Main Character: Cloe Todd; sixth year; Ravenclaw; Leo; long black wavy hair; bright blue eyes; tall thin figure; low self-esteem

Snape x Female

Book: Half-Blood Prince

Recommend song: False God by Taylor Swift & Doin' Time by Lana Del Rey (all songs can be found in my snape playlist in my Spotify account that is linked in my bio)

The day was Friday night and nobody had classes until Monday morning, but I had taken all week to handwrite a letter to Professor Snape because... Well... It isn't easy to hide a crush that you have on a teacher from your best friends let alone have them keep their mouths shut about it around people so you kind of have to take things into your own hands, like what I am doing. Writing a letter to be sent to Snape at 11 pm where he will hopefully not chase Hope, my owl, back to my room. I read over the letter I had written to make sure that I had spelled everything correctly and I had made the sentences sound realistic hoping that he wouldn't slap me across the head right when I got into class on Monday or search for me over the weekend. I warmed up some black wax, put the letter into an empty envelope pressed the hot wax onto the seams and then painted some gold glitter on the rose that the wax press left. I whistled for Hope and gave it to her and told her,

"To Severus Snape, and don't mess this up." She flew out of my window and I took this moment to go to sleep if there was a response waiting for me the next morning we'd see if I had enough time to even look for it since Luna would want to take me to Hogsmeade bright and early.

****The Next Morning****

I woke up to the sound of someone trying to play my piano but failing miserably. I opened my eyes and saw Cho gently tapping on the keys trying to find a good rhythm that made sense, but to be honest she was having a hard time trying to figure it out. I groaned when she hit a flat note and she turned over to look at me.

"Ugh, thank gosh you're awake, Luna won't stop sending messages to ask me if you have woken up already."

"And thank gosh you stopped playing." I chuckled as Cho just frowned at me.

"I'm trying my best alright?" I chuckled again and got up to go to the bathroom. I put on some fairly normal muggle clothes which are only black and wrapped my hair up in a bun since I was too tired to go and have a shower before meeting Luna in the courtyard. I grabbed my combat boots, and a beanie and threw on my light grey jacket and left the common room hoping I wouldn't run into anybody knowing about what I sent to Snape last night. I made my way through the hallways saying hello and good morning to the professors that I knew and finally found myself walking towards Luna where she ran up to me and grabbed my arm.

"Come on! We can't waste any more time!" She said before she started to drag me alongside her as she started to move at a jogging pace.

"What is SO important that I have to wake up this early and run to Hogsmeade with you for?"

"We have to prepare for your first date dummy!" I stopped in my tracks which made Luna slow down very quickly and turn towards me.

"No, I am NOT going on any dates you have planned Lovegood."

"Oh come on Clo! You'll love him!" I let go of her hand and said back,

"I most especially will not! You know I'm not the kind of person to do these types of things." She sighed and responded,

"Trust me, once I can hook you up with Snape-" I cut her off right when she finished saying his name.

"Shh!" I looked around and saw a few people walking in front of us not even looking back at us like we weren't even here. I looked back at Luna and said,

"When and IF you do it better not be a joke or some shit like that." She laughed and said in her airy voice,

"That would be a funny joke, but I wouldn't want to hurt you in the process. I also know that you sent him a letter." My eyes widened at her last comment.

"How?" She patted my back as we started to walk again.

"I saw your failed letters, but don't worry I think you probably did a good job." She smiled and not as a joke, but she was being serious. I smiled back and we started to talk about some other stuff as we made our way to Hogsmeade. Once we got there Luna needed some new books first and foremost so we went and got those spending 20 minutes of the day, but I honestly was NOT ready to see what she had planned for me today. After a few more minutes of walking around she finally brought me into a store which was a tailor store for formal wear, now I was starting to panic.

I better not have to wear a damn lace red dress for this.

