"If there is any truth in the world, it lies when I'm with you."

― André Aciman, Call Me by Your Name

"Of all the reckless thing you could have done, Potter! To let a Lethifold loose in a school full of children! You would have been killed if I haven't come in when I did! What were you thinking!? Or did you think at all?! Of course not, that would have required too much work!", Severus growled, foaming at the mouth, his face redder than Harry had ever seen it. He was absolutely furious, shouting at the top of his lungs, as Harry just sat there, unable to say a word since every time he tried to defend himself, he was interrupted by another loud lecture.

"Shut up!", Harry growled after a few moments, quite done with being yelled at. He was still shaken up, his throat smarting and the skin tender where the Lethifold had taken ahold of him.

Snape's mouth snapped shut, his eyes bulging out quite comically and if Harry hadn't been sure that the man would kill him, he would have laughed.

"Excuse me?", he said, his tone now deadly quiet, making Harry shiver unwillingly.

"Just shut up, will you! Stop shouting like a lunatic, for fuck's sake. It wasn't my fault that the Lethifold got loose. It had only just arrived from the Ministry and I was thinking about where to put it when the damn thing jumped out and attacked me. The good-for-nothing idiots in the Ministry must have not locked it or something. So, if you want to shout at someone go to them and do so. Alright!?", Harry finished, feeling quite furious himself. He was just beginning to realize that he could have died. Actually died, and the realization made him weak in the knees.

"Fuck...", he whispered shakily, catching himself before he had the time to fall down, as he slowly sat at the nearby chair, his hands shaking as he brushed them over his face.

"Are you alright?", came the question, the voice much closer than it had been before, and he opened his eyes only to see Severus kneeling in front of him, all the previous fury gone, his gaze full of worry as he scanned Harry's body for injuries.

"Yeah, the neck's a bit sore, though.", he whispered, feeling more than a little exposed under Severus's heavy gaze.

He realized as he watched the man before him how much he had missed him. He had gotten used to seeing the man every day during the meals, even if they never talked much, Harry feeling too self-conscious to string more than two words together.

"Are you sure? Maybe I should call Madam Pomfrey, just to be on the safe side.", Severus said, the worry still etched into every line of his face.

Harry quickly nodded since just the thought of the matron fussing around him made him shudder in horror.
Severus snorted at the look that crossed Harry's face at the mention of Poppy since he usually sported the same one any time he was obligated to visit the infirmary.

"I just need a moment to calm down, that's all. The damn thing was so unexpected, my heart is still trying to escape my chest. I guess I had gotten too comfortable as of late. Constant vigilance, right?", Harry said, a sad smirk on his lips, the same one echoed on Severus's face.

The man stood up then and Harry thought that that would be the end of it but he didn't leave, instead, he walked through Harry's office, his eyes traveling over the shelves on the walls before his eyes paused at the frame at one of them.

He picked it up, one of his fingers gently caressing what Harry knew was his mother's face smiling as she looked at the baby in her arms; himself. Harry had found the photo in one of the vaults his parents had left him soon after the end of the war, end he had immediately framed it. It was one of his most prized possessions, few as he had.

He looked away, unable to stand watching the man he loved look lovingly at another. His mother, of all others. He felt ashamed at the jealousy that was starting to rise in his throat, the urge to laugh hysterically at being jealous of his own dead mother bigger than ever.

Sometimes, Harry hated his life.

"Do you still miss her?", he couldn't help but ask, at the same time wanting and dreading to hear the answer.

Severus looked up from the picture, his gaze falling on Harry as he put the frame back to its place.

"Would you miss Hermione if she died?", was his answer, startling Harry.

"Well, of course.", he answered stupidly, frowning at the man.

"Then you have your answer. Lily was my first friend, maybe even the only true friend I ever had. Losing her was the most devastating moment of my life.", Severus said quietly, his face facing the window as he did so.

Harry frowned, looking down at his hands, feeling more confused than ever.

Friend?

