Chapter 2 The Unknown Father

They were all sitting there watching Snape and Dumbledore talk at the far side of the room. Harry looked down at the paper that was still sitting in front of him, he put his hand to his head and realized it was throbbing, he wasn't sure if it was because of the fall or because so many thoughts were running through his head all at once. The kids were also talking in whispers at there table in the corner talking about this news.

"It seems so surreal" Harry said "Any minute now I'll walk up and the school day will just be starting."

"It's kind of funny, you're a Snape and me being a Malfoy" Hermione said. Harry looked at her and tried to smile.

"Man I can't imagine what you might have been like if your dad hadn't been a good guy" Ron said to Hermione while looking at Hermione's family tree.'

"Oh, shhh here they come" Ginny said as she put a finger to her mouth.

"Harry I don't suppose it would matter if I had these three" He pointed to Ron, Ginny and Hermione "leave right? You're just going to tell them every thing?" Snape said. He pulled a chair from another table and sat down in it.

"No sir it would do no good" Harry said with a little smile, Snape had called him Harry. Was this a good thing? Boy what a headache.

"Ok, well first off I just want you too know this is as big a surprise to me as it is to you" Snape said. He looked up at the Headmaster and reached out a hand. "The letter Albus"

He gave him a very old looking envelope and Snape handed it to Harry. "This came at about 8:45 which is about 15 minutes after you did that potion. So we figure it's from Lily it must have been meant to get sent when you fond out. And seeing how fast it got here it was probably in the school."

Harry looked down at the letter and back at Snape "Have you read it sir?" Harry asked

"No, I thought you should read it first" Snape said, he then turned and walked back over to his desk with the headmaster.

Harry looked up at the group and said "Well here goes nothing" as he tore into the envelope. He pulled the letter out and started to read.

Dear Harry,
As I sit here writing this I can't help but wonder how old you are right now. If you've gotten this letter at all that means that we didn't make it. So you know now that James was not your father. Severus is a very good man Harry and I hope this finds you and Severus friends. You see this all stared in school were Severus and I dated for a short time at the end of our seventh year. About three years after school we ran into each other and he told me all about the horrible things he had done. So I took him to Dumbledore and he started to spy for the good side. We started to date again in secret and we had planed to get married as soon as the war was over. But after about a year I found out I was pregnant. I didn't tell Severus. I did go to him and ask if he would stop spying for me. But he couldn't he 'had a duty' as he put it. I couldn't let Voldemort fond out about me and the baby, so I broke it off with your father and went to my best friend. James agreed to marry me and take you on as he's own. I put a few charms on you to hide your true looks. If this letter comes to you any time around your 16th birthday then the charms are probably starting to wear off. I never told Severus about you and I'm sorry but I felt it was safer this way. I hope you can both forgive me. I love you very much son! You will always be in my heart. Be good to each other, your all you have now.

Love,
Mum

P.S Severus, I never stopped loving you! I hope you can forgive me as well. Luv Lily

"Wow, that's so sad" Hermione said with a few tears in her eyes "Your poor mum"

"Yes, I can't believe she gave up the man she loved to keep me safe" Harry said. He them looked back at Snape and floated the letter over to him. Snape took the letter and started read.

"That must be why Snape hates me so much. I represent every thing he should have had with my Mum" Harry said. Harry looked down at the envelope still sitting on the table and saw a little bump in it. He picked it up and turned it over, a little ring fell out. Harry picked it up and looked it over. It was a plain ring. It looked about the size of an infant's finger; it must have been his baby ring. It had two little green stones in it and an inscription: My Green Eyed Boy.

Snape just sat there for a second after reading the letter. How could he have given up so easily? He just let her walk away, and then just assumed that the baby was James'. If he had done the math in his head he would have seen that Harry had to be his. How could he have been so stupid? And the way he had treated that boy over the last five years. What was he going to do about Voldemort?

"You could always just stop spying, we have other spies there now so you wouldn't be letting us down or anything. Then you could claim Harry without any problems." Dumbledore said as if reading Severus' mind.

"But what about the danger, Harry would be in so much..." But Severus stopped. When was Harry not in danger? Maybe he could stop and have a semi normal life.

"You've paid your dept a few times over" Dumbledore said as he laid a hand on Severus' shoulder "Talk to the boy and see how he feels."

"I know how he feels, he hates me" Severus said. He glanced over at Harry and saw that he was smiling. Was that a good smile or a bad smile, Severus wondered.

