I Will Always Find You

Disclaimer: Liliana Chovexani and Seraphim Coma belong to me. Everyone else belongs to J.K. Rowling.


Reviewers:


Maddy: Glad you liked it. I was worried about that one. Yeah, I was thinking after they start seeing eath other more when she is grading for him.

JTBJAB: Yeah I thought so too. I hate writing transitional material; but it must be done.


Claire: I don\'t know why other people write about her being raped; but the idea for this story just popped into my head and wouldn\'t leave me be.


Slytheringriffindor21: Thanks! Here you go!

Chapter 8. The Letter


Breakfast~

The students looked up from thier tables as a huge Horned owl flew into the great hall, right up to Professor Snape.


It landed on a semi-clear spot on the table, it\'s bulk almost knocking over a pitcher of pumpkin juice. Professor Snape scowled, took the letter it was carrying and gave it a large chunk of bacon off of the server.


It ate the bacon quickly, dipped its beak into a goblet of water, and then waddled to the edge of the table and took off. It nearly upset the juice again,and Hagrid saved Snape from a wet lap by catching it.


Severus was secretly glad to see the owl. He knew it belonged to his friend, the councilor and he was eager to see her response.


He gravely nodded to Hagrid in thanks for catching the pitcher, and tucked the letter into his robes.


Looking down into the mass of students, he found that Miss Granger was looking up at him still. Most of them had gone back to their food; but she was trying to catch his eye.

He gave her a subtle nod. She appeared to sigh, gave him a nod in return and went back to her food.


He labored through the rest of his breakfast and left as soon as it was polite to do so.


He hurried to go to his office so he could read the letter before his first class of the day.


He locked himself in when he got there and pulled the letter out of his pocket. He stared at the envelope for a few seconds before breaking the seal and opening it. Pulling out the thick sheet of parchment, he carefully unfolded it and smoothed it on his desk.


Dear Severus,

I was horrified to hear what happened to that poor girl.
Of course I will come and speak to her. You need only to tell
me when an appropriate time would be.

I understand her wish to keep the incident confidential
and you may assure her that I will not speak of our
sessions to anyone, and I am willing to be magically
bound to that promise.

Weekends are my freetime; but I am willing to come
on Saturdays for our appointments, as I am sure any
other day would clash with her studies and her Head Girl
duties.


Please owl me as soon as you have spoken to her and
let me know what time I shall be expected.

Sincerely,
Seraphim Coma

P.S. I am sorry I had to send Hercules with this message.
He is obviously for delivering packages; but my lighter owl
was carrying a letter already. I do hope that Hercules
did not cause too much trouble.

Severus smiled to himself. How like Sera. She was one of his best friends; but business was business. Memories of her during school conjured up much the same image. She had been a Slytherin, of course. At that time, Severus would never have been friends with anyone from a different house.


Unlike most Slytherins, however, Sera was a nice girl. She would always stick up for herself; but she was also quick to help others. She also had the uncanny ability to get right to the heart of a problem. He supposed she had the perfect disposition to become a listener.


Muggles called them some silly long word which basically meant one who listens to others problems and makes a great deal of money for it in the process. In the wizarding world, listeners did make a nice salary; but were not overly wealthy.

Glancing at the clock, he realized his first class was in ten minuets, and he had better get into his classroom and write down the instructions for the potion they were brewing today.


He was just finishing when his class began to file in. They were all quiet and he settled his face into the hard mask he wore while teaching before turning around and beginning the lesson.


Hermione was anxious to talk to Professor Snape. She was still a bit embarassed about the previous night; but she wanted to know if this mystery woman was going to come and talk to her.

She was a bit fuzzy from not enough sleep, and wished she had some pepper-up potion. Maybe she would stop by the hospital wing before she went to class.


Looking up at the clock she realized she had better go; because her first class was fifteen minuets away.

She gathered up her books and told Ron and Harry she was going to get some pepper-up potion from Madam Pomfrey.


\"Wait for me outside of class?\" She asked.


\"Sure \'Mione,\" Harry nodded.


\"Dont\' make yourselves late though. I\'ll have an excuse. You won\'t.\"


They agreed, and Hermione went off. She hoped they would listen to her and not be late. The new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher was a nice woman; but she did hate tardiness. Hermione did not want to be responsible for getting Ron and Harry into detention. They\'d already been late a few times and were dangerously close to helping Filch polish trophies or some equally boring and tiring task.


She knew that worrying about her friends was also a mechanism she was using so as not to worry about herself and the problems she was going through. She had to remain herself. She didn\'t want her friends and classmates to know that she had been raped. It made her feel as if she was weak in some way that they were not.


