Fan Fiction ❯ Summer w/ Snape :0) ❯ London pent houses and glaring photos ( Chapter 1 )

Summary: When 16 yr. old Harry Potter is thrown out of his aunt and uncles house with nothing but the clothes his wearing and his wand, he really doesn't know what to do, after deciding to go to London to see if he can get a room in the leaky cauldron. Only when he gets to London, he's taken in by someone who he had hopped not to see for at least a few more months... when school starts again.



Disclaimer 1: Harry, Sev and anybody/ anyplace else from the Harry Potter books does not belong to me. Lucy, tatty teddy, Korougu, Rush, Ares, Ashleigh, Miranda and Nathan are mine don't use them without permission.



Disclaimer 2: Katy and Michel belong to LuCiUs and I'm just nicking them for the occasion (thanx babs)



Disclaimer 3: The idea of Severus having a family comes from Silverfox1's story 'Runaway Dragon'.



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Contrary to popular belief Severus Snape is neither an up tight stiff who hasn't had sex in years or complete slut whose had sex with everybody under the sun. He is just a normal man, living a normal life in a normal apartment with a normal family.



This is his story.



- - - - -



Severus Snape, looked at the window of his apartment, watching muggle London through dark eyes. He yawned and turned around in his seat under the window to look at the little girl curled up in his bed.



He smiled slightly, she was so sweet.



Walking over to the bad he picked her up carefully so as not to wake her, heaving her up in his arms until her head was on his shoulder, her arms loosely wrapped around his neck. One hand clutched the paw of a battered teddy bear. She wriggled when he picked her up and he rubbed her back lightly to soothe her again.



Leaning his back against the bedroom door to push it open he walked across the lounge to another door, this one already open in a fathers haste to get to his crying daughter, and went through into the overly pink room.



He smiled at the row upon of various cuddly toys him and his wife had bought for her and still they found her favorite was tatty teddy with his ripped ear and missing eye and old fur. Oh well that's a child for you.



He shifted the five year old in his arms so that he had a hand free and pulled back the my little pony coverlet on her bed, he laid her down in it with tatty and pulled the blanket up to her chin. There was a chair in the room for occasions just like these, at the moment it was covered in toys, he placed them carefully on the end of her bed knowing full well that there would be a tantrum in the morning if they were on the floor, and pulled the chair over to sit next to her bed.



He chuckled to himself wondering for the hundredth time how his Hogwarts students would react if they saw Severus Snape, head of Slytherin house and Hogwarts resident greasy git, straddling his chair, with his arms crossed across the back of it, watching over his sleeping daughter. It would probably break down the basis of there entire belief system.



"Most of them would probably rather commit suicide than admit to themselves that there may be *any* chance that I even have a family." Seeing that his daughter was once again happily asleep after her earlier nightmare he got up and pushed the chair back where it was, he set up the teddies again and crouched down to kiss her on the head.



"Goodnight Lucy, no nightmares now okay, daddy needs his sleep too." She murmured in her sleep and cuddled further down into the mass of pink blankets, Severus took this as the all clear to go and pushed himself up. Leaving the room and closing the door silently, not making a sound as he walked back across to his own room. Honestly, didn't any of his students or colleagues ever wonder where he learnt his silent grace from. He hadn't been born with it that's for sure but you can't really of had two marriages and three children without learning how to be quiet at night.



He yawned again and sat down on his bed, pulling off the faded trainers he was wearing and throwing his socks into the laundry basket.



Reaching up to let his hair down from the ivory clasp it was held up in he paused at the tell tale bang of the knight bus stopping. What witch or wizard would be coming to London in the middle of the night.



Getting up again, curiosity getting the better of him, he walked over to the window and stared down into the street below.



Harry Potter was getting off the night bus bare footed and wearing nothing but shorts and a t-shirt. Or at least that's what his eyes were telling him. Damn, he knew he was tired but...



He rubbed his eyes and looked back down into the street. No he was still there.



Oh shit...



He fled across his room, not bothering to be quiet, and wrenched a draw in the lounge open, pulling out his wand and house keys. He grabbed his jacket and use alohamora to open his front door. Slamming it closed and hearing barking on the other side. Damn he'd woken Ares up. He fumbled for the right key, in the end giving up and settling for pulling the door open and calling the barking dog over to him.



