A/N: For CUtopia, because this is their OTP. I'm not familiar with this pairing whatsoever, so it's not my best. If you like it, great!

Rolanda Hooch couldn't say she was happy when she learned that she was going to have to work with Severus Snape. She didn't really know him, because she had left Hogwarts a few years after he started, and when she became the Flying instructor and Quidditch coach, the only students she really noticed were of the athletic type, but here he was, the new Potions Master, and head of Slytherin. That alone would have been enough, but Snape was brutally sarcastic, and not in the good way, but the kind that could make you cry. Most of the other teachers didn't seemed phased by it, then again, they had known him longer, and just accepted it as part of his personality. But Rolanda wasn't one to just accept things. So she was perpetually annoyed by him. And that would never change. Or so she thought.

There was a harsh knock at the door. Severus looked up from his stack of soon to be graded essays.

"Enter."

When he saw who it was, he continued to grade.

"I'm rather busy, what do you want?"

Rolanda had clearly come in a hurry. Her shoulder length light brown hair was messed, and she had an angry flush about her face.

"You can't do this!" she hissed.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Hooch."

Rolanda slammed a hand on his desk.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about! You can't keep Jeremy Cross from playing! Ravenclaw needs him for the House Cup."

"I'm afraid that is not my fault. Mr. Cross has not kept up his grades, and Ravenclaw will simply have to do without him."

Rolanda glared at him.

"He's only doing bad in your class, and that is your fault. Cross said you've given him unfairly low scores on his past three assignments."

Severus rolled his eyes.

"He would think them unfair."

His superior attitude was getting on Rolanda nerves.

"You are such an awful man! You just want to ruin the game so Slytherin will win the cup!"

"Slytherin doesn't need my interference to win. Did it ever occurred to you, Hooch, that Cross deserved those scores?"

Rolanda opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it, lost for words. Severus nodded smugly, and continued to grade. Rolanda bit her lip, and then let out a frustrated noise, before leaving the room.

Later at the staff table during dinner, Rolanda was talking to her best friend, and collegue, the Astronomy professor, Aurora Sinistra.

"He just sat there and let me yell at him. He's so infuriating!"

Aurora nodded, her gaze drifting. "I heard you the last fifty times you've said that."

Rolanda furrowed her brow. "I don't complain that much," she mumbled, taking a big sip of her water.

Aurora laughed. "Yes, you do. But I shouldn't expect less from you. You are love sick, after all."

Rolanda promptly spat her water out, attracting the attention of the Charms teacher, Filius Flitwick.

"Oh! Are you okay, my dear?" the small man yelped in concern. Rolanda nodded, coughing. She noticed Severus further down the line staring at her with confusion and slight amusement.

"I just choked. I'm okay now, thanks."

She glared at Aurora.

"I am not love sick! Least of all for Snape."

Aurora smirked. "You haven't stopped complaining about every little thing about him ever since he got here."

"That doesn't mean I like him. In fact, it means the exact opposite," she insisted hotly.

"It's destiny, Ro. You say he's rude with his comments, but you laugh at them anyway. You tell me how unattractive he is, but I always catch you staring at him when you think no one's looking."

"You think everything's destiny. You have a perverse obsession with stars. And I don't do things like that because I don't like Snape!"

Aurora just smiled and shrugged. "Fine. At least think about it."

With that, she departed from the staff table, and made her way to her quarters, leaving Rolanda deeply annoyed.

The next few days, Rolanda found herself paying extra close attention to the Potions master, something she had never done before. He wasn't especially handsome, but he wasn't bad looking either. His hair wasn't as greasy looking as she heard some of the students say. And she could appreciate the humor in some of his sarcastic remarks. She also started drifting off during flying lessons, and when she was talking to a student and Severus was in the vicinity, prompting her into fantasies. She was in the middle of one of these daydreams when she was tapped non to gently on the head. She awoke with a start, nearly falling out of her chair when she saw who it was that had tapped her. Severus Snape was standing next to her, giving her the single eyebrow raise.

