Spinner's End

Chapter 2

Raven carried the heavy bag of groceries towards her house. The rain was pouring down on her making her feel like a drown rat. She was at least glad she had brought an old canvas bag for the groceries this time. Last time in the pouring rain the bag had become wet and fallen all apart. She was sure she had looked like a fool carrying all of her groceries home loose, in her arms. She decided to use the alleyway this time, even though for it really being a shorter route, she had her doubts.

Raven peered ahead into the rain. She thought that she could see the outline of a tall man ahead of her. She hopped that it wouldn’t turn out to be the creepy little man or some scary drug user for that matter. She wondered which of the two would actually be worse.

As Raven rounded the end of the last house she did not though encounter another living soul. She walked quickly across the street to her own house. She had been busy for the past couple of weeks and hadn’t really thought all that much about the two men in the house across from her. She hadn’t forgotten about the disappearing incident, but had pushed it to the back of her mind. Raven had been busy the past several weeks tearing out the old stained wallpaper and generally working inside her house.

Two weeks earlier, the landlord had called the leasing agent who had in turn left a note at the bookshop reminding Raven that if she did any repairs on the house, her rent for that month would be lowered accordingly. Upon being reminded Raven became excited about doing a little work on the old house. She had gone to the first hardware store that she could find that very same day and ran around picking out all sorts of painting supplies. She practically dashed up to the paint-mixing counter with her color selections. She was happy that the landlord had even said she could choose whatever colors she liked. However she still chose nice conservative yet stylish colors. At work in the bookshop she had even looked up in one of the newly published books as to which colors were in vogue for this year. She had picked a very neutral, Ralph Lauren, color named, Devonshire, a sort of tan with a yellow undertone. She asked the man at the counter how much for 2 gallons of the color. He told her that each gallon was thirty-seven pounds. Raven didn’t even hide her surprise, as her mouth fell open. She’d asked how much for cheaper paint made to be that color. The man at the counter said that he wasn’t allowed to do that with Brand name paints. He explained that the non-brand name paints were twenty-two pounds a gallon.

Raven decided to put all of the painting equipment back. After all, the inside of the house was covered with some hideous wallpaper that was falling off in spots. Raven thought that maybe if she tore all of the wallpaper down, possibly the surface underneath would look fine. While putting the paint roller back she dropped it on the floor. As she moved to pick it up she kicked it across the floor, it rolled into some stacked up cans and stopped. Raven bent down pick it up and very nearly hit her head on the cans. She looked to see what she had almost knocked herself out against. It was paint cans stacked on the floor. They were returned paint cans. Which she guessed meant that people ordered and then didn’t come back to pick up or that they took the color home and didn’t like it. As Raven looked at the paint colors she decided on the latter

She saw a really dark green color, an almost fluorescent yellow color. She then found a color that seemed to almost perfectly match the designer color she had chosen only moments before, but there was only one gallon of it. In fact the only choice containing two gallons, she noted, was a sort of bright bubble-gum pink. Raven sighed but then saw that each of the gallons of paint was marked at one Pound fifty. Noticing this, she happily made her purchases.

On this night, Raven entered her house planning on making a huge batch of chocolate chip cookies. She had told everyone at work that she would be bringing the cookies in tomorrow. She also had an ulterior motive. She decided that she could take some cookies to her neighbors across the street. Tomorrow was Saturday and most people didn’t work on Saturdays, she herself only had to work half a day. The half-day of work would insure that she wouldn’t be tired and that it wouldn’t be too late to take the cookies to her both strange and interesting neighbors. She smiled to herself as she toweled off her wet hair and prepared to change out of her work clothes.

On Saturday Raven strolled up the sidewalk on her way home from work. It was only one o’clock and she had the rest of the day free. Her first mission was to take some cookies to the neighbor’s house. She could only hope that the tall man was home today. She also hoped that he would be the one that would answer the door.

Raven planned to be light and casual about the cookies with the neighbor and then immediately set off back to her own house. She had been working devilishly hard for days on removing all of the old yellowed and dirty wallpaper. Her hopes of the walls being nice under the ugly old wallpaper had proven futile. She finally had what she considered a nice surface to paint though and she planned to start today.

She went into her house and got the cookies she had set out in the morning. She had of course picked out all the nicest looking ones to give to the neighbors. She had also put them on a very pretty, expensive looking, china plate that she had purchased several months ago at the second hand store. The plate had a small chip on the edge, but Raven thought it unlikely that the men would notice.

