HARRY'S TRUE HISTORY

Only a handful of people ever knew that Lily and James had broken up just a few months after they started dating. Though he'd matured a lot in his last year or two at Hogwarts, and as much as Lily had always found James physically attractive, it simply didn't work... because Lily was in love with another man, although she still wasn't speaking to him at the time. But James refused to acknowledge the breakup; there are some who think that he never stopped believing that he could eventually win Lily back. And Lily, well, she had her own reasons for being secretive about that part of her life.

Even fewer people are aware of the unexpected reconciliation between Lily Evans and Severus Snape. The young couple knew that they could never reveal their relationship to the world: Snape had become a Death Eater, and Voldemort never let anyone quit being a Death Eater. Had Voldemort discovered that the two were actually in love, then, once he knew he couldn't force Lily to his side, he would have killed her. And going into hiding together wasn't likely to help much. So the lovers kept their romance a secret; if they ever married, only Severus, Lily, and perhaps one or two witnesses ever knew.

The couple's only son was born on July 31st, 1980. Since most people believed Lily was still dating James, they assumed James Potter was the boy's father. It's possible that even Sirius and Remus believed this, because only three people knew exactly when James and Lily had gone their separate ways, and Potter himself never denied that he was Harry's father. Voldemort certainly believed it, and set out to murder the three Potters. Snape asked Dumbledore to protect Lily, and Dumbledore agreed... for a price...

But Lily trusted the wrong person, and was betrayed; Voldemort found her and her son, and she sacrificed herself for Harry. Almost everyone believes that James was murdered, too; either then, or shortly afterwards. Harry, of course, survived the Killing Curse, and in that, became the only human ever to do so. Unable to reveal Snape's true relationship to the boy, Dumbledore sent him off to live with Lily's only living relatives, and we all know how that turned out. And the rest is history... mostly.

Harry's relationship with his true father has always been strained. Harry hates bullies, especially when they have power, and to his mind, that description most definitely applied to Snape. But Harry has an unusual way of showing defiance. In this case, he responded to his anger by working hard to become Professor Snape's best student. He very nearly succeeded. If you're a student looking for another student to answer a question about Potions, you should definitely talk to Harry. Never ask him to do your homework or let you copy from him, though. He has a short temper about that, and even if he agreed to that plan, do you really think Snape wouldn't notice?

During Harry's fifth year, Voldemort formed a plot to get the boy into the Department of Mysteries so he could reveal the last part of a prophecy. But it relied on a knowledge of Harry's character that Voldemort did not actually have. Harry was relatively good at Occlumency, for one thing. It was just that he couldn't really learn it properly from someone he despised. But it was just enough that when he got what seemed to be a vision of Voldemort torturing Sirius, something seemed off. This hadn't been happening randomly for a while, and even if it was genuine, it would be stupid to ignore the indication that maybe the man who kept trying to kill him wanted him to see this.


When he decided to try to contact Sirius, he got Kreacher instead. The house-elf initially claimed not to know where Sirius was, but Harry sensed that something was off, and asked again, twice. Kreacher kept insisting that he had no idea, and then, suddenly, Harry knew exactly what to do.

"Kreacher... is he coming back to Hogwarts?"

There were three ways the elf could answer. He could agree (which Harry would know was probably a lie), state where he thought Sirius was going (in which case it would be very suspicious since he "didn't know", before), or he could keep claiming ignorance. The house-elf, apparently exasperated, chose the second. So, after the incident involving Umbridge and Centaurs, Harry made a trip not to the Department of Mysteries, but to Twelve Grimmauld Place. Sirius never went to the Department of Mysteries to rescue Harry, because Harry was never at the Department of Mysteries trying to rescue him. Harry will never know that if he had taken the bait, Voldemort's return would have been exposed a little earlier, but Sirius would be dead.

It was not until the end of Harry's sixth year that he lost someone truly close to him. Dumbledore was killed, Death Eaters invaded Hogwarts, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione decided to hunt for Voldemort's Horcruxes instead of returning to Hogwarts the next year. Harry wanted to kill Snape for the apparent murder of Dumbledore, but that would be impossible, for now; he'd worry about Snape once they destroyed every Horcrux. And they did, but by then Harry had learned of Snape's true loyalties, and no longer wanted him dead.

After defeating Voldemort, Harry decided to return to Hogwarts and finish his final year. It will be awkward, interacting with some of the teachers and students at the school now, but Harry remains unaware of just how much talking to the current Defense Against the Dark Arts professor now could change things...


thanks to: keraqui