A Meeting after a Time Apart

A cold gust of wind blew at Hermione's cape as she was about to enter 93 Diagon Alley. The cape whipped around her back, causing her to be slightly off balanced, as she entered through the open door. Her hand reached out quickly to steady herself against the door frame, as the other hand clutched desperately to the papers she was holding against her body.

Looking wildly around the shop, she scouted for the shopkeeper in hopes that she could get this task over with quickly. Nobody was in sight, but she heard voices in the back of the shop.

She entered the backroom of the shop, only to find the very person she had hoped not to see. Ironically, at the moment, he was wearing a headless hat, and she was unable to see his face, but she knew from his body that it was Ron.

"Hermione! What are you doing here?" Ron practically yelled from the shock of seeing her standing in his shop.

"I thought George would be here, " she replied, and she hoped that he didn't hear the disappointment in her voice.

"He had to step out for a moment. He'll be back," he eagerly replied.

"Do you mind terribly if you take off the hat?" she asked as she felt uncomfortable talking to him when she couldn't see his face.

"Yeah, sure." Ron quickly complied, and took off the hat from his head, showing her his very red face. Unconsciously, he started to pat down his hair, only to make it worse.

Both of them shifted uncomfortably from the silence that had engulfed them. Hermione had something she wanted to say to him, but she could not say it at the moment, at least not in front of his customer, who was standing beside him.

"Well, George wrote and told me he wanted me to stop by. . . to give him these papers . . . and I-"

"Hermione, we must be off to meet the Minister of Magic." A silky voice from behind her cut off her sentence with Ron.

Turning, her eyes widen as Severus approached the backroom. He was looking at a shelf as he walked, and took no notice of Ron in front of her. However, when his eyes took notice of him, he stopped immediately in his tracks.

"I'll just be a moment, Sev-" Her voice trembled as the tension started to fill the air.

Severus shifted his eyes from Ron, to her, then back to Ron.

"I'll just wait outside," and in his style alone, whipped around and headed out through the door.

"Damn," she muttered quietly under her breath before turning around to look at Ron.

Hermione had rarely ever seen him ever go that red.

Her mouth opened and closed like a fish, as she tried to explain the situation, but quickly gave up when the words failed to come out. Instead she handed him the papers, which he tore out from her hand.

"I'll tell George that you dropped these off!"

"Ron-"

"Just go, Hermione. Sev is waiting for you." He spat at her, and turned to his customer while placing the headless hat once again on his head.

Hermione hated when he acted like this, a fuming arse, who refused to listen to reason. Rolling her eyes, she retreated out of the backroom without another word. Outside, she found the stone stature of Severus Snape, with his raised eyebrow.

"I'm not in the mood to talk about it," she huffed.

"Did you do this on purpose Hermione, if so-"

"Of course not!"

"There would be better ways of exposing yourself."

AN: It is so sad that I have to put this note in, but it must be said. This story deals with the relationship between Ron and Hermione - not Severus. That is the reason I picked them for this category. Trust me, I'm not trying to start anything here. I ship nothing despite the fact that I've happened to write a few SS/HG stories.

We're all just trying to have fun with JRK's world, so let's not go overboard with this shipper war thingy.