𝚈/𝚗 𝙿𝙾𝚅

☞ 𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐲, 9𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫, 1996

Warm stillness inhabited Hogwart's library. The ruffle of pages and the dull patter of feet walking in between the ceiling tall bookshelves brought me peace. A pile of brown and black leather-bound books surrounded me as I poured over my parchment, desperately trying to perfect the homework my father assigned the class this week.

Hermione was a seat over from me, also surrounded by a stack of books. Which is why we needed the space between the two of us, to accommodate all our books.

Neither of us had uttered a word in over an hour, too fixated upon our work to try and strike up a conversation. Despite my unbroken concentration, the back of my mind thought about that smell. The beautifully mysterious fragrance I smelled in the restricted section a few nights ago. It was identical to the sweet-smelling chocolate with the rich-smelling cologne I smelt in the Amortentia.

My mind raced with questions: How did I smell that? Was it the person whom I'm most attracted to? If so who is that person? Was he there in the restricted section that night? Why was he in the restricted section? Who is he?

Morning, noon and night I thought about it, about who he could be. My heart raced thinking about all the possibilities of how I smelt him and what might he look like, yet I haven't met him. I've never been this invested in somebody before, especially when I'm not confident if there was someone there to begin with. Nevertheless, my mind cannot seem to help itself with dreaming up the possibilities of falling in love.

Once I had finalized my essay, it was time for food. "I'm going to eat some lunch, Hermione." I smiled at the girl as I started to pack my books and parchments away. "Care to join me?" She shook her head, politely declining.

"No, thank you. I yet to have completed my essay for Ancient Runes." She smiled tiredly up at me, before diving back into deep concentration, muttering to herself once again.

I bid the Gryffindor girl goodbye and wandered along the corridors to the Great Hall. Unlike during the weekdays, weekends in the Great Hall were always quite peaceful. Never too many people yelling and laughing, just the right amount of distant chatter to keep the atmosphere warm and homely.

I took a seat in mine and Astoria's usual place, minus the girl herself, and began to take a handful of sandwiches and grapes, along with some additional favourite snacks to enjoy. "Y/n." A cool deep voice spoke from beside me, and I noticed from my peripheral vision someone sliding into the seat beside me. Cormac McLaggen.

"McLaggen..." I greeted the boy with a smile, however, my voice couldn't be further from delighted. "To what do I owe this pleasure." McLaggen smirked wildly at me as he took a grape off my plate and slowly popped it into his mouth. His sights were glued onto my lips as he licked his lips.

"I was wondering if you wanted to go out sometime." He smirked again, reminding me of Mattheo. Mattheo's smirks never creeped me out like Cormac. Mattheo's smirks were mischievous yet kind, and Cormac's was unflattering and creepy.

"No thanks." I smiled passive-aggressively and turned back to my plate of food. Cormac huffed and paused as if he was contemplating his next move. It would be in his best interest to accept rejection and move on. It would be in his best interest to leave. It would be in his best interest to respect my decision.

However, this was Cormac McLaggen, and within a swift motion, his arm wrapped around my waist, making my body tense as he pulled me in. "Playing hard to get, huh? How enticing." His hot and musty breath hit the side of my face. My eyes suddenly pooled with rage.

"Get your filthy hands off me you fucking cu-" Before I could yell any more profanities at the Gryffindor, my father stepped in.

"I believe my daughter said no, Mr McLaggen." His voice was commanding and cold, however my body calmed to its sound, and at the sight of him. Cormac shot out of his seat, stumbling backwards, with fear striking from head to toe.

"P-Professor Snape!" He yelped. Cormac's eyes were glued to my father, in fear of his next words, his next moves. Everyone's eyes were watching us, anticipating the wrath my father would unleash on this vile little boy.

"Are you that insecure, that desperate, that you feel the need to force girls to give you their time of day?" My father spat, his face emotionless but his eyes filled with fury. Father stepped closer to our table, and Cormac stepped away. Only the table was shielding the Gryffindor from my father.

