Raven awoke in the middle of the night with a growling stomach. "Food...need foo." she muttered. In the dark she slid from her bed, threw her robes on over her dressing down, and slipped out of the dorms, through the common room, and headed for the kitchens.
A bit later, loaded down with a tray of goodies from the over-eager house elves, Raven headed back twords the dungeons. She was almost back to the common room when a familiar sound chilled her to the bone. 'PEEVES!' Terror clutched at her heart, and before Raven could form a plan of escape...There was the poltergeist floating before her. "Bloody hell." she whispered, frozen in place. Peeves rushed at Raven, causing the girl to drop the tray she had been carrying. It had been thus since Raven was twelve, Peeves had the ability to frighten the girl beyond thought.
"Oooooooh...A live one!" Peeves looked absolutely delighted. Raven at the other end of the scale, utterly horrified, which just served to fuel the poltergeist's excitement.
"Noooo." Raven tried backing away. It was too late though. Peeves had found an easy mark, and went to work. He tossed the scattered food stuffs at Raven, and started chanting some crude verses. With a deep breath, Raven steadied herself enough to make a break for it. Peeves chased after her. A few moments later she threw herself through the Syltherin common room door.
Inside, Raven leaned up against the door, heart racing, body shaking. 'Where to go...where to go.' She knew of only one person who could aleviate the fear Peeves inflicted her with. Raven crept silently into the boys dorm room. Only one bed had it's curtains drawn shut. Glancing around, Raven realized that was her destination. Pushing the curtain aside, the figure in the bed stirred. "Severus." the word was barely audible.
"Raven?" he asked sleepily, then grabbing the wand from the nightstand. "Lumous." In the wan light from the wand Severus could see where here tears had slid down her face, emphasized by her smeared eyeliner. She was still shaking, "What's happened?" Severus asked, pushing a lock of hair from her eyes.
"Just hold me." she whispered, throwing herself into his arms. Ackwardly Severus wrapped his arms around her, doing his best to soothe the frightened Raven. Snuggling close to him, she told him about her run-in with Peeves. Head resting on Severus's shoulder, Raven drifted off to sleep. After a bit, he too relaxed, extinguishing the light from his wand, and enjoying the closeness of the girl. Holding her in his arms, he fell asleep as well.
-In The Morning-
"Severus isn't awake yet?" Lucius asked unbelieving.
"Seems not." Coleridge answered. "His curtains was still drawn when I looked in a moment ago."
"Well let's go wake sleeping beauty up." Lucius replied with a sneer, and the two boys headed back up to the boys dorms.
"Told you he still had the curtain drawn." Coleridge said, pointing twords the bed.
"Well, we can fix that." Lucius countered, reaching out to pull the curtain aside.
Both boys faces registered shock. Severus half-laying, half-sitting was very much awake, with a still sleeping Raven in his arms. He smirked, enjoying their utter astonishment. "Go away." he hissed at them. Once they regained theri composures, the two startled boys turned and left the dorm room, still in a bit of a daze.
He hadn't intended for anyone to find her there, but he also couldn't stand the thought of disturbing her. Severus sighed, deciding he'd best wake her and send her on her way, otherwise, once Lucius and Coleridge regained what passed for their senses, they would most likely try to turn this into a peep show, and charge admission. "Raven." Severus whispered in her ear. "Raven."
"Just a few more minutes." she mumbled back sleepily.
"Raven, time to get up. Lucius and Coleridge already caught you in here." he continued. "You should go before they bring back a squad of gawking idiots."
Raven sat up with a sleepy smile. "Thank you Severus." She kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you for everything." Raven slipped from the bed, and snuck back out of the boys dorms.