When he'd come to Hogwarts almost five years ago, it hadn't stayed a secret for long, not with Harry's middle name and jet-black hair. Despite the last name of Potter that his mother had apparently insisted on, he was definitely a Snape. He was no less a Snape than Kenai was, his stupid half brother who was three months younger than he was. They had the same hair, the same face even. The only difference was that Kenai was taller, stronger, well fed, and well loved. Heaven forbid if Kenai should ever come to school in the rags Harry appeared in each September, covered in bruises and looking half starved. And Heaven forbid if their father should ever throw any look less than contempt towards Harry.

At first Harry had believed it was because he had been placed in Gryffindor, while Kenai had gone straight to Slytherin. To an eleven year old mind it seemed plausible that this could be the cause for his father to loath him enough to assign detention on his first day of class, or to ignore him at every other opportunity. Harry probably would have kept on believing it if it hadn't been for Kenai pointing out to him that his father had left Harry with the Dursleys for 11 years and would continue to leave him there regardless of house placement. ‘Do you really think if he cared he would let you walk around looking like that? I mean really, come on, there's holes in your elephant jeans and tape around your glasses. He's glad you don't have our last name. You may look like a Snape, but don't kid yourself. You'll never be one.' It had been a harsh awakening for Harry, and since that first time Kenai had talked to him, his eyes had been opened, and he had realized how right his brother was.

Harry had further punished himself that first year hoping that while their father hated him for some unknown reason, that his brother would not. At every opportunity Harry had worked hard to befriend Kenai, even sending him a gift at Christmas time. No such gift had been returned however, and at every turn Kenai took the chance to laugh at Harry, ridicule him, try to turn his friends against him, and even bully him in good measure with the other Slytherins in their year. Harry had never cried so much in his whole life as he had done in his first year at Hogwarts.

If he had thought it would get better for him in his second year, he had been wrong. When he'd beaten Kenai on the dueling platform at the first dueling club meeting, their father had come down hard on him, giving him detention each day after that for a month for one little reason or another. He didn't have his hair combed right, his tie wasn't straight, there was a rip in his second-hand robes, he had brewed a potion wrong... the list never ended. Never mind the fact that Kenai had access to potions to make his hair lie a little flatter, or the fact that Harry'd never had a father to show him how to properly do up a tie, or someone to pay for new robes, or a Potions Master to tutor him all summer long in potions.

At least he had his friends though. Ron and Hermione had been great, and he'd had a crush on Ginny since his second year when she'd come to school. Sometimes in the summer he was allowed to visit the Weasley's, and they doted on him as they did their other children. He was even lucky enough to be friends with some of the other Gryffindors like Neville and a Ravenclaw in Ginny's year named Luna. Not any of them were popular, not like Kenai and his crowd, but they had each other, and without them, Harry would have run away a long time ago, and never come back.

Harry sighed as the train rolled northward towards his fifth year of torment, and Hermione sat in the seat next to him fussing about his black eye.

"Forget it," he said, waving her away. "It's nothing."

"But doesn't it hurt? I'll bet the trolley lady sells ointment or bruise balm."

"Just forget it, ok Hermione? I don't have the money."

Ron gave him a sympathetic look. His family didn't have a lot of money to go around either. As it stood, Harry had just enough money from his mother's vault to get him through seventh year if he really stretched it and continued to buy second hand things. Thankfully this year he'd gotten some of his books from the Weasleys, since they had two sets of everything from Fred and George being the same year in school.

Hermione bit her lip and looked like she wanted to ask how it had happened, but didn't, and Harry was grateful. He didn't want to talk about the Dursleys or his wretched summer. Every night he'd dreamt of Voldemort in the graveyard, and every night he saw Cedric fall lifeless to the hard, cold earth once again. Every night there was a new punishment to pay for waking Uncle Vernon. Last night's punishment had been the black eye, and Harry wished that instead he could have just been made to sleep out in the shed again. At least the shed was bigger than his cupboard. It was colder, and there were spiders, but he didn't have to worry about screaming in his sleep in the dead of night and waking the house up.

When Ron finally got Hermione off of the subject of Harry's health by involving her in a discussion on Transfiguration (which Harry was grateful for), Harry pulled out his tattered old journal. Taped in the front cover was a single worn picture of his mother holding him as a newborn baby, with a small, tired smile on her face. Severus was beside her, also with a smile, but Harry tried not to look at him as he opened the journal each day to write. There was no, dear journal nonsense, as some people often wrote. No, these were pages filled with the words he could never say to his secret father. They went all the way back to his first year. Hermione had given him the journal for Christmas and told him he could write everything down if he wanted. It was really the only thing that helped.

Perusing over old entries, he noted how his demeanor had changed across the pages from year to year. His first year ramblings were filled with idle excitement over learning magic and being in a new place, and about trying to become friends with Kenai. Enough of that nonsense. He flipped to his second year, and snorted at the hopeful words he found there. ‘Maybe someday I can do something to finally make you proud of me... I bet Kenai will like me then too.'

By his third year he had been less optimistic and had taken to writing about the different ways in which Kenai had found to torture him, and begun asking questions such as, ‘What was my mum like? Why didn't you stay together? Why do you hate me so much?'

And then there had been last year. It was hard having your own father and brother hate you. Add most of the school to that and it made up for the most miserable year yet. He had begun to pretend that his father was really reading the letters and offering him comfort, and had written all the things in there that he wanted to be comforted for. His last entry had been the night Cedric had died. ‘I need you more than anything, and you're not here. Why aren't you here?'

Harry unclipped the Muggle pen from the inside of the journal where he always kept it, and put the date on a new page. He wanted to write about his nightmares... even about how he had missed writing in the journal over the summer, but could not bring himself to talk about the last night of the Tri-Wizard tournament. Instead, he felt angry about the black eye, and decided to write about that.

‘Dear Dad. Bet you didn't know that they beat me at that rotten house where you sentenced me to. What would you do if I obliviated Kenai's memory and switched bodies with him with Polyjuice? Then he'd be the one living in a cupboard under the stairs, doing chores all day in the hot sun and getting a black eye for having nightmares in the night.'

The train began to slow, and Harry looked out the dark window. They were pulling into Hogsmead. Clipping the pen back to the journal, he stood and put on his robes over his Muggle clothes and stuck his wand in his back pocket.

Somehow he got separated from Ron and Hermione on the busy platform in the cool, damp air, and ended up missing the carriage they were on. He ended up instead on a carriage with Draco Malfoy, another straggler who'd missed a carriage with his group of friends.

As the carriage jumped and began to move forward, Draco eyed him carefully, especially his black eye. After a good five minutes of silence, he asked, "Why do you keep coming back?"

Harry frowned. Draco had never been nice to him, but he didn't run in the same group that Kenai did, despite being in the same year and house. He had also never been quite as bad to Harry as Kenai had been, and Harry considered his answer to him carefully.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know how you can stay with them being the way they are to you... Kenai and... your dad I mean." Draco gave another meaningful look to Harry's black eye and Harry looked away momentarily.

"They didn't do that."

"But they left you where somebody did it."

"Well where the hell am I supposed to go?" Harry suddenly bit out. In his third year he'd secretly applied to Durmstrang and gotten accepted, but within the acceptance letter was a note saying that he needed a parent or guardian to officially enroll him. The Dursley's would never do it, and neither would Severus Snape.

"I was just curious was all," Draco said, and turned away for the rest of the trip up the dark drive.

When they had finally reached the stone steps to the Entrance Hall, the last ones to arrive, Harry climbed carefully off of the carriage, not wanting to aggravate any of his other new injuries, and made his way up the stairs. Before he could make it inside however, a shadow fell over him from the bright light spilling out. He looked up and paled.

"Fighting were we Potter? Best schedule a detention for tonight. Go and find Mr. Filch while your peers are at the feast." His father strode away, not even looking back as Harry's shoulders slumped forward. This would have been his first real meal in almost two weeks.

Later that night, after three hours of grueling detention, which consisted of cleaning the boy's loo on three floors, Harry dropped onto his four-poster in Gryffindor tower. Thoughts of sleep filled his weary mind, but thoughts of hate filled it also, and he pulled the journal and pen from his robe pocket.

‘Bet you didn't know I applied and got accepted to Durmstrang in my third year, did you dad? I just wanted to get away from you.

P.S. I hate you.'

Then he promptly fell asleep, drifting into nightmares of Cedric being murdered again and again, because Harry had messed up and taken the cup with him.

Ron picked up two apples and handed them to his sleepy friend, who had tried to eat as much as he could, but was unable after a summer with so little food. "Here mate." Harry took them and tucked them away in his bag. This way he would be able to have small snacks throughout the day and reorient his body to eating regularly again.

"Drats."

Harry glanced over at Ron, who was going over their timetable for the year. "Again?"

"Like always, nothing changes. Maybe that Umbridge woman will change us having to have classes with Slytherin... especially Potions." Harry's friends knew just how difficult Potions class was for him. It was like a double whammy. First Severus would compliment Kenai's potion skills to no end, along with perhaps Draco or another Slytherin, and occasionally Hermione, but he would always end the lesson with some sort of derogatory comment to Harry about his brewing skills. Once the man had even made Harry sit next to Kenai for an entire week to ‘observe how a natural composes a potion.' It was meant to be torture and humiliation, but it was educational. Harry learned more about his father and brother in that week from Kenai's low antagonizing voice than he had known his whole life. ‘Oh, didn't you know my father has a mastery in Potions as well as Occlumency? Me being his son, it's only natural that I'm a natural at these things as well you know. But I couldn't expect you to understand, seeing as how you don't have any parents.' Harry shuddered as he remembered the taunting.

"We'd better get going then," Hermione said anxiously. "Potions is first and I'd rather get it over with."

"I'd rather go back to bed," Harry said as he failed to stifle a yawn. They stood up and made their way out into the Great Hall, where many students mulled around waiting for classes to start.

They had just reached the entrance to the Dungeons when someone tugged on Harry's sleeve to stop him, and he turned to find Draco Malfoy, half concealed behind a suit of armor bearing the Slytherin crest.

Harry stared at him blankly, and Draco took in his black eye again, before saying quietly, "Maybe you ought to get that eye looked at in the Hospital Wing."

Shooting a questioning look to Ron, who gave him an ‘I don't know' shrug in return, Harry said to Draco, "It's fine." He made to move off with his friends, but Draco grabbed his wrist again.

"No, seriously, you look really ill. I'd go to the Hospital Wing... you'll probably miss Potions but you can get a note."

Harry crossed his arms and tried to read in the other boy's eyes whatever it was he was trying to tell him. It was then that he could swear he heard Draco's voice in his head saying, ‘Veritaserum you stupid idiot. He's going to make someone test our potions today.'

Arms dropping to his sides, Harry's eyes widened. He wasn't sure what had just happened, but with another meaningful look from Draco, he turned to his friends and said, "I uh, I think I'm feeling ill. I'll be in the Hospital Wing." He hurried off then, leaving Draco to fill in Ron and Hermione if he chose to. He had no idea if they would really be brewing Veritaserum that day or not, but Harry didn't want to be there to be a guinea pig if they did.

Madam Pomfrey gave him some bruise balm to rub on his black eye (and on all the other secret bruises he had that he hadn't shown her), and let him lie down since he wasn't ‘feeling well'. She had given him a sympathetic look however when she glanced down at the timetable still clutched in his hand and noticed he had Potions first off.

"Perhaps you'll feel better in a couple of hours dear."

Grateful that she understood, he took the time to take a nap, and left for Defense class when she woke him an hour and a half later. Ron and Hermione were waiting for him outside the Defense classroom a few floors down.

"Harry, it's really good that you skipped today," Hermione said. Ron nodded and ignored how incredible it was for Hermione to condone skipping a class.

"What happened?" Harry asked, voice low as he saw a group of Slytherins in their year approaching, Kenai included.

"We made Veritaserum Harry... he tested it on Neville."

Harry let his head fall back against the corridor wall and let out a low sigh, shooting Draco Malfoy a thankful glance as he came to stand in line a few people behind him. Draco gave a small nod, and then acted as though he hadn't even noticed Harry was there at all.

"How did you know Harry?"

Hermione had her hand on his arm to get his attention again.

"I don't know, I'll explain later," he said, as Kenai came to stand before him with a smirk on his face.

"Skipping classes Potter? Guess who swore you'd be serving detentions all week."

Harry looked to Ron for confirmation, and he nodded, but Harry would rather serve a week's worth of detentions than be embarrassed by being made to spill his guts in front of a classroom full of people, especially one which contained two who hated him very much.

"Oh well, maybe you'll learn to shape up sometime then. My father always says I should set a good example for those less fortunate." Kenai stood taller then to a few laughs from his friends, mainly from Crabbe, Theodore Nott, and Pansy Parkinson.

There was a very tiny cough at that moment that made the class turn to find a short, chubby woman dressed all in pink, with curly brown hair. Ron nudged Harry in the ribs then to let him know this was the ‘meddling' woman from the Ministry, and Harry ignored him.

"Hello class. My name is Professor Dolores Umbridge. Won't you please come in?"

Hermione being at the front of the line lead the way, Harry and Ron behind her. Kenai tried to push his way in front of Harry before he made the door, but a pudgy hand reached out to stop him.

"Excuse me, Mr. ah...?"

"Snape," Kenai supplied.

"Mr. Snape, I do not allow cutting in my class period. The rest of your peers were so nicely lined up outside the door, waiting ever so patiently, and I would prefer you do the same."

Inside the classroom, already in a seat, Harry and Ron sniggered even Draco smirked from his seat across the aisle by the window, at the look Kenai wore on his face.

"Would you please show me how to properly line up then Mr. Snape?" the sickly sweet voice asked from the doorway. There was no one else to line up with him now, but after some muttering, the heard Umbridge say, "That's much better, thank you," before she came into the room, followed by a red faced Kenai, clearly embarrassed.

"Now then, shall we get started?" Umbridge asked sweetly from the front of the room.

Harry wasn't the only one dismayed to hear a rehash of her lecture the night before, or to find that they would not be practicing defense openly that year, but rather, learning the ‘theory' of it instead, as it was safer.

There were many grumbles to this, and Harry was just about to point out that they needed to practice when Kenai's hand shot up into the air.

"Yes Mr. Snape?"

"Excuse me Professor maam," he said, and Harry could tell he was trying to charm her. "I wholeheartedly agree with learning the theory of a subject so that we can remain safe at all times in a learning institution, but I was wondering perhaps if there would come a time in the future when we will be allowed to practice what we're learning?"

"Why whatever for? You are so very safe here at this school."

Again Harry was about to speak out, but Kenai looked annoyed, and said, "I was lead to believe that there are dark forces in the world that we might need to protect ourselves against, should the need arise."

"Such as? I know of no such dark forces. I am a Ministry Employee, and if there were any such forces to be reckoned with, the Ministry would know about it, and dispatch trained professionals to deal with the issue."

"What about the newly returned Dark Lord?" Neville piped up with unusual courage. The Slytherins all tensed up at mention of this, most likely because they knew it was true, Harry thought, but Umbridge clasped her hands together and looked around the room with the same smile.

"Mr. Longbottom is it? Please do raise your hand." Neville raised his hand, and when she called on him, he repeated the question, to a nod from Kenai.

"And where would you be getting such information from?"

No one needed to say it out loud with the stories the Prophet had published that summer, mostly trying to defame Harry and Dumbledore, but Kenai gave a short glance back at Harry anyway. It wasn't one of loathing, but rather fear. A fear that stated he clearly believed Harry, and they were all in danger.

Something caught in Harry's chest then as his half brother who lived to torture him turned back around, and Harry looked down to his desk. With the amount of people who hated him this year, and the amount he had encountered on the train who had stopped by just to call him a liar, it was something of an encouragement to have someone... a brother, believe you.

The glance was all that Umbridge needed however, and she rounded on Harry, who was determined to stay out of trouble this year, the hope that he could somehow gain his father's approval at some unknown date always lingering at the back of his mind.

"Did you have something to say about this Mr. Potter?"

Harry bit his lip and continued to look at his desk. He did desperately want to set his story straight and regain some of the confidence people once put in him, but at what price? While this woman's voice remained sweet, he could tell that there was something dangerous lurking just beneath the surface.

"The papers say he returned," Harry supplied, trying not to sound defiant.

"I see," she said quietly, thinking out her next move. "And what do you have to say about it?"

Harry looked up into her eyes and swallowed. "Who am I to say? I don't work at the Ministry and have no authority over such matters." He heard Hermione let out an audible sigh next to him and felt her relax. In front of him, their Professor seemed to be able to find no fault in his answer.

"Well said Mr. Potter, well said indeed."

"He's back and you know it!" Kenai had suddenly stood up, fuming, and Umbridge had spun on her heel to face him down.

"Mr. Snape, first you disrespect your peers in the hallway, and now you disrespect me by lying outright to my face? I am beginning to think that having a parent who works at this school is not as beneficial to your discipline as one would have thought. I'm afraid I will have to assign you detention for being disrespectful."

"Professor." Shit. Harry didn't know what had made him do it, but his hand was raised and he had blurted out the word Professor before he could stop himself.

"Yes Mr. Potter?"

"I'm sorry that Kenai disrespected you in front of the class... I'm sure he was just overreacting. But I gave him permission to step in front of me in line before you came out of the classroom."

She eyed him carefully.

"And why would you do this Mr. Potter?"

Harry swallowed, and Hermione had her hand over her eyes next to him, which was always a sign that Harry or Ron were digging themselves a deep, deep whole. The rest of the class, including Kenai were all giving him wondrous looks now as he sat quietly, wondering yet again why he had decided to stick up for the brat across the aisle and down one seat.

"He's my brother maam."

He didn't know what he expected then from her or from the class, but a chuckle from the Professor and the waving of her hands as if it were a silly notion wasn't it.

"Oh Mr. Potter, I did not imagine from the articles I've read about you that you were so funny."

Harry swallowed rather hard again, face turning red. "It's true Professor," he said, and she stopped laughing, looking miffed now to say the least.

"Mr. Potter, I do not tolerate lying in my presence. You are clearly not related Mr. Snape, and while I appreciate that you may wish to flaunt your Gryffindor courage in order to save him, this is not the appropriate time."

Hermione was tugging lightly on Harry's sleeve repeatedly to stop him from going on, but he was trying to ignore her and the sinking feeling that he would take Kenai's place in detention if he kept going. Having people ignore the fact that he was Severus Snape's son was a sore spot for him however, and he couldn't let it drop. How could she not know? They looked so much alike!

"I'm telling the truth Professor," he said again, trying not to sound disrespectful. He vaguely registered the fact that Draco was now giving him a look and shaking his head now too, trying to tell him to stop, but it was clearly too late.

"I see. You will be serving detention with me tonight then Mr. Potter. Not only have you lied to me repeatedly, three times to be exact, but you have disrespected the memory of your dead parents, and I cannot allow either to take place without punishment."

"Yes maam." Harry slunk down in his chair and caught the last incredulous glance from Kenai before he resolutely tuned out the rest of the lesson. This was turning out to be the start of one fantastic year, he told himself grumpily, and he wondered if he'd break his record of number of detentions before Christmas.

* * *

Harry wasn't sure what to think about this Umbridge woman. Yes, she had annoyingly called him a liar and given him detention (and forgotten about Kenai's detention in the process), but at lunch she swooped down on the Slytherin table and reprimanded Kenai for a lack of table manners.

Ron had laughed heartily upon seeing Kenai's red face across the hall as Umbridge berated him (likely payback for his comments in class), but Harry watched intently as their father scowled at the woman from the Head table.

In the hallway, Harry lingered after lunch to hear what the man would say to her. Loath as he was to admit it, he wanted to know what his father thought about all things. He'd rather forget about what his father thought about him, but he hoped to gain insight to the inner-workings of the man by knowing his views on everything else.

Deftly hidden behind the same suite of armor Draco had hidden behind earlier that morning, Harry listened as Severus silkily addressed Professor Umbridge.

"Might I have a word?"

She stared up at him, he being so very much taller than she was, and said, "Why of course, what is it I can help you with today Severus?"

He gave her a priceless sneer at the notion that she could help him with anything, and continued on, "I was merely curious as to the conversation you held with my son at Slytherin table a few minutes ago."

"My apologies Severus, who is your son again? I spoke to several at Slytherin table today... what wonderful students you have I might add."

"Indeed," he said, and Harry could tell that he knew as well as she did that she had only spoken to Kenai.

"Kenai Snape."

"Oh, yes, that's right. While I was at Slytherin I kindly pointed out a few pointers on how to have better table manners was all. Even from the staff table I could see that he was being very rude to his peers with his eating habits."

Another glare, and Harry was surprised the woman hadn't shrank back from it yet. "I was under the impression that his table manners were amongst the best at Slytherin table."

She tilted her head then with a sweet smile, as if he were a little daft, and said, "Oh dear. Perhaps his tutelage in the subject was lacking. I'm afraid I have gone and corrected the problem however, and he has been assigned to write a one foot essay on proper table manners due tonight at nine. Perhaps if there are others lacking at your table I could assign the same remedial measures?"

Severus held up his hand to forestall her. "No Dolores, that will be quite all right. If there are any in my house who are lacking in this area, I will see to it that the issue is resolved."

"Very well indeed," she said, and turned to leave, but she turned again then, and said, "Oh, and I would prefer if your son... Kenai was it? wrote his essay on his own. I'd hate to take away points for cheating." She left for good that time, up the stairs and out of sight, and in the shadows, Harry watched his father fume.

Good, he thought. I'm not the only one who hates you.

* * *

"Professor?"

She'd just told him to do lines... not just any lines, but lines with a quill that carved the words into the back of his hand and used his own blood for ink on parchment.

"Oh yes Mr. Potter. Didn't I tell you that I reserve a special punishment for those who feel the need to lie? Perhaps after 200 lines you will be straightened out a bit. I do feel so sorry for you after all, not having parents to set you straight, and so I'm afraid I have taken this duty upon myself. You will thank me later."

Harry bit his lip at the sweet voice and looked back down at the first line on the paper. He was not going to enjoy this. What would she do if he refused? Who knew what she was capable of if this was her idea of helping him. ‘I must not tell lies.' The second line was carved into his hand and he shut his eyes tight with the pain. After ten more lines he idly wondered what would happen if he dropped the evil quill and bolted from the room to find his father. Would he tell the evil woman that Harry was indeed his son? Would he save him from a disfiguring punishment?

He sighed and set to work again. No, he probably wouldn't, despite the fact that Harry had taken this detention in Kenai's place. The only thing that got him through the next 189 lines was mentally replaying Severus sticking up for Kenai in the Entrance Hall that afternoon, only Harry had replaced Kenai's name with his own, and had changed the words around a little.

‘I will not have you mutilating my son's hand.'

‘Oh why whatever do you mean? He's not your son, just a boy with no parents whom I'm trying to help.'

‘Can you not see the resemblance woman? He is my firstborn child! I love him and you will not touch him again!'

"Well well Mr. Potter, those lines have set in nicely I see."

Harry looked up, brought out of his make believe land where he was loved and wanted, and where he could feel safe. Looking down at his hand, he was surprised and disgusted to find that the lines in his hand were no longer healing, but were bleeding openly now... all over the desk in fact.

"Set my special quill on the desk if you please, and you may go back to your dorms, keeping in mind a lesson well learned."

Harry stood up without a word.

"Oh, and Mr. Potter?"

He turned, injured member cradled in his other hand.

"I'll expect you back tomorrow night for the rest of the lines."

"Professor?"

"Weren't you keeping count dear boy? You only did a hundred."

Harry paled and left the room.

He had only made it down the darkened hall and around the corner when he bumped into someone rather solid. Looking up he found Kenai, roll of parchment in hand.

"Watch it!" the boy snapped, before looking up to see Harry, and then down to the hand that was still bleeding furiously all over the place, despite Harry's best attempts to keep the blood contained.

"What- what happened to your hand?" He was pale, and Harry wondered if his brother was squeamish at the sight of blood. Harry wondered a lot of things about Kenai that he'd never been given the chance to find out.

"Detention with Professor Umbridge," Harry said, gritting his teeth through the pain. "100 lines with a blood quill and I'm to come back tomorrow night."

Feeling a little dizzy then, Harry made his way past the trouble that had gotten him into this mess in the first place, and said, "Good luck," behind him, leaving a stunned half brother in silence.

‘Dear Dad, you owe me for protecting your precious son from a bloody injury. I must not tell lies. Love Harry.'

There was no denying the fact that Harry was distracted. He looked over to where Ron pointed and saw a glimmer of gold, hovering above the goal posts his friend guarded, and took off after it. It was only practice, but he couldn't afford to think like that with their match against Slytherin in just another week. Kenai was the Seeker for his house, and Harry hated losing to him. The other boy already had so much of what Harry wanted, and Harry was determined to be the best on the field regardless of injury to himself.

