The silence in the dungeon rooms seemed to go on for ever. Harry stared at the man who had spent the last five years making his life a living hell. Of course, he had also saved Harry's life on more than one occasion, but Harry was sure that had not been a personal choice. That had, no doubt, been an order from on high. Harry was sure that Snape would not have lifted a finger to protect him if the headmaster had not asked him to help to keep Harry safe. So how was he, Harry, now supposed to put all of that behind him and accept that the man was now willing to try to act like a father. A father for Merlin's sake!

The whole thing was just so totally inconceivable. Harry could not get his head around it, no matter how hard he tried, and every time the thought wafted across his conscious mind-something he fought against happening-he thought his brain would explode and his innards would twist themselves into knots. How could a person have three parents? To his mundane Muggle-raised mind, it was impossible. Harry wondered if he had been brought up a wizard-if most of his life had not been spent as a Muggle-whether this whole situation would be any more believable. Were there any other witches or wizards out there who could lay claim to having three parents?

Harry very much doubted it. Until the age of eleven, he had truly thought that he deserved the title of ‘freak' that Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia used to yell or hiss at him many times a day. It seemed that it had taken him until he had started at primary school to realise that ‘freak' was not his real name. He had always thought ‘Harry' had been his nick name, so infrequently did he hear it, until his teachers had called him Harry whenever they spoke to him.

And when Harry had finally been old enough to learn the meaning of ‘freak'...well, he had had to agree with his aunt and uncle. He was one, wasn't he? What normal person did the weird things he had done on almost a daily basis? In terms of magic, most of them had been pretty mundane: like summoning a toy a short distance when he was little, or improving some of Dudley's more revolting cast-off clothes just by running his hands over them; the same when Aunt Petunia had practically scalped him and his hair had grown back overnight. But other things had been much more spectacular: like accidentally turning his teachers hair blue and that time he had Apparated onto the school roof, and worst of all for him and eliciting one of his worst punishments ever, when he had made the glass in the snake enclosure at the zoo disappear and the boa constrictor had escaped.

As much as he had hated the punishment and had even been frightened for his life, Harry had privately agreed that he needed to be locked in the cupboard under the stairs for that particular misdemeanour. Maybe he hadn't deserved to be beaten to within an inch of his life though, for something he had no control over. Luckily it had been the school holidays, because Harry had not been able to move, nor show himself in public until his injuries had healed...and that had been about four days.

That was another of the freakish things that was connected with him. Harry healed far too quickly, considering some of the injuries he had sustained at the hands of his uncle. If he had a particularly spectacular bruise that should have taken about a week to fade, it was often gone the next morning. He was sure that he had suffered a broken arm once when he was about four-his upper arm was bent at a funny angle and it had been agonisingly painful-but after crying all night and keeping his small hand clasped around the injury, trying to support it, it was straight and pain-free the next morning. All manner of swellings, sprains, contusions and, he suspected, other broken bones had seemingly healed after he had ran his hands over them.

Not so magical injuries though...he had not gotten over the poisoning easily.

But of course, his ignorance of his origins did not excuse the adults in his life at the time for what they had done to him, just because he had been a perfectly normal wizard child. Despite their denials, they had known that he was a wizard. And as much as they had hated that fact, they had known that the things he did accidentally were normal for him...Aunt Petunia definitely had; she had grown up with her little sister no doubt doing similar things to what Harry did unknowingly.

How stupid did you have to be to think you could beat part of someone's makeup out of them?

But now, if Uncle Vernon ever found out about this situation with Snape, then he would actually have cause to call Harry a freak. God, other wizards would probably call him a freak if this ever came to light. But it wasn't going to come to light. Why would it? It wasn't as if James Potter wasn't his dad. He wouldn't have to lie to anyone about that. Even if, by some miracle, he and Snape could reach an understanding, Harry couldn't imagine any circumstance where he would actually start to think of the man as a father. No-one would ever find out.

And then last night flashed through Harry's mind and he closed his eyes in horror. He had yelled at Professor Dumbledore...he had actually said something like ‘do you have a message from my father'? and ‘I know he would want to deliver it himself, but the Dark Lord must take precedence'. He had actually said those things in front of Ginny. Of course Dumbledore had asked her not to say anything and Harry was positive that Ginny would keep the secret, but her mind must be teeming with questions.

