~~~~HP~~~~

Three meters, four at the most, spanned between Harry and his final destination, the Hub, yet in his current state he might as well have been sprinting from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade. Being an athletic teen, former Quidditch player and recently avid runner, the distance really shouldn't have been nearly as daunting as it was; proving to him exactly how far he'd fallen in such a short timeframe.

I don't even want to go to the stupid Hub, Harry bitterly complained to himself, trying to focus, in vain, on placing one slippered foot in front of the other rather than the aches radiating through him with each shaky step. Unfortunately, at this point his room was significantly further away than the couches inside of the Hub, therefore his best option was to push through. With any luck, the change of scenery Dr Wright challenged him to get would make waiting for his blood counts to rise enough for him to go home easier to mentally handle. Right now, though, he fully regretted not pretending to be asleep when his door opened - having been given only a small knock of a warning - barely thirty minutes after Snape left for Malfoy Manor.

In that first half an hour, Harry intended to "rest" - whatever that meant anymore -, except every single time he closed his eyes, he was transported back to the room he and Draco shared during their imprisonment. Of course, recognizing he had little hope of getting any decent sleep didn't automatically mean Harry wanted to speak with Dr Wright when the counsellor first entered his room. If anything, it made him more irritable, causing the doctor to work twice as hard to convince Harry to allow him to stay. Together, they explored Harry's feelings surrounding his failed remission, the anxiety he had growing inside of him at having to wait three weeks to know if the aggressive treatment was even working, and the unknown of what he'd do if it didn't move enough. They covered Harry missing school and his friends, and the incident which occurred last Friday night with Severus. Dr Wright helped Harry identify his grief as an underlying theme: grieving for his lost remission status, grieving for his easier maintenance therapy, and grieving over his missing relationship; his friends, classmates, and Snape. Although the young wizard couldn't say this out loud, it helped him realize how difficult the relapse had to be on Snape. Not even counting how the professor had to feel knowing he brewed the potion which played a pivotal role in killing his counterpart, the man literally watched his son die of this disease, completely unable to stop it. He lived through this already and was now being forced to go through it all again, only this time he knew how bad it could be; he knew the grief he'd feel if Harry died a second time to the Leukemia.

By the end, Harry would never admit to anyone how much lighter he felt talking to Dr Wright about his struggles. Things always seemed better after talking them out, but his stubborn pride always got in his way, denying him the help he knew he needed. Before leaving more than an hour later, Dr Wright advised Harry to go to the Hub to clear his mind, going into more detail than Harry needed on how isolation tended to intensify grief and anxiety. It felt like an innocent enough idea and through the first quarter - even the first half - of the short trip there he grudgingly agreed with the doctor. However, by the three-fourth way mark, he genuinely regretted it and internally was cursing the doctor for it.

"Need some help?" A muffled voice Harry didn't recognize called out to him from behind.

Afraid he'd lose his balance by turning around to greet the incoming person, Harry paused his slow steps and waited for his visitor to eventually catch up. Noticing Harry beginning to sway, the footsteps behind him quickly increased their cadence until the older boy Harry recognized but did not remember his name from group therapy last month came upon the young wizard's right.

"Woah, there," the other boy reached his hands out to help stabilize Harry, stopping shy of his upper arms. Harry nodded his consent for help, glad to have it there even if he thought he probably could've made it on his own. "Are you going to the Hub or do you want to go back to your room?"

Harry's forehead creased considering his options. "Might as well continue forward."

The older boy gave a small chuckle. Resting onto him for support, together they made it through the threshold of the Hub and over to the comfortable sofa near the telly in the centre of the room.

Helping the Gryffindor sit down, his new acquaintance poured them both a glass of water from the pitcher sitting on the table in front of him, then took a seat in the armchair on Harry's left; ironically, placing him in the same configuration as Snape back home. "I remember you from group last month. It's Harry, right?"

Swallowing the cold water greedily, Harry replied, "Yeah, Harry Potter. I'm sorry, I met a lot of people that day…"

"S'alright," he waved Harry off. "We all understand 'the fog'. I'm Drew. We sat next to each other playing poker after the session."

Harry's dulled eyes widened when he recognized the boy. He was the nineteen-year-old who lived alone in the nearby hospital-sponsored housing and recognized Cokeworth when Harry mentioned living there.

"Yeah, Drew," Harry laid his head back against the back of the sofa, closing his eyes. "Thanks for the help. I think I'm gonna rest here a bit before trying to get back."

"Want some company?"

Harry's eyes blinked open, but he didn't move to look at his companion. Did he want company? Not particularly. Dr Wright only told him to get out of his room, not make new friends. As the Gryffindor contemplated those two thoughts, a more important one popped up into his head: when did he start turning into Snape? He used to love being social, surrounded by people, and hanging out with other kids. Was this another piece of him his cancer was slowly taking away?

Refusing to let that part of himself fade away so easily, he pushed his discomfort aside and sat up."Do you play chess?"

"Chess?" Drew hastily asked. "Like knights, pawns, and all that?"

"Yeah, that's the one." Harry smiled, briefly thinking Drew might be the only person in all of Britain he had any chance of winning against. But it faded quickly as a bittersweet memory overwhelmed his mind. "My… dad and I used to play a lot during my first treatment regimen. Whenever I couldn't sleep or felt rotten, he always pulled out the board."

"And now?"

Harry frowned. "Not so much anymore."

Without saying another word, Drew walked over to the shelf of games, where he carefully searched through the various titles on the sides of the boxes until he found an old wooden one second from the bottom.

