You had kissed.
When you had landed on your bed you were all hot, pent up frustration but as the night faded into the early morning you couldn't help worry. Severus had been on and off with his interests for weeks. Maybe you had just made a total fool of yourself by throwing yourself at an older colleague, a mentor for goodness sake.
Then your aggravation set in. You knew it was useless worrying. You also realised just how much of a desire Severus had become, which was wreckless considering his behaviours. When sleep didn't come you did as you always did; you read. But you knew no book in your room would tell you anything about the chamber of secrets. So you headed to the library and that's where you trawled for hours, coming up blank at every turn. It only worsened your frustration.
When the dark sky outside changed a lighter hue, you knew it was time to get back to your quarters. Trudging down into the cold dungeon, you huffed and saw your own breath. With everything witches and wizards could do, couldn't we put a bloody central heating system in?
As you rounded the corner to the hallway that housed your quarters, you saw a figure at your door and immediately grabbed for your wand, you pressed into the wall to hide yourself better and crept forward, your heart picking up it's pace as panic set in. Getting closer to your room you quickly realised it was Severus and let out a sigh of relief. Apparently, the petrification of Mrs Norris had made you jumpier than usual.
"You know people will gossip seeing you outside my door at this time in the morning, Professor Snape?" You called. You couldn't quite see his face from your distance but once you could you saw he looked concerned.
"What's happened now?" You asked, your concern matching Severus'. Had something happened whilst were you locked away in the restricted section of the library?
His words came out with aggravation but not aggression, "Where have you been? It's 6am!"
You frowned at him, "I was at the library, didn't realise that was a crime now, "opening the door you entered your room and left it open for Severus to follow. He didn't. You turned around, "Don't tell me Lockhart's vampire got you in the night and I have to invite you in now?" Pulling his hand, he entered. "There, you see, didn't melt or anything," you winked at him.
Scoffing and rolling his eyes at you he replied, "You do realise that's all muggle rubbish?"
The glare on your face told him you did, "Yes, I know but I can't help that I quite enjoyed The Lost Boys." Severus had no idea what you were talking about so you made a note to make him watch it with you one day.
"Did I dream last night?" He asked in sincerity and caution.
"Why would you say that?" You replied confused.
"You just seem awfully terse with me this morning." Oh. You winced, maybe you had been a bit snappy.
Stepping close to him you rubbed his forearm, "I'm sorry. I've...I've not slept yet." His brow creased and before he could say anything, you continued, "I'm okay, just restless. And anyway, you were quite terse yourself considering you were at my door on a Sunday morning at 6am." You poked his chest playfully.
"I was concerned...you weren't answering your door. Obviously!" He pulled a face at his own ridiculous statement and you couldn't help but smile. Severus Snape, you sly thing, hiding all this concern and kindness you had inside of you.
"Well I'm fine, I'm now going to collapse into bed, so don't expect to see me anywhere near the Great Hall at breakfast and probably not lunch either." You smiled tiredly at him, you thought you'd quite like to pull him to bed with you, to sleep next to him but that was probably a little too forward.
However, life had a crueller fate for you, "Ahh, 'fraid not. Emergency staff meeting. 20 minutes." Severus grimaced, clearly not in the mood for it either.
You groaned, sunk your head into his chest and mumbled some expletives about Dumbledore. Severus had obviously made out some of it and laughed, "And you call yourself a lady." He tutted in jest.
"Nope. Never have and probably never will. Sorry!" You shrugged your shoulders. "Okayyyyy, I better make myself look more presentable. Wait for me?" You asked shyly.
He nodded and smiled. And just like that the tension that you had let build about him over night was gone and you shuffled off tiredly into your bedroom, purposefully leaving your door open. You knew he wouldn't look but you thought you'd make him sweat a little.
The energy between you two felt different, a comfortable state but there was something there, a hesitation, an anticipation? Though he'd asked if last night had happened, neither of you made an effort to bring it up. You suspected that Severus had probably never had many relationships, if any; he was deeply private and seemed to lack interest in most people. A solitary soul.
