A little one-shot about what happened in Grimmauld Place one december night.
I do not own these characters. I am only playing around with them.
Enjoy.
Winter 1995
It was a dark and snowy December evening. The streets of London were filled with Christmas lights. People were bustling about, doing their Christmas shopping, or simply having a good time together.
Far away from the lights and laughter, in a quiet part of London, Grimmauld place was silent and desolate. Not a soul moved around. Not even the owner of the house, who was passed out on his bed from drunkenness.
Everything was quiet, except for the kitchen where a young woman was clattering about, singing a tune only she knew the name of. Her hair, which today was a bright turquoise, made a sharp contrast to her pastel pink Rolling Stones t-shirt and ripped jeans, but she hardly seemed to care about her looks while she worked.
Nymphadora Tonks smiled from ear to ear while she poured something that looked like little yellow pebbles into a paper cone. But she stopped when she heard footsteps in the stairs.
When she turned around to see who it was, she saw a tall man with a long black cloak. His hood covered most of his face. He would have looked a lot like a dementor, had it not been for the melted droplets of water from the snow outside, covering his hood and shoulders. They were twinkling slightly in the candlelight.
He stopped in the doorway at the sight of her, but she was determined to greet him like everyone else she knew. Despite how little she liked him.
"Wotcher Severus, what's up?"
"If you by 'what's up' mean what am I doing here, that is none of your concern miss Tonks" he said dismissively.
She had to snort and shake her head at his answer. She had known him long enough by now to know he was not a man of small talk. Nor was he a man of sharing things, so she didn't know what she had expected by asking.
She was about to turn back to her pot when he asked; "What are you doing here?"
As a woman who loved to talk, Tonks had nothing against explaining what she was doing, even though her audience was Severus Snape.
"I am making Christmas candy" she said with a bright smile. She would not after all, let the appearance of Snape ruin her good mood today.
Snape, who had taken off his cloak and was shaking the water onto the floor, frowned in confusion. "Why?"
"Why not? It's almost Christmas isn't it?"
"I mean why are you doing it the muggle way?"
"It's not the same with magic, you know. Doing it the muggle way really gets you in the mood."
"Right" he drawled dubiously and tossed his cloak over a chair. Then he crossed his arms and looked all intimidating. The problem was; the kitchen smelled so good, the effect was quickly demolished.
"What?" She asked after a few seconds of silence. "I'm not leaving if that's what you want. I have to finish this, and I need a stove for that."
She could see him rolling his eyes in annoyance. And she felt she was beginning to get slightly annoyed too. "Seriously, if you are going to have a meeting or something you can take it in another room. This one is taken."
"Fine" he said annoyed. But he continued to stand there with his arms crossed.
She tried to continue her business without luck. Instead she ended up glancing at her former professor who was now seated in a chair by the table.
"What?" he asked harshly when he noticed her looking at him.
"Nothing, I was just wondering why you were still here?"
"You want me to leave" he stated.
"NO!" she exclaimed too loudly. Glancing at Snape again she saw him smirk. She rolled her eyes at him. "What I meant was, you seemed to want some privacy, so why do you stay?"
"Because this room has chairs" he deadpanned.
She snorted at his answer. There were plenty of other rooms in the house with chairs. "I bet you stay because it smells good" she said and waved a sugar-coated spoon at him.
"Hardly."
"Ah, no I think I am seeing through you now. You like the smell of my excellent cooking."
"What you do can hardly be called cooking. You are melting sugar and cutting it into pieces."
She snorted at his comment. "But making sugar drops is a far more intricate art than you think my dear Professor. The art of sugar drop making requires a keen concentration and great senses. A guy with your potions skills should surely understand" she said with a theatrical tinge in her voice.
When she next looked at Snape, there was clearly a little thug upwards at the corners of his mouth.
She met his eyes and gestured to the mess on the kitchen counter "I am just about to make a new batch, come up here and watch a real master do her work."
This time he snorted and raised his eyebrows.
"What?" she asked, "You don't believe me? Come up here and I'll prove you wrong." A strange thought tugged at the corner of her mind. Was she trying to flirt with Snape?
He frowned in disbelief, but he did as she told him and stood next to her by the counter.