"Ares, here boy. Make sure nobody gets in until I'm back! Go stand in Lucy's room. Don't let anyone lay a hand on her." The golden Retriever barked loudly several times and bounded off into his little girls room.



Once again he opened the door and left the house jamming the door closed as tightly as he could for safe measure. He thundered down the 14 flights stairs and out into the apartment hall. Pausing for a moment to catch his breath again before turning out into the street to look for his student.



He saw him further down the street and once again ran after him.



"Potter! Harry Potter!" He slowed down, before finally coming to a stop in front of the green eyed boy when Harry finally turned around to face him. To say he looked surprised was the understatement of the year.



"Snape! I mean.. um... Professor."



Severus drew himself up to his full hight and folded his arms across his chest, trying to regain some of his 'evil potions professor' look. The effect was ruined somewhat by the fact that he was red faced from running and panting for breath, bare foot in a muggle street, wearing old denim jeans with a rip in the left knee, a faded t-shirt and a well worn jacket with a curious red stain at the bottom. Absentmindedly he tucked a wayward strand of hair that had come lose from his clasp behind his ear unaware of the effect his sudden undignified presence was having on Harry.



"Um... Professor- what are you doing here?"



He lapsed back into parent mode, two weeks with a 5 year old in the house will do that to a man, even if he is a teacher.



"Don't you professor me Harry Potter, and I think the question is what are you doing out here."



Harry blinked, quite unable to get his head around what his most hated professor had just said to him. Luckily he was saved the trouble of coming up with a reply when Severus' shoulders slumped suddenly.



"I can't believe i just said that." He ran his fingers back through his hair, growling slightly when it encountered the clasp. He reached up and pulled it distractedly out of his hair letting the raven waterfall cascade around his shoulders. Harry was surprised to find that it was not greasy at all.



"Neither can I." Harry slammed his hands over his mouth when he realized what he'd just said, another surprise came when Severus just laughed slightly and folded his arms again, although not menacingly this time.



"What are you doing out here Mr. Potter."



"My aunt and uncle kicked me out professor, I had no where to go so I thought I'd go to the leaky cauldron and borrow somebody's owl to write Ron a letter."



"First of all, we are not in school, there is no need for you to call me Professor here Harry. And secondly, do correct me if I'm wrong, but you were planning on going to a famous wizarding pub all by yourself and asking some complete stranger if you could borrow and owl in order to send a letter that could easily get intercepted straight to the home of some of Albus' followers, in the middle of a war where there are a lot of Voldemort's little deatheaters about, all of which would simply *love* to get there hands on your blood, and you thought this was a *good* idea?"



"It seemed like a good idea before you said that..."



Severus smiled and shook his head in amusement. "Follow me Harry."



Severus turned around and started up the street, Harry paused for a moment before rushing off after him.



"Umm... Can I ask you a question."



"If you want."



"Well it's more like two questions actually. The first is if you don't want me to call you professor then what shall I call you?"



The dark haired man gave a shrug, "Severus will do fine."



"Oh- right." He didn't think he could get used to that.



"And the second question?"



"Right! What are you doing in the middle of muggle London dressed like that for, I had a reason, be it not a very good one, what's yours?"



"Harry, think about that, what on earth could I be doing here."



He rolled his eyes at the blank look on Harry's face. "I live here you idiot. Come on my apartment is in this building."



"You live in an apartment house?"



"Yes."



"What floor?"



"15th, pent house apartment."



"Oh."



"Why, what floor did you think I would be on."



"I was kinda thinking like, in the basement."



"Merlin's beard Harry. Why would I live in the basement?" Harry blushed at the exasperated but amused tone in his potions masters voice.



"Well I kinda thought you liked it in the dark, under the ground."



"Why would any sane person, like it under the ground in the dark."



He smiled inwardly to see the genuinely surprised look on Harry's face.



"But at Hogwarts your rooms are in the dungeons!"



"And? For god sakes Harry, I'm in the dungeons at Hogwarts because it's near the slytherin dorms that's all. I prefer a room with a view."



