This is a gift-fic to njchrispatrick as a thank-you for writing the summary for Unbreakable Ties.

Warnings: language.

Disclaimer: I don't own either the plot idea or the characters. I just wrote it :P

Enjoy!

On Parents

It'd all started after he had defeated Voldemort. At least, he and everyone else who had thought about it assumed it had all started after he had defeated Voldemort.
The changes had been small at first and due to the lack of whole mirrors he hadn't even noticed them until about a month after Hogwarts had once again started, which was about three months after Voldemort had been defeated.

A lot of the older years – mostly years 5 and up – had been asked to help repair parts of the castle that had yet to be repaired for extra points or as part of the courses. He, of course, had immediately agreed to help as he felt partly responsible for destroying the castle. After all, if it hadn't been for him the Room of Requirements would have still been whole and useful and some of the towers would've been accessible.

His change in hair colour had been easy to explain away at first; dust made everything lighter and greyish so the fact that his hair had started to turn slightly greyish was considered normal in the eyes of everyone. Especially because of the fact they had never seen him after he had taken his shower before he went to bed.

But after a while people started to comment on the fact that his hair became too light or a weird colour of grey, even if he didn't help out with the repairs or if he helped out in a part of the castle where there was little to no dust.

Not long after that, someone told him that it was not only his hair that had started to change. Luna had come up to him one morning after he hadn't seen her for a while and she had looked at him oddly for a couple of long seconds before she had stated surprised: "Your eyes have changed."
He had looked at her strangely, not because of the fact that he didn't believe her but because he hadn't expected to hear that.

Most people had been either too awed to look anywhere but at his scar or too shy to look beyond his shoes. And most of his friends had been just as busy as he was and it had happened more than once that he hadn't seen them for a couple of days. Even Hermione and Ron hadn't mentioned something about his eyes, though he suspected that they were too much into each other on the moment to pay much attention to his appearance.

"Changed how?" he had asked her bewildered.
"They appear to be less green," she had replied.
And that had been the end of that subject as they had spent the rest of the time conversing about the castle, her father, the courses and the fact that she had become quite well-known due to her part in the war and her relatively close friendship with him.

He had forgotten about her statement about his eyes the very same day due to how busy he had been with both the course work and the repairs, but was reminded a couple of days later as Hermione – whom had been slightly distracted with her new relationship with Ron, something he truly believed they deserved – mentioned something about his eyes to him. They had been relaxing in front of the fire in the Gryffindor common room, just enjoying the fact that they had some free time when she disturbed the silence.

"I know you mentioned that you wanted to redo all the spells we have ever had to learn for our NEWTs, but the last time I checked the charms to change the colour of your eyes and hair are not included on that list, and neither is the full body glamour," she stated surprised, "and you might want to concentrate a bit more the next time, or your wand movement might be off. If you show me which charm you used I could show you how it should be done."
"I didn't cast any spell or charm to change the colour of my eyes or hair," he responded a bit annoyed, partly because of her tone of voice and partly because the fact that he had forgotten, "excuse me, I need to check something."

He quickly left his cosy spot near the fire and dashed up the stairs to their dorm room – skipping a couple of steps on his way up. He barely managed to avoid bumping into Neville before he skidded into the bathroom. He debated briefly if he should close the door behind him but decided against it; he had nothing to hide.

Contrary to the speed he had used to get into the bathroom, he slowly – almost hesitantly – made his way towards the mirror. He wanted to know what both Hermione and Luna had meant when they said that his eyes – and hair – had changed.

In the end he closed his eyes, took the last step and took a deep breath before he opened them again. Only to blink in surprise. It wasn't a complete stranger that looked back at him, but it could have been. His eyes and hair had indeed changed, but – though they were the most noticeable – they weren't the only things that had changed since the last time he had seen himself in the mirror.

His eyes had not only darkened slightly, they had also turned slightly bluish into an odd combination of forest green and a steely blue. His hair on the other hand had lightened slightly into an odd, dusty combination of blackish blonde or blondish black. He had the feeling that both would change even more but he while he was surprised, he wasn't exactly curious what it actually meant for him as a person. Because he knew that it would mean something; both for his identity – was he even a Potter? – but also for his standing in both the school and the society. And he was in no hurry to find out what it meant.

