Lucy Snape and the Half-Blood Princess (Book Six)

Desolation and Depression

Chapter 1: Desolation and Depression

The summer of 1995 was a very miserable one in the run down area of Cokeworth. So much so that the people who lived there believed that the sun was to never brighten their days ever again.

The already gloomy, dull and washed out muggle estate of Spinners end looked even worse in the non-stop rain. The place might as well have been in black and white, as if an artist had run out of all his bright colours and only the poorest were left to express his drawing of a boring area with nothing happy in it.

Spinners end just looked abandoned, like everyone else had found new lives and left the place, they were never to return to the estate that all looked the same. It was apparent that nobody added any individuality to the place, nobody added any decoration to the front of their houses, or paint the rotting black doors to something more appealing and inviting. That's what made it even worse on a day like this, as if regular days weren't enough. Nobody took care of the place anyway, so why did it matter?

If you were an outsider or had never visited Spinners end before, there was no doubt that you would get lost in the first five minutes of looking in the rows and rows of identical houses. It was as though the place was a maze that was absolutely impossible to get out of. Even if you did have a sense of direction, it was guaranteed you would get lost never mind if you didn't have a sense of direction. People who lived at Spinners end were even prone to getting lost...

But that's why Severus Snape liked it; because strangers didn't visit often, muggles kept themselves to themselves and it was drained of happiness...just like him. In fact, he felt as though the rain pounding down on his roof was only for him. As though he'd attracted the rain cloud and everyone else was enjoying the sunshine this summer had to offer. He was indeed a sadness magnet. 

Snape really couldn't care less about what he did with his life now. He would stay sad forever now, there was nothing keeping him going and he felt like doing absolutely nothing. He would just sit in his favourite armchair reading the daily prophet and would drink a glass of wine. The newspaper, however, just repeated the same headline which drove Snape even more mad. 

He would never go out anymore, and would just stay where he was. Some days he even just stayed sat in his armchair all day long not doing anything. He wouldn't even get up for food or to fetch the newspaper from the space right in front of him where the owl would land every morning with it. He would watch the owl leave but would have no motivation whatsoever to get up and recieve the paper. He had no intention to some days. 

As he wasn't leaving the house anymore, he was running low on food. But that didn't bother him...what was the point in food anyway? He didn't need it. All he needed was his wine, his armchair and his prophet. That was the life he led everyday and that was the way it would stay. 

However, he had a good friend of his who liked to drop by to see how he was getting on. She would bring him food and always make sure he had everything he needed. Some days, Snape didn't even know she had dropped by because he was so drunk he wouldn't know the difference between right and wrong. 

But this was the life he lived. 

Today Snape seemed to be following the same routine, however, he was out of wine. After an hour of pulling his hair out because he had no wine to pacify his sadness, he finally sat down in his armchair and read the prophet. He didn't feel fantastic but he had still decided to collect that days newspaper and read it. There wasn't as much about the headline that had been shown repeatedly since he had returned from Hogwarts but it was still there. It made him wish he still had some wine left. 

He wanted wine so desperately he would even leave the house for it. But that didn't seem like a good option. He would probably collapse in the middle of the street, he couldn't take that risk so he'd just have to suffer at home.