"Sorry."



"What are you apologizing for you haven't done anything wrong."



"Right..."



"Here this is our floor."



Severus walked over to his apartment, Harry trailing behind him and pushed the door open. There was a growl from the other side then a pleased bark as Severus entered the flat.



"Settle down Ares it's just me. This is Harry." Severus pulled his jacket off and hung it up, reaching out a hand to scratch the beautiful golden retriever behind the ears, leaving Harry to look around the flat. It wasn't as big as Harry had expected Severus' home to be before tonight but it was anything but a small flat. He could see a kitchen-dinner off to the left and five other rooms led off from the lounge.



The creak of a door drew both there attentions to a little girl standing in the doorway to one of the rooms wearing a pale pink night dress and clutching a ragged old teddy bear.



"Daddy, I heard the door slam. What's going on?"



It took Harry a moment to realize that she was talking to Severus, then another moment to realize that the gentle voice replying also belong to the potions master.



"Nothing's going on Luce. We're just going to have someone staying with us for a while that's all."



"Oh, did you have to go fetch him like we do when Mummy comes home?"



"A bit like that yeah." Harry watched Severus crouch down and pick up the little girl. Her head was resting on his shoulder and Harry took that as a chance to take a good look at her. She had a black fringe and obsidian ringlets that fell down to the middle of her back. Dark blue eyes, framed by long black lashes were bleary and unfocused with exhaustion.



"Want daddy to take you to bed?"



"Yeah..." Her reply ended in a yawn and she wrapped her arms around Severus' neck, her cheek resting on his shoulder.



"Come on then. Sleepy time for little girls." He carried her into the room she'd come out of and used his elbow to close it behind him. Harry took the chance to sit down on a the sofa in the middle of the room. Severus' clothes may have been quite old but the apartment was surprisingly well furnished, surprisingly muggle too actually.



The walls were a deep deep red (Harry was pretty sure that Severus hadn't chosen the colour) with patterned gold stencils painted on to it. The carpet was thick and fluffy, and a creamy white. The sofa he was sitting on was red leather, a red and gold throw was over the back of it and matching cushions were propped up in each corner.



There was a modern electric fire in stainless-steel that matched the steel shelves on the walls and the cabinets at either end of the sofa that gave the quaint red and gold room a touch of modernity. Nick-nacks and photos and paintings covered the shelves and walls. A steel framed coffee table with a glass centre was in front of the sofa, covered in books, some were children's books and half finished colouring book that no doubt belonged to the little girl and the others were adults books.



Harry picked one up randomly. It was a potions text. 'Typical Snape- err- Severus.' he thought to himself idly, opening up to the front page. Something was written in small black handwriting inside the front the cover, he squinted in the semi darkness of the room for a light switch or a candle to help him see better, not seeing one he just lifted the book closer to his face.



"Property of Miranda Snape." He murmured to himself as he read, blinking in surprise that the book was not Severus'. He carried on reading. "Do not touch under any circumstances, that means you Severus." He laughed putting the book down.



"She doesn't really mind if I read it."



He turned around and saw Severus closing the door to his daughters room. Harry smiled at him and the man smiled right back, he was much more at ease with this person. Maybe he really could learn to call this man Severus. After all, in Harry's opinion, Snape was a greasy git, this man was anything but.



"Sorry, Lucy must have heard me leave to go fetch you off the street." He came and Sat down of the sofa next Harry and the green eyed boy turned to look at him.



"Lucy, pretty name. She's a cute little girl. How old is she?"



"Five, it was her birthday last month."



"It she an only child?"



"No, she has an older brother Nathan he's your age. And she has a sister Ashleigh, although she was with my last wife."



"Oh, I'm so sorry, you're divorced?"



"Hmm- some women don't like the fact that their husbands have been with more men than they have."



"You're gay?"



"Harry if I was gay then would I of had 2 wives and 3 children? I'm Bisexual."



"Oh, so did you get remarried."



"Yes, a few years after Sonia and I divorced I met Miranda, that's Nathan and Lucy's mother."



"Where is she?"



"Canada."



"Canada? Did you get divorced again?"



