Fighting for love - Severus Snape fanfiction (BOOK TWO of A Magical Muggle)

Chapter 7

As the days went on, and the disease caused by that potion continued spreading, things were getting harder to deal with. Everything looked just like when Voldemort was still alive and terrorizing people - sad, dark, and empty.

Luckily, Ana and her coworkers had achieved some great results by testing the Devil's draught, but they still had a long way to go before showing it to the world. There's not much they could do, really. They have been working practically all the time on the cure for the disease and some days they just go home completely disappointed with themselves.

Alba's grandmother's death took a toll on the girl, but Ana has been a great support for her. She even went out with her one night, to grab a drink and try to help her escape the reality of what's happening all around. It was also good for Ana, who needed an escape from the laboratory from time to time. Of course, she'd rather spend all the free time she had with Severus, but he understood why she needed to be with Alba.

"How's everything going on between you and Severus?" Alba asked after a couple of glasses of Whiskey. "I mean, we're only having a few hours of rest."

"It's fine, he's a little frustrated because I work on the laboratory all the time and when I'm at Hogwarts, I go to my office, but he understands."

"You're a lucky woman, Ana," she muttered. "I know I was a little skeptical at first, you know - about you and Severus. But I think I understand it now and I do envy you both."

"I'm sure that you'll find someone to love too," Ana said. "You're a good person, Alba."

"I wish you were right. I really do."

"Severus is completely different from everyone else that I know. He understands me at a level that even I can't understand, you know?" Ana continued talking about her and Severus' relationship, telling her how they met and how they realized they were in love. Alba laughed a couple of times when Ana told her about their first kiss and Slughorn's party. It was nice to share those stories with someone else who she trusted and Alba had proven to be a trustworthy person. Ana felt that around her. On the other hand, Johnny, the usually nice guy that worked with them, had been acting slightly odd. Like there was something wrong about him. Sometimes he looks like the old Johnny, and other moments, he simply turns into someone else.

Lately, he has been making improper comments. At first, they made her laugh because Johnny has always been a funny person and he likes to hear people laughing. And, considering the awful time they were living, who would say no to a good laugh? But then, his comments started being more frequent and more incisive. He was acting really strange, and Alba was also aware of those alterations of behavior.

For the rest of the week, Alba and Ana had pushed Johnny away in the most discreet way - maybe he just needed time to reflect on what he was doing, or maybe he'd understand he was making them feel uncomfortable. And they decided that if that wasn't enough for him to back off, they'd talk about it, just the three of them and try to solve it once and for all.

They thought nothing of it, as Johnny wasn't the only person acting so oddly since that disease appeared. Everyone else was acting so out of themselves, even Ana and Alba themselves felt a change in them. It felt like everything was different. Sometimes it felt like it was even worse than when Voldemort was spreading the terror all over the Earth. Another thing that probably justified Johnny's change of behavior was the fact that he and his beautiful girlfriend had split up. During a casual conversation in the laboratory, Alba had asked him about her and he confessed they broke up a few weeks ago. After that workday, they went out the three of them, to have a drink and let their frustrations all out.

With Alba's grandmother's death and Johnny's break up, Ana was the only person that had her life intact since the beginning of that illness, and she was the one that had to support her friends in order to get the work done every day.