Seven Minutes in Heaven with the Marauders

Card Four

HALF BLOOD PRINCE

I began to protest immediately at seeing the name "S. Snape" upon my card. Severus was cold, sarcastic. Mean. Just how I hated them.

I cowered amongst the crowd, hoping to hide in the shadows and somehow escape the room of requirement and dart back to the common room. But before I could even emulate my exit strategy, there came the elbows of Sirius and James, hooking below my pits to support me upright off the sofa and escort me to the closet.

"Get off me. I'm not going in there with him!" I hissed at the pair who were now clutching me tighter as I began to flail my legs. Their towering heights beside me meant I was already partly hovering, but that didn't make the fight any easier.

"Oh, stop squirming, would you?" James scorned with a teasing smile as the distance between us and the darkened entryway of the closet lessened.

They at last stopped at the doorway, smirking in unison, before practically flinging me into the room, where I exclaimed and landed hard against a form in the blackness.

"Shit, sorry."

My cheeks burned as the door shut and clicked to a lock behind us.

"I should hope so." The low voice vibrated the tiny room. I rolled my eyes in response and headed towards the back wall.

A long uncomforting minute of silence drowned the room.

"I can't believe I picked you." I finally grunted as I slumped down to the floor.

Severus scoffed. As a teenager who constantly had his oversized beak in scholarly books, he certainly wasn't a man of many words.

"I mean, why did you of all people decide to play this game?" I snapped, hugging my knees. His company had an irritable effect on me.

Severus' robes hissed against the cold wall beside me and I could only imagine it was his attempting to sit too.

"Those filthy Gryffindors put my name in without my knowing."

"Excuse me, I'm also a Gryffindor." As protective as my honour was to my house, he wasn't entirely wrong about the filthy part. James and Sirius were the critters of our house – full of too much mischief for their own good. It made for a disaster when it came to winning any points!

Severus refused to respond as he came too, stubborn in his beliefs that we should all be tarnished with the same brush. Instead, shuffled his feet awkwardly against the stone floor.

What felt like an eternity passed.

"So, what now? We just sit in complete silence until someone calls us?"

"Yes."

I sighed exasperatedly. Granted, I wasn't in ideal company, but we were playing muggle games. Something majority of us had never even heard of until tonight. I was missing out on the real fun of what it meant to be a normal, non-magical teenager.

"You're such a bore, Snivellus." I said tiredly. I felt him tense in the darkness.

"What would you have expected?" He was louder. Insulted. "That I'd kiss you?"

"You wouldn't dare." I was taken aback but would never stand down. "You're too cowardly. Just saying it probably makes you shiver."

I couldn't deny I liked the confrontations between the two of us. The continuous back and forth of debate and heated quarrels. It was built on passion of two houses – red and green, lion and snake, sworn enemies by default and - after six years of childish bickering and aged loathing - by design.

"Fine, Gryffindor, if you're as brave as the sorting hat convinces you that you are, try it."

I had to admit, the way his words came out – fearless and fully aware of their ramifications, sent a wave of concern down my spine. I mean, he dared the idea that I could kiss him!

Did this mean, somewhere within him, that he... wanted me to?

Unorthodoxly, he was consenting. Now the decision was on me.

"Lumos." I whispered with a quick rummage for my wand. The whole closet burst alive in a blue hue, and after adjusting to the brightness suddenly upon us, I found his eyes.

He considered me for a moment, his bitter stare still glued against his sharp pallid features.

"Well?" his brow lifted as he pressed half his face against the wall.

"Just give me a minute." I said, the softest I think I'd ever spoken to Snape in any of our encounters.

The sound of my scurry closer to him was deafening. I was vigilant to every sense as I considered each of my moves.

Timidly, I took his exposed cheek in my right hand - his slick tar hair vining my knuckle. I swallowed hard, feeling I should have closed my eyes, but as I felt his fingertips barely graze my knee, I refused to stop observing what he was doing.

We continued to stare at each other as we issued ourselves closer – any inch of movement, any fidget, we focused intently on it. It was a fearful curiosity that kept pulling us in. It was biological. Science. Undoubtedly, there was a Divination book that could explain the details of primal attraction and stimuli. But in the moment; the equations, the logistics - irrelevant. Even to the likes of someone like Severus Snape.

It felt weird having the space dissipate between us. Knowing my escaping air was entering his lungs, like his warm breath was to mine. I could smell his natural fragrance now – the subtle aroma of his skin. I didn't dislike it. In fact, it drew me in faster.

I closed my mouth finally, bracing myself with the thought that, in the oddest of circumstances, something wonderful may be about to happen. And with Severus' hand now mindfully finding its way to the centre of my back, I felt he may agree.

Taking one last selfish breath, our lips barely skimmed when the door agitated its way open, showcasing the smug figure of Sirius Black.
"Seven minutes are up, Snivellus. Get lucky?"
I gasped dramatically while Snape retreated sharply and hurried himself up, before darting out of the cupboard and into the crowd.

I caught myself, and straightened up, hearing more of the boom of my rapid heartbeat than the taunting of Sirius in the doorway. Nudging past him, I was disorientated, flustered, and in its rawest of forms, confused.

I hadn't kissed Severus, but I was about to. And he was about to kiss me.

Yet, somehow, against all our odds, all of our disagreements and hatred, it felt... right.

Well, shit.