Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

In September the weather was still mild in the seaside town, in which he nowadays resided. He sat on the bench under the large tree and let his mind roam as he enjoyed the peace of the early afternoon. His neck bothered him, but this was nothing new. The simple sounds of nature around him, a bird chirping, a mouse moving around, the leaves dancing to the wind were suddenly interrupted by childish laughter. He looked around and spotted a boy of about six years old. He wondered where he had come from since this was private garden.

“This is a private residence. You should not be here,” he said not exactly loudly, but his voice carried.

The boy was startled, but located him almost immediately and approached.

“Hello, Sir. I did not see you. I like your garden,” the boy said.

“It is not my garden. I am a guest here,” he said gruffly, even though it was not exactly true. He had spent the last two years living in this house, so he was probably not a typical guest.

“Then, I am a guest, too,” the boy brightened.

“I don’t think that the owner has invited you,” he countered.

The boy’s face fell.

At that moment he noticed an older girl climbing over the fence.

“There you are Hugo,” she called.

She ran towards them and immediately took the boy’s hand in hers.

“We are sorry, Sir, for intruding. We will be leaving now,” she said decisively.

“Not so fast, Miss?” he said with a raised eyebrow.

“She is Eleanor, but we call her Nora,” the boy informed him.

“That is enough, Hugo. Let us leave,” the girl starting pulling at the boy’s hand.

“Do your parents know that you are trespassing on other people’s property?” he inquired.

The girl blushed.

“It is just mom, and we will not tell her. She is at work,” the boy revealed.

“Hugo, no. Goodbye, Sir,” the girl once again tried to leave.

He turned his attention to the girl. She looked intelligent but was no much older than the boy, probably around ten years old if he guessed correctly.

“It is dangerous to get on other people’s property. There could be guarding dogs or demented residents,” he warned her.

She nodded.

“I know, Sir. But Hugo was drawn to the wards that you have around the house. The way they simmer, he was fascinated. We go to a Muggle school, so he has not often the opportunity to see such beautiful wards,” the girl told him.

He was shocked.

“It goes against the Statute of Secrecy to go around the Muggle world talking about wards. What if I was a Muggle?” he demanded.

This time the girl, Nora, looked belligerent.

“Your left hand has not left your wand pocket since you started talking to us, so that makes you a wizard. A rather cowardly one if you are afraid of a six year old boy,” she shouted at him.

He took a step forward and she shrunk back. He leaned over her and sneered at her.

“Your manners are atrocious. Go away and take your pest of a brother with you and don’t come back,” he snarled.

She did not look afraid, but turned to leave.

The boy stood his ground.

“Nora, say you are sorry. You were not nice. You know what mom says when someone is mean,” the boy demanded.

She sighed.

“Alright. I am sorry for calling you a coward,” she said.

They finally left.

He sat back on the bench, but the peace was gone.

The girl had called him a coward. Was he a coward still hiding away from the wizarding world?

He lost himself in his thoughts.

It was much later, when the sun was about to set and it was already too cold to stay outside, that his host came into the garden to look for him.

“Severus? Are you alright? It is not like you to stay outside so late,” Lucius Malfoy asked gently.

“There were two kids who climbed over the fence and came into the garden to admire the result of your foolish wand waving. It was a difficult encounter,” Severus Snape replied.

“Come old friend. Let’s go inside, where it is warm,” Lucius urged him to move from the cold hard bench.

“Am I a coward, Lucius?” Snape asked.

Lucius looked at him with a frown.

“You are the least cowardly person that I have ever known. What’s wrong with you?” he wondered.

“Nothing,” Severus shrugged.

Lucius did not comment. He had learnt long ago to not press Severus. After his divorce from Narcissa, he had moved here to this sleepy town. After Severus had been released from his year long stay in the hospital, he had invited his old friend to recuperate at his home. The situation suited them both. He could pretend that he was not lonely and Severus was in a suitable environment to complete his healing, if it ever could be completed.

He briefly wondered what wizarding children were doing in this Muggle town, and decided to look into the issue the next day. His friend deserved his peace and he would not allow anyone to spoil it.

