If you’re still taking requests, may I have something for Snape? The reader is a muggle born Gryffindor and she is friends with the trio. Like Harry, Snape doesn’t seem to like her and will pick on her. Instead of Harry having those nightmares, she is getting them, and isn’t too happy when she learns Snape would be helping her with them. One evening, when he is helping her he looked into her mind and learns of past life and that made him not be so harsh to her anymore.
Imagine having to learn Occlumency from Professor Snape
Warnings: Death, Child abuse, bullying
A/N: I’ve changed the setting of your request so that it takes place after the first war, before the trio go to Hogwarts where the reader is inspired by Yukio from The Wolverine. Basically, the reader is a seer that can only see people’s deaths. I’ve kept the idea the same, so Severus still doesn’t like her and she has to learn Occlumency from him.
- He was grateful for what he had. He was grateful for the position Dumbledore had gifted him as the school’s Potion’s Master, he was grateful for the Dark Lord’s defeat and he was grateful Lily’s son was safe. He was grateful because he had to be. Because being grateful was better than the alternative.
- But despite his gratefulness, he still had some lines he was not ready to cross and this, this was one of them. Every year he’d have a student he couldn’t stand (always seemingly a Gryffindor) and every year he‘d find a way to avoid their presence as much as he could. But with what Dumbledore had asked him to do, no amount of detention could save him from enduring this girl’s existence.
- With how he predicted this evening to go, he should be granted an Order of Merlin if he’d actually manage to teach this girl even the slightest bit of Occlumency. Entitlement was the only thing that girl had ever brought to his classroom and he didn’t expect anything less as he heard her knock on his door.
- “Enter,” he stated firmly, keeping his eyes glued to the exam he’d nearly finished grading as the girl walked into the classroom. He could feel her glare, her poisonous energy already destroying the peaceful aura he’d very rarely have the pleasure of enjoying these days.
- “What do you know of Occlumency, Miss. (Y/L/N)?” He asked as he removed himself from his desk and made his way over to you. He paused as he examined your obviously irritated expression.
- “Nothing?” He said unimpressed.
- “Isn’t that why I’m here? Aren’t you supposed to teach me?” You’d crossed your arms and put on that same smug face that always ruined his day. What he wouldn’t give to take away point simply for the look you gave him.
- “Five points from Gryffindor for your impetuous comment,” he stated casually as he wove his wand, casting aside all tables and chairs to clear the classroom. “The study of Occlumency, Miss. (Y/L/N), is the act of magically closing one’s mind. Now, wand at the ready,” he said turning towards you, waiting for you to do as you were told. “I will attempt to break into your mind. We are going to see how well you resist. Brace yourself”
- “But Professor-” You were about to protest, to ask how you were expecting to protect yourself, but he’d already pointed his wand at you, muttering the word Legilimens.
- Severus felt a familiar tug, his head spinning as he entered the girl’s mind. He hadn’t expected much from her, though he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t a tad bit disappointed she didn’t miraculously manage to push him out of her mind on the first try. But as a memory came forward, Severus found himself waiting in anticipation with no clue what he’d see. After all, Dumbledore hadn’t told him much about her... gift.
- He’d spotted you first, or at least a younger girl that looked like you. She was outside, playing with what looked like a small Muggle basketball near a playground. Looking around, he saw what appeared to her parents sitting at a picnic table and a group of children playing tag when one of them bumped into you.
- “Watch it!” The kid shouted, pushing you down to the ground and ran away as one of her friends chased her. The motion had caused the ball you held to roll away, dipping onto the street and of course, what more would he expect from a naive child (a Gryffindor no less) than to go running after it.
- “(Y/N)!” Severus had heard the voice of the man he’d previously seen sitting on the picnic table behind him before he’d passed right through him, running out to push you out of the way as a car curved, the driver slamming on the breaks.
- Out from the corner of his eye, he could see you, the real you, standing there, tears threatening to fall down your face as you were forced to relive the last moments of your father’s life (again).
- The second your eyes met, he felt the memory fade as a new one settled. The same couple he’d seen earlier were shouting at one another as you sat there on the couch of your home looking as though you’d been caught stealing.
