Harriet Potter Year 1: Life, Death, and Rebirth

"Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are".
~Bertolt Brecht

Harriet Potter, The Zoo-April, 1991

Ten years after that fateful night, Harriet Potter found herself at the zoo for the first time in her life. Celebrating Dudley's birthday, Harriet watched quietly as Dudley tapped angrily against the glass of a snake enclosure.

Getting annoyed with him, she snapped, "Leave him alone! Can't you see he's asleep?"

Dudley muttered something about it being boring and left. Harriet turned to the boa constrictor and smiled apologetically. "Sorry about him. He doesn't know what it's like, lying there, day after day."

The snake slowly straightened and winked. Harriet looked around to make sure that nobody was watching her and then winked back. The snake hissed in pleasure.

"Can you- Can you understand me?" the snake nodded. Harriet blanched. "I've never talked to a snake before. Do you- well, do you talk to people often?"

The snake shook it's head.

Harriet nodded and caught sight of the sign hanging over the enclosure. "You're from Burma, aren't you? Is it nice there? Do you miss your family?"

The snake jabbed it's tail in the direction of the sign. Harriet squinted and looked more closely at it. That's when she noticed more words scratched in at the bottom.

Bred in Captivity

"Oh, I see," Harriet said, feeling an unusual sympathy for the snake. "That's me as well. I never knew my family either."

"Piers! Come look at what the snake is doing!"

Dudley waddled as fast as he could towards Harriet, shoving her harshly away and causing her to fall, both he and Piers pressed their faces hard against the glass. The next moment, they were both screaming.

Harriet sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished. The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor, both Dudley and Piers frozen in shock. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.

As the snake slid swiftly past her, Harriet could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come… Thanksss, amiga."

Harriet, eyes wide in shock, gave a small, "Anytime," and the snake quickly slid away towards the entrance. Harriet couldn't help but wonder how the snake had learned Portuguese if it had been born in England, before realizing that the Dursleys would flay her hide if they realized what she had done (and somehow she knew that this was her fault, even if she wasn't sure how).

Scrambling to the floor, she made looked quickly around the reptile house, whose visitors were still screaming and running in all direction, and saw that Dudley and Piers were still in the tank...the glass had reappeared before they could get out! Aunt Petunia was clawing desperately at the glass, as if that would make it disappear again and Uncle Vernon was yelling at the keeper of the reptile house.

Harriet took advantage of the hectic moment to retreat into one of the quieter corners of the reptile house, hoping to wait out the Dursleys' anger and avoid any punishment. She quietly leaned against the wall, watching as several of the zoo keepers began to try and remove Dudley and Piers from the enclosure, when a small voice near her ankle caught her attention.

"Oi," came a small hissing sound, causing Harriet to abruptly look down. On the floor was a small, orangish-brown snake.

"Oh," said Harriet, startled, "Hello." Then, not wanting to seem rude, "Did you come from the tank with the other snake?"

"Yesss," hissed the snake, and Harriet was pleased to recognize the same Brazilian accent the other snake had possessed. "You arre a ssspeaker?"

"I guess so," said Harriet slowly, because the snake seemed pretty sure of the fact."although I am not sure what that means exactly."

"Itt meaanss, pequenina, that you can sspeak to sssnakesss. It isss an honor to ssserve a sssspeaker."

"Oh," exclaimed Harriet, "I don't think that's-" Harriet was cut off, though, as she felt the snake climb up her leg and firmly wrap its small body around her ankle. "But I don't even know your name!" she argued.

"Isssaura, pequenina," the snake replied, sounding slightly muffled by her pants. "My name iss Isssaura."

"Isaura," tested Harriet, and the snake gave a small hiss of approval. Harriet gave one last look at the lump underneath her pant leg, then searched the room (which had now emptied of visitors) for her aunt and uncle. Dudley and Piers were both finally out of the tank, but they were shaking and soaking wet, both of their shoulders draped in the thick towels provided by the zoo.

The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.

"But the enclosure," he kept saying, "how did they get in?"

The zoo director, having made Harriet's aunt a strong cup of tea, was in shock. He had no idea how the snake could have gotten out of the enclosure, or how Dudley and his friend had gotten stuck inside. Harriet was smart enough to stay quiet and in the background, but she should have known that she wouldn't get away with it.

Piers looked over at her and asked, loudly, "You were talking to it, weren't you, Harriet?"

