The Redemption of Severus Snape

Part 81

Once the furor died down and requests for academic papers from Severus diminished, he made an out-of-character request of Lin, which she took very seriously as it was rare for him to make a request of any kind. He asked for her company on any evening of her choosing, and asked that a sitter be found for Niketas. Most women would expect a pleasant, if not romantic, surprise, but Lin knew all too well that Severus was anything but a typical man.

Lin descended the cellar stairs and found Severus slowly pacing the confines of his private courtyard and looking very pensive. "Is there a dress code for the evening?"

"No," said Severus. "Is Niketas taken care of?"

"Minerva just picked him up. She asked to keep him for a few days."

"I want to take you somewhere. Are you ready?"

"Whenever you are," said Lin, and Severus held his arm out for her to take. They disapparated with a barely audible crack. They appeared in a dark narrow alley set between two dilapidated brick houses. The night sky was overcast, and they were pelted by a steady cold drizzle. Lin took her cue from Severus and remained silent and still until he led her quickly yet quietly across the street to another dilapidated brick house identical to all the others that she could see.

There wasn't a single functional street light and Severus didn't light his wand tip, which made it very hard to see, though Severus had no trouble finding his way. He led her into one of the houses and used his wand to open the door rather than grasping the doorknob with his bare hand. The door seemed unnaturally silent to her as it smoothly swung out of the way. They stood in a cold dark room. Lin was motionless, but she could feel Severus moving his wand arm because she was clinging tightly to his other arm. She didn't make a sound as she knew that Severus was using non-verbal magic to detect anything unfriendly. A casual flick of his wand brought dim light to the room. Lin blinked as her eyes adjusted to the sudden burst of pale-orange light that flickered from a candle-filled lamp that hung from the cracked and cobweb-filled plaster ceiling.

Lin looked around at a small, oppressive, dust-laden room lined on three sides by simply crafted, utilitarian, floor-to-ceiling bookcases packed with dusty, old, leather-bound books. Slightly off-center of the tiny room sat a small, ancient-looking and dirty, tattered sofa accompanied by a mismatched and equally dirty and tattered armchair. Between the unloved and uninviting furniture sat a small, very plain, decrepit and wobbly wooden table.

Severus tapped his wand on one of the bookcases, which instantly moved aside to reveal a closed wooden door that opened to a narrow dusty hallway with a room to one side and a dusty, poorly maintained staircase to the other. In the middle of the little hallway hung another candle-filled lamp, the dim orange glow from it enhanced the generally uneasy feeling created by the house itself.

"Look around, Lin. Take it all in." Severus' voice was low and silky, yet its sudden presence was jarring. "I grew up here, in this derelict desiccated hovel. It belonged to my parents. Now it's mine, and I am its."

"What are you telling me?"

"You think you love me. You think you see good things in me." Severus moved his wand in a circular motion to indicate that he was referring to the house itself. "I want you to see what I really am, straight down to my core."

"This is an empty building, Severus. It's a thing. You're a man—a complicated one, I admit—but loath as you are to acknowledge it, you're a living feeling being."

Severus' voice remained soft, but a tinge of danger had crept into it. "I am a Death Eater, a menace, a bully. I am a miserable—"

"Stop it!" shouted Lin, and her voice seemed to perturb the eerie silence that covered the house like a burial shroud. "You can denigrate yourself to me all you want, but I do see the good in you." Severus snorted. "I see what Lily saw, and Albus too." Mentioning Lily's name bordered on emotional blackmail, and Severus was clearly shaken by the sound of it.