Chapter 10 of Life as we know it
"I've never been to Italy." Harry stated for the third time as he tried to start a conversation with Snape. As always, Snape ignored him and continued walking down the hill that they'd been walking on for a while.
"Professor, how much longer?!" Harry whined, agitated that they'd been going down the same hill for what felt like hours.
Snape just continued ignoring him.
Sighing in anger, Harry stopped walking next to Snape, hoping that Snape would now talk to him.
Harry's plan worked, for about 5 seconds. Before he felt a tight grip on his shoulder, forcefully pushing him to continue walking.
"Gosh, you didn't have to get physical." Harry mumbled under his breath while glaring at the ground as they continued their journey to nowhere.
After what felt to Harry as a five hour climb downhill, which was in fact less than an hour, Snape and Harry reached what looked like a tin can.
"We climbed down Mt. Everest just to reach a can?" Harry asked sarcastically.
Muttering something under his breath, Snape forced Harry to grasp the can while using his left hand to also get a hold of the can.
Harry felt the familiar yet sickening pull that he had come to hate as he was pulled into a new land.
Landing on his butt, Harry grimaced at the sharp pain.
"Why couldn't you just appatate us here? Wherever here is….." Harry questioned, envying how Snape landed gently on his feet.
"You mean Apparate, Potter. It's too risky for me to apparate, especially with you." Snape started, "The Ministry of Magic would find out about you if I continued apparating."
"What's the Ministry of Magic, Sir?" Harry asked quickly, knowing that he had to use any chance he had to talk to Snape.
"Not now, we must keep moving. We're about 30 minutes away." Snape said looking around with a certain look of peace on his face.
Harry finally remembered that he was somewhere new. Looking up he looked at the beautiful Italian village that lay before his eyes. He could see small houses sitting in clusters in front of a huge mass of water that was gleaming in the sunset.
"Wow!" Harry said amazed. He had never seen anything as beautiful as the scene before him.
"Follow me Potter." Said Snape.
Harry followed Snape the whole 30 minutes in silence to their new 'home' for the next few days.
Harry looked over at their new residence. The house was small and located away from the bundle of other houses in the small village. The house was built identical to the other houses with tan plaster on the walls and a red shingled roof.
Snape took out his wand and cautiously entered the house. Harry followed then heard Snape mutter something under his breath. After a few moments of silence Snape allowed them to enter, motioning for Harry to shut the door.
"I will show you you're room. I expect you to get some sleep. I believe some clothing was sent over, you should find some pajamas in the dresser. I want you to go to your room and no other room. I will give you a tour of the house tomorrow. Follow me Potter."
Harry nodded, struggling to stay awake. After such a long day he really wanted to sleep. Harry then followed Snape up some stairs as they made their way to a small room that had a bed, a small closet, a dresser, a desk, and a little window that overlooked the water.
As soon as Snape left Harry alone. Harry immediately changed into his pajamas and went to sleep as soon as he touched the bed.
Harry slept until around midnight and woke from a nightmare. It was the same nightmare that had been plaguing his mind since he was a small child. He could still hear the screaming of a man and woman and a bright light.
Sighing Harry knew he would never get back to sleep in his bed. He had never really slept on a mattress before, unless you counted the stinky cabbage smelling, lumpy bed with wires sticking out at Mrs. Figg's house.
Harry made his way over the small closet, taking along his blanket and pillow. Harry knew some habits would take time to get rid of.
Opening the little closet, Harry made a little nest for himself and went back to sleep. Not noticing the prying dark eyes of Snape at the door.
(next morning)
"Potter get down here now!"
Harry moaned as he heard Snape screaming at him, interrupting him from his sleep. Guessing that ignoring Snape was a bad idea, Harry pulled himself up and followed to where he had heard Snape calling him and into a kitchen that Harry recognized as the room they had first entered in.
"Good Potter. You came right after I called you." Snape said approvingly while forcing Harry to sit down and placing a bowl of mush before him.
"Ewe! What is that?!" Harry asked disgusted and now fully awake from the harsh smell coming from the mush.
"It's nutritional and the only food I know how to make." Snape responded coldly and to Harry's surprise with a faint tint of red on his cheeks. "Now eat! And I mean eat it all Potter."
Harry struggled to remain clam as he picked up his spoon and filled his spoon with the mush. Closing his eyes and trying not to breath in the smell, Harry put the spoon up to his mouth and quickly gulped the 'food' down.
"Agh! That was horrible! I'd rather die than eat this!" Harry screamed, throwing down his spoon.
"That can be arranged." Snape said darkly just waiting for Harry to further disrespect him.
Harry eyed Snape nervously and as fast as he could, he quickly ate the mush trying to avoid having the food touch his tongue.
Throwing his spoon down Harry laughed triumphantly after he finished.
"I'm done! Ha-ha!" Harry said while grinning at Snape.
"You have atrocious manners, Potter." Snape said snidely as he finished drinking his cup of tea. "I will show you around the house now Potter, so follow me."
Snape then stood up and motioned for Harry to come along.
"Alrighty!' Harry said, still in a good mood.
