Disclaimer: I own nothing.  Harry, Hedwig, Severus (as much as I love him), and everyone else, all belong to JKR and whoever else is in the long list of Harry Potter owners.  Tidmag owns the basic plot as he/she (?) gave me the idea for this story.  Also, this is another answer for Severitus' challenge.  This story has no relation to my other story written partly in answer to Severitus' challenge because there is no Saerry (except for yours truly).  I also do not own Lifehouse or their lyrics.

Summary: Fifth year and Harry finds himself changing.  But are they for better or for worse?  And what secret lurks behind these changes?  A secret only Remus Lupin seems to know.

A/N: I FINALLY FINISHED THE BLOODY CHAPTER!  It took me a HELL of a long time, but I DID IT!!!  Cheerful, isn't she?  She should be.  We inspired her.  **a new voice cuts in**  YOU inspired her?  If I recall, it was I who gave her the suggestion to read over "These Dreams", not you two fruit nuts.  *crosses arms sullenly*  I highly resent being called a nut.  *bares teeth, revealing sharp fangs in place of his eye teeth*  Well, get used to it, Atra, old boy.  *looks at the readers*  I bet you lot are confused by now.  ^_^  Well…we've got a new face in our little pack of muses.  Everyone meet Bryvend, my handsome little Angel/Demon who's a much better muse than those two.  *jerks her thumb at Atra and Saerwy*  Hey!  Oi!  *shakes head sadly*  Too bad we have too put up with them.  They CAN be useful sometimes, Bryvi.  Ah!  Yes, and if anyone wants to know, my website Another Hell has been completely revamped.  Go check it out.  There's a picture of Tyls in the Harry Potter Gallery under Not Myself  (for anyone who wants to know what our beloved and now dead OC character looked like).  And please – leave a post on my tag board!  We love comments, you know.  Adore them.  Squeeze them until they are nothing but worthless pieces of pulp.  **Saerry, Bryvend, and Atra all give Saerwy odd looks before walking off**  *looks around confused*  What'd I say? These Dreams

-Saerry Snape-

*Remind Myself of Somebody Else*

~*~

Feeling like I'm chasing

Like I'm facing myself alone

I've got somebody elses thought in my head

I want some of my own

~*~

A jet of gold light shot out of Snape's wand and hit Harry square in the chest.  Harry spun to the ground as it hit him and vanished for a moment as there was a burst of bright light followed by a sound like a train.

Then there was silence.

A pale boy pushed himself up off the ground and looked at Snape with narrowed green eyes.

"What the hell did you do?"

Snape replied, "I let the truth show."

The boy snarled, "What truth?" in a voice that was not his own.

Dumbledore suddenly held up a silver mirror and the boy's eyes widened.

"No.  No, no, no, no, no.  It's not true.  ITS NOT TRUE!"

"It is true.  Severus is your father, Harry," said Dumbledore gently.

The boy – Harry – collapsed to his knees with a whimper and held his head in his hands.  Snape made a move forward but thought better of it and stood where he was as Dumbledore moved over to Draco.  He helped the Slytherin up and said, "Go back to your dormitory, Mr. Malfoy.  And say nothing of what has happened tonight."

Draco's gray eyes sparkled as they moved to Harry and Snape drew his lips back in a sneer.  He strode forward, grabbed Draco by the collar and spat, "Say nothing to your housemates or any students, Mr. Malfoy.  Say nothing to anyone."  He dropped his voice dramatically and hissed, "If I find that you have told someone – anyone – I will make sure that you are expelled and never speak again.  Is that understood?"

Draco nodded numbly and Snape gave him a savage shove backwards.

"Now get back to your dormitory.  And remember what I said.  I do not play games, Mr. Malfoy."

Draco nodded sharply then ran off.  Snape sighed then turned to see Dumbledore pulling Harry to his feet.  The boy's face was hidden in a curtain of inky dark hair until he looked up as Snape walked over.

He gasped as what he saw.

Hermione sketch had been good but it was nothing compared to seeing his son's real features in person.

Snape was looking at an almost exact replica of himself fifteen years ago, minus the black eyes, Bludger-broken nose, and sharp jaw and plus the famous lightning bolt scar.  Harry looked at him with fear in his green eyes and Snape suppressed the sudden urge to hug his son.

Dumbledore looked between the two of them then said, "Let's go up to my office.  You look like you need a nice cup of tea, Harry.  Come, Severus."

  Harry nodded numbly and allowed himself to be led up to the castle by Dumbledore.  Snape followed close behind them, eyes focused on his son.

