AN: This was originally posted as part of a compilation piece, but I've decided to post it separately. It's largely AU from OotP onwards.

The Perils of Misunderstanding

"You are an impossible brat!"

"I'm 26, do you think you could stop referring to me as a brat?"

"I shall when you stop acting like one."

"Oh well that's a very mature answer I must say."

"Just because the rest of the wizarding world continues to treat you as the second coming of Christ, don't expect me to."

"The second coming of…Merlin's balls, where do you get this stuff from?"

"My apologies Mr Potter, I forget that your education is sadly lacking."

"As my former teacher, you should take more responsibility for that than most."

"That is enough gentlemen!" came the unusually stern voice of the headmaster.

Harry and Severus were jolted from glaring at one another long enough to move their gazes to Dumbledore, who was sitting across from them behind his large desk, hands laced together, and a frown nestled between his bushy brows.

"Gentlemen, this has gone on long enough, and I for one am getting rather tired of it. I had hoped that the two of you would find some common ground after Harry came back to work as a Professor, and that you both might, at the very least, form a professional working relationship."

Severus snorted in contempt and received a glare from Dumbledore for his troubles. This, in turn, caused Harry to snigger into his chest, like a child who was revelling in being the one who hadn't been told off. Dumbledore re-directed his look of displeasure to the man, and Harry had the good grace to blush and dip his head slightly.

"Severus, Harry," said Dumbledore with a sigh, removing his glasses and rubbing his eyes tiredly. "You are both members on my staff, and, moreover, you are both dear friends to me. I cannot let this situation go on indefinitely, it's untenable."

"Tell him that," Harry said petulantly, jerking his head towards the man sitting next to him.

"Oh yes, it's all my fault, nothing to do with Saint Potter."

"Can you both not see how ridiculous this situation is?" Dumbledore said firmly. "Half the student body has bets on as to who will be the first to curse the other, the other…well…they're putting forward bets of a different nature." Harry and Severus frowned and Dumbledore cleared his throat before saying, "The teachers won't go anywhere near the staffroom if they know the two of you are anywhere near it, and meal times have become a farce. Something has to change."

"And what would you suggest, Headmaster?" asked Severus, unable to mask the sneer in his voice.

"I need you both to agree to at least try to get along, I need a commitment from both of you now that you will attempt to put your differences to one side. All I need is for you try and be civil to one another."

"I'm perfectly civil!" Harry protested, glaring across at the man sitting next to him. "I'm not the one who enchanted my porridge to blow up in my face every time someone says 'good morning' to me!"

"No" Severus shot back, "you're the one who charmed those buggering flying lips to follow me around all last Valentine's Day. I spent the whole day covered in bright pink lipstick!"

Harry grinned at the memory; he had been particularly proud of that one, and his Gryffindors had been hailing him as a hero ever since. He supposed though, that if he was forced to admit it, the behaviour was not particularly becoming of two of the most esteemed professors that Hogwarts had ever boasted.

"I can see we're not going to get very far trying negotiate peace terms," Dumbledore said with a resigned sigh. "Would either of you like a lemon drop?"

The man offered the bowl containing the horribly sweet treats to them, and while both men shook their heads, the bowl fell out of Dumbledore's hands. Both Severus and Harry reached out to stop it from falling, but neither man was prepared for the hideous tug they felt behind their navels, nor did they see the self-satisfied smile on the headmaster's face as they both vanished from his office.

"What in the name of Merlin's balls just happened?" Harry yelled as he and Severus found themselves standing in the sitting room of a quaint little cottage. The fire was roaring and a bright winter sunshine streamed through the windows.

"I should think it fairly obvious Potter. We have been tricked by that viperous old coot!"

Harry looked at him in horror for a moment before going to the front door and giving it a good yank. Unsurprisingly, it didn't budge. He tried the windows next and received nothing but grazed knuckles from the splintered old wood and a look of disdain from Severus for his troubles.

"We're trapped!"

"Yes, an excellent assessment of the situation. Tell me, why was it you decided to leave the aurors?"

