It had been a week since Harry had last gone to visit Snape. He'd planned to be back earlier but had ended up spending six days at Hogwarts. The others would stay for another day to help with the last bit of clean-up, but Harry had decided that he needed to go. He needed to visit Snape and find out how he was doing. More importantly, whether the memories Harry had left him had some kind of influence on the man's behaviour. If nothing else, he hoped it had made Snape see that Harry wasn't whom the man believed him to be.

When he apparated into the hallway of the house on Spinners End, he was accosted by the most horrific smelling smoke. Unable to see his own outstretched hand, he turned and opened the front door. While the smoke cleared slowly he walked toward the living room, opened the windows and waited until it was all clear, before he closed the front door again. Leaving the windows open, he walked around the house slowly, trying to find the source of the obnoxious fumes. He finally noticed the slivers of smoke escaping from the sides of one of the bookcases.

After nearly 10 minutes of searching found the right combination to open the hidden door, he walked down the stairs. He had wondered where Snape brewed his potions while he was in his home, but had decided it would be better not to search. Now it seemed, he had no choice but to descent into the potions master's laboratory. When he was at the bottom of the stairs, the first thing he noticed was the professor, standing behind his desk with his head bend downwards. Next was the potion that was bubbling over the sides of the cauldron, spewing the nasty smoke in big whiffs every few seconds. The professor didn't seem to notice. Harry waved his wand to douse the fire and vanished the ruined potion. Snape still hadn't moved. Taking several hesitant steps forward he looked down at the spot Snape seemed to be studying intensely, and gasped when he saw the picture that lay there. It was a picture of his mother and Snape. It seemed to be taken not long before their fight started. In it, Snape was standing behind her with his arms wrapped around her. While his mother waved at the camera, Snape planted a kiss on her cheek making her giggle like a school girl. Harry was about to ask a question when Snape's head snapped up. They looked at each other for a long moment, neither of them speaking.

That was, until Snape hissed and caused the picture to go up in flames with a wave of his wand. He then proceeded to clean up the table and pushed past Harry up the stairs. Letting out a heavy sigh, Harry followed and sat down on the couch opposite of Snape. They glared at each other for long moments before Snape finally broke the silence. “You were supposed to die.” There was no venom in the words, not even the slightest bit of hatred or annoyance. It was just a statement, devoid of any emotion at all.

Harry shrugged “So were you.”

“I did die. Some wretched elf brought me back.” This time, the disgust was clear on Snape's face. Making Harry wonder whether the man hated elfs or the fact that he had been brought back from death. He didn't ask though, Snape wouldn't answer anyway.

“I saw Dumbledore, he gave me a choice.” Harry said honestly. If anyone deserved to know the truth, it was Snape. Even if the hatred between them would never go away, Harry couldn't lie to the man, not about the war.

Snape just nodded, as if he understood what Harry meant. Harry doubted he did, but didn't say any more on the subject. If Snape was satisfied with the answer that was fine with Harry.

“I want to see the rest of what happened that night.”

Harry grimaced, he didn't exactly want to recall any of it, but lifted his wand anyway. Snape however, stopped him before he could extract the memory. “Not now. I'm still enjoying the end, I'd rather not spoil it with whatever came before.”

Harry smirked and nodded “All right, you may ask any time.”

“You used Expelliarmus.” Snape's lips twitched as if he wanted to smile, causing Harry to role his eyes at the professor.

“Yes, once again your lessons saved the day.”

Snape actually laughed at that, shaking his head. “How in Merlin's name did you defeat him with a simple disarming charm?”

Harry thought about that for a moment. He wasn't sure if he should tell anyone about the Hallows. They were too dangerous. Then he shrugged, he'd promised himself to tell Snape the truth and so he would. Besides, he'd already mentioned the wand during the duel. “He tried to kill you to win the loyalty of that wand. He believed it was loyal to you because you killed Dumbledore.” Harry paused at that. Thinking it over, it may not have been the best thing to tell Snape the truth. Dumbledore had meant to go down undefeated. He had meant for Snape to kill him and let the wand's power end there. Had Draco not disarmed him first, it would have worked. Harry would have lost and Snape would still have been killed for no good reason. It wouldn't do any good for Snape to know the truth. But then, it would do no good to lie either. “Draco disarmed him before you arrived. I disarmed Draco at Malfoy Manor..”