"The meeting's over, Hooch, you can go to bed now."

Rolanda clambered to her feet, giving Severus a lopsided grin.

"Right, thanks for waking me. I might have been there all night."

Severus nodded as he turned to leave, his face emotionless. Perhaps it was another side effect of Aurora words, for that was how Rolanda explained her odd behavior the last few days, but she opened her mouth.

"I've never seen you laugh."

Severus stopped, and looked at her. "I assure you, I can laugh."

"Being able to laugh, and wanting to laugh are two very different things."

"What are you suggesting, Hooch?"

Rolanda sighed. "It's like you have no emotion!"

Severus gave her a look. "I've been here three years, and you're just now complaining about that?"

Rolanda blushed.

Severus sucked in his lips. "I'm not very social," he began, and Rolanda snorted out of habit. He scowled at her.

"Sorry."

"Therefore I don't show my emotions, because no one truly cares whether I show them or not. And that's just the way it is and always will be."

"You've never had a friend? Not one?" Rolanda couldn't imagine life without her friends.

Severus hesitated before shaking his head, and left the room. Rolanda was frozen for a moment, before she ran out of the classroom, and caught up to him.

"Who was she?"

Severus let out a small groan. "What?"

"You hesitated when I asked if you had any friends. That tells me whoever it was, you really cared about them. What was her name?"

Severus was silent for a long time, and Rolanda thought maybe she had exhausted her right to asking Snape personal questions for perhaps the rest of the year. Then he spoke.

"Lily Evans. We were neighbors as kids, and she was my first friend. We did everything together. But when we got to Hogwarts, she was sorted into Gryffindor, and I into Slytherin, and I should've known then that things would never be the same."

Rolanda suddenly remembered something she had heard about from other students at that time.

"You called her the m word."

Severus gasped for breath. "It was the worst mistake of my life." He glanced down at his left arm. "Second worst. I tried apologizing, but she didn't care."

Rolanda took it in.

"You were in love with her."

It wasn't a question. Severus nodded.

"Yes." Quiet again. Then, "Hooch, is there a reason you're prying into my personal background?"

Rolanda shrugged. "It's been pointed out that I may be unfairly rude to you."

Severus raised an eyebrow. "How is making personal inquiries an apologetic notion for such?"

"Then I'll just say it. I'm sorry," she blurted. "I'm sorry I was so mean to you, and that I made your life teaching here a living hell, but in my defense, you irked me."

Severus actually smiled at that.

"From day one? What could I have possibly done that could make you hate me?"

"I don't know." She threw her arms up in frustration. "Aurora thinks I like you, but that's preposterous, right?"

Severus raised an eyebrow. "Well that depends. Do you like me?"

Rolanda suddenly felt it was way to hot in the corridor they were standing in.

"I, er, well-"

Severus's eyes lit up in amusement. "Have I struck you speechless, Hooch?"

Rolanda bit her thumb, avoiding his gaze. Severus leaned in towards her, causing her breath to hitch.

"Thank you for talking to me, Hooch. You're the first to attempt and succeed with minimal damage. I think I'll just head up to bed."

With that, he left. Rolanda scoffed. Was that really it? She didn't know what she was expecting. Yes, she did. She hated to admit it, even if it was only in her mind, but she had hoped that Severus was going to kiss her. She sighed, and made her way to her chambers, when a yell echoed through the corridor.

"Hooch!"

She turned around to see Severus on the other side of the hallway.

"I never got to ask you any personal questions. Tomorrow, in the Hog's Head. See you then?"

Rolanda was very glad Severus couldn't see the dreadfully goofy grin she had on her face.

"Yeah, see you then!" she called back. She proceeded to her quarters, bouncing slightly, and was just about to fall asleep when a horrid thought came to mind. Aurora was never going to let her live this down!