"I thought I saw this buried in there." Drew placed the battered box onto the table in front of Harry, who instinctively started setting up the pieces. "I'm pretty sure this has been here since the hospital was originally built and not a single person on this ward has ever touched it."

"I think I saw at least one game underneath it," Harry joked.

"Backgammon," the older boy shook his head embarrassed. "That's not saying much there."

Harry let out a laugh, amazed at how good it felt. Between his brain fog and tingling fingers, it took him longer than usual to set up the board, especially considering Drew provided absolutely no help in the process. Seeing as his two most recent opponents always chose black, once all of the pieces were in place, he turned the board making him white and Drew black.

Looking over the board, Harry furrowed his brow."You never actually answered my question, do you know how to play chess?"

"Correction," Drew nodded his head for Harry to make the first move, "you asked if I play chess, not if I knew how to play. Yes, I do know how, I've just only ever played with my grandfather, so I don't really actively play it. So this should be an easy win for you."

"I didn't say I was any good," Harry countered, making his traditional first move of pawn forward two spaces. "I said we played a lot. I'm actually quite rubbish."

The game proceeded in mostly silence, broken by Drew questioning the legality of a move he wanted to make and Harry doing his best to glean more information about his newest acquaintance. By seven moves each, the young wizard only learned that he didn't exactly remember all of the official rules to chess, and Drew wasn't at the hospital to receive treatment - if so, Harry would have been exceedingly jealous of his lack of reaction to it - instead, he came to visit Allie, who would be starting her next cycle tomorrow morning. Obviously, Harry still had a lot to learn about reading people because no matter how stealthily or smooth he tried to make his questions sound, he made no real progress.

How do Severus and Draco always make this look so damn easy?!

By what Harry assumed had to be their halfway point in the game, things took an interesting turn when Drew started his own inquiries into Harry's illness - to which he had no issues sharing with the muggle - and his past.

"You said you and your dad live out in the midlands, right?" Drew asked, moving a Knight right where Harry could easily get to it with his Bishop. "Where was that again?"

Harry paused at the overtly pointed question, never considering how learning where another person grew up or currently lived was part of normal teenager interactions. He'd not had too many of those growing up in either world.

"Cokeworth." He watched closely for Drew's reaction to the answer. Unlike last time, though, the other boy had none.

Another move elapsed before Drew spoke again. "I have a cousin about your age who lives out there."

"Oh, I'm sorry," was all Harry thought to say, but it broke the ice on the personal subject.

"That's great," Drew chuckled. "I know exactly what you mean by that. I had the unfortunate opportunity to stay with my uncle out that way two summers ago. But see, here's the strange thing… when I recognized where you live, I joked to him about how small of a world it must be to meet someone here, of all places, from Cokeworth."

"Yeah?" Harry's stomach started knotting up and for once it had nothing to do with his chemo.

"Yeah," Drew replied. "And he said there's no Harry Potter at the school. There's not anyone with Leukemia, either… at least not that he's heard… and I'm sure you know how quickly that news spreads through any community. It seems everyone knows when you have cancer."

Harry dropped his piece on the board mid-move, half expecting it to right itself and lecture him on taking better care of "his soldiers" or they'd have no reason to help him win. Thinking quickly, the Gryffindor exhaled slowly, pretending to be fighting off a wave of nausea, to give him a moment to think before answering; deciding the best lie held a nugget of truth behind it.

"That's because I go to a private boarding school," he casually said.

"Well, now I know you have to be hiding something," Drew lightly accused. Harry's breath hitched. "No one in that shitty town can actually afford private school."

"Oh… erm…"

"Unless of course-" Drew's eyebrows swiftly rose up his forehead as an idea hit him. He peered cautiously around the room then leaned in closer to Harry, "Does your dad sell? Let's be honest, he looks the part and if you live in that town, it's really the only way to afford a London boarding school."

"Sell?" Harry asked, knowing he was more confused than he should've been. "He teaches chemistry at my school-"

"-oh, so he cooks?"

"I don't-"

"Y'know…" Drew shrugged his head, almost appearing frustrated with Harry's lack of understanding. "Molly… or X?" Unfortunately, that didn't help the young wizard one bit and his grimaced face must have shown it because instead of continuing, Drew moved over to sit directly next to him. In a voice barely above a whisper, the muggle added, "Ecstasy. That one you've heard of?"

"No!" Harry exclaimed. "I mean… Yes, I know what it is, but my dad doesn't - listen, he's a chemistry professor." It was obvious Drew didn't believe him, so Harry justified that telling the muggle teen a magicless version of how he ended up at Spinner's End beat a rumour of Snape dealing, or making, muggle drugs. "He's technically not my real father, alright? Both of my parents died when I was one, and what they left behind is what pays for my school."

Although the skepticism never left Drew's face, his features did slightly soften. "And they left you there? Don't get me wrong, if the only place I could leave my child was Cokeworth, a boarding school is at least some consolation."

"No," Harry shook his head. "I grew up with my aunt and uncle out this way until two summers ago. They died, so I went to live-"

"Wait a minute," Drew interrupted, his eyes squinting almost closed. "So you've been orphaned twice?"

"I- I mean… I guess so. Technically-"

"And you have cancer?"

Harry looked up at his bald head wondering where this was going. "Obviously."

Harry's heart rate increased as Drew's face turned serious. The Gryffindor flinched when the other boy gently took Harry's upper arms in his own hands and with a serious face, he said, "Don't you ever stand next to me in a lightning storm, got it?"

"I'll try to remember that," Harry once again laughed, thinking about what Drew would think if he knew even half of the other unfortunate events Harry had been subjected to in his short life.

"There you are!" Snape's loud booming voice vibrating around them, caused both boys to jump; instantly breaking their previously light-hearted conversation.

