His Only Hope || A Severus Snape Romance Novel

CHAPTER 11

Severus = Italic

Sal = bold not italic

"..." means a pause or silence, depending on the context.

3 January, 1999

*Severus hears a knock on the door and opens it*

"Sal?"

"Professor- I mean... Severus."

*Severus stares at Sal and she blushes*

"I- I am sorry, I just cannot believe I have never noticed you before during class..."

"Please, come in."

*a few minutes later*

"Before I could begin, I have some questions if you don't mind."

"Not at all Sir... I mean Severus. Go ahead."

"Why are you living next to me?"

"Oh... you are getting right in then... alright. Well... It- it was Dumbledore's idea. After I was released from St. Mungos, he said it might help cure my depression if I... if I live next to you."

*Severus gives her a surprised look*

"That doesn't sound logical at all, how does constantly remembering me and my death supposed to help you recover?"

"I don't know, it didn't make sense to me either."

"Well... did it? Did it cure you?"

*Sal pauses and looks away*

"No, it didn't. It made it worse to be honest."

"So why didn't you move out as soon as you felt worse?"

*Sal looks away again, blushing*

"I...uh... I didn't want to. I loved seeing your house next to mine and..."

"Wait!"

*Severus jumps startled*

"What?"

"I have been living next to you for months now, how couldn't I see you inside your house? Not once I noticed any nothing odd. I didn't even see you move inside your home."

"Well... I wasn't. When I said I wasn't leaving my house, I wasn't lying to you. But how did you notice that? Were you seriously just spying on my house the entire time?"

"I... yea. I always had hope that you were still alive. At one point, I thought the reason why Dumbledore bought me that house was to let me know you are not dead. But as the days passed, I began to lose hope."

"Now you know that he was right. I am not dead."

*Sal smiles widely*

"And you will never know how happy that news made me."

*Severus nods*

*silence for a few minutes*

"You said you want to tell me something in person, what was it Severus?"

"I want to show you a few memories from my past. Keep in mind that this is something that I have never done before but I need to do it. The reason I am letting you see them is that you have unfortunately drew a false image in your head about me. You keep saying I am a hero, a saviour –"

"You are!"

"No! I am not. You said yourself that you need to gather a lot of information about a person before you judge them. What you said about you getting depressed and had to be hospitalized just because I died was quite concerning to me Sal. So before you see me as a Messiah, you need to know what a shitty person I actually am."

*Sal gulps in fear. She nods in silence.*

*Severus gets closer and touches his forehead to hers and closes his eyes.*

"Close your eyes Sal and focus."

*She nods again*

*Severus opens his mind to her and she sees everything in his past*

*A half an hour later, Severus straightens himself to find a shocked expression on Sal's face*

*After a few minutes*

"Th-the girl with the red hair and green eyes is Lily, right?"

"..."

"Yes."

*Sal pauses*

"She...uh...she is beautiful, I get why you would fall in love with her –"

"I didn't love her for just that. She was an extraordinary witch, very intelligent and kind. She had the ability to see the good in people even when they didn't see it themselves."

"I-I see."

*after a few minutes*

"But that wasn't kind of her to leave you just because of a slip up –"

"I said the worst word imaginable Sal! She had every right to leave me for it."

"Um...no, she didn't. You were her best friend. She supposedly cared for you and defended you for years. How couldn't she see the amount of pressure you were in when Potter and his gang were cruel to you? She is clever, isn't she? You were obviously not in your right mind when you said the M word and you freaking apologized to her, multiple times! You had no ill intentions Severus, she should have forgiven you."

*Severus is shocked and remains silent*

"What about the prophecy? I was the reason she died!"

"You couldn't have known the prophecy meant her –"

"But it could have been someone else. I was so blinded with lust of power that it didn't cross my mind –"

"And you regret doing that now –"

"Of course I regret it!"

*Sal smiles and nods*

"That is my point. You have grown Severus. Yes, I do agree that what you did in the past was horrible but we cannot judge a person upon their past alone after they have evolved to become a better person. So no, it was cruel of her to leave you. It was cruel of her to not give you a second chance and go as far as marrying the guy who terrorized you. She is horrible!"

"Why are you defending my actions?"

"I am not defending them, I am giving you the benefit of the doubt. I am doing what I hoped people would have done to me when they found that I..."

*Sal looks away in shock*

*a few minutes later*

"You're what?"

"I- I need to go. It was nice meeting you Sev."

*Sal gets up and runs to the door*