Who am I really?

Title: Who am I really?

Summary: AU!! “You cannot be Harry Potter. Harry Potter died thirteen years ago, along with his parents. Only his twin brother survived, ‘Theodore Potter’.”

Disclaimer: Harry Potter does not belong to me. This magical world and everything in it belongs to JK Rowling and her publishers.

Warnings: Okay, this will be a BDSM fic, for certain, but only later on in the fic. This is Snarry slash, Snape will be the Dominant but it will be very different from ‘Life as I know it’, Harry will stand up for himself more…

WILL EVERYONE PLEASE READ THE AUTHOR’S NOTE BELOW!!! Thank you!!

AN: Just to cover my own butt :), Severus invented a new formula of Polyjuice potion which would allow the drinker to appear different to anyone and everyone who doesn’t know who the person really is. So in this fic, Raymond looks like he did that day that Severus and he went to Diagon Alley but Severus (and the headmaster), who knows that Raymond is really Harry Potter, they see him the way he really looks - dark hair and green eyes. Hope this all made sense :)

Thank you ALL for your wonderful reviews!!! :) They are much appreciated.

Severus knew there was a war to come; he could feel it in the air and on his skin.

His dark mark had pulsed for the first time in thirteen years that very morning.

Chapter 8: Revelations of a sort

Severus Snape was not someone who forgot easily. He might go as far as to say that he NEVER forgets. That claim unfortunately had absolutely no bearing this time. He wasn’t certain exactly what surprised him the most; that he forgot the boy could actually do it or the fact that the boy just appeared right in front of him after walking through the wall separating Raymond’s bedroom from the living room.

Severus could see that Raymond was also a bit startled to find himself face-to-face with his Professor – Severus usually let the boy know if he was going to come by – but the boy regained his composure swiftly and made his way over to his kitchen.

“Good morning Professor, would you like something to drink?”

“Tea, black with half a spoon.”

Raymond nodded and continued to make them both a cup of tea – he sorely missed a cup of coffee but as he only had one about once or twice a month, he couldn’t really complain.

Handing the cup over to his Professor, Raymond seated himself across from the man. The shame and embarrassment he had felt after his breakdown the week before had since disappeared but Raymond could still not make himself look his Professor in the eye for more than a few seconds.

“I would advise you not to do that anywhere else in this castle. Your rooms are secure and only I and the headmaster know the password, everywhere else however is unknown territory – or rather, well known territory.”

Raymond could honestly say he didn’t have any idea what the Professor was on about now. What? Should he not make a cup of tea anywhere else in the castle? Well, that went without saying! Just where did the Professor think he was going to find boiling hot water, tea and sugar? Out of thin air? Okay, so yes, maybe that might be the case, seeing as they were in a magical castle.

“Oh, for the love of…”

Raymond looked up at his Professor and realized that the man could clearly see just how confused he was at the moment.

“I meant that you shouldn’t walk through walls where anyone else could see you!!”

He might have been mistaken but he thought he heard the Professor utter something like ‘dullard’. He made a mental note to look the word up in the dictionary later. The way the Professor said it let Raymond think it might mean ‘idiot’ but he just wanted to make sure.

“Umm, okay, sure, but why? You never did answer my question about why you always use the door. I assume it means that you can’t walk through walls. That no-one else can walk through walls actually. But why? Why can’t you?”

Raymond could see that the Professor was struggling with what to say. He had deduced that for some reason – which he really couldn’t explain – that he was the only one who could walk through walls. He had not seen anyone else do it before and had come to the realization that yes, he was indeed a freak like Jarvis had always proclaimed.

He just wished he knew why he could do this and no one else can.

“That is one question that I can’t answer Raymond. I would like to discuss this with you in detail some time – maybe over the weekend – and you can tell me how you do it and since when you have been able to do it. Maybe we can then construe just why it is you can do this.”

Raymond filed this ‘construe’ away as well for later interpretation.

“Very well Professor. I believe we can come to some consensus on the matter.” It really wasn’t the best word he could have used but for some reason he just couldn’t remember any other words that might have worked in this sentence. At least he hadn’t used ‘agreement’, which would have elicited a snort from the man, not merely a smirk for not thinking.