Snape nodded slowly “The wand was yours.. I suppose we are lucky that Albus' plan did not work as he had wished.”

Harry nodded. In the past year, Harry had come to realise that the revered professor had made more than a few mistakes. At first, it hadn't been easy for Harry to admit that. But now, after all he'd been through, Harry had decided that it didn't matter. Dumbledore had done the best he could and, in the end, it had all worked out, sort of. That however, did not mean he wanted to discuss the headmaster with Snape.

“Minerva wanted me to ask if you were planning on returning to Hogwarts.” So, maybe not the most subtle change of subject, but as long as it worked..

Snape raised an eyebrow “You are calling professors by their first name now?”

Harry rolled his eyes “Only the Headmistress and only outside of class or detention or whatever. Apparently, you're not supposed to refer to colleagues as professor.”

For a moment Snape just stared at him. Then he let out a long suffering sigh “You are a professor now?”

Harry shook his head “Teachers assistant. The new DADA teacher hasn't completely recovered so Minerva asked me to teach the first through third years for as long as necessary.”

Snape nodded “And which idiot would be stupid enough to take you as an assistant?”

Harry's lip twitched “Well, you of course.”

Snape opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it and just stared. He shook his head and went to the kitchen. Harry decided to remain on the couch and wait for the professor to return. He looked around, scanning the books. Hermione would love to be allowed to peruse them, even Harry would be very happy to get his hands on some of the books. In fact, he would have read them while Snape was still attached to his bed, had he not been certain that the professor would notice if he so much as touched one of the spines.

Snape returned with a cup of tea and sat back down, his face blank. Drinking slowly, he glared at Harry. “What if I refuse?”

“Minerva said to tell you, and I quote, 'he can either come back part time or he cannot come back at all.'”

“And let you teach all of the Defence classes?” Snape sounded incredulous.

“No. Some of the Aurors have agreed to help out with the forth to seventh years, at least until Minerva can find someone else.”

“So, no matter what I do, you will be teaching the first through third years.”

Harry nodded “Until someone fit enough to teach all the classes comes a long.”

“And who decided that I was not?”

“Madam Pomfrey. After everything that happened, especially last year, she believes you need at least a year to relax.”

“And I suppose you agreed?”

Harry chuckled. “No. I think you should return regardless of your health. You are well enough to walk, you will be well enough to teach. But, Madam Pomfrey was quite clear, you may not return unless you take on a TA.”

“I should be happy that you offered to take the job, is that it?”

“No, I would be happy if you accepted.”

“Why is that?”

Harry lifted a shoulder “I need Defence if I want to become an Auror. It may be my best subject but I'm not stupid enough to think I can get my N.E.W.T without a decent teacher.”

“You got your O.W.L. without decent teachers in the subject.”

“Only because we had the DA and help from students ahead of us.”

“Ah, yes. Your little defence group. They were quite the nuisance last year.”

“They saved a lot of students from the Carrows.”

Snape nodded “Yes, but they could have done that without constantly aggravating them and me.”

Harry smiled “True, but they had to keep up the moral. They may not have been in the middle of the war, but they, like so many others, were being hunted and killed. There were eleven year old children being used as practise dummies.”

Snape hissed “I'm aware.”

Harry sighed “They understand, you know. Why you couldn't help them. I think Ginny and Neville realised something was up after you send them to the forest.”

“As if I care what they understand.” Snape sneered, and took another sip of his tea.

Harry grinned, he really didn't mind Snape's surliness any more. After everything that they had been through, he actually appreciated it. The constant happiness of everyone around him got annoying pretty fast. Now that Fred was doing better, even the Weasley's were getting back to their usually cheer. “I really don't care if you care. I'm telling you anyway. Most people I have spoken to agree, they may not like you, but they want you back as their professor”

“Why?”

“Because you're a hero now. They know what you did and they appreciate it. What's more, they want to see for themselves, whether you are really on their side.”

Snape scoffed “You should never have told them about my part.”

Harry shrugged “I thought you were dead. I needed something to annoy Riddle and I really didn't want everyone to believe you were evil. After everything, you deserve better.”

“Yes, but was it necessary to tell them about Lily?”

Harry let out a long breath. He hadn't thought the man would bring up his mother for a while yet. Harry hadn't decided whether he even wanted to speak about his mother with Snape. “I'm sorry about that. If it's any consolation, I didn't actually say that you loved her.”

