Birthday
Title: Birthday
Team Name: Death Eaters
Word Count: 2x100
Challenge: Single Candle
Rating: G
Characters: Hermione & Severus
Tap tap tap.
Severus looked up from his grading.
“Come in,” he snarled. No one entered, and he scowled before stalking across his office and wrenching the door open.
No one was in the hallway, no student, ghost, or poltergeist lurking.
All that remained was a cauldron cake with a single candle. Curious, Severus bent and retrieved it and the folded piece of parchment underneath. He took both items back into his office. Paranoid spells revealed no tampering, traps, or jinxes. Just a cake and a card addressed to him in a familiar neat, round hand. Miss Granger's writing.
~*~
It was with slow reverence that Severus Snape studied his cake. It sat in its Honeydukes box, the top missing to make room for the lit candle. As he watched, the flame changed colours. His first genuine smile since the end of the war curved his lips as he opened his card. It was indeed from Hermione Granger, the sole member of the trio at school this year. Why she hadn't gone away for the holidays or how she knew his birthday was beyond his ken.
She was an observant witch; he worried if she had realised his errant feelings.