Next Time Around

Epilogue

9 years later,
august 26, 2001

With a small nod, Elias thanked Tom for the glass of fire whiskey the bartender put on his table. It was a busy day in The Leaky Cauldron, as was normally the case, so Tom didn't have any time to talk. Not that Elias minded much- he was waiting for someone else anyway- but it was a pity that he and Tom didn't speak all that often.

He took a careful sip of the whiskey. It was good, though not something Elias drank frequently. His line of work wasn't exactly suitable for someone who wasn't constantly aware of their situation, and Elias had leaned the hard way that people with a grunge against you didn't play nice.

As he heard someone approaching his table, he leaned forwards a bit and closed his eyes. Opposite him the chair creaked. Without looking up, Elias nodded in greeting.

'Hello, Elias.' The other person eventually said.

Only then did Elias look up and across the table. 'Hello Severus,' He said, 'you're early.'

'As are you.' Snape countered.

Elias inclined his head. 'I am. Anyhow, thank you for accepting my proposal.'

'Of course. What did you want to talk about?'

'Ah,' Elias said, 'do you not think I was merely offering a nice lunch between two friends?'

Snape lifted an eyebrow. 'We're not friends, Elias. The only reason I even call you by your first name is because my lord's last name is the same as yours.'

'You wound me.' Elias said. 'I thought we really did share something special.'

A sigh. 'Please. Just cut to the case.' Snape said.

'Ah, thank you,' Elias said to Tom, who was once again approaching their table, another glass of whiskey in his hand.

Snape blinked. 'What is this?' He questioned.

'Don't worry about it,' Elias said. 'Now, where were we?' He shoved the glass towards the sour man sitting opposite him.

A little bewildered, Snape accepted the drink. 'You were going to tell me why you invited me to a lunch.'

Elias smiled. 'Ah, right. I suppose I'd just like to ask you how you're doing. You know, what you agree on and don't agree on regarding the new laws, Dumbledore's imprisonment, Voldemort's ideas- don't look at me like that, I'd never tell another soul and even if I did people'd have no reason to trust me.'

Snape was glaring at Elias. 'What do you want that information for?' He spat out.

'Hey,' Elias said somewhat warningly, 'don't. Let's call it an exchange of information. You tell me your views, I tell you what you want to know about what happened nine years ago. And before we say anything at all we throw a quick unbreakable vow in the mix to make sure that no one exploits any of the others answers.'

Snape glared at Elias a little longer. 'Fine.' He eventually said. 'But before we do anything, you tell me why you want to do this.'

With a shrug, Elias answered. 'You've been stewing in your own theories about what happened for long enough, and I figured you'd probably step up and do something soon if I didn't intervene to rectify your -probably wrong- conclusions.'