Okay, so this idea came me after I felt a little bit Irish over a Guinness and the curiosity how the national anthem of Ireland would sound and then I remembered that Ireland won the Quidditch World Cup – here we go :D And once again I suck at giving a story a title ^^

Situated in "The Goblet of Fire"

I hope you like it ;)

Irish Kisses

Severus Snape looked up from the documents he had been reading out of boredom, letting his eyes wander around over the faces of his colleagues that were sitting with him at the round table in the Great Hall. Dumbledore had one of his crazy ideas again – a educational seminar for his staff to ensure they would always try some new methods to teach. The Headmaster probably could have found some teachers motivated to learn something about that if he had not choose the worst date for his little seminar: it was summer, the holidays were on and the endgame of the Quidditch World Cup was being played right now. Therefore the lacking motivation was explained and also some of the death glares towards the Headmaster. Some of them had had tickets for the endgame, but Dumbledore had insisted on this evening and had demanded that everyone would be present. Well, what only made the anger of the staff seated at the table worse was the fact that two persons were NOT present: Minerva McGonagall and Rolanda Hooch. Albus had not said anything about their absence which ensured Severus in his suspicion that Minerva had threatened him to abandon her husband for the rest of the summer holidays if he would not let the two women go – Rolanda had used her great connections to get tickets for the best seats that were available. Severus was sure that even without Minerva´s aid no one would have been able to stop Rolanda from attending the game and cheering for her home team Ireland.

It was far after midnight as only Severus and Albus were remaining in the Great Hall, both pretending to read through the Daily Prophet, but truly they were both waiting and eavesdropping for the return of Minerva and Rolanda – Albus because he wanted to hear everything about the game (and to make sure that his wife would come to bed with him) and Severus because he slightly feared that a patronus or owl would arrive saying that the young Quidditch mistress had gotten herself into trouble. She was unpredictable and tended to do crazy things, something that not always came positive for her – it had resulted in a few bad injuries during her professional career. Severus tried to lock the thought that he was only waiting here because he wanted to see her away, pretending that it would have been wasted energy to go to bed only to be called out of it again if Rolanda had caused trouble.

"Well, Severus, how did you enjoy my seminar?", Albus asked after a few minutes of silence, looking at the Potions Master with curiosity twinkling in his blue eyes. Severus rose one eyebrow, thinking about how to answer this question, then he decided to go the direct way.

"To be honest, Headmaster? It was boring and most of it did not need this... advise. Most of them were not even paying attention."

"They were not? Why?!", Albus looked surprised, as if he had not... Severus blinked a few times as he realised that Albus had really not seen that nobody had listened to his explanations. The greatest wizard of the century and he had not sensed this?

"Where was your mind?", Severus wanted to know, a certain suspicion in his head. Albus looked a bit sad, then he was honest:"With Minerva, I fear. She was not happy with me as she heard that I scheduled the seminar for today... I should have spent the evening with her, she was so excited about the game..."

Even a Albus Dumbledore made his mistakes and Severus could see how Albus was worried, rightly insecure and he shook his head.

"I am sure she won´t ask for a divorce because of that. You two have been married for how long? 37 years?"

"37 years, 8 months and 12 days...", Albus murmured with a absent smile and Severus rolled his eyes.

"She loves you. Just shut up, okay?"

"And what about you and Rolanda?", Albus asked with a mischievous grin. "How long have you two been dancing around each other?"

"What... dancing around? We are friends! N-nothing more!", Severus stuttered, suddenly caught at the weak point he always tried to hide and forget about.

"It is easy to see that you like each other, Severus."

"A-as friends!"

"Well, that must be why you are blushing, old fellow", Albus chuckled and Severus glared at him angrily, cursing over his warm cheeks. "You should ask her out, maybe she feels the same for you?"

"Yees, surely! The woman who could have any Quidditch player she wants shall like me, the unpopular grumpy potions teacher who prefers to stay in his dungeons? It is impolite to make fun of somebody like this!", Severus laughed bitterly. "I mean, she is a bright, impulsive personality who had the biggest success and is an idol to her students, she has a wonderful humour and is cheeky but kind, beautiful and I am... the geek."

Albus smiled kindly at the younger man, winking:"Well, many women prefer brains over looks!"

Severus glared at him once again, hissing:"Could we please about something else?!"

Albus just wanted to say something about Severus habit to push this topic away from himself as they heard how the heavy oak doors were opened and a loud cheer was brought to their ears. The two men hurried to get up and went into the entrance hall, where they met Minerva and Rolanda who were in a... interesting state.

Severus had decided to try to forget about Rolanda and his feelings once again, but the image the young witch offered was doing nothing good as it send his imagination onto new roots. Supported by Minerva, who wore a green robe over her casual clothes, one of those Ireland fan hats sitting skew on her open black hair, Rolanda wavered into the entrance hall on her bare feet, wearing a really short strapless dress in the colours of the Irish flag (Severus asked himself if it happened to be a real flag), her long blonde hair ruffled while a lot of clover entwined itself through the curly strands and she wore false pixie ears.

