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: This will most probably turn into a BDSM fic but I’m still a bit uncertain about where I want to take it. There will be sexual situations, adult language and elements of chan. Non-con as well…

AN: Those of you who read “Life as I know it”, this is NOT the sequel to that one but don’t worry, I’m working on the sequel.

This is just an idea that wouldn’t leave my head and so I decided to start another fic…

As always, ideas are welcome and needed!!


Chapter 1: Who are you?

The alley he found himself in was dark but warm and a bit damp because of the humidity. Turning his head marginally from side to side so he could be sure to take in his surroundings, the young boy made certain that no-one was following him and when he assured himself that he was alone; he disappeared into a solid, thick stone wall.

Looking around, he found that he was in a fairly big family room with a smoldering fireplace. A light shining through a door that stood ajar made it easier for him to take in the room and he was delighted to see some fruits out in a bowl in the middle of the living room table.

Walking to the table he took a banana and peeled it right then and there. He also took an apple and put it in his pocket - there was no way of knowing when he would be able to eat again.

He hated having to resort to stealing but as he had no way of earning an income and thus, food for nurturing, he had no choice but to do so.

Taking one last, longing look around the warm room the young boy exited the same way he had entered and made his way back down the alley.

Some beggars approached him as he passed them but as soon as they took in his appearance they turned around without a word.

Whether it was because he himself looked like a beggar or for some other reason he couldn’t be certain but he refused to think of what that other reason could be.

It had been a long time since he’d looked in a mirror and he knew he looked a fright. Memories from years passed flashed through his mind and he cringed as he remembered every time he had gathered up the courage to actually look in a mirror. He knew that should he decide to once again put himself through such torture - he would see a huge scar cover half of his face. Starting with what looked like a lightning bolt scar carved deeply into his forehead the scar then ran down his face, over his eye – which he counted himself lucky to still have – and down his cheek to his chin. The lightning bolt scar was the deepest and most noticeable but the rest of his scar could also not be missed as it was such a huge thing.

As he reached the end of the alleyway he looked in every direction and set course to his right where he could see the first signs of everyday hustle and bustle start up.

Blending into a crowd had always been a difficult thing for him to do because of his ‘disfigurement’, but as years had passed he had realized that people stared less and less. Now, as he walked down the street and passed some of the early risers they hardly even noticed him, more content with focusing on their own lives and doings.

Harry was grateful for the fact that after years of living on the street, knowing that he was dirty and smelled, he probably also looked as bad as any of the beggars, still people paid him no mind.

He had always hated the pitying looks older women would throw his way or the way men and young boys would sneer at him or even spit at him. That had not happened in years and he was very grateful for the fact and after realizing that his swift wish every morning to stay safe during the day and not attract any attention actually worked…, he had made it a part of his routine and would not go a day without uttering his wish.

The crowd was slowly growing in number and Harry decided to slip down the next alley he saw in order to miss the stampede he knew would soon ensue.

Slipping around the wall of a tall building Harry focused his eyes as much as he could. The alley he had entered was not one he was familiar with, which was a surprise as he knew almost each and every one in that part of London.

As he moved deeper and deeper into the alley and away from the normal, sunny part of town, Harry quickly realized that things were a lot different here than anywhere he had ever been.

Beggars approached him as was the norm but instead of turning around as soon as they could have a proper look at him, they kept coming and Harry was hard pressed to defend himself from their wandering hands and foul breath that they insisted on exhaling right in his face.

He thought that he might either faint from the overwhelming experience – either that or from the reek that just intensified with every whispered word or plea from the beggars in his ear and face.

A large hand clamped down on his shoulder and a silky voice purred in his ear.

“Just what do you think you are doing here Mr Potter? All alone in Nocturne Alley… not one of your brightest ideas to date I have to say.”

It had been many a year since anyone had come this close to him and it unnerved him that this stranger had managed to sneak up on him. He was usually much more alert of his surroundings than this.

As he took some deep breaths to regain a semblance of control, realization struck.

Twisting as quickly as he could, he grabbed the man’s wrist and turned the arm. He made sure to grip the wrist tightly and pushed the man against the wall with all his might.

“Who are you and what do you want?” Remembering times when he would be on the receiving end of some very unwanted attention, Harry dredged up all he could remember in defending himself from pedophiles or any other people.

“Unhand me at once Potter or you will find yourself minus 50 points by beginning of term.”

“Points? Term? Are you confusing me with someone else? What on earth are you talking about?”

Harry had not slackened his grip any as he had long since learned not to get distracted by words and in so doing shifting advantage of the situation to the other party.

Nonetheless, even as he gripped the arm with all his strength the stranger he had pushed against the wall turned and in one swift moment he had reversed their positions. Oh mercy! The man was strong!

“Do not play me for a fool Potter. You will serve one week of detention at the start of term for your cheek.”

Harry, whom had been looking down at the strong hand gripping both of his wrists blinked up at the man and couldn’t help but stare even as his hands was abruptly dropped and he was pushed away from the man.

