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.

It was morning of Harry's 11th birthday. Harry's uncle Vernon was quite pleased to find none of those mysterious letters had arrived that morning and said they would be staying in the miserable shack until he was sure who ever was sending the letters had stopped. Harry just wanted to know who was sending him those letters and why.

It was right after lunch when the door to the shack was blasted down. When the dust settled, a tall, long black haired man with a beak shaped nose was standing just outside the shack holding what appeared to be a stick in his hand.

"You! You're that awful boy my sister used to play with! Go away! We don't want your kind here! Shoot him Vernon! Quickly!" Harry heard his aunt yell.

Harry's uncle quickly grabbed the gun he had and proceeded to aim it at this strange man standing in the door but before he could pull the trigger, the man pointed the stick at him, yelled Expelliarnus, and a red beam coming from the man's stick blasted the gun out of his hand. Harry couldn't believe what he had seen.

"Nice try Dursley. It appears you, Tunny, have forgot what we freaks are capable of. In addition, the two of should have realized that you can't prevent your nephew from being a wizard because he was already born one." the man said as he walked inside.

Harry was confused. This man knew his aunt and said he was a wizard. This had to be the strangest thing ever...

"Now Harry, I believe its time you got your letter." the man said as he handed a letter to Harry.

It was identical to the ones that he had been getting for the past several days except it was address said Hut-On-The-Rock, The Sea. He pulled out the letter and read:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL

of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,

Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

 

Dear Mr. Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,

 

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

"What does it mean, they await my owl?" Harry asked.

"You don't need to worry about that. I'll inform the school you will be going unless you would rather stay here." the man said.

"He won't be going! When we took him in we agreed to put an end to this magic non-sense! We're his legal guardians and we get to choose what school he goes to." Vernon yelled.

"I would like to see how a Muggle such as yourself would be able to stop him. If word got out that Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, wasn't going to a wizard school, it would be hard to keep your secrete from your neighbors due to all the hate mail that will be delivered to your house and hate mail in the wizarding world explodes if it is not opened immediately." the man said. Harry's aunt whispered something to her husband that caused him to look a little scared.

"Wizarding World?" Harry asked.

"You don't know anything about the Wizarding World?" the man asked Harry. Harry simply shook his head.

"Very well. You see Harry, witches and wizards are real. Witches and Wizards are people who can perform magic. Not the kind of magic like pulling rabbits out of hats but real magic like turning tables into animals. A long time ago Witches, Wizards, and Muggles, that is people who can't do magic, used to live and work along side of each other. However, Muggles over the centuries became fearful of witches and wizards and fighting broke out between people who could do magic and those who couldn't. Eventually it was decided that all those who could perform magic would create their own society which is referred to as the wizarding world and that it would be hidden from Muggles who would be unaware of its existence. You, Harry, are a wizard."

"I'm a what?" Harry asked.

"Yes, you are a wizard and can do magic. Have you ever noticed that strange things happen when you are angry or upset?"

Harry stopped to think. Strange things always did seem to happen when he was angry or upset...

"Those strange things that happened is called accidental magic. All witches and wizards as they learn to control their abilities will grow out of doing accidental magic. That is why it is unwise for you to go to a Muggle school as your aunt and uncle want you to. You will fit in just fine at Hogwarts. There will be a lot of other students in your year, that like you, had no idea that the Wizarding World existed before they got their acceptance letter as you did." the man said to Harry before turning to Harry's aunt and uncle.

"I believe Mr. Dumbledore would not be happy with you two for to not telling Harry about the Wizarding World. Am I correct in assuming he is unaware of the circumstances of his parents' deaths as well?"

Harry was told his parents were killed in a car crash. Was there more to that then what his aunt and uncle had told him he thought. His thoughts were interrupted by his aunt.

"He was asking questions so we told him his parents were good for nothing drunks that died in a car crash. We didn't want to tell him that some evil wizard broke into his parents' house and blew them up. What if he told people?" Petunia said looking scared and upset at the same time.

"You simply could have said they were murdered. That would be the truth. The truth is always more preferable then a lie. The complete truth, Harry, is that when you were 15 months a old, an evil wizard named Lord Voldemort was going around trying to take over the world and kill all Muggles. He believed that you were some prophesied savior that would grow up and defeat him so he went to kill you before you had any chance of being a threat to him. You and your parents went into hiding, however a person who pretended to be a friend of your parents told Lord Voldemort where they were hiding and he showed up and murdered your parents before attempting to kill you. For some unknown reason, your parents died while trying to protect you placed a powerful protection charm on you and the spell Lord Voldemort used to kill countless people failed to kill you. Instead, it bounced off of you leaving you with that scare on your forehead. Lord Voldemort disappeared that night and no one has reported seeing him since then. As a result, you are quite famous in the wizarding world. There isn't a witch or wizard who doesn't know about you or will soon learn about you."

This was so much for Harry to take in. In just a few minutes, his life had more or less turned upside down. He had found out he was a wizard and that his aunt and uncle had been lying to him for almost his entire life.

"Now Harry that you have been brought to speed on the wizarding world, its time for me to go take you to get your school supplies. Your aunt, uncle, and cousin don't have to come if they wish to."

"We're not going. I'm not going to have my son contaminated with that magic nonsense!" Vernon yelled.

"Very well. Come Harry." the man said.

Harry went with the man to a wizarding shopping center called Diagon Alley using a type of transportation the man said was Apparition. To Harry, it felt like being forced through a tube. Harry soon learned that this man's name was Severus Snape and he was the Potions professor at Hogwarts. The first place Snape took Harry on Diagon Alley was Gringott's Bank. Harry learned he had inherited a lot of money from his parents which was being kept in one of the many vaults under ground, but before they could leave the bank, Snape had to swing by vault 713 to pick up a small item. After the bank, Snape took Harry to get robes, stationary (parchment paper and quills), potions supplies, and books. At the bookstore, Snape got Harry some books to help him better understand the Wizarding World and Hogwarts School. Snape also got Harry a snowy owl and explained to him that the owl could be used to send letters and packages to other people. Everything was going smoothly until it came time for Harry to get his wand.

Snape took Harry to a wand shop called Ollivander's. The owner of the shop, Ollivander, gave Harry the creeps. Ollivander had him try a couple dozen wands before a wand that choose him was found. After Ollivander explained the wand contained a tail feather from a phoenix who also provided the tail feather inside of Lord Voldemort's wand, Snape spoke up.

"Are you sure it is wise for Harry to have a wand with the same core as Voldemort's? After all, Voldemort did not die due to some dark art spells he performed and his wand is unaccounted for. When he decides to return, he will no doubt make another attempt on Harry's life. I've heard some things about wands with cores made from parts of the same animal not being able to work properly against each other."

"If you were any other person, I would probably say you are insane for believing He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named isn't dead. I can see your concern Mr. Snape. I could attempt to make a wand for Harry for using some of his hair... A wand with that type of core usually works for extremely tricky customers." Ollivander replied.

Ollivander removed some of Harry's hair with a spell and with another spell, made some new hair grow so Harry wouldn't have a bald spot that he would have to explain to his aunt and uncle. Ten minutes later, Ollivander came back with a new wand.

"Being that the wands made with holly reacted the best with you, I used an incomplete holly wand to make this."

Harry gave it a wave and gold, red, green, and silver sparks came pouring out of the end of the wand, more so then the wand that had the phoenix tail feather in it.

"Curious..." Ollivander said.

"What's curious now?" Harry asked fearing this was some bad sign.

"I never saw a wand that produced more then two colors during a fitting. Usually the colors of a wand with that type of core say something about what house at Hogwarts a person will end up in. It seems that you may go into either Gryffindor or Slytherin depending on your prefaces though based on the amount of green and silver sparks I say you tend to have more Slytherin tendencies then Gryffindor..." Ollivander said.

"Houses?" Harry asked.

"Hogwarts is divided into four houses Harry." Snape explained. "Students are supposed to be divided based on what personality traits tend to stand out the most. Some students, especially those from families that have a tradition of being sorted into the same house, will beg the sorting hat to place them into a particular house even though they may have a personality that is more inline with a different house. The four houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Gryffindors tend to be braver then most other students, Hufflepuffs tend to be hard workers and very friendly and loyal to others, Ravenclaws like to learn all that is learnable, and Slytherins are cunning and ambitious. But there are always exceptions."

"What house were my parents in Professor?" Harry asked.

"They were both in Gryffindor." Snape answered.

"But that doesn't mean you will be in Gryffindor Mr. Potter. Its your choice. We all have our paths in life and only you can choose your path. Personally, I think you might be better off in Slytherin with Mr. Snape. Mr. Snape is head of Slytherin house. Its your choice where you want to go."

"Very well. How much will the wand be?" Snape asked.

"Seven galleons." Ollivander replied.

Harry reached into his money pouch and took out seven galleons and paid Ollivander and he and Snape left.

Snape, after returning Harry to his relatives, was some what disappointed. He wanted to remove him from their care but didn't have any thing against the Dursleys that would hold up in a court of law. If the issue of how the Dursleys treat Harry were to come before a court, Dumbledore would surely appoint himself to the case and at this point in time, his voice tended to influence others in the Ministry. Unless he could get Harry to say something, which he doubt he could, the only way Harry could be removed from the Dursleys care with out the Ministry getting directly involved would be to free Black from Azkaban. Black, being Harry's godfather, could just use his 'authority' to remove Harry from the Dursleys' care.

But getting Black out of Azkaban would be easier said then done. The only way to get him out legally would be to prove his innocence. To do that, Peter Pettigrew needed to be caught. Snape knew Pettigrew was masquerading as the Weasleys' pet rat Scabbers. Snape wasn't about to barge into the Weasleys' home and capture Pettigrew. He needed to get Pettigrew to be in the same room as Lupin, who would surely recognize a rat he spent several full moons with. Snape had up until the end of the school year to figure out how to do that... It would be easiest if Harry and Ronald Weasley were in the same house like in the old time line. However, that was something that was no longer certain since Ollivander had opened Harry's mind to the possibility of being in Slytherin house. Knowing the youngest Weasley boy's attitude towards people in Slytherin house, it would be unlikely Harry would have any ties to the Weasley family if Harry got sorted into Slytherin. He would have to figure something out if Harry got placed into Slytherin.

Snape before heading back to Hogwarts, decided to swing by the book shop on Knockturn Alley. If there was any place besides Dumbledore's office the had books on horcruxes, this would be the place. The shop was dark and was lit just enough to read. Snape found some books containing information about horcruxes and an extremely old book (published 9th century) about blood magic that contained a ritual that seemed legal enough to use that could make anyone be able to provide Harry with the protection he got from living with his aunt through a type of adoption that added to an individual's blood line rather then replacing it. Snape wondered why Dumbledore wasn't aware of that ritual. But then again, Dumbledore couldn't have read every book in the world and he didn't seem like the type of person to go to this book shop let alone any place on Knockturn Alley. After paying for the books, Snape returned to Hogwarts.

Snape had a headache. He had read and reread the books about horcruxes he bought and was becoming quite convinced that he really had died and gone to hell. The books had told him that the surest way to destroy a horcrux was to damage it beyond repair. In the case of living thing that would be to kill it.

There were alternatives though. Having a dementor kiss the horcrux would also work. However, in the case of an animal life form that was turned into a horcrux, this was not a good option. Using a dementor to remove a soul fragment from any animal life form that's behavior was more then just acting out of instinct had the danger of leaving the animal brain dead. The dementor had no way of knowing if it was sucking out the soul fragment or the life form's own soul until it was too late.

A partial "kiss", in which the dementor started to suck out the soul or the soul fragment and was stopped before any of it had left the animal's body, could work in animal life forms that were classified as sentient beings. The partial kiss would, if successful, separate the being's own soul and the soul fragment, resulting in the two fighting for control over the being's body.

If the being was good at both legilimency and occlumency, the being's own soul would be able to destroy the soul fragment by 'devouring' it (assuming the soul fragment didn't belong to an individual that had legilimency and occlumency skills equal too or greater then to the being the soul fragment was in). Harry was a horrible at occlumency due to the boy being emotionally damaged from growing up with the Dursleys. It would take far too long for Harry to emotionally heal to be proficient enough in occlumency to even consider the idea. In addition Harry was, as the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures put it, allergic to dementors. So that ruled that idea out.

'How am I supposed to get that blasted soul fragment out of Harry with out harming him!!?' Snape thought to himself. 'There has to be away! If I can convince that homicidal maniac that I was still a loyal Death Eater after Dumbledore said I was a spy in front of the entire Ministry, there has to be a way! If there is no way, then when I die, I am going to murder the Fates for putting me through this!'

Snape managed to calm down after few moments. He didn't want anyone to suspect what he was doing.

It then dawned on him there was another potential problem - Hermione Granger. What is he going to do if she ended up in Gryffindor and Harry end up in Slytherin? Hermione was the brightest person in her year and he noticed an improvement in both Harry and Ron's work after they became friends with her. The only reason they became friends was because Voldemort convinced that idiotic Quirrel to let a troll into the school and it went into the bathroom Hermione was in and Harry and Ron saved her.

He never told anyone but he knew that Hermione had been lying about the reason she was in that bathroom. She was upset from a comment Ron made about her. Harry and Ron, after finding out where Hermione was from a fellow Gryffindor, went to that bathroom to warn her about the troll. However, there was still a chance if Hermione was in Gryffindor, she would befriend Harry as that in the old timeline, she had tried to convince both Harry and Ron to befriend Slytherins. Harry needed Hermione. However, getting them together would be easy. Snape just realized all he had to do was pair them together in class.

He still hadn't quite worked out how to get Ron into the mix if there was any hope of getting Sirius out of Azkaban legally and without suspicion. It was too risky to brake into the Weasleys' home due to the wards. Going into Gryffindor tower would definitely not work not work as the Fat Lady would be bound to tell someone. Snape just had to get Ron in a place where Harry could at least find out how long Ron's pet had been in the family so Harry could get suspicious and tell some adult.

August came and went, and before Snape knew it, it was September 1st. The students would be arriving. He had hoped to have destroyed at least one of Voldemort's horcruxes by now but had failed to do so. Making his class plans had taken too much time. He decided that first weekend, he would make a quick trip to Little Hangleton and get the ring. Hopefully Dumbledore was being honest about the only real protection it had was that curse...

Snape sat in the great hall waiting for the first years to be sorted. The Sorting Hat sang a stupid song that it spent all year composing and Professor McGonagall proceeded to call the first years up to the stool to be sorted. All the sortings were going as they had in the old timeline up until Hermione sat on the stool. The Sorting Hat seamed to take longer then it did in the old timeline before proclaiming her a Slytherin in an annoyed tone of voice. Snape lifted his eyebrow.

'How is that possible? I never met Hermione in this timeline so far. Something must have happened that caused her to talk the Sorting Hat into placing her into Slytherin... And by judging by the Sorting Hat's tone of voice, it didn't seem happy about it. I shall look into this if I have a chance.' Snape thought to himself.

Soon it was Harry's turn to be sorted. His sorting was quicker then it was before. When the Sorting Hat proclaimed Harry a Slytherin, there was several gasps (mostly from the Gryffindor and Slytherin tables), some students in Slytherin house from light sided and neutral families applauded, and Professor McGonagall briefly gave Snape a nasty glare.

Snape then realized something. He felt like an idiot for not coming up with the idea sooner. Snape decided to try a wandless confundus charm on the Sorting Hat. Snape never had done wandless magic, with the exception of the flying spell he learned from Voldemort, but from what he knew, it was harder to do then magic with a wand. He also knew that if put his mind to doing a spell, he could do it and he was confident that he could do a wandless confundus charm.

