"What are your plans for tonight Harry?" Hermione questions him as she clears the table of dishes. It's five years after the battle of Hogwarts and it's new years eve. Hermione and Ron married earlier in the year, Ginny and Draco surprisingly married soon after. Currently, Harry has felt like a third wheel around everyone. Normal he's busy with work, being an Auror takes a lot of work. But tonight he had off and Kingsly banned him from the office until the new year. He couldn't believe it. Kinglsy was forcing him to have a life.

"I don't know, might just go for a walk," he says as he places his plate in the sink.

"You know you could just stay here and celebrate with us mate," Ron tells him as he comes in the kitchen holding a champagne glass that's halfway full.

"No thanks. No offence, but I wouldn't want to spoil your night,"

"Oh Harry you wouldn't be spoiling our night," Hermione pleads him.

"Hermione, you're a great friend but, I've just been feeling like a third wheel to the both of you. Maybe I just need to find someone," He says as he grabs his coat and heads for the fireplace. "And besides, I may find a date tonight," and with that, he was off and back to his flat. After the battle, Harry didn't want to move into Sirius's old place, and instead permanently gave it up to the Order and found a flat that was a little secluded in the woods, but easy to find if you looked.

He stumbled out of the opening and barely caught himself before he fell. He looked around his gloomy flat to find a letter sitting on his coffee table. Curious, he walked over to it but stopped before his hand could touch it. He recognized this handwriting. He knew it all too well. This was the handwriting of his former potions professor who supposedly died five years ago during the battle of Hogwarts. Harry, not coping with the death well wrote to him. He knew or thought he knew, that once he mailed it the owl would drop it off at his grave and that would be that. He only wrote it and sent it about a week ago. He talked about how he first when he met him, how his feelings changed in the fifth year due to the occumlency lessons. He talked about how he felt during the sixth year with Dumbledors death, how he felt while travelling and the whole battle. He thanked him for the memories he gave him and said he forgave him for all he did to protect him. He knew Snape sacrificed many things for Harry, and all he did in return was hate the man. The letter contained three whole pages of parchment and he sent it off, expecting no reply. But here, on new years eve, just about a week later, sat a reply from said potions master. He walked on shaky legs, sitting down on the couch and taking a few deep breaths before he reached forward and took hold of the letter, tearing into the envelope and reading the contents. But all there was, was two words.

"Asphodel wormwood?" The minute he said that he felt a familiar pull in his stomach and soon he found himself whisked away from his flat and to somewhere else. He landed hard on the floor of another house. This one was brighter looking than his own. Not by much, but there was more light in this one. He looked around to find many bookshelves, a grand fireplace, and a potions master sitting on a couch with a potions journal in one hand.

"Snape?"

"Seems you're as graceful as ever when it comes to port keys," he sneered in his usual baritone voice as he flipped a page not even bothering to look up.

"I... you.....what......." he kept stuttering while looking at the man before him even though the man before him was really paying him no mind at all.

"Still a stuttering buffoon as always I see Mr Potter?" He said as he turned the page again. Potter, gathering his wits, finally mutters out a full sentence.

"You're alive?"

"I would certainly hope so," was his reply.

"B-but I watched you die," Harry retorts taking another step closer to the man. That's when he finally puts down the potions journal and faces him.

"You saw me go unconscious," at these words Harry pales drastically and looks as though he may be sick. Snape in this moment genuinely feels sorry for the boy. This boy honestly thought he was dead and left him to go win the war. He now just found out that he actually left him there to die, and he knows potter. Potter would never leave someone to die unless he knew he did everything within his power to save that person. And he was correct.

"I... I left you there... I left you there in that... cold, dark shack..... all alone..... to die...... and I could have saved You!" The boy finally cries and collapsed on the couch opposite of Severus. He watches closely as the man before him places his head in his hands and starts to mumble about how he should have stayed, or how he should have checked for a pulse before rushing off.

"Potter," he says quietly. Harry lifts his head up, tears threatening to spill down his face. Severus opens his mouth as if to say something, but instead, his expression softens and his mouth closes.

