What if? The Purgatory of Lily
Missing Moments 4
Awful
Quite possibly the worst date I ever had...
Author's Note: In order to understand this short story, it is preferable to have read the eighth chapter of my fic 'What if, the Purgatory of Lily'. However, to those who haven't, here is a quick summary of the time-line from that chapter: instead of Lily choosing Peter Pettigrew to be the Secret-Keeper of the Potters, she chose to keep it as Sirius. Eventually, Peter kidnapped Harry, only to be stopped and slain by Severus. This led to reconciliation between Lily, James and Severus. The final pairing for Severus is SSHG in this chapter, so be warned.
Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling, nor do I own the Harry Potter Series.
Hermione frowned as she looked herself in the full-length, oaken-backed mirror, evaluating her appearance. Forcing a hopefully-seductive smile, she moved close, squinted at her hair as she turned slowly to give herself a better angle for inspection, then sighed dismally. Her hair was something that she had to admit was usually...less than impressive, only once or twice in her life not resembling a bird's nest. Tonight was luckily one of those times, as she had made use of most of her small stash of Sleakeazy's, but still...
It was something that she hadn't minded much while she had been dating Ron or even during that stint with Seamus, but those had been completely different situations. She had never really cared much if she impressed them. They were just teenage boys after all; although Lavender and Parvati sometimes tried to convince her otherwise, Hermione had quickly realized that taking the time to 'dress to the nines' was just time wasted since they were so easily pleased by the smallest of efforts beyond the norm. Really, it was kind of sad...
However, this...encounter was different, as she wasn't going out with just anyone.
She was going on a date with Severus, even if he didn't realize it yet. Somehow, that made looking her best absolutely critical, as she felt that nothing less would do. She didn't just want to impress him, she NEEDED to do it, make him so besotted with her that he would never look at another woman again. Nothing less would do...
"Aren't you done in there yet, Hermione?" Hermione heard her roommate's voice shouting irritably. Ginny had been positively furious when she had found out about her and Ron breaking up earlier last year, angrier than either one of the couple had been actually. She suspected that the youngest Weasley's present annoyance was because she was still hoping that Hermione and Ron would get back together, especially because she had broken up with Seamus a month ago...
"I'll only be a bit, Ginny, so just give me a minute. Unless there is something you really need?" Replied Hermione, checking to see if she had applied her blush properly. She wanted to look beautiful and mature tonight, not like a recently-graduated teenager. The age gap would be awkward enough without her parading it in his face.
"That's what you said an HOUR AGO! What's the point of spending so much time in there for bloody Snape!? I mean, you didn't go through half the trouble when you were dating Ron!" Came back Ginny's angry shout. Apparently she was on THAT topic again...
"Oh, shut up! And stop bringing up your prat of a brother!" Hermione yelled back. "That was over a YEAR ago! Besides, he's happy with Susan. And before you ask, we are never getting back together, and that's FINAL!"
"You...SHUT UP!" And to Hermione's relief, she could hear the sounds of Ginny stomping away.
'I wish she would just move on... Even Ron agrees that the two of us just didn't mesh. Him catching me making out with Seamus like that was just the excuse that both of us looking for, really.' Hermione mused to herself...
Although she hadn't realized the significance at the time, she had been far more hurt by the look of disappointment in Severus' eyes when she had told him about the kiss than she had been when Ron had been ranting about her being a 'cheating little bint!', not that she hadn't deserved it. Ron had gotten over it rather quickly, accepting like Hermione that the two no longer fit together properly, but Severus had been far less forgiving...
Even though he had still accepted her apprenticeship after he found out and had never mentioned the incident again, Hermione knew that it had still cast a long shadow on their relationship. Severus was the kind of man who was an endlessly faithful constant, loyal to his friends and those he loved to an extent that few could match. For good or ill, he would rarely if ever change himself or his mind, and the very idea of being so faithless was anathema to him.
After all, even though he had dated other women over the years, it was common knowledge that he had carried a torch for Harry's mum since before HE had started attending Hogwarts...
