in this chapter I show a bit more of how I think Occlumency works, so please keep in mind I don't think that's how most people view it, but I wanted to show the organized and almost cold way I imagined Occlumency to work when I read Harry Potter for the first time and it just stuck to me.

THE WHITE BATHROOM DOOR

VERY TRIGGERING CHAPTER: SEXUAL ASSAULT, CHILD ABUSE AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Severus Snape never in his life had felt so confused, but obliged so quietly to a summon of someone that barely seemed strong enough to hurt him if needed, but he was scared of Anne enough to receive the small note and just put it away, convincing his future self that whatever the girl had to tell him at eleven at night in the Room of Requirement was important enough to get himself at risk of being caught wandering around the corridors with Regulus in the middle of the night.

He wore something other than his school-robes this time. He wouldn't dare to say that, but he was sure that Regulus could see it, but he was excited to subtly show Anne how much better he was doing now that his father had no access more than absolutely necessary to the house's account – he had clothes that fit him now and his hair was better taken care of now that he had asked Regulus to teach him, his shoes no longer made his feet hurt and his school supplies were of the better condition there was. He wouldn't dare flaunt it or show it off in malicious means because he knew how it was to be on the other side of the political see-saw, but he wanted Anne to see. He wanted Anne to be proud of him.

If completely honest, he wasn't sure why, but he felt like he needed to impress Anne somehow. She had taught him a lot and put him in touch with feelings that his survival had made him put aside.

When he met her, he had been forceful, insistent and annoying to the point of making her (and others, he later found out) uncomfortable and awkward by second-hand embarrassment since he had never been too good in reading social cues. Still, she had looked at him with more force than he had been expecting and with some off admiration that soon faded into disappointment when he had forced his way into her mind. She pushed him off with a flawless technic that made him envious for weeks. While he sulked, Regulus scolded him time and time again, already seeing something that he couldn't on the red-headed girl. So, then, he apologized, or the best next thing. In that library, seeing her shaking, wide eyes and distant, clearly afraid of something he couldn't hear or see made him understand that her 'annoying' and 'academic-rival' persona was something that she used to put a barrier between the others and her. He thought it was over and that he had seen what Regulus had seen on her: the scared little girl flinching away from his touch, gasping for air as she shook sit on the library table with runes all around her. But then the day of the train came. It was then that he truly saw what Regulus had seen; the girl was stumbling away, gasping for air, eyes wide, skin pale and hands shaking and yet she hadn't asked for help, not for embarrassment, but because she had another focus: getting to safety, but less than five minutes later she seemed put together again, looking at him in the eyes and asking for communication with a known smuggler.

She was brave, cautious, smart and, more than anything, strong in a way that he couldn't see, but could feel. She was the contrary of his father, and yet so alike at the same time that it took him a moment to understand that he wasn't afraid of Anne, but that he respected her somewhat.

While Tobias Snape was big, intimidating, unforgiving, unapologetic and terrified every waking and sleeping moment of anyone around him, Anne was big, intimidating, unforgiving, unapologetic and yet made him feel safer than ever, because she was on his side and that ruthless girl would stand beside him even if the sky fell, as long as he was loyal to her and didn't hurt those that she was loyal too.

Tobias was his monster no matter what right and what wrong he did, he would forever haunt and hurt him even if he wasn't present in flesh. Anne was somebody's monster, but not his and she could never be because he never intended on betraying her.

"You forgot to tie it," said Regulus suddenly.

He turned, glancing at the mirror in front of him.

With Evan at some girl's bed and the other two boys asleep, he was free to fix himself on the main dormitory

Regulus was ready in his expensive emerald green silky robes and was quick to tie the undershirt of the robe with a complicated, but small knot as he took a step back to look at Severus in clear admiration.

"Should I be worried about dressing up to meet my girlfriend?" Regulus teased. "You're looking sharp, mate."

"I don't think I can take Anne's attention more than a few hours a day, Regulus, your girlfriend is safe from me," he teased back. He saw Regulus glaring at him. "Say what you want, but she can be annoying when she wants."

"Believe me, so can you," he quickly defended her.

Severus grinned to himself as he put on his shoes as if he had been expecting Regulus to jump on her defence as soon as he started teasing her, after all Anne wasn't there to tease him back herself.

"Let's go," Severus said, nodding once.

