HOUSE SNONKSGOOD.

[bestunrevealed]

This is the house of Snonksgood. To the street it is a three story brownstone in Brooklyn, and distressingly plain. There is no neon in the single window, which does not allow a view of the inside; deep, dark green curtains obscure the inside of the shop. After all, quite a few of the potions and ingredients are heat and light-sensitive

Comments

[markofawitch]

Lily has decided to pay her oldest friend a visit. It's a good day for that sort of thing, and she doesn't see enough of him. She's never actually been to his house, so she can't help but laugh when she sees "Lovesnonks" written there.

She knocks on the door, and waits. She hopes he's home. She hadn't thought to check before coming to visit.

[markofawitch]

Lily sits when he pulls out the chair, and helps herself to a scone. "I wouldn't be surprised if you had a large library full of books other than cookbooks, too."

[bestunrevealed]

"I did. Here... it will take some time to rebuild."

The shelves are still a bit bare, but he's probably spending most of his paychecks and money from the imPort funds on books... when he's not spending them on lab equipment.

[markofawitch]

"I'm sure it will be amazing, when you're done. You always have had good taste in books." While Lily could be considered a bookworm herself, her love of books isn't nowhere near that of his.

[bestunrevealed]

"Your faith in my ability to bookkeep is appreciated," says Snape with no ridicule intended.

He very carefully does not say anything about getting started on things with her father, or how he picked books for him, that any young man -- muggle or otherwise-- would love; Treasure Island might not have had wizards, but it certainly had magic, and fourteen year old Snape may have taken too much of The Count of Monte Cristo to heart.

"I had considered a small project," he says. "Seeing as our wizarding tales are naught here-- but penning a few scrolls from the Beedle's stories might not go amiss here. I'm sure there's an audience, especially considering some of the information on those stories, such as Albus's notes. I know most of them quite well. They'd not go further then our my own library, but someday it might be useful."

In case anybody needs the meaning behind The Tale of the Three Brothers again, as Snape well knows.

[markofawitch]

"I think that sounds like a brilliant idea." Lily doesn't really know how Beedle's stories could ever actually be useful, like they had been in his past (and her future), but she still likes the idea.

"And I think there would definitely be an audience. I always thought it was a shame we never shared those stories with the muggle world."

[bestunrevealed]

"I've done some illuminating in my day, but nothing so ambitious. And I have the shop. So it would be a spare moment endeavor," says Snape, between careful bites of his own scone.

If he eats it slowly enough she'll do the same, and they'll talk longer and he will be able to remember, just a little a bit, what it was like before everything went to hell with one wrong word.

[markofawitch]

Lily has never been a fast eater (and drinker of tea, either, for that matter), and she’s in no rush to leave. She wants to stay and spend some time with him, to mend fences, otherwise she wouldn’t have come in the first place. It may be hard for him to believe, but it’s the truth.

“It’s always good to have a project to do in your spare time, anyway.” She offers. “Mine right now is usually trying to keep a marmoset from breaking everything in the house, and hurting herself.” She says it brightly, though, and sounds cheerful about it.

[bestunrevealed]

"A what?"

Snape has no idea what it is, but all he can think of is, "Hagrid isn't here, is he?"

[markofawitch]

"A monkey. And I really hope you just weren't calling Hagrid a monkey, particularly because I mentioned she's a girl." Lily raises an eyebrow, but there's still a twinkle in her eye, and she sounds a little amused. And she will stay amused, as long as Snape isn't actually calling Hagrid a monkey. Lily actually thinks it would be quite fun to have Hagrid around.

[bestunrevealed]

"Though this will mean nothing to you, I'll say it anyway: Blast-Ended Skrewts." He sighs, as if put upon. "But a marmoset is apparently a type of monkey, not a skrewt. We are grateful."

Hagrid's not a monkey. He's a great, terrible gorilla of a man.

[markofawitch]

"Blast-Ended Skrewts?" She really can't help the snort that follows that. They just sound hilarious. “We don’t just have a marmoset, we have a baby pygmy marmoset who can wiggle her way into the smallest places possible and wreak all kinds of havoc. It’s almost like having a very tiny, very hyperactive child.”

[bestunrevealed]

"I will have to take your word for it." Seeing as he has no ring on his inger and has mentioned no children, it's safe to say Snape has no idea what being a father is like, let alone to a tiny hyperactive monkeychild.

[markofawitch]

Lily, unfortunately, knows all too well about tiny hyperactive primate children. She loves it, though. She's one of those people who was born to be a mother. "Maybe someday you can meet her. Her name is Hedwig."

[bestunrevealed]

Severus Snape is all too aware of Lily's mothering streak. He remembers Lily's mother, and wanting that to be his mother, once. Seeing it in Lily makes sense, and also brings a little sadness to him, though it's gone with a dip of his head and the fall of his hair into his face. So many regrets.

"I was more aware of the owl bearing the same name. Did your son name her, then?"

He is -- careful not to invoke Harry's name when he can. It's awkward. He doesn't know what to say about it and what to say to her about it, because it opens up so man ugly doors into secrets he'd rather keep from her.

Like why he was there in the first place.

[markofawitch]

"He did, yes." That gets a curious look out of her. Just how well does Snape know Harry? "We were looking for names, and he suggested Hedwig. I think it fits her nicely."

Just as Severus doesn't say Harry's name, Lily doesn't say her husband's. She knows how James and Severus feel about each other, but it's not something she particularly wants to deal with at the moment.