1. (Prologue – in a way)

'Sirius, I already told you I'm not interested,' Emily hissed while chopping the plants furiously.

'Oh, come on, I know that you find me attractive, I can see it in your eyes,' the wizard drawled with a coy smile. He stepped closer to her and eyed her ass.

'Then you should go and see an optometrist,' the witch replied and dropped the chopped roots in the cauldron.

'A what?'

'Your eyesight is poor. I'm not attracted to you, Sirius. I already told you that.' Emily was getting really tired of him. He stepped closer again, he was standing right next to her. He leaned closer to her.

'Emily,' he purred, she stepped away from him and rounded the table.

'Sirius, I swear if you don't leave me alone once and for all, I will hex you.'

The man laughed.

'You would do no such thing! You're too nice to do that!' and he stepped closer again.

'Sirius, I'm counting to three! One …'

'Just one dinner!'

'Two …'

'You're so pretty when you're angry!'

'THREE!'

Severus arrived to the lab's door when he heard a howl inside from the room. He pulled out his wand and he wanted to step inside but he crashed into something. It was Sirius.

'Black, what did you do?' Snape hissed.

'Fuck off, Snivellus' the other wizard replied and with a pained expression he hurried upstairs. Snape looked around and saw Emily behind the table, wand in her hand.

'Emily? What happened?'

She cleared her throat and put down her wand.

'It's nothing.'

'Nothing?'

The witch shuffled on her feet and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

'Well… Sirius was asking me out for a while now. I always said him no, I told him I'm not interested.'

Suddenly, Snape felt the anger boiling in him. He stepped closer.

'Did he…?' he asked in a soft voice.

For a moment, Emily was confused.

'What do you mean? Oh … no! He didn't hurt me or touch me. He just didn't stop talking and telling me that I should date him. It was getting really frustrating.'

'And what did you do?'

'I hexed him with the pus-squirting hex.'

Snape looked puzzled.

'It didn't work, his nose was ordinary.'

For Severus' surprise, Emily grinned.

'Oh, I didn't aim for his nose.'

It took several seconds for Snape to understand what she was hinting at. He gaped.

'You didn't …' was all he could say. She shrugged.

'Well, he wasn't thinking with his brain on his neck at that moment so I aimed for his other brain in his pants.' Her face flushed and she continued to chop the ingredients. 'So, Professor, can we continue the work? I already –'

'Severus,' he said breathily.

Emily snapped up her head.

'What did you say?'

He cleared his throat. 'I said "Severus". You may call me Severus. Since … since we are working together, it would be more convenient.'

She smiled at him.

'Alright, Severus.' When she said out loud his name, he felt something warm in his chest. 'But then you have to call me Emily.'

'Of course, Emily.'

From then on, Sirius never showed any interest in Emily.

I didn't want to post this for a while since there aren't more chapters ready but after today's events... There was a period in my life when I was listening to David Bowie songs because they helped me to carry on. He died January 10. I was very sad about it. And today when I was sitting at my desk at work and refreshed my tumblr dashboard, I saw that Alan Rickman died too. I didn't want to believe it and I still can't believe it. I'm sitting here, drinking wine and bawling. I wanted to do something and I thought that starting a new story will help me - and hopefully to you also - to survive this huge loss. Sadly, I have a relative big experience in loss and grief so here's my advice: don't be afraid and ashamed to cry. Even if we didn't know Alan in person, he gave us so much as Snape, or as other characters, or as himself, that his death is a real loss for every fan. Cry, remember, post pictures of him - do anything that will help you to mourn.