AN: This story was once again developed out of a conversation. This time we were discussion the "Calling You Names" story. Yen commented on Severus calling Harry Button, and it went from there. I hope you enjoy! Ree

Button

By: YenGirl and Sheankelor

Severus rolled over in bed and groaned. Well, groaned as much as his stuffy, aching head allowed. The cold that had started making its presence known yesterday at lunch was here, and a full blown one it was.

Running a hand over his face, he sighed. 'The Pepper Up I took last night wasn't effective.'

Cracking open one eye, he peered into the thick darkness that blanketed his bedroom. It was a Saturday, which meant no lessons, just meals to get through. 'The staff meeting after breakfast. I almost forgot.'

Severus decided he would go up to the Great Hall for breakfast and then let Albus and Minerva know at the same time that he was going to stay in his quarters for the rest of the day. He knew that they would excuse him and that one of them would update him later on what was discussed in the meeting.

Sitting up with another groan, Severus triggered the spell that lit up his room. He swung his legs to the floor and reached for the two vials on the nightstand, fingers pausing over the Pepper-Up for a moment as he considered the vial behind it. 'Since I am not going to be responsible for anyone but myself today, I can take it. It will definitely work.'

Decision made, he picked up the extra strength Pepper-Up and stumbled out to his sitting-room. This was one potion that was not to be taken on an empty stomach. He found the tin of wheat crackers he kept there for snacking during long grading nights and ate two before downing the potion. He ate another two once the steam stopped shooting out of his ears and felt better almost at once. His head was less stuffy although his joints still ached.

Taking a deep breath, Severus went back to his bedroom to get ready for the day.

It took longer than usual for him to get to the Great Hall. He was careful not to look right or left as he made his way to the staff table and sat in his usual seat, noting that Albus and Minerva weren't there.

Breakfast would be an exercise in caution, he knew. One had to be very careful with the extra strength Pepper-Up as it reacted with many different foods in unusual ways. 'No sugar or sweet foods for now.' He loaded his plate with toast, bacon and eggs, skipping the fruit he would typically include. His tea, which he normally added a teaspoon of sugar to, was drunk with none.

It wasn't until he had finished eating that Severus realized Minerva and Albus still hadn't appeared. They must have eaten earlier or had breakfast sent to their quarters. 'I'll have to catch up with them in the staff room and then slip out before the meeting starts.'

Pouring himself another cup of tea, he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, hoping the potion would get rid of his cold soon.

-o-

Fred nudged his twin and tilted his head at the staff table. "Look. I reckon Professor Snape is under the weather today."

George glanced up at the head table before looking back at his twin. "He has probably taken a Pepper-Up for it already."

Fred smiled mischievously. "Probably, but a Cheering Charm never hurt anyone. Mom always did that –"

"When we were under the weather," George agreed, his eyes lighting up. "Worked wonderfully, and we –"

"Always healed faster," Fred finished. "And as a bonus, we'll –"

"Finally get to see him smile!"

Decision made, they turned back to their plates with matching grins. George nudged his twin when Professor Snape got up from the staff table. They left after he did and followed him, staying a safe distance behind. When Professor Snape went down another corridor that they knew lead to the staff room, they doubled back, used a shortcut hidden by a tapestry and emerged behind a suit of armor, twenty feet in front of the unaware Potions Master.

"Perfect timing," Fred whispered, drawing his wand.

George did the same. "It might take two, it is Snape."

In unison, they cast a double Cheering Charm on the normally grumpy professor. The first smile lit up the man's face just as he passed by them.

Fred and George had their hands tightly clamped over their mouths, careful not to make a sound. Being caught by Snape was not something they wanted, no matter how good their intentions were.

-o-

Severus was doing his best to stride along the corridor instead of trudge, to billow instead of sway. That was another unfortunate side effect of the extra strength Pepper-Up; it sapped your energy. Ten feet away from the staff room, he felt a small tingle starting in his abdomen and spreading throughout the rest of his body.

'I didn't eat anything with sugar. I know I didn't. Why am I having this tingling response? I need to hurry up and let Albus and Minerva know that I will not be available today.'

