Disclaimer: see Prologue. AN: Sorry it took so long but school caught up.. AN2: I still did not find a beta reader. anybody willing please say something or mail me. (you can find my addy in my bio)

Chapter Two

Severus watched silently how Poppy Pomfrey (sp?) checked Harry. He had sent the house elf Dobby to inform the headmaster about his arrival. He did not want to leave Harry's side. He could have spared him the horrible life he obviously had, if only her had known. But he would make sure that Harry would never have to go back to his muggle relatives. After a few minutes, Madam Pomfrey seemed to be ready to say what is wrong with Harry, when Albus Dumbledore walked into the hospital wing. His usual Twinkle in his eyes left upon seeing Harry's still form on the bed. "How is he?" asked Albus. The face of the Poppy showed worry, when she told the two her diagnosis: "His left arm is broken as well as two rips. A few other are stained. One of the broken rips punctured his lung. Nearly his whole body is covered in bruises as far as I can see and he seemingly hadn't much food lately." With that she left the two men alone and went to her office, since she already had healed everything she could, while checking him. "To think that I could have taken care of him these last years. How blind I was.," said Severus more to himself. Upon hearing Severus muttering, Albus said: "Severus, you couldn't have known. Even I did not know that it was that bad. Harry never spoke about the Dursley's. How were we to know? When I would have known, than there wouldn't have been any discussions about telling him or not." Severus did know that he had to tell Harry, but he wished that it would be different circumstances. He wished that it would not have to be the hospital wing. "I will wait until he wakes up and then I will tell him everything. I only hope that you are right, Albus. I hope that he understands my behaviour," said Severus, his hands still holding his head. Albus nodded, although he knew that the younger man could not see it. "Tell me once he wakes up and knows everything that you want him to know. I'll be in my office," said the headmaster and left the hospital wing with one last look at Harry. Severus stood up and placed his chair next to the bed his nephew lay in and sat himself once again. While he waited for him to wake up he used the time to watch the boy and think about the reasons he always used to not tell him and how he would explain everything once Harry woke up.

Early the next morning Harry woke up slowly. He carefully opened his eyes and found that his vision was blurry. Since trying to find his glasses was not a good idea with a broken arm he thought about whether he should risk it to possibly injure it further. While he thought about his next action someone put his glasses carefully on Harry's nose. After his vision cleared he recognised his potion teacher. Harry was surprised to see him and that with a concerned face. Then he remembered what happened. "Why?" asked Harry with a weak voice. Severus watched him a moment before responding: "Why what?" "Why did you save me?" said Harry focusing on his Professor. Severus did not answer immediately. He still did not know how to tell him. Alright he did know what he wanted to tell him, but he did not know how to start. Should he drop the bomb, as muggles used to say, and tell him that he was his uncle or should he begin slowly? Harry watched his teacher carefully. After sometime his patience started to thin out and he was ready to tell him that he did not need to tell him, but Severus choose that moment to answer: "The Dursley actually aren't your only remaining family." "But I thought.", interrupted Harry him. The potion master fought the urge to insult him and continued: "I will explain everything, but for me to fill you in you should not interrupt me again. After all it is a longer story." Severus Snape waited until Harry nodded with his head to start his tale. "Good. Now where to start. As you surely know I am spy for Dumbledore," he said without waiting for a response from Harry, "I was young and foolish back than, but the past can't be changed. When I realised my mistake I went to Dumbledore fully expecting to be sentenced to Azkaban. Instead he offered me a teaching position and asked me to become a spy. The night your parents died Voldemort gathered his Death Eater. When I arrived he was in triumphant mood. To be honest I thought that he found out that I was the spy, but instead he told us that his spy got to be the Secret Keeper of your parents and his plan to kill you and your father. He never mentioned who the spy was. I send Dumbledore a warning which he forwarded to your parents. Until today nobody knows whether they got it or not. There is something else you should know, only Lupin, Dumbledore and I know about it. When we arrived at Godric's Hollow. there were no corpses of your parents. We did know that the muggle authority's might have been there already, but we were not able to find your parents. To be honest, there is a chance that when they got the warning that they might have survived. We never could say for sure if they are dead or not." Having finished to retell what happened that day he looked up to see Harry's reaction. He clearly could see that Harry could not believe what he was saying. Before his nephew could start with questions he continued: "We thought it best not to tell anyone. It only would have led to chaos. The parents of the Boy who lived missing. Are they dead or alive? It would have been a scandal. You surely wonder why I am telling you this when not even McGonnagal knows about that. I believe that you should know about it and I want to show you that I want to be honest with you. You always can ask Dumbledore or Lupin if you want." Severus took a deep breath before he continued: "You might not believe, but I your father and I are actually twin brothers." At that Harry stared disbelieving at his teacher. Upon seeing the look Severus quickly went on: "We were parted a short time after our birth. Don't ask me why since I do not know it myself for sure. While we did grow up differently we always did know about our relationship. I must admit that I was jealous. Your father got a whole bunch of friends and many girls wanted him. Only a few reason why we never came along. After I became a spy for Dumbledore he forced us to get over our dislike of each other. We did not became friends but we were able to come on good terms. And I believe given time and other circumstances we might have been able to be kind of friends. And for your information. I do not hate you. I am only that mean to you because of the Slytherin students. Many fathers are Death Eaters and imaging what would happen were they to find out that I am nice to the Boy who lived. I also thought that you would get spoiled and I wanted to make sure that you would stay on the ground. I might never have told Dumbledore that, otherwise he would have made me aware of just how may letters it took until you received yours. And ever since you came to Hogwarts we discussed whether I tell you or not. I normally had the better arguments. I mean who would like to spend their summer holidays with me? Not to forget be related to me?" Harry did not want to believe what his least favourite teacher told him. But a part of him did see that he could not have made everything up and his voice sounded honest. And afraid. Suddenly Harry realised that maybe Snape had wanted to take care of him but was afraid to fail. And even if Snape truly would have hated him, he somehow doubted that it could be worse than what the Dursleys did to him. After all Snape had morals. Or else he would not be teaching. But why did he not came before he turned eleven? "Why didn't you come before I turned eleven? I didn't know you than." Answering honest Severus said: "After you defeated Voldemort, I got a trial. Everybody did know that I was a Death Eater. It would have been a scandal. Other than that not many did know about your father and me being related. And later, well we did not know how your homelife was. We thought it best that you stayed at your school with people you knew. But why did you never tell anyone how the Dursleys treated you?" "I didn't want people to worry about me. I already get enough attention as it is. Also my life has already too many similarities to Voldemorts live and I didn't want to get one more by having to go to an orphanage," answered Harry silently. Severus had to listen closely to catch what he had said, but it showed him just how wrong he was about Harry.

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