Lily's Changes By: arekay
When Harry is killed by Voldemort in book 7 he wakes up at Kings Cross Station and meets Lily instead of Dumbledore, and she's really angry with him.Rated: Fiction T - English - Drama - Harry P. - Chapters: 26 - Words: 86,841 - Reviews: 3,226 - Favs: 11,445 - Follows: 5,610 - Updated: Jun 28, 2012 - Published: May 15, 2011 - Status: Complete - id: 6992471
Chapter 1
Avada Kedavra.
Harry saw Voldemort's mouth move and a flash of green light, and everything was gone.
Harry woke up in a bright mist which resolved itself before his eyes into a wide open space which looked remarkably like a much cleaner version of Kings Cross Station. As he got to his feet he saw a beautiful red haired woman charging towards him.
"Harry James Potter. Do you have any idea how angry I am with you?" The next instant he had been swept into a hug and for the first time in his memory he got to experience his mother's embrace.
"Mum?"
"Of all the asinine stupid things you've done in your life, this one really takes the cake. What on earth were you thinking letting him kill you like that?"
Harry was shocked and confused to say the least, on one hand his mother had still not let go of him and on the other she seemed to be really angry with him. He had no idea how to deal with a woman who seemed to be berating and loving him simultaneously.
"But... Dumbledore said I had to die because of the Horcrux in my head" explained Harry, a bit sheepishly.
"Dumbledore said. Dumbledore said. Who cares what Dumbledore said? What on earth has he ever done for you that made you trust him with your life? For that matter why would you trust anything that you got from Snape? Snape, hasn't he made it obvious he hates you, and you already knew from your experiences with Slughorn that memories can be faked," said Lily.
"But..." protested a shocked Harry. His mind was reeling, hadn't the ghosts of his parents approved? He had seen them in the forest... Why was his Mother suddenly so angry with him? None of it made any sense.
"Okay, quick question Harry. What's a Horcrux?" asked Lily.
"It's part of Voldemorts soul that's he's severed and placed inside an object so that he's immune from death."
"Right and how do you destroy one?"
"Well you've got to use basilisk venom or Gryffindor's sword to destroy the container. Nothing else seemed to work," answered Harry.
"And you have one in your head right, that's what Dumbledore told you, so why didn't you stab yourself in the head with Gryffindor's sword or a basilisk fang? Wouldn't that have been an equally ridiculous thing to do? What made you think the killing curse would destroy it? The killing curse does not destroy a person's body Harry, nor does it have any effect on your soul, all it does is kill a person painlessly. So why would you believe that the Killing Curse would have any effect on a soul fragment? Your body is still perfectly intact after all. For that matter, what if Voldemort had... I don't know, simply decided to blow a hole through your chest with a blasting curse. Would the Horcrux have been destroyed then? But... all of this is so... so besides the point that I could just scream. The main thing is Dumbledore... You followed DUMBLEDORE'S plan... WHY? WHY would you do that? Why would you believe in anything that came out of Dumbledore's mouth?"
"But…"
"But nothing Harry. Think back. When has he ever done anything for you? Have you ever thought about who's been to blame for all the misery in your life? You crappy childhood with the Dursleys. The danger you were put into every single freaking year at Hogwarts. Everything... And don't even get me started on how horribly he's ruined my sister's life"
"Ruined her life? What about me. She was horrible to me. She's hated me my entire life. She and Vernon made my life at Privet Drive hell."
"And that's Dumbledore's fault as well."
"WHAT?"
"Think about it Harry. For once just use your brain and stop just believing what people tell you. You have to learn to think for yourself" said Lily.
"What are you talking about Mom? The Dursleys were horrible people, they hated magic. And they hated me" said Harry.
"No they didn't, at least not originally. Sure they were uneasy about magic, but any muggle would be, faced with people who can kill you with a word, control you, make you do anything and make you forget about it with a memory charm, I'd say they had every right to be uncomfortable with magic. She was my sister Harry. She may have been a little jealous of me but she also loved me, there's no way she would have treated you the way she did if Dumbledore hadn't put a compulsion charm on her"
"What? But why would he do that?" asked Harry in shock. His mind was reeling from his mother's revelations.
"He wanted to you weak and easy to manipulate. He wanted you to see him and the wizarding world as your salvation from the horrible muggles. If you'd been brought up in a proper environment with loving parents do you think you'd have had so much faith in him? He wanted a puppet that he could use as a weapon, and let me say he succeeded very well. Just look at your blind loyalty to the man. Have you ever really thought about why you believe in him so much? He's probably been feeding you loyalty potions from the day you stepped into Hogwarts" said Lily.
"He compelled poor Petunia and Vernon to be as nasty as possible to you. This went so against their actual natures that they ended up overcompensating with Dudley and wound up spoiling him rotten. In fact I think he probably had something to do with that as well, just to make you more miserable. No parent in their right mind would spoil a child like that while also abusing another. Didn't you think it odd that they bought him so many presents on his birthday, and gave into all his demands whenever he threw a tantrum? No parent is stupid enough to do that Harry. He dumped you on their doorstep without any warning, he couldn't even be bothered enough to sit down with Petunia and let her know in person that her sister had died. He placed a compulsion charm on them so they would be unable to show you even the slightest bit of affection while also adding an aggression ward to the house so that any muggle living there would act as nasty as possible. As a result my poor sister has been changed into a miserable nasty person. On top of all that he didn't even give them the child support they were entitled to from the Potter trust" said Lily.
"I always assumed he kept my trust fund secret to protect it from the Dursleys" said Harry.
