The next week formed its own set of norms. In the mornings Susan would already be gone by the time I woke up and out of the dining hall when I made it down for breakfast. Morning classes consisted of me trying to get Susan to acknowledge my apologies. I had said the word sorry so many times that it no longer felt like I was saying a real word but spouting jibberish.

Later morning classes involved trying to think of ways to get Susan to listen to me while also completing classwork as usual so my professors, especially Severus, wouldn't know anything was the matter.

Dumbledore requested that Filch stop cornering students in the halls and accusing them of painting his cat blue by Wednesday. Susan had yet to even speak to me by that time. On Thursday after Transfiguration I was trying to apologize again when there was a stink bomb eruption throughout the entire school. Not only did I finally find out what Peeves had been up to when I was coming back early Sunday but Susan gave me a disgusted look as if the smell were coming from me, which I counted as a victory.

My nights consisted of sitting in Severus' office doing homework while he worked on experimental potions. It didn't matter to me if he and I did anything exciting I just wanted to be near him. Just his presence made me feel a bit better about Susan revoking our friendship. I hadn't told him about our spat since I didn't want him to worry about our cover being ruled a lie. I let him continue to believe that Susan thought I was at Defense Club.

That weekend Susan did an exceptional job of avoiding me and I don't think I saw more than a glimpse of her the whole time.

It had been nearly two weeks since I had spoken to her. That Thursday morning Mark walked up to me in the Great Hall when I was leaving breakfast.

"Susan wanted me to tell you that your socks don't match." He said, matter of factly.

I was so stunned by the sudden outreach of contact that it took me a moment to form a coherent thought and when I finally did it wasn't what I truly wanted to say. "I thought you hated me."

Mark smiled a close lipped smirk. "I don't hate you. It's just that this argument happened at the worst time for her to be with me all the time. What are you two even fighting about? Susie won't tell me, you know what, never mind, I don't really care. Just know that I am fairly certain her silent treatment towards you will be over this weekend after the Valentine's Hogsmeade trip. Are you going?"

"To Hogsmeade?" I asked still stuck on the fact that he referred to Susan as Susie. "I don't know yet. I might."

"I could find someone to go with you if you're worried about being alone on Valentine's Day." He offered.

I put my hands up defensively and started waving them. "No, no, that's quite alright. Thanks though."

"Alright, but if you change your mind, just find me." He waved a good-bye and turned to the exit where I saw Susan leaning in the doorway.

I looked down at my socks once they were gone. They weren't mismatched at all. I looked up to the doorway. Mark waved a quick hand before being tugged from my sight by Susan.

"Why would he tell me my socks didn't match when they did?" I asked Severus that night in his office. "Do you think Susan told him to say that or do you think he wanted to talk to me on his own? And if the second one, why?"

Severus hovered his hand over bottles as he moved it down the line of ingredients on the shelf in front of him.

"Severus!" I whined.

"Yeah, strange." He said automatically and picked up a bottle containing brown things that resembled coffee beans.

"You're not even listening." I accused.

"I'm sorry." He said adding two of the coffee bean things into each of the three cauldrons on the table. "I'm a bit preoccupied. Aren't you supposed to be doing homework anyways?"

"Aren't you supposed to be helpful?" I asked annoyed that he had called me out.

He placed the bottle back on the shelf and grabbed another one. "I don't remember making a promise like that."

I groaned and one corner of his mouth tugged up into a smirk.

I picked up my quill and looked down at the parchment next to my book. "What are the uses of Cicuta Virosa?"

"Cowbane?" He questioned using the more common term. "What class is this for?"

"Herbology." I said absentmindedly rubbing the quill feather over my bottom lip.

"Hmm," He sounded while he wrote something down on a piece of paper. "Shrinking Solution, Cowbane Poison, Disillusionment Draft…"

I scribbled down the words he was saying leaving enough room in between to elaborate more when I looked them up in a bit.

"Drink of Despair." He stopped talking.

I started to write that but stopped. "I've never heard of that last one. What is it?"

"I wouldn't expect you to have heard of it." He said stopping to look at me. "It was one of my creations, for You-Know-Who."

I hadn't heard anyone speak about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in so long that it sent an icy sickness surging through my gut.

"Did you know that just the right amount of Cicuta Virosa can cause excruciating pain in the abdomen but not cause the drinker any actual physical damage?" He asked. "Psychologically the pain is too much and often times makes the drinker beg for death."

I was lost for words. Severus locked eyes with me, waiting for my reaction.

"Why tell me this?" I asked feeling the icy queasiness churn in my belly.

