Summary: Hermione and Snape are both adults when they start dating, but the big age gap between them still makes the former Potions Master uncomfortable about approaching her parents...or asking for her hand in marriage. Plus Lucius gets involved...because he's a nosy bugger. Snamione snark and fluff.
Warning for humour because I always slip a bit of it in ;)
Tall, Dark, Brooding...and a complete prat! (title changed and it may change again)
SS/HG
Hermione/Snape
Post-war story.
"It's affection, always you're gonna see it someday.
My attention for you, even if it's not what you need."
-Affection, CigarettesAfterSex
~o~
Thursday, 6pm. Home.
The cat cradled in Hermione Granger's lap and began to purr deeply. Smiling, the brunette eagerly dug her fingers into the long-haired cat's belly and patted its silk-like fur.
The cat, named Lucius, began to purr even louder and more throatily; a dizzy happy look struck on its flat face. She enjoyed the feeling of its soft, silk-like mane; and the cat seemed to reciprocate the feeling. It dug its claws eagerly into Hermione's lap and its tail twitched as she began to pet it right beneath its furry ears.
"You're positively spoiling the urchin," Snape observed from across the room as he came towards her. He stopped in the doorway to observe them.
He was dressed all in black, except for a white dress shirt, which he'd left untucked. And he, decidedly, looked a lot like his cat, Lucius, who was also all black except for a tuft of white fur around its chest.
"It's a peculiar name. Lucius," Hermione murmured as she continued to stroke the purring cat. "I hope it doesn't mean that you're still fond of Lucius Malfoy?"
"Don't be silly." Snape cringed. "If I really cared for Lucius Malfoy, do you think I would have named a Himalayan cat after him? The thing is a ponce just like him, that's why I named the furball after his blond nomenclature. They're both insufferable."
Hermione chuckled and lifted the cat gently off of her lap and onto the floor. The dark, Himalayan cat immediately scowled and raised its scrunched nose in displeasure, clearly not pleased that it had been removed from the warmth and attention in her lap.
"That does sort of make sense, I suppose," Hermione said while observing Lucius's behaviour. "He is sort of uptight for a cat."
"Uptight?!" Snape exclaimed. "Uptight doesn't even begin to cover the pretentious ponce that cat is! It refuses to be fed anything other than filet-of-fish and fish fingers, raises its nose in snobbery and snubs anything that comes from a tin labeled 'cat food' and positively refuses to sleep on anything other than my downy, goose-feathered bed!"
Hermione suppressed a chuckle. "So you don't like Lucius Malfoy, but you don't mind having a cat named Lucius sleep with you every night?"
Snape glared at her. "Do be serious. He's a cat, not a man!" He strode up to her and sat down beside her before pressing a quick kiss to her lips. "Besides, I think you know whom I'd rather share my bed with nowadays. You." He tugged at her sweater.
"And Lucius," Hermione couldn't help but add to tease him more.
Severus Snape rolled his eyes with well-worn snark and placed a hand on her thigh. "Yes, I'm sure I actually have latent, suppressed feelings for Lucius Malfoy and that's why I named a cat after him. Clearly, I'm covering up for something."
The cat in question, watching them both from the carpet, hissed resentfully as if sensing that they were speaking about him. Both Hermione and Snape chuckled as Lucius's bright blue eyes glared at them.
"See? Didn't I tell you he's insufferable."
"Then why did you get him, if you don't love him at least a little?" Hermione pulled at Snape's collar to bring his lips back to hers. She pulled herself onto his lap, where she fit neatly and almost perfectly onto his thick, well-toned thighs.
"Uhh," Snape groaned in between lashings of her tongue and lips. His hands lowered to grip her bottom. "B-because Minerva gave him to me, saying he had no home. She completely suckered me into taking the ratty thing. I had no intention of ever getting a cat. He's been nothing but a nuisance."
"You should give him a chance," Hermione said in between undoing the buttons around his collar. "How long have you had him?"
"Only about 3 months, not long after I started dating you."
Hermione smirked as his tongue darted out to lick at her nose. Snape was rather quirky where he placed his tongue. She held her face back to meet his jet black eyes. "So good things have happened since he's been around?"
Snape tightened his grip on her hips and tried to tip her back forwards on his lap. "Sure, if you count, being covered in cat hair all the time as being 'good'." Snape was trying to be snarky, but his words came out in a deep, rugged grunt.
There was heat building up in Snape's otherwise pale, grim face. He always frowned whenever he was getting aroused. The former Potions Master became very serious and domineering. Hermione reached down to grab Snape's hands off her hips and kissed his palms. "Actually, I have something to tell you."
Snape's chiseled lips fell open, the frown in his forehead disappearing. "What is it?"
"Why are you expecting me to bring bad news?"
"I don't know. Something always seems to go wrong once that cat is around. He's sort of a jinx."
"Don't be ridiculous. This is good news."
"I'll be the judge of that," Snape muttered even more testily.
He seemed to be expecting the worst so instead, Hermione shrugged and whispered into his ear.
"I have to go see my parents for—"
"No."
She hadn't even finished her sentence before he was already refusing.
~O~