Severus

I hung there, reserved, as she lifted her feet high up off the ground; as she sat there with her sister on those swings. Her gorgeous red hair flew in the wind, her green eyes sparkling like precious emeralds. The laugh upon her lips was unlike any other that I had seen, and yet I knew she would never be mine. Yet, I hoped. I hoped that she would and could love someone like me. A lean, cold, boy that I was. She would never take me.

"Lily, stop that! You're freaking me out!"

"Why should I stop? It's fun and it's about the one trick I can actually do!" Lily cried helplessly, as she levitated a bunch of flowers in her hands.

"You're good at it, you know," I stepped out from behind a bush and addressed the beauty directly. "A fine witch you will be when you are older."

"Witch? Sev, how could you?" She yelled into my plain face, and then I saw her running away with her sister, crying at being called a monster. I lowered my head. I had blown it again. Sitting down, I heard a constant ringing in my head, and it grew louder and louder and LOUDER…

I woke. I turned towards my alarm and switched it off. It was 7am sharp, time to dress. I forgot all about the dream which was once reality and I moved towards the set of clean robes lay ready at the foot of the bed. It was cold down here in the dungeons, but I liked it. The cold repressed every feeling, every emotion, so a person ended up as a numb, hollow corpse.

It was the first day of January, and I was back here, at Hogwarts, as the Potions master. I never did like Potions, the only reason I ended up with this job was to protect the boy. The boy had her eyes, those sparkling emeralds. No Severus, no. We must not go there. I succumbed myself to the cold and walked out to greet my House for morning breakfast in the Great Hall.

There I sat with my fellow professors, eating my breakfast of muesli with raisins. Nothing could ever go wrong with muesli and raisins. The same oats each morning, with the right amount of salt to bring out the taste, contrasted with the sickly sweet raisins. It was then, when I looked up, that I noticed someone.

Blonde hair waved in front of my eyes, and bright silvery-blue eyes shone as she walked up from the doors of the hall. Who was she? She seemed to be 17 or 18 years old, in her final year of Hogwarts. Her robes had been worn loosely, showing the inner blue lining of a Ravenclaw student, and she carried a smile upon her face as she met her friends and sat down to have breakfast once again with them after the long winter break. In her hands she carried book upon book of Charms, Herbology, Transfiguration and…Potions.

"Severus?"

I turned towards the person who had called my name. It was Minerva McGonagall, the Transfiguration teacher, who despite teaching me when I was younger, continued to work and love her subject as if she were still a young witch.

"Yes Minerva?" It felt strange to call the professor by her first name, but I had to, there was no choice. I replied in the most humble, cold voice as possible.

"We will be taking some third years down to Hogsmede next week and I was wondering whether you would like to come. We will be leaving on the Thursday, which I believe is your free day, and you are one of the few teachers who are free."

"Of course, Minerva, I will."

"We are also bringing some 7th years with us, such as Selene Healey in Ravenclaw, the blonde one over there," she pointed to the blonde who I had been looking at moments ago. "She needs to buy some vital ingredients off Florean Fortescue for her Herbology lesson. Oh!" Her exclamation made me look towards her properly, but as I did, she was looking out towards the whole school. And all I saw was hundreds of thousands of eyes looking straight at me. In front of me was Albus, the man who saved me from going to where she was, in that other world…

"Welcome back from your winter break! Now we have had an unexpected teacher substitution," his voice was silvery soft and glided all around the hall, above the thousands of heads spread out in front of us. "Unfortunately Professor Slughorn has taken ill and went home where he has spoken to me and said that he would like to retire. Upon mentioning this, he recommended our new professor, Professor Snape." I stood up quickly and tried to smile at the glaring eyes. "Professor Snape's office and the Potions classroom shall be in the dungeons, next to the Slytherin Common Room, and he is the new Head of Slytherin. That is all for my welcoming message, but remember, do your House proud!"

People moved, getting ready for the day ahead, as they shuffled out of the Great Hall. I made my way back to the dungeons, inviting the cold back inside me, as I began my first day of teaching.