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The yellow Brickroad	By : Lalani Category: Harry Potter > General > General Views: 8131 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor the characters. I do not make any money off of this

Chapter List
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Chapter Two

A good life, interrupted.

RPOV

He was, again, working on that blasted equation, still not able to figure it out. It was galling him more and more since the answer was important to the success of an original Potion. He wasn’t able to figure out the right dosages with his skills as Potions Master and that was…disappointing. Now he had to rely on Arithmancy, of all things!

He was sitting at their dining table, with his wife, Belle Prince, rummaging in the kitchen, trying to cook lunch for both of them. Their children had finally left for summer camp yesterday and they had the whole place to themselves for two weeks. His wife had insisted on cooking and he was already afraid of what would come out of it. He had, wisely, stored up on bread and peanut butter and had hidden them in his Lab in the attic. He knew she wouldn’t be mad if he didn’t like her cooking, but he couldn’t stand her disappointed face when it didn’t work out. Never mind that she was a terrible cook. He chuckled lightly at that, his spirits lifting and promising himself he would eat whatever she put in front of him. His good mood lasted only for a moment until he looked at his equations again. He sighed and put them aside. He knew he wouldn’t figure it out if he always put them aside, but discovering a new potion just didn’t seem worth the bad mood it put him into. He had his wife for himself, after all, for two whole weeks. They wouldn’t starve if he didn’t invent anything. He slowly walked into the kitchen, enjoying seeing her in black tights and a sky-blue tunic. She was barefoot and looked completely relaxed, with her unmanageable curls pulled into a ponytail and bouncing around wildly with every move she made. She was rather short, but with a trained body. She wasn’t really slim, but rather rounded in all the right places, with tight muscles everywhere else. She danced in her free time and it showed. Even now, with the radio playing some salsa music, she was dancing around the kitchen while doing her work in the sundrenched kitchen. He smiled at that, leaning against the doorjamb and watching her until she noticed his presence.

“Hey, baby.” She said with her husky voice, a smile lighting up her face. She had a small nub of a nose, pointing upward, and almond shaped blue eyes. Her high cheekbones and golden skin hinted at an ancestor from the Middle East. With her full lips, that always tended to look pouty and her golden blond hair with the platinum blond highlights, she was simply stunning. It had taken him years to accept that it was truly him she wanted and she wasn’t playing a joke on him.

“Hey, luv. Do you need any help with lunch?” he asked her, crossing the kitchen and gathering her in his arms when he was close enough. He took a deep breath, smelling her scent that was a mixture of the greenhouse she worked in every day and the Lemon Shampoo she used. She laughed and snuggled into him.

“Still couldn’t figure out your little problem?” she asked, figuring out why he came into the kitchen. She looked up at him. Barely coming up to his chest, she made him feel like a true giant.

“Yes. I just can’t solve that problem, so I figured I would rather spend more time with my beautiful wife than sitting at that table doing nothing.” He admitted with a sigh. She grinned at that and pointed to their kitchen Isle, where the cucumbers were just waiting to be cut.

“Well, I could use a hand. I am making cucumber salad, hard to mess that up, and a chicken stew. You can start slicing them.”

They finished making their lunch while talking about their plans for the next two weeks. He wanted to go up to New York, spend a few days shopping and spoiling her and was trying to persuade her into it. She didn’t like big cities, while he just wasn’t into the country lifestyle. They had compromised when they had moved to Garden City. It was neither a small town, nor a big city, with a rather large magical population and a small school they could send their kids to. He had finally gotten her to agree to a few days of shopping, when they sat down for lunch. She was carrying their plates with the stew, while he was carrying the bowl of salad and a wicker basket filled with bread.

He sat down after their places were set and took a hesitant taste of the stew.

“God, this is good!” he exclaimed, surprised and delighted at how good it tasted.

“Really?? It is really good?” his wife asked him, excited. He grinned at her and nodded, before he really dug in. Apparently, she had finally found something she could cook properly.

