This is the longest chapter I've written yet. I hope you like it. As always, thanks so much to my wonderful reviewers. Your feedback is most appreciated.

The next morning was a Saturday, a peaceful day, a day without classes, a day without dunderheads, a day with-

'Oh, crap,' I thought, remembering today is the day of the Gryffindor-Slytherin Quidditch match. As a staff member, former Slytherin, and former quidditch player, it seems obligatory that I attend. 'At least it should be interesting since it's Malfoy's first game.' I know I shouldn't wish bad things about the students, especially Slytherins, but I really hope I get to see Malfoy knocked off his broom, or hit with a bludger, or something similar. It only seems fair after having to put up with his snotty remarks and arrogant attitude for the last… has it really only been a year and a half? It seems like longer.

"Are you ready yet?" Severus asked as he knocked on the door.

"Not quite," I tell him, rushing to my closet and throwing on the first pair of robes I could find. I grabbed my coat and scarf and headed for the door. Holding my scarf between my teeth, I yanked a brush through my hair a couple of times before looking in the mirror.

'Not bad,' I thought with relief. "Ready," I informed him, opening the door.

"And it only took five minutes," he said with a smirk.

"How did you know?" I looked back into the mirror to make sure I hadn't missed something important, like pants.

"You've overslept for nearly every quidditch game since you became my assistant."

"I hadn't realized that," I said quietly. "You must have a really great memory."

"Yes, memory," he muttered, not quite meeting my eyes. "Let's get to breakfast." He turned swiftly on his heel and I had to jog to keep up.

"You know, not everyone's as tall as you. Would you slow down? Please?" I was never a morning person and being forced to run would really be a bad start to my day. He didn't answer me, but slowed his pace slightly. "It should be an interesting game," I said trying to make small talk. "What with the new brooms and all."

"Indeed."

"Why are you so quiet this morning?" Usually, he's excited on the days that Slytherin has a quidditch match. No one else would know the signs, but when Severus is anticipating something, he becomes really talkative and even makes jokes, the Snape version of jokes anyway. They normally involve new torture methods for detentions, which can be funny.

"I have no idea what you mean." As if to prove his point, he said, "How well do you think it would go over if I got a giant cauldron, had a student stand in it for an hour, letting them believe I was going to use them in a potion. Then, of course, after the hour was over, I'd let them go, having learned their lesson?"

"I've never been so happy to have graduated."

He smirked. "I'd only use it on the most important of occasions, for instance if a student is caught stealing from my stores."

"You go ahead and do that, I'll scrape together some money for bail."

We sat down at the staff table, each of us pouring a large cup of coffee. Unfortunately for me, there was an empty chair to my right. I felt a tap on my shoulder. "Oh what fresh hell is this?" I groaned, turning.

"Good morning, Ariana!" Lockhart said cheerfully. "Is anyone sitting here?"

"Yes, actually!"
"Oh?" He was clearly shocked with this new information.

"Yes, my invisible friend named Steve. I've been neglecting him lately and feel just terrible. I'm sure you understand."

"You have an invisible friend named Steve?" he asked in amazement. I noticed Severus was watching our interaction with fascination.

"I know, you must think I'm crazy. I'll completely understand if you don't want o speak to me anymore and withdraw your offer of wooing me." I smiled, knowing there was no one who could possibly want to remain my friend if you believed I had an imaginary friend named Steve.

"Quite the opposite actually." My smile faltered and I could feel my eyes growing wide. "I too, have an invisible friend. His name is Ken. He has an outfit for every occasion and has a girlfriend named Barbara."

"You mean like the muggle toys, Barbie and Ken?" I knew Lockhart was stupid as a rock but even he couldn't be this mental, could he?

"You know them?" he whispered excitedly.

"No," I said in a deadpan voice.

"Aw, I thought you might be able to introduce me!"

"You mean, you don't know your imaginary friends?"

"I tried to introduce myself you know, but they just ignored me. I even smiled my most charming smile at them, the one that won me the award."

"Well, there they are now, just walked out of the Great Hall. I bet if you hurry you can catch them." He looked gleefully at the door and took off at a sprint.

"Ken! Ken! Wait, I love you!"

I turned back to see Severus biting his lip to keep from laughing.

"If you end up biting your tongue off, I'm not reattaching it," I warned him. He turned serious again in an instant and glared at me. "You're welcome."

"For what?"

"First, for making you laugh, which I am certain will be the high point of your day. Second, for making you stop laughing or you may very well have bit your tongue off from the effort of staying silent." I smiled into my coffee cup. The house elves always made the French roast on days when there was a quidditch game.

"Um, thank you."

"I live to serve."

"How very Slytherin of you," he said sarcastically. I stuck out my tongue at him. He chose to ignore the action and took a bite of a bagel.

"I'm surprised the most charming smile failed on Barbie," I said a few minutes later. Severus left out a bark of laughter before he could stop himself. Every student that was in the hall turned to look, fear written on the majority of their faces.

"I hate you," Severus murmured out of the corner of his mouth.

