Chapter 5

Snape found himself on a too familiar street, Grimmauld Place. Longbottom looked from him to Sirius questioningly.

"Tell him Neville," told Sirius. "I believe he is trust worthy."

Longbottom then looked at Hermione, who stood steadily by her "father's" side, as if asking for permission, she just nodded. Snape almost smirked; it seemed Longbottom still needed Granger to tell him what to do.

"The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix is located at number 12 Grimmauld Place," Longbottom whispered.

However, Snape could already see the hidden building, but he did not wish to tell his companions that fact for reasons he did not know.

When the group came into the narrow hallway of the most ancient house of Black, they were met by a house elf wearing a freshly laundered towel as a toga.

"Oh, Mistress Hermione, they are not pleased with you," said the elf croakily. "But I is most please to see you safely home, Master Black."

"It's good to be home Kreacher," said Black with a small smile.

Snape did a double take on the elf; it was a better kept version of the miserable Kreacher. That would be one advantage for this reality if he actually cared for the elf.

"Where are they?" Hermione asked, looking around for a secret passage upstairs.

"They is in the dining area, young mistress," answered Kreacher dutifully. "But is probably hearing you already."

"Damn," she muttered. "Maybe if we are very quiet we could just—"

The dining room door opened dramatically to reveal four figures rushing out to them. Snape felt a pang in his heart when he saw that one of them was Lily. He quickly backed into the shadow of a nearby coat rack since he remembered half of the group still thought he was a Death Eater. He was so focused on watching her, he barely noticed that her husband and Frank and Alice Longbottom were there as well.

"Padfoot!" said James, rushing to his old friend's side and helping take him to a chair in the dining area. While Lily and the Longbottoms rounded on the two teenagers.

There was anger on Hermione's face that Snape had never seen before; it almost matched Lily's.

"Now you care," she muttered.

"What on Earth were you thinking?" Lily demanded with her hands on her hips.

"I was thinking that I had to save my father," Hermione shot back.

Alice looked at her son and he quickly answered, "I just thought she could use some backup Mum. She could have gotten killed if she went by herself."

"I can hold my own, thank you very much," Hermione yelled. However, before anyone could retort, an audible groan came from Sirius. Hermione rushed over to him, pushing Lily and the Longbottoms forcibly out of the way.

"Out of the way Potter," she said to a boy Snape hadn't noticed was there before. She knelt down next to Sirius and started to check his wounds.

"They were right, Mya, you shouldn't have come," said Black softly, "The Order can't afford to lose anymore people."

"You would have come for any of them," she protested looking around the room. "You would have come if it were me."

He smiled, knowing she was right. "Yes love, but no one else is that stupid, especially you."

She laughed and hugged her father, when they parted Black looked around and asked "Where is Severus?"

Snape stepped out of the shadows and was met by three wands pointing in his direction. Both Potters and Lily had their wands trained at his chest.

"Sirius have you gone completely daft? You let a Death Eater into headquarters," said Potter. At these words Frank and Alice drew their wands as well.

"He is no Death Eater," said Black, trying to stand up.

"He has the Dark Mark!" said the younger and possibly more stupid Potter.

"We shared a cell together," said Black. "He is no friend to Voldemort. I know he is trustworthy. He helped me stay sane in that forsaken hell hole."

Slowly the wands were lowered, but all eyes remained on Snape.

"Why does he have the mark then?" said stupid Potter Senior.

"It's complicated..." said Black looking at Snape.

"I'm from a different reality," Snape explained shortly.

"Well, if you put it that way, it's not," said Black, rolling his eyes.

"You got to be kidding me, Padfoot," Potter snorted, his hand back on his wand handle.

"No, I'm totally Sirius," Black said, pausing obviously waiting for laughter, but to be met with groans.

"Dad, that got old fifteen years ago," Hermione chided.

"Fine fine, but I know he's telling the truth because he knows a lot of creepy stuff about us."

"Oh yeah, that would describe someone from an alternate reality... you know what else that would apply to? A spy!" said Potter, obviously seconds away from pulling out his wand again.

Black wasn't wavering in his insistence on Snape's innocence, but he could come up with no more logical reasons to convince his friend either. He could only look helplessly at Snape as an awkward silence filled the room. The others wavered in tense irresolution, unsure of whose side they believed Snape was on. Snape was forcibly reminded of the first time he had seen Dumbledore stand up for him to members of the Order and insisted that he was innocent. Of course, Dumbledore had been more convincing than Black, but Dumbledore had a way to get people to trust.

"When you were little, you loved playing on the swings," Snape started, keeping his eyes trained on Lily's green ones. "Even before you started showing signs of magic, you felt like you were flying when you swung."

She was staring at him like she had never seen anything quite like him before.

"Your favorite season is Spring because you love to watch flowers open their petals. You used to call your sister 'Tuney' before you went to Hogwarts. You were always sad that she didn't accept you for who you were, but you never let anyone else know."

The room was dead silent. Snape did not break eye contact with Lily. He stood there, unarmed, as he often seemed to be with her, and waited nervously for her verdict. She could make or break him with her reaction, but this had never been a new feeling for him.

"How could you know those things?" she asked softly. "I haven't thought or said those things for a long time."

"I knew you," he replied. "I knew you, we grew up together. You were my best friend."

