Disclaimers: Neither the idea of Harry Potter nor the characters belong to me in any way. They are the sole property of JKR. I do not make any money of this story either.

A/N: As someone requested larger chapters I thought I'd post two. I have two more finished and I will post them over the course of the weekend as I want to look over them again before putting them up. Enjoy!

Chapter 3 – Recognition

Getting into St. Margaret's was fairly easy. Visitors were not searched at all and wearing Muggle clothing Severus did not stick out of the crowd. None of his students would have recognised him in his blue jeans and a dark blue silk shirt. The Muggle clothing were Harry's, the only of the sort he had around that fit Severus slightly taller frame. All others had been too colourful for his taste and he regretted that he never had given Harry a black outfit for any of the special occasions they had celebrated.

The young man had for some unintelligible reason been drawn to colourful clothing for his free time. 'I have to wear so much black during the day and the missions that I want some colour on me when I'm off duty.' Snape remembered the easy laugh that went with the explanation. After all that had happened to the younger man, he had never lost his humour, his open-mindedness and the will to make friends.

He had sneaked an unsuspicious look on the lay out of the hospital and what room a certain "John" was occupying. John Doe. A simple spell would have told them the name. Muggles had to do everything so complicated. Severus never pretended to understand non-magical beings, but he could pose as one with the best of them.

The door to the room was open and Severus carefully lurked around the corner. It was a habit that had saved his life – and that of others - on numerous occasions. John was standing at the window, looking out. He was alone. Snape sighed soundlessly, straightened and proceeded to walk into the room, gently rapping the open door.

John jumped, whirled around and crouched into a defensive stance, his wand hand at the ready.

Damn, he's fast and he doesn't even know what he just did. His face though, did not show any of his admiration; he had put up one of his masks on and retreated into the security of a role he had played for ages. Severus' conviction of this being Harry hardening after the display he had just seen.

"Hello there." John relaxed when the newcomer did not do anything suspicious. He had been this jumpy since he had woken up from the coma. It was probably some sort of relict from what he liked to call his 'old life'. After more than 3 months of saying his memory would come back, they finally had told him the truth. That his brain had been damaged too severely to allow him to recover all the memories that he had lost. Still, some places sparked recognition. Some smells and sounds made him feel at home completely, while others repelled him.

Snape stayed silent. Within him his emotions warred against each other. The wish to finally have Harry back, and the knowledge that it might not actually be the saviour of the wizarding world. He just took in the sight, the perfect match to his Harry. Eyes, timbre of voice, mouth, ears, hair-colour, form of face, height left no doubt in him that this was either Harry Potter or his twin brother. Finally having finished his mental inventory he nodded once. "Hello."

"Who are you?"

He closed his eyes for just a second. "I'm someone from your past." Not knowing how much he remembered if anything at all, Severus had decided that he would not appear as a lost lover or friend, but as a co-worker only. The walk from Hogwarts to the outer rim of the protection zones was quite a long one and had given him the time to not only reach this conclusion, but to also scrape up the willpower to see it through to the end. "As one of your co-workers, the headmaster sent me to investigate if you are really our lost colleague or not." True enough. Not the whole truth, but he did not need that quite yet. If this man really was Harry Potter, he would get to know the whole story soon enough.

"You know who I am?" John had taken a few steps closer, excitement showing clear on his face. "Really?"

The Potion Master nodded gravely. "Indeed I do. But we should not talk here; maybe somewhere more private would be more adequate."

"There is no privacy in a hospital."

That sounded bitter and Snape could not help but think of Harry, who hated to be in the focus of public attention all the time and loved his privacy. "But I love you even more than privacy. Shaking his head viciously to repel any more thoughts of the past, he reprimanded himself for his wool-gathering. Stop it, Severus, you are only hurting yourself. Looking around the bare room the Potion Master noted that there were no personal items at all. "You will not stay here."

"Not?"

