Christmas break was right around the corner. Both the students and the professors seemed to be excited. The students to go home to their families and the professors to rest from all the noise. Sofia was wrapped in her winter cloak as she walked back to the main building from Hagrid's hut. She made sure to check in with him about how he felt about the Chimera being removed from Hogwart's. Hagrid was simply happy that the Chimera was released, although he was quite excited to show the creature to the students, the board seemed the removal necessary after it had shown clear signs of aggression. Sofia wrapped herself up tighter as she felt the snowflakes land on her eyelashes. The towers of the building were getting covered in a thin layer of snow as she watched the students play in the quad. Right before she entered the building she heard yelling. At first, she had assumed it was a friendly snowball fight between some 5th-year boys, she soon realized that it was way more intense than that.
"You arse! Don't you dare-"
"I will break your nose I swear-" She quickly turned to see a group of students huddled around two boys. She made her way over to the crowd pushing past the students who seemed visibly excited. Many of them chanted 'fight' over the two boys as some of the others tried to pull them apart. Sofia quickly stepped into the pit and watched. She could see two 5th-years, Kyle and Billy, at each other's throats. Sofia knew that taking out her wand could've been deemed as unnecessary so she physically pulled the larger student off of the other.
"What in Merlin's name do you two think you're doing!" She hissed.
"Ms Greene!-" Kyle spoke as he tried to pull away from her. She knew that if he had pulled a little harder he would have easily escaped her grasp.
"If you don't calm down this instant I will be calling the headmaster!" She warned them. Both of the boys seemed to quiet down before the smaller student spat at the others face. As she felt a few of the drops on her wrist, her eyes became dark.
"If both of you don't stop this second, I will be calling the headmaster. And you best hope that professor Dumbledore is around because if not, you will be dealing with Professor Snape!" Suddenly both the students froze. Their arms fell to the sides of their bodies, as she gently released Kyle, wiping her hand on her cloak. "Show's over. All of you, back inside!" The students dispersed. She knew that both Kyle and Billy were Gryffindors so it was only fitting that she bring this issue up to Minerva. "Professor McGonagall's office. Now." She hissed before following the two students into Minerva's office. Minerva seemed distraught as she saw the two dishevelled boys, one had a split lip, and the other's eye seemed to be becoming blue.
"Before I deduct endless amount's of points, would anyone please explain to me why violence was necessary in the first place?" Her voice was calm but her eyes were full of rage which seemed to scare even Sofia.
"Professor, Kyle was flirting with Amaria and she- "
"She spoke to me first you git."
"Language!" Both Minerva and Sofia said in unison. "Now. 15 points from each of you. Back to your dorms now!" Minerva shoulders as Sofia stifled a small laugh. She couldn't possibly believe that such an aggressive fight broke out due to a girl. Minerva gave her a warning look before her face relaxed as well.
"Well?" Sofia smiled.
"I'm just glad it wasn't about something more serious..." Minerva pursed her lips. "Thank you for bringing them here, and not to Severus."
"Of course, Minerva." Sofia nodded as she stepped out of Minerva's office. Sofia quickly walked back to her room changing out of her snowy clothes. She showered and grabbed her glasses out of her bedside table. Forgetting to dry her hair she quickly placed her glasses on the tip of her nose before glancing out her window. She had promised Severus to finish off the lesson plans tonight, she looked out into the distance as she slowly saw the sun setting, her room becoming a vivid shade of red. She was excited to have some quiet time to herself as she made her way up to the potions classroom. Upon entering she was surprised to see Severus brewing something. Carefully, she crept up to him trying to see exactly what he was doing.
"It would be nice if you would learn to knock before entering my classroom." He muttered looking down at the cauldron.
"It would also be nice if you smiled once in a while but you don't see me complaining." She realized what she had said and quickly threw her hand over her mouth and nose. Severus slowly turned his head towards her responding with a prolonged eye-roll. She watched as he jotted something down in his journal before continuing to stir the potion. Her curiosity was absolutely demolishing her from the inside as she moved even closer to him, trying to catch a glimpse of what was inside.
"Draught Of Peace." He solemnly stated, annoyed at her curiosity. She nodded, feeling content, and made her way over to the teacher's desk, pulling out her lesson plans in silence as she glanced at Severus. His brows were furrowed as he continued to stare at the potion motionlessly.
"There was a fight that broke out in the quad today..." She pulled out her quill.
"Mhm." He hummed. Sofia was visibly anxious to tell someone about what she witnessed. So she waited. Watching him as he continued to stare at the potion. He caught her strong gaze, before momentarily shutting his eyes. "I can feel from here that you are simply dying to tell me. So go on." He gestured with his hand as he grabbed another ingredient. Sofia quickly told him all of the dirty details of what took place that afternoon. She rambled on for a little too long as he silently nodded. "What I have gathered so far... is that I seem to be quite the inflictor of fear among the students." He spoke slowly as his lips curved into a sinister smirk. Sofia kissed her teeth at the fact that the only thing he had gathered from her story, was that she used his name to scare off the students.
She tapped her quill on the table before speaking again, "I just don't understand why they had to get so physical."
"From what I can remember, I too had to pry you off a student once." His deep voice and the memory quickly send shivers up Sofia's forearms. Furrowing her eyebrows, she glanced at him again.