They made their way through the corridors only jogging once when Regulus 'felt' the presence of Madame Pomfrey walking by, and by that 'felt' he meant that it was her turn of watching that part of the castle and he was quite scared of her since she had pressure to know how he had broken a few ribs and didn't buy his silly Quidditch story as an excuse. Still, they got to the Room with their hearts barely racing and paced in front of the door a few times before they walked in.

Severus stopped dead on his tracks as soon as he walked inside and saw the reunion of people.

First of all, he was taken aback by the image the Room had taken in red and gold, a lot warmer and a lot more comfortable and cosier than Slytherin's Common Room. He had never been to the Gryffindor Common Room in a normal day, only during parties when the chairs and sofas were put away and there was nothing more than a warm fireplace and odd decorations all over the place. Second of all, Anne wasn't alone as he had expected her to be; James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Lily Evans were with her, turning to look at the double door that had opened as Regulus and him walked in.

"Hello," Regulus said oddly formal as he closed the door after Severus was inside. Severus clearly noticed that it was his way of not letting him out. "Good afternoon to all of you. Hi, love," he added at the end when he saw Anne smiling a bit to him.

"Hi," she answered.

Severus' eyes narrowed at her, clearly taken aback and quite suspicious of her motives now that her company was shown.

"Afternoon, Anne," he said, politely, but ready to run away if needed.

"This is not a prank, I promise," she said as soon as she took a good look at his eyes. "I just have something to tell you and I thought they would like to be here, I mean, they told me that they wanted to be here and... well, I actually wanted to show it to you since telling you might not be enough and I'm short on Truth-Serum."

He crossed his arms, still not walking any further into the room and ignoring how uncomfortable the fact that Regulus was leaning against the door was making him. He just wanted Anne get up from the sofa she had been sharing with Lily and walking towards him.

"What are you rambling about? Be direct," he said. "It's late."

She ignored the way he had subtly said that he was uncomfortable and wanted to leave the room, innocently looking him up and down.

"I like your new robes and haircut," she offered.

A peace offer that he would be stupid to take. Still, Severus was a fool for loyalty and took the offer.

"Thank you," he said.

Sirius shifted uncomfortably on the chair he was perched on beside Remus, knowing that no matter how much he wanted to make fun of Severus' effort into his appearance, Anne would curse him to the next day and Remus would never talk to him again. Besides, he had just gained Regulus' attention and he had nodded with a soft grin on his lips and that was much more than he had in a long time.

Anne shifted her weight to one leg to the other and looked at Regulus. The boy was quick to leave the door and walk towards her with arms apart as she slipped into them for a hug before a quick kiss.

Regulus glanced at James, who was looking at the ceiling, very interested in the odd mark in there that he had never seen before. He let go of Anne soon after and Lily poked his side to make him look down again.

"Why did you call me here?" Severus asked. "And why the company?"

"The thing I want to talk to you about is very sensitive and I thought I deserved some moral support. You'll understand once we start, I promise, but before I want to tell you a few things," she said.

"Go on," he urged.

"Can we sit? I'm shaking a bit," she admitted.

His eyebrows twitched in worry that Lily recognized from the say she fell off the tree near their house and walked it off as if nothing had happened. He insisted to tell her parents that she had fallen even though she had not but a scratch on her, but he was too worried to make her annoyed by his cumbersome manners.

Anne sat down on the ground near the coffee table, Regulus beside her and Severus across from on her.

"Anne, what is happening?" he asked once more.

"Give her some time," Remus snapped.

Severus turned, ready to glare at him, but Anne chuckled. He looked back at her in surprise.

"Forgive Remus, he tends to be overprotective when I'm sensitive, Severus," she said. "He mustn't be, however, because I'm fine."

Regulus held back his smile while looking at Remus, knowing very well how he must be feeling. Regulus had been scolded enough times for being too overprotective, but learned his lesson soon into the relationship with her. Still, the Black was distracted by the way Lily Evans was watching him. He looked back at her curiously.

"It's a pleasure to... officially meet you as Anne's boyfriend," she said, voice wavering.

He couldn't stop a chuckle.

"Yes," he said, turning away from Anne to offer Lily his hand for a handshake. "A pleasure... ma'am."

The teasing went well with the charming smile he threw her way because she smiled back at him, shaking her head, but that didn't seem to make James Potter like him any less as he saw the boy's lips turning white as their formed a line. He smiled at him as well, but soon looked away. No matter how handsome James Potter was under his eyes, he would forever be Sirius' annoying friend and now he was his father-in-law (sort of) and it made him a bit awkward, if he was honest.

