Deciding that he was closer to Spinner's End than he was to Lily's street, he decided to try there first, unsure if the man even still lived at home, or if Lily still lived with her parents now that they had graduated. He didn't even know how far into the future he was from where he had last been.

Harry's heart sank. From the look of the boarded up windows of Snape's old house, it had been obvious that no one had lived there for some time now. He turned and walked in the other direction, checking the park on the way, in the vain hope that he would find someone there, but it too was empty, so severely vandalized that he doubted very much if any children were ever allowed to step inside the fence now.

Hands in his pockets, he wondered how Snape would be when he appeared this time, if he ever found him that was.

It was another ten minutes before he rounded the corner onto Lily's street, and was relieved to find the man he had spent years loathing sitting on his mother's doorsteps. He had to do a double take at first to be sure it was him, because his hair was suddenly shorter than Harry's, but the pale face and long nose told him that it was. He looked sullen as Harry approached, although he was looking in the other direction. This was more like the Snape he had known for so long, he mused, sullen, worn looking as if he'd seen far too much horror in his life, and looking irritable.

"Hey," Harry said quietly.

Severus looked up, face unhappy, but didn't say anything before looking back down the street again.

"Your hair is short," Harry observed, trying to get him to talk.

"She said she wouldn't date me if it was long," he said quietly, not looking back at Harry again.

"Are you back together then?" Harry bit his lip. He didn't want his head bitten off for asking the wrong question. He almost felt like a student in Potions again back at the school.

"She's with James," was his flat answer. He was angry and Harry could tell he had to work to control it.

"Then why are you on her doorstep?" Severus glared up at him. "You're here to show her your hair?"

"I'm here to change the future. She can't die. I love her too much." So that was it. He was determined that James and Lily wouldn't get together. Harry sighed and sat down on the stoop.

"You have to leave when she comes."

"Why?"

"Because if she sees you she'll ask questions, and get together with James."

Harry sighed again. "You want to erase me?"

"I want her to be alive, and us to be happy together."

"Might as well erase me," Harry finally concluded, images of so many people in his life hating him, pounding on him, trying to make him fail coming back to mind. He looked down to the fresh scars on the back of his hand, courtesy of Umbridge and her blood quill. "Not like I have anything to live for anyway. You probably still just think I'm a weird dream."

"I have wondered if I belong in Mungos."

"Maybe we all do."

Harry sat on the steps with Severus and noted again how much older he looked.

"How old are you now?"

"Twenty."

Harry shook his head. "Less than two days ago you were fifteen."

Severus eyed him again, but didn't say anything for a while, until, "Why don't you tell me about my future for once Potter?"

Sitting straighter, Harry wondered how much he would damage the past if he told him that. Perhaps for the first time, it had crossed his mind that if he really was in the past, he might be altering it in some unfixable way.

"What are you doing now?"

"What do you mean?"

"For work, what are you doing now?"

"I have applied to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts."

"Oh. Well, you're a teacher when I'm at school."

His expression softened a little then as he seemed to take some pleasure in that. Harry didn't want to clarify that he didn't teach defense though, perhaps because he didn't want the man's countenance to turn sour again.

"And?"

"And you'll be head of Slytherin some day."

"Horace Slughorn is the head of Slytherin house."

"Well, he is for now, but he won't be forever. I don't even know who he is."

"Hm. And the Headmaster?"

"Dumbledore. And head of Gryffindor is McGonagall. Flitwick is the head of Ravenclaw and Sprout is the head of Hufflepuff."

"Agatha Burbage is currently the head of Hufflepuff, and Henry Tilwit is the head of Ravenclaw. I had heard that Burbage had planned on retirement now that her daughter has graduated school however."

"See then, there's hope for you to be in Slytherin. Charity Burbage teaches at Hogwarts right now, and Henry Tilwit runs the OWL exams for the ministry once a year."

"You haven't taken OWLs yet," Severus noted, and Harry nodded.

"No, but my friend Hermione is crazy about studying for them, and she insisted we study all of the examiner's history so we could know the types of things they might give extra points for."

"Tilwit is a fan of fancy charms that have no practical use whatsoever. I would suggest something along the lines of the helwix charm."

Harry frowned now, quiet in thought. "Why are you telling me this if you plan on erasing me?"

Snape eyed him in thought, and said, "I don't know. You're here and I am nervous. I talk when I'm nervous."

Harry gave a laugh then and when Severus glared at him as if there was something wrong with him, Harry said, "Sorry, it's just that, in my time you don't seem to do that. I mean, you talk, but not like this."