The other changed could be natural. His shoulders were broader – probably due to the heavy lifting he had to do during the repairing of the school – and he was slightly more muscular. He also appeared to be slightly taller, his jawline was slightly broader and his cheeks had lost the last of their childish forms and had gotten more muscular and more robust. All in all, he no longer looked like a copy of James Potter.

He debated briefly if he should just cast a full body glamour – because contrary to what Hermione seemed to assume he actually had paid attention in their charms class about the NEWT level spell – but decided against it. Too many people had already seen the changes and it was just too much of a hassle to have to recast the charm every morning for the rest of his life.

oOo

The next morning the entire school seemed to think that he had somehow managed to botch up the glamour charm and he just knew that the rumour would be blown up in the Daily Prophet that evening.

It was therefor during their first lesson of the day that Flitwick explained the causes and the results of a botched up glamour charm – apparently he truly did display every aspect of a failed glamour charm – and that it would fade away eventually over the course of about half a year.

Just like what happened to him, the changes would be gradual at first but once the last strands of magic that held the glamour – or failed attempt as a glamour – had started to fade away, the person whom it had been cast on would change back into his natural form rapidly.

According to Flitwick this happened for both temporary glamour charms and the longer lasting ones.
Much to the amusement of the Slytherins the diminutive professor added that he should be back to his old looks in about four months, dependant on when he had first cast the charm.

Hermione perked up eagerly next to him as that last comment was more of a disguised question for him.
But all he did was look blankly at the teacher, even as she elbowed him in his side.

oOo

Like Flitwick had stated in his lesson, the changed picked up speed after he had reached the four month anniversary of Voldemort's death.

But contrary to what everyone seemed to expect, by the time he had reached the fifth month since Voldemort's death his hair lightened even further until it was a light brown of a dark blonde with some darker hairs – luckily no colour he could easily associate with anyone he knew or had known like a young Tom Riddle or one of his father's friends – and his eyes had darkened further until they were a steely dark blue with green flecks.

He had also lost the last semblances he had had with both of his parents. The shape of his eyes had changed, his hair was more tame, less shaggy and longer than he would have liked if the cut he had now wouldn't have reminded him a bit too much of Riddle or Crouch Jr. and he was slightly more bulky than his father had been at that age if the photo's he had were any indication.

By the time the sixth month after Voldemort's defeat had gone by the last changes seemed to have happened and he was left with dark blonde hair, steely blue eyes without the green flecks and a build that was completely different than either parent had had.
No one would mistake him for a child of James and Lily Potter ever again and though it had hurt to know that he was most likely not their actual child, he still considered them his parents.

They had cared for him, they had died for him and – when he had called for them when he was about to die – they were proud of him and they still seemed to care for him.
And that was all that mattered to him.

Sadly enough, both Hermione and the rest of the wizarding world couldn't leave it alone.
He was still seen as Harry Potter – the famous Boy-Who-Lived and the Defeater-of-Voldemort – but a lot of people suddenly claimed that they were either his parents or related to him in another way.

Most people claimed that the eye colour was exclusive to their family, that his hair was so much like the colour their grandfather or grandmother had had, or that they could see a long dead loved one in him.

The Ministry of course used his changes and all the people that wanted to suddenly be related to him as an attempt to become more popular. They collected some blood of everyone that claimed to be related in some way and compared it against his will with the sample of his blood they had somehow managed to gain.
They had even offered to have one of their Unspeakables brew a highly illegal but very accurate ancestry potion that would tell him exactly whom he was related to, but he declined – politely at first, but forcibly and rudely after their ninth or tenth attempt.

Hermione wasn't helping either. She was always pressing him to find out whom his real parents were with arguments like: 'you've always wanted a family of your own. Here is your chance to gain parents!' or 'you're a role model now, the people deserve to know about their saviour. Imagine what good you could do to all those adopted children who are too afraid to act upon their suspicions! You should help them by leading the way!'. 'They'll just hound you and us until you give in' and 'you should be curious' were also some of her favourites.