Anne watched the interaction and gave James' leg a shove. The boy glared at his daughter, but gave a forced smile back at Regulus.

"I'm so confused," Severus complained.

"I'm going to drop my Occlumency shield to you so I can tell you my story," Anne answered at once.

Silence.

"You don't need to, you can just tell me," he said.

"You're a sceptical and I know, for a fact, that you would never believe me if I didn't bring you some type of evidence, which I don't have," she explained. "My story is long and it could take too much time to talk about it and it might trigger me, showing you might trigger me as well, but..."

But save the other from relieving her trauma with her, she meant to say and Severus knew that as he bit the inside of his cheek to keep himself from asking anything.

"And you decided to just put me in your memories?" he said, confused. "Why would you be comfortable with it?"

"Because I know you'd do the same with me if I already didn't know your story," she answered.

He shook his head.

"Anne, that's... personal... intimate."

"I can deal with it," she insisted. "There will be memories that I will skip –"

"Then you're not dropping the shield –"

"I just don't want you living through that part of my trauma," she said. "I promised myself that it wouldn't have an effect on me again and I'm trying and I promised that... he wouldn't have any power over me again, so I'm trying to just push it away."

He wanted to say that it wasn't how it worked and that he had tried doing that already, but... he didn't. Anne would find out about that on her own at one point or another. And he didn't have the courage to say that with the way James Potter seemed to shrink behind Anne, clearly knowing what she was taking about.

"Alright," he accepted.

Anne took a deep breath.

"Alright," she repeated.

He took his wand, fingers wrapping around it slowly and carefully, giving her time to change her mind, but she didn't. Anne didn't hesitate or try to look away from his eyes.

And, suddenly, he was in her mind.

Severus Snape was crouched down beside the little girl with dirty, matted red hair inside the smallest crawl space he had ever seen in his life. There was a small makeshift bed inside there and two shelves cluttered with broken and old things. The little girl was hugging her knees, trying her best to make herself even smaller than she already was, looking through the cracks of the small door, she seemed very adamant that she wasn't going to fall asleep, but her eyes were heavy and her head would sometimes sway from one side to the other. Until a moment that her head didn't sway, but she was looking to the side.

He finally saw the young boy lying beside the girl. He was still... too still, too pale, too sick. He had dark hair that was messy and dirty and clothes that were too big on his skinny form.

"Harry?" she called out.

"Hm," he did.

"I'm hungry," she commented.

Severus blinked, wondering how that was an important memory to Anne.

"It's locked, Anne, we'll eat in the morning," Harry dismissed.

"No, Harry, I'm really hungry," she insisted. "Aunt Petunia didn't let me have dinner because she found Dolores. She watched you eat tonight, so you didn't bring me anything this time around."

In one of the shelves there was a torn-up piece of cloth that had been tied to give the resemblance of a baby wrapped in cloth with a very small head. In Anne's mind, that was a doll. In anybody else's mind, that was plain cruelty, especially after her Aunt Petunia had taken scissors and torn it up in anger because she was lulling the 'baby' to sleep instead of cleaning the dishes as she had been ordered to do, but since Harry was doing it already, Anne didn't think she needed to help.

That was the moment that Severus Snape understood that he wasn't in a child's hiding place in a house or in a crawl-space at all, he was in a cupboard and that was Anne's and that boy's bedroom. He felt sick in the stomach.

"I'll skip breakfast so you can eat mine, alright?" the boy said, his voice was slightly hoarse. "Now, please, Anne, lie down and go to sleep. I'm tired. I'm not feeling well right now, Anne, I really need to sleep"

"I'm hungry," she insisted.

He knew that Anne couldn't be much older than five or six at that point, but Severus certainly was annoyed by her insistence on food. However, he didn't have much time to dwell on it, because Harry's eyes rolled to the back of his head and his whole-body locked before it started shaking in a convulsion that Anne didn't know what to do with.

She screamed.

Anne screamed as loud as she could with all the strength her body had and with all the power her lungs had. A scream so loud that Severus was sure could wake the dead, if they were in town.

By the noises coming from all around, it worked. Footsteps were heard and Severus froze – the steps came from over them and he understood as the door unlocked that he was under the stairs, living with two children in a cupboard.

"What is it, girl?" asked a fat man, peeking into the cupboard. "PETUNIA!" he screamed.

