Harry and Ginny were throwing each other curious but happy looks as they saw the joined hands of Hermione Granger and Severus Snape.

"Good morning. Harry, Gin. I trust you still know who this is? Well, Sev. These two are my best friends. Ginny Weasley and Harry Potter." Hermione felt quite odd having to introduce them as they under normal circumstances would know each other.

Severus let go of her hand and walked over to the kitchen counter where the two were seated. He stuck out his hand in front of Ginny for her to shake it.

"Hello, Ginny. I'm Severus. It's nice to meet you," he smiled warmly at the young redhead.

"It's nice to meet you, too, Pro- Severus."

Severus went on to Harry. Either he didn't hear what she was going to say, or he chose to ignore it. The young brown-haired man let his gaze wander from the countertop to the eyes of the man in front of him. Severus was quite confused once he had the opportunity to look into Harry's eyes but quickly pushed that aside to take Harry's hand, too.

Those eyes. They're so familiar. I'd recognize even if they were one out of billions. These are Lily's eyes. Maybe Hermione can tell me more about that later on.

They finished off their breakfast rather quickly before getting ready to apparate to the leaky cauldron. Harry apparated with Ginny and Hermione followed suit with Severus on her arm.

She wore a thick woolly coat and hid behind a big scarf and under a beanie. Severus was clad in dark clothes as to not catch too much attention from others. His hair was now pulled back into a man bun and Hermione did charm his nose so that it wouldn't appear to be too big. It would be one of the first things to give him away.

Additionally, she didn't allow him to go in black, why ever was beyond him. Anyway, he now wore dark blue trousers, a blue button-up, black boots and a black scarf. There were quite a few witches and wizards flooding the local as it's bitingly cold outside. Therefore, the four were lucky and went unnoticed. Somewhere in the back, Harry tapped his wand at a brick stone wall and it gave room to a passage that led to the shopping alley of the wizarding society in Britain. The four of them step through and once they stood there, Severus gaze was going far off again.

The street ahead of him began to shift.

He was standing in the middle of a crowded Diagon Alley in what he thought to be summer because of the warmth all around him. He was just looming around when he was being hauled further by a happily bubbling young Lily Evans. She pulled him into the proximity of the shops she definitely wanted to visit later. "Come now, Sev. Or don't you want to have your own wand?" laughed his friend who stopped at nearly each of the window's showcases to look at the wizarding things you could buy there.

"Severus?" a small hand settled softly on his shoulder.

"It's fine. Just a good memory of my first time ever coming here. And now, come." He laughed and grabbed her hand again. Without thinking twice he pulled Hermione with him and led her to Ollivander's.

Harry and Ginny were looking amused at the unlike pair and followed them at a slower pace.

"Harry, I do think that the more he remembers the closer Severus and Hermione get. This morning he was utterly shocked to find himself lying in her lap and now he's pulling her with him like a schoolboy with a big crush. I bet that he won't be able to pull up that mental wall of his again once he has his memories back. He's shown far too many emotions in the short time we got to know the new him. And, to be honest, I think his presence helps Hermione. I mean, look at her. She's happy. I haven't seen her like that since our fourth year, since before your name flew out of the goblet of fire, and she was so worried about you," said Ginny, looking sideways at her fiancé. He looked rather pensive before coming back to his senses again.

"Yes, you're right. I haven't seen her like that either since then. And if he's the one to make her happy then I'll accept that and help the best I can. She's my sister. I want her to be happy above everything else. Anyway, we should hurry up a bit to keep up with those two," laughed the black-haired man.

"You're right, again."

At that, he had to chuckle and both of them caught up to Hermione and Severus who were waiting patiently in front of the wand store for both of them. Together the four entered Ollivander's and Harry greeted the aged wizard.

"Good morning, Mister Ollivander." The old man was quite shocked to see the boy who lived in his rebuilt store.

"Mister Potter, how good to see you. And Miss Weasley. Come in, how can I be of assistance today?" he said in a rushed tone.

"We've come here with a rather peculiar case, and we'd like that whatever is going to be said would stay between the ones here in attendance, at least for now," explained the green-eyed wizard while Hermione and Severus were staying hidden in the shadows as planned until Severus' presence was needed. Garrick Ollivander looked oddly at the young man but nodded his agreement.

"We came here today to acquire a new wand for a friend, who already had one but it was snapped in two a while ago."

"Remember what I've told you when you first stepped foot in here? The wand chooses the wizard, so unless your mysterious friend is with you, I cannot help you."

Hermione and Severus took that as a sign and stepped out of the shadows. He grabbed her hand for reassurance. "I do think you still know who this is, Mister Ollivander?" asked Harry.

"Master Snape? How is that possible? You... died." The last word spoken by the aged wizard was merely a whisper.

"I was dead, to be honest with you, but a very smart and brave young witch saw it fit to give me an antidote and shove a bezoar down my throat. She brought me to the infirmary and I got reanimated. I was lying in a coma for more than a year and when I woke up I knew nothing. My mind was blank. I got told that my family was dead and that my name was Severus Snape, nothing more. That's all I knew until the day before yesterday but thanks to Hermione, my memories are slowly being restored. I will forever be in her debt and I have no idea how to repay her. All I can do is say over and over again how very grateful I am. And I really am, you have no idea."

The woman he was talking about squeezed his hand and flashed him a charming and understanding smile.

"Now back to the problem at hand. My wand was snapped into two and now that I know that I possess magical abilities I'd like to practice them again." Severus diverted his gaze back onto the old wrinkled man.

"Of course, Master Snape. Please do wait for a second and with that, the wandmaker scurried off to the back of his shop.

