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Potions mishaps were bound to happen, even to the most experienced of Potions Masters. Usually, Severus was able to take care of the unintended consequences himself, as he was a master of his craft, and the undoing was most often only ever as difficult as the doing. The issue with his current mishap was that the ingredients he'd used in his experimental brew were incredibly rare and thus out of reach for the reversal. So until Severus could acquire more, he was stuck with a sixteen year old version of himself.
"I wasn't created by the potion, I was transported here." The younger Severus said. He seemed quite offended to be thought of as the product of magic.
"That remains to be seen." Severus didn't remember himself being quite that petulant. And baby faced. The teenager in front of him was certainly skinny but the youth was obvious on his face.
His musing was interrupted by the young man reaching for a knife and slitting his skin open on the back of his left hand. Immediately, Severus reached for it and raised his hand, beginning to cast a healing charm.
“No ! Let it scar, so you realise that I’m really you.”
Severus shot his counterpart a glare but, seeing the logic in resoning, switched from a healing charm to an acceleration spell. The wound closed itself and left a straight line of discoloration. Checking his own hand, Severus was surprised to see an identical line had formed, adding to the mess of scars and nicks that populated his hands.
He whirled back to his younger self and saw the satisfied look fall from his face, probably due to his own temper.
“You will never do that again, is that clear ?” He muttered menacingly. “We may face pain at the hands of others but it will never be from our hands, never.”
The other nodded, face somber. The unsaid admission of their continued mistreatment from various people was surely not a pleasant discovery for the young man.
Having proof of the time displacement only made things more complicated. Instead of being a magical construct that could possibly be dispelled in other manners than with the counter potion, the younger version of himself needed to be sent back exactly at the time he had been taken, and safely. There was no choice but to wait to attain more basilisk venom. The small quantity he’d been able to secure had been bought at a high price from a less than reputable source, thanks to his Dark connections. There may be a sliver of a chance that he would still have some in stock. He would have to visit his shop in Square Malfamé, the French Dark Society headquarters.
—
The next morning, fortunately a Saturday, Severus the elder set out for France to catch the seller as soon as he opened up for the day. He’d locked his other self in his private rooms with a ward he’d modified, to make sure the sullen teenager did not slip out. Unfortunately for both Severus, the seller had run out of the incredibly rare ingredient and didn’t know when he’d receive a next shipment. Severus had to bribe the man with potions of his own creation to get to the front of the waiting list.
Getting back to his rooms, Severus had the unpleasant surprise to see Albus Dumbledore had forced his way into his quarters and was drinking tea with his counterpart.
“Severus, come join us ! This young man has quite the story.” His twinkling eyes looked at him in askance, waiting for a confirmation.
“Yes Albus, this is indeed a younger version of me, brought forward in time by my experiments. I have no idea how that could be, and the material is so limited on basilisk venom that I couldn’t have anticipated it.”
The infernal twinkling only grew and the old man smiled, worrying Severus.
—
The young Elias Prince, officially presented as Professor Snape’s cousin, was a mystery. He had appeared out of nowhere on a October night and had said very little about himself where Harry could overhear. He did look remarkably like Snape, so the familial link was not in question, but the fact that he now had to live with his cousin in Hogwarts, while not being a student himself, was disconcerting. Being housed in a school, one would expect he would be enrolled there. Transfer students were quite rare, even more in the middle of the school year, but it was still not completely unheard of.
Unfortunately, Harry could not devote all his time to this mystery when he already had several on his plate. Between Malfoy, the Riddle memories, the Half-Blood Prince and his homework, Harry was already overwhelmed. He couldn’t deny that he was curious though.
That Prince guy had only been there a day, but the rumor mill was already finding multiple reasons for his sudden appearance. Just listening to Lavender was confusing, she’d heard that his parents had been imprisoned as Dark mages and that the teen had been on his own for months, but she’d also heard that he had left them because he didn’t agree with their politics. Harry himself had overheard a group of Hufflepuff first years say that Elias Prince was actually Snape’s son. This particular rumor seemed to be the favored one, probably because it was the most scandalous, Harry thought.
