Harry woke up the next morning, more well rested than he usually was at the beginning of summer. Usually, as soon as he stepped off the train, the Dursleys would have things for him to do. Snape had said that he would have chores, of course, but he doubted that the man was going to make him scrub the entire house by himself, as well as cook the meals, and do the dishes and gardening. Snape had asked him to take care of the dishes from their tea, but the man had taken care of cleaning out his bedroom, so Harry thought that the division of tasks would be a bit more fair.

He got up and wandered to the bathroom that Snape had showed him the night before. After he was finished, he spent a few minutes looking at himself in the mirror. Once the glamor spell had been cancelled, his appearance had changed. His hair had lengthened slightly, becoming smoother and looking less like a haystack. It was still black but had somehow become darker, and his eyes had changed entirely. Instead of Lily’s green eyes, he now had grey eyes that were reminiscent of the Malfoys. His face had changed as well, lengthening slightly and becoming more angular. Looking at him now, no one would realize that he was Harry Potter. He was Henry Snape, entirely unremarkable. His scar was, regrettably, still there, but it was covered by his longer hair, so he had less worry about anyone gawking at it when he went to Hogwarts.

His skin was paler, but he wasn’t that surprised by that. The Malfoys were relatively pale, and Snape was as well. He’d assumed it was because the man spent all of his time in the dungeons, thus not getting outside often enough. It would explain the sallow tinge to his skin, but it seemed like the man, and the Malfoys, were simply naturally pale. He spent awhile staring at himself in the mirror, cataloging the changes. He was actually grateful for the changes, it made it easier to believe. If his appearance hadn’t changed…they would have never known. It was an accident, one he knew Snape would want the full details of later, but he was grateful for it.

Harry decided to get a shower, as he hadn’t heard Snape moving around yet, but by the time he was finished with his shower, he could smell bacon. His stomach growled, reminding him that, with the various revelations yesterday, he hadn’t eaten anything. It wasn’t that unusual in the summer, admittedly, as the Dursleys weren’t the best at ensuring that he had enough to eat, but it seemed that Snape was different.

By the time he’d made his way downstairs, there was a plate of bacon and eggs setting at one seat, with Snape in the process of making more. Considering that the Daily Prophet and a mug of coffee were both at the place without the plate, he assumed that the eggs were for him.

“Sit, Harry, and eat. There is milk if you wish for it,” Severus said, gesturing. He didn’t know if the boy drank coffee, and he personally thought that Harry could use milk more than coffee, in an attempt to regain at least some of the nutrients that the Dursleys had robbed him of, but that was a battle for another day, one where they wouldn’t be talking to the headmaster.

Harry went to the refrigerator, getting himself a glass of milk. He’d drank coffee a few times and while he liked it, he didn’t need the caffeine making him jittery right now. He noticed a letter waiting for him beside his plate, looking at Snape curiously.

“It was delivered early this morning, while you were showering, I believe,” Severus said tersely. It puzzled Harry for a moment, until the man continued. “It is from Black. I assume he wished to ensure that you arrived at your relatives’ home safely.”

Harry looked at the letter, picking it up and turning it over in his hands. He didn’t know what to do. On the one hand, he wanted to know what Sirius was saying, and to reassure him that he was safe. On the other hand, he didn’t want to tell his godfather that he was staying with Severus Snape, and that his parents weren’t really James and Lily Potter.

That brought another question to mind. “Do you think he knows? That my parents aren’t…that I’m your son and not the Potters’?”

Severus sighed, sitting down at the table with his plate once he’d finished making his breakfast. “No, I do not believe that Black knows that you are my son and not Potter’s.  He is far too blunt to keep something like this a secret for so many years, especially after escaping Azkaban. He would have revealed something to you before now, I have no doubt.”

No, Black likely did not know, so that brought more questions to mind for Severus. Were Potter and Lily in on the deception, and simply kept it from their friends as they didn’t trust that they would have the necessary discretion? Or had Potter and Lily been deceived as well, hoodwinked by Dumbledore and never knowing that the child Lily had carried and birthed had died, and had been replaced with another child?

He didn’t know, and he wouldn’t know until after breakfast, when he and Harry would go to Hogwarts and confront the old meddler for good. Severus was also going to extract a promise from Dumbledore, using an Unbreakable Vow if necessary, that Dumbledore would tell no one of Harry’s true parentage without their consent. The secret would only help them, particularly if he continued to spy. Harry would be permitted to tell his friends, permitted that he trusted their discretion and the extended Weasley clan wasn’t notified until he could impress the importance of this secret upon them, but the Wizarding World at large and the Dark Lord in particular didn’t need to know about this revelation yet.

Harry nodded, setting Sirius’ letter aside for now and turning his attention to his breakfast. He would think about what he wanted to say a bit more before he wrote anything to Sirius. He needed to gradually introduce the idea of Snape as a decent person before springing the fact that Snape was his real father and that he wasn’t related to James and Lily at all. But, for now, he wanted to know the rest of the story, how he was taken away from his real father and placed with another family on the day he was born. He wanted to have the answers, and he knew that Snape did as well.