The Boy Who Lived
By: Jason Tandro
Author's Note:
Yes, I know I have set myself up as primarily a Final Fantasy fanfiction author, but I wanted to pursue a slightly different angle by branching out into one of my favorite book series of all time, Harry Potter. This is not your standard Mary Sue affair where the author inserts him/herself into their favorite series but a style that my FF8 story SeeD has led me to slowly appreciate: alternate reality.
This story I hope you will find mentally engaging and interesting enough to keep you occupied. I know I'm throwing my hat into a very wide arena here, but let's see what comes of it.
Dr. McGonagall was sipping on tea in her office while going over the files of her patients. She was expecting a visit in a little under a half hour and wanted to be sure she was ready. Running her aged hands over a series of manila folders, she finally reached the folder she was looking for: Potter, H.
She'd been tending to the boy for the better part of seven years now and knew his story all too well. It was one that she was mired in and that involved half of her staff. Yes, almost everybody knew about "the boy who lived."
Harry Potter was born with a rare genetic disorder, a form of cancerous tumor that affected his brain. Infants with such a disorder were always killed by this disease. There had, at that time, not been a safe way to treat that disease. No child born with the affliction survived when they were diagnosed with it. Nobody, not one… except him.
A surgeon was willing to try an experimental treatment which took cells from a donor match to try and essentially rebuild the damaged tissue around the brain. With a 1/1,000 chance of success, Harry's mother volunteered to be the donor. Tragedy struck on the table as Lily Potter did not survive the transplant process, however by a miracle, Harry Potter survived with nothing more serious to show for it than a nasty scar on his forehead. Due to the soft tissue of newborns the scar had stretched somewhat and now looked like a lightning bolt.
But the question remained where to put poor Harry. His father died in a car crash shortly before Harry came along, and with his mother dead, the child was entrusted to his only living family: The Dursleys.
Vernon and Petunia Dursley were perfectly happy having their nephew to stay with him. They had hoped that he and their boy Dudley would grow up almost like brothers. However, odd things began happening around Harry Potter as he was a child.
He just fantasized, like all boys do. He was different and special, but he took things a little far. He was caught climbing up a school building and when asked why he had done so he said he had merely meant to jump behind some bins to hide from Dudley. Even as recently as seven years ago he pushed Dudley through a pane of glass in a zoo towards a snake. People noticed at that time that he seemed to be conversing with the snake.
He was a troubled boy, but perhaps that was a side-effect of his condition. After all it was an unheard of experimental treatment, and who knew what the side effects of that could have been?
Most disturbing though was his distorted view of reality. He distrusted anybody who saw his behavior as abnormal. He felt persecuted and even hated by the Dursley's and even held a special loathing for Dudley. After the incident at the zoo, Vernon decided that it was time to seek professional help.
The clinic was founded almost 50 years ago by James Hogvar and a specialized team of four specialists in their various fields of psychology. Each wing of the clinic deals with different unique conditions. These Wings are broken and categorized into "R", "H", "S" and the wing where Harry resides. "G".
McGonagall sipped her tea and rubbed her head. 1:15. It would be 1:30 soon and the Dursley's would be here again for their yearly visit. It was a shame that they did not come around more frequently, but it was quite a trip up to the Hogvar Clinic. McGonagall sighed as she recalled the events that brought her to him.
Her colleague, Dr. Snape came in. He looked her over and folded his arms. "Working late again I see?"
"Not really," McGonagall sighed. "I've just got one last appointment. It's… well it's Potter's family."
Snape scoffed. "Should you really be going out of your way for him this much? You take far too much responsibility for the boy. You have been here since 5 PM last night. You've almost worked a full day straight."
"Dr. Snape, you should know better than anybody how important this treatment is. It may be that poor boy's last hope," McGonagall retorted.
"Either way, as you're not his attending physician I hardly see how it is relevant to you," Snape replied. "No matter how much Potter rejects me, I am currently his attending physician and it should be me who handles this case."
McGonagall sighed again and handed the folder over to Snape. Snape meant well, of course, but he was very demanding and could be hard to get along with. Snape was good… but he was no Dumbledore.
It had been Dr. Dumbledore who had recommended he be transferred to Hogvar Clinic afterall. When the addled youth mistakenly called it "Hogwarts" he smiled appreciatively and never bothered to correct him on it. He put so much care and devotion into that boy and now, because of Snape's overprotectiveness, he was gone.
