Severus watched with a hardened glare as his students walked out of his classroom, murmuring among themselves about how grumpy their professor was that day when he practically took off points from every houses including Slytherin and he managed to put a few problematic students in detention. As the last student finally walked out and shut the door, Severus let out a sigh, sitting in his chair.

His mind was drifted to you, who he had not seen all day because you had no class with him on that particular day. It was odd, he did not see you when he walked through the hallway, and he was sure that you were not in the Great Hall either. Usually, you would visit him in his class during your free period, just to bug him or to ask him if he needed your help. But nothing of sort happened that day, and he found himself wondering where you might be.

The Potions Master shook his head, trying to get you out of his mind. He was supposed to think of other things but his mind was too busy trying to work out why you had been acting so different now. Perhaps it was not his place to care, but he cared about you a lot, and he despised it so much when he was not aware of what was happening in your life.

Standing up from his chair, Severus told himself not to worry so much when he was just your teacher. You had a life to live as a student, and of course you were not going to spend it with him, thus he believed you must had other things to do instead of accompanying him when you could do things that were more fun than being stuck with your professor.

He decided to walk back to his office, not bothering to wait for you as he knew you were not coming. He would just see you in his class on the next day.

On the other hand, you were avoiding him. You knew what was happening to yourself, and you never wanted him to discover it, not when he would put the blame on himself. He tend to take the blame and let guilt consume himself and you were not letting it happen because of you. So you distanced yourself from him as much as you could, perhaps somehow the distance would heal your pain.

After your last class, you just wanted to go back to your dormitories, curl up in your bed while crying over your cruel fate. As pathetic as it might sound, the idea of being alone while nobody knew about the disease was comforting you. You did not want other people to worry about you, and obviously not Professor Snape. If he knew, he would lose his control and try to heal you, which was something impossible.

But as you were walking back to your dormitories, George and Fred stopped you, huge grins were plastered on their faces as they looked at you.

"Come on, Y/N. It won't be long."

Fred persuaded you to watch their quidditch practice, wanting to spend some time with you. You looked at him with a soft smile, and moved your eyes to look at George who was hoping you would say yes. You crossed your arms against your chest and pretended to be thinking, intentionally making them feel nervous to hear your answer.

"Yes, I'll go with you."

You said, and they fist bump each other, grinning at you. You chewed on your bottom lip, feeling so tired and missing your bed but you did not want to say no to them. The disease would not be stopping you from spending your time with your best friends. You told yourself that you were much stronger than that, not giving up to the pain that was growing in your chest.

"I didn't understand anything in my classes today."

Fred joked, and you shook your head at him, knowing that he was smarter than he always said he was. George and Fred were so intelligent but people always looked at their mischievous demeanours first before their brains. Thus, they always thought between the three of you, you were the brightest.

"Stop bluffing. We all know you will still ace your test, Fred."

Fred just rolled his eyes while George laughed at your remark, nudging you with his elbow playfully.

"Did you have Potions today, Y/N?"

"No, why do you ask?"

You frowned, slowing down slightly in your steps as you knew it must be something about Professor Snape. The twins looked at each other before sighing in unison, and you could tell it was something bad.

"Snape was so tense. I thought he was going to take points off Gryffindor because I was breathing!"

Fred laughed, shaking his head at the thought of it. You wondered why the professor was acting more cold than usual during his classes. As much as your heart begged you to see him and check on him, you knew you could not. It would hurt you even more, and it would concern him.

"He deducted points from Slytherin too. He was heartless today."

George added, chuckling under his breath. Your eyes widen at his words, realising that it was very strange when Severus started to do that to his own house. His Slytherin students must be confused with the way he was behaving, you were sure of it. You once talked about how he cared about his house more than the others, and his answer would be engraved in your mind forever.

"Why do you care about Slytherin more than others?"

You boldly asked, smirking as you saw him stopped grading the papers. He dropped his quill dramatically, and looked at you intimidatingly. If you were a first year student, you would piss yourself seeing his glare but now you just gave him a smile, waiting for his answer.

"I'm the Head of Slytherin, Miss L/N."

"I know, and I think it is normal for teachers to care more about their house rather than the others. But students always think that you favour Slytherin way too much."

You explained, telling him of what you always heard from other students. Perhaps it was true when he never really cared for the mishaps that his Slytherin students caused, and he immediately give detentions to foolish students from other houses that he caught. But you knew he cared for all students, he never wanted any of them to get hurt, even if the way he cared for them was easily interpreted as him being a stone cold professor.

"Slytherin has a reputation, Y/N. People always misunderstood us and our intentions. When I was a student, I had enough of people judging me because I was in Slytherin."

He started, and you nodded at his words, agreeing that people were always so sceptical towards his house compared to the others.

"As the Head of Slytherin, I care for them more than the others because if I don't, who would?"

His genuine words made you realise his reasons and you smiled sadly at him, knowing that he was trying his hardest to make his students feel cared for and not isolated just because of their house.

"I'm not expecting other teachers to like my Slytherins, Y/N. So I have to care for them in my own way."

You finally understood why his Slytherins respected him with his ways when others would only mock him. They could not see the intentions behind his harsh words and his actions, but you could, and you hoped somehow people would see how much the teacher cared for his students.

"Do you care about me?"

You asked, smiling at him as he rolled his eyes dramatically. He resumed to grade the papers, tearing his gaze from you but before you could think that he did not care, he quickly said:

"Of course, I care about you."

A gasp escaped your lips, as your steps came to a halt, the memories slowly fading from your mind. A sharp pain jolted through your chest and you let out a cry of pain, taking your best friends by surprise as they could tell you were hurting.

Tears pooled in the corner of your eyes, feeling the pain grew even stronger as you found it hard to breathe. You coughed, trying to clear your throat as breathing seemed impossible to do at the moment. You were numb to all the noises around you, not realising how worried the twins were to see you in that condition when they did not know what to do. Their voices were muffled as your head pounded, and your heart thud rapidly against your chest like it was going to explode.

You felt your throat tighten and you knew it was getting worse. You coughed, putting your hands over your mouth, and watched in horror as you could see red flower petals on the palm of your hands. A sob wrecked through your body as you noticed the white flower petals had changed into red, and you knew you did not have much time left.

"Y/N, what's going on?"

Fred was panicked, squeezing your shoulders to force you to look at him. You shook your head weakly, crying as fear wrapped around your fragile heart. They did not know what to do, never in their lives had they witnessed something so frightening yet so odd, and it was happening to their best friend.

You almost fell if George was not quick enough to hold you in his arms, and you let tears streamed down your face as more red flower petals came out of your mouth, ruthlessly burning your throat and ripping your chest.

"I'm scared."

You sobbed, could not pull your gaze away from the red flower petals in your hands. How could something so beautiful became so dangerous to you?

"It's alright, Y/N. We're here for you."

George whispered softly to you, and you did not hear them as they wanted to take you to the hospital wing. You could not care less about them knowing about the disease any longer.

You just wanted this to be over, it was so painful and you were growing tired of being punished just because of love. A one sided love that was so dangerous, and you were foolish enough to keep loving him, even when it was killing you mercilessly, and he did not even know about it.

You were dying because of him.