God, what was he going to do about that?

The continuing silence suddenly pressed down on Harry and he glanced back over at Snape. He was still staring at Harry over the top of his steepled fingers, so Harry figured he hadn't drifted off into his own thoughts for too long. The man wasn't renowned for his patience after all. Harry wondered what Snape was really thinking. You couldn't tell anything from looking into the depths of those black, black pools. Snape was totally inscrutable. Harry wished that if he had to have some of Snape's traits, why couldn't it have been the ability to hide every thought behind a blank façade. Why couldn't he have inherited Snape's brilliance at Occlumency and Legilimency? Why did he have to be so open? If he had been a natural like Snape, then Sirius wouldn't have died.

Yeah, and if you had at least practised, maybe you might have learned just enough to block out that murdering scum-bag from drawing you to the Department of Mysteries.

Apart from Lupin, Harry had considered Sirius to be the last link to his parents. Sirius had been their choice to be the one to be responsible for Harry if anything ever happened to them. But he had lost three people the night that Voldemort had decided to kill him along with his parents. Sirius had tried to avenge them, and he had been lost too.

And even if it had been allowed that a werewolf could be responsible for a child, Harry now knew that Dumbledore would have still made him live with the Dursleys...for the blood protection.

What would have happened if this bizarre relationship between him and Snape had come to light either before, or just after his parents had died? What would Dumbledore have done then? Because of course, there was no blood connection between Lily and Snape. Would Dumbledore have still wanted Harry to go to the Dursleys? And would Snape have wanted him?

Harry scooted forwards till he was sitting on the edge of his seat, his back hunched, his elbows resting on his thighs and his eyes focused on his hands as he picked at a hangnail. Severus ground his teeth together but made every effort to keep his face expressionless. That was a habit he would have to try to cure the boy of.

After a minute of this torturous behaviour, Harry seemed to realise how irritating his action was and he clenched one fist and wrapped the other hand tightly around it. It was clear to Severus that he was trying to get up the nerve to say something.

Severus wanted to bite out an order just to spit it out, but he knew that any overt displays of impatience would set everything back...perhaps for ever. "Harry, it is obvious that you have something to say." Harry raised haunted green eyes to him. "Please, if you have a question just..."

"If you had known about this when my mum and dad were killed, would you have taken me?" The words were said in a rush and Severus sat very still, hardly daring to breath. Of all the things he had expected to be asked, this most certainly wasn't one of them. How to answer...

He prevaricated. "Harry, how can I possibly answer that. I did not know..."

"Try," ordered Harry in a terse voice.

The silence stretched as the two raven-haired wizards stared at each other. It was Severus who looked away first. He sighed.

"I cannot say unequivocally what I would have done, Harry, but knowing the person I was then, I would have to say, no, I doubt I would have taken you." Severus saw Harry's Adam's apple bob up and down as he swallowed. Then he threw himself back in the chair again so that all Severus could see was his unruly hair and his forehead.

"Right," Harry said, drawing out the word bitterly.

"No, Harry, it is not right. But I am being absolutely honest with you." Now it was Severus's turn to lean forward in his chair, his attitude mirroring Harry's except that his long fingered hands were still.

"I was twenty-one years old and I was not a nice person. I was also in a state of shock after finding out about your...about James and Lily and like most, I was also in a total state of disbelief.

"It is hard to describe to you the total chaos our world was in that night. The joy being displayed by all wizards but followers of the Dark Lord. The absolute wonder being expressed about a fifteen month old infant who had both survived the killing curse and done away with the most evil wizard our world had ever known.

"And there was I, having to pretend a fury I did not feel because my Lord..." the word sounded like an expletive, "was gone. And to keep up my cover, I had to meet secretly with various of my compatriots as they tried in their blind fury to track you down. I had to pretend to be searching for you also when I was not answering to my other master.