"That boy doesn't hate you; I don't think he has a hatful bone in his body and if he does I think maybe the only person who could claim hate from Harry is Voldemort. If you give him a chance to know you, the real you not this you they see in class, then I think you could be very good friends. And that's were it all starts" Dumbledore said "Your never going to know if you just sit here talking to me"

Could Harry really not hate him? Did he even have a chance after all the turmoil he had put this boy through? Well only one way to find out. He got up and started walking over to the little group.

Harry was sitting there listening to his friends talk about how brave his mum was and how he had a family now. But all Harry could think was how wired it was to have a living dad, and would Snape even want him as a son and did he even what Snape as a father? Could he get passed all the stuff he had put him through over the years? Or would they just ignore this and go on as normal. But they couldn't do that ether because the charms were wearing off, and what about...His thoughts were cut off when he heard Hermione trying to get his attention.

"Harry...Earth to Harry come in Harry" Hermione was saying as she waved her hand in front of him.

"What? Sorry what did you say Hermione?" Harry asked when he finally heard her.

"I said what are you going to do?" Hermione said as she smiled at him. Boy he sure did like that smile. It was funny to think about all the times he had gotten her to smile like that. That was her you-are-so- hopeless smile.

"Harry!" Hermione said when Harry started to look dazed again.

"Oh, sorry, what was the question? Oh yeah, I have no idea what I'm going to do. This kind of depends on what Severus thinks." Harry said. They all looked at him with big goofy smiles.

"What is so funny?" Harry asked

"You called him Severus" Ginny said.

"Oh yes har-har-har, what do you guys think?" Harry said

"Well that depends on if Snape is just being an over grown..." at this point Harry started to shack his head to and mouthing 'shut up' but Ron didn't get the message "git on purpose or if..." Then it dawned on Ron. "He's standing right behind me, isn't he?" Ron said going a very deep red as he turned around to look at Snape. Now Hermione looked like she was going to blow up from holding in her giggles, so did Ginny.

"Yes well this 'over grown git' would like a word with you Harry" Snape said with a very deep sneer on his face. He looked at Harry and said "Would you like to talk here, or go into my study?"

Harry looked at his friends and at Snape and said "Study" He got up and looked at his friends. "I'll be back, don't worry" He then walked into the room right behind Snape and closed the door.

Harry had never been in this room of the potion masters class, in fact the only person he know that had was Hermione in there second year when she had stolen the things they needed for a potion. Severus led Harry over to a little table and sat down. Harry sat in the chair across from him and for a few minutes they just sat there looking at each other. Harry had no idea were to start, and nether did Severus.

"I guess we could...um...start with any questions you may have" Severus said not knowing what Harry might ask. It was very weird for Harry to see his oh-so-put-together potions master stumbling over words and not knowing what to say.

"Did you love her?" Harry asked. Snape looked at Harry as if he had grown a second head, he was shocked. Out of all the questions Harry had to ask that one.

"Yes, I loved your Mum very much. It killed me when she left. Now that I know why she did it, it doesn't hurt quite as much." Severus said. Harry was very surprised by the amount of emotion he heard in his professor's voice.

"So what do we do now?" Harry asked. Harry was so scared of what Severus was about to say that he started to play with his wand, which he only did when he was nerves.

"Well that depends, I can see your hair is starting to grow. That's a Snape thing; our hair always grows very fast. So we can just let your Mums charms come off and you and announce it to the school and the papers" Snape said "Or we could find the charms your mum used and put them back on and pretend it never happened. I'll totally understand if that's what you want to do, after the way I've treated you over the years."

Again Harry was shocked. Did Snape really want to try to be a family, or what ever you would call it? "I just have one question" Harry finally said after sitting there for a few seconds.

"What?" Snape said "Ask away"

"Why have you been such a..." Harry trailed off not knowing how to phrase this. He didn't want to hurt his feeling.

"Over grown git?" Severus finished for him with a smile.

"Well I wasn't going to phrase it like that but, yeah why?" Harry said with a smile

"Harry I'm sure you and your friend have figured out what it is that I'm doing for Dumbledore?" He asked. Harry looked up at him and sighed. Of course he knew that Severus was spying. I mean you'd have to be pretty dense not to see that every few meals He just wasn't there. And the next day in class he just wasn't his normal git self.

