Oh, wow! Here I was, busy and stressed out as ever, and suddenly the story had over 1,000 views o.O
I love you guys! 3 I also want to apologize for not updating sooner!
J. K. Rowling owns the main plot involving Harry, and anything else you might recognize! :)

Hope you enjoy the new chapter!

- Mattimo

Chapter 8: Teach me

My limbs were unbelievably heavy as I sat up in what appeared to be a sofa. The darkness of the room blinded me for several moments before I tried to make out my surroundings. One thing I did know for sure, I was certainly not in the Hospital Wing! To my right I could make out a faint glimmer of light. It was coming from underneat a dark, wooden door. When I tried sharpening my hearing, I managed to make out the soft scraping of pen against paper. I graduatly lifted my feet up from the sofa and placed them firmly on the floor. My whole body was still half refusing me, so I had to do everything very carefully. The last thing I wanted was to end up in bed again. I was too tired of that. Of lying down. Several times as I walked across the room I found myself crashing into different objects that I couldn't make out at all in the terribly dim light, but luckily I never broke or knocked anything over.
As I got closer and closer to the door, a headache started to appear. One of those terrible headaches that makes your eyesight turn blurry and all you want to do is lie down and eat sweets. It was very much alike the one I had gotten the day I had fallen and lost my ability to move. It terrified me, but I couldn't allow myself to stop walking when I was already so close to my own goal. The door handle was icy cold against my skin, making me shudder as I pulled the door towards me. Luckily the door wasn't very heavy, as I simply pulled it towards me, never having to use too much energy.
Professor Snape sat behind a high desk next to a fireplace, very close to the middle of the room. As I got closer, I managed to see the huge pile of papers waiting at his side. Professor Snape didn't look up from the papers he was grading before I gripped the edge of the desk, feeling like a small child while standing there in front of him. The man looked absolutely exhausted.

"Great to see you back in order, Miss Potter." he said quietly to me as I sat down in the chair in front of his desk.

"It feels good to be." I couldn't help but smile for a short moment before turning serious again. "It's all thanks to you of course."

Professor Snape stopped writing immediately, and for a moment I thought I had said something terribly wrong. But the expected anger never came. Nor did the yelling. All he did was stare at me like I was someone he had never seen before. In the end the stare made me too uncomfortable, so I began to stare at the desk instead. My voice was shaking when I carried on.

"What's wrong with me, Professor? Why do things like these keep happening to me...?"

The quietness of the room seemed to be yelling at me. It was even worse when it seemed to go on and on forever. Professor Snape kept sending me uncertain looks, only torturing me even more. All the candles and the fireplace all kinda stopped giving me a comforting feeling.

"I don't know." The answer finally came to be.

Never did I look up from that one spot on the side of the desk. My whole world was falling more and more apart. If it had been anyone but him telling me that, I probably wouldn't have believed them or even been affected at all by the news, but professor Snape, potion master and know-it-all didn't know what was wrong with me. The world seemed to go in slow motion after that. Like the whole world was slowly crushing me with it's slow and quietness. I often got curious of what professor Snape was doing, but never plucked up the courage to look up, in fear of meeting his eyes. One after another I let the tears fall down my face, hot silver petals to my now icy cold skin.

"Teach me."

"What?"

I was able to make out the soft scraping of a chair, before professor Snape suddenly appeared in my vision, kneeling down beside me. For a couple of moments he just knelt there, probably hoping that I would chose to face him in the end. It didn't take long before he got impatient, though, and he lifted right hand to make me face him. I only dared to look at his hands at first, but slowly I let my eyes meet his in the very end.

"Teach me how to stay normal. To stop these things from happening to m." My voice seemed to want to break down several times, but I wouldn't let it. Not in front of him. "I promise to be good! Never speak unless spoken to. Only do what you tell me to. Just please! I can't stay like this! I just can't...!"

A single tear managed to escape my eye. I could see professor Snape's uncertain and worried expression, and it made me nervous.

"This will take years and years to learn, Miss Potter."

A small smile appeared on my face as hope filled me to the core.

"I'll do anything, sir! Just, please!" I stopped, uncertain of how to go on. "I'm willing to do anything. Even if it takes my whole life to learn."

Professor Snape got up so quickly that I almost fell of the chair in shock. With steady and long strides he walked into his chambers, motioning for me to follow. With stumbling feet I followed, my throat suddenly dry, me licking over my lips over and over out of pure nervousness. In reality I felt really calm, but my body just wouldn't let itself be it completely. Professor Snape lead me into his living room where he had now lit several candles and torches to illuminate the room, and I noticed that this had been the room I had slept in.

"It's beautiful." I whispered before I could stop myself.

Professor Snape answered only with a short "hm.", but I did manage to detect a small smile on his lips, even if it was just for a moment. He then motioned for me to sit down on the sofa, the very same one I had earlier that evening stumbled up from.

"So, Miss Potter, let's get straight to it. You want me to teach you how to brew the right potions to help you? To help you strenghtening your mind so that nothing unwanted will be let in?"

I thought his words over in my mind again and again, before finally nodding.

"I want you here, every Monday and Wednesday. Make up a lie to any curious friends."

"Oh, I doubt if that will be a problem, sir." I almost laughed with a soft smirk on my face.

"Why is that, Miss Potter?" Professor Snape was gathering several books from his bookcase, his face turned towards me.

"I have no friends you see, sir."