Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
A/N: First of all thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed or favourited this story. And I would like to say that I like to hear everyone's opinions, especially if they are different from my own.
On that note, I would like to thank my reviewer Cassandra30, who made some really good points about how Remus could deal with Dumbledore in the aftermath of Harry's disappearance, and I incorporated some of her suggestions in the story because they improve the story. So no apologies necessary. As far as rewriting the previous chapter is concerned, I have already rewritten the first two chapters in this story at least twice before I started posting, and I think it was absolutely necessary to write a good story.
Harry and Uncle Moony were going through their plans to hide in plain sight one last time. Harry was wearing his usual disguise of blonde hair and blue eyes. The biggest advantage of being a metamorphmagus he thought was that he could fix his eyesight without going to an optician. He was supposed to look as unremarkable as possible and his scar needed to be hidden. But his abilities had not been any help with that. After a lot of trial and error, Harry had come up with a brilliant solution. He had used muggle make up on it, and allowed his hair to fall into his eyes for good measure. It had worked very well for the last four years and Harry was sure it would work at Hogwarts too.
After his appearance, they had gone over his family history again. Uncle Moony had told him that the wizards were obsessed with family and blood. They had decided to keep it simple. Harry was muggleborn, which meant he shouldn't be asked too many questions about his family. His mother had died about the same time he was born, so he had never known her. His father was an orphan, who never knew anything about his family.
Uncle Moony thought this story would cause the least amount of trouble in the long term. But irrespective of what they said, it was unlikely that Harry's supposedly muggle father would ever have anything to do with the wizarding world. Harry had also wanted to be able to finish his education in the muggle world. He believed it would allow him more options. Uncle Moony who worked exclusively in the muggle world now had agreed but they hadn't finalised those plans.
They had considered whether Harry should pretend to be an average student, so that he attracted less attention. "If you don't do better than the superior purebloods, they'll look down on you, and think you're an easy target. Not to mention they will take every opportunity to attack you," Uncle Moony pointed out again. Harry was relieved to know that he wouldn't have to do badly on tests on purpose. He had had enough of that at the Dursleys.
And he had first hand experience with the unpleasant purebloods. So he had not been very surprised to hear that students who supported Voldermort sometimes attacked muggleborns at the school. They were going to get an unpleasant surprise if they tried anything against him.
"And there are at least five Death Eater's children in your year. Not to mention an actual Death Eater at the school," Uncle Moony repeated.
Harry didn't comment. He had asked Uncle Moony how a former criminal had been hired as a teacher at a school. In the muggle world, even if everything Snape claimed was true, he wouldn't be hired as a teacher. But it seemed that Albus Dumbledore could wave his wand and make all reasonable arguments disappear. He had told everyone that he trusted Snape, and he had magically transformed from a criminal to a teacher.
Harry had woken up on the first of September both nervous and excited. Uncle Moony had tried to reassure him about everything, and assured him that he wouldn't even have time to miss anyone before he was back for Christmas. Harry doubted that, but he appreciated the sentiment. He had gone through his trunk one last time and then they were ready to leave.
Kings Cross station was crowded as ever and both Harry and Uncle Moony were struggling to hide their smiles, because they had stolen Dumbledore's tracking device from him there.
But the mood turned serious as they crossed through the barrier and the Hogwarts Express was in front of them. Harry had tears in his eyes as he hugged Uncle Moony for the last time before getting on the train. Since he had rescued Harry from the muggles, Harry had never spent more than a day away from him. Uncle Moony had done so much for him, that he could never repay it. But he would do everything possible to make him proud. There were no words to explain what they were feeling, so Harry got on the train in silence.
Harry was sitting in an empty compartment on the Hogwarts Express. Uncle Moony had told him to make friends. He had no trouble in muggle schools, so he was optimistic.
A red haired boy walked into the compartment and asked if he could sit there. It seemed the boy was avoiding his friend's spider. Harry was quite confused about why anyone would be carrying a dangerous spider to school, but merely listened to the story.
"Harry Potter is going to start at Hogwarts this year!" the red haired boy said suddenly.
