Two Old Friends

Chapter 7

Adriana makes a vague hissing sound. She catches my expression and clears her throat irritably.

"I thought you were over that," I ask her. She sniffs.

"Pshaw."

"Interesting word."

"Shove off." We remain silent for a little while. "I mean, the nerve of him! While I'm there, even! I was pregnant and he just walks on in with her. Doesn't think of looking innocent or giving me an acknowledging wave or tells me that he's just taking a friend out for drinks or whatever it is that they were doing..."

"You didn't know that they were in there until I just told you." She pauses.

"That's not the point!"

"And his back was turned to you, so he didn't know that you were in there, either." She pauses again.

"I hate you and everything you stand for."

"Logic?"

She makes the vague hissing sound again. I can barely contain my laugh which turns to an odd hacking sound while she gave me a rather cruel grin.

"What are you looking at me like that?" I ask, rubbing my nose.

"Of course you defend what Lucius did because then if that never happened then we never would have got together, would we?"

"Yes, the scars on my back gives me great appreciation for what we had," I say sarcastically.

"Git, you can't see your back."

"I was being sarcastic."

"I know that," she says, rolling her eyes. "How long have I known you?"

"Too long," I say with a yawn.

"Anyway... Discussion. What happened again?"

"You were there, you ought to know," I say, just to be annoying.

"Yes, but I've conveniently erased it from my memory."

"Bull shit. You've been contemplating over it since it happened to see where you went wrong and so on."

"Well, fine, if you know me so well then you can continue." She crosses her arms and sits back to look at me impatiently.

~*~

I was working my first night at the pub (which was called Purple Haze, their specialty drink) and managed to dish all the drinks out right without mistake. I was feeling fairly proud of myself for an eighteen year old with two jobs and no house and anticipating a great mound of pressure at anytime now. And right on time, Lucius came strutting in with a scowl on his face. He sat dramatically on a stool at the bar as I was rearranging the glasses.

"Poison?" I asked with no emotion when he flopped down.

"Strongest thing you've got."

"Fire whiskey it is, then." I gave him the glass of slightly sizzling amber liquid.

"Adriana and I just had a row," he said without a preamble.

"How sweet, your first lovers' spat," I said, serving someone else.

"Pfft. Hardly. I go to get her out and she tells me she's pregnant. Going on about how I have an heir now and spouting off wedding plans," he said, sneering as he sipped his drink. "I'm not the father, Severus. We haven't shagged in ages. I don't want her hanging around anymore. She's going off to school and I'm frankly rather bored of her."

"Lucius, if she's pregnant you have to at least pay child support and visit them on occasion. Break her heart, sure, but if you decide to neglect the kid you're going against what you stand for. Don't you that great long speech about child abuse and all that fun stuff?" I said. "Dear lord, I'm giving my first bar advice..." I mumbled to myself.

"That child is not mine, Severus! What part of that don't you understand? I don't know why she won't get it! If she dares to try and get me to pay for her results of going off and getting knocked up, I'm not going to do it! She can get it removed, for all I care." He drained his glass. I filled it for him. "I want her out of the picture."

"You two have been together for two and a half years," I stated, crossing my arms.

"And that's two years too long. Sure, it was fun when she was fifteen and shagging me for the crap I bought her, but then she started getting clingy as if we were an item." He sounded very disgusted.

"Maybe since you haven't seen anyone else for the past two and a half years it led her to believe you were devoted to her," I suggested, throwing together a Purple Haze.

"Please. I've been with other people since her," he scoffed.

"Who?" He paused.

"I've just started something with Narcissa Black. It's been a fantastic change, I'll tell you. She's much more mature."

"Does Adriana know about Narcissa?"

"No. I haven't told her. I doubt I will. She's leaving tonight, I don't need her crying at me about this baby thing of hers when I'm trying to sleep." I felt the urge to hurt him, but I also wanted to keep my job, so I had to resist. It was quite unfortunate because he definitely deserved to get cursed.

"Well, Lucius. Look at it this way, whatever you do to Adriana that's less than pleasant, she's going to turn on me for help and comfort and all that crap, so don't do anything regrettable. I really have no wish to be in the middle of this drama of yours," I said loftily.

"Oh, you don't want to get involved? You're already involved, Severus, you're living in my manor!"

"Actually, that's likely to change soon. I've been saving my money, and since I've close to nothing to buy considering living at your house has pretty much supplied me with all of life necessities, and since I've got this new job and I'm likely to get a prettier knut coming in, I'll be buying myself a house soon."

"Oh really? That's fantastic. If you need me to lend you anything, make sure to let me know. I'll lend you some gold to make the down payment -"

"No," I said flatly. "I want to make this payment on my own. Thank you for the offer, however."

"Well, if you need gold for food and furniture and the such -"

"No," I said. "I can draw a chair or two and that'll be fine as furniture."

"But those aren't liable, Severus. A charmed chair disappears eventually. I'll get you furniture. You can starve if you want, but you're going to have decent furniture," he said sternly and nothing I said was going to change his mind. With Lucius's mind off of Adriana's pregnancy and his denial, the conversation quickly turned into one of my future house.

