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Harry stood in a dark hall, the only light coming from a small torch far down the corridor in front of him. Scared, he walked towards the torch, but the faster he ran, the farther away the torch seemed to be. Gasping for air, Harry came to a halt, only to find he had never left the hall: he had been running in circles.
Harry heard a hissing laugh coming from above him. He looked up and screamed as Voldemort jumped from the ceiling and landed in front of him. Before he could run, hands grabbed him from behind. Harry looked around wildly. Holding him were his aunt and uncle, charred and grotesque.
Harry's eyes grew wide as his cousin Dudley walked up and stood in front of Voldemort. He was a charred hideous mess, one eye completely gone, the other damaged and oozing. He grinned at Harry, a vulgar sight; half of his upper lip burned away, exposing part of the skull underneath.
"It's time to teach you a lesson, Harry," the corpse croaked. "You must pay for what you have done. Dudley took hold of Voldemort's wand and aimed it at Harry. "Crucio."
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Harry sat up in bed, screaming at the top of his lungs. When he realized where he was, he lay back down and rolled onto his side, tears streaming down his face. A moment later, Severus came flying through the door.
"Harry, are you all right? Look at me!"
Harry rolled over, tears flowing freely. Severus gathered the hurting boy into his arms and gently rocked him. "A nightmare?" he asked, and Harry nodded, winding his arms around Severus' neck. "Shh. It will be okay. It will get better, I promise you."
Ten minutes later, Harry calmed down enough to ask, "How did you know I was having a nightmare?"
Severus leaned back slightly to look at Harry. "I asked Daisy, one of my house elves, to come and check on you, to see if you needed anything or if you were asleep. When she popped in, she heard you screaming. She came and got me immediately. I could hear you screaming down the hallway. Do you want to talk about it?"
"It was Voldemort and my family. They wanted to make me pay for their deaths. I couldn't get away. Vernon and Petunia were holding me and-" Harry started to shudder and Severus held him until he calmed. "How long was I asleep?"
"If you went directly to sleep after I left, about 50 minutes. My guess is that you are no longer tired, so would you like Daisy to show you around the house? But are you sure you're okay?" Severus looked at Harry, concern apparent in his eyes.
Harry nodded. "I'll be okay. That would be nice. Thanks." Harry looked at Severus curiously. "Can I ask you a question?"
"You can ask, and I'll answer if I can."
"Who are you and what have you done with my potions professor?"
"What?"
"Well, you're being so nice to me, allowing me to stay here and helping me out. You were never this nice, not even to Draco Malfoy, at least not where I could see. You aren't an extra-terrestrial that has taken over my professor's body and is plotting world domination, are you?"
Severus glared at Harry. "That, Mr. Potter, is easily the stupidest thing I have ever been asked. I doubt even that incompetent idiot Longbottom would ask me such a thing. I'd take 30 points from Gryffindor for just asking that if it were the school year."
"There's my potions professor!" Harry exclaimed, grinning widely. "No, seriously. What's changed?"
"My opinion of you for one thing. I realized something, watching you kill Voldemort and grieve for the loss of the rest of your family, and especially after talking with Dumbledore and Hagrid about your previous time spent with the Dursleys." Severus hesitated before deciding to go on. "I'm only going to say this once, Potter, and so you had better listen. I am sorry. I apologize for the way I treated you during the previous school years. There were several reasons for why I did, and none of them had anything to do with you, not really."
"May I know what those reasons were? I'd really like to understand."
Severus groaned and got up from the bed to go and sit by the windows. Harry followed and sat on the other chaise lounge. Severus looked at Harry resignedly. "Fine. I might as well. First, there was your father, James. When I was in school, I didn't fit in with the Slytherins at first. I had wanted to be put into Ravenclaw, or even Gryffindor, Merlin help me, but the Sorting Hat didn't see it my way-...What?"
Harry had hidden a smile at the confession, and grinned outright when Severus caught him. Harry decided it was best to confess. "Oh, nothing. I just had the same problem that's all. When it was my turn to wear the Sorting Hat, I had to spend about five minutes begging and pleading for it to change its mind. Finally, it put me into Gryffindor."
"And what house was it trying to put you into?"
"Why, Slytherin, of course. But I had already met Malfoy on the train, and I didn't want anything to do with him. So when I saw that he was put into Slytherin, I did my best not to go there. What's wrong?" Harry asked when he saw something that looked like relief float across Severus' face.
"Nothing. It's just- well I thought that you were going to tell me that you already knew about me and couldn't stand the thought of me being your head of house. Trust me, I know my reputation well. And before you ask, I have no idea why the thought bothered me. I plead temporary insanity."
Harry laughed. "No, I knew nothing of you. I had to ask Percy who you were during the first Feast. No, it was Malfoy. Two minutes with him, and I despised him. He came on a little too strong, to say the least. It didn't help that he was so rude to Ron, either. Anyway, enough about him. You were saying about the Hat?"
"Oh, yes, my true confession," Severus said dryly. "The Sorting Hat wouldn't listen, to me anyway," Severus sneered at Harry, "but I didn't want to really be in Slytherin. My father, however, was so very proud."
"I take it from the tone you're using that you didn't care for your father too much," Harry interrupted.
