Return (Snape x Male Reader)

vii

song: space oddity - david bowie

3rd pov

the o.w.l. exams were suddenly upon all of the 6th year hogwarts students, something y/n actually put effort into studying for. though, he knew it was likely that he didn't need to, but better safe than sorry.

of course he passed all of them with flying colors, granting him the ability to finally relax as his 6th year began coming to and end.

he was sitting with dante in the great hall, picking out the classes he wanted to take to the n.e.w.t. level.

"what classes do you want to do?" dante asked, taking a large bite out of a dinner roll and chewing it in y/n's ear.

y/n sent a small glare towards dante and scooted away, then looked at his papers to give dante an answer.

"i'm not sure what i want to do once i graduate, but i'm going to try and get as many n.e.w.t.s as possible. i think i'll do alchemy, potions, defence against the dark arts, history of magic, and charms," y/n explained.

dante hummed. "i'm not sure i wanna take any of my skills to the n.e.w.t. level, there are plenty of wizarding jobs that don't require them."

"would you even get accepted for a n.e.w.t.? your grades arent the best," y/n said, scribbling something on his paper.

dante smacked his arm and grumbled.

"like i said, not all jobs require me to be the smartest person," dante said.

"you're smart, you're just lazy," y/n said, side eye-ing dante.

dante rolled his eyes and picked at the food on his plate.

***

summer break came quicker than y/n thought it would, as time flew by way faster than he thought it would.

he wasn't particularly excited to be home, knowing that the time given to spend time with his family wouldn't even be used doing that. his parents are never home, always off on business trips.

he sat alone in his large house, not knowing what to do. all he wanted was for the summer to end as fast as possible.

to keep himself entertained for an entire two months, y/n put himself into multiple martial arts lessons, to prevent getting overpowered by anyone again. he would not allow a repeat of what austin did to him.

luckily, those lessons allowed for his lonely summer to pass by rather quickly.

***

y/n was now a 7th year, which was something that hadn't really hit him yet. he was in his last year at hogwarts. soon enough, he'd be graduating and choosing a career path to follow for the rest of his life. he'd probably never return to hogwarts after that, either.

"can you believe it? we're seventh years now," dante said, unpacking the things he had in his trunk.

y/n was sitting on his bed, taking it all in. "it's weird. we're going to be adults in less than a year."

"yeah, crazy stuff," dante hummed, "have you decided what you wanna do after all this?"

"i have no idea," y/n shook his head.

"well, it won't matter until we graduate. and besides, you're getting more than five n.e.w.t.s this year, so you don't have to worry about not being qualified for anything," dante said.

"that's true." y/n nodded. "this year might actually be challenging for me."

dante threw a sock at y/n's head. "get out of here with your smart brain. you make us idiots feel bad."

"allow me to reiterate, you're not an idiot, you're just lazy," y/n said, throwing the sock back at dante.

***

what y/n said was true. his 7th year at hogwarts was most definitely the most difficult. he was still able to manage all of his classes, he just had less time to goof around.

he never got too overwhelmed with work, mostly because he got good at making games out of it, making it enjoyable to do and easy to remember.

he still spent most of his time hiding away in professor snape's room whenever he could, finding that he enjoyed the conversations they shared. although snape was 6 years older than him, he found that snape was always a good person to go to for advice.

y/n was able to confidently say that he wasn't worried about his last year at hogwarts. things were going more smooth than they had in awhile. nobody messed with him, he was well worked in his classes, and he had no issues with any of his teachers.

it was that one off day that had him doubting things. he wasn't able to focus, causing him to get scolded by many of his teachers, snape included.

he couldn't stop fidgeting in his potions class, bouncing his leg and spinning his quill in his fingers. there was this gnawing anxiety at the bottom of his gut that would cause spikes in his heart rate. he gulped, trying to focus on what professor snape was saying, but it was like he couldn't hear.

"...aying attention, mr. l/n," snape asked.

y/n looked up from his lap and gaped at professor snape. "sorry, what did you ask me?"

snape closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he replied, "i asked if you were paying attention. obviously, you were not."

"i'm sorry," y/n apologized looking down at his lap.

snape could tell something was off, but decided not to mention it. not that he'd get any real answer from y/n, who also didn't know what was wrong.

***

y/n was at the great hall for the final meal of the day, but he found he had no appetite. there was a growing anxiety sitting at the pit of his stomach and couldn't figure out why.

nothing that he could think of was making him nervous. up until today he was in a stable state of mind.

and then the owl came.

it dropped a letter into his hands, then dropped another into dumbledore's, who sat in between mcgonagol and snape.

y/n tore open the letter and began to read it, finally understanding why he wasn't able to function properly that day. something in him knew what had happened.

"oh, mate..." dante said, having read the letter from over y/n's shoulder.

dumbledore sat deathly still in his seat, his hands beginning to shake as he read the words on the letter. he no longer had an appetite.

"what's wrong, albus?" mcgonagol asked, noticing dumbledore's frigid state.

snape turned at that, watching as dumbledore stood up from his seat silently and walked down the aisle of students, stopping at y/n.

snape immediately knew something was wrong when he saw the agonized, sorrow-stricken expression y/n had on his face as dumbledore helped him up from his seat and led him out of the dining hall.

y/n was practically stumbling, eyes glued to the letter instead of where he was going.

snape got up from his seat and was quick to follow behind them.

am i even the author of any of my stories if i dont add something tragic to traumatize y/n