Harry rolled his eyes and continued to pace around the room, stopping when he found a large bottle of brandy, in front of which was a rolled up scroll. He shot a glance back at Severus and reluctantly picked it up, unfurling it and finding the headmaster's familiar scrawl. He sighed and read aloud,

"My dear boys,

Forgive me for what must seem like a rather drastic step, but I'm afraid you forced my hand. You are currently in a little cottage off the coast of Devon, a property that has been in my family for generations, and one that has been charmed to accommodate this extreme situation. You will not be permitted to leave until you both find a way to reconcile your differences, and be under no illusions – there is no way to trick the wards, the reconciliation must be absolute.

Wishing you both a speedy resolution,

Your dear friend, Albus."

"That manipulative old bastard," Harry growled, crushing the letter in his fist. "How could he do this to us?"

"You should know by now, Potter, the headmaster does exactly as he pleases and the rest of us must fall in line like good little soldiers."

"But he can't keep us here!"

"Evidently he can," Severus argued, throwing himself down onto the unbearably chintzy sofa and casting a disgusted eye over the entire property.

"But we have classes!"

"It's the first day of the Christmas holidays Potter," Severus said with a heavy sigh. "We can easily be here for the next two weeks."

"I'm not spending Christmas with you!" Harry said indignantly, the thought horrifying him.

"Whereas, of course, the idea fills me with pure bliss," Severus sneered in response.

Harry shook his head defeatedly and looked down at the scrunched up piece of parchment in his hand. He opened it back up with a feeling of deep resignation and scanned its words again, feeling his resentment for the headmaster grow with each line he read.

"What are we going to do?" he asked, bracing his hands on the back of the hideous sofa and looking at Severus.

"There's nothing we can do," Severus said practically, "you read the letter, the wards won't let us out until this is resolved."

"Oh and it's just that easy is it?" Harry shot back, earning himself a scathing look in response. "What if there was an emergency? What if you dropped dead?"

"Oh believe me, Potter," Severus said, his voice at its most low and dangerous, "out of the two of us, it will not be me shuffling off this mortal coil."

"Prick," Harry muttered.

"I heard that."

"You were bloody well meant to," Harry growled, stalking back over to the table and swiping the bottle of brandy. He viciously tore off the plastic and wax around the neck and wrenched off the cork lid, pouring himself a healthy measure into one of the waiting glasses. He cast a look at the other glass, then, with a reluctant sigh, poured a generous measure into that one too and grudgingly handed it over to Severus.

The man looked at the proffered glass and raised an eyebrow, prompting Harry to roll his eyes and say through gritted teeth, "Just bloody take it before you end up wearing it."

Severus snorted but took it nevertheless, and Harry moved around to take a seat on the sofa, as far away from Severus as he could possibly sit without falling off it.

He swilled the brandy around in his glass and sniffed it at slightly before taking a measured sip, letting it settle on his tongue for a moment before saying, "That's bloody lovely."

Severus rolled his eyes and said, "A connoisseur's opinion if ever there was one."

Harry ignored him and took another sip of his drink, tasting warm notes of caramel and vanilla. Whatever Severus wanted to think, he actually did know what he was talking about when it came to brandy and this was undeniably good. If he ever spoke to Dumbledore again he would ask him to procure a bottle or two for his own stores.

"What do you think it means when it says the reconciliation must be absolute? What do we have to do to get the wards to let us out?" Harry asked with a sigh.

Severus took a sip of his own brandy and leant back into the sofa, resting his head on the back of it, tilting his head to look at Harry with perhaps the most benign expression he had ever worn when looking at the man. "I have no idea what constitutes a reconciliation in that man's mind."

Harry tapped his fingers on the arm of the chair and felt a sense of resignation settle over him. "I suppose it wouldn't kill us to try and put this thing to bed. We do have to work together after all."

Severus raised an eyebrow and said, "We don't work together, we work in the same establishment, there's a difference."

"Oh for fuck's sake," Harry growled. "You can't even get past the first sentence without sniping at me, how do you expect to get out of this bloody place?"

"You're the great bloody auror, this is your area of expertise, why don't you find a way out of this mess?"

"Because I'm not the one who caused this mess!" Harry shot back, feeling his anger start to rise. "You've been baiting me ever since I came back to teach at Hogwarts, what exactly is your problem? Do you think I'm not good enough to teach?"