"Yes, I'm sure that's what he led you to believe. The Potter trust was iron clad Harry, there was no way Vernon would have been able to spend a knut of it if you hadn't authorized it. It was absolutely safe until you started handing your keys out willy-nilly to the Weasley family. It's probably been stripped bare by now. After all they weren't planning on you surviving the battle were they, so why wouldn't they steal everything they could?"
"Why would he do that?"
"Why would he do anything he's done over the last 17 years Harry? Isn't it obvious? He's evil."
"Evil! But he's Dumbledore. He defeated Grindlewald, everyone's always looked up to him."
"Well, let's start from the beginning. What did he tell you about the prophecy? I know you think that you and Voldemort were destined to fight and all that rubbish. But don't you think that it wasn't just a bit coincidental that there just happened to be a Death Eater listening in when the prophecy was being said. Don't you think that's pushing coincidence just a little too far? Why would a Death Eater listen in on a school teacher's interview anyway? Don't you think they had better things to do with their time? And why wasn't the interview held at the school like they always are? What did he tell you, that he went to meet her because it was raining or some such rubbish? Why couldn't she have flooed directly to his office? Think Harry think. Put yourself in his place. Dumbledore was leading the war against Voldemort and it was not going well. Then he hears a prophecy that states that the ONLY one that's able to defeat Voldemort is about to be born. What is he going to do? Is he going to wait seventeen eighteen years for the baby to grow up? No. What would be the GREATER GOOD? To let the war drag on for another eighteen years or to try and negate the prophecy by having Voldemort kill a couple of babies? With Dumbledore the ends always justify the means" said Lily.
"He engineered the leak. You never cross checked the date on the prophecy did you? He heard it a month before the so called interview in Hogsmeade. Once he heard it he knew that he wouldn't be the one to defeat Voldemort and the so called savior of the wizarding world couldn't stand the thought of someone else stealing his thunder. He couldn't take the chance that you would grow up to supplant him, nor could he wait for you to grow up, so he tried to have you killed when you were a baby. He couldn't get his own hands dirty of course, no no, that's not the way Albus Dumbledore operates, he always manipulates other people to do his dirty work for him. He knew Snape was a Death Eater. He planted a compulsion in Snape to be there at that time and place, then he imperiused Trewlaney to repeat the prophecy when she did. He's such a master manipulator that he's the one who planted the idea in Sirius head to make Peter the secret keeper. A few well placed comments on how Sirius was obviously the only one that we could trust with the secret, and Sirius came to the conclusion that he was too obvious a choice. He's so good at it that Sirius always thought it was his own idea. He's also the one who convinced your father to hide in Godric's Hollow. The Potters had many properties that would have been much, much more secure for us, we could have left the country for that matter, its not like we needed to work for a living or didn't have the money to go anywhere in the world we wanted to, but unfortunately your father believed in him. I always had my suspicions but your father was so blinded he refused to listen to me, and well, I let myself be influenced by your father's faith as well. Well your father paid for his loyalty with both our lives. Sirius paid for it by spending 12 years in Azkaban followed by living a dog's life and then being trapped in his apartment with that horrible Molly Weasley. Have you thought about the Longbottoms? Isn't it a bit of a coincidence that Death Eaters managed to find the other child that the prophecy could have referred to just a few days after we were betrayed? Dumbledore was responsible for that as well" said Lily. She was on a roll and it didn't seem like she was going to stop anytime soon.
"Think about the rest of your years in Hogwarts. Think about first year, do you really think he didn't know about Quirrel and Voldemort. He placed the philosopher's stone in a school; put hundreds of children at risk. Why? He wanted to entice Voldemort to the school. I don't know if he wanted Voldemort to kill you or whether he just wanted to test if your protection was still active. Even before that, he knew that Petunia wouldn't have told you anything about your heritage thanks to his compulsion charms, did he send a qualified teacher to your house to inform you about the wizarding world like every single muggle born gets? No. He sent Hagrid, a grounds keeper. Don't get me wrong. Hagrid may be a lovely person and a good friend to you over the years, but he was absolutely unqualified to prepare a child for Hogwarts. He didn't even tell you how to get onto the train for gods sake. Right from the beginning you were kept as ignorant as possible" said Lily.
"In your second year what did he do to stop the rumors about you being the heir of Slytherin? Nothing! What did he do to protect you and the rest of the school from a basilisk? Nothing! Children were getting petrified all over the place and the man did nothing. Any halfway competent headmaster would have evacuated the school right after Filch's cat was petrified, but the great Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to care at all, did he? No, he went right on letting children get petrified. They were only muggleborns after all. Who cares about them? That's what he thought" said Lily.
"Think about the Triwizard tournament. Barty Crouch Sr. was imperiused into insisting you had to compete but Dumbledore would have known that since you hadn't put your name in the goblet yourself that you didn't have to compete. Magical contracts just don't work that way. There's no way he would have missed the fact that Moody was a polyjuiced imposter. He still forced you to compete just so he could use you as bait for Voldemort yet again. He didn't even let the rest of the school know that you were being forced to compete. He wanted them to think you cheated your way into the tournament and despise you for it; he wanted you friendless and alone. If it wasn't for the polyjuiced Moody Barty Crouch Jr. helping you in secret you would have died during those tasks. After all, its not like he or any of those incompetents they call teachers could be bothered to help you. They pitted you against a dragon. A DRAGON! and what did you do? You went back the next year and asked for more" said Lily.
"Then after Voldemort's resurrection, why didn't he just force Fudge to view your memories in a pensieve. He was the head of the Wizengamot at the time. Do you really think he was as powerless as he made out? He could have easily called for a hearing and made you testify under Veritaserum as well. No he wanted a weak ineffectual Ministry, so that Voldemort could rise again and he planned on being the one to defeat him when he did."
