Brothers by Blood by breannatala
Summary: Harry Potter, 10 years old, finds out that he isn't a Potter, and that he has a brother still living! And his brother happens to be Severus Snape. After the reading of Eileen Prince's will, Severus takes Harry in. And after spending the summer living with his newly-found brother, being educated in the wizarding ways, and meeting new people, Harry slowly starts fitting in and having a normal life.

How long will it stay normal, though? After all, despite him being known to Hogwarts and the rest of the world as Silas Prince, he still is Harry Potter, and it is only so long that he is able to stay out of trouble.
Categories: Big Brother Snape, Parental Snape > Guardian Snape Main Characters: .Snape and Harry (required), Draco, Dumbledore, James, Lucius, Other, Sirius
Snape Flavour: None
Genres: General
Media Type: None
Tags: Alternate Universe
Takes Place: None
Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 22 Completed: No Word count: 102508 Read: 124304 Published: 09 Jul 2006 Updated: 26 Apr 2008
The Christmas by breannatala

Harry was excited; Severus was taking off his magic restrictions! It took an entire term for his older brother to finally relent, though, and that was only after Harry wrote up a very detailed argument about why he should be able to do magic without a professor’s supervision. And it wasn’t because Severus didn’t trust Harry to not do anything dangerous. The older wizard had already admitted that he knew Harry wouldn’t, but the man still kept the restrictions in place.

Harry ran through many reasons for this, and he came up with a few that seemed reasonable. One, Severus liked having that kind of control of his little brother. Two, Severus liked his little brother’s company. When studying, Harry would usually go to Severus’ office or rooms because he often needed to practice spells, and most of the time, they would end the day with a board or card game of some sort. Whatever the reason, though, Harry wasn’t told.

And as if waiting an entire term wasn’t enough, he was going to have to wait until tomorrow morning, when term had officially ended and most the students had already gone home.

"Silas!" Stephan yelled from across the table, pulling Harry out of his daydreams. "Hello! What are you thinking about that takes up all your concentration. You’re not planning something, are you?"

"No," Harry answered. "I’m not. Just thinking about how, tomorrow morning, I’ll be able to use magic whenever I want again."

"Oo, the excitement," laughed Su Li. "Snape is finally cutting the leash."

"Oh, shut up," grumbled Harry, and the first year Ravenclaws around him laughed. After Harry’s wrongly done spell, everyone seemed to know about it and always brought it up. Well, those who talked to him, which was mostly just his dormmates, a few other first year Ravenclaws, and a few first year Slytherins.

Harry still had trouble talking to other kids his age. With Stephan’s help, though, he got up the courage to talk freely with his dormmates and others that hung around him. Su was one of those who Harry found he could talk easily with, but she loved teasing. Harry hated that, but she rarely let up, much to his embarrassment.

But she, along with those few others, were friends, and Harry was going to do his best to hang on to them, even if it meant putting up with teasing. Because of Dudley, he never had friends before, so teasing was fine, as long as they weren’t being mean about it.

"Anyone going to eat the biscuit over there? No? Silas, hand it here," Su ordered, and Harry complied, rolling his eyes.

"I’m going to the tower. I’m tired," Harry said, standing up and grabbing his book bag. "If I don’t see any of you before you leave, bye."

"More like excited," Stephan said, and Harry shrugged as he walked off. In his room, he dropped his bag off on his bed and went into the bathroom, shutting the door tightly behind him, wishing for a private bathroom like the one at his house. He didn’t like the public bathrooms very much.

Quickly, Harry took a shower and dressed in his pajamas before standing in front of the mirror. It was so weird how just a few months ago he was an entirely different person. He had to admit that he still expected to look in the mirror and see his green eyes staring back at him, instead of his dark brown eyes. Or to wake up and find out that it was all a very long dream and he was still at the Dursley’s.

But he didn’t, much to his pleasure. It meant that for once in his life, something was going his way.

"No way," Harry heard Stephan say behind him, and Harry turned around quickly, wondering what happened.

