Dawn

Big Ben’s bells tolled at four o’clock in the morning. A time, when most of London’s inhabitants usually were asleep in their beds. Even those who had enjoyed a nice evening, were at home since long and probably enjoying the advantages of a nice fire in the fireplace or those of a warm bed.
One pair at least, didn’t seem to think about all those things, at the slightest. Unreasonable behaviour one might say. Heels could be heard on the asphalt under the flickering lights of the street lamps. No other sound was to be heard on the empty streets. Only here and then a leaf was blown over the gleaming Asphalt. It must have been raining earlier.
The woman’s laugh could be heard from the other side the street and the man casted a fascinated look at her above his great hooked nose, from black eyes. His black hair blended in with the black cloak he was wearing and only from his collar and his sleeves a hint of white fabric could be seen. A warm smile could be seen on his thin lips.
The woman’s clothes looked as elegant as his. She was wearing a black sheath dress and black high heels, around the shoulders she had wrapped an emerald green shawl. Her black hair was put into a nice, elaborate hairdo and with crimson eyes she looked up to him, lovingly.
Just now the man put an arm around her shoulder and she vanished under his cloak. Then he bowed down and kissed her.

Mina Circeni looked at the bracelet on her wrist. It was nearly as thin as a thread and glistened in the pale light of the street lamp. It must have cost a little fortune, jewelled with diamonds and emeralds as it was… not to mention the high classed restaurant and the theatre earlier.
“It was a beautiful night. Thank you very much, Severus.” she said silently, clinging to him. “Even, if we haven’t been away for dancing!”
He snorted: “You know, that I don’t dance, Mina. And I hope you won’t get too used to these evenings… Even if I am not saying, that they are rather enjoyable. Even for me.” with the ending of that sentence a rare smile came on Severus Snape’s thin lips again.
This wasn’t really intended, but Mina had this nature to conjure a smile on his face, at least once a day.
With whom else could he talk about highly complicated potions and complex magic used at the rest of the world in ancient times? She never had been boasting with her knowledge, never had been hawking around with this at school. To be honest, he always had regarded that with favour. She gave a look into her knowledge, if it was important and the moment right. Not always and especially not without asking.

A woman like Mina Circeni was more than he deserved from every point of view. He wasn’t attractive and he surely wasn’t a nice man. On the contrary, he knew that he was unattractive. He was highly jealous, he was sarcastic, cold and calculating and he wasn’t very patient… Yes, every now and then he was selfish, some may have called him bitter. He had his emotions in control, if it wasn’t about Harry Potter or if someone called him a coward… He knew what he was able to do.
And yet here that young woman was. A former student. The woman, which had saved his life, after that damned snake’s bite. She was attractive, clever, modest, terribly graceful. With eyes coloured as the dead Dark Lord’s, but apart from that so very different. Her gaze was so much warmer.
She could be as courageous as scared and she highly disliked injustice. And still she was ambitious. That she had shown in school very well. Never, she had failed to try to lose her ground against Hermione Granger. She had worked herself to the second best in class in the backgrounds, always working to get even better. Yes, she even attended extra lessons in potions with him, because he had wanted to advance her talent, making her a finer witch, than she already had been. Her, the only student, that wasn’t an irritably nuisance or a dunderhead. Hermione might be in the talking to be the brightest witch of her age. For him, she had never been that.

How all that have been turned into love? That should be known by whomsoever, he could care less. Now they were here, somewhere in the town of London. Their lips blue from the red wine they’ve drunk, accompanied with the songs of the early birds, while it dawned far away, sharing his cloak, so that she wouldn’t freeze…
Autumn had come this year as colourful and beautiful as always. Maybe a little bit sooner, than the years before, but why should that be bothering? Now it wasn’t raining, at a few entrances stood pumpkins, even if it still was a whole month to Halloween. It was just a little cold and she probably wore the wrong clothes for these temperatures. Something, which she probably did on purpose, to snuggle up under his cloak and to be kept warm by him. Well, once in a while and on special occasions, she was allowed to do so. Who could have known, that they still would be awake at this time, after all?
Yes, with her, he even went into these ridiculous, cheesy theatre plays or listened to music that normally wasn’t his favourite. For her he could quite cope with these things. With her at his side he even accepted the leadership of a school. Clearly he had become sentimental. A feature, from which he didn’t know if it was good or not. Probably it wasn’t.

An oncoming wind blew a strand of her hair, which had loosened up from her hairdo into her face and some leafs against their feet, his cloak waved in the wind. Mesmerized he looked down at her, catched the strand of hair and put it behind her ear. Suddenly every noise faded out. The world didn’t exist anymore. There were only them under that street lamp. He put her face into his hands and bowed down to her. Slowly, nearly shy, as if she could break apart under his fingers, his lips touched the young woman’s lips. They still had a faint taste of red wine.
He didn’t need to say, what he felt for her. She knew it. The kiss was sign enough. For a moment he could feel the magical bond between them catching fire. That old magic, that had bond them to each other, without them being able to prevent it.

When the kiss ended, she silently giggled and looked up at him with slightly red cheeks. His eyebrow wandered up: “What is it?” he asked with a hoarse voice.
“You’re always so deeply serious, Sev. Just to kiss me then, as you did now. Mostly when I don’t expect it.” she winked. “I know that you enjoy these evenings, don’t tell me otherwise.” softly chiding she hold up her forefinger. “But don’t be scared… I don’t intend to get used to these things. They are surprising and I like these kind of surprises very much. Getting used to it would mean that you would do these surprises regularly and hat would mean, that it would become boring.”
Another smile on his lips, this seriously had to stop: “Don’t you think that we should go home to sleep, Mina?”
She shook her head: “No, I don’t want to go home yet. Or sleeping. I want to see the sun rise…”, she pointed to a little wall not far away. They must have reached the Themse’s shore, without realizing it.
“Also you can’t tell me, that you’re longing for Hogwarts and all the pupils?”
A silent grumble was his answer, making her laugh this time.
“That would be the furthest thing from my thoughts. The Hogwarts express hasn’t even started its journey from King’s Cross yet and we still have a few hours, before that madness starts all over.” he calmly answered and pulled her towards him, when they reached the little wall and she was looking over the Themse’s water towards the horizon.
He was longing for some things (one of those things, he was holding in his arms right now), but he really would never long for one of those idiotic, stupid, know-all, rule breaking, pesky, unfriendly and respectless little snotty-nosed brats. He never had. The job had only happened to be paid good. And the one he had now was even better paid.
And if he hadn’t to grapple with all these fools all day long, he luckily had more time to turn back to his passion now. Together with a wonderful, bright and highly talented woman, whom he had been very pleased to give his old post as potions teacher, too. He didn’t miss being a teacher in the slightest way.


The bells of Big Ben tolled six o’ clock in the morning. Since a while, one could hear the sounds of a city waking up. But just now, the curious pair broke away from the look of the rising sun and the fog dancing over the water.
Slowly Mina turned around, brushed a kiss on Severus’ lips and a strand of hair behind his ear.
“Let’s go home, Severus. Together.”, she took his hand, interlacing her fingers with his.
Just before the first muggle could come down the street, both of them had vanished with a silent noise. They only left a few leaves falling down to the ground again.
The sun greeted the sleepy London with glowing rays, meeting the fiery red leaves and the wet asphalt. The air smelled of rain again, a cat scurried over the streets. There was absolutely nothing that could disturb that peace.
All was well.