"What lies ahead is going to be very difficult. Fear not. It will come. At least I hope it does. And when you least expect it. Nature has its cunning way of finding our weakest spot."
― André Aciman, Call Me by Your Name

"Severus!", Draco exclaimed, his face breaking into a real smile, a rare thing, only reserved for his family and Luna at the sight of his Godfather.

Harry stared at him as he tried to breathe evenly, his head spinning. It wasn't possible. He couldn't be here. Not now.

Why now?

Everyone slowly stood up, Draco the first to do so, running around the table to hug Severus, before others stepped in to welcome him back.

Harry stood as well, forcing his face to some semblance of indifference as he finally looked up, all of his efforts for nothing once his eyes connected with Severus's.

The man was standing a few feet away, watching him over Draco's shoulder, his gaze so intent that Harry's heart stopped.

He stared stunned at the man, and if it wasn't for that voice and those eyes, he would have thought they were all mistaken. Severus looked nothing like the man Harry had last seen two years ago.

He was no longer close to starved, his body filled up, and strong. His skin was tanned, a healthy shine to it, saying that man no longer spent his days cooped up in the dungeons. But the thing that took the cake was his hair. It was gone.

In place of his long, oily locks that Severus was so famous for was now a short, stylish cut.

He looked more than a decade younger and Harry could do nothing but stare.

Hot; that was the word.

Fuck.

"You didn't tell me you were coming back!", Draco said, glaring at his Godfather but not for long, a small smile breaking out after a moment.

"Minerva thought that it would be better if we kept it under wraps; a surprise if you may.", Severus said, finally looking away from Harry, making it easier to breathe.

Harry turned his back to the crowd, pretending to tidy up his papers seeing as they wouldn't be working after all, while tried to take back some semblance of control. His hands were shaking, and he stopped what he was doing, squeezing them into fists while cursing himself.

He was better than this.

He took a big breath, raising his Occlumency shields, something he had finally mastered after the end of the war, before turning around only to end up face to face with the cause of his temporary insanity.

"Hello, Harry.", Severus said, his voice a quiet purr, setting Harry's nerves on fire.

Harry.

He had never called him that. Harry had long ago come to terms that he would forever be Mr. Potter in Severus's eyes, and that was good. It meant distance, and distance was something Harry needed in order to make his peace with the impossibility that was Severus Snape.

But that seemed to be gone now, Severus was changing the rules of the game, yet again, and Harry found himself floundering around, unsure how to react.

"Headmaster; welcome back.", he said in the end, because that's what Snape was. His new boss, a colleague, nothing more.

He wouldn't call him by his name, he couldn't. Severus was the man on the couch, the fingers that brought fire to his skin, the voice setting him aflame, a fantasy.

Something flashed through those dark eyes at Harry's words, an emotion Harry was unable to name, gone as soon as it appeared, so quickly that he wasn't even sure if it was ever really there.

"Harry Potter, a DADA Professor. There aren't many things that could still surprise me, but that did. I never imagined the boy I knew as a teacher. An Auror, yes, but never a teacher.", Severus drawled as he leaned against the back of a chair, his arms crossed before his chest, his eyes focused solely on Harry.

Harry blinked, startled to find himself in a conversation with Snape without insults being hurled back and forth, or the usual sneer present on the man's face. It seemed as the man really wanted to talk with Harry.

The first sign of the Apocalypse, for sure.

Harry looked down to his feet, unable to hold onto a snort that escaped his mouth. Severus frowned, confused at Harry's reaction.

"That's just it, Headmaster. You never really knew me.", Harry said, a sad smile playing at the edges of his mouth as he looked back at Snape.

The man remained silent for a moment, gazing at Harry with calculating eyes before he whispered.

"I'm beginning to see that."

They were interrupted by Minerva calling for Severus to join her at the fireplace, which the man did, sending one last look toward Harry over his shoulder before leaving.

•

"Fire like fear, like panic, like one more minute of this, and I'll die if he doesn't knock at my door, but I'd sooner he never knocks than knock now."
― André Aciman, Call Me by Your Name

"You are my savior, Harry!", Ron exclaimed as he stepped out of the fireplace, the squirming bundle clutched in his arms.

"Yours and everyone else's, weasel.", Draco quipped from his place at Harry's couch where he was lounging like a damn cat.

Harry glared at the man as he took little Rose from Ron, unwrapping the blankets her father had wrapped her in.

"Why are you here again?", he asked, as Malfoy just smirked in answer before going back to reading his book, completely ignoring them.

It's my own damn fault, Harry thought, making friends with a Malfoy.

