ONE WAY OR ANOTHER

-CHAPTER SEVEN-

BETA: tammy

NOTE: Harry is called Raven.

INFO: www. livejournal. com /users/draycious


"Quit the length, weight and details. Just jump onto the parents," Raven said. Fudge decided to amuse him and do his bidding.

"Biological Parent, Mother: Lily Rose Evans/Potter" Fudge read and so far everything was normal. The whole hall could see Fudge's eyes widen as he continued to read further. The man stammered a bit before taking a deep breath and continued, if in a rather shaky voice.

"Biological Parent, Father: Severus Cercis Snape" The hall gasped and everyone's head immediately turned to Snape at the teachers table. Fudge didn't mind but continued to read what the whole document said.

"Adoptive Parent: James Harry Potter (unknown of it)

Godfather 1: Sirius Cetus Black

Godfather 2: Remus James Lupin" Fudge finished and laid down the document on the table and awaited further instructions. There was a heavy silence in the crowded hall while everyone waited for something to happen.

"WHAT?" it was Severus that exploded into the silence. He went pale, even paler than before and he didn't look very happy. He looked thunderous, and the teachers next to him inched away every so slowly.

"But I hate him!" both Severus and the monogram said at the same time. Snape quieted down and stared. His planned verbal attack over this ludicrous accusation of him being a father was forgotten. Instead his anger was replaced with curiosity, and a sense of uneasiness.

"Don't look so shocked Snape. You're my dad after all. There is nothing wrong if we think and speak in the same ways. I personally think it's darn funny that every time you've said 'you're just like your father Potter', you've unknowingly insulted yourself. I'm nothing like James, I never was. By the way, watch it what you tell Goyle, not everyone is who he or she seem to be. You should know, you're the King of Illusions if you know what I mean."

Snape looked floored. It wasn't everyday you got the biggest shock in your life in front of hundreds of people, and then being almost mocked about it by his newfound son.

"I think that's everything you need to know for the time being, that, and don't fuck with me if you know what is for your own good. I need to go," the other Raven said. Then he snapped, "Hey Fudge, get your ass out of here. I'm the bloody boy-who-lived, I am no death eater!"

Then the Monogram disappeared in a flash of light.

"Unbelievable! It's impossible! I request a hearing! Truth serum, right now!" Fudge bellowed. His men from the Ministry hurried to oblige him. Raven shrugged carelessly while they ran around like chickens and went to the teachers' table and sat down in Blade's lap. Snape tried to get as far away as possible from him but unfortunately for Snape he sat in the chair next to Blade and therefore Raven.

"Make sure they don't try to make me say things I'll regret," said Raven to Blade.

"I'll see to it," said Blade seriously. He intended to keep his promise. God knows there were a lot of things raven knew that could have a rather damaging affect on both of them if anyone found out.

Raven was seated in a chair in front of the teachers' table as an Auror gave him the truth serum. It was a brand new sort and he didn't like it but the good side of it was that the serum made him able to express emotions and move around like normal, but he still had to speak the truth no matter what.

"Do you have to use the strongest truth serum ever brewed?" Blade snarled nastily to Fudge. He did not like this situation.

"We have to make sure he is telling the truth!" Fudge said right back, never missing a beat.

"Fine. Get on with it!" Blade said and waved his hand in a dismissing manor. Fudge glared at him but his flustered face ruined the whole look.

"What's your full name?" Fudge asked turned to Raven once they were ready to start the hearing. Ministry workers surrounded them and some wrote down what they said.

"Which one do you wish to have? My own, my jail name, my famous Potter name or the name my mother said she'd give me if I had been announced as Severus' child?"

Fudge looked around in the hall with a confused look but no one came to his aid.

"Just tell them all!" he finally said frustrated.

"My own: Raven James Potter

Jail Name: Raven Blood

Famous Potter name: Harry James Potter

Severus' child: Cercis Severin Snape

Further more I'm known as the boy who lived, within Slytherin; the golden boy, by Draco Malfoy scar-head and at the Dursleys BOY!" he announced.

"Right," said Fudge and glanced over at Malfoy. "Have you always known that Snape is your father?"

"No I have not," he said truthfully if yet a bit annoyed over the question. What did they think?

"When did you find out?"

"Earlier this summer," he answered shortly. Just because he had to speak the truth didn't mean he had to elaborate his answers.

"How did you find out about it?" Fudge asked and stood on his toes before he dropped back.

Raven sighed.

"USAWW Ministry told me and they had proof."

"What kind of proof?"

"Do not answer that!" said Blade sharply.

Raven happily obliged. Fudge glared at Blade but said nothing about it. He had no voice in the matter; Scarce's letter had made that thing clear.

