Chapter 1


Severus Snape paced his office on Friday thinking back on the night he had just endured. He remembered seeing Lupin transform while feeling panic he hadn't felt in years when the fully grown werewolf looked like he was about to pounce on Potter. Ironically Severus still shielded the 3 teenagers behind himself even after they had just disarmed him and blasted him into a wall. What was bothering Severus so much was the fact that Potter had protected Sirius from hundreds of dementors. This was not possible from a 13 year old, nor from any grown adult. A feat like this could really only mean one thing, the boy had tremendous power that he hasn't discovered yet and that he could be part of a very rare wizarding category.

A few days later when everything had settled down a little after Black had as the rumours stated, escaped on what looked like a flying Hippogriff, Severus heard a knock on his office door.

"Enter", Severus said coldly, being in no mood to talk to some idiotic student.

To Severus's surprise, Harry Potter was standing behind the open door looking very nervous, even a little scared.

"Sir, would you mind if I come in and speak to you?", Harry said looking downwards to avoid making eye contact with the Professor who loathed him.

"Fine, Potter. Make it quick, I have better things to do with my time.", Severus replied absently. Normally he would have sent him away but he did wonder what Potter could possibly have to say to him.

"I have been thinking about what happened and I thought that I should apologise for turning against you in the shrieking shack. I don't regret that I acted like this but I know it was out of line when you were just trying to save us." Harry bit his lip as he watched Snape's expression turn from cold to sour.

What is the boy getting at? Perhaps Dumbledore told him to apologise, why else would he be acting like this when the two clearly shared a mutual feeling of hatred.

"Why are you apologising, Potter? Aren't you happy that you got your way once again? The boy who lived, attacks a teacher and doesn't get punished, you must be truly pleased with yourself. This all shows how much you abuse your fame and how arrogant you are just like your father." Severus, although still furious at the boy for turning on him, felt the anger he had diminish slightly when he saw the hurt expression on Potter's face. Maybe he had been genuine after all? No, this was just another scheme of his to wrap him around his finger as well.

"I am apologising because I simply feel like I should." Harry felt his temper rising slightly because of the remark Snape made about his father. Harry had never understood exactly why Snape hated him so much, and because of Hermione's advice and a curiosity within him, he was determined to find out exactly why the Potions Master loathed him so much. He was sick of being humiliated in Potions class and of the sneers and insults constantly thrown at him in the hallways by the Slytherin's. "And now that we are already in a conversation where my father is involved again, tell me, what exactly makes you say these things about my father? What did he do to make you think he is so arrogant? My father was a great man", Harry demanded.

Severus was beginning to feel his temper shorten. How could the boy have the audacity to speak to him in such a disrespectful manner after everything that happened in the previous night. Then again, Severus did treat him ten times worse during class ever since that night, perhaps Potter wants to stop losing so many house points each Potions class. As much as Severus would like to shout at the boy about how horrible his father had been, he couldn't let himself reveal that part of his miserable life, it would show vulnerability and weakness.

"That is none of your business, Potter. And I suggest you start taking on a different tone. You will be sure to regret otherwise", he snapped.

Harry felt himself lose control of his temper because of the unfairness in the conversation. Snape humiliated him every chance he could and Harry was not going to take this treatment any longer without knowing what he was even doing that irritated the Potions Master so much.

"So basically, sir, you won't tell me what I am doing that makes you treat me like you do? Harry questioned.

"Your mere existence and the way you act makes me treat you how I do, everyone else is blind to your arrogance and attention-seeking self therefore I am the one who has to teach you some discipline."

When these words came out of Severus's mouth, a realisation hit him. He remembered the day in his fifth year when those insufferable Marauders went against him and humiliated him in front of the whole school. Lily had come to his defense and asked James why he treated her best friend like this, James responded saying that Severus's existence was excuse enough to bully him. Wasn't Severus doing the exact same thing with Potter now? Was a past grudge really worth the very hurt look he was getting from the 13 year old in front of him? Minerva and Albus often told him that he was only seeing what he wanted to see in Potter when he was going on a more harsh rant about him than usual in the staff room. Severus thought to himself that he must treat Potter like this because of his position as spy so he ignored the push he was getting somewhere inside of himself to talk to Potter properly.

"Clearly trying to reason with you is useless, sorry to have bothered you, sir.", Harry practically spat the word sir as he turned his back to Snape and stormed out of the door. Harry resigned to the fact that it was pointless in trying to better his relationship with his Professor. He was not going to stand there and try to be reasonable only to be continually insulted.

Before Severus could react and reply, Harry was gone and although Severus wouldn't admit it to himself, he felt a small amount of regret at that conversation because he felt he was no better than James himself.


For the rest of the day Severus thought deeply about his conversation with Potter and was beginning to see a bit more of Lily in him. She always wanted to make things right and she didn't have a problem apologising to anyone and because of this Severus told himself that he would be a little bit less harsh on the boy during the next few Potions classes to show that he was considering what Harry had said about being treated so terribly.

