My computer and I are about to fight.

Anyway, I edited every chapter-at first I was just going to delete this and repost it but I figured out a way to just replace them and keep the original work up. Yay. So don't read this first. Reread the edits and then read this. It'll be better that way. Or continue on... can't control you.

(**)

He landed on his feet hard, a huff leaving him and a frown coming in its place. It was surprisingly easy to guess where he was—the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts. When he was, might be a bit harder to guess due to the similarity between this medical bay and the one he saw at least three times a year. All of the beds were voided, curtains drawn back… all the beds except one. Harry tilted his head and approached the bed, knowing deep in his heart that whoever laid behind that curtain would not have a happy ending in this story. Before he could reach the bed, the doors to the Hospital Wing swung open with a bang and caused Harry to whirl around with his heart nearly on the outside of his chest.

There was Dumbledore, coming towards him wearing one of his usual retina damaging robes but his face wasn't molded into a welcoming smile nor did his aura state that he was calm and fatherly. Instead, a frown etched deep into his lips and darkness hung over his head. It took Harry a moment to realize that there was a child being ushered by his side. He was so small, so young and quiet that it was a miracle that Harry even knew he was there. Black hair, chopped messily as though someone wasn't quite sure what to do with the scissors and skin so pale that it seemed to be pure white. If Harry didn't know better, he would say that it was Severus but this boy… he was so young, much too young to be in Hogwarts and even from this angle, Harry could tell that he didn't have the iconic Snape nose.

"Come this way Seiji," Albus told the child as he resisted the pull of the old man. The boy made a noise in the back of his throat and shook his head wildly, his hand coming up to cover his nose. Harry frowned at the boy's reaction and took a deep breath and flinched slightly. Somehow he hadn't noticed the smell of blood that tainted the air with iron.

"We must hurry child, he doesn't have much time," Albus urged, tugging hard on a little arm. The boy shook his head once more and finally raised his face enough for Harry to see it.

"Whoa!" Harry shouted, stumbling backwards as he took in the bleeding eyed child with eyes so dark it could have been coal. The eyes flickered red, a red like blood with a strange design within it that seemed to scream dangerous and insanity. Albus averted his eyes, gazing at the child's forehead as though he was actually scared to look into the little boy's eyes but Harry could not exactly be shocked judging by his own reaction.

"My eyes are down here, Mr. Dumbledore. Do you not wish to see my pretty blues?" the boy, Seiji, murmured in a sickly sweet voice, fluttering his lashes despite the blood leaking onto his cheeks. Blue eyes hardened but still did not look into the rotating depths, staying on the child's brow and the dark cloud turned from something like sadness into anger.

"Now is not the time for mind games Seiji and should you continue this silly resistance, there is still another that can replace you, do not forget that," the steel in his voice and the way the child gave a subtle flinch told anyone witnessing that whoever was meant to replace him, little Seiji did not agree. The red in his eyes flickered crazily as though it was reluctant to leave the child before it finally disappeared.

"… I am ready." The boy whispered, bowing his head and allowing his chopped locks to cover his face. Dumbledore nodded and guided the boy to the bed Harry stood in front of, walking through the green eyed teenager and then throwing open the curtains.

Harry wasn't sure if one could vomit while in a Pensieve but damn if he wasn't going to try. The man… boy really on the bed was completely destroyed. His pale skin was ravaged greatly by giant tears that appeared to be claw marks from a large beast, each one bleeding steadily despite the delicate stitches attempted to close the skin. His throat too seemed to be torn open but again, thread tried to hold it close. And the worse part, the worse part of this teenage boy torn apart by a beast was the fact that he was still alive. His thin, ripped chest rose and fell shakily, his onyx eyes darted about alert and glazed with pain and a weak moan rose from his throat as he shifted then gave pause as it proved to be too painful.

The little boy reared back, slapping a small hand over his nose and mouth as he desperately fought to not scream or vomit. Dumbledore steadied him easily, his eyes quite dead but determined as he brought the little boy closer to the dying Severus Snape. There was no doubt in Harry's mind that this was Severus Snape on the bed and Harry's heart twisted sharply in his chest but he was quite confused. What was 'Severus' trying to show him?

"Seiji you must hurry, the potions and spells are rapidly decomposing," Albus urged, giving the boy a push that nearly sent him flying onto the ravaged Slytherin. Seiji caught himself and stared down at the black haired boy with wide onyx eyes, horrified and just slightly nauseous. A few seconds passed with the two staring at each other, one completely confused and in pain while the other obviously erecting courage while displaying sympathy.

"I need privacy please," Seiji stated stonily, not even turning to look at the old man. Dumbledore stood for a small moment before turning and leaving the two in peace.

