Snape chuckled quietly to himself as he emerged onto Platform 9¾. He'd bet a few serious sickles that the little brat had screamed as they'd stepped onto the platform! Well, it was small enough payback for all the trouble this child was putting him to. Besides, people didn't end up inside snow globes ENTIRELY by accident.

The train's sharp whistle blew a warning as Snape paid the required galleons for his ticket, and he climbed aboard the Hogwarts Express mere seconds before the train lurched forward with a series of metallic clanks from the couplings between the cars.

Balancing the snowglobe against the sway of the car as the train moved out of the station and slowly picked up speed, Snape moved from one car to the next, finally settling into an empty compartment in the fourth car back. After warding the door shut, he quickly transfigured a handkerchief into a long, makeshift sling suspended from an overhead luggage rack. He carefully placed the snow globe in the sling, where it swung gently, softly absorbing the jerky movements of the train car.

After adjusting the globe so that the door of the castle faced the window of the train compartment, thereby situating the steps so that they swung gently forward and back rather than sideways, Snape quietly tapped the snow globe's dome three times with the tip of his quill. Although Snape himself could barely hear the tapping, inside the globe, Potter must hear it like an exceedingly loud knocking.

-:- -:- -:-

KLONK! KLONK! KLONK!

Harry winced at what was unmistakably the strange man's signal that he could finally let go and come out of the castle. Slowly, he eased his elbow's grip around the banister's upright, sliding his arm free. The castle seemed to be swaying slightly, but the motion felt far more gentle than when the man's bumpy stride had shaken the snow globe with every step. Cautiously, Harry pulled himself to his feet and approached the castle's outer door.

He was facing a window, he realized, but he couldn't see much of the outside scenery due to the mid-December early dusk, not to mention the interior lights reflecting off the glass. Occasionally, he'd see streetlamps or lit windows whizzing past the train's window, but he found the seated giant man of far greater interest to observe. Harry settled himself several steps down from the top so he could lean back as the castle swayed. The motion reminded him of a giant swing at a play park, and as he looked up past the clear dome, he realized the snow globe WAS swinging in some kind of hanging contraption. Meanwhile, the man appeared to be scribbling again, this time with … a FEATHER?

Before Harry could mull over that intriguing fact, the man waved a stick of some sort, and right before Harry's eyes, the huge sheet of paper he'd been writing on seemed to shrink, just as Harry had shrunk when he'd ended up in the snow globe. The man now held the small scrap of paper facing the side of the dome, and Harry could read, in what appeared to be a moderately large script:

"Potter, I am Professor Severus Snape, the Potions Master at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You are trapped in an illegal snow globe of Hogwarts Castle. These snow globes were banned in the Wizarding World shortly after their invention about twenty years ago. How this snow globe ended up for sale in a Muggle store is unknown. There needs to be an investigation into the matter. However, the first priority is to extract you safely from the dome. I am taking you to Hogwarts' Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, the greatest wizard in our world. Hopefully, he will have the ability to free you quickly. In the meantime, do not attempt to work any further magic within the globe. We do not need to complicate matters beyond where they stand at present. Acknowledge by waving three times, as before."

Harry stared at the missive uncomprehendingly. A school of witchcraft and wizardry? A wizarding WORLD? Muggle store? A wizard Headmaster? All of that was weird enough, but the admonishment about not attempting to work any FURTHER magic – why, Harry hadn't worked any magic in the first place! One moment, he'd been standing next to the electric teapot, with Dudley flailing his legs a few feet away; the next moment, Harry'd opened his eyes inside the castle. HE hadn't done magic! If this WAS magic, it had BEEN DONE – TO HIM!

Utterly confused, the boy finally looked up at this Severus Snape, only to fall backwards against the steps as he found himself being scrutinized by a horridly-magnified eyeball. The forbidding giant was actually holding a humongous magnifying glass close to the dome, peering down at Harry as if it were Judgment Day and Harry had been found seriously lacking.

Squeezing his eyes shut against the sight of that merciless black eye, Harry tried not to sob aloud. This wasn't what he'd wanted for Christmas. He'd be glad to settle for a thrashing from Uncle Vernon and Dudley's dirty socks! Just let him get back to Privet Drive! He didn't want to go to this Hogwarts Castle! He didn't want to deal with the great Wizard Headmaster! He just wanted to wake up in his cupboard!

Maybe … maybe he WAS in his cupboard.

Maybe this was just a bad, BAD dream.

One, two, three – WAKE UP!

Harry opened his eyes very slowly, but even with the eyelids barely parted, through his lashes he could still see that obsidian orb looming over him, like a hideous black planet poised above a pockmarked alien landscape in the sci-fi/fantasy artwork which Dudley endlessly rhapsodized about.

