HOGWARTS, DUNGEONS, POTIONS CLASSROOM — YEAR 1

The room is small. It is dingy and dark. We are meant to recall that the Potions classroom is in the dungeons. There are tables, stools, desks, and cabinets — all showing signs of wear and abuse. There are no Halloween decorations. No tapestries or portraits. It is a dismal place meant for a single purpose — to educate.

The stage is silent. PROFESSOR SNAPE stands over two cauldrons, an open book beside each. His black hair partially covers a focused, but intense expression. The cauldron on the left has a murky blue fog pouring over the edge.

SNAPE attends to the flame beneath the leftmost cauldron while HERMIONE scrapes the hippogriff feathers over a mortar and crushes the Scarabax shells with the pestle. HARRY keeps watch, hands at his sides. HERMIONE finishes and walks the stone mortar to PROFESSOR SNAPE. He carefully adds the contents to the cauldron. There is an immediate reaction. The billowing fog changes in color from blue to vibrant orange. SNAPE stirs the potion. HERMIONE joins HARRY, who is staring at their former professor.

HERMIONE (her voice low): Everything all right?

HARRY gestures to PROFESSOR SNAPE with subtlety.

HARRY (same volume): His leg. It's bleeding all over the floor.

HERMIONE: Fluffy... That was tonight, wasn't it?

HARRY: Yes. What's in the other cauldron?

HERMIONE: I can't quite put my finger on it...

HARRY thinks, trying to work out whether it's a trap.

HARRY: I don't know if it's more worrisome that he's brewing a second, or that he needs to follow the book so closely for both potions. (beat) Should we be concerned?

HERMIONE: Probably.

SNAPE stands back. He assesses the potion on the left, raises an eyebrow, and closes one of the books.

PROFESSOR SNAPE (without looking at them): Hand me the jar.

HERMIONE walks the empty glass jar over to SNAPE. He dips it into the cauldron, lifts it up, and wipes the side clean with a rag. The jar is filled with a disgusting brown sludge.

Now the hair.

HERMIONE reaches into her pocket, ever so gently, and takes out the single blonde strand. She places it into the jar. Again, there is an immediate reaction. The contents of the jar glow to a radiant shade of gold.

HERMIONE: It's actually quite beautiful.

She seals the jar and hands it to HARRY, who holds it up to his eyes.

Essence of Draco.

PROFESSOR SNAPE (uncertainly): Such great lengths... to impersonate Mister Malfoy?

HARRY: With his permission, yes.

PROFESSOR SNAPE: Knowledge — unearned and unbound by the efforts of time — is a dangerous possession in the wrong hands. Which is why I'll be drinking some of this the moment our paths diverge.

SNAPE gestures to the other cauldron.

HARRY: A Forgetfulness Potion?

HERMIONE: That's right! You taught us how to brew that potion after Christmas break. It was our practical exam at the end of first year. (beat) Well, this year.

SNAPE slides the book from PROFESSOR QUIRRELL's library to the end of his desk. He picks up the book.

PROFESSOR SNAPE (coldly): I'll be returning this.

He glares at the jar of fresh Polyjuice Potion. And then at HARRY.

Go. I am no longer in his debt.

HARRY knows what — or rather who he's referring to. HERMIONE looks confused.

HERMIONE: Harry?

HARRY (holding SNAPE's gaze): My father.

PROFESSOR SNAPE: He saved my life. Here, at Hogwarts. One day, I'd seen Madam Pomfrey leading a suspicious boy beneath the Whomping Willow. Then a fellow student, by the name of Black, came to me. Black knew this boy was actually a werewolf, being kept from the castle once a month during the transformation. Yet Black taught me how to pacify the tree. James Potter, friend of them both, knew I was being sent to my death. He... rescued me... at the last moment.

HARRY: He did. And today, you've rescued my son. I'd say that makes you even.

PROFESSOR SNAPE: Now I can go back to hating your father's memory in peace.

HARRY: I understand.

PROFESSOR SNAPE: Do you?

HARRY: Over the past decade, I've made it my mission to learn all I could about you. I know more than most. The atrocities you committed in company with the Death Eaters. Details worthy of Forgetfulness Potion, I'd wager. You have done some truly horrible things in your life, Severus Snape. You will always be more villain than hero.

HARRY narrows the gap between them.

But redemption is never out of reach for men like us.

PROFESSOR SNAPE: If you think I can be redeemed, then there is much you do not know.

HERMIONE: Dumbledore has faith in you, doesn't he?

PROFESSOR SNAPE: Albus Dumbledore is... a rarity among wizards.

There is a long pause. No one moves, until HARRY and HERMIONE decide it's time to leave. HARRY stops at the door. He faces PROFESSOR SNAPE.

HARRY: I know you plan on drinking that potion after we leave. Don't. Remember this moment. That someone knows who you were — sees you for who you are — and still believes.

PROFESSOR SNAPE (with hesitation): Is that all, Mister Potter?

HARRY nods. HERMIONE points to SNAPE's bloody leg.

HERMIONE: I would bandage that if I were you.

They exit.

Fade to black