Disclaimer: None of the characters in this fic belong to me except Celeste who is my own creation. J.K.Rowling and all the privileged people who produce the books have full rights to the Harry potter series etc.
Note: This is my first fic and is likely to get a bit soppy. This is a low
rating story but my next one should be steamier. Please bear with me, as I won't
be too good with the characters yet. Any praise would be very nice!!! : ) But if
you want to be nasty just don't bother please.
I realize I have spelt Severus' name wrong quite often - SORRY!!
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" Love makes all hard hearts gentle"
- George Herbert***************************************************************************
Serverus' heart
Chapter 1: Valentines Day
If Professor Lockhart had ever done anything for the school it was this. Ever since he'd held a Valentines Day celebration the tradition had continued in the school - much to the delight of some, and the disgust of others.
It was February once more at Hogwarts, and the students were beginning to think, with racing hearts, of valentine's cards to be sent and flowering spells to learn. If an observer with the same sort of talent of professor trelawny claimed to have had walked through the school they might have heard some interesting thoughts.
In the gryffindor common room a boy with dark hair and glasses was inscribing a card lovingly " dear Cho..."
In the courtyard a blond smug looking boy was laughing cruelly as he addressed a card with mock passion " oh Harry I've always loved you so! Say you'll marry me, love Colin.". His thickset companions laughed too and they walked away...
And in the great hall ribbons and bows littered the tables, roses floated gently overhead, and muggle love songs played. Watching the soft lights of the fairies who were floating around the hall was a girl wearing dress robes of the most beautiful silver. Her dark hair was bound up in soft curls by velvet blue ribbons. Her name was Celeste, a ravenclaw 7th year, and she had a secret.
She sighed with half pain, half delight as she gazed up at the peach sky-roof of the hall, watching the sun set with a last few glowing rays. Valentines Day. The day when secret crushes, harbored long, would be revealed if only in the form of red and pink cards, signed "?".
And she, of course, had a secret of her own. A tall, dark and commanding secret. Namely one professor Serverus Snape.
Could she help that from the moment she first entered that dungeon she was smitten? How could she not have stood in shock when that dark robed figure swept into the room? For after all, he was the man of her dreams...literally.
Ever since Celeste was young she had dreamed a strange fantasy of a dark robed man with long black hair who came striding towards her whenever she was in peril, and saved her. She could have a normal nightmare, of snakes or monsters or wolves and her hero would always arrive at the moment when she was most alone, most afraid. He would hold her and open his mouth to speak...and the dream would end. She came to accept this as the ways things were, just something deep in her mind.
But the jigsaw had never been complete until she'd entered her first potions class, and heard Professor Snape speak. She had loved him then, and never looked back.
At first, as an adoring first year she had been content to watch, to listen, to wait. But now, in her last year at Hogwarts it was time to act, or always wonder. Time to show that aloof and lonely professor that he was not unlovable as he seemed to think. She could tell there was something bitter in his past, something that stopped him getting close to anyone. How could a man live, with no friends, no wife, no one?
So she'd sent the card. It was enchanted of course, made out of a mist so that the jewel drops of water vapor formed a heart punctured by a tiny silver arrow. It was with reason that she had picked it...for Snape needed only to wave a hand through it to dispel the mist. She would not allow him to be embarrassed. It would return to a small silver ball, tiny as a snitch, and appear only when he squeezed it.
She hoped she had chosen the right words. She had lovingly chosen them: " You think that no-one cares. I do. You think that no-one loves you. Well I do. Now you know it, you can chose to ignore this love, or take it, but whatever you do it will not go away. All my heart x ".
She would now have to wait, and watch.
As the students and teachers filed into the hall they gazed with longing or suspicion at the high windows where the owls would enter (the idea of musical dwarves has been one of Lockheart's ideas, hastily discarded.) who would bring the cards and packages.
Many of the students looked sick with worry, anticipating the response to their messages of affection. Hoping no-one would know it was them...Ginny Weasley looked particularly frantic and kept glancing at Harry, who was watching Cho Chang...who Celeste noticed unhappily was on the verge of tears. Cho was Celeste's' very best friend at Hogwarts, and Celeste knew how much Cho still missed Cedric, her boyfriend who had passed away a few years ago.
They all sat, nervously, as Dumbledore began to speak.
"My dear children" he announced happily, "Today is Valentines Day! I know you will all have fun!" mixed groans and cheers at this. "However.." he stared at them seriously "any prank cards sent that are not light hearted and that upset anyone will be identified with a tracing spell and the author will be punished." The hall fell silent in respect. Only Draco Malfoy sneered. "Hope Harry loves my card then..." he said to sniggers from the Slytherin table.
" Now the moment you have waited for...bring in the cards!" cried Dumbledore with the twinkle back in his eyes. He threw up his hands and a hoard of owls cascaded into the hall through the window and swept through the hall. Neville had dyed his new owl pink to match the occasion and it wasn't happy. It swooped at Hermione Granger dropping the present with a smash and swept off again. Hermione calmly mended the parcel before looking inside....
All around people were being buried by pink and red envelopes. Celeste has a few, but she recognized the handwriting of boys she knew on them. She had really wished for a special card from a special someone. She gazed at the staff table to watch the object of her affections flinch as her won snowy white owl bore down on him... and drop the little silver ball onto his lap. A small piece of light blue note paper drifted lazily after it.
Snape scooped up the paper. "Squeeze me." it read. Ah.... Well...thought Snape at a loss. Does it mean the ball or the girl who sent it? His face darkened. What girl? These were the doings of Potter and Weasley if ever he saw them. The ball would probably erupt in itching powder in a minute...no...He'd destroy it. Safer that way, especially if it was real after all.
No real valentine would ever come for Serverus Snape though, he was sure. No one would like him that way because he was cold and mean and ruthless. He knew he was. It was a good front to put up and hide behind. It would ensure that no one would ever feel that way about him. It would have to be...destiny, or something, to get past these defenses! He'd been so careful to be nasty enough because if he ever loved a girl and she loved him back then his secret would have to come between them and it could never really be.
" It's a love globe, Serverus" the voice made him jump.
It was dumbledore, smiling good humouredly at him as if he'd read his thoughts " it won't explode. You can squeeze it" and to demonstrate, he did.
The glistening mist spiraled into the air, glowing in the shape of a card with a heart in the center. It swung open gently to reveal the silvery message. "Ignore it or take it?" he murmured, reading in spite of himself. It hardly sounded like a joke. He wished... he wished...but how could the students be so cruel?! Couldn't they see that he, Serverus Snape, had never ever been loved? Why could a joker touch his most private thoughts? " You think no-one loves you.." it was too hard to bear.
He swept his hand through the mist and it disappeared. " If you were a real love..." he murmured unhappily " I'd want you, and I still couldn't have you, even then. So where's the use in wondering?" and he got up from the table and swept from the room.
Celeste watched. He'd seemed annoyed, a scared expression fleeting across his face once. And yet...and yet before he'd left he'd bent down, picked up the ball, and pocketed it.
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