I Won't Let You Be Lonely
Disclaimer: I do not claim any rights to Harry Potter or any of the characters from it. They belong to J.K. Rowling. The only character that belongs to me, is my OC, Tabitha Tate.
AN: This is a small side story to No Matter what. I felt a Valentine's Day piece would be nice, so I went for it. :P
Severus scowled as he walked to the Great Hall, seeing couple all throughout the corridors snogging. He never had liked Valentine's Day. It always seemed pointless and served no purpose, other than companies making money from it. Of course, it didn't help that Lily would probably be too busy spending the holiday with someone other than him. It hurt that she didn't notice him the way he had always noticed her. He walked into the Great Hall and sat down at the Slytherin table, looking over at the Gryffindor to see which person had been lucky enough to be the one Lily focused on today. He didn't see Lily there, but noticed Tabitha, who had seen him and was blushing a little. He wondered what the reason could be for her to blush.
Tabitha waved shyly at Snape, trying not to let too much of her nervousness show. She wanted to spend most of her time with her lanky Slytherin friend today, and also had a small gift to give him in honor of the holiday. She was aware that he probably wasn't going to be in a good mood at all today, since he fancied Lily and she was celebrating Valentine's Day with someone else. She didn't let it bother her that she wasn't his first choice of person to celebrate this holiday with, knowing that it would make him moodier if she was in a bad mood as well.
"Good morning, Tabby Cat." Sirius greeted as he sat down next to her at the table. He wrapped one of his arms around her and pulled her flush to his side.
"Good morning, Padfoot." The small witch responded, trying to move his arm from around her. She didn't know what he was playing at, but didn't want Severus to see him acting like that with her anyways. He grinned playfully, keeping his arm locked around her waist.
"Let go of me, please." Tabitha said, frowning at him.
"Why?" Sirius asked in reply, teasingly lifting a brow at her.
"I asked you to, that's why." She answered, looking a little peeved. He sighed and released her, catching on that his behavior was annoying her. They ate breakfast quietly with each other. Remus was recovering from shifting the night before and Peter was sleeping in, since nobody had remembered to wake him up. James was searching the castle for Lily, who was still upstairs, getting ready.
"I'll see you later, Sirius. I have some stuff to do." Tabitha said once she was finished eating, leaving the Great Hall as quickly as she could. She knew that she had to hide from Sirius or he'd follow her around curiously and ruin her plans. She hid behind a suite of armor, glad that Remus had the map today. She waited silently for Severus to leave the Great Hall, not wanting to have to search the castle for him later. She ended up not having to wait very long at all. Severus walked out after a couple of minutes, looking around for her. He wanted to ask her about who Lily was spending Valentine's Day with. Tabitha slid out from behind the armor and walked over to him.
"Happy Valentine's Day, Sev." She greeted, offering him a friendly smile.
"Happy Valentine's Day." Snape replied, not wanting to seem rude, even though he thought that the holiday was completely silly.
"Do you know what Lily's doing today?" He asked, careful not to make it seem like it was too important.
"She's going on a date with one of the boys from Raven claw; Bertram Aubrey, I think. James's in a right tiff about it." The blonde told him, giggling at the memory of James's reaction when she'd told him earlier. Severus frowned, but nodded.
"Do you have any plans for the day?" She asked him, looking up at him curiously.
"None in particular. I thought I might go to the library, but not for anything of immediate significance." He answered.
"Oh. Well, would you like to spend the day with me then?" Tabitha asked, looking up at him with a glimmer of hope in her eyes.
"Surely you have admirers who would like to have your attentions today?" He asked, thinking it odd that she'd ask to spend the holiday with him, rather than other, accepted males in the school.
"Psh. Why would I want to waste my day with them? They're boring, fawning over me all the time. Besides, as you're friend, I won't let you be lonely on Valentine's Day ever again. If you say that's impossible, then I'll still spend the day with you and we can be lonely together." She replied sincerely, though she wished she could spend the day with him as more than just a friend.
"What do you propose we do then?" Severus asked, secretly quite pleased that she preferred spending time with him over her admirers. She thought about it for moment, tapping her chin lightly with her finger.
"Hmm.. We could try to find the Room of Requirement. I've been doing some studying on it and asking around. If what I've learned is true, then it is somewhere on the seventh floor, near the painting of Barnabas the Barmy teaching trolls to do ballet and to make it show up, you have to walk by it three times, thinking about a reason you need it." The witch suggested. Her Slytherin friend poised a brow in interest, thinking that the suggestion was a very good one, seeing as he might find many future uses for it. He gave a nod. She grinned and they both headed up to the seventh floor on the many moving stairs.
