Chapter 4
Severus stood with his arms crossed new employee recipe book clenched across his chest as the woman laughed until wheezes were the only sounds coming out of her bent-over form. Severus, affronted, refused to acknowledge the similarities between his stance and that of a petulant toddler.
"You," she wheezed again, raising from her previously slumped position, "you're barely a day over sixteen!" Severus could feel himself turning red as she caught her breath. "I am seventeen almost 18 for your information!" He exclaimed haughtily. "No need to get your feathers ruffled Queen Lizzy." She replied, then she raised an eyebrow and pinned him with an unimpressed look. "Stop the psyche and tell me why you're really here" Severus shot her an unimpressed look, "why would I be here in a uniform if I wasn't telling the truth?" He asked in a bored tone. Her face took on a small blush as she seemed to only then register his uniform.
"You really do work here?" She asked in a confused yet almost breathless tone. "That is what I said, yes" Severus stated emphasizing the 'said'. She looked at him wide-eyed then practically screeched, "they gave my job to a PRE-TEEN?" Severus hastily stepped back from her as the clanking of dishes stopped at the sudden noise. There were a few still moments as Severus clenched his recipe book clenched impossibly harder as he lowered his head and hunched his shoulders, trying to shield himself from the prying eyes of his colleagues. The woman's voice once again cut through the air, "Don't you lot have jobs to do, wind your neck in, and mind your own, nosy buggers." Severus quickly looked up to see her, now stood, looking at him closely. The clanking started again as she stepped forward. "Margaret Hannison," she introduced with an outstretched hand. "I still don't believe your seventeen but it seems as if you're not going anywhere so it couldn't hurt." He looked at her hand and hesitated for a bit then slowly took her hand. "Thomas Jones" he replied and shook their grasped hands.
She pulled away with a 'pleased to meet you' and turned back to her maimed onions. Severus stopped her trek back to her disfigured cutting board with a hand on her shoulder. She turned around and Severus immediately retracted his hand. "I have an offer for you." he said quietly and she took a step back. "I don't care how old you are you're still to young for me, my sixteen-year-old brothers look older than you." She stated taking another step back. Severus quickly spluttered and rushed out an, "oh no, no, not like that" as his cheeks grew red. She stopped in her retreat and focused on him again. "oh, then what do you want?" She asked confused. "I much prefer cutting and slicing over cooking so I was wondering if we could switch and you could cook while I cut, we would have to stay beside each other just in case William comes in bu-" she cut off his rambling with a "are you faking me out?" looking down on him. "What, no I'm serious." He says brows furrowed in confusion. "Oh, alright then" she perks up and walks over to the cookers. Severus tries to hand her the recipe book but his attempts were futile as she had already known everything in it.
Severus took to chopping and slicing ingredients the rest of his shift then grabbed his trunk from the staff work rooms and made his way out the door, ignoring the dishwasher's offer of a cig. He glanced at the large copper clock on the right wall and saw the time. 10:46. Shit. He rushed down the road back to the 'Welcome to Cokeworth' sign and found the trail that led to Spinner's End. He rushed down the path until he reached the laundrette. He walked the short, dark walk onto the battered porch of number 14 Spinners End and tried the door. Seconds later a lanky dark woman opened the door and stepped aside when she saw Severus. Severus said a quiet and quick hello to his mother, hearing the snores of his father drifting through the house already. He hooked both hands in his trunk straps and heaved it up to the chest where he held it in a tight embrace. He maneuvered himself up the creaky stairs up the quietest route he knew and tip-toed his way into his dingy room. Once both feet had entered his room he shut his door, took a few steps away from it, hesitated, listened, and let out a sigh of relief at the grating sounds of his father's snores. He put his trunk down in a corner and shimmied under his warm blanket.
He knew he would have to come up with an excuse for why he was gone so much but he was too tired to think let alone plan for a decision that impacts his summer. He pressed his head down further into the stiff pillow on his uncomfortable mattress and thought forlornly about his Hogwarts dorms. He lulled himself to sleep with thoughts of positives about the thrice-damned school of magic.