"Those sorts of searches went on for months...it was during that time that the Longbottoms were attacked. It is no secret that Bellatrix was rabid in her determination to find you, and she thought that as the Longbottoms had just become new parents themselves, then they might have taken you in. Dumbledore did not even tell me what he had done with you, Harry. And to my present shame, I never enquired about your wellbeing. All I knew was that you were safe from retribution from the remaining devotees of the Dark Lord."

Harry had remained slumped in the chair throughout the whole of this speech. He knew he shouldn't have asked the question. He had known what Snape's answer would be. So why did he feel so depressed? Apparently being lumbered with a fifteen month old toddler was as abhorrent as being lumbered with a sixteen year old teen.

Snape seemed to sense something of his thoughts, though what he said didn't make Harry feel any better. "Thinking of all that went on then, Harry, I am glad I did not know about you and the fact that I was your father. I was not in the right place to take responsibility for an infant. I was very young..."

"My mum and dad were the same age as you. They took to being parents OK."

Snape gritted his teeth again, but he tried to speak as matter-of-factly as possible. "Yes, they did. But the difference there, Harry, is that they chose to be parents. I have had this knowledge thrust upon me, much as you have. I have hardly had enough time to get used to it myself."

Harry sprang from the chair, as if he could no longer bear to remain still. "You didn't seem to be very used to it the other day. You hate the idea that you're a dad..." He paced back and forth for a few seconds, but then he turned around and looked at Severus calculatedly. Severus tensed slightly, wondering what gem the boy was going to slam him about the ears with this time.

"Though I have to wonder whether it's being a father so much as being my father. Now if you had just found out that Malfoy was your son, I bet the idea wouldn't be quite so repugnant."

Severus now rose from his chair. God, he wished he could resort to a snort of whisky to get him through this. Harry was not making it easy and Severus didn't know how much longer he could hold out without losing it. He walked stiffly towards the table where he poured himself another cup of coffee in lieu of the preferred whisky. After taking several sips of the still hot brew, he felt calm enough to respond to Harry's latest broadside.

"As much as being a father has been a shock to my senses, and one that I grant you I did not respond to well, I can assure you it would give me absolutely no pleasure to find out that I had anything to do with siring Draco. Whereas I always assumed that you were a spoiled, arrogant little toe rag, I know for a fact that Draco is one.

"You still favour him above everyone else, though, including the rest of the Slytherins in my year."

"I have appearances to keep up, Harry, you must know that."

"Crabbe and Goyle's father's are Death Eaters too, so is Theodore Notts. You don't pander to them like you do Malfoy."

Severus's hand had jerked as he raised his cup to his lips at the mention of Harry's would be assassin. Coffee slopped down the front of his robes and with a hiss of annoyance, he put his cup down and pulled out his wand. He kept his back to Harry whilst he cleaned his robes, in case the boy saw anything revealing in his face. His voice was carefully bland when he replied.

"The seniors Nott, Crabbe and Goyle do not have the seniority that Lucius Malfoy has within the ranks of the Dark Lord. I do not toady to them, they toady to me. Lucius is older and has always been a favourite of the Dark Lord's, as was his father and uncles before him."

"And as will be his snivelling coward of a son, no doubt," ground out Harry.

Severus took a deep breath, remembering how Draco had forcibly been branded. Nott too, but his feelings of fury over Nott's ill conceived attempt to kill Harry had not lessened enough for him to feel any sympathy towards the taciturn boy, despite witnessing the horror of seeing his mother killed by the ruthless animal that he had decided to emulate.

"We are here to discuss us, Harry, not my Slytherins and your less than friendly feelings towards them."

"My less than friendly feelings," he sputtered, outraged. "You know that any fight I have gotten into with the Slytherins has been instigated by Malfoy, backed up by his goons, of course. He wouldn't know a fair fight if it bit him on the bum." And though Severus did not doubt his assertions, this was not a topic he wished to get into.

Harry had thrust his hands into his pockets and his chin was thrust forward in a very pugnacious attitude. He was kicking the base of the brickwork surrounding the fireplace with a trainer clad foot, over and over...seemingly mindlessly.

Severus decided that it was time to take control of the conversation again. He turned the dining chair around so that it faced the sitting room, lowering himself into it and crossing his arms. When he spoke his words were measured and he knew Harry was listening because the kicking eventually subsided and he finally just stood, gazing into the empty grate.