After Luna dragged me around for about half an hour trying to find a dress for her she then finally moved on looking for one for me. At first, I hated it to the point that I was ready to just disappear and leave Luna here, but of course, she wasn't going to let that happen and sooner than later I started to have fun trying on dresses. Luna would say things like, "Just imagine walking into a ballroom wearing this! You would win all of the guy's hearts!" or "Snape would fall over on his face if he saw you wearing that." After a while, she started to bring up my confidence in dress shopping and at one point I didn't even realize that we had missed lunch. I finally had the thought of what this was all for and asked Luna.

"The Yule Ball of course! I know you wanted to go just for fun, but I think you should try to grab someone's attention while you're there." She then winked at me as she pushed me back into the dressing room. After that Luna had given me a few more dresses to try on, but I wasn't too comfortable with how much flesh they were showing off whereas Cho wanted me to wear them. I went around the store one more time to try and find the perfect dress and I finally found it. It was a nice pearl blue with a tad bit of beads on it. I ran to the open dressing room and threw it on as quickly as I could, once I was finished putting it on I came out and showed Luna and Cho who both gasped at the dress, I also added a quick spin to make the dress flow in the thin air. Yes it didn't have much holding the dress up and I didn't need to wear a bra, but it was the dress I was going to buy.

Luna loved the dress and once we got back to Hogwarts she made Cho and I do kind of like a fashion show with the dresses we all picked out and because Cho is Cho she told us that we all should get pearl blue dresses to match each other at the ball in a few weeks. But of course, Luna then came up with another idea where I would have the lighter-coloured dress and be in the front of the group, like V-formation, and Luna and Cho would have darker dresses and be on my left and right sides as we entered the ball.

After we had dinner and I jammed out a bit on my guitar I was pretty bored and decided to take a walk around the school just because I could. Soon I left the common room and decided to start my walk on the top floor near the Ravenclaw common room and to also get a beautiful few of the school grounds from the top of the astronomy tower as the sunset. I made my way up the steep stairs and sat on the railing that viewed the Black Lake with the sun coming down reflecting off of the water making everything look gorgeous. I took this moment to just relax and breathe deeply, I didn't have enough time to think about what Professor Snape would say to me about my letter since I was busy dress shopping, but now my mind was ready to just relax and calm down so I wouldn't be so stressed about it if I thought about it at this moment. As I watched the sunset disappear under the horizon and have the darkness of the nightfall over the school I walked around the lower east part of the school making my way to the courtyard I heard an owl screech coming from my right and saw a deep grey giant bird about to fly into me, but flew up and dropped what he was asked to deliver on my head. After I stared down the owl as it flew away I opened the letter, but before taking it out of the envelope I made sure that it was my name on the front. Then my heart started to pound at a crazy strong rate so much that I could feel and hear my forehead. It was my name written in Snape's handwriting. I ran back to my dorm room praying that Cho and Luna were at least in the common room so then they could read the letter before I did instead of waiting around for them or just reading it myself and feeling hurt and scared by myself. Thankfully Luna was sitting on a chair near a window and I quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her up the stairs, once we got into the dorm Cho was reading as well along with studying Herbology. I sat them down in front of me on the floor while I rocked back and forth having a panic attack as they read what Snape had to say in response. After a few minutes of them reading and me trying to breathe normally and keep my heart rate low they finally looked at each other and whispered until they both looked at me and then gave me the letter. As I was reading my heart and breathing weren't staying stable, but Luna was trying to do her best as I read it. To sum up the letter in response he just addressed what I had said and wants to meet up with me to talk about it. As I was trying to calm myself down as my mind was racing with thoughts of him going to yell at me, tell Dumbledore or punish me in some way or another. Cho read over the letter, again and again, Luna was rubbing my back and trying to calm me down by playing music and singing along with it. Her voice has helped me calm down from a panic attack before so it works, but I wasn't so sure about this time. After about 20 more minutes of Cho and Luna talking about what the letter could mean and breaking it down I was slowly feeling very tired and felt like trying to fall asleep. Luna told me what time it was and after I got under my blankets Luna kept singing lightly and rubbing my back as I slowly drifted into sleep.

