Once again, Yen was a dream and fixed this ones mistakes.

Promises Kept and Tales Told

Pushing the jar of basilisk scales away, Severus stirred his cauldron while periodically adding in an ingredient. It was nearing the middle of the second term and Harry was still attempting to figure out where the cup might be located. Even though Severus detected no change in the Dark Lord during the last several meetings, Albus decided it would be best not to destroy the Horcruxes until all were collected, just in case.

Staring into the depths of the Horcrux Destruction potion he was attempting to make, he let his thoughts travel back to a time he preferred to forget.

Potter, Granger, and Weasley broke into Gringotts not long before coming to Hogwarts for the Final Battle. That break-in only targeted Bellatrix Lestrange's vault and she was a bit wary around the Dark Lord during the Final Battle. 'The cup was in there. Potter then came here immediately afterwards, what was he hunting for in Hogwarts?'

Stirring the potion anticlockwise, Severus let the memories fill him.

The Shrieking Shack was his least favourite place on Earth, Severus had decided that during Potter's fifth year. Today confirmed his dislike as he stood facing his least favourite person on Earth – a man who should have been long dead.

The Dark Lord waved Dumbledore's wand towards him. Severus found it fitting that he was about to be killed by the wand of the man he had killed. He and Albus could laugh about the irony of it soon.

"Severus, in order for this wand to accept me, I must defeat its master. As your Lord, I order you to relinquish your hold over the wand."

The thin wood pointed at him as the Dark Lord continued.

"Just stand there and accept this, Severus, and you might live."

His tone assured Severus the Dark Lord doubted it and didn't care if he did. The spell hit him slashing his abdomen open from left hip to the right ribcage. Screaming, he fell to the floor, his blood seeping through his clothes and darkening his robes.

"They have taken the cup and the locket, but they have not found the crown – so Hogwarts is still mine." It was a whisper, barely loud enough to be considered said, as footsteps walked away from him, leaving him to die or live.

With a trembling hand, Severus pulled out potions and treated the wound, and then drank both a pain killer and blood replenisher. Transfiguring a potions vial into bandages, he wrapped his abdomen, then hefting himself to his feet, he headed out. He needed to find Potter. They needed to end this now.

Not long after he exited the shack he heard Potter had died, and with him Granger and Weasley. Without another thought, Severus hunted for Minerva. He had to get her and the others out of there.

Portkeys in hand, he corned the staff, his friends and unknown allies. "You must leave. He has killed Potter, he is going to win today, and if he does, your lives will be forfeited." He thrust the potions vials, ones that he had carried with him since he knew the battle was coming here, towards Minerva, wanting her to take them.

Minerva glared at him, distrust evident in her eyes. "You expect me to believe you - to trust you? Why should I?"

A quick glance showed that no-one was there, just them. "Albus mastermind this, Minerva." Startled comprehension filled her face. "Please, flee so you can fight later. So you can keep people alive."

The shuttered look that covered Minerva's face and the others told him that his pleas were falling on deaf ears. Setting the portkeys on the High Table, he searched their faces one more time. He could see that Filius, Minerva, Pomona, and Hagrid trusted him and accepted what he was saying. The others not so much. "The portkey will take you to a safe house in France, the activation word is inscribed on the glass. I must go."

Striding out of the room, Severus prayed they would leave.

Shaking his head, Severus drew a shuddering breath. Every one of the vials had been sitting right where he had left them when the battle was over. Hogwarts had an entire new staff the next school year, with the exception of its Headmaster. He never had a chance to pass Albus' message, not that he had wanted to tell the boy he had to let the Dark Lord kill him, but he often wondered if that might have caused the war to end differently.

The Dark Lord's mumbled sentence stood out, as it had always done, teasing his mind, convincing him that there was something important there. "Hufflepuff's cup, Slytherin's locket, but there is no crown associated with the Founders. He infected two out of the four's possessions. The Dark Lord would not bother with anything from Gryffindor, so what of Ravenclaw has he taken?"

Staring at the walls Severus searched his mind, looking for any clue. A fragment of a conversation with Filius gave him the answer he needed. The Dark Lord was referring to Ravenclaw's diadem. That had to be what Potter was trying to find here.

Banishing the ruined potion, Severus brushed the tears leaking onto his cheeks away. He needed to think. What was Potter doing before he was caught? Malfoy had gone on about it during the celebration. 'That's right – they were on the seventh floor when the Carrows caught them. The Room of Requirements is there, could they've been heading there?'

