Getting to know S. (Severus x OC)

5- The chess game

It was a long and painful day.

Selene couldn't stop thinking about the conversation from the night before, and the intimate encounter of that morning. She didn't understand anything.

The first issue was the divorce. Severus did not want to divorce her, but for some reason he felt bewildered and upset when she wanted to stay by his side. He had made a great effort to recover her possessions and her wand, and yet he had no qualms about disappearing, without explanation. He had spent days avoiding her, but that morning he had enjoyed making love to her and giving her pleasure.

How was she supposed to react to that? What the hell did he expect from her?

She spent the day in a state of constant agitation, wanting to have some news of him, but not knowing what she would do if she saw him again. When night fell, she sat on the couch, with a book in her hand. But she was not able to read. The energy she had felt was beginning to transform into sadness and desolation.

He wasn't going to come back.

And then, she heard a faint sound, a kind of distant rustle.

Startled, she looked at her grandfather's chess board, which was resting on the small table under the window. The pieces, which had remained in the same position since the night before, were moving on their own. Selene recognized Severus' movements, as he always placed the pieces in the same order.

Without moving from the couch, Selene watched as the figures returned to the starting position, and shortly after, with deliberate slowness, a pawn moved across the board, starting the game.

Selene realized that Severus had enchanted the chess board so that he could play with her from afar. However, that realization, instead of making her happy, angered her. It was that what she meant to him? Was she just a source of fun? An entertainment? A way to pass the dead time while at Hogwarts? Selene thought about their intimate meeting of that morning. Did she only serve to pleasure him?

She felt a wave of anger wash over her. She stood up from the couch, shaking, absolutely furious.

Did he think he could play with her like that? Use her as he wished? Abandon her whenever he felt like it? Have her pining for him, every day, every hour, waiting for his next move? Did he think she was a damn chess piece?

Blind with rage, angrier than she had ever been, shaking with wrath and indignation, Selene approached the board.

"Who do you think you are, Severus Snape?"

With a scream of rage, Selene struck the pieces with her hand, sweeping them off the board, throwing them to the ground and scattering them everywhere.

"The game is over," she muttered.

***

Days went by, without Selene hearing from Severus.

Far from calming down, with each passing day she felt more irritated and angrier. She didn't think she would ever forgive him.

She spent her time cleaning the house. Physical exercise allowed her to burn energy. But that didn't stop her from being unable to sleep at night.

Her dreams were shallow, restless, and not calm at all. She suffered again the same nightmares that had tormented her in Azkaban, and she would wake up sweaty and panting, with tears streaming down her face. Her only perverse consolation was the thought that Severus would surely have it worse than her.

In the middle of the week, she decided to clean the living room. She purposely ignored the desolate chessboard, but her heart stopped as she stepped on one of the fallen pieces. That board and its pieces had belonged to her grandfather. Selene felt a pang of guilt as she picked up the piece.