Deception

Chapter 6

Surviving dinner with my parents seemed to have been easier than anticipated. Which I'm certainly not complaining about, it just seemed... suspicious. At least on the account of my father. My mother was surprisingly very encouraging and welcoming to my announcement. I thought she might react better than father, which was certainly true, but I didn't take into account how much better.

Since I've been young my father tried instilling a sense of family pride that was rooted in wealth, prestige, and diluted pure-blood beliefs. Father, nor mother for that matter, never used the 'm' word I've heard some students at Hogwarts and portraits around the manor use. He's never expressed explicit hate towards muggle-borns and half-bloods, but he's always talked about pure-bloods having a greater responsibility to keeping "our population" plentiful considering "we're a dying breed". And because father was ever so insistent on "replenishing the dying breed", I felt that perhaps he would be homophobic. Because even though it seems that both my mother and father have broken away from their parents' ideas and views, some of them still lingered, even if they were thought and taught with good intentions.

He says it should be an honor to be a pureblood wizard. And isn't that silly? We should all be proud of our heritage, but not for those reasons. We all in the wizarding world should hold pride in being wizards who've been blessed with the abilities we have. But we shouldn't lord them over those without our capabilities, like squibs or muggles. We should use the abilities we have for good, not abuse the power we have like Grindelwald or Voldemort once did.

And so I'm glad I've been able to form my own ideas and values, and I'm glad my parents have given me the space to become my own individual person, even if they've made me "overly posh" as Harry would, does, say. He's been talking forever about loosening me out of my overly formal way of being, and he has made slight progress considering you don't hang around someone for Merlin knows how many years and not pick something up from them. But I suppose that when you're taught at an early age how to speak and behave in a certain way it doesn't wear off easily.

So as we lay about eating the cookies we made, which was another thing that rubbed off on me: Harry's love for cooking, I've pondered my life and I think about Harry's and how they've merged into something so effortless. I certainly don't remember the first time meeting Harry but I also can't tell you a time when he wasn't around.

I did take notice that I never saw Harry's mother around when we were little and thank Merlin I was instilled with enough decorum to not blatantly ask Harry in my little child stupidity why he didn't have one, but it also helped that I had my simple-minded child brain and didn't care enough to focus on more than playing with Harry. I eventually asked my own mother when I was older and had enough sense in me to understand things with more clarity and comprehension. She was honest with me and explained who Voldemort was and how he killed Harry's mum and dad, and even tried to hurt Harry but he miraculously survived and even somehow killed Voldemort. This certainly surprised Harry and my first year when we found out he was attached behind Quirell's head all along. And so Harry, who we all thought would go to Sirius, which he did, mother said, but only for a night, instead was transferred to Severus Snape's care. She said it was quite unexpected but after Severus joined them for dinner, tiny Harry in tow, he explained it all. He and Lilly apparently had a one-off sometime when James and her and been broken up, and they didn't think too much of it until it had been a while after she and James had gotten back together and she realized she was pregnant.

Severus said Lilly came to him in tears saying that the child was his and was conflicted about how to handle the situation. Severus by then had already conspired with Albus Dumbledore and was sent to be a spy in Voldemort's league. He said that he told her to do as she wished because it was her body and her relationship that would be affected, he also told her of his mission to become the Order's spy saying that he was not fit to be a parent when his child would be in such danger. A few days after their meeting Lilly owled that she would continue with the pregnancy and that James knew the truth and would honor Severus by being sure the child knew the truth of his or her parentage should Severus want that and that Severus was welcome to be a part of the child's life. And so upon the deaths of Lilly and James Potter, in their will stated that should both perish before Harry's 17th birthday, Severus Snape, Harry's true birth father, was to decide if he would take the child in or pass guardianship rights to Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. Severus felt it only right to take the child in, a moral sense of obligation playing a role, but also his longing for a family and now with Voldemort out of the picture, he could be the father he wished he had.