Spinner's End

CHapter 5

The morning was cool and cloudy with a light drizzle landing on the street. Severus noted as he looked out on to the street in the front of the building. He had a small headache. He was angry with this because he almost never had headaches. He also knew he had the headache because he had not slept well. He could recall a mixture of lovely dreams dispersed with his usual tedious nightmares. The sensual dreams of he and Raven in various places doing various things broken apart by his usual fare of nighttime trauma in the form of remembrances from his past and the horrors that he assumed awaited him in the future.

Using his potion ingredients he stored in his room he made himself an elixir to relieve the headache. He glanced again out the window, this time his gaze rested on the house across the street. He wondered what Raven was doing right now. He glanced at the clock on his desk and saw that it was four o’clock in the morning. He concluded that unless she was, insane she was still asleep. Severus knew that most people did not wake up as early as he did and that they needed more sleep than him. He found the need for only a few hours of sleep per night had always been very useful to him.

Still standing at his desk, Severus drank the headache elixir. With the hand still holding the small vial, he flicked aside the curtain, looking into the gloom outside. Clad only in his small briefs a chill suddenly came over his body.

He dressed in a white cotton shirt and black wool trousers and conjured himself some tea and the tome from last night as he sat at his desk and began reading.


Raven’s small, wind-up, alarm clock awoke her at eight o’clock from a very pleasant dream, of which she immediately couldn’t recall. She leapt from the bed and began rushing around to get ready for work. A quick glance outside told her to wear her raincoat. She usually didn’t worry about feeling cold, as her voluminous skirts always kept her warm.

She dashed down the stairs, dropped her raincoat by the front door, and dashed into the kitchen turning on both burners on the stove, one for water for tea and one for a pan to make toast. She hated having to be in a rush but she had reset her alarm last night to try to get more sleep.

Yelping, a little Raven pulled the piece of toast from the hot pan and threw it on the plate that she had used for the cookies. As she gulped down her tea, she regarded the lonely piece of toast on the large plate. Here eyes scanned the plate for the familiar chip in the edge. She couldn’t seem to find it. She thought that perhaps Severus owned the same pattern of dishes and had given her back the wrong one, as really that could be the only explanation for the plate not having the chip. Not having time to stand and be mesmerized by the plate any longer, she ate the piece of toast in only four bites. She made sure to put the pans in the sink and turn off the stove. She grabbed her raincoat and purse and dashed out the door. As the drizzle hit her hair she suddenly remembered that she should have worn a hat, she didn’t have the time to go back and get it though, she walked as fast as possible down the street to get to the bus stop.

She stood on the bus as it rumbled through town. She suddenly had a moment to think and her thoughts immediately turned towards Severus. She glanced at her Gucci watch; she had been wearing it when Byron threw her out. The watch and the one beautiful, black, pump were two really nice things she still had from Byron. She smiled despite her sudden dark thought. She smiled because underneath it all she felt great about Severus. She wondered what he was doing right now. It was eight twenty-five; she hoped that he was still asleep.

She regretted that she had to work a long shift today and wouldn’t be back home until nine-thirty tonight. Normally she liked the long day, today though she would rather see Severus. Raven consoled herself; she would be able to see him tomorrow. Also having a night apart would give her time to get a good night’s sleep. She would hate for him to see her looking terrible with bags under her eyes or for her to be falling asleep on him.

True to her word Raven went straight home after work. She went upstairs to her bedroom and changed into her flannel pajama pants, t-shirt and red jumper. Going back down to the kitchen, sitting at her kitchen counter, because she had no table, she ate a sandwich and had a cup of tea. She made herself a cup of chamomile tea, took it and a book upstairs and prepared to go to bed.

The next morning Raven woke up early and had time to take a hot bath before work. She headed down the stairs, wrapped in a bathrobe, and a towel wrapped around her head, turban style. She turned to go into the kitchen, when suddenly she froze. She turned and looked at the sitting room. She couldn’t believe her eyes. The hideously ugly, bubble-gum pink color had dried to a tea-rose color just like she had hoped it would. She dashed to the middle of the room and looked at all the walls around her. She couldn’t believe her luck. She walked over to the mostly empty, open paint can near the far wall and looked into it. The paint inside had dried also to the soft rose color. She smiled a large grin. She could hardly wait to tell Severus and to show him. When she left her house to catch the bus, she fairly skipped down the street. Raven attributed part of her superiorly happy mood to the sitting room color, but she also thought that part of her elated mood was due to the fact that she would be seeing Severus later that day.


Severus had been very distracted the past couple of days. He did not like the Dark Lord knowing what he did in his personal time, as the Dark Lord was an excellent Legilimens; Severus had to use his superior skill of Occlumency. This is the skill at blocking Legilimens. Severus was actually so good at Occlumency that he was able to keep things from the Dark Lord. Of course if the Dark Lord had been aware that Severus possessed the occlumency skill to such a degree, he would probably kill Severus simply as a matter of course. Severus had been to meet with the Dark Lord on Monday night.

