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While the annoying, billowing cape of his outfit would say otherwise, Snape wasn’t one for extravagances. He much preferred private, one-on-one conversations or small gatherings. He disliked parties for the most part, but he tolerated them for your sake.
What you’re saying is: you never expected him to propose to you in front of the entirety of Hogwarts in the dining hall. During the Christmas Feast, he stood up and got down on one knee near the staff table, loudly proclaiming his love for you with a beautiful onyx ring between his fingers.
Oh, wait, that was just a dream. Of course that wouldn’t happen.
You woke up with a giddy feeling in your chest. Though the dream was only a fabrication of your inner thoughts and desires, you felt yourself getting excited at the prospect of a wedding.
More specifically, yours and Severus’ wedding.
The two of you have talked about marriage before, so it wasn’t a dream that was completely out of the blue, but it was spoken as a far away fantasy that might not even happen. Having a dream like that on a day you were supposed to be focused and ready to teach your students was distracting, to say the least.
One of your best and brightest, Hermione Granger, noticed your change in attitude almost immediately. Thankfully, she waited until the end of class to bring it up to you.
“Are you alright Professor?”
“What do you mean, Miss Granger? Was my teaching not on par today?” You teased her slightly, but in the back of your mind you knew exactly where her questioning was coming from.
“Oh, no, of course not! You’re one of the best professors I have! I was just worried-”
You chuckled, the noise calming the student down and keeping her from thinking that she was in any real trouble for her questioning.
“While I appreciate your concern,” you started with a kind smile, “There isn’t anything wrong. I’m sorry if I seemed distracted today, Hermione. I hope that didn’t take away from the lesson for you?”
“No, it did not! I got all my notes done-” she flashed you her parchment to prove it and you laughed lightly, “-I’m glad you’re doing okay, though! I have to head to my next class, but I’ll see you tomorrow!”
You waved to her and told her to have a good day, telling her to close the door on her way out. Having a free period next meant you could get some grading done in private, no distractions.
“Oof-! Ugh-” You looked up as Hermione made a noise of discomfort and you caught sight of her bumping into none other than Professor Severus Snape, who looked more than mildly annoyed like he always does in front of students.
She squeaked out a quick apology, but you spoke up before he could respond.
“Sev,” you chided before he could even dare think to try taking points from Gryffindor, “I thought you had a class this hour? Something the matter?”
“They’re a group of capable sixth years,” he started with a sneer directed at Hermione that softened when he looked at you, “they can handle themselves for a few minutes.”
“Oh? So what brings you here so urgently, then?”
He clasped his hands behind him, straightening his posure in that indimitaing way he does. While it doesn’t phase you in the slightest, Hermione seems pretty frazzled. He glances down at the girl and you catch wind of it, letting out a short ‘ah’ before saying, “You were just heading out, right, Hermione?”
The girl whipped her head back at you and nodded, slightly shocked and very thankful that she wasn’t going to get detention for running right into Snape. She was out the door at the next moment, swinging it closed quickly with a slightly loud slam.
You shook your head in a light laugh, “You looked ready to vanish her on the spot, Sev. What’s up?”
“Your students are quite… persistent.” He settled on with a grimace. You raised an eyebrow, confused yet slightly amused.
“What’d they do now?” You tried keeping your tone lighthearted, but you were genuinely worried. Did they ask him about your relationship again? You figured they’d learn from the first time a student brought it up and got a month's worth of detention and ingredient sorting.
“They’ve…” Severus huffed, looking annoyed to the untrained eye, but you could tell he was embarrassed about something. It intrigued you greatly.
“Are you aware your students think we’re married?”
You let out a noise of surprise, a mix of laughter with pure shock.
“Is that why you left your class unattended? To ask me about some rumors? And no, I wasn't aware of that.” You made sure to ask your own questions first before answering him to point out how ridiculous and out of character it was for him.
“I… understand it may sound quite silly.”