It came time for Ron Weasley to be sorted. Snape made sure nobody was looking, pointed his hand at the Sorting Hat, and thought the appropriate spell. A few moments later, the hat proclaimed the youngest Weasley boy a Slytherin. The boy's reaction was worse then he had imagined. The boy let out scream, threw the hat on the ground before Professor McGonagall could touch it, and proceeded to try and run out of the great hall. Professor McGonagall had to grab him causing the hall to erupt in laughter.

"Mr. Weasley, will you kindly go to the Slytherin table?" Professor McGonagall said in stern voice.

"I don't want go to Slytherin! My brothers will kill me!" Ron yelled while trying to get away from Professor McGonagall.

Professor McGonagall, while holding on as best she could to Ron, said very sternly, "All sortings are final Mr. Weasley and I will assure you that your parents and the teachers here will do everything in their power to prevent your brothers from killing you. Now just go to the Slytherin table."

She let go of Ron and he marched to the Slytherin table like storm cloud and sat down next to Harry while people still laughed at what they had just witnessed.

'Merlin help me if Ron Weasley ever finds out I confuded the Sorting Hat...' Snape thought to himself.

Snape looked at the Gryffindor table and saw that Fred and George Weasley were both laughing up a storm at their youngest brother's behavior. Percy Weasley, who was sitting near them said to them, "You aren't going to let him forget this?"

Fred or George (Snape could never tell the two apart without using legilimency on them) replied, "Never."

When Harry got home from Diagon Alley, he decided to start reading some of his books, specifically, the ones about the Wizarding World. He found that he was mentioned in a couple of them. They didn't mention anything about a prophecy nor about the protection charm his parents placed on him when they died. He would have to ask Snape about that when he got to school. His uncle wouldn't allow him to send any letters using his owl. He also remembered that his aunt seemed to know Snape. That was another thing he would ask about.

Surprisingly, his aunt told him what she knew. Snape turned out, to have lived in the same town that his mother and aunt grew up in. Snape was friends with Harry's mother up until they were teenagers and then they seemed to go their separate ways. She described Snape as some what creepy and liked to talk about creatures that liked to suck souls out of people and other awful things.

Soon it was September 1st. Harry was able to, with a little help from his aunt (she said she something about not wanting screaming letters), convince his uncle to take him to King's Cross. After reading Hogwarts, A History, Harry had no problem finding platform 9 and ¾ . Harry found an empty compartment on the Hogwarts express. A few minutes later, he was joined by a red haired boy with freckles.

"Anyone sitting there?" the boy asked, pointing to the seat opposite of Harry. "Everywhere else is full."

Harry shook his head and the boy sat down. The boy, who introduced himself as Ron Weasley, was a little shocked at finding out who Harry was. They talked mostly about Ron's family. Harry didn't talk much about his aunt, uncle and cousin must. He only said they were horrible and didn't want to go into details. He felt ashamed and embarrassed about how they treated him, especially after he read how the Wizarding World viewed him. He didn't want anyone to find out about him having to sleep in a cupboard for nearly ten years or any of the other things his relatives had done or said to him.

Soon a trolley with candy went by and Harry bought enough sweets for him and Ron to share even though Ron said he had plenty of stuff to eat already. Ron was about to show Harry a spell that his older brother George told him to turn his pet rat Scabbers yellow when a busy haired girl came in with a round faced boy.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one."

"We haven't seen it." Ron said.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it then."

The girl sat down. Ron looked taken back.

"Er - all right."

He cleared his throat.

"Sunshine daises, butter mellow, turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."

He waved his wand but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed gray and fast asleep.

"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard - I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough - I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?"

She said all this very fast.

Harry looked at Ron's shocked face at the girl's announcement. He felt relieved to know that Ron, like him, didn't know all of the course books.

"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered.

"Harry Potter," said Harry.

"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course - I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."

"I know. But Professor Snape said my parents placed some kind of protection charm on me when they died or something like that. All the books make it sound like I did something when I doubt I did..." Harry replied.

"You meet Professor Snape, the head of Slytherin House? All my brothers except for Percy say he's a greasy haired git that gives detentions to everyone who isn't in Slytherin House for reasons like breathing wrong." Ron said.

"He delivered my letter and he seemed nice. My aunt said he was friends with my mum though she did say he was a little creepy..." Harry said.

"He was friends with your mum?" Ron asked.

"That's what my aunt said. Though she said something happened and they stopped being friends after their fifth year at Hogwarts."

"Anyways, do any of you know what house you're going to be in? I heard Gryffindor is the best; I read Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad..."

"Ollivander said I most likely would be in Slytherin but Professor Snape said that you can talk the Sorting Hat into putting you into what ever house you want to be in."

"You in Slytherin? Everyone in my family said you'll be in Gryffindor just like us. Slytherin house is where all the future dark witches and wizards go! There isn't a which or wizard that didn't go bad that wasn't in Slytherin." Ron said shocked.

"Slytherin is the house for the cunning and ambitious though a lot of evil people are like that." Hermione said.

"The person who told Voldemort, I mean You-Know-Who, where my parents were hiding was in Gryffindor. He also murdered my parents' friend Peter Pettigrew along with a bunch of muggles. And besides, Professor Snape seams nice enough as long as you get him mad like my aunt and uncle did." Harry said.

"And my gran says there were Death Eaters from all the houses at Hogwarts." the boy Harry assumed was Neville said.

Ron looked like he didn't want to believe that.

"Well, we better get back to looking for Neville's toad after changing into our robes. We asked the conductor a few minutes ago and we're nearly at Hogwarts." Hermione said.

"He said we had a half hour, no need to rush..." Neville he said while he and Hermione walked out of the compartment.

Harry and Ron changed into their robes. Harry had the feeling that Ron didn't like being told he was wrong. It was about ten minutes before Ron said anything.

"Why did Ollivander say you would be in Slytherin?" Ron asked.

"Well, green and silver sparks came out of my wand." Harry replied.

"That doesn't mean anything. When Fred and George got their wands, pink and purple sparks came out of their's and they're both in Gryffindor. Ollivander probably said that to scare you. He tries to scare everyone who goes to his store. My dad once went into his shop to buy a new wand holster and Ollivander said something about a ghost of the cow who's hide was used to make the holster haunts his shop and tries to run down customers now and then."

That sounded like something Ollivander would say. Maybe Ron was right. Ollivander was just saying that to scare Harry.

"Maybe. I just won't saying anything to the Sorting Hat and see where it puts me." Harry replied.

"Sorting Hat? Fred told me we had to wrestle a troll." Ron said.

"I couldn't find anything in any books about the Sorting Hat but Professor Snape mentioned it when I was buying my wand." Harry replied.

"You said you said your aunt and uncle did something that got Professor Snape mad? What was it?"

Harry felt a little nervous and embarrassed about answering the question. "They tried to kill him and keep me from learning about magic. I didn't know I was a wizard or how my parents died until he told me..." Harry answered shyly.

"They didn't want you to learn magic? And they tried to kill a teacher? No wonder you said they were horrible... Dad tells me the muggles he has to deal with aren't at all like that."

The train ride ended and they had to arrive at the school in boats. When they entered the school, they were lead by a really tall and wide man to Professor McGonagall. She told them a little bit about the houses and how they were like families. She also mentioned about earning and loosing points for what ever house they get sorted in and the house with the most points at the end of the school year wins the house cup. She left briefly and when she came back she said they were ready to be sorted.

They entered the Great Hall, and right in front of them was a dirty old pointed hat sitting on a stool. It sang a song about the houses. After the applause from the rest of the school, Professor McGonagall started calling the students one by one to the stool and placed the hat on their head and it said for what house for them to go to. When it was Hermione's turn, the hat seemed annoyed when it placed her into Slytherin.

"Thank god. I don't want to be in the same house as her..." Ron said to Harry.

Soon it was Harry's turn to be sorted.

As he approached the stool to be sorted, he heard people whispering about him. He didn't exactly like that. When he sat down, the hat more or less fell completely over his head.

"Hmm," said a small voice in his ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, oh my goodness, yes - and a nice thirst to prove yourself, not that's interesting... So where shall I put you? Hmm... SLYTHERIN!"

Ollivander was right! The Sorting Hat did place him in Slytherin. However, he heard a lot of gasps from the students. As he walked towards the Slytherin table he heard a person whispering about that maybe the reason he didn't die was because he was in league with You-Know-Who.

He watched the rest of the sortings and when it was Ron's turn he was a little shocked at Ron's reaction to being sorted into Slytherin. Ron made a big scene of it by trying to run away. When Professor McGonagall had to grab him, Ron yelled something about his brothers would kill him. Professor McGonagall told Ron to go the Slytherin table and then let go of him. Ron marched to the table and sat next to Harry.

"Did you try to talk the hat into putting you somewhere else?" Harry asked Ron when the sortings were done and Professor Dumbledore let the feast begin.

"I did! But the stupid hat wouldn't listen! It kept going on about how I always lived in my brothers' shadows and wanted to be better then them and how I could be great strategist and nothing I said could change it's mind about me belonging in Slytherin! It even told me to shut up!"

"The Sorting Hat is little mad at Professor Snape when I told it to put me in Slytherin house because Harry said Professor Snape was nice. It said Professor Snape wasn't supposed to tell anyone about that you could ask it to put you into what ever house you want to be in. Maybe it decided not to allow people to choose what house they want to be in anymore because of Professor Snape. " Hermione said.

"The hat said I should have gone into Ravenclaw but I was able to talk it into putting me into Slytherin like my dad." a boy named Blaise Zabini, who was the last one to be sorted, said.

"I'm a little shocked, Weasley, that you made Slytherin. My dad said the Weasleys are all stupid and you need brains to be in Slytherin. Though you looked stupid trying to run out of the school. I guess you must hate Slytherin." a boy named Draco Malfoy said.

"You bet I do Malfoy! Every Slytherin at this table I know of except for Harry and Hermione is some evil creep that only cares about them self! I'm not looking forward to going home for the holidays! My brother's will make my life hell because I'm an evil creep! I might wake up one morning and everything in my room, including me, will be green! And it will take hours to undo what they did! They may even set off dung bombs and filibuster fireworks off in my room in the middle of the night!" Ron ranted, causing just about everyone with in ear shot to turn and look at him.

Then one of the older Slytherin students said, "Well, I guess its our job to convince you that most Slytherins aren't evil creeps."

"And it sounds like your brothers are bullies and pick on you too much. Slytherins stick together and don't let things like that happen to own of their own. Snape would be furious if we turned a blind eye to Gryffindors tormenting a fellow Slytherin." a fifth year boy who wore a prefect badge student added. Ron was able to calm down enough to actually eat after hearing that.

After the feast, Professor Dumbledore gave some announcements. One of which was not to go into the third floor corridor unless you wanted to die a most painful death. Harry thought he must be joking about that. After singing the school song, they were sent to their dormitories.

The Slytherin prefects, who introduced themselves as Marcus Flint and Sharon Silverwater lead Harry and the other Slytherins to the dungeons. They walked up to a solid stone wall.

"This is the entrance to the Slytherin Common Room. It can only be opened by saying the password. The password will change every now and then and when it does, you will be informed by either myself, Professor Snape or Sharon here. Right now the password is bat mucus." The Flint said and a hidden door in the wall opened and everyone walked in.

"First years, please wait here." Sharon said.

Professor Snape walked into the common room moments later.

"This is our first house meeting of the school year. The next meeting will be Friday evening and so will all other meetings. The purpose of these meetings is to discuss what ever is on your mind that is school related: issues you have with your fellow students, problems you have with your professors, ideas for school activities, just to name a few. Since this is the first meeting I don't except there to be much to discuss. I know that a lot of you had a conversation about Mr. Weasley's sorting and I believe there should not be any more discussion about that in this meeting at this time." Snape said. Harry noticed Snape got a little nervous when he mention Ron's sorting.

"So I will inform of you of our house policies." Snape continued. "As Slytherins, you need to learn it is important to have connections with people. No person is an island. Get to know other students. There may come a time when you may need their help. Sometimes it seems as if there are two competing schools here at Hogwarts: Slytherin and the rest of the school. I would like to have that changed. Slytherin has become detached from the rest of the school because of the reputation it has for producing some of our society's most feared and hated individuals. Also, the fact that you only socialize with each other and then defend each other even when the person you are defending is in the wrong isn't helping get rid of that reputation.

"If you feel that any of your house mates is doing anything in public that could give Slytherin a bad name, do not support them. This applies to harassing and assaulting other students. There will be no more of this united front that we present to the rest of the school unless one of you is being picked on by a member or members of another house. Also, get to know people from other houses. You may just find they have similar interests as you do. And lastly, if you need to discuss anything with my in private, that door on your right will take you to my office. I will be up there until midnight on most nights after supper though I do not expect most you to be up at that hour unless you are doing last minute cramming for finals. If there are no questions or comments, you are dismissed."

There were no questions so they were dismissed. Snape went into his office. Harry thought now would be a good time to ask questions he had for Snape. Harry went to the door and knocked.

"Enter." He heard Snape say.

Harry walked in.

"Harry. Is there anything I can do for you?" Snape asked when he saw Harry.

"I have some questions about what you said to me before we went to Diagon Alley." Harry said.

"Very well." Snape replied.

"You said Voldemort, I mean You-Know-Who, believes I'm a prophesied savior but none of the books I read mentioned that."

"First of all Harry, don't call him You-Know-Who. Not speaking Voldemort's name is only giving into the fear he instilled in others. He wanted people to fear speaking his name, including his own followers. By not speaking his name, you are letting him win. In any case, about those books I got you not mentioning you being a prophesied savior, its because not many people know about the prophesy about you and Voldemort. The only other people who know of the prophesy are Professor Dumbledore and a few people who work in the Ministry of Magic. Professor Dumbledore is the only one alive that knows the full prophesy. He doesn't want to tell anyone what it is for reasons he only knows." Snape replied.

"I see. Also, you said that Voldemort couldn't kill me because my parents died trying to protect me placed some kind of protection charm on me. That also wasn't in any of the books I read. In fact they said I did something." Harry replied.

"It was dark times Harry. People feared for their lives. When Voldemort decided to kill you, one of his followers decided to switch sides in the war and protect your family. He warned Professor Dumbledore who was heading the fight against Voldemort about the danger you and your family were in. Professor Dumbledore had you and your parents go into hiding. He also had a monitor placed in the home in which your parents were hiding in to let others know if there was any trouble or if the protections on the house were to fail.

"When Voldemort was able to get through the protections, the monitor turned on and everything that was said was broad casted to the headquarters of the group fighting Voldemort. I wasn't there at the time but I know people who were. Professor Dumbledore is one of them. He knows a lot about ancient magic and from what he heard he was able to determine their actions had invoked some form of ancient magic that kept you safe. He tried tell everyone that the heroes of that night were your parents, specifically your mother. But most people wanted a hero that was alive to thank for making Voldemort disappear. That is why in those books they give you all the credit even though it is ridiculous to believe that a one-year-old baby could perform magic. Most children don't start doing magic until they are seven or eight. Five at the youngest but never at one year. So don't believe everything you read. History tends to be written in a way the author wants it to be." Snape explained.

Harry noticed that Snape got a little uncomfortable when he mentioned that a Death Eater switched sides but didn't think much of it.

"Thank you for explaining that to me. I don't like people saying untrue things about me. At least now I can correct them. I don't have anything else to ask." Harry said.

"Very well. If you have anything else you want to talk about, I'm always available. Now, go to bed. Your dorm mates are probably wondering were you are." Snape replied.

