A/N: Thanks to my reviewers!
SvetKa- Thanks!
Potter Reader- *grins wickedly* Here it is. The moment of truth.
ResQgal- Thank you! I figured, since Remus is always saddled with the
task of bearing said news, that I'd give him a break for once. And our
favorite little know-it-all should be making her appearance in this chapter.
ress- *laughs* Yes it is!
Tropic- Do you forgive me yet? *puppy dog eyes* Please? Here's the
next one for you.
Narcissa1- Thank you ver much. Yes. Ask for the truth, *grins* and
the truth shall set you free. Or, in this case, the truth shall be set
free.
Anyway, on with the story!
'these' are thoughts
**this** is parseltongue
*~*~*~*~*~*~ is a new perspective or scene
Chapter Five: The Truth inside the Pensieve
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Last time, in chapter four:
Harry felt his body fall into the pensieve, a part of him grateful that Lupin was there to pull him out. But as Sirius' memory unfolded before him, he let out a sharp gasp. This couldn't be...
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Inside the Pensieve...
James paced back and forth in front of a much younger Sirius. The
look on his face a mixture of frustration and sympathy. Sirius, with more
of an irate expression, watched his friend silently.
"Padfoot, I have to do this. She's my friend. One of my closest."
Sirius was pensive for a moment, before he erupted. "I know you care about Lily, Prongs. Hell! We all do! But you have to understand. If you agree to this, you would be raising that slimy git's child as if it were your own. Think about it, James! This is Snivellus' kid we're talking about! What if he turns out just like his father?"
Harry just stared in shock. After his previous encounters with Pensieves, he knew they wouldn't hear him. But he couldn't make a sound. 'Is this true? James isn't really my dad? Snivellus... I've heard that before.' he thought to himself. Then the previous year flashed through his mind, him looking into Snape's pensieve, watching his memory. Sirius. Sirius calling Snape Snivellus. 'NO! James IS my dad! I look just like him! I CAN'T be Snape's! I just can't!'
"Padfoot." Just that one word from James in that tone was sufficient warning for Sirius. "We've been through this already. Snape, while I agree that he is a detestable git, is on our side. He risks his life daily knowing that Voldemort could find him out. And still he does it."
"So? We risk our lives daily, too! We fight with the Order. We knew the risks going in. Snape did too, when he turned against Voldemort. That is no excuse to abandon Lily like he has."
'What!?' Harry thought. 'Snape abandoned my mum? What in Merlin's name is going on here? How I wish Sirius were still here to help me understand.'
"That's just it. Lily doesn't know he abandoned her. She doesn't remember that she told me just last week how she wanted to marry him. Don't you see? She doesn't remember!"
"So Snape Obliviated her? But why, Prongs? Why do something like that when it can only hurt in the end? What about when Lily realizes that her child isn't yours? What happens then, my friend?"
"That much is simple. We, meaning you and I, charm the baby so he or she looks like me. We'll use the Speculum Potion to boost it, and the Parilis Charm to start it. The charm, with a booster from the potionn, should last anywhere from sixteen to seventeen years, and by then the child should know the truth. It'll be a breeze!"
Sirius merely arched an eyebrow at this. "Oh really? I should have known that the wonderful James Potter could brew such a complicated potion."
James had the grace to look sheepish at this point. "Well, we can have it made. More accurately, YOU can have it made. If I do it, someone may suspect something when the child is born. But if you do it..."
The irony was not lost on Sirius. He would help his friend, of course he would! Both of them. But to help Snivellus' offspring as well. That was a hard thought to stomach. He nodded to his best friend.
"Of course. You knew I wouldn't be able to say no." With a sigh, he stretched out, thinking things through. Yes, he was rash, but he knew the benefits of always thinking ahead, because it may just save your life. Who knew? He might even like the kid. Provided they weren't as horrid as their father was.
The memory faded away and into another. Harry found himself standing in a hospital room with his mum, dad, and Sirius. And a baby. He felt a tap on his shoulder, and jumped, whirling around. Remus was standing there behind him, a wistful smile on his face. Harry had been so wrapped up in his own guilt and grief that he forgot that Remus must be feeling much the same way. But he'd deal with that later. After.
"I almost forgot what it was like, when we were together. If Padfoot's memory lasts long enough, I'll even get to remember, if only briefly, what I looked like then. Carefree and innocent." At this Harry snorted. "Well, as innocent as I could be then."
"What are you doing here, sir?"
Remus looked sad, and slightly hurt. Harry made to apologise, but before he could even open his mouth, Remus' quiet voice continued. "You've been in here for over an hour. I wanted to make sure you were alright. And, I confess, I wanted a last chance to see my friend again, too."