Waking up the next morning was hard since I wasn't up for leaving my bed when I might run into Snape and get screamed at in the hallways. Luna had convinced me to at least go have a shower and all of that jazz before breakfast which I'm guessing she was going to try to convince me to go to as well. I put on my black muggle clothes and put my hair up in a messy braid, but Luna said otherwise. She had me sit down on the bathroom counter as she curled my hair and put on some light, but visible green and black eyeshadow. I was confused about why she was dressing me up when I was just going to be in here for most of the day besides meals, so I asked her.

"Well, if you do run into Snape, not saying you will, but if you do, I think that you should look your best casually and maybe, just maybe if he isn't happy about what you sent in that letter then he will see you and think 'damn maybe I should at least give her a shot' and then bam true love." She giggled and I said back in response,

"Umm, I don't think that's how love works."

"I know, but it's the best way I can think to explain it to you." As she finished to my hair and all of that jazz I started to think about what he might say if my looks changed his mind. I smiled to myself and I guess Luna noticed and she smiled as well. We walked to the Great Hall and sat in our normal spots at our normal time before everyone arrived all at once. Cho came along soon after and was talking to her other friends who I never talked to before and Neville Longbottom came and sat on the other side of Luna. After a few more minutes students and teachers started to flow into the Great Hall and took their seats before our breakfast magically appeared in front of us. Once everyone was in their seats and Dumbledore talked for a few minutes our food arrived and people started filling up their plates and started up conversations with one another. Just out of curiosity I looked up to the professors' table and scanned my way through the teachers until my eyes locked with someone, it was Snape. He was already looking at me before I glanced his way, but as soon as we made eye contact Luna tapped my shoulder and brought me back to the conversation we were having. I tried my best to keep my eyes away from the teacher's table and started up any kind of conversation that I could to distract myself from looking up there. After about 15 minutes half of the students had finished and left the Great Hall me being one of them. As I stood up to leave a tall and dressed black person was right in front of me, I looked up at who it was to ask them to move so I could walk past, but my voice was caught up in my throat when I saw that it was Professor Snape. We looked at each other for a few seconds then he spoke first and said,

"Ms. Todd." I could only respond with,

"Professor." Then I slipped past him and walked away with a little more speed to my step. As I was nearing the entrance of the Great Hall ready to start running once I got out there to the common room I left someone staring at me I knew it was Snape, but then in the back of my head, it felt like someone was trying to fight off my mind and look into it. The feeling only lasted until I rounded the corner and was out of sight of whoever was doing that to me. Once I got back to the common room I grabbed my guitar and my notebook and started writing down some chords and notes. After about half an hour of finding a nice melody, I started to write some lyrics down and add them to the melody. As I strummed my guitar I added the words slowly into it and listened to how it sounded to see if I needed to change anything in the song.

I opened my eyes

watching you pass me by

Not even looking in my way

Wondering why you don't see me

But I won't judge you

I just want you to stay

I wrote down a few changes to the chords and started up again.

Not only that

But you don't even smile

I'm wondering if you even have a heart

I feel so broken

Without you

But you'd never even notice

What I'd do for you

I had practiced playing those chords and singing those lyrics to make sure that they fit together right and as I was doing this, many people were listening in and watching me play. As soon as I stopped playing and decided to use this uneventful day nearly everyone in the common room complimented me on my songwriting and the Head Boy even told me,

"Whoever that song is about, they don't deserve you if they make you feel like that, don't get distracted by idiots, do your own thing, Cloe." I thanked him and went to go on a walk on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. As I was walking I was thinking about what everyone said to me after they listened to the lyrics that I wrote down and gently laughed to myself.

If only they knew.

