Another little plot bunny hopping playfully around in my mind. As you might know about me, there's just something about a man that's sick that just makes my heart melt. Since I love poor Severus so much, he gets to be the puppet for my twisted little games.

Note: I tried to keep the characters in Canon, but it's a little difficult when you're writing a somewhat fluffy story and Severus Snape is involved. Hopefully, I didn't stray too far from the path.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. As much as I wish I did, JK Rowling (that wonderful genius) came up with it first. How? I obviously don't know, otherwise I wouldn't be sitting here writing my own sad little stories, trying to pass myself off as a writer.

On with the story!

It had finally happened. In all his years of residing at Hogwarts, he had so far escaped each and every year unscathed. He couldn't tell anybody, or he'd never hear the end of it; except for the fact that his wife was the most perceptive witch in all of Hogwarts.

Severus Snape had caught a cold.

He had woken up that morning feeling quite different. Rising from bed, his body felt achy and sore, familiar only to the times when he had returned home from one of his more violent encounters in his Death Eater days. But of course those days were behind him now; the Dark Lord had been vanquished over four years ago. So what would leave him feeling as if he'd been run over by a Hippogriff?

Shuffling to the adjoining bathroom, he took a good look in the mirror. His hair was mussed up as if he'd been tossing and turning all night. Although it was difficult to detect, he seemed a bit paler than normal. However, most startling was the fact that though he was pale, there was a slight flush to his cheeks.

Turning his face this way and that, he tried to discern any other physical abnormalities. Detecting none, he proceeded back towards the bedrooms, deciding to forgo his normal morning shower. He shivered as he divested his night shirt and boxers, reaching in his dark, cherry wood armoire for his normal teaching robes. Noticing his hands were a bit shaky as he attempted the numerous buttons lining his overcoat, he tried to shake it off as he cleared his throat.

Now that was strange. What was that peculiar feeling?

Clearing his throat again, it felt rough and raw as though he had recently downed a shot of Ogden's finest. He was about to attempt to clear his throat yet again when a tickle in his nose caught him unaware. All of a sudden, a violent sneeze erupted through him.

Oh Dear Merlin.

With another sudden sneeze, he became aware of the dull throb in his head.

Bloody brilliant.

There was no denying that he had indeed caught a cold. He hadn't been sick since his days as a child. Colds were for the weak, he simply didn't believe in staying in bed all day due to something as silly as the sniffles. However, he knew that his wife would most certainly disagree. All those years spent with Potter had landed her enough visits to the Infirmary, both as patient as well as visitor. She would have no objections to babying him, perhaps even insisting that he take the day off from classes.

No, that simply would not do.

Going back into his armoire he eyed the black cashmere scarf that been a Christmas gift from years back. While he wasn't one for changing his wardrobe, he decided it may help deter his wife from detecting any trace of this blasted cold. Deciding it was the lesser of two evils; he donned the scarf and took one last look into the mirror before he exited the bedroom to join his wife for breakfast.

"Good morning Severus, you're ready earlier than normal," Hermione greeted him with a smile as he entered their kitchen.

He grunted in reply as he grabbed a steaming cup of black coffee and took a seat at the table.

"That's a nice scarf you've got there," she continued with a grin, "any special occasion?"

Grabbing a couple of slices of toast, she came over to the table to sit next to him. She began to butter a slice, slathering some blackberry jam on it; just the way he liked. However, this morning it seemed all he could stomach was the coffee. The thought of eating made his insides churn.

He discreetly cleared his throat. "Changing one's outward appearance from time to time is a subtle way to keep students on their toes."

He inwardly winced at how rough his voice sounded. His normally deep, rich baritone was laced through with a hoarse scratchiness. Hoping his wife wouldn't notice, he kept his face indifferent.

It however, did not go unnoticed by Hermione. Immediately, her face changed to a mask of concern.

"Sev, are you okay? What's up?"

He sighed. Crap.

"I just had a rough night last night," he rasped, "nothing to get worked up about."

She stood up and came over to him. Kneeling to his height, she looked him in the eye.

"Are you feeling okay?"