"If I could go back and change what happened yesterday, the unfeeling way that I finally broke this news to you and the totally inappropriate way that I treated you during the telling, I would. It was not my most shining hour and I cannot express my remorse fully enough.

"When you disappeared right from under my nose and the noses of the Order member who was keeping watch outside, I was furious for all of about thirty seconds, and then, I started to worry." Severus cocked his head to one side in question. "How did you get past Diggle, by the way?"

Harry looked across to him, but then he quickly returned his gaze to the grate. Severus saw that his cheeks had reddened. "I suppose I used my invisibility cloak."

"You suppose?" said Severus with a raised eyebrow.

"It's all really vague. It wasn't a conscious decision to leave."

"And yet, you were compos enough to get your invisibility cloak from your trunk." Harry shrugged.

"I don't remember getting it. I don't remember walking out of the house or walking far enough away to hail the Knight Bus without the guard seeing it arrive. The first conscious thought I had was realising that I was at Godric's Hollow." Harry looked back at Severus; he had leaned forward on his seat, his forearms resting on his thighs again and his hands clasped between his knees. Black eyes bore into wide green ones.

Harry felt a slight pressure behind his eyes and for a second he was not sure what the discomfort meant. Then with a shock he realised that Snape was probing. He had not recognised the sensation immediately, because he had never felt this particular brand of Legilimency before. That is to say, gentle Legilimency.

All the same, he reacted as if his mind was being raped again. He wrenched his head to the side and with a snarl of fury, he kicked the brickwork again-hard. "What do you think you're doing?" he roared.

Severus shut his eyes and dropped his head, berating himself for being all kinds of a fool. What had he been thinking? He listened as Harry stalked up and down like a caged animal.

"You said you wanted to talk!" Harry's voice was still raised. He was utterly livid. "You didn't say anything about using Legilimency on me!"

"I am truly sorry, Harry," Severus said softly, a contrast to Harry's angry tirade. "That was totally inexcusable of me."

Harry was somewhat taken aback by the apology and the quiet tone totally took the wind out of his sails. He slumped back down in the chair, rubbing his forehead with stiff fingers. "I wasn't lying," he said more calmly.

"I know."

Harry looked at him and flared up once again, though his tone was more muted. "Yeah, you know because you saw that I was telling the truth. If this is going to work on any level Professor, then you have to trust me."

Silence swallowed up the last of the angry words. ‘'"As you do me, Harry."

Harry flared up again. "How can I trust you when you do things like that?"

"I have told you that it was inexcusable of me to Legilimize you. I am not even sure why I did it..."

"You did it because you thought I'd left the Dursleys yesterday just to give you a hard time! I didn't. I don't know why I left, but I suppose it's because I had to have some sort of contact with my mum and d...with James."

"Say dad, Harry. James is still your father. James will always be your father, and I would not expect you to forget that. Just remember, without James, none of this situation would have been possible. If James and I had not been cousins; if we had not been the son's of each of twin siblings who were also the children of an identical twin, then Lily would never have asked me to donate blood to James in the first place. So, it is the fact that we were cousins first that made this situation possible."

Silence descended again as Harry thought of what Severus had said. It soothed him a little. After a while, his quiet voice, just above a whisper broke the silence. "I had accepted you as a cousin, you know. I was even growing comfortable with it."

Severus sighed. "Another reason why family disagreements should never be allowed to fester."

Harry levered himself upright and looked across the chair arm at Severus. "What do you mean?"

"The Potters obviously have a very, very strong streak of stubbornness running through them. My grandfather-your great grandfather-my mother and Jame's father were all obviously very stubborn people. None of them would back down after the break down of their relationship.

"It must have been a tremendous wrench for my mother and her brother to not have contact with each other because they had always been very close. If only one or both of them had taken after their mother, the situation may have been salvageable." Severus sighed again and Harry was a little surprised at the look of regret on his austere face.

"She must have been heartbroken," Severus said quietly. "I know she stayed in touch with my mother as much as she could."

"She sounds like she was a really nice lady," said Harry wistfully. Severus nodded.

