Harry Potter coughed and groaned as he laid his head back on the cushion.
“Do you want us to go Harry?” Hermione asked.
“No no it's fine. I enjoy your company. Just don't come close. I don't want you catching this flu.” He managed to say before sneezing.
“I'm surprised Snape hasn't given you potions to help you get better quicker.” Ron mumbled.
“Ron please, I haven't the energy.”
Hermione looked from her husband to Harry. “I'd thought he'd be actually looking after you though Harry. I mean you look no better than two days ago.”
“I am not helping myself, Hermione. When I get hot I strip down and walk around the cold dungeons barefoot to cool down.”
“Oh Harry no.” Hermione sighed.
Ron and Hermione stayed with Harry until he fell asleep on the settee. Ron stood up. “At least he looks comfortable there. No doubt he sleeps out here as Snape doesn't want to catch anything.”
“We don't know anything Ron. Come on, let's get these cups washed and leave Harry to sleep. Snape will be back soon. He always used to have a detention finish five minutes before curfew as it panicked us to not get caught. And it's nearly that time now.” Hermione said as she looked at the clock before picking the cups up and walking into the small kitchen with Ron following her.
They had washed the cups and just as they were drying them, the door opened and they backed into the corner as Snape walked in.
Severus walked into his and Harry's rooms and saw Harry asleep on the settee, he crouched down and placed the back of his hand on Harry's forehead before taking the younger man's glasses off. He put them in his pocket before he gently moved his arms under Harry and carefully lifted him.
“Mmm. Sev?”
“Sshh. It's me my imp. What are you doing asleep on the settee.”
“Ron and ‘Mione here.” Harry moaned.
“They must have left when you fell asleep.” Severus answered as he carried Harry into their room.
Hermione and Ron crept forwards and watched as Severus waved his wand so Harry was undressed and tucked up in bed.
“Sev’rus?”
“I'm here Harry, let me just use the bathroom then I will join you.” Severus soothed Harry by running his fingers through the messy hair and kissing his forehead before he walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.
Hermione took Ron by the arm and pulled him from the rooms. “We owe Harry an apology for how we talk about Severus.”
Ron blinked. “Oh it's Severus now?”
“Taking care of our best friend like that, yes. It should have been that from the start.”
“But it's Snape.”
“Ron, we are in our twenties now. Whenever we see an old Professor we call them by their first name.”
“Because they told us to!”
“Well he is now Severus. Get yourself used to saying it as you will be saying it in front of Harry now.” Hermione sighed. “Calling the one Harry loves by his last name. That's like him calling me Granger to your face and mine.”
“But you're Wealsey now.” Ron smirked, making Hermione laugh a little as they headed out of the castle.
It was a week later when Harry had just entered his and Severus’ rooms and stopped when he saw his two friends standing by the fire. “Is everything okay? Did we agree to meet and I forgot?”
Hermione smiled. “No nothing like that. We got your letter this morning that you are all better and back to teaching so we wanted to come and see you as we owe you an apology.”
Harry frowned. “You do?”
Ron moaned when he felt Hermione’s elbow in his ribs. “Yeah. All this time. We called Severus, Snape and still didn't know why you were with him or what you saw in him despite you telling us how he is when it's just you both. When you fell asleep when we came to see you last week we took the cups away and Severus came back and we saw how he was with you and realised how wrong we were so we have come to say sorry.”
Harry nodded. “It is not me you need to apologise to though. Is it.”
Hermione nodded. “You are right Harry. We will go and find Severus now and apologise.”
“Why couldn't we just wait for him to return to the room and apologise or better yet, we can write him a letter.” Ron said as he walked through the dungeons.
“No Ron. We owe Severus an apology and he will get it to his face. Not by a letter. It will all be fine.”
“Fine? Who are you trying to kid?” Ron asked as he came to a stop, putting his hand on Hermione's arm to stop her also. “I can see it now. ‘Severus? Can we call you that? We realised we have been stupid these last few years and should have believed Harry when he said you make him happy and I'm sorry the only way we found out is because we spied on you putting Harry to bed and saw how caring you were with him instead of making our presence known. So we are sorry and let's all be friends.’ You know what the reply will be.”
“It will be, apology not accepted as you didn't trust your friend like you were supposed to and if I catch you spying on a private moment again your future children's first week here will be detention courtesy of their nosey parents!” Severus snapped.
Ron jumped and Hermione let out a squeak as they both turned to see Severus standing there with his arms folded, a single brow raised.
The end.