So I've also posted this under my Stories for Adoption fic but I hoped that posting it here would also get it a little more attention for someone to adopt it.
Chapter 1: The Past Can't be Rewritten
Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, the Man-Who-Conquered, the Defeater of Voldemort could finally relax with the defeat of his great nemesis. And relax he had.
Until he got bored.
He'd tried doing nothing for an entire week before he was climbing the walls with sheer boredom. All of his life he'd constantly had to be on his guard. Even before he'd found out he was a wizard his life at the Dursleys had kept him on his toes. Between the constant bullying by Dudley and his friends, and the mountain of chores his aunt made him do. His life had only gotten crazier and more hectic when he started going to Hogwarts. The next seven years he was constantly doing something. It seemed like he hardly had a moment to himself to think or relax without some plot of Voldemort's harassing him.
He didn't really know what it meant to relax.
His best friends Hermione and Ron had gone to Australia in search of Hermione's parents while he had stayed behind. Then the two of them had decided to stay for the summer to tour the country to get some time alone.
Harry hadn't minded the separation from his two best friends. He knew he would have to distance himself from them eventually anyway. It was probably better to do it sooner rather than later before he became a third wheel. Ron and Hermione were in love, and he knew that one day they would get married. The three of them would always be friends but they needed time by themselves to get to know one another as a couple.
Harry was rather enjoying his alone time. He may have been bored with the lack of turmoil in his life but that didn't mean he didn't enjoy his solitude. He liked being alone he just also liked having some task to occupy his time. Since the defeat of Voldemort Harry couldn't leave Grimmauld Place without getting mobbed. He liked his time away from everyone. It had given him time to think.
He was drastically reconsidering his future, and what he wanted to do with it. That had included breaking up with Ginny Weasley, not that they were ever officially together. Of course it was less of a break up and more a mutual agreement that they were much better as friends.
The war with Voldemort had changed both of them, and after the initial relief at seeing one another again they both realized that there would never be anything more than a brief attraction for one another. Guiltily, Harry recognized that he had been interested in Ginny because he'd wanted to legitimately be a part of the Weasley's family. He was just glad that he had realized the truth before he did something as stupid as marry someone he loved like a friend.
He'd taken to reading some of the books in the Black library. However, he still was no bookworm like Hermione, and the books didn't really help distract him. He took to dueling practice, and flying his broom. He couldn't wait for the summer to be over. He still wasn't sure what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. Whether he wanted to start Auror training, join a Quidditch team, or go back to Hogwarts with Hermione. Or maybe he didn't want to do any of those things.
The point was that Harry was just getting comfortable with getting to know himself, and his life without Voldemort when everything had to turn itself upside down once more.
"Happy Birthday, Master Harry," Kreacher greeted.
The old house elf had resigned himself to being under Harry's command. While he no longer hated Harry, he would still never be one hundred percent enthused about serving someone who wasn't a pureblood. At the very least Kreacher was loyal to him now.
"Thank you, Kreacher," he smiled at the house elf as Kreacher placed a plate of blueberry pancakes in front of him.
He was half way through his very delicious breakfast when the owls arrived. One was from the Weasleys asking him to come over for dinner to celebrate his birthday. The others were from various well-wishers who barely knew him but wanted to thank him for defeating Voldemort. The last to arrive was a large black owl carrying a thick letter with a Gringott's emblem on it.
It was a letter that Harry was both expecting and dreading. He knew he would eventually have to face the goblins after what he'd done to the bank when he'd been trying to get the Horcrux.
He reluctantly took the letter, and opened it. The goblin's words were short and to the point. They were requesting his presence at the bank this afternoon.
"Of course when they say request they're actually demanding," Harry muttered as he penned his agreement to the meeting.
