Unexpected Fate (Severus Snape x Reader)

𝟔𝟑 - 𝓢𝓵𝓲𝓹𝓹𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓐𝔀𝓪𝔂

Tonight... tonight felt different.

Tonight, the castle was waiting.

It felt as though the very stones beneath my feet were holding their breath, as if the torches flickered with apprehension, their glow penetrating the thickening shadows. There was something heavy in the air, something unseen but palpable, pressing against my chest with each step I took. It wasn't fear—not yet—but it was the quiet before the storm, the moment when the world teetered on the edge of something irreversible.

And I wasn't the only one who felt it.

I moved slowly through the corridors, my fingers trailing absently along the cool stone as my gaze flickered between the students still lingering in the halls. It wasn't late enough for curfew, but even if it had been, I doubted anyone would have obeyed it.

There was a hushed energy in the air, a tension that clung to the students like mist curling around their feet. They weren't laughing, weren't carefree, weren't as loud as they usually were when roaming the castle in the evening. Instead, they moved in small groups, heads bent close together, speaking in low, hurried voices as though afraid of being overheard.

I passed a cluster of Ravenclaws near the library, their faces pale and drawn as they murmured amongst themselves. A pair of Hufflepuffs loitered by the Great Hall, throwing uneasy glances toward the entrance as if expecting someone—or something—to walk through at any moment.

Even the Gryffindors, who were usually bold and defiant, looked different tonight. Their postures were more rigid, their expressions clouded with something unspoken. Some of them had their arms crossed tightly over their chests, their eyes flicking between one another as if searching for answers that none of them had.

I walked past a group of younger students who had gone quiet as I neared. One of them, a fourth-year, glanced at me before turning quickly back to his friend.

"Have you noticed McGonagall?" he whispered. "She looks... uneasy."

"I swear I saw Filch pacing near the Entrance Hall, just... waiting for something."

"Do you think Dumbledore knows?"

"Knows what?"

"That something bad is going to happen."

No one was speaking directly of it, but they all felt it.

Something was coming.

As I rounded a corner near the entrance to the Gryffindor common room, I nearly collided with Ginny Weasley and Seamus Finnigan.

Ginny was walking fast, her arms crossed tightly over her chest, her long red hair still slightly windswept from practice. There was an intensity in her expression, a sharpness to her eyes that suggested she had already been thinking about everything that was weighing on my mind.

Seamus, on the other hand, looked restless. His usually laid-back demeanor was nowhere to be found—his fingers were tangled in his messy hair, his mouth set in a tight line. His usual joking nature had been stripped away, leaving behind only unease.

The second Ginny saw me, she hesitated. It was brief, but I caught it.

Seamus, however, had no such reservations.

"Something feels off," he blurted, his voice carrying just a bit too much urgency for someone who was trying to be discreet. "Tell me you feel it too."

I let out a slow breath, nodding. "Of course I do."

Ginny shifted her weight uncomfortably. "It's like the whole castle is waiting for something," she said, her voice quieter than usual. "But no one knows what."