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Severus Snape, much to his and many other people’s surprise, had actually been consistently happy for the last four years. Since the Dark Lord’s death, he had spent time actually enjoying life as opposed to resenting it. He had ended his feud with Harry Potter after the boy had saved him during the final battle. He was rather surprised to see Potter jump in front of a slicing spell sent by Bellatrix Black, as were many other Order Members. From then on they could not help but address each other as equals, and, after a while, friends. If had been a blind date set up by Harry that had brought Snape and Hermione together.
Hermione Granger had been pounced on by the press following her work during the final battle. As one of the only women to feature in the front line, she was already highly regarded. This was added to when one magazine had asked for an interview, and through this she was revealed to be an intelligent, witty and charming woman. Following the attention, Harry had practically dragged her to a salon to get her hair tamed, and it now fell in ringlets. Other than that, she had not changed, and neither had her aspirations. She went on to become a healer at St. Mungo’s and worked in the research department alongside Snape, who had decided that he had had enough of teaching dunderheads. They spent the first two years conversing over work only, but there were moments where the tension between them was tangible. Harry, who could not bear to see Snape and Hermione pretend that they didn’t like each other, convinced them to both go on a blind date. They were both surprised to see the other on the night of the date, but perseverance on Hermione’s part saw that the date was a success, though none of them could have imagined that the relationship would still be strong after two years together.

Hermione was working in the laboratory and was concentrating on adding wormswart, drop by drop, into a cauldron of green sludge. As she did, a pair of hands wrapped around her waist. She squeaked and proceeded to pour the entire vial into the cauldron. The potion fizzled and belched out black smoke before disintegrating into a thick and unpleasant gas.

“Severus!” She yelled, casting a cleaning spell of them both, “I was so close!” The hands pulled tighter around her and a pair of lips pressed against her neck briefly,

“No you were not Miss. Granger.” Snape’s unmistakable voice practically trickled down her back, “You didn’t stir it before adding the vial, so it was useless.” Hermione paused to think before realising that Snape was indeed right. She groaned and pushed the cauldron away before turning to face him, his hands still around her waist.

“Well its fair easier just to tell me instead of making me blow the building up,” she muttered, but she couldn’t help but smile at him.

“Yes but its not as much fun is it?” He laughed softly and kissed her lips tenderly, “come on, want to take you out, I am bored to tears watching you make cures for warts.” Hermione glared at him.

“It may not be glamorous,” she said, her voice full of reprimanding, “but it’s just as important as the work you do curing cancer.” At this comment Snape cocked an eyebrow.

“I quite agree,” he smirked sarcastically, “because warts are often the most common cause of death are they not?” Hermione glared at him before breaking a smile.

“Where do you want to take me?” she asked, her large, chocolate brown eyes looking up at him questioningly.

“Anywhere!” he moaned dramatically, “where I’m not surrounded by sick people!” Hermione glared at him.

“Listen to me mister,” she said, a smirk playing on her lips, “I remember when you were the most sickly, dark, sallow, horrid man in the world, so don’t start acting like Mary Poppins now!” Snape laughed and pulled her closer to him.

“I know, and I still can be dark and horrid when I want to be,” he said teasingly, “which means you should consider yourself lucky that I caught you in this mood.”

“Why?” she asked, her tone matching his teasing voice.

“Because I might not have asked you to marry me if I were not so happy.” His words made him grin, and he stopped talking, desperate to hear her response.

“Marriage?” She sounded as though she had chocked. “You want me to marry you?” Snape rolled his eyes and effortlessly slipped back into teacher mode.

“Always so observant Miss. Granger,” he said sardonically, “yes I want you to marry me. Well?” She looked down at the floor, causing him to panic inside, before looking back up at him, a large grin on her face.

“Well I suppose…” she smiled widely and jumped on him, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around her waist. She kissed her, her kiss full of excitement and happiness. He stumbled backwards as she pounced by regained his balance and gently prised her off of him. She watched as he reached into his pocket and produced a little, black velvet box. Hermione could guess what it held. He opened it to reveal a silver ring in the shape of a snake trying to bite its tail. However, instead of biting its tail, it was biting a large red ruby. Hermione rolled her eyes.

“Let me guess, Slytherin and Griffindor?” she asked teasingly as he slipped the ring on her finger, “never really understood subtlety did you darling.” Snape merely smirked.

“On the contrary, I just assumed that Griffindors needed everything spelt out to them,” he said with an air of mocking casualness. She frowned teasingly before kissing him again.

“Well, Hermione Snape, I wonder what Harry will say!” She grinned, rather enjoying the image she had in her head of Harry’s face when she told him.

“He suggested it actually,” Snape said, adopting the same nonchalant air, “when I took him on as my apprentice he simply suggested we had been together for a long time, had we considered it, and I suppose that I did.” Snape watched Hermione look up in shock. Sure, Harry had organised one date, but marriage? Even she was surprised at how tolerant he had become. She looked up at him and smiled broadly.

“So when do we get started on making little Snapey Junior?” she asked, looking at him wickedly.

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