Disclaimer: I don't own the world of Harry Potter, just this plot.

A/N: Happy Turkey Day!!!! This gets to come out a day early because of it! That is what I am thankful for.

A/N (2): This chapter is for Anora who for some odd reason really wanted a white mouse in this chapter. What else can I do under that kind of pressure, but oblige?

A/N (3): If anyone knows a good beta or would like to beta for me, could you please contact me. I now have my email posted on my author page! Thanks!

Harry Potter walked into Number Four Privet Drive with a heavy heart. He was very late, thanks to Mr. Snape stopping him in the hall. He figured though, that he probably would have been just as late if he was forced to limp all the way home. At least this way, he wouldn't have the almost unbearable pain in his ankle.

What greeted Harry was not the sight of an angry Aunt Petunia ready to lock him in his cupboard. In fact, nobody was in the entrance or the living room. Harry thought that maybe they were all eating an early dinner, so he headed for the kitchen.

Once Harry opened the door leading to the kitchen, he had to bite his bottom lip to stop himself from laughing. Aunt Petunia was standing up on the table screeching and pointing wildly in what seemed to be random directions. Dudley saw Harry walk in and he began yelling and jumping up and down on the chair he was standing on.

Harry had no idea what caused his family members to behave like that, but he wasn't going to let a good moment go to waste. He wanted to savor every moment of the delicious display of what Harry could see as abnormalcy. After all, he was the one who was supposed to be a freak. How many people actually stood up on tables and yelled and pointed like a crazy person? Harry was willing to bet everything he owned (which wasn't very much, but still) that the Dursley's behavior would be seen by almost all of England as downright abnormal.

Harry didn't have too long to ponder on their odd behavior, though, when he looked down to see a mouse scuttle by. So that was why they were acting so strangely. It was just a mouse. Harry didn't see what the big deal was. He could just go get it and put it outside. So, Harry walked over to the corner, where the mouse was hiding, and picked it up as gently as possible. He began stroking the soft white fur with one hand and turned around to his Aunt Petunia and Dudley.

Dudley had gotten so excited that Harry had caught the mouse that he gave one last jump on the chair and the chair collapsed. Harry hid a snort of laughter with a fit of coughing. When he finally thought that he would be able to control himself, he asked his Aunt Petunia what he should do with the mouse.

"Kill the disgusting beast!" his Aunt screeched almost hysterically. Harry didn't really want to kill the mouse, but he knew he would be punished if he protested. Instead, he nodded and walked out to the backyard. Once there, he went to the fence and let the mouse go under the loose fence post. It immediately scurried away and Harry felt a pang of regret. He could have been friends with that mouse. Sighing, he stood up and walked back inside the house.

Dudley was nowhere in sight and his Aunt Petunia seemed to have collected herself. The only way that Harry even knew that she knew he was there was her pointing at the now completely destroyed chair and telling him to take care of it. Harry sighed, it was going to be a long night. After all, he couldn't pick up the chair in one trip. He took over an hour to finally pick up all of the pieces.

Dinner that night was a tense affair. Harry was forced to eat on the floor, since it was his fault that Dudley broke the chair. Harry was still trying to figure out how his Aunt and Uncle had come to that conclusion but stopped after a while since he figured it was one of those 'You'll understand when you're older' situations. Harry was thankful, though, at least they were being nice enough to feed him

~*~

Severus was tired. He had had a long day. He swore that muggle children were even more daft that magical ones. How did their parents live with them? And to think that they got worse when they were teenagers!

Suddenly, Severus recognized a small presence in the room. Of course, Potter, how could he have forgotten? The boy was already putting himself into life threatening situations. After all, most children when they did accidental magic, just levitated small objects or something of that nature. Of course, who would expect anything less dazzling than a full apparition onto the school roofs of the Boy-Who-Lived.