The man was tall, dark and intimidating as all hell. Harry was certain that if he had seen the man’s face during that whole little debacle he would have backed off in an instant.

Gulping, Harry looked down again and absently massaged his wrists.

How the man knew his surname was a mystery to him but everything else he was saying also made no sense.

What did the man mean by ‘start of term’? Harry couldn’t figure it out. The only thing he could think of that ‘start of term’ applied to, was school or some jobs. He, Harry, fell in neither of those categories and he had to wonder what the man meant.

As the silence dragged out between them Harry looked up once again and found the stranger staring at him like he had grown a second head.

“Who are you?”

Harry looked at the man curiously. The man had called him Potter just moments before, how-come now suddenly he didn’t recognize him anymore?

“Just moments before you were so sure that I was this ‘Potter’ you referred to me as, what suddenly changed your mind?”

“I don’t have time for ignorant foolhardy children. If you don’t know who ‘Theodore Potter’ is then you have probably just crawled out from under a rock. I apologize for manhandling you, it was my mistake.”

The man turned on his heel and stalked off down the alley. Harry just stared after the man for a while but as the beggars – who had backed off as soon as the mysterious man had shown up – approached him again he made a hasty decision and set off after the tall, dark man.

“Sir!! Excuse me, sir!”

Harry was quite winded when he finally caught up with the man as he had sprinted full out after him but he was grateful when the man actually stopped and turned to face him.

“What is with you, you little nuisance?”

“New what?”

“Nui-sance. You’re an irritating, ignorant child and I have no time to baby-sit!”

Harry stored away the new word and promised himself to look it up in a dictionary if and when he could slip into a library again.

“I’m not asking you to baby-sit, sir. I was just wondering if you could tell me where exactly we are. I’ve never seen this part of London before and believe me; I’ve been through a number of alleyways in my life.”

Harry fidgeted a bit under the hard glare directed his way but he refused to back off.

“So you’re a street-urchin are you? Now that explains your despicable appearance. As for where we are, we’re now at the entrance/exit to Nocturne alley. Through that little walkway there you will find Diagon Alley which is where I was headed when you so rudely interrupted me, now if you please; I have work to do.”

The man once again turned and walked toward the walkway he had indicated to Harry. Looking behind him Harry could just see the hungry looks beggars were shooting his way and so he followed the man silently.

“Wow”

Harry took in the world around him. Families were walking from shop to shop doing their shopping with not a care in the world.

The tall man he had been following had stopped at Harry’s softly uttered wow and was once again looking at him with a peculiar expression.

Harry stared at the broom he could see hovering in one of the windows of the shop to his left. A broom! Hovering!!!

“It’s like magic.” He whispered softly to himself but as he heard a snort from in front of him he looked up to see the man looking down at him condescendingly.

“Of course it’s magic, what else did you think it could be? Those eclectricity machines muggles are so fond of?”

“Electricity.” Harry said absently as he stared around. “Muggles? What sort of word is muggles?”

Some of the passers by who heard Harry’s comment stared at him and the tall man he had followed suddenly grabbed his arm and literally hauled him off to a side where it was quite.

“Are you, or are you not a wizard?” Harry opened his mouth to say something, maybe to recommend that the man get his head checked but whatever he was going to say was cut off when the man continued. “You found your way into Nocturne Alley and that is only possible for wizards, so what exactly do you mean by, ‘what sort of word is muggles’?”

Harry wrenched his arm free from the grip the older man had on him and rubbed the place where finger marks were now visible.

“I’ll thank you for not hurting me again sir. I’m afraid I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Muggles? Wizard? I’m no wizard and I wouldn’t even have believed that magic is real if I had not seen everything in the shop-windows that I did!”

“Believe me boy, you are a wizard – otherwise you would not have ended up in that alley where I found you. Now, where are your mother and father? I wish to speak to them about your ‘school’ letter and why you never went to a wizarding institution because I do believe that you are old enough. What are you now – eleven, twelve?”

“I’m fourteen sir! You will have a hard time finding my parents sir as I believe they are dead. My guardian on the other hand… well, he’s somewhere in London, I don’t particularly care where he is at the moment.”

“You ill-mannered, ungrateful little sod! Do you mean to tell me that you ran away from your guardian?”

Harry looked the man square in the eye as he answered.

“Yes sir; and good riddance if you ask me.”

Harry stared wearily at the hand which had risen after his last sentence but the man clenched it in a tight fist and Harry could literally see how the man pulled himself together.

“You will come with me to the headmaster of the school where I teach. He will have to deal with you as I can not in good conscience let a child with obvious magical abilities just let go without saying or doing something.”

Harry opened and closed his mouth a few times before snapping it shut as he could see amusement building behind the man’s eyes.

“Yes sir!” He made a little salutation as he spoke and received a sneer for his efforts.

He had missed school the past few years after he ran away from ‘home’ and could not help but feel excited by the fact that he would once again be able to go to school, well, hopefully the headmaster of this school the man had mentioned would let him stay for a while.

“You will follow me as I still have some errands to run. Keep up or you will be lost in this crowd and left to fend for yourself. I don’t think you want all those beggars after you once again, now do you?”