His proximity struck something her, but she didn't know what. Her heart suddenly sped up when he met her eyes. It was strange, because she had never had this problem around him before. Now she couldn't help but notice that his hair was not as greasy at is used to be. It was almost clean even. As if that one time of the year he actually showered, just happened to be yesterday.
"So, what will you teach me, oh wise Master of sugar drops?" he asked.
She caught on immediately. "Well my apprentice. Watch and learn as I take you through the intricate steps of sugar drop making."
She pulled out a clean pot and put it on the stove before she measured up half a cup of water and poured it into the pot. "You always pour the water in first to keep the sugar from burning in the bottom." She said before she measured up 2 and ΒΌ cups of white sugar and poured it after the water. "The white sugar always goes first before you add the dextrose. And remember to pour both so they make an island in the middle" she instructed.
She opened a packet of fine white powder and measured up about 1 cup of it before she added that too, over the sugar.
"What is that?" Snape asked suddenly, looking both curious and reluctant to reveal his curiousness at the same time.
"This?" she held up the packet of white powder. "This is dextrose. Also called glucose for those who want to be a bit more chemical about it. It's the most abundant form of sugar in the world I think. The kind you find in fruit and stuff."
"What is the difference between that and normal sugar then?" asked the now interested Professor.
"Well, ah . . ." said Tonks articulately. Baffled this was something Snape didn't know. She wrecked her brain for the little information she had about sugar types. "If I remember correctly, all sugars are a type of molecule formed into a ring. And those rings can also be linked together to, for example two rings or three rings, or to form a chain. Glucose is one of the simplest types of sugar because is it only made of one ring. While normal sugar, or table sugar, is made out of two rings."
She closed her eyes to remember more. "So since glucose is made by only one ring, it is easier for the body to digest, and it goes through the body faster. That's why they call it instant energy. Or something like that . . ."
Snape still frowned and studied her closely. "Why use both types of sugar though? Is it not enough with one?" she had a feeling he asked these difficult questions to tease her. Or to grill her.
"You know, I have no idea." She admitted and shook her head apologetically "I am the Sugar drop Master, not a chemist."
Snape raised an amused eyebrow "I will let you off this time because it is your first time as a lecturer. But next time, do not expect your students to be so lenient. A Sugar drop Master must keep her facts in order."
Now he was definitely flirting back.
Or was it only her imagination?
"So what is next?" he asked when Tonks seemed to have lost her ability to speak.
She snapped out of it immediately and broke away from his gaze. "Now, you turn on the heat" she said with a sly grin and turned on the heat on the stove.
"And then?"
"You stare at it for a few minutes."
"Wow" he said in mock amazement "intricate indeed."
"I know, this part is the hardest. Even as a great master I can barely manage it myself."
To her great surprise, Snape chuckled. It was a short, but low and pleasing sound. He didn't look at her but fixed his eyes on his shoes with a smile. Still with his arms crossed. Tonks could only stare in amazement for a moment. She had actually made Snape laugh. An actual and genuine laugh.
It suited him.
Without meaning to, she caught herself studying him with genuine interest. She had never considered Snape as a potential love interest before but take away his scary demeanour and add a little smile and he was suddenly . . . cute. Merlin help her. She was checking out a professor!
To distract herself she turned back to the kitchen counter and the now, slowly melting, pot of sugar. "You know what you can do?" she said "You can prepare the bench top for a new mixing of aroma. You can clean the teflon mat and the scrapers and then smear them with oil again."
"Ah, so that is why you asked me to join, so you would not have to clean up after yourself" said Snape with a mixture between an evil smirk and a smile.
"I did no such thing!" she exclaimed. "Although, now that you mention it, that is a very convenient use for you."
Snape snorted and pulled out his wand. But he stopped when she gave a protesting sound. "No magic!" she said.
"But I am only cleaning your mess, surely you cannot expect me to ruin your Christmas spirit by cleaning up?"
She crossed her arms and looked at him sternly "No magic."
"So you expect me to clean your mess by hand?"
"Exactly. I'll help you of course."
"That is completely illogical!" he said but still put his wand away.
"The Christmas spirit!" she insisted as if that explained everything.
