Where Your Loyalties Lie - {Severus Snape x Reader}

-4-

After the dinner, I found McGonagall from her classroom and she lead me to the Headmaster's Office. We had some time to tell about ourselves and get to know each other little bit better. What I learned, is that she has a husband - no kids, but her nieces and nephews are always welcome to visit them whenever they please. She and her husband are quite happy where they are in their lives now. Somehow it's so amazing to hear all of these little stories and getting to know her on another level. It's just so different now than years back when we were a student and a teacher. She's easy to talk to. We are now standing next to a big phoenix statue. I look at the professor next to me slightly confused. I do remember there were some stairs to go up, but there isn't any. She gives me a smile and turns to the statue. "Sherbet lemon." McGonagall says and spiral staircase appears. Woah!

She turns to me:"Bet you can handle from this now on.". "Thank you, Professor McGonagall." I gently smiled at her. "Between you and me, you can call me Minerva." she nods with a sweet smile. "Minerva." I repeat. It sounds weird to say it out loud, but I'm sure I'll get used to it. Then her face goes more professional:"But not in front of the students.". I nod and chuckle:"Of course.". Pretty much after that, she continue her way and I went up the stairs. By every step I take, I get more nervous. Heart keeps beating faster and faster in my chest. The memories starts coming back to me. Meeting the Greatest Wizard privately is something I never thought I'd get to do. Immediately when I step into the office, I see him. The Headmaster.

"Ah, welcome, welcome. Please take a seat, (Y/N)." he gestures the chair near to his desk. "I'm..- I'm fine standing, thank you." I smile shyly. Is it rude to decline? Maybe? Oh, no! I messed up! Dumbledore has a gentle look on his face as he approaches me:"How has the first day been?". "Great! I mean, everything has gone pretty well. Thank you." I answer. Oh, Merlin's beard, my hands are sweating! He nods:"Glad to hear. Hope the students have behaved well on their first day.". My mind goes to Draco Malfoy and our interaction in the hallway earlier today. "...I might've taken some points away from a student, sir. Someone who isn't from my House." I admited. "Ah, from Slytherins House." he says. He knows already?!

Guess he saw the look on my face:"No need for a panic, (Y/N). Every now and then a professor has taken points from slightest reasons before. But I do hope none of you will use it for your own good, for the hope that the House you are presenteding would win the House Cup.". I shook my head:"No, sir. Of course.". That was one of the first rules as being Hogwarts professor; be as unbiased as possible. One particular has trouble to remember that it seems. I look down to the floor, little ashamed and afraid what my actions might have cost for the rest of the year. "Chin up. There is no reason to be all gloomy. Despite today's events, you have already given a great impact on our students. So I suggest you'd keep it up." the Headmaster consult. A heavy weight got lift off my shoulders:"Thank you, sir.".

He turned around and starts looking for something from his desk:"And don't take Severus too seriously. If you happen to run into him.". I crossed arms over my chest and looked outside of the window next to me. Well, too late for that... Headmaster continues:"But that wasn't the reason I invited you to come here at this hour...". "Right, McGonagall said you wanted to see me before... Well, that." I take a step forward. He takes a thick envelope off of his desk and brings it to me:"Pomona left you a pile of notes and letters, considering the days you are going to have ahead.". "Oh, thank you. These will come in handy." I take the envelope and stare at it with a smile on my face. For a moment, Dumbledore stares at me with gentle smile. "Good to see you are doing well." he lets out. Huh? The smile I had drops, and my head snaps right back up to meet his eyes. He gives me a knowing look.

A shy smile comes to my lips:"...Yeah. Aunt-Ruby has been a huge help.". "Ah, the brunet one with the curls? Yes... She was quite something when I met her." Dumbledore thinks out loud while stroking his long beard. "She's married, sir." I remind him. "Why, yes. Yes of course." he answered. Not fully sure if he actually heard me correctly or not... We then started talking more about the school and the students. One particular student kept coming up time to time during our conversation; Harry Potter. Dumbledore told me what has happened over these years Potter being a student in here. You-Know-Who got mentioned once or twice, but very discreetly. I have been living in the Muggle World for so long, I almost forgot all of the different dangers the Wizarding World holds comparred to the Muggle World. Even the Death Eaters became as the topic one point. But Dumbledore kept convincing I or anyone else got nothing to be worried about. Hogwarts is safe. "Go on now, it's pretty late. We have to get up early for the new day." Dumbledore says all of sudden. I see the time on the wall and gasp:"Oh!".

