Author Note: I thoroughly enjoyed writing this chapter, and I hope you thoroughly enjoy reading it.

Once again, thank you for everyone's love and support who are reading this!

S L x

"So how's one week of married life going for you Harry?" Remus asked, tucking into his eggs at breakfast that morning.

Due to how many people now resided in Hogwarts for the summer, Dumbledore had thought it best to open up the great hall for meals so they could all sit together if they wanted. He quite often joined them, along with McGonagall, Madam Pomfrey, and Hagrid, and was always a rather pleasant occasion albeit a little strange to sit with your teachers every mealtime. Snape had yet to make an appearance to join the others.

"Oh well you know Remus, stuck in the honeymoon phase, hope it never ends," Harry said, with a roll of his eyes and a small smile on his lips. He was unbelievably grateful to Dumbledore for making the great hall open, he thought things would be much worse if he had to sit and eat all of his meals with Snape as well.

"Just thought I'd ask," Remus said, in between forkfuls of his breakfast.

"I'm just surprised he hasn't attempted to kill you yet" Ron half-joked, already helping himself to another slice of toast.

"Still plenty more days to go, Ron, for him to try" Harry laughed back. He knew Snape would never hurt or kill him, but it still made a good joke.

"Harry," Hermione said sternly.

"I'm only joking," Harry sighed. "No truth be told it hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be, we mostly just keep ourselves to ourselves, we don't talk that much and he gives me a lot of privacy. Truth is, this is the most relaxed I've ever felt in any summer. Beats staying at the Dursleys." He concluded, and that was the truth. He came back to Hogwarts from summer looking for a break, to get some proper sleep and to not spend his days cleaning and gardening. It was a welcome rest.

Hermione smiled slightly at him.

"Do you think he'll ever come and join us for a meal?" Hermione asked Harry, before looking at Ron buttering his toast. "Ron, that is your sixth slice of toast, do you really need another one?"

Ron laughed before taking a bite.

"Yes," he said, crumbs spilling onto the table. Hermione just rolled her eyes affectionately at him.

"I doubt it, do you want him too?" Harry asked questionably.

Before Hermione could even open her mouth to reply, Ron interrupted.

"Not particularly" Ron chuckled.

A small wave of laughter washed through the group.

"No, I think a room full of Gryffindors is a bit much even for him" Harry chortled back, taking small sips of his tea. It astounded him how Ron ate so much, but then he guessed that's why he was about a foot taller than him and a lot more built, whereas Harry was definitely on the smaller side for a man, and his muscles although not non-existent, could undeniably be bigger.

"Would you want to take a bet on that?" Ron asked, swallowing his last bite of toast.

"What do you mean?" Harry questioned.

"I mean he's just walked through the doors, so I would have won," Ron said, shrugging his shoulders, reaching for another slice, but at Hermione's look, he stopped.

"Huh? Oh," Harry said, turning to see Snape striding down the hall. He didn't look happy, but then he never did, so Harry wasn't that surprised. Harry knew there was not a chance that Snape was about to sit down and play happy families with the rest of them, so he was probably just here to see Dumbledore or something like that, but that thought went out of Harry's mind when he stood next to them at the table.

"Good morning Severus, are you joining us for some breakfast?" Remus asked politely, ignoring the shooting glance he had just received off of all three of the young Gryffindors sitting around him.

"No, actually I just came to speak to Harry," Snape replied bluntly. Personally, Snape couldn't think of anything worse than having meals with Harry, Harry's friends, and an old school enemy.

"Is everything alright?" Harry asked him, quite obviously confused as to why he was here.

"I need some supplies which can no longer wait. I'm going to head down to Diagon alley today, I was wondering if you would accompany me" Snape said plainly. Hermione and Ron shot each other a look of bewilderment at the suggestion. "Would do us good to be seen out together" Snape explained.

Harry was stunned. He was not expecting anything of the sort to come from Snape's mouth, and he honestly did not want to spend a whole day with him alone in Diagon alley. Being dragged around potions shops for hours on end. On the other hand, he knew he also really needed his supplies for school this year and Snape did make a good point about the two of them being seen together. He inwardly sighed before making his decision.

"Uh yeah, I need some items for the year actually." Maybe though, he didn't have to be alone for this he thought quickly. "Ron, Hermione, do you need anything?" He asked them, hoping they could hear the small amount of pleading in his voice for them to say yes.