Severus didn't care what Minerva thought about the boy's family. Albus was right. Potter already was acting just as foolishly as his father and he didn't even know the bloody man! He shuddered to think how arrogant the boy would be once he found out he was the supposed savior of the wizarding world.

With these thoughts in mind, Severus gave the boy his iciest glare and barked at him, "Well, what is it, I don't have the time to waste by watching you gawk all day like a country yokel, Mr. Potter." Severus smirked to himself as the boy cringed away from him. Something was so satisfying in seeing a Potter, albeit a miniature one scared of him.

"If you please, sir, Mr. Snape, sir. You asked me to come, sir." Severus cringed at the way the boy sounded.

"I am well aware of the fact, Mr. Potter. Now sit down and stop jabbering away like a house elf." Once again Severus was pleased that he was able to shut the boy up. Yet the look on his face was not one of fear. Dare he say, it was one of curiosity.

"What's a house elf?" Potter asked with interest. Damn! He forgot that the boy lived like a muggle. How could he have let something so simple slip? Well, he wasn't about to tell the boy his heritage now. Something about Potter told him that the boy was the type to ask thousands of questions and Severus already had a throbbing headache from the insufferable brats he had to teach earlier.

"That is none of your concern, now, show me your ankle." Severus said sharply. There, the old look of fear was back. Put the brat back in his place. He watched with a small amount of interest as the boy easily slipped his large pant leg up his leg. 'Stupid muggle fashions. The boy looks absolutely ridiculous in those large clothes,' Severus thought to himself. Once Potter was finally done getting his ankle ready for inspection, Severus looked at it and decided that it was fine and that the boy would be running around with his friends at break the next day as usual.

"It seems that you have healed well under my ministrations, Mr. Potter." Severus said to the boy. He watched as Harry looked up at him.

"I could have fixed it! I've done it before." Severus just snorted at him and gave him an intense glare.

"Yes, that is why you were still limping days after you had been injured! You were fixing it yourself. I see, how silly of me. Next time, perhaps I should just let you fix it!" Potter's eyes had gone wide at this and Severus noted that once again he was able to deflate the boy's ego. What were those stupid muggles teaching him?

Severus dismissed the boy with a wave of his hand and watched, satisfied, when he almost flew from his presence.

~*~

Harry stood uncertainly on the front porch of Mr. Snape. The cranky man hadn't asked for his help, but he wanted to thank him in some way for helping with his ankle. Besides, anything to get away from the Dursley's for an afternoon. Hesitating only a moment longer at this thought, Harry rang the doorbell. Then he waited. He remembered last time when he didn't wait long enough and did not want to repeat the experience.

Surely, though, Mr. Snape did in fact open his door and seemed shocked for the briefest moment to see Harry standing there. He quickly replaced his mask and looked down disdainfully at Harry. Harry shivered, sometimes Mr. Snape could be scarier than Uncle Vernon.

"What is it, Mr. Potter." Mr. Snape barked at him.

"I – I just wanted to say thank you for helping my ankle, Mr. Snape. And did you need any help today?" Harry said as quietly as he could while still being heard. Mr. Snape seemed to contemplate his words for a moment and then held the door open while signaling Harry inside. Harry took his chance and darted in the door.

Once inside, Harry looked around with fascination. Harry didn't know what he expected the man's house to look like, but it wasn't what he was looking at, that was for sure. The Mr. Snape's house was absolutely dull. Harry didn't know how the man could stand it. He knew that if he had to look at blank white walls and empty shelves all day he would be bored to tears. Even the pictures of Dudley all over the place at the Dursley's was better than this!

Harry felt it wise not to comment, though, as he was still glad and frankly surprised that Mr. Snape had let him come in at all. So, he merely followed Mr. Snape to a closet in the hallway and watched as he pulled out some cleaning fluids and a rag. Mr. Snape then sprayed the rag with the fluid and put the rest of the cleaning fluid carefully away in the closet. He then handed Harry the rag.