"You’re . . . you’re him!" Stephan said, and it took a second for Harry to understand what he meant. Once glance in the mirror told Harry everything; his hair was wet and brushed away from his forehead; his lightning-shaped scar was showing. "I knew he was supposed to be in Hogwarts, and here you are!"

Harry thought quickly. It seemed pointless to deny it, and it wasn’t as if Stephan could tell anybody, since Severus put it under the Fidelius charm.

"I am . . . kinda . . . but I don’t want anyone to know," Harry finally said, and Stephan gave him a weird look as Harry combed his hair to cover his forehead.

"Why not? You’re famous! You could have anything you want!"

"But I already have everything I want," Harry replied, getting nervous. Stephan couldn’t tell anyone, but there was probably other ways for him to let others know he was Harry Potter. Like showing his scar. Harry made a quick mental note to ask Severus if there was a way to actually hide it, like under a charm or something.

"I still think you should let people know," Stephan finally answered. "I won’t tell anyone; you’re my friend, but just think about it, Sil-Harry."

"My name is Silas," Har-Silas said with conviction. "Harry Potter doesn’t exist anymore, and I don’t want him to. You have to try to understand."

"Sorry," Stephan said. "But it’s just kinda weird, you know?"

"I know," Silas agreed. "It is. But I’m not Harry. I’m Silas, and that isn’t going to change. It’s a long story . . ."

"Tell me some other time," his friend said. "Some people are going to start coming up soon." Silas nodded, glad that Stephan understood. "Who else knows? Snape, right?"

"And Dumbledore, Draco, and his family," Silas replied. "I’m tired, so I’m going to bed."

"You can’t be tired. It’s early. They’re starting a small chess tournament down in the common room. Go join; you’re good."

"Not really . . ." Silas said slowly, thinking about his games with his brother. He never could win.

"Yes, you are really good. I bet you’ll beat them all."

"I don’t know . . ."

"Please, Silas? You can’t go to bed now. It’s not even eight, and I’m going to be gone for the entire break! And you can’t tell your story to me now, so you have to."

"Fine," Silas relented, still just wanting to go to bed so he could wake up and make Severus take off the magic restriction. Satisfied, Stephan dragged his friend out of the bathroom and down into the common room, where several chessboards were being set up. Silas put his name down on the sign up list, finding he was the youngest to join.

"Okay, here are the rules," said one of the seventh year prefects. "Since we have a limited amount of time, each game will be limited to fifteen minutes. Points will be rewarded by several factors, including pieces taken, pieces on the board, and a probability of winning if a game isn’t finished. Winner of each game will go on to play the next, and the loser is out of the tournament. Got it?" Everyone nodded, and the prefect looked at the two Ravenclaws were who pulling names out of a bag and writing them down.

"Ready," one of them said after a few minutes. "Ten games to start off with . . ." Silas listened for his name to be called and he inwardly groaned when he was paired with a fourth year.

Twenty minutes later, he was surprised to learn that he won the game. It was a close call, since he only had a few more points than his opponent, but it meant that he was still in the tournament. Maybe this won’t be so bad, Silas thought while he waited to learn who the next game would be against. It was a third year girl.

Silas was quick to learn she wasn’t that good; she didn’t look forward into the game. She only looked to be paying attention to her current move, and Silas used that to his advantage. Right before the judges called time, Silas had her in check. It wasn’t checkmate, but it was a definite win for this tournament.

He was the lucky one to sit out of the next round, since there were an uneven number of opponents, but he spent the time sitting off to the side of the common room thinking instead of watching the games. Silas was having fun while he was playing the game, but now that he wasn’t playing, he really just wanted to leave.

The next game Silas played, which was against a sixth year, he almost lost. Almost. In fact, it was only by chance that he didn’t: his opponent didn’t have the time to make his final move, leaving Silas one point ahead of the sixth year. After that game, it was the final round; him against a seventh year prefect. A really good chess player. Not as good as Severus, but he still put Silas in check after a little over ten minutes. If the game had gone on for five more minutes instead of three, it probably would have been the only game to have a finished with a checkmate.