Flying off of his broom in a spectacular move he'd never tried before, Harry leapt over the highest goal post, Ron's eyes following him all the way, snatched the fluttering Snitch from the air, and landed, only just, on his broom on the other side.

"Careful Harry!" Fred shouted over from a ways off, bat in his hand. "Mum's already having a fit about her little Ronnykin's being on the team. She'll kills us if you get hurt too."

"Shut up!" Ron shouted as he dodged the Bludger George had just sent his way. The seventh year Keeper they had started out with that year had been forced to drop the team because his parents thought he should be spending his time studying instead, and so had opened up the spot for Ron, who was determined to make the team. Luckily he had, and Harry was amused at the fact that there were now four Weasley's on the team if you counted Ginny, who was a backup Chaser if any of their Chasers fell ill on game day.

Throwing the Snitch back into the air and letting himself lose sight of it again, Harry watched as Ginny crashed into George on purpose for sending the menacing black ball at Ron, and Ron crossed his arms with a smart look on his face. God how Harry loved the Weasleys. What he wouldn't give to have even a fraction of what they had. Two ninths of what they had actually.

"Come on!" Ron shouted at Harry just moments later. "Get into it!"

Harry looked once again to where his friend was pointing, and sped up to take the Snitch from its place in the sky once again.

* * *

If Harry had thought that Kenai had been better to him in the few days following the 200 lines and Harry's mutilated hand, it had worn off rather quickly. The taunts had picked up again, as well as the minor bullying as the game drew nearer. Like it always was before an upcoming game between Gryffindor and Slytherin, there was attempt after attempt to intimidate the other team, but especially considering Harry and Kenai.

Harry was content to mind his own business. He believed a game should be won and lost on the field, not in the castle before the battle (did he mention he was bad at chess?). Kenai on the other hand was all for trying to rattle Harry and make him a bundle of nerves so that perhaps on game day he would foul up, or else pretend to be sick so that Kenai could play against the backup Seeker instead (which also happened to be Ginny).

"What's the matter Potter? Afraid to fall off your broom if a little accidental magic gets sent your way Saturday?" The taunt had come from Kenai after a forceful little gust of air from his brother's wand behind his back had made Harry jump in the middle of the hallway, startled. He glared and kept moving in the other direction. He had been trained well enough at the Dursleys to keep his mouth closed in any case if he were taunted, or else face the consequences, and it was a lesson well learned here. He didn't need his father rounding the corner to find ‘famous Harry Potter' taunting his precious one of a kind son.

"Come on Harry," Ron said, dragging him into Charms class. "He's just a jerk, don't listen to him."

"I'm tired of just not listening to him though. You'd think he'd be grateful that I don't just let Umbridge drag him into detention." Harry glanced down at his hand again as was habit now, and scowled at the still red scars there. A phial of something yellow had mysteriously appeared on his nightstand before he'd gone to bed that first night of detention, with a label that read: For Scarring, and he had used it to miraculous effect, but the scaring was sure to be there nonetheless. When Harry had asked Ron and Hermione about it the next day, they didn't know anything about it, and Harry liked to think that his secret father secretly loved him enough to send it to him. Unfortunately Severus had been just as rotten as always the next day however, and that notion was dispelled from Harry's mind.

"Well, let him get dragged into detention next time," Ron said. "See how he likes it."

"Just see how he likes it when we win on Saturday," Harry huffed, crossing his arms as Professor Flitwick came in to start the lesson.

"Just keep your head in the game," Ron advised, and Harry stored that advice away for later when he'd really need it.

* * *

It was sunny and cold Saturday morning. Harry breathed deep the cool, fresh air and noted that there was no wind, as he stood outside the front doors of the castle. This was a perfect day for Quidditch.

Several people brushed past him roughly, nearly knocking him down the front steps, and he narrowed his eyes when he found that it was a smirking Kenai and a few other members of Slytherin team. You just wait, he thought to himself. I'll be laughing when I've got the Snitch.

Harry headed down the steps and out across the open lawn. The rest of the student body wouldn't be coming down for a while yet, but the teams generally went down to the locker rooms early for a pep talk and to get amped up about the match. Harry didn't know why he had lingered overlong in the hall, but he was the last one from Gryffindor team to head out.

He was almost to the pitch, when he heard a familiar voice behind him. "Son!"

Almost not daring to believe his own ears, he turned to find Severus jogging across the lawn a short ways behind him holding a green duffle bag. He stopped upon seeing Harry there however. There was an odd look on his face, uncertainty almost but not quite. He held out the bag toward Harry then and said, "Give this to my boy will you? He left this in the Great Hall."

Harry reached out on autopilot and took the bag mutely, and Severus turned away, giving a brief glance back at Harry, and then hurrying back up towards the castle with those long strides of his. Harry wasn't sure why he noted that the man wasn't wearing a billowing cloak today, but he did, and then stared down at the emerald green duffle bag with the Slytherin crest on it.

"Here, give it to me."

Harry looked up to see Draco, hand outstretched.

"Huh?"

He motioned with his fingers and Harry handed the bag over. He'd nearly forgotten that Draco was on Slytherin team as well as a Chaser. He'd tried for Seeker, but Kenai had beaten him out, no doubt with Severus' words to the team Captain Flint in their second year.

"I'll take it to him. They'd be mad at you for going into our changing room anyway."

Harry nodded, and swallowed hard then.

"Show him on the field that you're better than he is. Don't let him pull that junk on you." With that, Draco turned, and was gone, leaving Harry standing there quietly, feeling sorry for himself. Severus had obviously been mistaken when he'd seen Harry's back, thinking he was Kenai. If they looked alike, why couldn't the man just accept him as his own?

Ron groaned inwardly a few minutes later as Harry came into the Gryffindor changing room with a faraway look on his face, and did some fast thinking. He whispered something to Fred who disappeared, and then had George help him transfigure something before he brought Harry's uniform shirt over to him.

"Here, put this on."

Harry frowned at the name clearly visible on the back. 7 Snape.

"I'm not in the mood for jokes," Harry said, trying to hand the jersey back to his friend, but Ron held out a hand and pushed the shirt back towards Harry.

"Neither am I. If your head's not in the game it's our job to make sure Kenai's won't be either. That's why you're going out there today as a Snape, and Fred just went to tell Lee Jordan to announce you with a new name today."

Something came over him then and he broke out in a fit of giggles, drawing attention from the others in the room, especially the Weasleys.

"Alright there Harry?" Ginny asked. Harry flushed at being addressed by her, but nodded, and held up the shirt.

"Guess Ron thought I needed a leg up." Something about seeing the name on the back of the jersey made him feel marginally better. He wasn't sure if it was knowing that he was going to rile Kenai and Severus for once, or if it was something else altogether, but he was going to fly with it and make it happen. He pulled it on over his head and suited up, determined to fly out with his head high, and end the game in the same way.

Katie Bell, the new team Captain, went over some last minute tactics with them, including making sure Ginny was ready to take Angelina Johnson's place as she was sick this morning, and then sent them out onto the field with words to make Oliver proud, as he would be sitting in the stands today, lamenting the drop in grades that had made his parents pull him from the team.

On the field, broom at the ready, Harry smiled across the circle of players at Kenai, who gave him a questioning look as Madam Hooch walked out onto the field, and Lee Jordan began announcing the names of the players from high in the stands.

"There have been some changes in the lineup today Hogwarts fans! Slytherin has substituted Jeremiah Talbot for Zane Harper in the Beater number two position." Lee then listed off the normal first string Slytherin team names and positions, and moved on to Gryffindor. "On the Gryffindor team, Ginny Weasley has taken over for Angelina Johnson! Ronald Weasley is the new permanent Keeper, followed by the ever famous Fred and George Weasley as the dynamic duo with the Beater bats! Harry tuned out through the listing of names until he heard Lee say, "And the star of Gryffindor team, our very own Seeker, Harry Severus Snape!"

Harry had a suspicion that Fred had done more than run up and tell Lee to announce his name differently, but perhaps also to get as many people as he could to cheer as loudly as they could instead of murmur at the change.

It seemed that Ron's plan was working in any case, because Kenai looked confused, and glanced up at the stands trying to catch their father's eyes in a sea of faraway faces. What Harry wouldn't give to see his father's face at that moment. Whatever he thought, it served him right for making Harry carry Kenai's bag.

Just to add insult to injury, Harry turned towards the staff box, high up in the stands, and waved as hard as he could, and then turned to see Kenai's eyes ever wide.

It wasn't long before the whistle blew, and Harry was off like a shot from a canon.

Trying to remain focused, but being unable because he really did want to know what his father thought, Harry searched lazily for the Snitch, almost forgetting about his desire to win. Every now and again he caught a piece of the commentary and score, and drifted back to his own thoughts again as he circled the Pitch.

Forty-five minutes into the game, almost as if he were sensing his friends' frantic thoughts rather than hearing his yells, Harry turned to see Ron pointing frantically towards the staff box. His eyes followed and heart dropped as he saw Kenai hovering in front of the stands, not paying attention as the Snitch hovered right over his head, and Severus shouted frantically for him to just look up.

Almost as if in slow motion, Harry leaned flat to his broom, and aimed himself directly for Kenai. He didn't know what his brother must have thought as he hurtled towards the air at him. Perhaps that he'd finally gone mad and was looking to do a kamikaze on him with no regard to his own life. The fact was either way that Harry was sure to collide with him, and Kenai's eyes were wider than Harry had ever seen.

Tucking his knees up to his chest, and readying his feet on the broom handle instead of in the stirrups where they usually rested, Harry kept his aim true, and just before they were set to collide, Harry leapt fantastically off of his broom, doing a back flip over Kenai, snatching the Snitch from just above his head, and landing on his broom on the other side.

In awe the crowd was silenced, until Harry held up the fluttering ball for the world to see, and a deafening cheer rose up from the stands.

Just as with most things in his life concerning his secret father, Harry didn't know why he did what he did next. He turned and stared his father straight in the eye, seeing as how the man was at the edge of the staff box not ten feet away. Then he took the Snitch and threw it down towards the ground, and shook his head. That was his life, he mused to the roar from the crowd that had not yet ceased. His father had thrown it away. And then, in time to see a black blur hurtling towards him, Harry turned and was caught high in the chest with a Bludger that a Slytherin had sent his way in anger, and was tossed backwards off of his broom, hurtling towards the ground.

He didn't know why he was still awake when he landed, but he was, and he felt many of his bones crunch with the impact. His vision swam before him, and he prayed for unconsciousness, but it never came. He wished it had, so that he didn't have to know that his father never came down to assess the damage his secret son's body had taken. He never came by the Hospital Wing either, not even in the dead of night.

‘Dear Severus. Why do you hate me so much? I do everything so you'll be proud of me, and you only hate me more. I wouldn't wish this on anyone.'

"I don't know how it is that you didn't die. It happened so fast, and then right at the end you slowed, but only just. There's still a muddy indentation where you landed in the field, although it's hardened now."

"Maybe we should go cement it and make it permanent," Harry said to a questioning look from Ginny, who didn't know anything about mixing or pouring cement. Harry wished he didn't know anything about it either, but the Dursleys had made him pour a new driveway last summer when he'd cut his finger gardening and dripped some blood on the old one on his way to the hose.

"I saw him outside the Hospital Wing you know, just lingering, like he was trying to decide whether or not to come in."

"Who?"

"Kenai. You should have seen just how pale he was as the Headmaster and other Professors rushed to you lying on the field. I'm just glad you're ok Harry." She kept saying that, and kept saying his name, and he shot her a look and then turned red again.

Overcome with some sort of need to feel manly then instead of just sitting there with uncontrollable red cheeks, Harry leaned back and put his hands behind his head. "What, this injury? It's nothing, really. Madam Pomfrey says I can go later today." He glanced to see if she thought it was a manly statement, but when she smirked he turned red again and dropped his hands.

"What?"

"Well, it's just that you... well it's cute when you turn red like that." She hesitated and then said, "Hermione says you only do it around me."

He could actually feel his face and ears burning now, and Ginny giggled at the site of him.

"Well maybe I like you," Harry said, wishing Hermione would have kept her mouth shut, but Ron had already warned him that this is the way girls were, Hermione and Ginny especially.

Now it was Ginny's turn to blush, and it was a little more noticeable under her already flaming hair.

"Well maybe I like you back," she hedged, and took Harry's hand, something he had still been trying to gain the courage to do. Sure, he could royally piss off Voldemort and not bat an eye, kill his 300 pound monster snake, stab the copy of him that had been hiding in a diary for 50 years, and face him down in a graveyard... that was all in a day's work, but he couldn't manage to make himself speak right or to reach over and take Ginny's hand without her doing it first, could he? Oh yeah, very manly Harry.

She giggled and said, "You're doing it again."

Not knowing what else to do, he laughed a little too and gripped her hand too, feeling anxious about his hand feeling warm and sweaty all of a sudden.

"Does this mean we're going out?"

"I don't know," she said in a very Luna like way. "You haven't asked me yet."

"Will you go out with me?"

She blushed again and gripped his hand tighter. "Maybe I'll just have to stay in with you first and see where that goes." She scooted her chair closer to his bed then and leaned over to put her head on his chest. He was sure then that she would hear his heart, as it worked on beating it's way right out of his chest.

‘Dear Severus, I wish I could ask you for advice about girl stuff, but I'm sure you'd never let me do that. They're so very confusing, and I have fallen right into their trap, turning red and sweaty, and fumbling all over my tongue. Wouldn't it be so much easier if you could just tell me what mistakes to avoid beforehand?'

* * *

Ron was not angry, and for this Harry was eternally grateful. He did not want to go at life alone without his best friend. Because Ron and Hermione were dating, Harry knew from experience that if he and Ron were on the outs, than so were he and Hermione. Ron was fine with him dating Ginny however, with a stern word to Harry in private not to be producing little Snape Potter Weasleys while they were still in school. Yes, he actually told Harry that, to much embarrassment on Harry's part, but he imagined that perhaps Ron had gotten the same lecture from his parents when he informed them he and Hermione were dating. He could just see Mrs. Weasley telling him not to make little Weasley Grangers until they were married, or something of the sort.

The embarrassing conversation was well worth it now however, he thought to himself, as he sat with fingers entwined with Ginny in the common room three days after he'd been released from the Hospital Wing. He could sit here forever with her, he thought, not letting the outside world butt into his life.

Unfortunately for Harry, the outside world had already butted itself in and made itself right at home, namely Professor Umbridge, the toad woman from the Ministry.

"I can't believe she won't let us practice any of this... I mean, I don't understand any of the essays she's had us writing about how the magic works." Ron grumbled over his essay before he crumpled it up and tossed it into the fireplace, watching it burn with satisfaction. "Just one more failing paper mum will never get to see," he said as if the fire had made a job well done.

"We really do need to be practicing," Hermione hedged with a glance at Harry and then a meaningful look at Ron. "With the Ministry disappearance and those Dementors they caught lurking around London making the Muggles afraid."

Harry nodded and Ginny tightened her grip on his hand then. She was the only one aside from the journal that Harry had been telling his nightmares of Voldemort to lately. He had been witnessing all sorts of atrocities he had ordered, including Muggle hunting.

"We could start a club," Ron suggested then. "Like the dueling club in second year. I bet we could get Professor McGonagall to approve it."

Looking up at this, Harry thought it was a fairly smart idea. If she wouldn't teach them, then they would teach themselves. Harry already had a list of spells he'd picked up that no Defense teacher had ever taught them, and he was sure others had similar spells to share.

"That sounds fun," said Neville then, listening in from a couch by the fire. "I bet Professor McGonagall knows lots of defense spells."

"I was thinking more about something student lead," Hermione said with another look at Harry.

"What, me?" He pointed at his chest.

"Why not? You've been up against... well, you know who so many times now that you're sure to have tips that will help us in battle. That is why we need to practice after all, isn't it?"

Harry sighed. There was life knocking on his forehead. Ginny leaned into him though, and he felt at ease with the situation.

"If you can get it approved by McGonagall, I'll think about it."

Hermione and his other friends grinned. "Good, I'd hoped you'd say that."

* * *

"Magical Decree Number One From The Hogwarts High Inquisitor Dolores Jane Umbridge: No student clubs shall hereafter be authorized, and all previously authorized student clubs, gatherings, associations, and teams shall be disbanded immediately, with the exception of the four house Quidditch teams, which will henceforth be supervised by the High Inquisitor at every practice."

Ron gagged as Harry read the decree allowed that Filch had just nailed high on the wall above the doors leading into the Great Hall.

"Fantastic," Harry said. "That shot that plan."

"But Professor McGonagall just approved us for a dueling club yesterday!" Ron said, trying to sound angry but coming off more whiny than anything else.

"And, look what appears today," Harry said, pointing up at the decree. "She really doesn't want us learning to fight. Because if we're learning then the Ministry is wrong and Voldemort can't really be back. UGH!"

Harry grunted as something solid collided with him and he glared at Kenai as he pushed past. "Don't say his name!" he hissed angrily, and continued on his way into the Great Hall for lunch.

"I wonder if we could get away with- UGH" Ron grunted halfway through his sentence then as Harry elbowed him hard at the sight of Umbridge coming down the grand staircase.

"Did you have something you wanted to say?" she said ever so politely (in a gagging sort of way) to Harry, batting her eyelashes.

Harry shook his head, mouth firmly clamped down, and she smiled widely, head tilted, and said, "Oh, I am so very glad I was able to help you learn a lesson Mr. Potter. You have just made my day. One point to Gryffindor!" She left then and Ron glared darkly at her back.

"I'm tempted to do something nasty to Snape just to lose that ugly point she gave us," Ron said, arms crossed.

"Five points from Gryffindor for the mere thought Weasley," Snape said roughly from behind as he separated the two to get into the Great Hall. Ron actually stuck his tongue out at the man, but he didn't see as he hadn't looked back. No, he wouldn't either, because then he'd have to see his firstborn spawn. That is what I must be after all, Harry thought, just spawn, not even worthy of a second glance... or a first.

"As I was saying," Ron continued, glancing around to be sure they were alone, but Harry held up a hand to stop him.

"I know what you were saying. Work on finding a space big enough for us to practice, and I'll work on a way to let everyone know in secret." With this, he glanced up at the decree on the wall, and noted in tiny writing at the bottom, that punishments for breaking this one rule included lines with Professor Umbridge. Fantastic, he thought again, clenching his scarred hand subconsciously. Always digging myself another bloody hole.

* * *

"Psst. Potter."

Harry turned around to squint into the darkness, where a blond head appeared from behind a statue of an ugly witch with three eyes and a horn growing from the side of her head. He walked over to Draco Malfoy, and paid close attention, knowing that twice before this boy had warned or helped him out of a tight spot. He was like a spy in the den of snakes... a secret Gryffindor at heart.

"Yeah?" Harry asked cautiously.

"Are you dueling against school rules tonight?"

Eyes narrowed for a moment, Harry studied him, and then began to laugh. "Yeah Malfoy, that's what we're doing. I am not telling you anything that could get me blood lines."

Draco shuddered and hid his hand behind his back subconsciously, and Harry knew then that Draco had also had detention with the foul woman at some point.

"I want to learn. I overheard Seamus Finnegan talking to some Ravenclaws."

Harry crossed his arms then. "Look into my eyes and tell me the truth."

Draco stared at him dead on, and didn't have to say it, for Harry saw it there in images that flashed past his mind. There were flashes of light as Draco was tossed onto his back by a nasty curse sent at him by his father, and Harry straightened up. This was the fifth time his mind had somehow connected with someone else's, and this time it showed him something he didn't want to know.

"Tonight is the first night, and you have to sign a paper that swears you'll never tell, or else be cursed with magical pimples that you can't get off your face. And don't forget the punishment from Umbridge if you're caught attending."

Draco nodded, face pale as he rubbed his left hand. "Come on then," Harry waved, and wondered if he were leading a secret Gryffindor into the Lion's den, or a snake.

His friends didn't even have to say the same thing for Harry to know what they were thinking, because the look of surprise on their faces was enough as Harry lead Draco into their newly found secret room, the Room of Requirement.

His eyes scanned the crowd and he found 10 Ravenclaws, a few Hufflepuffs, the entire sixth and seventh year out of Gryffindor along with a smattering of younger Gryffindors, and the lone Slytherin, Draco.

"Shall we get started then?"

* * *

As it turned out, Draco knew more defensive spells than Harry did, and proved a useful resource that first night in compiling a list of spells they knew and would teach to everyone who signed the paper stating that they were Dumbledore's Army (pure spite on Hermione's part in writing the title, since they were not allowed to be a part of any club, or association, but the decree said nothing about being in an army).

More than just being a good spell resource, Draco also seemed to be aiming for friend, much to the displeasure of Ron and many of the other Gryffindor males. Ginny didn't seem to mind however, and Harry was again grateful to her for being exactly who she was.

One such occasion during which Harry suspected Draco might be trying to be his friend occurred after lunch two weeks after they'd started the DA. A familiar noise was made to get Harry's attention, and he found Draco half hidden behind a statue in the Entrance Hall.

"We've got to stop meeting like this," Harry said. "People will see and think something else." Draco paled, if that was even possible with his already fair skin, and gave Harry a dirty look.

"Well I can stop informing you on your jerk brother if you'd like." He crossed his arms and Harry straightened up.

"What's going on?"

"I happen to know he's upstairs hitting on your girlfriend in the Charms corridor. Something about taking her for a ride on his new Firebolt?"

Harry bolted up the stairs, and was surprised when two floors up Draco was still behind him. For all the secrecy the boy displayed at not wanting to be seen with Harry, there he was with his wand out, and for a moment Harry wondered if he'd been lead into a trap, until he spotted Ginny looking uncomfortable and Kenai with his arm over her head against the corridor wall.

"Oh, see, there he is now," she said and turning red hurried to stand behind Harry and Draco.

"What are you doing Kenai?" Harry was fairly furious just now, and his fist clenched tightly as he forgot all about his wand.

Kenai gave a suave smile, something he must have learned from Severus, although Harry had never seen the man smile before. "Just sending a message Potter," he said smoothly, "that's all. I wanted you to know that the stunt you pulled during the last game didn't go over very well, and you'd better be on your guard."

He smiled again and then walked past Harry, not even bothering with a second glance at Draco or a question as to why he was there with the golden boy and his girlfriend.

"I'm so tired of him," Harry said, unclenching his fist and turning to watch the retreating back of his brother.

"You're not the only one," Draco said quietly, before they headed off to work on plans for the next DA meeting, Ginny firmly refusing to leave Harry's side.

‘Dear Dad, your other son is a real jerk. Did you send him to try and steal my girlfriend just because I'm better at Quidditch than he is? I won't keep protecting him if that's the case. Signed your ever unhappy son.'

"What?" Seamus asked, scratching at his hair as if it were itching badly. Ron and Draco laughed harder and Harry watched as Hermione crossed her arms.

"Draco Malfoy, how is this a helpful defensive spell?"

Draco shrugged and Ron said, "I don't rightly care. It's bloody brilliant." He turned, looking for a target, but found himself at the receiving end of a glare full of daggers from both Hermione and Ginny. "Well it wasn't going to be you," he said, shoulders sinking as he let his wand drop.

Hermione set to work trying to fix Seamus' hair, and Harry went over to his friends.

"There you are Harry," Ginny said with a smile upon seeing him, and coming over. "You were so late we thought you might not be coming."

"I spent the last half hour hiding in the boys toilet from Umbridge. She followed me from Gryffindor tower and I pretended I was throwing up." At this he motioned to the wetness on the front of his shirt and said, "I splashed water on myself and came out looking ill just in case she was still there."

"And?" Harry looked over to the young Hufflepuff who had spoken up, and turned back to the group as a whole before continuing.

"She was. I asked her if she would escort me to the Hospital Wing and then pretended to wretch, and she said she had something to do and hurried away."

"Excellent," Ron said. Then he put his hand in his pants pocket and withdrew a handful of individually wrapped candies. "Fred and George gave me these. It's their newest line, and they all make you appear sick."

Hermione crossed her arms and frowned, but Ron ignored her, pointing to a pale one. "This one here makes your face go pale and green, so it looks like you'll barf, and this brown one actually makes you throw up, but Fred promised me it all tasted like lemons on the way out." He pointed to a blue one then and explained that it would make you pass out for half an hour, and then to a red one that would make you sneeze and give you a fever for a short while, and a yellow one he warned no one to eat because it would make you pee your pants.

"Someone ought to give that one to Kenai Snape," Draco said, arms crossed, and there were nods and murmurings of consent.

"How about Umbridge?" Dean asked, eyebrows raised, and everybody laughed heartily at the thought of their professor having a little accident in the middle of class.

"Give me one of those!" a fourth year boy shouted, "for when I get detention with her."

"Me too!"

"And me!"

