Prologue

Severus Snape found himself in the playground where he first saw the only woman he loved, Lily. He thought to himself how who or what ever judged a person's soul when they died would decide to send him to a place where he was happy after all the sins he had committed. He called Lily a foul name by accident. He joined a gang of terrorists lead by a mad man who called himself Lord Voldemort. He inadvertently sent Lord Voldemort after Lily and her family resulting in her and her husband's death. He was rude and harsh at her son Harry even after finding out the boy, like him, was abused at home. And when he found out that Harry was one of Lord Voldemort's many horcruxes and had to die to make Voldemort beatable, he did nothing to help find a way for to safely remove the soul fragment from the boy so the boy need not die. Not to mention he helped that meddlesome old codger Albus Dumbledore commit suicide in away that made it look like an assassination attempt... If anything, he felt as if he should go to a place filled with flames and monsters that would whip him ever half a second. Well, he could excuse himself from not doing anything to ensure the son of the woman he loved would have a longer life as that as far as he knew Dumbledore did nothing as well but that was still no defense... Just why in the name of Merlin was he sent to this place?

Just then, he noticed he wasn't alone. A tall brown haired man was there walking towards him. Must be some welcoming party Snape thought to himself...

"Good evening Severus." the man said.

"Are you some person that is supposed to greet me to the afterlife or something? Because I think there has been some mistake. I should be in hell for what I have and have not done!" Snape said.

"First of all, hell is only what you make it. Any place can be hell if you let it. Anyways, even though you have died, the Fates have decided to give you another chance. They created this place so I can have a pleasant place to meet with you to discuss this." the man said.

"Great. Sounds like the Fates are like Dumbledore... Always giving people second chances..." Snape mumbled to himself.

"I heard that and its not quite true. The Fates very rarely decide to give people second chances. Its only when a person is filled with as much guilt as you have. You feel you could have done better so the fates have decided to send your soul back about seven years so you can do better."

"Why seven years? I made my first mistake at the end of my fifth year when I called Lily a mudblood! Why not send me to before that so I can prevent that?" Snape exclaimed.

"Well, the Fates considered that but decided not to. You see, if you didn't call Lily a mudblood, you would have eventually married Lily and Harry Potter would never have been born. Neville Longbottom would have been The-Boy-Who-Lived and we know you don't think he would be up to the task of killing Tom Riddle, better known as Lord Voldemort. So we've decided to send you back to before Harry Potter gets his first Hogwarts letter. You feel you could have done more to improve his life. As a little suggestion, why don't you try to get Harry Potter's trust before he starts school. I'll leave it up to you to figure out how. Anyways, good luck."

And with that every thing around Snape disappeared and next thing he knew, he was in his old quarters at Hogwarts.

Chapter 1

It had been two weeks since Snape had been dumped about 7 years in the past. He would have told Dumbledore about what had happened but decided not to. Dumbledore would either think had gone insane or would question him for days with out end about the future.

While he was dying in the Shrieking Shack, he had seen in Harry's mind that one of Voldemort's horcruxes was hidden in a room in the school but he didn't know what room it was in so he couldn't do anything about that one yet. He a knew one horcrux was in the old Gaunt home in Little Hangleton, another was in the LeStrange vault in Gringott's, and another was in the Malfoy home... He also knew that Dumbledore had found a possible location for another one but didn't know where that was. He would go after the horcruxes he knew the most about once he discovered how best to destroy them. He would also need to find a way to destroy the one in Harry without having to kill the boy. If only he had a book which contained information about horcruxes...

Then he remember what today was. Today was July 30, 1991 and Dumbledore would call the staff for a meeting to prepare for the upcoming school year. If he remembered correctly, Dumbledore would inform the staff that there have been problems in delivering Harry's letter and would ask for a volunteer to give Harry the letter in person. In the old timeline, Hagrid volunteered. Well, if he wanted to get Harry's trust as that man had said, he felt he should volunteer for that task. That would be the first real change in history he would have made since he was dumped into the past. Just then Dumbledore's head appeared in the fireplace in his quarters informing him about a staff meeting after lunch.

The meeting went pretty much as how Snape remembered all the staff meetings went while Dumbledore was head master. The Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher would introduce himself, Filch would complain about students bringing items to school that made his life miserable, Professor Sprout would say some animal had gotten into the green house and had eaten some of the plants, and both Flitwick and McGonagall would say they needed more supplies for their classes. After all that, Dumbledore informed the staff about the Philosopher's Stone was going to be temporarily stored at the school and he needed assistance in setting up defenses to prevent anyone from stealing it. Several teachers, including Snape, volunteered for the task. Then came the thing Snape was waiting for.

"Also, I've been informed that the owls are having a hard time delivering Harry Potter's acceptance letter. It has gotten to the point where I believe that someone needs to deliver the letter in person." Dumbledore said.

Snape decided to now was the best time.

"I'll go." he said before Hagrid had a chance.

"Severus, are you sure you want to deliver Harry his letter? Just last May you were telling me how you were not looking forward to having Harry starting school claiming he'll be just like his father." Professor McGonagall said.

He needed to think fast.

"I wasn't thinking at the time. I forgot who Albus sent the boy to go live with. Lily's sister Petunia would not tolerate a person such as James living in her house. Knowing her, she is probably hiding the letters from Harry and he is totally ignorant of the Wizarding World. She probably told him his parents were good for nothing drunks that died in a car crash and is doing everything she can to prevent Harry from being a wizard." Snape replied.

Dumbledore looked at Snape with an expression he could not quite make the meaning of. A few of the staff looked at Snape oddly.

"Very well. Severus, you'll go to Harry and deliver him his letter and take him to get his school supplies and bring him up to speed with the our world if need be. Also, since you'll be going to Diagon Alley, can you pick up the Philosopher's Stone from Gringott's? I'll give you the things you need as soon as I'm done writing you a note. If there isn't anything more to discuss, I think we can go adjourn and do what we need to do." Dumbledore said after a moment.

Snape had accomplished his first goal. Harry would be far more likely to trust him if they meet before Harry had a chance to meet any Gryffindors or Hufflepuffs. He just hoped it would work.