"Let me guess, you're gonna tell me that it's not my fault right? You are honestly going to sit there and tell me I did the right thing by taking your memories and just... running off to Dumbledore's office and look at them and forget about you aren't you?" He questioned. Snape just sat there in silence.

"Well if that's the case then fuck you," he said putting his head back in his hands.

"I'm sorry?" Severus asked.

"I said. Fuck you," Harry said to him turning back to face him.

"And whatever for?"

"I watched a lot of people die around me that day. And I'd give anything to save them. Anyone of them I would go back and try to save them. And you were the only person I felt die in my own hands. And to sit here and hear that I could have saved you, or at the very least stabilized you till the battle was over and then get you help, it really hurts. I can't even begin to describe the remorse I feel for doing that. Your death haunted me more than anyone else's for months because I felt you slip away under my fingertips. And yet here you are telling me that that was okay. That it was necessary. It just hurts," He said as he stood up and paced the living room.

"I'm not," Severus said getting to his feet as well.

"What?"

"I'm not telling you that. I'm not telling you anything besides that I wasn't dead. I'm not telling you how to feel. I'm the last person to be telling you how to feel. But I understand where you are coming from. I know how much it hurts to think you lost someone for good only to realize you haven't. It ma\y be under different circumstances but I understand none the less," he says as he walked over to a cabinet and pulled out some firewhiskey. He pours two glasses and hands one to Harry.

"Did you bring me here to show me you're alive? Or is there another reason for this visit?" He questioned as he took a sip of his drink.

"Yes," he takes a breath, "I wanted to discuss your letter you wrote to me a few days ago. I must ask, why did you write to me?"

"To be honest, I don't honestly know. You were really, I suppose, the only person who I had conflicting feelings for. I didn't know whether I should hate you or not," he told the man in front of him as he took a seat on the couch.

"And how do you feel?" Severus asked him as he sat a few inches away from him on the same couch.

"I feel respect for you. For what you did. You practically gave your life away, your freedom, your soul, all in the name to help people and even I couldn't do that. Half the people on this planet couldn't do what you did. You lived your life in constant fear and struggle. You never knew if he would summon you at any given moment. And when he did, how could you tell if it was because of me or he found out about you being a spy? You couldn't, and yet you never showed your fear or worries. I respect that more than I can put that into words."

Severus sat there for a few moments thinking over everything the young man had just told him. Respect? How can he respect a man who spent his life killing people? How can he respect a man who took the easy way out and followed after power? How can anyone respect a man of his nature? But Potter did. He just told Severus he respected his choices and all in the name to help people. Well, if he looked at it, he did help people. He played his part well, he did everything he was supposed to do and look what happened. They had won the war. He accomplished the one goal he had in life. But know that he thought about that, what purpose did he have now?

"You're pardoned you know," Harry said.

"What do you mean?"

"There was a trail for all found and captured death eaters. You were one of them. Due to my testimony, Hermione's', Ron's and even Ginny's they were thinking of just putting a mild sentence to your name. But then the memories from Dumbledore came and that pardoned you. Gave you an Order of Merlin too," Harry tells him as he finishes his drink and places it on the table in front of him.

"Is this your way of saying I should rejoin society?"

"You would be welcomed. Everyone views you as a hero for what you did. But, since everyone thinks you're dead, the best they could do was give you a public memorial at Hogwarts and at the Ministry."

Severus pondered this for a few moments. He could stay here, in solitude, probably now with the occasional visits from Potter no less, or he can rejoin the world. Maybe get his old job back, or open a small potions store of his own. That sounded better to him than the latter.

"Or do you want to stay here?"

"I think I'll go back. To be quite honest I do miss teaching somewhat," he said as he finished his glass and levitated the empty glasses to the sink.

"Well, I know this may be pushing it right away and you can say no and I won't be disappointed or anything but Hermione and Ron are throwing a new years eve party. Want to make your appearance there?" he questions him.

"Who all is going to be there?"

"Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Dean, Nevile, Luna, Draco, Blaise, and a few others I think."