"Oh yes Harry because I'm such a greasy insensitive git that no woman could bare to live with me." He laughed sarcastically, making Harry blush at his assumption. "She's on a business trip. She left Two days ago and should be back on Monday. Just in time to give me a good yelling at about the how irresponsible it is to let strange boys from off the street stay in a house with our five year old daughter."



"You're actually going to let me stay then?"



"Why wouldn't I."



Harry decided to change the topic. "Come on, I'm sure your wife isn't going to yell at you."



"Are you kidding, She'll go nuts, me letting anybody near Lucy, wether you're one of my students or not. Have you ever tried living with a woman who has two 'that time of the month's?"



Harry frowned in confusion. "Profe- Severus, I don't get it. Two time of the months, how can you have two time of the months?"



"Have you ever wondered why I learnt to brew the Wolfsbane potion Harry."



'Click!' Went Harry's brain.



"Your wife is a *werewolf*???!!!?!?"



"Yes, she is. You seem surprised."



"But- I mean- You- You- You hate werewolves. You're prejudiced against them!"



Harry watched the look of startled amazement on the mans unguarded face, before Severus broke it laughter. It was a strangely infectious noise.



"What gave you that Idea. I'm not prejudiced against werewolves Harry and I certainly don't hate them."



"But- Remus-"



"I'm not on the best terms with Remus Lupin no. But I never hated him, not for being a werewolf and not for anything else."



"Really?" For what seemed like the millionth time that night Harry was pleasantly surprised.



"Really Harry."



"So what do you feel towards Remus?"



"Indifference. I used to dislike him certainly when we were at school. I was afraid of him for a time after I found out that he was a lycanthrope but after a while I realized how foolish that was. I couldn't be less scared of him now. I know that he was not behind the shrieking shack incident at school and I know that he was never the one who bullied me, hell I don't even dislike for having the friends he had, he's entitled to his choice."



"Then why..."



"Because, Harry. Because he was a prefect, it was his job to stop any bullying and fighting, he never did a damn thing. Lucius Malfoy could have done a better job. Because, he always acts like I'm the one who has wronged him, even before I got him fired and he knows that that was an accident any way, did you know that I have never said a word against him, the only things I've really said about him is that he was a decent teacher and his students like him, even at school I was never mean to him. And finally because he always acts so kind and friendly and pitiful, the poor little werewolf, Harry, My Miranda is a werewolf and she's spent the last 18 years since I've known her and another 5 years before that trying to promote the rights of werewolves, she travels all over the world to do it, she never complains she never expects life to be easy for her, she just gets out there and does her best, if Remus could do that, if he could do what Miranda does everyday just the once, I could probably forgive him of all else you know."



"Well... I've been here for all of about half an hour annnd- I already know you like a hundred times better than before."



"That's what happens when you actually talk to people Harry."



"So if you don't hate Remus, who do you hate?"



"I don't think that I really hate anyone."



"Really? How about my dad and Sirius?"



"Your father and Sirius? Well, I admit that I didn't like them but I didn't hate them either. I think that what most got on my nerves about your father was that he was a nice guy. By himself anyway. If I bumped into him when there was no one else around then he was a perfectly nice and social young man. Get him around his friends and he was completely the opposite. It was utterly enraging to see someone I thought was my friend hex me just because other people were about. And Sirius. Well, Sirius I'm not going to debate was horrible to me without reason. I think that it was something about his background, his family wanted him to be a Slytherin so he tried his hardest to prove that he wasn't one. I don't hate him for it though, I know what it's like to have a bad childhood. Although, I do admit that I was very jealous of him at school."



"Really, why were you jealous?"



"Why wouldn't I be, he was charming, funny, handsome, popular. I was just some scrawny Slytherin kid who no one really understood. Anyway, I've got over that now, in fact I've got over a lot of things to do with your God Father Harry."



"What?"



Severus turned to look at Harry and flashed him a smile so unlike anything else that he'd ever seen on Severus Snape that his mind completely forgot that that was who it belonged to and made the mistake of thinking it was beautiful, or at least, it did before before Harry mentally berated himself.



"Did you know that alcohol makes your God Father gay Harry?"



"Oh my God!!! Have you two- you know- had sex?"



