Paper Tiger

Paper Tiger

Oh, he hadn’t felt this way before. A slight pain in the heart and the strangest smile that didn’t seem to go away. The distant laughter that echoed in his mind, and the flashes of a flirty smile and a twirl of a skirt.

Professor Severus Snape slammed his quill down onto his desk, effectively shattering it into pieces, the ink splattering all over Diane Gallagher’s essay.

I’ll have to tell her that my dog ate it.

Severus couldn’t understand how it was possible that his spirits were so high, just because of one seemingly mindless girl. No - a woman. A woman with a smile that made his heart flutter, and a laugh that would melt any man. A face as beautiful as the afternoon Nightshade flower.

Oh, the idiocy of it all. This wasn’t supposed to happen, not at all. I, Severus Snape, does not - nor was ever supposed to - fall in love with a chit of a girl.

A chit she was not, and Severus grimaced as he realized it. He felt strange calling her a chit, and nearly stuttered in his own head on the word. A word that he could call any woman before.

I must’ve been poisoned, maybe the girl has given me a love potion.

Severus knew that wasn’t possible, he could detect a love potion by mere smell, and he knew that he’d been careful since he was seven of what he ate. Besides, he didn’t think her capable of brewing tea correctly.

Sighing, he fixed the broken quill with a lazy flick of his wand and a murmured charm, he cleaned the essay and put it on top of the pile of other fourth year student essays.

He just couldn’t keep his mind off her. He’d tried reciting the recipe to at least a dozen complicated potions but he’d managed to mix up Lupin’s monthly potion with Monkshood and Belladonna. Fatal.

Still, in his minds eye he could see her clearly as if she were standing in front of him.

Soft, but frizzy hair of an almond color. She had lively eyes of the darkest dirt and a bright, though mildly crooked smile. Her slim figure and soft, square hands with chipped fingernails. She had a smattering of light freckles across her nose and cheeks that she hated, and long eyelashes that just brushed her cheek bones when she blinked.

Damn it all! I might as well ask Dumbledore for a sabbatical for all the work I’ll be getting done for the next month.

For a moment, he felt a brief spark of dismay at his obvious lack of focus, but it was quickly forgotten. This was the second time he’d ever felt this way, and he’d long since decided that he would never feel it again. But this girl just bounded into his life with such a bright mind and forceful disposition and trust for him that he couldn’t help but warm up to her. Eventually.

It was then that it happened. It had been raining the day he found he loved her. They were reading in the staff room, and he found that they were somehow getting closer to each other by the minute by some sort of magic - for that, he blamed her. She kept biting her lip and narrowing her eyes as she read a complicated Potion’s book he’d recommended she read.

She was abysmal at the art, but she’d hired him to teach her. In fact, she had practically blackmailed him into it. Severus had found it hard to read his book, as he’d read the same page for the past ten minutes and his gaze kept wandering.

They had been outside that day, which happened to have been yesterday, and there was still a little dew in her hair, and it was as frizzy as ever. She kept pushing it back behind her ear, where it escaped to bother her cheek every time. In the firelight, she was beautiful to him, though she herself would deny it with heart.

She hated her one crooked tooth, her freckles, her frizzy hair, the small bulge on the side of her hips and her ‘manly’ hands. She hated her brittle fingernails, her small ears, her upturned nose, and her thin lips. She hated the odd shape of her eyes, and her almost thick eyebrows. She hated her thick legs and the small pouch just under her chin.

But he thought she was beautiful, and by some small act of God, he’d managed to tell her that quite by accident. She’d paused and turned to stare at him with a wide, deer-in-headlights expression. He’d been terrified and nearly left the room.

“What?” she whispered, her throat seemed to have suddenly gone rusty.

“I - er - that is - “

“Did you just say I was beautiful?” She then seemed less shocked and more surprised. “Why would you say that?”

“You are.”

“I am not, you idiot! I don’t know where you got that idea, but I would hope that it’s banished by tomorrow. Or better yet, in the next two minutes.” Though it had sounded like she was ridiculing him for liking her, a soft smile was on her face, and her eyelids had drooped.

“I think that highly improbable,”

“Oh?”

“Oh,” Severus agreed, though his nerves had left his heart beating much to fast and he feared that she could hear it.

She had moved closer that time, until he could feel her warm breath on his lips and her hair brushing his cheek. She kissed him. And he slowly responded.

Damn her...

Severus suddenly felt as if his stomach had just ingested thousands of tiny little butterflies. He pressed his hands to his face and growled, how was he to get any work done? These essays had to go back to the students tomorrow, he wasn’t going to break his schedule just because she kissed him.

Of course you are, you dunderhead. You love her, and you can’t stop thinking about her.

Severus growled and stood, completely aware of this fact. He went into his stores and pulled a few ingredients down, before putting them back with a hiss. There was no way that he was capable of making a potion at that moment, not when he was liable to replace pixie wings with a dragon liver.

He was about to dig out the book he had been reading that day, when a soft knock at his door made him nearly hit his head on top of the open cabinet door above him.

“Enter,” he muttered, hoping that it wasn’t Lupin asking for his potion.

“Severus?” A soft, feminine voice. She seemed hesitant. “Where are you?”

“In here,” he said, though he felt like hiding in the nearest closet, hoping that she wouldn’t find him and tell him that it was all a mistake.

She walked in the room, saw him and foiled his plan. She gave him a small, soft smile and looked at the floor, biting her lip. He wished she wouldn’t do that.

“Um - can I talk to you?” She seemed as if this was the last thing she wanted to do. Severus swallowed the lump in his throat and willed his heart rate to slow.

“You may speak,” he said, she glanced up at him questioningly.

“I’m sorry for what happened yesterday,” she said quietly, looking him in the eye has a faint blush crept up on her. “I never meant to kiss you.”

“Oh,” Severus said, momentarily shocked. He’d expected that she’d somehow find the blame in him. “If you never meant it, then why did you do it?”

She was silent for a moment. “I felt inclined,”

“You felt inclined?” he repeated with a raised eyebrow.

“Well,” she said after a moment, her blush deepening. “You were just sitting there, and I - well, you told me I was beautiful. Of course, I still can’t understand that and you must’ve been under some sort of curse, but still. I fell compelled to kiss you, and now that I think about it, I’m not at all sorry that I did. But - “

“You think I didn’t enjoy it?” he said incredulously, she must be joking. It isn’t everyday that he is kissed by women like her. She blinked and shook her head slowly.

“Well no, I didn’t think you’d want to kiss me. I figured that you - “ she broke off, glancing towards the book that was held loosely in his hands. “What are you reading?”

“You figured that I would what?” he demanded, amused by her change of subject.

You won’t get away from me so easily, my pretty.

Severus couldn’t help but smirk as she blushed.

“I figured you wouldn’t want to kiss this,” She gestured towards her face. Severus frowned.

Is she insane?

He smirked and stepped towards her, letting the book fall on the desk next to him. He gently took her chin in his fingers and searched her eyes.

“Now where ever did you get that ludicrous idea?” he asked softly, before he brushed his lips with hers.

Finally, a girl who thought he was worth it all.