"In fifth year, did he do anything to protect you from the ministry, did he give any interviews letting people know that he believed in you. No, he let them slander you and paint you as a delusional glory seeking fool. Do you really think he was unaware of Umbridge and her blood quills? He let her torture you, and did nothing about it. The only reason he didn't do something about your little study group is that he didn't expect you to succeed at it at all. He fully expected you to fail and perhaps get expelled from school for it. Then he would swoop in and save you somehow, making you view him as your savior."
"It's only after he got himself cursed by the ring that he started being straight with you, and even then he did nothing to prepare you. Showing someone the equivalent of a bunch of home movies about Voldemort does not prepare them to face a powerful homicidal psychopath. And making Snape the defence teacher at a time when you needed to be trained in defense more than ever. Inexcusable. That man is totally incompetent as a teacher and Dumbledore knows it. Even when he was dying he could not bear the thought of you winning where he had failed so he set you up to die. Did he even tell you how to destroy the horcruxes? No, that was yet another thing you had to puzzle out for yourself. If you really had a horcrux in you then why didn't he do something about it? He had years to research horcruxes and ways of removing them, did he do that? No, he just let you know that the only way for it to be destroyed was for you to be killed, and you - fool that you are, you believed him" said Lily not pulling any punches at all.
"I'm sorry Mum, but... the things is...and I say this with all due respect. I'm feeling a bit... you know...put upon here. I was simply trying to do the right thing and... I was hoping for a heaven, frankly I would have even settled for oblivion, finally some peace you know... but an afterlife in which my Mother screams at me and points out all the mistakes that I've done... I've got to say, not really the best... Besides, you're almost literally flogging a dead horse. I mean... It's not like I can do anything at this point... I'm dead" said Harry.
"Oh for god's sake Harry... I mean, really? Why do you think I'm here? Why do you think I'm being so hard on you Harry? Do you think I'd be talking to you like this if we couldn't do something about this sorry state of affairs. What we are going to do now is that you are going to listen to your mother and you're going to do what I tell you. By the time I'm done you're going to be healthy, happy, strong and you will never ever let anyone manipulate you ever again. That's what we're going to do."
Chapter 2
"Now I've had the last 16 years to think about this, but until you died and I could meet you there was nothing I could do. I have a plan and we're going to follow it. Our goals are simple. First we're going to make sure that you have a proper upbringing. A happy childhood, with a loving supportive family. Next we're going to make sure that Sirius does not go to Azkaban, We're going to save Alice and Frank Longbottom, destroy Dumbledore, get rid of the pureblood bigots from the ministry and drag the wizarding world kicking and screaming into the 20th century," said Lily.
"Wait, the only way to do that is if we could go back in time somehow," said Harry in an unbelieving tone. Despite his previous experience with time turners he did not believe that he could really go back in time and change things. A proper childhood? That meant going back in time to when he was... No, it was too unbelievable for words.
"Very good Harry. That's exactly what we're going to do. We're going back in time to the day you were left at the Dursleys," said Lily. She actually managed to sound a bit proud at how quickly Harry had cottoned on to her plan.
"Oh well, in that case — Can't we go back earlier and save you and Dad as well?"
Lily smile ruefully — "Unfortunately no. As a spirit I'm bound by certain rules. No spirit is allowed to go back and change things so that they didn't die. If that was allowed no-one would ever die of an accident at all. You're a special case since you're not fully dead; you're still anchored to the living world due to your connection with Voldemort. Because of that we're being allowed to tweak the rules a bit and since time doesn't really exist in this place we're going to go back and fix things for you. Now we can't physically change anything in the real world while we're in this state, but luckily for us we won't need to, all we need to do is go back in time, and leave a few messages for Petunia, Sirius and the Longbottoms. That should fix most of the problems in your life."
"We're also going to make sure that you live up to your full potential, and not waste your time with the worst of the Weasleys. Also there's no way in hell you're going to ever end up with Ginny Weasley, you'll be much happier with someone like Hermione, honestly Harry, how could you let Ron steal her away from you. Why on earth couldn't you make your move on her, a smart intelligent girl like that wasting herself on a lazy layabout like that? It's sickening."
"Oh for gods sake. Now you're telling me you don't even like my girlfriend. This is really turning into one strange reunion. What's wrong with Ginny now? I love her," shouted an exasperated Harry.
"For gods' sake Harry, don't you remember what else happened that year? Remember what happened to Ron when he had that love potion that was meant for you. Girls were trying to slip you love potions left, right and centre and you still didn't find it suspicious when you suddenly developed feelings for a girl you had never thought about in a romantic way at all."
"She slipped me a love potion. Oh bullshit. I refuse to believe that. There is no way in hell... Are you sure?"
"Actually I'm not, it's not like I watch you 24/7 you know, there are other things I have to do, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least, your sudden realisation that you were attracted to her was much too suspicious."
"So maybe I do have feelings for her, what's wrong with that?"
"Well for one she's a Weasley, that family is wedged way too deep in Dumbledores pockets. Secondly, what on earth do the two of you have in common apart from Quidditch? Any type of romantic relationship needs to be between two equals, and while the girl may be moderately pretty there's no way she's even close to being your equal in any area. And furthermore..." Lily grimaced at the dejected look on Harry's face.
"Okay, I may be a bit biased against Ginny, I admit that. The thing is... there are so many things that I absolutely hate about her... for instance.. For instance... We'll come back to this, tell me — Do you like Luna?" asked Lily.
Harry was thrown by the sudden change in topic. "Sure.. I mean she's Luna... She's a really sweet girl. Came and fought with me at the Ministry and helped me deal with Sirius's death and.."