"Good night sir." Harry said before he left.

Harry was able to find his dorm room after a couple of minutes.

"Where have you been?" Malfoy asked. He appeared the only one not in bed yet.

"I had somethings I wanted to ask Snape about what he told me over the summer. Mostly about why Voldemort wanted to kill me and about my parents." Harry replied.

Malfoy looked at him strange before getting into bed. Harry went to bed a few minutes later. When he fell asleep, he had the same dream of a flash of green light that he had for year though this time he heard a woman screaming and man voice shouting "Avada Kedavra!"

Snape remembered the last time around, Slytherin was the most hated house in the school. He hoped by encouraging his snakes to mix with people from other houses more will help. He also decided that if he caught any of his snakes misbehaving, he wouldn't wait until they were alone to tell them their punishment but when he actually caught them.

However, his new policies had some mixed results. While visiting the school library, he saw one of his snakes attempt to sit down at a table full of Hufflepuffs. The Hufflepuffs got up and left within a matter of seconds. Apparently there was a lot more house rivalry that needed to be overcome than he anticipated. His punishing his snakes in public did get them to behave better but he could tell it was making some of the staff (including Professor Dumbledore) and older students suspicious of him. The last thing he needed at the moment was to be discovered.

He also noticed a new problem that he hadn't counted on. He over heard some students, mostly Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, exchanging rumors about Harry being sorted into Slytherin. Fortunately Professors McGonagall and Sprout were able to put an end those rumors before they got out of hand by talking to members of their house.

He also noticed Professor McGonagall was a little more colder to him since the sorting ceremony. He didn't need legilimency to know why. He had stolen Harry from her. At least she didn't take her grudge against him out on Harry but he would have to explain to her Harry being in Slytherin was Ollivander's fault and not his.

Soon it was Saturday and he decided to go to Little Hangleton. After telling Professor Dumbledore he had an errand he needed to do and would be back in a couple of hours, he Apparated to the outskirts of Little Hangleton to hunt for the shack that the last of Voldemort's closest living relatives in the Wizarding World had lived in.

He found it after a half hour of searching. The property was overgrown with weeds that had stickers and thorns. None of them were of a magical variety from what Snape could tell. If anything they were charmed to make sure you were completely miserable while walking through them.

'No wonder Voldemort didn't bother to increase the security around this shack. Nobody in their right mind would walk through a yard with these weeds...' Snape thought to himself as he walk through the yard if you could call it that, occasionally muttering some obscenity when ever something poked him.

When he finally got inside of the shack, the ring was in plain sight. Voldemort hadn't bother to hide it anywhere. It was sitting on the floor, more or less in the middle of the room. Snape, remembering what happened with Dumbledore when he touched the ring, approached it with great caution. When he got close enough, suspicious it may be a decoy and the real one was hidden somewhere else, he pointed his wand at it and confirmed the ring was a horcrux by use of a diagnostic spell. He muttered Sectumsempra at the ring and the band broke open. He knew from past expired that using Sectumsempra on metal made it impossible to fix. Any attempt at fixing the damage wouldn't work. He hoped that phenomenon qualified as damaged beyond even magical repair.

He then muttered a diagnostic spell to see if it was still a horcrux. The diagnostic spell revealed that there was no longer a soul fragment inside of it but was another spell on the ring besides the curse that nearly killed Dumbledore. The spell wasn't in the ring but the stone in the ring. It wasn't registering as a curse or a jinx. It was registering as like a portkey, but not quite.

'How odd... I wonder what it is...' Snape thought to himself.

He then muttered what he believed to be the counter course to make the ring safe for him to handle. Performing the diagnostic spell again showed the curse that nearly killed Dumbledore was gone. He picked it up wondering what the stone enchanted to do. He was thinking that his mother was alive, she could probably help him figure out what the stone did. Just then, he heard a voice.

"Severus?"

Snape was shocked. Standing in front of him was his mother. She looked almost solid, but not quite. She still had a little bit of transparency to her.

"Mum? How can this be? You are dead..." Snape said in disbelieve.

"As far as I know Severus, I am. I was having a nice chat with with an old school friend that died a few years before I did." Snape's mother Eileen said.

"Then if you are dead, then how could you be here?" Snape asked.

"There's one possibility, but it isn't likely." Eileen replied.

"What is it?"

"You have the Resurrection Stone. I remember my father talking about it as well as the other two Deathly Hallows. He did say they were believed to be a myth but another one of the hallows was discovered. The Elder Wand if I recall..."

"Deathly Hallows?"

"According to my father the Deathly Hallows were a set of three powerful magical items, a wand, a stone, and an invisibility cloak. The person who acquired all three of them was said to be invincible though my father doubted that. The wand was referred to as the Elder Wand though its been called different names through out history. It was said it was unbeatable in a duel. The stone was called the Resurrection Stone. It could bring back the dead but they wouldn't be quite be alive but be very close to being alive if you know what I mean. The invisibility cloak, the wearer would be curse proof as well as invisible. There's a child's story about how the Deathly Hallows came into being. I would have read it to you but your drunken father threw away "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" saying the book was filled with 'morbid stories that no sane person should hear'..." Eileen replied, sounding rather bitter when mention her husband.

"I see. If it is of any help, I am holding a ring that has a stone with a spell on it that I cannot identify properly." Snape said.

"Can I see it?" Eileen asked.

Snape showed his almost alive mother the ring in his hand. The stone was facing her.

"That stone has the symbol of the Deathly Hallows on it. It most likely is the Resurrection Stone. I suggest you not tell anyone you found it. My father said there are people who would want it and the other hallows. In the wrong hands, it could be used a dreadful weapon if used in conjunction with the Elder Wand."

"That seems like good advice." Snape said as he put the ring into one of his pockets. As soon as he was no longer touching the stone, his mother disappeared.

'That was interesting. The stone might be of some use if that was indeed my mother... I need to research this more.' Snape thought to himself.

Not wanting to go through the weeds again, Snape decided to Apparate back to the Hogwarts grounds. He decided he should head to the library to look up the Deathly Hallows to see if they were real and if what he had spoken to was indeed his mother.

While he was walking down the corridor to the library, he saw nearly all the first year Slytherin boys gathered in a group. The only one that wasn't there was Zabini. The ones that were there looked very annoyed. He then noticed that Hermione was with them.

He was about to ask if their was anything wrong when Draco said angerly, "She's a nightmare! No wonder she doesn't have any friends! She's a loud, annoying, know-it-all, filthy little Mudblood that shouldn't have even been allowed in the school!"

Hermione pushed Theodore Nott and Ron aside and ran ahead, clearly upset. Ron and Harry then chased after her.

'The more things change, the more the stay the same...' Snape thought.

Snape's first instinct was to go after Hermione and calm her down. However, it appeared that Harry and Ron were going to attempt to do that so he decided it would be best to punish Draco.

"50 points Mr. Malfoy and detention!" Snape shouted catching the attention of nearly all people in ear shot.

"You can't do that! You're our head of house! Wait until father hears of this!" Draco said, clearly horrified to see Snape.

"That will be another detention for talking back to a teacher! You are not to utter that other word for Muggle-born again. And, yes, your father will hear of this and he will agree with me! Now go to the common room and stay there for the rest of the day!" Snape shouted back.

'Arrogant, spoiled brat... Just like his father.' Snape thought.

"There, look."

"Where?"

"Next to that tall kid who tried to run away after being sorted into Slytherin."

"Wearing the glasses?"

"Did you see his face?"

"Did you see his scar?"

"Wonder why he's in Slytherin?"

"Think he's a dark wizard?"

Whispers and rumors fallowed Harry as soon as left the Slytherin dormitories for his first full day of school. Harry just hated it. People used to talk about him behind his back at his old school about some of the odd things that seemed to happen around him and how the Dursleys treated him. And now here at Hogwarts, people were still talking about him behind his back but for a different reason. He just wished he was more normal. At least he could now have friends with out having to worry about Dudley beating them up.

Ron fallowed Harry to the Great Hall. When they sat down at the Slytherin table, Harry was expecting a quite breakfast. However it wasn't. Malfoy sat across from him and Ron, next to Hermione.

"I'm still surprised at your sorting Weasley. No Weasley has ever been in a house other then Gryffindor. Even those who marry into your family were in Gryffindor. I can understand Potter being in Slytherin. His dad's mom was in Slytherin. But you... As for you Granger, I never heard of a Wizard family named Granger. Half Blood?" Malfoy said.

"My parents are Muggles." Hermione said.

"A Muggle-born in Slytherin? I never heard of that. Slytherin himself hated Muggle-borns and wanted them banned from the school. Excuse me while I go find Crabbe and Goyle." Malfoy said with a disapproving look.

"That wasn't surprising." Ron said five seconds after Malfoy left.

"Why?" Harry asked.

"My father says all the Malfoys hate Muggle-borns and anyone whose friendly with them. The Malfoys were Death Eaters and killed and torchored Muggles and Muggle-borns before You-Know-Who went away. They were first ones to come back to the light side claiming they were bewitched by You-Know-Who into doing all those horrible things. My dad said he's had enough dealings with the Malfoys since before You-Know-Who was around to know better. Says they didn't need a spell to make them attack Muggles."

Just then, a bunch of owls came into the Great Hall to deliver mail. Out of no where, owl carrying a red envelope crash landed into the plate of muffins in front of Ron. Ron looked scared.

"Oh no!" Ron muttered.

"Look everyone! Weasley's got himself a Howler!" Malfoy yelled from down the table.

Harry watched Ron nervously open the envelope and for a moment, thought it exploded.

"RONALD WEASLEY!" a woman's voice yelled. "HOW DARE YOU TRY TO RUN AWAY FROM SCHOOL! IF YOU WERE A TRUE WEASLEY YOU SHOULD HAVE WENT STRAIGHT TO THE SLYTHERIN TABLE AND STAYED THERE!"

Over the womans yells, Harry could barely make out a man saying, "Molly. You're embarrassing him. Stop! Ron! If you can hear me, I still love you!"

"LIFE DISHES PEOPLE BAD HANDS AND YOUR FATHER AND I HAVE TAUGHT YOU TO MAKE THE BEST OF WHAT EVER LIFE THROWS AT YOU. NOT EMBARRASH THE ENTIRE FAMILY BY RUNNING AWAY! SHUT UP AND LEAVE ME ALONE ARTHUR! IF YOU DO ANYTHING MORE TO BRING SHAME TO THE FAMILY RON, I'M SLAPPING YOU SILLY AS SOON AS I GET MY HANDS ON YOU! LET GO OF ME ARTHUR!"

With that, yelling stopped and there was a roar of laughter filling the great hall. All Ron could do was bury his head in his hands.

'How many times has my Aunt and Uncle yelled at me like that... Poor Ron,' Harry thought as he looked at Ron 'At least his dad didn't seem to care about what happened.'

"Ron, you alright?" Harry asked.

"I'll be fine. Mum gets nasty when she's upset. She normally yells like that at the twins when they blow something up or turn Percy blue... She didn't send that to scold me for what I did after being sorted. She did that for braking family tradition. My dad says its OK to be different and is probably alright with me being in Slytherin... I just wish she was more like my dad right now..."

Harry felt a little envious of Ron. How he wished that either his aunt or uncle would accepted what he was and treated him like a person and not some slave. There were times he wished that he had some other relative he could live with. A couple times, he thought of running away but he didn't have any place to go. At least now he was at Hogwarts and didn't have to worry about the Dursleys until the end of June.

After breakfast, they got their class schedules and proceed to go their classes. In every class, Harry noticed that whenever a teacher asked a question, Hermione would wave her hand in the air and give a correct answer. Most of the first year Slytherins seemed to be irritated by it. Hermione was smart but she could be annoying at times by talking as if she knew everything.

Ron, when ever they weren't in class, wouldn't leave Harry except to go to the toilet. Harry did mind this as that Ron was good company and was one of the few that wasn't treating him any differently because of who he was. The other Slytherins acted like they only wanted to be Harry's friend because he was the famous "Boy-Who-Lived".

"Harry, I feel sorry for Hermione. I mean she can be so annoying, but... With just about every Slytherin in our year coming from a family that hates Muggle-borns. It's asking for trouble. They are going to do something to her sooner or later. I just know it." Ron told Harry while they were in the library doing their homework on Saturday.

"Why would the others do something to her?" Harry asked.

"They were probably all taught that they were smarter and better then everyone because they are pure-blood and having a Muggle-born do better then them upsets them." Ron answered.

"That's not right."

"I know..."

"Feeling sorry for Granger?" Malfoy said.

Harry and Ron, startled, looked at Malfoy and saw all the other first year Slytherin boys except for Zabini were with him.

"That's none of your concern Malfoy." Ron said.

"It is. If you really are a Slytherin, you shouldn't care about Granger and her kind." Malfoy said back.

Before Ron could reply, Hermione showed up as well.

"Its very rude to talk about people behind their back." Hermione annoyingly said.

"Its also very rude that you come to school and make yourself look better then everyone else. Think you know everything about Wizards and our ways?" Malfoy said.

"I want to. I've read all the books for our classes at least twice so I'm looking for more things to read." Hermione replied.

"Lets see how much you know then. What is a pure-blood?" Malfoy asked.

"A pure-blood, according to the statute of 1753, is a person who can do magic that has four grand parents that could do magic and is at least three quarters human." Hermione replied.

"You're wrong! A pure blood is someone who has no Muggle filth in their blood like me." Malfoy said.

Harry had a bad feeling where things were heading...

"No, you're wrong! I read that in A Muggle-Born's Guide to the Wizarding World. The Appendix of A History of Magic also says that. And Muggles aren't filthy!" Hermione scolded.

Just then, the librarian Madam Pince came up to them.

"Would you seven leave? They are people in here trying to study and your raised voices are irritating. Next time, I'll bewitch your things to chase you out." the Madam Pince said very sternly.

All seven of them left the library. As they were leaving, Harry saw Professor Snape walking down the corridor towards them when Malfoy said angerly, "She's a nightmare! No wonder she doesn't have any friends! She's a loud, annoying, know-it-all, filthy little Mudblood that shouldn't have even been allowed in the school!"

Harry saw Hermione bolt out from behind them, clearly upset. Harry decided to go after her. Ron apparently decided to do the same. The fallowed her into an old unused classroom.

"Hermione?" Harry asked.

"Go away!" Hermione said, crying.

"We just want to tell you that what Malfoy said was just wrong. I hope Snape expels him for it." Ron said.

"Its true! Nobody likes me! And Malfoy said why!" Hermione replied.

"That's not what I'm talking about! He called you a - mudblood..." Ron said, pausing before he said mudblood.

"It doesn't matter what he called me. I don't know what it means but it sounded rude." Hermione said, who stopped crying.

"Its a foul name for someone who is Muggle-born. It means dirty blood. My dad says there's people like the Malfoys who think their better because they come from a family where everybody is a witch or wizard, in other words, one the old pure-blood Wizarding families. They feel that by letting Muggle-Born witches and wizards being part of our world, we're diluting our bloodline by bring in what they call dirty blood. My dad says that's ridiculous because if it wasn't for Muggles and Muggle-borns, wizards would have died out a long time ago. There isn't a witch or wizard who isn't part Muggle. Though tell Malfoy that..." Ron explained.

"Sounds like another form of racism." Harry said.

"I guess you can say that. Slytherin house is filled with people who believe that pure-bloods are better then everyone else..." Ron replied.

"I'm starting wish I wasn't in Slytherin. The Sorting Hat said I could have done well in any of the houses, though better in some then others. It was considering putting me in Ravenclaw before I told it put me into Slytherin. Why did I have to choose the house that would hate me the most?" Hermione asked, starting to cry again.

