For the past 3 weeks, Severus Snape's heart was in a war with itself. For the past 3 weeks Severus had been thinking of some way, ANY way of getting the love of his life back. And for the past 3 weeks he had noticed how happy Crysta seemed when she was with Sirius. A sudden voice cut into his thoughts.
"Severus, I don't think this is healthy. You really have to get over that girl."
"I can't help it, Minerva. I love her." Severus replied.
Professor McGonagall watched Snape as he gazed longingly at Crysta and Sirius at the other end of the teacher's table. He watched as Sirius whispered something into Crysta's ear, and he watched her double over with laughter. He remembered all to well when it was him in Sirius's place. He used to think that nothing could tear them apart. They had even been engaged. But then, he had noticed that she became edgy when the news of Sirius's breakout from Azkaban. He thought she was just afraid of him like everyone else. But after a while he could tell it was something else. And then he showed up. After his name was cleared, no one had anything to fear from him. Everyone knew now that Peter Pettigrew was guilty and Sirius was totally innocent. And it seemed like in a split second, she was torn from him and he was replaced by Sirius. He would never forgive Sirius for that. Even if he hated Sirius in school, the hatred had doubled since then.
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"Are you ok?" Her voice is like an angel's he thought to himself as he turned to her. At his silence she pressed on. "What's wrong? Please, Severus, talk to me." Crysta pleaded.
"Do you really wanna know the truth, Crysta?" Severus asked her.
"Yes." She replied.
"I really miss you." He said, hoping she wouldn't blow up on him.
"Severus, I-I miss you too." Crysta said, almost in a whisper.
There was a long silence and Crysta finally spoke.
"Look, I know I'm with Sirius now and I really do l-love him." She stuttered at the end at the sign of Severus's flinch. "But I'll always have a special place for you in my heart."
"I love you Crysta." Severus said, not even caring if she got mad at him.
"Oh Severus. I really do care about you. I just don't…love you anymore. I'm so sorry." Crysta choked back.
"Are you happy with him?" Severus asked suddenly.
"Y-Yes. And he really loves me." Crysta said.
"Well then I won't interfere. If you're happy, then I-I'm happy." Severus said.
"Thank you Severus." Crysta said, hugging him gently.
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"Hey darlin'." His gentle voice woke her.
"Hey," she replied sleepily.
"Wake up, sleeping beauty." Sirius said.
"Why, what's going on." Crysta asked him.
"Ummm, breakfast in the Great Hall." Sirius told her.
"Well, duh! You goof!" Crysta said, fully awake now. "You acted like it was something important." She stopped to look at him and noticed that he was looking at her strange. "What?" She asked defiantly.
"Nothing." He said, dropping his serious matter and began smiling uncontrollably.
"Now what's wrong with you. Why are you so happy?" Crysta asked.
"You woke up this morning, didn't you?" He asked her.
She laughed a little. It was impossible for her to laugh a lot because he pulled him in for a kiss before going down to breakfast with the rest of the school.
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In the Great Hall all the students were chattering like normal while eating breakfast. Dumbledore had set up a new program at the school where those who really wanted to could stay at Hogwart's over the summer (Harry especially. ANYTHING to get away from the Dursleys). Therefore, the amount of students in the Great Hall that morning for breakfast was quite a bit smaller than normal. However, there still was about half of the students from each House remaining for the summer. Ron and Hermione agreed to go home for the first month of summer to spend time with they're families and spend the second month at Hogwart's with Harry. That morning, everyone at the teacher's table was in an odd mood, all except Snape. It seemed that they all knew something that he didn't. All this was confirmed, though, when Sirius stood up after they golden plates cleared themselves and left sparkling clean. Everything went silent. Even Malfoy stopped talking to his clown buddies to see what was going on. After everything was completely silent, Sirius turned to Crysta.
"Crysta, I don't know if you knew this, but wondered why I never went mad in Azkaban…" Everyone flinched when he said the name of the dreadful prison. "It was you. The simple thought of you kept me going." Crysta blushed a little at his statement. She was also very confused why he was saying this in front of the whole school. "I've been waiting 12 years to ask you this. I was going to ask you back when we graduated here from Hogwart's but I was afraid that something would happen. It's a good thing I didn't ask you."
"It musta been one hell of a question if he remembered it for 12 years." Malfoy sniggered to his buddies Tweetle-e-dee and Tweetle-e-dum.
"Crysta, will you marry me?" Sirius asked without hesitation.
Everyone in the hall gasped and fell silent once more. Crysta looked around, thoroughly shocked and finally regained herself.
"Yes," She answered.
Everyone in the hall erupted into wild applause (the loudest people being Harry, Hermione, and Ron screaming "Way to go Sirius!!!!!!!). And, to everyone's surprise, Snape even clapped quite hard. Everyone knew that Crysta and Snape had been engaged. They all thought he'd be furious. But, even though no one understood why, he wasn't. Well, everyone except Crysta. She understood because of their conversation that they had had that day. He knew she was happy and that was good enough for him. Just as Sirius took Crysta in his arms, kissed her, and slipped a gorgeous ring on her finger, Severus caught Crysta's eye. She smiled at him and he just winked at her. He knew she would be happy, and finally, his heart was at peace.
