The reaction to this statement was not completely what Harry had expected.

Ron had promptly fallen off his bed in shock and began to laugh.  Ginny’s jaw had dropped and she stared at Harry.  Niamh simply looked amused.

But it was Hermione and Mika’s reactions that were unexpected.  Hermione looked hard at his face, brow furrowed.  Mika’s dark eyes studied him then did the tiny flicker that told Harry the boy was delving into his memories.  If there was one thing Mika had going for him besides his extraordinary cunning, it was his photographic memory.

Ginny was the first to speak.  Jardin got a word in before she did.

< And now the shit hits the fan. >

Shut UP, Jar.

“Y-your not are you, Harry?”

Harry nodded slowly and her eyes bulged.  He laughed inwardly.  For all of being in Slytherin, the girl still carried the thought that Snape was all her brothers had said he was.

Mika’s eyes suddenly snapped back and he narrowed them at Harry.

“Its true.”

It wasn’t a question.  Harry was surprised Mika hadn’t figured it out earlier.  Hell, he was surprised Hermione hadn’t figured it out earlier.

Then he noticed the suspicious flicker in the other boy’s eyes.

What the…?

Then it hit him.

Mika’s father was an Auror.

Harry’ was a Death Eater – even if he had never truly sided with them, he still carried the Mark.

Shit.

If Mika’s father was an Auror, he most likely had told him about Snape.  Hence the reason Mika was eying Harry as though he was the next Voldemort waiting to happen.

Well, he’d have to have a talk with the other boy about that…

Ron finally pulled himself up off the floor and back onto the bed, saying, “You’re joking, right?”

Harry looked seriously at his friend and shook his head.  Ron’s jaw dropped and his eyes bulged.

“Sn-Snape is your father?”

Harry nodded.

“C’mon, mate.  It’s got to be a joke.”

“And why is tha’?” asked Harry, quirking an eyebrow.

“B-because,” stuttered Ron.  “H-he’s… he’s…”

Nice impression of Quirrel, said Niamh.

Sod off about Quirrel, snarled Harry in response.

“Evil?” suggested Niamh, glaring mentally at Harry.

“Yeah!  And you’re…well, not.”

Niamh laughed and said, “Our Harry not evil?  Ron, my boy, you haven’t seen and evil plot until you’ve seen Harry’s!”

“Yer na helping,” growled Harry, glaring at her.

Ron gaped.

Hermione spoke now.

“So…its true.  You’re Professor Snape’s son.”

“Las’ time I checked.”

“How?”

“How do we know, is more like it,” growled Ron.

Niamh sighed.  “Ron, haven’t you noticed things similar between the two of them?  Especially now?  Harry looks like spitting perfect image of Snape!”

“An’ I tried so hard ter do tha’,” said Harry sarcastically.

“Plus, there’s the teeny fact that they both have the same glare and get ticked off at the slightest things.”

“Now I resen’ tha’ remark!”

“Shut up.  And have you ever noticed that they are both as scary as hell when they’re angry?”  She glared at Harry, as if daring him to contradict her.  He held up in hands in defense and smirked at her.

Ron frowned for a moment then his face clouded and he snarled, “You snake!”  He leapt to his feet and Harry followed, eyes narrowed.  From his wrist Hedwig issued a remark that sounded like, “He’sss not a sssnake!  I am!”

“You slimy, Slytherin snake!  You’ve known all along, haven’t you?  I bet you’ve even been chumming with Malfoy behind our backs, laughing at how stupid we were for believing your act!”

In that moment, Ron’s anger dissipated.  If the rage playing across Harry’s face hadn’t done it, the rage in his eyes did.  And flicking underneath that: betrayal, outrage, and sadness.  Those green eyes made Ron want to curl up into a ball, just so they wouldn’t be staring at him.

Harry pulled his lips back from his teeth in a snarl and his fists clenched until the knuckles burned white.  He dearly wanted to punch Ron in that moment.

But he didn’t.

Instead, using every bit of his control, he leaned forward so their noses almost touched and snarled, “If ye knew me truly, ye’d know how I’d never CONSIDER chumming with Malfoy.”  With that he turned on his heel and stormed out the door, which had thrown itself open.  The door slammed against the wall hard enough that it almost slammed itself shut, leaving a dent behind in the wall where it was hit and a hole where the doorknob had.

The four of them sat there for a moment before Jardin took off out the window, glaring balefully at Ron, who shivered and turned away.

Only to find himself looking down the nine inches of Niamh’s ebony wand.

The girl’s blue eyes burned with cold fire as she snarled, “If we were at Hogwarts, you would be writhing in pain at my feet, begging for mercy right now.  As we’re not, I’ll just do with cursing you when we get there.”  She then pocketed her wand and stormed out after Harry.

Mika leaned back against the headboard and said, “Now you’ve done it, Weasley.”

