Harry was having a bad day. It had started like this:

"Detention, Potter," Snape sneered nastily at Harry.

Harry sighed. He had expected it, really. It had been stupid of him to think that his 'accidental' throwing of his dragon spleen at Malfoy would go unnoticed. He couldn't help it, though. Malfoy just made him so mad with his snide little comments when Snape wasn't paying attention.

Next:

"Mr. Potter! I will not have you disrupting my class with your incessant talking! Twenty points from Gryffindor!"

Stupid Umbridge and her stupid highly sensitive ears.

Then:

"Tulips," Harry said glumly to the Fat Lady. She was going through this flower phase, setting the passwords to all different types of plants. First it had been daisy, then rose, and then tulips.

Whatever, Harry thought. He just wanted to get some of his homework done in the common room before his detention with Snape at eight.

But nooo. The portrait couldn't swing forward to admit him like it usually does. That would make things too easy for Harry.

"Tulips," He said more aggressively, growing impatient. By the time he actually got in the common room, he would just have to leave again for his detention.

"That is not the password anymore," The Fat Lady said primly.

"Just let me in!" Harry said, exasperated. "What's the new password?"

"I shall not tell you! I will not be spoken to like that! No password, no admittance." The Fat Lady would not budge.

Harry let out an angry breath. He did not want to sit here and wait for someone to come and let him in. He would have to do his homework in the library.

But, a little bit of luck seemed to be in store for him today. And who better to bring him luck than an Irishman?

"Seamus!" Harry called out in relief as he saw the other boy walking over. "What's the new password, mate?"

"Oh, hey Harry," Seamus greeted. "Petunia," He added to the Fat Lady.

Harry wrinkled his nose in distaste at the new password. He actually hoped that she would change it now. And quickly. But now he did not feel like doing any homework. He just went straight up to the dormitory and took out the mirror that Sirius had given him so that they could communicate.. They had talked using it a few times before, when Harry found time to be alone in the dorm. Harry had been careful not to mention Snape in their conversations, knowing that it would just get his godfather riled up.

"Sirius," Harry said to the mirror. A minute later, Sirius' faced popped into view.

"Hey Harry! What's up? Snape's not bothering you, is he?" Sirius said cautiously.

Harry was tired of not sharing everything with his godfather. Sometimes, he just needed someone to talk and complain to.

"Yes! He is so unreasonable," Harry whined, taking Sirius by surprise.

What could Snape possibly have done? Harry hadn't even complained this much to Sirius when he had to face a dragon. If Snape did anything to his godson, Sirius would go to Hogwarts right that second and-

"It's just that," Harry cut across his thoughts. "Malfoy was being so annoying today and then I got in trouble for throwing my dragon spleen at him! How does that make sense?" Harry knew perfectly well that it made complete sense but it was nice to complain once in a while.

To his surprise, Sirius barked out a laugh. "I remember your father did that to Snape once when we were in school. Lily was so angry at him."

"Why?" Harry asked, confused and interested now. Why would she be defending Snape?

"Well Snape and your mother were really good friends up until fifth year. And up until seventh year, your mum didn't really like your dad too much," Sirius chuckled reminiscently.

"Why not?" Harry was even more confused now. His parents didn't like each other? How was Snape friends with Lily?

"Well your dad liked your mum, sure, but Lily thought he was a bit too conceited. They both had a bit of growing up to do before they got together," Sirius explained.

Before Harry could say anything, the dormitory door opened and he made to hide the mirror quickly. Harry doubted his dorm mates would take it well if he was chatting to a supposed mass murderer on an enchanted mirror. But, luckily or unluckily for Harry, it was Ron coming in to remind Harry about his detention with Snape. "You'd better get going, mate." He said, then leaned over to peek his face in front of the mirror. "Hey Sirius."

"Hello, Ron," Sirius greeted warmly. "Well go on, Harry. Don't let me keep you from detention!"

"Please do," Harry muttered, standing up. "Bye Sirius."

"Good-bye, Harry. Don't let Snape get to you too much," Sirius winked and Harry rolled his eyes, placing the mirror back into his trunk.

"See you later," Harry waved at Ron and walked out of the dorm and down to the dungeons.

He arrived at Snape's office, wary now. He was not sure what Snape would make him do since he had not told him to meet Filch or anything for his detention. He knocked on the door.

"Come in," He heard Snape's unpleasant voice coming from within the room. Harry opened the door and stepped slowly inside. There was a small desk in the room, facing Snape's desk (which he was sitting in). "Sit," Snape ordered, gesturing towards the smaller desk.

"You are lucky," Snape began, "that I have third year essays to grade. You will sit there and write lines for an hour and a half." Snape waved his wand towards the desk and a roll of parchment, a quill, and a bottle of ink appeared on it. Harry sat down, not taking his eyes off of Snape. He could not believe that Snape and Harry's mother had been best friends.

Harry turned his attention to his task and began to write, quickly glancing up at his professor every couple of minutes. Why did Snape and Harry's mother stop being friends? Was that part of the reason Snape hated Harry now?