Snape grumbled something Harry didn't catch, clearly still uncomfortable about anyone knowing his secrets. “What makes you think I want to go back to teaching. You must have noticed that it was never exactly my calling.”

“You have no choice. You were their headmaster while Riddle was running the school. Right now, everyone wants to believe me when I say you were a spy. But we both know how fast public opinion can change, especially since I don't have a reputation anywhere near as long standing as professor Dumbledore's. You need to return to Hogwarts and show them that you are not evil.”

“And who told you I'm not? Have you not been paying any attention during my classes? I'm not what one would call the epitome of goodness.”

“You spend the last three years spying on Voldemort. You could convince a bunch of students you crap gold if you wanted to.”

Snape snorted, the corners of his mouth twitching “With Voldemort I knew what I was getting. Students are unpredictable and annoying at their best, downright moronic and dangerous at their worst.”

“You don't have to like them, or get them to like you. You just have to teach them without scaring them to their graves and get their respect. It really isn't that hard.”

“You seem to have developed an extreme case of memory loss. I have worked on my image for over a decade, fear is my trademark. As for respect, name one student who actually knows what that means.”

“I have always respected those professors that were able to teach and treat everyone fairly.”

“As if the golden boy has ever been treated like everyone else.”

Letting out a long sigh, Harry leaned back. “I thought we were over this. You may be right when it comes to some people, but there were more than enough professors that treated me just like they did everyone else. And just to be clear, you were not one of them.” Pausing for a second, Harry bit his lip and added “Though your treatment was exactly the same as most of the adults in my life before Hogwarts.”

Snape's expression didn't change as he said “My apologies. You are right, we are over this. I may not be convinced that you are actually likeable but that does not mean I should make assumptions. I should not have done so in the first place.” He took another sip of his tea, than asked “How do you propose I go about changing the image I have cultivated for the past decade in a single year?”

“You're the Slytherin, aren't you guys supposed to be cunning?”

Snape gave Harry a smile that looked distinctly smug “You would have been in my house had you not been so stubborn. Show me why the hat would have done that.”

“Accept the offer and come see how I deal with firsties.”

Snape actually chuckled at that “That's an enticing bribe, a good laugh might be worth another year teaching defence.”

“You don't want to teach the subject?”

Snape lifted an eyebrow, as if to say 'are you serious', than decided to explain. “I am a potions master. If I must teach, I would rather be in a potions class than defence. He was the one that wanted me in that post.” Snape scoffed and shook his head “I kept asking for it after that night because Albus kept employing idiots while refusing me. It was annoying, and more than a little insulting.”

Harry could barely caught the chuckle, turning it into a slight cough he asked. “You want to teach Potions even though you have to deal with dunderhead first years that could blow up a cauldron before adding the first ingredient?”

“I don't want to teach at all. I applied to the be a spy, the teaching position came with it.”

“Than what do you want to do?”

For a second, Snape looked as if he wanted to tell Harry to mind his own business. Then answered “I would like to spend my time on research and development. I was always rather good at inventing and perfecting potions and spells.”

Harry smiled and nodded, remembering the side notes in his old potions book. “I learned more useful information from you than I did from any of my other professors. And that was when every single one of the other professors thought me ten times as much than you ever did. You're smart and you have a rather unique outlook on life.. If you put some energy into actually trying to teach instead of maintaining your legend as the Great Bat, you could help a lot of students.”

Snape blinked a few times than shook his head “I'm not sure if that was a compliment or an insult.. Either way, I already told you, I'd rather not spend energy on students at all.”

Harry sat forward and narrowed his eyes “Al right, you asked for it.. Years ago, you agreed to spy of Albus out of guilt. You wanted to make up for your mistakes. What better way to continue doing so than by spending part of your time teaching students. You can spend time in your lab while I'm teaching and you might just be able to get more people besides me backing you. I can't imagine you like the fact that my statement is the only thing keeping the ministry's harpies of your back.”

Snape actually snarled “Riddle is death, I deserve peace.”

Harry cocked his head and tried to do that one eyebrow thing Snape did. “See, I believe that.. I told you in those memories, you've done enough. But you, you don't actually believe that, you still feel guilty.”

“Why push me into going back to that castle if you think I've done enough.”

