That Monday, after school, Snape wanted to show Meg that, however he was sure she didn't love him, that he loved her, so they went to Hogsmeade. Meg wanted to go to the Three Broomsticks, where they could get a butterbeer. Snape nodded and they left for the town.

"It's such a pretty day out," said Meg, her arm linked with Snape's.

"It is," Snape agreed with her. "I always liked this kind of weather, but, you know, I like it when it rains out, too, don't you? You know, people say…it, like, speaks to you…" Snape was sure he had never heard the rain speaking, but Meg would probably like anything so poetic.

"Oh, yes, dreamy, isn't it?" said Meg.

"Yes, and so are you, Meg," said Snape, surprised at himself. Wasn't claiming that the rain spoke to him enough? Did he really just have to call Meg Smith dreamy?

"Oh, stop it," said Meg, grinning. "You might be dreamy, but I'm just flirting."

Snape shrugged. "Oh…in that case…we should go get our butterbeer now, the Three Broomsticks is just up ahead. Let's see…Zonko's, the joke shop, Honeydukes, the candy shop…"

"Oh, let's go there," said Meg. "I've been dying for some Honeydukes chocolate."

"If you want to," said Snape. They walked into Honeydukes, the sweet smell of all the delicious chocolates filling their noses and making them hungry. Snape walked up to the counter and said, "Two bars of your special Honeydukes chocolate, please…and, yeah, that'll be all, thank you."

The two of them thanked the cashier again, paid for their candy, and walked out, eating their bars of chocolate on the way to the Three Broomsticks. They didn't have very much to talk about, so it was just lucky they had chocolate to preoccupy them. Finally, they reached their destination.

"What will it be, you two?" said the waiter.

"One butterbeer, please," said Meg, handing her money to the cashier. He went and got one butterbeer that looked positively delicious. He handed it to Meg. "Anything else?"

"Nope, that would be all, then, thank you," said Meg, as the cashier took her money and put it in the cash register. She picked up the butterbeer and went to go and pick out a table.

"Aren't you getting one?" Snape asked her, holding onto her sleeve.

"Of course I'm getting one," said Meg. "I love butterbeer. That's the whole reason I wanted to go to the Three Broomsticks, besides you. Why are you asking me that, anyway?"

"Then I'm not getting one?" said Snape rather indignantly.

"Where were you when they handed out the brains?" Meg laughed. "We're just going to be sharing one, silly. Oh, yeah, that reminds me, I'd better ask the cashier for two straws…"

"Isn't that…dirty?" Snape asked her.

"No," said Meg. "Haven't you ever seen any romance movies? Oh, yeah, I forgot…you don't have any Muggle friends, do you? Because mine has a TV, so I love romance movies."

"What are movies?" said Snape. "Something Muggle, I think? Isn't it like a microwave?"

"No, it's people pretending to be other people on a screen or something. You buy a little black case called a video, and you put it in a little slot in the TV, and they show people on it."

"Romance movies, as in…?"

"People pretending like they're in love, with a plot," said Meg. "They almost always break up and then get together again. There was actually this movie about a real witch who met a Muggle and when she told him she was a witch he got afraid of her and they broke up. It was actually good."

"DRINK!" called the cashier. "TWO STRAWS, PLEASE!"

"That'd be us." Meg grinned, and she walked over to the cashier, who handed her two straws and one butterbeer. She thanked him and they took their drink to a table.

Meg put her straw in and sipped some of her drink. Snape raised his eyebrows at her. She just smiled and gestured to the butterbeer, meaning Snape should drink some too.

"No thanks, I'll pass," said Snape. At the imploring look on her face, he added, "Oh, all right, but the only thing I'm doing is seeing if it's good." He took a sip of delicious butterbeer. "All right, it's great, I guess we can have some together." He sipped at the same time as Meg did.

"You know," said Meg, "this butterbeer is excellent."

"I know, never tasted so good," Snape said. Secretly, he suspected he liked butterbeer more if he was sharing it with Meg, but he wasn't about to tell her that. "I never liked butterbeer much, but I think they're making it especially good today, don't you think they are?"

"Certainly." Meg laughed. "Maybe because we're sharing one."

After they had finished the butterbeer, they walked out of the Three Broomsticks. Rain was now softly falling on the street. Meg nudged Snape and conjured an umbrella.

