Runes of Reality
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Harry never had a life with the Dursleys because he grew up as Harry Devereux. 11 years later, he is Sorted into Slytherin. Amidst the constant animosity, Harry finds friendship and a will to change the negative perception associated with the Serpent House.
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Main Relationship Focus: Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy/Blaise Zabini/Theodore Nott Friendship
Genres: Action & Adventure, Drama and Suspense
Rating: T for violence and language
Length: Epic
Warnings: Slight Dumbledore, Ron, Seamus, Dean and Justin bashing
Disclaimers: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by J.K Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Warner Bros, Bloomsbury. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Beta: The amazing Kathryn
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Recap:
In her peripheral vision, Rylia could see her inquisitive son reaching out for the letter.
"I am calling in absent for today, something personal and important came up abruptly. And I know that there are no major missions that cannot be handled by someone else within these few days." The head bobbed its agreement and the image spoke.
"Alright, Auror Devereux. See you on Monday." Rylia canceled the spell without another word and then prepared for the inevitable question.
"Mother, why is my name Harry James Devereux-Potter?"
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II: Rune of Truth
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Mr. Potter,
We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
Harry stared at the yellowed parchment and numbly pushed out a question.
"Mother, why is this addressed to Mr. Potter?"
The young child suddenly felt his mouth go dry when he saw the glint of guilt and regret in his mother's eyes. What was wrong?
His mother did not answer him; instead, she went out of the dining room and came back shortly after with a thick leather tome in her hands.
"Let's go to my study; we'll be more comfortable there." Harry was suddenly hit with the fear that this might be it – was he going to abandoned? He reluctantly obeyed his mother as he hopped off his chair at the dining table and followed the tall witch deeper into the castle.
His mother's study had an elegant, calming décor of dark woods. The room was spacious with an intricately carved ebony table and numerous large shelves containing tomes and tomes of books. Harry would usually be itching to get his hands on those treasures but for now, he paid the books no mind.
"You're not in trouble; you're just here for a long story, that's all." He released a relieved breath. Sinking into the leather couch, Harry snuggled against his mother as she opened the leather tome, a photo album.
When the album was opened, Harry's eyes were immediately drawn to a redheaded witch standing besides a much younger version of his mother. The witch was beautiful, with alabaster skin and bright red wavy hair. Harry was startled when his mother stroked the redheaded witch's profile with a long, pale finger.
"Mother, who is she?"
"Pretty, isn't she?" Harry nodded, and his mother's face grew even sadder.
"Her name is Lily Evans. One of Hogwarts' most brilliant students, one of the nicest people you could hope to meet, certainly the bravest person I knew and she – she was my best friend." Harry perked up. He almost never got to hear stories about his mother's childhood.
"During my first year at Hogwarts, I was sorted into Slytherin and Lily in Gryffindor. Slytherins and Gryffindors were at war with each other. Pranks, fights, Quidditch … everything. However, I never particularly cared about that, when I stepped into Hogwarts, I knew that my first priority was to gain knowledge and make my father proud." His mother paused, staring at the picture of the two eleven year old girls.
"One day, I was in the library doing research for a project. The place was rather full. I was in the middle of reading a passage when Lily suddenly sat across me."
Rylia looked up from her book and her gaze was met with the reddest hair she had ever seen. She raised an eyebrow as she silently observed as the other girl hauled a large, heavy looking bag onto the table. Then the redheaded girl across her smiled and asked.
"Hello, can I sit here? The library's really full right now and there's no open tables." Rylia stared at the redheaded girl before replying with a question
"You're a Gryffindor, and I'm a Slytherin. I don't mind but do you?"
The girl beamed brightly and shook her head, pretty auburn hair flying across her face.
"You seem to be a nice enough person. Besides, the House rivalries are for idiots, don't you think? They really are the world's most pointless thing." Rylia shrugged, unused to her cheerfulness.
"You obviously haven't seen much of the world yet." At her sarcasm, the girl giggled, a pleasant tinkling, bell-like sound.
"Well, I'm Lily Evans, first year Gryffindor. Pleased to meet you." The girl, Lily, stuck out her head and Rylia only hesitated for a moment before taking it.
"I'm Rylia Devereux, first year Slytherin. Pleased to be of your acquaintance," Rylia had made herself a life-long friend.
