Chapter Five: In Plain Sight

Petunia pulled a face at the earth-shattering proclamation that Albus had made.

She clearly had no idea what it meant for the British Wizarding World, the seemingly innocent correction in names. Haesel Potter being the Girl Who Lived had changed the fates and the future of innumerable people, events, and expectations in what felt like the blink of an eye. All the careful and complex discussions and plans and strategies that had been made with Harry Potter in mind – all of them had been crushed into dust and swept away with a handful of Muggle photographs, a birth certificate, and a talk with Lily's Muggle sister.

Severus had been standing the entire time so far, but suddenly, he felt like he needed to have a seat. He allowed himself to pace instead, unwilling to make it obvious just how fundamentally shaken he was by this visit he had been reluctant to take part in.

Petunia glanced at him as he began walking around her sitting room, but her focus was more on Albus and Minerva.

"I find it very disturbing to know that all your information about my sister is so incredibly wrong," said Petunia, quietly and coldly, "Especially when you're seeking to convince me that I should allow both of our children to attend your school. If this is the level of care and attention that is given to its citizens, perhaps I'm very correct in my decision against allowing Haesel and Dudley to become wizarding people."

Severus should have wanted to bristle at the damning tone Petunia spoke with. He was startled to find himself agreeing with her instead.

Minerva seemed to take the offense he couldn't bring himself to summon up against Petunia. Although she was ashen, the hard look in her eye was familiar to Severus. The look was that of a professor about to chastise a student for something wrong or inappropriate.

"Mrs. Dursley, this is a significant mistake, yes – but nothing that should mean the end of the world," said Minerva, almost reprovingly. "As the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts, I oversee the contact and integration of children of non-Wizarding heritage into our world at their start of their education. You'd be surprised what information gets mixed up, lost, or ends up being completely unlike what we expected, once we actually reach out to the incoming student that we're sending out Hogwarts Letters to. I apologize that we got the name of your sister's child wrong, but that shouldn't be a reason to decline our invitation to attend Hogwarts."

Severus blinked.

The Gryffindor attempt at mollifying an appalling mistake bordered on insulting. There was far more going on here than a simple misspelling of a name – and Minerva was coming off as bold and condescending. He was suddenly pleased that he'd said little so far and what little he had said was nothing of note. Petunia already did not seem to like Albus; Minerva appeared to have joined him in that designation, within moments of speaking for the first time so far on this outing.

Petunia made a sound that would have been a scoff if she'd hadn't been being flawlessly polite thus far.

"Well, those parents might be comfortable with such lack of organization and attention to detail from the school administration, but I'm not." Petunia neatly returned all of her photographs and paperwork to the pristine folders, only looking up when she was done. "I believe I might remember hearing of you before if you're the Deputy Headmistress. Would you be Professor McGonagall?"

Minerva inclined her head, crisply.

"I am. I'm not only the Deputy Headmistress and a professor at Hogwarts, but I was also the Head of House for your sister while she was at Hogwarts. She was a student of mine but also a member of my House." Severus found himself surprised at the slight softening of her dark gaze, as Minerva added, quietly: "As her Head of House, I was something akin to a parent while she was at Hogwarts. I had the pleasure of watching her and your brother-in-law grow up while they were students. Lily and James were amongst my favorite students. I'm still very much saddened that their lives were so tragically cut short and they're no longer with us."

Petunia didn't acknowledge Minerva's condolences.

She only seemed interested in the confirmation that Minerva was who she suspected.

"It seems as though you were quite involved with my sister's life, growing up. How is it that you weren't aware that one of your favorite pupils had a daughter, instead of a son?" Petunia was staring at Minerva quite intently, when she cuttingly asked: "How could you not know something as simple as her child's name, if you were something like a parent to her, Madam McGonagall?"

Severus was shocked for only a moment before something quite like respect roared up within him.

Petunia Evans was nothing like he expected her to be. This was not the snide, prickly young woman he had last seen in 1975, leaving for university in another part of the country and scornful of everything about her younger sister, including him, as his sister's best friend. The casual and familiar way she'd spoken to him was startling enough to make him realize that Petunia was not the young woman of his memories.

