Whispers followed Harry wherever he went, which, although he had been prepared for it Harry still found extremely odd and slightly disturbing, especially since he was still having trouble finding his way around. Then there were the lessons themselves which varied between the difficult, interesting and the deadly boring. Unfortunately, the lesson that Harry had been looking forward to most, Defence Against the Dark Arts, turned out to be a bit of a joke because Quirrell was so nervous and Harry was glad he still had Remus to turn to for help. Then came Potions. Harry had been dreading it, partly because it was the one of the only subjects Remus hadn't been able to give any hints on and because of everything he had heard about Snape, both from Sirius and Remus and from all the other students.

"Tell me Potter, what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?" Harry panicked, his mind blank. Beside him Hermione's hand shot up and waved in the air like a great, pink, very distracting fly, but then Harry remembered something Remus had told him,

"I have never been taught by Snape, but he'll probably give you a hard time because you're James' son, so be prepared for obscure, difficult and trick questions." Trick questions, Harry thought, so where's the trick? Then he remembered a seemingly insignificant passage in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi,

"They're … well ... they're the same thing aren't they Professor? Also called … something beginning with a, I think,"

"Correct. The word you are looking for, Potter, is aconite," despite Snape's harsh tone Harry noticed something strange. Although the curling of Snape's lip couldn't be called a smile, it wasn't a sneer either. The rest of the lesson didn't go too badly, although Snape did seem to favour Malfoy and kept testing and interrogating Harry more than any other pupil. Harry got the feeling that he would make a fool of himself, but to his surprise as much as Snape's, he didn't do too badly. At the end of the lesson Snape declared Harry's potion to cure boils 'passable', and Harry, having watched him all lesson, realised that, coming from Snape, it was praise and left the classroom in high spirits.

Snape, however, was in a bad mood. So Harry Potter wasn't a complete dunderhead and he wasn't the arrogant James Potter that he knew and hated, even though superficially he looked like him and many of his mannerisms were the same, except for his … Don't think about the eyes. Snape sighed, too late. He had attempted to treat Potter like any other student, but it was hard because he was a lot like James Potter, but he was also so … so.

So like Lily.

So the Potter boy didn't have her brilliance at potions, he was adequate, nothing more, he didn't have her laugh or her voice. He didn't have a lot of things that Lily had, but there was undeniably something in his manner that reminded him of her.

The problem was, he admitted, he just didn't know whether he liked or hated the boy, whether he was more like James or Lily. Why can't he just be like himself, why does he either have to be James or Lily? The annoying reasonable side of him questioned. Snape glared at the essay he was supposed to be marking, hated the nearly unintelligible handwriting, so he gave it a 'D' and threw it to one side. Admit it, the reasonable side of him needled, if he wasn't James' son you would like him. The next essay got an 'A' and Snape considered the logistics and ramifications of brutally murdering the voices in his head. The next essay, which Snape was more than annoyed to note, was written in colour change ink. Snape gave it a 'T' and it's writer a detention as he conceded that this particular voice may have a point. The next essay was obviously 'written' by the Weasley Twins because, as soon as his hand touched it, he got painful boils, Snape sprang up and set the parchment on fire to counteract the charm. This had the unfortunate side effect of burning the rest of the essays he had to mark as well. Snape muttered and the boils immediately disappeared, then he looked at his slightly charred desk, now utterly devoid of essays to mark and gave what might have been mistaken as a smile. "Ten points to Gryffindor," he muttered, after all, he was only going to take off twenty points and give both detentions in their next potions lesson for the trick homework and forcing him to destroy the rest of the essays.

Minerva McGonagall was, currently, a cat basking in the sun. Sometimes when she wanted to think she turned into a cat, not least because people disturbed her less when she was a cat. At the moment she was thinking of her new students and one student in particular. Harry Potter. She had wondered, everyone had wondered what he would be like. She had been disappointed to learn that he didn't have the same instinctual grasp of Transfiguration that James had had, but he was hard working and determined to prove himself and she admired that. He was also so fundamentally likeable that all the Professors had quite quickly become very fond of him, including, rumour had it, Severus Snape. McGonagall, had she been human at this point, would most certainly not have given even the smallest of smirks.

Not that she played favourites. If she had been human at that moment she would have given a formidable, disapproving stare, though if she had to pick a favourite (and this was a purely hypothetical exercise) she would pick Hermione Granger, followed by Harry Potter. Both were clever, but Hermione showed a determination and brilliance that McGonagall had to admire, although sometimes she did worry about Hermione because her need to be the best was almost obsessive, whereas Harry was bright, but happy to relax in her shadow, sometimes to the point of laziness.

Snape, Harry decided, was his least favourite teacher. Most of the time he would either ignore Harry, or give one word assessments of Harry's potions, usually either 'poor' or 'passable'. Other times Snape would turn on Harry with no warning and Harry could feel years of loathing being directed at him, because Harry had no doubt why Snape treated him the way he did. Both Sirius and Remus had talked about their school days with Snape and Harry now wanted to hear Snape's version. As many teachers would note with frustration throughout his time at Hogwarts, Harry's curiosity, however many times it got him into trouble, was insatiable.

