Disclaimer: All characters and recognizable story elements belong to J. K. Rowling.
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"All right. Now that the main question has been decided, let us proceed to sorting out those pesky details," Albus Dumbledore sighed. "Anyone care for a sherbet lemon, by the way?"
"Oh, keep your sodding sherbet lemons," Snape snapped at the headmaster, shooting him an irritated scowl. "First of all … how can we prove to everyone's satisfaction that Corvus really is who he claims to be," he began, frowning. "Since I doubt that there is any documentation of his birth whatsoever."
"That should actually be rather easy. Gringotts. The goblins will recognise him as the Black heir. They have various ways to establish claims to a bloodline and to the Lordship. And that will also give him some protection from the ministry. They can ill afford to deny a Lord of House who has been officially acknowledged by the Goblin nation."
"Wait. Shouldn't I be the heir to Black thanks to Sirius' will? As Harry Potter?" Harry asked, trying to remember what Dumbledore had told him a few weeks ago.
"Well, as his name has not been cleared yet ... his will does not actually count. We were still working on establishing his innocence in the eyes of the ministry, and there was a lot of opposition to work through. But given this new situation, I fear that we will have to stop trying to clear him, so that Corvus Black can claim the Lordship instead," the old wizard explained, looking at Harry apologetically.
Harry sighed and shrugged. "Guess it doesn't actually matter to him anymore, does it? The people who count, do know he was innocent ... and the rest … oh sod them. But what a family name to have to take up."
"I mean I go from being Harry Potter, Saviour of the wizarding world," he declaimed mockingly, making a face. "To being Corvus Black, highly suspect offspring of Death Eaters and scion of a house full of dark wizards and even a supposed mass murderer. I mean, that's not going to win me any friends. Who would want to trust someone like that, especially if they don't know a thing about him?"
His … father nodded in agreement. "Unfortunately you are quite right. You should probably try and play the neutral card. The light side will no doubt be suspicious of you, no matter what you do, while the ones in the Dark Lord's camp will likely try and woe you at first. Your best bet would be to establish yourself firmly with the neutral faction, who want to stay out of the conflict. If you can get those people to be curious about you, they might be approachable enough."
Harry gave him a dubious look, but nodded anyway. And sighed unhappily. He had made his decision. Now he just had do live with it.
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"We need more details, though. Like, where exactly has the boy been hiding until now? If we can prove his heritage, that's fine, but the fact remains that until yesterday he did not actually officially exist," Remus objected. He had remained suspiciously silent while Harry had wrestled with his life changing decision. Had he been afraid that his input would unduly influence Harry?
"We need to be able to tell people something. Everybody will be curious about his past, and why he wasn't raised by his mother, and who he was with, and where," Remus continued, voicing some of the main questions that would certainly be asked. Harry knew only to well how nosy people could be. And that was even without taking someone like Rita Skeeter into account.
The atmosphere turned pensive again. Harry felt strange, being for the first time included in layers of plotting together with adults that he would normally never learn about. Then again, it was his own past and future that was being decided in this dark room. His past and future that they would need to keep in the dark as much as possible … which suddenly gave him an idea.
"Why do I need to tell them anything? Can't I just claim that I am protecting the people who hid me, and that giving any information about where I was or what I was doing would put them in danger?"
Remus sudden smile was brilliant.
"Of course! Now that is what I call a simple, yet elegant solution. It is perfect. And if you do not tell anything, you cannot make mistakes or give yourself away, either. Cub, you make me proud," Remus said, beaming happily at Harry who felt all warm inside at the praise.
"This way you can avoid giving unnecessary information even to members of the order. Though you should probably behave .. well ... rather distant? Always slightly distrustful. You do not know who you can trust at this point and you would rather just keep everyone away for now. You can be perfectly polite, though."
"Also you should never volunteer any information, and steer conversations away from you by asking your own questions of people. Always be vague yourself, and really curious about others. After all, most people are only too happy to talk about themselves, and they tend to like and appreciate someone who seems interested in them. Even if it is faked interest." The werewolf's smile turned slightly bitter at his last statement.
"We can see about training him in the art of deflecting and avoiding questions," Snape agreed. The look he gave his son was neutral, but there was the hint of a quiet approval that gave Harry's insides an unexpectedly fluttery feeling.