Still, Silas had gained the attention of both the younger and the older students who were in the common room. He had beat three opponents that were years older than him, placing him second in the tournament. After he was given a makeshift trophy, obviously made by one of the older students by transfiguration, Silas was told that they had this tournament three times a year, at the end of each term, and that he should practice for the next one because he’d probably win.

Now excited by this revelation (that he really was decent at chess), Silas wanted to go to the dungeons and tell Severus, but now he really was tired and opted to go to bed, putting his first-ever trophy atop his trunk. By this time, he had totally forgotten that Stephan knew he was the Boy Who Lived, and he fell off into a comfortable slumber.

The next morning, Silas woke up early, but was immediately assaulted by Stephan. After a few seconds and a glare from his friend, Silas realized that Stephan probably wanted to hear about the whole Boy-Who-Lived thing before he went home for the holiday. Reluctantly, Silas got dressed and let his friend drag him to a small study room connected to the common room.

"Well?" the boy whispered loudly. "How is it that you are the Boy Who Lived?" Taking his own time to glare at his friend, Silas thought about how to start.

"My mother hid me with the Potters when I was born," Silas decided to say, earning a confused look from Stephan.

"Why?"

"So my father wouldn’t hurt me, I guess," he answered glumly. "I didn’t know I wasn’t a Potter until a few months ago when my mother died, and Severus took custody of me."

"So, Snape didn’t know, either?"

"No."

"Weird. So, Harry Potter doesn’t really exist," Stephan said with awe. "Wow."

"Didn’t I say that already?" Silas said, and Stephan shrugged.

"Thanks for telling me. I should pack, though. Most of my stuff is still around the room and my parents would be mad if I missed the train."

"Okay," Silas answered, looking at the clock for the time. "Draco should be in the Great Hall by now. He’s excited about going back home, and he can’t sleep when he gets excited. I’ll see you down there."

"Alright," Stephan agreed, and they both left the common room in opposite directions. Silas was right in guessing that Draco was in the Great Hall already. When Silas entered, he was looking at the door to the Great Hall as if he were expecting someone. Apparently, it was Silas.

"Where have you been?" Draco asked. "I’ve been down here for half an hour already, waiting for you."

"Well, sorry I don’t have my schedule set to yours, Draco. I do need to sleep, you know," Silas answered, annoyed with Draco’s attitude. Not that his attitude was unusual.

"That’s okay," Draco answered, seemingly unaware of Silas’ sarcastic attitude. "Mother wants you to visit some time during the holiday."

"I’ll ask Severus," Silas answered, sitting down at the Slytherin table.

"So, exciting day today, huh?" Draco asked. "You get your magic back."

"My magic was never taken away, Draco," Silas answered flatly. "It was just restricted."

"Bad enough."

"Yeah, but there is still a difference." Silas looked at the table and wished that they served food this early. He thought about stopping by the kitchens, but decided he’d go to find Severus. His brother was usually up this early.

"I’m going to bug Severus. I’ll see you later."

"You’re just going to leave me here with nothing to do?" Draco asked, bewildered.

"What were you doing before?"

"Waiting for you, of course."

"Do you want to come along?" Silas asked.

"No, I’ll go wake up Crabbe and Goyle or something. I’ll see you later."

"Bye," Silas replied and left at a run. He made it to Severus’ rooms at record speed, gasping for breath outside the door before he let himself in to find Severus sitting in a chair, reading.

"We need to talk," Silas said, and his older brother closed the book he was reading and gave Silas an odd look. "We need a better way to hid my scar. Stephan saw it after my shower, and he knows now. Also, I came in second in the chess tournament we had in the common room last night!"

"One topic at a time, Silas," Severus reprimanded.

"Sorry. I just didn’t want to forget," he shrugged. He could tell Severus was thinking.