"She asked me whether she could share the table, I agreed. She wanted to be friends and didn't care about house rivalries. I warned her about the future dangers of us being friends, but she only repeated, 'House rivalries are for idiots.'"
His mother then flipped onto the next page. There, Harry saw Lily and his mum again, sitting underneath a large tree. His mother was smiling while Lily was laughing at something. They looked very happy, and it made Harry want to crawl into the photo to enjoy the sunny, breezy day with them.
"She was amazing, laughing all the time; you couldn't help but be cheered up when around her. She had an irresistible personality that drew everyone to her. Lily could have had any other best friend, but she chose me, a quiet Slytherin. We grew very close, despite the fact that we were in rival Houses. We were sisters in every sense of the world except in blood, but one day during the Christmas Holidays for our sixth year, Lily decided to make us sisters by name."
The next page was a picture of his mother and Lily standing side by side, this time slightly older, probably seventeen or eighteen. The Lily in the picture waved cheerfully at him while his mother smiled softly at him. Harry felt his heart warm.
"Ry, I want to make us sisters." Rylia widened her eyes.What in the name of Merlin was going through Lily's head?
"How in the hell are we supposed to do that?"
"An adoption. Muggle style." Lily whispered with a determined glint in her startling green eyes, Rylia frowned.
"My grandfather is going to have my head."
Lily rolled her eyes. "Where's the fearless girl when I need her?"
"Lils, have you forgotten about my Pureblood origins?" Lily raised an eyebrow and replied.
"You think that we'll tell the whole world? Sweet Merlin, Ry, you really do underestimate me too much. We can do this!" Lily's green eyes shone with excitement and hope, Rylia deliberated for a few moments before nodding slowly, relenting. Lily squealed and hugged the other girl, kissing her chastely on the cheek before punching the air victoriously.
"Yes!"
"Lils, calm down."
"Yes! Oh yeah! I persuaded you!"
"Lily Marie Evans! Do you want the whole wizarding world to know about what we're going to do?" Rylia hissed. Lily smiled sheepishly as she quieted.
The Slytherin girl took a deep breath and asked, "When are we doing it?"
Lily's grinned mischievously as she answered, "During the Christmas Break, at the sleepover we were planning." Rylia's parents were away on a trip, visiting distant relatives in Russia, Rylia was going home anyway and had the whole house. She had promptly invited her best friend over to spend the holidays with her.
"Alright."
"You wouldn't regret it."
"I know that, what do you think made me agree?" Rylia raised an eyebrow and then smiled warmly when the redheaded witch laughed.
"I can't believe we're going to be sisters!" Lily gushed with obvious excitement and genuine happiness.
At that very moment, life was good.
"We did everything together. We even took our Charms Mastery during our sixth year together. She was brilliant, and was to be apprenticed to a spell crafter after graduation. When we passed our Charms Mastery together, we each got the other a gift. I gave her a necklace with a beautiful ruby phoenix pendent that had our patented Charm on it, and she gave me an obsidian panther with the same charm."
Rylia reached into her blouse and pulled out a pendent. The panther had diamonds for eyes, and the design was very realistic.
The next picture in the album consisted of Lily, his mother, and four other young men, all of them very handsome. One of them, a bespectacled boy, who had his arm around Lily's waist. .
"The brunette is Remus Lupin, the boy with the glasses is James Potter and the other black haired boy is Sirius Black. Together, they formed the Marauders: the initiators and masterminds of most of the pranks that happened during my school life." His mother had a reminiscing glint in her eyes as she smiled softly at the memory. Harry noted her lack of explanation about the last boy but chose not to comment. The story, he felt, could wait for another day. He didn't want to interrupt his mother now.
"Then during our seventh year, Lily fell in love with James. They weren't really friends before and it took a while for Lily to accept him, but when she did, everyone knew that they were perfect for each other. They married after graduation, and I was asked to be the bridesmaid. The wedding was held during autumn; everything was beautiful: the setting, the atmosphere, the people. Two years later, they had a baby." His mother turned and looked sadly at Harry, it was then when everything fell into place.
"I was the baby." His mother nodded sadly but continued the story.
"I was named your godmother; Sirius Black, your godfather."
