Albus apparated the pair of them to the yard of a wizarding pub near the Aberdeen city center. "I'm not sure where the Promenade of St. Giles is," the old wizard said, staring forlornly at the "closed" sign. It wasn't even that late, but perhaps the owner needed a rest after the New Years' celebrations. "Aberdeen does not have a dedicated wizarding residential sector."
"No matter, we'll find it," Severus said briskly. He led the way out into the street, looked around, and headed to the nearest open muggle establishment (another bar), transfiguring his outer robe into a trench coat as he went. Thank Merlin it was dark and gently snowing here. "Is the Promenade of St. Giles near here?" he asked the wizened barman. The muggle shook his head. "I need to use your phone, then. What is the number for the local taxi service?" The man handed him a laminated card without a word, staring over Severus' shoulder. Severus glanced back to see Albus standing in the doorway. The orange light of the streetlamps glinted off his spangled gold robes. Severus sighed inwardly. No wonder the muggle was staring. Severus quickly called the taxi service, pickup anticipated in five minutes. He handed the laminated card back to the muggle and jerked his head towards Albus. "Don't mind him. He's mad. Wandered off after the family's fancy dress New Years' party thinking he was still at home in Edinburgh. I'm trying to get him back to my cousin's."
The barman finally smiled; he had only one tooth. "Ach, then bless ye, lad, fer mindin' t' auld yin." Severus smiled tightly and left, taking Albus' arm again and directing him to wait on the walking path. They did not speak as they waited for the taxi, or on the short ride across town. Albus seemed content to inspect the interior of the taxi. The ancient wizard probably hadn't been inside a muggle automobile in decades, if ever. Yet Albus surprised him, fishing out several pounds to pay the driver once they arrived. Severus had merely planned to Confund the man.
The house was an old one made of stone. There was a small front garden complete with stone fountain and bench that likely would have been quite nice if anyone had bothered to trim the hedges and ornamental trees in the past five years: it was quite overgrown, with branches protruding over the walk at eye level and numerous sticks crunching underfoot. Severus suspected the snow hid mostly perennial weeds at this point rather than any useful herbs or flowers.
The wards proved to be less trouble than Severus had feared, mostly because the only lethal one fell in the presence of his Dark Mark. It took him and Albus only a few minutes to breach the others. The house remained silent when they reached the front door. Albus knocked politely. Severus rolled his eyes and pushed it open without waiting for a response. The inside smelled of mold, but not of putrefaction, fortunately.
"Lumos. Homenum Revelio."
Looking around, Severus spotted a human signal above them and to the left. It was the only person in the house, and he was certain there was no house elf with the level of grime and clutter. The two of them walked down the hall, skirting the many boxes of empty wine bottles and takeout food containers to find the stairs, also lined with bottles. Severus led the way upstairs. The first door at the top was the only one they had passed that seemed well-kept. There were no attendant piles of garbage and no cobwebs. Severus checked for spells on it, and finding none, cautiously pushed it open. It was a bedroom. Free of mold and dirt, but untidy, and clearly that of a teenager judging by the pile of school books and the Hogwarts robes carelessly left on the floor. Dirk's bedroom then, though he wasn't in here.
They moved on to the next room, where Severus could still see the human life sign glowing. This was the master bedroom, and it was rank with body odor. He surveyed the collection of empty wine and whiskey bottles, mildewed laundry, and a recent spatter of vomitus on the already stained oriental rug. And there was a snoring middle-aged, pot-bellied wizard passed out on the bed, wand discarded on the floor. The sheets looked to be made of silk, and were probably originally white, but were now an uneven yellow-brown. This was once a well-to-do family, now given over to waste, alcohol, and neglect. He suspected Dirk's mother had been the primary homemaker, before her imprisonment; he wondered if she joined the Death Eaters to get away from her useless slob of a husband, or if he had only turned to drink in her absence. He hadn't known the couple well during the war. With a small sound of disgust, Severus strode through the mess and prodded the man. He grunted in his sleep. Thoroughly annoyed, Severus woke him up with a light stinging hex. The wizard yelped and rolled onto the floor with a loud thunk.
"Get up, Mr. Prentiss," Severus drawled.
"Who's 'ere?" Prentiss mumbled blearily. "Ge' oot m'house..."
"As if you have retained any authority over this property, you sloven. I could have killed you as you slept, and no one would have noticed for weeks," Severus said venomously.
