Chapter 25

Harry woke up refreshed in a way he could not remember feeling before. He grabbed his wand from his headboard (Harry had found that there was a nook for his wand last night along with one for his glasses) and dispelled the Tempus charm he had set to wake him. While he lay there, Harry took stock of what he had accomplished so far. He had claimed his inheritance (although he still needed to speak to Sliphook about Draco also being Heir Apparent for the House of Black), had befriended Draco, snubbed Ron, hopefully enlightened Hermione (though he was taking no chances – this girl was not his friend, she may be different from his Hermione, but that didn't mean he should trust her), become a Slytherin, disappointed Dumbledore (not to mention the Weasleys), and shocked Snape. Ah yes, Snape. There was that look from last night that Harry had been pondering on. He needed to nip this in the bud.

Harry hurried through his morning shower and dressed with care. His dorm-mates were up by the time he finished his shower, so he told them he would see them at breakfast and left to see Snape. Going down into the common room, he walked towards the door that Snape had said was to his office. Hoping the man was an early riser, he knocked on the door.

"Come in.", responded Snape to the knock. Harry entered and closed the door behind him.

"Ah, Mr. Potter, what can I do for you this fine morning?", asked his head of house, looking anywhere but at Harry's face. Harry looked around for the spell he thought might be here. Noticing a slight glow from a drawer in Snape's desk, he pointed to it.

"Can I see what is in this drawer, sir?" asked Harry

"What are you playing at, Potter?" sneered Snape, all politeness from the moment before gone. He stood over the desk menacingly.

"Sir," said Harry placatingly, "I can see a glow, and I thought it was from a spell. You see, I can sometimes see marks like that since I turned 11." lied Harry, convincingly. No need for Snape to be any more suspicious than he would be.

"That is quite the rare magical gift."said Snape, calming down. He opened the drawer and pulled out a picture. As he handed it to Harry, he said, "I suppose you know that I went to school with your mother and father?", Harry nodded, "This is a picture of your mother and I from that time. We were partners in Charms and Potions, as well as friends." Snape said this last with a sigh.

Harry accepted the picture and saw that the same spell marks from Dumbledore's letter to Petunia were here. His face must have shown some anger, as Snape asked what was wrong. "What's wrong? This is the first picture I've ever seen of my own mother! That's what's wrong!" said Harry, thinking fast. While Snape sat back to think about that, Harry repeated the same movement he had before to dispel the picture of the charm it was carrying.

"What was that, Mr. Potter?", asked Snape, as he felt the magic in the room flare briefly.

"More meddling," mumbled Harry, "Sorry, sir. It seems there was some sort of charm on the picture that was harming it, I removed it and now the only charms on it are your preservation spell and the standard ever-clean spells."

"How do you know which spells are on something like that? I've only heard of a very few cases of true spell-sight, and you say this just started happening on your eleventh birthday?", asked Snape, surprised.

"I've been studying everything on it since it started happening. Scared me at first, all this stuff glowing and I didn't know why it would." said Harry, "Then I found out I'm a wizard and that made it a lot easier to understand things. I have had strange dreams ever since I could remember of green light flying at me, and now I know it's because I could see the spell that killed my mother and was supposed to kill me – the Avada Kedavra. I don't know why I didn't see any other spells until I turned eleven, but I figure it's because I'm strong enough magically now. All my spells have worked so far on the first or second try. So that might be why. What do you think Professor?" Harry rambled all of this out, hoping Snape would buy his explanation.

Snape seemed to consider this for a few moments. He certainly had no better explanation, but was also worried about news like this getting out. He had approach this carefully, Snape needed to be his ally in this life.

"Um, Professor, you said that a magical gift like this was pretty rare, right?" Snape nodded at this. "Then, can we keep this between us? I don't want to be treated any more different than I will be, being who I am.".

Snape looked relieved at this, he certainly didn't want this information getting out. He still had to think on what Harry had said about having never seen a picture of Lily. How could Albus do that to the boy? He had to find out more information, and until he did, he would not be telling anyone anything!

"Harry," said Snape, "I meant what I said about confidentiality when it comes to things discussed in this office. Since you have spell-sight, you should be able to see the spells around the office for privacy and anti-eavesdropping, as well as a locking spell on the door." Harry looked around and nodded. He had seen them when he came in, but didn't want to give up the game just yet.

"That's what those are! I was wondering – I know what the locking spell looks like, but didn't know what the others were for." Harry lied.

"I realize we have become side-tracked. So, what did you come to see me for this early on your first day?" asked Snape, kindly.

"I was worried about how the school will react to me being a Slytherin, sir. I read that both my parents were Gryffindors, but I'm glad to know they were at least friends with people from other houses." he said this with a slight smile at Snape. "I know that everyone says that Slytherin is a den of snakes and are all Dark wizards in training, but I don't think that cunning and ambitious means evil and Dark."

Snape looked surprised at this, but said, "Harry, Slytherins stick together! No one will bother you and if they do, you can always come to see me about it. No one has the right to expect you to be your parents. As you have had a different life from them, it is only natural that you would be different from them. Don't let people's expectations define you – that's one thing I try to teach all of my Snakes. You can have cunning and ambition while still being true to yourself."

"Thank you, sir. I hadn't thought of it like that." said Harry. "I'll see you at breakfast, sir."

"You're welcome Harry. And remember, my door is always open if you need to discuss anything."

"I might, sir." said Harry in a small voice as he left.

Snape sat at his desk pondering the mystery that was Harry Potter. No doubt he had James' hair and poor eyesight, but he definitely had Lily's eyes and manner. Throw in spell-sight and what he had gleaned about Harry not knowing about his parents (he had caught the reference to having read about them – was there no one to tell the boy about them?) even to what they had looked like. He had a lot to consider and knew he would be keeping his own counsel on this one.