It wasn't a dream, then.

Despite Uncle Vernon's declarations to the contrary, magic must be REAL.

And according to He-Of-The-Black-Eyeball, Harry had DONE magic. But he still couldn't understand how he could have DONE magic, when he didn't know HOW to do it at all. And if he'd done it without meaning to, how could he avoid doing FURTHER magic that would complicate matters even WORSE?

KLONK!

Harry flinched at the sound made by the tip of the feather pounding against the dome. The Snape man was wiggling the paper rather impatiently, still awaiting a response. Harry stared up at him, easier to take now that he'd lowered the magnifying glass for the quill. But up came the glass again, and the eyeball returned Harry's own scrutiny. The boy sighed deeply, then shrugged theatrically. He really didn't understand any of this. But when Snape wiggled the paper again, Harry gave a half-hearted wave of his left arm, followed by two more waves before drooping morosely upon the steps. He supposed he didn't have any choice in the matter.

Trapped.

In a stupid snow globe.

On a train to nowhere he'd ever heard of.

KLONK!

Too dejected to flinch this time, Harry raised his head, avoiding looking directly at the glittering eyeball and merely reading the new message instead:

"Do you have any questions?"

Was the man KIDDING? Of course, Harry had questions. Nothing BUT questions!

Against the swaying of the sling contraption, Harry stood up and shouted, "Is magic real?"

The black-haired giant frowned, then put a hand to his ear.

Harry tried again. "IS. MAGIC. REAL?"

To his dismay – and to Snape's obvious dismay as well – Harry's voice apparently could not be heard outside the snow globe's dome, if the frustrated expression on the man's face was any indication.

As Snape laid down his small magnifying glass and began scribbling with the feather once more, Harry had an idea. He moved down to a broad landing on the stairs, and when the man's eye returned to hover over him, Harry tried sketching out backwards letters with broad strokes of his arm in midair. The obsidian eyeball carefully watched every move he made.

-:- -:- -:-

Snape frowned in concern. The Auditory Enhancement Spell had done nothing to make Potter's voice audible. Fearful of casting any magic upon the snow globe, Snape had cast the spell upon himself after Silencing the entire compartment, so he would not be overwhelmed by extraneous external noises produced by the train or its other occupants. But even in the absolute Silence of the compartment, he could not make out Potter's obviously-shouted words.

He sighed and scribbled:

"Wait until we reach Hogwarts. The journey will take approximately another seven hours."

Before he could hold it up, however, he realized that Potter had taken the initiative. Raising the magnifying glass to his eye, Snape studied the precise movements that Potter described with his tiny hand. Letters, he deduced.

I … S… A pause. M … A … G … I … C… Another pause. A backwards R, followed by E … A … L… And an attempt at a question mark, with a sharp forward thrust beneath the lion's-mane curve to indicate the dot below.

Is magic real? Could the boy truly not know? Granted, no magical topics had been discussed during the two and a half days that he had observed Potter's interaction with the Dursleys, but did that really mean that Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, had no knowledge whatsoever of his birth family's Wizarding heritage?

Inside the snow globe, the ant-sized Potter stood waiting expectantly.

Slowly, Snape nodded, noting the boy's rather shocked expression. Unable to repress a smirk, Snape laid down the magnifying glass and scribbled, "I am a Wizard." After a pause, he added, "So are you."

He held the paper up to the dome, watching as Potter's knees buckled in reaction.

The boy had had no clue.

Wait until Dumbledore heard this! Through their silence, those disgusting Dursleys had denied Potter his very birthright! Snape continued to closely observe the boy, wondering what – if anything – Snape could do if the child reacted adversely to learning the truth about himself.

Inside the snow globe, Harry sat shaking on the castle steps. A wizard? This man said he was a WIZARD? But … how was that possible? And magic was REAL? Had he really done magic without meaning to and ended up in the snow globe somehow? He'd only been fantasizing, just like he did in his cupboard, wishing things were different, wishing so hard that he could change things. He'd always fantasized, because fantasy made it easier to deal with reality. He could pretend, and if he pretended hard enough, he could almost feel things change. He could transport himself elsewhere, be someone besides the freak in the cupboard, be … happier.

That's all he'd wanted. Just a fantasy. Just pretend to get into the castle to be safe. If his mind was safe in the castle, then he could handle the inevitable thrashing from Uncle Vernon. He'd just … drift away into the fantasy, and he wasn't really getting thrashed, because that was somebody else feeling the blows. Fantasy was the only thing Harry had to fall back on. Fantasy was the only gift he could give himself. Nobody could take away his imagination – not Dudley, not Aunt Petunia, not Uncle Vernon and his leather belt. Being safe in the castle was just Harry's fantasy.