"I want the barfing one!"

Ron handed out all the candies he had, making sure to give Harry one just in case (the last barfing one he had), and then informed the room that they'd have to get the rest from Fred and George, who couldn't be there that night incidentally because they were in the Hospital Wing skiving detention thanks to the candies they had created. Hermione did not appear as though she approved, but knowing they were skiving blood quill detention with Umbridge, she kept her mouth shut.

Harry snapped his fingers a few times. "All right, back to work everybody, I have a new list of spells to teach you. Is anyone interested in producing a Patronus?" With all eyes eagerly on him, he set to work.

* * *

Harry wished dearly that his father would step up to fight for him, as he had often done for Kenai. He willed with all his might for his father to come rushing through those dark, wooden doors to save him from the toady woman smiling nastily at him from behind her desk. Severus never came.

"Lines Mr. Potter if you please. You owe me 300. I must not tell lies. Get to work."

"But Professor, I didn't lie to you."

"You told me you were going to the Hospital Wing, and when I asked Madam Pomfrey later, you had not checked in. Lines, now."

"But I never said I was going, I only asked if you'd take me. I went back to my room to sleep."

She fixed him with a stare. "400 lines Mr. Potter, and you will also write me an essay with the quill, about not deceiving your superiors... two feet shall we say?"

Harry flinched back at those words. Having I must not tell lies forever etched into the back of your hand was one thing, but an entire essay? His hand would be nothing less than mangled, if useable at all. ‘Please, dad, help, please.' He never came.

Wondering if he could swallow the puking candy without being seen, Harry tried to stick his hand down into his pocket, but Umbridge was watching him to closely to manage. He began writing.

Twenty minutes later, when he had let out a small cry at the pain, because the cuts were very deep into the muscle now, Umbridge looked up. "How many have you done?"

"100 maam."

"Very well. Return to your common room. You may return tomorrow night and the night after that to finish."

Harry stood, feeling very unwell and thinking he wouldn't need the candy at all to make him throw up at this point. His hand throbbed and was bleeding horribly, all the way down his arm and into his robe sleeve.

"Be on your way, I do not have all evening to supervise you Mr. Potter."

Harry went to the door, but before he could get out into the hallway, the evil woman cleared her throat, and asked, "Aren't you forgetting something Mr. Potter?"

He turned. "Sorry?"

"You are forgetting to say thank you."

"Maam?"

"I have delivered a punishment to you in order to help you learn to be a more well adjusted young man. You should be thanking me." When she saw him pale visibly, her smile only widened.

"Th- thank you." He said, and hurried out, wishing someone... anyone at all, would stand up for him. No, just Severus. And two steps out the door he had run head first into none other than a very solid, angry looking Severus Snape.

"Potter," he drawled, eyes sweeping over Harry in the way they usually did when he was in big trouble. They fell on his hand, mangled and still bleeding profusely all over Harry and the floor.

"Sir," Harry said, feeling faint. He swayed and was lucky to find a wall then, or else he would have fallen.

"You are out after hours," Snape said then. "Detention for the rest of the night."

Harry gave a small sob, unable to hold it in any longer in the pain he was in. "Go and find Filch and tell him to report to me what chores you have done in the morning." With that, Severus stalked away, not even bothering to give a glance back.

Sinking to the floor, Draco's words from the start of the term floated hazily back into Harry's mind. ‘I don't know why you stay.' Harry didn't either, and before he knew what he was doing, or where he was going, Harry was running through the castle, tripping over his own feet and sobbing hard. He didn't see Kenai when he flew past him in the Entrance Hall, and he barely noticed the first flakes of snow falling on the grounds as he ran through the darkness, to anywhere but his own private hell.

Finally somewhere in the depths of the Forbidden Forest, Harry sank to his knees, and bitterly admitted to himself something that he had been denying for so long. "He hates me," he sobbed hard. All this time Harry had pretended to hate him, because it made it easier if he didn't care, but the truth was he did. There was no reason that Harry could think of that Severus hated him so much, unless it was Harry himself. "He hates me, he hates me, he hates me," he sobbed, unable to stop. "He hates me."

Shivering from the cold, Harry thought that perhaps a loss of blood was making him hear voices and see light, because he could have sworn he'd just heard someone laugh.

Looking up, his insides froze as two men in long black cloaks held wands up in his face, blinding him by light.

"What do we have here?" a scratchy voice said.

"Poor little Potter finally strayed off of school grounds? Should have been more careful, yeah?" The second man sneered. Harry didn't recognize either one, but knew that they were not going to comfort him and tuck him into bed.

"Better run boy," the first said with a toothy grin. "Only chance ya got of getting away."

Harry didn't need telling twice. He stood and bolted as fast as his weary legs and hurt body would carry him, but the laughing followed with words that stated they'd changed their minds.

Just as Harry's shoe caught a root and he went sprawling, a nasty curse hit him in his back. He thought he should have hit the ground, but instead his body felt as if it were being pricked a thousand times by pins, and when he did land, he landed in a mound of soft snow. Looking around through blurry eyes, Harry knew he was no longer in the Forbidden Forest, but he was very alone, and very cold.

Snow drifted down over Harry Severus Potter, as he drifted into unconsciousness. He wished he had his journal to write one last letter.

Irritated at the urgency of the link between them, Severus had stalked up to the fourth floor in order to find out what the son he wished he'd never had was up to. He had convinced himself somehow that the teen had probably been sneaking around and had gotten caught unawares by a trick step in the staircases or had even been put into detention with Filch. Three times in the boy's first year, he had felt an urgent need to be where the boy was through their mental connection, and found him scrubbing toilets or floors in detention. Irritating whelp.

As he neared Professor Umbridge's office, his suspicions seemed to have been confirmed as her door opened and the boy backed out slowly. Little brat, calling for help when he had only been in detention. He deserved to serve detention all night for- Severus stopped dead as the boy bumped into him, and then turned around to reveal a severely mangled and bloody hand.

"You are out after hours," Severus said then before he knew what he was doing, "Detention for the rest of the night," or at least that's what he supposed he had said. It was the only thing at the forefront of his mind because he'd recently thought about it, and he was so shocked that he couldn't think of a decent response.

The boy gave a tiny choked sob as he staggered into the wall.

"Go and find Filch and tell him to report to me what chores you have done in the morning."

Sneer fixed securely in place, Severus strode off towards the Hospital Wing, where he could inform Madam Pomfrey of the latest atrocity committed by Dolores Toad Umbridge (as the staff had taken to calling her behind her back). His snakes had been careful not to get too many detentions with her after Draco had come back with the words, ‘I will not curse at teachers,' scratched into the back of his hand. It appeared that the other houses, especially Potter, hadn't been so lucky.

Did I really just give an injured student detention? Yes, well, at least Poppy will know where to find him. Loath as he was to admit it, the brat always did what he told him to do, down to the letter, and he had no doubt that she would find him with Filch.

Duty done once he had informed Poppy, he began his descent back down through the castle. Something nagged at him at the back of his mind though, something that said he needed to check on the boy, but he pushed it down. He is not my son, he told himself. It was his mantra. The day that Lily had betrayed him and taken the baby to James, changing his last name and status in the wizarding world, was the day that Severus considered his first born dead. He had mourned for the loss of his son for an entire year, until the day that his wife and her new husband had been killed by the dark lord and their son placed with her relatives, and then he stopped. He could not spend his life regretting the loss of his son. This was the day that Harry Severus Snape ceased to exist, and Harry Severus Potter became no one to him.

"Severus!"

He stopped, and turned to find Poppy hurrying towards him. "He's not with Argus. Are you sure that's where you sent him?"

"I was not mistaken." He rarely made mistakes, although if he were truthful, he told himself that he never made them. The look Poppy gave him said she begged to differ.

"Well he's not there, and I sent a patronus to Minerva and she sent one back saying he's not in Gryffindor tower either."

He gave an irritated sigh. "I am not expected to know where he is once he leaves my sight." With this, he hurried off, back down through the castle, the nagging at the back of his mind returning with full force. He attributed it to the boy being in pain as he hid out somewhere, too stubborn to go to detention as he had been told.

Finally back in the Entrance Hall, Severus was delayed once more by his anxious looking son standing by the front door, wringing his hands together. Kenai was not normally one to look anxious, or to drop the shield hiding his true emotions out in public like this, yet there he was.

"Dad!" He ran to Severus and looked worriedly over to the oak front doors. "He ran out there dad! He didn't even have a coat on! And it's snowing hard."

Brows furrowed, Severus crossed his arms and waited for his son to calm down enough to explain the situation to him properly. In private Kenai often rambled on if he was excited or nervous, forgetting to give key details.

"Whom is it that you are referring to?" Probably one of his younger Slytherins by the anxious look on his son's face.

"Harry Potter! He ran right out the door crying! He didn't even see me."

By instinct Severus looked down at the floor for confirmation, and found droplets of blood, as well as a bloody handprint on the metal door handle.

Striding forward as he recognized the need to stop ignoring that feeling in his mind that something really was wrong, he heaved open the door, Harry's blood dry now, and gazed out into the darkness as snow swirled around him with the howling wind. Kenai came to stand by his side and said, "He'll be dead by now."

Severus didn't acknowledge the uncertain comment, but he feared it was true, and out of nowhere, some of that mourning that he had given up so long ago worked it's way back into his heart. She has taken my Harry to the grave with her.

* * *

The first thing that he was aware of, was that he was covered in a blanket. That had to be it, he thought. Umbridge killed his hand, and then somebody found him and took him to the Hospital Wing, where he was now in a bed under a blanket recovering.

Harry opened his eyes. Nope. Damn. It was dark and he was surrounded by gray. The weight over him that he had assumed was a blanket, was actually cold snow, and he worried suddenly that he felt fairly warm in spite of the snow all around him.

Struggling to move, and feeling weak, Harry began to dig with his good hand, not sure which way was up until he dug a little and some snow fell to hit him in the face. Inspired with the thought that his little snow cave might not have much air left, he dug frantically, feeling confined, and sucked in deep gulps of fresh air when he broke through the surface a minute later.

Grunting, Harry made the hole bigger and pulled himself up to look around in the darkness, sorry that he had left the cave when cold air tore at his skin through his school robes as soon as he was outside.

Breathing heavily and feeling exhausted, Harry tried to orient himself to where he had ended up when he'd fallen with the curse the Death Eaters had sent at his back. Here he reached around to feel the damage to his back and was dismayed to find that it burned to the touch, as if he'd been thrown into a fire. Perhaps the snow had numbed the pain for him as he slept.

Hopelessness overtaking him, Harry tried to fight back with a plan of how to get back to the warm castle, but when he could not see the castle in any direction, he panicked again.

"No castle," he said, voice cracking. "Where-" he looked around him again and saw a few trees in the distance, but it was too dark to see anything else.

Maybe I apparated, he thought, although he was forcefully reminded that he did not yet know how to do that. Or the curse could have sent me here, he argued with his mind. Whatever way he had traveled, he was no longer within sight of Hogwarts, and the snowy, featureless landscape gave him no hope of ever finding his way back, especially injured as he was and without a coat or any inclination of which direction to travel in.

Having no better alternatives, Harry remembered how warm he felt inside the small snow cave, and slid feet first back inside of it. Using his wand and his good hand, he heated the snow inside to make a larger space and pulled a quill out of his pocket, hoping he could properly transform it into something useful. After much frustration and twenty minutes, he had turned it into a large rock, which he set next to him and used his wand to heat up until it glowed red. Finally feeling some semblance of warm, Harry ripped a piece of his robes off down near his shoes and wrapped it around his bloody hand, wishing he had the knowledge of a healer to heal himself, or more schooling in transfiguration so he could transform pieces of his robe into a coat or other useful things.

Worried that he would die there in the cold wilderness, Harry curled up next to the rock, and fell into a fretful sleep full of nightmares. He shouted out to his father for help continually in his dream as he roamed the corridors of Hogwarts, but instead found his father in a secluded, dark corner, calling out for help himself.

‘Dear dad, what's wrong with you?' dream Harry wrote in his journal.

* * *

He had almost panicked when the connection disappeared. If the boy was alive then the connection gnawed at him, signaling the child was in trouble. But if it had suddenly gone blank...

"Dad?"

Severus opened his eyes and looked at Kenai.

"You're doing it again... you look worried. Why?"

He turned away and continued to make his anxious son some tea to calm his nerves. He had never spoken to Kenai about the mental connection. He had not spoken to Kenai about the Potter boy much at all since they had gone for their first year of Hogwarts and Kenai had asked why he had another son with a different woman and why they were the same age.

‘I was married to his mother. When she left I married your mother and she had you.' That was all he'd told him. The rest Kenai knew... how his mother had taken ill when he was still but a baby and had died shortly after, leaving Severus to raise him on his own.

"Are you yourself not worried that a Hogwarts student is in need of help?"

Kenai frowned. Of course he was worried. Isn't that why his dad was making him tea in the middle of the night? He wanted to say, ‘he is my brother you know,' but stopped short before the words left his mouth. He knew his father didn't want to hear it... didn't want to acknowledge it. But for all the taunting and bullying, Kenai couldn't help but admire Harry in some ways. His skill on a broom for instance, or the way he stood up for a brother that for all appearances hated him. The way he didn't even complain about the punishment he took in Kenai's place. He sighed and wondered yet again if he would ever be able to tell his father about the potion he'd secretly sent via house-elf to Harry's room as a thank you for sticking up for him. The answer was probably no.

"Are you gonna be mad at me if I'm worried about him?"

"No."

"Are you worried about him?"

Silence surrounded the question, until, "My job is on the line. I saw him injured and did not take him directly to Madam Pomfrey." It was the truth, in a contorted sort of way. He might lose his job, but he was worried instead that the connection in his mind had abruptly ceased.

"Drink your tea and go to bed."

"But I want to help search for him."

"The other staff are out in the elements looking for him. It is none of your concern."

"But-"

"Go!" He slammed his open hand down on the kitchen counter, startling Kenai, and he hurried off to the room he kept in his father's quarters, despite the fact that for most of the year he lived in the Slytherin dorms. Severus watched him go, and wished that Kenai had the obedience that the other boy usually did... Harry. Somehow the boy he had not raised had become an obedient, popular Quidditch superstar with respectable grades and courage enough to take whatever came his way without even a complaint. And Kenai, the son he had raised, sometimes came up sub-par if Severus admitted that he sometimes compared the two. While Kenai's grades were very near the Granger girl's, he was often in trouble for bullying, and was hard to control on good days. He was obviously doing something wrong. Perhaps Lily did know what she was doing when she ran off with that bloody Gryffindor two months after giving birth to their son.

Sitting on the couch in the darkness, hand massaging his temples, Severus startled some hours later when the connection reappeared, and tried to sense with his mind just how much trouble Harry had gotten himself into. He had a brief flash of white light and searing pain before a glimpse of a hooded figure near a broken down old house in the Forbidden Forrest, and then nothing again.

"Help me find you," he said urgently to himself, willing the message to cross the barrier between them. "Help. Help." Nothing was forthcoming however, and he hurried to find the Headmaster, to tell where in the forest to search.

Wondering if he could perhaps slide back into the cave and seal the tunnel entrance to protect himself, he slid back in and used his wand to cause a small cave in. It didn't take long however to see that this wasn't the best plan, as the animal could be heard digging through the snow. "Glacies, glacies, glacies," Harry repeated in a hurry, stabbing his wand into the snow and turning the cave walls to thick ice not a moment too soon as light filtered in to his cave as the animal broke the snow surface. It continued to scratch for another five minutes before it decided that Harry wasn't worth the effort and moved off. Harry let out a sigh of relief and began melting some of the cave walls again. He also made a small vent to the surface for air, though he didn't dare make it wide enough for the animal to get through.

With the cave finally big enough to sit up in, Harry heated his rock for warmth again and considered his options. He had obviously apparated himself to some distant location... hopefully no farther than the mountains around Hogwarts. He had no food, snow for water, a wand, and no warm clothing... plus the danger of hungry wild animals possibly waiting nearby to devour him. He sighed as he added his injured hand and burnt back to the list when he felt dizzy again. If he had only gone to detention... surely that would have been better than this?

Trying to remember a spell that Hermione had once taught him to give him a basic location, Harry tried a few incantations before his wand leapt from his hand and began drawing a map in the snow on the cave floor. The lines of the map glowed as the wand continued it's way as far as the cave wall, and then dropped, lifeless once again.

"I guess the x is me," he said, using his finger to trace the landmarks. There were little triangles he assumed were mountains all around him, two rivers, and... was that a lake with a big building beside it way over on the edge near the wall? It was, and Harry hoped that was Hogwarts, although he had no idea of distance since the wand hadn't drawn a scale. "Great," he sighed. "Bloody great time to accidentally learn to apparate," he said.

He briefly considered the possibility of trying to apparate again, but knew the chances weren't likely and that he might splinch himself, or end up farther away, or even end up in the hands of death eaters. He'd leave apparating for plan B... or maybe C. D? Wasn't there a spell that Seamus had taught him? Something to alert others to your presence? Hm. He began encanting again, trying to ignore his empty stomach and the fact that he really had to pee. If this didn't work, then he'd be venturing outside for food... maybe he could eat that snow cat with the flaming tail...

* * *

"I'm sorry Severus. There were signs of a scuffle, but there were not even any footprints leading away from the scene. It is obvious to me now that we have searched that several death eaters have made camp in the Forest, waiting for an opportune moment."

Sorry? What the hell did the old man care? He sure as hell didn't care when Lily took Harry from him, so why was he saying sorry now? Perhaps its because you're pacing back and forth in front of his desk like a frantic madman you blundering idiot, he reminded himself, and then stopped pacing. He sighed, and began to rub his temples again. He was still getting nothing from the boy, but there were brief sensations every now and again... fear, hunger, and the feeling as if he were trapped in a closet.

"I know that he is alive," Severus said then, and Dumbledore raised his brows.

"Oh?"

Not sure if he wished to reveal his connection, he said slowly, "There is... a link, between the boy and I. Occasionally I get flashes of an emotion, or even an image. I do not know where he is at present except that he is in a small, cramped space, possibly hiding."

"Is he nearby?"

"He is not close enough to be on the grounds or in the forest, but he is not as far away as his relatives."

Watching him closely for signs of deception, Albus steepled his fingers and asked, "And how long have you had this connection?"

"Since he was a small child."

"Generally I can pick up vague emotions if they are very strong... never before have I received images until now."

It was Dumbledore's turn to sigh. "Would I be correct in assuming you ignore the connection for the better part, and never reach out to him with your own mind?"

"Yes."

"And you are reaching out now?"

"Yes."

"I will leave it up to you to find him then Severus. I am going to venture a guess, albeit I could very well be wrong... it is a possibility with all that has been going on that he does not want to come back." He looked up to see if his Potion's Master reacted. He did, with a brief look of shock, before he schooled his face to neutrality again.

"Therefore I suggest that you go through his things to get an idea as to where he might have gone."

"I do not think-"

Dumbledore cut him off. "Whether you care to admit it or not, you are his next of kin, and it is your responsibility to go through his things and find him, especially in light of your connection." The older man's eyes told Severus that there was no room for discussion, and he turned on his heel and left, robes not swishing and billowing as he usually preferred them to.

* * *

Gotta pee, gotta pee, gotta pee. Harry used his wand to make an entrance to the snow cave once again, and shivered as he climbed outside, wand at the ready to fend off whatever hungry creatures were lurking. The only hungry creature in the area however was himself. He took twenty steps out into the white world, blinded by the bright daylight reflecting off of every snowy surface, did his business, and went back to the entrance to his cave.

Ripping another strip off of his cloak, he did his best to turn it bright red, and transfigure into a flag on a stick, which he stuck in the snow at the entrance so he could find his warm shelter again. "I hate the cold," he muttered, body aching as he headed off into the trees, hoping to find berries or at the very least branches and other things he could transform. Thank goodness Hermione had taken over the last three weeks of the DA in order to teach them helpful transfiguration spells they might need in a defense situation.

When he could no longer stand the cold after a half hour of gathering supplies, he headed back to his cave, leaving the red flag outside, and climbed back in, once again sealing the entrance.

A bundle of sticks, a handful of red berries he wasn't sure were edible, some pine needles, three pinecones, and two more baseball sized rocks. Harry sighed and set to work heating the two rocks, munching on the bitter berries, and turning everything else into a single object which he hoped to make into a coat or blanket... if only he could remember the spell.

* * *

Light filtered weakly into the well lived in fifth year Gryffindor boy's dormitory. Severus stuck his head in the door to check that no one was home before he made his way in, somehow feeling he was entering the home of a long fought enemy. This was the den of lions... had James Potter and the other marauders slept in this same room? He shuddered and scanned the beds to find... his son's.

On the very end next to the door and window Severus found a tattered old trunk with Harry's name on it in faded letters. The name Potter was scratched off and he was surprised to find in Black pen the name Snape over the top of it. Harry Severus Snape. He had not thought on that name for so long.

Opening the trunk and feeling as though he were invading someone's privacy, which he was he reminded himself, he noted that Harry's living area was considerably cleaner than the other occupants of the room. Inside the trunk were stacks of old school books, parchment and ink, quills, owl treats, and about ten pairs of holy gray socks. Why on earth would he keep those?

Deciding that there was nothing in the trunk that would give any indication to Harry's whereabouts, Severus moved on to the wardrobe, and was surprised to find five tattered, faded shirts, a few pairs of pants, and two pristine sets of used Hogwarts robes with Gryffindor ties. Harry's broom also stood in the wardrobe, and Severus thought hard over the last Quidditch Match. It had nearly killed him not to run down to the field to see if Harry lived as he lay there in the mud, especially with the hurt that played across their link, but he could not bring himself to do it. Harry wasn't his responsibility anymore. Harry wasn't his anymore.

He closed the wardrobe, trying to ignore the red Quidditch uniform that still bare the name Snape across the back, where the name Potter had always been before. He didn't even want to contemplate his feelings on that change.

On top of the boy's desk was a stack of new parchment, an inkwell and several quills. He opened the long top drawer, and found inside a variety of other school supplies, and... a tattered leather journal. He brushed his fingers over the top of it just as the door opened, and took a step back, feeling guilty once again for being there.

He looked over to find the Weasley boy in the doorway, staring at him in surprise.

"I have been charged to look through Potter's things to determine where he might have gone," Severus threw out, feeling the need to explain himself and hating that he had obeyed it.

Ron still didn't say anything. Severus reached down and picked up the journal, which he held out to the red headed boy. "Read this and tell me if you find anything that may lead to where he has gone."

Glaring now, Ron spat, "Read it your own damn self. It's about you," and then slammed the door, leaving him in the empty room with Harry's things again.

Severus looked down at the journal. He was sorely tempted to read it, but feared what he would find, and knew that reading through someone's journal was the ultimate act of privacy invasion. Gently, as if it were a beloved item, he lay it back in the top drawer and closed it. He would never know.

None of the other drawers held anything of interest, and Severus hoped that the journal did not hold the one key piece of information to the boy's whereabouts as he left the room as he had found it. The only difference now was, that the image of the room was burned into his mind, and he could not vanish it no matter what he tried.

* * *

Harry dreamt of his soft bed at Hogwarts, and of his journal, which he missed being able to write in. ‘Dad, I'm stuck here in the mountains and you probably don't even care. At least when I die out here from starvation you won't have to worry about your other son and his popularity anymore, will you?' That is what Harry would have written. He tried to feel bitter over it, but was too exhausted to do it.

The berries had made him feel sick and he thought that his hand might be infected because he felt uncomfortably hot as he lay under his transfigured rag blanket. As he drifted in and out of strange dreams of his room and other images at Hogwarts, including the Headmaster's office and Ron shouting at someone in their room, Harry felt more hopeless than ever. He was going to die out here, buried in a snow cave where no one would find him until the spring thaw... if they were even still looking at that point, and he knew they wouldn't be.

* * *

Mountains, snow, cougars with a flaming tail, red berries. These were all images that flew into his mind throughout the day in a disorienting way. He wondered perhaps if the boy was sick because of the way the images blurred together and made no sense whatsoever.

It wasn't until lunch when he began piecing things together for himself. Poisonous red berries, the white leopardardis species, and snow... these were all things in the mountains he could see out the windows of the Great Hall in the distance. Standing so fast that he knocked his chair over, Severus hurried out of the Great Hall, ignoring the worried look he received from Kenai and a few others, and headed into the Forbidden Forest, where the nearest school boundary lay. Thinking of the images he had seen from Harry's mind, he closed his eyes, and disappeared, hoping to God that he would end up somewhere in the vicinity of his lost son. What met him was a white landscape, and what was sure to be an impossibly search.