"No you don't," I said, keeping my gaze on my plate. "You just hate being the center of attention." Most people believed he was antisocial, but the truth was he was just selective of who he spent time with. I'd learned long ago that, while he liked receiving praise for his brilliance, he didn't like large quantities of people watching him. "Besides, I'm not the one who laughed. You usually have more self-control." Oh, look, that vein in his forehead is pulsing again. 'Gee, his hand looks like it's getting closer to that butter knife.' "You know, it's such a gorgeous day, I think I'll take a walk before the match. See ya!" With that, I practically ran from the table, in fear of death by butter knife.

An hour later, I found myself sitting in the stands surrounding the quidditch pitch.

"Why did you rush out of the great hall this morning?" Severus asked, sitting next to me.

"Are you serious?" I asked. He only looked confused. "You were reaching for your butter knife."

"Yes, to spread cream cheese on my bagel. It seemed dry this morning. What did you think I was doing?"

"I thought you were going to stab me with it!" I laughed at my own stupidity, but stopped when he just sat there staring at me with a brow raised. "What?" He didn't respond. I snapped my fingers in front of him and shook his shoulder.

"Huh?" he asked, coming out of his daze.

"What were you thinking about?"

"Nothing!" he said quickly.

"Yes, I forgot, 'nothing' is known for putting people in a near comatose state."

"Uh, yes," he said, "let's just watch the match then, shall we?"

I turned toward the pitch, but kept observing him out of the corner of my eye. He was acting odd. He hadn't acted this awkwardly around me since I was fifteen and he decided we needed to have "the talk". It was hilarious watching the many shades of red his face could turn as he tried to explain everything without ever once using the technical words for the reproductive organs.

Today, though, seemed different. He was quiet, but yet it seemed like he wanted to tell me something. Lucius Malfoy happened to be sitting in the teacher's stand. He turned to speak to Severus as we waited for the match to start.

"Severus, how have you been?" Malfoy asked.

"I've been well, and you?"

"Well enough. Narcissa's been dragging me to one charity ball after another. You're so lucky you never got married."

"Yes, lucky," Severus agreed, though he no longer sounded as happy uttering this statement as he once did.

"Ah, Miss Sparks, Draco told me you threatened to give him a detention," Lucius said, turning to me.

"He deserved it."

"I'm sure he did," he said, turning back to Severus. Lucius Malfoy had never particularly liked me, probably because my parents were spies. The more likely case though is that I refused to sell the controlling shares of my parents' companies to him. I don't regret that decision though, knowing full well he'd have corrupted the good work they'd done in their lifetime.

"You're losing your touch, Severus," I heard him saying. It was quite obvious from the expression on Malfoy's face that they were discussing the date that had been forced upon Severus. Knowing Lucius, he was probably telling him he should have slept with the blonde bimbo. The idea made me sick. Severus had better taste than that; he was a teacher. It was his duty to set a positive example for the students. Some voice in the back of my mind, however, screamed that this wasn't the reason I felt nauseous every time I thought of him with that woman.

"You like him," the voice seemed to whisper in my ear.

"Shut up!" I thought. 'Great, now I'm arguing with myself.' I suppose the bright side of arguing with myself is that I'm guaranteed to win the argument somehow. If I don't, then I really have problems. 'I don't like him.'

"Oh, but you do," the voice in the back of my mind whispered. "Just look at him for a moment and try to deny it."

'I really don't. I mean, sure, he's good looking, if a bit intimidating. He's brilliant, he's funny, even if only I see it. He's one of the greatest potions masters, likely of the millennium, but that doesn't mean that I like him.' He suddenly turned to look at me. When his eyes met mine, it hit me like a ton of bricks, 'Oh sweet Merlin, I like him!'

I turned away quickly, hoping he hadn't seen into my mind in those two seconds my Occlumency walls were down. I felt my face burning in embarrassment.

"Are you feeling okay?" he asked, noticing my red face. I felt his cool fingers gently touch my cheek. "You feel warm." It was in these rare moments, when he was greatly concerned about my wellbeing, in which he threw caution to the wind, and didn't care who saw him acting like a human. I was about to lean into his hand, the recent discovery making my mind feel fuzzy and no longer in control of my actions. He seemed to remember where we were just then and yanked his hand away as if burned. He was silent for the rest of the match. It was just as well, leaving me to my own thoughts, to try to rationalize this newfound information.

Near the end of the game, I got my wish answered as Malfoy flew off of his broom and landed hard on his backside. I almost felt bad for the kid though, as his father acted ashamed of him after that. When another wizard had asked him if his son was alright, he said it wasn't his son. Like the white blond hair didn't give away the connection. I wondered if I kicked him in the back of the head right now, if he'd believe my foot slipped. I was about to do it too, when a hush fell over the crowd.

"Harry Potter has caught the snitch!" the commentator shouted. "Gryffindor wins!"

"I am feeling a little under the weather," I said to Severus as we descended the stairs from the stands. "I think I'm going to go take a nap."

"I'll get you some soup from the kitchens on my way back to the dungeons," he whispered so no one else would hear. "I need to go check on Draco first." I nodded, knowing his own father wouldn't go near the hospital wing to comfort his son. I had never understood before why Severus always seemed to give special attention to Draco. I had always believed it was just another way to show favoritism to Slytherin. It made sense now though that as Draco's godfather, Severus played the role of 'father' at times too.

'It's just another reason to like him,' I thought, walking back to the castle. 'Yes, I like him,' I admitted to the annoying voice, which seemed to be much quieter now.

"Took you long enough," it said, before becoming completely silent.

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