"No, all good" Ron said, staring at Harry blankly.

"Yeah, I sorted everything out before I came here" Hermione smiled at Harry, then up at Snape.

"Fantastic" Harry drawled. "Uh let me just finish here and I will meet you in our rooms," he said, nodding at Snape.

Part of Snape had hoped Harry would say no, but another part of him was also rather relieved that he didn't.

"Fine." He declared and looked at Remus once more. "Lupin. Miss Granger, Mr. Weasley." He nodded at the three, then turned back and headed out through the door.

Harry waited till Snape was out of earshot before he began frantically whispering.

"Thanks guys, could you not just have said yes so you could have come with me."

"There is no way I'm spending a day walking around Diagon alley with Snape," Ron replied, looking horrified at the near thought of it.

"I think it should also just be the two of you, it would look strange if we were there as well" Hermione explained, and it pained Harry to admit she was probably right. He looked at Remus with a sigh.

"Sorry kiddo, maybe he'll buy you an ice cream or something?" Remus joke.

Laughter erupted around the three, while Harry sat brooding in silence.

"Thanks Remus," Harry said, while Remus just nodded at him, the ghost of their laughter still hanging in the air.

"Look on the bright side at least he calls you by your first name now" Hermione pointed out. "What do you call him?" She wondered out loud.

It suddenly dawned on Harry that he had no idea what he would call Snape, he certainly wouldn't disrespect him by calling him just his last name, and his first name was alien to him. It would sound very odd coming from his mouth.

"I don't really, I think I just avoid calling him anything" Harry disclosed.

"Weird if you still called him Professor though mate," Ron said, with a look of mild disgust on his face. Harry had to agree, the weirdest thing would be if he still called him Professor.

"Maybe talk to Severus about that today Harry" Remus suggested. "He'll probably let you call him by his first name, no matter how weird that may sound to you."

"Yeah maybe" Harry replied, finishing his last sip of tea before saying his goodbyes and heading down to his rooms to get ready for a day at Diagon Alley with Severus Snape.

"Dumbledore has said he will open the floo for us to get down and we will floo straight into the apothecary for my potions ingredients" Snape declared. "After that, you are free to do what you wish, but Dumbledore has asked me to stay with you at all times."

"I thought as much," said Harry bitterly. He knew that it was much too dangerous for him to wander Diagon Alley alone, but still, he doubted there would be an attack in broad daylight in one of the busiest shopping lanes in wizarding Britain, but you could never be too careful.

"I suggest we get your things you will need for your school year and then we can return" Snape suggested, ignoring Harry's obvious disinterest in coming with him.

"Sounds good," Harry said, but his look on his face did not agree.

"You may want to lose your scowl if you want people to think we are married" Snape huffed, he could do with losing his scowl too.

"What shall I call you?" Harry asked, completely out of the blue.

Snape hesitated for a second, eyebrows raised slightly as if he was thinking of the correct thing to say. He hadn't even thought about this once. He knew he would have to call Harry by his given name instead of his preferred choice of 'Brat' but not once did he realize that Harry would have to call him by his first name also.

This was not something that pleased him at all.

Although married, no matter if fake or not, he was still his teacher and still in a position of power over him. As such, he felt his first name would not be appropriate, but then any other married couple, teacher or not, would use first names.

"You may use my first name in public," Snape said, avoiding eye contact with Harry, who was staring up at him.

"That'll be weird" Harry replied before he could stop himself. "Properly for the best though, I don't know other married couples who use each other's last names" he shrugged.

"Quite" Snape replied frankly.

Harry rather felt like he was about to go on a school trip instead of out for the day with his so-called husband.

"Shall we head off then Severus?" Harry asked, before immediately chuckling to himself. "Weird," he said again.

This was going to be a long day Snape thought to himself. The scowl on his face was now more prominent, and he regretted ever asking Harry to join him for this. Would it be so bad if they were never seen in public? They could be a couple who just preferred private time. Snape shuddered at the thought.

"In public" Snape reminded him.

Harry trudged over to the fireplace and watched as Snape chucked the powder in first.

"Slug and Jiggers Apothecary" he pronounced clearly and with the fire roaring green, Snape vanished.