Speeding up his pace, Severus made it to the staff room door before the tingles rose up to his head.

- o -

Five minutes later…

The staff room door opened and Albus came in beaming, blue eyes twinkling as usual. The other faculty members were already seated around the long, oval table, but Severus came forward to greet him, arms out wide.

"Albush, dearie. How niceeesh to shee you..."

Albus blinked at the slurring and the greeting, both were equally unexpected.

"My dear boy," he frowned. "What have you been drinking?"

Severus blinked owlishly at him.

"Nothing. 'cepth a poshen for my cold."

"It would appear to have had a different kind of effect," Albus remarked, taking a prudent step back. He would be the first to admit that he was a very touchy feely kind of person, and he had been waiting for years for his taciturn Potions Professor to be even half this approachable, but -

"Dearie, why're you shtanding sho far away?" Severus asked, lurching forward and almost stumbling on his robes.

... but he wasn't going anywhere near a Severus who called him 'dearie'. Or one who stumbled on the hem of his robes.

Quick footsteps sounded behind him and Minerva bustled into the room.

"My apologies for my tardiness, Headmaster," she said briskly before nodding to the rest of the faculty. When her gaze landed on Severus, she blinked. It wasn't that she hadn't seen the Potions Master before, just that she had never seen him smile this wide.

"Severus, are you all right?" she asked.

"Pe'fectly sho, beautiful. Give ush a khiss, won't you?"

Just like Albus, Minerva took a step back, eyes narrowing in suspicion as she looked at the Headmaster and then around the table. The twinkle in Albus' eyes - now that he wasn't the object of Severus' attention – was bright enough to light up the entire city of London. Rolanda was shaking silently, her eyes tiny slits of mirth. Pomona beside her, was leaning on her, a plump hand clapped over her mouth and tears leaking out of both eyes. Filch's eyes were open, but he was wheezing and displaying his discoloured teeth with distressing clarity. Filius seemed to have stuffed an entire fist inside his mouth, his other arm wrapped around his middle as he rocked back and forth on his heels, standing as he usually did on his chair. Aurora had buried her face in Poppy's shoulder, her own shoulders shaking.

"Severus has been a bit out of sorts since he came in five minutes ago, Minerva," Poppy said, taking pity on the bewildered Deputy Headmistress. The medi witch's voice was trembling with laughter, her cheeks flushed pink. "Started using all sorts of endearments on us."

Minerva blinked. "Endearments? On all of you?" Any would have been astounding enough.

Filius nodded and removed his fist from his mouth. He cleared his throat, but a stray giggle managed to escape.

"I am 'my boy'," he started, moustache quivering with what Minerva decided was glee. "Poppy is 'sweetheart', Pomona 'honey', Argus 'pumpkin', Hooch 'love' and Albus 'dearie'. You, Minerva, are 'beautiful'."

Stunned, Minerva spun around to stare again at Severus who was smiling beatifically at her.

"He must have been hit with a hex," she declared and took another step back when Severus advanced on her.

"Jush a poshen for my cold, beautiful," Severus said. "Come give ush a hug..."

Everyone erupted in hilarity again, leaning on each other at the sight of a tight lipped Minerva walking briskly around the staff table, followed by a just as briskly moving Severus, robes billowing. The pace was fast enough that Pomona had to put a hand on her report, the top page was flapping wildly.

The sound of a loud knock ended the impromptu parade and swiveled everyone's head towards the door.

"Enter," Albus called out weakly, clutching his sides and leaning against the wall, almost slipping down it.

The door opened and the messy head of Harry Potter poked in. Everyone immediately sat up straighter in the presence of a student, Albus noting the riveted stare Severus was now giving The Boy Who Lived.

"My Transfiguration homework, Professor McGonagall," Potter said, waving a scroll of parchment.

"At last, Mr. Potter," Minerva said and stepped past Severus to take it.

Potter handed her the scroll with a sheepish smile. He nodded at Albus and the rest of the teachers, forehead puckering a bit at their pink cheeks and wide grins. His puzzled gaze lingered a tiny bit longer on Severus before he shook his head and ducked out of the room.

"Button?"

