Chapter 5

A tall dark-haired man was walking through the streets of Prague. Occasionally he tripped on the pavement and swore in English under his breath. Judging by the expression on his face he was planning to do something rather unpleasant, for example, visit a dentist. He turned into a narrow alleyway, stared at the nameplate on an old red-brick house, waved his hand and disappeared.

St. Jacob's hospital was crowded, so no one paid the new visitor any attention. He sat on a bench and started wiping his glasses.

"Headmaster! Headmaster! Sir!" A chorus of voices wailed. He looked up.

"Headmaster, can you look at the poisoning case in ward five?"

"Headmaster, the reporters are here to see you!"

"Headmaster, please sign the milk bill!"

"You had an agreement, hadn't didn't you?"

The headmaster stepped back, stared at the man who asked the last strange question and answered quietly, "Not here, Potter", grabbed Harry's sleeve and Apparated with him leaving the milk bill unsigned.

"First of all, good morning, Potter," the man said and opened the door of a small house entwined in ivy.

"Where are we?"

"It's safe to assume that your manners haven't improved over the years. This is my house."

"You don't live in Prague?"

"Who can pay that rent?" he snorted. "No, this is Wawel. Come inside don't stand there like a monument to an unknown Seeker."

A blonde woman in a chequered apron came from the kitchen.

"You're wearing glasses!" she exclaimed looking at Harry. He shivered.

"Mr Potter, this is my wife Henrietta," Snape said impassively. The woman turned to him.

"I was about to return the crystal ball to the shop! I couldn't see his eyes, and it turns out he's just wearing glasses!" She laughed. "Well, Mr Potter, I hope you like strudel."

"Do I?" Harry was startled.

"I think I made it for you. It was quite embarrassing. I had a client present when I had a sudden urge to bake a strudel. Although anyone could tell her fortune even hanging upside down, it was written all over her face."

"Where's Albena?" Snape asked.

"In the Tatras with Yasha... Oh, wait, that will happen in six months. Now she's shopping for shoes." She stopped and pressed a hand over her mouth. "Severus, she is going to marry him!"

"Did you have any doubts about that?"

"He's an Aquarius, and I very clearly saw a Leo in her horoscope! But then again," she smiled, "I was never good at Astrology. Do you need a suitcase packed or can it wait?"

Snape stared at her, and then shook his head.

"It's not urgent."

"Then I'll get coffee. I have a client from the Ministry in the evening."

She smiled at Harry and left the house still wearing the apron.

"Suitcase?" Harry picked up the only word from her speech that made sense to him. "Are you leaving?"

Snape sighed.

"I am now. I promised Albus that I'd return to England and testify at the Ministry as soon as you find me. Although when I gave that word I was sure I wouldn't live through the war, but that doesn't change a thing. I'll have to apply for leave at the hospital. I haven't done this in ten years. I have no idea who to leave in charge... I must admit you are rather slow on the uptake, Potter."

"I beg your pardon?!" Harry was indignant. This was not the way he imagined this conversation to go.

"Well, if twenty years is fast for you... Everyone has his own standards. Let's go and eat the damned strudel. Don't fret; Henrietta is a decent cook, even though she doesn't look like one."

After the third helping of the delicious pie with apples, raisins and cinnamon Harry gained his equilibrium again.

"Why didn't he tell me anything?" he asked with his mouth full.

"You wouldn't have believed him," Snape shrugged. "You'd have decided that he was protecting me or something equally foolish. Actually, he counted on your disbelief and also on the fact that Voldemort always considered self-sacrifice to be a virtue of soldiers, not generals. If you think about it, it was a game well-played. Considering the fact that for the most part of it the winner was dead..."

"Is that how you see it?" Harry asked quietly.

Snape stood up briskly.

"How I see it is none of your business. Was the boy competing in the Tournament Draco's son?"

"Yes."

"Well, the whole thing was worth it."

Harry sipped his tea and looked at the fourth helping of strudel doubtfully.

"The werewolf's law," he said hesitantly. "Did you... because of Lupin?"

"Gryffindors think that every deed has only one clear motive and thus can be differentiated from the rest of humankind," Snape answered mockingly.

"It is then," Harry translated. "Good, I wanted to ask you to brew a decent Wolfsbane potion for him. By the way, I told him why I was going to Prague. He said he never doubted you."

"Yes, now the number of people who trust Severus Snape will increase exponentially."

Harry smiled ruefully. It had taken two whole decades for him to come to realise that Severus Snape really wasn't that bad a person. It was high time that the rest of the world came to the same conclusion.

After all, Snape had been reviled for a long time now. He more than deserved the freedom of returning to his home country, should he choose it.

Though, as Harry cast one glance around him, he had a feeling that it wasn't a choice the Potions Master would make.

Truth was, he was quite happy about it.

He may trust the man now, but that didn't mean that he had to like him…