𝐋𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤

𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠

Saturday, November 10, 1990, 5:30 pm.

Hecate woke up about a day later and the first thing she saw was Severus sitting at his small table, grading exams she was supposed to grade.
"Good morning." He said without looking up. "Or maybe better say afternoon."
Hecate just sat on his bed, unable to express herself. "I- How- ?"
"Calm down, you should rest." He said with ice-cold calmness.
"I can take care of myself!" She defended herself.
"Clearly."
"Will you at least tell me what happened?"
"You fainted on the stairs."
"And why am I here?"
"I caught you in the last minute so you wouldn't fall on the ground and brought you here."
"Severus-"
"Try again."
Hecate sight and started again: "Sir, I'm alright and you didn't have to grade those-"
He finally looked up from the papers. "Do you really think two hours of sleep a day, not eating at all, and not even telling anyone is 'alright'? Are you insane?!" He raised his voice at her.
"It's bad enough you only get your lunch and you suddenly decide not to eat at all!" He threw the essays on the table with a loud bang and Hecate jerked.
He scared her a bit, but she wasn't planning to show it, she just sat there, quietly.
"Are you just going to stare at me or will you say something about it?" He asked coldly.
"This is actually none of your business, why do you even care?"
She tried to stand up, but he pushed her shoulders back down.
"I think this is very much of my business, now get back to bed and rest." He snapped and she narrowed her eyes. "I have promised McGonagall I will take care of you, so lay down and go to sleep, I will leave you some food here if you get hungry."
He pushed her and she fell on her back on the bed. He headed to the door and when she tried to get up again, he used wandless magic to cover her up by the blanket, not even turning around to look at her.
He got out of the bedroom, locked the door to make sure she won't get out, and hid her wand into his cloak, next to his. Then he headed straight to McGonagall's office.
Even though Hecate didn't want to sleep her eyelids became heavier and she finally fell asleep again.

___________________________________________

Sunday, November 11, 1990, 9:00 am.

Hecate woke up after another few hours of sleep and felt quite rested. To her surprise, she was also hungry. She sat up and saw Severus through the opened door reading a book in his armchair. He noticed she was already up, so he closed the book and walked to the door of the bedroom.

"How are you feeling?" He asked leaning against the wall
"Rested..."
"And mentally?"
Hecate's jaw dropped. She did not expect him to care about her emotions and thought he was going to taunt her.

"Are you just gonna stare at me or will you answer me?" He asked impatiently.
"I- yeah, I mean..." She was so shocked she couldn't formulate a simple sentence. He walked over to her and sat on the chair next to the bed, leaning towards her, his knees propping his elbows and his hands playing with his sleeves. His hands... Hecate got a bit distracted by them.

"I know being a teacher here is very exhausting and being my assistant doesn't make it better, but you should have told me earlier that you cannot handle it."
She looked away. She didn't know what to say.
"Are you hungry?" He asked after a while.
"Starving..." She smiled weakly.

___________________________________________

Thursday, August 21, 1975, 11:25 pm.

"Haven't we forgotten something?" Asked Hecate, sitting in the Gryffindor common room, chilling with the Marauders.
"No why?" Asked James and laughed.
"I don't know, I just feel weird." She answered and Sirius laughed: "I never forget about anything!"
"Very funny, Padfoot," Hecate rolled her eyes, "I just have the feeling we did forget about something..."

"Um, guys, where's Moony?" Asked Peter.
Suddenly they all heard a howl from the outside. Hecate jerked and looked at Sirius in shock. She jumped from her seat and ran towards the door with Peter, Sirius and James following her.

They all ran through the corridors as fast as they could, not caring about anything else. "Potter! Black! Pettigrew! Hardbroom!" They almost bumped into McGonagall. "Good evening, Professor!" Hecate shouted and continued running.
McGonagall knew she was supposed to tell them off and send them back to bed, but she was actually also on her way out to look after Remus, but she didn't want them to know that the tabby cat who was always watching them was her.

She looked out of the window and saw Hecate turning into a raven while running. Then she saw Sirius, James and Peter doing the same, but they turned into a dog, deer and a rat.

She smiled to herself, turned into a cat and sat on the window, knowing they were going to take care of Mr. Lupin properly.

___________________________________________

Monday, December 24, 1990, 8:30 pm.

Hecate was on her way to the dungeons. Even though it was Christmas she decided to visit that grumpy bat who called himself the potions master. She met McGonagall on her way.
"Where are you going, Hecate?"
"I'm on my way to the dungeons." She replied.
"Why would you do that? Did Severus want you to help him even on Christmas?"
"No, I just wanted to give him a present too," Hecate smirked and continued walking.
Minerva did not understand why would she do that, because Severus never celebrated Christmas, but then she realized Hecate didn't know it yet. She decided to let her find out by herself.

When Hecate got to Snape's office, she knocked and heard a deep annoyed voice: "What do you want?"
She just rolled her eyes and opened the door carefully.
When she got inside, Severus looked up from his book and said: "Did I tell you to come in?"
"No, but-"
"Very well, then why did you do it?" He interrupted her and got up.
Suddenly Hecate felt so small under his look, "Well, I just wanted to...um.."

He raised his eyebrows and looked down at her. She was about a head smaller than him, even though she had heels.

"I've got a present for you." She said quietly and gave it to him.
"I don't celebrate Christmas and I do not care if you do, now get out." He replied and she frowned, "I think it is very useful for you, Sir."
"I did not get you anything." He sight and she smiled in disbelief, "You don't wanna take it because you feel bad for not getting me anything?"
"I did not say I feel bad." He defended himself, but she ignored that, "It's fine, I just want you to take it."

He sight, but took the little box and opened it. It was a small potion bottle on a chain.
He looked at her and she couldn't tell if he was annoyed or happy. He always had the same face.

"I just thought it could be useful for you, you can put something like a healing potion in it and..."
He noticed a hair lock fall into her face, so he reached his hand to put it behind her ear.
She was so surprised, she didn't know what to say. Severus didn't even know by himself why did he do it.
Hecate had a strangely familiar feeling in her stomach. She couldn't describe it, it was a bit of pain, but it was pleasing.
She looked at his lips for a while and then realized what kind of energy was growing between them.

"I- W-well, Merry Christmas, Professor..." She just said quickly and got out of his office as soon as possible. She couldn't understand why did he always make her so nervous.