Chapter Four: Entry of Birth

"Auntie, who are those people? How do they know my mum?"

"Forget that, Mum – why do they think Haesel is a boy? We don't know any Harry Potter. Seems more like they should be looking on Uncle James's side of the family, honestly!"

"That man, Severus, he was my mum's friend – and yours, too? How come we've never met him before?"

"Yes, that's a good question. I've never heard you say anything about some bloke named Mr. Severus –"

"Wait, do I have family on my father's side? I've never met any other Potter besides – myself, I guess. Have you seen Harry Potter? You've said there were lots of my dad's family at my parents' wedding, maybe you knew him from there? Is he a nephew or a cousin or something of my dad's?"

Petunia was afraid that this would happen.

Their quiet, routine, and unremarkable life had been violently disrupted by the appearance of these unusual visitors to their home. Questions rushed and tumbled from her son and her niece quicker than water from a burst dam. The group of wizarding folk – that awful Severus Snape among them! – had neatly upset the careful balance that she'd been maintaining for the past ten years or so and there was no ignoring this or keeping it from either child.

They wouldn't simply retreat to their rooms quietly, while she hosted the unwanted guests. Not unless she did something unusual and explained herself to them.

"If you two will settle down, I will explain – but only briefly."

Petunia eyed the two children, who instantly quieted. She'd been right. They were more surprised that she was going to answer them instead of lecturing them about questioning her and they didn't want the opportunity to be wasted.

"The people who are visiting our home today are staff from the school that Lily attended and graduated from, in Scotland." Petunia said, truthfully but without telling the parts she wasn't ready for them to know. "Mr. Snape is a childhood friend who grew up with Lily and I, back in our hometown. Both of them were gifted enough to be recruited to the boarding school in Scotland and they attended together. From what he just said, he is a Professor at their school, and that's likely the reason he is here with his colleagues. He is here to invite you both to the school that Lily attended."

Haesel and Dudley exchanged an uncertain glance. They didn't seem to know whether or not to believe the simplicity of this explanation. The perfectly mundane reason for the odd strangers' appearance didn't seem to settle well with either. Petunia was slightly relieved to see that at ten years old, they weren't quite able to put their fingers on what was unsettling them so. If they had, they'd likely realize she was keeping something very profound from them and not telling the whole story about the late Lily Potter.

"Well, why did they come all the way from Scotland, just to invite us to their school?" asked Dudley.

"They came down because I told them they neither of you will be attending." Petunia kept her voice even as she told the truth yet again in the barest sense. This didn't feel how she thought it would, withholding the truths she didn't want them to know from them. "The invitation was actually sent in February, but I already declined. Mr. Snape must be here to try and persuade me otherwise, but I'm quite decided. There is no place for you at that school of theirs and you won't be going."

Another outburst met her words and Petunia tried not to show how very anxious this entire exchange was making her.

"How come we can't attend?" Dudley demanded at once. "We've never heard anything about this school except that Aunt Lily used to attend. How are we to know if it's right for us if you never told us anything about it?"

Haesel was right behind him. "Auntie, that isn't fair! You didn't even give us a chance to know or think about it ourselves. How can you say no on our behalf when we didn't even know there was an invitation to accept or decline?"

Petunia folded her arms, feeling unexpectedly defensive in the face of her son's burning stare and the slightly hurt gleam in her niece's too-green eyes.

Neither of them understood.

They couldn't understand. Neither Haesel nor Dudley could know that she might very well be saving their lives and giving them a future by denying them their places at Hogwarts.

They would have to know about magic and the Wizarding World and wars that were fought by forces that went unseen before they might understand or even appreciate why she was doing this.

Petunia didn't intend to tell them about magic because she didn't intend to allow them to go to Hogwarts.

If the cost of not telling them about magic if she could avoid it was to have them be put out with her, she thought it wasn't that steep of a price to pay.

Not compared to what she knew could happen and feared would happen again if she'd allowed them to take their places at Hogwarts.

"We can talk about this more later," said Petunia in a very firm voice. Her trembling hands were well-hidden by the tight tuck of her crossed arms, as she looked at her son and her niece with a finality, they both knew well. "I don't anticipate this visit taking very long. I'm going to explain to Mr. Snape and his associates exactly what I just shared with you, send them on their way, and we'll have the rest of our Easter Sunday to ourselves. In the meantime, however, please clean your rooms and wait until I've called you down. Am I understood?"

Petunia accepted the grumbling agreement that they knew they weren't to eavesdrop and stay upstairs while she had this important visit. Their bedroom doors clicked shut solidly, leaving Petunia on the landing by herself. She let out a deep, shaky breath.

The brief discussion she'd just had with the two children would likely not be anything like the discussion she was about to have with Severus, Mr. Dumbledore, and the stern witch she didn't like the look of.

One hurdle had been neatly avoided but another awaited her downstairs in her sitting room.

Severus paced in a tight circle around the too-neat sitting room, his mind ablaze.

Something was terribly wrong here.

Albus had not known Petunia hadn't lived on Privet Drive nor had he been aware of where she'd moved to. The house that Petunia had been living in for who knew how long was bare of any protective magic or warding or any of the profound and complicated spellwork that Albus had assured him protected Lily's child beyond the average household protections.

