Once down in his lab, Snape unpacked the potions kit. He began the complicated analysis of the potion Harry created by using a particular potion he'd created just for separating out the ingredients of a potion and identifying them. While the results brewed, he went through the boy's trunk and found a slim journal at the bottom. Beneath the journal was the Hogwarts library copy of Most Potente Potions.

"And here I'd blamed Miss Granger for this book's disappearance," he muttered grimly.

It appeared that the journal had been a gift from Miss Granger at the end of term. Harry's entries were sporadic, streams of consciousness, scattered drawings, and tears, that sentence by sentence revealed his depression. He blamed himself and was full of guilt for all the deaths that had occurred not just the night he'd fought Voldemort, but he also blamed himself for his parents deaths. Many entries talked loosely about his parents and about Sirius Black. Many of these entries were smudged by tears, if not scratched over heavily by pen.

The last entry provided the information Snape needed about the potion Harry had brewed. The teenager, though still very depressed, was perhaps at his most lucid. He seemed to know that someone might find his belongings and so he'd written the last entry in the style of a last will and testament.

Harry had left his broom to his friend Ron and his books to Hermione. He also hoped that Ron would look after his owl if he couldn't.  Harry had noted that sometime after delivering the last batch of ingredients for the potion, the owl had gone missing. Harry hoped that she was at Hogwarts, maybe resting. Snape made a mental note to look in the owlery for the beloved pet.

The very last of the entry startled Snape as he found it addressed to him!

Professor Snape, you'll probably be angry with me, but I still hope a tiny part of you, that part that Dumbledore trusts, is kind of impressed with this potion. So you don't have to look, it's called Second Chance. The book says there isn't anything to reverse it. I know you probably are thinking this is the stupidest thing I've ever done, but I want a second chance, even if my Aunt finally follows through with her threat to get rid of me.

Professor, I know you were helping me with the tournament. Thanks for doing that and keeping me alive. Call me a dunderhead Gryffindor if you want, but I think you don't totally hate me since you always saved my hide. I wonder, now, if I should have just let the Sorting Hat put me in Slytherin.

"Slytherin?" Snape closed the journal. How different things could have been, he wondered, if Harry had been in his house instead of Minerva's.

A chime interrupted his thoughts, letting him know that his analysis of the potion was complete. It did help that he knew what the potion was called, and that the recipe was in Moste Potente Potions.  However, Snape still needed the analysis to tell him how well it had been brewed.  He doused the flame and watched as the results appeared above the cauldron. After several minutes, he vanished the potion and tapped the journal with his index finger.

"I am impressed, Mr. Potter. You did a most adequate job." Harry's de-aging was permanent and there was nothing to be done but for the child to grow up again. As Snape cleaned everything up and re-packed Harry's belongings in his trunk, he thought to himself that the boy would get his wish; he now had his second chance.