~*~

Up in Dumbledore's office, Harry sipped on a mug of warm tea while Dumbledore watched him and Snape wrung his hands nervously in his lap.  After a moment Dumbledore said, "Harry."

The teen jumped and turned wide green eyes on Dumbledore.

"Sir?"

"What were you doing outside with Mr. Malfoy?"

"I – I don't know, sir.  It was like there was this voice in my head telling me what to do and I could help but listen to it."

Dumbledore frowned.  He had heard a similar story fifty years ago from another black-haired, green-eyed boy.

"Why did you listen to it?"

Harry shrugged and looked down at the mug cupped in his hands.

"I don't know.  I – I was confused."  He lifted his head and added, "I still am," with a glance towards Snape.

Snape frowned and said, "Confused?"

"About – about everything.  Everything's so – so…" Harry voice trailed off.

"Twisted?" suggest Snape in a dull voice.

Harry nodded and Dumbledore said, "Miss Granger found you in one of the classroom's not too long ago, didn't she?  She took you to the Hospital Wing for some odd cuts in your wrists?"

Harry paled severely and began to stutter.

"I – I – didn't k-know.  D-didn't know w-w-what I was d-doing."

"Harry," said Snape, reaching out to touch his son's shoulder.  The teen drew back and the older man sighed, lowering his hand once more, eyes dull.  Harry noticed this and stuttered again as he spoke.

"S-sorry…"

"You have nothing to be sorry about, Harry," said Dumbledore gently.  "Sometimes things – very bad things – happen to us and we no longer know who we are.  There was once a boy about your age who had such a thing happen to him.  He heard a voice in his head too; a cruel, unfeeling voice that carried nothing for anyone but itself.  And he followed it.  He succumbed to it and I doubt that anything that was left of him remains."

Harry stared at his professor, eyes wide.

"Y-you're talking about Voldemort, aren't you, professor?"

"Yes, Harry, I am.  When he was still Tom Riddle.  He was a fifth year too when that happened to him."

"But why is it happening to me?" asked Harry, his voice rising to a quivering treble.  He then closed his eyes, ducking his head, and said softer, "Why does everything happen to me?"

Dumbledore steepled his fingers, elbows leaning on his desk, and replied, "I believe that when Voldemort passed some of his powers onto you, he also passed a little bit of that evil spirit."

Snape looked at Dumbledore in alarm.

"You, mean," he said in a gasp, "that Harry could become what He is?"

Dumbledore nodded grimly, eyes dull behind his half-moon glasses.

"It could indeed.  But Harry has one thing Tom Riddle did not."

Harry looked up at that.

"What, sir?" he asked.

Dumbledore looked at Snape then back at Harry before saying gently, "He has a father who loves him."

Harry looked at Snape in surprise and the dark wizard smiled at him.  The teen looked alarmed.  It was the first time he had ever seen his professor – his father – smile.

"And that," continued Dumbledore, "is something no child should be without and what no evil can stand against.  Love.  The love of a parent for a child.  Tom Riddle did not have this when he succumbed to that spirit.  You, Harry, do.  As you have the love of your friends."

Harry's pale cheeks flushed and he ducked his head, his curtain of dark hair falling forward to hide his face.

"Not anymore…  Ron hates me…  Hermione hates me…"

"Mr. Weasley has the temper most red-head's (and Weasley's) do and does not see many things as clearly as he should because of it.  Miss Granger, however, does see.  She does not hate you, Harry.  How could she when she came to us to tell us something was wrong?"

Harry looked up in surprise, breathing, "H-Herm did that?"

Dumbledore nodded in assent.

"She did indeed.  Do you see now?"

"Yes, professor."

Dumbledore nodded and said, "Well then, I believe we have that settled.  I think you should get to bed now, Harry.  A good sleep should well fix any damage done tonight.  And if you happen to hear that voice again, come immediately to myself or Severus.  Understood?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good.  Oh, and one more thing…"  Dumbledore lifted his wand and Harry stared at it.  The old wizard smiled and said, "We can't have you running around looking completely different and very much like the person you truly are, now can we?"

Harry nodded slightly.  He had now accepted that he was really Snape's son but he really didn't want to see his true reflection in a mirror now.

Not yet anyway.

"So," said Dumbledore.  "We'll just make a few adjustments…  A Glamourie might be best, I suppose…"

"Albus," said Snape sharply.  "Glamourie may be powerful fae magic, but they can be easily seen through.  And broken."

"I know, Severus.  Which is why I am casting the Unseen Truth spell as well."

"Unseen Truth?" queried Harry.

Snape nodded, turning towards his son to explain.

"It was a spell created during the Dark Years.  Voldemort's followers used it to hide their marks.  There's only one counterspell that can reveal the truth behind the charm and very few wizards and witches besides those who were Death Eaters know it."