Until it became real.

Harry looked up at the huge black eye again. Did it look slightly sympathetic? Hard to tell, really. But it didn't seem to be glaring down at him right now.

Magic? Could Harry REALLY do magic? Even if he didn't mean to? He began to think about some of the weird things that the Dursleys had always blamed him for. Things that he could not possibly have done, like suddenly turning his teacher's hair blue. He'd never been able to figure out why the Dursleys held him responsible for that fiasco. But was that magic, too? And had he somehow done it? He'd certainly never meant to do magic. As far as he'd known at that moment in time, there was No Such Thing as magic. Uncle Vernon had always said so. But – if Uncle Vernon seemed so determined to make Harry believe in the absence of magic, did that mean that Uncle Vernon knew that magic was actually real? That he'd been lying all along?

Harry took a deep breath and climbed to his feet again. The eye watched him closely.

W… H… Y… [pause] A… M… [pause] I… [pause] A… [pause] W… I… Z… A… R… D… Followed by a sweeping curve with a sharp punch below.

Snape's lips twitched slightly, and he laid down the glass to scribble with the feather again. Harry sat down, patiently waiting for the response. A few moments later, Snape held up the paper for Harry to read:

"Your mother, Lily, was a witch, and your father, James, was a wizard. You get your magical ability from them. Both of them were students at Hogwarts, where you will also receive magical training next year, after you have turned eleven."

Harry's eyes popped. His parents were a witch and a wizard? But why had his relatives never said? Aunt Petunia was his mother's own sister – surely she must have known! Especially if his mum had gone to this Hogwarts school. Sighing, he pushed himself to his feet and thought for a moment, wondering how much he could abbreviate his messages and still be understood by this giant of a man outside the snow globe.

D… O… [pause] M… Y… [pause] R… E… L… A… T… I… V… E… S… [pause] K… N… O… W… ?

Snape nodded, and he scribbled once more:

"The Headmaster himself placed you with the Dursleys after your parents [something had been marked through here rather heavily, Harry noticed] died when you were a baby. They were to look after you until you were ready to come to Hogwarts to study. Petunia had known that Lily was a witch ever since they were girls. Petunia herself was not born with the gift of magic, and she was envious of your mother's ability. Possibly, that's why you were never told of your parents' background. Petunia would not have wanted to deal with another magical person, when she herself couldn't do magic."

Harry stood frowning, considering. Aunt Petunia must have told Uncle Vernon. And Dudley must have picked up on it somewhere. Great … just great. Harry was the ONLY one who DIDN'T know that he was a wizard! But it certainly explained a lot. Not just about the bizarre things that had happened through the years, and about being blamed for them, but also about the way the Dursleys had always treated him. And why. Especially why.

He wondered what else to ask. Snape had said this snow globe was a Hogwarts one, an illegal one. And what was that word he'd used? Like getting mugged? Muggle! That was it.

W… H… A… T… [pause] I… S… [pause] M… U… G… G… L… E… ?

"A Muggle is the Wizarding term for a non-magical person. Your relatives are Muggles."

Harry giggled! Oh, wouldn't it be great to taunt Dudley with a word that his pudgy cousin didn't understand? Muggle-Muggle-Muggle! "Dudley is a Muggle, Dudley is a Muggle!" Harry chanted quietly in a sing-song voice. But first, he'd have to get out of this snow globe.

H… O… W… [pause] I… [pause] I… N… [pause] G… L… O… B… E…?

"To my knowledge, these snow globes were banned precisely because witches and wizards in years past managed to WISH themselves into the globes. Whether the designer had intended that effect is unknown, but after several tragedies, the Hogwarts snow globes were removed from wizarding retail stores and banned as Dark objects. Can you recall if you were wishing specifically to get into the snow globe before you were … transported, for lack of a better term?"

Harry nodded vigorously.

Snape sighed deeply, shaking his head very slightly, his long black hair drifting with the motion.

"We must trust the Headmaster to extract you safely."

Something Snape had said bothered Harry. He spelt out: T… R… A… G… E… D… I… E… S…?

The giant man's thin lips seemed to press together more tightly. For once, he set down the magnifying glass and frowned seriously for many long moments. Obviously, he was considering how much to explain to Harry about those tragedies. Not wanting to cause the man to decide against telling him anything, Harry quietly sat on the castle steps, looking now at the cluster of village lights passing by outside the darkened window of the train's closed compartment. He idly wondered in which direction they were traveling, where this Hogwarts castle was located in real life. And would the Headmaster really be able to get him out? What if he couldn't? Would Harry himself become another "tragedy"? He looked up at Snape as the man began scribbling, the feathery plume bouncing with every stroke. FEATHERS! Did all wizards write with feathers, Harry wondered, or just this dark man?