She put a hand on his forehand and gasped.

"Severus, you're burning up!"

He shrugged her off. "It's nothing. I'm fine."

She was not deterred however; peering at him more closely she began to grin.

"Severus Tobais Snape, have you caught a cold?"

He swiveled in his seat to face her completely, and fixed with her one of his most infamous glares.

"I do not catch colds."

However, at that moment another sneeze decided to erupt out of him.

Hermione burst into gales of laughter as Severus continued to stare at her sourly.

"Oh Sev, I know it's not funny, but it's so completely uncharacteristic of you!" Wiping her eyes, she attempted to adopt a more serious look. "But you really should stay home. If you're feeling under the weather, it would only make it worse if you attempted to teach classes today."

Severus snorted.

"Nonsense, I'm not going to let something like a silly little cold stop me from doing my job. Even back in my Death Eater days, I still never missed a class. This is nothing compared to some of the states I've taught in. If my students heard I took the day off for something ridiculous like this, I would lose my command of authority. I must appear infallible to those dunderheads, keep them on their toes."

Hermione gave him a knowing look.

"Really Hermione, I assure you it won't be a problem. Perhaps I will have them write essays or something. Merlin knows if I can handle Longbottom the morning after a raid, I can handle anything. Longbottom seemed even on his best day to rival the Bubonic Plague."

Hermione pursed her lips in disagreement as she began to clear the table of their breakfast dishes.

"Alright, but I want you to promise me that if you start to feel worse, you'll contact Minerva to have her take over classes for you."

It was a nearly impossible feat, but along with his ability to catch a cold it turned out Severus could sometimes also be wrong.

He was only in his second class, and it was a nightmare. He had attempted to continue as usual in the first class, and allowed them to try brewing a simple low strength Sleeping Draught. However, the ignorance of third year Hufflepuffs it seemed was not to be underestimated. Apparently one of the students, a boy by the name of Sparby Higgens, decided to add a little more than the required amount of the herb Valerian. Also, not only did he dice instead of thickly chop, therefore releasing more of the herb's sedative properties, he also added it three steps too early.

The result was that the strength-enhanced fumes caused Sparby to succumb to his own Sleeping Draught; right into the open face of his cauldron. It spilled over, causing his sleeping draught to spread quickly over floor of the dungeon, and thus spreading the fumes to other students. They too were victim to the noxious fumes, and proceeded to pass out into their cauldrons, which were boiling hot and in various states of completion. This caused most of the students to erupt into boils and burns.

Within minutes, Severus had a classroom full of passed out Hufflepuffs in various states of injury, and a sea of super strength sleeping draught covering the dungeon floor.

Severus sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

The only good thing about the situation it seemed was that he was so congested at this point that the fumes did not seem to affect him right away; however he did not think he would object at this point to a good, long nap.

"So Severus, I heard you manage to hospitalize twenty five Hufflepuff third years this morning? You're on quite a roll."

It was lunch time, and as usual Severus was seated next to his wife at the head table. He simply scowled at her while he continued to stir his soup, not really intending to consume any at all.

"Oh Sev, you know I'm just picking on you," she grinned, " You know you really brought this on yourself, insisting that you teach today when clearly you just need a good, long lie down."

Honestly, there was nothing more that Severus would rather have at this point, but he wasn't going to back down. Especially not in front of his wife.

"I think you're misdirecting the source of ignorance here my dear. There is only so much you can do for the hopeless, and let's face it, those Hufflepuff third years are going nowhere fast."

"Oh Sev," Hermione swatted him on the shoulder playfully, "Eat your soup."

Severus grinned.

Point one for male Snape. Female Snape: zero.

Finally it was the last class of the day. It seemed the day was really starting to take its toll on him. He was exhausted, his headache seemed to have multiplied, he was hot and cold every other minute, and he was so congested that he dare not speak lest he became the object of ridicule by his N.E.W.T. level students.

Although he swore not to allow any more brewing for the rest of the day due to the incident that morning, the seventh years were currently working on an independent potions study which had them in various states of work. However, since they were working silently on their own, he didn't see the harm in allowing them to continue. On the contrary, this allowed him to sit at his desk and grade papers. Well, pretend to grade papers. At this point, he was simply struggling to stay awake.