An ugly woman with a familiar long face came to peek as well. She grabbed the girl to get her out of the cupboard and simply watched as her own nephew wiggled and shook, unable to stop himself, too lost in the fever that she didn't even know he had up to that point. Anne cried in silence beside her, knowing that she would get hit if she made a since sound.

Petunia Evan's scared reaction as her eyes filled with tears didn't make Severus any more sympathetic to her situation after he knew what she had done with those children.

There was a moment where memories were thrown forward at him, passing through in rapid speed as he barely paid attention, still too shock of the things he had seen, digesting the disgusting reaction of the girl he had seen several times growing up and even played when he was nine or so.

A memory slowed down and he watched with attention.

Anne was older, hiding behind the broken and old sofa in a house in the very middle of nowhere as her cousin and her brother hid somewhere else.

The tall, big man at the door was friendly and clearly the saviour by the way he wanted to take Harry away from there, saving her brother's life by presenting him another world where he could be safe, admired and loved. But he was the enemy at the same time because he wanted to leave her behind for a whole year.

And as the man that Severus quickly recognized as Hagrid took Harry away a few months later he understood why Anne was worried.

Everyday, he followed as she did every single chore around the house, struggling every day with things she had never done without Harry's assistance or without his orders. She was the sous-chef, he would say like he had seen in TV one day, but now that she was thrown to be the chef she was a hot mess and wanted nothing more than to disappear as she burned her hand once more at the pan she clearly didn't know how use and that was too heavy for her to manoeuvre all by herself.

The slap came before Severus even knew who had hit her, making the knife she had been using to cut the carrot slip from her hand and cut her finger.

"You little useless bitch!" the fat man said. "The carrots are too thick, make it thinner. The soup gets too vegetable-ly if you don't."

"Sorry, Uncle Vernon," she said, lips wobbling as she held back as much as she could of the tears of pain. Her little finger was cut vertically; the cut wasn't deep, but it certainly was hurting enough to make a 10-year-old child cry.

And the rest of the year was like that. But once Harry was back, he took over everything and she sat to the side, watching him do everything and he told stories of his first year in Hogwarts in whispers in fear of being caught talking about something he was supposed to pretend it didn't exist.

"... and Professor Snape is so scary, but he's the best Potion-Master Hogwarts has had, or so said Professor McGonagall. Professor McGonagall is soooo nice! She gave me biscuits and talked to me for almost a whole hour!"

Severus couldn't breathe for a moment.

Things seemed to promise to get better to Anne as he watched more and more of her life.

Anne went to Hogwarts. He watched her get sorted into Slytherin and he watched his older version watch in surprise as the girl that looked just like her mother when looking away from him sit at the table Lily would never have been allowed to. He watched as his old self watched and protected her and her brother and his awful friends for years. He thought he would see nothing more.

Harry's fourth year, however, brought forward a different girl.

As soon as summer started, the memories were blocked and locked away from him and, though he carelessly tried to reach for it, he was pushed away and forward in time. He allowed himself to be moved away, catching a glimpse only of a bathroom door closed and flashes of light coming from the inside every few seconds.

He watched as the future Severus watched her from far away, not daring to get too close to the girl that looked terrified when Professor McGonagall touched her shoulder as she walked by to talk to Severus. Something had happened and he didn't know what. Until the memory slowed down again through the Triwizard Tournament and Anne stood in front of his classroom desk, hands shaking.

"Professor, how can a girl get pregnant?" she had asked suddenly.

Both Severus' choked at once.

"Miss Potter, I don't see how that's an appropriate question," he scolded. "You're too young. You can get a family when you're older, but for now the question should be how to avoid it. If you want, I can get you some potions and –"

"Professor, I need to know how a woman come to be with child," she insisted. "I need to know if I'm going to have his child."

The truth fell to his head at once. The flinching, the fear, the shaking, the... stillness of such lively girl. He tried not to believe it, but the way her tears were gathering as he took too long to answer, he knew that his fears were correct.

"Sit down, Miss Potter, I believe we might need to talk," he said.

"I talked to Dumbledore and he said that... perhaps keeping it a secret might be for the best interest in the moment, but I couldn't bring myself to ask if I could be. I mean, pregnant, you know? I never... I don't understand how it works," she explained. "Aunt Petunia said I needed to be away from boys, but never more than that. Professor, I fear I might be with child... he touched me."

"Anne, who did?"

"It doesn't matter."

