Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, just the plot.
A/N: This is just a one shot that randomly popped into my head one day, and I finally finished it! Yay! I hope you like it! Please review!
New Year's Resolutions
Severus sneered in displeasure from the darkest corner of the staff room. Wasn't Christmas enough celebration for one month? The Headmaster could have at least been merciful and let him forgo this foray into madness. To him, New Year's Eve was just a reminder that another year of horrible students was done, and an even worse year of them was to come. He had no use for New Year's Resolutions and all that rot about being better. The world had dealt him a bad hand, and he didn't even know how to play those Muggle card games anyway.
Then again, the way Sybil Trelawney was downing the alcohol promised an interesting altercation or two tonight. Severus scanned the rest of the room, unconsciously scanning for potential threats on his life. It was an embedded instinct that had never failed him before. The only threat to anyone's life that he could see at the moment was the death-grip Hagrid had Hermione Granger in. If that was a bear hug, how hard would the half-giant squeeze someone in anger?
Soon enough, Hagrid let the unfortunate victim go, still in one piece, and Severus let out a slight sigh of relief. He had grown fond of the Granger girl in the past five years she had been teaching. Having an intelligent person to argue and discuss things with (Which wasn't much different than arguing) was all that had saved him from going insane after the fall of the Dark Lord. With spying out of the way, and all rogue Death Eaters accounted for, Severus had had too much time on his hands.
Luckily, Miss Granger had decided that she wanted to settle into a peaceful life of teaching after the war, and joined the Hogwarts bandwagon. Because she had inadvertently saved Severus from insanity, or, at the least, boredom, he had begun to treat her as an equal, something that wasn't very common, especially with former students. Weeks after that first congenial meeting, the teachers would hound her about what she did to befriend the snarky teacher, only to be disappointed at the fact that she didn't even know. This made a friendship with the woman to be even more advantageous. Now he had the old hens clucking in confusion.
Presently, Hermione was headed his way, a twinkle in her eye as she saw his raised eyebrow. She patted down her fly-away hair with a smile. "I really wasn't expecting that."
"Who would expect to be ambushed and squeezed like a vise the minute they walk into a room?" To this, he got a shrug. Severus commenced his observation, this time with company. After a few minutes, his companion tugged at his robe sleeve and pointed towards the punch bowl, where the Headmaster and his beard were helping themselves to some of the beverage. Severus shivered in revulsion.
"I will never drink at a school event of any kind again. Nor will I eat." He added the last bit as he saw the Headmaster continue on to the victuals, his punch-dipped beard dragging over the top of some of the food. Hermione nodded in agreement.
"It looks like we only have a few minutes until the New Year. Any resolutions or goals that I need to know about?" She turned a cheeky grin on Severus, who raised his eyebrow in response.
As I, and surely you, recall, last year you asked me the same thing. Surely you don't expect a different answer this time?" Hermione smiled, but her eyes weren't really into it. Severus noticed but decided not to say anything, going back to his observations. By this time, Trelawney had drunken a few bottles (She had already built up quite a high tolerance of alcohol), and was swaying and singing merrily to herself, a half-empty bottle in her hand. "Let's go see if she tells a better fortune when drunk." Severus smirked and started towards the lady. Hermione protested lightly, but followed, obviously curious as to see what the woman would say while smashed.
They stopped a few feet away from her to avoid being hit by the bottle in her hand, should she swing it in her drunken dance. It took her a few seconds to realize that they were there, and, even then, her eyes were cross-eyed with dizziness from swinging around. "Huzzat?!" She said rather loudly, her eyes blinking owlishly from behind her magnifying glass-like spectacles as they tried to focus.
"Sybil, we were wondering if you would give us the…honor…of telling our fortune for the New Year." The woman would have stormed away in a huff if she were in her right mind at the sarcasm lacing his words. Because of her drunkenness, however, she was much more accommodating.
The woman hiccupped, before grabbing his hand and looking down at it, holding more tightly than necessary in order to stay upright. She waved the other hand over his upturned palm, as if shooing a fly, and then peered more closely. She tisked.
"Looks like youshavent had mush of a love life sho frawr Sevrus…But," She continued, "That will shoon change…Maybe tooonight!" She fluttered her eyelashes at him, but managed only to look more deranged. Hermione snorted in laughter as he reeled back slightly in disgust, his hand still grasped tightly in the woman's hand. She looked back down at it.
"Your life hash been terrible, but that will shoon change tooo. It will be nish and looong." Saying this, she traced what he supposed must be his life-line, which was quite long, compared to other lines on his palm. He finally managed to tear his hand from her grasp.
"That's quite enough. I believe it is now Professor Granger's turn." The witch readily complied, grabbing the younger witch's hand and looking down at it.
"Aaah. But it might not be Professor Granger for long." She said, tracing the love-line on her palm.
"What?!" They both exclaimed at the same time, bending closer to look at the line she was tracing closely.
"Yesh, accoding to thish, she'll be married with kids by the time she's thirty. Two kids! Nish number, that." Trelawney stated, swaying slightly. She let Hermione's palm go and swayed over to the refreshment table to grab a cookie, no doubt seasoned by Dumbledore's beard hairs.
Hermione stared down at her palm curiously. "Married with kids before I'm thirty? That doesn't give me much time."
Severus snorted. "You don't actually believe her, do you? She said that my love life will pick up! I doubt that will ever happen."
Hermione looked up at him with an indecipherable expression. "You never know. Alcohol usual brings out the truth in people." She turned to observe the room again, and Severus wished he knew what she was thinking.
The time was getting closer to the countdown. In fact, Dumbledore was now getting on one of the tables, as to get everyone's attention. He tapped his glass with a spoon, and everyone looked up at him.
"Soon it will be time to welcome in the new year, so I just wanted to wish everyone a great year and remind you that we have a staff meeting tomorrow night, so don't drink too much tonight!"
"Too late." Severus muttered to Hermione, gesturing to Trelawney, who had just collapsed onto a nearby chair in her drunkenness. Hermione snorted, and he smirked at her reaction.
"Without further ado, let us begin! Ten…nine…eight…" Everyone joined in, and many held their punch glasses up, some wobbling a bit dangerously. "Three…two…one…Happy New Year!"
All of a sudden, Severus was surrounded by people drinking and kissing the person nearest them, some a little too enthusiastically. He pulled at his collar, and then caught the gaze of Hermione, who was still standing next to him. They stared at each other for a few seconds, until Hermione huffed and then said, "Oh, hang it all!"
With that, Severus found that he was dragged down into what he could honestly say was the best kiss he'd ever had (Not that he'd had many in his life so far). His eyes eventually closed after the shock of it wore out and the feel of her lips moving against his overwhelmed him. Soon he was just as enthusiastically involved as she was, his arms wrapping around her to keep her in place as he fairly ravaged her. Air was, of course, needed at some point, and they reluctantly pulled away enough to look into each other's eyes. The expressions of each showed how satisfied they were with how things were going.
"I suppose I could make a few changes this year," Severus grumbled, while holding her close. Her face brightened, and Severus felt like a cauldron exploded inside his chest (in a good way, of course!). He supposed that this next year wouldn't be as horrendous as he thought it might.