It was also a believable one. Harry was one of the few people in Hogwarts that had seen what Snape looked like when he was young. The Snape from the memory and the Prince heir looked a bit too similar to only be cousins. Physical similarities were one thing. Harry knew that cousins could look remarkably alike, even if he and his own cousin decidedly didn’t. But from the little he’d actually observed of the boy, he was even behaving similarly. If Harry didn’t know better, seeing them both in one room at the same time, he’d think the two of them were the same person.
Maybe Snape was secretly a family man, and had had a lot of influence in the boy’s upbringing? The thought was hard to reconcile with what he knew of his professor. He was already quite surprised that Snape had any living family, let alone the possibility that he could be close to them. Ron agreed with that thought :
“It’s downright disturbing, the thought of more Snapes in the world. One was already enough, really !”
“Oh stop it Ron,” Hermione interrupted him, “I think it’s good of him to be taking care of his cousin, whatever the circumstances. Can’t be easy when he’s a Head of House and a teacher, and he oversees his own detentions, and patrols the corridors, and brews potions… How did we never notice how busy the teachers always are ?”
Ron slid closer to Harry on the common room couch, whispering, “Do you reckon she’s more or less interested in becoming a teacher with that revelation ?”.
“I honestly have no idea.”
--
Severus had never anticipated that living with himself, even a teenage version of himself, would be so tiring. Because Dumbledore had -unilaterally- decided that his younger self would not be a student, he was free to roam as he pleased, and had taken out all the potions periodicals he could from the library, trying to soak up as much of the past twenty years’ innovations as he could. He left his half-finished cups of tea all over their quarters and had messed with Severus’ bookcase organization. It had only been a week and Severus was already exhausted.
He decided that the tenager living with him must not be assimilated with his memories of himself, if only for his own sanity, and resolved to call the boy Elias even in private.
No content with being frustrating during the day, Elias was also intruding on his sleep. It turned out that, though the physical changes that he went through were instantaneously replicated on Severus, the new memories he formed were only transferred during the night. This was an… interesting development. Reliving in his younger mind, he could truly sense how he had matured and grown since. The difference was not so stark that he could not recognize himself, but it was certainly there. In a sense, this was quite reassuring.
The memory communication was a convenient way to keep track of the teenager’s comings and goings. For now, he was quite enthralled with the scientific advancement in his chosen area of mastery, but that could only hold so long. He had already devoured almost five years of magazines. He had mercifully been discreet and had had only minimal contact with the current Hogwarts population, but Severus wouldn’t have expected him to do otherwise.
He hoped that Elias would not discover too much information about his future, for fear of changing matters. If he knew about Lily…
--
Harry was frantically searching for any material on the Dreamless Sleep potion in the Library, but most of the books on the subject were missing, probably taken out by another student. He had an essay due in two days, and Hermione had refused to lend her notes to him and Ron. Harry had all but forgot about the damn thing, and was rushing to complete the assignment in the last minute. The Half-Blood Prince’s book was extremely convenient while brewing, but he needed to back up the Prince’s tips with reasoning in the written tests. Which meant he couldn’t skip the research.
Harry settled down on the closest table with the few books he’d found, and the Prince’s book, and tried to focus on his work. There wasn’t a lot of traffic in the Library at the moment, but Snape’s cousin was browsing the shelves of the Potions’ section where he was settled at. He kept muttering to himself, managing to destroy what little attention Harry had.
‘Figures, the obsession with potions is hereditary…’ Harry thought to himself.
He resolved to tune the noise out and buckled down to write. That lasted all of ten minutes, before he was rudely interrupted.
“That’s my book, where did you get it from ? Did you steal it ?”
Harry was shocked to hear that voice, so alike Snape’s, and even more surprised that his Potions’ textbook was taken from his table.
“What do you mean it’s your book ? I got it from the Potions’ classroom.” He replied, confused.
The book couldn’t be his, it was so old ! Elias Prince had not attended Hogwarts, how could his book have ended up where Harry found it ? But it made sense, didn’t it ? The Half-Blood Prince ! His last name was Prince, it was so obvious Harry could have slapped himself.