Harriet gulped at the sight of her Uncle's dangerously purple face.

Harriet Potter, 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey-April, 1991

Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harriet. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go — cupboard — stay — no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.

Harriet lay in her dark cupboard much later, talking to Isaura, who had finally come out from under her pant leg. Harriet learned that Isaura was only a few years old and had once belonged to a small boy who had not treated her very well (hence her small size). Eventually, it had been found out and she had been rescued and taken to the zoo. Isaura had also told her what "pequenina" meant ("little one", apparently) and, at Harriet's objections, Isaura assure Harriet that she too was undersized, due to her previous owner's maltreatment of her. Isaura asked if there was any way she could be let out to hunt, but Harriet didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, she couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food or to let Isaura out the back door.

She'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as she could remember, ever since she'd been a baby and her parents had died in that car crash. She couldn't remember being in the car when her parents had died. Sometimes, when she strained her memory during long hours in her cupboard, she came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on her forehead. This, she supposed, was the crash, though she couldn't imagine where all the green light came from. She couldn't remember her parents at all. Her aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course she was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.

When she had been younger, Harriet had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take her away, but it had never happened; the Dursleys were her only family. Yet sometimes she thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know her. Very strange strangers they were, too. A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to her once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. After asking Harriet furiously if she knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at her once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken her hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harriet tried to get a closer look.

At school, Harriet had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harriet Potter in hers baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.

With a sigh, Harriet curled up on her cot, Isaura making herself as comfortable as she could by wrapping herself around one of its rickety legs.

Little did Harriet know, that soon, somewhere far away, a man and a woman who loved her very much would be waking up for the first time in almost eleven years...

St. Mungo's - May 23, 1991

Albus Dumbledore walked quickly through the halls of St. Mungo's. He had received a message just a few minutes ago and had come as quickly as possible.

"Albus!" Came a voice from behind him. Turning, he saw Remus running quickly towards him.

"Is it true?" He fired quickly, "Are they awake?"

"That is what I have been told," Dumbledore answered as they reached the door to the hospital room. "And I guess we are about to find out."

The door opened revealing Lily and James Potter.

Awake.

"Moony!" Exclaimed James as soon as he set sight on his friend. He tried to sit up, but the healer who was bustling around the room forced him back down onto his bed.

"Mr. Potter! You need to rest!" The healer turned to the two new occupants of the room, "You can stay as long as you need, but if they get upset or tired, you will have to leave." He left.

"Remus...Professor," Began Lily. "What's going on? How long have we been here? Where is Harriet? My mother and father? Nobody will tell us anything!"

"Lily, James" Dumbledore spoke calmly, "We will tell you everything, but you must relax. First off, Harriet is fine." When the two nodded, Remus and Dumbledore each drew up a chair. Dumbledore began explaining what they had missed. He had just told them that Sirius had betrayed them to Voldemort when James interrupted.

"But Sirius couldn't have done it, Professor!" Exclaimed James.

"James," Remus said gently, "I know it is hard to believe-"

"No!" James exclaimed, "He couldn't have! We switched secret keepers!"

Silence followed his statement.

"You switched secret keepers? And didn't tell me?" James heard the hurt in his friend's voice.

"I'm sorry, Remus," He said quietly, "We just figured the less people involved the better, but I also couldn't help but suspect-"

"That I was the spy?" James looked down, too ashamed to look his friend in eye.

"You were just acting so off. You kept leaving and coming at odd times and you were so evasive-" He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down.

"I was on a mission," said Remus quietly. James's head snapped up to look at his friend. Remus wasn't looking at him though, he was looking at the wall above James's bed. "I was working underground with the werewolves."

James nodded slowly, "I never should have doubted you. You never gave me any reason to. Can you forgive me?"

Remus looked at his friend, looking more ashamed than he had ever seen him. For ten years, Remus had worried over the fact that James might never wake up, but he had and he was going to be okay. Remus smiled, his joy at his friends' awakening overweighing any anger he might have felt under normal circumstances. "Of course."

"Who did you choose to become your secret keeper?" Asked Dumbledore after a moment, trying to refocus the discussion.

"Peter," Lily told him.

"Peter!" Remus yelped, realizing why Sirius had, in fact, blown up Peter and wishing that he had been the one to do it. "He was the one who betrayed you to Voldemort?"