“Done what?” snapped Ron.

“Seriously pissed off the Lord and Lady Hex.  If you don’t recall, they earned those nicknames by being the best hexers in the school.”

Ron paled, freckles standing out sharply.  He had forgotten.

Ginny suddenly turned and slapped him hard enough to snap his head to the side, tears pooling in her eyes.

“Ron – how could you?!”

Before he could answer, she fled the room.

Hermione shook her head and, eyes blazing, said, “I have half the mind to follow her, you know.  Even if Harry is Snape’s son, you shouldn’t have said that and you know it.”

“Please don’t,” begged Ron.

“Alright.  But only because I’m probably the only one here who can set this right.”

As Hermione rose and sat down on the bed beside him, Ron asked, “What about Mika?”

“Not with him look at Harry like he’s the next You-Know-Who.”

Mika blinked.  She had caught that?

Hermione glared at him then leaned against Ron, closing her eyes.  She murmured, “This is going to take a lot of work.”

/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/

“Harry!  HAROLD JAMES POTTER!”

“Actually i’s Harold Jamison Snape,” said a voice from above her.  Niamh looked up and found Harry sitting on a branch in the tree she was standing under.  Part of his long-sleeved shirt had pulled up to where she could see the tip of one of the scars on his arm and the garden snake she had sent him for his birthday.  She heard it hiss and Harry hissed back at it, the sound making Niamh jump slightly.  It sounded – threatening.

“Harry?”

Harry turned from the snake and smiled down at Niamh.

“Sorry, Ni.  Hedwig was jus’ saying somethin’ about Ron.”

Niamh grabbed a low branch and pulled herself up so she sat on a branch just below Harry.

“What did she say about Ron?”

“She says tha’ he’s an ignorant arse.”

Niamh laughed.  “I like this snake.  What did you say you were calling her?”

“Hedwig.”

Niamh’s eyes widened and Harry smiled.

“She chose i’.”

“Oh.”

They were silent for a moment then Niamh punched her palm with her fist.  She growled, “Damn Ron!  Damn him!  How could he?  He knows how much you hate Malfoy!”

Harry placed a reassuring hand on his friends shoulder.

“But ‘e hates Snape jus’ as much.”

Niamh said something Harry knew she could only have learned from someone off the streets then snapped, “How can you be so bloody calm?”

“I’m na,” replied Harry, turning his head to look out of the tree towards Ottery St. Catchpole.

“Then what are you doing?  You look pretty damn calm to me.”

“Something yer not.”

“And why should I be!  Ron just practically insulted you and Mika kept looking at you like you were a criminal!”

Harry smirked, “Ye caught tha’, did ye?”

“Harry,” growled Niamh, “be bloody serious or I’ll kill you with my bare hands.  Right after I kill Ron.”

Harry sighed and turned his head sideways to look at her.  She noticed he had the same glint in his eyes that he had whenever he was forming one of his dutifully called ‘evil plots’.

“Yes?”

“Alrigh’.”  Harry turned back to look towards the village and said, “I’m thinkin’ o’ how many ways I can possibly kill Ron withou’ actually killing him.”

Niamh was silent for a moment then – true to Niamh style – asked, “How many have you come up with so far?”

Harry couldn’t help but smirk at her question and held up his hand as he ticked them off.

“Drawing, quartering, hanging, shooting, disemboweling, drowning, poisoning, beating, flaying, an’ having him eaten by snakes.”  He added quickly, “An’ tha’s not counting all the deadly curses I could put ‘im through.”

Niamh smirked and said, “If you do decide to do one of them, I have only one request.”

“Wha’?”

“Let me help!”

Harry burst out laughing at his friend’s plea.  Despite Ron’s anger at him and Mika’s suspicion, he could still laugh.  Niamh seemed to realize this as well and gave a rather forced looking smile.

“So, now what?”

“Now,” said Harry, leaning back against the trunk of the tree, “we wai’.”

“For what?”

“Who knows?”

< For something to happen, of course, > said Jardin as he landed on Harry’s knee, rubbing his head against his master’s hand.  Hedwig hissed reassuringly and Harry smiled as Niamh added her now unforced smile to it.

“Exactly, Jar.  Fer something ter happen.”

/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/

In Ron’s bedroom, a rat pretended to snooze.  But this was not ordinary rat.  Nooo.  It couldn’t possibly be an ordinary rat.

Peter Pettigrew had to try hard not to open his eyes in shock when he had heard what the boy, the boy he had thought to be his best friend’s son, had said.

No, his once best friend.  He had betrayed them.  All of them.

But now he knew that James’ son had not been who they all had thought he was.

Had Lily known? wondered Peter as he lay on the windowsill.

He would never know.  Not now.  Not when Lily and James were dead.

But the boy lived.

And so did his father.