"Hi Ginny." he said, looking uncomfortable.
"Hullo, Harry." she responded, looking up.
"What's up?"
"Homework." she said.
"Oh, yeah. Um, hey, so I have a question." he said. "About..."
"Harry?" she asked, wondering why he was so pink, all of a sudden.
"Did you spend the night with Professor Snape?" he asked, quietly but the whole common room stopped to listen, frozen in time. Even Ron's wizarding Knight had stopped mid-blow.
"Oh, come one Harry, I've been in the infirmary." she said.
"Because Hannah said that you sometimes don't go to bed before late and you are his new apprentice, of sorts, and then we all saw him leaving the hospital wing so early and..."
"Harry Potter! You know what you can do with your rumors, your hurtful rumors? God, Harry, you of all people should be able to realize the sort of lies students spread about one another..." and suddenly she was yelling and there were tears spilling down her cheeks. Outside she was screaming that nothing was happening and inside she was whispering everybody knows! She just shook her head at everyone and gathered her things, fleeing the common room.
She felt the big, heavy key in her robe pocket. Snape wasn't away from the castle, he could be anywhere on Friday night like this. He didn't have classes in the morning. Should she risk it? She didn't care, at this point, who saw her marching angrily down to the dungeons. His classroom was empty, and when she pushed on the door to his offices, it was locked. Quietly, shuffling her bag around so nothing dropped, she inserted the key into the lock and felt the spring release. She was in.
The room was empty, and she was a little relieved. He had given her the key for specific nights and this really wasn't one of them. But the room was lit by a roaring fire in the stone fireplace and there were rugs covering the cold, stone floor. There were shelves of bottles containing ingredients, some of which she could recognize, others which were completely foreign to her. It must have been his private collection. There was a large, ornate, wooden desk stained black with carvings of snakes and snakes for the feet. Behind it was a large winged back chair in a pale green. Sometimes she forgot how – how Slytherin he truly was. There was another big chair in the corner next to an empty round table and this is where she deposited her things and sat down to work in peace. She was nearly complete when she heard his footsteps coming. She started to panic but there was nothing she could do. She had run the risk of him coming to his own office and now she had to wait and see if he would be angry, or not. He hardly even got angry at her and he did, after all, give her his key. She hadn't seen him since Dumbledore had led him away, and she had pretended to sleep. The door opened. She had forgotten to lock it.
"I do hope it's you, Miss Weasley, for if someone has broken into my office, they shall swiftly be expelled." she heard his voice before she saw his face.
"It's me, Professor." she said, a little too brightly. He was looking at her now with a sort of sad, soft gaze,
"You shouldn't be here." he said.
"I had no where else to go." she begged. "I – you sat with me all night."
"Yes."
"And then Dumbledore took you away and... and he knew, didn't he?"
"Yes." he said again. "He strongly cautioned me against... temptation." Snape said, moving to his desk and sitting down.
"I wanted to be here when you got back. I love to be here when you get back but I was ill and I couldn't... I never meant to worry you." she said, still curled in the big chair, her work all but forgotten.
"I thought that... well, no matter." he said.
"Thought that what, Professor?" she pried.
"I thought perhaps you were through with me." he said, looking into the fire.
"Never." she whispered. He looked down at his hands, his reflection in the window.
'I'm too old for you." he said. "I'm too old and you, you should go."
"Professor please, please." she said. "Let me stay." He stared at her, her red hair wild in the fire light, her face small and hopeful and so pretty. She was so pretty. But it was her brain, her precision, her dedication that he was in love with.
"In this room... there are rules. You are a student and I your teacher and we never, ever can forget that, do you understand me?" she nodded, suddenly fearful. He had such power. "But in this room, if you would like, you can be Virginia and I can be Severus and we will be friends." he offered.
"Friends." she repeated.
"Nothing more." he said and she nodded. For now.