The International Wizarding School Competition

School: Durmstrang

Year: 2

Technique: Dialogue and Punctuating Dialogue

Optional Prompt: (first/last line) The door remained closed.

Word Count: 774

Additional Information: Severus Lives/Marries Hermione!AU. Warning for extreme fluff involving a bunny. I hope you all enjoy Bunny Fears.


The door remained closed. No matter how hard Severus pounded upon it or what he shouted through it, the door remained closed. He sagged wearily against the door, sliding down until he was against the oaken frame.

"You're going to have to open the door at some point," he called out, hearing the shuffling of feet behind the door. "It's better to get it over with now, than putting off for later."

"How is that?" asked the angry voice behind the door. He could hear the scoff that was so much like the young girl's mother's. "Are you saying that I won't get in much more trouble if I just face Mum now and tell her what happened?"

Severus hadn't thought that far ahead. He had only wanted Rose to come out and talk about what he'd caught her and Teddy doing in the garage earlier. He put his head in his hands as his head began to pound. He knew for sure he was going to have a whopper of a headache later but right now he was busy trying to get Rose out of her room.

"I can't promise you that you won't be in trouble," he admitted, hating the very sound of the words flowing out of his mouth, "but I can promise that the punishment will much less severe if you admit to things now."

"You can't promise me that," she cried out angrily kicking the door.

Hermione peeked around the corner from the living room. "Has she come out of her room yet, Severus?" she asked, looking concerned about her daughter. "Has she admitted what's wrong and why she looked so guilty all evening?"

"I'm not coming out," Rose screamed, having heard her mother's voice.

Hermione's concern seemed to grow. "But why?" she asked.

"Are you going to tell your mother or am I going to have to?" Severus asked, once more hearing the shuffling sounds of feet on the laminate flooring.

"—Teddy was in the garage," Rose said, her voice being muffled through the door so that both Severus and Hermione.

"Why don't you come out and we can talk about this face to face?" Hermione asked, placing a gentle hand on the doorknob.

To Severus's surprise, the doorknob turned and the sound of the door opening assailed his ears before he tumbled over backward into the room behind him.

Rose giggled. "I'm sorry," she said, holding out a hand to help her stepfather up. "I didn't know that you were sitting against the door."

Severus took her hand. "It's alright," he said, allowing himself to be helped up. "But we must discuss what I saw earlier."

Rose shuffled her feet nervously. She looked at her mother and stepfather and knew that they wouldn't be too mad at her.

Rose took a deep breath. "Teddy asked me to keep Victorie's birthday present here," she said, looking back towards the bed that had a scattering of stuffed animals.

Hermione sneezed. "Why would I be mad about your keeping Victoire's birthday present here?" she asked, raising an eyebrow as she thought she saw one of the stuffed animals move.

"It's….um….it's—"

Hermione sneezed once more. "Is there a rabbit in the house?" she asked, blowing her nose on the handkerchief Severus gave her.

Severus raised an eyebrow. "Rose," he said gently.

"That's the part I was afraid you'd get mad at," Rose said, walking over and picking up the stuffed animal that had moved. "This is Victoire's birthday present."

The grey-furred bunny blinked innocently up at Severus and Hermione from Rose's arms. If Hermione wasn't allergic to them Severus would have wanted to get one for the small family as a pet. But as he looked over at his runny-nosed wife he knew that couldn't happen.

Hermione sneezed. "You'll have to tell Teddy he has to find another place to stash Vic's birthday present," she said, blowing her nose once more. "I'm sorry."

"No," Rose said, hugging her mother. "I'm sorry. I wanted to help my friend out and I forgot that you were allergic." She looked at her shoes.

Hermione blew her nose once more and walked off down the hall to her bedroom. Severus knew she was going for the allergy medicine.

He turned towards Rose and the bunny. "Let's get this little one settled in downstairs, shall we?" he asked, watching the bunny's nose twitch.

Rose nodded. "I'm glad you were right, Severus," she said, hugging him with her free arm.

"Me too," he said.

They walked downstairs to start making the bunny's cage a bit homier. The peace once more reestablished in the Granger-Weasley-Snape household.


I hope you all enjoyed Bunny Fears as much as I enjoyed writing it.