Posted on: 17/12/13 at 16:40 UTC/GMT/Zulu.
Reposted on 17/12/13 at 22:00 UTC/GMT/Zulu. Tenses corrected. Sorry not an update.
AN: Oneshot. Written for the HPFC SuperMegaFabby Friendship Only Challenge. Set twenty years after the second wizarding war.
Someone to Watch Over Me
Present moment
Harry warily watched the threesome in the corner of the Great Hall. There was rather too much whispering and sniggering going on. It was making him uneasy. George joined him a moment later. His gold paper, cracker hat was askew and he was grinning.
Harry nudged his shoulder and pointed out the scheming trio in the corner. George's smile faltered.
"How much trouble do you think we're in?" Harry asked.
"Erm. How much did they hate having bubblegum pink hair all week?" George asked in return.
"Helluva lot of trouble." Harry decided.
"Yep. Don't drink or eat anything they give us." George said.
"George I've been following that rule since the Canary Creams in my fourth year at Hogwarts." Harry said.
George grinned. They left the trio to it and sneaked away.
They thought they'd made it unnoticed. Severus Snape smirked and turned back to his co-conspirators, Minerva McGonagall and Hermione Granger. They had some serious revenge to plot.
Their friendship was an odd one to outside observers.
It started after the war. Harry found that he was still alive when he returned to the shack for his body. Hermione saved him with the potions in her beaded bag and got him to St. Mungos.
She refused to let him give in and die. She had spent days sitting by his bedside waiting for him to wake. When he did she spent weeks cajoling, encouraging, and occasionally bullying him back to health. Minerva had joined her. The two made a formidable team.
Then she had fought for his freedom with Harry Potter during the trials. He was free thanks to her. Their third had been conspicuously absent and it wasn't until months later at the first anniversary celebration and memorial that he found out Ron Weasley had died trying to take Bellatrix down.
It explained why Hermione had thrown all her energy into helping him. At first he was offended and tried to shove her away. They had a row that the entirety of Hogwarts heard but she didn't leave. He realised that although helping him might have been a crutch for her at first, while she grieved, she had got to know and like him. Daft woman.
Minerva was doubly daft because she had liked him all along. Which was why she was so vindictive when he was headmaster. He'd hurt her by appearing to be on Voldemort's side. After the war she was so apologetic it made him cringe.
She and Hermione formed a firm and unshakeable friendship at his bedside and he somehow became a part of it. Harry and Ginny got married and Hermione became a third wheel in that relationship. She defaulted to them. Minerva finally insisted that she took the Transfiguration post after she'd all but moved in to Hogwarts.
He got to know her far better then. They both had nightmares and ended up prowling the halls unable to sleep. They found out later that Minerva had nightmares too.
After that revelation the three of them often found themselves on Minerva's small sofa with a cup of tea talking late into the night. And waking up next to each other with stiff necks in the morning. They became each others anchors and each knew they could always lean on the other two.
They were all equally stubborn and their rows were spectacular but they always made it up later. He couldn't seem to scare them away and they refused to leave him alone. They began to spend leisure time together, covertly of course, after all he had a reputation among the students to maintain. After a while they all became very close.
Severus discovered that each witch had a wicked sense of humour when they got revenge on George Weasley for a rather spectacular prank. He decided that perhaps together they could turn Weasley's hair grey and make the marauders envious from beyond the grave.
As the years went by and they all healed Severus found that he had come to totally trust and rely on these two women. The realisation scared him. They occasionally let him down and he occasionally let them down because no one was perfect. But only in the small things; never the big ones.
Hermione never married. They worried about her at first but she insisted that she was happy. She did appear to be. She had plenty of other friends and loved her job. They still had rows that scared bystanders. They still remained good friends.
He woke up one morning after the ten year anniversary, which had triggered nightmares as usual, to find himself on Minerva's sofa with his arms around both of them and the two of them slumped against him asleep.
He realised that for the first time in years he was happy and he had two women he loved who loved him unconditionally. Neither one of them looked like they were going to wake up soon and it was still dark so he rested his head back against the top of Minerva's, tightened his grip on both of them and went back to sleep.
Present moment
"So how did that date go last week?" Minerva asked him. "With that ghastly prank the next morning I forgot to ask."
Severus shrugged. "Didn't work out." He said.
"That's a shame." Hermione said.
"Not really. I'm hardly lonely. I've got two interfering Gryffindors to be the bane of my existence." He smirked.
"Why Severus that was almost sweet." Hermione said and kissed him on the cheek.
Minerva laughed and kissed him on the other cheek.
He blushed.
"Come on. We've got revenge to carry out." He said.
The three stood with identical evil smirks that would have made Harry and George shiver with fear if they had seen them.
The scheme went off without a hitch. Harry and George ended up a bright neon blue from head to toe. Eyes and hair as well as skin. It would take two weeks for the colour to wear off.
Severus smiled a rare true smile as he watched Minerva and Hermione clutching each other on the floor gasping for breath and trying to stop laughing.
Harry and George started blaming each other, adding to the hilarity, and decided it could only be settled by a Potter clan versus Weasley clan snow war. The children whooped and rushed outside and the elder Potters and Weasleys followed them more slowly out of the great hall.
Minerva and Hermione lost their grip on each other as they laughed harder still. The sight of his two normally dignified friends and colleagues literally rolling on the floor laughing made him give up his pretense at dignity. His baritone laughter joined theirs much to the surprise of the few students also there for Christmas.
When Hermione and Minerva had sobered up they smiled as Severus pulled them to their feet. Hermione picked up another bottle of butterbeer and they walked outside to watch the Potter and Weasley clans fight it out. She shared a smirk with Minerva and knew they were thinking the same thing.
Thank Merlin for each other and for their serpent. They didn't know how they'd live without him.
Severus smiled as Minerva linked her arm with his and Hermione took his free hand.
Thank Merlin for his lionesses. He didn't know how he'd live without them.
Please Review. Constructive crit very welcome. Flames will be put in the hearth to warm Harry and George up when they get tired of the snow. :)