"Severus!"

Severus Snape, agitated past the point of distraction, dropped the mail he was sorting on the work counter in the kitchen and whirled his head around. A head—Harry's head—was bobbing in the flames (when had he made a fire?) of the fireplace.

"Harry! What…?" he sputtered, his learned Muggle sensibility immediately rejecting the possibility that a disembodied yet decidedly animated head was talking to him from the flaming logs in his fireplace. Was the damper even open? He hadn't used the fireplace since March.

"Looks like it works," said Harry. Severus thought he saw crumbs flying out of Harry's mouth. Harry swallowed and smiled. "Hold tight—we'll be right through, then."

"We'll?" Severus took a step toward the fireplace then reconsidered and instead moved behind the counter. A moment later the flames flared up and spilled over into the room and Harry was tossed out of the floo. He stumbled as he attempted to right himself. There was soot on his face and his glasses were slightly off-kilter. He looked generally off balance and slightly green.

"'Morning, Severus," he said, a bit too brightly. "Anna's right behind me." He turned to face the fireplace and checked his wristwatch.

"Anna?" Severus exclaimed. "You put my daughter in…"

Harry turned around and gave Severus a quizzical look.

"It's the floo," he said. "It's perfectly safe…"

As if to illustrate the point, Anna suddenly spun into sight. She stepped out of the floo with quite a bit more grace than Harry had exhibited and brushed the ashes off her clothes before looking up.

"Papa!" she called out. "We had toast soldiers for breakfast and Professor Potter made poached eggs to go along." She looked around the room, spotting her father behind the kitchen counter. "What's wrong now?" she asked, her voice changing and sounding a tad bit exasperated.

Harry watched Severus' lips twitch into an almost-smile as he regarded his daughter.

"It's my computer again—I can't access my work e-mail."

"Did you reset the router?" asked Anna, walking over to the small desk inset into the work counter.

Severus examined his index finger, which sported a small blister.

"I tried. It bit me."

"Oh, Papa," said Anna. She started fiddling with something while Harry gazed steadily at Severus.

"What?" asked Severus when he noticed Harry staring at him.

"Laptop, tablet or desktop?" asked Harry.

"Laptop," answered Severus. "Why?"

"Wizards do best with a desktop—separate keyboard, you know. Tablets are the worst."

Severus stared at Harry blankly, then the penny dropped.

"Right…magic. Interference."

Harry nodded. "At the very least, you might try an external keyboard for the laptop—not wireless, though. Even after your magic settles down, you might have trouble with the computer. Best to keep as far away from the processor as possible—thus the external keyboard."

"I've got it, Papa," called out Anna from the kitchen. "You've got one from her again…" She made a face. "I'm going to get my swimming things. Professor Potter said Hagrid would take us swimming in the lake today!" She almost skipped out of the room, leaving her father staring at Professor Potter—again.

"Swimming in the lake? With Hagrid? Isn't there a giant squid in that lake? Can Hagrid even swim? And…and…" Severus squinted. Something…some piece of knowledge…was tickling at the edges of his brain but he couldn't grasp it. He shook his head as if attempting to clear out cobwebs then looked up at Harry again. "Never mind. I know there is something else dangerous in that lake. It's not used as the septic system for the school, is it?"

Harry laughed as he shook his head. "First of all, Hagrid doesn't need to swim—he's too tall to even go under the water lying down. Secondly, the plumbing system at Hogwarts is one of the most fascinating parts of the underbelly of that castle. While the pipes do indeed dump into the lake, the—shall we say "contents"—are magically broken down and neutralized. The merpeople would have our heads if…"

"That's it! Merpeople! They're in the lake too—a vicious lot, primitive weapons, right? You actually let your children swim in that thing?"

"The lake is 50 meters deep, Severus, and the Merpeople live at the very bottom of it. I doubt they'll be coming into the shallows where the children play." He studied Severus' nervous face then pushed him lightly on the shoulder. "Magic, remember Severus? We can set temporary wards to keep the nasties at bay."

