Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I don't think he wants to be own either.
Chapter 5
Finding Yourself
Harry Potter, the recently-freed Prisoner of Durzkaban, was waving goodbye to the Weasley Family with Ron and Hermione. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were smiling and waving back kindly. Before the train had rounded the corner, she, Bill, and Charlie had already Disapparated.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione went back to their compartment, but there was already a boy sitting there. He looked quite familiar, but again, that might be because of his Harry-like features. He stood up immediately and introduced himself.
"James Emerson, pleasure to meet you. I'm going to Hogwarts, first year." Ron frowned.
"Aren't you a bit too big for an eleven year old?" Harry rolled his eyes at Ron's tactlessness.
"Ron!" James chuckled.
"I meant first year at Hogwarts, but I'm taking fifth year classes. Homeschooled, you see." Hermione was interested instantly, sitting down and putting her stuff in the compartment. Ron and Harry did the same, Ron pulling out his maroon dress robes, and flung them over Pigwidgeon's cage to muffle his hooting. They sat down comfily, but outside was raining, looking quite cold.
"Really? By your parents or tutors? And why come to Hogwarts now?" James's bright face dimmed somewhat at the question.
"Well, um, I was taught by tutors because my father died when I was young, and my mother was unwell with the magical flu for a long time. I came to Hogwarts because my mother passed away recently, and she always wanted me to come and make some friends here. Who are your friends?" He waved off Hermione's apologies at asking such a sensitive question. The trio blushed, forgetting to introduce themselves.
"I'm Ron Weasley."
"Hermione Granger, pleased to meet you."
"Harry Potter, hi." James seemed to become very interested in Harry, but of course that was probably because he was a celebrity.
"Interesting. So tell me about your experiences at Hogwarts. I'd like to hear about your classes and be more familiar with the castle and staff before I take them, you know." Hermione noted that besides looking like Harry, his voice even sounded a bit similar! Harry reluctantly recounted their adventures.
"Okay, we'll tell you about as much as we know about Hogwarts. You get sorted by this hat into four houses, each representing a certain trait and animal. There's heads of houses, which are teachers that have the responsibility to control the students inside the houses. We all got sorted into Gryffindor." James chuckles and nods.
"I guess we're all the same, because I've gotten sorted into Gryffindor as well."
"How?"
"The day I registered for Hogwarts, they brought me to the great hall, and sorted me right there." Ron nodded enthusiastically.
"Brilliant!" Harry continued on.
"So there are several teachers as staff. We'll tell you the ones we don't like first and the good ones afterwards.
There's Binns, who teaches the History of Magic class, which is like a joke, really. He's a ghost, and teaches the class about very plain subjects in an incredibly boring voice. Everyone uses the class as free time, really." Hermione looked indignant but kept her quiet. Ron took over the narration.
"There's Trelawney, who's this fraud seer, who's really barmy and predicts everyone's death. She has sprayed perfume all over the tower, and you'll fall asleep or doze off when you smell it a lot. She teaches Divination, and spends most of her time in her tower." Hermione interrupted.
"No! She did a true prediction once! Right Harry? Last year!" Harry reluctantly nodded.
"We'll get to that later. Then lastly, there's Snape. He teaches Potions, but is a horrid bully and hates all Gryffindors in general, and shows lots of favoritism. We don't know why Dumbledore keeps him on the staff; he's a really bad teacher, and might even be a death eater. His hair's really greasy, and hates Harry a lot here in general, because he hated Harry's father." James interrupted.
"I think the Headmaster keeps Snape on the staff because of his status in the last war. It's really hard to get a potions master, and he might need to keep a close eye on him since he was a death eater, the files in the ministry said so. He might want to know when you-Know-Who might come back from the guy. As for hating your father, shouldn't you learn a bit more about their relationship to find why he hates you so much?" Harry had never thought of it before, and James hoped he would push him onto the right track. Man, he hated Dumbledore's meddling! "I think the Headmaster also knows the Divination Professor is a true seer, which is why he hired her, because maybe he would think she would be useful someday. True seers are rare, aren't they? And for Binns, I think maybe the man just keeps him for sentimental reasons. If you want better teachers though, can't you submit a review to the Board of Governors?" There was silence.