"He must have been," James said quietly, unable to believe that his friend would do something like that. Yes, he had suspected Remus of working with Voldemort, but it just wasn't as real as having tangible proof of what Peter had done. After all, they had been best friends with each other for years.

"Hmm..." Dumbledore mused, before turning to Remus. "I believe that I have an answer as to why Mr. Black murdered-"

"Wait!"

"What?"

Both Lily and James exclaimed, knowing that they must have had misheard former headmaster since Sirius never would have killed anybody.

Dumbledore explained what had happened to Sirius while they were unconscious: that he had gone after Peter Pettigrew and cornered him in a street full of Muggles. Peter confronted Sirius just before Sirius killed him and thirteen other Muggles.

"All they found of Peter was his finger," he finished.

"But Sirius would never do that! And even if he did, sure there would be some sort of justification due to Peter's actions!" Lily protested, remembering how protective Sirius had always been of his friends and, in particular, how much he loved Harriet. "And how could they be so unfair as to not let him have a trial?"

"Surely there is something you can do, sir?" James pleaded, unable to bear the though of his best friend in Azkaban. Dumbledore considered.

"I suppose I might be able to convince Minister Fudge to give Sirius a proper trial, with this new evidence. Especially considering the fact that Sirius wasn't really your secret keeper and therefore couldn't betray you."

Both James and Lily sighed in relief. Remus looked down at his hands guiltily. How could he have believed his friend Sirius had betrayed Lily and James? Then again, how could he not realize Peter's true intentions? He had seen how the war had torn other families apart, but it was only now that he realized how much destruction had been inflicted on his own (somewhat unorthodox) family.

Realizing what Remus must have been thinking, James reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder. Remus shot him a grateful smile.

"Now," Dumbledore broke the silence, "Where was I?"

"You were telling us about Voldemort coming to our house." James said grimly.

"Oh!" Lily exclaimed suddenly, "Harriet! Is Harriet okay?" Both James and Lily looked at Dumbledore, afraid of the answer.

"She is fine, as I told you earlier." They sighed and Dumbledore finished telling them about the events of that night. The four were solemn after he was done, contemplating the magnitude of all that had happened. After all, Lily's parents had died... and nobody had ever survived the killing curse.

"So where is Harriet now?" Lily asked after a moment.

"She is with the only blood relative she has left."

"Not Petunia!" Lily gasped, sudden dread filling her at imagining what Harriet's life must have been like living with her dreadful sister and her husband and osn. When Dumbledore nodded, she added "But she hates Magic!"

"I know," Dumbledore responded, "However, I believe it was the safest place for her at the time. At least, from Voldemort's followers."

"Blood protection," Remus whispered. Dumbledore nodded.

"So what happens now?" James prodded.

"The healers have informed me that you are to remain here for the rest of the week. Until then, I will work on getting a trial set up for Sirius." Dumbledore informed them. He turned to Remus, "And I am sure Remus wouldn't mind working on getting one of your houses back to its original state?" Remus nodded and Dumbledore got up.

"Until then."

Dumbledore's Office, Hogwarts-One Week Later (May 31, 1991)

Lily and James sat in Dumbledore's office. The last time they had been in here, they had been discussing ways to keep Harriet safe. Now, they were going to discuss ways to get Harriet back. Remus stood gazing out the window at the grounds of the school, watching the sun set.

"Dumbledore is late," He muttered.

"I'm sure he will be here soon, Remus" Lily soothed. No sooner had she spoken when the door to the office opened, revealing Dumbledore. His robes were bright green and his eyes were twinkling merrily. He seemed quite pleased about something.

"Hello James, Lily, Remus!" He said jovially. "I am sorry I am late, but I have been working very hard on a rather special project.

"It is quite alright, Professor," Lilly smiled.

"Lily, please, its Albus. It has been at least fourteen years since you graduated Hogwarts." He clapped. "But no matter! Now that my project is complete, I have something for you. Or rather, someone!"

He stepped aside revealing a man the three others in the room hadn't seen in almost eleven years. He was fairly tall with grey eyes and long, dirty black hair. His skin was pale and matted with dirt and (because he was so thin) it seemed to be stretched taught over his bones. At the sight of the others, the man smiled slightly, revealing a set of yellow teeth.

"Moony...Prongs... Lily."

"Sirius!" Lily exclaimed, getting up to embrace her friend.