"A small number of people died after wishing themselves into the snow globes and not being able to get out on their own. The snow globe itself does not kill; however, there is no food or water available, and these individuals died of dehydration. I do know that several people DID manage to get out of the globes successfully, but I don't know any details. I do not wish to use any magic upon the snow globe myself, leaving the method of extracting you up to the Headmaster. I believe he is cognizant of an appropriate means."

C… O… G… ?

"Dumbledore knows what he's doing. Usually."

Harry hmphhed. That last word wasn't as reassuring as the rest of the message.

B… R… E… A… K… [pause] G… L… O… B… E… ?

"No. The unfortunate two who had that method foisted upon them discovered that they were permanently shrunken to your present size. No magical means, including potions, were ever effective in restoring them to their normal state."

Not good. Definitely not good.

Harry stood, balancing himself against the rhythmic swaying. He was actually quite adept at maintaining his balance, he'd discovered, and he wondered if they really did have to break the snow globe to get him out, maybe he could be a one-man ant-sized circus? His abnormally small size would probably terrify Muggles, and Muggles were famous for killing what they couldn't understand, but maybe wizards would find him entertaining? Especially if he could learn some tricks. Like climbing up a length of sewing thread as if it were a rope… Maybe he could ride an insect a bit larger than himself, balancing upon its back? At any rate, it would be more appealing than dying of dehydration and starvation. At least he'd have a chance to survive. Maybe they'd let him keep this castle for his own home? He could live upon someone's mantelpiece – this castle wouldn't take up too much room. He might even be able to have wizard friends.

Y… O… U… [pause] K… N… E… W… [pause] M… U… M… ?

Snape paused for quite a long time this time, and Harry seated himself to wait for the answer. The man's long, pale face took on a faraway look, his black eyes gazing at the dark train window as if he could see some scene projected upon the plain background, like in a cinema. Harry drew his knees up to his chest and leaned back against the wall bordering the steps, letting the swaying motion gently rock him like a babe in a cradle. At long last, Snape took up the quill and began to write.

Harry must have fallen asleep before Snape finished writing, for it took a couple of KLONKS to awaken him. He stretched, rubbing his eyes a bit, then sat forward to see the giant's proffered missive.

"I knew your mother from the time we were children. We started school at Hogwarts together, and she was quite eager to go. I was the one who first told her she was a witch, although she did not appreciate my calling her that, to begin with. She initially found it insulting. [Harry grinned, imagining his mum as a little girl and being called a witch, not knowing that magic was real.] For many years, she was my very best friend, even though we had been Sorted into different Houses at school. [Harry frowned a bit.] Hogwarts is divided into four Houses, and I had been Sorted into Slytherin, while your mother was Sorted into Gryffindor. The two remaining Houses are Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. [Harry chuckled at the fanciful names.]

"As we progressed through our years of study, your mother proved herself to be especially gifted in Charms, which are various types of magical spells. We both enjoyed Potions, which later became my specialty and which I teach today. Other courses which we shared included Transfiguration, which involves transforming inanimate objects and even living creatures into other forms. For example, I transfigured my handkerchief into the sling which is supporting your snow globe at the moment. [Harry squinted upwards at the top of the clear dome, trying to see if the sling resembled a handkerchief, but he found it difficult to make out clear details.]

We also studied the History of Magic, with a teacher who died during our Fourth Year but who continued teaching as a ghost. [Harry's jaw dropped. No WAY! This guy was putting him on! How could a ghost teach anything? Ghosts weren't real! But then again … magic itself hadn't been real until today. So … maybe a ghost … was … also … real?] Lily also enjoyed Herbology, which involves the study of magical plants, as well as other non-magical plants which prove useful as Potions ingredients."

G… H… O… S… T… [pause] R… E… A… L… ?

Snape nodded, seeming amused at Harry's query.

Harry continued reading:

"Lily also excelled in Defense Against the Dark Arts, a course designed to help students learn to fight against the Dark magical forces in our world. Not all magic is good, Potter, as you will learn. And Lily enjoyed Care of Magical Creatures, especially working with unicorns and kneazles. Kneazles closely resemble housecats, but they possess magical qualities and extremely high intelligence."

U… N… I… [pause] R… E… A… L… ?

Snape nodded again, smiling a bit ruefully. Lily's son had SO much to learn. And it would be like Lily herself, learning of the magical world from scratch.

