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Too Late to Correct Your Mistake
by Corwalch
“How could you have gotten it so wrong, Albus?!” Lily Potter demanded angrily of the Headmaster as she cuddled the younger of her twins, Jamison as if he were still a small child instead of a fourteen year old boy. “Do you realise what you have done to Jamie. Your mistake took away his childhood, given that he had to be trained so he could save the wizarding world!”
Harry had been waiting for this day almost all of his life and now he had a front row seat in Dumbledore’s office for the event. Not to mention a captive audience for the bombshell that he had yet to deliver.
Jamison had a bandage wrapped around his left forearm, where Voldemort had taken the blood that brought about his resurrection. Harry found it funny that even the Dork Lord’s, as he privately thought of Voldemort, agents had bought into the hype surrounding Jamison and actually thought he was the Boy-Who-lived. It was the Dork Lord’s agent pretending to be Moody who had entered Jamison in the Tri-Wizard Tournament after all.
Harry remembered that Cedric had turned pasty white when Jamie had returned exhausted and bloody from that graveyard with the news that Voldemort was back. Apparently the Hufflepuff had realised how close he had come to dying. And that he only survived because Harry’s brother had shown himself to be a greedy little bastard by wanting all the glory for himself.
The Dork Lord had not been a happy camper as the Muggles liked to say when Jamie had arrived instead of Harry. Harry remembered very well the screech of anger he’d heard from Voldemort when he had been pulled along in spirit form on Jamie’s portkey trip to the graveyard after his brother had touched the Triwizard Cup. Fortunately no one in the magical world knew that he could spirit walk whenever he wanted. Those gathered in Dumbledore's office all thought that this was the first time he had managed to do it. Dumbledore had concluded that it had been the twin bond that had given him the power to do it and only because he had realised his twin had been in danger. Harry snorted. As if I would bother to waste that much energy to save that overindulged fuckwit. I just got pulled along for the ride. Harry made a mental note to find someway to block that connection. He didn’t want to take another such trip once he was free of Hogwarts and his family.
“My mistake was an easy one to make at the time, Lily.” Dumbledore tried to explain, “I mean given that both boys had scars and Harry felt like the weaker of the two magically, I just assumed it was Jamison.”
“And it didn’t cross you tiny little mind that Harry might’ve been weaker, because he’d expended a lot of energy turning a spell back on its caster?” Lily screeched.
“Now Lils, we made the same mistake,” James told her placatingly. “We just have to take steps now to correct that mistake.”
Harry knew he would never have a better opening, but before he could say a word, Dumbledore also added, “And we must make sure to get young Harry the training he is going to need to defeat the Dark Lord.”
“Uh hem,” Harry cleared his throat and smiled as the other occupants in the room from his parents to Sirius jumped. It seemed they had forgotten he was in the room. “Before you all start planning the rest of my life or how you are going to make it up to me for your treatment of me over the last thirteen years, you should know you no longer have any say in my life.”
“What are you talking about?” Several voices chorused.
The only ones in the room who hadn’t said anything were Snape and Mooney, but then they knew about Harry’s plans, in fact they had been instrumental in helping Harry arrange at least part of them.
“As of my thirteenth birthday last year, by magical law, I am an emancipated minor.” Harry made a mental note to get a pensieve so he could view the expressions on his so-called family and Dumbledore’s faces over and over again.
The silence that fell at this statement was everything Harry could’ve hoped for, not to mention the shocked looks on his family’s faces.
“But that’s not possible!” Lily protested. “You are too young to be out on your own, let alone responsible for yourself!”
“Actually according to old wizarding laws which are still on the books, I can be declared an adult and responsible for my own actions when a minor, if I have an apprenticeship, which I do.” Harry informed them loftily as he handed over copies of the emancipation decree to his parents and Dumbledore. “I had a lot of help from the goblins and other beings who I will leave unnamed… in arranging the details and moving my trust fund into a separate account so it can’t be touched.”
“And which mastery have you gotten an apprenticeship for?” Dumbledore wanted to know.
“Potions,” Harry said simply. Actually he was going to be learning a lot more than potions, but no one here needed to know that.
“From Snivellus?” James burst out an expression of loathing on his face. “There is no way my son is going to be apprenticed to Snivellus!”
“No, not from Professor Snape,” James looked relieved, certain it was a bluff until Harry added, “but he did say at one time I did have the talent and that it was a pity he couldn’t take me as an apprentice. I knew that if he were to become my Master, you would find some way to disrupt, if not completely destroy my chances of succeeding at something I wanted. Just like you always have.”
“And who is this person who has agreed to take you on as an apprentice?” Dumbledore wanted to know, certain that he could convince this person to give up the apprentice contract to him, for the greater good of the wizarding world of course.