Shaking his head more slowly this time, Snape moved to John's side. "No." He gently pushed the younger man into a sitting position on the bed. "Close your eyes please." When the other had complied - he's way too trusting - Snape took out his wand. "Cognosco." The younger man's head snapped up at the single word, but he did not open his eyes. Maybe he did not remember anything, but unconsciously he seemed to trust Snape. The tip of his wand emitted a single strand of silvery light, slowly forming two words. Harry. Potter.

Severus Snape released a breath he hadn't been aware of holding. "Harry," he whispered.

Green eyes snapped open and focused on him, questioning him.

He suddenly found himself lost for words. For a year he had dreamed about something like this happening and now that it finally had, he felt like he was frozen. "I-"Nothing that was prudent to say came to his mind at the moment. "We need to bring you to the headmaster. He will be very glad we finally found you." He could not believe he had had that much trouble getting these two simple sentences out of his mouth. All his decisions of keeping their past relationship secret had almost jumped out of the window with those two silvery words.

Looking at "tall dark and silent" – as John had dubbed him for the time being – he turned around and barely noticed the wooden stick in his right hand. It did not seem strange at all to him, even though he knew it was nothing normal. The man seemed to be lost for words, like he had not been thinking about what would happen once they were talking. There was also something soothing about the presence of the man, like he knew him. It was an oddly reassuring feeling for someone who had still troubles identifying himself in the mirror.

He was being pulled to his feet before he even knew it and gently walked into the direction of the door. Suddenly he dug in his heels, determined to get some answers before he let himself be dragged off by a complete stranger. "Wait! Who am I?" On afterthought he added, "And what's your name? I can't very well call you 'hey you there', now can I?"

"The name is Severus Snape, I would prefer it if you called me Severus." It was muttered without looking at him and the sentence sounded unfinished, like the speaker had decided not to say something while halfway through the sentence already. "And you are Harry Potter. We are both teachers at Hogwarts and everything else will be explained after our nurse has checked you through."

He let himself be led out of the room, docilely accompanying his new friend. Harry. He repeated the name in his mind. "Harry Potter." Trying the name out it felt – so right. "Where is Hogwarts, Severus?"

Severus did not answer; all he did was look around to see if anyone was coming and then pushing Harry into a small storage room. There was barely enough room for the two and Severus – a head taller than Harry – had to duck down a little in order to not topple over a tower of precariously stacked towels. The man pulled out an old, smelly sock with holes in it and held it out to Harry. "Please, take a hold of this and do not let go unless I tell you to."

Dazed, Harry took the end of the sock between two of his fingers. Up to now he had not believed anything was strange, but he was starting to have second thoughts about the man. Is he crazy? He looked at the green and red striped sock and decided that in another five minutes he would get the hell out of this tiny storage room and call for security. This is ridiculous. Suddenly he felt a weird tug in his mid section, just before his surroundings started to disappear in a whirl of colours. He reappeared somewhere entirely else.

"Hello, Harry. I can't express how glad I am that you are finally back."

Whirling around as he heard the name that was supposedly his, he saw a tall, white bearded man in a nightgown. Why does this seem so oddly familiar? He looked around the room in awe, a little spooked when all the people on the pictures waved happily at him, a couple jumping up and down, dragging others into their picture frame or dancing.

"I'm Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Welcome back home." There was a humorous twinkle in his eyes as he held out his right hand to shake Harry's.

Utterly aware of still holding the colourful sock Harry dropped it like it was a red-hot coal, tentatively shaking Dumbledore's hand. "Did I hit my head and started hallucinating again?"

Snape had positioned himself a step behind Dumbledore and Harry felt like the man was dressed completely out of character and should be more like a glooming, dark spectre. His head was swimming with all the new impressions and the amount of memories he had encountered that day.

He barely noticed Dumbledore and Snape exchanging a quick, worried glance before he found himself between the two men. "I think this was quite a long day for you. We will go and see Poppy now and then you should get some sleep in the hospital wing."

A/N: Comments? Criticism? Suggestions? Review :). I'd appreciate it.