Harry jumped. "What?" he asked. There had been no news about him in the newspapers. Uncle Moony was confused by that. Because they had to know that Harry Potter hadn't been found and wasn't going to Hogwarts.
"Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived!" the boy said looking at Harry as if he was stupid. When Harry didn't reply, he asked, "You want to go look for him?"
"No," Harry answered shortly. He picked his book back up and started reading again. He made an irritated sound and went out of the compartment.
Harry wondered if all wizards were obsessed with Harry Potter when three more of them came looking in his compartment. He at least managed to avoid another confrontation with Malfoy.
A few hours later, Harry was disturbed by a worried looking boy who had lost a toad.
"Did you try summoning it?" Harry asked.
"I can't!" the boy wailed. "I'm terrible at magic. My family thought I was a muggle for a long time…" he trailed off.
"You have to be able to do magic right, if you're going to Hogwarts?" Harry asked. He had never thought about it, but if there were muggleborn witches and wizards, there must be muggles born to magical parents.
The boy who introduced himself as Neville Longbottom merely nodded.
Harry pulled out his wand and said, "Accio Neville's toad." For a few seconds Harry thought nothing had happened. But then he was hit in the chest by a flying toad.
"Trevor!" Neville exclaimed. He thanked Harry profusely, before saying, "I need to tell Hermione. She was helping me look." He walked out and Harry cast a quick Scourjify at his clothes.
Harry watched the sorting nervously. He wondered what happened when the hat was put on a student's head. Uncle Moony had told him that a hat did the sorting, but he hadn't mentioned that it could read minds. That could be a major problem.
He watched two girls get sorted into Hufflepuff and wondered what would happen when the hat was on his head.
Finally the Professor called out Carter, Harry. He sat with the hat on his head and knew at once that it could read his mind. And his occlumency was not working. I don't reveal the secrets I learn from students minds, it told him reassuringly. Harry really hoped it was true.
You could be great in Slytherin, the hat was trying to convince him. Harry understood why the hat thought he should be in that house. Considering that he was hiding his identity, it was a surprise that it hadn't already put him there. But, I'm claiming to be muggleborn, Harry objected. How long do you think I'll stay in this school if you put me with those crazy people?
Where should I put you then? It asked.
What about Hufflepuff? Harry thought.
Hufflepuff!, the hat was amused.
Why can't I be in Hufflepuff? Do you think I'm less hardworking or loyal than those two girls you sorted there?
Helga would have loved to have you in her house, the hat said after a pause. You will be good for HUFFLEPUFF! The last word announced to the whole Hall, where Harry had been sorted.
Harry pulled off the hat with relief. He had heard about the houses from Uncle Moony, and decided that the best place to be sorted was undoubtedly with the friendly and loyal witches and wizards of Hufflepuff. Griffindor and Slytherin would attract too much attention and he didn't think he would be able to get into Ravenclaw.
He was enthusiastically welcomed by his new house. There he was introduced to Susan and Hannah, who had been sorted before him, and they watched together as Neville Longbottom was sorted into Griffindor. Harry was surprised to say the least.
"I thought he would be in Hufflepuff too," Harry said to his new friends. Although maybe the boy wasn't hardworking? Who knew?
"You know him?" Susan asked curiously. Harry was supposed to be a muggleborn and Neville a pureblood. They had literally lived in different worlds.
"I met him on the train," Harry explained. "He didn't seem like the type to be the knight in shining armor and save the damsel in distress."
"You only met him today," a muggleborn boy pointed out.
"I guess," Harry said.
"His family has all been in Griffindor," Hannah said, as if that explained everything.
Well Harry supposed that made some sense. He had decided against Griffindor because his parents were sorted there. He had wanted to put as much distance between himself and Harry Potter as possible.
Once the last student had been sorted the headmaster had said four random words, and started the feast. Harry heard the older students comment that Dumbledore was a bit mad.
Harry had found that the classes were easy after learning from Uncle Moony for so long. He liked most of the teachers. Professor Flitwick was easily his favourite teacher and he seemed to be happy to answer Harry's questions. Harry and his friends were quite eager to learn how to make objects fly. And their Professor didn't seem upset when they kept asking him when they would start.
