Thank you again for all of the new follows! I really appreciate it. I would also appreciate any feedback or comments :)
I'm trying to post at least twice a week, so here is my first post for this week. Will post against either Thursday or Friday.
**Italics are flashbacks**

Chapter 5

As I'm climbing the stairs to the top of the Astronomy Tower, it's getting colder and colder. I can feel the wind beginning to blow through my robes and my hair. Arriving at the top of the steps, I see Severus over by the railing, looking out over the castle grounds.

"Keep your eyes closed." Severus whispered to me, his left hand holding onto my arm and his right hand on my hip, guiding me along.

"They're closed." I say with a small smile.

Severus had sent a message to me that morning to meet him at the entrance of the Slytherin Common Room at precisely 7:06pm. I spent the entire morning and afternoon in classes spacing out, every possible reason he would call for me at that time running through my mind.

"Almost there…" He pauses for a moment as we take a few more steps.

Suddenly, we've stopped. As we're standing there, I can hear the sound of wind and feel a small breeze move through my hair. I feel Severus remove his hand from my arm and move it down to my hand, placing it on what feels like a cold railing. He leaves his hand on top of mine and I can feel him moving closer against me.

"Open your eyes…" He whispers in my ear.

I open my eyes and see the most beautiful thing I've ever witnessed. He had brought me up to the Astronomy Tower just as the sun was beginning to set. Just as it was lining the mountains and the lake in the horizon. We both stood there for a couple of minutes in complete silence. Colors of orange, pink and yellow beginning to overtake the horizon. I grab Severus' hands and bring them to encircle me in his arms. Suddenly, the sky becomes dark and the colors have faded. I turn myself around to face him, our bodies against each other.

"Thank you for bringing me up here." I say to him in a faint voice. I place both of my hands on the sides of his face, and slowly bring it to mine. My lips reach his for a soft kiss. I pull away and look into his eyes.

"What was that for?" He asks me with a raised eyebrow.

"I… I love you, Severus." We look at each other for a short moment, silent. I put my head down and release myself from his arms. "This was lovely. Thank you." I wrap myself tighter into my cloak. "I should be going now." I take two steps around Severus before he reaches for me and grabs my wrist.

"You haven't seen the best part yet." I turn around, look at where he's grabbed my wrist, and then up to his eyes. "Please…"

Standing at the top of the stairs, I clear my throat. Severus quickly turns around and spots me.

"I wasn't sure you were going to come" He says to me as he turns back around to face the landscape.

"Well, one can only wonder what a person wants calling for them this late in the evening" I say as I walk up to the railing, standing next to him.

Both of us stand there in silence for a moment. Looking out over the grounds, the night is just as beautiful as when the sun sets. The moon is shining brightly off the lake, the outline of black hills and mountains in the distance. Looking up, I am reminded of the last time we were up here together. A clear dark sky, filled with thousands of shining and sparkling stars. Reminded of him pointing out all the different constellations to me that night. Reminded of him wrapping me in his oversized cloak when I got cold. Reminded of us staying out much past my student curfew. Reminded of him kissing me goodnight for the first time.

"So…" I finally say after a few minutes.

"You remember it, don't you?" Severus quietly asks me.

"You're going to need to be a little more specific, dear." Severus is silent for a moment and looks down at his still hands on the railing. The look in his eyes, like he's contemplating whether he should continue on.

"What happened here... a little over five years ago" He finally responds.

"I remember perfectly well what happened" I say quietly. It is quiet for a moment again until Severus swiftly turns his body towards me. As he looks down, his hands reach for mine and he holds onto them. For a few seconds, he stares at my hands in his. Severus is the hardest person to read. Even looking into his eyes, it's so difficult to tell what he is thinking or feeling.

"You mean a lot more to me than I think you realize" He finally says. When he says this, all those delightful memories of the two of us come rushing back to my mind. But they're interrupted by the memory of when he ended and crushed it all.

"Severus, I don't think that you…"

"Regina, please just listen to me," he interrupts. "I need to explain myself. I need to explain everything to you and to clear out the air." His grip on my hands becomes tighter and I can tell he's starting to get a bit worked up. He takes a deep breath before continuing. "I need you to know, that what happened, that was not what I actually wanted." Severus then becomes quiet again.

