HP: It's a snake, not a badger.

Chapter 206 Extra: Death Line 3

"Where have you been staying these past few days?" Severus suspected that Emeric had been treated like a pet for three days, probably just pitifully curled up on the sofa.

"Sleep on the sofa..." Emeric nuzzled the man's head, placed his hand on his waist, and took a deep breath, letting the fragrance fill his nostrils. "I missed you so much."

"Don't whine, it's only been three days." Severus said this, but placed his hand on Emeric's hand and gently stroked it to soothe his cat.

The two huddled in a corner, watching Snape and Thaddeus's antics, especially when they realized Snape wasn't resisting; Thaddeus laughed as if it were worthless.

Severus yawned silently. He hadn't slept well for several days and was already at his limit. He just wanted to hold Emerick and sleep. He had to interrupt, "Can I use the storage room next door? I need to rest."

Snape then noticed that there were other people in the room, and couldn't help but feel annoyed; he wasn't usually like this. His wariness of Thaddeus increased. He nodded and said, "Okay, but you'll have to clean up yourselves." There were many things inside.

Soon, the living room was filled with a bunch of shrunken items, and Severus was already asleep in bed. Emeric was still tidying up, once again thanking his hoarding tendencies, and soon the entire room was decorated to their liking.

He also wanted to make room for the two outside so as not to disturb their time together. He guessed that the purpose of this time travel was probably to bring the two together, or to give Snape the will to live and stop him from acting so indifferent to life and death.

The next day

A faint fragrance wafted from the living room, seeping into the bedroom through the crack in the door. Snape jolted awake, suddenly remembering that he wasn't alone in the cellar. Two people lived in the storeroom next door, and Thaddeus lived in the newly opened room next to it.

Emeric placed two bowls of sour soup wontons on the table, along with two sandwiches and four shrimp dumplings. He had made them according to Severus's taste, and he was sure the other two wouldn't dislike them.

The aroma of food roused Thaddeus and Snape, while Severus remained fast asleep in bed. Emeric nodded to them, nudged their belongings aside, and then went into the room to wake the men.

"He can actually cook?" Snape looked incredulous. The elves at Hogwarts couldn't make these things. The sweet shrimp and meat filling was mixed with crunchy water chestnuts, and he ate all four in one go.

Suddenly, two more appeared in front of him. Seeing that he liked them, Thaddeus simply pushed his own plate over to him. He only needed to eat two to taste them. Thaddeus planned to find another one to learn from, hoping to mold Snape into someone like Severus, soft and gentle instead of covered in thorns.

"I want spicy food for lunch." Severus ate his wontons slowly. The sour taste was particularly appetizing, which whetted his appetite. He especially wanted to eat spicy food.

But Emeric wouldn't go along with him this time. Yesterday, he checked the supplies in the ring and found that there weren't many snacks left. He guessed that Severus hadn't eaten a proper meal in the past few days and had been surviving entirely on these snacks.

"No, you haven't been eating properly for days. Eating anything spicy will give you a stomachache. Let's wait until tomorrow. Today we'll eat something light, and tomorrow we'll have some beef salad, and some shrimp and omelet, okay?"

"Alright."

Severus knew he couldn't argue with Emeric on this matter, so he could only grimace and agree, reluctantly accepting it for the sake of only one day, otherwise Emeric would definitely make a scene.

Snape and Thaddeus remained silent, simply holding their sandwiches and slowly eating, while also looking forward to lunch.

"I'm going to class later. Severus, remember to take a break after you've been working for a while," Emeric said subconsciously, earning a roll of his eyes in return.

"Use your cat brain," Severus reached out and pinched Emeric's cheek. "We're not from this timeline, we don't have to go to work."

A single sentence pierced Snape's heart, and he began to mock, "Ha, I wouldn't trust him to teach." With that, he flicked his sleeves and walked out, his fluttering cloak hitting Emeric's leg. He inexplicably felt that he had lost, that no one would teach his class in his place.

A plump owl landed on the window, and Thaddeus took the letters off its feet. They were all his work; even when he came out to play, he still had to work.

Emeric held Severus with a smug look on his face. It felt so good not to have to work, and even better to watch others work. He took out a cookbook and leisurely flipped through it, while also handing the man a collection of essays. The two of them sat on the sofa and rested.

When Snape returned and saw them all so relaxed, he really wanted to yell at them, especially since he had just been annoyed by the little monsters who had dealt with countless explosions in one class period.

"This is not a coffee shop. You two are being extremely insolent."

"Sorry, but I don't need to work." Severus glanced at Snape, offering a particularly perfunctory apology. He continued, "Allie, I want a chocolate Swiss roll. Can you find the ingredients?"

"Hmm... I'll go check the kitchen later. Is it okay if we don't make cheese rolls?" Emeric wasn't sure, suspecting that the kitchen here could only make traditional British dishes. It took him a long time to gather the ingredients for the wontons, and he barely managed to make two bowls.

"Sure, if you really don't have any, just make me ice cream."

"I said, you two—" Snape slammed his book on the table in anger, making the papers bounce up, "Since you're staying here, pay my rent and finish grading these papers."

He believed in Severus's ability to both disgust the other and free himself. But Snape miscalculated; Severus glanced at Emeric, and someone else did the job for him.

Thaddeus watched silently as he handed Snape a cup of tea and asked him to sit down and rest. He suddenly had an innate talent for taking care of people and also handed him a fruit platter.

Snape wasn't stupid; he immediately realized this man was pursuing him. He found it ridiculous—no one would like a gloomy old man.

Emeric, sensing their thoughts, whispered to Severus, "Severus! Look at him, he immediately understands that Thaddeus is pursuing him."

"Heh, do you want me to calculate how old you were back then?"

"Never mind then..." Emeric felt a little guilty and quietly changed the subject, since it didn't sound very nice.

Snape raised an eyebrow upon hearing this. He hadn't expected Severus to be entangled with a brat. He had thought Emeric would be a bit older in their timeline, but it turned out they were exactly the same.

Thaddeus also found it amusing and planned to talk to Emerick after Snape left in the afternoon, hoping to learn from his methods of courtship. However, he figured it would be pointless; Snape and Severus looked almost completely different except for their faces.