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

Chapter 11

At 9pm sharp, Lysanna knocked on the door to Snape's office. She'd been to dinner early and stayed in her room afterwards. Somehow she felt uncomfortable with the situation in the classroom earlier. She had rarely felt so helpless and powerless.

"Come in!", she heard the deep voice.

She opened the door cautiously.

"Professor?" she asked uncertainly and Snape nodded for her to sit down.

He didn't even look up from his papers when she approached his desk. Lysanna sat down without a word. There was not a trace left of the almost jolly mood of the afternoon.

"You're on time. Good! I will not tolerate my students being late for detention," Snape said without even looking at her. Lysanna wasn't quite sure what he meant by what he just said.

"It's a good thing I'm not a student, professor." She replied calmly, trying to sound as neutral as possible.

Snape looked up from his parchment for a moment, eyed her, and then went back to the paper.

"I thought you wanted to learn how to deal with the students," he stated almost boredly, but finally looked up from his parchment and added:

"Admittedly, the idea with the burning homework could have been mine."

Lysanna thought she saw the hint of a smile on his face.

"I didn't want to start with the cruciatus curse right away..", Lysanna countered, hoping that he would take the insinuation correctly.

In fact, Snape had to smile a little at her comment.

-

Severus realised that she was really trying. Somehow he seemed to intimidate her, he didn't see any fear in her eyes, but she obviously had trouble assessing the situation. The pretty blue eyes looked at him with a little insecurity. He studied her for a moment, not only was she extraordinarily pretty but she seemed to have a good sense for sarcasm and irony and he really had to admit that her efforts to strike up a conversation with him actually flattered him a little.

The longer he thought about it, still trying to keep these moments as short as possible, the more he liked his new colleague.

"Are you ready?" he asked without waiting for an answer and quickly walked towards the door. She hastily followed him.

"Well, our goal is to catch as many students as we can and detract as many house points from them as possible for their misbehaviour. You may turn a blind eye to Slytherins though." Severus explained before heading towards the stairwell.

"I may? That means I don't have to, right?" Lysanna asked with a grin. She seemed to have regained some of her confidence.

"I can hardly expect you as a former Gryffindor to keep your word," he countered, well aware of the provocation.

"Said the serpent to the lion.", she answered only briefly.

Severus smirked contentedly to himself.

-

Lysanna was slowly beginning to enjoy those little taunts. So far they hadn't caught any stray students, but footsteps could clearly be heard in one of the side corridors. It was now completely dark and Snape didn't think it necessary to light the way. Lysanna tried to stay close behind him, not entirely comfortable in the darkness.

The footsteps came closer. Snape motioned for her to stop. They couldn't be seen in the darkness, he obviously wanted to use the element of surprise to scare the student.

It could only be seconds before the student would come around the corner.

"Ahh!" the stray cried out in shock as Snape placed his wand on his chest and lit it.