Wandering around this late an empty, dark corridors feels weird and bit scary. Somehow this emphasis how huge this castle really is. Students are not allowed to walk around the school this late. I used to wonder how cool it would be to walk around this late, and I guess I could say one of my dreams just came true, but I'm not happy about it when I'm actually doing it... Need to use Lumos to see where am I going in one particular part of the castle where there are no torches around. "Put that away..!" one of the paintings on the wall says in cranky voice. Guess I accidentally woke them. "Sorry..." I move the wand a little bit away while walking. All I can think now is how am I going to jump into the bed and sleep. Haven't even got the proper time to feed Sniffy today. Luckily he has some food in the chamber, but knowing him - he must've already aten everything...

All of sudden, someone walks around a corner right in front of me. "AAHH!!" I let out a scream, but quickly cover my mouth as I realize I'm being too loud and the paintings are trying to sleep. "Oh, my apologies (Y/L). Didn't mean to scare you." Lockhart chuckles. He's holding his wand out too with Lumos. My shoulders relaxes when I realized everything's alright and there is nothing to worry. "I'm so sorry. I... Guess I'm really on the edge while walking this dark." I chuckle nervously. "Well, I am happy that out of all of the people, you ran into me." he hums pleased. "Yeah." I nod. Even I'm not fully on aboard with that. "May I ask you, where you were heading?" he asked intrigued. "Oh, back to my chamber. I was in the Headmaster's Office, and the time just flew by." I explained. Lockhart nodded and looks like he is thinking of something:"I see. May I walk you there?".

Can't really come up with a reason why not, but I really would like to go there alone. So I chuckle:"Tha-that's alright I..-", another light comes in sight, and Lockhart and I got taken by surprise. The third light comes across as too bright for my liking, so I put my wand away to see better. Lockhart now relaxes his shoulders:"Severus, hah... What are you doing, wandering around this side of the castle at this hour?". "I heard someone screaming." Snape answers with very monotonic tone while keeping his eyes on the man in front of him. "Ahw, (Y/N) here got frightened when we happened to bump into each other." Lockhart explains. Snape lowered his eyes on me, almost as if he's asking if it's true. "Yes, he came behind this corner and I got scared." I chuckle, nervous how big of a deal this has become all of sudden. All I want now is to go to sleep. The atmosphere feels little bit weird for some reason.

The man next to me holds onto side of my arm and is about to start walking where I was heading:"Well, I was just about to escort (Y/N) to her room, so..-", "I believe Miss (Y/L) is fully capable of walking herself into her chamber. Alone." Snape says - once again, using very smooth, yet threatening tone. For a quick moment Lockhart stays quiet and nods:"Yes, why of course.", he lets go of my arm. Now the atmosphere got way more intense. I don't know how to act really. So I just give an awkward smile at the duo:"G-good night then, Professors.". Then I continue my way towards the chamber. What was that all about? Wonder if Professor Lockhart is that afraid of Professor Snape he wants to have a reason to avoid him? Perhaps he wanted to use me as an excuse to get away from him? Hard to tell.

Right when I entered the chamber, I get greeted by my niffler. "Hi, did you miss me?" I lift him to my arms. Then I bury my nose into the niffler's fur while hugging him. After taking couple deeper breaths, I pull away from him. "I should call you Stinky instead of Sniffy." I giggle. Sniffy looks back at me with the 'what are you talking about?' - look. Pretty much after that, I run a little bath for him and wash him with soap. Sniffy enjoys the bubbles while I'm sitting next to the bathtub, sleeves rolled half way up. Going back in my thoughts, thinking about what Dumbledore said to me. 'Good to see you are doing well.' I am actually doing great now. I really am.

Coming back to Wizarding World has been fun so far. Meeting new people, getting used to use magic again – more than these past few years, seeing some familiar happy faces. But... The past keeps coming back here and there whenever I stop. Even for a minute. Guess I've tried to keep myself so busy these two days to avoid all of the negative memories. 'Can't you just do it again? There must be somekind of a mistake!!' taunting female voice echoes in my head. If only... Sniffy senses I'm going back to the dark memories, so he pokes with his snout part of my hand that is tangeling on the water to get my attention. "Hm? You ready to get out?" I ask. Then he pulls out a ring somekind out of his little pouch to show me. "Wh-where did you get this?!" I snatch the shiny object. And I realize it belongs to Remus:"HOW..-?!".