I stayed outside for a little while longer and sat down on some clean grass near the water's edge of the Black Lake and just took in the cool breeze that moved my hair and loved every bit of the fresh air that surrounded me. Soon I was laying on the grass with my eyes closed and just taking in the heat of the sun as it shone down on my face. I could hear other students who were either outside for a walk or were playing some kind of sport-related game along with the sounds of birds every which way. There was one point where I heard someone walk fairly near me then the footsteps stopped and I couldn't hear them for a few minutes until the person walked away, and yet again I felt that weird pain-like feeling in the back of my mind trying to get into my head. I quickly pushed them out even though it was pretty difficult to do so. I frowned and sat up to see where this person was so then I could glare at them, but I couldn't see anyone around me what so ever so I decided to get up and head back to the Great Hall to get some lunch and then probably go have a nap or something until dinner and then study for my classes while there still was time left in the day. As lunch was passing and Hermione was giving Harry a lecture about something just behind us I, yet again, felt that pain-like feeling in my head and at this point, I wasn't happy and wanted to smack whoever was trying to get into my head. So as anyone would I tried to search out for this very bold person and after a few minutes of looking around at the students I still could feel them trying to get in my mind and I realized that no student would be able to do Ollcomency so I looked up at the teacher's table and looked to see if anyone was staring me down. Nobody was looking at me from what I could tell, but I still could feel someone trying to get into my mind, I looked back up at the teacher's table just to make sure. And sure enough, I found the person staring me down trying to get into my head. I was fairly shocked and kind of scared when I realized that it was Professor Snape. My heart started to beat faster with fear and anxiety and soon enough I could hear it in my head. I was very worried that at some point he would get into my head and hear my thoughts which would most likely be about him or that he might search through my memories and find the ones involving him. My breathing got heavier as the fear was boiling under my skin, I could also hear another heart beating and more breathing like it was coming from me, but it wasn't.

Was I able to hear the pace of his breathing? There's no way that can be possible? If I can hear him, can he hear me?

My eyes widened with even more fear, I was completely shocked by the fact that I could hear his heartbeat beating in my chest versus my own and feeling air being pulled into my lungs, not on my command. It was very nerve-wracking to know that we had traded breathing paces and heartbeats, but I was trying my best to calm myself down to not hyperventilate or embarrass myself in front of Snape. I broke eye contact with him and I know it probably made me seem weak but by doing so it was easier to calm myself down without having to see him stare into my eyes. Soon I was able to push him out of my mind and feel myself breathing again and was able to hear my heartbeat once more. I let out a big long sigh which seemed to catch Cho's attention.

"What's with the sigh Clo?"

"I'm just tired and don't want to start classes again tomorrow, mainly Potions." I put my hand on my head trying to keep my heart beating at a slow pace and to cool myself off from the huge stare-off I just had with a teacher.

"Why Potions?"

"Snape is assigning another essay again."

"Damnit, I forgot about that."

As Cho asked Luna for help with a Potions essay and just help, in general, I looked back up to the teacher's table and saw that Snape was having a conversation with Professor McGonagall not even realizing that I was now the one staring at him. McGonagall glanced at me and saw me staring at Snape, doing I was snapped out of my thoughts and went back to eating food and listening to what my friends were talking about hoping that she wouldn't ask me about it or even realize that I was looking at Snape and turned my eyes away when I noticed her looking in my direction. As soon as my friends and I finished lunch we got up right away and made our way out of the Great Hall, but before I could leave I felt the pain again and this time I wasn't having it. So I spun around and saw Snape looking at me as he made his way to the main entrance of the Great Hall which was also where I was. As soon as he got closer to me I glared at him harshly and he came near me and stopped in front of me making me look up to be able to see his face as I had a not-so-happy expression plaster on my face. We just stared at each other for a few seconds until I said,

"Yes, Professor?" He responded to my question with,

"You seem to have joy with trying to intimidate me, am I correct?" I smirked and said back,

"I could ask you the same thing." We both stood there just glaring at each other not saying a word until Cho called my name and grabbed my attention making me look away to find where her voice came from.

"Looks like you'll need to try harder next time, looking away really doesn't work." He then passed me and left the Great Hall leaving me there wandering through my thoughts. I sighed and found Cho who asked to go to the Black Lake to do something and she wouldn't even tell me what it was she wanted to do after I asked her about 20 times in two minutes. Once we made it there, Luna and Ginny had already claimed a spot on the bright green grass and were having a conversation until Cho and I sat down beside them. Ginny gave them both a look that seemed pretty cheeky and mischievous like Ginny was at certain times. I didn't want to ruin their surprise or whatever so I didn't address the look on Ginny's face, but I did ask them,

"So, what is this all about?"

