the day before you came - severus snape x reader

Chapter 32 - Soldiers

a/n: it's me! i want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for sticking with me. *insert cheesy paragraph here*

no, seriously, i love you people. i'll do my best to write more regularly again, even if i have to tie myself to the dungeon wall to do it. hehe. jk. or am i?

anyway, here you go. hope you're all thriving, bebes. ilysm xx

Falling asleep in the arms of an angel and waking up knowing it isn't just a fantasy, albeit biting December air travelling up your naked arms unshielded makes you shiver, works like magic on your usual grumpy morning mood.

The slightly unpleasant dampness of the dungeons always carried a distinct smell of old stones and secrets, but it gave you a strange sense of comfort whenever the air had notes of rainy days, mossy pebbles and riverbends – in combination with fresh, but loved linen and snowed-in leather, the almost misty bedroom air equaled an intoxication perfume, and if you hadn't already confessed your love to the Dungeon's Master, the steaming cup of black coffee waiting for you on your bedside table would have made you spill, at last.

The liquid happiness acts like a warming blanket from inside, and you pull the comforter up and under your chin and cuddle up against the empty pillow beside you.

The familiar, almost narcotic scent lulls you back to sleep and you drift off again, the grip of the cold December slipping away in the pale moonlight, accompanied by muffled noises of glass and wood bumping against each other every now and then, quietened by the closed bedroom door.

If the Potions Master would have taken a look at the woman sleeping in his bed, he would have shaken his head in gentle adoration at the simple, content smile that grazed her lips, illuminated by the soft, tired kiss of the dawning day.

Your second morning isn't much different from the first except for a stomach growling so loudly it must have wakened every being all around the foggy grounds of Hogwarts, probably.

Snatching your sweater off the floor, you plod into his office, the cup of magically kept hot coffee in your right hand and your beating, serene heart in your left.

Severus sits on his couch, reading, the fireplace already lit, scaring away the freezing dampness.

"The beast has wakened, at last", he hums when you sink down next to him, and you nod, eyes searching for something consumable, but greeting you are only empty cups of coffee, scattered on the ground.

Turns out you can't live off air and love after all.

"There's some toast in the storage room", he mutters absentmindedly, and you give him a funny look.

"In the storage? Alongside, I don't know, lethal ingredients?"

Severus so much as glances over the edge of his book.

"I had breakfast while tidying", he shrugs, placing a splayed, appeasing hand over your thigh, and continues reading.

"You really need to sort out your eating hygiene", you sigh in response, reproachful, but he's already immersed in his literature, again, and you stand up to fetch some proper food from the Great Hall.

The aversion to stale, pale bread drives you right into the arms of your other favorite Professor, a proper timing to introduce him to you blossoming relationship with the beloved Dungeon's Master.

Although not really surprised, Remus still wiggles his eyebrows over the pumpkin juice he's nursing during your recapturing.

"Good for you", he purrs when you're finished. "I did not expect you to run straight to him last night, though – alas, young love and all that jazz."