* * *

"I like Quuuiditch, its a lot of fun, I think I'll go to the beach and zoom ‘round the sun. I like Quuuiditch..." Harry sang a strange song off key in the haze of his fever, and held his arms straight above him as if he were flying through the open air. His back burned from laying on it, and his hand throbbed, but he was no longer paying attention as his fantasy had overtaken him.

"Quidditch flying like a bird, I caught the snitchy snitchy bird, all red and gold. There's a lion flying after me, snitchy snitchy bird." He laughed at the images floating through his mind and reached out to grab an imaginary red and gold snitch with a head and tail to match its wings, confused when he brought the bird in to have a closer look, only to find that it was a handful of cold snow. "Huh?"

Harry coughed violently then and groaned with the pain of rising and then landing on his burnt back several times. This was only made worse by the blinding light that was flooding his vision now. Damn, but why did the lion have to burn so bright just because the bird had exploded to cold dust?

"It's magic," Harry pleaded with the lion, whose shadow had now fallen over him to shield him from the bright light. "I didn't mean to kill the snitchy bird, honest."

"Harry."

"I mean really, I just grabbed it and it ‘sploded lion, you don't have to be mad about it."

"Harry, look at me."

Harry glared at the shadow, but could not make out any features, and was confused when warm, non-hairy hands reached down to lift him out of his cave.

"No lion, don't feed me to the snow beast. I know he's hungry, but he can have some of the red berries."

"Did you eat the red berries Harry?"

"Only a handful, honest, you can have them back."

More confused than ever, Harry snuggled into the warmth of the lion and passed out, unaware that his father had finally come to rescue him, after all these years.

"I'll get you back to the castle. Don't worry... son."

His father had always played down his relationship to Harry as something unimportant. Kenai had always been the favored one to the point that their father never spoke to or of Harry at all unless it was to give Harry detention or tell Kenai to stay away from him lest he keep getting detention himself for picking on him. Kenai wasn't sure if his father hated Harry or not, but knew that he didn't like him, and didn't want to be associated with him. But what of all that now that his father had gone off and rescued him and sat with him in the Hospital Wing through the night? Where did he as the acknowledged son stand in all of this?

Fidgeting as he tried to make himself a sandwich in his father's quarters before going to class, Kenai wondered if there would ever come a day when Harry would be the favored one (he was the eldest after all) and Kenai would be the shunned child. He shuddered. His mother was dead, his grandparents were dead, and he didn't have any aunts or uncles... no godparents or cousins or anything. Where would he go if his father shunned him? Would their father give his room in the quarters to Harry? Would he give his room at Prince Manor to Harry? Kenai pulled out the necklace with the Prince family initial that his father had given him that gave him access to Prince Manor. Would he take this away from him as well, and place it around Harry's neck, as he had done when Kenai came of age?

He wasn't hungry and set his half made sandwich on the counter, unwilling to eat any. He heard the front door to the quarters open and close then, and feared briefly that he would turn and see Harry with his father, but his fears were allayed, at least temporarily when his father came in alone. He eyed the half made sandwich and Kenai waved at it to let him know he wasn't going to eat it. Severus picked it up as is and took a bite.

"There is no meat on this."

"I wasn't hungry."

Eyeing his son as he chewed, he said, "He isn't awake yet, but Poppy says he'll be fine. He didn't eat enough of the berries to need much antidote."

"Oh, good, not much antidote," Kenai snarked, and turned his back on his father.

"Is there something you wish to discuss with me?" Severus put the sandwich down.

"No, no, nothing at all father." He said the last word with spite and hurried towards the door, grabbing his bag on the way. He feared to turn and see the look on his father's face after he'd had such an outburst, and so left without turning back. Surely this has sealed my fate, he told himself, feeling depressed. I hate depression, he thought, it's worse than being anxious. And so started Kenai's day.

* * *

Harry woke with a clear head, and wondered how it was that he felt so good, and warm when he was supposed to be cold and hurting right now. Eyes daring to creak open and find himself back at school, he let out a sigh of relief, and wondered why there was a strange song stuck in his head. Something about lions and Quidditch?

"So you're awake Mr. Potter, very good indeed. You gave us a scare when you came back full of poison asp berries and a severe infection."

Reaching to the bedside table where his glasses were usually to be found when he ended up in the Hospital Wing, Harry brought his world into a clear focus once again, and scanned the room. That figured. His father wasn't there. He was never there.

"How did I get back?" Harry croaked, surprised to find his throat and voice scratchy. "How long was I gone?"

"Almost two days Mr. Potter, and Severus found you in the mountains in a snow cave from what I heard him telling Albus. Very clever Harry. I'm proud of you for figuring out a way to stay warm, especially in the state you were in."

Harry cleared his throat. He wasn't used to having people tell him they were proud of him, and he suspected Madam Pomfrey knew that. What was disconcerting however was that he thought he had just heard her tell him that his father had found him and brought him back.

"Sorry," he said, "who brought me back?"

"Professor Snape dear. He carried you right in and lay you on the bed. He was here all night. He only left an hour ago."

Harry frowned and took his glasses back off, setting them on the bedside table again.

"What are you doing?" Madam Pomfrey asked.

"Going back to sleep. I think I'm still dreaming so I might as well just go back to sleep."

She patted his knee and put his glasses back on, forcing his eyes open again. "It's not a dream. Would I lie to you about something like that?"

"I don't think you'd lie at all." That's what I'm afraid of, he thought.

After giving him a blue potion, "A health restorative," she informed him, and running some diagnostic scans, she allowed him to get dressed and told him he was free to go, provided that he come back after lunch for more potion, and once again after dinner for a final checkup.

"Do I have to go to classes today?"

"Professor McGonagall has given you the day off, but you may go if you wish. Otherwise you have permission to stay in Gryffindor tower to recover."

"Yes maam." Harry thanked her and left, making a B-line for his dormitory where he would be able to sit and write all of his confusing thoughts out in his journal.

Finally sitting at his desk again with his journal open before him, Harry was confused as he didn't know what to write. He didn't know what to think of this new turn of events if he were to be honest with himself, so that's what he wrote.

‘Dear Dad... are you my dad now? Why did you save me if I'm not your beloved son? What do I do now? Am I allowed to come and thank you, or are we back to detention?'

* * *

"Harry... Harry mate, wake up."

Harry rubbed his eye and looked up into Ron's blue eyes.

"Madam Pomfrey said to take this potion. And maybe you'd better come downstairs and tell Hermione you're all right. I had to remind her three times that Madam Pomfrey gave instructions not to bother you while you rested."

Harry nodded, and took the blue potion offered to him, swallowing it in one gulp and swinging his legs out over the edge of the bed. Ron sat down next to him, and waited quietly as Harry yawned and thought.

"Death eaters?" Ron finally asked in a low voice.

"Two of them," Harry confirmed, and Ron shook his head.

"I heard aurors talking about it when they came back from the forest. The reckon you apparated on accident."

Harry nodded and reached down to put on his shoes, but found that they were already on, because he hadn't taken them off when he'd gone to sleep that morning.

"What have I missed?"

"Only Hermione and Ginny freaking out about you being gone. Ginny's been quiet and she stayed in her room all weekend."

Running a hand through his hair, Harry said, "You're gonna have to hold Hermione off for a little longer. I have to go see Ginny."

"Yeah, I thought as much. She's in the Great Hall. I had to threaten her to eat something or else call mum to come and tell her off."

The boys rose together, and Ron told Harry that he would make sure Hermione let him pass, and then they left the room.

People tried to slap Harry on the back and stop him to ask him questions on the way out, but he made hurried apologies, and escaped quickly.

The corridors felt dark and cold for some reason, and Harry shivered as he walked down through the castle. He passed a few Slytherins, who whispered at his back and gave him a strange look, but otherwise said nothing to him, and he was grateful.

Almost to the grand stairs that would lead down from the first floor, Harry turned a corner and was stopped cold by the sight of his father. His heart rose into his throat and thumped uncomfortably. What do I do? He wanted to do what he'd always wanted... act like Severus Snape's son, but that was a dream too long gone for Harry to believe it could ever happen.

They locked eyes for a moment, and then Harry dropped his head and tried to pass him by. He would have managed too were it not for a hand that shot out and gently gripped his arm to keep him from going.

"Can we talk?"

Harry swallowed, trying to get rid of the lump that had settled uncomfortably in his throat, and looked up, trying to will his eyes to remain dry.

"I uh, I, I..." he looked away again. What is wrong with me? I want to talk to him, I want to ask questions... but is this a trap? The most deadly trap of all would be for Harry to be allowed to grow close to his father, and then be denied the much wanted and needed affection. He wouldn't survive.

"I can't, I'm sorry." Harry swallowed and hurried away, wiping furiously at his eyes.

Just get to Ginny, he told himself, just get to Ginny. I need Ginny. Ginny.

* * *

His friends attributed the change to the ordeal he'd been through in the mountains. "He's still recovering," Harry heard Hermione telling Ron one afternoon when they thought he wasn't within earshot. Ginny was the only one he'd told about his uncertainty about Severus, and Draco had been the only one to guess once he'd seen two separate encounters between Harry and Severus in the hallway. Twice more Severus had approached Harry on friendly terms, and twice more Harry had turned him away. Harry couldn't fully explain it himself, so how could he truly explain it to his friends?

The DA went on in secrecy, and Harry had let Hermione take the lead for a while ‘until I feel better' he'd told her. He wasn't sure he ever would at this rate though. He was too used to feeling one way to suddenly change and then feel all right about it. For his entire life he'd wanted to be acknowledged... to be swept away by his secret father... his secret hero. And now there he had come and swept him up from the grips of death and wanted to make peace it seemed, but Harry was no longer sure that this was what he wanted. How could he ever feel secure in a relationship with his family if there was the lingering possibility that they would deny him again, exclude him again, hate him again.

As Severus approached Harry again one Sunday afternoon, Ginny by Harry's side and Kenai looking uncomfortable and uncertain in the distance where he tried to hide behind a statue, Harry took his turn in denying his father even basic eye contact, or any recognition at all. Was this how his father and brother had felt for all these years? Was this what it was like to act aloof and walk high and mighty, holding the power of denial as your most powerful weapon?

As he turned briefly and spied the hurt look on his father's face, and turned again to walk away with Ginny, Harry decided this was what it felt like, and he didn't like it. Had his family liked it?

* * *

Firelight danced in the Snape quarters fire grate, warm and welcoming. Severus sat on a brown couch, pretending to read, but in reality deep in thought, one son across from him on another couch.

"Why do you hate him?"

He raised his brows from his book, and eyed his son, who had been too anxious in the past weeks.

"I do not hate Harry."

Kenai jumped up then, and shouted, "You used to! I hate you!"

He stormed off down the hall and into his room, and Severus sighed, resigning himself to the fact that both sons were angry... or something with him at the moment, and while he could not hope to understand Harry's feelings, he could walk down the hall and try to understand Kenai.

"You do not hate me," he said, leaning on Kenai's doorframe. "You are angry and upset about something, and you will share this with me now."

Kenai looked up, a frown on his face. "You can't tell me how I feel."

"You are not occluding your mind efficiently at the moment and your emotions are splayed across your entire body."

There was silence as Kenai thought over his options. After many silent minutes in which Severus waited patiently, used to his son's moodiness, Kenai finally spoke, in a low, uncertain voice.

"Did you think I wouldn't figure it out? Harry's only three months older than me you know. How is it that he was born and then you left him and I was born? You're going to give me up just like you did Harry... I'm not even yours."

Face falling then, Severus uncrossed his arms and moved to sit beside his son on his bed.

"How can you not be mine?" He took in Kenai's hair and lifted a long black lock from his son's eyes. He dare not ask how his son could believe he would give him up, when he had indeed given one son up already.

"Well I read in a book how long it takes for baby's to grow, so you couldn't be my dad."

"Or I can be your father and you were conceived three months after Harry was."

Not having thought of this possibility, Kenai took the time to do so now as he looked up with another frown.

"But you were still with his mum until after he was born... I don't understand."

"Neither did she." Severus sighed and rubbed his temple. This was not something he wished to discuss.

"You are well aware of some of the things the Dark Lord has asked me to do in the past, are you not?" Kenai nodded, and Severus continued. "It would have been unacceptable to him to find out that I was married to a Muggle with a child on the way. When it became clear to him that I was the only one of his death eaters without child on the way, he told me to find a wife or he would find one for me. I dared not refuse."

"So... so you cheated on Harry's mum? With my mum?"

"She knew I was a spy for Dumbledore, but did not wish to hear the details of the things I had to do in the Dark Lord's service. I was already well acquainted with a pureblood woman a year ahead of me who had come from Slytherin. She was not a supporter of the Dark Lord, but we began to court in secret. When you were conceived, and she asked me to marry her, I was forced to tell her that this was not a possibility, because I was already married to Lily."

Kenai jumped up off the bed then and hit a wall. "You didn't even love my mother? You didn't want me?"

With a heavy sigh again, Severus said, "That is not what I said. I did want you, and I did love your mother, but not in the same way that I did Lily. Shortly after Harry was born, she found a letter your mother had written to me, and I told her everything. She did not understand, nor should she have been expected to. She took Harry and ran straight to James Potter, the boy who suited her relentlessly in school. They were married shortly after, and Harry's name was changed. I was informed that I would not be allowed to see him again."

"And then you ran to my mom like she was seconds," Kenai spat.

"That is not what happened. Lily and Harry were being taken care of, and as I had planned previously, I went to your mother to support her. We were married, and you were born." He didn't need to tell Kenai the rest, because while he was young, Severus was sure the boy remembered how his mother had taken ill and then died when he was only four years old.

"She knew you didn't love her," Kenai said after long, intense moments of silence.

"That is not true."

"She didn't know I'd remember... but she used to talk to me when I was young. Tell me how she knew you were still in love with another woman. That's why she died dad. She wasn't sick, she was heartbroken."

Kenai left him then, in empty, too warm quarters that felt like they were closing in on Severus, death finally come to finish him off. He held his head in his hands and closed his eyes. "Now I have lost both sons," he voiced his fears allowed. "What have you done you fool? What have I done?"

Kenai occupied every spot Harry did as soon as he'd left it for another hiding spot. He couldn't afford to be seen. He could only imagine the trouble he could get Harry into by the end of tonight... with the secrecy the other fifth year was taking, this had to be something big. There had been rumors that some girl was pregnant... what if Harry were the father? What if he wasn't, but he could catch Harry shacked up with some girl? Yes, that had to be where he was sneaking off to so late after curfew.

Kicking at the mewling caretaker's cat that had always liked him, the cat hissed and took off and Kenai ran around a corner just in time to see Harry disappear through a door. Finally, he thought to himself. This is it. I'll bust in and catch him with that Weasley girl and then my father will remember just what kind of trouble his eldest son is.

Whatever Kenai had expected when he burst through the door, forty students dueling in a secret room to Harry's directions wasn't it. He stood still, hoping now that nobody spotted him as he realized that he was greatly outnumbered.

Eyes roaming the crowd he was shocked to find Draco dueling Ronald Weasley and laughing heartily as he was thrown onto his back by a bright blue spell. That's when Draco looked over and saw him, smile faltering, traitorous eyes leading Ron's eyes over as well. One by one the students quieted and stared at him, until finally Harry turned to stare at the intruder as well. When they looked to Harry for direction, Kenai's initial impression that Harry was the ringleader of this group was confirmed.

Harry seemed to be at a loss for what to do however, and someone shouted from the back, "You don't belong here Snape! Get out!"

"Yeah! We don't want you here!"

"Out!"

"Out!"

Most of the crowd were cheering him out, but Kenai was more curious about those that weren't, and instead had worried looks on their faces, such as Harry, Draco, and the rest of Harry's little group.

Harry held up his hand to silence the naysayers and they fell quiet.

"This is a secret defense association formed to teach us how to defend ourselves in case of attack. Umbridge isn't teaching us anything, and if she catches any of us, you know what the consequences will be." He held up the back of his scarred hand as a vivid reminder, and Kenai flinched.

"If she catches any of you, you mean," Kenai said, trying for a smirk as he crossed his arms, but failing miserably as he was too uncomfortable here with these people who all disliked him so much. Most of the group still looked like they were ready to hex him or toss him out on his arse.

"I mean us," Harry said, and he turned to Hermione who brought over a long parchment and a blue and gold quill.

"What's that?" It read Dumbledore's Army and there were too many names for him to count.

"It's the register of membership, and you're going to sign."

Kenai laughed nervously then. "Why would I do that?"

"Because it's the only way you're leaving without your memory modified. When you sign the register, you are swearing to secrecy of the group, the activities, and the members. If you break the oath, your face will break out in pimples that will never go away spelling you out as the traitor."

"Oh, just fantastic," Kenai breathed, taking the quill with a shaky hand, and cursing himself for being in such a situation. Everyone in the room was still quiet.

"Sign," Draco said from where he stood behind Harry now.

"Gee Potter," Kenai spat out as he quickly signed his name below Draco's under the word SLYTHERIN. "I see you've tried to fill your Slytherin friend quota." He hastily shoved the quill back at Hermione, and tried to ignore the glares he was still getting. He turned to leave but Harry cleared his throat and Kenai stopped to see Harry reaching out his hand and somebody placing into it a gold Galleon. He in turn handed it to Kenai.

"This shows the dates and times of the meetings, as well as any other important information. When it goes warm in your pocket, check it for news."

"Whatever." He took the coin and shoved it into his pocket before hurrying out the door. Finally able to catch his breath outside, he leaned against the wall as Filch's cat came up to him again and gave him a reproachful stare.

"C'mon," he said, picking it up. "I'll take you back to Filch's office." It bit at his fingers, but he huffed and said, "Yeah, well it hasn't been a peachy night for me either, all right?"

* * *

Kenai was sure that nobody wanted him to come back to their little club, but the golden coin burned in his pocket two days later regardless, and he pulled it out, glaring at it. Apparently there was a meeting today after lunch. He wondered why they would hold it in the middle of the day, but then remembered that the Hufflepuffs had Quidditch practice that afternoon and that Umbridge would be out on the pitch watching them to make sure there was no funny business going on.

If they thought he would go to their stupid little meeting, then they were daft, he told himself as he stuffed the coin back into his pocket. Just because he had signed the register didn't mean he was going to become one of Harry's little flunkies. His stomach squirmed despite what he'd just told himself, and he resigned himself to the fact that maybe he wanted to go, if for nothing else than to just show everybody up and make them uncomfortable.

After lunch he watched for Umbridge to leave the Great Hall, and then followed several people from other houses out, and up through the castle until he came to the secret door. He let them go into the secret room while he remained standing outside, just staring at the wall. If dad finds out that I'm hanging out with Harry then he'll.... what? He stopped himself. He would nothing now, because now he liked Harry again, Kenai reminded himself, and he gave himself a mental shake, wishing he had his father's ability to occlude his mind and stop himself from thinking... from feeling. He hated feeling like this.

With a deep breath to prepare himself for what lay on the other side of the door, Kenai turned the handle and went inside, mind still set on showing Harry up in their father's eyes.

* * *

"Are you just going to stand there and glare at us for the rest of the year Snape?" Ron spat out from the floor as Hermione gave him a hand up and fetched his wand for him. She had just tossed him on his arse for the sixth time in a row with a new spell she had found in the library. Harry had given everyone the assignment of coming to this meeting with two new spells that no one else knew about, so they could all have a secret weapon and practice wordless magic (which so far only Hermione and some of the seventh years were proficient at).

Kenai sneered at Ron and directed his gaze elsewhere, just as he always did. He'd been to six meetings now and had always stayed leaning against the wall, just observing, never participating. It made some of the other students feel uncomfortable, Harry included, because he wasn't sure why his brother kept coming if it wasn't to practice defense.

Ron switched partners and Kenai's eyes flitted back to Hermione, who was now disarming Fred Weasley with ease, sending him to the ground as she snatched his wand from the air as a Seeker would a Snitch. He narrowed his eyes and watched three more times as she did it, studying the wand movements and the effects of the spell. He was almost positive he knew what spell she was using, and if not, he knew how to counter it, albeit in a way she wouldn't like.

To much surprise, Kenai left his spot on the wall, wand out, and stood in front of Hermione. She gave a worried look to Ron, who returned it, and Kenai was sure they were uncertain of him and what types of spells he knew growing up with the feared Potions Master. They should be scared, he thought to himself, although he wished they weren't. He hated it when people were scared of him just because of his father. Harry was the only one who never was.

"Go ahead," Kenai said, "disarm me." He knew very little wordless magic, as that was something they didn't teach until the seventh year and his father had not had much time to teach it to him up to this point, but he did know one spell, and she would be surprised nonetheless. Harry didn't know it, but Kenai always took what he saw at the DA and practiced in private, and he always did the homework. Today he would finally get to show them something they didn't know. Something he had made up on his own.

At the first twitch of Hermione's wand, Kenai took a big breath and blew it out towards her. There was such a gust of wind that she and her wand went flying backwards, along with a few younger students that had surrounded them, and she landed on the floor, hair a mess and looking flustered.

"What? How? You didn't even use your wand?"

"I did," he defended. Mage magic was rare, and he didn't have any himself that he knew of, but it was nice to make it appear so.

"Show me then."

"The homework was to come with a secret spell that only you would know. I didn't see you enlightening Weasley over there about how you were knocking him on his arse, so you can just figure this one out for yourself."

Hermione stood and straightened herself, and went for another try, a different spell in mind. When Kenai saw her wand move however, he blew at her again, and the gust knocked her over. She huffed and stood again.

"I didn't see your wand moving."

"You were busy flying through the air." He had intentionally created a spell, which required very little wand movement, and no words at all, just the force of his breath. He could control the force of the wind if he let his breath out more slowly. It would have been great at Quidditch if he hadn't told his father about this new skill. He would never allow the cheating.

Intrigued now by the newcomer, some of the other students stood nearby to watch and see if they could figure out his spell in order to use it themselves. Finally Harry stepped up and faced off with Kenai.

"Think you've got it do you?" he smirked. He couldn't wait to toss Harry on his hind end in front of the fan club.

Harry only gave a mute nod, wand at the ready, and when Kenai opened his mouth, he found himself unable to let out any air. He couldn't breath at all in fact, and with a panicked look to Harry he fell to his knees. Harry waved his wand again, and Kenai sucked in a deep breath.

"What was that?"

"Your spell relied on breath, so I took yours away."

"Haudaer?" Hermione asked.

Harry nodded. "The fire extinguisher."

"Damn," Hermione breathed, looking unhappy that she hadn't figured out a counter."

"What?" Kenai stood up, still trying to catch his breath.

"It's the fire extinguisher spell. Madam Hooch made us learn it after somebody set... your father's robes on fire. It sucks all the air out of whatever it's aimed at."

With a final deep breath, Kenai looked at Harry with awe, perhaps for the first time since he'd first learned he had a brother. Only Ginny and Draco noticed.

"All right everybody," Harry said loudly, turning from the uncomfortable situation and raising his hands. "Homework for next time. Bring two more spells nobody will know, and come prepared to teach everyone what you did this week so we can add today's spells to the list of ones everybody knows."

People began putting their things away and filtering out of the room a couple at a time so as not to arouse suspicion, and when Harry left with his group of friends, he turned and gave Kenai a wave that caught him off guard. Harry was being... nice to him? After all he'd done to torment him?

Sitting alone in the empty room for a long time, Kenai thought hard about what he wanted from life. He had nobody but his father, and even he was slipping away from him. He had few friends and fewer good ones. What do you want Kenai, he asked himself, and the answer came to him clearer than anything had ever come before. I want a brother.

* * *

‘Dear dad, I don't think you've been sending Kenai to spy on me anymore. Something changed, but I don't know what anymore. I admitted today that you're his father, not mine. It hurt to say that in front of people. It hurt to say it at all. Love, the son you could have had.'

* * *

"Mr. Potter." Umbridge was standing in front of his desk, staring down her nose at him, and Harry subconsciously leaned back in his chair to escape the nasty toad.

"It has come to my attention that you were nowhere to be found last night. I'm afraid I will have to give you detention." Most of the people in their class were DA now, with exception of the majority of the Slytherins, and everybody's face fell.

"Ma'am?" Harry asked.

"When I went to Gryffindor common room to find you so that I could discuss your next Quidditch practice, I could not find you. No one in the common room knew where you were, and none of the teachers did either. I am therefore lead to the conclusion that you must have been out on the grounds, wandering where you shouldn't be."

"He was with me Professor, helping me with my homework for your class."

The room froze. Kenai Snape was standing up. Literally, but also in the sense that he was finally taking a stand for his only brother. Jaws dropped further.

"Excuse me Mr. Snape?"

"In my room, helping with homework," he repeated, voice a little smaller as he faced off with the toad woman from hell.

"The first magical decree expressly forbids any clubs, even a study group from-"

"Excuse me professor," Kenai interrupted, being sure to raise his hand, "but it wasn't a club. He was in my room privately helping me with my homework." Somehow he felt emboldened, and he realized it was the look of relief on Harry's face that he had caught when Umbridge had stopped looming over his desk.

