#*HUFFS FROM EXCITEMENT TO RUN AND KILL THE LUNA SNOW*

[malenjoyer]

don't judge me but... he *is* fun

[deadlydollies13]

The Potion Master’s Grace ch. 32

By the next morning, everyone from Year Three and above was too excited about Hogsmeade Weekend to worry about whatever Umbridge was up to. Students showed their permission slips to their Head of Houses and made their way to the village outside of Hogwarts. They knew they were close when the ground abruptly was covered in white, glistening snow. Grace and Draco walked hands intertwined into the village with their friends by their side. Here, at least, Umbridge couldn’t tell them they couldn’t touch.

   Their first stop, which was their first stop every Hogsmeade Weekend, was Honeydukes Sweetshop. The sugary aroma hit them as they entered and the door jingled. They knew better by now to bring their own bags because they just couldn’t fit that much in their hands. Grace especially, who wasn’t afraid to admit she had a horrible sweet tooth. Grace’s bag was filled with Acid Pops, Chocoballs, Chocolate Frogs, Crystallized Pineapple, Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum, Honeydukes Best Chocolate, Pepper Imps, Pink Coconut Ice, a box of warm Pumpkin Pasties, and of course, Sugared Quills. Grace stocked up on these because she chewed her pens and pencils during class, but when she was in a class where the teacher made her use a quill (DADA), she used these. She avoided any sweets that contained bugs or bug parts, but it didn’t surprise her that Luna or Rolf ate these strange sweets like Sugared Butterfly Wings and Fudge Flies. They paid for their sweets and went back out into the brisk air.

   Grace popped a Pepper Imp into her mouth and tiny little flames burst from within her. Immediately she was warmed up, and a few of her friends did the same. They turned a corner and saw a few of their professors walking down the road, two of which were Severus and Phoebe concealing their intertwined hands with their robes. Their backs were turned towards them, so Grace saw an amazing opportunity in front of her. She quickly scooped up some snow, pressed it into a ball, and ran up so she was within throwing distance. Severus was too distracted talking to Minerva so Grace took her shot and hit her father’s shoulder with the snowball. Severus whipped around to see who did it, hand going to grab his wand. Several other students walking the street gasped and moved off to the side or the road. When he saw it was just Grace, smirking, he put his wand away. Phoebe tried to muffle her giggles. “Brat!” he said before scooping up some snow and throwing it back at her.

   Grace ducked, “This is war!” The two Snape’s had a mini snowball fight right there in the middle of Hogsmeade. Grace’s friends, along with the professors, couldn’t help but laugh at the scene before them. The students who had moved out of the way now stood looking flabbergasted.

   The battle ended when Severus hit Grace in the face and she made a melodramatic scene by falling back into the snow and groaning, “This is it! This is the end!” she threw her arm over her eyes. “I see the light, it’s calling me!”

   “You’re absolutely ridiculous,” Severus walked over and picked up her bag of sweets. “Winner gets these!” he grinned.

   Grace shot up, “Not today, Satan!” Before she could get up, Severus was already running off. “Dad!” she yelled, but he had turned down an alley towards The Three Broomsticks. She let out a huff before something caught her eye and she hatched a cunning plan. She grinned before she ran, jumping on a crate that was below a pitched roof and jumped on that roof to climb onto the flatter top roof.

   “Grace!” many people below her exclaimed in a panic.

   “That girl is going to get herself killed!” Phoebe ran down the alley Severus had taken, the rest following her.

   Meanwhile, Grace was hurdling chimneys, sliding down pitches, climbing them up, trying to find her father below. Behind her, she could hear her friends and teachers begging her to get down. Finally, she saw Severus standing in front of The Three Broomsticks. The building she was on luckily had a separated pitched roof that was low enough to the ground she could get off it safely. She jumped down, slid a little bit, but when she landed on the snowy ground, she lost her footing and did a roll forward to get back to her feet.

   “Always the one for dramatics.”

   “Hand over the candy and no one gets hurt!” Grace pulled out her wand and glared at her father, obviously out of breath.

   Severus glared back for a second, “Fine, but I’m taking a Chocoball.”

   “Yeah, okay, fine!” her glare broke and she grinned.

   Moments later, Phoebe came sprinting over from the alley, “Jesus, Grace!” She pulled Grace into a protective hug, “You’re going to get yourself killed, I swear! Severus, stop smirking, you’ll only encourage her!” Grace couldn’t help but giggle while Phoebe searched her for any cuts or bruises.