"You are quite perceptive, aren't you? We've never thought of that! You just gave us new goals this whole year!" Hermione cheered. Ron groaned. Harry continued.
"Professor Flitwick is this really short goblin-human, and he's really nice and good at dueling and charms. He teaches charms class." Hermione brightened at this.
"Professor McGonnagal is our transfiguration teacher, and while strict, is really kind and everyone wants to make her proud. She's the deputy headmistress as well."
"Well, she's a stickler to rules as well. I reckon she's a older Hermione!" Hermione blushes when Ron says that.
"Professor Sprout is the Herbology teacher, a dumpty witch who loves everyone." No one commented this time. "And that's about all." James smiled.
"So, onto your adventures!"
"So in our first year, we learned that our DADA teacher, Professor Quirrel, was possessed by the disembodied spirit of Voldemort" surprisingly, there was no flinching. "Who was stuck onto the back of his head, which he concealed with a turban. There's this curse on the DADA position, so the professors only stay for one year before being handicapped by an incident or killed somehow, so we were betting on how he was going to get killed. It turns out he was just there on his 'master's' orders to steal this powerful artifact called the Philosopher's Stone, made by Nicholas Flamel, the alchemist. He also tried to kill me with a troll, or by cursing my broomstick in a Quidditch match, but I survived, and found out about what he was going to do. So at the end of the year, we three went down into the place where they held the stone, and confronted Voldemort. He was trying to get the stone from the Mirror of Erised, or Desire backwards. This mirror showed you your desires, so all Quirrelmort saw was himself drinking it, but not where it was. Well, he used me to get the stone, because I just wanted to find the stone, and then attacked me. In the end I killed him by burning him with my hands, using my mother's sacrifice as a weapon against him. I blacked out, and when I woke up, Dumbledore told me about what happened afterwards in the hospital wing. The stone in the end was destroyed, and Nicholas Flamel would die, while Quirrel was killed and Voldemort escaped. After that, he gave us a lot of points for saving the stone, and Gryffindor won house cup." James shook his head.
"From what you've told me, there are several things that I'm skeptical about.
First thing is about the stone. What makes you think it's the real stone? Why would the six-hundred year old Nicholas Flamel give his most treasured possession to a guy whose several hundreds of years younger than him just so they could 'nick' it? Dude, what were they thinking putting such a powerful thing in a school full of children?" Harry feebly defended Dumbledore.
"Hogwarts is the safest place on the planet! And death to him is just like a long rest!" James laughed mockingly.
"You're assuming You-Know-Who wants it, which he does, and that he would take it by force. But see, Hogwarts isn't impenetrable! Didn't you just say you, a mere first year had to stop the villain for the adults? Merlin! You were children! So you're telling me that the Great Albus Dumbledore had to rely on you to stop him?
And also why do you even believe the fact that Flamels are dead? Did you know that every decade there's someone that says they have stolen or destroyed the stone and claims the couple are dead? Every decade! But they proved them wrong every time!
There's also the fact that the Headmaster gave POINTS to you for killing a member of the staff." James finished. He shook his head a bit and waved his hand to let them continue on. Hermione took over.
"The second year was when the Chamber of Secrets was opened. Lucius Malfoy, a known death eater who pleaded the imperius curse 'accidentally' dropped Voldemort's cursed diary into Ginny Weasley's book bag earlier that year, and she eventually got possessed by it. Dobby the Malfoy house elf warned Harry not to go to Hogwarts, but since he didn't listen, and tried to hurt him grievously enough to send him back home, but failed.
