Severus and the Doctor

The Room At The End Of The Hall

I'm taking some creative license with Severus' backstory that we don't really know :)
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"I am fucking this all the way up Hank" Eve groaned into the pay phone down the street from Severus' home outside of London, after the debacle of her stethoscope absorbing magic and trying to strangle her, she kept magical and muggle life very separate.

Sev hadn't spoken to her for two days. Since Harry left. The only time he spoke was to offer opinions or directives about the students or their next steps. They had been at his home for several hours now, taking a day to rest before traveling to Ireland to pick the first set of tubers. She excused herself to escape the ironclad silence of a man steeping in betrayal.

"You can't treat him like a normal operative Doc. He won't respond to that" Hank offered, glasses clanging in the background

"How am I supposed to treat him then? Like a child? Like a delicate flower? He used to be my friend, and now he hates me" she complained, unfamiliar sadness burning her throat

"He doesn't hate you. You're getting close. His life's purpose before this had been complete solitude. He's in that ugly stage of bruising before it heals and you can't keep beating him up for information" Hank mused, surprisingly sage

She rolled her eyes. Softness was not a strength she carried well. She blew out a frustrated breath

"Thanks Hank. I'll try and call soon"

The early morning sun wavered on her face behind fluffy clouds. The beauty of the sky in opposition to the dark alleys of the post industrial part of town gave her the existential shivers. Not that Severus' home was much different. It was a skeleton of a house, not lived in and only a home by name.

What was the point of him being so rude to her? What kept him tethered to safe guarding Harry? It seemed as if the whole of the wizarding world was there for him, why was Severus the lynchpin? Harry hadn't told her a reason when they met. He simply said that Severus was a brave man and that their lives were joined in a way that wasn't his place to explain.

A small elder woman with pin curl hair and a powder blue dressing robe meandered out of the apartment beside her to collect the paper.

She called out inquisitively to her

"Good morning to you dear. Are you thinking of buying the house a few doors down? It hasn't been lived in for years"

Feigning politeness, Eve nodded

"Yes ma'am"

The woman ambled down the three concrete stairs to where she stood, leaning in close after looking around quickly

"Oh you're American! You don't know. There was a bit of a scandal. Would you like to hear?"

Eve leaned in closer, giving into the woman's need for gossip.

"There used to be a family that lived there. Awful man, always screaming and drunk. I felt bad for the poor woman when I would see her getting the weekly shopping; she never smiled or looked up from the ground. They had a little boy, scrawny thing. Out wandering the streets and the park. So very sad"

Eve nodded, processing the information. If she played her cards right with this woman, she could understand Severus more.

"Did the little boy grow up here? That sounds very tragic"

The woman shook her head excitedly

"He played with a little neighbor girl, bright red hair. She would wave to me when she came through. But after a while they both just...disappeared. Then one night, the police showed up. The man hauled off in a drunken stupor and killed that poor woman. Pretty sure he died in prison a few years later...I never saw their son again but there has never been another family to live there. Are you sure you want to get into a home with that kind of history?"