"So would you ever call her Loony Lovegood?" asked Lily. Harry's face reddened and he looked like he was about to start shouting, so Lily cut him off before he could get started.
"I take it by your reaction that you don't like it when people call her Loony. That's understandable. She is rather a sweet girl. Now do you remember when you first met her? Who was it that told you who she was?" asked Lily.
"Ginny, it was on the Hogwarts Express and Ginny and Neville were there.. but what does that... Oh bloody hell, I remember now... She referred to her as Loony, she said something like - that's just Loony Lovegood," said Harry, a moue of distaste upon his face
"So? A sweet girl like Luna, someone who Ginny has known for years, they practically grew up together and yet she has absolutely no hesitation in calling her Loony. Does that answer your question about why I don't like Ginny. And while we're on the topic of Weasleys, why have you stuck with Ron all these years, he's absolutely useless," said Lily.
"Ok, Ginny and I might not have that much in common and the rest of it but Ron has always been my best friend," said Harry.
"Really Harry? Even you know he's always been jealous of you. Is someone a real friend if you can't be yourself around them, you couldn't even spend the money we left you without him getting jealous, what kind of person resents their best friend for every little thing? Have you ever thought about why you had so few friends at school? Ron Weasley - that's why. Your meeting him on the train was engineered by Dumbledore and Molly, didn't you think it strange the way she was loudly talking about Platform 9 ¾ when you ran into them at the train station, like she hadn't been there a million times before, that whole meeting was orchestrated, and then he comes in telling you that the rest of the train was full, what utter rubbish. His main job throughout these years has been to make sure that you don't make more friends at school. If it wasn't for him you would have made friends with Hermione and Neville on the train and when Draco Malfoy came by you probably wouldn't have antagonized him so badly. I mean that boy may be a idiot with some horribly warped bigoted ideas, but he was eleven at the time and came by to make friends with you, only for Weaseley to drive him away. If it wasn't for that, while you may never have been friends I'm sure he wouldn't have been so annoying to you for all these years. He tried his best to drive you away from Hermione in first year and then again in third year over that broom, if it wasn't for the troll he would have succeeded and you would never have been friends with Hermione. He's never been loyal to you; he's only been friends with you because Dumbledore made him. Didn't you notice in 4th year, once the rest of the school thought you were a despicable cheater he dropped you thinking his job was done, then had to come crawling back as soon as you did so well on the first task and started getting popular because of that. You even let him ruin your Yule ball. And the way he attacked Hermione over her date with Krum, what kind of person would do their best to ruin a friends evening? The boy is traitorous and disloyal and you shouldn't waste any time on him at all. The only reason he's been chasing Hermione is because he knew that you were so loyal you'd never make a move on her if you thought he was interested as well. And that poor girl, he probably fed her a love potion or two to make her interested in him".
"I don't know what to say, I always thought Ron was my friend"
"Yes, well I can understand that, thanks to Dumbledores interference with the Dursleys, you never had any friends growing up. No wonder you thought that stupid vicious weasel was a friend. Don't worry though, once we're done you'll have tons of friends," said Lily.
"I can't believe the Ron would do that, Molly's always been the closest thing to a mother to me"
"And that's probably the saddest thing I've heard. So she was nice to you a few times, did you ever look at how she treats other people? Look at how she treated poor Fleur for example. Any decent woman would have gone out of her way to make their son's fiancée feel welcome. Did she do that? No. She let Ginny go around calling her Phlegm, put her down at every opportunity and basically treated her like dirt. The woman seemed to conveniently forget that the girl was an accomplished witch, a Triwizard Champion for Gods sake, not to mention incredibly beautiful. Any woman in her right mind would have been overjoyed for her son. Was she? She constantly belittled and insulted Sirius in his own house even though he was providing a place of refuge for her and her entire family. Which is another thing you should think about, why did Dumbledore insist on the Weasley's staying with Sirius that summer, its not like any Death Eater would have ever bothered targeting the Weasleys, Arthurs too ineffectual to have ever been a threat, Charlie and Bill were out of the country, Percy was firmly in the Ministers pocket, they were in zero danger. No, Dumbledore just wanted them there so that he could prevent you and Sirius from bonding or discussing things in private. That woman's already managed to drive away most of her family. Two of hers sons had to leave the country and they've alienated the third so badly that he ended up virtually disowning them. I feel sorry for Percy really. Molly and the twins just kept putting him down, and for what, because he was ambitious, and wanted to do well at the Ministry."
"He is a bit of a prat though"
"That he may be, but once again you're basing your opinion of him, not so much on your direct dealings with him, but on what you've heard from the twins and Ron. Remember Harry you should never blindly believe in other peoples opinions, you need to form your own from direct observation."
"The twins are all right though"
"Really, so you think that people who can't be bothered to apply themselves in school and waste their time playing stupid practical jokes on others are alright. Tell me Harry, what would they have done if you hadn't given them the money to get started? Nothing, that's what, without you they'd still be living at home sponging off their parents. Those idiots were even testing their products on school children. Testing experimental products on children, my god, to think of all the things that could have gone wrong, its mind boggling how stupid that was. You're far better off staying as far away from all the Weasleys as you can the next time around"
"Even Arthur?"
"Arthur, and what about Arthur makes you think that I'd consider him suitable for my son to be around. He's just another incompetent ministry employee, who's only managed to hang on to his job because he's a pureblood. If they had any kind of merit based system in that place he'd have been slung out on his ear long ago. No the best that can be said of Arthur is that he's a nice person who means well."
"And Hermione? What about her? She's always been like a sister to me"
"And how would you know that? It's not like you had a sister growing up. She's always been your closest female friend, hasn't she? No, subconsciously you suppressed your feelings for her because you thought Ron liked her. And the poor girl probably thought she had no chance with you because you never showed her any interest."
