"Alright, come out Remus. I know you've been watching." Severus said to the shadows of his potions classroom as soon as the boy had left.

He heard a quiet chuckle as the form of his friend stepped from beside a cabinet, an invisibitly spell having just been canceled, obviously.

"Now, Severus, can you really blame me for wanting to watch my godson at school?" he said, his eyes teasing. Then his face fell. "I haven't seen him in such a long time, you know..." he trailed off as severus came to stand beside him.

"I know Remy. But it's over now. He's here, and there's nothing stopping you now."

Remus nodded softly, then smiled. "You're already very good at the over-protective daddy bit, Sev."

Severus sputtered as Remus quickly moved away, laughing.

"I am not!" Sev hissed. Remus laughed.

"Oh yes you are! I saw that look on your face when he yelled. You turned around so fast I thought you would have whiplash!" Remus said, chuckling.

Severus shook his head, giving Remus a mock-glare.

Finally, the man sobered up. "Did you get enough blood?" he asked, coming to stand beside Severus.

Severus nodded. "I brewed the potion last night. Now all I have to do is add the blood." he said, as he opened the door to his private potions lab. Remus followed him over to a strang object that Severus quietly identified as a strainer, though it surely didn't look like the normal kitchen strainers Remus was used to.

It was a thin brass rod on a platform, with another, shorter rod attached to it horizontally. And connected to that by another rod were two bowls. The first was a small brass bowl which slid up and down the pole. The second was a brass bowl as well, but this one was filled with tiny holes, and did not move. It was in this bowl that Severus placed the bloody cloth.

He then murmured a Latin phrase under his breath, and the solid bowl began to move down the rod and into the other bowl, slowly squeazing the blood out of the cloth and into a measuring cup below.

Both men grimaced at the blood that was trickling down into the cup, thinking about how deep the cut must been to produce that much blood, and how much it must have hurt.

Soon, the solid bowl retracted, pulling itself up and away from the other bowl. Severus reached in and pulled out the cloth. Remus saw that the cloth had only a faint rust color to it. The machine was very efficient.

Severus pulled the measuring cup out from under the device, and set it on his worktable. Then he walked over to a cabinet and pulled out a cauldron of swirling white liquid.

He placed it on the table, and then opened a drawer. He pulled out a long silver knife, and quickly made a slit in his palm before Remus could stop him.

"Severus!" Remus cried out as Severus winced, and tried to take his hand, but Severus waved him away.

Severus moved his hand over the cauldron, and the blood trickled in, swirling with the whiteness, reminding Remus of a peppermint candy.

Severus then reaced with his other hand and took the cup of Harry's blood, and poured it in as well.

He then stepped back, slumping forlornly against the wall as Remus came to him and began to fuss over his hand.

"Now we wait. Five minutes. If it turns black, there is no relationship. If it's gold, I'm his father."

Severus wasn't sure which he wished to happen.

* * * *

Meanwhile, Harry had made it about halfway down the corridor towards Charms before he was accosted by Ron, Hermione and Arynn.

"Harry, are you alright?" Hermione said, grabbing Harry's hand. She seemed suprised to see the bandage there and not an even bigger wound.

"Yeah, Hermione, I'm fine. Snape helped me. He bandaged my cut and everything!" Harry said, smiling, and not knowing why in the world he was so happy about it.

Hermione smiled a bit of a confused smile back at him. "That's great, Harry..." she trailed off.

"Hey, how'd you cut yourself in the first place, mate?" Ron said, breaking the akward silence that had descended.

"Erm..." Harry looked over at Arynn, who looked away. "I just got distracted, that's all." he said.

Hermione and Ron looked suspiscious, but they didn't say anything about it.

"Well, let's go then. We'll be late for charms if we don't hurry, everyone." Hermione said, grabbing Arynn and dragging her down the corridor along with Harry.

* * * *

Severus stared down at the potion, his breathing becoming increasingly rapid.

"Severus? Breathe, Sev." Lupin said, as he too stared at the glittering gold liquid in the cauldron.

"What are you going to do, Sev?" he whispered.

Severus simply shook his head.

"I don't know."

* * * *

The rest of the day passed uneventfully for Harry. Once he retired to the tower, however, things became increasingly eventfull.

The event in questioin came in the form of a letter left on his bed. Harry saw it as soon as he came into his dorm room. He walked over and picked it up warily, sitting down on the bed.

It was simply addressed to 'Harry', written in marvelous penmanship with thick black ink.

He turned the letter over to look at the seal. Black wax with a snake circling round a double 's' insignia. Intruiged, Harry slipped a finger under the seal and broke it.

The contents were as such:

Harry dropped the letter, his mind reeling. Professor Snape? Professor Snape wanted to meet him? Why?

Harry sighed, trying to calm the butterflies in his stomach. Really, he didn't know why the idea frightened him so much. It was only a teacher, for goodness sakes!

A teacher who scares me near to death because he reminds me of Uncle Vernon. Harry thought. Really, it was silly to compare Snape to his whale of an uncle. But in many ways they were very similar.

Like Uncle Vernon, nothing was ever good enough for Snape. Harry could remember countless times during his first year when he had worked so hard for potions class, only to have his work written off by Snape as 'abysmal'.

