Love at detours // Severus Snape

Chapter 14

Elena was sitting in her DADA class, and she was utterly bored. She decided to shoot little wads at Draco and smirked when he turned around, looking annoyed. "Detention for not listening to my extremely interesting lesson, Mister Malfoy," she whispered jokingly and tried to imitate Professor Umbridge – or as she liked to call her, Umbitch. Of course, she had to bite her tongue when talking to her, so that name wouldn't accidentally slip out of her mouth.

The Slytherin girl was sunk deep in her thoughts when something hit her head. A paper bird landed on the table in front of her, and she looked at it, fascinated. Carefully she unfolded the bird and read the message Draco sent her – well, it was more of a drawing... of her and Snape.

Elena turned red and quickly hid the drawing under a piece of parchment and as soon as the lesson ended, she hit the blonde ferret with a book. He just laughed. "Ouch, I thought you wanted to be Mrs. Snape?"

Her face was bright red, and she just wanted to disappear. "Shut up, Malfoy," she huffed embarrassed and sincerely hoped that no one saw the drawing. Even if one wasn't able to recognize it was Snape and her in the drawing, Draco wrote both names over them.

He continued teasing her until they arrived in front of the Potions classroom. "I am warning you!", she whispered before entering. But Draco knew that it was too funny to stop. That was why Elena received paper birds every time Snape turned around and wasn't able to catch them.

Desperately, Elena folded a paper airplane and tried throwing it on Draco's desk. He picked it up from the ground, it didn't exactly reach his table. "What do I have to do for you to stop?" stood in there.

Draco only looked at Snape, then back at her, and wiggled with his eyebrows while having a stupid grin on his face. She rolled her eyes and proceeded to make another paper airplane. "I mean, yeah, Snape is cute, what about it?"

It was no secret that Elena managed to get in unlucky situations a little more often than the average person, but she hadn't expected to exactly hit Snape with that paper airplane. Her Professor caught it and put it on his desk. "Five points from Slytherin for writing notes during my lesson, Miss Smith," Snape said.

She exhaled in relief when she realized that he did not open the note. Draco sat there and giggled because of Elena's situation; he didn't realize that she actually did not find this funny. Until the end of the lesson, she ignored Draco's little messages and concentrated on Snape's words.

After Snape had dismissed the class, she stepped towards his desk. Sheepishly she looked at him and asked if she could take the notes back, he just nodded in response. A little smile formed on her lips; he had no chance of reading that note since she was allowed to take it back. "Your extra lessons will begin the Wednesday before break starts," her professor said, and she nodded in anticipation. Elena was actually really excited about learning Legilimency and Occlumency. "Thank you, Professor."

After she had left the Potions classroom, she unfolded the note. She had planned to rip the paper and then to dispose it. But instead of only seeing the words she wrote, she also saw Snape's handwriting in red ink. "Thank you, Miss Smith. Signed, Professor Snape"

Elena squeaked in shock and looked at the closed door in front of her. He read the note in which she literally stated that she thought he was cute! The girl banged her head against the wall and sighed. The next lesson was going to be very awkward.

Snape on the other side of the wall heard her squeak and couldn't suppress the smirk that was forming on his lips. "Draco Malfoy, I am going to kill you," Elena murmured under her breath as she made her way to the Great Hall. He was going to be a dead man – or a ferret, again. She wasn't sure yet.

She sat down in the Great Hall and did not dare to even dart a glance at the teacher's table. As soon as Draco approached the Slytherin table, Elena became aware of his presence. "Draco Lucius Malfoy!", she huffed at him. He was confused since he did not know what she wrote down in that note or that Snape read it. In his perspective, Slytherin only lost five points. "Don't be angry, I'll get those five points back in no time!", he said relaxed, and took a bite off an apple.

"I swear to Merlin," she muttered under her breath. "If you don't shut up right now, you have to earn back more than just five points," Elena said. "Because I will lose some more when I turn you back into a ferret."

The blonde boy looked at her dumbfounded. First, he was absolutely confused because he never told her about the ferret-incident. Then, he just did not get why she was that irritated. As if she could hear his thoughts, Elena thrust the piece of paper into his hand - and as soon as Draco read it, he erupted in laughter. "Go get him, Tiger!", he teased her, and she threw the banana peel at him. "I ship it!", he continued.

"Shut up or the Tiger's gonna scratch you," she laughed. Elena just wasn't able to be mad at Draco for too long. None of them could have guessed that this would happen when they started writing notes that morning. The two friends decided to spend their afternoon at the black lake. They fooled around, and the blonde boy nearly fell into the lake.

After a while, both of them just leaned against a tree and enjoyed the silence. Elena decided to break the quietness by addressing her concerns. Even though Draco liked to pull her chain, she knew that she could always count on him and that he would never do any harm to her.

A bit unsettled, she told him that she was a bit scared of Snape roaming through her mind in their lessons. He could bump into the memory of her telling Draco about her crush on him. So, she decided to ask him if he could spare some time to practice Occlumency with her before the lessons with Snape started.

Draco looked at her apologetic and she instantly knew that he wouldn't do it. "He only taught me Occlumency, not Legilimency. I can't help you," he told her. She did not know that he only learned it because of him being a death eater – and this was the moment another realization hit him. Snape was also a death eater; she would be devastated if she ever found out. And if she found out that he was one, too... He didn't dare to imagine how she would feel.

The blonde boy sighed. Elena always made it possible for him to feel carefree even though he was everything but that. And he? He possibly endangered her simply by being her friend.

Draco didn't think that it was possible that Elena and Snape would get closer and just thought that her little crush would vanish after some time, so he did not warn her about his godfather... If he only knew.