"It's fine Ron, you know I would never refuse a chance to spend some time with my favorite Goddaughter."

"Um, she's your only Goddaughter, Harry."

"Semantics.", Harry said, not even bothering to look up, his eyes solely focused at the girl in his lap, listening intently to her excited gibberish. She wasn't really talking yet, but she was close and seeing as Hermione was her mother, it was going to happen soon.

It came as a shock when Hermione and Ron announced that Hermione was pregnant as soon as the war ended. It turned out that they had had a small accident caused by a lot of alcohol during the celebration of the end of the war and the result had been Rose.

Harry had been worried at first for Hermione, she was so young and ambitious, so he had been afraid that she would come to resent her child later in life, but he shouldn't have worried. Hermione had gone to work in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, training to be a lawyer, and she had somehow managed to pass the bar in less than eight months, something no one else had ever done, just in time to have her child, which almost happened in the middle of a trial, seeing as she had been working even then.

"I know, but still, thank you. I don't know what I would have done if you couldn't take her. I promised Hermione that I would watch her since she has that big trial today, but then George called this morning, asking me to come in since he couldn't do it all by himself and Lee was sick and was unable to come for his shift. And my parents are out of the country, visiting Bill and Fleur."

"Ron, breathe. I've got this. So just go, we will be here when you come back."

Ron nodded, kissing his daughter one last time before flewing out of Hogwarts.

"Well, I'm off Potter.", Malfoy said, standing up and making his way toward the door.

"No. You aren't going anywhere. I can't do this on my own."

Draco turned with an eyebrow raised.

"Oh, yes, I'm going. Your Goddaughter, your problem.", he quipped before running out of the room.

"Stupid ferret.", Harry mumbled as he turned back to Rose, her wide eyes blinking at him before she frowned.

"Oh, Rose, no!", he moaned when a strong odor drifted to his nose.

"You really are your father's daughter, aren't you?", Harry said as he took her in his arms and made his way to the bathroom.

•

"Are you hungry, Rosie? Because I sure am.", Harry mumbled as he exited the bathroom, only to stop in his tracks when he saw that Rosie was no longer on the floor filled with her toys where he had left her when he went to the bathroom.

Bullocks.

"Rosie?!", he yelled as he started to run through his quarters, dread rising in his throat when he couldn't find her, the dread that became full-blown panic once he realized the doors to his rooms were open.

I'm going to kill that stupid ferret!

Harry cursed as he ran outside looking left and right once he was in the 7th-floor corridor, but still unable to see Rose. His face blanched at the thought of just how many stairs there were between here and the ground floor, his mind filling with horrible scenarios until he was practically having a panic attack as he ran through the castle.

"Harry, what's wrong?", Minerva said as she came across the young man, his face paler than death.

"Rose, she escaped, I can't find her Minerva!", Harry exclaimed his hands shaking as he ran them through his hair.

"What am I going to do!? She could be anywhere!"

"Calm down, Harry. We'll find her. I'm going to go find the ghosts and the other professors and we'll help you search. You go and inform the Headmaster and we'll meet at your quarters."

Harry nodded, already turning around and running toward the gargoyle, his feet barely touching the ground as he did so. He was already on the stairs that led to the Headmaster's office when a burst of silver light appeared in front of him, startling him so much that he barely managed not to lose his footing.

"Potter. My office. Now.", the raspy voice of Severus Snape came out of the orb, before it vanished.

Harry blinked, confused at the weird-looking Patronus, curious as to why it hadn't taken the shape of a doe.

He shook his head, and ran the rest of the way up the stairs, unwilling to wait for them to take him up. He all but burst into the room, not even bothering to knock before stopping in his tracks at the sight that greeted him.

"That was fast.", Severus drawled, not even looking at him, his eyes focused on the little girl sitting in his lap.

Rose.

Harry almost fainted in relief, as he stepped further into the room, falling down to his knees beside the two of them. Rose was there, safe and sound and playing with Snape?

What in the...

Harry blinked stupidly as he watched Rose giggling at the tiny little paper dragons flying around her head, just out of her reach, sitting in Snape's lap right on the floor, her back to his chest and his head atop of her head.

The picture the two made... Harry swallowed, averting his eyes as he took a big breath, his eyes curiously blurring.

He sat down, next to Severus, leaning back on his hands as he slowly calmed down, his mind still in a slight panic, the adrenalin still in his system.

"You are a dreadful babysitter, Potter.", Severus said, making Harry burst out laughing as he laid down to the floor, bending in half.

Severus watched him over his shoulder, a small smile in the corner of his lips as Harry laughed.