A/N: Sorry for the wait I was super drowning in college essays. Who would have thought majoring in English education would cause me to write so many essays ;) just kidding – but seriously, three ten page essays in one week? Fml, that's all I have to say about that. Remind me why college is worth it again?

Hey everyone thanks for reading and reviewing! I am glad that basically everyone loved the humor in the last chapter!

I just wanted to point out though that Hermione was not punished for being in the same bed with Harry but rather because of her disrespect and attitude. Severus' father also overreacted to many things when he was a child and therefore it is only normal for Sev to also be overreacting to issues.

Also, I just wanted to remind everyone of the warnings that I wrote in the story's summary: OOC, AU, language, angst, and CP.

Thanks,

Severus Addicted.

Chapter Twenty-Five: Sometimes Adults Need Forgiven Too

The next morning came quickly.

Severus sipped at his coffee as Minerva read the Daily Prophet.

Glancing up from the paper, Minerva looked over at Severus, "Think we should wake the children up yet?"

Looking at the clock on the wall, Severus shook his head, "No, let's give them another half an hour. We will tell them it is late Christmas present."

Minerva agreed to that idea because the two children obviously deserved a good rest. "We need to talk, Severus. You know, about last night."

Sighing, Severus took a small sip of his hot coffee, "I know."

"You realize we overreacted last night?" Minerva pressed.

Severus nodded, "I couldn't help it, Min. You know how pre-teens are! We are Heads for a reason! Pre-teens are curious."

Minerva sighed, "I agree, they are curious. However, we still overreacted."

Severus shook his head, "You do not understand, Min. When my father found out about me hanging out with Lily he gave me a huge talking-to and set down the rules of the Snape name. Then, he walked in on us kissing and he whipped my butt with his belt. Sexual contact, no matter how small, is completely inappropriate."

Minerva slowly nodded her head in understanding, "I realize you had a rough childhood, Sev. I really do! But, don't you think maybe, just maybe, you should loosen up the Snape family rules? Harry and Hermione were not doing anything inappropriate last night. We blew the situation completely out of control. You were not the only one to mess up though, Sev. I need to make sure Hermione knew I was punishing her for her attitude and disrespect, not because of sleeping beside Harry. I am not sure if I made that completely clear to her."

Severus sighed and rubbed his forehead, "Min, I don't know how to not parent like my father."

Minerva gave him a stern look, "Severus, do not give me that crap! I know you know how to not act like your father. You have done a brilliant job of parenting in your own means, not your fathers! Plus, you read those parenting books. You are nothing like your father, you must realize that."

Shaking his head, Severus said, "No, Min, you do not understand! Yes, I have read the parenting books and, sometimes, I do a fine job with handling Harry by using my own means. Every time he acts out and deserves a punishment my first instinct is to crack my belt over his backside. I do not want to be my father, Minerva!"

Gently placing her hand over his, Minerva responded to him in a gentle, understanding tone, "That is your first instinct because that is how you grew up, Sev. Do you think I don't want to resort to some of my parents' punishments at times?" Not waiting for his response, Minerva continued, "Of course I do! The way we were punished growing up will always be our first instinct in dealing with the children. However, we have to overcome it and remember how those punishments made us feel. Do you understand, Sev?"

Severus nodded, "I do, Min."

Nodding, Minerva placed a very small kiss to the top of his head, "We can do this."

Severus smirked, put his cup of coffee down, and looked at her with amusement shining brilliantly in his onyx eyes, "You speak as if we are a married couple raising two hellions."

Minerva chuckled and stayed silent instead of responding to his joking jabs.

Taking another sip of his coffee to hide his growing, amused smile, Severus looked at the clock on the wall and gave a small sigh.

Noticing where he was staring, Minerva sighed as well, "Let's go wake them and get this discussion over with."

Nodding, Severus placed his cup on the table and stood. Offering his hand to Minerva to help her stand, Severus said with a wink, "I'll get the oldest if you get the youngest, my dear."

Shaking her head, Minerva forced herself to not laugh at his antics. Accepting the offered hand, Minerva stood from her seat.

Dropping her soft, small hand, Severus started towards the stairs and went to wake Hermione while Minerva entered Harry's room.

Sitting on the edge of her bed, Severus gave her shoulder a light shake, "Hermione, wake up."

Groaning, Hermione stretched before curling into a tighter ball.

Smiling, Severus shook her shoulder a bit harder, "We allowed you to sleep in this morning and now it is time to wake up."

Peeking out at him through the fringe of her hair, Hermione cringed and gave a defiant shake of her head causing her bed-hair to fly, "I don't want to."

"Why?" Severus asked as he brushed the child's hair away from her eyes.

Biting her lip, Hermione stayed silent. The blush that was forming on her soft cheeks gave away her answer though.

Nodding, Severus left out a small sigh. "You're embarrassed from last night, am I right?"

As her blush increased, Severus continued, "Your mother and I will be speaking to you both about last night's incident as soon you as come downstairs."

Hermione huffed and hid her face under the blankets, "I don't want to talk about it!"

