It had been 10 years since the war.
5 years since his divorce.
3 years since becoming the youngest ever Head Auror.
Now Harry was sat in the leaky cauldron, 5 pints down, trying to drown his sorrows after his most recent case had not only gone catastrophically wrong; resulting in 3 out of 5 of his team being in St Mungos, oh no, it had been suggested he went on stress leave for two bloody months. No, things weren't going how he had expected his life to turn out after the war.
He and Ginny married straight after the war after finding out she was pregnant, four years and three kids later, he found out not only was Ginny continuously having affairs, none of his beautiful kids were not his. After a rather strenuous, public year long divorce, he was finally free and spent the last 5 years shagging and wizard, witch, and muggle, still not having found "the one".
Sipping on his sixth pint, Harry came back to the present, he knew he was in this particular pub at this particular time, other than to see how many pints he could drink before grabbing a random stranger to take home, but the reason was lost to him. Sighing and pushing up his glasses, he tried to check the time...it was around 11:30 am when he entered the pub, does it says 3pm? Perhaps a little early to grab a stranger, seeing as the pub had families in it and not his usual crowd. Maybe just a quick nap before he continues with his drink Harry decides, as his head slams down on the table.
Harry came to, lying stretched out on his bench to the smell of lavender and bright orange and pink robes practically blinding him. Dumbledore. Harry moaned, slowly sitting up, the smell of lavender getting stronger as the old man pushed the lavender scented potion to his face. A quick glug, gag and a tea shoved towards him, Harry finally remembered why he was there. His monthly tea with Dumbledore, dammit.
Dumbledore sat there looking rather glum and perplexed, probably not impressed with Harry's passing out, he sat there, waiting. Harry knew the flopped case would be all over the Daily Prophet, he knew it would be the front page that he was on stress leave, he knew the old man was about to give him some worldly advice on his life choices and what to do next. Harry knew, Dumbledore was waiting for him to start the conversation.
Harry looked up from his tea, and gave Dumbledore a weak smile, that's all he could muster up at the moment. Maybe he did need the time off work, have a break from everything, disappear for a bit. Looking back he hadn't stopped since the war had finished. He helped clean up Hogwarts, he watched over people in St Mungos and then he jumped straight into work and marriage. There was never any break.
Dumbledore smiled back at Harry, oh how Harry hated that smile. That smile meant, Dumbledore knew what Harry was thinking and was just waiting for Harry to figure it out himself. Annoying old man, always knows everything.
They sat there in silence for what felt hours, although only about 10 minutes went by when Harry finally caved. "Soooo...how are you Sir?" Harry asked, trying to sound as if his world wasn't caving in. The old man's eyes sparkled, "Oh, quite well my boy, quite well. I've heard you're on holiday for some time, you planned anything nice to do? Hot holiday? Relaxing?"
The eyes sparkled but the voice harsh, definitely not a good start to tea, toeing around the topic of the epic failure of his most recent case. Harry sighed "No, no idea yet Sir. I need a break, yeah, I guess, life has just got a bit…." Harry trailed off whilst waving his arms around in confusion, anger just plain annoyance. "Much. Just too much."
Dumbledore was watching him, with small smile on this face. "My boy, there's nothing wrong with having a rest from everything, you've done so much. You deserve a rest as well. I'm going to village fete later on today, quaint muggle affair, you're more than welcome to join me. A friend of mine lives around there and always makes the most amazing apple pie." Those blues eyes were madly sparkling, Harry sighed again, looking towards the bar and a ruggared dark man who entered...maybe he could say no to Dumbledore and see if this stranger was up for a tumble. Dumbledore eyes followed Harry, sighing "Harry, he was very much like you, lost after the war with what to do with himself. He was quite ill, lives in an old cottage of mine. There's a couple of outhouses, definitely habitable. Why don't you stay there? Get some fresh air, away from this city life and all the...distractions."
Turning away from the stranger and back to looking at Dumbledore, Harry knew the man was right. He did need a break, a chance to freshen up. They still drank alcohol in the countryside didn't they? If worse came to be, he could simply apparate back to the city and finally be able to say to Dumbledore he was wrong.
Harry gave a small nod, "Perhaps a break in the country would be good."
"Oh wonderful! I'm staying there myself for a couple of days as well, I'll let him know to expect you! Off you go, go grab some clothes, I'll wait here and then we can pop off. Might even make it in time for the apple pie!" Harry groaned, whilst dragging himself up.
"Fine, fine. I'll go get some stuff, back here in 30 mins." he said whilst preparing to apparate.
After shoving whatever clean clothing he had into a duffle bag, Harry met Dumbledore back at the pub. The old man had changed into some ghastly 60's style trousers, with an orange flared shirt, his apparent view on muggle clothing.
Dumbledore apparated them to what indeed did seem like the middle of nowhere. Fields, bumpy roads and twee cottages everywhere. Dumbledore was nattering away whilst Harry just nodded, eventually turning his attention to the old man when they approached a house at the end of the village...
"So as I was saying, before you meet him, just to let you know he's a bit of a recluse. After the war he was rather ill, bad reaction to some medication and the snake venom. He didn't know what to do with himself, so I let him stay here. This cottage has been in the family for years but I've never lived here myself, so he's just stayed here."
Harry blanched "Snake venom, Sir?!"
"Ah yes, my boy. Severus was always the sensitive type, obviously it was a pretty bad attack. They patched him up well enough, fit as a fiddle, just the reaction with the pepper up, the anti-venom, the actual venom and something to do with tea tree I believe...nasty reaction, so he says, I think the fresh start was rather good for him." Dumbledore said, a big smile on his face laughing.
"No Sir, I don't think I can stay here after all, last time I saw him he had just woken up and started yelling at me…." Harry said whilst backing away from the cottage.
"Ah my boy, I told you this before. Anyway, I'm sure he could do with the company, he doesn't get out much, especially with those little ones running around causing mayhem."
They walked down the windy path towards the cottage, it was pretty enough. Old stone with a thatched roof, clematis covered trellis, wisteria covered arbors covering the path and a variety of fruit trees. It was beautiful, although he couldn't picture Snape living here. As they got closer, you could hear music coming through the window and something smelt amazing. No, maybe there's another Severus. This definitely cannot be Severus Snape.
Harry stepped back slightly hiding partially behind Dumbledore when he happy knocked a tune on the door. Even at the age of 28, he was still scared of Snape, how embarrassing.
The music was turned down, a voice raised, and the door opened. There, stood a somewhat younger looking Severus Snape wearing what appeared to be dark blue chinos and a white shirt, covered head to toe in a fine white powder. As Harry poked his head around Dumbledore, an explosion came out from behind Snape, covering them all in the substance, turning out to be flour.