Betaed by Innocentimp.

Also Imp is to be thanked that I go on with this story at all. I have so many other things to look after that I couldn't bring myself to continue this story in English. Butthe Hungarian version is already finished, so my only task is to translate the chapters regularly, and I plan to do precisely that, mostly after the 1st of July when my exams will all be over.

About my other stories: Firghted with False Fire will be continued after book 6, and if nothing too radical happens in it (e.g. Snape dies), I will make it fit in HBP's universe.

Those who have added me to their alerts list, have to suffer a lot of false alerts, because a friend of mine has been translating the Happy Days in Hell trilogy to Hungarian (I'm her beta there ;-D), and I have been uploading the chapters as they are smoothed. We only finished HDH, and in two weeks begin to post CotR.

Chapter 4 - Seren

It was unbelievable that the Ministry of Magic didn't have any document of him! Yet, it was a fact. The only document he'd received from a reluctant ministry officer clearly stated that he was indeed Seren Potter, natural son of Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, and there was nothing about adoption or the muggle hospital he'd been born in. Nothing!

Though the "Place of birth" part of the document contained "London" rather than "St. Mugno's", that wouldn't be very helpful in any further investigations.

He didn't understand it. A simple blood test could reveal his true origins; so then how was it possible for his parents to state that he was their son without the slightest mention of an adoption?

So many things depended on biological relations in the magical world; a lot of potions, medicines, even charms, both simple and complicated, required blood relation to be successful. Hadn't his parents thought of that?

He was completely clueless and felt terribly alone.

Throughout his life, he had relied his dad, mum or brother to be around to help him if he was in trouble, or even just to answer his questions. His dad had never been the secretive kind, but now he had forbidden even Fred to share what he'd learned. And it was clear that Fred had learned things. Seren could see it on his face. The lines of worry were telling, as was the way his eyes swept over him. Fred knew something he didn't, though he had denied it or he dismissed Seren's questions with a joke. He couldn't talk to him anymore.

He would have left Fred's as well if he could have; but he didn't know of any place to go. Going home wasn't an option, and he only had enough money for a couple of days. September was too far away, six weeks until he could return to spend his last year in Hogwarts.

Though he was quite hesitant to return to a place where everybody knew…

Still, he missed his family, almost terribly so. He missed his father even, not to mention his mum and brother, Barrys.

The fireplace in the living room hooted loudly followed by someone crying out.

"Seren! Seren, are you here?"

Seren sprang to his feet about to open the door and to yell back to Barrys that he was upstairs, but a momentary thought stopped him.

He wasn't Barrys's brother anymore. He had no right to force himself upon a person with whom he had nothing in common. Really nothing; because even if his parents had made a conscious decision to adopt him, Barrys had nothing to do with that.

The door opened with a bang, and Barrys marched in completely ignoring Seren's glare.

"I was sure I would find you here wallowing, but I thought you would be happier to see me."

"I am happy," Seren said without glancing at his brother.

Barrys, not being even the slightest bit discouraged of Seren's tone, slumped to the other side of the bed and looked at him.

"I know what you are thinking, and I think you are completely cracked," he said plainly. "We are still brothers. It doesn't matter if you were adopted."

"It changes everything."

"It changes nothing, you dolt. But I didn't come to listen to your selected stupidities. I wanted to know if you are planning to come home."

"Never!" said Seren immediately, and to his surprise, Barrys nodded.

"I thought so." He leaned back in the bed and put his hands under his head. "I'm moving out as well. I don't want mum and dad to know everything about my life… It's time to get a bit more independent… Would you like to move in with me?"

Seren grinned, in spite of himself.

"So much for being independent."

"It's only six weeks. Then you will go back to school and I can be free… but until then you could live with me."

"But…" Seren began, but his brother went on, as if he was reading his thoughts:

"I will help you in that search of yours, of course." He cast an annoyed glance towards Seren. "Dad has completely refused to talk about it, and even mum doesn't say a word. 'Ask your father!' she said when I tried to iron some information out of her, and dad, the last time I tried to ask him, nearly yelled his head off."

"What did he say?"

"What, what… the usual. They have already said everything. They don't know anything about your parents. Oh, and dad added that he'd like you to come home."

"I will not go home," said Seren as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Yes, you've already said so. And what about my offer? Would you like that? I know a very nice place near Ipswitch at the seaside. A small cottage with two rooms…'

"Ipswitch? Near London?"

"Yes, that's it. Quite far from Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley. You won't have to worry about being found."

Seren lowered his head.

