"It's not a matter of listening my dear boy, it's a matter of safety."

"Who's? Yours? Because you're obviously not concerned about mine!"

He could hear the shouting at a distance as he stepped onto the moving staircase leading up to the Headmaster's office. Just like the brat to shout at his superiors, Severus thought. Hadn't he just shouted at him earlier that morning when he had been scolded for not doing his work?

"Your safety is always on my mind Harry. I understand how you feel about staying with-"

"No you don't!" Harry spat angrily. "If you did you'd never send me back there!"

"Harry-"

There was a knock on the door and the voices within the room paused.

"Come in."

Severus opened the door to find Albus sitting in his chair and Harry standing, arms crossed and back to him as he entered.

"Hello Severus. I daresay I forgot all about our meeting. Harry and I were just having a little talk."

Harry was sure he could feel the eye roll and glare his back got from Snape.

"I will come back another time." He turned to leave but Dumbledore held up a hand.

"No need dear boy, no need. Harry and I are finished here. However, I must take a few minutes to visit the little gentleman's room. If you'll excuse me." Dumbledore stood up and swept past Harry and Severus, and down the moving staircase. Snape rolled his eyes again and Harry made to move past him as well as soon as the Headmaster was gone.

Unfortunately for Harry, a hand reached out and snatched his arm, preventing him from going. "I don't think so Potter. It has become abundantly clear to me that you need a lesson in manners. It is not appropriate to shout at your superiors."

Harry tore his arm free of the grasp. "You have no idea what you're talking about."

"No? You don't think so?" He gave Harry an icy glare. "No matter what it is you think you're going through, it is still not appropriate to yell at a professor or other staff of the school, and should I catch you doing it again you will be serving detention for a week."

Narrowing his eyes at the man who knew nothing about him, Harry finally returned the glare. Why couldn't anybody understand? He just couldn't keep going back to Privet drive anymore. He couldn't take another two summers of beatings and another two summers of eating whatever scraps were left from Vernon and Dudley's plates, which usually wasn't much at all.

Wondering at the sudden thought that he seemed to have sparked in the whelp, Severus lifted his head and narrowed his eyes once again.

"Unless you have something else to add Potter, then leave. The Headmaster and I have important business to discuss when he returns."

Harry made for the door, but stopped after a couple of steps. He suddenly felt icy and gave a shudder. Severus gave a fast look around the room wondering if a window were open, because he felt chilled too.

Suddenly there was a tinkling sound and Harry and Snape both turned to see one of the little contraptions on the Headmaster's desk whirring as it spun around frantically.

"What have you done to it?" Snape asked, curious as to what the contraption did.

"Nothing," Harry said, a little upset that he was once again being accused of something he hadn't done. Just like this morning when Draco had tripped him and he had fallen into Goyle's cauldron, causing it to spill out onto the burly fifth year and making him shrink to the size of a cat.

"Somehow I find that hard to believe."

"Yeah, somehow you always do."

Severus spun on the fifth year, ready to deduct points for his cheek, but as he did, the entire room spun with him, and he and Harry were caught in a whirlwind of color and sound, smells and sights as the scenery changed from room to room. And as soon as it had started, it had stopped, and Harry and Severus found themselves on the wooden floor of a darkened room.

Harry lay in a heap on the floor, taking in shallow breaths as Severus pushed himself up and lit the tip of his wand to reveal a bed and a sleeping form under the covers. A closer look at the room had his own breathing becoming quick and uncertain. "This cannot be," he said quietly.

From the floor the fifth year Gryffindor stirred and gave a moan. Severus remembered he was there and knelt down next to him. "What have you done? I demand an answer immediately!"

Eyes flickering open, Harry gave another moan as his chest seared with pain. He had been so careful over the last week not to jar his body and agitate his freshly broken ribs, courtesy of Uncle Vernon, and now here he had gone and fallen off of what felt like a ten story building. He squinted at his professor, trying to focus his blurred vision, but couldn't concentrate through the pain, and passed out.

"Great," Severus muttered under his breath. He stood and took in the room again. This was definitely an all too familiar place. One in which he had sworn never to visit again, and now here he was. What the date was, he didn't know, but judging by the tattered Quidditch posters on his walls and the newish photo of Lily and himself on the wall over his desk, it must have been rather close to his third or fourth year.

Hoping desperately that he had not been thrown back in time with the Potter brat into his own past, Severus did a spell that showed him in smoky writing the date. That couldn't be right... it still read the present. And yet, they were clearly in the past. Had they looked into a pensieve together perhaps? No, that wasn't it either. They had just been standing there and that little contraption had gone off.

While Potter was passed out on the floor, Severus moved to the wall to more closely examine the photo of him and his best friend sitting next to each other in the Library, smiling up at the camera. He still had this photo, but now its edges were worn and the photo was creased. The one on the wall was shiny and new. He reached out to pluck it off the wall, but his hand went right through it, as if he were a ghost.

