Severus lightly squeezed one of the essays he was grading. It was strange... and he wasn't saying that because of the essay, after all, Gryffindors still wrote rubbish when it came to writing their potions essays.
What he found strange was all that tranquility. Everything he had acquired at the end of the war. Everything that had happened when Dumbledore died and the Dark Lord.
That peace, that tranquility that made him feel uneasy, as if he still wasn't able to process that the Dark Lord was gone, that he had nothing to fear, that he didn't have to keep pretending anymore. It had been very hard, the war, having to survive Nagini's bite, and all for what?
To receive those looks full of hatred and recrimination towards his being, they believed he had killed Dumbledore for the sheer pleasure of it, for satisfaction... and it hurt him deeply, even though Potter, once he killed the Dark Lord, had returned to the Shrieking Shack to get him out of there, even though they thought he was dead and he almost was, even though he knew he wasn't Potter's favorite person, and he was grateful for the fact that he hadn't let him die... Returning to the judging looks, Dumbledore... or rather, his portrait, had defended him. From time to time the old man would stop by his offices to talk to him, as if nothing had changed, even though he was now just another picture at Hogwarts.
He let out a small sigh and continued grading, with some satisfaction he graded that essay with a huge T, and wrote a small critique to its writer. He continued like this until he felt several footsteps in the corridor. He stood up and drew his wand. He couldn't help it, even though it was a time of "peace," he was still on the alert.
He watched through the crack in the door of his office as a shadow stopped and how an envelope was thrown through it until it reached his feet. Snape hurried and ran to the door to see at least who it was, but when he opened the door he found no one.
He left the office and walked to the corner in search of at least a clue, but finding no one and no indication, he returned his steps to the office. He looked at the envelope on the floor and grabbed it.
"Professor Snape,
Potter and his little group of friends are performing a strange ritual in the last room on the second floor.
I don't know what they're planning."
He read without finding any signature, he wasn't even able to recognize the handwriting. They hadn't left even an initial. He crumpled the sheet and wondered if maybe it was a trap for him or if it was really happening.
"Potter.... "He muttered with annoyance. Did the kid really not stop causing trouble? He was seventeen years old, the very... 'You have to calm down, Severus ' He told himself.
Wand in hand, he left his office. He secured it so that no one else could enter and walked through the lonely corridors of the castle. It was night and curfew for the students had already passed and he was still the law at Hogwarts.
He went up to the first floor and then to the second. He was completely alert, waiting for the slightest noise or sound. He walked slowly down the long corridor to the last room, noticing how a kind of white light came out of the cracks in the door, apparently what the note said was true. So he would surprise Potter and his couple of little friends.
He already wanted to see their perplexed faces. He would give them the best punishment of their lives. He would think about the right one, one that would take away their desire to get into trouble again. He stood in front of the door and kicked it, making the hinges squeak and open.
The strange light he had seen disappeared, and the only thing his black eyes could see was the face of Harry Potter and his friends looking at him as if nothing had happened.
"Oh..."Snape murmured, entering the room looking at it cautiously.
" May I know why your majesty, Potter has broken curfew? " he whispered. " Your majesty... and your servants, excuse me for forgetting them "he hissed as he watched the redhead and the brunette.
Harry rolled his eyes, tried to appear calm. "We were... studying " the boy muttered.
Snape stopped walking, the room was quite small, it looked more like a small cellar, he understood why they didn't use it.
"Study? "he repeated. " Is that really what you think of answering me? "he questioned. "Use that little head, Potter."
Harry laughed slightly, looked down and then looked sideways at his friends, Severus didn't want to feel like a paranoid but he felt that...
"NOW! " Harry shouted.
Severus couldn't even react in time when he found himself in the middle of what seemed to be a circle full of strange runes and strange symbols. He tried to get out and use his wand, but he felt his body paralyzed by the spell itself.
"What, Potter, but what...?! " He tried to speak, but noticed how now the circle changed shape, becoming a triangle.
" What the hell are you doing?! "he shouted.
"Uh... W-Well " Harry stammered nervously. The boy was at one of the points of the triangle as were his friends.
"J-Just... w-well... P-Professor... fix everything, okay? P-Please... be a good boy." Letting out a slight nervous laugh.
Snape growled at not understanding anything. He tried to get out, again, but felt how little by little his body was sinking into the triangle. He felt a little scared. "Potter!" He shouted at him. "End this now! "He shouted at him.
The boy shook his head. "Fix everything! Fix it! "Harry told him.
Snape looked into his green eyes, and he knew perfectly well that the boy was also looking at him. He tried to open his mouth to tell him something again, but he couldn't. He felt completely sucked in and in a moment he stopped seeing Potter, he stopped seeing the room and his friends.
The only thing he managed to see was darkness.
-Chapter End-