"But it does! It does matter. He can be expelled!" Severus insisted.

He said it too loud because Anne flinched away from him, not believing that he would ever scream at her.

"He will not, sir. He's not a student," she said.

"A professor, then?"

"Sir, he's not in school at all," she insisted.

For a moment, he thought that she was protecting someone, not wanting the attention that a persecution could bring to her case, but then he invaded her mind and, unable to protect herself, she allowed him. The Severus in the past didn't see what he did, but he saw his reaction – the paleness was sickening and the name 'Vernon' passed through his lips without a sound before he just watched Anne fold herself in half and throw up all over her shoes and on the floor as he shook in place, hearing her sobs and desperate apologies.

"Anne –" he started.

"Sir, I'm sorry for the mess. I can clean this if I can find my wand," she was stuttering. "I'm so sorry, really. I am."

Severus knew that Lily would never forgive him if he had allowed what happened to her daughter go unpunished, but first he needed to right his wrong of leaving Harry and Anne crying as he stood in the doorway, watching her dead body grow cold. He cried and grieved and then... left, like the coward he was. That memory that he had seen the year before as Anne experimented with memory-magic was the one he hated the most.

The Severus in the past couldn't help but hate the Severus in the future. There was no way that the boy he was now would ever allow his version of a man walk freely after abandoning two crying, confused and scared children.

Anne cleaned her vomit.

"Anne, you aren't pregnant," he said, firmly and at once.

"I am not?" she said. "Then... why can't I eat? Why can't I sleep? Why can't I do anything without throwing up my guts?!"

"That's your body trying to cleanse itself," he said. "But there's nothing to clean. You're fine and healthy. What he did to you will have no effect on your physical health," he explained once she seemed confused. "A touch such at those cannot make you with child. Perhaps you would be more comfortable talking about this with Madame Pomfrey if not with me," she shook her head, refusing to move from her chair. "There has to be penetration with his intimate parts, not just his fingers, and he has to finish himself inside of you. That's how pregnancy occurs."

"I am... clean, then," she said.

"Yes, you are," he said.

And as he thought the memory would move along, he saw Anne getting up from her chair and jumping into his arms, blabbering like a child and shaking like a cat in his very tensed up and awkwardly placed arms around her shoulder, not moving a single inch.

Then the memory moved along as he watched Anne walking into his classroom after classes were over, sitting in the corner as he worked and cried herself to exhaustion, sleeping several times in a sitting position on the student desks near his desk. He watched as his older version did little to support her besides existing there and letting her cry without questions. He wondered if he had talked to Dumbledore about it behind Anne's back or if he did something against Vernon without the girl knowing; he hoped so, because he would never forgive himself for not doing so. The girl there clearly had been looking for a father she never had and the closest thing she found was the man that hated her father the most, the only one that allowed her to feel and did not blame her for it – he didn't tell her to not let Harry see it, he just enabled her to do as she pleased and then made sure she felt alright enough to leave the room before curfew.

Soon enough, however, Anne buried all that disgust of herself away once the war seemed to break for real, taking Sirius Black away from her and leaving her with a brother that had only half of a mind.

And the war started, taking away the very little childhood she had left and throwing nothing but inhumane feelings towards her: hunger, cold, fear and hopelessness. All those feelings that a person shouldn't feel, but most importantly those were feelings that a child shouldn't feel living in the woods, always in the move and on the run from people that wanted her and the people she cared about dead. There was no dignity in the way they lived, there was no respect for the bodies of the people she loved that were never found or were found and thrown to the side.

Anne died little by little.

Until Remus Lupin gave her another chance.

Severus Snape hated how grateful and admired he was of a Marauder as Remus consoled Anne after she walked to him, covering in Severus' blood, too in shock to explain anything. He gave her the box and started saying.

"You need to run and hide, I need to find Tonks and we'll go for Teddie and –"

He fell, dead, right in front of Anne.

And Anne turned and ran.

Severus Snape was sitting across from Anne.

"Are you going to be sick?" he asked.

She shook her head, though she was holding her breath. She was holding onto the coffee table with a lot of strength, enough to make her knuckles white.

"You tried to look," she accused.

"It was an instinct, once I understood it was a memory you were trying to block, I walked away," he said. "I'm sorry, Anne," she nodded to him. "I did teach you well, though. Your shield is very organized."