He seemed to calculate his answer. "I want you to know. I've done horrible things for horrible people and I want to know if you can accept me even knowing what I'm capable of doing."

The thought that he trusted me ran through my mind and melted the ice in my middle.

I reached for one of his hands and held it as my answer that I would accept anything he would tell me.

"Valentine's Day is on Sunday." He said out of thin air. "I can't go to Hogsmeade with you for obvious reasons but maybe…"

"Severus." Dumbledore's voice called from the classroom.

I ripped my hand away from Severus's and slammed my textbook shut. I ran and dove behind a stack of books in the corner of his office.

"Severus, I need to ask a favor of you." Dumbledore said entering the office.

I hid low to the floor and close to the wall.

"What do you need?" Severus asked.

"Nothing too difficult." Dumbledore assured him. "Madam Pomfrey is running low on Burn-healing Paste and I was wondering if you could find time to make more."

"Of course." Severus said. "How soon will you need it?"

"There's no rush, whenever you find the time." He said. "Good evening, Miss Winston."

I popped my head up over the barrier of books. How had he known I was there?

"Evening, professor." I stuttered.

"What brings you down here?" Dumbledore asked.

"Err," I said searching my brain for a reason. "Detention. I'm organizing."

"Detention?" Dumbledore asked looking over at Severus and then back at me. "You seem to have a lot of detention recently for someone I never knew to have it before."

I moved some of the books around.

Severus cut in. "Perhaps, if Miss Winston could learn to stop challenging my authority as teacher I wouldn't have to give her detention so often."

"Ahh." Dumbledore said. "Well, thank you for agreeing to make the Burn-healing Paste, Severus. And be careful, Miss Winston. Who knows what may be lurking in this mess."

He winked at me and walked out of the room. Severus and I stared at one another in silence until we heard the door in the classroom close.

We remained quiet for a moment longer. I felt a slight tickle at my ankle. I tried to ignore it but it felt as though the tickle was slowly moving up my leg. I gave a glance down at my calf and saw a galleon sized spider crawling over my sock.

It made eye contact with me and I let out a screech and began flailing about trying to rid myself of the creature. In my thrashing I managed to knock down every book that was surrounding me in my corner. The spider was launched from my leg and fell to the floor where he scurried behind a bookshelf.

Severus had run to my aid but when he saw the spider before it disappeared behind a much safer hiding place he burst out laughing.

He stood a few feet from me holding his ribs as he doubled over laughing at my display. I reached out my hand and picked up a copy of 43 Uses for Pond Scum and threw it at him hitting slightly above the waist.

"I'm sorry." He said quelling his laughter. "Here, let me help you pick those up."

He picked up the book at his feet and walked over to where I was lifting myself off the pile of fallen books and began to stack them on top of one another in no particular order.

I began making my own stack of books next to his. I looked over at him. His face was smooth and concentrated. His eyes flicked up to me and I couldn't help but smile.

"What were you saying about Valentine's Day?" I asked picking up the conversation from before.

"It was nothing." He said beginning a second stack. "You probably already have plans with Susan."

He really hadn't listened to anything I had been complaining about earlier. It was for the best I supposed since I didn't want him to know that Susan and I were in a fight about him, even though Susan didn't know it was him we were fighting about.

"Valentine's Day." I said. "With Susan. And Mark. They were certainly be more kissy kissy which would make me pukey pukey. So no, no Valentine's plans with Susan. I'm all yours."

He looked up at me upon the last three words. His cheeks had a slight pinkness to them.

"So, would you want to spend time with me on Saturday when everyone is at Hogsmeade?" He asked finally.

"What did you have in mind?" I asked with a smile.

"I'm not sure yet," He said making a third stack. "I didn't think you would even want to, to be honest."

"Well, I will meet you in the classroom once everyone has left." I offered. "You have until then to figure it out. I should be going now to look up the uses of Cowbane you told me about. I'll see you on Saturday."

I stood up and noticed that we had unintentionally built of wall of books between the two of us that was too tall for me to step over. Severus smiled and re-stacked some of the books so there were bits of the wall that were shorter. He placed his hands on my waist. I should be used to him touching me but the contact still made my heart erupt in flames. He lifted me slightly to help me clear the books. Once on the other side my body was pressed firmly against his. I looked up into his black eyes. They held so much emotion, so much passion, and so many secrets. It wasn't hard to get lost in their dark depths.

I inhaled filling my lungs that I hadn't known I had been depriving of air. "I should go now."

I moved sideways towards the table. My body rubbing over his with the movement. I picked up my book and parchment and placed them in my bag. I gave him one last look and a quick smile before I exited his office through the classroom.