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My little one helped with this chapter so if there are any random letters or numbers, that would be his doing, please let me know! Gotta love the help!
She sat down in the offered chair and folded her arms defensively, unsure of what to do with herself in the presence of the intimidating man. She tried not to let her shock show when he pulled up a chair and sat across from her, only giving about six inches of room between the two of them after he had sat down. He glared at her as if there close proximity was her idea and some of his hair fell in his face. She wanted to reach out and touch it to see if it was really greasy. She had always thought it was a protective oil put on it for the long days in the potions classroom fumes, but she knew he would not hesitate to kill her if she tried to touch him. She folded her hands in her lap instead.
"The headmaster has told me his thoughts on training you to control your magic. After a very lengthy discussion, I decided I would do as he asked and teach you how to force the magic out. However, if you try to practice this by yourself without my magic to ground you, I will stop teaching you. It is a dangerous skill to have, and I will only put the knowledge in the hands of the responsible and trustworthy." He said coolly watching for her reaction. She nodded hesitantly not sure if she could resist the temptation to perfect a skill such as this, but she knew she would have to agree for him to teach her. He sighed as if he could read her thoughts and rolled his eyes.
"I will make it a point to single you out and give you plenty of detentions. My master will only be too happy with my vindictiveness so as long as you assist me with some grading, I will endeavor to practice enough with you that you wont have any need to practice by yourself." He relented in a surprising show of humanity. She gave him a small smile.
"Thank you, I will be careful and do as you ask then." She said firmly glad when this seemed to convince him and he gave her a curt nod.
"Very well, everything that occurs here will stay here, Vegas rules apply." He said with slightly less of an edge than earlier. She smirked at the muggle reference.
"Of course, Vegas rules." She joked back feeling something flutter in her stomach when he actually smiled at her. It was the briefest of smiles, but it was something she never she thought she would see from the man. As soon as she saw it though, it was gone and his normally stoic demeanor was back.
"I will need to hold you hands for this. I will use my magic to help you pinpoint where the toxic energy is and will guide you in expelling it." He said in full teacher mode. She offered her hands and tried not to think when his long fingers curled around hers in a gesture that could have been considered intimate if not for the taboo of any sort of intimacy between them.
"Relax, close your eyes and focus." He ordered her firmly. She closed her eyes obediently and felt a rush of magic recognizing instantly it was his. It had a strange sense of familiarity and soothed her nerves in a way a calming draught never could. She felt the magic tingle under her skin moving along smoothly as if it belonged there. She sighed and relaxed letting the magic lead her senses and she quickly felt the room melt away.
Then it was only her magic and his darker magic that was skating on the outskirts of her magic. She could feel his energy pressed against hers and she tried to relax to let it into her core, but after what felt like only minutes, but what was actually hours, she found the magic still unable to get into her core.
"It's not working." She stated abruptly opening her eyes. He had his open already and was glaring down at her.
"Close your eyes." He snapped. She felt like fussing back, but relented and closed her eyes. This time when his magic traveled under her skin, it seemed superficial and it didn't send her into a pleasant trance like last time. She could still vividly feel his hands holding hers, and smell the crisp scent of potion ingredients that she had never noticed he carried around on him. She felt her thoughts change direction when his magic started to dig a little deeper trying to get past what she assumed was a magical shield, but this forceful contact only seemed to make her mind travel in far more treacherous directions.
"Can we be done?" She asked opening her eyes again and taking her hands back giving him no choice in the matter.
"It's not that difficult Ms. Granger, you just have to focus." Professor Snape snapped at her. She sighed and rubbed her forehead trying to force out the intruding thoughts that having his magic entwined with hers created.
"Well I think I'm all out of focusing power for today, so continuing won't do anything but drain my patience." She said irritability. He didn't respond, but stood up and sent the chair he had been sitting on flying back to the other side of the room.
"You should practice meditation, your mind is far too chaotic." He said going to a shelve and pulling off a thick book and handing it to her making sure there fingers didn't touch as if they hadn't just been holding hands for the last two hours.
"Read this, it will help."
"You were in my mind?" She asked horrified. He walked to his desk and sat down languidly in his black leather chair that tipped back when he sat in it, oblivious to her embarrassment. Or perhaps simply enjoying it.
"Not directly. I got the general gist of everything you were thinking, just without any specific words or images." He said leaning back in the chair looking far too pleased when she groaned and dropped her head in her hands.
"I will just go now." She said wishing she had never agreed to this. He smirked and waved her off.
"Yes, be off with you before your precious Potter and Weasley send out a search party." He said dismissing her. She gave him a glare, but couldn't hold any real ice in it when she saw how his black eyes sparkled when he was amused.
"Good night sir." She said leaving to face Harry, and perhaps even Ron, and the long drawn out completely nonsensical apologies they would give her.
She not not disappointed in the amount of apologies she received, but she was disappointed to see that Ron hadn't stayed up. She didn't even really feel like Harry had done anything besides defend her honor, so she was hardly angry with him. After he had flooded her with at least a dozen ways of saying 'I'm sorry' she finally grabbed him by the shoulders getting his attention.
