FicWad

Harry sat down on the double bed of the guest room that Maren had just showed to him. The room itself was not incredible huge, but larger than his room at number four. The pail green walls, were covered with more portraits, that all of the walls in this house, seemed to have, the only places that there were not any paintings, was a small area near the door to a small bathroom, where a full length mirror had been placed. The room was furnished in more of the old antique furniture, and his trunk was placed at the end of the bed, waiting to be unpacked, just like it had been at the Dursleys.

Harry sighed. So, the Dursley's were dead. He would never have to suffer through another summer with them. That was a relief in itself, but Harry did feel a twang of guilt that it was partly his fault that they were dead. They were killed so that he would be left without anywhere to go. 'But Dumbledore fixed that quickly, didn't he...' Harry thought bitterly. Dumbledore had shoved him in with his most despised potions professor, Severus Snape, without thinking about how well they got along together. And then Snape, he didn't even care if he was here of not. He had called a house elf to take care of him, and left without saying another word.

It was going to be a lonely summer if Snape never talked to him. Harry was not sure where he would have rather spent the summer. With the Dursleys, where he would have had to do chores everyday, or with Snape, where he was unsure what would happen during the summer. He could just imagine Snape getting pleasure out of making him work like a house elf though. Harry cringed and looked out a small window that looked into a courtyard. The sky was getting darker, and his stomach had begun to grumble.

He decided that he would go out and see if he could find the kitchen. He wondered out into the corridor, and headed to the left where the stairs were suppose to be. He went down to the first floor, a bit nervous. This house had too many paintings, and all of them had people that were staring at him, and all whispering to one another, creating a never ceasing soft buzz of noise through out the house. Harry nearly jumped when one painting of an elderly woman spoke loudly to him. "Young man, what is it that you are looking for?"

Harry looked at the painting. "I was wondering where the kitchen was." Harry told the painting.

"Down the hallway to the left, and second door on the left." The witches portrait said curtly.

"Ah, thank you." Harry said and quickly walked away where the portrait had told him to go. Harry went through the second door to the left, and found himself in a huge kitchen, there were some pots cooking on a stove in back and he saw Maren preparing some chicken at one of the tables.

"Ahh!" Maren squeaked when she saw him. "Is there something you need, Mr. Potter?"

"I was a bit hungry. I was coming down here, to see if there was something I could eat." Harry explained to Snape's house elf.

"Well, if Mr. Potter does not mind waiting five minutes more, Maren will be done with making dinner."

"Alright." Harry said, "That's fine. Should I wait here?"

"Oh no, no, no, no. You should go to the dinning room where I will be serving the dinner."

"Oh, Okay. Where is that?" Harry asked

"At the very end of this hallway. Hard to miss," Maren explained as she lead Harry back out of the kitchen. Harry bid Maren goodbye and continued on his own down the long hallway. And sure enough he found the dinning room, but he also found Severus Snape there too.