In Cokeworth, rows of shabby brick houses stood beside a foul-smelling river strewn with filthy rubbish and waste. Their windows looked like lifeless black holes in the night.
This was Spinner's End, where Severus Snape had spent his childhood.
Snape and Will emerged one after the other from the fireplace of a house at the end of Spinner's End.
Books covered several walls, most of them old volumes bound in black or brown leather. A candlelit lamp hung from the ceiling, casting a dim circle of light over a worn, fraying sofa, an old armchair, and a rickety table.
"Sit wherever you like. There isn't much room." Snape pulled out a book, and a gap opened in the wall of books. It was a hidden door.
Snape slipped through it to do who knew what. Will sat in the old armchair and looked around. The Potions Master's home was remarkably plain. One bottle of advanced potion could earn him enough to buy several houses like this.
The place felt desolate and quiet, with a faint medicinal smell. Will thought it was decent enough, though the lighting was terrible.
"Come on, Behrens." Snape held a bottle of wine. "Don't tell me minors shouldn't drink. Minors aren't supposed to be spies either. Besides, this is sweet red wine. It's only four percent."
He sat down on the old sofa. "Come on. As teacher and student caught in the middle, I think we've earned a drink."
It was Will's first drink in this life, and perhaps Snape's first time drinking with one of his underage students. Snape talked a little more than usual.
By unspoken agreement, neither of them mentioned Voldemort.
Instead, Snape said things like "be careful" and "it hasn't been easy." Seven out of ten remarks were warnings for Will to