Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Notes: Harry finally gets his birthday letter and finds out who his relatives are.

Chapter 10: The House of Gaunt

What followed that evening was the biggest birthday disaster Harry had yet seen and nobody he knew had had a really good sixteenth birthday.

Well, the twins and Percy had and Ron would have had a great one as well, if only his father hadn't been murdered by You-Know-Who's horrible snake.

Neville too was worried by the experience of watching other people's birthday parties. His hands shook when he picked up the birthday letter and he was barely able to open and unfold it.

Then he burst into tears.

Harry and several others asked him what the matter was, but he couldn't say it through his tears. So they started guessing, but Neville kept shaking his head. No, his parents weren't dead, not both of them, nor one either. No, they weren't Death Eaters and they weren't divorced either. Nor were they Muggles that didn't understand him.

And Neville kept crying worse and worse.

Finally Professor Dumbledore came over to the Gryffindor table and led him away. He didn't return to have dinner or eat the birthday cake or even unwrap his gifts.

It was some time after curfew when Neville finally came to the common room and of course the other boys all dug into him right away.

"They don't want me!" Neville finally burst out and then started crying again. "They decided not to know me and I'll never even learn why!"

All he'd learned from his birthday letter was his name and the fact that his parents had declined the offer to write to him and tell him about themselves or to meet him.

They spent some time trying to guess why anyone would not want to know Neville, but neither Neville himself nor Harry found that a particularly pleasant occupation. It only made Harry wonder about his own parents and the birthday letter he'd receive the next day.

Most likely his parents were dead. At least his primary institutes’s headmaster had told him so and when he'd mentioned it to Professor Dumbledore he had at least not denied it.

In the same way he had learned that he had an aunt and uncle who were probably Muggles since they had wanted Harry to go to a Muggle secondary institute. The headmaster had said that he could still ask to meet his aunt and uncle when he turned sixteen even if he chose Hogwarts Secondary Institute, so he could probably still expect a proper birthday letter despite being an orphan.

That was what he hoped for anyway. Back in third year however he had overheard a conversation between some adults that indicated that his name might be Harry Potter and his parents James and Lily alive and well. That might be considered a good outcome as well, except that Harry had met an Auror Potter whose first name was probably James and he had rarely met a person he liked less.

Besides Harry had good reasons to believe that Auror Potter was a Death Eater spy among the Aurors. That, he decided, would be the worst possible outcome, much worse than to find out that his aunt and uncle didn't want him.

Of course he might well have misunderstood what those adults back in third year had been talking about. He'd been way too young to understand adult conversations after all, but there also was the fact that Draco insisted that he and Harry were sort of brothers, because Draco's mother was married to Harry's father.

If Harry's father had been killed when Harry and Draco had been babies he could scarcely have had time to marry Draco's mother. Or could he? Surely a headmaster wouldn't lie to a child!

Harry was quite inattentive in his classes the next day, which earned him a scolding from Professor McGonagall and even a gentle reprimand from Professor Sprout, but he simply couldn't keep his mind on anything other than his relatives and the letter.

In the end he chose to do what Neville had done and open the letter first. He wouldn't be able to enjoy the cake until he knew.

So he snatched up the letter the moment he reached the table and tore it open. Three sheets of parchment fell out. Parchment, not paper as it had been for Dean and Lavender, his Muggle born classmates. These could not have come from a Muggle aunt and uncle.

Upon inspection the first parchment seemed to be from the Ministry, or maybe the school. It informed him that his name was Harry James Potter, his father Auror James Potter and his mother Lily Evans Prewett who had at the time of his birth been Lily Evans Potter.

His parents had been divorced three years after his birth and James Potter was now married to Narcissa Black Potter. Narcissa Black Potter had one child from a previous marriage: Draco Malfoy. She also had two sisters. One of them, Bellatrix Black Lestrange, was married to Rastaban Lestrange and the other, Andromeda Black Tonks to a Muggle. They had one daughter: Auror Nymphadora Tonks. There were no other living relatives on that side of the family.

Lily Evans Prewett was married to Claudius Prewett, a squib, and had a daughter with him: Mafalda Prewett, currently known as Mafalda number two of Hufflepuff house.

Harry looked over at the Hufflepuff table, but couldn't find little Mafalda. Well, obviously she wasn't related to Ron after all.

But when Harry mentioned it to Ron his friend's eyes grew very wide.

"Why, then she might indeed be my cousin!" he exclaimed. "My mother's Molly Prewett Weasley."

That made Harry feel a little better about his parentage. Perhaps his mother and her side of the family were worth having after all.

Lily Evans Prewett had one sister, Petunia Evans Dursley, a Muggle, who was married to Vernon Dursley, a Muggle, and they had one son: Dudley Dursley, a Muggle, who was exactly the same age as Harry and attended Smeltings Secondary Institute. It took Harry a moment to associate that with his long ago room-mate Dudley from the primary institute. Could it be?

"I'll simply do what Draco did," Harry announced after reading the sheet through a second time. "I'll decline to meet my father and ask for my mother instead."

"But Harry!" Draco protested. "Your father is what makes us brothers!"

"I don't like him," Harry declared and the second sheet did nothing to change that.

It was a letter from his father informing him on what day he would make time to meet Harry, of the great Potter heritage and what Harry owed it and in how many ways he was a disappointment to his father. Auror Potter was deeply ashamed that a son of his could have been so pathetic as to have to signal for help in the last task of the Triwizard Tournament.

The rest of the parchment was filled by James' highly unflattering opinion of Lily. He demanded that Harry had nothing to do with his mother? Well, Draco could say whatever he wanted to, Harry would not agree to that.

The third parchment unsurprisingly was a letter from Harry's mother and no more flattering to Auror Potter than his letter was to her, but then Auror Potter probably deserved that. Lily Evans Prewett went on at length about how horrible and heartless he had been to force Harry to risk his life in the Triwizard Tournament. She said unlike James she actually loved Harry and wished she could have protected him. That definitely was the sort of parent Harry wanted!

And that was exactly what Harry told Professor Dumbledore when the headmaster brought up the topic of meetings with parents at the beginning of their first private lesson that Saturday.

"Your father can appear very harsh," the headmaster said. "But he has a good heart and only wants the best for the entire wizarding world. Do at least give him the chance to prove that in a personal meeting. It doesn't have to put you under any obligations to him."

"He refuses to let me give the same chance to my mother if I do," Harry pointed out. "And her letter is much nicer."

He did feel bad about disappointing Draco, though. Draco kept telling him what a great man Auror Potter was and how much he wanted him to be his father.

"How about a little bargain then," Professor Dumbledore suggested. "I will undertake to convince Auror Potter to withdraw that condition and you promise to see him if I succeed. I'm sure he will understand the wish to know both one's parents and respect it once I get him to see it from that perspective."

"Can Draco come along when we meet?" Harry asked a little nervously. "And will it be in a public place? I don't want to be all alone with Auror Potter."

"It is customary to do it in a pub or restaurant," the headmaster said, but he didn't look pleased. "I could suggest the Three Broomsticks as a place you are familiar with and can reach easily since you cannot apparate yet. Anything more would be an insult however and you must remember that even at sixteen you are still a child and he is an Auror, one of the most trusted people in our society."

Harry sighed and wondered whether he had already agreed to the bargain or could still withdraw his agreement.

Professor Dumbledore gave him no chance, though, as he plunged straight into a rather frightening lesson on You-Know-Who's family and origin.