"I didn't realise your ego was so fragile," Severus sneered.

"I'm being serious! I want to know what your problem is, besides the obvious of course. Is it so bad that I came back to Hogwarts? Were you hoping to see the back of me after…after the war?"

Severus' jaw clenched and he glared into the fire, doing his best to ignore the man opposite him. He chucked back the remainder of his brandy then held out his hand and wordlessly summoned the bottle from the table behind them. He poured himself a double measure and took a large gulp, continuing to refuse to look Harry in the eye.

Harry sighed and rubbed at his face tiredly, draining his own glass and reaching for the bottle to top it up. At this rate, the bottle would last no longer than twenty minutes.

"We were alright, once, weren't we?" he asked quietly, and Severus continued to stare fiercely ahead, the muscle in his jaw twitching slightly. "Fine, don't talk to me," Harry growled, shifting his body around so he was no longer facing Severus, sitting facing the fire as Severus was doing.

Both men swallowed their drinks then separately poured themselves another glass, Harry already beginning to feel the edges of his senses start to blur. It was true; they had been alright once, years ago they had had the tentative beginnings of a friendship when they had worked so hard to bring down Voldemort once and for all. They had had conversations that sometimes lasted long into the night, and as they had continued to work side by side, Harry had begun to think that Severus might have been starting to respect him…just a bit.

But now…now that all seemed like a very long time ago. He had been teaching at Hogwarts for a little over two years, and in that time it was as though anything that had gone on between them in the past had somehow been eradicated. Their relationship had been antagonistic and unpleasant, and Harry had wondered, in between the arguments, what had happened to the bridges they had once started to build.

He had tried to shrug it off, tried to involve himself in the practical jokes and games of one-upmanship, but the question had always lingered there in the back of his mind, and now he had actually brought it out into the open and asked it, he bloody well wanted an answer. He took another large swig, feeling bolstered by the three previous glasses he had downed, intending to make his way through what was left. He went to top his glass up but Severus reached out for the bottle before he did and tipped the last remnants into his own glass. Harry was about to remonstrate when a second, full, bottle materialised on the table with a soft pop. He looked at it in surprise for a moment, before he broke out in a grin and said,

"Dumbledore knows what he's doing."

Severus rolled his eyes, but nevertheless seemed to be relieved that that hadn't been the end of their alcohol supply.

Harry sighed and leant forward, resting his elbows on his knees, wishing that Severus would say something, feeling suddenly horribly tired with the whole situation. "Dumbledore's right you know," he said quietly, "this situation is untenable."

"It's fine from my point of view," Severus returned shortly.

"You don't mean that."

"Mind-reader now are you?"

"Oh give me something!" Harry said in exasperation. "Look I'm not asking for much, and I doubt Dumbledore wants us to come out of this declaring undying devotion to one another, but there has to be some middle ground that we can reach to make life more bearable for both of us."

"Why don't we just pretend that the other doesn't exist?" Severus asked snidely.

"Well that's very mature I must say," Harry shot back. "A few years shy of 50 and you're behaving like a ten-year-old."

"Oh yes, do bring my age into the argument, Potter, that's sure to butter me up."

"I'm not trying to butter you up you bloody great moron!"

"If you think for one minute that I intend to bow to either yours or the headmaster's will, then you will be sorely disappointed," Severus said, his lip curling with disdain.

"Is that what you think this is?" Harry asked incredulously. "Us against you? Us trying to get one over on you? In case you hadn't noticed, I've been consigned to this prison along with you, I'm being punished as much as you are. What do you want? For us to stay here together forever?"

"You see right through me," Severus sneered. "Of course, that is my dearest wish, I could think of nothing better than to be stuck here with you for all eternity. At least we'd have an endless supply of brandy to the edge off."

"Well," said Harry, folding his arms, "when and if we do get out here, the headmaster will be pleased to know that he's given us both a drinking problem."

Severus snorted and said, "You mean to say you didn't have one already? I've seen how you can knock them back, Potter."