Perhaps that was in the boy's best interest though…
"Dr. McGonagall," came a quiet voice from the doorway. It was the clinic groundskeeper, Hagrid. "I believe you've got a visitor out here. It's um… you know. The Dursley's and all."
"Oh for Heaven's sake," McGonagall sighed. "What a time for them to show up early."
"Minerva…" Snape said warningly.
"Dr. Snape, I made this appointment with them over a month ago, I intend to take care of it," McGonagall took the file back.
Dr. Snape scowled and walked back to the "S" Wing, where his office lay. McGonagall nodded to Hagrid, who led the family into her office. McGonagall looked at Dudley and rubbed her arm. He was growing up to be such a handsome young man. If only Harry hadn't been like this. What a life he might have had.
"Hello there," she started. "Safe trip I trust?"
"The traffic seems to get worse every year we come up here," Vernon grunted. "At least the weather's on our side."
"You told me over the telephone that there was some hope for Harry," Petunia began, very clearly intent on getting down to business as soon as possible.
McGonagall nodded. "Yes. I want to go a bit more in depth though. We've never fully sat down and discussed the summary of his treatment here at Hogvar."
"Why is that relevant?" Petunia asked. "If it will help Harry, then please do it."
"You must understand," McGonagall said. "This is a dangerous procedure; equally as dangerous as the one that was attempted on him when he was a boy. I am required to get your informed consent and it is quite impossible to get informed consent if you don't know the details of his treatment thus far."
Petunia rubbed her eyes with a handkerchief and Vernon put a consoling arm around her shoulders. Dudley folded his arms and looked away from McGonagall, tipping his hat down to cover his eyes as he did so.
"Go ahead, Doctor," Vernon nodded.
McGonagall sighed. "Well you do know the essentials. Harry suffers from delusions of grandeur but more dangerous than that is something which we have been piecing together for a few years now. You know, of course, that he believes he is not abnormal but, as he calls it, 'A Wizard'. He was only too accepting of help here at Hogvar because he believes that we are not a clinic but a school for those gifted in magicks and such."
Petunia and Vernon nodded.
"For the past seven years we've tried a variety of physicians, all under the care of Dr. Dumbledore, Dr. Snape and myself. The first year we tried Dr. Quirrel, but he was dismissed for miscasting the problem completely as a multiple personality dilemma. The second year we tried Dr. Lockhart, who we removed after we found he was trying to get famous by writing a book about Harry. His license to practice medicine, thankfully, has been revoked for this horrible breach of medical confidence. The third year was Dr. Lupin, he had to retire for health reasons sadly. Then there was Dr. Moody and Dr. Umbridge. Finally last year Dr. Snape volunteered to put personal effort into Harry's case and with some work he has uncovered something rather disturbing."
"I believe I can take it from here, Doctor," came Snape's cold voice from the opposite doorway. He had returned from his office with a much larger folder filled with detailed information about his work with Harry.
McGonagall seemed positively shocked by this, but not wanting to seem rude she stood up. "Uh, pardon me. I don't believe you've been formally introduced. Vernon, Petunia, Dudley, this is Dr. Snape."
Vernon put out his hand and Snape grasped it rather briefly before sitting down in a chair next to McGonagall.
"If truth be told I actually started working privately with Harry in his fifth year, under the advice of Dr. Dumbledore. He appreciated my talents then, as he does to this day. There are no… hard feelings about my recent decision regarding him," Snape said.
McGonagall turned away under the pretense of looking through her notes. She bit her tongue. Not a year ago, Dr. Snape insisted that Dr. Dumbledore be removed from the Hogvar Clinic. He had told the Board of Directors about Dumbledore's eccentric, but hardly harmful, method of treating Harry. The Board saw it, however, as reckless and irresponsible and dismissed Dumbledore.
"Dr. Dumbledore taught Harry that he shouldn't think he was crazy because he believed he was a wizard," Snape continued. "He was friendly and kind and put a great deal of patience and, if I may say so, love into your nephew. However, telling a delusional person that they are not being delusional is far too dangerous a concept and he was removed for that reason."
"So what have you uncovered?" Vernon asked.
"Well, Dr. Quirrel may have been right. Harry has created not only an alternate reality, but it seems he has created another person inside of him. It is both alter ego, and archnemesis. This sort of behavior is common in multiple personality disorders; one personality views the other as antagonistic. He has named this alternate personality Tom Riddle. Well, to be fair, it is more complex than that. When the personality is human and relatable to Harry, he is Tom. When he is antagonistic or frightening to Harry, he is referred to as Voldemort."
