A/N: This is my first finfic on this website, just to let you know. I am not making any money from this and (sadly) I don't own Severus Snape. I do, however, own Rosie Watermouth and anyone else that you do not recognise! Enjoy the story!

MAKING ENDS MEET

Chapter 1: The Beginning

Severus sat brooding in the kitchen. Was this the right thing to do? If by chance someone did reply to the advertisement would they want to know once they saw who it was they had to live with? Damn it! Snape thought and he sealed the envelope with a wave of his wand and sent his owl Asriel flying away with the letter clamped firmly in its beak.

A few days later Rosie Watermouth was sitting outside Florean Fortescues with an ice cream in front of her, poring over her copy of the Daily Prophet. Rosie's dark brown hair was falling in her face, obscuring it from view, though if you could've seen it you would have noticed the heavy frown and look of concentration on her features.

She sighed and lent back on her chair shaking the hair from her eyes and looking around. It was hopeless, Rosie thought to herself, it was either buy a house or remain in a house that is worse than homelessness – or even more terrible than that, with your bloody parents. Rosie smiled wryly, she could just see the smug look on her mother's face when she arrived outside her door and told them that, once again, she had failed miserably. It wasn't as though she and Rosie's parents were at war it was just that they knew her too well. Rosie, through all her good points, had fairly substantial flaws – she was 32 and single, had never owned her own house or even lived in one for as long as to call it home. She was also forgetful when it came to things like – oh, I don't know – bills and such like.

"This is just to bloody hopeless!" she whispered to herself and took a spoonful of ice cream and put it in her mouth. She was just about to give up hope when she noticed an advert in the corner of the paper on the property page: 'Room for rent, enquiries to be sent to Mr. S. Snape.'

That was all Rosie needed – "YES!" she cried causing people in the vicinity to stare.

It wasn't desperation that had driven Severus to consider having a person to rent a room from his house, it was practicality. He wasn't so lonely that he would do anything for someone else to be in the house with him, it was money – so he kept telling himself.

"Well it's true!" Severus said indignantly to his conscience.

His house was not in use the whole year round – he was a teacher at a boarding school. He didn't have the time to come back and check that his two bedroomed terrace was in good shape. If he had a housemate – he shuddered at the term, then at least he would have some looking after the house and paying him money. It wasn't as though he had to get on with her – or him for that matter. He wasn't sociable and if his teaching record had got anything to go by, he didn't much care. They paid him the money and would leave them well alone.

Good plan Batman, he thought to himself derisively.

Rosie had thought very hard about how to phrase her letter Mr. S. Snape, she now sat in her bedsit at the small coffee table with a quill between her hands and a roll of parchment in front of her.

Dear Mr. Snape,

This is a letter in answer to your recent advertisement in the Prophet. My name is Rosie Watermouth and I am 32 and at this moment have no house to call my own. I am friendly, pretty good at cleaning and house trained. My place of residence is number 18b Regency Street, Acton.

Yours truly,

Rosie Watermouth.

There, done! Fairly polite – and showing a sense of humour. Though her letter did not show desperation, which was very good, considering how desperate Rosie actually was. Rosie stared at the letter and then picked it up, sealed it magically and walked out of her house. She reached the corner shop – which of course was invisible to Muggles – and walked in. She marched up to the small wooden counter and waited for Mrs. Smith, the shopkeeper to appear.

"Hello, dear," Mrs. Smith said smiling, after clambering out from behind a pile of boxes.

"Hey there! How's you?"

"I'm fine dear, had a bit of a cold recently but I'm fine. I trust you're well?"

"Yeah, nothing wrong with me," said Rosie handing her the letter. "Could I have this posted by one of the faster owls?"

"No problem. Mr. S. Snape eh? Why you contacting him?" she asked tying the note to a smart dark brown owl.

"He had an advert in the paper – room to let, I thought I'd contact him."

"He's not that – you know," she dropped her voice, "teacher is he?"

Rosie laughed at Mrs. Smith's expression, anyone would have thought that she was just about to declare him a mass murderer. "Dunno, I haven't met him yet. He has a room to let; I need a new house – anything ­to get out of that crappy old bedsit."

"We did warn you-"

"About the house, I know – I thought it would be okay though, nobody said that it flooded every year and that there was no central heating. I don't have the money to spend to get it fit to live in," Rosie said glumly putting some silver coins onto the counter.

"The landlord should pay shouldn't he?" Mrs Smith said, frowning, picking up the coins and depositing them in the till.

"Yeah, he should, but the sleaze decided that he wouldn't. He said that he never claimed the house was a good one, I rented it knowing what it was like, which of course I didn't – blind deal."

