AN: Ok, I'm not sure how good this is because I've never writen character dialogue on this scale before. Please review, so I can know what you think!

'I'm a WHAT" Harry stuttered.

"You're a wizard, of course!" Despite Severus's best efforts to sound bored he could not help the excitement that crept into his tone.

"You're really powerful, I can sense it and your magic is quite dark so you can't be a muggleborn because their magic s neutral, you'll probably be in Slytherin with me." Severus stopped speaking abruptly, realizing that in his excitement he had let too much information slip.

Harry however hadn't noticed. He was staring at Snape in shock. "Slyth-eerin, Muggle Born?" Harry said, the unfamiliar words rolling off his tongue.

"What on earth are you talking about?"

Severus looked at Harry incredulously.

"You mean you don't know?"

"Obviously!" Harry said rather sarcastically, rolling his eyes. The boy was mad in Harry's opinion. Completely mad. I mean, Wizards? Everyone knew they didn't actually exist; they were the stuff of little kid's games. A small part of Harry desperately wished to believe… It would explain so much yet Harry automatically dismissed it, in the way he had long learnt to dismiss any abnormal thoughts while living with the Dursleys.

Severus grabbed Harry by the arms and dragged him towards the door.

"Come on!" Snape hissed. "We can't discuss this here. It isn't safe, let's go to our room."

"Safe?" Harry repeated, snorting. "What, you don't want anyone else to know you're mad or is this just some cruel trick on the new boy that you don't want the staff to find out about?"

At this Severus snapped, pausing mid-corridor and turning to face Harry. "Well, you may enjoy living in ignorance but I most certainly do not. So you can either follow me and find out the facts before you make your silly judgments or you can go be an idiot elsewhere."

Harry raised his eyebrows, "Do you normally talk like that or are you just attempting to be intimidating?" Harry said as he continued to walk along the corridor towards where the Matron had indicated his room was. Severus's sight flush indicated it was the latter.

"This is it" said Severus, as he pushed open a small door. Inside were two single beds, shoved against either side of the wall. The only furniture was a small chair and a rather moldy looking wardrobe. Under Severus's bed was a small battered looking trunk, the only indication that someone lived there.

"Well this is…"Harry floundered around for something to say before adding "Homely." with a sarcastic smirk.

Severus was apparently not amused; he appeared to be frowning and deep in thought before nodding towards the chair, indicating that Harry should sit.

"So what's this wizard business you've been going on about?" Harry inquired. And so began a long discussion about Hogwarts, houses, magic and a whole other world Harry never knew existed.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

By the time Severus had finished, night had arrived and the small amount of light they had been getting from the window had been replaced with darkness. Harry got up and stretched, asking a question that he had long been pondering.

"So how come you knew I was a wizard, anyway?"

Severus shifted uncomfortably on his bed.

"I can sense auras, it's a Prince thing."

"Prince thing?" Harry asked. "What do you mean?"

"My mother's family, purebloods you know."

'Hmm…' Harry thought. Severus had explained the importance of blood purity in Wizarding Society earlier and while Harry found the bigotry ridiculous, he still found himself wondering about his own family. Harry knew absolutely nothing about his parents not even their names something which left him feeling rather empty inside whenever he thought about it. Curious to know more of Severus's own background to avoid thinking about his own, Harry decided to broach the topic despite sensing it was a sensitive subject.

"What happened to your mother?" Harry asked.

Severus paused and for a minute Harry thought that he wasn't going to answer.

"She died… when I was 7." Severus said slowly, his face blank.

"Sorry." Harry said, he knew what it was like to not have parents

Severus nodded stiffly and gave a weak smile.

"What about your father, where is he?" Harry asked quietly

This time there was no hesitation in Severus's response.

"The filthy Muggle is in prison, he got what he deserved." He said with a rather ugly sneer.

There was silence for several minutes, leaving both boys to their thoughts.

"So what about yours?" said Severus suddenly.

"My what?"

"Parents, of course." said Severus with a slight eye roll.

"Dead." Harry said shortly. "Since I was really little."

"Where've you been living since?" Severus inquired.

It was on the tip of Harry's tongue to tell him about the Dursleys when he found that the words just wouldn't come. He opened and closed his mouth several times but still found himself unable to talk. It appeared he was unable to talk about his 'past life' as he had come to think of it despite the fact that he had been living it less than 3 days before.

"I don't remember" Harry started, the lie rolling off his tongue with surprising ease.

"It's really weird actually before yesterday, it's just black, totally black. I can remember things like talking and reading but I can't remember my personal life. Snape was staring at Harry in horror but he appeared to be buying the story.

"That sounds like a memory charm! It's considered dark if it isn't done by someone certified, which I doubt it was."

"I don't want to talk about it." Harry said, sounding distressed but not for the reason Snape thought, he really didn't like lying to his new friend but felt he had no other option.

Harry was desperate to change the subject; he searched around for a topic to discuss then suddenly remembered a question he had been meaning to ask for a while.

"Severus?"

"Yes?" he replied.

"What is the date?"

"It's the 21st of July"

"What year?"

"It's 1971, of course." His tone implied that, memory loss or not, that had to have been the stupidest question he had ever heard.

Meanwhile, Harry had to stifle a gasp. His fears had been confirmed, he'd traveled back in time. 20 years in time at that. Even with Harry's new discover of magic the whole concept was so ridiculous that he just wanted to burst out laughing.

Harry was saved from having to respond because just then two identical barn owls swept through the open window, startling both boys, and dropping almost identical letters on the beds.

Harry grabbed his and read in elegant green handwriting on the envelope:

Mr. Harry J. Potter

The Left Bed

2nd Smallest Bedroom

Sunnyvale Boys' Home

Surrey, UK.

Well, they sure like to be exact, Harry thought. Harry flipped the envelope over and gasped at the wax Hogwarts symbol that was exactly as Severus had described it.

He glanced at Severus and grinned

"It's real, it's really real!" he whispered in shock. He wasn't sure if he'd really believed Severus before, he'd wanted to of course, but he'd been hesitant to believe him. Now he was sure, he was a wizard and he was going to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Severus grinned at him, raising one eyebrow.

"Did you ever really doubt me?"