Chapter 8
I took a deep breath once my feet touched the ground again. I hated the suffocation I felt every single time I did this, I had hoped I would be used to it by now. I looked over at Severus who seemed calm and collected by now. Straws of his black hair were untamed and covered half of his sight thanks to our travel. He never looked more creepy as he did now. If it weren't for the streets to be completely abandoned - which seems to be in our favor lately - I was curious if anyone would ask me if this person was disturbing me, seemed to be the perfect moment for such scene at least. Quickly he let go of my arm, not wanting to touch it longer than necessary. I noted in my head that, that was still a topic that should be discussed sooner rather than later. Intimacy was a huge part of marriage and ours was meant to be for life, not just on paper. However, I'd like it to last a little bit longer than this myself, I wasn't sure what kind of agreement I wanted to make yet. I showed him the way to the first house on the list – A nice mansion right outside Canterbury, the same Canterbury where I grew up in. This whole street had houses of the same size as this one. Most of them with cars parked in front of the door with lights on while the families were enjoying their late dinners or their lottery TV shows. The one we were standing in front of was painted in a nice Ivory color, with the roof a dark shade of grey. Surrounding the house, there were several kinds of plants planted, but mostly roses. I knocked on the door, waiting for the real estate agent to show up. While waiting I looked over at Severus expecting him to take a hint.
'What?' he asked under his breath, being totally oblivious.
'Now this is the time where we will be shown as an engaged couple,' I hissed, without making this into a heated discussion he linked arms with me, right in time for the door to open. having a set of dark brown eyes locked on to us.
'Miss Morgan, right on time!' the lady greeted us with a big smile, ready to sell. She was obviously a muggle, the innocence that was vibrating to every single breath she took gave it away. I almost felt like a muggle myself by just standing in front of her. Innocent and oblivious to the world surrounding us and the evil that was set on wiping her entire race out. It was an odd, but pleasant feeling, for only a little while. I tried to imagine being her and then suddenly dying by the hands of a death eater, the hands of something I didn't know anything about. For a moment I was wondering how we looked like for the outside world; Muggle or wizard since we were from completely different backgrounds and it was showing through our appearance as well. Severus didn't have to even change out of his robes and just covered it up with a long, big, black coat that had enough space to fit a second person in there. I had a furry red one stored upstairs before I left the store that matched perfectly with my lipstick. You could've expected me to have a dinner date while he looked like a homeless guy.
'Hello, actually – I would prefer if you would call me miss Snape, we might not be married yet but I just love the sound of having his name,' I leaned towards Severus with a smile on my face, while he had to force his out of himself.
'But of course, that's the dream right? Please come in,' Luckily she didn't take much convincing, she wasn't in a position to care in general anyways. She walked us into the home, closed the door behind us and lead us towards the heart of the home, which was the living room. It had the nicest fireplace I had seen in a long time, lot's of space for decorations – Perfect for the art pieces I was meaning to buy and sell. The kitchen was divided from it with only a wall. Upstairs were the bedroom sections, which have been fully decorated just for selling, for some reason they placed rose petals on the kingsize bed to give it a romantic touch. Also the children rooms; the one thing that caused a lot of tension between us and had to be a topic to be avoided at all cost for now. They had 2 of those, a girly one and a boyish one just so you could explore the options available.
'What do you think?' I asked him in all seriousness, the real estate agent was send away just so I could have this conversation with him before moving along. I studied his face, he showed to be still struggling with the idea of us ending up living together in possibly a place like this. His inability to speak told me he was still in denial and from what I had seen of his doorstep his home didn't seem all that to begin with. It all must've been too new.
'It seems fine,' He answered without a distinctive tone of voice. He wasn't even looking around all that much, his focus didn't linger on a specific piece either.
'I want you to feel at home, Severus,' He looked at me for a split second, but couldn't stay in contact with me. Finding a way to reach him as a non-involved partner was going to be the hardest part of all this. I already sold my soul and believed for years I would just do my parents bidding, never even realizing I would still partly have some power on choosing my husband.
'So, honestly, what do you think of this place?' I asked him again in an attempt to engage with him.
'It just... seems fine,' He finally seemed to be able to look straight at my face. Indifference was written all over him.
'It's obviously your parents pick. Seems fine if you want to settle for a perfect seeming household,' I was a bit taken aback that he could see right through their desire to give me my dream house.
It actually was a direct pick by my parents, so that we could reach each other as soon as possible when needed. Despite the traditional childhood of discipline and arranged marriage were they very much overprotective. I was their only child, therefore I was their doll.
'Are you judging my upbringing?' I scoffed, because that would've been hilarious, he shook his head.
