Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Quick! I need your help!” she hissed, the very minute she saw him entering the Leaky Cauldron. 

Needless to say, he was not amused. When she looked at him though, with those pleading eyes- well, what was he supposed to do?

“Professor Granger,” he drawled, “I think you have better things to do than asking for my help on my only day away from our workplace. In any case - what do you require of me? To help you lift that enormous glass of butterbeer? To accompany you to Flourish and Blotts, lest you get permanently banned for terrorizing clerks and customers alike? To prevent you from eating that third serving of ice cream from Fortescue's?”

“Har, har, Professor Snape. How amusing,” she retorted, looking up at her colleague with a gaze that promised physical violence inflicted upon him if he didn’t stop his witticisms soon. Having seen that for himself, Severus Snape certainly didn’t want to be on the receiving end of it. 

The long-time Potions Professor and the - for the last five years - Arithmancy Professor, had formed some sort of intriguing, albeit tentative, friendship. At first, he had avoided the so-called Gryffindor Princess, mustering every little trick in his espionage playbook in order to be left alone. But the infuriating woman wouldn’t have it; instead, she practically hunted him down, asking this and that, inquiring about his health, trying to make him care for his well-being, in a way only her former House Head did. He resisted at first, arguing, practically clawing his way out of her -unnecessarily- caring nature. Then, he accepted it, as he did accept every misfortune in his life. In the end, he had begun to enjoy her company.

But that was something she should never find out, lest she got cocky about it and annoy him further. This was also the only reason why now waited to listen to her cry for help. 

“Well?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. He could feel an oncoming headache.

“I need you to pretend you are my date.” she blurted out, looking awkwardly around her for signs of being overheard. 

“Say what?!”

“Look- I may have told this guy over there-” she started, nodding subtly towards a tall, blonde wizard that was currently ordering a drink from the barkeep, “that I am waiting for my date to arrive. He was insisting on sitting with me, and I didn’t want him to.”

“You could always hex him. Or punch him. I’ve seen you do both.”

“I don’t want the Aurors to arrive here on my behalf, Severus!”

“Surely Potter is competent enough as an Auror to help his so-called best friend in case she causes an altercation?”

“ He is the first one who will arrest me if I let my temper get the best of me!”

He huffed, tried to argue, but then again Hermione Granger’s big, warm eyes didn’t leave him much room for an argument. Combined with a quickly muttered promise to take at least three night patrols off his hands, it was enough to finally convince him.

“Alright, what should I do, then?” he asked quietly, taking a step closer to her, but subtly taking a look towards the man in question. He didn’t seem like a threat, in retrospect -maybe that was the reason why Granger didn’t want to cause a ruckus. The man observed them quietly, probably trying to figure out whether Severus really was the witch’s date. 

“Maybe act a bit like a date?” she said, impatiently. “I don’t know- a hug? Give me a quick kiss? Something to make it believable!”

“I…” he started, for once bereft of words. Was he supposed to explain that he didn’t really have much experience on how a date should act? Being a double spy, walking the delicate line between life and death for years wasn’t exactly conducive to being proper date material…

She seemed to catch on his hesitation though, because she took a step more towards him, her gaze softening upon him. That wouldn’t do, for Merlin’s sake …

He was unexpectedly soft for her pleading eyes.

“May I hug you? It will be pretty convincing.” she said, cutting off his musings, and he saw her hands fidgeting in front of her. She was never the patient one. 

He nodded his consent, and he found her arms wrapping delicately around his middle. 

It’s for the sake of pretenses , he thought, as his own arms wrapped around her. 

She needed to get rid of the stranger , he thought again, when she lifted her head and smiled at him - so sweetly, it made something inside him bloom. 

This won’t be repeated , he tried to tell himself - not without some amount of well-conceived regret - when he leaned down and pressed a gentle, barely-felt kiss on her cheek. 

And yet… It wouldn’t be so bad to do this again , he confessed to that long-neglected part of his psyche as she - a bit unnecessarily, in his opinion - kissed his own cheek back, her lips somehow touching on the corner of his own.

After a few seconds that felt like hours, days, years, she disentangled from the short embrace and smiled up at him. “Thank you, Severus,” she whispered.

He looked at the bar, where the man had turned his back on them and quietly sipped his butterbeer, not giving them any more attention.

He shrugged in response. “Well, I was the unfortunate man with the wrong timing, so I had to show some modicum of chivalry towards a damsel-not-so-in-distress.”

Severus Snape wouldn’t admit it out loud, but it had felt better than it had any right to…

“Will you come to Flourish and Blotts with me later, then?” Hermione added, when she sat him down on a chair opposite of her own.

“How close are you to being permanently banned from the establishment?”

“Dangerously so.”

“Okay. But only in order to save the poor souls from you,” he said, but he really knew that this was a big, big lie.