When Harry entered the dungeons today he stopped dead at the sight and a mad urge to giggle came up his throat. He managed to say “What's that?” without choking.

Severus Snape, feared Potions Master, was standing there in a white apron, in front of cauldron which was emitting fumes and filling the room with the delicious smell of chocolate. Harry inhaled deeply and closed his eyes, enjoying it immensely. Around the cauldron, different ingredients were scattered, but not the way Harry was used to. First of, there was nothing disgusting in that pile, no frog liver or snake tongue. Second, there was no order to it, the way Harry was used to.

“We are making nougat pralines.”

Harry dropped his bag at that pronouncement. He debated discussing this but then just shrugged and thanked the heavens for his good luck. He came forward eagerly and inhaled deeply again, humming in appreciation.

“That smells so good.”, he said dreamily, Snape simply raised an eyebrow

“Make yourself useful. There's a form, bring it here and hold it for me.”

Harry obliged, bringing the praline form and holding it down, while his teacher carefully poured in the chocolaty mass. The amount fit perfectly and Harry wiggled the form a bit to make the surface smooth again. He licked his lips in anticipation, when the delicious smell wafted up again. Snape waved his wand and Harry recognized the cooling charm, that would slowly drop the temperature of the chocolate until they were set. As there was no way Snape would let him taste from the form, he looked at the cauldron longingly.

“Err, sir? I can clean up here.”

Snape raised an eyebrow at him

“Well, you made the whole thing alone and I only helped in pouring it, so its only fair...”

“Indeed.”, was all that Snape had to say before he left for his living room “Join me, when you're finished.”

Harry waited until Snape had softly closed the door behind him, before he rushed to the cauldron and began scooping it up with the spoon and stuffing him before Snape could come back into the room. When he was just licking the back of the spoon for a third time he caught something at the edge of his vision and very slowly turned to it.

There he was, leaning on the door frame, looking amused and as if he was holding back from bursting into laughter.

“Cleaning, eh?”

Harry grinned sheepishly and showed his chocolate covered teeth. Snape rolled his eyes and said in a long suffering tone “If you must. But clean them properly afterwards.”

“Thanks sir!”, Harry sang behind him as Snape exited the room with a soft smile on his lips.