She stared at him. "In your room?" No, this wasn't good at all, the way her voice pitched ever so slightly higher. She didn't believe him. "Why was Mr. Potter in your room Mr. Snape?"

"Well, he's my brother ma'am, why wouldn't he be in my room?"

She sighed. "Detention for you as well Mr. Snape, for lying. Your father won't be pleased at all."

"Draco no!" Everyone looked to the Slytherins as Pansy tried to pull at Draco's sleeve, as he was standing now too.

"Professor," Draco said more boldly than Kenai had done. "It's true Professor. Harry was in Kenai's room in professor Snape's quarters helping him with homework."

"And you know this how Mr. Malfoy?"

"Because I was serving detention with Professor Snape ma'am. He had me and some of the Gryffindors scrubbing out his bathroom and kitchen floors because he caught us fighting in the hall."

"Fighting?"

Here Draco gave a surprisingly vicious sneer towards Hermione and Ron and said, "Yes ma'am."

Straightening, she strode to the front of the room. "Very well then. But I will not tolerate anymore standing in my classroom. Everyone sit before I keep you after class."

Draco and Kenai fell into their chairs with a shared look between them and then over to the Gryffindors, who were in disbelief.

Harry mouthed, ‘she'll check' to Kenai, and he nodded. Harry didn't know how, but knew he'd take care of it, and Severus would corroborate his son's lie. What had Kenai been thinking? Harry couldn't figure out what game he was playing now.

In the hall after class, Harry let his friends pass him by, and waited for Kenai to come out of the room. When he did, he saw Harry waiting for him and paused to let the rest of the Slytherins pass until they were alone.

"What are you aiming at Kenai?" Harry was feeling anxious all of a sudden. "Trying to be my friend all of a sudden? Thanks but Draco's already filled my Slytherin friend quota..." he felt snarky, remembering what Kenai had said earlier. His brother had just stood up for him in class, but he was so anxious over why that he felt it bubble under the surface and couldn't shake the feeling until he had answers.

Shifting from foot to foot for a second, Kenai looked contrite and said, "How about just a brother?" Damn, was this how Harry had felt for all of those years? To have such a longing for a brother, and yet to be denied at every turn? He hoped he could be forgiven, but felt the possibility was too far away to ever grasp.

Green eyes boring into deep brown ones, Harry studied the truth of the situation, and wondered how much longer he could deny his own brother what had been denied him for so long. "A brother then," Harry said uncertainly. Did this mean he had a father then too? He wasn't sure, but he thought he could handle having a brother, at least for a test flight, he told himself.

He pulled out the yellow makes you pee candy that had ridden around in his robe pocket for so long. "Think we can find some way to slip this to her during detention?"

Kenai grinned a wicked grin. "I think I have an idea."

Severus looked up from the work he'd been grading, sitting at his desk in the largest Potions classroom. He suppressed the glare that fought to get out at the sight of Dolores Umbridge. This was his one free period in the day, and he wanted to get as much grading done as possible so he didn't have to do it after dinner tonight.

"Was there something you wanted?" He asked, intentionally letting his dislike of the woman show through. After Harry had been rescued and healed, he had stepped up to the plate with a number of other staff to speak against the use of the blood quill. She had quashed their complaints with a roll of parchment signed by the Minister of Magic, condoning any action she thought necessary to ‘whip' Hogwarts back into shape.

"Only a question Severus." She walked closer to his desk, hands clasped in front of her. "Your son made a most interesting claim in my classroom today... he said that someone was in his room in your quarters last night helping him with homework."

Studying her eyes, Severus was dismayed to find that her mind was well guarded, and he could get nothing from her. He knew for a fact that Kenai had been out most of the evening, and had then spent the night in the Slytherin dorms.

"He was," he said carefully, wondering if he would be caught in a lie, and cursing inwardly that Kenai had once again placed him in this position. It happened every so often that his son assumed that he would stick up for him in order to get him out of trouble. It was only lucky that most people didn't know how to occlude their minds to Severus' invasion for information. Today was not a lucky day.

"And perhaps, I was only curious, but perhaps you could tell me who he was with?"

"The boy is free to bring whomever he pleases into his room in my quarters, provided it is not a female student. I was busy overseeing detention and was not paying attention to his guest last night."

"Ah yes," she said in a sickeningly sweet way that made Severus stiffen as if he had been caught in a lie.

"Young Mr. Malfoy did say something about that. He was scrubbing dishes in your kitchen for fighting with Ravenclaws, was he not?"

Severus narrowed his eyes. Draco was involved in this too? How many others were in on the lie without letting him in on it? The only thing that was for sure was that her voice was too hopeful, and that he never assigned students to do the dishes, and Draco would know that. He also knew that Draco had dated several Ravenclaw girls and occasionally befriended some of the Ravenclaws, and wouldn't fight with them.

"They were scrubbing the bathroom floor, and he was caught fighting with Gryffindors."

Her face fell, but she stood straighter then and said, "Very well. Thank you." She turned to leave, but at the door turned again and said, "Oh, and I thought you would like to know that your son has been lying about your family. He claimed in class today that it was Harry Potter in your quarters and that, oh, but it is ever so silly, but that Harry Potter was your son!"

Suddenly tense again, because he was fairly positive that Kenai would not claim this, uncertainty flooded him and he worked furiously to force calm words out of his mouth. "Harry Severus Potter was once Harry Severus Snape. He is as much my son as Kenai Snape is, and is allowed in the family quarters any time he pleases."

Dropping her false sweetness finally, Umbridge glared at him and said, "We shall see," and marched out of the classroom.

Severus fell back into his chair and looked at his watch. He had ten minutes until third years would flood his classroom, and he was anything but ready for them with nerves suddenly frayed as they were. I need a strong cup of tea, he thought to himself, but never moved to make himself one.

* * *

To incredulous looks from every set of eyes in the Great Hall, including all of the staff, Kenai Snape hurried over to Gryffindor table, and sat down. Harry eyed him warily, and Kenai turned red as he tried to ignore all of the eyes on him.

"Here," he said hurriedly, shoving a piece of parchment into Harry's hand. Harry unfolded it as he took a sip of pumpkin juice and nearly spit it out in laughter. There on the parchment in Kenai's untidy scrawl was a step by step plan on how to get Umbridge to swallow the peeing candy.

"I've modified it some," Kenai said under his breath, looking around for the first time to note that Ron and Hermione weren't there and Ginny was down the table talking to her fourth year friends. "It's a delayed reaction now... I dipped the candy in a sugar coating that won't melt off for at least twenty minutes."

Harry shook his head. "We are so going to be in trouble for this," he said.

"Well it doesn't matter, does it? I'm already in trouble for lying. My dad was... dad was mad that I didn't let him in on our lie about you being in my room. But I bloody well couldn't, could I? Not when she marched right down there after we had class with her!"

"But we got away with it, didn't we? He must have found out somehow."

"He's an occlumens, so I reckon that's how he knew what to say. He was so mad I didn't really get much detail from him, just a warning and told that he was going to suspend me from Quidditch if I ever did that to him again."

Harry frowned. "He's a what?"

"An occlumens... you know, he can sometimes read minds if he looks right into your eyes. He said something about knowing where you were in the mountains because he saw images of berries and animals?"

Realization suddenly dawned on Harry about his ability to look into people's eyes and hear what they were thinking. "Can you read minds as well?" Harry asked suddenly.

Kenai shook his head. "He tried to teach me, but all I can do is occlude... I can block my thoughts so others can't read them." Not noticing Harry's thoughtful look, Kenai looked around the Great Hall to see if he was still being stared at, which he was, and started fidgeting with his hands.

"I have to go. I think Pansy is having a fit over at the table because I'm over here."

Harry came out of his thoughts and looked up as Kenai stood up. "Tonight then?"

"Yeah. Down the hall from her office," he whispered, and hurried off.

Ginny came and sat down next to Harry in the seat Kenai had vacated.

"What was that about then? Are you two friendly now?"

"Sort of," Harry said. "He is my brother."

* * *

"Watch it Harry! I'll tell dad you're being mean to me!"

"No! It's mine! You can't have it!"

"Forget it! She made it for me!"

"She did not! It's mine! Why would she like you? I'm the eldest!"

They tugged back and forth on the small pink muffin with pink chocolate chips and sparkly glitter on top, being careful not to ruin it.

"Ahem." Both boys turned to see Umbridge standing there with her hands behind her back. "Is there a problem here gentlemen?"

Immediately Harry and Kenai burst out angrily pointing fingers at each other.

"She made it for me to eat not him!"

"No she didn't! It's mine! She likes me!"

"Liar!"

"You're the liar!"

"Ahem." Umbridge cleared her throat again and held out her hand, palm up. "I see."

Both boys stopped and looked at her. "Professor?" Harry ventured.

"Give the muffin to me."

"But-"

"No but's Mr. Snape. It is obvious to me that it is causing an issue, and in order for you to learn a lesson, you will give it to me, and neither of you shall have it."

"She only just gave it to us a few minutes ago though," Harry said, trying to sound whiny.

Umbridge raised her brows, and Kenai handed the muffin over to her. She surveyed it before unwrapping it and popping it into her mouth, swallowing it whole. Both boys allowed their mouths to drop open.

"It was very tasty, and now you will both go down to dinner, and will cease this arguing at once. I say, what would your father say if he knew you were arguing? Surely it is not worth a detention?"

Harry and Kenai shook their heads vehemently and said in earnest, "No maam," and hurried off, continuing to shove each other and mutter under their breaths as if they were still arguing about whose fault it was that she had eaten it.

When they were finally down a few floors and nearly to the Entrance Hall, they burst out laughing and could go no further.

"I can't believe she at the whole thing! She didn't even chew it!"

"Well now I hope she comes down to dinner."

Kenai wiped a tear of laughter from his eye and said, "Well she should. The Minister is paying a visit tonight, isn't he?" Kenai then pulled the makes you pee candy wrapper from his pocket and burned it with the tip of his wand, so that all the evidence was gone.

"Come on, before she finds us here having a fit."

Before they went into the Great Hall, Harry held out a hand to stop Kenai, and said, "Don't look at me at all once we go in, or they'll know it's us. Especially after you sat next to me today."

Kenai grinned and nodded and then said, "Just so you know then, I poured a thirsty potion into the muffin, and poured some double potion over the candy as part of the coating."

"You didn't."

"Try not to laugh too hard." He left Harry at the entrance then and went in alone to sit at Slytherin table. A moment later Harry entered and went to sit next to Ron and Hermione, Ginny at his side.

"Keep an eye on Umbridge," he said quietly to Ron, who raised his brows, but didn't say anything.

Not a moment after Harry had seated himself, Professor Umbridge strode into the Great Hall with some urgency and sat down at her seat at the staff table, taking a large drink of whatever was in her goblet. She didn't finish until it was empty. Over the next ten minutes she proceeded to drink heavily from her goblet as she spoke to the Minister of Magic at her left, and laughed her high, girlish laugh at whatever he had said.

"Something's wrong," Ron said then, poking Harry so that he would look up at the staff table. Indeed, her face had turned very red and she looked down at her lap. The Minister looked down at her lap then too and then at the floor as the other staff seemed to realize that something was wrong now too.

Umbridge waved her wand but seemed dismayed and then stood up suddenly, grabbing the attention of the rest of the Great Hall. When students saw the water and the wetness of her pants, they began to laugh, and she ran screaming from the hall, trailing water all the way, the Minister of Magic trailing after her, and slipping a few times in her wake. The entire hall was laughing, but Harry and Kenai were not, because they were trying to hold it in.

From the staff table, obsidian black eyes raked over the tables and were dismayed to find two raven haired boys with their heads bowed, not laughing, looking rather guilty. Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore noticed as well.

"I shall handle mine, and you take care of yours," Minerva said to Severus, standing up quickly, but his words cut her off.

"I shall handle both of mine," he said warily, and stood up.

Kenai looked up as a shadow loomed over him, but had little time to register his father's features as he was grabbed by the back of his robes then and dragged towards Gryffindor table where Harry was placed in a similar predicament. Together the brothers were dragged from the Great Hall, to claps and cheers from the other students, who now knew who had gotten revenge for their pain and suffering. The Snape brothers would go down in infamy.

* * *

Harry chanced a glance over to Kenai to see how he acted around their father in private quarters. Harry had been in detention many times, but that was before he was being acknowledged as the man's son. Being in trouble and being hated, Harry was used to, but he'd never really been in trouble with someone who might want him. He was at a loss for what to do.

Kenai seemed to look contrite as their father paced back and forth in the Snape living room, but also looked as if he was ready to stand his ground and defend himself.

"What were you thinking?" Severus suddenly demanded, coming to an abrupt halt and facing the two boys. Harry wasn't sure if he was allowed to speak or not. Usually at the Dursleys uncle Vernon liked to ask questions and then answer them himself, and if Harry spoke it was a whack on the legs with a cane or something worse.

"She's evil dad!" Kenai said in a pleading sort of way. "You saw what she did to Harry's hand, and to Draco's and to-" Severus held up his hand to forestall his son.

"You did not answer my question."

"My thinking was that she's evil and needed a taste of her own medicine! Besides, how did you know it was us?"

He placed his hands on his hips and said, "It was fairly obvious to myself when every other student in the hall was laughing heartily at the expense of someone's dignity, but my two sons were refusing to laugh or look at each other. I was not the only one to figure out who was responsible." He went on talking but Harry was no longer listening. His father had just said, ‘my two sons' and when Harry looked around the room to be sure there was not a third boy standing there, he knew that he was counted too, for once.

"And furthermore, I have spoken to you before about the thin ice the Headmaster and every staff member are on with the Ministry so long as that insufferable woman is on staff. Did you not think that perhaps there would be repercussions from your actions not on yourself but the Headmaster?"

"It's not even our fault really," Kenai defended. "It's not like we gave it to her. She demanded we give her the muffin with the pee candy in it. We tried to stop her."

"Regardless, it was your intention that she take it. Was it not?"

Kenai mumbled something and Severus said, "I did not understand your mumbling. Speak clearly to me."

"Yes sir. We set it up so she would take it."

Severus narrowed his eyes at his son then, trying to discern how contrite his son was, and then turned to Harry, who had been standing with his head bowed, quiet as a mouse until that point.

"What do you have to say for yourself?"

Harry chanced a look up, glad that his father no longer seemed to be a rage, but still very tense with the awareness that he was still upset. Nothing good ever came from an adult getting upset.

"Nothing good sir," he said very quietly, eyes darting back down to his shoes. Just then, before Severus was aware of what had happened fully, he moved forward and raised his arm to his head to massage his throbbing temple and begin his pace again, and Harry fairly fell backwards, throwing one arm up in front of his face. He tripped back over the coffee table, and sprawled out on the floor, turning red and looking frightened to say the least.

Kenai moved to help Harry up, but Harry flinched back again from the floor, and Severus held out a hand to forestall his second son from moving any closer.

"Kenai, go to your dormitory. You are grounded until further notice. When you are not in class, at meals, or at Quidditch Practice, you are to be in the Slytherin common room, am I understood?"

"Yes but-"

"Go," Severus said with finality in his tone, sounding exhausted. "You may well lose a hundred house points by the time Umbridge gets done with you, and this is the only way I can assure her that you have been properly punished."

"Yes sir." Kenai grumbled, and with a last glance to his brother on the floor, he left his father's quarters, looking unhappy.

Once he was gone, there was silence for a short while as Harry thought about what his punishment would be if Kenai had been sent away so he couldn't watch, and was startled when a hand touched the toe of his shoe.

Harry flinched back violently and stared wide eyed at his father, breathing heavily.

Removing his hand slowly, Severus asked in a less harsh tone than he had used a few minutes ago, "What did you think I was going to do... when you fell backwards a minute ago."

Breathing still uneven, Harry searched in his father's eyes for anything, but found nothing there. He didn't know if this was a question he was supposed to answer or not, for as hard as he tried to see his father before him, he could only remember uncle Vernon and his fist. Instead of speaking, he lifted a shaky finger to point at the eye that uncle Vernon had punched two months ago the day that Harry had gotten on the train to come back to school.

Mind working to figure out what his son meant, Severus recalled giving him detention for fighting on his first night back, and remembered the black eye.

"You believed I would hit you?"

Harry bit his lip and turned his head away. It was obvious from his father's tone now that this was not what he had intended.

"May I have my punishment now so that I can go back to my room sir?" he asked quietly. The timidness in his son's voice unsettled Severus.

Knees becoming uncomfortable from kneeling before his son, Severus asked, "What do you believe your punishment should be?" Loathe as he was to admit it, he knew very little about his firstborn child, except that he nearly always did as he was told, and rarely ever complained if at all. How was he to know what would be an effective punishment?

Now Harry felt put on the spot. Aunt Petunia had asked this once of Harry and when he answered with a punishment too light, she had laughed and given him triple the whackings with the cane. Harry looked around and didn't see a cane, but did see a fire poker, and shuddered to think what that would feel like against his legs. Hands still shaking with uncertainty, without looking up, Harry said quietly, "Please don't make me say sir." He was afraid to even ask for the same punishment as Kenai, because surely he would be laughed at. ‘What makes you think you deserve as easy as he got?' he could hear his father's voice playing in his mind.

With a sigh, and aching knees, Severus stood up and rubbed his temple for a moment, turning from Harry. He heard Harry stand up and knew he was waiting patiently for his punishment behind him. Instead of telling him he was grounded however, Severus said, "I did not expect that I should be looking after two sons, not one. I do not even know what type of punishment you would learn from, though I do know that you've had quite enough punishment this year... in the last five years, as it is."

"S, sir?"

"You may go, and if anyone asks, you received the same punishment as Kenai. Expect Umbridge to take points from you, but if she tries to give you lines, you are to come straight to me. Understood?" He turned and Harry nodded, fidgeting with his hands now. Harry hurried to the front door, and left without turning back. Severus sank into an armchair and put his head in his hands, wondering at the turn his life had taken in the last few weeks. Two sons, not one. It pained him now to know that it had not always been this way, and it was because of him.

* * *

Dear dad, I don't want to be afraid of you. I don't know how to stop. - Harry.

From the view of all concerned parties, the woman had gone absolutely crazy. She fired Professor Trelawney because she couldn't make a prediction on the spot, forced Hagrid from school grounds, banned student touching of any kind (even just holding hands), banned letter writing and owl deliveries, and even re-wrote the meal menu so that oatmeal was now being served twice a day followed by a completely vegetarian dinner, and mandatory carrots for dessert. The only thing that stopped her from firing all of the house-elves was that nobody had answered her ads in the Daily Prophet advertising for human maids, cooks, and laborers to feed, cloth, and cleanup after 600 children, staff, and guests.

While it was common knowledge that she was seeking vengeance on Kenai and Harry, nobody blamed them, and in fact, both boys were held up as legends, even surpassing Fred and George Weasley, who now took offense at having their title taken away and were working harder than ever to win it back.

"I can't believe she raided the tower and took our supplies," Fred complained one morning as he held up a spoonful of gray oatmeal and let it slop back down into his bowl. "She even took the rubber chicken wands."

"And don't forget the candy supplies," George added.

"And the potions ingredients."

"And our brooms," they both piped in.

Ron shook his head in disgust. "Your brooms had nothing to do with the joke products. Now you can't even play Quidditch anymore."

"Nope," George shook his head. "But apparently she thought we'd fly over school wards in the dead of night to get new supplies."

Harry raised his brows and asked, "Does she know you have a flying car running wild in the Forrest?"

Grinning at the idea of taming the wild Ford Anglia that Ron and Harry had once flown to school, Fred and George bent their heads together in discussion and ignored the others at the table for the rest of the meal.

Hermione slipped her wand out of her sleeve and charmed her golden Galleon to show tonight as a meeting night, and then charged Ron with making some sort of distraction in the Entrance Hall after dinner so that everybody else could get safely upstairs to the Room of Requirement.

"Have you got anything prepared for tonight Harry?"

Harry shrugged. To be honest, he had run out of things to teach.

"I think we should cover more charms. I mean, they're not necessarily defensive, but they could come in handy."

Ron snorted then and said, "Yeah, never know when you'll need to levitate a mountain troll's club over its head to knock it out."

Hermione looked thoughtful then and said, "Maybe we could cover protein charms tonight. I've been working on a way to charm paper so that we can write to each other in case of emergency."

Harry nodded. "You put that together then and Ron and I will look some up in the library after lunch."

Feeling as if there were eyes watching him suddenly, Harry turned and found Kenai trying to get his attention across the hall without being obvious about it. Harry turned back around and stared into his porridge, feeling anxious. It had been a week and a half since he had freaked out in his father's quarters, and he still felt uneasy about being around his father and brother. If he was truthful, he was afraid he would grow too close and then be shot down again and left all to himself.

Harry felt like he was in a funk for the rest of the day. He hated when he felt anxious and uneasy, as if he were walking on eggshells and waiting for the other shoe to fall. Unable to sleep that night, as had been the case in the week since the incident, Harry got out of bed and went to the cool windowsill, wishing Hedwig were there with him. She had been his constant companion, even at the Dursleys... the only friend that was never angry at him. The only friend that would never give him up.

He sighed as he looked out over the dark, frozen grounds, thinking that yet another lonely Christmas was approaching and that once again he would spend it without family. Even Ron was going home this year, and because the Weasleys were going out of country to visit distant family, Harry was not aloud to go along.

Deciding that the only way he would get any sleep was if he pulled out his journal, Harry reached into his desk and withdrew the soft, brown leather book that had also become like a constant companion. He could feel his anger and hurt radiating off of some of the pages based on how his writing looked... he'd even ripped the paper in places by pushing down too hard with the quill. One particular entry from his third year stuck out to him and he pondered that it was a truth that would never change for him.

‘If something's too good to be true, then it really isn't true at all.' There was an ache in his chest and he knew in his heart it was true. Being aloud to go into his father's quarters was just another way for his heart to deceive him with unwarranted hope and future anguish when it all turned out to be a lie. Harry had learned two immutable truths in life: The Dursleys hated him, and so did his father. These truths would never change.

‘Dear dad,' Harry paused with the Muggle pen he had pulled from the pen holder in the journal, unsure what to say to ease the pain in his heart. ‘I need to be with you and Kenai, but I know that can never happen. I hate it when I know the truth.'

He sighed and didn't bother signing it. Instead he dated it as he usually did and closed the journal again, his pain still lingering in his chest. He would have normally tucked the journal back into his desk, but felt unable this night, and instead took it to bed with him, clutching it like the teddy bear no one ever gave him. The journal was his heart and soul, come to bare from the tip of a pen. It was only too bad that there was no poetry between the paper and the pen. Only anguish.

* * *

Severus sat on the edge of his bed in his darkened bedroom, chest uncomfortably tight. Since he had opened his mind up to Harry further whilst trying to find him in the mountains, he had been receiving more emotion that ever from the boy. There had not even been any harsh contact between the two of them, or between Kenai and Harry in the last week or so, and yet his son lay in bed some ten floors above him with such a deep feeling of loss that Severus was woken from a deep sleep and felt the need to sit and cry himself.

He didn't sleep through the rest of the night, though the feeling of loss went away shortly after he had woken. What kind of father can sleep knowing his child is in anguish? Severus didn't know, but he no longer wanted to be that kind.

"Looks like it," Harry muttered, staring hard at his nasty gray porridge and trying to imagine one day dunking Umbridge in a vat of it.

Draco gave Harry a close looking over and then said, "I expect you'll need to borrow my black dress robes from last year. I've grown too tall for them and father bought me green ones this year."

Eying Draco sideways, Harry asked, "Dress robes? For what?"

"You've heard about the Christmas party on Christmas eve. The one with the Minister of Magic and the Elven dignitaries, not to mention half of Europe's magical ministry officials... I heard that even Victor Krum was coming back now that he's graduated Durmstrang and gotten on with the Bulgarian ministry of magic."

"Perhaps you've forgotten," Harry said, finally giving up on his porridge and dropping his spoon into the bowl, "but that party is by invitation only, and I don't have an invitation."

"And," Draco added, holding up a finger, "invited guests can bring one guest. Father can't come this year but made sure I got the invite."

Thinking it over Harry said, "You're inviting me?"

"Why not? Unless you have something else to do... planning on anymore pranks?"

"Shh," Harry warned his friend to keep his voice down, unsure whether or when Umbridge or her annoying assistant would pop out around a corner or from under the table next.

"I guess I'll come," Harry said. "But only if I can use your dress robes. Mine from fourth year are too small and beside, Dean set them on fire on accident last year a few weeks after the Yule ball."

Crossing his arms with a grin, Draco nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure. Besides, this is the first time they've held this at Hogwarts in six years father says and it wouldn't be right if the boy-who-lived weren't invited would it?"