M… Y… [pause] D… A… D… ?

Hesitating for a moment, Snape finally wrote:

"James Potter was my classmate, but we were never friends. We shared classes together for seven years, and he was an accomplished wizard when we graduated, but like most students, we associated primarily with students from our respective Houses. Lily's and my close friendship seemed unusual to most people for that very reason."

Snape gave a silent sigh of relief when Potter seemed to accept his explanation without question. As much as he'd despised James Potter, this was absolutely not the time or place to get into recounting that long, painful history. In fact, he had to wonder why he had even been so forthcoming about his long-ago friendship with Lily. It was hardly characteristic of him to run off at the mouth. Or the quill, in this case. But then again, this was Lily's child, and if those dastardly Durlseys hadn't even told Potter that he was a wizard, it seemed unlikely that they would have spoken well of his mother … if they bothered to speak of her at all. Someone needed to represent her truthfully to her son. Lily would have wanted that. For … Harry.

As far as Harry himself was concerned, it made perfect sense that Severus Snape and James Potter had never been friends. Look at the kids in Harry's primary school – thanks to Dudley, Harry had never really had any friends, even though he'd gone to school with those same classmates for the past five years. Still, it would have been nice to have one good friend, like Snape had had his mum, he thought. Maybe … maybe he could have a friend when he went to school at Hogwarts next year. Maybe, if nobody knew Dudley and Dudley couldn't threaten anyone who wanted to be Harry's friend … maybe it would really happen!

Harry was still smiling to himself at that thought when he saw Snape launch himself violently toward the ceiling, causing Harry to duck reflexively. Actually, he realized a couple of seconds later, Snape had merely stood up. But he was so BIG! Curious, Harry observed his gigantic traveling companion as the man waved his stick – he'd have to ask about that – and he gasped loudly as Snape's gray blazer and black turtleneck vanished, replaced by the most magnificent costume Harry had ever seen! Why, Snape looked like a KING!

Resembling a regal figure from an elegant chess set, Snape wore a long black robe which cascaded past a knee-length ebony coat sporting too many buttons to count. Before Harry could take it all in, the man waved his stick again and a brilliant silvery light spewed forth, looking almost solid, as if light itself had taken a physical form. The light escaped the compartment, seeming to pass effortlessly through solid glass, and Harry gawped as the figure of a silvery doe paused just outside the speeding train's window. The doe turned her head to peer back at Snape for a second or two, then bounded lightly away in mid-air, vanishing a moment later into the darkness of the unseen countryside.

Now, Harry had MORE questions, and he bounced up and down, waving both of his arms, trying to get Snape's attention. When the man finally settled once again, sweeping his robes around himself as if to keep warm, he took up the magnifying glass, and Harry immediately began spelling out his questions.

Y… O… U… R… [pause] S… T… I… C… K… ?

"My wand."

A WAND! Harry stared at the dark length of wood with envious admiration. Could he have one, too, he wondered, when he came to Hogwarts next year?

C… L… O… T… H… E… S… ?

"My customary attire. I had changed the appearance of my clothing earlier to appear like a Muggle, when I needed to interact with Muggles in London."

D… E… E… R… ? [pause] W… O… W… !

"My Patronus. It can perform various functions. In this case, I used it to send a message on to Dumbledore, letting him know of your situation and that we shall be arriving at the castle quite late tonight."

Without warning, Harry got hit by a tremendous yawn.

"Perhaps you should get some sleep, Potter. We still have nearly six more hours to journey north."

N… O… R… T… H… ?

"Hogwarts is located in northern Scotland."

Harry's eyebrows shot up. He'd never traveled so far before! Well, not that he could remember. The Dursleys had never allowed him to accompany them on holiday, leaving him instead with Mrs. Figg and her cats.

S… L… E… E… P… [pause] N… O… W…

"Are you warm enough, Potter?"

Harry shrugged when he read that question. The temperature inside the snow globe seemed pleasant enough, and the persistently-drifting snowflakes certainly weren't real, so he felt rather comfortable.

O… K… A… Y… [pause] N… O… T… [pause] C… O… L… D…

"Sleep, then. I shall wake you when we reach the town of Hogsmeade, where we shall disembark."

Harry waved up at the black orb – not so terrifying now – and tucked himself into a corner of the landing, where he did not risk falling down the steps in his sleep.

Severus Snape laid down the magnifying glass and his quill, and he settled back onto the upholstered bench seat. The sight of the gently-rocking snow globe slowly lulled him into closing his own eyes, slumbering as the Hogwarts Express steamed steadily through the night.

-:- -:- -:-