Professor McGonagall was almost the opposite of Professor Flitwick. But she was also a good teacher. She had been impressed that Harry had transfigured his matchstick into a needle on the first day. But they still had to be patient and learn all the theory she wanted them to. She was a stern, no nonsense woman.
Herbology was mostly theory and Harry had to keep reminding himself that he would need to know more about magical plants if he was going to make better potions.
But potions was the real problem. Harry was good at making them. He knew that for a fact. But Professor Snape made it almost impossible to brew. He hovered, or loomed over students while they performed critical steps, he accused them stupidity and laziness. He even outright insulted some of the students.
But he had an even bigger problem than an incompetent teacher. It seemed that Snape knew Legilimency. Harry didn't know why, but he had decided to use Legilimency on him! He had dropped his knife when he first felt the intrusion in his mind. Justin had picked it up for him and seemed to reconsider his choice of partner for the class.
But Harry had practiced for this. He didn't try to stop Snape from seeing his memories. He merely gave him a lot of memories from St. Marks' chemistry classes. Potions was quite similar to it after all. Fortunately, Snape had no interest in those memories and left Harry alone. But now that he knew, he could see that Snape was going through the minds of other students in the class.
He fumed silently as he made the potion. An incompetent teacher, who was committing a crime! He would have the man's head. But it was almost impossible to prove that someone had used Legilimency on another person. This was a big problem and he didn't have Uncle Moony here to talk to either. There was no way he could put this in a letter.
After the class, Harry had asked some Griffindor students about Potions. What he found out made him both angry and nervous.
There was a shocking number of potions accidents. If Snape pointed out the steps where things could go wrong, people would pay more attention to them, and have fewer accidents. Did he not understand that?
He had even heard that a Griffindor had been burned by a Boil Cure potion. How it could have happened was a mystery to Harry. The potion was hardly complicated. The only place something could go so explosively wrong was if they added porcupine quills while the potion was on the flame. That was literally the only thing Snape needed to pay attention to!
It seemed that Snape had carte blanche on what he could do. Dumbledore didn't even care if he was intentionally putting students in danger. There was no point in complaining to him. He would have to find out who he could complain to.
After the third potions class where Hannah had been splashed by her potion, Harry decided that he needed to do something about it. He had gathered all the first year Hufflepuffs in the boys dorm room. As he looked at the room, he realized that half of them had already had a potion go seriously and unsalvagably wrong.
"Hi everyone, I have invited all of you to talk to you about the accidents we seem to keep having in potions," Harry said getting straight to the point.
"Oh Harry, we're all terrible at potions," Hannah wailed. Harry looked around the room again and realized that she was probably right. The right side of her face still had red splotches from her potion.
"But we're all first years. We've just started learning. I don't think it was just your fault that you got splahshed with the potion today Hannah," Harry said trying to reassure her.
"What do you mean? Of course it was her fault!" Zacharius Smith said impatiently.
"No it really wasn't. The directions said we needed to sliver the unicorn horn. Hannah was probably in a hurry and powdered it, since slivering takes much more time. Any of us could have made the mistake," Harry said, looking around. Everyone seemed to agree with him. He suspected that some other people had taken this shortcut too. They had probably made other mistakes that had made their potions less potent, and so less likely to explode. They had gotten lucky. "The only way we can avoid such mistakes is if we know what each ingredient does in the potion and where things can go wrong. I have already done this for the next potion we will be making." He handed some papers to Susan and asked her to pass them on.
The Hufflepuffs had been impressed, and many had thanked him. "Please make sure that you don't tell others about this. Some of the stuff in my notes could be asked in the homework essay, so it could be considered cheating. And I don't think Snape would let us do this if he knew."
They had all agreed to keep Harry's notes a secret. They had even offered to help him for the next potion. Soon Harry was relieved to see, there were fewer accidents in potions class.
Harry had quickly gotten used to his classes, and made some friends. In Hufflepuff, all the first years were friendly and helpful, but Harry spent most of his time with a muggleborn boy called Justin Finch-Fletchley, Susan Bones and Hannah Abbot.