Chapter Text

The next day was a brewing day, so Lucius knew that Severus would not be in the garden in the afternoon. Thus he decided to do some gardening in order to keep watch for the strange children who had bothered Severus.

It was still early, when he heard voices just outside the fence.

“Please Nora, I will just take a look. If the man is there I will not go in, but I really want to see the wards, please, Nora, please,” a boy was saying.

“It is too dangerous,” a girl, presumably Nora, replied.

He approached the fence and looked over it outside.

He considered scaring them as a tactic but quickly dismissed it. He needed to know where these children belonged to assess the level of threat. And some times honey worked far better than vinegar.

“Hello children. You are welcome to come in and take a look at the wards if you want,” he offered over the fence.

They had not noticed him and shrieked in terror when he spoke.

They quickly composed themselves.

The girl stepped protectively in front of her brother and with an extremely deft for her age and quick movement of her hand a wooden wand was in her fingers.

“I mean you no harm,” he raised his hands to show that he did not hold a wand. He could easily overpower the children and even send the makeshift wooden wand away with a bit of wandless magic, but they did not need to know that.

“Please, Nora. I really need to see the wards. They look like the ones at home, you know from before,” the boy pleaded.

Both Nora and Lucius Malfoy were startled.

Nora because the boy seldom alluded to the painful past, and Lucius because his wards were familial wards.

He looked at the boy critically. It was definitely not a Malfoy, but still looked vaguely familiar. He quickly compared the features of the boy and girl and deducted that they were not related.

“Let us have tea here in the garden, there is no harm I promise,” he said.

Finally, the girl relented, and the children entered the garden not over the fence but through the gate.

He had his elves set a round table under the tree. Soon, a teapot and sandwiches were on it.

The boy had run straight to the wards around the residence and was looking at them with tears in his eyes.

“You do not look like your brother,” he said avoiding any introductions that might scare the girl if she knew who he was.

“We are both adopted,” she replied easily.

“You adoptive mother is a bit neglectful if I might say so, letting you roam the city without any supervision,” he said softly, even though his words were cutting.

He could immediately see that the girls hackles were raised at his words.

“Mom is the best mother in the world. She must work, so that we have food to eat and so that Hugo can have his medicines. And she can always find us,” she said and showed him a bracelet she was wearing.

“A locus charm, how interesting,” he commented.

“But what if someone cuts it of from your hand?” Lucius wondered loudly.

“Don’t even think about it Mister. It has defensive spells on it and mom will immediately know that something is wrong,” Nora said proudly about her mother not realizing that she was revealing too much in her quest to make the stranger understand how good a mother her mom was.

He studied the bracelet from a distance and could not help but marvel at the amount of delicate spellwork its creation undoubtedly involved.

“What does your mother do for a job?” he asked wondering why a Gringotts level spellmaker or an Auror would live in a Muggle town as far away from London as possible.

The girl’s face settled in a mutinous frown.

“She is a pest exterminator. The very best. If you have rats or cockroaches, you just call her and problem solved,” the girl declared with pride, almost daring him to voice a different opinion.

This only added to the mystery. Why was a talented witch working in a job designed for lowest muggles, he wondered.

At that moment they heard a shout.

“Nora, I am trapped,” the boy shouted and the girl immediately rushed towards the house.

He followed and they saw that the boy had attempted to cross the wards and was now hanging midair caught in them.

“What are you doing there Hugo?” she asked as she approached.

“They looked just like the ones at grandmother’s home and I thought that maybe she is inside and wanted to see,” the boy’s voice broke as he started crying.

“Hugo,” the girl sighed but did not add anything.

Lucius pulled out his wand and released the boy.

“I can assure you young man that there are no witches inside the house,” he stated formally even as his mind raced to place the child.

“We need to go now, Hugo,” Nora decreed and the boy for once obeyed and put his hand in hers to walk out.

“Actually, I do have a problem with rats Miss Nora. I would appreciate it if your mother could come and look into the issue,” he stated.
The girl looked at him skeptically.

“We do not need charity, Sir,” she said simply and started walking towards the gate.

“It is not charity. There are rats here, really,” he said and quickly accioed one of Severus’ rats, the ones he used to test his new healing potions.

“See?” he showed her the rat.

