V –
The holiday has past. What is keeping you from returning a few days early? Take the floo into the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmede and I'll be there to fetch you.
S
She stared down at the note. He made it seem so easy. Just go back to Hogwarts early if she wanted to. She could leave before her family even woke and leave a note on the kitchen table. He seemed so sure of himself in his note, that she would come. Decisively, she started packing her trunk. She floated it carefully downstairs and nearly dropped it with a huge crash when she saw her mother sitting at the kitchen table.
"Mum, you scared me half to death." she whispered, disappointed she was caught.
"Going somewhere?" Molly asked, and Ginny lowered her trunk gently.
"I was going to go back to school." she said.
"I thought you might." Molly admitted.
"Well, you know how crowded is here and I thought 'Hey, miss the Hogwarts Express traffic' and such." Ginny said, staring down at her shoes, out the window, anywhere but her mother's face.
"Ginny, you're a woman now and you're beautiful and I just want you to think about what you're doing. No one is every going to accept a relationship with a professor and with a misunderstood man like Snape." Molly pleaded.
"I know it's not going to be easy." Ginny said and it was the first time she admitted to someone that there was, in fact, something between them. "But if you don't let me go now, you're going to lose me just like Percy." she said quietly. Her mother's face fell.
"Then I have no choice." Molly said. "I love you, Ginny. Let me know you get there safely, okay?" Ginny smiled, relieved, and nodded.
"I will." She stepped into the fireplace next to her trunk and took a hand full of floo powder. "Three Broomsticks, Hogsmede!" she said and was engulfed by the green flames. They tickled slightly but cleared away soon enough. The pub wasn't open yet. There were chairs turned over on all the tables. her trunk fell down unceremoniously next to her and she jumped. Snape wasn't in sight but she didn't think he would be, this early. She gathered her trunk and went out the front door, charming it locked behind her. The village was still sleeping and she looked around for a moment, chilled in the snow. Usually, she took a train to Hogsmede but she knew there was a tunnel from the shrieking shack to somewhere on the school grounds. Rather than trudge miles in the snow towards where she thought Hogwarts was, she headed towards the abandoned shack. It wasn't long before she saw a dark figure coming towards her. It was Snape. She waiting for him to come to her, her trunk bobbing behind her.
"Hello." she said, a little out of breath, her face red from the cold.
"Hello, Virginia." he said. He was in his normal robes with big snow boots and a Slytherin scarf. She was in jeans and her grey sweater with a big 'G' on it, her latest Christmas sweater, and her Gryffindor scarf. They were quite the mismatch pair. He opened the door to the shack for her and she ducked in. The place was a wreck and the tiptoed over all the wreckage to the door that led to the tunnel. Once inside the dark, moist tunnel, Snape reached for her hand and wove his fingers with hers. Her heart threatened to pound out of her chest.
"Severus?" she said, her voice echoing against the stone.
"Yes?" he asked, turning to look down at her.
"Does it feel wrong to you?" she asked. He considered the question carefully.
"No. I know that it may seem inappropriate but it doesn't, to me, feel wrong." he said.
"It doesn't feel wrong to me, either." she said. They could see the light at the end of the tunnel. "Where does this come out?" she asked.
"The base of the Whomping Willow." he said.
"Are you trying to get us killed?" she asked, shrilly.
"Relax." he said. They stood at the base and he pushed against a knot at the exit. The movement of the branches ceased. He started to move out but she held him back.
"Will you... will you kiss me first?" she asked. He looked mildly surprised.
"We shouldn't." he said but he was already leaning towards her.
"Just as friends." she whispered and then his lips were warm against hers and his nose pressed into her cheek and his hair fell into her eyes and his tongue pressed into her mouth and she was lost. She couldn't breathe and she pressed herself closer too him, letting his arms wrap around her. She could have kissed him forever but he pulled away and smoothed his robes.
"You try me." he said, his breath shaky. "You try me in every way, Ginny." She touched her lips lightly, her cheeks red. He pushed the knot again and walked out into the brisk, winter air. She followed behind him dumbly, her knees like jelly. Inside the castle, she could see a few students in the Great Hall but the place was still mostly empty. She felt happy to be back. Snape set her trunk down where a house elf would return it to her dorm and looked at her.
"Are you hungry?" he asked. She nodded. "I'll have the elves bring breakfast to my office, how does that sound?" he asked. He was being so gentle, like he didn't want to scare her off after such a stolen moment. She nodded again.
"Sounds wonderful." she said and followed him down to the dungeons. They didn't talk about the kiss or what it meant or who knew she was back or if Dumbledore was away or there or anything. He simply summoned an elf, told him what he wanted, and soon enough a table full of food appeared in the warm office. "You make me brave." she said, over an end of meal cup of tea.
"Do I?" he asked, over the brim of his cup.
"Yes. It would have never occurred to me to just leave the burrow. Just go." she said. "And then you made it seem so easy."
"You are the master of your own fate." he said.
"Ron... well, everyone saw the potion with the lion and the snake. Everyone saw it and Ron kind of threw a fit and then my mother and everyone and I told them that I just graded papers with you but, really, it could have gone better." she admitted. Snape sighed and looked into his fire.
"We can't have moments like that when school starts. There is a long time until you graduate and I will always have been your professor." he reminded her. "It doesn't matter how strongly I feel for you." she didn't respond. She already knew all of that. She yawned and he smiled fondly at her. "You're exhausted and it's barely seven o'clock." he said.
"I've already had quite an eventful morning." she said. "Perhaps I should go lay down."
"I have some work to do. If you would like, you could go right through that door or, if you'd rather, return to your tower but I will be here all day." he said, pointing at anther wooden door, partially hidden by a hanging tapestry. She bit her lip. She had a pretty good idea where that door lead and she knew she should return to Gryffindor tower but she simply didn't want to. She walked towards the door and pulled it open. Inside was an outer sitting room and through and open archway, she could see his four-poster bed, covered in a black, silk comforter. "Go on," he urged. "Rest." she turned to look at him and gave him a small, somewhat lustful smile and pulled the door closed behind her. His private chambers had the same spicy, earthy smell that made her dizzy. Across from the bed was a big wooden closet and she pulled open doors and drawers until she found what she was looking for. She slipped out of her clothes and pulled on the white dress blouse and slid into his bed.