Harry Potter 1. Frog

Tonks had left work early that night because she had decided to go to Hogwarts to see Severus as she hadn't spoken to him for a few days and she missed him. The two of them had been fairly close since his birthday when they had spoken about things which neither of them spoke about to many people and now she found herself thinking about him far more often than she thought she really should have done.

She apparated to Hogsmeade and then headed for the gates of the castle, letting herself in and then heading for the main entrance hall. Once inside, she knew she should keep herself as hidden as possible as she wasn't supposed to be there. She headed straight for the dungeon door, guessing there was a much larger chance that she could stay hidden in the shadows there as Severus often did.

Soon enough, she was in the shadows near the door to his office and so far she hadn't seen anyone. She hoped she would make it to his office but her luck simply wasn't in. She heard the voice of a boy calling someone, presumably a pet of some sort. "Trevor?" called the boy, a frown on his face, "Have you see a frog, Miss?" the boy asked Tonks and she shook her head, "No, I haven't. Sorry," she replied and the boy ran past.

She was rather relieved that he hadn't stayed long enough to realise she wasn't meant to be there. She made it the rest of the way to his office without being seen and was rather relieved to have done so. Now, she just had to wait for him.


	2. Apple Sauce

Tonks entered Severus' office and decided she would wait for him there as he was probably eating in the great hall with everyone else. She had never realised he was as sociable as he could be until he had showed up at several Order parties where she had admired him from a distance.

As she was thinking about being able to see him, she heard the door clicking open behind her. She turned around and saw him standing there alone with a rather shocked expression on his face at her presence in his office.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, a small smile hiding in his eyes somewhere behind the shock and annoyance at not being told she would be there when he arrived.

"I thought I'd come and see you," she replied, hopping off the desk she had been sitting on and watching him walk across the room to the refrigerator with a pot of something which looked rather like apple sauce.

Once he had placed it out of reach of the prying eyes of any students which might venture into his office, he turned back to her, "Any particular reason for coming to see me?" he asked, frowning a little as he could think of no reason at all, really.

"I missed you," she replied simply, blushing a little at having admitted that. "And I wondered if you were going to Molly and Arthur's Valentine's Day party," she added looking hopeful that he would be in attendance.

He physically flinched at the idea of it but he nodded, "I believe Albus is making me attend," he replied, "Will you be there?" he asked, perching on his desk and watching her.

She nodded, sitting down on the desk opposite him, "I'll be there as long as you will be," she laughed, "I don't want to be there talking to myself!"

"Wouldn't you be going with Remus?" he asked, frowning ever so slightly. "I thought Molly said he finally agreed to go out with you?"

"No," she replied simply, "He dumped me. He's in love with someone else so I suppose that's the end of that," she frowned, looking away from Severus. She still loved Remus a lot but she had the feeling that nothing could ever happen between them now. And besides, she was pretty sure she liked Severus more now as well.


	3. Evil

That night when Tonks had returned home after her conversation with Severus, she went almost directly to bed. She saw no reason to remain awake any longer as she had an early start the following morning.

Her dreams came quickly and what she saw in them was certainly not the Severus Snape she knew and was gradually falling madly in love with:

_He was standing in a darkened street, perhaps Hogsmeade although she couldn't be sure, and he seemed to be waiting for somebody. His wand was already drawn and he was clearly expecting to be attacked in one way or another, if not to do the attacking himself perhaps. _

_Soon enough, Severus was firing his wand at something she had not even seen as of yet but the dark mark came from his wand, illuminating the sky as the cry "MORSMORDE!" echoed around the buildings. _

_Tonks moved down towards the area Severus had been occupying and, from there, she could see the bodies of her father, Ted Tonks, and Dirk Cresswell, his friend, lying there motionless on the floor. She gasped, turning and running away as quickly as possible. _

She awoke with a jolt, sitting straight up with the shock of what she had just seen. She noticed she had broken out in a cold sweat and she was unable to do anything other than sit there as her heart rate slowly decreased.

Her father and Dirk Cresswell had been found dead in that exact position that time two years ago and she was horrified to think that it could really have been Severus who had killed them. Of course, it was more than possible that it could have been him. It could have been any one of the Death Eaters. Why did her dream have to make her think it was him, though?

