Severus slowly awoke, his back aching like crazy as usual. He wasn’t sure which half felt worse, the top side had this weird spicy rubber-like feeling but his lower back had felt like it had been squeezed the whole night. He stretched his arms to the back and kept pulling until a popping sound was heard.

His legs didn’t fare all too well either, he ran around in circles around the living room for a while until the static left completely. 

It’s clear he’s getting too old to sleep on couches anymore, he can barely await moving back to his home and sleeping in an actual bed again.

While doing his wake up routine Severus almost didn’t notice a certain boy staring at him. “Harry…?” He asked groggily. “Rare to see you up so early.” Severus pulled his arms back one more time, popping a few more joints that hadn’t fully woken up.

“More like rare to see you up this late.” Harry spoke while munching on a piece of toast.

Severus raised a brow and took a look at the grandfather clock right next to the bathroom door. 

It had already been 9AM, still early but much later than when Severus would usually wake up. Strange, he didn’t hear any chimes this morning. “How long have you been awake?” He asked the boy.

Harry shrugged, yawning with a mouth full of bread stuffing. “Not for long I think, maybe like ten minutes ago or so.”

The long haired man looked at the piece of half eaten, untoasted toast bread in Harry’s hand. “If you’d woken me up I could’ve made you something.” He took one of the chairs and sat across from the kid, it was a pretty rare sight for Harry to see the man so disheveled and still in sleeping robes.

“You looked so peaceful though! I didn’t wanna ruin your beauty sleep.”

Severus let out a quick laugh, yeah, as if sleeping is gonna fix anything about his face. “Still, is that little bit gonna fill you? Let me at least whip you up a small omelette.”

Harry pressed his finger to his chin for a while, seeming lost in thought. He adjusted his glasses and finally answered, “Actually, I have a better idea. Let’s go to that café you told me about! The one with the secret menu.” He stuffed the rest of the bread into his mouth and sat up on his chair. “Secret food gets me all giddy.”

This time Severus was the one to get lost in his mind, putting his whole palm against his stubbly chin. “Well…It should be opening in an hour or so. We’d probably be the first ones there if we wash and dressed quickly.”

With a look of wonder Harry threw his fist to the air. “Alright! Finally more magical stuff happens on this trip!” Aside from the occasional wisp and that water spirit, Harry hadn’t come across many actual magic world things. He almost felt scammed by his parents as most of his stay here was essentially just him lazing around and having a regular vacation in a small village.

“I’m hoping you washed your face after waking up.” Severus spoke as he slowly raised again. Harry simply responded with a nervous laugh accompanied by averting his eyes. “Haa…You go and wash first then.”

After a while the two dark haired males went off and walked through the stony streets of Godric’s Hollow. Harry had seen many familiar faces, pretty much anytime he comes by this place he sees at least the same five people.

The old woman with a duck patterned kerchief around her head, the fish seller with a greasy beard, the grey haired woman who read thick books near the fountain and the two old guys who once again fought about whether wool or cashmere socks were better.

“Which do you prefer, Sev? Wool or cashmere?” Harry asked.

Snape shrugged. “I’m pretty sure both feel the same, cashmere is just a more high quality wool.”

“Yeah, but that’s the point I think. Do you like them a bit more rough or completely fluffy?”

The older man looked down at his feet while they walked. “Honestly, not sure. All my socks are made out of silk. What about you?”

“Me?” Harry tilted his head. “Gotta be honest, I don’t like them at all. If I could, I would walk through the streets with sandals everyday.” Probably a really bad idea though, considering the weather and temperature around England.

It wasn’t long before the two arrived at the café. A woman with braided, brunette hair was still setting up the seats as they arrived. “Welcome, early birdies!” She greeted the two with a smile, revealing her buck teeth. “I’ll be with you in a moment, do sit down for now~!” She stretched her hand out and directed them towards a table right next to a window with a view to the backyard. It seemed that this establishment grew some of its own ingredients, considering the many veggies that were growing in the garden.