When Ginny did get possessed, she unleashed a monster, a basilisk, after strangling the roosters. She had to petrify a lot of students, but then," Hermione hesitated. "It was revealed Harry was a parseltounge" no reaction, "and we figured out what was hurting the students. I got petrified in the end, and the school was closing, so Harry and Ron went down to the Chamber, saved Ginny, and killed the basilisk and diary. Did I leave anything out?" Ron nodded.
"You forgot Lockhart. The new DADA professor was an attention-seeking celebrity who claimed other people's deeds and obliviating the real people so others never knew. He tried to wipe Harry and Ron's memories, but Ron's broken wand backfired, and he wiped his own memory. He's in St. Mungoes right now." James didn't comment anymore, more content on listening.
"Last year Sirius Black was on the loose. He escaped from Azakaban, and it turns out he was innocent, but the minister wouldn't admit it. Sirius Black was coming to Hogwarts to find the still-alive Peter Pettigrew, who was at that time posing as Ron's rat. But the Minister thought he was coming to get Harry, and posted dementors as guards on Hogwarts grounds. Harry was badly affected by them, and had to learn the patronus charm from his DADA professor. The DADA teacher was Remus Lupin at that time, who was a werewolf. He was a good teacher, much better than the other two we had, but in the end, when Sirius Black, Remus, Snape and Pettigrew had a incident in the forest, where Sirius was caught and about to be executed and Pettigrew escaped while Remus transformed to a werewolf because of the full moon that night, he got exposed as a dark creature by Snape and the parents wanted him out. We, Harry and me took a time turner and went back three hours prior that incident, and rescued Sirius with a hippogriff. And that's all." There was silence as Hermione realized how much she told the stranger. James broke it immediately.
"I'm sooooooooooo jealous of you guys! So what adventure are you planning this year? I heard that there is this event going on at Hogwarts this time." James wondered if they checked the newspaper and knew about the Tri-wizard Tournament.
"Bagman wanted to tell us what's happening at Hogwarts," Ron said grumpily, "At the World Cup, remember? But my own mother won't say. Wonder what —"
"Shh!" Hermione whispered suddenly, pressing her finger to her lips and pointing toward the compartment next to theirs. Harry, James and Ron listened, and heard a familiar drawling voice drifting in through the open door. Malfoy.
"… Father actually considered sending me to Durmstrang rather than Hogwarts, you know. He knows the headmaster, you see. Well, you know his opinion of Dumbledore - the man's such a Mudblood-lover - and Durmstrang doesn't admit that sort of riffraff."
But Mother didn't like the idea of me going to school so far away. Father says Durmstrang takes a far more sensible line than Hogwarts about the Dark Arts. Durmstrang students actually learn them, not just the defense rubbish we do…"
Hermione got up, tiptoed to the compartment door, and slid it shut, blocking out Malfoy's voice.
"So he thinks Durmstrang would have suited him, does he?" she said angrily. "I wish he had gone, then we wouldn't have to put up with him."
"Who's that?" James asked.
"Draco Malfoy, this junior death eater and a real git." Ron replied instantly.
"How?"
"Well, he always bragged about being so superior and flaunting his wealth and pure blood. He once even called Hermione an m-mudblood! He hates Harry for vanquishing his father's master."
"Durmstrang's another Wizarding school?" said Harry.
"Yes," said Hermione sniffily, "and it's got a horrible reputation. According to An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe, it puts a lot of emphasis on the Dark Arts."
"I think I've heard of it," said Ron vaguely. "Where is it? What country?" Hermione and James replied at the same time.
"Well, no one knows, do they?"
"Bulgaria, in the snowy part of the mountains. Oh, and they're not evil, just sticking to the idea that 'the best defense is offense'." Hermione turned to James curiously.
"How do you know that? I thought it was a secret." James gave her a charming smile that made her blush.
"One of my tutors was an alumnus there." She nodded.
