Mother Earth
She'd thuroughly irritated Proffessor Snape in Potions today...and tho it had left her with a warm happy feeling, seeing the fire of rage in his eyes...she still felt terribly empty. She had been away from Home over a year...and the lonliness was threatening to drown her, so after potions, she went to her dormitory, changed into a pair of shorts and a tank top...she elected to go barefoot and took the stairs two at a time...once she was out in the Courtyard.
She paused and stared in the direction of the Forbidden Forrest...she took a deep breath. And ran, she threw her head back and simply ran...her long legs streched and she leaped over a 3 foot fence, sprinting across the feild like a deer in flight...
She didnt look back as she ran straight into the Forbidden Forrest.
Severus stood in the Second Story Archway window, watching Miss Silvermane curiously...she was barefoot, and she ran like someone who was running away from something.
But he got the distinct feeling that whatever it was she was running from wasnt a physical thing. He admired her proflie, she was graceful in her flight, he watched as she prepared and leapt over the fence...but when his eyes followed her destination...they clouded with worry...he was sure she didnt have her Wand...and the forrest was forbidden.
He waited nearly half an hour, and she did not return...sighing with resignation, he went to retreive his most troublesome student.
Danny had stopped not far into the forrest and sank to her knees...she took a few long moments to catch her breath and looked around her. She was surrounded by nature, and tho it was different from home...she was somewhat comforted.
She curled her fingers into the soft rich loam of the earth and closed her eyes, concentrating. At home she always had a connection with the earth, it grounded her, gave her peace and comfort, knowing that mother earth welcomed her always.
But she felt nothing, no stirrings of regocnition, no welcome...the earth here might as well have been dead for all the spirit of Mother nature seemed to be lost to her now.
She had no idea how long she sat like that...until a hand rested lightly on her shoulder. She turned her gaze up to the owner of the hand and was horriffied to find that she had been crying...tears coarsed down her cheeks and she dropped her sorrowfilled gaze to the earth.
Severus had seen an expression like that only once on her face, some many months back after her altercation with Malfoy...and still it pulled at him and disturbed him. No one so young, so irritatingly captivating should have such sorrows.
"You shouldnt be here Miss Silvermane, its dangerous. " he glanced around in apprehension...she didnt seem to hear him.
"The Earth has always welcomed me...I could always feel the life, the presense of Mother Earth..." Her voice was a heartbroken whisper. "Even the earth has forsaken me...truely, I am very much alone."
Severus was struck by the pain in her words and knelt down beside her, producing a black kercheif from his pocket. He offered it too her. She pulled her hands f rom the earth...wiped them angrily on her pants and took the kercheif wiping her eyes before handing it back to him..
She strode away from him, her back to him, she hugged herself in a vain attempt at comfort..."I love this place...And I hate this place..." She stared out into the darkness of the forrest. "I love all of the new things I have learned...the friendships I have made with my Teachers...But..."
He lifted his voice and asked. "Why do you hate it?" She dropped her head and sighed, "I am an outsider, even more so than a Squib or a Muggle would be. Im from a completely different culture, a totally different Continent.. Nothing is as it is at home, the lonliness is so palatable I can almost tast-..."
Her words were lost as she was suddenly pulled into an almost desperate embrace from behind...she looked down to see Snape's arms crushing her against him...about her waist...
"Severus...what are you doing?" She asked in a voice barely above a whisper.
His voice was a growl against her hair. "What I want to do."
Despite the initial shock of him embracing her, she laughed at that.
"Ah, thats good. Finnally." She was strangely touched by the
embrace, but something within her seemed to sense that this
embrace wasnt just for her...but for him as well.
Her right arm snaked up and she curled the fingers of her
right hand into his hair. Her left hand rested atop one of
his that held her firmly around the waist.
"Would you like to talk about it?" She asked him. His answer was a growling no against her throat, she shivvered lightly.
Her fingers stroked his scalp lightly..her tone was light, jovial.
"Do this often"
This earned her a dark chuckled.
"No" He replied with a verbal sneer.
She grinned and leaned back against him, relaxing with a dramatic sigh. "Ahhh...A man of Few words...there is a God." Snape burried his face deeper into her shoulder and shook with laughter. Laughter soon became hysterical cackling.
She turned suddenly in his arms and without so much as a word, pulled him unresisting into a true embrace, where he was the one held. Not her. Hysteria became silent sobs and he quaked like a leaf against her. Gentle fingers soothed his hair and she wondered...how many tears would she dry this stay at Hogwarts. Even at home greived people somehow found their way to her.
How long they stood there is hard to say, and even long after his tears had ceased, she caressed his hair. "Feel better?" She asked softly encouraging him to answer her with the tone she used.
His answer was a soft grunt as he pulled back...slim fingers brushed away the moisture from his cheeks as she looked up into his dark eyes.
Those dark eyes became suddenly serious as if Severus finnaly realized what it was he had just done. He'd lost control of his composure infront of a Student...not to mention a student that he shouldnt be interested in... He opened his mouth to speak and was silenced with a finger.
"No one has to know. No one needs to know, anything about this." His entired body relaxed and he nodded, not trusting his voice..
She gave him a cheeky smile and streched. "Besides, Im still going to be the most troublesome student you've ever had the misfortune to teach."
He smirked, then sneered. "I wouldnt have it any other way."
And walking beside one another, they made their way back to the school...much healed if for a short time...
Danny's only realization now was, what was her relationship with Severus? And how would that affect her school?