Chapter 7
On January 9th during breakfast, while in a pleasant conversation about Animagi with McGonagall, Almathea was interrupted by the sound of an owl swooping above her head. She smiled gently as she recognized the school owl she’d sent out with the parcel for Severus. It stopped right in front of his spot at the table, dropped its parcel and stole a piece of bacon from his plate, before scurrying off. Severus scowled at the parcel like it had offended him. She’d have laughed and pointed that out, but she didn’t want to draw attention to herself.
She’d hoped he’d open the parcel at the table, but instead he finished his meal without even touching it, downed the last of his tea, then took a napkin to manipulate the parcel with it. Oh, he was afraid it was cursed or something. Intriguing. She’d never considered to learn spells that could reveal tampering with packages. She’d have to look into that, maybe Irma could point her in the right direction. He left with the package and Alma was left with her anticipation.
Several hours later, she was attending to some of the plants in greenhouse one with Pomona, while she was teaching her a bit of Herbology to go along with it, when a school owl swooped over her head a few times and landed hard on her shoulders, making a grab for her dirt coated nose. Alma yelped and Pomona helped her shoo the bird and retrieve a small note it had attached to its leg. Well, Alma knew one owl that was never getting treats when she was seeing it again. The note was short, with a precise spidery writing she felt like she knew very well.
Tonight, seven o’clock, entrance hall.
S. S.
Almathea felt a jolt of victory in her belly. She’d expected an outright refusal, but this was nice. It felt almost like a date. Severus’ birthday date. She must have oozed joy, because Pomona was smiling gently at the droopy look on her face and probably her flaming cheeks. She excused herself and went to her quarters to prepare for dinner in Hogsmeade. She made sure she was properly bathed and perfumed, then dressed in a beautiful yellow sweater she’d created just a few days prior, comfortable black pants and a black winter cloak she’d had Professor Flitwick help put warming charms on. She donned her scarf, hat and fingerless gloves and her warm boots, then satisfied she was done, made her way to the entrance hall to meet Severus.
He was waiting for her outside the castle, dressed in his usual black outfit and he seemed rather impatient. She was sure she wasn’t late however. “Good evening, professor Snape. And such a lovely evening it is.” She said as she tugged the scarf better around her neck. She was so thankful wizards had warming charms, she’d never felt more comfortable outside in the cold.
Severus acknowledged her with a bow of his head and then started on the road to Hogsmeade ahead of her. It took a few steps to get in line with him. “Are we in a hurry?” she said breathlessly. He stopped abruptly and she nearly bumped into him in her momentum. “It’s just, well, I was hoping this could be a relaxing outing, not a marathon.” She stuttered and looked at her shoes.
Severus again didn’t answer verbally, instead started walking again, this time matching his steps to hers. Alma smiled. “Thank you for accepting my invitation for butterbeers and dinner. I have been to Hogsmeade a couple of times so far, once with Pomona and once with professor Dumbledore, but I’ve yet to visit Madam Rosmerta’s or anything else interesting, for that matter.”
“You visited Hogsmeade with the headmaster?” Severus asked and he seemed a little taken aback.
“Yes, we went to post a letter to Gringotts.” Alma said smugly. “I have my own Gringotts account now, with a small allowance. The headmaster said, and I quote, it should serve my more frivolous pursuits, given that I have no particular need of food, clothes or housing. I’m assuming he meant sweets, books and the like.” She remembered her excitement at being handed the key to her very own vault that had a little wizarding currency in it. “I felt a little like a kid in a candy shop.”
“I am sure.” Severus scoffed. “I assume the first order of business after that was visiting Honeydukes.”
Almathea laughed. “It was. You know professor Dumbledore well. I got my first chocolate frog. It had a card for Gellert Grindelwald.” She grimaced slightly. “Needless to say, after that the visit was cut a little short.”
“I can imagine a dark wizard card can spoil anyone’s fun. You would have perhaps preferred a card of the headmaster himself?”
“Actually, I was hoping for a witch or wizard I wouldn’t know about. Any opportunity to learn is appreciated. I assume any dark wizard card would have taken Dumbledore aback, but with the added history with Grindelwald I can’t imagine it was nice for him.”
Severus raised an inquisitive eyebrow and turned toward her as if he didn’t know what she meant. “I imagine Albus cannot be so disappointed, after all, Grindelwald was defeated by him.”
Ah shit! Alma flinched as she realised, she’d probably said too much. Severus didn’t miss her expression change even as she tried to not look him in the eye. “You know something else?” he said in his best professorial voice, which she could now recognise in her sleep considering the conversations they’d had about her studies over the past week.
“A bit.” She evaded the answer. “It’s not really my story to tell, or my place even to share professor Dumbledore’s secrets.” She tried to move a little ahead, but Severus had a long, determined stride and he kept up with her very well.
“I think it is the first time you’ve come close to sharing a revelation about this universe. Bit sloppy, don’t you think, Miss Spencer?” he mocked her, but she didn’t feel venom in it.
