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."