Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Why He Hates Muggles	By : OddDoll Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female Views: 2848 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
- 6
Why He Hates Muggles

Chapter 5

By Odd Doll

Saturday, June 12, 1976

Severus scrambled up the ladder and threw back the trap door to the
roof. He hoisted himself up, and swung his long legs out onto the steep
slope of the western roof. He shielded his eyes against the sudden
brightness, looked around for his father, and found him levitating
tools and supplies up from the ground. He half-crawled across the
incline and kept his eyes averted from the three-story drop inches from
his feet.

Gaius Snape was in a good mood. �You look a little pale, Son. You�re
not scared, are you?�

Severus was on uneven ground in both the literal and figurative
sense. �Should I be?� he asked.

�Not too scared. You need confidence up here. If you�re mincing
around like a little Hufflepuff girl, you�re going to fall. Anyway, you
mother made me promise to put up a spell net so if we slip we won�t
break our necks. Here, take this.�

Severus breathed a sigh of relief and stood up taller. He took a
crowbar from his father and hefted its weight in his hands. �What do I
do with this thing?�

�Whenever you see a shingle that is split, or coming off, slip the
crowbar under it and pry it off.� He demonstrated on a shingle near his
feet. �Throw the pieces out on the lawn. We�ll pick them up later.�

�Will this stop the leaks?� he asked getting down on his hands and
knees.

�No, just prevent more. The leaky section is over on the north side.
That�ll be a hell of a job, but we�ll work up to it.�

They worked for an hour, crawling around on hands and knees in the
warm sun. His father used his wand, and had ten times as many shingles
removed as Severus, when they heard his mother shout, �Coming up!� A
pitcher of pumpkin juice and two glasses levitated to the roof.

�Thanks, Mum,� he called down to her.

His father still had a shingle in his hand. �Look out below!� he
bellowed. He tossed the shingle like a Frisbee and it arced far out
into the garden.

�Guy!� his mother yelled. �Will you be more careful? You smashed the
chamomile.�

�One point for Slytherin House!� his father shouted. He sat down
next to Severus and snickered.

His father was at his best when outdoors, Severus thought. Whether
it was fishing, fixing up the house, or trying to teach Severus to play
Quidditch, he seemed to relax and settle down into a genial, normal
human being when he was doing something physical. Maybe that was why he
had to beat somebody up to work out his frustrations, he though
bitterly.

His mother told him he lived for Quidditch at Hogwarts. He was
captain of the Slytherin House team, and had lots of buddies. They
still came around for barbecues, over which Gaius presided with robust
good humor. One of his old school friends had once joked about his
father�s girlfriends, which surprised Severus, considering that he had
inherited his own frightening appearance from his father.

Severus did not take after his father in any other way. Like his
mother, he was quiet, studious and introspective. He tended to brood
over his emotions, rather than let them out like his father did. And he
would much rather be sitting in his dark cellar than baking in the sun
on the rooftop.

�Dad,� he said after screwing up his courage, �why did you go to
work for a potions manufacturer?�

�Because it was either that or become homeless and penniless. I
opted for just penniless.�

�No, I mean, why didn�t do sdo something else? Why did you choose
that?�

�Because I�m a Snape, that�s what we do. It�s how the family fortune
was made, you know, back before the secrecy laws. Even after that we
kept doing it. And we�ve prepared dark potions since about the
beginning of time. I got hired by Mercury Medicines just by the family
reputation alone, so it seemed a godsend at the time.�

Severus took a gulp of pumpkin juice, working up the nerve to go
further. �But you don�t seem to really like it. You come home so angry
all the time.�

His father put down his glass and took a long look at Severus.
�You�re just like your mother. You see everything.�

Severus decided not to say that the reason he was attuned to his
father�s moods was because he was likely to get whipped with his belt
during the bad ones.

�I like it fine. Not as much as you do, though. I�ve never seen a
kid who spent so much time tinkering with potions and dark magic. What
was that screeching noise I heard down there a couple of nights ago?�

�I was trying to resurrect a cat.�

His father gave a low whistle. �I didn�t know you�d gone that far
with it. You must being doing pretty well. Did it work?�

Severus flushed, both at his father�s approval and in embarrassment.
�No,� he admitted. �I got it up and it freaked out and scratched me and
I lost it.�

His father laughed. �Try a frog to start with. Amphibians are
supposed to be easier than mammals.�

�Have you done it?�

�No. I was never much interested.�

�You seem much happier when you�re doing stuff like this,� Severus
said, indicating the half-shingled roof with a sweep of his arm.

�I am. Now, if this Lord Voldemort lives up to his promises, I can
quit the factory and do what I was meant to do � make Dark Magic and
scare the bejeezus out of the muggles.� Severus was not sure if he was
joking or not. His father stared out toward the trees with a thoughtful
smile on his face. Lord Voldemort was a touchy subject between his
parents, so he decided to keep quiet and stay out of it.

His father leaned forward and said, �Want to know a secret? I tried
out for the West Counties Wings once.�

Severus snorted.

�They were a lot better back then than they are now,� his father
said. He jutted out his jaw and said with pride. �And they accepted me.
Second string, of course, but they said I had a bright future.�

�Really? That�s groovy. Why didn�t you play for them?�

�Because your grandfather committed suicide and I suddenly had to
get a �real job� to keep those damn goblins happy.�

�Oh,� was all he could think of to say.

