Disclaimer: I just own the plotline, and Anna and Thomas, nothing more. Not even an apple anymore =(
Authors note: Thanks again to BinominalNomenclature for reviewing, and sorry to let you wait. Don't wait any longer, dig in! ( Yeah I know this isn't food, I just wanted to say it, and you're probably not even reading this anymore, and if you are, you probably didn't have to wait long enough) So this is probably going to be the last chapter, enjoy =)
The next day, Snape stood up earlier than normal. He quickly walked over to his desk, and found the flower still lying there. He let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. He watched the flower for a while, a small smile starting to form on his face.
When it was time to go down for breakfast, he reluctantly left his flower. When he was down, he saw professor McGonagall was already there. He sat down next to her, while helping himself to some toast. McGonagall looked up and asked: 'Are you sure you're feeling well? Normally you don't eat that much.'
She expected him to make a snide comment, because of everything she had heard from her students the other day. But, he said: 'Yes, I'm feeling particularly well actually, thank you. And how are you?'
She had no idea how to react. Was this really Severus? Instead of showing this she decided it was a good moment to ask about the complaints of her students yesterday.
'Yes, I'm fine,' she replied, 'but unfortunately I cannot say the same for everyone.'
'Is there something wrong? With whom?' Severus asked, and McGonagall couldn't help but notice that his face really showed concern.
'A couple of my students came to me yesterday, with some really strange stories. That you vanished someone's potion without reason, or gave someone detention for making a comment about an apple.' She was really curious how he would react, this Severus that really showed emotions.
'Ah yes, that was my fault. I'll talk to them myself about it, if you don't mind.' He said, and the corners of his mouth moved upwards a bit.
Professor McGonagall now really started to worry about him, and she had the urge to shake him by his shoulder and ask who he was and what he had done to Severus. She didn't do it however, she kind of liked the change.
They talked about random other subjects, and for the first time ever in her life, Minerva McGonagall thought of Severus as good company.
Next Monday, Anna and Thomas were dreading Potions.
'Nice start of the week we have, haven't we, An?' Thomas asked, when they were walking down to potions together.
'Yeah,' she replied, 'whose idea was it to give us potions on Monday morning? I really want to hurt that person, badly!' she said, looking downcast.
'Oh come on, you know you couldn't. Your way to nice for that.' Thomas joked, playfully punching his friend on the shoulder.
'Yeah, Right.'
When they reached the dungeons, a queue had already formed for the classroom. Then Snape came, his black robes billowing behind him like they always did. The class entered the room, and sat down where they usually did. When Snape addressed the class, however, it was nowhere near usual. He actually sounded nice! Snape! He helped the students whenever they needed help, every student, not just the slytherins, and didn't criticise them with everything that went wrong. At the end of the lesson, he even gave them less homework to do then normally! Okay, they still had homework to do, but it wasn't much, especially not compared to transfiguration.
The class left potions feeling surprised, and rumours were already spreading. Most of the people remembered Snape's reaction when asked whether he was in love or not, and were now definitely convinced that he was. But the question was of course: with whom?
Just when Anna and Thomas were about to head for transfiguration, Snape called them back. Thomas and Anna certainly didn't walk about last time they had met, and hoped that Snape felt the same way.
'You didn't tell anyone, I hope?' Snape asked. Anna and Thomas didn't know how fast they could say no.
'Good, but I need to ask you one more question before you go.' He said, when Thomas and Anna turned to leave, and some of the third-years were already filing up outside the classroom.
'How did you find out?'
This was the question they had been dreading, ever since they had said it. Oh god, this was going to be a long day.
Back in the common room, Neville was trying to make his DADA essay about vampires, but had no idea how to use garlic, and chose to ask Hermione. He walked over to the corner where she sat, and as always, her books covered several tables. She was also busy with the vampire essay, so he was lucky.
'Hey Hermione,' he started, but she wasn't too keen on company right then.
'What?' she snapped, immediately regretting it.
'Do you mind if I sit down?' Neville asked.
'No, of course not.' She replied. 'What are you doing?'
'I was trying to make my vampire essay, but I don't get the garlic part.'
'Oh, that's easy, there are four different ways to use it. You can make them eat it, or burn it, so they can't come through the smoke, or just keep it with you, raw, and they won't come near you, or boil it with basil and parsley, and they won't be able to touch that, it burns them. Do you get it?'
'Er ..., yeah I think so. But can you repeat it?'
And so Hermione did, and Neville ended up having the highest grade yet in all time, except for herbology. They made homework together more often after that, and Neville got better in all his courses quite fast. He also was more self-assure, and braver, ever since his encounter with Snape. Two years later, Neville and Hermione were the cutest couple in Hogwarts.
For Anna and Thomas, they had to explain something to Snape before they were two years older. At the end of potions they had said that they really had to go to transfiguration, but they were now really nervous about tonight.
When they were done with their homework, they started the walk down to the dungeons, taking as much time as they could. Reaching Snape's office, neither Thomas nor Anna wanted to knock. They didn't have to however. Before they had decided who was going to knock, Snape had already opened the door, and ushered them inside. He told them to sit down on two chairs, facing his desk. Snape himself sat down opposite them, on the only remaining chair.
'Is there something you would like to tell me?' Snape asked, sounding a bit more like himself than he did that morning. Thomas and Anna didn't want to tell him anything, but knew they had to at some point. So Thomas started his story:
'Well, you see, some people in Gryffindor have divination...'
'That's where you can predict the future' Anna explained, but for some reason she reckoned that Snape already knew that.
'And, well, someone saw you kissing an apple, while looking really strange...'
'You know, like I'm-in-love-so-I-act-weird strange. And well, we just had to know.'
'So that's why we asked. We actually expected it to be a joke.'
'But we figured out it was the truth, it had to be, because you were really err,'
'Acting strange' Thomas finished his story.
Snape was looking from one to the other, trying to let it all sink in. He had to talk to Sybil, but not now.
'And can I ask you who saw it? And when?'
'We first heard about it on Friday,' Anna said, 'and we have no idea who said it. We just heard it from someone who heard it from another and so on.'
A long moment went, in which no one said something, until-
'Very well, you are excused.' Snape finally said.
Anna and Thomas were glad to leave, and wondered why he didn't ask further, why he hadn't known that they lied about not knowing who saw it. But they could never betray Neville, not now he had managed to change Snape in a positive way, afraid that he might fall back on bullying Neville again. Neville was their silently worshipped hero, because he had done the impossible. He had made Snape smile.
Thanks a lot for reading, and if you liked it (or didn't or feel neutral, or love chocolate) please review! If you want another story with Anna and/or Thomas, or a Hermione/ Neville story, or another story at all, feel free to pm me, or leave a review. Yes, I take (most) challenges!