A few minutes later the four of them left the store again in high spirits and Severus was rather happy. He remembered the day he got his first wand. The action that triggered that was Hermione embracing him because that's just what Lily Evans did back then.

I'd really like to know in what way Harry and Lily are related, they're so much alike, and I'd love to know what happened to her. Maybe I should just ask Hermione later once we got home.

As the four of them were walking down a nearly empty Diagon Alley, Severus noticed that Hermione had begun to shake. Slowly he pulled his hand from hers and instead put it around her slim shoulders. Hermione at that walked a bit closer to him and put her head on his arm as she was too small to reach his shoulder. The four of them quickly walked through the Leaky Cauldron and outside in the shadows of a street sign disapparated to Hermione's flat. Once there, Harry and Ginny said their goodbyes to Hermione and Severus.

"We will leave the two of you to it, then. If you need anything, you know where we live, you are always welcome, both of you are." Said Harry embracing his best friend. After that, he turned to face Severus and stuck out his hand for the older wizard to take. "It was nice to meet you, Severus."

"Likewise," was Severus short answer as the both of them shook hands. Now he did something none of the people there would have ever guessed seeing Severus Snape do. He pulled the younger wizard in and gave him a friendly hug.

Hermione and Ginny were staring at each other wide-eyed not believing what they just witnessed. After coming to their senses, Ginny wrapped her arms around her best friend and whispered in her ear: "I'd say I rather like the new Severus Snape," and grinned at the brown-haired witch.

After that Harry and Ginny disapparated to their home in Godric's Hollow.

"Would you like a glass of wine, Sev?" asked Hermione.

"Yes, that would be really nice."

It was not even five minutes later that Hermione and Severus were all settled down on Hermione's sofa, each a glass of red wine in hand.

"What's up, Sev?" asked Hermione at seeing the slightly puzzled look on her companion's face.

"It's Harry's eyes. They resemble Lily's to a great deal and I can't stop thinking that maybe the two of them are relatives."

Although Hermione already knew that sometime soon Severus would ask that question, she was hoping that it wouldn't be that soon. With a steady hand, she set her glass of wine down and settled back into the cushions.

"Well, Harry and Lily are indeed relatives. She was Harry's mum."

"Who is his father?"

"James Potter. His parents were Lily and James Potter."

He seemed to be in deep thought for a while before answering:

"Potter... that rings a bell, but I can't remember why. Why are you talking about them in the past tense?"

"Because they're dead, Sev. They died years ago. Harry grew up with his aunt and uncle who never really treated him right."

"You mean that the young man I met today is the boy who was always destined to save the world? And who succeeded in ridding this world of that lunatic? I'm so sorry for him. Did he live with Petunia and her husband? That must have been awful. How long ago did they die, Lily and James, I mean?"

"This year on Halloween it's going to be their twentieth death day. This year's been a tough one for Harry, that's what Ginny told me."

At that Severus' hand let go of the blissfully empty glass of wine and it shattered on the ground. He was looking ahead with horror written all over his face.

"No, that cannot be! Are you telling me that my best friend and her husband died 20 years ago? If so, she was only 21!" said Severus with desperation in his voice and tears were shimmering in his eyes.

"Yes, Severus. She was only 21, but she died to save Harry and with that the whole wizarding world. She sacrificed herself. If she had given Harry over to Voldemort we would all be dead and there would only be a slim chance that she would be alive. She gave her life to save thousands of other people. She and James saved us all and willingly gave their lives to give us a better one." Hermione stood up from the couch and walked over to where Severus was sitting, careful not to step into the shards of glass and hugged him tightly.

"Why is this year so tough for Harry? I mean, there surely must be a second reason for him to look that miserable when he thinks nobody's looking at him?"

"You have to know. Harry looks just like his father except for the eyes, he totally has Lily's. That's what he got told every time he saw someone who knew his parents. Even you told him that he had his mother's eyes when... well, right before you died in the shrieking shack. Over the years, people stopped saying that. There are two reasons to explain that. One is that many friends of his parents were murdered because they fought for Harry. Among them were men women who were really dear to Harry. For one there's Remus Lupin, who was our Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher in third grade. He lives but his wife who always knew how to brighten up even the darkest moment got killed. He survived an attack at the battle, but mentally he's dead. He's only a shell. His soul died with Tonks. He's living in solitude just like you used to before you died. Sirius, who was Harry godfather, spent twelve years falsely imprisoned in Azkaban and all Sirius wanted was to prove his innocence and rescue Harry from the Dursleys. He broke out of prison our third year but had to live hidden. When we were in our fifth year, he got killed by his own cousin. Harry was really down and when a year later Professor Dumbledore died he was so broken. Professor Dumbledore always had that grandfatherly tone and always an ear to lend when you had a problem, and he was Harry's mentor. And like that the circle of people actually knowing his parents reduced until it was next to non-existent. The second reason is that the older Harry got the more he grew to look like his father and fewer people were able to say it because they knew that Harry's now the same age as his parents when they died. Harry is really down. He never really got the chance to get to know his own parents," explained a teary-eyed Hermione still hugging Severus.

The man next to her started to shake uncontrollably again. As she looked at him, she saw that he started crying.

"It's okay, Sev. Harry's a really strong man. He will get through that phase."

"I know, but somehow I have a feeling that I'm the one who caused him to live without his parents. It's just feeling like I was the one who killed them."

He cried even harder now and Hermione had to soothe him down again.

"It's okay, Sev. Everything's going to be fine, you'll see."

With a deep sigh of relief, she noticed that he had fallen asleep and with a small smile and a flick of her wand she produced a duvet for them. Without waking him she lied down next to him and pulled the duvet up. In less than three minutes she, too, was fast asleep.