*okie dokie.... so sorry it took so long to put out..... geeze, you all must hate me..... (cringes and hides) okay enjoy....*

Chapter 3:

Differences

Harry stood looking between his father and Severus, he could see the pain and frusration on his face as he tried to get his temper under control. " Dad, please stop yelling at him. He's not the bad guy. Well, not now. " Harry said looking up at his father whom at that very moment looked as shocked as Severus. Severus looked down at the boy who he had spent his life protecting and gave up his life for. He was shocked, how could this boy standing in fron of him even give a damn about him. He looked curiously down his crooked nose at the boy that looked so uch like his love rival James Potter. Harry just looked up at Severus and smiled, he could sense the mans shock. After all he had just protected him and tried to help him, twice.

" Dad, Mom, Severus has been treated like the bad guy for most of his life, he doesn't deserve this. He's not evil and he doesn't want people to die or get hurt. " Harry looked down at his feet, it was a lost cause with his father but he still had hope that he could salvage what little remains of Snape and Lily's friendship. Whatever he could do to see the sallow man smile, he would do. But at this very second he was to exaughsted and hungry to even think straight. The walls tilted to an odd angle and his eyes fluttered shut. Hary was caught in a pair of lean and comfortably strong arms.

After a while he came around, he slowly lifted his eyelids and saw long black hair and a stressed looking jaw line. The face then turned down to look at him and he saw a pair of warm black eyes looking down at him. " Harry, are you alright?". Severus' face was pale and there were worry lines in it.

Harry looked down to see his body wraped in a blanket and his head on Severus' lap with his feet propped up on his mother's lap. His father was hovering around in the background uncertainly clearly not knowing what to do. " Severus? What happend?". He said looking straight into the obsydian eyes. Severus sighed, the poor boy had over exerted himself and had eventually ended up passing out. If it wasn't for Severus' quick reflexes, Harry would have hit his head on the corner of Professor Dumbledore's desk. He had managed to catch the boy without falling on them both.

" Well, you passed out and were lucky that I was here. You could have hit your head on the desk, but I caught you. Luckily." Severus said, quietly. Looking down into Harry's eyes, seeing the shock spark at those words.

" You c-caught me?" Harry asked, looking up at him. Severus' eyes shone with worry and sadness, now.

" You didn't think I would have? I haven't risked my neck just so you can go kill yourself by falling and hitting your head on a desk. Otherwise, I just would have let The Dark Lord kill you back in your first year. If I truly did feel that way." Severus said in a slightly annoyed tone, but none the less Harry could hear the sadness that Severus now thought that he would want him to die. Again.

Harry looked up at Severus and said " Don't you know me better by now?" Harry gave him a grin, then proceded " I'm just shocked that you would actually save my idiotic neck in front of me....." Harry said wryly.

Severus started and looked down at Harry. " What?" he thought about it for a moment and then sighed a small 'O' forming on his lips. " Harry, I could never let you get hurt. Don't you know that by now?" He said, flashing a rare smile down at Harry before he could stop himself. Lily saw that smile and remembered how Severus would do that all the time back when they were in school. Severus grinned back down at Harry, and ruffled his unruly hair affectionatly. Severus was feeling alot closer to the boy in his lap, despite the fact that he looked so much like James. All Severus could see was Lily's green eyes, and know that Harry truly was nothing like James, but always had been like his loving and wonderful mother.

Lily coughed, to break up the moment, she loved to see Severus and Harry smiling at each other like that but James was looking mutinous, and Lily was afraid that he'd take a leap at Severus and try to kill him for being so close to Harry.

Severus looked up at Lily and saw the happiness and love shining in her evergreen eyes that he just loved so much..... then he heard it, an angry and very low growl, coming from the man glaring daggers at him now. Severus sighed, he hated to break up the wonderful moment he was having with Harry, and Lily. But he didn't feel like having to fight with James, even though he knew he would win..... He shifted and lifted Harry up off him gently, "Harry, as I think I am no longer welcome here," he gave a very pointed glance at James, "I think I should go." He gace Harry a small, but very rare smile. He then ruffled his hair affectionately like he had before, and then departed the room. Walking down the halls Severus Snape had a new spring in his step, he knew that now he wouldn't be alone any longer.

He then heard footsteps behind him, he turned and looked curiously over his shoulder, they sounded very familiar. Light and quick breathing reached his ears then and he definitely knew who that was. He turned fully and looked into the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen, Lily was within his reach now..... He smiled at her and she shyly smiled back. "Severus, I just wanted to say...... I forgive you." she looked utterly bewildered at her own words but none the less sincere. Severus smiled in earnest then and stepped slowly towards her, he raised his eyebrows, as in asking her permission. She smiled at him in turn and nodded, Severus then wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close, inhaling the sweet, sweet sent that was her very own.... He then released her and pulled away, even though he resented the fact that she wasn't his..... yet. But soon Severus, soon.... he told himself.

"Go be with Harry, Lily." He said, pushing her away, even as his body screamed at him otherwise..... Lily looked up into his face, and smiled in earnest now. "Well, goodnight Severus, see you tomorrow...." Then she was walking away and Severus was looking after her with a wistfulness that shone like a beacon for the girl he loved oh so much....

"Goodnight Lily, my sweet lily flower and most truest love...." Severus said quietly, to the beautiful retreating figure. And then he was walking down the hall, humming softly to himself all the way....