She Healed Me | Severus Snape

Chapter 31

We'll be starting this chapter right where the last one ended!

Listen: Smile by Jimmy Durante

31| spiraling

"Am I reading this correctly?"

Lucia looked back up at Severus from where she was sitting on the armchair. He had been leaning against her desk as he reread the letter to get everything. "The threat?" Severus nodded while still staring at the words on the paper. "Then yes. That's exactly what I got from it."

"So he is expecting you to let him back into your life, and the best way to do so was through threats?" Severus scoffed as he threw the letter down on her desk. "He moved from enticing guilt to scaring you. Such noble behavior."

"I was quite shocked when I read that bit."

Severus crossed his arms. "Has he ever acted in such a way before?"

Lucia shook her head, "no." She sighed, looking down again. "I had no idea he was even capable of acting like that. I think my silence has provoked him."

"Well it will not be tolerated any longer." Severus got up and went to sit at her desk chair. He waved his hand over the stack of letters when Lucia gave him a questioning look. "I think it would be beneficial to read the rest."

Lucia pursed her lips and shrugged. "I don't know if I could."

"Then may I?"

Sitting for a few seconds in consideration, Lucia stared emptily at the letters. She eventually nodded her consent. "I think you'll handle it better than me."

"That is debatable," Severus said off-handedly as he flipped the stack to take from the bottom. He assumed they were put in order by when she received them. He opened the seal with a quick glance at Lucia. "Let's see shall we?"

And so Lucia sat there restlessly for some time as Severus read through all seven letters. She tried to distract herself by reading and fixing her nails, but nothing helped. She only managed to get through two pages in a book she was excitedly reading the other day, and her nails didn't look much better. Lucia's nerves were too frayed for her to effectively put her mind on something else. The continuous sound of Severus breaking the seals, folding and unfolding, and flipping the pages of the letters filled the room in such a distracting way. As reluctant as she was to even glance at the contents of those letters, she was also curious to know what Andrew could possibly have to say.

Glancing back at Severus, she realized he only had one letter left. She sighed and put aside a random magazine she had been aimlessly flipping through. "Anything interesting?"

"Hm, I'll let you know once I am finished."

Lucia huffed. "There isn't anything at all that can't wait?" Severus really had a knack for irritating her at the worst times.

"I thought you did not want to know what these said?"

"Well I don't," Lucia said as she got up. "But I would like to know if there is something you find particularly concerning."

Severus looked up at Lucia with a frown. He lifted a brow, "do you not trust that I will inform you if that were case?"

"Of course I trust you." Lucia crossed her arms and went to stand in front of the window. "Your silence is just starting to unnerve me."

Severus only hummed and moved on to the last letter, which was the most recent one besides the one she tore up. She briefly mentioned that they would be missing the one, which only elicited a questioning look from Severus. She shrugged after he asked what she did with it, at first reluctant to say she had burned it. Surprisingly he understood and decided they wouldn't worry about it. At least for now.