Potter appeared in the doorway again. He frowned at Severus whose grin was wide enough to rival Lockhart's on a good day.

"Uhm, Snape?"

"Professor Snape, Harry," Albus reminded him. He had straightened up, his twinkling eyes taking on a shrewd look as they shifted between Potter and the Potions Master.

Potter glanced at him and then at the others again, his frown deepening at the suspicious red faces and moist eyes. He turned back to Severus.

"Professor?" he asked.

"Button. Don't go. Not yet."

Potter's green eyes went round behind his clunky glasses.

"'Button'?" he asked blankly before looking down at his shirt as if expecting to see something amiss . Then he looked up again and leaned back, Severus was standing right in front of him.

"I don't see any buttons missing... sir," Potter said.

Severus shook his head and smiled, a strangely indulgent smile.

"Noooooo," he said, thin lips forming an 'o' shape as he dragged out the word, making Potter blink a few times more. "You are button."

A pin drop silence, stunning in its purity, ensued.

"You, Potter, are as cute as a button," Severus crooned.

The pin drop silence grew louder.

"You are my button."

In the now deafening silence, Potter's eyes certainly resembled two round green buttons as he stared up at Severus, cheeks pink and mouth open.

"You always have been," Severus confessed, shoulders moving in a tiny, diffident shrug.

"Oh my," Pomona whispered, one hand pressed to her chest.

"I always thought it was Lily," Minerva whispered.

Albus' eyes were twinkling brighter than ever. "Ah, Severus. The knut has dropped at last."

Potter blinked and then he snapped his mouth shut and looked indignant.

"What are you playing at, Snape?" he demanded, his gaze sliding past Severus to take in the stunned looks of the faculty.

"S-Snape?" he stammered as Severus took another step forward, closing the gap between them to a mere six inches.

"My button," Severus whispered.

Something flashed across Potter's face, a dawning of something not quite understanding, but close to it. When Severus lowered his head however, that look vanished. Potter squeaked, took a step backward and then another and then he disappeared.

"Button!" Severus went after him.

- o -

Albus was the first to move after Severus had left the staff room. He went out, closed, locked and warded the staff room door before following the sounds of the pounding footsteps in the distance and the shout of 'Button! Come back!'

He found Severus and Harry standing in the middle of a deserted corridor, staring at each other, but not speaking. Severus raised a hand but let it fall when Harry shook his head and took a step back.

"Severus," Albus said quietly.

The Potions Master didn't turn around, but Harry did, his eyes still wide.

"Professor Dumbledore, what's gotten into Snape?"

Albus came closer and smiled at him.

"Professor Snape is not feeling well, Harry. I must ask you not to – "

"Button, I love you!"

"W-What?!"

"Stupefy!"

- o -

An hour later…

Severus lay on the sofa, the wet flannel that Dearie had put over his forehead dripping little trails of cold water down the sides of his face. He was sure it wouldn't help his loss of control, but Dearie - Albus- had insisted. He couldn't refuse the man, not after what had happened in the corridor outside with Potter.

Now that he was finally alone, Severus could focus on what was happening in his mind.

He had been fine at breakfast, and even on his way to the staff room. 'Wait - that tingling I felt. Could someone have had the audacity to hex me then? But what spell would make me act like that?'

Sinking deeper into the sofa with the soft crackling of the fire for company, he ran all the curses and hexes he had experienced through his mind, analyzing their possible outcomes for the symptoms that he had experienced earlier in the staff room, especially after he had ingested that extra strength Pepper-Up. He refused to think about what had happened outside with Button just yet.

Speaking of Button... Severus groaned and shook his head, the flannel slipping just a bit. 'They know now. All of them know the names I use for them. Names that have up until now have only been in my head.'

When he was little, he had had a habit of using endearments with everyone. He had learned the habit from his Granny Snape while she watched him before he had started school. Mother and Father worked most of the day, so she kept him, and she never called anyone by their real names. He was 'Poppet', Mother had been 'Sweetie', and Father had been 'Baby'.

Severus didn't even realize how people would take to being called an endearment by a child until he had started school. It was then that he taught himself not to use them. It was hard since Granny continued to take care of him in the afternoons, but he had succeeded in learning not to vocalizing them.