He spent the rest of the morning puttering about Grimmauld Place. He spent some time practicing his dueling techniques. Then reluctantly, he dressed himself in some decent robes, and stepped out of Grimmauld Place. Harry twisted on his heel, and apparated just outside of the Leaky Cauldron. He pulled up the hood of his cloak, and kept his face down as he made his way through Diagon Alley towards Gringotts.
Luckily he managed to reach the bank without worrying about being mobbed by people wanting to thank him for defeating Voldemort.
The bank already looked like it was completely repaired from Harry's breakout. The lobby was undamaged as well. Harry went up to the nearest free counter to let them know that he was there.
He wasn't all too surprised to be brought to a back office where the manager of the bank, Ragnok, was waiting for him.
"Mr. Potter it is a pleasure to see you," Ragnok greeted him, his black beady eyes locked on him.
"Ragnok," Harry nodded.
"I believe that we have some things we need to discuss," Ragnok smirked.
"About the whole stealing from Gringotts while riding on a dragon, and destroying the bank thing?" Harry questioned.
"Exactly. It has been decided because of the nature of the object within the Lestrange vault that you will be excused from being persecuted for stealing from it. If you had not done what you had then we would still be under the rule of an insane Dark Lord, and we owe our gratitude to you for that," Ragnok intoned.
"That's great, I'm grateful I won't be hauled off to Azkaban. Even without the dementors it's not a place I'm all that keen on visiting. But I'm sure there's a bit more to it than that," Harry observed.
Harry would never blindly trust the goblins again. They were crafty buggers, and Harry was going to keep himself on his guard with them. He also knew how greedy they were. They must want something for him for causing the damage that he had to their bank.
"We only ask that you pay for the damages," Ragnok smirked.
Harry had quite a bit of gold now that he had access to both the Black and Potter vaults but it certainly wasn't endless.
"How much is it going to cost?" Harry sighed.
Ragnok grinned, showing off pointed teeth, and pulled out a parchment with billing information. Harry read the list over carefully. While it wasn't an exorbitant amount it wasn't exactly small either. They haggled a bit over the prices of certain things, and the necessity of buying such expensive materials. In the end they met in the middle. Harry was just proud of himself for speaking up on his own, and being able to lower the price.
Once they signed the contract over the payment, Harry thought he would be free to go.
"Mr. Potter, before you go there is one more thing," Ragnok pulled out a small journal with an envelope on top, and handed them to him.
"What's this?" Harry frowned as he noted his name on the envelope.
"This was entrusted to us by your mother, Lily Potter, in the event of her death. It was to be given to you on your eighteenth birthday," Ragnok explained.
Harry felt a rush of an excitement flow through him. He couldn't wait to read whatever it was his mum had written to him. There was an entire journal here with his mum's thoughts.
"Thank you," Harry nodded.
"Thank you, Mr. Potter. We're just glad that everything between Gringotts and yourself is settled," Ragnok inclined his head.
Harry left Gringotts and Diagon Alley in much the same way he had arrived. With no one the wiser. He was eager to get back to the solitude of Grimmauld Place to read the letter his mum had left him.
Kreacher greeted him at the door, and Harry asked for some tea and something to eat while he settled down in the living room. Grimmauld Place was a much brighter and more comfortable place these days. Harry had Kreacher give the place a complete makeover once he settled in permanently.
He opened the envelope with his name on it first. He smiled at seeing his mother's handwriting. He savored it for it was the only birthday letter he had ever received from her or would ever receive from her.
It started with 'My Dear Harry,' and Harry read every single word, no matter how much they confused him.
My Dear Harry,
My sweet boy, I write you this letter and leave you my journal of my adventures in the event that something happens to James and I. I certainly hope that you never read this letter but I must also be realistic. This war with Voldemort is dangerous, and grows ever more dangerous as the days pass. We are prime targets especially now with the prophecy that Voldemort believes is about you.
My hope is you never know anything about the prophecy, or Voldemort, however things don't always happen as you wish them to. I know there is a great risk that something might happen to us before you will ever be told the truth.
