Severus was already in the lab when Hermione entered the next morning. She wasn't sure how he would feel about her in the light of day. Last night he said he had wanted to continue kissing her, but he was sober now so she wondered if he regretted what they had done. Deciding she'd let him make the next move, she gave him a smile, a quick greeting, and got to work on the potion.
Watching her enter the lab, Severus returned her greeting but didn't say anything more. He wanted to bring up last night, ask her if he could kiss her now, but he didn't. He had no real experience with women, except ones he met, shagged, and left the same night. That was not what he was looking for in Hermione. Deciding he wouldn't say anything until Hermione brought it up, he went back to brewing.
"Hermione," Severus called. They had just finished brewing and were currently siphoning it into vials. "Can I get your advice on something?"
"Of course you can," Hemrione answered.
"On Friday, Ginny mentioned that I could make a killing selling my soap. I know that there aren't a lot of superfluous scents in the Wizarding world when it comes to personal hygiene. Do you think Ginny is right? Is there a market for scented soaps?"
Hermione thought about it. When she had started going to Hogwarts, she had relied on the soap they provided and was surprised it had been unscented. After a few weeks, she had asked her mum to send her scented Muggle soap, and that was what she had done the rest of her time there. Parvati and Lavender had liked the smell, so they used it as well. She remembered Lavender complaining more than once that witches needed good smelling things.
Hermione relayed the story to Severus. "I do think there is a market, but I am not sure how big it is. Lavender actually just opened a beauty shop in Diagon Alley a couple of months ago. She sells hair care products, things like that I believe. I haven't ever been there, but Ginny has. I think she would be the best person to talk to."
"I wonder if she is there today."
"Are you thinking making soaps is what you want to do?" she asked.
She wasn't trying to be rude, but Severus Snape, Prince Of Soaps, just didn't seem right to her.
"Not full time," he said. "But the idea of not having something to do will drive me crazy."
"Why don't you start working on all the potions you had improved on and send them in? That should keep you busy right?"
"You seem to be trying to dissuade me from making soaps," Severus questioned. "Is there a reason?"
"Not at all. I think you would be excellent at it," Hemrione said. "I just don't think it would be enough for you. You are like me, we need things that keep us intellectually engaged. I just don't see soap as being that thing for you."
"But I am used to teaching, brewing experimental potions, and serving two masters. So the idea of only working on the potions doesn't feel like it will be enough for me," he explained. "Making soap will be something that relaxes me."
"Then I think it is a great idea," she told him. "Do you want to come drop this stuff off at Lupin House and then we can go to see Lavender?"
They were on their way to Lavender's shop and had just entered the Leaky when Severus asked Hermione. "Do you think I could buy some potion ingredients from you?"
"I told you that you could use whatever you need from my stores or garden." Hermoine said. "Why would you ask if you could buy it?"
They had made their way into the courtyard and Hermione was tapping the brick to get into the alley before they stepped through.
"I know you told me that, but that was when I wasn't really using anything," Severus answered. "I talked to the orphanage director while you were dealing with the wolves and promised her I would brew her all the potions that they need. They were low or out of almost every one."
"You're going to help them?" Hermione asked, stunned.
She knew that Severus wasn't the biggest fan of werewolves, almost being mauled by Lupin twice. He had told her he would help improve the Wolfsbane because he would rather not have 'full grown hairy monsters trying to eat everyone'.
"They are children that did nothing wrong, of course I will help them."
What did she think he was, a man that liked to make children suffer? Well, I guess I can't blame her, I was a right bastard when I was a teacher. But that's only because the little fuckers were a pain in my arse every damn day.
Severus grunted as Hermione flung herself into his arms, squeezing him tightly. A flash from a camera went off right as she kissed his cheek.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Hermione exclaimed. "You can use whatever you need from my stores, no charge. Thank you so much for doing that. You are the best, Severus."
"Well, Hermione, you two sure move fast. One date and you're already being affectionate in public," Parvati said as she came towards them. "Anything you would like to tell your readers?"
"I would prefer you keep my personal life out of the paper, Ms Patil," Severus snapped, giving her his worst sneer.
"Your 'Professor Snape' routine isn't going to work on me, sir," she shot back. "I'm not going to follow you around, but when you are hugging and kissing right in front of me and witnesses, I have a duty to report it."
"Parvati, we weren't hugging and kissing," Hermione said with exasperation. "Severus had just told me about some good news and you know how I am, I get huggy when I am happy. That is all."
"And what was the good news?"
Severus sighed. Stupid, nosey, reporters.
"Just that I'll be donating some of my time to make potions for a Lupin House, the werewolf orphanage," Severus answered.
"That is a great cause Professor." Parvati had gone quiet and solemn. "Thank you so much for helping them. I'll see what I can do about losing that picture." Severus stared at her, not sure what was happening. "You must not know. My best friend, Lavender Brown, do you remember her?"
"Yes," he replied. "We are actually on our way to see her right now."
"Are you really? Oh, you must tell her what you are doing. Anyway, Lavender was attacked by Greyback during the Final Battle. He ripped her up pretty bad, but it wasn't the full moon, so she only has some wolf traits. She spends a lot of time at Lupin House and will be pleased you will be helping the children." She paused for a moment. "How about I take a picture of the two of you coming out of Lav's shop? Then I could use that for the story instead of the one we took before."