The woman who sat before was a woman in her thirties, a mother and an aunt and someone who was familiar enough with magic to not be awed and cowed by its mere existence. Collected and unwilling to be shaken, the woman hosting their unwanted presence in her home was determined to hold her own and confront them, every bit as much as they'd confronted her.

Petunia did not have the same bold and fearless spirit as Lily had, but this was something similar and appreciative in its own right.

Severus observed silently and approvingly, as Minerva recovered herself.

"I can admit without shame that I wasn't as close to Lily and James in the final years of their life. The war and my position at Hogwarts made it difficult to see them as frequently as I wish and that was nobody's fault, in particular. The last time I'd seen them was in January of 1980 at the funeral of James's mother. Professor Potter – Euphemia, that is, James's mother – had been my teacher and mentor in my field I'd been one of the few invited to her funeral." Minerva pressed ahead past what was clearly a painful topic for her; Severus had known that Minerva had been close to the Potters, but this was the first time he'd heard that Potter's mother had been so significantly apart of her life. "From what you've shared, clearly Lily was pregnant at the time of the funeral – but, I hadn't known. Your sister and brother-in-law were keeping a low profile because of the war. All I'd known was that they'd welcomed their child the summer following Professor Potter's death. A little over a year later, they had been murdered – and well, so much happened from that point."

Minerva paused and seemed to struggle with something.

"I suppose that I wasn't as involved and present in your sister's life as I felt I was." Minerva sighed, all of the hostility and tension she'd had been wound tight with disappearing with the weary exhalation of breath. "Even still, from what I do know of your sister, she would have wanted her child to attend Hogwarts. James would have wanted the same, as well."

"Madam McGonagall, my sister wanted her daughter to be safe and protected, above anything else." Petunia gave Minerva a look that many would not have dared. "So far, nothing about the Wizarding World seems to be either safe or able to protect Haesel. Perhaps my sister would have wanted that more than for her daughter to go to the same school she did."

She didn't give a pale Minerva the chance to say anything before she turned sharply to Albus.

"What about you, Mr. Dumbledore? Your letter from ten years ago when you left Haesel said that you'd arranged my care of Lily's child because the non-magical world was safer, following an attack that had killed my sister and her husband. How could you arrange for my sister's child to be taken in by me – but not know that Lily had a daughter, not a son? How could you not know that her child's name is Haesel, not Harry?" Petunia was leaning forward, her voice a chilling hiss as she demanded: "You knew enough about me to leave an infant abandoned on my doorstep. How could you have been so misinformed about my sister, especially considering you seemed to be responsible for everything that happened between her death and now?"

Severus could have cut the tension with the legendary Sword of Gryffindor, as both paragons of Gryffindor righteousness and boldness were reduced to two pale, pinched people being taken to task by a woman they thought was a mere Muggle. The silence began to stretch into something uncomfortable.

Then, Albus sighed as Minerva had and seemed to come to a decision.

"Mrs. Dursley, you have every right to ask these questions and demand answers." Albus admitted in a quiet, solemn voice. "I have not been as forthcoming with you as I could have and I fear that because I've been so reticent, this is why we are in this most unusual predicament. If you are agreeable, I'm willing to explain how and why your sister's child came into our care, including the night that Lily and James were murdered and – Haesel – survived."

Since the moment that her niece had appeared on her doorstep with a letter tucked into the folds of the blanket she'd been wrapped in, Petunia had always wanted to know what happened.

She had known precious little about how her sister's untimely death had come about. It had not been easy once Haesel started asking questions about her parents and Petunia had done the best she could. All she had known was that magic was responsible for Lily and her husband's deaths and the reason why her niece was an orphan.

That had been enough – until now.

In the four letters that she'd exchanged with Mr. Dumbledore in her entire life, Petunia had never once been told why her sister was dead and why it was so dangerous and extraordinary that her niece had survived when her parents didn't.

The unexpected offer from Mr. Dumbledore to explain and give her the answers that she and Haesel deserved about Lily was startling.

She wasn't going to pass on it, however.

"I believe I would like that very much, Mr. Dumbledore. Before we have that discussion, however, please allow me to check in on Dudley and Haesel and fetch us tea." Petunia stood up and gathered the collection of files and documentation from the coffee table. "Please, give me about twenty minutes and I will return."