Severus shook his head and moved over to his work counter again. Harry couldn't see what he was doing, but surmised that he was reading the e-mail that Anna had retrieved. He wondered who the her was that had Anna scrunching her nose in distaste but tactfully—for once—did not ask. Severus stood with his hands crossed in front of himself, eyes downward and scanning from left to right. At length he huffed and looked up, catching Harry's eyes.

"A co-worker isn't taking well to my unexpected vacation," he commented. "Pity I can't answer without losing my fingertips." Harry heard the click of the laptop closing, followed by a muttered oath. Severus stuck his right index finger in his mouth and Harry chuckled.

"We should probably do another magical release session while the kids swim," he suggested. Severus simply glared at him, shaking out his hand and looking up as Anna reappeared in the room, a large tote bag over her shoulder.

"I've brought my special sunscreen, Papa, and my wide-brimmed hat. Oh, and my Royal Wedding beach towel." She held up the indicated items them stuffed them back in her bag. "Is it all right if I bring bottled water for everyone? I've noticed that water isn't much favored in the wizarding world—they all seem so keen on pumpkin juice…" She walked into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator and began stuffing her bag with clear plastic water bottles.

"Are you ready to go, Severus?" asked Harry. "We're going to floo back to my cottage then walk up to Hogwarts together."

Severus felt his pockets out of habit and reached for his keys and mobile phone on the counter.

"Um, Severus…" said Harry.

"Right," sighed Severus. He resignedly removed his wallet and tossed it on the counter with his keys and mobile, picked up his wand, looked at it a moment then slid it up his sleeve.

"This doesn't seem quite right," he commented. "Sleeve's too tight."

"We'll find some robes for you at Hogwarts," suggested Harry. "The professor's robes have built-in wand pockets." Severus continued to fiddle with his sleeve while Harry spoke and finally gave up, buttoning his cuff and walking over to the fireplace. He stood in front of it for a moment, the look on his face somewhere between puzzled and thoughtful. Harry motioned to Anna and walked over to stand beside Severus, reaching into his pocket and extracting a small sack.

"Floo powder," he said, uncinching the bag and holding it out to Anna first. "You can go first, Anna. This time the destination is 'Potter's Nook.'"

Anna reached into the bag, took out a large pinch of the powder as if she'd been doing it all her life, and scattered it into the flames. They flared up green and high and she stepped confidently into them, giving her father a sidelong glance to make sure that he knew she was being brave, and clearly announced "Potter's Nook." She was gone in a spin and a flash and Harry held the bag out to Severus.

Severus reached in and took a handful of the sparkling powder, looked once around his living room (perhaps wondering, thought Harry, whether he should leave Harry alone in his home) then dropped the powder on the subdued flames. "Potter's Nook" he said, managing to make the words sound a bit disdainful. He disappeared from his formerly safe and sound Muggle home and Harry followed a few moments later.

/

By the time the small group reached the winged boars on the gates of Hogwarts, it was 10:30 in the morning and already hot and humid. James and Albus, dressed in their swimming shorts, trainers and t-shirts, had run ahead to fetch Hagrid, who was to stay with them while they swam. Lily and Anna held back and walked just ahead of their fathers, chattering as small girls do.

"Hagrid lets us stand on his shoulders and dive off…"

"Papa pretends to be a sea monster and grabs my legs underwater…"

"My dad once ate gillyweed! It gave him gills so he could breathe underwater. I want to try it one day but I heard him tell Uncle Ron it hurt like hell…"

"Lily…" Harry said in warning.

"Oops. Sorry, Dad." Lily turned around and smiled apologetically at her father, skipping along backward to stay ahead of them.

"Sea monster, Severus?" teased Harry.

"Hmmph," answered the man, "Certainly better than having gills. And my daughter is not jumping off of Hagrid's shoulders."