"Hiding from your problems will not get you anywhere, Hermione," Severus told her softly as he attempted to pull the blanket away from her face. "If you are worried that you are going to get another talking-to, you are not. I promise. Your mother and I realized that we. . . Overreacted, last night and it is important to us that we fix our mistake. Will you please come out from under those blankets?"

As Hermione slowly emerged from under the blankets, Severus smiled and once again brushed away the wild strings of hair that were in front of her face, "Please come downstairs with me?"

After she nodded, Severus stood and pulled the blankets off her legs, "Come." Offering her his hand, he smiled when she agreed to take it. Pulling her off the bed, Severus gave her a hug, "I'm not going to say that I won't ever give you a hard time about a boy again, but I promise to wait and discover more details before threatening the kid's life," here he gave her a wink causing her to laugh.

Hugging him back, she said, "That's a start."

Tapping his fingers on the table, Harry huffed, "Am I going to get yelled at again? I told you last night; I did not mean to fall asleep beside her!" Harry's anger was growing and growing as he waited for his soon-to-be adopted father to come downstairs.

Harry's anger was exactly why Minerva was glad she woke the boy up instead of Severus. Minerva sighed, "Harry, I told you once already, you are not in trouble. Calm yourself though before you really do get into trouble."

Harry rolled his eyes and continued tapping his fingers on the table-top. He could feel her icy glare on him but he knowingly kept his gaze locked on the table.

Hearing the bedroom door closing, Minerva sat up straighter and waited patiently for Severus and Hermione to come downstairs.

Waking Harry up was very easy, the boy was already awake! Convincing him to come downstairs to speak with his guardian and herself, on the other hand, was very difficult.

Keeping her eyes fixed firmly on her hands, Hermione timidly sat down in her seat and waited for the torture to begin. Even though Severus told her she was not in trouble again hardly meant anything when it came to her mother. Especially since Hermione struggled with taming her attitude when dealing with her.

Glancing over at Harry, she noticed he was silently fuming already. Apparently her mum already began torturing him!

Severus gave Minerva a curiously confused look after noticing Harry's stiff form.

Sitting, Severus took an awkward sip of his coffee and waved at Minerva to begin.

Glaring at him for forcing her to start the apology, Minerva, never-the-less, began, "I. . . We are sorry for overreacting last night. We should not have reacted the way we had when we discovered you both in the same bed."

"You're right, you shouldn't have," Harry muttered darkly under his breath. "For Merlin's sake, fall asleep in the wrong spot and all Hell breaks loose."

Severus sighed, "Harry James we do not need your attitude this early in the morning. We are in the middle of apologizing for our actions toward you both last night and if you want to continue being apologized to then I would keep that attitude of yours tamed. If you find that behaving yourself is just too much for you to handle then you can march yourself over to that corner and put your nose in it. It is your choice."

Gulping, Harry removed his hands from the table-top and placed them on his lap.

Taking his silence as an answer, Minerva continued speaking, "Now, Hermione, I want to make sure that you are aware that your spanking-" seeing Hermione's fierce blush, she said "I want to make sure that you are aware that your punishment last night was not because you were caught sleeping beside Harry. Your punishment was because you gave me an attitude. Sooner or later you will realize that having an attitude is highly against my rules."

Slowly nodding, Hermione responded, "I kind of knew that was why I was."

Minerva nodded, "I realize that speaking of punishments is very embarrassing for the both of you," here she glanced between the two children who were both blushing, "but you need to realize that being punished for your wrong-doings is very normal."

"Being embarrassed is also very normal but-" throwing a smirk at Minerva, "in our small family we do not need to be embarrassed around each other. We both punish you children the same and therefore there is no surprises."

Hermione couldn't help herself and she rolled her eyes, "Being embarrassed is a normal human reaction."

Minerva nodded in agreement, "That is true but what Uncle Severus is trying to say is that neither of you have to hide your emotions from us. Adding on to the embarrassment topic, we are going to try to be more understanding with your feelings and try to not embarrass you more than sometimes necessary."

"Making us embarrassed is sometimes necessary?" Harry asked with disgust.

Severus nodded, "Sometimes a little bit of embarrassment is good for you."

"Only a little bit!" Minerva stated with a firm look to Severus.

Severus quickly hid his guilty smile behind his cup of coffee.

"We admit that we overreacted last night but you also must realize that we are Heads of houses. We tend to jump to conclusions because we have been surrounded by hormonal teens for years."

Harry felt as if his face was on fire and he quickly covered his face with his cold hands.

Severus smirked, "We realize that you both are coming to the age of being curious and you also, as much as you deny it, have at least a tiny bit of attraction towards each other and so we took last night's incident too seriously. We are very sorry for jumping to conclusions like we did."

Harry and Hermione exchanged glances before nodding.

"I guess we can forgive you," Hermione told them with a smile.

"But only this time," Harry responded with a smirk etched firmly on his face.

A/N: Thanks for reading!

Sorry for the chapter being so short but I just wanted to get the next chapter out there for you to read!

~Severus Addicted.