The girl nodded.

“Alright, I will let her know. Thank you for tea,” the girl said, and the children left.

Later that day he had to share everything that he had learnt and everything that he had not with Severus, because the other wizard had been more than angry with him for messing with his lab.

In the end he had to promise that he would never ever again for any reason accio any of Severus’ experiments.

Chapter Text

“There is something I should tell you, but I don’t want to,” Nora told her mother as she tucked her in and kissed her goodnight.

“Because I will be angry?” her mother guessed.

“Mostly because you will be disappointed and this is worse than angry,” Nora admitted.

“Still, you know that you can tell me anything,” her mother insisted.

“Main Street is closed for works and the teacher told us to use the side road to get back home in the afternoons. There is a magical house on that street. Hugo noticed the wards and jumped into the garden. He said that they looked just like the ones at his grandmother’s house. There are two men, ah that is wizards who live there. Maybe others too, but we only saw the two of them,” Nora said all in one breath.

Hermione gasped in terror.

“Nora, wizards can be dangerous,” she said softly.

“I know. Yesterday, the dark one, he was scary, even though he moved like he was constantly in pain. But he kept his hand on his hidden wand. I called him a coward, and Hugo made me apologize. The other one today was polite. He gave us tea and sandwiches and then Hugo got stuck on the wards and we left. Mom, I know that I should not accept food or gifts from strangers, but this felt different,” Nora tried to explain.

“The rule is for your safety. What if these wizards had harmed you or Hugo?” her mother asked.

“You can go see for yourself that they are safe. They have rats. They truly do. I thought they only said that they needed extermination for charity, but then the wizard summoned a rat from the house and it was huge,” Nora told her mother.

“Alright, I will go to exterminate their rats, and since they gave you tea and sandwiches, I guess I should do the extermination for free. But Nora, I really need you to promise that you will always return directly home. There are so many dangers. I just wish I could pick you up from school myself,” her mother sighed tiredly.

“What if they are ok. Could we not visit again? Hugo loves to watch their wards,” Nora insisted.

“No, it is not right to impose on other people, even if they prove to be upstanding citizens,” her mother decreed.

She took the morning off, something she could ill afford, but her children came first. She walked them to the school and then taking her equipment with her she went in search of the magical house.

She stood outside the gates and admired the garden. The house itself was hardly visible behind the wards, which did indeed simmer impressively.

She rang, and the gate opened.

She walked towards the house. When she approached the house she noticed the wards flaring once and then parting to let her to the door.

The door opened.

“I am the pest exterminator,” she started saying when she noticed who the inhabitant was.

His shock at seeing her was obvious and probably equal to her own.

The wizard immediately raised both his hands palms out in a gesture that he meant her no harm. It could have been funny, especially as she was the one armed with pesticide, if not for their history.

She gulped, and almost fainted when she realized that her precious children had been in his company the previous day.

“Would you like to sit down, Miss Granger?” he asked looking worried that she might collapse in his entrance hall.

Hermione Granger, known as brave and courageous, just nodded and sat heavily on an armchair against the wall nearby.

“Flopsy, bring some water to the Miss,” he ordered one of the house elves.

Only seconds later she was handed a big glass filled to the brim with water.

“Thank you,” she said.

“What is this commotion?” another mail gravely but somewhat familiar voice said.

She raised her head to locate the speaker.

She once again gasped.

“Professor,” she uttered. His voice was not the same, but it was only logical since Nagini had destroyed most of his neck. She quickly thought that this must be the wizard mentioned by Nora who seemed to be in pain. She had heard that he stayed for almost a year in the hospital. She had tried to visit, but he had not accepted any visitors.

“I am no longer your professor, Miss Granger. What I don’t get is how you came to be here,” Severus Snape said coldly, in fact being far more hostile than Lucius Malfoy had been.

“She is the pest exterminator, Severus,” Lucius said.

For a moment Severus looked confused.

“We do not need a pest exterminator and you’d better stay far away from my guinea pigs,” he ordered both Lucius Malfoy and the witch.

“I am sorry, I cannot do this right now, just keep away from my children and don’t harm them,” she told them and then ran out of the house as she felt the past coming to crush her.