Author's Note: Don't know what to really say up here. I have most of it in the Author's note at the bottom. I guess up here I'll tell you exactly how long this fanfic was.

It was 376 pages on word. The font was Century Gothic and it was pt. 12.

It had 135,287 words without author's notes and the summary.

3,581 paragraphs and 16,453 lines

So far the chapter with the most reviews is chapter 18 and I'd love it if this one could beat it.

Other than that, the note at the bottom covers everything, I hope you and enjoy the conclusion of this fanfic and of course the sequel to come. This chapter was not beta'd.

Summary: "...I am not your father. I will not act like your father. I do not care for you, Potter, and I will not be a parent to you..."

...Harry was more than ready to agree with that and nodded as he finished the drink he had been sipping at nervously.

It has been often said that a father and son can overcome anything, that family can overcome anything as long as there is love between them...but what if there isn't love but only hate? In a time of war most rely on their family and friends, but who can Harry rely on when he can't tell his friends that Severus Snape is his father? Especially with how curious they are of his secrets already. It isn't like he has Snape, anyway...to Snape he isn't more than just a burden after all, right? So in his time of need who can Harry turn to? Who can help him as he completes the task that was set on him?

Disclaimer: I own nothing, probably not even the plot considering how many times this plot has been done before...anywho on to the fic...

Chapter Thirty Five

Father and Son

May 27, 1998

Draco stepped forward, and looked around, as if to make sure that Dumbledore was there alone. He lifted an eyebrow quite like his father at the second broom. "Who else is here?" He asked, softly.

"A question I might ask you. Or are you acting alone?" Dumbledore asked, this time a certain weariness was portrayed in his voice. He moved slightly and Harry noticed that Dumbledore was leaning slightly against the wall.

"No," Draco said in his boastful tone of voice, the one that Harry had not heard in months. "I have backup. There are Death Eaters here in your school tonight."

"Well, well," Dumbledore said, as though Malfoy was showing him an ambitious homework project and not informing him that killers were in a school full of children. "I thought your attempt at poisoning me would be enough to quiet your fears, but I guess it was not enough – not even the months of detention were, were they? Could you trust me so little to not know the kind of pressure you were under?"

"You know nothing!" Draco screamed. "My mother—"

"—was well protected," Dumbledore finished for him.

Draco seemed to ignore what Dumbledore said, shaking his head. "I have a job to do," he said in a reluctant whisper.

"Then, you must get on and do it, dear boy," Dumbledore said, and this time pain laced through his voice and Harry could see how he was now half slumped against the wall. Draco seemed to notice this too, because he just stared at Dumbledore, his wand in the air pointed at him, and then he smiled.

"Draco, you are not a killer," Dumbledore said, a little stronger.

"How do you know?" Draco said at once. "You don't know what I'm capable of. You don't know what I've done! What I've witnessed!"

Dumbledore shook his head. "I do know, dear boy…"

Harry tried hard to break out of the immobilizing spell that Dumbledore had placed on him, knowing that Dumbledore had most likely put a weak form of the spell on him, considering the fact that Death Eaters were within the school and he needed as much strength as he could. Somewhere in the depths of the castle below Harry heard a muffled yell. Draco stiffened and glanced over his shoulder and frowned, still looking towards the stairs as if he knew who had screamed and he wanted to be sure that they were alright.

"Perhaps you ought to get on with the job alone," suggested Dumbledore. "What if your backup has been thwarted by my guard? As you have perhaps realized, there are members of the Order of the Phoenix here tonight, too. And, after all, you don't really need help….I have no wand at the moment. I cannot defend myself."

Draco merely stared at him.

"Are you afraid, Draco?" Dumbledore asked. "You know you don't have to do this. You know what your mother has arranged."

Draco shook his head, and muttered something. "You should be afraid," he said louder a second later. "It's you who should be scared."

"But why? You won't kill me, Draco. Killing is not nearly as easy as the innocent believe."

Harry couldn't believe that Dumbledore and Draco were having such a conversation. He couldn't understand the calmness that Dumbledore seemed to emit as he talked to Draco.

"So, Draco, will we have to wait for your friends?" Dumbledore asked.

Draco didn't answer, and then angrily he asked. "You knew all this time, didn't you?"

"Yes," Dumbledore said, gently. "Of course I knew, dear boy. It is, after all on my orders that Professor Snape has been keeping an eye on you."