"Why did you end up in jail?" he asked Raven instead.

"I killed someone," Raven blurted out bluntly. He was actually looking rather pleased with himself and wasn't all that concerned about the other people around him. He didn't care what they thought.

"W-what? W-who did you kill?" Fudge stammered. He was shaken like the rest of the hall. If this really was Harry Potter then... What could that mean for their future? Everyone shook in their clothes just thinking about it.

"Peter Pettigrew. He was a death eater, I'm sure you've heard about it. I've told you myself even... He betrayed my mum and James. He also framed my godfather Sirius Black."

"Why did you go to jail?" Fudge asked hurriedly. He really didn't need anyone else to know about that particular mistake he had made. He was already on shaky grounds. Another scandal and he might loose his job.

"I was caught"

"Why did they let you go?" said Fudge and he let it slip in his voice that he would rather have seen that Raven had stayed locked up for good. That would mean fewer problems for him. The good man Fudge didn't like taking care of problems, he rather saw other people taking care of them for him.

"They didn't have any proof of me doing anything illegal. Instead I was locked up for fighting in public and sending five people to hospital but that was unfair because they started it. One mother fucker tried to kill me with a knife!"

"Who tried to kill you?" Fudge said at once. He had always been a control freak. He wanted to know things but when the truth didn't fit him he dismissed it as lies.

"I have no idea." That was the truth, the person hadn't tried to kill him because he was the savior, and it had been a typical drunken fight, no less and no more.

"How did you get in contact with Blade?"

"He came and picked me up and then he took me to the Master."

"Master?" Fudge repeated questioningly.

"Do not answer that!" said Blade again.

"So you are a death eater! He took you to You Know Who, didn't he?" Fudge said in a loud accusing voice.

"No he didn't, and say Voldemort or at least the Dark Lord. You Know Who is such a ridiculous name!" Said Raven unable to stop himself. Fudge looked at him sourly.

"Are you a death eater? " he asked straight to the point.

"No."

"Is Blade a Death Eater?"

"No. I haven't seen a mark on him and the only part of his body that I haven't actually seen is his ass hole and I'm quite sure that Voldemort didn't place it there. Besides, I trust Blade and I know for a fact that he wouldn't like to work for Voldemort," he said and didn't care about how crude he was, Fudge made a fake cough to hide his embarrassment.

"You've seen all of his body? Why?"

Raven didn't know if Fudge was a pervert or simply stupid but he shrugged and gave a little smile and began his story:

"That's an interesting story. You see, the girls stole our clothes and the attack alarm began to ring and we had to fight naked. When the alarm goes off, we have to drop everything we are currently doing, it doesn't even mater if we're in the bathroom at the time," he said with humor. He remembered some quite obscene incidents because of that rule. He continued his story. "Unfortunately we were both pressed down in a small passage down to an underground room, not meant nor big enough for two people, and Blade crawled before me backwards, so we were head to head. In the end we both slipped so I landed on Blade. Underneath him there was some bones and plants. The room hadn't been used in at least two centuries. He was going through an electric shock from one of the plants and was unable to move 20 minutes afterwards so I had to clean his body from all the poisonous plants. Therefore I've seen his whole body." Blade was looking downright unhappy with the memory. Perhaps rightfully so, it hadn't been one of his most glorious moments. He had been pretty roughed up, and his manliness had taken a turn when he had to succumb to another mans touch so he could move. Blade didn't like showing any kind of weakness nor being dependant on anyone.

"So you... Err... aren't a couple?" Fudge asked carefully.

"Nah! I'm perfectly straight thank you very much! I don't mind people thinking I'm gay; the girls are too close and clingy all the time. I have had to kiss Blade more than once to get rid of them. It's nothing I fancy doing all the time."

"No of course not. Ahem. Right... So, was Sirius Black innocent?" Fudge asked and changed the subject in a hurry.

"Yes."

"What did you do at the Ministry this summer?"

"Do not answer," Blade said at once.

"I won't," Raven assured him and winked.

"What's your relationship with Snape like?" It was unexpected, but then again recent revelations required that sort of question to be asked.

"Want the truth of that? It's simple, our relationship went down a bad path from the very first time we met each other. Right now it's worse than ever. I hate him; he hates me so it's a mutual feeling. I don't want anything to do with him; he wants nothing to do with me…" he said truthfully, he had no other choice after taking the potion. "He is my potion teacher," he added offhand and a little bit out of the blue.

"Do you want to be Snape's son?"

"It's better then to be Pettigrew's."

"That's not saying much Mr. Potter."

"There is nothing much to say about it. I had nothing against Snape at first you know. But then he was a real ass to me and dislike grew to hate, but not a deep hate... I don't know..." He said and felt slightly uneasy because of all the stares for the first time today.

