A/N: Dedicated to my beta Azzie(Inkfire) for looking this over for me! :D
Learning to Love:
Chapter Eight: Sharing Painful Memories: 1:
"What about me?" Severus asked, confused.
"I've talked enough." Rose replied pointedly.
If I'm going to trust him, I need to know he trusts me.
That made sense. Severus internally cursed himself for not seeing this coming. She was intelligent enough to pull something like this.
"It's not a happy story."
"I figured." She paused. "You're always quiet." He looked up, startled. She saw past my mask even before this bond?
Rose nodded. "I knew you were like me. Every time you gave someone detention, there was a reason, and it was fair. Maybe not in terms of what they did then, but everything they do to you and your house outside of class. Forcing them to tolerate you should have taught them against discrimination. But it hasn't, not yet." She looked up and met his gaze. "I could see the way you stared off into space when everyone else thought you were spying on us. I saw the way you never ate much, and always hid in the shadows, like someone would attack you at any moment. I see the way Professor Dumbledore looks out for and defends you. I'm not blind. If he cares for you that much, surely you have some good in you."
Severus sat there, dumbfounded. This girl...was something else.
I loved you before the bond. His eyes widened, and he shot her a look. She was staring into the fire, lost in thoughts that, for once, he couldn't hear.
Sighing, he leaned back. "You're right. I'm a half-blood. My father didn't know my mother was a witch until after they were married and she had me. My accidental magic was what revealed her secret. Always, after that, he hated us. We weren't exactly well off to begin with, not on our own. But my mother was descended from a noble family, and her parents paid for everything. My mother told me once that back then, we lived with her family. I was too little to remember when my father found out about our magic, but that night he packed us up and moved us out to Spinner's End. He forbade my mother from contacting the wizarding world, and we lost everything but one run-down house and each other. My father went into drinking and never held a job for long. He took his anger out on us."
Rose listened quietly, shielding her thoughts and judgments from him until he finished. He could see tears in her eyes and knew it was affecting her. Hesitantly, he reached out and touched her shoulder, resting his hand there. She didn't react, but he felt a sense of peace coming from her, and he slipped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her against his side. She trusted him enough now to allow it, leaning against him without a word.
