It all started with a Pensieve

Chapter Five

Harry sat, unable to keep his attention on the potion, Ron and him were making. In fact, he didn't even know what this potion was supposed to do once it was finished. All his attention was focused mainly on the Professor, who sat grading papers at the front of the classroom, with a sneer on his face. It was strange for Harry to think that the man who had been in his arms sobbing uncontrollably only hours ago, was the same man who had just given Neville a detention for sneezing into his potion.

"Harry!" Ron hissed into Harry's ear, not wanting Snape to hear, "Merlin, are you even awake? You haven't been paying attention to a word I've been telling you, have you?" Harry looked up from his ponderings and faced Ron.

"Sorry, I'm just a little tired today," he admitted. "What were you saying?" He quickly changed the subject, not wanting Ron to give him another lecture.

"Maybe you should go and see Madam Pomfrey." He suggested. He was getting slightly worried about Harry. He was always tired all the time. "I mean, Malfoy or some other Slytherin could have hexed you, or something. You might be sick." Ron attempted another approach, because the one he had been taking hadn't been working very well.

"I'm fine, Ron. I just haven't been sleeping well." Harry looked back down at the instructions he had absent mindedly copied down. "Where are we again?" He asked, indicating the potion.

Ron rolled his eyes, but refrained from saying anything. Instead he handed Harry a jar of batwings that needed to be chopped.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Something is definitely up with Harry," Hermione remarked, as her and Ron sat in the common room playing chess. Ron was of course winning.

"Yeah, where is he now anyway?" Ron asked, scanning the room, but finding no sign of him anywhere.

"I don't know. I really should apologize to him one of these days, but God, he doesn't take anything seriously. He's so off track. It's not like him." Hermione told Ron, while moving her Queen a few spaces to the right.

"I really don't know what to do anymore. I told him to go and see Madam Pomfrey, but he didn't listen." Ron sighed and put Hermione's King in check. "He hasn't been listening for weeks," He added. Hermione nodded and blocked her King, not really paying much attention to what she was doing. Despite her intelligence, Hermione had never been a very talented chess player.

"I wonder, maybe it's Cho, I mean she did dump him." Hermione was struck with the notion.

"That was last month, and he didn't seem all that upset then. I don't think he ever liked her as much as he let on," Ron pondered, finally ending the game, as Ron's Knight slammed into Hermione's King. "Play you again?" He asked, grinning.

Hermione rolled her eyes slightly. "I've got homework, and so do you," He pointed out, searching through her book bag and pulling out a large textbook. Ron did the same and soon began writing his history paper.

"He was doing the oddest thing in Potion's class today," Ron remembered, dipping his quill into ink and straightening out a long piece of parchment.

"Oh?" Hermione answered, not really listening,

"Yeah, he just stared at Snape through the whole lesson. It was too weird. I mean I was trying to tell him that idea we had to get the Slytherins during their quidditch match next week, and he just wasn't listening. He just kept staring at Snape. Then when I did manage to get his attention, he started cutting up the batwings and nearly took his finger off because he wasn't looking at what he was doing." Ron told her, and Hermione perked up a little, now listening.

"Why was he looking at Snape?" She inquired.

"I didn't ask. It would just set him off again." Ron knew he was right, as did Hermione. "It was just strange, that's all." She nodded in agreement.

"I know we haven't had much luck talking to him, but maybe we should try again. You know be a little more serious this time." Ron shook his head.

"It'll never work, we'll just have to find out on our own." Ron replied.

"I suppose," she exhaled, disliking that she didn't get her own way.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Harry sat in the window at the astronomy tower, not doing much, just watching the sun set down on the grounds of Hogwarts. He didn't know whether he should go down to Snape's chambers tonight. He was really tired and could certainly use a good nights sleep, but at the same time he needed to know more. His gaze wandered into the distance to see a snowy white owl come flying into view. Hedwig! She had come back and she was carrying a crumpled piece of parchment in her talons. Harry stood up, and watched as she flew closer into sight.

She swooped down into the window and dropped the letter into Harry's hand. "Thank you, Hedwig, good girl." With that she flew back out of the window, heading for the Owlery.

Harry checked to make sure that no one was around and then quickly unfolded the parchment. It was ripped and torn, and also had smears and stains covering it, making some of the roughly printed words harder to read, but it was clearly from Sirius. And despite all the things that Harry was angry about that had to do with Sirius, and more importantly Snape, he couldn't help but feel slightly better knowing he had written.

Dear Harry,

It's good to hear from you, Harry. I'm sorry that I can't write more, but a heard of Dementors are on my trail and I don't have long. There are a lot of pranks you could use, but they'd take too long to write out. Instead, on the Marauder's Map, tap your wand and say 'tricks of the trade.' A list will appear with some good pranks and how to do them.

On how we got Snape to go down to the Shrieking Shake, well it probably won't work on Malfoy. You see, Snape always followed us around. We figured for a really long time that he just wanted to get us in trouble, but then we found out that the sick pervert had a thing for Remus. Well, you can guess that it would be pretty easy to lure him down with that info. All I told him was that Remus actually liked him and wanted to meet him down there. It was too easy! Anyway, I hope it helped. Like I said, it probably won't work on Malfoy, but you never know. I'll try and see you sometime soon. I'm thinking of dropping by during Christmas. Love Snuffles.