"Fine," Severus sighed.
Maybe if he did start selling items at Miss Brown's store this article would help.
"Thank you, sir. Hermione."
Parvati started to walk away before Hermione stopped her.
"Before you leave," Hermoine asked her, "can you send me a copy of the picture you took of us on Friday?"
"Of course. And thank you again for giving me a heads up," Parvati replied with a huge smile on her face. "My boss gave me a bonus because I had the exclusive interview."
"Thank you, Parvati. I am glad it worked out for you."
Lavender, it turned out, loved his idea and thought there was a market for it. She was currently selling Muggle soaps and they were moving off the shelves pretty quickly. Evidently the magical community wanted it, but weren't willing to venture into Muggle London to get it. Lavender thought that they would sell more if the cost came down from her current prices. As it was, she had to go buy the soap at a Muggle shop, then markup the price even higher so she could make a profit. Severus offered to send her a few samples by the end of next week.
Severus had expected to spend at least one whole day in Gringotts going through his vault. Hermione had said Harry kept his vault separate from the Prince vault where they had stored Severus' things, but he had assumed they had just thrown everything in there. He was surprised when he walked in to see everything in labelled boxes, piled neatly around the vault. He recognized Hermione's handwriting on all of the labels. Merlin bless that woman.
Looking through the box that said Important Papers, he found his passport and driver's license. He wanted to set up a Muggle bank account and knew he would need them. Thankfully he had renewed both right before he died so they weren't expired yet. He figured if he had lived through the war he would be on the run in the Muggle world so he had wanted to be prepared.
Before he left the house, Hermione had loaned him a messenger bag she had placed an undetectable expansive charm on. Opening it, he filled it with a few dozen books, and a sizeable amount of Galleons. Taking the cart back to the main floor, he had the goblins exchange most of them into pounds. Grabbing a few items from the stores in Diagon Alley, he headed towards a bank Hermione had mentioned that was nearby and opened a new account and ordered a bank card.
On his way home he stopped in St Ives. He had noticed a boutique that sold all kinds of Muggle bath products last time he was here. When he walked in he was overwhelmed with the conflicting scents of all of the items. Grabbing a few bars of soap and some bottles of something called shower gel, he Apparated home.
He spent the next few hours in the lab trying to duplicate some of the scents and figure out which ones worked well together. Magical soap wasn't much different from Muggle soap in terms of how well they cleaned. The biggest difference was that magical soap used plants with magical properties. That caused a problem when he wanted to add different ingredients to change the scent because the additives could make the soap not work anymore.
After spending two long days in the lab he realized that he could make the soap with a combination of the magical and Muggle way, but improve the quality over the samples he had purchased in St. Ives. The recipe was basic and he was able to create the same base in bulk, then add scents to smaller batches.
By Tuesday night he had created what he thought was a perfect base. Splitting it into a few different cauldrons, he scented each soap with ingredients that he thought would go well for Hermione, Ginny, Harry, Draco, and Narcissa. Borrowing Perphesone, he sent each of them a bar asking them to try it out and let him know what they thought by Friday.
Wednesday morning he was sitting at the table drinking coffee before heading back to the lab again. Hermoine entered and smiled at him.
"Severus, your soap is amazing," Hermione told him. "It has great lather, my skin doesn't feel dry, and I loved the smell. How did you know I would like coconut?"
"You like the water, and the cove here looks like it is in the tropics," Severus explained. "Thinking about those two things brought visions of palm trees to my mind, so I picked coconut."
"Thank you. It is perfect. I will let you know tonight if my skin feels any different." Grabbing a mug, she poured herself a cup of coffee.
Standing, Severus made his way over to her.
"Would you mind if I examined the scent? I want to see how it smells when it is applied to your skin."
Hermione blushed and thought about telling him he could examine her whole body if he wanted to. Since they had kissed over the weekend, she wanted his lips on every part of her.
"Of course."
Pushing her hair out of the way, Severus leaned down and placed his face by her neck. He let his lips slide over the skin as he took in the smell of coconuts. Keeping his face there, he spoke, lips ghosting over her neck.
"You smell perfect."
Hermione placed her hand on his face and was pulling him towards her lips when her fireplace roared to life. Son of a bitch! All I want is to kiss this man. Can't people just send owls?
"Uncle?" Draco stuck his head through and raised his eyebrow at them snickering. "Sorry to interrupt."
"What do you want?" Severus growled. Stupid, annoying kid. Can't he see I'm busy?
"Mother was hoping she could talk to you about your soap," Draco said, "but I can't bring her through. Would you like to come over for tea? Father would like to see you too."
"Fine. I will come over soon," Severus replied.
Draco disappeared from the fire and Severus leaned his forehead against Hermione's. "That boy has horrible timing."
"Yes, he does," Hermione agreed. "I have to get to work. I'll write down my house location so you can give it to Narcissa. I don't mind if she comes over. But," she paused hoping she wouldn't offend him. "I don't think I am ready to have Lucius in my home. I know he is your friend and you live here, but I think I need some reassurances that he isn't a Muggleborn hating bigot anymore before he comes over."
"I understand. I will make sure only Narcissa sees it. And Astoria if you want. I know you told Draco she was welcome here."
"Thank you. Astoria is fine."
She wrote her information down quickly before handing it to him. Stretching, she placed a lingering kiss on his cheek and left.