"We don't hate you Hermione." Harry said.

"I didn't want to be in Slytherin period. My family has always been in Gryffindor and a couple of my brothers will probably kill for being the first Weasley in Slytherin. But what is done is done. If want someone to study with, Hermione, or just hang out, well, Harry and I available." Ron said to Hermione.

"You'll both be my friends?" Hermione said surprised.

"Yes." Both Harry and Ron said together.

"Thanks." Hermione said.

Just then, Snape walked into the room.

After seeing that everything was alright with Hermione, Snape sent a letter to the Malfoys informing them of Draco's behavior, however, since the Malfoys were away on a business trip and Snape didn't expect a reply from them for at least a week. What he didn't expect was Dumbledore was now watching him like a hawk.

The man should have been in Slytherin with how he observed and manipulated people, Snape thought. Snape feared what Dumbledore might do he did something really out of character. He remembered June of 1995 when it was discovered that the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for the 94/95 school year was an impostor. He did not feel like being interrogated with Veritaserum.

Snape also noticed that after the incident with Malfoy, a rift was forming in Slytherin house between those whose parents were Death Eaters or were sympathetic to their cause and those who weren't. He didn't realize how bad the divide was until his the first class potions class with Slytherins. It was Monday morning and he had to to teach third year Hufflepuffs and Slytherins.

He stalked into his classroom in his usual way that, for some reason that he could never figured out, gave all Hufflepuffs the creeps.

Right away he noticed that something was odd. The Hufflepuffs were all sitting in the middle of the classroom with his Slytherins on either side. He clearly remembered during the previous class, he had told the students to sit next to their assigned lab partners. For all his classes, he had tried to assign every student with a lab partner who was not from the same house.

He had two very good reasons for this.. One, he was hoping it will help improve Slytherin House's image. Second (and important for his sanity), he didn't want the Weasley twins to put their heads together and come up with another clever way to disrupt the class when he wasn't looking. He wished he did that in the old timeline. It would have spared him a few headaches.

"I believe I said in our first class that you were to sit with your lab partner." Snape commanded.

Snape watched all the students in the classroom get up and head to their lab partner. Then he heard some of his Slytherins made comments to their partners in Hufflepuff saying they didn't want to sit next to certain Slytherins and arguments about where to sit soon erupted.

"I can not teach a class when everyone is fighting about where to sit. Just find a seat and take it before I start assigning detentions." Snape scowled.

Snape had the same problem in every class during the first half of the week that contained Slytherins. It was giving him a headache. He decided he would bring this up at the next house meeting.

On Thursday, he found a book in the school library's catalog that had a reference to Deathly Hallows. It was in the restricted section, on the top self, literally in the corner of the library where most people wouldn't bother it. The book was called, "Pushing the Limits of Magic to its Outer Most Boundaries" and was written by Ignotus Peverell. The last person to check it out was Dumbledore back in 1945. He took it to his office to read. When he got to his office, the main door had a note on it.

Severus,

Please meet me in my office as soon as possible.

Albus

Snape had a sinking feeling about it. He went into his office, set the book on his desk and headed to Dumbledore's office.

After speaking the password to gargoyle that guarded the headmaster's office, he rode up the stairs to its entrance. Before he knocked he heard Dumbledore speaking to a man.

"This isn't much to go on, Albus. Most of the ingredients are easy enough obtain although getting lobalug venom and thestral tail hair may prove problematic," a voice said rather dryly. Snape realized that he couldn't recognize the voice.

"I have access to thestrals and Mr. Fletcher can get us some lobalug venom. It may take us years to get to get the potion right but between you and I Nicolas, we will be able to do this." Dumbledore replied.

"Agreed. I would like to know who this potion is for... Great. Perenelle says she can't find anything in the pantry because of potion supplies I recently bought. I have to find a new place to store my things now. Talk with you later, Albus." the man said back, sounding rather annoyed towards the end.

"Until then, old friend." Dumbledore chuckled.

With that, Snape decided to knock.

"Enter. Ah, Severus, lemon drop?" Dumbledore asked.

"No thank you." Snape declined. He had a hunch that Dumbledore laced his favorite sweet with a mild calming drought and he had no intention to become addicted to them as it appeared that Dumbledore was.

"Very well." Dumbledore said a little disappointed." Severus, this has been a rather disturbing week. I've been getting complaints from all teachers, except for Binns that the Slytherins are having problems getting along. It seems that the Slytherin's famous united front has disappeared. The other teachers and I wouldn't mind this front disappearing if it wasn't so disruptive."

"I will be talking to my students about their behavior this Friday during the house meeting. I believe my punishing Malfoy for using the foul epitaph "mudblood" outside of the library caused it Headmaster." Snape replied calmly trying to keep his occlumency shields up. Surprisingly, Dumbledore wasn't trying to probe his mind but he didn't want to take any chances.

"I agree. I'm glad that you are teaching your students not to use that word. However, I feel it maybe too late for some of them to prevent them from making the same mistakes you did."

"I agree. The less of that pure-blood ideology circulating Slytherin house, the fewer recruits the Dark Lord will have when he returns." Snape said dryly.

"Quite true. It could, however, cause some parents to send their children to Drumstrang to study under Karkoloff." Dumbledore pointed out.

"Karkoloff is no Death Eater. The only reason he hasn't been murdered is because those who are truly loyal and talked their way out of Azkaban don't want to dirty their names again. As soon as the Dark Lord returns, Karkoloff will flee out of fear for having helped send several Death Eaters to Azkaban, including ones that were in high ranking Ministry positions. The Dark Lord wouldn't be too pleased about that."

"I never thought of that..." Dumbledore said wondering. "Also, Severus, Mr. Malfoy has gotten himself into more trouble. Minevra caught him throwing Mr. Longbottom's Remembrall on the roof during today's flying lesson. She assigned him two detentions. She would have taken points from Slytherin as well but there isn't any points left to take away due to the recent events. This is the first time in many years that Slytherin has been in last place for the House Cup for so long."

"Lucius wouldn't be too pleased about his son getting into more trouble..." Snape grumbled.

"I can imagine. Malfoy senior has the ear of the Minister, which is troubling, and it would be quite embarrassing for him if his son gets detention every week, even if Fudge unfortunately doesn't hold it against him. Anyways, that is all." Dumbledore added.

Snape went back to his office and started to read the book he got from the library. The book was fascinating and Snape soon found out why it was in the restricted section. It talked about extremely advanced magic and potions that Snape never even heard of. Spells that can create ghosts based off of a room or other enclosures 'Memory' of a person, even when that person was still alive or if that person was a ghost already. Potions that sprayed at a ghost. That Ignotus Peverell was definitely into the dark arts, Snape thought.

Snape soon got to the section about the Deathly Hallows. He continued and reached the part about the Deathly Hallows. Snape learned that Ignotus Peverell and his two older brothers made the Deathly Hallows. The book described the Hallows and how they worked in enough detail that he was convinced the stone in the ring was indeed the Resurrection Stone. It was rather disturbing to find out that the Elder Wand, when used in conjection with the Resurrection stone could in theory make an unlimited supply of inferi. Ignotus Peverell stated him and his brothers never got a chance to test the theory because his eldest brother Antioch was murdered and the Elder Wand stolen. After the section about the Deathly Hallows, the book went on to talk about blood magic. Toward the end of the section Snape read:

While I will not discuss the making of Horcruxes, I will only say they are any object, living or not, that a piece of a witch or wizard's soul is stored in. To make a Horcrux requires you to perform darker magic then anything my brothers and I have ever attempted to do. It is not for the faint of heart. I heard stories of people who made Horcruxes and completely lost their ability to show love or compassion after making them. I do not wish to teach people how to become such monsters. People need to know to be a Master of Death, one much accept the fact they will eventually die, not find a way to defeat it. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death but it will never and shouldn't be destroyed.

What is worse then making a Horcrux is to turn a living person into one. A person who has a piece of someone else's soul inside of them will never truly be them self. They would take on personality characteristics as well as possess all magical abilities of the owner of the soul fragment. The person would even be prone to seeing things threw the owner of the soul fragment's eyes or the eyes of any horcrux that can see. It is also said the person could in theory be controlled as if they were under the imperious curse.

While there is various ways to destroy a living person who is a Horcrux without killing them, all of which are discussed in other books, none is more reliable then a potion that I have seen references to in various texts. The recipe for the potion was believed to have been destroyed in a fight between Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin in the Hogwarts library. However, enough people knew of the potion to make a mostly complete list of its ingredients. The known ingredients are as follows:

2 ashwinder eggs

5 finely chopped flubber worms

1 lb of doxy excrement

½ lb of jarvey fur

1 cup of lobalug venom.

36 square inches of moke skin

2 cups finely chopped monkshood

1 live common garden slug

2 drops of blood willing sacrificed from the potion's brewer

One thestral tail hair.

The potion from what I've read destroys the soul fragment by removing its magic core (not to be confused with the magic core of the soul fragment's owner) and merging it with the magic core the person the soul fragment resides in. Without a magic core, no soul or soul fragment can survive. Even Muggles and Squibs have magic cores but they are far to week to do anything useful other then make a soul or soul fragment stay bound to the realm of the living.

The drinker of the potion would not only acquire the magical abilities of the owner of the soul fragment but would have the combined magical potential of them self and the owner of the soul fragment. Any offspring, descendants, or other heirs would also possess these magical abilities.

It is said, but not confirmed, that the only reason Salazar Slytherin was a parslemouth was because his muggle father was turned into a Horcrux by a parslemouth and then had to drink this potion.

It is also said the effect the potion has on the drinker is similar to the Family Induction Ritual in that by magic only, the drinker becomes the child of the owner of the soul fragment that resided inside of them. They would not retain any of the personality treats they had from having the soul fragment in them however. This side effect of being magically adopted by the owner of the soul fragment has presented some rather interesting legal disputes in the couple of dozen recorded instances of people having to drink this potion. Needless to say it has been ruled repeatedly that the drinker belongs to both the family they have by blood and the one by magic and could not be disowned by the family they have by magic on the grounds the victim needed compensation for being violated..

I have attempted many times to recreate the potion over the years but have failed. Without knowing all the ingredients and the steps to brew it, the best you can hope for is a potion that makes an excellent stain remover.

Snape couldn't believe what he read. He jotted down the list of ingredients out on a spare piece of parchment. When he was done, he began to think.

'Dumbledore was the last person to check this book out. Why didn't he attempt to figure out how to brew the potion? Dumbledore maybe manipulative but he is a genius. Between him and Flamel, they would have figured out the ingredients and the steps to complete the recipe! How could he not have done anything to help Harry - the thoughtless manipulative old coot!' Snape thought to himself.

Just then, there was a knock on the door to his office that lead to the Slytherin common room. Snape put a book mark where he left off and set the book aside. He was curious to see what other things this Ignotus Peverell knew.

"Enter." Snape said.

It was Marcus Flint. Snape knew why he was here. He was there to discuss the upcoming Quidditch trials. Snape was glad that Harry wasn't on a team this year and hoped he would never be. The last thing he wanted was Draco and Harry fight over who is the better seeker even though Harry was clearly the better of the two. It would also give Harry a chance to do better in his studies, especially in potions.

The week before Harry's 6th year, Dumbledore informed Snape that he found out from a contact he had in the Ministry that Harry's OWL results were altered to allow him to take Advanced Potions under Slughorn. Apparently someone had leaked that Harry wanted to be an auror and Minister Scrimgeour, in an attempt to get Harry to work for the Ministry, secretly ordered Harry's grade changed from an A to an E. Severus had a strong feeling it was Umbridge who was the leak and it was probably before Voldemort had shown himself in the Ministry. Scrimgeour, according to Shacklebot and Tonks complained of the lack of new recruits after Voldemort's downfall claiming that all the ones they had would be retiring more or less at the same time and there wouldn't be enough even for peace time.

"Mr. Flint, is there a problem?" Snape asked.

"No. I just wanted to inform you that I will be holding the Quidditch try outs this weekend. I have to replace three players that have graduated." Flint explained.

"I know." Snape said.

"I just wish I could replace some of the current players, especially Higgs. The last two games, he caught the snitch by pure chance..." Flint said annoyed.

"There is nothing wrong with replacing players that you feel aren't up to par. I suggest you hold try outs for all positions to see if you can find people who are better. If you do that, it will force whichever players you do choose to fly their best in fear they may loose their position next year." Snape suggested.

"That sounds like a good idea. I will do that. Thank you, professor." Flint said before leaving.

Ever since Malfoy called Hermione a mud blood, it seemed as if the other Slytherins fought with each other. Half the Slytherins were angry at Malfoy for loosing so many points in one go. The other half defended him for being a true Slytherin. If it weren't for the prefects stopping the arguments, Harry thought there was going to be fist fights among his fellow Slytherins. So for about a week, one half of Slytherin house avoided the other half and the infighting during classes was driving the teachers insane.

Snape brought this up in the Friday house meeting. He gave them a lecture about the fact that a true Slytherin is someone who is cunning, determined, and ambitious - not someone who insults people publicly. He also said that no one is to use the word mudblood again or a harsher punishment would be given to one who does. Snape also brought up what Malfoy's actions during the flying lesson and said he and the other professors would not tolerate such childish behavior.

On Sunday morning, when Harry and Ron got up, they noticed on the bulletin board in the Slytherin common room a flier about Quidditch Try-Outs.

"Quidditch try-outs will be held today after the lunch hour in the Quidditch Pitch. All first and second years are required to try out."

"Flint must be really desperate for players. To make first and second years try out? First years don't make the house teams and second years don't unless they've had a lot of practice at home like my brothers." Ron said.

"I guess. I will probably make a fool of myself in front of Malfoy since I don't know any of the rules..." Harry replied.

"You won't. You're good flier. Probably better than some of my brothers. Remember what Madam Hooch said." Ron reassured.

During the flying lesson on Thursday, Neville Longbottom took off too early and fell off his broom resulting in a broken wrist. After Madam Hooch had returned from taking Neville to the hospital wing, the lesson resumed and Harry did a much better job at flying compared to the other students. Madam Hooch was impressed and said he was a natural on a broom. When the lesson was over and they all headed back to their common room, the first year Slytherins told the older students in Slytherin about how well Harry flew. Even Malfoy's 'body guards' Crabbe and Goyle made some comments about it, earning them glares from Malfoy. Harry was a little shocked that Crabbe and Goyle spoke, let alone complimented him...

After breakfast, Harry, Ron, and Hermione headed to the library so Ron could bring Harry and Hermione up to speed on the rules for Quidditch. While on route, they suddenly found themselves in an odd situation when they thought they were alone in the corridor.

"Ron, I can't lift of my feet... My shoes! They're stuck to the floor!" Harry panicked as he tried to lift up his feet.

"Mine too! On no... Please let this not be them..." Ron worried out load.

"Who?" Hermione asked as she was trying unsuccessfully to unstuck her self using Finite Incantatem.

"What have we here, Gred?" a voice behind them said.

"Looks like three slimy snake firsties, Forge." another said.

"And ickle Ronnie is one of them!" the first voice said.

"Fred, George! Leave me alone! I didn't ask to be in Slytherin!" Ron yelled.

"I must say that..." George said

"That green really suits you. It really," Fred continued.

"Brings out your anger! Now what should..."

"We do to him for..."

"Being in stinking Slytherin!"

"Leave him alone!" Harry pleaded. "And unstick us!"

Harry never yelled back to anyone when someone did something to him. He was always too afraid. But here he was with two of his friends being pranked by two of one of his friend's brothers and felt braver (or angrier) than he usually did in this kind of situation.

