Chapter Text

Two

< June 19, 1977 >

“Monitor this one, Potter,” Snape instructed as he bent over the largest cauldron set up in the middle of their rented room in the Leaky Cauldron.

Harry obediently stepped up to the cauldron. “A Pepper Up?”

Snape looked over and raised an eyebrow. “Astute.”

“Thank you, sir. I’ve certainly drunk enough of them in the Hospital Wing after a match to know the smell.”

Professor Snape huffed in amusement. “I’m sure,” he drawled. He glanced towards the door of the bathroom. “Hermione?”

“Upset about her parents.”

“Ah…”

Harry watched as the potion changed colour and then gave it a single clockwise stir. “Hermione told me you adopted her.”

“I’ve been appointed her guardian, since she has no magical family.”

Harry nodded. “Right.” He looked up with a frown. “Are you my guardian too now?”

Snape narrowed his eyes. “Yes…” he hissed. 

“Am I also a Snape?”

Snape scoffed loudly. “Hardly. Nor will you ever be. I am not now nor will I ever be attempting to blood adopt you out from under both the Potters and the Blacks.”

“Would you get in trouble?” Harry wondered. 

“With the Blacks? Probably not, you’re a half-blood, after all. But the Potters?” Professor Snape raised his eyebrows. “I’m fairly certain they’d hunt me down and skin me alive.”

“The Potters aren’t bad .”

“They’re an old magical family. You can feel it now, you said? The family magic?”

Harry tilted his head as he nodded slowly. “I can differentiate it now. The two families.”

“That was quick,” he said and it almost sounded like a compliment.

Harry grinned up at him and Snape scowled back.

“It makes old families like them very protective of their own. They’d be displeased to find you snatched from their family. Especially so since you’re so powerful.”

Harry’s cheeks burned.

“Mind your potion.”

Harry quickly stirred the potion. He lowered the heat.

“Alphard said something similar. I’m not- I’m not that powerful, am I?”

Professor Snape turned his head towards Harry. “Potter- Harry . How many wizards do you think have duelled the Dark Lord and walked away to tell the tale?”

Harry shrugged.

“You and Albus. That is the list. At one point, your father was on that list too.”

Harry looked up at that, startled. “He was?”

“But James Potter was never as powerful as you,” Professor Snape continued snidely. “I imagine it had more to do with wit and cunning.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ll meet your father at school in a few months. You will find he is… manipulative.” He raised an eyebrow at Harry. “I’ve always thought he’d have made a good Slytherin.”

Harry didn’t respond.

Snape smiled mockingly. “Not surprised?”

Harry stared into his potion as he said, “That’s where the hat wanted to put me.”

Professor Snape looked startled at that revelation.

“But I begged it to make me a Gryffindor,” Harry continued quietly as he gave the Pepper Up potion one last stir. “I didn’t want to be a part of the same house as Voldemort… or Malfoy.” He swallowed and looked up at Professor Snape who was watching him consideringly. “The potion is done, sir.”

Snape gestured to a box of glass bottles. “Bottle it.”

Harry grabbed a few bottles and returned to his station. “Professor?” he said as he filled and stoppered the third bottle.

Professor Snape hummed as he moved to check on the third cauldron.

“Do you know what a parselspell is?”

Professor Snape’s head snapped up. “What?” he demanded sharply.

Harry looked over and narrowed his eyes. Professor Snape was tense all over, his eyes dark and angry.

“The Unspeakables mentioned it to me.”

“In what capacity?”

“The object I… destroyed. It was called the Serpens Sphaera. It was created by Salazar Slytherin.”

Professor Snape didn’t say anything.

“They asked if I used a parselspell on it.”

“Did you?”

He shook his head. “Sir, I don’t know what that is.”

“How did you break it?”

Harry shrugged. “I just pointed my wand and cast.”

“What spell?”

“I don’t always know what spells I’m using,” he replied quietly as the door to the bathroom opened.