Harry shrugged, thinking rather that he was the boy who lived to disappoint rather than just the boy who lived, but followed Draco down to the Dungeons after lunch anyway and into the Slytherin common room.

"So you go every year?" Harry asked as he went into Draco's dormitory and watched as Draco pulled a sleek black dress robe his size from the brown wardrobe.

"Of course. Father is on the board of governors and he works for the Ministry.

"And... who else is there?"

Draco shrugged. "Most of the Hogwarts professors usually and their families. Some have to stay behind every year to watch students over the Christmas holiday but usually everyone gets to go now and again. Here, put these on over your clothes so I can see if they fit."

Harry shrugged into the robes and asked, "And... my dad and Kenai... they usually go?"

"Unfortunately. There were one or two years where they were absent, but I usually spend the night avoiding Kenai when he's there. Because we're usually two of the only Slytherin students attending he tries to be my buddy on that night to get away from whatever boring person his father... your father is talking to. They'll be there this year since it's in the castle."

Harry's heart sank. He actually missed having Kenai around, but he was overly anxious about attending a big event where his father would be in the same room. Harry never had formal training in etiquette like Draco and Kenai had had, as Kenai used to point out repeatedly, and was unsure if he'd embarrass himself at the dignitary's party on Christmas Eve.

"I er... well it's stupid, but I don't know what to do... you know, with elven dignitaries and ministers."

"Except make their staff pee their pants?"

Harry snorted then and Draco's intention of making him feel less anxious was a won cause.

"Yeah."

"Well don't look at the elves ears... even I hate that." Draco lifted up the long hair covering his ears to show how they were just slightly more pointed than Harry's, and explained that he was an eighth elven though he possessed little of their magic.

In the days since being invited to the party, Harry worried each day and had his fears allayed as Draco answered more questions about how to act at the party and informed him about the personalities of some of the people who would be there. Still, each night Harry worried about what his father might do when he found out that Harry would be there too. He wondered if perhaps his father would take back those kind things he'd said on the night Harry had broken down in his quarters, and resigned himself to the fact that it would happen either way, at the party or later on.

"Don't worry," Draco said the evening of the party as they made their way to the dungeons to get ready. "It'll be fine. You'll see."

Harry wanted to believe him, but couldn't be so sure.

Running a comb through his hair the best he could before giving up at the state of it, Harry finally borrowed a dab of Draco's magical hair cream and smeared it in his hair.

"Just imagine what you want your hair to look like, and it will change around for you."

Hm. Careful not to envision Tonks while the hair cream was in his hair, Harry envisioned his hair just about the same, but a little more tamable, and instantly his hair combed itself and looked about as proper as Ron or Seamus' hair usually did. It wasn't sleeked back like Draco's or long like Kenai's, but it was passable enough for Uncle Vernon, Harry thought, and was therefore passable for a Christmas party. Finally satisfied Harry and Draco left the dungeons and headed up to the Entrance Hall, where guests were arriving and some already had drinks and were talking and greeting friends.

"That's Sylfaen Gandu," Draco pointed at a tall, thin man with flowing blond hair and obviously pointed ears. "He's the head consul to the elven tribunal in Northern Scotland. We're 18th cousins or something, but once you have elven blood, they consider you a close relative, like a brother or son."

"Really?" Harry was intrigued that there was a people that could so easily allow people into the fold and call them family. It was almost unbelievable.

"And that there is Christhun Brahams. I don't know why he's here because he's the Minister of the Persian magical government... I've only seen him once. Father says he's strange because he's actually from Germany but brown nosed his way up through the Persian ranks.

Draco continued to provide commentary as he and Harry leaned against the banister on the stairs leading up from the Entrance Hall to the first floor, until most of the guests moved into the Great Hall, and they decided to follow.

Inside the Great Hall, Harry let his mouth drop open just a little as he took in the sight of the decorations and number of people inside. It was obvious to him now that two or three hundred people had gone in before he and Draco had gotten to the Entrance Hall.

There were four large Christmas trees, one in each corner, decorated as Hogwarts trees were normally done up at this time of year, but underneath each tree there were actually presents, some large, and some small. There were only three house tables now, and they had each been moved to an outer wall and were laden with refreshments, plates, and dinner items like roast duck and a number of foreign dishes, whose smell Harry desperately wanted to investigate after living on a mostly oatmeal diet for the last month.

"They won't serve caviar here or the elven consul won't come because they say it's wrong to harvest unborn fish, or something like that."

"What's caviar?" Harry asked, feeling foolish all of a sudden.

"Fish eggs and it's disgusting," said a voice on Harry's other side and he looked over to see Kenai, looking slightly nervous himself.

"Yuck," Harry made a disgusted look and then allowed his stomach to squirm. He hadn't much talked to Kenai except at the DA meetings.

"I thought your dress robes were dark green," Kenai commented after his gaze left the guests and found their way back to Harry.

Harry looked down and said, "They're Draco's. I outgrew mine last year."

"Oh."

"Look, there she is," Draco said suddenly, and Kenai straightened up at the sight of a beautiful girl their age with flowing blond hair across the room. She had a beautiful flowing green gown and her hair was pinned back with what appeared to be a crown made from ice with red berries at the sides where it entered her hair, and even Harry could not keep from staring.

"I, I'll be... right back." Kenai hurried off in her direction and Harry turned to Draco for an explanation.

"That's Sheaira Evnesvanna. Kenai's had a crush on her since he was five and he first came to one of these parties. She's the head consuls daughter."

"Oh," Harry said watching from a distance as Kenai's face turned red as he spoke with her. "She has a different last name."

"Elves work names differently, just like most grater fae. Female elves take their mother's maiden name until they get married."

Harry tried to remember everything he'd learned in History of Magic about greater and lesser fae, but was drawing a blank because he'd just spotted his father, talking to someone who looked rather dark. Someone who looked rather a lot like a death eater.

"And who's that with Professor Snape?" Harry asked, palms sweaty.

Quiet, Draco said, "You don't even want to know. Needless to say there are people from both sides here... I've seen five of father's associates already."

Working hard not to clench and unclench his fists all night knowing there were death eaters among them, Harry got himself some pumpkin juice and piled a plate high with food before the toady woman came and replaced it all with porridge. He watched the crowd cautiously and with curiosity and was left by himself several times as Draco was pulled away by his fathers ‘associates' to talk or be introduced to new people. Just when Harry was feeling as though he wasn't enjoying the party anymore, and was just about to leave, a calm voice sounded next to him.

"You have cause to sit so cautiously reserved at a Christmas party Mr. Potter."

He looked up and found Sylfaen Gandu, the elven dignitary, standing with his hands behind his back as he surveyed the crowd.

"Yes sir," Harry said, eyes picking out the death eaters in the crowd that he had encountered personally in the graveyard last year.

"I have often heard tales of your bravery and prowess with magic, and yet I did not imagine you to look so reserved. From the way some would describe, I expected a daring young man who flaunts his glory amongst all who will see."

Harry turned red then and pressed his hair flat over his scar in his ever present way of trying to blend in.

"And yet I am surprised still more to see that you have associated yourself with the two sons of the two men who have previously claimed such things about you."

Harry looked up into the man's eyes, knowing he was talking about Draco and Kenai. "A man doesn't have to be his father," Harry said, feeling silly at the thought. "Draco is my friend and Kenai is my brother."

"Yes, I am aware of your parentage. I wonder perhaps if you are aware."

With raised brows, Harry listened intently and Sylfaen said, "Elven blood runs through your veins, much as it does in young Mr. Malfoys. You are a sixteenth elf through your mother's ancestry."

"Really?"

"As consuls we are made to research family blood lines and keep track of those who are unaware, as well as those out in the magical world."

Harry was quiet as he thought on it, and after he was given an appropriate amount of silence (as much as there could be in a crowd), Slyfaen said, "You are always welcome amongst the elves Mr. Potter. The blood that runs through your veins runs through many in the consul, and many more without in the elven kingdom."

With pure gratitude in his eyes Harry looked up and said, "Thank you."

"Do not forget who you are, even in time of dire distress." And then the man was gone, lost to the crowd and Harry could not seem to spot him for the rest of the night.

As the night wore on Harry earned himself a reproachful glare from Umbridge and the Minister of Magic, a pat on the head from Dumbledore and learned a new spell to use during Quidditch games from Viktor Krum. Finally, around eleven Cornelius Fudge rose and called everyone's attention to the trees at the corners of the Great Hall.

"As is our tradition at these events, every guest will receive a gift. None have names, one merely needs to approach a tree and retrieve a gift and it will be theirs."

Harry eyed Draco as they got in line in front of the tree in the farthest front corner of the hall.

"What's this about then?"

"Like the Minister said. Except he didn't say they've charmed the packages, so that whoever picks it up gets something they really wanted."

"Really?"

"One year a girl pulled a Nimbus 2001 out of the pile," Draco said excitedly, and Harry imagined that he was envisioning himself owning the new Thunder Struck broom that had just come out on the market last month.

As they neared the front of the line, Harry froze as he heard his father's voice behind him, talking to someone with a thick Irish accent.

"Severus, so good to see you. It's so crowded, I didn't even realize you were here."

Draco nudged Harry in the side then and Harry reached down to the tree and picked up the smallest box there was, earning a look from Draco as if he were crazy. They moved out of the throng then and stood to the side as Draco unwrapped a book he'd been wanting for ages, and Harry pulled the ribbon from his tiny box. There was nothing inside, and pretending not to be disappointed, his ears perked up again as the man with the thick accent said, "Where is that son of yours? I saw him after that lady elf again this year."

"I believe he is at the tree on the other end of the hall. And my other son Harry is with Draco Malfoy unwrapping presents by the tree there." His father looked up then and met Harry's eyes, and Harry had to turn away as a single shocked tear fell into his empty little box.

"You got gipped," Draco said with indignation as he looked into the box.

"No," Harry said silently. For once he had gotten exactly what he had longed after.

* * *

An incessant tapping on Harry's window jolted him from sleep, and Harry peered out from around his four-poster hangings to see Hedwig on the window ledge out in the gently falling snow. Hurrying to let her in, he was surprised to find a note in her beak.

"Where'd you get this then? Can't have flown far with it if it wasn't tied to your leg."

Unwrapping it, he found his father's flowing scrawl, asking him to come down to his quarters immediately, and to bring all of his Christmas presents.

Heart tightening, Harry wondered if his father would take all of Harry's presents away as punishment, and what would happen if he disobeyed and left some of them here. Unsure, he made his way downstairs and found a small pile of presents for him under the tree. There was one from Ron, one from Hermione, one from Ginny, a large one from the twins, a small heavy package from Hagrid, and a lumpy package Harry was sure he knew what the contents were from Mrs. Weasley. Six presents all in all, a good haul if he could only be allowed to keep them.

Because most of them were small, Harry was able to fit most of them in his empty backpack and the large one from the twins under his arm as he made his way nervously down to the dungeons. He hoped he would see Draco on the way and be given reason to detour, but then remembered that Draco's mother had shown up right after the party to collect him and take him home because she couldn't ‘bear' to spend Christmas without him.

Two solid knocks on his father's door was all Harry could manage before his heart felt like it would fail and he dropped his hand, ready to hand his presents over and be done with it. Christmas was the only time he really got new things and he hated to pass up what he could get.

The door swung open and Kenai stood there wearing a green and silver sweater with a golden Snitch on the front, grinning.

"There you are. Come on, get in then so we can eat breakfast."

Harry stepped inside, feeling awkward and noticed the many Christmas decorations inside, perhaps taken from the Great Hall the night before.

"Put your stuff by the tree." Kenai pointed into the living room and Harry put his bag and the Twin's present down next to an obscenely large pile of presents under the tree. Kenai must have had more than Draco usually boasted, Harry thought with a longing look as he followed Kenai into the kitchen.

On a small wooden table with three chairs there was a spread of wonderful looking food, probably also taken from the feast the night before. Severus was sitting with a cup of coffee reading the Prophet and set it down when Harry and Kenai entered.

"We thought you might wish to spend the day with us," Severus said, and motioned for Harry to sit.

"Thank you," he said quietly. Harry waited until Severus and Kenai had served themselves and then put a sticky orange roll on his plate, followed by wonderful looking hash and roast turkey. Kenai filled Harry's cup with Pumpkin juice, and they ate in silence for a short while before Kenai started talking about the people he'd spoken with the night before.

"He said she probably wouldn't consent to marry me because I have no elven blood."

Harry bowed his head then, knowing just from the hurt look on Kenai's face how much he seemed to like the consul's daughter, and felt bad that he could have the chance if he wanted, but Kenai could not.

"Do not let blood be the deciding factor. It is of course her choice, but you can overcome the issue of ancestry if it is set in your mind."

Kenai perked up at his father's words and they finished eating.

After being lead back into the living room, Harry sat in a comfortable chair by himself and watched as Kenai ripped into a large package that turned out to be a box of sweets.

"Thanks!" he said to Severus and then looked to Harry. "Go on, open some of yours."

Harry reached into his backpack and opened Hagrid's rock cakes to a strange look from Severus, and then a small book on Protein charms from Hermione.

"You enjoy charms?" Severus asked from the couch across from Harry.

He nodded and said, "Yeah. We've been learning a lot of them... in the DA." Harry was uncertain but Kenai gave him a nod to say he had told his father, or rather that he had guessed if Kenai did not have ugly pimples all over his face.

Kenai opened several more presents which were mostly clothing and new Quidditch gear, and Harry opened the rest of his gifts as well, which turned out to be the largest ever box of gag candy from the twins with a note saying they were sure Harry would find a good use for it, a red sweater from Mrs. Weasley, a Quidditch book from Ron, and a photo of him and Ginny kissing from Ginny. He flushed when Kenai asked to see what he had gotten from Ginny and handed the picture over. Kenai rolled his eyes and handed it back, before reaching into the still large pile under the tree for yet another gift.

Unexpectedly he handed the gift to Harry instead of opening it himself however, and Harry looked down to see his name on the red package covered in Snitches.

Harry wanted to babble something about it having his name on it, but managed to keep his mouth closed as he opened it and found a new crimson zip up hoodie with a snitch zipper pull. It was so soft that Harry was consumed with rubbing his thumb over the fabric for a few moments before he looked up. "Thank you."

Severus nodded and motioned to the rest of the presents under the tree. "I believe there are fifteen more with your name."

Feeling as though his eyes would bug right out of his head, Harry looked to Kenai for confirmation who held out another gift, and then dropped off the chair to his knees as he took it and opened it a little more eagerly to reveal several new short sleeved polo shirts in various colors.

From the couch Severus watched as his two sons ripped through present after present, each time surprised and delighted at what they had found. Harry's gifts for the most part were clothing, although there was also a new potions kit and several new books for him there, and at Kenai's insistence the largest box of candy Severus had ever purchased or ever seen, although it still didn't rival with Harry's gift from the Weasley twins.

He had watched so curiously the night before as Harry had taken the smallest gift from under the tree. Was the boy so used to having so little that he assumed he wasn't worthy of larger gifts? Severus did not know, but he could not deny that he was enjoying watching the boy trying on one of the new shirts and one of the many new hoodies.

When all of the presents were opened, Harry looked up at Severus, that quiet shyness in his eyes again, and said, "I don't have anything for you."

Severus waved his hand and said, "As a family rule, children do not give presents to their parents."

Kenai nodded and when Harry looked at him Kenai said, "Don't look at me. As a family rule we don't give presents to jerk brothers."

Frowning Harry moved to say that Kenai hadn't been a jerk lately, but Severus cleared his throat.

"All right. That's enough for now. If you wish to go to the Quidditch Pitch to play with your new gear, I will take you now while it is not snowing quite as hard."

Kenai jumped up and pulled Harry to his feet, pulling Harry's new goggles and Quidditch gloves out of the pile and then picking up his own new gear. As they left the quarters, Severus barely heard his two sons behind him as Kenai said in a way too shy for his nature, "Merry Christmas Harry."

"Merry Christmas Kenai."

It was the only Christmas in Severus' living memory that he could classify as one hundred percent satisfying. A hole had been filled, and he didn't want it to become empty again.

He looked down and admired his new crimson checkered sweatshirt, gray polo shirt, and brand new pair of khaki cargo pants. They had even given him a new pair of sneakers and a new pair of shiny black boots. It felt strange having new clothes, and he didn't want to have them washed for fear that the softness would wear off.

Feeling warm for once in the chilly winter air that often swept through the stone castle, Harry sighed in contentedness as he stood looking out a window towards the snowy Quidditch Pitch. His father had even taken them out to fly on their brooms on Christmas morning, and then they'd eaten lunch together before Harry had gone back to the Gryffindor common room to write in his journal.

‘Thanks for the best Christmas ever,' he had written before pausing in thought as a drip of ink fell onto the page from his quill. He hoped it wouldn't be his only good Christmas... hoped that this high he was feeling would last forever because there would be nothing to ruin it. For the first time he could remember, he was able to squash the uncertain feeling and pretend for just the rest of the day that everything would work out in the end, even if the feeling didn't last forever.

"Well Mr. Potter, what do you have to say for yourself?"

Harry turned, his good mood fading as Dolores Umbridge stood with her arms crossed behind him.

"Professor?"

"I did not expect to see you at the Christmas party held for dignitaries and other important people two nights ago. Forgive me, but was it not by invitation only?"

"I was invited Professor," Harry said, trying to keep his voice void of emotion.

"Ahem." She cleared her throat and smiled. "Surely you do not mean you were invited by Professor Snape, as I know for a fact that he was only given one invitation to hand out, and I saw his son there with him for most of the evening."

Harry narrowed his eyes. "Are you saying he wouldn't invite me?"

She smiled then and said, "I'm only saying that he would invite his son, so why should you have reason to be there?"

Working desperately hard not to clench his fists and fly off the handle, because he didn't want to spend the rest of his holiday nursing a mangled hand, Harry said through gritted teeth, "Actually I was invited by Draco Malfoy. He thought I might like to go see some of my family."

"Family? But what family would you have Mr. Potter? I happen to know that your only living relatives are Muggles." She gave a silly little laugh.

Calm. Calm. Don't give her reason to punish you. She's only mad about the pee candy. "Oh, didn't you know? I'm related to the head Consul to the Elven tribunal, Sylfaen Gandu. He wished to invite me to spend some time with him in the Elven realm. Wanted to teach me some advanced Elven magic."

She threw her hand at him as if he was silly. "Mr. Potter, you do strive to be funny don't you. I know the consul personally and you are not related."

Feeling suddenly as though he had to reach into his pocket, Harry reached his hand in and gripped something smooth and cool, and withdrew it. Surprised at what he found, there was a silver leaf on a silver chain that felt silken almost. He held it up for her to see, trying to keep his astonishment at bay at how it had gotten there in his pocket.

She was taken aback suddenly and asked, "Where did you get that Mr. Potter?"

Feeling like Draco all of a sudden with the upper hand, although he wasn't sure what upper hand he had yet, Harry said smugly, "What, this old thing?"

"That old thing is entrance to the Lightwood Elven kingdom."

Looking at the object curiously now, Harry put it around his neck and lied, "He gave it to me. My cousin Sylfaen, when he invited me to see him."

Umbridge eyed the leaf necklace for a moment more, before she turned her nose up and straightened her blouse. "Good day Mr. Potter." She turned and strode away, and Harry wondered why a woman who hated other races so passionately would leave him alone at the thought that he was part elven. With a thought to ask Draco when he returned next week, or perhaps his father, Harry stuffed the necklace down inside his shirt and moved off, trying to feel bad about lying to her, but being unable to.

Feeling angry that she would just assume that his father wouldn't invite him to the party, Harry felt the need to get out of the castle suddenly and went up to his room to get his broom. Twenty minutes later found him walking through two foot deep snow towards the pitch. Flying was often the only thing that could calm him down if Ginny was absent.

Mounting his broom, Harry shot off into the air and did a few laps around the pitch, letting his mind wander. He flew aimlessly for what felt like hours before his face and hands felt numb and the hood on his hoodie was no longer enough to keep his head warm.

Harry was just about to land when he felt a tingling sensation creeping up his spine. Thinking perhaps that it had to do with the cold, or his back falling asleep somehow, he reached back to scratch, but instead felt something with wings. Grabbing it, he wrenched it from his back, feeling his skin and sweatshirt tearing as he pulled it away. It looked like a red scorpion with wings, and just before Harry had time to wonder what had stung or bitten, or pinched him, he felt dizzy and headed towards the ground before he fell from his broom.

As his feet touched down in the soft snow, Harry's vision began to go dark, and just as he lurched sideways, wondering how he came to be lying in the cold snow, he saw two pairs of feet in shiny black boots just like his approach, and heard a harsh laugh.

"Finally," a deep voice said. "He's ours now."

* * *

Harry never really passed out, but he was weak and felt powerless as two pairs of hands lifted him from the snow and dragged him out of the pitch and towards the edge of the forest. The voices didn't speak again, and Harry felt unable to talk in order to ask where they were taking him, although he thought he knew. These were the same two men who had attacked him near the start of the school year, causing him to apparate into the mountains.

"Over here," one of them grunted, pointing to an X marked with wood on a bare, frozen patch of ground.

"Did we have to use the scorpionix? He's heavy when we have to drag him through the snow."

"Shut up. Just put him in the circle and get it done with aready."

Suddenly Harry was roughly shoved into the circle, and as soon as he landed on the wooden X, he disappeared, landing with a thud a moment later on hard, dry ground. It was freezing wherever he had been taken, but there was thankfully no snow.

Feeling a marginal amount of strength returning to his limbs, Harry tried to push himself up and managed to get to his knees, though he still swayed slightly. There was a ring of people in black cloaks, with masks over their faces.

"Ah, Harry Potter. We meet again."

A cold voice felt like it was snaking it's way through Harry's brain and anger rose within him at being dragged away and captured for a third time. With a small amount of panic he looked around, and was relieved to find that they were not in the graveyard where Cedric had died and Voldemort had returned, although Voldemort stood before him now.

"I have waited for so long to have you within my grasp, and here you are, kneeling before your Lord. How very pleased I am."

As more strength returned to Harry's body as the strange poison left it, Harry's brain became clearer, and he became aware of the adrenaline coursing through him. Think, think! And then it came to him. Pretending to be Draco had gotten him out of trouble with Umbridge. He didn't know if it would work a second time or not, but he donned a smirk and looked up into Voldemort' slitted eyes.

"Not yet," Harry said, bowing his head so near to the ground that his forehead touched the dirt.

There was silence around him for long moments as he bowed, and finally Voldemort spoke with curiosity obvious in his tone. "Not yet?"

Harry sat up with some difficulty, and took his wand from his pocket, surprised that it had not been taken from him yet. He laid it at Voldemort's feet and looked up at him. "You are not my Lord yet, for I do not bear the mark."

Voldemort narrowed his eyes at Harry, and Harry smirked, trying his best to look like Draco. Draco had to learn it from somewhere, and having a death eater father teaching him, Harry figured Draco must have it right, or at least right enough for Voldemort.

"What? Didn't you know I'm the son of a death eater? Didn't you know I want revenge?"

Harry stared straight into Voldemort's eyes, and as he felt Voldemort trying to invade his mind, he opened his mind up to him and allowed years worth of hatred and upset spill forth. Visions of Severus Snape looking down on him, visions of Kenai pushing him down in the halls, visions of Umbridge punishing him because he claimed to be the son of Severus Snape, visions of Harry scrubbing floors with a toothbrush, visions of Uncle Vernon beating him senseless as Harry thought about how he hated his father for leaving him there with filthy, disgusting Muggles. And then Voldemort backed out of his mind, and stared down at Harry.

"You are not the son of James and Lily Potter."

"I am Harry Severus Snape. When he cheated on my mum she left him and married James."

"And yet you look just like James."

"I look just like my disgusting father," Harry spat out. He breathed heavily for a few moments, trying to look in a rage as his adrenaline kept pulsing through him, and then said, "I'm not stupid. I know you can give me power beyond my wildest dreams. I want them to pay. I want them to suffer." He rolled up his sleeve then and held out his right arm, forearm up. Being branded and escaping was better than being dead, he thought, but Voldemort only stared down at his bare arm.

"You truly wish to serve the man that killed your filthy Muggle mother?"

Harry stared straight into the man's eyes and tried once again to recall his hatred for the Dursleys, hoping it would be enough. "She deserved whatever she got. She was disgusting going from man to man. She was disgusting for disobeying the Dark Lord."

Voldemort withdrew a deep breath and Harry bowed his head, using his left hand to support himself on the dirt as he raised his right arm higher. "I am not the boy meant to destroy you, and I do not wish to try."

"You believe you deserve to escape unscathed when you have fought against me for so long? A boy who is not prophesied about would not have fought me."