By the time Harry, Severus and the girls reached the lake shore, the boys were already there with Hagrid, pulling off trainers and t-shirts and hopping on one foot at a time on the warm sand. The sand was, of course, not native to the lake—the school had created a small beach area when the Board of Governors had recommended more physical activity for the students and several new teams—including a swimming team—had been formed. The swimming program had actually been rather successful, though the rock climbing squad had been disbanded when a team of Gryffindors scaled the outside of the castle on the day the Minister of Magic visited.

Severus and Harry waited patiently while the girls got ready to swim. Both were wearing their swimming suits under their clothes and when Anna shed shorts and shirt and stood hopping on the sand in her modest one-piece, Severus took a sudden step forward.

"Anna! Young lady—what do you think you are wearing?"

"It's the suit we bought this summer, Papa," answered Anna, her brows furrowing in confusion as she glanced down at herself to be sure she was indeed wearing the navy blue one-piece with the white stars in an arc across the chest.

"It's bordering on indecent," said Severus. He strode over to his daughter and picked up her short-sleeved t-shirt from the sand and pulled it on over her head.

"Father…." protested the girl. "It's a one-piece! It's perfectly…."

"Anna, honey," interrupted Harry, glancing over at his daughter who was wearing a yellow girl's one-piece, but a more modest wizarding version with cap sleeves and mini-shorts. Lily's had a cut-out heart on her belly. She loved the heart-shaped tan she'd acquired last summer. He crouched down in front of Anna. "I think your father is remembering some of the wizarding customs he grew up with. Your suit is perfectly fine. It's just that the wizarding world is a bit more modest than the Muggle world. We're still old-fashioned about some things, but a lot of witches wear swimwear just like yours."

"The boys don't even have shirts on," she huffed, looking out at the water where Al and James were splashing about.

"Rather unfair, isn't it?" asked Harry. "But they are wearing shorts down to their knees, aren't they?" He pinched her cheek lightly. "You girls get in the water and have fun. I'll take care of your dad." He looked up at Severus, hoping to get his nod of approval, but saw that Severus' gaze was frozen, his eyes wide open in apparent horror, his mouth agape. Harry followed his gaze to the edge of the water where Hagrid now stood in a green and blue striped one-piece men's swimming suit, reminiscent of the early 1900s. The sleeves stretched past his elbows and the pants down past his knees, leaving a virtual forest of black leg and arm hair exposed on his forearms and calves. He looked, thought Harry, who despite his long acquaintance with the man, had never seen Hagrid in swimwear, like a gargantuan black poodle stuffed inside an ugly hand-knit sweater the size of a circus tent.

"Oh my," said Anna, following her father's gaze and staring unabashedly, mouth open, at the half-giant.

"Nice suit, Hagrid!" called James.

"Yeah, nice suit, Hagrid," echoed Albus.

Hagrid grinned and waded out into the water out to the boys. They were waist deep but the water barely came up to Hagrid's shins. Harry shook his head as the boys grabbed on to his legs and let him drag them forward as he walked. Laughing, Lily and Anna splashed out into the water after Hagrid and the boys.

"Let's go, Severus," said Harry. "The cove is protected—they can't drown and can't swim out too far. They'll have a good time and Hagrid will bring them in at lunchtime."

They walked together up to the castle, exchanging few words as Severus let his feet trod the increasingly familiar path. He paused in the Entrance Hall, once again inextricably drawn to the dungeon stairs. This time, Harry stopped beside him, understanding.

"Would you like to go down to see your classroom and office?" he asked.

Severus was already walking toward the stairs.

"I take it that means yes?" asked Harry, hurrying to follow him.

Severus was striding down the stairs purposefully now, Harry just behind him. He let his body take over, not consciously thinking, as he navigated the narrow corridors, coming to stop in front of an open door that led into a large classroom. The two men stood together peering in for a moment, and then Severus took a deep breath and entered the room.

The student's desks were arranged as they had been when Harry was a student here, grouped in pairs. Though they'd been thoroughly cleaned by the house elves over the summer, they were still scarred and stained by many years of use careless student use. Shelves of cauldrons, stirrers and other supplies lined the far wall. Jars of ingredients were arranged in careful rows on shoulder-high shelves that ran around the perimeter of the room. A set of scales sat on the teacher's desk at the front of the room, just in front of a standard-sized black cauldron. Behind the desk, a tall wooden cabinet with glass doors was filled with potions textbooks and journals.

