The lake on the campus of Hogwarts had always been the focus of students during times of good weather no matter the season. During late winter, many of the students had already had their fill of the ice and snow and spent their time waiting for spring to come and the promise of sunshine. Scarlett, while she did like the sunshine and warmth of spring and summer, found the dead of winter quite beautiful in its own right and often went out when she had time to take pictures on her polaroid she had received from her father for her seventeenth birthday months ago. She loved taking these pictures and enjoyed showing her friends who hadn't really experienced the Muggle world the picture that automatically printed from her camera and froze scenes in time.
She was out on a particularly cold day in early February, taking pictures of various scenes of the grounds and the few students out on this snowy day, trying to find the perfect scene to send home in her next letter.
"Scarlett!" someone called out to her, causing her to lower her camera and miss a beautiful shot of an owl swooping down to meet its owner. She gave a huff of a sigh as she turned towards the person who had called out to her only to see a boy that she recognized as a Ravenclaw from a year below her running up to her with a broad grin on his flushed face.
"Hey Artemis," Scarlett called to him in slight irritation since he had ruined her great shot. "What's up?"
"Did you hear they're letting us go to Hogsmeade on Valentine's Day?" Artemis asked her with a flip of his bright blonde hair.
"No, I hadn't," Scarlett answered slowly, her eyes narrowing slightly from her suspicion towards why he was asking her when they must've just announced the sudden trip. Plus the fact that he was asking her about Valentine's Day was strange since the two barely even knew each other outside of Ravenclaw events.
"Then I guess you don't have plans to go with anyone yet," Artemis concluded as his grin widened, flipping his long bans once again and missing Scarlett's eye roll. "How about you come with me for a bit? We could grab a bite or something?"
"I'd rather not," Scarlett told him flat out, knowing well by now that guys did not listen to roundabout nos like she used to give. There was a problem with having such a small class of students when it came to the dating scene and that was a lack of options, so she had received plenty of invites to Hogsmeade over the last few years from boys, and the occasional girl, thinking of her as their best option. She was still quite proud of being one of only a handful of girls that have turned down the infamous Weasley brothers when approached by the superstar Gryffindors. Having Bill a year ahead of her and Charlie just a year behind had led Scarlett to see plenty of broken hearts from the charming duo.
"Oh, come on, you haven't gone out with anyone all year," Artemis chuckled, holding out his hand to her. "Surely you want to go again."
"Montgomery!" a sharp, but cool call interrupted Scarlett as her temper began to boil, causing her and Artemis to jump and turn almost as one to see Professor Snape marching towards them with his black robes billowing around him in stark contrast against the ice and snow.
"Y-Yes Professor?" Scarlett responded in a nervous tone that anyone would assume came from the harsh tone Snape had used with her, but in fact came from the sudden appearance of the man she had been developing deep feelings for ever since they made an interesting deal at the beginning of the school year.
"You left your work station a mess after your extra lesson this morning. I expect you will come in tomorrow for detention to clean the entire room after this lack thought," Snape told her snidely before his eyes shifted to Artemis. "Ah, I hope you were not trying to make plans with her to go on the Hogsmeade trip."
"N-Not at all Professor," Artemis stuttered, taking a step back from the imposing man. He glanced towards Scarlett with a small nod before he scurried away from the two.
"I didn't interrupt anything I assume," Snape asked her slowly as he turned to look at Scarlett with an amused expression. At the sight of his expression, Scarlett began to smile ever so slightly.
"Not at all," she promised him before she gave her own small laugh. One of Snape's eyebrows rose in question at her laugh, receiving a mock glare in return. "I never forget to clean my station so why do I have detention?"
"You seemed to need help getting out of that date," Snape explained slowly, watching her reaction carefully. "And now you have a reason to say no to anyone else who may ask you on a last minute date for this ridiculous holiday."
"So I really have detention?" Scarlett clarified, looking more excited than she should have for receiving a punishment., Snape rolled his eyes very slightly before he left her side so she could continue her day with the expectation of having to report to the dungeon the next morning. Scarlett would have been lying to herself if she did not admit that she was actually very excited for the detention assignment.
The next morning came early for Scarlett as she and her friends attended breakfast like they always did. Many of them promised to bring back gifts from various shops when they said goodbye to one another so they could go have fun while she headed towards detention in the dungeons. While they were all pitying her, Scarlett felt like she could have skipped the entire way to the room, but froze in the doorway when she found that she was not the only student that had been assigned detention. Twin redheads were up to their necks in dirty cauldrons and were laughing away as they whispered to one another while they were cleaning.
"There you are Montgomery," Snape called as he swept through the room like the boys were insignificant and practically nonexistent. Scarlett could hardly look at him when she was addressed, the feelings of disappointment filling her so much that she was worried he could see it in her eyes. She didn't want to admit it, but she had been hoping he was planning on surprising her with something since it was Valentine's Day. They had never made anything official and definitely not public, but the two had shared several moments since the incident with the love potion, so Scarlett had assumed that there was something more between them.
"You will be working on preserving ingredients for the pantry," Snape instructed her as he guided her towards a table near the front of the classroom with several strange ingredients and empty jars piled onto it. Scarlett nodded as she put down her things and set to work, trying hard to keep the look of disappointment off of her face.
Time seemed to tick by slower than ever to Scarlett and was only punctuated by the sound of her knife slicing through the ingredients before her and the twins' laughter.
Eventually there was a knock on the door before Charlie Weasley stepped through with a solemn grin.
"Good afternoon Professor," he called to Snape to gain his attention when the man did not look up at his entrance. "I am here to pick up my brothers like you asked."
