Relaxing in the feel of the warm churning water, he rested his head on the back of the tub and allowed himself to close his eyes, just for a minute.

He jerked awake at the sound a door closing downstairs, casting a quick tempus he swore when he realised he'd been asleep for a good hour and had yet to make any efforts towards actually getting himself clean, other than sitting and stewing in the warm water. He took a moment to once more admire her charmwork and that the water was still pleasantly warm, before he got down to the serious business of actually cleaning himself of a good few weeks of acquired grime.

She'd said that he could use any of her toiletries and for once he decided to push the guilt back and take advantage of her offer. The chit had spilt baby powder all over him after all, so there was no reason not to indulge himself in some of her bath products that she had freely offered as recompense. Looking at the cottage miserably, it was clear that she at least could afford the indulgence. After many months of using the cheap muggle supermarket soap that cost just a few pence a bar and wasn't worth the irritated skin unless he was absolutely filthy, the shelf in her bathroom was a veritable treasure trove of toiletries.

Going by scent he chose a liquid soap, not wanting to soil her soap bar, and had to close his eyes as he felt the luxurious lather on his skin. He was grateful that she did not seem to be a fan of the overly girly and floral scents that many students had doused themselves with at Hogwarts, rose, lavendar and other fruity florals and instead had opted for more herbal-like scents, like patchouli, mint and vetiver. It reminded him of the potions classroom, he thought with a pang that felt like a physical hand grasping in his chest. He had never wanted to teach, and had no desire to continue teaching, but what he would give for the familiar comfort and security of his classroom and quarters at Hogwarts.

The toiletries were not entirely muggle either it seemed, though the contents were no doubt muggle concoctions and not potions, they had been charmed for effectiveness in some way he was sure. It was when he was looking for labels and couldn't find them, that he realised what she'd done. She'd bought the muggle products, likely from some anti-cruelty muggle place, and had poured them into reusable and rune-carved charmed bottles, increasing the effectiveness of the product inside the bottle without the need for potions that in all fairness did often contain various animal parts.
Severus was not known for his kindness or empathy, and he had no issue with the inclusion of flobberworms, pixies, lacewing flies and other such creatures in potions that saved lives, though he did, where possible find alternative recipes for simple potions like boil cures that didn't requiring ending lives of innocent creatures for the sake of some witches (or wizards) vanity.

Come to think of it, he was sure that the girl had been a vegetarian, perhaps even vegan. Vaguely he recalled her eating differently to the others when at Grimmauld place and he couldn't ever recall her actually partaking in meat within his company. She had always been very reluctant when it came to preparing animal based ingredients in potions, in fact he remembered with no small amount of self loathing when he'd forced her to kill and prepare her own flobberworms for a potion. She would usually have one of the boys do this for her he recalled, which he had usually let slide, but on one such lesson he'd been forced to make an example of her for the sake of the death eater children that had taken notice of her squeamishness and commented on it. It was the first time he'd ever caused tears to run from her eyes, after that comment about her teeth in her fourth year, as he loomed over her while she crushed the thing in front of him and the Death Eater children laughed at her tears. He'd been filled with so much self loathing after that he'd spent all his free time for the next two weeks finding numerous alternative ingredients than crushed flobberworms in various potions, and revised his syllabus for the next year to include the cruelty-free versions.

Despite his perceived appearance, he had always been a very clean man. One couldn't help if one's very fine hair became greasy after hours spent bent over a bubbling cauldron in a humid and airless dungeon, but it showed the pure imbecilic nature of most students that they would believe him to be so lacking in personal hygiene when his entire job centred around creating potions from often delicate and reactive ingredients. The last thing he would want would be to cause an explosion or reaction from cross contamination due to poor personal hygiene.

Finishing up his bath, he reluctantly left the warm water, watching as the runes flashed once more and the tub emptied and scourgified itself upon his exit. Picking up the soft towel, he revelled in the feel of it, compared to the uncomfortable prickly heat of a drying charm on ones skin. Once thoroughly dry, other than his hair which remained somewhat damp, he reluctantly placed the towel in the laundry basket and gathered the clothes that she had left for him.

It was unusual, to wear the grey sweat pants and shirt. Not that he was averse to such things, but he'd spent the last few months wearing the same worn out robes every day, and to feel the soft and fresh smelling fabric against his skin after the roughness of his old, worn and less than fresh robes, he was almost certain that he would've consented to wear the offered clothes even if they had been a fabulous shade of Dolores Umbridge Pink.

He heard Hermione call to him that dinner was on the table and he shouted a vague acknowledgement back, stepping out of the bathroom he bent down to adjust his socks when he immediately froze in his tracks. A low growl rent the air, and all his hair stood on end as he felt the warm breath on the side of his face. He was routed to the floor where he'd knelt to adjust his sock and a clammy sweat broke out on his skin when he tilted his head and was met with the sight of very sharp white teeth. The dog was huge, from Severus's knelt position it dwarfed him and had it stood on its back legs when Severus was stood up it would've easily met him eye to eye. It stared at him unwavering, not a muscle twitched or moved as its entire body was focused soley on Severus. Muscles rippled on it that belied a great strength and agility, its ears had been partially hacked off until they stood at vicious points that pointed forward and its tail had likewise been hacked off at the base until only a severe little stump remained. Various pink scars broke through the distinctly white coat that spoke of many past battles fought and won, and the growl that held him fixed in place was low, deep and very serious. Severus had no doubt this beast would have no qualms whatsoever in following through with the threat it was so firmly issuing. He made to sidestep the thing carefully towards the nursery, his only concern for the sleeping infants, but immediately the dog evaded him and with a shocking burst of speed and manoeuvrability blocked his path, snapping out angry teeth towards him that snapped shut with an audible click. The growl got deeper and the top lip bared back in a vicious snarl that bared every tooth in the beast's formidable muzzle. It took a step forward and Severus took a responding step back. His instincts went into overdrive as he desperately tried to get to his son, he reached for his wand and was about to hex the beast that had found its way in to the house when he noticed something.

