Author Notes: Hello everyone and A Happy Valentine's Day! My apologies if this chapter feels a bit rough, workload has increased and as you know, that doesn't bode well for flighty muses. Anyway, hope it's still enjoyable :)

Warnings: This is an experiment mixing my preference with my daughter's who is the co-author of this story. Hence, there are two OCs, some OOCness, some fluff and a general disregard for the more serious incidents in canon.

- Chapter Start -

Today was Valentine's Day.

Hidden under his invisibility cloak, Harry made his way down to the dungeons. Most of the students were still at breakfast in the Great Hall, enjoying - or shuddering at - the lurid pink decorations and the heart shaped toast, pancakes and hash browns, but he was on a mission.

A mission to deliver chocolates to a professor.

A suicidal mission to deliver expensive, imported Belgian dark chocolates to Professor Severus Snape, to be exact.

Harry reached the dungeons without incident and crouched down to place the square, silver wrapped box on the floor just outside Snape's door. He got up and after steeling himself, rapped twice on the door before rushing off to the nearest corner and hiding behind it, his heart thumping madly in his chest.

There were no classes today. Snape hadn't been in the Great Hall earlier so he should still be in his quarters. Harry promised himself he would get back to Ron and Hermione before they noticed his absence, just as soon as he was sure Snape saw the chocolates.

For a few heart stopping seconds, nothing happened. Then...

"Meow?"

"Meow?"

Uh oh. That didn't sound promising.

Peeping around the corner, Harry saw Caramel and Velvet approaching Snape's quarters from the other side of the corridor. The two kittens hurried up to the box and started sniffing at it before meowing to each other in excitement. Harry groaned to himself - if cats were curious by nature, then Snape's pets had to be two of the most curious felines ever in existence. He should get the box away from their little paws before they tore it open and ruined his gift, but he had already knocked on the door. Snape could open it at any second!

Biting his lip in mounting indecision, Harry watched as the two kittens started pawing at the box. It didn't take more than a few moments for a sharp claw to tear into the wrapping and soon, the sounds of paper ripping were accompanied by excited little mewls. The sight of the pretty silver paper lying in shredded curls around the two miscreants gave Harry's heart a sharp pang.

Perhaps it was for the best, he told himself glumly. Snape wouldn't eat anything that was sent to him anonymously and he definitely wouldn't eat anything if he knew Harry had sent it. Better to get the evidence away from the kittens and pretend nothing had happened, that today was a normal day just like any other...

Harry took a deep breath and let it out, his lips twisting ruefully at the sight of Caramel and Velvet licking at the treat and meowing happily to each other, their tiny mouths and whiskers getting smeared with chocolate. Oh well, they weren't liqueur filled and it wasn't as if chocolate was poisonous to kittens...

A distant memory stirred in Harry's mind at that last thought. He recalled walking back from elementary school one afternoon and coming across Dudley and gang, tempting a stray cat with a piece of chocolate. Piers Polkiss was crowing loudly about how it was lethal to cats...

"Caramel! Velvet! Stop eating that chocolate!" Throwing off both his cloak and his caution, Harry rushed up to the kittens.

"Meow?"

"Meow?"

They merely glanced up at him and waved nonchalant paws in greeting before turning their attention back to the yummy treat in front of them.

"No, stop! You're poisoning yourselves!"

Crouching down again, Harry snatched up the open box and held it above his head, out of reach of the two startled and indignant kittens.

"Meowr!"

"Meowr!"

Not in the least bit deterred, Caramel and Velvet jumped up onto his jean clad thighs. Harry felt the pinpricks of tiny claws digging into his skin as the two felines made their way up his arms, determined eyes fixed on their prize.

"No, get down! They're poisonous to you!" Harry stretched his arms up as high as he could and winced, bending forward when sharp claws traversed from his arms to his chest.

"Ow."

"Meowr!"

"Meowr!"

In the next second, Snape's door was pulled open and all three of them froze. Harry found himself staring at a pair of polished boots and grimaced when he realised what he must look like - kneeling in front of Snape with two kittens hanging from his chest, head bowed and arms stretched above his head, holding the open box of chocolates like some supplicant making an offer to a deity.

Not that Snape wasn't a deity in his eyes, albeit a short tempered and sharp tongued one.

"Potter. I might have known."

Slowly, Harry lowered the box and got to his feet, his gaze travelling up long legs clad in black to narrow hips, a snowy white shirt, damp black hair and the familiar sour faced expression of the resident Potions Master.

"Professor Snape."

Snape looked down at Caramel and Velvet, now meowing and pawing at Harry's legs, and then at the box clutched in his hands, and then finally at his face. He raised a sardonic eyebrow.

"I do not recall asking you to feed my familiars."

Harry turned red.

"I wasn't feeding them, sir. I was just-"

The black eyes dropped down to the box again and narrowed.

"Is that chocolate?" Snape hissed. "You fed them chocolate?"

"I didn't feed them, they helped themselves!" Harry protested at once, turning to point down at the floor. "Look, they tore open the box!"

Snape looked at the shredded paper on the floor and then at the kittens who had prudently gone to hide behind Harry's legs, leaving only their tails visible.

"Who put the chocolates there in the first place? And how much did they eat?"

I'm not sure," Harry admitted, ignoring the first question in favour of answering the second. He peered into the box and saw two of the six pieces of chocolate were wet and lopsided, but the other four looked untouched.

"Only a bit," he began only to have long thin fingers pluck the box from his hand.

"Bring Caramel and Velvet inside. Now," Snape ordered before spinning around on his heel.

