Autor's Note:

In this chapter you can see that at the time of writing I didn't really had a structural concept of the story. The internal interlude in the middle of the story is actually quite inappropriate to the further story structure. But I couldn't bring myself to change it, because it brings some nice alternation.

Captivated

With the feeling of having just been woken by an Enervate spell, Harry opened his eyes. But he saw nothing. Someone had put a blindfold over his eyes. It was probably this very person who asked him a question when he stirred again: "Who are you and what business did you have with the Dursleys?"

Harry knew that voice well and was so surprised, he gasped: "Snape? Soon nothing will surprise me anymore."

"So you know me," Snape replied coldly, "Wouldn't you regret depriving me of similar knowledge about yourself?"

"My name is Harry James, as I told the Dursleys. Can you remove this blindfold, please?"

"You're in no position to make demands here, Mr. James. Or whoever you really are", Snape replied dryly, "Meanwhile, the Dursleys are in a safe place. They do not concern you anymore. You will find, however, that it would not be advisable to try to harm them again."

"I wasn't going to do that."

"And what exactly did you intend for the Muggles?" the man asked obviously doubting his motives.

"I wanted to ask Petunia Dursley about her sister and how I might find her."

"And what did you want with her?" Snape asked, in a very dangerously calm tone, which Harry knew well from potion lessons.

Harry thought about what to say, without sounding crazy or suspicious, and then dared to make a very direct reply, which came very close to the truth: "Lily Evans is the only Muggleborn girl who I know I could trust. I'm not exactly in the best position, Mr. Snape. I had a rather unpleasant meeting with two Aurors today, one I was able to shock, the other I barely escaped. I couldn't think of a better solution. Admittedly, it was a somewhat ill-considered move."

"I will check the truth of this matter," said Snape flat: "How did you even know about Petunia Dursley's existence? It's not common knowledge that my wife has a sister."

"Your what?", Harry blurted out, but had to admit to himself that from what he knew of them, Snape must always have been a possible candidate for Lily.

"My wife. Lily Snape," the man repeated slowly, as if Harry was a bit dimwitted.

"Well, the thing is, I can't name a source for my knowledge without sounding completely implausible. You could use legilimency to verify my story, but I think, what you would see there, could mystify you beyond belief. I would tolerate it, even though I don't like others messing around in my head. But why not just use Veritaserum? You've always been a genius brewer, you must have some in stock. You might get better results with it."

He heard a mocking laugh and Snape explained, "I probably would have used it anyway, but if you insist, we can go straight to it."

Harry wondered if he could have gotten out of the situation in some other way. But it seemed hopeless to him to stop Severus Snape from using a potion, he wanted to use. All Harry could say was, "Please take at least that blindfold off before you use it."

Indeed, Snape removed it without maliciously refusal. "There's little for you to see here anyway."

This Snape was different in some significant ways from the one he had known. His usual greasy, semi-long hair had given way to a practical short haircut and his skin seemed less sallow. In addition, his face was scarred in several places and the hooked nose, which had often been the cause of ridicule in his school days, seemed to have been broken once. All in all, this did not help to make him seem more friendly. Strictly speaking, it made him look harsher and rougher. He was holding a vial of a transparent liquid in his hands.

"Open your mouth," Snape ordered almost gently and walked over to him. He never thought that the day would come, when he would voluntarily swallow a truth serum from Severus Snape. After he had taken the potion, he was suddenly overcome by a feeling that reminded him frighteningly of the Imperius Curse.

"What's your name?" Snape asked abruptly. Harry replied monotonously, "Harry James Potter."

Snape looked at him almost triumphantly, "I knew it. You look exactly like James Potter, that pure-blooded freak. Is he your father? And who was your mother? Fawley would hardly have hidden her own child."

"Yes, my father was James Potter. My mother was Lily Potter, née Evans."

Snape struggled for breath. He obviously asked himself how this could be possible. He hissed: "You say my wife was your mother. But Lily is still alive. How does that fit together?"

"My mother died about a year after I was born, when the dark wizard Lord Voldemort, prompted by a prophecy, tried to wipe out my family. However, this Lily Evans is not identical to your wife. They are the same genetically, but have not grown to be the same person."