Lily had always been quick to trust people. It was one of her most defining characteristics. She had always trusted him and given him the benefit of the doubt. He remembered the times she had stood up for him when they were friends, when she had refused to believe the rumors about his digressions into the Dark Arts, when she defended him against his many critics, and he knew that he had only to ask to earn her loyalty again.

"Do you trust me?" he addressed her and no one else. Everyone in the room seemed frozen in place, waiting for Lily to make the decision.

She bit her lip as she always did when she was thinking hard.

"Yes," she said at last. She smiled nervously at him.

He returned her smile immediately. It was the first real smile that had appeared on his face for a while, but he knew it was worth it. It was more than he could ever had asked for, to be given a second chance with Lily. He would never have dreamed that this was possible.

However, his feeling of elation was short-lived. Lily moved to place a hand on her husband's arm, guiding his wand back into the pocket of his robes. Potter was looking dumbfounded, as though he couldn't quite believe what had just happened. Finally, with his wand safely stowed away, and his wife at his side, he extended a hand to Snape.

"I don't think we got off on the right foot," he said, regaining some of his usual cocky composure. "I'm James Potter."

Snape hesitated for a split second. It appeared that a second chance with Lily meant a second chance with Potter as well. Snape knew that Lily was worth it, but the thought of being friendly with Potter churned his stomach. Ignoring the feeling of disgust mounting inside him, he shook Potter's hand firmly.

Snape was "introduced" to the other members of the room. Frank and Alice Longbottom seemed to be perfectly sane. Of course, Snape thought to himself. They had been spared the aggressions of Bellatrix Lestrange and her accomplices because the Dark Lord had never fallen. The younger Potter was almost exactly like his usual annoying self, cocky and overconfident, but he did not seem to be on good terms with Hermione. In fact, the girl seemed to be using any opportunity she had to throw him looks of purest loathing.

"Stop looking at me like that, Hermione," stupid Potter junior hissed at her. Snape, in the process of shaking Frank Longbottom's hand, could not help but eavesdrop intently.

"You deserve it, Potter. You're a precious little mama's boy who wouldn't risk his neck to help out someone who has saved your life quite a few times. Coward," she spat.

Snape saw the younger Potter turn bright red at her words.

"Don't you call dare call me that, Hermione. If you had told me you were going, you know I would have come with you."

"You should have suggested it yourself! All you did was stand there and look at your feet when the adults decided it was 'not worth the risk' to save him."

"You should have told me what you were planning. What if you had been injured or killed?"

"I was fine. I had Neville with me, and he volunteered to come without me asking. Besides, if I had been killed, what do you care? I'd have been just another casualty that wasn't 'worth the risk.'"

Snape had already moved on to shake Alice's hand at this point, but he saw, out of the corner of his eye, the younger Potter stare glumly at the floor, unable to come up with a retort.

In retrospect, Snape supposed he should have noticed that it was strange for the Potter brat to not be a part of their rescue brigade. He had always wanted to play the hero before. In fact, Snape remembered when Potter had gone recklessly chasing after some wild dream he had about Black only a year ago. Perhaps living with his parents had cured the boy of his hero complex. Snape certainly hoped so. That was guaranteed to make the world a more enjoyable place.

"I'd like a bit of rest, if you all don't mind," Black said, when the introductions were over. "And I think that Severus could probably use some as well."

Snape nodded affirmatively. Hermione and James helped Black up the stairs and to his bedroom. The Longbottoms had started to huddle together in a corner of the dining room, obviously about to begin a family discussion on their son's reckless behavior.

"Are you ok to walk?" Lily asked Snape.

"Of course," he replied, although his body was protesting strongly. The adrenaline from the battle to escape had worn off, and he was beginning to feel the full pain of throwing his heavily-injured body around.

"Follow me then, Severus," Lily said. "I'll show you to a guest room."

As he hobbled after her, he saw the younger Potter hesitate, probably torn between curiosity about the strange newcomer and a desire to apologize to the Black girl. In the end, the boy hurried up the stairs before his mother, hoping to catch up with the others.

Distracted by watching the Potter boy's antics, Snape stumbled slightly on the first stair. He was just trying to arrange his unresponsive body in a manner to cushion the fall, when he felt a strong pair of hands catch him. He looked up into a pair of emerald green eyes.

"Too proud to ask for help from a girl, eh?" Lily said with a smile.

He didn't return her smile. Stupid to show such weakness to her. He always seemed to be stumbling all over himself in this reality. He hated needing her help.

"I was distracted," he said simply as he regained his footing. "It won't happen again."

She appeared taken aback by his curt response. That slightest recoil triggered a memory in Snape, a memory of how they had begun to fall apart. It had started when he began dabbling in Dark Magic. She would withdraw slightly whenever he talked about it, and he would ignore it, thinking that she would come around eventually. The older they grew, the more often she would recoil at his actions, failing to defend her to his new friends, criticizing her muggleborn acquaintances. She always recovered with a biting comment in return, but this time around, he knew better than to let her get too annoyed.

She had already opened her mouth to speak, probably to tell him that she might have known him in another universe, but he could sleep on the stairs if he was going to be rude, and she would take those creepy elf heads off the wall and hang them right over him so that he could have a good scare when he woke up.

"Sorry," he said quickly. "I've had a rough day. Could you help me up the stairs, please?"

He held out his hand to her a little nervously. He had never been very good at apologies.

But as she took his hand, he started to believe apologizing might be worth it.