   “She looked like she knew what she was doing, Phoebs.”

   Phoebe glared at him, “She jumped from a building, Severus Tobias!”    

   Severus held up a hand, “Slid. She slid, Phoebe. Slid and then rolled, and it was very impressive.”

   Phoebe rolled her eyes and looked at Grace, “Who do you think you are? Like, in your head, who are you?”

   “Uh… a superhero?” the sarcasm obvious in her voice.

   “Which one, though?” Severus asked.

   Grace thought for a moment, “Scarlet Witch, duh.”

   “Nice,” he smirked.

   “Holy shit, that was so cool!” Grace heard Charlie yell as her friends ran over from the alley, and Luna tackled her. She was surrounded and laughing with her friends.

   “Are you okay?” Phoebe asked Severus. “Like, are you having a mid-life crisis?”

   Severus shrugged, “You know, I actually have no idea. Surprisingly, I’m in a good mood.”

   Phoebe side-eyed him, “Not that I’m complaining, but it is rather strange,” she smiled.

-

   Inside The Three Broomsticks, Grace and her friends sat nearest to the fire to try and warm up, while Severus and some of the other teachers sat at a table on the opposite wall. Still, they could hear the teens talking loudly and laughing.

   Grace and Draco sat close together, enjoying each other’s warmth, drinking mugs of warm Butterbeer.

   “I wish there wasn’t so much foam at the top; it takes forever to actually get to the drink!” Draco complained.

   “What are you talking about?” Grace took another sip of her’s. “The foam is the best part!”

   “We can tell,” Alfie teased, pointing to Grace’s upper lip, where she had a Butterbeer-foam mustache.

   “Oops,” she said wiping it away. “I know what we should be for Halloween!”

   Draco rolled his eyes, “Grace, I’m not really the ‘dressing up’ type.”

   “But it’s perfect…” she pouted.

   He sighed, “What is it?”

   “Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable!” she grinned. Everyone at the table agreed how that was perfect for them, although Draco had the slightest clue what Grace was talking about.

   “What? Who?”

   Grace dramatically gasped, “You’ve never seen Kim Possible?”

   Draco shrugged and shook his head, “I don’t believe I have.”

   “Well, that can’t do! Your homework is to binge the entire series, starting immediately when we get back to Hogwarts!”

   “Aren’t you going to watch it with me?”

   “I would, but I have prior arrangements for this weekend,” Grace hadn’t mentioned anything to Draco, but judging by the mischievous look Luna and Rose shared, it wasn’t good.

   “Like what?”

   Grace held up a finger and turned around in her chair, “Dad!” she shouted across the room to where their professors sat.

   Severus jumped and looked over at Grace. Seeing she wasn’t in danger or anything, he raised a brow.

   “Can Luna and Rose sleep over tonight?” She gave her best puppy eyes, even batting her eyelashes.

   “Sure? I don’t see why not,” he answered and went back to whatever conversation he was having with his colleagues, all of which looked very surprised with him. “What?”

   “You’re just full of surprises today, Severus,” Minerva smirked.

   Phoebe placed the back of her hand on his cheek, “You’re not feverish.”

   “Course I’m not! Why would I be?”

   “You just agreed for three teenage girls to have a slumber party in your apartment, Sev,” Phoebe still looked shocked.

   Severus couldn’t tell why it was such a big deal, then he actually thought about it, “Oh… Shit.”

   “So, what are you all being?” Grace asked, back at their table.

   “Charlie wouldn’t stop pestering me, so we’re being Belle and Prince Adam,” Rose rolled her eyes.

   “When he’s human, of course,” Charlie smirked.

   Rose shrugged, “At least I really like Belle. She’s French, like me.”

   “What about you and Rolf?” Grace looked at Luna.

   “Alice and the Mad Hatter,” her and Rolf smiled at one another.

   “You two are cute,” Grace grinned. “It sickens me.”

-

   Grace and her friends had run into Cici later that day in Gladrag’s Wizardwear, where they tried on any wacky clothing item they could get their hands on. With their money bags significantly lighter, they returned to Hogwarts for the evening.