"I'm sorry, Professor! I didn't mean for it to sound the way it did. I was just curious." Harry hesitantly placed his hand atop Remus', still on his shoulder. "Thank you. For caring, I mean. Please stay. I think I could use someone right now. If the last memory-" Harry was cut off as the occupants of the memory shifted, a medi-witch entering the room.
"Well, Mrs. Potter. Your boy is healthy, and has a nice set of lungs, I can assure you!" The three at the bed laughed at this as the nurse placed an infant Harry in Lily's arms. She gazed down at her baby boy with love shining from her eyes, and took no notice when the medi-witch left. James moved closer to her so he could see the boy as well.
"Lily..."
"James. He looks. I don't know. Not like you. Even as a newborn, he looks... almost like... Severus."
James and Sirius exchanged a meaningful glance at this, but said nothing. Remus followed Harry over to the bed and looked at the infant as well. Lily was right! He did look like Severus. But that could only mean... he slowly turned his head and looked at Harry, sixteen year old Harry, with shock. He knew the boy had looked different this year. But now he could see what Albus, Minerva, and Arabella had all seen. Severus Snape and Lily Evans. Not James and Lily Potter.
After a while, a rather boring while, to Harry, Lily finally let James hold his son as she drifted off to sleep. Sirius nodded to James, and they moved to the farthest corner in the room. James transfigured a pillow into a bassinet and laid baby Harry in it. The Sirius coaxed a potion down the boy's throat as James whispered an incantation, along with performing a very complex wand movement. When they could see the baby again, both Harry and Remus saw the baby that was in all the photos they had. The one who looked like James, but with Lily's eyes. Remus stared for a long moment, watching as James and Sirius went back and sat down in the chairs they had been occupying, acting as if nothing out of the ordinary happened. When the memory began to dissolve, he lifted Harry out of the Pensieve.
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Hermione Granger had just arrived at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the esteemed presence of Professor Albus Dumbledore and Professor Minerva McGonagall. She just didn't know why. But she was determined to find out, and thus, kept asking questions of her companions as they made the trek from the Entrance Hall to Gryffindor Tower, only to be put off by one or the other saying that she would find out when they were all together. But whatever she had been about to retort to that died on her lips when the portrait of the Fat Lady that guarded the tower swung open.
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Neither Harry nor Remus noticed the three people who had just entered the common room. They had been arguing to the last fifteen minutes about Harry being Snape's son.
"Harry, you have to tell him." Remus urged, reiterating the statement that had begun the argument in the first place.
Harry retorted with a sneer. "Gee, Remus. What do you want to me to do? Go up to Snape and say, 'Hello Professor. Just thought you might like to know that I'm not James' son, I'm yours.'? Come on, now! There's no way he would buy it. If I hadn't seen Sirius' memory of it, I wouldn't buy it!" A gasp from the portrait hole alerted him too late that whoever was there had heard him. Spinning angrily about, he saw Hermione, with her hand clamped over her mouth and her eyes wide, Professor McGonagall with her mouth set in a tight line, but... resignation?.. yes, resignation in her eyes. And Professor Dumbledore, whom he had still not forgiven for keeping secrets from him in the first place, looking startled. He closed his eyes and groaned, just as he heard Remus doing the same beside him. Without a word to any of the people present, he stormed from the common room and up to the sixth year boys dormitory, slamming the door behind him as he collapsed onto his bed.
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"Professor Lupin? Did I hear him say what I think I heard him say?" Hermione asked.
Remus nodded, a strained, yet horribly sad expression on his face. "Yes, Hermione. I'm afraid you did."
"How did he find out, Remus?" Dumbledore questioned, his face a mask of perfect calm again.
Remus gestured to the Pensieve Sirius had left for Harry. "From that. Sirius had wanted to give it to him for his sixteenth birthday. Apparently, although I didn't see everything Harry did, Sirius and James disguised Harry when he was born. Before they put the charms on him, and gave him the potion, he looked almost exactly like Severus." Lupin sighed, a bone-weary sound, and collapsed onto the couch again.
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Upstairs in the boys dorm, Harry lay on his bed until he fell asleep,
unaware that the four downstairs were discussing him. As he slept, his
mind drifted into restless dreams, until they finally coalesced into another
Voldemort filled vision.
A/N: According to an English-Latin dictionary I found on the net, Speculum is Latin for mirror, thus the Mirror Potion. And Parilis is Latin for similar. *grins* Aren't I smart? So, how did you like it? *laughs and points to the little button that says 'GO'* Go on... submit a review! Please?