Work Text:
An owl was hooting somewhere in the distance. Severus looked up at the old clock in the library and blinked. It was half past ten at night. His eyes were itching from the intense writing he had done in the past four hours, but he was now somewhat satisfied; his essay was complete and he was sure that nobody else from his class would have such a well-documented work.
He packed the quill away and stretched his arms. Two days until the Easter holidays, two days until he’d need to hand over his essay to Slughorn. Thankfully, he was done with his homework, so now he’d have time to focus on his OWL preparation. He opened one of his notebooks and looked at his handmade calendar.
Black ink and many scribbles highlighted dates and plans only Severus would make sense of. His tired eyes followed the dates and counted the days until the end of the exams. Two months, two weeks and three days before everything would be over and he would go back to Spinner’s End. The prospect of summer made him frown. Being at home was far from pleasant, but whatever he felt, the thought of another summer around Lily made him somewhat cheerful. Perhaps it would be this summer that -.
‘CURFEW!’ cried out Madam Pince’s voice. ‘IT’S BEEN CURFEW SINCE TEN O’CLOCK!’
Severus quickly packed up and ignored the hysterical woman. No curfew would have stopped him from finishing the essay. Avoiding her eye and without a word, he walked out of the library and headed towards the common room.
The castle was silent. His footsteps echoed past a couple of portraits that were snoring, but he didn’t bother to walk quietly. Portraits never slept, so why would he care?
The common room was empty when he entered. The playful greenish light reflected itself in a couple of mirrors around the place and just as Severus was about to turn towards the corridor leading to his dormitory, a voice surprised him.
‘I was wondering where you were.’
It was Erin, one of his classmates who usually did her best to ignore him. He halted and looked at her with a confused look.
‘Yes, I’m talking to you Severus.’
‘And why would you look for me?’ he asked without moving closer to her. There were two armchairs between them.
‘Given that you’re the smart one in class – I saw you mark off all those dates in your calendar – I thought you could help me.’
Severus raised an eyebrow.
‘Me – help you?’
Erin walked closer to him.
‘I’ve been having problems with my Potions essay – the one that’s due on Friday.’
‘That is none of my concern, Erin,’ said Severus and turned to walk away.
‘Wait!’ she said and stepped even closer. ‘I thought we could make an agreement – we could both benefit from it.’
‘I fail to see what benefit I will get from spending any of my precious time on your mediocre essay.’
The girl’s brown eyes searched his and despite his cold manner, her lips curled.
‘What if you develop my essay on the poisoning effects of Aconite and then –‘ she lowered her voice to a whisper, ‘I could teach you how to kiss.’
His eyes fixed on hers and he forced himself to stand still while his brain started working.
‘You haven’t kissed anyone yet, have you Snape?’
His continuous silence brought a faint smile to the girl’s lips.
‘And wouldn’t it be good to be over with experimenting and by the time you’re supposed to do it – you’ll know exactly how things work?’
‘How much have you written so far?’ he finally asked.
‘A third of it, but I’m finding it difficult to spend that much time in the library. The smell of those books –‘
‘Fine.’
Erin smiled triumphantly.
‘I shall meet you by the statue of the limping troll twenty minutes before our Potions class on Friday. Goodnight.’
He turned on his heels and with his heart hammering in his chest, Severus went to bed.
*
Curiosity and a desire to fit in with everybody led him to finish another essay in record time. Friday found Severus in a state of anticipation. He would try to learn his best. He didn’t care about Erin, as she was known as an easy girl, but he did care about Lily. He knew he was supposed to make a move in the future before that Potter git would try asking her out. But all in all, he would concentrate more on that matter during the summer, until then they all had exams ahead.
His cold fingers clutched the parchment containing Erin’s perfectly written essay. Little did she know that he had spent five hours of the previous night writing and documenting it. All she needed to do was cast a spell and copy the text on a clean parchment that would contain her handwriting.
Her footsteps approached Severus, who was waiting anxiously by the statue. His oily hair framed his pale face, almost helping him hide his feelings. She halted upon seeing him.
‘Did you manage?’ she asked fearfully.
Severus handed over the three rolls of parchment containing his hard work.
‘Make sure you hand in your own handwriting,’ he said.
‘Brilliant!’ Erin exclaimed and quickly packed the essay into her school bag.
Severus felt his pulse increase. He didn’t exactly know what to expect now, but before he could say anything, Erin looked around and after making sure there was nobody in sight, she pushed him against the wall.
It all happened fast. His back slammed against the hard wall and the next thing he saw was Erin’s face close up to his. Then her mouth was on his. Her tongue slid between his lips and met his teeth, but by the time he reacted, the girl had retreated. She laughed.
‘You’ll need a lot more practice if you wish to impress a girl, Snape!’ she said and left, her laughter echoing in the corridor.
Severus stared after the girl and finally cleaned his mouth with the hem of his robe, aware of all the saliva that had been involved. He rested his back against the cold wall and closed his eyes for a second. He felt used. The experience had felt unrealistic compared to what he had seen at others and he had a feeling that Erin wanted to make fun of him. On the whole, this first kiss had felt disgusting.
He pushed himself away from the wall and took a deep breath. He would have a whole summer to figure things out with Lily, but first, he had exams and a brilliant essay to hand over to Slughorn.