Harry looked at the empty fireplace and for one overwhelming second thought he wouldn't follow. Just stay here for the day. Alone. That sounded fantastic to him, but still, he knew the effort had to be made on his part as well, so begrudgingly he stepped into the fireplace, grabbing a handful of floo powder and spoke clearly and slowly. He didn't want another incident like the one in his second year.

"Slug and Jiggers Apothecary" he repeated, and he watched the green fire curl around him, and suddenly he was standing in an old shop. He spluttered as he tripped out of the floo, and was only marginally aware of the arm that caught him as he fell.

"Thank you," he said quietly to Snape, who released him just as quickly as he had grabbed hold of him.

The room was lined with potions ingredients, head to toe full of creatures in jars, leaves of some sort wrapped around wooden poles, berries, and scales were shoved into glass pots for all to see. Although Harry had been in this shop before he was sure he hadn't been in this area of it. He turned to face the other side of the room, eyes in amazement at all the mysterious things he had never seen.

A small smile crept onto Severus' face as he watched Harry take it all in, quickly vanishing before anybody saw.

This was behind the scenes of the shop, he came here regularly to get the ingredients he needed, so was very used to it, but for someone who wasn't aware it was here, it was quite an amazing sight. Every ingredient you could ever want or need lining these shelves.

"Okay, so I admit, this is a bit cooler than I thought" Harry smiled.

Snape snorted back.

"Glad you approve," he joke.

Harry was about to comment on the fact that he had just made a joke, but a man entered through the back door. Harry instinctively moved closer to Snape.

Severus automatically put his hand out to the older man who had just walked in. If Harry had to guess he would say he was slightly younger than he remembered Olivander being. A plump, small man, with very white hair, and a smile that beamed from his face.

"Severus! My dear friend." The old man said, holding his hand out for Severus as well. Both men shook the others hand vigorously, while Harry stood and watched the exchange.

Apart from Dumbledore, he had never seen Snape be so openly inviting to someone else. He most certainly wasn't like that with Remus, even though they had years and years of history between them, and he never treated any student like it. Harry had to admit, it was a much nicer side to see of him.

"Frank, doing well I assume?" Severus asked him, releasing his hand in the process.

"Oh yes, business is still booming" the older man replied enthusiastically, shaking his head up and down. His eyes drifted over to Harry standing next to Severus, and the smile just beamed brighter.

"Harry this is Frank Welch, he owns the apothecary, and Frank this is my husband, Harry," Severus told Frank, holding his hand out as if he was indicating who Harry was, even though it was quite plain that Frank already knew who he meant.

Harry felt himself going bright red. He had never heard it said to someone else before. It felt unbelievably strange to hear it being said out loud, it suddenly made it very final.

"Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Welch," Harry said sticking out his hand for the older wizard in front of him.

"Oh no Mr. Potter, the pleasure is most certainly all mine, please call me Frank," Frank replied, grabbing the boy's hand and shaking it energetically.

This man was the absolute polar opposite of Severus, he was loud and bubbly and the most excitable man Harry had ever met.

"I knew we'd get you married someday, Severus, although of course what a fantastic choice. When I read about it in the paper I thought how brilliant, one of the most powerful wizards in the world and the world's most renowned potion expert, honestly what a match." Frank spoke quickly, barely pausing to breathe. He used very over the top hand motions and seemed to move his whole body while he was talking.

"Thank you, Frank" Severus deadpanned, although the scowl on his face was replaced with a more kind look. Harry held back a smile at how different the two were. Frank was like a very old excited dog who hasn't seen his owner for a while, whereas Severus was tall and rigid, and did not show much emotion when talking.

"Although Severus, they did paint you to be rather nasty in the paper, I had every sense to write to The Daily Prophet and give them a piece of my mind" Frank continued, his face now turning slightly angry, before returning to its usual joyful self.

"Yes, unfortunately, the person who told The Daily Prophet what had been going on was not my biggest fan" Snape drawled back. Snape had finally gotten round to reading the paper a day or two after his wedding, and he was most displeased with everything in it. He had come across as someone who was bitter, sour, and had taken advantage of the boy.

"Not your biggest fan indeed" Frank barely let Snape finished before speaking again."Such a shame that not everybody sees what a kind person you are." He said smiling up at the man before glancing at Harry, eyes sparkling. "But oh Mr. Potter you saw it."

