Hell's Last Lantern | A Severus Snape x OC Romance

Chapter Fifteen

"I don't care for your reasoning! He is a danger to her, and to the students of this school! Surely you see the irresponsibility in such a thing. How can you justify this?"

The greying wizard raised a pacifying hand which only further infuriated Snape. "Severus, there are larger forces in motion here. I trust the staff at this school to adequately protect its students. As for Miss Clemens—now that she has been made aware of Sharpp's former loyalties—" he gave Snape a pointed and slightly accusatory glance, "I am sure she will exercise caution. I need not remind you that she is not a child."

Snape fought the urge to roll his eyes. This man would be the death of him.

"She's hardly seventeen! And you want to throw her to the wolves? She can barely produce magic, how do you expect her to protect herself?"

"She has proved herself quite capable of doing so in the past," he reminded Snape with calm indifference.

"And what if that doesn't work?" he wanted to ask, but he feared the answer. Would he chalk it up to a sad but unavoidable loss in an unwinnable war? His voice lowered and had a hoarseness that carried undertones of years of fatigue.

"Why didn't you tell me? About her, about that prophecy?"

Dumbledore's bright blue eyes gazed up at Snape a moment, perceiving him in a way that made Snape shift uncomfortably and turn away from him. "I am curious where this sudden outrage is coming from, Severus. Don't tell me you've grown to care for the girl?"

"Don't be ridiculous," he hissed. "What I care for, is the fact that you have once again left me blindsided with the Dark Lord. And that my job just got exponentially more difficult. It's bad enough Potter and his friends have roped her into their little club, and now I find out that the Dark Lord has been searching for her..." His voice trailed as a sense of panic swept through him, making his legs feel numb and shaky as he clung subtly onto the chair facing Dumbledore's desk.

The same chair she sat in her first night at Hogwarts. He remembered the way he could smell her shampoo, and how soft and delicate her skin looked. How desperately he wanted to caress it and bury his face in her essence.

"Your job was always to train Miss Clemens in the use of her magic and to protect her as she does so, from herself and others. Your role remains the same." Snape scoffed derisively and his eyes narrowed on the old man, straining to show proper respect but failing miserably. "You know what I mean. It's an entirely different thing with the Dark Lord's involvement...you should've told me he was hunting her."

"And what would that have changed, Severus?" Snape glared at him a moment, at a loss. He exhaled a sigh of annoyance and stormed toward the door to leave. "You are quite certain of your assessment of Griggor Sharpp and his intentions?" Snape paused without turning. "Positive." He whipped the door open without another word and fled the Headmaster's office.

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Vela had been blissfully caught between cloud nine and malignant unease the week following the kiss in Snape's office. On one hand, that kiss. On the other, the events surrounding her brooding professor were becoming increasingly difficult to navigate and she feared the consequences of her infraction. She'd seen Snape around the castle a couple of times, though he had canceled their potions lesson on Tuesday, sending an owl to her that simply said,

"No remedial potions this week.

–S. Snape"

She suspected that it was because of the moment they shared, but she had also noticed that each time she saw him he seemed more stressed and busy than the last. He obviously had a lot on his plate. Maybe he hadn't even thought about of the kiss and had more important matters to attend to.