"Your date of course!" Ginny said very loudly and covered her mouth and laughed right after she screamed it at me. I tilted my head and asked them what Ginny meant by 'date'.

"Well, remember how I told you about that guy I had a date planned for you with?" Luna said,

"Yeah?"

"Well, we still kinda have to get him to say yes to having a date with you because I didn't ask him I just thought that we would be able to get him to like you enough, the reason why we are here, to get him to ask you out." I slammed my hand on my face and sighed. Cho and Luna sat there waiting for me to tell them that I wasn't doing this, but instead, I asked them,

"And how were you planning on doing this without me finding out who the guy is?" Luna opened her mouth and responded with,

"Right, um haven't planned that bit out yet, but I think I got it." I nodded and Ginny smiled and said in one very quick breath,

"I'm so happy you're going to finally have a boyfriend!" She giggled again along with Cho and they started to talk about what each person had to do and what things could happen and go wrong along with what we needed to do to fix those mistakes if they happened. After about half an hour of that we walked around, Luna said that they were looking for him but to be completely honest I think she was just stalling, but soon Luna spun me around and set us up for whatever she thought was going to work. I had to help a little first year with Potions and saying things like 'My mark in Potions is so high I think I might've beaten Snape's marks when he was a kid' or 'I think I'm Snape's favourite, but you know him, he won't talk about it' I kinda felt bad about bragging about this stuff to a first-year who probably too scared to even look me in the face, but as Luna signalled me to keep going I could feel the pain start-up in my head again. I stopped talking mid-sentence and peeked my head up to find Snape standing somewhere staring at me. Soon enough I found him walking closer to me through the courtyard locking eye contact with me. I realized that I couldn't stare at him for too long since I was just having a conversation with another student so I looked away and continued while I did my best to keep him out of my mind. After I looked away I could feel him pushing harder and harder into my mind and it became difficult to focus on what I was saying. As he walked by both the first-year student and I looked up at him and I glared at him whereas the first year kind of cowering in fear which I don't blame him for, but once you get to know him it isn't so bad. He stopped in front of us and he said to me,

"Ms. Todd."

"Snape." You could feel the heavy tension that was growing between us and I could see Luna kind of freaking out behind him, but I didn't want to pay attention to her at the moment, her plan could wait. I continued to glare at him and then he asked me,

"Why are you wasting your time on this first year?" I scoffed in my head and responded with,

"I think that it's at least worth a try to help someone versus just watching them struggle, don't you think?" This time he scoffed and walked away without looking back, but still trying to get into my head. I finished helping the student early since I wasn't having it with Snape today and went up to Luna and asked her,

"Did your plan work or what?" Cho nodded aggressively and Ginny was jumping up and down.

"Yeah, I'd say it worked. So what did Snape talk to you about?'

I knew this was going to happen.

"Nothing much, he just insulted the first year and we glared at each other for the most part." Cho was shocked by what I had told her and said,

"What? Why!"

"Ummm because he's a bee-" I stopped myself before I said anything too loudly and pulled them closer to me so I didn't have to talk loud enough for others to hear.

"He's been trying to use Legilimency on me all day." They all gasped and I smacked them in their arms.

