Disclaimer: J K R owns everything Harry Potter!

Author's Note: Rated for mild language. Special thanks to Rickmaniac who I have been e-mailing lately. She has given me an idea that I might make into a story later on. She has read this story for me and said she likes it, yay!

So this is dedicated to you, Rickmaniac, though it's not nearly as good as it should be for you!!!

The Reason

Harry Potter was now twenty years old. Five years ago he was grieving over Sirius's death and didn't even want to be in the same room as his former Potion's Professor, Snape. In fact just yesterday he didn't want to be in the same room as Snape. Now Snape was in Harry's bed... out cold. How you may ask? Well...

Flashback

"Fuck you, filthy Death Eater!"

The mask less Death Eater sneered. "How are your parents, Potter?"

"Fuck you!" Harry said through gritted teeth.

"You don't know? Oh well. Send my regards when I send you to them!"

Harry squirmed against the chains that held him to the wall. The Death Eater raised his wand and Harry gave up hope. He closed his eyes and braised himself.

"Lucius, which of the-" The Death Eater, now identified as Draco Malfoy, swirled around as the new but familiar voice stopped dead at the sight of Harry Potter chained up in Molfoy's basement. The sight of Snape in shock was almost worth being chained up. Almost, except for one tiny detail... he was going to die. 'Oh well. I lived longer than I expected,' Harry thought.

"Severus, you're early... Five hours early."

"Well," he said, his eyes flicking towards Harry, "You know I like getting things done early, Draco."

"So you do. Well you're just in time to see Potter die at my hands."

"Lord Voldemort won't be pleased about that!" Snape said dryly.

"Of course he will be! And if he isn't then it's my problem."

"Well it certainly won't be mine!"

"If you want to leave for this, Severus, there's the door."

"Of course not. Go right ahead. I'm sure I'll enjoy this."

"You never enjoy yourself!" Lucius said as he walked in. Harry saw Snape sneer at Malfoy Sr. when his back was turned. However this meant that he was facing Harry and Harry was about to die. He knew Snape was a slimy traitor.

Malfoy raised his wand "Avad-"

"Petrificus Totalus!" Snape shouted. Malfoy Jr. stiffened and fell over.

"Impedimenta!" Lucius Malfoy shouted at Snape's back. Snape was blasted backwards. He hit the wall with such a force that he dropped his wand.

"Accio wand!" Malfoy called and Snape's wand flew into his free hand.

Snape, in turn, pulled something from his boot and fired it at the blonde man. Malfoy dropped the wands as the jagged knife hit his chest. Snape walked over to him, put his hand on the knife and Harry heard him whisper "Well, I'm certainly enjoying this," before roughly pulling the knife out and pushing him to the floor to die in agony. "Allohamora" he pointed to the lock on Harry's chains. "Thanks."

"Do you have your wand?"

"No. It's back at Hogwarts." Snape gave him a disapproving look. "I dropped it when they knocked me out."

Draco, who had recovered from the body binding spell, cast his own spell "Fealltoir Broghach"

Snape coughed blood all over Harry and fell on top of him. He tried to reached for Snape's wand before Malfoy Jr. got to him but couldn't.

"Potter. I'm gonna kill you. I don't know how a mongrel like you could kill my father, a Slytherin." Malfoy dragged Harry from under Snape and pulled him to his feet. He was back where he started... about to die at Draco Malfoy's hands, Snape had exposed himself for nothing, oh the irony.

"Ruaig an Drochrud, Ruaig an Drochrud, Ruaig an Drochrud," a barely conscious Snape chanted quietly.

Harry stood there waiting for Malfoy to cast the spell but none came.

"He's frozen Snape murmured.

"How?" Harry asked, seeing the older man's wand still on the floor.

"You should have learned in your first Potion's class that I don't like foolish wand waving. One would only assume that I can work without-" Snape coughed up more blood and closed his eyes. "Bloody Draco Malfoy. I always hated him!"

"Really?" Harry asked.

Snape had tried to answer but only blood came out of his mouth.

End Flashback

That had been two days ago. Harry had given Snape a strong dreamless sleep potion (A spare batch that Dumbledore had given him because Snape said he'd rather take his chances with faith than take his chances with one of Harry's potion's). Snape had been coming in and out of consciousness for the last 29hours. The potion had worn off but the body was weak. Harry had spent a great deal of time repairing Snape's punctured lungs and repairing broken bones. Apparently Snape walks around with broken bones because he found far more than there should be from the fight in Malfoy's basement.

Dumbledore had once said that Snape never forgave himself for what he done in his youth and spends his life punishing himself. Harry wondered if this is what he had meant.

Severus Snape woke up in an unfamiliar room. His sight was blurred for a few seconds and his head was pounding. He was blissfully unaware of where he was until Harry Bloody Potter came in with a tray of food. It all came flooding back like a broken dam.

"Good, you're awake. I figured you'd be hungry," Harry said brightly.

Snape glared at him. "No I'm not hungry."

"Well you have to eat to keep your strength up!"

"I'm not a child, Potter. You can't tell me what to do."

"Yes I can, Sir. You are under my care, in my home and in MY bed," he smirked as Snape turned crimson at the last part. He loved the fact that Snape was uncomfortable. Harry knew Snape hated not being able to tower over him.

"Well I can change that," Snape started to rise.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Oh really? And why, pray tell, is that?"

"Well if you want to show off your bare arse..."

