September 2, 1991
After leaving the headmaster's office, Severus could hear his heart beating in his chest. ‘What could possibly be in this box and what could Lily have possibly written in this letter?’ he thought to himself. He made his way up to the astronomy tower, their place. The place he could still feel her when he allowed himself to think about his best friend. He sighed as he sat down and peered out over the edge, taking in the sight of the star, the Forbidden Forest, and the Black Lake. He pulled the letter out from his robe and took a deep breath before opening it. Right as he was opening it a flash caught his attention from the corner of his eyes. He snapped his head up and followed the direction it came from and saw a continuation of flashes down by the Black Lake and what sounded like a group of boys shouting at each other. He clenched his fists and shoved the letter back into his robe and stormed out of the astronomy tower towards the Black Lake.
****
Harry and Ron approached Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. “Well, if it isn’t Potter and the Weasel,” Malfoy sneered at them. Ron shot Malfoy a dirty look and grabbed Harry’s arm and whispered in his ear “Harry, what are we doing out here?” Harry shook his arm out of Ron’s grasp and turned to whisper back “we have to do this for Hermione. I want to shut this prat up, especially if we’re going to be seeing him every day.” Honestly, Harry wasn’t quite sure why he agreed to duel Malfoy, this was only his second day at school and only learned one spell. ‘Hopefully, Ron will know what to do,’ he thought to himself.
Malfoy drew his wand out and Harry and Ron followed. “It’s time to show you the mistake you made on the train befriending those imbeciles,” Malfoy said. Before Harry could react, Malfoy shouted out the Furunculus curse towards Ron, whose skin immediately erupted into painful boils. Ron grabbed at his face as he felt the surface of his skin erupt. Ron pointed his wand in the direction of the group and shouted back “Rictusempra!” The spell hit Goyle who immediately broke out into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. In fact, he was laughing so hard he fell on top of Malfoy. “Get off me!” Malfoy struggled as he attempted to get out from underneath Goyle. Harry turned to Ron as he saw Ron now on his knees from the pain of the boils forming on his face “Ron! What should I do?” he asked his friend hoping his anxiety from the situation wasn’t showing. “Use the one Fred and George taught you!” Ron shouted back. Harry turned and pointed his wand at Malfoy and shouted the incantation for the bat-bogey hex. Immediately, bats started to fly out from Malfoy’s nose, and he screamed, turning to Crabbe “do something you fool!” Crabbe, using the first spell that came to mind shouted “Bombardo!” and the next thing any of them knew was that they were all flying 10 feet into the air as the ground around them exploded.
Harry was thrown into a nearby tree, hitting his head and smashing his glasses. He sat up groggily and looked around and saw Ron laying a few feet in front of him. He slowly got up and realized he felt extremely dizzy but made his way over to his friend. Just as he looked up, he saw the blurry outline of a shadowy figure running down the hill towards them. “Shit,” he mumbled and helped Ron stand up. Before he knew it, there was a hand gripping his upper arm extremely tightly, and he flinched. “You imbeciles!” the voice shouted! Harry swallowed. He knew that voice.
Before he could say or do anything, the grip on his arm tightened and started dragging him and Ron back towards the castle. Without his glasses, Harry couldn’t make out where he was going, but after a somewhat long venture through the castle, he recognized the smell of antiseptic and realized they must have been in the hospital wing. “Sit.” The voice ordered as he was shoved into a bed. He could just make out his friend being shoved into a bed next to him and saw the professor cast a spell over his friend, figuring he was getting rid of the boils. He then looked around the room and saw three other occupants in the beds across and figured it was Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. Harry gripped the sheets on the bed and felt his heart racing. ‘This is not good; this is not good’ he kept thinking. ‘My father already hates me! Oh god, I’m going to get expelled; I’m going to have to go back to the Dursleys!’
Harry started to gasp for breath as tears filled his eyes. He pulled his knees up to his chest and placed his head in between his knees. He didn’t know how long he was like this, but then suddenly that voice broke through the room again “Potter!” it shouted, “calm yourself!” Harry immediately obeyed and took a few deep breaths while leaning back in the hospital bed. The next thing he knew was someone grabbed his wrist and opened his hand to shove a pair of glasses into them. “They’re not your original ones, but they will have to do for now until you can see an Optometrist get new ones.” The voice said. Harry nodded and put the glasses on. They weren’t exactly perfect, but he could at least see better than before. He looked up and saw Professor Snape, his father, staring down at him with a very angry expression on his face. Harry gulped and then looked around the rest of the room.
He was right; they were in the infirmary. He saw Ron sitting in the bed next to him, now boil free. He then looked across the room and saw the three other boys with a few cuts and bruises scattering their bodies. He heard the clucking of a tongue and looked up and saw an older woman dressed in what he assumed were hospital robes, entering the room and shaking her head. “Only the second day of school and I already have five students in here!” she exclaimed. “Severus, care to explain what happened?” she asked looking at the potions master. Severus nodded and glared at all the boys in the room “these imbeciles seemed to be having a duel when one of them caused an explosion right before I got there in time,” he explained. All the boys could tell their professor was extremely upset, but Malfoy looked up “Potter started it!” he yelled. “Did not! Stop lying!” Harry shouted back at the blond-headed prat. “Boys!” Snape cut in, “it does not matter who started it, what matters is that you all participated! One of the many rules at Hogwarts is that you never pull a wand on another student. Dueling is strictly forbidden! I have half a mind to expel each one of you, but this time I will be lenient. A week’s detention should suffice. I am extremely disappointed in all of you. Your families will also be notified.” With that, the potions master stormed out of the room.