"Oh piss off Severus, you're impossible when you're like this. I don't know how Dumbledore ever thought this would work. You won't speak to me, you just want to carry on being bitter and twisted and disaffected, shutting me and everyone else out, but you know what? You can't deny that things used to be better between us, no matter how much you might want to. It's just you and me here and you can't run away from it."

"You're talking out of your backside, as usual," Severus snarled, rising to his feet, but Harry was not to be dismissed so easily. He stood also, and followed Severus to the opposite side of the room saying,

"No I'm bloody not. How have we come to this point? What changed?"

"I don't have a clue what you're talking about. Things have always been this way between us. You don't like me and I certainly don't like you. Let's leave it at that."

"No, let's not," Harry said belligerently, feeling his anger starting to rise. "Before I left after the war, things were different between us."

"You're imaging things, Potter," Severus said harshly.

"No I'm not! You used to talk to me, we used to sit up together, just the two of us and talk until the sun came up. You used to tell me things and you understood when I needed time on my own, when I needed to get away from it all. We used to sit next to each other at Order meetings and sometimes you'd look across at me and smirk at something Dumbledore had said…you even smiled at me once."

"This is a very interesting little fantasy you've built in your mind, but my memory of that time differs somewhat."

"No it doesn't," Harry said, shaking his head, "you know as well as I do that things were different between us, that we were…we were almost friends."

Severus emitted an unpleasant bark of laughter and his face was hard as he said, "No we weren't. You and I would never be friends."

Harry felt as though he'd been slapped, and he stared at Severus, his mind whirring. "You don't mean that."

"Oh yes I do. You and I will never be anything but what we are now – two people who kept being thrown into things together against our will and having to suffer the consequences accordingly. Whatever idea you might have built up in your head is a fallacy, and I suggest you disabuse yourself of it swiftly. The headmaster will have no choice but to release us sooner or later, so I suggest we stay out of each other's way until that time," Severus said, turning and heading out of the room.

Harry was quicker, though, and he placed himself in the doorway, stopping Severus from making his exit.

"Get out of my way," Severus said, his voice low.

"No," Harry said firmly, "I'm not letting you walk away from this, not again."

Something dark settled over Severus' features and Harry felt his courage waver slightly. "Walk away?" he echoed, his black eyes glittering. "Who was the one that left, Potter? Who was the one who walked away the first time?" he asked, and a strange kind of understanding blossomed in Harry's mind.

"I – "

"You were obviously so concerned about what was happening between us that you felt no compunction in leaving, to swan off and join the aurors without so much as a glance back at the rest of us."

"Was I not supposed to try and make something of my life after the war ended?" Harry asked heatedly.

"That meant, did it, turning your back on everything that had gone before? Cutting all ties with the people who had been by your side at every step?"

"Is that what you think I did?"

"That's what you did do Harry!" Severus said fiercely, using Harry's first name for the first time in years and taking him aback. "When it all ended you just walked away and to hell with the rest of us. You weren't bothered enough to think of those you left behind, nor of whatever relationships might have had the possibility of forming."

"I didn't – "

"And then you had the audacity to waltz back in years later and expect to continue as if nothing had happened, as if you hadn't abandoned us!"

Harry was stunned into silence, feelings of guilt and understanding washing over him, finally seeing the pain that was in the eyes of the man opposite him. He had never considered things from Severus' point of view before, never realised how things might have looked from Severus' perspective.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly.

"So am I," Severus said bitterly, "sorry that I ever saw you as anything but a selfish child."

"I never meant to…" Harry trailed off, not knowing how defend himself, how to make the situation better. "I didn't realise that I'd been so thoughtless, but I didn't think you'd care about me leaving, I didn't think – "

"No," Severus said, "you didn't think. You didn't care about what you were leaving behind."

"I do care," Harry insisted.

Severus shook his head, his eyes going to the floor, his jaw set firm. "Are you really so arrogant that you expected to come back and return to the way everything once was?" he asked, not looking back up.

Harry didn't know how to answer that, he didn't really know what he had been thinking when he had returned to Hogwarts, what he had been expecting to happen, but he hadn't thought to be met with such hostility. He hadn't realised how much he had hurt Severus by leaving, or indeed that the manner of his leaving had caused the man such pain.

