"What makes you think you know me?" Snape said after several silent moments. It was Roxanna's turn to raise an eyebrow.
"Please. I know what your students think of you. I heard them while I laid in that bed in the hospital wing. They all believe you favor Slytherins only and for what I heard, their right." Roxanna stood. "Besides a few minutes ago you didn't seem so interested in revealing why the hell you wanted to know about my problem, or why you were so interested in being nice to me. Do you think that if you show me a little bit of kindness I am going to screw you into the next century?"
Roxanna was angry now. She stood and started pacing in front of Snape, aiming her insults at him.
"Do you think I am some sort of little orphan whore who will fuck the first man I see for a few coins? Well you know what? Fuck you!"
Roxanna walked passed Snape and out of the sitting room and into a dark hallway back to his office and out of his quarters. She was in the doorway when the same dizziness from before took her over.
She fell backwards waiting for impact with the floor, but it never came. Instead she fell into a hard body with strong arms. The next thing she knew, both she and Snape were on the ground, she was in his lap being cradled in his arms. He was looking down at her with his intense eyes.
Roxanna instantly felt her breath quicken and her heart start to pound in her chest. She wanted out of his arms yet couldn't find the strength to fight it. His eyes were like two dark orbs. She lifted her hand up and touched his cheek under his eye. His hands gripped her tighter and she gasped. Snape was looking down at this beautiful young girl and never wanted to let her go, but knew that he must. He loosened his grip and stood, pulling her up with him.
"I don't think you can be bought," he said. "You are far too strong willed for that." He walked away from her and stood by the fireplace in front of the two emerald chairs. He placed his hands on the mantle and closed his eyes.
Roxanna just stayed where she was. She was staring at the floor with her hands hanging at her sides. Neither one moved for several minutes. Finally Snape broke the silence.
"I'll tell you why I want to help you," he said. Roxanna looked up at his back.
Snape could feel her eyes on him, but he didn't dare look at her. She would never really understand why he wanted to help or why he felt the need to help her.
"My…my father was not a kind man," Snape began. "He treated my mother like shit until the day she died. I was seven at the time. I had never received any kind of treatment from my father until she died, then I got all the punches and all the pain."
Roxanna walked toward him, but stopped herself from reaching out to touch him.
"When I was seventeen my father gave me a chance to prove myself. He and I went to a small town outside London, a muggle town. We found a young girl, about eight or nine, a street girl with no family to speak of, and my father told me to kill her. I wanted so much to impress my father.
"I wanted his appreciation more than anything, so I raised my wand and…well, I won't bore you with the details. I just killed her and left her there to rot. Two months later on my eighteenth birthday I joined the Dark Lord. Not for power or anything like that, just for my father to be proud of me. The Dark Lord killed him a few years later, about two weeks before I decided to change my mind about the whole damn thing."
Snape turned back to face Roxanna who was standing right behind him. He almost ran into her when he turned. He grabbed her shoulders and looked into her green eyes.
"I want to help you because no one deserves that type of torture as punishment. Take it from someone who knows."
The tears that were swelling up in Roxanna's eyes during Snape's confession finally fell. Snape reached into his pocket and pulled out a Slytherin green handkerchief. He handed it to her and took a small step back.
Roxanna began wiping the tears away. "I haven't cried in years," she said.
"There is always a first time for everything," Snape said quietly. Roxanna looked back up at him.
"I'm getting hungry," she said. Snape nodded and turned to the fire. He grabbed some floo powder he had in a small bucket by the fire and tossed it in.
"Kitchen," he said clearly. He requested some food for dinner before sitting down in the same armchair as before. Roxanna took this chance to study the man before her.
His straight black hair fell, framing his pale face. His dark eyes staring at the fire; the flames flashing in their dark depths. His nose, though crooked, gave him a distinguished look, as well as his well-formed mouth.
Several layers of black covered his body, but from what Roxanna could see, and felt, he had some muscles formed under all those layers and was well toned. He was taller than Roxanna by about a head. If she were to stand next to him, she would come to right under his chin.
He had long fingers to go with his large hands. He was handsome in his own way. Everything about him made him look…perfect. Roxanna shook her head to get those thoughts out of her head. Her motion got Snape's attention.
"What's wrong?" He asked. Roxanne shook her head slightly. "Nothing."
Snape just stared at her, almost like he didn't believe her.
"I think it's time you told me your story," Snape said. Roxanna nodded and sat down across from him.
"It all started…"