(Untitled)

[useabezoar]

Snape's respect for the island had increased just the tiniest of bits whenever he woke up to the surroundings being completely transformed. It was London, and though it was not the London he knew best, it still felt very nearly like home, with its strange fashions and cobblestones and little ramshackle shops. It wasn't Hogwarts, and it wasn't

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[not_the_grim]

Sirius Black's feelings on Severus Snape have always been very clearly defined. The other boy's appearance makes an easy target, but it's the attitude that ensured he was perpetually mocked; Sirius himself knows what it means to be an outcast, after all, and he and his friends always tolerated Peter, who was squat and stupid and dribbled pudding down the front of his robes. It's that Slytherin superiority that never fails to get Sirius' back up, not Snape's greasy hair or the dubious quality of his family name. Even now, knowing that Snape dies for Harry, that immovable arrogance still makes Sirius want to break that big nose of his. It's for Harry's sake alone that Sirius doesn't

[useabezoar]

Any sense of goodwill or cheer that Snape had towards the island immediately plummeted when he heard the all-too-familiar voice of Sirius Black, calling out to him. He stopped dead in his tracks, stifling a cough from Sirius' exhaled smoke. Snape's fingers clenched tight around his little bag of herbs and plants.

"You'd know all too well about that business," Snape sniffed, lifting his chin to stare down his nose at Sirius. "Such a pity your precious playmates aren't here for your amusement."

[not_the_grim]

"Don't you worry, I've no interest in substituting your cock instead," Sirius blithely replies, his grey eyes still sharply fixed on Snape, betraying his disaffected slouch. "I prefer them big enough to see. I'd wonder whether you had one at all, but that wouldn't be very fair to the women of the world, would it?"

[useabezoar]

Snape's hands twitched around the bag as he ground his teeth together. Every word that Sirius spoke made him more and more angry.

It was hilarious, and stupid, how riled up he could get just by Black's infantile nature. Almost anyone else, he could let it just roll off of him. He'd been getting quite adept at it, with all his time around the Death Eaters. He was one of them by mark and by deeds, but his name wasn't up to their standards. Only there, he could curse and hex and duel and prove his worth.

Here? Here he had nothing to fight back with.

Dumbledore had tried to take Snape under his wing, to teach him that there were more ways to handle situations than via outburst, but it was a hard lesson that he was struggling to learn and apply, especially here and now.

"You're spending quite a bit of time thinking about my cock," Snape said, one eyebrow arched. "It's quite disturbing, the amount of thought you've put into your little diatribe."

[seek_to_end]

Harry loved London. Even with everything as old-timey as it was, he liked the change. The island with its constant summer had its appeal too, but from the way everyone talked, it sounded like this was a temporary thing and so Harry felt he could appreciate it. They weren't stuck, just there for the moment

[useabezoar]

Snape was only half aware of the boy on the broom hurtling towards him, so he was caught unaware when he was hit. He stumbled backwards and flailed his arms, trying desperately to keep his balance. It didn't work, though, and with a startled yelp, Snape fell backwards, thudding down hard on the street.

"What are you doing?" he shouted, trying to haul himself back up, but mostly slipping on the ice. "You maniac, you could have killed me with your irresponsible zipping about!" He waved his hands in the air, vaguely gesturing at the broom, before he stopped himself, all the pieces of information coming together in his head.

"How did you get that?" he demanded, eyes wide as he pointed one gloved finger at the broom. "How have you made it work?"

[seek_to_end]

Most of Harry's good will and holiday spirit drained away from him when he saw who he had crashed into and heard his complaining. This was what Harry needed most: for Snape to have a reason to hate him.

"I wasn't-- It pulled out before I could stop," Harry tried to explain, annoyance seeping into his tone. He was so busy being annoyed that he didn't register Snape's questions for a brief second.

"..Muggle technology," he explained, without the tone. "The island gives people things once a year. Like gifts, not things from home. It gave us stuff to make this."

[useabezoar]

Continued here.

