sister of the wolf | s. snape

twenty-eight | oliver

Elise had no classes with the Slytherin boy that broke her heart this year, which brought her a conflicted mix of relief and disappointment. It was a few days into classes now and she sat at lunch, listening to Willow complain about Divination at length when her eyes began to wander.

Severus sat between Malfoy and Rosier, facing her way. He was listening intently to something Mulciber across from him was saying, a serious expression on his pale face. After a moment, he seemed to feel her gaze and his black eyes bore into hers. A flicker of... something passed quickly through the endless depths of his eyes, but Elise couldn't place a name on it. Sadness? Regret? Pity, even?

"El, I swear if I look over there and see that you're staring at Snape, I will toss you off the Astronomy Tower." Willow warned, yanking the girl out of her thoughts and causing her to return her attention to her friend.

"I wasn't!" She lied pathetically, rolling her eyes and shoving bacon into her mouth.

"Oh, please," Willow scoffed. "You had that look on your face."

"What look?!"

"The look of 'oh, why doesn't my creepy Death Eater ex want to make out with me anymore!'" Willow teased, making her voice higher to mock her friend, whose voice actually happened to be lower than hers in reality.

Elise cringed. "Oh, shut it."

Just then, a Hufflepuff boy in their year sitting across from them looked up and between the two curiously.

"Death Eater ex?" He inquired with a quirked brow.

"She's joking." Elise quickly covered up, waving him off a bit too casually.

The boy chuckled. "You were dating Snape last year, right?" He asked, which Elise nodded in response to. "Yeah, something about him never quite sat right with me. Didn't know you two broke it off."

Elise frowned and furrowed her brows at him, opening her mouth to defend her ex-boyfriend, but Willow quickly cut her off.

"My girl El deserves better. A fellow Hufflepuff, maybe?" She shot the boy a mischievous smile, to which he replied with a little laugh.

"I'm Oliver. Oliver Smith." He introduced with a wide, friendly grin.

"Willow Davies, and this is Elise Lupin."

Elise gave a half-hearted wave, but tried to focus her attention on her lunch rather than Willow trying to set her up with some boy.

"Well, nice to meet you both formally. I know we have some classes this year - and in the past years - but haven't quite talked before."

"Oh, right, you're in my Advanced Herbology class!" Willow said.

Elise mentally groaned. Why was every Hufflepuff so good at Herbology, but her?

As if answering her mental prayer to escape this situation, the bell rang to end lunch. With a sigh of relief, she said goodbye to Willow and headed off to her class.

Contentment washed over her as she walked outside towards where Professor Kettleburn hosted her favorite class: Advanced Care of Magical Creatures. She was overjoyed to be placed into it this year, though not entirely surprised as she was so passionate about the subject.

"Hey! Lupin!" A dreadfully familiar voice called from behind her.

Hesitantly, she turned and saw Oliver running up to her. It was a struggle to suppress an annoyed groan and make her expression appear friendly.

As nice as this boy seemed, she knew that Willow wanted Elise to move on and would be berating her into getting with him. And that was just something she wasn't ready for.