Severus & Serena One Shots

Midnight on the Beach

I love this little world that I've created post war with Severus Snape and my original character Serena Barrett. I don't have a whole new plot lined up, but I love them too much to stop. I think I'll do a series of one shots as they come. This story line helps me when I'm stuck in my other works. If you like them, give them a vote and a comment!

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The wind blew crisp and cool across the lake. He liked to come there sometimes at night when all was quiet and he couldn't sleep. The years of being on call, fears and worries about the two boys in his care, lack of close relationships in which to confide, and pure anxiety had led him to develop pretty significant insomnia. After his last round around the castle at midnight, he meandered down to the lake to clear his mind.

Classes were going well, as well as he could have expected. The chill was starting to wear off from the students who had returned after the war. He tried to tone down the attitude that so easily exuded from himself, the highly demanding and sharp persona that had shattered students psyches.

In all honesty, he had been excessively jagged to keep out any student in order to protect them. Occlumency was easiest to do when one had a lot of sorrow and anger, and he had thrown himself in head first. Now that he had returned and things were settling back to a new normal, he had set out on the path of more respect. He kept the bar high and students were rising to meet it.

He pulled his cloak tighter as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. The waves were gently lapping and eerily comforting songs resonated from under the water. An electric blue ball was floating beside the shore line near to a small figure sitting cross legged underneath a large hooded tunic, back against the giant oak tree.

He resisted the urge to draw his wand. If it was a student he didn't want to frighten them unnecessarily. Another example of his slow change.

"Who's there?" he called out calmly, within five feet of the person now.

"I should be asking you that shouldn't I?" came a familiar flat voice from underneath the floppy hood.

Serena.

He had been enjoying nearly nightly tea with her since the beginning of the school year. Did most people hang out with a friend every night? Were they meeting too regularly? Did their time together mean something more?

This week had been different. Serena had to officiate three evening detentions because two of her students had tried to charm their quills and parchment to remember what their professors said, a listening device so as to regurgitate written information back on tests. It was actually genius, but the Hufflepuffs were not great at disguising their malicious intentions.

He didn't want to admit that he missed her; he spent the five or six hours between dinner and sleep feeling oddly out of place. As if he was missing out on something. The silence weighing on his ears differently than ever before. Her smooth alto voice was pleasing to him, and when he didn't feel the need to chatter, she intuitively knew whether to talk more or sit within her thoughts. It was a very rare ability indeed.

"I suppose so...I'm not normally the kind of person one would be excited to meet in the middle of the night in the dark" he quasi apologized, standing beside her awkwardly.

"You're exactly the kind of person who I would expect to meet on a dark beach at midnight" she whipped back, her face still hidden.

She magically extended her blanket, and expanded the ball of heat which he took as an invitation to sit. He was warm in her presence, but that could very well be her empathic abilities covering up his insecurities. He could be misreading something she had no control over as friendship. As attraction. It was easier to think that way. They sat silently, the waves lapping a few feet away, the wind spreading a sense of nostalgia.

"I like this time of night. No one expects anything of me. There's so much chaos during the day and at night I can relax because it's calm" she murmured, her eyes black in the moonlight, staring out into the lake and hills; her fingers twisting and cracking.

"I understand...Midnight is the height of functionality for those who can't function" he joked lightheartedly, disguising the depth that his comment flowed.

"That...is very succinct. Thank you for sitting with me. I like you" she turned to look into his face, her expression soft with vulnerability. Her eyes burned with sincerity, diving into his and moving down onto his body.

His heart hammered in his chest. He should ask her why she was out there. How is it that he could stare in the face of an evil murderer, but nearly be brought down by a doe eyed Charms mistress? He realized that her lips puffed out, cherry red; cheeks streaked with tear stains. He hadn't noticed before that she was crying; he should pay more attention.

He held his hand up to her cheek, a quick cleansing charm over her cappuccino colored skin. Perhaps that was out of line. Perhaps that wasn't something that friends did. He could possibly have read the situation wrong and pushed his own desperation onto a woman just searching for company in a new country.

"I like you too..." he whispered.

He looked down at the sand, counting dozens of tiny grey pebbles at the edge of their wool blanket.

She scooted closer to him, shoulder to shoulder "Stay with me. Please. Sometimes the world just feels like too much and I don't want to be alone."

He let out a sigh of relief, her soul understood "As long as you want."

She laid her head on his shoulder, settling in, her breathing soon becoming deep and even. His eyelids lowered, heavy with security. This was the kind of world that he could sleep in.