Snape Comfort Fic

★The First Encounter★

I sat against the cold stall of the bathroom holding a small blade in my hand, looking at the blood dripping down my arm. Slowly, I gained enough consciousness to get up, washed my arm off, and watched the door carefully, making sure nobody walked in as the bloody water ran down the sink, before finally taking my eyes off the door long enough to dry my arms and wrap them up in a messy Band-Aid.

Looking at the door, I stepped out and joined the crowd in the hallways with ease, walking to the next class, DADA class with Professor Lupin. Following the crowd, I made it to the class, sat down in my seat, and waited for class to begin. Every once in a while, I would glance at my arm to make sure none of the cuts bled through, or my sleeves rolled up. Eventually, the class began, and everyone started writing down what he was telling us. "He's making us write like maniacs!" one of the girls whispered behind me. Occasionally, I would wince at the feeling of the cuts rubbing against my sleeve and started to zone out, writing what I thought I was hearing.

Unfortunately, I didn't notice my sleeves were slowly rolling up until it was too late. I snapped back into reality and looked up at Professor Lupin, only to find him staring at me. 'is it for the kid behind me? Did he notice I zoned out?' I turned around and looked at Draco and Blaise. Blaise looked at me before pointing towards my arms, and Draco was staring right at them. Quickly turning around, I looked down at my desk and tugged my sleeve down.

'fuck' I thought. 'did lupin see them? Do I book it after class?' Consumed in my thoughts, I hadn't noticed that the bell had rang, and people were shuffling out of the classroom. There was silence, and I was even more deep into my thoughts, that was before a voice and a shaking motion on my shoulder brought me back.
"Lunar, hey, can you hear me dear?"
I looked up. It was Lupin, crouched in front of the desk.

'shit, I'm screwed' My palms started to sweat, and my throat became dry while looking around. Everyone had left. It was just me and him. He was quiet, just stared at me, like he was thinking of the right words to say. He looked at the doodles I had drawn earlier and smiled, before looking back at me.
'do I speak up? Do I just leave?' Hesitantly, I spoke up and broke the silence.

"I'm sorry, sir, I must've zoned out again! Haha! I'll get going now!" I nervously laughed; he looked at me and could tell I was scared. After all, I wasn't very good at hiding those things. "Lunar, you don't need to be scared, I'm not gonna hurt you, I just want to talk about what I saw earlier. Is that alright?"

"I would, professor, but Snape would hate for me to be late to his class." 'I would? Am I crazy?! Why would I burden someone with more of my stuff!' Lupin looked at me. 'wait, was this guy actually concerned about me?' I couldn't tell. He always had a soft gaze on him, except when he was teaching the class.

Eventually, I stood up and gathered my stuff, he looked at me once more before nodding in approval to let me go, to which I rushed out of the room. I blended in with the other crowd of people also trying their best not to be late to class.

"Lun." That voice sounded familiar, it spoke behind me. At first, I thought it was Lupin, but when It spoke again, I finally realized it was Draco. "Lun, hey!" He sounded a bit worried, though I kept going. "I'm sorry, Draco, I can't be late for potions again!"

"Lun can you slow down?"
Another voice spoke, however this one I didn't recognize. I slowed down and turned to look at them, hoping I could get a quick glance at the face and then speed back up, but by the time I had looked, Draco was next to me and had pushed me aside into the other boy's arms. He had sat me down and then stepped behind Draco, who was crouched in front of me. It was Blaise.
I focused my attention back on Draco. By then I had set my mind on getting out of there. The bell rang, which interrupted the long period of silence.

'just find a way to get away from them' I told myself. "Lun, what did you do to your arm? I saw it in class, why was it bandaged up?" Draco spoke in his usual stern voice while looking at me, waiting for the response.
"Nothing, it was just from the dueling match from yesterday," I said, avoiding eye contact. He reached for my arm, and I pulled it back and held it tight to my chest.
'not this time, I can't let someone see it this time.' I thought, my eyes darting from Draco to Blaise.