Sighing at the depressing thought, Hermione gave herself another once-over, just in case she had missed anything.
She was in a nicely-cut emerald-green dress that supposedly managed to accentuate her figure nicely, supporting her bust without aid of anything else, a pair of ankle-killing high-heels which added another few inches to her height, a simple, pearl necklace outlining her rather-pale neck, and finally a pair of sapphire earrings in the shape of dolphins. It should have made her look positively stunning, and she tried to force another smile, only to fail dismally...
Unfortunately, she could see how her rather-large hips were ruining the effect, as the dress hugged them far too well. Also, now that she was looking carefully, she could see that showing off her bosom wasn't as effective as she had hoped, as they were only of moderately-large size rather than the huge knockers Hermione had seen on that gorgeous new DADA teacher and that certainly wouldn't help keep Severus off the market...
Frankly, Hermione thought she looked positively hideous.
For the umpteenth time since she had begun her self-critique, Hermione considered trying to call Severus by phone and cancel the 'dinner out to celebrate your first year as my apprentice' meeting that he had set up, but she knew that she was too late already...especially when she heard him banging on the front door. Hopefully, Ginny would answer and not make a huge fuss over it, but Hermione was now officially too late to change her mind.
Giving her hair one final brush, knowing that she was already late, Hermione decided that this was as good as it was going to get.
Walking out of the only bedroom of the dingy flat she shared with Ginny with a sigh, Hermione prepared for what would probably be the worst date in the history of dates as she strode towards the living room.
Seeing Severus, dressed up in midnight-blue robes and with his hair combed and cleaned up, Hermione managed to force a smile as she greeted him. 'This is going to be a disaster; I just know it...'
Severus' reaction, being the refined, emotionally closed off sort of person he was, was far less obvious than it would have been for most males. He merely nodded, before taking hold of Hermione's arm with a small smile, then apparating with her outside of the Italian restaurant they had planned to eat at.
Inside his mind though...Severus was completely gobsmacked, and he had to remember to suppress his urge to drool at the beauty of his brilliant apprentice. If he hadn't had the foresight not to say anything, then his date would have been sorely amused by his stuttering attempts at speech.
It was a good thing that he had decided to listen to Lily's admonishments to him as she had helped him get ready, having flooed over the moment she had heard about his and Hermione's dinner plans, not that he'd ever tell her that. It had been quite embarrassing... 'Severus, you spent nearly fifteen years IN LOVE WITH ME before I found out, and I'm not letting you make that mistake again! I don't care if you think you look POSITIVELY HIDEOUS! You're going to have dinner with Hermione, have a great time and make it into the date you know you want to have with her! GOT IT!?'
Severus was thus determined to do his utmost to impress Hermione, lest Lily remove his internal organs as she had threatened to do if he made a mess of things. At least, that was the excuse he was sticking to... 'This is going to be a disaster; I am certain of it.'
Unfortunately, neither Hermione nor Severus knew the thoughts of their respective partner. As such, they proceeded to have one of the most awkward pseudo-dates known to man, with both stuttering the whole time, unsure of whether to treat it as a date or a meeting. Hermione clumsily spilled some of the red wine down her pretty green dress, while Severus attacked the meatballs on his plate with such gusto that one of them ended up smacking him on the face when he missed it with his fork. Both tried to flirt subtly with each other, but neither understood the metaphors the other was using. To cap the evening off, Severus attempted to apparate while Hermione wasn't quite ready, causing her to throw up all over his nice dress robes.
The evening was a disaster, the likes of which had never been seen before or since.
Thus, it was to nobody's surprise that they agreed to meet for dinner again, same time next week.
Author's Note: I decided to write this as a sort of test, to see if I could write a proper Severus/Hermione romance without being too cheesy, avoiding the main cliches of the pairing (Ron cheating on Hermione and generally being a giant prat who no-one would ever consider dating, Severus acting like every girl's dream date on the first date, etc...).
Also, I am considering deleting this fic, and simply attaching it to the main 'What if? The Purgatory of Lily' fic. What do you guys think?