Harry stood quietly back near the door while Severus walked around the room, his hand brushing desks and shelves, cauldrons and jars. He came to a stop at last in front of a shelf lined with small jars, all hand-labeled. Harry watched Severus reach out and pluck a jar from the shelf, holding it up to the light to examine its contents. He replaced it then chose another, again examining it then quickly unscrewing the lid and holding it up to his nose, breathing in the aroma of the crushed dried ingredients inside. He repeated this action several times with several different ingredients. Harry leaned back against the wall, prepared to wait him out. Finally, Severus uncorked a bottle and held it to his nose longer than he had the others. He dropped his hand almost reluctantly, then turned suddenly toward him.

"Do you know, Harry, that the sense of smell, of all the senses, is the one that most evokes memories?"

Harry didn't answer immediately. He'd had his share in spades of memories of the past, evoked by everything from Dementors to cupboards. Except for the musty smell of old cupboards, he didn't think smells were particularly evocative for him.

"Come here."

It was as much an order as a request. Harry pushed himself off the wall and walked toward Severus.

Severus held the bottle out toward him and Harry obligingly lowered his face and sniffed.

The smell was instantly recognizable yet sweetly sublime. Harry looked up at Severus and met his eyes, understanding the sadness he saw there.

"Dumbledore," he said, the sharp, clean smell of lemon from the herb within working its way into his head and calling up the memory of the greatest wizard he'd ever known, but of the wizard as headmaster and counselor, pushing a bowl of lemon drops across the desk.

"I've always hated lemon drops," said Snape quietly as he watched Harry's face relax at the memory of the man that stood between them.

"Did he really lace them with calming potion?" asked Harry.

Severus furrowed his eyebrows, looking very much like his daughter had looked out at the lake not so long ago. "I think I would have recalled that," he answered, then shook his head, his eyes far away. "Not that I would put it past him…that man always seemed to have the upper hand…" He replaced the closed jar on the shelf and ran his hand over a fine pewter cauldron. He idly picked through a pile of stirring rods then carefully picked up a glass rod with a thicker glass ball at its base. Like the wand and the quill, the stirring rod seemed to find its place easily in his hands, his fingers curved gracefully around it.

"This seems to fit…somehow," said Severus, replacing the rod on the shelf and once again drawing his fingers over the smooth pewter of the cauldron at the back of the shelf. "I have been working with beakers and test tubes these last years, not with cauldrons. I use precisely calibrated digital scales and measured pipettes…" His voice trailed off; he was now eyeing another shelf. His hands moved to pick up a thick but supple pair of leather gloves. He slipped them onto his hands—hands that were no longer potion-stained and calloused, Harry noted—and flexed his fingers experimentally.

"Dragon hide," supplied Harry.

"Now these I have missed," commented Snape. "They fit nearly like a second skin—amazing, really, considering that the skin of a dragon…" His eyes suddenly widened.

"Dragon?"

Harry nodded sympathetically.

"Of course…there would be dragons." His brows furrowed again and he appeared to be gazing through the dungeon walls, looking for something just outside of his grasp. Finally, he turned his head slowly toward Harry.

"My mind is trying to forge a connection between Harry Potter and dragons," he said, studying the man before him. Something wasn't quite right…and he knew he should be looking for a boy in his mind, not the man Harry Potter was now.

Harry shrugged slightly. "I haven't had an encounter with a dragon for twenty years," he said lightly. Severus frowned, realizing that the implication was that twenty years ago, at the time of the Great Battle, he had. "But yeah, you're on the right track, anyway. Why don't we see if you still need me to tell you about it after a couple more sessions with Stuart?"

Severus gave a short nod as he took of the gloves and almost lovingly—or at least as Harry saw it—returned them to their spot on the shelf.

"My quarters were in there, behind my office," said Severus, indicating a door beside the bookcase behind the teacher's desk. It was not a question.

