C'est La Vie: Hogwarts

Chapter Thirty-Two

(Birthday Wishes: pt 1)

December is the only month of the year Desdemona felt indifferent about, specifically today.

December fifth, on a Tuesday, carried with it a heavy snow storm, keeping everyone inside. Of course, today being her twenty-ninth birthday, she wished more than anything to be outside, enjoying the coldness of winter.

She stared out the window, neglecting the papers on her desk. Upon the awning, she could see the fluffy clouds to ice fall to the earth below. Hogwarts always looked beautiful as a winter wonderland. The lake covered with ice, the grounds surrounded by snow, and the life cycle goes around once more. With that idea fresh in her mind, she wondered about her own life cycle.

Twenty nine isn’t a bad age to be, she’s still considerably young in wizard term. However, most people her age are already married with a family. She would watch some of her friends with their children, their loves, all happy and loving. When she held their babies, cooing sweetly, she would feel empty after returning them to their parents. She knew she shouldn’t rush into something such as parenthood, but her biological clock won’t stop ticking. She already had this conversation with Severus, sharing her wants and desires to start a family and settle down.

Nevertheless, Severus only nodded and went back to his precious potion making, leaving her with unanswered questions.
She can understand his attitude towards the subject; they just got back together, and agreed to take it slow. Still, she couldn’t help but want to be married. A dream she had for so long she could almost taste the Crème Bouquet icing on her five tiered cake.

She sighed sadly, wiggling her fingers absentmindedly. Oh well, it’s good to dream.

“Besides,” She muttered to herself, use to speaking out loud about things that upset her. Her shrink said its perfectly fine to talk to herself, as long as she doesn’t reply to the questions. “Sev and I don’t know one thing about taking care of children.”

That’s another thing the couple talked about…children. She wanted kids, a lot of them, but due to her inexperience with them, she wasn’t sure she could take care of them. Hell, she proved her inexperience by babysitting for a friend and screwed that up. With Severus, she knew how he felt about the idea of having children. He has his own negativity about his ability, since his childhood hasn’t been wonderful. However, he would like to see his legacy being passed on.

“Also…where will we live, and our careers, we worked so hard. I would hate to see either of us stop doing what we love.” She muttered again, completely in her element. Her face had a blink look, basically her thinking face as she stopped writing.

She didn’t realize two figures standing at her doorway with a strange look of their own.

Severus shook his head, knocking on the open door. “Only you would make a face a blind mother could love.” His joke dry and sarcastic, but fulfilled its purpose of scaring her to death. The satisfaction from her frighten scream let him know he did an excellent job. It’s what he lives for.

Trying to calm her rapid heart rate, she glared at Severus. He always found some way to scare her, whether it’s intentional or not. This time he brought someone with him to witness the event of her possible death. Not caring that Harry heard, she threatened the man. “Severus Snape, one of these days you’re going to regret doing that.” She shook her fist, emphasizing she was serious.

Of course that only made the man smirk evilly, his dark eyes finding amusement in her fright. “You say that every time I scare you. Empty promises aren’t like you, Desdemona.” Said Severus, expression bored and smirk crueler than normal.

“However, we are not here for idle chit chat, we come baring gifts for a certain birthday girl.” He pointed between him and the teen. Harry remained quiet, looking between the potion professor and Desdemona.

Desdemona thought it was cute that he volunteered to bring Harry, so to show her gratitude, she looked at the teen with a kind smile. “Oh Harry, you could have waited until we had our session today to give me my gift. You didn’t have to endure being around Severus.”

Severus, being the way he is, evil to be exact scoffed at her insult.”First of all, it’s the other way around and second, when did you start addressing Mr. Potter by his name?” He didn’t like the idea of the Potter brat and his woman becoming friends.

Knowing where he’s going with this, she replied smartly. “Well, if you must know, when I start realizing my students are practically adults and decided to treat them like the human beings they are, not the pest you often see them as.”

Grumbling something rude, the potion master couldn’t find the right words to counter back, so he settled with his usual snide remark. “Only you would see the good in these dunderheads.”

Ignoring him, she gave Harry her full attention, being the proper hostess. “Please Harry come and have a sit. I’m sure standing there next to the brooding cloud of doom is ruining you’re good mood.”

Harry, blushing moved into the office and took residence on her vacant couch. Still holding her gift in his hand, he looked back at the potion professor. “Are you going to sit, sir? There’s enough room.” The politeness towards the man is only out of respect for the woman in the room. He already knew about their relationship, and being rude to the man would not be the best idea. He liked the woman, she treated him kindly. No need to ruin their friendship over dislike, besides he was an adult (by wizard age) and acting like one is the only way to get respect from the man anyway.

Severus grunted, eying the woman behind the cherry oak desk. “You see Mr. Potter, I cannot do anything without the permission of the birthday girl.” Sarcasm fitted him like a second skin and he heard her laugh mockingly.

Standing up from her chair, she offered her seat to the man, seeing how he loved her chair. “There you go, Severus, enjoy.” She said dully, walking over to the couch and sat comfortably next to Harry.

Not pleased with the arrangement, he moved towards the chair, still grumbling obscene things under his breath. He felt the glare aiming in his direction from Desdemona, suddenly annoyed with his attitude.

Her birthday will not be ruined by his moodiness.

“Shut it, Snape, I don’t want to hear anything from you unless it’s nice.” She snapped when the man took his seat and matched her glare with one of his own.