"Everything I was told about her would indicate as much. I do not remember her myself, however."

Harry looked at him questioningly. "But you were born before she died, weren't you? If your mum was preg...err, expecting you when she broke away from the Potters..." He trailed off, feeling stupid. So what if Snape had been born before Eileen Potter's mother had died. If Severus had still been a baby, or even a very young child when she died, he still wouldn't remember her, would he?

"My mother was pregnant when she left her parent's home, yes, but that baby wasn't me." Harry looked stunned.

"You mean you have an older brother or sister?" he asked incredulously. Did he actually have more relatives out there. The thought was somehow exciting, but Severus quickly disabused him of any such notion.

"No, Harry. I am an only child. My mother suffered a miscarriage within days of the estrangement. I was not born for another couple of years. I do not remember my grandmother because I was barely two when she died. I have seen her through my mother's eyes though, in her pensieve."

Harry was now perched on the edge of his chair again. He was looking at Severus with a hopeful light in his beautiful green eyes. Severus knew exactly what he was thinking. Those eyes really were a very accurate barometer for everyone of the boy's thoughts. "If you wish it, then someday I can show you the memories that my mother showed me. They are stored in the little pensieve she left me."

Harry grinned and nodded excitedly. "That'd be great," he enthused. "I've never seem any pictures of my grandparents...and I'll see my great grandparents as well."

Severus decided he had better haul the boy's expectations in a little. "Just a word of warning Harry. These happenings I have spoken of are not pleasant memories on the whole. These were very distressing scenes. So much so, my mother did not bother to take them back. She left them in the pensieve."

Harry smile had faded as Severus spoke. "I realise that," he said. "But I will at least see what everyone looked like." He gazed down at his hands for several seconds, obviously deep in thought. He looked up at Severus again. "This whole thing with you and me is just so weird. Do you realise that not only is your mother my great aunt, she's also my grandmother."

Harry stood up and thrust his hands into his pockets, his shoulders slumped as his gaze settled once again on the empty grate. Severus watched him, holding his breath, worried that the small accord they had reached might be about to disintegrate again. He spoke in a carefully modulated voice. "No, I had not thought of that. I can tell you though, that my mother would have been overjoyed to have a grandson, as she would have been overjoyed to have a great nephew if she had been alive when you were born." Harry lifted his eyes from the contemplation of the grate and stared at Severus, his face blank. Severus hoped he had not overplayed his hand. He continued with his planned speech.

"And if she had not died when she did, Harry, I am positive that my mother would have known you, because she was determined to end the rift between herself and her brother. I like to think that he would have accepted the olive branch, and that James would have also embraced her within the family fold. After all, he did make overtures to me."

"Yeah," said Harry, in a voice as blank as his eyes. "And you knocked him back." Harry leaned against the brick wall of the fireplace, his feet a foot or so forwards and his thin backside and back against the bricks. His hands were still in his pockets and his eyes were now focused on his trainers.

"Yes, I did. But Harry, if my mother had still been alive, things may have turned out differently. I doubt, for instance, that I would have ended up in the Dark Lord's black web." Now Severus's gaze was fixed on the grate and his next words were introspective. "I would not have been able to bear the disappointment I would have seen in her eyes."

Harry turned his head and looked at the man who was responsible for having turned his life on it's head over the last couple of weeks. He could still see the sneering, narrow-eyed glare that he was most used to in the now impassive lines of Snape's face. He realised that Severus Snape's life had been no picnic either, but the man had at least had his mother during his formative years. He had known a parent's love and devotion, even as he had known pain and distress at the other parent's hands.

He, Harry had not had even that. He knew he could have coped better with Uncle Vernon's violence if he could have been safe in the knowledge that his aunt at least cared for him. But she had hated him just as vehemently, if not more so because he was a living reminder of the sister that she had been jealous of and had come to hate.

He knew that James and Lily had loved him; they had delighted in their baby son...he at least had a couple of photos that proved that, and he had Sirius and Lupin's testimonies as to the depth of that love. But what better testimony did he need than the fact that they had both died in an effort to protect him.