~~~~SS~~~~

In another time, place, and mindset, Severus might have been able to admit to his overreaction at seeing Harry's empty hospital room. Leaving Lucius and immediately arriving at the hospital, his mind had been laser-focused on only one thing: keeping Harry safe - from what he hadn't any Earthly idea yet. When the teen wasn't found anywhere in the overcrowded space, Severus rushed towards the most logical place for the young wizard to be, in the Hub. What he didn't expect to see when arriving there a moment later was an unknown boy with his hands tightly wrapped around Harry's upper arms. In the otherwise empty room, had this new teen been a wizard, nothing in the hospital would have prevented him from placing a muggle repelling charm around them, then disapparating Harry right out of there to wherever he wanted.

Severus quickly approached the pair of teens with his right hand gripping the base of his wand hidden in his coat pocket.

"Get your hands off of him," Severus demanded, though it wasn't necessary as the unknown boy had already let go with Severus's first words. "Are you alright, Harry?"

"Yeah," Harry answered, confused. "He was fine. Seriously, what's going on?!"

Severus thought for being the child who passed all of the tests protecting the Philosopher's Stone at eleven, opened the Chamber of Secrets when he was twelve, and used a Time Turner to rescue a Hippogriff, Black, and a version of himself at only thirteen, it took Harry significantly longer than it should have to recognize why Severus's eyes were darting menacingly around the room. When he did though, the Gryffindor's widened in fear and he gave his head a swift nod.

"Hey, thanks for the game, Drew," Harry gave a hard emphasis on the other boy's name, likely for Severus's benefit, "but I really need to get back to my room."

"Tired?" Drew offered rather boldly in Severus's opinion, and based on the tone of his voice, Severus knew he didn't believe it. Shockingly, for whatever reason, the other boy never questioned how Harry's sudden exhaustion perfectly aligned with Severus's exuberant arrival.

"Yeah," Harry quickly agreed. "This cycle's been complete hell on me."

Harry slowly started putting the pieces of the chess game Severus only recently noticed back into their spots. The entire time, Severus felt Drew's eyes shifting between himself and Harry.

"I'll get the rest of it," Drew volunteered, though his eyes never left Severus. "Do you need any help heading back?"

"No, we'll be fine." Severus didn't give Harry the chance to reply. He held his hand out to assist Harry, but the young wizard swatted it away to stand independently.

The pair of wizards were about a meter from the door when Drew called out, "Harry!" Pausing their journey, Severus turned around at the same time as Harry did to address his latest acquaintance. Drew's brown eyes briefly locked with Severus's for a moment but shifted away just as quickly. "I'll be around here the rest of the day with Allie. If you need anything, I think her room is only two doors down from yours. Don't be a stranger."

Harry nodded mindlessly, then politely replied, "Thanks, Drew. I really appreciate it."

The silent walk back to Harry's room would have been faster had the teen accepted Severus's offer to help. Understanding Harry's need for independence, Severus let go of his own desire to quickly get back to where they could speak openly about his concerns and walked near the teen without actually assisting him in any way. It may have taken longer than the former spy wanted, but it put Harry in a more agreeable mood when he plopped himself down on the closed up sofa.

"So what's going on, Severus?" Harry asked the instant his door closed behind the professor.

Severus pulled up a chair directly in front of Harry, resting his elbows on his thighs. "Who was that other boy?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "I met him last month at group therapy. He lives nearby. I think he does mostly outpatient chemo, but he's here to see Allie." Severus raised his eyebrows and turned his head inquisitively. After all this time, Harry understood his silent words. "She has a schedule like mine and got admitted today. Like I said, they're completely harmless."

"And you know that how?"

The professor felt Harry's frustration loud and clear through his exaggerated exhale. "Why don't you tell me what the issue is here? Obviously, you think someone is trying to get to me, but I think I deserve to know the details."

As much as Severus wanted to lecture Harry on how being the adult meant he didn't have to answer the question, he respected Harry too much to pull rank in such a way. Ultimately, they were a team and if he learned anything through his years of being Harry's father in his old reality, it was that the best way to protect the young wizard was to include him in the process.

"Someone followed me when I left the hospital earlier," he quietly admitted. It got Harry's attention immediately.

"Who?"

Severus clicked his teeth in his disappointment in himself. "I didn't see."

A confused expression passed over Harry's face, likely questioning the same thing Severus had since he arrived at Malfoy Manor: how could a former spy miss something like this?

"Then how do you know you were being followed?" Countered Harry, logically.

Severus slowly responded, "I just do."