"Severus, remember why we are here."
"Sev'rus... Snape?" Prentiss squinted up at him.
"Professor Severus Snape," he corrected. "And Headmaster Dumbledore. Tell me, Mr. Prentiss, where is your son? He is not at Hogwarts, nor I am told was he on the Hogwarts Express. Nor is he in his room."
"Wh... whit day is't?"
"Second of January."
"Dirk shoo' be at school then..."
"But he isn't!" Severus hissed furiously. Merlin, he hated dealing with drunkards, he hated dealing with idiots, and drunken idiots were the absolute worst. "When did you last see him?"
"He wis 'ere Boxin' Day, Ah think."
"You think?"
"Ah ken," Prentiss said quickly, cowering before him.
"Where might your son have gone for Hogmanay, Mr. Prentiss?" Albus cut in kindly from behind Severus.
"Ah dinnae..." he quailed under Severus' glare again. "Ach... his coosin! Coosin Marius Abernathay!"
"Who lives where?"
"Ah... cannae mind."
"We'll find it," Albus said firmly. He tugged on Severus' shoulder. With a final glare at the pathetic figure of Dirk's failure of a father, he turned and walked out. It took a little back-and-forth with Minerva to check the registrar for the Abernathay address, but they found the large, well-kept house eventually. Marius' grandmother answered the door, only to direct them to Marius' flat in London. The flat proved empty as well, but Severus saw enough to have a pretty good idea of where both Marius and Dirk probably were. They flooed from the flat to the Leaky Cauldron.
"Check with Tom to see if he's here, would you, Albus?" Severus said. "I'll go out and check the other boarding houses."
"If you say so, my boy," Albus replied easily. His eyes were twinkling. He probably suspected where Severus was actually going to look. But damnit, if Dirk was where Severus thought he was, the boy did not need the Headmaster to see him there.
Severus scowled and walked out of the pub. He drew his hood up and kept to the shadowed eaves as he walked quickly to the entrance of Knockturn Alley. He walked past Msaw Ætare, Noggin and Bonce, the dubious apothecary, the Society for the Reformation of Hags, Borgin and Burke's, and finally entered Tallow and Hemp, a shop smelling strongly of incense, with a sales room much smaller than it should be. A witch at the counter glanced up in disinterest before looking back at her copy of Witch Weekly. "Back room," he said quietly.
"Password?"
"Bacchus."
She nodded and waved him towards the beaded doorway. He walked through into a narrow hallway. A thin-faced young man slouched halfway along the hall. Severus recognized him, a former Slytherin who had graduated two years ago. "Potions, or are you here to put your wand in the Chamber of Secrets?" he called out in a bored voice.
"Neither," Severus said icily.
The young wizard straightened up as if struck by lightning. "Professor Snape?" he whimpered.
"Got it in one, Mr. Dorchester."
"Aw, hell."
"No, I'm not pleased to see you here either. I suppose you're squandering your Outstanding potions N.E.W.T. brewing illicit substances for the pleasure of the gentry and the doom of the addicted?"
The lad cringed and nodded. He probably shouldn't be quite so hard on him; Severus had done the same for the first three months out of Hogwarts before officially earning his place in the Death Eaters. It's the only reason he knew the password, which hadn't changed in a century. There was no need, as the aurors never tried to shut down this house of ill repute, probably because there was always someone high enough in the Ministry hierarchy patronizing it. And bribes of course.
"Noted. As I am now Head of House Slytherin, I expect you to let me know when you need a transcript to apply for an alternative vocation. I will look for your owl in the next month. Now, where might I find Dirk Prentiss?"
"I don't know him."
"You should. He's a current seventh year student in your very own former House. But perhaps not. Where might I find his cousin Marius Abernathay, then? He is, I believe, a frequent visitor of this establishment." He withdrew the stamped tin ampule he had pocketed in Marius' flat and tossed it on the floor.
"Third curtain on the left," came the resigned answer.
"Thank you."
He walked directly to the doorway and yanked aside the flimsy curtain to step into the dimly lit room. There were a number of young people strewn about the shabby chairs and couches. Almost all of them appeared to be stuporous, no doubt sleeping off the effects of far too much alcohol and Elixir to Induce Euphoria, or something more sinister. He flicked his wand to cover up a few in an excessive degree of undress.