Severus sighed and brushed past Harry out into the corridor, trying to reach the sanctuary of one of the bedrooms, but Harry, stubborn as ever, followed after him and said,

"Please, please stay and talk to me."

"There's nothing left to say, Potter," Severus said, pausing in the bedroom's doorway.

"You called me Harry a few minutes ago," Harry said softly,

"Slip of the tongue," Severus replied brusquely.

"Would it be so very bad for us to try and rekindle things again?" he asked, unable to keep the hope from his voice.

"It's just that easy for you isn't it?" Severus asked in disbelief. "Do you think people can be picked up and dropped so easily?"

He turned to enter the bedroom and was about to close the door on Harry when Harry stepped forward and wedged his foot in the doorway, placing his palm on the door and holding it in place.

"Move," Severus growled.

"No," Harry said firmly. "I walked away once, I'm not going to do it again, not if there's a chance I can still have a friendship with you."

"I've already told you," Severus said, wrenching the door back open, "you and I will never be friends."

"But – "

"Harry," Severus said, standing there with as open an expression as Harry had ever seen, "for the love of God, listen when I say that I can never be friends with you," he said, his voice harsh and barely above a whisper.

Realisation dawned on Harry and he felt as though he'd taken a punch to the gut. How hadn't he seen it? How hadn't he understood where all the anger and hurt had come from?

"Severus – "

"Don't," Severus said, closing his eyes and shaking his head. "Just let it go, let it go and let us get back to the way we were before we started…before I began to…" He released a heavy sigh and opened his eyes, suddenly looking wearier than Harry had ever seen him. "I promise to keep out of your way in future, no more tricks or acts of sabotage, no more arguments in the corridors, we just…leave each other alone. That should be good enough for Dumbledore."

Severus went to turn away once again, but Harry said softly, "It isn't good enough for me."

"Merlin's teeth! What do you want from me Harry? You've just forced me to admit the most painful thing that I have had to come to terms with, and now what? You want me to stand here and let myself be tortured by you?"

"Of course I don't want that," Harry said earnestly. "I just…I just want to understand, I want to find a way to – "

"To what?" Severus shot back, a dangerous edge to his voice.

Harry paused for a moment, clenching and unclenching his fists, digging his nails into his palms and trying to summon up some of his old courage. He had never thought that he would have this opportunity, and he had to find the bravery to take it.

"Severus," he said, trying to keep his voice level, "did it ever occur to you that I might feel the same way?"

Severus' dark eyes flashed and two spots of colour appeared on his pale cheeks. "Don't," he hissed, "don't you dare."

"No, no you don't get to tell me how I feel," Harry said, trying very hard to hold on to the small tendrils of courage he had summoned, which wasn't easy under the intense glare that Severus was directing his way. "I didn't know what it was that I was feeling all those years ago, I didn't realise how the respect and admiration I came to feel for you was…something more. I did know though that I was attracted to you, that I had dreams about you and used to try and find ways for the two of us to be alone together so that I could…so that you might…"

"You're lying," Severus said with a dismissive shake of his head, his expression guarded and severe.

"No I'm not," Harry insisted. "I…I tried to hide it because I thought you'd laugh at me, that you'd tell me I was just a foolish child and that I needed to get over it. And then…then I told you I was leaving and I hoped that you would…"

"That I'd what?" Severus asked harshly. "Beg you stay? Throw myself at your feet and declare my undying love for you?"

"No," Harry said sadly, trying his best to withstand the horrible sneer that Severus' words were said with. "I'd hoped perhaps you'd ask me to stay in touch with you, to send you letters or to come back and visit every once in a while, but you didn't and so I thought that…that you wanted to see the back of me, that everything I had thought might have existed between us really was all in my head."

Harry shook his head as the memories of that time came flooding back and everything he had once worked so hard to squash down came rising back up to the surface, whether he wanted it to or not. "I convinced myself that you were happy to get me out of your life and that I would serve us best by moving on…forgetting whatever it was I had thought that I felt. When I came back to Hogwarts, I'd hoped there would be a chance for us to get to know one another again, to be friends at least, but you were so…so hostile that I figured you really had been pleased to see the back of me and whatever hopes I'd had were dead in the water."

