Living In Safety

Stupid Therapy, Fun Date

Severus Snape.

"Sev!" I hear Regulus exclaim from somewhere in our quarters. Probably the kitchen, and he's probably baking something. "How was it?"

I dump my bag on one of the armchairs in the sitting room and walk to the kitchen. I was right. His apron is covered in flour, the counter's a mess, and the oven's on. Whatever he's baking smells delicious.

"What are you making?"

"Muffins. They're better than cereal for breakfast," he says. "A batch of blueberry and a batch of apple cinnamon. So, how was it?"

I shrug. "It was fine, Reg."

He raises a brow. "Liar. How was it really?"

"Reg, it was therapy to see how much I yell at people. It was just like I expected it to be. Awfully boring and invasive."

"Was it really that bad?"

I nod. "Of course it was. Reg, he asked me if I take my anger out on Harry, do I take my anger out on you, what about Harry's friends, what about his godfather? Do I physically punish my students? You know, the questions you would ask someone if you thought they were an abuser."

I am not a bloody abuser. I am nothing like my father.

"Didn't they say you had your choice in therapists? Choose another one."

"I already did. But that means it starts over, this session doesn't count now."

Stupid bloody arseholes.

He dumps the dishes he was using in the sink, hangs up the dirty apron, then comes and sits next to me. "What do you think they want?"

I hesitate.

I know what they want, I'm not a bloody fool.

"They want Harry. Dumbledore wants Harry."

"He's not going to get Harry, you know that."

"I'm still worried."

He sighs. "Sevvie... it's fine to be worried, okay? But you know we'd never let Dumbledore take him, right? He could go live with his godfather's, with Blaise's mum, I'll even take care of him if anything were to ever happen, but Dumbledore will never get to use him again. We won't let that happen."

"I know."

"You need to relax," he says. "You worry too much."

"You just said it's fine to be worried?"

"Okay, Mr. Smarty Pants."

He stands behind me and starts finger combing my hair. Once he finishes, he starts braiding it. I lean my head back and close my eyes. It's relaxing.

"D'you have a hair tie?" I get one out of my pocket and hand it to him. "Thanks." He leans down and pecks my cheek. "You know, you should let me braid your hair more. It's cute."

"Cute goes against my reputation," I reply, smiling.

"Well, we can't ruin that, can we?"

"No, we can't."

His timer starts dinging. "Ah! Finally! Muffins!" He rushes over, throws the door open, and tries to grab the pans without an oven mit.

"Let me see," I say after pulling the pans out with an oven mit. The skin is already bright red. "Go run that under some cold water. I'll go get a potion." I run to the bathroom, where I keep almost all of my healing potions, and find one for burns, along with some bandages.