Hermione appeared, freshly washed and wearing her clothes from yesterday. There was a slight pinkness around her eyes and splotches on her cheeks that gave away her recent bout of tears. 

Her eyes widened at the sight of them. “Are we brewing together?”

Professor Snape’s eyes narrowed. “Come finish this blood replenishment potion.”

“Yes, sir,” she eagerly responded and joined him beside the cauldron.

Professor Snape returned to the middle cauldron which was huge in comparison to the smaller two that Harry and Hermione were attending to.

“Hermione,” Snape began in a smooth voice, “do you know what a parselspell is?”

Harry looked over at his professor with a glare.

Hermione wrinkled her nose. “It’s the use of casting magic with parseltongue. It can only be done by a parselmouth, obviously. It’s not well studied, since there are so few parselmouths. But the spells are stronger and significantly more difficult to block.”

“And take years of training, correct?” Professor Snape added as he turned to Harry. “One cannot simply do parselmagic without first being taught.”

Harry’s eyes widened.

“Well,” Hermione said, dragging the word out. “No.”

Professor Snape and Harry both turned to her. “Excuse me?” Snape demanded silkily.

Hermione glanced between them. “The literature says that… But Harry does it all the time. So, I imagine either he’s an exception to the rule or it’s been falsely reported.”

“I don’t!” Harry denied.

She sighed. “Yes, you do. Neville even told me once you did it in your sleep – wandlessly .”

Harry’s mouth opened. “I can’t- I can’t cast without a wand.”

Hermione shrugged. “I didn’t see it.” She frowned at him and then Snape. “What’s this about? Did you cast parselmagic now? Harry, I’ve told you, magic around potions is dangerous .”

“I didn’t!” he snapped.

“Enough,” Professor Snape cut in before they could start fighting. “Potter was informing me that the reason we ended up here was a stray parselspell to the Serpens Sphaera – the object that exploded – which was created by Salazar Slytherin.”

Hermione’s eyes widened. “ What ? How is that even possible? What is the Serpens Sphaera?”

“I don’t know,” Snape responded, annoyed. “And I don’t think we’ll ever find out.”

“You could ask Alphard,” Harry suggested as he bottled the last potion.

Snape scoffed. “I’m not about to beg information from Black .”

“He’s not the same Sirius we know,” Hermione reasoned. “And he seemed to know you . I don’t think our Sirius would ever say he was going to contact you without it sounding like a threat.”

“It sounded like one to me,” Snape muttered.

“No,” Harry said, agreeing with Hermione, “it was definitely an invitation of some sort. Although, from what Alphard told me, there’s no way back. So I’m not sure what information about the Serpens Sphaera would do for us.”

“Nothing,” Snape determined. “It’s a waste of time. Bottle that potion,” he ordered Hermione. “This one will sit for three hours. Neither of you will touch it. I’m going to sell these at the apothecary.”

“Can we come?” Harry asked and Hermione immediately perked up.

Professor Snape scowled.

“ Please ,” Harry pleaded. “We can’t just stay cooped up in here for days . We’ll stay with you the whole time.”

“Promise!” Hermione agreed.

Professor Snape rolled his eyes and sighed. “ Fine . Don’t get underfoot.”

Harry quickly tugged on his shoes and snatched his wand. The two teenagers dashed after their quickly disappearing professor. 

It was bright and hot outside. They’d fallen back in time to the middle of July, which it had been in the future as well, but it was significantly hotter this season than the one they left behind. Harry shrugged off his jumper as they walked, leaving him in his bright red shirt and jeans.

Harry glanced over at Hermione, unsurprised to see her shrugging off her own striped sweater. She tied it around her waist and then pulled her curls on top of her head and stuck her wand through them. 

“Luna would be proud,” he teased.

Hermione wrinkled her nose at him even as she smiled. 

