Y/n stood under the gentle hot fall of the shower. She smiled to herself knowing that she had a profound effect on the man who lay naked in the bed of the main room. She thought back to how they ended up together which would have never seemed possible given their initial meeting.

Early in her learning, she hated him and felt only contempt towards him. He was cold, indifferent, and difficult. His demeanor was always aloof and distant towards her. As much time as they had spent together in the first months, she learned nothing about him. He never answered her questions, he never offered an anecdote, not even so much as an empathetic shrug.

She finally got some of the answers she craved, not from his own mouth, but from a book. Late one evening, unable to sleep due to recurring nightmares, she dreaded the idea of having to go to him begging for a calming potion. Her dependence on the potions he provided harbored only further disdain of her reliance on him.

She resigned to another sleepless night instead, and so she had snuck from her room to the library within the school. She strode through the magical history section. If this was a new world she must be a part of, she swore to learn more about it. Y/n walked the length of the shelves running her fingers over many of the old spines. She pulled a book which gave a detailed retelling of recent history. The title is what caught her eye: "The Battle of Hogwarts." She pulled it from the shelf and sat down at one of the many empty tables of the library opening the book and began to read.

The next morning Severus waited in his office to begin their morning lessons. She usually arrived very punctually, one of the few qualities about her that he actually tolerated. He looked at the clock wondering where she was. After a whole hour of her absence, he went in search of her. He expected she must have overslept. He checked her private room in the dungeons near his bedroom was empty. She was not there.

He found her alone in the library. She sat slumped at a table, her head down resting on a book. She had obviously fallen asleep reading late into the night. He sharply wrapped his knuckles against the hard wooden surface of the table. She immediately sat up with a start.

Severus scowled down at her. He noticed the book she had fallen asleep upon. "Learn anything valuable?"

Y/n closed the book immediately and stood up trying to smooth out her hair and disheveled clothes.

"Perhaps you should take some time to…. clean yourself up a bit." With a sneer, he turned on his heel and headed out of the library towards his office.

Y/n returned to her private chambers. As she stood in a towel in front of her wardrobe, she plucked some clothes to change into. Her mind was a mess with the information she had read in her last book. She learned more about Severus in a few pages of reading than she had in the last several weeks she spent in his presence. He was a double agent; a spy, serving at the right hand of two of the greatest wizards of all time. She hadn't gotten so far as to learn how he managed to survive it all. She couldn't imagine the amount of pain and pressure he must have endured during the last war. She imagined his cold calculated disposition and understood where much of his anger must stem from. She was exhausted and stiff from having spent her night sleeping on a hard wooden chair in the library. She sat on the bed for a minute still lost in thought.

Y/n slowly laid back, still in her towel, her mind wondering, and her hands wondering even more. She wasn't sure why her thoughts were of him or why she felt compelled to let her fingers trail along her legs. She laid nearly naked alone in her own room. She kept her focus on the tickling sensation caused by her fingertips running along her inner thigh. Her mind was imagining it was kisses. Y/n couldn't stop now, she felt a warm desirous sensation aching at the junction of her legs. Severus's tall dark figure manifested in her mind. She further imagined things she wanted to hear him say.

"Have you been a good girl for me?" She imagined Severus's voice saying. "Do you enjoy this, my love?"

"Mmmmm…." she breathed, "Yes."

Y/n bit her lip, keeping her eyes closed tightly, knowing if she opened them, she may come to her senses. She told herself it wasn't him that she lusted for, just the touch of a man, but still it was his deep voice which echoed in her head spurring her on. "Keep going." She pressed on with her digital ministration, her body heating up, driving closer to a release she hadn't felt in months.

Following that morning, she never saw him in the same light again. For days, he plagued her thoughts. She continued to read about him in the book she found over and over again. Though very little information was revealed in its few pages on him, it was more than she had ever learned from him directly. The book not only revealed his vital role in the downfall of the greatest dark wizard, but of his attempted murder and the uncovering of his innocence. Severus Snape was deemed a Deatheater in the eyes of the magical world. If it hadn't been for Severus's memories, shared by another famous wizard, Harry Potter, he would have been tried for crimes against wizard-kind and imprisoned. Y/n desperately wondered what those memories were, but knew she likely would never find out.

Following the new revelation of Severus, Y/n never hesitated to seek him out when her nightmares would come to terrorize her. When the fear and dread consumed her, she would run to his rooms close by. No matter the hour, he always answered. His response was always gruff and short, merely shoving potion vials in her hands and closing the door on her. But he always answered her knock. Always.

When he allowed her to begin sleeping in his arms she was able to shake her dependence upon the potions, but replaced it with a dependence upon him. After weeks of their new routine, she realized he would always answer her knock and he never turned her away. She would creep to his rooms and tap her knuckles to the door of his private chamber. With little wait, he would answer the door to her. It was almost as if he awaited her arrival. Nothing needed to be said between the two. Silently he would hold the door open and step aside for her to enter. Without words the two would climb into bed each falling into a familiar, intimate position in each other's arms.

She surmised that in his stoic, silent indifference, the greatest compliment he would ever afford was to answer the door whenever he knew it was her knocking. And in the realization she further believed he received as much comfort in her presence as she did in his.

One night, Y/n felt a sense of longing for further physical contact. She couldn't be sure if it was him she craved or just a thirst that only one thing could quench. She laid against him in bed. Her head resting on his chest. He traced his thumb over her shoulder which let her know he had not yet fallen asleep.

"Severus?" She whispered

He hummed a quiet confirmation that he was listening.

"May I kiss you?" At her words, she felt, for the briefest of moments, a flash through his body as if a static charge tensed his muscles, but an instant later, the feeling was gone leaving her unsure if she had felt it at all.

There was a long pause until he hummed another quiet confirmation.

Y/n shifted in the bed propping herself on her elbow. She leaned into him and placed the faintest, softest kiss falling just barely upon the corner of his lips.

She pulled back slowly waiting for his reaction. "Did you find that satisfactory?" He asked in the same aloof tone he used in his lessons.

"No."

"Then try again."

As if drawn by his command, she leaned in again and placed her lips squarely upon his own. She never opened her mouth, but her lips massaged his gently. She pulled back again meeting his gaze as she did so.

"Again" He commanded.

For a third time she leaned into him. This time she felt his arm tighten around her shoulder pulling her closer to him. His other hand had reached up to the back of her neck holding her in place. By instinct her mouth parted. As if knocking on his chamber door, his own lips parted allowing her entrance. His tongue met hers and the two danced between mouths matching each other's hunger.

Her body began to move of its own accord, her hand explored the bare skin of his chest massaging the pale, scarred flesh that lay taught over his frame. Her leg crossed his body and she pulled herself atop him. Severus's hands moved to her thighs lightly caressing her through the thin silk fabric of her pajama pants.

Y/n craved more contact with him. She pulled the shirt she wore over her head, removing it and letting it get lost amongst the bedsheets. She bent down pressing her torso to his and continued to kiss him. Bare skin, met bare skin. She felt Severus's hands explore the naked flesh of her back.

And thus, their relationship evolved; from contempt to familiar, and finally to lovers.