Rylia stared at the little bundle of cloth Lily had carefully placed into her arms. Wrapped in the cloth was the most adorable baby Rylia had ever seen: a dusting of raven black hair, a cute mouth and nose, and Lily's bright green eyes.
"Ry, say hello to your godson." Rylia widened her eyes. Her godson?
"Are you serious?"
She turned disbelieving eyes onto Lily.
Lily only smiled and responded, "Sirius is Harry's godfather. What's the matter? Don't tell me that you don't want to be Harry's godmother. I can tell when you're lying."
Rylia chuckled as she said softly, "I guess I'm stuck with you, little guy." Little Harry reached out with a chubby arm and laughed cutely. Rylia's heart melted at the sight.
"Hey! Don't take up all of Harry's time, he's my godson too!"
"You were always a curious child. Every time I came around, you would beg me to carry you with that adorable smile and irresistible puppy-dog expression." She smiled thinking of the happier times.
"It was three months after your first birthday. I was on an Auror mission when the Dark Lord Voldemort suddenly attacked your house. I had a feeling that something bad had happened, and I rushed straight to Godric's Hollow. But I was too late. Lily and James were - were dead. Somehow only you were still alive. Voldemort had come after you because of a prophecy." By this time, her eyes were teary, and Harry knew that she was desperately holding back her tears.
"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches, born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies," she recited. Harry nodded, seeing it fit with his birthday.
"I decided to take you away from the wizarding world because I realized that it was you who somehow defeated Voldemort. That's why you have that scar." Harry's hand automatically went to touch the scar as realization dawned.
"I never once regretted taking you in, I would have gladly be your godmother. But once you started calling me Mama, I didn't have the heart to correct you." Harry nodded mutely.
"I wanted you to have a normal childhood, I did not want people swarming over and suffocating you. You would have hated all the attention and the unwanted expectations. Everyone wanted to see the Boy-Who-Lived, everyone wanted to be associated with the Boy-Who-Lived. I did not want that kind of life for you. You were my godson, and I refused to give you a childhood that did not include peace and privacy." Harry nodded, unable to trust himself to speak.
So his biological parents were murdered by this Dark Lord Voldemort, and his mother was actually his godmother. Soon, Rylia became overwhelmed by the uncomfortable silence, and pitying her, Harry asked, "What are Houses and why is there House rivalry?" Anything would be good to remove the tense silence. Harry saw it work when his… godmother? Mother? relaxed slightly and explained.
"About one thousand years ago, Hogwarts was founded by Helga Hufflepuff, Salazar Slytherin, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Godric Gryffindor. They came up with the idea to teach young witches and wizards magic and to keep them away from Muggles. They believed that magic was not a shame, but an honour." Harry nodded impatiently, he knew that but he still didn't get the Houses.
"Each Founder created a House for the students to belong too. Each House had their own perquisites: Hufflepuff was for the kind, sincere and loyal; Slytherin was for the intelligent, cunning and ambitious; Ravenclaw was for the clever, wise and witty; Gryffindor was for the brave, loyal, and the trustworthy." Harry wondered briefly which House would he be in if he went to Hogwarts before deciding he would think on it later.
Harry listened raptly as his mother began describing Hogwarts, from its Founding to the rise of the Dark Lord Voldemort to the Houses.
"Many children were brought up with prejudices, depending on the side they were born on. From a young age, many children are given a clear indication of what was good and evil. When they reach Hogwarts, their principles are only reinforced because they surround themselves with similar people."
"There are genuinely evil people in the world, such as Voldemort and perhaps the rest of the Slytherin House. Even though I came from that House, I had been lucky to have Gryffindor friends who steered me from the path of a Death Eater."
A hard, unforgiving glint entered his mother's eyes and then quickly gave way to tiredness. Harry realized that she was afraid for him, that the prophecy might force him to do things that he did not want to do. Nevertheless, she had prepared him for the eventuality that he had to fulfil the prophecy and rid the world of Voldemort.
He then drew closer to the tired woman and wound his arms around her neck, breathing in her light perfume as he offered comfort and reassurance.
"Thanks, Mom, for telling me the truth."
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Revised chapter. Hope you guys enjoy it.
Cheers,
Lex