Snape rolled his eyes but still, for some unexplained reason, did as she told him. He grabbed the teflon mat from the counter and dumped it in the sink. "Aren't you supposed to stir that?" he asked and gestured with his chin at the now simmering pot of liquid sugar.
"Ah, no" she said and pulled out a thermometer from the equipment on the counter. "You are not supposed to stir, but you have to wait until the sugar reaches a temperature of 162 degrees Celsius before you take it off the heat."
The sugar was still only around a hundred degrees, so she grabbed the pair of sugar scrapers from the counter and started scrubbing them next to Snape. When the counter top was cleaned and the mat and the scrapers were dried and readily oiled again, she checked the temperature on the sugar.
"Nearly there" she said before she turned back to Snape who had crossed his arms again. "So what flavours do you want?"
"I can choose?"
"Yes of course, I have lemon, raspberry, peppermint, liquorice and caramel" she said while she found an assortment of tiny bottles from the counter. "Which one it your favourite?"
"Why do I have to choose? They are your drops."
"How can they be my drops when you are the apprentice? You can at least choose the flavour." She insisted. Then she added in an afterthought; "You can even choose two if you want. That should not be a problem."
Snape sighed "Not liquorice. I can't stand liquorice."
"Okay" she said and put away the liquorice.
"Not peppermint, and certainly not lemon."
She grinned at that. "I have already made a batch of lemon drops for Dumbledore. There is no need for more I suppose."
"Dumbledore would certainly like that" said Snape with a crooked smile.
"That was the intention. I like to keep on his good side" she said conspiratorially. Snape snorted.
"Lemon and Liquorice, it is then" she concluded. Then she grinned again when she saw Snapes face.
"Kidding!"
"I should have given you detention for your cheek."
She laughed heartily and wacked his arm teasingly before she checked the temperature of the sugar again. She gasped when she realized the temperature had already passed 162 degrees and grabbed the handle of the casserole to pull it off the stove. But her movement had been too fast, and she lost her grip on the handle. The pot with the boiling sugar would have clattered, face first, to the floor if Snape hadn't grabbed her hands and steadied it.
"Sorry" she winced sheepishly, still holding the handle with Snapes hands on top of hers.
Snape didn't move until she made a hesitant sound. "Err . . ."
He released her immediately "You must pay closer attention to what you do" he barked with his most classic teacher voice. "This liquid is almost two hundred degrees, you could have hurt someone."
"I am so sorry" she winced again, still holding the pot sheepishly.
"Well" he sighed and crossed his arms "It is a good thing I was here then."
"A good thing indeed" she said with a smile. Har hands were tingling slightly from his touch. She had always expected his hands to be cold and greasy, but they were actually warm, dry, and slightly calloused from his years of potions making. She liked them.
She gingerly brought the pot of hot sugar to the teflon mat, now neatly laid out on the counter and poured the sugar over the mat.
"Aren't you supposed to add the flavours first?" asked Snape in surprise.
"That is what we are going to do now" she said and placed the empty pot in the sink. She grabbed the two bottles of flavour and a few random bottles of food colouring and handed them to Snape before she grabbed the pair of sugar scrapes herself and started to pull the liquid from the edges and into the centre of the mat. Snape watched with fascination.
"So, what we do first is we pull the mass around for a bit until it is massive enough to separate. Then you add the drops of flavour and whatever colour you want to each pool" she said while she continued to pull the mass around.
Snape opened the bottle of caramel essence when she separated the sugar into two pools. "How much?"
"About twenty drops should be enough. But only ten of the colour."
Snape did as she instructed and poured over twenty drops of caramel flavour before he opened a bottle of colour and poured out a few drops of dark green.
Tonks raised her eyebrows "Green?"
Snape shrugged "I took a random one."
She shrugged back and hastily stirred the mixture together until the pool was evenly green. Then they did the same with the other pool. This one turned bright orange. Tonks had to laugh at the unexpected colours.
"What can I say" said Snape playfully "I like the unexpected."
Tonks laughed again and pointed at a pair of gloves on the counter next to Snape. "Now it's your turn. I will give you the honour of cutting the sugar to pieces. Put the gloves on so you don't burn yourself."
"Thanks" he drawled as if this was the most tedious job in the world. But he still put on the gloves and started to form the almost hardened, slimy lumps of sugar into canes. Then he cut it into tiny pieces.
