A/N: In case I haven't mentioned it lately... all I own here is Andraste, Jeremy, and the plot.

Smirks and smileys :-)

Chapter 28

Andraste was woken up the next morning by a familiar growling in her stomach. "I'm starving," she thought out loud, not realizing that Severus had been awake for hours.

"I am too," he replied. "We seem to be missing our meals quite often."

"I'll be right back," she said, pulling a robe around her and leaving the room. She returned several minutes later carrying a large tray laden with a variety of foods. As soon as she sat down, she waved her hand and a second tray appeared, holding tea for him and coffee for her. "I believe I owe you breakfast in bed, something about you always being right..."

"Best you learn that soon," he suggested with a smirk. She gave him a patronizing smile and handed him a plate as they talked about the day ahead of them.

"I need to find Harry," she commented, putting their now empty plates to the side. "Someone needs to make sure he's okay."

"No," Severus said after a moments thought, "I believe it would be best if I go find him. We have much to discuss." Andraste contemplated his words for a few seconds, and then started smiling brightly at him.

"You're right," she agreed, crawling back into bed and under the covers. "You go find him. I'm going back to sleep." He gave her a half-hearted growl and then headed to the bathroom to shower and dress. When he was done, and about to leave, he stopped into the bedroom again to check on Andraste. Finding her sound asleep, he laid a gentle kiss on her forehead and headed towards Gryffindor tower. The Fat Lady guarding the entranceway swung to the side without a password when he approached, giving him cause to stop a moment and wonder why it had done that. He banished the thought from his mind as he walked into the common room filled with sleepy Gryffindors, humored at how they still reacted to having their Potions Professor suddenly appear in their midst.

"Where is Potter?" he asked, feigning the rough anger that they expected from him.

"Still asleep, sir," a second year boy shyly answered.

"Very well. Then I will wake him," Professor Snape snapped, amused at the looks of terror on the faces around him as he headed down the hall that he knew held Potter's dorm room. Deciding he had had enough fun, he calmed his demeanor as he reached the door he was looking for. He knocked gently at first, and getting no response, a bit harder.

"Come in," he heard Ron Weasley say from the other side. With that prompting he opened the door to find Harry, Ron, and two other boys all awake and discussing the upcoming quiddich match against Hufflepuff.

"May I have a word with Mr. Potter?" Professor Snape asked in a way that made it clear that he was not asking them to leave; he was insisting that they did. Harry's dorm mates quickly headed for the door, the last of them shutting it as he left. "Good morning, Harry," Snape said once the others were gone.

"Good morning, Professor. What can I do for you?"

"I'd like to talk about what happened yesterday if you think you're ready." Harry nodded in response, but didn't say anything, so Severus sat on the bed across from his, and continued. "I knew back then that it was you, that it was an older you... not the two year old you were then. What I didn't know was why you saved me, or how you were even there to do it. We know now, don't we?" Harry gave him a small nod, but continued to stare at the floor between them. "I hated you for it. All these years, I hated you for saving me." Harry's head shot up, and his eyes met Severus'.

"Why?" So much of Severus didn't want to answer that question, didn't want to reveal to Potter his inner thoughts and feelings, but he knew that this, above all, was a time for honesty.

"Because I was ready to die. I lost my only friend that day – your mother. I thought that she was the one..."

"But she wasn't!" Harry interrupted. "It was James. He snuck in and attacked you like a coward!"

"I know that now, Harry, but I didn't then." Severus paused for a moment, trying to decide how to continue. "He wasn't a bad man, Harry. But we hated each other, we always had, and he hated that Lily and I were friends."

"But you've always said he was an arrogant bastard. I saw it that day in your pensive," Severus drew a sharp breath at that – they had never discussed what happened that day – "And I saw it yesterday. You were right, he was awful."

"What you saw in my pensive was him being a teenager, and what you saw yesterday was him being jealous. That wasn't him. Lily loved him, and she wouldn't have loved someone that was awful. That was good enough for me, and it should be good enough for you."

"Jealous?" Harry demanded. "Jealous is picking a fight. He cursed you behind your back! You never even knew he was there." It was obvious to Severus that Harry's temper was beginning to flare, and he found himself with an odd sense of satisfaction that it wasn't at him this time.