"It's not that shocking, to be honest," Ginny said and I nodded in agreeance. We talked about it for a little longer until Hermione came and grabbed Ginny who I guess had promised to study for a test with her and forget about her so Luna, Cho and I just went back to our dorm and studied for our classes I also went over the lyrics and chords that I wrote and put into a song and finished it. Soon it was dinner and I didn't want to come face to face with Snape again or have Luna randomly say that it was time for another setup plan thing. We made it to our usual seats and waited for Dumbledore to say his daily speech before we could all eat. As soon as the food was on the table I dug right in and tried my best to hold myself back from looking up at the teacher's table for as long as I could, which hopefully will be throughout the whole meal. Luna was talking about the next setup with Cho and I was just listening in to the best of my ability since they were trying to talk quietly enough so that they could hear each other over the other students talking, but not loud enough for me to hear. I sighed and just focused on my food and thought about classes and whatnot which I was happy to get back to so I didn't have to be under Luna's rath the whole time with this stupid date-set-up thing. Soon it was the end of dinner all three of us had finished and wanted to go and take a walk around the lake I looked up at the teacher's table just out of instinct and as I scanned I didn't see Snape sitting in his normal spot.

Maybe he's in his class getting ready for classes tomorrow

I thought. I walked out with my friends, but before I could round the corner I felt a tinge of fear or anxiety in the back of my chest, probably because I thought that Snape not being at dinner was odd, even though I probably shouldn't think much of it, it still was in my mind. I pushed it out of my mind when Cho punched a Slytherin in the face and he fell to my feet. I stood there shocked at what Cho had done and looked up at her for an explanation and she said back with some tone,

"He slapped my ass!" She was about to kick him when Snape came around the corner and stopped her foot mid-swing with a spell. He let her foot fall to the ground and came up to us to say,

"Ms. Chang, Detention for hurting another student. As for the rest of you move along." Luna and I walked past the kid grabbed Cho's arm and started to walk away from the scene, but before we could get far Snape said,

"Ms. Todd, I need to talk to you after I get this boy some ice, meet me in my office," He stared right into my eyes and said once more,

"Don't be late." He grabbed the boy's arm to pick him up and summoned some ice as we walked away fairly quickly so I could freak out without Snape seeing me.

"Are you kidding me?" I put my face in my hands to try and calm down my anxiety whereas Luna was freaking out more than I was. Well, she was freaking out because of what I told her earlier and how now he wants to talk to me, alone, along with the confession letter I sent him earlier this week.

"I think you'll be fine, no worries Clo," Luna said as her breathing got a bit faster as she talked. I rested my head on the wall behind me and told them.

"I better go, can't be late." Cho wished me good luck as I rounded the corner to head down into the dungeons to Snape's office hoping that I wasn't going to be embarrassed or anything.

Who am I kidding?! This is going to be the actual end of me

My breathing slowed as I tried to calm myself down, but I just ended up making my breathing worse since I was slowing it by not breathing in general until I needed to breathe to stay alive. I ended up in the main part of the dungeons and followed the hallway to the Potions class, I was doing my best to keep myself calm, but being able to hear my heartbeat in my head wasn't helping. I got to his classroom, but before I entered I leaned against the wall and let out a sigh, as soon as I felt comfortable with entering to my death I stood up straight and went to knock on the door, but before my hand could make any impact I heard someone on the other side say 'come in' I dropped my hand and opened the door saying to myself,

"That's a little creepy."

"It's hard to ignore footsteps coming from the other side of a door." I looked up and saw Snape sitting at his desk and from what I could tell he was marking tests. I walked farther into his classroom and with each step it felt like everything was getting hotter and hotter as I got closer to my death and I was going to be dragged to hell for it.

"You wanted to talk to me, professor?" I made it to his desk and stood on the other side of it hoping to keep something physical between him and me.

"Yes, I wanted to talk about many things, but I think we both know what we need to talk about Ms. Todd." I breathed in deeply when he said my name in such a manner and told myself to not think like that which he was most likely going to yell at me. He glanced to a chair near his desk as if to say 'Pull up a chair as I did so I could feel the fear building inside me and just wished for like a basilisk or something to just pop out of thin air and kill me on the spot. He cleared his throat and said,

"How have you managed to be able to stop someone from using Occlumency on you?" I wasn't expecting that kind of question and I didn't know the answer, but I had to ask him a question about that too.

"Why were you trying to use Occlumency on me I think is the better question?" I glared at him and he snared but still answered my question before moving on.

"Dumbledore has me making sure that each student is following the rules."

