Adventures Of Raising Snapes Daughter (To Mend The Broken Heart book two)

Chapter Nineteen: Is This Real?

CHAPTER NINETEEN

I burst through the door, preying that I wasn't intruding on anything. Hoping Severus was in here, as Luna told me, I hadn't bothered knocking. Then again, knocking may have been for the best.

It would have given him and Lilith time to split apart. There they were, mouths pressed together, her arms clutching his front robes intimately. She was in front of him, practically straddling him, his back against one of the tall bookshelves. In the first second I walked in on it, I was speechless. After the next few, a sort of numbness ran down my spine. Lilith eeped, turning around, her back pressed to Severus. I wanted to run. I wanted to hide away in my room again, and cry. I wanted to drown in my sorrows. However, after the first few seconds, over my sadness came my anger.

I clenched my jaw, as my eyes met with the wide ones of Lilith O'Bannon. Balling my hands into fists, I moved forward. Lilith screamed childishly and scurried back, bracing herself behind the Headmistress's desk. "P-please don't hurt me! You don't understand!" She whined, eyes wide with fear.

Hurt her...? Well, I wanted to, but I knew it wasn't an option. I was still a professor here, and she my student. No matter how much I wanted to strangle her right now, I knew I couldn't. However, she did not. Lilith already seemed to have it set in her head that I was set on hurting her. I narrowed my eyes at her, striding goths other side of the desk.

Her jaw dropped as she watched me, looking like a rabbit, ready to run for he life. "You're a foolish little girl, Lilith! I warned you before to stop this!" I growled, shaken by my rage.

However, she shook her head. "No, he loves me! And I love him!" She shouted back at me. Merlin, this girl was seriously beginning to piss me off. Big time. It was as if she didn't listen at all, and saw things in her own sick way. Only knowing how deep I would be in if I struck her kept me from doing so. Punching an idiotic, annoying little brat would be a horrible way to get fired. Maybe I'll just deduct three hundred points from her house, or something.

I rolled my eyes, groaning is disgust. "He doesn't love you! He doesn't even know your name! He thinks you are me, you fool!" I yelled back, getting angrier by the second. I was inches away from wrapping my fingers around her skinny little throat...

Her eyebrows twitched, as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "No..." She whispered, swallowing. She shook her head again. "No, he loves me." She declared, pointing to herself, suddenly flustered and enraged as well. She suddenly went from depressed with the truth, to prepared for a fist-fight. I raised an eyebrow. Perhaps she needed psychological help.

Sighing angrily, I deemed this unworthy of my time. What good would arguing down a partially insane girl do? I needed to do what I came here to do, and that was talk to Severus. I turned around, taking a deep breath. There he was, staring at me, like I was an alien.

I swallowed. What was I supposed to do? I couldn't very well break eye contact, not after making it. However, I wasn't sure what to say, if I should speak at all. The atmosphere that hung in the room now seemed to get more and more awkward by the second. I could hear Lilith behind me, he breathing loud with anxiety, shifting on her feet.

Suddenly, he moved. Severus walked a step forward, still watching me, though his expression changed. It dropped, saddened, nostalgic. Almost afraid. As of he would reach out, and everything would vanish, just a memory.

I took another deep breath through my nose, letting my chest rise and fall dramatically. In a matter of seconds, his eyes began to shine. I furrowed my brow in bafflement. Was he...?

"Claudinia...?" It was more of a query than a statement, though it wasn't one questioning my identity- I could tell from his voice that he knew it was me. Oh, it was me alright- just not the me he remembers from eleven years ago. I was no longer the young girl, barely eighteen. I was grown now, a child, a life. But I was still me, still Claudinia Narcissa Vitrosis. No matter how much I grew up, I knew I would always be that shy, scared, silent girl, tucked inside my shell. I would always have a small fear ticked away inside of my father- of all people, really. I would never let go of what was done to me before, and I would never forget what he did for me. What he gave me.

I blinked away the tears that stung in my eyes. "I'm here." I said, voice breaking as my lips quivered. I pressed them together in order to calm myself. The effect he had on me, just by standing here and looking at me, not to mention all the emotion in his black eyes.

He stood where he was, thought he was staying away pointedly or unable to move, I wasn't sure. I move closer a few steps, slowly at first in case he reined away, which I wouldn't have put past me. He was afraid, I could see it in his eyes. I couldn't blame him.

After he stayed where he was for a moment, I took another few steps, only two or three feet away at this point. As I took the next step, he reached out and took my shoulders in a firm grasp, and I squeaked in fear. For a split second, I thought that perhaps he was angry with me. What if this wasn't him? What if he wasn't in his right mind? After my childhood of a constantly angry and disapproving father, I only knew the gesture as one of intending abuse. However, he wasn't phased by my slight fear, and he pulled me into his arms, wrapping his around me tightly. Momentarily in shock, I blinked rapidly. Once I realized he was holding me, just holding me like he used to just to be close, I let my head fall against his shoulder. His body shook as he hurried his face in my hair, and it only took me a moment to realize he was crying. I clung to him, clutching the fabric of his robes in my fists.

Was this it? We're we reunited at last? Was I getting him back, at last? I never thought I would see him again outside of a picture. Yet, here he was, holding me. It was too good to be true. Maybe it wasn't true. Maybe this was all just a dream...