She forced a small smile, though the memories were still vivid and shallow on her mind as she tried to bury them deep once more, focusing on good things. With memories so messed up, it was hard to compartmentalize them once more; to put painful and good memories from the past in its respective boxes was hard, but agreeing that some memories from the present should be buried with them was also hard.

"I'm going to be sick," she announced.

James was beside her with the rubbish bin in a second while Sirius jumped from where he was perched up and walked away, gagging to himself before Anne could even begin throwing up.

Severus watched Regulus hesitate to touch her back as she vomited on the bin, unsure of her reaction to his touch. He hated how he knew that Regulus needed to be careful at the moment and how it was probably his curiosity and insistence that made her like that, all because he was confused to the existence of the memory with the white door.

Anne leaned away from the bin, eyes closed tight, undaring to look at the mess she made. Lily helped her up to sit down comfortably on the sofa, not on the ground.

"Do you have questions?" Anne said, voice wavering.

"His questions can wait, sweetheart, come on, sit down," James said, putting the bin away. "Sirius, mate, stop!"

"I'm going to be sick," Sirius cried.

"The bin's over there," James pointed.

Sirius gagged loudly again, but did not go to the bin.

Severus rolled his eyes, going back to looking at the pale girl sitting beside Lily in the sofa. He cursed himself for not seeing the similarities between them from the bat, but he hated himself for how much he could only see James in her face now that their connection was obvious. He could see more Lily in Harry than in her, even if she looked so much like her mother.

"Do you have questions?" she asked again, voice firmer this time.

Regulus moved away from her, sitting beside Severus.

"Our talk... Did I do something after that?" he asked. "To stop it all."

"I do think so, but I cannot be sure," she admitted.

"How could I leave you there after I knew what was going on? The things he did to you, to your brother and your aunt. Anne, those were –"

"I'm quite aware of what those things were, I was there," she cut him off, glaring at his emotional response. "You couldn't take me away, you know that. Harry needed the protection of the blood-wards."

"But you –"

"I wouldn't leave Harry behind just to protect myself, no matter how much I wanted," she admitted.

Still, there was a voice in the back of her head that said that he left her for a whole school year when she was ten, having fun with his friends while she developed a lack of vitamin D for lack of sunlight. And Severus seemed to know what she was thinking, even if she didn't feel his presence in her mind.

"We got along quite well," he said. "Surprisingly."

"I was an annoying child, I get that," she said, allowing a weak smile to get to her lips. "You were very kind... no, perhaps kind is not the word, the word might be 'understanding'. You were very understanding of my situation. My friends were... good, innocent and they didn't really deserve an insight of the life I lived; I didn't want to burden anyone that didn't already know. I went to grown-ups for help, but they didn't help me and you couldn't do anything as you were a reformed Death Eater, if you didn't have Dumbledore on your side, you'd be thrown into Azkaban."

"Make company to me, apparently," Sirius whimpered from his place in the corner of the room, cheeks finally starting to get rosy again. Remus sighed and walked to him, dragging him to sit down once more. "Maybe we would've been cellmates, what do you think?"

"I'd rather kiss a Dementor," Severus blankly said at the boy before turning to Anne once more. "The memories of that night, how do you even have them? You were just a baby with not a year of age –"

"Not mine, as you could see," she said. "They were... marks in time. When something as traumatic as that happens in a house, one can recuperate the memories and impressions of that time with a good spell. You taught me that. You taught me a lot of things that nobody seemed to want to."

"That talk –"

"Was the closest thing to care a man besides my brother and the Weasleys showed to me without wanting something in return. I mean, I barely saw Remus since he was always moving around and Sirius was stuck at Grimmauld Place" she said. "Thank you for caring for me."

"For what? For not being a rapist? For not being a... I don't even have words, Anne. I was your professor, what else could I do? What did you expect me to do?"

"Not care, but you did."

"I –"

He couldn't say he didn't care; he could feel and watch the very moment the older Severus' heart had broken in a million pieces before he tried fixing himself up again as fast as he could to not let anything of his mess to get to her. He didn't want to burden her and she didn't want to burden him; and yet they found solace in each other's silent company. It wasn't a common dynamic and not once that Severus Snape from the future had actually hoped or planned for, but one he didn't have the interest of destroying unless necessary.

And behind the white bathroom door, Anne threw the last painful memory, fixing herself up in the very same way Severus did to not burden her, this time because she did not need to burden anyone.

Behind that door, she was convinced there was nothing of important existence, so it was forgotten.