Experimentally he tried to pull out the desk chair to sit on it, and the same thing happened. He could touch and feel the chair, but he couldn't move it. How odd. He was able to lean on the desk, but he couldn't open any of the drawers. They were obviously not in reality. Hopefully their real bodies were still back in the Headmaster's office and he would come back and pull them out of the memory. Until then he leaned on the rickety old desk and watched Potter's chest rise and fall slowly as he lay on the floor, and hoped the memory would end before he woke up. The last thing he wanted was for Potter to see Spinner's End.

Harry rubbed his eyes tiredly, ribs still hurting and body aching as if he had slept on the floor. Uncle Vernon must have taken away his cot again, he thought tiredly. He didn't want to get up but he thought he'd better or else there'd be hell to pay if he was late getting breakfast on the table.

He opened his eyes and looked up to find Snape leaning on an old desk, a weak light filtering into the room from a small window. Suddenly there was a flurry of motion as covers flew off of somebody on a bed to his right and started rummaging through a wardrobe, changing quickly. And then before Harry knew what was happening, he was being dragged across the floor, out the door, and down a hallway.

"Wait, ow," he said as he slammed roughly into a wall and continued on. Snape was trailing behind him quickly. Harry tried to get up, but couldn't manage because he was being dragged along so fast. A quick look behind him revealed a set of stairs coming fast, and he tried again in vain to push himself up off the floor before he was dragged down and hurt even more.

At the last second a hand reached down and hauled him up to his feet, and then pulled him along down the staircase at a brisk pace.

"What's going on?" Harry asked, mind confused.

"We are in a memory. We obviously cannot leave the space the person in the memory is occupying. I suggest you keep up."

Harry obeyed and Snape let go of his shirt as Harry followed. He tried to catch a glimpse of whose memory they were in, but only saw shoulder length black hair disappearing around the corner. Finally they came to a stop in a tiny kitchen, and Harry watched as a boy just a year or so younger than him quickly pulled frying pans and other dishes from worn old cupboards and began frying eggs and bacon.

"Better not burn nothing either boy!" a shout came from another room, and the boy shouted back, "Yes dad!"

"Where-"

Snape glared down at him. "Do not dare ask me questions when you refuse to answer mine."

"Sir?"

"What have you done to bring us here?"

Harry shook his head. "I didn't do anything. I was leaving and then I felt cold and then we were here."

Snape scoffed. "Do not expect me to believe that we just ended up here Potter. A trip into a memory requires some kind of magic. And since we were not near a pensieve, and I did not do anything to cause this, that leaves you."

Another shake of the head. "No, I didn't do anything. I don't even know the magic to do something like that. I don't even know where we are."

He glared at him, and then felt a tug as the young man cooking breakfast moved off into another room with two plates of food. Harry and Snape followed into a very tiny dining room with a small square wooden table with three chairs. A man with messy black hair sat in one chair, and a fair-faced woman with brown hair sat in the other.

"Thank you Severus dear," the woman said with a weak smile, but the man cut her off.

"It's about time boy! You'd better learn some work ethic or you won't be going back to that freak school of yours! You better learn how to make it in this world first before you think about living in that freak world of yours!"

Harry stared up at his professor as the young boy shrank back into the kitchen slowly, and they followed.

"Are we in your memories?"

"Obviously Potter. Whom else do you know with long black hair named Severus?"

Harry frowned. Judging by the look on his professor's face, and the memory he had seen so far, this wasn't going to get pleasant all of a sudden.

Without any warning they were spinning again and Harry was once again on the ground, only this time he was outside in a tiny back yard, and the younger Severus Snape was on his hands and knees in the hot sun pulling weeds.

With some effort, Harry stood up, and noticed that his Professor hadn't fallen over as he had.

"How old are you here?"

"Between 13 and 15. I cannot yet tell."

"You don't remember?"

Snape shot him an icy glare and Harry braced himself as the world spun again and they were suddenly in a tiny little attic, where the younger Severus Snape lay on his stomach peering through a crack in the floor at his parents who were fighting below.

"Don't expect me to go easy on him Eileen! My da' never went easy on me! He needs to learn or else get the hell out!"

"But there's no reason to half drown him in the tub Tobias! He's our son!"

"He ain't no son of mine yeh whore. Who knows what yeh did fourteen years ago! Yeh sure didn' tell me teh truth abou' yer past or yer freakish powers! Yeh think I would'a married yeh if I'd known?"

"I thought you loved me." There was question in her voice. Harry was starting to feel very uncomfortable standing there watching his professor's memories.

He glanced up at Snape's face of stone as Tobias shouted, "I can't love no freak! Yer damn lucky I let two freaks like yeh stay in me house!"

When no emotion came off of the elder Snape, Harry turned his attention back down to the fourteen-year-old Snape, who had now rolled onto his back to stare mutely at the ceiling.

