Where Your Loyalties Lie - {Severus Snape x Reader}

-51-

The Friday came. Once again, since it's near to the Halloween, the whole castle is decorated with that theme - including my classroom. Not too many professors likes to decorate their own classrooms along the seasons, but I do! Specially now that I have a room that I can use and do what ever I want with it. Dongy helped me to get all of these decors. There are little pumpkins, bats and candles here and there around the room. It all looks so cute! Can't wait when the Christmas time comes around. "Alright, remember to read pages 55-58 and have a wonderful weekend!" I end the last class of this week. The third years got up and the room gets filled with light chatter. "Ah, Miss Wallnut. What can I do for you?" I smile as the girl approaches the desk. Vivian looks little bit troubled:"Have you talked to Neville lately?". Both of my eyebrows raise:"No, I haven't. Why?". Haven't really seen him these past couple of days.

When the room gets empty, Vivian tells me how Neville hasn't been himself lately and it worries her. She has also noticed how he has been wandering around the school, looking so pensive. Anytime she has tried to talk to him, he pretty much just leaves the place. Which is very odd - to say the least. "Thank you for sharing this with me. I promise I'll have a talk with him as soon as I can." I give reassuring smile. Vivian nods as a thank you and is about to leave, but something caught her eye. "Can I have some?" she points a bowl of candies that I have put on my desk as a decoration. "Oh, why of course." I nod. She takes a handful and smiles:"I'll give some of this to Olive.". I just laugh:"Sure. 'To share'.". With that, she leaves the classroom. My eyes goes to the candies.

To be honest, I have no idea where they came from. One day they just appeared there. Thought maybe Dongy had brought them, so I just put them in that bowl and left them there. It goes with the Halloween theme after all. Haven't had the time to taste them yet. Maybe just one before dinner... As I'm reaching my hand to take one, Minerva comes to the doorway:"(Y/N).". Quickly, my head shoots up from the candy bowl towards her and I won't take any:"Yes?". She nudges her head as a sign for me to come eat dinner with her to the Great Hall. "Are you sure you can't come with us tonight?" Minerva questions. "Told you already, I need to get the papers ready. I don't wanna do them in the last minute when the time comes." I tell her as we are walking side by side at the corridor. "Mm, pity." she sighs.

Apparently, the ones who are going to go are Minerva, Hagrid, Flitwick, Severus, Poppy and Pomona. "Perhaps Dumbledore is going to join us too." Minerva tells. "Don't make me feel even worse for not coming." I roll my eyes defeated. "Ouhw, alright. I'll leave you be." she chuckles. We walk in silence for a moment, until I start thinking Neville again. "Say... Since you are the Head of Gryffindor, have you notice anything strange about Mr. Longbottom lately?" I ask. Minerva looks at me slightly confused:"Hm? No. No, I haven't.". Just when I'm about to open my mouth and tell her how worried I am about the student, we hear a scream. Both of us froze right in there. What the heck was that?! "NO! He's MINE!" a girl voice hisses. "NO, MINE!" another girl voice says. Minerva and I share a look and quickly rush towards the sound.

When we get to the scene, we can't believe our eyes. It's Olive and Vivian, wrestling on the floor in middle of the hallway, surrounded by other students. They all look as confused as we are. "E-ey..!! Quit it you two!" I rush to break them away from each other. Minerva is fast to join me. The two third years keeps screaming and swinging their hands, making this all more difficult. They are really going at it. Goodness sake! Finally, after some struggling, Minerva and I manage to separate them apart. I got Vivian and Minerva got Olive. "What is the matter with you two?!" the Transfiguration Professor frowns. Right in that moment, the students around us look behind them and take a step aside. Dumbledore and Potions Master walks in and both of their eyebrows raise. "What's happening in here?" the Headmaster asks in quite calm manner.

The girls starts yelling on top of each other and none of us can get the whole picture what are they saying. All I could tell from all that hassle is that they are fighting over some boy. Which is odd since Vivian and Olive like each other that way - or at least last time I checked. What the hell is going on? Headmaster ordered the other students to leave the scene and the rest of us stayed here. Minerva and I are still holding onto the girls just in case they decided to attack each other again. Headmaster asks again, calmly, what happened between them two. As they start once again rambling, I glance down and see how there are some little pieces of papers on the floor. Not just any paper - a candy wrapping papers.

Immediately, I lift my gaze up and meet eyes with Severus, who already had his eyes on me. He hunches down and grabs one of them. Then, he brings the wrapping paper close to his nose. Quickly he recognizes the smell:"Love potion.". Huh?! "What?" Minerva gasps surprised. We all look at each other confused. Love potion is one of the potions that has been banned from students for bringing to this school - for obvious reasons. Dumbledore glances at the Potions Master, then the girls:"Lets bring them to the Hospital Wing, shall we?". With that, all six of us head there. Luckily, the girls have calmed down a bit. They won't attack each other anymore, but still remains angry one another. As we wait for Poppy making the antidote, we professors stand there to keep an eye on them. "Wonder how they got it?" Dumbledore wonders out loud.

Pang of quilt washes over me, and I have to come clean about it:"I... I had those candies on my desk couple of days now - as a decor, but I never knew they had the potion in them. I swear!". All of the professors turn to look at me confused. "Where did you got them from?" Headmaster asks. Then I tell them how they had appeared on my desk one day and how I didn't think much of it and put them into the bowl. Corner of my eye, I can see how Severus is looking at me with the 'how dumb can you be?' - look. "I thought Dongy gave them to me." I tell them at the end. "Dongy?" Minerva asks. "An elf who works here in the castle." Severus answers for me. To be quite honest, I'm surprised he remembered that. "Y-yeah. But now, I don't think it was him. He would never do something like that." I panic. Dumbledore raise his hand as a sign for me to calm down:"We will figure it out, later. As for now, lets make sure that our students gets well and we can all go about our day in peace.".

Won't take long before Poppy gets the right potion ready and the girls drink it. The Love potion worns out and they both got back to normal. Vivian and Olive just looked at each other and teared up. "I'm SO sorry!" they both cried and starts hugging. We all professors have a little bit different reaction as we witness all of this. Dumbledore is smiling, pleased everything turned out alright. Minerva is still looking confused by all of this. Severus has his expressionless look on his face, which still says 'urgh, teenagers and their hormonal feelings...'. I'm just glad they aren't fighting anymore, with hint of guilt I was still part of this mess. It turned out, that the boy they were fighting about was Mr. McLaggen - the sixth year Gryffindor student. It raise all kinds of questions. Minerva promised to get the root of this and talk to the student.

Pretty much after that, we all left our on way. Severus and I are now walking side by side, heading to our own chambers. "Phew, lot of action for this evening, don't you think?" I try to light up the mood. No answer. He just keeps walking and look forward. Wonder what's been on his mind lately? Like I said before, I have had this feeling that the Potions Master has been avoiding me these past weeks. Anytime we ran into each other, he has kept the conversation small and leave the place as soon as the opportunity arrives. Trying to push that feeling aside and just sigh:"Well, at least you are going to have a nice laugh later this evening when you go to..-", Severus stops and turns to me:"Next time there is an item in front of you which provenance you don't know, do not eat or drink it. Do not put it on display for someone else to have it. It might as well been you who would be wrestling on that hallway against a student.". He has that look he likes to give to a student when he despises them. I'm staring back at him, unsure what to say:"I, uh...". Then, he just leaves. While watching him go, I cross arms over my chest and huff under my breath. Such a thing to say to a Hufflepuff.