Yours truly | Severus Snape - Sequel to Sincerely yours

Enchanting Elves

It has been a month since Mary had come back to Hogwarts, and she was already feeling like she was drowning in schoolwork. Not only were their studies more demanding, but she also had the private lessons with Severus. Not that she disliked them, on the contrary, she enjoyed them. Every week, they had an evening they could spend together, without any prying eyes around them. But those evenings weren't just playing around each other, no, they were filled with hard work and after every lesson, Severus gave her extra homework to do.

And even during the regular Potions lessons Severus was being extremely hard to please, especially when it came to Mary. One would think that being the favourite of the Potions Master would give them an easy pass on the lessons, but not with Severus. Every time he asked a question from the class, he would turn his gaze to Mary, expecting her to have an answer. And so did the rest of the class. At this point, most of the students at Hogwarts knew that Mary was exceptionally talented at Potions.

"I bet the muggles don't have as much homework as we do!" Clary groaned as she was trying to find ideas for her essay about Summoning and Banishing Charms. Mary, who was struggling with the same subject next to Clary in the Great Hall, shrugged and sighed. They had been studying in the Great Hall with other Slytherin fifth years ever since dinner, trying to get done as much homework as possible.

"What's the time?" asked Alison, who was sitting next to Mary. She had first been sitting next to Clary, but when she had noticed that Clary was peeking over her shoulder and copying her text, she had changed her seat next to Mary.

Clary rolled over her sleeve and glanced at her silver watch.

"It's half past seven", Clary sighed and laid her head on the table. "Which means we have thirty minutes left", she added. Alison gave her girlfriend a quick nod and continued working on her essay. Not only were they tired by the lessons of the day, but they had also had Astronomy the previous night, which meant that they had gone sleep well past midnight.

Tuesdays were always rough on Clary, because she had a full day of lessons, Quidditch practise from seven thirty to nine thirty and Astronomy from 10pm to 1am. So far, she had managed to survive those monstrous day, but the day after she was always like a walking corpse. Tuesdays were rather rough on Mary as well, but at least she didn't have Quidditch practise before the Astronomy lesson. Even though it would be wise to do homework while Clary was playing Quidditch, most Tuesdays she goes to her secret spot and reads books.

"What do we have tomorrow?" whined Clary, crying over her essay. Mary, who had already memorised their timetable, enumerated the lessons of the next day and watched as Clary's face grew paler and paler. If that was even possible, as Clary was naturally quite pale.

"History of Magic and a double lesson of Potions! Might as well give up now... Where's the Headmaster's Office?" wept Clary, looking around hopelessly as if the entrance to Dumbledore's Office was somewhere in the Great Hall. Alison sat next to her girlfriend and place her hand reassuringly on her back.

"C'mon now, Clary. You can do it", Alison encouraged the crying girl. "And if it gets too hard, you can always quit Quidditch. That's what Emily did."

Clary stopped crying and raised her head up, looking at Alison with a shocked expression on her face.

"Quit Quidditch?" she gasped. "Have you gone bonkers? Never!"

"Sorry", Alison mumbled and rolled her eyes.

Mary had expected that reaction from Clary. Quidditch was everything to her. She wasn't the brightest when it came to most of the subjects taught at Hogwarts, but she was a really talented Quidditch chaser. Mary wouldn't be surprised if she made the English team in the future.

****

It was Thursday evening and Clary had gone to another Quidditch practise. Mary had decided that the best place to avoid homework was her secret spot which she had found during her first year at Hogwarts. As usually, she filled her bag with books, headed out of the Slytherin common room and jumped down the hidden stairs at the very end of the hallway in which the Slytherin common room was located. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she walked to the end of that hallway and sat on the bench between the only doors in that hallway.

"Alright then..." Mary mumbled, placed her head comfortably on her bag and opened yet another book. This time she was reading a book written by a muggle. During the summer, she had discovered a muggle library filled with books located in different fantasy worlds created by muggles. She had found the books quite interesting, as they contained imaginary sources of magic and all kinds of magical creatures created by muggles.

After about an hour, Mary sighed and turned around into a half-sitting position and rested her head against a wall. She flipped through the pages, which contained multiple colourful pictures of dragons and mermaids, and poems which were sung by an enchanting race called the elves. Of course, they too had elves in their magical world, but they weren't exactly enchanting.

"That looks rather interesting", someone mumbled in Mary's ear, causing her to jump and fall from the bench.

"Oh please, no need to be so dramatic", the intruder chuckled and helped Mary up from the floor.

"Severus", Mary whispered, her ears burning with embarrassment. Of course it had been Severus. The door to his personal chambers was right next to the bench where Mary had been reading only a quarter of a minute ago.

"I've heard you coming down here for a while now", he admitted and sat on the bench, signalling Mary to next to him. Mary sighed and sat down on the bench.

"I've been coming here to read every time Clary has the Quidditch practise", Mary explained and pointed the bag, which was filled with books. In fact, it was so full that it was about to tear apart. Apparently, Severus noticed that as well, because he suddenly stood and opened the door to his chamber.

"Perhaps it would be easier for you and your bag if you kept some of your books in here", he suggested and opened the door wide, giving way for Mary to enter the door.

Mary had been in Severus' personal chambers once before. That time, she and Severus had been unsure what they should do about the fact that they had feelings for each other. Severus had sat her on a red sofa on the right side of the door and explained, that they couldn't be nothing more than a student and a teacher because they were a student and a teacher.

Luckily, this time was different. Now they were... Well, what were they?

Mary had never before asked herself that question. Of course, it had been only three months since Severus had decided to not give a flying fuck about the fact that he was Mary's teacher, but three months isn't exactly a short time either.

Should I ask him?

Mary took a deep breath and gathered her courage, looking into Severus' dark eyes.

"Severus", she said. Severus raised an eyebrow, the right corner of his mouth twitching slightly.

"Yes?"

"I... I wanted to ask you something", Mary continued. An interested sparkle lit in Severus' eyes as he took a step closer to Mary, giving her an encouraging nod. Mary closed her eyes and took another deep breath.

No.

I can't.

"I, um... I just wanted to ask you where I should put these books."

Severus blinked, clearly not expecting a question of this kind. Stuttering, he mumbled to put them in an empty shelf next to the door.

"Thanks", Mary said, pretended to take a look at her watch and backed her way to the door.

"Well, Clary's practise will be finishing any minute. I should go", Mary lied as she opened the door and prayed that Severus' hadn't noticed anything weird. Even just the look on Severus' eyes told her that Severus knew she was lying. But she wasn't on a mood for explaining.

"Bye!" Mary said quickly and ran out of the door.