"You know, the cheapest way to get household necessities is throwing a housewarming party -"

"Lucius, for the last time, I am not throwing a party," I said as I poured someone a butterbeer.

"Surely you jest. I don't think it's a problem, you have enough acquaintances who'll come on pretence. And I'm sure you've made plenty of drunk friends while working here. They'll bring at least a bottle of Fire whiskey."

"This is my first night working. You are the only familiar face here. And I have no wish having a drunk at my nonexistent house warming party," I informed him.

"Oy, you look familiar... Do I know you?" some random bloke slurred at me. Lucius raised his eyebrows.

"No, sir," I said acidly. He squinted his blurry eyes at me.

"You look like... my mother..." and he slumped over. I rolled my eyes.

"Give me a tic," I said to Lucius and summoned a revival potion to sober him up enough to get him to leave without hurting himself. I put the potion in his mouth and made him swallow. The few sober customers watched. He blinked and sat up.

"You are drunk. You need to Disapparate," I told him. "I sobered you up enough to do so without doing something stupid. You can purchase a hang over potion for ten galleons and twelve sickles." He blinked a bit to comprehend what I said.

"All right," he emptied his pockets and I gave him a vial and he Disapparated with the unmistakable pop! I turned back to Lucius.

"I'm not throwing a house warming party. I can't stop you from buy me furniture, but I'm not throwing a party. End of argument." Lucius sighed.

"Fine. Well, I've got to get going. I'm going to check out a room at the Leaky Cauldron or somewhere. Oh, and before I forget. What size bed do you want?"

"You are raving," I informed him. He shrugged.

"Fine, fine. I'm off. Here's a tip." He placed a couple galleons in the jar and left. A few hours later, my shift was over and I emptied the tip jar and went on my way to Lucius's manor where Adriana was asleep on the couch, obviously waiting for Lucius. Her face was tearstained. I felt extremely tired when I came to realize exactly how involved they were going to make me. I slumped off to my room to check on my current potion and went to bed.

The next few weeks went like a storm on drugs. Lucius and Adriana were constantly fighting. Adriana was constantly in tears. Lucius constantly went to the pub to complain to me as I washed empty mugs. Adriana constantly stormed and complained when I worked on my potions. And I was trying to find a house.

Finally, after my first month of working at the pub with the tips I had earned and my first pay check and my saved up pay checks I managed to have enough money for a down payment and maybe one or two months of house payments. I was ecstatic, or as ecstatic as I get. Adriana, thank Merlin, was off at the Magi Defenders school filling out paper work so I had the day to find a house in peace. After searching through the Daily Prophet and a series of Wizarding Homes magazines I had found a small house on the outskirts of Diagon and Knocturn Alleys that were fairly close to the Leaky Cauldron so that it was hidden from prying Muggle eyes. It was too good to be true, but luckily it was true.

I sent an owl explaining my interest in the house and anticipated the responding owl from the seller. Apparently I was the only one who noticed the tiny ad squeezed in the corner of the last page of last week's Wizarding Homes and the seller responded to my owl with what seemed like shamelessly unconcealed relief. I was given an appointment right away.

"Come in, please come in," the woman said with a crooked smile. She was short and portly and had wispy blonde hair forced down by a headband. "Severus Snape, right?"

"Yes," I said, stepping into the tiny house. It was two stories, but neither story was very wide.

"This is the sitting room and through that space over there is the kitchen and dining room," she said with no preamble. She was obviously fairly new at this, or just bad. The sitting room was rather spacious. She showed me there was a small lavatory near the kitchen. The kitchen was quite cramped. The dining room was empty space where the wall of cupboards ended. There was a large window at in the dining room where the wall should have been and revealed the unfenced speck of front lawn. She led me out of the kitchen and back into the sitting room where the fire place was opposite the kitchen. Against the wall with the short staircase was a bookshelf. She led me up the stairs, nine stairs I counted, and showed me through the hall.

"On that end is one bedroom with a loo, and on that end is the other bedroom with its own loo. If you'll follow me, I'll show you this one first." She led me down the hall to the room on the left and showed me the bedroom that was roughly the size of the guestroom at Lucius's manor. She showed me through the loo. It consisted of a stand in shower, toilet, sink, mirror and a cupboard to stash towels and soap. She took me through the door that led back to the hall through the bathroom and took me to the bedroom on the other end of the hall. It was pretty much the same as the first.

"So, that's the house. You can modify it to your own needs, it's fairly easy to do with a wand, as long as the house itself remains the same size. Are you interested?" She looked quite eager.

"I am. How much is it?"

"Well, the down payment is no less than two hundred, and monthly payments after that are no less that one fifty galleons and ten sickles. However if you pay more for the down payment, say four hundred or four fifty, the monthly payments will still be one hundred, but you'll own the house in about a year." I nodded. I had exactly five hundred and twenty three galleons, nineteen sickles, and seventy four knuts to my name at Gringotts.

"I can pay four fifty," I said, deciding to leave some gold for food and next month's payment. She grinned.

