Touch your heart (Severus Snape)

Chapter 26

I ended up getting ready for the ball, even though I made no intention to stay for too long.

I dressed in my blue maxi dress, no cleavage but backless, put on some shoes, straightened my hair and put some light makeup - I would be taking it off eventually so I was in no mood to work on it.

When I got to the great hall, it was full of people happily chatting and dancing and the teachers were among the crowd enjoying their time. Severus was right by Dumbledore's' side and his eyes brighten up when he watched me entering the room. I think he was trying to pay attention to his conversation, but he wasn't achieving it.

When I got to Minerva she eyed me carefully.

"You look very beautiful, Angel. But is there something bothering you? You seem sad and distant. If you need anything you can talk to me, you know that, don't you, dear?"

"Yes, Minerva. Thank you. Don't worry." I faked a soft smile.

"Nonsense. I will always worry about you. You're a good girl. We need more people like you."

She toasted with me before going back to her conversation with some students. I looked all around me, watching while the students and some teachers danced to a slow ballad.

I sighed when I remembered my first ball in Hogwarts. When I danced with Severus. How things got so complicated after being so good. He was my heaven, he was my guardian angel and I just couldn't stay away from him. After that dance, something clicked inside my head. I think he destroyed that wall that I've been building around my heart since I was just a little girl. I think he made me start to feel. And knowing that, - knowing what I would lose -, was killing me inside.

So, since I already made my presence noticed, I tried to flee the ball. But when I finally turned around to exit the Great Hell, I hit someone.

"Ouch, I'm so--" It was Severus, looking at me from above, with his hard expression.

"Going anywhere, Miss Angel?" He asked harshly, causing shivers down my spine.

"I'm tired, I'm going back to my chambers." I tried to circumvent the situation, but he stopped me before I could walk away.

"Not so fast. There's something you need to do first."

"What?" I asked, looking him in the eyes.

"Dance with me." But before I could answer he was already grabbing my hand and my waist and was swaying on the dance floor. I tried to get away very often, but he would grab me and resumed dancing. "There's something going on and either you don't want to tell me or someone doesn't want you to tell me. Am I wrong?-- Angel?" He said my name very slowly, with that rude tone he usually applies.

"No." I just answered him coldly, looking around me for any sign if my uncle. But there was none.

"Then, that's exactly why you should tell me." He said firmly.

"What do you want me to tell you exactly, Severus?"

"What is happening for you to be this cold with me. This is not you, Angel." He said with a sad look on his eyes, but trying to conceal it in front of the crowd around us. "I'm starting to believe..." He stopped in the middle of the sentence as if he regretted what he was about to say.

"What? What are you thinking?" He diverted his look. "Severus. Finish it."

"That after our intimate moments, ... you..." He gulped. "Realized you don't feel how you thought you felt."

I gasped hearing the bullshit he was saying and I started feeling angry and furious with him. Did I mean so little to him? Was he that dumb? I gave myself to him - something that I never did before-, opened my heart and soul and he doubts my feelings now? Well, I was really pissed off. But I knew that I couldn't make a scene nor I could tell him how much I love him. How much I need him. Especially after our intimate moment. But this could be an opportunity to push him away. I had to do it. I needed to keep him safe.

So I nodded to him, looking everywhere except his eyes. "And you're right."

"Look at me while you're saying it. Say you don't feel the same as I did when we were making love." He pulled me against his body harder but continued dancing. "Say it!"

After a biting my tongue I looked at him in the eyes. "I don't love you."

Then, I pulled my body from his, gave him a hard look before going out of the great hall and running to my chambers. Hopefully, I was safe there, and Maxime wasn't able to see us together, whatever way he was doing it. - But I was wrong.

As soon as I opened the door, I saw a piece of paper on the floor. Trembling and sobbing I opened it:

I warned you. It is your fault only. Check the girl's bathroom on the left side of the hospital wing.

Uncle Maxime.

Gasping, I turned around and started running towards the bathroom, but once again I hit someone and, once again, it was Severus.

"You seem like you're enjoying to bump against me." He said with a growl. - This guy doesn't give up.

"Not now, Severus." I walked around him, almost running and I thought he would leave me alone, but he didn't as I heard his steps behind me.

"What are you doing?" I asked indignantly.

"I'm going with you wherever you need to go so damn fast." He walked faster beside me.

When I turned to the girls' bathroom, he stopped for a while thinking if he should enter or not, but he ended up going after me anyway. And when he saw the inside of the bathroom he was socked. There was a student, floating in the air, frozen and eyes widened.

Severus watched the girl in the air, cursed with a spell he identified as a freezing charm and a dark curse, as he saw how his breath was a thick white mist. He murmured a counter-spell and the girl fall on the floor slowly, until she was resting on the floor.

He approached the girl and picked her up on his arms, running to the hospital wing, but before he left he looked at me and saw terror and panic on my eyes. He didn't understand how I knew about the girl but he needed to get her to the hospital first and ask the questions after.

Dizzy as I was, I was bumping against the walls, trying to get inside my chambers, where I locked myself, even after hearing knocking on my door.

I don't know how much time I've been in a fetal position on my bed, but the next morning I woke up tired and the tears were still running down my cheeks.

I rubbed my eyes when I heard Minerva knocking on the floor, yelling my name. It was Saturday, so there were no classes and I wasn't late for anything. But I opened my door, still yawning when I saw her crying face and her terrifying look.

"They killed him. They killed Dumbledore." I gasped and she hugged me. "You're not safe here, now. Without Dumbledore, your family could be here any minute. Pack your things, he had instructions if anything happens to him, there's a safe house for you."

"Are you sure he died?" I cried, feeling my body trembling and my legs failing on me of fear.

"Yes, my darling. We have him on the hospital wing now."

"Can I see him?"

She eyed me carefully before nodding yes. So I packed my things with a wave of my wand and I ran with her to the hospital wing. I saw Harry there crying with Hermione and a few more teachers, but there was no Severus.

"What happened?" I asked, wiping my tears away.

Harry looked at me with such rage in his eyes and went away, along with Hermione.

"Someone got inside Hogwarts and killed Dumbledore. There was no fight, no warning. It... just happened." Minerva answered weakly, trying to contain her tears.

"Where's Severus?" I asked, sobbing.

"We don't know, but we need a new headmaster for the school meantime. We need him. Find him."

But Severus was nowhere to be found that day.