Caledonia glanced up at Severus Snape, they were sat across from one another, marking workbooks and for the past hour, neither one of them had spoken a word. After a long pause, unto which Severus finally noticed the gaze pinned on his face, he looked up. A frown instantly replaced his expression of concentration.
"What?" he snapped bitterly and it just made her smile softly, much to his annoyance. He could not understand the girl opposite him. She was different from others, deeper.
"You look so serious" she giggled and he merely rolled his eyes and went back to marking, it was two days before Christmas now, and neither of them was in yule-tide joy.
"Yes well, I teach a babble of imbeciles who do not know anything." he hissed, marking a quick cross on the page and making the girl across from him roll her eyes as she continued to put ticks and smiley faces on the essays she analysed.
"You do realise... They are children?"
"Never been much of a fan of children really" he frowned. "Rotten things."
"You work in a school, Severus."
"Yes, and?"
"Why do you work here if you don't like children?" she scoffed, reaching across and sticking a gold star on the top of one of the essays Snape marked and he looked up at her in disdain as she giggled.
"Because I owe Dumbledore. When the Dark Lord emerged, I was close to joining him. Dumbledore pulled me out before I could make that idiotic mistake. Therefore, I owe him my life." he blinked.
"You were almost a Death Eater?" she wondered calmly, folding her hands beneath her chin and he was pleasantly surprised at the lack of disgust toward him that she showed in the knowledge of this.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" he narrowed his eyes and she frowned back in confusion.
"Like what?" she couldn't help the small giggle of confusion that left her lips when she saw his narrowed eyes.
"Nicely"
"You're so weird Severus" she scoffed and he merely shrugged it off, going back to marking. He had told Caledonia the absolute truth, he was almost a Death Eater and just before it all took place... Dumbledore pulled him out. He was angry about it for a long time, thinking that his freedom to choose had been stripped from him but slowly he began to be thankful. He didn't know what life he'd have had if he joined the Dark Lords side, especially considering the monster eventually killed Lily, the love of Severus' life.
Caledonia often stared at Severus during these marking sessions and he'd long since gotten used to it. It was just in her nature, she didn't feel rude about the way she assessed him and although it originally made him uncomfortable, he no longer cared.
"Are you going to mark those?" he gestured to her remaining stack of workbooks as he attempted to remove the sticker from the top corner of the page, annoyed when he couldn't get it off.
"Nah, I thought I'd let you do it," she smirked and he blinked at her.
"what?" she merely laughed at him.
"It's easy, you've just got to tick tick tick them. I practically wrote the whole thing, it's A star work, I assure you." she winked and Snape rolled his eyes, grabbing the top one off of her pile to assess her 'A star work'. After a while, he frowned.
"How do you even know this?" he tapped the page. "You didn't come here."
"No, you're right, I didn't. I was taught by private tutors. It's the Merlin way, unfortunately."
"Didn't Merlin himself come here?"
"Yes, He was in the first class of Hogwarts, taught by the founders themselves." she shrugged casually as if it wasn't a big deal as she stared at him unblinkingly.
"Why do you stare?" he huffed after another five minutes.
"Because I like to see you squirm." she beamed and he glared at her. "Are you ready to take back what you said about me?" she wondered as an afterthought and the potion master frowned, confused as to why she had brought it up after such a long time.
"And why would I do that?"
"Severus... if you want nothing to do with me, why are you here?" she questioned sincerely for the first time as she leant back and crossed her arms. Snape's eyes flickered up to Caledonia in the lamplight and he couldn't deny how utterly gorgeous she looked in that moment, if his mind wasn't in other places, he may have been attracted to her in the warm, cosy classroom.
"Maybe I changed my mind." he blinked, not meeting her eyes and she frowned. "I don't... I don't understand what you want from me Caledonia, I do not get close to people. Never even a first name basis though I find myself there with you. And I need to know why."
"Why, what Severus?"
"Why you continue to spend time with me, despite how hard I try to push you away," he responded intensely, looking into her eyes for the first time and his face was unreadable. He was handsome that evening, cloaks removed to leave him in a simple black suit.
"Why do you spend time with me when I tease and irritate you?" she responded to his question with a question and he frowned, blinking at her.
"I don't know" he answered and she responded with 'there you go' gesture, to which he remained frowning in confusion. Neither of them could deny the connection they had, the chemistry, but neither would admit it either...
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MERLIN | Severus Snape
Fanfiction"And what is wizarding royalty doing at Hogwarts?" -SS "Come now Severus... Princesses love castles" -AD Severus Snape was like an abandoned castle; cold and secluded. That was the way he liked it. He'd long since accepted the fact that he would be...
