Stomach grumbling, Harry stood up and brushed some of the dirt off of his red shirt and gray zip up hoodie. So far this was a miserable start to the morning, and he was forcefully reminded of all the times uncle Vern or aunt Petunia had made him sleep in the shed with the mower and rubbish bins there.

Rummaging through his pockets he found his magic Galleon and two Muggle notes. "Barely breakfast," he mumbled, wondering why the mirror couldn't have at least sent some money along with him.

Harry walked for what seemed like forever before he came to a Muggle coffee shop, and went inside to see what he could afford. Must be the neighborhood, he thought, when he was able to buy a coffee and a croissant sandwich for just a pound. Probably people around he can't afford more than that he thought, and was suddenly grateful, not realizing that perhaps over time prices changed.

Stomach full and happy, he sat at the small coffee shop table and wondered what he would do today. He didn't want to follow Snape around again, that was for sure. What he did want was to ask Lily some questions, and possibly see if he could find James, even though he lived North, according to Snape. Maybe the mirror will send me there, he thought, wondering how he could ask it to. He used the bathroom before he left, using the opportunity to run his fingers through his unruly hair and admire the bruise Snape had given him near his mouth. "Git," he muttered, heading out.

Outside he headed back towards Lily's house, thankful that he had committed her street name to memory, and tried to think of questions he would ask her when he got the chance. Now that he was here in the past he felt rather stupid, not really knowing what to ask. ‘Hey Lily, what's your favorite color,' just didn't seem appropriate.

Another thought struck him as he neared Lily's house again, and he paused down the street. Aunt Petunia must live here as well, and he definitely didn't fancy seeing her again. What if she answered the door? He shuddered. It had been aunt Petunia who had given him his latest concussion over the summer for not scrambling the eggs just right.

Deciding against knocking on the door, Harry waited down the street, hoping she'd come out. After an hour he grew bored however, and wondered if perhaps she had gone out while he was at breakfast. Thinking of Snape's house, he decided to try there first. Maybe he could weasel Lily's phone number out of him and find a phone to call her.

Harry was almost back to Spinner's End when he heard shouts, and decided to investigate. It sounded like teenagers. Down a street to his left, and then another street to the right, he found an empty dirt lot surrounded by metal fencing chest high. There was a decrepit old merry go round in the center, and a set of swings off to one side, a broken teeter-totter at the other end.

Two teenage boys with black hair took the swings and tried to throw them up over the bar. "See how they like to come here after it's wrecked," one boy laughed, and the other agreed by walking over to the merry go round and trying to break the wood by stomping his foot down hard on it.

"Nice one Padfoot!" the boy still at the swings said as he moved on to the second swing and threw it over the top bar several times. Harry's heart skipped a beat. Padfoot? With a closer look, he recognized Sirius, and knew immediately that the other boy must be James.

He looked around to see if anyone was watching them trying to destroy the park, and saw no adults, but spied a third boy with black hair falling into his eyes, peering out from around the corner a concrete building. Harry was surprised he hadn't seen him before considering he was in front of Harry's line of sight and between him and the park.

When Sirius finally succeeded in breaking a chunk off of the merry go round and laughing about it, it appeared that Snape had had enough as he appeared from around the building and ran towards the park.

"Get away from it!" Snape shouted angrily, hopping the metal fence and standing firm before the two boys. They both laughed and advanced on him.

"Look who it is, little Snivellus. Come to save your favorite little dump?" Harry cringed at how cruel Sirius sounded and at the sound of James' laughter. Was this what the mirror intended him to see?

"Oh, come on Padfoot, its not that bad! Some rusty nails there, some old bean cans rusting over there. I bet this is Snape's favorite place. Probably nicer than his house. This is where you take Lily on dates, isn't it Snivellus?"

Harry could see Snape's fists ball up at his sides then, and felt sorry for the whooping he was sure Sirius and James would receive judging by the bruise on his own mouth that Snape had put there the night before, but was surprised when the two Gryffindors advanced on Snape, continuing to taunt him.

"Maybe we'll just curse those pretty little lips shut and tie his entrails in knots. That will stop him from seeing Lily, won't it? Or at least from kissing her." James' face had changed from amusement to cruel and serious, and Sirius was cracking his knuckles.

Before Harry even expected it, they were on top of Snape, pinning him down and punching, and Harry was running for the park, climbing the fence and joining the fray without a second thought.

"What the hell?" James spat out as Harry heaved him off of Snape. Being the same age as James at this point, Harry was surprised at how heavy and how tall his father actually was, and cursed the Dursley's yet again for refusing to feed him three meals a day.

"Get off of him," Harry said. "Two against one isn't very Gryffindor of you is it?"

Sirius rose to stand next to his best friend, and Snape scrambled to his feet as well, wiping blood from his nose and mouth. Harry could tell from his eyes as he glanced briefly at him, that he wasn't sure if Harry was going to help or make the odds three against one.

"And what are you going to do about it punk?" Sirius laughed. His laugh already sounded like a bark, the way it did the last time Harry had seen him.

"I'm going to hex you senseless," Harry threatened, pulling his wand out of his jeans pocket.

James and Sirius looked at each other then and laughed heartily, Sirius even slapping his knee. "Oh yeah? And what about the Ministry? What're you going to do when they show up because you're under age?"

Harry crossed his arms, wand still in hand. "Oh I don't think they'll be coming today," he said, realizing suddenly that it was probably true. "They can only read wands registered to underage wizards. This one isn't registered and you're currently at the end of it." He pointed it at Sirius then, uncomfortable pointing it at his own father.

"Prove it," James said, trying for a deadly tone.