"They're empty now," said Harry. "No one has occupied them since you…left. Most of the professors prefer to have quarters above ground…" His voice trailed off and Severus leveled one sharp look at him before moving to the door. Just before he touched it, a voice behind them spoke up.

"While that may be true, Mr. Potter, it is not the reason the Potions Master's quarters are unoccupied."

Minerva McGonagall had entered the Potions classroom. She swept the room with her eyes and walked over to stand in front of Severus and Harry who had turned around when she had spoken.

"Severus continued to occupy these quarters while he was Headmaster. Oh, he used the Headmaster's office—but his private quarters were still these." She looked at them pointedly. "We never have been able to get back in here. I'm rather hoping they're keyed to Severus' magic and not a password."

"You mean…my possessions…?" He indicated the area behind them.

Minerva nodded. "I can at least tell you that no witch or wizard has entered those rooms. I don't know what you left there, Severus. You were quite guarded about your private life and only Albus ever…" Her voice trailed off, the sentence unfinished. Severus turned and pushed open the door leading to the office.

The office revealed behind the door was obviously still in use by the current Potions professor. Severus stepped into the room and stood in the middle, noticing Harry's near shudder as he glanced at the high shelves full of glass specimen bottles. A solid wooden desk, imposing and ornate, faced the door and a sturdy wooden chair sat behind the desk. Two smaller wooden chairs, no less sturdy, faced the desk. Was it his imagination or did the chairs tilt forward ever so slightly, as if the front legs were shorter than the back? Harry avoided those carefully as he moved around to the other door on the facing wall. The room was dimly lit by several channel windows set high near the ceiling, obviously set slightly underground but carved out to admit a bit of light through diagonal tunnels.

"You don't like this room," said Severus, carefully running his hand across the edge of the desk and turning to view the interesting specimens long dead and preserved. He glanced again at Harry. "I admit the room is rather…dark. I would not bring my daughter here."

"You brought plenty of students her age here," Harry could not help but say, muttering "including me" under his breath as he thought of the dreaded Occlumency lessons.

"It's a wonder you didn't turn out to be a Potions Master," said Severus sarcastically. He settled himself on the edge of the desk. "For what it is worth, I apologize for the horrors I bestowed upon you as your professor. I can see now—with twenty years of living above ground between me and this room—that I was…misguided." He chose his words carefully, yet still Harry appreciated them.

"We live and learn," said Harry. "I'm just glad you had a chance to live."

The two men locked gazes for a moment, each understanding that there were, in fact, many ways to interpret that statement. Finally Severus nodded. He stood up, dusting off the back of his black trousers with his hands as he walked over to the door of his old living quarters. Minerva and Harry stood back several paces on either side of him as Severus regarded the door.

It was less plain than the classroom and office doors, and slightly more narrow. The brass knob sat in a slightly recessed panel. Severus noted that there was no keyhole and that the hinges were on the opposite side of the door. He closed his eyes, wondering what to do, waiting for the memory—any memory—to surface. Nothing unusual came to mind—no secret passwords or complex wand movements or incantations. Knowing nothing else to do, he reached slowly for the knob. Both Minerva and Harry took another step backward as his hand connected with it.

A flare of heat, not painful, then he turned the knob and pushed open the door.

"Well, that was anticlimactic," said Harry. Minerva rolled her eyes.

"When I tried it—and I have not done so for at least ten years, mind you—the door remained resolutely locked. When I rattled the handle, the wards pushed me back into the office. I admit being a trifle stubborn, so I tried to dismantle the wards. We even tried a classmate of mine whose Animagus form is a wood roach—we thought he might be able to run right under the door and open it from the other side." She shook her head. "Can you believe the wards on this door undid the Animagus transformation and forced him back into his human form as soon as his front foot went under the door? It took us several hours to get his middle finger out…left it quite misshapen and enlarged. Needless to say I haven't seen him hide nor hair of him since…"

The three had stepped through the door as Minerva spoke. The wall sconces immediately flared to life, revealing a moderately sized sitting room with an over-sized fireplace. The room was furnished comfortably but sparsely, with furniture that looked well used. A roll-top desk, open, stood against one wall. A short hallway led off to one side and a galley kitchen was on the other.

