Disclaimer: One Piece and Harry Potter does not belong to me, each belongs to their respective author.

Challenge by TheBlackSeaReaper.

Beta: UnorthodoxDreamer

-.- Firefly at night

Snape was not very fond of returning home in the summer. Hogwarts had always been his true home, not his second home, but his real home. Here in this small house, covered in books and dust, there wasn't much to do, the only entertaining activity was read the books he had, new and old.

But tonight his mind was elsewhere, while his body remained on a sofa with a book opened and unread in his lap, as his thoughts were kept focusing on one of his students: Harry Potter, better known as Portgas D. Ace.

The boy had been a problem even before entering Hogwarts; two years ago the brat had chosen to run away from home. Not that he blamed the child, if Petunia was the same as he remembered from his childhood, he was sure that any child's first reaction would be run away from that house.

The boy proved more elusive than he has expected, a single moment they lost sight of him and the boy disappeared, moving to another city without a trace.

Then he arrived at Hogwarts and from the first night he gave problems, starting with the sorting ceremony. The moment they called him to come forward and be sorted, he refused, according to Minerva McGonagall; he would not go forward until he was called by the name Portgas D. Ace.

Why Portgas D. Ace? Dumbledore had hundreds of theories, some as likely as the rest of them. But for Severus this only meant one thing: Ace refused to acknowledge the first and last name given to him by James Potter; so Ace refused to acknowledge James Potter as his father. And while Severus tried to resist pleasing the child with such a fad, it was not difficult to follow the action from Ace to deny James; it was impossible to see his old rival school in Portgas D. Ace; the child looked nothing like James Potter. The hair color was perhaps the same, black, but all his features were not of Potter, not even Lily's; the eyes that everyone said were those of Lily were dull green. It was like a completely different person, one more student, unrelated to Potter and Lily.

From the first day all things about the child was surprise.

Portgas suffered from narcolepsy. Where had he inherited a strange disease when no one else in his family had it? That was a mystery. All the staff had read a book of modern muggle medicine (Hermione Granger had given it to McGonagall), only to understand that disease, and it clearly said that those who suffer from this disease, also suffered from depression. But the child didn't suffer from any form depression, Severus had secretly search for additional information and had confirmed that depression was one of the symptoms and a recommendation was that one should not eat too much, something that Portgas didn't follow.

Ace eaten twice what an adult would, it was estimated that all that the girls in higher grades did not eat by dieting, was all the extra food that Ace eaten, even more. Further proof of this was the great amount that they had to pay to the Leaky Cauldron for a month's stay.

Perhaps it was for this reason that he had so many problems with the muggles, to maintain an appetite like that was surely costly. Given this scenario, the idea of touring in summer across England did not sound as insane as many may have thought.

At this moment, thought Severus, Ace must be with Minerva McGonagall. Who would go crazy first? Snape didn't know who to bet on. But one thing was certain, with this he confirmed that the professor had a weak spot on unruly and disruptive students, as with Potter and Sirius Black. Meanwhile Severus preferred to those who strove to outdo themselves and move on.

Suddenly he dropped the book and groaned in exasperation as he raised his head to look at the ceiling, trying to erase the image that had arrived in his mind without warning.

For nearly six months, Severus Snape had been tormented by the memory of the vision he had seen in that closet just before winter break. The image of Portgas D. Ace, with his face covered with tears had been engraved in his mind deeper than the mark he carried on his arm. From time to time, that image resurfaced in his mind and those dull green eyes, which were not those of Lily, tormented him with the words he had read in the mind of Ace.

All he had thought or hoped of Harry Potter was completely different to what Portgas D. Ace was; as if they were two different people. You could summarize that Ace was a mystery that intrigued Severus Snape, which led to the question:

Just who was Portgas D. Ace?

Only time would tell.