"So what is this treatment?" Petunia asked.
Snape scanned through the folders. "For the past year I have been trying to bring the link between these two personalities closer together. Trying to get Harry to sever ties with the idea that this alternate personality is anything but himself. He told me about certain traits that Tom Riddle possessed so I've had him slowly focusing on these attributes and how they are similar to his own. During each session I've had him destroy a symbol of those traits. I've used small plastic things: toy rings, lockets, etc. The destruction of these objects is only a physical symbolization of the mental reconciliation that Harry must overcome. However from today on it becomes more dangerous than ever for Harry."
"What's that?" Petunia asked.
Snape sighed and rubbed his hands together. "We're going to put him into a medically induced coma and then remove a part of his brain."
"A lobotomy?" Vernon asked, standing bolt upright.
"Not exactly. We are not removing an entire section, but rather a small clump of brain matter which I believe may have been affecting him this entire time. During the surgery when he was an infant part of the donation from his mother, while it saved his life then has also resulted in abnormal brain activity. Think of it as a sort of Graft Vs. Host disease that affects the mental biometrics without posing a health risk… or at least a physical one anyways."
"If it's as simple as that, then why all this psychological mumbo-jumbo?" Vernon asked still standing.
"Just removing the brain matter is not enough. When he awakes from his coma he will need to be ready for it. The shock from the change in thinking will be a nasty one. We are trying to ensure his mental stability by getting him to slowly understand the truth of things," Snape said.
"And when you remove that part of his brain… he'll be?" Petunia began to shake again.
Snape nodded. "He'll be legally dead for almost a minute."
Harry walked through the forest. With his eyes it didn't seem like a forest at all, but he'd learned long ago not to trust his eyes. So Snape had been trying to save him all along and he'd just never understood it? What to think of that, he wasn't sure. He turned the resurrection stone over in his hand as he approached the clearing towards Voldemort. From out there in that false world he heard a voice.
He's moving his stat monitor around. Put that back on his finger please. Nurse, get the gas ready.
When he stopped paying attention he looked around and saw all of those who had died for him. Sirius, Lupin, his mother and his father.
Harry, can I get you to count back from 100 for me?
"Will it hurt?" Harry asked Sirius.
"Quicker and easier than falling asleep," Sirius smiled.
He looked over to his mother. His mouth out there was counting down, but in here he was safe. He moved closer to her.
"Stay close to me."
She nodded. "Always."
Harry awoke in a hospital bed. His head had stopped throbbing and everything around him felt more alive and real than it had in his entire life. The softness of the sheets, the brightness of the light, the crisp sound of people talking. It was almost overbearing, but at the same time it made him feel better.
There was a young girl with long red hair who was making up his blankets. She looked slightly younger than he was.
"Are you a nurse?" He asked weakly.
"Oh no," she smiled. "I'm mentoring here. I plan on studying to become a doctor in college. My name's Ginny."
"Harry," he smiled slightly. "Harry Potter."
"Nice to meet you Harry," she replied. "Your family should be along shortly."
As she left a familiar man with a long white beard came in behind her. But had his beard been longer before? And did he always wear that rather boring white lab coat?
"Professor Dumbledore?" Harry asked.
Dumbledore smiled. "Perhaps I should encourage you to start calling me Dr. Dumbledore my dear boy. Or perhaps nitwit as I so frequently put you in a position where you were unable to get the help needed."
He sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Harry. I thought I knew what was best for you. I admit that I thought you were lost and that what would be best, to give you the best quality of life, was to have you be able to live out your adventures. After all, I reasoned, if you could not be cured, what would be the point of having us constantly trying to tell you that you were ill?"
Harry saw a tear slowly roll down Dumbledore's cheek.
"And there it was, an old man's mistake. I cared too much, Harry. Can you ever forgive me?" He sighed.
"Dumbledore," Harry said. "You helped me, when I thought nobody else could understand."
Dumbledore nodded. "True. But this way is better for you. It is like I tried to tell you on our very first meeting, and I should have never turned by back on this ideal-"
"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live," Harry replied.
Dumbledore smiled. He stood up and began to walk out.
"Prof- er… Dr. Dumbledore. I have one last question," Harry asked.
"Yes, dear boy?" Dumbledore asked.
"Is this actually real? Or is it just happening inside my head," Harry asked.
Dumbledore smiled. "Harry, my boy, this is real. You can now have a life that truly has meaning. And after all, to the well-organized mind Life can be a great adventure."