"Your orders?" Draco asked, faltering slightly. "But – no! He isn't working for you!"

"I have to disagree with that," Dumbledore said. "It so happens I trust Professor Snape." Harry watched Dumbledore inch lower on the wall that was holding him up. He couldn't help but worry that he was getting worse with every minute and that even the simplest of spells could finish him off.

Draco snorted, and didn't seem to notice Dumbledore's state as Harry had.

With every minute that passed, Harry saw the struggle that Dumbledore was going through in keeping himself upright, all the while, Draco listening towards the stairs.

"Now, about tonight," Dumbledore said, "I am a little puzzled about how it happened….You knew that I had left the school?"

Draco laughed. "Yes. I saw you walking away from the school. It seemed the perfect time. I asked one of my contacts to see where you went. He saw you were just going to Hogsmeade, so I knew you would be back in the school the moment you saw the mark, and I would be ready, they would be here, and we would be ready."

"So, no one is dead, then, I take it?"

Harry saw Draco shake his head. "I tripped over a body, while coming up here. One of yours, I think."

There was a bang and shouts from below, louder than ever; it sounded as though people were fighting on the actual spiral staircase that led to where Dumbledore, Malfoy, and Harry stood, and Harry's heart thundered unheard in his invisible chest….Someone was dead….Malfoy had stepped over the body….but who was it?

"So, Draco, what will it be?" Dumbledore asked. "Will you kill me? Or will you let me help you?"

"You can't," Draco said, though there was a glimmer of hope in his eyes that Harry thought was slightly misplaced.

Neither of them spoke, then, and stared at each other. Draco's face changed for a moment and he looked like a young child ready to cry and ask for forgiveness. He lowered his wand, his hand trembling and he opened his mouth, before closing it again…and then Harry heard footsteps thundering up the stairs.

It seemed the Death Eaters had won the fight. Four people entered the room and pushed Draco aside. Harry couldn't exactly see their faces in the shadows.

"Dumbledore cornered!" a lumpy-looking man with an odd lopsided leer gave a wheezy delighted giggle. He turned away from the light that had allowed Harry to see him for a moment and instead whispered to a woman who looked as though she could be his sister who was grinning eagerly.

"Dumbledore wandless, Dumbledore alone! Well done, Draco, well done!" She cried.

"Good evening Amycus. Alecto," Dumbledore said calmly, as though he were welcoming them to a tea party.

They ignored him.

"Do it," a stranger standing nearest to Harry, a big, rangy man with matter gray hair and whiskers, whose black Death Eater's robes looked uncomfortably tight. He had a voice like none that Harry had ever heard: a rasping bark of a voice. Harry could smell a powerful mixture of dirt, sweat, and, unmistakably, of blood coming from him. His filthy hands had long yellowish nails.

"Is that you, Fenrir?" asked Dumbledore and Harry knew immediately who the man was. He had bitten Remus and turned him into a werewolf.

"That's right," he rasped. "Pleased to see me, Dumbledore?"

"No, I cannot say that I am."

Greyback grinned, showing his pointed teeth. Blood trickled down his chin and he licked his lips slowly, obscenely. Harry couldn't help but wonder where the blood had come from. Surely the man had not bitten someone that night? Not when the moon wasn't full.

"But you know how much I like kids, Dumbledore."

"Am I to take it that you are attacking even without the full moon now? This is most unusual….You have developed a taste for human flesh that cannot be satisfied once a month?"

Harry knew at once that it was obvious that Fenrir Greyback had in fact developed an unnatural taste for human flesh. "That's right," he said. "Shocks you that, does it, Dumbledore? Frightens You?"

"Well, I cannot pretend that it does not disgust me a little," Dumbledore said and Harry noticed that he was pushing himself against the wall, as if to pull himself up so that they did not notice his weakened state.

"I could rip out your throat right now, Dumbledore," Greyback said, suddenly, and he raised a yellow fingernail and picked at his front teeth.

"No," said the Death Eater that had yet to speak, "We could all do it, but it is Draco's job. Now, Draco, and quickly."

Draco looked terrified, Harry realized, upon looking at him. He was almost as pale as he had been that day in the bathroom while blood was pouring out of his numerous cuts. He stared at Dumbledore's face, which was even paler than Draco's, with broken eyes as if begging him to get him out of this.