Mr. Dumbledore nodded graciously. "Of course, Mrs. Dursley. We would appreciate the offer of tea and will await your return."

Petunia closed the sitting room door behind her.

Before she could let go of the knob, a pulse of what had to be magic pulsed through the closed door – and her entire body seemed to have been electrified and warmed from the sensation. There was an intense, burrowing feeling underneath her skin. It would have seemed like she should be itching from how strong and deep the feeling of magic was within her.

Instead, she felt – uplifted?

Petunia shuddered and let go of the door, ignoring the tingling spreading across her own skin and burrowing deeper and deeper within her, seeming to settle into her as if it belonged.

Severus wasted no time in erecting a powerful Privacy Ward as soon as the sitting room door closed behind Petunia.

Albus immediately took advantage of being able to speak freely behind the seclusion of magic and looked between Severus and Minerva with a hard look.

"I must ask that neither of you speak of this – development – to anyone else, until I have had time to sort through what this means and how to move forward." Albus removed his glasses and pinched his nose, a look of deep stress twisting his face. "This fundamentally changes so much, I'm afraid I don't know where to start."

"The Girl Who Lived, Albus?" Severus said incredulously, unable to help himself. The appellation sounded so foreign it was almost as if it wasn't real – but, it was, apparently. "You've said from the start that Lily Potter had a son, a son that she died for at Godric's Hollow – and we come to find out that no such person as Harry Potter exists!"

Albus looked troubled. "Upon thinking about it, I believe we've been deceived – but, not by Mrs. Dursley. I'm of the mind to think that we were all deceived by James and Lily themselves." The deep twinkle in his too-blue spoke of Advanced Occlumency being employed, as his powerful mind sorted through something as world-titling as what they'd found here in Surrey. "When they joined the Order of the Phoenix, I recommended that they begin keeping a low profile. If necessary, they were also told to be prepared to go into hiding. Their marriage was controversial as a mixed-status marriage; it wouldn't be questioned or thought to be suspicious that they'd be seen less in public and were trying to avoid drawing attention to themselves. I encouraged them to take advantage of the rumors being spread. The more muddled and conflicting the assumptions people made about them, the less clear it would be to Voldemort and his network what was credible information and what wasn't."

Severus began to pull together the pieces as Albus spoke.

"I approved when they didn't make a public birth announcement of their child's birth. I only knew myself that they'd delivered a healthy child from Benjy Fenwick, the Healer I had on post at St. Mungo's Hospital. He reported that Lily had come into St. Mungo's Hospital in active labor as he was finishing his night shift, before dawn on 30 July, only hours after Alice Longbottom had given birth to her son. Benjy confirmed that when he'd returned for his shift on 1 August, Lily and her child had been deemed healthy enough to leave the hospital - thus the birth must have happened on 31 July." Albus was frowning deeply, now. The twinkling in his eyes seemed more like a gleam and Severus wouldn't be surprised if he was so burrowed into his Occlumency shields, he wasn't quite present with them in the moment. "Marlene McKinnon was the one to report to me that she knew James and Lily favored the name Harry James for their child – but, when I think about it, neither James nor Lily reported this to me themselves. James was away on a mission I'd sent him on with the Prewett brothers and Lily was in hiding with her newborn. I simply assumed based on the close friendship that Marlene had with Lily that this was the child's name."

A twist of dread began gnawing at him, as Severus began to understand how everyone had been so thoroughly hoodwinked about Lily and her child.

"Had you ever seen Lily's child for yourself, before the night she was killed?" asked Severus in a low voice. "Surely, considering what you suspected about the child and the risk they were at, you had to have seen or known the child for yourself at some point between the birth in July 1980 and Lily's murder in October 1981."

"Only once." Albus admitted. "On Christmas Eve 1980, James and Lily came to me and said that they would be withdrawing from active participation in the Order of the Phoenix, and they were going into deep hiding with their baby. They brought the child with them to my office – but this was a last-minute, discreet meeting that came from a fire call. I preferred to see them in person and not communicate through the Floo Network. They came through to my office at Hogwarts directly and had the baby, but the child was deep asleep and bundle up due to it being winter."