"Explain this," hissed Snape, in whose eyes incomprehension was evident.

"Lily Evans from my world had a completely different life than yours because of the different nature of our worlds. At least I suppose so. After all, I do not know Lily Snape."

"What do you mean by "my world"?" Snape asked with growing bewilderment.

"I entered this parallel dimension, or whatever this place is, through a spell," Harry droned on in a dull tone, "My world was fundamentally different from this one, even though I have recognized a few people who lived in it before. I have found that your world is much darker and more elitist than the one I come from, only during Voldemort's reign there were strict rules regarding Muggleborns and I would have liked to forget that time. So when I arrived here, I knew nothing about these laws and literally ran into a team of Aurors."

A very skeptical looking Snape slowly replied, "What were the names of these Aurors?"

"They didn't tell me their names, but I recognized Sirius Black, the one I stunned. He was my godfather in my world, and certainly not a pureblood enthusiast like this one."

"Who is this Lord Voldemort you speak of?"

"A mad dark wizard who was obsessed with the pursuit of immortality," Harry replied impassively, "I contributed to his end. His real name was Tom Marvolo Riddle. I read there was a Tom Riddle here, too, but probably the same applies here as to the two Lilys."

"What was the spell that made you believe, you had come into another world?" Snape asked breathlessly. He had probably never heard such implausible nonsense in his life. A spell that could do such a thing most people could not even imagine. It was probably conceivable to Snape, of course, that Harry merely believed what he was saying, that he thought it was the truth.

"The incantation was: Adgenera Transitum," Harry replied in uniform intonation: "As I said, this formula is completely unknown to me. Either it is a new, experimental spell that the Death Eaters have come up with, or they have found it in old and forgotten tomes. I doubt, however, that they knew exactly what the spell does. I can hardly imagine what advantage such a spell could have over a killing curse. I may be in a world very close to their ideals now, but I see no point in sending me here."

"And who are these Death Eaters again," Snape exhaled in annoyance. He surely got slowly tired of having to keep on asking questions, because a large part of what his prisoner told him seemed to be ridiculously weird.

"Death Eaters were originally called the direct followers of Lord Voldemort. Later, after his death, anyone who adhered to his ideology was also called so. In vast, more progressive circles, the term is considered a grave insult, while terrorists carry it with pride."

"What kind of ideas did "your" Tom Riddle have?"

Although Harry's emotions were greatly subdued, he felt a vague amusement surging within him at the fact that it was he who had to inform Severus Snape about the Ideals of the Death Eaters. Harry retorted to him: "He believed there were no reasonable grounds for reservations, to discourage the study of dark magic. Those who did not, would only be too weak and sentimental. He aspired to the rule of the wizards over the Muggles and when he had achieved it, he effectively took away the Muggleborn's right to be considered wizards. Had his reign been long enough, far worse things might have happened.

"Strange, the objective seems familiar to me, but Riddle as a mastermind behind it would probably be the strangest thing one could imagine. Actually, it would be more appropriate for the Order of Walpurgis."

Although he had originally thought that he could hardly ask questions himself as long as he was under the influence of the Veritasserum, he asked in the neutral tone which it imposed on him: "What is the Order of Walpurgis? Never heard of it."

Snape's eyes narrowed angrily: "Well, it is mainly known by the old pure blood families in our country. But it is also a certain risk to know it, because they do not want to be known. They act in the background and kill whoever stands in their way. The government officially denies its existence, but not because of its aims, but because the Order questions its monopoly on the use of force. They do not like to see vigilante justice, although the very term justice for these crimes is an insult to the very word. However, among pure-bloods, it is considered an honor to be made Knight of Walpurgis."

They were silent for a while. Harry clearly saw the Walpurgis Order as the antithesis of the Order of the Phoenix in his world. He had to swallow when he thought about who might be leading it here. The last thing he needed was a Dumbledore as a fanatical, dark wizard. It was sick. Snape finally sighed and said, "Well, I'll have to confirm a few things. I still think it's more likely that you are subject to a powerful combination of confounding and memory spells, but that will require some investigation. Stupefy!"

Harry sunk again into a dark oblivion.

