I'm such a sucker for reviews, I feel obligated to obey them ;) I hope you'll like this chapter. Next will probably have James'. Probably.

Wistful

The entire country side of Godric's Hollow was covered in white and the sting of the wind spared no by-passer. A lone owl fluttered in the frozen blue sky, caught in the wind. It flew once over the graveyard and chose a tomb to land on. It waited and waited, choosing to humor its instincts, despite the foul weather.

It seemed hopeless, for no one came to receive the parchment tied to his talons. The graveyard was deserted

It flew around the place one last time, and took off again to the sky and the unforgiving wind, to return the letter.

Its journey was long and hard, but at long last he reached his mistress' home. He flew in through the window, and found his mistress in her study, writing at the desk. She noticed him as he sat by her hand and thrust the parchment out, as if in annoyance. It was not nice to prank an old owl in this weather, by writing to the dead.

The mistress looked at the parchment in surprise before her countenance descended into sadness.

"Oh. Of course!" she said softly. "The Potters couldn't receive their letters, could they?" she asked no one.

"Well, my old friend, you can rest a bit before taking this letter to Hogwarts. I suppose their son would like to read it."

The owl hooted angrily, snatched the parchment from her hand, and took off again.

STAR STAR STAR STAR STAR STAR STAR STAR STAR

There was only one person who could answer his question, but not now, not today. He needed time to think.

Harry shuffled to his bed, though it was hardly an hour after sunset, he did not think he had energy left for anything but to think. He was not tired, by any means, physically, but it was too cold outside and he wanted to be alone.

He sat in bed and reread Snape's letter again, and still puzzle at what it implied. Severus Snape had a crush on his mother! Well that simplified things. That was probably why he hated his dad so much; he had won Lily!

'And I?' he thought 'I am the reminder of that.'

He sat silently in thought before bursting out "begrudging GIT! All this torment in class, just because he couldn't get over the fact that my mum preferred my dad to him!"

Just at that moment he heard a knock on the window and looked to see a small brown owl perching on the windowsill. He hoped off the bed and let the poor thing in. The owl nestled in his hands and he could feel that his wings were nearly frozen.

"Sometimes I think they should ban sending owls out in winter" he said "is that for me?"

He took the envelope from the owl, putting him down near the fireplace and gave him a treat.

There were three pieces of parchment in the envelope two tattered and old and one comparatively newer, he unrolled the latter.

Dear Mr. Potter,

About 20 years ago, when your parents were in my class, they were assigned to write a letter to their future self. I thought you might like to receive these letters in their stead.

I offer my most sincere condolences for what befell them. They were a brave and talented couple.

Yours,

Margaret Kentworthy

So it must have been real. Snape hadn't made it up to torture Harry. He had a lot of questions that needed to be answered. Was Snape right? Was he his mother's best friend? Had his mum hated his dad? How had the ended up married then? Had Snape joined Voldemort?

He felt a wave of excitement as he unrolled the second parchment, and looked at its bottom to see whose it was. Lily Evans, 27 Jan 1973.

He felt the parchment with his fingers, imagining it in his mother's hands, her handwriting…

His eyes swam for a minute before they refocused on the letter, and stated to read.

Dear future self,

I hope my letter finds you well and happy, and that you are successful in your job, whatever that might be. I can't really wait to reach your age and read this letter. It must be exciting, like time travel! The Professor has promised to send our letters out in 20 years! Of course I understand that that might not really happen, but I suspect that you could give it to the owls and tell them when to deliver it. They are incredibly intelligent birds, after all.

I am faring well, though it's been a bit of a tough competition for the highest marks in charms with Catharina Derstenge in Ravenclaw, and Professor Flitwick is giving prizes…but I do suppose you are past all these school competitions and won't be interested much in my scholastic worries.

Really, to be fair, you should be the one sending me a letter, seeing as you probably know everything I tell you. And you can't possibly have forgotten your friends from school. What you might have forgotten is probably how you felt and thought when you were me, since those are what really changes in people, and makes them different. Your opinion must have changed a lot about a lot of people. I think that's the point of this letter really. To remind you of those you used to know, for surely even they have changed as much as you must have.