"How do you make them so nice?" Tonks asked after a while when he started to produce sugar drops neatly formed into short spirals. They looked a thousand times better than her squares.
"Perhaps I have a hidden talent."
"You bet" she agreed. "Perhaps you have found your calling? You could open a candy shop in Diagon alley and sell the most intricate little spirally sugar drops imaginable. You can aspire to greatness my friend."
"But will I ever reach the calibre of the Master?"
"Never" she grinned. "My level of expertise is unreachable."
"I am sure it is" he snorted and pulled off his gloves before he popped an orange drop in his mouth.
"Is it good?" she asked after a while when Snape didn't say anything.
"No" he said calmly with a deep frown. "It is terrible."
"You're kidding?"
"Nope" he said seriously.
"Well, spit it out if you don't like it. You don't have to continue eating it" she said. Snape spit out the drop and tossed it in the bin underneath the sink. Confused as to why he didn't like it, Tonks popped an orange drop in her own mouth for testing. Then she made a face "Merlin you're right. That is absolutely foul!"
"Told you."
"Ugh!" she spit out the drop and tossed it in the bin after Snapes.
The look on her face made Snape chuckle again which made her burst into laughter herself. She noted how nice it was to laugh with him over something so simple as sugar.
"What on earth could have made it taste so bad? All the others I've made are completely fine." she asked curiously. She took a green drop and popped in her mouth. "Yep, this one is fine."
Snape too, tasted a green drop. He agreed with a humming sound. "This one is fine."
While enjoying the taste of the caramel drop, partly because it washed away the taste of the raspberry one, Tonks looked through the bottles of flavour until she found the right one. There was nothing wrong with the raspberry essence. But when she pulled out the bottle of orange colour, she thought she had found the culprit. "Aha!" she exclaimed and held the bottle out to Snape. "The orange colour is particularly strong, so one would only need a few drops per batch."
"So, the colour itself has a particular taste?"
"Not a strong one usually, but remember these are muggle colours, so it is difficult to make them good without giving off some kind of taste."
"Hm" said Snape only and crossed his arms again.
"Well, at least you can have the caramel ones. They're great actually."
"'You are giving them to me?" he asked in surprise.
"Why not? You are the one who made them."
"I can hardly be said to have made them. I destroyed half of them by adding too much colour."
"But the caramel ones are good" she insisted.
"So?"
"So, I am giving them to you because it's nice to have something tasty for Christmas."
Clearly there was some sort of emotion behind his eyes that she couldn't interpret. He gave an exasperated half sigh, half laugh, but he didn't accept the offer. In fact, he didn't say anything.
"Here, I'll fix it" she said at last. She pulled out her wand and summoned a page of the daily prophet from somewhere and made it fold itself into a paper cone. Then she made all the green caramel drops fly into the cone and closed it with a piece of sticky tape. She pulled out a quill from nowhere and wrote with neat letters on the paper;
'For Severus. From the Sugar Master.'
She glanced up at Snape while she worked, curious at his reaction. He studied her with a strange intenseness in his eyes that she couldn't quite place.
"What happened to 'no magic, or you'll ruin the Christmas spirit'?" asked Snape with a raised eyebrow.
"What? I am the Sugar Master, the rules don't apply to me" she said with a wicked grin.
"You sneaky little minx" he said with another of his wonderful, genuine smiles, before he did something so shocking it took her breath away.
He stepped close to her in one stride and kissed her.
It only lasted for a millisecond before he got his bearings and pulled away quickly. She was so shocked she could only stare at him.
"I apologize. That will not happen again" was all he said before he turned on his heel to leave. He grabbed his cloak from the chair when Tonks finally managed to say something.
"Where are you going?" she said sharply.
He hesitated. Then he turned to her with a fierce expression. "I am leaving. You will not have to see me again."
"Why?" she asked letting her disappointment shine clearly through her voice.
He had clearly not expected her reaction because he looked confused. She moved across the room so swiftly she surprised even herself. She even managed to not to trip over anything.
"Why d'you need to leave?"
"Err- because I-" first time she had heard him so inarticulate. He looked bewildered for a second taking a step away from her unconsciously. Then his face became blank and expressionless. As if he suddenly put on a mask. "What I did was inappropriate. And it will not happen again." He turned again to leave. But she stopped him by grabbing his arm.