Smiling, Harry shrugged “I think it might be good for you to go back for a year. I wonder how you'll do without the constant strain of spying or worrying about exploding cauldrons. You need a bit of normalcy in your life right now. Besides, you might find that there are some students worth teaching.”

Snape waved that away with a snort “I highly doubt it.”

“Yeah well, it doesn't really matter either way, does it? You'll accept anyway.”

“Oh?” Snape raised an eyebrow at him.

“Like I said, you're smart. You know it's your best option at the moment. Besides, you can quit whenever you want. There is really no reason not to accept at this point.”

“I'd say that giving the Headmistress an extra month to find someone else is reason enough.”

“She's still looking. Said she would keep looking for a new professor for potions as well as defence.”

“I assume Slughorn is staying on as potions professor until she found someone?”

Harry nodded “He'll also stay Head of Slytherin. We didn't think it would be a good idea to put you back in that position at this point.”

Snape's face twisted into a sneer “We?”

“Yeah well.. Minerva mentioned it and I agreed. Half of Slytherin was on Riddle's side, and now they know you weren't.. There are too many Death Eaters still out there and most of their children are in Slytherin. You and I will be their prime targets and we both know it.”

Snape scoffed and took another sip of his tea. Harry rather thought that the man was using the time to think it all over. Which was a new experience for Harry, Snape had always seemed to be ready with some kind of response for any situation. But then, Harry had never before tried to blackmail or guilt Snape into doing something.

When Snape lowered the cup he sat back with an intent look on his face. “I will agree to return for at least one more year.” He stated in that slow, bored voice of his. Then added a lot more emphatic “But let me be clear. I'm not doing this for any of the twisted reasons you came up with. I'm doing this because I made a vow and intent to keep it.”

Harry blinked a few times. “May I ask what vow?”

Lifting an eyebrow Snape drawled “Since you already did, I suppose it won't matter if I allow you to ask or not. But as you already know of it, I was alluding to the vow to keep you safe.”

“Riddle is death, there is no reason to continue guarding me.”

The Slytherin scoffed “You were fated to kill The Dark Lord, you were not fated to fight Death Eaters. You need someone to keep an eye on you until the others are caught.”

Shrugging, Harry leaned back on the couch and relaxed a bit. The hard part was done. Snape had agreed to return, the reason why didn't really matter. More importantly, the man was out of his bedroom and having an actual conversation with Harry. Now the only thing that was left, was for Harry to find some kind of common ground between the two of them. “So.. you saw the memories..”

Snape nodded slowly, but didn't speak. Instead, he watched Harry closely.

Feeling uncomfortable, Harry fidgeted for a bit before he asked “Are we okay now?”

“For now, yes. I misjudged you Potter. I will try not to repeat the mistake in the future.”

Harry smiled at him and nodded “That's good I suppose. Any comments or questions?”

Snape put his cup of tea to the side and nodded slowly “Why did you never tell anyone?”

“Why didn't you?”

“Because there was nobody to tell. You are Harry bloody Potter, The Golden Boy. There must have been someone that could have helped you. The Weasley's for example.”

Harry sighed “Yeah, I could have done that. But they have enough children to take care of, they don't need my troubles.. I tried to tell Dumbledore ones, it didn't go well.”

“You told Albus what was going on?” Snape frowned, obviously disturbed at the thought.

“Well no, not in so many words. I asked if there was a way I could go somewhere else for the summer. He made it quite clear I had no choice but to return to the Dursleys.”

Snape pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes in aggravation “You never told anybody why you didn't want to return, did you?”

Shaking his head, Harry bit his lip. He really didn't want to talk about any of that. Not with anyone but most definitely not with Snape. The man's childhood had been much worse than Harry's. It wasn't as if his uncle had beaten him on a regular basis. Harry would feel like he was whining if he had to talk to Snape about his family.

Snape didn't push. Instead, he changed to another subject completely. “How hard did you study for your O.W.L. in Potions?”

“Uuh..” Harry really didn't want to answer that, but was unable to find some reason to change the subject again. “I could probably have done better. I memorized some of the most likely potions to come up but I was mostly lucky..”

“Any why was that?” Snape's voice was sharp, but for once, he didn't sneer.

Harry sighed “You won't like the answer, sir.”

“I want to hear it anyway.”

