"Excuse me?" furrowing her eyebrows Sofia tore the glasses off her face, taking long strides towards Severus.
"What in the hell were you doing with my drawers?" Severus turned towards her, eyes darker than ever before. He slammed some of the papers onto the table. She noticed the bundle of lesson plans which she had been working on during the weekend.
"Severus I just rewrote some lesson plans and placed them into your drawers!" Sofia tried to keep herself calm although for the first time the potions professor truly scared her rather than simply annoyed her.
"It is Professor to you! Did your mother forget to teach you manners, Greene?" Sofia clenched her fists, blood boiling at the mention of her mother. She looked at the ceiling mustering all her strength.
"No, unfortunately not. My mother passed before she could teach me every single one of them!" Sofia held the professor's deranged gaze without blinking. Severus' fist slowly unclenched as he realized he touched a nerve. He proceeded to aggressively open his drawers as if looking for something specific. Once he had found whatever he was looking for, his breathing slowed down as he exhaled. He looked up at Sofia who was completely still. "Ms Greene. I do not want to catch you looking through my drawers again." He could see that there was a twinge of sadness in Sofia's eyes. Severus almost felt guilty for yelling at her without a clear purpose. In an effort to somewhat ease the situation, Severus grabbed the plans in one hand and his wand in the other. Sofia watched as he opened the last drawer in his cabinet and with a swift flick of his wand he cleared it out. He dropped her lesson plans into that drawer. The loud sound of the papers hitting the drawer made Sofia flinch. Looking up Severus gestured to the drawer. "You can keep your useless notes in here during the time that you teach in my classroom." With a quick motion of his hand, he locked the rest of the drawers, storming out. Sofia let out a loud growl before looking at her schedule, she had another class to teach right before dinner, but for now, she had some time to herself. Sofia decided to skip lunch and go straight to her room for some quiet.
After only moments in her quarters, Sofia realized she needed some company. Only now did it dawn on her that she hasn't quite had a regular human interaction since tea with Minerva. Grabbing her wand Sofia went over to Remus, in hopes that he was already done with lunch.
Knocking on his office door Sofia heard a faint come in before she entered.
"Sof! Darling how are you?" Remus was sitting at his desk, as Sofia came in he gestured for her to sit down.
"I'm grand Remus, just grand!" She forced a smile.
"I'm assuming your potions classes are going well then?" he smiled at her sheepishly.
"Oh just swell!" Before he could say anything else, Sofia covered her face with her hands and let out a soft whimper. She felt tears streaming down her cheeks. She tried to stop the tears with all her might as she realized how stupid she must look.
"Sof are you crying? What on earth happened?" He walked around the desk kneeling next to her, placing his right arm over her shoulders.
"This is so embarrassing..." She mumbled.
He gently stroked her back. "Sofia Greene in my office crying-|" she looked at him, red-faced. "-it must have been something quite striking." Sofia proceeded to tell Remus the events which partook throughout her first core-class.
"Sof, Severus can be extremely harsh, you out of all people should know that. I don't truly believe he purposely wanted for you to feel this way." Although Remus was extremely annoyed at Severus, wanting to say something completely different, if not something cruder, he knew that wasn't what she needed wanted to hear.
"That's the thing, Remus. The fact that he is so careless with what comes out of his mouth is what drives me absolutely up the wall!"
"Well, he would feel quite gutted if he knew how this made you feel..." Remus was about to continue implying that Sofia should probably speak to Severus but Sofia was having none of it.
"Not. A. Word. Remus. I don't want to give him the satisfaction." Sofia had now calmed wiping her face with the back of her hands.
"I won't tell!" He laughed. "Come on, tell me more about these classes, I'm sure you're already swaying all of the students towards your side. I know how sweet you can be to them." Remus smiled.
"It's okay. I'd rather hear about you. How's everything with Tonks I haven't seen her in ages!" Remus took his place back at the desk and proceeded to tell Sofia about Tonks and him. An hour passed as they continued talking, Sofia felt whole again. She felt like she could face Severus once more today if she would have to. More time flew by and Sofia had to leave Remus' office.
