Chapter Text
I can’t help but notice
Sunflower’s disregard for words
It is far too busy
becoming
Breakfast for Finch
Beauty for Human
Nectar for Bee
In a jar on the counter
ever so patient
wait next year’s seeds
- The Botany of Desire, Nolan Morris
The summer was nigh, just a few short weeks left until the end of the school year, and the flurry of final assessments getting underway.
Severus tugged ineffectually at the collar of his shirt and frock coat, buttoned up high on his neck as it always was. No relief was found. He strode quickly towards his location, intent on getting out of the midday sun. Severus would have preferred to go there later in the day, but his classes wouldn’t allow for it, and with the end of term approaching, he had limited time around his classes and marking.
His long legs carried him to his destination quickly, and he soon passed through the main entry of the plant nursery with a large sign out the front reading Botanicum . He noted there was a strange tingle from a decontamination spell passing over him as he walked in. Severus was impressed. It was a smart idea - it would prevent any cross contamination and stop pests from wreaking havoc on the place.
As Severus looked around, he noted the Botanicum was lush and well-stocked, organised, and the signage around the place appeared to be clear. It had been a while since he had been to a magical plant nursery. He tapped a long finger against his lips thoughtfully, wondering where to begin. He’d done some research beforehand, but wondered if perhaps narrowing his options a little more would have been wiser.
‘Is there anything I can help you with, dear?’
Severus looked to his left and saw an older woman wearing a dark green apron approaching with an armful of potted herbs. She couldn’t have been more than five foot tall, and her apron and hands were covered in dirt.
Severus shook his head. ‘I am content to look around for the time being,’ he replied. ‘If that should change-’
The woman nodded. ‘-my assistant is around as well if I am not available,’ she interrupted with a smile.
He watched as she continued past him to another section of the nursery, before deciding to head in the direction of the tropical plants. Once he’d arrived in that section, Severus realised that he might have been in a little over his head. Selecting a few plants from his long list, he set them aside and stared at them thoughtfully. None of them were local to the UK, so they would require a particular artificial environment to survive. Sighing, he shuffled them back to where they’d come from.
‘If you are looking for something local, you might want to try over in the Muggle plant section,’ a familiar female voice said from behind him.
Severus spun on his heel, looking down his nose at the slight form before him. Hermione bloody Granger - of course. Of all the magical nurseries in all of England, he’d walked right into the only one employing one of his most annoying former students. He noted that her apron was clean, and her infamously disastrous hair was neatly pulled back into a tidy braid. Well at least she had learned to tame it , he mused.
‘Miss Granger,’ he drawled, sounding bored.
‘Hello, Professor,’ she replied cheerfully, smiling. ‘What brings you by today?’
‘I have a list of plants I was considering for one of my classes. They are completing dissections and full analysis in an upcoming class for their final assessment.’
Granger nodded knowingly. ‘Ah, I see!’ she said with enthusiasm. ‘I think I might have just the thing for you.’
Severus crossed his arms over his chest. ‘And you are qualified to make recommendations for higher level tertiary studies?’ he scoffed.
‘Perhaps,’ she replied coyly. ‘Come along, and I’ll show you. You can decide for yourself when we get there.’
Severus raised a lone eyebrow at her, but followed anway. Granger silently walked ahead of him, and he wondered how he’d never noticed that she was almost a head shorter than he was. Then again, he had been rather preoccupied with the trouble she and her two blasted friends were getting into to notice their height difference. But that was a different time…
He almost ran into her when she came to a dead stop in front of the section for Muggle fruit trees. She walked through until she came upon a selection of small, delicate trees with white blossoms beginning to unfurl from their buds.
‘These are prunus domestica ,’ Granger told him, lifting one of the larger trees and crooking her finger at one of the stands off to the side. She placed the pot down on it when it drifted over to land before them.