By the time Harry had scooped up the two kittens and walked inside Snape's quarters, the man was at his potions cupboard, likely getting something to counteract the chocolate. Harry went straight to the sofa and sat down. Recalling what had happened when Caramel and Velvet drank alcohol, he prudently set them down on the coffee table where they sat on their haunches, returning his worried gaze with quizzical ones while licking their mouths clean.

Harry looked up when Snape appeared at his side with a vial of light green liquid and a syringe, the sight of which made both kittens scowl. Obviously, they knew what was coming.

"They look completely fine to me," Harry ventured.

Snape looked down at him the way he might regard something that had crawled out from under a rock.

"I will be the judge of that. And what were you doing outside my quarters, Potter?" he asked in a silky tone. "I do not recall assigning you any detention."

The reckless words More's the pity danced on the tip of Harry's tongue, but he bit them back. "Uhm," he said instead.

Luckily for him, the sound of two trembling meows made them swing back to the coffee table. Caramel and Velvet looked decidedly unwell now, their furry little faces scrunched up as if in pain. With a forceful sigh, Snape went to sit beside Harry.

The next few minutes that followed brought a sense of déjà vu to Harry as he held two shivering kittens who mewled and struggled and squirmed while Snape administered tiny doses of Regurgitating Potion with the help of the syringe. Unlike the other incident when the kittens had merely gotten drunk, Harry felt guilty as hell. It was his fault poor Caramel and Velvet were feeling so sick now and not even the sight of thin, potion stained fingers wrapped around his own could alleviate that feeling.

It took a full five minutes before the Potions Master was satisfied with the dosage given. By then, Harry was heartily wishing he had never heard of Valentine's Day. Both his and Snape's hands were now covered in several long scratches, courtesy of their reluctant patients. He watched in silence as Snape conjured a sturdy bedpan and placed it next to his disgruntled pets. In less than a minute, Caramel and Velvet were heaving into it while Harry leaned forward and stroked their little heads with shaking fingers.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered. "I never should've ordered those blasted chocolates."

"So you admit they were yours, Potter."

Harry froze at the silky voice beside him before turning his head to look at Snape.

"Yes, sir."

"Why did you bring them to the dungeons?"

Harry swallowed hard.

"They were for you," he admitted.

Snape's eyes narrowed at that, but Harry didn't look away despite the heat he could feel pulsing in his cheeks. He didn't know how long they would have continued staring at each other if it weren't for the sound of two loud belches.

Caramel and Velvet had stopped heaving and were lying on their sides on the table, looking as woebegone as two misbehaving kittens could.

"I hope you two now realise the dangers of eating chocolate?" Snape asked them in a dry tone as he Vanished the bedpan.

Two pitiful mewls and ear twitches were his only answer. Shaking his head, he got up and went to his store cupboard again, returning with two more vials.

"Hold out your hands, Potter."

Harry did as he was told and a few drops of clear liquid were dripped onto his palms.

"What is this?" he asked.

Snape did the same thing to his hands and rubbed them together briskly.

"Essence of Dittany."

Harry copied Snape's action, relieved to note the scratches healing almost instantly. He watched as the man administered a few drops of the other potion to Caramel and Velvet.

"Stomach Soother," he said, answering Harry's unasked question. Picking up the box of chocolates, he Vanished the eaten ones before holding out the box to Harry.

"Eat one," he ordered.

Harry looked at the four pieces remaining and then up at Snape. "What? Why?"

"To prove they are not poisoned."

Harry's mouth fell open and he glared at Snape in indignation.

"Of course they aren't poisoned! Why would you even-"

"Then eat one."

Under that cold gaze, Harry shrugged and took a piece. He put it into his mouth and looked at Snape, chewing. Then he paused, eyebrows going up.

"Hey, these are good."

Snape stared at him for a moment longer before picking up a piece of chocolate and putting it in his mouth. He didn't say anything as he chewed slowly and swallowed, but Harry felt something inside him ease at the sight.

Caramel and Velvet sat up and watched the exchange before turning to each other.

"Meow!" (He ate Harry's chocolate!)

"Meow." (Well, no sense in letting them go to waste.)

"Meow!" (No, he really liked it!)

"Meow!" (No! He's just being polite!)

A pointed throat clearing had them looking up from their bickering.

"It looks like you two are fully recovered now," Snape observed before turning to Harry. "I trust you have plans for today's infernal celebrations?"

Harry nodded. They consisted solely of remaining seated on this comfortable sofa for the rest of the weekend, but he knew a dismissal when he heard it.

"I... yes, sir. I'll go now."

Snape picked up the two kittens, one in each hand. "Take them with you," he ordered.

Harry's heart started to quicken with anticipation, but his hopes were dashed when the Potions Master dropped Caramel and Velvet into his waiting hands, quite without ceremony and very much without touching him.

"Why aren't they staying with you?" he blurted out.

Again, Snape looked at him as if he were something nasty.

"I have a large order of Stomach Soother to brew for the Infirmary. No doubt Madam Pomfrey will be besieged with dunderheads complaining of stomach ailments by this evening after consuming their body weight in useless confectionery."

"Oh. Right." Cradling the kittens, Harry walked to the door which swung open for him. He stepped out into the dungeons, but something made him glance back and the last thing he saw before the door closed was Snape popping another piece of chocolate it in his mouth and chewing it with his eyes closed.

Smiling to himself, Harry went to retrieve his invisibility cloak.

"Let's go see Ron and Hermione, alright?" he said as he stuffed the cloak into his robe pocket.

With happy little meows of agreement, Caramel and Velvet hopped up onto his shoulders and sat there, looking as if they hadn't been sick a day in their lives. Shaking his head a bit, Harry left the dungeons.

Perhaps the chocolates hadn't been a total waste after all.

- Chapter End -

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