The memory was changing again and Harry was once more on the ground. He didn't bother to get up as he watched the younger Severus standing on a battered old playground, as if he were waiting for somebody.

"She's not coming Snivellus! Nobody would want to come meet a freak like you!"

"Shut it Tuney," he said. "Or maybe you'd like some green hair to go with that awful skin of yours?"

The thin girl his age sneered at him and said, "My sister told me, you're not allowed to use magic out of school! So don't threaten me!"

Both the elder and younger Severus sneered this time and the memory changed again.

"GET BACK HERE BOY! YOU AINT GOING BACK TO NO FREAK SCHOOL!" Snape hauled Harry to his feet as the younger Severus tore out the front door of the house, and they were forced to follow at a run. He had a broom in his hand and a tattered book bag slung over his shoulder.

"You better not come back then yeh filthy wretch!" Tobias was shouting after them as they ran down the dark street.

Harry was in very poor shape by the time they had stopped running, and he doubled over, not able to watch the scene unfold.

"Really Potter? Are you that out of shape?" Snape sneered.

He hit his knees on the cold, dirty pavement and looked up as the younger Snape pulled out his wand and looked around cautiously. Snape's house hadn't been in the best part of town to begin with, but now it seemed, they had run straight into the ghetto, and a pair of unsavory looking men had appeared from an alleyway.

"What ‘av we got ‘ere then? A lost little boy? Come ‘ere little boy, we'll take you home.'

Severus backed up and the two men with raggedy, holey clothes started to advance on him.

"Stay back or I'll hurt you," Severus said with a shake in his voice.

The men laughed. "Is that so? Come ‘ere and try then." They laughed again and kept walking towards him. Suddenly there was a bright flash of light, and the two men were on the ground.

Severus looked around quickly, obviously confused, when a red-haired girl appeared from around a corner. She motioned for him to follow, and he ran to her, forcing Harry to hurry to his feet and he and Snape to follow.

"How did you know where I was?"

"Your mum called and said you ran off. I thought you might be on your way to my house."

"We'll I'm glad you came for me. But they'll know you used magic you know."

"It's ok," she said. "We needed it. Let them come after me about it."

The two teenagers smiled, and the memory changed again.

Harry barely steadied himself as their locations changed once more, and stood his ground. They were in a nice living room now and Severus sat on a couch next to the girl. A man in his forties sat on a couch across from them as a woman the same age brought in a tray of milk and cookies.

"Here we are dear. You can have the guest room downstairs until next week when the train comes. Then the two of you can both be off to school together."

"Thanks," Severus said, smiling and accepting a cookie.

"Don't worry Severus, I'm sure your parents will calm down while your gone."

"I don't know. He seemed pretty angry. He said not to come back and I mean not to."

"What about Christmas dear?"

He shrugged. "I always stay at Hogwarts anyway."

"Well not this year. If your parents don't want you back for Christmas this year, then you're more than welcome to stay with us."

He grinned sheepishly. "Really?"

"Of course."

From the hallway the girl from the park, ‘Tuney' came in and sneered.

"What's he doing here?" she said with disgust.

"Severus will be staying with us for the rest of the week sweetheart," the man said. "Just until it's time for he and your sister to go back to school."

Harry thought there was something familiar about all of these people, aside from Severus of course, but he couldn't put his finger on it, and before he had a chance to think more on it, the scene changed again and they were once again in a dark room, Severus sleeping on a bed against a wall.

When nothing happened for a few minutes, and the scene didn't change again, Harry wondered if they would be there for the night. He was tired and he hurt badly, and was having trouble breathing.

"Is it over?" he asked quietly.

"What Potter, not entertaining enough for you?"

Harry frowned and looked away. That wasn't it at all. He didn't derive any pleasure from seeing how abused his professor had been, just as he didn't take any pleasure from living with the Dursleys.

"I just wondered if I could lay down was all." His voice was quiet.

Snape frowned and stared down at him. The boy did look a bit haggard, and he had been holding his ribs since he had woken that morning.

"You slept all night. You cannot possibly be tired."

Harry looked longingly up at the second bed in the room, but Snape said, "Don't even think about it. I stayed up watching over you. It is my turn to sleep." With that he lay down on his back on the second bed.

With a sigh Harry lay down on the hardwood floor, trying to get himself in the position where it hurt the least, but it wasn't possible on hardwood.

After a short while, Severus heard quiet snores, and turned over to see Harry asleep on the floor. The truth was that he hadn't felt physically tired since they'd gotten there, but he was definitely emotionally drained. Living through the horror once was enough, but a second time with a visitor was bordering torture. And God only knew what Potter thought about all of this and what he would spread around to his little friends once they got back to reality.

He heaved a sigh and wondered at the fact that Potter kept holding his ribs, and continued to moan in his sleep. It had only been hours, but he felt as if they'd been on a long, exhausting journey, and were still nowhere close to getting home.

