Harry walked into the now Headmistress' office. Professor McGonnagall's password had simply been too guessable. "Albus Dumbledore" would have every student in the school rushing into her office soon enough. But she was gone at the moment, so Harry's biggest fear was that another student would also be down there or come in while he was there.
"Well, if that's my worst fear," Harry thought, "then I won't have much to fear. They would never report me, for fear of me reporting them."
He reached the door and opened it. Loud snoring abused his ear drums.
"Well," he thought, "Dumbledore must be a rather heavy snorer." There had never been snoring that loud when he entered before pictures of Dumbledore and Snape had been hung. Harry's eyes flitted over all the pictures. They were asleep. His eyes lingered on Dumbledore's picture. He was sleeping, and sure enough, was the source of the unpleasant noise. Harry smiled wanly and kept his eyes moving. Finally, he settled on Snape's portrait. Harry jumped. Snape was awake and looking at him. Suddenly, Harry regretted coming. Snape's eyes burned holes in him, and Harry looked down to make sure he wasn't really as transparent as he felt.
"H-hello, Professor Snape," Harry started. Be began wringing his hands slightly.
"Hello, Potter," Snape replied. "I was wondering how long you'd take getting down here." Harry stopped playing with his hands and his jaw dropped slightly.
"But...how?"
"I knew you'd eventually figure out that I'd have a portrait here having been headmaster for a year. And I knew you'd want to say something, although what you'd have to say I'm not sure. I knew you'd have no problem breaking half-a-dozen school rules to get here though, so to keep you from breaking the full dozen, I had Minerva set the password to something you'd guess." Harry just looked stunned. "Well, get on with whatever you had to say."
"Professor..."
"I'm not exactly your professor anymore. Just call me Severus." Harry blanched.
"Well," Harry said, avoiding the use of direct address all together, "I just had one thing to say." He looked down at his shoes so that Severus couldn't see his face.
"Then say it, Harry!" This was the first time Harry could remember Severus calling him by his given name. He looked up.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all the nasty things I did to you, the horrible things I said to you, and the evil things I thought about you. I'm sorry for what my father did to you. I'm sorry that my mother hurt you. I'm sorry that I was such a git." By the end of the speech, which had been clearly thought out ahead of time, Harry's head was lower than Severus could ever remember it being, and his voice was soft.
"That's alright, Harry. I had a role to play, and it involved being unfair to you. I suppose while we're at this, I should apologize as well. I had to pretend to hate you to convince the other Death Eaters that I was still loyal to the Dark Lord. I hope you realize I never did, never could, hate you, Harry."
"I know," Harry said.
"Do you know why I gave you so many detentions, especially for little things?"
"Because you had an act to play?"
"No. Because it was the only way I would ever be able to see you when I wasn't teaching."