“I never had much of a chance to practise any of the potions. With Malfoy throwing in stray ingredients and you vanishing half of my potions for no good reason; I figured my only chance was learning a few simple potions as best as I could and hope I had to brew one of them.”

“And your theoretical test? You had a E did you not?”

“I reread the material..”

“How often?”

Harry frowned, why was he so interested in Harry's study habits? It wasn't as if the man was going to teach him Potions again. Even if Snape went back to his normal behaviour, Harry was the best in Defence. “Ones. Why do you want to know?”

“You read the material ones and you got an E? And that is not important, just answer the questions.”

Harry sighed “Fine, I'll answer. And no, I read the material several times over the years, I just reread the material ones before the exam.”

Snape sighed deeply “Do you still remember how to brew an Invigoration Draught?”

Harry's eyes narrowed “Of course, sir. Had you actually looked at my potion instead of smashing it, even you would have given me an E on that one.”

Snape nodded at stood. “Then follow me.”

Harry groaned but did as he was asked. Snape opened the hidden bookcase door and the two went down into the laboratory. Snape sat down at the chair that stood to the right, near a big desk, and waved towards the stocked shelves and the cauldron. “Go ahead, show me.”

Harry frowned at the man, was he serious? Why the hell were they doing this? “You want me to brew an Invigoration Draught? Right now?”

When Snape simply nodded, Harry steadied himself and walked towards the shelves. It only took him a few moments to gather all of the ingredients and set them on the worktable. He was reasonably certain he hadn't forgotten anything and lined them all up in the correct order. Looking up, he noticed Snape was watching him closely. Harry started preparing the ingredients, and was soon adding and stirring. Snape kept watching Harry but didn't hover around him, and didn't make a single comment until Harry was done.

It took him only thirty minutes to finish the potion, which hadn't been a challenge the first time and wasn't now. Snape stood up and looked over his work with narrowed eyes. Then he stared at Harry for a long time, before he said with obvious reluctance “Exceeds Expectations. You need to be more careful when cutting cubes, they need to be even on all sides.”

Harry did a decent imitation of a fish, opening and closing his mouth. Then he shook his head “Uh.. Thank you, sir?”

Snape snorted and pointed towards a cabinet. “Bottle that potion while I clean this up.”

They worked quickly and silently. A few minutes later, Harry had five bottles of Invigoration Draught and the work bench was clean. Snape took the bottles, put them away and sat back on the chair. Harry leaned against the bench and tried to be patient while he waited for Snape to explain why he'd wanted Harry to brew the potion.

“Why did you crush the Shrivelfig? I believe the text tells you to cut it into fine slices.”

Harry shrugged “The potion needed the juice from the fig. The rest of the fig actually works against the strength of the draught. Crushing it allowed me to remove some of the fleshy stuff without leaving out any of the juice.”

Snape nodded slowly “I heard you could make a decent Draught of Living Death. I wonder if you can do it without my instructions.”

Harry sighed deeply, now he understood. Snape wanted to know if he'd actually learned anything useful from his book, besides lethal spells. There was no way the man didn't know that Harry had used his book, he'd known that for a while. But was he really going to show him the proof? Shrugging inwardly, Harry set to work. This one was a lot harder and when he got to the end, Snape had to remind him to add one more clockwise stir. Since he hadn't done the final parts of the potions, Harry wasn't really worried about that. Two hours had gone by before he had finished and lowered the fire. The Potion had to simmer for another hour before it was completely done. After cleaning his work space, Harry turned to Snape with an expectant look.

Snape stood up and glanced at the cauldron before he stared at Harry. “Even knowing that you read my notes, that is an impressive brew. And you are apparently capable of applying the knowledge on other potions..” He raked a hand through his hair in aggravation. “Explain how you never managed to produce anything even close to this level before. The notes in my book could not have helped that much.”

Harry narrowed his eyes. “You mean, besides your hovering and Slytherin's throwing stray ingredients in my cauldron?”

“Obviously.” Snape drawled.

“I grew up with muggles. Potions has some similarities to chemistry and cooking, but there are some key differences. I never understood why something was cut in a certain way. Nor did I really consider the fact that sometimes, we add parts of ingredients that have little to no influence, or worse a negative effect on the potion, because it is easier or allows for a larger margin of error elsewhere. For the first few years, all we did was follow a set of instructions. Nobody ever explained how potions worked, what the ingredients did or how they worked together.”