They ate in compatible silence. After sixteen years of marriage, they didn’t need to fill their days with chit-chatter. They were truly happy and he would be eternally grateful for this chance. And to Regulus Black, if he were to be honest. If he hadn’t told Russel what was going on and had urged him to change his mind, he would have never had this kind of life. He would probably still be in England, fighting to be accepted by people that looked down on him for his family. He lifted his head and looked at his wife, warmth spreading through his body.

He stood up and turned around the table, ignoring her questioning look. Pulling out his wand and flicking it at their radio, slow music started filling the air.

“Come, dance with me, love.” He said, stretching out his hand towards her.

“Well, this is unexpectedly romantic, Russ.” She said, before taking hold of his hand letting him pull her out of the chair. He flicked his wand again and with a murmur the dining room morphed, getting bigger and a small dance floor appearing next to their table. She giggled and with a flick of her own wand, she transfigured her tunic into a floor length dress, her shoulders bare. It was nearly see through at the legs.

She pulled out the band holding her hair together and shook her head slightly, making the curls bounce and shake. He pulled her into him, dancing slow with her, just enjoying being with her.

“I would not call it unexpectedly romantic. We are just usually so busy with our brood of children, that we don’t get the time to just be together.” He replied, pulling her into a swift turn, making her throw back her head and give him her husky laugh.

“True. They are incredibly time consuming, are they not?” she answered. “Mikhail and Deborah are quite children, but Elias and Hannah? Those two are so full of energy, I constantly wonder where they get it from.”

At this, he raised an eyebrow, smirking at her pointedly. As an answer, she grinned wildly, before lifting her hand from his shoulder and waving it around, changing the music from the slow jazz to a quick foxtrot.

He shook his head, but obliged by leading his wife into the dance, not for the first time regretting not buying a place with a ballroom, so they could dance properly. He loved holding her in his arms and feeling her move with the music, a look of pure joy in her face.

This, these moments, with them together and happy, were the reward for the shitty childhoods both of them had had at Spinner’s End, that grey and god-forsaken part of town. There had been nothing but hard-break and disappointment for them there.

He shook himself out of those bleak memories and pulled her closer, finally giving in to the desire that had been building since he had walked into their kitchen while watching her move with the sunlight playing on her hair.

LPOV

Finally, they had arrived at their destination, pulling into the quiet street that was their destination. She looked around her, curious about the place he had chosen to live in. They were in a small sub-urb of Garden City, with beautiful, but typical American houses that belonged to obviously affluent families. All of them had yards all around their houses, with enough space for children to play. Actually, there were children playing here or there, all rather young. She drove down the road until she reached the address, finding herself in front of the house where he was supposed to be living in. The yard was replaced with a garden, full of different colored flowers, but liberally sprinkled with the biggest sunflowers she had ever seen. There was no picket fence here, like she had seen on some of the other properties, but a knee high hedge that went all the way around the property. There was a car parked in the driveway on the left side. Leading up to the front door was a brick walkway that was held in a deep golden yellow and what looked like small red footprints all over it.

The yellow brick road from ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’, she immediately thought, delighted at this detail. It had been his favorite book, she remembered. The house was painted in a dark light cream, with the door and the windows painted white. The roof was the typical red.

“What the hell?? That house looks ridiculous! What are those red footprints? Did he try to kill one of the neighbor’s kids and have it escape, with blood on their feet??” James burst out, staring at the prints in horror. She turned her head at her husband, pondering if telling him that that was probably paint would be worth the discussion it would start. She could explain the connection between Dorothy’s’ red slippers and the footprints…

“I like it. It looks really sunny and welcoming! And I don’t think that is blood, dad, or it would have been either washed away by rain or became brown from being exposed to the air. And it can’t be fresh, or the neighbors wouldn’t be so calm. People tend to notice little children running around covered in blood.” Harry interjected, straining his head to look at the house properly. James turned his head to shoot his son a scathing look, but Harry wasn’t paying any attention to his father.

