Chapter Text
Sirius Black had many questions. A thousand and one question or about that. Fact was he was in complete confusion, staring at the stairs, which were moving. Of course he was used to stairs doing whatever the stairs wanted to do. But he wasn’t in the magical world. He was in a mall. He was so astounded he somehow had forgotten what he actually wanted to do here. “What the..:” A known voice and he was grabbed by the arm and pulled aside.
That was, when he noticed, people behind him were staring angrily. At him. What did they want? Perhaps use the magical unmagical stairs? At least, that's what they did after he was pulled away.
“Did you lose the tiny bits of mind you still had, Black?” He looked in the darkest eyes he ever came across in his whole life. “Snivellus? What are you doing here?” He tried to sound demeaning, but actually Sirius was really curious. “Shopping.” Beautiful snarring. “I didn’t know you-;”
He was again grabbed by his right arm and pulled outside.
“Stop pulling me around!” Snivellus sighed deeply and massaged his sleeves. “What are you doing here?” He obviously tried to sound as calm as possible. “You could have gotten in some real trouble there.” Sirius was still confused. “Why?”
“Look at you. In London you can walk around like that. No problem, these people are used to crazy-;"
''I am not cra-;"
''Stop inter-;"
''You inter-;``´´"
''Stop it. Fact is that this is a small city. The people here are not used to strange views like yours.”
He had started walking during his talk. He was unusually friendly. Did he want to kill him? They stopped at a tiny hidden place. So that was a yes. This was the end. Snape was going to kill him.
“You look terrible.”
“Thanks, you look even worse, but naturally.”
At least Snape could have been nice to him, if he wanted to kill him. “That’s not what I meant. You look tired, you have been wearing the same clothes for days and you walk around completely confused in a muggle place. If I didn't know any better, I’d say you haven’t been home for a while.” Sirius was quiet. That was too much. Snape's voice was so calm like he would talk to a frightened animal. He was not supposed to act like that. He was supposed to be mean and well Snapelike.
“I...That’s none of your business!”
Snivellus nodded. “Of course not, but tell me why aren’t you with Potter, hm? He is an asshole, but loyal to his friends.”
Sirius sat down or better sunk down. He broke. He was too weak. He couldn’t bear it anymore. “They’re not home:” He whispered. His voice was so quiet he barely heard it himself. “Want to tell me what happened? I wouldn’t tell anyone. There is no one listening to me anyway.” Snape half smiled and looked at him. “I thought you needed to go shopping.” Snape shook his head. “I’m too late anyway.” Too late to what?, but he didn’t ask.
“My parents kicked me out.”
“Shit.”
“Whatever. Good to be out of there. The service was terrible.”
Snape giggled sadly. “I do get you, but you need a place to stay. You can’t walk around until the Potters are back from their holidays.” “And where do you suggest I go? I have no money. Should I stay with you?” Snape winced.
“Not with me. You can’t stay with me.” “Sorry, I didn’t know the thought of it would disgust you so much.” “That’s not… It doesn’t. But you can’t stay with me, Under no circumstances.” He emphasised it by jumping up. He held his hand out. “But I know where you can.”
Sirius looked up to Snape and it was the first since they met at the curious stairs. Snape looked terrible himself. He had bruises and scars and his clothes didn’t seem to fit. Sirius took the hand he was offered.
“Where?”
Snape didn’t talk, just gestured to follow him. Until they were standing in front of a very cute and normal house. A house like every other in the street. Snape quickly looked around. “Okay, listen to me. You ring the bell, ask for Lily and say nothing about me. Do you understand me?” He nodded, but that didn’t seem to be enough. “Do you understand me?” “Yes, yes. Damn it.” “Good. Keep your head up.” Snape turned around and seemed to disappear in few seconds.
Something felt very wrong about the interaction. Snape was always a bit sketchy, but that was just wrong. Something happened. He went to the door. Evans. He pressed the doorbell. A man he didn’t know opened the door and looked at him disapprovingly. Understandable. Snape was right, he looked bad, really bad.
“Is Lily home?” The man nodded. “Lily! Someone for you.” Lily appeared in the doorframe. “Sirius! Come in. You look terrible.”