"I don't know…"

"Oh, come on!" Barrys cried, jumping down and marching to the door. "Pack your things, in the meantime I'm going to put coffee on.

The cottage was nice, though a bit plain and very dirty. It took quite a bit of time to spell the rooms clean. (This must have been the reason for the discounted price, Seren mused.) By the time they were done both of them were pretty hungry.

"I know a nice inn here, in the neighbourhood," said Barrys, looking around the almost acceptable living room. "We could pop over for a lunch. But first we have to change clothes."

"Why?" asked Seren. "Is it a muggle place?"

"Yes, it is," Barrys nodded. "A friend of mine who recommended this cottage told me about it."

"Have you ever eaten there?"

"Once. It was delicious."

Seren just shrugged off his robes. He was wearing muggle-like clothes under them anyway. Neither of their parents, having been raised muggle, could bring themselves to have only underwear under the robes, like many of Seren's classmates did. Many muggleborns did make the adjustment in dress, as it was trendy to copy purebloods in fashion. He and Barrys had always been different, primarily because they had chosen to follow their father rather than fit the trends. The fact was they were usually the followed ones. Or at least Barrys was. He had an innate talent to lead the way.

Seren preferred to blend into the background, though it was generally he who had concocted their plans. These plans hadn't really been of worldwide importance, but they had been dangerous: stealing an acromantula egg from Aragog's nest in the Forbidden Forest, or the searches they had held for Arthur Weasley's old Ford Anglia. Then there had been the weekday trips to Honeydukes and to the Three Broomsticks, not to mention the exploration of new tunnels in Hogwarts, unknown even to the Weasley twins. There were many more tunnels then even the Marauders had known about. Barrys had somehow managed to steal the infamous Marauders Map from their dad's worktable. They hadn't been so lucky with the Invisibility Cloak. Barrys couldn't steal it, and their parents had refused to hand over them with an adamant NO.

They hadn't been too discouraged by that turn of events: Seren had found a very handy charm in one of their mum's Charms Books. It was the Disillusionment charm, it couldn't offer complete invisibility, but at least it could be handled more easily. The charm was better for use with more than one person, and –naturally– the charm had never slipped off the person wearing it.

Their school group had earned its name after this charm. They called themselves the Illusionists, and their main activity was to provide the student population with butterbeer, Honeydukes sweets and WWW tricks (mostly Skiving Snatchboxes). Though after McGonagall had seriously threatened Barrys with expulsion, his father notwithstanding, the enterprise had gone completely over to Seren, who had never been suspected of such "crimes". When Barrys had finally finished his schooling in Hogwarts, the project had died out. Denis, a fellow Gryffindor, and Seren's friend, had been the leader of the group after Barrys graduated, but he hadn't been half as daring as Barrys had been, so the Illusionists had closed their business.

The meal in the inn was really delicious.

"My friend told me that this is the only region in Snape where one can eat good stuff. It's probably because of the French…"

"Where?"

"In Snape. Why?"

"That name…" Seren began, but he then realised that he hadn't told Barrys about the conversation with Fred where he had learned that Snape had fathered him. Seren summarized the conversation in a few sentences.

"…and then, Fred went to visit dad, and when he returned, he wouldn't tell me what their conversation had been about, just told me to believe in what dad says, because it was the truth…"

"The truth?" asked Barrys. "But how…?"

"I asked the same, but Fred wouldn't say anything else. Just the same things, 'believe him, he's telling you the truth.' But how can I believe anyone? I went to the ministry to see my original documents, but I only found that those documents don't even mention that I was adopted! I was mentioned there as if I were mum and dad's natural son!"

Barrys's brows lifted.

"No data about being adopted? But what did Lenny's father see?"

"Don't have a clue. But he must have seen something if dad confessed that I had been indeed adopted!"

"But it wasn't mentioned…"

"I found it strange as well."

"Because it is. Imagine if Flitwick had made us practice the Locogenis charm on each other, it would have been obvious in a moment that we are not brothers, or more so, not even relat… or…"

"Or?" Seren looked at Barrys excitedly.

"I don't know if I remember well, but it seems that there is another kind of adoption… final, or perfect or whatever its stupid name is, which is good for situations like that. There are still those Muggle ways to show your real origin, because you don't really become your parents biological son, but…"

"Yes?"

"But it can be use only in special situations. When…" Barrys blushed "when the mother's husband wasn't the child's father."

Seren paled.

"You imply that I… that I…"

Barrys went on quickly.

"It's not sure, that you were adopted that way. That type of adoption needs at least one biological parent…"

Seren didn't know what to think. He was sure that his mum and dad would have reacted differently if he had been Hermione Granger and Severus Snape's son. His mother wouldn't have told him that she had adopted him… Or perhaps it was that they were ashamed?

