Her last letter by ChemPrincess

Harry felt a nudge on his side and looked up to find Hermione glaring at him. He rolled his eyes and glanced at the picture inside his book before closing the book. He sighed and tried to focus on what Flitwick was saying in front of the classroom. After a few minutes he glanced at Hermione who was furiously writing on a parchment with furrowed brows. He turned his head towards where Ron was drooling on his desk next to Neville. He opened his book again and found his parents smiling at him from the picture with a baby Harry fussing in Lilly’s arms. He pulled the picture aside to look at the three letters tucked inside the book.

He had received a parcel on his birthday along with presents from his friends and Remus. It was a small box wrapped in a brown paper with Gringotts seal on it. Inside the box he had found four letters with different dates on them. He had been so excited when he realized that they were from his mother. He had read all the letters in one sitting devouring each and every word she wrote.

The letters had answered some of his questions regarding his father. She had written how she had hated James at first because of his immature behaviour and his bullying of other kids. But then had fallen in love with him eventually. She had written about how James had matured since they started seeing each other. But had also complained how he always turned into something worse than a toddler with sugar rush when he and Sirius were in the same room.

She had a lot to say about Sirius and James trying to teach baby harry to say the word ‘Quidditch’. He had felt sick at how she had even written about Pettigrew. She had trusted him, considered him a friend. He felt himself growing angry thinking about how Pettigrew had betrayed his parents, which had ended up being one of the reasons they had died.

He had felt a pang in his chest when he reached the last letter knowing why she had stopped after writing the fourth letter. He had read the last letter over and over again trying to understand how she had ended up being friends with Snape the greasy git of all people.

He jerked in shock when he felt a thud on his desk and looked at Hermione slamming her books on the desk. He looked around and saw everyone putting their books away and leaving the classroom.

“Honestly Harry you are turning as bad as Ronald. You two need to start paying attention in class. At this rate you are going to fail all your classes.” Hermione said slinging her book bag over her shoulder.

He groaned Hermione had started calling the red head Ronald instead of Ron just like she always did after a fight with him.

“Hermione, school has just started there is a lot of time to catch up.” He said carefully putting his book in his bag, making sure none of the letters would fall out.

“Its never too early to start studying.” She said in her patronizing way which meant she was going to go on a tangent about studies and exams and everything else Harry and Ron were doing wrong according to her.

“Besides don’t you get tired of cramming everything and rushing to do your homework at the last moment.” She said.

“You do that too, Hermione. No matter how early you start, you are still trying to improve your essay till the last moment.” Ron said walking next to Harry.

“I wasn’t talking to you Ronald” she said glaring at him.

Harry subtly slowed down his steps so that he wouldn’t get caught in the middle of their argument. He could still hear them bickering as they made their way towards Potions classroom. He followed them trying to stay behind them.

He was dreading potions but was also looking forward to it at the same time. He had been baffled after reading his mum’s fourth letter. He could have never imagined that Snape would turn out to be her childhood friend. The way she had written about him, it was clear the she was close to the potion master. She had wanted to fix her friendship with Snape, but probably never got the chance.

He wondered if she knew about Snape’s deatheater status. Would she have still wanted Harry to trust the man if she did.

When they entered the classroom Harry ignored Hermione and rushed to sit next to Ron. She had started sitting next to Harry since the year had begun. As much as Harry loved her she was starting to get on his nerves.

Harry sat up straight when Snape entered the class room. Snape flicked his eyes around the room and then stopped when he caught Harry’s eyes. Harry tapped his fingers on his desk nervously when Snape kept staring at him. Finally Snape looked away swishing his wand towards the board.

Harry gathered the ingredients and started making the Felix Felicis potion as per the instructions on the blackboard. All the while he could feel Snape’s eyes on him. Ron and Harry peered at their potion. Harry shrugged at Ron. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been. They could still get passing grade for it.

Harry cleared their desk while Ron went to turn in their potion. He then made his way towards the door where his friends were waiting for him.

“Potter” Snape called.

Harry nodded at his friends and told them to go ahead.

“Yes sir?” he said standing in front of Snape.

“Where did you get that?” Snape questioned gesturing towards an envelope on his desk.

Harry shrugged glancing at the envelope and then back at Snape.

“It arrived during the summer on my birthday. It was sent by Gringotts. I was supposed to get it on my eleventh birthday but there was some mix up, so I didn’t get them until my sixteenth birthday.” He answered.

“What do you mean by them? How many of them did you get?”

“Uh there were four of them. That was the last one.” He said pointing at the letter on Snape’s desk.

Snape looked at him with a frown. Harry fidgeted with his book bag nervously.

“Why did you give it to me?” Snape said after staring at him for a long time.

“That was my mum’s last letter to me. She spent her last moment writing about you. But she never got to talk to you or uh write to you like she wanted to. So I thought maybe she would want you to know that she uh uh er cared about you” he finished awkwardly.

Snape narrowed his eyes and went back to staring at him.

“That… was thoughtful of you” he said pushing the letter towards Harry. Harry picked it up.

“If you still desire to continue your Occlumency lessons come to my office after your classes.” Snape said hesitantly.

Harry looked at him in surprise and then gave a jerky nod.

“But I will end them again if I get the impression that you are slacking off. Or if you go back to invading my privacy” Snape said with a pointed glare.

“Yes, sir”
“Good, you are dismissed.” Snape said motioning towards the door.

Harry went towards the door and turned around to face Snape.
“You can keep the picture if you want to” he said lifting the envelope.

“That won’t be necessary, Potter” he said

Harry frowned at Snape. Did the man already have his mum’s pictures? How close were they exactly? He thought narrowing his eyes at the man.

“Potter, leave unless you want to help me clean up the class room for the next class.” Snape said without looking at him.

Harry quickly left the room. Maybe Snape could tell him more about his mum. He hoped she was right to trust Snape.