That man was absolutely infuriating! Kaira stomped around her rooms, too angry to sleep. When you took someone out for dinner, you didn't just ignore them!
"Accio book!" she snarled, and the book she had chosen flew into her arms a little too enthusiastically. She cursed and opened it at a random page. She often did this when upset – reading a passage on her favourite subjects helped her calm down and feel happier. The top lines of the page read:
'But Horatio was complacent and this allowed the dark wizard to get the upper hand when...' She slammed the book closed in disgust and charmed it back onto the bookcase.
The dinner had not gone well. Snape had pretty much ignored her for the whole evening, and when she had attempted to start a conversation, he had silenced her with a cutting and snide comment. After a few attempts, she had given up and ate her meal in silence. The muggle waiters tried to help, offering her more drinks, extra food, puddings (not approaching Severus, of course), but they couldn't help.
The problem was, she had expected too much. She had expected Severus to suddenly turn into a normal, nice person. That wasn't going to happen, not even if he was desperately in love with her (and of course he wasn't even remotely in love with her, as he had demonstrated that night). Severus was just not that kind of person. She should just give up now and leave him alone, as that was clearly what he wanted.
But if that was what he wanted, why had he asked her to eat with him at all?
Snape sat at his desk. The evening had not been totally wasted – he had managed to get her to walk out of Hogwarts with him at night, not knowing where she was going. If she did it once, she would do it again, on the night when he was to hand her over.
He put his head in his hands. He didn't feel as if he could go through with this. He had felt it at the restaurant, and had tried to shut her out. He didn't want to lead her on any further. He didn't want to betray the one person he c... didn't loathe.
He couldn't think of any alternative, though, and the date Voldemort had set was approaching fast.
The next day, Kaira was still in an angry mood, as many of her students discovered. The slightest hint of disobedience or of not having read the texts she had set, and the house points were deducted as swiftly as in Snape's class. She taught all of her classes that day in the same way. She would lecture while the class took notes, and then they would read in silence. She would then test random people in the last few minutes of the lesson.
The students had soon realised that her patience was extremely thin, and passed it on to their fellows, so she mostly had very well behaved children in her classroom. And those that weren't extremely well behaved managed to lose large numbers of points.
At lunch, even Sprout sensed that something was wrong.
"Are you alright, Kaira?" she asked.
"Fine," she replied, shortly.
"You don't seem fine to me. I've been hearing students complaining that you're in a really bad mood and warning others to be careful. That doesn't sound like you."
"I'm just having a bad day. I have a headache." This much was true. Being angry always gave her a headache.
"Do you want us to cover your classes while you have a lie down?" Sprout suggested, gently.
"No. It's not that bad, and it won't hurt the students to be quiet for once."
Snape noticed that Kaira was very angry about something, and thought he probably knew what it was. He would have to make it up to her before the chosen night. And that left him precious little time. He would have to concoct some story about why he had been short with her and hadn't wanted to talk. If he could convince her of that, she might forgive him. She had better forgive him, or else it was quite possible both their lives could be forfeit. It occurred to him that his minor lapse into having a conscience could not have come at a worse time. It was obviously overrated as a quality.
Kaira kept trying not to look at Snape, but his presence kept drawing her eyes towards him. He was sitting in silence. At least the teachers knew not to bother him if he didn't want to be bothered. Why had he done that to her? She had thought that they were becoming friends. If Snape could have such a thing as a friend. But he had made it clear that he didn't think that they were becoming friends.
He seemed quiet and subdued. She wondered why. What could be upsetting him? He of no earthly attachments or human relationships? Maybe there was something more here.
Snape felt her eyes on him, and they were distinctly unfriendly. He had better tread carefully. He finished his meal and excused himself, going down to the dungeons and picking up his quill.
When Kaira returned to her classroom she found Amber sitting on her desk. She had a scroll attached to her leg and looked smug.
"What have you got there?" Kaira asked, smiling. The owl hooted cheerily. Kaira took the scroll to find a letter from Snape. She was tempted to screw it up and throw it on the fire, but hesitated. If he had taken the trouble to write a note to her, then he must have something he wanted to say. But why had he written it? Could he not be bothered to come and speak to her? She gave up and started to read.
"Kaira,
I regret that I did not pay you the attention you deserve last night. I can understand that you are angry with me. I was preoccupied with a matter of my master, and could not bring myself to talk with you about it. I do not want to intrude any more, as I am sure you understand.
Regards
S. Snape"
So that was it. Severus had seen the Dark Lord. No wonder he had been preoccupied! She wondered if she could have been so composed. He hadn't wanted to worry her, obviously. He perhaps wasn't the inhuman brute she had thought. And she would have to set him right – she was not going to reject him because he had to deal with Voldemort! He was doing a vital task and should be applauded for it, not condemned.
Snape had been quite pleased with the note. If he knew her as well as well as he thought he did, she would use it as an excuse to explain away his behaviour. It had not taken much to persuade her that her father was single-handedly responsibly for his becoming a Death Eater, and that had been accidental. The right words could easily persuade her that he was only trying to protect her from that side of his life and that he was actually being noble in deciding not to see her again.