All That We See or Seem by Aurora Middleton

Part Three: Truth Be Told

~~**~~

It was on a sunny afternoon a few days later that Ron was "wandering" the grounds of Hogwarts when he "accidentally" came upon his adopted son, sitting serenely against a tree that marked his favorite private hiding place. Though he had known of the spot for some time, Ron had never before invaded the space Caleb used for thinking time and so when he abruptly showed up, his presence was not met with much enthusiasm. Caleb refrained from looking openly surprised or annoyed but did raise his eyebrow at Ron in the most haunting way.

"Taking the day off?" was the line Ron chose to open the conversation with. Instead of the stern but affectionate tone he intended, it came out stiff like he had been rehearsing it for some time. That was probably because he had been. In front of a mirror. In one of the boy's lavatories ever since one of Caleb's classmates had come to him, concerned over the fact that Caleb claimed to not have been feeling well that morning. It was only the humiliation of being caught by Draco Malfoy that finally got him out of the dingy bathroom to go confront his son on the subject he and Draco had discussed a few days before.

"Bloody Kieran Covington," was the mumbled reply he was given in return.

"Oh give him a break," Ron said, seating himself uninvited next to Caleb and nudging him with his shoulder. "I think he might like you."

He saw a flicker of something in Caleb's dark eyes and thought maybe his cheeks had gone slightly redder, but it was hard to tell with the brisk wind. Finally, Caleb said,

"He's always been a snitch."

"He was just worried about you," Ron said. "I'm worried, too. You're not generally given to skipping. What's going on?"

"I just had some things to think about," Caleb said, going back into surly teenage mode. Ron wondered idly if Snape had been like this as a teenager. He surely didn't remember Harry being like this. Of course, those had been different circumstances. Different times.

"Professor Malfoy came to see me the other day," Ron said as casually as possible.

Caleb's eyes widened at the prospect. "Oh?" he said, swallowing audibly. "What did he say?"

"Well, first of all, I heard that you've had four detentions from him in one week," Ron said. "And another tomorrow night."

"And I suppose you want an explanation?" Caleb said, almost hopefully.

"No, actually," Ron said. "I think we can save that for later. Right now I have something more important to discuss with you, if you're willing to hear it."

The expression on Caleb's face was one of clear mortification. "I can't believe he told you," was all he said.

"Well, it was obvious to him that you weren't going to," Ron said. "And it's an issue that's always kind of hung between us and I think now is as good a time as any to discuss it. Unless you don't agree."

"You're not.angry or anything, are you?" Caleb asked carefully, almost as if he hadn't heard what Ron had said.

"Relieved, actually," Ron said, picking fistfuls of grass out of the ground and making a crude pile somewhere between himself and Caleb. "I was sworn to secrecy by your parents out of necessity until you were old enough to understand. Until you were old enough to want to know. Until you were old enough to handle it."

"Oh Merlin," Caleb said, his voice restricted as though someone were choking him. "My father really is Voldemort, isn't he?"

"Not exactly," Ron said.

Caleb visibly relaxed. "Then why all the melodrama?"

"Well, because there are circumstances involved that called for discretion up until now," Ron said. "And I want you to understand something before we go any further: there are still people out there who could very possibly use this information against you to harm you. That's part of the reason why it's important for you to know the truth because your parentage is not a shameful thing at all. But knowing can be dangerous. Are you sure you want to know?"

"I was sure," Caleb said a little sarcastically. "Now I'm not as sure."

Ron smiled a little. "Okay, so I am being melodramatic," he said. "I'm just excited to finally be allowed to unburden myself after all this time. You have no idea how hard it's been to not tell you. To not tell anyone."

"But you were under obligation to not say anything, right?"

"Right," Ron said. "I promised your father."

"Harry?"

"The other one," Ron said.

Caleb set his jaw and lifted his chin a little, seeming to brace himself. "All right, then," he said. "Tell me."

Ron cleared his throat and said, enunciating each syllable very slowly, "Severus Snape was your father."

The silence that hung between them after this revelation seemed a bit of an anticlimax. The look on Caleb's face wasn't one of awe or happiness, as Ron might have expected. Instead, it was one of deep confusion. Even hurt.

"The potions master before Professor Malfoy?" he said finally.

"Yes," Ron said, impressed that Caleb knew right away who he was talking about. Apparently Snape, who had left his position at the school nearly twenty years earlier, still had quite the reputation. Which was what brought the wave of apprehension Ron felt wash over him.

"But...," Caleb started, trailing off, seeming at a loss for words.

"But what?" Ron patiently prodded.

"But...I don't know. But everything. But he's old enough to be my bloody grandfather. But everyone says he was evil. But everyone says he was a Death Eater," Caleb said, holding up a finger for each reason. "But you hated him."