“You were supposed to learn that while writing your essays.”

“Yeah, but I never did those right, did I?”

“Your handwriting is atrocious.”

“Muggle-raised, remember. Don't get me wrong, I like the whole medieval thing we've got going, living in a castle is awesome, but quills..”

“Lily never had any trouble with them.”

Harry blinked, had Snape actually mentioned his mum in passing? As if they discussed her on a regular basis? “Did she learn on her own?” He asked the question without thought, he had to know. Any information on his parents was precious, no matter how inconsequential it seemed to others.

“Mostly, yes. She started practising not long after I convinced her she would be going to Hogwarts.”

Harry smiled, glad he'd actually gotten an honest answer. Unwilling to push it, he turned back to the original subject. “I didn't know I was a wizard until a few weeks before I came here. And I didn't have access to any of my supplies until September first.”

“Why not?”

Harry sighed and folded his arms in front of his chest. “You knew my aunt, you saw how they treated me. Did you truly believe they would allow me access to any of my stuff while I was in their house?”

“You had your wand during the summer a few years ago.”

“Yeah, I kept it hidden after Riddle returned. Figured the possible punishment was worth it, considering the risk of walking around without any protection.”

Snape nodded in approval. “That explains some things, but not everything. Your writing has not improved over the years and neither did your potions work. Not to mention your lack of progress with non-verbal spells.”

Harry bit his lower lip. It was probably not a good idea to lie, Snape would know, but telling the truth was not that smart either. Since Harry still hadn't mastered Occlumency, he decided he really had no choice. “Actually, I started writing your essays after I finished everything else. It wasn't like it really mattered how hard I tried. As for Potions, you just saw my improvement. And I've gotten a lot better with non-verbal spells.”

Snape huffed “And how, pre tell, did you improve those?”

“Like I said, your notes gave me a better idea of what to pay attention to. And, I was never that bad with non-verbal spells. I was just tense and didn't have enough practice to use them under pressure. But I have to admit that lately, magic has been a lot easier.”

Snape leaned forward slightly “How so?”

“I can't really explain it. It's like I have more magic or something. It's really strange.” Harry shrugged, he wasn't really sure why he had brought that up. It wasn't something he had wanted to think about. He didn't know why but he kept feeling the need to avoid the issue.

Snape looked at Harry with a penetrating gaze. “When did you first notice the difference?”

“Shortly after the battle, when I was repairing the Headmaster's tombstone.” Harry answered honestly, without really thinking about it.

Snape nodded slowly. “I need to do some research. We will discuss this, as well as your role as teacher's assistant, next Saturday. For now, I have a few more questions and then you may leave.”

Harry's eyebrows raised “Who's going to stop me from leaving now?”

Sighing, Snape stood up. Waving a hand towards the cauldron, Snape create a slightly glowing blue dome around it. “Stasis field, I will finish it later.” With that, he started back up the staircase. Harry followed him into the sitting room and took place on the couch once more. He watched as Snape looked over several books before he reach out for an old, black leather tomb with silver text on its spine. Snape held it up, allowing Harry to see the front. His eyes widened as he read the silver script on the front.

The Dark Arts
&
Defensive and Offensive Measures

Written by
Severus Snape

Harry's hand moved towards it without his consent but Snape moved it away before he got close. The man sat down in the armchair, holding the book in one hand. “I'll give you thirty minutes for every question you answer to my satisfaction.”

Folding his arms, Harry leaned back and tried his best to say no. He was not going to be bribed into doing what Snape wanted. It wasn't that he minded answering some questions, not when they came from the man who had saved his life on several occasions. It was the principle of doing it because Snape ordered it. It went against the grain. But that book.. He wanted to read it. The notes in his potions book had been more than just useful. Harry could only imagine the kind of information the book held. Since Snape rarely published any of his work, it was unlikely that there was another copy out there. “Fine, ask your questions.”

Snape smirked. “I will know if you lie, so don't even try it. Now, let's start with something simple. You already showed me how you stole the Boomslang skin, but how did you get the Gillyweed?”

Harry grimaced at the reminder of the brave elf who'd been his friend. “Dobby gave it to me. I didn't know where he got it until later.”

“You mean that free elf that has been running around the castle the past few years?”

“Yeah, he was my friend.”

