Harry Potter and the Lost Heir (A fan fiction)

Chapter 3: Revelation or Disguise?

Harry felt his jaw drop as he heard Draco's words. The true killer was an unheard daughter of Severus Snape? How was that even possible? Snape had loved Harry's mother, Lily, all his life, and everyone knew he had never married anyone else. Harry had seen his memories in the Pensieve, and there was no sign of any other woman or child in his life.

"That's impossible," Harry said, shaking his head. "Snape only loved my mother. He never had a daughter. You're lying."

Draco looked at him with a mix of anger and pity. He took a deep breath and said, "I wish I was, Potter. I wish I was. But I have proof. Proof that I saw with my own eyes. Proof that you can see for yourself."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, silver device. It looked like a Muggle camera, but Harry knew it was a wizarding one. It could capture images and sounds of magical events, and play them back on demand.

"Look at this," Draco said, pressing a button. The device projected a hologram in front of them, showing a scene that Harry recognized. It was the Malfoy Manor, the ancestral home of the Malfoy family. The hologram showed Draco's father, Lucius, sitting at his desk in his study, surrounded by books and papers. He looked older and thinner than Harry remembered, but still had the same cold and arrogant expression on his face.

Draco's voice narrated the scene. "This was the night of my father's murder. My wife and children were out, visiting my mother at St. Mungo's. She had been ill for a long time, and we didn't know how much longer she would live. I was at home, alone, waiting for them to return. That's when I heard it."

The hologram showed Lucius suddenly clutching his chest and gasping for air. He fell off his chair and collapsed on the floor, writhing in pain. A dark cloud of smoke emerged from his mouth and nostrils, and then dissipated in the air. His eyes were wide open, but lifeless.

"A scream of agony," Draco continued. "I rushed down to his study, hoping to save him. But it was too late. He was already dead. And I saw someone leave the room through a dark portal, just as I arrived."

The hologram showed a figure in a black cloak and hood, holding a wand in one hand and a small box in the other. The figure turned to look at Draco, and Harry saw a flash of eyes under the hood. Then the figure stepped into the portal and vanished.

"I was shocked and traumatized," Draco said, his voice breaking. "I couldn't believe what I had just witnessed. My father, the head of the Malfoy family, the most powerful and influential wizard in Britain, was killed by a dark curse that left no trace. A curse that I had never seen or heard of before. A curse that only one person could have cast."

He paused and looked at Harry with a solemn expression. "A curse that only Severus Snape could have cast."

Harry felt a surge of anger and disbelief. He wanted to shout at Draco, to tell him he was wrong, to tell him that Snape was not a murderer, that he was a hero, that he had died for a noble cause. But he couldn't. He remembered the night when Snape had killed Dumbledore, the night when Harry had chased him and called him a coward, the night when Snape had revealed his true allegiance to Voldemort. Harry had hated him then, more than anyone else in the world. But he had also learned the truth later, the truth that Dumbledore had shared with him before his final battle with Voldemort. Snape had been a double agent, working for the Order of the Phoenix, protecting Harry, loving Lily. Snape had sacrificed everything for the greater good, even his own life.

Harry couldn't reconcile the image of Snape he had in his mind with the image of the killer he had just seen. How could Snape have a daughter? How could Snape kill Lucius Malfoy? How could Snape be alive?