The Longest Journey ( a Role play)

( so this is a roleplay that my husband and I have been working on. it features Snape and my OC Tempest on their trek across Europe. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it. )





They had been on the train for most of the morning, and the rocking had lulled everyone into a soothed dull stupor. Tempest, who had been hanging in the window quiet for the last two or three hours, suddenly perked up and got to her feet, grabbing her things from
the overhead counter, shuffling past Severus on her way to the back of the car.


Severus came to his senses with a start, his brow jutting up in subtle startled confusion as tempest passed by. He had previously been staring intently at the train cars upholstered seat pattern, so he had to blink once or twice to refocus his blurred vision. “W-what’s going on..” he half-mumbles partly from sleep and partly to not draw attention, in case there was any to have.

“we’re getting off. get your stuff.”
She had only paused for a moment to answer his question before  sliding open the pressurized door  and slipping through it.

He could barely believe his ears.. In fact, it was because he still heard the train moving, not the thought of leaving this muggle packed sardine can. He turned his head to the window and sat up lazily, only to spot grass and fence line zipping past his view.. Yep, he thought, Still moving. Severus turns back towards tempest as the door slides shut, his confused expression finding nobody to receive it. He felt that she wasn’t going to give him much this time, and as he sulked after her, grabbing the bag of his possessions, he groaned in anguish. He pushes through the car door only to catch the opposite door to be closing as well. “..try not to look down.. “ he says almost frustrated at himself as he steps over the wide gap between cars and enters the next.

Tempest was waiting with her hand in the door hold for him.
“ You coming?” she called back to him impatiently. “We’re going to miss it and have to walk if you take any longer. “  
the room was filled nearly half full in all corners with boxes of all kinds. How she had managed to make it from one side of the room to the other without clearing a path first would remain something of a mystery to Snape.

Snapes mouth dropped slightly, and a faint utter of a possible question squeaked out of his throat. How, indeed.. His feet felt the urgency of her words, his head still drowsy and confused by all of this nonsense.. and now something about ‘missing it’? As he shuffled forward awkwardly in his confusion, he managed to trip over nearly everything from here to the other end, finding himself crawling uncomfortable over presumably someone else’s belongings. Catching himself just as he reached the end and avoiding a rather nasty fall on his face, he quickly straightens up and huffs angrily, straightening his clothing out with annoyed pats and rubs of his hands. He was wide awake now. With a grumpy stomp after tempest, he exits this last car, apparently, as there was nothing but countryside in front of him now. He looked down only to press against the door with a gasp, as there was only a foot or so of space, and a very flimsy railing that looked as if it was half broken. He snapped his attention to tempest for an explanation. “WHAT THE HEL!?” He called over to the wild mess of hair next to him.

She pointed way off in the distance at what looked to be a camp sitting in the middle of the field that was flying bye.
her hair was whipping around her face as she tossed both heavy sets of luggage of the side of the railing. One suit case made it fine, but the other left clothing scattered behind them on the tracks.  She flipped her hair over her shoulder so that she could get a clear look at him.

“WE’VE GOT TO JUMP. ARE YOU READY?”

“WH!JU!W-NO! NO I AM CERTAINLY –NOT- READY!” Severus screamed at the top of his lungs, his voice becoming shrill and cracking. He was livid, and it was obvious. He whipped his head between Tempest and the ground, the tracks, the railing, the odd camp sight zipping by, then back at the tracks, and finally to Tempest once more “THERE IS NO F-F-FUCKING WAY!” He yells over the roar of the train angrily, still pressed tightly against the door.


“ WELL, I’LL SEE YOU ON THE GROUND THEN. “  she gave him a wild grin, and then flung her self  through the opening in the railing, landing on her feet and then tumbling three or four more times before coming to a stop on her back. She was still for a moment, but then stared after the train’s caboose in wonder.