Even though you were itching to pull him into the shadows you willed your self control to kick in, you had kissed him last night and yes he kissed back but you didn't want to keep pushing yourself onto him. So you spoke about the books you had come across last night in the library and how you were disappointed that your research had turned into a dead end. He had looked sympathetic.
Just managing to make it to the meeting on time you sat in Dumbledore's office, his Phoenix, Fawkes, was keeping a watchful eye over the group that had formed around the table in the middle of the room. He was a huge thing, beautiful but showing signs of ageing and just like Albus, the bird had an indistinguishable amount of wisdom in his eyes.
Dumbledore started the meeting while you were still sleepily staring at Fawkes, he discussed the events of last night and the plans going forward. He was trying to de-escalate any panic but the entire teaching staff knew this was going to cause issues with students and possibly parents. Nightly curfew checks were now going to be done in pairs and we were to be extra vigilant. As if we weren't already.
Tiredness had fully set into your whole body and much to Severus' amusement you couldn't help but yawn a few times. You tried to play them off as best you could but you don't think you fooled anyone. It's not like you'd been on a bender all night, you had been researching to try to help, so if anyone had a problem then you'd happily tell them about it. Godric, you're cranky. Please stop talking, Albus, for all of our sakes.
With heavy eyelids, the words of your colleagues were no longer being processed, but your eyes soon shot open when you felt a foot running up the outer side of your calf. Severus. Not that you would have known, he barely threw a glance your way as he continued talking, but there he was toying with you in front of the whole teaching staff. It lit a fire in your belly that definitely woke you up.
At the end of the meeting Dumbledore dealt another fatal blow to your day. All hands on deck at meal times today to deal with any frenzy over last night. Brilliant, absolutely perfect. Well, you were definitely going to fall to sleep into a bowl of porridge and that was probably how you were going to die. Oat related suffocation.
As with most of these meetings, Dumbledore asked Severus to stay behind, Minerva had grabbed you on the way to check if you were okay.
"You look dreadful, dear." She kindly pointed out. Charming.
"I haven't been to sleep yet, " you replied, to which she raised her eyebrow and you just rolled your eyes at her. You told her you needed to go back to your room before joining breakfast. Maybe you would trip and bump your head so you could take a concussion nap, but luck wasn't on your side this morning, so you didn't see it happening.
When you got back to your room you immediately flopped onto your bed with all the grace of a troll. You were just slipping into unconsciousness when there was a knock at your door. URGH.
Stomping over to the door you pulled it open with force and even seeing Severus didn't quite calm you down.
"Were you asleep?" He questioned, eyebrow raised.
"I would have been if you didn't knock the door." You said with a quiet intensity that you hoped conveyed you were not in the mood for his judgement.
"Ah, well you can thank me later then." He smugly quipped and you wanted to shut the door in his beautiful face.
"Don't make me pull my wand on you again," you said sternly. He raised his hands in mock surrender, - "and another thing, you were very distracting in the meeting. That was unfair!"
He looked confused, "What do you mean?"
You sighed, "No games, Severus, your little game of footsy under the table."
He looked even more confused. "I never did anything under the table."
"Wait, what? Then who was...LOCKHART. I'm going to kill him!" Your eyes widened. That dirty little pervert.
"As appealing as that sounds, I'm not following, y/n."
"I was falling to sleep in the meeting and a foot was you know?" You gestured to your leg and Severus raised his eyebrow at you again. He probably thought you were mad. The lack of sleep was not helping your thought process at all.
"It was rubbing up and down my calf...and, and I thought it was you. I didn't even look to see if it could be anyone else. I just thought it was you being, well, an arse! " You cringed.
Realisation hit Severus and his face quickly went from confused to annoyed. He pulled his wand out from under his cloak and went to storm off, you caught him, "I'll take care of this and if you think what I did to you was bad, wait until I get my hands on Lockhart, the sleaze."