Starting his potion over again, Severus made plans to check the room before he contemplated how to tell Albus the cup was in the frozen Lestrange vault. Just like in his original Universe, Molly Weasley had succeeded in killing Bellatrix, but unlike his Universe, Arthur got Rodolphus, and Black had taken out Rabastan. Who had access to the vault was a mystery to him, but if anyone knew, it would be Albus.

§§§§§§

Three vials were sitting on the transfigured table in Albus' office right next to two basilisk fangs. Also on the table were three boxes, each with a Horcrux inside covered in his first potion.

At Severus' insistence, they waited until the last student left school and any professor that planned on leaving was gone before attempting to destroy them. Severus knew Harry, Ron, and Hermione were currently acquiring the cup from the vault. Albus did not give him the details on how they were going to do it, so Severus prayed to Merlin that it would not include the use of a dragon escape route this time.

The diadem was much easier to collect, in his opinion, and Albus had tried to figure out how he knew where to look. It had taken some fancy mental work, but he succeeded in evading the real way while still laying the blame on the Dark Lord's mumblings. For a moment the memory pulled at him, dragging him away from the interminable wait.

Severus walked back and forth in front of the wall where the door would soon appear. He kept his mind focused on Ravenclaw's diadem and his need to find it. The room behind the newly formed door had him groaning. Stacks upon stacks of things scattered about in no particular order greeted his eyes. Stepping in, he closed the door. He had all weekend to hunt, which it took, but he eventually found the diadem. Not willing to touch it, he lifted it with a pair of stirring rods and dropped it into a box with the same impervious spell the other ones had. Once he reached his lab, it was submerged under the blocking potion.

The flashing of one of the many silvery objects that littered Albus' office drew Severus out of the memory.

"Severus, it is time." Albus gestured to the table.

Severus opened the box with the locket and tipped in the potion he brewed last week. The corrosiveness of the potion ate at the metal, allowing the basilisk venom to enter the object. Black smoke billowed up, changing shapes and trying to speak. It acted like a confused boggart. Severus gestured for Albus to stay exactly where he was as the Headmaster started to move closer. Eventually the smoke vanished.

"I think the potion worked. We do need to get the locket out before it is dissolved completely." Severus reached for a pair of tongs and pulled it out of the solution, setting it on a towel.

Albus flicked his wand over it before smiling at the Potions Master. "It worked. Now, let's add it to the other two."

They quickly removed the lids off the boxes and poured in the potions before stepping back, wands drawn just in case. Smoke billowed out as well, but they both faded quickly. Looking at each other, Albus raised his wand higher and nodded for Severus to move.

Severus knew that Albus' shield spells would be strong than his, so he walked over to the table and gingerly used the tongs to lift the ring out of the potion bath. Setting it quickly on the towel, he moved to the diadem. Once all three items were sitting on the table, looking newly polished, he checked for dark magic, verifying that all taint was removed from the artefacts.

"Negative. They are clean." Relief swept through him. Now, if only the cup worked the same way, then the Dark Lord would be vulnerable.

§§§§§§

Severus sat in the hard backed chair, facing the Wizengamot, grateful the chains were not wrapped around his arms. He knew he would have to face a trial, it was just what it was. He carried a Dark Mark, admittedly one that was very faded, so he didn't complain. What he did not expect was Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Albus standing around him and the rest of the Order in the stands. 'They wouldn't be there if they knew who I really was. What I have really done. I truly deserve this trial.'

"Harry Potter, you are standing as a witness for the accused?" Beryl March, elder and acting Head of the Wizengamot, stared at the group assembled around the Death Eater. "Mr. Weasley, Miss Granger, you two as well?"

Harry looked at his friends before directing a steady gaze at her. "We are. He shouldn't be here."

A frown filled the wrinkled face. "Mr. Snape is a Death Eater, Mr. Potter, why shouldn't he stand trial?"

Albus folded his hands on top of his beard as he stepped forward. "I have already submitted that Severus Snape was my spy."

"And how did that help us? You-Know-Who continued to attack us, continued hurting us, and he was there by his side." The voice came from the back of the Wizengamot.

Severus held back a sigh. Twisting his arm slightly, he caught sight of the stones around his wrist. Was this really where he was going to end up? Maybe, just maybe, he could go back to his original Universe and destroy the Dark Lord there. It would be better than Azkaban.

Ron snorted. "Is the trial going to start, or are we going to present our evidence early?"

