Hi all, we're flogging you with the stories aren't we? This was one that took a lot of time and consideration before we decided to post it because it's a pairing we don't usually follow. Not because we don't like it but because of the age gap which we've, funnily enough dealt with in this story. It probably seems odd that we're writing this since we're not into the fandom but we read a couple by authors we love and we're inspired to give it a go.

We will give you fair warning some of the characters will be a little OOC, particularly Severus at times but it is explained. It takes place after the final battle and won't be completely post Hogwarts compliant. we've decided that since the year Snape was in charge of the school was so disrupted all the students have to return and repeat it so the story takes place at the beginning of the following year when all the students are back at school for that repeat year. There will be Ron bashing, just a little because we don't like him, and a lot of couplings you might not expect.

We hope you enjoy and feel free to let us know what you think.

Black Roses

Prologue

Of course it had to be a potions accident, of course it had to be Neville's cauldron that exploded, but for once at least it wasn't the young Gryffindor's fault. He had actually been an inch away from completing possibly his first ever proper potion that could have ended up being fit for human consumption. Just one more ingredient and the boy would have been home free.

Except that one ingredient he ended up pouring into the potion was the wrong ingredient.

What he had been handed was in fact a mix of different ingredients that had some rather unique properties so when he added them to the potion and it invariably exploded, liberally covering Professor Snape who'd taken the class in place of Slughorn as the older man was feeling unwell that afternoon, well, the end result was nothing short of remarkable. Sadly the rest of the class doubted the DADA professor would see it that way.

He'd immediately fallen unconscious and one of the students had run out to find Pomphrey and Dumbledore while the rest of the class stared at their fallen DADA teacher in awe until help arrived. The reactions of the headmaster and medi-witch were comical, but only because the source of their surprise wasn't awake right at that moment. After an initial examination by the medi-witch Dumbledore levitated Snape to the hospital wing and the class quickly dispersed, the Gryffindor half's main aim being to find somewhere to hide Neville for possibly the remainder of the year.

XX

"Severus, can you hear me?" Snape heard a voice calling to him from the outside world.

He groaned and slowly opened his eyes only to shut them again and throw his hands over them when they were met with insanely bright light. "Aah!" he snarled at the sun ignoring the sound of quiet laughter emanating from nearby.

"Well, at least we know Severus is still Severus." The headmaster's voice said from beside him.

Of course he was still him, why wouldn't he be?

Open your eyes, Severus, we need to have a proper look at you," Poppy said from the other side of Severus and he was sure he heard someone else nearby mutter something about how he needed to get a proper look at himself but he ignored it, slowly forcing his eyes open.

The first thing he saw was the headmaster's damned twinkling eyes and he immediately wanted to close them again.

"There we are. Good morning, Severus, how are you feeling?" the other man greeted him.

"Like one of Longbottom's potions exploded in my face," Severus snarled, trying to sit up only to be stopped by Poppy.

"Now, now young man you're not going anywhere until I say so," the medi-witch ordered before running her wand over him.

"I am hardly young, Madame Pomfrey," he snarled in reply making another attempt to get up only to be stopped once more, this time by Dumbledore.

"Actually, Severus, I believe you may find yourself quite incorrect in that statement at the moment," the headmaster said merrily with a far too happy smile on his face.

"And just what do you mean by that, Headmaster?" Snape snarled at the older man, concerned about what he was going to say.

Albus looked over at the medi-witch who nodded her head before handing Severus a mirror. What he saw nearly made him scream in shock. He was still himself; however the face that looked back at him was quite a good deal younger than his 40 odd years. If he'd had to guess his age at the moment he would have said 19-20. As if that wasn't bad enough he looked as if some twisted, demented fairy god mother had come along and smoothed out all his imperfections. He still looked like him only a perfect him, if such a thing were even possible. If Severus hadn't had such a strong control over his emotions he would have either burst into tears of chucked a world class tantrum that would have rivalled something Draco had thrown as a child.

As it was, despite his age reversal on the outside he was still just as mature and controlled as he'd always been and he managed to keep his emotions in check. He dropped the mirror into his lap and looked up at the headmaster.

"Is it treatable?" he asked simply.

"I'm afraid not, Severus. From the looks of it you're going to be that way forever, well, that's not completely accurate. You will age like a normal person you've just had your clock rewound a little," Dumbledore finished smiling as if this was the best thing in the world.

"I fail to see how you could find this at all joyous, Albus," he growled at the headmaster.

Dumbledore looked back at him in surprise. "Really, not at all? Oh come now, Severus, surely you must be able to appreciate what an opportunity this is for you. To be 20 years old again but still have all the knowledge you've gained over the last 40 that you've lived. Wizards all over the world would kill for an opportunity like this."

"I on the other hand couldn't imagine a worse turn of events," Severus snarled in reply, finally sitting up despite Poppy's orders for him not to move.

"Severus, I still need to run more tests," the medi-witch argued as Snape moved to climb out of the bed.

"You had all the time I was unconscious to run tests, Pomfrey, if you couldn't get them done then too bad!" Severus snarled before pushing the blankets aside and standing up from the bed. "If there's nothing you can do for my current condition then remaining here is pointless and I'd rather be alone," he finished before heading for the door.

He heard Pomfrey begin to splutter an argument but Albus' voice stopped her from getting any further.

"Leave him, Poppy, he needs some time on his own to compute all of this," the headmaster placated the medi-witch and if Severus weren't so angry he would have thanked the other man

He stalked through the castle, ignoring all the looks he was receiving from the student body and stormed into his room. He slammed the door shut behind him and stalked to his bedroom where he dropped onto the bed, covered his face with a pillow and growled out his frustrations. He would have liked to believe that it was a dream and maybe if he closed his eyes he'd drop off to sleep and wake up looking normal again. Sadly he was far too old to have those kinds of delusions anymore; he did however feel an intense need for sleep and decided to indulge his body's desires. Without bothering to change his attire or pull up a blanket he closed his eyes and allowed sleep to claim him. Maybe he'd be able to deal with this better when he woke up.

XX

End of prologue

So that's the prologue the rest of the chapters will be a lot longer this was just a teaser. The story is written quite a bit in advance so let us know if you want more and we'll post up the next chapter ASAP.

Thanks for reading.

Rosalie and Kayla