“Obviously I meant it’s my cousin’s, he let me write in his copy.” Prince retorted, clearly unpleased. “I can’t believe he let you have it.”
“Ah, well, he doesn’t really know about it, so please don’t tell him !” Harry said quickly. So that was the man he’d been admiring… “I have to thank you though ! All your annotations are extremely helpful, it’s amazing how such minor modifications change the turnout.” He grinned at the man, hoping he wouldn’t take the book from him. He hoped he wasn’t doing too much. “You’re brilliant, Prince !”
Now, Snape’s cousin was obviously shocked, and the smallest hint of a blush was staining his cheeks.
“Yes, well… Call me Elias.” He answered, obviously taken aback. He put the book back down on the table and peered at the opened tomes Harry had nearly forgotten about. “And what are you working on ?”
Genuinely excited to share his work with the Prince himself, Harry set out his notes and the outline of his essay. Elias was apparently willing to help him with it, and the next few hours passed quickly. Harry had never had that much fun learning anything about Potions.
—
Severus Snape nearly had a heart attack, waking up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night. The last batch of memories his younger self had formed in the past day were that nightmarish. Out of all the students, Elias had to talk to the Potter boy ! Worse, he had incriminated himself, outing himself as the author of the annotations in a twenty years old book. Everything had been going too well, he should have expected a problem to arise.
Severus should find a way to confiscate the damned book from Potter. It explained his out-of-character performance that Slughorn was bragging about, but it really was cheating. Trust Potter to find a way to cheat using Severus’ hard work.
How could he break the news to Elias that his new friend was the child of the man he most detested ? He would not take kindly to that reveal after he’d spent hours talking with the boy. And the embarassed pride at the compliments he’d received from him… This was a disaster.
Was it foolish to hope everything would resolve itself before Elias had to learn the truth ? Severus had been scouring all of the European Dark markets he knew of, had contacted all his usual suppliers, and was still no closer to finding that damned basilisk venom… He didn’t have the energy to deal with teenagers outside of his work hours.
Whatever happens, happens. He went back to sleep.
—
Harry was having the time of his life. He had found time to meet Elias again. He kept obsessing over his book -reading it religiously before sleeping every night- but now he also had the man’s input face to face whenever he wanted ! They talked about Potions, but also Defense, and magic theory, and spell creation. Harry was enthralled.
He’d never heard of magic being talked about Elias’ way. From his perspective, magic was infinite potential, for reimagination and creativity. Harry only ever saw magic depicted as this codified set of rules, with very little leeway for research and boring history. The Prince made it all seem so vibrant, just waiting for the picking.
Elias was disappointed to hear that Harry hadn’t chosen Arithmancy or Ancient Runes as his electives, because they were the basis for a lot of the creation of new spells and potions. So now, Harry had tutoring lessons in those subjects whenever he met Elias in the Library. He’d already got enough to really understand what the he meant when he explained his creation process.
For some reason, Harry didn’t want to tell Ron and Hermione about this new friendship with Elias. He wasn’t especially afraid of their disapproval, actually worrying about the possibility that Elias might like Hermione better than him, because she would understand everything he said. He wanted Elias to continue talking to him only. Their meetings were dear to him and he didn’t want to lose them.
—
Severus was going crazy. It seemed every night he gained more memories of Potter. Elias and him were steadily getting closer, in a frankly disturbing manner. He could vaguely understand why Elias was so interested in the boy. It seemed Harry Potter was quite effusive in his praise, and the satisfaction and pride was enough to get his counterpart hooked. He should have seen the affection for the boy coming. He knew himself. Being so devoid of any positive attention his entire childhood had made him very susceptible to praise. One of his many weaknesses.
What was the most surprising though was the thirst for knowledge that the Potter boy was exhibiting. In a few weeks, he’d gone from barely adequate in Potions to an advanced level. He could hold advanced conversation about Defense and magic theory. And he had all but jumped at the occasion to learn about new subjects. Where had that come from ? He’d never been the most studious, and he certainly never showed potential for proficiency in Severus’ own lessons.
The more he saw this side of Potter, the least he knew how to feel about him. He almost looked like someone interesting.