At that moment there were several renewed sounds of scuffling from below and a voice shouted, "They've blocked the stairs – Reducto! REDUCTO!"

Harry's heart leapt. They hadn't eliminated all opposition, but merely broken through the fight to the top of the tower, and, by the sound of it, created a barrier behind them—

"Now, Draco, quickly," Amycus said, sharing a look with his sister.

Draco's hand was shaking so badly that Harry doubted very much that even if Draco did try to kill Dumbledore, the spell would hit him.

A few moments of tense silence passed, and then Alecto jumped forward, "Draco, do it, or stand aside so one of us could—" she said, but at that precise moment, the door to the tower burst open once again, and there stood Snape, his wand clutched in his hand as his black eyes swept over the scene, from Dumbledore slumped against the wall, to the four Death Eaters, including the enraged werewolf and Draco Malfoy.

Harry felt a feeling of relief wash over him as he stared at his father. Everything would be okay. Severus would save Dumbledore.

"We've got a problem, Snape," Amycus said, "the boy doesn't seem able—"

But somebody else had spoken Snape's name, quite softly, almost pleading.

"Severus…"

This sound frightened Harry more than anything else he had heard that night, including Dumbledore's faint voice while Harry had force fed him the potion. Harry felt something pass over him as if the spell keeping him frozen had weakened considerably.

Severus said nothing, but walked forward and pushed Draco aside, glaring at him. The three Death Eaters fell back without a word. Even the werewolf seemed cowed, and Harry found that his father looked more powerful that he had ever seen him before, standing tall, holding the entire outcome of the night in his hands, however he chose. Harry was glad to have him on his side.

Severus gazed for a moment at Dumbledore, and there was revulsion and hatred etched in the harsh lines of his face – more hate than Harry had ever seen displayed in his father's face, making him look older. Harry frowned deeply, and wondered wildly what it could mean.

"Severus…please…"

Harry couldn't help but want to flinch at the sound of Dumbledore's weak voice, this allowed him to realize that he could move. But only barely.

What was it they were playing at? Was his father simply acting? Was he going to save Dumbledore like Harry had expected the moment he saw him? Had Harry been completely wrong to feel relief, or was this just Severus' way to get Dumbledore out of harm and keep his role as a spy?

Severus raised his wand.

Harry felt a deep feeling of dread wash over him as Dumbledore's spell weakened even more so that now Harry could move without a lot of effort. Why was the spell falling? Dumbledore was alright, was he not?

Severus pointed his wand at Dumbledore, and with an expression of pure hatred on his face, Severus muttered the two words that Harry had never wanted to hear uttered from those lips, "Avada Kedavra!"

Harry knew it was coming, but when the jet of green light shot out of his father's wand and hit Dumbledore squarely in the chest, Harry was shocked. He couldn't move. He could speak. He couldn't do anything. This time it was by his own doing. The spell Dumbledore had placed on him having fallen the moment the curse hit Dumbledore. So, he was forced to watch as his mentor was blasted into the air. For a split second, he seemed to hang suspended beneath the shinning skull, and then he fell slowly backward, like a great rag doll, over the battlements and out of sight.

"Out of here, quickly," Barked Snape in a voice so cold to the other Death Eaters – that was what he was to Harry, now, just another Death Eater out for his blood – without any semblance of not wanting to listen heeded immediately.

Snape grabbed Draco by the scruff of the neck and pushed him towards the stairs ahead of him with a mutter that Harry did not catch. Greyback, and the brother and sister followed. Harry realized he could move at the same moment the last death eater reached the door. Harry flexed his fingers, threw his cloak off, and cast a nonverbal stunner at the Death Eater. He buckled and fell to the ground.

Harry clambered over him, and ran down the stairs. He had to go to Dumbledore's body, that was the most important thing, Harry realized, but didn't quite registered why he had to do that. He also had to catch up to his fa – no! That man was not his father! He needed to catch up to Snape.

He ran as fast as he could, jumping over steps, and trying at the same time not to topple to the ground.

When he reached the bottom, he continued running, ignoring everything around him. The fallen ceiling, the battle still raging before him, instead all that mattered was that Snape was turning the corner at the far end of the corridor, and that he and Draco had gotten through the battle unscathed. He ignored the call of his name by Ginny, and by Tonks. He only ran and ran, dodging spells and anything else that might harm him. He couldn't let Snape leave, he couldn't just let him disappear into the night and never receive an explanation. Had he been with the Death Eaters the entire time? Why had he tried to even be Harry's father when – Harry shook his head. No, he wouldn't think about that. Snape wasn't his father – James Potter was.

