We entered the school, me still in his arms, his robes always hid his figure, but he's definitely very strong for being able to carry me all the way here. As he walked through the school to the dungeons I admired his features, his dark tired eyes, hooked nose and pale skin. They were all things I loved about him, even if others criticized him for them. His black hair that touched his shoulders and looked so silky shining in the dim light that came from his wand. He was truly amazing, I didn't even hear him say anything to light his wand, it just happened when he wanted it to, he was so smart. I felt a rush of heat to my cheeks for admiring this man in such a foolish and embarrassing way. "What is it? Are you ok?" He grunted looking down at me for a moment, I snapped out of my thoughts realizing I had probably been staring at him for a while, at least long enough for him to notice. I needed to get better at hiding my feelings, I couldn't just keep acting on them. "Hmm? Oh yeah I'm fine, I'm just very thankful you came to help me" I said smiling and looking back forward. He hummed in response and turned down to the dungeon hallways. "I think I can walk from here, maybe." I said, putting my hand on his arm to get his attention. "Of course." He said letting me down slowly and steadily. He kept his hands on the sides of my arms to make sure I wouldn't topple over. I winced a bit as I straightened out my legs and arms, I lifted my arms up to stretch them out hearing my joints and back pop. I sighed in relief and shook my legs a bit to make sure they were still working properly. "Does everything feel ok? Anything hurt or feel broken?" he asked, looking me up and down. "No I feel pretty ok, I mean it does feel like I was asleep for one hundred years, but other than that i'm fine." I said smiling up at him. "Good now come on." he said practically speeding away down to his classroom. I walked faster to keep up and looked down at my watch. "Wow it's already five o'clock, I didn't even go to sleep except when I was passed out in the woods." I said jokingly. He opened his classroom door for me and gave me a scowl. I laughed in response and walked in his room. I went and sat on my table that was next to his desk legs swinging over the edge. He went and sat down in his chair letting out a sigh closing his eyes for a moment and rubbing his face. He looked up at me and just stared, I kept the eye contact wondering if there was something on my face, I smiled sarcastically and he rolled his eyes, "Are you going to explain to me what happened?" He said with an exhausted tone, I felt bad having kept him up all night, but if he came he must have already been awake. "Oh ummmm, I would rather not" I responded looking away at the ceiling. "Well that's not really an option Y/n." he said sarcastically. "Well you see I would, but you probably won't believe me, and I don't need you running and telling Dumbledore." I said a slight smirk, shrugging my shoulders. He didn't say anything, he just got up and disappeared into his potions closet, he popped back out walking over to me and holding up a vial, "What's that?" I said my brows furrowed. He paused looking at me, "Veritaserum. Three drops of this and You-Know-Who himself would spill his darkest secrets." He said with a smirk. I looked at him and then at the vial, and then back at him. I tried to snatch it from his hand quickly, but the annoyingly intelligent man pulled his hand away. "Nice try. Now tell me why you were in the forbidden forest, and what happened that made you summon your patronus." He said putting the vial back into the closet with magic. I watched as he casually sent it back in its place without saying a word. This man was astounding, he just uses wandless magic and wordless magic without even giving any effort. I wouldn't be surprised if he could send me across the room with just a look. Not that I would mind.
