Snape had taken to commentating here and there for him now, informing him they were nearing Easter, telling him what was going to happen ahead of time, especially if there was violence involved, as there often was when James or Sirius were around.

"He's waiting for her," Snape told him, and Harry nodded.

"What's he going to do?"

There was a pause, and before elder Snape could answer, the younger Severus looked up and grinned as Lily came into the room with an armful of books.

"Hi," Severus seemed to say rather shyly.

"Hi yourself stranger," Lily said. "I've been hunting for you all day. I was glad you sent an owl or else I would have thought you'd been tortured by those goons in the dungeons... what are they calling themselves now? Death Eaters?"

"Something like that."

Lily sat down and Severus rushed to push her chair in under her as a gentleman would.

Harry and Snape leaned on a table across from the one the two forth years sat at between two rows of bookshelves.

"I was thinking," said Severus after Lily had opened her book and started to read.

"Yes?"

"Well, we've been best friends for a long time now... since before Hogwarts."

"Um hum."

"Well, I thought that maybe, you know, sometime we might try being... more? But only if you want to." Severus' cheeks had tinged red and Lily looked up at him with bemusement on her face.

"Severus Snape, are you asking me out on a date?"

"If you want to," he said again, obviously trying to make it sound as if it had been her idea all along, but looking hopeful all the same.

"I was beginning to think you didn't like me," she said with a smile, closing her book now.

"Is, is that a yes then?"

"Well there's really nowhere to go on a date here, but we can be a couple."

"Excellent," he said. "Can you image what James will do?"

"Go crazy," she said. And then she added, "I hope you're not asking me out just to make him mad."

Severus shook his head. "No, I've really been wanting to ask you all year. I, I was afraid you'd say no."

"Well let's make a promise before we even start dating, because you're my best friend and I don't want to lose that." At the look of question in his eyes, Lily continued, "Promise if we ever break up, we can still be friends?"

"Planning a break up already? Isn't that going to curse us when we haven't even started yet?"

"Sev," she said, elongating his name and playfully slapping him on the shoulder. "Promise. I mean, what if something happens between us and we end up with other people? I don't want you to hate my kids or something if we don't end up together forever."

"Promise," Severus said immediately.

"Good."

"But only because I know we'll end up together and they'll be our kids."

She grinned and Harry watched in shock as Lily reached down and took Severus Snape's hand beside the table.

The memory changed suddenly, and Snape almost didn't grab Harry's arm in time to hold him up. They steadied themselves as they landed in the Great Hall, where most students were glaring at Severus for sitting at the very far end of Gryffindor table, where he sat and talked to Lily as they held hands.

Free of Snape's grasp, Harry finally said, "You never told me you and my mum went together in school!"

"It was not your business."

"Not my- she's my mum! I hardly know anything about her other than she ended up with my dad. Nobody will tell me anything about them, even if I ask, like I don't have the right to know what they were like."

Severus frowned. He had not thought of it in this light before. Previously he had not even considered telling the boy about it because he had simply considered it his personal life, and therefore, his personal business.

"Has Remus Lupin not told you of your parents?"

"He told me a little about James. And Hagrid told me a little about Lily. But not much. I hear about how good they were in school... how they died to protect me... about the Marauder's Map. But I don't know the little things."

"Such as?"

Harry shrugged. "I dunno. How did they get together? Why did they decide to live in Godric's Hollow? What happened to my Grandparents?"

"Your father convinced Lily that he had changed shortly after they graduated. She and I were no longer dating... as you saw in the pensieve. They moved to Godric's Hollow because it is a half wizarding village and the Potters had lived there previously before moving to another city. Your grandparents were broken after Lily's death and both disappeared shortly afterwards."

"But why didn't Dumbledore put me with them, if they were still there for a couple of days?"

"They were in mourning and asked not to receive you until they had their emotions under control. Your grandmother was already ill and your grandfather had just retired."

"Where did they go?"

"Nobody knows. They may have left the country, or they may have died."

Harry closed his eyes and sat down on the bench next to his mother. He looked at her with longing and curiosity, and ran a hand through his messy hair. Then he looked down the table to spot his father, eyeing the couple jealously and caught the glare that passed between James and the younger Severus.

Without warning the memory changed and Harry had been slammed hard into the stone floor before Snape could catch him. He gave a groan when the man lifted him to a sitting position, and said, "When can we go home?"

"I do not know what was intended by the sharing of memories. It would help if we knew even a detail about the process, such as why we ended up in my memories instead of yours."

"What's the point, they're the same aren't they? Just the details are changed."

Severus sighed. "The longer you are here the more internal damage will be done by the broken bones. I would have thought that if our bodies were back in the Headmaster's office that he would have pulled us out by now. We have been here for many days."

"Have you tried any charm cancellations?"

"Several."

"Well, we're in Dumbledore's office, right? We could just ask for help. That worked when I had the sorting hat."

Snape looked up as James and his younger self got into a shouting match over Lily late one night in the halls, and said experimentally, "Help?"

"Help us," Harry said, wondering if it only worked for him, and then the scene changed just as James and Severus pulled out their wands, and suddenly they were back in the Headmasters office, both on the floor.

Harry looked around, wondering if perhaps they were still in a memory and James and Severus had been dragged to see the Headmaster for dueling, but there was no sign of anyone but them.

The door behind them opened, and Dumbledore came up the stairs, surveying the room, and then spying them both on the floor.

"Severus? Harry? What has happened?" He seemed wary of a fight, but Snape helped Harry stand up and then spelled a date charm with his watch, to see that it was still the same day they had left.

"What time is it?" Harry asked, clutching at his ribs as Snape reached for his arm to help lower him into a chair.

Watching with curiosity, Dumbledore said, "Merely minutes since I left for the little boy's room. What has happened to make you think otherwise?"

"We were fighting," Harry remembered.

"And the contraption on your desk started spinning, sending a cold chill over the room."

"And?"

"And then we were inside Professor Snape's memories sir. During his fourth year. We saw... maybe a hundred of them?" Snape nodded in agreement.

"I see," said the Headmaster calmly. "I have always wondered what the trinket did. It has sat inane on my desk since I inherited it and the office from Armando Dippet."

"Surely you did not keep it not knowing what it did?" Snape questioned, incredulous. "That thing had us trapped for days."

"And clearly you are both fine," he mused.

"That remains to be seen," Harry mumbled.

Both men eyed him for a moment, and then the Headmaster asked, "And what is it that you were thinking before this incident occurred?"

"That nobody understood," Harry said. He looked up at Snape thinking now that he knew why they had been taken into his memories. Snape did understand, and now Harry knew it.

"Interesting," Dumbledore said. "And does somebody understand now?"

Harry nodded and grimaced as even the small movement of his head hurt his ribs badly.

"Headmaster, Potter has been injured," Snape supplied, and Dumbledore waved his hand towards the door, which opened again.

"Off to the infirmary then. Severus, I daresay we'd better hold our meeting another time. Tomorrow afternoon over tea then? Good. Good night to you both."

Harry lay in the Hospital Wing that night recovering from the broken ribs and internal bleeding. He didn't feel tired, and it was no wonder since he'd sleep for four nights in the space of a few minutes. Magic was strange he thought, and he knew this wouldn't be the last time he came to this conclusion.