And the Truth shall Set You Free? Part 3

Harry's (Cepheus) POV

As soon as Malfoy had announced that I was awake, Snape rushed out the door leaving me with the Death Eater and his wife. I was terrified, and I had no idea what was going on or what was going to happen.

Five minutes later, Snape was back. But a team of healers was following him. Why were there healers here?

"Good afternoon Mr. Malfoy, we are glad to see that you are awake." Said one of the healers. Mr. Malfoy was hurt? I turned to look at him, wanting to know how he had gotten hurt. "Are you in any pain?" She continued.

If he were out bed, then why would he be in pain? I thought. Obviously, he is not in pain. But, he was looking at me as if expecting me to respond. Snape cleared his throat causing me to turn my attention towards him. He leaned towards the healer and whispered something in her ear.

"I apologize, Mr. Potter. I thought you knew already." Said the Healer. "Would you mind answering my former question? Are you in any pain?"

"I am fine," I said. "But what do I not know. My name is Harry, Harry Potter."

"We will fill you in later," Snape said. "For now let the healers finish their work and ensure that you have recovered from the abuse that you were subjected to." Heat rose into my cheeks at his words as I looked away and tried to hide from every ones penetrating and judging gaze.

"I fell." I muttered. The adults glanced at each other before turning their attention back to me.

"I can assure you Mr. Potter, that I know that you did not fall. I was the one that brought you the hospital after all." Said Snape.

"What?" I asked. "How did you find out?"

"I found out because the Headmaster told me that you were in danger and I came to rescue you and help you. He must have something keyed to you to alert him as to when you are in danger. However, the Child Welfare Services department was also notified, and they are only notified when a child under the age of 17 is in extreme danger." Snape replied.

"Before this continues, Professor, do you mind if we finish scanning our patient and making sure that he is okay." Asked the healer.

"Of course," said Snape, "My apologies." My eyebrows rose in surprise. I never knew that Snape had manners. I never thought that I would experience the day when I would hear Snape apologizing to anyone.

"Thank you, Professor." Said the healer. "Now, Mr. Potter, are you sure that you are not feeling any pain at all?"

"I am sure." I said.

"Very well. We will be doing a scan to ensure that all broken bones and bruises have gone. Unfortunately, we cannot do anything about your scars other than to not make them look as obvious. Sorry, Mr. Potter." The healer said.

"It's okay. I've lived with these scars for years. My life won't be that much different with or without it." I replied. "No doubt, I will be getting new ones a year from now. I assume that this is my yearly rescue. Although, I do not know how much of a rescue this is. You three hate me just as much as my relatives did." I said.

"We do not hate you Mr. Potter," said Snape.

"Sure," I said sarcastically, "That's why you pick on me in class."

"Potter, I can assure you that I do not hate you or dislike you. I had no choice but to pretend that I did not like you." Snape responded.

"I understand when we are in class, but what about when there was no one there. Like in detentions? You could have been nicer then, but instead you acted like a bloody bastard and picked on my dead parents every chance you got." I replied coolly. At those words, he cringed and a red tint flooded his face. Thinking I had gone too far, I cringed and looked away expecting him to hit me, but when no blow came, I looked at him in astonishment.

"Potter, I am not going to hit you. You are correct. I should have treated you better. I do not expect you to forgive me right away, but I am sorry for not treating you properly." Snape replied.

"We are done with our scans, Mr. Potter. We will release you tomorrow." Said the Healer.

"Thank you", said Malfoy. The healers nodded before leaving.

Lucius's POV

"Now," I thought, "It is time to tell him the truth." I glanced at Severus and nodded to show that I am ready for my son to know the truth. He nodded in response to show that he had understood that I wanted him to explain it, and not me.

"Potter, I have a few questions for you." Severus said.

My son nodded his head to show that he was listening before saying, "I will try my best to tell you the truth, but I am not comfortable with revealing everything right now." Severus nodded in agreement to show that he understood.

"How old were you when the abuse started?" Severus asked.

"I do not know," Cepheus said. "One of the only things that I could remember when I was younger was pain and isolation. There was never a time that I wasn't in pain until I came to Hogwarts."

"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Snape asked.

"I did tell someone. I told Dumbledore and my primary school teachers, but they all ignored me and continued to send me back there. So, I figured there was nothing that they could do, so I stopped asking people for help." Cepheus replied. "I figured you all knew."