“Was?”

“That bitch Bellatrix killed him.”

Snape tapped his fingers on cover of the book “I'm sorry.. It doesn't really matter whether it's an elf or a wizard, when a friend dies it's always hard.”

Slightly inclining his head in acknowledgement of the sentiment, Harry asked “Did you know Dobby?”

“No more than I know any of the other elfs that spend time around the dungeons.”

“Dobby spend time down there?” It was out of his mouth before he realized. Hearing that overenthusiastic Dobby had spend time in the dungeons had piqued his curiosity.

“Yes. But I was asking the questions, let's return to that.”

Harry sighed but agreed, promising himself he would find out what the elf had been doing down there on a later date. “All right, fine. What else do you want to know?”

“Lots of things. Let's start with your first year. How did you come to fight that troll? The truth this time.”

Harry sighed. This was going to take a long time if he wanted to know about every little thing that happened during the past seven years. “Ron said something mean about Hermione and she heard it. During dinner, one of the girls said that she'd been crying in the bathroom ever since. We were on our way to the tower when we realized she had no idea that there was a troll on the loose. There was no-one around to tell so we went to find her. Instead we found the troll going into the bathroom. We didn't realize it was the girls bathroom so we locked it in and were going to tell a professor we had trapped it. Then we realized Hermione was in there so we went in and tried to help her. It got a bit messy for a while. Ron levitated it's club right out of his hands and knocked it out, that's when you guys came in.”

“And Granger decided to cover for your idiocy.”

Harry shrugged a shoulder “Yeah, that was a surprise to us too. Anyway that's what happened.”

“All right, tell me about the stone. How did you find out and why did you decide to go after it?”

“We pieced it together bit by bit. It started out fairly innocent. I was with Hagrid when he got it from Gringotts, then we read someone had broken into the vault. We ended up on the third floor by accident and realized Fluffy was standing on a hatch. We talked to Hagrid about it, who mentioned Nicolas Flamel. I'd read about him on Dumbledore's chocolate frog card but didn't put it together until Hermione found him in some book.”

Snape snorted “That's how you learned about the stone?”

“Well, yeah..” Harry shrugged. He knew how it sounded, how most of his stories sounded. To easy and fraught with lucky breaks. Not to mention filled with danger coming from all directions and senseless deaths.

“Why did you go after it?”

“Several reasons.. Hagrid won this dragon egg in some pub. It hatched and Hagrid wanted to raise it. After a few incidents, we managed to convince him that Norbert would be better off will Charlie in Romania. We took the dragon up to the astronomy tower where some friends of Charlie picked her up. But we got caught and were given detention for 'lying about a dragon in the castle'.”

Snape groaned, interrupting Harry's explanation. “He was actually hiding a female dragon named Norbert living in his cottage?”

“Well, he didn't know it was a girl when he named her. Charlie told us later that it turned out to be Norberta. Anyway, we had to go into the forest to look for injured unicorns. Malfoy and I found one, as well as Quirell drinking the creatures blood. A centaur chased it away and got me out of there. In his own convoluted way, he explained that only someone like Riddle would go to those kind of lengths to stay alive. Ron, Hermione and I came to the conclusion that someone was trying to steal the stone for Voldemort. We decided that, since Dumbledore was the only one that ever scared Riddle, the stone was safe in the school. But then I realized how ridiculous it was that the one thing Hagrid always wanted just showed up. We talked to him again and found out that Hagrid had been a bit drunk that night and told someone how to put Fluffy to sleep. We got him to tell us who had made the other protections. Ron and Hermione saw you chanting when my broom was being cursed. You showed up late that night with the troll and I saw you leg. You were mean and suspicious so we decided it had to be you. I overheard the conversation between you and Quirell in the forest, after that Quidditch match you refereed. And later I heard Quirell talking to someone who clearly scared him. We concluded that you knew how to get through three out of the six protections already. Convinced you could be going after it any day now, we went to Professor McGonagall. You saw what happened in that meeting.”

Snape nodded “After which you, three first year students, decided that you were the only ones who could stop the stone from being stolen.”

Harry snorted “I'm fully aware how stupid that was. There was no way Quirell could have gotten his hands on the stone. Because of me, he almost got to it.”

“True, but he didn't. It may have been idiotic but you survived, he did not.”

“Yeah.. don't remind me..”

