"How about...James?"

"Absolutely not!" Snape exclaimed immediately. "One James Potter running around here was quite enough!"

"Uh, yeah," Harry said, though he hated to agree with his most disliked teacher, "that would be kind of weird. I mean, with it being Dad's name and all."

"Oh," his double said. "Got any ideas?"

"Uh," Harry said, thinking, "no, not really."

"How about Henry," Dumbledore said, smiling. "That was James' father's name."

"Really?" Harry and his double asked at the same time, smiling.

Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, it was," he said, grinning.

"All right," Harry's double said, "Henry...uh...Potter."

"How about Jacob for a middle name?" Snape suggested, surprising the two boys. "That was Lily's father's name."

"Henry Jacob Potter," Harry said, grinning. "I like it."

"Yeah," Henry said, smiling. "I like it, too."

"I suppose that is settled then," Dumbledore said, pleased.

"I guess," Harry said, somewhat quietly. "How did you know that?" That question had been directed at Professor Snape.

"What exactly, Potter?" Snape asked him, raising an eyebrow.

"How did you know my-uh, our-mom's dad's name?" he asked the black robed man.

"How indeed?" Dumbledore asked, his blue eyes twinkling.

I'm gonna get you for that, old goat, Snape thought to himself. "It is rather simple, Mr. Potter," he told the boy. "I grew up with your mother and her family."

"What?" Harry and Henry asked, surprised.

"Yes," Snape said. "Your mother and I lived in the same village until we turned fifteen. She was the closest friend I had when we came to Hogwarts-despite being Sorted into two different Houses."

"Wow," Henry said, his blue eyes wide.

"Yeah," Harry said, not sure how to feel about this information.

"I believe that it is time to discuss where you two will be spending the summer," Dumbledore said, eyeing Snape out of the corner of his eye.

"I'm not going back to the Dursleys?" Harry asked, puzzled.

"No," Dumbledore said, smiling. "I think I'll let Professor Snape explain from here." He turned to the black robed man, as did Harry and Henry.

Snape cleared his throat. "The two of you will be coming to Dover," he told them, "with me."

"What!?" the two boys exclaimed at the same time. "Why!?"

"Because," Snape said, clearing his throat uncomfortably, "I am the closest living blood relative you have."

Harry and Henry just stared at him, shocked.

"James was," Snape said, forcing bile back down his throat, "my brother."

"I don't believe you," Harry said, continuing to stare at him. "I mean, you hate me-uh, us-and you really hate Dad!"

Snape sighed. "If I truly hated you," he told him, "would I have protected you as closely as I did this past year?" he asked him, pointedly.

"I-I guess not," Harry said, glancing at Henry who glanced back, "but how can you and my dad be brothers?"

"Simple," Snape told him. "We shared the same mother."

"You did?" Henry asked, not wanting Harry to be the only one asking the confusing questions.

Snape nodded. "Yes, we did," he said. "My mother was a pureblood witch named Eileen Prince. When she was eighteen, she married another pureblood wizard named Henry Potter-the Potters and the Princes had been allies for several years-at the request of her family. James was born nine months to the day of their wedding."

"O-kay," Harry said, "but where do you come into the picture?"

Snape raised an eyebrow at the blunt (slightly disrespectful) question. "My mother wasn't happy," he explained. "Muggles refer to it as Post Partum Depression, I believe. What it boiled down to was that while Henry was a very nice man and would have been good to her, he was not my mother's choice and that made her unhappy. So, she left."

"She just left Dad as a baby?" Harry asked, his face wrinkling.

Snape sighed. "It wasn't something she was ever proud with," he explained, "but yes. She knew that Henry had what he truly wanted-a son to love and raise-and would take care of their son. She left the wizarding world, and met a muggle named Tobias Snape."

"Your dad," Henry said. It wasn't a question.

Snape nodded. "Yes," he said. "He was unlike anyone my mother had ever had to deal with before and that intrigued her. He fell in love with her beauty and asked her to marry him only after knowing her a few months. My mother wasn't sure if she loved him or not, but for the first time in her life she got to choose what she wanted. She chose him. I was born nine months later. James was a year old."

"I don't understand," Harry said, confused. "Why did you and Dad hate each other, and I thought you were in the same year as Mum?"

Snape sighed. "James was angry that our mother left him and his father," he explained. "To him, I was the living symbol of that betrayal. As to your second question, I was in the same year as Lily. James was a year ahead of us."

"Why did he save you?" Henry asked, curious. "Professor Dumbledore said he saved you and that's why you protected me-uh-us."

Snape again pushed bile back down his throat, and glared at the Headmaster for his big mouth.

"Yes, he did," he told them. "One of his friends thought it would be amusing to lure me into a very dangerous trap. Despite his hatred of me, James' noble nature couldn't allow his brother be harmed, and so he rescued me. Needless to say, I didn't thank him."

"Okay," Harry said, hesitantly, "so that explains why dad didn't like you. Why didn't you like him?"

Snape narrowed his eyes at the green-eyed boy. Yes, he could definitely see Slytherin traits there now.

"That is between him and me," he told him, firmly, "but the point of this entire discussion is to explain why you two will be coming with me this summer. I believe I have sufficiently done that. Are there anymore questions?"

"Just one," Harry said, looking at Dumbledore. "Is he telling us the truth?"

Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, Harry," he told him, sincerely, "he is."

Harry and Henry looked at each other, and then back at the two older wizards.

"What now?"