Hagrid had seemed confused and almost afraid when Severus first brought up the idea of private tutoring over a chapter of Oliver Twist.

"Yeh…Yeh aren't worried I'd break summat?" he asked, looking as though he was waiting to wake up from a dream.

Severus shook his head. "You cannot break anything in this room that is not easily replaced," he promised.

Hagrid stared at the wand in his hand, the wand Severus had given him at the beginning of the conversation. "They ain't about teh let me back in," he said.

"No," Severus agreed. "They would not, no matter how hard I tried. So, naturally, we will not tell them what we are doing."

Hagrid laughed nervously. "I…I don' wanna bother yeh…an' I'll probably make a lotta mistakes…"

"There is nothing wrong with making mistakes, Rubeus." He loved being the only one to call him that. "Mistakes are how one learns. As long as the mistake is not born from you not paying attention to the instructions I give you, I will not be angry, you have my word." He put a hand over Hagrid's, a little unnerved by how much he liked the look of his long, elegant hands on top of Hagrid's calloused, steady, honest ones. "I will not be an easy teacher for you, but if you want to do this, then I promise I will teach you as best I can."

Huge tears began to leak from Hagrid's beetle-black eyes, and he nodded silently.

Severus stood and wrapped Hagrid in an embrace as best as he could; he could just barely touch his hands together behind Hagrid's neck. Hagrid had seemed surprised for a moment, and then his large, warm hands caressed Severus, one sliding softly up and down his back and the other cradling Severus' head. It had been only a few weeks since that first kiss, and their fondness for each other was flourishing, but it was still strange for both of them to be touched in this manner, in a way that could only be interpreted as genuine affection. Hagrid was not used to anyone wanting this close to him, or trusting his hands enough to allow him to show any sort of care, and Severus had long ago been trained to understand that any sort of touch would be painful and often humiliating as well. It was a nice feeling for both of them, for Severus to find someone to whom he could give even just this small bit of trust and not have it betrayed, for Hagrid to have someone who was so very unafraid of him.

When the kiss came this time, neither was surprised; they had yet to admit it to each other, but they had both accepted that this friendship was no longer a friendship only, and even if they didn't quite know what it was yet, they each knew without having to ask the other that they'd see it through until the end.

If Severus was honest with himself, he was almost afraid of how hard and how fast he was falling for Hagrid. He had never really been able to see himself with anyone that way, and when he had managed to conjure up an acceptable suitor it was someone who was much as he was; eloquent and intelligent, with very few if any displays of emotion regardless of the keenness of their feeling, and most importantly, someone who understood that right does not always mean good and good does not always mean right.

Hagrid was anything but this image; although he had an intelligent enough mind, he was the last person one could describe as eloquent. Aside from Harry, Hagrid was by far the most emotional person he'd ever met, forever controlled by what his heart said, even if his brain told him otherwise. The sharper his feeling, the more explosive his reaction, for good or ill. Hagrid knew that Severus had suffered at the hands of others, and had never tried to excuse or justify what had happened to him, yet he still held a fondness in his heart for those that had hurt him. He knew that Dumbledore had failed the pair of them, and yet he still visited Dumbledore's grave weekly, bringing flowers and tears each time. Severus could find no easy explanation except Hagrid was not mourning for the loss of the people themselves, but rather mourning for the loss of the people he'd known before the truth about them had been revealed.

And yet here Severus was, in the arms of this dearest of hearts, feeling himself grow warm and content at the kiss and wishing it would never stop.

But stop it did, as he knew it would eventually, and after a warm and wonderful if slightly awkward silence between them, their lessons began.

Hagrid proved to be a remarkable student. Severus had started him out with first-year level spells and potions, thinking it best to review before starting anything new, but he was quickly astonished at how much Hagrid remembered after so much time out of practice. Within a month they had moved on to second-year work, and in another they were back to Hagrid's third year. Severus wished he could give his…Hagrid…a more in-depth and more complete education, but the truth of the matter was that he lacked knowledge and time. He made up for his lack in knowledge by looking through his old school books, as well as books he took from the library when "Madam Pince" was there, watching over her precious tomes and keeping them safe from the students' destructive hands. Time, however, he could not give more of; he was still after all the potions master. Even if he taught Hagrid one year's worth of material each year, he still had seven years' worth of students to teach during the day, all different curricula, all different homework and assignments to grade and plan. And then still there were Friday afternoons, which next to these evenings with Hagrid were to Severus' reluctance were becoming his favorite time of the week.

He and Harry had entered into an awkward sort of truce. It had been agreed without speaking that James Potter was not a name or topic ever to be discussed between them again, and their interactions were much better for it. Mostly they talked about Albus and Lily. Severus was surprised to find that Harry held many of the same confused and unexplored emotions where the old headmaster was concerned that Severus did. Finding out how much he and Harry had had in common all these years, especially when it came to growing up in an unhappy household, Severus found his dislike and even his neutrality of the boy fading away.

Talking about Lily was easy too, now that he had someone who could truly appreciate how special of a person she was. Harry was eager for any and all stories that Severus had of his mother, and Severus found that for the first time remembering his old friend didn't hurt him the way it used to.

For the first time in a very, very long time, Severus Snape didn't feel alone.

The only downside was that teaching the entire school potions, spending his free afternoon reminiscing with his best friend's son, and teaching his almost-boyfriend literally everything he knew or could research about magic sapped quite a bit of the potions master's free time. Hagrid could only come at night, in order to avoid notice, and even spending only a few hours each night with him, Severus still found himself several nights sitting up until well past dawn, scrawling out notes for lessons and drinking coffee by the pot to keep himself awake enough to accurately grade. Sleep had never been something with which Severus was terribly well acquainted, but now they were even more estranged than before. Severus didn't mind, though. True, it was hard to maintain the cold and intimidating aura when yawning all through a class, and true he often found himself blinking a little too heavily at the dinner table, but…but it had yet…to take a toll on…on his…health…

"Professor?"