"OK." Fred replied to Harry's pleas.

George pointed his wand at the floor under Harry, Ron, and Hermione and casted some non-verbal spell and Harry, Ron, and Hermione were now free to go. However, they didn't get far.

"Viridisempra!" Fred or George yelled followed by harsh laugher.

Harry looked at Ron and Ron was solid Slytherin green. Not just his skin, but his hair, eyes, and clothes. It only took Ron a half a second to realize he was completely green. Ron turned around but before he could act, a teacher had responded to the commotion.

"Misters Weasleys! 20 points from Gryffindor! And detention! Attacking your brother and his friends like that!" scolded Professor McGonagall as she ran to the scene.

"You two are worse than the so called Marauder gang back in the 70's! Attacking first years, let alone your brother! Not even they did those things!" McGonagall continued.

"Now, let's see about getting you back to normal Mr. Weasley." she said to Ron. With a flick of her wand, Ron was back to normal.

"Thank you, professor." Ron replied.

"You are welcome, Mr. Weasley. I'll be informing your parents of this incident. If your brothers do anything else like this again, don't hesitate to tell me or the head of your house."

"Yes professor."

Harry was a little surprised - a teacher actually did something about bullies and said that if it happened again to tell them? At his old school, the teachers knew Dudley beat up Harry and gave him a hard time, calling him names and chasing him all over the place but they never did anything about it. They had watched and pretended like nothing was happening. And at home, his aunt and uncle not only knew about it, but actually encouraged it. It seemed like every time Dudley pushed him in front of his aunt or uncle, Dudley would get some reward. Is this the way things are supposed to be Harry wondered.

They continued to the library and stayed there until lunch. When they went to the Great Hall for lunch, they were briefly interrupted by a Howler going off at the Gryffindor table.

"FRED AND GEORGE WEASLEY! I WILL NOT TOLERATE YOU TWO NOT BEING TOLERANT OF THOSE WHO ARE DIFFERENT! LEAVE YOUR BROTHER RON AND HIS FRIENDS ALONE! SO WHAT IF HE IS IN SLYTHERIN! IF YOU TWO DO ANYMORE PRANKS ON ANY OF YOUR BROTHERS AND/OR THEIR FRIENDS, I WILL DO WHAT YOUR FATHER DID TO BOTH OF YOU AFTER HE CAUGHT YOU TWO TRYING TO TRICK RON INTO MAKING AN UNBREAKABLE VOW TO BE YOUR SLAVE!" Mrs. Weasley's voice echoed threw out the hall. After the Howler was finished, people started talking again.

"Weasley, what was that about?" Flint asked.

"Nothing..." Ron said embarrassed.

"Nothing? You're brothers put a sticking charm on the floor to prevent us from going anywhere before they decided to turn you green in front of Professor McGonagall." Hermione complained.

"What's an unbreakable vow?" Harry asked.

"Its a promise you can't break. They're mentioned briefly in a 'Muggleborn's Guide to the Wizarding World', chapter 10. It said that you should never make one and if you do, don't every try to break it. It didn't say what would happen but I don't think it would be pleasant." Hermione said.

"If you break and unbreakable vow, you will die instantly. I just hope your father stopped them before the vow was sealed, Weasley. Otherwise, you won't have much choice if they decided to use you to prank your house mates." Sharon Silverwater replied.

"My dad caught them before it was sealed. It was the only time I saw my dad as angry as my mum. I was like five at the time and didn't know any better to make that kind of vow..." Ron said, still embarrassed.

"So I was right. All Weasleys have no brains!" Malfoy mocked.

"That was out of line, Malfoy. I don't want to lose what little points we have gotten back so I'm giving you detention. You're such an arrogant trouble maker. I very much want Slytherin to keep the House Cup but you aren't helping..." Silverwater scolded. Malfoy looked upset that he had received yet another detention but decided to keep quite.

"We have more important things to worry about right now like how to get back at Fred and George Weasley for pranking their little brother and his friends. Any ideas?" Flint asked after he took he wand out and quickly put it away.

"We could frame them of setting off a bunch of dung bombs in the dungeons." A fourth year named Powell said.

"That sounds like something they would do. They set an extra smelly one off in my brother Percy's bedroom last summer after he found out he was made prefect. Took my parents two days to get the smell out of the room..." Ron said.

"Sounds like a good idea. We just need some dung bombs and a way to convince the staff that it was them and not us..."

"I already have some dung bombs. Mr. Filtch is always setting up rat traps in the dungeons. Two of us could use a glamor charm to look like the Weasley twins and hopefully Filtch would see them." Powell said.

"Why do you have dung bombs?" Silverwater asked shocked.

"I bought some to see what kind of potion or spell would make them smell so bad." Powell answered.

"If this doesn't work, we could get into a lot of trouble." Hermione spoke.

"First rule of being a Slytherin, don't get caught doing anything stupid. And we won't." Flint replied taking his wand out again.

After lunch, Harry joined all the other first and second years at the Quidditch try-out. Flint came out in front of all the students who were trying out.

"Listen up! After talking with Professor Snape, I've decided to hold open try-outs for all positions on the team. I want to get the best team possible. No more of this staying on the team year after year because you were already on the team. Whoever I chose to be on this year's team will have to re-try out for their position next year."

Flint proceeded to test everyone for each of the four types of positions. Harry felt that he did best for the keeper and seeker positions. Malfoy apparently was so upset that someone who grew up with Muggles did so well, he ended up making a lot of mistakes when tested for each position. He ended up blaming his performance on the school broom but nobody bought it. Ron performed well for the keeper and chaser positions. Hermione managed to talk Flint out of making her try out, so she and sat around and watched her friends.

After Flint had finished testing everyone, he announced, "As for keeper, I haven't decided on who should be keeper because so many of you did so well. It will probably go down to whoever wins a game of chance between Hucklebee, Silverwater, Trenton, and Weasley. The chasers will be myself, Hitchens, and Wazlib. The reserve chasers will be Bergen, Holt, and Weatherbe. The beaters will be Higgs and Kellogg. The reserve beaters will be Smith and Underhill. Potter will definitely be seeker. I haven't decided on a reserve seeker yet since everyone else did poorly at the position."

Harry couldn't believe it. He made seeker for the team! And Ron said first years never make the team! If only he was allowed a broom... Just then, Flint approached him.

"Potter, we need to talk to Snape about getting you a broom. I know the letter they send out to first years say first years aren't allowed a broom but the official rules in the prefect manual said they are if they make the house team and have permission from the head of their house." Flint said.

Snape was in his office. He had finished reading "Pushing the Limits of Magic to its Outer Most Boundaries" by Ignotus Peverell and decided to consult the book on blood magic he bought at Knockturn Alley to see if it had a copy of the potion that Ignotus Peverell described. The book, written about a hundred years before Hogwarts was founded, would hopefully contain some reference to the potion since blood magic was described as anything that involved human blood.

Skimming through the book, he found the following on a mostly faded page:

Ingredients:

1 gallon of water

2 ashwinder eggs

1 augurey tail feather

5 finely chopped flubber worms

1 lb of doxy excrement

½ lb of jarvey fur

1 cup of lobalug venom.

36 square inches of moke skin

2 cups finely chopped monkshood

1 live common garden slug

2 drops of blood willing sacrificed from the potion's brewer

Steps:

add one gallon of water and bring to boil

add ashwinder eggs to boiling water and stir counter clockwise for 5 minutes

add augurey tail feather and stir counter-clockwise for 5 minutes

The rest of the text was faded beyond the ability to read with the exception of a line on the bottom of the page that said "(optional) Pinch nose while drinking". Snape tried every spell he knew to get the rest of the text readable on the page but the ink appeared to have been smeared due to someone spilling something on the page. All he managed to do was make it look as if someone had poured ink over a large portion of the page. He was confident that he had found a more complete version of the horcrux removal potion as that it had the ingredients from the incomplete list but he could not be sure beyond any doubt if he couldn't find out what the potion was for. He either needed to find a portrait of a Hogwarts Founders Era potions master or another ancient book on blood magic. Just then there was a knock one of the doors

"Just a moment." Snape said calmly. 'Why must people insist on interrupting my work?' he thought to himself. He quickly book marked the page in the book and put it back on the shelf.

"Enter." He said.

The door opened. It was Flint and Harry. 'I have a bad feeling about this...' Snape thought.

"I just finished doing the Quidditch trials and would like Mr. Potter to be allowed a broom so he could be on the team." Flint said.

Snape couldn't believe this was happening. 'Students were not supposed to know that first years could be on the Quidditch teams! How did Harry know he could be on the team,' Snape wondered privately to himself.

"You held open trials like I suggested?" Snape inquired.

"Yes. I had all first and second years try out. Mr. Potter was easily the best seeker out of all the ones I tested for the position. The closest person only caught the golf ball 7 out of 12 times. Mr. Potter didn't miss even one. I have never seen anything like it." Flint answered in disbelief.

Snape used passive legilimency on Flint and saw he was telling the truth. He knew from his experiences in the old timeline, once Flint had his mind set on something, there was no stopping him. He remembered in the old time line that after Lucius Malfoy bought Draco a spot on the Quidditch team, Flint insisted on him giving the team permission to practice even though Gryffindor had booked the field. No matter how hard he tried to explain to Flint he didn't have the authority to grant that permission, Flint wouldn't listen and turned the entire team against him and was forced to give them a note saying he had their permission. He hoped the Gryffindors would complain to Madam Hooch but they never did and Flint went unpunished.

"I will allow Mr. Potter a broom. However, Mr. Potter must keep up with his assignments. I know how you train the team and I noticed that once a person was on the team, their grades dropped significantly. While I want the team to win the Quidditch Cup, I also don't want people to fail to get the grades they need to pursue their chosen careers. Not everybody is from a wealthy family or can get a spot on a professional Quidditch team." Snape answered.

"I understand sir. Thank you." Flint said. Harry and Flint left the office leaving Snape to think on how he could help Harry maintain his grades.

The next day after supper, Snape went to his office and noticed a cat in his office. There was only one cat that could manage to get into his office.

"Professor McGonagall, would you care to explain what are doing in my office?" Snape asked annoyed. In the old timeline during his year as Headmaster of the school, Dumbledore's portrait would tell him McGonagall would enter the Headmaster's office while he was away. She would search for anything that might help people she knew in the Order of the Phoenix in stopping Voldemort. After all, every one believed he was Voldemort's favorite Death Eater after 'assassinating' Professor Dumbledore.

The cat quickly turned into McGonagall who looked surprised.

"How did you know?" McGonagall asked astonished.

"Besides myself, only a person who knows the password or someone who I let in can enter my quarters. This would eliminate the possibility of a student locking a cat in my office. Also, you couldn't be Mrs. Norris since Mrs. Norris is too skinny and mangy. With the fact you are registered as a cat Animagus, I deduced it could only be you. Now what are doing in my office?" Snape asked again. He feared Dumbledore had asked her to do his dirty work of investigating him.

"If you must know, you haven't been behaving like yourself for sometime and I want to know why."

'Typical Gryffindor candor - charge in where others would be more clever...' Snape thought to himself.

"So you think you can find the answers by entering my office without my permission? Did the headmaster ask you to do this?" Snape queried, looking McGonagall in the eye. If she was lying, he wanted to know.

"No and I'm surprised he hasn't. I know Albus is watching you but to my knowledge he hasn't done anything other then watch." McGonagall said before pausing. There was no lie in her eye.

"I know this maybe foolish to say - but I fear that you aren't Severus Snape! Albus must suspect this as well, otherwise he wouldn't be watching you so closely." McGonagall continued.

"First, you suddenly change your opinion of Mr. Potter. Then you change how you deal with students in your house. Those are things that the Severus Snape that I know wouldn't do. In addition, you have books on dark and possibly illegal magic in your office." McGonagall went on.

"First of all professor, you know I have always had an interest in the dark arts. I have those books for research purposes only. Since the fall of the Dark Lord, I have only used them to assist Madam Pomfrey in treating students that are cursed in a manner she cannot heal," Snape explained. "Second, I am who I came to be."

"You have several books on horcruxes here. I know what a horcrux is and I hope for your sake you aren't planning on making one." McGonagall accused.

Snape was rather shocked that McGonagall knew what a horcrux was.

"I'm working on a way of getting rid of one." Snape responded truthfully.

"I'm sure if that is the case, you would have no objections to me informing Albus of your questionable books and what you are doing."

McGonagall had him cornered. He often wondered why she was placed in Gryffindor. At times she acted more Ravenclaw or Slytherin. Especially when she was questioning people or questioning their motives.

"I must ask you not to. I swear on my life and magic I am Severus Snape. I am not using those books on horcruxes for anything other than what I am just claimed. I don't want you to tell the headmaster because I do not trust him as much as I used too." Snape responded. He just invoked a wizard's oath and the magic glowed around him indicating it. The fact he didn't drop dead on the spot should be enough to convince McGonagall of his sincerity.

"All right. I believe you. I apologize for my intrusion. But I must ask, why don't you trust Albus? If it wasn't for him, you would be in Azkaban." McGonagall questioned.

He knew now that he had no choice but to tell her that he was from the future. Anyone who remembered the Death Eater trials in the early 80s would know how if it wasn't for Dumbledore's testimony, he would have been sent to Azkaban for his involvement with the Death Eaters. He didn't want anyone else at the moment to know the truth so he locked the doors and casted a silencing charm so no noise would leave his office.

"I must ask you not to tell anyone this but I'm actually from the future. To be more precise, a future where Voldemort returned to full strength and was close to winning a second war he had started. I swear on my life and magic what I just said is true. In that future, I learned things about our headmaster that has made me decide it is best if I create my own front against Voldemort." Snape answered, invoking another wizard's oath.

McGonagall brought her hand to her chest as she drew a quick breath of air. "I need to sit down." she said in disbelief as she sat down in one of the chairs in Snape's office.

"Interesting. What did you do to your younger self? I would hate to think you went backwards in time and killed your younger self." McGonagall inquired after she got a hold of herself..

"The way I traveled backwards in time was not a conventional method, nor did I agree to be sent backwards in time. At least not to this period of time. I died and the Fates decided to send my mind backwards in time to last July. I would have preferred before the owl exams in my fifth year but the Fates said no. Would you like some tea?" Snape answered.

"No thanks. I've had enough today to ensure I won't sleep tonight." she said. "Anyways, that is rather unconventional method of time travel. What did you learn in the future about Albus that makes you not trust him?"

"For one, he is very careful in what he tells you and will mislead you if it suits his purposes. He tends to leave out the piece of information you need to know and sometimes tells that one piece of information to someone else you need to seek out.

"For example, after Voldemort had left Harry an orphan that Halloween night, our headmaster made me promise to look after the boy. To keep him safe for Lily. Years later, our headmaster informed me that Voldemort had accidentally turned Harry into a horcrux the night he gave Harry that scar. What was worse was that he told me I must tell Harry, but not until just before a prophesied final confrontation between Harry and Voldemort that our never wrong Divination teacher predicted during the first war. He told me that Harry must die!

"All this looking out for Harry our headmaster convinced me to do wasn't for Lily but was for Albus so that he could train the boy to be the perfect little soldier and march to death without question.

"What is worse is that Voldemort had deliberately made 6 other horcruxes. Dumbledore sent the boy, who wasn't even 17 at the time, to go on a quest to find and destroy the ones that were still in existence and Voldemort. After being taught everything he needed to know about horcruxes, Dumbledore conveniently left out the fact Harry was a horcrux and was not supposed to survive destroying Voldemort.