"Yeah, we know your doing the spy thing for Dumbledore" Harry said looking down at the table which had suddenly become very appealing.

"Yes, I'm doing 'the spy thing' as you call it, most of what you see in class, the mean old git, that's not really me. I will admit I picked on you and your friends more because of who your father was, and I'm sorry. But I couldn't let the sons and daughters of the Death Eaters in Slytherin see me soft on any one but them, and especially Gryffindor's. So in answer to your question I've been a git because I have to and because I was...well...jealous...of what your father had that should have been mine" Severus finished and looked Harry in the eyes.

"Wow." Harry said nodding his head. "That's got to be really tough" then a thought can to mind "Earlier you said we could announce it to the school and all that, but what about you're spying? You can't do that if Voldemort knows I'm your son..." He stopped and thought that over. He was really his son, 'wow' "He would expect you to bring me to him."

"Yes well Dumbledore has given me an out. If I want to I can stop. He said we have enough spy's in there now." Severus said with a little smile. Oh, how nice it will be to be free. Maybe Albus was right maybe he had paid his dept. "I don't want you to make your decision now. This is a lot to take in, talk it over with your friends. I'm sure there going to have a lot of input."

"Ok, but before I got could you do something for me, would you tell me about my Mum?" Harry asked. Severus could see the hope in his eyes. Did he really think that he wouldn't want to tell him about his Mum?

"Of course Harry, what do you want to know? Snape said. And so he told him all about Lily. What she was like in school. How smart she was "would have put Granger to the test" he said. Told him about the trouble he had with Sirius. And how he never did trust that Peter boy "how he got into Gryffindor I'll never understand" He told him about what she was like after school. How she wanted to have a daycare. She was going to call it Wee Wizard's & Witch's. About how they had talked about having at least three kids. "She always wanted a big family" They talked for a little while about her. By the time Harry was getting ready to leave he felt much more at ease with Severus.

"Man, it's been like an hour" Ron said looking back down at his watch, again.

"Do you three think you'll be ok?" Dumbledore asked as he got up "I have a lot of work to do people to owl, this is big news"

"What makes you think that they want people to know?" Hermione asked. She didn't think Harry would like that.

"I have a farley go intuition about these things" He said with that twinkle in his eyes. "I'll see you all later" He said as he walked out the door.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Ginny asked. Then she saw Harry walk out of the door. He closed it very quietly and put his finger up to his lips to tell her not to say anything. So she just sat there and listened to Ron go on about if Harry was going to have to be resorted.

Harry walked up behind Ron and Hermione right as Ron was saying "I hope Harry doesn't have to go into Slytherin just because he's a Snape now"

"Mr. Weasley" Harry said as he put his hand on Ron's shoulder and felt him go rigid, trying to imitate that low drawl that Severus had he said "Is that any way to talk about your teacher?" Ron started to turn and say sorry but then he saw it was Harry standing there with a big smile on his face.

"Well that was just creepy" Ron said as he swatted Harry on the arm. "Are you done? Can we go to lunch now?"

"Always thinking with your stomach" Harry said "Yes I'm done and no I don't have to be resorted"

"Well that's good, I wonder what you look like under there" Hermione said as she pinched his check.

"So what are you going to do? Is Snape going to claim you or are you going to see if you can put the charms back up?" Ginny asked. She walked right next to Hermione.

"Well it's up to me he says, I can take then off and we can give this whole thing a try or not." Harry said looking at the ground as he walked.

"What about Voldemort? Is he going to stop spying?" Hermione asked she stopped and put a hand on Harry's Shoulder and said "We're here for you, no mater what you decide."

"That's right, no mater what" Ron said

"That goes for me too" Ginny said. They stood there they had all put there hands on Harry's shoulders and were standing in the middle of the hall way. Ron was the first to put his hand down.

"Ok, enough with the emotional stuff lets go eat" Ron said as he started walking down the hall. Ginny's hand dropped next and she ran a few steeps to catch up with her brother. So it was just Harry and Hermione standing there looking at each other. Harry leaned over and kissed her on the check and said "Thanks Hermione"

She dropped her hand as she turned bright red. "No problem" she said in a whisper. Then she turned and started walking down the hall. Harry took two big steps and started walking in step with her. He wasn't sure at what point there hands had laced themselves together but by the time they got to the Great Hall they were.

A/N- thanks Lady Lightning it's so nice to have fans :-) And I'm glad that came as a surprise to you Emii