It's been two weeks since I last uploaded, why? Because my brain just basically stopped working. I've literally had this document sitting in front of me every night for two weeks, and I've struggled to put my ideas into words. But a miracle happened. I literally had a dream about how this chapter was going to work, and I woke up first thing this morning and put my dream into words. So, here we are. Hopefully, this time you won't have to wait so long for another chapter.
Oh, and I just remembered a review I got, regarding the future romantic relationships of Hannah. Like I said previously, this isn't solely romance based, but as I also mentioned, there will be romance. I'm not, and never would I ever, actually reveal to anyone what will happen in a story before it's even posted. But I will tell you this. I have everything I want to happen in the story embedded in my head. I do know exactly what is happening and what will happen, and I know as a fact, that there will be people who aren't entirely happy about some things that will happen in the story. But I must remind you that this is a reflection of certain morals in real life, as this is also a reflection of concepts I think are important to bring into view, and, most importantly, this is, and will be, the exact representation of a novel which I'd, myself, want to read. So, if you have the exact same expectations as I do in a novel, then you should be very satisfied with the contents. If not, well, at least you can say that you've read a fanfiction which, as far as I know, has ideas that have never before been expressed in any previous fanfictions.
Weeks went by for Hannah, filled with ordinary school work, narrowly missed detentions, very little time spent with Adrian, and rarely seeing Snape. Adrian had attended nightly quidditch practices, whereas Snape disappeared almost nightly to do duties he rarely spoke of. Despite Hannah's constant crave for being alone, time had changed what being alone meant. Isolation seemed bliss at times, at others being alone meant being lonely. She had read almost every book on the shelf in Snape's quarters, and almost anything worth reading in the library. Spero had become more distant from Hannah, having been spending a lot of time playing with Ligo.
To Hannah's pleasure, quidditch approached that Saturday. As everyone filed into the quidditch stands, Hannah headed straight towards the Hufflepuff stands with Dani, to avoid contact with any of the other Slytherins, which she noticed seemed to be engaged in a terribly structured chant of criticism while stupidly holding offensive signs directed at Gryffindor. Hannah watched as the Slytherin team walked onto the pitch, her eyes on Adrian. "Bit of a hottie, isn't he?" Dani voiced, drawing Hannah's attention away.
"Wait, what?" Hannah said.
"Fred. He's a bit of a hottie." Dani clarified.
"Fred. Right. Sure. What about his identical twin?" Hannah replied, humorously.
"Oh yeah… well, he's alright too, I suppose." Hannah rolled her eyes at Dani's response. The teams soared into the air, Hannah noticed Adrian's reluctance to get involved. He had told her and the twins that he wasn't going to go out of his way to make Slytherin win. She noticed he 'accidentally' threw the ball directly to the Gryffindor chasers to give them a clear shot at goal. Fred and George seemed to be laughing heartedly at this. Eventually Adrian scored a few goals just to prove his abilities before the match ended as Harry caught the snitch. All of the players flew onto the ground, apart from Adrian who flew directly to the Hufflepuff stands and got off his broom next to Hannah and Dani.
"Hopefully that gets me off the team." Adrian laughed as they made their way down the stands. "Malfoy and Flint had a bit of a go at me when I chucked the quaffle to Angelina. Thought I'd avoid going into the changing rooms to avoid any more conflicts."
"Smart move, but you've still got to face all the Slytherins in the common room." Hannah added. Adrian leant towards Hannah, before whispering,
"I'll just stay in Snape's room then." Hannah laughed to herself at the reference.
Funnily enough, that evening Adrian arrived at Snape's quarters with a bruised eye. Snape allowed Adrian's resignation from quidditch, as well as allowing him to stay in his quarters for as long as he needed. Snape had divided Hannah's room in two to allow room for another resident. Snape seemed a little more joyful than Hannah expected at the concept of having another occupant, considering his lack of enthusiasm to be social. The fact that Snape kept smirking out of the corner of his mouth, and eyeing the two of them oddly made Hannah seem somewhat uncomfortable, yet comforted at the same time with the thought of a not-so-miserable Snape. But whenever Snape hadn't been giving the two of them unusual looks, he was either entirely focused on marking, or nowhere to be seen.