Cormac gulped, he didn't have the bravery to speak a word. "Detention for the rest of the term. Every Friday evening." My father spoke lowly, managing to send chills trickling down my spine. "If I see you around my daughter ever again... you'll regret the day you were born." With that, my father dramatically turned around, with his black cloak trailing after him. I made a mental note to see him later this evening, perhaps he'll know of a Half-Blood Prince. Cormac too left the hall immediately, but not without sending a glare my way. So much for the peacefulness of the Great Hall.

My eyes wandered around the room, noticing the way everyone's eyes followed after my father in nervousness. "I've never seen Snape so furious." A delicate voice spoke in front of me, I looked up and saw my favourite Ravenclaw, Luna Lovegood.

"Luna." A breath of ease escapes my lips as she takes a seat opposite me. We smile brightly at each other as she loads up some food onto her plate.

"Hello, Y/n." Her dreamy voice washed away the tension that lingered around me. "Your dad has more Wrackspurts in his brain than normal." She mused, making me chuckle. "Here!" Luna pulled out the latest edition of the Quibbler and handed it to me. I beamed at the familiar sight of the vibrant pages.

"Oh thank you, Luna!" I leaned over the table to pull the girl into a soft hug, carefully avoiding the food. "I certainly missed this over the summer!" I laughed as I packed away the magazine, already intending on reading this beside the roaring Slytherin fire.

"It's no problem at all, Y/n. How was your summer anyway?" Luna asked before biting into a glossy red strawberry.

"It was quite alright. Nothing fancy happened other than the typical ball or two and my usual visit to the Weasleys." Pureblood balls were, to put this kindly, the most dull occasion one can attend. There was little to no dancing, depending on who was hosting, and if Astoria wasn't there then I'm certain to have a disastrous evening. The food was always tiny and never enough to satisfy me, the drinks were almost always whiskey or wine. Not to mention Parkinson and her boyfriends were always there, and she loved to follow me everywhere, throwing insult after insult. Luckily this year she was away on holiday the entire summer, and so I managed to avoid Parkinson and her goons.

"A ball. How whimsical." Luna stared dreamily at the wall behind me, likely imagining what a ball should be. "I'd love to attend a ball."

I laughed at the starry-eyed girl. "I'd love to take you to one. However, they are always riddled with purebloods and there's never that much dancing." I huffed. "It's practically just an excuse for older men and women to gather and gossip about anyone and everything while gloating about how much money they have stashed away in their vault." Luna smiled at this, clearly she expected nothing more from the likes of high society.

"Perhaps not then." Luna giggled softly and continued to talk about her summer. She too didn't do much over the summer, which meant we swiftly moved on to talk about other things.

Luna and I spent the rest of the day together, talking about anything and everything we could think of. "I noticed Riddle and the boys sitting with you recently." Luna hummed as we walked along the corridors to the Ravenclaw common room on the seventh floor. I've been there many times since Luna and I became close friends, it was certainly better than Gryffindor, however, I'll always have a bias towards the Slytherin common room. "Anything going on between you two?" Luna asked, pulling me from my thoughts.

My eyes widened and blush covered my cheeks. "What? With Riddle?" The words fell out of my mouth as though I was speaking on impulse. I'm not sure why I was acting so flustered, nothing was going on between Riddle and me.

"I've seen the way he looks at you. It's the same way I look at pudding, and the same way Ron looks at chicken, and the same way Ginny looks at Harry." Luna's soft voice rambled on as we turned down another hallway. A moment of silence between us drew my attention to the sound of some footsteps behind us.

Immediately I turned around and drew my wand, Luna shortly doing the same. "Did you hear that?" I mumbled, as Luna worriedly scanned the dark and desolate corridor. The blonde only nodded in response.

Naturally, one would see this as a massive overreaction in a school with hundreds of students and it not being after curfew yet. However, after what happened in the Ministry a few months ago, none of us have been the same since.

"Who's there." I called out, my voice cold and commanding, I like to imagine I picked up that voice from my dearest father. "If that's you Harry under your bloody invisibility cloak I swear to fucking Merlin I will burn it." I stepped out further down the hall while wordlessly casting Lumos to better my vision.

