"What do you see?" Harry asked quietly.

There was a long pause.

"Me." Snape finally said, staring transfixed into the mirror, "Saving you… from the Dark Lord."

Harry's stomach leapt; Snape's greatest desire—what he saw in the Mirror of Erised—was saving him from…

"Voldemort." Harry whispered, without realizing it.

Snape whipped around from the mirror and stared.

"I-I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Harry said quickly, but Snape said and did nothing. Instead, the threatening look on his face faded and a new expression had appeared; deep pain and disgust, he looked almost ashamed. Harry yearned to ask him a question that he'd always wanted to know.

"What made you leave him?" Harry asked, almost whispering.

Snape stood still, his eyes scanned the room. Obviously he had been expecting this question someday and was trying to bring himself to tell it.

"He tortured me." Snape said quietly, in an undistinguishable tone. "He loved picking on me out of all of the Death Eaters." He continued, staring down at the floor. "I was always the weak one."

Harry listened intensely.

"I was a naïve fool who thought I knew everything about the Dark Arts, and didn't realize until it was too late that I had joined forces with the most evil wizards and witches in our world." He continued, "The Dark Lord sensed my hesitations, he put me under the Cruciatus curse until I'd—I'd…" Snape closed his eyes painfully. Then he opened them and his eyes met Harry's for the first time since he'd been talking.

"…Until I'd tell him where Wormtail was… Your parent's secret-keeper."

Harry's heart sank. Something in his inside him made him swell with anger; but not for Snape—for Voldemort.

"I knew I had to leave, I had to come to Dumbledore… but he said that it wasn't my fault even when I'd told him what I'd done…"

"And it's not." Harry said confidently.

Snape turned to face Harry, a serious expression on his face—fear lurking in his eyes.

"Potter, I'm sorry… I betrayed your parents… the members of the Order… I betrayed you."

Harry shook his head. Snape now began to look angry.

"Harry—I killed your parents! Now you should kill me. Avenge your mother and father, Harry… Kill me."

"You didn't kill them, he did. Voldemort."

Snape shuddered, but did not dwell on it.

"Potter—" Snape began urgently, compassion now prominent in his eyes.

"Snape—I mean—Professor, Voldemort could have found out that information from anyone. It's not your fault. Please Professor, I trust you." Harry said sternly.

There was another pause. It seemed like Snape could not believe what he was hearing. Then a settled look came upon his face.

"Severus." Snape corrected him.

Harry blinked. Not only in these short minutes had Harry been addressed by Snape by his first name, but Snape was now asking Harry to call him by his first name.

Snape looked at Harry with urgency, obviously wanting Harry to repeat Snape's name to him.

"Call me Severus, Potter." He said, but it wasn't the cold tone Harry was used to hearing; it was gentle and it took Harry aback.

"Severus." Harry said, a little uneasy.

Then Snape did what others may still not believe in years to come; He smiled …at Harry.

Harry weakly smiled back, but only for a short while. Snape returned to normal also. They both peered back at the door together, both frightened but knowing what they must do to the thing that lay behind it, recovering quickly.

"Now let's face Voldemort once more." Harry began, "The both of us, together."

Snape nodded slightly, and then they both took their wands out from inside their robes and began to inch closer to the door… to Lord Voldemort, for the last time.