Disclaimer: The characters, settings, etc. of the Harry Potter series are not mine. I just play with them.
The wedding itself had gone well. Having never attended a muggle wedding, Severus found it to be an interesting process. He was surprised to see that many traditions from wizarding weddings had been incorporated into muggle weddings. He also found some of the purely muggle additions to be terribly amusing, and very nearly laughed out loud when the officiating muggle asked if anyone knew of any reason why the bride and groom should not be married. He thought it was a ridiculous request as they were obviously in love, and that this alone was more than enough reason for them to marry each other. Luckily he managed to turn his laughter into a cough before anyone, save Hermione, realized what was going on.
Severus could not help but notice as he exited the church with Hermione that he was receiving many inspections. Everyone seemed to turn an appraising eye upon him. Some of the women, he was happy to see, seemed to look at him with an obvious interest. The men regarded him coolly, though, and he was fairly certain that their eyes tended to rest on Hermione for a bit longer than they did on him. He did not blame them. She looked absolutely stunning, and he was quite proud to be the man with whom she had decided she would like to spend an entire evening.
After the wedding, Hermione had dragged him back to the ministry car they had borrowed in order to get to and from the blessed event. How Hermione had gotten a hold of the car, he was not quite sure. Her story had contained a long line of friends of friends who knew Ron Weasley, and after the fifth person, Severus had lost all interest in the method of procuring the car. They had sat in silence as Hermione drove to the reception's location which, Severus noticed, seemed to be a bit out of the way from the church.
They stood now on the lawn of the muggle boarding house or 'hotel,' as Hermione had referred to it, at which the reception was being held. It was a nice sort of place, Severus thought. There was a lovely little pond at the end of the lawn and a nice little garden and plenty of pretty green foliage that made it seem like a quite charming place in the early evening.
Severus looked down at the glass of whiskey in his hand. The muggle alcohol was a bit weaker than what he was used to, but he wasn't one to complain. As he was under strict instructions from Hermione to keep his mouth shut as often as possible, he had no interest in making any noise about the quality of the alcohol. Hermione had told him that she had no interest in him contradicting any of the stories she had fed her muggle friends and demanded that he say as little as possible. It had all seemed perfectly logical to him. Thus, he adopted the air of a truly devoted and tragically shy boyfriend.
He had kept to her side throughout the evening, and had found it to be a fairly safe place to be. She made her rounds, holding his hand all the while. She would introduce him to various people and he would simply smile, saying "How do you do?" softly before Hermione started talking to them about so and so from this or that place who went to school with what's-his-name. They would go on for a few minutes, and Severus would grin idly at them, nursing his drink as he thought about the weather and other pressing matters.
He had, in all honesty, passed worse evenings.
Hermione had dragged him off to meet the bride's parents when he'd noticed an older man watching him carefully. The old man stared at Severus as he was dragged by Hermione across the lawn. Severus glared at him, but this did not seem to stop the man from staring. Severus was distracted from his admirer, though, by suddenly being presented to another older man. "This is my boyfriend Severus," Hermione said on his right.
"Hello," the older man said, offering his hand to Severus.
"Pleasure to meet you," he replied, giving the man a firm hand shake as he remembered that he was being presented to the father of the bride. "Your daughter looked beautiful. It was a wonderful service."
"He's very handsome, Hermione," the man's wife said. Severus supposed she must think him to be hard of hearing to say such things when he was standing right next to her. Muggles were certainly very odd.
"Thank you, Mrs. Easterly," Hermione replied and smiled brilliantly. "That's why I keep him around. He's a wonderful accessory."
The old man, who Severus imagined was called Mr. Easterly, laughed heartily at this. "So, Severus," he said, "what do you do for a living?"
"I teach" he replied simply, and hoped that the man's response would not be to ask what subject he taught.
"Ah, and what do you teach?" the old man asked. Severus nearly choked.
"History?" Severus offered, hoping this man was no history buff and would suddenly want to discuss the specifics of some muggle war Severus would know nothing about.
"Wonderful subject, wonderful subject. Do you and Hermione teach at the same school?" Mr. Easterly asked, and Severus got the distinct feeling he was being interviewed.
"Yes," Hermione interjected, taking charge of the conversation. "It's how we met, actually. We were both in the teacher's lounge one afternoon. Severus was having a rough day and we got to talking about the brats we teach. Before we knew it, we were talking about absolutely everything for hours and hours." She paused here to look at him fondly, and Severus found himself amazed by her abilities as an actress. There was something in her eyes, though, that looked a bit like sincerity. He did his best to ignore it.
"We've been madly in love ever since," Hermione concluded after a moment.
Mrs. Easterly cooed and Mr. Easterly gave a fatherly chuckle of appreciation before saying, "Well, we better be off. Much socializing to do." They disappeared immediately, leaving Hermione and Severus alone for the first time since their silent drive over.
"So," Hermione said, turning to look at him. He noticed there were still some traces of the fondness in her eyes.
"Alone at last, Miss Granger?" Severus asked, averting his gaze from hers.