"So you really think I should try and make her my girlfriend."
"Well I certainly approve of her, except for the way she blindly followed Dumbledore, but then she's not the only one to blame there. Is she? But don't think that she's the only one for you just because I like her. Remember Harry I want to make sure that you're capable of making your own choices, if you prefer someone like Luna, go for it, for that matter I'm sure your father would be ecstatic if you manage to date that Fleur girl. If I were you I'd also try to be friendlier with Susan Bones or Daphne Greengrass. You don't need to make any choices now, be friendly with all of them, then when the time is right you'll know whom you want to pursue."
"So if I can't trust the Weasleys or Dumbledore, who does that leave? Sirius, Remus, what about the other teachers like Flitwick or McGonagal? "
"All the teachers at Hogwarts have been too brainwashed by Dumbledore, as such none of them can be trusted fully until he's removed. You can trust Sirius to some extent; never trust him with anything important though as he's proven himself to be too hotheaded. At best I can trust him to be a sort of crazy uncle, the one that's fun to have over for a visit, good for a few laughs etc. Not more than that. As for Remus, I'm not sure, he was a lovely person once upon a time but I'm horribly disappointed in him as well. Considering that he was one of your father's best friends, for him to have never checked up on you after we died is inexcusable."
"He did help me out in third year, taught me how to do the patronus charm"
"Well he was a teacher Harry; it was his job to teach you. Just goes to show how horribly incompetent the rest of the Hogwarts staff have been. For you to think so well of someone just because they were moderately competent at their job really shines a light on how terrible the rest were. No, Unfortunately Remus has also proven himself to be unreliable; hopefully he might do better this time around as he'll still have Sirius's friendship."
"What about Snape, in the memory he showed me, he was your friend."
"'Was' is the operative word Harry, No true friend of mine would have ever treated my son so horribly. The man is unfortunately a horrible excuse for a human being and a terrible teacher to boot. And he never did pay for his crimes as a Death Eater. If we can fix it so that he's sent to Azkaban I would be quite happy. At least that way you'll have a competent instructor and be able to do better in potions."
"So, you said we'll go back in time to when I was dropped off at the Dursley's. Mom, I'm not sure I can go through that again"
"It won't be the same Harry, all we need to do is make a few small changes, get the aggression and compulsion charms reversed, and you'll grow up with a loving family. As spirits we're fairly limited in what we can do, but we should be able to carry that out just fine"
"Still, I'm 17 now; I don't think I can handle being one again"
"Its got to be done son, right now you're an emotionally stunted mess thanks to your upbringing, in the state you're in if I send you back to your current time it'll still take you years of therapy to overcome your childhood and you'll be utterly miserable. But don't worry you won't remember being 17 so it won't feel like you're reliving your childhood. What we're going to do is transfer your memory to your one year old self, but you won't actually be aware of it. We'll charm it so that your memories only become unlocked once you get your Hogwarts letter. You won't need them before that."
"That means I'll still have to go through 7 years of Hogwarts again"
"Yes, but once we get rid of Dumbledore, which I plan to do within the first month of you getting there, you're going to have the Hogwarts experience you should have had, nobody plotting to kill you, no dangerous situations, just school, quidditch, friends and girls like it should have been. Speaking of quidditch though, I'd really prefer it if you didn't join the team till at least 3rd year."
"But I loved quidditch Mom"
"Yes, but Harry there's a reason 1st years aren't allowed to try out, at that age you're just too small and the risk of injury too high, I could have killed McGonagall when she forced you into the team in first year. She didn't even ask you if you wanted to play a school sport, nor did she get permission from your guardians like she was obligated too, no she just dragged you off to Wood and announced that you should be made seeker. It was highly unprofessional of her."
"Also could you please think about becoming a chaser instead, one of the main benefits of sports in school is that they teach you teamwork, but a seeker is just flying around the pitch on his own during the game, you barely interact with the other players at all, if it wasn't for the huge point imbalance that catching the snitch has, it would be the most useless position on the team."
"You know you might be right about that mom, while I love flying sometimes the seeker position did get a bit boring when the snitch took time to show up, I'll definitely try out for chaser next time"
"That's good sweetie."
"OK, but what about Sirius, if we manage to keep him out of Azkaban, wouldn't it be better if I live with him"
"I thought so too, that's why I agreed to make him your Godfather, right up till he let Hagrid take you away and went chasing after Peter. You do realize Hagrid can't do much magic right and there could have been other Death Eaters around that night. The responsible thing for him to have done was to make sure you were safe before he went haring off to kill Peter. No. I want someone who's going to put my child first, and that means Petunia. Also don't forget that Dumbledore wanted Sirius out of the way, if you end up living with Sirius, Dumbledore will keep meddling in your life. I wouldn't be surprised if he tried to kill Sirius to get him out of the way. It'll be safest if he thinks he's succeeded with his plot to keep you downtrodden and miserable"
"What if he checks up on how the Dursleys are treating me?"
"He didn't the first time around, did he? No, the over confident old man will believe in his wards and compulsion charms and probably won't give you another thought until you turn up at Hogwarts. We'll have to make sure Sirius doesn't openly visit you though. For all intents and purposes it has to look like you're being kept isolated from the wizarding world."
"OK, so we leave messages for Petunia, Sirius and the Longbottoms to fix my childhood, but that still leaves Voldemort and Dumbledore. I'm still going to have to fight them aren't I?"
"Actually no, all you need to do is to get rid of Dumbledore. And no, you're not going to have to fight him. Do you think I'm going to let you put yourself in danger again? No, what you're going to do is make an alliance with Quirrel."
