You're My Father

Chapter 1

Harry Potter laid on his bed in his room at number 4 Privet Drive just listening to the sounds that came with the night.

Just down the hall he could hear his Uncle Vernon snoring and his Aunt Petunia talking in her sleep. She was once again revealing every gossip story she had heard that day. His cousin Dudley, who was asleep in the room next to Harry's, was also snoring up a storm but unlike his father Dudley sounded more like a gigantic earthquake was shaking the Earth then a fifteen year old boy sleeping.

'At least they can sleep', Harry thought to himself. He on the other hand was having trouble sleeping and staying asleep. Harry was plagued night after night of the dreams that centered on the Dark Lord, Voldemort's rebirth. Which happened just a few weeks ago. Each night his dreams would get progressively worse.

The dream he just woke up from was by far the worst. He was standing in the graveyard that housed Voldemort's rebirth and he was then surrounded by a thick fog. Suddenly the fog cleared and he saw his parents and Cedric Diggory and others that were killed by Voldemort and they chanted that it was all his fault that they were dead and that Voldemort was alive and back to full power. His father had said that he was ashamed to have a son like him and then his mother had said that she wished she hadn't risked her life to save his. It had been a waste.

This had been the point that Harry had woken up, tears streaming down his cheeks. He knew, of course, in the back of his mind that it couldn't possibly be his fault that all this had happened. He had only been a baby after all when his parents died. And he hadn't willingly given his blood to help bring the dark lord back. So it couldn't possibly be his fault, right? But there would always be a little part of him that wondered what if he had fought just a little harder or if he reacted just a little sooner maybe he could have prevented some of this.

Harry sighed and climbed out of bed, careful not to make too much noise lest he wake up his relatives. He knew it was useless to try and go back to sleep. He wouldn't be getting any more sleep tonight. Not with that dream still on his mind.

He walked over to the window and leaned on the sill, staring out into the starry sky. His mind quickly turned to the school he had left just under a week ago. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He had just finished his fourth year there and would be going into his fifth come September 1^st. And he was once again counting down the days until then. It was going to be a long summer.

Thinking of Hogwarts made him think of his two best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. He hadn't heard from either of them since leaving them at Kings Cross the week before. But he knew he would hear from them eventually.

His mind then quickly turned to his Godfather, Sirius Black. He was incredibly worried about him as he was on the run from the ministry of magic and the Muggle police. He had escaped from the wizard's prison, Azkaban, just under two years ago. He had been there for twelve years for something he hadn't done and was now on the look out for the person (or rat) that had.

The last time he had seen Sirius was just after the third task and he had told him and Headmaster Dumbledore what had happened after he and Cedric were taken by portkey to the graveyard. Dumbledore had asked him to go gather the old crowd. Harry wanted to protest but didn't want to seem too needy of his godfather so hadn't really said anything. Though it killed him to have to say good-bye again, but Sirius had said he would seem again sometime soon. He hoped that it was true.

He wished constantly that Sirius would be freed soon so that he could leave his relatives forever. He hated coming here every summer, his aunt uncle and cousin all hated him because of something he couldn't control. They hated him because he was a wizard. They constantly called him a freak and had kept him in the cupboard under the stairs until he was eleven and first began receiving letters from Hogwarts informing him that he was to attend school there.

When he was younger he wished all the time for some unknown relative would come and take him away from the Dursleys. But of course that never happened, the Dursleys were all he had and he had to face that fact.

Harry was suddenly taken from his thoughts by the arrival of a large tawny owl.

Harry backed away from the window and watched as the owl landed on his bed and lifted its leg to be relieved of its burden. Harry immediately went to the bird and untied the package. The owl clicked its beak before flying back off into the night.

Harry turned toward the package and untied it. Unfolding the letter he began to read:

Dear Harry,

I am afraid I must ask you to return to Hogwarts at once. Some new information has come to light concerning your past and I feel it will be beneficial for you to remain here for the remainder of the summer.

I have enclosed a port key for you that will transport you to my office. It is set for midnight and all you have to do is have a hand on the port key and another hand on anything you want to come with you.

I will see you when you arrive, Harry.

Sincerely,

Albus Dumbledore

Headmaster

Order of Merlin first class

Harry sat shocked for a few minutes. 'What could be so important that I needed to stay at the castle?' Harry asked himself. Checking his watch he noticed that it was ten minutes to midnight. So he hurriedly packed his trunk and got Hedwig's cage and placed it on top of the trunk. He was glad Hedwig was out at the moment searching for some food. He knew she would be able to find him later on.

He checked his watch and noticed it was just about midnight. He fumbled slightly as he got the portkey (an old eggtimer) out of the package. He counted down the seconds until he felt the familiar feeling of a hook yanking him under the navel.

*****************

(Earlier that day)

Albus Dumbledore was sitting at his desk when an owl flew into his office. He quickly noticed that the owl was a delayed owl and wondered who it was from. After untying the letter he offered the owl some water out of his phoenix, Fawke's dish but it had already flown out the window.

Sitting back down he unfolded the parchment and began to read:

October 15, 1981

Dear Grandfather,

I pray day and night that this letter will not be needed and I will be able to tell you this in person some day. If you are reading this, Grandpa, then Lily's suspicions of Peter were true and we are dead. I just hope that if this is true then little Harry was able to come out of it alive. If he did then please continue reading, but if he didn't then this letter isn't needed and you can throw it away.

Grandpa, there is something I need to tell you. Harry....he isn't my son. He is really Severus's. So in reality he is my nephew not son.