Snape gave Harry an odd look, one Harry had never seen on the sour man. Though, Harry had to admit, Snape had seemed rather amiable today. He wondered how long that would last. The look vanished from the man's face as he said “Second year. How did you end up near all the petrified students?”

“It was a Basilisk, remember. I speak Parsletongue, I heard it through the walls.”

“So you decided to follow it?”

“I was curious.”

“When did you find out what the monster was?”

“Hermione found out shortly before she was petrified. There was a page crumpled up in her hand. Ron and I found it when we went to visit her.”

“And still, you decided to go into the chamber with a professor you knew to be incompetent.”

“Ginny was in danger. We just wanted to tell Lockhart how to get in but he refused. We couldn't run the risk of being waved off by another professor, so we went on our own. I did instruct Myrtle to inform someone if we weren't back within a few hours.”

“How did you find the entrance?”

“The Horcrux. It showed me a piece of the past. About the last time that the chamber was opened and a girl died. Riddle framed Hagrid and Aragog because he didn't want the school to be closed. We figured out that the girl was Moaning Myrtle and talked to her. She told us all she remembered was hearing a boy, and when she went to tell him it was the girls bathroom, she stared into yellow eyes and died. I checked the sink where she'd seen the creature and found a small embossed snake.”

“What happened when you went down there?”

Harry frowned “Didn't Professor Dumbledore tell you this?”

“He did, but I want to hear it from you.”

Shrugging, Harry leaned back against the cushions, trying to relax as he recalled Ginny laying on the ground, looking for all the world as if you was dead. “Lockhart got his hands on Ron's wand and tried to Obliviate us. It went wrong, rebounded and caused a cave-in. I went on alone while Ron removed some of the stones, so that I would be able to get out with Ginny. Inside the room, I found a ghostly looking version of the teenage Riddle I'd seen during the diary memory. We had some words, he took my wand and explained who he was. He insulted Dumbledore and I got offended. He called the Basilisk and Fawks and the sorting hat appeared. Gryffindor's sword appeared when I put the hat on, and Fawks removed the Basilisk's eyes. Eventually, I was able to stick the sword right into the roof of its mouth. It died but one of its fangs pierced my arm. I used the fang to destroy the diary and Ginny gained consciousness. I didn't think I was going to make it but Fawks dropped a tear on my wound and carried us out.”

Snape shook his head “I can't decide if I should be impressed, appalled or annoyed. What about the incident with Black? Did you go looking for him?”

“Not really. I had decided to stay away from him. There wasn't any logic in going after a murderous killer who wanted me dead. When I heard that he was my godfather, I was pissed and really wanted him dead but figured that, since he was after me anyway, I should just wait. He would either find me or be found by a Dementor, either one was fine by me.”

“How did you do it?”

“Do what?” Harry tried to make it sound like he had no idea what Snape was talking about. There was no way telling the man the truth would do any good. Snape had been furious after Sirius had escaped, Harry really did not want to repeat the experience.

A corner of Snape's lip twitched “How did you get him out of that tower. Don't play dumb Potter, I know it was you.”

“Fine, it was a time-turner all right. Hermione had one so she could follow all her classes. We went back a few hours, saved Buckbeak, distracted Moony, scared of a bunch of Dementors, flew up to the tower and send Sirius away on the back of the Hippogriff.”

“Sounds like an interesting trip through time.”

Harry smiled “Yeah, it was. But it was worth it.”

“I suppose it was that.” Snape sounded completely honest, not a hint of sarcasm in his voice. It gave Harry hope. Maybe the man had really gotten over the intense hatred he harboured for Harry's father and godfather. There was no chance Snape would ever like them but maybe, just maybe, the dislike wouldn't spill over onto Harry so much. Harry's thoughts were interrupted when his stomach started growling load enough for Snape to notice.

Snape cast a quick Tempus Charm and stood up. “You should go home, it's late. You can come back tomorrow and read for an hour or two.”

“But I answered way more than four questions.” Harry said, slightly outraged at being cheated.

Snape rolled his eyes “Then let us hope tomorrow will not be your last day on this plane of existence.”

Harry let out a huff in aggravation but turned to leave. Before closing the front door behind him, he gave one last look at Snape. “Pictures of my mother are precious. If you don't want them, give them to me. Please, don't burn them. There are already too few of them left.”