“A little more than that, but yeah. I’m surprised you didn’t kick them all out of your class. Do you want me to talk to them or something?”
He shook his head, surprising you yet again. How many times is he going to divert expectations today?
“I just wanted to know your thoughts on the matter.”
“So, let me get this straight,” you placed the quill you were using for grading down to use your hands to speak, “my sixth years in your class wanted to know if we were engaged, and instead of getting on them for prying, you stopped class so that you could come and ask me what I thought about that?”
He looked absolutely flushed as he nodded to you, confirming that your synopsis was, in fact, the case. You would have relished in that rare sight of the light blush on his cheeks if you weren’t so utterly confused.
You pinched your leg from under your desk and out of his view. Nope, definitely awake this time.
After a moment of stunned silence from you, he asked, “I can’t be the only one of us who has thought about it more, can I?”
You shook your head quickly, “Oh, absolutely not. I think about it all the time, but-” you chewed on your lip, “Is that really what you want?”
His eyes widened at your question and you realized that this is absolutely not the conversation to be having during school hours.
“Sev, you don’t have to answer that.” You backtracked quickly, hoping that you hadn’t made him uncomfortable.
Instead of taking the out like you expected, he crossed the rest of the way to your desk, grabbing both of your hands off of the polished wood and holding them tightly in his own.
“But that’s exactly what I want,” he responded, a passion in his voice that wasn’t there before.
“Severus- you don’t have to-”
“(Y/N),” he cut you off, not unkindly, and pulled you to walk around your desk so that the two of you could be closer.
“I want to marry you, I love you dearly and it would make me very happy to call you mine.”
You gasped as he knelt down in front of you, all of your protests getting caught in your throat. You truly didn’t think he felt that way- his thoughts on marriage always seemed indifferent, but the idea that he wanted to call you his as much as you wanted to call him yours made your heart flutter.
“Severus!” You laughed as happy tears started to form in your eyes, “I’m not going to let you propose to me in my classroom!”
Severus chuckled (a deep, lovely sound that you’ll never get enough of) and stood, pulling you close to him and wrapping his arms snugly around your waist. “You’re right, my love.” He pressed a kiss to your forehead, “Are you free this afternoon?”
You joked, “I think I can make some room in my schedule.”
“Perfect.” He responded with the smallest of smiles, swaying you back and forth slightly, taking in the light, airy feeling that he suddenly felt as a result of the conversation you just had. “Would you like to meet me for dinner?”
“Of course, Sev.” You reached up and placed a kiss on his cheek, “Thank you.”
“Anything for you, my love.” He leaned down once more to place a soft kiss on your lips, a kiss full of promise and hope that the both of you needed.
“And please don’t punish my students for this-”
He kissed you again, “Trust me when I say that they’re already sweeping the floors of the dungeons.”
Despite yourself, you laughed. “As expected from the big bad potions professor. Can’t let your students think you’ve gone soft, huh?”
He continued to leave kisses on your skin, trailing down to your collar until he laid his head onto your shoulder. “They weren’t supposed to know in the first place,” he grumbled, being reminded of the time Malfoy wandered into his classroom while the two of you were this close together.
“And whose fault was that?” He could practically hear the smug smile in your voice and retaliated by softly biting down into your shoulder. “Hey!”
He kissed the spot as an apology, but before he could respond, the door to your classroom got pushed open. Four students fell into the room, one on top of the other. You almost groaned.
“I can’t believe- Not again! Detention for a week, all four of you.”
Snape looked up at you from where his head stayed perched on your shoulder, “I didn’t think you had it in you.”
One of the students spoke up, red in the face in embarrassment and unable to meet either of your eyes, “We’re so sorry, Professors!”
“Apology accepted,” you said sincerely, “but seriously, get back to class or else I’ll actually give you detention.” The four students nodded in unison, quickly making their escape and shutting the door behind them.
“Scary,” Severus teased in your ear and you jabbed his side with your thumb.
“Quiet, you.”