"My Lord," Harry said, trying not to sound disgusted with the name, "what young boy does not want eternal glory and fame for destroying the most powerful wizard of all time. I was lucky each time, not skilled. It was by your skill and cunning that you survived each time, and I wish to learn that skill and cunning. I will do whatever you ask of me, if only you will teach me so that I may be just a little more like you, and less like my disgusting parents."

Harry chanced the smallest glance upwards at Voldemort to see that he had built up Voldemort's self esteem then, and then bowed his head again, arm still held high.

"Anything Harry Potter?"

"Anything my Lord."

"You would kill your father before me?"

"I'll run him through with a knife," Harry vowed, looking up with determination and hatred in his eyes.

Voldemort reached down and gripped Harry's arm hard then, touching the tip of his wand to Harry's bare skin, where his skin burned as if it were on fire, and a writing, inky black snake appeared there.

"You are a fledgling death eater Harry Severus Potter. Do not fail me or you will die. Go and do as you have said. Bring your father to me, and kill him before me. I will know if you have lied."

Harry bowed his head. "Yes my Lord." Voldemort touched Harry's shoulder then and Harry disappeared, landing with a thud on the wooden X in the Forbidden Forest once again.

Shivering with the cold, Harry looked down at the snake on his arm again and scowled. He had been branded. He was in the ranks. He was almost a Death Eater.

Getting to his feet with a scowl set in place, Harry yanked his sleeve down and wondered how he could go from feeling so good to feeling so damn rotten in twenty four hours.

Harry trudged through the snow out of the woods and back up to the castle.

Running a hand through his messy hair, Harry turned with a huff and slid down the wall, trying to control his emotions. Hurt and angst were feelings he was familiar with... feelings he often hated because they defined him. But disgust. This was something new... something that consumed him totally and irreversibly. He might as well change his name, because as far as he was concerned, he had ceased to exist as Harry Potter or Harry Snape.

"Harry?"

Harry let his hands fall from his hair and let his head fall back against the wall as he looked up at a surprised Draco.

"Mum brought me back early." He surveyed Harry's hand and the blood on the wall, and the misery on his friend's face.

"It's true isn't it? You- you went to see the Dark Lord?" Draco's voice shook a little bit.

"They dragged me there," Harry clarified. He would never have gone on his own.

Draco fell to his knees beside Harry and looked to Harry's right arm. Whilst it was covered, Draco knew what was there. Of course, Harry thought. Lucius was probably one of the masked men present when Harry had made the pledge to kill his father, and of course he would have told Draco.

Harry pulled up his sleeve with his uninjured hand and let the inky black snake burn into Draco's memory for a few seconds, before tugging the sleeve back down. "Your father told you?"

Draco looked stricken and nodded solemnly. "Came home gleeful... came home touting how the great Harry Potter had finally fallen. He held you up as a shining example to me Harry."

Harry eyed Draco's arm then, but Draco caught his eyes and shook his head. "No. Mother won't let me take the mark until I'm 17."

"It was you I thought of when I did it," Harry said, hanging his head again. "I thought about how you used to act to everyone all the time, and I put on a smirk and did it. I thought... I thought it was better to have the mark than to be dead."

"Are you mental?" Draco asked. Harry's head shot up then, expecting that Draco would have agreed with him, but apparently not.

"Mother's been planning my escape for years! Expects me to hide in Africa or America or China for all I know, but she said I won't be joining. We... we were hoping you would defeat him by then! Don't you see what you've done? You can't break a promise to the Dark Lord!"

Harry stared hard into his friend's eyes then and said, "Watch me." He pushed himself up off of the dark corridor floor and made to move away, but Draco's arm shot out and caught him.

"You have to tell him... your father. He'll know what to do." Draco said it with such certainty that it almost seemed simple to Harry, but he knew that nothing in his life could ever be so simple. He had finally gained his father's approval, and now he would lose it again.

"Forget it."

"I'm serious Harry. Do it. Tell him. At least he ought to know the Dark Lord knows about you."

"How could he not know? Everyone in the castle knows! All the death eater's kids know!"

Draco looked down and then said, voice faltering, "I never told. I think some of the others told their parents once, but they didn't believe them. I don't know how, but I don't think it ever made it back around to the Dark Lord. Even father was surprised that Professor Snape had deceived him. He's in real danger. If you don't kill him, someone will."

Harry heaved a sigh. "Just... leave me alone. I can do this on my own. I don't need anybody's help." Harry turned to leave then but Draco was determined to show Harry how foolish he was being.

"Coward." The word hung there in the air between Draco and Harry's back for a full thirty seconds before there was a flurry of movement and Harry had Draco pinned to the wall, wand aimed at Draco's throat.

"I'm a man with nothing to lose anymore," Harry said through gritted teeth, hatred and disgust at himself in his eyes. "Don't mess with me Draco, or you'll regret it. Understand?" And then, finally he was gone, down the hall and out of sight. Draco watched after his friend's back as he disappeared. Harry Potter was gone.

* * *

There were two days left until the other students came back from the break, and Harry agonized over anybody else finding out about his secret. Surely Ron and Hermione would disown him, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley wouldn't let Ginny see him anymore, that was if she even wanted to, which he doubted she would very much.

In the hall, Harry snubbed Kenai, not even having the decency to acknowledge him with a look as he passed, and did the same to his father three times before something happened that he had not expected. Severus Snape demanded some respect from his son.

Harry had just passed by Severus as he had tried to say hello, and had not even looked up, scowl firmly planted in place, but Severus grabbed his arm to stop him, much in the same way Draco had tried to do days before.

"Harry, you will look at me when I'm talking to you." It was a quiet command; uncertain and weary.

Harry looked up and Severus was shocked at the hatred which he found in his son's eyes. "Let go of me, now." Harry was barely able to ground out the words, face contorting with rage, words deadly.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me." Harry yanked his arm free of the man's grasp and tried to stalk away, but Severus had gripped Harry's shoulders now and had gently pinned him to the corridor wall.

"What has gotten into you since Christmas? You wear the clothes we gave to you and speak to me as if I am the devil."

Was that what this was about, Harry wondered. The man gave him clothes like a house elf and then expected respect after so many years of torturing him? "You want your filthy clothes back? Then take them!"

He struggled free of Severus' grip then and began pulling his clothes off, starting with the new black boots that Harry so loved, then moving to his zip up hoodie, and finally yanking his shirt off over his head. He did not realize as he stood there looking murderous and panting without a shirt on that he had exposed his arm.

"Here. Take them! I don't want anything from you ever again!!" His father seemed not to be paying attention to his words though, and Harry followed his father's gaze down to his arm. Oh. That.

He looked up into his father's face, but the other man's eyes were still glued to the tattoo.

"What is that?" Severus asked around a lump in his throat. He already knew, but hoped it was some cruel joke. He had worked so hard for so long to ensure that Kenai would not go through what he did, but never suspected that Harry may end up in the same situation.

Eyes glazing over, Severus heard a dying voice come to the forefront of his mind. ‘Protect Kenai Severus. Help him to remain innocent.' ‘How long can a father manage that with a growing son Cassandra?' ‘Forever if you can manage it Severus. I don't want him to know the hurt we have known, nor the hate."

Severus came out of his reverie and looked up into Harry's eyes. "You have taken the fledgling brand."

Harry looked away, anger ebbing from him only to be replaced with hurt and fear, and an anxiousness that ate at him. Old friends. Harry hit his knees on the cold stone corridor floor next to the pile of clothing, and bowed his head. With a sob he said, "I didn't want it. I had to. I didn't want it. I didn't want it." He was shaking his head and covering the mark with his hand, as if hiding it meant it wasn't really there at all.

Severus knelt down next to his son and put a hand on his shoulder, and lifting Harry's chin so that he could look into his eyes he said, "You will tell me what happened, and we will deal with this together."

He lifted Harry to his feet, dressed the boy again with a flick of his wand, and guided him down through the castle to his dungeon quarters where thankfully Kenai was out, and let the tired, numb looking boy sit on the couch. He didn't cry, although Severus would have preferred it to the dead look in his son's eyes as the boy told him what had happened five days before.

"I didn't know what else to do. I just kept thinking about Draco... what Draco would have done. And I did it. I dishonored mum and vowed to stab you with a knife if only he would give me the brand and teach me to be more like him."

"And he believed you?"

Harry held up his sleeved arm as proof and said, "He only gave me the snake... why did he only give me the snake?"

"It is the fledgling brand. The skull comes after you have murdered in his name. The more times you do it, the darker and deeper the brand goes. If you ever see Lucius Malfoy's brand you will understand. It goes all the way down to his bone. I have seen Beallatrix Lestrange bleed from an open wound... her brand has seeped into her blood and made it black."

Harry shuddered then, and wrapped his arm around himself. "Can't we remove it?"

Severus looked down at the ground, hands clasped between his knees. "Some believe it can be done, but if and only when the Dark Lord has been defeated, once and for all. The brand is but a complicated protean charm, much like the coins your club uses to signal when a meeting will take place.

Swallowing hard, Harry finally looked up and met his father's eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't want to disappoint you... I-" Severus held up a hand to forestall him.

"You have not disappointed me. Do not ever think that because of the way I have mistreated you in the past, that any of it was your fault or could ever be your fault. I have been a sorry excuse for a parent and no amount of apologizing can ever make up for that."

Old curiosity burning in Harry's throat, waiting to be let out, Harry asked, "But why? Why couldn't you just be my dad? Why did I have to live... with the Dursleys for so long? Didn't you know what they did? Didn't you care?"

A lump once again rising in his throat, Severus set forth to explain what had happened with Harry's mother, although he could not expect the boy to understand his own feelings of loss and how he tried to separate himself from those feelings with apathy. At the end he said, "I had no guidance from your mother on how she wanted you to be raised. Kenai's mother... gave me a direction to go with him, and I did all I could to keep my promise to her. Sometimes at your expense."

Harry wrung his hands together, and tried to understand what his father had told him, but was having difficulty understanding why his father couldn't have at least let him stay with him instead of the Dursleys. Ron had lots of siblings but Mr. and Mrs. Weasley somehow cared for them all.

"I don't know what to do," Harry finally said. "I can't... I can't kill you."

Severus cleared his throat and said, "I have a plan. But you must agree to do as you have said. If the Dark Lord does not believe you were sincere, then we will both be dead, and all for naught."

Harry swallowed hard, unsure what plan involved him actually killing his father.

"I am unsure how much time the Dark Lord has allotted for you to succeed in your task, so we must be ready. Come, we have much work to do." He rose and motioned for Harry to follow him into his private potions lab. As anxious as ever, Harry followed, wishing he could have just one quiet year at Hogwarts... one year where nothing would go awry in his life.

Harry hung his head and tugged his sleeve back down.

"Look at his face Hermione. I don't think he's joking." Ron's voice was low and solemn.

Tension so high inside of him, Harry had been unable to withhold the information from his friends once he caught sight of them in the castle, and had dragged them straight up to his room before they could even properly set foot in the Entrance Hall.

"But that... that's not possible." Hermione's voice faltered now, image of the black snake burned into her mind as it was Harry's.

Harry stood and began to pace. Draco had turned on him, and his father was trying to figure out a shaky plan at best to fix what Harry had messed up, but he needed his two best friends, the two people who had always been there for him to be there for him now.

"It's not an illusion. It's burned into my arm." His own voice was shaky.

"Why?" Ron watched him pace with wary eyes. "Did Snape force you? Is it part of one of Dumbledore's barmy plans?"

Throat suddenly dry, Harry stopped pacing and looked at his two friends. "I asked for it."

Ron stood up and drew his wand, aiming it at Harry, and Harry watched him warily. "It's not what you think."

"Tell me what I'm thinking Harry, because it just sounded to me like you said you asked to become a death eater!"

"I did." Harry sat down on the bed before his shaky legs gave out on him. "I was flying by myself in the pitch... and something stung me... a scorpion with wings. The next thing I knew I was being thrown onto a wooden X in the forest by two men and I was before Voldemort in a circle of death eaters. Harry went on to describe every sordid detail of how he bowed down and built up the beasts self image as he begged to become one of his henchmen.

"It was all I could think to do. Be branded and run away. Draco was right. I'm a coward."

Silent tears ran down Hermione's cheeks and Ron sat on his bed with his head in his hands, wand next to him on the covers.

"Does Professor Snape know Harry?" Hermione spoke first, wiping her tears away.

Harry nodded. "He wondered why I was acting snarky after Christmas."

"Christmas. What happened at Christmas?" Ron looked up, incredulous, as if wondering what else they had missed in two short weeks, and Harry set to telling them about the Christmas party, the elven dignitary, Christmas in the Dungeons, and Umbridge.

"Bloody hell." That was all that Ron managed to say before he stood up and began pacing. Harry watched him and Hermione looked thoughtful, as if she were running all of the possible solutions through her mind.

Finally Ron announced that he was hungry and Harry agreed to go down to the Great Hall with them to eat, although he wasn't hungry, especially for some kind of gray sludge or other plain disgusting food. In all fairness to Umbridge's menu though, Harry hadn't been hungry since he'd taken the mark, and he told Hermione so when she prodded him to eat.

While telling Ron and Hermione had been hard, Harry did not yet have the courage to talk to Ginny about what had happened, and Ron and Hermione agreed not to tell her without giving him a chance to first. It seemed that an explanation was immanent however when Ginny kept shooting Harry worried looks. He felt too sick of himself to hold her hand or even look her in the eyes. He felt too disgusted to say much of anything to her at all. And with a look from Hermione, Harry knew it wasn't fair to Ginny at all to just let her think that there was something wrong and that it might be her fault.

Rising from the table and taking Ginny by the hand, Harry was aware of the several pairs of eyes on him. They were the eyes of the few people who knew.

"Harry? Is everything- ok?" They were in the hall now and Harry swallowed hard.

"I have to tell you something, but not here."

She pursed her lips and said, "I know a place. Come on."

She lead Harry by the hand to the West wing of the castle and through several hidden passageways Harry hadn't known were there, and they finally arrived in a tiny room overlooking West Wood, a less formidable forest on the West boundary of the grounds that students were sometimes allowed into when supervised to find potions ingredients.

The room was small enough to have been a large broom cupboard, and was empty but for a large windowsill just big enough for the two of them to sit on next to each other with their legs hanging over the sides.

Harry sat and bowed his head.

"What is it?" Her voice was uncertain, as if she expected Harry to end their relationship right there.

"I did something bad," Harry said quietly. "Really bad. I don't think your family will allow you to see me anymore."

She began rubbing his back. "It can't be that bad, can it?"

Clearing his throat, he said, "It is."

"Well, whatever it is, I'll stick by you Harry. I love you."

Voice solemn, he said, "Don't say that... not until you hear what I've done." He sat up and pulled up his sleeve, unable even to look at the mark or the look on her face.

"Oh Harry, why?" At the choked sound to her voice he looked over to see tears in her eyes.

"I got caught again Gin... over the break. There was no way to escape. I only had two options... pretend I wanted to join them or die. I took the cowardly route. Even Draco says he wouldn't have taken the mark." He began to get choked up himself again, feeling at an all time low, and Ginny hugged him tightly then as they cried together.

"My dad says he has a plan," Harry started after a while, "but I don't know. It's not fully worked out yet and it doesn't sound like it will work."

"Can't the Headmaster come up with something?"

Harry shook his head. "He doesn't know. We've decided not to tell him."

Her eyes grew big then. "But you know Ron has a big mouth Harry. He writes mom and dad almost as much as Percy did! And you know they'll tell him!"

He sighed heavily then, wishing that he could just be content to sit there in her arms.

"Come on. The feast will be over by now and we can go down and talk to my dad. Maybe he can head off Ron's owl." His voice lacked any real enthusiasm as he put his arm around her and left the secret room, feeling as though he was being lead to the gallows.

* * *

Severus, it turned out, could not head off Ron's owl, as he'd sent it directly after dinner. He did however write a letter of his own to the Weasley's asking them to forgo speaking to Dumbledore about the matter for Harry's sake, and reassured them that Harry was still on their side.

While it was with relief that Severus read their reply and found within it that they would not be speaking to Dumbledore because it involved Severus' son, not their own, it was also with an unhappy air that he informed Harry later that day that it was the Weasley's wishes that he no longer see Ginny.

"I figured as much," Harry said with melancholy in his voice as he sat in his father's office after lunch the day after the return owl had arrived.

"It would be wise to respect their wishes for the time being, unless you want our predicament to be revealed to the Headmaster."

Our predicament? So he really was counting himself in Harry's situation. But then again, how could he not when his life was on the line just as much as Harry's.

Harry left his father's office to tell Ginny the unhappy news, but she already knew as she'd received an owl that morning just after she'd parted ways with Harry.

"We don't have to listen to them Harry," she tried at the unhappy look he wore, but Harry only sighed.

"Yes we do. At least for a little while."

"But we could sneak out."

"Ron will find out, or Fred and George, and then they'll tell your parents, and we'll both be in trouble."

"Aren't- aren't I worth it though?"

Harry looked up into Ginny's green eyes, shining with uncertainty. He took her hands in his and kissed her gently on the lips.

"You're worth anything Ginny, but right now if we don't want certain people knowing certain things, then it's best to keep this quiet and do as we're told, isn't it?" He was uncertain now too and feeling severed from the one person who had been his link to reality this year.

Ginny looked away and said, "Do what you have to do Harry, but don't forget about me, ok?"

He gave her a small smile and then gently let her hands go as he turned away.

As unhappy as Harry was to leave Ginny there in the hallway, it was equally as hard each day thereafter not to be able to sit with her or speak to her, or even write letters back and forth with her. Ron and Hermione seemed to be keeping a close eye on Harry, and Fred and George had taken to going everywhere with Ginny. The few times Harry had tried to give Ginny an encouraging look, or to catch her eye at mealtimes or in the common room, Fred or George gave him a stern look, and Ron shook his head at Harry to remind him that he was no longer allowed to do those things.

In an effort to occupy himself as the days wore on without Ginny, Harry strove to spend more time with Ron and Hermione, but they were quiet around him and too cautious for his liking. Hermione seemed tense around him and Ron distant. Harry grew more certain each day that they no longer wished to be friends with him.

To make matters worse Draco pretended to be too busy to spend any time with him (and who could blame him after Harry had slammed him into the wall and threatened him), and he and Kenai had a fight that left Kenai avoiding him as well. Harry still wasn't sure what the fight was about, but it made him feel as if he was back at square one with the brother he had come to enjoy spending time with over the Christmas break.

By the time three weeks had passed since Harry had received the mark (he had been counting in his journal), he was sure that he was hell bound. He had never felt so alone or ashamed in all his life, despite the things Severus and Kenai had done or not done in the past, and he was beginning to wonder if perhaps joining the dark side was not the way to go after all. Hadn't Voldemort been perfectly willing to accept him into the ranks? Harry cared nothing for power or glory, and while he also despised murder and all that Voldemort stood for, there was something else there. Acceptance. Wasn't that what had started Voldemort's desire for power and followers in the first place? The acceptance that he had been denied as a child in an orphanage and then later at Hogwarts had morphed into a lifelong mission of vengeance. Harry knew that he wasn't thinking rationally and wondered if the mark on his arm had done something to his mind as well, but wasn't sure.

* * *

"Harry?"

Eye's glazed over, Harry passed by his friends in the common room, ignoring Hermione's worried query.

"Where's he going?" Ginny asked quietly, standing from her seat by the fire. George had stood now too to prevent Ginny from following Harry, but gave a worried look after Harry himself.

"Something's not right," she said. "Please, someone's got to go after him." She turned to George, and then Fred, and pleaded, tears welled up in her eyes, "Please."

Fred and George looked at each other, then at Ron and Hermione and Fred stood to follow Harry.

As Fred followed Harry through the dark corridors, he could tell that Harry was off. Maybe it was the way he walked as if on autopilot, or the way he ignored anyone else they came in contact with. Finally Harry went into the boy's bathroom on the third floor near the Charm's room, and Fred pushed the door open gently behind him to see that Harry stood and stared at himself in the mirror, eyes unseeing, and tears trailing down his cheeks.

Uncertain, Fred stepped back out of the bathroom at the sound of footsteps outside, and caught Draco Malfoy walking by. "Go get Professor Snape." It was a quiet command, and Draco frowned up at him.

"You're not a prefect. Tell me why I'm supposed to just do as you say?"

"It's Harry. Ok? Something's not right." He nodded towards the bathroom door at his left and Draco gave a single nod before hurrying off towards the dungeons.

Quietly pushing the bathroom door back open, Fred was surprised and dismayed to find that Harry had somehow come up with a knife, and his hands shook as he continued to stare at himself in the mirror.

"Hey Harry, what's going on?" Fred's voice shook a little as adrenaline got his heart pumping. They'd all been wary of Harry in the last few weeks, unsure if he was still the boy they knew, but none of the Weasley's wanted to see harm come to him regardless.

"Go away," Harry said, voice cracking.

"You make it kind of hard to walk away when you've got a knife mate." Fred watched Harry's lip tremble in the mirror's reflection and swallowed hard, not sure if Harry was thinking about harming himself or not.

"Not like anyone cares now that I've got the mark of the beast, is it?"

"Hey, that's not true," Fred tried to say, but Harry only lifted his arm with the knife closer to his flesh, and Fred shook his head.

Unsure of what to do now, because he hadn't helped any by being there, Fred was relieved to hear the bathroom door open slowly behind him, and to turn to find Professor Snape standing there looking worried. He gave a questioning look to Fred and then to the knife Harry was holding near to his marked arm.

Letting the door close, Severus left Fred where he was and moved cautiously towards his son. "Harry?"

"I have to do it," Harry said, lips and voice trembling as tears streamed down his cheeks. "I have to."

"Have to do what Harry?"

"I have to get rid of it! I didn't want it!" He moved the knife closer and then backed off again.

"Just set the knife down," Severus tried in as calm a voice as he could muster, hands held up as he took another step towards Harry.

"Nobody looks at me the same," Harry said, feeling numb. "I'm not even Harry any more. They guard Ginny like I'm a murderer. I'll cut my arm off before I ever murder anybody. I'll cut the damn thing off before I work my way to hell."

"We have a plan Harry."

"NO! I'M NOT HARRY ANYMORE!" he shouted, startling his father and Fred, whom he didn't seem to notice was still there by the door.

"You're my son, and we have a plan. You have to trust me."

Harry turned then, anguish on his face. "And who am I going to trust when you're dead?! Killing you isn't much of a plan is it? I only just got to have a father! Three weeks isn't enough time."

"Give me the knife Harry. I'm here now, and you can trust me at this moment. Don't you give up on me before I even get the chance to make things right."

Hand shaking so violently now, the knife slipped from Harry's hand and hit the floor hard, followed by Harry who hit his knees and found his father right there beside him.

"I know what giving up is like, and what it can lead to Harry. Don't you be like me. I won't let you be. I'll fix this, just stay with me." Severus held Harry tightly in his arms as Harry sobbed, and Fred looked on, more sure of Harry's loyalty now then he ever was before. This was Harry Severus Potter, the one that everyone asked too much of, and the one that would do what he had to, to make things right. Leaving the father and son on the bathroom floor, Fred left to quiet the fears of his family. Harry needed them now more than ever.

Despite Harry's apparent disinterest in the conversation, Kenai pressed forward. He knew about the mark, and knew something of the night before because he'd seen his father bringing Harry back to their quarters late the night before and had come in to see what was going on. When their father had put Harry to bed (temporarily) in Kenai's bed, his father had told him, "It hasn't been a good night for him. The mark is having more of an effect on him than I thought."

Swallowing hard remembering the conversation that had followed Harry being put to bed about how the fledgling brand worked to weed out the unwanted apprentices of the Dark Lord, Kenai looked up at his brother, who stared resolutely into his soggy cereal.

"Harry." His voice was quite soft, but it got Harry's attention, and he looked up, eyes emotionless. "Let's get rid of Umbridge."

"How?" Harry asked. He hated the woman perhaps more than any other student there, but if the peeing candy hadn't worked, who knew what would. Aside from Umbridge, Harry was sure Kenai knew at least some of what had happened last night, and wondered how he could think of Umbridge at a time like this. Harry had been getting flashes of emotion and thought from his scar and was sure that Voldemort would call him any day now. The pressure was falling heavy on his shoulders, and he didn't want it. What if their plan didn't work and Voldemort killed him anyway? Then Kenai would be the orphan, and Ginny would be lost from him forever, or he would be lost from her.

"You've got the mark. Use it."

Harry frowned. This was the first time Kenai had spoken to him about the mark.

"What do you mean?"

"Show it to her. Let her know the Dark Lord is back and that you obey him now."

"But I don't obey him, and the less that know about it the better."

Kenai waived his wand then and a black Muggle marker appeared in his hand. "We'll all have one, and then when she runs to the Ministry spouting off about how he's back and they come to check, no one will have the mark, and she'll get canned."