Harry's slight nod - and its representation of his unequivocal trust in Severus to keep them safe - said more about how far their relationship had come than almost anything else they recently faced.

"So what do we do now?" Harry's voice held no trace of fear or intimidation within it. On the contrary, the Gryffindor sounded like a Gryffindor - ready to stand up and fight; an action he couldn't actually do in his current state, nonetheless, Severus still looked to it as a positive sign of Harry's physical and mental recovery.

"Nothing, I'm afraid." Severus scowled. "Be aware of your surroundings, limit your visitors to only those you personally know, and alert me if anything feels off. We should be back at Hogwarts soon, but if you're alright with it, I may ask Dr Swanson about the possibility of erring on the side of getting you home sooner, rather than later."

As expected, for the first time in a week, Harry perked up at the suggestion. "Absolutely," he urged. "I did all my treatment last year at school, so don't see why I have to stay here."

"I'd like to remind you that your arrangements last year were less than ideal and you ended up with pneumonia."

"But I managed fine after you…" he looked over Severus's shoulder at the closed door, then dropped his voice to finish, "created the sanitation spell. It's brilliant."

"Calm down," Severus admonished. "Nothing's been settled yet. She'll be stopping by tonight and we'll all discuss the options then."

"That's fair." Harry grudgingly agreed. "What do you think they want? I mean, if it was one of these Death Eaters you've been worrying about lately, it's not like I'm all that important to them anymore."

You are if they're trying to get to me.

Except Harry didn't know about Lucius's report of Narcissa being followed earlier in the school year, and Severus had no intention of ever informing him of it.

"Unfortunately, without someone on the inside all we can do is speculate and be prepared for the unexpected," he gravely replied. He didn't like the situation and the sudden elevation of the threat it brought. But, just as he told Harry, there wasn't much else they could do; at least not until the group made a mistake and revealed themselves and their purpose to him.

Severus seriously considered cancelling his night with Mae. He even went as far as dialling her number on the phone in Harry's room - on three separate occasions - only to hang up at the last digit every single time. Each of those instances reminded him of those early calls he made from Spinner's End, when he mysteriously found her number in his dress robes pocket, back when things were so much simpler. And that memory fueled his need to fix what he'd broken with his girlfriend.

I need to be here for Harry, just in case.

As logical as his justification seemed on the surface, no matter how often he repeated it in his head, he couldn't escape the truth hidden barely below the surface: his fear of her breaking off their relationship, with or without listening to his pitiful explanation first. Even worse than that fear, though, was the reality that if he did stand her up tonight, he wouldn't get another chance to fix it; he'd be the one throwing their relationship away. It was that last thought which had him settling Harry in for the night - making sure the Gryffindor had his Galleon linked to Severus's close by should there be an emergency of any kind, magical or medical alike - then taking the walk to Mae's shortly before eight o'clock, unwilling to risk using magic to disapparate there in case her nosey neighbour was watching his usual spot.

As he approached the familiar walkway of number 7 Hillcrest, his palms began to sweat despite the chilled autumn air and his breathing shallowed at the sight of the boarded up window to the side of the front door. What had Harry said Mae thought happened? He'd somehow broken it in a fit of rage? Perhaps he misremembered the exact terminology the young wizard used, nevertheless, he felt confident he'd accurately described her sentiment. She'd been afraid of him, then, and he had no clue if she still felt that way. Pulling up whatever courage he could muster, the former Death Eater knocked on the door. The door flung open so swiftly, Severus instinctively took a protective step backwards, practically tumbling off the stoop in the process.

"You're here!" Mae exclaimed, practically out of breath.

"Am I not supposed to be?" The professor astutely answered, stepping back up onto the stoop, aware that he now stood close enough to wrap his arms around her. She'd changed out of her work scrubs into a fitted green jumper on top of a pair of tight blue jeans, and her bare feet showcased pink painted toenails Severus didn't recall seeing last week.

"Of course you are," Mae furrowed her brows. "I got out of work late and had to stop for takeaway… erm… I was afraid I missed you, is all."

"I know," he foolishly replied, staring into her dark eyes, visible by the soft glare of the lamp directly above them. "What I meant was… Dr Swanson stopped by later than usual, so I assumed- not to say I should be making assumptions-"

Mae laughed, causing him to pause in the middle of his awkward sentence. "I don't think I've ever heard you ramble like this before."

"I don't think I've been this nervous before," he countered. Having no idea the situations he lived through, she couldn't even begin to appreciate the significance of those words. Her small smile and blush solidified his resolve to do everything possible to show her how much he loved her; to keep her, not as some prize he won, but because he liked the person he was when they were together. Severus gestured to the room behind her. "May I come in?"

Without providing a verbal answer, Mae stepped to the right, allowing him entry into her home. Silently, she led him into the sitting room gesturing to the sofa where he chose the space furthest from the door.

"How's Harry?" She sat down, keeping enough distance to remind him things between them were not fixed. "I heard this week was harder on him than any of his others. I almost stopped by to see him, but I thought I should give you guys some space."

Severus wanted to tell her how difficult it's been on them both. Between staying strong for Harry, uncertainty over his relationship with Mae racing through him, and the relief of Draco's pending release, if he survived it all he'd legitimately be amazed.