A Muggle woman had been caring for the unusual child that had defeated a powerful Dark Lord at his peak – and not a lick of magic had been around, except for the child's own magic.

At any point in the past decade, anyone with any intention at all could have stumbled across Lily's child, The Boy Who Lived –

Except, if anything about this shocking situation was true, there wasn't a Boy Who Lived, at all.

Severus was struggling very deeply with the apparent reality that Lily had a daughter and there was no son of James Potter that existed, when –

Petunia came into the sitting room and shut the door behind her, sharply.

"Thank you for waiting. I apologize if I've kept you all waiting, but I had to see the children settled." Petunia looked at them all with a polished, polite look that was more unreadable than anything. "I believe we also all became quite unsettled in the foyer and perhaps, we got to the wrong start. I'm willing to start over and have a civil discussion, if everyone is agreeable to the same."

Severus glanced at Albus, who nodded imperceptibly. He met Petunia's pale blue gaze and inclined his head, agreeably. There was something very trite about this, but if it created the space for them to get answers from Lily's sister – Severus didn't care. The strategy of allowing Severus to engage with Petunia because of their shared past seemed to be working as well as Albus had hoped.

Petunia seemed to be eased by the knowledge that the one wizard she'd known most of her life would be present – and not just Albus. He did not miss how she darted an anxious glance at the glaring Minerva. She wasn't a bit comfortable with the Headmaster or the Deputy Headmistress. Who knew what this visit would have been like if Albus hadn't convinced him to come along?

Severus remained standing as Petunia put the stack of folders on the coffee table and looked around at all of them, evenly.

"I have no problem telling you anything that you'd like to know to clear up this – frankly, very odd – misconception that you have about my sister's child." Petunia motioned to the folders and paperwork. "I have whatever proof you're looking for. I'm not sure what your kind does when a birth happens, but here in the normal world, the government creates a record of a live birth, and we have a form that registers the child's birth. This here is that form."

Severus took the form from Petunia.

The long paper was printed in red, filled with handwritten black ink. In bold print, on either side of a coat of arms Severus recognized vaguely from his childhood as something to do with the Muggle monarchy or Queen, the words declared itself: Entry of Birth.

Severus skipped to the relevant section that was near the top of the form.

1. Date and place of birth – 31 July 1980, Greater Whinging, Surrey
2. Name and surname – Haesel Jessamine Evans Potter
3. Sex – Female

The section that immediately followed made it clear there could be no mistake, no error that had this woman with the wrong child's birth certificate. In the same careful black ink, the parents were named on Haesel Potter's Muggle birth certificate.

FATHER
4. Name and surname – James Charlus Potter
5. Place of birth – Norfolk, England
6. Occupation – Military

MOTHER
7. Name and surname – Lily Jessamine Potter
8(a). Place of birth – Cokeworth, England
8(b). Occupation – Chemist
9(a). Maiden surname – Evans
9(b). Surname at marriage if different from maiden surname – Potter

Severus couldn't keep reading.

His mind was reeling.

He passed the form to Albus and Minerva, staring at Petunia in a shock she clearly did not understand.

"Am I to assume that Lily gave birth to her child in the Muggle World?" asked Severus, more as a stalling tactic. Clearly, if Petunia had the birth certificate from Muggle authorities, that's exactly what had happened – but, Albus and Minerva needed a moment to process what they were looking upon. "I believe we were all under the impression that your sister had her child in our world, under the care of our healthcare practitioners."

Petunia's frown deepened. "That's the last thing she wanted was to be in the care of magical doctors or that one big hospital she said you all have," she said, clearly disapproving of the magical healthcare system. "She might be a witch but that didn't mean she couldn't have a baby the normal way. Well, that's to say – the non-magical way."

Severus found himself wading into a time of his life he didn't readily admit had existed, these days.

"I had not been in close contact with Lily, by the time she'd been married and her child," said Severus. There was far more to it than that, but Petunia didn't need to know that for the sake of this conversation. "How is it that it came about that she gave birth in the Muggle World? I didn't think that was the best suited means of birth for a magical child."

Petunia looked down her nose at him, although she was seated, and he was standing.

"You wouldn't think that anything Muggle is best suited, if I remember correctly," Petunia said stiffly. She didn't allow him to respond, launching into her story at once. "Lily and I were expecting around the same time. I was further along in my pregnancy than she was. Around Christmas of 1979, she came by my house and shared with me that she didn't want to have her baby in the Wizarding World. She didn't say why, initially. She asked me for recommendations for an obstetrician. I gave her my doctor's information and we ended up being seen at the same practice. Lily was adamant that everything be done without magic. She insisted."

"There was a war happening in our world at that time," said Severus, quietly. "Times were very dangerous, so – it would make sense that she'd want the obscurity of the Muggle World. Protection, I suppose."

Petunia narrowed her eyes at Severus but nodded. She didn't seem surprised, only as if she'd had something confirmed.