If it does come to pass, if James and I are to lose our lives, there is something that you need to know. Something that I waited to tell you until you were older, and done with Hogwarts. I didn't want this knowledge to distract you or hurt you unnecessarily. I wish I was there to personally deliver this news to you but if you are reading this letter than I am gone, and unable to do so. My only conciliation about not being there is knowing that no matter what I will have ensured that you survived.
After you read my journal just know that your dad and I both love you with all our hearts. I'm sure I would be more than proud of the man that you have become.
Love,
Your Mum
The letter left him uncertain. He couldn't imagine what was so important for her to tell him, to have waited for so many years. It took up an entire journal's worth of information so it must have been quite a lot.
Harry didn't waste any time. He flipped to the first page of the journal and began to read.
His mum started the journal after her own graduation from Hogwarts she had wanted to explore different wizarding cultures, and different types of magic. She and his dad had agreed to separate from one another in order to travel and get out some youthful wildness. They knew they loved one another but they both also agreed that they should take the time to explore other things and other relationships before immediately settling down into married life. This was especially true because of war that was steadily picking up speed all around them. They had both wanted to live and have fun while they still could.
His mum had went on to write about how during her magical explorations she came across an ancient text in an old bookstore in Prague. The text held a ritual on a way to travel between worlds. It had seemed completely insane to her and to Harry when he read her words. But the idea sparked something within her, and she grew obsessed with discovering if there might be some truth to the ritual. She studied the ritual in depth, learning all that she could about the theories of other universes and worlds. It was only when she had learned all that she could, and was confident that she could travel to a new world and back again that she decided to try the ritual in question. His mother seemed very much like Hermione in that way.
To her utter delight the ritual had worked, and his mum wrote about how she ended up in another world, in a country called Essos. She had written long detailed notes all about the city-states of Essos and the people that lived there. It was equal parts alike and different from medieval Earth. His mum had spent nearly two years in this other world, traveling and learning all there was to know. There was magic in Essos, and its neighboring countries. Not like the kind on Earth but magic all the same. Magical animals had also once lived there and his mum wrote about people who had used dragons to conquer nations, and wolves as big as horses.
Harry found himself utterly captivated by his mother's stories and descriptions. The thought of another world was incredible to him, and he had eagerly read all about his mother's adventures. He completely forgotten about the part where she had needed to tell him some deep dark secret that was until she got to the part about the man she'd met there.
At first he'd been angry that she would have left him a journal where she had written about a relationship she'd had with another man in some other world. He knew his mum and dad had already agreed they could date other people during their separation. It was still strange to read about his mum go on about another man. However, his anger soon faded away to utter shock when she wrote that she had fallen pregnant from this other man.
She hadn't realized she was even pregnant until her and this man had gone their separate ways. His mum had decided to come back to her own world. She had realized that even though she enjoyed her time with the other man and loved him. She loved his dad more, and knew she wanted to marry him.
His mum had returned home, and told his dad everything. They had each had other relationships while apart but they had only served to prove that they truly loved one another. James was more than willing to raise her child as his own.
It was those words that had Harry rearing back in shock. He had to reread them five more times before they sank in. If he wasn't James's biological child then this other man his mum had met in this other world was his biological father.
His belief was confirmed when he read the note at the end. It was a passage written directly to him unlike the rest of the journal. She stated plainly that the man she had met in a city called Braavos was his biological father. She explained that she had never told Harry's biological father about him. They had gone their separate ways by the time she even knew she was pregnant, and then she had decided to leave that world entirely. But she wrote that she was certain Harry's biological father would have loved him as much as she and James had. Apparently Harry's biological father had gotten around quite a bit, and Harry had three half sisters from three different mothers. His father was raising all three daughters on his own.
