Harry Potter: The Boy Who Lived a Lie
By Rita Skeeter
As we all know, Harry Potter is a prominent person in our history, which means that there have been a lot of books written about him. However, on the whole, the writers of these books have never had the pleasure (or indeed misfortune) to meet him. I, Rita Skeeter, on the other hand, have met him numerous times, which allows me to give the readers an insight into his life that wouldn't have otherwise come to light. So sit back, grab yourself a cup of tea, or something a little stronger (you're going to need it!) and relax with my new book, Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived a Lie
Rita Skeeter
*****
Chapter One: The Boy Who Lived
Harry James Potter was born on July 31st, 1980, to parents Lily and James Potter. Lily was a pretty, red-headed Muggleborn girl, who everybody seemed to like. Needless to say, what little empathy Potter has is due to her genes, rather than his father's. James, on the other hand, was arrogant and bossy, especially when appointed Head Boy, with friends that were no better. Remus Lupin, a dangerous werewolf, who was allowed around the baby Harry when he was born, showing that James was hardly fit to be a parent with his approval of this dangerous act; Peter Pettigrew, who was thought to have been killed by Sirius Black, another friend, until he was found dead in mysterious circumstances in the Basement of the mansion belonging to disgraced pure-blood family the Malfoys; and Black himself, who although obviously did not kill Pettigrew, was still able to escape from Azkaban, and still remains the only person to do so, proving him to be a dangerous man, and was on the run until he was found dead in the Ministry of Magic in 1996.
These friends of James Potters show James to be the arrogant Pure-blood that people presumed him to be. Why else would he have taken to fellow pure-blood Sirius Black, who would one day be known as the wizard who killed thirteen Muggles with a single Curse? He also showed an unhealthy fascination with dangerous creatures, befriending Remus Lupin was a definite sign of this, as well as his friendship with dangerous half-giant Rubeus Hagrid, a friendship shared with his son, Harry, when he attended Hogwarts. Rumour has it that Lily and James hated each other in their earlier years of school, and eyewitnesses have told me that they saw the pair screaming at each other in the school grounds on plenty of occasions.
Lily and James got together in their final year at Hogwarts, although nobody was ever able to see why Lily, the beautiful Muggleborn with the heart of Gold, even considered dating the arrogant James Potter. Rumours of Love Potions, banned at Hogwarts, were rife at the time, although repudiated by Dumbledore, who was a has-been even then. The couple were made head boy and girl, which must have gone to both of their heads, as they lorded it over the school, becoming one of the most famous couples ever to attend Hogwarts.
The Potters went into hiding in October 1981 due to information that Dumbledore had somehow gleaned from his eavesdropping and sneaking around, and barely a week later, disaster struck. Under the information given by a spy (Pettigrew or Black, who it was is now unknown- See my book "Sirius Black: Friend or Foe for more information) the Dark Wizard known as "He Who Must Not Be Named" (also "the Dark Lord" and "You Know Who") turned up at the Potters' house and proceeded to murder the two adults in the house. After this, he tried to kill Harry, but was unable to. What is more, the Curse he used to try and kill Harry somehow backfired on himself, leaving him a fraction of the man he once was. Nobody knows why this was, although there are many rumours that Harry himself understands why this occurred, and the reason was that Harry harbours some kind of Dark Magic otherwise unknown. If this is true, then the Magical Community deserves to know about it; if the head of our Auror office is a Dark Wizard, then we deserve to know (see later chapters for more details on this).
After this fateful event, Potter went to live with his Muggle aunt and uncle. They refused to take him in at first, as even they, as Muggles, had been aware of the goings on on the fateful night of October 31st 1981, as strange things had been occurring all over the country, which was down to some people's sheer carelessness in the excitement of discovering the Dark Lord defeated. Potter was left on the doorstep of his relatives' house by Dumbledore, a gesture that was both dangerous and thoughtless, as Harry Potter had just managed to defeat the Dark Lord (temporarily). Because of this, surely the little one year old boy deserved a bit more protection than being dumped on somebody's doorstep, even if he was related to them. Little is known of Potter during this time, but it is understood that he was able to cast spells at a young age, putting his Muggle schoolmates at risk and even his own cousin. Potter's cousin, Dudley Dursley, was tracked down for this book, but although unwilling to talk at first, was soon convinced to talk about the early years of Potter's life. Let's just say he couldn't resist my charm. Sitting in his home in Kent we discussed his childhood with the Boy Who Lived.
"Harry once set a boa constrictor on me," said Dudley, his eyes glazing over at the memory. "My friend was there at the time, it was dangerous."
We also talked of the way that Potter behaved in the family, and Dudley confirmed that he was an outsider, not willing to fit in with the rest of his family, and he was not well liked at school.
"Weird things kept happening. He changed the teacher's hair colour and we didn't like it. Some people decided to beat him up"
The confirmation of Potter being an outsider ties in with what we know about him already. He was a strange boy at school, and as dear Dudley said, weird things did indeed keep happening around him. However, Potter maintains that he knew nothing of his magical heritage whilst at the Muggle school, a fact that Dudley has also confirmed.
After seven years attending a Muggle school, Potter was told on his 11th birthday that he was a wizard- information that his Muggle family had chosen not to share with him, possibly because of these "weird" things that kept happening around him. They were scared, and Potter's magic was a danger to them. He was told by Hogwarts gamekeeper Rubeus Hagrid, a dangerous half giant with a love for all things large and vicious. Why then did Dumbledore choose him to tell Potter about his Magical heritage when it was more traditional for a Hogwarts teacher to do the honours? Perhaps Dumbledore even then suspected the boy to be capable of some sort of Dark magic the rest of us wouldn't even dream of. This was a boy who nobody knew anything about, a boy who was made to live with Muggles, Muggles who tried to drain the magic out of him as a young child. There must have been a reason for this. It is true that theses Muggles were Harry Potter's only family, but there were plenty of magical families who would have thought it an honour to adopt him. So why was he sent to live with Muggles, when he would have been treated like a king had he been adopted by a magical family. The again, who knew what sort of ways Albus Dumbledore's mind worked? He maintained that he was "doing what was best for Harry", but was this really the case? Perhaps Dumbledore was jealous of the way that a small baby had been able to get rid of a Dark Wizard in the way that he had never been able, so decided to cast him aside into a Muggle family in order to either allow his family to stamp the magic out of him or try and make the Magical community forget about him.