Mrs. Smith sighed. "Make sure you don't do the same thing with this one. Go and look around the house before hand so you know what you're doing. Where is the house anyway?"

"In London, so it won't be too far from here. Near Hammersmith. I think it's on the outskirts – anyway, I'd better be off. I need to give notice to my landlord!"

"What if you don't get the house?" asked Mrs. Smith looking concerned.

"Trust me, the streets better than my current place!" When she continued to look stricken Rosie waved her hand and said, "I'm joking, I'll just admit failure to my parents and move back with them for a while. Not that I want to – it does nothing for my pride."

She said goodbye to Mrs. Smith and strolled out of the shop watching the door mould back into the surroundings. As she walked back to her house she saw a brown owl swooping off in the direction of Hammersmith.

The owl came swooping into Severus' house later on that day when Severus had the door open. He was throwing out old bits and pieces that he didn't need, like a large piece of linoleum and a rocking horse. He was quite sad to see the old, tattered horse go – he had had it since childhood, and although his childhood wasn't altogether happy it was one of his fonder memories. He didn't remember being given it, he suspected that it was passed down from a grandparent of some kind to his mother and that she had given it to him and his sister. Though how it had come to live in his loft he could not remember.

He walked back into the house, shut the door, and headed for the kitchen, intending to have a cup of coffee. However when he walked in he saw a barn owl on the table waiting for him.

"Hello," he said quietly. "Do you have a letter for me?"

The owl cooed softly and Severus interpreted this as a 'yes'. He edged towards the owl and took the letter from it. He looked at his hands where there was a small white scar on his finger. His father's owl, Gruber, had been a fierce owl – a bit like his father – and had bitten him on the finger when Severus had tried to snatch a letter from him. He was still slightly cautious of owls, he preferred to have his fingers on his hands.

He gave the owl a piece of bread and shooed it out one of the windows. He then took the letter and sat on a sofa in the front room. He prised open the letter and read it.

So, he thought a minute or two later, Rosie Watermouth wants to live here. Well, might as well invite her to look around and then offer her the room. Nobody else had written to him, if she wanted the room badly enough to even put up with him, he might as well let her have it.

Severus got a piece of parchment, a bottle of ink and a large black quill from a drawer. He sat with the nib poised above the blank parchment wondering how to phrase his reply. I suppose I should tell her my name at some point – she doesn't actually know what the S stands for. Unless she has friends with children who told her – no, then she wouldn't have written at all!

Dear Ms. Watermouth...

Rosie got a reply only a few days later telling her that she was welcome to come and look around the house to see whether she liked it, and that if she did, the room was hers – unless she was a mad axe-woman. Rosie had also found out that his name was Severus. Unusual, thought Rosie.

So the following week Rosie Apparated to Severus' house and knocked on the door. The door opened automatically and a hastily sealed envelope was on the floor with her name on it. She picked it up, frowning wondering why on Earth he had left her a note. She just had visions of the bald man from the Crystal Maze jumping out and telling her that the only way to find the kitchen was through the quagmire filled with man-eating crocodiles.

However, to her slight disappointment it was just a simple note saying:

I am afraid that I can't be here. I've been summoned on some urgent business. I won't be back for a few days. Have a look around and see what you think then leave your answer on the back of the parchment. If you're going to take the room I will expect you here next Wednesday in the morning at ten o'clock sharp. Thank you for your time, Severus Snape.

Rosie folded up the paper – Right, she thought, I've never moved into a house this way before – oh that's what I was doing wrong! No random man left me notes on the doormat and I wasn't expected Wednesday morning at ten o'clock sharp! Oh well, he said that he wouldn't be here all year round in one of his letters, maybe that's a blessing in disguise. Wonder why he's not here all year round anyway?

Then Rosie remembered Mrs. Smith the shopkeeper telling asking her whether he was 'that teacher'. She had no idea. I guess I'll find out when I finally meet Professor Snape! She thought with a wry smile.

The house itself was very nice. It was larger than it seemed from the outside (Rosie decided that this was due to magic and not his skill at interior design). There were two largish bedrooms, a small bathroom and a small study upstairs and downstairs was a kitchen (which was huge and had a dining table in it), and a lounge. All of this was fitted very snugly into a cute Victorian terrace.

Looks like I will be living here then, Rosie thought picking up a quill dipping it in ink and writing the words 'I will be staying here' on the back of his note. Then she exited the house and closed the door behind her and Apparated back to her bedsit. She walked in and sat down on her bed, shaking her head and smiling at the unreality of it all – what an odd way to rent a room! Though she had to admit that despite the irregularity of the whole shebang it had been a satisfying day and she was quietly confident that she would be living in Severus' house for a long while.

A/N: If you read, please review!