His new friends seemed to be obsessed with Harry Potter. It was almost like a hobby in the wizarding world. There were books about Harry Potter's adventures, which Harry was relieved to see had no relation to the real Harry Potter. Some students had even read the accursed Diary he had written. He was surprised to see how obsessively they discussed the topic, especially Susan and Hannah who had grown up in the wizarding world, hearing stories of how Harry Potter had saved them all by defeating You Know Who.
Harry had initially thought they were being silly, but when he heard that Susan's entire family, except for her aunt had been killed by Voldermort's supporters and Hannah had lost her father in the war, he understood their fanatical hero worship.
All his friends had been disappointed that the Boy Who Lived was not at Hogwarts. Susan's aunt worked for the DMLE and also on the committee that was looking into Harry Potter's disappearance.
Harry hoped that if something big happened he might hear it from Susan. But he was not optimistic. Uncle Moony had told him that her aunt did everything by the book. It was unlikely she would leak sensitive information to her eleven year old niece.
But he had heard something. There were rumors that the Dursleys had been under the Imperius curse for two years before Harry's disappearance. And Dumbledore was claiming that Harry had actually been kidnapped two years before anyone noticed that he was missing. Harry didn't put much stock in the rumors, especially if Dumbledore was the source. It was simply impossible that Uncle Moony had put the Imperius curse on anyone. And he was also wrong about when he had stopped living with his relatives.
In his previous school, Harry had been taught to always gather all relevant information before he made any important decisions. He took that advice seriously, whether it was deciding which washing machine to buy or what to do about an unsuitable teacher.
So he had gone to the library to look up old newspapers, in disguise of course. He had shoulder length black hair and appeared to be a fifteen years old. He knew that Snape had been a Death Eater before Voldermort had been defeated. So he started with the days after Voldermort's fall. He had not found anymore information on Snape than what Uncle Moony had told him. All he knew was that Dumbledore had vouched for him and claimed that he was a spy. It made him angry that Dumbledore could just claim that a criminal had helped them and allow him to escape punishment completely.
More worryingly, he read articles about how many prominent Purebloods had claimed to be under the Imperius curse and been forced to do Voldermort's bidding. Uncle Moony had warned him about them, but he was still shocked at how easily some people had escaped punishment for their crimes.
But that was not even the most disturbing information he had uncovered. The most worrying part was that a man called Sirius Black, who was supposedly his father's best friend had given his parents' location to the Death Eaters. And he had been sent to Azkaban, Harry suspected without a trial. It raised a lot of questions. Why had Uncle Moony not mentioned him? All three of them had shared a dorm for seven years. And why was there no trial? Surely everyone deserved one. The most important thing in the muggle legal system was the idea that everyone had to be proven guilty in a court, before they were punished.
Something was wrong. Harry was sure of it. He would need to find more information. Starting with making sure that Sirius Black really didn't have a trial. Because the evidence against him was nowhere near as convincing as everyone seemed to believe. And Harry was starting to think that he might not be gulity at all.
Another thing that didn't make sense to Harry was how the Daily Prophet could fill so many pages with newsprint with so little information. He was trying to find out what was publicly known about his parents' death, and where the idea that he had survived the killing curse, came from.
The newspapers were no use. They just told the story as fact, with no evidence at all. He had even asked his classmates and some of the older students.
All he could get from them was that everyone believed that Voldermort had cast the killing curse at Harry Potter and been defeated, while Harry lived. He was feeling quite frustrated. It was another thing to ask Uncle Moony at Christmas.
A week before Halloween, Harry was witness to the most shocking exchange. Draco Malfoy had called Neville Longbottom a squib and challenged him to a duel. And even more shockingly his fellow Griffindor Ron Weasley had accepted on his behalf.
There were so many things wrong with that! Harry didn't know where to begin.
He had stopped Neville as he was leaving after dinner.
"Are you really going to duel Draco Malfoy?" he asked.
"I have to…" Neville said in a desperate tone.
"Why?" Harry asked.
"Because…" Neville mumbled.
"Look, Malfoy challenged you, you didn't accept. So you don't have to fight," Harry said in a confidently dismissive tone. "Besides, there aren't going to be any witnesses. You can say you won. Malfoy won't be able to prove you wrong."