Harry felt someone throw themselves at him, but he waved his wand, without even thinking about a spell and felt a magical field come over him and push the Death Eater off him, against a wall. He ducked and ran, and waved his wand, without paying attention – a hex here, a curse there. His feet met something squashy and slippery on the floor and he stumbled. He caught himself looked down, only half registering that there were two bodies, face down on the ground, before he continued on.

He skidded around the corner and continued running as fast as he could, wondering if it was possible that somehow Snape had gotten away. He pelted toward a shortcut, hoping to overtake Snape if he went that way.

Minutes later he was leaping down the stairs, practically flying across the Entrance Hall. He could make them out, running down the same path he and Dumbledore had take earlier while leaving to get the Horcrux. That had been only hours ago, Harry realized.

Snape was muttering, with his wand raised and Harry realized he was disabling the wards. Harry muttered back and shot spells out to enforce them, to put wards of his own – he silently thanked Hermione for talking incessantly about the spells she found in the book he had given her for Christmas. He added as much as he could while he ran, trying to catch up, trying to hold them up. He would get his answers!

The cold night air ripped at Harry's lungs as he tore after them, as he kept muttering through his hard breathing adding as much protection to wards as he could even though he knew it would only hold Snape off for a few minutes.

And then there was Hagrid. Harry hoped he could hold them back at least until he got there. He had his umbrella pointed at Draco and Snape and he was trying to hurl spells at them. Draco was yelling at him, Snape was still trying to make the wards drop. Harry threw even more of his magic into the warding, surprised that Snape had not dropped everything he put up. Harry felt out for the wards and found that mostly everything that remained was his own. Surprised, he added even more support, and then he began to lock it and use his signature – it was ironic, that Snape had taught him how to do that, how to perfect that skill until no one but he could break his own spells, and then Harry fell to the ground and he felt someone running towards him. He turned, dropping his concentration from locking his wards.

"Incarcerous!" Harry yelled and watched as a nameless death eater was captured in ropes for a second, before getting to his feet, ignoring the wards, and sprinting forward. He was close, he was so close.

He tore past Hagrid toward them, and quickly threw a stunning spell at Draco's back. He fell, and Snape stopped, turning. He looked towards Draco, and then he saw Harry, and he stood still, not moving.

Harry looked at him, and found he didn't exactly know what to say to him.

Snape recovered first and waved his wand not at Harry, but Draco, bringing him out of Harry's spell, but never once allowing his eyes to leave Harry.

"Professor, please, we have to leave!" Draco shouted, the moment he was back on his feet and he made to move towards the gates that were just a few feet away – Harry had just caught up to them.

"How could you!" Harry yelled suddenly. "I trusted you!"

"You know nothing of what happened up there, boy!" Snape yelled back.

Harry moved closer, his wand pointed straight at Snape. "Oh, I know nothing of what happened? I was there. I saw you kill him, just like you killed mom and James! I should have known when I found out about that. I should have expected this. You were always a Death Eater, weren't you? You were always his slave."

Snape shook his head, and closed his eyes as if in pain. Harry ignored that and waved his wand, shooting out a blue light from his wand. Snape blocked it lazily and then walked forward. Harry pulled back so that there was space between them. Neither said anything, and then Harry felt a familiar pressure in his mind.

Harry… a pained voice called inside his mind. Harry pushed Snape out as hard as he could and saw him flinch.

"No! You do not belong there, Snape!"

"What did you want, then, Harry? What do you want me to tell you? I did what had to be done!"

"Why?" Harry asked in a small whisper.

Snape didn't answer.

Harry threw another spell his way, this time Snape did not try to dodge it or block it, and Harry saw him shudder with pain.

"I hate you!" Harry yelled, and threw spell after spell, and Snape just took them as calmly as Dumbledore had talked to Draco up in the tower.

"Professor—" Harry heard Draco say in the background, but they both ignored him.

"You were my father!" Harry yelled and ignored the gasp that came from Draco. "You were supposed to be my father but you just threw me away the first moment you could…and then when it all came to light you allowed me to trust you….You allowed me to come to like you….You allowed me to believe that you were there for me, but you were just bringing me closer so you could give me to him, didn't you? I hate you so much. I wish – I wish you weren't my father…."