"He's asked about you a couple of times," Severus answered. "I think Dr Swanson is going to approve his discharge on Sunday, so if you can, I know he'd like to see you tomorrow after your shift in the clinic. I can make myself scarce if needed, there's plenty to prepare for him to come back to the school."

"Sunday? Really?" Make sounded genuinely excited for them. "If she thinks he'll be ready to go back to a school atmosphere, then that's the best news you can get."

He obviously couldn't tell her about how he had to explain to the oncologist, in detail, the elevated threats towards himself and Harry - adding how her involvement with Voldemort wasn't a secret among the Death Eaters, so she'd be smart to keep an extra close watch over her surroundings - to get her approval for the early discharge. It took him promising to have Healer Smithe check in every morning and him vowing to use the sanitizing spell to keep him healthy, for her to be comfortable with his staying at Hogwarts. Only under those two conditions did the oncologist grudgingly agree to discharge Harry on Sunday morning.

Unfortunately, talking about Harry paralleled a little too close to last Friday for Severus's liking, forcefully pulling him back to when they sat on the same sofa, around the same time of the night, talking about the same subject. Mae must have picked up on his turbulent feelings about it because she didn't offer anything further. Taking advantage of the new silence to regather his thoughts, Severus peered around the home he'd come to feel almost as comfortable in as his own. It looked the same as always, outside of the broken window, which Mae saw him eyeing from the inside. Severus had no idea why he'd expect otherwise; it'd only been a week, after all, what did he honestly think she'd change in that short time? As a wizard, at the bare minimum, he would have repaired the window to stop himself from being thrown back into the memories of the awful night every time he saw its missing pane.

"Someone's coming by next week to fix it." Mae's timid voice as she said the words showcased her lingering fear

"Let me cover the window," he offered, feeling embarrassed he'd not thought of it sooner.

"I don't want your money. We're more than capable of getting a window fixed. I only wished they'd hurry it up a bit." The sudden change in her demeanour had him almost preparing for a dementor to appear.

With his offer officially pushing them out of greeting territory and onto the crux of why he showed up there in the first place, Severus took a deep breath and ran his hands apprehensively over his right in an effort to prevent himself from getting up to pace. Focusing his nervous energy inward, he tucked his right leg beneath him as he turned to face the woman he loved.

"I am so sorry, Mae," his words left sounding far more pleading than he expected, but he didn't care one bit; if she still broke it off at least he'd be able to leave there knowing he did all could to save them. "Things last week… they escalated to a level I am not proud of and if I had the chance to do it all over again, I'd make significantly different decisions."

"Like what? What would you have done differently?"

A sigh of deep solace left his lips; focusing too much on his relief to fully comprehend her frustrated tone. "I would have left sooner… certainly before I lost control, possibly even not coming here in the first place. I should have gone straight home rather than to pull you an-and Jessica into my personal problems."

"See, that's where I completely disagree with you." Mae ferociously argued. Her blonde tendrils bounced on the sides of her face as she shook her head. "If you had listened to me, for a second, you would've realized I wanted to help you! That I was trying to show you how things weren't as hopeless as you thought!"

Hopeless. As much as he wanted nothing more than to scoff at her word choice, Severus knew she'd see directly through his lie. Everything definitely felt hopeless a week ago, and now only a short seven days later the surface was finally in view. Things were falling back into their neat and tidy space in his mind; all of them except for Mae.

"I didn't need anything from you, Mae! And certainly not in the form of another doctor!" Her sharp recoil reminded him to keep his temper in check. Unable to sit still any longer, Severus pushed himself up off of the sofa and ran his hands through his long hair as he began to pace. It took him a full two minutes to understand the seriousness of what he said. "That wasn't what I meant. It came out completely wrong. Merlin, I'm awful at relationships."

"I can tell," she sharply retorted, a hint of confusion shadowing her face. "Listen, obviously I knew when I met you that you had..." she trailed off lost in a memory. When her face crinkled in pain, Severus used all of his willpower not to dip into her mind to see what she was playing back to cause her such emotional distress. Thankfully, he. very much knew if he crossed that line there was no coming back, so he impatiently waited for her to get herself back together. "I knew you were going through some shite, alright? All of the signs were there, and I knew you were hiding something important about your life - hell, I still don't think you're being completely honest with me -" her eyes shifted ever so slightly to his left forearm, "but of all of the scenarios I ran through in my head, the violence… whatever it was you did to the window… It took me by surprise."

"Me too." His comment earned him another odd glare.

"See, that's exactly what I'm talking about! How can you not know you punched a window out and then expect me to forget about it?" She argued. "You never talk to me about your family, or about how you got involved in-"

"I didn't say I expected you to forget about anything that happened," he abruptly cut her off. "And if you recall correctly, I was trying to leave that night. I didn't want to lose my temper in front of you, and had Jessica minded her own damn business for once in her life, I would have walked out of here - albeit angry but not considered dangerous in your mind -, your window would be in one piece, and we'd have spent the week figuring all of this out together!"

"And what would that have looked like, Severus?" Mae stood to mirror his stance, only with her hands firmly planted on her hips.

He had nothing to give to her, mostly because he hadn't thought about what this last week would have looked like. How would he have explained Lupin - and his eccentric appearance - if she visited Harry after her shift while Severus was being interrogated at the Ministry?