Severus looked at her in surprise, which turned to consternation in a second. She was a hobby gardener at best, and she was trying to lecture him on plants? He was a potions master, for Merlin’s sake. Severus also hadn’t expected she’d be able to perform a wandless, silent cast; she’d always seemed to be rather attached to her wand. The Hermione Granger he had taught was very by the books.
‘Plums?’ he said flatly, lifting the tag attached to the bottom up to look at it.
‘They are incredibly easy to encourage further magical growth, so you’d be able to take it off with you. With the right combination of potions, it would be large enough for quite a number of students to be able to analyse each - a large enough tree for group work, so you wouldn’t require as many,’ she explained. ‘And with the added benefit of being a local fruit tree in bloom, so no need for an artificial habitat.’
Severus gazed at her nonplussed. ‘You seem quite knowledgeable about this plant,’ he said, narrowing his eyes at her.
‘Well, I do work here,’ she quipped easily.
‘I am surprised,’ he said, examining the leaves of the plant before him, running his thumb over one of the textured leaves. ‘I never would have taken you for one to do manual labour. You never seemed all that interested in Herbology.’
‘I gained a greater appreciation for it after the war,’ Granger said with a smile. ‘People change, Professor.’
Severus made a non-committal sound before clearing his throat. ‘I have a class of twenty.’
‘Then I would say groups of four, so five trees should be plenty,’ Granger replied, summoning over a little trolley. ‘Why don’t you choose the plants you like best?’
Severus stared at her for a moment, still a little taken-aback by her being there. Why on earth was she working in a plant nursery? He had questions, but despite his curiosity, he went to work selecting out a few trees that looked healthy. Hell - all of the plants were of exceptional quality, so the choice had been rather moot. He was more than a little irritated when she calmly placed his selection into the trolley with a polite smile, almost as though he were just any other customer.
And then it dawned on him. To her, in this place, he was just another customer. He was no longer her teacher, and apparently, she could no longer be intimidated by him, no matter how much he scowled.
‘Is there anything else at all that I can assist you with, Professor?’
Severus frowned. He hated how polite and cordial she was being. It had knocked him off-kilter and that was not a feeling he was familiar with. He narrowed his eyes at her.
‘No.’
‘I’ll just wheel this up to the counter for when you are ready to leave then,’ she said, turning around and pulling the cart along behind her.
Severus felt his jaw tense. He stalked around the rest of the Botanicum , taking in the other plant selections, and came upon a selection of herbs. Grabbing a few, he made his way back to the front counter. Granger was waiting for him there, and he cursed internally his bad luck once more. This young woman was not the same annoying swot that he’d taught, certainly, but there was something incredibly more annoying about her now. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
‘Ready to go, sir?’ she asked, reaching out to collect the herbs from his arms. ‘Oh, this is a wonderful selection. Do you cook much, Professor?’
Severus levelled a look of mild irritation at her. ‘Yes.’
Granger lifted an eyebrow at him, but said nothing about his clipped tone. If he was honest with himself, he didn’t really know why he was acting this way. Something about her just… Severus gave himself a mental shake. He accepted the invoice she passed to him and he counted out the money, pushing it towards her across the counter that separated them, noting that there was a tag on the large crate containing his purchases.
‘If you touch your wand to the tag while thinking of where you’d like it to end up, it will appear there. It works similarly to a portkey,’ Granger smiled. Apparently an invention of her own making.
His brows drew into a frown, but he followed her instructions and watched as the crate disappeared with his purchases. Severus gave her a sharp nod before turning on his heel and doing something he would later call into question: he fled.
After the nightmare that was the previous week, Severus found himself, once again, standing in front of Botanicum .
Although this time he was armed with the knowledge that beyond the front entryway Hermione Granger was likely on the other side, he still hesitated. He’d behaved rather boorishly the week before, for no reason other than that he had been surprised to run into his former student there. It didn’t matter that she was a shop attendant there - plants were plants, and this nursery had the best selection he’d come across.