   Most of the students and staff had done the same thing, as dinner was nearing in the Great Hall. Severus and Phoebe remained, strolling down the streets of the small village hand-in-hand, not having to worry about what a certain pink-wearing professor might say. Most everyone by then knew about Severus and Phoebe and also knew about Severus and Grace’s relationship. Umbridge knew, but unlike the majority of the school, she intensely disapproved of anything Severus was involved in.

   As they neared Scrivenshaft’s Quill Shop, they heard a familiar voice.

   “You’ve been in there for hours!” Sirius whined when Remus came out of the shop, bag full of what Severus assumed was rolls of parchment, quills, and inkwells.

   “I was, at most, twenty minutes!”

   “It’s longer in dog years!”

   Remus rolled his eyes, “Honestly, Sirius.”

   “Hello, boys,” Phoebe said once they were close enough.

   “Well, if it isn’t Hogwart’s Sweethearts,” Sirius grinned. Remus looked cautiously at Severus, waiting for Sirius’ false sense of familiarity with Severus to finally become too much and Severus would snap, but surprisingly, Severus just smiled. “Where’s the Kiddo?”

   “Back at the school already. Severus made the mistake of agreeing to let Grace’s girlfriends spend the night.”

   “No!” both men exclaimed in disbelief. Sirius doubled over laughing, but Remus looked generally concerned for Severus.

   “Have you gone mad, man?” Remus asked.

   “Apparently,” Severus shrugged. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

   “You’d better have a strong drink on hand!” Sirius said between fits of laughter.

   “Speaking of, I’d better go make sure the place in teenager-proof,” Phoebe said. “I’ll meet you at the Great Hall. See you later, boys,” she smiled and waved, walking towards Hogwarts.

   “I wanted to talk to the both of you,” Severus turned to the two men in front of him, his tone serious. “It’s about Grace.”

   “Is everything okay?” Remus asked.

   “Yes, she’s fine. It's nothing bad. I just… I wanted to ask you both if you’d agree to be Grace’s godfathers?” The two men looked utterly shocked and found themselves speechless, although gave Severus questioning looks. “Grace considers you family, and she’s comfortable with you both. For Grace to be comfortable around men is, well, that’s saying a lot. I’m not going to act as if this war isn’t coming, or that I won’t go unscathed if Voldemort finds out that I’m a spy for the Light. I need to know that if something happens to me, Grace will be taken care of. I know that’s a lot to ask of you two, and we’re not exactly friends, but-“

   “Of course we will, Severus,” Sirius was smiling broadly, as was Remus when Severus turned his gaze from the ground to them. “We’d love to!”

   Severus gave them a small smile, “Thank you. I’ll have the papers sent to you; I really must be getting back before they think I’ve been kidnapped or something,” he joked.

-

   After dinner, Luna and Rose rand up to their dormitories to grab everything they needed to stay over the night. They both met Grace outside a bare stone wall. “Serpentine,” Grace whispered, looking foolish to her two friends until the wall vanished and revealed a winding staircase that led to the Slytherin Common Room in the dungeons.

   “Wow,” Rose’s eyes widened when they reached the dimly lit common room. Though they didn’t have windows, they had glass panels that opened up into the lake. There were plenty of Slytherins in the common room, relaxing and enjoying their Saturday evening.

   “What are they doing in here?” a Slytherin boy asked not to anyone in particular.

   “They’re with Professor Snape, now shut up, dingus!” Rowena snapped, obviously annoyed that the boy interrupted her reading. Grace gave Rowena a grateful smile and she nodded in return. They walked down a corridor that branched off of the main room and entered Severus’ private apartment.

   The door that opened into the potions pantry was open, meaning Severus was in his classroom brewing something and Phoebe was standing in the doorway of her’s and Severus’ bedroom waving her wand.

   “What are you doing, Aunt Phoebe?” Luna asked.

   “Putting a silencing spell on the room so Severus and I may actually have a chance of a night’s sleep with you three here.”

   Quietly, Rose mumbled, “Mhm. That’s what it’s for.”

   Grace and Luna, standing on either side of her, said in unison, “Gross!”

   No sooner had they gotten there, the girls were in their PJs and in the kitchen gathering any type of junk food they could gather on the kitchen island.

   Severus had walked in for just a moment to grab something, but he completely forgot what he needed when he saw the pile of food on the counter. “There’s no way you three are going to eat all of that.”

   “Is that a challenge, Mr. S?” Luna smirked as she took the bag of popcorn out of the microwave and replaced it with nachos.