Ron couldn't hide his surprise at this last reason.

"I never said that."

"Well, you talk about him like you did," Caleb said.

"I didn't think much of him when I was a student," Ron said, remembering suddenly the stories he had told Caleb about his own time at Hogwarts and how the horror stories had often starred his adopted son's own father. He hadn't thought much of it at the time, for whatever reason. "But later on, I came to respect and admire him. Understand him a little, even."

"Why?"

"Well, for one thing because I realized that he wasn't an evil, bitter Death Eater," Ron said. "He was a spy for the light who had gained a position in Voldemort's ranks. Without him and the information he gave us, we wouldn't have won the war against the Dark Lord. He made a lot of sacrifices to make a better future for us all. He even sacrificed his own life and I admire him greatly for that. I know I couldn't have done it."

"How did he die?"

Ron sighed. "Well, it's kind of a long story," he said. "But the short version has to do with the fact that he and Harry went into hiding after Harry graduated from school. A few years later, Harry became pregnant with you and went into even deeper hiding, even from Snape. He resurfaced the appropriate amount of time later on my doorstep, heavily pregnant and scared. He was only a few days from giving birth and he couldn't go to a doctor or a hospital. So I took him in and helped him and you were born. He stayed a few days with me but then left pretty abruptly once the news had come around that the defeat of Voldemort was at hand. He had some important information that saved the Ministry from doing a stupid thing but, in trying to put the information he had into action, he got himself killed."

"Yeah, I read about that in my history textbook," Caleb said, a little impatiently. "What about Snape?"

"I'm getting there," Ron said. "So, after Harry died, Snape decides to suddenly show up on my doorstep wanting to see his son, which Harry had found some way of telling him about, I suppose. I thought maybe he had come to retrieve you so that he could raise you himself now that we had peace. It turned out I was wrong on two counts. The first was that we weren't at peace at all-Harry's attempts had been successful in weakening the Dark Lord, but had failed as far as a permanent defeat goes. Snape had come into some new information while Harry was gone that would have helped Harry to truly get rid of the Dark Lord, possibly without getting himself killed in the process. Anyway, it was too late for that but Snape felt that it was his obligation to finish what Harry had started. The only problem was, once he did it, the other Death Eaters were going to discover him as a spy and turn on him. And they did."

Caleb swallowed audibly. Ron put a hand on his shoulder, seeing the threat of tears in his adopted son's eyes.

"So essentially he didn't come to take you with him, he came to say good- bye," Ron said. "And also to let his wishes about how you were to be raised to be known, which is why I've had to keep my silence about his part in your parentage all these years. It was safer that way until all the Death Eaters were caught and you know as well as I do that, all these years later, they still haven't got them all, which is why it was important that you not be told until you're old enough. And then you don't tell the world until you feel ready to let them know."

"Somehow I think that if I were ever to tell the world something like that, the statistics for death by heart attack would have a sudden spike," Caleb commented wryly. There was a pause between them. "So you came to respect and admire him through that. What else?"

"Hmm," Ron said, sitting back to get a little more comfortable. "I suppose the second reason has to do with the fact that he and Harry truly did love each other. I was one of the few people who they told about their relationship and so I was one of the only people who ever got to see how they were together. It took a long time for me to get used to the idea and I certainly didn't like it when Harry first told me. But eventually I understood that my big bad former potions master hadn't seduced my friend and wasn't going to betray him. He loved him. And Harry loved him back."

"Good to know," Caleb said. "I think I'm already enough of a case of the 'oops' as it is."

"Well, you were certainly unexpected, I can tell you that much," Ron said. "But never unwanted. If circumstances were different."

Caleb nodded his understanding when Ron trailed off.

"Anyway, there's a third reason Snape's managed to weasel his way into my respect and admiration," Ron said. "Do you want to know what it is?"

"You're being melodramatic again," Caleb commented, before adding, "Of course I want to know."

"It's because of you," Ron said. "I wish you could understand how much you're like him. And not just in your interest in potions or your sorting into Slytherin, either. You have very similar personalities and I feel like, through knowing you, I've gotten to know Snape all over again. I understand him better from having known you. I understand all the good things about him that I missed when I was his student. The things Harry must have seen in him. Like his wit and his genius."

Caleb blushed at this. "It is nice to know where it came from," he commented. "The whole thing with potions. Even knowing why I was sorted into Slytherin."

"Right," Ron agreed. "Because you certainly didn't get those from Harry. Although I did hear rumors once that the sorting hat wanted to put him in Slytherin, but they say that's just because of his connection with Voldemort."

"I didn't know that," Caleb said, looking at his hands. "You know what I wish?"

"What?"