"What? No! God no! We kissed a bit at your fathers wedding yes and we may have had a few other private- escapades, when we were at school and then once again when it was just him and me at Grimuald place. But Merlin's beard no! No sex."



"You were at my parents wedding?"



"Hmm- Yes, of course. Your mother invited me, Lily and I were always on generally good terms and James didn't exactly complain about it, like I said we got on well when it was just us."



"If you got on well with my mum then why..."



"Why in that memory you saw did I call her a mudblood?" He shrugged hands behind his head. "I was upset, that had been the third time they'd bullied me that day. I was generally being an idiot. But no, I guess it must be hard for you to believe, having hated me since age eleven but your mother and I had always been quite close."



"So if you two were close then how did you like meet and you know- get talking."



"It just sort of happened. We hadn't ever spoken until the summer before my 3rd year at Hogwarts. She was out shopping in some Muggle city with her parents and I'd gone off to try to spend the day away from mine and somehow wound up in this city she was in. I had some muggle money from past trips away from my parents and she had been given a few hours to walk around the shopping centre by herself but had forgotten that it was a muggle city and had only bought galleons with her. She turned around a street corner at the same time as me and we bumped into each other, I knocked her over so obviously I offered her a hand to get back up, it wasn't until we were standing face to face again that we realized that we knew each over from school. I offered to get her a drink because she only had wizarding money, she accepted we ended up spending the day together. We couldn't speak much at school obviously but we carried on talking and exchanging owls and junk and we ended up becoming friends. Answer your question?"



"Yes. Okay so why were you trying to get away from your parents? Do you hate them?"



"No Harry. I do not hate my parents. I just don't love them either. I don't know. I wouldn't ever want to see them again if it wasn't for the fact that they're Lucy and Nathan's grandparents. We were a broken home really. It was frowned upon to have a divorce when I was a child so my parents put it off for as long as possible, but they didn't get on well so there was always yelling and arguments at home. They often ended up forgetting I was there. They split up when I was fourteen and I went to live with my father because my mother didn't want me and my father was indifferent. It was alright with him for a couple of months but then he got his new girlfriend and all his time was taken up with her and her daughter. She used to cling to him all the time, the daughter I mean, not that his girlfriend didn't take every chance she could get to touch him too. But the girl was always far clingier than she should have been with him for a girl who'd supposedly 'just met him'. Any way it turned out that they'd been seeing each other for a year before the divorce was even filed. I was pushed completely into the back ground by the time they were married and I still had to see my awful power obsessed mother for two weeks every summer too. Like I said it was a broken home."



"Aww, I'm so sorry."



He waved his hand brushing off Harryºs sympathy. "It's no big deal. Anyway, a more important question is when did you last eat, you look like you've been out all day."



"Some body gave me a mars bar around Lunch time but"



He trailed off and Severus knew the answer, he hadnºt eaten.



"Come on then. You must be starving, why didn't you say anything?"



"I didn't class it as important. Running into you in the middle of Muggle London seemed much more interesting."



"Harry, trust me. I'm not interesting, you'll soon find that out in the next few weeks."



Severus pushed himself up to stand and Ares jumped off the red leather armchair he had been sitting on and followed his master into the kitchen-dinner with a small bark.



"Sit down, I'll get you sorted out. What do you want to eat?"



Harry took a seat at the stylish round kitchen table and looked around while he answered. It was all done in stainless steel with white paint on the walls and pale wood on the floors. Abstract art littered the walls each with the date it was done on carved into the steel frame, along with the signature Miranda Snape.



"Umm anything thanks. Did your wife paint all these?"



Severus looked up from what he was doing, following Harry's gaze to the photoºs on the walls.



"Hmm- most of them, a couple were done by my eldest."



"Ashleigh?"



"Yes."



"How old is she?"



"23. She works in an apothecary in Birmingham."



"Does she take after you?"



"In what way?"



"Does she likes potions, is she a Slytherin, does she looks like you? Just in general does she take after you?"



"Well, she does like potions, thatºs why she works in an apothecary, she wants to be an Alchemist when sheºs older. I wouldn't put her in Slytherin though, certainly not Gryffindor. I think she'd probably be a Ravenclaw actually. Now lets see does she look like me well you can see for yourself." He reached into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a leather wallet, throwing it onto the table.



