elmyraemilie (elmyraemilie) wrote in snape_potter, @ 2014-07-21 19:35:00 |
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Entry tags: | summer challenge14 |
Summer Challenge 14: Al Fresco (General)
Title: Al Fresco
Author: elmyraemilie
Other pairings/threesome: None
Rating: General
Word count: 600
Theme chosen: Summer quote: "Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it." ~Russel Baker
Warning(s): None
Summary: A picnic is one of summer's unique pleasures. Emphasis on "unique."
A/N: Unbetaed.
"These damned midges!"
Harry cast another bug repellent charm, and the cloud swarmed away to find some other warm-blooded creature to torture. Snape leaned back on the blanket they'd spread by the lake and looked up at him. "You'll need to recast that every ten or fifteen minutes, you know."
"Well, in that case we'd better get the food out while there's time." Harry was undaunted. He wanted to have a proper picnic with Severus. It was a very romantic thing to do, from all he'd heard. Kneeling, he opened the basket the house elves had provided and pulled out sliced ham, fresh bread, fruit, tomato and cucumber salad, and a long container covered with frost that, when opened, revealed homemade arctic roll under a freezing charm.
Severus retrieved the bottle of wine he'd brought and produced a corkscrew. As he worked at the cork, Harry suddenly made a noise like a kneazel bringing up a hairball. Snape looked up in alarm, only to make the very same noise.
"What in the name of Salazar is that smell?" Harry gasped.
Snape was already casting the same spell he once used to keep the potions classroom from becoming a miasma of reek. "The wind has shifted. That may be the odor of the swampy end of the lake. It takes a week of warm days before it becomes, shall we say, ripe."
The spell was working beautifully, so they settled down to their meal once more. "This salad is delicious," Harry said, forking up a big bite. "Tastes even better outdoors, I think." He reached down and scratched his ankle as he chewed.
Snape waved his fork in front of his face. "Time to recast the insect repellent." Harry cast. As he sat down, he scratched at his ankle again. This time he looked down at the itchy spot.
"Holy hell!" Jumping up, he danced around, swatting at his legs and feet. "Ants! Why isn't the charm repelling them?"
"That is--" Severus began, leaping to his feet and starting the same dance, "--an aerial charm." Retrieving his wand, he aimed at the blanket and fired. The food jumped a bit on its plates, but then everything settled in unmoving silence.
Harry squinted at the dark pattern of the tartan blanket. "Are they gone?"
"Oh yes," said Snape, grimly. "They're gone. Completely." Then his eyes widened. Harry looked behind himself to see a tentacle creeping from the lake toward their picnic spot.
"Oh, for--" With one wave of his wand, he sent the food back into the hamper. Snatching it up, he snapped, "Get the wine, will you?"
Severus had just enough time to levitate bottle and spell the glasses before the blanket rose, gave itself a tremendous shake, and rolled itself under the handle of the hamper. Harry grabbed his arm.
The next thing Snape saw was his own sitting room window. Shaking his head to clear the disoriented feeling of sudden and unexpected Apparation, he looked over at Harry. "What about the picnic?" he asked, with a faint up-curve of his lips.
"They're not all their cracked up to be," Harry sighed. He picked an expired ant from the sleeve of his shirt, and opening the basket once again, began to lay their food out on the table in front of the sofa. "Just please tell me the wine survived the trip."
Severus produced the bottle and glasses, preserved by a stasis charm. Harry held his out and Severus tapped it with his own.
"To the pleasures of summer," he said. Harry shook his head and laughed.