"Smart, except when she looks at mine which doesn't disappear."

Kenai waved the marker and Harry saw that it had two ends. "One end draws, one end hides for quick fixes. Some of the Slytherins have tattoos of the house crest and hide it when they go home. Others just want something temporary and use this to make one like the real ones.

"You have a tattoo?"

Kenai shot him a look. "Don't lecture me about tattoos, and no. Dad knows what they do and he frequently checks when he thinks I'm sleeping. I don't want my butt handed to me."

Harry crossed his arms and sighed. "How can you think about Umbridge at a time like this?"

"Are you going to die?"

Raising his eyes to meet Kenai's again, Harry was aware that the serious question still hung there between them. He didn't want to answer, because he didn't want Kenai to feel the same pressure he was feeling now, but Kenai wasn't moving until he heard something.

"Probably, yes."

"Then stop and look at what Umbridge is doing to us now. You dying isn't going to prove her wrong about Voldemort being back, and she'll continue on making things terrible for us. If you won't do it for yourself, do it for Ginny and your other friends. Ron and Hermione have two more years here and Ginny has three. Can you imagine going through three more years with Toady?"

"So you're saying I'm going to die anyway so why not take care of Umbridge with no fear?"

"She'll be the one fearing us." Kenai sounded so certain.

"Show me the marker," Harry said, and Kenai pulled it out and made a straight line across the center of the disgusting mark on his arm. The ink disappeared, although Harry could still feel that the mark writhed there.

"When you want it to reappear just tap it with your wand and say, "Come back."

"I don't want it to come back," Harry said, but knew he'd have no choice when he was summoned.

"Are we really going to do this?"

Kenai stood up and said, "Let me get Draco. He's the artist and he'll have to draw them. You rally some others to get the mark so we can really give her a good scare."

Harry sighed and nodded. He wasn't sure if any of his friends would help. Draco possibly, but in reality the mark was no joking matter. As he made his way up through the castle however, and happened by Umbridge's office, where he heard a scream coming from inside from a blood quill detention, he was determined, and hurried to find Ron and Hermione.

* * *

This would be an all male endeavor it turned out. Hermione wanted nothing to do with it, and Harry and Ron wanted Ginny to stay out of it. The twins and Ron were in though, and so were Draco, and one of his sixth year Ravenclaw friends named Devon. All together that made seven of them, an appropriate size for a circle around Umbridge.

"How's this going down?" Devon asked as Draco drew the tattoo on him in an unused classroom down the hall from Umbridge's office where a student still sat in detention.

"I'll do the talking," Harry said, seeing as how he was the one with nothing to lose. "Follow my lead and look menacing. Cross your arms and keep your wands out. Stand real close to her. It's all business from here out."

Draco nodded as he put the final stroke on Devon's tattoo. They compared to Harry's (whose was also fake as far as Devon was concerned), and were satisfied that they were all nearly the same.

"What's plan B if this doesn't work?" Ron asked, still a little uncertain despite what Fred had reported back to them the night before about Harry.

"Don't back down. There is no plan B," Harry said seriously, and with that he opened the classroom door, and together they marched down the hall with purpose to Umbridge's office.

Without knocking and waiting to be invited inside, Harry pushed open the door and allowed the group of fake henchmen to file in.

"What is the meaning of this Mr. Potter? I demand an answer now!"

Harry ignored her and looked to find the first year Slytherin student that sat crying at the desk with the blood quill.

"You're free to go," Harry said through gritted teeth. "Go to the Hospital Wing to get that looked at."

The student didn't hesitate and ran from the room, eager to get away from the evil woman.

"Mr. Potter, you have no right!" Umbridge said, standing now, but Harry turned on her with a glare his father would have been proud of.

"Oh, I think you'll find I have every right to do as I please," he said, and pulled up his sleeve for her to see the inky black mark writhing on his arm.

"That's not possible," she said, trying to sound certain but failing.

Harry snapped his fingers and knew that behind him six other men were yanking up their sleeves and then crossing their arms. Draco and Kenai laughed for good measure, having had experience with how real Death Eaters acted.

"Now you have once choice," Harry deadpanned. "Your tactics have caught the Dark Lord's attention and he requires your presence for initiation tonight. You can go, or you can choose to stay and see what happens."

"This is not a funny joke Mr. Potter, and I will have no more of it. You are all going to be serving detention for the rest of the year! And you Mr. Trent, I'm disappointed in you for joining in on this."

Harry turned to Devon who let out a low growl and brandished his wand threateningly at the woman, who stood back.

"I do expect there will be some punishment before the initiation," Harry went on, "what with the way you denied him for so long. And heaven help you if you have even a drop of Muggle blood running through your veins, because the Master will burn it right out of you before you can bear the mark."

"You- you have Muggle blood," she faltered, and Harry turned and lifted the back of his shirt showing where the curse had burned him the first time he'd been captured that year. There was still some scarring that they'd been trying to get rid of, but removing cursed scars was a slow process with the essence of murtlap.

"I- I- I-" she backed all the way up against her wall and Harry laughed as he allowed the other six to move in closer to her, Draco still chuckling eerily.

"They're fake, they're not real... the marks, they're just ink." To be certain she aimed her wand at Harry's marked arm and threw a spell at it that made Harry's arm feel like it was on fire, but the mark remained where it was and Umbridge let out a shrill scream before sending a spell at them that knocked them over like bowling balls. In the next moment she was gone, running right over Fred and Kenai, uncaring of whose face she stepped on to escape. They could hear her screaming all the way down through the castle in the distance.

"Reckon we'd better get these off before the auror's show up," George said, and Draco withdrew the pen and started scribbling fiercely over his fake mark and then over the others.

"Now yours Harry," Ron said, but Harry was gripping his arm tightly with his eyes shut tight in pain.

"Aren't we going to get out of here before they catch us?" Devon asked uncertainly, not noticing Harry's pain, and Draco waved him off. "Get Lucy to say you were with her the whole time. We've already got cover stories." Devon nodded and then was gone, racing down the halls towards Ravenclaw tower and his girlfriend.

"Harry?" They turned their attention back to their friend.

"I think when Umbridge hit my arm he knew, and thinks I'm trying to remove it." He withdrew his hand and the mark was more black than ever, writhing and hissing. Without warning Draco grabbed his wrist and said, "Go to your dad, now! He's summoning you!"

Ron saw the panic flit across Harry's eyes then and Harry stood there uncertainly before Draco gave him a shove. If anyone knew the dangers of being a death eater, Draco did. Harry took off running, and was gone into the evening. How he had gotten there from that morning, eating a bowl of cereal and plotting with Kenai, he still wasn't quite sure, but the time had come, and the mark burned his arm the longer it disobeyed the summons.

The second Harry had burst into his father's office, Severus had taken hold of Harry's wrist and taken off at a run with him through the dungeons towards the secret exit out onto the grounds. "When we get there," Harry panted as they ran, "I have to tell him you tried to remove the mark."

"That was not part of the plan!" Severus said as they burst out onto the grounds by the greenhouses.

"But Umbridge tried to curse it off. I don't have time to explain. I think that's why he's calling now."

"Prepare yourself then, because we have no more time to get ready." Running into West Wood, which lay a lot closer than the Forbidden Forest at this point, Severus apparated them the second they had passed the school boundaries, and Harry found himself back on the same frosty space of land he had taken the mark on.

Heart pounding, Harry realized that they were still in a forest of some sort, but in a very wide clearing. There was a circle of death eaters around them and Voldemort waited in the middle of the ring, hands clasped before him.

"My, but what has kept you Severus?"

Harry wrenched his arm free from his father's and immediately fell to one knee in front of Voldemort, head bowed.

"My apologies Master, but he refused to bring me and I am not yet able to apparate. He was busy trying to curse the mark from my arm."

"Severus, is this so?"

Being unable to look at his father just now, Harry was sure his father was looking as nervous as Harry felt. This was it, and there was no going back now, not if Harry wanted to survive. He had gotten himself into this mess, but now his father would be the one to get him out, at any price.

"My Lord," he heard his father say before he fell to one knee beside Harry, "my apologies, but the boy is lying."

Heart jumping up into his throat, Harry wanted to squirm. That wasn't part of the plan! What was going on! Wasn't the whole point for Voldemort to believe Harry?

"We shall see," came Voldemort's cold words, and in the next second Severus was writhing on the ground in pain beside him, screaming out, and Harry knew Voldemort was in his mind, searching for the truth. In another moment, it was over, and Voldemort was chuckling. It sent chills down Harry's spine.

"My my, I see that you have kept much from me Severus. A Muggle wife, a half-blood son, spying done for the old codger that runs that school, and, trying to curse off the mark that is going to spare your son's life. What do you think your punishment should be?"

"Anything you see fit my lord. Please spare me," Severus voice was shaking, and Harry wondered how much damage Voldemort had done in his mind or if it was an act for Harry's sake.

"Oh but Severus, didn't you know? The choice no longer lies with me, but with your beloved son."

Harry looked to his left to see that a sword bearing a snake and three emerald rubies in the hilt was being handed to him by a masked death eater, and he stood to receive it.

Harry spit on the ground near his father and laughed as merciless a laugh as he could muster in front of the onlookers there, and said, "Some father you turned out to be. You will pay." And then before he could think of another plan, another way of escaping this mess he'd made, Harry drew the sword high up into the air with both hands and slammed it's sharp, deadly point down through the middle of his father's back.

Harry withdrew the sword swiftly and Severus fell over sideways, a shocked look in his eyes. He gurgled, and then his eyes closed and he moved no more.

Kneeling again before Voldemort and laying Slytherin's sword at the beast's feet, Harry bowed his head. "It is done my lord. Please spare me for the atrocities I have committed against you in the past."

"Give me your arm Harry Severus Potter. You have done well and I will reward you with entrance to the family you never had. Disobey me and you will suffer. Follow me, and you will be rewarded."

Harry raised his arm but also said timidly, "Thank you my lord. But if I may only have permission to kiss your hand first, then I will be fortunate in all my endeavors for your purpose and power." Harry knew the only way to win over this beast was to feed his ego, and asking to kiss his hand was the ultimate form of flattery. His father had told him to do it, and he would do it. There was no help from the man now but to continue on with the plan he had laid out for him.

"You honor me Harry Potter. You may do as you have asked." He held out his hand and Harry leaned forward take it in his own hand and kiss it, but instead of kissing it, something sharp on the inside of his hand caught Voldemort's skin and ripped it, allowing his black blood to spill out onto the ground.

"ARGH!" Voldemort screamed in rage and Harry jumped up as the man writhed in pain.

"What is this treachery?" Voldemort screamed as some of the masked death eaters came forward to help him. Beatrice Lestrange tore off her mask and fell at Voldemort's side as he fell to the ground in pain, clutching his injured member to himself.

"It's basilik venom my lord," Harry said. He flipped over his hand so that the man could see the point hanging off of the invisible ring that was around Harry's middle finger. "Actually that's not true," he added. "Because it's basilisk venom I've mixed in a doubling potion and added several other deadly poisons to. Fear not, it will be a swift death."

Voldemort began to gag then and fell to the frozen ground clutching his stomach. Within moments, he was dead, and Beatrice Lestrange was screaming in rage and horror over her master's body.

Those in the circle of masked men and women stood stunned at the death of their leader, but Harry stood straight and made a show of pushing Voldemort over with his foot.

"I have killed my own father before you. And now I have defeated Voldemort not once, but five times, this time once and for all. Bow down to your new Dark Lord, lest I destroy you all."
Uncertain, the death eaters looked at each other, but one by one their knees bent and they hit the ground around Harry.

Wand out now, Harry moved amongst them, tapping their wrists. As he did so their tattoo's changed from a snake and skull to a red Gryffin with wings.

"You want so badly after someone to follow, but I am not that man," he said when he was done, standing in the middle of the circle once more. "I have set you free from the reign of Voldemort, and you shall serve an evil master no more."

Confused, the death eaters looked down at their new marking and some of them cursed in outrage. Beatrix tried to throw a hex at Harry but found herself unable. When her wand had failed her she threw herself at him bodily, but at the last moment pulled herself back, unable to attack him physically either.

"You are free to do as you please," Harry informed her, "but not free to harm another living being in any way or fashion. I have done worse to you than imprison you in Azkaban, because I have taken away your livelihood. I doubt the aurors will see it that way however, so I suggest you move on and make a new life for yourselves... although your new lives will be forever on the run. That mark has branded your blood, and the aurors can track you wherever you go."

"Arrrrg!" One of the death eaters let out a scream of anger and then one by one they vanished into the night, beginning their run from Harry, and from the law. On the ground Beatrix screamed in agony and began to pull out her hair, but Harry's attention was instead drawn to Lucius Malfoy, who removed his mask and walked up to face him.

"You could have had the world in your hands," Lucius said calmly, in disbelief. "It was yours for the taking."

"I don't want the world," Harry said bitterly. "What right do I have to stake a claim on what isn't mine?"

"Watch your back Harry Potter... there are those of us who were unable to be here tonight... those of us without the brand that will still do the Dark Lord's bidding whilst he is gone."

Ignoring Lucius, Harry knelt down to his father and waved his wand over his wounds before tipping a vial of something blue into his mouth. "We'll be here... and we'll be ready."

Lucius frowned, but realized that he had been duped, along with the Dark Lord when Harry said, "Draught of living death. Slows bleeding and the heart rate." Severus sat up and coughed heavily before accepting a hand up from Harry. Harry touched the tip of his wand to his father's forearm, and the skull and snake disappeared entirely.

"Run Lucius," Severus said, leaning on Harry for support. "While my son is content to let you go, I am not." He brandished his wand, and Lucius turned on his heel and vanished into the night.

In the nearly empty clearing, Severus ignored Beatrix, still crying on the ground, and turned to Harry. "I never imagined my eldest son was so... Slytherin."

"Neither did Voldemort. Let's go home."

It was obvious to them both that something was happening at the castle as they drew nearer, because several adults that Harry didn't recognize were running in and out of the front doors at random.

"What exactly caused Umbridge to try to curse your mark off?" Severus said between gasps for breath. He still managed to give his son a stern look.

"Oh, erm... that."

Severus raised a brow. It was slow going up the drive and they had plenty of time for Harry to explain.

"Well, Kenai and I... and a few others, decided to get rid of Umbridge once and for all."

"And how may I ask did you intend to do that?"

"Well Kenai had this pen-" Harry briefly went over the events from earlier that evening before the summons to much consternation from Severus. Two sons, not one, he reminded himself, and then remembered how much more trouble two could be than one. He just had to look at the Weasley twins to know that, but it appeared that Harry and Kenai were determined to hold on to the title they had once taken from the red headed twins.

"You do realize those are aurors going into the castle, do you not?" Severus asked when they drew near enough to begin the ascent up the steps to the oak front doors.

"I had a feeling," Harry said before he gave a nervous chuckle.

"There he is!" a deep voice shouted then, and several people pulled their wands out as Harry made the top of the steps, still trying to support Severus' full weight and feeling as though he were ready to collapse himself.

"Help me," Harry said, "he's been stabbed. I tried to heal him but it didn't work out very well."

Luckily Dumbledore and McGonagall were there in the Entrance Hall, along with Tonks and Kingsley who were also members of the Order.

Two aurors took Severus for Harry, but there were still more wands than Harry liked to think about aimed directly at him.

"Harry, what's happened?" Albus said, hurrying over to him.

"We killed Voldemort."

There were gasps and wary looks at Harry's statement, but he tried to ignore them. He was aware now that Fred and Draco were in separate corners of the hall being questioned, and wondered where the rest of his friends were and just how much trouble they were in.

"How?"

"I'd really like to sit down before I explain if that's all right with you." Dumbledore motioned for Harry to move into the Great Hall, but before Harry could take another step, three aurors blocked him and one of them said, "Not so fast. Roll up your sleeve first."

Harry pulled up the sleeve where the inky snake had been, but there was only a red griffin now, unmoving and looking innocent. It looked just like the Gryffindor crest.

The aurors raised their brows and then motioned for him to go into the Great Hall, where they followed him in and had a seat at the end of Gryffindor table. The rest of Harry's friends were there as well, spread out from table to table as they were interrogated about the night's events involving Umbridge.

"Why don't you start with the accusations Dolores Umbridge has made against you," a tall beefy auror said in a deep voice as he forced Harry to have a seat by pressing down on his aching shoulder. Harry winced a little and noted that his father had been seated directly across from him. Severus gave him a tired, yet encouraging look however, and Harry took a deep breath.

"What am I being accused of?"

"She says you had the dark mark on your arm and that you and several other students threatened her.

"That's not true," Harry said. "And for the record, the two stories are the same, so listen carefully because I really would like to go to bed and I don't want to tell it twice."

Dumbledore had a seat next to Severus and so did several of the aurors, although quite a few remained standing.

"Three weeks ago I was captured over Christmas break. Two death eaters took me to Voldemort and I was branded with the fledgling mark. I took it because it was the only way I could see to stay alive and fight another day." He glanced up at his father for more encouragement, but Severus was looking ready to pass out, and so Harry hurried along with the story, wanting to get him some medical attention. "Voldemort told me I had to kill Professor Snape or else be killed."

"I told my friends, and... my father and my father came up with a plan. The plan was that when we were called I would pretend to kill him. He had draught of living death in a capsule in the back of his mouth. When they told me to stab him with Slytherin's sword, I did it and he bit down on the capsule. Then when Voldemort went to give me the brand I asked if I could kiss his hand first. He allowed it, only instead of kissing his hand I stabbed it with this." Here Harry removed the invisible ring where only the small poisoned spike was visible.

"We'd dipped it in basilisk venom from the chamber of secrets and in all sorts of other deadly poisons and potions. Voldemort was dead within minutes. I pretended to take his place then. Pretended I was the new dark lord, and the death eaters bowed to me. But I changed their marks to griffins." He rolled up his sleeve again to explain the new tattoo.

"We figured out how with a book on protein charms my friend Hermione gave me for Christmas. I also made it so that they can't attack any living being with magic or physically, and told them that they would be on the run for the rest of their lives because the aurors would always be able to find them."

"How's that?" Kingsley asked, finally speaking up.

"Watch." Harry touched the tip of his wand to his mark and said, "Point me," and they heard a scream in the distance from somewhere out on the grounds.

"Looks like one of them is close," Harry said. Some of the aurors ran off to search, and Harry said to the remaining gathered there, "I don't want this mark. I can transfer it to any of you who wants it."

The aurors broke away for a few moments with Dumbledore to discuss the matter, and when they came back to the table Kingsley offered to take the mark. Harry touched his wrist to Kingsley's wrist then and encanted the same spell he'd used to change the marks of the Death Eaters. The mark disappeared from Harry's arm and reappeared on Kinglsey's and Harry was glad to be rid of it.

"They warned me there were some who weren't present, so you won't be able to catch them all. But you can get at least forty of them," Harry said, and Kingsley moved off with a few more of the aurors.

The remaining three at their table turned their attention back to Harry, and one asked, "And how does this pertain to Dolores Umbridge running through the Ministry of Magic screaming about death eaters in Hogwarts?"

Harry rubbed his temple and gave another look at Severus, who really was looking ill. "She's been using blood quills on students as punishment. You can look at my hand if you don't believe me, or Draco's, or at other people from the other houses. She's also been trying to starve us and to be honest I think she's demented. She makes you thank her when you're done having your hand mutilated. We couldn't take it anymore. So we drew the mark on people's arms and went into her office to save a first year Sytherin that was in there. He was crying and we told him he could leave. She got upset and we told her that Voldemort had taken notice of her tactics and wanted to initiate her and she was being summoned to meet him tonight. She freaked out and tried to hex the mark off my arm. When she couldn't she blasted us out of the way with a spell and ran right over the top of us out the door."

"And you think it's appropriate to intimidate ministry staff?" A new voice came from somewhere behind him and Harry turned to find the Minister of magic.

"I think it's appropriate to save eleven year old children from being tortured. I'm kind of surprised that you feel it's appropriate to allow the torture of children for minor infractions Minister. I did see a roll of parchment with your name on the bottom that said you were ok with whatever Professor Umbridge did and that it was all in your name. By the way Minister, isn't torture illegal?"

The aurors raised their brows and turned to Fudge, who could only sputter. "Well, I don't know about any paper, I-"

Dumbledore snapped his fingers then and a roll of parchment appeared from thin air. "I believe this is the parchment Harry is referring to," he said as he handed it to an auror. "Dolores was kind enough to provide me with several copies."

Harry's friends watched in awe now from the other tables along with the aurors interrogating them as Fudge was put in a magical bind and marched from the Great Hall by the aurors.

"Sir?" Harry turned to Dumbledore now and said, "If it's all right with you now can we please take Professor Snape to the Hospital Wing?"

"Yes, of course dear boy." Dumbledore snapped his fingers again and a stretcher appeared. Harry helped the last remaining auror at their table lift his father onto the stretcher where he lay pale and distant to say the least, and Harry's stomach did a little somersault to know that he had done this damage to his father.

By Dumbledore's wand the stretcher floated out of the Great Hall, and with a last relieved look at his friends, Harry went after it, grabbing Kenai's sleeve just outside and leading him away from the aurors.

"Is dad going to be all right?" Kenai bit his lip and looked uncertain.

"I think so. I'm still not entirely sure this isn't some sort of dream I'm having, because it was on shaky ground at best that be tricked Voldemort."

"But he is dead, isn't he?"

Harry nodded. "I hope so."

* * *

Harry would never cease to be amazed at the speed with which his life had a tendency to change. It was like a roller coaster that he often had no control over the speed or loops, but sometimes had a choice of left, right, or straight ahead.

He was allowed to see Ginny again, on the tentative terms that the Weasley's would still be closely monitoring the situation, although Fred, George, and Ron seemed convinced of Harry's loyalty now and were not heeding the parental orders to watch him when he was with Ginny.

Things seemed to be patched with Draco as well now too, and strange as it was, Draco and Kenai were now more on the grounds of shaky friends rather than hardened enemies.

Harry also had a brother, one he was certain of and happy to have. It was no longer an uncertain relationship that liked to ride the roller coaster in a head on collision course with his own cart.

The only relationship Harry still felt uneasy with was that of the one with his father. They had been through much, but Harry was still uncertain of where he stood with the man. In the past month and a half he knew his father had been making an effort to get to know him, and protect him. He had certainly made great strides in the fatherly realm, offering up his life to the point where Harry had run him through the back with a sword, but Harry could not be sure how things would play out in the future.

After much deliberation, Harry had decided on one thing for certain: he did want his father to know who he really was, and the only way for that to happen and for Harry to protect himself at the same time was to give his father the journal. The journal he'd written to him.

Severus had been in the hospital for three days, and Harry had not been to visit him. It was possibly because he was feeling guilty over having been the one to cause his injures, and in fact to get them all into that mess in the first place, but Harry didn't want to think on that just now as he walked calmly down to the dungeons.

At his father's office door, he gave three knocks, and was bade to enter. Carefully he made his way inside and stood before his father's desk. Severus looked up and waited.

"I er... I don't know if we can ever be a family after what you've done to me," Harry said, staring his father straight in the eyes. It was a truth he had to speak, although it hurt him to do so. All he'd ever wanted was to be part of his father's family. "I've been deprived of the most basic of needs for so long, that I don't even know if I can be a normal person anymore. I don't feel what others feel... I feel fear, and uncertainty, and anxiety. I feel sad and alone, even when I'm in a room surrounded by friends."

Severus looked down at his desk, stung by the truth in his son's words. He swallowed hard and said sincerely, "I would like to try to remedy that."

"I don't know if you can. I don't know if you want to." Harry reached into his back pocket and pulled out a tattered old journal... the same one Severus had seen in the boy's desk so long ago.

"Whatever happens, I want you to have this. I want you to know who I am."

Severus reached forward and took the journal from Harry, feeling how smooth the brown leather had grown from use.

"Where will you write your secrets if you don't have this?" he asked.

Harry turned to leave, and paused in the doorway. "I'm hoping that someday I won't have anything to write... and when I do, I hope I can tell it directly to you instead." Harry left then, and Severus sat down heavily behind his desk, the journal before him.

After long moments of trepidation at what he might find within, he opened up to the first page, and stared down at the untidy scrawl of an eleven year old boy. ‘Dear Dad, I'm so happy to find out that you're alive. I love you so much, and I hope that someday we can be a real family. All I ever wanted was a real family, and a home. -Love, Harry Severus Snape.'

Tears welled up in Severus' eyes, and he said silently. "I vow to give you a real family and a real home Harry. Someday, somehow, I will make it so."

Outside the office door, Harry let his head fall back against the wall at the faint words he heard from inside. "I have a dad," he said quietly to himself, a joy he had not previously known welling up within him. "I have a dad, and he loves me, and I'm going to have a real home."