Disclaimer: Well, I didn't buy any rights since my last chapter. So yet again I own nothing. (Well I do own things, like clothes, that would be a very horrific sight if I didn't own clothes.)

Chapter 2

"Wait up!" Eliza called. Harry turned around. The muggle girl had her hair tied back and was carrying a duffel bag across her chest. "Can I come with you?"

Harry's mouth stood ajar, and he blinked "Sorry, got a bit of earwax lodged in here." He stuck his finger in his ear and wiggled it around. "I thought you said you wanted to come with me." He laughed,

"I did"

"O…K" Harry answered very slowly "Why's that exactly?" Eliza sighed.

"I told you," she said very quietly. That was right. She had told Harry (When he was at wand point) that some Death Eaters had killed her cousin Clara as a joke.

Slowly Harry nodded. "OK but stay close to me."

~~x~~

Harry walked down the stairs to the entrance of their current abode. An abandoned bomb shelter from the Second World War. He knocked on the steel door three times; Sirius opened up a slit in the door. His personal touch, apparently but Harry thought it had been there for years, of course Harry never told his Godfather that there was rust on it.

"Password!"

"C'mon, it's me!"

"Password"

Harry banged his head off the door "Don't make me do it, it ruins the little dignity I have left."

"Password" He called yet again.

"God, you're like a broken record. OK… 'I'm a little tea pot, short and stout, he's my handle…'" (He did the motions) " '…Here's my spout'" (and again) " ' When the tea is boiling here me shout, then tip me up a pour me out.'"

Sirius gave a big smile and opened the door, "knew you would submit in the end" He pointed to Eliza

"She's with me," Harry said. He looked out to the distance. The Weasleys were all sitting on a balcony, legs dangling down. Dennis Creevy was sprawled on a table that was muggle garden furniture dozing off to sleep. Severus Snape noticed this and prodded him awake, who was sitting on one on the chairs, which belonged to the same collection.

When he had got all of their attention (Dennis was rubbing his eyes, trying to keep awake) Harry explained all about Eliza and how she was going to try and help them all.

"Ginny would you?"

"Of course"

Harry breathed with relief. Now that was over with he could relax. So he sat down on one of the garden chairs. He never really realised how uncomfortable these chairs were until he tried to relax in one. No wonder Dennis had gone. When he found he couldn't relax he picked up a report and started to read it.

Then he noticed that Snape was giving him a very strange look, as though he was examining Harry for potions practical.

"What?" Harry asked him after looking behind to see if Snape was looking at someone behind him

"Oh nothing…just wondering."

"Wondering what?" Harry asked him ever cautious.

"Whether…" Snape started, but soon gave up, so started something on a new approach. "Do you remember your parents at all?"

"What sort of a question is that?" Harry exploded.

"So do you?"

"No, not very much"

Snape raised his eyebrows at him. "Not very much?"

Harry slammed the report on the table. "Dam it Snape I don't want to talk about it. Go away!"

But Snape didn't go away; in fact he got more comfortable, or at least tried to. "Well Potter, I remember them"

"Yes I know…" Harry said "My dad was a brat and I'm just like him, I've heard this story before Severus, actually, it's gone stale. Why don't you tell me the one where you got turned into a rabbit, I want to hear that one from your point of view."

Snape chose to ignore him. "That was indeed the case."

"What, you getting turned into a rabbit...?"

"About your father Potter. He was an annoying little brat and I don't deny it. But I never was able to tell you how sorry I am that your mother died"

Harry picked up the report again. "Why do you care? You hated my parents…"

"I hated your father, not your mother"

Harry peered from his report and smiled at Snape, how he would smile at Ron, a smile of mischief. "What you had a crush on her or something?"

Snape looked quite uncomfortable.

"Oh God." Harry sighed. "You know that's no the most nicest thought in the world finding out someone you hate had a crush on your mother"

Snape was looking even more uncomfortable every second. "Well I sort of did" he muttered darkly to the table.

"Oh, she was OK." Harry breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well," Snape was saying again, drawing circles with his index finger. "She was more than OK."

Harry furrowed his eyebrows at the former potion's teacher. "What on earth are you…" Harry's face fell. Suddenly he realised; it was if all this time it was so blatantly obvious, everything was so obvious. "You loved her." He said in a small voice. "That's why you hated my dad so much, that's why you hate me." It wasn't a question it was a statement. Snape shifted again, something was still bottled up. "Or do you? Hate me?" No answer, again he shifted. "You don't. You never did. Why did you pretend?"

Snape looked at Harry for a spilt second then continued to draw circles. He didn't answer. Harry sighed, got up and went into the training room. There he took great enjoyment in the empty room hitting the punch bag with all his might pretending it to be Snape.

The metal door opened with an almighty clang. "Harry…" Said a nervous voice that belonged to Severus Snape. "We need to talk

"No we don't."

"Yes."

"Fine!" Harry submitted, throwing his boxing gloves on the floor. "Fine, tell me how you loved my mother. How you longed for her. Tell me how you envied my dad more than anything. That you've lied to me for this long, pretending to hate me when you didn't!"

Snape bowed his head "Tell me!" Harry yelled again. "Tell me you loved her, I want to hear it from you."

With great effort and still looking at the table he muttered darkly, more to him self more to Harry "I loved her."

Harry looked at him, swallowed quite a few times and asked something again. "What about me?"

Snape then looked at Harry, tears in his eyes, and, his voice full of bitterness said. "You should have been my child."

"What!"

Snape swallowed. "You should have been mine. Not James Potter's. When they died, I thought what could have happened if you were mine. Day dreamed. When I saw you again, I began to believe my own propaganda. Began to think that you were mine. But then when I really saw you, I knew you weren't. So I got angry."

Now it was Harry's turn to look at the floor. His world was crumbling. This wasn't right, Snape hated him, always had hated him. But seeing Harry, was that some reminder that he could never have Lily?

"If you touched her" Harry spat "I'll kill you." Snape bowed his head so Harry ran up at him, put an arm under the older man's chin and rammed him against the wall.

"Touch her! I wish" Harry pressed harder. Snape didn't react to this, but he did reach out and touch Harry's cheek.

"Don't" Harry told him "Don't touch me like a son, because I'm not yours, and I never will be."

"I can't help it. For ten years, I tricked my self to think you were mine. I hated my self for it, and James, but not you. I could never hate you. You were my son, if ever only inside my own head. I haven't changed."

Not knowing what to say, what to do, Harry grabbed Snape by the collar, punched him in the eye, and kicked him in the stomach so he went flying across the room.

"You're not my father!" Harry yelled in a whisper. "You never have been, and never will be. My father died for me. And I know that, because I remember that. You're not half the man he was!"