When he awoke it wasn't to pounding on the door as he had the day before, it was to the young Severus chatting happily to his friend as he packed his things back into his trunk.

"Did we change memories?" Harry asked sleepily as he sat up. Things in the room seemed to have changed since the last memory.

"They're getting ready to go to King's Cross."

"How long are we going to be in your memories?"

"I have no idea how we came to be here Potter. Make the assumption that I have no idea how long we will be stuck here."

Harry nodded. "Fine." He stood up and as he did the memory changed, and he was once again flat on his hind side, grimacing at being thrown around by the memory so much. How was Snape managing to stay on his feet? He knew he should ask to save himself more injury, but couldn't bring himself to do it.

Once again on his feet after a few moments, he climbed into a Thestral drawn carriage as Snape and his younger self did with his young friend, and they rode off together to the castle. Harry looked around, hoping to catch glimpses of his parents, but it seemed that they were on the last coach to the school, and the other students were already at the feast.

When they walked into the Great Hall, Harry saw a foot sticking out from the edge of the Gryffindor table, but younger Severus did not, and went flying face first, much to the amusement of the other students gathered there. Some from Hufflepuff gave sympathetic looks, but most of the others laughed uncontrollably.

"What's the matter Snivellus? Trip over your own clumsy feet?" Harry's stomach churned uncomfortably as he saw a much younger Sirius laughing as he pulled his foot back in.

"No, just over your idiot foot!" Severus' friend shouted as she ran past and sat at the other end of Gryffindor table.

Severus pulled himself back up, red in the face, and continued on to Slytherin table, where he sat with a group of Slytherins who glared wholeheartedly at Gryffindor table. A Slytherin Harry didn't recognize leaned in to Severus as he sat down and said, "Try not to make such a fool of yourself this year Sev. You're a fourth year now and it's getting embarrassing to have you around."

Frowning, Severus gave a huff and turned away from the boy just as the memory changed once more. This time they were in a dungeon classroom brewing potions. A fat professor Harry didn't know was walking up and down the isles looking over students potions. He came to Severus' cauldron and said, "Well done, well done! And in record time too! I have a feeling I'd better watch it or you'll have my job when you graduate!"

Across the room four Gryffindor boys sat glaring at Severus, and Harry noticed that their potions weren't finished yet, and then one of the cauldrons bubbled over and the professor said, "I'm afraid you've failed for the day James. Be more careful in your brewing and I'm sure you'll do fine tomorrow. Perhaps Mr. Snape would be willing to tutor you in the evenings? It wouldn't hurt to ask."

"As if I'd tutor him," Harry heard the elder Snape mutter under his breath as he stood behind Harry.

Harry expected the scene to change again, but before it did, an airplane thrown by Sirius flew over their heads and hit Severus in the back. Severus picked it up and unfolded it to find a drawing of himself being eaten by a werewolf as three other boys looked on in laughter. That was a very serious threat, Harry thought, knowing that Remus was a werewolf at the time. The memory changed again and James was using his wand in a hallway to tie Severus' shoes so that they tripped him up, and he fell flat on his face again as his books and quills went flying through the air.

James scooped up a roll of parchment and said, "I think I'll just take this and look it over before I turn mine in to Professor Slughorn."

Severus glared up at the group of boys, and Sirius said, "What? Gonna tell? Maybe when you're not looking on a full moon a werewolf might find it's way into your room." The boys laughed and walked off, and Severus' female friend with orange hair walked up to him and helped him stand up.

"Those guys are jerks Sev. Don't pay any attention to them."

"Hard not to when they steal my homework and then threaten me with that halfbreed monster."

"Oh Severus, that's not a nice thing to say. He can't help what he is!"

"Well I might just let slip so that if somebody finds my half eaten body in the morning they'll know who did it."

She put her hands on her hips and shook her head, and the memory changed again.

Harry found himself on his butt in the Slytherin common room. Out of habit he looked around to see if Draco had seen him, but then remembered that Draco wasn't there, and stood up. Severus sat at a table studying by himself when an older blond boy walked up. Harry recognized him immediately as Lucius Malfoy. He also had long hair that went down to his shoulders, and Harry wondered if it had been a fad for young men at the time.

"Need help with your homework Sev?"

Severus looked up. "No thanks Lucius. It's Defense."

"Well maybe you'd like some help with some... new spells? We can go to the Slytherin dueling room. Professor Agnotius gave us special permission to use it after hours."

Severus looked uncertain for a moment, and then said, "What kind of spells?"

"The kind to be rid of annoying little mudbloods. Aren't you tired of those Gryffindor's hassling you?"

He nodded. "Yeah... I need to finish this essay though... maybe next time."

Malfoy shrugged and in a very Dracoish way drawled, "Suit yourself then. But remember that I offered and you turned me down the next time they pull your underwear down in the halls." He strode off and Harry could tell that Severus was deep in thought on what had been said.