—
Harry’s mind was far too focused on mysteries. Even when he met Elias, he could not turn off this part of his mind, that screamed at him that something was off. Elias kept saying or doing things that didn’t make sense.
The chronology of his ownership of the book was confused. He was inconsistent about the dates and when he had come up with the annotations and the spells. He’d let it slip that he had actually attended Hogwarts. But no one had seemed to recognize him and he claimed to have been home-schooled. He also didn’t know much about recent history and didn’t ever mention dates, or his birthday.
But the most concerning aspect of the man Harry had come to like so much was the one he’d just discovered. Elias had a Dark Mark. He’d seen a part of the horrid tattoo when Elias had his sleeves pushed up. Even as partial as it was, Harry would recognize it anywhere.
That’s why he was trailing behind at the end of his Defense lesson. He motioned for Ron and Hermioned to go without him. They shot him confused looks before going. He would have to find an excuse for that later.
“Have you forgotten how to walk, Potter ? Please see yourself out, the lesson has ended.” Snape’s voice from just behind him.
“Actually, I had a question, sir.”
Snape raised an eyebrow in question.
“It’s about Elias… uuh, your cousin, sir.”
“I know who Elias is, Potter. What concern do you have with him ? I haven’t heard of any fights lately.”
“No, sir, we haven’t fought.” Harry reviewed all his evidence in his mind for a second, trying, and still failing, to understand the situation. He decided to ask about the most pressing concern. “I. I saw he had a Dark Mark, sir.”
Snape’s glare at that was frosty.
“He doesn’t know who the Minister is, and he said he had good memories in the Dungeon’s labs, and he… ” Harry looked up at Snape, to see him with a strange wince upon his face. “He’s not your cousin, is he ?”
Silence fell for a good minute, before Snape sighed and sat on a nearby desk.
“He should have been more careful. And if I had any better supplier, the problem wouldn’t even exist.” The man whispered, in a way that Harry was sure he wasn’t meant to hear.
Snaped fixed him with an annoyed glance.
“Yes, Potter, Elias is not my cousin indeed. He was brought here thanks to an unfortunate Potion’s accident. He is from the past. DO not. And I do mean this quite seriously, do. Not. Tell him about your parent’s history and the War.” He went back to muttering. “A miracle it hasn’t come up in discussion already.”
“Yes, sir.” Harry said quickly. So Elias was a time-traveller. That made sense in a way. But some things did not make sense, still. “But, if he’s not your cousin, who is he ?” He added. “He does look like you.” He didn’t think it wise to point out the similarities with the younger Snape he’d seen in the man’s memories.
Snape regarder him strangely, before a nasty grin etched itself on his face.
“Who do you think, Potter ?”
—
“What did you say to Harry ?” Elias whirled into their quarters that night. “He’s avoiding me, I haven’t done anything, and it began only after your lesson. What. Did. You. Say ?”
“Do not yell at me in my own rooms.” Severus responded, unbothered. “You have been careless, he noticed your story didn’t make sense and came to ask me about it.”
“What ? How —”
“As you have seen, Harry Potter is not that stupid, it was only a matter of time— ”
“Potter ?”
The strangled cry startled Severus into looking up from his corecting copies. Elias was white as a sheet. Ah. Severus needed more sleep is he was slipping up like that. Or maybe it was just the influence of Potter into their lives, messing up their usual cool.
“You mean to say, that. That Harry is the son of …”
“James Potter. Yes.”
“I kissed James Potter’s son.” Elias said in a monotone.
What.
“YOU WHAT ?” Severus demanded, hysterical.
“I kissed James Potter’s son !” Elias yelled back, equally shocked.
—
Harry had kissed a younger Snape. He didn’t really know what to think about it.
That morning he’d had a free period between Charms and Care of Magical Creatures, and had left Ron and Hermione to their bickering in favor of joining Elias in the Library. Harry ahd found him in the back as usual, where they would not be bothered. He’d slipped beside him on the bench, to look at his work. He seemed to be working on a new potion, and was figuring out the Arithmancy for a stable formula.
