It was harder to walk through the halls after curfew than it was in the morning, prefects- along with teachers did their rounds a lot more thoroughly than they did in the morning. Silently you moved through the stone hallways, everything was going perfectly fine until you realised you had nowhere to hide except for an empty classroom as the steps of a prefect hurried after you. Biting the bullet you rushed into the room, you hadn't paid much attention to which one it was and turning around was quite the shock. You were in the potions classroom, the cauldrons were dirtier than usual causing you to roll your eyes. You knew some unlucky soul was going to have to clean those by hand soon.

'Ahem,' you froze in place at the sound, hoping that it wasn't the person you thought it was as their footsteps slowly walked towards you. "Well well... I'm surprised to see you here Mrs (L/N)" your heart hardened as you turned your gaze to meet his, his onyx eyes bearing into you with a sadistic glint. With every step that he came closer you felt yourself grow weaker, 'no. not yet.' the voice whispered with venom causing you to stare at the ground. Severus put his hand under your chin as soon as he was close enough, forcing you to look into his eyes once again. "Why do I have the pleasure of seeing you here after all this time" he muttered longingly as if seeing you in closed quarters was something he dreamed of the entire time you had been apart.

Shaking your head you moved away, bumping into the wooden door behind you. 'I can't let every barrier I've made for myself fall away' you mentally screamed at yourself, trying to open the door you felt your face pale as you realised it was locked. You were locked in a room with the one man you didn't want to see. The one person that could make your emotions work in the most wicked of ways, the one person that could make you truly smile even though no one else on the planet could. Many people would kill to be in the position you were in right now, but you would do anything to get out of it.

Your hand fell to your side as you slid down the door, once you had hit the cold floor you curled up in a ball. 'I don't want to feel' repeated in your mind over and over and over like a war siren. Hearing Severus crouch down beside you, feeling his hand on your side softly stroking you... It felt so wrong yet so right. He was all you needed but you couldn't bear to hurt him again, you wouldn't be able to face yourself if you did that to him. Taking a deep breath you looked up, only just noticing that tears had been streaming down your face at the thought of letting him back into your life once again. "Severus... I'm sorry..." you whispered as you stared once more into his beautiful dark brown eyes.