"Whatever was going on had her very anxious and frightened." Petunia frowned, as she recalled: "She'd said that her mother-in-law and an aunt of her husband's had both died suddenly, which meant there wouldn't be anyone like a mum or aunt with her when she gave birth. Lily was very concerned about being alone, I suppose, in the womanly sense, when she had her baby – and, she asked me to be there with her, if I could, when she gave birth. She didn't want to be alone, she was very firm about that, too."

Severus felt something heavy settle in his chest.

The thought of Lily feeling alone in the Wizarding World, overwhelmed by magic despite being a witch that was powerful and highly skilled – it pulled at something within him. It was a familiar insecurity that she'd often shared with him. The feeling of not belonging as truly as she should, because she was a native of the Muggle World and had not been raised in the Wizarding World. Even on the cusp of becoming a mother and birthing a magical child, she had not been able to shake that deep insecurity.

It had led her to flee back to the world she'd been born into and seek out her sister.

He had vaguely wondered if they'd made up from the terrible estrangement that had plagued their adolescence. It was clear that they had, but fear and loneliness is what prompted the bridging of the gap.

"Mrs. Dursley, I'm afraid our information conflicts greatly with what you're telling us," said Albus quietly. He didn't sound angry or appalled or anything like he had when they'd all been standing in the foyer, earlier. Instead, he sounded graver than Severus could remember, a touch pale as he looked intently at Petunia. "I'm not meaning to call you a liar, however, we keep records in the Wizarding World, as well. The records that we have in our world indicate that Mrs. Potter gave birth at St. Mungo's Hospital in London. The birthdate corresponds, but there are major discrepancies from what the Muggle authorities have recorded and what the magical authorities know."

Petunia seemed as if she wanted to roll her eyes.

Instead, she promptly offered yet another piece of documentation from her folders.

"Well, your magical authorities can say whatever they want – I was there with Lily and I have the pictures to prove it. Here, see for yourselves."

Severus was not prepared to have a set of Muggle photographs pressed into his hands by Petunia.

"All of these photos are from when Lily gave birth to Haesel. I took all of these photos myself, although I had my former husband develop them and pick them up from the print shop." Petunia was very firm as she declared: "Magic can say what it wants, but I was there when my niece was born and the first few weeks of her life. These photos are all from late July to early August of 1980. Lily stayed with me during her postpartum period because that husband of hers was away on deployment your military. I don't know what information you have but it's wrong. The only child my sister birthed was her daughter, Haesel Jessamine Potter."

Severus was hearing Petunia from very far way, it seemed.

The photographs that he held in his hand had him spellbound. He couldn't look away if he tried.

He had never known this version of Lily.

The last memories of her that Severus had were from their last years at Hogwarts. The sixteen-year-old girl that had scornfully forbidden him to speak to her again after he'd called her a Mudblood had been a step removed from the very cold seventeen-year-old Head Girl that turned a blind eye to the Head Boy hexing him, because Potter was her boyfriend. The eighteen-year-old young woman who'd departed Kings Cross from the final time with Potter and his gang had been proudly wearing an engagement ring. After that, Severus had known that his childhood friendship with Lily was forever gone. He didn't know it at the time, but that final glimpse of her leaving their childhood at Hogwarts behind and literally disappearing with Potter to start their lives together would be the last time he'd see Lily Evans in life.

Somewhere between that final train ride from Hogwarts and before her death, Lily had grown up.

The woman in these photos was so lovely and so foreign to him, Severus almost wondered if his memories of the very best friend she had been to him as a child were real. Nothing that he remembered of Lily was equal to the beaming smile she had in each of these photos. This was a smile that he'd never had the privilege to see, a smile that could have only come from something as profound as the bundle that she cradled in every picture. The bundle was of course her newborn baby.

Severus stared dumbfounded for a long moment.

The newborn was obviously a girl.

The soft pink receiving gown the infant was in was edged with dreadful lace and pearlescent buttons that were undeniably elegant and feminine. A headband had been put on the infant's head in a couple of photos, a darker shade of pink than the gown. The deep red tulips that decorated the headband were just like the singular tulip that Severus had left on Lily's grave each year since her death – as it was her favorite flower.

These photos clearly showed a woman who adored and celebrated the birth of her daughter.

Not her son.

There was no such person as Harry Potter.

There was only Haesel Potter.

Haesel. Not Harry.

Severus dropped the photos without meaning to and earned an annoyed look from Petunia. He didn't care.

Lily had given birth to a daughter and never a son. This entire time, he had thought –

"Mrs. Dursley, I don't know what to say." Albus looked as shaken to his core as Severus felt. The Headmaster seemed unable to look away from the stack of photographs that he held in his own hands, but for very different reasons than Severus had been unable to look away. "Between the Muggle birth certificate and these Muggle photographs, you seem to have inarguable proof that indeed confirms that your late sister did not have a son."

Severus realized that the entire British Wizarding World was on the edge of a scandal unlike anything that had been seen in a century, maybe more.

Albus saying it aloud only made it real.

"We've been mistaken since 31 October 1981. The child who survived the attack on James and Lily Potter that night is not Harry Potter, but Haesel Potter – the Girl Who Lived, I suppose it should now be said."