Well then, I should probably start re-introducing you to my best friend, Severus. He is a bit shy and sometimes even distant, I think it's mostly because he feels insecure; as if he expects to be abandoned if he makes a wrong move. He always thinks on what he wants to say and always searches my face for my reaction when he doesn't contemplate the consequences of saying a thought aloud, perhaps out of experience, for he can be rather tactless sometimes. It can get very frustrating, but one can see beneath all these, he has a kind, gentle and vulnerable heart. He is loyal and helpful, and I don't know what I would have done the first two years at Hogwarts without him.

But despite all these, sometimes he frightens me by a complete lack of compassion towards others. It's as if in his world, only a few people deserve his esteem and the rest can go to hell. I know that's harsh but…it's what I see when I see him watching others; as if he is just watching a colony of ants, or at the very most, ghosts from another planet. I wonder if he has grown out of all that in your time.

He is a genius though! He likes brewing just as much as I do, if not more, and makes some really clever modifications to the text book's instructions. It's always fun to study with him, he makes everything interesting.

I just looked at him, and he was scowling still at the Professor. He really doesn't see the point in writing this when we could brew. Oh well, that's just Sev.

I have other friends too, though I don't spend as much time with them. Mary is a kind quiet girl who is always ready to listen to anyone who has a problem. She is the very opposite of Alice who is lively and loud and sometimes plain…ferocious! I might enjoy my time with Sev but…only girls really understand girls. Well, except for Tuney. She has been nasty ever since I came to Hogwarts, and still taunts Severus and me every time he comes over, when mum isn't there. I hope she is nicer in the future, because I really can't live with her during summers now!

Anyway, We do all sorts of things in the dorm on weekend nights when we stay up late into the night. Well usually we talk, but last week Mary and I were teaching Alice and the other girls about Muggle makeup. That was fun. I'm sure you have better things to do together when you are an adult, but I do hope you haven't fallen out. It seems really common in girls in higher years to argue and never talk again…and over such silly things like name-calling! I think I'm above such things, and I hope you haven't changed in that aspect.

Well anyway…another topic I could share is probably my interests. I love music. To me music is the magic I get to use even outside of Hogwarts. I wonder if you still have the same tastes as I. Do you still cry to the last scene of Marriage of Figaro? Or have you watched it so many times, you have become immune to it?

I always wanted to learn a musical instrument (you obviously know that). But there's hardly any time and I suppose thirteen is too late anyway. Perhaps as an adult you have more time, what with there being no surprise tests and exams. Or Slughorn bugging me about being in the wrong house every chance he gets! Infuriating old man! I was just reminded of this conversation I was having with Sarah Banks about music being the one common thing between muggles and wizards, when he interrupted us, and talked nonsense until we lost hope of continuing our own conversation. He is a good teacher though, so I have to show that I respect him.

Oh my! Severus is actually writing the letter too! So he probably doesn't think it's as pointless as he pretends he thinks.

Back to what I was saying…talking of people I dislike…I really hate arrogant bullies. Most Slytherins are arrogant, with Sev having the mildest case, but none of their heads needs as much deflating as James Potter, unfortunately a fellow Gryffindor. I can see him now from where I sit, trying to catch my eye. One would think that if he really is interested in me like Alice says, then he would stop pestering my friends!

Enough of that now. I think I've talked of my school life long enough. But there doesn't seem to be much hope for us beyond school. Most kids look forward to graduation, but with the impending war with the evil guy who is emerging, more and more powerful everyday, it seems unlikely that a very bright future awaits us. Oh well. As long as we have the headmaster; we will fight till death or freedom! (I can imagine Sev's face at that comment. He would scowl until his lips hurt!)

I won't take much more of your time; this has gone on long enough. I wish us both good luck.

Lily Evans

27 Jan 1973

PS. It just occurred to me that you are actually 33! Are you married? Do you have any children? Oh dear…

Harry stared. It was not very easy to imagine his mother as a teenager, playing dress up late at night with friends, or Snape "going over" to her house, or her hating his dad. She said he was a bully…was he really? He couldn't have possibly been like Dudley…could he?

She had liked music… Had she learnt an instrument later in life? There was so much he didn't know about her!

He almost dreaded opening his dad's letter. He definitely had to pay a visit to Professor Lupin.

review please!