Yes, grandpa. I know, as does Severus, that we are twins. When father and mother split just after we were born, they each took one of us. I got the family name of Potter and Severus got mother's name, Snape. Severus was also charmed to look like a Snape instead of a Potter. Lily helped us take the charms off him so we could see the real him and even if we aren't identical you could tell we are definitely brothers. This would explain Harry's features resembling mine.

As for how it happened. Well, when Lily and Severus fell in love close to the end of our seventh year, they thought it best to hide it since mother never liked the idea of a pureblood and a muggleborn marrying and creating children. There was also the fact that Severus was expected to become a death eater. Neither he nor I wanted to put Lily in danger. So they agreed to keep it a secret and asked me to help by pretending to be Lily's boyfriend then husband. They eventually married and Lily and I held a fake ceremony (though everyone in attendance thought it was real. Including Sirius, Remus and Peter). When Lily became pregnant we were worried that the charms on Severus would effect the baby's appearance as a child looking like the Severus everyone knows would have been hard to explain. But looking at Harry now, we didn't have much to worry about. He is a Potter through and through. With a good mix of Evans as well.

I'm sorry I rambled on there Grandpa but I needed to explain everything so you could tell Harry. He needs to know his true father. As I am sure Severus is still holding ground to the fact that he is my son and not his. I'm willing to bet that he is pretending to hate him as he pretended to with me. Please tell him he no longer has to.

Also, please tell Harry that even though he isn't my son biologically that I loved him like he was mine. Tell him that he is lucky to have two fathers that love him dearly. Four if you want to count Sirius and Remus as well. Peter never really connected with Harry very well. As a matter of fact Harry never liked for Peter to get to close to him. Screamed his head off if he did.

Anyway, I'm rambling again. I'm sorry I never told you about Harry before but for everyone's safety it had to be that way. Please ask Harry for forgiveness as well.

Your loving Great Grandson,

James Potter

P.s. Oh yeah one more thing. Please tell Harry about your relation to him as well? I have a feeling you never told him about that either.

***************

Albus sat deep in thought as he waited for his great great grandson to arrive. 'How in the world am I going to explain this to him?' he thought to himself. 'That poor boy has had so much happening to him lately. How could I possibly add to it?'

Albus was shaken from his thoughts by the sudden appearance of Harry as he dropped out of midair and landed on the floor with his trunk and owl cage next to him.

"Ahh Harry welcome back!"

********************

Harry landed with a thud at his destination. He looked around wildly, half expecting to see Voldemort or Wormtail pointing a wand at him but relaxed when he spotted his Headmaster standing just a few feet away. But he tensed back up when he noticed the grim look on the older wizard's face.

"Is everything alright Professor? There weren't any more attacks were there?" He asked frantically.

Dumbledore chuckled softly, there would always be something that would never change about Harry and he hoped this wouldn't be one of them. 'Always worrying about somebody,' he thought to himself.

"Relax Harry. No there hasn't been any attacks. As a matter of fact, Voldemort has been pretty quiet this summer." Now came the hard part. "The reason I asked you here is regards to your family, Harry. It seems evidence has been found that disregards my earlier belief that the Dursleys were your only living relatives."

Harry sat shocked at what he was just told. "I...I have other family, Headmaster?" He asked in a quiet voice.

"Yes, Harry. It has come to my attention that James Potter wasn't your real father. His twin brother, Severus Snape is."

Harry gaped at the older man, "What?"

Dumbledore sighed, "It might be best for you to read the letter I just received from James. He had it sent by delayed mail so I would receive it today."

Harry took the piece of parchment from him and began to read, his eyes growing wider with every word. Harry lifted his tear-filled eyes up at the Headmaster as he watched Harry intently.

"B...But how? I mean he hates me, yet he knew I was his son. It doesn't make any sense!"

"I know its confusing Harry, but I'm sure there must be a reason for it. And I'm sure he doesn't hate you. I haven't yet talked with Severus because I wanted to talk to you first."

Harry nodded and looked back down at the letter his father...no uncle wrote. His eyes landed on the words 'your loving great grandson' and 'tell Harry your relation to him' and then looked up at his mentor accusingly.

"What did Dad...I mean James...mean when he said about your relation to me?"

Dumbledore sighed and looked Harry in his eyes, "Harry, I am your great great grandfather on your father's side. Both James and Severus are my great grandsons."

"Why didn't you ever tell me?" he asked accusingly. "Why did you say the Dursleys were my only relatives when I had you as well?" The tears he tried to hold back were now running freely down his cheeks.

"Harry let me explain..."

"No! I'm tired of you telling me that you did what you thought was best, or that I'll find out when I'm older! I had the worst childhood imaginable because of them!"

Harry could tell his words were hurting the man but he had been holding everything back for sometime now and now that he started he didn't think he'd be able to stop the words from coming out.

"They forced me to live in a cupboard under the stairs even when there was an available room upstairs for ten years! And now you're telling me I didn't have to live with them?" Harry took and deep breath and for the first time since his rant started he looked the older man in the eye as he spoke his next words. "Wasn't I good enough for you? Didn't you want me?"

Dumbledore sucked in a breath and when he replied his voice was weak, "No Harry that wasn't it..."

Harry shook his head forcefully, "No, I don't want to hear it." He then got up and ran for the door.

Harry ran out of the Headmaster's office and down the hall jumping down several flights at a time. He needed to get far away. He didn't even realize it but he was heading toward the dungeons. About halfway there Harry collapsed on the ground and pulled his legs up to his chest and wrapped his arms around his knees.

"Maybe the Dursleys were right. No one really wanted me," he said between sniffles. Burying his head in his arms he began to cry even more.