Harry smiled back, utterly clueless to what Frank was saying. He had never seen a kind side to this man at all. However, he had given Harry as much space and time as needed to become accustomed to their new life together. He always made sure to go to bed long after Harry had gone to sleep, which Harry assumed was because he didn't want to make him uncomfortable. He had offered to help him with his schoolwork, and so far he had tried his best to make sure no raging arguments occurred between them. Harry tipped his head to the side in thought. Although not kind, definitely not the man he thought he was, he had to admit.

"Just Harry please" Harry insisted, putting away any thoughts in his mind that Snape wasn't as bad as he originally thought.

"Well of course harry!" He said, putting his hands in the air as if it was some big symbolic gesture. "Now anyway I must stop blabbing on, please tell me what do you need, I'm sure we'll have it, and well if we don't I'll eat my hat," Frank said, producing a tiny hat out of nowhere in the palm of his hand.

Harry chucked at the sight and felt sure he almost saw a smirk from Severus, but it had gone as quickly as it appeared. Must have been a trick of the light.

Severus pulled out a small scroll from his pocket on his robe. Frank eagerly took it from him.

Frank hummed happily while tapping the scroll with his wand, producing little marks by the side of each ingredient.

While watching the older man, Harry let his eyes drift up to Severus', Harry smiled slightly up at him with a questioning look in his eye. Severus sensing eyes on him looked down at Harry, seeing the questioning in his eyes he shook his head slowly, and half rolled his eyes, but Harry could not miss the small curve of his lips, in what seemed like the faintest glimmer of a smile.

"Ah, like I said'' Frank bellowed, now grabbing the attention of both of the men standing before him. "We have everything! Now let us see you've got some pretty rare ingredients on here Severus, what you're doing with glowstone dust, I just have no idea, but I'll leave you to your brilliance." Frank smiled, waving his wand, so a ladder as tall as the ceiling appeared in front of him. Waving his wand again, jumping on the ladder, he whizzed around the store, items from everywhere flying off the shelf into a giant wicker basket that he had beside the desk.

He looked at the list once more and began muttering to himself.

"Ground tiger teeth. Yes. Hedgehog spike. Got it. Now, where did I put the doxy egg? Ah yes right of course." He murmured to himself, just audible enough that Harry could hear over all the commotion.

Harry had never seen anything like it, for someone who looked well into their 80s, this little man was flinging himself around all the shelves, meters and meters high. He stared in awe of all the potion ingredients falling to the floor, charmed so they wouldn't break. He watched the basket get slowly and slowly bigger, crammed full of eyes, liquids, teeth, fur, and any other ingredient Harry could see.

Maybe learning potions could be more fun than originally thought.

Frank slid down the ladder and landed with a thump on the floor next to the basket full of ingredients.

"How are you at potions Harry?" Frank asked kindly. "I'm sure Severus teaches you well."

"Uh, adequate" Harry said, purposefully repeating the same word Severus had used a week ago when they were discussing extra potion lessons.

"Well, I'm sure you two had other things on your mind before extra potion lessons" Frank laughed.

Harry was sure his face was now a startlingly shade of crimson. He had only used the man's first name once, and to hint at any sort of sexual relationship between the two was almost too much for Harry to bear. Completely avoiding the eyes of both of the men, although he was sure Severus was avoiding his eyes too. He looked down at the basket, which had grown massive, packed full to the brim with magical objects.

"So everything is in here?" Harry said, desperate to start a conversation that didn't involve anything to do with his bedroom activities.

"Everything! Oh, how I wish it wasn't though, I do so enjoy you coming here Severus, makes me dig out all the ingredients I normally forget about." Frank said happily again, looking up the ceiling as if surveying his collection. "Would you two care to stay for some tea?" Frank asked hopefully. "Tell me what you're doing with all these wonderful ingredients."

"Frank on any normal occasion I would, but, it's not overly safe for Harry to be away from Hogwarts for a long period of time, we're just here to get his school things, and then we are heading back," Snape said regretfully. Harry watched the smile on Frank's face turn slowly into a neutral expression.

"Severus," Harry said quietly, leaving Snape to turn his head quickly over to the sound. The name on Harry's lips still sounded strange. "Surely we can stay for a cup of tea?" Harry asked, seeing Frank's eye light up again.

"Very quick I promise" Frank smiled, pulling out a handful of coins from his pocket and transformed them into a table and 3 large armchairs. He then changed another coin into a teapot set with matching teacups, saucers, and silver spoons.

