Saved by Love (Severus Snape / Original Female Character)

Jealous & Wounded

July 1981

Hogwarts

Severus walked into his private quarters and the sound of the door being shut behind him had him sighing as he closed his eyes and welcomed the silence of the dungeons.

That had been a stupidly long week.

For the first time he had experienced the O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s from a teacher's perspective – and it was worse than for the students.

It all began a month earlier when he had had to formulate the tests for the fifth and the seventh years, both written and practical ones, and deliver them to the Ministry for approval – for they needed to ensure he was following the guidelines of the Department of Education.

Then, for the two days of tests, Severus had had to stand in class until the last minute of each test, waiting for the dumber students to use every minute that they had – and every ounce of his patience – as they pretended to know what they were doing in front of their cauldrons for two hours.

And then Severus reached the end of the two days of tests with about eighty papers to mark and only three days to do it.

He sighed, but it was all finally done.

He had just delivered the papers to Dumbledore and now he'd only have to go through all of that again next year – if he were still alive then.

Focusing again on the silence of his quarters for a moment, he made the wise decision to shower, eat and do nothing for the next two days.

___________

Saturday, August 22nd 1981

Severus was walking down the main street of Hogsmeade village, going back to the Castle after being to Ceridwen's Cauldrons to purchase some new personal items for potion making, and some needed ingredients for the school.

The sun had been up for just a couple of hours, and he could see that Madam Puddifoot's Tea House was full of people getting themselves breakfast.

"Hi, there, Severus!" he unexpectedly heard someone greeting him.

"Lupin," he replied with a frown, "Good morning. What are you doing in Hogsmeade this early?" his jealous mind already painting a picture of the wolf having spent the night at Florence's.

"I'm meeting Flor for breakfast at Madam Puddifoot's. Care to join us?"

"No," Severus cuttingly said, not hiding his jealousy, "I wouldn't want to interfere on your... breakfast."

Remus sighed, knowing exactly why the man in front of him looked suddenly annoyed.

"I'm here to discuss the Wolfsbane with her," he explained, "Flor wants to improve the next batch a little more and try a new interval between doses. I had the best full moon of my life last week. I remember everything that happened!" he sounded truly happy.

Severus's jealousy gave a small room to admiration, "She's making a lot of progress in a short time."

"She's bloody brilliant!" said Remus, glancing at the tea house, seeing Florence through the window, "And she has something all previous researchers didn't have: a willing werewolf to test her experiments on," he paused, deciding to mess with Severus a little more: "Well, "I'll go in. You know it can be dangerous to leave a woman like her alone, some other man may come and take her from you," he winked at Severus just to spite him.

___________

Stupid werewolf! Severus thought as he watched Remus walk into the tea house and approach Florence's table, kissing her hand before saying something in her ear.