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Harry Potter remembered the exact moment it happened. It was at eleven thirty seven on Christmas Eve the year he was sixteen.
Harry had been sitting in the hall, wrapped in his invisibility cloak, and staring up at the Christmas tree. Wizard ornaments were much nicer than muggle ones; he was particularly fascinated by the tiny silver unicorn that jumped from branch to branch with the faint sound of bells.
Suddenly his reverie was disturbed by the side door swinging open and hitting the wall with a dull boom. Harry huddled deeper into his cloak, momentarily regretting the extra three inches he'd grown since this year. Striding up the centre isle was Professor Snape, dark and imposing as usual, but without his customary scowl. Harry blinked. Snape looked almost... cheerful, and there was a bounce to his step that Harry was certain he'd never seen before. Not even when Harry had fallen off his broom during the Griffindor - Slytherin match the month before.
Harry gaped as Snape stopped in front of the tree and rummaged around in his robes. Harry caught a glimpse of worn green corduroy as the hem lifted. It didn't seem like the sort of thing Snape would wear under his robes, too... ordinary. If anyone had asked Harry, he'd probably have said dragon-hide, or black silk. Green corduroy was something normal older men wore, not people like Snape. Snape dug around in the pocket of his trousers and fished out a tiny tin angel. Next to the glittering array on the tree, the little angel looked dull and battered, but Snape smiled at it and with a flick of his fingers propelled it halfway up the tree.
Harry realised that from there, it would be on a line of sight to the head table, and yes... Snape was marching up to the teacher's dais to check. Harry shifted as quietly as he could, to get a better view of the angel. Using the far-sight charm Hermione had made him learn, he zoomed in. Scratched along the edge of the tin angel's robe, in a childish script, Harry could read, '...tmas Mummy, luv Sev'.
Harry blinked in surprise. He'd known that Snape had a mother. He remembered seeing her in Snape's memories, during the Occulumency lessons. But being confronted by the fact that Snape loved his mother, and kept a little keepsake like that, his perceptions shifted and he suddenly saw Snape as a person, rather than a teacher for the first time.
With a pang, Harry realised that if Snape had the angel, it was unlikely his mother was still alive. Snape was back at the tree again, looking up at the angel. Harry heard the faintest whisper, "Merry Christmas." Then Snape was striding back out of the hall again. He'd just reached the door when his voice, strengthened by sixteen years of shouting at students, rang out. "Five points from Griffindor, for being out of bed, Mr Potter."
That was eleven thirty seven. The moment Harry fell in love with Severus Snape.