The Seaside Retreat

Chapter 16... Hermione’s Birthday

Severus had spent a good amount of time over the last week preparing for Hermione’s birthday. He intended to take her out for a night on the town. As much as he resisted the idea, he realized that the only place they could go and be relatively anonymous would be muggle London. He didn’t think it would be too bad though, after all he had spent over a month in the company of muggles, but with Hermione there it hadn’t bothered him at all.

He asked her to arrive at his chambers around five o’clock that evening and told her to dress in whatever she wanted. His surprises were all well thought out and he was excited to see her reaction to them. He looked about, ensuring that everything was wrapped and placed in a neat pile, though he had spent so much time fussing that it was getting late so he decided he had better start getting ready.

At five o’clock on the on the dot Hermione knocked on his door. When he swung it open and stepped aside to let her pass by him. After the door closed and he turned around Hermione let out a loud wolf whistle.

“You certainly look handsome Severus. Now, if you’ll excuse me I think I will go back upstairs and change so I don’t look homeless.” And with that she turned around and tried to walk out the door before Severus blocked her path so she couldn’t leave.

“Hermione you look beautiful, but you can change if it will make you feel better. Please humor me first though and open two gifts before you run away.” Hermione glared at him a bit. She was surprised that he was wearing something very close to a muggle tuxedo, and she felt a bit foolish showing up in a denim mini skirt and sweater. He did look very handsome though, and she couldn’t stay mad at such a hottie for long.

“Your first gift is in my bedroom, but you have to wait here.” Hermione smirked and fully expected him to come out nude with a bow around his cock. She was surprised however when he returned fully clothed and carrying a big orange fluff ball. Said fluff ball the twitched, stretched, and meowed while it turned its huge lamp like eyes on Hermione.

“Crookeshanks? OH MY GOD SEVERUS YOU ARE AMAZING” She squealed prying him away from Severus’ arms and hugging him so fiercely Severus almost stepped in to save the animal from having its eyes squeezed out of its head. The scene reminded him of a muggle cartoon he had seen once of a bratty child who scared animals away because she liked to hug them and love on them so much. He thought the name of the child may have been Elmira.

After hugging and cooing to her beloved half kneazle Hermione spun on her heels and launched herself at Severus. She placed kisses on every surface of his face she could reach and when she reached his mouth she probed deeply and sensuously. “Severus, just so you know, you are getting head every day until I graduate for this! Where did you find him?”

“Now now Miss Granger surely you don’t expect me to spill all my secrets. I have friends in high places after all and the Minister of Magic had no problem stopping what he was doing to help me locate your cat” he suggested pompously while rubbing his fingernails regally on his lapel.

“With all due respect Professor” she retorted stressing his title “I believe you are full of shit. Though I don’t doubt you have friends in high places, I do know that the Minister wouldn’t be able to find Crookeshanks even if he was leaving tightly coiled presents on his desk. He just isn’t that bright.”

Severus snorted at the visual, but gave up the act. “Alright Hermione, you’ve found me out. I just called the pet stores in the area until I found one that had a half kneazle fitting this monstrosities description that was dropped off about the same time frame you gave him away.”

“I just can’t believe he wasn’t adopted out again.” Snape looked at her incredulously but wisely chose to say nothing other then “time for present number two”. Hermione smiled and tried to restrain herself from jumping up and clapping while screaming out “Yay more presents”. It was harder then she thought.

Severus reached down and picked out the largest present from the stack. It was long and not very deep, but was wrapped in beautiful shimmering silver paper. Though by the large amounts of spell o tape on the sides and bottom, Hermione figured he didn’t have much experience in wrapping gifts. She thought it was adorable. She ripped through the paper and had to sneak in the use of her wand to sever the tape without destroying the box underneath. When she slid the top off the box she gasped at the contents.

There, nestled in the green tissue paper (nice touch, she thought sardonically) was the most beautiful dress she had ever seen. It was a floor length silk gown in a deep lilac. It almost seemed that the color rippled when it moved and it reminded Hermione of the way Harry’s invisibility cloak rippled. It had a halter neck that plunged down to an almost indecent depth put stopped just short of the empire waistline. Hermione was floored about his good taste in a style that would obviously suit her body type splendidly. She looked up at Severus and smiled when she saw he had a pair of matching shoes hanging on the tips of his fingers.

“Get going girl, put it on we have plans you know.” Hermione was floored at this romantic side of him and quickly shot off into the bathroom to change. Luckily she had gotten a book of beauty charms from Ginny for Christmas the previous year, or fighting with her hair would have taken ages. She emerged from the bathroom and once again took Severus’ breath away. “How in the hell did she ever wind up with me?” he thought.

