To Find Where We Belong

Clara MacKenzie stopped at the corner, waiting impatiently for the crosswalk light to change, thus allowing her to cross the street presumably without being struck by a car. She glanced down when she felt something wet and burning on her feet and jumped back in dismay. The beakers within the bag must have broken, for it was now being eaten away by the acid within, thus leaking and eating away her shoes too. Furious that the experiment that had taken two months to develop and needed the weekend of supervision to complete gone due to the man's clumsiness, Clara's fiery temper exploded.

It had been a bad week to begin with. With her normal Monday through Friday phone call from her mother regarding Clara's lack of boyfriend, the doctors telling her that the new therapy would do her leg no good, and several sharp reprimands from her bosses regarding the experiment's slow progress, Clara was ready to snap. Now that the experiment was destroyed, she was willing to wreak havoc.

It was a moot point that she shouldn't have taken the experiment home to begin with.

Spinning about, she scanned the crowds, looking for the dark-haired stranger that had knocked her over. It took a few moments, but she spotted him leisurely eating a sandwich at the cafe directly across from where he'd plowed her down. Setting a furious pace, despite her pronounced limp, Clara beelined right for him.

Severus looked up from munching on a potato chip when a shadow fell over his table. He had no time to react when a heavy object whomped him on the head. With a yelp, he jumped up, intent on defending himself. He was much surprised to find the young woman he'd knocked over preparing to whack him on the head again with a very large book.

He grasped her wrist gently, yet firmly, and forced her to lower her arm. "I beg your pardon?" he snapped peevishly. "May I ask what you are doing?"

"You ruined it!" she snapped at him, gesturing down to the bag she'd dropped at her feet.

Severus was confused and looked only part way down. "Your dress?" The dress did look slightly scuffed, but there were no tears that he could see.

"The experiment!" she snapped again, picking up and tossing the bag on the table. Severus watched in dismay as some sort of liquid splattered out of the holey case and onto his sandwich. The chemical began to sizzle on impact.

"You've ruined my sandwich, so I supposed that makes us even," he informed her with an arched brow. "Have a seat and let's discuss this without a scene."

Her eyes are fascinating, he thought moments before dodging the infuriated woman, who was howling something about not being treated like an imbecile. He circled around the table only to discover that furniture was no obstacle for her. She clambered awkwardly over it, intent for his throat.

"Control yourself, madam!" he barked, grabbing both arms and shoving her roughly into a chair.

To his further dismay she immediately broke into sobs. Suddenly at a loss, never able to cope with a weeping female, Severus looked around in embarassment, hoping someone would come to his aide. Most of the women were either scowling or ignoring him, while the men were either grinning or giving him sympathetic looks. Sensing he was on his own, he awkwardly patted her shoulder.

"I have no idea what has happened, truly, and I apologize for anything I've done. Please, can we discuss this without the hysterics?" The woman nodded, gave a shuddering gasp, and blindly groped into her bag. She came out with an acid-eaten hankerchief and lasped into another fit of crying. Severus trepidaciously handed her a napkin, wincing when she pertly blew her nose.

"I apologize for my temper," the woman finally managed to get out. "But all that work, down the drain. I'm gonna get fired for sure now."

Severus chanced a peek into her bag while she wiped her eyes. "Chemistry?" he asked and she nodded. "A lot of acid-based components, I'd wager?" She nodded again, looking at him strangely.

"Yer a chemist, are you?" she asked him with a small smile.

"Um, of a sort, yes," Severus stammered, thinking of the smoking cauldrons he usually hovered over.

"I work for August ChemCo," she sighed. It was obvious she thought he knew what she was talking about, so he nodded. "Been workin' on this experiment for two months now. Wasn't getting it right. Finally got it late last night, but it requires babysitting for 48 hours. I thought to cheat a little and take it home. I was being so careful, made it through the Underground and everything." She sniffled, her green eyes welling with tears again. "And then you run into me, it's all busted and I'm so fired."

Her eyes were flashing green fire again Severus noticed and he tensed, ready to spring away should she go after his throat again.

"Well, I do apologize once again, but it's done," he told her lamely. "Perhaps it won't be so dire at your job as you think."

"Ah well," she sighed, flopping the flap closed on what remained of her acid eaten bag. "It was a chauvenistic company anyway."