He’d watched him work in silence for a bit, before he let out an impressed comment. “You’re amazing at this, Elias.”
That had made Elias raise his head from his work and send him a smug smirk.
“Careful there, Harry, I might take this constant admiration to heart.”
Harry had felt his cheeks heat up, no doubt lighting up red. He was a bit confused about his feelings towards Elias, but he knew he greatly admired him, and wanted to spend more time with him.
“Maybe you should !” He’d replied, going for the joke route.
“Careful what you wish for. I might want more.” Elias had had a caluclating look. One that had made Harry feel like he was a prey, but that he’d made the right choice.
At that point he was certain he’d been as red as his tie. His heart had been beating so fast. Elias had turned completely towards him, with a soft smile playing on his lips. Lips that Harry couldn’t stop looking at. He hand’t been sure what was going on. He was unsure of his feelings, but he’d liked the turn the conversation had taken.
“Maybe I want you to.” He’d replied, his Gryffindor daring serving him well.
When had Elias come so close ? His face had been right there. His eyes were really dark and had been suddenly so captivating. He’d had a hint of red on his cheeks and the top of his ears. And he was suddenly closer.
“Tell me to back off.” He’d whispered. Had waited for a beat, then leaned in further.
And they’d been kissing.
It had been Harry’s first time kissing a man, but he didn’t find a big difference between the lips of Cho and those of Elias, they were both soft and pillowy. That kiss had been loads better though. There was no crying, for one. And he felt elated, and overjoyed and like he’d just discovered something precious.
Elias had let him go after a while, and they breathed for a minute, before Harry kissed him again. They’d spent a while just kissing. Harry had grasped his arm for balance after a while. That’s when he’d seen the Dark Mark. But in the moment it seemed unimportant and he let Elias’ sleeve go in favor of tangling their fingers together.
And he’d apparently kissed a younger Snape.
—
He was going to stay up all night, he decided. He didn’t want to see his younger self kiss the Potter brat in Technicolor in his dreams. Severus shuddered at the thought. He’d already suffered enough, witnessing day after day the progression of Elias’ feelings for him. The initial affection had quickly matured into genuine interest. Severus had doubled down on the search for the damned basilisk venom, begging Merlin to take pity on him and save him from having to talk to his younger self about his feelings.
Severus should have known better. Life didn’t have mercy on him. He fell asleep at his desk around 4AM. Woke up three hours later with his lips tingling, his ears ringing from honest admiration, heart beating fast and visions of green eyes and red cheeks.
Fuck.
—
Snape had been a fixed point in Harry’s life ever since he came to Hogwarts at 11 years old. He was safe to hate, because he was so conformtable hating Harry in the first place. But with time passing, Harry had had to rethink his opinion of him multiple times. Snape had been protecting him for as long as he’d known him. Time and time again, Snape may act terribly, but when it mattered, he always was there for Harry.
The Half-Blood Prince was wicked smart, and inventive, and Harry had admired him as soon as he’d recognized his brillinace. Obsessed over his book for weeks on end. And that was Snape.
Elias was kind, clever and fascinating. He’d been taking up more and more of Harry’s time, so much so that he’d all but given up on the Malfoy mystery, tasking Kreacher and Dobby with following him in his place. They’d become friends. And the admiration that Harry had transposed on him because of his Potion’s book, had grown into more. He could admit to himself that he had a crush on Elias. And that was apparently also Snape.
A time-travelling Snape, here at Hogwarts because of a Potion’s accident. One that didn’t know about the death of his friend.
Fuck.
—
Elias was shut in his room, and refused to come out. Severus left his breakfast at the door and told him to eat before he went to drink his tea. This weekend would be taken up by more calls to possible suppliers. He was exhausted at the mere thought. It’d been months already.
The relative tranquility of his quarters was broken with a knock on his door. He waited in silence, hoping for the offending interruption to disappear on its own. The knock was heard again.
Severus went to open the door, already pissed.
Harry Potter was there. He nearly shut the door in his face.
“Wait, sir !”
“Get in, Potter, I have no need for salacious rumors.”
“Salacious - ” Potter followed him in, bright red.
“Spit it out, Potter, I assume you want to talk with Elias ?” He snarled.