Severus and Harry sat. The place seemed…normal. Bland even, in Harry’s opinion. He supposed it did have a sort of comfy feel, like visiting the rustic home of a grandmother, but it wasn’t all that different compared to the abode he and Severus resided in.

The young boy picked up a menu that stood in the middle of their table. He saw pierogi, spinach, a lot of veggie and fish based dishes. Despite this being a café, it had a lot of hearty meals. “How do you order from the secret menu?” Harry whispered.

Just at that moment the brunette woman had come back and began asking for their meals. Severus ordered a plate of baked fish fillet with lemon and Harry asked for a plate of plain spaghetti noodles with no sauce. Just before the waitress could leave Severus had also asked for one more thing. “Say, would you also serve a dessert?”

The woman gave a suspicious, toothy smile as she turned around. “I dunno, would I?”

Severus held his pinky to the side of his nose and spoke with a monotone inflection. “It would be quite a treat.”

Harry couldn’t find any desserts on the menu. Strange, usually cafés are supposed to serve stuff like muffins or croissants, but here there were nothing but full meals. “Was that like, a password or something?”

“Yes, it’s a bit of an…underground business after all.”

The boy seemed confused. “Underground business…wait like, is this place illegal?”

“Technically by ministry law, you’re not supposed to serve any magic world dishes in an eatery that also allows muggles.” Another, much younger waitress came by, putting down a glass of water and apple juice. Severus took a sip of his glass before he continued talking, “If you’re a restaurant owner and get caught you could get arrested, with a café they are a bit more lenient though and simply close down the establishment.”

“Ooh! That explains some stuff.” Harry nodded and took a strong swig of his juice. “But it also makes me wonder some stuff…Sev, how come the ministry wants to separate the magic world and the muggle world?”

The man with long hair went silent for a while, staring out at the garden. “Fear, I suppose.”

“Huh…?”

“A lot of things can happen when people who don’t have any magical abilities find out that others with it exist…sometimes very bad things.” Severus circled the rim of his glass, a quiet melodic sound emitting from it. “There are some that are fine with it, but others will fear you and condemn you, even if you’re family…” He thought of Lily, back when she was young…he thought of Petunia, who Lily still held somewhere in her heart even in adulthood.

“Sounds like you’re speaking from experience, haha…” Harry joked with a nervous laugh.

“...”...He thought of his father.

The air was quiet and uncomfortable for a while, luckily it was soon warmed up as their meals were brought over.

Harry took each individual noodle and slowly slurped them up, if he were at home his mother would likely nag about his eating habit being gross, but Severus didn’t seem to mind. The older man seemed more fascinated, with perhaps a hint of gross out in the back of his mind.

Severus offered a few bites of his fillet but Harry refused, he wasn’t great with meaty foods. Not that he was a vegetarian or anything…or maybe he was? He doesn’t really enjoy the texture of meat, it tends to feel weird in his mouth, especially if it’s really fatty and greasy. He does enjoy dry meat however, like beef jerky.

Harry offered a whole fork’s worth of noodles, to which the older man agreed. Severus took a bite and underestimated just how chewy those things really were, it took him a while before he could swallow it down. Harry giggled as Severus’ cheeks looked like that of a chipmunk.

Finally the dessert was brought. The empty plates were taken away and a small bowl with pudding cookies was put on their table instead.

Harry inspected the cookies, not finding anything out of the ordinary with them. He bit a small piece off and found himself enjoying the sweet, soft treat…Wait…Wait what the…

The pudding filling inside was slowly oozing out, Harry tried to stop it but it kept flowing out and slowly bent up. 

A face formed from the levitating pudding mixture. “Wow…What…” It appeared like the pudding was a slime monster of sorts. The filling continuously blinked with its faux eyeballs. “Uh, Sev, are we allowed to eat-” Harry’s words died in his throat as he saw Sev chewing off the head of the pudding slime which grew back each time.

“Go ahead, their head is the most delicious part.” Severus urged, chewing the head yet again. “Personally I prefer these with a berry flavor, but vanilla is fine too.”

Harry took a long look at his cookie before giving it a small test by licking it. The slime seemed into it and rubbed against Harry’s tongue, giving a pleasant yet creepy sensation.