CHAPTER ONE: PRONGS
"Come in." Harry heard as he walked into the potions classroom. It was the first day of classes and Professor Snape had already put him into detention, supposedly for talking in class, but he reckoned that the Head of Slytherin was just being vindictive. Harry walked into the classroom nervously awaiting whatever horrible fate Snape had assigned him for the evening. The greasy haired professor was sitting behind his desk marking homework. He looked up at Harry as he walked in. "Whatever happened to your Gryffindor bravery, Potter?" he sneered, "I do try to intimidate my students but I never realised I was that effective." There was a pause. Snape obviously expected a reply.
"It's not you personally, sir. It's the detention." Harry said with false confidence.
"Good. If I don't intimidate you then Voldemort won't intimidate you either. We do not want another Wormtail do we?"
Harry was surprised, at his reference to the traitor. Harry thought he believed Sirius the traitor, "No, sir."
"I do believe in your godfather's innocence, Potter." Snape replied standing up. " Onto your detention. For once, I didn't call you here to punish you, Potter. We need to talk, in private and this was the best way to get you to listen." He strode out of the room, a curious and somewhat nervous Harry followed. They stopped just down the corridor in front of a blank stone wall similar to the entrance to the Slytherin Common Room, while Snape spoke the password, "Prongs."
The wall slid aside to reveal a small sitting room decorated in red and gold, bathed in light. Overall it seemed light and cosy, completely unlike its occupant. A large bookshelf dominated one wall, broken only by two doors. A large window dominated another wall. It was most probably an illusion considering the room was in the dungeons. Perhaps the most surprising feature was the portrait hanging above the fireplace of his mother holding a baby Harry, flanked by Snape on her left and his father on the right. Harry's jaw dropped in surprise. He heard a few giggles from the portrait, looking up he saw them coming frim his baby-self while the portrait of Snape smirked.
"You seem surprised, Harry." The professor remarked dryly.
"You could say that. I never expected your rooms to be so nice." the fifth year gasped.
"And I never expescted you to get top marks in your homework, but you managed it." He gave Harry his holiday assignment, which had a big red 100% written in the top left corner. "You even beat Miss Granger although not Mr Malfoy. Perhaps you should rely on your friends less in the future, while doing your homework. Your father was a skilled Potions maker, better than I am, although his interests lay elsewhere." Harry sat down in a seat by the fireplace, that Snape had indicated.
"I thought you hated my father."
"A neccessary deception, We were best friends long before Hogwarts and that never changed, although we had to pretend to hate each other for our housemates benefit. But, in reality we meet in private in the evenings. Sometimes Lilly would come along too, although Black never knew."
"You were friends with my mother as well?"
"Tea?" Snape asked before answering the question. When the raven-haired boy answered in the affirmative he summoned a house-elf. "I need to talk to you about the changes you're going through." he replied, ignoring Harry's question "I know you're a teenager, and all teenagers change." He seemed to be very nervous. "But you're changing more than most. Well your looks are changing, not your personality. Thank Merlin. You act so like Lilly it's frightening." He paused for a moment; he looked paler than usual now. "I can't do this." he said standing up again "I wish Lilly were here she'd laugh at my nerves. She knew how to reveal my secrets and they don't come bigger than this."
"You're babbling again. You're a disgrace to wizard kind." Harry heard a stern voice say; the portrait of Snape had spoken. "You're acting just like that snivelling moron, Wormtail."
This seemed to strengthen the Potion's master's resolve. "I am not Severus Snape. You have never met the real Severus Snape because he's dead, or at least so I thought."
"Why are you telling me this?" Harry stammered disbelievingly. He was floored for the second time in a matter of minutes.
"Because, Snape was your father."
"You're lying." Harry shouted accusingly, everyone said he looked like James Potter.
This seemed to rattle the elder man. "Why don't you try looking in the mirror." he shouted, "Or, at the portrait of you when you were a baby. You don't like much like a Potter now do you? Not anymore."
He had a point, although no one else seemed to have noticed, Harry's appearance had changed drastically over the summer. It had been a gradual process lasting a month, but at the end of it he did look different and thinking about it he did look rather look his most hated teacher. His hair had straightened, and had a silkier texture, which unfortunately seemed to get greasy easily. His face was paler and longer with higher, more prominent, cheekbones. His nose was slightly smaller, like that of his mother. He still didn't trust the professor though, just because he looked different it didn't mean he was Snape's son and what was all this about Snape not being Snape? It sounded ridiculous.
"So? Just because I look different it doesn't mean anything. Besides, How would you know if you're not Snape?"
Sighing, the other man gave Harry his wand. "I'm under a glamourie charm. You know the spell to remove it." Harry nodded. "Well go on then."
"Finite Glamourie." Harry cried using the other man's wand he also added a "Finite Incanteam" for good measure. The man's appearance changed. He recognised him instantly.
"You're sick, impersonating a dead man." Harry hissed, he was extremely pissed off at 'Snape's' new look. "My dad's dead and you damn well know that. Now, who are you?"