“Err.. Yes, but also with you.”
“Me ? Are you going to apologize for upsetting my weekend plans, maybe ?”
Potter had the grace to look embarassed.
“It’s about Elias, really. I don’t want him to hear, well… the things you told me not to talk about.” He took a quick breath. “So I was wondering if there’s anything I can do to help to send him back ?”
Was Potter pretending that Elias and Severus weren’t one and the same ? Or was he actually concerned about Severus’ sanity ? Most probably he only wanted this weird event to end already.
“Unless you know a trustworthy source of basilisk venom, I’m afraid not, Mister Potter.”
“Only that ?” The insufferable child asked.
“Only one of the most rare and controlled substances in the world, yes Potter. Now be on your way, Elias is not available.”
He was pushing the brat near the door, when he truned back around.
“I have basilisk venom sir.”
“Oh really ? Where ? Your pockets are outfitted with rare potions ingredients ?”
The gall of that boy…
“In the Chamber of Secrets.”
—
Leading Snape in the girl’s toilet was a weird experience, to say the least. The man looked dubitative, and held his wand aloft, as if in preparation of an attack. Or in preparation of attacking Harry. He was leading him in a weird secret passage after all. This surely looked quite suspicious.
Harry had not gone back to the Chamber since second year, but the Basilisk was still there, and it was in near perfect condition. When he truned back to sass Snape a bit, he saw the look of naked wonder on his face.
He’d kissed this look off of Elias’ face.
Thankfully it was dark in the chamber, or he would have had to explain why he was blushing so heavily.
“According to our laws, and if you are indeed telling the truth about your defeat of this beast, this is your property Potter.” Snape’s voice rang out in the cave-like room.
“I have no need for it, and I know this is really valuable Potions ingredients. You can take it.”
Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Snape went directly to retrieving the venom from the massive fangs.
“Elias discovered your last name yesterday, Potter. Good job keeping it from him for so long.”
Was that actually a compliment from Snape ? Weird one but he’d take whatver he could get. The information was alarming though.
“Is he okay ?” He asked urgently.
Snape paused a bit and grimaced.
“As well as can be. He’s in sixth year, you know what that means.”
The scene he’d seen in the Pensieve, had already happened last year. So his relationship with Harry’s father was decidedly terrible. Harry must have truly looked pitiful because Snape added :
“Give him some time.”
That was oddly kind, but also not as reassuring as Harry needed. Elias might not want to talk to him again after this.
—
With the amount of venom he’d found -in the bloody Chamber of Secrets of all places- Severus was able to experiment on what exactly had gone wrong in his first attempt. He evaluated that it would take him at most a week to find the right counter-potion.
Elias was still miserable in their quarters and had not gone out again. Potter had not come back knocking.
“You’ll be back in a week at most. Go talk to Potter, his miserable looks in lessons give me a headache.”
The boy was obviously out of sorts, and his friends didn’t appear to know what to do to help him. And they were even more chatty in lessons as a result. Severus didn’t care about dark circles under green eyes, or food pushed around on a plate. He hadn’t even noticed those, right?
“And what should I tell him ? That I never want to touch him again ? That will be granted by the end of the week you said.”
He didn’t remember being that dramatic as a teen.
—
Harry was worried. He knew Snape would figure out the potion quickly. Because Snape was Elias and the Half-Blood Prince, and he was brilliant. But he wanted to talk to Elias before he went back.
“Potter. Detention, tonight. Next time, pay attention to your ink.”
Harry hadn’t noticed his inkwell falling over, and Snape had walked by at the worst time, his robes getting splashed.
Detention, just his luck.
—
Why had he interfered and gotten Potter here ? Was he such a glutton for punishment ? Elias and him were sitting in silence in his classroom, waiting for him to speak.
“Potter, here is your detention. Fix him before he need to be back. And that’s tonight.”
Severus busied himself with brewing, only lending half an ear to the discussion.
“Elias ?” Potter tried. “Can we talk ?”
“You’re talking, Potter.” His counterpart replied.
“Now you really sound like Snape.”
“I am Snape, is that disgusting you finally ?”