The rabid beast was wearing a collar. A very very pink leather collar. With a frown he chanced a sideways look at the huge dog in front of him and confirmed that the dog in the very very pink collar, was very very male. He frowned once again at the delicate flowers that were engraved in the leather, until he noticed something else that had him breathing out a frustrated sigh.

A very familiar little otter, carved in-between the flowers.

For Fucks Sake, Merlin help me.

"Hermione!"

He recalled the silencing spell that protected the cot in the nursery so was not afraid that he would wake the babies, but he'd not expected that when he'd shouted for Hermione the beast began barking loudly and viciously and lunged toward him causing him to fall in step backwards with a curse in an attempt to evade the snapping maw.

There was a muffled swear from downstairs and the sound of her rapid footfalls on the stairs, they were quick but not as quick as the dog in front of him, lightening fast it had sank its teeth into his forearm and brought him down to the ground with a heavy thump. It impacted him like a freight train, using the full weight of its body behind its lunge and Severus's whipcord thin and lanky frame was no match for the veritable brick wall of solid muscle that was the beast that had just hit him.

His head slammed painfully to the floor and the wind was knocked out of him, It used its body weight to pin him down and restrict his movement, by standing on his chest as the teeth locked onto his arm and shook, dragging him at least 3 foot across the floor from where he'd started. Almost absentmindedly he realised the beast was dragging him away from the nursery.

"Sacha loslassen!"

The shaking stopped which he was grateful for, as his teeth were rattling about in his skull, but the dogs mouth was still tightly clamped around his arm and he let out another low growl, Severus felt the vibrations shake his arm.

"Achtung Sacha, loslassen freund"

The dog immediately let go then and ran to her side, sitting seemingly without prompting right beside her.

"Severus, I am so so sorry, he thought you were an intruder and he was just protecting the babies"

She fell to her knees beside him and helped him stand, before ushering him into the nursery and onto the seat they had shared earlier.

"I suppose I should be grateful then, for had I been a real intruder my plans would most definitely have been derailed" He said dryly.

She immediately began fussing over his arm, casting cleansing and healing spells over it.

The dog followed at a trot and after a quick check at the cot, which involved jumping up at the edge and sticking the huge head in for a good sniff that made Severus's arse clench in nervous apprehension at the distance between his fragile son and the dog's maw, he then came and sat beside Severus on the floor. The great thing put its front paws on the chair beside him bringing himself face to face with Severus and began sniffing his face curiously without a hint of the previous aggression and Severus was shocked to notice bright blue eyes and then the little stump was wiggling side to side in the facsimile of a wagging tail.

He winced at the stinging pain as Hermione healed his arm, and he cautiously raised his other hand to the large wedge shaped head that was still sniffing his face curiously. The dog made no reaction to his raised hand, so he cautiously placed it on it's head. It tensed for a fraction of a second before it began licking his hand and it did a curious little bum-shuffle closer to him before seemingly taking his petting as an invitation as it ungainly and gracelessly began climbing on the sofa beside him, the ethereal grace and manoeuvrability from before seemingly forgotten, as the large dog awkwardly made its way until it was partially laid in his lap on the small sofa. The scuff-scuff noise from the sofa arm suggested the little stump was wagging furiously. The dog now was vigorously licking the underside of his chin from the new angle in his lap.

"Your dog seems to be labouring under a misapprehension of his size, for he is way too large to be considered a lap dog"

Hermione chuffed a laugh but didn't look up from what she was doing or attempt to banish the dog to the floor.

"I'm sorry, he's apologising I think, he likes you but it's strange he doesn't usually like men, I've never seen him be affectionate like that with anyone but me"

Severus snorted, but continued to stroke the dog regardless. Wincing as he felt her heal the bone in his arm, he met her eyes and spoke dryly. "If that was affection I'd hate to see what would happen if he didn't like me"

She snorted before meeting his gaze. "He dislocated Ronald's arm. Twice. And broke two ribs. And wouldn't let him in the nursery. Ever."

He chuckled then and the noise made the little stump wag harder.

When his arm was healed as much as she was able to, they shifted the dog to the floor where he immediately went and laid beside the cot to sleep, after another cursory check on it's inhabitants.

As they walked Hermione linked her arm with his as though he needed the support, which he found rather unnecessary but it was pleasant contact nonetheless so he allowed it. As they walked across the landing he flicked his wand to right the few items that had been moved in the scuffle.

"Just one thing is bothering me Hermione" He spoke evenly and she looked at him curiously.

"Who the hell puts their angry German attack dog in a pink collar and calls him Sacha?"

She laughed all the way down stairs.