From Eden - Regulus Black (Complete)

Chapter Seventy-Three

I POSTED ANOTHER FANFIC, THIS ONE ABOUT SIX OF CROWS, IT'S A KAZ BREKKER LOVE STORY. I HOPE THAT YOU CAN GET A LOOK IF YOU'RE INTERESTED; IT'S CALLED THE PHANTOM OF THE BARREL.

Here it's the chapter with the Anne-Severus content I was asked. Please comment what you guys think, please.

LACK OF COMMUNICATION

The letter was clear with time and place for the meeting, so Anne wasn't nervous when she got to the Room of Requirement, but she certainly was surprised when she walked in and already found Severus waiting for her there.

"Hi!" she said, sounding more excited than she had expected her to. "I was surprised when to send me the note. It got me a bit worried, it said it was urgent."

"And it is," he answered, drawing on the 's'. "Or I'd rather like to believe that you'd think it to be."

"Did something happen?" she asked, frowning in worry.

"A lot of things happened," he said, looking away from her.

"Does this have anything to do with the fact that neither you nor Regulus wrote to me during the break?" she asked.

She took the opportunity as Severus created an answer to look around the room and try to guess what was it.

The room was lit up, but it didn't make it warm nor make it look warm. The fireplace was lit up as well, the fire cracking every now and again in the middle of the two old sofas of dark red colour with a dark wooden coffee table. The carpet was old as well and probably one day had been white, but it was nothing more than a yellowish grey. It was Severus' house after his mother died, clearly.

He looked at her looking around, watching as the realisation came into her face. He expected judgment to come soon after and maybe distaste by the dirt – he hated the dirt as well, but either he liked it or not, it was home. But nothing but curious eyes turning to his came as Anne confidently made her way further into the room and sat down in one of the old sofas.

"So?" she urged him to star. "What happened?"

He made his way to seat across her in the other sofa.

"Regulus was spared from the meetings during the break, but I fear I didn't have a sick, pureblood father to help me," Severus said. "I was called in and spent the whole break on Malfoy Manor while the family was away in Germany, celebrating."

"Alone in the Manor?"

"As if," he scoffed. "The Dark Lord brought some of the Inner Circle to stay there and is insisting of making the Manor the headquarters. If he manages to do so, I'm sure Abraxas will be happy on sponsoring the whole movement, which I'm sure you have guessed already."

"Financially, he's far behind the Order of the Phoenix at the moment," Anne said. "I'm not really worried about his money. I think that, although rich people like his idea, they're too greedy to share the money until they are completely sure he'll have power. What I'm worried about, it's the idea of him getting more pull in the Ministry – that's the part we're far behind," she finished with a sigh.

"Indeed," he said. With a long pause, he took a deep breath. "Now, while I was there, we had important talks about the next..." he stopped.

Severus was trying to sugar-coat it all. It was surprisingly sweet. The older Severus that Anne was used to didn't do 'sugar-coating', it was silly and it took too much time, he liked being straightforward and direct, but there he was: acting as if the fairer sex was fragile.