"And he said that it's okay to use Occlumency on students that break simple rules?"

"Students that could be moving into the path of becoming a death eater." I widened my eyes, but then thought,

Why would he use it on me then?

"Why on me then? I can confirm that I have nothing to do with Voldemort or have any intention to join him and his little rebellion." He continued to look at me and then asked,

"Again, how are you able to block people from entering your mind?" I sighed and said,

"I don't know. I seriously don't know." I crossed my arms and then he leaned forward in his chair and said,

"Seems a little suspicious, don't you think? You aren't involved with Voldemort, but you can stop people from taking over your mind..." I sighed and said,

"Okay, I gave you an answer to your question, can I leave now?"

"Oh no, we still have way more to talk about." I looked up at him and in his eyes when he said,

"How about we start with the letter, Ms.Todd." My heartbeat dropped as well as my breathing. I knew that he was probably going to talk about it, but I wasn't sure that it would be right now. I kept looking into his eyes as he leaned back into the chair and said once more,

"I think that's the better question." I gulped and seat down more in my chair and to be honest I didn't know how to start this or what I should do first off.

Do I just run for it? Or do I sit through it and deal with nearly facing my death right here, right now?

Soon enough I got the courage to speak and give him some kind of response.

"Are we sure we need to talk about this? I mean classes are tomorrow and I want to get started on my essays-" My breathing hitched as I listened to his words.

"Yes, we need to talk about it. You sent me a confession letter and have been ignoring me all weekend instead of saying it to my face." My throat started to close up which meant that tears were about to form, but I didn't want nor need them to so I pushed that feeling away and said back to him,

"It was a ridiculous act that I did at 11 pm on a Friday after a week full of school, I was most likely not thinking straight." I folded my hands together and sneezed hoping that he would buy my bait and let me leave, but I knew that wasn't going to work.

"You've run away from me after you sent it, normally you'd stare me down or say hello, but you haven't been. You were thinking straight when you wrote it." He was staring me down and at this point, I didn't know what to do. I was scared. Being as frightened as I was I just, out of random instincts, told him,

"I am uncomfortable talking about this right now and I'm not going to lie I am pretty afraid." I squeezed my hands again trying to hold back tears of fear and it wasn't the normal fear, it was the fear of rejection and fear of saying something wrong and messing this whole thing up, and I might've just done that now. I gulped as Snape took that information in and we sat there in silence for a while until he spoke up, but his voice was very soft and quiet.

"You know you did bring this upon yourself, and you can't blame me for trying to talk to you about it versus going right to Dumbledore and talking to him about it instead." It was sympathetic really, and I didn't understand why he would talk like that. I stayed silent for a while which I guess moved him to speak some more, probably trying to make me feel better and not scared.

"Listen, I didn't want to talk about this either, believe me." I still couldn't find my voice and was starting to think about how I could make this less nerve-wracking so I just asked him a simple yet kind of dumb question since I knew the answer already.

"Do don't need to have these kinds of talks often, do you?" He shook his head no and now I could feel that he wanted me to speak and continue to speak for as long as I could knowing this I was very anxious, but I decided that since I was already here, might as well face a fear I didn't know I had.

"Look, if you don't want to talk about it, which I get, can we just forget this ever happened?" I said leaning forward in my chair as if ready to get up and leave, but his next response made me want to stay longer.

"You know, I've been in the same place as you, and you can't just forget these feelings. Trust me, they're the reason I'm so cold to everyone and why my life has become dark." I was shocked to hear him confess something to me. I wasn't ready to hear that and it stunned me, not gonna lie. I give him a look of interest but also mixed with shock and empathy. His face was softened and kind, but as soon as he saw my reaction of empathy it faded away and the cold hard Snape was back. I let off a disappointed expression and then said,

"But this time those words don't matter do they?" I realized how attacking those words sounded and instantly wanted to take them back, but it was too late now. He was giving off a vibe of sadness or guilt rather than making me feel that way since that was the way he had treated me and everyone else for years before now and it's hard to think that he could try and be nice. He sighed and said,

"It does seem that way doesn't it?" I nodded lightly and dropping my head down a little to break eye contact with him, he continued with,

"Maybe it doesn't have to be that way... for you." I was shocked and lifted my head back up to look at him and he just gave off a slight smile and he changed right in front of me. His posture softened and the muscles in his face relaxed and his eyes, good god his eyes, they shone with so much sympathy and possibly love that I instantly relaxed too and took in a deep breath waiting for what would happen next. Soon enough he leaned forward in his chair and got up. I stood up with him and he said,

"You should probably go now, it's a few minutes until curfew." My eyes widened once again in fear.