Finally his mum left him detailed instructions on the ritual on how to reach this other world. She told him his father's name, where he was from, and gave him a map on how to find him. She reiterated that she had waited until his eighteenth birthday to give him the letter because she had wanted to make sure he was completely finished with his magical education, and old enough to make a levelheaded decision as to whether or not he wanted to go meet his biological father.
Harry ran his hands down his face. His mind was racing. He couldn't quite believe this was true. But other parts of his mind were telling him how much sense it made.
Ever since he had entered the wizarding world people were constantly telling him how he looked just like his father with his mother's eyes. Harry had always been proud to hear it because his parents were heroes. He had wanted to be like them so much. But then he'd gotten that photo album from Hagrid. At first he'd just been so excited to finally get to see his parents that he hadn't noticed.
In fact it wasn't until his third year that he had taken the time to really study the pictures of his parents. He'd wanted to take a better look after all of the conversations he'd had with Remus Lupin about his parents. He'd taken a closer look at the pictures with older, wiser eyes eager to really take note of their similarities. What he found was surprising.
Without question he had his mum's eyes. They also had similar cheekbones and chins. He had black hair like his dad, and his hair was messy but only because it was a wild tangle of curls. It didn't stick up in the way that his dad's did in the photos. But he certainly wasn't his spitting image like everyone kept going on about. In fact Harry didn't look much like his dad at all. It had seemed odd to Harry to notice that both of his parents had light skin. Sure, his dad had a bit of a tan but it wasn't the golden brown of Harry's. Harry had a bit of a widow's peak, and his nose had a slight curve to it.
Those were features he couldn't quite place as belonging to either parent. He knew no one looked exactly like their parents. But certainly there had to have been something that marked him as similar to his dad. In the end he decided they must have come from the Potter side of the family. After all he was very familiar with Aunt Petunia's features, and had seen pictures of his maternal grandparents.
He hadn't thought much about it after that. He hadn't wanted to. There were far too many other things going on his life to worry over such a manner detail as that. For example those revelations had come at a time when everyone was certain that Sirius was a madman out to kill him.
It did make him wonder if Sirius or Remus had ever known about his true parentage. His mum hadn't said. But he thought they might have. The two of them were perhaps the only ones who had never remarked about how much he looked like his dad. Remus did tell him he had his mother's eyes. They were close too his dad not to notice that the older Harry got the less and less he looked like James Potter.
Now he knew why he didn't look anything like his dad. James Potter wasn't his father. He would forever be his dad but the man wasn't his biological father. Some Don Juan in another world was his biological father, and Harry really wasn't quite sure what to feel about that.
Harry wanted to shut himself away after finding all of this out. The floo call from Molly Weasley made him realize that he couldn't.
"Where are you, Harry dear? Dinner is ready. I've made your favorite dessert," came Mrs. Weasley's voice from the fire.
"I'm sorry Mrs. Weasley, I lost track of time. I'll be right there," he assured.
He carefully tucked away his mum's letter and journal. He straightened his clothes, and stepped through the fire. Luckily he'd gotten a little better at floo travel and didn't end up flat on his face when he stepped through the fireplace into the Weasley's living room.
"Surprise!" came the shout.
Harry startled as he stared at the room full of people. He had been expecting just George, Ginny, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley at dinner tonight. Instead there was Hermione, Ron, Neville, Luna, Hagrid, Andromeda Tonks, and his little godson Teddy Lupin.
He laughed at the sight of all of them. Someone let off some fireworks.
"George!" Mrs. Weasley growled right on cue.
"Thank you everyone," Harry smiled widely.
Hermione flew at him, enveloping him in a tight hug.
"We couldn't exactly miss your birthday, mate," Ron thumped him on the back.
Harry smiled at his friends grateful to have them.
The party quickly kept his mind off of the discovery he had just recently made. They had dinner, and dessert before playing a quick game of Quidditch. He opened gifts with Teddy curled in his arms, and thanked all of his friends for being there.
