Snaint-Patrick's-Day Day 2
Pairing: Severus Snape x Hermione Granger
Disclaimer: Please don’t steal this work, bla bla, you know what I‘m talking about. The usual, I don’t own these characters I‘m just using them for my weird musings.
Severus Snape was stood at his lab desk in his office at the Max Planck Institute for Magical Research in Munich. It was a nice office with large windows and high ceilings, as was typical in this part of town. He was looking out into the unusually sunny March afternoon when someone knocked at his door.
It was Michael, one of his German co-workers.
“Hi Severus, a couple of us are thinking about going out for drinks to celebrate the first day of our new colleague up in Charms research and we wanted to ask if you would maybe like to join us?”
“I don’t know, got a lot to do still. Is it okay if I join later?”
“Yeah sure, that’s totally alright. We’ll be at the Shamrock Irish pub, in Gisela Street that’s not far from here. It’s actually just down the road on the right. Okay I’ll leave you to your work then, maybe see you later?”
He spent the remainder of his day working on his latest invention and when the sun started to go down, he got ready to leave. Finding the Irish pub wasn’t difficult at all, and he arrived in front of an unassuming light blue house in the typical Munich style rather quickly. He went inside and followed down a flight of stairs to the actual barroom, a room with low ceilings and brown brick walls as well as some wood panelling. The ceiling and bar were decorated with little shamrock paperchains and the tables were decked with green tablecloths, probably because Saint Patrick’s Day was fast approaching. The room was already packed with people who were enjoying their drinks. Most people were crowded in the further back where a ping-pong table and a darts board were located. Severus looked around trying to spot his colleagues and found Michael waving at him from a corner table on the left. He walked up there quickly while starting to shed himself of his outer wear.
“Severus how nice of you to join us.” Michael smiled at him, “May I introduce you to Hermione our now research fellow in the Charms department.”
A young woman, who had previously been turned away from him turned her head around and Severus was shocked to discover non other than Hermione Granger looking up at him.
“I’m afraid an introduction won’t be necessary, Michael, Miss Granger and I already know each other.”
“Oh right of course, I sometimes forget you used to work at Hogwarts, Severus.”
“So, you’re working in our Charms department now Miss Granger?” Severus said while sitting down at the table.
“Please call me Hermione, sir.”
“Only if you call me Severus.”
“Done. And yes, I’m researching the long-term effects charms have on objects that have been under the influence of them. And I’m thinking about extending that study onto humans once I’ve made some further progress. And you, Severus, what are you researching.”
“I’m focussing on healing potions at the moment, but I have been doing miscellaneous research projects since my arrival here”
“Oh, how long have you been here exactly?”
“About four years, moved here in 1999.”
“Oh, I hadn’t realised you have been gone from Britain for so long.”
“Yeah, didn’t want to make a big fuss about it.”
They kept talking and drinking until very late in the evening. Severus really enjoyed Hermione’s company and they ended up ignoring their colleagues for most of the evening. When they got up to leave Snape approached Hermione.
“Hey, umm would you like me to walk you home? It’s quite dark already and I wouldn’t feel comfortable knowing that you’re out there alone.”
“Umm yeah sure. Do you mind if we walk trough the English Garden? I live right at the edge on the other side, and it would make for a good shortcut.”
They made their way down the street until they reached the edge of the park area where he let Hermione take the lead. While they walked Severus kept staring at Hermione the light moonlight making him realise how beautiful she had become over the years. They kept talking while they were walking and it wasn’t until they crossed one of the bridges crossing one of the little channels that flowed through the park that Hermione turned to him with quite the serious look in her face.
“Okay, umm I have a confession to make to you and I hope you won’t be mad. The reason I chose to come to Munich was you, I wanted to be near you again.”
Severus looked at her with a look of surprise and asked “Why?”
“Because I’ve fallen in love with you.”
Severus kept staring at her.
“Oh, I’ve gone and cocked everything up now, haven’t I? We were having fun as colleagues and maybe friends and now I’ve scared you.” She looked at him with despair in her eyes.
“You haven’t scared me Hermione, just surprised me really. I liked tonight and if I’m being honest, I’ve noticed you have changed. I wouldn’t necessarily say that I love you, but I surely find you attractive and who knows, maybe if we spent more time together, I could come to love you.”
“Yeah maybe. Listen, would it be totally weird if I kissed you right now?”
“No, no go ahead.”
And with that Hermione planted her lips on his. It wasn’t a perfect kiss, but it was still nice. They continued standing on the small bridge for some time until they eventually continued their way to her house.
Author's note: I apologise because I realise now that the prompt word appears exactly twice in the whole text and that the whole thing has very little to do with Saint-Patrick's Day but yeah here we are. This was inspired by my parents' first meeting, though it plays out a little differently after the pub. The Max Planck Institute is a real Institution with several institutes all over Germany and we have a lot of them in Munich. But the position of the Institute in the story was actually inspired by my University. I also know I'm late but my excuse for that is, that I really doubted myself about this yesterday.