Severus felt the stir of dread turn into a surge of true alarm. This was more neglectful and carless than Severus would have ever imagined the esteemed Headmaster and venerable leader to be. He turned away from where Albus and Minerva sat on the settee and began to pace again, still listening but unable to look at either of them.

"I had never seen the child myself until the night you brought him here, Albus," said Minerva in an aggrieved voice. "I heard from Augusta Longbottom that Professor Potter's grandchild had been born within a day of her own grandchild and how she pitied that the Professor wouldn't meet James's son. I had no reason to think that she could have been mistaken about the gender of the baby. The night that Hagrid brought him here – well, her, I suppose – we didn't linger. We only stayed long enough to ensure that the child was where his relatives could find him – and that's the only time I'd seen James and Lily's child for myself."

Petunia hadn't been making up a wild accusation, then.

Albus had left Lily Potter's baby on a doorstep with a note about her death.

Minerva had been aware of this, apparently, but didn't seem to be as horrified as Severus was.

If anything, she seemed to be more regretful that she hadn't looked closer at the then-baby than she had about leaving a baby abandoned on a doorstep without letting anyone know the child was out there. Anything could have happened before Petunia had the chance to find her! For all that Albus had been concerned about the danger presented by the Dark Lord's followers roaming around and trying to avenge their fallen Lord, it didn't look as if he placed the same level of risk with how he'd left the child in Petunia's care.

"When considered even in passing like this, I find it much more believable than I would have thought that we were misguided in what we knew of the Potters and their child," said Albus, as if it pained him to admit that he'd been tricked about something to profound as this. "I told James and Lily that their best course of surviving the focus of Voldemort targeting them was to hide, keep to themselves, and allow rumors and misconceptions to cover them and divert Voldemort from their true whereabouts. I didn't think…I didn't think that when I'd advise them of such, they'd employ this method against everyone, including us."

Minerva made a noise that was both sad and exasperated all at once.

"James and Lily did indeed hide – in plain sight! Rumors and assumptions created a little boy named Harry Potter – and considering the threat they were under; it would make sense to let the truth remain concealed and unknown to anyone but themselves." In a slightly pained voice, Minerva added, "This depth of trickery is very like something James would have concocted. This is exactly the kind of chaos that he would find great fun, a prank of great magnitude on the whole Wizarding World, instead of just his classmates at Hogwarts."

Albus hummed in agreement.

Severus refused to give James Potter that kind of credit.

The cunning and careful plotting that this would have taken to be sure that what was being witnessed was nothing like what had actually happened – this would have been something that Lily would have been able to craft with her keen mind. She had denied it fiercely and scorned the mere suggestion that she was anything other than a proud Gryffindor, but she would have made a fine Slytherin. This unexpected turn of events was something that used the core principles of Slytherin House and applied them for a successful outcome.

The smart use of her resources as a Muggleborn witch and the shrewd choice to use her access to the Muggle World in a time of instability in the Wizarding World – it was a detailed and patient approach that a Gryffindor would have scorned as having taken too long or not be effective enough. This seamless deception was not the style of wild and reckless destruction that James Potter had thought to be the great fun Minerva spoke of.

James Potter might have agreed to go along with it, but he couldn't have been its engineer.

Not when the core part of this deliberate manipulation of truth and circumstances depended on the inclusion of Petunia and her mundane life in the Muggle World.

The Privacy Ward pulsed in warning, making it clear that Petunia was heading back to the sitting room with the tea she promised.

Severus didn't say anything more as Albus nodded at him to let down the ward and let Petunia back in. He was too busy with staring at Petunia Evans, all grown up, as she settled herself down across from Albus. She might have thought that Severus didn't notice, but he was quite aware of the direct, forceful means she'd confronted was meant to get her exactly what she was receiving.

A transparent conversation with Albus that she'd been owed but never received and would give her even more leverage to stand behind the decision she had made.

Perhaps Lily had not been the only Evans sister to have a shade of cunning with her that was capable of eluding whatever plans that Albus Dumbledore had laid and intended for the Girl Who Lived.