It was only a matter of time really. Snape had put Harry in detention for fighting with Draco Malfoy, admittedly Potter had attacked Malfoy because Malfoy had called Lily - Potter's mother, Snape corrected himself, a 'filthy mudblood' and Snape sympathised with Potter's desire to hex Malfoy into oblivion, but he still put Potter into detention. He had also taken five points off Slytherin, a move which shocked Malfoy, and everybody else in the immediate vicinity (and, by the end of the day, the whole school, because everybody knew that Snape didn't take points from Slytherin).

Potter cleaned the dungeons without magic and Snape supervised him. Snape had to admit that he was, if not impressed as such, then he was satisfied. Potter had not complained or kicked up a fuss but had immediately set to his task and, Snape was pleased to note, he was cleaning thoroughly and not missing the corners or harder to reach places. Then Potter slowed down,

"Sir," he said, his voice hesitant, "can I ask you something?" Every instinct screamed at Snape to deny his request, after all, this was a detention not a question and answer session, but something stopped Snape. He could hear how much it cost Potter to ask, and he had to admit he was curious as to what his question would be. Snape nodded curtly, "Why did you hate my dad?" Snape froze. He just had to ask the hard ones didn't he? It wasn't like he couldn't think of a million different reasons why he hated James Bloody Potter, but he knew that Harry hero worshipped his parents and some tiny, lost particle of compassion in Snape didn't want to destroy the boy's illusion of his perfect parents. Harry caught his expression and started babbling, "I'm sorry, sir, I shouldn't have asked, only everybody else says how wonderful they were, how wonderful my dad was and you hated him and I wondered why 'cos everybody else liked him sir -" Snape held up his hand for silence and Harry stopped talking immediately,

"I – we didn't get on. At school. We were in the same year and had … something of a rivalry. I … did not hate your mother." Although Snape hadn't really answered Harry's question, Harry knew the subject was now closed, and he returned to his cleaning but the silence that now filled the room felt heavy and oppressive,

"You seem skilled at muggle cleaning," Snape observed,

"Yes sir," Harry replied, "I used to clean for the Dursleys,"

"Dursleys?"

"My Aunt and Uncle. And my cousin. Used to live with them. Then I ran away," Snape recognised the deadened, almost emotionless voice, tinted with suppressed anger and hurt that Harry used to talk about the Dursleys. It was the same tone he had always used when he talked about his father and he found himself feeling unwillingly sympathetic. This boy was not spoilt James Potter.

"On your own?" asked Snape who found himself unwillingly intrigued,

"No, there was -" but Harry stopped and looked up apologetically, "I'm not supposed to say. Professor Dumbledore said. Not supposed to talk about it,"

"I understand," replied Snape smoothly, "it was Professor Dumbledore who found you wasn't it?" Harry nodded, not trusting himself to speak unless he blurted out the whole story. Snape looked at the clock on the wall. There was five minutes to go until Potter finished his detention, but he was feeling unusually charitable. "Go," he said, "before I change my mind," Harry did not need telling twice.

Snape exited the dungeon to find Albus Dumbledore's eyes twinkling back at him, "Fine," he said irritably, "the boy is not a complete waste of space. Happy?"

"Immensely," Dumbledore replied before walking away humming to himself.

Dear Severus,

My son has told me that you took points off him for using the word mudblood. You and I both know that House Cups are of little importance in the long term, but what I am worried about is why you took those points away. Could it be that you have finally been taken in by Dumbledore's prattlings? At any rate, I hope to see an improvement in your attitude towards my son.

Lucius Malfoy

Dear Lucius,

You and I both know that to survive in the world as it is today we must appear to have renounced the old ways, to listen to the 'prattlings' as you call them of Albus Dumbledore. Your son does not appear to have grasped this simple fact; not only is he using words that most people consider unforgivable, but he has made an enemy of Harry Potter, the boy most people consider to be a hero. I do not need to tell you how badly this will look.

I would also like to point out that, had I not intervened, your son, despite being flanked by the two biggest boys he could find, would have been beaten by a half blood who has been brought up by Muggles with no knowledge of our world. Yes, I mean Potter. I would also like to point out that your son has consistently been beaten on tests by a witch of no wizarding parentage whatsoever. I would hope that he would feel ashamed, and would not look to blame others but to improve himself as every self respecting wizard should.

Severus Snape

Snape hesitated before giving the letter he had just written to the owl. It had been an odd day. Not only had he astounded the whole school (including himself) by taking points from his own house, but he was now preparing to effectively cut off one of his best protectors and allies.

It's the eyes, he decided, it's those damn eyes. They always made me do the right thing.

He gave the letter to the owl.

A/N – A little note on the characterisation of Snape here. In OOTP it is said that Snape is so good at legilimency because he can control his emotions, unlike Harry. However, it is frequently shown throughout the books that he cannot control his emotions when it comes to Harry, Sirius and Remus which I though showed inconsistent characterisation. Sirius is understandable since he bullied him when he was a kid and continues to treat him badly, but Remus didn't participate in the bullying when he was a kid and makes every attempt to be polite as an adult yet Snape still verbally abuses him whenever he gets the chance and exposes him as a werewolf. Harry's only crime at the beginning of the books is being the son of James and Lily and while this wouldn't exactly endear Harry to Snape it doesn't excuse the way Snape bullies Harry. So that's why I changed Snape slightly here and also have Harry pass the little 'test' Snape gives Harry which I though would make Snape more likely not to hate Harry.

I also want to say thank you for all the wonderful reviews I have been receiving, they are one of the main reasons I keep writing, so keep them coming! Thank you.