Steeling himself, Severus moved forwards, feeling a chill run down his spine this time as he passed through the decontamination barrier. The older woman from last time -the owner most likely- smiled and winked at him. He felt decidedly uncomfortable with that, and made his way towards the tropical plant selection. While walking through, Severus almost immediately ran into Granger as she appeared beside him, seemingly out of nowhere. His hands gripped her elbows to steady her without even thinking.
‘Oof, sorry about that, Professor,’ Granger said with a sheepish smile, taking a step back from him as he released her. ‘I should have announced myself.’
‘No matter,’ Severus said, a little uncomfortable.
‘What brings you back, sir?’
His lips thinned automatically, but he caught himself and relaxed them. ‘I am looking for a few plants for my personal collection and studies,’ he replied, withdrawing a list from his coat pocket and handing it to her.
She scanned his note and nodded. ‘I do believe we can help you,’ Granger said with a bright smile. ‘Come with me.’
Severus followed her wordlessly. The less he said, the better. He’d done nothing but put his foot in his mouth since the moment he had stepped over the threshold on his previous visit. Soon they stood on the sprawling tropical section of the nursery - where everything from flowers to shrubs and trees were on offer. He was sorely tempted to add more to his list, but resisted the temptation - he had limited space in the habitat he had built, and he prided himself of showing restraint when making purchases.
‘The plants on your list are just in that corner,’ Granger said, snapping him out of his reverie. ‘Shall I select some for you, sir?’
His eyes locked with hers, and in the near-amber depths he saw a twinkle; of what he did not know. ‘By all means,’ he drawled, gesturing for her to precede him.
Severus watched as she wandered through the plants, carefully plucking out options and levitating them onto a nearby potting bench. Ever the overachiever , he thought to himself wryly. Although, it was not as though he was one to talk; he’d been an overachiever at that age too. He had also made plenty of terrible decisions back then that he was still doing penance for - the faded Dark Mark on his inner forearm was a constant reminder of this.
When he looked up at her again, Severus could see that she was waiting for him with a patient smile. ‘Is this to your liking, sir?’
He turned his attention to the plants she had selected, picking up the nearest one to examine. A very fine anthurium. Yes, this would be an excellent plant to experiment with cross-pollination and hybridising. The flowers of this particular one were a deep scarlet. Severus finally looked back up to her and nodded.
‘This will do nicely,’ he replied.
‘Excellent,’ Granger said, placing them into a crate which she levitated to the front counter, this time using her wand. He hadn’t even noticed her draw it.
‘Miss Granger,’ he said, as she moved towards the counter.
She paused and turned back around to face him. ‘Yes, Professor?’
He barely contained his flinch as she addressed him that way again. He might be a teacher, but he was not her teacher.
‘I would like to apologise,’ he began, holding up a hand at the protest he could see forming in her mind and in her change in posture. ‘Let me finish. I was unnecessarily rude to you at my last visit, and I would like to take this opportunity to express my regret. You did not deserve my ire.’
She deflated a little, offering a smile and nodding to acknowledge the apology. ‘While I appreciate the apology, it was not necessary.’
‘It absolutely is,’ he said firmly. ‘Being a patron does not negate the need to be polite, and it seems I left my manners behind.’
‘I will forgive you just this time then,’ she said teasingly. ‘Next time I might not be so magnanimous.’
The corners of his mouth wanted to lift, but Severus resisted the urge to smile. Instead he merely inclined his head and the two of them made their way to the front counter. He watched patiently as she tallied up his purchase, feeling suddenly awkward as silence reigned between them.
‘What made you want to work here, Miss Granger?’ he asked.
She smiled. ‘I am studying advanced Potions and Herbology,’ she answered. ‘I’m actually in the last few weeks of my course, so when I graduate I will have a Mastery in both. The owner, Lydia, hired me and is my Botanical Science mentor.’
Severus felt his surprise all through him. Potions? Surely Minerva would have told him that her prized student was studying in his field. Pomona at the very least would have lorded the Herbology studies over him. Although, it shouldn’t surprise him that the two women never mentioned his former students to him - it wasn’t as though he had been overly fond of any of them as their teacher.
