Authors Note: I haven't updated this story in over a year, but I think I'm back on track and I can finally finish it. If I even have any people left that wanted to read it I'm sorry for the delay. I'm going to try to post at least one chapter a week. Here's a little something for now.

Shattered Illusions Chapter Eighteen: Finding Out

May sat at her spot in class as McGonagall talked on about transfiguration. She took beautifully written notes as the teacher talked. She wanted to make sure she knew everything there was to know about anything. She just wanted to absorb all of the knowledge in the world. Some people have said that it seems like Harry competes with Hermione when it comes to knowledge. May sighed and shook her head. She knew that they really meant her, May, not Harry. Why couldn't anybody understand? She looked over and saw Hermione staring at her. She could practically see the wheels turning in her head. She was definitely thinking about something.

"What?" May asked. When she said it she turned her palms up and raised her eye brows.

"Nothing." Hermione replied and looked away. Then a couple of minutes later she turned back.

"Who are you?" May was surprised. Usually people just assumed she was Harry. Insulting really, couldn't they see her beauty? Obviously, she wasn't a boy.

"May." She said smiling. "Thank you for asking." Hermione ignored her.

"Where's Harry?" Hermione questioned. May shrugged. Why did it matter? As long as she did her job and got Harry good grades, what did it matter?

"Sleeping, I assume." May said. She wasn't going to lie about it anymore. It didn't seem to be hurting any of them so it must be alright.

"Can you wake him up?" Hermione asked. She turned her full attention on May. May liked that.

"Probably not. I've got a job to do." May said, then turned back to her notes and continued to

write down everything McGonagall said. She was going to do so good on the test, May just knew it.

"What kind of job?" Hermione asked.

"I've got to make sure Harry's grades are up." May said, pausing from her writing. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got notes to take. You can have Harry back after class." Hermione when back to working, but May could tell that she was still deep in thought. Honestly, she didn't see what the big deal was. Sure, she helped with his notes and homework and whatnot, but it was good that she was there to do it.

When class ended May was true to her word and went back inside and let Harry out.

...

Harry stretched and yawned. He was disappointed. He'd fallen asleep in class again. Pretty soon his teachers were going to get after him about that. It was pretty unacceptable. It was weird though, it wasn't as if it was boring for Harry. He loved learning about everything. It just seemed that when he did read something, it never stuck.

Harry looked down at the parchment in front of him and paused. There was writing all over it. It seemed to be about the lesson they all just had. He held it up and read it. The writing was all in cursive and looked to be a females hand writing.

"H-Hermione?" Harry asked. He figured maybe Hermione wrote it for him or something. When she looked over he said, "D-did y-yo-you w-write these n-notes?" She shook her head.

"No, Harry." She said. "You did."

"O-of c-course I didn't." Harry said. "J-j-just l-look at it. It l-looks l-like a girls wr-writings."

"I don't know what to tell you Harry," Hermione said and she put away her parchments. "It was you sitting there. Don't you remember any of it?" Harry was beginning to worry. He remembered nothing! He thought he'd fallen asleep!

"N-n-no!" Harry said, slightly panicked. Ron turned and looked at Harry.

"What's going on, mate?" He asked.

"Wasn't Harry the one writing his notes?" Hermione asked Ron. Ron nodded his head, looking very confused. "Don't worry at all Harry, we will get it all sorted out." That didn't make Harry feel any better.

When lunch came up, Harry had forgotten all about his girl written notes. He was so hungry he thought he could eat a hippogriff. He loaded his plate as soon as they sat down and for a moment, he felt a little like Ron. He shrugged it off and shoved some mashed potatoes into his mouth. They were so buttery and delicious. He swallowed his mouthful and looked up. Ron was mirroring Harry, but Hermione looked disgusted between the Ron and Harry.

"Could you eat a little less...messy?" She asked. "And perhaps you could actually chew your food. You both are going to choke."

"Sorry, Hermione." Harry said. Ron shrugged and continued to eat sloppily.

...

Potions was last for the day and May couldn't believe it. She was going to be late! She had to go to the loo but was kicked out by Pansy. Pansy said that Harry needed to go into the boys bathroom. May was so insulted. Really! Trying to tell May that she needed to use the boys loo! Absurd! May just went to a different girls bathroom with nobody in it.

