A/N: A shorter chapter, but the Granggob just needed to get a word in.

Chapter 13

Reclining in the chair that he now claimed as his, Severus stretched out his long legs and swirled the dark liquid inside his tumbler before enjoying a small sip of firewhiskey. He met the Granggobs eyes with a knowing smirk, and quirking one eyebrow, he drawled: "I told her."

Giving a satisfied nod, he took another sip of his whiskey.

The Granggob sat perched on the couch, its slack mouth slightly opened in astonishment and confusion. "What the?! This is not all you are going to tell me about this! I want details, you hear me?!"

He frowned at it. "We're together now – what else do you need to know?" Running through the events of the last couple of hours, his frown deepened. "At least I think we're together."

"You think?!"

"We… um… we didn't really talk about that." The frown between his eyebrows was about to cleave his forehead in two.

"What did you talk about, then?"

Severus shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He hated talking about feelings. But that's why he was here, wasn't he? It seemed he was some kind of masochist.

"I told her that she was the one I wanted and not…" he trailed off.

"…Lily." The Granggob finished his sentence with deep satisfaction. "This is glorious, just glorious. Tell me what she looked like when you told her you never loved that cow."

He stared at the Granggob pointedly, obviously annoyed at its bovine reference.

"Oh, come on!" It grinned at him good-naturedly. "I just can't stand her. Let me revel a bit in that triumph."

"She was not that bad."

"Blech!" The Granggob released a retching sound. "Let's agree to disagree on that front, shall we? So, what did she look like when you told her?"

This time, the Granggob just stared at him expectantly.

"She was happy?"

The Granggob groaned and slid lower on the couch. "You are a major disappointment, you know that? Do I have to squeeze everything out of you?! What were her exact words when she replied?"

"After sprouting a fountain of tears, she said she had waited years for me to say something like that." His voice sounded rather smug.

"And then you had your wicked way with her?" the Granggob inquired with gleaming eyes.

"Repeatedly," Severus confessed with a grin. Gods, it did feel wonderful to be able to brag about it. He had never been the type, ever, to talk about things like that but in the presence of the Granggob, his mouth just seemed to run off on its own.

"And then, after everything, she let you come here?"

He nodded, a look of such doting happiness on his face that he would have slapped it off himself had he been able to see it.

The Granggob grinned at him. "Well, that woman is perfect, it seems. Time to snatch her up!"

"Well, I have," he said, arching an eyebrow.

"I meant something more permanent and symbolic." It wriggled its eyebrows at him in response.

"Whoah!" he said, holding up his hands. "Wait just a minute! You're getting ahead of yourself. Far, far ahead."

"Severus," the Granggob said in an almost chastising tone of voice.

"So far ahead it's hard to see you, you're that small."

"Severus!"

He raked his hands through his hair. "Seriously, we've just found out we like each other. Would you give us some time?!"

"What, like you haven't wasted enough time already?!" it scoffed. "That woman could have been yours for years!"

He grimaced. "If I had indeed made my move years ago, she would have still been my student and I her Potions professor. Highly inappropriate."

"But oh so sexy," the Granggob purred.

"Excuse me?"

"Never mind," it sighed. "A personal fantasy of mine." Shaking its head, it continued. "The point is – you know you want her, she knows she wants you: why wait?"

He scowled. "Why rush?"

"Because you want to," the Granggob grinned at him.

"Oh, please, take your traggoby-I-know-everything-skills and go flush them. They're totally out of sync with reality." He scoffed. "I don't need that romantic marriage crap as long as the woman I want is in my arms and wants to be mine."

The Granggob tsk-tsked at him. "Denial again, dear Severus. A shame. There I thought you might be able to get in touch with your softer side."

"There is no softer side and nothing to deny. This time you're just wrong. I am happy to wait or not to get married at all."

The Granggob just chuckled as it sat there, self-satisfaction dropping from its every pore. It was smug. Too smug.

"What do you know that I don't?" he growled, already regretting he had asked the minute the words left his mouth.

The Granggob's smug smile turned into a sly grin as it folded its arms across its ample chest. "Oh Severus, for a former spy you're terribly unobservant."

He did not want to look at its chest, but obviously, there was something there he had failed to see. Trying not to look at the happy nipples winking at him, he narrowed his eyes and searched the surrounding area with his gaze.

It hit him right between the eyes. How could he not have seen this before?! There, glinting in the soft light was a ring of white gold wrapped around the slender finger of the Granggob's left hand. The dark green emerald nestled in its bed of diamonds declared it the family heirloom that sat in his bank account at Gringott's.

Holy Shit.

"Don't give me that look," the Granggob drawled. "You put it there."

A/N: Oh, Severus, you did not see that coming, did you?

Review if you love the Granggob!