A quick glance at Percy Weasley showed the man was attempting not to grin at his brother.

Madam March glared at Ron. "Mr. Weasley, we are starting now. Severus Snape, Potions Master of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, you are accused of supporting the beliefs held by and actively helping You-Know-Who. How do you plead?"

Severus leaned back in the seat so he could easily look Madam March. "I have been actively working against Voldemort since August of 1980. Of course these actions were behind the scenes as befitting my position as a spy in his network."

"Actively working against him? How?"

Harry stepped forward. "By keeping me alive."

"By informing me of Voldemort's movements and plans and helping to devise ways to save as many people as possible." Albus' gaze rested on several members of the Wizengamot, letting them know some of those people who owed Severus their lives.

Ron continued. "By creating several potions to destroy artefacts Voldemort made to keep himself among the living."

Severus shot a look at Albus. The Headmaster made sure that he patented all three potions before the Final Battle, which ended up being fought in Diagon Alley. He had insisted on fighting with the Order that day, and had taken up a position near Harry. The battle was not as epic as the one at Hogwarts, no castle to burn, no students fighting for their lives and their world, but it served its purpose. The Dark Lord died and his reign of terror ended.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by Hermione's voice.

"He also fought in the Battle at Diagon Alley on our side. He was responsible for the capture of many of the Death Eaters whom you have already tried and sentenced."

"Potions? He developed potions?" A blond Wizengamot member almost leaned over the rail trying to see the prisoner. "Are they the ones he recently patented? The ones for containing and destroying Horcruxes?"

Albus' eyes twinkled lightly at the collective gasp from the older members of the Wizengamot. They knew what a Horcrux was. "Precisely. Severus discovered that Voldemort created several of them, and proceeded to invent the potions needed to destroy them without sacrificing the artefacts left to us by the Founders. He also personally destroyed three of them."

Conversation buzzed about in the stands and eventually they quieted down. Madam March looked down at the group gathered on the floor and spoke. "Severus Snape, you have been granted clemency for all acts required of you as a spy within the Death Eaters. This case is dismissed."

The words seemed almost surreal to Severus, and didn't truly sink in until Harry pulled him into a small side room as the rest of the group headed for the lifts.

The door closed behind them, and Harry moved to stand in front of him. Severus searched his face, knowing in his heart that he wanted to start a relationship with this young man, but also knowing he had to tell Harry everything before he did. One did not start a new stage of your life with things that had to be handled.

"You're free." Harry smiled up at him, his eyes bright. "I know … I think I know you want …. a relationship with me. I know I want one with you."

Severus felt his eyes widen as Harry stepped closer. The man was being the quintessential Gryffindor, charging straight in, not planning or plotting.

"If you don't, tell me now."

"Harry …" Severus' thoughts failed him as Harry slid a hand around his neck, resting it on his nape. Desire, thick and heady, rushed through him. He knew it had to be shining from his eyes.

Harry leaned in, his lips brushing Severus' and Severus set aside Slytherin tactics and pressed them even closer together, his arms wrapping around Harry, pulling that body against his.

Lifting his head, Severus stared into Harry's face, thoughts warring with feelings. Thoughts won. "Come, we must talk, but not here."

Releasing his hold on Harry, Severus strode out of the room, and headed for the Department of Mysteries with Harry following him.

Reaching out towards the Locked Door with his left hand, Severus hoped the door opened and the room would be empty.

"That door won't open, Severus. I tried it several times. The Unspeakables who do go in there won't let anyone else in either." Harry's voice came from near his shoulder.

Severus looked at his wrist, the stones warm against it. Will they let him in? Would they send him home when he stepped into the room where this journey officially started? Touching the door, he pushed it gently. A soft click and the door swung open.

Striding into the room, he heard Harry gasp in surprise and then follow him in. The pink hazy lighting, the bubbling fountain, the smell, all of it was just like the room in his Universe. Part of him expected to see bodies on the floor covered by fragments of the room. Pushing those thoughts away, he waited for the door to click shut and the wards to spring back up.

"How did you get the door to open, Severus?" Awe filled Harry's voice.

Bowing his head, Severus looked once again at the bracelet. It was glowing slightly, as if it was recharging. He needed to explain quickly. If he vanished, he wanted Harry to know what happened. "Harry, I'll explain about the door in a moment. First, you say you want a relationship with me, and you are right, I do want one with you, but … there are some things you need to know about me first."

