Snape looked around his unfamiliar surroundings and sneered. "Perfect! Just bloody perfect, Potter has pulled me into his bloody mind! Arrogance" Snape was on a street surrounded by perfectly manicured lawns and freshly washed cars. It was already past dusk and the stars were shining brightly in the night sky. In the background he could hear a dog barking viciously. Snape followed the noise into the backyard of number four Privet Drive.
Looking in the back window of the house Snape could see a very fat man and woman sitting at the television beside a very boney looking woman and an obese child that was playing at a computer game. Wondering why he was here Snape turned his attention to the constant growling of the dog. It was at the base of tree barking at something at the topmost branches.
Peering up through the leaves of the tree Snape observed a small boy, maybe eight or nine years old, with messy black hair clutching at the branches and staring terrified at the dog below. The boy peered right down into Snape's soul with a pleading helpless look.
From inside the house Snape could hear the ringing of a telephone through an opened window. The obese man picked up the phone and grumbled some response to the person on the other end. The man threw a careless glance out the back window to the dog barking at the tree then grumbled again and hung up the phone. He tapped the obese woman on shoulder, gestured towards the backyard, and they both headed towards back door.
These, Snape supposed, must be the boy's muggle relations. The fat man and woman must be his aunt and uncle and the fat child their son, the skinny woman must be the maid or a relative or something. They stepped out into the garden and in a grumbling voice that matched her husbands the fat woman called the dog off and ushered it inside the house.
"Boy! Get down here now and stop fooling around." the fat man bellowed through a very large mustache.
The small boy climbed down from the tree and wiped his face on the back of his sleeve. The boy followed his aunt and uncle into the house and Snape moved to a different window in order to get a better view. Without any deviation the boy marched straight into the cupboard under the stairs where his uncle proceeded to lock him in for the night.
Snape's jaw dropped. This was not how Snape had pictured Harry's life at home at all, not that he had given it too much thought. He had pictured doting muggle relations who thought it was absolutely wonderful to have a wizard in the family, not to mention the wizard who had saved them all from the Dark Lord. These people looked like they had no clue that the boy was even special in any way.
Just as Snape was coming to terms with this new look on Harry's home life the scenery around him changed and he was suddenly in the kitchen of the house on a warm summers day. The fat woman was gone but the skinny woman had Harry seated over the kitchen sink and was cutting his hair, poorly. She had hacked off everything but a portion of the boy's fringe that hung directly over the scar.
"Aunt Petunia," The boy said timidly, "Why do I have a scar on my head?" The boy glanced over at Snape with a thoroughly miserable look on his face.
The woman frowned at the boy and replied snappishly, "You got it in the car crash that killed your parents, now don't ask questions." She made a few more snips at his hair and showed him his reflection in a small hand held mirror.
The boy's lower lip trembled but he seemed to know better than to cry about it. He slid off the counter, thanked his aunt in a shaky voice and went into the cupboard under the stairs. Snape could hear the boy's crying from within the cupboard, and so, apparently, could his Aunt. She banged on the cupboard as she passed and threatened him to stay quiet.
The scenery changed again to a boy sitting on a bench in the garden muttering something under his breath. Snape walked closer and heard the tuneless song of Happy Birthday being sung from the boy. Snape had had enough of this self-indulgence.
"Potter!" Snape snapped.
The boy looked up at him, "Yes Snape?"
"You know the fact that this is your twisted little mind has not escaped my attention, however, as I am still your teacher you will address me as either professor or sir." Snape said in a cool voice. "Now what are we doing here?"
"This is my aunt and uncles house." Harry replied simply, "It's where I go to live during the summer holidays." Harry went back to staring at his feet. "Sir" he added more as an after thought
"Yes, but why?" Snape asked.
"This is the summer after I came face to face with Voldemort for the first time- but hold on a second I like this part." Harry looked up at his cousin.
An extraordinarily large child wandered into the backyard with a smug gloating look on his face. "I know what day it is…" Snape observed the child taunting Harry about his birthday and his school and was shocked when Harry brandished his wand and threatened his cousin with it. This must be the incident when Harry used magic outside of school. What a disgusting display, Dumbledore had always defended the boy and here he is using magic against his muggle cousin.
"You know you're not allowed to use magic outside of school and yet you think you're above the rules. My, my Potter, what a big head you have, it's a wonder it hasn't rolled off your shoulders. What did you think? That the Ministry would let you off because you're the Harry Potter…"But Snape never completed his thought for at that moment he caught a few of the words Harry was mutter as a spell. It was not magic at all, merely gibberish used to fool the boy into leaving Harry alone.
Before Snape even had time to eat his words the scenery changed again, his surroundings became like freshly stirred vegetable soup, swirling colours and shapes. Snape found himself inside a different house on a different street but sitting next to two people he would recognize anywhere, Lily and James Potter.
He could see Harry peering through the bars of his play pen at his parents. "Da!...DA!" Harry did the retarded jump of a child who had not yet mastered the motor functions of his legs. James smiled over at Harry and made a face, sticking out his tongue. This sent Harry into a fit of giggles and James walked over and picked him up. Lily went into the kitchen and started preparing dinner.
Snape looked at the child, all chubby cheeks and glowing smiles, "I had no idea you remembered all this." The child simply stared back at him.
"Neither did I until third year, this is what I see and hear when the Dementors attack me" A present day Harry said from behind Snape's back causing him to nearly jump out of his skin. Harry raised his eyebrows at that and an amused smirk flitted across his face. "What? You didn't expect him to answer you, did you?" Harry gestured at the small child, then quickly added, "Sir"
What's so horrible about all this? If this is your worst memory…" Snape sneered at the sickly sweet scene around him, a doting father playing with his first born son while his wife was making dinner in the kitchen.
"Shh! Sit down, you'll miss the show." Harry took a seat on the living room couch as though he were about to watch a film, in fact popcorn appeared out of nowhere and Harry popped a few kernels into his mouth. He mimed checking his watch and gave Snape a skeptical appraising look, "You're not going to stand there are you? Trust me, I've seen this a thousand times this is the best angle. Hurry it's about to start"
Just as Harry finished his sentence a pounding was heard at the front door. James ran over to Lily, handing her the baby, "Lily, take Harry and go! It's Him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off!" Lily took only two stumbling steps from the room when the door burst open and a high-pitched cackle was heard.
From Harry's seat on the couch he had the perfect view of the scene in the kitchen and front lobby. Voldemort's tall frame toward over James's as he carelessly muttered the words that had killed so many wizards.
Lily set Harry down in the playpen and pulled out her wand turning to face her attacker. There were tears in her eyes as she begged for the life of her child. Snape sat down beside Harry, who offered him some popcorn from his bucket. Lily's lifeless body crumpled to the floor as Voldemort closed in on baby Harry.
Within moments it was all over, baby Harry was crying desperately, the house was crumbling in around him and the bodies of his parents were laying on the floor.
"So what was the point of showing me all this?" Snape asked trying to sound thoroughly disinterested.
"Who says this was for you? Now who's being arrogant!" Harry said in a mocking tone. He popped a few more kernels into his mouth.
"You know I'm no bleeding heart but how can you just sit there calm like this when you just saw your parents murdered?" Snape asked curiously
"Well I hardly knew them, can't even put a face to them most of the time. The only depressing part about all this is what happens after wards, when I'm sent to go live with my aunt and uncle." Harry answered simply.
The room started to swirl again and Snape rolled his eyes…