First Times: 5x2 (1/10)
Title: First Times: Snape 1, A First Among Firsts
Logic dictates there must a first time for every experience. Knowing that doesn't necessarily make it any easier to get through. Severus and Spock each try 5 times. Hermione and Uhura help. (Not in the same fics, obvs,'cause I don't do crossovers.) Lightly humorous responses to an impromptu challenge inspired by an anti-First Times rant.
Pairing: Severus Snape/Hermione Granger
Fandom: Harry Potter
Disclaimer: No one and nothing you recognise belong to me. All Harry Potter characters and concepts belong JK Rowling.
By UK standards, forty was rather old for a man to do this for the first time. Snape was perfectly aware of that. An impoverished childhood followed by a misspent youth hadn’t prepared him for it. And spending most of his adult life living a lie didn’t exactly improve matters for him.
Besides, he reasoned, plenty of people in the great wide world never got round to giving it a go.
One couldn’t miss what one had never had, and he certainly hadn’t. Not much, anyway. At least, not until she decided to come back into his life and change everything.
From the start, she’d made him want to do things he’d never considered within reach. Things he couldn’t be arsed to even try with anyone but her.
Snape swallowed deeply, trying to push his apprehension behind the mask he’d worn for nearly twenty years.
He could do this.
He could do this without looking a fool.
Bugger me, I can’t do this!
But even as the panicked thought threatened to force him to show anything but cool detachment, he realised it was already much too late for him to change his mind.
Hermione - the reason behind his racing heart and cramped stomach - squeezed his hand, hers reassuringly dry against his sweaty palm.
“You can do this,” she whispered, and in her luminous smile, he saw the promise of a kind of joy he couldn’t quite imagine on his own.
“Yes, of course,” he agreed, his voice low and at its silkiest. Cool, as if he had the foggiest idea of how to go about it. As if he wasn’t desperately hoping she would show him the way.
Lost in her gaze, he didn’t hear what made her break eye contact, but when a cleared throat reached his ears, he snapped towards the sound, colouring guiltily.
“Dr Granger is ready for you, Mr Snape,” the young man standing in the doorway told him.
Snape looked back at the woman whose hand he still held. His eyes were pleading and he didn’t care that she could see his need. He wanted her to see.
She smiled again, soft and encouraging, then squeezed his hand one more time before pulling away.
“Go on, Severus,” she ordered gently. “Mum will take good care of you. I promise.”
Whatever strength she’d imparted had disappeared along with her touch. He felt an urge to Disapparate then and there, leaving Hermione to deal with her parents’ employee.
“It’ll be all right, Mr Snape,” the boy had the temerity to add with what the wizard assumed was supposed to be a look of sympathy.
Severus sent a glare towards him. The condescending smile didn’t disappear.
It would seem I lost far more than nearly two years of freedom while in hospital, he mused with a pang. Must work on that.
In deference to the sudden weakness plaguing his trembling calves, he stood slowly. Just when the urge to flee overcame his fear of splinching himself, she was standing beside him, whispering in his ear.
As he listened to her promised rewards for “good behaviour,” he forgot to hide his snarly, yellowed teeth.
Next Chapter
Snape's Next First
Logic dictates there must a first time for every experience. Knowing that doesn't necessarily make it any easier to get through. Severus and Spock each try 5 times. Hermione and Uhura help. (Not in the same fics, obvs,'cause I don't do crossovers.) Lightly humorous responses to an impromptu challenge inspired by an anti-First Times rant.
Pairing: Severus Snape/Hermione Granger
Fandom: Harry Potter
Disclaimer: No one and nothing you recognise belong to me. All Harry Potter characters and concepts belong JK Rowling.
By UK standards, forty was rather old for a man to do this for the first time. Snape was perfectly aware of that. An impoverished childhood followed by a misspent youth hadn’t prepared him for it. And spending most of his adult life living a lie didn’t exactly improve matters for him.
Besides, he reasoned, plenty of people in the great wide world never got round to giving it a go.
One couldn’t miss what one had never had, and he certainly hadn’t. Not much, anyway. At least, not until she decided to come back into his life and change everything.
From the start, she’d made him want to do things he’d never considered within reach. Things he couldn’t be arsed to even try with anyone but her.
Snape swallowed deeply, trying to push his apprehension behind the mask he’d worn for nearly twenty years.
He could do this.
He could do this without looking a fool.
Bugger me, I can’t do this!
But even as the panicked thought threatened to force him to show anything but cool detachment, he realised it was already much too late for him to change his mind.
Hermione - the reason behind his racing heart and cramped stomach - squeezed his hand, hers reassuringly dry against his sweaty palm.
“You can do this,” she whispered, and in her luminous smile, he saw the promise of a kind of joy he couldn’t quite imagine on his own.
“Yes, of course,” he agreed, his voice low and at its silkiest. Cool, as if he had the foggiest idea of how to go about it. As if he wasn’t desperately hoping she would show him the way.
Lost in her gaze, he didn’t hear what made her break eye contact, but when a cleared throat reached his ears, he snapped towards the sound, colouring guiltily.
“Dr Granger is ready for you, Mr Snape,” the young man standing in the doorway told him.
Snape looked back at the woman whose hand he still held. His eyes were pleading and he didn’t care that she could see his need. He wanted her to see.
She smiled again, soft and encouraging, then squeezed his hand one more time before pulling away.
“Go on, Severus,” she ordered gently. “Mum will take good care of you. I promise.”
Whatever strength she’d imparted had disappeared along with her touch. He felt an urge to Disapparate then and there, leaving Hermione to deal with her parents’ employee.
“It’ll be all right, Mr Snape,” the boy had the temerity to add with what the wizard assumed was supposed to be a look of sympathy.
Severus sent a glare towards him. The condescending smile didn’t disappear.
It would seem I lost far more than nearly two years of freedom while in hospital, he mused with a pang. Must work on that.
In deference to the sudden weakness plaguing his trembling calves, he stood slowly. Just when the urge to flee overcame his fear of splinching himself, she was standing beside him, whispering in his ear.
As he listened to her promised rewards for “good behaviour,” he forgot to hide his snarly, yellowed teeth.
Next Chapter
Snape's Next First