Still in her work clothes, which she figured had to look nicer than her usual attire, the flannel pajama pants and red jumper, she steeled herself and set off across the street with the cookies safely covered in plastic.

Raven knocked firmly on the door. She had come this far; she was not going to let herself act timid now. She could feel her heart pounding, the sound resonating in her ears.

The door opened just a crack.

Raven, looking straight ahead, slid her gaze up the front of a charcoal colored shirt to the open collar and then to the face of the man she had wanted to see. She looked at his dark eyes. She willed herself not to turn away or even blink. His eyes didn’t seem to look any friendlier than the time he had almost run into her in the alley.

“Hi.” Raven said brightly. Wishing she hadn’t said that. It always made her sound too American. “I live across the street and I really haven’t come and introduced myself like I should have. I guess I was working too much and all that. So, my name is Raven Sands and I’d like to offer you some cookies I baked last night for work. I took some into work and I’d like for you to have some too.” She smiled at the man who’s expression really hadn’t changed and who also didn’t open the door any further.

Raven was expecting him to say something possibly rude to her and close the door when he suddenly let a small smile almost touch the corner of his mouth, it did not seem to reach his eyes though. He suddenly came out through the door and pulled it closed behind him.

The suddenness of his movement seemed to make Raven a little lightheaded. She swayed slightly as she moved her hand to her forehead, still clutching the plate with one hand. The man’s arm suddenly shot out and grasped the top of Raven’s arm steadying her, as a look of alarm shot across his face.

“ Do you feel okay?” He asked, a look of concern crossing his brow.

“Yes.” Raven replied, as people usually do. Even though she suddenly did not feel well. “I just suddenly became light headed. I guess that I haven’t eaten since breakfast, I um, probably just need to eat.” She finished, speaking softer than she had intended.

“ Well, would you like a cookie?” The man asked.
Raven looked at him, as just a slight smile had touched the corner of his mouth again. He seemed to make it go away and raise his eyebrow as if the current goings on were perfectly normal as were his question.

“Why yes, thank you.” Raven replied quickly. “Mister?” She asked.

“Oh yes. My name is Severus Snape, please call me Severus.” He released his grip on Raven as he extended his hand to her. She took his proffered hand. Keeping with the beat, he waved towards the plate of cookies still held by Raven and smiled ever so slightly.

“Thank you.” She repeated, tilting her head to the side. She pulled back the plastic wrap and took one of the cookies and bit into it. “Please.” she said and indicated that he too should take one.

Severus took one of the cookies from the plate. “Delicious.” He said after he swallowed the piece of the cookie.

Severus was rather surprised that the young lady had shown up on his doorstep. He specifically chose this neighborhood when he purchased the house several years earlier just for the reason that he had hoped never to have any so called ‘normal’ neighbors. Now, here was a young lady, showing up offering cookies. He had of course had been aware when she had moved in. In his mind though, it would have been generous to call how she had gotten there ‘moving in’, since it seemed, that other than some an old, brown trunk, she had moved in with nothing. He did, only two days after she had arrived, see two delivery men taking what appeared to be a bed into the house, nothing else, just a bed. Severus had interpreted this to be very telling at first. However as time wore on, he realized that this had been the wrong assumption.

Apparently she had a regular job that she went to without any regularity. For quite some time she would arrive and leave at almost any time of the day and even quite late at night. Severus was aware of the neighborhood and thought that she was either quite brave or very foolish. Recently though he had noticed that her hours had become more regular. Thus it had made it easier for him to avoid any more unplanned encounters. He had done well in avoiding her for quite some time.

Severus had very good reasons for avoiding contact with people. His first reason being that he was no ordinary man at all. He was in fact a regular wizard though. It was, to him, quite normal to meet and deal with people of a non-magical background. As everyone in the Wizarding world was aware that there were billions of people that could do no magic. The non-magical people, usually referred to as Muggles, by the wizarding world were not normally ever aware of the magical world and the witches and wizards around them.

Severus had in fact performed a little spell as Raven had introduced herself. The spell was the Legilimens spell. Severus was very accomplished at performing this spell. He had needed to know whether or not the young lady was really doing what she presented herself as doing.

