Snape was 17 when he last saw his father.

It had been his last year at Hogwarts, and when he left Station 9 ¾, Tobias Snape was there.

The father wore khaki pants, polished shoes and a plaid shirt. He had shaved and trimmed his hair. Snape did not remember the last time he had seen him looking so good.

"My son!" The man exclaimed as soon as he saw him in the crowd, coming towards him and wrapping his arms around him. Snape did not respond to the hug, still a little shocked to see his father to sketch any reaction.

"What are you doing here?"

"I came to take you home, of course." Tobias had replied excitedly. He put his hands on the young wizard's shoulders and sighed, his eyes watering. "When did you grow up so much? You need to shave" He started to touch Snape's face, but the young man turned away abruptly, with a flash of fear in his eyes.

"Where is Mom?"

"With Alex, waiting for you at home" the man took the trunk from his son's hand. " Come on, the road is long."

And it was really long.

Dad's car was a two-door pickup that Snape hated.

Whenever he heard that loud thing parking in front of his house in his childhood, he knew his father had arrived drunk and he and his brother were hiding in the closet.

Halfway through, a torrential storm began to fall, impairing visibility, and they had to stop at a small roadside restaurant. Tobias ran out of the car, covering his head with a brown paper package and stopped by the door, shouting loudly for Snape to get out of the car.

He relived that scene in his mind over and over again and it was always painful.

The letter from his mother made his memory awake and he dreamed of his father all night. A nightmare that seemed so real it made him sweat on the sheets.

Hermione dressed up for the student council meeting with some care. Not because she wanted to impress anyone, but because she didn't want them to notice the pitiful state she was in. It was the first time she had been with Ron Weasley since the night they broke up a week ago, and she must have looked good.

She was one of the first to arrive at Minerva's office and sat patiently while waiting for the other places around the table to be taken. Ron arrived last and sat down next to her. She tried to stay calm, but her heart raced and she felt her body tighten. She knew she couldn't avoid him forever, that Ronald would still be part of her life, but it hurt like hell to know that she was no longer his girlfriend. She opened a pink notebook in front of her, where she wrote the agenda for student council meetings and tried to focus on it. But whenever Ron spoke, her heart trembled and she lost focus.

"Hermione, dear, do you have the reports?" McGonagall asked, not for the first time, and all eyes turned to her in a curious way, since everyone had delivered but her.

"Oh yes of course!" she rummaged through the pages of her diary until she took out a red paper envelope and handed it to the teacher.

"Great, great, thanks." - She briefly assessed the contents of the envelope: a detailed list of all Gryffindor arrests from the last two months. "As I mentioned earlier, I am overwhelmed with the renovation of the room of requiriment and I will have help to lead the council. You can report to..."

"Did you call me, Minerva?" Snape opened the door, apparently irritated and visibly breathless. Had he run over there?

"Teacher Snape." concluded the witch as if she had not been interrupted. "Come on, join us. I was telling them that you are going to assist on the board."

"I never said I would accept to participate."

"You are here as agreed, even if a little late, so I'll take that as a yes."

"You sent me a patron asking me to come running here. I thought something had happened."

"It just so happened that I need your help!"

"Minerva!" He exclaimed, pinching the bridge of his nose. The students looked from one to the other as if they were watching a ping-pong game, interested in knowing who would make the point.

"You couldn't have made a better choice, teacher," Hermione interjected. " Professor Snape always knows everything that happens in the castle and I know that he will help us to keep everything under control. Ron, would you mind dragging your chair over to the side? Thanks. Come on, professor, sit down, there's space here." Confusing Ron and Snape, Hermione conjured a chair next to her.

Snape hesitated, but finally sat down next to Hermione Granger, to the delight of Minerva who thanked Hermione silently.

"Well, what do I need to know anyway?" He asked, taking the pink notebook from Hermione's hands and reading the agenda notes.

"We passed Professor McGonagall the arrests of the last two months, of all houses, and the requirements for students who need help from school guidance." Draco pointed out, himself reading the topics already covered in his notes.