Interlude: Lily

Lily Snape yet again stood brooding in front of a person, who seemed to be asleep, but in fact should not even exist. Severus had told her a rather odd story, which she at first thought was an unusual approach on his part to amuse her. But the seriousness in his voice had quickly silenced her contradiction. Harry James Potter. Her son from a strange parallel world. She had never heard such nonsense in her life. She and James Potter a couple. Ridiculous, really. He and all his sneering insults and so-called pranks represented the worst childhood memories for her and Severus. The young man before her looked amazingly like his postulated father at a young age. The features seemed a little less harsh, and his stature a little more slender.

Severus had told her to look at his eyes. After she lifted his right eyelid, she knew why. She saw an eye that resembled her eyes in colour and form in an incredible way. Of course this was no proof of her motherhood, but it was shocking enough and it prepared her mentally to accept it. Severus had already proven it with a genealogical spell. It was strange to know that she had a fourth child without ever having given birth to one. It had been three days since she had first seen him. They hadn't woken him since. He was way too much of an unknown and was difficult to assess.

But Lily had to admit that someone, who had easily made two highly respected Aurors look like amateurs by escaping them without a scratch, would be extremely useful to their cause. However, when she considered his aversion to the Tom Riddle, he called Lord Voldemort, a cooperation seemed to her more than just problematic, even if her Riddle was undoubtedly a completely different person.

She scratched her head, pointed her wand at Harry and said, "Enervate", causing the man to wake up. Green eyes, grumpy at first, then turned to her in complete astonishment and just stared at her for minutes. Strangely enough, she didn't feel reminded of James Potter at all.

When she became uncomfortable, she spoke up: "I would prefer not to be gawked at like that."

He nodded, looked away from her and said: "I have never had my mother in the flesh before me, only images and magical projections. I am really sorry. I didn't mean to bother you... Mrs. Snape. Of course, somehow you're not really my mother. I find that rather confusing."

She smiled softly at him. It was hard to believe that a even somewhat polite man could spring from James Potter's loins. And she felt much the same in this eerie situation. She sucked in a lot of air and said: "It is indeed a very strange story that we have been drawn into here. I will try to suppress my animosities towards your appearance, which reminds me far too much of my former tormentor from school days."

He seemed downright slain by this statement, but as he didn't comment on it, so she continued: "I have woken you, Mr. Potter, to explain to you the current state of affairs. First of all, you are now considered by the Ministry as a "Mudblood of Public Endangerment". So you are now virtually an outlaw. So it is highly dangerous for you to go to places that are only reserved for wizarding people. Mr. Riddle has taken a great interest in you, Mr. Potter. In our fight against Ministry restrictions, we need every hand we can get."

Harry looked at her disgruntled and muttered: "We'll see if this Riddle can be trusted", he looked her straight in the eyes again: "Anyway, I doubt I'll be able to get to magical places as long as I'm tied to a chair. What do you think? Am I still a danger to you? Obviously you are in contact with Riddle and I am considered - like him - an enemy of the state. I'm not your opponent, Mrs. Snape. Please untie me."

She looked at him indecisive at first. Then she raised her wand, released the restraints on his hands and legs and, against all caution, gave him back his wand. As he slowly rose, she said: "Come on, Mr. Potter. You will need something to eat now. I will start cooking right away. My children will also sit at the table later and have supper with us. I do not want them to know for the time being that you are, genetically speaking, half-brothers and sisters. It is already very difficult for us. Partly because we are already suspected of collaborating with Mr. Riddle. However, former Slytherins are generally suspected to be among his supporters."

"So Slytherin is a muggle-friendly place here? Well, the Slytherin I knew was mostly the house of pure-blooded arrogance," he said skeptical, as if the reality was a ridiculous notion.

She looked at him with irritation and replied, "It is hard to imagine. Why should a home of the purebloods be housed in a dungeon? In our school days we were often reminded that we, as scum, naturally belonged down there. How can you justify that with your twisted Slytherin?"

"Wait, you, muggleborn Lily Evans, were in Slytherin? This is getting crazier and crazier."

After leaving the small basement room, they followed a very shabby corridor, which in turn led to a staircase. When they reached those, Lily simply asked, "In which house was your mother then, if not in Slytherin?"

