Harry Potter Tart Apple, Sweet Caramel

**A/N:** This is the first fic I wrote for 2012's Trick or Treat Challenge over at rarepair_shorts on LJ. The prompts I drew were as follows:

Trick: Dark prophecy

Treat: candied apples

Location: Spinner's End

This story takes place on Halloween during Order of the Phoenix.

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**_Tart Apple, Sweet Caramel_**

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For the first ten minutes the continuous knocking was easy to ignore. It disturbed his peace, yes, but not nearly so much as the idiotic simpletons masquerading as students that he dealt with every day. However, he wasn't lucky enough for it to stop after ten minutes. Fate, it seemed, was laughing long and loud at him while nearly half an hour of persistence chipped away at his resolve to ignore an unwelcome visitor. Finally, after forty-five minutes, he could take no more. He set the potions journal he'd been determined to read aside—carefully marking his page—and stomped to the door of Spinner's End.

Very few people knew where Severus Snape lived when he was not in residence at Hogwarts. He prayed that one of them was dead if his peace was to be so disturbed.

Wrenching the door open with a scowl that would have sent a pack of first years running, Severus' lip only curled farther as his eyes found a bright patch of bubblegum pink hair resting just below his eye level. Nymphadora Tonks was standing on his doorstep. What was worse, she looked as though she'd been knocking for mere seconds rather than nearly an hour.

"Why, hello there, Snape," she chirped, a grin settling itself on her features. She shifted the paperbag in her arms, the rustling drawing Snape's downward briefly before she spoke again. "I thought I might find you here."

Shoving his curiosity over the contents of the bag aside, Severus gave her his very best sneer. "What do you want, _Miss Tonks_?" He tried to make his voice drip with its usual venom, but—much to his chagrin—it came out sounding far more like an exhausted plea. Tonks, for her part, never seemed to notice. Ducking beneath the arm he was using to hold the door open, she shouldered her way past him and into his home.

Into. His. Home. His teeth set to grinding together of their own free will.

"I'm so glad you asked!" Her voice traveled to him from further down the dark hallway, lilting as though she was still moving. "I'm sure you're aware of the fabulous holiday we're supposed to be celebrating today. I thought I'd bring you some candied apples."

With a growl, he shoved the door closed, bolting it for good measure. If he decided to murder her, it would be good to have the latch to slow her down. Stomping back down the hall, he found her making herself busy in his kitchen. She'd somehow found a plate with a minimal number of chips and was taking plastic packages out of the large paper bag, arranging several candy-covered apples with sticks protruding from their tops on its surface. All the while, she kept talking.

"Of course, once I'd purchased the apples I spotted some cakes and taffies, and I might have overdone it just a bit." As if to emphasize this, she pulled out another plastic container of what appeared to be heavily iced cupcakes, then upended the bag and spilled candies all across the table. They bounced and rolled, several ending up on the floor. "Bugger!" she cursed, moving to pick up what had hit the ground. Severus found his hand straying to his wand, the desire to get her _out of his house_ growing with every passing moment. "Anyhow, I know Halloween's not the big family deal that other holidays are and all of that, but I figure that no one should be spending it all alone, least of all someone who's just going to spend it grieving."

That gave him pause. Not the pause of "oh, what's this? Does someone truly care?" but the type of pause that came with the sudden, stomach-clenching that someone _knows_ something about you that you are not prepared for them to know. "What did you say?" he ground out, eyes flashing with barely repressed anger.

Tonks looked up at him, the very tips of her hair shimmering a sickly green for the briefest of moments. After a long moment, she cleared her throat, looking him directly in the eye. "You're not exactly subtle, Severus," she told him quietly. "Disappearing off on your own at night every Halloween for the last fourteen years? I know I'm not the only one that's noticed." She smirked at him, then, looking entirely too Slytherin for his comfort. "And unless you're hiding a thing for cocks under all those sneers, it really wasn't hard to figure out who you're grieving."

Severus closed his eyes, turning so that the back of his head found the frame of his kitchen door. She had the right of it, whether he was willing to admit it aloud or not. "How much do you know?" he rasped, unable to open his eyes and face her.

A few shuffles followed before she spoke. By the sound he guessed that she was continuing to adjust her place setting of nauseating treats. "Oh, you know," she began, feigning nonchalance, "you overheard some wicked prophecy and told He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Big evil decided it meant Harry and set out to kill his whole family. You, being in love with _her_, went to Dumbledore and spilled the beans. The rest is all history as everyone with sense knows it."

He breathed deeply, in and out, trying not to let himself feel the pain he'd come home to wallow in while she was still in the room. He did prefer to spend Halloween alone, even if alone just mean flooing to Spinner's End after the feast at Hogwarts had ended. This solace was one of the few that Dumbledore allowed him. Warm fingers slipped between his own and Severus' eyes snapped open in surprise. He'd never heard her approach. Looking down, he felt his jaw go slack. Gone was the pink hair and her normally dark eyes. In the place of the woman who'd appeared on his doorstep stood a Nymphadora Tonks with long, curly, red-gold hair and mesmerizing green eyes. Even her features had shifted, smoothing the shape of her face into the one he longed to see so much.

"Fourteen years is too long to grieve, Severus." Even her voice, suddenly husky, was easy to mistake for a voice he hadn't heard in so long. "Just once, even if you yell at me for it later, let yourself be happy." Before he could voice a protest, she leaned up, sliding her free hand behind his neck, and pressed her lips to his.

A single tear sliding down one cheek, Severus Snape surrendered.


End file.

Harry Potter, Angst, Hurt-Comfort