‘I was not aware you had undertaken any higher studies,’ he said quietly.
‘I am not exactly splashed across the papers like my friends,’ Granger replied with a grin. ‘It turns out people don’t really want to read about a mousey, studious swot when they can follow the thrilling tales of the Auror and Quidditch Captain.’
Severus didn’t bother holding back his smirk at her comment. She was self-aware, he’d give her that much. ‘What is your thesis?’
‘The benefits of integrating environmental biology into the production of potion making, down to the very beginning of the process; ingredient selection, harvest, climate,’ she answered, listing them off on her fingers.
Severus frowned. ‘That is still unconfirmed quack science, Granger,’ he said irritably. He’d been in the field for years with green horns in the field trying to prove their new age theorems, and not a single one had been proven.
‘Come now, you are being stubborn,’ she said, her smile slipping a little. ‘Just because it has yet to be proven, doesn’t invalidate the research.’
‘Your youth and inexperience is showing,’ he sneered.
‘And you are a stick in the mud,’ she retorted, crossing her arms stubbornly.
‘Granger, I have been working in the field for over twenty years and have kept up with all of the latest developments and theories that have been tumbling around. Many have tried to prove it, and many have failed. You most certainly are not special.’
Granger was openly frowning now, all sense of calm thrown out. ‘You just can’t stand the idea that you might be wrong,’ she said, incredulity in her tone.
‘I am rarely wrong, Miss Granger,’ Severus said haughtily.
She snorted. ‘Hardly.’
Severus felt the thin band of his rigid control snap, and the two of them began throwing insults at one another without any regard for their audience.
‘-think you know everything…’
‘-can’t just bully people into coming ‘round to your archaic way of thinking…’
‘-an insufferable know-it-all even now...’
‘-you aren’t the authority on all things potions, Snape!’
‘That’s enough!’ a third, firm voice interjected.
They both looked over to see that Lydia was standing with her hands on her hips, a frown creasing her weathered brow. Despite the fact that she was shorter than them both, Lydia did not seem like a woman who ought to be trifled with.
‘I expect better from you both,’ she said sternly, shooting a look between them.
He looked back at Granger who had the good grace to look chastened. Meanwhile Severus found himself seething again, all of his goodwill from earlier having evaporated like fog in the morning sun. He hauled his money out of his pocket and she pushed the invoice across the bench to him wordlessly. Counting out what he owed, he placed it on the counter, snatched up the invoice and touched his wand to the tag on the plant crate as he had last time.
‘Thank you for your patronage, Professor,’ Granger ground out.
‘Good day,’ he snapped, before turning on his heel, and striding out of the nursery without looking back.
Once he was far enough away that he couldn’t see Botanicum any longer, Severus slowed his pace, making his way to the nearest park to avail himself of some thick shrubbery to Apparate from. He reappeared in his office, still fuming, and yet… And yet there was a strange sense of satisfaction to be found in his jumbled feelings. Hermione Granger was one of the most singularly annoying witches he had ever had the misfortune to meet. But the exhilaration that swept through him after their squabble was undeniable.
Dropping into the chair behind his desk, Severus sighed, running a hand over his face to pinch the bridge of his nose.
Yes, Granger was a giant pain in his behind. It was even more irksome that she worked at the best bloody nursery in all of London. He supposed he could try to find somewhere else to make his purchases. Severus shook his head. No. He would simply have to move past his irritation at his impossible former student. After all, he wasn’t even certain what he was feeling was annoyance, if the blood rushing in his ears was anything to go by.
Realising the time, he stood from his desk and gathered everything he needed for his next class and left the office. Severus opened the door firmly, making a loud ‘bang’ as he swept into the room, coming to a stop and spinning around to face the rows of desks. He smirked to himself at the look of surprise mixed with terror on the faces of those already in the classroom waiting.
‘Open your textbooks and open to page 943,’ Severus barked, almost grinning wolfishly as they hastily rushed to comply.
He pitied the students of his last period that day.
To be continued.