"H… hi," Severus suddenly rasped, voice low but in the quiet, tense atmosphere, it sounded like a shout. Seiji started slightly as though he hadn't known that Severus was still alive.

"Hello," Seiji returned, "My name is Uchiha Seiji."

"S… Sev…rus… Sn…Sn…p…p," the teenager attempted to return but the pain became too much not to mention his barely sewn throat. Seiji smiled shakily and nodded then continued to stare as though building himself up to do something else. Severus's tongue came out to drag across his dry lips then he talked once more. "'M d…d… de… ad?"

"N—yes," Seiji obviously chose not to speak a lie, "I am very sorry but there is nothing they can do… your body is too weak and the damage too extensive."

"W…wer…olf… can't… be…fixed wi…with… magic," Severus nodded stiffly then let out a low moan of pain.

"They can only prolong your agony but…" Seiji hesitantly reached down and pulled back the cover, bringing to sight a skinny arm marred by an ugly black tattoo. Severus didn't attempt to pull back, in fact he simply stared at the small Uchiha who cared very little as to what such a symbol meant.

"Y…you… re… place me? B… but… yo…young… sm…sm…all," Severus pointed out, obviously unfazed that he was going to die and be replaced. It was probably the pain, the prospect of finally getting away from it much greater than the desire to live with it. Harry had to point out that the teenager was still sharp half-dead and delirious with pain—Seiji was at least half his size and more than half his age.

"A combination of transformation jutsu and a small glamour will give me your shape until I am old enough to hold it with just a small glamour… a jutsu will give me your memories and your knowledge and your magic… well, Dumbledore has told me he will handle that," Seiji explained as he climbed onto the bed and settled next to the teen. Severus's eyes glazed slightly then he closed them in contemplation. Whatever he had been thinking obviously settled in his mind for a bloody smile spread across his pale lips.

"Dark… dark magic. Oh how the Light has fallen," Severus whispered nastily and reached out, clutching the boy's hand weakly, "C… come now… do it…"

Seiji nodded and tightened his grip as he slowly moved one hand while his eyes began to glow red.

The memory stopped and melted into something new, taking Harry away from the heartbreaking scene.

(**)

Severus stood before the seventh year students, boring his eyes into each of them. He had a class to cater but he would make sure that these little dunderheads knew exactly what would happen should he find that they mistreated the poisoned. It hadn't been his decision to allow these dunderheads to administer the antidote but even he could acknowledge that twelve pair of hands was more effective than just his and Poppy's.

"Listen carefully for if you mess up you shall be expelled and put on trial for attempted murder. This antidote is a precise art. You shall deliver two drops—two as in the number after one but before three. The drops will be delivered every hour for the next three which means that that is a total of six drops. Your vial holds more than six drops as you can obviously tell. The poisoned students may be delusional and put up some resistance due to whatever reason but you will be patient. You will deliver each and every drop with absolute care. These students have suffered enough and should you make them suffer more then you will rue the day that you ever set foot on Hogwarts' soil."

Severus motioned for Poppy to hand out the antidotes and droppers. He had a lot of work to catch up to and the temporary teacher was not nearly good enough. He trusted Poppy and her sharp eyes to oversee well enough although he would be back to check on their progress much later. He looked to his watch and noticed that he had a bit more time left so he left them with one more note.

"Do remember that these are not your rivals, they are not even your peers. They are children. They are someone's daughter, son, niece, nephew. They are future husbands and wives, mothers and fathers. Above that, they are human beings. Treat them as such."

While Severus knew that these volunteers were quite aware just what a Hell he could make their lives, he wanted to impress something else onto them. He appealed to their human nature, asked them to realize that they should not be here because they were threatened but because people had been harmed and they were doing what they could to help. The threat was simply a backup because he knew that asking someone nicely was a bullshit way to go.

(**)

Hermione, of course, had volunteered her time to help the students that had been poisoned. She felt so awful for them so she simply had to do something. She smiled at the medi-witch as the woman handed her the antidote and dropper. While it was absolutely dreadful that this happened to these innocent students, Hermione could not help but focus on the fact that Professor Snape was amazing. He was an absolute genius. To take a poison that no one had ever heard of, that no one could find a single book on and make a functioning antidote in less than 24 hours? It was short of a miracle. Of course that was only if the potion worked but she had complete faith in Snape. He never handed in anything only half done. He was a perfectionist much like her.