Harry, still silent and observant didn’t want to see a fight breaking out. Clearing his throat, he extended the gift into her view. “Here you go, professor, Happy Birthday.” He quickly replied, singing the last part humorously.

Awing at the cuteness that is Harry Potter, she took the gift from him, glad for the diversion. “Why thank you Harry,”

She excitedly said, adding emphasis on the teen’s name to irk Severus. “You shouldn’t have!” Placing the gift to the side, she reached over to give him a tight hug.

Harry let out a nervous chuckle, embracing her also, keeping it light and quick. Removing himself from her being, he smiled a little. “Open your gift, let’s see what you got.”

She nodded, carefully ripping the wrapping paper and removing the bow. When she got through the layers of tissue paper, she let out a girlish squeal, pulling out the heavy tome. Running her fingers over the cover, she couldn’t believe he found the book she’s been searching for. “How did you do it?” She asked him.

“I had help from Hermione, who happened to have an extra copy. She told me that you can have it, glad someone else enjoys the tome as much as she does.” He said, delighted she liked her gift. He wanted to get her a necklace, but thought the book would be better. He noticed she hardly wore jewelry.

Severus, slightly curious about the gift, asked her…nicely about it. “What book have you been looking for?” He didn’t know she was in search for a particular tome. He would have gotten it for her if she had told him, but apparently Potter knew and that made him slightly unhappy. She was his girlfriend, not the brats.

Jealousy is a bitch…he understood why Desdemona went crazy whenever he spoke to women.

She showed it to him, raising the book eye level. “Hogwarts: The History. Do you know how long I’ve been looking for the limited edition of this book?”

Not believing that this was the book, Severus shook his head. “You can’t be serious, Desdemona.”

Nodding, she gave him a serious look hugging the book to her chest. “I’m dead serious, Severus! Remember what happened to my first copy…the fire incident of fifth year?” She would never forget that day for as long as she lived. Her heart died when she watched the pages of her favorite book burn in a chemical fire due to some dunderhead sixth year student adding the wrong ingredient.

She served so many detentions after she was done with him that Dumbledore and McGonagall made her take private sessions.

The kid’s father was furious.

He deserved it, was her justification on the incident when she explained it to the boy’s raging father. She held the ashes in her hand, showing him what was left of her life. The man thought she was crazy.

After awhile, she believed she was also.

Remembering that day just like she did, Severus groaned. The only time of his teaching career he felt the need to take an extended vacation each break. Desdemona Evans was a nuisance in her youth, no matter how brilliant she was in potion brewing. “I still don’t understand why Minerva thought it was a good idea to put you in my advance class to begin with.”

“Remember, I took my OWL in my fourth year, seeing how I was already doing fifth year work. She believed my intelligence and love for burning things in a cauldron should be expressed in your advance class.” She elaborate on the reason, knowing it wasn’t completely the truth.

He scoffed, wishing Minerva didn’t do what she did. “You caused more trouble in my class than anyone else.”

She turned to Harry, slyly. “It’s true.” She admitted, no shame what so ever. “I couldn’t help but make a mockery of the man before me and the other sixth year students that were in the class.”

Smelling a story, Harry grinned. “So you were the only fifth year in his advance potion class?” He asked.

“Yep, one of the best potionneers you ever saw. You see, Severus and I were always at each other’s throats when it came to the concept of potions. He would get angry at me when I substitute certain ingredients from the original potions into something my own concoction. I’m sure you know how he is, straight from the books, no creativity what so ever.”

Adding his explanation, he needed to make clarification on her idea of ‘creativity’ to the young man within their presence. “Mr. Potter, she believed in rearranging the order of the potions to see what would happen if the procedure is read differently.”

She shook her head, defending her title. “Wait a moment, that’s not true. Sure, I flipped the words around and tried something different, but my potions always came out perfect!” She argued.

He gave her a look. “Desdemona, your potions would explode, dry out, or turn a different color. The only reason why you passed my class is because of your guardian pleading to give you another chance each time you messed up.”

“Is that true, Desdemona?” asked Harry, amused by this whole interaction. He was learning more about Desdemona through the eyes of Severus Snape. The man knows everything there is to know about Desdemona Evans.

She crossed her arms, lips in pout mode. She reminded both men of a child. “Well, yes he did let me redo my potions.” She confessed miserably, but quickly added more justification to her reason. “However, when I had those private lessons, I did everything right and passed your class with flying colors.”

“That you did, but even during those sessions, you were still stubborn.”

“You refuse to let me express myself in my artistic perspective! I mean, sure I wanted to see more colors than just yellow, blue, and green. Yet, we did come to an agreement, which is why you let me be your apprentice.”
Harry looked between them, still amazed by their connection. “You apprenticed with the professor? That must have been fun?”

Both of them scoffed, surprising Harry. Did he say something wrong from the ridiculous looks he received from them? “Trust me, when she became my apprentice, I suffered more now that had a different relationship than teacher and student.”

“I wasn’t that bad, sure we fought more than we worked, but we finally came to an understanding once I told you my feelings.”

“Yes…maybe I shouldn’t have agreed to that courting if I had known how annoying you can be.”
Desdemona took the wad of balled up wrapping paper and chucked it at the man. How dare he say something so mean like that?

“Screw you, Snape!” She snapped when the ball hit him in the head. Satisfaction could only be brought throw physical violence, she would enjoy this.

Harry, shaking his head watched the bickering exchange between the adults.

It was nice seeing love like this…even if they were an unusual couple.