"I can't argue that, Harry...I don't know how. But it was years ago. I've spent the last 14 years being angry and hating you and hating James. But I don't hate him anymore...and I definitely don't hate you." Harry gave him an odd look, and a smile finally started to touch his lips.

"It's weird isn't it? I mean, I've spent so long thinking you were so horrible, and now..." Much to Severus' dismay, Harry let his thought trail off without finishing it.

"...and now," Severus said, feeling himself getting uncharacteristically emotional, "we have both had to reevaluate our opinions of the other."

"She did this, you know."

"Yes, I know. She's done a lot," Severus replied. "And I didn't forget to thank her."

"You remember what I said?"

"Yes, I've spent 14 years trying to understand what you meant. I finally figured it out yesterday."

"I'm glad she did, you know."

"Glad she did what?"

"Made us stop fighting long enough to get to know each other." Severus thought on that for a moment before he responded, pondering how much Andraste had made a difference in everyone's life, not just his.

"I am too."

"I'm hungry," Harry commented, more to himself than to Professor Snape.

"Then go eat," Severus said, standing up. "If you need to talk more we should be in the school until four." Much to Severus' amazement, and almost discomfort, Harry stood up and gave him a much unexpected hug.

"Thank you," Harry said.

"For what?"

"Not being a greasy git," he responded with a smile. Severus attempted to scowl at him, but instead hugged him a bit tighter for a moment and then pulled away. He looked at Harry as though he was going to say something, but then closed his mouth again and nodded his head before turning around and walking away.

When Severus got back to his room, Andraste was still sound asleep. He kicked off his shoes, laid his cloak across the chair that sat in the corner of the room, and crawled into the bed, pulling Andraste close to him. "This is it," he thought to himself. "This is the answer I've been looking for." After years of wishing he had died that day, of drowning himself in solitude because of a single belief – he learned that that belief was wrong. And he finally understood so much that had eluded him for so long. He knew now why he lived – but more than that, he finally felt alive. And it was all because of the woman lying next to him that he was beginning to understand what he had cheated himself out of for the last 14 years – maybe for his entire life. He vowed with everything in him that no matter what happened he would never forget the lessons she had taught him...

He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice she had woken up until she spoke. "What are you thinking about?"

"Lily used to call me Sev," he replied, not sure himself where that comment had come from. Before she had the chance to respond he continued, wanting to share his thoughts before he lost the words. "That's why I used to hate it when you called me that. It was an unwelcome reminder of what I thought had happened." Andraste wasn't sure how to respond, so she didn't. Eventually Severus broke the silence again.

"I've based my entire life on that misconception...thinking that my only friend had tried to kill me. That was the thought I lived with everyday of my life, for 14 years. Until I met you...until you changed everything. I feel like my entire past has been a dream, and I'm finally waking up and seeing things the way they were intended." He finally took his eyes off the ceiling that he was staring at and looked down at Andraste, waiting for her to say something.

"Does this mean I can call you Sev?" she asked with a smirk. Severus started laughing in spite of himself and then finally answered.

"No."

"Good. It'd ruin all the fun if it was okay." He chuckled at her again, but her eyes went serious as she sent him a look that made him forget to breathe for a moment. "Why are you wearing clothes in my bed?" she questioned firmly, straddling him and beginning to unbutton his shirt. He was tempted to mention to her that, technically, it was his bed; but decided against doing anything that might discourage her from disrobing him. He laid his head back against the pillow and allowed himself to be absorbed in the feeling of her hands running along his body. She kissed his neck, working her way down his freshly exposed skin with little licks. A little sigh escaped his lips as she unbuttoned his pants, pulling them down just enough to give special attention to the hip bones that she seemed to love so much. It amazed him how much pleasure she was capable of giving him without ever touching the places every other lover he had known had concentrated on. He lifted his body a bit for her and she tugged on his pants, taking them the rest of the way off and discarding them on the floor, as she gently pulled on the skin his inner thigh with her teeth. Eventually she sat back up, still leaning over him. "Come with me." He watched as she stood, wondering what she had planned when he wanted so badly to be inside her. Andraste led him by the hand into the bath room, where a shower hot enough to steam was already pouring into the half filled tub. She stepped in, running her hands through her wet hair and then beckoned him to follow...