   “You don’t have to stay locked away in your classroom, Mr. S,” Rose had adopted Luna’s name for Severus as well. “We won’t be too loud.”

   “I don’t appreciate blatant lies, Miss Martell. What do you three even have planned?”

   “We’re gonna watch a scary movie!” Grace answered. Luna had thrown a piece of popcorn at her and Grace failed to catch it in her mouth. However, Merlin was enjoying all of their droppings.

   “Oh, wonderful,” Severus said sarcastically.

   Severus stayed occupied with his potions as much as he could during the duration of the evening. However, with the girls supposedly forgetting what an “inside voice” was, he couldn’t help but overhear their conversations. One discussion, in particular, caught his interest.

   “So, when are you and Charlie just going to go out already?” Grace asked, most likely to Rose.

   Severus’ guess was confirmed when Rose replied, “I do not like Charlie Ackerman!”

   “You two seem awfully close lately,” Luna said. “It’s no secret he likes you, either. That’s why he begged you to do a Halloween costume with him, so you two can spend even more time together.”

   Rose scoffed, “That boy is such an idiot. He follows me around all over the place and won’t leave me alone!”

   “Bullshit,” Grace said. “You like him too, you’re just lying to yourself!”

   Before Rose could retort, Severus emerged from the other room, “Miss Martell, don’t lower yourself to date a person like Mr. Ackerman.”

   “See?” Rose exclaimed, gesturing to Severus. “Even your dad agrees with me!”

   “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about!” Luna argued.

   “Yeah, shut up, Dad!” Grace added, throwing popcorn at him, which Merlin happily ran and ate off of the floor.

   “I wasn’t finished! Brat,” he looked at Grace, who returned the comment with a smile. Turning back to Rose, “However, it’s blatantly obvious that you like him as well. The flirting between you two is disgusting. Honestly, I thought one of you— if not both of you— were under a Love Potion.”

   Rose now had her face in her hands, trying to hide her tomato-red face. She felt like sinking into the floor and never coming out. For it was true, she did have feelings for Charlie, but she had tried so hard to suppress it and lie to herself about her own feelings. “I hate that you’re right…”

   “We told you…” Grace shrugged.

-

   An hour or so later, Severus found the girls sitting in complete darkness on the sofa with Grace’s laptop sitting on the coffee table watching some horror movie filled with jump-scares. He remained in the other room, but could still hear the movie playing, along with every gasp or yelp from the girls. Finally, when it was late and he was exhausted, he started to make his way to his bedroom, but he simply couldn’t pass up this amazing opportunity. He waited quietly in the kitchen for a very suspenseful scene to build up and slowly made his way over to the sitting area behind the couch. All he had to say was, “Girls,” before the apartment was filled with the harmony of three extremely high-pitched there’s-a-bloody-murder-scene-going-on screams.

   Snacks flew everywhere, which made for an extremely happy Merlin. Rose had thrown the blanket over her head, Grace had nearly fallen off the sofa, and Luna was now covered in her bowl of popcorn.

   “Severus!” an annoyed Luna growled when she realized it was just the Potions Master, who was now doubled-over laughing. She grabbed a handful of popcorn and pelted him with it.

   “Dad! That’s not funny!”

   “Yeah, Mr. S! Not funny!” Rose yelled, still beneath the blanket.

   “I just- I just-“ Severus was now kneeling on the floor, holding his sides from laughing so hard.

   “God, you’re such an ass,” Grace rolled her eyes before slamming her laptop shut. “Go to bed!”

   However, Severus couldn’t go to bed straight away, and neither could Phoebe. For while Phoebe had cast a pretty strong Silencing Charm to keep the noise out, nothing could help for the vibrations from the music from the room across the hall from shaking the entire apartment.

   At first, both adults agreed to let it slide, for this may be one of the only few chances for the girls to have a normal teenage life. But when four o’clock in the morning rolled by, and the vibrations hadn’t subsided, they were beginning to become restless (literally).

   “Curse your daughter,” Phoebe mumbled into her pillow.

   “Hey, one of those girls is your niece,” Severus had piled all of his pillows on top of his head. Feathers were not good at muffling noise.

   “Fair. What about the other one?”

   “She’s the scapegoat.”

   “Yeah, Severus, let’s just put all of the blame on the poor French girl.”