"I can prove that I really am James Potter, Harry. Just as I can prove that you are not my son." He gave Harry a glass vial filled with a transparent liquid. "What is this potion?" he asked sounding like a teacher.
"Veritaserum" he said after smelling it "It's the only transparent odourless potion in existence. It said so in the textbook." Sitting back down, James took back the potion and the wand, before giving himself three drops. His eyes glazed over, as the truth potion look effect.
"What is you name?" Harry asked.
"James Edward Potter." was the monotone reply.
"Dad?" Harry gasped disbelievingly; he still suspected foul play. James remained silent. "Are you my father?"
"No."
"Than who is my father?"
"Severus Snape."
"How do you know this?" he replied angrily.
"Sev and I both brewed paternity tests and you look more like Snape than me."
"If this is the case then why did you pretend that I was your son?" Harry asked in the same tone as before.
"Sev was a Death Eater. We had to hide his relationship with Lilly."
"Why was Snape a death eater?" Harry had been wondering why Snape was a death eater and why he turned back.
"His parents were prominent death eaters they forced him to join."
"Did he love my mother?"
"Yes."
"Did my mother love him?"
"Yes."
"Did you love my mother?"
"Only as a sister. I was in love with Sirius."
"You're gay?" Harry choked. The anger dissipated as he tryed to remove the prejudices instilled in him by the Dursley's and in the wizarding world, where homosexuality was regarded as a cardinal sin.>
"Yes."
"Who knows that you're gay?"
"Sev, Lilly, Sirius and Remus."
"Is that why you hate Remus?" he asked. It would certainly explain why James had refused to trust Remus when he was a baby.
"Yes, he found out by accident and reacted badly to the news."
"I'm not surprised. I'm struggling to accept it." Harry paused still trying to recover the shock of James' homosexuality; he was having far too many surprises this evening. "So, you married my mother to hide both her relationship and your relationship, and when she got pregnant you passed me off as your son. Yes?"
"Only in public. You treated Sev, as your father not me, even when Sev wasn't there."
"How often did I see Snape?"
"All the time. He would always come round when I was with Paddy."
"Paddy is short for Padfoot?"
"Yes."
"How did you react to me?"
"I was jealous. I thought you ought to be my son, even though Lilly and I never had sex."
"Did my parents know about this?"
"No, Lilly never knew and I only told Sev two days ago."
"Hang on. I thought you said Snape was dead."
"No, I said I thought he was dead. I found out he was alive two days ago."
"What made you think he was dead?"
"I exposed him as a spy to Voldemort after he warned Lilly that Voldemort was after you."
"What!" Harry there was an inference there that Harry did not like. "Explain."
"After you were born I joined Voldemort out of jealousy," Harry felt anger rise "I wanted you and Sev dead, so I could have Lilly for myself. I believed that as my wife she should have my child. I told Voldemort that you were a Parseltongue."
Harry gulped, "Was I a Parseltongue at the time?" He had drawn his wand and pointed it at James, without realising it.
"Yes, despite what Dumbledore told you. He took the bait and started to form a plan to get at you without killing Lilly. Sev found out and told us, so I betrayed him to Voldemort and Sev disappeared. I assumed him dead. Dumbledore made us perform the Fidelius Charm. But Voldemort had already foreseen and recruited Wormtail, who we made the Secret Keeper. He came after us on Halloween 1981, created a fake body for me and attempted to kill you. Lilly, however, refused to see you killed and died to save you."
"Are you proud of what you did?" Harry hissed angrily, he'd worshiped this man, only to find he had murdered his mother. He hated him more than Voldemort and was on the verge of killing him.
"No. I murdered the sweetest woman I ever met and made your life a misery."
"Do you hate me?" His anger was not affected by the reply.
"Not anymore. Having to rejoin the death eaters made me realise that you're too good to hate"
"If you hated me so much before why did save my life."
"I didn't want to betray Lilly anymore than I already had."
"What do you think of me now."
"You're the greatest wizard alive. As brilliant as Lilly was."
Harry refused to believe this was the case. "What's your most embarrassing memory?"
"Dancing in front of the great hall naked with an erection, while having all the women in Hogwarts wolf-whistling at you, after one of Sev's revenge pranks." He replied tonelessly, without any blushing. The truth potion was still working.
"What do you think of yourself?"
"The lowest of the lowest. A completely worthless freak who deserves only death." Some of Harry's anger dissipated. James knew he had made an unforgivable mistake, and Harry was glad that he knew that.
"Why have you spent the last fourteen years disguised as my father?"
"It was part of the original plan and once I had entered into it I couldn't break it, without admitting to my error and I can't do that. I'm my love's last hope of freedom."
"Where is my father?" Harry queried nervously, he was not looking forward to meeting his father. There would be too many awkward questions on both sides. It was only then that he realised he'd referred to Snape as his father for the past ten minutes. For some reason it seemed natural. He didn't have much time to reflect on this though as James' answer was followed by the opening of one of the doors that lead deeper into the potions master's domain.