"Can't you hear it speaking to you now?" she asked him, putting the umbrella over their heads, as the rain fell steadily harder. "I thought you might. It's been really fun here."

"I've been thinking," said Snape. "I admit, it's a bit off-subject, but our wedding's in only two days, and we're not nearly ready for it. I mean, we've been on plenty of dates together, but soon we'll be legally married to each other, and, you know, decorations might be hard to…"

Meg cut him off. "Severus, I totally understand you. We have to get a cake, and my dress, and your tuxedo, we talked about it, remember? I think Grandpa's going to help."

"Who's Grandpa?" said Snape, utterly nonplussed.

"Oh, I forgot, you didn't know," said Meg. "Severus, Grandpa is actually Dumbledore. He's my grandfather, you see. That's partly why he let me work here, you know."

"You're Albus Dumbledore's granddaughter?" said Snape. "He's married?"

"Right," said Meg. "His daughter is my mother. You know, Michelle Dumbledore, she's my mum, and her mum is Janie Lewis, my grandmother. My dad's Dallas Smith."

"Oh," said Snape, rather lamely.

"Anyway, it feels so weird, calling him 'Dumbledore' and not Grandpa," said Meg. "He's the one who was the most excited about our wedding. He wants to help us the most."

"I know, he does," Snape agreed. "Anyway, it was nice of him to set the wedding up for us, or be trying to, I've got to admit. We need so many things. Like, you said, a cake…"

"The most important thing we need is love. We've got that," Meg said, rather sharply.

"You're right," said Snape, looking down at the ground, finding the truth in Meg's words. "If you didn't love me, you would never marry me. And the same with me, although I couldn't imagine any scene in which I didn't love you. Well…unless I was bewitched or something…but that doesn't count. Do you think Albus is going to be able to set up our wedding in time for Wednesday?"

"Oh, yeah, our wedding's on Wednesday!" Meg said. "I should've known that. Anyway, in answer to your question, yeah, I think Grandpa's going to be able to finish our wedding in time. He's good at magic, you know." She paused and smiled. "Almost as good at magic as you are."

"Oh, stop it, you know he's as good as magic as I am, even better," protested Snape

"I told you before," said Meg, laughing, "I'm just flirting. You're the most gullible person I ever met, you know, it's true. Come on, let's just have a walk around this town, shall we?"

XOXOXOXOXOXO

Meanwhile, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Andrea were sitting out by the lake and watching the giant squid slosh around. They were certainly enjoying Snape's classes, since they never had homework, and just got to sit outside and do whatever they wanted for forty minutes. Lockhart's classes, though, without the exciting animals and things that Meg brought in, were horribly boring. He had them listen, again and again, to his stupid exploits. Some people, like Ron, even skived off sometimes.

"Snape's classes are almost like recess was, at my old Muggle school," said Hermione. "When I was younger I went to a Muggle school. Recess was this thing where they made you go outside for forty minutes and do whatever you wanted, as long as you could definitely do it outside."

"They made you go outside, even when it rained?" said Andrea incredulously.

"No, not when it rained," said Hermione. "Then they gave us indoor recess. Harry, when you were younger, you went to a Muggle school, too, didn't you? You had recess?"

"Yeah, I had recess," said Harry. "I hated it, though. Dudley always made sure I never had any friends, and I never had anybody to play with at recess. You, Hermione?"

"Well…not me, either, really," said Hermione, laughing. "Everybody thought I was such a stupid know-it-all, teacher's pet, that sort of thing, but recess paid off because I did homework then." Hermione laughed again. "I'd much rather go to Hogwarts than a Muggle school."

"Me too," said Andrea. "I grew up with a wizarding family, see. They're really nice. I write letters to them, and I stay with them during the summer holidays, except when I go to Ron's house. That's partly why I'm so good at Quidditch, you know, my brothers taught me how to play. I was the only girl in my family besides my stepmum. Most of the time I played Keeper or Chaser. We used apples or oranges or something like that, like we do when we play Quidditch at your house, Ron."

"I was never that good, was I?" said Ron, grinning. "You, on the other hand…"

"What about me?" said Harry, also laughing. "I'm a good Quidditch player, and, unlike Andrea, I didn't even know what Quidditch was before I came to Hogwarts."

"Well, that is true," said Hermione; she and her three friends lay back on the grass, laughing, and enjoyed the glorious sunshine before they had to go back inside the school.