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

Chapter 25

The elves had spent the previous night interrogating students about some of the suspicious Ana had due to her conversation with Dirk. Something about the words innocent love triggered something in Ana's mind. 

The way to Minerva's office was distasteful for Ana. First, because she was betting all her hopes on that lead, and if the kid was not the one she was looking for, she didn't know what else to do. Second, because she could still feel Severus' anguish as if he was afraid all the time that she might disappear. Lastly, she was feeling lightheaded again and nauseated. Furthermore, her body temperature was rising gradually and she was feeling really mild. Uncomfortably mild.

Nevertheless, Ana sought to hasten through the hallways without anyone discerning her figure becoming pale.

Severus tried to keep up with her agile pace. There was something about the whole situation that was making him feel unease. There wasn't much time to process everything that Ana shared with him that morning, but he knew in the bottom of his heart, there was something much worse Ana didn't tell him yet. However, it was not the time nor the place to resume the conversation, so he decided to keep his questions to himself.

When Ana entered Minerva's office there was a student sitting in front of the desk, eating cookies and drinking tea along with Minerva who was looking at him with a somber and anxious smile. Her and Ana's eyes met for a moment and it was a look of acknowledgment, especially when she noticed Ana was followed by none other than Severus Snape.

The aura in the office was heavy, terrorizing even. The kid was shivering, he looked pale and tired. The elves interrogated every student during the night, starting with Slytherin's students and ending with Hufflepuff's, from 1st years to finalists, until they had a match.

Ana remembered when the kid Malik was the first to contract the disease. It was all too dark and mysterious at first. It was painful to think about how Ana felt once she examined the boy and realized there was nothing she could have done considering his organs already started falling on him. She didn't know the seriousness of the condition back then; they were all so ignorant about it. And it turned out to be all her fault. Everything that happened was because of her and her powers...

Anyway, that was not all that Ana retrieved from that memory. The conversation she had with Malik's friends popped into her mind. Back then, they shared the information that Malik had been exchanging letters with some girl from another school. For some reason, his friends found her writing too odd, hence the fact they told Ana about the letters. She even read the letters herself back then and she confirmed it - something was odd about that girl. She never put much attention to that until she pondered about Dirk's statement.

Young innocent love.

Ana assumed Malik had been in contact with the disease Dirk created through those letters, somehow. She was convinced something similar had happened with the frightened kid in front of her.

Trying hard not to show she was exceedingly exhausted, Ana marched to Minerva's desk and gave the kid a look of understanding and a compreensive smile emerged on her face.

"Hi," Ana started.

"You're back," the kid widened his eyes in shock and terror. That didn't go unnoticed by the people present.

"I am. Why? Does it bother you?" Ana asked, furrowing her brows.

The kid lowered his head and didn't reply.

Ana exchanged a solemn expression with Minerva while she kneeled in front of the kid.

"Hey," her face brightened with the most genuine smile Severus had ever seen and it melted him to his core. Ana spoke in the softest tone she could apply in such a tense moment. She needed to win the kids' trust, so staying at his eye level was the first step; talking softly at him was the next. After that - unknown waters to her. "What's your name?"