He frowned a little, unsure of whether she should maybe ask him about it. The sheer thought of him being able to commit such a crime made her wonder if he did have some evil in him after all. But then anyone could produce evil when they needed to and she knew he had to kill to keep the trust of the dark lord. She just hated the way it had been her father who had been his victim.


	4. Hufflepuff

The next time they met one another, Tonks was a little more wary of talking to him as she had been doing recently. She wanted to ask him about whether it had been him who had killed her father but she wasn't sure whether she ought to or not. After all, she wasn't sure if she wanted to know the answer.

"What's wrong?" Severus asked her, being unable to break into her mind because she was so desperate to keep it from him.

"Can I ask you something?" she asked, looking up at him and showing him the fear in her eyes but not letting him see the thoughts behind the fear.

"Of course," he replied, feeling a little worried about what she would ask, "What is it?"

"Was it you that killed my Dad and Dirk Cresswell?" she asked, looking a little afraid of what the answer might be to that question.

Severus frowned, looking away from her for a few seconds before returning his gaze to her once more, "It was," he replied, "But I didn't want to do it. If they hadn't seen me, I would only have hurt them and said I was disturbed."

Tonks nodded, her heart filling with dread and pain, "Did you really have to do it?" she asked.

He shook his head a little, "I had no real choice in the matter. If I hadn't done it, someone else would," he explained, moving a little closer to her. He wanted to hug her and comfort her but he wasn't sure he was really welcome to do that.

She looked away from him and nodded slowly, "I guess so," she said and he could hear the pain in her voice. "How could you kill like that, though? In such a heartless manner?"

"It comes with being a Slytherin," he replied, "You're a Hufflepuff. Most Hufflepuffs don't have it in them to kill mercilessly. It's different for Slytherins." He knew it didn't explain his behaviour and he knew it was unacceptable but he also knew that if he hadn't killed, he probably would have been killed in place of her father.

Tonks nodded slowly once again, getting up from her seat without him even noticing because he could no longer bring himself to look at her. She then walked over to him perched on his desk and she put her arms around him gently, "its okay," she said, "I understand. You did it to survive. It was inevitable. He would have died in the end anyway. He was ill, not that you were to know that." She smiled a little at him and hugged him a little more tightly.

He looked up at her and pushed her away a little, "I'm sorry," he said and Tonks knew he was genuinely sorry for what he had done. His arms were gently wrapped around her and she pulled him closer to her. "Why don't you hate me?" he whispered.

"I could never hate you," she whispered in return and they just stood there hugging for a while, enjoying the warmth passing between the two of them.


	5. Crab

A few days after Tonks had asked Severus whether he had killed her father, she was walking along a beach front in southern England where she had decided to go for a few days in order to clear her mind. She had never been much of a fan of beaches, though, so she decided to head inside and go to a fish and chip shop instead. She knew she shouldn't just eat and eat and eat to feel better but she had nothing else to do.

She looked up at the board and frowned s little, wondering how on earth muggles could eat the combination of things that were cooked there. "Deep fried Mars bar?" she shook her head and frowned. "Crab sticks?" she sighed.

The man behind the checkout then asked, "Are you ready to be served, Madam?"

"I'll just have some chips please," she replied, looking at the state of the rest of the food in the cabinet and thinking that chips were probably the only edible thing there anyway.

Once she had bought them, she walked outside and sat down on a wall by herself, thinking about whether she should go and see Severus again when she returned from her short break on the south coast. After all, he probably felt pretty bad about having killed her father and now that she had vanished, he probably felt even worse. That made her decide that she would go and see him as soon as she was back in Hogsmeade again.


	6. Itch

When she returned to Hogsmeade a few days later, she planned to go straight to see Severus to make sure he didn't feel too bad about everything that had happened and, of course, the fact that she knew about it all. Things didn't seem to want to work that way, though. She had planned to go there as soon as she had unpacked her things but as she was unpacking, she found herself coming out in a rash. A terrible, itchy rash. It was unlike her to react too much but she knew the one thing she was allergic to was a certain type of washing powder that muggles used and she had the feeling that the hotel she had stayed in must have used that particular powder.

She sighed, waving her wand at her suitcase and allowing it to unpack itself rather than risking any more reactions to the clothing. As she watched it unpacking, she felt herself itching more and more all over and she sighed, wondering how anyone could not react to it. Her mind began to wonder what she could do to prevent the itchiness spreading any further and she then realised that she wasn't too far from Severus' office.

