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

Chapter 19

Lysanna was on time as always, but today it was Severus who kept her waiting. She had already entered his office and looked around curiously. As always, various liquids were simmering in different cauldrons. Judging by the numerous empty bottles in a crate on the table, these were potions for Poppy.

"You're already here.", his deep voice tore her out of her thoughts.

"Well, I was on time. Maybe I should give you detention," Lysanna replied with a challenging grin.

"And what would YOU want to teach me?" Severus asked in a derogatory tone, but a grin graced his face. His mood seemed to be quite good today.

Lysanna looked at him indignantly.

"At first, I would teach you how to behave in the presence of a lady," she countered curtly, alluding to his derogatory tone.

"Milady, excuse me, but I have had the privilege of observing the best of the best," Severus replied, and Lysanna understood the reference to Lockhart immediately. She couldn't help but laugh. In fact, she was wondering why Severus was in such a good mood today.

He had been really looking forward to seeing her, that she had even given him another chance, bordered on a miracle. The way she stood there and laughed at his innuendo was just beautiful. But he had not forgotten that their meeting and today's lesson had a rather unpleasant occasion. He would have to show her some memories he'd rather forget.

Severus had prepared himself, knowing exactly what he would and wouldn't show her. She had no experience, so he would be in control.

"Shall we start?" he asked seriously. Lysanna nodded.

"So. You know what to do?" he asked after sitting in his chair. Lysanna looked at him with her beautiful blue eyes and nodded.

Lysanna was more than excited to see what she was about to see, what it would feel like to rummage through someone else's mind. As far as theory was concerned, she had prepared herself well.

"Legilimens!" she said, her wand pointed at Severus. Nothing happened.

"Again," he replied curtly.

"Legilimens!", this time Lysanna felt as if the rug had been pulled out from under her feet. She saw a boy. Probably Severus, who was sitting in his room. Everything seemed to be softened by a fog, which slowly lifted as Lysanna calmed down and managed to concentrate on the situation. The boy was crying. She could hear voices, an argument. There was shouting, a woman and a man shouted at each other. Then loud crashing and banging. The boy looked startled at the door, which was thrown open shortly afterwards.

What Lysanna had to watch next took her breath away. She nearly disappeared back into the fog, but she used her strength to look and concentrate. The man hit the boy who had retreated to a corner of the small room.

Lysanna slowly understood why Severus hadn't told her about his childhood.

She saw even more, she saw him here at Hogwarts, as a student. She saw him being teased by a group of other children. Some of the faces in the group looked familiar to Lysanna, she had seen them before. The boys all wore the Gryffindor crest. Could it be that she knew her from there?

Scraps of various memories, all very similar, ran through Lysanna's inner eye. Suddenly she became aware that it wasn't her who was controlling the memories, but that Severus was only showing her what she was meant to see. She remembered what she had read in her book and tried to concentrate on a certain topic. It cost her a lot of effort and at first the memories just flew past her without her being able to recognize anything.

And then she saw a girl. A pretty redhead girl. Immediately the memory blurred. Then suddenly, Lysanna had seemingly unconsciously been concentrating on this girl, she saw a red-haired woman lying lifeless in Severus' arms. He cried bitterly. It hadn't been more than a few seconds that Lysanna got to glimpse into this memory until she suddenly found herself back in Severus' office. It took her a moment to realise that he had broken her spell. He looked at her with an expressionless look. Or rather, he looked her way, whether he was actually looking at her Lysanna couldn't tell.