Severitus

Chapter 2

"Potter! Come up here!" If Severus Snape was going to have to waste all his red ink on these essays, he certainly was going to berate each student for wasting his time with their subpar "efforts."

Snape looked up at the tall boy standing over his desk and for just an instance gasped; it was like looking in a mirror at himself at sixteen. He stood up to confront Potter, but instantly realized this made them just look more like twins. He looked around at the other students in the class; realization seemed to be dawning in Granger's eyes. "Sit down, Potter! Detention at seven!"

"I didn't do anything!" Harry complained.

"If I have to suffer through reading this essay, you can suffer through rewriting it tonight!"

After class was over, Harry joined Hermione. Draco slapped him on the back as he passed: "I don't know what you're doing, Potter, to look so much like Snape and make him so angry, but keep it up!"

Harry looked at Hermione with something close to despair in his eyes. "Do I really look like Snape?"

"Enough to be his son," Hermione said.

"What is going on?"

"Well, there are certain glamour charms that can make people change their appearance. I haven't really read much about them though."

"Do you think that someone has put a glamour charm on me to look like Snape?"

"Well, it seems like such a charm would cause your appearance to change all at once. This appearance change has been more gradual, maybe like a glamour charm is wearing off."

"What are you saying, Hermione? That looking like my dad was my fake appearance and this is my real one? I know Snape and my mom were friends before they had a falling out in their fifth year, but surely you are not insinuating that something romantic was involved between them? You cannot be even thinking that Snape might be my father."

"No! Well, I don't know. We do know your mom and Snape had a relationship. Your mom was really good at charms, wasn't she? What if she wanted you to look like James to hide the fact that Snape was your dad?"

"But everyone has always told me how much I am like my dad, how much I look like my dad…"

"You don't look like James Potter anymore, Harry. Let me do some research about glamour charms. And you might want to talk to Professor Moody. Didn't you say his magic eye could see through your invisibility cloak? Maybe he can see through glamour charms too."

"I don't think I want to know."

"People are going to talk, Harry. They already are. We need to find out what's going on."

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"Professor Moody, can I speak to you a second?" Harry approached him after class.

"Of course! We need to talk about when we are going to meet for your one-on-one instruction. McGonagall thought the apprenticeship would be a good idea for you."

"I am still very much interested in that, sir, but I was wondering something else. Can your magic eye see through glamour charms?" Harry asked.

"I was wondering if you would think to ask me. You had an obvious glamour charm on you from the time I met you, Potter. However, I see a lot of charms on people who want to change their appearance. I don't usually assume it's any of my business."

"But my appearance has been changing. Why would I have a glamour charm on me? Do I have a different one on me now?"

"No, the charm you had on you has almost completely worn off. This is your true appearance with no charm now. You might ask yourself who might want to convince people you look like James Potter. I thought maybe he had adopted you. Often with blood adoption, the child adopted changes to look like their new parent, although that's different than a glamour charm. Wasn't your mom particularly talented at charms? Even the best will wear away after awhile if not renewed."

"Argh. I am so frustrated. Why would my mom do this to me?"

"Well, if a woman is pregnant by someone besides their husband, they might get pretty desperate."

"So you don't think that James Potter is really my father?"

"Look in the mirror, son. It's obvious. Better to face the truth than continue living a lie."

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It seemed like everyone was staring and whispering in the Great Hall at dinner. But people were always staring at him. Was this for a different reason? Could they see that he looked like Snape's son too?

As he entered into Snape's classroom at seven, he couldn't even look the potion master in the eye. He certainty did not want him to be reading his mind at this point in time. He sat down to get his materials out to work on rewriting his paper.

"Don't worry about the paper, Potter. It wasn't any more abysmal than anyone else's. We're going to brew a potion tonight."

"What potion, sir?"

"A paternity potion."

Harry's heart sank, but he decided he may as well know the truth and not "live a lie" as Moody said. "Could you be my father, Professor Snape?"

"Yes, it is a possibility. But I never thought of it because you always looked so much like Potter, even when you were a baby."

"But I thought that you and my mom weren't friends anymore after you called her a 'mudblood.'"

"Our friendship just went underground after that happened. It took awhile to recover but your mother and I were always available to comfort each other, even after your parents were married. Their relationship was not always perfect, Harry; they were two strong personalities."

"Ugh, but just because you fight doesn't mean you go have an affair with someone."

"Don't be impertinent, boy! Don't pretend to understand the relationship between your mother and me. Let's just start brewing the potion."

"I don't care what you say! I don't look like you!" Harry took his ponytail, which now hung halfway down his back, and used his wand to cut it off. Unfortunately, his now chin-length hair just made him look even more like Snape.

"Really, Potter? With the hair from that ponytail, every member of Gryffindor could be you for Halloween with some Polyjuice Potion. Don't be an imbecile. Either you are my son or you aren't. Theatrics will not make a difference."

"I don't want to deal with this." Harry ran out of the room.

"Potter, come back now!" Snape called, but Harry disappeared from sight.