Unforeseen History

Harry walked up to the foreboding Potion Master's office door, dreading his detention. It wasn't as if he had done anything against the rules. Hermione had slipped on his potion so he helped her up and in doing so, slipped and slid past Malfoy causing him to knock over his potion.

Disrupting the class….Harry fumed. If he'd only show a little compassion.

Two knocks and a snappy 'enter' later Harry was facing Snape's back. With a clear of the throat, Snape turned around and placed what seemed to be a photo back into his desk drawer and locked it with his wand.

"Potter, I'm going across the hall for a minute. Clean up this place and try not to break anything." He barely finished his sentence before he was out the door.

Harry, being inquisitive and thoughtless all rolled into one, went straight to the locked drawer. With a flick of his wand it was open and Harry pulled out a faded black and white photo.

A smiling family waved back at him.

A cheeky black-haired boy poked his tongue out at Harry.

A full grown, alive version of the young boy appeared suddenly in front of Harry and snatched the photo from Harry's hands, slammed the drawer, and stared, fuming, into Harry's shocked eyes.

"Explain."

"Sir, I just-"

"Exactly. 50 points from Gryffindor, a weeks worth of detention with Filch, and a 0 on your next lab."

"But you said to clean-"

Snape flopped into his leather chair and sighed heavily. "Yes, I know." He was certainly over reacting these days. But it was a hard time of year for him. Always had been, at least since he was ten.

Snape looked up at Harry who couldn't help looking back in a pitying way. True, Snape was cold and horrible to most people, but at one time, he knew, Snape had been happy. What had happened?

"You really want to know, don't you?"

Harry was puzzled. "Know what?"

"The picture." He sighed again. He'd never told anyone. Maybe it was time he did. "Yes that was me. One month before my whole family…parents, sister, two brothers…were brutally murdered by a friend of mine. I trusted him. Look where it got me…and ex-Death Eater who teaches with an iron fist because every night he can't sleep with the haunting memories." He stopped talking and looked up. "Satisfied?" Harry was speechless. "Have your points back. Just don't tell anyone and I don't want to see you being careless again. Understood?"

Harry nodded, numb with sadness towards his teacher. Strange turn of events…. He walked out slowly and left Snape to his thoughts.

Snape pulled out a bottle of tablets, took five, and prepared to finish his work.

Alone.

Orphaned.

Self-loathing.