One look at his Professor had Raymond shaking his head and promising himself he would work even harder to outsmart this man. He just had to win one day. He had to!!


*-------------------------------------------------------------------------*


Severus had not thought about the Tri-Wizard Tournament a lot. To be honest, he had pushed it to the back of his mind as a rather ‘trivial’ matter.

When Theodore Potter’s name came out of the goblet however, Severus was incensed. He knew without a doubt that the boy had not put his own name in the goblet – the Headmaster had seen to that – but Severus also knew it was not for lack of trying.

The boy was a walking disaster and he went looking for trouble every minute of the day. Severus had seen him try to approach the goblet – even after the Weasley twins aged seventy years with their own attempt – but he had been kept away by Dumbledore’s force field.

So no, the boy-who-lived had not entered his name into the goblet but Severus could see that he was really not sad or apprehensive to have his name read to the whole school.

The boy in question stood up from his place at the Gryffindor table where he made a sickening bow – to some loud whoops and applause – before he followed the headmaster’s directions into the room with the other champions.

Severus sought out Raymond’s eyes and was honestly surprised to see panic building behind those beautiful green eyes.

Making a subtle gesture with his head, Severus watched as Raymond stood up and left for the dungeons.

Eating the last few bits of toast on his plate, Severus excused himself from the table and instead of going to the room where all the champion’s were receiving their instructions – where Severus knew Albus wanted him to be – he made his way to Raymond’s quarters. His charge needed him at the moment and no-one, not even Albus Dumbledore was going to stop him from doing what was needed.


*-------------------------------------------------------------------*

Raymond paced his room as he waited for his Professor to return. When his brother’s name had come out of the goblet he had at first felt a burning rage build up inside himself – especially when his brother looked pleased as pinch – but after a minute or two, panic had set in.

There was no way that Theodore could have placed his name in that goblet by himself and that was what bothered him the most.

‘Who’ and ‘why’ would someone place his brother’s name in the goblet? It could be that someone just wanted to give Theodore even more attention but that didn’t make sense. Theodore had genuinely looked surprised to see his name come from the goblet – pleased, but surprised – so if it was for attention and acclaim, would Theodore not have known about it? Would they not have told him that they’d found a way into the system and placed his name in the goblet?

No, Raymond had a very bad feeling that whoever did this, did not do it for any noble reason.

Professor Snape entered his rooms and Raymond silently handed the man the cup of tea he had been making.

“He did not enter his name himself.”

“Potter didn’t enter his own name.”

The two looked up when they both started speaking at the same time and Raymond couldn’t help but smile when he realized that they’d both been thinking the same thing.

“What are we going to do?” Raymond was glad that the fear he felt had not entered his voice.

“’We’ are not going to do anything. I will continue to keep my eye on the brat and save his worthless hide as I promised the Headmaster I would do.”

“Oh come on Professor! It’s my brother we’re talking about. If anyone’s going to save him – worthless or not – it’s going to be me!”

Raymond lowered his eyes as he realized just what he had said and to whom. He had just screamed at a Professor. A Professor!!

“You would do well to remember who you are talking to Raymond. We may have formed an amiable relationship but that does not give you the right to speak to a Professor in that way.”

Looking up at his Professor, Raymond could see that his words had really rattled the normally unshakable man. Why that had happened he really didn’t know but the ‘why’ wasn’t important. Just the fact that he had displeased and disappointed the man weighed heavily on his mind.

He had not been able to make any real friends yet and Professor Snape was the only person he talked to for more than five minutes at a time. Raymond could really not imagine what Hogwarts would be like if he did not have Professor Snape to speak to, to confide in.

More to change the topic than for curiosity’s sake, Raymond asked a question he had been wondering about for a while.

“Who exactly am I impersonating all the time? What will happen if I should come across that person, or someone who knows him?”

The Professor looked as if he was also glad for the change in topic and answered Raymond in his ‘Professor voice’.