"But that's cheating!" Neville protested.
That was typical Griffindor. "Look, I'm not sure about this, but I think Malfoy has had dueling training before he came to school. So you're already at a disadvantage. I mean no offense but you will most probably lose."
"But what do I do?" Neville asked sounding panicked.
"It's quite simple. You need to hide. I can arrange for that. Then you go back to Griffindor tower early tomorrow morning, and say that the duel was a draw, because neither you or Malfoy could hit each other with spells."
"But I can't lie!" Neville protested.
"Well, it's not a lie, is it?" Harry asked with a smile. "If there is no duel, then neither of you could hit the other with spells."
Neville stared at him with an increulous look on his face.
"Look, I used to be like you when I started primary school. I understand that you don't make friends easily, so you want to agree with Ron, but he was being stupid. Malfoy could hurt you, and because the duel is after curfew, you will get into trouble for going to the nurse," Harry stopped when he saw Neville staring wide eyed at him.
"How could you be like me! You always get all the spells and everyone likes you," Neville said in an awed tone.
"I used to be like you five years ago. I learnt how to make friends. You can too. And I get spells right because I practice before class," Harry said with a smile. "You can too."
"Really?" Neville asked.
"Really. Now tell Ron that you're going to the library to look up spells, and meet me there."
Neville left and Harry went to catch up with his friends.
The girls were unhappy with Harry, because he was going to take a big risk helping Neville, but Justin thought it would be an adventure.
Harry and Neville had stayed in the library until most of the people around them left. Then Harry had cast a spell to change Neville's hair colour to match his own. Then they had met Justin on the way to the Hufflepuff common room, and Neville went in with him. They went to the dorm room together, and Neville got into Harry's bed and closed the curtains as agreed.
Harry walked in half an hour later, and sat in the common room making notes on the next potion they would brew. Since it was common for him to work late into the night, nobody paid him any attention.
The next morning, Harry woke up early. It was slightly uncomfortable to sleep on the couch, but he didn't mind. He went to wake Neville. The rest of the boys in Harry's dormitory had been roped into the plot too, and he wasn't worried about being caught.
Neville looked nervously at him as he told him to go back to the tower. But he did as he was told.
Harry was quite shocked to hear that Malfoy had not even turned up for the duel himself. He apparently wanted the Griffindors to get expelled. Ron had told Neville about it the next morning, and Neville told Harry at the first opportunity. Neville had the presence of mind to say that he had heard the commotion and run away before Filch could catch him.
Ron had decided that Malfoy not turning up for the duel meant that he was a coward, and Harry had heard him say it to Malfoy on a few occasions. He wondered why the boy insisted on picking fights that he was clearly ill equipped to handle.
Neville had it kept the secret of what happened on the night the duel was supposed to happen as well. This made Harry think that he was not as foolish as everyone else seemed to think. He was sure Ron would have spread the story if he knew it.
The next disaster, because it was a disaster, happened on Halloween. A troll had gotten into the school. Harry couldn't imagine how it was possible. Wasn't the school supposed to be safe? If a troll could get in, what was going to stop the other creatures from the Forbidden Forest from getting in? Could Voldermort's supporters get in as well? He grimaced as he realised that some supporters of Voldermort were already in the school.
He had gone to the Hufflepuff common room with the rest of the students at his table, and been relieved that everyone was safe.
But he found out the next morning that that had not been the case.
Neville Longbottom had been injured by the troll. He went to see him in the hospital wing.
"What happened?" Harry asked. He had taken some chocolate frogs to Neville to cheer him up. Harry had learnt long ago that sweets were the easiest way to make friends with his classmates.
"Ron had said something..." he hesitated, but he eventually continued, "Ron said something mean to Hermione, and she was crying in a bathroom. She didn't know about the troll, so Ron and I went to tell her," Neville shrugged.
Harry wanted to say that it was foolish and dangerous, but he understood that they were just worried about Hermione and hadn't thought very far ahead.
"We found Hermione, but the troll came to the bathroom as well, and well, it attacked us..." Neville trailed off.
"It's ok, don't worry about it now. You need to get some rest," Harry said placatingly.