I'm going to get caught by Filch and have to do some sort of scary punishment" Don't worry though if you don't make it back in time, I'm always here to explain." He said pointing to his head.

"You probably don't know it, but if you can block someone out of your head then you most likely can enter someone's head." I nodded after I learned something new and made my way over to the door with Snape following me. Before I could leave he turned me around and asked me,

"Why don't you give it a try? Try it on me." I shrugged and focused on him and him alone, feeling myself push into a cold and hard barrier like it was right in front of me but there was nothing there. I felt the wall drop and I instantly pushed into his mind and was brought to his mind only to hear him say to me through his thoughts,

"See? It isn't that hard once you get it, and neither is this." He had trapped me in his mind, closing the wall behind me, but I had pushed myself out. Once my mind was back in its rightful place I noticed Snape leaning in and felt my own body leaning towards his. Soon enough his hands cupped my cheeks and the coldness of them seeped into my hot skin. He looked at my face getting in every detail until he brought his eyes to mine and at that point, I grabbed his shirt and pulled him into me causing our lips to crash together. Soon enough he started to kiss me and we moved our lips in sync causing my legs to go weak by the way his lips covered mine and how passionate and sweet his kisses were. Before I could fall to the floor he wrapped his arm around my waist and I could feel myself go light-headed with the feeling of his cold touch on me and the fact that we were face deep into each other. But all good things have to come to an end and I slowly pulled away from him still in his arms looking into his deep onyx eyes. Not knowing what to do next and being so full of love and happiness I smiled and gently laughed which made Severus smile and laugh a little too.

"Okay, but you should get going."

"Yeah." I was still in his arms and leaning tight against his chest and I said,

"I'm going to need to be set free to be able to go you know."

"Oh yeah right." He gently dropped his hands and rubbed the back of his neck. I put my hand on the door to leave, but before I opened it I said to him,

"And thank you for understanding me." He smiled at me and it just filled me up so much that I turned back to him and gave him a deep long hug, soon enough he returned it and I needed to feel his lips one last time before whoever knew when again. It was much more gentle and loving than the last and I left his office feeling like I was at the top of the world. I ran back the whole way to my dorm to tell Luna and Cho feeling like I would never run out of energy every time his laugh played back in my head or his smile showed up in my vision. Once I burst through the door getting their attention I closed the door, cast a sound-proof spell around the walls and just yelled at them,

"We kissed!" Luna literally jumped up and grabbed me in a huge big hug and spun us around as Cho screamed and was super shocked. Soon enough I was laughing and daydreaming about him along with tears flowing strongly down my face. After we had calmed down a bit an owl landed in our window and dropped off a letter. I grabbed it to see who it was for and yet again I had received a letter with my name on it in Snape's handwriting, I squealed again and jumped onto Luna who was ready to sleep for tonight.

"Read it, read it!" Cho said from the other side of the room on her bed and I opened it carefully making sure not to rip the parchment and read it out loud for them to hear.

Dear Cloe,
Yes, this is random and there wasn't any need for me to write this to you, but I just want you to know that if you need help with anything I'm here for you. If you need any comfort I'm always by your side and I will never leave it. You have finally made me come out of my hard shell and have made me realize that living in the past is never a good thing. I couldn't imagine what would've happened if I missed you and didn't give myself another chance at love. You truly mean a lot to me, and I know that I mean a lot to you, and that's all I've ever wanted to feel.

Sincerely,
SS