Severus ignored the desk, the kitchen and the hallway, moving instead toward the sofa that faced the fireplace. Parchment rolls littered a low table between the sofa and the fireplace, a bottle of firewhiskey and a dirty glass pushed to one side. Several potions vials were grouped together behind the whiskey bottle, surrounding an ornate ink jar and quill. Harry and Minerva watched as Severus sank down onto the sofa, staring at the room's only decoration, a painting of the ocean at sundown, almost abstract in its depiction. The sea was not calm but neither was it menacing. In Harry's eyes, it seemed to beckon the adventurer in him.

"I sat here often, staring at this painting, but what it meant to me I don't recall," said Severus, still facing away from them. "The sofa is still shaped to my body, the way I sat." He reached down then and picked up a pair of men's slippers, moccasin style, well worn, then placed them back on the floor and picked up a piece of parchment and unrolled it. He read for quite a while. "A letter," he mused, giving Harry a sidelong look but saying nothing else. He placed it on the table and picked up another. "Another letter—this one to you, Minerva," he commented. His eyes scanned it and he chuckled. "It tells you how to get into these quarters…" He shook his head and reached for another scroll. "This one is to Lupin—it contains a potions recipe…" He dropped the scroll suddenly. "Wolfsbane…."

Harry had moved forward but Minerva held his arm. Severus stood.

"It appears I was forming my goodbyes," he said. "Giving last instructions for the care of the castle." His eyes rested on Harry. "And other instructions…"

"I can imagine," said Harry. "The first letter was to me, I take it?"

"Indeed. It is no longer needed."

"Severus, as the items in this suite belong to you, you are free to go through them and take what you want to keep," said Minerva. "We aren't in need of the space, so there's no need to hurry."

"This would be the perfect place to get those robes you were wanting," commented Harry, nodding toward the hallway that led to the bedroom.

Severus' face brightened and Minerva laughed out loud.

"It will feel like old times to see you in robes again, Severus. You still look stern, in your own way, though the look suits you better tempered with the patience of a parent. Come—I will guess you kept robes in the closet here in this room." She opened the closet door on the wall perpendicular to the entry door, revealing black robes hung neatly side by side, several pair of worn black boots, two black umbrellas, a Slytherin scarf in green and silver and a pointy black hat on the shelf. Severus' eyes went immediately to the hats.

"I never wore such a thing," he stated emphatically.

"Oh, but you did," said Minerva. "Albus used to insist we wear them to the Welcoming Feast. Of course, you always bent the top down." She picked it up and demonstrated as Severus gave her a very Snape-like scowl, then put it back on the shelf with a chuckle as she picked out a random set of robes and handed them to her old colleague.

Severus regarded the robes a moment, running his hand down the sleeves and looking at the cuffs closely. He shook his head and moved over to the closet, sorting through the robes that appeared to be identical, finally selecting a different set and hanging the first one back on the vacated hanger. Harry and Minerva exchanged a knowing glance.

"Well, in for a penny…" said Severus, slipping the robes on over his shirt. Harry saw at once that the pair he had chosen had flared cuffs instead of the close-set ones on the robe Minerva has selected. While wizarding fashion did not move with the speed of Muggle fashion, it did move and the style of the robes Severus selected was decidedly dated. The robes still fit him, however, and he was methodically doing up the buttons—most wizards wore them open—as he had always done. When he was finished, he stood up straight and turned experimentally on the spot.

Harry grinned and extended his hand.

"Professor Snape, I'm Harry Potter. Welcome back."

Severus smirked and looked at the mantle clock which was still keeping perfect time.

"The children will be coming back for lunch soon," he stated. "We'd best get up to meet them."

Without a backward glance, he strode out of the room, Harry and Minerva following in the wake of his familiar billowing robes.