Don't own anything recognisable from JK Rowling's Harry Potter books
Chapter 9
Diagon Alley.
At seven-thirty precisely that morning Katrina went to the Main Entrance, only to discover Severus waiting for her.
"Are you always this late?" he asked sneeringly.
Katrina looked at her watch. "It's just gone seven-thirty," she said coolly.
He raised an eyebrow at her, and narrowed his eyes, but didn't say anything.
She folded her arms and looked at him, daring him to speak first. She noticed that, instead of the usual black robe, he was wearing black trousers and a black jumper.
'He's certainly got a wide range of colours in his wardrobe!' Katrina thought sarcastically, and kept staring at him.
His clothes were slightly baggy on his frame, giving the impression that he was skinny, but Katrina knew better.
"Are you ready to go?" he asked nonchalantly, interrupting her thoughts.
She checked her bag to see if she had everything. "Yes," she said finally.
He walked over to the fireplace. "Ladies first," he said patronisingly.
Coughing and spluttering, Katrina and Severus arrived at Diagon Alley. They familiarized themselves with their surroundings, and looked at each other.
"I am going to the muggle shops to get Dumbledore's supplies…"
"That will be fine," she interrupted him. "I need some things from there as well."
He nodded curtly and stalked of towards the Leaky Cauldron, Katrina marched after him.
They entered the rowdy pub, and they were greeted with silence. All the eyes were on Severus Snape; they watched him curiously and suspiciously.
Katrina watched as Severus nodded in acknowledgement at some of the punters in the pub, but none of them returned his greeting clearly, it was all inaudible.
They reached the muggle world, where they blended in to the hoards of crowds.
Katrina unconsciously smoothed down her clothes. She was wearing a deep green t-shirt, which clung to her figure, with black combat trousers and a short black leather jacket.
She was used to trying to make herself inconspicuous.
He turned abruptly, and she found herself almost hurtling into him, she managed to stop before she embarrassed herself.
"I'm going there." He pointed to a well-known sweet shop with a grimace. She noticed a lot of kids tugging at their parents' arms trying to get in there. "I will meet you at this spot in half-an-hour," he commanded.
Katrina resisted the urge to salute; instead she nodded, checked her watch and walked into the bustle of the crowds.
It wasn't too crowded in the chemists that she went to. Firstly she went to the optician's part to pick up her tinted prescription contact lenses. She had transferred her prescription to near Diagon Alley as soon as she had heard from Albus about the job.
Wandering around the main section of the chemists, she picked up a few luxuries.
A new perfume that smelled of vanilla, expensive shampoo, intensive conditioner for her hair, a few bath pearls, and a sweet little bag full of smellies. She strolled to the hair-dye section and chewed on her lower lip.
"I don't know when I'll next be here," she mumbled, and decided to pick up as many bottles of light brown as she could, providing she could smuggle them past Severus.
"That's going to be a problem," she muttered, looking at the basket full of boxes. What was in the next aisle gave her an idea.
~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~
Severus was in the middle of his worst nightmare.
He was stood in the line at the sweetshop cursing Albus for ever sending him there.
He glared at the small girl stood behind him, who was screaming at the top of her voice because her mother wouldn't buy her gingerbread. And then he heard the squelch.
He swiftly turned his head around to look at a small boy with two front teeth missing grinning up at him. With his black hair and green eyes, the boy reminded him of Harry Potter.
"Ssorry!" The boy lisped up at him.
Then he noticed the strawberry ice-cream cone that had stuck to the side of his trousers. The melting parts were running down his trouser leg, and onto his black suede shoes.
He could feel some of the icy gloop working its way into his sock.
He took some deep breaths in and tapped the lady in front of him on the shoulder.
"What!" She turned to him and curled her lip.
"I presume, madam, that this is your son," he said tightly.
"Yeah."
"Then this must be your son's ice-cream running down my leg."
She looked down at his leg, and then back up to his face. "What do you want me to do about it?"
He glared at her for a moment, and was then disconcerted to see her turn away from him and back to the sales assistant. "I'll have another strawberry ice cream."
He felt like screaming. No, he felt like getting his wand out and performing a spell that would leave her with warts, instead all he could do was stand there with ice cream dripping off of him. To make matters worse, the small boy who had stuck the cornet to him was running his fingers through the goop and licking them.
"Stop that at once!" he warned, tapping the woman on the shoulder again. "Madam, I demand that you remove your son from my trouser leg!"
Eventually he managed to pay for the sweets and made it out of the shop. He glanced at his watch; she only had a few minutes before she had to meet him.
He stood outside the leaky cauldron, and glared at the sky.
