Hearts are Blind (Severus Snape X OC)

A Shrug Is Worth A Thousand Words

"You have got to be kidding me."

"Do I ever kid?" Xavier asked with the most serious eyes, Lucinda almost believed him.

"Only every moment that I've met you," she replied, after realizing him being serious was a joke in itself. She raised a brow skeptically. "So you just decided to waltz across the frozen lake—literally, mind you—and not expect to, at some point, fall through?"

"It seemed pretty solid." X shrugged.

"That still doesn't answer the question as to why you did it..."

They were in the Great Hall for breakfast. She only meant to sit for a moment. The girl had been thankful for the distraction, after the bizarre evening she'd had. It really came as no surprise that X only stayed in the Hospital Wing for the night and that was it. He was at breakfast the very next morning like nothing had happened... Lucinda looked away from the now silent boy and stared at her shoes in the aisle, her elbows resting on the table behind her.

"I was being reckless." Xavier said quietly.

Lucinda looked up from her shoes and glanced his face over, but he had his eyes on his plate. He only looked up briefly to assure that the other Hufflepuffs at his table weren't paying attention and then his gaze was back on the untouched food on his plate.

"Well..." Her dark eyes continued to scrutinize his face. "That's nothing new."

He was silent for a beat longer and then abruptly shrugged again with a laugh, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

Lucinda tried to suppress the sadness that was bubbling up inside her at the slightly empty look on his face. This was the first real moment they'd spoken since before Christmas break. What had she missed? What happened at Hogwarts while she was gone?

The Gryffindor Girl raised her head up to look across the hall to the Slytherin table. Tristin sat staring at her. Lucinda had no reaction to this, because it was expected and she was used to it by now. He smiled at her. She smiled back out of reflex and her insides burned with fire. He had also been at the castle over the break. Could this have something to do with him? Did he do something to X?

Lucinda turned her face back to the redhead next to her. "Did something..." she paused, unsure how to go on. "Did something happen at the school while we were gone?"

X pushed his fork around his plate and raised his eyebrows at the eggs beneath him. "Hell no," he mumbled. "Boring as ever."

Lucinda chewed her lip and glanced up at the staff table this time, but Snape wasn't looking at her, which was also expected. "So, everything is fine?" She pressed, still watching her potions professor eating his breakfast expressionless and stiff-backed.

"Yep, everything is a ripe peach right now." Xavier twirled his fork in his hand and shot her a half smile.

"And the reckless ice-walking?" The girl leaned in with a whisper. "The drowning?"

Xavier's face fell a little, but he ended it with another shrug and went back to pushing the eggs around his plate. "I just wanted to take a walk." He said with a sigh. "I... I was feeling flushed. I just wanted to cool off and I thought, you know, what better way to do that than the frozen Black Lake?"

"So you actually wanted to go in the lake—"

"Of course not!" X snapped a little too forcefully and the surrounding Hufflepuffs turned to stare at the two of them. The fire-haired boy crossed his arms and stared back. "Quit it. Eat your breakfast." They all shrugged in unison and continued eating.