A/N: Thanks for the reviews!

WARNINGS: See Chapter 1.

This is unbeta'd. I will post the beta'd version when I receive it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor do I make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter 3

.:OoO:.

Then, after nigh on thirty minutes passed, Tom, thirty Death Eaters, and I had gotten rid of the last of the Order. We won. Finally. After years of war, I had finally prevailed. Not that I had originally planned on this side winning, but, hey, when truth makes itself known, I follow it. Even if I become a monster. Having lived in a horrible world birthed in truth is better than living in a cuddly world birthed in lies.

I nodded to Tom, and he nodded to the Death Eaters. With a massive CRACK! we Apparated away.

.:OoO:.

When I arrived at Riddle Manor, I walked straight into the throne room. I noticed that Tom was absent, before I heard the screams. I looked around the room frantically, then I saw them. One of the Death Eaters had Hermione under the Cruciatus. I pointed my cane at the man, MacNair, I believe, and put a much more powerful Cruciatus on him. Without breaking the spell, I limped to Hermione and hugged her twitching form. "I'm so sorry," I whispered in her ear.

I lifted the curse from MacNair, leaving him a twitching mess, before addressing the group. With a wandless Sonorous, I began. "Did you incompetent fucking dunderheads think that there might have been a reason that I told you that Miss Granger was to be portkeyed to the throne room rather than the dungeons? As it is, she is not the Muggle-born you believe her to be. She is under my protection, and I will deal with any who harm her. It will be most unpleasant, I assure you." With that, I Apparated straight through the wards to Ravenclaw Manor, and used my connection to Tom to call Severus to me through his mark.

The man appeared in front of me a minute later, obviously surprised at having been called by someone other than his lord.

"I will explain later," I said, "but first, I need you to heal her."

He nodded as I set Hermione on the couch, and began as soon as I stepped away.

Twenty minutes of healing later, Hermione was lying asleep on the couch peacefully. I called one of my house elves to take her to a guest room, one I had set up specifically for her, and then sat in one of the chairs facing the fireplace. Severus still stood, head bowed respectfully.

"Professor, there is no need for that. You may sit."

He nodded and sat across from me. "Thank you, my lord."

"Professor, please do not refer to me in that fashion. I only make the lower Death Eaters refer to me that way, only because they will try to usurp me if I do not hold absolute authority over them. You may call me whatever you like, though I would appreciate the title to have some modicum of respect."

Severus nodded his assent.

"Now, I believe I promised you an explanation. Rather than risking me losing any details by telling a story, how about you ask the questions?"

Snape nodded and began with, "Where are we, Mr. Potter?"

"Actually, now that I think about it, I would prefer to be referred to as Acheron, if you don't mind." Getting a nod from Severus, I continued. "We are currently in one of my estates, Ravenclaw Manor."

Severus was shocked, though it only shone in his eyes. "How come you have been granted access?"

"I went to Gringott's on my seventeenth birthday to claim my inheritance, which Dumbledick had hidden from me to 'keep me humble'. When I did the blood test, my parchment showed that I was heir to multiple lines, some by blood, and others because the last of the line died out and bequeathed their estates to the Boy-Who-Lived," I said with a sneer. "Most notably, I was heir to the lines of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, while Tom is heir to Slytherin and Hufflepuff. Oh, you can't tell him I told you, because he'd kill me. Well, I'd come back, but still, dying is not fun. There was more from the test, but it is not my story to tell."

"What do you mean you'd 'come back'?"

I smirked at him, then showed him the top of my cane. His eyes widened in surprise, but went back to normal after a second.

"I noticed during the battle that you screamed something about not being your father..." he trailed off.

I nodded, a frown marring my features. I had hoped that no one would have picked up on that before I was ready to torture the werewolf. I decided to tell Severus why for two reasons: because he had a similar childhood to me, and I desperately wanted this off my chest.

So, I slowly rose off of the couch, and pulled my cloak off. I then slipped off my robe and began to unbutton my shirt. Severus gasped as he saw my chest, his face colored with his emotions. I knew what I looked like. I had to see it every day. "When you gave me the restorative draughts for my physical size and nutrition, these never went away."