Diagon Alley looked so eerily similar. The fashion of the Wizarding World was stagnant. The people looked unchanged from their own. A few muggle-dressed magicals dotted the street in high-waisted jeans and paisley print tops. Hermione and Harry tried not to stare too overtly. No one spared them a glance and Harry had to assume the announcement of their arrival hadn’t yet reached the masses. He wasn’t looking forward to when it did.

“Wait here,” Professor Snape ordered as he stepped into an apothecary. It wasn’t an establishment that Harry recognised, though he never really shopped in them in the future.

“When do you think it’ll be released?” he asked Hermione as they waited outside.

“What?” she asked.

“The news about our arrival. No one knows. Or at least, they aren’t excited over it just yet.” He nodded to the street. Everyone was walking about, business as usual.

“Oh.” Hermione tilted her head. “The ministry will release a special announcement about it. Everyone will know by the end of the day, I suspect.”

“Everyone is going to have their eye on us, aren’t they?”

Hermione sighed as she leaned into his side. “Probably. We should speak with Professor Snape about it. We don’t want to draw too much attention. Or at least, more than we already will. This is a very tense time right now. Worse than where we left.”

“How is it worse ?”

“Because Voldemort isn’t hiding here. He has a lot of power. He’s not the boogey-man under the bed right now – right now, he’s a terrorist leader that has a hold on the major leading figures of the Wizengamot.”

Harry sighed. “And we don’t have an in anymore.”

“An in?”

He met her gaze. “I’m not in his head anymore. The connection is gone.”

“Harry," she sighed, "that’s a good thing.”

He shrugged. “Sure, objectively. But it also means we don’t know what he’s up to.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Harry. Of course we do.” She raised her eyebrows. “We’re from the future. We know exactly what he’s going to do.”

Harry tilted his head. “You really are scary, you know that?”

Hermione rolled her eyes, a grin touching her lips. “Stop it.”

Harry nodded down the street. “Look at that.”

Hermione turned and narrowed her eyes. “It's an ad for a flat.”

“We should show Snape.”

“ Professor Snape.”

Harry raised an eyebrow. “He's not a professor anymore.”

Hermione opened her mouth. She faltered as that information sunk in. “Do you think he's upset about it?”

Harry shrugged and made a face. “Pretty sure he hates teaching.”

“And yet he was brewing potions with us this morning. And being nice about it.”

Harry frowned. “I don't know, ‘Mione. I guess he's just as stuck here as we are. Because of me.”

“It's not your fault, Harry.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Isn't it? I cast a parselspell. I hit the Serpens Sphaera. I'm the reason we're here.”

“You're also the reason I'm alive," she immediately argued. "Dolohov almost got me. You saved my life. I'm sorry this is the result, but I'm grateful for what you did.”

Harry stared into her dark brown eyes. “I'd do anything for you.”

Hermione’s cheeks turned a delightful shade of pink. She looked away as she smiled. “I feel the same,” she responded softly.

Harry smiled widely. He nudged her with his shoulder. “Hey, do you think if we live here, we'll get free ice cream?”

Hermione snorted in amusement. “Maybe before they find out how much ice cream you can eat.”

“We all have our skills.”

“The rate you consume sugar is alarming, quite frankly.”

“You're just saying that because your parents are dentists.”

Hermione's eyes filled with tears.

Harry's eyes widened. “Oh, shit. I'm sorry, Hermione.”

“No. It's fine,” she responded, voice on the verge of tears. “I don't want to pretend like they never existed. You only met them briefly, but it's nice to think that the way I knew them exists outside of my own head.”

He took her hand and squeezed it. “They do, Hermione. I promise you, they do.”

Professor Snape exited the apothecary just then. He looked around and immediately caught sight of them standing in front of the ice cream shop, just two doors down.

“I said-”

“-We didn’t wander off,” Harry cut in.

Snape glared at him.

“Harry spotted an ad for a flat,” Hermione explained and pointed at the flyer. “Maybe we can inquire inside?”

Professor Snape studied the ad. He tilted his head. “Stay here.”

“Not even a ‘thank you,’” Harry grumbled to Hermione as their professor headed into the ice cream shop.

