Memory One – Honeymoon Surprises
Breathless with laughter, Hermoine darted down the sidewalk, rain drenching her curly hair before she dashed inside the shop seconds ahead of her husband. She turned, giggling, to look up at him as they stood just inside the brightly-lit store. He smirked back at her, dark hair tied back out of his face. She stuck out her tongue at him, shrieking with laughter when he leaned down and hauled her over his shoulder.
He began to carefully maneuver his way across the shop, stopping in front of the counter where an annoyingly chipper witch with bright tattoos cover one arm. "Good afternoon. I believe we have an appointment?" Severus Snape asked politely, stilling his wife's wriggling by rubbing one large hand down the back of her calf.
"And you are…?"
"Severus and Hermoine Snape." The witch skimmed the paper in front of her, frowning until she found the proper information.
"Ah, yes. Follow me." She led them to a pair of seats next to a wall covered in mirrors. "She'll just be a moment," the witch, whose nametag said that her name was Cathy, told them before skipping off again.
Severus sat in one of the chairs, feigning weariness as he shifted Hermoine to his lap. "Ye gods, woman, you're getting heavy!"
"I am not!" she squeaked indignantly. She smacked him playfully on the chest, scowling up at him until he wrapped his arms around her. "I was kidding!"
Pouting, she glanced up at him. "Well?"
"Well what?"
"Well, what are you going to get?"
"Ooh…hmm…"
"Me neither."
"Sevvie?"
"'Mione--" he growled, warning clear in his voice as he glared menacingly down at her. But his intelligent little wife simply ignored him; after all, what did she have to fear from him?
"When do you want to start our family?"
"W-what?" he finally managed to choke out, but she interrupted him once again: "I mean, we should probably settle down and adjust for a while, right? How long do you think that that will take? A month? Two? A year, maybe? I know, we've been living together since graduation, but that was only a year and a half ago! We just got married, we need to adjust to what that means to us, right? But I---"
He silenced her one of the only ways he knew how: he kissed her senseless.
When he finished, she slumped against his weakly, uttering a weak, completely dazed, "wow," before starting to hum. Just then, another witch approached them and sat down beside Severus, who was still shaking off the effects of the kiss. "Hi, I'm Lula, and I'll be tattooing you today," the newcomer offered cheekily. "You must be the newlyweds!"
"Is it so obvious?" Severus muttered darkly.
"Yes, actually."
"Hi, I'm Hermoine Granger-Snape, and this is my husband Severus."
"Nice to meet you." Hermoine only nodded and accepted the leather-bound book when Lula shoved it at her. "Now, look through that and when you decide, or, rather, they decide, just yell for me, 'k?" The couple nodded, already engrossed in the hundreds of pages of designs. Since they wanted matching tattoos, he placed his hand over hers and guided their fingertips over each design.
Finally, one lit up, glowing a bright blue.
Hermoine glanced up, looking around for Lula. Spotting her near a counter of various body rings, she waved to get the artist's attention. Lula was soon back beside them, studying the choice with a stunned expression. "Is this the one that you want?" The couple nodded, Hermoine squeezing Severus's hand nervously. "What's wrong with her?" Lula asked with a nod towards the younger woman.
"She's just a tad afraid of needles," Severus explained patiently, rubbing his wife's back soothingly.
"We don't use needles here," Lula informed them primly as she took the book out of their hands. "Now, where do you wish the tattoo applied?"
Severus pointed to his back, while Hermoine patted her hip. "But, um…will it be stretched out whenever I'm pregnant?" she asked hesitantly, biting her lip.
"It's a magical tattoo," Lula told her. "It will expand slightly, but it will return to its normal size and shape after the baby is born."
"Oh, all right." Hermoine breathed a sigh of relief.
"Who wants to go first?"
"I will," Sevvie volunteered. heheheheeee….SEVVIE!
Lula nodded and had him sit, after removing his shirt, on a padded bench. Hermoine grinned at him, excited that they were finally getting this done together. She'd been making a list of all the things that she wanted to do in her life at the beginning of her seventh year at Hogwarts. Matching tattoos with her husband were number 77, right after get married.
As Lula applied the tattoo, tapping the image with her wand, then murmuring a spell as she aimed said wand at Severus' back… Hermoine pulled a book from her pocket and began reading. She didn't even look up when Lula told her that it was her turn. She simply stood up and tugged one side of her loose jeans down, tapping the spot she wanted tattooed when asked by an amused Lula, who set to work.
When they left the shop five minutes later, a bandage securely stuck over their new marks, the couple grinned at each other. "Think Harry and Ron will understand?"
"If they don't, they're complete dolts," Severus told her, running one hand lightly over her hair before wrapping an arm around her waist and hauling her into his side, where she muffled her giggles.
"Yeah," she agreed, glancing down at her hip.
"Albus will love it for sure," her husband of a week mused.
"Why wouldn't he? He has a pheonix fetish; he'll probably want one, too!" They both shuddered at the mental image of the old man with the pheonix tattoo now "stamped" onto their skin.