In the next hour Harry witnessed several more memories in which his father and Sirius had locked Severus in moaning Myrtle's bathroom, put a lit firework in his book bag in the middle of Charms class, turned his hair gold and red in Transfiguration, and cast a water charm on the back of his pants as he walked down the hall so that it looked like he'd had an accident. Through all of the memories his female Gryffindor friend with red hair stood by him and stood up for him, and through all of the memories Harry couldn't shake the feeling that he knew her somehow.

After hours of memories, Harry gave up trying to stand and stay standing, and instead sat down in an empty classroom chair in the middle of Potion's class as if he were a student. Snape stayed standing behind him and kept his arms crossed and face stone solid, void of emotion. Harry tried to avoid looking at the man, knowing that if it were him in his own memories, he would be embarrassed to have them seen by another.

"Hands up, what are the differences between Vertical Lilygosis and Ashgrove vine?"

"One has spots on the flowers and is used in most calming draughts, and the other is used in draught of living death because it's more potent," Harry recited. Hermione had made him read ahead in the fifth year text, and Harry was surprised that it was being taught to the fourth years in Snape's time.

Snape raised an eyebrow as Harry rattled it off and then his own hand as a younger man shot up and he gave a similar answer.

"Very good Mr. Snape, very good indeed! Ten points to Slytherin. That's not even in the text until the end of the year!" Professor Slughorn was excited, and younger Severus looked pleased until a small rock hit him in the back of the head.

"Another question then, and whoever can answer it will not have to do the essay tonight. What root can only be dug up at four am on the third full moon of the year, but is found in almost every forest?"

"Powdered Asphodell," Harry said in a monotone, sounding tired.

Severus' hand shot up again and he gave the same answer.

"How do you know that?" Snape demanded, suddenly at Harry's side as Slughorn went on to praise younger Severus again.

"I read my book," Harry said.

"And yet you continue to fail in my classroom."

Harry looked away. "Or you fail to notice that Malfoy throws things into my cauldron when I'm off getting new ingredients."

Snape scoffed. "And I'm to believe you? I think not."

Harry motioned with his hand towards the younger version of his father and friends. "Like anybody would believe you if you told them that James Potter and Sirius Black gave you wedgies and stuffed your head in the girl's lou? Just because we're not in my memory doesn't mean it didn't happen!"

Putting his fists down on Harry's desk and leaning in so that they were eye to eye, Snape said in a deadly tone, "If you ever, repeat one word of what you have seen here, I will not hesitate to snap your wand in half myself. Do I make myself clear?"

Eyes narrowed at his professor, Harry suddenly hated him for what he thought of him. It wasn't like he was James or Sirius. He was Harry... beaten, starved, neglected Harry. This man of all people should understand, and yet he didn't.

"Crystal," Harry said, and then looked away.

They viewed a few more memories before Harry and Snape were back in the Slytherin common room, and Harry took a seat on one of the Slytherin couches next to younger Severus.

Harry had always liked the color green, and thought that he could have liked living in Slytherin common room if the sorting hat hadn't changed it's mind and put him in Gryffindor at his request.

"Just make yourself at home Potter," Snape drawled sarcastically as he also sat down on a couch, this one across from Harry and his younger self.

Rolling his eyes Harry said, "It's not like I've never sat here before. It's just a couch."

Realizing what he'd said after a few moments, Snape narrowed his eyes and said, "And just when did you sit on this couch in Slytherin common room Potter? We were only here twice in the memories and you were on the floor both times."

"Oh yeah, been meaning to ask you, how do you stay standing up when we spin?" He suddenly realized that he was incriminating himself and Ron by mentioning their Polyjuice excursion into Slytherin house during second year.

"I'm not a clutz Potter. And you will still answer my question instead of making a paltry attempt at avoiding it."

Sighing Harry realized that he wasn't going to get away with just not answering, and said, "Second year. We came in to spy on Draco. We thought he had opened the Chamber of Secrets so we brewed Polyjuice and posed as Crabbe and Goyle."

Snape's lips curled. "And you expect me to believe that? You couldn't brew Polyjuice if your life depended on it Potter."

Harry glanced over to see what younger Severus was doing and saw him drawing a picture of his red haired friend in a notebook, and then looked back up at the elder Snape. "Maybe I couldn't, but Hermione could, and she did. We took a stall in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom for a month since nobody else goes in there. Then we nicked some hair and came down here."

"And?"

"And it wasn't Draco, but I sat on this couch with Ron as we talked to him about it and he told us he hoped Hermione would be the first to die."

Suddenly Severus stood up, packing his notebook of drawings away under his arm and moved off for the boy's dorms. Harry and Snape rose to follow, and Snape said, "Mr. Malfoy has changed since his second year. I do not believe he holds the same views he once did."

