Misguided Ghosts (a Severus Snape love story)

Chapter 5: The five champions

CHAPTER 5

Snape's POV

The next month after that night when I almost made the mistake of kissing Ester, there was no talk of it. Almost as if it never happened. I also made sure never to ask any more personal questions. I didn't want to see her in pain again. It would kill me if I did. Especially if she cried the way she did.

Part of me was grateful that we didn't speak about it. I could barely control myself last time and Merlin only knows what will happen if the same scenario occurs again. The other part of me was angry with myself. I was so mad that I had allowed my mask to fall and that I kept letting this girl effect me. The littlest things she did like glance my way would make my emotional wall feel extremely heavy. I could never concentrate on what i was doing with her eyes swimming around in the back of my mind. I hated it. Ester was making me go soft. I couldn't afford for that kind of thing to happen. Not when the dark lord was so close to full strength.

I shuddered at the thought. Even worse, he had spy's all over Hogwarts. It would only be a matter of time before one of them noticed and reported back to him. He would surely punish me with some evil form of torture. Or worse, Ester.

No, he wouldn't, I thought to myself reassuringly. They've had their eye on her and her metamorphmagus ability for awhile. Lucius Malfoy informed me himself that Voldemort had plans to use her for something. They'd most likely persuade Ester to join them and she could spy on the ministry, looking like someone else. It was inevitable that they would someday find a way to get ahold of her. I just hoped she wasn't too hard headed to refuse them. I knew she was a good person and wouldn't agree without putting up a fight first, and it would be the death of her. Literally.

"Hey, earth to Sev. Are you even listening to a word I'm saying?" Ester said out of nowhere, ripping me from my daydream.

I suddenly remembered what we were doing. It was the night before the champions were chosen from the goblet of fire and we were having another lesson. I must have spaced out.

"What? Oh, yes. I was listening." I lied.

She shook her head, smirking. "You weren't listening, were you?"

I shrugged. "Sorry."

She laughed. "That's fine."

There was silence for awhile as we listened to the blaring music. I didn't particularly like the band that was playing right now, but I liked, i'll admit, sitting here with Ester. Dumbledoor was right. She was a lot like me in more ways than one. She was more of a Lilly than the original would ever be. And the truth was, the one truth I have been refusing to face for so many months, was that I was undeniably and irrefutably in love with Ester Kingsley.

"I came up with this idea, Sev." She said after awhile.

I glanced back at Ester, who was now standing up and digging through her enormous bag of junk. "What is it?" I drawled, sounding bored.

She came back up a few seconds later with her long dark hair cascading into her eyes and a small, boxy looking contraption that had a lens and different buttons on the top. She pointed at me and pressed down on the top one. A bright white flash instantly blinded my field of vision. "What the hell--" I exclaimed before she cut me off and flapped a grainy, dark photo in front of my face.

"It's a camera. One of the old fashioned ones too. One that spits pictures out the front once they're taken. I'm going to take pictures from now on since this is my only year at Hogwarts and I want to remember it." She said, smiling like she had just won the lottery.

I snatched the photo from her hand to examine it closer. The usual scowl was plastered on my face in my picture, along with a bit of shock from her pulling the camera on me. "Why doesn't it move?"