"What do I talk like then?"

Harry straightened again and in as low a voice as he could muster, he imitated, "Potter, 20 points from Gryffindor for your incessant chatter. Detention Potter, for passing notes in class. Comb your hair Potter, you look like you were in a fight with a troll." Harry stopped then to gauge the reaction of his future Professor, and the man had one brow raised, a trademark Snape look if there ever was one.

"I do not sound like that in the future."

"Maybe not, but I've had detention with you enough times to know that it's not fair."

"If you got detention than you deserved it." Severus said in consternation. He would not be an unfair professor he was sure. He hated it when he was blamed for things he didn't do, and swore that he would never do that to others.

"See, a couple days ago you were 15 and today you're an adult. I can't win."

Severus stood up suddenly then, and said, "Quick, you have to go!"

Harry saw Lily coming down the street as the sky began to darken, a book in one hand and a grocery bag in the other, and allowed himself to be shoved into the bushes under the window.

"Stay down. I don't want her asking questions about you."

"Fine," Harry hissed, angry to be manhandled in such a way.

Crouching down, he watched anxiously as Lily approached, a small smile on her face as she saw Severus.

"What have you done to your hair?"

"Cut it short so you would take me back woman," he said. Harry frowned, thinking that perhaps he had been a little rude with the name, woman, but it appeared to be some sort of inside joke, because Lily didn't frown.

"And you think that's enough to make me take you back Severus Snape? You know I'm dating James. He's been talking about marriage."

Severus sighed deeply. "I would do anything for you. If I could never spend another moment apart from you, I would make it so. You know that." There was such a softness in his voice, that Lily wasn't the only one that was startled by it. Harry never imagined that his professor was capable of such a statement, let alone that type of tone.

When Lily didn't say anything, just stared into his eyes, Severus looked down to his shoes. "I've been so wrong, so many times in the past. I always succeed in taking us two steps back for every one we take forward. But if you'll have me, I promise never to do another thing to hurt you, lest my heart fall to pieces and never be repaired."

A lump was rising in Harry's throat now as he saw his mother step closer to Snape and place her hand on his cheek, brushing it gently, and he leaned into it. He had half a mind to jump out of the bushes and scream for her to stop, not to take him back, but for now Harry was still a solid, corporeal being, and that meant that he was still born in the future, and that she and James still got together.

"You've changed Severus," she said. "Somewhere along the way I thought I'd lost you, but you've come back."

He could hear the man's breathing hitch, and saw him lean into her and wrap her up in his arms. "Say you'll be mine," he whispered, almost so that Harry didn't hear it.

There was silence for a moment as the rest of the sun sank below the horizon and cast the street in darkness.

"I will Severus."

Harry was shaking his head as she unlocked the door and lead Snape inside by the hand. His own breath hitched as he emerged from the bush, covered by darkness, and peered in through the window into the living room, where a small lamp in the far corner was the only source of light.

Heart sinking further and further, he watched as she took Snape's coat off and began unbuttoning his shirt.

Harry slid down the side of the pavement, unwilling to watch his life change in such a way. Just another minute, and he was sure he'd be gone, erased from history for good. Feeling panic rise within him he worked to control his breathing, not wanting to go into a panic attack under the window.

He waited quietly for what seemed like forever, but in reality was only a few minutes, and when he hadn't yet disappeared, and was quite sure he was still conscious and alive, he crept back up to the window, where a small sob escaped his lips to see Lily and Snape on the couch in the midst of a very private and intimate act of love.

Before he knew what was going on, he was running, far and fast down the sidewalk, sneakers pounding like his heart as he darted away.

Breathing ragged, it was ages before he stopped. He'd gone over the river and into a busy part of the city before he could run no longer.

People staring as they passed by, Harry searched frantically for a newspaper vendor or a machine. Feeling disoriented he stumbled down the street, looking hysterically until he found one.

"Where is it, where is it?" he asked himself, eyes scanning the page in front of the vending machine glass. Finally he found the date there in the top corner. October 19, 1979.

Too upset to use his brain properly, he used his fingers to count out nine months. Nine months and 12 days from today, would be June 31, the day he was born.

Crying, Harry sank to the ground next to the machine, uncaring of who saw him there, wreck that he was. "I want to go back," he pleaded to thin air. "Please, take me back. I want to go home. Please, please... please."

He lay down on the sidewalk, but instead of rough pavement was met with dusty wood. Looking up, Harry found the lifeless mirror in the dark, dusty attic. He was home, and his life would never be the same again. He lay there and cried himself to sleep.