   Finally, about a half-hour later, the noise stopped, meaning the girls finally went to sleep. It was evident in the morning as well, when they didn’t get out of bed until almost noon.

   “Good morning,” Phoebe cheerfully said as the three zombie-esque girls shuffled into the kitchen. “How did you sleep?”

   “Rose hogs all of the blankets,” Grace mumbled.

   “Well, Luna kept kicking me!” Rose tried to defend herself, although it made no excuse for taking all of the blankets.

   “That was Merlin!” Luna argued. “He was having a bad dream… Or a good dream about running.”

   “What on Earth could you have possibly been doing all night?”

   “Putting on three-woman shows of Broadway musicals,” Grace was slouched on the kitchen island, truly a sight to be seen. Curly red hair everywhere in every direction, glasses askew, robe falling off of one shoulder, and he was pretty sure she had her slippers on the wrong feet. Luna and Rose didn’t look any better off.

   Severus smirked, “I hope the boys come and see all of you looking quite the mess.”

   Rose groaned, “I thought you said your dad was much nicer than he is as a teacher!”

   “This is him being nice!” both Grace and Luna answered.

   “I need caffeine…” Grace now decided to give up on standing, and instead sink down to the floor and lie on her back.

   “Grace, get up off the floor,” Severus sighed.

   “Not until I get my coffee!”

   “Then go up to the Cafe and get yourself some.”

   “No, I’ve already texted Draco to go get it for me.”

   “Poor Draco,” Luna teased. “She’s got him whipped.” Next to her, Rose made a whipping sound, “Whippish!”

   In perfect timing, there was a knock at the door, and Grace found a burst of energy to spring up and run to the door and fling it open. Sure enough, there was Draco Malfoy standing there with a cup of coffee for his girlfriend.

   “Oh, you’re the best boyfriend ever!” Grace grinned.

   “I know,” Draco smirked, handing her the cup. “You look ridiculous by the way.” He peered into the apartment, “So do you two.”

   “Sod off, Malfoy!” Rose yelled; Luna just flipped him off, being careful Severus or Phoebe didn’t see.

   “I enjoyed the dozens of Snaps from you lot last night. Nice to wake up to.”

   “It’s because we’re entertaining,” Rose replied.

   “And the blowing up of all of the group chats.”

   “We felt it was necessary.”

   “None of it was necessary.”

   “How many group chats do you have?” Phoebe asked.

   “Well,” Grace pulled out her phone from her robe pocket, “On GroupMe, we have the OG Chat, which is Me, Luna, Charlie, Alfie, Draco, Rolf, and Rose. The Musical Bitches Chat, which is us plus Sammy and Baylee. The Fuck Umbitch Chat which is us, minus Sammy and Baylee, but with Celia, Rowena, Seth, Remus, and Sirius. The Just Girls Chat, which is me, Luna, Rose, Sammy, Baylee, Celia, and Rowena. The Boys have a chat which is Draco, Rolf, Alfie, and Charlie, but not Seth. Seth actually hates just being in the one Chat. Then we have a group chat on Snapchat too, which is me, Luna, Draco, Rolf, Rose, Charlie, Alfie, Celia, Rowena, and Sammy. Seth doesn’t have Snapchat and neither does Baylee, because well, she can’t see, but she’s always with Sammy anyway so she basically is in it. But she can text and message; her phone actually reads to her, it’s pretty cool!”

   The other three teens nodded as Grace rattled off their many group chats within their friend group.

   “Then, the Prefects have a Chat,” Luna added.

   “There’s one for each Quidditch team,” Draco said.

   “There’s a huge one for our year, I think each year has one. We keep it muted because it gets annoying,” said Rose.

   “And then there’s one for each class. We use it to help each other out with homework and studying. But mostly for bitching about the classes,” Grace concluded.

   “The Chat for Potions Class actually hasn’t been that bad lately,” Luna said. “It’s been DADA that’s been full of commiserating remarks.”

   “Oh, good to know,” Severus rolled his eyes. Students hating his class had never bothered him anyway, but he was glad to know that he had been beaten for the most hated professor at Hogwarts.

   “I swear if she screws us over come exam time,” Draco started.

   “She won’t. If she’s not gone by the end of the year, at least Remus would have taught us enough to pass,” Grace said. She’d never wish something horrible on someone, but she knew without some horrific event, Dolores Umbridge wasn’t going to just leave Hogwarts on her own.