Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any characters.

Sorry for the super late update! I plan on finishing this by the end of June but no promises. Thanks for reading/reviewing/ and following along with the story!

Snape seated himself at the far side of the couch. Black sat himself down in a cozy armchair. They kept a good amount of distance from each other. Black swallowed. It was time to begin.

"Now, I would like to begin by speaking about our childhood. It was our time in school that gave rise to the conflict that still divides us. Instead of picking at each other about when we were right or wrong, I would like to take responsibility for my actions. I admit I mistreated you and judged you from the start. I was a follower. I did as my friends did and joined in on their cruelty without good reason. I demonized you to justify my actions instead of realizing I did not have the full picture. I was a young man and made mistakes. As an adult, I now see that we must look past our differences. I cannot judge you without knowing you for who you really are. I am sorry for my past offenses… and wish to make right by them."

Snape was surprised. He loved hearing Black declare how wrong he was. He hoped that he was genuine, but could not be sure yet.

"Alright." Snape said.

"Um, now that I have gotten that out, is there anything you would like to say, Severus?"

Snape cleared his throat obnoxiously. "Well, I would care to say that I am glad you finally see how wrong your are Black. It is refreshing to see your arrogance melting away."

Black held his tongue. He wanted to reprimand Snape, but that would get him nowhere.

"I meant do you have anything you would like to say about your childhood, you know, your school days?"

"Like what? Would you like me to speak about how I merely acted out of self defense to protect myself from you and your friends ganging up on me? There are plenty of incidents, I can talk about them for hours…" He hissed.

"No, that is hardly necessary, Severus. I actually would like to hear about that time during finals, you know, fifth year?" Black said. He knew he was getting into touchier territory, but if Snape was going to be combative Black would have to do this the hard way.

"What about it? Hmm?" Snape snapped. "You want to talk about how much of an ass you were or about how you took pleasure in my humiliation?"

"Neither, Severus. I am simply inquiring about why you let that word slip. Don't get me wrong, you were in a rather compromising position. You and Lily were friends for years. Why would say that about her?"

The nervous look on Snape's face told Sirius he had struck a major cord.

"I…I…" Snape stuttered. His face flushed red. "I lost my temper! I never meant to…..it slipped…."

Snape paused and collected his thoughts. "I was humiliated and lashed out at the wrong person."

"Yes, I can imagine. You two had been such good friends up until that day. James had always been jealous.." 'Ooops!' Sirius thought.

"Oh really now? Its not like I didn't know. I knew her longer than he ever did, deeper than he ever could. He was always jealous of what we had! And he fancied her. The prick." Snape's eyes beamed hatred.

"Easy now, I meant no harm. I just always wondered about what happened that day. And you see, Lily was also my friend. That we have in common." Sirius said. He felt eager to try and defend James, but that would lead nowhere. He would let that slide for now.

"No, no no! You only knew her as your friend's wife. I grew up with her! She was my friend since I was nine years old, the only person to treat me with any affection or understanding. You could never know her as I did!" Snape spat.

Sirius swallowed. He knew that he was finally cracking Snape's mind open but he had to be careful. He just had to say the right words to get him talking and keep his temper under control. But he did wonder if Snape really meant what he said. 'The only person to treat me with any affection or understanding…'. There had to be someone else right? A parent, a family member, another friend? Was it possible that on that day in fifth year he had lost more than a childhood friend… perhaps he had lost an entire support system?

After pondering the right words, Sirius spoke. "I did not say I knew her better. But we did become friends, and I bitterly regret not having the opportunity to have known her better. She died so young."

"Too young." Snape said softly. A sad silence hung about the room for a moment until Sirius spoke again, eager for answer

"You said she was the only person who understood and cared for you." Sirius said gently.

"I did." Snape replied quickly, looking somewhat uncomfortable.

"Well, there had to be someone else, right? What about your parents?"

Snape frowned. "No, not them."

"Why not them? Tell me more."

"Please tell me, since when did you become my psychologist?" Snape remarked.

Black almost smiled. He had a point; he was prodding him about his personal life. But still, he was sort of curious.

"I'm not trying to be a psychologist, I really do want to hear. As you already know, my home life was far from happy. My parents disowned me, and I eventually moved out. The Potters took me in, and for that I will always be grateful." Black said.

Snape was quiet for a minute, taking in what Black had just said. At last, he spoke.

"I'm surprised one roof could contain two egos as gigantic as yours and Potter's." Snape replied. "And if you must know, I too came from a rather dysfunctional family, and the details of it all are none of your business." He added in quickly.

