"Ready to face the music?" Eowyn asked. They were standing outside the door to her sister's house, in the countryside outside Limerick. The farmhouse was two stories high with coloured lights strung all over the place in no particular pattern and a wooden sign with the words Put Your Hands Up And Give Us ALL Your Presents Santa! written in unsteady crayon.
"Ready as I'll ever be," said Severus drily.
"You can say that again," said Eowyn. Then she smiled at him and said, "By the way, you don't look half bad in Muggle clothes."
"Once more, I remind you that you promised never to tell anyone of this," he said.
She rolled her eyes. "Really, Severus, I think your students would love to know that you loosen up a bit sometimes."
"I know. That's why I don't want you to tell them," he said. The truth was he thought she looked good in Muggle clothes too – a chequered black and purple shirt and flared jeans, her hair in a crude ponytail. It was a closer, less formal version of her. It was a version he thought he could get used to and well worth being forced into a black Muggle shirt and jeans.
"Right, try not to look like a Death Eater," said Eowyn. "She once beat up some trick-or-treaters with an umbrella when she saw their masks."
"Are you trying to scare me away?" Severus asked.
"No, just testing your endurance," said Eowyn and rang the doorbell.
The door instantly swung open to reveal a tall, slender woman with black hair held up by half a dozen hairgrips and an apron looking rather alien over a pencil skirt, blouse and a pair of cherry red stilettos. "Done standing at our door gossiping with your boyfriend?" she asked. Her voice was lighter than Eowyn's, the Irish accent stronger.
"Arwen …" called a man's voice from further in the house. "Remember what we agreed."
"Fine!" said Arwen. She held out a hand towards Severus. "Arwen Gondolin, the person you will have to cut in half if you want to get anywhere near my sister. Please come in."
"And you wonder why I don't bring any friends home," Eowyn murmured, following Severus and her sister in.
oo0oo
Severus had quickly come to the conclusion that Eowyn's brother-in-law, Kili, was his best friend in this house. The tall, dark haired Scotsman took him to one side away from his wife and sat him down for a civilised conversation while Eowyn was dragged off to the kitchen by her sister, no doubt to be interrogated as to what her relationship with Severus was.
"Your wife has a rather … interesting dress sense," Severus could not help but remark.
Kili smiled, stroking the head of one of the huge Irish wolfhounds that inhabited the house. "I know," he said. "She doesn't usually dress up for Christmas. Usually over the holidays it's all I can do to get her to dress in more than a dressing gown. I think the idea of Eowyn finally bringing a potential brother-in-law to the house has made her raise her guard. She'll intimidate you as much as possible and see whether you cave or not. It's essentially what Eowyn did to me when Arwen brought me home. Except she kind of went for the caveman with a cricket bat effect."
"I can imagine that," said Severus drily. "And just so you know, I have no interest in your sister-in-law beyond friendship."
"Sure you don't," said Kili and continued the conversation. But Severus wasn't sure that Kili believed him.
About halfway through a conversation about Defensive Spells he became aware of a pair of eyes watching him. Turning to look, he saw a head sticking out from around the doorframe that led into the lounge. The eyes, blue and bright and curious, stared right back at him, assessing him.
"That's Tauriel," said Kili. "Come on, you wee leprechaun. We won't tell Mom you've left the kitchen."
The girl came into full view, grinning now. She looked to be about eight years old but, judging by the height of her father and mother, Severus guessed that she must be one or two years younger than that, with dark hair cut in a bob at her chin. She came over to her father and sat beside his chair with the dog, just like Eowyn would do beside his chair, Severus thought.
They continued their conversation for a while now. But Severus couldn't help but glance at the child now and again. He wasn't usually a child person. Especially not a Muggle child person. But this child was almost certainly a Muggle and yet there was an intensity, an intelligence about her that was somewhat mesmerising. She was scrutinising him, he realised, looking him over in much the same way that Arwen had when he first came in the door. He wondered whether Arwen had sent her in to spy on him. He guessed it was a rational thing to do, what with his history.
He was rather surprised when she opened her mouth and said, "You're a wizard, right?"