The Legilimens spell would tell Severus what the young woman had been doing in the past. It was a sort of mind reading but more in pictures and images. Severus didn’t usually just wander around performing this spell on people but these were trying times in the wizarding world, even more trying times for Severus. There was a war going on in the wizarding world that would make the worst war that the Muggles could remember or think of, seem trivial. The war Severus was involved in was a war between good and evil. Severus knew on which side his heart resided, but he was performing as a double agent. His life had been for, the past several years, a living tight rope balance.

He had needed to check if the young woman was perhaps sent to spy on him or even to poison him with the cookies. She could have been a witch sent to do him in or she could have been under the imperious curse. The Imperious curse is a curse used to make the victim do whatever the curse maker needs or wants done. The person under the imperious curse is usually helpless to stop the curse.

Severus had felt it possible that the young lady had been sent to him with poisoned treats. He had performed the Legilimens on her and had seen that she had truly been at work earlier and sharing the cookies with co-workers. He also managed to get her to eat one of the sweets before him, just to put his mind further at ease. However, as was sometimes the case for Muggles, she had a bad reaction to her mind being probed. The spell can sometimes cause them to faint or get dizzy, as was the case for Raven. If he decided to have any further dealings with her he would have to curtail performing the Legilimens on her.

Raven felt it was a little odd to be standing on the pavement having snacks, but it seemed that the man was not going to invite her in. She finished the cookie she held in her hand. Feeling odd still, she smiled and quickly said,
“Well, this is nice but I am going to be painting this afternoon inside my house, so I had better get started because it’s not going to finish itself.” She pressed the plate towards Severus as she made to leave.

He took the plate from Raven. He glanced down at the cookies, thinking how he really wasn’t a big sweet eater.

“It was nice meeting you.” Raven said. “Even though I almost fainted on you.” She smiled and suddenly felt stupid for bringing up the dizziness issue. “I’ll go right home and eat before I start painting though so I don’t keel over.” She added compounding the issue again and feeling even stupider. Raven wondered if she could possibly feel any stupider. Knowing that she still had to cross the cobbled street, which in itself presented the very good possibility for her to trip, she took extra care as she stepped into the cobbled street and concentrated on not tripping.

“Yes, it was nice meeting you. “ Severus finally responded. He glanced at the plate as Raven turned to look at him. “I’ll look forward to seeing you again when I return your plate. Have a good afternoon.” He felt that he almost gave her a smile. Severus by nature did not smile all that often and rarely, if ever, at another human being.

He turned and went back into his dark house. He rolled his eyes towards the ceiling and sighed. He knew that he did not need the distraction of a lovely lady at this time in his life. However, he ventured, with the eloquent manner in which he expressed an interest in seeing her again when returning the plate, he doubted that she was exactly going to be overjoyed at the prospect of seeing him. He sighed, his head lounging back against the door, closing his eyes.

“Oh, what is that in your hand, Snape?” Asked Peter Pettigrew “having a little tryst with the little Muggle hooker from across the road?”
Peter looked at Severus, whose eyes had popped open, leveling his gaze at Peter. He said,
“It is really none of your concern what I do in my spare time.” He managed to seem threatening towards Peter and yet sound slightly bored at the same time.

He walked past Peter and proceeded into the kitchen. As he moved to place the dish on the counter he instead struck the edge of the plate on the counter. He muttered a small curse word and pulled the plate towards himself and examined it. There was a chip on the edge and a crack running from the edge inward. He touched his magic wand in his pant pocket and repaired the plate. He also vanished the cookies. He knew that he wouldn’t eat the sweets and at the same time he was not going to leave them about for Peter either. He really did need to think about what he was going to about the neighbor.


Raven went back across the street to her house. It took everything she had not to run across the street. She felt idiotic. She thought the man was not all that attractive and yet at the same time his eyes seemed so penetrating and keen, she had immediately felt something for him. She suspected maybe it was some emotional reaction that has caused her near fainting attack. She had not really ever felt light headed before that she could recall, so it had to have been that her heart was racing. She did in fact go into her kitchen and have a sandwich but instead of getting on with her painting task she fell asleep on the sofa until almost all of the light had faded from the sky. She awoke and felt dirty from sleeping on the musty sofa, even though she now had two bed-sheets covering it. She had gone and taken a bath and went to bed right afterwards.

_I love input---give me input anyone!!!