Harry gave a defeated shrug and raised his hands in surrender. "I guess they really are now."

He turned and began to walk back down the corridor, deciding to leave Severus to retreat into the bedroom, to leave this painful conversation behind and try to pretend that it had never happened. He walked back into the living room and stood in front of the window, realising that it was dark outside now and that all he could see was his own blurry reflection looking back at him.

He ran a hand over his face tiredly and was embarrassed to feel the hot prickle of tears in his eyes. How had everything become so mixed up? How had he and Severus managed to be so emotionally stunted that neither of them could recognise that the very thing they each felt was being reflected back at them from the other man? His heart ached to think what might have been, of the opportunity they had both wasted and how nothing was left between them but bitterness because they were both too stubborn to admit to the truth to one another.

He bit down hard on his lip, but it didn't stop the tears from spilling out down his cheeks, it didn't stop the abject feeling of mourning that had suddenly started to claw at his chest or abate the sting of loss that he could feel so keenly. His breath came in harsh, ragged sobs and he cursed himself for not being able to control himself, for allowing these old, long-buried feelings to get the better of him. He was shaking now and his legs felt unsteady as they held him up, it was all too much and his skin prickled as he felt his emotions overwhelm him.

He was about to sink to the floor when he suddenly felt himself being turned around and gathered into a pair of strong arms. "Ssh," Severus soothed as he gently stroked Harry's hair. "It's alright, it's alright," he whispered with such gentleness that it undid Harry completely, and he clung on to the man for dear life as his tears fell freely.

Severus held him close, resting his cheek on the top of his head as Harry tucked it into the crook of Severus' neck. It was wonderful to be this close to him, even as he felt his nerves shredded by the rawness of everything that had been said, by the raking up of so many emotions that he had thought he had long since lain to rest.

"I'm sorry," he whispered into the man's chest as Severus continued to stroke his hair tenderly. "I've messed this all up, I've ruined it all, I…"

"Ssh Harry," Severus whispered into his hair. "I should be the one…it should have been me who…" he trailed off and Harry felt the comforting arms removed, feeling bereft at their loss. Firm hands were placed on his shoulders and eventually he forced himself to look up and meet the black eyes that were looking at him so intensely. The sneer was absent, the coldness he had come to expect wasn't there, and the harsh, guarded expression the man had worn ever since he'd come back to Hogwarts had been replaced by an expression of such softness that Harry felt himself undone all over again.

"Has there ever been a more pathetic pair than the two of us?" Severus asked quietly, a sad smile playing about his lips.

Harry sniffed and shook his head, looking down at his feet as another wave of sadness washed over him. "This is all such a mess," he whispered. A long finger crooked itself underneath his chin and slowly he felt his head being tilted back up, his eyes meeting Severus' again. "Is there any chance we could salvage a friendship from this?" he asked, hating how forlorn his voice sounded.

"I've already told you, Harry," Severus said, and Harry wondered how the man's voice could be so soft and yet hold such intensity, "I can't be friends with you."

Severus placed a hand on Harry's cheek and Harry could have sworn that his heart actually skipped a beat as Severus leant down and kissed him. His mind tried its best to get in his way, to scream all the ways in which this was a massive mistake and would inevitably blow up in his face, but he masterfully ignored it as he wound his arms around Severus' neck and pulled himself up against the man's body as he responded to Severus' kiss.

It was wonderful, achingly, intensely wonderful and Harry's skin prickled as Severus' hand came to hold him at the small of his back. The man was being so tender, so gentle with him that it was hard to believe that it was the same person who had been so antagonistic to him for the last few years. It was as if all that had gone before had somehow evaporated, that those years since he'd returned to Hogwarts didn't matter and they were back where they had been all those years ago when so much promise had existed between them.

They broke apart but remained close and Severus brushed his thumb over Harry's cheekbone. "I'm sorry," he whispered, "I'm sorry this is such a mess."

Harry shook his head and said, "I don't know how we managed to get it all so wrong. I wanted this, all those years ago…"

"So did I," Severus said, looking pained by his admission.

