This is dedicated to Gemma :)
Harry couldn't believe what he had just seen. Snape, the guy who loathed and hated everything about Harry, had loved his mother, Lily Evans. He had loved her from the moment they had meet, and still loved her even though she had been dead 16 years. Snape had never stopped loving Lily and never would. His heart had only ever belonged to Lily, no one else. His Patronus had proven that – it was a Doe, the same as Lily's had been.
Snape had been devastated by his mothers death, he had been there the night his parents had been murdered, held onto her body and cried, not caring who was around to see it. Snape had truly loved her and she had been taken away from him, by the one person that he had once been in league with. Harry now knew why he had hated his father too much, because he had taken Lily away from him. Had married the person who had made his life a misery since he joined Hogwarts. Snape could never forgive that, could never get over that he couldn't have her.
Harry looked a lot like his father, except his eyes, he was always being told that he had his mothers eyes, and that was the reason that Snape hated Harry. But when it came to it, Snape could never hurt Harry, he had saved him on many occasions and had shown his love for Lily by ensuring that her son had been kept alive.
Harry could feel some respect growing for the Headmaster. In all the seven years that he had been in Hogwarts he had never understand the truth, never understood that his cold heartedness for him and his father had come from the love that he had for Lily. A love that over the years had never dwindled. Snape had never truly hated him, he couldn't, not when he was the product of the only person that Snape had ever loved. He would not hurt Lily that way.
Snape had been left on the sidelines, left to watch as James had stolen Lily's heart, watched as she slowly fell in love with the cheeky Gryffindor, watched them giggle as they walked along the corridors hand in hand. Harry knew what that was like, watching the person that you love being with someone else. He had it whilst he had watched Ginny being with Dean Thomas. He knew what being on the sidelines felt like and he knew the pain that Snape had been through.
Dumbledore had also asked Snape to kill him. Dumbledore knew that Malfoy would have been commanded to kill him and he knew that Snape would be the one that had stood in for Dumbledore. Snape had just been following orders. He had been on their side after all. Harry felt guilty, for 7 years he had believed that Snape was still a Deatheater, that he had been working for Voldemort all along, but he hadn't. He truly was working for Dumbledore and had taken his Master's orders.
Harry couldn't hate him. Not after everything that he had just seen. Seven years of hate and anger for the Professor suddenly disappeared and he found himself wishing that he was still alive, so that he could talk to him one last time. But again, someone in his life had been taken away from him. He knew what he had to do. He had to kill Voldemort and gain revenge for all the people that he had taken away from Harry. His parents. Lupin. Fred. Tonks. Snape. He would avenge them all.
He closed the pensive, the memories of Snape disappearing but always lodged in Harry's mind. He would never forget what Snape had done for him. He gave a small bow to the place where Snape had resided for the past year. "Thank you Headmaster" and with that he left the office, ready to face his enemy. Ready to die if that was what it required.