Prologue
Hermione Granger opened the door slowly and dropped the invisibility-cloak down on the floor without any sound. Thanks God the room was empty. Her steps echoed quietly when she headed to the balcony. She went as far she could come and climbed up on the rail.
Her eyes lifted to the moon which was half-covered by clouds. This was the last time she would see it, she thought, while a tear dropped from her eyes and landed on the floor. She allowed her eyes to gaze at the grounds one last time before she closed her eyes and was ready to take her life's last step. The step to death.
All of a
sudden two strong arms carried her down on the balcony. She opened
her eyes and found Professor Severus Snape standing in front of her.
"Why?" she asked angrily. This wasn't time for rescue. She
didn't want to be rescued.
"What the hell are you doing at the rail this time at night? You could have died if you'd take one more step." Severus snorted.
"Idiot. That was the point." The respect she usually had for teachers was gone.
"Don't you dare call me that again. Five points from Gryffindor for insulting a teacher. This isn't the right moment for you to commit suicide. I can assure you that there still are people who want you alive, Miss Granger. Don't you think?" He went inside again and sat down on a chair, in the dark classroom, which usually was used for the education of astronomy.
Hermione followed him inside and sat down next to Severus.
"What made you to those thoughts, Hermione?" Severus asked contemplative. Poor little girl. Thinking of suicide when you're 16 is bad, really bad. She doesn't deserve such a bad life. For the first time Snape felt compassion for a student. And why on earth had he called her by her given name?
"None of your business, Sir." She broke their eye-contact and glanced on the door behind him.
"Miss Granger?" He tried to get eye-contact with her but she refused to. "Please look at me?"
The Professor put his hand on her shoulder and she turned her eyes to him.
"Just leave me alone." She mumbled.
"I can't, Miss Granger. It's one of a teacher's duties to talk to students if they've problems, like you seem to have." She nodded and blinked away some tears. "You don't have to tell me anything. But, promise me that you won't try to commit suicide again, all right?" Severus said certainly and frowned.
Hermione nodded again and sighed.
"You won't tell anyone, will you?" She asked insecurely.
"I
won't. You ought to go back to bed now. Time's already four a.m.
The fact that you are a school-prefect doesn't mean that you don't
have to be in your dormitory at night, as I'm sure you know."
Severus thought for a second what he would say next. "And. Um If
there's anything you wanna talk about; you can always tell me. You
know that?"
"Yeah. Thank you, Sir." Hermione didn't make
any move; she just sat there ready to cry in any minute. She did even
feel that sad she didn't even notice Severus, her potions Master,
was actually being nice to her.
"Hermione? You haven't got raped, have you?" He raised his eyebrows. Whoa, Snape was actually worried about a student. Sensation!
"Nah. I'm fine thank you."
"Good. Go get some sleep now, before I'll deduct points from Gryffindor. I'd like to have a talk to you tomorrow in my office at lunchtime, Miss Granger."
"Okay, Sir. I'll be there." Hermione nodded and smiled a forced smile.
"Goodnight, Her... Um, Miss Granger." He squeezed her shoulder and left Hermione alone with her thoughts.