Perhaps his mum had gotten pregnant by this Snape person, and his dad had killed him, and they had been keeping it secret…

This latter line of thoughts was just too implausible, even for him. Even if he was mad at his dad, he couldn't imagine Harry Potter killing somebody for something like that. If his dad was famous for anything, it was his mildness – a strange trait for an Auror. He was never cruel to his victims.

This proved nothing.

He was sure his dad would have treated him differently if his beloved wife had cheated on him, and he had been the result of such a liaison.

Barrys was deep in thoughts as well.

"And what do you know about this… Snape?" he asked finally.

"Not too much. Dad said once that he was the Head of Slytherin and taught Potions."

"Slytherin? Then is it possible that you are a pureblood?" Barrys asked and bowed deeply towards Seren. "Forgive me, sir, if I ever thought your Majesty to be such like me," he said jokingly.

"Git. It's not very likely that my mother was a pureblood witch if mum and dad collected me from a muggle hospital. And if mum is my…" he didn't finish it, and both blushed.

"It's so strange to imagine that dad isn't your father," said Barrys suddenly changing topic. "Your gestures are just like his. And you are not like that pigheaded, aristocratic branch. Well, it doesn't matter anyway, but perhaps that name, Snape is Snape for a reason. Perhaps we can find something about it in this village. There's a castle here. We should go and see, maybe ask the locals…"

"I don't think the castle belongs to a wizarding family. If it did, the locals wouldn't know about it. You know those pureblood customs… Like Grimmaud Place in London."

"But we have to begin somewhere, don't we? And I don't want to go home and go on with cleaning, so we could have a look around. It wouldn't hurt."

After two hours they still hadn't learned anything useful, though the caretaker of the castle, which was currently a hotel, gave a long lesson about Snape's history in the last two centuries. The lesson was long and tremendously boring, but in the end, it came out that the elderly man had never heard of any Snape families.

"I'm sure that nobody of that name lived here," he said firmly. "I know every family in this area, my father and grandfather were postmen here, but I never heard them mention anything similar. Snape…!" He shook his head. "Is there a surname like that?"

The next trip had ended up at the local council, with similar results. Nobody had ever heard of the Snapes, but when they had explained that they had been leading genealogical researches, the administrator of the small office had finally come up with a good idea.

"Why don't you go to the local church? There are old registers – much older than ours. If they were noblemen you may find them listed there. If they were not, the situation is worse, because in that case this name could only mean that they had been from here, but they had moved to another place where they had been given the Snape name after the village they had left. It happened quite often in the Middle Ages, because surnames weren't common."

So Seren and Barrys had headed to the local church office, but they never arrived. While they were walking down the main street, talking about their chances of finding anything usable, a short man with tanned face stepped up to them.

"I heard you have been asking Larry about the Snapes," he said without a greeting, and his eyes glared menacingly at the two boys.

"Larry?" asked Barrys surprised.

"The caretaker of the hotel," the old man explained.

"Oh, I see, yes. We are doing some genealogical research," Barry answered politely.

The old man knitted his brows giving his face an air of anger.

"Don't lie to me, lad," he said softly, though Seren could perceive the threat in the quiet tone. "The Snapes have already died out. And even if they had offspring, they wouldn't be such a kind as you are. You'd better go home and forget this ridiculous research."

"What kind do you think we are?" Barrys asked.

The old man didn't answer. He laughed, but his laughter was dry and without mirth or humour. "Go away! You will not find anything in those church registers anyway. The Snapes weren't a religious lot."

"Being registered wasn't a question of religion until the last century," Barrys said. "On the other hand, it's not your business what we do or whom we are searching for."

"Be careful you don't get hurt by that research of yours…"

"Do you plan to curse us?" Barry asked provokingly. "You should think twice before threatening us with anything like that."

"I see you are just like other younglings. You laugh at things you know nothing about…"

"And what kind of curse do you plan to use? Something Unforgivable?" Barrys asked and made a quick movement with his hand so that the old man could see his wand for a moment. The old man staggered back.

"Leave me alone, I'm just a Squib… If you dare to hurt me…"

Seren in the meantime managed to snap himself out of the shock he felt when he had learnt that somebody had apparently known about the Snapes and stepped closer to the man.

"So you know about the Snapes."

The man made another step back, his face still scared. "What if I know? It's not your business," he said, but his tone was defensive rather than arrogant. Seren followed him.

"You should tell us. We are looking for them. I have to know what happened to them," he said, his tone more and more loud.

