"Ancient Runes" a Severus Snape ff - Snape x OC

Chapter 13

Severus had offered to pick Lysanna up for tonight's stroll. He would never have forgiven himself if something had happened to her on the way to his office. Knowing how afraid she was of snakes and knowing that a basilisk was roaming free in the castle, he had made it his personal mission to keep an eye on her. Quite pleased he noted Dumbledore's plan for the weekend. Even if the situation was more than unsettling, he was still looking forward to spending the next few nights with her. The modest smile on her face when Dumbledore announced the classification had only confirmed him in that.

Lysanna was sitting at the desk in her office. It wasn't a particularly large room and the bookshelves lining the walls were bursting at the seams, but at least she felt safe here. In the adjoining classroom, which could be reached through a small door, she would have to teach her first lesson next week. In view of the recent events, that seemed almost absurd to her, but Dumbledore had decided not to disturb the students as much as possible and to let the school day go on as normal.

A loud knock on the door made her snap out of her thoughts.

"Come in." She called and smiled as Severus entered the small office. This pleasant scent immediately hit his nose again. He still found it almost frightening how much he let this woman upset him, but he no longer tried to put his thoughts of her aside, but allowed himself these cautious reveries.

"Professor, I see you have found my mess," she continued with an apologetic smile. A beautiful smile. Mess? Severus wondered what she meant because apart from a few books lying in piles on the floor due to lack of space on the shelves, the small room appeared very tidy. In front of the large desk, which was covered with all sorts of books and scrolls of parchment, were two comfortable looking armchairs and behind the table Lysanna sat in a large chair and looked at him with her piercing blue eyes.

Snape glanced around her office. She was almost feeling uncomfortable with the clutter, but she just didn't have enough room for all the books. But it didn't give the impression that he would be bothered by it, the professor let his eyes wander over the countless backs of the books almost with interest. Lysanna watched him for a moment, he didn't seem to notice her gaze at all.

There were some extremely interesting books in her collection, Severus noted with astonishment. Some very old specimens that were hard to obtain, but also more recent works on a wide variety of subjects. His gaze lingered for a moment on an old potions book he knew only too well. Admittedly, he had not expected such a broad spectrum.

"If you're looking for the works of our esteemed colleague Professor Lockhart, I'm afraid I will have to disappoint you." Her soft voice tore him out of his thoughts. Only now did he notice that Lysanna had stepped right next to him and was grinning at him almost imperceptibly. Again there was that challenging twinkle in her eyes. Almost as if she expected an equally sardonic reply from him. He was only too happy to embark on it.

"That surprises me, Professor, since the two of you are so close," he replied, remaining serious.

So her plan worked. Apparently she had lured the potions master out of his reserve with her comment. Inwardly, Lysanna grinned contentedly, but tried to remain serious as much as possible.

"As you can see, my shelves are already bursting at the seams, so even if I wanted to, I simply wouldn't have room for these works.", Lysanna replied and dared to take a step closer to the professor standing next to her. She sought his closeness because by now she had to admit to herself that the initial interest had almost developed into a cautious infatuation. Lysanna had thought about it for a long time, because actually these feelings seemed absolutely crazy to her, since she hardly knew this man and had hardly exchanged a word with him, but the looks and the short moments they had together were just different than everything Lysanna had known before.