"And we can help by spreading a lot of rumours. We will create a smoke screen of misleading information, and if it comes from different sources, it will be difficult to penetrate to any truth. Especially if the truth does not exist in the first place," he said, fixing his eyes on Harry.
"But you will really need to learn Occlumency this time." Harry met the other man's dark eyes in unhappy shared memories. "I know. But I am certain that this time we will meet with success."
"Because anybody looking for memories of either Harry Potter or Corvus Black must find nothing. It is different from what I do with the Dark Lord. I actually have to show him bits of real memories mingled with faked ones. You need to learn to show no memories at all. We do not have the time or means to fabricate false ones," Snape explained.
"However, you will also have to learn to not show your emotions quite so much," he continued with an admonishing look. "It will do little good for you to be able to hide your memories, but give everything away because you display every reaction for everyone to read on your face."
Harry grimaced at the thought, but knew that Snape was unfortunately only too right. "All right," he said in capitulation. "What else?"
"What if someone gets to him with Veritaserum?" Dumbledore voiced another concern.
"We will have to test that, but the truth is that he is Corvus Black. And that he really does not know anything about his background. As for the rest ... it all depends on the questions. It is an ... unique situation really. He really is both persons ... one of them without a history. So unless his interrogator suspects him of being Harry Potter, he cannot easily be asked anything that would give Harry away," Snape mused, clearly fascinated by the question.
"And it is another reason for the Occlumency. A skilled Occlumens can evade questions under Veritaserum by hiding the relevant knowledge even from himself. So yes, prepare yourself for some intense schooling. This time though, Remus can help. He does not know Legilimency, but is a fair Occlumens, so together, and all parties willing this time," Snape had the grace to look guilty himself. "It should be possible. And it will be," he declared, meeting his son's dark eyes with his own.
"It will likely also help you with thinking of yourself as Corvus rather than Harry. You will need to try and submerge your knowledge of Harry as much as you can. I know this will be hard for you," he said apologetically, continuing to stare into his son's unhappy eyes. "I know. I had to give Corvus up when you were born, and now you need to give Harry up to bring him back."
Harry simply looked back at him, trying to put into his eyes how unhappy and torn he still felt about that.
"You did tell us, though, that you did not really like being Harry Potter?" Snape continued a bit uncertainly.
"Not that much, no," Harry agreed.
"And from what I gather, you did not care for Lily's relatives, so not staying with them again is hardly going to be a problem?" Harry nodded, feeling quite relieved at the thought.
"As for your life at Hogwarts ... what parts of that do you really mind loosing?"
Harry frowned as he thought about it. "Actually ... mostly just a few of my friends. I certainly will not miss the attention Harry Potter used to get. And the rest of my life at the school is not going to change that much, is it? I mean, the classes and the teachers won't be all that different. In fact," he gave his father a faint, shy smile. "They might even be better." Snape … his father … nodded in guilty agreement.
"The relationships I had with the people in the other houses weren't all that great anyway. So it's mostly just Gryffindor in general, and my friends in particular that I am going to miss."
"Seeing them every day and having to pretend that I don't really know them well or even be disagreeable to them is going to be hell. But I can't be too close to them. I know that. I can't even try to get to know them again really." Snape looked like he was going to disagree, so Harry continued quickly.
"No, really I can't. I would give myself away. And you will have to help me, too. You can't say anything of the kind of what you said to me before. Not even in private. In fact, none of you should remind me of having been Harry Potter. You will all have to treat me like Corvus, son of Bellatrix," he said imploringly.
'If I am going to be Corvus, I cannot be Harry anymore at all. Which means that I can't really have any part of his life anymore either. And yeah I guess, mostly I won't mind that much," Harry concluded, feeling shocked at his own declaration.
Because while he would miss his closest friends … there were also a lot of things he wouldn't miss about Gryffindor. Because the people there were often too loud. Too nosy. Too exuberant. Too brash and thoughtless. And after what had happened at the ministry … he didn't think they would understand. His friends who had been there, they might be able to. But not the rest. They were still too innocent. Not tarnished.
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"However, even if we do not need to go into great detail, we still need to decide on a basic history for Corvus. Because the way he supposedly lived for his whole life would show up in his knowledge, his behaviour and his speech, and if he grew up somewhere on the continent, he ought to know at least some other language," Remus said, returning to the initial point of the discussion.
Unfortunately both Snape and Dumbledore seemed to be in agreement with him. Harry felt apprehensive. How was he supposed to learn a language in a few weeks? On top of learning Occlumency and schooling his behaviour into something appropriate for Corvus Black, head of House Black?