“Good god woman you’re breathtaking.” He purred. “Now, we have time for your other gifts before we leave as long as you don’t dawdle.” Hermione found it amusing that the same man who had obviously run around town looking for these gifts, was the same one who could scold her for dawdling at the same time. She smile at him and tore into the remaining two presents quickly, once again amazed at the effort he put into them. In one box was a beautiful corsage. It was a white orchid with light pink and lilac veins running though it, which he slipped on her wrist. Hermione thought it terribly old fashioned but was giddy just the same.

The icing on the cake however, was the string of pearls, the largest one hanging at the bottom ina teardrop shape and was black, with matching teardrop earrings and a bracelet. It brought the dress together perfectly and when Hermione thanked him he had to push her away gently to keep them from missing their reservations. It turns out that she jewelry had belonged to his grandmother and when Hermione refused to take something so sentimental from him he insisted saying no one else would use it, and she deserved it after all.

The night started at a beautiful restaurant in London, the kind with white table clothes and linen napkins where the Maitre' De pulled out her chair for not only her, but Severus as well. The sight made her giggle a little, watching the short little man holding out a chair for her imposing lover. Dinner was marvelous, with the food and the wine complimenting each other in ways that had Hermione close to melting.

After dinner they made their way to the last leg of their evening. She was surprised when they arrived at the theater, though she knew Severus was well educated and diverse, she wouldn’t peg him as a man who would enjoy the theater. It turns out she was right. He seemed a bit put off by the closeness of everyone around him. It wasn’t that he so loathed the muggles touching him, but he did loathe being touched by strangers in general. Hermione saw the discomfort he was in and decided to let him off the hook. After all, though she loved it, she had seen Phantom of the Opera before. In fact, she informed him, she played Carlotta in youth Community Theater the summer after her third year. They decided to sell their tickets to a young couple looking longingly at the marquee and set off to find another form of entertainment.

It was three hours later that found the couple munching on ice cream cones in a little sweet shop that was locate on a side street in London while they talked endlessly about trivial things. With her shoes kicked off and resting in Severus’ lap, Hermione told the story of her role as Carlotta, and how much fun it was to play a bitch. She only had to slap Severus on the knee once when he inquired whether her being a bitch actually counted as “acting”. Severus in turn told Hermione of his family, his beloved mother and the father who never beat him but certainly hit his mother more then once. It was a sad story, but Hermione was glad to hear it and know about his past. It filled her heart with tenderness to see the look in his eyes when he spoke of his mother and their “special secret time” where she would spend hours teaching him magic behind his father back.

As she thought of the night fondly, she realized that it was probably the best birthday she had ever had. She wasn’t quite sure what she had done right to allow her to be deserving of the way she felt since she had started seeing Severus. She didn’t question it for too long however, deciding that she would just enjoy every moment they could be together. The feelings of euphoria lasted all through the evening, and didn’t end when they found themselves sharing his bed.

After a particularly slow and sweet bout of lovemaking, Hermione curled herself into Severus, sighed, and whispered “I do love you so much Severus”. She waited nervously for how he would react, but knew that she would wait for him to feel the same if he didn’t already.

He had heard her declaration and suddenly felt as though all the air had been sucked out of the room leaving him breathless. He struggled to hold back his emotions; it wouldn’t do at all to start blubbering, as he pulled her closer.

“I love you too Hermione, more then I can ever show you”. They smiled at each other and kissed languidly before settling in the most restful sleep either of them had been graced with since the war.

Saturday morning crept up on them too quickly, but she knew she needed to floo back to her rooms before her friends came knocking. Sure enough, Hermione had just enough time to shower and change before the sea captain announced her friends presence. She asked him to allow them up and was only mildly creeped out by the leering stare he directed at her half dressed form. She pulled on a jumper and greeted her friends at the door.

It was another wonderful day and Hermione felt so blessed to be able to wake up to Severus then spend the remainder of it with the group of old and new friends. They had lunch at the Three Broomsticks, shopped at all the best stores, and the group even allowed Hermione to spend a whole hour in the book store.

The real excitement came when Hermione pulled her girlfriends back from the boys and mouthed “he said he loved me” to them. The girls immediately wanted details and responded to every bit of information with overexcited squeals.

The boys spun around with their wands drawn when they heard the girls screaming. They were soon looking at each other with puzzled expressions when all they saw was the three girls clinging to each other while jumping up and down screaming in delight.

A/N: Up next is the Halloween feast. It should be fun. For those of you who never had the honor of watching Tiny Toon Adventures, Elmira is a cartoon character Oh, by the way the wrapping her gifts with copious amounts of spell o tape actually came from my boyfriend. The first Christmas we were together he wrapped my gifts with packing tape. He actually wrapped it around the paper in one long strand and I broke a pair of scissors trying to cut it open. Happy reading everyone! I hope to get another chapter up today, but if not it will be early tomorrow!