Confessions of a Potions Master:

It was a Monday morning at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and Professor Severus Snape was storming through the halls as usual. "Oh, great, here comes Professor Snape." Harry Potter said to his best friend Ron Weasley. "Great, just when we're lost." Ron moaned.

There was a small crash and Severus looked down and discovered that he had bumped into a couple of students. "Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, what on earth are you doing out of class?" Severus said, looking angry. Harry and Ron both started talking at once, making it impossible to understand either one of them. "One at a time." Severus told them. "Well, sir, we were on our way to Divinatation and we got lost." Harry told him. "Come along, boys, you are late and will receive a detention." Severus told them, and took off swiftly down the hall.

"Professor, are you alright?" Harry asked, looking concerned. "Yes, Mr. Potter, and your detention is tonight after classes." Severus snapped at the boy. "Yes, sir." Harry replied.

Later that night.

"Um, sir, are you here?" Harry asked, entering Professor Snape's office. "Back here, Mr. Potter." came a voice that sounded like it had been crying. "Are you alright, Professor?" Harry asked as he entered what was apparently his Potions Professor's living quarters. "No." Severus replied softly. "Want to talk about it?" Harry asked his least favorite teacher. "Yes, that can be your detention, Harry, listening to my story for what it really is." Severus told him.

Harry sat down in the chair Severus indicated. "I guess I should start with the first vivid memory, it was my fifth birthday and my own father didn't remember." Severus laughed, bitterly at this. "He came home drunk and hit my Mum, and like a idiot I tried to protect her, mind you I was a very small five year old, so it was not a very good idea to try to protect her from my father, who was even bigger than I am now, I hit him with the toy bludger bat that Mum gave me, I succeeded in stopping him, but my new problem was that he was mad at me and I didn't even hurt him." Harry broke in here, "Why did he want to hurt your Mum?" "My father was very a very evil man." Severus replied. "Anyway I got the beating of my young life that day. My best day ever was on my eleventh birthday, when I got my Hogwarts letter, because I could get away from my father at least for a while, and while I was at school I met the love of my life, Elizabeth-Marie, but there was one problem with this, she was a Gryffindor and I was a Slytherin so we were rivals." "You dated a Gryffindor?" Harry asked looking awestruck.

"Not at first, but one night Elizabeth-Marie was called into the Headmaster's office. Now I found out why a little later and so will you." Severus told Harry seeing him start to ask a question. "Now I was in the Astronomy tower, looking at the stars and thinking, when she came running in and toward the open window. I jumped up and caught her just before she could jump, pulled her back in and sat down and asked her what was wrong. She told me to go away that I was just a Slytherin and wouldn't care anyway, I told her to try me, and she told me that You-Know-Who had attacked her house and killed her Mum, Dad and Baby Sister." Severus told Harry.

"What did you do?" Harry asked, amazed that his Potions Professor had ever been in love. "The only thing I could do, I held her until she was calm and then asked her if she needed to talk, she said that she wasn't ready to talk yet but if she needed to she'd let me know." Severus replied. "Would you like to hear the rest?" Harry nodded. "Very well, for the next few years we went out and I slowly got to know her and she got to know me, then when we were Twenty I took her to a Muggle restraint and asked her to marry me and she said yes - " "But, sir, if she said yes, why isn't she here?" Harry interrupted. "I'm getting there, Mr. Potter. After two happy years we had a little girl and I'll admit she had me wrapped around her little finger, her name was Anna, and she was the most beautiful little child I've ever seen." "It sounds too good to be true." Harry told Severus. "And it was, when Amy was five, the Dark Lord started to gather more followers and one day one of his Death-Eaters paid me a visit and took my wife and little girl and left a note that if I ever wanted to see my family alive again I had to join the Dark Lord. I refused and one day he, himself came to my house and told me that I had to come with him to get my girls back, so I did, and he tied me to a tree and brought my wife out and tied her to the post in front of me and a Death-Eater, I think Lucius Malfoy brought out Anna, and tied her to the post too. The Dark Lord told me to join or he'd and make me watch, so I joined him, and the so and so lit the post on fire anyway, he killed my Babies!" Severus sobbed, and Harry, who was getting a little scared, walked over to him and sat down beside him, Harry's teacher then pulled him close to hug. "And I had to watch the whole thing!"

Harry put his arms around his one-time least-favorite teacher and held him. "Everything's going to be okay, sir, everything's going to be just fine." Harry told Severus.

"Harry, it's late and you should go to bed now, I'll be okay now." Severus told Harry, letting him go and standing up and yawning. "Okay, sir." Harry replied. "And one thing, do not tell anyone what you heard tonight, alright?" "Of course."

(Well now we know why Snape's always so mean, he's trying to hide a broken heart.)

The End