Belonging

Sticky Peace Offerings

-Madelyn Watson-
Tuesday Morning

It was rather difficult to sleep with throbbing ears and a constantly rumbling belly, so for the second night in a row, Madelyn Watson felt that she had been tortured through the night with no rest whatsoever. It was very early when the fluttering note bird landed on her pillow. She opened it under the covers in order to use her wand light to read without waking anyone.

"Miss Watson, I don't know how to say I'm sorry in a way that would encompass the colossally asinine behaviour I exhibited yesterday. I find myself wondering if you are awake without sleep, like myself, and if you might be interested in a truce, because I have just nicked an entire tray of cinnamon buns from the kitchen. Below I will include instructions for finding my private quarters and a password."

Her belly growled at even the inky, scrawled mention of food. She sighed and considered. His class was her first class today, a fact she had dwelled on last night in her sobbing fits of not wanting to have to see him again. Now that it was the light of day, or a least the crack of dawn, she was reconsidering her never see him again stance. She just needed her ears to stop pounding. If she went to eat cinnamon buns with him then at least they might also... ugh... hold hands. Her body did a little involuntary squirm of disgust at the idea of holding Professor Snape's hand.

Her ears and her belly spoke louder than her need to hate his guts. With some resignation toward her doom Madelyn got dressed for school absurdly early, grabbed all her Potions books and headed toward the dungeons. She told herself she could deal with his coldness, he had used the word truce in his note. In her dreams last night Madelyn had explored the opposite fears. What if he was interested. In dreams he stole her hand in class, held it in front of everyone. He stood behind her in potions and dug his hawk like talons into her shoulders. He held her tight like prey and bit her neck. She had woken in cold sweat in the middle of the night, adding the terror to the pile. Surely though, he would not go from revulsion at the idea yesterday to suddenly being creepy toward her today.

It was easy enough to find his office, she knew it connected to his classroom, but she suspected he had revealed the location of his personal office, the one that would be connected to his bedchambers and... Merlin knew she didn't need to think about his bed chambers or what she might end up doing in them in a week when this bond was cemented in place. The concept that she would love him at the end of this still felt like a lie, something she would believe when she felt it.

Madelyn gave the password to the tucked away door and it swung open to a cosy sitting room and office combination. Far cosier than she suspected for the dungeon bat. She had thought it would be all cold black leather, with green and silver, but the room was lined with leather bound books of all colours, the rugs were braided in warm jewel toned wools and the brown leather sofas made the room feel altogether quite nice to be in, compared to the imagined dark dripping dungeon she had spent last night crying over.

As the hours had ticked on last night her imagination had made his rooms into a darker and drearier cage minute by minute. Her mind had conjured a cave, dripping black stone walls by the end of it. She imagined herself shivering, laid out on a stone slab like something in a museum. His cold eyes the only visitor to the exhibit. The cognitive dissonance of the last several hours came crashing into this cozy sitting room and when he spoke her brain broke a little, for she had been hating this evil creature for the last twelve hours.

"Ah, good morning. You got my note. Coffee or tea? I have procured both." Professor Snape was trying so hard to be very nice. His face was even trying to smile at her, she was pretty sure, but she could tell he was also in pain. So was she.

"I'll take the coffee as I don't think I have slept at all." She sighed and dropped her things on the corner of the sofa. She made her way straight to the tray of buns. He stopped her, cutting one out and placing it on a plate, he dropped to one knee. Madelyn's eyes went wide.