But now he had the chance of having a life with another parent. He did not kid himself that that life would be the loving idyll that growing up with Lily and James would have been...he wasn't even sure if either he or Snape would ever be able to get past their hatred and animosity. How could he even believe that Snape was doing this for himself and not upon the orders of Dumbledore. Keep ‘The Boy Who Lived' happy by thinking he has a parent.

But Harry was pretty sure that Snape hated him too much to be willing to go along with such a ridiculous and repugnant plan if he didn't want to. In fact Harry wasn't even sure that Snape's hatred would even be able to get past the fact of his paternity being proven by that potion, despite his present assertions to the contrary. If the man had been able and willing to hide their relationship as cousins for all the years he had known Harry, then how was he going to be able to even try to be a father. Harry had to think that he was making this massive effort because Dumbledore would want him to and because, in a misguided way, he thought that it was what he should be doing to keep Harry happy. After all, if there was one thing about Snape that Harry was now sure about, it was the fact that Snape was definitely against Voldemort; he fought for the light. And if the only way that that snake-like scum was going to meet his demise was at Harry's hands, then it stood to reason that Harry should be kept happy.

Well, he wouldn't be happy knowing that Snape was just going through the motions. Harry pushed himself away from his backrest and walked beyond the small area bounded by the lounge furniture. He moved over to the dining table and threw himself down in the chair he had earlier vacated. He reached out and grabbed a scone, surprised that they were still warm. When he broke it open, the delicious smell assailed his senses and he realised that he was a little hungry. He reached for the jam.

Severus did not join him; the boy was obviously on the verge of saying something, so he waited patiently. He heard the soft noises of food preparation and then he heard the sound of coffee being pored. The fragrant aroma tickled his senses, but still he waited.

Finally, after ten minutes, Harry put his cup back in it's saucer. Severus heard Harry mutter a quiet spell to cleanse his sticky fingers. He wanted to automatically chastise the boy for using magic during the holiday but then he bit his tongue. Harry had quite definitely had enough trouble with the authorities over the use of underage magic, and so, he had obviously realised that one more spell being cast within the walls of Hogwarts would not alert the ministry. It was just one of many.

Still, as a parent, wasn't it his place to ensure that Harry obeyed the rules, stupid as they seemed at times. He rose and joined Harry in the dining area and making sure his tone was not confrontational, he said, "I believe it is my place to tell you not to use magic during the holidays, Harry."

"No-one will know while I'm here."

"I know. And as your parent..."

Harry jumped up. "Look, Professor, you don't have to keep on doing this. I recognise that you are making an effort, I really do. But I also know that you must be hating every minute of it. Hatred doesn't turn to love just because of a stupid potion." Harry threw his arms wide. "It doesn't even turn to acceptance or liking. Let's just leave things like they were before."

"We cannot leave things as they were before. Not with the knowledge we now have."

"You went along with knowing that we were cousins without it worrying you one iota."

"Being a father is a shade more intense than being a cousin Harry. I denied James for all of our years at school, and as first cousins, we were more closely related than you and I." Severus was trying to hold onto his patience. How was he going to convince the boy.

"You're being forced to do this, aren't you? By Dumbledore."

"No."

"You must be!" bellowed Harry. "I am still the son of your most hated enemy and cousin. I am still that cheeky, annoying little snot of a Gryffindor."

Severus leaned across the table. "And you are also the son of the woman that I loved," he bellowed back and then he pushed himself erect and Harry fell back a step in fear as the man pulled his wand. He thought Snape was going to hex him again. But at Snape's next words, Harry's jaw dropped.

"Cast your Patronus."

"What?"

"Cast your Patronus."

Harry swallowed. "I was always Lily's son," he said hoarsely, trying to get the conversation back on track.

"Yes, but now I know I am your parent as well...that I am that along with Lily...and with James. We three have shares in you and I didn't know that before. But I do now. And now that I have had time to get used to this revelation, I am determined that I will continue in their effort to protect you. If I loved your mother, I can come to care for her son...our son. Now, cast your Patronus."

"But why," said Harry shaking his head, a little punch drunk after listening to that impassioned speech. And in answer, Severus raised his wand.

"Expecto Patronum," he said in a strong voice. And Harry saw with amazement, a beautiful, dainty doe land on her tiny hooves as she appeared before them, the result of Severus's incantation.