" Students are complaining about the ghost in the divination room. He disturbs the class, and Professor Trelawney does nothing because she "likes his energy"" Beatriz Robins, from the hufflepuff, spoke with indignation, hoping that Snape would give more importance to the subject than Minerva. What he did, committing to take care of the matter personally.

"And we have to start preparations for the annual victory ball." Cho Chang added. " The theme will be about the different magical communities around the world. Gypsies, Wiccans ..."

"The Muggles," Snape interrupted, making everyone look directly at him, especially Hermione. "The ball theme should be about Muggles.

"I don't know if I understand your point, Severus." Minerva crossed her fingers on the table, interested.

"We have just come out of a war where the enemy was aiming to annihilate the Muggles." Many of them died, some in front of my eyes." He paused, his eyes were on Hermione's notebook, reading the note she had made next to the topic: "The ball should be about Muggles. If wizards understood they better, you-know-who wouldn't have had so many supporters. " "And even though Voldemort was the leader, he was not alone. If we want peace to be lasting it is our duty to start encouraging the wizarding community to understand and respect the Muggle community. We have to tear down the walls that separate us, Minerva."

Hermione's eyes were filled with the emotion that warmed her chest. Snape had understood all his thoughts with just that little note, it seemed that he had looked directly into his heart and put into words what she had not had the courage to do.

What he said reached everyone who was there too. And for a full minute no one said anything, until Ron got up and started to applaud.

"We are going to tear down the walls!" Someone shouted, joining the applause of the smiling Weasley.

Hermione was laughing openly and placed her hand over his.

"Thank you," she said softly, just moving her lips, and Snape got lost in her eyes a little. It was a tender moment that she would not forget.

"Very good, very good!" Minerva drew attention afterwards, when everyone started talking at the same time. "The theme is redefined then. But it's a ball and needs to be fun ... Any ideas?"

"Miss Granger? You're a muggle born ... You can think in something? Snape asked, leaning comfortably against the back of the chair.
"Well, I have an idea that ... well ... Professor Snape, do you mind if I get my notebook?" She took it and stood up, leafing through a few pages until she found what she was looking for. With a fluid flick of her wand she made some drawings jump from the pages and hover over the table. Linear drawings of some tents, crowns, a mask and a ferris wheel. "I thought about having an outdoor party, a quermesse*. With food stalls and games, we can bring some amusement park toys too. It would be during the day and outside. At night, a masquerade ball inspired by the stories of sheakespare, with period clothes and a representation of Romeo and Juliet. In the middle of the dance."

"In the middle of the dance" Ron asked and she was so excited that she didn't feel nervous talking to him directly.

"Yes. At the beginning of the dance, we would have Juliet on a bench and Romeo declaring himself to her from the middle of the dance floor. Something very interactive." Minerva and Cho, who knew the play, sighed dreamily. "We can have the scene of the duel between Romeo and Teobaldo, and close to midnight, the final scene."

She was excited to explain her idea. He had planned everything months ago, when the idea of an annual victory ball was proposed and, thanks to Snape, she was sharing her plans now.

"What about those crowns, Granger?" Draco asked, writing something down in his diary.

"Ah yes. The crowns. At Muggle school balls, usually undergraduate ones, two students are chosen as king and queen."

"Hogwarts has approximately a thousand students, how would we choose a king and queen?"

"She talked about graduation, didn't she? Only senior students are eligible." Ron proposed. "And voting can take place during the day, during the queimaça."

"Quermesse*." Corrected Hermione.

"So," Snape drew himself up in his chair, unconsciously wanting Hermione to look at him and not at Weasley, "all in favor of Miss. Granger? Great. Granger, you're in charge, organize a to-do list and distribute it among board members. We got together in two weeks and I hope to see some progress already. What's the next topic, McGonagall?

"None. We are done for today, you are excused." The old witch could barely hide her contentment to see Snape really get involved in the council. It had been his idea after all! He who had suggested that having a board composed of chief monitors could help bring students closer to teachers and he couldn't be more right. Hogwarts opened its doors after a battle that had impacted students' lives in different ways. They lost friends and family that night in May 1998 and being back now might not be easy. This was the main proposal of the student council: to care for the psychological health of children. The head monitors warned them about students who needed attention and psychological counseling, something that was bringing good results so far.