'No, not at all. It just fits you perfectly,'
Even though there were no reasons to let this place go, we decided to not to take it. What he said to me wasn't hurtful or disrespectful. He was just... right. I could see what he saw and that it was the obvious place to take. But I had decided to not take the obvious route, so I should stick with it. Even if it meant sacrificing the home I always dreamed about. We went off to the next one; at the coast of Lavernock. By arrival it was pretty clear the guidance of the home was under a spell, meaning only wizarding families were to observe and buy the place. The thought of being in such a small place surrounded by other wizards and witches game me confidence; If we were to disappear suddenly out of nowhere at least the families here would know where to look. Which may not look logical – with Severus serving the Dark Lord and all, but it was a positive position for my safety. The bright and generous wife whom didn't seem to know about her husbands ties.
'I want it,' I said determined after only setting one step into the house. Severus turned to me, looking puzzled.
'Just like that?' He asked, not understanding how the interior didn't seem to matter for this one. I nodded firmly.
'Yes. It is perfect,'
'But, why are you so sure?' I had picked the other two options myself, this one and a single manor on the hill of Isle of Man which was still to be build and would be build to our preferences as soon as we'd take it. But we'd be an excellent open location for the Dark Lord to want things to be done at our house, Severus would be hardly ever here since he'd be teaching at Hogwarts and thus I'd end up being a tool for him after all. With our without the mark. The safety that this location was offering, Small but full with magical activity, overshadowed any bad choices in the interior itself. I could just change it with a flick of my wand anyways and since there are more magical families in the surroundings I could change anything I wanted without it being noticed by muggles. It was absolute perfection. We let the real estate create the deed for ownership. After some investigating the home was still owned by this time, an old couple on the verge of death that surprisingly both went into a state of critical danger right after one another. Their siblings lived abroad in Spain and therefore couldn't be present to take care of them or look after the home. We knew exactly what that would mean, it meant as soon as we were going to set out signatures on that piece of paper, something would be happening to them that's irreversible.
'Such practices... aren't they considered illegal?' I asked him, unsure now knowing the background of this place. Part of me was also afraid that this was the doing of Him and the death eaters, that they would instantly know where our residence would be.
'Technically anything that brings suspicion to mudbloods – and cold hearted murder is illegal. This would just quicken the process and would be good for the wizarding market if it's not already owned by wizards... It's just the harsh reality of the economy,' he told me, not even having the slightest bit of caring in his voice for the two victims that technically die by our hands, even without us actually using the killing curse. He looked at me and noticed I was critical about doing this, even though I was so sure that we should take this home. I was a good Slytherin; a perfect one none the least, but I was not a fan of unnecessary death.
'Muggles do a lot of bad things to each other too, you know,' I perked up at him when he spoke to me, not expecting such attempt at comfort. In fact, that was something I was absolutely not familiar to, which made it pretty considerate of him. I nodded at him once again and took the paper of the deed once it was brought to me. A nice perky quill was handed to me with already a splash of magical ink on the tip. I went along with the theme we started this trip with and wrote Lucrezia Snape as the name that belonged to me, along with my signature and then handed it to Severus. Without needing to hesitate he followed my lead and once the ink dried up it was officially ours. With all the law matters magically being taken care of I placed the deed in a specific drawer of our bedroom, not wanting it to just lay around to be easily found while we're away from it. We both got a separate key which I turned into a Slytherin scarf so it wouldn't be discovered by my friends to be a new piece – which could've possibly thought of a "gift" by my future husband. I kept a stain on the inside of the scarf so I could tell it apart from the scarf that I already owned.
'Well, I should go back to the party now that this has been taken care of. Thanks for showing up,' I thanked him. I put the scarf around my neck and apparated back to the same location we left from. Dust created a smokescreen that caused me trouble to exhale. If it wasn't for the wall that supported me, I would've lost my balance. Quickly I slipped through the door behind me and sprinted back to Dervish and Banges, while I hadn't caught my breath yet, I had to hide the scarf before I went downstairs so I put it on the counter of the blind man who showed us where to go earlier this night and made it invisible so that no random drunk Slytherin would take it from me when going back to the castle, which would create quite a puzzling task. I tried to mask myself against the wall as much as I could when going down the stairs, to avoid being spotted and asked where I went. I tried looking down several times to see if my cover was blown but I seemed to be lucky. I hadn't discovered any of my friends being near the stairs once I arrived and everyone else was too busy to care about someone they barely know. Instantly I went into the dancing crowd to make sure it couldn't possibly look like I came from somewhere. Out of nowhere to arms grabbed me from behind while I was in the middle of the dance floor while still being unable to recognize a familiar face. According the giggling I heard in my ear it was Mary-Louise who held me, being absolutely drunk. Meaning I had a lot of catching up to do if I wanted to look it as natural as possible. I danced with her and drank the alcohol she handed me as soon as I turned around. Once I caught up with all my friends, none of them had any questions to ask me at all, not even about what I have been doing myself at the party. It was just that easy.