home (reader at hogwarts)

five

your belly warm and full with warm sludgy porridge, steamy potatoes and the most helpings of meat you've ever had in your life- you sit back, in the chair, looking dreamily at albus.

"are you alright?" he asks.

"i might've-" you groan a little. "eaten a bit too much."

"nonsense." albus shakes his head before fixing his spectacles. "you've had much less than i have. i'm afraid i may have just spoiled myself too much."

you smile. "you should be grateful you can spoil yourself."

you rub your hand up your arm instinctively, as you speak meaningfully.

"i would never be given this much at home."

"you will be well fed here." he insists, standing up from his chair and extending his palm to you, helping you up as well.

"will i stay here? in the castle- i mean?"

albus thinks for a while. "there are... options. we'll discuss them soon enough but for now we must head back up to my office."

he looks down at his watch, squinting at the moon and planets orbiting in a format that seemed understandable to the old man.

"we best not keep the potions master waiting."

"snape?" you ask, your tummy bubbling with anxiety.

you've always had mixed feelings about that specific teacher at hogwarts.

severus snape was unmistakably someone brave, resilient and a pertinent part of the harry potter stories. well, harry potter's world- this one.

he was a bully, no doubt about it and you wondered whether or not he would treat you the same.

whatever you thought about the man, you hoped deep down that he would care for you- for you were someone who admired his actions, if not him, greatly.

"you might want to call him professor, for now at least," albus offers you his arm. "so as to not immediately get on his bad side."

"he's not my professor." you say gently, but firmly. "i'll call him 'sir'."

"you can call him jellyfish for all i care." albus smiled mischievously, down at you. "after all you're not exactly an ordinary eleven year old."

you blush, feeling the end of your lips turn up into a grin involuntarily.

"no. no i'm not."

you grab onto albus' arm and see him smile at you for a second before the two of you are pulled through space and time, and reappear in dumbledore's office.

you rub your stomach to ease the feeling of your food swirling around inside and squint up at dumbeldore through a gulp.

"that one was worse." you groan.

"the second apparition always is." albus agrees offhandley, walking to his desk and taking a seat.

he peers at you through his half moon spectacles and gestures towards the door.

"if you will y/n, severus snape should be right at the door."

you try your hardest to ignore the slight lurch in your stomach and back away from the door.

you look back at albus to catch him raise his hand and wandlessly open the door.

your eyes land of the dull and sunken in face of professor severus snape.

he looks just as he was described in the books, his cheek bones defined in an almost deadly fashion and his eyebrows so low it looked as though the man would never be happy.

"headmaster," he greets curtly. albus waves cheerfully back at him, paralleling with the stoic stance severus took by the door.

he looks to you and your eyes clash with his dark brown almost black eyes. they bear into you with a curiosity you weren't expecting from snape.

he steps forward, offering his hand. you notice the doors shut behind him.

"severus snape," he introduces himself. "you can call me either."

"either what?" you ask, scrunching up your face as you shake his hands. they're almost ice cold.

"severus or snape." he says just as monotone as the rest of his speech, sitting in the chair opposite dumbledore's desk.

"oh," albus gasps. "i'm ever so sorry, y/n. here-"

he grabs his wand and shoots it at the balcony and you frown at the noise of furniture scraping against floor.

your face breaks into a smile as a chair floats into sight, walking itself, somehow, to where you are. you take a seat on it besides severus.

"what is it, sir? why have you brought me to meet this girl?" asks snape. albus leans forward, gesturing towards you.

"this is y/n l/n."

"hi." you mumble and severus nods towards you.

"she strangely has a strange knowledge of this world despite me not meeting her till her eleventh birthday." albus says, trying to explain or put the situation into words.

"what sort of knowledge?" asks severus.

"knowledge of the past and the future, limited of course to what was shown in the books she said she has read." albus hesitates, looking towards you as you are busy studying severus' reaction. "these books- from what i understand have narrated our lives to a certain point. she knew of harry potter, his story and of riddle."

"i thought you were characters." you add. "i read those seven books believing that the story wasn't real- that magic wasn't real."

"it also, seems as though y/n is not in the right time," albus pushes you along.

you nod. "the day before i met dumbeldore it was 2016- or..." you tilt your head. "uh- 2017?"

severus turns toward you, through not directly speaking to you. "it seems as though miss l/n has changed realities in away. i'm not sure at all how that is possible- it doesn't make any sense-"

"severus." albus looks at the man sitting infront her. "if she does know what the future entails... she may be of help with the potter situation-"

"he is not in danger." severus insists, through barred teeth. "for the hundredth time- the dark lord is gone."

"you can feel it, though, can't you?" albus says gently. "he is not gone. he is very much still alive and you feel it, severus."

a muscle in severus' temple pulses and you ignore the rational voice in your head and blurt out the question.

"in his dark mark?" you ask.

you turn your head up to look at snape who us staring down at you in shock. "on your forearm- you know he is very much alive."

"i-" severus stammers, looking back at albus. "she knows-"

"she knows much more than that. more than us, severus. we need her help."

severus looks to you, calculating and almost hopeful.

"do you?" he asks, quietly.

you smile. "i do."

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