Petals | Severus Snape

1 | Greenhouse

Time was never kind towards you. It seemed like you always managed to come late in every occasion, not noticing how fast the clock was ticking, and you knew your careless attitude was going to be the death of you. You had to run towards the greenhouse, panting hard as soon as you arrived there, trying to catch your breath. You were not born to run, that was for sure.

"You're late, Miss L/N. Why am I not surprised?"

The silky voice got into your ears, and you chewed on your bottom lip, walking into the greenhouse with a guilty smile as the professor eyed you carefully. You knew him too well to understand what he wanted you to say, and sometimes you wished you did not listen to him so obediently.

"Because I'm always late, Professor."

You responded, knowing that he would want to hear it from you. A smirk was dancing on Professor Snape's lips as he nodded at your words, confirming your answer was the one he was looking for. You pushed your urge to roll your eyes at the back of your mind, shaking your head as you went to stand next to him.

"What ingredients do we want to take today?"

You asked, looking around and noticing that Professor Sprout was not there like usual. Severus told you what he needed and you followed his actions, not wanting to screw up everything and ended up embarrassing yourself.

Severus slapped your hand when you were not handling the plants correctly, avoiding you to ruin the ingredients for his potions. You immediately nodded in understatement, focusing on the way he did it to make sure you did not make the same mistake again. The professor mumbled something under his breath that you could not hear, but you were sure he was complaining about you.

"Stop complaining about me."

You huffed, a little bit annoyed with your professor. Severus rolled his eyes dramatically, crossing his arms against his chest as he watched you work, making sure that you did not mess up with his precious ingredients. He could tell that something was bothering you, as he had known you far too long, now that you were a student under his wings, he knew you even better.

"Did you have a bad day?"

His question caught you by surprise, and suddenly a wave of emotions washed over you, and you wanted nothing but to tell him everything. You had been taking extra lessons from the Potions Master this year, and you always helped him with his work, even if he did not need you to. He could handle his tasks perfectly alone, but now he was glad that you could lend him a hand to lessen his burdens.

Those times that you would help him to brew potion, grade papers or collect ingredients like you were doing at the moment— He always managed to make you open up to him, revealing everything about your life without any doubt that he would tell anybody else. It would not hurt if you say that you trusted the wizard with your life.

"The worst."

You almost whined, and Severus just shook his head at your words.

"Did you fight with your boyfriend?"

He guessed, a hint of amusement was twinkling in his dark eyes, knowing that his question would anger you. You glared daggers at him, realising that he was trying to tick you off intentionally.

"You know well that I do not have a boyfriend, Professor."

Severus almost laughed at how grumpy you were, but it did not stop him to tease his favourite student even more, loving how you scrunched your nose and pouted at him. It was a sight of you that he held so dearly in the front of his mind, without knowing the true reason behind it, and Severus never cared to think about it much.

"Of course, you don't. You choose to reject every boy who likes you including the one that confesses his undying love to you last week."

Your face flushed at his words, reminding you of the boy who decided it was a smart move to confess to you in front of Snape, during the Potions class. You cringed at the memory, and Severus could not help but let a small smile cracked on his lips. You would be surprised to see his smile a year ago, but now you could say that it was a familiar sight to see him smiling around you, only when others were not watching.

"If you keep rejecting them, you're going to die alone, Miss L/N."

Snape added, his smile only widen as he saw how irritated you were when he did not stop talking about it. You dropped the plants and put your hands on your waist, cocking your eyebrow as you glared daggers at your teacher.

"If that is the case, then you're going to die alone too."

You retorted, smirking as you reminded him of that one time he rejected a woman who asked him out in front of you just a few months ago. You could still remember how disgusted he was about the idea of dating, and it still humoured you to this day to see how flustered your professor was.

"You're not going to drop it, aren't you?"

Severus scoffed, frowning as you started to use the incident against him. You shook your head vigorously, a big smile was painted on your face as you walked closer towards him, so close that any other student would never dare to but then again, you were not just any other student.

"We're going to die alone together, Professor Snape."

You chuckled, and continued to do your work, ignoring your teacher who was glaring a hole into the back of your head. But then he realised, you never told him about your day truthfully.

"What happened today, Y/N?"

"I'm just stressed out with everything, I guess. But I'm fine now."

You beamed at him, assuring him that it was nothing important that he should be worried of. It was true, school was trapping you in another level of pressure but you looked forward to help your professor every day, knowing that you could laugh and smile like nothing was bothering you.

"School can be stressful but don't worry, you only have a few months left here."

He spoke softly, and you smiled, adoring how considerate he was being with you. It was something that you never know about him before you started taking extra lessons with him. You never thought that he could be caring and gentle if he wanted to. But you knew how much he cared for his students, no matter how strict he was in classes, he always looked out for them, making sure that no harm could come to his students.

"School can be stressful but here you are, teaching in a school. How do you cope with that?"

You joked, and Snape gave you a knowing look, the one that told you to shut your mouth and do your work in silence. You gulped and nodded weakly, tearing your gaze from him and looked at the plants.

Just as you were getting comfortable with the silence, Professor Sprout came in, her cheery voice announced her presence. You sent her a smile as she talked, loving how friendly she was with everyone. Severus just nodded and replied once in a while, his focus was on the ingredients, and you had to do the talking, not wanting to make Professor Sprout feel ignored.

Severus thanked you silently as he looked at you who were talking with the older witch, and you just shook your head. The teacher surely owed you this time.