Return (Snape x Male Reader)

ix

song: i will survive - gloria gaynor

3rd pov

y/n took heed in snape's words.

when he didn't show up to his classes the day after snape had spoken with him, snape grew concerned.

snape had just finished writing a letter to dumbledore about it when filch walked in, a stack of papers in his hands. filch filed through them and placed a portion of them onto snape's desk.

"what is this?" snape asked, picking up the stack of papers.

he recognized the paper on top as an assignment he had assigned over a month ago. at the top of the page, y/n's name was written.

"all the missing assignments y/n l/n had in your class. i have to deliver all of the other missing assignments from his other classes," filch said, walking towards the door of the classroom.

it was now apparent to snape that y/n has skipped his classes in order to focus on getting completely caught up on assignments.

snape was thoroughly impressed, but also concerned for y/n's health. it wasn't possible to complete all of that work in a day. y/n was sacrificing his sleep to get the work done.

the assignments had been done in the nick of time, as final grades had to be sent in the very next day. y/n was lucky he had the weekend to rest, because the very next week was dedicated to n.e.w.t. testing.

at the annual staff meeting after the 7th years take their exams, y/n was brought up into the conversation.

"it's quite an anomaly. his grades plummet, then all of a sudden he turns every missing assignment and goes one to perform extraordinarily on his n.e.w.t. exams," one teacher commented.

"an anomaly indeed. somebody must've talked some sense into him," another teacher agreed.

"it's horrible what happened to his parents, i'm just glad he was able to pull through in time to save his grades," another said.

snape stayed silent through the entire discussion, but was silently proud of y/n.

it was a bit of a shock when y/n didn't even show up to his own graduation. he just disappeared, not a word as he left. not a single goodbye to anyone. not even to his best friend.

***

three years. three years and nobody had seen or heard from y/n. some people were beginning to even think that he was dead.

so when he made front page on the news, it was like a slap to the face for everyone.

'rookie auror uncovers death eater hideout, apprehends 4 death eaters three months on job'

the title said.

snape could barely believe his eyes. he wasn't one to ever read the news, finding it to be full of lies and misinformation, but when he heard that name, he couldn't let it slip by.

there he was, his picture on the front page of the paper. the picture showed him walking, an assertive grip on the shoulder of a death eater he had just arrested. he sent a glare straight into the camera as he passed.

all of the softness he had had from his childhood was gone. he was now a sharp, attentive looking young man. he had grown a lot, a wisdom behind his eyes that snape had never seen there before. he had that glint in his eyes once again, the one that disappeared after his parents died.

snape figured that the auror training had given y/n the discipline he needed to pull himself out of his depression, because he finally looked alive again.

and from then on, he was a front page regular. more and more articles of how he found and apprehended death eaters were being printed.

4 years. 4 years that went on.

and then finally, the last front page he was ever on, was one of the terrible accident he'd been in while in pursuit of a death eater.

what exactly happened in the accident was never specified, but it forced him into an early retirement.

***

y/n sat at his dining table, sipping on a cup of coffee as he read the morning paper. it had been a year since his accident, and he was living off of his savings from when he was an auror. he could afford to do so, especially because of all of the money his parents had left him in their will.

an ad caught his eye and he paused all movement as he read it.

hogwarts was in desperate need of a temporary defense of the dark arts teacher, as the last teacher was exposed as a fraud. gilderoy lockhart, the author. y/n had never liked him.

y/n contemplated for maybe 5 minutes before he got a quill and a paper, writing out his application.

he sent it by owl, then went on with his day as he normally would.

when dumbledore was sifting through the applications for the job, he paused when a familiar name came within his eyesight.

with raised eyebrows, dumbledore tore open the letter and read the application. it was him. 8 years away from hogwarts and he wanted to come back.

dumbledore didn't even glance at the other applicants, immediately signing y/n on for the job and sending him a letter back, telling him of the news.

dumbledore kept this a secret, not even telling snape, who had been keeping up with every bit of information about y/n for the past 8 years. it was a bit wrong of him to do so, but he thought it'd be more entertaining if he kept everyone in the dark about who the new defence against the dark arts teacher would be.

so when y/n walked into the dining hall during the last meal of the day, it was like getting hit by a bus for them.

despite all eyes being on y/n, he was able to keep his cool. he wore a long beige trench coat that hid most of his body. under his coat was a rather expensive suit, more muggle-esque with it's style.

"sorry i'm late," y/n said, holding up his cane with his gloved hand, nodding his head towards it with a smile, "i'm not as fast as i used to be."

i know this chapter moved rly fast 💀💀💀 and i mesn REALLY fast lmfao

mf aged 8 years in one chapter, like that's redonkulous

also i could have sworn i updated like two days ago and then i checked and it said FIVE which is wacky, so here y'all go w the new update