"If you insist." Harry waved his wand and levitated a small stone to eyelevel in front of James. They waited for a moment after Harry let the stone drop back to the ground, and nothing happened. No ministry, no aurors, no howlers, just silence in the heat of the day.

"Now, would you like to be on your way, or see what I can find to do to you that might amuse me." Harry didn't know what had come over him, speaking to his father in such a way, or Sirius for that matter, but seeing them double team someone had grated on his nerves. He supposed it was from all the years of being one against three or even four when he faced off with Dudley's gang.

Sirius spat on the ground, barely missing Harry's shoe. "We'll see about this. My father works for the Ministry." Then they sauntered off, refusing to look back.

When Harry was sure that they had gone down the street and turned the corner, he turned to see Snape giving him a close looking over.

"What?" Harry asked, pocketing his wand.

"Why aren't you registered?"

"I told you, I'm not from this time."

"And why did you help me if James is supposedly your father?"

Harry sighed. "Don't know. Didn't seem very fair to you did it? No? Didn't think so."

Continuing to brush off his clothes, Snape said, "And where does his highness from the future sleep at night?"

Harry shot him a glare then and said, "In the alley on the next street behind the rubbish bins." He heard the other boy mutter something and then stalk off.

Harry watched him go, but was surprised when Snape shouted back, without even bother to look over his shoulder, "Come on then alley cat! Suppose I have to let you stay the night for your trouble."

Considering the fact that the Slytherin didn't seem happy about it in the least, Harry wondered why he was offering at all. Was it a trick? He didn't know, but once again curiosity got the better of him, and he followed, Lily's phone number still at the forefront of his mind.

"Your parents won't mind then?" Harry asked as he caught up with Snape as they turned onto Spinner's End, and Harry noticed again that this was the dingiest street in the neighborhood, narrow and dirty with trash littering the gutters.

"My parents won't know you're here," he said smoothly. "Da's at work and mum's visiting relatives."

"Huh."

Harry followed him inside to find a darkly lit, distinctly Muggle house.

There was a threadbare yellow plaid couch, a tiny little TV, wood paneling around most of the living room, and worn brown carpet.

"Upstairs, before he gets home then," Snape muttered, wary of what another magical teenager thought of where he lived.

Harry followed him up through the narrow house and onto the first landing where there were only two doors.

"That one's the bathroom, but you can't use it unless I make sure he's not gonna see first. The other is their room."

Harry was about to ask where Snape's room was when the other boy reached up and pulled on a string hanging from the ceiling, revealing a set of unfolding, rickety wooden stairs leading to the attic.

"Not a word," Snape said, and Harry shook his head, thinking that an attic was nicer than a cupboard under the stairs. In the case of Snape's room especially, he thought as they climbed the ladder stairs into a brightly lit room with Quidditch posters hanging off the slanting ceiling and bright light flooding in through a semi-dirty window in the ceiling overlooking much of the neighborhood. There was a bed in the center where the ceiling was the highest, a Hogwarts trunk, a very small dresser, and a green rug.

"Nice," Harry said, not even noticing he'd said it until Snape looked over at him.

"No need to be sarcastic," the boy said, seeming ashamed of his personal space.

Harry shook his head, "I wasn't. It like it. Except the green... only a Slytherin would decorate the walls with the Irish National team."

Snape pointed to a spot on the rug next to the bed on the far side from the door where Harry would be out of view if anyone came up and said, "That's where you sleep. I'll bring up the food then we have to stay here until tomorrow when my da' goes to work. Wouldn't want to go back out now anyway. I bet Black ran home to get his mother's wand just so he could come use it against us."

Nodding, Harry decided that staying in the room was fine with him anyway because the heat outside had grown to sweltering over the course of the day, and he needed time to find out his mother's phone number in any case.

As promised, Snape brought a bag of crisps, two fizzy drinks and half a loaf of bread with cheese up and they ate in silence for a while. It wasn't long before they heard the front door open and close again and some muttering about the house being a mess coming from down stairs. Harry noticed that the boy looked pale as his father moved about the house below, but didn't say anything, and Harry decided that perhaps this wasn't the best time to bring Lily's number up.

As the sky outside grew darker, Harry decided that it was now or never. "Do you have my mum's number?"

Snape glared at him darkly.

"All right then, don't tell me."

"I don't have a phone." When Harry looked about the room, Snape sighed and said, "In the whole house. There's not a phone. Da' doesn't want to pay the bill."

"Oh." Harry nodded and not for the first time that afternoon felt very awkward, not only because he was in the past, but also because Severus Snape, the man who loathed him year round, was in his mother's past, and now Harry was seeing it all for himself.

They were quiet for the rest of the night, Snape reading a Potion's textbook from Hogwarts, and Harry contemplating what he'd done since he'd been here. Saw my mum, taunted Snape, been punched by Snape, (here he paused in his thoughts and sent a glare to the boy's back), slept with the rubbish, saved said git from my own git father and pratt Godfather, now sleeping in Snape's house. Yeah, this was some strange dream he was sure, either that or the mirror had a damn strange sense of humor.

At eight o'clock Harry rolled over to face away from Snape and fell asleep on the floor. Finally feeling comfortable in his own room again now that there wasn't somebody awake to scrutinize it, Severus put his book down and lay back on his own bed, staring at the moving Quidditch posters on the ceiling. He didn't know if the boy next to him was telling the truth or not, but he had saved him that afternoon in the park, and hadn't yet tried to seek revenge for the bruise on his face. He'd even got a scrape on his forehead for his trouble when he was scuffling with James.

With a last look at Harry, asleep on the floor, he checked to see that the trap door in the floor was locked from the inside, and rolled onto his side, not wanting to feel confused or anxious anymore that day.

When Severus woke up the next morning, the strange boy was gone, despite the fact that the trap door was still locked from the inside.