A few hours later, Severus was found asleep in the chair, still by Harry's bed. The mask he had worn for so long had been taken off with glee. Dumbledore told everyone to leave him be and got Hermione, Ron, Neville, Luna, and Ginny into their own cots where they could rest and heal.

Severus was awoken by a soft cough coming from the bed beside him. He sat up straighter and saw that Harry Potter was now awake.

"Why are you here, Professor?" he asked. "Shouldn't you be out celebrating with everyone else?"

"Not while you cannot celebrate, Harry," Severus whispered.

"Why are you no longer calling me 'Potter'?"

"Because I do not need to hide behind my mask anymore," Severus started. "Let me explain a few things to you. I know they will be hard to believe at first, but you must listen. If you doubt anything, you can ask Remus of them. He knows.

"First off, I apologize for the way I have treated you these last five years. You look uncannily like your father, except for your eyes. You mother, Lily, and I were best friends since before we came to Hogwarts. Your aunt hated me. She thought I was taking her little sister away from her. Lily and I, though sorted into different houses, were the best of friends at school. Until my fifth year. As you know what happened I shouldn't explain why. I went to her to apologize, but she refused to be friends with me anymore.

"When you arrived, I hated you for being just because of who your father was. I was tortured by James Potter, and he did it just for fun. I kept to myself at school and applied myself to my studies. Yes, I enjoyed learning about the dark arts. But Potions was my favorite subject. That is why I became a Potions Master. After a few years, news of your parents' marriage reached my ears and my heart had turned to stone that I would never see my best friend again."

Severus took a long breath, and continued, "I wish I would have been invited. All I ever wanted was for Lily to be happy, and if James Potter made her happy, then who was I to stop it? When I finally joined the Dark Lord, I was still in the lower ranks. The only thing that brought me into the inner circle was the prophecy. I was the one who heard of the prophecy about him and you. He went after you and your family. He marked you as his equal.

"I am so sorry. I am the reason you have no parents, and you have no idea how horrible that makes me feel. I wished for so long that I could have taken back what I did. But if I had, Voldemort would not have been defeated. That doesn't relinquish me of my guilt. And I wouldn't be surprised if you wanted to kill me right now."

Harry looked at the man. He looked broken and used. Even though, Harry hated him, or had hated him, he would never kill another being as long as he lived.

"After what happened, after I saw you and learned who you really were, inside, you reminded me of Lily. You are so much like Lily. More like her than your father. Your heart and soul is like hers. She died to save you and you would have died to save your friends. I never thought that this day would come. I never thought that I would be alive to see it. Thank you, Harry. For everything."

Severus got up to leave but stopped when he felt and hand on his arm. He looked down at the boy. "Please, sir. Sit, I want to tell you something."

Severus sat down again and waited for Harry to continue. "I know I am not like my father, even though I often found pride when everyone saying that I was. When I saw what he did, he reminded me too much of a bully. I never liked being bullied by my cousin, so why would I ever bully someone else?"

"What do you mean you were bullied by your cousin?"

"After my parents died, and don't blame yourself for this, I was sent to live with my aunt and uncle. They were, and still somewhat are, horrendous to me. Any small indication of my abnormality, as they would say, I was sent to my cupboard under the stairs without food. The cupboard was my room until I got the letter from Hogwarts. Then I was moved to a real bedroom. I never knew anything about the wizarding world, much like my mother. I was interested and found it exciting.

"I was introduced to a new life and for once, in my miserable life, I was happy. I found a home. But then I found that I had to leave it to go home every summer where my aunt and uncle went back to treating me like dirt. I was practically starved every summer. I will be asking Professor Dumbledore if I can leave the Dursley household. So that I won't have to burden them with my presence. I would like it very much if you could somehow help me persuade him."

"Of course, Harry. Anything," Severus said. "I owe you so much. And, if you need a place to stay, though I am sure the Weasley's would love to have you, you are more than welcome to stay with me."

"Thank you, Professor."

"I will go now so that you may get some rest."

Dumbledore found his young potions professor sitting on his sofa in front of a dying fire with a half full glass of firewhiskey. The man was asleep so Dumbledore took the glass from him and took him off to bed. Severus had done so much for this world. The headmaster was happy that one of his brightest pupils and a man whom he thought of as a son, would no longer have to do anything but live his life as he liked. When Dumbledore got the man settled into bed, he stopped at the door frame.

"Good night, my son," he whispered and left Severus to his dreams.

The next morning, Severus awoke to the sound of Poppy yelling at him through the fire. Grumbling and mumbling, an irritated professor crawled out of bed. He was quite unhappy being woken from a very good dream. It's been years since he had a dream like he did that night. He saw a smiling woman with a big pregnant belly and two little children running around with other children. Most of the children had dark colored hair.

"Poppy, you know I would eventually like to get caught up on my sleep," Severus said sarcastically. He was back to his usual snarky self. And then it hit him. Gasping for air, he asked, "Is he really gone?"

"Yes, Severus, now come on. I need your help in the Hospital Wing," said the Mediwitch.

Severus took a quick shower and got dressed in just a pair of black slacks, a white button up, and black socks and shoes. He entered the infirmary ten minutes later to the sounds of a boy screaming in pain. When he got closer, Severus could see that it was the Weasley boy.

"Severus, I don't know what to do," sighed Poppy.

"Stand aside, I will figure out what's wrong with him. Go help the others," Severus whispered. As Poppy disappeared amongst the other students who came back from the Ministry, Severus crept closer to Ron Weasley.

"What….what are you going to do?" Ron asked. His face turned even paler.