“Yes, well. It’s easy to not mention the future, the past is quite a different matter. To some people, the past is just that, past. But sometimes, when enough time has passed, and there are fewer people that know the events around, it’s easy to feel like no one will ever uncover anything. And then someone like me shows up and I am a new person that knows, you understand.” She was making a right mess of explaining this, wasn’t she? “Look, it was just awkward, is all. Professor Dumbledore saw Grindelwald’s face on the card, I felt the need to reassure him that it was alright and as we sort of locked eyes, he realised I knew and he was a bit flustered, I think. We left for Hogwarts and didn’t mention it again.” She flinched. “Would you just change the subject, please?”
Severus hummed just as they reached the village. He said nothing more, simply steered her toward Madam Rosmerta’s pub. He introduced Almathea to Rosmerta, who mentioned she’d already heard about her from Minerva – of course she had. They settled at a small table, away from the bustle near the bar, and Rosmerta promptly showed up with a mug of warm butterbeer for Almathea and something that looked like whisky for Severus.
“Anything to eat, loves?”
“We’re fine for now, Rosmerta, thank you.” Severus answered.
“Actually, I was wondering, do you have anything salty to snack on with our drinks, please?” Almathea asked a bit awkwardly. She was sure that in this particular situation, with Severus being her elder and supervisor to her mastery, she was supposed to defer to him, but she didn’t particularly feel like letting him control the situation.
“Of course, dearie, coming right up.” Rosmerta settled a bowl in front of her a minute later. “There you are, love. Enjoy!”
Almathea thanked her and then looked at the bowl that seemed to have an assortment of pretzels and beans in it. “Wait. Are these Bertie Bott’s?” she quickly picked one and turned it this way and that, analysing every side. “I haven’t seen these yet. Do they really taste like all the nasty stuff advertised?”
“You tell me.” Severus said and his malicious smirk spoke volumes.
Almathea popped the bean she had in her fingers in her mouth and waited a few seconds, then sighed in relief. “Beef stew, yum. Well, that was better than I’d braced myself for. I was sure I’d get buggers or something on my first try.” Severus was smiling indulgently now, so Almathea lifted her glass and touched it to his. “Cheers, Severus. Happy birthday!” she said quietly, making sure no one around them heard. “I know you are a very private person, so I did my best to keep this on the low. I hope that was alright.”
“It was acceptable. Thank you.” He was silent for a good long while as they sipped at their drinks, and Almathea was reluctant to break him out of his reverie. She had some more of the beans and the pretzels, which she realized looked like little wands. “Would you like to eat something?” she asked after sufficient time had passed.
Severus seemed to wake from his thoughts on a sigh and finished his whisky. “I can recommend the stew.” He spoke. “It’s rather as good as the one the house elves make for the castle.”
An hour later, after they ate their stews, and had some pleasant bits of conversation, they started to slowly make their way back to the castle. Almathea felt warm from the butterbeer she’d had, the honeyed drink lingering on her tongue still. She could see why children would be so taken with the sugary drink.
“I hope my gift was acceptable.” She said gently as she looked toward Severus. “I didn’t want to get you anything flamboyant, but you are turning thirty and I wanted it to be something significant.”
“It was appropriate, thank you.” Severus motioned to his lapel, where he’d placed the white gold serpent pin Almathea had gotten him. Its eyes were green gems, shiny, but with no real value. She was quite proud of it, he could use it on his lapels or as a tie clip, either way it was appropriate for the Head of Slytherin house. “You were not under any obligation to get me anything.” He added. Almathea vaguely wondered if people generally used this excuse when they were flustered.
“Well, I didn’t get you anything for Christmas and you did, so it was the least I could do.” She smiled fondly. “I particularly appreciated the Kinder egg. It was a nice touch.” There was no answer from Severus, but she had expected none. “Do you know, there are almost six years between us? Age-wise. Five years and eleven months. Even though I turn 25 this year, I still do it in December, and you turn thirty-one the next month. I just thought that was really funny.”
“Your humour is easily satisfied apparently.” Severus deadpanned.
“Yes, well, I’m a little flustered, so cut me some slack. I’ll think up better jokes for next year.” Almathea smiled and hooked her hands behind her back. “Maybe by then I’ll have moved up to fire whiskey and you can try banana liqueur.”
“Never will you see that vile concoction grace my lips.”
Almathea laughed at the look of revulsion on Severus face. The warmth in her belly was back. She grew silent and thoughtful. Was it alright, she wondered for the millionth time, for her to get so close to him, when she had no idea how her time here would play out? When she had no idea the kinds of things she’d have to do, condone, accept, live through? Maybe not. But she was not noble and definitely not so controlled as to keep herself away from him.
She’d loved Severus Snape since her first encounter with him in the pages of a book. Back them, more than ten years in the past, she’d had no idea where life would eventually take her. How she would get an actual opportunity to know him. And even though he was a prickly bastard, she wasn’t perfect herself. Maybe they could help each other out of loneliness. Maybe they could teach each other how to be happy again. Maybe being friends was going to be enough to fill the gap left by losing her family.
She looked up at the man walking in front of her, his long hair, stern back. Thought back to the occasionally stilted conversations they had, like he was unused to having regular chit chat with people. Thought of his severe looks whenever he was around her and she just spoke about things, his whole attention to her, even if he didn’t seem particularly happy about it.
Yes, they could grow as friends. They would be just fine. She had all the time in the world to woo him.