Sirius nodded, ignoring Snape's snide remark. So, for one thing they both came from unstable homes. Sirius too, felt how difficult it was to talk about an unhappy childhood and parents who disowned him. He'd let that rest for now.

"I see. So, yet another thing we have in common. And by the way, that remark was almost funny Snape, if it hadn't been out of spite."

Snape scoffed. "Are we done here Black? I've already heard your apology and in all honesty, I find these questions intrusive."

Black held up a hand. "I don't mean any offense, I am just trying to get to know you. It would be much easier if you were to cooperate instead of being combative."

"Black, it may be possible to be civil but we will never be friends." Snape said.

Black sighed. This was going to take a while. Friendship was not his intention but at least Snape agreed they could be civil.

"Listen, I understand we have bad blood and friendship may be unattainable. I only wish to get to know each other slightly better so we can be civil." Black answered.

"Fine, but stop asking questions irrelevant to our enmity." Snape said sternly.

"Agreed, but I have to ask you about something regarding your past."

"Go on." Snape said lazily.

"Why did you join the death eaters in the first place? Did you actually believe in blood purity, or was it a way to fit in? I mean, you were best friends with a muggleborn, you couldn't have believed it all now did you?"

"I..I..admit that I believed it was best for wizards and witches to only marry wizards and witches. And I did think that being magical made wizards superior to muggles. To an extent it was to fit in, and yes I believed some of it. But Lily was full of magic. She was a great witch and her blood status didn't matter to me."

"Interesting. Do you still believe that now?" Sirius looked Snape in the eye, itching for an answer.

"I still don't like muggles all that much and I think magical people are better off only with magical people. It's my opinion, and you don't have to agree with it, but I also won't apologize for it."

"Well, alright. I just don't understand where this hatred of muggles comes from. Care to explain?"

"Listen, my father was a muggle and he was a complete bastard. And there also was damn Petunia Evans who did nothing but insult me. That's all I will disclose."

Sirius's eyes widened. "You're not pureblood? But I thought that…"

"I'm a half blood. My mum was a witch. Just because I was in Slytherin doesn't mean I am pureblood." Snape snapped, obviously wanting to drop the conversation.

"Wow, I never knew. I would think you'd be more fond of muggles having grown up with one. And do you mean to say you knew Lily's sister Petunia?"

"I grew up with a loser father, there was nothing sentimental about him. And sadly I did know that troll Lily was related to somehow."

Sirius laughed. He was aware of how badly Petunia treated Harry and actually agreed that she was a troll.

Snape looked shocked. "What the hell is so funny?"

"Harry actually lives with Petunia and her family, and you're right, she's an absolute troll."

"For once, I actually feel bad for the brat. That woman was insufferable."

"Ah, and we have another thing in common. We both despise Petunia." Sirius smirked, making Snape very uncomfortable. "But by the way, Harry isn't a brat. He really is all Lily inside, with a touch of James of course."

"I've yet to see anything remarkable about the boy. To me, he's only a repeat of Potter."

'You're wrong. Harry is kind, brave young man. The way you treat him is incredibly unfair! What would Lily say if she knew?" Sirius said, managing to keep his temper down. No one insults Harry in front of him. He also was relying on the 'Lily card' to try and get a response from Snape. Maybe if he saw Harry as Lily's son he would treat him better.

Snape went pale. "She'd probably murder me." He said very quietly. "But I still don't get why he's so loved by everyone!"

"Listen, if you only saw him for what he was rather than what you want to see, you would get it." Sirius replied. "You can't tell me you don't see any of Lily in him. He has her beautiful eyes."

Snape swallowed. "Yeah, yeah."

Sirius strode over to the bookcase and pulled out the year book. "Just look at this picture of her. He most definitely does have her eyes." Sirius flipped through the pages.

"I saw a picture of the two of you in here. Her eyes looked so pretty, if only I could find it.."

Snape jumped up. "I'm done here. I don't want to see."

Sirius continued flipping through the pages. "Relax, I don't get what the big deal is…."

"I SAID I'M DONE!" Snape roared.

Sirius gave him an incredulous look. "What's gotten into you?"

Snape didn't hear him. He marched out of the room and hurried away.

Sirius shrugged. "Well, I don't know what crawled up his arse and died but…" Sirius finally came to the page he was looking for and gasped. The picture of Snape and Lily as kids was gone; someone had cut it out.