Harry nodded hastily and dutifully followed the man. He had to jog at times to keep up with the lengthy strides and was grateful when they reached the first shop the man needed to make purchases at.

He looked around curiously at all the disgusting looking things in bottles. Some of the stuff looked like intestines of some sort or another while others looked like skinned ‘live-stock’. He shuddered as he thought of a harmless little lamb tied up and being skinned piece by piece by sadistic looking men.

A warm hand on his shoulder brought his attention back to the present and he let himself be led out by the strange man he still didn’t know the name of.

“Err.. excuse me sir… what’s your, I mean, what do I call you sir?”

“Professor Snape would suffice.”

“Yes sir, Professor Snape.”

“While we’re on the topic of names, what is your name boy?”

“Harry sir, Harry Potter.”

A dull thud beside him had him turning his head and he could see the box the older man had been carrying on the floor with the contents spilled around it.

“Harry Potter? Do I look like a fool boy? What did you think you could accomplish by stating that name?”

Harry was a bit affronted by that, he thought his name was fairly average and did not need to be looked upon with such condescendence.

“What exactly is wrong with my name sir?”

He had not meant to sound so disrespectful but it was the only thing he had of his parents and was rather proud of bearing the name.

“What’s wrong? What’s wrong!!! I’ll tell you what’s wrong; it is not possible for you to be Harry Potter and nothing you can say will convince me otherwise.”

Harry stared in fascination at the man. There was malice clearly visible in every line on his face but Harry could also see uncertainty and even hope forming behind those deep dark eyes.

“My name is and has always been Harry Potter. I lived in an orphanage until I was adopted at age four. My guardian then took care of me until I ran away when I was ten. The people at the orphanage had said that someone had found me out on the street somewhere with nothing but a blanket with my name imprinted on it. When no-one came looking for me, I was made a ward of the state – until I was adopted, that is.”

Harry looked up at the man after his explanation and found that the man was looking at him with a blank look.

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

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

Severus looked up and across from him at the boy he had ‘picked up’ earlier that day. They were now seated in ‘The Leaky Cauldron’ having lunch and Severus was astounded at the amount of food the boy could eat.

When half an hour had passed and Harry had finished his third plate of sandwiches the boy suddenly stood and rushed at the door with a hand over his mouth.

Severus cursed himself as he followed the boy. He should have stopped the boy after the first sandwich as he had known from personal experience that eating a large amount of food after starving for most of your life was not a good idea.

Severus quickly redirected the boy from the door leading outside to the door leading to the toilets; he made sure that no-one was inside before leading the boy to a stall where he could empty his stomach.

As the boy fell down next to the toilet Severus turned around and kept watch on the door. There was no way he was going to witness the spectacle that was this ‘Potter look-alike’ emptying his body of all its contents.

The boy shakily stood up after he had retched for the third time and wiped his face with the back of his hand, Severus could barely suppress a flinch at the disgusting behavior.

“Get up boy and clean yourself up. We’ll stop to get you some ginger-ale or something similar to help settle your stomach.”

A slow nod was his only answer and Severus stepped back as the boy moved over to the wash-basins.

He apparated them both to Hogsmead and once again had to wait for the boy to regain his bearings – it might not have been the wisest of decisions to apparate the boy when his stomach was rebelling against him but Severus was not feeling very generous at the moment.

The way back to the castle was spent in silence with the boy steadily sipping at his drink and Severus planning the best way to explain the situation to Albus.

As the castle came into view Severus could feel the boy slowing down and gave him a little push in the back to keep him going.

It was quite amusing to see a ‘Potter’ – or someone who looked like Potter – with his mouth partly open the whole time he walked, Severus could just imagine a fly or something else flying in and the boy chocking as wings batted the insides of his mouth and throat.

The amusement left him as they reached the gargoyle guarding the headmaster’s office.

“Sweet pastilles”

Why the old man insisted on making his password the name of some sort of confectionary or another was a mystery to him – students with enough brains would figure it out in a heartbeat and after hours of guessing would eventually be able to gain entrance. There was no way that Severus would take such chances with his own quarters or office and that is why he usually chose the lesser known Potions ingredients – very few would be able to guess correctly.

The old man was seated behind his desk as Severus ushered the boy in and Severus was shocked to see the twinkle usually in the headmaster’s eye diminish rapidly when he took in the boy Severus had brought with him.

“Albus, I believe we might have a problem.”

Severus pushed the boy in front of him and watched as the headmaster just nodded his head, never taking his eyes off of ‘Harry’.

He hadn’t looked as shocked at the resemblance to Potter as Severus had thought he would…

End Chapter One

Wheeee! A new story.

What did you think??

Please review and give me some ideas as to where to go with this. I have a vague idea with what I want to do but that is more with regards to Harry and Sev’s relationship. Other characters remains a mystery… help me out with them please!!!

With the way things are going and with the ideas running through my head, this is going to be a ‘bad’ Dumbledore fic… or at least a Dumbledore who puts the life of ‘hundreds’ above the life of one innocent little boy…