Hermione smiled wistfully and brushed by the hair of her particular patient. Her name was Zahara Blue if Hermione wasn't mistaken. A beautiful, dark skinned Asian girl who had suffered three broken fingers after her hand was trampled on by her panicking classmates. Sakura had healed the fingers but she gave her apologies as she realized that her chakra simply could not take out the poison. It was attacking something that, she herself did not have. Hermione found the whole thing fascinating, this difference between chakra and magic. She wondered if she could get some sort of visa to visit the Hidden Countries.

"W…where am I?" a soft voice asked, heavily accented with something that Hermione didn't recognized. She blinked and realized that the magically induced coma had worn off and it was time to deliver the potion.

"Hello Zahara, I'm Hermione. The Slytherin dorms had been attacked and some students suffered a severe poisoning because of it. I have an antidote that will make you feel better so if you could just…" She held up the dropper. Zahara hesitated for a moment, dark eyes searching her face for some sort of trickery before her lips parted. Hermione grinned and delivered the medicine, making sure to not waste any and to not deliver too much then she made sure Zahara swallowed.

"That's great. Are you thirsty? Professor Snape mentioned earlier that you guys would be a hit dehydrated," Hermione inquired. Zahara nodded so the frizzy haired girl turned around and began her journey to the drink cart that Pomfrey had set in place in case of this very scenario.

"Merlin you fat cow! Can't you just fucking take the potion," a sharp voice hissed. Hermione immediately froze and whirled to the direction of the voice. No one should be spoken to like that! And to make it worse, it was probably being directed to a student who was in pain and probably delusional. It was then that Hermione spotted a seventh year Hufflepuff. The boy was gripping a Slytherin by the cheeks and forcing her mouth open. For some reason she was struggling but not exactly moving. With his free hand, he dripped two drops of the potion into her mouth and quickly waved his wand to close he mouth off. He pinched her nose to close off any way from not swallowing. The horror Hermione felt as she watched the girl (Millicent Bulstrode!) try to open her mouth, bucking and straining against invisible bonds was unbelievable. Then the anger surfaced.

"Y—you BULLY!" she shrieked, waving her wand. The boy didn't have time to even turn around before he was slamming into a wall. Shocked gasps sounded but Hermione couldn't pay attention to them because this creep was standing back up. He held up his wand but was down as a red light slammed into his chest and into the wall once more. Hermione whirled around to see Pansy Parkinson of all people standing there. The pug nose girl sneered at the boy and flipped her silky hair over her shoulder.

"Professor Snape was right. There is always one that must serve as an example," she sighed, striding up to the boy and kicking him roughly in the ribs to force him onto his back. Pansy wiggled up his wand from his limp grip and deftly snapped it in half without an ounce of pity. Then she shoved it back into his pocket and turned to face Hermione.

"I hate to admit it Granger, but you actually did well this time. I'll find another student to take care of Zahara and you can help Millie. She likes apple juice more than pumpkin. I'm going to make sure no one else is being taken advantage of," Pansy walked away with a swish in her hips. Hermione nodded numbly, wand still in hand. She… Pansy snapped someone's wand in half. She just broke it right before her eyes without hesitating. It was amazing. Hermione waved her wand to release Millicent from her invisible bonds and came to her side.

"I am so sorry that that happened Millicent," Hermione whispered to the girl, pushing back little strands of brown hair. Glazed brown eyes blinked rapidly up at her, squinting hard and then the girl smiled. She smiled brightly and reached out, hand clumsily colliding with her hair.

"You're so beautiful," she murmured, "So pretty."

(**)

Seiji was convulsing. His eyes were in the back of his head and his body was overtaken by shakes that rattled his teeth. Harry did not know if he could take anymore. He had seen horrible memory after horrible memory, some of them blurred and mixed and warped due to the chakra spell and then some were crystal clear. Like this one. No one would be helping the boy because he had his own, private room with a private bathroom for times when his freshly given magic couldn't hold up the glamour and, also, for times like these. It was truly for times like this when chakra and magic clashed with each other hard enough to send the boy flying out of his bed and onto the floor. Enough for a circle of fire to appear around him and the invisible force that broke his bed in half. Enough to cause blood to run down his cheeks and his nails to dog holes in his palms.

Knock. Knock.

Seiji whimpered, unable to move and hide or to put up some sort of locking spell. He was powerless as the knocking echoed once more and a voice wafted through.

"Severus?" A girl. It was a girl, a girl he somehow knew would have bright red hair and shining green eyes. She would have a smile that could brighten up the planet and yet, she had enough fury to make a hardened criminal cry for his mother.

"Severus? Listen, I've been worried about you. I just want to talk, yeah?" the girl pleaded then she turned the knob. It wasn't as if the door was locked, Seiji had once locked himself in after using too much magic for the spell. So Lily stepped in and slapped a hand over her mouth.