"Our headmaster didn't tell me about the horcruxes or about the mission he sent Harry on. He only told me that Harry had a piece of Voldemort's soul inside of him and not to tell him until he was ready to kill Voldemort. I found out about the Horcruxes quite by accident.

"Our headmaster had died. He was cursed when he attempted to destroy one of Voldemort's horcruxes and there wasn't anything anyone or I could do but to ease his passing. He had the nerve to request me to be the one to kill him in front of a bunch of Death Eaters. Even in death he continued to manipulate people.

"Voldemort, shortly after the Headmaster's death, had taken control of Ministry and installed me as the new Headmaster of Hogwarts. I was asked to attend a Death Eater party during the winter holidays and an escaped, not to mention intoxicated, Bellatrix LeStrange had let slip to me that Voldemort had given her his horcrux to guard in her vault.

"I confronted our headmaster's portrait. It ordered me not to get this vital piece of information to Harry He said that with Harry being a horcrux, he had a link with Voldemort and our Headmaster didn't want my position as a spy comprised. Voldemort might be seeing into Harry's mind at the time and instead opted for Harry to find out that information on his own which he eventually did months later.

"But what really infuriates me is that Harry didn't have to die! Once I obtained information about how to destroy horcruxes, I have found that there are ways to get rid of that piece of Voldemort's soul out of Harry that doesn't involve killing him. One of those ways is discussed in a book in the school library that the Headmaster checked out! He cares absolutely nothing about the boy! To him, the boy is nothing more then a way to destroy Voldemort! He doesn't care if Harry lives or dies! He probably has more feelings for a pig going to slaughter! How he can do such a thing to Lily's child?!" Snape explained. Towards the end he was loosing control of his emotions.

McGonagall was in disbelief.

"I find that... Shocking. It's like finding out that Albus was romantically involved with Grindelwald." McGonagall managed to say.

"Actually he was. Shortly after our headmaster had died, Rita Skeeter investigated his life and published a book called the Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore as a message to Harry that the headmaster isn't to be trusted. I consulted our headmaster's portrait about the book and he did say there were a great many facts in it. However Skeeter couldn't get the whole story and filled in the gaps with speculation that seemed logical and/or newsworthy to her.

"One of the things he said Skeeter was mostly right about was his involvement with Grindelwald when he was 18. The two of them had a rather intense relationship where they plotted to take over the world. They did dangerous experiments with their magic, among other things, before Aberforth tried to talk sense into our headmaster. His break up with Grindelwald didn't go smoothly and his younger sister died in the cross fire. Since then he has been trying to redeem himself by stopping dangerous witches and wizards by doing what ever it takes - all for the greater good." Snape replied.

"Oh my... I just don't know what to think here. This is a lot to take in... You being from the future... Albus not only being close to a dark wizard but to be using Harry like that... I remember the evening that he left Harry on the Dursleys' door steps. I told him not to leave the boy with them. They were the worst sort of Muggles imaginable. But he didn't listen. It must have been part of his plan for the boy. I always thought it's because he believes in families." McGonagall stammered.

"I won't tell anyone what you have said. If I did, they would think you had gone insane and we would be without a potions professor. Its hard enough to find people interested in the Defense Against the Dark Arts post with that curse You-Know-Who placed on it in the late 60's. People must be scared to get any jobs here at Hogwarts out of fear the job is cursed somehow..." McGonagall said after a moment of silence.

"Just out of curiosity, when you volunteered to give Harry his letter, was what you said about the Dursleys' true? Hiding Harry's letters and his being ignorant of the Wizarding World?" McGonagall asked.

"Yes. In Harry's 5th year Dumbledore had me attempt to teach the boy occlumency. While using legilimency to test Harry's shields or lack of them, I saw worse things about Harry's life with his aunt and uncle that reminded me of my youth except he didn't have a mother figure that tried her best to protect him. In that timeline, Harry was in Gryffindor and I was convinced he was another James and made his life miserable for nearly six years while I did nothing more then to keep my oath to look out for him while he was at school. When I finally admitted to myself that Harry and I were more alike then I both of us would care to admit, it was too late and the wrong time for us to have any positive relationship without risking my position as a spy due to the number of students in my house that had joined the Death Eaters or were close to joining. Right now, the only evidence I can get now is to force Harry to talk about it but, like me, he finds talking about our relatives difficult and uncomfortable... I'm working on a way to remove him from the Dursleys' care." Snape answered thinking about his own child hood and having to grow up with a constantly drunk father and a mother who was in denial until it was too late.

"How are you going to go about removing Harry from the Dursleys' care? I can imagine Albus will put up a big fight. After all, it sounds like he put Harry in such an unloving environment to condition him. I will gladly help you with this."

"It's a risky plan but it may work. It involves freeing an innocent person who we all assumed was guilty of betraying James and Lily Potter to their death." Snape said causing McGonagall to look puzzled.

The next day Harry, with Flint's help, was able to place an order for a Nimbus 2000. Draco Malfoy, however, was not at all happy at not making the team.

"Wait until my father hears about this! I was supposed to make the team!" Malfoy ranted in the common room.

"I wish he would shut up about his father." Ron whispered to Harry as Ron was teaching Harry how to play Wizard Chess.

"He reminds me of a girl I went to school with." Hermione added. "Her mum was one of the teachers. When ever things didn't go her way, she would go to her. She was so annoying..."

"What was that, Mudblood?" Malfoy challenged.

"Snape said for us not to use that word, Draco." Blaise Zabini spoke.

"I've heard him use the word before. He and my father are friends. If he can use that word, why can't I?" Malfoy replied.

'Snape is friends with Draco Malfoy's dad and calls people Mudblood? That doesn't seem right. Snape seams so nice...' Harry thought.

"Maybe he wants to set a good example. I've heard my dad swear when he thought he was alone in his shed trying to figure out how some Muggle thing works but he won't let my brothers, sister or I swear." Ron explained.

"Nobody asked your opinion, blood traitor. Your whole family has a thing with Muggles. If you are going to be a Weasley in Slytherin, you should make friends with the right crowd. Hanging out with a Mudblood encyclopedia who shouldn't even be at this school is against everything my father said Slytherin is all about." Malfoy mocked.

Ron stood up and pointed his wand at Malfoy.

"You're no Slytherin Weasley. A true Slytherin would never fire the first curse. You probably told the Sorting Hat anywhere but Gryffindor so you can be away from your family. Is it true that your family all sleep in the same room because you are all so poor?" Malfoy continued to mock.

"EAT SLUGS MALFOY! " Ron yelled. "VOMITO INVERTIBRATES!"

A green spell left Ron's wand but Malfoy moved out of the way. The spell went across the room and hit the wall causing some sparks to fly.

"You can't even aim right. Just shows you, you don't belong here." Malfoy taunted.

"Leave him and his family alone. You're the one who doesn't belong here." Zabini accused.

"Yes. You keep getting into trouble. I won't be surprised if you get suspended or worse - expelled." Hermione added.

"I don't care about your father. So what if he's on the board of governors? That doesn't mean you can go around like you own the school. There's about a dozen students who have parents or relatives on the Board of Governors and you are the only one causing trouble." a fourth year girl snapped.

"Not to mention bragging about it." a portrait of an extremely ugly witch added, causing various other portraits in the room to nod.

Malfoy, apparently couldn't handle so many people and portraits arguing against him and decided to leave the common room.

"Thank Merlin he left. I really wanted to curse him..." Ron muttered angrily.

"I can tell." was all Harry could say.

"Please don't. I don't want you to get into trouble. If he makes fun of you or your family again, tell Professor Snape." Hermione added.

Snape was in a bad mood as he headed for his office. He was teaching third year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws when a bunch of dung bombs went off in the classroom. The room smelled like a cross between hippogriff and dragon dung - except it was much more powerful. Since he was teaching third year Gyffindors, it was obvious it was one or both of the Weasley twins' doing and he gave them both detention. That caused them to stop laughing. Fortunately it was just before supper and he didn't have to teach anymore classes that day. Hopefully by morning, the smell would be gone from the classroom.

He went to his office after eating supper. He knew that he needed to get Sirius Black out of jail as soon as possible if there would be any chance of Harry spending Christmas with Sirius. Upon being released, Sirius would no doubt be sent to St. Mungo's. If his condition was anything like how it was in the old timeline, the healers at St. Mungo's would not release him until he got back up to a healthy weight. That might take at least a month with the proper potions and food, Snape thought to himself. And if Sirius decided to live at 12 Grimmauld Place, it would take at least another month for a professionally trained crew to get that place cleaned up and be an appropriate place for an 11-year-old child, especially one that trouble always seems to find.

Harry deserved to have a happy Christmas, he continued to think to himself. However, that wasn't the only reason for Snape wanting Sirius freed. He needed Sirius' help to get access to Bellatrix LeStrange's vault to destroy the horcrux that was being stored inside of it as soon as possible. With both Bellatrix and her husband in jail, the only person who would have access to her vault would be the head of the family Bellatrix LeStrange was born into. At the present time, it was her cousin Sirius Black. That meant Snape had no choice but to let Sirius in on his secret about being from the future. It was meeting he wasn't looking forward to considering the rivalry Snape had with Sirius and James Potter while they were in school together. If he had someone Sirius would listen to with him, it might make the meeting easier.

McGonagall was out of the question. Sirius never followed her instructions when he was in school. 'Perhaps I should let Sirius' only living friend Remus Lupin in on the secret?' Snape thought to himself privately. Remus was more mature than Sirius and Snape believed he could manage to have a civilized conversation with him.

But one thing bothered Snape: how could the Ministry allow Sirius to remain in Azkaban for so long? Sirius was arrested and sent more or less straight to Azkaban without a trial. They just threw him in the infamous prison for him to rot and told the world he betrayed the Potters and killed 13 people, including Petter Pettigrew. Under the Emergency War Time Act of 1973, Sirius was supposed to get a trial no later than 60 days after being arrested. If they didn't, they would have had to drop all charges against him and set him free.

'It doesn't seem like the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to make such an oversight as that.' Snape thought. 'By-The-Book Crouch was still head of that department when Sirius was supposed to get a trial. How could Crouch make an oversight like that? Unless...'

Then it dawned on him. After Voldemort disappeared, Lucius Malfoy turned to the light side and pleaded imperious curse despite the evidence against him. 'What if during questioning, Lucius Malfoy imperious cursed Crouch into excepting bribes to let other Death Eaters go free and to keep Sirius in jail?', he thought. 'Sirius couldn't legally be disowned as he is the eldest son of a person in line of being head of the Black family. If he were to die, the title would go to Bellatrix LeStrange, and if something were to happen to her, it would go to her youngest sister Narcissa Malfoy since Andromeda Tonks, who had married a Muggle, had been legally disowned. Lucius Malfoy must want his wife to be head of the Black Family so he can have access to their wealth... Sirius' grandfather Arcturus Black did die a mysterious death earlier this year... How could dozens of droxies get into a house and bite a person to death like that unless that person is Gilderoy Lockheart?'

Snape realized that if it were true that Lucius was the reason for Sirius being in jail for so long, then to proving to the world that Pettigrew was not only alive but the real traitor and mass murderer would not be enough to get Sirius free. Lucius could just say Sirius was a Death Eater and suggested the switch and told Voldemort about it. Snape felt he needed to do something to get Lucius to agree to have Sirius released. He needed to meet with Lucius as soon as possible. Fortunately Lucius had just arrived back from his trip and was going to meet with him about Draco's behavior the next day.

Harry couldn't sleep that night. Something kept him awake. It wasn't a sound but more of a presence. He looked at the clock. It was 11:00 at night. He was supposed to be asleep 2 hours ago. He had a strange urge to get out of bed and head towards the common room. It was against the rules but he couldn't fight the urge. As he walked down the hallway, he suddenly had another urge to stop at a one of the paintings. In the painting was a man. His face was monkeyish with a long thin gray beard. He never seen that man before.

"Good evening Mr. Potter. I'm sorry for summoning you. I've observing you and would like to talk to you alone in private." The man said with a hissing sound to his voice.

"Who are you?" Harry asked.

"I am Salazar Slytherin. Or rather a copy of his mind that he left behind to help manage the school," the Slytherin said.

"Why do you want to talk to me?" Harry asked again. He was shocked that a portrait of Slytherin was wanting to talk to him.

"I don't normally chat with students. I've been observing you. I can sense inside of you a piece of Tom Riddle's soul in addition to that of your own. I'm curious why nobody has given you a potion to get rid of it." Slytherin inquired.

"I have piece of someone's soul inside of me?" Harry asked a little dismayed. He may have been knew to magic but it seemed rather odd a portrait was telling him that there was something inside of him.

"Yes. You do. Tom Riddle is one of my descendants and one of the few people I can feel without too much effort if they are inside of this castle. He is very evil person and I knew from the moment he stepped into Hogwarts he was not to be trusted. He has apparently put a piece of his soul inside of you as part of his misguided quest to obtain immortality. As long as a piece of his soul is inside of you, he cannot die. It's really complex and I don't expect a first year student to understand it. There's a potion you can drink to get rid of the piece of his soul inside of you. It's an obscure potion and if the healer or potions master here doesn't know how to make it, I will gladly give them instructions." Slytherin spoke.

"I'll talk to Professor Snape. He'll probably will want to ask you questions so can you please stay here?" Harry asked Slytherin.

"I'm sure he will. I'm not going anywhere. If you ever need me, just go up to any of the paintings in the castle and say Muggles are fascinating." Slytherin replied.

It was late and Snape was in his office grading the papers his fifth years had written on the properties of crystallized mint leaves and how they are used. More then half of the students forgot to mention it was used in the dreamless sleep potion which made him wonder if they were even reading their potions book. He just finished reading the last paper when there was a knock at the door.

"Enter." he said, surprised a student was up this late. Harry walked nervously in which surprised Snape even more.

"Harry, you're supposed to be in bed..." Snape said concerned.

"I know sir...but, uhh...the portrait of Salazar Slytherin woke me up and uhh...said I have somebody named Tom Riddle's soul inside of me. Uhh...he said something about a potion I can take to get rid of it and if you don't know how to make it, he said he will help you." Harry explained scared and somewhat breathless.

Snape couldn't believe it. How could a portrait know Harry was a horcrux? That was very odd...but if Slytherin knew how to make the potion, he couldn't pass up this opportunity

"Where is this portrait of Slytherin?" Snape inquired.

"He's in hall going to the boy's dorm rooms. I'll show you." Harry said.

"Just a moment," Snape said, gathering a clip board, a quill, and some parchment. He and Harry soon headed to the portrait.

Harry started hissing at the portrait when they got to it. Snape knew Harry was a parslemouth so this didn't surprise him. He just had to tell Harry to be careful about speaking parsletongue around others since most people considered the ability to speak to snakes the sign of a dark witch or wizard.

"Mr. Potter, you're speaking parsletongue. I doubt the head of your house can understand what you are saying." Slytherin calmly said.

"Parsletongue?" Harry asked.

"The Snake language. To most witches and wizards, it sounds a series of hisses. You have to be careful about speaking it around others as most people consider the ability to be a sign of an evil wizard. However, it is just another ability. For example, some people can change their looks by just thinking about it. You can understand and speak to snakes" Snape explained to Harry.

Snape then though that maybe he could see if he can get Harry to locate the Chamber of Secrets and claim the basilisk just in case he failed to stop Ginny Weasley from being processed by Voldemort's diary.

"Well phrased, Professor." Slytherin responded.

"Now what is this about Harry having a piece of a person's soul inside of him and a potion to rid him of that soul fragment?" Snape asked Slytherin, trying to hide the fact he already knew those facts.