"What if I want it to happen again?"
He hesitated for the second time and turned. "Why would you want it to happen again?"
"Because I liked it?"
"I am sure you did not." His voice was still cold and harsh but not with as much conviction as before. Also there was a clear streak of insecurity in his eyes.
She stepped closer again and smiled when he involuntarily caught his breath. Ah, so there were some human feelings behind that stone face after all.
"Kiss me again?" she suggested to the man who was now unable to look her in the eye. His cheeks flushed to a soft pink.
He finally met her eyes after a few seconds "Are you certain? I am a deatheater and-"
She put her hands on each side of his face. "I am certain" she said with conviction.
He kissed her again. Gingerly this time. But now she had the time to respond so she eagerly pulled her hands through his hair and deepened the kiss. It didn't take long before they were snogging properly.
The sugar on the counter was completely forgotten.
The more she kissed him the more Tonks wanted him. She grabbed the front of his robes and pulled him as close as she could, ravished by his intoxicating scent and the movement of his tongue, exploring the corners of her mouth with fervour.
There was a fleeting moment where she wondered 'what on earth am I doing?'
She was kissing Snape for Merlins sake! At school she would never have expected this to happen! But the thought was quickly snatched away when Snape ran his hands down her back until he suddenly grabbed her thighs and lifted her on top of the kitchen counter. Luckily it was a sugar free part. The sudden movement made her gasp in surprise, then it turned into a moan of pleasure when he started to kiss her neck. She adored it when men did that.
But the pleasure was short lasted when Snape suddenly pulled away with a start. Then he suddenly winced. "I forgot about Dumbledore" he informed.
"You were meeting Dumbledore?" she asked, slightly disappointed he didn't continue, and still with a hand in his now very ruffled hair. "When?"
He looked at his watch. "An hour ago" he said sheepishly.
"He must be late then?"
Snape shook his head again "Dumbledore may not take punctuality seriously, but he is never an hour late."
"But wouldn't he have come down to fetch you?"
"Not necessarily" he said and looked sheepish again.
"Why?" she frowned.
". . . he must have seen us, and not wanted to interfere."
"Ah" she said when it dawned upon her. She had always liked Dumbledore but now she had to admit she truly adored him. She raised an eyebrow and grinned "I'm glad he didn't, or this wouldn't have happened." She poked Snapes nose with her finger. Then she added as an afterthought; "The poor sod must be having such a terrible time upstairs. What with only some of Siriuss port and a book to keep him company?"
Snape smiled up at her, obviously relieved she wasn't embarrassed about the though that Dumbledore knew about them.
She pecked his cheek "You should go. I am sure Dumbledore might get a little impatient if you make him wait for another hour."
He nodded and pulled away from her, but he seemed reluctant to leave.
"Hm" she said while she studied him. Then she put on her sternest voice and pointed at him. "You know there are strict rules in the art of Sugar drop making and you have just broken one of the most important one of them" she barked, making Snape frown and back away from her in confusion.
"An apprentice kissing his master? How dare you?" she sternly put her hands on her hips and glared at him. "For that I'm gonna have to give you detention, tonight, in my room. And don't be late."
Snape continued to stare at her in confusion until she started to wonder whether she had taken the joke too far this time. She was about to apologize when something finally dawned upon her former professor.
His eyes widened considerably.
"Oh" he said in a voice two octaves higher than usual.
It took him another minute to move. He stepped backwards, still with wide, intense eyes. "Thank you . . ." he said, as if he was unsure what he was supposed to say in a situation like this.
"Don't thank me now" said Tonks and leaned forwards slightly. "Thank me later tonight, when I am finished with you." A small part of her screamed at her 'What on earth did you just allow to come out of your mouth? You shouldn't talk to him like that!' But it was too late to unsay it now and she smiled sheepishly again, hoping he wouldn't take it the wrong way.
But her former professor only smiled wickedly, then he became thoughtful. "Where is your room?"
"Third floor, second door to the left" she said.
Snape took another step backwards before he bowed curtly. "I will not be late, maam" he said. Then he gave her a final kiss before he left.