"I wonder if a concealing charm would work. Mind you, it wouldn’t be permanent; it would have to be reapplied every so often. Maybe every week . . ." Brushing aside the hair from Silas’ forehead, Severus took out his wand and incanted something he didn’t understand. "That should work. I don’t know why I didn’t use it before."

Before Severus could say anything else, Silas ran to the bathroom to check his forehead. Sure enough, the scar wasn’t entirely hidden, but you could only tell if you looked closely and you knew it was there already. Silas had to be a few inches from the mirror before he could see it. Satisfied, he went back to where he left Severus. The older wizard was getting ready to leave.

"Where are you going?" Silas asked.

"Breakfast. Come along."

"What about my magic?"

"I said we will work on that after the students leave," Severus answered flatly, opening the door.

"Fine," Silas said, earning a glare from his older brother for being rude about it. Choosing not to say anything more about it, Silas followed Severus to the Great Hall.

After breakfast and saying goodbye to his friends, Silas, glad that his brother waited for him, followed Severus back to his rooms, excited.

"First, congratulations on the chess tournament," Severus said, and Silas beamed. It wasn’t every day that Severus congratulated anybody on anything. "Now, what have we talked about your magic use?"

"No using Dark spells," Silas started listing, remembering the long lectures on the subject. "No making up spells without a qualified adult. No learning new spells and charms without a qualified adult. No using charms I don’t know well alone."

"Good. Can I trust you to follow these rules?"

"Yes!" Silas said. "Come on, please? I’ve been really good."

"I suppose you have. Despite that detention two weeks ago," Severus said sternly.

"You know what I mean. Please?" Silas nearly begged. He was happy when Severus waved his wand, causing Silas to feel a tingling throughout his body, telling him that he now was free to practice magic without an adult. "Thank you!" he said, giving Severus a hug. He felt Severus tense, as usual, at the physical contact.

"Why do you do that?" Silas asked, stepping back.

"Do what?"

"Get all stiff when I hug you? Do you not want me to?"

"I am not used to it," Severus answered after a minute.

"Sorry," Silas said, looking down at his feet.

"Do not be," said his older brother, squeezing his shoulder. "Sit down."

"You know, in that dream I had, when I did that spell, I think you took care of me a lot. I was real quiet and wasn’t allowed out of my room, I don’t think. That day, anyway. I was playing, waiting for Mother to bring me food, when Father came it. He wanted to hurt me, then you came in and picked me up. Mother said she called you. Then you brought me to this building, where I think you lived or worked. I didn’t recognize it, yet it seemed familiar, so I think, in that reality, I’ve been there a lot. Then there was this mean man that you didn’t like, and he was talking about some raid or something. Then you went to go tell the Dark Lord that I was there."

Severus had sat down during Silas’ speech, and didn’t speak immediately after Silas finished. He seemed to be thinking, but Silas wanted to know what he thought about the ‘dream’. Both Silas and Severus avoided talking about the affects of the spell before this, so Severus didn’t know the full details of what happened to his younger brother there.

"How old were you?" Severus finally asked

"Four," Silas answered, and his brother nodded. "Severus, are you one of the Dark Lord’s followers?"

"You can’t follow someone whose dead, Silas," Severus answered. "Do I seem like someone who hates muggles?"

"No . . ." Silas said slowly. "Mostly."

"There are also a lot of wizards I don’t like. I do not dislike someone because of what they are."

"Okay," he said, still not completely understanding the answer. He decided to change the subject. "Draco said Aunt Cissy wants me to visit sometime. Is that okay?"

"Yes. I will contact her and we will discuss it."

"Thank you."

"Do you have any friends staying for the holiday?"

"Well, no first years. Two third years from my Ancient Runes class want to study ahead, though, so we’re going to be working on that. I was actually hoping that I’d – I would be able to meet some more first years from other houses," Silas said, correcting himself. "I really don’t know anyone from houses besides Ravenclaw and Slytherin."

"I see," Severus answered, and Silas sighed. "What?"

"I miss the telly," Silas answered, getting a small laugh from his brother.

"Why?"