"WHAT?" shouted Harry.
Chapter 3
"WHAT"
"You heard me Harry, Dumbledore's a far greater threat to you than Quirrell ever was; you need to make an alliance with Quirrell so that you can get him to take care of Dumbledore for you."
"But he's possessed by Voldemort, and he tried to kill me."
"Hmm, perhaps we should discuss some of Voldemort's history, you really don't know enough about him you know. After all most of your information about him came from Dumbledore didn't it."
"Yes, but at least on this he couldn't have lied to me, Voldemort is evil, he murdered you and Dad, he's tried to kill me nearly every single year I've been at Hogwarts."
"Yes, he is evil, he has murdered a bunch of people, but what made him that way? No one is born a killer Harry. To truly understand Voldemort you have to know what made him the way he is, and unfortunately a large part of that is also Dumbledore's fault."
"Come on, he murdered Myrtle while he was still in school, murdered his own father as well, no he was always evil."
"Come now Harry, there's a difference between being evil and being insane. Voldemort was insane ever since he made his first Horcrux and that's what drove him to those acts of murder, not because he was simply born evil. Let me start at the beginning. You know some of Voldemort's history, but Dumbledore never really gave you the whole picture."
"OK, so what's the real story then?"
"Well what did Dumbledore tell you about Voldemort's origins, you know he grew up in an orphanage, and after Hogwarts worked for Borgin and Burkes, and at some point applied for the Defense against the dark arts position but was turned down by Dumbledore? Did anything strike you as strange about that? By all accounts he was one of the smartest students at Hogwarts. Why would someone as ambitious and clever as Tom Riddle work in a shop? Why would he apply for a teaching position?"
"Dumbledore said he was using the Borgin job to look for founders artifacts."
"Please Harry, Dumbledore fed you nothing but half truths and lies, he never let you get an inkling of the true story. What you have to remember is that for all intents and purposes Tom Riddle was a muggleborn. While he may have been a half blood in truth, the purebloods would never have seen him as anything but a muggle raised orphan. As you know the ministry has always been heavily biased towards muggleborns, and when Tom Riddle graduated Hogwarts he entered a world where all the doors were closed to him. He couldn't get any sort of meaningful job at the ministry. And the true reason that Dumbledore turned him down for the DADA position was because Dumbledore wanted to hire a pureblood as well. He might have told you some bullshit about not trusting him but the real reason is that Dumbledore is as much a pure blood bigot as anybody. Now during the interview Dumbledore made it absolutely clear that he disliked Tom and also made it clear that he had suspicions about Tom's friends. Now remember, at this point Tom did not really have any Death Eater followers. He simply had friends and people who believed in the same things as him. While he did want power - at that point Tom wanted to push for reforms within the ministry and gain power in a legal way by working towards equality for all wizards, whether pureblood or muggleborn. Unfortunately Dumbledore made it rather obvious that he would work against anything that Tom was doing. This terrified Tom. Dumbledore was an immensely powerful wizard even then, Tom was convinced that Dumbledore would be coming to kill him sooner or later, and this led him to make the biggest mistake of his life - He created a Horcrux."
"He still had to murder someone to do it."
"And you were willing to kill him because he murdered your parents weren't you? We don't know what the situation was Harry, we don't know what drove him to his first act of murder. For all you know it could have been an act of self defense. I believe Tom created his first Horcrux when he murdered his father, and it was after his interview with Dumbledore not during his school years as Dumbledore led you to believe. Perhaps Tom was desperately looking for a way to save himself from Dumbledore and he had already learned about Horcruxes in school. Maybe this led him to an act of murder. Just suppose he had always planned on getting revenge against his father since he might have blamed him for his mother's death. While he may not have intended to kill him before, at this point he decided to take that ultimate step. If you think about it, was he that different from you, didn't you want to kill him for murdering me?"
"You can't seriously believe that mom, how can you excuse away his murdering his father."
"Harry I'm not condoning his actions, but you have to agree that there's a major difference between a serial killer murdering victims at random, and a desperate person wanting to murder the person that in their eyes was responsible for their mothers death and all the subsequent misery in their life. Of course this is speculation on my part, but I don't believe Tom was evil until after he created his first Horcrux."
"OK, but what happened after that. He's murdered so many people after that."
"Ahh, but that's exactly what I was talking about when I said that making a Horcrux was the biggest mistake of his life. You see Harry, the problem is that souls aren't meant to be split, and furthermore Tom put way too much of his soul into the Diary. He didn't just put in a sliver of his soul; he ripped off half his soul and he ended up putting in his humanity and his conscience. The minute he created that first Horcrux Tom Riddle was driven irrevocably insane. Where before, he was simply ambitious, he now became murderous. He no longer simply wanted to be powerful within the ministry; he wanted to destroy the entire wizarding world by pitting pureblood against muggleborn. That's when he created the Lord Voldemort persona and started gaining influence among the purebloods. In his deranged mind he was wreaking revenge on the world that had denied him his due for not being a pureblood and he would use those same purebloods as instruments of his revenge."
"He's still an evil murdering psychopath though."
"Yes but Harry, in the muggle world when an insane person commits a crime, and if they can prove that they're mentally ill, they aren't punished for those crimes. Generally they're sent to a treatment facility instead where Doctors try and cure them with medication and therapy. Unfortunately in the magical world even minor crimes can be punished by stays in Azkaban, where exposure to dementors can drive even normal people insane. In this case don't you think we'd be better off taking our cues from the muggles?"
"So let me get this straight, you want us to cure Voldemort?"
"Yes Harry, a sane Tom Riddle would make a very good ally against Dumbledore."
