Where Your Loyalties Lie - {Severus Snape x Reader}

-123-

We are all just standing there, unsure what to do next. Sirius keeps the wand steady towards us. "Sirius, what on earth are you doing?" I frown confused. "It seems they think you're my hostage." Severus mutters from the side of his lip. I turn to look at him:"Hostage?". Sirius scoffs:"She's clearly under a curse..-", "I am not! You duff, fleabag!" my head snaps back to him. Just when Sirius is about to say something back, Remus steps forward:"How about we all put down the wands and..-", "Are you mad?! No way in hell we're going to let our guards down in front of the man who killed Dumbledore!" Ron exclaims. Hearing someone saying that out loud yet again makes this pang of a feeling in my heart. They don't understand. Severus stays quiet, silently accepting his position in this situation.

I can feel how his grip around my wrist loosens. Like he's ready to let me go by his side to their side if that's what I want. But I quickly hold onto his hand and make us interlock our fingers without taking eyes off the people in front of us, and place myself more in front of him as a shield. This obviously surprises him, but keeps the composure. Some of them also look more baffled than the other when they notice this. "If you wanna get to him, you need to go through me first." my eyes travels from all of their faces, ending up to Harry, who has been peeking behind Sirius this whole time. Hermione tries to reason:"Professor (Y/L)... You can't be this oblivious. He..-", "I know what he has done. But I also know how he had no choice either." I explain with somewhat calm, yet stern manner.

Hermione's brows raised. She's clearly having a hard time to wrap around her head what's the right thing to do here. Tonks looks up to her husband beside her. It's hard to read from Remus's face what's going through his mind right now as he's staring back at me. Sirius seems to get more and more impatient as he keeps shifting his eyes from us to Remus. Like he's waiting him to make the call if they should do something before it'll be too late. There is a pleading look in my eyes, hoping they would understand and not to go against us. I don't want to fight any of them. Not because I would be losing to them, but because the damage I would be willing to do to if they would raise their wands towards the love of my life.

When all of sudden, out of all of the eight people - Neville is the one who takes a step forward. The grip around my wand tightens as well as the grip around Severus's hand. There is this turn in my heart. Neville..- As soon as he has taken few steps towards us, he turns to face the others. Huh? Ron frowns in disbelieve:"Neville?! What are you..-", "If you wanna get to them... You need to go through me as well." Neville stated with the mix of bravery and nervousness. We're all looking at him baffled. Out of all people... Neville Longbottom, who has been terrified of Snape through out all of his school years, is actually standing up for him. There is a mix of confusion and proud in me while staring at the boy's back. It's like he went from this small, frightened young boy to this tall and brave man in that moment.

Without a word, Luna comes to stand beside her boyfriend. The couple shares this shy smile before looking back at the group in front of us. Tonks follows pretty much right after. "Wh..?" Ron looks all baffled this turn of event. Remus sighs like the decision has been made and turns his body a little towards his long time friend as a sign it is time to put the wand down. With gritted teeth, Sirius comply, and the rest of the group follows. Remus gives two heavy, brotherly pats on his friend's shoulder. "Guess she truly is crooked from the head." Sirius mutters to himself. I do understand where Sirius is coming from. He only wants to protect his loved ones. But so do I.

Despite all of this, I do feel relieved they all put down their wands and none of us needs to fight against each other. We need to work together. I look up to Severus and offer him a reassuring smile. He notices this and his eyes softens a bit. "What you mean you had no choice?" Harry finally speaks up, eyes narrowed to the man beside me. We all turn to look at the boy. That's when I remember why we were running with Severus in the first place - to find him and tell him the truth. Just when Severus and I are about to answer to the question, we hear two bombing sounds in the distance, followed by three Death Eaters flying behind the corner with high speed in smoke form above us. Severus is quick to yank me back into his arms to protect, shoot a spell to get one of them down in mid air as well as Tonks and Remus gets the other two.