"If you must, you may dust the living room. Do try and not destroy anything. Oh, and keep the rag out of your mouth. We can't have you dying on us, now can we?" Mr. Snape said sarcastically.

Harry puffed up with indignation. He dusted with the bottle all the time at the Dursleys. How old did he think he was? Two? Honestly, Harry had half a mind to tell the man that very well knew how to dust without killing himself. Either that or shove the rag into his mouth just to spite him. Shaking his head and trying to control his anger, Harry twirled around and stomped towards what he assumed to be the living room.

"Mr. Potter, it would be very difficult to dust the living room while in the kitchen." Harry blushed crimson. Of course something like that would happen to him. He couldn't even be angry like a normal person. Figures. Not willing to show how utterly stupid the man made him feel, Harry turned around sharply, and with head held high, strode past Mr. Snape and into the living room to help the man dust.

He did have to use every ounce of will power not to 'accidentally' break something, though. The only thing that stopped him was knowing that the Dursley's were worse and if he did break something then Mr. Snape probably wouldn't let him come back anymore. Even if Mr. Snape was cranky sometimes, it was still better than the Dursley's. Harry hadn't once heard the man call him a freak, and that was an improvement in and of itself.

~~~~~

To My Reviewers:

Maikafuiniel – Kateri1 – ER – Shezan – Prd2bAmerican18 – DxInsider – Kady Rilla Wholi – tia – SilverKnight7 – howling wolf1 -

Tati1 – What the Dursley's do to Harry counts as both. They verbally abuse him like calling him a 'good for nothing freak' as well as neglect him by making him sleep in a cupboard among other things. Yeah, just a Snape and Harry friendship fic. I'm glad you like Severus being nice to Harry, I am afraid he wasn't too nice in this chapter, though.

JerseyPike – Yeah, he has no patience whatsoever!

Kenny7 – Yeah, I know its horrible, but if some kid told you they just ended up on the roof while jumping, would you believe them? I wouldn't!

AdoringFan – I dunno where I was…

RaitslinofMetallica – aww, sorry tom is ignoring you!

Anora  - hope you liked the mouse, also, hope your dreams are getting better. If I ever have a dream with either mice or rats I will know who to come to!

Softballluver – I'm glad you like this!!!

Azntgr01 – Yeah, but still, Harry's story is a bit farfetched even if it is true!

GoddessMoonLady – Yeah, it's too bad the only one who can believe him is Snape.

Amber16 – Sorry for your lack of sleep, that happens to me a lot. Your staring has definitely made me type faster!!!

Gina – Thanks! I'm glad you still like it!!!

Shortnsassy – ahhh, Snape definitely did not ask about his home life in this chapter.

Felinity – nope, snape is dense!

Harry's Muggle Sister – Yeah, I just loved that part from the book and had to put my two cents in about it!

Mikee – Hopefully eventually Snape will catch on, but for now he is still seeing what he wants to see.

Tamer – Um yeah, your review confused me, but thanks for liking it…santa….good idea, cute!

Cally – in order to have snape teach harry hexes then He would have to tell Harry everything and Harry doesn't have a wand yet.

Watcher Tale Neith – of course, people see what they want to see.

Phoenix Flight – Yes, he was, for a bit. I'm afraid Harry's mouth can get him into trouble!

Barbara Kennedy – thanks, yeah, hopefully it is interesting.

Gaina Katrea – yeah, too bad snape goes back to his snarky self.

Jessyka – Yes, the teachers are very simple minded!!!

Ethos – Yeah, too many make Harry like a super kid, when he is just an ordinary little boy…

Samara-chan – thanks for putting me on your favorites list, I really appreciate that!!!

SithelfJen – I'll see if I can. Thanks for your opinion!

Scifigirl2 – Thanks! I'm glad you like it!

A/N (4): Well, please review and tell me what you thought! I would really appreciate it. Wow, I have a ton of authors notes this chapter for some reason!!! This is the last one, promise, now please review!