"Lun, you didn't participate in the dueling match yesterday, what happened"
"Nothing." my voice changed from being quiet to stern. I looked at Draco, and he looked a bit stunned. I usually always had a soft and quiet voice, but now it was stern and almost loud. "Lun, you had bandages on your arm, that's not nothing." Blaise finally started speaking. And between him and Professor Snape, they were the two that cared the most, as they were the ones who found me the first time I had cut at Hogwarts.

"Guys, I'm fine, please let me go." hot tears started to form in the corners of my eyes. They noticed them quickly, both boys looked at each other before Draco reached over and wiped the tears away with his sleeve. By this point, Blaise had already confirmed in his head that I had cut again.

"Lun, you told me you would stop," Blaise whispered while crouching down beside me. He hesitantly moved his hand close to the arm I hadn't pulled away, though that changed fast as I had tugged my arm away and held both arms close to my chest. "I didn't hurt myself!" My voice grew louder and more demanding. "Lun"
Blaise reached over and turned my face to look at him "Please." He talked in his normal soft voice and kept my gaze on him.

"I... I'm sorry.." Blaise looked at me and sighed, now his thoughts were confirmed.
"Lunar, I'm gonna tell Professor Snape.." It was clear he was being more careful with his words than Draco was, who had just picked his words randomly. Blaise and Draco shared a concerned glance before looking back at me. "why do you need to tell him?.." I managed to let out a couple of words, my voice was shaky, and my eyes started to tear up again.

"Because he needs to know so he can help you again." Blaise looked at Draco before Draco got up and nodded at Blaise before turning around and starting to walk off. "No! Please don't, I'll tell him myself, please.." Draco stopped and looked at me.

"Right after class, you're telling him, or we are," Draco told me before Blaise helped me up and held my hands, he stared at me with a gentle look on his face before rubbing my hands. "Please be careful, dear i don't want you getting hurt." I nodded in agreement and walked off towards the room.

Knocking on the door, Professor Snape opened the door and shared a disapproved look with me before letting me in. "We're working on brewing a black fire potion, roll your sleeves up and get to work, you wasted a lot of time."

I looked at him and hesitated before stepping into the classroom and walked to my station. I pulled out my Book of Potions, turned to the page, and read it carefully. I read the ingredients I needed and what the potion was before taking a highlighter and highlighting the instructions.

Hearing some noise at the door, I looked up at the door and saw a glimpse of Professor Lupin and Professor Snape speaking with each other before Snape nodded, looked at me, and then back at Lupin before Lupin left. When he left, I quickly focused back on my work and started gathering my ingredients, soon, I got to work on the potion.

"Lunar." Snape stepped close to my station and looked at me, which caught me off guard since I was focused so deeply on my potion that I had tuned out everything around me. Slowly and hesitantly, I looked up at him.

"I don't expect you to get this done today, it takes two hours to brew. But you need to roll your sleeves up, they'll get messy." He must have noticed my breathing had quickened because he placed his hand over my back and whispered in a softer tone to not startle me. "Hey, easy now, lunar. Is there something that's stopping you from rolling them up?"

I shook my head slightly in response, that's all I could get out. "Alright then, can you roll them up for me, please? I don't want your sleeves to get burnt or dirty." I shook my head again, and Snape rubbed my back a bit.

"Lun, is something bothering you?" I nodded slowly and exhaled shakily. "I'm gonna ask this again, is there something on your arms that is preventing you from rolling them up?" I nodded this time, yes, there just bandages, but I knew he would see the blood stains on them, that was what I was worried about.

Snape gave a soft nod before removing his hand. "Can you stay after class and we'll talk about it?" I started shaking gently. I knew I could trust him, it was just the fact he was a teacher. I nodded hesitantly and felt hot tears slip out of my eyes. Snape reached over and wiped them before waking over to Weasley. I focused back on my potion.