More weeks passed by fast enough, which found Hannah woken up at an ungodly hour in the night, to loud quarrelling in Snape's main quarters. "Why can't you teach the boy?" Hannah heard Snape growl.
"Because I'm much more of a target than you, Severus. Besides, you know Voldemort's methods better than I" Dumbledore calmly responded.
"Yes, and then the useless boy will reveal to the Dark Lord that I have been tutoring him against the Dark Lord! The plan is riddled with flaws, it's difficult enough not revealing such strictly confidential information to the Dark Lord through my own mind, let alone the vulnerable and idiotic one of a 15 year old!"
"Severus. Please. If you tutor him sufficiently then that shouldn't be a problem. Remember our deal. That is that, now I'll be off." Hannah heard Dumbledore conclude in a soft but definitely final voice. As the door shut behind Dumbledore, bangs and smashes were heard from Snape's quarters. Hannah jumped when she saw the curtain dividing Adrian and Hannah's room open. Adrian appeared from behind the curtains, looking uncertain.
"I didn't know Snape was a death eater," he said. Hannah fumbled for the right reaction.
"Um… yeah. He is. He's not. But he was. But… Just talk to him about it. Please." Hannah awkwardly rambled.
"So you know he's a death eater?" Adrian sternly asked.
"He's not. Please, just talk to him about it." Hannah begged.
"Why are you voluntarily staying with someone knowing they've done the activities of a death eater? Hannah, he could've hurt you by now!" Adrian's face filled with fear. No, worry. Whatever it was, it made Hannah's insides turn at the sight of it. Not turn, jump. She didn't know what she felt.
"Oh for fucks sake, he's a good guy. He's fine. He's not evil. Come." Hannah sternly said as she grabbed his arm and pulled him out the door to Snape's lounge. Snape had his head in his hands, his floor covered with smashed glass, and peculiar potion ingredients slipping about in puddles of liquid.
"Snape!" Adrian rounded on Snape, pushing his way to the front of his desk.
"Sir." Hannah nudged Adrian in the side, correcting him, as she followed him towards Snape's desk.
"You didn't fucking tell me…"
"ADRIAN WANTED TO KNOW," Hannah bellowed over Adrian's aggressive tones, cutting him off. "Why you've been secretive about your allegiance. He overheard your conversation with Dumbledore." Hannah finished, giving Adrian a death stare to warn him to calm down. Snape slowly lifted his head to the students, his face pale. He looked too unwell to even speak. Instead, he pointed his wand at his temple, stringing out the memory of the time he had explained his allegiance to Hannah, placing it in a vial, then handing it to Adrian. Adrian's eyes narrowed towards Snape, obviously unhappy about the way Snape was going about the explanation. "Please Adrian, just watch it." Hannah gave Adrian a pleading look, which caused Adrian to exhale loudly, before exiting the room, heading towards Dumbledore's office to use the pensieve.
"Hannah." Snape eventually voiced, his voice sounding croaky and defeated. Hannah was taking back with the mention of her first name. "He asked me to teach Potter occlumency." He let out the words barely audibly.
"Yeah?" Hannah replied to encourage him for an explanation.
"If the Dark Lord see's that I've been helping Potter, he'll torture me, then kill me." Snape managed to voice
"Yes, but sir, you can simply tell him that you were trying to prove to Dumbledore that you're on his side. You could tell him it's a whole façade to fool Dumbledore in believing that you're truly fighting against the Dark Lord." Hannah reasoned.
"That's possible, but that's not my only concern." Snape let out a long breath. "Potter is bound to find out about you staying in my rooms. If the Dark Lord is aware of this, you'll become a target for torture through any mistakes I may make."
"So you want me to move back into the dormitories?" Hannah questioned, dreading the idea.
"No, but I must ask you a really big favour." Snape let out the words reluctantly.
If finishing a chapter with a cliff hanger makes me an asshole, then so be it. Leave your reviews predicting the next chapter, leave your reviews based on how you think my story is going so far, and, as always, please please please leave me a message or review correcting any grammatical mistakes that I have made. Thank you so much for reading, and hopefully, I'll post again very soon. 3