Harry put down the parchment with a shaking hand. He couldn't believe it. Snape liked Professor Lupin. That meant Snape was gay. "Oh, Merlin." Harry swore under his breath, quietly. He slipped the letter into his robe pocket and vacated the astronomy tower, heading for the common room.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ron and Hermione had long given up their homework and were now, sitting in front of the fire, next to Neville, Lavender and Seamus, with a spare piece of parchment in front of them, planning their next move on Slytherin. It was going to be brilliant. Slytherin and Ravenclaw were having a quidditch game the following week, and the winner was in the play-offs, against Gryffindor.

They had devised a plan. It was brilliant, but there was only one problem. They wanted it to be in the play-off game. It would of course still work during the match against Ravenclaw, but there would be something much more amusing about it, if it were against Ravenclaw. So for this to work they had to make sure Ravenclaw lost. The idea the Slytherin was the team to beat this year was ludicrous.

All the decent players had gradated from Slytherin, leaving them with a second rate team, that Ravenclaw, who had a stronger team then ever before, was sure to beat. It sounded funny, but the planning was to make sure Slytherin won. The five Gryffindores could hardly stop laughing at the idea that they were trying to help the Slytherins. But of course it would ruin the whole thing if the Slytherin team, or any other Slytherin for that matter, found out.

Of course it had to be done quickly. The play-offs were to take place at Christmas this year. The only reason for this was that another school, an American one, Coronation was the name, Hermione was sure, was having a competition. It was much like the Triwizard Tournament, but slightly shorter. Because of the yearly pranking of Gryffindor and Slytherin, the seventh years all opted not to go, but the sixth years were. They were to be over in America by the end of Christmas Holidays. Dumbledore hadn't wanted to cancel quidditch all together, so the play-offs were early this year.

Hermione sat, parchment in hand, scribbling notes that the rest of them were dolling out, on how to make sure Ravenclaw lost. It was a pretty good list so far, and Hermione couldn't help but feel a little bad when they decided they were going to have to injure the Ravenclaw seeker, a small third year boy, the day before the game, so they would have to use their back-up, who wasn't quite so talented. When the list hit number thirty- four, the portrait of the Fat Lady opened, and in walked Harry.

"Hey, Harry. Come over here. You have got to see this," proclaimed Seamus, who wasn't aware of the slight tension between Harry and Hermione. Harry said nothing, instead just heading up the stairs for his dormitory.

"What was that about?" Neville asked Hermione, after watching Harry completely ignore his friends.

"He's been a little testy lately," Hermione explained, deciding not to tell them the whole story.

"I should probably go talk to him," Ron sighed and got up from his cozy spot by the fire and walked up the steep flight of stairs, leading to the dormitory. He opened the door to see Harry lying on his bed, reading a piece of scrap parchment. "What's wrong?" He asked, not wanting to sound to annoyed. "You should see what we're planning. It's going to be so funny."

"Go away, Ron." Harry didn't exactly sound angry, more like he just wanted to be left alone. "I don't want to talk to anyone now." He added, not bothering to look up from the note he was reading.

"What are you reading?" Ron refused to just leave without an explanation. Maybe it was a letter from Cho. She was working at the Ministry now, that's why they broke up. "Is it from Cho?" He asked, with a slight grin.

Harry looked up, clearly not amused. "Get the hell out of here, Ron. I said I wanted to be alone!" Then he turned his attention back down to the dirty parchment.

"Fine! God, you've been such a bastard to everyone lately. I come up here, only wanting to help and you bite my head off. Grow up, Harry." Ron stomped away, obviously pissed, and slammed the door behind him.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It was later that night that a happier Ron and Seamus marched back up to the dormitory to sleep. Ron had told Hermione about what had happened when they got a second alone. Even though he was angry with Harry, he wasn't about to go around and announce to the whole common room about a jackass he was being.

The group continued to do their planning and at just after one in the morning, had decided to call it quits for the night and start again the following day. Neville had nearly fallen asleep earlier and at around eleven had packed it in, leaving the two girls and two boys to finish their work.

Ron and Seamus opened the common room door and said their good nights. Seamus fell asleep in seconds, but Ron didn't. After about thirty minutes of lying prone on his bed, unable to sleep he realized that he couldn't hear Harry's soft snores. He must have been awake too.

Ron, deciding to end his and Harry's tiff before it went onto a full fledged fight, got out of bed and tramped over to Harry's, careful not to wake anyone up. He pulled back the curtains, "Harry?" He asked softly, but got no response. His bed was empty.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Harry stumbled along the corridor to Snape's room. He had heard Ron and Seamus come in and decided he needed to get some air. It's funny how he was intending to go out for a stroll around the quidditch field, and ended up in the dungeons, No one would notice him at least. Why did Ron have to be such a busybody, anyway? It didn't concern him what he had been reading. Harry knew he was just trying to help, but he really didn't want to hear it.