Spinning about, letting the smells surrounding him calm his nerves, Severus faced the young man he had fallen for over the past several months.

"It doesn't matter – I know you, Severus. I have studied you, watched you, for years. I know -"

"That wasn't me." Severus cut him off. He could see the wheels turning in Harry's head, trying to figure out what he just said. "None of what I say now can leave this room, promise? Not even to Ron or Hermione."

A shuttered look covered Harry's face as he tried to figure out what he was going to hear. Curiosity pulled the word out of him that Severus needed to hear. "Promise."

"Have a seat, Harry." Severus began pacing, not caring if Harry did as he asked. "A year ago, you asked what was different about me, why I was more approachable. I told you it was because I had come to the conclusion that we would do better working amicably. I didn't come to that conclusion easily. I had to live through the results of us not doing so."

He paused for a moment, looking deep into the fountain, hoping that he wasn't destroying everything he had gained this year. Shaking his head, he continued. "I am from a different universe. I came here at the beginning of last summer. In my original Universe you died during your seventh year, killed by the Dark Lord. The War ended that day. There were a few skirmishes here and there, but for the most part, anyone who opposed the Dark Lord was dead."

There, those words were out. Now came the hard part. Convincing Harry that it was true.

"Dead... another universe … he won..." The disbelief, or rather the wish to disbelieve coated those words.

Severus held up his left arm, exposing his bracelet. "These stones, they are from a sealed chamber under the fountain."

"Severus, what stones? I don't see any. How did you come here?" Harry stared at Severus' arm, obviously not seeing the glowing stones.

Looking at his arm, Severus ran a finger of the three rows of crystals. No wonder no one ever commented on them, they could not see them.

"There are three rows of crystals around my wrist, Harry. They …." His voice trailed off as he tried to answer Harry's question. Giving a shake of his head, Severus decided to tell the story. "The Dark Lord pulled me away from Hogwarts, as he has done every summer since the fall – he keeps me as Headmaster but doesn't want the power to go to my head - and sent me in here with a team of Death Eaters to destroy this room."

Harry cut in. "Headmaster? Albus is the Headmaster … how were you in that position?"

Severus' shoulders stiffened as pain flooded him, the wounds he had thought healed throbbing with remorse. "Albus … Albus was cursed by the ring Horcrux. It was killing him and I was doing my best to keep him alive. He could not live longer than a year, and that was with my best potions and spells attempting to contain the curse. He needed someone he trusted to run Hogwarts, someone the Dark Lord would agree to let do so. Draco Malfoy was ordered to kill Albus during his sixth year and I was made the Defence Professor that year. I had to make sure Draco didn't succeed in killing Albus, the curse didn't succeed in killing Albus, and that I did succeed in killing Albus, all on Albus' orders. The Dark Lord did as Albus thought – he made me Headmaster before the summer was out."

"You... you killed Albus?" Harry's eyes widened, disbelief and uncertainty filling them.

Severus nodded. "It was not something I wanted to do, but it was the only way. As I said earlier, the Dark Lord believed that being Headmaster could make me power hungry, so he used the summer to remind me of my station. This summer he wanted the power of love to be eradicated. I brought a team of seven Death Eaters to this room, the Love Room as the Dark Lord called it. I survived the destruction of the room, the rest of the team did not. Somehow, these stones and that potion," he gestured to the liquid bubbling in the fountain, "brought me here – to a Universe where the war was not over, where I did not kill Albus on his orders, where Potter did not go hunting Horcruxes during his seventh year with Granger and Weasley, where people I watched die walked around. Events were different here, and I was able to save those I had to let die last time. I was able to use the potion I invented during Potter's seventh year and perfected the years following on you, I was able to keep you from having to walk to your death. That was the only way Potter had a chance to get rid of the Horcrux – to willingly let the Dark Lord kill him. I never had a chance to pass Albus' message to him, so he didn't know to do that."

"Hold on," Harry shot of his seat as he began pacing. "I am still trying to wrap my brain around you killing Albus, even on his orders. How could you do that? And then you were supposed to tell me – that Potter – he needed just to let Voldemort kill him, willingly?"

Severus turned and looked at Harry, the anguish he felt showing in his eyes. "I did it because he told me to. Because he made me promise to. He didn't want a student to have that type of guilt. There really was no better option. Nothing – if I left the curse to do its work, even with the potions, he death would have been painful and meaningless."