We saw nothing. We heard nothing. Yet I smelled the same cologne as before. I turned to Luna, who looked very nervous but did well to hide it and turned back to face the corridor. My cheeks reddened at the smell, the chocolate, the cologne, however this time there was a strong hint of smoke too.

Before my mind could wander off into another daydream, I remembered Luna and the scared look on her face. My priorities lay with her, not trying to find out who or what was causing this smell.

Once again I turned to face Luna, who was looking dead at me, her bluebell eyes pleading to flee. My hand gently wrapped around hers, tugging her paralysed self away. Whoever was following us didn't stop. I could feel their eyes on us. Luna could feel their stares too, and it stressed us out greatly.

Finally, we arrived at the Ravenclaw common room. "Good night, Luna." I smiled at the girl, a weight lifting off my shoulder knowing she'll be safe now. However, Luna's eyes brimmed with tears, making my worry return.

"Stay here tonight, Y/n. Whoever we heard was still following us. What if they hurt you?" Luna whispered, not wanting to be heard. My heart swelled at the young girl's words, making me smile uncontrollably.

Once again I took her hand in mine, gently squeezing it to draw her attention away from the corridor and back to me. "Listen little moon. I'll be alright. There are no death eaters here. No one can harm us. And if it's Parkinson, I've dealt with worse so I'll be fine." I laughed with Luna for a moment before I encouraged her to go into her common room, promising to owl her once I was safe.

Now I had to make it back to the common room in one piece, without Filch or his ugly matty old cat spotting me. I could still feel their eyes on me, burning into my skin. The eerie silence did nothing to calm my nervous thoughts.

"Miss Snape!" A cheerful yet shrill voice called out in delight from below me, making me jump out of my skin and point my wand defensively towards where the sound came from.

"Dobby?" The small house elf hid behind his arms in fright from my raised wand. "Oh I'm so sorry, you gave me such a fright I didn't mean to threaten you." I quickly lowered my wand and crouched down to be at eye level with the little elf. "I love your shoes!" I beamed at the elf once I noticed his ruby-red trainers.

Dobby looked down at his shoes bashfully. "Thank you, Miss Snape. Dobby worked hard for these! Dobby is very proud of himself." He beamed up at me, however the elf's smile was quickly replaced with a look of frantic worry. "Dobby came here to see Miss Snape about something very serious!" Dobby's voice raised a few octaves as tears brimmed his eyes.

"Oh dear." I pulled the elf into a hug. Immediately Dobby latched onto me, fearing if he'd let go I'd dissolve into dust. "It's okay Dobby, take your time I'm here."

"Dobby overheard my old family, Mr Malfoy, down Knockturn Alley. He said that the Dark Lord wants... h-he wants..." Dobby started to wail as he shoved his face into my shoulder. Luckily his actions muffled his cries. Gently, I stroked the elf's back in hopes of soothing him.

"It's okay, take your time..." I looked around worried. Worried for Dobby. Worried about Voldemort. Worried that whoever was following me was seeing this. "What does he want, Dobby?" I whispered as Dobby's cries began to slow.

"Y-you." Dobby started to cry again as my blood ran cold. The Dark Lord wanted me... What does he want? Why me specifically? "Dobby overheard M-Mr Malfoy mentioned y-you but he d-didn't say a-anymore. Dobby is most s-sorry he didn't f-find out anything e-else." Dobby stuttered as he continued to cry on my shoulder.

"Dobby you've done beautifully, thank you for warning me. Because of you, I can be more prepared." I smiled at the elf, which seemed to calm him. My mind raced with questions. Questions I knew I wouldn't get the answer to. Not anytime soon.

"Dobby. Listen to me very carefully. Do not go chasing Mr Malfoy or any other death eater to find out more. They are dangerous and you must stay away from them. Understood?" I glared down at Dobby, not in a malicious manner but rather a stern warning to heed my words. "But if you just do happen to hear anything else, please let me know as soon as you are able to." He nodded and we bid farewell, and I immediately ran to the only place I could think of. My father's office.