She managed to get herself a potion and arrive at the DADA classroom about a minuet before the bell rang.


\"You\'re looking a bit better \'Mione,\" Ron remarked.


\"Yes, the potion helped a lot. I expect I\'ve been studying too much,\" Hermione replied.


The other two raised their eyebrows a little.


\"Since when do you study too much \'Mione?\" Asked Harry in a mocking sort of way, which got him a glare in return. \"Sorry, I couldn\'t resist,\" he grinned at her disarmingly and she couldn\'t help but forgive him.

\"Cutting it a bit close aren\'t we, Potter, Weasely, Granger?\" Asked Professor Chovexani. She was a beautiful witch in her mid-thirties, with dark brown curly hair. She was a Romanian woman of Gypsy descent, and also the only Professor to have lasted more than one year since Harry, Ron and Hermione had begun school.


\"Yes ma\'am. Sorry,\" replied Ron as they took their seats. The other two nodded.

Hermione supressed her giggles at the sight of Rons\' red cheeks. He was quite taken with the pretty Professor.

Hermione found it a bit easier to pay attention, and hoped that the routine of classes would help her settle down after what had happened. She thought that the added routine of counciling sessions might even help. On top of that, there was assisting Professor Snape, who she needed to lay eyes on, if not speak to, at least once a day to keep her nerves calm.

She mused that it was quite odd that in all her years of almost hating the man, now he was the one that comforted her when she needed someone the most.


It was lucky that they were all taking notes off of the board just then, and Hermione could do so almost without thinking, so she wouldn\'t be caught daydreaming in class. She would however have to read through the notes again later, for she was absorbing none of the information at that moment.


As soon as they were all finished note taking, Hermione forced her attention to Professor Chovexani, and listened to thier lesson on Ogres.

Professor Snape caught up with her after she had finished as quick lunch. She was heading to the library to do her DADA assignment.

\"Miss Granger, might I have a word about your essay?\" He asked silkily. There was no one about; but it didn\'t hurt to be cautious.


\"Yes, of course sir,\" she replied politely, and followed him to the empty teachers lounge.


When he had closed the door, he turned to her and said, \"Miss Granger I must apologize for staring at you the other night.\"


She started to protest, blushing; but he held up a hand.

\"Miss Granger, it was inapropriate, and I must make an apology. I was trying to ascertain whether you would do as I told you, and I lost myself in thought for a moment.\" He was aware how lame that excuse was; but it would have to suffice.


\"Yes sir; but it\'s quite all right.\" Hermione was feeling extremely embarassed and flustered. She didn\'t notice that he seemed embarassed as well.


He smiled and Hermione thought he ought to do so more often. He had a very nice smile.


\"Now Miss Granger, I have recieved word from my friend, Miss Seraphim Coma...\"


\"Angel of light?\" Hermione interrupted.


He grimaced. \"Yes. She quite hates her name, and I imagine she will ask you to call her Sera. She has written me back and graciously offered to come to the castle on Saturdays so as not to interfere with your classes. Would this be agreeable to you?\"


\"Yes sir. I do like to study on Saturdays; but this is an important matter.\"


He looked at her gravely. \"Yes it is, Miss Granger.\"


\"What time will she be coming?\" Asked Hermione, worrying at the questions that would be asked as to why a stranger was coming to speak to her.


\"What time would you like her to come?\"


Hermione thought for a moment. \"Maybe we could take lunch together,sir?\" She asked hopefully. Most students would be in the great hall at that time and hopefully they could remain unnoticed.

Professor Snape looked pleased at the suggestion. \"Yes. I think Sera would like that very much. She is fond of telling me how much she misses Hogwarts\' food.\"

\"She went to school here?\"

\"Yes, she was a classmate of mine. One of my very close friends. Until...\"

Hermione knew what he meant. Until he had joined the ranks of death eaters and she had found out.

\"But you\'re friends again, sir?\" She asked quietly.


He nodded and then looked at the clock and realized they had been in the lounge for fifteen minuets and lunch would be over shortly.


\"Off you go, lunch is nearly over. Oh, and Miss Granger, one more thing, where would you like to have these meetings?\"


She paused. That was another problem.Then after a moment she brightned. \"I know just the place, Professor. The Room of Requirement.\"



AN: I hope you guys like my original charachters. \"Chovexani\" is the Gypsy word for witch. \"Seraphim Coma\" means Angel of Light, as Hermione pointed out.