The entrance to Snape's chambers were the same as always, and Harry snuck in, concealed within his invisibility cloak and found the darkened pensieve, exactly where it had been before. Harry dipped his finger into the wetness and felt himself being pulled upwards.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

He landed roughly, harder then he had before and stood up. He knew where he was. He had been here before, many times in fact, the Potion's classroom. Students, probably first years, sat in groups of two, listening to a young women speak about a potion. She was short, and had what looked like it would have been frizzy red hair, but it was tired in a tight bun, and had heavy gel on it. She wasn't old, mid twenties perhaps, not old at all, and by Wizarding standards, she could probably be still teaching at Hogwarts. Her robes were dark blue, which showed off her slim form. All and all Harry actually found her rather attractive. The only odd thing about her was large, about three times as big was her eyes, circle shaped glasses, which were bright red. Harry had to suppress a short laugh when it reminded him of an old muggle talk show host.

Harry scanned the classroom, and his eyes fell automatically on himself, well not quite himself, Harry remembered, his father. Sitting beside him was a tall, well-built boy with longer dark hair, it had to be Sirius. Behind him was a fragile looking boy, extremely pale, with hollows under his eyes. Harry recognized him to be a younger version of Professor Lupin. And beside him was a pretty girl, with short red hair, and sparkling green eyes. It was his mother.

As the Professor droned on, Harry took a few steps closer to this group and watched them closely. They were talking softly out of the corners of their mouths. He listened and caught part of their conversation.

"So it's settled then?" Asked a younger Sirius Black.

"Yep, right when the bell rings," Confirmed Harry's father, sitting next to him, with a goofy grin on his face. They said nothing more that Harry could hear, so he looked back around the classroom and saw, at the other side of the room Snape. It was very clearly him. Scrawny with a dark mop of unclean black hair, and piercing black eyes, oh yes, it was definitely Snape. He walked over to the other side of the class to see him sitting next to Lucius Malfoy. It had to be. He bore a striking resemblance to Draco.

Only seconds later the bell rang, and Harry's future Potion's professor carried his books out of the classroom, with Lucius beside him.

"How boring is she?" Lucius drawled, "And to think I was actually looking forward to potions," He said with an animated yawn.

"I think she was brilliant," Snape's voice was quiet and hardly audible, and Lucius didn't seem to hear, and even if he didn't he clearly couldn't have cared less. Harry had to smile. Leave it to Snape to enjoy a Potion's professor worse the Professor Binns.

"I have to run back to the dorms. I forgot my Transfiguration notebook. I'll meet you there, okay?" Lucius said, as he ran off down another corridor. Snape nodded and kept walking through the dungeons.

"Hey, Snape," Someone called from behind him. Harry turned to see his father, his Godfather, and a sheepish looking Lupin standing behind Snape.

"What do you want, Potter?" Snape's lip curled up in disgust.

"You're such a know-it-all." Sirius said raising his eyebrow. "I bet you spend all you free time studying," He mocked.

"Well, that's what happens when you don't have any friends," Laughed Harry's father. Harry couldn't help, but want to lead his Professor away, and teach him how to fight back, which he obviously wasn't doing.

Lupin looked away, as if he really didn't want to be there. "What do you have next? Transfiguration?" Asked Sirius, in a sickly sweet voice, as he glanced at the books in his hands. Then without any warning James seized the book from Snape's hand, and begun to tear pages out of it. Snape tried to make a grab for it, but the much larger Sirius, held him back. James continued until the book lay in shreds on the stone ground. Harry felt horrible as he saw tears that Snape was trying to hold back, fall from his eyes.

James laughed loudly at this, and dropped the useless book. "Cry-baby," He muttered as him and Sirius walked up the stairs, laughing like idiots. Lupin remained.

"Sorry about that," Remus murmured, as he dropped to his knees and began to gather all the pages together. Snape was dumbfounded, clearly, by Lupin not laughing at him. Snape helped sort through them to, until most of the pages were in order.

"Thanks," Snape whispered, blushing a little.

"No problem." Lupin replied, standing up, and brushing off his knees. "I don't know a spell to put them back together, but maybe Malfoy does. And even if he doesn't, one of the older students would." Lupin told him, with a slight smile.

"Thanks," Snape repeated, Harry couldn't help but allow a slight smile at Snape being so bashful.

"I'll see you around some time," And with that Lupin took off, running down the corridor to catch up with Sirius and James.

Harry watched as Snape straightened his robes and began down the hallway, probably late for class, but it didn't seem to bother him too much. Just then Harry felt the feeling of being pulled away from the scene and he landed back down in Snape's private chambers.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

This was probably my longest yet! Anyway I hope you all enjoyed. I know that everyone does the whole Snape like Lupin and all that about the whole Shrieking Shake incident, but I love that idea! So please review and tell me what you think. I'm so happy about the number of reviews I've gotten, but I still want more. LOL! Give me a break will you? So the next chapter should be out soon, probably by mid next week, if I can get around to it.