To Severus’ annoyance Peter Pettigrew had been in contact with the Dark Lord sometime before Severus because the Dark Lord had asked about Severus’ indulgence with a muggle hooker. Severus had responded that he did not know that the Dark Lord cared about such trivial matters as to whom he slept with. The Dark Lord had laughed and made some disgusting references to the past and pointed out to Severus that Peter was not living with Snape because he desired to be there. To this Severus merely nodded. Severus reminded himself to get Pettigrew back at a later date.

Severus also had a long drawn out meeting with Dumbledore, the head master of the school and the leader of the Order of the Phoenix, the soldiers against the evil of the Dark Lord. Dumbledore truly was the leader of the good side, but to Severus both Dumbledore and the Dark Lord warranted caution from him.

On Tuesday Severus was glad that neither of his masters were calling him. He knew that he wanted to see Raven later but he also wanted to relax a little on the coast of Italy today. He was glad that Raven would not be back until later. It gave him plenty of time for a leisure day of much needed rest. Every time he met with either of those two men he knew that the tides were changing and there was trouble on the horizon. Being in his position was more than doubly difficult. The Dark Lord would kill him or worse, immediately for any transgression, but the wrath of Dumbledore would surely be nearly as bad as anything the Dark Lord would be able to do.

Severus walked down the stairs to the sitting room. He wore off white linen slacks and an off-white linen jacket over a soft blue cotton shirt. He suddenly disappeared from the sitting room and was almost immediately standing close to the side of a building; near the beach he liked so much in Italy. In his hand he held a wide brimmed Panama type hat. He pulled a pair of large sunglasses out of the shirt pocket, donned the hat and proceeded towards the beach. A smile played at the corners of his mouth as he headed towards the beach. He let his mind wander and think about Raven.

Raven felt as if the day would never end. Normally she enjoyed work but today the afternoon seemed to drag on endlessly for her. The bus ride seemed to have taken longer than usual and now walking home it suddenly seemed like she lived farther than just the day before from the bus stop.

At last she was walking in front of her building on her street. She looked ahead and suddenly noticed Severus standing next to the lamppost. She walked towards him.

“Hello.” He said with his deep rich voice. Which suddenly made Raven feel reenergized, as though she had just awoken and was not in fact returning from a long workday. “How are you?” he asked, smiling at her. To him the smile felt strange, it was such an infrequent action for him.

“I’m fine.” Raven responded. She actually felt much better, just in seeing him. “ Are you wanting to go out right now?” She inquired indicating his clothes. Raven thought that he looked as though he should be relaxing on a yacht though, not standing in their rundown neighborhood.

“Only if you want to.” He answered graciously. “ I just came to see what time you wanted to go out since we didn’t establish a time Sunday night. I thought that perhaps you would want to go home and relax for a bit, but if you want to go someplace now, I am amicable to that also.” He looked into her eyes. Normally he wouldn’t go someplace here dressed as he was, but if she wanted to go immediately, he knew that he would agree.

“ Oh no, really, I think I would like to go home and relax for a little bit first. Thank you.” She glanced at her watch. “ Would seven o’clock be good for you then?” She looked at his nice clothes. Again, as before, his clothes looked expensive and Raven felt odd dressed in her big full skirt and long baggy shirt gathered at her waist with a belt. As she looked back up towards Severus he seemed to be devouring her with his eyes as he had done Sunday night when Raven was wearing her nice tight dress. She smiled at him. Suddenly she didn’t feel as though she looked hideous in her large artsy, witchcraft looking clothes.

“ Oh, but I really have to show you something in the light of day.” She said excitedly. “Follow me!” She said rushing past him towards her house. She dashed to her door opening it and throwing it wide. She turned and said, “Come look!” She laughed.

Severus mounted the step and entered the sitting room. He looked around the room. Then he turned and looked at Raven, his eyebrow arched in puzzlement.

“The paint color!!!” Raven exclaimed. “It’s not horrible pink, it’s at least a nice pink, well as far as pinks go. Can’t you tell?” She seemed a little dejected that he didn’t notice the difference.

“Oh. I see.” Severus said still sounding puzzled.
“ You can’t tell?” Raven was almost hurt that he didn’t notice the difference.

Severus moved next to her, both of them looking towards the wall containing the front window. He reached across their bodies taking Raven by the shoulder, turning her towards him. “ Of course I can tell the difference.” He smiled. “ It’s very lovely too.“ He said, this last part not meaning the room. He wanted to pull her towards him and feel her small body pressing into his. Instead, he leaned down and gave her a light kiss on the forehead. “ I shall return at seven to gather you.” He released his hands reluctantly from her shoulders. “ Shall we go for dinner at that time?” He asked softly, he could feel a seditious tone unintentionally entering into his voice. “Or would you prefer to see a show perhaps?” He finished softly.

Enraptured by his voice, Raven looked up into his eyes. The simple question about dinner or a show implied so much more in her mind, just by the sound of his voice.
“Yes, Dinner would be nice.” She responded after a pause.

“Lovely.” Severus said to Raven. He did not mean the dinner plans. “ I shall return at seven then. Good evening.” He said forcing himself to turn and go towards the door.

“Yes, seven then.” Replied Raven, the pounding of her heart seeming to make it difficult for her to speak any louder than a whisper.