After Snape made his hasty exit that evening, he immediately apparated to The Riddle House for the nights Death Eater meeting. There, many fellow Death Eaters discussed and relayed what happened after the Quidditch World Cup to Lord Voldemort. Lord Voldemort did not require much of Snape during that meeting, so his mind drifted elsewhere. How could she be back? She graduated Hogwarts and returned home, we were never supposed to meet again. What kind of terms were we even on? I thought she hated me. No way would she have taken this job knowing she would have to work alongside me. It just doesn't make any sense.
"Severus…" the Dark Lord hissed. This brought Snape out of his thought. He looked around the room and noticed it was empty aside from himself and Lord Voldemort. "…Why have you stayed behind? Do you wish to speak with me? Any news from Hogwarts?"
"No my lord, nothing new to recount. I'll get out of your way, if it is what you wish."
"Very well Severus." With that, Severus stood up from where he had been sitting the entire time and made his way to the door. "I would hope that you would pay more attention to our meetings next time Severus." Severus was chagrined.
"My deepest apologies my lord. I will try to focus more next time." Severus left The Riddle House and apparated back to Hogwart's front entrance.
It was very late now. Any distinguished Hogwarts student would have been long asleep by now. The castle's halls were empty and for a moment, Severus' day was peaceful.
He made his way to his chamber and opened the door only to find Professor Lermernia seated in a chair facing the entrance.
"Hello Severus." She did not know where he had gone after dinner. She figured it was the same mysterious place he would always run off to, all those years ago. But the matter wasn't really on her mind, she was more determined to find out why he had been so rude to her at dinner.
"How did you find my room?" He was interested to see her there after the way he treated her during dinner.
The chair she was sitting in had mangled and torn upholstery. She was twisting and focused on a stray thread on the arm rest. "It's a secret," she said. She lifted her head to meet his eyes "you're familiar with those."
Snape's room was not very big in square footage; however the room felt very open due to furniture positioning. As soon as you enter the head of Slytherin's chamber you are in his office, a circular room with ceiling-high mahogany bookshelves all around, custom made to fit the room's atypical shape and height. There is also a stove off to one side, so he can make himself tea as he does his paperwork. His dark mahogany desk is directly in the middle of the room with his chair facing the entrance and the other usually placed opposite his, but was now turned around and had Lermernia seated in it. There were no windows anywhere in his room. Past his office is one stair leading up to his bedroom, which is light yet still dark at the same time. Although you can only see a small selection of Snape's bedroom from his office, you could see that the walls were a natural yellow color, almost like an aged yellow, an unintentional color of yellow which helped to lighten the room, and his bedroom furniture kept with the mahogany theme going on in his office which made the room feel dark.
Still holding his eyesight, Lermernia stood up and walked over to Snape. She placed her hand on his face and studied him from up close, finally returning to meet his eyes again. "You haven't changed at all, Severus." Now, she wrapped her arms around his back, and placed the side of her head in his chest. Looking at a book directly in front of her she said "I miss you." She closed her eyes and hugged him tighter.
"Would you like a cup of tea?" He asked in his slow but stern voice.
Lermernia hoped he would reciprocate her feelings but she settled for any acknowledgement. "Just hot water with lemon, please."
"I see you haven't changed either." Hot water with lemon is what Lermernia always preferred instead of tea. He put on a kettle and sat in his chair at his desk.
With a flick of her wand, Lermernia turned the chair back around to face Severus and sat down.
"So, what have you been up to?" He was highly fascinated to find out. He hadn't heard from her in nine years and was beginning to worry that something might have happened to her.
She looked back at the stray thread on the arm rest and began twisting it again. "Well, once I graduated Hogwarts, there didn't seem to be any reason for me to stay here, or to find a job in the wizarding world…" She watched Snape now. Searching his face to see if what she had just said fazed him at all. Surely what she had just said must have hurt him a little. No sign. Snape had always been very good at hiding his emotions. Too good. "…I moved back to Chicago and got a job in the muggle world as a mathematician…" Lermernia was always very good math and puzzles, part of the reason why she was sorted into Ravenclaw in the first place. "…I had been working there for six years when Dumbledore wrote me and asked me to be a professor in charms the next year at Hogwarts. Obviously, I agreed."
Snape knew that Flitwick had wanted to retire for a long time now, or get a job as a proper maestro in the muggle world. At any rate, employing Lermernia was certainly a more interesting change of pace for the school.
"What about you?" she asked although she already knew what he was going to say. She merely asked to be polite.
"I've been here…teaching." He nodded his head still trying to process the fact that she had returned to Hogwarts.
The kettle was whistling now, so Snape stood up to fetch a teacup and pour Lermernia her drink. He tightly and harshly squeezed the lemon slice into the drink before dropping the lemon in the teacup. He handed it to her and she placed it on his desk in front of her. "Thank you," she said.
"I trust Dumbledore has told you about the boy."
"Harry Potter? Yes, of course." The tone in the room had changed now. It was no longer about the two of them and their quarrels. It was about something much bigger than that; it was about defeating the dark lord. "It's terrible what happened to his parents."
"You know, you look a great deal like his mother." Snape regretted the words as soon as he uttered them.
"You knew his parents?" Lermernia's focus shifted back to the two of them.
Snape noticed her sudden interest in his past relationships and chose his next words carefully, as not to divulge too much information, "I went to school with his parents."
"So yes. Yes you knew his parents." She was becoming flustered, as if she was building up to something.
Snape was confused and fearful of her impulsiveness.
"Was his mother's name by any chance Lily?" Lermernia had not known about Harry Potter, his parents, or Voldemort's quest at all until speaking with Dumbledore. She had spent so long in the muggle world that during that time she never concerned herself with what was happening on the other side. Events that occurred during her schooling at Hogwarts made her disinterested in wizards. However, Lermernia had been waiting a long time to find out who this mysterious Lily person was and her relation to Snape.
Snape had been found out and didn't know how to react. He paused to think of a delicate way to answer her, to keep her calm.
She stood and leaned over the desk waiting for an answer. Her eyes a little watery. A few moments passed and when it was clear that Snape was not going to admit to anything, Lermernia turned around and started moving towards the door, tears filling her eyes.
He started to chase after her, "Lila," he cried.
She was just about to open the door when she turned around and hit him gently with her forearm in the chest and held it there, "you always call me Lily! You always mistake me for her! Why couldn't you tell me who she was before?" She was in complete distress and searching his eyes to see if she was wasting her time asking questions or not.
"I…I…" What he was trying to convey was I'm sorry but in these sorts of moments it's difficult to articulate when you're worried you're breaking someone's heart.
She turned back around to the door, opened it, and fled his office. Hands covering her face as she went.