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Severus strode into the Great Hall for dinner when he noticed someone he'd never seen before sitting in his usual chair, a woman probably no older than twenty-five. He huffed and found another seat up at the teacher's table, but that didn't stop him from warily eyeing her as she chatted away with the teachers next to her.
As Dumbledore stood up to make his announcements, the woman suddenly turned and made direct eye contact with him. He coughed on his food and quickly looked down at his plate, embarrassed to be caught staring.
He was saved by Dumbledore speaking, “Attention students! I hope this schooling year is treating you well, I have one short announcement and that is that we have a new professor joining us for the remainder of the year." All the students started whispering amongst themselves about why there was a new teacher halfway through the year. "Her name is Professor Y/L/N!" She will be taking over Professor Sprout's post for the time being, make sure to give her a proper welcome."
As the students clapped, the woman stood up then smiled and waved. Severus rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to his food. He could already tell she was annoyingly energetic and would avoid her the best he could.
But the next week his plans of avoiding her went out the window when she came to deliver potion ingredients. He was sitting at his desk just after dinner grading assignments when he heard three enthusiastic knocks at his door. His eyebrows furrowed as he stood up and strode over to the door, he unlocked it and was met with your tiresome smiling face at the door.
"Yes?" He asked begrudgingly asked. Your smile did not waver or fall, if anything it got wider. "Hi! I'm Y/N, I know we haven't officially met but I was told by Dumbledore to deliver these to you” You smiled up at him. He looked down and didn't see you holding anything. “Deliver what to me?” he asked. You looked confused for a moment and then realized you had put the ingredients off to the side so you could knock. “Oh! Sorry,” you picked up the crate with the elements and held it out to him. “Forgot I put those there.” you chuckled softly.
He did not. He just stared at you with his usual gaze. He then grabbed the crate from your hands muttered some sort of thank you, and closed the door in your face.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the door, your smile dropped and you felt a sense of sadness wash over you. What did you do? You thought you had been as nice as could be. You lingered around his office for a few minutes and then slumped your shoulders and stepped away, walking back to your chambers.
Severus on the other hand slammed the crate down onto his desk and for the rest of the night, he was annoyed. Annoyed by your smile, annoyed by your energetic personality, and annoyed that you were now the one who had to deliver his ingredients. Once he finished grading the assignments, he was more irritated since most of his students failed this particular assignment. He stood up and shut himself in his chambers until dawn.
While you were still in your office, sitting in your rather uncomfortable chair wondering what you could've done wrong. You are always sweet and nice to people, even when maybe you shouldn't be sometimes. Everyone always liked you and liked to be around you. But Severus seemed to want nothing to do with you. You sat in your office for hours overthinking what you could've done to upset him when you noticed the time. It was just after one in the morning and if you were going to get up and teach all day tomorrow you might as well get as much sleep as you can.
As the weeks passed, you started to get a hang of your students. You had memorized names and learned how to deal with each year. What you hadn't learned to get a hang of was Severus. He always seemed to go out of his way to avoid you. You had no clue why, every other teacher loved you. They thought you were just what they needed for this school, sweet and younger so you could connect with your students more.
He once came into one of the greenhouses to grab some more dandelion root, but once he saw you were in there he immediately turned and strode out of the greenhouse. You had watched this happen and felt a pang of disappointment as you caught him leave.
You honestly felt like crying. The frustration of not knowing what you had done sat in your gut at all times.
While Severus was dealing with something else. He had started to notice that he was staring at you more. At meals, in the hallways whenever you would pass by. There was something about you that made him feel weird. Not necessarily a bad weird but he didn't like it. He would get a fluttery feeling whenever you would walk into the Great Hall for meals. He hated it. He hated that you made him feel this way without even talking to him. He hated how you had such a way with your students. How you talked to everyone so lovingly. How everyone loved you. It was annoying.
That's why he avoided you, he hated the feeling you gave him. He had a minuscule amount of guilt. He knew you hadn't done anything to him. But in his mind you had. And that's why he has to avoid you.
As September turned into October, the leaves falling off the trees, turning Scotland into a beautiful array of reds and oranges. It was all so beautiful. You had been standing out in your greenhouses tending to the plants to prepare them for the winter when you heard the door click open. Turning, you were met with Severus standing in the doorway. You were a bit surprised he hadn't walked off the second he saw you were there.