"Have you ever used dark arts?"

"Of course," he said in an obvious voice. Dark arts for him weren't something strange or rare. He used the dark arts in his usual daily life.

"You have? What kind of Dark arts?" Raven thought about that. There were various kinds of dark arts, normally people only thought of Dark Arts as the unforgivable, and he supposed that's what Fudge wanted to know about. Therefore he began to name them.

"Crucio, Avada Kedavra-"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Blade yelled. "These were used when he was up against Pettigrew, do not believe nor write anything else in the records," he spat in Raven's defense. Blade himself was no stranger to the Dark arts, but that didn't mean he was any less of a human than the rest of them. The wizarding society in England was so narrow-minded now days. The many dark lords and wars against them had made the people suspicious and less tolerable than the rest of the world.

"Did you ever live with Sirius Black?" Fudge continued to ask even if Raven could see he was itching to ask him more about the dark arts. Fudge had to give that thought up when he looked over at Blade who sat and listened with rapt attention so he wouldn't miss anything in case he needed to butt in and save Raven's secrets from being spilled.

"Sorta," he said and used the popular teenager slang.

"Sorta? What do you mean?"

"I was never living with him, just sort of visited him, and I was never alone during those visits."

"Did you love him?"

"Love him? I don't know. What is love? I think I do, did," he said and lay weight on the last word. He continued to say exactly what came up in his mind: "I want to think it is love I feel but I don't know."

"Do you love your friends?" Fudge asked and looked at him strangely.

"I don't know."

"Remus Lupin?"

"I don't know," he said aggravated. He couldn't lie, so why did Fudge insist to ask him the same question all over again? He just didn't know and that was very frustrating for him. He wanted to love, but he didn't know how.

"He doesn't know what love is," said Remus with an empty voice. He was very saddened by this fact, but he wasn't very surprised. He had always suspected Harry didn't come from a loving home, so if no one had ever showed Harry love, then how could Harry recognize love for what it is? Hermione sniffled slightly when she heard it. A tear ran down on Ginny's chin.

"How did your relatives treat you?" Albus asked suspiciously, and ignored Fudge's ignorant expression when he was no longer the only one to be in charge of the questions.

"I wasn't treated very well at all, but yet I know I was treated better than some other people. I was worth nothing in their eyes. I was a freak and they wanted to get rid off me. They constantly reminded me of how worthless I am."

"Do you like the Dursley's?" Fudge asked stupidly.

"No. I'll have them punished so they'll regret ever crossing my way," he said and let show a smug smile. It made chills run down the spines of residents in the hall.

"In what way will you punish them?"

"None of your business," he said truthfully. He really didn't think it was any of Fudge's business, nor anyone else's for that matter. Fudge was taken aback. He looked once again around the hall, which all attention upon Raven.

"What happened on the night when Voldemort returned?"

"I would rather not tell you. You didn't believe me before. You don't need to know. All the important people that matter know already."

"That's, really, I, Never!" Fudge spluttered.

"Shut up!" said Raven

"Why did you visit Goyle?" Fudge asked when he had composed himself. He really had lost a lot of face today.

"I never did."

"What? They saw you!" Fudge said.

"Illusion," said Raven in a bored tone.

"What?"

"Enough," was all Blade said. He didn't need to say anything else either, Raven knew what he could and could not talk about. Blade on the other hand was watching the whole hearing with a new found calm after his latest outburst. He was confident everything would turn out just fine.

"Take off your shirt please. We need to check you for marks."

"Yeah, whatever," Raven said. He took of his shirt to let everyone see a lean muscular upper body.

"Wow" was heard from many people. He was being stared at with heated glances, but he didn't mind. Lust was nothing foreign to him.

"If you think this is something you should see Blade strip!" he joked and the hall laughed and many seemed interested in hearing more about Blade stripping, but like earlier Raven wasn't very forthcoming with the information. The juicy details would have to wait.

They began to search his body for marks, and he was asked to turn around. Various spells to remove glamour's were used.

"Wait! What's that?" Fudge asked came closer. Fudge touched his shoulder to take a closer look. Raven took a step back and shook Fudge's hand of off him.

"Don't touch me! I hate having people touching me!" he snarled. He was truly angry for the first time today with Fudge.

"Why?" Remus asked and stepped closer as well. He had been very quiet during this hearing, and had just listened mostly. Raven turned around and looked at him.

"I don't know why. I just don't like people touching me unless it's someone I know." Remus reached out a hand and touched him lightly. Raven still took a step back despite knowing Remus since before.

"You know me," said Remus and it was clear to everyone that he was hurt.

"Do I really? There isn't much I actually do know about you. I don't trust you," he said frankly and stared Remus down.