"As I said, Slytherin in my world is a schoolhouse based on, among other things, the purebloodness of its inhabitants. My mother was a Gryffindor."

She snorted. How she could have possibly gotten caught up in that crowd of stuck-up, pompous people? Now his home really seemed like a whole different world to her. He was obviously uncomfortable with her reaction and asked: "I don't suppose Gryffindor is the house here that accepts all brave wizards, whatever their background?" - "That's right. It's full of arrogant pure-bloods who think they're better than us. Courage? Certainly not. Unless you call it bravery to pursue Slytherins many against few, when we just wanted to be left alone."

"I understand. I just wonder what exactly caused these changes to happen. Can you tell me what kind of person Salazar Slytherin was in this world?" Harry asked, shaking his head.

Lily's eyes lit up as she explained: "He was a great sorcerer. A genius brewer and a shrewd duellist. He believed that ambition and creativity, which many now interpret as ruthlessness and trickery, ensured that the most capable would find their way to the top. And in his opinion it did not matter whether one was a pureblood or a muggleborn. He believed in skill and talent. But the other founders were unwilling to give up the old traditions and distrust of people born to muggles.

"In the beginning, Slytherin simply accepted them into his house and it worked as smoothly as possible. But at some point, the arrogant Gryffindor felt it was too much for him and demanded that the principle of voting unanimously on all decisions should be abolished. Slytherin refused, of course, because otherwise the potential of the muggleborns would have been lost. For he rightly believed that the others simply did not want to accept any more muggleborn folks.

"So he left the school, so that unanimity would be maintained. He warned the others that he had built a secret chamber at Hogwarts which contained a monster that would avenge any Muggleborn member of the school if any harm came to them. I've always hoped the monster was real and would punish all Purebloods for their wickedness."

"In my world there was such a chamber and a monster, but this one was meant to destroy muggleborns, not to protect them. But history explains why your Riddle is so unlike mine, as he is Slytherins descendant."

She turned around and looked at him in astonishment. They were only a few meters away from the dining room. One could already hear their children, one floor above them, making noise. Lily asked with interest: "Tom Riddle is supposed to be the descendant of Salazar Slytherin? That would be news to me. As far as I know, he's muggleborn."

He returned her sceptical look with the hint of a smile and said: "That fits. Voldemort also always claimed to be pure-blooded, although he was "only" a half-blood. His mother was Merope Gaunt, who in turn was a offspring of Slytherin. I wonder what the Gaunts of the world were like. It seems unrealistic to me that they should share their ancestor's noble sentiments. They probably developed in the same way as the shrewd Gaunts I've come to know about."

"I know only as much about the high houses as was necessary for the day-to-day being at Hogwarts. There were no Gaunts at Hogwarts when I was at school."

Her son replied nodding, "Voldemort is the last descendant. Though I don't know if Morfin is still alive. But that is not important. Do your children -" Harry seemed to be still uncomfortable at the thought, " - even go to Hogwarts?"

"My oldest daughter will soon be in her fifth year, my son his second and my youngest will start school this year. But if we had more money, I'd rather send them to a foreign school, a more tolerant one."

The otherness of this world made Harry increasingly uncomfortable. In Diagon Alley, this world had only seemed bizarre and unreal to him, but now that he could at least guess the fate of his false mother, his disgust grew. He feared having to learn even more unpleasant truths.

He had realized on his way out of the basement that the family was undoubtedly living in Snape's childhood home. Harry had visited Spinner's End only once in the aftermath of the war, in accordance with his will, to oversee the transfer of Snape's private library to the the school's own. It had been a dingy building, completely clad in books on the inside. The house he was in now only vaguely resembled that.

There were an inordinate number of books on the walls here as well, but there were nowhere near as many as in Harry's world. For the most part, they were arranged quite coherently on shelves in the rooms, giving the house a neat, academic look. In general, everything seemed much brighter and friendlier. He guessed that this must be Lily's influence. He also chalked up Snape's neat short hairstyle to that. There was no question that she had a positive influence on him.

The room where the dining table stood, appeared to be a cross between a dining room and a kitchen. Harry sat down at the table and watched his fake mother cooking for a while in thought and silence. As he watched the redhead work, for the first time since he had appeared in this strange world, another such came to mind. Of course, his mother's red was entirely different from Ginny's hair, but the image had reminded him of the more beautiful moments with her. Spontaneously, he asked Lily, "Can you tell me if the Weasley family exists in this world?"

