On The Road Again
JadedSeventhYear
"Oh, come now, Severus!" Minerva had insisted, practically hanging off his arm in one of her uncharacteristic moments of near-childishness. She got like that recently, whenever she really wanted him to do something. It was at once annoying and endearing. She was twice his age, and yet somehow managed to make herself feel younger than him at times. It kept him honest, kept him in love.
They had been approached by Molly and Arthur Weasley a few years after the war had concluded to join them on a trip through Scotland as a break. Since the end of the war, both the professors had been busy with the restoration of the school, and the Weasley family had played a major part in the restoration as well. It was their last chance before Hogwarts was reopened in a few months to get away.
Of course, with it being the Weasleys, it wasn't about to be a normal holiday. Arthur had recently been talking to some of the Muggle-born children and their families who had helped with the castle, and had been enthralled with the idea of a 'road trip'. Rather than the usual wizarding way of simply Apparating, which afforded more time at the destination, the muggle method of car transportation was used – meaning it could take days to commute from one locale to the next.
Frankly, Severus didn't see the appeal.
But both he and Minerva were half-bloods, and they both remembered road trips from their childhood. Minerva's were, of course, much more fond than his. She had been the one to request that they go after Arthur invited them. After her logic failed to convince him, she turned to the previously mentioned, surefire way of winning is co-operation.
He had strongly resisted at first, saying that it would be long – she had countered with the argument that a vacation was meant to be long – and that it would be time-consuming – which, of course, it was meant to be – and that they'd be spending time with Muggles – and she had grilled him with what the problem was with that – and that he didn't know how to drive – at which point she chose to inform him that she'd already agreed to let Arthur teach them.
She'd blocked off every exit for him, as per usual.
Severus didn't know why he even bothered.
Of course, he knew the answer to that. After they had reconciled, after Minerva had discovered how worried she'd become for him, and after Severus had realized that Lily would've given him no end of hell for not moving on after her, they had found themselves falling hesitantly in love. Initially, it had worried the both of them, and it took the greater part of two years following the war to come to terms with it. But soon, they found their similarities were too strong for them not to want to pursue a relationship.
Now, he found her intellectual challenge stimulating, her wisdom something he couldn't live without, and her kindness something that helped him to remember the good things in life.
Of course, her ability to shut down his excuses was at once a boon and a curse.
And now, it had landed him in a rented station wagon, cruising down the coastline of Scotland, following a mint green Ford Anglia, which occasionally floated longer than it should have after going over a bump in the road. Severus never understood why Arthur had bought another one, but it hardly surprised him. He was just glad that his rented car had, as he understood it, 'automatic' transmission; he was certain that the mechanical workings of switching gears on a manual transmission car would end up in him pitching the car with Minerva and him in it over the edge of a cliff.
But in all honesty, Severus was surprised to note that it wasn't entirely unpleasant. Instead of just Apparating and missing all the scenery, as he and Minerva took turns at the wheel, he found himself enraptured with the landscape that he – in all his years at school at Hogwarts in Scotland – never took the time to appreciate.
"Sev?" Minerva's voice broke into his reverie. He had been watching the ocean pass by the passenger's side window and hadn't realized they'd stopped. It was one of those small little ebbs in the motorway that people used to rest. They'd pulled in beside the Weasleys, who had already come out of their Angelina to stretch and take a few photos.
"Mhm, coming." He mumbled, stretching his neck and sighing before unbuckling himself and following Minerva outside. The cool Scottish air hit him in full force as he stood up, and he could smell the spray of the sea in it. It made his chin-length black hair whip around his face, but it felt good. There was so much of life he found he could now enjoy. Having spent most of his life in war had robbed him of simple pleasures and he was only now discovering what it meant to enjoy life.
"Severus, smile!" Molly's voice reached him over the sound of the wind and he felt Minerva's head rest on his shoulder as he opened his eyes. Molly was standing in front of them, a few paces back with Arthur beaming beside her.
He's always got such an abnormally large grin... Severus thought to himself, but he sighed, rested his head on Minverva's and gave one of his quiet smiles.
"Cheese!" Molly said, reciting that odd Muggle phrase they'd seen being used by the folks when they snapped photos. Both Severus and Minerva said nothing, but held their small smiles until they heard the shudder click on Molly's camera. When she lowered it, they straightened up.
"Isn't this nice, Severus?" Minerva asked, her hair pulled back into a loose ponytail that moved slightly in the wind. Since the war, she'd gotten a few streaks of gray hair. In Severus' opinion, it made her look even more attractive.
"Yeah, it is. I'm glad we came." He said, stroking her jawline softly. The war hadn't been gentle with him, either, and he looked a decade older than he actually was. Though it did make for less questions when people saw him with Minerva. Severus slid his finger down her jaw to her chin and tilted her head up so he could kiss her softly on the lips.
She smiled back up at him, and they made their way over to the Weasleys to join in a little bit of cheese and crackers for a mid-way snack. They had another few hundred kilometers before they reached the next bed and breakfast they'd be staying at.
When they were satisfied, they switched drivers and took back to the road. Severus pulled out behind Molly and prepared himself to drive the next three hour stretch to the inn.
After half an hour of driving with some small conversation about theory behind potions and transfiguration, Minerva and Severus lapsed into a comfortable silence. He focused on the road in front of him, enjoying the ability to focus on the turns and feel the road pass beneath him. She stared out the window at her homeland, enjoying that shade of green that never left her since she moved into the castle.
When they passed through a small town, Severus looked over at Minerva to find her curled up in the chair in her Animagus form. He smiled at her and reached over to stroke her lightly behind the ears. She purred and cracked open a vibrant green eye.
"Why don't you come over here, Min?" He said softly, holding an arm out to make his lap available to her.
She cocked her head. Why's that? Getting lonely without me?
"No, no, don't turn back. Just come settle in." He said, and she did. She leapt over to him and, circling in his lap once, settled down. "Just in case I have to stop quickly, I can at least catch you this way – the seatbelt doesn't work when you're a cat."
Oh, I hadn't thought of that, thank you. Minerva looked up at him from her nestled position and nodded her understanding.
"Besides..." He scritched her softly under the chin and returned his eyes to the road, stroking her back softly as she purred. "I like having you close."
AN: Hope you like it, guys! This is namely a formatting test, as it's my first time ever publishing anything on this site and for the love of me I can't find a guide. I'm hoping as it appears in the edit screen is pretty much as it appears when it's read. Also, I've done, like, 99% of my reading on this site on mobile, so we'll see how it looks on a computer. Expect a shit-ton of editing how this looks, really.
The idea for this came while I was heading back with my family from a long-ass road trip from the mountains and curled up in the back seat to rest my head on my guy's knee. Also, I've been on an Alan Rickman kick.
In any case, the story is set loosely in the AU I've set up for another fic I'm working on (please don't ask, I've no idea if I'll even actually write it).