“Harry has a point.” Remus said quietly, shifting and opening the door on his side and stepping out.

“We will find out soon enough.” Lily said, getting out of the car. The rest followed and soon they were all piled up on the side of the street. She walked up to the house, taking in the pretty garden and noticing small pathways between the flowers, the little footprints leading to them. There was a set of footprints leading directly up to the house. Looking closer, she noticed they were quite old, a few already fading from the exposure to the environment and people walking over them. She wondered why he hadn’t spelled them to stick, but then remembered that this was a mixed community, like Godrics Hollow. When she only noticed James grumbling behind her under his breath, she chanced a look behind her and saw that Remus and Sirius had stayed behind with Harry at the car. Sirius had been completely silent since the Gas-Station a few hours ago, understandable after what had passed between them.

She stopped in front of the door and turned around towards James.

“Please, do not say anything but hello. I want to talk to him without you interfering, James.” She said to him, knowing that her husband and he had never gotten along with each other. She hadn’t wanted to bring any of the three with her, afraid that their presence would anger him. She had promised the Headmaster to plead with him to return to England. They were both hoping he still had feelings for her, if only feelings of friendship. She felt her heart do an uncomfortable lurch at the thought of him not loving her anymore. She knew it was wrong, but while she loved James, she had always been in love with him. His choice of friends had destroyed any chance of them being together and she still resented him for it. If he had only moved away from them and tried a bit harder to fit in with the rest…

“What do you mean, interfering?” James asked her, obviously insulted.

“You always try to take over any conversation. I just don’t want you to do it today. This is important and I want to talk to him properly.” She answered, trying to stay calm. They had been fighting more and more lately, if she were honest, but they tried not to do it in front of Harry when he was home. This trip had seriously brought out the bad in her and she was constantly annoyed with everything James did.

Her husband stared at her for a moment, before sighing and letting his shoulders drop. “I don’t know what is going on with you, Lily, but you constantly trying to put me down is seriously getting to me. Fine, I will leave you to talk to him on your own, since it is actually you Albus asked to take care of this, but we will talk later about this, when Harry is back in Hogwarts.”

He shook his head and turned around, walking back to the car. Suddenly, she felt guilty and started to follow him. Then, she thought better of it and turned back to the door. She would apologize later, when they were alone and there wasn’t a Werewolf listening to their conversation. She had been getting bitchy lately whenever he started talking.

She lifted her right hand and rang the bell and felt a smile come over her face when the sound of the bell turned out to be a cheery jingle.

RPOV

“How long do you think they will be standing on our front steps?” Belle asked him with a laugh in her voice while they were watching their ‘guests’ through the mirror in their hallway. They had spelled it to show them who was standing in front of their door as if it was open. They had been doing the dishes, when they had seen the car pull up to the curb and the five people get out. He had instantly recognized all of them and started pulling up his wards. For a moment, he had feared the worst, but they seemed too relaxed for anything bad to have happened. Then, he had feared they might be Polyjuiced Death-Eaters, but had discarded the idea when he heard them talk to each other. You could not fake a voice with Polyjuice.

He was still cautious, but amused by their quarreling. Apparently, life had not treated the Potters with everything they had wanted.

“I think it will be over quickly. James Potter will either completely blow up at his wife or start pouting and slink away…and there he goes, pouting.” He answered, a chuckle leaving him at the end. He wife laughed her husky laugh and looked at him, pulling what was commonly called a ‘Duck-Face’ at him.

He rolled his eyes at her silliness. “You look ridiculous.” He said and she giggled and stopped.

“Do you want me to stay or do you want to handle them on your own?” she asked him, turning serious and giving him a penetrating look.

He looked at her and considered keeping her by his side. Then he discarded the idea, because he did not want her exposed to those idiots.

“No, I will handle them on my own. I will not expose you to them.” He answered her, leaning down to kiss her cheek. She smiled up at him, turned around and walked towards their kitchen, probably disappearing into the cellar. She would stay there, deep in her research, until he was finished with his guests. When he turned back towards the mirror, he saw only Lily standing there, staring at the door and finally ringing the bell.