He wrapped his overcoat around him tightly and sniffed discreetly. The end of the day could not come any sooner. He even considered taking his wife up on that offer of allowing him a nice long lie down, and perhaps a nice hot cup of tea as well…

"Professor Snape?"

Hearing his name, his head snapped upwards to be greeted by the sight of one of his female students raising their hand.

"I just had a question about the influence of stirring clockwise versus counter-clockwise at this point. I was wondering if you could take a look at my notes."

Severus sighed and stood up. Whoa. It seemed that he stood a little too quickly as his vision started to become fuzzy. Stumbling backwards, he reached out to steady himself.

"Miss Clark, go and tell the other Professor Snape that I request she…"

"What?"

She looked confused as Severus's vision continued to blur.

"Professor Granger-Snape! Tell her I need her…to…come…."

"Excuse me? Sir?"

But Severus didn't respond as he began to see spots swimming in and out. Suddenly, his balance was thrown off as the floor appeared to rush upwards to greet him as his vision went black.

"Oh Severus…I told you."

Who was that? Her voice seemed so far away.

Where was he? Wasn't he helping Miss Clark with her independent potion study? Why was he lying down?

"…didn't eat….day….drink.."

"…burning up…wonder…..exhausted."

He could hear two voices around him speaking. Wait, one of them was Hermione! What was Hermione doing down in his potions classroom?

"I…...should…home….take...dungeons."

The dungeons! That's where he should be! Why wasn't here there?

With a struggle, Severus opened his eyes. The fuzzy outline of what appeared to be the hospital wing faded in and out.

Suddenly, Hermione seemed to lean over him, her face laced with concern.

"Oh Severus….told you…"

He tried to speak, but his throat was so raspy that he erupted into a coughing fit, struggling to catch his breath.

Finally, when it was over he closed his eyes, deciding just to rest them for the time being. That's all he was doing, just resting his eyes until he could end class for the day and head back down to the dungeons…

When Severus finally awoke, it seemed he was back in his own bed. He was covered with perspiration, and seemed to be underneath the weight of at least three quilts.

Glancing to his left, he saw Hermione sitting on their overstuffed arm chair, her knees tucked under and her glasses perched on the end of her nose as she continued to read her book.

"H-Hermione."

He winced as his voice still sounded raspy.

Immediately, Hermione crossed the room to meet him at his bedside.

"Oh good, you're finally awake."

"W-what happened?"

Hermione gave him a teasingly severe look. "You were in the middle of seventh year potions when apparently you passed out. Miss Clark informed me that before you fell over you requested she come get me, which she did. You're lucky you didn't crack your head open."

Severus groaned as he sank down into the covers, "Oh dear Merlin, I'll never hear the end of this."

"You're too right you won't", continued Hermione, "I told you that you should have stayed home Severus. You didn't eat, and barely drank anything all day! You were dehydrated, weak, and running a dangerous fever. It's a wonder you didn't pass out sooner."

Guiltily, he glanced up at his wife. He sneezed once, and coughed pitifully.

Sighing, she pulled off her glasses and smiled down at him.

"Oh, what am I going to do with you."

Severus tried his best to attempt a smirk, "Oh I know a couple of things you could do with me."

She leaned over as she swatted the covers, "Not in this state. Right now what you need is a bowl of hot soup and some more Pepper-Up potion."

Severus quirked his eyebrow, "Maybe I could get my naughty nurse Hermione to serve it to me."

She laughed as she started towards the door, "Maybe I'll see what I can find in our closet. As Transfiguration Professor, I shouldn't have any troubles finding at least something to put on."

Severus snuggled back against his pillows, "Well, at least there are perks to this whole, being-taken-care-of thing."

Hermione laughed.

"I thought you didn't catch colds Severus?"

"Well, as we've seen this afternoon, even I can be wrong every once in a awhile."

Hope you enjoyed it! Please leave a review, let me know what you think or what else you may like to see in the future! Thanks for reading!