"I can assure you Mr. Potter, that no one among the staff knew. If we did, we would have done something. There's a reason we have Child Welfare Services. It's not common to find a child in an extreme situation. However, in the event that something arises, they will intervene no matter what the situation is. The department even has its own set of aurors in the cases of kidnapping and abuse." Severus said. "Why would you think that we knew?"

"Because the only reason why I got an actual room was because my aunt and uncle thought you guys were watching them." He replied.

"What do you mean by that?" Severus asked.

"Before I got my first Hogwarts letter, my bedroom was the Cupboard under the Stairs", my son whispered.

"Ah, yes. I remember Auror McPartlin mention seeing a bed with writing, 'Harry's Room' in it. But I can assure you, that the letters are written magically." Severus said.

"Oh," Cepheus muttered.

"Another question, Mr. Potter," said Severus. "Were you aware that you were wearing a glamour?"

"What's a glamour?" Cepheus asked. Well, that answers our question, I thought.

"A glamour is a spell that helps to change to the outer appearance of a person. It's the spell version of the polyjuice potion. Although, a glamour charm can also simply just conceal certain features such as pimples or scars, it doesn't necessarily have to change someone's appearance completely."

"Oh, I never knew of the charm, professor. Otherwise, I would have used it quite often to hide all my scars." Cepheus said, "But why did you ask if I was aware that I was wearing a glamour? I did not know what the spell was or how to cast one."

Without much flare, Severus waved his wand and conjured a hand held

mirror and held it out for Cepheus take. Cepheus took the mirror from Severus and turned it around. He gasped. "What did you do to me? How come I look like Malfoy?" he asked.

"That's what was hiding under the glamour that was cast by Dumbledore." Narcissa said. "He placed it on you a year and half after you were kidnapped from us. Biologically, you are our son."

"Yeah right. Now that you have mentioned what glamours are, how do I know that you did not place one on me in the hopes of kidnapping me and taking me to Voldemort." Cepheus asked.

"A valid question," I said, "But we know you are our son based off of the identity spell that was cast upon you after the glamours were removed. Would you like to see it? We could also have it recast if helps us prove it to you that we are not lying."

"Could you perform the spell again?" He asked in a timid voice.

"Of course, darling." Narcissa said.

"Sanguis revelio," Snape said. Out from his wand came a piece of parchment that was handed to my son. "I swear on my magic that this spell was performed correctly and that the parchment was not tampered with." Severus said while Cepheus was reading the truth about his identity on the parchment.

When Cepheus looked up, Severus cast a simple lumos to show that his magic was intact. "You weren't lying." Cepheus said. "But then how did I end up with the Potter and how do I have pictures of myself with them when I was very young."

"My guess is that the glamour charm also altered your age." Severus said. "But the truth is that you are twins with Draco, and you are the older twin."

"Wait, Draco is my twin?" Cepheus asked.

"Yes darling. You will meet him tomorrow." Said Narcissa.

"No, I am okay. This is overwhelming enough. I am not ready to face him. He made fun my lack of parents and for years. I am not ready to forgive that either." Cepheus said.

"That's fine dear. It's understandable as to why you don't trust any of us. You can meet him when you are ready." Narcissa said in understanding. Cepheus sighed and nodded in relief. None of us could blame his wariness of us. After all, we were all horrible to him for years. Right now, he only trusts his friends, Dumbledore, and based off of what Severus told me, former defense professor, Remus Lupin. As a result of his appalling upbringing, he has no reason to trust anyone, let alone the people that had tormented him for years. He does not know that, unfortunately, we had no choice as spies to ensure that we did unusual to the Dark Lords nemesis.

"If it's alright with you, I'd like to get some more sleep. I'm still tired." Cepheus said.

"Of course, we'll be right here when you wake up to answer more of your questions." Narcissa said in motherly tone. With that, she stood and tucked our son into bed before once again retaking her seat by our son's side. "Sleep well Cepheus." She said.

Dear readers,

Once again, thank you for your support. I want to address the Cepheus/Harry comment. Right now in the story, Harry knows himself as Harry, but his real parents, the Malfoys know him as Cepheus. So, if it is his friends that are addressing him, I will use Harry and when I am using addressing him through his parents I will use Cepheus. Right now, he is used to Harry, but at some point he will get used to Cepheus. At that point, it will be completely Cepheus. I will be making edits to the previous chapters as I continue to work on this story. For now, whenever I do something in his POV, it will be Harry/Cepheus's POV. Once again, thank you for your support, and read on!

Thanks,

Samantha9252