Who would have thought, that the grumpy old dungeon bat could ever feel something that is just similar to love? Well, Elena Smith surely did not. But still, this is exactly what happened. He found love in his student - even if it was love at detours.
The weeks until the Christmas holidays were not really eventful. Elena and Snape still mocked each other and detention was nothing unusual for her. One has to note, that she got out of the way of having to serve another detention with Umbridge, though!
The nearer the last day of school came, the more irritable she became. No one knew that Elena hadn't got a good relationship with her parents – no one knew, that she even was scared of her parents.
Every time Elena gets nervous or scared, she tries to hide it by telling jokes or making others laugh – and what is better for making people grin than annoying Snape? Therefore, she was an extreme pain in the ass for him, especially on her last school day.
"I spy with my little eye someone, who needs to shut up", she whispered to Lisa and giggled. Lisa looked at her and asked if it was Snape. Elena raised an eyebrow and smiled. "Merlin, it's always Snape. He's the devil!"
Lisa smirks and looks at her in a playful, reproachful way. "What did I tell you about calling Snape the devil?"
The nervous girl played innocent. She acted as if she was thinking about a genuine response, then said: "I don't know, maybe that it is offensive to the devil?"
Both of the girls did not notice that everyone became silent but when the students close to them laughed, and they caught the sight of an angry Snape, both were prepared to get killed by him. "Get. Out.", he growled and they fled.
When eating lunch, they were both told, that Snape looked like he could explode every second. One student even asked: "What did you say to the dungeon bat? He looked like he was having terrible constipation after you left!", which made Elena laugh so much that she nearly spat out her pumpkin juice.
-
When Elena entered her home, she did not feel well. She and her father moved to the UK because her mother passed away and her father could not endure the memories he made with his wife in the US. Since Elena's mother died, he had neglected himself and his family.
He often came home drunk and let his anger out on his daughter. She had to manage the household and had to obey her father. He often got violent and the poor girl was scared. "Two weeks. I can make it."
What she did not expect was that her comments on the last day of school made Snape that angry, that she'd get detention over the Christmas break – not that she would complain. On the second day she was at home, her father called her from downstairs.
"Elena, it's for you! It's some man whose name sounds like a sneeze." First, she did not get who he meant, but when she opened the front door, she understood. Severus Snape. Elena had to hold back her laughing – his name really sounded like a sneeze! She had to remember that joke.
Still, a feeling of anxiety began to spread in her body. Why was her head of house in front of her door? Would she be expelled? Did she drive it too far? She hoped not.
She found herself sitting with her teacher and her father in the living room. One could clearly smell that her father was drunk – and it was not even three in the afternoon. Elena sat stiff and nervously next to her father and prayed to Merlin that her father would not have another of his anger-tantrums while her teacher was here. Snape examined the situation and also saw, that his student had some bruises on her arm. The injury because of Umbridge's black quill still was not healed completely.
"Get us something to drink", she heard her father say. Elena nodded and stood up, but he was not content with her actions. "What did I tell you about verbal answers?", he barked, and she bit her lip. "I will, Father. What do you want to drink, Professor?"
She had a feeling as if her heart would jump out of her chest. Elena got her father a coffee and her professor just a glass of water and sat down. "I came here to talk about the behavior of your daughter. Unfortunately, she earned herself detention over the Christmas break." He explained that she was awaited in Hogwarts earlier and named a date.
Angrily, her father looked at her. She just wanted to disappear. Even Snape realized that it was not a good situation for him to leave that girl alone with her father. "May I talk with you for a second privately, Miss Smith?"
Insecurely she looked at him. Elena's father told her that they should have enough privacy in her room and turned on the TV. It was not really the most appropriate thing for a student to talk with a teacher in her private bedroom – but her father ordered this, and she did not want to disobey his words.
Feeling uncomfortable she led the way into her room and sat down on her desk chair while her professor stayed standing. "Miss Smith, is your father causing you harm in any way?"
Elena thought she was not hearing right and looked at him with wide eyes. She realized that she was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and that her teacher had most likely seen her bruises. A sigh escaped her mouth, and she looked at the ground. Severus Snape was not exactly the person she felt comfortable talking with about her problems at home.
"Your arrival was planned on the 30th of December, but I, as your Head of House, can manage to get you to Hogwarts from the 26th on." She looked at him, and he could clearly see the insecurity in her eyes. Elena told him, that she did not want anyone to know about her situation at home and that they would ask questions if she came any sooner. Because of that, Snape made her an offer: "Well, let's just say that you were this disrespectful today, that I extended your detention by some days."
"Thank you so much, Professor!"
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
