Chapter two

'My mother found out he was a death eater after she fell pregnant, so she took me to Australia to hide me from him. They knew nothing about her, just a small note left with me with my name on it and that cryptic message about my name.' Tobias said.

'Tobias and I have been talking about this. It must have been someone he met while he was a death eater. Tobias is younger than I am, by a year, Snape was still in with Voldemort at that stage. Well, sort of, he was back on our side by then but still pretending to be a death eater, only just. He kept in with the death eaters so he could pass on information to Dumbledore. That happened when he heard the prophecy which would have been around the time Tobias was born. Dumbledore never did say how old I was when he explained to my parents.'

'Yes, but that got me thinking. If he had this relationship with this woman why did he agree to help Dumbledore protect you? He would not have any feelings left for your mother at that stage, not if he was having sex with another woman.'

'Hermione, remember what Dumbledore told me about Voldemort, his death eaters were probably the same, or at least some of them were. Snape never had any relationships over the years, so he probably just wanted sex, there was never any love there. Maybe it had something to do with the fact the one person he did love never loved him. I'm sure that hurt him and being a death eater back then that hurt probably turned to hate. So for all we know he had sex with a lot of women around that time and it had nothing to do with feelings,' Harry said seriously trying to throw any suspicion off his mother, 'But he did care about my mother so he protected me for her. That's probably all it is.'

'Yes, that is true, I remember how you said they were very close as children, but after they had that fight he did become a very cold man, very uncaring. So you both knew about Snape?'

'Worked it out over Christmas, the name kept bugging me and I remembered when you found out about his mother and father,' Harry glanced nervously at Tobias, 'McGonagall confirmed it as well, she knew Tobias' grandmother, and Tobias has some of her features.'

'Does she know who your mother might be Tobias?'

'No, only that Severus Snape was my father. We've done a lot of research, nothing. I spoke with the orphanage before coming here and they couldn't give me any information on my mother as they never saw her. I was left inside the doors at a week old. They did say when that happens they will try to find out some information just to keep on file for any of the kids. So after all the checking on me, they had two theories, the first is they believe my mother died, the second that she was married. They are the two biggest reasons that kids get left there, they don't know that for a fact though. It could be completely different why I was left there, like with the fact she found out that Snape was a death eater, she might have been scared for all we know. They don't even know if it was a woman or man that left me.'

'You know and even though I hate saying this, but maybe she was killed, maybe Snape found out she took his child away and being a death eater,' Harry shrugged leaving the sentence open.

'Actually, that makes sense otherwise I'm sure your mother would have made some contact, Tobias.'

'Yes, especially after Voldemort was gone and most of his death eaters. I left the information with the orphanage where I was going, so even though it is muggle if they tried to find me, someone in the magical work would have picked it up once I was at Hogwarts.'

'They would have, I remember Dumbledore telling me that there were witches and wizards in all sorts of muggle places, like the post office. That way any letters from magical and muggle people would find their way to the right people. But Hermione, why were you looking into Tobias' family?'

'I wasn't, then the name just popped into my head one day so I went into the ministry records room and looked for anything on Eileen Prince. Then I went into London and did the same for Tobias Snape. It wasn't conclusive proof but it just made sense to me especially with Tobias' hair, it's so like Snape's except not greasy, or lank. But we know the reason for that was because he spent so much time brewing potions.'

'That's what I thought when I first talked to Tobias about researching his family, his names kept stirring some memory, but I never really took notice of his hair except I liked it.'

'No, I suppose all you were seeing was a cute boy,' Hermione smiled at Tobias and Harry, 'I'm sorry if you feel I invaded your personal life Tobias, the name just made me curious and I couldn't help myself.'

'It's fine Hermione, being around you this last year I got to see how tenacious you are when you're trying to work on something. But Harry and I have been doing some research, we'll work it out in the end, one way or another. I'm not really worried if I find out or not, I like to think that if it was my mother that left me there then she did it to protect me from the death eaters,' Tobias gave her a smile even though he's inside were churning and hoped Hermione dropped this.

'We know what the kids of death eaters are like Hermione, if they found out about Tobias he would have been raised like them until he ended up a death eater like the others.'

'That's true, he would have been raised to become a death eater. I think you're right Tobias, you're mother gave you a chance to live and be a normal boy.'

After a few more minutes Hermione hugged the two men then left, 'Tobias, do you know for a fact that the orphanage has no information about our mother?'

'No, I don't, but when I spoke to them they said I was left with the note. You don't think there is anything written there that could lead to our mother, do you?'

'I don't know, but we could find out without them knowing. We could take any records of yours, modify their memories of us ever being there.'

'Australia, you want to go to Australia?'

'We have time Tobias and if you want, you keep your records, but they won't have them in case anyone decides to research you. I don't see any reason for others too, it's just a precaution. I heard the Grangers say they would go back to Australia for a holiday. Hermione thought it was beautiful so I know she will go eventually. What if she did and decided to do more research while she was there, we can't take the chance.'

'Is this all worth it Harry,' Tobias sighs as he sits and puts his head in his hand.

Harry's heart lurched, he sat beside the man he loved, 'Don't you want us to stay together?' his voice barely a whisper.

'I do,' Tobias looks up, 'I do but what if this gets out?'

'We can at least try to make sure that doesn't happen. We tried being apart, it almost broke us. Please don't leave me Tobias.'

Tobias stared into Harry's wide scared eyes, 'I'm not Harry, we'll do what we have to so our secret remains safe.'

'Then we'll send our letter to McGonagall, go into the ministry and organize a port key to Australia. We can have a bit of a holiday before you go back to Hogwarts and I start training. We both know how hard this year is going to be having to spend most of it apart and with my training and your studying, it's not going to give us much time.'

Tobias nodded, 'Yeah, it's going to be hard, so let's have a couple of weeks in Australia but also make sure there are no loose ends.'

'Come on then, let's go organize,' Harry wrapped his arms around Tobias but he felt his lover holding him just as tight as Harry was holding Tobias. Neither of them wanted to lose the other no matter how wrong staying together was. They loved each other, they needed each other, they wanted each other and nothing was going to break these two young men apart.