He spied Dirk, finally, slumped over on the end of a couch. One of the Knockturn Alley locals had her head pillowed on his lap. He didn't recognize her, which meant she was either older than he was and using charms to keep her looks young enough for her profession, or she was a squib, which boded poorly for her longevity in this neighborhood. She was, at least, awake enough to look up at him. "Who are you?" she asked sleepily. "Do we need to extend the room again? Ask that one for the money." She pointed across the room to a richly dressed young wizard.
Severus shook his head. "I am not the proprietor. Get up."
Her eyes widened and turned vaguely fearful. She sat up quickly, straightened her rumpled robes, and grabbed her red shawl. "I'll leave. I didn't see you."
"I'm not here to hurt you, or anyone," he said irritably as he picked his way through the tumbled bodies. She hesitated, uncertain. He brushed past her to grab Dirk's shoulder, shaking it roughly. "Wake up, you idiot." Dirk remained dead to the world. "What did he take?"
"Him? Uh, mostly just firewhiskey I think. And some muggle weed and Ecstasy. Might have had a couple Stingers too before he passed out. I don't think he had any of the Euphoria or the muggle Speed. He was definitely out of it by the time Marius brought out the Insanity Sprinkles. You his dad?"
"Worse. I'm his head of house." Severus drew his wand.
"Oh! You must have sent the talking silver bird thing! I thought I was hallucinating!"
"The patronus belonged to Headmaster Dumbledore," he corrected.
"Dumbledore's here?! The Albus Dumbledore?! Is it true he-"
"Quiet." He cast a quick diagnostic charm to make sure the boy was not dying of acute liver failure or something; he wasn't. Lacking any of his usual potions supplies except a bezoar that probably wasn't needed, he conjured first a goblet and water to fill it, then intoned "Inbibere," causing the water to flow into Dirk's mouth and safely down into his stomach. Many of alcohol's more toxic effects after the binge came down to dehydration. "Redirestasis. Rennervate."
It took a minute for Dirk's body to redeploy its fluids and salts sufficiently for him to wake up. When his eyelids did eventually flutter open, he looked first confused, then pained, then finally alarmed. "Professor Snape?" he slurred.
"You missed the train."
"How'd ye find me? Why'd ye..."
"You are my student, and I am good at what I do. Now get up."
Dirk groaned but couldn't be bothered to refuse him. He slowly sat up, but then slouched forwards with another groan to support his head in his hands. "Ah think A'm aff tae be sick." His Scotch accent was certainly more evident when he was drunk, Severus noted. Most Slytherin purebloods tried to blunt their regional accents in public to conform with the most aristocratic representative of the Sacred Twenty-Eight; currently at Hogwarts, that was of course Augusta Selwyn, who hailed from Gloucestershire.
"Yes, you are," Severus told him unsympathetically. "You knew that before you started drinking, though. Come on. I'll get you to the hospital wing."
"Whitsi' matter...I don' wan' go back. I'll be 'ere in six moonths anyway... Ye ken it. Ah ken it. Me Da ken..."
Unexpectedly, it was the courtesan who snapped him out of his maudlin self-involvement. She slapped him across the face. "You moron! If I'd've known you were still at Hogwarts, I'd have kicked you out of the club myself yesterday! Of course you got to go back! I'd give my hand to go to Hogwarts, and you'll throw it away? You privileged goat! Go on! Get out! Get out!" She hammered on his shoulder with her fists until in desperation, Dirk heaved himself up and lurched away. At the doorway, Severus nodded to the squib and flipped her a galleon. He grabbed Dirk's bicep and hauled him unceremoniously out of the establishment and up the street to the corner of Knockturn and Diagon. Predictably, Albus was waiting for them there, apparently taking in the gaudy Christmas display at Twilfitt and Tatting.
"If you buy any of those robes, I will use them to strangle you," Severus muttered to him. Albus merely chuckled as all three of them apparated back to the edge of the Hogwarts wards. Dirk took the opportunity to vomit on Severus' robes.
Author's note: surprise update, but bit of a downer chapter, sorry. There's obviously not a lot in canon about substance use, since kids books, but it's certainly hinted at with the existence of the Elixir to Induce Euphoria and Essence of Insanity, amongst others. "Stingers" is a reference to billiwig stings; it's mentioned in Fantastic Beasts that billiwig venom causes hallucinations. I made up the healing spells Severus used except for Rennervate. Next update will be Friday as usual. Thanks for the reviews!