Between her meddling and the Ministry's hounding his temper became shorter and shorter until, on one fine evening in February, he just exploded.

oOo

Hermione had been pushing him to just give the permission to the Ministry to brew the potion for hours on end. She also had stated that she would love to be there when they would brew it as it was besides illegal also an extremely hard, dangerous and unique potion to make.

Ron had tried to calm her down as he had not only seen how ragged and completely fed up he seemed to be with both her, the Ministry and everyone else but also because – while he was somewhat surprised that he didn't want to know whom his real parents were – he supported his decision and continued to support him and his decisions in the matter.

It was after a particularly low blow towards his parents – she had insinuated that they had just stolen him as a baby, hid him under a glamour charm and showed him off as theirs – that he decided that enough was enough.

He pushed his chair away roughly enough that he caused it to fall over as he jumped up and slammed his fists on the small study table in the common room. His eyes were narrowed in anger and a probably ugly sneer marred his features.
"You don't get it do you," he growled darkly at her in a last bit to control the last of his already shortening temper, "this is my choice; not the Ministry's, not the people's and most certainly not yours!"
"But Harry-" she started to protest.

"No! You're supposed to be my best friend but all you have been doing since the changes have started is to act like everyone else," he snapped at her as he glared darkly at her, "first you hound me about the fact that I botched up some spell or charm without even asking if I had even cast a spell or charm at all! And when it suddenly seemed like my parents might have adopted me, you jumped on the lets-once-again-meddle-with-Harry-Potter's-life band wagon without a single care of what I want."
She opened her mouth again but he just ploughed on, he barely even noticed the fact that the entire common room had fallen silent and that everyone present was paying attention to what he was saying.

"Ever since it became clear that I might have been adopted you have been pressing me to do what you want me to do," he almost shouted at her, "unlike Ron, you never even bothered to ask me what I wanted or why I don't want to know. Has it even once occurred to you that I just want to be left alone? That I just want a normal year for once? That I don't bloody care about how the rest of the world might see and that it is not my duty to be a role model? That I never even wanted any of this?"
She seemed about ready to cry and he noticed distantly how she turned pleading eyes to Ron, whom shook his head at her in denial though he had the feeling that Ron did want to help her out.

"If I'm truly adopted then my biological parents had about eighteen years to contact me," he shouted, "if this hypothetical couple had known about the adoption and the deaths of my parents, they should have known I had survived. If they hadn't known about the adoption than they either gave me up and didn't care about me or they are dead and it won't matter."
He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply in an attempt to calm down.

"James and Lily Potter cared for me, they died for me and they showed up when I begged the Stone for my parents. They are my parents and I don't want or need a set of parents who suddenly decided that I'm theirs," he stated sharply as he stared at her, "I don't want or need people who are after the fame, the money or the titles the people decided I needed. I just want to be left alone."
He glared at her, "so, until you can see it from my side leave me alone!"

He collected his items from the table harshly, nodded almost apologetic at Ron, turned around and snapped harshly at everyone present – whom had all come closer sometime during his explosion – to move out if his way before he stormed up the stairs into his dorm room. He slammed the door shut after him and dropped his items on his bed after which he collapsed face down right next to his items.

He had considered giving into the Ministry, to just let them brew that potion. But that had been for about five minutes until reality had kicked in.
He had been either given to the Potters or they had taken him from somewhere. Either way, it meant that whoever his biological parents were – because he was pretty sure that he truly was adopted – they were either dead or they didn't care enough to reclaim him.

And he truly meant what he had told Hermione: he didn't want or need people who only cared for him when they got something out of it. Had they come for him when he had been young or had they claimed him when he had been a first year, he could have lived with that. But he would turn nineteen in a little less than six months, he had always been independent and he had always considered Lily and James Potter his parents.

No change in appearance or the fact that he might be adopted would change that. Ever.

I hope you guys enjoyed this story.

Reviews are always appreciated!

~Marwana