Hermione didn’t say anything as she stared through the window.

“Hermione?”

She turned and grinned at him. “Did you ever think you’d see Professor Snape standing inside an ice cream store?”

Harry turned and his lips twitched. The tall and dark wizard towered over the young children and their parents. The ice cream parlour was bright, with pink and blue stripes and patterned tiled floors. The dower professor looked completely out of place.

Harry covered his mouth as he began to laugh. Hermione’s shoulders shook. When Snape returned to them, Harry said teasingly, “Where’s our ice cream?”

Snape glared at him as the two teenagers dissolved into laughter.

< June 20, 1977 >

The next morning, there was a photo of the three of them in front of the ice cream parlour on the cover of the Daily Prophet . Professor Snape simply gave a scoff at the sight of it before picking up his coffee and going back to his bubbling potions.

Harry glared at the paper over Hermione’s shoulder.

In big letters read the title ‘Time Travellers Tangle Timeline!’ followed by an outline of who they were and the fact that they were now living in this time. The article briefly explained what this meant for the timeline and what could be expected moving forward.

“ ‘While their presence here does not strictly mean they will implement changes to the timeline,’” Hermione read aloud, “‘their very existence in our time means that nothing will ever be the same as it once was. We can only expect large scale changes moving forward.’ God, are they trying to get us killed?” Hermione questioned. “ ‘Who knows what they could know?’ Ugh!”

She opened the paper to reveal the photos, of which there were a lot. What was most surprising, was that the photos weren’t all of Harry, Hermione, and Snape. There was a huge photo of James Potter on the cover of the paper. It looked like a prefect photo from school. He smiled charmingly at them with dark curls and bright eyes behind a pair of square glasses.

Beside the photo of James was a photo of Harry taken from Diagon Alley yesterday. He was standing in front of the apothecary beside Hermione, smiling softly at her. On the other side of the photo was another school picture, this one of Severus Snape from this time. The teenager glared at the camera. His hair was long like his future self, but he looked so young that he was almost unrecognizable. 

A detailed outline of the Potter’s family tree was given below, with the added name of Harry beneath James. A small blurb beneath the family tree explained that Harry’s place on the tree was only speculation.

Harry rolled his eyes. “How did they even guess that?”

“Your middle name is James,” Hermione reminded him.

He groaned and slouched in his seat. 

“There’s four whole paragraphs dedicated to who your mother might be,” Hermione whispered.

“Why is it all about me?” he whined to the room at large.

“Well, they do say I’m Professor Snape’s daughter and that we’re estranged from our family – which, I suppose is true on the estrangement part since you are still unwilling to reach out to your relatives.” 

Hermione looked pointedly at Professor Snape. The man ignored her comment as he stirred his potion.

“So,” she said, turning back to Harry, “I don’t think they're exactly working off of a lot of actual facts here besides what information they have on the Potters. And the Blacks.”

“The Blacks?” Harry responded, worriedly.

Hermione shifted the paper so he could see the page she was on. The centre held another photo of Harry from Diagon Alley. On one side was the same photo of James Potter and on the other was a photo of a young Sirius Black. Above them were photos of Fleamont Potter and a man who looked a lot like Sirius, but not nearly as much as Alphard Black had. 

The top of the page read ‘ The Potter-Black Blood Feud.’

Harry took off his glasses and rubbed his face. “This is insane. This is ridiculous. What are they thinking? They're asking for Voldemort to kill us.”

“Exactly,” Snape drawled.

Harry put his glasses back on as he and Hermione turned to their professor. “What do you mean?”

“They want Voldemort to kill us. It solves the problem of us being here and disrupting their timeline.”

“Does it?” Harry questioned. “From what Alphard told me, our very arrival here could have changed things not only in the current present but from before we even arrived.”

“Really?” Hermione wondered. “We weren’t told that.”

Snape stared over his cauldron at Harry. “What else did he tell you?”