On Thursday which was 3 days after their unsuccessful conversation Severus had double Potions as last class in the evening with his 3rd year students. He groaned as he made his way to his Potions classroom not looking forward to attempting to keep his control with Potter for the 2 hours of class he had with him.

As the children filed into the classroom and took their usual seats, Severus was sitting at the front of the room glaring at them, daring them to step a toe out of line.

Harry was not looking forward to Potions. He had the feeling that he was going to have a very hard time getting on with his Professor after their conversation the last day.

"Settle yourselves and turn to the chapter on Shrinking Potions. For half of the class you will read this chapter and take notes on the uses of Shrinking Potions, for the second half of the class you will attempt to brew the potion. Instructions are on the board.", Snape said monotonously.

After 45 minutes of note taking, Snape told them to start gathering the necessary ingredients and begin brewing. As Snape went past Harry's cauldron, Harry could feel his insides squirm. He was waiting for insults to be made but surprisingly his Professor walked past his cauldron without a reaction at all. At the end of class, they were to fill a glass vial with their potion and bring it to Snape's desk. Usually, Harry didn't even get to this point so he was feeling quite happy with himself.

"Mr. Potter, you will stay back after class. I would like a word."

Harry felt the vial he was bringing to Snape slip out of his hand and smash to the floor. He immediately flushed a deep colour of red in embarrassment. Meanwhile Severus was quite amused that his words intimidated Harry like this. Sighing, he made his way over to the smashed glass and potion. "Evanesco" he muttered and the potion and glass disappeared.

Harry brought a new vial to the front and sat back down at his seat waiting for everyone to leave while his stomach was doing flip-flops.

"Mr. Potter, I have thought about the events of the past few weeks. You fought off hundreds of dementors without help, correct?"

Harry nodded not knowing what that has to do with anything, but also realising that the Professor was completely ignoring their conversation from a few days ago, to his relief.

"Then, with your permission, I would like to test out a spell on you. It is called the Imperius Curse, I assume you know what it does?", Severus was trying very hard to bite back some nasty retorts that he had ready.

"It allows the caster to control the person it is being cast on? Sir, why do you want to test out a spell like this on me?"

"If you can fight off this spell, it would give the Order necessary information about where your power can reach to." Snape said trying his best to remain stoic.

"The Order, sir?"

"The Order of the Phoenix, it is a secret organisation formed by Dumbledore to fight off Voldemort. You will not speak of the Order around anyone and you will not repeat this conversation to your insufferable friends, do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir", Harry agreed grudgingly. He hated keeping things from Ron and Hermione but the alternative is having Snape find out that he told them and he was much less prepared to deal with that.

"Do you wish to test out if you can resist the spell?"

Harry thought about it before nodding in agreement, Snape obviously seemed quite eager to test this out and he had been abnormally "nice" to him during Potions. He didn't want to anger his Professor or give him more reason to hate him. Harry was also very curious about this, if it was reason enough for Snape to spend unnecessary time with him then it must be quite important.

"Right. When you are under the Imperius curse, you will try to resist whatever I tell you to do. You have 5 seconds to prepare yourself"

"5 seco-" Harry stuttered before being cut off.

"Imperio"

Harry felt warmth spread throughout his body, he felt all his worries disappear and wanted to do nothing but follow the voice in his head. "Bow down" Harry did so and then felt the warmth disappear only to be replaced by the familiar cold voice.

"Useless. You are-" Snape started sneering before getting cut off.

"Let me try again, sir. I know what it feels like now. I can fight it. "

If it weren't for the very determined look that Severus was getting, he would have declined.

"Don't dare cut me off like that again. 10 points from Gryffindor for your blatant disrespect." Snape said while narrowing his eyes. "You will be given 1 more attempt at this, ready yourself"

"Imperio"

This time Harry was prepared. The voice came to his head "Kneel down in front of me and bow" Harry could feel his body wanting to do so, as if an invisible hand was pushing him down. He was almost kneeling when something extraordinary happened. Images of all of the times he was humiliated by Snape flashed through his head making him furious with a new kind of determination to go against the Professors wishes. He wanted to anything but listen to what his Professor said out of sheer anger towards him.

"NO" Harry bellowed and the force he was feeling to make him kneel disappeared replaced by the feeling of immense power flowing through his body.

A powerful wave of energy rippled through the classroom and Snape got knocked backwards and fell to the ground. Harry also fell, panting as the power he felt in himself diminished. Harry felt very tired and didn't have the strength to stand up yet.

Severus, although being blasted back by Potter for the second time in a week felt something he was not accustomed to. He felt proud of Potter and Severus himself felt quite accomplished for bringing out this kind of magic in him.

And although neither of them knew it yet, together they had just unlocked a little bit of Harry's tremendously powerful magic that was hidden in his subconscious mind.


Hey to anyone who is reading this, it is my first story on here and generally my first time writing a piece like this so bear with me. I would really appreciate reviews to make chapters better. I will probably release 1 or 2 chapters each week for now since I have a lot of time on my hands this year. Thanks for reading.