Living Death

- chapter six

The corridors weren't as welcoming at night as they were in the daytime but considering your situation, you could hardly complain, and seeing the portraits sleeping in their own little worlds made you smile, some curled up with their family and friends in frame but the reality hit again, even the portraits seemed to have people when you were all alone.

You shook your head and mentally told yourself to enjoy your brief taste of freedom, if you could call it that. You usually knew the castle like the back of your hand but shrouded in darkness, the castle was eerie and unfamiliar. You wished Draco was there to hold your hand and tell you you were being irrational.

Ahead you could see a tiny ball of light, dotting around a little. You squinted a little to try and focus on the source but right now it looked like a sort of firefly. Brilliant. Now you were seeing things. It had only been a few days.

You began to head closer to the source of light, curious, and to check if your imagination was conjuring up things or not.

As you were getting close, the light was getting bigger and more erratic in its movement, but before you could investigate, the light disappeared all of a sudden, only for another to appear brighter and steadier than the last. Then that dreaded voice broke the silence. Snape.

You knew better than to hang around so cleared off, walking away as fast but as quietly as you could manage. His voice still booming down the corridor to the point where even some of the portraits began to make mutterings of complaints at how loud he was being. You could hear another voice and by the sounds of it, it belonged to none other than Harry Potter. Usually he kept Snape's attention for more than a few minutes but no sooner had you thought that, you heard Harry walking the other way, and Snape's light disappear completely.

Now you were truly blind and ran ahead a little more, turning a corner to disappear out of sight but accidentally took it too sharply, tripping and landing on your hands and knees.

That light of his Lumos charm appeared again but from behind you, you could see your own shadow projected down in front of you and the ghost like figure of death that was his shadow. None other than nosey old Snape. You got up slowly, patting yourself down and gritting your teeth as your cringed, turning to face him to find out your fate.

"Do you find pleasure in crawling around on all fours around the castle or is this your pathetic attempt to escape? Where were you planning to go? The potion cupboard perhaps?"

"I picked the best time, no students are out of bed at night and all I wanted to do was stretch my legs Professor" you knew you had to add the formality of Sir or Professor if you were to get back into his good books.

Snape sent you another dreadful glare, you could've sworn that look was reserved for you and you only.

"Yes you picked the best possible time for a little reunion with Mr Potter. He, like you, prides himself in strutting about the castle when he shouldn't be, along with his two groupies"

You let out a small chuckle at his name for the trio but quickly returned to a straight expression as you realised you were still very much in trouble. "So, unless you want me to save myself the hassle and kill you myself, right now, I suggest you head back to your room Miss Y/N"

You nodded quickly and let out a small "Yes Sir" before taking your leave, him trapsing behind you like some sort of omen of death. For a man that was meant to have saved your life he sure wasn't good at showing it.