Severus hadn't meant to stick around when he saw you in the greenhouses but when he saw you, covered in dirt with your soft hair tucked into a braid. He froze. You looked beautiful. You suddenly spoke and it snapped him out of his mind. “What can I do for you professor?” you spoke softly while tending to a plant. He shook his head muttered a “never mind,” and turned on his heel and left.
You slumped your shoulders as he sped out. You had thought maybe you were making progress. He had never looked at you let alone stood in your presence for that long. Sighing, you moved on to the next plant wondering what you could do to get this man to warm up to you. You didn't want to force him, you just wanted him to at least tolerate you.
As Severus walked back to his classroom he was muttering to himself, “Why would you just stand there and gawk at her? She probably felt uncomfortable.” He threw himself down in his office chair and blew out a breath. How could you be so beautiful and kind and so infuriating at the same time? As he was sitting there he realized he did need ginger for tomorrow, and the only way he could get it was if he went to the greenhouses. He sighed and began his walk back to the greenhouses, hoping you weren't there.
As he got back he didn't see you anywhere, relieved and somewhat disappointed, he wouldn't tell himself that, so he strode over to the ginger plant. As he was carefully slicing off some fresh ginger, he froze as a voice came from the doorway. “You know you could've just asked me to cut it for you, no trouble at all”.
He turned and saw you standing there with your hair loose now while wiping the dirt off your face with a rag. He turned back the ginger and said coldly “I am perfectly capable of cutting some ginger myself.” he grew nervous as you walked over to where he was standing. “Yes, but you wouldn't have had to walk all the way back up and down just to get some ginger, I could've dropped it off as I was going to bed.”
He stayed quiet as he pocketed this ginger, and then you said something that made him stop. “Why do you hate me?” you asked timidly. He looked up at you and you had your arms wrapped around your torso. You had rendered him speechless. Had he been that obvious about avoiding you? “I-what?” he asked. “Why do you hate me?” you repeated yourself. “You always go out of your way to avoid me. You never speak with me and look at me, and when you do it's cold. I just want to know what I did.”
He looked at you astounded that you had noticed him enough to know that he was avoiding you. “If you want me to leave you alone, of course I will I don't force anyone to be my friend. I just want to know what is making you purposefully stay away,” you spoke anxiously. Truthfully you didn't want him to just be your friend, but it was very obvious that he didn't like you. “Is it how I talk? Or how I look? Or how I act? Is it my clothe-” “Stop.” he suddenly spoke. You looked back up at him confused. "What?" "Just.. just stop. You are naming things that are flawless about you, not what I hate about you.” You looked around, perplexed. This is not the man you met, the man who supposedly hates you.
“What do you mean?”, you said. He sighed and thought about just telling you the truth, you'd be as nice as you can about it anyway. “I haven't been avoiding you because I hate you, I've been ignoring you because I hate the way you make me feel.” you stared at him with confusion written all over your face. “Everyone loves you. You have everyone wrapped around your finger just by speaking to them. You're completely overly kind to everyone, even when they speak harshly to you.” you blushed and looked down, “well I'm not sure about the wrapped-around-my-finger part,” you chuckled softly. “You have me wrapped around it,” he said. You glanced up at him again and stated that you don't even talk to him. “And yet you've got me bewitched with your kindness from afar.” You were as red as a rose by now, you had no idea this was what he felt about you. Why was he so cruel to you? If this is how he felt.
“I understand that I have made you uncomfortable and I will take my leave,” he said. He strode towards the doorway and froze mid-step at what you said. “I never said I didn't feel the same way..” he whipped around to look back at you and you were staring at him with a small smile on your face. “I'm sorry?” he questioned with a sense of bafflement. “Yeah, you know without the whole avoiding me part, I think you're interesting. And handsome,” you whispered that last part.
He didn't even think twice before he strode over to you and asked you to look at him.
He searched your eyes for any sign of dishonesty or deceit. And he saw none. Was he just overthinking how you thought of him? Before he could say anything a pair of lips crashed into his. He sunk into the kiss, as he felt arms wrap around his shoulders. After what felt like hours you pulled back and looked at him breathlessly. “What did you do that for?” he asked trying to catch his breath. You softly giggled and told him that you weren't lying, you did feel the same way.
“Guess you can't avoid me anymore can you?” you laughed. He smiled at your laughing and pulled you into a hug.
“That I cannot.”
As you stood there in the greenhouses, silently wrapped in a warm embrace, you couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. That all was well and he really didn't hate you.