- “(Y/N)! They’re just dreams! Enough with your nonsense! They aren’t real and they won’t come true!” Was this her gift? Was she a seer? But if that was the case, why would Dumbledore send her to suppress such things when they likely could benefit the Order.
- Severus spotted you quicker this time, she was getting closer, and once again a new memory began to take place of the old one. Your mother was standing in a black dress, her lips trembling as he watched you grasping at her, seeking for comfort. Uncontrollable tears dripping down your cheeks as the last of the entourage made their way out and the second that they did, the second that the door closed, he watched your mother slap you away like dirt on her clothing.
- “This is your fault!” she hissed and Severus barely had time to process what he just saw before he felt himself being pulled away, back to the potions classroom.
- “Those are private!” You’d spat out as you struggled to regain your balance.
- “Then protect yourself!” He gave you no time to recover before pointing his wand at you once again and reentered your mind.
- When his eyes settled, he found himself in a place he couldn’t recognize. It was fairly empty apart from what appeared to be something that looked like the Veil, something he’d only read about in textbooks. One by one, he began to notice figures dueling, several of whom appeared to be Hogwarts students he didn’t know. The number of Death Eaters he saw had him thinking perhaps it was on old dream of yours, but your age said otherwise. You were too young to see dreams of the past war. The young boy that Severus laid his eyes on, first mistaking him for James, shifted his thoughts to the possibility this was one of his old memories. It wasn’t until he’d seen the boy’s eyes, her eyes that he realized this was a recent dream you’ve had of the future and the boy was Lily’s son.
- The boy’s screams brought his attention back to him, where he saw what appeared to be an older version of Black falling into the Veil.
- Severus turned to find you pointing your wand at him, about to cast him out of his mind before the memory faded and he found himself back in the Shrieking Shack. He was back in the place where he’d almost been murdered, the place Potter and his friends had claimed as their own secret layer.
- “Why doesn’t it work for me, Severus?”
- Severus felt his heart almost stop. That voice. That raspy, bleak tone. It couldn’t be him. He was dead! He was supposed to be dead!
- Waiting for the full memory to stabilize, he turned to look for who the voice belonged and prove himself wrong only to find an older version of himself.
- “My—my lord?” His figure said blankly. “I do not understand. You—you have performed extraordinary magic with that wand.” Severus looked down at the wand in the man’s hands. Was the Dumbledore’s wand?
- ”Protego!” Severus wasn’t fast enough this time, finding himself pushed out of your mind and snapped back to his classroom. Looking back to where you stood, he saw your wand trembling in your hand, pointed right at him as tears streamed down your face.
- Severus couldn’t move. He wasn’t sure what to do. His view of you had always been the same since the first day you’d arrived at Hogwarts and now, he couldn’t help but feel pity for you.
- He couldn’t find the words to south you, to calm you, so he slowly put away his wand as a show of good faith, hoping that was enough to help ease your mind. He didn’t dare to move or speak until you’d begun to lower your own wand, your tears starting to dry up.
- When your hand finally met your side, he swept across the room and retrieved one vial of Calming Draught and another for Dreamless Sleep. He placed them on the closest table to you and stepped back.
- “Take them,” he said, blankly. “Use the Dreamless Sleep Potion for the next two days and spend the rest of your nights clearing your mind before bed. I’ll see you next week.”
- He was being nice. Or at least, he’d restrained himself from throwing one of his snarky comments your way. Hesitantly, you took the vials and stared at him a moment before turning around and made your way out the door and back to your dorm as fast as you could.
- Class the next day felt odd. He avoided you for most of it, letting go of any motion you made he’d usually reward with point removal, detention or a comment made to put you in your place.
- It was the first time he felt his duty as a Professor weigh on him. He’d made a promise to Dumbledore he’d do what he could to protect the children placed under his care and the way he felt yesterday, the way he’d realized he’d failed… He hadn’t felt that way since the day he’d failed Lily.
- He made a new promise that day. A promise to himself that he’d ready his students as best he could. To protect them the best way he knew how; teaching them to survive and shield themselves from any harm that came their way.
@marvelschriss @bush-viper-cutie