The paths of my story and the original story are about to part, but it will start inconspicuously, so no major differense should yet occur in this chapter.

After Harry's second encounter with Voldemort, after the summer vacation had started and he had returned to his house, Severus started to meditate. He had been treating the boy miserably the whole year, he knew that, and he didn't have any intention to change it. He knew that the staff knew about his and James' grudge: they also thought that he was revenging it to the boy. He was glad with this belief - he didn't want to broadcast it to the world that he had got a soft spot in the form of a dead woman. He had put a lot of effort in becoming what everyone thought him to be - a heartless ex-death eater who hated nearly everyone and everything.

But he knew there were two persons alive he couldn't lie to: one being the all-knowing headmaster of the castle he worked in, and the other being himself. So, as he knew he couldn't just sit around the house whole summers without any information about the boy's condition, and as he knew he couldn't go sneeking around a muggle house for ever so often without being noticed, he used his house elf, Wocker, to regularly check on the boy, to find out how he was doing, and to find out a little about the circumstances he had to live in.

The news the little creature brought him were hideous: the muggles treated him like dirt, ignored his birthday, had him locked up in his room with bars in his windows... She also brought some curious bits of information: during an evening that a spell had been used in his house, she had felt the presens of another house elf inside the house. Severus couldn't imagine what a house-elf had done in the house, or what the spell had been used for, but it certainly made him cautious. Once he heard that Harry had been taken to the Burrow though, he calmed down considerably. To know that he was with wizards, even though with as peculiar folk as the Weasleys, he knew he'd be safe.

The school started, and he began his role as the-man-who-hated-the-boy-who-lived. He used every chance he got to torture the boy. It became like a hobby to him; He enjoyed the hatred he could see the boy had for him; To see those green eyes burning with such a passion, it made him feel satisfied. He knew he had made an indelible impression to the boy, even though negative.

After the dueling club insident however, he became a little anxious again. He had had no idea Harry could speak parseltongue, and by the looks of it, neither did his friends. It was a widely known fact that the Dark Lord had been able to speak this language, and this thought gave him the chills. The events of the night when Lily was killed had been hounting him, as well as all the other advanced sorcerers: How could the killing course bounce back from a little baby? Even though Severus knew that the boy was well able as a wizard, he also knew that he wasn't nearly immensely talented enough that he'd been able to owerpower Lord Voldemort with his skills as an infant.

There was an obvious connection between the two, and even though Severus wasn't stupid enough to phrase the words out loud, he had started to fear that the Dark Lord had somehow transferred his soul to this boy that night. But every time he could secretly observe the boy, when he was doing regular stuff with his friends, that thought was surpassed by the feeling his eyes embodied. Severus knew that within those eyes lived something the Dark Lord had never known, or would have been able to.

As Ginny Weasley had been kidnapped and the teatchers had agreed to send the kids home, he was quite surprised the next day to yet again hear how Harry had owercome the problem. The casualty that led to the disability of professor Lochart didn't bother him the slightest, but the other events startled him. This twelve year old boy, yet to enter his teens, had now prevented the return of Voldemort twise, and defeated him thrice.

As he watched the boy leave the castle to return to his muggle relatives, chatting with his friends, Severus suddenly realised how strong feelings he had formed for this boy. He felt compulsion for him, yes: he felt obligated to make sure that the offspring of Lily's could live well. But beside that, he had began to form a new image of this boy, not based on his history or parentage: during these two years, he had been able to make out the intelligent, able and surprisingly strong person who was growing inside of this kid, slowly making his way towards the surface. Severus noticed, to his surprise, that he was quite eagerly awaiting for the next time he'd be seeing this young gryffindor.

A/N: I have to appologise for the boringness of these first chapters: I feel like I need to write them to get to the real story, so these are very short and stupid. I'm really sorry, I hope you'll stick around till it gets really started (and I really hope I won't lose interest either before that happens, I'd really like to see where this is going:-D)