"As you can see this is the kitchen. No touching anything in here. And I expect you to come to every meal. The first being breakfast which starts at 7AM. Lunch will be served at 1 PM and dinner at 7PM. If you get hungry before any of those times I might give you something if I'm in a good mood." Snape said the last part with a smirk.
Harry knew that meant he better eat as much food at breakfast, dinner and lunch because Snape was never in a good mood.
"Sir, if that's all you can make is that all we'll eat?" Harry asked, dreading if Snape said yes.
Harry didn't think he could survive just eating mush.
"No, I have relatives that will be providing us food for lunch and dinner. Breakfast is the only time I cook. Why you don't like my breakfast?" Snape said with an evil smirk on his face.
"No…. I mean yes, sir it's tasty!" Harry said quickly, not wanting to further upsetting Snape.
The two continued on with the tour for the next hour and much to Harry's distaste, Harry found out that he was only allowed to go into four rooms in the house. One being his room, the others being the small living room that only contained dusty furniture, a library that only contained dusty books, and the kitchen that contained Snape's 'wonderful' mush. Harry also found out that he wasn't even allowed to go outside without being under strict supervision from Snape.
"Well so much for a vacation." Harry mumbled.
Harry spent most of the day being bored. Snape had only allowed him outside for an hour. Now he was sitting in the small library that shelved dozens of dusty books. Harry had tried to read a few books, but realized they were all too difficult to understand. What he really wanted to do at the moment was play on the flying broomstick he had used that was at Draco's house.
Harry decided to go back and find Snape to see if he could go outside more. Harry knocked on Snape's door and waited for a reply.
Harry flinched as Snape's gloomy face suddenly appeared in the doorway.
"What do you want Potter?" Snape asked.
Shifting nervously Harry responded. "I-I just wanted to know if there was anything else I could do? I mean I tried reading but the book was too hard to understand."
"You're in luck Potter, a few neighbors are coming by to meet you, and a few are your age. I expect you to treat them with respect. Do you understand me Potter?"
Harry nodded, not bothering to hide his excitement of meeting new people.
"Also Potter, they asked you to take a swimsuit. They should be hear any moment now." Snape said before closing the door.
Harry quickly ran to his room to change into his swim trunks and a t-shirt. Harry then heard a knock on the door. Quickly he ran down the stairs to meet his guests.
Harry saw Snape already in the kitchen opening the front door. Then four kids stepped into the room.
"Hello Mr. Snape!" A boy with blond curly hair said to Snape.
"Hi." The others chorused.
Harry noticed two girls and two boys. The boys were identical twins with blond curly hair and blue eyes. They looked to be around the age of 10 or 11.
The two girls were around Harry's age and had black hair. As far as Harry could tell they weren't related.
Harry started to get nervous. His excitement from earlier was fading as he felt butterflies fluttering in his stomach.
"Hi!" One of the girls said to Harry, noticing him standing in the kitchen in the doorway.
"H-Hi." Harry stammered.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Eilan (AN:/ Pronounced Eye-Lan)." Said oone of the twin boys. "You can tell me apart from my brother Jacen because I have a mole next to my eye. Get it Eye-Lan?!" He said cracking up at the last part.
No one else laughed.
"Hi my name is Sophia." Said one of the girls in a heavy Italian accent.
"I'm Len." Said the other girl.
"I'm Harry." Said Harry shyly.
Snape and Harry had already agreed that Harry didn't have to use his alias around the others.
"Do you wanna go on a boat ride with us?" Eilan asked, "My dad made me and my brother a sailboat for our birthday."
"Yea sure." Harry said smiling.
"Good, Eilan I xpect you to bring Potter back at 8:00 PM." Snape said addressing Eilan.
"Yes Mr. Snape." Eilan aid to Snape before all the children ran from the house.
'Bye sir! Thanks!" Harry yelled at the man as he followed the others outside.
Harry didn't have a lot of experience with children his age. The four children seemed nice enough to him. Yet, he was still a little nervous.
"The boat's down there." One of the twins told him as he pointed to a little stream that connected to the huge sea.
The children reached the small boats.
"Wow! Your boat's really cool Eilan." Harry said fondly as he eyed the boat.
The boat looked brand new, and not like a new toy just coming on the marked, but new as in just being made a few days ago. The wood was shining and sparkled in the afternoon sun, the huge sail was pure white.
The children all climbed into the boat. Quickly filling the small space.
"We can sail for a few hours then head back to my Mama's house for some lunch. She made some good treats for us, especially you Harry." Said Len winking at him.
Harry blushed as everyone nodded.
"Alright mates! We're gonna sail until we reach a new land or at least before we get hungry. We have a mission mateys, We're going to find the buried treasure." Jacen said imitating a pirate as he held out his hand as if it were a sword.
"Yea!" Eilan said jumping to his feet, holding his hand like a hook.
"I'm the captain of this ship and you're all my crew. Ya hear! I want you Sophia to swap the deck. Harry stand on lookout for any distant land, and Len you are in charge of the food supply. Jacen and me will sail the ship. We have a long journey."
Everyone grinned and got to their assigned jobs. Then they set sail.
A/N:
Sorry this took so long to update. I got really caught up in school and finals are over. I have the next chapter in my head, it's called Pirates for a Day.