It was another sunny day and Dahlia was sitting by The Black Lake, holding a rose she picked on the way. The rose hadn't bloomed yet, so she waves her wand and said, "Herbivicus." The beautiful red flower bloomed and showed five petals. She plucked each petal saying, "He loves me, he loves me not." With each petal gone she realized that she was holding the last one and whispered, "He loves me."
Dahlia held the final petal in her hand before she heard a familiar voice behind her, "Who loves you?" She turned around and saw Severus, after seeing him she turned her gaze back to the lake, "Oh, no one." Severus sat down next to her, "You sure are holding onto that petal even though it's no one." He said pointing to the petal still in her hand. Dahlia sighed staring at the lake, "It's someone who'll never love me back."
Severus kept his gaze on her, "Idiot." Was the only comment he made which caused Dahlia to look over at him, mostly in anger, until he spoke again, "You can't possibly know how someone else feels." This made her snap, "I know how he feels! He's still in love with someone else!" Dahlia almost never shouted in anger, but what happened next really surprised her, "That doesn't mean you don't have a chance!" Severus shouted back at her.
Silence came over the two of them, no one knowing what to say. Until Dahlia broke down crying, it was the only thing she could think of doing, and Severus, never being in this kind of situation just pat her back. Once she calmed down she wiped her eyes and kept her face down, "I'm sorry I yelled at you. You were just trying to help." Severus cupped her face gently and moved it to face him, "I'm sorry as well. I shouldn't have been so harsh, you're obviously hurt and it was wrong of me to make it worse."
Dahlia smiled, she was almost never this close to Severus and wanted to stay like that forever, "Thank you for listening." She said as a small blush spread across her cheeks. He pulled his hand away as soon as he realized he kept his hand on her cheek longer than he should have, "Just don't think it means anything." He stood up and walked away. Dahlia watched him leave with a smile, "One step at a time." She said to herself deciding to keep the last petal to remember this.