I was covered in scars. Half were from my uncle as a child. He had carved "FREAK" and "QUEER" onto my chest, along with several jagged cuts, reproductions of my scar. However, there were more. On my back, I had "WHY?" and "SCUM" and "WOLF" and "J + R" and "TRAITOR". I also had whip marks, lashed, belt scars, and knife scars.

"The lightning bolts, freak and queer were courtesy of my uncle. He never liked me. Everything else, however, was done by Remus during my third year, and the summers I was at Grimmauld. He was in love with my father, hence the 'J + R', and took the rejection out on me. He would always Obliviate me after, and I would just think that these scars were from my uncle, but, when I came into my magical power, the barriers were broken, and everything came in at once. I lay quivering in my bed for hours, reliving all of his abuse. You know what? Dumblefuck actually helped him cover it up," I finished, as I began laughing. I have been slightly insane since my seventeenth birthday, thanks to the sudden onset of abusive memories, but it hasn't really shown itself until now. I was laughing hysterically, until I remembered Severus's presence, and began to calm down. He was still staring at the words on my back when I calmed. I slipped my shirt back on and sat back down. "Next question?"

"Who was that man that the twins brought?"

I smirked at him. His open and blunt curiosity was quite amusing. Not something one would expect from the normally stoic potions master. "That, Professor, is a secret. You will find out with everyone else. Any more questions?"

Severus shook his head, so I bid him farewell, and called the twins. They Apparated into the foyer and a house elf led them in, along with the man. "Was Dumbledore's giving up anything to do with you?" I asked him.

He nodded. "A little bit of compulsion magic. He never could withstand my prowess in the art."

"Thank you for that. Made everything a bit easier. You will be needed tonight, when we go to the meeting Tom will no doubt call so as to celebrate. While we are there, I will take you to the dungeons to meet him, and you can take him away with you. I would like to thank you again for this. For taking him back."

"What happened was not his fault. His mind was slipping when we were together, from his disuse of the Dark Arts. He was a dark mage, still is, but when his sister was killed, he got it in his head that the Dark Arts were evil, and stopped casting them altogether. He went through a kind of withdrawal, and his mind slipped from the lack of usage, and therefore the feeling of euphoria the Dark Arts bring. He is a dark wizard, but keeps his aura masked. When I have him, I will try to recover his mind, then maybe we can be together again."

I thanked him again. The twins and our guest left, to where I do not know. I went to the library to read.

.:OoO:.

That night, a couple hours before Tom was going to call his meeting, a house elf popped in and told me Hermione was awake.

I went to her room, and explained to her what I had to Severus. She nodded and took it in with grace.

"Hermione, there is more. When I went to Gringott's, I learned something. The night I was born, I wasn't the only one. I had a twin, a sister. I was born about ten minutes before her. However, she didn't fit in with Dumbledore's plans, so he took her and gave her a potion to change her appearance, and gave her to a Squib couple to be raised. He Obliviated everyone who knew, so no one would think I had a sibling. He even altered the adoptive parents' memories so they thought they had had a child."

By this point, Hermione had a foreboding look on her face, as though she knew what my next words would be. With her intellect, she probably did. So, I finished with, "Those Squibs were Jean and Andrew Granger. You, Hermione Lily Potter, are my sister."

She was crying at this point, and suddenly jumped into my arms. I was startled for a second, never one used to or for physical affection, before I awkwardly wrapped my arms around her in a platonic embrace.

Hermione and I sent the next half hour talking about our childhoods, and what we wanted to do to Dumbledick.

It was at midnight that I felt Tom calling his Death Eaters through our Horcrux link.

I grabbed Hermione's hand, and we Apparated to the throne room.

.:OoO:.

A/N: So, lots of questions answered in this chapter. But, we still don't know about the cane or the mystery guest! HAHAHA, a few clues in this chapter though. If you want to guess, please do. I will let you know if you're right… Maybe. Or maybe not. IDK. (I probably will, though. Or not.)

Next chapter: THE MYSTERY GUEST (maybe) and the celebration!

Review? PLEASE?