"Wow, I don't know if that's brilliant or totally insane. Voldemort's been the enemy my entire life and now you want me to team up with him. Still sounds crazy to me."
"Team Up might be too strong a term for what I want you to do. Dumbledore manipulated us to get rid of Voldemort, I feel it only fitting to use Voldemort to rid us of Dumbledore."
"Still, manipulating Voldemort to kill Dumbledore just seems wrong."
"Harry Harry Harry, I never said we're going to kill Dumbledore. No, no, deaths much too good for him. I intend to make him suffer for a very long time."
"You know, you're a lot scarier than I thought you'd be."
"Yes, well getting murdered does tend to give you a different outlook on things."
"I suppose it does at that."
"So, that's the broad strokes of the plan, I'll fill you in on the details on the way, shall we get going?"
"Well I was kind of hoping to see Dad as well."
"Your Dad is busy keeping Dumbledore off our necks, right now he's pretending to be you while Dumbledore spins yet another line of bull."
"Damn, even in death that guy doesn't give up. You've got to give him points for persistence at least. So what's he telling him?"
"Who cares? It's just more of his half truths and lies probably."
"Wait a sec, once we do this and I'm alive again will we still be able to talk?"
"Probably not, we need to use magic to talk to the living and I don't have any."
"What about the resurrection stone, suppose I find that, wouldn't I be able to use it to talk to you and Dad?"
"Harry, that was a children's story, I have no idea if that stone even exists."
"Hold on, I got it from Dumbledore, and it just showed me you, Dad, Sirius and Remus just a little while back."
"Do I even need to say it?"
"Crap, so that was a fake as well."
"Well if you think your parents would be smiling and cheering you on as you head off to commit suicide, then you've taken too many bludgers to the head over the years. Now shall we go and do what needs to be done?"
"Okay, so how do we do this?"
"Well, I'll just need to borrow a bit of your magic, and then we can be on our way, first stop is Godric's Hollow"
Chapter 4
"First stop is Godric's Hollow" said Lily as the world twisted and turned around the two of them till they were standing in front of a small cottage which had seen better days. The front door was smashed in and from what they could see from the garden the inside of the house looked trashed as well. An extremely large man with an astonishing amount of hair was just stepping out the door with a little bundle in his arms.
"Ok, there's Hagrid coming out the door and he's carrying me, so Sirius should be along any second" said Harry.
"Yes, there he is, oh for god's sake he's giving Hagrid his motorcycle, I'd forgotten he did that, I swear that man has no brains at all" grumbled Lily.
"Ok, there goes Hagrid, grab Sirius quickly before he heads after Wormtail" said Harry.
"Stay out of sight while I talk to him Harry, he'll just get confused if he sees you" ordered Lily.
"Ok."
Lily strode up to were Sirius was watching Hagrid disappear off into the distance with a sleeping Harry. "Sirius Black, did you just let Hagrid take Harry away on that flying Death Trap of yours?"
"Lily, you're alive, thank god, I thought Voldemort killed both you and James" said an astonished Sirius.
"Wow, Sirius, does it really look like I'm alive, the slightly hazy transparent look wasn't enough of a give away for you? I'm dead you dumb-ass, and way to go on being a responsible godparent, letting my one year old son get taken away in that ridiculous contraption of yours."
"Wait, what? You're dead?"
"Yes, but lets stay on topic shall we, you were about to explain why you thought it was a good idea for Harry to go flying on a bloody motorcycle" asked an indignant Lily.
"It's perfectly safe I charmed it myself." squeaked Sirius in a panicked tone.
"Oh my god, that means it'll probably drop out of the sky any minute. Tell me Sirius, did you happen to notice the slight size difference between you and Hagrid?"
"Well yes, he is quite a bit bigger but the motorcycle is still perfectly safe."
"And have you ever tested your motorcycle when it's carrying someone who weighs 4 times as much as you? Not to mention the fact that it's a bloody motorcycle Sirius. Who the hell takes a baby on a motorcycle? And why the hell didn't you go with Hagrid? You know he had his wand snapped. Don't you think you should have made sure Harry is safe? You daft git! If I didn't already know that Hagrid managed to reach Dumbledore safely I'd be kicking your ass halfway to the moon by now."
"I'm sorry Lily; I'm not thinking very clearly just now, Voldemort found your house, which means that Peter's betrayed us all. I'm going to kill that dirty rat."
"Yes, yes, why don't you get right on that, don't blame me when you're rotting in Azkaban though."
"Azkaban, why would I be in Azkaban?"
"Oh, I don't know, maybe because everyone thinks you're our Secret Keeper, so obviously you're the one who'd have betrayed us. Minor little detail like that probably never even occurred to you, you utter incompetent prat."
"I'm so sorry Lily, I should never have suggested Peter as your secret keeper, I'm just as much to blame as he is, it's entirely my fault you and James are dead."
"Stop crying already Sirius, as you can see I'm only mostly dead."
"Mostly dead? What the hell does that mean?"
"You know, its no fun talking to you purebloods, you'll just never get the joke. ** Anyway let's get inside. You need to sit down and make yourself comfortable. This is going to take a while" said Lily.
(** I know that The Princess Bride movie wasn't out at this point, but as several reviewers pointed out - the book was.)
~o00o~
"So what you're saying is Dumbledore set you up?" asked Sirius. He was still having an incredibly difficult time trying to wrap his mind around that concept. Dumbledore could not have betrayed them. He just could not have done something like that.
"Yes."
"And I'm not allowed to go after Peter?"
"No you're not, leave that to the Aurors."
"And I've got to stay away from Harry?"