"And stuff like muggle story books. There’s not a whole lot of books for kids my age in the wizard world that are just . . . for fun."

"I thought you had some novels."

"I do," replied Silas, "and they’re good, but they are not for someone my age."

"I’ll look into it," Severus said. "And perhaps I’ll see what is at the playhouse at Hogsmede," and Silas got a big smile on his face.

"Thanks, Severus. Wait, there’s a playhouse in Hogsmede?"

"I did say that, did I not? I did not mention it before because children are usually not interested in the theater. Neither am I, for that fact," he continued, and Silas laughed. "But I have an end-of-term meeting in an hour that I have to prepare for, so if you excuse me," the older wizards said, and Silas shrugged.

"Okay. I’ll talk to you later," he replied, receiving a nod from Severus as he left.

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"Hello, Silas," Silas was greeted as he came through the floo at the Malfoy Manor.

"Hi, Uncle Lucius," Silas replied.

"Narcissa took Draco to get him a new set of dress robes for a Christmas party we were recently invited to. They should be back within an hour."

"Okay," Silas said as a house elf took his cloak, and he looked sadly at the spot where it popped away. Silas still thought the house elves very weird, but he also felt bad for them. Draco, Severus, and everyone else said they were fine with it; that they liked it, but even Harry Potter was fine with being a freak before he learned otherwise. They probably just didn’t know any better.

"Let’s have some tea and talk," Lucius said, leading Silas to one of the smaller "talking rooms" (as Draco called them) on that floor. It was one that Silas hadn’t seen before, but he took an automatic liking to it. It was painted a warm green color and had two darker green, comfortable chairs. Silas especially liked the chairs; the one he sat in shrunk to fit to his small size so he could put his feet on the floor instead of having them dangle of the edge. It made him feel better. A house elf popped in, delivering tea, then popped out again before Silas could say thank you.

"Have you been enjoying Hogwarts, Silas?" Lucius asked, and he nodded after he swallowed a sip of his perfect temperature (although not-so-great-tasting for an eleven year old) tea.

"It’s fun. Classes are a little slow, though, especially since I read everything before classes started."

"So, I expect you are at the top of your class?"

"I think I’m close," Silas answered, not really sure. "I do really well on all assignments."

"I’m sure. You’re a very smart boy. Congratulations on getting into Ravenclaw. I had a feeling that you would."

"Thank you," Silas answered, not bothering to tell his godfather that the Sorting Hat said he would do well in any of the four houses.

"You are fitting well into the wizarding world?"

"Yes, sir. It is still kind of weird, though. You can do so many more things in the wizarding world than in the muggle world, and I forget that sometimes, even in class."

"I suppose you would. And, yes, muggles are far behind. I don’t believe they will ever find ways to do most of the things magic can do," Lucius said with a stuck up air.

"They have a lot of things that wizards haven’t thought of, though. Like computers, and the telly. I miss those kind of things."

"You’ll forget about them soon enough, as soon as you learn more about the magical world, Silas," Lucius said kindly but harshly, as if he thought speaking of those things were wrong.

"Do you hate muggles, Uncle Lucius?" Silas asked, although he was sure he knew the answer already.

"As long as they stay away from the wizarding world, I suppose they are fine. As long as they stay away. We don’t want them ruining the pure wizarding lines."

"Some of them are real nice, though . . ."

"Have you ever had any muggle friends, Silas?"

"Well, no . . ." he answered slowly, understanding but not believing what his godfather was saying. Just because the muggles that knew the Dursleys weren’t nice, didn’t mean that all muggles were like that. Even Severus agreed with that. Silas was glad when Lucius dropped the subject.

"Have you seen much of the child, the one who speaks parseltongue?"

"Yeah!" Silas said. "I see him at least twice a week. More, now that it’s the holidays. It’s getting much better with English, now."

"Do you know if the father speaks parseltongue?"

"I don’t know. If he does, he has never spoken it. Even when I talk to William, he doesn’t look as if he knows what he are saying. Why?"