“You are not really impersonating anyone. Just wait until I’ve finished my explanation before you ask anything else. What I gave you that day we went into Diagon Alley was the normal Polyjuice potion and it only lasted a few hours – I have improved the formula to last three hours by then. What I give you now to drink in the mornings is a whole new formula of Polyjuice. I can make a batch every weekend, give you a week’s supply to drink in the mornings and it will last you the whole day long. Normal Polyjuice does not have a shelf-life of more than two days. Not only that, but with this new formula you look like Harry Potter to anyone who knows who you really are – myself and the headmaster.”

“You have probably realized that you do not look exactly the same as you did that day in Diagon Alley. That is because I used not one but three people’s hair in this new formula. They are all hairs from the same family – even though they are generations removed. Basically, you look like a combination of my cousin – your ‘dad’, Kevin McShane – another cousin of mine and, if you really must know, one of my own. You are your own unique person and I felt it was wrong to make you look exactly like someone else – as if you did not have your own personality and feelings. If we can’t have you looking like Harry Potter, I won’t have you looking like anyone else. You’re unique, and I wish to keep it that way.”

Raymond swallowed hard around the lump that had appeared in his throat. He had realized weeks ago that Professor Snape wanted only what was best for him but he had not realized to which lengths the Professor had gone to give him the freedom he had. To give him his own identity that could help him blend into this new world and that would not raise any suspicions. Most of all though, Raymond felt warmth spread throughout his whole body as he realized that the man had given him something very personal - a part of himself. That the man trusted him enough to give him a potion containing a hair of the Potions Master himself, that, more than anything else showed Raymond that the Professor really did care about what happened to him.

He could not express what he felt at that moment in words so he lifted his cup in a silent gesture before drinking his tea.

Professor Snape acknowledged it with his own raised cup and the two of them settled into a companionable silence.


*--------------------------------------------------------------------------*


Raymond paged through the thick book furiously. Professor Snape had given him the massive book as a belated birthday present during the last week of September. It had come as quite a shock to him that he had celebrated his birthday for 12 years (more like 6 actually, as he couldn’t remember that far back) on the wrong date.

His latest attempt at winning the game – which he had thought was a brilliant attempt – had very spectacularly blown up in his face.

The thick World Encyclopedia was a wizarding version of the muggle condensed World Encyclopedia. The difference being that the wizarding version was self-updating and not as ‘condensed’ as the muggle one.

When Raymond had first paged through the book he had found it fascinating and very informative. When he had come across “Carter, Jimmy”, thirty ninth President of the United States 1977-1981, he thought that this could just maybe be the chance he had been waiting for. Reading and learning anything and everything he could find out about President Carter, Raymond had been 90% sure he would be able to beat Professor Snape in their games for once.

What he had not counted on was Professor Snape’s fascination about muggle Presidents and what they did for their countries – the man took great pleasure in comparing their minister to the Presidents. “Will that imbecilic Fudge never pick up a book and read it? No matter that they are muggles, he could learn noteworthy facts from muggles!!”

The Professor had not only answered each and every one of Raymond’s questions about President Carter but he had gone so far as to ask Raymond his own questions about the Presidents.

Raymond was just about to give up and throw the book against the wall when he found a list of all the Presidents of the United States and quickly scanned it to find his answers.

Professor Snape had stated that there were three Presidents whose surnames started with an ‘A’, three with a ‘B’ and four with a ‘C’. None of the President’s surnames started with a ‘D’ – ‘Could Raymond tell him which other letters of the alphabet fell in that category, where none of the President’s surnames started with that letter?’ “There are eight other letters, if that would help” the Professor had supplied with a smirk that Raymond felt was almost a smile.

Raymond had flushed bright red and muttered that he would find out, quickly leaving his Professor’s quarters, once again defeated.

Well, he had his answers now – not that it would help very much at the moment. The letters pertaining to the question were: ‘I’, ‘O’, ‘Q’, ‘S’, ‘U’, ‘X’, ‘Y’ and ‘Z’.

Raymond remembered something he had read once, or maybe he had heard about it on a television. Where he heard about it didn’t matter, Raymond would research “The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World” for his next attempt at the game and maybe, just maybe, he would be able to wipe that smirk off his Professor’s face.

End Chapter 8


If anyone is interested in finding out which Seven Wonders I’m talking about; look through the following site:
http://ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/wonders/

Review please!!!