"Maybe not, but he still hates everything Gryffindor, and you can't deny that you turn a blind eye while he sabotages my potions and trips me in classes. And then you go and give me detention for tripping over him and knocking into somebody else's cauldron."

They followed Severus into a square room with five four-poster beds with green hangings, and watched as Severus lay down on the one off by itself in a corner. He went on to ward his bed against intruders and hazards and then closed the curtains and presumably went to sleep.

"The floor again I guess," Harry said, grimacing as he slid down a wall and sat on the cold stone floor.

Snape leaned against a wall, hoping the scene would change to someplace with a spare bed, but it didn't. After the other occupants of the room came in and went to sleep, Harry asked, "Didn't you have any friends in Slytherin? Why did you ward the bed?"

"You only have to wake up on a mattress floating on the lake once Potter... after that you don't trust anybody."

"What are we doing back here again?" Harry asked as the younger Severus combed his hair and dressed from a tattered brown school trunk.

"It is Christmas holiday. He came back to spend it with her."

"Oh," Harry said, wishing he had been allowed to spend the holidays with Ron and his family.

Gripping his ribs he stood up using the bed he lay next to as support. "What happens here? Is it a good Christmas?" He was hopeful, but Snape's face was unreadable.

"Pray the memory changes before the end of the holiday," was all Snape said as he followed his younger self from the room.

In a few hours they flew through days of pleasant memories in which hot, homemade meals were served, Christmas carols were sang, and presents were opened. Severus had gotten a hand knitted green and silver scarf, several new books, and a kiss on the cheek from his friend to a sneer from her sister Tuney.

It was two days after Christmas when things changed.

"This doesn't seem so bad," Harry was just commenting when the doorbell rang. Tuney's father opened the door to reveal Tobias Snape.

"Mr. Evans. I heard me son was here. We were hopin' to spend the rest o' teh holiday wit' him."

"Of course, of course. Severus! Come to the door please!"

Evans? Tuney Evans? Harry turned with question in his eyes to Snape, who was now visibly pale, and staring off into nothingness.

"Evans? This is my family? That's my mom and aunt... and, and grandparents? Why didn't you tell me?"

Harry frantically searched for is mother as he was forced to follow Severus to the front door where Tobias stood out in the cold. He caught a quick glimpse of her and aunt Petunia standing in the kitchen before they were out of sight and he had nothing to focus his attention on but Tobias and Severus.

"Hello son," Tobias said. "Yer mother's been worried abou' yeh. Yeh didn' write or nothing and... well, we'd like fer yeh to come home fer teh last two days."

Severus seemed unsure, but Harry's grandfather had placed a hand on his shoulder then and given him an encouraging look. "Go on son. We'll keep most of your stuff here and then take you back to the train on Sunday with Lily."

"Oh. Ok, thanks."

With no other choice, Severus followed his father out into the cold and down the street.

They sky was gray and the air chilled. Harry remembered what Snape had told him about praying for the end of this particular memory, and got a bad feeling about going back to Spinner's End.

Nothing seemed to be wrong yet however as Tobias seemed to be calm and far from angry.

As they neared the front door to the small, worn house, Severus slowed his pace, and Tobias said, "Come on boy. Yeh belong at home."

They walked up the steps and through the front door, and as soon as the door was closed, Tobias was shoving Severus down to the floor.

"Ow," Severus said as his elbow smacked the hard floor. "Why-"

"What teh hell do yeh think yer doin? They ain't yer family! We are! Yeh've never once come home for Christmas and the one time yeh do it's fer them!? He kicked Severus hard in the side and he whimpered before his father picked him up and threw him towards the stairs.

"Where's mum?" he asked as his father kicked him again until he moved up the stairs of his own free will.

"Out. She wen' teh spend teh holiday with her mother."

"But why am I here?" he asked as his father pushed him down the hall to a door at the end.

"Because yer goin' teh pay fer bein' a miserable wretch!" Suddenly Tobias was angry and shouting, and pushing Severus into a wall, and hitting him over and over again in the face and stomach.

Harry tried to turn away, but Snape was there, eyes glossed over, and he couldn't face him any more than he could face the scene in front of him. All he could see was a flurry of black hair and a larger man beating him... it was him and Uncle Vernon. And then Uncle Vernon was pushing him into the bathroom and running the icy bathwater as he pinned Harry to the floor of the tub. Harry couldn't breath, and he tried to shout to stop, that he'd be good, but it was no use, he was drowning, and there was no one there to stop it.

"Potter... Potter, look at me."

Breathing heavily, Harry began to realize that he was huddled on the ground with his arms over his face, completely dry. Well his body was dry, but his cheeks were wet with tears.

"Potter, look at me."

Harry slowly dropped his arms and squinted into bright sunlight. The memory had changed and they were out on the grounds of Hogwarts now. Young Severus was lying on the grass by the lake reading a book a few yards away. Elder Snape was kneeling before him on one knee.