"No, I didn't. He's the reason I was forced to join the Death Eaters and Voldemort, but that's another story to be confessed another day, if ever. When I was put into Slytherin, I at first distanced myself from the rest of the Slytherins. I also tried to make friends with your father, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black. They wouldn't have anything to do with me, simply because of my house. Back then, much like it is now, house rivalry was very tense, and most didn't make friends outside their houses, especially the Slytherins. They decided instead to torment me and use me for the butt of their practical jokes. Not Remus or that weasel Peter Pettigrew, who was allowed into their little circle, much to my indignation. I think Lupin would have been my friend, if not for suffering a fear of alienation from the only friends he had. No Black and your father were the ringleaders of the Gryffindor Tower, and they hated me from the beginning. I've never fully understood why, except for the fact I was a Slytherin. Soon after their pranks started, I got angry and started in on them, giving back as good as I got. You know how we ended up. Black tried to have Lupin kill me. Understand, I know it was pure stupidity on Black's part, that he didn't really mean for me to be harmed, but whatever the reason, it ended up all the same."
"Do you know why Sirius did it?"
"Actually, I have a fairly good idea, though you'd have to ask him if I am 100 percent correct in my assumption. During the year of the Shrieking Shack incident, Lupin and I had finally become somewhat friendly. We were both very good at potions, and since Gryffindors and Slytherins had Double Potions together we were often paired up. In that way, we got over the hostility and discovered we both weren't all that much different underneath the anger and resentment. Lupin began to spend some of his spare time with me. I was better at Defense Against the Dark Arts than he was and he was better at Charms and Transfiguration. We would spend a lot of time helping each other with our weaknesses, and neither James nor Sirius was too happy about that. So Sirius decided to play his little prank and it not only nearly cost me my life, but also the first real friend I had. Listen, Harry, because I want you to understand this. I was terrified of Remus after that, because of what happened. If Remus had told me before Black's attempted murder, I would not have walked away, though it would have scared me some. I know myself much too well. If he had told me, I wouldn't have ran from the first person that I truly respected, even loved. Not romantically, but as a friend. Your father saved me that night, but I hated him. He indebted me to him, and I resented that, though I was thankful for his assistance. All I had wanted was to be his friend, and he denied me that for seven years."
"Okay, that I understand. But you said there were several reasons," Harry prodded, not knowing when or if he would ever get his teacher to open up again. He certainly wasn't going to waste this chance by defending anyone either. He wanted to hear this.
"Another was your mother. Lily was a Ravenclaw. She was also my friend. Not like I came to regard Remus Lupin, but a friend nonetheless. To put it plainly, she turned on me when she started hanging out with the Marauders. That loss hurt keenly, though not nearly as much as Lupin."
Severus called for Daisy and ordered some tea to be brought for the two of them. When it had been served and they had taken a few sips, Severus continued. "Thirdly, there was Voldemort and the Death Eaters. When I graduated, I had no friends, other than Lucius Malfoy, if you wanted to call him a friend. I hated him, though he didn't know it. As per my father's orders, I befriended him in my sixth and seventh year, and showed my true Slytherin side, ingratiating myself into his circle. After graduation, I was taken to Voldemort by my father and forced to become a Death Eater. I cried for two days after I got the Mark. What I did as a Death Eater does not come into this story, and I am loath to tell you now. I truly do not want to add to your nightmares. Suffice to say that while I did not directly kill anyone, my craft was the cause of many deaths. Shortly after becoming a Death Eater, I ran to Albus and confessed all. I then became a spy for the side of light, and gladly. I know what you are thinking, what does this have to do with you? I'm getting there. When Voldemort tried to bring Black and Potter into the Death Eaters and they refused, Voldemort set out to destroy them. You know what happened then, no need for a recap. All of the sudden, Voldemort was gone and I was adrift, no longer was there a need to spy. I already had the position at Hogwarts, and I stayed. I was angry that once my position as spy was revealed no one seemed to care about all my work for the side of light. A little boy had done what no one else could do, and I was nearly sent to Azkaban for my troubles. I was never angry with you, none of it was your fault. You were an innocent in all of this. I was angry about the situation. All of this came rushing back when I saw you ten years later, walking in with the Weasley boy. It also didn't help that when I first looked at you, all I could see was your father, and not an individual in his own right."
Severus poured himself another cup of tea. "And then there was Albus. He gave you that damnable cloak of your father's, and made my life a living hell. Honestly, how was I supposed to protect you if I could never find you? You did some incredibly stupid things and I was terrified that you would end up dead before your time."
"You were worried about me?" Harry asked, staring at Severus wide-eyed.
"Surprised? Yes, I was. For one thing, it was my debt to your father, which I think I have paid in full. Then there was the fact that only you would be able to kill Voldemort. And there was also the fact that you were only a small child, who didn't know mortality when it stared you in the face. I swear you've taken 50 years off my life, nearly falling off that broom, finding the stone and facing down Quirrel, parading around with that damn cloak, going down in a secret chamber to take on the ghost of a madman, and rescuing convicts who could have been guilty and plotting your death for all you knew."
Harry grinned sheepishly. "I'm sorry, Severus." Harry's grin faded and tears welled up in his eyes. "At least the cloak won't be a problem anymore."
Severus reached over and took Harry's hand. "I'm sorry, Harry. I didn't think when I brought it up."
Harry wiped the tears away with his free hand. "That's okay. I know you didn't mean anything by it. It's just that I don't have anything of my parents' anymore."
"I know. If that blithering moron Fudge had listened to all of us in the first place, none of this would have happened. You just remember that none of this is your fault. NONE of it."
Harry nodded. Knowing he would probably get nothing more, he asked, "Well, how about that tour now?"
Severus nodded and called for Daisy. "Daisy, would you please give Mr. Potter here the grand tour. I have to get back to my laboratory and finish inventory of my potions ingredients. Harry, remember, you can use anything in the house."
As Severus got up to leave the room, Harry noticed him for the first time. Severus was no longer wearing robes or jeans. He had on a white long-sleeved shirt and a pair of tight black pants and black boots. Harry admired the view as Severus walked out the door.