards had tried to control the damage .In the end even when they did have to surrender to nature's wrath, they had combined their powers and tried to give the muggles what they needed the most-

Hope and strength.

Then, the showers stopped. Life returned to normal.Muggle newspapers published articles on the 'Fighting spirit of Bombay's people.'

Snape had found it surprising that despite the magic, there were very few who knew about the potions branch of magic. With a little help from jay, a potions enthusiast who had visited Beaubaxtons and had been captivated by it, he had opened a store which sold essences of almost everything.

It had been a great success.

With that reputation he had opened a restaurant called 'Bittersweet'. It had more muggles as customers than wizards. Some critic had given it five stars. This had made Snape want to perform better. He hired better staff and tolerated nothing less than perfection. It had earned him the title of 'Hitler in the lab.' among his employees.

The lab was his creation where he made the essences of all foods and which was added to each dish made separately in the kitchen. So a vegetarian could at least know what chicken felt like.

Ice creams had been a runaway hit. They had almost every imaginable flavors from a fish flavored one to a bogey flavored one.

Life Snape thought was very, very good before he closed his eyes.

The next day…

'This is atrocious' Snape thought. His cooks and assistants were talking, talking on every topic imaginable and he had a headache. He screamed, 'SHUT UP, THIS IS NOT YOUR HOME, GET TO WORK.'

It had the desired effect.

The door to the seating area opened and a waiter walked in carrying a tray of sautéed chicken with mushrooms.

Snape asked him why he had come in the wrong way to which he replied ' A young lady is refusing to have this, she says it is tasting wrong.'

That blew him up, to think that a woman who had probably never set a foot in a kitchen was doing this. 'I'll teach her a lesson.' he growled.

He strode up to the table with the dish in his hand and tapped her on the shoulder, she looked up and suddenly a very familiar face was staring up at him.

'Professor Snape?'

He felt his headache intensify.

A/n- few hindi words-

rupaiya-rupees

chaalis-forty

bees-twenty

nahi-no

aur nahi-no more

vasudhaiiv kutumbakam is a Sanskrit sentence meaning the world is my family.