Chocolate Brownies
It had been a long tiring day for Severus Snape. After 6 hours of teaching, in his words, "absolute dunderheads", he just wanted to head back to his rooms in the dungeons and cuddle his Harry. As he approached the corridor to the dungeons, he paused and looked around. It would be just like Albus to pounce on him at this very moment and call him to a meeting.
No one around. He listened carefully, and after satisfying himself that the coast was clear, he stepped out from behind his pillar—
"Severus!" Minerva called as she rushed up to him. "Severus Snape, don't you dare run away!"
He groaned. "What is it, Minerva? I'm tired and I've had a long day".
"Your Slytherins thought it would be funny to stick my Gryffindor Quidditch team to the ceiling of the dressing room and I can't get them down! You have to come and help!" As she spoke she tugged him away by force in the direction of the quidditch pitch. He pulled his arm away from her surprisingly strong grip, "Woman! I can walk on my own, thank you very much!" He snapped, and his black eyes flashed, but one could see he found the sticky situation the Gryffindors were in, very amusing indeed.
* * * * * *
Down in the dungeons, Harry Potter glanced at the clock as he stirred the chocolate batter in his mixing bowl. 'Hmm, it's almost 6 in the evening now; I wonder where Sev is'.
* * * * * *
Severus was in a horrible mood after getting the Gryffindor quidditch team off the ceiling of their dressing room. It turned out that the Slytherins had been rather creative in using the Weasley Twins' latest creation (Ever-sticky Chewing Gum! 'You'll never get it off!'), and as a result of some sneaky Slytherin maneuvering, the Gryffindors had been stuck to the ceiling. Actually, make that dangling from the ceiling. By their hands. The mission to get the students down was made even more difficult by the fact that the gum sprayed bright pink syrup whenever an attempt was made to scrape it off. By the time Severus and Minerva had managed to get them down, they had been hanging there for more than 2 hours. The sky was fully dark now; it was past 8 o'clock, and Severus just wanted to go back to his rooms, take a well-deserved shower, and cuddle his Harry.
He stepped into the dungeon corridors and was heading towards his rooms when—
"Severus! Ah, there you are, my boy!"
Severus turned around with his best death glare, and immediately winced at the glaring neon yellow and orange robes that Headmaster Albus Dumbledore wore.
"What is it, old man, I've had a long day. Spit it out! And did you have to wear such garish robes?"
"Why, Severus, I didn't know you liked my new robes! I must remember to get more of them!" the 'old man' beamed. Ignoring Severus' mutter of "I might as well blind myself now and save you the trouble", he continued, "Severus my boy, there's a Heads of Houses meeting in the staff room in about 5 minutes. I came down to get you when you didn't respond to my message".
"You have GOT to be kidding me", Severus pinched the bridge of his nose. "The reason why I did not respond to your message is because I HAVE YET TO REACH MY ROOMS AFTER CLASS TODAY!" he shouted.
"Calm down, my boy" Albus soothed. "Let's head for the meeting and you can tell your troubles to everyone there. You haven't had dinner yet, have you? I'll call for the elves…" his voice trailed off as he disappeared down the corridor. Severus stood there staring as the garish robes vanished around the corner. He steeled himself for more hours of torture and stalked towards the staff room.
* * * * * *
Harry took his latest batch of baking out of the oven and sniffed happily. 'Mmm, they smell great!'. As his chocolate brownies cooled in the pan, he washed and packed away everything. Then he glanced up at the kitchen clock. 'Hey, it's way past 8 o'clock now. Just where is that Severus? Doesn't he remember that we were supposed to have dinner together tonight? That man is in such trouble when he gets back!'
* * * * * *
In the staff room, things were not going well. After going through tedious administration duties such as student attendance, grade reports, financial reports etc., (during which the Heads of Houses desperately tried to stay awake while avoiding looking at Albus' garish robes) the Headmaster had just announced his plans to host a costume party for the students in two weeks, and was looking for staff members to chair the planning committee and chaperone the students. By this time, Severus was drifting off into dreams of holding his Harry while gazing into the warm fire…
"Don't you agree, Severus?" Albus' voice broke in upon his daydream. "Hmm? Oh yes, indeed" Severus snapped out of his reverie and agreed (anything to prevent Albus from realizing he had not been paying attention. " Thank you Severus! All right then, this meeting is ended. Goodnight!" Albus sailed out of the room. Severus heaved himself out of his chair and stretched. Then he noticed everyone else staring at him in shock.
"What is it?" then he was filled with a vague foreboding feeling. He turned to Flitwick, who was sitting next to him. "Filius, what did I just agree to?"
The tiny Charms professor squeaked, "you just agreed to chair the planning committee for the student ball in two weeks as well as chaperone the ball."
"WHAT?!" Severus' bellow of outrage could be heard all the way down the corridor.
* * * * * *
Severus slipped into his rooms with a sigh. At least he had not been accosted this time round, otherwise he probably would have hexed the offender on the spot. The room was dark and quiet, a low fire burning. He slipped out of his teaching robes and hung them on the rack. No sign of his Harry anywhere.
As he approached the sofa, he saw his Harry lying asleep curled on his side, a book fallen out of his fingers on the floor. He removed his waistcoat, socks and shoes, remaining in his white shirtsleeves and black trousers. He picked up the book, placing it on the table. Then he reached out and stroked his fingers through the dark unruly hair.
The petite figure on the sofa stirred, and green eyes opened sleepily. "Sev, you're back" came the drowsy whisper.
"Yes, I'm back," Severus whispered just as softly. "I'm sorry for missing dinner with you tonight".
The green eyes opened fully. "It's OK, Sev" Harry leaned up on his elbows and pressed a soft kiss to the thin lips before sitting up and wrapping his arms around Severus' neck, cuddling in. The gold band on his finger glinted dully in the firelight.
Severus breathed in the scent of his Harry. Vanilla and apples from his shower foam and shampoo, and underlying it a scent that was uniquely Harry. He pressed his nose into Harry's neck, smelling the faint scent of chocolate. "Did you bake today?"
"Yeah, chocolate brownies. You want one?"
"Maybe tomorrow, brat. It's late now, and time for bed. Up you get". He attempted to pull Harry off him, but the brat resisted, hanging on firmly and cuddling in even more. He sighed and lifted Harry into his arms, carrying him into the bedroom.
"Why do I put up with you, brat?"
"Because you love me" came the answer, followed by a kiss to his cheek.
He laid Harry on the bed and went to the bathroom to take a quick shower. Slipping on his black pajama bottoms, he went to the bed where Harry was already asleep again. He lay down and pulled Harry to his chest so they were spooning, throwing a leg over his husband's legs and wrapping an arm around his shoulders. The matching gold wedding ring on his finger came to rest against that of his husband's. He twined his fingers together with Harry's.
Severus pressed a kiss to his husband's bare shoulder and hugged him tighter.
"My Harry"
"My Sev" came the soft reply.
In the silence of the dark bedroom, there was nothing but quiet breathing.
A/N: my first fluff story is done! I must admit I had not planned it to end this way, but my muse just took over and this is the result! I must confess that I was eating a chocolate brownie that I had just baked while writing (note: inspiration!), and had planned to end with Sev and Harry sitting in the living room, nibbling on chocolate brownies and cuddling before the fire. But I suppose where the story went is even better than I expected! Let me know what you think!
Hugs, anastasia87