Fire and emeralds

Disclaimer: Everything except Holly and the potion description belongs to JKR.

"Potter, that's another ten points from Gryffindor," Snape sighed lazily much to the delight of the Slytherins who started sniggering. Of all the noise being generated, Draco Malfoy was the loudest. Hermione and Ron shot them all angry looks."Right, as I was saying, before my interruption from Potter here," He began glancing incredibly indiscreetly at the shattered potion that Malfoy had lobbed at Harry, the contents of which was burning through the floor. He could quite easily have repaired the bottle and got rid of the contents but he was enjoying this. A roar of laughter came from the Slytherins and Harry felt his ears going red. He adjusted his glasses as Hermione nudged him gently telling him to take no notice. "…Your potion should now be to a thick consistency coating the sides of your cauldron and should be a puce color with scarlet rippling. If this is the case then take it off the heat and stir continuously until it turns fire-red." Snape said walking down the classroom, his cloak flapping making him seem even more bat-like.

Harry glanced anxiously at his potion that was moss green and smelt truly foul. Ron wasn't having much better luck either as his was black and smelt like a century old corpse. Hermione's as usual was perfect. She smiled delightedly and hurriedly consulted her potion book in case she messed it up. "Bloody Hell!" Ron exclaimed as he saw Hermione already decanting her's into a bottle. "Why are her's always perfect?" He prodded his 'potion' with his measuring spoon and smoke began billowing out of it. "Brilliant!" He murmured sarcastically as the smoke thickened and the smell worsened. "Mr Weasely, could you explain to why the classroom is filling up with a vile smelling smoke." He asked sarcastically with a nasty grin forming on his face. He over dramatically wafted the smoke away. "I'm sure you can't and yet the source appears to be your cauldron." He sneered as several students began to cough and two even blacked out. "Scrogify!" He yelled with a lazy flick of his wand. Pink soap bubbles appeared in the cauldron and cleared away the mess "You are to start again and try to read the correct page." Snape sneered flapping away. Ron looked in horror at his potion book as he saw that he was on the wrong page. There was a responding chorus of laughter from the Slytherins. Harry's potion went puceish after Hermione gave him a hand but he forgot to take it off the heat. It burst into flames and when Hermione doused them, the water caused the potion to explode covering both Ron and harry in the disgusting looking slime that had been in his cauldron. Both Lavender Brown and Parvathi Patil shrieked and ducked under their benches as the potion spray came towards them. The Slytherins behind fell about laughing. Snape flapped over to Harry's cauldron with a sneer forming in his mouth. "Potter, What in Merlin's name is…?" He was cut short as there was a loud knock on the door to the dungeon. "Enter!" Snape yelled.

The door swung open and she walked in; Harry's twin sister; Holly Potter. As Harry looked almost exactly like his father (minus the eyes), Holly looked exactly like her mother (Including the eyes). She swung her fire red hair over her shoulders and her vivid emerald green eyes sparked brightly in the dim light of the dungeon. Snape went even paler than normal and looked as if he'd see a ghost. Holly had walked into the potion class for the first time ever (She'd been in St. Mungo's since the night that her parents were killed. She had only just survived the night having been rushed to hospital and been there for eleven years. She had a note explaining it. She found out she was a witch years before Harry did and had the fortune of not living with her magic hating aunt, uncle and cousin. Neither knew anything of the other's until last year when Harry went to visit his long lost sister or 'The Girl Who Lived'. Molly and Arthur Weasely had taken her in once she was discharged from hospital but unfortunately had to inform the Dursleys as they were her legal guardians) Snape on the other hand knew nothing about her and his expression of pain was similar to the one pulled when inflicted with the Cruciatus curse.

He had lost Lily in his fifth year after when being suspended by his ankles with his own curse and called her a Mudblood. He had felt nothing but guilt since then. Upon hearing about her death he was devastated. Of course no one but Dumbledore knew this and he was not willing for everyone to find out about his past. But it was so difficult. Holly looked exactly like Lily did at her age and his head was crowded with flashbacks. She was so beautiful but he couldn't bear to look at her. It was just too painful. His eyes began to fill with tears and he turned his back so no one would see. "Professor Snape?" She asked with her pure, earnest voice; Lily's voice. He cried out and tried to cover it up with a cough but more and more tears streamed down his face. He'd loved her and she was gone but now her doppelgänger, whose father bullied him throughout Hogwarts, was haunting him.

"Miss Potter, may I suggest you sit with Miss Granger." Snape inhaled sharply, his hand pointing towards where Hermione was sitting. He was still facing the wall. Hermione moved over and cleared space for her. She smiled in a friendly manner to Holly as she sat down. After all, she was Hermione-the-grade-O-student-always-delighted-and-happy-to-help-a-newbie-Granger. As Snape began copying out more instructions on the blackboard, Holly sat down and all of the boys sitting behind her seemed to be staring at the back of her head in a trance-like state even Draco Malfoy who began drooling as well. Pansy Parkinson noticed this and kicked him sharply in the leg. He howled with pain and banged his head on the bench as he leant forwards to rub it. Holly turned around to see what all of the commotion was about. As she did so, Pansy caught her eye and hissed menacingly at her "He's mine!"

"Now, empty your cauldrons once you have got a sample of the potion in your bottles." Snape said clearly, hastily wiping the remainder of the tears and once again facing the front. "Now, pour in the potion you made last week; the emerald green one. It should be nicely matured by now." He held up the bottle containing a translucent emerald green liquid. Everyone including Harry and Ron had a bottle of this. "Heat it up gently until it goes opaque. Once it has turned opaque, slowly pour out the now cooled down fire-red potion slowly so that it falls in hair-like strands…." He trailed off as he met Holly in the eye. All of the pain and upset that had been building up in him for the past two decades realised itself causing him to double over. He broke into silent sobs and as he tried to suppress them, they just got more violent. He ran out of the classroom his cloak flapping after him. Everyone in the classroom just looked perplexed. Snape actually has a heart? He actually feels emotions? He slumped up against the wall and put his head in his hands. He broke into loud and true sobs as his cries and screams echoed around the dungeon walls. He still loved her and still cared. He was prepared to do whatever it takes to save Lily's son and daughter. He had never stopped loving her. After all this time? Always.