Chapter 8 - Seven Years Difference, You Foolish Gryffindor
Severus's POV
I can't think of a single thing to add together to make a potion to help blindness. I want to help her, I really do, but it looks like I'm going to have to go back to the books of potions and spells.
I don't want to hurt her any worse than she already is of course, but spells can be dangerous, as can certain potions ingredients. At noon I give up and go back to the den and sit down. Danielle is feeling the walls for some reason.
"What are you doing?" I ask. I don't like people touching my things.
"Trying to get a look at this place. You have A LOT of books," she says, seeming impressed. "What are their genres?"
"There's a little of everything," I say honestly. "This place is decrepit in case you can't feel that."
"I already had that figured out. The furniture is threadbare, and the wallpaper feels like parchment."
"It's not in very good condition," I say soulfully. "I've lived here all my life." I say this part without any happiness, and I think she catches it, but doesn't say anything.
"You really should dust," she says instead. She feels around the rest of the walls and goes to the couch, plopping down without looking again, but I'm not sitting there. "I take it you're not having any luck with miracle potions?"
"No," I say simply.
She sighs. "About last night…"
Things are going to get awkward again…
"Ms. Thorne, it is best to live in the present, not the past."
She is silent and just when I think that that was the end of the conversation, she blurts, "I know you're a teacher, and there's like a fairly large age difference—"
I cut her off, "7 years."
"That's not always so much," she adds, then hesitates before going on, "But I like being with you."
"Not just because you want me to find a cure for your blindness?"
"Not really that at all. I like you for YOU, Severus. I've only known you for 2 years, this next being the third, but in the past few days, I've gotten to know you a lot better."
"You know nothing about me," I state simply. She doesn't know my past. She doesn't know anything.
"I know that you like black coffee with your breakfast, you're not a greasy git, you don't sleep in a coffin, but rather in a soft bed. You live on Spinner's End in a house you've lived in your entire life that, while decrepit, is still a home."
"You know nothing of my past," I growl.
"Because you haven't told me!" she argues. "You know nothing of mine either."
"Your parents are dead, you're 16, blind, a Gryffindor, you have your own home awaiting you, and you don't need me!" I yell, getting to my feet angrily and pacing.
"You're 23, a Slytherin, a Potions Master, you can see, you have your own home, mule-headed, and you get as ticked as a dragon on occasion, and hand out detentions more than any other teacher in the history of Hogwarts, but the difference is that you need me!"
"I. Don't. Need. ANYONE!" I growl, teeth clenched, and getting up in her face.
Danielle's POV
I can't see his rage, but I know it's there. I start to back down because he can do anything he wants to me over the summer and Dumbledore probably wouldn't know, and he's right; I don't really know him. But he doesn't know me either and he hasn't pushed me away until now.
"Last night you told me you would guide me through the darkness…was I wrong to believe you?" I question quietly.
He is silent for a long time. I hear him sigh. He doesn't know what to say. He sits down beside me instead. I wish I could see him. I pray that one day I will.
"Yes," he croaks out. "You were wrong to believe me, you foolish Gryffindor."
"I don't think so," I whisper, sensing Severus is not only lying to me, but to himself.
"Why can't you just leave me be?" he asks me. "This can't go anywhere."
"Seven years really isn't so much…" I trail. I'm being honest; I've known of a lot larger age differences.
"I am a teacher; you are a student. I could get fired for showing the slightest affection towards you."
"Dumbledore wouldn't fire you for actually liking a Gryffindor. How would he even know unless you told him?"
"Why do you insist on this? Why do you like the Greasy Git?"
"You are NOT a Greasy Git; how many times do I have to tell you that? We're both people without families, and I'm going to be staying here for 10 weeks. Surely Dumbledore expected something to happen."
"That's it! He planned this all along, that conniving old wizard!" Snape exclaims suddenly. "I'm going to write to him and give him a piece of my mind."
"What? What are you talking about? He couldn't have planned this."
"Of course he could! He could have sent you to live with one of the other teachers, but he picked me, of all."
"Because he must trust you."
"He trusts McGonagall too, along with several other staff members."
"Severus, are you looking at me?" I ask.
"Yes," he says hesitantly.
"I don't CARE if Dumbledore planned this, why do you?"
"You don't know my past, my present, or my future. You're in danger by living with me."
"Then why don't you tell me?" I ask quietly.
He's silent again, probably searching my eyes for an answer, but there's nothing there.
I hope this doesn't classify as a cliffie, haha. Thanks for the reviews, views, favorites, follows, and remember to keep it up! I'd love to know what you think so far, not just about the story, but about how I portray Severus, and if you like Danielle or not. Honestly, I created her, and sometimes I don't like her attitude. :/ So I doubt you could offend me by saying you hate her, or saying Severus is too out of canon. I could never do him justice anyways. I've tried many times and changed little things a hundred times in my drafts to make him seem more snarky, in a snit, and well, Snapish.
AND REMEMBER TO RATE AND REVIEW! I LOVE REVIEWS AND WILL PROBABLY RESPOND!
