Shadows || A Severus Snape Fanfiction

Chapter 33 - In the Heat of Anger

Severus remained perfectly composed as he engaged in a rapid internal battle. He was fighting to select the set of words that could best rectify the situation, though the look on Asha's face did not make him hopeful. She was standing ridged, her jaw locked in place and her eyes blazing like an untameable Fiendfyre.

"Asha, it was just a precaution," he said, his voice steady but sharp, "only to be used in an emergency". He hesitantly raised a hand, looking like he was deciding whether to reach for his wand or grasp hold of her arm. He was treating her with the extreme caution that one would a wild animal; dancing the fine line between scaring and provoking. "It was only with your safety in mind," he implored.

For several agonising moments, the pair were suspended in a venomous, brittle tension. Asha gnawed on her lip as she struggled to breathe through her intense anger. Next second, she hurled the wristwatch at the fireplace. As it whistled past Snape's shoulder, she concentrated the full force of her rage into the small enchanted object. Before the watch even came close to smashing into the flaming coals, it combusted from the inside out. Asha relished in the dissolution of the thick layers of magic Snape had cast on the wretched object.

Severus leapt back and whipped his head around in time to see the watch implode into nothing. A wave of pressure immediately followed, radiating through the dungeon and causing his ears to pop. He grimaced at Asha's fearsome display of magical power. Severus had witnessed it once before at the lake and since then he had conceptually understood the scale of her capabilities. But nothing could have prepared him for experiencing the force of her power up close. He hastily looked back at Asha. She had backed away from him, still glaring at the spot where the watch had vanished.

Asha quickly dropped her outstretched palm and clenched her hands at her sides. Magic was coursing through her veins. Her palms itched with the temptation to disintegrate anything and everything in her vicinity. She fought to control her breathing and cool her head, but bitter, hostile thoughts flooded her mind. Usually the awareness of Snape's hard, stoic demeanour helped her to ground herself. But right now, any thoughts of the man were utterly resentful and sent her into even more of a rampant fury. She could feel her control slipping away. She needed to get out of this airless, cluttered, claustrophobic classroom. Most of all she needed to get away from him.

Using her last ounce of self-restraint, she said icily, "I'm going outside to clear my head". Then she strode for the door. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Snape make a sort of involuntary twitch... like he was considering chasing after her. "And no, I don't need supervision!" she snapped viciously before ripping her coat from its hook.

The air outside was bitter cold, but Asha was too furious to notice. She demolished a path through the knee-deep snow, taking wicked pleasure in kicking through the thick powder instead of lifting her feet up and over the surface.

With every step she took, the energy within her demanded an exit. Whether she knew it or not, Asha had always used magic as a way to vent her emotions. Using both hands, she wandlessly gathered a shovelful of snow and compacted it into a dense sphere. Then, with an aggressive thrust of her arms, she sent it hurtling hundreds of feet across the grounds. One after another her amplified snowballs collided into hills, rocks and trees with satisfying force. She even took extra care to hit the whomping willow, sending it into a swiping frenzy (an act that Asha would later add to her cupboard of regrets; the cupboard that always seemed to spill open just as she was trying to fall sleep). Behind her, the hands on the Clock Tower struck midnight.

It wasn't difficult for Severus to keep his distance as he followed Asha. She was already several hundred feet ahead and ploughing through the snow at a speed that was quite frankly impressive. Even so, he walked very slowly. He was determined to resolve this debacle before night's end, but he needed the hot-headed Hufflepuff to calm down first. He was still struggling to come to terms with the fact that she had somehow sensed magic that was virtually undetectable through the use of a wand.