"Good evening, Lady´s", Albus greeted the two women with a warm smile and Minerva´s rose cheeks were getting darker while she started to giggle. "I see you had fun!"

"A lot!", Minerva answered with a girlish tone. "Ireland won, it was a great game..."

"We bashed them! Bloody hell, yeah!", Rolanda yelled, her wand releasing green sparks as she waved her arm into a fist bump.

"After the game we went to a pub in Dublin and had some drinks!", Minerva explained, the hat falling from her head. "Great party..."

Albus leaned over to Severus and whispered over Rolanda´s loud singing:"I think we should escort the ladies to bed."

Severus nodded courtly and Albus walked over to take Minerva by her elbow while Rolanda´s singing emerged into a soar yelling:"Sworn to be freee! No more our ancient sireland ssshhall ssshhelter the despot or the slave!"

"We feeling a little bit Irish tonight?", Severus asked the singing woman while he grabbed her by the arm to prevent her from falling.

"Feeling? I AM Irish, bloody idiot!", Rolanda snarled, but then she was back at her good mood, yelling with all her heart:"Tooonight we man the Bearna Baoghal, in Erin's cause, come woe or weal; 'Mid cannon's roar and rifle's peal! Seo libh, canaídh Amhrán na bhFiann!"

"Please, stop shouting into my ear!", Severus pleaded weakly as he guided her up the stairs towards the Third Floor. Rolanda giggled and stopped her passionate, loud and drunken interpretation of the Irish national anthem and slung one arm around Severus to support herself, forcing him to wrap his arm around her waist to prevent them both from loosing balance.

"You should have been there", Rolanda laughed, leaning her head against his shoulder for a moment. "It was awesome! And it was such a party afterwards... wizarding Dublin was literally exploding!"

"Is that why you don´t have your shoes any more? Because you had to flee from a explosion?", Severus asked with a small grin as he pointed down to her feet, guiding her into the hallway in which the entrance to her rooms was.

"Nuuh... lost them to Mullet in a little game of poker...", Rolanda slurred and threw her head to the side to get a strand of her hair out of her face but had far to much momentum, causing them both to lose balance. Rolanda´s back hit the stone wall next to the portrait that guarded her rooms, pulling Severus with her.

"´m so sorry", she grinned and looked up to him, seeing the forced expression on his face. Her drunk mind needed a but of time to interpret his lineaments and in this time she simply stared at him. She did not knew that her conclusion – that he was annoyed by her behaviour and that he simply wanted to shove her into her rooms and get into his own bed – was wrong. Severus felt torn apart between the two thoughts that were in his mind: the one that said that he could not be with a woman because he did not deserve it and the one that felt Rolanda´s presence against his chest, the one that registered her scent, making his heart beat faster.

Rolanda felt a little bit disappointed as she saw his expression. She did not know how it had happened, but somehow she had started to feel something more then friendship for the potions master.

"Should go to bed", she murmured and carefully placed her hands on his chest to shove him away so she could move, but as she touched him his black eyes looked down to met hers, their gazes locking with a hint of surprise in them. Severus gulped, fighting for control over his thoughts and asked slowly:"Mullet? THE Mullet? How did you met her?"

Rolanda immediately regained her confidence, answering:"Hey, who am I? I am Rolanda Hooch, Ireland was World Champion with me twice and you ask me how I happen to know Mullet?"

"... erase that question", Severus said nervously. Her face was only inches away from his, it would be so easy to lean forward a little bit and kiss her... his eyes flickered to her lips for a short moment, hoping that she would not notice it, but Rolanda was quick enough to see this glimpse. He had to distract himself from the thought of what he could do right now...

"Do you happen to have a middle name?", Severus asked, fishing for every idea that was left as his mind slowly started to get blank. Rolanda seemed to sense how he lost his defences and grinned cheekily at him as she wrapped one arm around his neck, pulling him closer so that she could whisper into his ear seductively:"Aednat. It means 'little fire' in Gaelic. My dad gave me this name because he felt I would be a passionate person one day."

Severus gulped once again - he could see what she was trying and hell, he was falling for it. He could not resist her any more and he leaned forward, his arms encircling her waist as their lips met for a short, tender kiss. The second kiss followed immediately, lasting longer then the previous. She tasted like Guinness, vanilla and Rolanda and Severus could not get enough of this combination. Their fingers were exploring each other as they deepened the kiss and Severus could feel her smile into it, making his heart jump in happiness. As they separated due to the lack of air he gently cupped her cheek, grinning at her:"So, this is how one dresses up for a World Cup game? Very beguiling!"

Rolanda gave the portrait her password and as it opened she looked up to him again, whispering in a husky voice:"If this is already driving you crazy you should wait for St. Patrick's Day!"

And with this she pulled him into her rooms by the wrist, finally having found a way to the grumpy potions master who seemed to fall easily for Irish kisses.

Aednat is pronounced ey nit, for those who wondered ;) Leave me a review if you liked it :)