A brief one shot between Snape and Luna Lovegood. The rights to these characters are sadly not mine, it's all for fun! :)
Snape glided into his potions classroom, his cloak billowing behind him. It had been another long day of insufferable questions and stupid mistakes, the highlight of idiocy being a near-fatal potion catastrophe caused by a second year who couldn't tell the difference between batwing essence and dragon liver!
If he wasn't so intent on hating everybody, he would have probably felt some sympathy for the boy as he realised his error. Snape chuckled at the memory. The boy looked like a deer in headlights when the potion started to boil over, a green sickly smelling gas erupting from the bubbling cauldron.
Snape sighed. It's no wonder the number of potion masters still practising are next to nothing he thought. None of the brainless oafs he currently taught possessed the knowledge or understanding to string two sentences together coherently, let alone get a high enough NEWT score to train as a potion masters assistant.
Snape's grumblings were cut short when there was a little tap on the classroom door.
Go away, he thought.
Mere seconds later the tapping grew louder. Irritated, Snape put down the containers he had just been organising and strode across the room in four quick steps. Wrenching the door open with such force, that he'd hope whoever stood on the other-side retreated in fear. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't so lucky.
Stood in a rather garish orange dress, huge rounded glasses, with no lenses and what looked like purple wellies on her lanky thin legs was none other than Luna Lovegood. Her dirty blond hair was covering half her face with the most ridiculous hairdo he'd ever seen and to top it off she had what looked like twigs woven into her hair, like a rather bizarre crown. "Professor, you seem to have a rather large gathering of wrackspurts accumulating above your head. My father has an excellent way of just getting rid..." annoyed, Snape cut her off before she could finish her useless babbling.
"Miss Lovegood, I do not have time for your insignificant prattles this afternoon, either spit out what it is you want or leave before I deduct house points for your timewasting" he sneered.
Luna smiled. "You don't seem to be in a very good mood today Professor, it seems they must have already entered your brain and jiggled things around..." Luna stared up at Professor Snape's head with a curious look. "Yes, most definitely, I can see them floating around your ears," she said whilst stepping closer to get a better look.
Positively inflamed by her presence Snape turned on his heel and headed back into the classroom, figuring it was best to just ignore her, rather than waste his efforts yelling at her to leave. After all, the useless girl was always blathering on about something ridiculous or other. Yet, unlike most of his students, Miss Lovegood never seemed to be affected by his negative personality, that usually saw people running for the heels when he came towards them. It was something he was quiet proud of, years of refinement had his aura trained to repel anybody who dared to get close to him. It was better that way, friends only left you anyway... his mind flicking briefly to the image of the young girl with green eyes... Snapping back to the present he headed back to his all assortment of jars and containers and continued to sort them, not bothering to check to see if the crazy girl was still staring at Merlin knows what... wrackspurts indeed!
Out of the corner of his eye, a flash of blonde hair and a sudden "eeeetch" of a chair being dragged across the cold concrete tiles of the classroom floor claimed his attention.
"Sir" her shrill, but oddly dreamy voice echoed off the stone walls. "The energy up here is simply fascinating, I think you've got yourself small breeding colony of wrackspurts... I for one think that we should gather..." she droned on, Snape decidedly blocking her voice out of his mind. He watched her, slowly becoming more infuriated by her lack of classroom decorum, having witnessed her jump onto the classroom chair and proceed with waving her hands in the air like she was fended off a swarm of bees. Not to mention her sense to bother him in the midst of his afternoon organisation. Having finally had enough Snape slammed his hands on the desk and shouted "MISS LOVEGOOD! Go and bother somebody else with your unwanted commentary about your fairytale creatures, I do not have the time or patience to entertain you or clean up your mess after you've done destroying my classroom... I suggest you get off that chair and leave my classroom this instant!".
Snape looked her directly in her eyes, choosing to ignore the hideous glasses she was sporting, he gave her his most cruel glare, in the hope, she would turn tail and run, but instead saw the smile that was forming within them. "You know Professor..." Luna sang, "I don't know why people are so afraid of you, you're not at all scary.." Luna jumped off the chair and landed with a gracious clap on the stone floor. "I've watched you for a while, always moving around the castle, sulking in corners, growling at everybody who so much as raises their eyes to look at you, but it's all a mask"
Luna stepped towards Snape, making a note to walk calmly, without hesitation. "I see your loneliness Professor, I feel that too. You know people think I don't hear the names I'm called? Crazy Lovegood, Loony Luna... they say I'm mental, that I have no place here, I too, am an outsider, like... you". Less than a step away from him now, she stopped and waited, giving him the chance to speak.
Snape's eyes grew larger as her words filled his mind. Nobody had ever spoken to him in such a way, nobody dared to think about his reasons for his isolation, let alone voice them outside, in the open. He wanted to shut her up, to make her take back the words that he knew were true. He was lonely, his pride let him to shun people, to be the person he'd become, so good at hiding the fact he secretly despised being hated. After all, it was just an extension of the years of bullying he received as a teenager.
"It's okay, you know" her voice spoke calmly to him, breaking him out his erratic train of thought. "It's okay to want to have friends, to be cared about, to be... " her voice wavered a little before finishing "...wanted."
Snape looked at her then, truly looked at her. Her ridiculous attire, her aura, that dreamy far away voice that spouted her ridiculous theories and understandings of the world. She was still smiling at him. Smiling! Nobody ever smiled at him, not in the friendly manner in which she was currently, it made him uncomfortable and he shifted on his feet in response.
Finally finding his voice he uttered in a small foreign voice, that sounded nothing like his bark over the years. "What... is it you want Miss Lovegood?"
Luna made the final step towards him and touched his arm with her hand, it was a friendly touch, one he couldn't remember feeling for many years, if ever. Looking up at his face with a glowing smile; one that could dull the sun.
"Why... to be your friend of course".