"You should teach me how you do that." I said trying to avoid the topic. "Y/n," he said with a stern tone looking down at me. "Don't make me use Legilimency." he said sarcastically as he went and sat back down in his chair. "Well you are such a skilled Legilimens, how do I know you haven't done it already?" I said, raising a brow suspiciously. "We have practiced, have we not? So at this point you should know when I've entered your mind." I looked at him as he just smirked shrugging, "Hmm yeah I suppose." I hopped off the table and walked over to him. "Ok fine i'll tell you, but you can't tell ANYONE, and i'm not sure if this is the best place, who knows if someone's listening." I said looking around behind me. "Fine, follow me." he said rolling his eyes. He got up and walked over to a door that I'd never seen him go in before, I'd actually never even paid it any thought. He walked up to it and muttered something and it opened up. Wow teachers and their fancy doors. I followed him in the door closing behind and locking. I looked around realizing this was his private quarters. I internally freaked out, I was in Severus' quarters, the place he lived, and wasn't a teacher in. We walked past a small kitchen area with a small circular dining table, on the other side of the wall was a fireplace with a loveseat and chair sat in front of it, just as I imagined, everything was either black, or grey. Next to the fireplace on each side was a bookcase, and behind the loveseat was a large queen sized bed, it had a black comforter, and the pillowcases and sheets were a dark green. He really took his love for the color to another level, I looked to the left next to the bed and there was a black wardrobe, and a door next to it, which I presumed was the bathroom. He had a very nice room, I was kind of shocked the teachers had such fancy rooms. I mean it made sense since they basically lived here. "Sit." he said as he took a seat in his chair and I sat on the dark loveseat, it was quite comfortable. He crossed one leg over the other and rested his elbow on the arm of the chair, sitting his head on his hand. He stared me down once more and I gulped, suddenly feeling very nervous.
"Ok so um, you see what happened was, well it's complicated, because I myself don't really know what happened, but I guess to start after you sent me the medicine, I took some and fell asleep for the next who knows how long, and when I woke up it was midnight, and I noticed on my windowsill there was a note, and it fell outside and I went to get it." I began, his face remained the same as I continued. "And when I realized it was blank, I did a revealing charm and it showed a map, so naturally I followed it and it led me to the forest." his face changed from his normal scowl to more confusion and sarcasm, "You followed a map on a note and you don't even know who gave it to you?" he said furrowing his brows and scoffing in disbelief, "Well when you put it that way, i'll admit it wasn't my brightest moment, but just listen." I continued on with the story and got to the part when I saw the light for the first time. "I came upon the clearing that you found me in, and I had already heard what I'd assumed was my sisters voice calling out to me, and I saw this growing green light, and I saw Connie standing there in front of it." I said pausing to read his reaction, he just shifted in his seat, still the look of confusion and investment on his face. He now looked a little more concerned, whether it was for my feelings or my mentality I didn't know. "I walked over to her and she just kept talking about how pretty this light was, and it wasn't Connie, I mean it looked like her and sounded like her, but she looked like a ghost almost, but made up of a different matter, like a hologram almost, some type of transparent material, and she bent down and touched the light, and she just broke into a bunch of little glass-like pieces, and they just flew up and disappeared with the wind. That's when the flower appeared, the glowing light had dimmed to the center of it." I said pulling my wand out of my sleeve and the flower along with it. I handed him the flower slowly and he leaned over to take it from me, his fingertips brushing mine lightly, to which we both looked up for a moment and then he brought the flower to himself to examine it closely. "And something drew me into the flower, and I couldn't look away, and it lured me in, and I touched the light. And that's when everything happened." I said gesturing to the flower, "May I see for myself?" he said in a more serious and confused tone, he had this look on his face, one that made me trust him completely, more than I already did. I felt in his eyes, that he was genuinely trying to figure out what had happened. I looked in his eyes a moment more and nodded slowly. "Yes, just that one though." I said my eyes not leaving his. "Of course." He looked in my eyes and I felt him enter my mind. I used the practice I had to block out all my other memories. I know he was very skilled, but I didn't want to take the chance of him seeing any more personal ones, or ones about him for that matter. I watched and he played the memory, I relived it as he watched, I wasn't scared or in pain, I was relaxed, because I trusted this man fully and felt safe in this setting alone with him. I watched as the light traveled through my body and left me on the ground. My eyes didnt leave his as he watched closely. I casted the patronus spell, I forgot about what allowed me to do that, my eyes left his as he watched me think of my sister, and then him, this allowing me to successfully cast the spell. I noticed him look at me for a moment and then continued on. The memory ended soon after and I felt him exit my mind. He just sat there in thought, he examined the flower more and then looked up at me, he got up and sat next to me. "Do you feel any different?" he said looking over my face, I could tell he was trying his hardest to find out what had happened and why. "No I feel the same." I said shrugging, he just hummed and slowly looked over me, I felt heat rise to my cheeks realizing I was still in my pajamas. "Can you take your coat off for a moment?" he said in a serious tone, I looked at him confused for a moment, was he really asking me to do this? Why? What was gonna happen? "I just need to check you for any hidden wounds or marks." he said, clearing his throat trying to make it seem less awkward. I slowly shrugged off my cardigan, goose bumps appearing across my arms as they were exposed to the cool air.
