Safe Haven

Forest Folly

"Even put a stopper in death..." he remembered himself saying as he applied scar cream to his throat, the light pink flesh shiny and new

He knew that the dark lord had planned to kill him. He didn't know it was going to be that night. The vial of anti venom sat on his dresser, for some reason he was unable to put it away. It wasn't necessary anymore, but he felt it to be a testament to his time as a spy. Beside it, Fawkes' bright red feather that had fallen out as he flew away from the scene of the would be murder.

It had been several weeks that he had been living and working at the Safe Haven coffee shop and apothecary. He had gotten used to Hazel's ramblings, she was a comforting background noise as he brewed and bottled. She was young, and had the happy go lucky nature of someone who had never had anything bad happen to them. Eternally optimistic and sunshine. He wished that he found it annoying but her casual air and constant movement kept him from ruminating too long on the past and his uncertain future.

The trees outside of his window scratched the glass, causing him to wince at the sound. There would be rain coming later that morning and that meant slow business. Not many people enjoyed hiking in the muck and drizzle. But, to him, that meant that he could enjoy a walk in the woods and hunt for mushrooms that he needed for the apothecary stockroom. Hazel had flat out refused to "dig around in the dirt" for her supplies and instead sent away for most of them. Severus had scoffed at her unwillingness to forage and told her that he would find orange milkweed mushrooms for them, and for free rather than the insane cost of twenty pounds per half pound.

He quickly tied back his lengthening black strands, bent down and tucked his black jeans into his wellies, summoned his Slytherin green raincoat to him, snapped the floppy hood over his head, and stuffed a pair of gloves and gardening snips into his pocket along with a waterproof bag for the mushrooms and any other goodies that he may encounter while in the forest. Glancing at himself in the mirror, he almost looked happy. A man who had a plan, a job, and a reason for living...at least for the moment.

The stairs creaked under his feet, the mahogany banister smooth and well worn under his hand. He could smell Hazel's favorite Ethiopian blend of coffee brewing, strong enough to hold a spoon up by itself, sweetened by muscovado sugar and a splash of double cream. It was decadent and not something that he should partake in every morning. But he had come to enjoy the bittersweet wakeup call. Hazel enjoyed many American treats from her time in the States and he was currently learning how to properly fry chicken in the afternoons with her.

He hadn't meant to take up cooking lessons, but Hazel was determined to feed him to the point of death. She heavily doted on him, and he had noticed that she did the same for her brother Sam. He looked around the shop, wondering if Sam would be there to help them prep ingredients, or if he would come in another hour to get the pastries and treats ready. Sam was a strange specimen of a human, even for Severus. He moved through the world lightly, despite his massive size. Severus had always been tall and was eye level with Sam, but felt as if he was dwarfed by the breadth of Sam's shoulders and chest. Sam was gentle, and to him that was strange. He had only been around people desperate to prove their worth, shove their weight around for the sake of power, and those kinds of people pushed his every nerve.

Whereas Hazel had a childlike optimism, one that he deemed rife with naivety, Sam spoke with hope. But hope only came from someone who knew despair. Severus knew despair well, and wasn't sure that he would ever know a true sense of hope in his bones. If he ever inflated with the lightness of hope, he was certain that he would float away. Hope felt too dangerous at this point in time and he pushed it away, under lock and key.

"Good morning Severus, how did you sleep?" Sam asked him as he walked into the apothecary behind the wall that separated the front of the coffee shop from the kitchens