Valentine Devilry

For Disclaimer and ratings see chapter one.


Chapter 4


He looks at me and says, “Care for a drink, Miss Granger?”

Excuse me? Am I finally going daft? Did I just hear my sulking, snarky, sexy Potions Master asking me out for a drink? Wait a minute; did I just call him sexy? Now I am sure I am going crazy. St. Mungo’s, here I come!

He is still looking at me, silently scrutinizing the array of emotions that my face so unsophisticatedly displays – shock, incredulity, confusion splashed with a bit of wistfulness, all in the space of three seconds.

I blink. Yes. Yes. Say yes. My mind is screaming. Why though? I don’t want to be subjected to his acidic ways with nowhere to go. Oh yeah, has he been, as you put it, acidic, to you lately? That doesn’t change him. Chill girl, give him a chance. Better him than those morons inside who can’t utter a single sentence without putting their feet in their mouths.

“Yeah, sure Professor. I’d love to.”
“Let’s go then.”

I blindly follow him until I realize that for a drink we need to go back to The Three Broomsticks since Hog’s head wasn’t an option after the fiasco back in my fifth year. I open my mouth to voice this concern but I see that we are not going towards The Three Broomsticks nor towards the Hogs’ head for that matter of fact..

I ask, “Where are we headed towards, Professor?”
“Why, for a drink one needs an inn, Miss Granger. I think your intelligence is overrated if that’s beyond you.”

The snarky bastard is back. I consider turning around and leaving. But that would be too rude. He didn’t force me into coming. It was my own free choice. I paved the road; I may as well walk it. Suddenly he turned towards me.

“Tell me Miss Granger, don’t you read the Daily Prophet any more?”
“I do but what has that got to do with this?”
“Everything. I take it you missed the paper today.”

How did he know?
“How do you know?” I ask amazed.
“Simply because you missed a large advertisement declaring the Hogsmeade branch of the Leaky Cauldron open today. It was two full pages. One would have to be blind to have missed it. And I know for a fact that you aren’t blind. See that.”

I feel like Dr Watson to his Holmes. I nod foolishly as he points to a building about a hundred meters away. An exact replica of the London Leaky Cauldron except that it looks odd all by itself. Over the years I have become used to the entrance stuffed between two muggle shops.

We are almost there. Why isn’t he going in? Oh! He’s holding the door open for me. A chivalrous Snape! Now there’s a sight to behold.

I enter and he soon follows. I gasp in dismay at what I see inside. Not only was the place an exact reproduction from the outside but it was the same inside too. I somehow had imagined a swanky gleaming new interior but needless to say, I was disappointed.

Snape somehow sensed this, “Not up to your standards, I see. Funny how people equate new with ostentatiously stylish.”
I blush. “It’s not that, Sir.”
He quirks an eyebrow. “It’s not entirely that, Sir.”
A smirk now. “I just don’t understand why anyone would want a new inn to be dim and gloomy. Bad for business I’d say.”
He tuts. “What you call dim and gloomy, Miss Granger, is actually intimate and confidential. It is what a muggle would call the USP of the place given the ambience in the other two places.”

Intimate and confidential. I blanch. Holy mother of God. I don’t like the sound of that. Intimate and confidential. With Snape. I suddenly have the visual of a candle-lit dinner with just the two of us, candles floating in mid air and strains of violin in the background. Gosh! Did I just think that? Certainly I don’t want to be intimate with Snape. I curse my polite upbringing that had prevented me from turning back before.

I stammer “Intimate and confidential?”
“Yes, exactly the one I want.”
This is getting precarious by the minute.
“Shall we, then?”

I follow him into the bar. I try to catch his eye and sit at one of the center tables but he doesn’t yield and we end up on a corner table so hidden from view, it might have been charmed to be so, which I think it probably is. He sits with his back to the wall which gives him full view of the bar and leaves me to sit on the other chair with a full view of Severus Snape and the wall.

He asks me what I would have. Oh I am so nervous, I’d love a fire whiskey right now but that is out of question so are other alcoholic drinks since I need to remain in my senses. I settle on, surprise surprise, a chilled butterbeer.

He speaks the order to the ashtray and the drinks appear. Seems like the place is up to date in technology if not the décor. I was still thinking about the waiter-ashtray when he spoke.

“Well, if we have settled down, I have a proposition to make”


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A/N:: My first cliffie !!! Can anyone guess what the “proposition” is? Ten galleons for the one who does.

The chapter is shorter than I originally planned but then I had the evil idea of a cliffhanger which I couldn’t resist. I have the next chapter written. I’ll post it tomorrow so it wont be that much of a wait.

I’m sure every one is happy, now that I am posting everyday. It’ll be that way unless my darned computer breaks down again or some other catastrophe hits me.


Tempatation : bingo !! u are right about the \'major\' shock waves. :D

Fish : I dont think they\'ll get really drunk coz as Hermione says she needs to be in her senses to deal with evil *giggle* snape.

MadAboutHarry: sorry buddy cant make her the belle of the ball. *see nesscafe\'s challenge condition no. 1* but belle of a more
private celebration is definitely on the cards ;)

Alisha , Nesscafe : - thanks you guys sooooooo very much for reading. keep reading and reviewing.

Cheers!!
Sohara