Harry opened his eyes as the sound of muffled voices drifted into his ears. Turning his head towards the source of the noise, he saw two blurry shapes at the other end of the room.

“They’ll wake him if they don’t be quiet.” A voice Harry thought belonged to Hermione said.

“Let the medics tell them, I honestly don’t want to face mum when she’s in this mood.” said the voice which Harry recognized as Ron’s.

Harry started to ask what was going on when a wave of drowsiness hit him. Deciding that he was still too tired to care, Harry fell back into a dreamless sleep.

***

Outside the door of the hospital room, Molly Weasley was in a heated argument with her husband.

“Molly,” Arthur pleaded, “Could we just leave this for now?” seeing the looks that they were receiving from the people around them.

“Remus,” Molly fumed turning to the werewolf, “you are the closest thing that Harry’s got to a father now. You have to say something!”

Lupin shrugged his shoulders helplessly and said, “I think Harry would like to know the truth, Molly.”

Seeing that she had no support from them, Molly turned around and stalked off to the cafeteria followed by Ginny. Arthur smiled apologetically at the people gathered around the door. Everyone turned their heads when the door they were standing in front of cracked open and a face peeked out.

“Is it safe to come out now?” Ron asked and everyone laughed.

***

“So mum’s not happy about you wanting to tell Harry about Snape huh dad.” Ron remarked leaning against the door.

“Yes, but I feel that Harry should know the truth about Snape.” Mr. Weasley said tiredly.“After all, he is just staying a few doors down recovering from his injuries.”

‘So that’s what they were arguing’ Harry thought hearing the conversation through the open door.

***

Severus Snape lied in bed feigning sleep since he didn’t want anyone to come and engage him in conversation. He had expected the ministry to come swooping in on him anytime and hauled him to Azkaban for his crimes. Therefore, Snape did not even raise an eyebrow when he heard the door open and someone came into the room. It was probably a medic coming in to check on him.

Snape heard his visitor come in and sat down in the chair beside his bed. Finally, Snape gave in to his curiosity and opened his eyes to look at who it was that had come to sit at his bedside, since the last time he checked; he didn’t have anyone who could constitute as a friend.

Sitting beside his bed in a hospital gown and a bathrobe was the last person he wanted to see: Harry Potter.

“Come to finish me off, Potter.” Snape drawled. “I assure you that a simple spell would finish me off quite easily,” gesturing to himself.

“I didn’t come to kill you.” Harry said quietly, “I came to find the truth.”

Snape scoffed and looked at the ceiling, “You know the truth already Potter. I’m a Death Eater. I was on his side all along, only Dumbledore was fool enough to believe in me.” Snape said.

“Then why did you save me?” Harry asked looking intently at his former professor, “You could have just left me to die.”

Snape didn’t know how to respond, the Potter boy wasn’t supposed to know that it was him who had found him on the battlefield and carried him to the field medics after the Dark Lord had been defeated. Those Weasleys must have let it slip, he should have known better than to trust them to keep a secret.

“Look,” Harry tried again, rubbing his head where a headache was starting to form, “Dumbledore might appear to be a tottering old man towards his end, but he was never wrong about a person. Never. Even if my relatives didn’t take care of me as well as he liked, but they still took me in giving me the protection through the blood bond. So why don’t we just get this over with and I can get back to my room before someone finds out that I’m not resting as I am supposed to? I’m sure you won’t want Mrs. Weasley in here.” Harry added maliciously.

“Spare me your threats, Potter. They do not suit your demeanor. I’m dying anyways,” Snape said and leaned back into his pillow. “I only did what Dumbledore had asked me to do.” Seeing that Harry was listening to him intently, Snape continued.

“Dumbledore had always known that he must go in order for you to defeat the Dark Lord. Sirius’ death was an accident, Dumbledore never meant for him to die. The old man used his own death to make you realize that you are the only one who can truly destroy him.”

Harry leaned back into his chair and closed his eyes. Even though it had been more than three years since Sirius’ death, the image of Sirius falling through the archway was still fresh in his mind. Then Sirius became Dumbledore as he recalled the final moments on the tower that fateful night.

“That still doesn’t explain why you saved me? From what I remembered, you hated my parents and in turn, you hated me.” Harry said shaking his head lightly to banish the images of Dumbledore and Sirius.

“Your father was everything I had wanted to be,” Snape said looking up into the ceiling reliving his memories. “intelligent, popular, and pure blood, together with Black, they were the most popular kids in our year, even though they were bullies and troublemakers.”

Harry raised his eyebrows, the potions or the pain must be really working Snape over if he was actually complimenting James Potter. Snape must have seen his shocked expression for he let out a slight chuckle.

“Oh, don’t look so shocked, Potter. Although I disliked your father, but even I can tell that he did all those things just to catch Lily’s attention.”

“You knew my mother?” Harry asked, his voice trembling a little, remembering the brief memory of Snape’s about his parents.

Snape turned his glaze to the ceiling again, “I’m a dying man, so there is no point in lying to you. Your mother was one of my best friends at Hogwarts,” without waiting for Harry to respond to this extraordinary revelation, Snape continued. “Lily Evans was one of the brightest students of our year. She was also one of the most popular girls, despite the fact that she was muggle born.”

“But the memory in the penseive…” Harry began to ask but Snape interrupted him.

“That was one of my worst memories, the day that your mother ceased to be my friend,” Snape said softly.

“Is that why you went to the dark side? Because you feel that those people were the only ones who could be your friend?”

“In a manner of speaking, I became a bully myself. I knew it was wrong and I’m not proud of what I did. But still I did it because I thought that it would prove to everyone else that I was just as tough as them,” Snape replied.

Snape turned his head to look at Harry, “at first glance, you reminded me so much of James that I just couldn’t help but feel the old animosity return. All the things you did as a student, sneaking out after dark, getting yourself into scrapes, seeing you standing there in the moonlight on the battlefield was like your father was alive again.”

“Why did you save me then, if I resemble my father so much?” Harry asked starting to get impatient.

“This might come as a shock to you, Potter. I did consider leaving you there on the battlefield and let the others find you, as a little payback to James for all he did while we were in school together. But then, I saw your eyes. They were Lily’s eyes, and at that moment I realized that you are Lily’s child as much as you are James’ child. I hated James, but I loved Lily,” Snape said closing his eyes and felt as if a huge burden had been lifted from his chest after diverging his secret after more than twenty years.

Harry could not believe what he had just heard. Snape had loved his mother when he always seemed incapable of any other emotion towards anyone but disdain? But at the same time, Harry could not deny the fact that loyalty to Dumbledore was one thing, it was not a strong enough emotion to save the son of an old rival over and over again, especially if it had meant almost certain death if the aurors had found him.

Harry needed some time alone to digest this remarkable confession and to work out exactly what were his feelings towards his former potions professor. But one thing was for certain, he had to clear Snape’s name first.

“I won’t let you die,” Harry said determinedly getting to his feet. “I need to talk to Professor McGonagall and others in the order first thing tomorrow. But I won’t let them tried you for the things that Dumbledore asked you to do for him. Rest now, Professor. I will come back later,” and turned to leave the room.

Harry paused at the door and gave Snape one last look before he went back to his room. Seeing Harry’s hesitation, Snape waved his hand motioning for him to go on. Snape chuckled at what the wizarding world would think if they found out that the great Harry Potter tried to save the life of a notorious Death Easter and the murderer of Albus Dumbldore. The Potters were always the saintly ones, even if they did start out as brats. Potter should have realized by now that death for a wizard is not the end, but the beginning of a new adventure. With that thought in his head, Severus Snape closed his eyes for last time.