His shoulders slumped slightly before he continued. "As for Potter, I was too late to pass the message, and the potion was not perfected."

"Too late? You were the Headmaster of the school. Couldn't you just call him up to the office and tell him?"

Severus shook his head. "Potter was not at school, he was Horcrux hunting. I was too late because the Dark Lord called me to the Shrieking Shack to kill me. I survived, but he accomplished his goal, he thought he had control of a wand that needed its last master defeated."

"You had a wand like that?" Harry's eyes coursed over Severus as if making sure he was there. "How did you live?"

"No I did not, and I am not a liberty to tell you whose wand – it was not an issue here and I do not wish to reveal things that are not mine to tell." Severus quirked a half grin at Harry's grudging acceptance. "As to how I lived? I am a Potions Master, and am in the habit of carrying a multitude of them with me."

He left out the ability to work through pain that was developed by his long service to the Dark Lord.

"What happened to our Snape?" Harry flung himself back into his seat, his gaze still running over Severus.

"Your Snape died, Harry."

"You killed him?" The words were out before Harry could bite them back. He gave a quick shake of his head. "No, you wouldn't have. I can't believe that. I know you. This past year I have learned more about you than any of the years before. Maybe you are truly this Universe Severus, but something happened that makes you think differently."

Severus ran a hand across his abdomen. No, he knew who he was – the scar from the Shrieking Shack was still there. This Severus did not have mark on him, at least not one like his. "I did not kill him. He went hunting for potions ingredients and did not succeed in his endeavour."

A look showed that Harry wanted a more in depth explanation.

"I keep journals, Harry. Once upon a time they might have been considered a diary, but they are not. I have journals for potions, for Order Meetings, for Death Eater Meetings, for students in my classes, for lesson plan ideas, and for my day to day activities. I write to keep things organized in my mind. Since I record so much information in words, I spelled the book to lock tight if I die. It is a spell I invented, and the books would burn if someone who is not authorized attempted to open them. When I arrived here, I was pleased that this Snape also kept journals, and they were protected by the same spells. Those spells had been triggered, but I was able to cancel them. The last entry informed me of what most likely happened to my counterpart."

"My Snape, the one I tormented throughout my school career, is dead." Harry sank further down into the chair, his eyes wide. They then shot up to Severus. "And I am a replacement for your Harry. You had some sort of relationship with him, and now I am just filling in his shoes."

Sinking down onto the edge of the fountain, Severus looked straight into Harry's face. "Harry, Potter and I got along worse than you and your Snape. There were things that he could not get past and things I could not forgive myself for. I did not wish him dead, but I never even knew that I was attracted to him until I walked into this room a year ago. The smell from this potion was the first clue. No, there was no prior relationship between myself and Potter."

"He knew you killed Albus? Did he know that Albus ordered you to kill him? That the Headmaster was already dying?" Harry searched Severus' face, watching the spasm of pain cross it.

"Potter watched me cast the Killing Curse the evening he and Albus came back from hunting for Slytherin's locket. Malfoy succeeded in bringing Death Eaters into the school and it was chaos. No, Potter never knew I was ordered to, there was never a moment to tell him. He died before I could get to him."

Harry watched as memories, painful ones, flitted across the normally blank face. This man might have a different past than what Harry remembered, but it didn't change the fact that this was the man he had come to care for – not the original Snape. This man was the one who smiled slightly at him, who laughed and talked to him, who watched him with a contained desire.

Moving so that he was kneeling before Severus, Harry rested a hand on both exposed wrists. His eyes widened – the stones he could not see were there, he could feel them. Setting that aside, he looked into the downcast dark eyes. "This is a different Universe, and here you saved us all. You helped find the Horcruxes, help to destroy them. You ended this war in our favour."

"I used the knowledge I gained in my Universe to help with you in this one. I … " Severus stared into Harry's eyes, but saw the faces of all he had lost. "I couldn't lose everyone again. Not when I could stop it."

"Severus – this is your universe now. You are here and you succeeded in keeping us all together. You are the Severus Snape that I learned, the one I became friends with. I still want to attempt a relationship with you. I want to see where this attraction can lead us. Please?"

Dark eyes roamed his face, taking in his expression. Harry did his best to make it earnest and open. There were questions roiling about in his mind, ones he knew he would ask eventually, but right here and now, he didn't need their answers, he needed a different one. The answer came, but not in words. Thin lips pressed against his, and Harry released Severus' right wrist to cup the back of the man's head. The stones under his right hand warmed.