"There should be a picture of her in there, it was taken about six months ago but I donºt expect that sheºs changed much."



Harry opened up the wallet, the initials SS were written in gold on the front, and was surprised to see Muggle credit cards and a driving license inside. He ignored that and flicked to the back pulling out four photos from one of the compartments.



He spread them out on the table to look at them. The first was a photo of Lucy. Black hair curled perfectly and falling over her shoulders in delicate ringlets. She was wearing a dark blue dress and matching shoes with little white socks. The silver petticoat of the dress was just showing where she was lifting up the sides in a curtsy. Silver and blue butterfly clips held a black fringe off her face and out of big blue eyes.



She really was a pretty little girl Harry decided smiling down at her picture softly as she curtsied for him and spun around showing the pretty silver bow at the back.



He picked up the next picture, this must be Ashleigh. He decided, looking down at the young woman in the picture. Her hair wasn't the black that Severus' was, it was more of a dark brown. It was as straight as the potion masters though, with the same greasy look that Severus always had at Hogwarts. It was held back in a loose braid at the nape of her neck, and tossed over one shoulder. She was wearing a muggle lab coat, done up at the front so that you couldn't see what she was wearing underneath it and a pair of square, silver rimmed glasses that were pushed up onto the brink of her nose, she was looking through them with the same hawk like gaze that one normally associates with the overly strict. A full bottom lip was being worried by a set of straight white teeth and in her arms she held folder upon folder of work and documents. She was standing in front of a desk set up with a bubbling cauldron and various other pieces of potions ingredients and equipment.



She took a seat in the swivel chair next to her, folding her legs neatly, the lab coat fell aside slightly and a pair of black tights were revealed covering slender legs, it turned out that under the lab coat was a fashionable light grey business suit and a white blouse with an embroidered collar. She turned around slightly to stir the cauldron and put her folders down on the desk. When she turned back to face out of the picture, she folded her arms and glared at Harry making him jump at the familiarity of the look and literally throw the picture back onto the table.



There was a chuckle from behind him and he looked around as Severus put a plate on the table in front of him and took a seat.



"Thanks, umm well your daughter does look a bit like you by the way, when she- umm- glares, like that."



"Hmm so i've noticed. Eat up, you look half starved."



He was, he practically inhaled the food, barley even registering what it was or what it tasted like.



"Thanks a lot, that was great."He put his knife and fork down on the plate and and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand making Severus chuckle again.



"You're very welcome. Come on you better go get some sleep. You can use Nathan's room until he gets back from school."



"Thanks."



"Once again you're welcome."



Severus lead Harry across the lounge and to one of the five doors. They stopped in front of it and Severus turned to talk to Harry. "If you need you need anything or you wake up and I'm still asleep then don't worry about waking me up, just come and get me. My room is over there," he pointed to a door that Harry had only just noticed as it was painted red and gold and decorated in the same way as the walls of the lounge. "And the bathroom is right next to here." He nodded in the direction of a door to the left of the bedroom Harry was to occupy. "Get a good nights sleep, we're going shopping tomorrow to get you some clothes."



"Right, Goodnight Severus."



The potions master smiled at the use of his first name. "Goodnight Harry." He turned and went into his own room, harry watched him go before opening the door to Nathan's. He wrenched off his top and placed his wand next to the bed. He crawled under the cover, opting to sleep in his shorts instead of his boxers, he didn't complete trust Severus after all and if the potions master was bi then... not that you'd really complain if *this* Severus decided to do- that- with you. His brain put in for him. He told it to shut up, lay down properly and was asleep before his head hit the pillow.



- - - - - -



A/N- Just two let you know the 'two that time of the month' comment was my tribute to dog soldiers, where they're all in the house and the girl lets all the werewolves into the house and then she starts to go all wolfy and says 'it's that time of the month'. I love that movie and when i first watched it my dad and brother were all like 'oh my god, can you imagine what it would be like to live with a woman who had two 'that time of the months' it made me laugh so hard that when I decided to make Miranda a werewolf then I just had to put it in!!! Lol!



R&R or no cookies for you!