Severus glanced at Kili and, seeing the smile of reassurance, said, "Yes, I am."
"So you have a wand?"
"Yes."
"And you can turn Brussel sprouts into chocolate balls?"
"Yeeees."
"Well I hate Brussel sprouts and Mom's making them so can you please do that?"
"You're asking me to defy your mother, who, according to what your aunt has told me, is a highly terrifying and successful lawyer who wears high heels for the sole purpose of stepping on the feet of people she can't stand?" Severus asked.
Tauriel thought about it for a moment before saying, "Yes."
oo0oo
"That's strange," said Arwen as they sat down at the table for dinner, "I could swear I prepared Brussel sprouts … large balls of Cadbury's chocolate."
"Who cares?" said Jason, reaching for the bowl. "I'll have a handful."
"No!" said Arwen, striking with a ladle in her son's direction. "Dessert comes after the main course!"
"But you brought it out with the main course," Benny pointed out.
"That's not the point," said Arwen. "Shloer, Severus?"
It turned out to be an extremely enjoyable evening. The food was wonderful for a start, even better than the Hogwarts cooking and the conversation was considerably more enjoyable than listening to Trelawney gabbling on about who was going to die this week.
Kili was an auror with a side interest in magizoology – in particular underwater creatures such as merfolk. He was an intelligent man and full of stories to tell but not plying Severus for stories of his own.
Arwen, after her initial 'greeting' was pleasant in her own way, with a sarcastic sense of humour that was surprisingly similar to Severus' own. No wonder Eowyn had found it so easy to cope with him. She had been dealing with her sister her whole life. She was rather more interested in his life before and during the war than her husband was, but seemed to know when to push a matter and when not to. She soon settled for exchanging stories of Lockhart, Trelawney and other incompetent people who they both worked alongside.
The boys, Jason and Benny, were intelligent, humorous and talkative, showering him with information as to what was going on in their Muggle school, groaning about their terrible French teacher and how they were hiding a cat in one of the drama rooms. Severus could not help but smile as he listened to them. Clearly making you laugh was a Gondolin trait.
Finally, Tauriel riddled him with questions. About the magical world, about magical creatures, about magical spells, about famous magical people and famous magical places. She expressed particular interest in Transfiguration, shooting so many questions at him, at such a complicated level that in the end he was forced to say. "I'm afraid I'll have to ask Professor McGonagall." To which Benny responded by saying, "High-five! You made the great Severus Snape admit that he doesn't know something!"
Then, when Severus raised an eyebrow at Eowyn she said, "You've made somewhat a name for yourself in this house."
"I noticed," said Severus drily.
Finally, they unwillingly admitted that it was time to go at almost one o'clock in the morning. Unwillingly – even for Severus. For the first time in a long time, he had well and truly enjoyed spending time in the raucous company of fellow human beings – most of them Muggles.
As Eowyn was hugging Tauriel goodbye and promising to send her more sketches of the magical animals at Hogwarts Arwen drew Severus to one side in the entrance hall. "First of all," she said, "I would like to know one thing. What was the first thing you thought of me when I opened the door today?"
"What?" he asked, blinking.
"Tell me," she said firmly, hands resting on her hips. "And answer honestly. If you lie I'll be able to tell."
"Why would you need my opinion?" he asked, confused. She did not strike him as the sort of woman to want the approval of others, and her tone did not say so either.
"Just do as I say."
The first word that would come to mind. "Interesting dress sense," he said.
"Why so?"
"Most women tend to wear an apron with something more practical than – whatever kind of dress that is. I'm not a fashion expert but I'd say if you want it to last without oil stains, you'd have to wear something more practical."
Arwen nodded. It was hard to see in the dim light of the hallway, but he was certain he caught a look of approval on her face. "I see," she said.
Then Eowyn was with him and Arwen was hugging her goodbye and they were leaving.
"Well," said Eowyn, "what do you think?"
"I like them," said Severus. "Your sister is a bit strange though," he added.
"I thought you'd say that."
First I'd like to say a big thank you to FaithfulWarrior for her continued support for this fic. Don't worry, Arwen's peculiar behaviour will be explained in the next chapter. Hope you like it! :)