Harry took a deep breath before he finished with more anger than he had thought possible for him to feel, his voice almost a whisper he said, "I wish you were dead, and by the end of this war, you will be. I won't do it now….No. I want you to suffer. I want you to hate yourself for what you did. You are no father to me."

Harry saw a strange expression cross Snape and again he felt Snape brushing against his mind. He pushed him away as if he were just an errant lock of hair intent to cover his eyes. He looked at him one last time and saw a look of pure agony in his father's face, before Draco pulled at his arm and the two of them walked towards the gates. With a few waves of his wand, Harry lowered his wards and the others belonging to the castle and allowed them to leave, and then he put them back up a moment later, leaving off his signature just in case. The moment he knew they were no where near enough to him to hear him or see him he let out a scream. Then he was once again running.

He barely registered the fact that he had passed Hagrid, or that other death eaters were running to the gates, instead he focused on the second thing he had to do – find Dumbledore's body. As he ran, he noticed that a woman stood at the door to the castle, but he did not walk towards her, though he knew she had seen him.

It took him less than ten minutes to run to the bottom of the Astronomy tower, where the green skull still hung, displaying the fact that yes, someone had died up there. Harry looked around, quickly and found him. Spread-eagled, broken: the greatest wizard Harry had ever, or would ever, meet. Dumbledore's eyes were closed; but for the strange angle of his arms and legs, he might have been sleeping. Harry reached out, straightened the half-moon spectacles upon the crooked nose, and wiped a trickle of blood from the mouth with his own sleeve. Then he gazed down at the wise old face and tried to absorb the enormous and incomprehensible truth: that never again would Dumbledore speak to him, never again could he help…

Harry heard the crack of a twig and turned. Faye gasped behind him and knelt next to him, one hand covering her mouth, the other reaching for Dumbledore's hand, which she took.

"Oh—" she cried and Harry noticed at once that she was crying.

They knelt together in silence. It was a long time, until Harry moved, moped up the last of his tears and stood up, and then he remembered – the Horcrux. Where had Dumbledore put it?

Harry reached into Dumbledore's robes, and searched for it. He found a bag of lemon drops and couldn't help but let out a sad laugh. And then he had it – the locket. He stuffed it into his pocket before Faye could get a proper look at it and then he stood up. He offered Faye his hand and helped her to her feet. Within moments she composed herself.

"Who?" she asked.

Harry, who had just levitated Dumbledore up, turned to look at her. "I will kill him. I will avenge Dumbledore's death. He will pay. This I promise you, he will die."

"But who, Harry?" Faye asked.

Harry merely gave her a glance, before motioning for Dumbledore's body to float before him.

"My father," Harry said at last, adding when Faye looked at him with a mixture of befuddlement and concern, "Severus Snape."

Author's Note: Alright, so I know a lot of things are still open. like a thousand things, in fact but I really kind of felt that this was sort of a good closing for this fic, particularly with a sequel in the works (which is going pretty well, btw). For a long time I considered having Harry save Dumbledore from his fate, but that plot would have taken me to something else. I also heavily considered having Dumbledore die in the cave scene. Of course all of this lead me to doing it the way it was in the book for plot reasons on the sequel there was a scene that I just can't wait to write for the sequel.

Another thing I do want to address is the title for the sequel. I'm still completely unsure as to what I could possibly call it. I have a semblance of a plot which means I have scenes planned out and I know what will happen but I don't have a lot or for that matter details, so any suggestions that any of you have for titles would be appreciated. I want to give it the tone of the title for this fic and seeing as you guys all know, sort of, what will be addressed I'd love it if you had any ideas.

So far all you have been great. I didn't expect so many people to like it and to review religiously like some of you did (you know who you are) I also really liked the number of alerts and favorites this fic was on, and even if you didn't review, thank you so much for sticking with this fic and for just giving it some of your precious time. I really did love reading all the reviews you guys sent me as well as responding.

Like always, I'd love to hear what you thought about this chapter and any questions that you may want to have answered. (I might also have a small spoiler for the sequel for all of you that review this chapter)

Other than that I'm not sure when the sequel will be up. As soon as I get a title for it, I imagine. One to Two weeks. I will update this fic on the day I put up the first chapter so that you're all aware that it's up. You guys are wonderful and thank you again.

Love, Erika