"Excellent. Here's the contract," she waved her wand and the contract appeared in her hand and handed me a quill. I read it through and signed the contract. "You can move in as soon as you wish." She pulled out the key and handed it to me and with a grin, she left. I looked around the house to absorb that it was mine.

I went back to Lucius's manor to alert him or Adriana that I had a home and was ready for Lucius to get me that furniture he had promised me. I looked at the time when I found no one there and was quite curious. It was seven o'clock, my shift at the Purple Haze didn't start for another hour and a half, and Adriana and/or Lucius should be back by now. I wandered around the house and checked in the rooms. I went into Lucius's room and found someone in his bed. It turned out to be Narcissa. She had the sheet covering her torso and rested her head against her forearms. She looked over at me and smiled tiredly.

"Hi, Severus," she breathed.

"What are you doing here? Where're Lucius and Adriana?" I asked, feeling a hatred rise swallowing my good mood.

"Oh, Lucius is out doing something and I have no idea where that little girl is. Maybe she got the hint and found her own place," she said with a small shrug.

"Uh huh. Well, when Lucius comes back give him this address," I scribbled down my new address on a piece of parchment and handed it to her.

"Hm... You got a place in London? Congrats," she said, her voice clearly not meaning it.

"Thank you. Well, I'll just -" Then a door slammed downstairs.

"Be a dear and see if that's Lucius," she said. I went downstairs and found Adriana sauntering in. I then felt dread.

"Is Lucius here?" she asked, her voice was hoarse.

"Erm, no. But you don't want to go upstairs." She eyed me suspiciously.

"Why?"

"Because my potion exploded while I was gone," I lied quickly. Of course, she read right through me.

"Oh my god. Is that slut up there?!" she demanded and stormed up the stairs. I slunk into a chair and prepared to hear many screeches. And without further ado, Narcissa squealed when Adriana went in there and started shouting something about her being a whore and I could assume she started cursing the bed.

While this occurred, a few minutes later, Lucius came in. He furrowed his eyebrows curiously when he heard the shrieks and looked at me. He came to the conclusion of what was going on and went upstairs, shouting something about Adriana being uncontrollable. I heard Narcissa laughing and Adriana went quiet. I was tempted to just get my things and leave the three of them, but I knew no more good would come out of that. I went upstairs to see what damage had been made. I found Lucius over Adriana who was against the wall in the hallway, complete with a bloodied face.

"I am not that child's father, and you will either get rid of it or I shall," he said threateningly, his wand pointed at her.

"I have not had sex with anyone else but you, Lucius, whose else would it be?" she croaked, glaring at him through tears.

"I've had it, Adriana. I am tired of you and you won't leave." He raised his wand and that manic glint in his eye appeared when he was about to curse someone was glimmering dangerously. I pulled out my own wand and disarmed him.

"Severus, this is not your war," Lucius growled.

"Do you think the Dark Lord will be pleased when he finds out that you killed one of his better Death Eaters?" I drawled. Lucius hesitated.

"Fine, you do something with her. I don't want her in this manor anymore." I moved to pull Adriana up, but she got up on her own. Before she started her way downstairs with me, she turned and spat on Lucius's face. And before she could even blink, he backhanded her. I gave him a reproachful look and pulled Adriana downstairs with me.

"Come on, I'll get you a room at the Leaky Cauldron," I said when we got to the lower floor. "Let me get my things first." Adriana didn't say anything, she just sniffled and brushed her hair out of her face. I put my things back in my trunks and summoned them to follow me before we Disapparated. "Do you want your things?"

"I want them all burnt," she spat.

"Okay, we'll buy you new stuff then," I said. "Ready to Disapparate, then?" She sniffled a 'yes' and we did. We appeared at the Leaky Cauldron.

"You get yourself a room and I'll be right back," I told her. She sighed and went up to the barkeep. I Disapparated again and Apparated at my new home and put my trunks in the sitting room and went back to the Leaky Cauldron.

"Did you get the room," I asked her, finding her at the bar.

"Hm? Oh, no, not yet. Let me finish this..." She gulped down the last of the Fire whiskey she was drinking. "Hey, could I get a room, perhaps?" she asked the barkeep.

"Yes, yes. Room eleven is open," he said, eyeing her bruised face warily. "It'll be nine galleons a night." Adriana nodded and pulled out a coin purse from her pocket and threw down nine galleons. The barkeep gave her the key and she staggered off the stool.

"Let's get you cleaned up," I said, taking her by the arm and taking her up to her room.

"I can take care of myself," she said, wrenching her arm from my grasp, stumbling over herself in the process.

"Adriana, you need help," I told her.

"Go away. I don't need help. I need to get drunk."

"Adriana, you need help."

"Get out. I don't need your help!" she shouted at me and pushed me away. She shoved the key in room eleven with extreme difficulty. She kept missing the key hole or when she did get it in, it wouldn't turn for her. She started sobbing angrily and hit the door and swore loudly.

"Let me -" I said, making my way towards her.

"Leave. Me. Alone." She had her wand pointed at me.

"Fine." And so I went back to my own new home and unpacked the few things I had.