“I don’t have to tell you that.” Harry countered, making sure to avoid eye contact. Snape had told him about the Headmaster’s habit of using passive Legilmency to gain information. “I will tell you this much, it is no one in this country, so you won’t be able to manipulate them as easily as you did my parents.”
“Why would you want to leave the family who loves you?” Sirius demanded.
“A family that loves me?” Harry snorted. “What potions have you been taking Black?”
“We love you! How dare you say that we don’t?” James snarled. “Of all the arrogance…”
“Arrogance? That’s rich coming from you. ” Harry drawled. “You claim you love me, well can you prove it?”
Lily stared at her oldest child in dismay. She may not have spent as much time with him as she spent with Jamison but she thought that he’d understood why it was necessary. Given that Jamison had been thought to be the boy-Who-Lived and the one destined to save the magical world, she had wanted to spend as much time as possible with him in case he didn’t survive. “Why should we have to prove something like that? We love you. We always have and you would realise that if you looked beyond the anger you feel toward your brother.”
Harry snorted again then said, “If that’s your idea of love, then you should be grateful you never had any more children, otherwise they would’ve grown up just as neglected as I was.”
“You’re wrong.” Lily countered firmly. “I never neglected your needs, nor did your father.”
“Oh really.” The sarcasm was so thick in Harry’s voice it was a wonder he didn’t choke on it. “Would you care to put that to the test?”
“And just how do you intend to prove your point?” Lily wanted to know.
Harry smiled, though it wasn’t a pleasant smile. “It’s quite simple. I will ask you a set of questions and if you can provide accurate answers for both Jamie and I, then you have proven your point that you do love me, even if you don’t care that much about me. Oh and just to prove that I am not lying if your answers are correct,” Harry pulled out his wand and pointed it at his chest. “I, Harry Alexander Potter, do hereby swear upon my magic that if the answer to the questions I will ask my parents about Jamison and myself are true I will so affirm it or lose my magic if I am false to my oath.”
A white light surrounded Harry for a moment showing that the oath
“Ask your questions.” James was certain there was no question about his boys he couldn’t answer.
“The questions will cover Jamie first,” Harry told them. “What is his favourite colour?”
“Gold.” Lily answered quickly.
“And mine?”
“The same, gold.” James told him.
Harry made a buzzzzz sound. “Wrong answer.” Harry held up his wand and said “lumos.” The tip of his wand lit up. “I still have my magic. Care to try again?”
His parents sat there silently for several minutes, then said again. “It’s gold. The clothes you wear always have gold in them somewhere.”
“That’s because they are Jamie’s cast offs and gold is his favourite colour. It’s either wear them or go naked because you forgot to buy me clothes when you went shopping for them.” Harry told her dryly. “My favourite colour is green, not that I’ve ever been able to buy clothes in it. Next question and this one should be easier. What was Jamie’s favourite food before coming to Hogwarts?”
“Chicken,” Sirius put in, earning himself a glare from Lily and James.
“And mine?”
There was silence for several minutes, until Lily ventured the one food she had seen him eating leftovers of at home. “Chicken.”
Harry made a buzzzzz sound again. “Wrong answer. This time I won’t give you another chance. While I don’t get to get it all that much my favourite food is pasta. Your score so far is two for Jamie and zero for me. Are you ready for your next question?”
“I’m right.” Lily disagreed “I always see you eating chicken?”
“Well, duh, maybe I’m seen eating it a lot because that’s the only thing the House elves fix. You are the ones that set the menu and you always ask them to make Jamison’s favourite foods, never mine.” The expression on Harry’s face clearly conveyed what he was thinking: I can’t believe you are that stupid.. “So it’s the only thing to eat, unless I cook my own meals. And I couldn’t do that all that often. I usually had to wait until you all were done eating before I could get anything, so all I ever got were the leftovers.”
“That’s a lie!” James spat. “You always ate dinner with us.”
“Want to bet?” Harry challenged him. “I’ll wager the entire amount currently in my vault, not that there’s that much, that neither of you can produce one pensive memory where I was at the table eating any meal with my so-called loving family… since the age of five. In fact, I’ll go even further, none of you even noticed I wasn’t there, not even my godfather when he joined you for dinner.”
The other occupants in the Headmaster’s office looked at the Potter’s, waiting to see what they would do. Other than the two who knew the truth, the members of the Hogwarts faculty that were present refused to believe that the Potter’s could or would treat their eldest son like that.
“Do you have a pensieve we could borrow Albus?” James asked the headmaster.
Dumbledore got a small pensieve out of one of the cupboards in his office and handed it to James.
“When I prove you wrong young man, you will formally apologise to your mother and I and you will take a vow to do all the training that the Headmaster wants you to do without any complaint.” James told his eldest son in no uncertain terms.
“And if I am right, you will place in my vault the full amount that should’ve been in my trust all these years, but that you gave to Jamie instead.” Harry countered. “I want a binding wizard’s oath from you on that by the way.”