"Padfoot!" Cried James before following his wife. Both hugged Sirius and he did the same to them. Remus stood behind them looking on. Both Lily and James took a step back giving the two friends a clear view of each other.

"Moony."

"Padfoot," Remus replied. He looked down at his shoes and then back up. "You've let yourself go." Sirius snorted.

"Yes, well, from where I'm standing, you aren't exactly the picture of youth, yourself."

"Could you ever forgive me?" Remus, said, suddenly, solemn. Seeing Sirus's confusion, he elaborated. "For believing you betrayed Lily and James for all of these years."

"There is nothing to forgive." Both men smiled before embracing like brothers.

"Thanks to the enlightening information you provided me with," informed Dumbledore, "I was able to convince Fudge to give Sirius a chance. He appeared in court, and, thanks to a bottle of Veritaserum, is now a free man. I expect you will be reading more about it in tomorrow's issue of the Daily Prophet."

"But what happened that day?" Remus asked curiously. "When Peter died?"

"I went to confront him about his betrayal," Sirius began, sitting down. "However, before I could say anything, he yelled at me for giving you up to Voldemort. He must have had a wand hidden behind his back, because next thing I knew, there was an explosion and thirteen muggles were dead."

"He killed himself?"

"It would appear so," muttered Dumbledore.

"Actually, sir," Sirius said hesitantly, "I think he transformed." Both Remus and James looked sharply at their friend shocked that he, of all people, would be the one to first inform Dumbledore about their status as illegal animagi. Then again, if Pettigrew really had transformed, it was imperative that the headmaster knew about.

All it took was Dumbledore raising an eyebrow, before all three Marauders were pouring out their story, words spilling over each other, talking over one another. They explained the illegal transformations, the Map, their midnight romps...all of it.

"Well," said Dumbledore, "I must inform the Auror's of this immediately, if Pettigrew is ever to be apprehended."

"You aren't angry?" Remus asked, hesitant. Dumbledore slowly shook his head and the men all let their shoulder sag, visibly demonstrating their relief.

Lily sniffled and bit back a sob.

"Lily?" James asked worried.

"I'm okay." She told him. "I'm just very happy." He nodded as Remus and Sirius sat down next to them.

"Perhaps, we should move onto some other business?" When everybody nodded, Dumbledore asked, "And perhaps we should eat as we discuss?" When everybody agreed again, Dumbledore sighed.

"Now," began Dumbledore, after summoning some food for them since it was close to dinner, "We are all here regarding the matter of Harriet's guardianship."

"Harriet's guardianship!" exclaimed Sirius. He turned to Remus. "Surely she would have gone to live with you, Moony." When his friend shook his head, Sirius turned back to the others.

"Then who?"

"The Dursleys," answered Dumbledore. Hearing Sirius's protests he continued. "It was necessary for Harriet to live with somebody who was related, by blood, to Rose. Thus, the protection Rose gave Harriet -when she sacrificed her life- would live on. Thankfully, it will not be too long until Harriet is returned to her true family."

"Can we leave now?" James asked Dumbledore eagerly.

"I do not think that would be wise considering how you look."

"Well, if you were trapped in Azkaban for ten years I doubt you would look better," muttered Sirius as he took a sip of the Pumpkin juice Dumbledore had procured.

"Actually, Sirius, I was referring to your robes," chuckled the Professor. "When I left her on the Dursleys' doorstep all those years ago, I left Harriet a letter, so she is hopefully aware of the situation. However, there is no need to take the risk and frighten her."

"Although now that you mention it, Padfoot," joked James, "You could probably use a shower." Sirius scowled at his friend, but before he could retort, Remus jumped in.

"So tomorrow, then? We can pick Harriet up tomorrow?" Dumbledore nodded and reached to pull something out of his desk.

"Here is her Hogwarts letter," The headmaster said, "I thought you might enjoy giving it to her early. It also has her current address on it. " James happily took the letter and looked at the words written on it. The others peered over his shoulder:

Harriet Lily Potter

The Cupboard Under the Stairs

4 Privet Drive

Little Whinging

Surrey

"When they say "cupboard under the stairs," commented James, "I hope they are referring to a cupboard that has been turned into a very comfortable and nicely furnished bedroom."

"They better be," Sirius said darkly.

"Well we will see tomorrow, won't we?" Lily muttered.

Yes. Tomorrow.