“He said this is pretty standard for the Black family. It happens a lot since most of them work as Unspeakables. He said that after Sirius adopted me, I’d probably notice a quicker temper – but I informed him I’d always had one.”

“Just a quick temper?” Hermione teased. “Merlin, you could tear down an entire wing of Hogwarts if no one stopped you.”

Harry rolled his eyes. 

“What else?” Snape prodded.

“I dunno. The stuff I told you about the artefact and about how I’m… powerful. He noticed that right away.”

“You have a large magical aura. It’s highly reactive to your emotional state. We’re going to work on that.”

Harry made a face. “Like with occlumency?”

Professor Snape didn’t respond. He finished stirring his potion and then came over to the table. He conjured a chair for himself and sat down across from the two teenagers. Harry and Hermione sat up straight in their seats.

“There are pieces of information I need to give you and you’re not going to like hearing any of them, but you will hear them and you will listen .” Snape raised his eyebrows.

Harry and Hermione nodded.

“I was not asked to teach you occlumency.”

Harry frowned. “Yes, you were.”

“Black wanted you to learn it," Professor Snape informed them. "Especially after he learned how detrimental the connection between you and the Dark Lord could be. But Albus felt there were… benefits to your connection.”

“What?” Hermione snapped. “Tell me you’re joking!”

Professor Snape stared at Harry.

“That’s why it wasn’t working?” he guessed.

Professor Snape nodded slowly.

“Oh.” Harry shifted in his seat. “I mean, I guess he was right. There are benefits to-”

“-Harry!" Hermione snapped. "We never would have been at the ministry that night if you’d properly learned occlumency. Dumbledore was wrong . Tell him, Professor!”

“Arthur Weasley likely wouldn’t be alive if he had learned it,” Professor Snape returned softly.

“One life does not allow for a year of torture. You didn’t see him. It was awful.”

“Hermione,” Harry interrupted quietly. “It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine!”

“It’s nothing I’m not used to. I’m glad it helped Mr. Weasley. I’d do it again if it meant his life would be saved.”

Hermione’s mouth opened, tears in her eyes. She looked at a loss for words. She stood and went into the bathroom. The door snicked shut behind her.

Harry sighed and slouched in his seat. He looked up at Professor Snape and was startled to see the piercing intensity of his professor’s gaze. Harry stared back warily.

“Nothing you're not used to?” Professor Snape studied Harry intently. “Potter, what aren't you telling me?”

He shook his head. “It doesn't matter anymore. Not now we're here.”

“I will determine that.”

He sighed and glanced at the door to the bathroom. “Silence the room.”

Professor Snape's brows drew together. He drew his wand and cast a silencing spell at the bathroom. 

“My relatives would… hurt me. Starve me. I'm just used to it," Harry rushed to add and shrugged. "The occlumency lessons with you, the pain from the crucio when Voldemort tortured me, the pain from the mental link with him. I guess I'm just used to being in pain.”

“How would they hurt you?” Professor Snape asked in that same gentle voice he'd used when Hermione's wrist had been hurt.

“Does it matter?”

“Yes," Professor Snape responded without hesitation.

“My uncle would beat me. My cousin too. Him and his friends would beat me up.” Harry looked down at the table. “I think my aunt threw me down the stairs once? I was little, I don't really remember. They just locked me up most of the time.”

“Locked you up?”

“In the cupboard under the stairs." Harry finally looked up again. "Dumbledore called them out on it when I started school and I was finally given a bedroom then. But they just locked me in there instead.”

“Why didn't you tell anyone?”

Harry frowned. “I did. Dumbledore said I had to stay there. Because of my mother's sacrifice.”

“I didn't know," Professor Snape admitted.

Harry shrugged. He wasn't sure he entirely believed that.

Professor Snape leaned forward. He stared into Harry's eyes as he said, “I'm sorry. I should have known.”

Harry swallowed thickly. He looked away. "Can we move on?"

