Snape found himself standing in his classroom. He looked about and noticed that is was not himself that stood at the front of the room. The man, Horace Slughorn, was his old professor when he was at Hogwarts.

As they stood there they watched Slughorn approach a lone student who was engrossed in note taking of some sort. “Mr. Snape what has you so engrossed?” Slughorn asked.

“Just a theory Professor,” the younger Snape replied.

“May I see it?”

Student Snape reluctantly handed over the parchment he had been labouring over. The class having been drawn by the request were watching with rapt anticipation waiting for the professor to chastise Snape for not paying attention. Not liking the attention Severus hung his head so that his long hair covered his rapidly reddening cheeks.

“There are some very sound thoughts here my lad. Perhaps you’d like to remain behind to discuss them in depth,” the professor suggested.

“Thank you Professor Slughorn that would be appreciated.”

“Back to work everyone.”

Slughorn returned to the front of the room. He turned just in time to James Potter toss something in Severus’ cauldron. Thankfully the boy had the wits and know how to combat the unexpected addition. Horace was furious as he stalked towards Potter Sr. “Mr. Potter just what were you trying to achieve by adding an ingredient to Mr. Snape’s potion?”

“I… umm… I… I don’t know,” Potter stammered.

“You don’t know! Was it your intention to blow up the classroom or just Mr. Snape?”

“Umm… Snape I guess.” 

“You guess! What did you throw into the cauldron Mr. Potter?”

“Umm… not sure.”

“So you threw an unknown ingredient into another cauldron in hopes of either severely injuring or killing Mr. Snape.’

“It’s just Snivellus,” Potter’s lab partner said.

“I was not speaking to you Mr. Black and I never want to hear that name again. Kindly focus on your work,” Slughorn directed a scathing look at Black, “You should count yourself very lucky Mr. Potter that Mr. Snape is very proficient at potions. Something you should aspire to achieve if you wish to join the Auror Corp.”

“Yes Sir,” Potter said softly.

“You will serve detention with myself and Mr. Filch for the next two weeks. You will also receive a zero for today.”

As Slughorn walked away Black began muttering about getting revenge on Snape. “That’s fifty points from Gryffindor Mr. black for threatening a fellow student,” Horace announced without turning around.

As the room shimmered out of focus Snape told Eileen that he had forgotten about that incident. He had been secretly proud at the time that Slughorn had stood up for him. His mother told him that she knew he had forgotten and he would soon see how she knew.

The room came back into focus and Snape saw himself standing at the front of the room. He was nearing the end of the opening speech he gave the first years. He could see that he had captured the attention of all except one, Potter. The boy was hunched up over his parchment no doubt doodling away.

A sharp smack to the back of Severus’ head reminded him that he was not alone and he realised he had spoken his thoughts out loud. “Is that why you made fun of him, Sev? Belittled him in front of your snakes because you thought he was drawing,” his mother said angrily, “I suggest you have a good look at that piece of parchment.”

Eileen shoved him towards the desk and as memory Snape began to harass the boy he looked at what the boy had been doing. There in the child’s scrawl were his own words. Harry had written down his speech word for word.

“He was looking forward to your class. He reasoned that it was probably a mix of cooking and chemistry. He has the aptitude to be that star student you have hungered for and you smashed his hopes. You reminded him of his uncle and that nothing had really changed. The lad resigned himself to be nothing more than an unwanted burden, a freak. You helped cement that,” Eileen said sadly. “He not a bully Severus, you are.  You showed your young snakes that it was perfectly alright to treat the boy that way. You had a chance to show your Slytherins that they didn’t have to choose to be like their parents and follow them to Voldemort. You threw it away along with them. Had you been kind to Harry they would have questioned why. They would have found their answers and not be lead.”

“He’s a Potter, Mum,” Snape started and realised he had said the wrong thing when Eileen glared at him.

“He. Is. A. Child. An orphan. A lost little boy. Yes he’s a Potter but he is nothing like the arrogant boy you knew. As I said before you are the bully and you are teaching your snakes to follow you. You’ve held a grudge all these years and it has turned you bitter. Let. It. Go.”

“I cannot,” Severus ground out.

“Then you condemn a child, Lily’s child, to a life of misery. Congratulations.”