Suddenly he felt angry, at her, at them, because the chimes made his stomach clench painfully today. Usually they would make him smile, but her presence had already tarnished a part of his happy world.

He opened the door, putting himself in the doorway and looked at his one-time crush, the girl that had turned him down and away from the light and what was good in him. He had been lucky to have Belle, who had stopped him from going completely over the edge.

“Hello, I am Lily Potter. I would like to…S-Severus? Is that you?” She started speaking, not recognizing him until halfway through the sentence. He had changed a lot since he had left England sixteen years ago. While at school, he had been a too thin and too tall as a kid, with greasy hair and a greasy, huge nose. The nose had stayed, if he were honest, but with him filling out, especially his face, it wasn’t as prominent as it used to be. Shortly before graduation, and certainly after, he had grown even taller. Since then, he had started to put on muscle mass by training religiously, toning his body. He didn’t want to look skinny next to his wife.

He was broad shouldered, with a slim waist and shoulder length hair that he kept tied back in a ponytail. With his worn out jeans and in a black T-Shirt, he must have looked quite menacing, even without counting in the earrings at his right ear. He had three hoops and a tear-shaped garnet dangling from it. Another ring went through his left eyebrow. All of the earrings and piercings were made out of blackened goblin-silver.

“Obviously…”and with a smirk finished: “Not, Madame. I know no one by that name, mine is Russel.” With that he closed the door again, not wanting to be standing there when the three buffoons she had brought along caught up to her. They had started walking towards her the moment they had taken a good look at him. They probably thought him too tough-looking for the little Gryffindor-Princess to handle.

He watched them through the mirror, watching them talk to her, asking her who ‘that scary dude’ was. They all let out comments of disbelief (James’ quite rude) and turned towards the door. He was planning on ignoring them, when he looked to the sidewalk and saw a Mini-Version of James turn to the property next door and start walking towards it. Feeling his heart stop, he yanked open the front door and shoved the four people standing there out of the way.

“You, kid! Get away from that property, right now!!” he yelled, stalking along his yellow brick road. He heard the four idiots rambling behind him.

“Lily, and I assume he is yours, tell him to get back! The person living next door is a Baba Jaga!” he said over his shoulder. He heard her call out the boy’s name, Harry, and the idiot finally turned around, already halfway to the house. Russel saw Minuschkas door open slightly and a withered, white face peek out. He put a smile on his face, grabbed the boy by the scruff of his neck and waved to her.

“Hi, Minuschka! Sorry for the interruption! I made chicken stew and wanted to send some over with this idiot” at this he shook the boy like a rag doll, “but he obviously went off without it!”

“Chicken Stew?” she croaked at him, “that does sound good. Bring it over for dinner, then I don’t have to cook. And teach that boy some manners, why don’t you! Preferably with a stick.”

The door slammed shut behind her, and all of the shutters came down magically. It was her way of showing disapproval. He turned around, the boy still dangling from his hand, and started pulling him off the old woman’s property.

“Unhand my son this instance!” James Potter growled at him as soon as they reached the edge of the property. Adults that didn’t have Minuschka’s approval could not get over her wards. James pulled his son towards him and Lily, and both hugged their son, with James shooting him dirty looks. Sirius and Remus were just looking at him. He figured they were surprised he had saved the boy. They all knew what a Baba Jaga would have done to the child.

Or at least they think they know, Severus thought.

“Why is there a Baba Jaga living next door to you? There are children everywhere in this neighborhood!!” Lilly practically screeched at him.

He didn’t bother explaining to them that the Baba Jaga was an integral part of their community and they were well protected from her. He wanted the Potter’s visit over with and done. He wouldn’t play any games.

“Come on in, ALL of you. You can tell me what you came here for, so I can happily refuse!” he growled, walking past them and towards his house.

They followed him and piled into his open hallway. They probably looked like a herd of chickens being led by their mother.
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The yellow Brickroad