"Look at me." Snape's voice was calm and concerned. By the look on his face, Harry had obviously frightened him.

Harry looked up slowly and met his eyes.

"What happened?"

Harry swallowed hard. "I- I don't know," he lied.

"You collapsed on the floor and started screaming and flailing your arms."

"Oh," Harry wiped his eyes on a sleeve and let out a deep breath.

"You were obviously not in my memory. Where were you?"

He swallowed again and looked away, down at the lake. After a few moments he said quietly, "At the bottom of the tub, drowning."

If not for the panicked episode he had just witnessed, Snape would have thought Harry had been making fun of him.

"When?"

Harry shuddered, not wanting to think about it anymore. "A couple times."

"Someone in your family?"

"Uncle Vernon."

Snape looked away across the grass for a few moments, and then asked, "What else have you endured?"

Harry shrugged. "Same as you I guess. Cooking, cleaning, shouting... severe punishments." He shuddered again.

"Why have you not told anyone of this?"

"I tried. Every year. I was in Dumbledore's office trying to tell him again... asking if I could stay here. But he won't let me. He doesn't believe me. Nobody does. Everybody thinks I'm pampered and spoiled. Nobody knows I come back to school each year with broken bones that I can't let Pomfrey heal ‘cause she'll ask too many questions."

Snape eyed the boy's ribs and asked, "How did your ribs get broken?"

"I burned the eggs."

Snape sighed and said, "I do not know how to mend broken bones."

"I usually wait until the first Quidditch practice and pretend to fall or something."

Rubbing a brow in consternation, Snape eyed Harry again and Harry pretended to be watching as his younger mother came and sat down on the grass by Severus. He had not realized until now how alike he and the boy were. He could not deny that the statement Potter had made was true, because he himself had previously believed him to be a spoilt, pampered brat. And now here he sat watching him in a new light. He had always thought the boy had been blessed with a fast metabolism when he came back to Hogwarts each year as thin as he had left, perhaps thinner. But now he knew better.

"Did you try telling McGonagall about your... home life?" He tried to imagine what he might have felt like if a teacher had asked him that question when he was fifteen, and wasn't sure if Harry would want to talk about this anymore.

"Once. She thought I was just trying to get her to sign my slip to go into Hogsmead."

They were quiet for a moment, and Harry was actually starting to enjoy being out in the warm sun when he pointed to the memory Snape and he said, "They're moving."

"Inside to lunch," Snape told him. He helped Harry stand up, now that he knew the boy's ribs were broken and he must be in a lot of pain. Just as he helped him up, the memory changed again, and Harry found himself grateful to be supported by his professor so that he didn't end up on the ground again. Snape barely managed to hold him as they continued on through the memories.

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.

"Detention Mr. Malfoy," Snape said calmly, as he watched Draco chuck something orange into Harry's potion, which bubbled and turned frothy before spilling over the edges onto the floor.

"Sir?"

"For contaminating Potter's Potion. And you can switch cauldrons with him as well.

"But sir, I didn't-"

"Two detentions for lying to me when I watched you throw it in."

"But sir!" Malfoy was almost whining now.

"Three detentions Mr. Malfoy. Care to go for four? I've got a lot of potion's jars to scrub out."

Draco grumbled something and got up angrily to move to Harry's cauldron. Ron and Hermione didn't seem pleased about the switch either, and neither did Crabbe or Goyle as Harry moved to sit with them.

Harry and Draco were not the only ones astonished at whom the detentions had just been handed out to. Harry rarely escaped a year with less than ten detentions from Snape, and Harry didn't think he'd ever seen a Slytherin get one from their own head of house.

"What was that all about?" Ron asked as they packed their things up at the end of class.

Harry shrugged and Hermione said, "You've been very quiet around him lately, did something happen?"

With a shake of his head Harry asked them to leave it be, and then they left for other classes.

As he erased the blackboard with a wave of his wand, Severus wondered that the boy had not told them anything about the memories. Perhaps he had never told them anything of his home life and hadn't wanted them to know of his panic attack. Or maybe he was just keeping his promise not to tell, he thought with curiosity.

Severus couldn't explain it, but over the last week a strong sense of needing to protect the boy had stolen over him. He had already convinced the Headmaster in private that the boy should no longer stay with his relatives, and that perhaps a more vigorous search should take place for John and Ginger Evans, who he knew for a fact would be kinder to Harry. The Headmaster agreed on both counts, but nobody had told Harry yet. For some reason the man believed him the better man for the job.

He didn't think he'd find a good way to tell the boy aside from dragging him into his office, but found a perfect opportunity present itself a few days later, when a letter arrived to him by owl on Muggle paper in a Muggle envelope. It was from John Evans.