"Mr. Weasley, please, I mean you no harm," Severus said.

"Listen to him, Ron," said Harry. "I trust him and you trust me right?"

Ron nodded his head slowly, gritting his teeth in the pain. He laid as still as possible as Severus waved his wand over Ron's body, trying to detect if there was any lasting damage. Severus smiled and said, "You will be just fine, Mr. Weasley. Here is a pain potion and a potion for the tremors. You should be back on your feet in a couple of days."

As Severus was about to hand him a potion, Ron jumped as another painful tremor was sent through his body. He sat the boy up and tipped the vials down his throat before another tremor could go through his body. The doors to the Hospital Wing opened and Molly Weasley ran in.

"Oh Ronnie! Albus just told us what was happening," she said with tears in her eyes. "How are you feeling?"

"Better now. Thank you, Professor," Ron said. Severus nodded and Molly turned to him.

"Oh thank you so much, Severus. You save Harry and my little boy," she cried and threw her arms around the surprised Professor.

"It was nothing Molly," Severus whispered as he hugged the emotional woman back.

"Miss Weasley," said Poppy suddenly making them all jump. "You cannot put wait on that foot just yet."

Severus and Molly turned around to see that Ginny was making her way towards them from the other side of the infirmary.

"You would do well to listen to Madam Pomfrey, Miss Weasley," said Severus sternly.

Ginny huffed and puffed as she made her way to Ron's bed and sat on the end of it. "Save it, Professor. I heard what you said last night."

Severus was taken aback and his eyes widened. Ginny laughed. "Don't worry, sir. Your secret is safe with me."

"Very well, Miss Weasley. Let me see that ankle and I might have some cream that will heal it quicker than you can say Gryffindor Rules," Severus chuckled.

He got down on one knee and took Ginny's broken ankle in his hand. "Madam Pomfrey hasn't been able to fix it. I was hit with some weird curse that she said most likely would not allow me to heal from my injuries the magical way."

"Ah, well this cream I created will fix anything," Severus reassured her. He took out a small item from his pocket and quickly enlarged it to his medical bag which was full of every kind of healing potion known to man. He fetched out a small oval shaped container and twisted open the top to reveal a tan colored cream.

Severus applied the cream and Ginny said with a smirk, "Gryffindor Ru-"

Severus laughed quietly. "I told you it would work."

"You think you are so smart," Ginny bantered back and laughed at the appalled look on her brother's face.

The curtain was pulled back to reveal a very much bedheaded Harry. "Some of us were trying to sleep, you know. The laughing doesn't help much."

"Sorry, Harry," Severus said. With that, everyone turned around to stare at the Potions Master. "What? Oh, hello Miss Lovegood. How are you all feeling?"

"Quite well, Professor," said Luna. "I see you finally got rid of that angry Bumbledoongle you had all these years."

Severus stared at Luna as everyone else chuckled quietly. "Angry what?"

"Bumbledoongle. You have had it with you for quite some time," said Luna. "It comes in an attaches itself to you and makes you angry. The longer you have it the harder it is to be rid of it. But the much better you feel after it is gone."

"Well, Professor. I am surprised that you haven't realized that that was the source of all your anger," Harry said.

"Oh, shut up, Potter," scowled Severus.

"Now that is the Potions Master we all know and love," said Ron.

"I see that you are now all well enough to be joking around," Poppy said, appearing at Severus's elbow. "Severus, I need you help with one more patient."

"Ah, Longbottom," whispered Severus.

"No, he's fine. Just asleep after all those tremor potions for the Cruciartice Curse," said Poppy. "It's Miss Granger. She has slipped into something of a coma."

The doors burst open and two very disgruntled people came storming inside.

"I knew it was a mistake sending her here with all these weirdos," yelled the man. "What were we thinking? They said everything would be alright. They said that she would be safe and yet here she is in pain."

"Michel, calm down," said the woman. "We don't know why she is in here."

"Mr. and Mrs. Granger," Harry said from the bed. "I'm sorry. It's my fault."

"Stop, Harry. I told you before, this is not your fault. It is Voldemort's fault," Severus said to the young man. He turned to the Grangers and said, "My name is Severus Snape. I am a professor here at Hogwarts."

"Oh, Professor Snape. Hermione has told me all about you," said the woman. "Margret Granger. And don't worry, it's all good things. She said that you are probably the smartest teacher on staff."

"Well, as the brightest witch of her age, she would know," Severus whispered. "I know you want to take her to a muggle hospital, but there would be nothing they could do for her. She needs to remain here. She is in a magical coma and needs to escape it using magical means. If we were to try the muggle way, she could be lost to us forever."

"Fine," yelled Michel Granger. "But the minute she is better, we are taking her away from this horrid place."

The couple left abruptly. What surprised Severus even more is the fact that they didn't even want to see their daughter. 'Odd,' thought Severus.

"Severus Snape! How dare you lie to her parents," Poppy said. "You know very well that there is no such thing as a magical coma."

"Yes, Poppy, I know. But they don't, and it better stay that way," Severus said. "We can't lose our brightest pupil, now can we?"

"You did that on purpose. You lied to them to buy some time," Harry said.

"I did, Harry. Now when you are all well, you need to convince Mr. and Mrs. Granger that this is where Hermione belongs," Severus explained. "But I feel as if there is something more going on that we are unaware of."

"What do you mean, Professor?" Ron asked.

"I'm not sure, but I will find out," Severus whispered back. "I will be right back. I need to speak with Hermione's parents. I need permission to 'try to' bring her back."