"You should have some rest, Harry, and I'll make sure there is someone to teach your classes for the rest of the day.", Severus said before turning around and quickly leaving the room, leaving Harry alone, feeling more confused than ever.

•

Before Harry could wrap his head around it, a week passed since the Lethifold attack and Yule was there, which meant no classes, something Harry welcomed, feeling as if the first few months of the school year had lasted for more than a century. But Yule also meant Neville and Ginny's wedding, something Harry had been dreading.

It wasn't that he wasn't happy for his friends, because he was, truly; they were one of the best people Harry had ever met and they deserved all the happiness in the world.

But seeing them in love and so happy, only reminded Harry that he wasn't. He was alone, so utterly alone, and he was getting sick of it. He wanted what they had, wanted to fall in love and date, and get married and start a family, he wanted it all. The only thing was, Harry was already in love, had been since he was basically a child, barely fifteen, and no matter how much he tried to let it go and find someone who could actually provide everything Harry wished for, he couldn't.

Severus had wormed his way into his heart and it seemed as if he would always stay there.

"Harry! It's so good to see you, dear!", Molly exclaimed as soon as she saw him, pulling him into one of her famous bear hugs. Harry smiled and hugged her back, truly happy to see her after so many months.

"Have you been eating? Because you look thinner than the last time, I saw you! Are they not feeding you at Hogwarts?", she asked, frowning as she looked at him. Harry shrugged, aware that he had lost a bit of weight since the summer holidays. Eating has become a bit of a chore in the last few weeks, his stress over the end of semester grading and the whole situation with Severus making him anything but hungry.

"I'm fine, Mrs. Weasley.", he said before taking the opportunity that she was distracted by another guest to escape. He walked over to his assigned place once he spotted Hermione and Ron and took a seat.

The ceremony was beautiful and Harry wasn't ashamed to admit that even he went teary-eyed once the couple said their wows, the absolute happiness on Neville's and Ginny's faces making it impossible not to swoon.

He was enjoying his dessert while watching the couples swaying on the dance floor when he was joined by Sinistra and Madam Hooch. He startled a bit, not expecting to see the two of them there, although, once he thought about it, it was no wonder Hooch was there. After all, she had been the one to introduce Ginny to the manager of the Holyhead Harpies, the team she now played for.

"Hello, Harry! How are you? I hope you are feeling a bit better now.", Sinistra said, smiling at him. Harry cleared his throat, blushing at the memory of that night as he nodded.

They talked for a bit, sharing funny stories about their students, when something caught Harry's attention, making him almost choke on his drink.

The two of them were holding hands.

"Are you quite alright, dear?", Hooch asked as she handed him a napkin. He nodded absentmindedly; his eyes still glued to their hands.

"Aren't you with Snape?", he blurted out suddenly, flushing bright red once he realized what he had just said, his eyes wide as he looked at them.

"Excuse me?", Sinistra said, her brows disappearing into her fringe.

"I thought... that night... I thought you two were...", he stuttered, too confused to form a coherent sentence.

Sinistra suddenly laughed, her eyes tearing up as she did so, bending almost in half as she watched Harry.

"Merlin, Harry! No, of course not. I'm gay, and in a relationship, as you can see.", she said once she stopped laughing, although a few stray giggles still escaped her mouth.

"We are trying to have a baby, and Severus had been kind enough to brew us a potion that will enable us to have a child that is both mine and Rolanda's. He had just given me the potion when you appeared that night."

Harry's eyes widened, as he processed this new information, feeling quite stupid all of a sudden for jumping to conclusions.

And as he sat there thinking, he remembered a few other things, things that made him sit up straight.

The Patronus, it had changed!

At the time he had seen it, Harry had been too distracted to really think about what it could mean. And afterward, he thought that he must have imagined the antlers, after all, he had just been almost strangled to death. But now, he wasn't so sure anymore.

Why had his Patronus changed?

A stag... Severus's Patronus was a stag.

Without sparing even a moment to think, Harry took out his wand and apparated.