"You were not going to attend?"

"No," he said sighing running a hand through his hair, "Ron and Hermione are married. Ginny and Draco are married," at this Snape's eyebrows shoot up to his hairline, "Yeah I know, shocked everyone. Luna and Nevile are dating and Dean and Blaise are dating. I just constantly feel like a third wheel around everyone. So I was just going to stay home this year," he tells him.

"Perhaps... attending won't be bad. Put the minute the atrocious party hats and noisemakers come out I'm leaving," Severus said standing to grab his cloak.

"Believe me I'm with you on that one," Harry said as he stood with him, "So by floo or apparation?"

"I think floo would be best unless you can apparate without falling?"

"Please," he chuckled as he grabbed a handful of floo powder, "I fall no matter what way I take." And with that, he shouted out the location and was whisked away in a ball of green flames.

"Harry!" Ginny shouted as she spotted him coming out of the fireplace. They hugged quickly before Draco came in the room. They have gotten onto friendly terms since the two started dating. Giving him a handshake, he smiled at him.

"Thought you were staying home this year?" He questioned him. At the sound of that everyone else filled the room.

"Well-"

"Harry, did you go there again?" Hermione question as she spotted what he was holding. Before he left he asked Snape for his cloak and told him to floo over in a few minutes. Let them get prepared for his arrival. Everyone knew one of Snape's cloaks wherein the shreiking shake and Harry sometimes went to get it, bring it back for a while, then return it.

"No, this I got from him," Harry said.

"Don't mean to burst your bubble mate, but he's dead," Ron told him.

"Yeah, although it's a shame you have to let this go, Harry," Blaise told him. Harry just stood there and smiled at them and a few seconds later the fireplace erupted into green flames again. Striding out of the flames without an ash on him was a tall figure with shoulder length black hair.

"I would like my cloak back Potter," Severus said as he extended his hand out towards him. There were gasp around the room.

"W-what?"

"It's him."

"This has to be a dream."

"He's gonna kill me." was all Draco said.

"And why, Draco would I do such a thing?" Draco grabbed hold of Ginny's hand and wrapped an arm around her waist. "I've already been briefed on somethings by Potter and that's no reason for me to kill my own godson Draco."

"Sir, if you don't mind me asking, how are you alive?" Hermione questioned him.

"Yeah, the three of us saw you die," Ron chimes in.

"No. You three saw me go unconscious," he got the same reaction from the group of people around him as he did with Potter. And he gave the same speech he did to him.

"Well, would you like a drink Professor?" Hermione asked.

"Please, I am no longer your professor. And I would like a drink... Hermione," he said shocking everyone in the room. The night went extremely well. They all had a few drinks and talked about many different things. Nevile and Luna announced they were engaged, and Hermione and Ron announced they were expecting. The closer it got to midnight the further away the couples got so they can all celebrate in their own special way. Harry couldn't remember the last time he actually had this much fun. It certainly has been awhile. He found himself wandering the house till he found Snape out on the balcony overlooking a nearby field. He came up next to him and took a sip of his drink.

"I can't remember when I had this much fun. Or when I didn't feel like a third wheel to everyone," he says.

"I must admit, this night was quite amusing to me, to say the least. And certainly interesting," He said as he turned his head towards Harry. Hary turned his own head towards Severus's and for a few moments, they just stared at each other. Here were two people who understood one another better then they themselves did. A clock from somewhere deep in the house signalled that midnight has struck, and something else has struck as well. There was a reason Harry didn't feel like a third wheel tonight. And it took him this long to realize it.

"Want to make the night more interesting?" he questioned with a smirk upon his lips.

"How?" Severus asked back with the same playful expression on his face.

"This," Harry said as he raised himself up just a little and pressed his lips to Severus's. Taking one of his arms, Severus wrapped it around Harry's waist and pulled him closer. Harry in return wrapped his arms around his neck, deepening the kiss. Once the last chime struck, they pulled apart and smiled at each other.

"Happy New Year, Harry."

"Happy New Year, Severus," he said and pressed his lips to his again.