He lifted each arm looking over and examining them, he leaned back and lifted my hair to check the back of my neck. I shivered a bit feeling his rough hands brush against my skin as he slowly let my hair back down. "See anything?" I said to break the silence. "No, but let me know immediately if anything appears or anything weird happens." he said still looking over me with furrowed brows and then looking back at the flower. I could tell he was gonna stress himself out until he found out exactly what happened, but something in me told me he would find out soon if he didn't already have an idea. "Yeah totally." I said smiling and pulling my cardigan back on. He got up and walked over to one of his bookshelves and pulled out some book flipping through it. I stayed seated in comfortable silence as I let him think. This gave me time to think about everything and how odd and sort of scary it all was. The only thing that kept me from flipping out was his presence. "Severus who do you think sent me out there?" I said looking at him with worried eyes, he looked at me slowly, his eyes meeting mine, I could see his face change when he saw the slight fear in my eyes, "I don't know." He said softly, trying to comfort me. I just nodded looking down and fiddling with my sleeves, I looked at my watch and it was almost six, I looked to the small window he had and could see the sky beginning to grow lighter, as the sun prepared to rise. "I'm not like... infected with anything now am I?" I questioned, my voice laced with concern as I just looked out the window, I could feel his eyes on me as he thought for a moment. "I'm afraid i'm not sure." he said, closing his book and putting it back on the shelf. I let out a sigh and heard him walk over to me. He placed a hand on my shoulder lightly, and I smiled softly. He was so kind to me, why? I could no longer say it was because of Albus. He truly cared for me. "Y/n, I think we need to talk to Albus about this." He said trying to assure me it was almost necessary, I turned my head up to him quickly, "I-I don't think we should, I don't know what he'll do." I said furrowing my brows, I knew he was right though, If the smartest man here couldn't think of what had happened then our only hope would be Dumbledore. "He's your godfather, I don't think he'll be upset with you, I think he will just be concerned." He lifted his hand from my shoulder and I frowned a bit at the loss of touch, "Plus, he knows everything, so I'm sure he'll find out one way or another." he said in a light hearted tone with a small smile. I let out a laugh at that and nodded my head in agreement, "True." I stood grabbing my wand and looking back out at the window. We stood in silence for a moment. I thought about the man standing with me and the lengths he'd just gone through for me. I pondered for a moment and the turned and wrapped my arms around his torso, hugging the tall man, my face against his chest. "Thank you so much Severus" I said, my voice muffled from his robes, I felt his arms lightly rest on my back and return the hug, I could almost feel his thumb rubbing my back comfortingly. He didn't say anything, but he didn't need to. I knew he cared about me and that he was happy I was okay. He didn't punish me like any other student, instead he took care of me and made sure I was safe, he trusted me and I trusted him. I pulled away and looked up into his deep eyes, smiling softly. He looked into mine and gave me a small smile as well. And that said all it needed to. "I'm gonna go get ready now, i'll see you at breakfast, we can talk to Albus during lunch." I said as I walked around his couch and headed towards his door he followed behind as we exited his private quarters. I walked to his door and turned and smiled at him, "Goodbye Severus." he looked in my eyes, "Goodbye Y/n." And with that, I left and headed to my dormitory. Smiling to myself, he really cares.