"Yes. A hillbilly bunch. Typical Gryffindors. Extremely arrogant and proud of their blood. I've had very little to do with them though. They are one of the poorer pureblood families. Probably even poorer than me and Severus. But they also admittedly have more children than we do."

That meant to him that in all likelihood Ron here must also be a stuck-up jerk. He sighed, then asked, "Do you know of anyone named Hermione Granger?"

Lily stopped cooking turned and eyed him skeptically. She said quietly, "As a matter of fact, I know someone of that name. She's on our side, but still too young to actually be active, we think. Very talented. One of the most talented of the young witches on the side of the Fellowship of the White Sun."

"Fellowship of the White Sun?" asked Harry, frowning, "What is that? Seems to be an odd name."

She suddenly brushed back her sleeve, revealing a tattoo on her right forearm that showed a stylized white sun on a black check. The sun consisted of a white circle and twelve points separated from it. This was probably the this-side equivalent of the dark mark. Riddle's style had apparently not changed too much.

"The Fellowship of the White Sun is the name of the organization that Mr. Riddle runs. It is meant to symbolize a universally understood symbol of hope for an enlightened future in dark times. Severus and I are members, of course. We see it as a civil rights movement. I admit to not agreeing with all the actions of the Fellowship. Especially as far as the attacks are concerned. But it does a lot of good for the Muggleborn and the outcasts of society. Ms. Granger, for example, benefits from the scholarship for Muggleborns."

"That suits Hermione," Harry commented, smiling guilelessly, "The more knowledge she can accumulate the happier she is. But even she has her limits. Is there even time for a set of courses outside of Hogwarts?"

"She doesn't go to Hogwarts anymore, though," Lily explained sadly.

"Why?" asked Harry, whose features now tightened considerably.

Lily eyed him again briefly and then turned back to the knives she was directing with her wand. Quite a while passed before she replied, obviously displeased, "The fate of the Mudbloods. We are not allowed to attain a higher level of education than the OWLs. Even with the top grades she had achieved, she was denied further study of magic. That is why we recruit young Muggleborns into the community, so that they can continue their education there. It is, of course, only unofficial and not many accept our offer. The Ministry after all considers this to be recruitment by a terrorist organization, and this in turn, unfortunately, further discredits Muggleborns."

Harry looked at the back of her head in horror. This was all still better than it had been under Voldemort's rule, but still, discrimination against Muggleborns was virtually institutionalized.

"That means you never wrote your NEWTs either?"

"My what?" she asked, irritated again. He scratched his head in confusion and replied, "Well, the final exams of Hogwarts after seventh grade. They're called NEWT, Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test. I know that's not a very reputable name, but that's the way the wizarding world is sometimes."

She shook her head uncomprehendingly, "To graduate from Hogwarts, nine years of schooling must be completed. Students are supposed to go to school until they reach the age of 19. However, it is theoretically an interesting consideration to truncate the school years to seven, especially considering the arithmantic value.

The last degree Hogwarts offers after the nine years is simply called the Magical Advanced Diploma, or MAD. Without MAD, however, you don't get very far in the professional world. After my perfect OWL exams I only found a job as a magical cleaner in the Mudblood Department of St. Mungo's Hospital. I think that alone should make the situation clear to you."

She slid the ingredients into a water-filled saucepan with a levitation spell and closed it with a lid. Harry sat a little startled in his chair and looked at Lily Snape almost a little pityingly. He didn't like what he was hearing.

Above them, the children's voices stirred again. Glad of this chance to change the subject, Harry asked, "What do you want to tell your children about me, Mrs. Snape? I think the Potter name would only be a hindrance."

"You're right about that," Lily conceded thoughtfully, "I think you should stick with the name Harry James. In general. Even if you could somehow present that you were an illegitimate child of James Potter, then he would have every reason to stop it. After all, that would give him the rank of blood traitor.

"No, you should not get involved in such disputes now. Although, of course, I would take great pleasure in seeing Potter humiliated in this way. He, the great, great, pure-blooded Potter, would suddenly be like those he has bullied and debased for so long. But well, I don't want to bring my old grudges into this.

