Fighting for love - Severus Snape fanfiction (BOOK TWO of A Magical Muggle)

Chapter 22

As soon as Ana hid behind the darkest corner of Minerva's office, the door snapped open and the room was invaded. Ana's heart was racing inside her chest knowing she barely escaped being seen, but when she overheard the deep crusty voice she fantasized about every night, she felt a choking knot around her throat and a numbing sensation in her stomach.

Severus was mere meters apart from her.

Ana's heart implored her to run into his arms. To get on her knees and ask for forgiveness. To look into his eyes, deep into his soul, and tell him she loves him, body, and soul. A sentiment she didn't believe she would ever be blessed enough to feel. A deep connection to someone's heart and being aware that you are loved more than the universe itself deemed possible.

Though she was well aware she couldn't simply show up like that, as if nothing had happened, it would be too much of a shock - for Severus and herself.

So she remained in utter silence in the corner, crying soundlessly as his voice filled her ears and increased the pain in her heart. He sounded crushed, broken - as if all the happiness in the world ceased to exist. Or if it never existed. When Severus talked to her, when he still had her in his life, she could feel the joy he had in his heart, even when his face masked otherwise. However, at that moment, Ana felt like she was punched in her stomach, stabbed in her heart, and bathed in icy cold water.

"Mr. Anderson is playing with fire Minerva," Severus growled with rage. Minerva was slightly abashed by how red his eyes were. His usually dark shiny eyes were filled with wicked flashes of how his soul had soured. It was as if he was burning inside and the redness around his iris was mirroring his heart.

"Let's get some fresh air," Minerva strived to push him out of her headquarters, but Severus brushed her arms off of him.

"No, you have been avoiding this conversation and I am foretelling you what is happening in case he continues in this school," he continued arguing.

Minerva sighed, knowing she wouldn't be able to get him out of there. Her mind drifted to Ana and how she was feeling hearing her beloved's voice.

"What did he do this time?"

"What he --?" Severus stopped talking all of a sudden, his eyes focusing on a single spot on the wall, while Minerva watched his eyes narrowing as if he was trying to hear or feel something. Eventually, Severus came to his senses and continued rambling on about the troubling student, until he got to the point that had triggered that deranged behavior. "He disrespects the other students, even the ones in his own house. He disrespects the staff. His teachers. A - Ana."

"Ana?" Minerva asked, appalled.

"Yes. Yes. Ana," Severus continued explaining the things the boy had done. Including the fact that the last drop was when Anderson talked about Ana vanishing, saying Severus was so grumpy and boring that Ana, such a "hot chic" eloped with a younger man, who could keep her "satisfied". A couple of students that were empathic with Severus' situation, grabbed Severus' arms when he launched himself at the kid, ready to kill him with his bare hands. Not that what he said was a complete lie, Ana could very well be with someone else more appropriate to her. Someone younger, less filled with darkness. Someone who could let her in completely. Someone with no dark secrets. Someone who didn't murder the man that she called her father for a couple of months.

Still, Ana was no mediocre woman to be talked about with such an offensive tone.

Ana bit her own hand to keep her from sobbing aloud as she heard the love of her life breaking down at the end of his argument.

"I don't know what to do anymore," she managed to hear Severus' murmur. "I am exhausted."

"You can take a few days off to rest, Severus," Minerva said, fighting her own tears. If only she could tell him Ana was there. If only he could call her name and make her amend things. All that was at the distance of just a couple of words, yet, she couldn't do that, Minerva couldn't betray Ana like that. She trusted her. Fully.