"Personally I would suggest Spanish," the headmaster said after a moment's thought. "It should be a language spoken in a fairly sizeable country, and too many of the pure-bloods learn French, so we had better avoid that one. And German is just to annoyingly difficult to learn flawlessly."
Remus nodded slowly. "Indeed, and as you no doubt know I am quite proficient in the language … and I have friends all over the country, too."
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "That is a happy coincidence, isn't it?"
Harry rolled his eyes, but felt a bit better about the prospect. Language lessons with Remus as a teacher would not be quite so bad.
"Any objections to this choice?" Dumbledore asked after a moment. "No? Then it is agreed. Remus will teach Harry Spanish, and also generally about the country and its culture. Fortunately, he has just the right looks to be able to blend in easily with the Spanish," he added, giving Harry a considering look.
"Yes, definitely a bonus. Plus we get almost all of South America as a possible additional hiding venue for Corvus," he concluded.
"How about him having lived with some scholar and researcher in Defence against the Dark Arts, who travelled about a lot," Snape put in after a moment. "That way he could legitimately be expected to excel in the subject, and if he was home-schooled, it would explain any deficiencies in other areas. And he would not require any knowledge about other schools."
Remus nodded enthusiastically. "Excellent idea, yes. We can spend the rest of the summer going over the material to fill in any gaps, and once you become fluent enough in Spanish, we can even combine the two lessons."
"And it is really the one area of magic where you need as much training as possible," Snape added, giving Harry a forceful look. "Even if you will now be Corvus instead of Harry Potter, the prophecy and the Dark Lord will unfortunately not go away."
Harry looked back at him helplessly and shivered. He could have done without that particular reminder, but once again his … father was right. However …
"Wait," he objected. "I mean, how can the prophecy still be about me? Wasn't it really about … the Potter's child?"
He watched Dumbledore and his father share a long, considering look.
"Actually … it is simply about a child born at a certain time, to parents who had thrice defied Voldemort," Dumbledore expounded slowly, obviously thinking hard. "And even if your parents were Death Eaters … between Bellatrix bearing you in the first place, and Severus hiding you from Tom and then defecting because of you … I dare say that would easily count as three times defiance. And he did mark you," his eyes went to Harry's scar.
"So I am afraid that yes, it still applies to you. And he will not stop hunting for you, no matter how well hidden you may be. Whether you are Harry Potter or Corvus Black does not really make any difference in that regard, I fear," the headmaster concluded, looking earnestly at Harry's unhappy expression.
"You will not have to face him alone, you know," Snape said suddenly. "Your life may be linked to his in some way, but that does not mean that it is only up to you to defeat him. Far from it," he added firmly, his dark eyes boring into Harry's. "Believe me. You will not be alone."
"Just as you will not be alone in facing this. Even if it's only the four of us who know this secret," he added at Harry's look of uncertainty. "But together we command enough resources to make this work. And you will not be alone."
And for the moment, at least, it was enough.
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"Actually, I think we need to let one more person in on this," Dumbledore said, breaking yet another contemplative silence.
"Whom and why?" Snape clearly didn't think much of that idea from his expression.
"Nymphadora. She is in the order, she is an Auror, she is actually his cousin and he will be her Head of House. And she will be able to impersonate him without the help of glamours or Polyjuice."
"Well, maybe she can fool people who don't know me that well, but never my friends," Harry interjected.
"And that is the beauty of my plan," Albus' eyes twinkled merely. "She will not have to. We will tell them that you cannot remain at school and need to go into hiding. But since we are trying to keep that fact from people at first, she will need their help in impersonating you. And then later we will stage something to remove 'Harry Potter' from school."
"All right. So once school starts 'Dora takes my place, but my friends think I went somewhere else and that they need to help her to impersonate me. And I show up as Corvus Black?" Harry summarised. It sounded simple. And complicated at the same time.
"Indeed. Which means that at the worst, your closest friends might be suspicious, but we can discourage that thinking quite easily. We can put some temporary glamours on you for now to give you your old appearance back. We just need to make sure no one is here who could see through those," Dumbledore explained his idea.
"Then you can show them the tapestry as Harry, and we tell them that we think we know where Corvus is and that Remus is going to try and bring him here. And after Remus has done so, Nymphadora can pretend to be Corvus, while you meet your friends as Harry. As nobody will know him yet, that should be easy enough."