“Jump!” she was just audible over the chucking of the engine, and the thwacking of the wheels.  “Hurry!”

Severus looked absolutely mortified. Had she really just.. And she wanted him too.. And of course he knew he must... An image of Dumbledore lying in the grass screaming for him to jump popped in his head, and his stricken face became that much more intense, as he knew the ground was in his near future. As he took the first shaky step, he tried to quiet the voice in his head that told him not too.. And then his insanity kicked in “..m-maybe if I just.. run really fast when I hit the ground..” he says to himself out loud to quiet his nerves. Closing his eyes and taking a daring leap from the platform, he suddenly but all to late realized why tempest had discarded her belonging –before- jumping.. Like a rock, he dropped out of the sky, and also in the way rocks do, hit the ground and tumbled over himself at least half a dozen times. There was a great explosion of clothing and odd assorted knickknacks tempest had packed for him, flinging about in random directions as Severus undoubtedly tumbles the most in his entire life, making up for times he missed as a child on large hills. Coming to a rather painful stop, and gasping for the air that had been knocked from his lungs, Snape lies defeated several feet away from the tracks, possibly several meters away from tempests landing point.


Yet sure enough here came Tempest voice from the distance.
“Jesus Christ ! you nearly took the whole train with you down that hill. You ok man?”
she was running toward him luggage in hand. Tempest ‘s shadow cast darkness in the way of the sun that was playing intensely over the scenery, and now she was crouched over him on her haunches, looking down at him through wild straw covered hair.
“can you move?”

Severus let out a feeble groan, but it was unclear if was from upset or pain. It may be safe to assume both. He peered up at tempest in the odd shift of light, not really able to make out much except for the numerous locks of hair that seemed to shroud the messy Tempest rather effectively “..W-why.. didn’t you just APPARAAATTEEEE!!” he starts with a weak whisper and ends with a shout that echoed across the country. He huffs and pants in a frenzy for nearly a minute, before realizing he was making a scene. He sits up with a heavy grunt and looks back behind him. His face drops slightly at the sight of quite literally everything from his bag strewn about the length of the tracks, as well as several very well defined, snape-sized dirt tracks that were several feet between each other.. “.. How did I survive..” he groans softly as he attempts to stand. His legs ached, his wrist was sure to be sprained, thankfully his left. He felt a little wetness on his forehead and assumed he was bleeding out from a head wound, when in reality he had landed a little too close to a puddle. With the shock of nearly dieing fading, he turns his attention to his assumed murderer “……Jump.. Jump she says..” he looked like an enraged bull, his nostrils flared wildly as he attempts to calm himself unsuccessfully “..Tempest..” he says dangerously “..What ..the .. –FUCK-.. WHY..WHY THE FUCK.. That’s a better question, why the fuck did we just.. DO THAT!? PLEASE! Tell me that all of life’s riches awaited us upon landing, BECAUSE I AM HAVING.. Huuh. Huuuhh..” He begins panting heavily, and grips his chest slightly ‘what the fuck’ he mouths to her once more silently, his face begging for an answer that was valid.

Tempest was smiling broadly, as she flicked a cigarette out of her pocket and lit it with her wand, puffing it once or twice before passing it to him to keep.
“ There were too many people on that train to apparate… and besides… there is just something that you’ve got to see out here.” she pointed out to the lonely looking campers in the field.
“ Over there in that Bus. “
a football field and a half away the shadows of a bus and a tent stuck out against the mid day sky. The field, which was matted and bleached a white grey, had an earthy sweetness about it that could not be found in the city.
She held out a hand to him and stood up again.
“ It’s worth it I promise.”  