Harry sat down before Severus could change his mind. He could see how much the older wizard looked up to Severus, and he sounded very intrigued at what Severus was making. Harry hoped he would spill what he was doing for his classes so Harry could read ahead. It would spare the embarrassing situation of him not knowing what to do.

Severus watched as Frank poured the tea into his cup. He had been coming here since he was a student at Hogwarts himself, and when he started teaching, Frank had offered the apothecary as somewhere he could get all of his supplies from. He thought of Frank as a friend and was always happy to see the man. Frank always seemed happy to see him too, which was a rare occurrence for him. He watched Harry take a seat and knew the decision was now out of his hands.

Severus took a seat as well and graciously accepted the tea from Frank. He had had a feeling this meeting could have ended up with the three of them having tea, but he was almost positive Harry would have wanted to get back to the castle as quickly as possible, to spend as little time with him as he possibly could. So it had shocked Severus when Harry had sat down adamantly that this is what they were doing. Perhaps the boy didn't mind his company that much after all.

"How is married life treating the two of you?" Frank asked politely, leaning back in his chair, tea in hand. Instantly Severus remembered why they shouldn't have sat down with him. He knew Harry wouldn't answer, so he decided to speak for him, but then he heard Harry's voice.

"Treating us well thank you. Although Severus has been very busy planning his lessons and things" Harry smiled taking a sip, trying to get the conversation off their marriage and onto potions again, at least that conversation would stop Harry's face from burning.

"Already planning lessons Severus, Merlin, you would think you would take a break for at least a week after your wedding, but you always had been the organized type" Frank chuckled. "But then, from the paper sounds like you two were not meant to be married a week ago, rather a case of wrong timing, so I suppose you couldn't have planned for the break."

Harry was rather glad that Frank spoke so much, there was not much else Harry could have said if asked to explain why Severus had spent the first week of their marriage working, but Frank had summed it up perfectly.

"Exactly" Severus replied sipping his tea. "I also have very exciting things for this year's students, so hence the need to come here, to make sure I could get all the ingredients for the lessons before I started planning." He too wanted to get the conversation as far away from his marriage as possible.

"Ah yes, now please tell me what on earth are you planning on doing with a thunderslug?" Frank asked, sitting forward slightly in the chair and listening intently to Severus' answer.

Harry was mostly quiet for the remainder of the conversation. He had never seen Severus be so openly engaging with anyone, and he certainly had never seen him talk so passionately about the new potions he was trying to create. He explained it as an art form, and it made Harry have more respect. It was not just cutting and brewing, it was how the ingredients worked together and how certain elements counteracted with the other. He never noticed how interesting he was to listen to, but he never taught like this. He assumed because the potions he taught in lessons were boring to him, but here he could talk openly with someone who understood, and someone who was interested. Half the class was never interested anyway. He realized he was staring at the man, and quickly coughed and turned his head back to his tea.

After a good 45 minutes, Severus suggested that they leave to get Harry's other items before returning to the castle.

He walked away from the two of them to the basket full of ingredients and began chanting a spell.

Frank looked at Harry.

"He's a good man Harry. I'm glad someone like you saw it. I've always found him to be rather interesting and kind to me at least. So many people hate him, for reasons I'm unsure about, but I'm glad someone loves him. He's spent far too long hating himself." Frank said in a whisper, before turning back to where Severus had gone to.

Harry stared at the man in front of him. He had never heard anyone speak of Severus that way. He had been told stories of how brave and courageous he was, but it was another thing entirely for someone to say they were happy someone loved him. Although of course, that wasn't true, it would not harm him to know otherwise.

Before Harry had a chance to reply Severus came striding back over, potions ingredients now charmed to fit into a little bag in his pocket.

"Thank you for tea Frank, it is always a pleasure to come here, and as usual you will be paid from Hogwarts," Severus said, shaking Frank's hand, while Frank smiled up at him.

"You are most welcome Severus," Frank said, shaking his hand back, he turned to face Harry. "It was an absolute pleasure to meet you, Harry Potter, you two do suit most remarkably well" Franked beamed.

"Thank you," Harry said, a small smile on his face.

"Don't be strangers! Come back whenever, for ingredients or just to see old Frank!" Frank called after them as they left through the front door into the main shop. A small smile still etched on Harry's face.