After a half an hour of this tortured confusion, Harry couldn't take it anymore.

"Professor?" Harry spoke up hesitantly. Professor Snape looked up to glare at Harry unpleasantly. Harry took this as a hint to continue.

"Well, you see, I was, uh, talking to Sirius and-" It was amazing how only the marauder's name could make Snape narrow his eyes like that.

"He was telling me about my dad and-" This only seemed to make matters worse.

"And I noticed that whenever he talked about my mum, it was only to tell a story about her and my dad. And he, uh, mentioned that you and her were friends up until fifth year-" Snape's glare was deadly and certainly not encouraging but Harry was determined not to lose his nerve.

"He didn't tell me why you stopped being friends and I won't ask if you don't want to tell me," Harry was babbling now and they both knew it.

"Get on with it, Potter," Snape said coldly.

"Well...I was just wondering if you could tell me what my mum was like," Harry rushed out the words quietly, looking down at his hands resting in his lap.

Whatever Snape was expecting, it was not this. Twice, he opened his mouth, no doubt to say something nasty to Harry. But just looking at the boy sitting there, expecting rejection, Snape could not bring himself to do so. Harry looked so much younger than a fifth year now. He was just a kid, wanting to know more about his dead parents. Thinking about Lily was painful for Severus, though. But he knew that if Lily were able to see this, she would want him to tell Harry all about what great friends they were. Were.

"Your mother," Severus began to speak softly. Harry's head snapped up, listening eagerly to any information he could get about his mother. He had expected Snape to ignore him. The sight was so pitiful that Severus sighed out loud. "Your mother and I met when I we were young, before we even got our Hogwarts letters, before she even knew she was a witch. We lived close to each other and I was the one who told her she possessed magic. Lily was kind and loved her sister very much."

Harry's eyes darkened and narrowed at the mention of Petunia, something that Severus did not miss. He resisted the urge to smirk-he did not like Petunia much either. "But Petunia was jealous of Lily's powers and so they began to fight. And Lily was unable to make amends with her before she left for Hogwarts, something she was most distressed about. But we went off to Hogwarts and I was sorted into Slytherin and she to Gryffindor. Although we tried to spend time together after this, we began to grow apart. Lily expected one thing of me but my new friends in Slytherin expected another.

"We were still friends, though, because your mother was very persistent and refused to let our friendship go just because we hung out with different crowds. We went to Hogsmeade weekends together and did homework together and studied together. Lily was very smart, she was top in our year. She studied and read often, wanting to learn as much about the wizarding world as possible. She hated prejudiced people who though that just because she was muggleborn she was a lesser witch, which is why she was not fond of the people in Slytherin I spent my time with. These same people often led to most of our arguments." Snape looked pained and Harry felt slightly guilty about asking Snape this. Talking about Harry's mother was obviously hurting him. But he was on a roll and Harry wanted to know what made them stop being friends.

"And then, in fifth year," Snape's expression was tight with pain for just a moment but he quickly made his face go blank, "Your father and I quarreled-as we did often. He and Black hexed me several times but your mother came straight over to him and began to yell at him. I was so embarrassed, all my classmates were just standing around laughing-for I was very unpopular."

Harry had a sense that Snape had never gotten this off his chest and it was all coming out now. But, nevertheless, Harry was horrified at Sirius and his father's behavior toward the Potions Master.

"The jinxes they cast on me were wearing off, though, and, when your father was distracted by your mother, I attempted to retaliate. Foolish on my part, really. I was outnumbered. Black and your father hexed me a few more times and had me hanging upside down in the air until your mother got them to remove the hexes. I should have been thanking her but, instead, all I could see was the crowd of people around and the whispers and the laughs. And then, Potter made some stupid little comment about how I was lucky that Lily was there and... well, I kind of snapped."

"What did you do?" Harry asked, caught up in the story. This was more information than he could have ever hoped for.

Snape looked down, appearing deeply pained, and whispered, "I called her a filthy mudblood."

Snape's words were nearly inaudible and Harry had trouble registering them at first. But when he did, he was furious. "You called her a what?" He asked angrily, glaring at Snape.

But Snape did look truly sorry for his words. "I- I didn't mean to. It just kind of slipped out. I was so embarrassed and angry."

Harry didn't think he'd ever seen the Potions Master like this but he didn't stop to think about how odd it seemed. Snape had barely said three words to him unless he was verbally tormenting him in class or giving him a detention but here he was, spilling his guts to the son of the woman he loved.

"And then what happened?" Harry asked tightly.

"Lily told me that she wouldn't bother in the future, insulted me, called me Snivellus, yelled at your father a bit more, and then walked away. I tried to apologize to her after that but she wouldn't hear of it. Lily and I hadn't been friends since then." Severus finished his story, sighing in regret.

Harry did not know what to think.

"You are dismissed." Snape said quietly. Harry looked at the time. He had only been here for an hour. Snape was dismissing him early? Harry stood up.

"Goodnight Professor."

Snape did not answer and so Harry left.

As he closed the door behind him, he heard Professor Snape sigh again.