The two paced all along the corridor in which the painting of Barnabas the Barmy's troll ballet class, thinking about what they needed the room for, a place for them to be around each other without having to worry about anybody finding them and bothering them. After a little while, a door revealed itself to them. They walked over to it, feeling triumphant about finding the room. Severus reached out to open the door and glanced at Tabitha, wanting to be sure that she didn't mind him being the one to open the door. She smiled and nodded encouragingly, eager to take a look around. He opened the door and walked into the room with Tabitha. He recognized some things from the Slytherin common room, but some other things were unfamiliar to him. He guessed that they were things from the Gryffindor common room, seeing as the bore the house colors of it.
Tabitha twirled around about, looking over everything in the room. She giggled and dropped down onto one the couch in front of the fireplace. The fireplace was exactly like the one from her common room, but the couch was different. It was made of black leather. She curled up on the couch, enjoying the warmth from the fireplace. She heard Snape's quiet steps as he approached the couch. He sat down as well, amused by how his small friend had acted.
"It seems like everyone is worry about having to start studying for their O.W.L.s soon." Tabitha said, looking over at her tall friend.
"Well, it makes sense. Most people have slacked off all year, so they'll have to cram all their studying from throughout the year into the short time we have left before them." Severus answered, finding their peers' procrastination immature.
"Yeah, that's what Sirius, Peter, and James have done this year. Unlike them, I let Remus keep me on track." The blonde told him, relieved that she hadn't let Sirius and James distract her too much from her studies this year. She didn't want Severus to think her childish. She bit her bottom lip lightly, thinking. The boy sitting next to her wondered what she was thinking about now. He had to convince himself not to use legilimency , feeling that it would be too much of an intrusion on her privacy.
"That fails to surprise me." The dark-haired Slytherin replied, stretching out his long legs and crossing his ankles. Tabitha watched him adjust, smiling lightly. She noticed a bookshelf above the fireplace and levitated one over to her. She read the title on the book's cover before holding the book out to Severus. He looked at her curiously, not knowing why she wanted him to read right now, since it wasn't exactly something that would be entertaining for her.
"Read to me?" The blonde witch requested, smiling up at her companion.
"Why can't you read it and why would you want me to read book on Defense Against The Dark Arts to you in the first place?" He asked, taking the book.
"DADA is interesting and it'll be better if you read it to me. You have really nice voice." She explained, blushing a little when complimenting his voice. He rolled his eyes and looked down at lap so that his hair hid the small smile that formed on his lips at the compliment. He opened the book, resting it on his lap, and started to read to the witch. She scooted over so that she was cuddled up to his side, making it possible for her to see the small illustrations in the book. This caused him to pause for a moment in surprise before he resumed reading to her.
"I won't read to you again, if you're just going to fall asleep." Severus told the small female. It was nearly time for lunch now and the she had been fighting to stay awake the last half hour or so.
"I promise not to fall asleep." Tabitha answered, stretching and letting out a small yawn. She hadn't meant to get so drowsy; she had just been so relaxed that it had sort of happened without her realizing it.
"Fine. For now though, we should probably start making our way to the Great Hall." Snape replied, closing the book.
"No way. Let's get the house elves to let us take some food and bring it up here instead." The blonde suggested, grinning. She had always thought that it was rather dumb that they had to eat at tables with their housemates all the time and thought it would be quite a novelty to eat with Severus instead.
"How will we get the password to the kitchen?" He asked in reply.
"That's simple. Since I hang out with James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus, I always find out the password quite soon after the beginning of term. Getting the food will be a piece of cake too, since the house elves are pretty fond of the others and I." She answered. She was glad at times like this that she was friends with the Marauders.
"All right, as long as we're careful not to get caught sneaking to or from the kitchen." Severus agreed, seeing how happy the idea of it made his friend. She beamed at him, nodding. They casted disillusionment charms on themselves before leaving the room, not wanting people to notice them. They quietly walked down to where Tabitha knew the portrait that hid the entrance to the kitchen was located.
"Salt taffy." Tabitha softly said to the portrait. It swung open for them, enabling them to enter the kitchen. They took the disillusionment spells off of themselves as they walked into the kitchen.
"Ms. Tabitha! What can Mopsy do for you today?" A house elf asked. It had large violet eyes and a plump, squashed looking nose. It looked at Severus questioningly.
"Mopsy, I'd like you to meet my friend, Severus Snape." Tabitha introduced, smiling. The house elf looked Snape over and smiled happily.
"Mopsy is very pleased to meet you, Mr. Severus. Always good to meet friends of Ms. Tabitha!" The small house elf exclaimed in its squeaky voice. He nodded in reply to the sentiment.
"Do you think you and the other house elves could prepare a basket lunch for Severus and I, Mopsy?" The blonde witch asked, giving the creature a friendly smile.
"Of course, Ms. Tabitha! It's always a pleasure to help out." Mopsy answered before rushing off to give orders to the other house elves. Tabitha led Severus over to a table with couple of chairs in one corner of the kitchen. She smiled lightly and sat down on one of the chairs, waiting for the house elves to get their lunches ready for them. The gangly Slytherin sat down in the other chair, waiting with her. After a few minutes, Mopsy hurried over to them with a large picnic basket.