Professor Snape tilted his head in acceptance. “Moving forward, we’re going to teach you to bring your magical aura inward. It will be a part of a five step plan to make you look… ordinary.”

“Ordinary?” Harry scoffed.

“We don’t need to draw any more attention than we already have.” He tilted his head towards the paper.

Harry glanced at the photo of him, Hermione, and Snape walking through Diagon Alley yesterday. He nodded in agreement. 

“What else do we need to do?”

“Step one. Stop using wandless magic.”

Harry made a face. “That’s… instinctual.”

“I know. But it will be easier once you’ve drawn your aura in. A lot of your wandless magic is from your use of your magical aura. It feels and reacts to magical input around it. Once we control it, it’ll get better.”

“Okay.”

“Step two. Practise actual occlumency. You and Hermione will learn together. I don’t want to worry about Albus stealing thoughts from you when you go back to school in the fall.”

Harry frowned. “You don’t want to tell the headmaster about anything? We could help a lot of people.”

“There are ways to implement what we know if that’s what we wish to do. But our being here means most of what we know will not happen. For example, I have no intentions of ever letting my younger self become a Death Eater.”

Harry hesitated and then asked, “What should we do about Peter?”

Professor Snape’s eyes grew hard. He clenched his jaw. “Stay away from him. But keep an eye out. I don’t know when his associations with the Dark Lord began.”

Harry nodded. “Okay. When do we start lessons?”

“I need to finish and sell these potions. And finalise things for the flat above the ice cream parlour. We can begin later today.”

“You’re not going to let us come with you again, are you?”

“No,” he drawled. “I think the public has seen enough of you two for today. You will stay here.”

Harry nodded.

“Now, for the difficult part of this conversation. Go get Miss Granger.” Snape stood and went back to finish his potions.

Harry got up and went to the bathroom. He knocked on the door. “It’s me.”

“I’m fine,” she responded, voice muffled.

Harry sighed. “Can I come in?”

The door snicked open.

Harry slipped inside the small bathroom. Hermione was sitting on the edge of the bathtub, tears in her eyes and her arms crossed over her chest. Harry shoved his hands into his pockets as he leaned back against the door.

“You know you would do it too,” he said. “Mr. Weasley means a lot to not just the Weasleys. He means a lot to us too.”

Hermione sniffed and looked away. “I know. It’s just hard hearing you just… accept the way people treat you.” She looked up at him. “You deserve so much better than that, Harry.”

Harry didn’t know how to respond to that. Hermione always fought for him. For his right to be upset or angry or happy. She fought for him in everything and it was so unnatural to him. 

“Maybe that’s why the world gave me a friend like you.”

Hermione’s eyes widened. She smiled. “Maybe.”

“And they gave you a friend like me, because they knew that deep down, you are a terrible rule breaker.”

Hermione gasped. “Harry! I am not .”

He tilted his head and made a noise of disagreement. “Polyjuice potion in second year says otherwise. Illegal use of a time-turner in third year also says otherwise. You didn’t just save an escaped Azkaban prisoner-”

“-an innocent one-”

“-you also actively stopped the execution of a dangerous animal .”

She threw her arms up and looked away. “Oh my god.”

“And that’s not even counting what you did to Rita Skeeter .”

Hermione dropped her face into her hands.

He laughed. “Come on. Snape has more to say and I think it’s gonna be rough.”

She looked up warily. “Rougher than finding out that the headmaster ordered for Professor Snape to let you be tortured by Voldemort all year?”

Harry swallowed thickly. “Yeah. Yeah, I think so.”

Hermione sighed heavily. She reached out a hand and Harry pulled her up. They stared at each other for a quiet moment.

“You are my best friend, Harry Potter. I will always think you deserve better.”

“You are my best friend, Hermione Granger. I will protect you with my life.”

Her brows drew together. “Why does it have to be your life?”

He shrugged. “Isn’t that what love is?”

Hermione’s eyes widened. She swallowed thickly and shook her head. “It can be. It can also be surviving together .”

