Harry Potter 50 Shades of Gray

As a spy whose job description was to know things, Severus rarely found himself surprised. Miss Raine was a devious little thing for reasons unknown to him. She enjoyed acting timid with the teachers, gentle with the Gryffindors, and aloof with the Slytherins. Yet, no matter which character she had played, she had never been prone to bouts of heavy emotion. But now, she trembled, her eyes glazed with a sheen of unshed tears. It was not an act.

His gaze snapped towards the stuttering professor. "Quirrell."

"I-it's not what it seems, S-Severus," said Quirrell, flustering as he backed away from the child.

"Really?" Severus stalked towards him with his wand out. "Then what could I possibly be seeing? Certainly," he raised his voice when the Quirrell tried to interrupt, "not a professor pointing his wand at a student. Hm?"

Severus had had his suspicions of Quirrell, which he had conveyed to the Headmaster. Yet, the Headmaster had taken no action aside from ordering himself to keep watch.

"I was just t-trying to heal the unicorn, Severus."

"Really?" he smiled nastily when Quirrell nodded. "Because I think you're lying to me."

Quirrell watched him with wide, frightened eyes. Then something shifted, and his eyes glinted with something dark. Severus' wand sparked, but his concentration broke when one of Quirrell's arms snapped out and shoved him away. The DADA professor scrambled back as Severus quickly righted himself, both immediately mirroring the other.

A sneer twisted the corners of his mouth. "Wands out? Why Quirinus, not so confident in your innocence now, are we? Everyone is aware that you were never one for healing charms."

Quirrell smiled. "I have n-no idea what you are s-speaking of, S-Severus. This is purely self-d-d-defense."

The silence was stifling, and the tension so thick that she could choke on it.

"W-wait!" Cyrna blurted out. Her heart fluttered like it wanted to sprout wings and fly out of her chest, her legs still felt like lead, and she had barely regained function of her lungs. But upon Snape's arrival, her mind had unfurled from lie, lie, run to something calmer. Something that allowed for a bit more rationality. In the quiet of her mind, her thoughts whirled on how this encounter would implicate her plans—on how she needed to keep it from getting further out of hand.

Snape had to be suspicious of Quirrell, but not too suspicious. If Voldemort revealed himself now, Snape would be forced to choose his loyalties. One choice would have Quirrell chased out of Hogwarts, and the other would have Snape returning to his role as a double-agent far too early into the timeline—and who knew what would happen then? Either result was an unacceptable change.

There was only one choice remaining:

De-escalate the situation.

Dropping her hand from the portkey, Cyrna begged her legs to move. Stiff and slow at first, but gradually, her steps gained confidence as she came to a stop beside her Head of House. Biting her lip, she reached out and lightly tugged his black robes—supressing a sharp inhale and fisting the fabric in a death grip when Quirrell's attention turned onto her.

Snape immediately tucked her back so that she was halfway hidden behind him. "Miss Raine," Snape said in a deadly voice. "What do you think you are doing?"

"I... I think there's been a misunderstanding, Professor Snape."

"Oh?" he drawled in a deeply sarcastic manner.

"I was out flying when I came across the unicorn. It was hurt, and I didn't know what to do, and then Quirrell showed up. He—he said he'd wanted to speak with me for a while now. But I didn't want that." The hitch and shake in her voice were carefully crafted from the genuine fear she currently felt. Knowing that it would be detrimental to her narrative to hide behind Snape, Cyrna hesitantly stepped out of his shadow. "I get nervous speaking to any professor in class, so speaking to one in a private meeting is..." she shivered. "But there was a unicorn dying, so I pointed out that he should heal it first. He agreed that the healing should take priority, but then he took out his wand... and..."

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