Her mind now fully on Severus once again, she frowned ever so slightly. He was a Potion maker. He was bound to have something. She only hoped he wouldn't think she had only gone to see him because she wanted something.

She grabbed her robes and headed down the stairs of the inn and out into the street, morphing her body so that the rash didn't show, even though she could feel it. She had to do that often with cuts and bruises and scars that she had obtained through fighting with Death Eaters so it was nothing new to her, really.

She hurried towards the Hogwarts entrance as she knew that the rash would only inflame more if she didn't get it seen to quickly. It probably would have made more sense to have gone to St Mungo's but it gave her an excuse to see Severus and that meant a lot to her. She needed to make sure he was alright.

Soon enough, she was in the Hogwarts grounds, then in the entrance hall and then in the dungeons outside his classroom. It sounded as though there was a class in there, though, so she didn't enter just yet. She thought she would be able to wait for at least a little longer as it would probably allow them to spend more time together when his classes were over. It was getting on for 4pm and she knew that this had to be the last class of the day, meaning that it wouldn't be too long now at least.


	7. Green

After waiting for approximately half an hour, the students began to filter out of Severus' classroom and Tonks was rather relieved to know that she could finally get rid of all of the itchiness that was beginning to severely overwhelm her. As soon as she was certain the room was empty, she knocked on the door to hear Severus' rather grumpy-sounding voice snarl, "Enter," in the manner one might expect an angry dragon to allow someone into its lair.

She pushed the door open, feeling itchier at having touched it, and noticed that the classroom was rather green that day. Slytherin must have been winning at something, Quidditch most probably. "Evening Sev," she said, wondering what his response would be to hearing her voice in his classroom once more. "Are you alright?" she asked, guessing he wasn't due to the snarl she had received.

As soon as he heard her voice, he spun around and looked at her, almost as though he didn't believe it was really her, "Tonks!" he exclaimed, frowning slightly at her as he hadn't been expecting her. "Fine, why wouldn't I be?" he replied rather too quickly for Tonks' liking.

"What's wrong?" she asked, instantly moving closer to him and looking rather concerned. All thoughts of the allergic reaction she was currently having had been removed from her mind as she knew something was wrong with Severus; the one person that had never stopped caring when she needed someone.

"Nothing!" Severus growled, turning away from her so she couldn't see the pain in his eyes. "What are you doing here, anyway?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

"It doesn't matter, Sev," she lied, "What's wrong?" she persisted. "I'm not stupid, you know. I know when there's something wrong with my best friend and I don't like not knowing what it is." She walked up behind him and gently put her arms around his waist and tried to gently turn him around but he resisted, obviously not wanting her to see something. "Sev..."

After a few seconds of feeling her against his back, he sighed and turned around, looking into her eyes for a few seconds before looking away. Tonks could see that he was searching her for something but she also noticed the sadness in his own eyes. "I'll be okay," he said, looking back into her eyes again in an attempt at making her believe him. His voice was softer again now, though. "Am I really your best friend?" he asked, a hint of confusion evident in his voice as he spoke.

Tonks watched him, then nodded, "Well, if you do want to talk, come and find me," she said, feeling the itchiness getting worse where he was holding her but not wanting to say anything about it because she loved being in his arms. "Yes, you are," she replied, laughing at the look of confusion on his face. "You're there when nobody else is. That means a lot more than you could ever imagine, Sev."

Severus nodded, obviously not wanting to say anything about whatever was upsetting him. He frowned at the slight look of discomfort on her face and decided it was his turn to ask questions, "What's wrong with you?" he asked, hoping it wasn't anything he had said or done. He then smiled at her next sentence, "You're my only friend," he laughed a little, "But you're the best friend I could ever want. I mean who else would be willing to forgive me for what I've done? I really don't deserve forgiveness."

"Allergy," she muttered, shaking her head a little, "I actually wondered if you happened to have any anti-itching powder or anything like that..?" She then smiled and shook her head, holding him more tightly to her, ignoring the itching, "Sev, you did it to survive. Nobody should blame you for that. And besides, I could never hate you. Not truly, anyway," she smiled.

"Merlin, that explains why you're not too comfortable with being held too tightly!" he exclaimed, letting go of her almost instantly, only to be pulled back by her, "I should have something," he replied, pulling away properly this time and heading into his storage cupboard with a determined look upon his face.


End file.
