Okay, first off I don't own Harry Potter. None of it what so ever.

WARNING: This will be a DARK HARRY fic, for those of you who don't like it I'm sorry. It's my story and I get to write it the way I want. If you want to flame me that's fine I'll take it all in stride. I love good reviews though. If you want to criticize my writing I welcome that as well.

My name was, no wait technically still is, Harry James Potter. I say was but technically still is because a couple weeks ago I found out that my name really wasn't Harry James Potter at all. My real name is Malachi Alexander Snape. Those who know me as Harry James Potter would say that I have been hit with a blunger one to many times for my own good but I swear I'm telling the truth. I'm writing this down because, well I want the truth to be known if anything should happen to me. Just like my mother wrote if anything happened to her. I should probably start from the beginning just to make sure everything is clear. I want you to understand, I really do so it's best that I start at the beginning…

Harry James Potter was the son of Lily and James Potter, and the famous boy who lived. At just a year old he had defeated the Dark Lord Voldemort. It was late at night and much to the surprise of anyone who knew of Harry Potter's lifestyle during the summer, the lights in his room shown brightly. The reason for this was because the Dursleys were out of town for the summer. Instead of sleeping Harry was doing homework. Not that he really cared about the essay that Professor Snape had assigned but, homework was homework and it had to be done. Little did young master Potter know that he was life was about to be changed forever.

It was a couple of weeks till Harry's birthday and he was eagerly awaiting the gifts that his friends would send him. It bugged him though; they left him out of the loop all summer and then sent him gifts. He hated it, hated being left in the dark all the time when he should be the one in the know. He was destined to save their stupid world after all.

Harry stood and stretched. As he did so he looked over at the full length mirror on the back of his door and sighed. He had changed drastically over the summer. His height had increased and he now stood around 6'1" or 6'2". His hair had also straightened out and Harry had let it grow. It now hung in a loose pony tail. The most shocking change had been his eyes. Instead of the bright green they had been during the school they had changed to a darker green with a tiny bit of black mixed in. With this change his eyesight had also improved and he no longer needed his glasses.

Harry had been drawn from his thoughts by the sound of an owl pecking at his window. Surprised and worried by the sudden arrival of an owl Harry immediately opened the window and the owl flew in. As it did so it dropped a package on Harry's lap. Harry looked at the package nervously and looked at the owl. The owl showed no sign of leaving and as Harry stared at the package he began to fear that it was something sent to him by Voldemort. He studied it and saw no return address. He then picked up his wand and cast all the danger detection spells he had memorized. He knew that over the summer the ministry had declared that underage wizards could use magic for purposes such as this to guarantee their safety in such dark times.

The spells showed nothing unusual but Harry was still reluctant to open it. He looked to the owl who hooted in what seemed like understanding and flew over to Harry where it landed softly on his head and nipped at his hair. Harry was shocked, not by the owl's actions but by the sense of warm that flooded him at the gesture. He quickly forgot all his doubts about the package and opened it slowly.

The first thing he realized was that the package had been charmed to be much bigger on the inside then the outside and that the inside held a large amount of items. Two letters which were lying neatly on top of the items caught his eye first, and he removed them carefully. He could tell that the items were several years old. He also realized they had been charmed to be unharmed by the passage of time.

The letter on top was addressed in neat following script and simply read, "my dearest son". Harry opened the envelope with trembling fingers and began to read. He read in silence for several minutes before the paper dropped from his hands. Before it fell he grabbed it and read it again. His disbelief faded to be placed with a sense of dread.

The Letter:

To my dearest son:

I am writing this letter because I fear for my life and the safety of you and my loving husband. My name is Anastasia Lynn Snape, my husband is Severus Salazar Snape, and you by son are our firstborn, Malachi Alexander Snape. This message is to be sent to you on your sixteenth birthday if I am no longer there to stop it from being sent. If it is sent and you do not what I am speaking of then I have died trying to protect you and the forces that are working against our family have won.

Let me explain before I go any farther. Your father Severus works as potions master under Albus Dumbledore at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He is a spy for our lord and master Lord Voldemort. I fear that Albus Dumbledore will try to turn my husband against our lord and to do this he will use you and I against your father. I do not know how he will do this but I fear it greatly. That is why I set up this package to be delivered on your sixteenth birthday.

I will send it to you in the care of Lancelot, the baby owl your father gave you when you were born. The poor owl loves you greatly and will get this message to you no matter what. The package has been charmed to detect the unique magical signature that only you will have my son. If you do no know me it is because that foul wizard has done something to you to alter your memories. This is not a lie, I promise. No matter what Dumbledore has told you, you must believe that this is not a lie. I made a promise the day you were born and that promise was never to lie to my children.

I'm so sorry I am not there for you if you are reading this. Right now you are asleep in your cradle and I can look over at you and smile. You are such a beautiful child. I dread that I might not be there to see you recognize your potential my sweet angel.

This message is charmed to remove any memory spells that have been cast on you. You need to know the truth if you are being lied to Malachi. I don't want to see my son lied to by anyone. This package includes your magical birth certificate. As all wizarding birth certificates it updates itself while keeping all original records complete. It can not be forged in any way. After much consideration I have decided to include my birth certificate as well. This way you will be able to tell when I died.