"Only for the next 5 years or so, by then Dumbledore shouldn't be watching you too closely, and you can start seeing him in secret, I'll also want you to start introducing him to the wizarding world and start teaching him magic around then. It's important that he grows up knowing exactly who he is, but you'll have to do all this in secret. Dumbledore must never know that you're in contact with Harry otherwise he'll try and get you out of the way somehow. He'll have Arabella Figg watching the house and no doubt he'll be monitoring any owls etc. so the usual communication methods are out. Get yourself a phone Sirius, I don't think he'll be able to monitor non-magical means of communication so use only those. "
"Won't Dumbledore wonder why I never try to see Harry? He is my godson after all" asked Sirius.
"Some time in the next few days he'll probably deign to tell you he has Harry in a safe place. Act relieved that you don't have to be the one bringing him up, you're barely into your twenties, and he should find it very easy to believe that you're not ready to bring up a child. Accept his assurances that Harry is safe and make sure you thank him for looking after Harry. You can always pretend that seeing Harry would be just too painful for you as it reminds you of James and me. Oh and never ever meet him alone, I don't trust that man at all, wouldn't surprise me at all if he decided to just erase any and all knowledge of Harry from your memory. Try and restrict all your interactions to owls and make sure you check any letters from him for compulsion charms."
"Okay, but why are we sneaking around Dumbledore? Shouldn't I just go straight to the DMLE and tell them that Dumbledore set you up?"
"And who would believe you? Sirius Black of the House of Black vs. the bloody savior of the light, the oh so wonderful, all knowing bloody Albus Dumbledore."
"Hmmm, I see what you mean, but still we're letting him get away with murder."
"Only for now Sirius, remember that muggle phrase - Revenge is a dish best served cold. And you're going to be very busy for the next 10 years. I need you to take your family's seat in the Wizengamot as soon as possible; I need you to gather as much influence in the Wizengamot as you can. You also need to get close to Amelia Bones, I need her to trust you implicitly."
"By get close do you mean…" said Sirius.
"Oh for gods sake Sirius, get your head out of the gutter, no you're not to get involved with her in that way. You need to be her colleague and friend only. I can't let you mess this up by the two of you sleeping together" said Lily.
"Okay,Okay, and what else do I need to do?" asked Sirius.
"Learn Occlumency. You need to be able to teach Harry and for that you need to be an expert in it. Also wand-less magic is another thing you can teach him, best if he starts learning that first, once you get used to a wand it's a lot harder to pick up. Apart from that you also need to learn how to cast the Imperious. I can't stress how important this is Sirius. You need to perfect the imperious curse."
"It's a one way ticket to Azkaban" muttered a worried Sirius.
"Only if you're caught using it on a human, you know how the ministry regards werewolves, get Remus to let you practice it on him, and once you're sure you've got it, find a giant or two to practice on."
"Giants huh?"
"They're more spell resistant than humans so they're excellent to practice on, plus since the ministry doesn't consider them human it's not illegal."
"Okay" said Sirius.
"You have 10 years Sirius, make good use of them. You have to be ready to move once Harry gets his Hogwarts Letter."
"You can count on me Lily, there's no way I'll ever let you down again."
"For your sake Sirius I hope so. I'm giving you a second chance with Harry, make sure you don't waste it; there had better be no more lapses in judgment like that bloody motorcycle. Oh and needless to say you'd better keep this secret from everyone, that includes Remus, you know he idolizes Dumbledore."
"You're sure about Remus? I think we could probably trust him."
"Like we could trust Peter? No, Remus is way too trusting of Dumbledore, he can't be allowed to get any inkling of the fact that we're against Dumbledore, he'll probably assume you've turned dark and go running straight to Dumbledore. You'll need to come up with a very convincing story if you want his help with the imperious curse, or maybe you should just leave him out of it totally. That might be safer."
"I'll figure something out. Probably better to keep him at arms length like you said. I'll probably just find some giants to practice on."
"Okay then, you'd better get going, go straight to the DMLE and make sure that they're clear that it was Peter who betrayed us."
"Okay Lily, I'll miss you and James more than you'll ever know" as he broke down in tears once again.
"Goodbye Sirius, and you'd better take care of yourself, if I see you on the other side anytime soon I'll make sure you regret it, and that's before I let James loose on you."
"Ha, you really know how to make someone scared of dying don't you." With those last words Sirius apparated away to the ministry to make his report to the DMLE.
Harry came and stood next to his mother "You know, considering that I've watched Sirius battling Death Eaters while hiding from the ministry and dementors, that's still the most frightened I've ever seen him."
"He bloody well should be frightened; idiot man doesn't have the slightest ounce of self preservation in him. You'd better take better care of him this time around Harry; I really hope not to see him on the other side for a long long time."
"I'll try my best Mum; I'll wrap him up in cotton wool and Kevlar if I have to" said Harry.
"Okay, so I know you didn't reach Petunia until tomorrow night, so in the meantime we'll just go and leave a warning with the Longbottom's. No one should be cursed to live like those two were and poor Neville will be so much happier with his parents around."
"Mum, wait a sec; I just thought of something, you know my friend Luna right. Her mother died in an accident when she was around nine. Is there any way we can prevent that?" asked Harry.
"Well I don't see any harm in leaving her a warning. It might not work though Harry, sometimes it's just a person's time to go. Not to mention that the accident is still nearly nine years away, she might not remember any warning I leave her."
"Still, no harm in trying, she was a really good friend to me."
"Yes, she was, I was quite happy to see you ask her out to Slughorn's party. Pity you didn't follow up on that though. She probably would have made you very happy" said Lily.
"Yes, well if circumstances had been different I might have. I got distracted by Malfoy's antics at that party and then somehow the timing was never right was it."
"Well you'll have another chance to be a friend to her, make of it what you will, now lets get going to Alice and Frank's."