“It was after I received the letters from the Ministry and Professor Dumbledore and the Order, that my whole life got turned upside down.” Once again Harry lost his focus on the present.

****

Harry sat in the kitchen of his uncle’s home trying to explain the evening’s events and why his cousin was acting so strange.

“So, you put some crackpot spell on my son so he’d hear voices and believe he was – was doomed to misery, or something, did you?” Uncle Vernon said trying to wrap his head around the whole situation.

“How many times do I have to tell you” said Harry, temper and voice rising together. “It wasn’t me! It was a couple of dementors!”

“A couple of – what’s this codswallop?”

“De-men-tors,” said Harry slowly and clearly. “Two of them.”

“And what the ruddy hell are dementors?”

“Dementors, they guard the wizard prison Azkaban.” Petunia Dursley corrected her husband.

Harry spun to stare at his aunt, “How did you know that?” He demanded absolutely stunned by his aunt’s statement.

“It must have been from that awful boy.” She snapped.

“If you mean my dad, why don’t you just say his name?” Harry yelled.

“I do mean your father, but not James Potter. No, I don’t have to damage your image of my perfect sister, she did it to herself. It was that Snape boy, the one from Spinner’s End. He was the one that told her, he’s your father.” Petunia said her eyes flashing dangerously.

Harry’s face had gone ashen. Snape was his father, that couldn’t be true. “You’re lying, Snape isn’t my dad. James Potter is.” Harry mumbled his voice nothing but a whisper.

“You’d like to believe that. But no, I don’t have to lie about this. My sister slept with that awful boy before she found out what he was, a Death Eater. When she discovered the truth she went running to James, for protection I expect. She used some sort of charm on you to cover up the truth. That old coot of a head master explained all of it in the letter he left with you when he left you on our doorstep. The only reason that we kept you all of these years is the ruddy blood wards.” Petunia snarled.

Harry gave his aunt a confused look.

“Oh, I see your beloved headmaster didn’t explain that to you. The reason that we never took you to an orphan or take you back every summer is because of those blasted wards. There is something about how your mother’s sacrifice could be extended through residing with your own blood. Unfortunately for the both of us, the only kin you had other than your no good father was your uncle and I.” Petunia explained, her words being spit like venom from an angry snake.

“I don’t believe you,” Harry managed out in a whisper.

“I you don’t believe me than read it for yourself.” Petunia said. She rose from the table and left the room. She returned several moments later a yellow piece of parchment in hand.

Harry shook his head like a dog with water in its ears as he returned to the familiar surroundings of the Hogwarts Great Hall.

“I still didn’t believe her, not even after I read the letter for myself. It was a couple of days before I could ask anybody I trusted about what I had learned. Several members of the Order came to rescue me from the Dursleys. It wasn’t until we got to Headquarters that I first got to ask. That wasn’t an easy conversation I can tell you.” Harry explained rubbing the back of his neck nervously. “My godfather, Sirius Black, loved James like a brother. Having to tell me that James was in fact not my father was hard, he felt like he was betraying James. The fact that Professor Snape is my dad didn’t help. The two of them did not along very well when they were in school together.”

The memories of those first nights at No. 12 Grimmauld Place came rushing back as Harry continued his tale.

It wasn’t until several days after being brought to No. 12 Grimmauld Place that Harry got his chance to talk to Sirius by himself. The other kids had already headed upstairs to start cleaning yet another room leaving just Harry and Sirius alone in the kitchen.

“Sirius, can I ask you a question about my dad, about James?” Harry asked playing with a bit of egg that was on his plate.

“Sure kiddo, what do you want to know?” He asked cocking his head to one side in a very canine manner. It was obvious that something had been bothering the boy since he had arrived, but Sirius had attributed it to what he had been told on that first night. Now there was the strange phrasing of Harry’s question and there was something odd in his tone as well. It was almost a combination of despair and hope rolled into one. It didn’t make any sense.

“Aunt Petunia told me something on the night the dementors attacked. I didn’t believe her, but then she showed me this letter. I still can’t believe it though. I have to hear it from somebody.” Harry said his voice breaking as he started to cry. Ashamed he set his head on the table hiding his face in his folded arms.

“Harry, I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about. What did your aunt tell you about James?” Sirius asked the confusion evident on his face.

Harry removed the letter from Dumbledore from his pocket and pushed it across the table towards his godfather.

The parchment was old, yellowed with age. Sirius recognized the slanting handwriting as Dumbledore’s at once. He stared at the parchment for several long moments before picking it up and being to read. Sirius read through the letter several times before setting it back down on the table.

“So it’s true? Snape’s my dad?” Harry asked looking up at his godfather his head still resting on his arms.

Sirius nodded.

“Did you know?” Harry asked the pain in his voice was obvious.

Sirius nodded again. James had told him not long after he and Lily got married that she was pregnant and that the baby wasn’t his, but in fact was Snape’s.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Harry asked as sobs overtook him once again.

“I was,” Sirius cleared his throat as tears threatened to spill out his own eyes. “I was trying to protect you. You had told me how miserable Snape had been to you at school. How could I very well tell you that he was your father?”

Before Harry had a chance to respond the door to the kitchen opened and in walked Molly Weasley. The tension in the room was palpable. Harry shot a menacing glare at his godfather. Hoping to relieve the discomfort between the two, or at least find out what was cause the problem Molly asked, “Harry dear, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing, Mrs. Weasley,” Harry snapped his eyes never leaving his godfather.

“If that’s the case you should head up stairs the others are already in the drawing room cleaning.” She said.

Harry got up from the table not bothering to say anything further to either to the adults.

“Sirius what’s the matter with him?” Molly demanded turning to look at Black. She had never really cared for the man, but she knew he meant a great deal to Harry. To see the two at such odds made her uncomfortable.

“It’s a family matter Molly.” Sirius barked getting up from the table himself.

“A family matter, that boy is as good as a son to me,” Molly said her hands finding their way to her hips.

“That maybe, but you aren’t the boy’s family. James and Lily left the boy to me to look after. I wouldn’t betray his trust anymore than I already have. I need to go and feed Buckbeak.” He said leaving the room. In their distress neither Harry nor Sirius remembered the letter that was still sitting on the table.