"Ancient Runes" a Severus Snape ff - Snape x OC

Chapter 9

Lysanna's pulse was slowing down, but the exhaustion was palpable. She felt powerless and tired when she left the room and needed a moment to breathe deeply.

Before the door could slam shut, however, it flew open again and Professor Snape, his cloak billowing, swept past her without even looking at her. She didn't know what kind of reaction she expected from him, but at least she expected some sort of reaction. Instead, he just seemed to continue ignoring her.

She slowly made her way towards her chambers. She was tired and badly needed a rest.

"Professor, if you..." she heard the cold, deep voice echoing off the walls of the corridor. Lysanna turned around in surprise, feeling her heartbeat pick up again.

"I have a potion that will help you. Follow me." Snape continued after a short pause, without changing his expression.

Lysanna didn't know why she accepted the offer, but somehow she felt like she didn't want to argue back. While she wasn't afraid of the professor's gloomy appearance, she did have respect for his demeanor. and the stories she had overheard from the students, or that Rolanda had told her, did little to make her want to feud with the potions master.

Without saying anything, she followed him to his office, Lysanna struggling to keep up with his quick steps. He didn't seem to care about her.

-

He wondered why he'd made that offer in the first place, but for a moment he'd let her distract him again and felt something akin to pity for McGonagall's niece, weak and breathing heavily, leaning against the wall in the aisle. Besides, it would give him more than just a little satisfaction if Lockhart found out about it.

With a wave of his wand, the door to his office flew open and he walked purposefully towards one of the many display cases in which he kept his potions. He knew exactly where to look and when Lysanna entered his office he already had the small vial in his hands.

-

If Lysanna hadn't been so tired and exhausted, she would certainly have tried to start a conversation. It was as if there were a thousand questions circling in her head that she would have wanted to ask Snape. First and foremost, why he hadn't finished his attack.

But instead of saying anything, she silently followed his instructions and sat down in the chair Snape had pulled out for her. Her heart was still racing and she was glad to be able to sit down.

-

Exhausted, she had dropped onto the chair. Her hair hung wildly into her face, she looked tired but her eyes were still shining brightly. Their eyes had met several times since she had been in his office, but no one said a word. Ever since he'd pulled her to her feet and he'd gotten close to her again, parts of his thoughts had only been with her. He wondered how he would handle the upcoming week, when he actually had her around all day. He needed to get rid of those thoughts, needed to concentrate. It had been a long time since he'd had as much interest in a person as he had in this pretty young witch who, he knew, was utterly out of reach for him. It was hard for him to admit, but he was afraid of losing control and of ending up getting lost completely in her beautiful eyes.

Lily was his love. Solely.

Just the fact that he was even thinking about it frightened him.

Wordlessly he held out the vial to her.

-

Lysanna took the vial from him with a wary smile, their fingers touching longer than was necessary. Their eyes met, the fascinating dark eyes looked at her with the usual stern expression. Her heart was racing. There was just something about this man that Lysanna wouldn't let go of. Since the first nightly meeting, Lysanna had often thought about the closed professor. She wondered why he was acting this way, why he didn't let anyone near him. It was probably precisely this curiosity that had persuaded her to accept his offer now. Something told her it might be worth breaking through the hard facade.

It was only when Lysanna turned to the vial that Snape took his eyes off her and sat down in his chair on the opposite side. It wasn't long before those dark eyes studied her again.

"What's that?" Lysanna asked cautiously, as if fearing a dismissive reaction.

"A potion that will restore your strength," the professor answered curtly, but to her surprise, neither unkindly nor morosely.

She nodded, then reluctantly raised the small vial to her lips and drank.

The sweetish liquid immediately spread in her mouth, and the first sip already filled her body with a pleasant warmth.

-

He had watched in fascination as she brought the vial to her pretty lips. He somehow had to make sure that she left his office as soon as possible, because his thoughts and his eyes kept getting caught on her and he noticed more and more small details, in the way she spoke, her flowing movements and her look, which fascinated him.

He forced himself to remember that she was taken and would never be interested in him anyway. Nobody but Lily had ever taken an interest in him. He had never let anyone but Lily get close to him. Lysanna wouldn't change anything about that. He couldn't allow it. But there was something in her eyes that...

Enough now! Enough with these silly thoughts. He felt almost as silly as Lockhart was acting.

"Thank you Professor.", her soft voice rudely tore him out of his thoughts. Only now did he realise that he had been looking at her deep in thought the whole time. She smiled at him.

In fact, he had to think about the last time someone had given him such a pretty smile. an honest smile. He couldn't remember.

"An excellent idea to show the students how incompetent their professor is," he heard himself say. The presence of this woman and her, in the truest sense of the word, charming smile almost made him lose his senses..

-

Did he really just say that? Lysanna felt a lot better after taking the potion, because the exhaustion seemed to be slowly leaving her body.

Lysanna couldn't help a short laugh. Maybe it wasn't a bad opportunity to strike up a conversation with Snape.

"May I ask you a question Professor?", she asked frankly and looked at her opposite curiously. His dark eyes still showed no emotion.

"Why didn't you just disarm me?" she continued after Snape just fixed his gaze on her.

-

The question surprised him, why was she so keen to strike up a conversation with him? Why should a woman like her have any interest in his thoughts. That was absurd.

He took a moment to search for a suitable answer. What should he tell her? That he didn't want to hurt her? No! That would only reveal his weakness. That he... he couldn't think of any other reason. He didn't mean to hurt her. All because he had lost control of his thoughts and couldn't get her out of his head. He was in desperate need of some rest.

"That duel was nothing more than silly pretence. You should go and rest now, Professor," he avoided the question.

He desperately needed space, those eyes, those bright blue eyes that looked at him with interest. That smile she gave him. He was afraid of the feelings and thoughts that were slowly but surely nesting in his head.

Lysanna looked at him in surprise, apparently she'd been expecting a different answer. As before, she made no attempt to get up and leave his office.

Severus got up, flung the door open and waited, but Lysanna just looked at him.

"I've got work to do, so if you..." Snape's voice made it clear that she should leave. Before he could finish his sentence, Lysanna got up and pushed the chair back into place.

The professor stood in the doorway and seemed unable to wait for her to finally leave. Did she say something wrong?

Their eyes met once more as Lysanna walked past him through the door. With a hint of a nod, she said goodbye.