"Here you are, Ms. Tabitha!" The house elf said, happily handing the basket over to her.
"Thank you and the others for preparing this for us, Mopsy." The blonde witch fondly replied, smiling. The house elf nodded, scurrying off to get back to work with the others. Tabitha and Snape cast disillusionment charms on themselves again before leaving the kitchen. They walked back up to the seventh floor and paced three times in front of the wall that they knew the Room of Requirement's door was located, thinking about why they needed the room. The door appeared and they quickly walked into the room.
Tabitha walked over to the fireplace and sat down near it, opening the picnic basket to see what had been put in it. She smiled, seeing some sandwiches, treacle tarts, a couple jugs of pumpkin juice, and some sweets. She handed a sandwich to Severus as he sat down nearby. They ate their lunch in companionable silence, simply enjoying each other's company. As Tabitha nibbled on a treacle tart, she thought about whether or not she should give Severus the gift she had bought for him soon.
"Hey, Sev, close your eyes, okay?" The short witch requested, looking a little nervous.
"Why would I do that?" He asked in reply, arching a brow as he scanned her face clinically for any hints to why she wanted his eyes to be closed.
"It's a surprise. Just, do it for me. Please?" She pleaded, a blush starting to creep its way onto her cheeks. The Slytherin sighed and closed his eyes, not seeing any harm in it.
"No peeking." Tabitha murmured. He heard her move onto her knees and move much closer to him. He tensed a bit, not knowing what she she planned to do that required such close proximity to him. This was soon revealed to him when he felt a soft pair of lips lightly press against his as two small hands moved to rest on his chest, nervously grabbing onto his robes. He surprised himself as his arms wrapped around the small witch's waist, pulling her closer to him as he hesitantly pressed his lips back against him, returning the kiss. This had not been what he had expected at all and everything about it confused him, but he found that he currently didn't want to think about it much. As the two kissed, he couldn't help but notice that her lips tasted vaguely of treacle tarts still. Why he noticed this of all things, was beyond him, but it caused him smile into the kiss lightly in amusement. Tabitha felt his smile, which caused her to smile a little as well. They reluctantly pulled away from the kiss after a moment, looking at each other shyly.
"I... We shouldn't have done that." Severus quietly said, feeling guilty about kissing someone who wasn't Lily and more than likely having led Tabitha on when he'd responded to the kiss.
"Why? I consider us really good friends and we trust each other quite a bit... And you're a very important person to me, Sev. I know Lily's the one you want and I accept that, but I don't see any reason for that to keep us from showing affection like that. I trust you with things like that, because I know you won't be immature about it or overstep your bounds." Tabitha disagreed, having every intention making sure that they would be able to kiss again when either of them had the whim to do so without having to feel bad about it.
The tall boy looked at her silently, contemplating her words for moment. He decided that it was all right for them to show affection for each other in such ways. He thought that it was simply teenage hormones that brought him to this conclusion, but couldn't deny that he had enjoyed kissing and holding the small, blonde witch very much and strongly desired to do so again. He hesitantly pulled her into his lap, keeping his arms firmly around her waist.
"All right. We may continue to do such things as long as we continue to be comfortable with it." He told her, looking down so that his obsidian eyes met her bright green ones. She grinned and wrapped her arms tightly around him, burying her face happily in his chest. He brought one hand up and gently ran his long fingers through the girl's hair, a small, rare smile tugging at his lips. She was the only one who had ever shown this level of affection for him and had decided that he would do everything in his power to make sure that nobody took that affection away from him.
Tabitha took in a deep breath, taking in the scent of the male holding her. She could smell herbs and spices, the smell of potions. She thought it was a nice scent, one that seemed to belong to Severus and no one else. She was very happy, even though that she knew that he still wanted Lily and nobody else truly. She had hope now that she would be able to change that though. They stayed like this for a few minutes, until Tabitha realized that she hadn't actually given him his gift yet. She unwound her arms from around him and dug around in her robes, pulling out a tiny book. She had used reducto on it earlier to make it easy to contain and keep hidden. She returned it to its normal size before presenting it to Snape.
"I wanted to give this to you. I know you don't like being given things, but I saw it the last time I was in Hogsmeade and thought it was perfect for you." She told him. He took the book and looked over it curiously. It was a simple black, leather notebook that had silver bordering.
"Thank you." He said, feeling very grateful for the gift. He was always writing in his textbooks, so this would obviously be a better alternative. He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead to further show his appreciation, causing her to grin widely.
"Happy Valentine's Day, Sev." Tabitha softly said, not caring that she had already said that to him today.
"Happy Valentine's Day, Tabitha." Severus quietly replied.