"And all we need is for 'Corvus' to not being particularly nice to them so they wouldn't want to befriend him much ..." Harry said slowly, feeling dismayed at the though. "And I can tell them that we don't much get along and stay out of each other's way. It means I can at least 'know' my friends instead of being a total stranger - even if we won't be very friendly."
"Yes. We can stage a few meetings with both of 'you' apparently in the same place and they should not become too suspicious. If they can still work it out despite that, they are also clever enough to keep it a secret. And we can always take them under oath, if it becomes clear that they are too close to realising."
"This is sounding more and more like a sleight of hand magicians show," Remus commented from where he was sitting quietly. Harry quite agreed with him.
"It rather is, yes. And without Nymphadora it would be much riskier. As it is, we only need to convince a handful of people who know Harry really well that Harry isn't Corvus, in a controlled setting. And those people will later help us convince the rest of the school," Dumbledore beamed at Snape. "What a positively Slytherin plan, no?"
"You'd better make sure to include Ginny and the twins in the show as well though. Maybe even Neville and Luna. That lot would see through her - they know me too well - and with them to help as well, the rest should be easy," Harry added.
Snape nodded absent-mindedly, staring at the tapestry. "If you wish to use that thing though," he pointed at the fabric hanging on the wall. "We need to put a glamour on it as well."
"Yes, the date would be suspicious. Also after the testing at Gringotts it is entirely possible it will show your name as the father, Severus. I am surprised it does not already, in fact. But again, all we need to do is keep it from the eyes of those who would see through a glamour. We can change the date to an earlier one. And then we had better hide the damn thing."
The old wizard smiled without humour. "It is evidence that could well damn this whole plan otherwise."
"Do you think that we could get the 'discovery of Corvus Black' out of the way later today?" Harry asked after a moment. "A lot of people are going to be here for my Birthday, anyway," he added self-consciously.
"That might be a good idea, Harry," Dumbledore conceded with a gentle smile at him. "Do you think you will be ready for it though?"
Harry looked at him sideways before turning his head away to stare off into a dark corner of the library.
"I don't know," he admitted.
"But I also do not want to drag this out any more than necessary. I'd rather get this over with, you know. Else I'll end up confusing myself or getting second thoughts," he added and ran his hand through the damnable curls. It was hard not to flinch at touching them, but he was not going to let that stop him anymore. Not after having decided for this new life. The curls were just part of it. Deal with it. End of story.
"The sooner I can start being Corvus all the time, the easier it will be," he went on with a sigh. "And really it will not be that hard to get someone to notice the name on the tapestry. They'll do the rest all by themselves, and anyway Remus is going to be here to take over at that point."
"If you think you can handle it and want to set things into motion, by all means go ahead," Dumbledore told him quietly. "Then the three of us should meet with you around lunchtime to sort out the glamours. I had thought to wait so we could sort out things at Gringotts first, but actually having the order become aware of Corvus before that would be the wiser route. After all, there should be a delay between his discovery and Remus being able to 'find him'."
Harry looked back at him and gave a sharp jerk of his chin in agreement. He didn't quite trust his voice at the moment. Yes, he wanted this. Yes, he wanted it over with. But … he would be setting everything in motion. And then everything would change. He eyes strayed to Snape again. His father. Who looked back, calmly. And maybe the faint, proud smile lurking in the corner of his mouth was really there and not just a product of Harry's imagination.
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AN: Regarding me rejecting German as a foreign language for Corvus to learn: I am actually a native speaker of German, and I would really not want to ever have to learn this language. It is messy. Mostly thanks to the fun factor of three grammatical genders combined with articles and pronouns declined through four cases. I've known people to get those wrong after three decades of speaking German every day. Oh and horrible irregular verbs, too. By contrast, I managed to pick up a reasonably good conversational level of Spanish in a couple of months, which is why I choose it. Please do not ask me about the Subjunctive, though. No me gusta el subjuntivo. Realmente quisiera que no existiera. Also I was listening a lot to the song 'La Maza' by Silvio Rodríguez, in the duet version sung by Shakira and Mercedes Sosa, while writing these first chapters, so Spanish was much on my mind.
AN: Thanks very much to my first reviewers, especially to totalreadr – it is certainly lovely when something about your work is called 'genius'. And like any other writer, I do appreciate reviews and constructive criticism.
