Ever since Lucius had died, Narcissa had found herself wandering the halls of Malfoy Manor, slightly in a daze, and always making improvements to the house so that even the tiniest things wouldn't remind her of the war. Obviously, for that to truly work she'd have to knock the whole place down and rebuild but she didn't want to do that.

The addition of Severus in her life, after he'd been released from the hospital with no place to go, had been peculiar. They'd been in each other's lives for a long time but there had always been Draco, Lucius, Bellatrix or any named or unnamed Death Eater with them. It was just the two of them and she found comfort in having him around. She knew that he took comfort in the same way as she did, though he'd never admit it.

Another thing he wouldn't admit, was that he jumped to conclusions pretty quickly. Which was something that he did regularly when he was relaxed and not worrying about spying during the war. Narcissa's favourite event of this was when he'd ordered Potion supplies via owl since he was ill.

"What's wrong?" Narcissa asked with a sigh, rearranging the fruit in the fruit bowl and choosing not to look at him. His angry face only served to amuse her and that wouldn't be productive right now. "You're doing that angry sigh you do when people have disappointed you on a whole other level."

"It was a simple request," he said through gritted teeth. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him clench his quill as he hastily scribbled a note. "All I wanted was fresh lemongrass and what do I receive?" He doesn't answer his question and she realises that he's waiting for her to do so.

"Oh! Maybe, applegrass?" She smirked at his huff and tried not to chuckle. "I don't know Severus, what did you receive?"

"Dried lemongrass! It holds no use to me at this moment in time and I can't make my potion with these ingredients." He sneered at the package resting on the table before turning away to finish his letter of complaint. Curiousity got to Narcissa - for it had been a long time since dealing with lemongrass - and she poked around into the package to see what dried lemongrass looked like.

It didn't look very extravagant or special and she soon lost interest but the corner of some parchment, underneath the dried ingredients caught her attention and she pulled them out to have a look.

"Dear Mr Snape,

We thank you for being a regular customer at our apothecary, whether you be here in person or via a letter. Due to your constant returns here at our shop, we are providing you with the dried ingredients to be the companion of your fresh ones. We understand, probably more than most, that you can't use both in particular potions, and you may not even get around to using it for a while, but see it as our gift to you.

Thank you,

Slug & Jiggers Apothecary"

Narcissa tried to fight off a smirk as she rummaged further into the package and, sure enough, at the bottom of the paper bag was the fresh ingredient that Severus had asked for.

"Severus? Did you look through all of the package?"

"Of course I did woman!" Severus exclaimed. "What do you take me for, a fool?"

"Yes, I do," she answered truthfully waving the fresh lemongrass and parchment in his direction when he looked over at her in shock.

His look of embarrassment and bashfulness was forever seared into her brain and she was pretty convinced that this was the moment she first felt something other than friendly affection for him.

She'd deny it, of course.

Written for Hopscotch: Severus/Narcissa (pairing), fruit (word), "What's wrong?" (dialogue)

Gringotts Prompt Bank: Narcissa/Severus (HP Pairings), Malfoy Manor (HP Location)

Chocolate Frog Card: Wailing Widow (bronze) - Challenge: Write about a widow. I made her a widow so I'm hoping that counts.