"What do you want from me, Mae?" He finally asked, dropping his arms defeatedly at his side.

"The truth," she pointedly said. "I thought I could get over that nagging feeling inside of me telling me some things didn't exactly add up, but I can't see this lasting long term if you're going to-"

"I love you, Mae." He slowly approached her, carefully reaching out and placing his hands on her shoulders. When she didn't shy away or push them off, he lovingly ran them up and down her arms, never losing contact with her brown eyes. Never once did she appear afraid of him nor did she back down in the uncomfortable silence. Taking another risk, Severus led them back to the sofa, where sitting face to face he took a deep breath, steadying himself for what he knew he had to do next. "I grew up in a nothing town called Cokeworth. It's where Harry and I live in the summers when we're not at school. My father… he worked at the local mill, or at least he did on the days he wasn't too drunk to show up-"

"Sev-"

"My mother," he interjected too loudly, knowing if he stopped for her sympathy he'd never finish, "did the best she could to shield me from him, but sometimes listening to them fight night after night felt almost as damaging as the bruises he left on her…"

Severus never intended on telling Mae much more than how growing up under his father's iron fist impacted his decision to join the "gang" when the opportunity presented itself, leading him into violence-filled young adulthood, however, he found talking to her to be extremely liberating. Leaving out any traces of magic, he told her about meeting his first friend; a girl who lived in his same rundown neighbourhood who also managed to get accepted into the same prestigious boarding school as him. Her thumb lightly caressed his hand when he went on about how excited they were to get out of there and precisely how relieved he felt leaving home every September; how the knowledge of living away from his father for ten months out of the year made the two summer months in Cokeworth almost bearable. She stayed quiet as he spoke of his years at the school and of how the gangs, promising those most vulnerable to their influence the power and protection they sought, swiftly gained power. When he got to the ending of his friendship with Lily, quickly followed by his mother's death and father's unintentional suicide - three events practically solidifying his initiation into the gang - Mae's strong squeeze on his right forearm grounded him to the present.

Having already given Mae a vague idea of Albus's help to get him out of the gang and how Harry ended up in his care, Severus stopped his story at the point he received his Dark Mark, allowing her to fill in the blanks of the acts he may or may not have committed during his tenure there. Sensing the end of his story, Mae interlocked her fingers around his.

"Thank you," she eventually said, "for trusting me enough to tell me all of this."

Severus closed his calloused hand around her smaller one, feeling lighter than he ever remembered, including the few sessions he went to with Dr Snyder. "I am truly sorry for my actions, Mae," he solemnly told her, "and although I cannot promise I won't ever lose my temper again, I will do everything in my power not to direct it at you… or your roommate."

"I grabbed you," Mae bit her upper lip. "And Jess slapped you. Looking back at it now… you're right… you were leaving, but we stopped you. I didn't even think about it at the time… what I'm trying to say is… I'm sorry too, Sev."

The unexpected apology healed a wound deep inside Severus he'd long forgotten existed; one left when his first sincere apology went unreciprocated regardless of its validity. Overtaken by the joy pouring into him, Severus closed the small space between them and, rougher than intended, placed a kiss on Mae's soft lips. As she deepened the kiss, Severus resolved to forgive himself for his part and make the most of his second chance.

Severus broke the kiss first. Rather than separating, he caringly rested his forehead against hers and listened to her rapid breathing trying to make up for the loss of air.

"Are we alright?" He cautiously asked, even if he was fairly confident in her answer.

"I want to stay right here." The movement of the small muscles in her forehead gave away her smile long before he saw the upturn of her lips. "But I do have one more question for you," her voice had a small quiver to it, leaving Severus strangely nervous. "Honestly, it's probably my mind playing tricks on me… or remembering it wrong… however if I don't ask, it's going to drive me completely nutters."

Sitting back enough to gaze into her eyes, hoping to catch a non-magical glimpse into whatever she had racing through her mind, he urged, "Go on."

"You have to admit, a lot of strange things happened last week," her gaze momentarily shifted towards the boarded-up window, then she precariously leaned across Severus's lap to reach for the end table behind him. Fully distracted by her body pressing against his, he barely heard the scraping of the drawer opening and closing and couldn't see the object she had clasped in her hand when she returned to face him. "Like I said in Harry's room last week, some of the things you said during your… panic attack... didn't make much sense to me. At first, I chalked it up to the moment… I hear a lot of interesting things when people are in a similar state, but then I found this-" she slowly opened her hand, revealing Harry's shiny, golden Galleon, "-by your things in Harry's room."

His brain fumbled for some logical explanation using whatever depleted oxygen it could find. As a former spy, he often needed to distract Voldemort away from small details, and this was not much different, except it caught him more off guard than anything the dark wizard had thrown at him.

"It's obviously a coin." His voice cracked at the end of his statement.

"I can see that." Mae flipped the object in her hand with ease.

A pregnant pause passed between them. As he always did, Severus planned to wait out the silence fully expecting her to fill the void with whatever conclusions she came to regarding the object. Yet, true to her form, Mae didn't give in to the temptation. She simply continued to explore the coin in her hands; her fingertip tracing along the edge in much the same manner as it had to Severus's hand, waiting for him to make the next move.

"Did it do anything?"