Dumbledore sat in the Grimmauld place library with a glass of Port and a book, just like Tonks had predicted, when Snape walked in.
"Ah, Severus, there you are" said Dumbledore and put down his glass of Port.
"I apologize for being late" said Snape curtly and sat down in another chair across from Dumbledore. He didn't bother to invent an excuse. It would only sound stupid.
"No need to apologize Severus, you are here now" said Dumbledore. When Snape looked up at him he saw Dumbledores eyes twinkled in amusement.
He felt himself blush. "Don't say anything."
"My dear Severus, what on earth can you mean? I was not about to say anything." His answer confirmed Snapes suspicions.
He knew.
"Just, don't say anything."
"If that is what you wish" said Dumbledore, still with the same twinkle in his eyes. But when Snape tried to talk about his observations of the deatheaters, Dumbledore interrupted him; "She is very beautiful."
"Albus!" Snape exclaimed and turned even redder. But he couldn't make himself angry at the old coot. Not when the joyous though of Tonks eclipsed everything else.
"I will not say more" said Dumbledore. Snape didn't believe him. But there was something he wanted to tell the headmaster.
"Thank you . . . for not fetching me" he had thought it was impossible for the headmasters eyes to twinkle any more, but now they were practically sparkling.
"So it went better than I thought?" the headmaster asked.
"Albus" Snape warned.
"No no, you cannot stop now Severus. Tell me more."
"No" he said exasperated. Very few knew this, but the headmaster was actually a terrible gossip. If he told him what happened, Dumbledore might tell others, and Snape wasn't sure if Tonks was going to appreciate it.
"Did you kiss her? At least tell me you are meeting her again."
"Albus!" he exclaimed again until he realized what the headmaster had asked. "What exactly did you see?"
"Oh, I did wonder where when you turned out to be late. I went down to look for you and observed when Tonks nearly dropped her pot to the floor" the headmasters eyes twinkled again. "I did catch how miss Tonks had already made some lovely lemon drops for me. I do appreciate that."
"And then you left I hope" Snape pressed.
"Yes, I did" said the Dumbledore sincerely.
"Good."
"So?" asked the headmaster curiously.
Snape pinched the bridge of his nose, praying for patience. He was vastly annoyed that Dumbledore kept questioning into his private life, but a tiny part of him giddily wanted to tell someone what happened in the kitchen. Against his better judgement, he told him; "We kissed . . . Well, I kissed her, but she seemed to like it, so . . ." he cleared his throat and glanced up at Dumbledore who looked like he was about to burst from excitement.
"She told me to meet her later tonight . . ."
"Ah" said Dumbledore knowingly "now I do not need to know more."
"Don't read too much into this. It is completely casual. It might not mean anything."
"It might not mean anything" agreed Dumbledore, knowing that Snape hated it when he encouraged him to hope.
"Or it might mean something . . ." said Snape on his own accord, feeling stupid he let himself think in that direction.
"That is for you to find out" said Dumbledore wisely.
"If you tell anyone about this, I will certainly kill you" said Snape warningly.
"Severus, what do you take me for?"
"A gossip."
"Now now, Severus, a gossip is not the exact word I would use to describe myself."
"Will you please just, say nothing about this to anyone? Molly Weasley in particular. I don't want to scare Tonks away immediately."
Albuses eyes continued to twinkle for a moment before he said; "Consider me mum."
"Thank you."
"Well, we better get a start on with our meeting then, so I don't keep you busy the whole night. We can't have that."
Snape felt himself smile involuntarily. "We can't have that" he agreed.
That night, after Snape knocked on her bedroom door, Tonks had one of the most memorable night of her life. At first Snape was a little hesitant and slightly unsure about sleeping with her, but after their third try, she would have woken half of London with her screaming, had it not been for Snapes handy little Muffiliato spell.
Not surprisingly, Snape stayed all night.
Later, Dumbledore kept his word and did not mention Tonks and Snapes night together. Although he kept sending them twinkly glances all the way through Christmas.
It was however, impossible to keep Albus Dumbledore mum forever.
Especially not after they did it again . . .
And again . . .
And again . . .
Authors note:
Thank you for reading.
This is just a little drabble I made for my own amusement. But I had fun writing it, so I wanted to share it with you all.
Hope you liked it and have a nice day.