𝐒𝐀𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐄 || Severus Snape x OC ||

28. THE REMNANTS OF A HEART

*.·:·.☽ ✧ ☾.·:·.*

She hugged her knees slowly in the silver ghost light of the morning. It was a gray morning, the sun yawning sluggishly into the sky behind a pall of clouds over the castle and the Forbidden Forest. The chill needled her exposed skin on her hands and shoulders, and her eyes wandered over the misty waters of the lake.

Calm. As the breeze touched its surface, the body of water shivered and moved, carrying the subtle fragrances and scents of the lake and the forest. Alice breathed in deeply, her arms came around her, gently rubbing her shoulders, and her lips, ever slightly, curled to a soft smile.

She was at ease. Out here. By the lake. Where no one was around, and whilst the castle was still asleep, she could revel silently, softly, in the unbiased beauty of her solitude. Out here, there was no high inquisitor. Out here, there were no rules, no musts, no bullies, and no judgment.

Out here, Alice was simply her; a part of the elements around her, her heart in sync with the wind and the water before her, the rustle of the leaves, and the clouds above. She hoisted up her gaze and watched them as they morphed into shapes different slowly, at their own time.

The cotton candy of the skies, as she sometimes thought of them. She had only tasted such candy once when she was hardly five years old. Fluffy, sweet delight whipped from spun sugar and wound around a stick. Simple yet, in its own way, magical. But that was a memory from another world. From another life. One that was left behind.

Now her life was here. In a strange, otherworldly foster care, as she thought of it. A foster care she knew not when it would expire, and what would happen when that time would come. An outlaw in the muggle world. A dangerous asset in the world of witches and wizards. Her lungs pushed out the air and she wondered if there ever could be such a thing as a middle ground to stand in between.

A place for someone who could –but wishes not to— be of anyone's use. No longer a pawn. Nor a moth caught in a spider's web.

"Life isn't fair, Alice," his words echoed in her mind.

Her fingers brushed her lips. Severus's kiss still lingering in her thoughts and senses. It always did. As if her mind, her heart, and her body always sought his. And caught as she was in his orbit like a stray comet snatched from its uncharted course by his magnetic pull, Alice wondered if one day all this would come to an end.

For all things run their course, their circle, and all that starts will one day end.

Had it started yet? Those scarce kisses shared in secret, rare as the blue moon, precious like the unicorns of this Forest, and warm as the sun, seemed like a fractured dream. One that didn't belong to reality yet lingered still, long after waking up.

Warm large hands... How could it be that flesh could ignite such feeling, such unconfessed bliss? But it wasn't just the flesh, for the bond Alice was feeling with the stoic, unreadable master of potions was not one merely bound by flesh. Her body, inexperienced yet responding to her growing feelings that were rooting deep in her chest, with an instinctive, physical expression and need, but what she felt ran far deeper.

When he had curled his fingers over hers, guiding her to pour the blue-coloured melted wax over the cork of the vial, sealing it, she had watched his hand and then hoisted her gaze, finding herself caught in the ink of his glance. His cloak draped to the side, almost shielding her. From whom or what, she could not tell, but her irrational heart felt safe. The dark fabric over his shoulders had become an extension of him, of all that he was. And she longed nothing more than to find herself hidden in his darkness.

He had held her gaze in silence, against the faint nocturnal calls of creatures magical and unknown, far in the distance. He was there, with her, his taste still raw upon her lips, her sense awoken by his closeness.