�You know, I never even told Brenda about it, but she somehow knew
anyway. Never underestimate your mother, Sev. She�s got a lot going on
upstairs.�

Severus could not remember the last time he sat and talked to his
father. He shivered with nerves, and felt a strange hollowness inside.
His father sat with a smug smile on his face, thinking of
Merlin-knew-what, and Severus decided not to press him with moquesquestions. They sat in companionable silence for several minutes. They
were just about to resume work when father shielded his eyes with his
hand and stared out into the garden.

�I think you have a visitor,� he said.

Severus jumped up so fast he almost found himself making use of the
spell net. He swayed backward for a moment and then jackknifed forward
to land on his hands and knees. He scrambled for the turret.

�Eager, are you?� his father said with a snort. �You don�t like her
much, do you, son? Or do you just want to get out of sitting on this
hot roof with your old man?� he called out after him.

Both, he thought as he lowered himself through the trap door.

When he bounded down the front steps he found his father greeting
Charity on the garden path. Show off, he thought. His father must have
levitated himself down from the roof. He watched in angry silence as
his father took greeted Charity with a gruff �hello�, crossed his arms
over his chest and gave her a critical eye. His father had not approved
nor disapproved the friendship, saying only that he needed to meet the
girl and sf shf she had �good breeding�. Severus had muggle friends
before, and since it would not last beyond the summer, he was hoping
his father would permit him to befriend her. Charity had already
crumbled his own reservations about her birth with a few smiles, and
friendly chatter. He would have been mortified at how easily she had
won him over if it ever occurred to him to think about it. It never did.

�Brenda told me you were pretty,� Gaius Snape said to her in a
neutral voice.

Charity blushed, but her eyes were wary. �Thank you,� she said. She
looked up at Severus.

�Hello,� Severus said.

�Hi.� She clutched a string bag in her hands and twisted it in a
little display of nerves. �I can�t really stay today,� she said. �My
whole family is home, but they sent me to the store. So, I thought I
would stop by, since you wanted me to meet your father.�

�Well, you�ve mem. Wm. Would you like me to walk you to the road?�
Severus said.

�Nonsense,� his father said. �You spent half the day with her
yesterday. Now it is my turn to talk with her for a bit.� Severus had
no choice but to follow behind as his father walked side-by-side with
Charity.

In fact, they had spent half the day together on the previous day.
Charity only had a few minutes on Wednesday, and did not appear at all
on Thursday, but on Friday she showed up at eleven with a batch of
brownies.

�I don�t have many chores todand Ind I was hoping to walk in the
woods again,� she had said. �Do you want to come?�

Since it was near noon, his mother provided a lunch and they went
off to sit by the pool in the shade of the trees. She asked him about
Hogwarts, and he found himself drawn out, telling her about his
studies, the other students, and the teachers.

�You have a teacher that�s a ghost?�

�Yes, there are ghosts all over the castle,� he said, amused had her
incredulous expression.

�But, there�s no such thing.� Her eyes narrowed. �You�re not making
fun of me, are you?�

�No, really. Ask my mother if you don�t believe me.�

�I will, �cause I don�t believe you.�

Charity stood and waded into the upper pool. She twisted her hair
with one hand and pulled it upwards, while rubbing the sweat from her
neck with the other. The weather had been warm, and he could see where
the fabric of her dress clinging to her back.

�Do you always wear those dresses,� he asked.

�Out of the house, yes. At home, when I am cleaning, I�m allowed to
wear pants, and sometimes shorts if it is really hot. But mostly I wear
the dresses.�

She said ith ith a sigh of resignation, prompting him to ask, �Do
your parents make you dress like that?�

�Yes. It�s to prevent me from ensnaring males with my evil
wit-�feminine charms.�

�You almost said �witch�,� Severus said.

�Yes, well�� She did not look at him and walked further down the
bank. Something in her tone made Severus suspicious.

�Do your sisters dress like that?� he asked, raising his voice a
little to be sure she heard him.

�No. Just me,� she said with a casual air that did not fool him.
�Although they have to be modest and not wear tight pants or short
skirts.� She circled her toe in the water, watching it as if it were
the most fascinating thing she had ever seen.

Severus did not want to upset her. She was one of the nicest things
that had happened to him all year, but he had to press further. �They
make you dress differently because you are a witch. Don�t they?�

�Yes,� she said with an overdramatic sigh. She smiled at him.
�Hungry yet?�

He let it go, not wanting to push her away, and they spent the rest
of their time together talking about magic and his life, or not talking
at all. In the back of his mind were questions and small worries. In
time, he thought, he would have to draw her out, if his father did not
scare her away on Saturday.

Watching her now, walking arm in arm with his father, Severus
breathed a sigh of relief. His father was being charming in his gruff
way. He heard Charity laugh at something his father said and decided
that he had worried for nothing.seemseemed that he either approved of
her, or was at least willing to accept her presence. Severus allowed
himself to look forward to the rest of the summer and the things they
might do together.

All recognizable characters, settings and trivia are the property of JK
Rowling. All others are exclusively mine.
- 4
- 5
- 6
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Why He Hates Muggles