The Assistant || Severus Snape x Reader ||

Chapter 45: Deliberation

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"The Ministry doesn't know anything about her,"

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The next two weeks were impossible. You were seemingly seeing Severus everywhere, and not being able to say anything to him was killing you. During mealtimes in The Great Hall, the two of you could only afford to sneak glances at one another without being totally obvious. The desperation to see one another was growing thicker and thicker, and you were beginning to wonder if one of you would crack sooner or later.

Not surprisingly, word was beginning to spread around Hogwarts. Whispers that former Quidditch star [Y/N] [L/N] was in a secret love relationship with Snape were becoming louder with each day that passed. The Ministry was still deliberating, but what they were deliberating was still a little unclear to you. You weren't sure if they were making a decision about you, or a decision about Severus...or both.

With gossip spreading, you were beginning to feel the presence of stares and side mouthed murmurs when you walked by. But oddly enough, none of them felt judgy or as if they were looking down on you. None of your friends acted that differently around you. A few had asked some questions in private that you had gently denied, wanting to keep things on the down low. Even though no one seemed to really be bothered by everything going on, it was still an uneasy feeling to know that practically everyone knew.

Everyone seemed to be respecting your feelings and your space, as if they knew that The Ministry had been totally blowing this out of proportion. The days where you had Advanced Potions were the ones you looked forward to, but also dreaded the most. You looked forward to them because you could see Severus and not feel like there was something wrong with it, but you dreaded it because anytime Severus even looked at you, everyone took notice.

Alicia had been by your side practically every minute of every day, trying to keep your mind off of the worries weighing heavily on your heart and mind. George and Fred had tried to help you feel better in the only ways they knew how, which basically boiled down to them offering you chocolate frogs and cracking jokes whenever they saw you. Even Cedric had pulled you aside and offered you his ear if you wanted to talk.

Severus, though, didn't quite have the same support system that you did.

Even before you came around, no one really ventured to bother Severus. He kept to himself, and never really interacted with other professors much. He blended into the shadows of the dungeons, and never really spoke unless spoken to.

Severus was plain exhausted.

He had gone back to taking on all of his own work, and it was stressing him out to the max. He wasn't sleeping because of his racing mind and mounds of work. The dark circles under his eyes and his sluggish walk were a testament to it. He missed you so badly that it was driving him insane.

He was dealing with this on his own, and he was taking it just as hard as you were. What he didn't realize was that you and him weren't the only ones affected by this.

"You'll see on page 246 that a Forgetfulness potion is supposed to be an orange color if produced correctly." Severus taught bleakly.

If the students thought that Severus taught without emotion before, now it was even more so. The only difference now was that none of the students were excited to learn. Even Hermione Granger didn't seem to have the same passion for Potions anymore. It had been quite some time since you had tutored anyone, and the kids who needed it were suffering now.

You hadn't seen it yourself, but Severus had disclosed to you previously that ever since your tutoring started, most of his students (even the ones who weren't being tutored) seemed to have a little more pep when it came to Potions. Severus figured that since you had helped the tutored kids see the fun in Potions, that it had passed on to the other kids.