"Is there…is there any chance we can…"

"I don't know," Severus whispered, his hand continuing to caress Harry's cheek in a gesture that was so intimate it made Harry's heart hurt, "but I think we'd be making a huge mistake if we didn't try."

Harry smiled in relief and pulled himself back into Severus' arms, revelling in the feeling of being held against the man's body. It was so beautifully comforting, and Harry felt as though every fibre of his being had been missing this for so many years that to finally have it felt like coming home. "I want to try," he murmured into the man's shoulder. "I can't lose you again, if there's any possibility that we could be…that we could be together, we have to take the chance."

He pulled back, leaving his hands on Severus' shoulders, and met the man's intense gaze openly. "Do you really think we can make this work?"

Severus gave a soft laugh and said, "No, we'll probably bollocks it up completely but since when has that stopped us?"

Harry returned the laugh and nodded with a heavy sense of self-deprecation. He had tried to make relationships work in the past but they had all ended spectacularly badly, no doubt thanks to the fact that he had never really been able to get Severus out of his head. This time though, he was determined that things would be different, and, suddenly very aware that they were alone together in a cosy little cottage, he cleared his throat, feeling horribly self-aware as he said,

"I want this to work Severus, more than I've ever wanted anything before. Can we…please don't be offended if I…if I ask to take it slowly. It would be the easiest thing in the world to fall into bed with you right now, and Merlin knows I've thought about it bloody often enough, but I don't want to mess this up…I don't want to screw it up just because we rushed into – "

A finger was placed on his lips and he looked up to see Severus looking at him with such an expression of fond amusement that Harry felt as though things had always been this way between them.

"Slow is good," Severus said quietly. "Anything that can give us as good a chance as possible."

Harry smiled, feeling younger and freer than he had done in years, leaning a little closer to Severus as he said, "Is kissing allowed in this slow progression scenario?"

"I'd say it was required," Severus murmured, closing the space between them and meeting Harry in a gentle and tender kiss as Harry felt himself melt into the man he had waited so long for.

Albus Dumbledore sipped at his tea and glanced out onto the little terrace that his office overlooked. Two men were walking side by side, strolling leisurely and smiling at one another. The younger of the two reached out and brushed something from the older man's shoulder and the older man caught the younger man's hand and pulled him closer, leaning down and capturing his lips in a soft and gentle kiss.

Albus couldn't stop himself from smiling at the little scene playing out in front of his window. Severus and Harry were still ostensibly not speaking to him for his little stunt a few weeks ago, and were telling anyone who would listen that they would never speak to their manipulative old goat of headmaster ever again. However, since their return from the cottage, Albus had received two separate gifts of exquisite brandy from the two men and had congratulated himself most heartily when he had cracked one open.

He had to admit that he had never thought his plan would work out so well. At best, he had hoped that their enforced stay at the cottage would get them talking, start a dialogue about how they could work with one another in a way that wouldn't make everyone else want to run for the hills. He had suspected, of course, that there was more to their antagonism than met the eye, but he was amazed that either of the two men had been able to admit it to one another.

He continued to sip at his tea as he watched the two men stand opposite one another, both emanating a very obvious sense of happiness. He couldn't stop himself from inclining his head slightly and enhancing his hearing with a subtle spell, hearing Severus murmur softly to Harry,

"My quarters tonight?"

"I'll be there," Harry said with a smile. "Fancy giving me a chance to try and win back some dignity and let me win at a game of chess?"

"Now where would the lesson be if I simply let you win?" Severus asked with a smirk.

"Not everything has to be a lesson."

"Said the unteachable student."

"How rude," Harry said with feigned affront. "I suppose…we could always forgo the chess game and…find something else to do," he said, a very obvious blush spreading across his cheeks.

"Well," said Severus, pulling Harry more firmly into his hold, "that's an offer I'd be a fool to refuse."

Albus reversed the spell and gave the boys their privacy, moving from the window and settling back down at his desk. He had always suspected he had a talent for matchmaking; perhaps his next mission would be to get Ron and Draco to admit their feelings for one another. They would make a wonderful couple.

AN: I hope you enjoyed it, please leave a review and let me know.