Harry stared at her, mesmerized, his eyes beginning to tear up as the blindingly, bright apparition dazzled his retinas. Then dazedly, he pulled his own wand-paler and slightly shorter than Severus's-and with thoughts of Ginny waking him that morning, he summoned forth Prongs. He sighed with relief when he felt the jolt his wand always gave when his Patronus was bursting forth. It had deserted him back in the graveyard in Godric's Hollow.

Both Severus and Harry fell back several paces as the magnificent six point antlered stag materialized, taking up most of the room in the area behind the sofa. The stag easily overshadowed the doe with his sheer size, but as Severus and Harry watched, the two smoky wraith-like apparitions tripped towards each other and put their muzzles together. Harry's eyes widened and a whispered "oh" escaped his parted lips. Severus just stood and stared at the beautiful sight.

"That is all the proof you need that I wish to do this, Harry." Severus turned towards him. "Until your mother died, I was incapable of producing a Patronus. When I tried after Lily's murder, I produced this doe. This doe was your mother's Patronus. She did not produce a Patronus until she and James were together and, perhaps unsurprisingly, her Patronus was the match of the man's she loved.

"As I had never produced a Patronus before, and as Lily had no more need of hers, and because I had never stopped loving her, when I finally managed to produce a Patronus, it was hers. You have produced you father's stag from the beginning-both his animagus form and his Patronus-and no more proof that we should be acting upon this relationship, is needed as far as I am concerned.

Both Patronuses were still visible, though they had begun to fade; their brightness no longer rendered Harry blind. He still had spots before his eyes though, but he could not drag his eyes away from the apparition before him. However he was quite capable of speaking. "But you have to think of something really happy to produce a Patronus. How could you produce one after my mum had died, but you couldn't produce one before? Thoughts of her death could hardly be considered happy."

Severus too was watching the fading deer. "No. I was devastated. I do believe Albus feared I may do something stupid. It was more than a year later, when in the presence of Dementors that I tried, hopelessly, I thought, to produce a Patronus.

"I was being overwhelmed by a rogue group who had never succumbed to ministry rule, and in my hopelessness, my thoughts turned to Lily...the Lily I had known since we started at Hogwarts. The Lily whom I had been best friends with and the Lily I had fallen in love with. Memories of that Lily lifted my soul and her Patronus saved my life. Her Patronus became mine."

The bright light cast by the deer had faded to almost nothing now, and Severus turned back to Harry at the same time as Harry looked at him. "Just as you have become mine," he said. "Or at least, just as I have learned that you are mine.

"I believe that your mother may have had suspicions about your paternity. Nobody knows an infant as well as its mother. Your looks combine James and Lily, but I am also there in your face and expressions for anyone who wishes to look closely enough. And if Lily knew enough about magical blood to correctly predict that I could save James with some of my blood, then I have to assume that she knew enough to suspect that her son would have traces of both James and myself.

"I knew your mother well, Harry, and I know that she would have wished me to take up the mantle of parenthood. And the fact that we never knew about our relationship until you are nearly a man, and the fact that I have been unforgivably foul to you for several years does not change what I believe to be true...and that is that she would have wanted this."

Harry swallowed the lump that had was now blocking his throat. He turned away and used his sleeve to swipe at the tears that had welled up and that had nothing to do with the laser bright light that had now disappeared.

"But I have to know that this is what you truly want, Professor," he whispered. "You see, I'm Harry James Potter. I'm not Lily. I only have her eyes."

Severus took Harry gently by the shoulders and turned him around to face him. He had to put a long finger under Harry's chin to bring his head up. And then he had to say, "look at me, Harry," before the boy lifted his eyes.

"This is what I want. I am ready to learn to be a father. And if you are willing to learn to be my son, we can do it together.

"I do not imagine for a minute that it will be easy. We are both too volatile. You got your temper from me, by the way."

Harry managed to produce a watery grin. "What temper?" Severus, to Harry's amazement produced a pretty good imitation of a smile himself. the thin lips lifted the barest fraction at the corners."

"You get your sarcastic sense of humour from your mother."

