Disclaimer- All the characters belong to JKR. I don't own them or the tittle I based the story on. Don't sue me.
A/N : This fic is based on a beautiful story from one of my favorite movies called "The Love Letter" which was based on a short story by Jack Finney. I don't know if many of you are familiar with the movie, it's a Hallmark movie. I shaped the story into Harry Potter's world, and of course it changed a lot of things. I hope you enjoy it, for this is a pure love story.
-THE LOVE LETTER
CHAPTER ONE
It was the beginning of Summer and Hogwarts looked beautiful, the warm sunny weather spread a wave of good mood on everyone around. Birds were singing and a soft summer breeze blew constantly producing a pleasant chill on the warm day.
Snape was in a real good mood, but it wasn't because of the weather, he did not like the Summer very much. It was the fact that the Summer freed him from the annoyance of students and he could go about his own business without being disturbed.
He strolled away from the green house, having been there to fetch some herbs for his potions and closed his eyes thankfully as the breeze blew the strands of black hair out of his face.
When he finally reached the castle, he was happy to go back into the dungeon where it was cool and pleasant at this time of the year.
He worked on his lab for hours, concentrated in his work, when he realized it was past dinner time. He would probably have to ask a house elf to bring him something to eat.
He cleaned up and put away the vials and cauldron and went to his bedroom to take a shower before he could have dinner. He sat on the dark leather chair near the fireplace and started pulling off his boots. The fireplace suddenly lit up with green flames and Dumbledore's head popped out.
"Hello Albus, something wrong?" asked Snape while busy pulling the other boot off.
"No, nothing wrong Severus, I didn't see you at dinner and was wondering if everything was alright," said Dumbledore gazing at him over his spectacles.
"Oh, everything is fine, I just got carried away with my work and forgot about the time." Snape finally looked at the old man.
"Well then, hope to see you tomorrow at breakfast and .... don't work too hard Severus, this is supposed to be the summer holidays." Dumbledore nodded and disappeared before Snape could reply.
The fire that was left burning in the fireplace after Dumbledore' s head disappeared got higher and smoke started to fill the room. Snape quickly grabbed his wand and said, "Evanesco!" making the fire and smoke vanish.
Curious, Snape bent down and on his knees tried to see what had blocked the smoke from going up the chimney. There was obviously something in the way.
He reached his hand up and could feel something like a metal box in between the bricks, it seemed like it was placed there and for some reason it had fallen sideways, blocking the chimney.
He pulled the box down and sat on the floor to examine it. It was a black metal box, in the shape of a small trunk, like the ones used to store letters. The box was a little bit rusted and also dirty because of the smoke.
Snape wiped the black dust from its surface and put it down in front of him, he took his wand out of his robe and waved over it to see if there were any spells or curses in it.He could never be too careful, being an ex-death eater had developed a paranoid behavior on him that was hard to lose.
When he made sure it was safe, he opened it. Inside he found what looked like letters, but these were different ones. They weren't in parchment and the ink didn't look like something that was written with a quill. He thought for a moment and realized he had seen that before, it was muggle paper... muggle letters. He took one of them and looked at the back of the envelope. It wasn't addressed to anyone, and there were several of them, neatly stocked on top the others, next to something Snape thought was a muggle artifact used for writing.
"What was the name of it...pen.. a fountain pen." he said to himself, remembering seeing one just like it, in possession of a Hufflepuff muggle-born student the other day. He frowned and studied the object with curious eyes for a while, than placed it back in the box, returning his curiosity to the letters. He carefully opened the envelope, retrieving the letter and scanning the whole thing first, looking at the signed name at the bottom.
"Liv," he read and retuning to the top of the letter, he saw the paper was personalized. Right on the top left corner, it read "Lavinia Lewis" in golden letters. He paused thinking about the name. He had never heard it before, but it was very beautiful and it had a pleasant sound to it.
He leaned back, resting his back and head on the bottom of the leather chair and spread his legs comfortably. The letter read,
""" March 21st
Dearest,
It's after midnight and I am at last free to speak with you.
My husband has finally left for his night shift, after a whole day-off and I am, once more, alone with my thoughts. I know I shouldn't be longing for you as much as I am, when my duty is to be a good wife to the man I chose to marry.
But not being perfect, and that's an understatement, I've made the wrong choices in life and now I have to face the consequences of my impulsive behavior.
The right thing to do, would be to direct my thoughts to my home and our goals... but you are the one who occupies my thoughts, even though you're not real. I speak with you in my mind and heart...
You are more dear to me than the man I share my bed and my life with. I ache for a love that burns like fire. And all I have is the cold disinterest and occasional satisfaction that only suits him, leaving me in the want for more.
If only, you existed outside my mind...
Good night sweet heart, dream of me...
Liv. """
Snape chuckled softly at the end of it. He never gave much thought to this kind of sentimentalism and silly demonstrations of affection, but this was an unusual letter. He couldn't help but feeling sorry for this woman... she must have been so lonely, writing a letter for an imaginary man. And there was so much passion in her words, one would wonder that this imaginary man was almost real.
He knew what loneliness meant and how sometimes it felt overwhelming even for him. He didn't enjoy the company of most people, but it didn't mean that he wouldn't miss the company of someone he could care about. Someone who could complete him in ways no one else could.
But for a man like him, it was a waste of time to be musing about these things. It was, in fact, too late to wonder about his soul mate. "If there is such a thing!" he whispered to himself.
He placed the letter back in the box and sank his face on his hands, rubbing his eyes and with a sigh, he decided to head for his shower. It was late and he was tired. He would look at the other letters later.
He stopped a moment and contemplated the contents of the box.
The letters and pen were relatively new, it didn't seem like something that was stored there ages ago. And yet he's been occupying that bedroom for many years now. She hadn't written the complete date, so he didn't know what year, but he had a feeling that they weren't so old... so how would they end up there in his fireplace?
She was probably a muggle, judging by the material used, so how...
With those questions in his mind he closed the box and left it on the coffee table of his waiting room. Tomorrow he would take a better look.
Today, he needed rest.
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