After that incident, Marion barely looked at the head of Slytherin.
Not that it was uncommon to see her shy and not looking at anyone, but this was different.
Severus' had changed a bit as well. Being, if possible, meaner towards his students and often throwing his malice on those who didn't deserve it.
Not many would think that this was because one little girl of fourteen had stirred up so many emmotions inside him.
But in fact, this girl had made Severus think. It had made him remember how it once was to be lost and afraid of what you could not control.
He hated to admit it, but he actually felt sad for one of his students.
What went through his head and had done so these last days was the last words she'd said to him before she fainted. Professor, I want to die. The sentence still chimed in his ears.
A week suddenly passed and Marion looked more and more tired.
She was often bothered by the other kids as they called her the living dead and ghoul.
She hated them, but managed to keep her anger down.
'Or do you?' She thought to herself.
'Look at what they're doing to you. Are you just going to let them behave like that? The time has come for revenge, Marion, and you know it. No! I have to stay calm. But why? Why should you be the one to stay calm?'
She ran over to her shelf and took out some pills, found some water and swallowed them.
Then she ran, she ran out of the castle, down to the lake, into the lake.
The water swept around her, making her clothes heavy, but she enjoyed it.
Marions figure was merely a shadow in the dark lake, almost unnoticable.
She sighed relieved, layed back and floated on top of the serene water. She removed her dress and tossed it on shore, making her swim around in her underwear only.
It was nice, laying there. It made her feel like she was free, finally free.
Severus sat inside his office, trying to concentrate on correcting tests, but it wasn't as satisfying as usual to give bad remarks.
He could feel that something was wrong. He checked his schedule to see if he'd forgotten anything, but that wasn't the case. Then he remembered a pair of big eyes, red from crying and a little voice saying Professor, I want to die and quickly walked out of the office.
As Marion got more and more comfortable in the water, she ducked underneath.
Slowly she got deeper and deeper, feeling better than ever. Her eyes couldn't see the surface anymore and closed her eyes happily. 'Professor, I'm dying,' she thought and smiled, 'soon I will be dead.'
Though this was not the case. A pair of arms caressed her and pulled her up and whoever did swimmed fast to reach the surface. She was put down on the ground and got a blanket over herself. She breathed, but with coughing interrupting the rythm and still didn't want to open her eyes. "Miss Ayron, you really want to die, don't you? Why?" She recogniced that voice. That soft, silky voice that was barely a whisper.
"I-," she started, but was interrupted by a massive cough, "I don't want this anymore."
Severus took his cape around her; "What is it that you don't want?"
"This life, or whatever it is. No one cares, no one will ever care. People barely know my name, and when they pay attention to me, it's when they jump me in the hallway, beating me up for fun. I don't want her to tell me what to do anymore, I don't want to kill, but if she stays, I'm afraid I will, or that she will. No one understands, I'm all alone."
Severus pulled her tighter towards him: "I understand. I know what it feels like to be afraid. I know what it feels like to be jumped in the hallway. I know what it's like having someone else controlling you. Now let's go to the castle."
They walked together up to the big stone building and entered, then walked towards Severus' office. When they got there, they sat down, but this time in a more comfortable position. They were on a chaiselongue, Marion carefully caressed by her professor's arms,
"How come you know how I feel, professor?"
He smiled a sad smile: "It's a long story, and a sad story. I was alot like you. Ignored, being a loner, being bullied and on several medicaments. I won't tell you all today, but now I think it's time for you to tell me what's going on."
Marion sighed: "I was always the weird girl, always the imperfection as my mother would call me. I developed schizophrenia at an early age and this only made my mother's theory more correct. When I came to Hogwarts, I supposed that things would be different, but they didn't. They became worse. In addition to my mother, I now also had more mean people. It just developed from there." Her professor nodded and held her closer. "Thank you, professor."
He just smiled and stroke her hair.