The month passed quickly, especially with all the preparations for their wedding. They never imagined their purposely small event would entail so much work! Each day as the sun rose, Crookshanks would make his way from his bed by the heater, to Snape's favorite chair drenched in sun, sitting by the large window in the living room. It was Crookshanks's favorite spot in the house, where he often spent many hours of his day. Snape and Hermione would rise soon after, and make their way to the kitchen for their morning tea, and discuss the latest things to accomplish on their wedding To Do list.
Each morning Snape was forced to remove Crookshanks from his chair, in order to be able to sit. Tired of removing cat hair from it, and himself, he attempted to evoke a spell to keep Crookshanks off his beloved chair. Crookshanks just laughed – he was a magical being after all, he would simply counter the spell as soon as Snape left the room, and get right back up onto the chair. After a while, what started out as simple annoyance, became a daily battle of the wills. Snape, determined not to be outdone by a cat – magical or not – now decided to place a full force field protection spell around his chair, thus preventing Crookshanks from being able to use the chair at all. Feeling quite proud of himself, Snape made his way to the bedroom to get ready for the day.
Crookshanks was upset, and sat in the windowsill nearby, glaring at the chair. As Hermione made her way to the kitchen, she noticed Crookshanks, and wondered why he looked so upset. As she looked a little closer, she could see what Snape had done, and was now upset herself. Snape, now dressed, made his way back to the living room, and came up behind Hermione to hug her – she quickly pulled away. He was surprised at her reaction, "What?" Hermione turned and looked at him, her eyes glaring at him, "Why did you have to do that? Is your stupid chair really so important that you can't share it with Crookshanks? It's his favorite spot in the house – you should be flattered, not irritated." Snape, now upset himself, "Flattered? I have to battle a cat for the simple pleasure of sitting down in my long time beloved chair, everyday – why should I be flattered by that?" Hermione rolled her eyes, "I get that the chair is a guy thing – a King Of The Castle, Throne thing but, to a woman – it's just stupid! It's a chair!" Now glaring at Crookshanks as well, "You two better learn to get along, or I'm going to stop talking to both of you!" With that she stomped away quickly to the bedroom, and closed the door hard behind her. As the door closed, both Snape and Crookshanks winced a bit – this was not good! Hermione rarely lost her temper, and was not to be trifled with when she did. Something had to be done to fix this.
Two days had passed since that tense morning, and all was well again with Snape and Hermione. He had assured her that he would fix the problem, but that he needed a little time to figure out just the right solution. Still feeling that he was an idiot for not just sharing his chair with Crookshanks, she agreed to give him time but, insisted that the matter be resolved by their wedding day next week.
The day of their wedding came and all was a buzz outside. They had chosen to have a small garden wedding, surrounded by all of the beautiful flowers they had planted, and a reception in an elegantly decorated pole tent, lined with flowing white chiffon in the clearing next to them. Picking colors for the wedding had been challenging, given they were from different houses but, they had finally settled on white, silver and gold, and found a way to put it all together that didn't look tacky. Snape had risen earlier than usual, to tend to the workmen, who were now toiling to set all in place for their event. With the workmen all set, Snape went back into the bedroom, to wake Hermione with a kiss, "Good morning, my love. Time to rise and become Mrs. Snape." Hermione smiled, and laughed, she loved it when he tried to be cute. "OK, but only for you." she replied. She kissed him again, and leaned back on her elbows. "I'll put the kettle on, and see you in the kitchen." he said.
As was customary every morning, Snape made his way down the hall to start their morning tea - this morning however, he was met by Crookshanks at the entrance to the living room. Crookshanks stood there, eyebrow raised, staring at Snape with a look of hurt and disgust. Snape stood there, eyebrow raised, staring back at him with a look of indifference. Crookshanks held his ground. Snape always liked that about him. Snape lowered his eyebrow and walk right past Crookshanks, into the living room. Angry, Crookshanks followed him but, when he got there he froze. The living room had been rearranged. There was a new couch against the wall, a coffee table, three new bookshelves, and Three chairs – two placed together with a small table in between, near the book shelves, and Crookshanks's favorite chair sitting in its same spot in the sun, near the large window. He didn't know what to think! Crookshanks looked up at Snape, eyes wide, as Snape looked down at him and said, "Don't say I never gave you anything…and stay off my new chair! Got it?" Crookshanks was stunned. As he walked toward His Chair, he brushed past Snape and smiled. Crookshanks leaped into his chair and snuggled down into the seat, he was so pleased - now there were two Kings Of The Castle, now there were Two Thrones!
Hermione walked into the living room about that time, and stopped suddenly. She looked at the living room, then she looked at Snape, and finally at Crookshanks in His Chair. Her eyes filled with tears, and she quickly hugged and kissed Snape. Still holding on to him, she leaned back and said, "That's so sweet Severus! And, this is the furniture, from London, that I loved so much - when did you order all this?" "The day you got mad at us – I knew it was time." Snape said. She looked at Crookshanks again, and how happy he was; she was so pleased. "I love you! Thank you for all of this!" she said. Snape looked down into her eyes and said, "You're welcome, my love. I love you! Thank you for loving me, and marring me today!" He pulled her close, and passionately kissed her lips.
The rest of the day went along wonderfully. The sun shined brightly above as Snape and Hermione stood among all who they loved, and said their treasured vows. She was so beautiful in her wedding dress, more beautiful than he could ever have imagined. As he stared into her eyes, he could not believe how blessed his life had become. Their life together had been hard won but they had made it, and now they were free to enjoy the kind of peace, and joy, and love that they had previously only dreamed of…and as a bonus – there was now peace with the cat as well – who could ask for anything more? Oh, except maybe the baby that they just recently discovered was on the way but, that's a story for another day. "Dance with me, Mrs. Snape." Snape said as he held out his arm to her. Hermione smiled, as she took his hand, "Forever, my love."
***Thank you for taking the time to read my story – I hope you enjoyed it! Please feel free to leave a review; I'd love to hear from you. Have a great day!***