What was Harry doing?
He was actually staring blankly at the photograph. All summer long, he had been tormented by a strange dream.
At first, he had seemed to possess his father like a soul, becoming one of the perpetrators.
But a few days later, he found himself possessing Snape instead, becoming the victim.
Every night in his dreams, he saw the Marauders wearing vicious grins as they cast all manner of cruel curses on him. Though the pain existed only in the dream and Harry always woke up physically unharmed, the anguish in his heart grew worse by the day.
So this was what Snape had seen when he was tormented back then? So this was what it felt like to be ganged up on? After being knocked to the ground and strung upside down by magic, the world he saw was upside down.
Everything in the dream was too real—the smells, the sensations, the pain.
And the mockery of others, James's cruelty, Sirius's blind loyalty, Lupin's indifference, and Wormtail's treachery.
The whole world seemed to be against Snape. Harry felt as though he could still sense his emotions—his anger and helplessness.
If there was anyone in the dream who treated Snape well, it was Dumbledore and Harry's own mother, Lily. He did not know why, but whenever those two appeared, the dream itself seemed to glow.
Every time, Dumbledore stopped the Marauders' pranks against Snape, harshly reprimanded the troublemakers, treated Snape's injuries, and even gave him sweets. He patiently taught him what love was and told him not to be controlled by hatred.
But the question that troubled Harry most concerned his own mother.
Because in those dreams, Lily Evans was Snape's girlfriend—at least she had been at the time. The two were inseparable, often strolling and meeting