"Anyway, I've been thinking of passing you off as an illegitimate cousin on my mother's side. That would at least explain the eyes. Besides, there was radio silence between my mother and her siblings anyway, so we know next to nothing about them. Her father would thus be my mother's brother Earnest Miller. Probably the best thing to say is that you grew up in an orphanage and never knew him or your mother, and now by chance you've found out about the local kin, who, amazingly enough, are also magical like you. The most clever thing would probably be to deny the kinship completely, but I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that. What do you think?"

"I think that if I were indeed an unknown cousin and you were to freely take me in, it would be appropriate, if only because of the kinship, for us to address each other by our first names. It would be irritating if we continued to be Mrs. Snape and Mr. James."

She sighed and said a little sullenly, "All right. Now I'll go explain things to my children."

She left the kitchen. He could still hear the sounds her feet made on the steps. Harry wondered why they took no precautions to prevent him from possibly escaping. Not that he wanted to try to do so. Quite the contrary. Here, at least, he had contacts who understood his situation as well as was possible under the circumstances. Did their lack of caution stem from a sweeping lack of interest or from a quickly established trust?Probably neither, Harry thought. They simply didn't believe he could be so stupid as to make another unprepared trip into this hostile, twisted world.

Everything was wrong, he couldn't know who to trust here. Hermione was his first hope. She was possibly at least about the way she should be. Whereas, of course, he couldn't really know how her life had gone here so far. He could probably count out the Weasleys of this world, they would be of no help to him. Sirius had become a true Black from Harry's world and his mother was now a Snape.

Knowing his luck, there would be no end to the nasty surprises. He thought of Dumbledore. From what he now knew about this world, the Dumbledore of this one probably wouldn't be someone who would even consider helping him. Probably rather the opposite. On the other hand, Harry wondered what exactly he could actually mean by "helping". What were they supposed to do? Harry was no longer a clueless teenager when it came to magic. He understood very well that a return to his world depended solely on the spell Adgenera Transitum.

He had no idea how to find information about it as long as he was a wanted enemy of the state. In fact, only two people living in this world really came to his mind who could know this spell, or at least knew in which book it could be found. The first one to be named was, of course, Albus Dumbledore. But Harry did not trust this world. He would ask Lily about him later. The other person was Tom Riddle.

Harry, who fortunately had not had to see that wretched dark wizard for many years now, shuddered inwardly at the thought that he of all people should be his great hope. The thought made him shudder. But there were only a few others of whom he believed to have such a broad knowledge and who were also somewhat accessible to him. The only one he could think of at that moment was Slughorn. He was without question an educated man, considering that he also knew about Horcruxes as a matter of course. Horcruxes. Harry fervently hoped that Tom Riddle really wasn't a dark wizard here. It was really not in Harry's interest to have to relive the whole circus of destroying these hideous things.

He heard people on the stairs again. Shortly afterwards, the face of a girl of probably around fifteen slipped into the room and eyed him sceptically. With her, it was not like Harry that one side of the gene pool seemed to be dominant. She actually looked like a nice blend of Snape and Lily. The face was much softer and warmer than Snape's, but not as much as Lily's.

Only the eyes were neither green nor black. She had pale blue eyes that reminded him frighteningly of his Aunt Petunia's. The long hair was black, like that of the Snape he had known in his school days, but fortunately was not so greasy. She didn't look ugly at all, despite the obvious resemblance to her father. After she had stepped into the kitchen, she revealed a scrawny, bony stature.

The second child to enter the room was Lily's son. He had inherited her dark red hair colour and his dark eyes, but otherwise Harry thought he bore little resemblance to his parents. Harry suspected that the generation of grandparents, unknown to him, was taking its toll. The youngest, who followed her brother into the room almost shyly, probably bore the clearest resemblance to Snape.

The prominent hooked nose, the hair and eyes were similar to those of her father. She did indeed look like a young but feminine Severus Snape. She would certainly have a hard time one day, like her father. Children could be cruel for no reason, Harry knew that only too said in a friendly tone: "I am pleased to meet you. My name is Harry James. I recently found out that I am your mother's cousin. But I'm sure she's already told you that. You can call me Harry."