‘Dearest Severus, we were so pleased to hear from you. However did you find us? Or was it the clever owl that tracked us down? We have been curious about Harry since we left England. We have always regretted our decision not to stay, but with Ginger's health as it was, I knew it would not get better unless we left everything that reminded her of Lily behind. In our old age we find now that we have missed our opportunity to raise up a child in Lily's memory. Is there any chance Harry would wish to leave Petunia's loving home to spend some time with two foolish old grandparents?'

Albus had spent some time tracking down the general location of the Evans, and had then allowed Severus to send a letter to the area by owl informing them that Harry was now fifteen and doing well. There was no reason to put off telling Harry he didn't have to go back to the Dursley's now. Christmas would come soon enough and the boy needed time to think things over, and perhaps correspond back and forth with his grandparents before making any decisions. And if the boy didn't want to stay with them? Well, then he would redouble his efforts to protect him at Hogwarts, he thought to himself.

"Potter." Harry looked up, surprised to find Snape standing there over him at Gryffindor table later that day. Severus did not fail to notice the boy had now taken to sitting in the same spot his mother liked to sit in at the far end of the table.

"Sir?"

"I received something that might be of interest to you. Whatever you decide to do is fine with the Headmaster. He has agreed that you are not to return to the Dursleys."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"What is this?" Severus handed him the folded letter and Harry stared down at it curiously.

"I will leave that to you to figure out. If you have questions later you can find me in my office. He left the table and wondered what the boy would do with the new information. Harry didn't show up to his office and outside of class he didn't see him at all for weeks, although he did seem marginally happier.

When it was nearing Christmas, and he had begun to expect Potter wasn't going to speak to him again about anything in his personal life, there was a knock on his office door one evening, and Harry entered, several letters clutched in his hand.

"Sir, am I bothering you?"

"No. Come in and close the door."

Harry did as he was told and then sat down in the visitor's chair. "I've been writing to them. Who would have thought they're all the way in America!"

He seemed both excited and happy, and for some reason it pleased Severus immensely to know this.

"They say I can come and stay for Christmas and for the summer, and maybe they'll even move back to England. They said they might move somewhere closer to Hogwarts."

"And you have arranged transport to and from the United States?"

"Well, no, not yet. That's a little bit of a problem because they said they can't come and get me and I asked Ron and he said you have to be 17 to portkey to another country by yourself."

"I see."

"I was hoping maybe that you'd come too. They said there's always room in their home for you."

Severus raised a brow. They had been writing back and forth about him?

"And you think that I have nothing better to do over Christmas and summer holiday?"

Harry bit his lip. The answer was yes, and he didn't have to say it.

"Have you spoken to the Headmaster about this?"

"He said I can go if I get somebody to go with me. I'd really like to meet them. They say they tracked down one of their nieces and her family that disappeared off the map when Voldemort came to power."

"Where exactly to your grandparents live?" He had only been given the location of the United States, and where the owl had gone from there he had no idea.

"Oregon... a small city called Klamath Falls. They said it's hilly and a little dry, but otherwise ok. It sits on two lakes and they have a big house up a mountain overlooking one of them."

He could see that Harry was trying hard to convince him and held up his hand. "Do not expect me to sing Christmas carols Potter. And don't expect any presents either."

Harry grinned suddenly and Severus was surprised at how pleasing he found the smile.

"Thanks sir," he said. "Ron and Hermione are going to flip out when they hear I'm having Christmas with Professor Snape and my grandparents." He ran out the door to tell his friends, dropping one of the letters he clutched in his hands on his way out.

Severus stooped down to pick it up. He didn't intend to invade the boy's privacy by reading it, but curiosity got the better of him, and he opened it to find Ginger's tidy handwriting scrawled across lined paper.

‘Dear Harry, I'm so happy you've agreed to come for Christmas. Unfortunately we cannot fly back this year to come and get you. Perhaps you can ask Severus to accompany you. We always did enjoy having him around the house during the summer and holidays, and he will always have a place in our home. Did you know our home is set on a hill over Klamath Lake? Don't expect to do any swimming in it... it will be frozen over by the time you get here, and in the summer it's a little dirty, but don't worry, we'll drive you out to some of the cleaner lakes in the area during the summer if you want to swim. Our house has a big yard and is set in a neighborhood full of tall pine trees... with a strong young wizard around to help ward off the cougars I imagine we'll be able to get out and do some gardening this summer.

We were so pleased to hear that you and Severus get along well together. We always wondered, with his animosity towards James how things would turn out once you got to school, but it seems from your letters that all is well. We're glad you've found an adult who understands you. And we again are sorry that we were not there for you as a child, although it sounds to us as though you are growing into a fine young man.

Looking forward to your next letter, and to seeing you and Severus at Christmas, love Grandma Ginger, and Grandpa John.'

From the letter it almost sounded as if Harry trusted him and had told them so, and this too filled Severus with as much comfort as Harry's smile seemed to over the last couple of months.

"See Lily?" he asked the thin air, speaking to her memory, "told you I wouldn't hold a grudge... at least not forever."