Summary: What if the sorting of the first years wasn't in alphabetical order? Imagine it was in reverse alphabetical order, or by birthday or by magical ability or by just random numbers. How would this change which house people end up in? Would Harry ask for "not Slytherin" if he didn't know that Draco was going there? This change doesn't just affect Harry's year. It's been going on for ages. How would it have affected Lily and Severus' years? Pick whatever place to start. The only change is the order of the people under the hat.
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Summary: There is a spell on an office in Hogwarts that guides children in bad home situations to that specific spot at certain specific dates and times of the year. This spell is only active when the castle judges that a worthy Head of House who will help the children is available. It compels that Head to select that specific office and to be there during those specific dates and times. There are times when no head is worthy &/or has the power/inclination to protect those children, so the office isn't used. During Snape's years as a student, this was the case.

When Snape becomes a head-of-house, the castle has judged him, after years of living within her walls, to be the next successor to this protection spell. At first, Snape can't figure out why he has a desire to be in his office at those specific times and why random students keep showing up there with no specific purpose in mind. Then he starts to see a pattern. He rebels a bit, surely the castle has chosen wrongly. But he can't let the problems go, he has to help these children, just as he wished someone would have helped him.

Imagine his surprise when Harry Potter is one of the students that shows up during those special office hours...
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Summary: One day while getting berated 'again' by Snape about how spoiled/entitled/etc. he is, Harry, feeling resigned and fed up at the same time, just calmly looks at Snape and says "Who, precisely, do you think I grew up with?" ..."Because I think you and I may be living in different realities." What happens next?
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Summary: Harry Potter doesn't just have his mother's eyes, he also has his mother's smile, that is when he is unguarded enough to display it, that is. (The full-watt version, not the empty false smile so often seen.) That is something that the wizarding world has seemed to forget, looking to attribute all of his traits to his pureblood father. But Snape can't forget her smile, and that in combination with his eyes is a shot directly to his heart. He first sees the smile out of the corner of his eye and knows then that he'll be in serious trouble if it is ever pointed in his direction. So he resolves to make it so that the Boy-who-lived never has a reason to direct that smile his way. The only problem is that he can sometimes catch a glimpse here and there when he sees him in the great hall or around the grounds with his friends. It creates a great longing in him, he both wants to see that smile and be the cause of it while at the same time knowing that it could be his greatest weakness and therefore seeking to avoid it. He knows that he will give into anything with the combo of that smile and those eyes, after all, he was never able to refuse Lily anything when she pointed hers his way. His willpower is slowly eroding against his desire to see Harry happy, to bring out that full smile, especially as he observes Harry more and more and starts to realize that the full smile rarely appears. Something is keeping him from true happiness, there is something wrong, and Snape can't help that he wants to make it right, to make Harry happy enough to smile as his mother once did.

Relationship - mentor up through adoption, no slash.
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Summary: Voldemort didn't just leave a curse on the defense position, he also left a curse on the headmaster's position - one that made the headmaster blind to children that were mistreated. He knew from experience how easy it was to swing mistreated children to the dark arts. They were so ready to either find a way to defend themselves and/or get back at their tormentor. That means that the headmaster was also blind to bullying in the school.

Severus had always thought that the Headmaster didn't care about children who weren't Gryfindors. But then he watched as Potter was bullied by Draco and then tormented by the entire school during his second year. He also noticed the signs of abuse/neglect in Potter. In his observations of the headmaster, he kept thinking - surely he would care what happened to his golden Gryffindor? Surely something would be done. But the more he watched Dumbledore, the more he noticed that Dumbledore didn't seem to realize anything was wrong. It's like his attention was subtly deflected/his eyes glazed over a bit.

Does he then try to remove the curse? Find it? Bring it to the headmaster's attention? Does it resist attention, so when he tries to bring his concerns to Minerva or the other heads of house, their attention is likewise deflected? What flaw in the curse allows him to notice the problem? Severus realizes that he needs to act on his own to solve the bullying problem in the school that he has contributed to - has he been affected by the curse as well? He also needs to help the children with troubled home lives. How does he get around the curse? How does this change his interactions with Harry, the rest of the school? Do any of the other teachers notice? How would one go about breaking a curse like this?

You've got the perfect storm here - no good defense teacher teaching students how to defend themselves (compliant population), no good history teacher teaching students the pitfalls of history so that they don't repeat it, and a bunch of bullies and resentful children ready and eager to walk the dark path.

Does Binns remaining as the history teacher have anything to do with the curses set?
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