"I said I'm not mad at you Harry, I know the Dursleys blamed everything on you, but I promise every bad event is not a direct result of something you did. Ron made his own decisions, and that is that." She said none too firmly. He looked up at her sadly, but after a moment he seemed to believe her because he gave her a smile.
"You sure?" He asked hesitantly without any mocking tone that normally would have accompanied the words. She grinned at him and gave him a hug adoring how sensitive he was even when he drove her insane.
"Yes, I'm sure Harry." She said squeezing him tightly knowing it would make him laugh, and she found she wasn't disappointed when she got him to chuckle at her over enthusiastic techniques.
"Where'd you stalk off too anyways?" He asked her curiously drawing back from the hug. She sighed knowing her lies would begin now.
"Well Professor gave me detention for skiving off detention." She admitted sitting down on the couch in the common room. Harry sat besides her and waved his wand at the fire making the flames grow a bit higher and help smooth out the chill in her bones that had started seeping through with the loss of Snape's magic around her.
"He's a complete git. You had been in the hospital wing only the day before and have a perfect attendance record." He said angrily as he wrapped his arm around her pulling her close to him. She snuggled into the embrace needing the comfort.
"Well, what's done is done. I can't change him. What are your plans for the holidays? Ron said Mrs. Weasley invited you for winter break, right?" She asked changing the subject away from bashing Snape. Harry was playing with her hair and curling it around his fingers absently. It was a habit he had only started since coming out to her and she suspected before that he was afraid she might have taken it the wrong way.
"Yes, but I think I will stay here. Ron and I haven't exactly been getting along lately." He said sadly. She looked up and gave him a rueful smile.
"It's amazing the difference between how much you guys have grown up. He's still a child, and you're quickly becoming an adult." She said meaning every word. He perked up slightly at her compliment.
"How are things with you and Draco?" She asked kindly. He actually smiled at this.
"He called me an irresistible incompetent gryffindor." He said sounding pleased at the insult. She chuckled.
"Coming from Draco that is practically the highest form of compliment. Has he made a move yet?" She asked knowing if he hadn't yet, he would definitely do so soon. Harry blushed, but shook his head.
"No, we were studying for the potions final together, and he was flirting though, so definitely progress." He said, not at all dissuaded by the slow moving baby steps they were taking. If he was one thing, it was determined.
She practiced her meditation without much success when she was in the safety of her bed. She knew her life depending on it, but she just couldn't stop thinking. She groaned realizing there was a theme with the intrusive thoughts. Snape's magic tingling under her skin, Snape's thick robes, Snape's long fingers clasped around her hands.
She flopped back on the bed giving up knowing Snape would not be pleased with her lack of promise. She was always the first one to conquer any spells, or a new potion. Always, as in without fail, and here she was unable to do a simple thing as stop thinking.
The next few days dragged on desperately slow and she had to wait to her next potion class to be assigned another detention since she hadn't seen professor Snape since their meeting.
When it was finally potion class, she knew by the loud bang he made when entering the room that a detention wouldn't be such a difficult thing to get considering the furious state the potions professor was in. He didn't bother lecturing them or anything, he simply waved his hand at the board letting instructions appear.
"Start." He barked at them, sitting down without another word. The class jumped into action, but she took her precious time trying to find a way to get a detention with him. She probably should head discretion and be good considering his mood, but she also couldn't help the strange desire to have his magic under her skin again.
"Do you know what the third line reads?" Harry whispered trying to squint in the fumes that were quickly filling up the room as the class attempted an amortentia potion, something they should have no issues with since it's basic components were easy, but a potion that they would undeniably fail because of it's specific instructions.
"You grind three liverwort together and mix it with the unicorn hairs before adding it." She said unable to read the board, but knowing the properties of the two ingredients by heart. Harry groaned.
"I already added the liverwort." He mumbled dejectedly. She gave him a sympathetic smile and mixed her two ingredients together correctly. She stole a glance at the potions professor, noting that everyone else was too scared to do so. He was leaning over his desk with his hands in his hair and looked completely stressed out. She frowned trying to think of what could cause such a reaction in the potions professor. He could have been called last night, but would it still be bothering it so much today? Surely he couldn't crumble everytime he was called away, the slytherins in the class would catch on and get it back to Voldemort for sure.
She reached for the vial of powdered moonstone, but in her distracted state her fingers missed the glass bottle and it fell to the stone floor, shattering into a thousand tiny pieces. Everyone in the room turned to her instantaneously, their own potions forgotten in their horror of the scene they knew was going to unfold. No one dropped something when the potions professor was in this bad of a mood. No one. Snape was by her desk in an instance, his weakness from earlier gone from his face and replaced by cold fury that made her cringe back in fear.
She gulped wondering if her untimely end would be sooner than she thought.
Teaser: She didn't know how to handle what he had told her. She had idealized him as the hero of the wizarding world, but she had never expected this to be part of his saving the wizarding world. She brushed the hair out of his face and met his dark troubled eyes with how own brown ones.
"It will be okay."