"D-did you use it, sir?"

Snape looked surprised at the question.  Then he shook his head and said, "No.  I must tell you, Harry, that I never wanted to join the Death Eater ranks.  My father forced me into it two years after my graduation."

"How?" asked Harry.

Snape looked directly into his son's eyes and replied, "He threatened to kill your mother."

Harry looked shocked.

"Of course," continued Snape, "I couldn't allow that."  He kept his eyes on Harry as he went on.  "I loved your mother more than life itself and I would have done anything for her.  Anything.  Even do something that went against everything I believed it, even to watch her marry another man.  To watch her kiss him, hug him, walked hand-in-hand with him.  And I've hated myself every miserable second of my life for it."

Harry stared in awe at his father, enraptured by the tale.  If he had heard this last year or in the year's before, he would have never believed it.  But now…now he did.  He could see in the man's eyes the pain he felt.  The man had thought his beloved was safe in the arms of another man when she would not have been in his.  And she hadn't been.

Dumbledore looked between the two of them then said, "Well…shall we go on, then?"

Harry and Snape broke out of whatever spell had come over them and looked at the older wizard.

"Yes, I think we shall," said Snape.  "Right, Harry?"

The teen nodded, sitting his now empty mug on the claw-footed desk.  He then straightened in his chair and said, "Go on, professor."

Dumbledore nodded and waved his wand at Harry's face.  Golden motes flowed out of it and surrounded the boy.  As the two other wizards watched his face and body shifted into that of another.  Then a beam of red light shot out of the old wizard's wand and struck the teen in the chest, causing him to let out a short cry.

A moment later it was over.

Harry looked down at his familiar hands then up at Dumbledore and spoke in the voice he remembered, a rather deep tenor, not the somewhat silky one he truly possessed.

"Thank you, professor."

"You are most welcome, Harry.  And remember what I said.  Should you hear the voice again, come straight to myself or Severus."

"I'll remember, professor."

"Very good," said Dumbledore with a nod.  He placed his wand on his desk and sighed, "Now, I think we all should get a little rest.  Severus, will you escort Harry up to Gryffindor Tower?  And make sure Miss Granger got back there all right.  Those dungeons of yours can be rather tricky sometimes."

"Of course, Albus."

Snape and Harry rose and left Dumbledore's office, making their slow trek up to Gryffindor Tower in silence.

~*~

"Banshee," said Harry to the Fat Lady as they approached her.  She smiled at him and said, "Good to see you again, dearie.  My, you look a sight.  And you."  She turned her gaze onto Snape.  "If it isn't Severus Snape, come back to my Tower after all these years."

Snape bowed slightly and murmured, "Lady."

"You and your old ways.  They say chivalry's died out but you, my good Slytherin, had always put them wrong.  And what would the both of you being doing here?"

Father and son looked at each other then back to the portrait.  The Fat Lady looked between them then beamed.

"I see…  So, it did work out with my fine Gryffindor lass, didn't it, Severus?"

Snape coughed politely and Harry couldn't help but grin at his father's discomfort before yawning.  The Fat Lady immediately eyed him in a murderous way before turning on Snape.

"And now your keeping him up to all hours of the night?  Shame on you, Severus."

"Lady…"

"Don't you 'Lady' me, you scamp.  Now off with you.  I'll see to my young charge.  You look like you could use a good brandy."

Snape nodded slightly and murmured, "I could indeed…"

"Then go.  Go!  C'mon, Harry, dear.  Inside now.  A good night's sleep should set the both of you right.  And you, Severus!  I hope you mean to come by my Tower more often!"

"Of course, Lady!" said Snape's voice as he disappeared down the corridor, grinning wryly at Harry as he went.  Harry waved slightly after him then, yawning once more, climbed through the hole behind the Fat Lady's portrait into the common room.

He started for his dormitory then stopped.  Could he really face Ron now?  Could he face Hermione now?  Oh Merlin's beard, could he really do this?

Yes, said a voice in his head, the voice that the cruel one had driven down.  They're your friends.  They'll forgive you.

Harry felt reassured by that voice and climbed the stairs.  He only glanced once at Ron's curtained bed before climbing into his own.

A few moments later, he had drifted into the darkness of sleep.

 

~*~

Am I hiding behind my doubts

Are they hiding behind me

Closer to finding out

It doesn't mean anything

I remind myself of somebody else now

~*~

A/N: This is not the end of our evil spirit, ladies and gents!  IT SHALL RETURN!!!  Whenever we get ideas for the next chapter…  Yes, there IS that slightly problem…  Until we continue!