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

Chapter 21

They had been sitting together for a long time last night and Lysanna was accordingly tired when her alarm clock rang the next morning. Despite her tiredness, she woke up with a smile on her face. The evening was really nice and Severus was now clearly trying to impress her. Ever since he opened up to her, he seemed a lot more relaxed. Lysanna had even seen a smile or two on his face.

After getting ready, Lysanna went to breakfast. Minerva and Albus were already there, deeply engaged in an animated conversation. As she approached, she could hear that the two of them were talking about knitting. Apparently Albus was just reporting his difficulties with a complicated pattern. Slightly irritated that Albus had a penchant for knitting patterns, Lysanna took her place in the vacant seat next to Minerva.

"Oh, good morning Lysanna.", the headmaster had interrupted the conversation with Minerva to greet Lysanna.

"Good morning." Lysanna replied and smiled at the two.

"You look tired." Minerva stated inquiringly. There was a hint of a curious grin on her face. Both Albus and Minerva looked intently at Lysanna, as if they were expecting an explanation.

"I should have gone to bed earlier," admitted Lysanna. She didn't want to fuel the speculation about Severus and her unnecessarily.

"What was it that kept you up so long?" Albus inquired curiously. Lysanna nervously tried to think of an appropriate answer.

"Or should I want to ask who?" the headmaster continued undeterred. Lysanna looked at him in amazement, she almost felt like she was being interrogated, except this time she wasn't the one asking the questions.

"You're making the poor thing nervous with your questioning, Albus!" Minerva rebuked him with a grin.

"But there's nothing wrong about it. They are both still young and have their whole lives ahead of them." Albus replied, laughing. Again both directed their eyes to Lysanna, who wanted to jump up just to avoid this questioning. There was probably little point in trying to come up with something.

"Well, we drank a glass or two of wine together and talked," she admitted only out of necessity.Albus grinned contentedly at her answer.

Before he or Minerva could ask further questions, the small door to the little stairwell opened.

Severus was later than usual on his way to breakfast, which was mainly because he had stopped by Lysanna's to pick her up. Apparently, however, she was already on her feet. At the thought of yesterday evening, a comforting warmth spread inside him. They had become much closer and he would have loved to spend each of the coming evenings with her. The young witch turned out to be an extremely intelligent and interesting person to talk to, who didn't shy away from one or the other discussion on a subject. Even if they didn't always agree in the end, there was one thing they were more than in agreement on. They liked each other. A lot.

An amused smirk crossed Severus' face as he entered the great hall through the side door and saw Lysanna who appeared to be being annoyed by Albus and Minerva. The grin faded as he realised what Lysanna was being interrogated about. He hurried to the table and took a seat next to Lysanna. His sudden arrival had at least caused Albus and Minerva to let go of her for a moment. Lysanna smiled at him with relief.

"Severus. Good morning. I just found out that you two had a nice evening?" Albus directed his questions at him now. Whatever Lysanna had told them, it seemed to have been enough to pique the headmaster's curiosity for once.

He didn't show how uncomfortable the situation actually made him feel, Lysanna gave him an apologetic look.

"I am probably still allowed to talk to my colleagues, am I not?", he stated curtly and very carefully put a hand on Lysanna's back. No one could see that small gesture, but her deep breath told him that she was relaxing.