Severus stared silently at the suspicious person in front of him. He tried to think of something to say, but his mind could form no decent sentence. After all, what could one possibly say to their double?

“What are you?” The Severus Snape in front of Severus himself hissed. “Speak!”

Severus narrowed his eyes, staring at his clone in equal suspicion. “Where am I?”

“I demand to know who you are,” Snape answered.

“I'm Severus Snape,” Severus replied coolly. “Obviously, you are too. What year is this?”

Snape narrowed his eyes at Severus, just as Severus had done. It was almost as if he was looking in a mirror, though they both wore different robes. That seemed to be the only difference in appearance.

“Nineteen ninety-three,” Snape replied coldly. He stepped away from the look-a-like. “Now tell me what you are.”

Severus ignored the command, but slowly let his eyes travel around the room, taking every aspect of it in. It was familiar… but why? Then it dawned on him.

“I used to live here,” Severus murmured. “Before Harry…”

“Harry?” Snape repeated, looking disgusted. “Potter? Harry Potter—the precious 'boy who lived'? What does Potter have to do with this?”

Severus studied the man in front of him. Could this possibly be the reality that Harry had grown up in? Was he in Harry's reality? It was surely possible… but how would he be able to know?

“Harry,” Severus drawled. “Has he disappeared or—?”

Snape scowled. “How would I know? Now do tell me what you are—”

“Dumbledore,” Severus interrupted. “He'd know what to do. The fireplace, it's in that poor excuse for a living room, isn't it? Follow me.”

“Don't tell me what to do,” Snape growled, still acting wary towards his twin, though he followed anyway. His held onto his wand tightly. Though this clone hadn't tried anything yet, he wasn't going to let his guard down.

--

“This is horrible,” Harry moaned. He paced the foyer, glancing at the door every so often, as if the two french doors were about to swing open at any minute and Severus would glide through, the back of his robes billowing out behind him as they normally did when he walked swiftly. For the past twenty minutes in which he had been pacing, the doors didn't open.

Sirius leaned against the wall, watching Harry. “I know it is. If Snape doesn't show up soon Harry, we'll contact Dumbledore, all right?”

“I'm going to go check his study,” Harry announced suddenly after he stopped pacing.

“For the third time?” Sirius gave Harry a look. “We've already looked there, Harry. Nothing new is going to jump out at us, you know.”

“But you said that's usually where he always goes, to his study,” Harry pointed out. “What if he was there? What if—what if he was kidnapped, and the kidnapper left a clue there and we just missed it?”

“Kidnapped?” Sirius repeated, raising his eyebrows. “Who would want to kidnap Snape?”

“I have to do something,” Harry said suddenly, frowning. “I just can't stay here. I need to walk, or just keep myself preoccupied or something…”

“Harry,” Sirius tried gently, walking over to Harry's side. “Kiddo. You have been walking for the past twenty-three minutes. Why don't we get ourselves a drink, huh? Or you could take a shower and get into some dry clothes.” Sirius glanced down at his own clothes. “I need dry clothes too. We're still soaking.”

Harry shook his head, a determined look on his face. “I can't do that; Severus is missing. I'm not going to act as if it's normal.”

“It's not normal,” Sirius agreed. “But if you don't get dry clothes on you're going to get sick. So why don't you take a quick shower, put dry clothes on and then come back down to find a nice, cold drink waiting for you? Then after that you can pace some more and, if nothing, we'll get Dumbledore.”

Harry was quiet, thinking the offer over. Finally, he nodded his head. “All right—but if Severus shows up, you get me, no matter what, OK?”

Sirius nodded and said in an austere voice, “Even if you're in the shower and have shampoo all through your hair, I'll drag you out. Promise.”

Harry grinned, though Sirius could trace no humor in it. “Thanks.”

Harry walked up the stairs, glancing back at the doors hopefully. When they remained shut, Harry looked away and continued up the stairs.

Sirius, his mind blank, walked out of the foyer and into the lounge, sitting down on the couch. He had absolutely no clue what he was going to do if Severus didn't show up soon, other than inform Dumbledore of the disappearance.

Sirius sighed. If only he knew what happened while he and Harry were out.

--

“Hey kid—here's your drink,” Sirius said, handing Harry a wineglass with what looked like a red cherry floating near the bottom.

Harry inspected the drink with a quizzical look, wondering what the liquid was. “What is it? And the glass… it's… very fancy.”

“Yeah.” Sirius made a face. “I sort of forgot where Snape kept the regular glasses, and I found that one and thought, well a cup's a cup, right? So after I found that wineglass I just stopped looking. The drink, it's only lemonade. I found some in the fridge, and it wasn't open… Then I found a cherry. Pretty simple.”

