Fathers and Sons

Fathers and Sons

*

Childless Fathers

*

A soft hoot broke the silence. The two men sitting on a couch glanced up at the slightly glowing owl behind the window. Severus Snape waved his wand, opening the window to the owl to get inside. The bluish white bird flew in, perching on his knee.

"The message from Remus Lupin delivered," a cool female voice informed them. "Thank you for using the Time Owls." Then the owl flew away without a sound.

"Time Owls?" Severus asked curiously. "Whom did you send a Time Owl to?" He turned his head to look at the werewolf sitting next to him. To his surprise, he noticed that his companion was unusually pale, even for him. "Remus?"

"Oh, Merlin," Remus whispered, and covered his eyes with a slightly trembling hand.

"What now?" Severus asked warily, placing his hand comfortingly on Remus's shoulder.

"I sent Harry a Time Owl on his first birthday," Remus explained with a blank, quiet voice. "About his parents."

"Eh?" Severus was, for once, getting confused.

"His true parents," Remus said dharply. "Severus... When we broke up... A couple of weeks after that, I got some surprising news."

"You don't mean -" Severus's eyes flew wide. This was getting absurd.

"I do mean," Remus murmured. "Today, at midnight, Harry James Potter has become Michael Severin Snape."

There was a stunned silence. Then, very slowly, Severus said, "You never told me."

"No, I didn't," the werewolf replied, bending his head down. "I guess I'd closed it out of me. At first I was just 'Uncle Moony,' since the Ministry wouldn't allow them to name me even Harry's godfather. Then, when he was given to the Dursleys, I couldn't do anything. If I had told them, they'd nevertheless put him there to give him the blood's protection, and I'd probably been arrested for keeping him in secret. As a werewolf and a Death Eater's child, he'd been a potential danger to everyone. In the worst case, they'd just simply put him into an orphanage, and made sure than I would never see him again."

Severus was very quiet. Then, still without a word, he wrapped his arms around his lover. Remus hid his face in the crooch of the Slytherin's neck and cried.

Severus held the weeping man, one thought flying aroud in his mind. 'Potter is my son,' he thought. 'All these years I've tortured him, made him hate me, and he is my son!' Then he petted gently Remus's hair, and corrected himself, 'No, he's our son. And I will be a real father to him - for Remus's sake, if not for anything else.'

And when he thought about how everything had happened - Remus had gone through pregnancy alone, thinking that he was a Death Eater; he'd kept the secret all these years and not been able to tell anyone in fear of losing his son forever; their son had lived with Muggles, learning to hate his father - Severus Snape, who hadn't cried for thirty years, felt tears rolling down his cheeks.

*

"I hope you won't get mad at me for not tealling your earlier. But believe me, my son, I did it only to keep you safe, and near to me.

I love you, Michael, my son.

I love you.

Remus, your father."

Harry stared at the letter. He couldn't believe what he had just read. But his sight, which was now perfect even without his glasses, was doing a pretty good job at proving him wrong. He also felt an unnerving tingling all over his body, and didn't dare to look at the mirror again. His scalp was itching as his hair grew longer, and of the few strands that fell to his face he knew that it was changing colour as well.

He was getting more horrified at every passing second. Being Lupin's son, that he could cope with, but... Snape? And Lupin and Snape had been together?

It couldn't be. It just couldn't.

Harry glanced absent-mindedly at his birthday presents. He hadn't opened a single one yet. And, to be honest, he didn't want to, not anymore. All those things had been sent to Harry - to Harry Potter. Not to Michael Snape.

What would his friends say when they found out? Would they want to be friends with Michael Snape?

More importantly, would he want to be friends with them? The letter had said something about his character changing, and he also remembered something from their Charms lesson. His character would turn into the one it'd been if he'd grown up with his true parents.

His eyes wandered around the room and stopped to stare at his trunk. While he was watching it, the initials slowly changed from "HJP" to "MSS."

As he saw this, he tossed the presents aside and fell onto his bed, face first.