I included some of the things I treasure most and want to see survive. My wedding pictures as well as the first baby pictures we took of you are part of this package. Please protect them. Also included are some of the things that belonged to you as a child. I have also included my pensive as part of this package which has copies of all my memories of you as an infant as well as copies of my fears about what might happen to our family.

A package like this one is also being sent to my beloved Severus. If you have been separated please seek out your father about this information. He is a good man my dearest son. He will want to protect you no matter what Dumbledore has done to manipulate and warp his mind.

Again, you're loving mother:

Anastasia Lynn Snape

Harry dimly realized that tears were running down his face as he finished the letter a second time. If this information was true then he had been manipulated beyond anything his mother could have feared. The thought of having Snape for a father had also upset him. Snape hates me there is no way he will accept me as a son. Sighing Harry put the letter to the side and starting taking the other items out of the box. The first thing he removed was the second letter which contained his birth certificate.

Name: Malachi Alexander Snape Born: July 24th 1980

(Harry James Potter)

Parents:

Father: Severus Salazar Snape Mother: Anastasia Lynn Snape

(Adopted Parents:

Father: James Michael Potter Mother: Lily Michele Potter)

Godparents:

Lucius Malfoy Narcissa Malfoy

(Adopted Godparents:

Sirius Black Lita Saunders)

Harry stared at the birth-certificate for a few minutes as he pondered why there were two sets of information. Finally the words from his mother's letter clicked. A magical birth-certificate couldn't be changed. If Dumbledore had actually taken him from his family and Lily and James had adopted him then the information would appear on a true birth-certificate.

Harry had gently put the certificate back in the envelope and set it aside with the letter. He had then begun pulling items from the box. The first thing he removed was a large photo album which he started flipping through. The first pictures were of Ana's and Severus' wedding. They showed the two wizards at their best. Harry was struck by how beautiful Ana had been. His mother had beautiful green eyes and straight black hair. She was slim and pale but not in a way that was unpleasant to look at. She also had a smile that lit up all of the pictures. His father also looked much happier then Harry had ever seen him. He appeared happy and not at all the evil teacher that Harry knew. If you lost your family wouldn't you be devastated as well? Now that Harry had some insight into the man he understood why the man acted as he did.

His mother had also included pictures of the couples honeymoon to Paris. After these pictures Harry had found several pictures of his mother and father with their friends and family. He was able to spot Narcissa and Lucius in several of them. The final picture in this set was one that surprised him the most. It was a picture of his parents and the Malfoys with Tom Riddle. Tom was sitting in the middle with Harry's parents on one side and the Malfoys on the other. Severus and Lucius had one arm wrapped around their wives and the other on their wives equally pregnant stomachs. All five adults were smiling brightly as they joked back and forth.

Finally Harry reached the section he was most eager to see, his own baby pictures. As Harry turned the pages he found tears running down his face. Each picture invoked small repressed childhood memories. He realized that the memory charms placed on his mind were undoing themselves.

There were pictures of him shortly after he had been born, pictures of him with his parents and godparents, and pictures of him sleeping in his cradle. Everything he could have ever wanted to see from his first year of life. There were also pictures with a boy that Harry assumed was Draco.

Those confused him a little because Draco was a year ahead of him at Hogwarts but the pictures showed them as the same age. Now that he thought about it the birth certificate also stated that the Snape's son had been born a year earlier then he had. He would be turning 15 in just over two weeks and the package was supposed to be sent to him on his sixteenth birthday.

Harry suddenly had doubts about the package and its origin. As he considered everything he continued to look through the pictures. Each picture had an age written below it and Harry could see that the pictures ranged from his birth to his first birthday. One of the last pictures was a picture of his first birthday party. He could see everyone in the background as they clapped and cheered as his parents helped him blow out the candles.

The last picture in the album showed the small family together on the couch of their home. There was shredded wrapping paper and streamers lying all over. Severus was holding his son in his lap while Ana was asleep on her husband's shoulder. The look of peace on their faces made Harry cry harder. If they really were his parents then Severus had lost so much.

Pressed reverently in the back of the photo album was Anastasia's birth certificate. Harry picked up the document with gentle hands and started reading over the information

Name: Anastasia Lynn Wolski (Snape)

Born: April 7th 1958

Died: August 1st 1981

Parents:

Father: Alexander Jakob Wolski

Mother: Katherine Noel Wolski

Godparents

Godfather: Maximillian York

Godmother: Vanessa York

His mother had died two days after Lily Potter had given birth to her son? That had shocked Harry but it had also made sense. The Potter baby was supposed to be part of Dumbledore's prophecy, and if something had happened to the baby shortly after birth then Dumbledore would have lost what he saw as his only chance to defeat Voldemort. The man had needed a baby to replace the Potter's infant and at the same time he had used Severus' family against him. Severus probably didn't know his son was alive. Dumbledore had used the man's grief over his son's death to turn him against Voldemort.

It all made perfect sense to Harry now. Everything matched up. The change in appearance, the arrival of the package, the black owl, it all made perfect sense. The truth had also made Harry angry. He was sick of being used as a pawn and if he had his way he would get back at Dumbledore for betraying him.