Of course, the loo was further away and caused May to be late. She ran down the halls and through the dungeon until she reached the door. She was only a couple minutes late, Maybe Professor Snape wouldn't notice. She took a minute to breathe and compose herself, then she pushed the door open and walked in.

Everybody turned to look at her, Ron and Neville looked nervous. Most of the Slytherins were smirking. Snape had his back turned so May quickly took her seat. He turned around and looked right at her.

"Late again, Mr. Potter?" Snape asked.

"Yes, Professor Snape." May said irritably. She didn't care about the consequences right then. Freak or Harry could deal with them. She was just so upset. First getting kicked out of the girls restroom, then being called "Mr. Potter". She snapped the quill in her hands.

"Detention." Then Snape turned around and continued to write on the board.

"Harry, what's wrong with you?" Neville asked quietly. May liked Neville much more than she liked Ron, so she put up with him calling her a he and Harry. Very few people she liked enough for that, Neville was one.

"Nothing, Neville." May responded. "Why do you ask?" Neville shrugged.

"You seem to be acting different."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Neville." May said, then turned to her stuff and pulled out some parchment. She started writing the things off the board in her beautiful cursive handwriting. Sometimes she stopped writing for a minute to admire it. Really, so much better than Harry's chicken scratch. She doubted Freak could write at all. She was so much better than both of them and she knew it. The writing seemed to be an outline of some sort. She wondered if they were to have a test within the next few days.

"Today we will be testing." Professor Snape said and he turned from the board. "These are the things you'll be testing on." He pointed to the writing he'd done. May looked down at her parchment to make sure she had it all written down, just in case. She already had the information about everything on the list already stored in her mind. She just needed the test to do.

"You'll have some time to study so I suggest you use it wisely." May frowned. She didn't need the extra time to study. She was sure she had it all memorized, but she pulled her notes out anyway. Wouldn't hurt to read over them one last time.

When she finished reading she looked around. Everybody seemed to be concentrating really hard except Hermione, who was right up there with May. Ron had his face scrunched up in concentration, Neville had his fingers on his temples and he was mouthing all the words written in his notes.

Finally Snape told them all to put their notes away. He flicked his wand and the test was distributed to everybody in the classroom. May and Hermione started immediately. May noticed that Neville was mumbling to himself with uncertainly. May pitied everyone except Hermione. Why wouldn't they all have a brain as great as hers?

May was the first one done. She looked around to see if anybody else was finishing. Malfoy and Hermione seemed to be the only ones that were almost done. She stoop up and walked over to Professor Snape's desk.

"Here you go, sir." She said as she handed it to him. Snape glanced down at it and then narrowed his brows at her. Then took it from her hands and told her to sit back down. He didn't have to be such a grouch all the time, May figured, but didn't say anything. She walked quickly back to her spot and sat down.

...

Snape looked at the test that Harry just handed him. He was acting so strange lately. What was with Harry, May, and Freak? Did Harry just pretend to be somebody else sometimes because he didn't want to be Harry? Snape hated that he didn't know. He knew it was in his brain somewhere, it was on the tip of his tongue. But he couldn't figure it out for the life of him.

He set Harry's test down in front of him and frowned. The handwriting wasn't his. It was cursive and neat. He didn't think Harry knew how to write in cursive yet. He didn't think it looked like any other student's handwriting though. He shook his head and began grading it. He'd just have to compare it with everybody else's when they turned them in.

When Severus got to the end of the test he looked back to count all the errors and realized that there were none. Harry had gotten a perfect score. He wrote 100% on the top and set it aside. That was great, Harry passed. But part of him worried that Harry cheated. That wasn't like him, but he didn't dismiss it right away.

Granger and then Malfoy were the next to turn in their tests, both also got everything right. He compared Harry's with both of their test, the only similarities were the answers, and even they differed slightly. Malfoy was way too far for Harry to see his test so he knew that was out. Granger was out of Harry's eye sight as well. Severus concluded that Harry just did it by himself. He knew that Harry didn't cheat off of Neville or Ron, he wouldn't have done so good if he had.

