Title: Bow Before A War
Summary: Everyone knows that Severus Snape and Sirius Black still hate each other, even after the war. Or do they?
Characters/Pairings: Severus/Sirius
Genre: AU
Rating/Warnings: PG
Medium: Fic
Word Count: 1017
Can the Order post to Tumblr?: Yes
If yes, your Tumblr username: monkiainen
Notes: For hp_goldenage
Some things never changed. Like the fact that Severus Snape and Sirius Black had been enemies ever since they'd started Hogwarts, and it was never going to change. Several individuals had tried to make the two most stubborn wizards of their generation see sense but to no avail. In a nutshell, things were quite volatile between Misters Snape and Black.
Or at least that's what they wanted everyone else to think.
* * *
It was a gloomy and rainy Sunday - perfect weather for grading Potions essays in front of the fireplace. Too bad they were the First Year's essays, which were notoriously bad. It was as though the students had never opened a Potions handbook before, let alone listened to what Severus was telling them in class. Such dunderheads.
At least the youngest Potter boy showed some aptitude in Potions - maybe it was because the boy was sorted into Slytherin instead of Gryffindor. Severus would never, of course, admit that aloud to anyone, not even to himself. Speaking of Gryffindors… their Head of House should be there any minute so they could talk about yet another incident by one his Weasleys. What was it with the Weasleys and Potions classes anyway? The only Weasley so far who had even slightly understood the intricacies of potion brewing had been Bill Weasley, and even that was an understatement.
"Open the door, you greasy bastard, before I blow it from its hinges!"
Ah. Black. This time the mutt was only ten minutes late for their meeting, which was an improvement over the twenty minutes last week. Didn't the hairball own a clock? Severus suspected the lateness was just to annoy him even more, but he wouldn't give Black the satisfaction of ever acknowledging it. Severus had standards, after all.
A flick of his wand and the door to his chambers opened silently. Too bad the mutt was still banging it and, as a result, Severus's floor was now filled with a pile remotely resembling a Hogwarts professor. Another flick and door closed itself, leaving Severus patiently waiting for the infuriating Gryffindor to say something.
A smile broke onto Sirius's face, and soon he was laughing his heart out, still rolling on the floor. Severus smiled as well, only a tiny bit, but even he had to admit Sirius's entrance had been one of the funnier ones. Sirius collected himself and got off the floor, only to sit next to Severus in the comfortable loveseat right in front of the fireplace.
"Think we've fooled them?" Sirius asked after a while, his mouth in a perpetual grin. Severus grinned in return, kissing his husband in earnest. It was quite fun, even after all these years, to have people think they hated each other's guts, when in reality Severus and Sirius have been married for the past ten years. It was a miracle their secret had stayed undiscovered for so long - all it took was to someone to check the official marital records held at the Ministry and everyone would know Sirius Black was actually Sirius Snape these days.
There was a certain kind of satisfaction in fooling everyone, even Minerva, who usually saw and knew everything. Maybe it was because most of their adult lives they both had had to deal with the fact their lives weren't exactly their own. Severus because he had become a spy for the Order and was forced to serve two very different kinds of masters; Sirius because he had been cruelly betrayed by someone he thought as his friend and as a result had spent most of his adult life in Azkaban. But now that they were finally free, no masters left to serve, no one to prove their innocence to over and over again, they could do whatever they wished.
And if Severus and Sirius wanted the world to think they still hated each other after all these years, then let it be so.
Sirius started getting impatient: meticulous work had never been his thing, which was probably why he disliked grading his students' essays for Transfiguration. It was much, much easier to tell the students how they could (illegally) become Animagi if they practiced enough and were concentrated on their goal. This was probably why Severus graded the essays on Sirius's behalf, and as a result, the students thought of Sirius as a very cool but strict professor. Kind of like Minerva, Sirius liked to think. Severus usually rolled his eyes at that point and told Sirius to get his head out from his arse and start being serious. (To which Sirius always replied that he was already Sirius, how he could be even more Sirius than he already was? After the first 50 times Severus didn't find it so funny any more.)
"If you want to do something useful for a change, you could always strip and prepare yourself while I read the rest of this garbage. Can you believe that Pansy Parkinson's daughter thinks that bezoar is just another fancy rock her mother fancies? Why I suffer from these dunderheads I have no idea," Severus muttered to himself, waiting for Sirius's reaction.
Predictably Sirius wasted no time to move to their bedroom and do the thing Severus had just suggested. Still, it was nice to know that, even after being together for so long, the mere prospect of sex made Sirius obey quite nicely. If only the mutt would wear the collar Severus had got him a few Christmases ago… well, one could only hope.
A few dreadful essays later, Severus deemed the rest of the pile even more hopeless than the ones he had already read. It was time to join his husband and enjoy a night together. Of course, if anyone should ask why Sirius had spent the night in his chambers (no one would, because they were quite keen to stay alive and whole) Severus would tell them that Black had refused to listen to common sense once again and Severus had spent the night arguing with the irrefutable man. And no one would question that, because everyone knows Severus Snape and Sirius Black hated each other's guts.