"What do you mean? What isn't want you wanted?" I question. He slowly removes one of his hands from mine, reaches into the pocket inside of his coat, and pulls out a preserved dried and flattened magnolia. It was the same magnolia that I had picked from a tree on one of our walks through the forest. After we had returned from our walk that evening, I slipped it into the pages of Severus' potions journal but had never told him. We both look at the magnolia for a moment before he carefully slips it back into his pocket.

"Regina, I never meant for…"

"Severus." Says a voice from behind us, sounding very stern.

We both turn around and at the top of the staircase is none other than one of the men I hate most in this world, Lucius Malfoy. Severus quickly grabs onto my hand, and pulls me to step behind him.

"What are you doing here, Lucius?"

"There is some business that we need to attend to…" He pauses, raises an eyebrow, looking from Severus to me, and then looking back to Severus, "but it seems that you have already preoccupied yourself with something a little more… pleasurable." I feel Severus' hand beginning to tighten around mine.

"I will speak with you later about whatever it is that you believe needs our attention. But, at the moment, I am in the middle of important business already." I stand still behind Severus, my head down, and listen to their quarrel.

"Well, it is clear you have not finished your business here," Malfoy says with a smirk. "Otherwise, that pretty little vixen would be on the floor right now." With that comment, Snape quickly reaches into his cloak pocket and brings forth his wand.

"Lucius, you are not welcome here. Leave." Severus says between gritted teeth. The tears begin to swell up in my eyes.

"It's a true shame, Severus. You know it's all she's good for," he pauses for a moment, "And I'm sure the Dark Lord would be ecstatic to hear that she has returned to our dear school." Lucius then turns and makes his exit down the stairs.

Severus slowly lowers his wand and then stashes it back into his cloak pocket. I stand absolutely still behind him, wrapping myself into my cloak and letting the tears fall from my eyes. He hears me crying, quickly turns back around to me, and wraps me into his oversized cloak.

"I am so sorry." Severus kisses the top of my head and continues to hold me.

After about five minutes, my eyes have dried. I wrap my arms around Severus and nuzzle my head into his chest. This spot makes me feel so safe. Suddenly, I feel a shift in Severus' position.

"Look…" he says quietly. He moves the part of his cloak that is covering my eyes from viewing what is around us, while still holding onto me.

I open my eyes to witness the beauty in front of us; a meteor shower is showing in the night sky. It looks like tiny little lights falling to the ground in the far distance.

"Regina…"

"Yes?" I answer with my head still on his chest. He raises his hand up and places it underneath my chin, lifting my head to make me look up at him. Severus looks into my eyes, silent.

"We should get back to our rooms before anyone notices that both of us are gone." He says. I close my eyes for a moment.

"You're right." I respond. All thanks to stupid Lucius, Severus will probably never tell me what he was actually going to say. Way to ruin a moment, Malfoy. Severus was actually about to open up to someone and you ruined it. Jerk.

We walk down the stairs and through the corridors together in complete silence. The halls are very dark, barely lit by the torches on the walls. Half the time Severus was a step or two ahead of me though, being so much taller and bigger than me. As we make our way through the halls, all I can think about is what he was going to tell me before Lucius came in. What wasn't what he actually wanted? Did he actually never want us to have whatever relationship we had? Or did he possibly never actually want me to leave?

We arrive in front of the door to my quarters and both stand there looking towards the ground.

"This was lovely, Severus. Thank you." I say and finally look up at him. When I look up, I realize that he is looking at me as well. We both look at each other for a moment before he brings his hands up to the sides of my face, his face slowly coming closer to mine. I close my eyes, waiting for what is about to happen. Do I want it to happen? Should it be happening? I wait for a couple of seconds, but nothing has happened. I open my eyes. Severus' face is right in front of mine and he's staring at me. A look of confusion spreads across my face. Before I know it, his lips are on mine, for however short a time.

Severus slowly pulls himself away and looks at me, expressionless.

"What was that for?" I ask him. He stands there silent, looking down to his feet, and then back up at me.

"I love you, Regina…"