Not Supposed to Be
by Healer Pomfrey
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
It was very early in the morning on New Year's Day, when seventeen-month-old Harry Potter made a decision.
For two months now, which seemed like an eternity to the small tyke, he had been lying in a small cupboard. He did not know how he got here; he only remembered that a bad man had made his mummy not move anymore, then all of a sudden, his head had begun to hurt badly, and when he woke up, he found himself where he had been ever since.
Once every morning when the tiny bit of light that was able to penetrate his cupboard appeared, the woman, who apparently greatly disliked him, placed a small bottle of cold milk into his cupboard, which only filled his small belly to a tiny extent. The only time that he was taken out of his cupboard was when the same woman grudgingly changed his nappy on the cold kitchen floor. This only happened very seldom.
During this last night, there had been many loud noises that had made him feel very frightened and alone in his cupboard, and he longed for his parents' company. He was also cold, hungry and sore. However, there was nothing that the baby could do about it, before he suddenly remembered something. 'I can wish for things,' he recalled.
Since before he had been able to walk very well, he had been able to wish for his teddy to come to him or for the peas on the plate in front of him to vanish. His mummy had called it wish magic and commended him greatly for being such a big boy.
'I wanna be with Mummy,' he thought, however, nothing happened. Harry was about to cry - only silently of course, as he had already learned during the last two months that he was not allowed to make a sound or the bad, big man would come and make him very sore. Then, he remembered that Padfoot had told him to never give up.
'I wanna be with Padfoot,' he thought, feverishly wishing himself to his funny godfather.
HP
Sirius was lying on the bad excuse for a bed, or rather yet a mattress, in his cell in Azkaban, thinking of his baby godson in order to keep his mind sane in spite of the Dementors who were patrolling the corridor in front of his cell.
'They should at least give me a trial,' he thought. 'Dumbledore will probably see to it, and I need to remain sane for Harry.'
He was brought out of his musings, when suddenly something landed on top of him, accompanied by a small whirlwind. He instinctively reached for the little something, making out from the small light coming into his cell from the rays of the early morning sun that it was a baby.
'Harry!' he realised, totally in shock, however, knew better than to voice his sudden excitement.
"Harry, what are you doing here?" he whispered, torn between absolute delight and complete desolation, knowing that in spite of his overwhelming love for the child, the baby would not be able to survive at a place like Azkaban.
"Ha wif Paf," Harry mumbled in apparent exhaustion, before he closed his eyes and cuddled close into his embrace.
'He feels so warm and cuddly, but he stinks,' Sirius realised, however, for the time being, he could only lie there watch his godson sleep, while he feverishly tried to come up with an idea.
HP
When Harry woke up in the morning, he felt tired but happy being cuddled close by his godfather. However, he noticed soon that the air was cold, and his godfather whispered to him, "Harry, you're capable of wish magic, aren't you?"
Harry gave Padfoot a small nod and smiled, feeling very big.
"Can you wish us out of here? I'm not sure if it affords too much magic though," Sirius added, staring at him.
"Can," Harry replied and, still engulfed in Padfoot's arms, wished themselves out of whatever that place was.
"Harry, you did it!" Sirius shouted in obvious delight, as they found himself on the edge of the water that separated Azkaban from the mainland. "Now hold on tightly, I'm going to apparate us to Potter Manor."
HP
Upon arriving in the entrance hall of Potter Manor, the manor's house-elves greeted the two wizards with apparent enthusiasm, however, Sirius realised in shock that Harry was unconscious.
"He used wish magic to come to me and then again to wish both of us out of Azkaban," he explained to Gina, the head house-elf.
"Uh oh, that was probably too much magic for little master Harry," Gina said and instructed one of the other elves to take Baby Harry to the nursery and care for him.
"Thanks so much," Sirius said in relief, before he asked, "Gina, what am I going to do? They think I killed Lily and James as well as Peter."
"We knows that you wasn't their Secret Keeper," Gina said, reassuringly. "I wills takes you with me to Gringotts and tells the goblins. The Potters have a home in Australia. Maybe you cans lives there with Baby Harry and a few of us elves. Come with me."
Feeling very reassured by the elf's kind words, especially since he had already known Gina when he had lived at Potter Manor together with James and his parents during their time at Hogwarts, Sirius immediately reached for the elf's hand and allowed himself to be popped right into Gringotts.
