A lot of people wondered why Florence Anderson was going out with Severus Snape.
Sometimes she wondered, too.
The obvious answer was "because he asked her"—or rather insinuated himself into her sphere of notice. And for some strange reason, once she had noticed him, Florence found that she liked Severus Snape.
At first, she only liked him in an interested kind of way. He fascinated her the same way a new computer program or a complicated lock fascinated her—she thought of him as a puzzle of sorts. If she could figure out the right combination of pieces, she thought perhaps she would be able to see what was behind his expressionless face and his cool sense of duty.
But after a while she started to like him in a different way. She was still intrigued by him, but she began to see him as a person, not just a walking mystery who happened to be her boyfriend. As she tried to puzzle out exactly what he thought he was doing and why, she found herself falling in love with the poor half-blood Slytherin enforcer who was ruled in turns by his ambition and his own values. She wondered which would win out in the end—what was really driving him? She was extremely curious.
It might also have had something to do with the fact that he had become an exceptionally good snog.
And then, with a gradual suddenness, the Severus she had fallen in love with vanished. The battle within him was over and it was neither ambition nor personal values that had won out. It was darkness and sadism and love of the power the strong wielded over the weak.
So she broke up with him—or he broke up with her, or whatever. And she had no regrets. She had gone out with him because she had liked Severus Snape. There was no point in continuing to date this frightening wizard who used his emotions as weapons instead of concealing them and loved to inflict pain. She had been relieved when he'd said he was planning to leave her anyway, and that he had no plans for revenge. But it still hurt to hear the cruel words in his familiar voice, and to see such contempt in the eyes she had thought she was beginning to know.
Time passed. She didn't start going out with anyone else—maybe because she missed Severus, and maybe because no one happened to catch her fancy. But she harbored no false illusions about him miraculously changing back, or worse still, of being able to change him herself. She would not take him back even if he begged her.
And then, unexpectedly, he apologized. She remained cool and matter-of-fact, until she discovered that he had not come with the intention of winning her back. To regain Lily Evans' friendship and because it was the right thing to do, he said. She asked about Bertha Jorkins. After some hedging, he admitted that he had a "problem." And all of Florence's confused or disturbed feelings vanished. Everything suddenly clicked into place. It was a problem. She knew it, and he knew it. And problems could be solved.
A lot of people wondered why Florence Anderson was going out with Severus Snape.
And Florence quite simply didn't care.