Snape looked down and under the sheet. 'Oh, crap!' he though while turning a VERY deep shade of red, again. He cleared his throat loudly. "Are you just going to stand there? Return my robes and I'll be on my way."

"Sorry can't do that!"

"Excuse me?"

"I said 'no.' You'll only leave if I do."

"Yeeeees. Soooo?"

"Look. I'm a trained medic and psychologist. You need to rest. You can't move from that bed until I'm satisfied that you're fully healed. Besides, you can't wear those robes anymore. You can borrow mine or wait six weeks if you want to order black ones."

Snape huffed and folded his arms across his chest. "Why did you take them off in the FIRST place?"

"Couldn't fix your lungs with them on!"

"Why did that require my lower half to be stripped?"

"Broken bones and dislocated hip and knee with cuts on your thighs."

"Seems you did a... thorough examination," Snape said, pulling the sheets tighter around him.

"Oh... well... yes... I..." It was Harry's turn to blush. "Anyway, I'm glade I did. Some of those injuries were months old," he scolded.

"I didn't have a chance to see Poppy yet."

"Yeah right. Is this your way of punishing yourself?"

"Who said I pun-" The realization hit him. "Dumbledore... I'll kill him!"

"He might have mentioned something," Harry said in defeat.

"He doesn't know what he's talking about. Talks rubbish half the time. He worries to much and get's silly ideas into his head."

"Only I don't think it's so silly, Severus!"

"Are we on a first name basis now?"

"Yup. Always am with my patient's. Makes them feel more relaxed."

"Yeah right," Snape muttered.

"The old injuries, are they self inflicted?"

No."

"Where do they come from?"

"Different places, different people... Death Eater's under orders. Mostly Voldemort and Malfoy, the older Malfoy."

"I see. This is why you hate Malfoy so much?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Do you really want to know, Potter?"

"Yes."

"Fine, but once you know..."

Harry nodded.

"He tricked me into joining he Death Eater's. I wasn't a popular child, as you well know from being a nosey git in your fifth year, and I still had long greasy hair, I was still pale and still angry. You would be too if you had the three evil musketeers and a rat hexing you every chance they got, assholes! Well for a while I wasn't. I changed without realizing it and was happy. I laughed, joked and smiled all because of her. Aide McCarthy. She was Irish, they say that Irish charm can win anyone over. Well it certainly won me over.

"Aoife McCarthy changed to Aoife Snape. We were married only a month when she fell pregnant. I was married at eighteen and made a father of three at nineteen. They were triplets. Christopher, Alexander and Samantha. Chris was eight minutes older than Alex. Sam took another three hours. Aoife and I were so happy. She had turned my life around and given me three children as well as her love.

"I loved them all, as any father... normal father, would" Harry could see resentment in his eyes just then. Snape continued "But I paid special attention to Sam. She was the youngest and I had hoped for a daughter. I could see our future in my head," Snape sniffed. Tears were welling up in his eyes. This shocked Harry to the core. "Teaching the boy's to fly, chasing away any boyfriend Sam might have brought home.

"I had just turned twenty and Dumbledore offered my a job at Hogwarts. I went to take a look around before term so I could go back and tell Aoife what the teacher's rooms were like... she had always been curious like all the other students. That day I thanked whatever god there might be for my skills at Potion's and my chance to work at Hogwarts.

Ironic that I would curse it the same night for bringing me away that day and leaving them. I came home to find my brother dead at the door. I found Aoife dead protecting Chris. Alex's skull was smashed in..." Snape was choking on his words at this point but his tears refused to fall.

"I heard movement up stairs a thought Sam might have escaped. She had, but s man had just cast a spell on her and fled like a coward before I could murder him. I recognised the man as some ministry worker I'd once seen. Because of the type of spell, there was nothing I could do to save Sam. She died in my arms an hour later.

"My whole family dead and my baby girl died in my arms. I was completely distraught. I went to Dumbledore and smashed up his office. He didn't seem to mind. I was angry that he didn't seem to feel any pain so punched him. You'd never think that someone would have the nerve to punch the great Albus Dumbledore. Well he still didn't seem to mind. He wiped the blood from his nose and tried to comfort me. Can you believe it? I'd just landed one on him and he still tried to comfort me. I don't know whether it was the grief talking or just my stupidity but I told him where to shove his comfort and said I'll never need his help.

"I think 'never' is a cursed word. If you ever say you'll never do something, you'll always end up doing it sooner or later. Well I bumped into Lucius Malfoy a few hours later an he convinced me that Voldemort could help me get revenge. I killed the ministry bloke as soon as I received the Dark Mark, which was the same night. Goyle let it slip that Malfoy took the Polyjuice Potion and butchered my family. I was physically sick knowing I murdered an innocent man. It was 5a.m. by the time I told Dumbledore. He told me I could still work for him and I said I would be his spy.

"There funerals were in the early hours of September first. I went to my first day at Hogwarts dressed in black and I couldn't bring myself to get out of it. We had our whole lives ahead of us... Merlin, I miss them so much!"

It was at this moment that Severus Snape finally grieved for his dead family - he allowed the tears to fall for the first time. He cried.

And it was at this moment that Harry's perception of his former professor changed. Severus Snape was not an emotionless bat who haunted the corridors.

Severus Snape was a man. A man who's past still haunt's him.

Well? What do you think? I nearly cried writing it, myself. Please review!!!