He sat at his desk feeling time trickle by slowly, counting in his head the time left until she would return her work to him completed correctly. He twiddled the piece of parchment in his hand, slowly stroking the neatly drawn wolf on it. At the sound of heels in the corridor, he replaced it hastily in his drawer; he sat up as she opened the door and he pushed his hair back from his face and met her gaze.

He stood up as she approached the desk, cursing himself for such a display of formality to a student.

She handed him back two pieces of parchment with the completed essay on wolfs bane and dipped her head to him. She started walking backwards as he studied it and turned to walk out of the room. He turned to the next page when a small slip of parchment fell out, this time two wolves where drawn on it, one he recognized as the one she had drawn him before, the other bore a striking resemblance to her. They where both smiling and the one that looked like him was looking at the one that looked like her, whilst she looked away but with one ear centered on him.

"Such beautiful drawings Miss Valentine, why do you waste them on me?" He said, not a hint of questioning in his voice, as if he felt that this drawing was meant to mean nothing to him, that he would never mean anything to her.

She turned around slowly and met his gaze and he stepped towards her.

"I don't know Professor; I don't believe I could honestly tell you."

He held her gaze until she looked away, her hair sweeping across her face, hiding her expression.

"I know something is on the verge of happening. But is it simple fool's error, or something more." He kept his gaze upon her until she looked up and then stepped towards her once more.

"I think, Sir, we shall have to see." She stepped forwards lightly and touched her hand to his, only briefly, but enough to leave his skin tingling where she had touched him.

"How long had you noticed me looking?" His eyes were gentle on hers, his voice no more than a whisper.

"Since the first time you came into one of my other classes."

"How long have you been looking back?" He heard her breath catch in her throat.

"Since before I caught you looking, Sir." She met his gaze with blazing eyes, her cheeks flushed as if she couldn't believe she had just said that.

"Why?"

"Something about you stays with me after seeing you, I used to brush it away, but I can't help thinking you are worth stealing glances at."

"You took the answer straight out of my mouth." He touched his hand to hers, just resting his fingers on hers.

She kept her eyes fixed on him and leaned forwards slightly. He leant down slowly to touch his lips to hers, just brushing them gently, taking in her sweet breath before standing back up.

"You'd best get back to your friends Miss Valentine, they will be missing you."

"Yes, Severus." She let a smile play across her lips as she spun round and ran from the room, opening the door quickly and hurrying down the corridor.

Snape stood there for a while replaying over and over in his head what he had just done.

What had he just done?

He touched his fingers to his lips and sighed, why must he barter his everything on a girl much too young for him, a girl who should be with one of the many handsome young men chasing after her.

She had been looking at him since before she noticed he was looking at her, did she really mean that? Why would she ever look at a man like him?

Maybe it was a joke, but he knew it wasn't, the seriousness in her eyes burned into him still.

He went back to his desk and sat down, looking at the picture of the two wolves, marvelling at how she captured the human expressions perfectly.

He sat there in silence for a while, wishing he could take back what he had done, but all then while feeling his spirits lifted because he had done it.