"Hello, my name is Erica, this is my brother Taxus and my sister Dalia. We are pleased to make your acquaintance too. We don't really have any other relatives. Well, the Dursleys, but they don't really want anything to do with us," the eldest daughter explained in a friendly voice.

The idea that the Dursleys here were no friends of magic and its users after all gave him a strange sense of familiarity. He had never dreamed that he would be happy about that fact again. But it seemed to him the most prudent thing to do was to pretend not to know about it himself: "Lily mentioned her sister. Petunia? What was her husband's name again? Warren, wasn't it? What's the problem with this family?"

"That," Taxus interjected, "is a very good question. I've never understood why they always make such a fuss about magic. Uncle Vernon, not Warren, always gets all red-faced when we meet them and doesn't say a word, while Petunia looks more like she's seeing a gaggle of ghosts. Strange people."

Harry nodded thoughtfully and said, "Well, I suppose I can't expect a particularly warm welcome from that part of the family then."

"Certainly not," Lily now said, smiling slightly at his strategy to increase the authenticity of his role, "We can talk more over dinner. Children, set the table. By hand."

"Mum! No one checks to see if we're using magic here," Erica complained sullenly, not looking to unlike her mother with this expression.

Lily put on a very stern face and replied seriously, "Do we really have to have this debate every time? It does you no harm at all to do such simple things without magic. We only really learn the value of a thing when we lack it, and when you come of age, you will truly appreciate your gift. I don't want to hear any complaints."

Erica made a face and did not look as if she had the slightest understanding. Nevertheless, she followed her siblings to fetch deep plates and spoons to arrange at the table. Lily, for her part, placed the soup pot and a bowl of bread slices on the table.

After his first plate, Harry only realised how hungry he actually was. He ate a total of three plates of stew and just as many slices of grey bread. It was a mystery to him how he managed to get this considerable amount of food into himself. Of course, apart from the mere satisfaction of hunger, this meal also had a completely different aspect. In his world, he had never had the opportunity to eat anything his own mother had cooked for him. The only similar thing he had known had been the meals at the Weasleys'. It was only a snack, of course, no big deal really. But it felt good.

During the meal, only a few pleasant trivia were the meal, the next topic was Hogwarts, which was harmless from the family's point of view. To further shroud his person in obscurity, Harry commented : "Well, I never attended that wizarding school. I had to learn it the hard way, mostly from rather dodgy characters. But don't worry about that."

"I've heard that the system doesn't cover everyone. It must be tough without an official degree. How have you managed so far?" asked Erica with interest.

"Every day is a new adventure. But I tended to stay in the Muggle world anyway. After all, there's nothing wrong with that," Harry rebuffed a deepening of the topic, "But it sure is nice to be able to learn magic officially. What are your favourite subjects then?"

Taxus replied, "Oh, I quite like Charms and Defensive Magic"

"Defensive Magic is a subject by itself?" Harry replied, "What is taught at this school anyway?"

Looking very sceptical, Erica said, "You're quite out of the loop if you don't know even something as basic as that. So, there is the core magic curriculum consisting of Transfiguration, Defensive Magic, Charms, Offensive Magic and Potions. Then there are the subsidiary subjects of Astronomy, History of Magic and Wizarding Traditions.

"From the third grade onwards, minor subjects can be taken and electives can be attended. These are Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures, Arithmancy, Divination, Magical Law and Herbology. I wish I could continue to take offensive and defensive magic beyond next year. But alas, that is not possible."

"Why?" asked Harry simply. In order not to make himself unpopular, he did not voice his suspicion of too poor performance on her part.

Again she eyed him almost suspiciously, "Well, I didn't think there was anyone to whom you'd have to explain that."

"You have to understand, Erica," Lily said now, "He hasn't been in magical society long and even then he was only in questionable circles. Anyway, half-bloods are only allowed to continue in certain subjects, Harry. These are the subsidiary subjects, as well as divination and magical law. Only in these directions is it possible for half-blood students to pursue a career at all. Most concentrate on magical law because that's where the job opportunities are best."

Harry shook his head in disbelief and said quietly, involuntarily, "What a crazy world."

"You can say that again," Taxus now offered.