She taught the final potions class of the day in peace, as Severus was nowhere to be seen. The class ran smoothly, whilst the students brewed a new potion. After dinner, Sofia dipped to the potions classroom once more to pick up her quill and textbook. She was about to shut the door before she saw Tim.
"Hi, Mr Parker. Here for your detention?" Tim simply nodded. "-unfortunately, I haven't seen Professor Snape around. Come in, I'll wait with you before he comes-"
"There will be no need." She heard the ever familiar voice come from behind Tim. She looked up to see Severus towering over her.
"Mr Parker follow me." Tim followed Severus into the classroom as Sofia made herself scarce.
"Mr Parker, if I may ask-" He paused "why exactly are you here?" He dragged the last word, inflicting complete fear on the 2nd year Slytherin.
"I turned Professor Greene's hair green." He spoke not lifting his eyes from the ground.
"Very well. This calls for some cleaning." Severus gestured for the boy to start scrubbing the floors. Severus sat at his desk and opened a book, eying Tim every once in a while to make sure he was doing his job. Eventually, Severus had realized that he couldn't focus on the words in front of his eyes. Something was nagging him at the back of his mind. No matter how hard he tried to push the thought of Sofia out of his head his mind still drifted back to her. He was either wondering if his earlier outburst was well deserved or if he had crossed a line. Frustrated he shut the book, and pulled out Sofias lesson plans. Whilst thoroughly reading them he was impressed at the amount of detail and work which went into the new plans with all the rewriting and restructuring. He was surprised, amazed even, at the amount of work she had managed to get done. He felt a strain in his chest which he later identified as guilt. Shoving the plans back into her drawer he proceeded to focus on reading.
After an hour he decided that Tim was punished enough for the night. He was just about to let the boy head back to his dormitory before he remembered that he forgot to ask the most important question:
"Mr Parker." Tim looked up at his professor from the floor. "Why did Ms Green take the house points in the first place?" He maintained a dark gaze. He noticed the student's demeanour shift. He was embarrassed, scared even. Severus' became increasingly frustrated as he noticed that Tim wasn't planning to open his mouth.
"Out with it." He rasped.
"I called her a mudblood sir." Tim whispered.
"Louder Mr Parker." Severus hoped he had misheard the child.
"I called her a mudblood professor." Tim refused to lift his eyes. Severus expression quickly changed to anger. He got up from his chair and strode to the poor boy who looked like he was about to fall through the ground. Severus pulled the boy by his shoulder closer towards him. Clenching his jaw he calmly lowered himself looking into Tim's fear struck eyes.
"Mr Parker. I hope you will be excited to hear that I will have you scrub my floors every evening until the end of October for 2 hours a night." Before Tim could lower his eyes again, Severus pulled him by the shoulder forcing him to maintain eye contact. "If I hear you say that disgusting slur once more, I will not hesitate to send you home." He let go of Tim, who had been muttering sorry professor over and over.
"Get out." Severus barked. Tim scrambled for his things as he ran to the Slytherin common room.
After he was gone, Severus stepped back, a painful memory had engulfed his mind bringing on a pain he had completely forgotten about. He rubbed his temples vigorously, pacing towards his desk. Resting his elbows, fingers still at his temples, he truly felt the intensity of the headache increase. No matter how hard he focused he could not erase the imaged which flooded his mind. He pictured the day he last spoke to Lily before her death over and over again. The day he ended their friendship by calling her a mudblood. He regretting nothing more in his life than that day. If he could go back in time and take it back he would have had more precious time with her before Voldemort took her life. Severus was never delusional enough to believe that Lily could love him back, especially after that incident. When she married James he had simply hoped to love her from a distance and keep her safe. Failing, years later, he still punished himself for all the little things which he wished he could have changed. Severus could not say that he loved Lily any longer after almost losing his life at the hands of Voldemort his motivations changed. But there were still days like today when his subconsciousness would force him to revisit the past and relive the same pain all over again.