"Not James?"

Severus shook his head. "No, sarcasm wasn't James's forte. His humour was more robust. A lot like Fred and George Weasley's." Harry's smile faded a little but Severus did not let him lower his gaze.

"If a lot of that humour had not been directed at myself, I could have appreciated James's sense of fun." He did let Harry's chin go now, but he kept his other hand on Harry's shoulder.

"Our mutual antipathy was the fault of us both, Harry. And I gave as good as I got. What you saw in the pensieve was a particularly bad day for me. But there was many a day where I bested both James and Sirius. I also targeted Lupin and Pettigrew, though neither were usually involved in James's, Black's and my mutual hexing or jinxing episodes. Pettigrew because he was a weak coward and Lupin because he was too high minded. At least Lupin retaliated when I did target him, unlike Pettigrew who just ran to the others. Lupin never instigated anything though. I targeted them because it infuriated James and Black."

"It was pretty constant though," said Harry miserably.

"Not as constant as you may think. Most of the time, we chose to ignore each other. And often, any altercation was at Sirius's instigation."

That pronouncement definitely did nothing to raise Harry's spirits, but Severus continued gently. "The day your father tried to reconcile with me, Sirius was standing off to the side. He did not look happy at this turn of events. But he looked ecstatic when I knocked James back. As I stalked off, I heard him encouraging James to hex me from behind. But James said ‘no' and he left in the opposite direction.

"After that day, I had little trouble with the Marauders and when I did, it was inevitably Sirius working alone."

Harry had turned away now and Severus's hand dropped. "Yeah, I get it," said Harry bitterly. "Sirius was immature and a bigger bully than my...than James."

"I am not telling you this to upset you Harry. I know why Black was like he was. He was jealous of the fact that James and I were cousins and he did not want James to become friendly with me. He had lost his own family, by his own choice and he had adopted James as his brother. He did not want James's affections being shared around more than they already were. I do believe he was even jealous of Lily for a time until he realised that Lily would do nothing to upset his and James's close friendship."

Severus lowered himself onto the arm of the sofa. "I can understand that jealousy Harry. That is how I felt when it became obvious that Lily had finally succumbed to James's charms.

"Now, from the distance of all these years, and from the place where I am now, I can look at Black's actions with less hatred."

"It didn't look like that last year," accused Harry in a voice that had become just a little confrontational again.

"Last year, I was just Severus Snape: Order member, Death Eater and spy...and an angry, bitter man. Now I am Severus Snape: father, Order member, Death Eater and spy. I find that I am no longer as angry and bitter. I know that you mourn Black and that is as it should be."

Severus let silence enfold them. If he had not said enough to convince Harry of his desire to try to be a father, then he doubted he would ever be able to convince him. After a minute, Harry excused himself and marched off towards the bedroom and the bathroom beyond.

Severus knew Harry needed to be alone. He waited impatiently, stalking backwards and forwards behind the sofa. After five minutes he grabbed the bottle of whisky and slopped a goodly measure into a tumbler. He threw it back quickly, not wanting Harry to see that he had resorted to alcohol to calm his nerves.

It was fifteen minutes and another hefty dose of whisky later, before Harry appeared in the bedroom doorway. Severus saw him there after he had spun around to retrace his steps over the path he had been wearing in the flagstone floor. The boys hair was a total mess-more so than usual-and his eyes were bright in his pale face. Whatever he had been doing for the last twenty minutes, it had not included grooming himself. As Severus stared, twin blossoms of colour stained Harry's cheeks.

"So," Harry said, his voice wavering. "How do we go about this?"

Severus didn't realise just how tense he had been until he let out a long held breath and he sagged with relief. But the sight of Harry's still obvious disquiet as to whether he was leaving himself open for more heartache stiffened his spine again. He could not believe just how important this decision had been to him until Harry had finally succumbed to his persuasion.

He knew better than to make any overt display of affection...even a touch might make the boy bolt at this moment of decision.

"We will work that out together."

Harry stared at him and then pressing his lips together, he gave a single, determined nod. At that moment, perhaps fortuitously, the floo flared green and the two black haired wizard looked towards it, both of them grateful for an interruption.