August 1992
"I guarantee you, Harry, this place is haunted."
Severus knew he shouldn't have been listening to what was being said in the kitchen from his worn armchair in the sitting room while attempting to read through the latest Potions Journal. Unfortunately, their Spinner's End home was so tiny that the only place Harry or Severus could be guaranteed any real privacy was in their respective bedrooms; a fact Severus hated as a child growing up. Therefore, he validated to himself that he couldn't necessarily be blamed for overhearing the conversation that was being had between Harry and Ron while they finished dinner without their professor watching their every move.
It was a week after celebrating Harry's 12th birthday, his first in Severus's care, when the young wizard asked if Ron could stay over sometime before the start of term. Completely unsure of the guidelines for friends staying over - even those of the same gender - the Potion's Master did the one thing he could think of and firecalled Molly Weasley. She was kinder to him then he would have expected about his juvenile questions, but having raised seven children - six of them boys - she was able to provide him the best information on his plethora of questions. In the end, she sent Ron over right after lunch, surprising the young raven-haired wizard with his first friend staying the night.
"It's not haunted Ron," his charge told his friend. "I've been here for weeks and haven't seen a single strange thing happen."
"I dunno, mate," Ron replied, nervously, "look around you. It looks like someone could have died here. And the fact Snape grew up in this very house just makes it worse."
Unbeknownst to the two Gryffindor's, Severus gave a small scowl at that last sentence. There were definitely ghosts in the walls of the small home, but not the paranormal kind the youngest Weasley wizard was implying. No, the things that lived in these walls were haunted memories of his drunk father not giving a damn who he hurt in his own destructive path. It was a constant reminder to the professor to never - again - raise his hand at Harry. He got lucky he didn't actually hit the child that night back in December and it was something he was thankful for each and every day. The more he could separate himself from Tobias Snape, the better, however as he was stepping into a mentor role for the young wizard, it was something he had to constantly remind himself: that he was not Tobias, even if his temper was shorter than he liked.
"You should have seen the place before Severus and I fixed it up," he heard Harry say and the professor flushed in embarrassment. It wasn't as if he expected Harry not to notice the complete disrepair of the place, but to hear him say it so casually to his friend, was different. Perhaps he should place a silencing ward up to give them some privacy.
"Was it that bad?" Ron asked, incredulously. "Did you find anything proving he's a vampire?"
Harry laughed, "He's not a vampire! And yeah, the place was a complete disaster, but it was fun getting to fix it up. I enjoyed getting to spend the time with him."
"And you're sure you didn't find any body parts waiting to be turned into potions ingredients?"
Severus rolled his eyes. It was no secret that his students thought he might be a vampire - or at a bare minimum an animagus that took on the form of a bat - and that he apparently liked to collect children for potions ingredients. His claim that keeping the student body terrified of him was to help keep them focused on the work in front of them, had its merits. In comparing Herbology incidents to Potion's, his class was easily superior 3 to 1; and that's not counting the fact that potions was a far more dangerous course overall.
"So tell me the truth," Ron said, "what's it like living with Snape of all people?"
At that point, the professor raised his ebony wand and cast a Muffliato on the door separating the kitchen from the sitting room before going back to reading his Potion's Journal. It was one thing to listen in on a conversation that had to do with his old house being haunted - something he used to think as a child - and completely different to eavesdrop on one about himself. Things between him and the Gryffindor had been going well, at least thus far, and he didn't want to do anything to jeopardize that. Neither of them knew what the next school year would bring, but Severus had already been contemplating the idea that he wanted Harry to live with him on a more permanent basis. It wasn't some epiphany he'd had, but once the basic idea culminated in his thoughts, he knew it wouldn't leave. If they could make it through this summer without any issues, maybe he could see Harry wanting to take the leap to live with him.
"Y'know, now that I think about it," Severus heard Harry whisper later that night, as the two almost teenage boys were heading up to bed, "sometimes I hear a woman screaming from my room. I think it might be coming from where Severus's potions lab is now."
The professor simply smirked and shook his head when Ron stopped dead in his tracks only steps from Harry's bedroom door; his face pure white in horror. It had more than eased his mind that he and Harry would get along just fine together for years to come.