"I could have sworn it heated up in my pocket on Sunday. When I took it out... half expecting it to be glowing for as much heat as I felt… I didn't see anything odd about it." Mae clutched her hand tightly around the coin. Her eyes narrowed at him and she challenged, "What do you think it would do?"

Hermione protected it.

The message Harry's friends tried to send him went through, but Mae, being non-magical, couldn't read them. For once he silently thanked the Gryffindor witch for being a complete know-it-all. In hindsight, had the coin not been protected in such a way he could almost guarantee he would have seen Mae much sooner - and in a more anxious state - assuming Harry's overly worrisome friends continued to utilize the coin even after the teen never responded. Nevertheless, since the coin didn't produce any physical proof of magic, it left Severus at a crossroads. He could lie, should lie, by brushing it off as a piece of some rare artefacts he collected and hope she never asked to see his said fictitious collection. Except this path wouldn't pacify the much larger part of him wanting to stop living this lie and to finally tell her all about the last part of him he'd been holding back.

The words departed his tongue faster than his brain could stop them, thus pushing him down a path. "Do you believe in magic?"

"I guess that depends," Mae teased. Her chuckle helped to dissipate the growing tension inside of Severus's body. "Are you going to pull a bunny out of your coat? Or make this coin disappear so you don't have to tell me about it?"

Weighing both options, despite the feasibility to them, he decided against either. Vanishing the coin right out of her hand would be too startling and transfiguring her throw pillow into a rabbit required his wand; an object he opted to keep hidden as long as possible. Somehow explaining the use of magic seemed easier to believe if it were done wandlessly - as if the magic simply existed in his body, no different than his soul. A summoning charm: easy enough to do wandlessly and nonverbally in his heightened state, yet harmless should she panic mid-spell.

"What I'm about to tell you - or rather show you - cannot be shared with anyone," he strictly warned. "I am absolutely serious about this, Mae, not a single person can know this. If you tell anyone - your father, brother, Jessica - I'll get into legal trouble, at best, and trust me you don't want the kind of attention this will bring to you."

Mae's smile instantly dropped when she processed his words and her tone became dark. "You're starting to scare me, Sev. What's going on?"

Nothing Severus had ever experienced, including the Battle of Malfoy Manor, could come close to the level of nervous energy swelling up inside of him. All of those other times he merely acted based on the situation he was in. This came down to his choice: to show her magic or walk away.

It's now or never.

Needing to see her reaction, the professor resisted the urge to look away when he reached his hand towards a fallen blanket on the floor and thought Accio blanket, half surprised when it came flying into his hand given his distractedness.

Mae jumped off the sofa, almost tumbling to the ground in the process. "What the fuck was that?!"

"Magic," he said, sitting completely still so he wouldn't further startle her.

"No…it's not possible," Mae violently shook her head. Severus sat quietly, watching her try to find some logical explanation to what she'd just seen. "Did you break into my house to set this up?!"

"Why would I do that?"

"But, no, you couldn't have," she frantically continued, yanking the fabric out of his light grip. "I was using the blanket - this blanket - when you knocked on my door. I would've noticed-" her hands worked their way through the object in question, examining every last thread on it, "- there are no strings!"

"No, there aren't."

"Smoke and mirrors, then!" She exclaimed. "Isn't that how they do it?! You distracted me… you had to..."

"I didn't," he calmly answered. "If you'll sit down, I can try to explain it all to you and I promise, this is me being completely open and honest."

Her glare practically burned his skin. "I'd rather stand."

"Suit yourself," he rubbed the back of his neck, gathering his thoughts on how best to introduce the subject. Unfortunately, there was no conceivable way to do it and not sound crazy. She'd either believe him and they'd go on their way, or she'd throw him out and he'd have to contact the Ministry; an act he'd avoid doing at all costs. "I am… well, Harry and I are… wizards- meaning we were born with magic inside of us, not much different than your hair being blonde compared to mine being black."

"My hair doesn't defy the Laws of Gravity."

"No, I suppose it doesn't," Severus couldn't hold in his chuckle, but her response after hearing the word wizard certainly meant she was at least open-minded to the idea. "I can't really explain where it lives inside of us or the deviation between the muggle world-"

"The what?"

Severus tried not to roll his eyes. Somehow telling Lily she was a witch seemed to be easier than trying to explain magic to Mae. Was this what Minerva had to do when she delivered every muggleborn student's letter? Most likely. If he'd planned any of this out, he'd have asked her for tips on how to convince muggles magic existed.

"Muggle is the wizarding term for non-magical people."

"Of course it is," Mae unceremoniously dropped down onto the furthest edge of the sofa from Severus.

When she didn't add anything to her declaration, Severus began his second diatribe of the night. He went into as much detail as he knew about magic and its origins, wishing for the first time in his life he paid more attention to Binns during his own Hogwarts days. Mae's interest piqued when he explained magic as a genetic trait typically passed down in families, occasionally popping up almost at random in Muggleborns or skipping children of some long-lasting wizarding families. Most of her questions were logical and easy enough for him to answer: what can magic be used for, where do they live, and how do they learn to control their magic. The last question prompted Severus to show her his wand, which based on her visible disappointment she half expected to be a euphemism. When he gave a demonstration of several basic, handy spells - such as levitating her empty glass onto the table then filling it with water and repairing the broken window - her anger slowly ebbed, replaced by pure awe. Throughout the explanation of magic, in general, and the spells specifically, she curiously inched her way closer to him on the sofa until she settled within an arm's reach. Whether its normalization of the otherwise fictitious sounding topic or because of its personal connection to Severus, revealing his real position at the wizarding school, Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts, completely dissipated the awkward divide between the muggle and wizard.

