Love is Chaos Part 2 of A Light in the Dark (Severus Snape x OC)

Chapter 12: Amongst the Wreckage

 Severus stared at Laura's arm, a sense of horror chilling his blood. He reached a hand out, staring at the strange markings now possessing Laura's skin. He studied her arm, seeing dark red lines, scars, almost like little lightning bolts, running up and down her arm, like an interconnected highway with hundreds of twists and turns.

"How did this happen?" Severus asked, horrified by the marks and yet, he was only met with silence.

Severus yanked Laura out of the bathroom like a rag doll, not satisfied by her lack of words. And yet, it didn't seem like Laura was avoiding answering.

It was possible that she just didn't have an answer.

And that scared Severus more than he thought it would.

"Severus—"

"No, we're discussing this," Severus said, his voice grave and deep. "No more lies. No more hiding things."

That was ironic, coming from Severus, knowing what fate had in store for him.

Knowing he was going to kill his closest friend, knowing he would most likely lose his wife.

After all, a hero would sacrifice the person he loves for the greater good, right?

Right?

But Severus wasn't much of a hero, at least in his personal opinion...

Severus dragged Laura to the living room, gesturing to the couch. "Sit," he barked.

Laura sighed, knowing Severus was filled with a mixture of rage and concern, which practically bled from his dark, inky eyes. She sat down, resting her hands in her lap, watching Severus sit across from her in his black leather chair, the fabric groaning softly as he did. "Tell me the truth," he said, his inky black eyes locked on her face.

Laura took a breath, glancing down for a moment, as if trying to formulate the words. "I was trying to do more nonverbal magic," she said quietly.

Severus blinked, confusion settling in.

"Trying nonverbal magic wouldn't have done this."

"I know," she told him. "But while I was practicing, I started feeling strange."

"What do you mean?" Severus asked curiously. He leaned forward slightly, the curiosity in his voice drowning the rage that had once been there.

"I started to feel warm, like my blood was boiling, like there was this weird pressure inside me. I felt like I could have melted on the inside but Dumbledore told me to keep going, to fight the feeling," Laura started.

Severus glared as Laura began her story; a bit of rage growing in the pit of his stomach.

Dumbledore pushed her too hard. He always pushed and pushed, destroying a person from the inside out.

Severus tried to ignore his rage when he saw the fear and worry on Laura's face, his own concern growing once more. "Did it feel like there was too much magic?" he asked. "Too much magic inside of you?"

"Maybe that is what it felt like... it felt like pressure," she told him. "And then it burned."

It wasn't unheard of for younger people to have a build up of magic if they didn't use it, especially if they were children.

But Laura wasn't a child. And she used magic quite a bit.

"You were just doing a spell and this happened?" he asked. "What kind of spell was it?"

"It was a simple nonverbal spell; a summoning spell," Laura told him. "It should have been simple and then this..." she paused, holding her arm up, "happened."