Towards the end of the evening he slipped out the front door, and took a moment to be alone admiring the night sky.
He thought he had been hiding how distracted he was rather well. But he should have known better. He could never quite hide something from Hermione.
"What's wrong, Harry?" she asked him.
"Everything is fine, Hermione," Harry feigned nonchalance.
"No it's not, something's happened. Something that's upset you. I can't imagine what it could be, however. Is it Ginny? Knowing she's dating someone else?" she frowned in concern.
"Merlin, no. I'm happy for her, finding someone who loves like she deserves," Harry assured.
"Have you found someone yet?" Hermione quirked an eyebrow.
"No," Harry laughed.
He'd gone on a couple of casual dates in the last month but nothing noteworthy.
"Then what's on your mind? Something serious for you to be out here brooding on your birthday," Hermione smirked.
"Have you ever thought about other worlds, Hermione?" Harry asked.
"I've briefly considering the idea. There are even some old texts in the library at Hogwarts that postulate the possibility of such a thing," Hermione nodded, frowning in confusion. She was thrown off by Harry's sudden question.
"What would you do if you knew that it was the truth, that there were other worlds, other universes out there completely different from our own? What if you had a way to get there?" Harry asked.
"I would love to explore them, it would be fascinating to study the magic there if there even was magic there," Hermione looked thoughtful. "But what does this have to do with anything? What brought all of this on, Harry? You've never been one to think about such things."
"James Potter isn't my biological father," Harry sighed.
Actually saying the words out loud made it all so much more real. It wasn't something he could ignore if there was another living person who knew the truth.
The shocked expression on Hermione's face was priceless.
"Oh, Harry, are you sure?" concern was written over every inch of her face.
"Very sure, my mum wrote me a letter to tell me about it in the event that something happened to her. It was delivered today. Her journal about her time traveling in another world was with it," Harry explained.
Hermione gasped at what he said. With another sigh the whole story came spilling out of his mouth. Hermione's eyes grew larger and brighter as he told her the story. She was equal parts sympathetic about the news he had received and utterly amazed at the discovery his mum had made.
By the end of it, they were sitting side by side on an old bench by the Weasley's gnome overrun garden.
"So what will you do now?" Hermione asked.
"I don't know. I have the ritual on how to get there and how to get back. I could go if I wanted. But why should I?" Harry shrugged.
"Besides the chance to meet your biological father? It could be a wonderful experience to see this world. The way your mother described it sounds amazing. There is so much we could learn," Hermione said thoughtfully.
"Why should I bother? There's enough for me here. And I don't need to meet my biological father. James Potter was my dad, I don't need to meet this man my mum had a casual fling with," Harry muttered.
"Oh, I see," Hermione nodded.
"See what?" Harry demanded.
"You're upset with your mum, James, and this stranger who you now share half your DNA with," Hermione explained.
"Of course I'm upset! How could she do that? How could she have some relationship with this man when she said she loved my dad?" Harry cried.
"Sometimes love is more complicated. Sometimes you need to meet other people, and try other relationships before you realize just how much you love someone," Hermione offered.
"I know. I just, I can't help but be angry. With both of them," Harry stood.
"The perfect image you've always held of your parents was broken. It's going to take a while for you to come to terms with this new perception of them. They weren't perfect they were human. But it doesn't change their love for you or their sacrifice," Hermione assured him.
She laid a hand on his shoulder. Harry felt a rush of warmth for her. She truly was the sister he'd never had, and he could always count on her to put things in perspective for him.
"Thanks, Hermione," Harry gave her the smallest of smiles.
"We can talk about it more later. Come on, I think George's starting a game with those new Exploding Snap cards of his," Hermione beckoned him back towards the house.
"This should be interesting," Harry allowed himself to be drawn back towards the rambunctious laughter from inside the house.
He'd think more about the ramifications of his mum's letter another. Right now he just wanted to enjoy his birthday and being reunited with his closest friends.
