Unveiling Secrets: A New Path for Harry Potter

On a remarkably pleasant day that August, Harry sat in the park near his mother's flat. It was not yet a place that felt like home, but it was certainly better than Privet Drive ever had been. Children played around him, and Harry didn't notice how odd it was that he considered them children. He certainly didn't look like a child anymore- he'd grown several inches that summer and put on almost two stone in weight. Between Dobby's cooking, puberty, and magic itself fixing the years of neglect and abuse his body had been through, Harry now certainly looked like a teenager. He still used glamours when he went out in public but more so just in case he ran into someone magical than needing to look older.

He was once again reading from his mother's diary.

October 31, 1971

The Halloween feast was amazing. I hope I never get used to magic. If floating jack-o-lanterns ever become normal to me, I'll obviously have forgotten the real world. It still shocks me at times to wake up in a castle and remember that I'm a witch. I hope Petunia is doing well back at home. I'm afraid what this separation will mean, especially with us now being different in this way.

Sev acts strange at times. I think he doesn't likes being in Slytherin. Some of the older members seem pretty awful. There are rumors of dark wizards and violence that I've heard a bit of and if there were any of them at this school, they'd almost certainly be Slytherins. One of the girls there called me a mudblood with a sneer. I had to ask someone what that was supposed to mean. It certainly isn't the worst insult I've heard, not that I'd ever tell mum & dad that. Sev's neighborhood is pretty rough, and some of the teens there swear like sailors. I doubt he brags about living in a muggle neighborhood to the rest of his house or that his father's a muggle too. But, his father's also a total jerk from what I can tell.

Classes are pretty interesting so far. Potions is in some ways the easiest and the hardest at the same time. It reminds me a bit of science lab back in regular school mixed with cooking. Then you throw in weird ingredients and voila! I partner with Sev in that class and we get some pretty awful looks from a lot of people. I'm not sure why Gryffindors and Slytherins are supposed to hate each other. You'd think they wouldn't want more fighting in a school full of people learning magic, but it almost seems like everyone just expects it of us. It's sad to think that a hat decides which eleven year olds will be enemies for the next seven years.

Professor McGonagall and Professor Slughorn don't act that way at least. If the heads of house can get along, why can't the students?

As for my own house, the other girls are pretty nice. None of them are muggle born like me, so they tend to ask a lot of questions about the real world. I still think of it like that; sometimes it feels like they think only the magical world is worth being a part of. But the non-magical world is just so much bigger. I can't imagine giving it up, just to live in a few small places like Diagon Alley. Yes, it was amazing to see everything there, but it was only a tiny little speck compared to London, which seemed endless.

The boys in my year are mostly Potter & Black's little gang of hooligans. They goof off a lot but somehow still get their work done, which is hard for me to believe. I think the kids that grew up with magic certainly have an advantage when starting here. Those two seem every bit as spoiled and arrogant as the Slytherin purebloods, but at least they don't sneer at me for who my parents are. Sev really seems to hate them though. I think part of it is jealousy. He grew up poor, and I think his father might have hit him. Black seems to not get along with his family though, and his cousin Narcissa (a Slytherin girl) seems to really hate him.

Potter and Black like to flirt with the girls. Most of them seem to like it, but I think they're a bit annoying. Their friend Lupin seems much more the quiet sort, but he does get into trouble with them sometimes. He's a bit sickly though. Little Pettigrew follows them around like a puppy. I think he might just be happy to have a group of friends that let him join in.

I don't think Sev has made many friends in Slytherin. I know I haven't gotten close to anyone else yet either. The other Gryffindor girls think it strange that I'm friends with him. But they don't see that he isn't just another Slytherin bully like the older years. I hope that he doesn't learn the bad habits of his house mates. There was a seventh year Slytherin suspended last week till the next term. The rumors say he attacked a girl and only a couple of prefects kept him from hurting her badly. It makes me worry about wandering the corridors at night without anyone else around.

The teachers really should do more to stop bullying and violence. The upper years have learned some pretty powerful spells- there was a fight between a couple of sixth years that nearly punched a hole in one of the walls. It is a bit scary to realize that our wands are deadly weapons. I hope I never have to fight with mine.

Harry set the diary aside for a moment and reflected on the thought that Sirius Black was apparently friends with his father all the way back to their first year at Hogwarts. Could he have been faking all that time, or did something happen to turn Black evil? Harry tried to imagine Ron growing up to become a Death Eater, fighting on Malfoy's side, and struggled to see how that could be possible. Admittedly, he was starting to see Ron's flaws more clearly after having to rescue Pansy from him at the end of the year, but Ron having moments of being an arse are still a big step away from joining murderers. What could have made Black change like that?

Harry was also trying to deal with the idea that his mother had once been friends with Snape. He might vomit if he ever finds that they'd dated. So far at least, she does not see him in any sort of romantic light. He wondered if maybe that was part of Snape's problem. From the photos he'd seen, he knew Lily Evans was a beautiful girl. It seemed quite likely that Snape would have had a crush on her. That could explain why he was so hated by Snape- he looked a lot like his father, and if his father got the girl that Snape had a crush on, he could transfer that jealousy and anger onto Harry. It still didn't explain why he hated children in general and refused to act even the slightest bit like a professional though. Snape must not have been a complete bastard when he was a kid. His mother would not have befriended that type of person.

Sadly, more than twenty years later, the house rivalries of Hogwarts still bled over into bullying and violence. Even after the end of the war against Voldemort, the children of his followers were still acting like total bastards in the school. That Snape let them get away with it was one thing, but why didn't people like Dumbledore or McGonagall do anything to stop it? Did they want another generation of dark wizards to grow up to cause yet another war? Draco had called Hermione a mudblood last year, just as someone had insulted his mother all those years ago. It seemed like the magical world was waiting for Harry to step up to save the day yet again. Maybe he should start by punching the little ferret's face in?

Harry closed his eyes to try to relax. He'd come over to the park to take a break from magic. He'd put in so much work this summer that Harry thought he would almost certainly be the most powerful student in his year. He didn't realize that he already was at the top of his class and was now on par with much older students. Of course, no one else from Hogwarts spent the last week working on the Patronus charm. It was beyond even the NEWT Defense lessons, yet Harry was determined to have it down as soon as possible. Little did he know that he would need it before he even reached the school...