Severus took the cigarette and puffed half of it down in one lung full, taking it easily and letting it go with a shaky exhale. He closes his eyes at the nicotine works into him and calms his agitation slightly. “..You jumped off a train in favor of a bus..” he says softly, as if in disbelief. His eyes drifted over to where tempest had pointed, and his eyes squinted slightly. Sure enough, a lone bus and tent were casually dropped in the middle of nowhere. Though he was aching from head to toe, and pissed off to no end, a small part of him tingled with curiosity. This must be a wizarding place, he thought, or tempest nearly killed them both for a chat with an old friend or something. He was partly comforted by the lack of muggles, but the abundance of wizards never made him feel safe necessarily either, so he just hmphed and turned back to tempest. “..I hope its worth it..” he grumbles into the butt of the cigarette before taking the rest in a second puff and discarding it with a flick of his fingers. Severus pulls his wand from his right sleeve, somehow undamaged by the tumble, and points it to the strewn about items. Without so much as a word, the objects begin to tiredly pick themselves up and shuffle back into the bag, as if they were just as bruised and broken as he was. Once his bag was in order, he turns to tempest once more and waves his hand through the air, giving a ‘lead the way’ expression with an annoyed undertone. He was not convinced this would be worth it.

Seeing that he had intentionally ignored her offer for help Tempest shoved her hands back into her robes and began toward the tent, her luggage floating lazily behind her, nearly dragging in the grass.
“ it’s not the bus that’s important, Severus… see beyond the bus.” She said in her most empathic psychic voice. “Only then you shall see with in the importance that is …”  
The smile that played on Tempest’s lips was knowingly cheeky, and showed no sign of empathy for Snape’s bad mood or his bruised body. There was something more prevalent on her mind, and she was in the process of proving her point. No mercy.  
She continued for several more yards before the singular man that was sitting underneath of the bus’s onning became visible without having to squint. Right away he noticed them and began waving in a garish fashion, standing up out of a blue and white striped pool chair, and chanting something, that was at this point, inaudible.

Severus failed to notice the reaction to his neglectful ways, as he had other things on his mind currently. As he followed after her with luggage in his arms, he grumbled quietly to himself about pain in this part or that part, or about how trains are much faster but still annoying, but walking blah blah blah. This went on until the noise of the odd mans chanting filled his ear in a displeasing way. He had a hard time making out what the man was saying, as it was weaved in with several oafish grunts and deep bellied laughter. “FooHoHooo! WooHaa! T’firs Teps a DOOOZY! AHhhaha!!” Severus’ brow perked upright, and his gaze drifted to tempest for answers. “..what did he say..” he asks in barely a whisper quickly to her, as his agitated gaze snaps back to the man. “Tem’st.. Tem’st!” The man slapped his knee and gave the pair a toothy grin that one would expect from a drunken uncle. Snape looked back to tempest again, still waiting for translations on the first round of babble.

Tempest gave Snape a bit of a meek look. “  I honestly just feel my way through these conversations...” she whispered before turning to the man. “ Hi Spongy! How are you doing today? Did the fuzz give you anymore trouble about keeping that fire going?”

“WEhh’hehe! Na’De Funny din abo’duh Fuuuuuzzzz Is dat ‘Dey catch Fiya too sumtim! OOohhhehehe!!” ‘Spongy’ continued to laugh and cough up flem for several long, drawn out minutes before going suddenly completely silent. He sat upright stiffly and stares directly up at severus, the smile gone and no discernable expression playing on his hagrid face any longer.

Severus didn’t know weather to be completely upset, or once again completely confused.. and unfortunately, his face attempted to display both of these things at once, resulting in an unknowing glare and a half-open mouth. His hands had also managed to find themselves palms up at his sides, as if he wanted to say ‘what is this shit!?’ but couldn’t form the words.

“well that sounds like loads of fun. I bet you gave them a good run for their money… listen, Spongy,  my friend and I need to get onto the bus. Is that ok, man? What’s the fee?”  Tempest gave the old man her, would be, best award winning smile.