"I'm surprised you remember that."
"Well obviously," He put down some tweezers placing his palms on the desk, holding Sofia's gaze. "I vividly remember how you aggressively pulled a chunk of some poor girl's hair in the Slytherin common room and tore the sleeve of her robe." Sofia quickly became embarrassed as she diverted his gaze awkwardly looking at the walls of the classroom. "What could have possibly made you so angry that you, yourself, felt the need to inflict physical pain?" He quirked an eyebrow waiting for her to answer. Sofia's expression quickly changed to hatred as she vividly remembered that day. She waited for a second deciding whether to tell Severus or not.
"She called me a mudblood." Her words came out detached. She was long over the argument, although that term still seemed to make her blood boil. Sofia looked down at her parchment and begun writing, hoping that he would drop it. Severus watched Sofia as he too felt a tinge of rage. Both reminiscing on Sofia's first-class when Tim had done the same thing.
"Well then I have to admit it was somewhat justified." Was all Severus responded before continuing to add minuscule amounts of unicorn horn powder to the cauldron. Sofia huffed in repeat before smiling to herself. She had appreciated that Severus felt her actions were justified. Up until this day she didn't feel like her anger from that argument was validated. Without Sofia noticing, Severus checked her face to see if his response satisfied her, feeling pleased as he noticed a small smile on her face. Both continued to work in silence on their respective tasks.
After an hour or so, Sofia only had a few lesson plans left. Throughout the time she was working, she could see out of the corner of her eye Severus changing cauldrons every 15 minutes. She watched as he became more and more frustrated with every attempt. She chose to ignore it as she was worried her interference would anger him more. But after another cauldron, she noticed that Severus was now angrily tossing the instruments towards the sink. Out of the corner of her eye, she observed as he had now stepped back from the cauldron. Suddenly, the black liquid started slowly oozing out onto the floor. She looked over at Severus expecting him to already have his wand out in order to quickly clean up the mess. However, all she saw was his tall frame standing three steps behind the oozing liquid frozen in place. His left hand was pressed firmly to his side as his right covered his face, his slender fingers desperately pinching the bridge of his nose, eyes tightly shut. She could sense that Severus was on the verge of what she could only describe as a breakdown. Quickly pushing her chair back, she walked over to him as he seemed to be in some sort of trance. She softly placed her hand on his forearm nudging for him to stop aggressively pinching. Pulling down his arm she watched as he angrily looked towards the mess emitting a deep breath.
"I have to demonstrate a new potion tomorrow and for whatever reason-" he cut himself off as he looked down at her, feeling suddenly aware of how close she had been standing. Her grey eyes looked up at him waiting for him to continue before she too felt suddenly aware that she still had her hand on his forearm. She quickly let go before walking over to the mess, wanting to help him in any way possible.
"How about I clean this-" She spoke looking back, hoping it would somehow ease his frustration. Severus avoided eye contact with her, resting himself on one of the shelves with his right arm. "you can read over the instructions, maybe make some more alterations, and I'll keep you company whilst you brew it again." She didn't wait for him to respond as she pulled out her wand and waved it expecting everything to clear. To her disbelief, she still saw a few large pools of dark liquid and stains. She grunted walking over to the corner quickly grabbing a bucket.
"You don't have to do that-"
"It'll bother me if I don't." She huffed, scrubbing the chair and the desk. Quickly wiping the leftover liquid, she levitated the bucket back to the corner of the room. Severus grabbed his notes and angrily continued writing over the shelf, mumbling endless measurements and ingredients.
"Come here. Look at this." She could feel in his voice that he was almost embarrassed to ask for her assistance. She walked over, reading through the instructions. Upon examining his re-calculations she silently nodded at him. Severus abruptly grabbed another cauldron and continued. Sofia walked back to her desk feeling proud that she had managed to somewhat calm his nerves at least a little bit.
After a few more failed, but less messy attempts Severus was finally finished. He realized that he was previously stirring in an inconsistent amount of powdered porcupine quills, as the number in the book was barely legible.
"It's done." He announced waiting for her to respond, after a few seconds of deafening silence he looked up to find Sofia's head down on the desk, her glasses in her left hand and her quill in her right. Severus walked over to her making sure that she was simply asleep and not passed out. He leaned over her and waited before he heard the faint sound of her soft breathing. Straightening his back, he watched her for a second. He didn't know whether to wake her up or just leave her. In hopes that she would wake up sooner or later, he decided to let her be. Quickly opening his office door he quietly pulled the blanket off his couch before softly covering her small body with it. Putting out the candles with a flick of his wrist he quietly exited the classroom.
Sometime later Sofia had abruptly woken up. She felt the warmth of a blanket on her as she sat up in her chair, softly rubbing her eyes. She squinted over at the clock which now said 15 past 3 am. Grunting, she got up from the chair putting away all of the parchment. As she folded the blanket she felt somewhat relieved, knowing that her and Severus' interactions were quickly becoming more civil. She chose to ignore the fact that they were not only becoming more civil but also more tender. Placing the blanket carefully on the chair she smiled to herself in disbelief; as she simply couldn't imagine that Severus had it in him to care for anyone other than himself, especially her.