"Seren!" Barrys seemed surprised by his brother's sudden determination, but Seren didn't listen to him, and made another step towards the wavering man repeating, "I have to know what happened to them."

"It's not your business, I told you!"

"Seren!" His brother's tone now held admonition, but Seren didn't care.

"I want to know of them!"

"They died out. Nobody is alive. The house can't be found. The protecting charms…"

"House?" Seren's heart began to beat in a more accelerated rate. "Where is it?"

"Seren," his brother now was whispering into his ears. "Seren, don't be an idiot. This man behaves suspiciously. Remember what dad taught you!"

Seren turned on his heels, face-to-face with Barrys.

"Dad?" he asked cynically. "I'm looking for my dad!"

Barrys became embarrassed, but he leaned closer and said, "It's not important now. Can't you see that this man…" he nodded towards the man standing behind his brother "is up to no good? He was waiting for you…"

"He may know something about my real father!"

"Dad is your real father! He raised you! That… Snape didn't even know that you existed. He died before your birth."

"It wasn't his fault that he died!" Seren cried angrily. "And dad has been lying to me, and he would have continued lying if I hadn't found out the truth!"

"You didn't find out the truth. It was Lenny who told you!"

"Would it have been better if I never learned of it?"

A strange expression crossed Barrys's face, similar to those he had worn when, very rarely, he had been offended. "Yes. It would have been much better. What's the good of it now, that you know?"

"I've learned that I'm not myself."

"That's stupid. You are still you."

"Don't you understand?"

"No, I don't."

Seren waved dismissively at him and turned back to the old man. "I'm a Snape too. I have right to see the house."

The old man, who had been watching the two brothers' row unconcerned, now lifted his eyebrows. "You? A Snape?"

Seren drew his wand and with a flick of his hand charmed his hear just like Fred had done two days ago. "Look."

Both men were surprised. He could only hear his brother's gasp, but he could clearly see the shock on the old man's face, which soon turned to embarrassment.

"But… the last master is long dead… and he had no children…"

"I'm here nevertheless."

"Seren, we're not even sure if Fred was right," Barrys tried to cool him down again, but Seren didn't even turn to him while answering "Of course he was."

Turning to the man again Seren said. "I want to know everything." With another flick of his wand, he restored his previous hairstyle.

The old man shifted uncomfortably and shot a glance at Barrys.

"Who is he then?"

"The son of my adopting parents. My step-brother."

"If you are indeed a Snape, and you can in fact see the house, he still can't. He can go as far as I can, to the borders."

Seren shrugged impatiently, and turned again to his brother.

"I'll be home as soon as I'm finished here."

"You can't go alone!"

"Why can't I? He's only a Squib. What harm could he do to me?"

"And the house? It might be full of dark magic! You can't go there all alone!"

"I'm an adult now. I can go wherever I want."

Barrys shook his head with a pained expression on his face. "But… you were always so careful…"

"And I've never been myself! This is my first chance to know who I am!"

"That's a lie!"

Seren, his wand still in his hand, made an angry step towards Barrys. "You can't know anything about this!" he said and lifted his wand.

"Do you plan to curse me?" Barrys snapped back.

Seren became even angrier at this question, but lowered the wand. "You know that I don't. But I have to go now. I have to know what happened to my real family."

"I can go with you."

"He can't," the old man croaked impatiently. "The charms won't let him. Only family members."

"You heard him!" said Seren.

"You can't go alone."

"I can and I will."

"But… why don't you first speak with someone you know and trust? McGonagall? Or uncle Neville, or aunt Molly… you can't go there unprepared…"

"Dad has told Fred to shut up. I'm sure he's already alerted everybody else as well."

None of them moved, they just stared at each other for several long seconds.

"Shall we go, then?" the old man urged them. "I don't have the whole day to listen to this useless balderdash."

"We can go," Seren said, but looked at Barrys seriously. "I'll be home soon. I promise. And I will tell you everything."

As he followed the old man's slow steps he didn't look back, yet, he could feel his brother just silently standing there. However, when they turned at the corner, and he took a last look at the street, there was nobody standing where their conversation had taken place. The street was empty, and the bright sunshine seemed somehow dim. A sudden wind came up even though it was summer. It chased some dead leaves about, the resulting sound evoking a shiver from Seren.

Perhaps it wasn't such a brilliant idea to go alone.

Still, he just couldn't leave this opportunity to go by! He took a deep breath, turned, and followed the old man's unsteady steps.

The whole story will be 13 chapters altogether.

Please, leave me a review, if you feel so.