A/N

Just before I start, I'm uploading this to see if anyone would like it. If you do, I'll be uploading more. If not, well, you know. But I'm very open to suggestions right now. Summer's just started, it's a new world out there, and a new world in here, too. And plenty of time to work. So, what do you say?

"The court is adjourned." The gavel was dropped, and Harry sat silent. So that was it, then. Sirius's name was cleared. He was relieved, yes, but mostly just tired. This helped ease his pain, but nothing could bring his godfather back. This was just a bandage on a missing limb. It might heal over, but it was still gone. And you could still feel the presence of what should be there. He had been presented with Sirius's brand new Order of Merlin, first class, mainly as an attempt to smooth over what the ministry had done to the animagus in the first place. It was nothing more than a cold lump of metal, really. A symbol of the loss of something that couldn't be forgiven.

Harry felt a hand on his arm. From the look of the small bones and neat fingernails, it was Hermione. He didn't look up, just stood to leave with the small group around him; the Weasleys, (except for Bill and Fleur who were out of the country) Hermione, Remus, and Snape (there for protection). They headed to the floos, and the older Weasleys and Remus separated from the group with hugs and goodbyes to return to the burrow, but Harry was held back by Remus for a moment longer. Neither one said anything, but they stood there embracing one another for a minute or two. Snape stayed back when he saw that not all of his charges had gone through the mantlepiece, but he was silent and tastefully looked away from their display of emotion. He didn't mention it when Harry finally went past, and he followed him through to Dumbledore's office.

The first incident happened a few days later, in potions class. Harry was sitting with Ron, as usual, trying to take notes from the book for an essay they were definitely getting Hermione to do half of. Snape was stalking through the rows of desks, scowl permanently in place, ready to snarl at the first bit of poor handwriting or bad note taking he saw. Unfortunately, that would be Neville.

"Mr Longbottom, have you suddenly come down with a case of palsy?"

The young man looked at him in terror, trying to form an answer in his mind.

"Because that is the only excuse I will take for this meaningless chicken scratch."

He vanished the page he had already written in his untidy, but not terrible, scrawl with a flick of his wand.

"Write it again, so I can read it properly. I will not be straining my eyesight for this ridiculousness."

Neville looked defeated and almost teary, staring at the blank paper he would have to start over again after a full day of work.

Harry and everyone else had seen the entire ordeal, and even a few of the Slytherins looked pityingly at him.

"Why did you have to do that, Snape."

The tall, sneering man turned around abruptly.

"Excuse me, Potter? Do you have a problem with the way I discipline my students? Or perhaps you wish to come with Longbottom to a double detention tonight?"

Harry was not deterred.

"You could have easily told him to rewrite it. You could have corrected him and moved on, but no, you have to erase an entire day's work that wasn't even that poor to begin with. You could also easily reverse the spell and give him back his essay so he can finish, but I doubt you'll do that, either."

Snape kept getting at him throughout the little speech. Then, he said "Fifteen points from Gryffindor for Mr Potter's brash idiocy. And detention for-"

But before he could finish, something strange happened. A dark cloud seemed to grow rapidly around Harry, and the candles went out. He looked strangely glassy-eyed, until suddenly, the cloud compressed, then exploded outward into a shockwave. Thankfully, Snape managed to put up the strangest shielding charm he could on himself and the nearest students, but the blast knocked them all off of their feet.

After an indeterminate amount of time, Snape opened his eyes blearily. The students he had protected were all out cold, as were all the others in the room, but he saw Harry crunched over in the middle of the room, retching painfully. He managed to get up and send a spell to check on the students, who thankfully seemed to all be asleep or unconscious.

He then went to Harry. The boy was a mess. He was shaking fitfully and dry-heaving, and when Snape reached out a tentative hand to his shoulder, he was cold.

"Potter?"

His heaving was lessening, and he was lucid, he nodded to show that he was alright, but his eyes were clenched shut. "Potter, I need to go get help. Will you be alright if I do that?"

The young man nodded.

Snape shakily rose and sent a patronus to madam Pomfrey, then to Dumbledore. After almost fifteen minutes, there was an answer in a returned patronus. "Whole dungeons and four floors above are out. Anything too serious?"

He sent back a no.

He stared at Harry's bowed head in shock. That amount of power would probably have killed a normal wizard and put most strong ones into a coma. It probably would have knocked Severus on his ass for weeks. The fact that this boy was conscious was astounding. The power was spread out not to kill anyone, though, so at least Harry had managed to rein it in. One thing was certain; what had happened could have ended in disaster.

"...Snape?"

He looked back to Potter, who had stopped being sick, he was sitting shakily holding his knees to his chest. "What's going on..?" He sounded afraid, almost childlike. Snape felt a pang of sadness at the way a young man this age had to live, which he quickly stifled and denied. "We're going to figure that out."

Like I said, I'm going to expand and improve as I go, maybe rewriting certain parts, even, if that's the general consensus. And I know you're expecting some Snarry from the description, I don't aim to disappoint here. So who's with me?