All that was gone now.

For years, decades even, Severus had managed to keep those words locked behind his shields, especially after his magic came out and his happy home life took a turn for the worse. All it took was the unexpected combination of an extra strong potion and a hex to make him happy and relaxed enough to babble out the words that he had religiously guarded all this time. 'Happy enough... A Cheering Charm! It had to be that.'

Levering himself off the sofa, he let the flannel fall into his hands before he placed it over the arm of the chair, and went in search of Potions & Spells - What Works and What Won't. It took less than a minute to confirm that he had been hit with either a very strong Cheering Charm or a double one.

Albus' finite must have canceled the Cheering Charm along with the Stunner since Severus wasn't feeling remotely cheerful now. Narrowing his eyes, he glared at the stack of parchments that were awaiting the red ink bath that was to come. He would find out which one of the dunderheads had done this to him, and then they would learn just how bad a detention he could assign.

-o-

The next day, Severus made his way to the staff room, his tattered pride wrapped about him like a cloak. He was fully recovered from his cold, but dreading the meeting Dearie had insisted take place here instead of in the Headmaster's office.

A quick glance about the room showed Severus who was there. Honey was reading a Magical Plant care guide and he wondered what she had convinced Dearie to allow her to add to the greenhouses. It might be something he could use in a potion.

Love was watching him carefully, as was My Boy, amusement lurking in both their eyes. Luckily, Sweetheart and Pumpkin weren't present; Severus didn't want to hear anything from Sweetheart about self-medication, while Pumpkin had had enough laughs at his expense and had no doubt relayed every single word to Mrs. Norris.

Beautiful and Dearie were both waiting at the large table for him. Sweeping a glare that promised retribution if there was a comment, a snicker, or anything about what had occurred yesterday, Severus swept across the room to the table.

He felt a collective sigh of relief when he settled at the table and nodded to Dearie. "What did I miss yesterday, Albus?"

- o -

On Monday afternoon, after the 6th years' Double Potions...

"Class dismissed. Stay back, Mr. Potter."

The words that had always caused Severus pleasure in the past held no appeal now. Granted, he would be alone with his Button, but he had a very difficult apology to make and that would take all the enjoyment out of the next few minutes. He looked down at the potion vials filled with varying shades of purple liquid that the students had turned in, waiting for the packing of books and shuffling of feet to end.

When quiet reigned, Severus looked up to find that everyone else had left. Button stood in front of his desk, hands shoved into his trouser pockets and green eyes regarding him warily.

Severus took a deep breath and squared his shoulders.

"My apologies, Mr. Potter, for what happened on Saturday morning," he said stiffly. "I give you my word it will not happen again. I would... appreciate... it if you didn't disclose it to anyone."

When Button stared at him without speaking, Severus pressed his lips together. Dearie must have told Button about this forthcoming apology. Severus would never admit it, but he was grateful to Dearie's fast reflexes that things hadn't gotten out of hand. The old coot had stupefied him before he could kiss the boy.

Still, this was Button's one chance to get his revenge for all the years of point deductions, detention and caustic remarks that Snape had forced himself to heap on him because of his role as spy. He wouldn't – couldn't blame Button if he chose to laugh in his face and sneer at his loss of control.

Instead, the brat took one step closer.

"Which part did you regret, Professor?"

"What do you mean?" Severus' voice was sharper than he had intended.

Button didn't seem to notice, taking another step closer until his thighs were touching the desk, green eyes intent.

"Which part did you regret, that you thought of me as Button, or that you called me Button to my face?"

Severus opened his mouth and closed it again. He swallowed. Choosing either one would implicate him for good. He should snarl at Bu - Potter for his cheek and throw him out of his classroom after making him swear a Blood Oath never to speak of this again.

Potter placed his hands on the desk and leaned forward, closing the gap between them to a foot.

"I hope it's neither," the boy admitted, green eyes lowering to peep up at him through thick eyelashes.

Severus swallowed again.

"Why?" he found himself asking. His heart beat faster when Potter smiled and leaned closer still, breath warm and sweet on Severus' face.

"Because I don't mind being Button. Just for you."