“Gimme.. OOooohhh Gimme dis’ol Spongy a BI’OL’FAT’SLOPPEH KISS ON DEH LIPS!” He puckered his old man lips, beard and all, into a pair of sloppy lips, and proceeded to make several large smacking kissy noises to tempest. After a minute of this, he clutched his side, slapped his knee and rolled right out of his seat with maniacle laughter. He even managed to roll on the ground a little before grunting at an apparent tender rib he rolled onto. With a grunt and a heave back up into his chair, spongy flashed a toothless grin back at tempest and spoke again “..S’bout.. three’fiddy..”

Tempest couldn’t help but laughing a bit “ ah oh um.. “ she laughed again. “ok then. Three fifty a piece or for both of us.”

Spongy looked up at the sky, near as anyone could tell directly at the sun. He just sat there in silence for a moment, maybe thinking. Finally, he spoke “..Three’fiddy fo’du preddy lady..Ten fo’de.. –man-.. Unless he’wan’give spongy a BI’OL’FAT’SLOPPEH KISS TOOooOOooOOO! AAhhhaaahasheheheheckaka” He doubled over coughing and waving his hand in the air as if to say ‘I’m ok!’ and sat back upright once more. “Ahem..” he gave a grin to tempest that made it clear that there was no way around his pricing.

“ Alright then, Spongy.”  Tempest got into the pouch that she kept dangled around her neck, and dug out thirteen American dollar bills. “ Don’t spend it all in one place, then, kay?” she said opening the door to the large rusted VW bus and looking behind her for Snape to follow.

Severus looked between the two as they made their exchange, and grew even more anxious then before. He still had no clue what the man had said, not even once, so he decided it best to keep next to tempest, for fear of getting bitten by such a man. He hurriedly followed after her, into a smoke filled, foreign van.

Tempest hobbled on to the red shag using her knees and nearly crawled forward past two men, one giving the other a tattoo with a needle and two girls, who were happily sharing a joint in the front seat. None of them seemed surprised to see the two of them scuttling on their knees to the other door, in fact they shut the door behind Snape and greeted them as though they had met before as friends. Tempest gave them a respective nod and then slid the door open, letting the sun pour in at an alarming rate, as there was nothing to block it on this side. As tempest pulled her bags the rest of the way through,  the people on the other side blew whistles and banged drums welcoming them in to what looked to be a massive festival.

Severus nearly fell back at the explosion of drums and instruments that replaced the mellow silence of the country just on the other side of the now closed door. He could barely see anything as he stepped into the sunlight, a large plume of smoke wafting in at his feet from the van. As his vision focused, he had to rub his eyes to make sure he was seeing clearly. What stood in front of him, in replace of the large empty field, were dozens upon dozens of rows of tents, with several larger spires pitched up between the smaller. There were columns of colored smoke coming from various tents trailing high into the sky, and the sound and merriment of the fair-goers flooded his ears. He hadn’t a reaction lined up for such a sight, so he ended up letting his mouth drop slightly in awe. His eyes danced around and caught sight of fire dancers, pixies zipping past in small swarms, Grotesquely large men with hammers knocking things about as groups of onlookers cheer. That, and so much more, all within the first glance of this unfathomably large festival. He still wasn’t sure if this made up for the pain of the fail, or the rambling man out front, but he was honestly a little more impressed than he thought he would be.

Tempest grinned back at him.
“it’s wonderful, isn’t it?”
she was beaming. “ Follow me, they’ll have a tent set for us by the time we get to the campsite.” All around them the air was buzzing with music and laughter, and the pleasant sweet smell that was the dead grass at their feet. In the trees men and women painted like birds were blowing bubbles and misting people with wands or spray bottles as they walked bye.  Along the side of the path venders were selling whatever sort of goods that they had to offer ranging from spiced fruit leather to leather goods and anything that you could think of in between.