“Done. And I expect the same from you, young man.” James agreed so certain he was right, that he gave the oath without a second thought and waited for his oldest son to do the same.
Both Lily and James spent the next twenty minutes retrieving and checking memories of various meals at their home in Godric’s Hollow, but all they ever saw was a laughing family of three and nowhere in sight was a second child.
After James left the pensieve again, Harry asked, “Seen enough? Are you ready to admit defeat?”
“Where were you at mealtimes?” Lily wanted to know.
“In my room.” Harry told her. “You would always call Jamie for whatever meal it was, but you never called my name. You never even used the words boys which would’ve indicated you were calling both of us.”
“So you felt your mother should extend you a special invitation to come to dinner?” James inquired sarcastically. “Are you so important that you need a special invitation then?”
“No,” Harry said simply. “I’m not anyone special… at least not to you. I am Harry Potter and it would’ve been nice to hear my mother occasionally calling my name and telling me that dinner was ready. I was five when I realised I was invisible to my family. I came down a little late and you were already seated at the table eating dinner, but there were only place settings for three. Three places set at the table, not four even though four lived in that house. You never even saw me standing there, you all were laughing so hard at something stupid that Jamie had done.”
There was silence after that statement.
Harry swallowed the anger he was feeling. Now was not the time to let it out. He was almost free of these people and on his way to a new life. “Are you ready for the last question?”
“I think you’ve proven your point Harry.” Sirius told him looking at the sorrowful expression on Lily and James’ faces.
“Have I?” Harry doubted it. “You really think they’re ready to admit that they didn’t give a tinker’s damn about me? You think they would have noticed that I could’ve fallen off the face of the earth? I somehow doubt it.”
Getting back to proving his point, Harry said “Now for the third and final round of the competition. Mr. And Mrs. Potter, what animal did you get as a familiar for Jamie for first year at Hogwarts?”
“A shadow cat, that he named Taleya.” James responded.
“And for me?”
“You have your snowy owl, Hedwig.” Lilly put in.
“But did you get her for me?” Harry countered.
“Of course…” Lily’s voice trailed off.
Every moment of that day in Diagon Alley was burned into her memory. She was so proud that Jamie was going to Hogwarts and she and James had spent a great deal of time making sure that Jaime got the best they could find for him to go to school with. Now that she was forced to review her actions, she couldn’t remember doing anything special for her other son that day, not even helping him chose his familiar. She didn’t even remember seeing the owl until they had gotten out of the floo at home and thought that James had helped him pick it out. From the expression on James face, he hadn’t.
“I rest my case.” Harry announced triumphantly as he headed for the door. “And now I will be saying good-bye to you all.”
“I’m afraid I can’t allow that Harry.” Dumbledore announced as Harry put his hand on the doorknob and tried to turn it. “You are needed here. While I will admit you’re life has not been ideal, you are the one meant to defeat Voldemort and you need to be trained.”
“You don’t get it do you Headmaster.” Harry didn’t turn away from the door. “I have no intention of going along with your grand plans. Let Jamie, after all he’s been the proclaimed saviour of the wizarding world for the last twelve years, why should that stop now.”
“Voldemort will come for you, Harry.” Dumbledore reminded him. “He knows you are the one that defeated him, and he will destroy you.”
“Let him try,” Harry shrugged. “It’s not like anybody will miss me once I’m gone. Now open this door Headmaster.”
“No.” Dumbledore sounded regretful, but Harry wasn’t buying it for a second. “You will remain here, until the Wizengamot overturns your emancipation and returns custody of you to your parents.”
“I’ll give you one warning, Headmaster, if you do not open this door, I will not be responsible for the state of your office.” Harry’s green eyes met Dumbledore’s blue ones and neither was willing to give an inch.
Dumbledore shook his head. “I hold the wards to this castle and I will not to let you leave here unless it is with your parents and then only once you have been returned officially to their custody.”
Harry sighed and closed his eyes. Dumbledore’s office began to shake and the items on the shelves and desk bounced off and fell to the floor with a crash. A white glow filled the room blinding everyone and then it faded a few moments later, leaving bright spots in everyone’s eyes.
When they could see normally, they realised that Harry Potter was no longer in the room and the door was still closed.
Dumbledore turned quickly to Severus. “Who holds the boy’s apprenticeship?”
“I don’t know.” Snape smiled. “I purposely had that piece of information obliviated, so you couldn’t find him. It was part of our deal, in return for the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets. He is gone until he chooses to return. I suggest you start figuring out what you are going to do, Headmaster because the Dark Lord is back and the one you need to defeat him is gone.” He looked over at the werewolf who had also been a big help in getting things arranged for young Harry’s escape. “Lupin, don’t forget to come down to my lab and get your wolfsbane potion.”