"You owe me," Snape said to the witch when the students all left, trying to look sullen.

"I can buy you a drink anytime you want!"

Hermione Granger's heart was overflowing with emotion. And gratitude too. She left the meeting straight for the library, where she started putting together a binder with all the planning, the event schedule and an endless list of everything they would need. It was a dream on paper, an ideal. She felt that this was just the beginning of something bigger than a ball, it was ... it was ... It was the beginning of a revolution. And all thanks to Snape.

At dinner, she and Ron told Harry all about the event they were planning, talking animatedly and amicably for the first time in days. Her heart still hurt, but the subject of the annual ball was safe and stimulating.

When she looked at the teachers' table, Snape was not there.
"Did you miss anything at the teachers' table, Mione?" Ginny nudged her in the ribs. " Or someone?"
"You will never let me forget that, will you?" Hermione rolled her eyes at her, Ginny was teasing her with the kiss story all week.
"Not. Never." the redhead said smiling and bit a cookie.
"I think I'll see how he's doing." Hermione decided, getting up and taking a clean plate, where she put two brown muffins.
"Seriously?"
"Seriously. He was really nice to me today, I need to thank him!"

And she did it as soon as he opened the door.

"Good evening, Professor. I just wanted to thank you for what you did today. I can hardly explain what it means to me and, I'm sure, to all Muggle-borns. You was-"

"Granger," Snape interrupted, standing under the doorframe, holding it ajar. Her head was a little low, so that her black hair was covering her face and, if Hermione had been more attentive to details, she would have noticed that the knuckles that held the door were white. Snape was nervous and very angry. "Why don't you join us?" He opened the door and stood aside, showing two people inside the office. A woman with long black hair was looking at her apprehensively, and a man, also with black hair, was sitting in Snape's chair, rocking his body back and forth.

"Excuse me!" She said loudly. "I didn't know you were busy. I'll be back another hour" She held the plate out to him, hoping that Snape would accept it, but instead, the master pushed his hand aside, causing the porcelain plate to shatter on the floor and the muffins to roll, who knows where. Before she could do anything but let out a little squeak of surprise, he pulled her inside.

"Severus is mad," the seated man said, his eyes fixed on the table, his body always swaying. "He's mad. Severus is mad."
"I-I don't understand what is going on here," Hermione said, shaking.
"Severus, dear ..." began the woman, but Snape interrupted her. He tore the parchment from her hand and turned to Hermione.
"Do you recognize that, Granger?" He asked angrily, his eyes red, holding the parchment close to Hermione's face.
She recognized it. It was the letter she had sent to Snape's mother.

"Snape, I ...

"You had no right to meddle in my life!" he shouted, taking two steps towards her, making the witch have to look up to see her eyes, since the face was very close to hers. The man who rocked in the chair stood up, tapping his hands flat on his ear repeatedly and saying things that Hermione didn't understand. The witch, who she now imagined to be Professor Snape's mother, was trying to calm the man down. "You didn't have the right that night in the battle and you didn't have the right now!"

"I saved you!" She said offended. Perhaps she had obviously been wrong to send an answer to his mother, but she had not been wrong to save his life during the battle.

"I didn't ask to be saved, Granger." His voice was low and full of anger, hot breath sweeping the young woman's face. Her vision became a little blurred and she realized she was about to cry. "I never asked. Once and for all, stop meddling in my life. I can't stand you anymore!"

He pulled away and Hermione blew out the air she didn't even remember holding in her lungs.

-I...

"Get out, Granger. Get out of my sight."

And she left. Running. She was crying like a child, completely lost in a whirlwind of undefined feelings.

Snape disappeared from the face of the earth after that night. Or at least from the Hogwarts land. Hermione looked for him in every room, in every corner and asked all the teachers about him, but no one at school knew where Severus Snape could have gone. After a week, her heart began to tighten with the idea that perhaps the wizard had dropped out of school and that possibility made her sad in a way that she couldn't even express.

*Quermesse - It's a type of Brazilian party, with typical food stalls and all kinds of games too. I couldn't find the name of these parties outside my country ... Anyone to tell me what they are called?