Harry looked down and studied his hands and sighed, ‘my parent already knows,’ he thought to himself.
****
Severus made it back to his quarters. He immediately went over to the cabinet that had the fire whiskey in it and took a swig from the bottle. He ran a hand through his hair and sat back in his chair. “Those stupid children!” he shouted out. He was seething with anger; he was surprised he was that easy-going on the boys. He had to admit though when he looked into Potter’s eyes and saw tears in them, he immediately thought of Lily and calmed down a bit. “Those damn eyes are going to be the death of me,” he said aloud. He then remembered the letter and the chest the headmaster provided him. He pulled the letter out and sighed. He took another swig from the bottle of fire whiskey and leaned back in the chair, finally having the courage to open it. He pulled out the letter and began to read, hearing his heartbeat in his ears as he read.
“Severus,
I don’t even know where to begin with this. If you are reading this, that means I am gone, and our plan was not successful. You are probably going to be very confused by what is in this letter, but don’t worry. Dumbledore can explain and some artifacts inside the chest will help you better understand.
First, what you should know is that I love you. I love you so much Sev. I never stopped. I thought about you every single second of every single day. I miss our bickering, I miss seeing the smile that you would only allow me to see, I miss listening to your rants about those ‘idiot brats’ at Hogwarts, I miss waking up every morning next to you. I miss you.
I was never married to James. You were made to believe that after we had to obliviate your memory to protect us from Voldemort. We lived at Spinner’s end, but Dumbledore moved us to Godric’s Hollow Christmas Eve in 1980. He removed every single artifact that would have reminded you of us.”
At this, Severus took a deep breath… ‘us?’ he thought. He continued reading and felt his hands shaking against the paper.
“Sev, we had a son. His name is Harry James Snape. Well, to the ministry he is known as Harry James Potter, but his real birth certificate is hidden in our vault at Gringotts for safekeeping. Harry is your son. Harry is our son. I remember the day he was born; you were so incredibly happy. Hell, we were both incredibly happy! We were such a happy little family with our beautiful baby boy. He looks just like us. Unfortunately, because of this, I had to cast a small charm on the boy for him to resemble James, but I couldn’t bring myself to rid him of all the things that make him your son. He is a perfect mix of the three of us.
I know you are probably feeling very confused and overwhelmed, but the contents of the chest will help restore your memory. I wrote a letter to Harry as well, explaining everything to him and that he should find you. If you are reading this, that means he already knows. Sev, go find our baby boy and love him enough for the both of us. Open your heart back up for him.
I love you more than words can describe, Severus Snape,
Your Lily Flower”
Severus didn’t realize but he had tears streaming down his face. ‘No,’ he thought. ‘This cannot be true. This has to be some kind of sick joke the Potter boy is playing on me.’ He leaned forward in his chair and let the letter fall out of his hands as he lowered his head into his head. ‘But apparently, the Potter boy isn’t even a potter.’
He looked at the letter that was on the floor and read it once more. He had no clue what to do. ‘Could this be true? If it is, why the hell did Albus not bring him back to him after Lily had died? Is this a joke? Am I dreaming?’ He grabbed his wand and cast a spell to cut open skin. ‘No, not a dream,’ he thought as he watched the blood drip down. He healed himself and stood up. He looked at the chest and decided he had enough for tonight. He couldn’t bring himself to look inside just yet. He took another long sip from the bottle of fire whiskey and decided to retire for the night. He would deal with this tomorrow.
As he changed into his pajamas and laid down in bed, he found himself staring at the ceiling. He couldn’t bring himself to fall asleep. He looked over at the clock on the nightstand and saw it was 2 am. Without even thinking through his thoughts, he got up and transfigured his pajamas into his robes and stalked out of his quarters, finding himself standing in front of the infirmary doors. He knew Poppy would keep the kids overnight after the explosion. He took a deep breath and as quietly as he could, he walked into the infirmary and over to the bed of one tiny eleven-year-old boy. This was the first time he recognized the features in the boy's face. He noticed the high cheekbones and defined jaw. Those were his. He noticed the way the boy's hair had waves at the end. That matched his hair. He then saw his hand resting on top of the blanket and noticed he had the same long, slim fingers and nail shapes as the boy. ‘Is this boy really my son? My son with…. Lily,’ he thought to himself. He looked at the very thin frame of the boy and then back up to his face. He looked so vulnerable lying here asleep. He looked… cute? ‘Merlin I cannot believe I even allowed myself to think that nauseating word,’ he thought to himself. He continued to stand there silently, watching the gentle rise and fall of this boy’s chest. He found himself relaxing a bit.
A noise across the room caught his attention and he heard one of the boys begin to stir. He quickly sauntered out of the infirmary and walked back down to his quarters. This time he found himself able to fall into a deep, restful sleep, dreaming of his beautiful Lily.
Chapter 8