The sun had come out and was making the ice-cream melt quickly. His shoe was a sticky mess, and his socks began to stick to his feet. He still couldn't use magic until he was out of sight of any muggles.
"No chance of that here!" he muttered sourly.
"What happened to your leg?" A voice came from the street.
He glanced at his watch. "You are two minutes late."
Katrina shrugged. "Okay, sorry." She stared at his leg. "You should really clean that up."
He glared at her. "I do know that. Are you finished?"
"Yes."
"Come on then," he ordered and walked towards the pub. He could still see her in the mirrored glass on the sign.
"Yes sir!" she muttered, and swiftly saluted before following.
She had taken off the jacket, and her t-shirt rode up slightly when she saluted, giving Severus a good view of her toned tummy. He watched in interest as she picked up the numerous bags she had dumped on the floor and followed him.
Just before entering the pub, when he was in the doorway, he got his wand out from his bag and cleaned the ice cream from his trousers.
'It was bad enough letting her see the mess, let alone the whole of the Leaky Cauldron.' he thought sourly.
They reached Diagon Alley the same way they had come, in complete silence. Severus turned to her when they went through the wall.
"I will be going to the alchemists. You can wait outside if you wish."
"That's okay. I'll go in with you."
He could feel her moving around the store as he picked up the order he had placed.
She delicately picked up bottles and jars, studied them closely for a moment, and then put them back down. As if she felt his eyes on her, she turned to look at him and smiled. No, she wasn't smiling at him; she was looking at someone standing behind him.
"Here you are sir!" The shop assistant said loudly, and for the fifth time.
He had been so fascinated by Katrina that he failed to notice the shop assistant returning with his things. "Right, thank you," he said gruffly and stormed out of the shop.
She followed him, but very slowly; she was weighed down by the multitude of bags.
He stared at them; they were all from the same shop. "Why do you have so many bags?"
She put down the bags, well I found this…" She rummaged through the bags and pulled out a bottle of perfume.
"Wizard shops don't stock this," she said, spraying it on her wrist. "It's nice."
She turned the bottle around and showed him the label, accidentally spraying it in his face.
All he could smell was the vanilla that had hit him. He glared at her mercilessly, but the scent appealed to him.
"Whoops! Sorry." She put the bottle away hastily.
He looked suspiciously at the large bulging bags. "And…?" he asked. "One bottle of perfume does not fill that up."
She looked at his face searchingly for a moment, and then shrugged.
"Well… if you really want to know!" she said evenly.
She rummaged in her bag again, but this time it was only for a short space of time.
"I'm stocking up on these. I prefer this brand and well… having them come to me by owl in the middle of breakfast doesn't appeal to me."
She dug out a box of sanitary towels.
"Anything else?" she asked coolly.
"Are you ready to go?" he countered, avoiding her gaze.
"I don't see why not," she said, and made her way to where they started.
She was just about to throw the floo powder when he gripped her arm.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" he asked smoothly.
"No, I don't think so," she said and shook his hand off of her.
"What about the book you came here for?"
~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~
"She didn't seem to want to go and get that book," Severus murmured to himself.
He growled at himself and tried to get his concentration back onto a lesson plan for the fourth year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs.
All he could smell was vanilla still after she sprayed it onto his face, it teased him; she seemed so innocent.
He paused in his writing. "Whatever was in those bags was the reason she wanted to go to Diagon Alley." A thought struck him. "The only time we were apart was when we were in the muggle world. She seemed too keen to show me her... personal items, so they must have been a ruse. Something that would embarrass me."
His thoughts drifted to Katrina, and the way she had looked when she glided down the stairs towards him.
Luckily she hadn't realised that he had gotten a good look at her pert bottom while travelling through the floo network. The tight combat trousers had only drawn his attention to her; it had affected him in such a way…
"Stop it!" he berated himself. "You would only be taking advantage of her childish crush. You may be attracted to her... in the physical sense of the word. But her mannerisms are so naive that it would be... " He remembered the book.
"Could it be she wanted to go with me? That she knew I was going and…?" His thoughts trailed off. She was wearing a very tight t-shirt, who else was she trying to impress.
"Unless she met someone in the muggle world. That could explain the book."
Suddenly his eyes glazed over, and he looked aimlessly at his lesson plan.
"Well I'm not going to be able to do that tonight," he said angrily, and looked at his left arm where the dark mark was going black.
A/N – Okay, okay so it doesn't exactly continue the story much, but I want them to get to know each other first!!!!!!! Plus I am aware that it is sexist to put all men into the same basket, and that some men wouldn't cringe at the thought of feminine hygiene, so sorry to all 21st century modern men!
Thank you to Kelest and Alexgrey for their continuing support!!
Love to you all.
Krusty.
xxx