"I am aware of why you are here, Mr. Weasley," Snape told him still without looking up. He shifted the papers he was grading away from him before looking at Charlie with a slight sneer as Scarlett paused to look at their interactions. She had always heard that Snape was harder on the Gryffindors, but had never gotten to see if that was true since she had always had potions with Hufflepuffs and there weren't any in the NEWT level at this point. "I trust you will keep them out of trouble if I let them go with you?"
"I will do my best, sir," Charlie responded formally, very stiff when addressing the Slytherin Head of House.
"See that you do," Snape murmured before motioning for them to go as he turned back to his grading. The twins scrambled up from their piles of cauldrons and hurried out of the room ahead of their older brother. Charlie paused, catching Scarlett's eye before he nodded to her and headed out the door as well. Scarlett sighed softly as she pulled out her wand to clean up her station, preparing to leave herself so she could go grab a bit of lunch and possibly find her friends in Hogsmeade since nothing was going on here.
"What do you think you are doing?" Snape questioned her when he saw her begin to clean up. He stood up from his desk and swept over to her side so he could grab her wrist, cutting short the cleaning spell that she was using on the mess she had made. Scarlett refused to look up at him since she could already feel herself becoming angry for being tricked and didn't want to snap at him and show that anger. "Who said that you were done?"
"It is time for lunch, Professor, so I would like to get something to eat," Scarlett told him slowly so she could keep her emotions in check while addressing him. "You already allowed the Weasleys to leave, so why can I not leave when i wasn't really in trouble to begin with?"
Snape seemed to pause at her words before he released her wrist so he could go back to his desk with his robes billowing with his harsh stride.
"Leave if that is what you wish," he snapped at her as he sat back down to work on grading more of the papers.
"That is not what I want," Scarlett snapped back at him, her fists clenching tightly at her sides. She and Snape's eyes connected, both of them with eyes blazing with different emotions. While Scarlett's eyes were bright with fury and embarrassment, Snape's eyes were ablaze with indignation and something that Scarlett couldn't describe.
"What do you want then" Snape finally asked her after they stared at each other for a while. Scarlett's fury dissipated slightly at the question, replaced by embarrassment in the fullest extent. She looked away from him as a light blush colored her cheeks.
"Nothing important, sir," she murmured softly, refusing to look towards him again. "If I'm done with detention, I'll just go."
"You are not done with you detention," Snape told her sharply as he stood once more. He took a moment to collect himself before he drew his wand and summoned a tray from the pantry. "I had planned to give you something more, but those twins ruined the preparations I had been working on."
The tray had a simple copper pot on it that was covered with a ld and had long rods lining it. Scarlett looked at Snape in confusion until the lid was removed and the contents were revealed. Smooth chocolate was bubbling away in the pot and Scarlett could now see that the rods were actually long forks.
"Fondue?" Scarlett questioned in amusement, her eyebrow raised slightly as she looked at him again.
"I overheard that this is a common meal for couples on Valentine's Day," Snape informed her slowly, avoiding eye contact as he settled the pot down on a desk near them.
"I thought that you didn't like this holiday?" Scarlett said in a teasing tone before she began to blush slightly as his words clicked.
"I do not, but you are young and seem to enjoy these such holidays," Snape said with a small frown as he pulled one of the forks out of the pot, revealing the fruit he had skewered on it that was now coated in chocolate. He held out the fruit for her to eat off the fork, causing her to blush even deeper at him feeding her. She opened her mouth very slowly, avoiding eye contact with him as she ate the dessert at the end of the fork. Snape grinned slyly at her, shifting the fork ever so slightly to smudge some of the chocolate onto her lips, causing her to jump slightly.
"messy child," he chuckled as he cupped her chin to adjust her face to look to the side, leaning down to slowly lick the chocolate off of her cheek. As Scarlett's face turned even deeper red,, he chuckled again and turned to put the fork away before he froze, feeling her arms circle around his chest and her face bury into his back. "Scarlett?"
"You think of us as a couple" Scarlett murmured into his back, incredibly muffled so he could barely understand her.
"Do you not?" he replied with a short chuckle. Without any warning, he broke free from her grasp and turned to pull her into a hug of his own. "After how often I've made you have private lessons, you still do not believe that I have feelings for you?"
"Kissing doesn't mean we are a couple," Scarlett muttered into his chest with a small pout as her long feelings of frustration at where their relationship was even going began to come up for the first time around him. She normally tried to keep things at bay around him so she didn't ruin what relationship they did have, but she was tired of it now and wanted a straight answer from him.
"Kissing is not all that we do," Snape commented slowly, his eyes narrowing as he looked down at her closely.
"But we don't do anything that a normal couple does!" Scarlett snapped at him loudly, tears springing to her eyes as her fury bubbled over and let itself loose on Snape. "We only kiss and flirt and talk about potions! I want to do more than that with you! I want to go out! I want to know about you! I want to talk to you, really talk to you! Is that so wrong!?"
"That is not wrong at all," Snape murmured soothingly as he pulled her to him and kissed the top of her head. "I want that with you too and we will have that, but you must focus on your studies for now. We will talk more from now on and I promise I will tell you about my past but only once you graduate. Will that work for you?"
"Yes," she seemed to squeak into his chest. Scarlett gave a small sniffle as she hugged him tightly, her heart hammering with all of the emotion she was feeling at his words. Snape pulled away from her ever so slightly and nudged her chin so she would look up at him, a small smile playing at his lips.
"I love you, Scarlett Montgomery," he murmured softly before he leaned down to gently kiss her lips.