"Oh my GOD!" she rushed into the room, only closing the door as an afterthought as she rushed to the small boy's side. She waved her wand, making the fire disappear and dropped to her knees, hands hovering over the convulsing child.

"Okay, um. Okay, hello. My name is Lily Evans. Um, I know some Healer stuff—oh God, I said stuff. Healer stuff. I'm sorry. Uh, so I'm going to cast a little spell that will make your body relax. Your muscles are too tense and I do not wish for you to tear something," she explained, murmuring relaxation spells over the tiny body. Harry felt tension leave his body as someone finally helped this little boy. Finally, someone held out their hand.

"Now, I am going to cast a diagnostic test on you. It will only take a minute." It took a bit longer than that, a scroll appearing at the end of her wand with a pen that jotted down words only to cross them out and start again only to then erase them and start over. It wasn't until Lily cast the spell once more that the quill finally scribbled something in large letters.

'SEVERUS UCHIHA

Age: six years, seven months

Sex: Male

Diagnostics: MAGIC REJECTION'

"Oh my. Magic Rejection… I… I have to get Madam Pomfrey." Lily was way out of her depth. She had heard of magic rejection in rare cases and there was nearly always a fatality of not only the person but also the people around them. And this kid's chart was all over the place. It proclaimed broken bones but then crossed them out and a werewolf infection but this boy didn't have a single scratch on him. Something weird was happening and it was best if she—

"No." a hoarse voice whispered and a hand weakly brushed her wrist. Lily startled and looked down at the boy, at Severus. He was… he was there. She looked around, not sure what had happened. She saw a little boy, she saw a boy that couldn't be older than six and yet, he was no longer there. It was now her friend who was sixteen and looking rather exhausted.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, "I… I tried a new spell but it backfired. Professor Dumbledore already looked into it and the effects will last for quite a while until I learn control once more."

"Oh Sev, you were gone for so long. I thought you were dead," Lily murmured, pushing back his sweaty hair. Eyes blacker than night looked up at her, pain swimming in the orbs and she couldn't help but see that little boy again. He was in such pain, so tired and alone. Lily leaned down and pressed their foreheads together, silently promising to never leave him again. When she pulled away, he clutched desperately at her hand she couldn't protest. Instead she waved her wand and fixed the damage done to his bed and slowly guided him to it.

"I'm staying here tonight if that's okay with you," she said, throwing her cloak to the side and showing off her pajamas. Severus nodded slowly and climbed in first. He was soon followed by Lily who immediately wrapped her arms around him. The lights turned themselves off and they fell into darkness.

"Lily…" Seiji didn't know what to say to this girl. His mind told him that he knew her. It told him that she was an angel in human's skin and he could see why Severus would think that. He wanted to thank her, to show the appreciation and gratitude that Severus would have for being forgiven for such stupid words. But, as he thought of Severus, he thought of himself. The pain he was in, not only physically. His heart hurt, he had been alone these past weeks and now…

"Thank you." Seiji finally sobbed out, tears pooling in his eyes.

"Your mother was a shining beacon." Harry felt a hand land on his shoulder but he did not look away. He watched the two people who didn't really know each other embrace. That little boy knew that she didn't know him, didn't see the real pain he was in but he was accepting of anything that would bring him comfort. Anyone that would see him and hold him like a child ought to be held. The memory melted away and he was suddenly back in the real world, in real time.

"Lily helped me recover. She taught me as one would a first year student, showing me the basics all over again. I gained a better control of my magic and learned to stop my chakra from attacking it. My last year went smoothly. We graduated, she married Potter and had you shortly afterwards. I went on to pursue Severus's dream until a point came that Albus needed me."

"You…" Harry finally turned to look at Severus only to see a stranger looking back at him. This man wasn't nearly twenty years his senior, Hell he was probably only twenty something! His face wasn't even the same. His nose was no longer hooked, his skin no longer an odd shade of white. His jaw was a bit narrower and his eyes a tiny bit more slanted. His body had muscles that Harry could see due to the fact that he was wearing clothes that were better for a gym. He looked nothing like his Severus and… that was the truth wasn't it?

This wasn't Severus Snape, the man he fell in love with. This wasn't the wizard who had gone into Hogwarts a bit early, who had sarcastic humor and a mean streak that was more than a mile wide. This wasn't the man who wrote in a potions book with critiques about every little detail.

This was Seiji Uchiha. This was a little boy who had been forced out of his land and into one that he did not recognize. This was the boy who cried tears of blood as he said goodbye to his brother. This was a boy who did not want this life, who hated being in this world that caused him nothing but pain. Harry didn't love this man. He didn't even know him.

(**)

TBC

I updated! Go me. Go me.