Harry nodded, sitting down on the couch in the lounge next to Sirius. He took a sip, letting the silence unfold around them. Sirius hadn't said anything about Severus returning, which quelled Harry's hope that, when Harry got out of the shower, Severus would be back, and he wouldn't be missing anymore.

No such luck, obviously.

“Sirius,” Harry said softly, “can you tell me what you meant, earlier, when we were out and you said that nobody in this town could see me?”

“I didn't mean that they couldn't see you, as in you're invisible, I just meant…” Sirius faltered. “I—Harry, you have to understand… I know you don't know this town, but it's a very small town. Very… tiny. Everybody knows each other. Everybody knew you.”

Harry nodded. “Oh, I see. The sudden reappearance of somebody who's supposed to be…”

“Exactly,” Sirius interrupted quickly. “We were just lucky nobody paid much attention to us when we went out, or that we didn't actually run into anybody that would ask questions about you.”

Harry grinned weakly. “Yeah.”

Sirius gave Harry a gentle look, resting his hand upon Harry's shoulder. “Give Snape a few more minutes. Then we'll go see Dumbledore.”

Harry nodded wordlessly.

--

Severus studied Albus Dumbledore's face intently after he had finished explaining his situation. This Dumbledore wasn't different from the other one, but Severus was more focused on what Dumbledore was going to say, how he would react; how he would, hopefully, help send him back.

Just then, Severus's look-a-like spoke.

“This is ridiculous,” Snape sneered. “Obviously, I am not Potter's father—thank Merlin for that—”

“You are not Harry's father,” Severus interrupted coldly. “I am.”

“You say that your Harry died whilst trying to save the Philosophers Stone?” Dumbledore questioned.

Severus nodded. “Yes. Has the Harry… Harry Potter gone missing in this reality? There just may be a good chance that the Harry that's in my reality may be your Harry.”

“Indeed he has,” Dumbledore murmured, his eyes fixed on the two Snape's in front of him. “Listen to me: both of you being in the same reality when you should be in alternate ones—well, it will be sensed. Seeing as how you look alike, but are not twins, one of you will end up being spit back into the reality that this Severus here has come from.”

Severus paled, staring at Dumbledore in realization. “It may not be me that is… spit back; it could be… either one of us?”

Dumbledore nodded. “Who knows when? It could happen anytime. For now, we will be focusing on a way to get the right Severus back to his own reality. How, exactly, did you arrive here in the first place, Severus?”

Severus faltered. He could remember—nothing. Absolutely nothing. He did remember Sirius and Harry going out, and then he went to his study and…

And…?

Well of course he remembered fainting—no, not fainting… he merely passed out. Then that feeling, in his gut, like his insides were twisting and being squeezed.

Severus eventually shook his head. “I can't recall.”

Dumbledore nodded, though he looked concerned. “You'll stay at Hogwarts until we find a way for you to return, Severus?”

Snape narrowed his eyes. “Where in Hogwarts would he stay? Surely you—”

“The chamber in the dungeons,” Dumbledore replied. “After all, they are technically his, too. You should stay just as well; we don't know when or which one of you will get thrown into the other reality. Just for precautions.”

Snape narrowed his eyes slightly. “Very well,” he muttered darkly, before turning on his heel and leaving.

Severus let out a sigh. If only he could remember what happened, or what he did, to get himself here! That would possibly make things a little easier, if they knew the reason. Nothing was coming to him… no matter how hard he thought about it…

Severus was about to leave to the chambers, when he heard Dumbledore call his name. He turned back around.

“Yes?”

“Would you like a lemon drop, Severus?”

Severus declined, though he couldn't help thinking that some things just never changed, in any reality.

--

Snape Manor remained empty, with the exception of Harry and Sirius. After waiting for what seemed like forever, the two finally went to Dumbledore, with, of course, a lot of explaining to do.

First came the explanation of Harry's reappearance, and then with Severus's disappearance—though he couldn't explain much about the latter, since they had no idea what happened to him, which made everything that much more harder. A lot more harder, in fact…

Anything could've happened. For all Harry knew, Severus might not even be in this world anymore. If that was the case, then where?

Harry was amazed at how concerned Sirius was; he always had the impression that Sirius and Severus didn't take too kindly to each other. Though he knew that it didn't matter. Harry had a feeling that, no matter how much it appeared that Sirius detested Severus at times and vice versa, during they years that they endured together, a sort of… reluctant friendship had formed.

Though, Harry had eventually found that that friendship was very, very unnoticeable at times.

Severus's disappearance was going to be difficult to solve, Harry knew that. It was going to be just as difficult to find him.

Unless it was Severus that found them again. That was just as likely; Severus was smart.

Whilst with Dumbledore, however, Harry didn't bother to mention his needing to return, at the moment. No, he'd wait until Severus was found and safe before talking to Dumbledore about going back to his right reality—

Unless… he ended up changing his mind about that at some point…