She giggled and he felt her move closer to him. "Yes, at last."
Severus looked back down at her and found she was still gazing up at him. It compelled him to open his mouth. He knew his next words were going to be very silly and very stupid. And he knew, without a doubt, that he would regret them for the rest of his life because they would hint at the magnitude of the feelings that were beginning to well up inside of him when she looked at him like that.
He was saved, however, by a voice booming on his immediate left. "John!" the voice bellowed, and Severus turned to see the old man who had been staring at him earlier standing beside him. "Is that Michael's John? All grown up now, I see! How are you?" he asked, clapping a large hand onto Severus's shoulder.
"I'm sorry," Severus replied, casting him the glare he had perfected in seven years of teaching Neville Longbottom, "but you seem to have mistaken me for someone else."
"No, no! You're John! Cousin Michael's oldest son! You've got his nose, you know…"
Severus frowned. If there was anything he hated, it was people drawing attention to his nose. The nose seemed to get along with the business of being noticed quite nicely, even without their help. "I'm sorry. My name is Severus, and is most certainly not John."
The old, drunken man looked up at Severus closely, narrowing his eyes and inspecting him for a few moments. "My goodness!" he exclaimed eventually. "You're not John!" He stared at Severus for a few more moments, looking rather confused before scurrying off.
Once he was a reasonable distance away, Hermione erupted into laughter. Severus turned his head and glowered at her. "Thank you ever so much your assistance, Hermione."
She attempted to calm her laughter, but failed. After a few moments, she was able to curb her giggles. Grinning up at him madly, she sighed. "Any time, darling."
"Do you know that man?" Severus asked, deliberately ignoring her use of an endearment. He imagined it was all part of the show; he should call her sweetheart or something equally as disgusting. It struck him as odd, though, that she was keeping this up when there was no audience.
"No," Hermione shook her head. "Though, I get the feeling I have met John before."
"Have you?" Severus asked, raising an eyebrow. "And do we look anything alike?"
"Yes," Hermione smiled. "You do, actually."
"Surprising. I was always of the impression that I had a reasonably unique appearance." Severus sighed and glanced down at his glass. There were approximately three sips left. He took one and heard Hermione squeal with joy beside him as he swallowed.
"Elizabeth!" she exclaimed. Looking down at her he saw that she was embracing the beautiful young woman who had been standing at the altar earlier that day. He noticed now that there was much more material to her dress than he had previously thought. The puffy white skirt seemed to threaten to swallow both the bride and Hermione whole.
"Hermione!" The bride, Elizabeth, exclaimed in response as she held her friend in her arms. "You look beautiful!"
"I look beautiful?" Hermione laughed as she pulled out of the embrace. "Look at you! The blushing bride! You're a vision!"
"A vision of what exactly?" Elizabeth asked, smiling. She suddenly glanced up at Severus, seemingly noticing him for the first time. "Hello," she said, holding her hand out to him. "I suppose you are the famous Severus Snape."
"Er," Severus began, "Yes, that's me." He shook her hand quickly.
"I've heard so much about you," she said, grinning up at him. "All good things, of course."
Severus looked quickly at Hermione and saw that her cheeks were slightly flushed and that she was avoiding his gaze. "Like what exactly?" he asked.
"Oh, Hermione told me what a wonderful teacher you are. How you are positively terrifying in the classroom, and the sweetest, most amiable man outside of it. She told me about your wonderfully sarcastic sense of humor." She paused and smiled again. "All of the important things."
"Ah," Severus said, nodding. "I am afraid she made me out to be far more interesting than I truly am."
"Oh? That is too bad," Elizabeth replied.
"Well," Hermione said, reaching out and grabbing Severus's glass out of his hand. "I will go get you another drink, Severus," she said hurriedly and scurried off towards the bar.
"So when are you going to propose?" Elizabeth demanded once Hermione was a few feet away.
Severus suddenly suffered a short coughing fit. "Excuse me?"
"Severus, Hermione is positively consumed by her love for you. Did you know that she sends me three page letters, all of which contain two and a half pages of information about you? You're all she talks about, and all she thinks about, for that matter. I really doubt that she could bear to live without you. And from what I've seen today and what I have heard you have done for her, I am sure you couldn't live without her either."
Severus narrowed his eyes at the small woman in white. "What have you seen?"
"Oh," she said, smiling up at him with a knowing glint in her eyes. "I've seen that it is physically impossible for you to leave her side. I've seen the adoring smiles you've given her. I've seen the way you look at her when you two are alone. It's quite obvious how enamored you are, Severus. There's no need to deny it."
Severus looked away from his companion and over to where Hermione was walking back from the bar with a refilled glass of whiskey. He thought she looked lovely as she ambled across the grass.
"She's beautiful, isn't she?" Elizabeth said softly.
"Yes," Severus said, his eyes still on Hermione. "Incredibly beautiful." Hermione looked up as she walked towards him and smiled. Severus felt something awaken inside him as he smiled back.