As Snape wrote down the directions to make the potion, he found the conversation that followed was very enlightening. Slytherin was not at all as Snape had expected to be. He expected Slytherin to be a sinister, dark man like Voldemort. Instead he came across as a man who history misjudged. He was more of a person who shunned the dark arts and had absolutely no love of his supposed "heir" - Lord Voldemort.

First thing the next day, Lucius Malfoy arrived to meet with Snape. Although, Snape wasn't looking forward to this conversation, he knew he had to speak with Malfoy. One small mistake-one misstep and his plan would be ruined. They went to his office in the dungeons and Snape cast the appropriate privacy spells so no one would over hear them.

"Lucius, I must speak to you about Draco. You know how fond I am of your son, but Draco is quickly becoming an embarrassment to Slytherin House and to the Malfoy family. In the time since I sent my first letter, he has received more detentions and has lost even more house points. Slytherin, for the first time I can remember is in a distant 4th place in the running for the House Cup. Rumor has it that he thinks you can bail him out of every situation he is in. I know you appointed me his godfather but I think it is best that you talk to him about his behavior and explain to him the repercussions of his behavior. He needs to know that you are not going to be around rescue him from each bad decision." Snape explained.

Snape poured tea for Lucius and himself while he awaited Malfoy's reaction. Malfoy looked concerned.

"I see... that is disturbing. I will talk with him. Out of curiosity Severus, what kinds of things has he done?" Lucius asked, sipping some tea.

"Harassing students, talking back to instructors, and stealing. Also, he struts about the school as if he owns the place. He constantly refers to your position on the board of governors to excuse his behavior." Snape answered.

"He sounds worse than that James Potter was in your year... I guess Narcissa and I will have to keep a closer eye on him. I would ask the house elves but Dobby always finds a way to turn the simplest tasks into a disaster..." Lucius replied clearly appalled at his son's behavior.

"Indeed." Snape said thinking about how true that was as he sipped his tea. Hopefully with some luck, Draco could change for the better.

"Also, Lucius, there is also something I want to talk to you about. It concerns the Dark Lord." Snape continued.

Lucius looked up after setting his cup down.

"The Dark Lord is not dead Lucius. Our Dark Marks haven't completely gone away. I know enough about them to know that they won't completely go away until the Dark Lord is dead." Snape continued.

"I see..." Lucius replied nervously.

"And I also found out that one our fellow Death Eaters hasn't taken advantage of his unique situation."Snape explained.

"Who?" Lucius asked curious.

"Petter Pettigrew. It appears that Black didn't kill him and he has been hiding out all these years as a rat. He's here at the school pretending to be a student's pet." Snape answered.

"Are you sure? I wasn't aware that you knew Pettigrew was a Death Eater and a rat Animagus." Lucius said a little surprised.

"I'm positive it is him. The rat has been in school for many years. I'm also aware that Pettigrew was the Potters' secret keeper and that Sirius Black was not a death eater. I'm sure when the Dark Lord returns, he will be furious at Pettigrew for not taking advantage of his apparent death to seek him out." Snape replied.

"Agreed..." Lucius said.

"I believe we should punish Pettigrew for his failure to find the Dark Lord. I am working on a way to get him to return to human form. While we are at it, we should also do something to make the Dark Lord's job easier. When Pettigrew is shown to be alive, we should use his existence to get Sirius Black's name cleared of all charges. Once Black is out of prison, he will no doubt try to get custody of Harry Potter. Since he is the boy's godfather, he will win any custody suit against muggles." Snape explained.

"How would that help the Dark Lord?" Lucius asked.

"Dumbledore set up protections on Potter that will only work if Potter calls his aunt's house home. Change that, and it will be easier for harm to come to Potter. The Dark Lord, if you remember, is obsessed with killing Potter to the point where he wouldn't let any of us do it for him even if the opportunity arose." Snape explained remembering when Voldemort announced that he believed Harry was a threat.

"Sounds like an interesting plan... It will no doubt humiliate Dumbledore to find out he was the traitor. I'll make sure to it that part of Sirius' compensation of being in prison is custody of his godson. However, I can imagine Dumbledore will put up a fight. He and I are competing for the ear of that idiot of a Minister, and Dumbledore is the head of the ICW and the Wizengamont. Not to mention he is on every other chocolate frog card. He will no doubt try to use his influence to prevent it, but he will lose." Malfoy said smiling mischievously while taking another sip of tea

After the meeting with Lucius, Snape started to compose a letter to Remus Lupin. It would be best if he meet with him before Sirius was freed. Since his meeting with Remus would be suspicious to any member of the school staff, it would also be best if they met in a place where members of the Hogwarts staff didn't frequent. However when they met, Snape would bring his Pensieve-showing Lupin the truth would convince him faster than just telling him.

All that decided, Snape wrote in his letter.

Remus Lupin

Please meet me at The Shrieking Shack at noon tomorrow. It's urgent that I speak to you.

Severus Snape

After sending the letter off, Snape then wrote a note to Harry requesting him come to his office after lunch. Harry's own owl seemed quite eager to give Harry mail. When he got back to his office, he took the Resurrection Stone out of his desk. He had removed the stone from the ring and put into a necklace Harry that Harry could wear. He knew Harry would want to keep the stone on him and, not wanting to risk Dumbledore recognizing the stone from being from a ring that the young Tom Riddle wore, he hoped that making it part of a necklace would be the best way to hide it. He would give the necklace to Harry during lunch.

Harry had just left Snape's office. He was a little disappointed that Professor Snape hadn't made the potion yet the professor had told Harry that he needed to get some ingredients. The sooner he could get that piece of Tom Riddle out of his head, the better. But Harry was excited-the professor had given him a necklace with a stone that Snape said would allow him to talk with his parents when he touched the stone.

"What did Snape want Harry?" Ron asked.

Harry started heading to his room. Ron and Hermione followed him curious.

"He wanted to give me this. He said it would allow me to talk to my parents." Harry replied, a little unsure once he was sure nobody else was listening.

"But aren't your parents dead?" Hermione asked.

"Yes. He said it would bring them back-sort-of-as long as I'm touching the stone." Harry answered.

"Well, why don't we go test it?" Hermione suggested.

"Let's go to Ron and my room. I doubt anyone would be there." Harry replied.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat on Harry's bed. Harry touched the stone while thinking about what he could say to his parents. Then, his parents appeared in front of him.

"Harry?" Lily Potter asked.

"Mum? Dad?" Harry said excited and carefully not to stop touching the stone.

"Harry, we missed you. Wait a second, Harry...did you get sorted into Slytherin? Or is this some kind of joke?" James Potter asked confused.

"Uh... Yeah?" Harry replied.

"I guess Sirius has been teaching you to be really sneaky...I'm sure he fainted when he found out where you sorted...anyways, are these your friends?" James asked again.

"Yes. I'm Ron Weasley." Ron replied.

"Hermione Granger." Hermione said, intrigued by what she was seeing.

"A Weasley in Slytherin? Now that's a first..." James muttered.

"I don't mean to change the subject but Sirius got sent to jail shortly after you died." Harry said nervously remembering what he had read.

"What happened?" James asked, shocked.

"He murdered Peter Pettigrew and 12 muggles with a single curse. He also was the one who told You-Know-Who where you were hiding." Hermione answered.

"He couldn't have told Voldemort where we were hiding! He wasn't our secret keeper. Peter was and if he is dead, we haven't seen him since we died. I'm almost afraid to ask this, but if you aren't living with Sirius, who are you living with? It's not my sister, is it?" Lily asked concerned.

"Yes..." Harry said nervous...

"What was the Ministry thinking placing you with her? She and her husband hate magic!" Lily shouted.

Ron's pet rat Scabbers had woken up and seemed almost terrified at and trying to get out of its cage, catching James' attention.

"Whose pet rat is this?" James asked, walking up to the cage.

"Mine. His name is Scabbers. He's been in my family for like ten years..." Ron answered.

"Scabbers is no rat. Go get a teacher right away! This rat is Peter!" James said angrily.

"Hermione, go get Professor Snape." Harry asked Hermione.

"Severus Snape? He's a teacher?" Lily asked shocked.

"He's head of Slytherin and teaches potions." Harry answered.

Hermione left and returned with both Snape and McGonagall moments later. McGonagall gasped when she saw Harry's parents in the room. Snape whispered something to her that Harry couldn't make out.

"I thought I'd never see you as a teacher Snivellus..." James rudely said to Snape.

McGonagall was not amused. "That was out of line Mr. Potter! If you weren't dead, I would instruct you to go help Filch scrub the fourth floor corridor for disrespect to a teacher. Parts of it are still sticky from that prank you and your friends pulled in your 2nd year." she snapped.

James hung his head and muttered "Yes, professor." Harry could hear him mutter, "I am dead and she still scares me."

"Now, let's see if you are right about this rat being Pettigrew." McGonagall said. She waved her wand and red spell came out and hit the rat. The rat dropped to the bottom of his cage and appeared to fall asleep. She opened the cage and taking the rat, set him on Ron's bed. She shot another spell that caused the rat to turn into a small man.

"I'll contact the Ministry. It appears Pettigrew isn't as dead like how we assumed he was. They will get to the bottom of this." Snape said before rushing out of the room.

Snape was quite pleased. His plan had worked perfectly-Sirius Black was would soon be out of Azkaban. He hadn't expected Harry to use the stone so soon but, never the less, the plan worked. It was most fortunate McGonagall came to his office asking if he could have his students make some simple potions she could use to teach her NEWT level students how to turn one potion into another as that they had gotten the hang of turning water into lemonade sooner then she had anticipated. He walked down the hall, to the Slytherin common room. A few students were there playing exploding snap or trying to read. Snape went to the fireplace and threw some floo powder into the fire and shouted, "Ministry of Magic, Auror office."

It had been an odd afternoon for Harry. Snape gave him a necklace that can bring back his parents temporarily. He hoped to have a longer chat with his parents but his father said his friend Ron's rat wasn't a rat but a man that was supposed to be dead.

Next thing he knew people who he assumed were Aurors were in his dorm room taking what was once Ron's rat to the Ministry. He wanted to talk to his parents some more but he could never get the chance.

During the excitement, he let go of the stone in the necklace and before he knew it, the lunch hour was over and he had to go back to class. Now, the headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, wanted to see him and his friends in his office.

Harry and his friends arrived at the entrance to the Headmaster's office. Harry found it odd that someone would use a type of candy as a password. When they went inside, they found Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Snape sitting down. There were three empty chairs and Harry and his friends sat down in them.

"Now that we are all here, I guess we can begin. Lemon drop anyone?" Dumbledore said calmly. Ron was the only one who accepted a lemon drop. "After lunch, I received a floo call from the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement that you five were involved in the discovery of a man who, by all accounts, is dead. Madam Bones was able to give me a report but I, as the saying goes, would like to hear the story straight from the horse's mouth."

Harry looked at Snape before speaking. He felt a little nervous but decided to start speaking. He didn't know where to begin.

"My dad said that Ron's pet rat Scabbers wasn't a rat..." Harry nervously said.

"Your dad? I beg your pardon, but your father is dead and he did not come back as a ghost as far as I know..." Dumbledore said, puzzled.

"Professor Snape gave Harry a necklace with a stone in it that was able to bring Harry's parents back as long as he was touching the stone." Hermione added.

Dumbledore's expression changed. It was now that of intrigue. "Can I see this necklace?" Dumbledore asked. Harry reluctantly handed over the necklace to Dumbledore. Snape for a second seemed to want to say something but decided not to. Dumbledore held the necklace up and stared at the stone, almost hypnotized by it.

Snape just knew what was going on in Dumbledore's mind. Dumbledore's portrait confessed that in life, he plotted to unite the three hallows when he was younger and was still obsessed with the Deathly Hallows when he died. He found the wand in Grindelwald's possession in 1945 and kept it. It made sense now why in the old time line the foolish man decided to handle the ring. He recognized the stone as the Resurrection Stone. All he needed was to get the cloak and he would have all three. At least this time, Snape didn't have to worry about killing the foolish man for handling something without testing for curses. However, that didn't stop Snape from stopping Dumbledore from touching the stone and the elderly headmaster was about to do.

"Headmaster? Are you alright?" Snape asked, hoping to get bring Dumbledore back to his senses.

Dumbledore quickly handed the necklace back to Harry. The headmaster appeared to be a little shaken.

"I'm quite all right. Just I never thought I'd ever see that stone. It appears to Mr. Potter, you have the Resurrection Stone. I might want to warn you about using it. There is no spell that can truly bring back the dead. People have been driven mad hoping to bring back those who they care about only to discover that part of them is still on the other side of the veil that separates the living from the dead. While I'm sure your parents wouldn't mind being pulled from the afterlife to chat with you, I strongly suggest you restrain yourself from using the stone. You may end up wanting to be with them and lose your will to live." Dumbledore advised to Harry.

Now that was unexpected. Snape thought to himself. Dumbledore's portrait said he that wanted all the Deathly Hallows. Even if he just wanted to study them and not use them for nefarious purposes as he had in the past, Snape would never have imagined Dumbledore to give the stone back to Harry so easily.

"Another word of advice, Harry, do not tell anyone you have the stone or what it does. The stone is part of a set of three extremely powerful magical items. The person who manages to get all three is said to be able to invincible. This is a great deal of nonsense but there are always those who believe that to be true. Those people will do anything to get those items into their possession. Only tell people you completely trust you have the stone. The less people who know you have it, the better. In fact, it's best to keep it somewhere safe and out of site such as your vault at Gringott's." Dumbledore continued.

"I understand sir." Harry replied, a little scared now.

Dumbledore then looked at Snape. "Where did you find that necklace Severus?"

Snape needed to come up with a quick explanation.

"I found it years ago on the ground near my parents home and kept it in my desk drawer. I found out I still had it while searching for quills had it and decided to give Harry it." Snape lied.

"Did you use it?" Dumbledore asked.

"Once while trying to figure out what it was. My mother ended up appearing." Snape replied honestly.

Dumbledore looked a little surprised. The man is probably wondering why I'd didn't use it to try and bring back Lily. Snape thought.

The meeting went on for a few minutes more discussing the events of earlier that day and then Snape, McGonagall, Harry, Ron, and Hermione left Dumbledore's office.

The next day, before noon, Snape snuck into the Shrieking Shack with his Pensieve to meet with Remus Lupin. Snape put in it all the important memories he had of the old time line into his Pensieve as well as some memories of the new time line. He wanted to show Lupin that things weren't happening the way they did the first time around (he even included the memory of his chat with McGonagall). Snape just hoped that Lupin would believe him and not think this was some elaborate prank. Snape also hoped this wouldn't take too long. Snape had one too many bad memories about the Shrieking Shack.

A few minutes after noon, Lupin showed up with his wand in his hand. The werewolf apparently wasn't taking any chances considering their past. Harry's father's gang which Lupin was a part of, loved to prank Snape and Snape would always try to come up with some way to get them into trouble and most of the time, it worked.

"What is this all about? I get a letter from you to meet me here. I assume it's something you don't want other people to find out otherwise you would say more than its urgent. I hope this is not some kind of trick." Lupin spoke up as he came into the room Snape was in.

"I think it will be best if I show you." Snape replied as calmly as he could, escorting Lupin to his Pensieve. "I believe you know how to use a Pensieve."

Lupin nodded and entered the Pensieve. Snape waited a few moments. When Lupin came out, the werewolf looked ashen and clearly shaken by what he saw. Snape would have been surprised if Lupin wasn't. After all, Snape needed to show his bloody and painful death at the hands of a snake in the building the two of them were now in to his old enemy.