The rain became heavier and heavier as the train moved farther north. The sky was so dark and the windows so steamy that the lanterns were lit by midday. The lunch trolley came rattling along the corridor, and Harry bought a large stack of Cauldron Cakes for them to share. Their conversation turned to their social lives. Hermione was talking.
"I used to have little friends during my childhood, so when I came to Hogwarts in my first year, everything was so overwhelming, that I kind of became a different person, if you see what I mean, as a defense from the new environment. I didn't think anyone would care about bossy Granger, you know. Right now… I have Ron, Harry, we kind of befriended Neville Longbottom, this chubby little kid, but that's all. The enemies we've made… Like that Zacharias Smith, this Hufflepuff, or Draco Malfoy." James moved it to more sensitive subjects.
"Any romantic interests?" The trio blushed.
"Nah, we're too young for that yet. Let's talk about you. We haven't learned much about the newcomer, and we can help you." Harry quickly said. James seemed uncomfortable, but still stuck to his easy-going smile.
"Well, my dad was killed in a death eater raid, as a victim," he said immediately, not wanting them to think he was a death eater, "and mother died of ailment. Since my father's death, she trained me herself in my education, and then hired friends as tutors. She was quite influential, so I learned a few things. I did all the adult work for my mother when she was ill, so I could take care of myself, and I'm basically emancipated. I didn't have any friends, or acquaintances, and the only other figure I knew like a mother was Aunt Lily." Harry was shocked.
"Aunt Lily? So that means you're an Evan?!" He had found family. James nodded sheepishly.
"Distantly related, and Petunia was a bitch." Harry's mouth dropped open and hanged there at his declaration. Ron took over the conversation with his Quidditch.
James leaned his head against the window as Ron blathered on about broomsticks and polishing them. Hermione was reading, like always, and Harry still had his mouth hanging wide open; James thinks he'd gone into shock.
James sighed internally. His other self was so like Aden he felt like banging his head against the window like Dobby the house-elf. He pitied the naïve fool, for nothing except for fool could describe himself. He didn't even question his upbringing, and gave out a piece of his heart the moment he met a stranger, who could be anyone, and it had to be Ron Weasley, the red-head. His little brother, for that was what he considered his younger self now, was so naive that no wonder Dumbledore played him like a little puppet! This Harry was kept from seeing anything that might shatter the saint's image. First, Hagrid rescues him and teaches him important things about the Wizarding World; Voldemort bad, Dumbledore good, trust him, love him, he's your master. He's not shown anything about his parent's past, except for Dumbledore telling him pieces, and he begs like a dog for more. He views the guy as his savior from the Dursleys, ignoring the fact that he was the one that put him there in the first place.
Dumbledore in this world was cleverer and crueler, James had to admit. Placing Harry with the Dursley's makes him lose his thinking and questioning abilities, while crushing his ego and making a pliable pawn. Dumbledore frees him, making an obvious attempt to inflate his ego, while just actually making Harry feel grateful and worthless. But why would Dumbledore try to play such games with him? What was it that Dumbledore needed from Harry? The fortune was already 'his' and Harry worshipped him, but what made him go so far to influence his character?
James was very smart. And when he analyzed and cut down on the problem, everything lead back to the PROPHESY. The thing that Voldemort wants and would go to insane lengths to get it. A weapon? Dumbledore protects it with all his forces, and keeps the secret from Harry. It must be important. James, to find out whatever it is that Dumbledore needed from Harry, had to get to it first then.
What about his plans? Well, to get rid of Dumbledore after finding out the prophesy, get Harry out of his grasp, find out how to get back to his universe, and live life the way it's supposed to. The hat did say that he could get back, didn't he? Well, as a former Ravenclaw, he'll just have to research to get back, or die trying.
Author's Notes: You should please review and give me advice! A few words won't hurt!
James (Harry) is three months older in the AU, so Dumbledore doesn't think he's the BWL, and he's smart and powerful. He's posing as a fourth year because he wants to help himself, and he can do it with the false identity and he is pretty small for his age.
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