"Parseltongue as always interested me," Lucius answered, taking a sip of his tea.

"Father?" Silas heard from the corridor, and he and Lucius looked toward the door.

"Well, there’s Draco. Go have some fun, and I will see you at dinner."

"Okay!" Silas said, putting down his tea cup, ready for the three days he was staying with the Malfoys. It would have been longer, but they were going abroad, so he couldn’t stay any longer than that.

"Hi, Draco!" Silas said, leaving the small room.

"Silas! It’s been forever!"

"It’s been two weeks," Silas pointed out.

"Yes, but that’s the longest we’ve been away from each other since we met."

"True," he said, smiling. "What do you want to do?"

"Fly," Draco said immediately, and both boys ran to find their brooms.

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A week later, Silas sat on his bed in Severus’ rooms, thinking to the next day. He was nervous and excited. And scared. It would be his first Christmas with Severus, and he had no idea what it was going to be like. He knew what Christmases were like at the Dursley’s; Dudley would open more presents than he would get for his birthday, while Harry Potter sat on the floor in the corner of the room and watched.

He didn’t know what to expect with Severus. Amazingly, Severus put up a small Christmas tree and let Silas decorate it, but there was no hints as to what was going to happen on Christmas day. Was Silas going to get presents to open? Did he have to wake up at a certain time? Was he supposed to have gotten Severus something?

He really hoped he wasn’t supposed to, because he didn’t. Kids weren’t supposed to get presents for the adults, right? But Severus was not only his guardian, but his brother. Did that change things?

Now, worrying himself sick, Silas was no longer tired, but he forced himself under the covers and cuddled up with the blankets.

He must have fallen asleep eventually because when he woke, it was light out. Almost forgetting about his nervousness the night before, Silas jumped out of bed and ran to the room where the tree was, still in his pajamas. He was awestruck at the number of presents that were stacked neatly under and around the tree.

Quietly as he could, Silas knelt beside the presents and looked them over. Sure enough, they all had his name on. Most of them were wrapped the same way and had his name neatly written on them, but some others were wrapped differently and has not only his name, but the name of who they were from. Silas was glad that he had gotten a present for everyone who got him one.

Silas continued to sit next to the presents quietly, not wanting to wake up Severus. He did his best to count them without moving them, in case he got in trouble for doing so, but he had trouble counting the ones under the small tree. Of all the annoying things, this was the one day that Severus decided to sleep in longer than usual.

"You can have woken me up, if you were so eager to open your presents," Severus said, walking into the room an hour later, dressed. "I half expected you to do so."

"I didn’t want to make you mad," Silas answered blushing and earning an odd look from his brother.

"You’ve woken me up before," Severus said, and Silas shrugged. "These are all for you, in the case you haven’t figured that out. There are more here than there will be in coming years because this is our first Christmas together."

"I wasn’t supposed to get you anything, was I?" Silas asked slowly, scared as to what the answer was going to be.

"Do you have any money to get me anything?" Severus asked, shaking his head, and Silas let out a relieved laugh.

"No."

"I didn’t think so. Now, start opening your presents so you can get dressed and we can eat a small breakfast. There is a feast later for those who stayed at Hogwarts."

Silas smiled and turned to his presents and was with left with another dilemma: where was he going to start?

Forty-five minutes later, Silas had all his presents unwrapped and organized. There were a lot of books, most of which Severus said the cashier at the muggle bookstore suggested for an eleven year old. Others were on magical topics or were wizard novels. In addition to that, Severus even got Silas a small television for his room during the summer. They lived in a muggle neighborhood, despite the old-style way of the town, so there were places to put the television in. And there was more, besides.

Happy, Silas gave Severus a hug and was happy to find that his older brother didn’t tense up this time.

"Thank you, Severus! This was the best Christmas ever!"

"You’re welcome. Now, put your new things away and get dressed so we can eat."

"Okay," Silas said, picking up one of the piles of books and bringing them to his room, hoping that things would stay this good forever.

To be continued...


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