A prank gone horribly wrong sends Severus Snape spiraling into an alternate universe as a small baby. In the wrong family.

Disclaimer: I do not own HP as sad as that is.


The door swung open with enough force that it made a huge boom as the wood splintered on the wall behind it. He took a deep breath, balling his hands into fists. He held the breath for a moment before letting it out in a controlled huff out of his large nose. He closed his eyes briefly in both pain and anger.

He rolled his shoulders back, opened his eyes, shook out his hands, and entered the room. He pulled out his ebony wand and directed it at the door repairing the damage almost instantly. He tucked the stick away with a heavy sigh.

He closed the newly repaired door softly behind him, most of his anger had splintered along with the door leaving him feeling mostly tired and depressed. Severus Snape scrubbed a hand over his face feeling his thirty some odd years greatly in that very moment. He technically wasn't all that old but the stress that he had placed on his body made him age far faster than normal.

He opened his eyes, wasn't even aware that he had closed them, and walked slowly towards the liquor cabinet. He needed something extremely strong, stronger than even fire whiskey. He placed a hand on the nobs and paused. He placed his forehead against the cold glass doors that held his assortment of Christmas given alcohol. Severus pulled away from the cabinet empty handed, he just knew that he needed his wits about him, he'd probably get an 'unexpected' visit from an old meddler.

Severus glared at the empty fireplace, he had taken down the charm that lit it every time someone walked through the door. It was something that Lily would have loved, and for that reason alone he dismantled it. It also helped that when the hearth lit an old man in some kind of wretched color smiled at him from behind half-moon glasses.

After years of thinking and the self-depreciating lines that carved his arms, torso, legs and even back he came to the realization that Albus Dumbledore had let him walk away that night when Tom had interrupted that overheard prophecy. He had to have known that Severus was standing just outside of that door listening in. Albus could have easily seen and wiped Severus's mind. He had watched Albus do that a dozen different times to others who were simply in the way of the greater good.

Severus sank heavily into a black leather armchair, he leaned forward over his knees to place his head in his hands and his elbows on his knees. Albus Dumbledore had a strange concept of what the 'greater good' was. For years now Severus had studied and searched for the answer, ever since that boy waltzed into these halls looking exactly like James Potter with Lily's eyes. It hurt the first time he had made contact with those eyes in his classroom, and he did what he knows how best. Strike defensively at the source of the hurt.

He had done that very thing again within the last twenty-four hours. The boy had stupidly lost his temper and shoved right back, all the way to that horrible memory. Of James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew taunting him as they hung him upside down with his own spell. Remus Lupin was there of course but in the background like usual nose stuck in a book, too spineless to go against his so called friends. (Severus doesn't blame him, he would have behaved the exact same if he was in his shoes.)

Severus had managed to push the boy out of his head long before that accursed word left his mouth, but the boy had seen enough. Seen just enough for him to look at him with wide eyes, eyes that didn't exactly hold pity but something he really, really doesn't want to contemplate.

Severus sat still waiting for the floo to sound for what felt like hours. He finally brought his head up, his spine was stiff and sore. He really must have been sitting there for hours in his horrible self-loathing. He looked at the clock that he had spent too much time on trying to get it to work inside the castle once upon a time, he had quite literally sat in his chair all night. He had an hour before he needed to be down in the great hall, and not once during that time did Albus come a calling.

Severus refused to believe that Harry Potter had managed to keep himself from tattling, Albus was just a busy man and would stop by another time.


Severus narrowed his eyes from behind the desk, his spine still ached and he honestly couldn't bring himself to carefully monitor these students even if Neville Longbottom was among their ranks.

So far no one was close to causing an explosion or meltdown. It was a relief but he still felt on edge, it could have been the result of absolutely no sleep (but he has done that more times than he can count) or it had something to do with the way the Potter boy kept looking his way, eyes lingering until Severus looked his way. The boy would quickly turn his focus back on his cauldron and pretend that he wasn't just caught staring.

Severus sighed looking back down at the papers in front of him, his quill dipped in blood red ink twitched in his hand. His brow furrowed just slightly, "Péra apó ta lípi kai zoferí, pou den boreí na eínai pio." He muttered to himself, that was Greek, wasn't it? He blinked feeling slightly of kilter, the world was growing dark and spinning just slightly. He stood up quickly and glanced around the room, taking in all the wide-eyed fifth years staring back at him. He grabbed the edge of his desk and clung to the wood as his body swayed to the right.

Severus blinked and his world upended in sparkles and white.

White clouds filled to the brim with sparkling specks covered the classroom and when it finally dispersed Severus Snape was no more.


I'm using this as a sort of pilot chapter. I got attacked by plot bunnies and they might not stop now.

The Greek I used was directly from Google translate because I'm an unfortunate soul not blessed with that language. Anyways I wasn't all that creative with the wording either- it means by grease and grime, be you no more.

Raindrops