[user_wasp]

"Oh," said Lisbeth, when she nearly bumped into him. "It's you." She had the taser in one of the deep pockets of her dress. While Lisbeth had initially planned to only wear men's clothes during this time, she'd been far too small for anything that wasn't a fucking frilly little boy's suit. Discovering the amount of extra possessions she could keep in her skirts and bodice had been a plus.

She thought about tasing him, as a friendly act.

[useabezoar]

Snape came to a halt, the neutral expression on his face sliding down into a scowl.

"It's you," he repeated after her, eyeing the woman suspiciously. He still wasn't quite sure what her problem was, other than that she was thoroughly unpleasant during their first encounter. One would think that this would make Snape more inclined to have an understanding with her. One would be wrong.

[user_wasp]

"You still look like you've got a stick up your ass," Lisbeth observed. "What the fuck is your problem?" She didn't leave, seeming somewhat inclined to stay and learn what the fuck his problem was.

She was in men's clothes, a hat pulled down low over her eyes. She had to push it up in order to get a better look at him.

[useabezoar]

Strange, Snape felt nearly cheerful ever since the island had turned into its approximation of Victorian London.

Granted, his definition of cheerful wasn't quite on par with the rest of the universe's.

"This place is my problem," he said bitterly. "I have too much unfinished business at home to have been whisked away here." He folded his arms across his chest and glared at her. "You aren't exactly pleasant either, you know."

[butterflyfactor]

Layla had found and stuck with a high necked and rather ornately sleeved black velvet jacket with a bustle in the back, and a skirt with roughly the same thick white and black stripes as her favorite pair of socks. Playing dress up had never really been her thing, but her wardrobe was limited and a lot of it had ruffles. She tried to avoid them.

She hadn't exactly been making an effort to get and see any people, either, but at least someone was in a good mood.

"You look like the cat that swallowed the laudanum," she commented of Snape as she headed toward him, having been headed in the opposite direction.

He didn't really look anything close to euphoric, but did seem a bit less harried and sour than the first time they'd met.

[useabezoar]

Snape paused in his steps when he heard someone address him. He'd been getting used to the people who passed just out of his field of vision, people who were there, but not quite, and they never spoke to him. Really, no one ever spoke to him, so it may have taken him a few more seconds than was truly proper to recognize that someone wanted his attention.

He turned to Layla with a look that wasn't a smile, not even close, but was slightly more relaxed than his usual grimace. "This place has turned into somewhere far more reminiscent of home," he said simply. "I find it more acceptable now."

[of_badfaith]

Draco was in similar spirits.

The world he found himself in was just familiar enough to provide a bit of comfort. He'd missed cold, grey stone and the gloomy maze of Malfoy Manor more than he'd like to admit, and the city was at least vaguely reminiscent of it.

He'd grown accustomed to the casual dress of the island, shorts and t-shirts in thin, breathable cotton, but he felt a bit more himself in wool and linen.

Passing the man on the street, Draco offered a nod, and though he looked very little like the man he'd known back at Hogwarts, Draco had to stop himself from greeting him as Professor.

"Snape."

[useabezoar]

Snape returned the gesture, inclining his head towards Draco. "Malfoy," he said simply. It was strange, being of age with someone who he'd last known to be just a small child; strange enough, indeed, that he tried not to think about it, and instead tried to ignore their odd connection as much as humanly possible.

"All of this feels refreshingly familiar, don't you think?" he asked, gesturing vaguely at the buildings behind him. "Much more pleasant than that tropical, sandy nonsense." No matter what people told him, he didn't think he'd ever get over his displeasure at having to live on a beach.

[of_badfaith]

"I never got used to all that bloody heat," Draco agreed, and he wasn't even going to talk about how inconvenient and disgusting all that sand was.

"Honestly, I'd forgotten how much I missed the city."

[useabezoar]

"I plan on taking advantage of all of the amenities that we have now, for as long as they last." He'd been told not to get his hopes up, that the snow and cold and the city itself would not last forever. It was just another in the long string of disappointments that he'd experienced since finding himself on the island.

"I still don't know how you've managed," Snape said. "You've been here how long?" It had only been a few months for Snape, and he was already dreading the fact that he was going to have to spend the foreseeable future at this dreadful place.