"I don't know what to say Snape...I doubt you would have better things to do than to find a way to fake memories and place them into Pensieve. It can't be a prank. I have to believe you." Lupin managed to get out.

"Good. As you saw from the last memory, Black should be released and sent to St. Mungo's once the Ministry admits its holding the wrong man in Azkaban. I need your help in convincing Black I'm telling the truth about being from the future and one of Voldemort's horcruxes is in his cousin's vault." Snape responded.

"I see. I can see why you want my help. Sirius can't stand you and given he's spent almost 10 years in Azkaban, I doubt he'll be rational for at least a few months... At least as rational as he was before he was arrested." Lupin trailed off.

"Indeed." Snape replied. Then something occurred to him. "Do you think Black will take Harry in?" Snape asked after a few seconds.

"As you know, Sirius doesn't exactly like Slytherins, the exception being his cousin Andromeda. But I know him well enough that his greatest fear is turning into his parents. His parents more or less disowned him for being in Gryffindor. I would doubt he would not want Harry to live with him. Especially if Harry's life is bad like you claim it is. I'm almost afraid to ask, but just what exactly did they do to the poor boy?" Lupin asked thinking.

"Locked up him up in a cupboard...withheld food from him...hit him with a belt repeatedly for accidental magic...forced him to do chores that no child has any business doing. And they also turned blind eye when their son beat him up. Not to mention calling him a freak and telling him lies. They wouldn't even allow him to be a child and went so far as to try to stop him from attending Hogwarts. They were, or still are, bent on making his life as miserable as possible. In the old timeline, next summer they would try to starve him to death after finding out he didn't tell them that wasn't allowed to do magic. If it weren't for the three youngest Weasley boys, I believe on Sept. 1st, the headmaster would send some person to the Dursleys' to see why Harry wasn't at school only find his skeletal remains decomposing in his bedroom..." Snape said, trying not to get angry at the thought of someone doing such things to Lily's child.

Lupin, however, was fuming. His eyes were turning yellow and for a moment, Snape feared he would transform into the vicious mindless monster that almost killed Snape years earlier.

"It's bad enough that Dumbledore would not do anything to save Harry's life, but to place Harry with such people! I think I might just forget when the full moon is and pay Petunia and her husband a visit...maybe even Dumbledore as well... NOBODY HARMS JAMES' CUB!" Lupin yelled.

"Lu-Lupin, it would do the world no good if you give in to revenge. Sirius needs you. Harry needs you. The Dursleys will be punished. I will see to that. As for the headmaster, if I fail to prevent Voldemort from returning to power, we'll need him to keep the students safe at the school. We just need to make it clear to him that Harry is not some sacrificial lamb." Snape said as calmly as he could.

He knew werewolves can do partial transformations when extremely angry. They wouldn't turn into a wolf with the exception of their eyes and mind. Lupin was well on the way for such a transformation and Snape hoped he could calm down Lupin to stop it. If he couldn't, well, Snape had his wand where he could get at it quickly. He wouldn't kill Lupin. Just knock him out but he hoped it wouldn't come to that. That would be a lot better than to run out of the building for all to see.

"Alright...I won't harm the Dursleys or Dumbledore..." Lupin snarled, disappointed. His eyes were starting to turn back to normal. "Anyways, what is the progress on the potion you found?" Lupin asked getting a hold of himself.

"I have the complete instructions for it. I just need to get some of the ingredients from Knockturn and Diagon Alleys. I will be going there this afternoon."

The next morning, Harry woke up and joined his friends at the breakfast table. Many of the students were reading the paper and whispering among themselves. Several turned and stared at Harry.

"What is happening?" Harry asked, curious.

"Sirius Black has been released from Azkaban! It's in today's paper!" Ron exclaimed as he passed a copy of the Daily Prophet over to Harry.

"Ron, that's not surprising after what happened the other day. I'm surprised the Ministry didn't announce it yesterday..." Hermione said disappointed.

Harry looked at the paper and saw the top page headline:

Sirius Black Released From Azkaban Prison

 

Discovered To Be Innocent of All Charges

 

Sirius Black, long thought to have been a Death Eater, mass-murder, and responsible for You-Know-Who learning the hiding place of the Potters, has been found innocent of all charges after the discovery of the fact that Peter Pettigrew is alive and well.

Pettigrew, long thought to be killed with 12 Muggles by Black, was discovered at Hogwarts pretending to be a student's pet rat. Pettigrew, under Veritaserum, admitted to being an unregistered rat Animagus, committing all crimes which Black had been accused of, and placing a laughter charm on Black which convinced the first responders to the murders Black was insane. Pettigrew was promptly tried and found guilty of murder and sentenced to a dementor's kiss.

Black, who has spent nearly ten years in Azkaban, was sent there without a trial. Under the laws at the time, he should have been granted one 60 days after being arrested.

"Somehow he was overlooked." Amelia Bones, head of the Department of Law Enforcement, said in a press conference. "It makes me sick that that such thing happened. He wasn't even questioned and his wand was illegally snapped by Aurors before he was even brought to the Ministry the day of the murders. It was a complete and total breakdown of policies. My predecessor, Mr. Crouch, who is known for going by the book, has a lot to answer for. Mark my words, heads are going to roll."

"Black is guilty. He was found at the scene of the murders laughing. Besides, Albus Dumbledore said Black was the Potters' secret keeper. That is, he was the only person capable of telling anyone where the Potters were hiding. I refuse to believe we had it all wrong." Bartemius Crouch, head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at the time of Black's arrest and current head of the Department of International Magical Co-operation, denied the new evidence which proved Black's innocence. Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge promptly asked for Crouch's resignation after hearing of Black's innocence and Crouch's statement. No word yet as to yet if Crouch has resigned.

"This is also Albus Dumbledore's fault. As head of the Wizengamont, he should have demanded a trial for Sirius Black after 60 days and the truth would have been exposed then. One has to wonder if he getting senile in his old age. The fact that he not only didn't know the Potters had switched secret keepers, but that Pettigrew was a spy and attending Death Eater meetings while a student at Hogwarts, shows it." Lucius Malfoy, member of the Wizengamont and advisor to Minister Fudge, said.

Albus Dumbledore, in response, said he cannot possibly know the actions of every person in the world and that he was informed by Crouch that Black was tried by an emergency war time court. Five members of Wizengamont (Albert Abbott, Edmond McMillan, Prya Patil Guinevere Prewett, and ironically Dolores Umbridge) confirmed Crouch had said that to Dumbledore.

Black has been sent to St. Mungo's Hospital and is expected to make full recovery from his stay at Azkaban. He has been compensated one million galleons for his time spent in prison. With the death of his grandfather, Arcturus Black, and as the last direct heir of the Ancient and Most Noble House of Black, Black was also given the title of Lord Black and a seat on the Wizengamont. Also, in a surprise move, Black was granted sole custody of his Godson, Harry Potter, better known as The-Boy-Who-Lived. Healers expect Black to be recovered in time for him to spend the winter holidays with his Godson.

For a list of people implicated in the wrongful imprisonment of Black, turn to page 3

For Crouch's rumored torture of prisoners in the 70's and early 80's, turn to page 4

For Crouch's late son's involvement in the Death Eaters, turn to page 5

Harry couldn't believe it. He didn't have to go back to the Dursleys' for the winter holidays. He could spend it with someone who was a close friend of his parents. Maybe the Dursleys will let him live with Sirius Black, he hoped as he set the paper down. Just then, an owl dropped a note for Harry.

Harry,

Please meet me in my office after you finish lunch. The potion will be ready by then.

Professor Snape

As soon as Remus had heard Sirius was at St. Mungo's, he headed to the hospital to go visit him. Remus couldn't believe Snape was asking old school rivals for help. While Remus agreed to cooperate, Remus wasn't sure if Sirius would.

Sirius hated Snape with a passion. Trying to get Sirius to work with Snape would prove to be very difficult. One wrong comment from either of them and the building they were in, would likely be blown up in the fight that would most definitely follow.

Remus decided that it would be best if he got Sirius and Snape to make wizard oaths to treat each other with respect. Snape, surprised, agreed to Remus' idea. Remus believed Snape must be desperate to agree to such a thing. Now, all Remus had to do was get Sirius to agree...

Remus walked into the hospital room Sirius was recovering in. Sirius looked horribly underweight and was eating a plate full of food as if someone was going to take it away from him at any moment.

"Sirius?"

"Remus, they say hospital food is horrible, but compared to what they serve in Azkaban, this is like Lily's cooking." Sirius said, taking a bite out of what Remus thought was a chicken drumstick.

"I can imagine..." Remus said in agreement. It was rumored that all they served people in Azkaban was leather.

"Remus, I'm so sorry for thinking you were the spy." Sirius said after swallowing some mashed potatoes.

"I'm sorry for thinking you were the one who betrayed James and Lily." Remus said feeling very guilty of not giving his friend the benefit of the doubt. He would have given Sirius a hug but he was afraid of turning Sirius' first decent meal in ten years into something that the hospital staff would have to clean up. That wouldn't have gone over to well with Sirius by judging how he was shoveling the food into his mouth.

"I came here mostly to tell you something that I'm not quite sure where to begin..." Remus explained while sitting down on Sirius bed. Remus casted a little privacy charm so no one would over hear them. "This may sound hard to believe, but it is true."

"You are dating somebody? Or going to be married? Or going to be father?" Sirius asked seriously.

"No. Snape is a time traveler. He's come backwards in time from spring of 1998. He's used his knowledge of the future to prove that you were innocent." Remus said a little nervous.

"Remus, you got to be kidding. Snivellus, coming back in time to get me out of Azkaban?" Sirius chuckling. "He would never do such a thing for me. I would rather name a kid of mine Elvendork, then to thank Snivellus for getting me out of that hell hole."

"I wish I was joking about this but he has shown me his memories of the future. They are not good. Voldemort returns and Dumbledore finds out that he has had made horcruxes.

"Snape has already destroyed one and is close to rendering another useless as a horcrux. He got you out of Azkaban because one of them is being stored in your cousin Bellatrix's vault in Gringott's. In all, in the future, Voldemort made seven horcruxes, but Snape believes at this point in time, Voldemort hasn't made the last one yet." Remus explained.

"Remus, you must mad. I know what a horcrux is! My family always talked about the dark arts. I can believe Voldemort making one but seven? That's insane! How can person be able to split their soul so many times?" Sirius said in disbelief.

Remus knew this was going to be difficult but convincing Sirius was proving harder then he imagined...

"Sirius, have I ever lied to you?" Remus decided to ask.

"No."

"Then why don't you believe me?" Remus asked getting despite.

"Because I lied about being James and Lily's secret keeper and was as responsible for their deaths by giving them bad advice! You probably hate my guts and want to get even!" Sirius yelled.

Remus was losing his patience. He knew that being around Dementors for long periods of time made people less rational and it could take months to get back to normal. Sirius hadn't been quite rational even before being around Dementors for ten years.

Remus remembered James and Sirius talking about how they got pulled over by a Muggle police officer for speeding on Sirius' motorcycle, they thought it was so funny to play games with the police officer. They were just lucky some Death Eaters showed up otherwise they could have ended up spending at least one night in a Muggle jail while the Order did a massive search for them fearing the worse.

And there was the time he thought it would be funny to have Snape pay Remus a visit during the full moon...

Remus thought of how he could get Sirius to believe him and then he remembered that Snape invoked a wizard's oath to convince Professor McGonagall.

"I, Remus John Lupin, swear on my life and magic that I am telling the truth about Snape being from the future and Voldemort making several horcruxes. I most certainly don't hate Sirius Black for lying about being a secret keeper and for giving our friends bad advice." Remus said as calmly as he could, invoking a wizard's oath. Sirius' eyes opened with shock.

"You weren't joking... I'm so sorry..." Sirius apologized.

"I didn't expect you to believe me right away so no need to apologize, Sirius." Remus replied.

"Well, as soon as I get out of here, I'll go search for a horcrux in my cousin's vault and send it to Dumbledore."

Remus wasn't so sure how he could explain that Dumbledore wasn't trust worthy.

"Dumbledore doesn't know that Snape is from the future. He suspects something but he doesn't know and Snape doesn't want him to know. After seeing Snape's memories, I have to agree with him. It's rather hard to explain." Remus sighed.

"I'll ask Snape if you can see his memories of the future when you get released from here. That reminds me...can you make a wizard's oath to treat Snape with respect when you meet with him? I talked Snape into making an oath to treat you with respect. I know you two don't like each other and I don't want to hear in the news about some building blowing up and you two are dead and Harry has to go live with the Dursleys again or worse, the Malfoys." Remus said.

"I can understand the Dursleys, but the Malfoys? Why would Harry ever go to them aside from the fact my cousin married one?" Sirius asked confused.

Remus then realized he had to Sirius about how the Dursleys treated Harry. He wasn't sure what Sirius would do...

"You remember how Lily said her and her sister Petunia didn't get along? Well, Petunia, when hearing about Lily's death, transferred her hate of Lily onto Harry. Petunia's husband's hatred of all things magic didn't help much. They abused and neglected him..." Remus explained trying to stay calm before being interrupted by Sirius.

"THEY WHAT TO MY GODSON!? I'LL KILL THEM!" Sirius exploded as he tried to get out of the bed, but apparently, there was some charm preventing him from doing so. Remus found it amusing that St. Mungo's wouldn't allow their patience to get out of bed.

"Sirius calm down! They will be taken care of. Somehow. Snape hasn't told me what he has in mind since Harry is so uncomfortable talking about them. And you're no use to Harry in Azkaban-again."

"Alright. I won't kill them. I will make that oath if it would put your mind at ease." Sirius grumbled.

Snape waited in his office. He couldn't believe how simple the horcrux removal potion had been to make. All the ingredients were listed in the order they were to be added. After adding one ingredient, he had to stir the potion for 5 minutes in the opposite direction that he did after adding the previous ingredient. He had the potion done in very little time. Now all he had to do was give it to Harry to drink. Assuming he could get Harry to drink it.

The smell of the finished potion was absolutely horrid. It smelled worse than rotten eggs, hippogriff dung, and dragon manure put together. Snape was convinced that there wasn't a place in the dungeons where you couldn't smell it. He was hearing students complain about it all morning. Some of his snakes said they could smell it in the dormitories. Dumbledore would most likely order an investigation as to the source of the smell. Hopefully there weren't anyone or anything around that would be insane enough to betray him when he was brewing the potion.

There was a knock at the door. "Enter." Snape replied. Harry came in and looked around. His nose wrinkled up at the smell which was the strongest in the Snape's office.

"Good. You're here. As I said the potion is ready." Snape said, opening the cabinet he hid the potion in. He took out the glass with the brown foul smelling liquid and gave it to Harry. "I know it smells awful but it will get rid of that soul fragment inside..."

Harry drank it. When the last drop was gone, the smell that was driving everyone insane in the dungeons went away.

"Tasted like honey. Professor, how could something that smelled that bad taste good?" Harry asked appearing relieved that awful smell went away. Snape heard a few people in the common rumor say things like, "Thank God..."

"I have no idea considering most of what we call taste is smell. Now, let's see if the potion worked..." Snape said, getting out his wand and using a diagnostic spell. The soul fragment was still inside of Harry. Snape hoped that the potion had a delayed reaction.

Harry's eyes suddenly got wider and he started to tremble. Harry opened his mouth.

"Ahh... Ahh... Ahh.. CHOO!" Harry sneezed, either unable or unwilling to cover his mouth. A black cloud came out of Harry's mouth with the sneeze and it disappeared after a brief second.

Snape casted another diagnostic spell and it showed Harry was no longer a horcrux.