Win The War: Consanguinity

Chapter 2: The Letters

Saturday, July first 1995

Harry was awakened up by severe pain in his left shoulder blade. With his eyes still shut tightly, he sat up and rubbed the sore spot. The culprit turned out to be an errant bedspring, which had been poking him in the back all night. The mattress felt thinner than usual. Harry opened his eyes and surveyed his surroundings. He wasn't in his dormitory at Hogwarts. Then without warning, the affairs from the day before suddenly came back to him with startling clarity.

"Why does it always have to be me?" groaned Harry.

The bitterness that had welled up inside him due to the Dursley's scheming had not evaporated in the least. It still hurt to believe the Dursleys loathed him to such a degree that they would scheme something like that, just to get rid of him. The man, Tobias, had also fallen victim to their plotting. Uncle Vernon had told him that Aunt Petunia had lived here during her childhood. Therefore, Harry was sure that she knew this man, and for some unfathomable reason, she despised him. Harry wondered how the working-class man had managed to get under her skin. The adoption papers he had been shown didn't totally convince him of what they had told him. Harry was very aware that his uncle had connections to people in high places, and it would not take much to forge adoption papers.

Harry also wondered if Tobias knew he was a wizard. The man didn't mention anything when he saw Hedwig, which was considered a somewhat atypical pet. Perhaps the Dursleys, despite their revulsion of the subject, had told him about magic. Still, if the hook-nosed man was somehow related to his Potion Master, then he likely already knew about wizards. From what Harry was able to observe, Tobias was definitely Muggle. There was nothing in the flat that he had seen in the Burrow. There were no books about magic, cauldrons, or spells in the house.

He decided to be careful and refrain from mentioning he wasn't exactly normal for the time being. He didn't want to risk that he would be treated here like he had been at the Dursley's house. Harry wasn't going to try to tell the man he wasn't his son. He knew that keeping this knowledge wasn't fair to Tobias. However, Harry preferred not to be homeless or land in an orphanage; the place—thanks to Aunt Petunia stories —really scares him. Harry knew Sirius wanted to take him in, but that was not possible as long as the man was a fugitive. It was too dangerous for him to live with the Weasleys. The Burrow would be a considered target without his presence because he was friends with Ron. Even Dumbledore warned them, as Mrs Weasley had told him in the train station.

Furthermore, Harry always wanted to know how it was like to have a father. At least he could pretend for a while and hope Tobias wouldn't discover the truth too fast. Harry wanted to be treated like somebody's real son. And if the man continued to believe that Harry is his biological child, then he was going to let his dreams come true. He also hoped that his real parents would understand and wouldn't mind his deception too much.

It was a really enticing perspective to live, at least for a little while, a life borrowed from someone else, someone who, in reality, didn't exist. To live as Tobias and Eileen Snape's son. He flinched a little because it sounded like he would pretend to be the Potions Master, but it was impossible. Snape was too old to be their son. Even if Harry wasn't sure of their ages, he was confident that it was unrealistic. The boy knew, of course, that pretending to be someone else was a bad idea; however, it was always his dream to be a normal teenager who had an attentive father. Of course, he also really longed for a mother, but one can't have everything.

After a couple of minutes, Harry went downstairs to the kitchen and noticed that Tobias was nowhere to be seen. Judging from the dirty plates dumped on the table, he'd already left for work. Harry washed the dishes and made tea, foregoing breakfast. When he felt especially nervous or stressed, he would become nauseated, unable to swallow the tiniest morsel. With a cup of tea in his hand, he went back to his room and decided to write a letter to his godfather. He wanted to be sure that Sirius didn't know anything about the alleged adoption.