"So you use it as a weapon?" Mae's face scrunched, nodding towards Severus's wand laying in his lap. "And you're currently training children how to fight with it?"

"Not at all," he defended. "It's a tool and I'm teaching them how to protect themselves from the dark creatures-" he pinched his eyes closed thinking about explaining werewolves and his connection to one, "-that's a conversation for another day - in our world and basic spells to defend themselves. We rarely teach offensive spells and the students take many other courses besides mine."

"Rarely?" Her left eyebrow shot up her forehead.

"We have to use offensive spells to teach defensive ones."

"Logical, I guess." She stared at her hands sandwiched between her knees. "So this school you teach at, it's the same one you used to go to? And Harry goes there now?" Severus nodded. "Here in London?"

Severus anxiously cleared his throat. "It might be a little further away than London."

"Where?"

Severus braced himself for her reaction. "Scotland."

"Oh, Scot- wait where?!" She yelled, equally impressed and confused. "Do I even want to know how you managed to get here from Scotland?"

A smile crept up Severus's face. "We have more efficient methods of transportation than cars."

"Like brooms?"

"That's one means of travelling, though I cannot imagine riding a broom from Scotland would be a comfortable ride," he joked. "The most efficient is quite jarring to see, so I'd suggest I hold off on it until all of this sinks in."

"Fine," she pouted. "So all this time you've had to avoid using your…"

"Magic."

"M-magic," she took a deep breath. "It's going to take me some time to get used to saying it."

"Understandable," Severus reached his hand out and grasped Mae's, encouraged when she didn't pull it away. "And to answer your question, yes, Harry and I have to avoid using our magic when in the muggle world."

"Can I see it sometime?" The exuberance laced in her voice sounded no different than when they made plans to see the cinema. "This magical world, I mean. And what exactly does this magical world-"

"Wizarding World," Severus corrected.

"Hmmm, seems a bit sexist to me," she shrugged. "So then, what does this 'wizarding world' consist of? I know you have a school… Do you have grocery stores? Restaurants? A cinema? Oh! A hospital or does everyone just magic themselves up?"

"Heal. It's called healing. We don't 'magic ourselves up'." This time Severus couldn't contain his laugh despite the fact she'd clearly seen Harry at the Guildford Hospital, so not every ailment could be 'magicked up'. "There's an area in London dedicated to wizarding - or magical - shopping, restaurants, and banking. It's where we typically go for more specific supplies. We don't have a cinema since electricity and high concentrations of magic do not mix well together, but we do have a full government building including a magical police force under the city.

"St Mungo's is the name of our hospital, which employs a full staff of healers trained in things like magical diseases, potions poisoning, and spell damage."

"So then why isn't Harry there?"

"While we have our own version of illnesses, for the most part, our magic protects us against most muggle diseases," Severus chose the simplest answer in an effort to try to stay as upbeat as possible. He was having too much fun telling her all about magic to dampen it by his daily stressor. "Therefore cancer isn't something wizards usually get and thus there is no need to produce potions to fight it, making muggle chemotherapy more effective."

"Are you saying Harry's some kind of magical anomaly?"

"You have no idea," the professor muttered knowing the comment had no relevance to her. Severus began to softly caress his girlfriend's hand by running his thumb across the small bones on the top of it, desperately wanting more. Not ready to discuss Harry's unique history of his magic, his status as the Wizarding Savior, or anything pertaining to Voldemort, he chose to move on in the conversation. "I can make arrangements to show you Diagon Alley, at least, but I have to reemphasize the importance of not telling anyone what you've learned tonight. We have strict laws against the use of magic in the presence of muggles, have to blend in wherever we go, and always assume the person we're speaking to is a muggle. If anyone found out I told you, it would end badly for us both."

"You have my word." Mae's hand comfortingly clasped his. "And you're right, no one will believe me anyway. I'm still not convinced I'm not hallucinating all of this and I'll wake up to you knocking on the door a la Alice in Wonderland style."

Severus smiled, then slowly moved his body closer to Mae's, his gaze shifting between her eyes and her lips until his lips practically touched hers where he stopped, waiting for her agreement to move forward.

"I love you, Severus," she whispered, then moved the rest of the way in a move he took to mean they would be alright going forward.

Lost in the moment, Severus's mind went completely blank, he had no sense of anything around him except for Mae. Some unknown amount of time later, she broke the kiss so suddenly it took Severus a moment to recognize her missing presence by his side. Swiftly taking his hand in hers, she practically dragged him off of the sofa and to the staircase. "C'mon, Sev, let's move this somewhere more comfortable. We're all alone tonight."

Knowing exactly what was on her mind, and his too, he wished this was happening before he knew about the person following him. Using all of his might, he regretfully groaned, "I can't stay tonight..."

Mae paused steps away from the first stair, then flashed him a flirtatious smile; the one which, without fail, always hit at the places inside of Severus he assumed was long dead. With a sly grin smoothly replacing her smile, she asked, "Who said anything about having to stay the whole night?"