Severus snapped his gaze back to tempest as she addressed him, his vision previously set on one of the several tents with all manner of assorted glass bottles and melted metal art dancing around in the cramped covered area. “Hm? A ‘tent’?” he says carefully, his tone making it clear that he was just waiting for the next bad thing to happen to him. “We already have a campsite? But you only just paid that man..” he says quickly, his eyes subconsciously darting between the muggle items that a fair amount of the patrons seemed to have on them. Spray bottles, wrist watches… What was this madness, surely the ministry would not tolerate such a spectacle. As amazing as everything was, it took Snape very little time to discern the presence of muggles, and this clung to his back and kept his mood struggling to remain calm.

“ Spongy runs this place… why else would I talk to an unintelligible old man sitting in the middle of a field…? he probably sent some one the message after we left. He’s a smart guy and all… I’m just not sure if he’s all there all of the time.” She said briskly taking up her bags again, there was little room to walk around freely, but everyone seemed to move when Tempest needed the room. Over head some people were hanging out of two story wooden club houses and chatting merrily over bites of concession food.  “ and, yes, our tent is just over that ridge there, next to the lake. There’s only one bed, but I can’t really see us needing use of it any way tonight.”

“He –runs- this place?” severus snapped back with disbelief. “..That explains at least a good amount of THIS!” he grumbles as hes jostled this way and that by the flow of traffic that seemed to run into him, as they got out of the way of tempest. In the chaos of trying not to get trampled to death, wile following Tempest through a crowd of people, all wile having a light spring shower soak his clothing and hair from the oh-so-helpful misting people, he had managed to make it from the entrance to the campsite without even really getting a chance to sight see. There they stood, in front of another long row of tents, though these were much smaller. From the outside, each standard off-white tent looked barely big enough to accommodate one body, but Severus understood what this must mean. He only hoped the inside was a little better than the outside..

Tempest sort of skidded to a stop in front of one of them. On the side painted in bright green was “Tempest” and “Man” in bold italic. She slowly set her bags down, and dropped to her knees. “ well, if I’m not mistaken, this looks to be our tent.” She said idly, reaching out to unzip the small opening before wheedling her way inside, and pulling her bags in behind her.  
“ not what I had last time… but it’s actually pretty ok in here… I can dig….” Came her muffled voice from inside.

Severus watched as Tempest scooted inside with the bags, and leaned to read the side of the tent once more, just to make sure he had read it correctly the first time. “..Man..” he says quietly. Just then, a rather tall, wiry looking man with a long beard walked past and booms in an overly excited voice “Totally, man! DUDE!” and claps Severus’ back hard as he walks past swiftly. Severus nearly fell into the tent, and by the time he could turn around to accuse the man of foul play, he was gone. Snape huffed with annoyance and opt to hurry in after Tempest, dragging his own bag in after him.

Tempest was standing at her full height under a loft, facing a battered sofa and side table. The room was small, but had all of the simple amenities that a bedroom might have had If it had belonged to some one like her. There was an ash try on the arm of the sofa and the bed ( a twin) was nestled up in the loft on it’s box spring, a ladder being the only way to reach it.  she turned around and flopped on to the couch just as Snape’s head was poking it’s way into the room.
“ so… what do you think? Not quite the Hilton, but it’s cheaper, and a lot more like home once you get a buzz going, if you catch my drift.”

Severus heard mention of bud and nearly jumped in the rest of the way, his gaze flitting about as he took In the features of the magical tents room. Once again, he was more impressed then upset. After a long moment of silence, he nodded and gave a very subtle forced smile “..No wheels on this, right?” he says with an undertone of a joke, his mood being completely flipped at the prospect of finally relaxing for a few minutes. He dropped his bag by the entrance and walked further into the tent, sighing softly. He had never really considered his own home very homey, but had trouble staying anywhere else. This was a comfortable blend of relaxed and cleanly that not even his own home demonstrated. He sits down on the couch on the far cushion and rolls his head back, sighing once more with relief. “..This is fine, thanks.” He says softly to Tempest, directed towards the ceiling.