Deep down, Harry had always wanted Snape's approval, he had realized that pver the summer. Potions had been the class that Harry had been looking forward to the most, coming to Hogwarts. He had always wanted to learn muggle chemistry, and he figured that Potions would be as good, or better. He had come into the class resolved to do as well as he could, and to work as hard as possible. He had come into class hoping to impress the tall, foreboding man whom he had seemed drawn to at the feast, only to have his hopes dashed within five minutes of beginning the class.

Since then, it had been an uphill battle to please Snape, just like it was an uphill battle to please Uncle Vernon.

At Privet Drive, everything he did was wrong. No questions. Most of the time, Uncle Vernon didn't even look at what he had did, be it schoolwork, house cleaning, or some task Petunia had dreamed up, before assuming it was bad and punishing Harry.

Harry winced, remembering his most recent punishment. He had blown up his aunt in a fit of rage, and hadn't had time to run before Uncle Vernon had grabbed him.

Harry shuddered, shaking his head as if to shake the memory out.

He sighed again. No time to dwell in the past.

He looked at the clock over the door. 9:45. He might as well get started toward the dungeons, then.

* * *

It had taken a lot of courage for Severus to write that letter, and a lot of cheerleading from Remus. Severus had used countless excuses, but after he had used them all, he had no choice.

After he sent the letter, he began to panic.

He paced around his office for two hours until Remus finally made him sit down.

"Now, Sev, it's almost 10:00. Harry'll be here soon. Are you ready?" Sev nodded, though everything inside him screamed no.

Severus had spent the better part of those two hours thinking about what to say, and he still didn't have a clue.

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be, Remus." he had asked Remus there for support, as he was sure both he and Harry would need it.

"Good. Because Harry's just outside the door," Remus said, pointing to the color and name over the doorway, announcing who was about to knock. Black letters spelling out 'Harry Potter/Snape' surrounded by an aura of both burgundy and dark green.

Severus stared. "It's official now, isn't it?" he asked Remus.

"It would seem so, Sev."

* * * *

Harry stood outside the door, hesitant to go in, afraid of what might happen if he crossed the threshold. He had spent the time walking down to the dungeons working himself into a frenzy, thinking about what might happen.

"Well, it's now or never..." he whispered to himself, raising his hand to knock.

He didn't even get that far before the door was pulled open.

"Come in, Mr. Potter."

* * * *

When Severus opened the door, the sight of those emerald green eyes staring up at him almost made him lose his nerve, and slam it closed again.

Instead, he heard himself tell the boy to come in, though he could have sworn he was too frightened to speak.

The child hurried into the room, and Severus noticed as he closed the door, that the boy's hair was lying flatter than usual. Funny, the things you notice when you're terrified.

Once inside the room, the child turned back to him, and Severus felt as though those eyes peirced his very soul.

"Er...Mr. Potter, you remember Professor Lupin." Severus said; anything to stop the boy from staring at him so.

Harry turned to Remus, who smiled warmly at him.

"Hello, Harry. I do believe we've met before."

Harry nodded, smiling a bit. "Yessir. Um, thanks for the chocolate, you know, on the train," Harry said nervously. "It really helped."

Remus smiled even more. "You're welcome, Harry, though you needn't thank me."

The three lapsed into silence after that, until Harry took the initiative.

"Um...you wanted me for something, Professor Snape?" he said tentatively, turning to Severus.

"Yes, I...I have something to tell you, Harry."

The boy's eyes widened at hearing Severus use his name.

"It's...how much do you know about your parents?" he asked.

Harry thought for a moment. "Not much. Just that my dad played quidditch, and was very good at Defense, and that my mum was very beautiful, and very brave." he said softly.

"Well, you are right in the latter part, Harry. Your mum was very beautiful, and very, very brave."

Harry beamed, making Severus want to smile as well. But soon Harry's smile faded.

"Is that what you called me here for, sir? To tell me about my mum?" Harry said.

Severus shook his head. "No, Harry, I called you here to tell you about your father."

Severus took a deep breath, and Harry looked at him eagerly, ready to hear anything that might let him know a bit more about his parents, who were as much a mystery to him as Arithmancy or Runes.

Severus almost lost his nerve right then and there, and would have if Remus had not been urging him on from his position behind Harry.

"Harry, your father was not, in fact, James Potter," Harry's brow furrowed in confusion. "Your father, is, in fact...me."

Harry's looked back and forth between Remus and Severus for an instant before bolting.

"Harry, wait!" Severus called after the boy as he ran from the classroom. He put his head in his hands, groaning.

"Remus, what have I done?" he said.

"Figure that out later, Sev. Right now, you need to go after Harry. Take this." Remus shoved a peice of parchment into his hand.

"What is it?"

"It's called the Marauder's Map. It belong to us back in the day. James helped me make it. It's a map of Hogwarts, except it shows people too. Just tap it with your wand and say: 'I solemnly swear I am up to no good.' Got it?"

Severus nodded.

"Good. Now go!" Remus said.

Already drawing his wand, Severus took off into the castle to find his son.