He waited patiently until everybody turned their tests in, grading them as he went. Only a few people failed the test. Ron, Neville, and Dean. Shame really, he knew Neville had the potential to do really good. He was just too self conscious and needed to get some confidence. He tried to push the boy into doing better, but Severus knew that he wasn't doing a very good job. He just wasn't really sure how to get through to the students sometimes.

When the time was up for class he dismissed everybody except Granger. He needed to talk to her since she seemed to know a lot about Harry and the two seemed really close. She might know something about what was going on.

"Have a seat, Granger." Severus said. He waved his wand and the doors shut and locked. He turned to her and said. "You got a perfect score on your test."

"You held me back to tell me that?" Granger asked with a brow raised.

"No, not just that." Severus said. He may have been trying to stall. "Do you know what's going on with Potter?" She looked at him with her eyes narrowed.

"Like what?" She asked defensively. She knew something.

"Well, this isn't his handwriting." Snape said as he held up Harry's test. " And he's been acting strange. Sometimes he likes to go by May, sometimes Harry. Is he pretending?" Granger studied him. Finally her face softened.

"You're not here to hurt Harry, are you?" She asked, her arms were still crossed over her chest. Why would she think a thing like that?

"Of course not!" Severus snapped. "Tell me what you know."

"Well," She started. "I'm not sure because I haven't had the time to do any research about it yet, but I think I know what's wrong with him."

"Well, spit it out!" Severus snapped again. Insufferable know it all.

"My great great great aunt had a disorder, I think Mum called it Multiple Personality Disorder." Hermione said. She paused to worry her lip between her teeth. "It kind of sounds like Harry has the same thing." Severus had to keep his mouth from falling open. Of course! Why hadn't he thought of that!

"That would make a lot of sense." Severus murmured. " It would explain why he has missing memories and why he goes by different names." Momentarily he forgot that Hermione was sitting there. When he noticed her, he dismissed her and told her to remind Harry about his detention later that evening. Severus needed to talk to Poppy and see what her thoughts on the matter were.

Severus quickly left his class room and started to make his way towards the hospital wing, his robes billowing dramatically behind him. He smirked as students practically threw themselves out of his way. To all the students he was the evil potions master. He wasn't a favorite for anybody except his Slytherins.

When he made it to the hospital wing he spotted Poppy helping an injured Hufflepuff take a sleeping potion. When she was finished he asked to see her in her office for a discussion. She looked intrigued.

"Right, come a long Severus." She said as she led the way to her office. Of course Snape knew how to get there, but it was impolite to go ahead. Once they were in and seated he began.

"The Granger brought up a good idea for what Harry might have." He said. At Poppy's surprised look he continued. "I asked her if she knew anything and she said that her great great great aunt had Multiple Personality Disorder." Poppy stared blankly at him. "I've never heard of a witch or wizard getting it, but muggles get it."

"Well, what is it?" She asked, looking very interested.

"From my understanding, and I haven't read about it in quite awhile, its a severe form of dissociation which produces a lack of connection in a person's thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of identity." Severus said. " From what I read way back, it's caused by severe trauma during early childhood, usually extreme, repetitive physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. It's a coping mechanism. The person literally dissociates him/herself from a situation or experience that's too violent, traumatic, or painful to assimilate with his conscious self."

Poppy stared in amazement. "That's amazing. Absolutely dreadful, but amazing. What do we do now?"

"Since it's not a magical disease we might have to take him into the medical world to treat him." Snape said. "Unless you and I can find a way to do it ourselves. From what I understood, it takes a very long time to heal. Sometimes, it never goes away."

"Well that's not very comforting, is it?" Poppy said.

"It often times also comes with other disorders such as anxiety and depression, so we can treat those ourselves. We also need to be on the look out for mood swings and suicidal tenancies." Severus said.

"Suicide!" Poppy exclaimed. "You don't think he's going to do that, do you? He seems alright for the most part."

"No, I don't think he'll kill himself." Severus said. "It's just something to look out for. Tomorrow I'll go to the muggle world since it's Saturday and see what I can find on books about it."

"That sounds good," Poppy said. "Let me know as soon as you find anything out."

"Of course." Severus said as he stood up. "You'll be the first to know." He let himself out and went back down to his dungeons. If it wasn't one thing, it was another. That poor boy had gone through so much. How do you help somebody with something like that? Severus knew he wasn't going to get much sleep that night.