HP
Two hours, a long conversation with Buckbean, the Potters' account manager, and a visit to the Black family vault as well to the Potter family vault later, Sirius arrived back at Potter Manor with Gina, a Portkey to 'The Potter Winery' and Lily's and James' will as well as a bank card from Gringotts that would work in Australia in his robe pockets.
Knowing from Buckbean that there were a dozen house-elves at The Potter Winery, however, that they were mostly caring about the enormous wine estate around the manor, Sirius decided to take six more house-elves with him from Potter Manor. Regretting that he was unable to take Gina, since she apparently wanted to remain the head house-elf of Potter Manor, he asked her to recommend six elves, two who would be able to look after Harry, two who could teach him, so that he would be able to study enough to pass his OWLs and NEWTs without having to attend any school, and two elves who would care for their daily needs.
After giving Harry a few hours to rest, the new family consisting of Sirius, Harry and the six elves took their Portkey to The Potter Winery. Their new domicile was situated on the shore of the Great Australian Bight, far from any bigger town, and was surrounded by vineyards as far as the eye could reach. The manor was almost as huge as Potter Manor, however, there was a small part separated from the rest of the building and equipped with its own entrance to accommodate holiday guests coming from all over the world to spend days or even weeks at one of the world's largest private wine estates.
HP
Officially registering himself as Sirius Orion Potter and Harry as his son, Harry James Potter, Sirius decided to spend the following years engrossing himself in the wine business. While the elves had continued making wine even after Harold Potter had passed away, who had regularly come and looked after the business, no one had done anything to sell the wine that had been bottled and stored in the cellar over years.
Harry Potter grew up in the nature of Australian's south, loved and cared for by his godfather and the elves who taught him primary school knowledge as well as magic. He was a very happy child that loved to laugh and play. He knew the wine estate like his robe pocket and often guided the holiday guests from their small guest house through the estate and the surrounding landscape. When the guests had children who were of his age, he was thrilled and happy to become friends with them.
To one girl, who was visiting from Britain together with her parents, he felt especially attached, although he had no explanation for his feelings before he realised that she was able to do magic like himself. He spoke with Sirius about the matter, who took it upon himself to inform the parents about her daughter being a witch just like he and his son were wizards.
Ever since then, the two children became close friends and even managed to convince her parents to spend all their holidays together with them in their manor, where the girl even joined Harry's classes taught by the elves.
At the age of eleven, the girl told Harry and Sirius that she was going to attend a magical boarding school in Scotland, so that she and her parents would only be able to come to Australia during the summer and over Christmas.
"Hogwarts," Sirius stated, smirking. "That's where I went to school, however, knowing how famous Harry is in Britain's magical world, I believe that it would be the best for him to continue being homeschooled."
Harry agreed, full heartedly.
Scotland, 1 September 1991
After the Sorting Hat had sorted the new first-years into their houses, Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts, rose from his chair.
"Originally," he addressed the students, "Harry Potter was supposed to come to Hogwarts today. However, neither our owls nor any of my colleagues or even Fawkes was able to find him, and his relatives, with whom he was supposed to live, informed me that he left them mere two months after his parents died. Does anyone perhaps have any information about Harry Potter's whereabouts?"
After an instant of absolute silence, one of the Ravenclaw first-years rose from her chair.
"Professor, I know Harry Potter, and he's a good friend of mine," she said, smiling, only to add, "Oh sorry, I'm Hermione Granger, and my parents and I use to spend all our holidays in The Potter Winery in Australia. Have you never heard of it? Their wine is very famous even here in Britain, and Harry is living there together with his father, Sirius Potter. Mr. Potter told us that he has attended Hogwarts at our age, but that he has decided that Harry was going to keep being homeschooled by the house-elves, sir."
"Harry Potter is the owner of The Potter Winery?" McGonagall spoke up in clear disbelief.
"Together with Sirius Black," the headmaster mumbled, defeat clearly written all over his face.
"Albus!" Professor McGonagall shouted, glaring at the headmaster, who replied in a small voice.
"Minerva, please take over as the headmistress. I'm going to retire." With that Albus Dumbledore left the Great Hall and was never seen again within Britain's magical world.
The End