Severus squirmed uncomfortably. He'd been accused on several occasions of being chauvenistic himself. That someone would try and take advantage of an obviously bright and fiesty female didn't sit well with him, though. "What would you like? I need a new sandwich. You need something to help calm you. The sodas here are good," he offered. "My treat since I'm to blame for your current misery."

The woman smiled tremulously, heaved a heavy sigh and stuck out her hand. "Clara MacKenzie," she introduced.

"Severus Snape," he said, shaking her hand once and dropping it.

"Roman emperor and a town in England," Clara said automatically. "You have sadistic parents. I have traditional ones. Still can't figure out how my brothers all have ancient Gaelic names and I would up with a normal one. Do you hate your parents sometimes as much as I hate mine?"

Severus couldn't help himself, he began to laugh. The workings of her mind was phenomenally amusing. "Fortunately, my mother has passed on, or my father probably would have killed her by now." He added to himself "Literally". His mother had been even more fond of the Dark Arts than her son and Severus had often suspected she'd been more than just a background supporter of various powerful dark wizards. She herself would have performed the Killing Curse on her own son if she'd known he'd turned traitor to one of the most powerful. "However, my father loves history. If you think my name is bad, you should see my sisters'."

Clara chuckled. "My father is traditional to the hilt. He even practices the old Pict religion, just like his ancestors have done for centuries. We all have nice, traditional names, though mine is the least of them. He was so disappointed when I didn't marry a nice Scottish lad and settled down like a good woman should."

The two of them grinned conspiratorily at each other. A disapproving waitress came out to take their orders and soon the two of them were chatting. Both were surprised at the ease in which they talked with one another. Neither were really socially adept, Severus because of his personality and mother's influence into the Dark Arts that led him down a dark path and Clara because no one knew what to do or say to someone with a limp, seeing the limp and not the woman. Long after the sandwiches were eaten, the two were still talking and people-watching, another thing they seemed to have in common.

Clara glanced at her watch and grimaced. "I should get going. I'll have to be at the lab early in the morning, get a new batch started. Leaving it there this time," she grinned at him. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Severus."

Severus stood up when she did. "I wish it had been under less dramatic circumstances but I assure you, it won't be an introduction I'll soon be forgetting." He was pleased to see her smile once more before she limped away. He noted she favored her left leg heavily, an ungainly gait but graceful all the same. She'd obviously learned to deal with her disability with grace and good temper. He chuckled to himself. Too bad the rest of her temper was pure lava. His head still stung a bit where the book had landed.

He peeled off several pound notes from the wad in his pocket, leaving them on the table, not caring if the tip he'd left was extraordinarily large. He'd never gotten the hang of Muggle money standards but he knew enough to know that he'd at least covered the bill. He crossed the street and was about to enter The Leaky Cauldron when he heard his name. He turned around to find Clara running to him.

"Severus!" She screeched to a halt, blushing an interesting shade of red (not unlike any of the Weasleys). She thrust a peice of paper in his hand. "Call m-me if y-you'd like," she stuttered nervously. "If you want to go to a movie...or something." With that she spun on her heels and walked quickly back down the street once again.

Bemusedly, Severus opened the folded peice of paper. He understood the telephone number but the other confused him.

Clara MacKenzie
(020) 7741 5429
[email protected]

Walking into the dark atmosphere of the old wizard pub, Severus walked over to the bar and leaned onto it, still looking at the last line. "You look puzzled, Snape," commented Tom, coming over to see what Severus was staring at. "What you got there?"

Severus showed Tom the paper and pointed to the last line. "What is that?"

Tom grinned. "That's what the Muggles call an internet name or some such," he cackled. "You picking up women, Snape?"

Severus gave him a disgruntled look. "She was a lady, Tom," he stressed meaningfully.

Tom only grinned. "Wait until your father gets wind of this. He'll either have a heart attack from disbelief or have the wedding chapel ready before you can say 'oh damn'."

Severus went cold at the mere idea of the latter, though the former had possibilities, as much as he loved his sire in his own standoffish fashion. "If you breathe one word," he threatened. Tom only grinned, knowing the threat as empty. Severus sighed. "What am I supposed to do with a Muggle?" he asked rhetorically, thrusting the page at Tom with the intent to have the older man throw it away.

Tom tucked it in Severus' coat pocket instead. "Call her and take her to a picture show is my suggestion. You're in London for a few days, aintcha?" Tom cackled again and Severus trudged up to his rented room in exasperation.