"I wish that you'd talk about him more," Caleb said. "I mean, I know it must be painful because he was your closest friend and now he's dead but.I feel like I don't know very much about him outside of what's written in textbooks and all the legends that surround him. I want to know more about him."

"Of course," Ron said, having not realized that he had been censoring himself on the subject of his best friend all these years.

"And Snape, too, obviously," Caleb added.

"Obviously," Ron said.

"Thank you," Caleb said.

They sat for a moment in silence before Caleb began to stand, the beginnings of a farewell on his lips. Ron put a hand on his arm to stop him.

"Wait," he said. "There's one more thing before you go."

Caleb sat, looking both interested and worried.

"This I have no excuse for not telling you up until now," Ron began. "And I want you to know now that I'm sorry and that you have every right to be angry with me. I just couldn't find an appropriate time and.well, now seems like a good time, I guess."

"What is it?" Caleb asked, his visible worry now showing in his tone of voice.

"When Harry came to my house to give birth, he thought he was carrying only one child," Ron said. "That was mostly due to the fact that he had never had the opportunity to go to the doctor while he was pregnant for fear that the story would get out. So we were both quite surprised when, after he delivered a healthy baby boy, another one followed a few minutes later."

Caleb's eyes widened and the curiosity on his face crumbled into grief as he guessed the next part of Ron's story.

"The other baby was your identical twin brother, who Harry named Darien Severus," Ron said. "From the start, he wasn't very healthy and there was nothing we could do for him between ourselves. We resolved, rather quickly, to bring him to a hospital under the story that my wife had died during a home childbirth and I now feared for the baby's life. But he didn't survive long enough for us to put this plan into action. Darien died two days after you both were born."

Caleb swallowed a few times, tears now spilling in rivers onto his cheeks. For the first time in his life, it appeared that he was speechless.

"Are you angry?" Ron asked carefully.

Caleb shook his head, making a futile attempt at wiping the tears away with his sleeve.

"No," he said. "I think I've always known."

"Oh?" Ron said. "How?"

"Well, when I was little, I was playing in the woods behind the house that we lived in and I found a marker that looked like it might be for a grave. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but that must have been where you buried him."

Ron nodded, remembering the spot only vaguely. He had never been able to bring himself to visit it.

"And then there's the fact that I've always had dreams about having a twin brother," Caleb continued. "And.I don't know. There's something in me that's always felt.less than whole. I never knew what it was."

"They say a person who's lost a twin often feels that way," Ron said. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you sooner."

"It's okay," Caleb said, giving a weak half-smile. "I know now, don't I? That's what counts."

"Right," Ron said, though he felt instinctively that things between them were going to be a bit awkward for a while.

"Thank you for telling me all this," Caleb said, clearing his throat and wiping away the tears once and for all. "I know it wasn't easy for you and I hope you don't think I wanted to know out of any dissatisfaction with my relationship with you."

Ron raised his own eyebrow now, noting the businesslike tone with which Caleb addressed him.

"Not at all," Ron said. "I know you hate it when I get mushy, but I do love you, Caleb. And there's nothing in the world I wish I could do for you more than I wish I could bring back your family. The closest I can come is telling you about them. And I'd be happy to tell you the stories that I know and I'm sure Draco and Hermione know a few as well."

"Professor Granger?" Caleb asked, surprised.

"Yes. She was a good friend of ours when we were in school," Ron said. "Drifted away a little bit once we graduated, but there are probably things she knows about Harry that even I don't know. The same goes for Draco. You can ask him about the time he almost got your father killed during a Quidditch game. Or, rather, all the times he almost got your father killed during a Quidditch game."

Caleb laughed at this. "I think I will ask him," he said. "During detention tomorrow sounds like a good time."

"Speaking of which," Ron said, rising from his seat and brushing himself off, "we still have things to discuss about your behavior, not to mention your little act of truancy today. But I suppose we can do that later."

"All right," Caleb grumbled.

"For now, you'd best get in bed and look sick," Ron said. "If you're lucky, I'm sure Kieran will bring a bowl of chicken soup to you later or something."

"Ugh," was all Caleb said with a roll of his eyes for emphasis. Ron laughed and put an affectionate arm around his adopted son's shoulders. Together, they walked back to the castle.

Fin

~~**~~

So what did you think? Were you terribly disappointed that neither Harry or Snape was actually in it? Was it all right otherwise? I'd love to hear from you because I find myself with a bit of a dilemma. You see, I ended up writing a short prequel to this story featuring a short visit Snape pays to Caleb before his death. I'd like to know if, based on the quality of this story, you think it would be worth posting. I'm truly curious to hear your opinion, no matter what it is. Other comments or suggestions are also welcome with open arms, of course. Thanks so much for reading the story!

~Aurora M.