Harry grinned. “I think I can manage that.”

“Good.” 

Hermione stared at him for a moment longer before surging forward for a hug. Harry held her tightly. His magic wove around them, twisting through the strands of her hair and curling possessively around her limbs. Hermione released a breath of relief.

“Come on,” Harry whispered. 

They separated and headed out of the bathroom together. Professor Snape finished bottling his potions as they retook their seats. Harry sat beside Hermione as she finished reading the paper beside him. When Professor Snape was finished, he vanished his cauldrons and retook his seat across from them.

“In 1980, a prophecy was foretold by Sybil during her interview for the divination position at Hogwarts. It foretold a child that would be born with the power to destroy the Dark Lord. There were two options of who this child could be. One of them was Neville Longbottom. The other was you.”

Harry tensed. Hermione reached out for his hand and squeezed it tightly.

“The prophecy said the Dark Lord would mark the Chosen One as his equal.”

Hermione gasped.

“That’s why my family was in hiding,” Harry whispered.

“Yes.” 

“They died because of me.”

Snape frowned. “No. They died because the Dark Lord wanted them dead. Regardless of if you’d been born or not, the Dark Lord was already targeting your family. He’s responsible for the deaths of several Potters that are now living again.”

“What does it mean now that we’re in the past?” Hermione asked. “Does the prophecy still exist?”

“Perhaps. We would have to go to the Department of Mysteries to know for certain. To the-”

“-The Hall of Prophecies,” Harry whispered. “That’s where we were. Where the Death Eaters pinned us down. I had the prophecy in my hand. Lucius Malfoy wanted it.”

Professor Snape nodded. “To give to the Dark Lord, yes. He wanted to know the whole of the prophecy so he could kill you like he couldn’t in the graveyard.”

“The whole of it?” Hermione asked.

“The Dark Lord was only informed of a part of the prophecy. By me.”

Harry’s eyes shot up from the table. His magic swirled around the room. Professor Snape didn’t move as he stared straight back at Harry.

“Why would you tell him?” Harry asked harshly.

“Because I am a Death Eater. I was one. I didn’t know what would come of it and I have since then spent my life trying to make up for the sins I committed as a young man. The death of the Potters being the greatest of them all.”

“Why’re you telling me this?” Harry ground out.

“Because you need to know the truth. You need to know why the Dark Lord was so obsessed with you. Why you two shared a connection at all. Why you might have survived the Killing Curse.”

“Do I still have the power to stop him?”

Snape glared. “You are not drawing his attention. You are going to keep your head down.”

“Until what? When? It’s only going to get worse, isn’t it?”

“ Until you are no longer a minor," Professor Snape responded harshly. "Even if you ran to the Potters right now, you are also a Black. They still hold power over you. We cannot have the Dark Lord exercise any control over you through his followers. You must remain as little of a threat as possible, do you understand me?”

Harry sighed and looked down. “Yes. Yes, I understand.”

Professor Snape’s eyes turned to Hermione. He immediately looked away again. “I’m going to go now. Do not leave.”

Professor Snape stood and left without another word. The door closed behind him. Silence fell across the rented room. Neither Harry nor Hermione moved for a long moment.

Finally, Hermione turned to Harry. “Are you okay?”

“I just found out I am the reason my parents are dead. So… no. Not really.”

Hermione squeezed his hand. “It’s not your fault, Harry. You were just a baby. You can’t help being born. And you didn’t do anything to make him choose you. It could have been Neville.”

Harry made a face as he looked up. “That’s wild to think about.” He looked over at her. “Are you okay?”

Hermione frowned in confusion.

“I know you respect him.”

“Professor Snape?”

He nodded.

Hermione shrugged. “I suppose I’m just… disappointed. I knew he was a Death Eater… I just didn’t think about what that meant. What he could have done during the war? They tortured muggles. Murdered them for sport.” She wiped away a tear and took a deep breath. “I don’t want to think about it.”