Silence fell for a time.
“You’re an idiot.” Potter said blankly.
“That’s new, you seemed to find me quite clever before.”
“Yeah, Elias, you’re brilliant I told you that. You’re also an idiot. I kissed you back didn’t I ? I’m not disgusted by you.”
“Then look at me in the eye, call me by my actual name, and prove it.”
“You’re the one who won’t look at me!” Potter snapped.
Severus didn’t anticipate a great night of sleep. Thankfully, it would be the last time he’d be plagued by his younger self in his sleep. The over-emotionality of adolescence was not something he would miss.
“Severus Snape you’re an idiot, and I can’t believe I’m going to kiss you again !”
Severus looked up at the sound of his name, seeing his counterpart do the same. Unfortunately, that meant that he was at the front row to see the two younger men kiss angrily before him. That certainly looked different from their previous kiss, far more violent and urgent. Severus looked back down at his potion.
—
The young Severus Snape looked actually gobsmacked that Harry would kiss him again. Harry put his arms around his shoulders and stood on his tiptoes to deposit another kiss on the man’s lips.
“Now’s the part where you tell me you’re not disgusted by me either.” He muttered.
“Maybe I am.” Severus responded, in his devastating low voice.
“Your hands on my hips don’t help to convince me too much.”
Severus snorted. A smile grew slowly on his face, as if against his will.
“Your passion for praising me really diferenciates you from your father in my mind.”
“Well thank Merlin for that, or this would be very awkward.” Harry quipped, before kissing Severus again.
They had a nice ten minutes before the older version of the man cleared his throat.
“I’m going to prepare the rest of the potion in my personal labs. Be there in 15 minutes at most.”
That put quite a damper on things. They both realised that their time together was coming to an end quite abruptly.
“I’m sorry Harry. I have to go back. Believe me when I say I’d rather stay here.”
Harry hugged him tight. “I know. I’m not very lucky in romance.” He sighed. “I’m really glad I got to know you like this. Continue to be the smartest guy in the room. And stay safe. Things are going to be tough for a while.”
Severus tightened his arms around Harry.
“I got the sense that it would be complicated yes. I’m not very lucky in life.” He dropped a kiss on Harry’s forehead. “At least you still have a part of me with you.”
“I’m not sure my professor would be okay with kissing me.”
Severus reddened. “I was talking about the book !”
Harry laughed. He took a good look at the man in front of him, leaned in to whisper in his ear.
—
Severus had nearly gone back to fetch the teenagers after the 15 minutes had expired. They rushed in a minute late. And then took another additional 10 minutes to hug each other goodbye, with eyes nearly bursting with tears, before Potter suddenly marched up to him and questioned :
“Are you sure this is safe ?”
“Yes, Potter. On top of being a Potions Master, I have actually tested it before I deemed it safe.” He rolled his eyes. “I am no Gryffindor. My younger self will be completely safe, back at the moment he was taken.”
Potter looked at him oddly.
“I meant for you. Are you going to be okay with his memories and the changes it will make to your mind ?”
An uncomfortable feeling bloomed in his chest. He was … touched ? Definitely troubled though. It was quite rare that anyone would even think of Severus’ safety.
“Yes Potter, I will be fine.”
Apparently satisfied, he turned back to the younger Severus and kissed him one last time before he drank his potion. They’d evidently said all they wanted to say before coming down to the lab.
—
Harry saw Severus disappear in a cloud of green smoke, and that was it. His first boyfriend was gone, back in time.
Why did those crazy things always happen to him ? He would like for once to be able to kep someone he liked, and be happy for more than a few months at a time.
He clutched the Half-Blood Prince’s book to his chest. He had not lost all trace of him.
—
Waking up in a cold sweat, extremely alarmed, Severus Snape cursed the Potter bloodline. He’d gotten the last of the memories of the past day. And the goodbyes.
“If you age this well, Severus, I might not stay alone very long.” A mutter still tickled his ear, shocking both by its contents, and by the emotions it elicited in Severus. “I’m coming for you in a few years at most. Stay safe for me, will you, Sev ?”
That young man would be the death of him.