Snape x OC: It's All In The Walls Of Hogwarts

Get there someday.

Silence settled over them until eventually he spoke. His words were uncertain and at quite a few points even strained. "I can make my life choices. I can decide what I do." Despite his certain thoughts her words sent him to question. "But you are letting my existence stop you. You can always just visit. Please, I want you to be happy. I don't matter anyway. I am a hopeless case." His thoughts whirled and confused him further. "Not to me. Nothing is impossible." A low rumble was all that it came out as but she certainly heard. "You cannot bring the dead back to life." She stopped and Snape could see her cogs working. "I promised you something. However, years before I promised something that takes priority over everything else. When a promise stops a person's overall happiness then it should be broken. No if, ands or buts." Severus was curious as to what she meant but his cogs then worked and it clicked. "You being alive doesn't stop my happiness. Don't give me that look. Because of you I have been forced out of isolation and self hate. Besides, the other professor might bore you to death before they have the chance to set you free." His eyebrow raised in a joking manner and the pale face blanched red. The honey strands couldn't cover it all though. "If, if I die will all this magic that keeps me in here disappear?" Severus hadn't thought of that and so took a second to think before answering "well, normally magic such as this disappears when the person casting it dies. This obviously is not the case for you. I suppose so. Don't even think about that though."

The silence laid thickly over the pair as they thought of their own things. They both wanted to talk to the other but wanted the other person to start it first. Eventually though the suffocating silence got too much and Grace spoke. "So, can you tell me a story?" Her head was up against the barrier and her back laid flat on the ground beneath her. "Why on earth would you want that?" The question was light hearted and freeing. Both parties knew that he would eventually tell her a story. "I like your voice. It is so deep and soothing. I can actually hear you brooding." Snape had placed his quill in the holder at her words and took them in. A crunch and squeeze took his stomach and he felt an odd fluttering sensation at the words she had spoken. When he opened his mouth next he told a tale. It was a thousand or even more years old but still, he spoke of far off places, daring sword fights, magic spells, a prince in disguise. "How do you know that story?" Her question was eerie and she sounded like sleep could consume her any second. "It was my favourite book as a child." The room was silent as a reminiscent mind claimed the man. "I am sorry about how you grew up. You deserved and still do deserve better." Snape had picked his quill up and carried on writing. "You don't know what I have done." Her pale blue eyes stared and admired him from afar. "I do. The death eaters, Albus, everything. The portraits are my only company when you are gone. I would also like you to know that I did not ask them to. They told me and even whilst screaming loudly and covering my ears I heard it all." Snape felt anger and betrayal consume him making the quill in his hand snap. Fear shot through the pale blue eyes but his anger had made the professor overlook the sight. "Get out of my sight." Knowing that he couldn't hurt her made her feel uneasy as she was scared how he would react had he been able to. Her pale legs moved so quickly that she practically sprinted and turned right into the room.

Once again the room plunged into silence aside from a few angry grunts, occasional rummaging and the scratch of a quill. When the scratching stopped Grace peered around the corner of the door and watched as Severus impatiently removed the three, small portraits from the walls and left the room with them. He spoke no words but the paintings protested with great annoyance. The office was only empty shortly as the enraged man came back in. When he slammed the door behind him he caught a small glimpse of a frightened woman who had walked up the hall to see what he was doing. It was short lived as she ran back into her room to where he had sent her. Guilt similar to that felt after calling Lily 'mud-blood' all those years ago was felt.

"Miss Brown." He was much softer than before and all anger had evaporated when realisation kicked in. "I am not angry at you. I was annoyed at the portraits." When still no sound came he grunted. "This is pointless." His black cloak swung furiously around his legs as his rear end made contact with the chair. Mumbles and grunts left the man as he bad mouthed the woman sat in the other room. "You act like a child." His constant insults only made the woman sure that it was definitely safer in the room than where he could see her.

Sleep was all that Grace did for days. Despite not needing to eat or do anything that a normal human did she still slept and had to respire. A few things like blinking obviously had to happen but she was asleep so blinking wasn't a necessity. Snape was more and more nervous everyday as he feared that he had lost her. A fear that he wasn't sure why. His heart was still beating but the thought of her made his body react. A few times he went to confess to feeling bad but decided against it.

"Albus." Minerva had left her office to give the man a chance to discuss an important matter. For hours the two men spoke and discussed what had happened. Snape still found his heart shattering for the man he killed. "You know." Albus spoke and Severus did. The black cape followed a metre behind him as a dramatic exit was made and steps were heard heading down to his office.