Ron it seemed had a different story to tell. He was telling everyone who would listen that he had heroically rescued Hermione by hitting the troll in the head with its own club. Since Hermione had not contradicted the story, he had to accept it as true. Who knew Ron was an actual hero!
The whole school was going mad in the run up to the first quiddich match of the year. Harry was comfortable on a broom and had even been told that he might make the team on a school broom if he tried out. But he wanted to stay out of the spotlight. He also knew how troublesome sports rivalries could be. So he had decided to not get involved.
He had enjoyed watching quiddich, but he knew, when he saw Hufflepuff play, that they needed more than one good player to have a chance at winning a single match. It also explained why his house had a reputation for being inferior to everyone else.
Harry was very excited to go home for the holidays. He had never spent so much time away from Uncle Moony and he couldn't wait to get back home.
Harry started telling Uncle Moony about Sirius Black as soon as they reached home. Uncle Moony's face had turned pale at the mention of the name. So Harry knew he was right in thinking that they had known each other.
"Yes Harry, I knew Sirius," Uncle Moony told him wearily.
"But you never told me about him!" Harry objected.
"He was our best friend, when your father and I were in school. He was James and Lily's secret keeper. They had used a spell that would keep them safe, and only Sirius could reveal their whereabouts. But Sirius..." he seemed unable to continue, but Harry could fill in the blanks.
"But why didn't he have a trial?" Harry asked. He wasn't sure about that yet, but he wanted to know what Uncle Moony said.
"What difference does that make!" Uncle Moony exploded. He seemed to have realised that he had overreacted and put his head in his hands.
"Everyone has a right to a trial, no matter what they are accused of. Nobody is guilty of a crime until a court has found them guilty," Harry said, explaining what he knew about the muggle legal system. He himself had questioned the need for a trial, when a man accused of killing a child had been arrested the previous year. His teacher who was telling them about the news story, had then explained how the legal system worked, and why it was necessary for everyone who was accused of a crime to get fair trial. He was grateful for the years he had spent at St. Marks because he didn't think he would have been able to explain this to Uncle Moony otherwise.
"Harry, I understand, but he was James and Lily's secret keeper! And he killed another friend of ours, Peter Pettigrew," Uncle Moony replied. He looked like he really didn't want to have this conversation.
"Yes I read about that, and it doesn't make sense," Harry said with a frown.
"What doen't make sense?" Uncle Moony asked in an irritated tone.
"How did they find no parts of his body at all, except for a finger? Blasting curses aren't supposed to obliterate the person they hit. They should have found other fragments of his body too. Besides none of the muggles bodies were damaged like that. They were all found intact," Harry explained.
Uncle Moony looked ill at the description. But it was necessary to look at all the evidence. Harry was sure there was something wrong with this case. "I don't know know what happpened Harry! What are you trying to say?" Uncle Moony asked.
"They have his wand right? They can find out exactly which spells he used. Then they can figure out what happened to Peter Pettigrew's body. And everyone thinks he was responsible for telling Voldermort where my parents were. Didn't anyone think about asking him why he was looking for them in the first place? And the most important thing of all, why didn't he get a trial? A lot of people who looked as guilty as him were tried by the Wizengamot," Harry explained.
"I don't know why they did what they did Harry! There's nothing I can do!" Uncle Moony said clearly frustrated.
"There is something you can do," Harry objected. He knew Uncle Moony wouldn't like this idea. But it was obviously necessary. "You can go and talk to him!"
"Talk to him!" Uncle Moony asked incredulously.
"You can talk to him and ask him why Voldermort attacked my family. I can brew Veritaserum," Harry said.
"Uncle Moony stared at him surprised. "That's a good idea," he conceded.
"It is. But it is also illegal. If you get caught..." Harry didn't even want to think about the consequences.
And so they made their plans and preparations to investigate Voldermort's attack on the Potter family.
A/N: So what do you guys think about Harry being in Hufflepuff? It is supposed to be the least flashy of the Hogwarts houses. And what do you think will happen when Remus goes to speak to Sirius? This chapter has been light on action, but the next one won't be.
Next time: Sirius tells his story. Harry hears about the Philosophers stone. With surprising results.